Disclaimer: I own nothing. Some of the dialogue from the opening flashback has been taken from the Clone Wars episode, "The Wrong Jedi." (5.20)

A/N: Please hear me out with regards to Padme's behavior in this chapter. Yes, in canon, this would be very OOC behavior for her. But remember, this isn't exactly canon!Padme. In canon, she is almost always in control whenever she is out in public being her awesome self and fighting for the Republic, whether in the Senate or in action. But we get to see her vulnerable side when she's alone with Anakin. However, in this timeline, she was only an acquaintance of Anakin's, and they certainly never married, so she didn't have that outlet. She forced herself to be in control and on top of things all. the. time. and I imagine it would get to her eventually. It's something I believe Padme shares with Leia. In the first 2 OT films, Leia doesn't really give herself any breaks, either, and while Han can be difficult, she's a little more unfair to him than he deserves. We see that side of Padme a little more in TPM, especially on Tatooine, when she's stressed out and reluctant to trust Qui-Gon.

Also, I've been informed by Veritas1995 (many thanks) of an egregious case of bad math in earlier chapters. It's true that Wedge would be maybe 8 or 9 at the oldest at this point, so Kyella has become a generic Antilles (I edited Ch I accordingly). I know it's a joke that Writers Cannot Do Math, but, "I'm an engineering student. I know I'm better than this." (lol)

Thanks to everyone who reviewed and please enjoy this (filler) chapter!

V: Reassessment

Padmé didn't say much during the interchange between Master and Padawan in the stark little cell. Instead, she listened intently, desperately straining her intellect on her young friend's behalf, doing her best to piece together which points of Ahsoka's story to emphasize and which points to skirt away from to best convince the court of her innocence. Padmé may not have been trained as an attorney, but the modes of persuasion in politics were little different – bills and causes and declarations of war had their strong and weak points as well – and Padmé knew for a fact that after all these years she had no mean skill in politics.

So it was that she said nothing until Skywalker turned to leave.

"Well, if that's our only lead, then I know what I have to do."

Padmé knew that her casual friendships with such Jedi as Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka herself weren't intimate enough for her to have a very thorough understanding of the Master-Padawan dynamic, but she still couldn't help but speak up. What did the young Knight think he was going to find, anyway? Ahsoka's trial would begin in little less than two hours! There was no way he could find anything in such a short time that would justify his abandoning his former Padawan in her time of greatest need!

"Wait – where are you going? You can't leave now."

His tone, when he answered, was grave and laced with barely-controlled emotion, and yet the words were uncompromisingly final.

"Yes, I can. I have to find Ventress and get to the bottom of this."

With one last glance to where Ahsoka had started to curl in on herself, he turned and left.

Ahsoka's increasing gloom had not gone unnoticed by Padmé, so for the young Togruta's sake she bit back an angry remark. Better for Ahsoka to be given a false hope that Skywalker would find some useful evidence than for Padmé to admit that she thought that by doing so, the Knight was abandoning Ahsoka just as much as the Council had. How selfish could he be, really? But Ahsoka needed Padmé's support more than her anger, so she did her best to force a kind smile, though she suspected it wasn't all that convincing.

"Until we hear from Knight Skywalker, let's work on your defense…"

Padmé took another sip of the truly awful ration tea – really, it was the fact that it was warm more than anything else that made it in such high demand – and continued the thoughtful study of the enigmatic maybe-Jedi-maybe-not who was currently assisting with the salvaged communications equipment on the other side of the camp.

It was the fourth day since the crash of the Star Nymph, and thus the fourth camp they'd set up. She shivered and pulled the camp blanket closer to her body. It was much colder on this side of the mountains.

It was also her fourth day of trying to figure out how to best go about apologizing to Skywalker.

She regretted the words the moment they left her mouth.

Oh, how she regretted them.

For a brief moment, his twilight blue eyes widened, showcasing an indescribable depth of hurt, the kind that would never really go away, and she realized the full implications of her words with a sickening twist of horror.

Oh gods, she had just accused him of being complicit in the murder of dozens, maybe hundreds of his people. Even she knew that, logically, it was impossible. A Skywalker who was working for Palpatine would not be a Skywalker who was left marooned on a distant moon. Even she knew enough about the sheer levels of his power to know he had much more worth as a right hand than as a secret weapon.

Had she really just selfishly allowed her anger over what Palpatine had taken from her personally to ride rampant over her reason, throwing blame to the nearest halfway-likely sources?

That would be the second time since landing that she'd let her emotions get the better of her.

All of this crossed through her mind – not in so many words – in the space of a few seconds, and then the sorrow left his eyes to be replaced by something calm, but unyielding. He reached up with his left arm and took her trembling hands in his, gently but firmly lowering the blaster until the barrel was pointed harmlessly down at the forest floor.

