AN: Something a little shorter and lighter before I launch into the next two freaking enormous chapters, so expect a day or two between them, since they're going to be an absolute bitch to write. Enjoy. 'Tis a bit fluffy, but you'll be thanking me.

ALSO! I got fanart, guys! My perfect lovely lucife56 has made something really amazing. Like, honestly. If you want to look, and I highly suggest you do, pop on over to AO3, where I also post. Link will go...here. With spaces. So it works. = archive of our own .org /works/8851612 Hope it works!

Chapter 78: Lovers

Anakin lay in Padmé's bed, the Senator curled up next to him and laying slow, languid kisses on his chest. There was no sense in denying that he loved her, no sense in observing reserve or caution, not anymore. Not when they had been together for so long. Anakin pulled her closer, breathed in deeply the floral scent in her hair, quietly delighted in the feel of her warm skin against his. They hadn't actually been together long. Since the start of the war over two years ago, when they began this whole affair, there had been...complications involving a certain handsome, sophisticated Sith Lord, a stark comparison to the brash, boyish charm Anakin brought to the table, but keeping far, far away from the Negotiator helped bring the young Senator to her senses. The war had kept them apart, her with trying to bring an end to it through the Senate, and he doing the same thing, but out on the field of battle. Moments they got to share with each other were few and far between, but they took advantage of it when they did find the time.

Anakin was better for her. Their relationship was built on trust, a young friendship made deeper through shared conflict and hardship. Her attraction to Obi-Wan may have started that way, but it was no secret that it had quickly evolved into carnal lust for the man, a fact that Kenobi had wasted no time preying on. Absence from the Sith largely rectified the situation, but though Anakin knew Padmé loved him, there were time he wondered, in their long periods apart, if it was him the Senator was thinking of, or the handsome Sith she once lusted for.

He knew, of course, that it was thoughts like these that led to the Dark Side, and he would freely talk to Qui-Gon about his fears when they arose. After all, it was jealousy that drove Kenobi to the Sith, and both Anakin and Qui-Gon had guarded against it by communicating about everything, especially that which might meet with Council disapproval. Qui-Gon had learned from his mistakes with Obi-Wan. He wasn't going to allow another student to fall because of small, petty fears caused by jealousy, and discussing his troubles had helped keep Anakin grounded and focused. After all, Jedi in the Old Republic were allowed to have lovers and families. Anakin couldn't see why he shouldn't have one as well, so long as he was careful not to let his emotions rule him. His late start made this difficult, but because it was such an obvious weakness, they had taken care to focus their efforts on correcting it.

"Do you have to go?" she muttered against his chest, and with a sigh, Skywalker turned to face her, a smile on his lips.

"Yeah, I do. That Sith isn't going to stop on his own, and this is what the Jedi have been training me to do. Everyone knew I'd have to go after Kenobi eventually, it was just a matter of when, and now..." Anakin sighed and slowly ran a hand down her side, stopping when he got to the gentle curve of her hip. "His attack on the holonet has raised the stakes. We can't ignore him anymore."

And it was chaos. For two weeks, the Separatist Shadowfeed ran like a virus through the holonet, causing confusion and panic throughout the Republic as false information was spread without restraint, leaving a fearful public to stage violent protests against the war across connected Republic worlds. It became a top priority to correct, and the mechanically inclined Skywalker and his brutal second in command, Tarkin, were dispatched to deal with the situation. The destruction of several holonet relays that had been identified as the distributors of the virus had broken the Separatist link into the system, but Tarkin had insisted that until the source of the Shadowfeed on Murkhana was destroyed, the Confederacy could do it again.

The Chancellor had agreed, but Murkhana was a dangerous target deep in Confederate space, and attacking it simply wasn't plausible while fighting on so many fronts. Murkhana was just going to have to wait, and in the meantime, the holonet would be reenforced with additional security measures to make hacking it far more difficult, and it had been formidable before. New security protocols made it nearly impenetrable, and with the holonet crisis contained, Anakin was free to turn his attention to the real threat.

