Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"To be a God is to forsake any and all everlasting happiness" - Ancient Naboo proverb

"What's your favorite strategy out in the field again," her voice trailing off at the end, wishing she had not brought up the war. She once more attempted to feed the spoonful of paste to the unwilling toddler before her, and once more found her efforts frustrated when the child shut her sharp brown eyes and cried out.

"Nooooo…dun want more," she cried as she scrunched up her mouth and nose.

"Leia," her mother admonished, and stopped herself. What sense was there in arguing with a child. Especially with such a long day yet ahead of her.

"Divide and conquer, my love," she heard from their parlor. She looked back at him helplessly and watched her husband pace the room, his son squealing in delight every time he bounced him up and down and up and down.

"A tactic," her young husband corrected, "not a strategy, whereby you split your enemy's forces, defeat each weaker opponent in turn, win the battle, and wait while Senator Skywalker and her colleagues devise the strategy to win the war."

Padme watched as her husband carried their son into the dining room and couldn't help but roll her eyes, which only served to further amuse her husband.

"Senator Skywalker," he almost whispered, and Padme shivered knowing that he enjoyed saying those two words, once forbidden, almost as much as she enjoyed hearing him say it. "Before you admonish my insubordination, I suggest you formulate a strategy to calm our daughter down, lest she get her brother worked up. Force knows my shoulders are about to fall off."

Giving up, she tapped her husband's shoulder playfully as she bent down to lift Leia up from her seat. "For what it's worth, General Skywalker, I am well versed in strategy."

"Are you? Is there a strategic purpose in letting your one year old decide when her lunch is over?"

"You forget I'm a diplomat, dear General. I read a crisis, know when to push forward, and when to retreat and regroup." Picking up her daughter, she followed her husband to the twins' room. "I've gathered this concept should be a familiar one to you as well."

"Retreat? I've never heard of such a word!" Anakin contorted his head back at his wife in disbelief, then swept his one free arm in an exaggerated circular motion. "I submit the motion, Senator Skywalker, that we never again utter such blasphemies in front of our son."

"How about this blasphemy? You're an ass." She tried to keep a straight face, but started giggling as soon as she saw her husband's feigned indignation.

"How dare you, Senator? Such language unbecoming of your position. I hereby move for a motion of censure."

"Dada moshin," Luke eagerly agreed. His sister giggled despite her foul mood mere minutes ago, and Padme was surprised how easily her daughter settled into her crib.

"And how would you censure me," Padme teased as she stroked her daughter's soft and wispy brown hair, willing her to calm down.

"All will be revealed in due time, milady," Anakin whispered wickedly in a low, raspy voice, then quickly shifted back into daddy mode. "Dada needs Lukey to take his nap now. Okay, Lukey?" Anakin set the smiling child down into his crib, spaced across the room from Leia's. Luke happily settled in as well, and Anakin was glad he drew his son this afternoon; his sister was usually much more difficult to put to sleep, but for once Leia seemed to be cooperating, and Anakin was happy for his wife.

They sat in the room, backs facing each other, reading to each twin their favorite story. As Padme recited for what seemed the thousandth time the tale of the princess who turned into a Bantha, she stole a quick peek at her husband, and remembered again the stories her father had told her when she was a child.

She recalled especially the legend of Shiraya, the Naboo Goddess of wisdom, who had dared to fall in love with a mortal. Her beloved was Adono, a mighty warrior who served an ancient King of Naboo, the name long forgotten over the millennia. Their love was a doomed one, for Shiraya's father, the God of the Sun, disapproved of her fling with a mere mortal, so they could only meet every night, the only time they could hide from her father's watchful eye.

But her father's fears proved true; her lover's fire burned so furiously for her, and in her essence transformed him until he himself became a star, shining so bright that he rivaled even her exalted father. For a time, they said, Naboo knew no night, no darkness, not until the wayward Goddess's father banished her lover far away into the stars, restoring the balance between light and dark once more. And Shiraya, mourning her lost love, vowed to disown her father for eternity, and took her place as the largest and most brilliant of Naboo's three moons. Every night she gazed out across the stars, watching over her doomed love, mourning that he would inevitably and too soon, burn out. Then after that, she would be alone, forever.

The twins were asleep, and later that afternoon Padme stroked gently her husband's soft blond hair in her hands. With a major session of the Senate to attend in the evening, they were too tired to do anything in bed but rest. Anakin had already fallen asleep, his head resting on her chest and his arms clutching her small form. Padme watched her husband sleep and thought about how peaceful he looked, how content he, no, they both were. He had returned from yet another siege in the Outer Rim, she still fought faithfully for peace in the Senate, but their lives had changed so much ever since her husband had left the Order.

They had had no choice, really. It was only months after Geonosis and their secret wedding that she had found out she was pregnant with the twins. It was a matter of when, rather than if, their secret would be known to all. Despite her protests, Anakin had decided that the best course of action was to get the truth out as soon as possible. As she had predicted by the fireplace so long ago, the lies were killing him. And her as well.

When Chancellor Palpatine had offered Anakin a command in the Grand Army it seemed a better consequence than either one of them had hoped for. Padme still distrusted the Chancellor and knew in her heart that Palpatine was using the war to augment his own powers, but at the same time she was so happy that her husband would retain his position and place within the Republic. She believed that Palpatine was a practical, even cynical man, and despite the fallout from the ensuing scandal following Anakin's resignation, could not help but recognize that her husband had too much potential to be relegated to the backseat of history.

Nothing about their relationship or their lives had ever been ordinary. Even as children, a slave and a Queen, together they had led armies and saved a planet. A decade later, they had fallen in love even as they witnessed firsthand the galaxy around them collapsing into war and despair. Every moment she had with Anakin had felt fleeting, cursed by an aura of apprehension and uncertainty towards what future they would be lucky enough to have. Padme remembered often the stories of the Naboo Gods from her childhood, tales of star crossed lovers, of the tragedy fated to befall the protagonists despite their most valiant efforts to fight their inevitable doom. She had often wondered whether she and her husband were indeed living one of those same doomed myths. Now, there was no more secrecy, no more tension. Between the twins and their respective responsibilities to the Republic, there was no time to feel anything except sheer, ordinary, exhaustion.

And that was what Padme loved most of all, she mused, as she felt her husband's breath beside her. When they had their occasional moment to themselves, there was no longer that panging fear and guilt lingering around them like a shadow. There were only moments like the one now, pure contentment, pure normalcy. It felt normal when she talked to her family back in Naboo, telling them all about her husband and children. She sensed that her husband felt more at peace as well. Ironically, his relationship with Obi-Wan Kenobi, his former master, had seemed to improve since Anakin's resignation. She knew that Obi-Wan had argued his case in front of the Council, and for the first time in their relationship Anakin had recognized how much Obi-Wan cared for him as a person, not as just a Padawan. Now they were colleagues, equals, and fought side by side like brothers, no secrets between them. Padme sighed and wondered when they could finally end this war, and allowed herself to dream for the first time in their marriage a life away from Coruscant, from the reporters and the politics, a life of peace and simplicity back in Naboo, surrounded by everyone she loved.

"By the time this war is over there will be no Republic left," Padme whispered to her husband. Seated by him in the pod was Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan, who replied with a subtle nod as they listened to the applause following another vote in favor of Chancellor Palpatine, who newly possessed the power to override in the sovereignty of any system "if the situation required it". Almost imperceptibly, Anakin placed his metal hand gently on her knee.

"Then I will end this war. We will applaud the Chancellor one last time, he will step down, and we will have peace." Padme squeezed his hand. He was still like a child, she thought. Is, she reminded herself. He was not yet twenty-one years old, and same as her felt the weight of the Galaxy on his shoulders, with the additional pressure of already being a folk figure, a Hero With No Fear, as the holonets had already began to call him.

"I hope you can bring about all that, General Skywalker. It's a tall order indeed."

Padme was thankful for her alliance, friendship even, with the Senator from Alderaan. He had been one of her first allies since she had arrived in Coruscant, and had been the first to congratulate her after the Jedi scandal broke. She never felt him judge her like so many other of their colleagues. More importantly, he had instantly treated her husband with the same dignity as his closest allies in the Senate, respecting his obvious talents and respectfully turning a blind eye to those moments when Anakin's childish naiveté trickled through into their more serious discussions.

"Do you really think he will step down when the war is over?" That was another change in their relationship; with everything out in the open, Padme felt more comfortable in challenging her husband on politics. She did not try to lecture him, knowing that she could never will Anakin to believe exactly as she. But she voiced her opinions, and listened to his, and found that they both continued to learn a lot from each other. "Power is a drug. Those who strive their entire lives to gain it seldom volunteer it away with no prompting."

"I agree, my love. It's part of what makes us human." He examined her with his piercing blue eyes, and she remembered her very own words so many years ago one fateful night on Tatooine. "Chancellor Palpatine is human, and he wants to win the war so badly. I do not doubt that he has made mistakes in doing so, but I do think that at the end of the day he wants the best for the Republic."

"What if", Bail asked, "what is best for the Republic is for him to let go of his power? You talk to him more than any of us Senators, Anakin. What do you think he will do?"

Anakin was silent for a minute. He examined the vast chambers around him, feeling the emotions around him and absorbing them.

"Power counters power," he finally said. "You told me that yourself, Padme. The Jedi crave power. Every Senator here wants power. Most of you wish to sit in Chancellor's seat one day, that is the reason you are here in the first place. Perhaps, when the time comes, the Chancellor's powers will be balanced by those who want his power more than he."

Bail smiled. "You taught him well, Padme."

"I'm not sure if he's learning this from me." She turned to face her husband. "Do you think I crave power? Or Bail? What about Obi-Wan?"

Anakin frowned. "Obi-Wan is different. So are you and Senator Organa. For what it's worth, if I had a vote, I would proudly vote for either of you to succeed Chancellor Palpaline."

Despite the gravity of their setting, Padme allowed herself a smile. "So much flattery, General Skywalker. Perhaps you'll find yourself in politics one day after all."

As another round of applause range through the Senate chambers, Anakin leaned away from Bail and whispered softly where only he and his wife could hear, "Maybe that's not all that far-fetched, seeing as I often find myself inside a politician."

Before she could even blush, she felt Anakin springing into alertness, obviously sensing something wrong. "Bail! Padme! Hold on!" He moved and suddenly steered their pod away from the Chancellor, towards the galleries of the Senate. Half a second later, they all heard the explosions and the blasters in the distance, in the direction of…

"The crèche," Padme exclaimed. With Anakin home for three days she had allowed her handmaidens a brief visit back to Naboo to visit their families. They had left Luke and Leia in the Senate nurseries, along with so many other children. "Anakin…what do you feel? What's happening?"

"Droids," he said as their pod arrived at the gallery platforms.

"The Separatists dare to attack the Senate," Bail said in shock as his friends leapt onto the walkway and sprinted in the direction of the attack.

She had powerful lungs, and felt that she could outrun any Senator and likely all her handmaidens save Sabe. But she was no match for her warrior husband, who she could now barely make out through the panicked crowd far down the hallway. They all heard another explosion in the distance, and to her horror she saw her husband shriek and collapse onto the ground.

"Noooooo," he cried in agony as she caught up to him. She saw that he was unscathed, and so were everyone around them. There was no debris, no sign of destruction in their immediate area. But what she saw scared her more than Count Dooku or any droid army that could be mustered. She saw her husbands eyes, flaring in agony, reaching for desperation and comfort, yet deathly afraid to meet her eyes.

"Ani! No! Do you still feel them? Luke? Leia!" He did not reply to her, but his tears told her all she needed to know. They were both crying openly by the time she collapsed into his arms, husband and wife laid low onto the floor, unconcerned by the chaos of hundreds of panicked politicians and aides running in every direction all around them, because they knew the worst had already happened, and the worst may very well destroy them both.

Chapter Text

"Are we dead?"

"Doubt it kid." Han Solo rubbed his eyes and looked around the small shuttle, trying to orient himself and their vehicle. "I'd hope that whoever greets us in the afterlife is a lot prettier than you."

"What the hell were you thinking," Leia shouted next to her brother, who groaned in disbelief.

"Something's not right here."

"No kidding, Luke. And to answer your question, Princess, maybe you should ask your friends back at the base why they didn't notice the hyperdrive is broken on this damn shuttle." Han slammed the control panel in front of him. "We're stuck."

"Where's the Imperial fleet?" Luke gazed deep into space. Before him he saw what looked to be the Forest Moon; so they had successfully reached their destination. But there was no sign of the enemy, just empty space. "Could our intelligence have been wrong?"

Chewbacca moaned in the front seat next to Han's. "Yeah, Chewy, that was a black hole all right. We must have clipped it when we came out of hyperspace."

"Mon isn't a gambler. She wouldn't commit so many of our resources on questionable information." General Leia Organa turned behind her to see if C-3PO or R2 could provide some answers, but both droids were off.

"No, Chewy, I don't know what happens when you go through a black hole. And after today, I hope we never find out."

"Han, are you sure we're even in the right system? Maybe we emerged short of our target destination."

"I'd bet my life on it," Han grumbled, still fumbling around with the controls. "Why don't you ask Yappy and Flappy back there?"

"They're powered down. I think the same surge from the black hole that fried the ship's engines must have killed their circuits as well."

"Maybe it was a trap. The Empire gave us this location on purpose." Luke closed his eyes reached out towards the small moon beyond him, concentrating on everything he had remembered for Master Yoda.

"Well if it's a trap then it's a damn poor one. There's no sign of Imps anywhere." To Han and Chewbacca's delight the controls in front of him started to whirl back up again.

"I sense something…down on the moon."

"What is it," Leia asked softly. Luke turned to face the sharp brown eyes of his…sister. After all these years, she still seemed to be in awe of his connection with the Force. And most of the time she trusted his judgment on faith, compared to their more skeptical friend. Luke wanted to blurt out right then and there to her that she had the same wondrous powers he was still struggling to master, and that one day she could grow to be an even greater Jedi than he. But that would require telling her to the truth about their family…all of it. He had not been ready on Bespin, and he wondered whether Leia would be before it was too late.

"There's activity, and I sense something…dark. Anger."

His sister's eyes widened. "Vader is here?"

"No," Luke said. "Not Vader. This presence is different. Weaker…less focused."

