-8-

Senator Padme Amidala Naberrie, once Padme Skywalker, stared morosely at the enormous Jedi Temple in the distance, tears still watering and glistening in her eyes, ignoring the stabs of pain in her heart. It still surprised her no end that Anakin had been the one to take the steps to divorce her, during that mess with Clovis. What shocked her the most was how quickly he had done it; he had likely done it as soon as he had left the apartment, but she had no idea what happened next, she had assumed divorcing her would be the very last thing he would ever do despite them both agreeing, although at times she had often asked herself if Anakin had simply shut his ears off during that conversation.

The divorce papers had come in after Scipio, before Anakin's fight with Palpatine in the Works, but the papers didn't say a word about when Anakin had actually set it up. All she knew was the man she had loved or thought she loved, had gone and he wasn't coming back. He had left her before she had hurt him, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Padme had known something was wrong; Anakin and his clone legion had come to save her and take Clovis prisoner, but a vulture droid had destroyed a part of the building and Clovis fell to his death. Padme had hoped Anakin would forgive her for her stupid mistakes, but he had barely hugged her back.

The most painful thing was he hadn't even looked at her, not once when he had given his clone commanders and soldiers their orders, and she was escorted back to his ship. She was given a cabin and remained sitting in it, rehearsing what she was going to say to Anakin to make things better between them.

Finally, when the battle finished, Padme was upset when her rehearsals, everything she had picked up, and everything she had wanted to say to her husband just turned out to be a huge waste of time. Not once did Anakin come to her; when she spoke to the clones, they told her General Skywalker had asked to be left alone for the duration of the flight, as he wanted to finish reports.

Padme looked away from the Temple, trying not to cry anymore. Once again, she thought about what happened.

After Rush had tried to kiss her and Anakin pummelled him after Rush taunted him - what Rush had expected, Padme still didn't know - she had been terrified and scared of herself since Anakin had transformed into some angry animal staking his claim. It was there and then she not only wondered who she had married, but who Anakin really was underneath his charm and kindness.

Padme was not stupid; she knew there was a dark side to Anakin which stemmed from the traumas of his childhood and the way he had been treated as a slave, although there were times when she wondered if he was being too melodramatic about it. But while the good in Anakin outweighed the bad, if she were honest…while she did say she loved Anakin, being separated from him was a drag on their relationship and drove wedges between them.

This was just the latest in a long line.

Once she had managed to persuade Rush to not talk, which was hard enough as it was, Padme had decided to separate from Anakin, scared for herself and worried he might hurt her, but she hadn't expected him to actually leave her, divorcing her. But what made it worse was he had apparently done it just after the whole conversation, but she didn't know for sure; she had only discovered what happened shortly after Anakin had rushed to her rescue when she had personally asked for his help through Palpatine while she was stuck on Scipio after Clovis revealed his true colours.

Padme was stunned he would do such a horrible thing without even telling her, without discussing it with her at least, and she was ashamed with how hypocritical it was given that she had ruined their marriage when she had sided with Clovis and thrown all of her trust in, only for him to betray her. She realised now, that when she had told him she wanted to leave him, he had likely interpreted it to mean forever, and now he was gone.

And then…

And then the holonet revealed Chancellor Palpatine was a Sith Lord. Padme was stunned out of her mind when she discovered that, and even now she wondered how it was even possible for a Sith Lord to become the leader of the Galactic Republic and cause so much crippling damage to the galaxy without the Jedi even being aware of who and what he was, and even now the Jedi Council were being backed into a corner to discover the truth.

The holonet revealed Palpatine's killer.

Anakin had challenged him to a duel in some old place in the cityscape somewhere which now everyone knew was somewhere in the abandoned Works, one of the industrial areas of the planet, where he was also fighting Count Dooku. It was a long duel, brutal and both Sith had tried to goad Anakin and persuade him to join either one of them, but Anakin hadn't listened and then he had cut down Dooku first before he channelled all of his remaining energy into killing Palpatine.

It had been a week since the duel, and Anakin was now gone and she wondered what he was doing.

-8-

Obi-Wan Kenobi was struggling to find his centre as he tried to meditate. This was a great time, the war was all but over, and since Dooku and Palpatine were now dead, the Separatist movement had lost their leaders despite Grievous and the Separatist council still on the loose, there were high hopes the war would be declared formally over soon.

But Obi-Wan wasn't happy. Anakin Skywalker was gone. He had broken the Jedi Code and now he was gone, somewhere in the galaxy.

He wished he had done things differently, but he had not. Shortly after Anakin had beaten Clovis - although admittedly the man deserved it - for kissing Padme, why the stupid woman hadn't pushed the amorous fool away, he didn't know, he had come to Obi-Wan, hoping for help, but Obi-Wan had rejected him and told him he would be telling the council.

Anakin had left the Order there and then, drowning his sorrows in some club with a Twi'lek woman Obi-Wan wasn't sure he even trusted. Just as Obi-Wan announced to the Council what Anakin had done, Palpatine had called and Senator Amidala needed rescuing once more. Anakin had gone, but then he had vanished for a short time, and then he had killed Palpatine and Dooku, revealing to the galaxy at large what and who they were, before he killed them.

Obi-Wan knew he should've been pleased the prophecy was over with, but the Force didn't feel balanced. In fact, it still felt out of sorts and he didn't like it, not one bit.

-8-

Jabba the Hutt was enjoying himself as he watched some of his latest acquisitions dance in the darkened, filth-strewn throne room in his palace on Tatooine. One of them was a Miralan with large breasts, with spots over her nose and on the top of her cheeks, while a second was a human, and the last one was a Togrutan girl. All of them were in their teens, and ripe for pleasuring him and his associates when the need arose. They had been kidnapped by slavers, and Jabba had bought them, silently ordering the assassination of other rival bidders to remind others he ruled this part of the Outer Rim.

He needed this kind of respite. The last few days had been stressful enough; the Clone Wars were now winding down with the deaths of Palpatine and Count Dooku - Jabba was old enough to know a lot about the Sith, and discovering that not only was the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic was one and so to was Dooku had been a surprise, but what made him laugh was how good the Sith had become. He had never imagined they had spent decades learning how to become con artists.

The ripples of the discovery were still reverberating around the galaxy, weakening both the Republic and the Separatists since most of their leadership now came from a bunch of money-hungry fools without a clue of how to move on, and a deranged psychotic war-hungry cyborg. The Hutts had moved in and tried to take control of some of the holdings, including Jabba, but Jabba was spending a few days resting so then he could work out where to go from here.

But he wouldn't have the chance.

Jabba suddenly found himself choking, strong pressure on his larynx before he died choking…

-8-

Anakin gladly escorted the last of the girls to Alderaan, hoping that the authorities would see to the girls' future. This deep in the core, there was no chance slavers would come after them, and he had removed their chips already. After he had left the Jedi and Coruscant, at the urging of Lesha, the mystery Twi'lek, who had listened to him and told him to just fulfil his lifelong ambition of freeing slaves and doing some good, and to forget Padme and the Jedi even if he missed Obi-Wan despite how things turned out in the end, Anakin had become a galactic wide vigilante, who used the Force and a blaster after ditching his lightsaber on his ship to go unnoticed.

Jabba was the jewel in the crown, but there was a long way to go.