"Dearly Departed" : Chapter Two

"I don't understand. Droid malfunction? I've never heard of such a thing. The GH-7 is usually quite reliable. They declared her death. How is this possible?"

Senator Bail Organa was even more beside himself than Obi-Wan had been. The trouble was, Obi-Wan didn't have any answers. He was hoping Yoda would figure things out. The old Master had hobbled off to investigate the situation for himself, but he had yet returned, and that was nearly half an hour ago. In the meantime, Bail was continuing to spout unanswerable questions.

"I mean, don't get me wrong," the Senator continued, sitting quite still at the conference table on board his luxurious yacht while Obi-Wan was a jittery bundle of tightly-bound nerves. "I think it's great. The children will have a mother after all, but this leads to an entirely new set of issues. We need to contact Naboo and cancel her funeral proceedings, don't we? And where is she to go? Her husband will still be after her, won't he? And now the children as well. Do we keep them together or separate them after all?"

Obi-Wan wasn't sure what to do in this particular case. He'd never dealt with a possible resurrection before.

"I'm afraid I don't have the answers," he replied, relieved when Yoda returned. The ancient Jedi walked slowly and casually to the opposite end of the long table and elevated himself onto a seat. He then stared pensively at the pair who were staring expectantly back at him.

"Well?" Obi-Wan prompted, losing his patience. "Did you see her? Did you speak to her? What's your diagnosis?"

It was another few seconds before Master Yoda answered, his eyes widened with curiosity. "Dead, she no longer is."

There was a phrase his padawan used to use in situations like this – whenever Obi-Wan had stated the obvious. He wouldn't repeat it here however, since it bordered on being disrespectful. "I presumed that myself, Master," Obi-Wan told him instead. "But what does that mean?"

"We need to contact Naboo and her family to give them the good news." Senator Organa announced, rising from his seat to most likely do that very thing, but was stopped by an uplifted claw.

"Wait, we must. Though dead she no longer is, alive she also is not."

"Pardon?" Obi-Wan leaned forward to tune his hearing. Sometimes his mentor's verbal syntax made him difficult to understand, and this sounded important.

"Spoken with her I have. Senator Amidala, she is, although her life force here I did not sense. Something holding her here, it is."

"Like, she's in limbo? My wife will be intrigued. Breha studies this sort of thing." Bail explained although Obi-Wan could care less and he cast the man a dubious glare before turning his attention back to the one who apparently knew all the answers.

"What you're saying is, that even though her body is here, her spirit is elsewhere? Why? And for how long?"

Master Yoda's eyes squeezed shut tightly as he apparently accessed the Force for information. "Unsure, I am. Perhaps, something to do here she has."

"Oh, I've read about this," Bail interrupted again. "Or my wife has. Sometimes ghosts cling to this realm to complete something they've left undone, or to do something they meant to."

For once the man's ramblings actually made some sense, but they frightened Obi-Wan all the same. Panic began to grip him as he recalled that careless plea he had cast out to the Force earlier. Was it possible that he was responsible for holding Padmé's spirit here? What had he said? Something about wanting to express his true feelings, wasn't it? To spend more time with her?

"Perhaps," Yoda was saying while Obi-Wan was trying his best to remember exactly what he'd said. "Her time here, uncertain it may be. Her heart, it beats not. Her lungs, they breathe not. Soon, her body, begin the natural processes, it will."

"Natural processes?" Obi-Wan uttered, now becoming quite mortified. "You mean, decay? She's going to start decaying?"

"How interesting," he thought he heard Bail say.

Obi-Wan had studied anatomy as a padawan, from Antarian to Zanthian. Regardless of the life form, the decomposition process was the same. Exposed to heat, oxygen, and humidity, it was only a matter of days before the cycle began. At the most, he had five. If that. Mostly likely, three.

"Without the spirit, the body will degenerate," Yoda continued. "Your duty, Master Kenobi, to discover why she is here, it is."

He couldn't argue, since she was most likely here because of him.

"Though, difficult it will be."

No kidding. How was he ever going to explain this to her?

"For, remember nothing, she does."

Wait. More important details. Obi-Wan gave Yoda his undivided attention. "Say that again?"

"Nothing in the past, does she recall. Ask her many questions, I did. You protecting her, the last thing she remembers, it is."

"You mean, when Ana….when we investigated the attempt on her life? But that was over five years ago!"

"Remarkable," Bail pointed out. "She has no recollection of the fall of the Republic, the attack on the Temple, or even giving birth?"

"No." Yoda answered simply. "Hiding from the assassin, she thinks she is. Up to you, Master Kenobi, will it be to inform her of the truth. Though, use your best judgment you should. Unstable, she is. Tenuous, her hold on this realm. For in this place, she should not be."

What had seemed so simple before, now had become quite complicated. Although it had grieved him greatly to watch her go, Obi-Wan had learned long ago that sometimes, things happen for a reason. He had hoped her death would serve some higher purpose. Something the Force would explain to him at a later time. It made her absence bearable.

But now, he had to watch her disintegrate before his very eyes? All while trying to explain to her what had happened over the past five years? In light of everything that had happened recently, it was just too much!

What in all the stars had he done?