"So we're facing Vader-lite down there. No offense kid, but I'm not putting too much stock on your hunches right now," Han said from the pilot's seat. He had managed to retake control of the shuttle and was steering it closer to the moon. "Here's a fact. Navigation tells me we're definitely in the Endor system…and there are lifeforms down there." Han squinted closer at the panel. "Maybe some kind of base."

"But where's the Death Star? Could it be that it was completed ahead of schedule?" Leia's mind raced at the possibilities. If the Emperor regained control of his deadly weapon…well the cause wouldn't be lost, but it would stack the odds that much more against them. "We need to reach Sullust. Get the word out to all of our contacts, all our agents in the field. We have to locate the Death Star as soon as possible, then plan our next steps."

I can't let another world be destroyed. Not again.

"Calm down, Princess. Let's think this through. I say we check out what's down there on the moon. That base might have been the one manning that deflector shield. Maybe the Empire left some men behind. They're as good of a place to start as anywhere to find out what's going on."

"I agree." Luke felt his hand reach towards his lightsaber. "It won't be a cakewalk. I can sense it. We're in for a fight."

"So we're in agreement then, your highness?"

Leia tried her best to keep a blank expression. She breathed deeply, and let go her personal attachment to the mission, allowing herself a soft smile at Han. After all that had happened, losing control of their ship in hyperspace, somehow steering around and avoiding a black hole, Han had pulled them through it all, and he still did it with a lightness that even managed to calm her whirlwind of emotions. "Go on then. Let's finish this job."

A solitary hooded figure strode assuredly through the empty Senate halls. The lights were off for the night, but that did not hamper the man one bit; he paused at an unremarkable spot behind the galleries, as he often did. Hands held together as if in meditation, the man took in his setting for what would seem to a passerby no more than a second, then continued on his way.

If the turbo-lift had held another passenger, they would have noticed that adorned beneath his plain gray hood and outer robes were the richest crimson and golden garments imaginable, weaved from the finest Alderaanian silk. If he shifted his stance just slightly, one might observe the small hilt of a lightsaber, a rare sight these days in the Capital world. If one dared to gaze under the brim of the man's hood, they would have been shocked at how young his sharp, angular facial features looked, especially compared to the weary, even aged, blue eyes they surrounded.

He walked through the narrower halls lining the uppermost levels of the Senate Building, passing armed guards covered from shoulder to feet in smooth golden robes. He examined the faces of each guard, looking them each in the eye and daring them to return his gaze. They did not. He saw a face he didn't recognize; it was a tall young Chagrian, and he saw the young guard's grip on his vibro-lance falter just for one moment.

"Name."

"Arkun, my Lord. Arkun Tandess," he replied. The young guard's tentacles quivered involuntarily, betraying his nervousness.

"This your first detail?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"How long out of training?"

"I graduated from the Imperial Academy two standard months ago, my Lord."

The man nodded, and moved as if to continue down the hallway when he pivoted his hips back at the young guard, his lightsaber revealed from the folds of his robe. "Why are you here?"

"I'm a warrior, my Lord. My family…are all warriors, ten generations before me. I live to serve the Empire, my Lord."

"And your Empress," the man added with a just hint of malice.

"Yes, my Lord. My life for hers."

His reply seemed to satisfy the man. "See that you engrain those words into your soul, young Tandess, and they will serve you well."

The hooded man continued past more rows of guards, all on even higher alert now, if that possible. None dared to acknowledge the exchange that just occurred before them. He approached a young female Togrutan who, in sharp contrast to the guards she commanded, slouched casually before the doors of the throne room.

"Lady Tano."

"Must you scare my men so," she asked, not looking up from her datapad.

"Fear is healthy for those who serve. Do you have information for me?" The man took his hood off, revealing a healthy mane of dark blonde hair cropped neatly down to his neck.

"My spies have located a rebel base on a small moon orbiting the planet Endor." The Empire's Head of Internal Security shook her head as she finally acknowledged the man. "You're right again, Skyguy. I don't know how you do it."

He gave her a ghost of a smile. "Good. Just as I have foreseen." He pointed a finger at the shorter Togrutan. "Remember my lessons, young one. Pay heed to the Living Force. Understand it better than your own heart, your own soul. Only then can you begin to truly understand the possibilties of the Unifying Force."

"I understand, Master."

The man flinched. "Do not call me that."

The Togrutan laughed. "As you wish then, Skyguy. Do you want me to follow up on the rebel base?"

"I will see to it myself. Prepare my flagship for departure tomorrow morning."

She paused, then decided to continue. "Do you wish me to accompany you, my Lord? I have reasonable information indicating that at least one of the rebel stationed there is adept in the Force."

The tall man stood silent and closed his eyes for a long minute. "It will not be necessary, Lady Tano. I will handle this matter. The Empress has much on her plate right now. Assist her any way you can while I'm away."

"The Naberrian will be docked and ready to go by 0800 then." The Togrutan gave him an abrupt salute and marched purposefully back down the hallway.

"Make that 0900." With a barely perceptible flick of one finger, he opened the doors of the throne room. The neverending skyline of the Galactic Capital greeted him on three sides, the luminescent night sky above him. He took seven steps towards the throne, comprised of a small desk perched on a platform on the edge of the room opposite the doorway, and knelt reverently before his Empress.

"What is thy bidding, my Master?"

The Empress, a brown haired woman whose small bodily frame belied her power and position in the Galaxy, was unperturbed by her visitor and did not deign to look up from her desk. "Ani, what's wrong with you tonight? You reek of Corellian Whiskey."

She allowed herself a brief glance at her husband, long enough to notice the mischievous grin on his face.

"Forgive me, Your Grace. But you're the one who forced to attend the Ancient Naboo Theatre just now with Senator Bel Iblis."

The Empress raised one eyebrow. "Did you enjoy it?"

"Do you suggest that I would ever not enjoy anything from the lovely planet of Naboo," he asked, as he finally rose and walked up to his wife's throne. "That would be treason, indeed." He dropped to his knees once more, this time beside her to give her a small kiss on her cheek. Padme merely sighed as she shuffled a datapad off to the side of her desk, taking another from a tall stack of pads to her left.

"Hmpff," his wife replied, reviewing yet another report, this one about the ongoing water crisis in Mandalore. She sighed again, knowing that this was not a briefing she could simply brush aside. "Which play was it again?"

"The Tragedy of Lord Makath, milady." He ran his fingers gently down her neck, finding the one spot just above her right shoulder. She groaned and leaned her head back despite herself.

"That story," Padme mused, "sounds like one you would enjoy."

"It wasn't bad," he admitted. "I think I enjoyed it more than the Senator. But he enjoyed the whiskey more."

"Seems like you had a healthy appreciation for both. What did you think of Lord Makath?"

He withdrew his finger from her neck to her dismay, and walked to the edge of the window behind her, examining the massive building in the distance, one that many years ago housed the Jedi Order. A building he had called home for more than a decade. "His ambition was his undoing, milady."

"So the lesson is abandon all ambition then?"

"No," he replied, turning to face his wife. "But ambition without vision is fatal."

"And what of our favorite Corellian Senator's ambitions?"

"I charmed him," he replied simply.

The Empress reluctantly set her latest datapad aside, knowing that she could not finish the report in good faith tonight. She picked herself up from her small throne and walked up to her husband, falling easily into his tall form as his arms, one flesh, one metal, enveloped her.

"Somehow I doubt it's the same kind of charm you use on me."

"Those charms are for you and you alone." He kissed her again, this time softly on the top of her head. "Did you speak with Snips tonight?"

"I did. She briefed me about Endor before you arrived." Padme traced her husband's fingers with hers, noting with dismay the lines on her hand. "A small, insignificant rebel base well past the middle of nowhere. Must this require your attention?"

"There is more to this than just the base. I asked Snips to check out the sector because, well…I felt a disturbance in the force from that origin. The rebel presence at Endor confirms what I have foreseen…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," his wife interrupted. "Your visions and all that bantha spit." She could almost feel him raise his eyebrow at her as they both stared into the Coruscanti night.

"This is different."

"What's going on Ani?"

"I…I honestly don't know." He held her closer, nuzzling his face into her neck, breathing in the scent of her hair, woven intricately around the back of her head beneath a delicate platinum crown. "I can't…I don't think I can explain this yet. Something…complicated has happened, beyond anything I have felt before. I can't really say more until I can confirm…my suspicions."

"Eleven years ago…," she began, and stopped. She felt choked of breath. "Tomorrow will have been eleven years."

"I know." He clutched her tighter. "I failed you. I failed us. So utterly and completely. I wish I could be here for you, with you."

He closed his eyes, resting his chin above the crown of her head.

"Oh Ani," she gasped, and the Empress's tears finally broke free of their walls. "I miss them so much."

From her husband, a soft whisper, "I won't fail again, I promise."

Chapter Text

"Those blasters look ancient," Luke whispered, hands raised in the air.

"Doesn't matter how old they are if they're pointed at us," his sister replied, wondering how everything had gone so wrong. When hailed by the small base on arrival the Imperial codes they had been provided failed to work, and of course they were promptly surrounded by a small army when they landed.

"No sign of Stormtroopers anywhere," Han observed. "This is the most pathetic group of Imps I've ever ran across."

"Like an outpost full of farmboys and nerfherders." Leia looked dejectedly at the forest ground where she and Han laid down their blasters for the benefit of their captors. "Luke, if you have any Jedi tricks to pull, now's the time."

"Quiet," ordered one of the sentries, an older male. He and then other armed soldiers stood in a circular perimeter around them.

"We're just here to deliver provisions," Luke said, trying his best to sound authoritative. "There must have been a mix up with the codes, I assure you."

"Provisions," asked another sentry, a younger male. He stepped up to the group, blaster ready. "From where?"

"The Executor," Han volunteered. "We're actually…quite overdue to return at this moment. Lost contact with the mothership too, so if you happen to know which system she's docked at right now…"

"Never heard of an Executor," the older sentry.

"Leave your weapons and your cargo and come with us. Commander Offee will decide what to do with you."

"Will that take long? We're really in a rush. You know how Lord Vader gets when you're late."

His response seemed to trigger a response in some of the soldiers, but before they had a chance to reply, several blaster shots rang out from the trees behind them.

"About damn time, Chewy." Han leapt down on the ground and grabbed his two blasters, tossing one of them at Leia. He watched their young Jedi compatriot cut down the two soldiers closest to them and, rolling behind Luke, fired into the rearguard at the ones trying to take out Chewbacca. Caught in a crossfire now, several of the soldiers fired back, but Luke ably jumped between them and deflected the blaster shots away, giving Han time to take down several more soldiers. He heard a savage howl, and as Luke leapt forward to dispatch the last of the remaining sentries, he saw the growling Wookie leap onto the last soldier and lock him in a chokehold.

They all ran up to the remaining Imperial at once, who now faced two blasters and a green lightsaber.

"Where's the Death Star, Imp?"

"Is it fully operational?"

"Where the hell did the fleet go?"

"Answer our questions," Luke said calmly, observing the man's fear and, for some reason, confusion. "No harm will come to you."

"I…," the sentry motioned upwards with his head towards Chewbacca. Han gave the Wookie a shrug, and he proceeded to release the officer's neck. "Death Star? Fleet? I have no clue what you're talking about? Did you call me an Imp?"

"You're saying you don't work for the Empire?" Leia's grip on her blaster wavered? Who were these men then? If they weren't Imperials…had their faulty intelligence led them to slaughter a group of innocents?

"We're…," the man struggled before taking in more gasps of breath. "We're fighting against the Empire. We're rebels."

"Oh, that's a crock of bull," Han started, but he noticed he wasn't the only one not certain that the officer before them was lying or not. This was the oddest ragtag group of Imperials he had encountered after all.

"I sense…he's telling the truth," Luke said warily. He pulled his lightsaber away from the officer, only to see a look of alarm from Han, who aimed his blaster towards him.

"Watch out…" Luke swung his lightsaber back, barely in time to ward off a savage blue lightsaber. A small, sleek woman leaped down from the tall trees above and slashed savagely at Luke. She was far quicker in her movements, he noticed as he parried off her blows, and he struggled to keep up with her frenzied attacks. With a quick feint at his left leg, she vaulted over his right shoulder, and as he moved his blade up to fend off her thrusts, saw her cut through several fingers on his cybernetic hand. Her blue blade made contact with the hilt of his sword and immediately deactivated it just in time for an additional group of reinforcements to arrive.

The woman, an olive skinned Mirialan, called his own lightsaber to her hand and pointed both weapons at Luke's neck.

"Don't even try it," she ordered with her back to Han and Leia. "Release Captain Ozzel and drop your weapons. No tricks this time."

Leia looked at Han, and he could only respond with a shrug and a look of helplessness. "Nothing we can do kid." They raised their arms in surrender again, and this time around the reinforcements moved in quickly to confiscate their weapons.

"Look," Luke pleaded from the ground. "I think there's some kind of misunderstanding. I'm sorry about your men. We didn't know there was a rebel base down here. We thought you guys were Imperials."

"We were given bad intel," Han added, flinching as he felt a blaster pointed in the small of his back, pushing him forward. "But I think we're on the same team. I'm General Solo." His name seemed to elicit no reaction. "Han Solo."

Still nothing. "Come on…the first Death Star? Hoth? Spent the last six months as wallpaper for Jabba the Hutt?"

"He seems to be rambling nonsense," the man named Ozzel remarked. "Jabba the Hutt's been dead for years."

"That's impossible," Leia cried. "I strangled him less than a week ago."

"Look," Han said warily as the sentries continued to nudge them towards their base. "This pretty young thing here is General Leia Organa, and that's THE Luke Skywalker you just disarmed."

The woman with the two lightsabers examined him for the first time. Encouraged that she may have finally recognized their names, Han continued. "That's right! Hero of Yavin, fired the money shot into the Death Star. Jedi Master or some mumbo jumbo."

"That's enough," the Mirialan ordered. She looked back and scrutinized the young man lying on the ground.

"Commander Offee. What do you wish to do with them?"

"Rise, young…Skywalker." She uttered the last word with some hesitation. "You will all accompany us back to the base."

"So you believe us then," Luke asked. He wondered who this woman was. Was she another Jedi, hidden away in this lost world? She was certainly much stronger than him, but he sensed darkness and anger in her.

