Chapter 22: Negotiations

The Mandalorians had a proud history of hunting, imprisoning and executing Jedi, so the prisons and holding cells of Sundari Palace were uniquely equipt for containing Force sensitives. They were led to a lower level of the palace, the Jedi keeping a fair distance from the Senator and the Sith as they watched with a careful eye, Anakin bringing up the rear with Master Yoda clinging tightly to his back, the two speaking in hushed tones that made Qui-Gon equal parts nervous and curious. Soldiers lined the long hallways, standing at attention beside closed doors that led to interrogation rooms. They stopped outside of one, and the guard opened the door, a blue energy field over the entrance that the Senator easily passed through when the Duchess ushered her inside. But Kenobi did not enter so easily.

Breathing deep, his gold eyes ran over the field, looking inside to see Senator Amidala making herself comfortable in the room that had been well-furnished for the meeting, the Force blocking containment field turned on and making his connection feel hazy just from standing near. He took a few cautious steps back. "...remember what we talked about, Ventress," he said to the woman by his side. "You play nice with the Jedi. Don't start anything. We can't afford for this to fall through."

"If they attack me, Kenobi, than what!" Asajj asked swiftly, much louder than intended, and Obi-Wan could feel her entire being spiked with fear. She was made concerned by Skywalker's display earlier.

"It was a Jedi that saved you, Ventress. Master Yoda will protect you. Right?" Yellow eyes met golden brown, and Yoda nodded. "See? Nothing to worry about." He patted her shoulder and stepped up to the energy over the door. With a deep breath, he closed his eyes and stepped inside, the door sealing behind him.

It was...oppressive. For a moment, he felt he couldn't breathe, and he had to reach out with a hand to grasp the wall for balance. He reflexively looked deep within for the Force, but found only a void, dark and empty and silent, and he groaned aloud from the pain of it. It was like losing a vital part of himself, a part he needed, like his lungs or his heart, and he instantly regretted agreeing to undergo what amounted to torture for a Force sensitive. A delicate hand on his cheek brought him out of himself, his focus shifting outwards at the worried, brown eyes before him instead of the empty, gaping pit within him, and the pain dulled to a slowly pulsing throb. That, he could deal with. After all, his Master had inflicted far worse upon him.

"Are you alright?" Padmé asked softly, her thumb running over his high cheekbone, her other hand resting on his chest, and a slow smile spread over his lips. Even without the Force, she was shockingly easy to read. He had a small window of opportunity earlier to quietly enter her mind and examine what was there, and he was pleased to find the young Senator, now a woman, with a woman's needs and a taste for Jedi that he had inspired. It was perfect. He was right to trust his instincts.

"Fine, yes," Obi-Wan said softly, a gentle smile on his face. "It takes some getting used to."

"Do you need-"

"No, no." He stood upright, pushing away from the wall and quickly kissed her palm, delighting in her soft gasp and the blush that stained her features. "I thank you for your concern, though." The Sith took stock of the room. There didn't appear to be any way to disrupt the containment field, and even if there was, a steady red light on a security camera in one corner indicated that they were being watched. Kenobi frowned. An audio feed was certain to be hooked up as well, but he could use that to his advantage if he was careful.

"Shall we begin?" he drawled, his voice as smooth as he could make it, and he pulled out a chair for her, waiting for her to be seated before he walked around the table to sit opposite her, facing the security camera. He could control how he looked. He couldn't control the reactions of the Senator. What was being presented to the people watching was very important. He pressed his fingers together, elbows on the table and leaning forward. "Let's talk about Geonosis." He smirked, feeling the woman bristle. Kenobi knew she was there. The goal had been to catch her with her guard down, and he was successful.

"Your people tried to execute me!" she cried, palms flat on the table, and Kenobi leaned back, hands splayed before him and face apologetic.