"You and I both know I had no part in that. No part whatsoever." He was speaking loudly enough so that the whole group could hear, though he kept his intense gaze focused on hers, and his words were meant for her. "I'm not asking to join your rebel group or anything. All I'm looking for is passage off this rock and a spare battery." He took hold of his limp mechno in his left hand and "waved" it at her. "Okay?"

Her hands were shaking so badly with shame by this point that it was a lucky thing that she didn't shoot herself in the foot in her effort to reholster the blaster pistol.

"Ah, y-yes," she stammered, her voice coming out small and hesitant. "Captain, um, make sure the Jedi has what he needs."

"Understood, my lady."

And Padmé found herself fleeing back across camp to where everyone had been packing up as fast as her legs could carry her, desperate to make herself useful and try to forget what had happened.

Padmé took another sip of tea and wondered idly if the history books would put her down as "the woman who underestimated Anakin Skywalker."

She had thought betting everything on that podrace all those years ago was a terrible idea. And then Anakin Skywalker won the podrace. And took out the droid control ship facilitating the Trade Federation invasion of Naboo, to boot.

She had thought it had been pure selfishness that had driven him to leave Ahsoka's side. And then Anakin Skywalker discovered the real culprit.

The whole galaxy had been convinced that he was dead. And then Anakin Skywalker showed up alive.

Padmé had made an extremely inappropriate and very hurtful remark out of her own bitterness. And then Anakin Skywalker had taken the high road, and done it without looking weak.

Padmé knew without a doubt that it was her pride that was keeping her from walking right over to where he and a few techs were huddled around the detatched comm console (if nothing else, he'd found a place among her people almost instantly, being fairly easygoing and likeable).

She could feel her control over her emotions fraying at the edges and threatening to come completely undone. She knew it had been a bad idea to come on this field mission. No one had made her come. She was the de facto leader of the Alliance; she wouldn't have lost any respect by remaining at headquarters on Alderaan. She was a former senator, after all, and while she was highly trained in self-defense and had seen her fair share of battle, she was hardly a soldier.

This mission had brought all the bad memories to the forefront of her mind all at once, and she was forced to admit to herself that she was having trouble coping. She knew in her heart that if she tried to apologize right now, she'd either trip over her own words once she got started, or burst into tears as soon as he accepted the apology – and especially if he came right out and forgave her – or worse, both. And she also knew she was being very childish about all this, but there was something in her that didn't want to let Skywalker have the upper hand on her like that.

(Or maybe it was that she was so used to being right that she was a little – or a lot – scared to try and fix it when she was wrong.)

Kyella's voice suddenly sounded from above her elbow. "Well, he cleaned up about as nicely as I suspected."

Padmé just hummed noncommittally.

It was true that Skywalker had always been good-looking. He'd been an adorable child, and she had certainly taken notice of the attractiveness of the young Knight who had directed her to what she later realized had been his "pet" airspeeder. That had given her a shock, when she'd finally realized who it was she'd talked to that day.

During his first day with them, he'd gotten the chance to make himself look less like some sort of hermit. He'd washed somewhere – Padmé suppressed a shudder at how cold the mountain streams must be this time of year, but then again, perhaps he was used to it. He'd shaved and cut his hair to where it just brushed his shoulders. Someone had found spare clothes that fit him: a soldier's nondescript black shirt, trousers, and boots, with a long gray coat and wool cap and gloves – well, a left glove – against the autumn chill. Padmé didn't know if she preferred the grimy hermit or this new "charity case" Skywalker. To be honest, he looked a little sadder this way, if only because it made it more obvious that he was much thinner than he'd been.

Not that she was surprised, per se – he'd been living on the run in the wilderness, after all – but it put her uncomfortably in mind of the slave boy she had once known on Tatooine, which in turn brought back to mind the need for her to apologize, because if the universe was determined to make Skywalker's life hell, at the very least Padmé Amidala could try to be kinder.

As if reading her mind, Kyella spoke up again. "They managed to reach headquarters – at least they think it was headquarters – with that hunk of junk yesterday, but they only got static. If you want to take him aside to apologize, you should probably do it before help comes and it's harder to get him alone."

Padmé set her empty cup aside and burrowed further into the blanket. There had been so many times in her life when she had decided to do the right thing, consequences be damned. There had been other times, especially during the war, when right and wrong had blurred, or where doing right by her personal relationships, by her friends, would mean doing wrong by the galaxy. For once in her life, she knew exactly what the right course of action was, and was startled to find herself too afraid to do it.

"Just a thought," Kyella said, and turned to go and find the captain.