The next morning, Nik stepped into the bedroom and nudged their shoulders to wake up. He'd already called up breakfast and java from the restaurant downstairs. He pointed out that this place had a real water shower and admitted it took him some time to figure out how to operate the thing. At first, he tried to break up the dark silence with bits of humor, but he seemed to know this part of the process was more difficult for them than it was for him. Nik's nightmare was ending, but theirs was just beginning, and it would continue until the final body count tallied.

Luke was rested but stoic, calm but serious. Kess had been crying all night. She managed some sleep, but tossed and turned about as badly as Luke had in the scant hours the night before.

Before they were all fully ready, Danje arrived with an offer of a ride back to the Senate and announced it would be in their own craft. He had convinced another secret system ally (Bakura) to donate a six-person speeder to the Jedi Order so they had transportation while at their Coruscant residence. During the short ride over, they thanked him again, but Luke warned not to help too much else it would look like they were currying favor. Danje agreed and handed over the speeder codes before climbing out to report to his Senate seat.

Politicians and lobbyists had already spied them and were rushing across the plaza. Luke reached out fast and closed the door Danje had left open, enclosing the three of them in privacy for a minute longer. For a moment, all three of them enjoyed a moment of relative silence, but all three of them stiffened up to focus and get to work.

"Okay." Luke said, "Plan of attack."

Kess and Nik listened like soldiers awaiting orders.

"Nik, everyone is assuming you're a Jedi already—

"I called Gina last night," Nik reported, looking entirely displeased with this particular topic.

Luke's mouth paused open, but he shook his head and didn't ask. "We'll talk about it later. I'm not making any assumptions. All I'm asking is that you not distract anyone else by correcting theirs."

Nik nodded and gazed at the crowds begging for attention outside the speeder window.

"We need to stay on point. Like we did yesterday. There are a lot of passionate opinions out there about what we should do first, and most of them are legitimate concerns. A thousand things need to happen right away. But we can't afford to get distracted by them before we have a Chamberlain."

Nik pointed out. "This would go a lot faster if we can get them to stop being distracted too."

"The squeaky wheel gets the oil," Kess said discouraged. "And it doesn't shut up while it's waiting for its turn, but— Her eyes stared at the air for the beat of a new idea. "Maybe if we land it one wheel at a time."

Both Luke and Nik eyed her, entirely clueless of her reference.

She lifted her face. "We can use the droids in there, right?"

"Droids yes, but we need stay away from any of the sentient assistants."

"So let's assign one of the protocol droids to go around to each Senate seat and gather the issues they want the Chamberlain to address. They're yelling at us to handle it all, but if they're visited by an invitation to put their issues on a list to be addressed later, it might not only calm them enough to find some patience, it could also strengthen the Chamberlain's political power before he or she is even in office."

Luke nodded. "That's a good idea."

Nik asked, "How long do you think this Chamberlain vote will take?"

"A couple of days at least," Luke admitted. "There were already dozens of nominees when we left last night. And we have to give each one of them a chance to present their arguments before we call the vote."

Nik noted, "I'd hate to think medical and security services out there are at a standstill waiting for leadership."

"We have to keep faith that most people serve their respective careers with a sense of duty instead of just blindly following orders. Kess, arrange that droid you talked about. I'll see what I can do about getting the Red Guard to resume its role of keeping Senators from shooting at each other. Nik, talk as little as possible and look mean."

"Why can't I talk?"

"Because everything you say can be twisted into a proclamation and lead to a result that you didn't intend. And you're right; you're not a politician. No offense."

Nik's brows shrugged.

Luke focused. "So. We are the neutral parties whose only charge is to facilitate a fair vote for Chamberlain. As soon as the Chamberlain is voted in, Nik, you will resign your position as Emperor."

Nik's eyes shifted back over at him.

Luke's brows knitted. "Or will you?"

"Oh yeah." Nik nodded hard and deep, noting it hard, almost to the point of comedy. "I don't want this shit."

"Good," Luke managed a smile at the man's response, but his smile faded with a moment of focused meditation, and he grabbed the door handle. "Ready?"

Brother and sister nodded, and the three of them punctured the crowds with hard intent.

They swore not to get distracted, but already someone in the lobby shouted out a valid point: the roles of Chamberlain should not be decided solely by an Emperor who already admitted he wasn't a politician and wasn't educated in methods of governing. Once alone in the Chancellor's chambers, the Jedi agreed they should not admit where the idea came from, but the only way to counter the point was to let the Senate speak their ideas. To keep it from becoming a new layer of red tape, they agreed not to make this part have to come to a vote too. Instead, they would just listen for good ideas and take a mental temperature of the audience response if the idea should be included.

This in itself was going to cost them an entire day, but the three agreed it was a necessary enough step and suitable distraction. It would allow the still-raging battle passion to scream itself hoarse before the real matter was put to the floor. And it would buy time for other crucial representatives to arrive from other parts of the galaxy.

The list of nominees had changed drastically over the course of the night. Naturally, many names were added, but many were removed as coalitions began to gather amongst this fledgling government. Nik rang the opening bell and announced this plan with a single statement. "On this day, I invite input to further define the role of Chamberlain. You each get two minutes." He motioned for them to 'turn on their lights,' and green lights lit up like Christmas all over the chamber.

Nik quickly learned the timer and mike-mute controls on the console. He didn't formally 'recognize' anybody. When one was finished, the auto-timer clicked off, and Nik wordlessly stepped up to flip two switches, un-muting the next mike and start the timer all over again. He tried to choose randomly which would get to speak next, but ended up showing preference to those who were sitting quietly and listening politely. This preference was soon discovered and affected the positive result that more representatives began to sit down and shut up until it was their turn to speak.