"Padmé, please, I understand you're angry. We are talking about it, you don't need to get angry. We are trying to find peace, Senator. That won't happen if you are throwing blame around." She crossed her arms, her face angry and her big brown eyes challenging him to defend the Separatist actions on Geonosis. "I don't know the details of what happened. All I know is a Jedi Master was caught snooping around a droid foundry and trying very hard to blow it up."

Padmé bit her lip, looking away from the sincere face of the Negotiator, and Kenobi laid his hands on the table, his fingers lightly drumming on the hard wood. She was...uncertain. "I didn't hear about that."

"Why should you," he shrugged. "The Jedi keep to themselves, if they can." The brown eyes darted to him, narrowed in anger, and he quickly threw up his hands again. "I'm not blaming them, Padmé! I understand! I have always thought that the Jedi should be separate from the Republic, it's one of the reasons I left them!"

"How are we supposed to maintain peace without the Jedi!" she cried, slamming her hands on the table, and the Sith smiled, a soft, gentle thing.

"Padmé..." He reached out and took her hand in his, one long finger on her wrist and feeling her racing pulse seem to hitch as she sucked in a sharp breath. Even without the Force, his presence was calming. "We don't maintain peace without the Jedi. We need the Jedi, but not as servants of the Republic, as servants of peace. I know you don't understand the Force, but binding the Jedi to the will of a corrupt system is like trying to exert the Senate's will on the Force. They have no right to it, and it goes against the Jedi Code."

"The Senate is not corrupt!"

He arched one thin eyebrow, his yellow eyes, vibrant and glowing before, but without the presence of the Force, they appeared pale and dull, looking at the girl like she was crazy. "Come now, let's be honest. You aren't a naive young girl anymore, you're a woman now." He squeezed her hand, a charming smile on his face, and her eyes widened, her face flushing deeply, and he could feel her pulse quicken. "If the Senate weren't absolutely mired in corruption and greed, this mess wouldn't have happened."

"And you think the Confederacy is better?"

Kenobi scoffed. "Not in the least. They're just as bad. The Trade Federation, the Techno Union, the Commerce Guild, the Corporate Alliance..." The Sith shook his head in disgust. "They are as greedy as the worst in the Senate. But not all broke away from the Republic to pursue their own ambitions. The Republic is broken, Padmé."

"We can make it better if we just work together!"

"Mm, but you admit there are problems."

The man opposite her smiled warmly, and Amidala had to look away. Until the other day, she had thought the man dead and gone, and on Geonosis, she and Anakin had...well, she didn't know what to think of that right now. They were friends, yes, had become good friends in their close time together, and on Geonosis, they thought they were going to die. There was an attraction there, yes, and in the face of death, it seemed pointless to deny it. Anakin was still a boy, but Obi-Wan...

He was her first Jedi protector, the first man she felt real, adult attraction for, the first one that inspired vivid dreams that woke her in the night panting and aroused, and that smooth charm, that easy smile hadn't changed at all. She was told he was not a Jedi anymore, and she believed it, his cautious, unattached blue eyes inexplicably replaced with blazing, passionate gold that seemed to burn right through her and awoke all the things that she had put away after he had died. After she thought he died.

"Can you control me?" she muttered, barely audible, and the Sith closed his eyes.

"Not now, no. Your containment field has cut my connection to the Force, I have no power over anyone." He smiled softly, looking away from her, his thumb running over the back of her hand. "I can't even feel the Force, I can't imagine living like this the way you do."

"...does it hurt?" She laid her other hand on top of his and squeezed. "When you came in..."

Kenobi leaned back, carefully removing his hand from the Senator's, watching carefully as her face filled with worry and longing as they lost physical contact. "The Force," he explained softly, "is like looking into eternity. It's a constant companion, a comforting presence that promises peace and knowledge and life everlasting. But without it..." Obi-Wan shivered, and he didn't need to fake the gesture, the dull pain in his mind spiking as he looked inward and quickly had to turn away. "Without it...there is nothing. I look inside myself and there is a void that should be filled with power and meaning and when I reach for the Force there is only pain." He hissed, his hand shooting to his head as pain lanced through him, his mind seeking contact with the Force and the nothingness lashing out against him.

