Obi-Wan Kenobi sat cross legged on the floor. He was desperately trying to meditate and find his center. Over the last two years, he had found it harder and harder to be a Jedi. The war had seemed to go on forever with no end in sight. When they'd have a victory, it was followed with a defeat. When they thought there would be talks of a peace treaty, it would be squashed the next day. This had been a continuous cycle ever since that dreaded day two years ago.
Jedi Temple
Obi-Wan had just received word that his old Padawan and brother had just returned with Senator Amidala from Scipio. He had been worried that his friend would put his emotions before his duty when he found out that Anakin had been tasked with going to save her. He had been incredibly pleased to find out that he hadn't.
He was making his way through the Senate building to meet with Senator Amidala, as he was sure Anakin was with her. She was a friend of his of course, but he mostly wanted to talk to Anakin. He hadn't had a chance to and wanted to make sure his brother was alright. He knew the stress of the war had been bothering him and that he wasn't sleeping again. It was nothing new, but he new the importance of being rested before being shipped out again. When he arrived at her office, he was let in and greeted with a small smile.
"Hello Master Kenobi, how may I help you?"
He could tell her smile may have been genuine, but there seemed to be something wrong. He could sense a bit of grief mixed with fear and uncertainty.
"Hello Senator. Just coming to see how you're doing. I heard it was a rather dire situation."
They took a seat and Padmé briefly informed him of what happened. Clovis had been working with the Separatists all along and she had been taken prisoner. Anakin had came to rescue her and while doing so, tried to save Clovis as well. Unfortunately, Clovis had sacrificed himself after Anakin couldn't pull them both to safety.
She told them of how he had asked to be left alone as he was to report to the Council. He didn't speak a word to her on the trip back nor did he even bother to escort her to the Senate building. She was told by a clone that was sent with her that he had to go back to the Temple for duty.
He watched as her eyes seemed to have the life vanish from them the more she talked. He looked at her perplexed as he had figured Anakin would have surely stayed with her.
"You mean he isn't here?"
She just shook her head at him sadly. His hand came up to run his beard as he pondered where his Padawan could've ran off to.
"He isn't at the Temple?"
He turned to look at her and he could see the confusion clearly on her face. He shook his head and cleared his throat.
"My whole reason for coming Padmé was to see him. He had been very distant lately and I was checking up on him. I came to see how you were as well, but I figured he would be here with you."
She looked at him eyes wide. She opened her mouth to speak but couldn't formulate any words. He could feel her emotions and fear was the most prevalent one. What could was going on?
"Padmé."
He spoke quietly as if talking to a trembling child. Her eyes had become glossy as if she was in her own world. This was causing Obi-Wan's own fear to start to show itself.
"Is there anything that happened that I should know about?"
She went to speak again and he could see her stop herself. He sat there as she looked torn. He knew that her and Anakin had a close relationship. There had been hints that it could've possibly been more than that.
"Now is the time to come clean."
She took a deep breath. He watched as she gathered the strength to say what she needed to. He knew this was going to be heavy so he began to prepare himself for anything.
"We're married."
Except for that.
He heard the breath leave his body at the revelation. Married. Not just friends or a secret affair. MARRIED.
He felt suddenly as if he had been kicked in the stomach. His closest friends were married and he never even knew. He tried taking a couple of breaths to gather himself again. Once he felt he could think, he turned to her and could see the fear in her eyes as well as the tears coming out of them.
"How long?"
He watched her closely as she seemed to swallow a lump in her throated. She took a breath and gave her answer in the quietest voice he ever thought he'd heard her speak in.
"Two years."
Obi-Wan slowly dropped his head. Two years. They had been married before the war even started. He knew that they were close and even figured they were romantically involved. Not anything like those though.
As he gathered his thoughts, he could feel her eyes on him. He sensed the fear and trepidation surrounding her and understood why. If the Council knew of this, Anakin would be in a world of trouble.
He picked his head back up and looked her in the eyes. The tears were now rolling down her cheeks and he felt his heart break. Padmé was a friend and it hurt to see her like this.
"I'm guessing this was shortly after Geonosis?"
He received a nod of approval. She told him about how they had married in secret on Naboo. The only ones that knew about it were Artoo and 3PO. The holy man who married them swore himself to secrecy as they had begged him not to tell anyone.
As he sat there and listened to her, he watched as her world seemed to break. There was some underlying issue that she wasn't telling him and he was going to find out.
"Do you think there could be a reason why he's gone missing?"
