Chapter Text
The ride to Polis Massa, though only a couple hours, felt so much longer as Obi-Wan piloted the ship closer to the medical station. During all that time, Anakin hadn't stirred once, still out cold after he'd been attacked on Mustafar. While his Force presence hadn't weakened any, it wasn't reassuring for the Senator to be unconscious like this.
Especially since Obi-Wan remembered Padmé's visions of her husband's death.
R2-D2 hadn't left Anakin's side since they'd boarded the ship, but had come up to Obi-Wan now. Despite the fact that the Jedi didn't speak binary like Padmé had, he could hazard a guess at what the little droid was saying.
"Anakin will be alright." He would be so long as he was still breathing, so long as there was a small chance he could be alive. "He has to be."
If he wasn't there was so much that Obi-Wan had to worry about.
What would he even do with the children? If Palpatine knew who the father was, then there would be no way he could leave them with Shmi, and after all this if there was one thing Obi-Wan knew for certain, it was that in no way should he ever be allowed to raise another child.
The thought brought Obi-Wan back to where the true nature of his heartbreak began. He'd raised Padmé and failed her. He knew logically that it was Palpatine's fault that she had fallen, that he'd manipulated and groomed his bright Padawan until there was nothing left of her, but he couldn't help but blame himself. It was his fault. He was the one that failed her and let Padmé fall.
Or perhaps, that was the grief talking, and in time he'd be able to move past was no way for him to know. For now, there was still too much to be done. Anakin had to be the focus. When he was safe, Obi-Wan would release his guilt to the Force.
"Obi-Wan?" At the sound of Anakin's voice, Obi-Wan turned around. Anakin hadn't sat up, but had finally woken up. His voice was hoarse, but the fact that he was talking was the best news he'd had all day.
Obi-Wan quickly checked the computers to make sure that the autopilot was set before sitting by Anakin's side. "Are you alright, Anakin?"
He gave a weak laugh. "As alright as I can be." He still hadn't forced himself to sit up, but he did start looking around. "What happened? Where's Padmé?"
Obi-Wan couldn't stop himself from wincing. It wasn't a surprise that Anakin would ask about her after all, but it didn't make the incoming conversation any easier. "I'm sorry, Anakin."
Anakin didn't say anything, simply closed his eyes. Though his Force presence was still weak, Anakin's grief was like a storm, tearing through the entire ship, and making Obi-Wan feel worse about Padmé's fate. "So I didn't dream that."
"I'm afraid not." Obi-Wan shook his head, though Anakin couldn't see. "I left the ship when I saw her trying to kill you, and then…"
And then he'd attacked Padmé, and left her on the fiery plains of Mustafar to die. "We fought."
"You didn't have a choice." That was true, but it wasn't any easier to face. A silence fell over the ship. Anakin may have woken up, but it was clear he wasn't in the mood to talk. Obi-Wan let him stay silent, avoiding further conversation.
For now, the best thing he could let Anakin do would be to grieve.
Sidious was surprised at the condition that his apprentice was in. Amidala had failed to defeat Kenobi, and he'd expected her to be in a far worse state. Whether it was because the Jedi had gone soft because she was his former apprentice, or Padmé had been stronger than anticipated, it was undoubtedly a blessing only for his benefit. If she wasn't broken, she still had use for him, and that meant he had an apprentice. Of course, he'd had backup plans in mind had her state possibly been worse (as he predicted), but they'd proven unnecessary. He'd need to come up with a way to hide her identity when it came time to introduce Amidala has his apprentice and second, since a former Jedi would not be welcome given the state of the Senate, but that wouldn't be necessary to think about at least until she was used to her new legs, and he was sure he could come up with something.
A scream came from the operating table next to him as the process to attach new legs began. She was awake, of course, the pain would help her channel the dark side more readily. He looked over at the table from his window above the medical facility, admiring his work.
Thirteen years he'd watched over the young Jedi Padawan and tainted her thoughts, and here she was, his servant, loyal to nobody but him.
Kenobi was alive, but that was a trivial matter given how likely it was Amidala would kill her old master on sight. Her Padawan was now gone, the young Togruta's ship had crashed hours earlier, and while it was possible she may have escaped the clones with her, a crash like that would be impossible to survive.
