Star Wars fic: "Queen's Gambit" (9: Dark Wings, Dark Words)

[bedlamsbard]

Queen's Gambit (89862 words) by bedlamsbard
Chapters: 10/?
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…

*

Padmé collapsed to the floor in a flutter of gray skirts, her hair falling loose around her shoulders. “No,” she breathed. “No, it can’t be. It can’t be.”

Behind her, she was aware of the sound of heavy, mechanized breathing. Padmé looked slowly over her shoulder, feeling the tears running freely down her face, and saw him.

She had only seen him once before, and then only for a few seconds before Obi-Wan had put himself between them. Still, the image of him was seared on her mind: a massive figure, helmeted, armored and cloaked in black. If there was anything human left to him, it wasn’t visible; even his voice was mechanized.

“I have been waiting for this a long time,” Darth Vader said.

Padmé screamed despite her best intentions to do nothing of the sort, scrambling away until her back hit the base of her desk. Her hand went to the place where her holdout blaster should have been holstered, but there was nothing there.

Vader was still advancing on her with slow, ponderous steps. His lightsaber ignited in a streak of scarlet plasma and Padmé, determined not to die on her knees, grabbed the edge of her desk and pulled herself to her feet. Her fingers brushed something cool and metal and she snatched up Anakin’s lightsaber, prying it free from the durasteel grip of his prosthesis.

The light of the blue blade seemed very fragile and weak between them, but Padmé felt better having a weapon in her hands, even if it wasn’t one she could use.

“Don’t touch me!”

To her surprise, Vader actually stopped, though he raised his free hand towards her, his black-gloved fingers reaching towards her as Padmé leaned away. “You are beaten,” he said. “It is useless to resist. Don’t let yourself be destroyed as Anakin Skywalker was.”

Padmé couldn’t help her flinch, but she didn’t look back at Anakin’s severed head and she didn’t let her grip loosen on his lightsaber. “You can kill me,” she said, “but you can never destroy me.”