Star Wars fic: "Queen's Gambit" (Prologue + 1)

[bedlamsbard]

Queen's Gambit (8991 words) by bedlamsbard
Chapters: 2/?
Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Padmé Amidala, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Dooku (Star Wars), Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Mace Windu, Yoda, Bail Organa
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Parallel Universes
Series: Part 2 of Ouroboros
Summary:

Civil war threatens the galaxy. Hundreds of star systems have declared their intentions to leave the Republic and form a Confederacy of Independent Systems.

In the hopes of securing a quick peace, the Jedi Council has dispatched two Jedi to capture or kill the leaders of the separatist movement, Queen Amidala of Naboo and her lover, the former Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Into this period of conflict have come four refugees from another universe, fleeing a devastating massacre triggered by the death of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, secretly the Sith lord Darth Sidious, at the hands of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker…

*

Nute Gunray, the Viceroy of the Trade Federation, was so angry that he was practically spitting in outrage. “I want them dead! That witch Amidala and her pet Jedi –”

“Obi-Wan Kenobi has made it abundantly clear that he no longer considers himself a Jedi,” Mace Windu pointed out, his voice chilly.

Gunray carried on as if he hadn’t heard the Jedi Master. “I was promised that they would be dead by morning! You Jedi swore to me that they would be eliminated! And now this.” He pointed one quivering gray-green finger at the hologram that was playing on a loop from the big holoprojector in front of the Supreme Chancellor’s desk.

Neither Windu nor Yoda glanced at it. They had already viewed it over a dozen times before the first summons from the Senate Building had arrived; it was probably still being analyzed even now by other members of the Jedi Council.

“Assassins the Jedi are not,” Yoda said sharply, tapping his gimer stick on the floor for emphasis. “Promises there were only in your own mind, Viceroy.”

“I was made assurances –”

“Not by us,” Windu informed him. “It is not the way of the Jedi to countenance murder, even for individuals so obviously…misguided…as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Queen Amidala.” He eyed Gunray with distaste. “I would be interested to hear from whom you received these promises, Viceroy.”

“As would I.” The big double doors to the Executive Office slid silently open as the Supreme Chancellor entered. “I know that I made no such promises, Viceroy Gunray.”