Skywalker would perish soon from her attack on Mustafar. His Force presence had become difficult for Sidious to sense, and it was unlikely the Senator had the training necessary to purposefully suppress it. He was a thorn in Sidious's side as a Senator, and as the Jedi's Chosen one when he'd proven unwilling to turn his death became his best use, he would no longer be a tie for Amidala to latch onto to cling onto the light, but a motivation to power her continued fall.
And speaking of Skywalker, his and Amidala's children, likely the two individuals with the strongest ability to use the Force now that Skywalker was out of the equation, would make powerful apprentices in the future. He wasn't sure whether or not he would let Amidala raise them, or whether he would keep them from her until one of them killed her to take her place, but that could be decided when CT-1010 showed up with the two twins.
"Sir." Sidious turned to look at the red suited clone as he arrived, right on schedule.
"CT-1010, do you have the Skywalker twins?"
"I apologize, sir. When I arrived at Senator Skywalker's residence, the children were gone, along with his protocol droid. His mother was there, but she claimed that they were with Skywalker."
Sidious saw red. He was unsure whether he was angrier at CT-1010 for not bothering to question the woman, or at Skywalker for taking his children with him so that they would be unable to stay within his reach. He used the Force to strangle CT-1010, and the clone fell to the ground moments later, lifeless.
Very well, for now, he could use this to simply destroy Amidala further.
She would be a loyal apprentice, and he could worry about her replacement only if that ever changed.
Padmé sat on the table. The surgery to replace her legs had been horrible, and she'd been conscious through all of it, but now she had new, soon to be (mostly) functional legs ready for use. Ready to allow her to give chase to Obi-Wan, and find Anakin wherever he'd been taken.
She'd had no anesthetic, the pain she was in was still overwhelming, and made thinking difficult, but despite that even she could tell there was something very wrong with her bond with both of them. She couldn't feel them, and being alone in her head was more terrifying than anything else.
"Amidala, it's good to see you awake." Sidious entered the room, and Padmé ignored her pain in order to stand on her feet so she could kneel before her master. "You may sit, I understand this is not a particularly pleasant arrangement at the moment."
"Of course, Master." She shifted her body to take her weight off her legs, and fought the sigh of relief that threatened to escape. "You rescued me?"
Sidious nodded. "You are my apprentice, it wouldn't do me any good to leave you to die on the shores of Mustafar at the hand of your old master."
A spike of anger cut through Padmé at the mention of Obi-Wan. "What happened to him? Where did he take Anakin?"
Sidious was silent, and Padmé's anger turned into fear. "Master, what happened to Anakin? Is he alright?"
"I tried to do all I could." A cold dread settled in Padmé's silence. "But the damage was done. In your anger, you killed him."
"And the children?"
"Killed by the Jedi for their association to you."
It was only then that Padmé understood. The dreams they had been so afraid of, the dreams that had driven her to the dark side. They weren't a warning about the Jedi or anybody else. She'd been the reason her dreams had come true.
The Jedi may have killed them, but she'd caused the deaths of her husband and children.
She didn't respond. She couldn't respond. She couldn't even cry for fear of Sidious's wrath.
In that moment, she simply let go of her grief and buried herself in the anger and pain she felt at the Jedi, at Obi-Wan for turning Anakin against her.
At herself for destroying everybody and everything she had left.
And in that moment, Amidala felt nothing.
Anakin knew he should be thankful to be alive as he walked off the ship's docks to where Yoda and Bail would be meeting them. Padmé had almost killed him when she'd strangled him using the Force, and yet it took every ounce of his strength just to remain standing and not collapse from his grief.
Padmé was his everything. He loved her more than life itself, and the fact that she was gone destroyed him more than he'd ever be able to say.
"Relieved we are that you are alright, Senator." Yoda gave him a smile, like his survival might have been the only thing today that had gone according to plan.
That may have been the case, but Anakin wished that his survival had been one more failure.
"When your mother showed up, telling me that you and Obi-Wan had gone after General Naberrie, Master Yoda and I assumed the worst would come to pass." Bail's words shook Anakin from his grief enough to focus.
"Mom, is she here?"
"On Coruscant she is. Decided staying the best way to confuse Palpatine she did." While Anakin tried to figure out exactly what Yoda meant by that, he frowned. It didn't take long for Yoda to continue. "Here your children are."
All thoughts of mourning and of his mother no longer mattered as he focused on those words alone.