Barriss Offee sneared, digging her blue eyes into the young Jedi's. "Some Jedi. Your training is weak, but your presence is strong." She motioned with a lightsaber, the blue one she captured, ordering her prisoners forward. "Get up, Skywalker. Either you're all crazy, or pretenders, or the most valuable hostages in the Galaxy. Or all of the above."

She needed to be strong. She had held her composure when tortured by Darth Vader, when she watched billions of her people slaughtered aboard the first Death Star. She had rescued her friends when they needed her, though she conceded that her attempt on Tatooine did not exactly go as planned. Even so, hadn't she been the one who finally put that slug out of his misery?

Lying in Han's arms in their small cell, General Leia Organa of the Rebel Alliance wanted to allow herself to be weak for once, give in, and free herself to the idea that whatever future she had left, she did not need to go it alone anymore. She had surrendered herself only once before, on that dark day on Bespin, and subsequently lost her love for what seemed like an eternity. As she felt Han's fingers holding hers, gentler than she had imagined, she wondered what dark punishments lay beyond this brief moment of peace for her, for them. She had endured so much in her young life, yet there was something so disconcerting, so wrong about their predicament, unlike anything she had experienced before, however dire.

She looked across the cell to Luke, and thought he was feeling the same way. He had seemed almost dazed since he was disarmed way too easily by Offee. The name was not familiar to any of them, which further added to the day's mysteries. She felt Luke's despair and disappointment; she saw how hard he had trained over the last year, and yet was no match for Offee, regardless of whether she was ally or foe. She still wanted to believe in her good friend, but the realist in her wondered if they were running out of time, if Luke would ever be ready to confront Darth Vader and the Emperor.

"What do you think they're gonna do to us this time," she felt Han murmur behind her. "Throw us into a nest of Gundarks?" Chewbacca said something next to Luke, and Han considered it. "Naw, I'd still prefer the Rancor."

"Luke, what are you thinking? You haven't said a word since we got here."

"Let the kid be, Leia."

"It's alright, Han." He sighed. "Something feels off here."

"I'll second that motion. Personally, I think Vader set all of us up." Han's eyes lit up. "It makes complete sense actually. They feed us false information, lead us on a wild bantha chase on the edge of the Galaxy, and get us to attack our own people."

"No," Luke said. Han felt a small twinge of unease; Luke's eyes gazed across the cell at him, but his mind, was elsewhere. "Vader wouldn't do that."

"Why do you say that?"

"It's me that Vader wants. If he wanted to set a trap for us he would've been waiting for us here."

"Kid, what exactly happened between you and Vader on Bespin?" Han grimaced even as he asked the question upon seeing the pain on Luke's face. His own memories with Lord Vader had not exactly been pleasant, but he didn't need to the Force to realize what Luke had went through was on a whole other level.

"I…," he hesitated.

"It's okay Luke," Leia said. "You don't have to tell us if you don't want to."

"No. I have to. We're all in the same danger. You guys deserve to know the truth."

"The truth," Leia's eyes narrowed. "Was it torture? What he did do to you?"

"Besides the hand stuff," Han added, earning himself a reproachful look from Leia.

Luke breathed deeply. "We talked. We fought. He overpowered me. I lost my hand…my weapon. I was at his mercy, but…"

"He didn't kill you," Han said.

"No. He asked me to join him." Just say it. You know it to be true. "As father and son."

"Huh?" Han's jaw just dropped. Chewbacca made a surprised grunt next to him and unconsciously backed away towards the far corner of the cell.

"He must be lying, Luke! You can't just believe him like that!"

"It's true, Leia. Obi-Wan confirmed it for me when I returned to Dagobah, but even then, I knew it was the truth." He looked into his sister's eyes. There was anger in them, but not directed at him. Just sadness.

"There is more," Luke added. At that moment he felt it. They saw him sit up in the cell, spine straightened, shoulders tense. "I feel him. He's here."

"Oh for sith's sake," Han could only mutter. "Not again."

He watched several squadrons of clones storm the small base. The small outpost was not built to withstand even a small crack team, much less the might of an entire division. There was little opposition left by the time he walked inside the main facility.

"Search all of the detention cells," he ordered. "Be on the lookout for twins, a boy and a girl."

He saw fighting ahead, and heard the hum of lightsabers. A Mirialan woman, valiantly cutting down his clones left and right.

"Fall back," he ordered. "Clear the room. I'll handle this one." He faced the woman as his surviving troops retreated to form an arc behind him, blasters still pointed at her.

"Barriss Offee," he said. "You will make a fine present for a certain friend of ours." He sensed a commotion in the room behind him, and resisted the temptation to look.

"Lord Vader," she spat back contemptuously. He saw in her eyes fear, yet defiance. "Perhaps we can negotiate." She crouched into a fighting stance, crossing two lightsabers in front of her.

"Such disrespect. There will be no negotiations today." A simple flick of his wrist, and his former fellow Padawan was slammed violently sideways into the wall. He approached her groaning form, and bent down to pick up a dropped lightsaber.

"Secure her back onto the ship." He turned around and several clonetroopers moved in to apprehend the lone survivor. Out in the atrium, he turned his attention to the new arrivals.

"Luke. Leia." He nodded at them sternly in recognition. "You're older than I expected."

"How did you…" Leia observed their 'rescuer', a tall and imposing figure with hardened blue eyes. The same blue eyes as…

"Father," Luke asked. They had accompanied the storm troopers out to the front of the base because they had no weapons and thus no choice, but oddly enough for the first time this day they were moving without the threat of blasters or other deadly weapons pointed at them.

"Vader," Leia whispered, softly enough so that only Han could hear, but he seemed to notice anyway.

"Not quite," he replied, and to her horror, actually had the temerity to extend a gloved hand out from his white robes to her for…a handshake?

"I'm Anakin Skywalker."

She took hand in hers despite herself, and was surprised to feel a rugged durasteel surface under the glove. Before she could say a word, he walked past her and approached Luke. He pulled out a lightsaber, which she recognized as Luke's, and pointed it at him almost casually. She reached for Han's hand with the same one that had just gripped Vader's, but rather than ignite the weapon and run it through Luke as she expected, the man calling himself Anakin simply studied the weapon for some time.

"You built this yourself?"

"Yes."

"Who taught you to do so?" Luke hesitated to answer.

"No matter," he said, handing the lightsaber back to Luke in an almost disapproving manner. "This weapon is your life. Don't lose it again."

Luke's eyes never left the man as he cautiously took the weapon and held it at his side, ready to ignite it at any time. Father and son seemed to observe each other for what felt like hours. Leia felt Han's grip tighten on her.

"Your hand."

"It's fine. Just a bit charred."

He took Luke's right hand into his own and studied it. "You lost it before today. How?"

"I lost it in a duel," Luke stated simply. They scrutinized each other in silence again for the longest time.

"You are strong in the Force," Anakin finally said. "And you have endured your share of darkness."

"I have," Luke replied curtly.

To her horror, Anakin returned his attention to her. "And her as well." He paused, as if he just noticed for the first time the rest of their companions. "Who's the scoundrel?"

"The Wookie is our friend Chewbacca. And that's General Han Solo," emphasizing the title.

"General, huh?" Anakin regarded his son and daughter some more. Leia found that try as she might, she couldn't look away from the man's penetrating, almost spectral blue eyes, so similar to Luke's, yet they were cold, stony...and powerful. She examined the man's face; he was older than them, but not by that much; she would guess that he was about Han's age, maybe even younger. Wouldn't he be way too young to be Luke's father? But then, that made about as much sense as Luke being the son of Darth Vader.

"Luke," Anakin beckoned, never taking his gaze off of her, "tell your sister that General Solo is way too old for her."

"Sister?" All three of them besides Luke seemed to exclaim simultaneously.

Anakin sighed. "I see there is still much you need to discuss between yourselves." He motioned towards one of the clone troopers.

"Rex, escort our guests onto the ship. Make sure they have the finest quarters. Show Luke the medic ward as well." He looked back at the shocked kids behind him. "Take your time to catch up and settle in. We will talk further once we reach hyperspace."

Leia finally broke her silence. "How can we trust you?"

"I gave him back his lightsaber, didn't I?" With those words, Anakin turned away and strode back to his transport.

"...And there were no survivors, though we did not locate Commander Offee."

If she felt any dismay or disappointment, the holoimage of Mon Mothma did not show it. "How much does she know about the rest of our operations, Admiral Tarkin?"

"Obviously we take every measure of precaution in our communication chain. She would not know the location of our base here, or of your location. If she talks however, and I have no doubt she eventually will, they may be able to connect some dots."

The former Senator seemed to consult with someone offscreen. "Do you think marks the beginning of a major Imperial offensive?"

Tarkin held his chin in contemplation. "Skywalker is a wily adversary. He would not start a major campaign by attacking an insignificant backwater base on the edge of the Galaxy."

"Perhaps he attacked Endor precisely because of the unpredictability. It's a distraction. Remember the Carida campaign."

"I do indeed, Senator Mothma. But the circumstances here are different. The Empire operates from a position of strength. The Genius of Carida would not need to attempt to divert our attention. Unless..."

He studied the galactic map below him, scrolling through the star systems until he found his mark. "Unless there is weakness in the Empire, and he's trying to distract us from it."

"What are you suggesting, Admiral Tarkin?"

"Where is the Empire most vulnerable right now?"

Mothma considered the question. "Mandalore."

"Precisely." Tarkin pointed down onto his map in triumph.

"What do you suggest?"

Tarkin smiled. "We press them where they're weak."

Minutes later, the image of Mon Mothma faded, and a shadowy figure stepped up to the rebel leader beside the main projector.

"I hate the cold," the red eyed Zabrak said.

"Good. You'll find the climate on Mandalore much more to your liking then."

"That may reveal my presence."

"Succeed, Lord Maul, and our allies will have no choice but to embrace your place at our table."

The Zabrak pondered the projection before him. The Endor system was now marked in red. "Have you considered, Admiral," he asked, "that Endor was not a purely military operation?"

"Because of Offee? I assure you Lord Maul, Skywalker wouldn't shift resources from the capital world for merely a personal grudge."

"No. But I feel a shift in the Force. There may have been other considerations."

"And what would those considerations be," Tarkin asked impatiently. He had no time for this nonsense.

"I am still meditating on the matter."

"Then don't waste my time, Lord Maul."

The Zabrak seethed, and left the control room wordlessly.

Chapter Text

He lay mere inches away, yet she had never felt so apart from him, not even when he had been gone for months on the Outer Rim. His eyes were closed and he lay still, but she could tell by the way he breathed that he also could not sleep.

" How did it feel," she asked. They had not made love since the night of the attack on the Senate. She told them that she did not think it felt right. To her surprise, he had not argued. Perhaps he felt the same way.

" When I killed her," Anakin stated. He had tracked Asajj Ventress, the mastermind of the attack, the one responsible for the death of her kids, to the ancient Sith planet of Korriban.

" Yes." She secretly envied the fact that he had the opportunity to take actual action in avenging their children's murder.

" I felt…anger. Anger when I killed her. And sadness. Because I knew killing Ventress could never bring Luke and Leia back."

Padme considered his answer. He was being guarded in his responses, holding something back from her. It was not like this before. For a wonderful interlude, after he left the Jedi Order, they had been together…truly together in mind, body, and spirit. They hid nothing from each other, opening their souls, revealing their deepest, darkest fears and desires. But that could never last, Padme mused sadly. It seemed to her that they were not destined to experience happiness together in this life, and that the Force or the fates or whatever it was would inevitably punish them tenfold for every moment of bliss they shared.

" Did you feel better afterwards?" Her husband was silent for a long time, and she thought he may not answer her.

" No. Tracking down Ventress distracted me. It gave me a goal to pursue. I killed her…because it was my duty, to you, to Luke and Leia, to the Republic." He frowned. "Then I thought about them again. The pursuit allowed me to forget, even for a few weeks. But afterwards I remembered that I will never see my son and daughter again. And that the feeling will never go away."

She slowly moved her hand across the bed and clasped his hand, the one whose flesh matched hers. It was their most intimate moment in months. It did not seem fair to her that Anakin could simply fly off for two months, avenge their children, and gain a kind of satisfaction that she would never get to feel. She hated herself for the thought, but part of her was relieved that her husband was no closer to closure than she.

They laid in bed absorbed in their own thoughts for more time. Anakin broke the silence.

" The Chancellor agreed to my request to appoint me Supreme Commander of the Republic's armies."

She squeezed his hand. "You will be away more."

" Yes. I am consolidating the Republic's forces into three armies, and I intend to take the war to the Separatist systems after we leave Naboo."

After we bury our children, she thought. It was for the better. She was surprised that she did not miss him as much as she used to this last time he was gone, and it saddened her. His absence had allowed her to focus on her work, so she could do her part to end the war, though that prospect seemed dimmer day after day. But she admitted to herself that was not all. Senate or no Senate, she was thankful for Anakin's absence because every time she looked at him she couldn't but help think of their children.

" They still don't trust me."

" The Jedi?"

" The Jedi…and Chancellor Palpatine. I intended to take personal command of the Third Army, but they insisted that my command be accompanied by a member of the Jedi Council."

" You're still so young, Anakin. Of course they should trust you…and I do. But to everyone else, it would seem unprecedented to place so much responsibility on someone so young, regardless of how much it's deserved."

" Chancellor Palpatine told me it was because I had too much responsibility coordinating the entire Cloned forces. That I would need help, someone to help supervise the Third Army . But I know the truth, Padme. The Jedi fear me. They fear I will become more powerful than they."

"They answer to you now, Ani. You already are." Not powerful enough to save our kids, a persistent voice echoed in her head. She tried to block that voice away, to argue with it, but it had only grown stronger in the recent weeks.

" Perhaps some time apart would be best," Anakin said, strangely echoing her thoughts. He sat up and gazed out at the Coruscant skyline. "I have vast responsibilities now. I need to focus on the war."

" You will not let us down, Ani. I trust you. You and Obi-Wan will make a good team."

She saw his shoulders tense. "I am assigning Obi-Wan command of the Second Army. He will lead a separate campaign."

" Who from the Council will accompany you then?"

" Master Windu."

" Master Windu? He's never been your biggest champion."

" No. But he and I are too similar in a way, I sense, and he knows that too."

" How," Padme asked. She sat up beside her husband, puzzled.

" We're both driven. By different things of course, but under it all we feel the same kind of...passion. He channels it with his saber form. I…," Anakin paused. He turned, and their faces almost touched.

