Padmé grew up knowing that she would not have control over her own life.
She loved her parents, but there was a part of her that resented them for placing her in the politics and social studies path at the academy. They played off of her love of people hunger for justice. In the end she became the Queen for it.
She loved her people, truly she did and served them to the best of her ability, but she was looking forward to when her two terms were over. She would never regret her time as Queen, even with the endless mind games, multiple attempts on her life and restricted movements. She was exited to finally be free, to breathe without having to worry about offending some old man to be in control of her own future. To be her own self.
Then the Trade Federation decided to invade and an adventure on Tatooine ended her dreams of true freedom.
The Force was something that was both out of reach for most and revered by all. The Jedi were known around the galaxy, their strength and peacekeeping ways were desired from the ends of the outer rim to the central planets of the republic. With the power of The Force behind them they were thought to be unstoppable. Unstoppable but honorably not power hungry. Padmé had never put much thought into The Force, she treated it like any other religion she came across. With gracious respect but no personal ties.
Then she met the little boy who called her an angel. The strange and sudden feeling in her chest pulled at her. There was something important about this boy, something that wouldn't stop tingling in the back of her mind.
After the invasion and leading the subsequent assault that freed her planet she was able to focus. Nothing she could do would get rid of the boy's face from her mind. His words of angels and freedom echoed in her ears. In the end she had turned to meditation and with the help of her trusted handmaidens as able to come to the understanding that the mysterious Force was what was speaking to her. She was startled at first, as to why it would decide to speak to her, a girl with no training and no true ability to answer its call. Why it thought Ani was so special, why to drew him to her like the strength of a black hole.
It took a few months before she was able to call upon a friend of a friend. A young master librarian from the Jedi Temple on Tython. She was able to pull the scholar away with promises of access to the historical palace records, in exchange for some discreet help to untangle the mix of feelings and information the Force was trying to tell her.
And learn to access it she did.
She never told a soul of the disastrous future she saw ahead. Of the Sith, the Emperor that will tear down the democracy that had ruled over the Republic for thousands of years. Of the horror and pain that will sweep across the galaxy for years. She swore her new friend to secrecy, not even he had the slightest idea what The Force had shown her.
But she also saw the light in the dark. The twin shining suns that would wash away the darkness and begin a long reign of peace and health. The new hope of millions of beings, the change that would rock the galaxy to it's core and make it a better place for it.
All at the cost of her freedom.
Once again the actions of others will rule over her true desires. Oh, she will do this of her own free will, for the lives that would be lost and those that will be saved. She will do as the Force bids of her for the future and for peace. No matter the heartache that it caused her. For the small time she would let herself mourn her freedom, She knew she would only be rewarded with death in the end.
Ten long years passed before she saw that little boy again, the boy who called her angel was now a teen, a teen filled with emotions that he did not understand. She knew how the Order had failed him. With that one look, and a small smile to encourage him. She knew just how he would fall, they treated him like a normal initiate, when he was anything but. He was a boy that knew love. He was a boy that had so much love in him he could burst. And in the end it was going to kill him.
The boy clung to every little piece of emotion he could, no wonder Obi-Wan couldn't understand his waning feelings, when he had been taught to push it all away.
They thought she was sleeping as they talked in the room next door. Obi-Wan was right that she was a liar, how she played her own games. That game was going to give the galaxy to the Emperor, and the same game was going to save it.
It was almost too easy to show the boy some love, he was craving it, drowning for it. It was too easy to play on those emotions that built up inside of him, that threatened to explode so easily. It was terrifying at times and hard to hide from him, the depth of his love, the anger in his heart, possessiveness and strength. Then there was the light hearted talks, and the sweet nervousness of not knowing what to do with himself, the moments where she felt she could really fall for this boy, but they didn't last long.
She did her duty as a member of the Senate, to try and push him away. She stated all the reasons why and the rules but, he truly didn't care about any of them. They would not get in the way anyway, this she knew.
As they were prepared for an execution, a world away from her home and the terror of a death that could easily ruin all the plans The Force had laid out. She said the words he desperately wanted to hear. She cared for him truly - like an older sibling would. But that wasn't what he needed or what the world needed. So she said it, those three little words that was going to spin the galaxy and start the tumble.
"I love you"
And then, the war started.
The Clone Wars, orchestrated by one man. One evil man who manipulated both sides, so played with lives like they were pawns on a checkerboard. All to get what he wanted, to control the Galaxy. The War fought for three long years, filled with death and fighting and stress and plans.
Three years until she felt the Twin Suns of hope blossom within her. It was the beginning of the end.
The mind games truly started. The Sith and the Jedi together, they tore Anakin apart.
He became secretive and confused, unsure of who to trust and in the end he just broke.
Obi-Wan thought he had manipulated Padmé, eight months pregnant and heart broken. He thought he managed to convince her to chase after her husband, to save Ani from the Dark. But she knew it was time. She'd walked to her death with her head held high, she faced against her husband, her friend that had yellow tinted eyes and anger in his heart. The man that she too had manipulated, and her heart ached.
Her words were true, asking him to turn back and come back to her, to the children. She said everything she could think of to try and circumvent the future she'd seen. Even though she knew it was worthless the free spirit that had stayed doused inside of her tried to fight against the strings of fate.
In the end, Ani was left to die by his closest friend and brother. Left to be found, put back together and twisted even further. And Padmé turned to her own pain.
Her twin suns burst into this world even as she felt her own leaving her. Named for the suns of Tatoonie, Lucius and Lelia. Light and dark. Luke and Lela.
"Take care of my Suns" she roughly pushed words through cracked lips and a dessert dry throat, said to a torn and broken Obi-Wan, who was barely hanging on. "They are the hope, my beloved children. Keep them safe"
He was confused, he was hurt and couldn't understand what she meant. He wouldn't now, but later. Later he'll know, before his own end The Force will show him, the truth of the Universe and the long game it played.
Padmé passed away a free woman, called to the sky by the twin suns millions of stars away to be wander free at last in the desert sand. With knowledge that the future may be dark but light hides in the smallest of spaces, just waiting to shine free.