( title ) Pernicious Angel ( love interest ) N/A ( status ) Available
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( plot summary )
Democracy is dead.
Padmé Amidala, First Advisor to the Emperor, sacrificed everything for the Senate, and now it is gone. She can no longer deny the lies she has been fed as her life's work crumbles before her eyes. But she is in too deep to simply defect.
Held hostage by her children and the last shred of influence she has left, there is little she can do as the Rebellion her husband helped create grows stronger and the galaxy veers towards civil war. As she loses her daughter to the dark and her son to the light, she must choose a side. A traitor or a traitor - either way, history will remember her name.
( additional information )
— This is not an OC-based plot. It's up to you which canon characters you include and how you use them - the details below involve minimal characters, so feel free to add more and/or change what the ones mentioned are up to.
— After TPM, Palpatine realised his mistake in underestimating Padmé, and decides that he wants her on his side. He therefore takes much more care to hide his true intentions from her, and also chooses to take her support over the Trade Federation's (publicly, anyway). He manipulates her loyalty to democracy, her frustration with bureaucracy and her idealism to convince her that he's the helpless victim of a broken system rather than a power-hungry, would-be dictator.
— Palpatine also still wanted Anakin on his side, but although he comes close, when he reveals himself as a Sith Anakin realises that he's manipulated Padmé - he's noted a change in her over the course of the war - and loses all trust in him.
— Padmé's role as First Advisor gives her no actual power. What it does is allow Palpatine to legitimise his reign by having a well-loved, respected public figure like Padmé give him support. Its effectiveness is starting to wear off at the beginning of the novel, but for many years it was successful in keeping open rebellion at bay.
— Padmé stays with the Empire as long as she does because she believes it to be the lesser of two evils - its worst atrocities are hidden to her, and so she believes open warfare would be more destructive. She knows as well that her children will suffer if she leaves, and she wants to protect them. Nonetheless, her loyalties are the source of a lot of internal conflict.
— The story begins 19 years after ROTS, immediately following the dissolution of the Senate, which shatters Padmé's last illusions about the Empire and sparks civil war. The Rebellion are in a similar position to ANH; the Death Star does not exist, as Padmé convinced Palpatine that it would be counter-productive, so the Empire has an even stronger military instead.
— Luke and Leia live with Padmé on the ship the Shadow (feel free to change the name), and are being trained in the dark side. Han has just been captured for smuggling and is being held on the Shadow. Anakin and Obi-Wan are part of the Rebellion, and form part of Angel Cell. I had Ahsoka and Rex on Angel Cell as well, but you can pick different members if you like.
— Angel Cell are sent to infiltrate the Shadow to retrieve data on the Empire's military capacity
— Palpatine, aware of Padmé's internal conflict, uses their presence to blackmail her into compliance. It doesn't work, and she decides to defect to the Rebellion, as she can no longer stand by and let her children inherit an evil galaxy. She allows herself to be captured.
— Meanwhile, Han escapes and worms his way into the Squadron, both for selfish reasons and also because he's remembering Enfys Nest.
— Luke senses his father's presence and goes looking for him. He defects with little persuasion - he'd never fully bought in to the dark side.
— Padmé defects in secret, and the newly-expanded Squadron stage her escape. Shortly afterwards, she is summoned by Palpatine, who tells her to make a speech denouncing the Rebels.
— Instead, she incites the galaxy to rebellion and is forced to flee, leaving Leia lost and betrayed.
— Though under much suspicion, she joins the Rebellion, assisting their intelligence operations particularly and acting as a symbol. The war escalates, and Padmé becomes increasingly torn and fearful over Leia.
— In the final battle, Luke, who is now a pilot, is faced with the prospect of killing Leia and can't do it. He's taken prisoner, and Anakin and Padmé go to rescue him. They gatecrash Palpatine's monologuing and a battle ensues, with Luke, Anakin and Padmé on one side and Palpatine and Leia on the other. Leia, who was persuaded to stay by what she sees as Padmé's betrayal but has become disillusioned by the war, is ordered by Palpatine to kill Padmé. She nearly does, but kills Palpatine instead.
— You can end it there with a ROTJ-style celebration or you can carry on to the end of the war, when the New Republic is formed.
