WARNING!: What Follows is outtake materiel that will mostly be cannibalized by other fics. The Disney Sequels have just depressed me to the point where I don't have the energy to finish this. The Mandalorian is proof that we could have had better and George Lucas being like, "Oh, Leia, would have been High Chancellor of the New Republic and the Chosen One." So at this point, somebody needs to be paying me to write in the sequel area because oh my dear Force, what could have been...

8 Months Later - 22 BBY

Obi-Wan was nervous as he walked through the halls of the Nubian palace, for once, Ahsoka hadn't accompanied him on this trip, though he was due to meet up with them on Coruscant in two days because of an open Senate meeting that would decide the fate of the crumbling Republic.

After nearly a year and after half of the Republic systems being on their own with little aid from the Jedi, many systems were looking to rejoin the Republic.

Even Padme was considering it as despite Darth Sidious being dead, the economic damage he had managed to inflict on Naboo had still been crippling. And while the Jedi Order was more unified and more spiritually balanced than it had ever been in Grandmaster Yoda's memory, their ability to help other systems stabilize wasn't there yet.

Yet for Obi-Wan personally, the last eight months had been some of the happiest of his life, between training Ahsoka, who was a challenging student but whose growth was incredible to be a part of, and his growing relationship with Padme…

Life had never seemed so bright.

When he knocked on the archway to her rooms, Padme startled from her seat with an undignified yip.

He laughed.

She threw a pillow at him, "Don't you dare laugh at me! You didn't tell me you were coming."

"Well, if you want me to leave-"

Her scowl morphed into a protest, and still laughing he swept her into his arms and kissed her.

He was so in love with her that kissing her felt like drinking liquid starlight.

Her honeyed eyes were bright as they parted, "You're certainly in high spirits today, Master Kenobi."

"I'd tell you that today you are especially beautiful, but today has no reflection on the status of your eternal beauty."

She flushed.

He wasn't much of a poet, but she was, and he had learned that even making an effort with flowery language made her happy.

So he made the effort.

He led her to the balcony where they had first kissed, the sunlight setting all the different tones of her hair into dazzling strands and turning her eyes into tawny gold.

"Obi-Wan-"

He knelt before her and pulled a ring box from his robes. The ring itself was white-gold, but the gem was petrified wood from the Nubian rain-forest. Her father had been a carpenter, and judging by the way her eyes alighted on the stone, she recognized it.

"Obi-Wan…" she tried again, but he squeezed her hand.

"I really do wish I had been a poet for you, but Padme Amidala, I have only these words to offer you. You are the strongest, most courageous woman I ever met, and I love you more than there are stars in the galaxy, would you do me the inexorable honour of becoming my wife?"

She started crying then, "Oh, Obi-Wan-"

He stood, "Don't cry, it's alright." He smiled and kissed her forehead.

But she pushed back from him, the tears spilling over, "No, Obi-Wan… it isn't alright."

He took a step back, "Padme?"

She shook her head, before swallowing hard and saying in a single breath, "Obi-Wan, I'm engaged to someone else."

He took another step back from her as he felt his own expression shut down, "I don't understand."

"Obi-Wan, please, I meant to tell you-"

"But what?" he asked, unable in that moment to give his emotions to the Force, so he shoved them down. He shoved them down deep where he could take them out later, watch them bleed.

Later.

She shook her head, "This wasn't about you, or us, it was-"

"Was what?" he asked, voice sharp, "I wasn't gone more than a few weeks this time."

She reached out to him as her tears continued to fall, "I wasn't- It wasn't like that. I've been only with you, I swear it. I swear that to you, Obi-Wan, that I haven't been with anyone else but you."

"But you're marrying someone else," he said low, and this time he had to aggressively shove down the emotions.

"Yes, for Naboo. It's an arrangement, a political marriage. He means nothing to me but the food he can provide for my people's tables."

Obi-Wan felt himself detach from the moment then.

He couldn't be mad at her for that.

Duty before attachment.

That's what the Council had told him when he asked for permission to marry.

Duty before attachment.

He nodded, "I understand."

She let out a sob, "I'm so, so sorry, Obi-Wan. I would have said yes."