He could hear scuffling and shouting briefly outside the door, and recognized Ventress' distinctive snarl. She was fearful, not aggressive, but he knew how quickly the Dark Side would prey on such emotions. With a deep breath, Kenobi slowly regained control, pushing the pain aside, and it vanished nearly completely as Padmé's small hands cupped his cheeks, her big brown eyes wide and concerned. "I'm so sorry..." the Senator said softly, her hands shaking against the handsome former Jedi's face. "I should have listened to the Jedi, this is torture."

Obi-Wan chuckled softly, laying his hand over hers. "We're just getting off-topic. I'm fine now." Their eyes locked, and the Sith smiled. "I promise. Please, have a seat, we'll get back to business." The Senator slowly sat, but she was clearly still concerned, and Kenobi smiled reassuringly. Her sympathy would aid him. Perhaps the decision to endure this was worth it after all. "Even if I could feel the Force," Obi-Wan drawled softly, "I wouldn't control you, Padmé."

She grinned brightly, her heart fluttering in her chest and she nodded, hands on the table and leaning toward the Negotiator. "What is it the Separatists want?"

"A great deal. Not all of it reasonable, but that is why we are here, yes?"

"Yes."

Kenobi nodded. "They want freedom from the Republic, obviously. Your system is corrupt and it has stopped serving the people. Instead of progress, you stagnate. Nothing gets done until it is too late. The Separatists want real change."

"We can't just let all these systems go! The Republic needs them if it's going to be successful! What are we going to do without the Trade Federation and the Banking Clan?"

Obi-Wan scoffed. "You could develop your own. Nobody is keeping you from that."

"Banking and Intergalactic Trade can't just be...manufactured!"

"Not with that attitude." The brown eyes narrowed, and the Sith held his hands up. "Alright, I will concede this point to you, for the time being. Jumping into the thick of it may not be the best idea to find common ground. I want to return to Geonosis. What were you doing there?"

"What were you doing there?!" The response was knee-jerk and childish, she knew, but the man seemed to take it in stride, and she couldn't help herself. Geonosis was...awful, and every time she closed her eyes, she saw the arena.

Obi-Wan sighed, rubbing his temple. "The Separatist Council was meeting on Geonosis. I'm not a part of the Council, of course, but my work has earned me a place in the room, if I wish it. That's when we found the Jedi saboteur."

Padmé crossed her arms, a physical gesture that was never a good sign for negotiation, and Obi-Wan lightly brushed his leg against the Senator's under the table, and the woman gasped, her hands flying into her lap and sitting up straight. Much better. "I told you, I don't know anything about the Jedi. I just knew that he was captured, that's why Qui-Gon and Anakin and I went to save him."

"You believed it was without cause?" Padmé nodded. "He was trying to blow up the droid foundries, and the Separatist Council was in the building. They would have all died if the Jedi was successful." Kenobi shrugged when the Senator paled. "Maybe he had a good reason to be there, I don't know. But he was attempting a political mass murder. Even the Republic executes such criminals."

"He was hunting an assassin," she fumed. "An assassin that tried to kill me twice. I heard he tracked him to Kamino."

"Kamino is not Geonosis, Senator."

"And then tracked him to Geonosis! The Separatists wanted me dead!"

"Really." Kenobi brought his hand to his cheek. "I've been around the Separatists for a long time, Padmé. None of them ordered your death. None of them even know who you are. Or, they didn't know who you were, until you were caught firing at Geonosians..."

"W-well-"

"You have political enemies in the Senate. How do you know it wasn't one of them that ordered your death?"

"I-I don't, but-"

"So your Jedi ran to Geonosis on the trail of an assassin that may or may not have been sent to kill you by the Separatists, and instead of finding this bounty hunter, he killed hundreds of Geonosians and attempted to kill the entire Separatist Council by blowing up the building. And you came personally to rescue this man? Do you see why your execution was ordered?"