" I fight." He concluded in a soft voice. "I will end this war, Padme. I won't return until I do. And Master Windu, for all he feels about me, will also do what is necessary to end the war."

She studied her husband's face and to her dismay, saw nothing of the cheerful, funny little boy from Tatooine, nor the roguish teenager she had met ten years later. He was a man now. She saw in his eyes great sadness, anger, and resolve, and wondered if the last of that youthful spark she had fallen in love with had died alongside their children.

" There's a story we tell on Naboo," she said. "The tale of the eternal warrior. He was the greatest warrior in all the land. One day, his village and his people were under attack, and the King said to him, 'only you can save us all'. So the warrior fought bravely for seven long years, and finally drove the enemy away and saved his people."

" And they lived happily ever after," Anakin asked flatly.

" No," Padme said softly. She grasped her husband's hands with both of hers, rubbing the center of his palm with her thumbs. "The great warrior returned home, but he was restless. After seven years of fighting, he knew of nothing else. So he rebelled, slaughtering the King and all the nobles who did not join him. He then made war on all the neighboring kingdoms, and destroyed them all. But after all was won, he was still restless."

She gently took his prosthetic hand and pulled it to her, stroking it the same way she did with his flesh hand, and continued. "So he hunted down all the people in his kingdom, because he suspected the same treason he himself had committed, and killed them all. He returned home to his castle, and faced his family, and realized that they were all strangers to him. He decided that he could not trust his family, so he killed them too."

She paused again, looking away at her nightstand, and at a small holo of her and Anakin at the Lake House. He was cradling Luke, rocking him back and forth, and she remembered whispering to Leia, probably negotiating with her to stay still and smile.

" One day the mighty warrior woke up and found himself alone, as usual. He walked to his mirror but the sight he saw was different. In the reflection was a young man, the man he once was. And never in his life was he filled with so much hatred, so he brought his sword down on the mirror for a killing blow. They found his body by the shattered mirror afterwards. Finally, there was no one left to fight...but they say that maybe in his last moments when he destroyed himself, he had set his younger self free."

She saw a wisp of a smile form on her husband's mouth. "For such a beautiful planet and happy, you Naboo sure tell some interesting stories."

She cupped her husband's chin with her small fingers, and traced the edge of his lips with her thumb. "Fight your fight, Ani. Do what you have to do. But don't lose yourself in this war."

"This is insane," Leia said, pacing around the suite. True to his word, their accommodations aboard Vader's flagship was comfortable, though the stormtroopers had for some reason insisted that they all be given separate rooms, with a small parlor and kitchen between them.

"I think I know what happened," Han said, leaning forward on a couch burying his head in his hands.

"What," Leia asked.

"My instincts were correct. We are dead. Probably fell into that goddamned Sarlacc pit. And this must be some twisted version of Hutt hell."

"He's not Vader," Luke said, staring out a small viewport.

"How do you know," Leia asked, eyeing her brother warily.

"His…presence is different."

"So we're back on this feeling mumbo jumbo again." Han wanted to trust his friend's faith in the Force and the Jedi, but he found it difficult knowing that Darth Vader, whatever version of him it was, freely used the same Force.

"Luke, you heard her address him as Lord Vader."

"I don't think he liked that."

"When were you going to tell me?"

Luke turned but kept his distance, staying by the viewport. "I was just about to back on the moon, I swear. Then I felt my…our father's presence. But I was expecting Darth Vader, and I had to protect you. He would have been able to read your thoughts."

"I think he still can." She took a seat next to Han, clutching his knee. "How did he know our names, Luke?"

Luke returned his gaze back out into the stars. He closed his eyes. "Han, I think you're right, in a sense. This isn't the same world we came from."

"The black hole," Leia said warily. "How did we not realize? We must have flown through it." She looked up at Han, and for a brief moment he thought she was going to kiss him. Then she struck him in his shoulder with her small fist, and it hurt. "Nice job!"

"Hey! You try flying an alien ship with a fried hyperdrive!"

"Don't blame Han, Leia. I think the Force may brought us to this world for a reason," Luke said calmly.

"So it brings us to a world where Vader doesn't have a suit but still serves the empire," Leia said, still refusing to acknowledge that that thing, or man in this reality, was her father. "Why?"

Luke closed his eyes. "I have to face him. It was my destiny, and yours Leia, if I failed."

"My destiny," she said incredulously. "Luke, you're the Jedi, not me."

"You have the same powers I have, Leia. We both inherited them from father. Only our powers can destroy Vader…or save him." He left the viewport and sat across from the couple. "Obi-Wan told me that Vader was once Anakin Skywalker, a great Jedi warrior and good man, before he turned to the Dark Side. Maybe we need to learn more about Anakin the man before we can face what he has become."

"I remember Anakin Skywalker," Han mused. "And that's definitely him alright. His face was all over the holonets by the end of the Clone Wars. They called him the Hero with No Fear."

"Han," Luke looked reproachfully at his friend. "Why have you never told me this?" He felt a twinge of anger at his friend for never telling him this fact about his father, but secretly beamed in pride to hear someone confirm what he had hoped to be true for so long.

"I wasn't sure if your dad was the same guy? Plus, you have that mopey baby-faced look whenever someone brings up your family. I didn't want to get your hopes up."

"So we get to know your dad," Leia said, picking up a nearby datapad. She wondered if she could find out where her friends were in this world. A thought popped in her head? Was it possible that Alderaan existed in this Empire? That her parents…adopted parents she conceded, were still alive? "We find out what makes Darth Vader tick, maybe pick up some intel on the inner workings of the Empire, then fly back through that black hole?"

"It sounds like a long shot," Luke laughed. "But we've faced worse."

"What if your old man doesn't let us leave?"

"Leave for where?" A stern voice echoed from across the room, and Luke was stunned to realize that none of them had heard Anakin Skywalker approach.

"Home," Leia replied defiantly. "Our home. Our world. We don't belong in this one."

"And yet here you are. You will learn to not question the will of the Force, my child. Not without some training, at the very least. Where's your Wookie friend?"

"He's still sleeping," Luke replied. "What do you intend to do with us, Anakin? Or is it Darth Vader?"

"I'm familiar with that concept," his father replied with a stone face, "but no, I'm not a Sith Lord, if that's what you're asking." Anakin helped himself to a seat next to his son, and Leia saw that despite his best efforts, Luke could not help but gawk at his father like a little boy. "I wish to learn about my children. Tell me about your lives and your wars. Obviously you were not raised by me in the world you came from?"

"No. Leia was raised by Bail and Breha Organa in the royal court of Alderaan. I was raised by my Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru in Tatooine."

Anakin raised an eyebrow, and Luke saw that he had piqued his father's interest. He continued his tale about his childhood, crazy old Ben Kenobi, and going to rescue a Princess. He saw sadness in his father's eyes when he described coming home to find his aunt and uncle dead, disapproval when he walked through how they had met Han in a tavern in Mos Eisley, and pride as he fired the shots that destroyed the Death Star. Luke studied his face and tried to feel for his father's emotions through the Force when he described the atrocities of Vader: destroying Alderaan, torturing Leia, handing Han over to a bounty hunter, striking down Obi-Wan, and his own meeting with him on Bespin, but he saw and felt nothing. Luke wanted to trust the Anakin Skywalker in this world, but he still decided to leave out the parts about Yoda and Dagobah just in case.

Leia seemed to soften to Anakin as the story went on, adding in areas where Luke had missed. She seemed to almost blush when Anakin gave her a look of fatherly approval when she described the demise of Jabba the Hutt. Han, for the most part, sat quietly, though he did mutter a few choice words to himself when Luke went over the part where Vader froze him in carbonite.

"So you believe that you can travel back to your world if you fly back through the black hole," Anakin stated as Luke described their capture at Endor.

"It seems reckless, but I can't think of any other way."

"Luke, if anyone can fly blindly through any black hole and travel to different universes, we'd have pathetic life forms like your friend here popping out of hyperspace left and right."

"Hey," Han objected. "That's strike three."

"What were strikes one and two," Leia asked.

"Well, one would be the whole Death Star thing, and two would be the whole frozen in carbonite thing. Not that I can do anything about any of this," Han concluded indignantly.

"You are right though," Anakin continued, wholly ignoring the other exchange. "It was the will of the Force that you have arrived here. And I believe your powers in the force, yours and your sister's, allowed you to survive the dangers of the black hole."

With that, Anakin abruptly rose to leave the group.

"Wait!" Leia sprung up from her seat and to both Luke and Han's astonishment, ran up to her father and grabbed his arm. "We told you everything about us! We have just as many questions for you about this world, and the Empire you serve. Aren't you going to answer any of them?"

"We are fast approaching Coruscant. I must ready the ship for arrival."

"Please," Leia beseeched. To her surprise she saw Vader…Anakin's face soften.

"I have time for just a few questions. Make them quick."

"How…how did you know who we are?" She saw his eyes harden again.

"You and your brother did exist in this world…for a time."

"What happened to us?"

"Your mother and I had you when we were both very young," Anakin replied, his voice raspier than before. "We did not consider the ramifications of having children in the middle of the Clone Wars, while the Sith still existed. You were both killed when you were very young in a terrorist attack masterminded by the Separatist forces and Darth Sidious, the puppet-master behind the war."

"The Sith…," Luke gasped. "The Emperor…"

"He got everything he deserved," Anakin replied, and a chill ran down Luke's spine as he felt the all too familiar waves of anger radiating from his father.

"What about our mother," Luke asked, and to his relief, saw his father's frown disappear.

"She's very much alive. You will meet her shortly."

"Anakin," Leia began, looking uncertainly at her feet. "Why did that woman call you Lord Vader?"

Her father chuckled. "I think the poor soul meant to insult me. She believes the title is emasculating."

"Emasculating," Luke asked. That was the last word he would ever associate with Vader.

"I serve the Empire by the grace and mercy of your mother, the Empress Vader." With that, he left them to their frenzied thoughts.

Chapter Text

"Billions will die," Padme pleaded before the committee, "if we fail to pass the compromise!" The Republic was at a tipping point with the refugee crisis, exacerbated by the intensifying pace of the war under her husband's leadership.

"If we agree to this then we are dooming the Galaxy to tyranny," Mon Mothma countered in her soft voice, holding firm from across the table. "That the Chancellor will hold these lives hostage to augment his powers is despicable in the first place."

"You know I agree with you, Mon. But I've spend months with Senator Amedda wrangling every little piece of the funding I could get. This is the best deal any of us can wish for, especially considering that the Chancellor's faction agreed to the reincorporation of conquered worlds back into the Republic with minimal Clone presence. That provision alone could shorten the war by months!" Padme shuddered at the memories of the Vice Chair of the Senate recounting yet another pointless rancor hunting story.

"It's certainly a good deal for Amedda," Garm Bel Iblis muttered. "All the requisitions going through shell corporations controlled by him and his clan. It seems like everyone in Chancellor Palpatine's core coalition will get even richer."

"That the Senate is hopelessly corrupt is no surprise at this point. This bill will at least use some of the corruption to help save lives." Padme closed her eyes and couldn't help but think about her husband, whom she had not seen in seven months by now.

"And you trust that this hopelessly corrupt Senate will voluntarily vote to end the Supreme Chancellor's emergency powers," Mon asked pointedly. The Senate referendum was the point that would make or break her careful negotiations. Amedda had insisted on its inclusion, mandated to happen within two weeks of the war's end, in the final bill, knowing full well that he had the votes to extend the Chancellor's powers.

"That they would even offer a referendum gives us hope. And it gives us time as well. If this compromise passes we can immediately start our efforts to sway the votes for democracy."

"And only five standard days from the war's end to do so. Essentially right when the Chancellor is basking in the aftermath of his greatest hour," Garm rebutted.

"We will have our own weapon as well," Padme suggested, hesitating.

"What would that be," Fang Zar asked, stroking his beard, though Padme wondered why he even bothered asking. She did not expect his opinion on the bill to change, and expected that Bel Iblis would vote against her as well. That left only Bail, whose stance he gave no indication to, and Mon Mothma, whom she had hoped would be practical enough to endorse the compromise for its immediate dividends towards helping the war refugees. While Padme expected that the Senator from Chandrila would have her concerns, it had caught her by surprise how uncompromising she was at the moment.

"My husband. If we win the war, he will receive much of the credit as well. He is already the most popular figure in the Republic, more so than General Kenobi and the Jedi, maybe even more popular than the Chancellor himself." Anakin had certainly kept the holonets busy with news of victory after victory in the Outer Rim not merely under his army, but his two other armies commanded by Obi-Wan and Plo Koon as well. Momentum had never been greater for the Republic, and Padme could only hope that her legislation would give the impending peace the soft landing it needed. What happened after peace, however, was what kept their small coalition of discrete opposition up late on nights.

"Your husband," Mon objected, "is practically in Palpatine's inner circle. What makes you think that he will campaign against the Chancellor if he wins the war? His latest actions certainly don't seem to correlate with the idea of accountability to the Senate."

Mon was referring to Anakin's decision months before to cut all communication with the Capital world, a move that caused much outcry across all factions of the Senate. But he kept winning, and that alone kept his star shining in the public view for the moment.

"He has cut the Chancellor out as well, I remind you. None of us, not the Jedi Council, not Palpatine or Amedda know of his plans until we receive the post battle briefings."

"Except you," Garm said, eyebrows raised. "While we are on the subject, has he given you any updates on the course of the war."

Padme did not reply for a few seconds. It was true that Anakin during their holocalls would occasionally give her insights into his thinking that even the Jedi under his command may not be aware of. She felt guilty about receiving this special privilege, but it had helped her coalition politically in the recent months, and she suspected that her negotiation efforts would not have come so far without the leverage of mere information. "He has received word that the Separatist Council was spotted in the Utapau, and I believe he means to engage them."

"Utapau," Zar said skeptically, checking the planet's location on his datapad. "The armies are spread dangerously thin. If this gamble doesn't work out, then it leaves the Core Worlds, even the Capital, vulnerable to attack."

"And if he does manage capture the Separatist Council," Bail offered, "it commences the countdown to a referendum we are vastly outnumbered on."

"If my husband loses the war, then at least we won't have to worry about the Chancellor's popularity. It will be a black mark on his record as well as General Skywalker's." Padme shuddered at the thought of Anakin losing the war. It would be devastating to herself politically, though she knew that her career would be her last worry were it to come to that. Could Anakin survive yet another debilitating loss, she wondered, mentally even if he did survive the battle physically?

