A slight pinging noise aroused Padmé from her slumber in the early hours of Coruscant. The young senator stirred slightly, feeling to see if her husband was there. Sadly, her fingers only touched crumpled sheets. Padmé remembered Anakin coming home late last night right after she had gone to sleep, and now she inferred that he left early. Did he have yet another nightmare? Frowning at the thought, she reached over to her datapad to read the incoming message. The sender was none other than Chancellor Palpatine. Padmé tensed but opened the message to see that it only contained a two words.

Empire, TODAY.

Her teeth found the bottom of her lip and she put a hand on her head. The realization of what she was going to have to do hit her so suddenly that she began to already feel dazed. Her thoughts then drifted to Anakin as her other hand drifted over to her stomach. She did not know exactly what Anakin was up too, he would come home late at night and leave early in the morning. Every time that she asked, he would dodge the question or make some excuse about being exhausted. Padmé was beginning to wonder whether Sidious was keeping his promise about Anakin. Because if he wasn't...

A kick to her abdomen cut off what she was going to do to the Sith lord. She sighed and glanced down at her abdomen thoughtfully, knowing that there was nothing she could actually do to harm the Sidious.

"Is this all worth it?"

She had to believe it was. She just had to have hope that the good would prevail. Because the day she stopped believing, the day she stopped hoping, would be the day that she could no longer go on.

So the senator arose from her bed and went over to her closet. Swinging it open, a dazzling array of gowns flooded her eyes. This was, in the eyes of the Sith Lord, an important event. She knew then, that if she wasn't dressed like she was giving the most important speech in her life, she would be punished... severely.

Out of all the dazzling dresses custom made for her, only one stood out as perfect for this occasion. Padmé reached up and grabbed an embellished, low cut, ruby dress.

"Perfect," She whispered, tearing a bit. "Red. To show how much blood is on me, how much I have strayed from innocence..."

Taking a deep breath, fighting against the wave of emotions that threatened to break her emotional dam, she began unzipping the dress.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Padmé gazed at herself one more time in the mirror, her face hard yet sad. Her reflection looked back at her with an expression that was almost piteous. In this moment, Padmé wished she was her reflection.

"Please forgive me."

Composing herself by taking a deep breath, she turned and stood tall. The senator chastised herself for trembling, no weakness could be shown for risk of exploitation. She knew very well that the dark lord would search through her very soul for anything, anything, to break her.

After she gained control over her shaking, Padmé reached over and pressed the button that led into the Chancellor's office. The door swooshed open and there stood the Chancellor, dressed in his finest regal garbs with an attendant at his side. He eyed Padmé with pride and smirked at her compliance.

"Ah, Senator Amidala, you look radiant. I expect then that your speech is ready." He asked her with slight malice underscoring his tone.

"Yes, it is Chancellor. And I expect that you are keeping up your promise?" Padmé asked firmly.

"But of course, Senator. You should expect nothing less." Sidious narrowed his eyes and her and she shot back with her own eye glare.

"Of course." Padmé responded coldly and turned on her heel to begin walking down towards the main Senate rotunda. The Chancellor followed with his attendant trailing behind.

It was a silent few minutes as the trio walked to the Senate building, each were consumed in their own thoughts. Earlier, Sidious explained to Padmé that he had called an emergency Senate meeting to order and listed out consequences should she step out of line.

"Of course Chancellor, I am not stupid." Padmé recalled telling the Chancellor. It already seemed so long ago that she uttered those words... time seemed to slow the closer she approached the Senate. Secretly, Padmé wished time would stop all together. Clamoring voices then filled her ears as she realized that she was now in the hallway that entered into the main rotunda. No other senator would have dreamed sitting in the main rotunda with the Chancellor and Padmé knew that even before she gave the speech, many would be suspicious of what was going on. She wondered if anyone would suspect her motives...

"Senator Amidala!"

Padmé whirled around to see that she had almost walked straight out into the rotunda without even obeying tradition. Chancellor Palpatine scowled and strode past her saying,

"I am always first."

She bit her lip but nodded and followed right behind the Chancellor into the large rotunda. The cacophony that filled the room was only amplified when Senator Amidala arose along with the Chancellor in the floating pod. However, Padmé noticed something odd about the pod... something missing...