"Then...w-we were wrong to be on Geonosis." Padmé shook her head, sighing heavily. "I'm...sorry, Obi-Wan. We shouldn't have-"

"Don't apologize, please." Kenobi smiled reassuringly, took her hand and gently kissed it, his pale golden eyes watching with interest as regret and sorrow and desire and want rushed across her face in equal measure. "The start of all this was a misunderstanding. I'm confident we can resolve it, especially since you are so willing to do so. I imagine meeting with me was no easy thing to arrange."

"Easier than you think, I wanted this," she purred, leaning in further, unaware of how breathy and heedless she sounded, and the Sith Lord chuckled, his sharp ears picking up on shouts of rage on the other side of the door, this time from Anakin Skywalker.

"Then we are of a like mind. Which leads us to the other part of this." He let go of her hand, smirking when he saw her bite her lip, upset at its loss. "The Jedi."

"The Jedi..." she slowly repeated, watching those pallid yellow eyes and she couldn't think straight. He had no powers in this room, what was Obi-Wan doing to her?

"The Jedi interfered in a matter they had no business being a part of, and they didn't just mount a rescue, they attacked with an army. This was an open act of war. I don't pretend to know what the Senate called for, but it ultimately doesn't matter. The Jedi have been serving as attack dogs for the Republic since that nasty business on Antar 4."

Padmé bit her lip and looked away, mulling over the information. Obi-Wan wasn't wrong, but the Republic wasn't the only one making poor choices in this conflict. "You're forgetting all the things the Separatists have done. They started this whole thing with the battle on Naboo."

Kenobi nodded. "I agree. Factions within the Confederacy must be held responsible for the things they have done, just as the Republic must answer for their crimes. That is fair, is it not?"

"Y-yes, of course."

"When we have peace, I can assure you that I will stop at nothing to weed out the greed and corruption that exists within the Separatists, starting with the Trade Federation and the Banking Clan. And you," he drawled softly, taking both her hands in his and leaning in, "must start with the Jedi. Or whoever it is that is controlling them."

"Obi-Wan, the Jedi are peacekeepers, they-"

Kenobi laughed, short and harsh, his hands tightening around the woman's. "That may have been true once, but they lead an army now. I hear the mighty Jedi Masters are generals these days. That is an affront to the very Code they follow."

"The Republic hasn't had an army in a very long time, we don't have anyone to lead them! And the Jedi are peerless warriors."

"If there was nobody to lead an army that was created overnight, than perhaps you shouldn't have it to begin with." Kenobi's smile faded into a knowing smirk, his eyes seeming to dance with light golden flames, and Padmé stared at him transfixed, unable to look away. "But it wasn't created overnight, was it? This army was a long time in the making. An army of clones...millions of them, and all ready to deploy against the Republic's enemies. Tell me, Padmé, who exactly made this army? It must have been commissioned a long time ago, long before the Trade Federation invaded Naboo, if these clones are being grown at a standard rate."

"I don't know much about the clones," she started, her voice thin and her hands shaking. She had a feeling she knew where this was going, and as much as she wished it wasn't so, the Negotiator, Obi-Wan, had a point. "The Jedi brought the matter to attention, they-"

"The Jedi." The Sith scoffed. "It looks to me like the Jedi have raised a secret army, since your recent Military Creation Bill has no mention of clones and goes into great detail about drafting people into service. It seems to me like the Republic had no idea their Grand Army could consist of millions of the same man."

Padmé was scrambling for words, but she could not find any. She desperately wrenched her hands away from Kenobi's grasp and stood, pacing restlessly. "Why would the Jedi have need of an army?!" she finally stuttered, and Obi-Wan shook his head.

"I don't know. It isn't like them. They may have been ordered by the Senate to serve as the mediators between the cloners and the Republic." He leaned forward, watching her pace madly. "I cannot speculate as to why, but I can say this. The Jedi don't belong within the Republic. They are peacekeepers, as you said, they have no part in this."