"Somehow I have a feeling Palpatine will be able to wrangle his way out of any share of blame, especially seeing how he's practically handed off the entire conduct of the war off to your husband. His hands are clean of Skywalker's decisions." Garm took a drink out of his glass, though Padme suspected the clear concoction contained more than just water. The war, and not just the one against the Separatists, had taken its toll on all of them.

"Then he will bear the ultimate blame for such a rash decision, and we will all hold him to the fire. And I promise," Padme said as she placed her hand down on the table, "that if my husband wins the war, he will speak loudly for the cause of democracy. I will make him."

"You'd rather enjoy your husband's popularity, wouldn't you," Mothma questioned. "They are already calling this bill the Amidala Compromise. Combine the most popular General in the Republic, who happens to have complete control over the entire Grand Army of the Republic, with the great peacemaker and compromiser of the Senate...passage of this bill would certainly put the Skywalker family in a good place, wouldn't it? I rather think it possible that the two of you would somehow win the referendum."

"Mon," Bail cut in. "That's out of line, and you know it. We all trust each other's integrity and motivations in this caucus, and we cannot afford to fight each other. Let's not make things personal."

"It's okay Bail," Padme said. "Mon's line of thinking is valid. I would have the same concerns if I were her." She looked deep into the Chandrillan Senator's light eyes. "I assure you that once this war is over, there is nothing I want more than to return to Naboo, leave the Senate even. This war has already cost me and my husband so much. All I want to do is the chance to restart our family. I'm selfish. I'll admit that. I want this war to end so that my husband and I can think about having children again, and know that we can raise them safely under the umbrella of a peaceful and restored Republic. And for the countless families out there who've children just like Anakin and I, and endured further tragedies like lost parents, cousins, friends, livelihoods, some their entire worlds, this compromise does its part to prevent so many refugees from losing even more."

"I'm sorry Padme, I cannot support this legislation," Zar concluded. "We can do better than this referendum, and we must."

"Do you really believe that the Chancellor will voluntarily set aside his powers? If democracy was what gave him his emergency powers in the first place, democracy and the vote of the Senate will be the only thing that can remove them. If we lose the referendum, such is the cost of a democracy and the corruption of our times, but we will try again, and again, because I believe that in the end, freedom will always prevail."

"My stance remains unchanged," Mon said curtly. Padme looked at Bail, hoping for some words of support. It was her only hope now, that he could maybe sway one vote at the table.

"I vote to advance it," Garm said, surprising everyone. "It may end up giving the Galaxy to the Supreme Chancellor, but I cannot live with the blood of millions on my conscience, and Senator Amidala is right. Refugees are dying by the minute and every minute we spend arguing is costing more and more sentient lives."

They all looked at Bail, now that it was clear he would be the deciding vote. He put his head in one hand as he studied the text of the legislation one last time.

"This compromise leaves our one last chance at restoring democracy purely in the hands of hope," he said. "Hope that you and I and everyone in this room can somehow achieve the impossible when the time comes and talk some sense into the Senate. And it effectively asks us to place blind faith in your husband, that he will come around, miraculously enter the political fray, and successfully put to use his very newly discovered political skills to do what we cannot and shake the Senate out of its current mire."

"And the Jedi," Padme added in dismay, as she came to the realization that all her months of work on this bill were about to come to naught. "I'm certain the Jedi will speak for democracy, when the time comes."

"Faith in us, faith in General Skywalker, faith in the Jedi...faith in the fundamental goodness of the Senate." Bail motioned to Garm with his glass, and the Corellian Senator obliged by pouring him some of his concoction. He took a stiff gulp of the liquid and made his decision.

"I will vote to move this bill through committee," he said as Padme saw Mon and Fang Zar shake their heads in disappointment. "How can we serve the Republic if we do not have faith in it? What justice will we achieve if we allow our cynicism to cost countless lives. We must have hope, and we must spread that hope to the rest of Senate when the time comes."

Padme breathed a sigh of relief. Her compromise would pass, seeing as Mas had guaranteed his faction of the vote. But none of the five Senators at the table, whatever their vote, seemed overtly happy from the result.

"Thank you," Padme said later when she visited Bail in his office.

"You miss him," Bail stated. It was a redundant thing to say; of course she missed her husband. But the day's events had left him mentally exhausted and short of words. His face was pale as he considered how he could have potentially just delivered the last nail in the coffin for democracy.

"The work makes it better during the day, though sometimes I wished he could back me up with a lightsaber or two in Senator Amedda's office." Padme laughed sadly. "But when the night comes and I return to my apartment alone, there's nothing else I can think of."

Bail was the only colleague that she felt comfortable confiding with. While her other allies were friends, her relationship with them had always been confined to Senate business. Bail had been the only one who genuinely made an effort to know and understand her husband after their marriage was revealed, and that had meant the world to her.

"I hurt him, Bail. I know it."

"How?"

"I was lost in my grief. I allowed it to consume me for a time, and I forgot to even consider that Anakin was grieving too." She slumped down onto one of the couches in the lobby, pensively gazing at the dusk now encompassing the city.

"We all grieve in our own ways Padme, and none of us are in a position to judge how you could react to such an unbearable tragedy. I'm sure he will forgive you."

"He already has. I blamed him for their deaths too, Bail. I know it's irrational to think that he could have done anything...but his powers and his visions are so strong, I couldn't help but wonder why they didn't show up in time to save our children. I'm sure he knows how I felt...he can sense my feelings better than I can sense them myself sometimes."

Padme paused, eyeing a glass of auburn liqueur on Bail's desk. "And I know he's forgiven me for those feelings as well. He will forgive me anything, do anything for me. And now I have to ask for so much more."

Bail nodded in understanding. "Now we ask him to betray a close friend of his, for the greater good."

"And he will do it too," Padme added, trying to hold back her tears in front of her most valuable political ally. "He will hate himself for it, and he may never forgive his own actions, but he would do it for me all the same."

"Maybe in time, he will understand why it is necessary." Bail had noticed in their last political conversations that Anakin's stance towards the Chancellor's powers was softening in the right direction. He could obviously thank Padme for that, yet then had freely helped himself to the same type of unilateral power that they both condemned.

"And if the referendum fails, we would need to ask for so much more...," Padme said, trailing off at the end. "I believe the Jedi could be convinced of the necessity to remove the Supreme Chancellor's powers."

"Those are dangerous words, Padme," Bail said, his face more ashen than ever. "I know I don't have to warn you to be careful about to who you say them to."

"I know. But these are dangerous times. I pray the words will never translate into action," Padme said, not really believing herself.

The Empress of the known Galaxy was too anxious to work. She had already postponed or cancelled meetings with the Senator from Serenno and the delegation from Eriadu. While it was her prerogative as their sovereign to schedule her day as she pleased, it was still highly irregular for the Empress to fail to meet her obligations, and certainly anything out of the ordinary would send unfavorable gossip running through the corridors of power. Not that she was concerned with any threat of a coup, but Padme knew that chief among her duties was her maintaining her image, and any failure to meet its expectations would be detrimental in the long term to the Empire.

But the Galaxy be damned, today was her exception. She had long known not to be surprised by the impossible after so many years with Anakin, but the prospect of her children, her very dear and very dead children on their way to meet her as grown adults was an impossible concept to comprehend. Anakin himself had seemed giddy in disbelief when he told her the very valuable cargo he was bringing back to Coruscant.

"Think of who we were, Padme, when we were young." he had said. "Before the wars and the politics and all the burdens of the galaxy. They have your idealism and your heart, Padme. They have my power, though barely trained. And despite everything they've been through, they still possess an unfettered ability to hope. Especially Luke."

She skimmed through yet another datapad, barely reading the contents. It was another authorization for yet a new batch of clone troopers…easy approval. A harebrained request for funding for some type of super weapon…quick denial; Padme made a note to herself to tell her husband that he needed to rein in his Research & Development department. A report from her Ahsoka updating her on the status of the Senate corruption probe…this one was important. She reviewed the dossier, struggling to concentrate on its contents.

"Remember my love, we are strangers to them. And they are strangers to us as well. We never had a chance to raise them in their world; they grew and became who they are independent of us. They are forged by their own struggles, and the causes and beliefs that drive them and give their lives meaning …they differ from what we stand for, what we have built." She pondered her husband's words. Her children would not know that their cause was not all that different from what she and Anakin had fought for so long ago.

Anakin was right; she took immense pride in her government, in what she had been able to accomplish in the Galaxy in the last decade. And yet they were trapped together, boxed in by the Empire, the world they had built themselves. But the alternative was inconceivable, a price she could not have paid.

As much as she dreamed of retirement, sitting at the lake in Naboo, travelling and exploring the Galaxy freely with her husband, there were some benefits to being in her position. She smiled at memories of meeting the refugees she had saved, the slaves she had freed from oppression. She smiled too when thought of the men she had condemned to die, corrupt Senators, slavers, and crime bosses whose executions she often felt obliged to personally carry out. Maybe their children would come to understand the choices she had to make; maybe not. But even if they would decide denounce her and her husband, she still wouldn't trade anything for the chance just see their faces again for one second, to gaze into their eyes and understand that however her children might end up feeling about her, those feelings originated from pure hearts and souls...a purity that she and Anakin had lost so long ago.

Their father met them at the landing pad. As they disembarked their shuttle Leia chuckled as she watched Luke gawk around at their surroundings in awe. He had never seen a city, much less one as all-encompassing as the Galactic Capital.

"I think we finally broke the kid," Han remarked, and Leia couldn't help but laugh at her poor brother (and it felt so wonderful to say that in her mind: brother). She studied her surroundings, comparing it with the city she had known in her brief stint on the planet. This empire indeed felt different from hers…lighter, brighter. She had seen more speeders flying through the skyscape, scenes of happy families, and hooligans, and children, and cranky old Rodians…all the disparate elements making up such a vast metropolis living their lives freely without the constant presence of Stormtroopers or imperial spies and the like. But she did not forget either the endless fleet of Star Destroyers orbiting the planet, and what she imagined to be millions of troopers, Clones as they seemed to be called here, floating ominously as they descended onto Coruscant.

"Leia," Luke called out incredulously. "You lived here?"

"For a time," she replied, still lost in her thoughts.

"You know Luke," their father spoke, "I felt the same way when I first arrived here as a child from Tatooine."

"You're from Tatooine?"

"Yes," Anakin replied, motioning for them across the wide veranda, past rows of armed figures wearing golden robes standing sentry. "I lived there with my mother until the Jedi discovered me."

"So you are married to the Empress, I presume." Leia had not been able to stop thinking about this woman who called herself Vader. She wondered what scared her more: the fact that her father was (is) Darth Vader, or that her mother in this world stood atop an Empire that she had devoted her life against. "Does that make you the Emperor?"

Anakin laughed. "Force no. I'm just Anakin. I serve as the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Armed Forces."

"Not even a Prince or something, father? Even Leia's a Princess."

"I'm not really one for titles, but technically I am a Prince, also Archduke, among other things." He gazed longingly at a small woman behind the windows of the residence ahead them.

"Did you hear that Luke," Han asked sardonically. "That makes you a Prince too. Pretty fancy for a farmboy."

"If you insist on being disrespectful, Solo," Anakin said menacingly as he took a deep breath, "I will remind you that my full range of titles include Grand Baron of Utapau, Mustafar, Christophsis, and Stewjon, Viscount of Varykino, Earl of Dantooine and Mygeeto, Count of Tatooine, Ilum, and Castell, Marquess of Serenno and Velusia, Duke of Corellia, Carida, Shili, Champala, and Ryloth, Archduke of Coruscant and Theed, and Prince of Naboo and Otoh Gunga." He frowned. "I think that's almost than half of them."

"Showoff," Leia said. It seemed like grandiosity was even more in vogue here than it was in her Empire.

"Han's from Corellia," Luke added as they approached the apartment opening. He strained to see the woman standing by the doorway and stopped mid-stride when she stepped forward. Leia did as well, grabbing Han's arm to slow him down.

"Great. Then I outrank you in every way imaginable, General Solo. Remember that and act accordingly." Anakin left them and walked up to the woman. Leia watched as he dropped on one knee for a half second, then moved quickly to embrace this woman, her mother.

It was a short hug, and yet she noticed their desperation as they clung to each other fiercely for that brief moment, as if they would never see each other again. She knew they were holding back as well, given their presence here, and winced as she recalled the memory of when the Stormtroopers…and Darth Vader, had pulled Han away from her after that all too brief kiss they shared.

"On one knee," Anakin ordered in a soft voice, and Luke and Leia couldn't help but oblige. Even Han knelt without objecting, though Leia did hear him say under his breath, "never thought I'd ever live to see the day a Wookie bends the knee."

Luke studied his mother as she approached him first. She was short, though slightly taller than his sister, and wore an elegant and most intricate magenta gown that faded to light blue by the time it reached her feet. Her face was showing the first signs of age, with small lines beside her mouth and weary circles below her soft brown eyes.

"My son," she gasped, and Luke immediately felt a sense of shyness around her. She brought her hand towards his face and hesitated, as if seeking permission. Luke smiled, and she touched his cheek, tracing the line of his face down around his chin.

"You've grown up," she said, tears welling in her eyes, and embraced him fiercely. Luke had just met this woman, and yet in her arms he felt such warmth and peace as he had never before. It felt like he had finally returned home, after a lifetime away, and he never wanted to leave again. "Your father tells me you've become a formidable warrior in your world."

"I still have a lot to learn," Luke replied sheepishly, proud that his father would regard him in such a light, despite his defeat on Endor.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, Luke. That you had to go it alone."

"I had help," Luke said. He looked at his sister behind him. "I don't think I could have made it without them."

She pulled away from him and in a quick motion with her wrists wiped her tears away, walking up to Leia next.

"You're Padme Amidala," Leia recognized. She held her hands out and met her mother's, greeting each other like politicians. "Fath…Bail Organa told me stories about you. You were a queen and a Senator…and a good friend of his."

"We are still friends," Padme assured her. "And the Chancellor is one of my most valued advisors. He will be present at the Council meeting this afternoon. You may join us if you wish."

Leia's face did not react but Luke could easily sense the sudden burst of excitement emanating from his sister.