"He said he'd kill you," Padmé whimpered, and Anakin leaned over and kissed her cheek, but the woman was still worried. "He's goading you, you must see that. This has to be some kind of trap, Anakin, don't play into his hand."

"He hasn't left us with much of a choice, Padmé," Anakin said, turning onto his back and smiling gently as the woman slid on top of him, her hands crossed on his chest and her chin resting on top of them. "The longer we wait, the more he rips the Jedi apart, and I'm not going to wait for him to come to us anymore. We need to take a more aggressive stance with the Sith, I've said so from the beginning, but now the Council finally agrees."

"And you think you can beat him?" she asked, her brown eyes big and expressive and worried, and Anakin felt his heart ache. He wanted to stay with her, but the battle against the Sith was a fight for the safety of everyone, Padmé included.

"Master Yoda seems to think so." He took a deep breath and absently stroked her hair. "I...felt him in the Council chamber that day. Even without being in the room, the Force was drawn to his presence. There was so much anger and fear in the Council that day, and maybe that's why, but Yoda and Qui-Gon are right. He's become a vergence in the Force."

"Like you?"

"...yes."

Padmé was not comforted, and she was not shy about showing it. "So the Jedi are sending you on an obviously dangerous mission against a man that has killed and maimed the best in the Order, and they expect you to beat him?"

"It's not like I'll be alone!" Anakin said defensively. "I'll have the 501st and Tarkin, and Master Ki-Adi-Mundi is coming with me."

Padmé was not impressed. "Kenobi has an army too."

"Yeah, well, Kenobi hasn't fought my troops before. And Master Mundi is considered the best swordsman in the Order!"

"They said that about Master Windu, and he almost died."

"W-well, yes, but..." Skywalker huffed in frustration. "Look, Padmé, we have really good reason to believe that Master Saesee Tiin is alive and in Sith hands, and if there's even a chance of that, we need to look for him."

"That is a terrible idea."

"You sound like Tarkin."

"Well, maybe he's right." Padmé sat up, her small hands on his chest and straddling his hips, and Anakin's hands reflexively slid to rest on her waist. She was making this conversation very difficult to focus on. "Remember what happened the last time you saved a Jedi from him? He had been broken and brainwashed and was working as an agent of the Sith."

"I do remember that, Padmé..." he sighed. "But we can't just give up on him. If he's turned on us, I'll do what I must, but if not..." Skywalker ran a hand through his hair and looked away from her for a moment. "Obi-Wan is using him as bait, I'm sure of it. If we find Master Tiin, we'll find Kenobi. I'm sure of it."

"...you're trying to catch him in his own trap." Anakin nodded, and the Senator smiled softly. "It's risky. Do you think you can pull it off?"

"I'm not sure. It might be that we won't find Master Tiin, in which case, we fall back on my default plan. Find his ships and hit him where it hurts."

"You should have more support," Padmé insisted, and Anakin groaned.

"We can't have more support, we're spread thin as it is. We can't bring any Jedi that's faced him before because they will die, Yoda needs to stay in the Temple to coordinate the war effort, and the rest of us are scattered all across the galaxy. If we can stop worrying about Kenobi, we should be able to have a more united front, and it sounds like the Council is finally going to give Vos permission to go after Dooku. The Sith are the problem, and the Jedi are finally ready to attack. We destroyed them once, and we can do it again."

"This all sounds very dangerous..." Padmé whispered, running her hands down Anakin's chest and eliciting a groan from the young man.

"It is..." Anakin admitted. "But we aren't without our advantages. Tarkin spent his childhood hunting predators, and he says that since we have identified a possible trap, we can use it to our advantage. And the Force may be with Kenobi in some weird way, but it's with me too. There isn't a stronger ally."

Slowly, she nodded and laid back down on the Jedi, kissing him softly, which he returned with a hungry passion, and she gasped as he flipped her over and settled above her. "Promise me you'll come back," she whimpered, hands clasping behind her Jedi's neck. "I don't want this to be our last night together."