"Chancellor, where is Mas Amedda?" She whispered into his ear as they finally arose to the normal pod height.

"Oh, Amedda? Let's just say I didn't... require his services anymore." He told her smirking. Padmé shuttered and made a silent, hopeful plea that he was disposed of quickly. She turned to ask Palpatine another question when he raised his hands to address the crowd.

"ORDER! We will have order! Order!" He yelled and the talking seemingly died down, all eyes now glued to the Chancellor.

"Thank you all for coming so quickly and on such short notice. I have an important announcement to make to all of you, however, I have bestowed this honor upon the reputable Senator Amidala of Naboo. Senator, if you please." Palpatine's hand then swept out in a gesture for Padmé to step forward and take his place. She responded with a curt nod and stepped up to the podium.

"Members of the Galactic Senate," Padmé began, her voice booming all around the room. "I have come to you with a very important announcement." A few murmurs went around the room but were instantly hushed when the senator opened her mouth yet again.

"I am sure that we can all agree that this war has gone on too long, and that more emergency powers that have been granted to the Chancellor have been very beneficial. However, there have been other issues that we have been ignoring because we are all distracted by this war! A stable economy, lowering taxes, increasing free trade routes, slavery in the outer rim, all these things are no longer priorities to use because of this war! People are starving, dying! Do you not agree that many other problems that face us all are being worsened due to the prolonging of this war?"

Applause escalated around the room, many species nodding their heads in agreement.

"So, that is why, the Chancellor has been pondering over what he can do to end this war and bring peace throughout the galaxy. He has come to only one conclusion that will ensure our security and continuing stability. With this being said, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire that will allow safety and peace to prosper for thousands of year. The Chancellor has humbly taken upon the lifetime role as Emperor and will continued to be ruled by the august body of Senators. This Empire will be ruled by the majority, by a new constitution that will bring lasting happiness to all." A gulp. "Long live the Empire."

Once Padmé finished her last statement, applause roared to life around the room. Many of the Senators were overjoyed, whooping and cheering at the announcement. However, out of the corner of her eye, Padmé could see Bail Organa and Mon Mothma staring at her in absolute shock and disappointment. She quickly avoided looking in their direction and focused on smiling.

"So this is how liberty dies," She whispered to herself as the uproar continued, "With thundering applause." An oblivious tear fell down her cheek as she turned away from the crowds, emotions piling up on her frail heart.

"Excellent, Senator. Excellent." The Chancellor murmured to her through a grin and she lowered her eyes in humility, catching that his attendant was no longer with him.

"Thank you Emperor, but where has your attendant gone?" She asked, trying to play off the fact it scared her that an Imperial official was now running loose.

"Ah, an errand to run." He whispered and continued to wave at the Senate. Padmé moaned in acknowledgement and once the Emperor looked away, she scurried out of the main pod. Taking the emergency pod down, the senator directed it to the side entrance of the rotunda. The pod docked easily, much to Padmé's delight, and she quickly climbed out of the pod. Running down the hallway, she found the nearest window out to Coruscant and pressed her hands against it, gazing out into the city.

The Jedi Temple was on fire.

I decided to stop here because I felt that it was a good place to stop in this chapter/part rather than continuing with what I had originally planned. And yes, it is kinda short. And yes, I know you hate me for this. And yes, I did take some of these quotes basically straight from the original Revenge of the Sith movie script, as you could probably tell. But you can see some of the Chancellor's quotes from the original movie in Padmé's speech just an fyi! ;)

Okay, annnnnd the dress that I chose for the Padmé's Empire Speech is in the media. I chose this dress for a number of reasons but first, it is red. Red symbolizes blood or loss of innocence which I really think it a strong representation of Padmé in this story at the moment. Also, this gown is similar to her green, velvet dress with a hood in ROTS. Both dresses have are an A-Line and both have longer sleeves. The only difference is really that this red gown has a lower v-neckline and is beaded in various part of the dress. However, I felt like this dress would be able to hide her pregnancy since the A-Line also makes her look bigger (not just in the stomach area) in general. I also liked this style of gown because I felt like it could actually pass as a Star Wars gown, one that we would actually see Padmé wear in the movies. So, yes, I put a lot of thought into this choice and I hope you like it.

And lastly, this is dedicated to theseinfinites . Thank you so much for your kind words and comments, lovely! :)