"He always told me you were the conscience of the Senate in a very dark time." Leia said, puzzled. She had wondered whether their birth mother in this world would be the same as in hers. Having heard her adoptive father's stories about the great Senator Amidala, it only made sense that she would give her child to Bail to raise. But this did not add up.

"He said", Leia continued, "that you embodied the ideals of the Republic, that you were the champion of democracy."

Padme sighed. She looked at Luke. "I was elected the Queen of Naboo at a very young age. It was a different time in our galaxy. I took the regal title of Amidala, which means 'eternal peace' in one of my planet's more obscure dialects. I believed that such name would auger well for my people, and as Senator, the Republic. It was not meant to be. The year I became Amidala was the year peace began its fall in the Galaxy."

She shook her head, still holding on to her daughter's hands, and pulled her closer. "Anakin tells me you are strong in ways I cannot imagine. Perhaps I have much to learn from you in that regard."

"And I from you as well," Leia finally relented. Like Luke, she gave in to her mother's embrace and wondered what it would have been like to be raised by this formidable woman, similar in her love and gentility to Breha, yet different in so many other ways.

Padme moved to the next man in line, having greeted her own children like she would a diplomatic delegation. Which they were in a way, she mused, as they apparently represented an entirely different universe.

"General Solo," she said, shaking his hand with one hand and clasping her other hand over his. "Despite everything my husband said about you, it's obvious that you care very much for Luke and Leia, and you were there for them in times good and bad. I thank you for taking care of them in Anakin and I's absence."

"Thank you, your…," Han paused, and whispered at Leia. "What exactly do you call an Empress? Your Highnessness…ness?"

"Your Grace," Anakin said loudly. "Don't forget again, Solo."

"Ani," Padme chided in a good-natured voice. "Be nice to our guests."

Han watched the man who would be Darth Vader smirk in response, and look down at his feet almost in shame.

"She called Vader Ani," he whispered to Leia as the Empress made her way to the final member of their entourage.

"Chewbacca," she said, raising her head at their tall companion. "You have fought bravely with Captain Solo and my children. I extend you the same gratitude to you from the bottom of my heart, and hope that you will be there alongside them for many years to come."

The Wookie uttered a soft grunt in response.

"I have also heard that Palpatine's Empire committed great horrors on your world where you come from. I assure you that Kashykk is a thriving world in my Empire, just as free and wonderful as it has always been in the days before the Clone Wars."

Chewbacca responded in a voice that sounded like a longing purr.

"Anakin and I are planning on departing for Naboo after the Council meeting tonight. I hope you and General Solo will accompany us. My nieces have always wanted to meet a Wookie. Afterwards, perhaps we can arrange for you to visit your home planet. Many of your friends could still be alive in this world."

Chewbacco replied with another happy growl, and Han laughed. "I think Chewie's getting soft in his old age." He was happy for his friend, and for Leia. For all that they did not like about the politics here, and despite a very unfriendly Vader/Anakin, the prospect that they could find old friends long thought dead warmed his heart. He wondered if there was anything in this world for him.

The Empress walked back to Leia. "I am so sorry that you all had to endure such horrors at such a young age. I hope that your time in this world will allow you to heal and gain a measure of closure to the trials that have plagued your lives."

Anakin walked up to his son and tentatively placed a hand on his shoulder. "Your mother is amazing, isn't she?"

"She's everything I ever imagined," Luke replied. He looked down at his father's belt, examining the lightsaber that he had wielded himself for many years. His father in this world was a stern man, strong but clearly a far cry from evil. He could feel in his mother's presence a strength and determination that reminded him of Leia, as well as a deep seeded pain that he suspected had something to do with his and Leia's alleged deaths in this world.

"You love her very much, don't you," Luke asked. His father was emanating emotions like love, and joy, and pride, that he could never imagine coming from Darth Vader.

"She is my soul. The reason I live. I need her more than the air I breathe."

Luke had often wondered whether there was still a chance, however slim, that his mother had survived on his world. Seeing her and hearing his father speak about her, Luke knew that she must have passed, for there was no way his father could have fallen into the darkness of Darth Vader with this wife alive and by his side.

"Let us sit down," Padme said as she walked back to her husband's side, bowing before her guests. "My handmaidens will provide us with refreshments. I'm sure you are all starving, seeing as a starship is no place for proper hospitality."

As they walked into the apartment Han whispered again to Leia, eyes wide, "she called Vader Ani!"

Luke gawked openly once more at the ornate art and furniture decorating the apartment. Their quarters on the Naberrian were surprisingly tasteful for a military airship, and now Luke knew where that taste had came from. He peeked at one holoimage on the wall. It was a celebration of some kind, and Luke recognized his mother under the layers of ceremonial makeup. She was very young, and Luke surmised that the holo was taken when she was still just a Queen. He squinted at the holo, studying the face and eyes of small boy in the group.

"That's Anakin," his mother said as she walked up to him. She gazed longingly at the image. "He was only nine years old. My planet was under attack, and I was rescued by the Jedi. Our ship broke and we were stranded on Tatooine."

"I've never would've imagined Darth Vader looking so...bratty," Han whispered to Leia as they approached the holo as well.

"Anakin," Padme interrupted just as her husband looked like he was about to say something in return. "Anakin, rather than plot further ways to insult our childrens' dear friend and our guest, why don't you make yourself useful and check up on C-3PO? Remind him that we require additional servings for tonight."

"Of course, milady," Anakin muttered as he slouched away into the kitchen.

"You have C-3PO," Luke exclaimed in surprise.

"We've always had him," Padme said, wondering why the concept seemed so novel to her son. "Anakin built him when he was nine, as a gift for his mother."

"Great," Han said. "Leia, if you want to kill me, do it now. I don't think I can face Goldenrod and Darth Vader with their powers combined."

"Have some respect, Han," Leia said tartly. 'Even if I'm still adjusting to the idea, he's still my father."

"Sorry," Han said, dismayed that the Empress's rather domineering way of handling her husband was now rubbing off on her daughter.

"3PO has served us capably in our world too," Luke said, as he broke away from the holo and walked towards the parlor, where several plates of colorful fruits and jars of wine already awaited them. A nagging thought stayed in his head. "Along with R2-D2."

"R2 was originally my droid from my time as Queen." As her guests sat Padme began pouring the wine herself into their glasses. "It makes sense that they would have been passed on to you, even if Anakin and I were...no longer part of your lives."

She drank first. "Please. This is the finest vintage from the Lakes district."

"Not too bad for fancy stuff," Han said as he cupped the glass awkwardly. "So what happened on Tatooine, your Grace?" He never remembered much of Galactic history and was genuinely curious about what a young Darth Vader would've been like.

"We scoured the planet looking for replacement parts for our ship, and encountered your father in a small junk shop. Anakin was a slave, yet all he wanted to do was to help a group of strangers he had never met."

"Father was a slave?" Luke was dumbfounded by this latest revelation. He knew that slavery existed on Tatooine of course, but had trouble reconciling the idea of either version of his father, the great Jedi warrior, or evil enforcer of the Empire, to having grown up in bondage.

Padme nodded. "His master was kind to him, relatively speaking. And Anakin volunteered a great gamble that won us the parts we needed, risking his own life in the process. The Jedi Master Qui-Gon saw his potential and freed him. When we returned to Naboo to free our planet, Anakin fired the pivotal shots of that battle as well, destroying the control ship of the droid army. Even at such a young age, he was so powerful, and so generous with his power and willing to help others. I know that in your world he was twisted by the machinations of Palpatine into something horrible. And even here, he can come across as cold and aloof sometimes."

"Slavery must have hardened him," Leia said. She could never imagine growing up in such a horrible way, and considered herself lucky that her upbringing taught her to never take her own privileges for granted. It was one of the driving forces of her quest to free all the sentients that the Empire had enslaved.

"Slavery, the war, his Jedi training, Palpatine. Give him time, that's all I ask of you. He's very careful about who he trusts, but once he lets you in, he will devote his entire heart to you, I am sure."

A small smile appeared on the Empress's face. "It was different when he was young. He trusted all of us...me, the Jedi, our friend Jar-Jar, immediately. I was in disguise as a handmaiden, and his first words to me was to call me an angel and tell me I was beautiful. He then told me he was going to marry me. I laughed at him of course, but he got the last laugh on that one. We met again ten years later just as the Clone Wars were beginning, and I had no chance."

"Geez," Han said to Leia, looking around the room carefully to see if Anakin had returned. "You're lucky, Princess, that I wasn't so smooth at that age. Or there'd be none of me left for you."

"Don't underestimate yourself, General Solo," the Empress said warmly to him. "I'm sure no daughter of mine would be easily courted."

"The two of you were meant to be," Luke said sadly, thinking out loud about what could have gone so wrong to make his father fall in his world. While he wasn't entirely sure, he had a feeling that their parents' earlier years on his world had transpired the same way as Padme described here. "Both of you must have suffered so much where we come from, for things to have turned out the way they did."

"Your father is a good man," Padme said, staring at Leia as she said the words. "He is kind, and caring, and filled with endless love for those he feels for. But he is not a saint, and I know...I've seen firsthand...that he would do anything to protect the people who matter to him. His powers give him the ability to see visions of the future, yet those visions are a curse as well, especially for one so young at the time."

Padme poured herself another glass of wine, and Luke saw the way her fingers shook as she did so. He regretted bringing the course of the conversation to such a dark place, when all of this, ideology aside, should have been a purely happy occasion.

The Empress continued. "When we were reunited after those ten years, Anakin was suffering from nightmares of his mother. He saw your grandmother Shmi in pain, dying. We flew to Tatooine, but it was too late by then. Your father found himself in a dark place, but the cruelty of the Clone Wars didn't even give him a chance to mourn. Mere days later we were caught up on Geonesis, in the first battle of the Clone Wars."

"He failed though," Leia said. "Bail told me Amidala had died in childbirth at the end of the Clone Wars. Obviously we were raised in secret away from Darth Vader. When he met me he tortured me, and took Luke's hand with a lightsaber at their reunion. Some protection."

"To be fair," Luke added, "Vader did not know who Leia was really was at the time. He still doesn't. I didn't find out until just days ago." And it already feels like years, he thought.

"When the two of you died here, we were both tormented by our failures to save you." Leia observed her mother's eyes reddening. "Had events transpired like you described, I have no doubt that Anakin would have tormented himself endlessly with guilt and anger, perhaps until there was little left of him. I realize in talking to you how lucky I am here. In time, Anakin has been able to manage his visions, and use them to the benefit of the Galaxy. But he has long told me about darker visions...many possibilities of what could have happened in those troubled times..." She stopped, not wanting to go into further detail.

"But Luke, if in some manner you are able to return to your world, you have to know that despite everything you've seen, under it all your father is a good man. And he would care deeply for you, whether he even realizes it or not."

"I knew already," Luke said to Han and Leia's surprise. "I felt it when he confronted me, even when we dueled. He held back and refused to kill me."

"Father said he killed the Emperor," Luke said after they all seemed to take a long sip of their wine. "How exactly did that happen?"

"In the end, Anakin almost single-handedly won the Clone Wars. With the conflict over, the Supreme Chancellor had no reason to keep his war powers. He orchestrated a supposed coup as a pretense to eliminate the Jedi. Though Anakin was no longer a Jedi by that time, he confronted Palpatine in the Senate chambers when the Jedi failed."

"He hurt my family," Anakin said coldly as he walked back into the room, looking pointedly at Han as he did so. He sat himself next to his wife and placed his arm protectively around her. "That was his undoing. He was the mastermind behind the horrors of the Clone Wars, and he was the one ultimately responsible for the attack that killed the two of you."

"And yet the Republic still fell, despite the death of the Emperor," Leia said bitterly. Han braced himself as Leia finally gave voice to the bantha in the room.

"The Republic fell long before that," Padme asserted defensively. "It was hopelessly corrupt, and most importantly, it failed to protect the very planets it served. Entities like the Banking Clan and the Trade Federation had more power than honest politicians like Bail Organa. When the latter attacked my home planet, the Republic was helpless, and Anakin and I had to take back Naboo on our own. The Jedi accompanied us, but even they were hampered by the complexities of their code from bringing justice about."

"So you gave up hope on freedom and democracy."

"We still have democracy, Leia. The Senate remains strong, and Bail Organa as Chancellor is a great leader who continues to ensure the voices of all sentients in the Galaxy are heard. But some things are too important to be left to legislative debate. The Senate is a slow process, and meant to be slow for the purposes it serves. But as a mother, I swore that I would no longer allow a world where children, fathers, mothers die needlessly due to procedures and codes. And Leia, I promise you that freedom is the highest priority in my Empire. Dissent is allowed for the most part, in the Senate and in all worlds. And where freedom needs protection from itself, because a free world will always give freedom to those who mean to oppress others, it is only the Empire that can step in and protect the people from themselves."

"It all sounds so nice, doesn't it, when you're the one who gets to decide whose freedom takes priority" Leia replied dryly. She set down her wine and stared at this Empress Vader. "Tell that to the rebels we just saw slaughtered."

"They meant harm to my children," Anakin said, interrupting the debate between mother and daughter. "I may not have raised you, or known you, but you are my children all the same."

"Leia," Padme added, "I have a feeling the rebellion I am faced with is a vastly different rebellion that the three of you led."

"It is far weaker," Anakin said. "The Rebel Alliance you serve has clearly attracted to it people of the strongest caliber, in addition to its share of smugglers and the like. Here, it recruits really only the fringes, the purists, idealists, and the misfits of the world, along with opportunists. The woman who took you hostage, she is a fugitive former Jedi who set off a bomb in the old Jedi Temple and murdered members of her own order. She also framed a fellow Jedi, who happened to be a good friend of mine, and that might have been the only reason her crime was discovered. I regret that we did what we had to do to rescue you from their base. I prefer to not engage the rebellion at all, not out of mercy, but because even acknowledging them escalates their political legitimacy."

"I don't know much about politics Leia," Han said. "But I have to believe that your father, the Organa one, wouldn't suck up to an Empire as evil as Palpatine's."

You have no idea, Leia thought, recalling her adoptive father's struggles to keep his support for the Rebel Alliance a secret. But she did sense that Bail's role in the Empire here was vastly different, as Palpatine would never have granted him any significant power, much less leadership of the Senate. On the other hand, all of this could be lip service, to her, and relative to her adopted father's position. "I suppose I will have to see how things work myself and be the judge."