"I promise," Anakin whispered, leaning down to kiss the woman's neck and smiling against the warmth of her skin as she squirmed beneath him. "Nothing will keep me from you."

Obi-Wan lay with Satine's back pressed against him, holding her closely, possessively, his hand resting on the swell of her stomach where their son lay within her. He couldn't sleep. The Force wouldn't allow it. The visions were relentless, and every attempt to tune them out was met with images more violent than the next. Everything was in flames. Everything. The recurring visions he had before, once calm and easy, now burned with flames so hot, so strong, that he could barely see what they were. Even the already burning face was on fire, more fire than there had been previously, which Kenobi would have found funny if he weren't filled with such...disquiet. The Force was disturbed, though it had no reason to be, and the visions were all so unclear through the smoke and flames. If he didn't know what many of them were, they would have been completely clouded, even to him. Him! His visions had always been so clear, so why now? What was the Force trying to tell him?

Everything had been made ready, every detail planned down to every possible scenario. If he played his cards right, in the morning, he would be off to face Anakin Skywalker, a confrontation long in the making. Sidious had made certain to tell him that the Jedi would be departing. Sidious had been telling him lots of things. With the Shadowfeed infecting the holonet, it had been an easy thing for his Master to make contact with his apprentices, and while it had, at first, made both Lumis and Tyranus uneasy, they quickly found their Master to be...far more amicable than anticipated. The plan was nearing its conclusion, and the apprentices had done well. Sidious was...pleased, to their immense relief, contacting them not with directives, but with updates. Which was also new.

And Satine...

He drew her closer, felt the lazy calm of the darkness within her shift, then grow still once again. Just over five months put them over halfway through the process, the beginning of his line of Sith Lords, the future rulers of the galaxy. A great deal of the past two weeks had been spent together, the days occupied by the rapid expansion of the Mandalorian territory as a result of the chaos inspired by the holonet crisis, and the nights spent plotting how best to move their political pieces into play for the betterment of the Sith Empire in between their heedless passions. Kenobi imagined that the Empire would be a great deal like this, the calm and peace of darkness bringing the galaxy order and purpose. The war just needed to end, and he and his Queen would rule it all.

Obi-Wan gently kissed the back of her neck, and she stirred, looked over her shoulder, a tired smile on her lips. "Can't sleep?" she asked, and the Sith pulled her closer, growling as he nipped at the crook of her neck.

"No...did I wake you?" The Duchess shook her head.

"No, I can feel our son move. The doctors say he can hear us now."

"Oh?" Kenobi smirked, sending a gently wave of the Force through the hand on her stomach, and he could feel the Dark Side swell in response, reaching out and touching his father's presence, and both Satine and Obi-Wan shivered. "Has my little Sith Spawn been learning how to be a proper Lord of the Sith already, hmm?"

"We need to name him."

"We need to do a great many things," he groaned, his breath catching in his throat as the woman's hips slowly rolled against his, and he grasped her closer to him. The majority of her sickness had passed, and whatever it was that the Dark Side, their son, and her own biology was doing to her, it was making her insatiable. He was a Sith Lord, a creature born from raw, unrestrained passion, and she was driving him to the brink of exhaustion for the past two weeks. Fighting against the Jedi was less tiring than trying to satisfy the Mand'alor's lust. That child was a vicious beast if it would do such to his own mother, though, admittedly, it could have been of Satine's own making.

"You are leaving in the morning?" she asked softly, and the Sith responded by nodding against her back. "Will you be long?"

"I can't imagine it will take long to lure him to the ship, no." He grasped her hip to hold her still and could feel her back shake through stifled laughter. "Killing him may take some time, depending on how stupid he decides to be."

"Are many going to die?"

"Mm, that depends on how many he decides to bring onto the ship. If he's smart, he'll bring an infiltration team. A smaller force is harder to kill." She reached a hand up behind her to stroke at his neck.

"Are you in any danger?" Kenobi chuckled and shook his head.

"Not a great amount, no."

