Star Wars fic: "Queen's Gambit" (11: Ride the Dragon)

[bedlamsbard]

Queen's Gambit (108857 words) by bedlamsbard
Chapters: 12/?
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…

*

Naboo
12 years ago
1 week after the Liberation of Naboo

Padmé looked up as the main door opened, expecting to see more reporters to join the crowd already in the room. Instead she saw Obi-Wan.

He had a blank, shocky expression on his face, and something about the way he was holding himself made the reporters nearest the door back away from him. Padmé stood up without even thinking about it, picking up her skirts as she descended the dais. The reporters cleared a path for her without being asked by the Royal Guard, standing back respectfully as she crossed the room to Obi-Wan. Many of them were muttering excitedly into their recording devices.

Some of the blankness in Obi-Wan’s eyes faded when he saw her. Padmé folded her hands in her skirts to keep from reaching out as she stopped in front of him, looking up at him and trying to divine what had upset him so badly. This close, she could see that his hands were shaking.

“I’ve left the Order.”

Her dignity and public image be damned, Padmé reached up to pull him into a hug. Obi-Wan’s arms went around her, strong and familiar except for the way he was trembling.

“You’ll stay?” she asked him.

He nodded. “I’ll stay.”