"You will," Anakin replied. "And your mother and I will not judge you any differently however you decide to feel about us."

"Why Vader," Leia asked. "Why take that name, especially now that you know the significance of that title?"

"I felt it appropriate," Padme said, looking away as two handmaidens came and set onto the table a round of pre meal delicacies. "I am proud of what I have achieved under the name Amidala, but the Galaxy needed more than Amidala. I did not want to confuse the legacy of who I once was with what I had to do to bring about peace."

"Do we have brothers or sisters here," Luke asked, hoping to change the subject to something lighter. He as well as Leia had so many more questions about how things worked in this world, such as what was the fate of the Jedi order, but right now he just wanted to get to know who his parents were as people.

Now his father looked away from them. "Unfortunately, your mother is unable to bear any more children."

"What happened," Leia asked. One thing she could easily sympathize with her mother was the devastation of losing her children. She herself had lived through the death of her family, as well as her entire planet and all the heritage and memories it held, and she was determined to have children one day so she could continue the legacy of Alderaan through them. The thought of that denied would terrify her.

"Palpatine attacked me as he and Anakin fought in front of the Senate, with what is known as Sith Lightning."

Luke shuddered upon hearing the words...Yoda had warned him vaguely about that certain power of the dark side, telling him it was the vilest and most damaging manipulation of the Force.

"He meant to taunt your father, to unbalance him, but he wanted to torment me too, just for cruelty's sake. As the pain hit me, I saw brief visions of a dark future...of Anakin kneeling before him and pledging himself to the Dark Side, and Palpatine giving him the title you knew him as. Anakin defeated him anyway, but his attack on me damaged my body." She paused, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples slowly, and none dared to interrupt her during such as harrowing recollection.

"I am lucky. It could have been so much worse, especially if Anakin had not stopped him so quickly. But my infertility is a consequence of the attack."

"I'm so sorry," Han said. He had learned to care about politics just a little in recent years, but right now he knew that the woman before him, Empire or not, had a good heart and did not deserve that kind of pain inflicted on her, no more than Leia deserved to be tortured at the hands of Darth Vader.

"Thank you Han," Padme replied graciously. "It is in the past now, and we must move on from it."

"Palpatine suffered," Anakin added in a dark tone. "For your pain, and for your mother's, I made sure he suffered a billionfold."

Luke did not want to imagine how his father could have made the Emperor suffer. "Is that what you want," he asked instead, recalling his conversation with Vader on Bespin. "For my sister and I to inherit the Empire from you one day?"

Anakin laughed while Han shook his head, muttering something about farmboy emperors. "My son, getting ahead of himself already. A Skywalker indeed."

Padme placed her hand on her husband's leg, gently admonishing him. "Despite her protests, my sister Sola Naberrie is next in line for the throne. I have a feeling that once they come of age, one of her daughters, Ryoo or Pooja, will take her place as my successor. Not that I will disqualify either of you, but many things will have to happen for the line of succession to change. You will have to want a claim, knowing full well its burdens and what would be required of you. I will judge that alongside the wishes of my sister's family, and the Electors will have to determine whether you are true of heart and your intentions pure."

"Electors?" At this point Leia did not know what to think of her mother's Empire as she tried to ponder the ramifications of everything she was learning.

"Yes. Any line of succession must be voted on by the designated Electors, and reapproved prior to coronation."

A small black haired handmaiden approached the party. "I'm sorry to interrupt, your Grace, but Senator Karryne has arrived."

"It's a complicated process," Padme explained, as Leia saw traces of a diplomatic smile return to her mother's face. "One that I will describe to you in due time. But the Imperial Council is about to arrive."

She stood and nodded at Han. "General Solo and Chewbacca, I doubt you wish to listen to us drone on endlessly. I have asked my good friend Eirtae to take you on a tour of the district." Padme gestured with her arm at a pretty blonde woman, around the Empress's age, approaching them. "Luke and Leia, you can join them if you wish, or sit in on the Council meeting if you are curious. Chancellor Organa is on his way, and he is accompanied by Master Kenobi."

"Ben...Obi-Wan's alive," Luke said, his eyes lighting up.

"And as delightful as ever," Padme said, clearly cheered at her son's joy. "The Jedi failed the Republic, and their era has ended. Chancellor Organa agreed to take in what remained of the Order on Alderaan, and Master Obi-Wan represents the interests of the Jedi from exile on my Council."

Luke puzzled at all of this even as he sensed the familiar presence approaching them.

Chapter Text

"This is clearly a trap," Mace Windu intoned ominously, "and you're leading us right into the thick of it."

"We have received good intelligence that the Separatist Council is holed up on Utapau. It's less than two days away. Surely you wish to end the war in one fell swoop, Master Windu?" The Supreme Commander of the Republic betrayed no emotion as he stood transfixed by the viewport, concentrating on everything and nothing at all in the command room of the Resolute.

"The intelligence is flimsy at best," Windu countered, "and has not been vetted by either the Jedi Council or Coruscant."

"Why should that matter," Anakin asked impassively. "I am the Supreme Command. If I declare it valid, then so it will be."

Mace had been unnerved when Skywalker had ordered all three armies to cease communications with the capital world, including the Jedi Temple. He had no choice to obey, and surprisingly the move had paid off. Their initial campaign had been frustrating as they made their way through the Outer Rim, gaining small victories in freeing worlds from Separatist control, but the bulk of the enemy army had always been able to get away and live to threaten the Republic another day.

Skywalker suspected that there was a leak in Coruscant, at the heart of the very Senate. While Mace did not tell him, his suspicions did fit the Council's conjectures that the Sith was influencing events at the core of the Republic, even possibly in the Chancellor's inner circles. And since they had cut off communication and began coordinating the entire conduct of the war through Skywalker alone, it had been hard to argue with his success, with each move yielding bigger and more devastating victories. Their most recent win had been perhaps most significant. Barely off a defeat of Grievous himself on Roon, Skywalker had pursued him to Ryloth, beating him to the besieged world and clearing the CIS presence before reinforcements had arrived. When they did, they were no match for the 501st, the final attack on the Invisible Hand led by Skywalker personally.

It was the same with Master Kenobi and Master Koon's armies; with Skywalker directing their movements from across the Galaxy, they had been handing the Separatists defeat after defeat in their respective sectors as well. But it was the pace of the war that was worrying to Mace. Skywalker made no attempt to regroup, rest his weary armies, and consolidate his gains. Like an impatient child, one goal accomplished meant only an even more accelerated pace towards the next one, the burden left on the Republic and politicians like his wife to clean up the mess they left behind. And while both he and Senator Skywalker's efforts had been was successful thus far, Mace was worried that all this success was going to overwhelm them all.

"Our armies are spread too thin. If the reports on Utapau are true, then I agree, the war is practically won, especially if we can finally apprehend Grievous this time." He was as angry as Skywalker that the CIS general had eluded them on Ryloth; seeing the battle was over, the Kaleeshi General had abandoned his command before the Third Army had moved in to engage the bulk of his fleet.

"But if the reports are false, Anakin, it would lead us further away from Master Kenobi's positions."

"My orders stand," the Supreme Commander said, unmoved.

"Anakin!" Mace shouted almost to the point of insubordination, though the concept that he prostrate himself to a twenty-two year old rogue Jedi was absurd in itself. Many things would change with the war ended, they all knew, and the fate of Skywalker loomed large on the minds of all on the Council. "Master Koon is on the other side of the Rim in Muunilinst. You are leaving a gap in our forces right into the core worlds! We are committing everything to Utapau, and if the main Separatist army does not materialize there...they would be free to attack Alderaan...or even the Capital! Don't you see?"

Mace clearly saw this shatterpoint, those vergences in the Force that had the power to affect the future in one way or the other. Skywalker as a boy had arrived in the Jedi Temple surrounded by them, and that had stayed constant over his years apprenticed to Master Kenobi. In time, Mace would see those shatterpoints spread to Senator Amidala as well, and eventually their twin children, while they were alive. They still swirled around the Senator the last time he had observed her on the Capital world, and that was disturbing enough, but what scared him the most was the lack of not just shatter points but of any presence in the Force now surrounding his new Commander. Anakin, it seemed, was a void in space and time, a vacuum in the Force strangely absent from the battle between Light and Dark swelling through the Galaxy. Once again Mace cursed how easily the Council had let Skywalker go, and how pliable they were to the Chancellor's demands. Had Anakin still been in the Order, he would have never been allowed to go by himself to the dark world of Korriban after the Senate bombing, much less flaunt his wife and kids freely through the Galaxy.

"Do not forget your place, Master Windu. Your only responsibility is to carry out my commands within the Third Army. Nothing more. Besides," Skywalker said, eyes closed, "I have ordered Master Kenobi back to guard the Core routes."

"While taking away half his army for your next offensive," Mace protested with as much anger as was allowed a Jedi. "If the Separatists elude us and counterattack, your former Master is as good as dead."

The Master Jedi narrowed his eyes, coming to a realization. "It's almost as if you are doing your best to destroy the Jedi on purpose, with the Republic along with them."

"I find your lack of faith disturbing, Master Windu. You see a shatterpoint around our events here, I presume?"

Mace wondered at his superior, who almost looked as if he was in deep meditation; he would even believe it if he didn't know Anakin too well from his early years in the Temple.

"Yes. This will make or break the war for us."

Anakin turned with what Mace saw was a trace of a smile on his lips, a sign of his arrogance to the Jedi Master.

"Do you ever wonder, Master Windu," Anakin asked in a low voice, "what it's like to see beyond just one shatterpoint? How it feels to know the course of Force itself?"

He walked impassively by the Jedi Master and to the Clone Commander.

"Rex, continue the course I have set. No one is to know," he said, looking back at Master Windu, "and no one is to alter it in any way."

The Imperial Council made its decisions in surprisingly casual settings, Leia decided, watching the proceedings. She and Luke sat in yet another plush red couch, one of countless ones in the Empress's apartment, and to their left was Chancellor Organa, leaning forward towards the Empress, and the not so old Jedi who slumped next to him in his coarse gray robes. Their father sat in a lone chair placed diagonally to the Empress's right, between her and Kenobi. Across from them on a wide golden chaise were a small Togrutan and an older human woman with short dark brown hair, neither of whom Leia had been able to immediately place.

"If Rodia wishes to support the Risi regime, we must hear them out," the human woman continued. Her name was Mina Bonteri, Leia had learned, and the former Separatist Senator had now been granted a position as the High Imperial Ambassador, a vastly important role which supervised an infinite amount of diplomats representing the Empire to all its subservient worlds across the Galaxy. "They have legitimate concerns about the integrity of their sovereignty."

"Their concerns," Anakin stated sternly, "is that they be free to kill each other with impunity, to form local militias and clans and engage in the barbarity that the Empire has left in the past."

"Thousands of years of culture cannot be overturned overnight," the Ambassador explained. "By banning the profession of bounty hunting, you are sending thousands of Rodians adrift through the Galaxy, harboring violent tendencies which remain unchanged, and with nowhere to direct their energies."

"They can always join the Army. My Clones will keep them in line."

"What if they don't want to? Do you plan to force them?"

"Do you plan to allow special exemptions to freely violate the Vader Doctrine?" The rhetoric escalated, but Leia noticed that none dared to raise their voices.

"The Vader Doctrine," Padme turned to explain to her children, "maintains the principle that the Empire holds the sole monopoly of violence in the Galaxy. The only source of legitimate violence is through the sovereignty of the Empire and its agencies, and the employment of violence by lesser entities such as planetary governments, private corporations, or the Jedi, is allowed only through the legitimacy of Imperial power, passed directly from the sovereign to lesser, non-Imperial planetary authority, subject to constant supervision and surveillance and immediate removal if powers local violate the basic tenets of the Empire."

"Director Tano," the Empress turned towards the young Togrutan woman. She took another sip of her wine, and all five Council members drank theirs in turn obediently. "What information do you have on Tervian Risi's support?"

"His base stems from many of the old clans who freely wielded power in the days of the Republic. Certainly the influx of migrants, many of them former bounty hunters and mercenaries, have disrupted the local economy, displacing the balance of castes established at the before the Clone Wars. Rodia has always been a stronghold for the Hard Loyalists, and Risi has strongly made the case of Rodian sovereignty and self rule over the years." The Hard Loyalists were a faction that supported the immediate decentralization, even dismemberment, of the Empire and wished to return the Galaxy to the home rule similar in the days of the Republic, perhaps even to a higher degree. The Chancellor headed the Soft Loyalist faction, who supported the structure of Empire and but worked to lessen its centralized powers. Padme's friend Eirtae, who now accompanied Han and Chewbacca somewhere in the Senate District, led the Soft Imperialists, and her alliance with Bail allowed him to keep command of the Senate. The two "Soft" factions dominated most of the chamber; there were few Hard Loyalists or Imperialists, though based on their discussions thus far, Leia suspected her father would fall into the latter were he to hold a political office.

"The instability reached a breaking point last year," Ahsoka continued, "and with a Hard Loyalist wave approaching, the old clans lent their support to Risi, allowing him to sweep the elections."

"He's a populist, despite his support from the elite" the Empress said, adjusting the crown that she now wore before the official audience. The centerpiece of it were the three gemstones in the forefront, two small octagonal green ones flanking a blue diamond-shaped stone in the middle. Luke had told her that these were the same gemstones that the Jedi used to craft their lightsabers. "He took advantage of a regional anxiety to his benefit and personal gain."

"And yet it raises valid questions," Bail said, "of whether the Empire is paying heed to the needs of the Rodian populace. I do not suggest we allow them to militarize, but perhaps a compromise can be reached."

"What do you suggest, Chancellor?" Padme leaned forward in interest. She took another sip of wine, and again all five members of the Council drank theirs obligingly. Leia noticed Luke sipping on his glass all too happily as well, not noticing that much of this Galaxy's decisions were being made in a drunken stupor. She did acknowledge however that no one besides Luke seemed to be feeling the effects of the alcohol.

"We allow Risi to create a limited number of Home Rule brigades, under the supervision of the Empire, of course. Let Rodia know that we will permit them some measure of their traditions."

"And give a dictator in waiting the means to oppress his own people and oppose the Empire itself once his arrogance reaches that point?" Anakin furrowed his eyebrows in disappointment. "I've met this Risi once, and he does not exude good intent. He speaks disgusting rhetoric and spreads vile slanders of his Monarch. I propose we let one of Director Tano's agents take care of him."