"They stand for freedom and democracy, Obi-Wan, they-"

"If that were true, they would support the systems that want freedom from the Republic when their people vote to break away. As they have. Not the system that stubborn refuses to let them go, or sends their Jedi peacekeepers to bring a Separatist world forcefully back into the Republic." Padmé dropped into her chair, slumping for a moment before she sat straight up, hands folded before her.

"I don't have power over the Jedi."

"No, but the Republic does." He tapped the table with a long finger. "Here's what I propose. As a part of our peace, we...dismiss the Jedi from the service of the Republic and allow them to act as they were meant to. As peacekeepers. Allow them to manage any stray conflict between the Confederacy and the Republic. They will go when either side calls on them for help, not be bound to the whims of corrupt politicians. Allow the Jedi to follow the will of the Force, as they were always meant to do." Kenobi smirked as the woman nodded thoughtfully. He had her.

"I can't speak for the Jedi, but...that seems like something they wouldn't be opposed to."

"I thought so as well." He took her hands in his own. "I don't see the Confederacy rejoining the Republic, Padmé. But with the Jedi to manage peace, I believe we can allow the two systems to thrive alongside each other."

"I...believe that can work." She smiled softly, watching the man smile gently and she felt herself burn.

"Here's my proposal. The Confederacy deposes the leaders of the Trade Federation and sends them to Coruscant for justice. Nute Gunray escaped judgement once, but his crimes on Naboo have not been paid for, and it's time for that to happen. The Trade Federation, the Corporate Alliance, the Banking Clan...any of the major institutions that are essential for trade and commerce will be released from their pledge to the Confederacy so they may do business in both sectors as...independent contractors, if you will. They are only with us because they believe we will win the war, but if they are allowed to trade freely, they would happily be ll over the galaxy."

She arched an eyebrow. The proposal was more than generous and far more reasonable than she expected. But the fairness of the trade lay in what he wanted in return. "And...what does the Confederacy want?"

"A great deal, Padmé. But what is reasonable is this. Recognition of the Confederacy as a separate governing body, and the allowance of other systems to easily leave, if they wish. If one system works better than another, that should be the dominant government, don't you think?" She opened her mouth to speak, but the Sith put a long, gentle finger on her lips and she froze, breathless and unable to move. "In a few years time, we will see if one truly works better than the other. Perhaps a competing system of government will spur both to working more effectively, more efficiently. Just like we always wanted, Padmé..."

"Y-yes..."

His long finger slowly traced her lips, smirking in delight as the woman gasped, a barely audible moan escaping her throat, and Kenobi discretely eyed the camera. The angle prevented it from picking up exactly what he was doing. "Are we agreed, then?"

"I-I..." She swallowed hard, wetting her dry throat when the finger moved from her lips to gently hook under her chin. "I-I believe I can get the Senate to agree to this."

"I think I can get the Confederacy to accept it as well." He fished a datapad from the folds of his robe and slid it across to her. "I took the liberties of writing up the proposal last night." She looked at him skeptically, and Kenobi smiled shyly, looking away from her, and the faint blush on his cheeks made her heart skip. Again. "I...assumed you were the same girl...the same woman I knew before. I thought this would be in line with what you wanted. After all, our desires have always been similar."

"H-have they?"

He nodded, pale golden eyes meeting hers. "Yes, I think they have."

She took the datapad from the table and turned away, hoping the angle would hide how furiously she was blushing. Everything they discussed was there. The recognition of the Confederacy, making the Jedi, the Bankers, the Trade Federation neutral entities, turning over Nute Gunray for justice. It wasn't an official document, of course, but it was a record of what they had discussed so the information could be shared with their respective governments.

"Can you send a copy to my datapad?" she asked softly, scribbling her name next to Obi-Wan's elegant signature.

The Sith laid his hand over hers when she went to hand the datapad back, her blue eyes drifting to his handsome face and holding his gaze. "Anything for you, Senator..."