He couldn't mourn, he couldn't let himself fall apart, he didn't have the time. There were two children, now missing their mother, that were so much more of his concern. "Can you take me to them?" He needed to hold Luke and Leia, the last part of Padmé that he had.
"Of course." Bail nodded. "We'll talk once we're there. I can imagine you're rather anxious to see them."
Anxious was an understatement. His children felt like a lifeline that he would hold onto forever. His beautiful babies. They went further into the facility, going through the halls. As they proceeded, he heard Obi-Wan and Yoda whispering about something.
He should have asked what they were discussing, but right now, all he could think about were the twins.
They were awake when Anakin arrived, but thankfully calm, and he scooped them up, one in each arm and smiled at them. They didn't make his heart hurt any less, but they did still bring a smile to his face. He wanted to just put all his energy on them, ignore everything that was happening and bury his emotions in tending to his children, but it was unlikely that Bail, Yoda, or Obi-Wan would allow him to do that.
"Though Amidala is likely dead, Yoda informed me that Sidious is still alive." Obi-Wan was the first to bring up what was pressing on everybody's mind.
Anakin ignored how the mention of Padmé's death had brought him a fresh round of grief, and instead tried to focus on the conversation instead. It wasn't the first time he had ignored what he was feeling for the sake of what was important, it wouldn't be the last. "So we still have an Empire." The group around him nodded. "Then we don't have time to waste. Bail and I need to go to the Senate. We can start working–"
"Anakin." Obi-Wan pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm not sure your brand of politics right now is what we need." Anakin didn't respond to that. He knew how he could be at times and how he was just as prone to starting problems as he was stopping them. "Right now, if you go into the Senate building and try to threaten Palpatine, you might end up killed."
Anakin remained quiet. That was a point taken.
"We need a better plan. Outright attacking won't help us, but I think we can all agree the Senate will be nothing more than a sham." Nobody argued with Bail. "We'll need to start organizing, while using the Senate to prevent things from breaking down where we can."
"An organized Rebellion will be difficult to make. Right now, I doubt there's a lot of people who would even be willing to try to take down Sidious."
"But we are, I can organize something. The people on Tatooine stood up to one corrupt ruler already, what's one more? Besides, I'm the Chosen One. I'm supposed to kill all the Sith."
For a moment, it seemed as though Anakin's proposition was being considered, something he was glad for. Maybe he would be allowed to do something about Sidious after all.
It was Yoda, who spoke up. "No." His disapproval wasn't a surprise, nobody's would have been. "A suicide mission that would be. Destroy Tatooine Sidious would." Yoda fell silent, contemplating their next stage. "However, agree that Young Skywalker should lead the Rebellion, I do."
"You do?" Anakin was already running figures for how long he'd need to work to gather an army. He could put out calls in no time. He was popular, and stirring up a scene over comms would be easy. Sure it would be a bit more difficult with Luke and Leia, but he could work around that easily.
"Yes. A great advantage over us you have. Dead, Sidious thinks you are." Yoda smiled. "Expect you coming Sidious would not, but act in the shadows you must until ready we are."
A secret leader of the Rebellion...Anakin could do that. "I can start working as soon as we're ready, I'll just need to find some place safe for Luke and Leia to stay and–"
At that, the atmosphere in the room became tense, and Anakin fell silent. "You can't take them from me. They're all I have left."
His mother and the Lars family would have to be deceived until Tatooine was brought into the Rebellion, but there was no way to know how long that would be, and Padmé…
"Take them from you, we will not." Yoda shook his head. Anakin hid his relief, trying to figure out the plan.
"We need to discuss where they will be safe," Obi-Wan said. "Because so long as Sidious might even suspect they are alive, they will both be in danger."
Anakin took one look at the two children in his arms and pressed both of them tighter to him. The idea of losing them as he did their mother was already too much to bear. To have it actually happen would destroy what little of himself he still had. "What did you have in mind?"
Nobody answered, and Anakin understood why. There was only one answer to the problem in front of them, one he wouldn't, couldn't, accept. "You can't take them from me, they're all I have…"
"Only one." Yoda's answer was a small relief, but brought more issues.
"I discussed it with Yoda before you arrived," Bail said. "Breha and I have been discussing adopting a child for a while, it's only fair that I offer to take one. We would ensure they'd visit often as well. You will know both of your children."
Anakin shook his head. He couldn't choose between his children. Whichever one he didn't pick would hate him. They would think he abandoned them, that he loved the other one more.