"You were stabbed last time," she said sternly, a chill in her voice that carried the warning of the Dark Side, and Obi-Wan inclined his head to kiss her shoulder.

"As you say, Mand'alor. I will be cautious. You are wise to remind me to be humble."

Satine scoffed, her dismissive tone giving way to an undercurrent of amusement. "Is that how you speak to your Master?"

"Only when I want something. And speaking of which..." The Duchess groaned and pressed back hard against him, his sharp intake of breath disrupting his train of thought as his fingers dug into her hip too late to keep her from easily stirring his passions, the languid Dark Side rolling to life when the Mand'alor summoned it.

"So..." she asked coyly, pressing herself flush against his chest and slowly rolled her hips back against him. "What is it you wanted, my Emperor?"

"Always you, my love." Obi-Wan gently nipped at her ear and wrapped an arm around her waist, and chuckled softly when the woman hissed in irritation when she found herself held still. "Sidious asked about you again today."

Satine laughed at that, relaxing in his arms as the frustration faded, eased by the gentle touch of the Force in her lover's hands. "I think your Master is in love, Obi-Wan."

"I'm inclined to agree. He talks about you a great deal. You made quite an impression on him." The woman scoffed.

"And you expected him to be angry with you for bringing me." She wriggled in his loosened grip and turned to face him, planting a swift kiss on her lips as she smiled. "I told you, Obi-Wan, he wouldn't want to continue communicating with me through you when I have become so powerful without him. That isn't an asset, that's a liability."

"As I said, my Queen, you were right. I misjudged him." He frowned, golden eyes glowing in the dim lighting as he studied every detail of her face. "Which I don't understand. I've known him for ten years, and you just met him."

"I rule thousands of systems, my dear, and he is a man like any other that craves power. He and I want the same things, so understanding what he needs to do to get that is simple."

Kenobi groaned. "Never in my life would I have thought you'd find a kindred spirit in Darth Sidious." He kissed her swiftly. "Is that how you enthralled Dooku?"

Satine laughed and hit his chest playfully as she sat up in the bed and kicked the sheets off of her, her pale skin almost seeming to glow under the light of Concordia. "No, he's just interested in our son. He's quite invested in you, you know. I don't know what you did, but the animosity between you is gone. It's almost like he respects you." She smiled down at him. "Almost."

"How sweet," Kenobi drawled, beginning to sit up until Satine's hand raid on his chest and urged him back down, and he easily complied, relaxing underneath her touch as she stroked the scars that ran across his body. "It's like we're all a big, happy Sith family. You, me, cranky grandpa, and the weird uncle we're going to kill because he wants to take our son from us."

"Why does everything sound worse than it is when you say it?"

"...was that worse?" She leaned over and kissed him, her hand traveling down the length of his body before it stopped suddenly, and she pulled away from him, feeling the long, raised ridge of a thick scar across his abdomin.

"What is that," Satine asked forcefully, and Obi-Wan winced. He was looking forward to the end of her mood swings.

"Yoda and I were playing, that's all." Her stoic stare said in no uncertain terms that she was not amused. "It was a mistake, he felt terrible!"

"Armor up for everything," she growled, bringing her hand down upon the wound with a stinging slap, and the Sith hissed in pain, a hand shooting up reflexively to grab her chin, and she looked at him with cool indifference. She had nothing to fear from the Dark Side, and the Sith Lord knew it. "Besides," she said softly, stroking his beard as she lay back down next to him, "I think you look terribly good in it." That settled it for Obi-Wan. He was wearing it all the time. "Have you found Maul yet?"

Obi-Wan tensed, his grip on the woman tightening. It was...a persistent problem. Maul and his brother Savage had disappeared without a trace. Even Hondo's extremely well-connected network heard nothing, and it did not bode well at all. He had felt...something, deep and persistent and endlessly pulling at him, but he couldn't place the origin of it. Between the work of the Sith, the work of the Separatists, the bidding of his lover, and his own training and studies, Kenobi was pulled extremely thin. A divided focus may have been the cause of his clouded sight, but every time he sat deep in meditation and cleared his mind of all except Maul, flames were all he saw, obscuring a vision that he had never seen in a blaze of smoke and fire.

