Lady Amalia: The Almost Queen [Star Wars | Obi Wan Kenobi]

Chapter 5

If things had felt wrong before, it was nothing to what Neva felt now. Not only did she feel hollow without knowing the fate of her Jedi, but their Galaxy had also just been abruptly and drastically changed.

She had anticipated that something was going to happen during the special session of Congress Chancellor Palpatine had called, otherwise she never would have joined the Senator. Neva rarely accompanied Padmé to the Senate; usually it was either Moteé, Ellé or Dormé who joined her. But today, she had the feeling that she needed to be there. Plus she needed something to occupy her thoughts other than tormenting herself about the danger her Jedi was in. Well, she sure got the distraction she had craved.

To ensure our security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure society... While she hadn't been sitting in the Naboo Senate Pod, she had been standing just outside, and had heard every horrible, heartbreaking word, and had felt the thunderous approval from other Senators through the floor as the volume of the applause reached deafening heights.

The Chancellor—no, Emperor now—had destroyed the Democracy she had cherished in one deadly, deftly worded blow. As she listened, Neva had felt another piece of her heart shatter. In the Naboo Pod Padmé and Senator Organa mourned as the Republic they served crumbled around them. The cracks had been appearing for years, since the outset of the Clone Wars. But none of them had expected this. They all knew that the executive powers the Chancellor had been granted were going to his head, but they all had still believed that once the War was over, he could be persuaded to reverse the changes, bringing back the Democracy they all believed in.

That hope had just been crushed before their eyes.

Neva could almost feel the despair pouring off Padmé as she exited the Pod when the Chancellor had dismissed the Senate. She had barely been able to keep her own composure intact, fighting off tears as they traversed the halls of the Senate Building, keeping interactions with other Senators as minimal as possible as they tried to escape to the sanctuary of Padmé's apartments to grieve in peace.

Indeed, when they had reached the privacy of their transport, Padmé had reached out, entrapping Neva's hand in an iron grip as she began to weep silently, unable to hold in her despair any longer. It was as though all the fight had gone out of the Senator. Neva knew that that fight would not be gone for long, but right now, in that moment, the Former Queen grieved for everything she had worked so hard to preserve. Even Moteé, who sat on the other side of the Senator, had tears in her eyes. Neva found she couldn't hold back her own, either, her grip on Padmé's hand just as tight, as her own grief for the death of the Republic came, manifesting in tears that streamed down her cheeks.

It was evening when the Session had let out, so it was dark by the time they made it home. Once back to the apartment complex, Padmé and Moteé disappeared into the Senator's private chambers, but not before Padmé had gathered Neva, Moteé, Threepio and Ellé, who had stayed behind from the Senate, together for some final instructions. Her other two Handmaidens had returned to Naboo on Padmé's instructions shortly after the Battle over Coruscant had ended. The Senator's face was defiant as she spoke, her eyes lighting up with the fire that had been absent in the immediate wake of Palpatine's Declarations.

"No one is to be admitted. I will not be receiving visitors in the near future, not until the waters churned up by this fiasco had calmed a bit." She paused then, as if gauging the loyalty of those present. The Senator truly had nothing to fear on that front. Her voice lowered slightly, "That being said, should any Jedi, like Anakin, Master Kenobi or anyone else, arrive looking for aid, don't hesitate. There is something wrong here. I can't believe the Jedi are behind any plot as Palpatine claims." Her words echoed Neva's thoughts. It had been all but an inner adage for Neva ever since they left for the Senate Building that morning; something is terribly wrong.