Chapter Text
The council room was more chaotic than some battlefields by the time the meeting disbanded, if only to rest before recuperation. Windu and Yoda had warned everyone not to say a word or act outside of the council’s wishes lest Palpatine catch wind of what they knew, going so far as to threaten severe sanctions for anyone who did. Something nasty like deep space exploration or archives or straight up expulsion, Anakin thought likely.
A number of Clone Troopers were also brought in, ranging from Commander Cody and Captain Rex, to Commander Fox of the Corrie Guard, who was immediately sent to the Halls of Healing after they realised how much Palpatine Darth Sidious had messed with his memories. Anakin himself was exceptionally tired. He knew the only reason he’d escaped scrutiny was by Obi-Wan’s work as the Negotiator, steering the conversation away from Luke and who he had become before, and also the sheer revelation of the fucking Sith Master’s identity being revealed.
He wandered out, ready to go back to his son (his son!) in the creche, to look at him, even just lying there. He reached out in the Force, his mind brushing against Luke, so very gently. Luke brushed back, strong even as young as he was. He also wanted to go and see Padme. So they could be together. As their own family.
Obi-Wan was just walking out with him when his comm started buzzing. Anakin wanted to tell him to forget it but they were still actively at war for the time being and any information was crucial. It was Senator Organa. Obi-Wan ducked into a private room for a minute, reappearing pale and shaking. He didn’t say anything except the name, “Leia,” before he collapsed into Anakin’s waiting arms.
Obi-Wan’s head was killing him and when he opened his eyes it was too bright and he had to slam them shut again. He made a noise more suited to a lowling animal than a Jedi Master as he worked out exactly where he was. Eventually he blinked his way to sight in the brightly lit room.
“Morning, Obi-Wan.” Bant was already there with a clipboard and an unimpressed expression, “How are you feeling?”
“Bad.” She wrote it down, but maintained eye contact with him, “Anything else?”
“Terrible.”
He got through it, the report, finding out he’d stressed himself into passing out, and the lecture he’d received six times previously on self-care before hospitalisation. Then his visitors were allowed in. Two senators, his former padawan, his grand-padawan, and two gurgling infants, one held by Anakin, the other by Ahsoka.
Padme had dropped any level of professionalism and was looking over mostly in shock at her brand new twin children. It was a fair enough reaction. Obi-Wan had had a similar one when he and Anakin returned to Coruscant in the old timeline and he’d realised both that Padme was pregnant but also how pregnant. He really had to make sure that Ahsoka knew how to prevent pregnancy because he could not have this happen twice in his lineage.
“She just appeared in my office,” Bail said, “It was a good thing I wasn’t in committee when she showed up.”
“I imagine the Force had much to do with it,” Obi-Wan said. “How long have you had her?”
He’d had her about the same time Obi-Wan and Luke had been here. Anakin frowned, “Then why did you take so long to tell anyone?”#
“I didn’t know what to do,” said Bail, “She’s been well taken care of, though. And there were no reported missing children matching her description, I, ahem, checked thirteen databases on Coruscant and common migrant planets. Then I heard that Obi-Wan was back and well…”#
“Assumed it was some Force nonsense?” Padme asked, her eyes fixed on the baby Anakin was holding, nearly making grabby hands, still stuck to her sides. Anakin wordlessly offered her the baby and she took him perfectly, supporting his head against her arm and shoulder.
“I- yes,” said Bail.
“Force nonsense is our speciality,” said Obi-Wan, gesturing to Anakin and Ahsoka. “But you didn’t contact the creche?”
“...no.”
Anakin grunted in displeasure but kept his mouth shut. Obi-Wan hadn’t been aware he knew how to do that but then again he always suspected the war had eroded Anakin’s manners and sensibilities over time, so slowly he couldn’t notice unless in severe comparison, which was a very out of context way to view all this.
Eventually the conversation turned to Obi-Wan and his collapse. Absolutely everyone was somehow unhappy with him and worried for him. He never wanted to be on that side of Padme’s disappointed face in his life ever again. She made him promise to eat more vegetables and develop a real sleep schedule before she let him rest again, his mind far off and agreeable to anything if he was allowed to sleep sooner. She would’ve probably been able to get him to sign up to a ponzi scheme if she had wanted at that time. But he was so tired and he just wanted to shut his eyes for about a million years. Or at least ten hours.
He didn’t even stay awake to the end of the conversation, vaguely aware of things still being said as he drifted off to well-deserved sleep.
Anakin had gone to confront Bail after dropping Obi-Wan off at the Halls of Healing to a very concerned but resigned Master Healer Eerin. he found the Senator positively playing house with a baby that not only looked very like baby holos he’d seen of his wife but felt exactly like Luke through the Force. He couldn’t get him to relinquish the child he was eighty five percent sure was his daughter but he could get him to bring her with him to see Obi-Wan, after stopping off at the creche to pick up his boy, whom Ahsoka was absolutely enamoured with.
He found her floating around blocks for him and lifting him with the Force into the air. It was adorable and had they not been in a rush, he would’ve absolutely taken pictures. Padme was waiting for him at the Halls though and he had many confusing explanations to deliver.
He was so distracted with that, he didn’t even notice a silver haired Clone Trooper in Corrie Guard reds sneak out of the main Hall when he walked in.
Darth Sidious was so tired of useless paperwork, he was ready to start Order 66 if it meant he didn’t have to oversee another budget. He faintly heard the buzz of a blaster but dismissed it. Who on earth could get past all his guards?
His brains were blown out against the glass window of the Chancellor’s office.