He bowed to her, "I wish you joy and fulfilment, Padme Amidala. I hope you find happiness and that your people know peace. May the Force be with you."

"Wait, Obi-Wan-"

But he was turning away from her, he was already leaving.

It hurt too much to stay.

He needed to deal with this heartbreak and he couldn't deal with it when seeing and feeling her sorrow was tearing him apart, even when she was the one saying goodbye.

It wasn't her fault.

She might have told him sooner, might have given him some warning.

But he loved her, and this farewell would have hurt all the same.

He wasn't brave enough to look back as she called his name.

oOo

Obi-Wan managed to get himself under some semblance of control by the time he re-grouped with others on their ship.

But predictably, Rey found him when instead of meditating, he had retreated to his bunk early.

She laid down beside him. "You can fool Master Jinn," she said, "but you can't fool me, what's wrong?"

He said nothing.

Rey waited a bit before stating, "It's Padme, isn't it."

He sighed, then sighed again before turning on his side to look at her, "Yes."

She kept her gaze on the ceiling, granting him a surprising bit of privacy.

"You really love her, don't you?" she asked.

"Yes," he said softly, "I do."

"Obi-Wan, you should ask her, if you wanted-"

"I'm too late, she's marrying someone else."

"Wait, what?" she asked, turning to him, "But, Obi-Wan…"

He turned back to look up at the ceiling, his heart constricting. "Naboo has been hit hard in recent years, it's a political marriage, a new senator, he has the resources to save them."

"Credits? Surely it can't just be commerce, she's better that."

"No, not just credits, influence, power. Very powerful people are supporting him. I may have researched him some once I left. He has all the connections she needs to save her people."

Rey put an arm across his chest, her head on his shoulder, "I'm here, Obi-Wan, and I'm so, so sorry."

When he had been young, he had been told that the Jedi weren't supposed to fall in love. And if he had held onto that way of being, he wouldn't be heartbroken now.

But he couldn't regret his feelings for the queen who could be simultaneously the most beautiful woman in the room and still have the best aim with a blaster.

Her aggressive negotiations were as clever as her empathy for the galaxy was unfailing.

No, Obi-Wan could not regret his feelings for her developing into something that was more than friendship. Padme was a light in his world, and even if she was beyond his reach, he still admired her.

Obi-Wan hugged Rey, burying his face into her shoulder as he let his heart shattered.

oOo

Obi-Wan still felt a bit disconnected from the world as he sat with Rey, Ahsoka, Qui-Gon, Rex, Fives, Appo, and Dooku on the Serreno Senate platform.

A little absently, he said, "Rey, has our relationship changed at all since we discovered you're actually my granddaughter?"

"Aside from you feeling guilty about theoretically dying during a civil war in an alternative universe, no," she answered. Then smiled at him, her hazel eyes warm, "We've been family since the beginning."

The three clones exchanged looks, and Appo asked tentatively, "Um, I don't mean to be rude, but is the whole time travel business a normal thing throughout the galaxy?"

"No," everyone answered.

Qui-Gon smiled, "Rey is the first time traveller anyone has ever been able to confirm."

Rex, Fives, and Appo let out sighs of relief.

"I didn't tell anyone for years," Rey said, "I thought I was crazy."

"That's because you are," Ahsoka told her with a smile.

Rey stuck her tongue out at her and Ahsoka giggled.

Obi-Wan was half smiling when he spotted the man's whose holoimagine he had been trying to purge from his mind into the Force for nights now. "That's him."

They all turned to look at the blue-eyed young man who stood proudly in his black finery, a long cape accenting his broad shoulders.

The younger man was taller than Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan wasn't in the habit of comparing himself to other men, least of all stuck up politicians. But he couldn't diminish this man's career that was as impressive as the woman's he was going to wed.

"That's the man Padme is going to marry," Obi-Wan said, "The Senator of Mustafar, Anakin Skywalker."

Orchestra: DUN, DUN, DUN, DUN, DAH, DUN, DUN, Dun! Dah-Da-Dun da-dun, Dun-da-DUN!

End of Act II: Daughter of a Clone

Readers: Where the kriff did Anakin go? Me: Wait for it. Just wait for it- There. He's right there, damnit! Imperial March :D