He would have to give up a child who held a piece of Padmé in them. "I can't do that. You can't make me give one up."
Obi-Wan put a hand on his shoulder. "Anakin, they will understand." How could he be sure? "Bail promised you'll know your children, and I'll make sure of it as well."
Anakin looked at the children in his hand. There was no way that he could bring himself to choose between Leia and Luke, even with Obi-Wan and Bail promising they'd both be his. Anakin shook his head mutely. "There has to be another way…"
"No other way is there. A choice, you must make. In your hands, their safety is."
At Yoda's insistence, Anakin truly considered his options. He wanted them to stay with him desperately, so he could take care of them, but if he was found, there was no doubt what Palpatine would do to them. And if they were both with him, then they could both be hurt, or worse, forced to fall like their mother. No matter what, one of his children couldn't be with him. There wasn't another option. Not if he wanted to lead the rebellion, wanted to get revenge for Padmé.
"Don't forget, Daddy will always love you." He pressed a kiss to Luke's head, and gave his son over to Bail. "Take good care of him."
"We will."
And Anakin knew, in that moment, that Bail and Breha both would protect Luke until their dying breath if it came down to it.
"Decided, it has been." Yoda nodded, and somehow he felt Yoda's approval at Anakin's decision to take his daughter. "Go into hiding if we are to avoid Sidious's gaze, we must." After a moment, Yoda added. "And destroy your ship as well. Give no chance to Sidious of finding you through it."
"Where will you go?" Bail asked.
"The Dagobah system. Safe, I will be." Yoda didn't elaborate more before he went off, Bail following shortly after to avoid any connection being made.
That left Anakin and Obi-Wan alone, an uncomfortable silence between them. "You knew Yoda would separate them?"
"Not until we'd arrived. Yoda had told me on the way to take you to Luke and Leia. I'd wanted to argue against it, that you should have both of your children…" But when it came down to it, Obi-Wan had understood exactly what Anakin did. That it was truly their best chance. "I meant what I said Anakin, between any mission I can, I'll bring you to Luke, or him to you. He will still be your son."
"Thank you, Obi-Wan." Anakin reached into his pocket, his hand brushing against the crystal Padmé had given him on their wedding night so long ago. A reminder of his true destiny, and of what he can do. "There's…one more thing." Obi-Wan indicated for him to continue, and Anakin pulled it out, showing it to Obi-Wan.
"I want you to teach me how to be a Jedi."
On the desert planet of Tatooine, a funeral took place.
During his four years as Senator, Anakin Skywalker had been beloved. While the body was not recovered, Anakin was popular on the planet. It was natural his citizens would want to mourn him.
Nobody had known about his children but Shmi, and she knew better than to let the world know that they might be alive. Just like she knew better than to let the world know that she had hope for her son.
And so she publicly mourned, but she couldn't help but believe that her son was alive. One day, he would fulfill the prophecy Qui-Gon had mentioned when he'd first come to Tatooine so long ago. One day, he would return to her.
So she hoped.
On a metal space station, Darth Amidala approached her master, ignoring all the military personnel behind her as she stood at the viewport, looking at the planet destroying weapon in front of her.
One day, it would be an operational station, and while she didn't approve of it, she couldn't find it in her to care.
She had nothing left to live for, everyone she'd ever loved was gone or had let her behind, all except him. Every decision she'd made had cost her more than they'd ever let her game.
She stood under her mask, to serve her master's whim, a shadow of who she once was.
Of Padmé Naberrie, there was nothing left.
On the planet of Alderaan, Bail Organa returned to Alderaan, a beautiful baby in his arms as he brought Luke to Breha.
She took Luke from him and started playing with him. The boy was torn from his family, unable to truly be together until the emperor was dead, but he would know his father and sister for who they are.
Until that day could come, Bail and Breha shared a silent look, coming to an agreement they would never go back on.
They would do everything they could to ensure that Luke grew up happy.
Anakin Skywalker closed his eyes, the materials he and Obi-Wan had managed to gather were more than enough for Anakin to begin.
Leia was in her crib behind him, resting, which was why he had chosen now to do it.
The Kyber Crystal sang out to him, begging to be placed in a saber, and that was exactly what he would do.
Padmé was gone, she would never come back, but so long as he used her crystal, a part of her would always be with him.
And that same part of her would be the weapon that would destroy the one who made him lose her.
He would make sure of it.