"Have there been anymore sightings?" A rebel council man asked. Padmé sat in a chair in the circle with all the others.
"The last sighting was last month still," a young man told her, "When he escaped the base. That was the last time anybody has seen clones on Coruscant as well."
Padmé nodded her head, "He must be planning to attack soon. He has an enormous army. We need to recruit more people to our cause, fast."
The rebels no longer met underground. Instead, they used a large building in Coruscant. For the time being, the planet was theirs. Anakin knew the location of their other base. There was no point in staying there.
Padme and Obi-wan did their best to strengthen their numbers. They anticipated an attack from Anakin sooner than later. He'd seemed to have dissapeared from the solar system entirely.
Despite paying countless bounty hunters, no one could locate the Sith. It made no sense.
"Our numbers have double since last week." the man boy told her again, "We need more starfighters. We have too many men who will not have jobs during an attack."
"I will do my best to reach out to my contacts," Obi-wan addressed the group, "Until then we'll have to make due."
"I still want every recruit to be trained for air and ground combat," Padmé added. "We need to be as prepared as possible.
"Yes, Padme," the man nodded his head.
"Good," she folded her hands together, "That concludes our meeting. If any of your contacts tells you of a Sith sighting, be sure to tell me immediately."
After speaking, Padme swiftly left the room. She headed towards the door, exiting onto the Coruscant streets. She sat down on an outdoor seat, studying the city.
She hadn't seen Anakin for a month. The last thing she'd seen was his face twisted in pain by the blast she'd sent into his body. Part of her wondered if he was still out there. No one had seen him. Had she killed him?
Common sense told her he was alive. Anakin Skywalker, one of the strongest beings in the galaxy, was not going to be brought down by a misaimed shot. He'd endured much worse.
She huffed, pressing her fingernails into her palms roughly. The skin of her hands began to turn white.
Betrayal, pain, disappointment, heartbreak, brokeness, resentment, sorrow...
the emotions drowned her. Most days she felt as if she couldn't breathe.
Most days, it was the anger that kept her up at night. His face had been engraved into her mind. All she thought of was her hands wrapped around his throat, strangling him, until the yellow in his eyes died. Until the Sith was gone.
She wanted him gone. She wanted him dead.
Not only had he ripped her heart from her chest and left ger corpse to wither alone, he'd hurt so many people she knew and love. Because of him, Obi-wan had a prosthetic arm. Because of him, the twins could have gotten hurt. Because of him, her friend was forever gone.
She was disgusted with herself. It made her nauseous when she thought of how she used to care for him. At one point, his hands had travelled across every inch of her skin. At one point, she'd loved him with every ounce of her body. With all of her soul.
Now there she sat, alone on a bench. She was supposed to be running through the fields of Naboo with her husband and children. She wasn't supposed to be leading a rebellion against the man she used to love.
She blamed him. She blamed his pridefullness, his stupidity, his greed... She hated him. She hated the fact that she lived in the same universe as the monster.
Or, she told herself every day that she hated him. She convinced herself there was no love for the man left. It was easier to live if she saw him as a monster. It killed her when she thought of him as anything else.
she looked up at the sky admiring the blue hues spread throughout. She saw the sun, the bright sun who spread light upon everything it touched. But her breath stopped when she realized it wasn't the sun she had been looking at.
The sky was on fire.