Amidst this morning discussion, when Nik clearly had gotten the hang of this part, Luke stepped away to address the Security Headquarters of the Red Guard, but he was met with distrust and got nowhere with that crew. Once Luke returned to the spire to stand guard, Kess went down to the coliseum lobby away and had to use the Force to determine friend from foe before choosing from whom she would borrow the protocol droid. Explaining her idea in public meant she was overheard by several others in the vicinity, and two other system reps stepped forth to offer their protocol droids to canvas the chambers as well. Even using droids, this step was untrustworthy, because it meant each droid-owning system could erase issues they didn't like and silence other ideas from the get-go. Kess had to remind herself that an all-inclusive list of concerns was not the mission. The mission was only to let the various system senators feel the honor of an invitation and confidence that they would be heard.

Late morning, Leia appeared in the Senate seat beside Mon Mothma, giving Luke and Kess significant pause to try and see from this distance if she was okay. She wore blood and black Senatorial robes now, and her demeanor was that of don't mess with me today, for I mean business.

Quickly, Luke suggested they break for a midday meal, at which he disappeared in the halls to seek out his sister. Kess let him go on the understanding that the two needed a moment alone, noting that she had her own people to try to contact.

Kess cornered herself in a pocket of the Chancellor's under offices and tried to remember every number she ever knew.

No one answered, but Kess expected that because most of her friends were probably still topside on capital ships. Her commlink signal wouldn't reach that far. She managed to get a hold of a data admin she knew only by acquaintance, and thought of her because she'd seen a glimpse of the woman as part of Mon Mothma's planet-side entourage. Questah seemed always present and ready to help wherever needed, so Kess asked if she could borrow her as a backchannel. Questah was glad to share what little news she knew so far.

Yana was wounded — shot in the shoulder by blaster fire when the political crew first landed yesterday. They had been trying to rush to the Senate in time to be present for the Emperor's cease fire and got caught in the street before their guarding troops could stop the onslaught from Imperial ground forces. Last Questah saw, Yana was unconscious, but word had it she going to be okay. She didn't know to which hospital Yana was taken and promised to comm back if she learned anything new. Kess thanked the new friend profusely and got back to work.

Luke returned late from lunch and stole a moment in a corner of the office before they stabbed themselves back up into the Senate chamber. Nik was back in his right mind, for now he stood tall and erect with the practiced strength of facing down a drunk and angry father. He further developed the habit of interrupting a speaker's allotted minute by simply flipping the mute switch if they drifted off topic from the Chamberlain's role.

The rest of the day concluded with the same in fighting as the day began, but the politicians began to calm down, one-by-one, as they each were permitted to shout out their two-credits of opinion.

Before the ending bell, and per the suggestion of Luke, Nik announced the plan for tomorrow. Each nominee would get the floor for a five-minute proposal and make their case for the role of Chamberlain.

And the cease fire held. . . .

That night, Threepio arrived at their new apartment door almost as soon as they'd entered it themselves. This time Kess did give 'Goldenrod' a big hug. Artoo greeted him with happiness and relief, even Luke smiled a little, but Threepio had come to bring them sad news.

Threepio admitted it wasn't complete, but he had brought them the first draft of The List.

Kess froze on her feet with the card in her hand, staring at it, afraid to see the information inside. Luke stepped up and whispered to dismiss the droid, "Thank you, Threepio." He nudged her by the hand to step over to one of the couches with him, plucking up a reader along the way. In complete understanding, Nik moved to the other end of the great room to sit down at the dining table with a stiff drink and remained silent.

Luke and Kess sat side-by-side on the black couch. They closed their eyes for a moment before turning on the datareader. His left hand wrapped tightly into her right, weaving their fingers, knotting themselves together to face this.

The names were out of any discernible order. There were no ranks. No groups. No assignments. No systems. No ages. No explanations. Nothing. Just names. Accompanied only by an indicator if the person was Killed or Wounded. This was probably just the list of Alliance personnel, but they didn't know that for certain. It probably included a few civilian politicians, but they wouldn't know which were which. Only the first draft, this was probably just the half of it, but they had no way of knowing how many more there would be.

They read it in silence. Eyes paused on every name, not just to recollect the name, but to try to remember the face, to remember the last time they saw that face, to remember the last thing each person had said to them, to remember the last thing they said to each person, to wonder how they died, and to grow angrier at each additional life lost.

It didn't take long to see names that made them pause even longer. Names that seemed to bold themselves in the text, announcing the loss as if the datacard was shouting the name at them. As though her heart hadn't entirely believed it before, seeing Han Solo's name in there made Kess burst into crazier tears. Yet she forced herself to sniff and squint through the blur in her eyes so she could keep reading.

But the reading didn't get any easier. Luke too collapsed in a heavy sigh a couple of times. Kess didn't need to look over at him to know tears were dribbling down his face too. There were too many names they'd both knew, for so long. Too many names they'd spoken aloud so many times. Names that seemed to echo in the Force with the last of that laughter. Names that pierced new black holes in their hearts. Names beyond names beyond names. Kess could barely see through her tears by the time they reached the bottom of it, at which she crumbled into a blithering pile of terrible heartache. Luke tossed the list away and wrapped his arms around her to cry into her ear. Their hearts shattered across the floor like black glass.

Eventually, silently, Nik stepped over and picked the datareader off the carpet, watching the couple wrapped around each other in excruciating sorrow. Nik didn't expect to recognize any of the names, but he decided that detail didn't matter. Whether he was the primary mission or not, these people had given their lives to save him from this nightmare, to save everyone from the continuing nightmare of this war. He sat down at the empty dining table, refilled his tumbler with two more inches of liquor, and made himself pause to absorb every last name on The List.