The tears seemed to fall even more after the question. She told him about the fight with Clovis. How she told Anakin that their marriage was not a marriage and that she had asked him to not see her anymore. When she found out Anakin was right about Clovis, she had wanted to speak with him but feared she would never get the chance.
Then, when Anakin came to rescue her, she had wanted to apologize. But he wouldn't even look her way. He didn't even bother to check on her during the trip back and asked to be left alone. When they had finally got back to Coruscant, he had asked the clones to escort her to the Senate building. She hadn't seen him or heard from him.
The whole time in telling him about it, her face turned to one of agony. He didn't need his senses to feel the guilt and sorrow she felt. He knew that she regretted saying those words to Anakin. He only hoped she would get the chance to make things right.
As he gave her time to calm down, he slowly went over everything he was just told. He knew as a Jedi, his duty was to report this to the Council. But as a friend and a brother, how could he hurt them like that? He knew his mind was made up and told her he would keep their secret.
"I won't inform the Council of this. As a friend, I would not want to hurt the two of you. I couldn't bear to cause anymore trouble than what has already happened."
She had thanked him and asked to be informed by him when Anakin would be back to the Temple. He agreed and tried to ease her worries.
"Anakin will be alright. He just might need some time to clear his head and sort himself out. I will have him talk to you once I talk to him myself."
Except he hadn't talked to him. He hadn't seen or heard from Anakin in two years now. When he had been gone a week, he finally reported it to the Council. They at first seemed to be only worried slightly, but figured he was just fooling around and doing something rash as always. Then the weeks, turned to months. Nobody had heard from Anakin. The only thing that had been of any sign of him was when Padmé had called Obi-Wan over one evening after he had returned from a mission.
Obi-Wan entered the apartment and could already feel the dreadful atmosphere. Something was not right. The grief and hurt was invading his mind incessantly. He walked in from the veranda and saw the reason of the awful emotions.
There, sitting on the sofa with a datapad in her lap, was Padmé. She had her face buried in her hands, seemingly unaware of his arrival. He cautiously stepped closer, so not to frighten her with his presence.
"Padmé.."
He watched her slowly lift her head from her hands and the sight made him gasp. Her eyes were bloodshot and her makeup had been smeared. He could tell she had been crying. She sniffed slightly and cleared her throat.
"Obi-Wan."
Her voice was hoarse and he did his best to hide his wince. He slowly walked over and sat down next to her. Looking at her, he could see the distant look in her eyes and the hurt she felt. The beautiful and joyful Senator was nowhere to be found at the moment. She looked more like a woman that had been broken.
"What's wrong Padmé?"
She didn't say a word. She just slowly handed him the datapad and kept her gaze away from him. He cautiously took the datapad and gave her one last look before turning his attention to it. Before he could begin to read, she finally spoke.
"He left me."
He snapped his head to her and saw the pain on her face. The tears slowly started to fall again and he could only watch as she closed her eyes and placed a hand over her mouth to stifle a sob. He gave her a look of sorrow before reading the document in his hands.
Divorce.
He slowly read the document detailing the reason for it. His eyes scanned every line and took in everything. Anakin had filed for divorce from Padmé because he took her words to heart. When she had told him that she didn't want to see him for the time being, he thought she meant forever. He scanned the document over and over hoping to see something different but it never happened. The damage had been done.
Placing the datapad down, he slowly released a breath. Things had unraveled completely and he didn't know what to make of it. This was starting to look more like Anakin leaving for good. The ache in his heart started to grow more and more as everything continued to happen.
A small whirring sound alerted him and he looked over to see Artoo making his presence known. He beeped lowly to Obi-Wan, offering him a greeting. Turning to Padmé, he quietly spoke.
"Why is Artoo here? What happened to 3PO?"
Anither sniffle escaped her as she took a couple of deep breaths, trying to regain some sort of composure.
"He dropped off Artoo and took 3PO. We gave them to each other as wedding gifts."
She paused as another wave of grief came over her. He could see her bottom lip trembling as she took another breath as she tried to speak.
"I guess he exchanged them before he went to Naboo to have the divorce handled."
His heart went out to her as she just continued to break before his eyes. Her struggle became to much as an anguished cry escaped her throat.
"What have I done?"
Her sobs escaped her at full force and he reached a hand out to wrap around her shoulder. She leaned into him and cried her eyes out again. Sob after sob, he felt himself start to cry over her sorrow. It hurt to see a good friend like this. How could she have known that she was signing off on this? How could he help her?