It all came back to this. The Force, his steadfast ally, his companion in all things, was being secretive. It was true that visions were often vague, their meanings unclear, but they had always been a friend to Kenobi. Now, it was being needlessly cryptic, answering his questions with fire instead of truth, and he couldn't help but wonder if he had misstepped, done something to anger the Force, to turn it against him. He didn't feel out of favor. The Force was strong with him, as it had always been since his turn from the light, and he had always acted in accordance to its wishes. Certainly if he had done something to make it bite back at him, he would have known, so why.

"Not yet..." Obi-Wan suddenly felt nervous, his arm wrapping around his lover and pulling her close, his long fingers running through her pale blond hair. "But I will. After I kill Skywalker, I'll redouble my efforts."

"You've been redoubling your efforts every day since he escaped you, how much harder can you be looking?"

"I don't know. My Master has been searching as well, but he feels nothing either, and that in itself is troubling. By all accounts, we should be feeling something. The Dark Side wouldn't protect that Sith pretender."

Satine leaned up and kissed his neck, frowning when the man didn't relax at all. "Do you have any leads at all?" she asked, sliding a leg over his hips to straddle him and began kneading the tense muscles of his chest and shoulders.

"Only his behavior from before. Hondo's captain said that Maul called himself a crime lord and offered to pay him for his service, provided that they pledged their loyalty to him. Given that they are being hunted by everyone, I don't think he has any other option."

"You believe he is cornered?"

"Yes, and cornered animals fight back."

Satine frowned, her fingers slowing their ministrations on the hard muscle of her lover's body as she bit her lip and thought. "If he's looking to build a crime empire, we can go after the crime syndicates. It's on my list of things to do anyway." Obi-Wan laughed, and Satine smiled as the man slowly began to relax, and she leaned down to kiss his chest as her hands redoubled their efforts to soothe the tension out of him.

"You would take on all the organized crime in the galaxy, my dear? How? They've grown extremely powerful during the course of the war, attacking them would be going to war yourself."

"Well..." she drawled, her hands drifting lower as the tension left the Sith Lord. "You got them to leave Mandalore."

"Making them afraid to come close and eradicating them are very different, Satine. They still fear us. Since Maul's escape, we have been keeping a close eye on the crime syndicates, and they still go running when we come. They may do the same for Maul, he looks Sith."

"You think he'd join one of them?"

"Joining anything doesn't seem like him, but it's possible." He shrugged, moaning softly as the woman rubbed the tight skin between the sharp, high crests of his hips. "That, or he'd create his own syndicate, but again, we've heard nothing."

"I'll get Bo-Katan on it. She's worse than you when it comes to being stubborn." She leaned down and bit his ear, the Sith hissing sharply as his hands tightly grabbed her hips and slowly slid down the length of her thigh. She was right, of course. Bo-Katan was all Mandalorian and all relentless determination with two blasters that wasn't afraid to shoot anyone in the face. It was truly a frightening thing, and she had already claimed rights on teaching her nephew how to shoot.

"I love you." He hadn't even meant to say it, but a sharp pull in his chest, the soft caressing hands of the Mand'alor had drawn it from him, and she took it with the grace of a woman who knew the truth of the statement, had heard it thousands of times, but still never tired of it.

"Let's see if you still say that in ten more years." Kenobi reached up to stroke her cheek with the back of his hand.

"Forever." And he meant it. They had been together for ten years, had loved each other for twenty, and despite the initial struggle of their conflicting ideals, they had risen above it and set themselves up to rule the galaxy. Together. The war and the Jedi and Maul could wait until morning. Until then, it would just be the two of them. Tomorrow would hopefully bring the death of Anakin Skywalker, and as Kenobi closed his eyes and surrendered to the passion that his lover ignited in him, all he could see was the vision of flames as a sense of dread gripped him. With a grown, he pushed it away as he and Satine became one. It could all wait until morning.