When Anakin falls, Padmé knows. Something tells her to run, so she flees Coruscant; when she arrives on Alderaan, the Republic has fallen, Anakin is Vader, and Palpatine is Emperor. In her dreams, Padmé and her newborn children are hunted. But however grim things are, Padmé is not the kind of person to let the galaxy fall into ruin without trying to save it. And she will--by finding her friends amidst the wreckage, and shaping them into something powerful.

When the Republic falls, Maul is being transported to Coruscant for "justice"--but in the chaos, he escapes onto the planet, where he finds a captured and injured Obi-Wan. Desperate for any chance of survival, he spirits himself and his hated nemesis to Jedha, where the two of them become allies bound together by a painful past. And then, a meeting: Ahsoka Tano, willing to take a chance.

The Empire is brutal and powerful, but while the rebellion lives, there is always hope.