He let her cry until her tears were no more. The sobbing didn't stop though and he couldn't figure out what to do. No words could give her the comfort she needed, nor could he reassure her that it was a big misunderstanding. The document had come straight from Naboo, meaning that he had already been there and spoke to the man who married them.
As he held a grieving Padmé, he slowly started to realize that the chances of Anakin coming back were starting to look bleaker. Where had he gone and was there anyway of finding him?
Ever since that day, the changes in Padmé were visible to everyone. She always looked like she never slept and had become cold. No longer would the light in her eyes shine like they used to. When he visited her to check up on her, she would become reclusive and barely speak. It hurt him to see her hurt like this, but what could he do? He didn't know where Anakin was, so how could he talk to him about it?
The 501st was another issue as well. When they had been informed Anakin had gone missing, they all personally volunteered to help in whatever they could do. Unfortunately, there was nothing to do because it was as if Anakin had completely vanished. Their morale dropped drastically the longer time had gone on. They eventually got reassigned to another Jedi after Anakin had been missing for six months. When he went to check on them, it was like going to visit Padmé. The light that shined in them had gone out.
Obi-Wan's heart seemed to grow heavier everyday. It was hard to go on missions. It was hard to meditate in his room because it would remind him of all the time he spent with Anakin. It was even hard to go to the Council and listen to any of the meetings. He just wanted to find his brother and ask him why he left. He couldn't even feel his bond with him and that was what hurt the most.
Senate Building
Padmé sat in her office going over another peace treaty that had been put together. She tried to pay attention as she read them but she just couldn't. The hurt that she felt everyday just left her feeling lifeless. To be the one to push away your husband and destroy your relationship hurt like nothing else she ever experienced. The one robe that Anakin had left had long lost the comforting smell of him, but she just couldn't keep from wrapping herself in it whenever she went to sleep. She missed him dearly and couldn't stop thinking about what she had done.
Months after the divorce, Padmé still hadn't cleaned out anything that was Anakin's. Granted it wasn't much, but it was still too much to just get rid of it. She kept all of his flight manuals that he had laying around in the exact same spot he had left them. They were now covered in dust but she couldn't get past it to have them removed. She still kept the box containing the jappor snippet and his Padawan braid under her bed. Many of nights, she would fall asleep crying while holding on to his Padawan braid, as if that was all that was left of him.
Her attendance for many of the meetings had noticeably dropped, resulting in many senators asking why. She had just brushed it off, saying she had been so busy she had forgotten or that she hadn't been feeling well. Her closest friends Bail Organa and Mon Mothma had asked her what was going on, but she told them it was nothing.
Everyday that Anakin was not there, was another day to remind her of what she had done. How she wished she had listened to him. If she had, she would still have him. The war might be coming closer to an end and they would finally get to be happy. All of that was gone now because she put duty first instead of him. The same man who put his life on the line numerous of times for her, without ever second guessing it. She knew if he was in her place, he would have picked her over the mission.
She had been thankful for Obi-Wan and him still coming by to visit. He was a dear friend and she knew he was hurting as well. Unfortunately, every time she asked of Anakin, he still gave her the sad report that they still haven't found him. The possibility of him not coming back piled on to the grief the longer he was gone.
Padmé had never taken interest in another man. How could she when she had the perfect husband that would do anything for her? The one person who breathed air into her was gone because she was too stubborn to listen to him for once. Every day, she had continued to ask herself was going to Scipio worth the heartache she felt. And every time, the answer she got was no.
Even after two years, she still held on to the small hope she would come back to her apartment and see him sitting in the sofa waiting for her. But everyday, that hope seemed to die as the only thing that was left of their relationship was the memories she held on to.
She was snapped out of her sorrow as a report from the holonews caught her attention. She walked over to turn it up to catch what was going on with the war.
"A breaking report has just come in that the Separatists are invading a planet beyond the Outer Rim called Yara. Its in a system along with the planets Kherra, Imara, and Ishla. These planets reportedly have a vast wealth of resources and could be a damaging blow if the Separatists take hold over them."
Padmé walked back over to her chair and slowly sank down into it. Dropping her head into her hands, she couldn't help but to shake her head. With Anakin gone, the Republic had truly lost its best fighter. The Separatists had seemingly taken advantage of it and grew stronger the longer the war went on. When the Republic managed to drive them off one planet, they'd invade another. As she picked herself up and went back to work, she couldn't help but to think of Anakin was here, what would the war be like now, and could it have already been over if she hadn't made such a huge mistake.