"Patience, Anakin," the Empress responded. "He will die."

Padme turned to Leia and Luke and added, "if his actions justify it, of course. Which they typically do, in my experience. Petty local tyrants cannot help themselves from committing capital crimes."

"With respect, your Grace," Bail protested, "I cannot keep my coalition afloat in the face of another Imperial action such as General Skywalker is suggesting. Senator Bel Iblis has been quite vocal in his concerns. If he withdraws his votes, I cannot guarantee passage of the Army's funding for the next year."

The Empress turned to Bonteri. "Mina, give the Rodian Ambassador permission to create five Home Rule brigades."

While all save the Jedi voiced their opinions during the debate, none reacted once the Empress had made her decision. She continued.

"Anakin, cut Rodia off from all trade routes. Allow in only basic foodstuffs, waters, and medical supplies, with no limitations. Let in spice and low-grade ales as well, but no luxury goods of any type. The clans will be punished for their intransigence, while the general populace will turn on Risi when they find that he has exacerbated rather than mend their economic woes."

The Empress turned to the Togrutan. "Ahsoka, employ additional agents on the ground to monitor the abuse of the Home Rule Brigades by the Governor. Initiate a corruption probe as well, find every credit he's ever given or received, uncover every one of his friends, allies, family members and their connections to the Governor, and dig into every cent of their accounts as well."

She finally returned her gaze to her children. "We give him the rope. The Governor and his sycophants will decide whether or not to fashion the noose. If they do, we use it. Liberally. And Anakin? Chancellor Organa?"

"Yes, your Grace," they both replied meekly.

"General Skywalker, I suggest you do better than some cheap Corellian whiskey next time in keeping Senator Bel Iblis...happy. And Chancellor Organa, remember that if your coalition does fall, I will be more than willing to allow Senator Karryne to form one with the Hard Imperialists."

"Yes, your Grace," both of Leia's father figures echoed obediently.

Satisfied, they underwent another round of the wine ritual as a flurry of handmaidens came up and refilled all their glasses.

"Next is Mandalore," the Empress said dejectedly. "I presume the situation has worsened?"

"Unfortunately, their water reserves are running low, enough to sustain the system for maybe another two standard months," the lone Jedi in the room said sadly. Two Jedi, Leia thought, if you included Luke.

"There is no progress in the trilateral talks with the Stadtholder of Thustra to end the water trade embargo?"

"Lord Krimli is adamant that the importance of Aquaris as a source of water has been exploited by the Empire and nearby systems," Bonteri replied. "He is refusing to negotiate unless his planet receives an exemption from all trade taxes."

"We believe members of the Mandalorian Death Watch has infiltrated the High Lord's inner circle," Ahsoka added. "They are hoping to use unrest from the water shortage to oust the Duchess and her regime. There are grumblings amongst the people that only aggressive actions can force the Thustrans to relent."

"Your Grace," Anakin said pointedly, "with all due respect, it is your relationship with your old friend that has held you back from treating this situation as you would any other system. The crisis is now on the edge of a humanitarian crisis, and this water embargo has implications far beyond just Mandalore. Were tragedy to be accompanied by the localized violence of the Death Watch to infect the key system of the Outer Rim, trust in the Empire would fade quickly and we could have a repeat of the Separatist crisis. Insurrection looms if Mandalore cannot be held."

"My former friend," Padme corrected sadly, and another round of wine drinking commenced. "As distressing as her positions may be, she is still far preferable to any of her rivals."

"The Duchess Satine is a staunch pacifist," Mina said to Leia, seeming to recognize an ideological ally in the young woman.

"She refuses the presence of an Imperial Army in her system, yet from the Clone Wars onwards it has only been army after army, with the support of Director Tano's agents, that have kept her in power, much less alive. On a peaceful planet," Anakin mused, "such as Naboo or Alderaan such a visionary may be free to reign for generations without worry. But the Mandalorian traditions of violence make it impossible for such a regime to maintain power under her ideological rigidity!"

"But that tradition of violence is precisely why she must remain true to her beliefs," Mina argued back. "Giving in to force just slightly will tempt even the most pacifist of regimes on that planet to relapse to their old ways. The Duchess understands that, and we must trust her to understand her own peoples and traditions better than we do."

"The Duchess is a wise ruler," the Chancellor said. "She must keep true to her principles, else her rivals would brand her a hypocrite. But she has been practical enough to accept outside help in the past, when the situation has become desperate. Overreach however, and she will push back hard."

"And vocally," the Empress added sadly. "We all remember the Tarkin incident."

"The Tarkin incident?" Leia couldn't help but interrupt. She certainly didn't remember this incident, but she remembered the man responsible for destroying her homeworld, more blood on his hands than even Darth Vader.

"Admiral Tarkin was known to have made cause with the rebellion in the early years of the Empire," her father replied. Leia wondered how the other Council members felt about how either Anakin or the Empress would constantly interrupt their debates to explain the background to the two newcomers. "He spearheaded the irresponsible prosecution of Director Tano at the end of the Clone Wars, falsely accusing her of the terrorist act against the Jedi Temple, and had passed upon her the death sentence. Once the truth was known, he knew that his career was at an end under Imperial auspices and decided that his fate lay with the rebellion. He requested asylum on Mandalore, which was granted by the Duchess."

"Imperial justice always takes precedence over local sovereignty," the Empress continued, "but then, as now, I made an exception for Satine. The final straw came when the Admiral managed to secure the defection of an entire fleet, formerly under his command, to the rebellion. Anakin led three whole divisions to apprehend him despite the Duchess's protests, but Tarkin had escaped by then, and Satine was none too pleased by the intrusion of the military into Mandalorian airspace for the first time since the Clone Wars."

She had held back during most of the meeting, keenly letting herself observe the senior officials of the Empire debate (and drink) in silence, but she could not hold her tongue, and hoped that the Council would forgive her. "He is a vile creature who ordered the destruction of Alderaan. He would not espouse the true principles of democracy, and I suspect he must be using the rebellion for his own purposes."

She noticed Bail perk up and examine her carefully as she mentioned the fate of their own planet. He had greeted her warmly upon his arrival at the Empress's apartment, accompanied by Kenobi, but she knew well that his kindness towards her was purely perfunctory, having only known her as an infant in this world. He looked as she remembered when she was a young child, but she saw none of the warmness and love in the eyes, once only reserved for her. In its place was a sense of sadness, and weariness, even more apparent than she remembered in Palpatine's Empire.

"Be mindful around him," Padme had said to her before he arrived. "He is under a lot of strain right now. There are...issues at home he is dealing with at the moment. I have briefed the entire council on you and Luke and where you come from, so Bail will be aware of what he is to you, but I'm afraid it will take time before you can truly form a relationship with him."

"Your observation is a wise one," the Empress said, breaking her reverie, and Leia felt a pang of shame in her joy at her mother's approval. "But Tarkin is not the issue at hand right now."

"I propose we show our hand, albeit in a limited manner." Leia was surprised to see Anakin almost wink at the Empress as he continued. "Perhaps the Jedi can investigate the true nature of the Thustran motiviations, and whether reports of the Death Watch resurfacing are overblown. Their neutrality is respected, even by the Duchess."

"As long as it's a limited presence, with only one or two Jedi acting ambassadors and not as combatants," Mina conceded, "I believe the Duchess will accept their presence."

"It is not her prerogative to decide, but so be it." Anakin turned mischievously to Obi-Wan, and despite having no Jedi senses, Leia could tell that Luke's old Master was trying too hard not to show his feelings for some strange reason. "Obi-Wan...you haven't lost any of that Negotiator charm, have you?"

"I assure you I can still hold my own as a diplomat, Anakin. But there are far more qualified members of the Jedi who could undertake such a task. May I suggest Master Olin?"

"Anakin is right," the Empress overruled. "Sending a member of the Jedi Council will impress upon the Duchess the importance of the crisis to the Jedi. Sending a member of my Council will properly communicate the gravity of her situation from the Empire's point of view."

"Of course your Grace," the Master Jedi conceded reluctantly. "I am in a corner, and your reasoning leaves me no room for argument. I will depart at once for Mandalore."

"The Duchess waits with bated breath," Anakin said smugly, and again Leia wondered what the inside joke was. "Luke."

"Yes father," he replied, shocked to have been called upon for the first time all meeting.

"The Empress is looking forward to introducing you and Leia to her family on Naboo. Afterwards, with your Grace's permission of course, you may join Master Obi-Wan on Mandalore to...continue your training."

"Anakin, that is a wonderful idea." Padme turned to her son. "Jedi or not, and with no disrespect to my dear friend Mina, Master Obi-Wan is one of the finest diplomats the Galaxy has to offer. You will learn as much about statecraft as you will the Force, were you to choose to join him."

"They are often one and the same, young Luke," Obi-Wan said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Try not to pollute my son's young mind with too many stories of the glory days of the Republic, Master Obi-Wan." Her tone was serious but Luke could see the humor in her eyes.

"Mother, I'm perfectly capable of making my own decisions on politics and things."

"Of course, my son. Though Master Kenobi in this world has been known to make liberal use of the Jedi Mind Trick."

Don't I know it, Luke thought wryly.

"Only on the truly wretched, your Grace, of which your son is certainly not one." The Negotiator rose and walked over to Luke, studying him carefully. "One lesson about its failures to counter each tale of nostalgia, does that strike the right balance?"

"I hope you can do better than that in your negotiations with Satine," the Empress said in clearly feigned contempt. She lifted her glass in a decisive manner and finished what remained emphatically and with extra flourish. Once again the rest of the Council followed suit, and this last drink seemed to indicate the end of the meeting.

"If I may, your Grace," Anakin interrupted as they were all getting up, "one last small matter to attend to?"

The Empress nodded.

"Director Tano," Anakin turned at the Togrutan with a dark look. "How goes the interrogation with the rebel leader we captured?"

"There's not much to learn," Ahsoka responded passively, as Leia tried her best to pay close attention to the conversation without appearing to do so. "She has a few coded contacts that we are following up on, but I'm not expecting much." She paused, thinking. "I suggest Barriss be turned over to the supervision of the Jedi. They may be able to rehabilitate her."

"You are far too kind sometimes, Ahsoka," Anakin warned, standing up with his arms crossed. "But nevertheless, her life is yours to spare. I will arrange transport for her to Alderaan."

"Thank you Anakin," she replied, in a voice that, to Leia, seemed to say much more than the words themselves, "for understanding."

The former Dark Lord of the Sith landed his craft on a cold moon above the water planet of Aquaris, meeting a solitary armored man of late middle age. He supposed the title of Grand Master was his to claim, though it was a dangerous time for his kind in the Galaxy at the moment. He aimed to change that in time.

"Lord Maul," Kiin Vizsla greeted. "Not who I was envisioning representing the rebellion."

"You will find that we are full of surprises," the Zabrak replied. "I commend you, Lord Vizsla. You have done an able job of stoking unrest in this sector."

"I have done what I can, with limited resources. Is your rebellion willing to offer more?"

"I offer you the opportunity to make history, my friend, to plant the seeds that will bring down this Empire," Maul replied, noting his barren and rocky surroundings. It was a vast improvement to years spent on Hoth. "The true glory of Mandalore will be restored, and we will both have our revenge."

"Strong words, my friend, suggesting stronger action. I wonder if your superiors would approve?"

"Senator Mothma will have served her purpose soon enough, and her shortsightedness will come to an end along with your dear Duchess. I trust your contacts on the planet are ready for action?"

"What do you require of them," the human asked. He was wary of committing all he had worked to build one bold gamble, but he knew he may never get such an opportunity again. He had been wary of seeking an alliance with the rebellion, regarding its leader as no different an idealist than the wretched lady Kryze, but this former footnote of history standing before him offered hope that there was still a place for his movement in the future of the Galaxy.

"Our operatives from across the Galaxy will converge into the Mandalore system. Give me the coordinates of your strongholds, and together we will set the world aflame."

Chapter Text

"Another one?"

The blonde senator from Naboo did not wait for her guests to answer, motioning to the bartender for two more ales. She scanned her peripheries amidst the dimly lit bar, located several hundred stories below the glitz and glamour of the Senate District. The odds were not high that she would recognize a fellow politician here. The small cantina fell far below the tastes of a Senator or even their aides, and it was too close and not hidden enough from their usual haunts were they needing for a spot for more illicit activity.

It suited Han perfectly though, and he gulped down the ale the Senator handed to him. He still wasn't quite sure what to think about her, or the Vaders, or any of this nonsense, but free ale was free ale.

"At this point," he said, "I'm can't even say for sure that my entire life has been real. If I just woke up from a coma, and everything I thought I knew was just a dream...hell that would make a lot more sense than this sithspit."

"I certainly don't envy you and your friends," Eirtae remarked as she drank her lone ale slowly. "I've seen the Jedi and General Skywalker accomplish some interesting things, but...different universes? I'm neither a scientist nor a philosopher to guess what happened to you."

"You're powerful enough though. I imagine being lifelong friends with an Empress has some nice perks to it," Han said, noting the woman's fine clothing. That was another detail striking him as different from the Coruscant he remembered. Everyone, from the royal family to their guests on down to even some of the stragglers in the lower levels, all were quite concerned with keeping up with their wardrobes. While it was certainly preferable to his Empire's drab sensibilities, much less the grime of the dustball planets of the Outer Rim, it did make him feel self-conscious.

"We were rivals at first," the Senator replied. "I ran for Queen and lost; the Empress graciously offered me a role in her court. Looking back, I wonder how I would have handled the crisis that engulfed us weeks later."

"But you eventually got what you wanted." They had briefly introduced their backgrounds to each on their way down, as Han navigated his host to this old hangout that he remembered from his days back in the Academy. It might have been the only spot on the capital planet that appeared unchanged to him thus far.

"Not in the same way. Elections on Naboo are mere formalities now. The Empress does not leave the politics of her homeworld to mere chance. I still don't know whether she chose me to be Queen because she truly believed me capable, or if she felt guilt for defeating me all those years ago." Obviously her career after a stint as the monarch was to logically follow her friend's path to the Senate, a position also held by the last (and only) two Emperors of the Galaxy, though Palpatine's actual reign as Emperor had been one of mere minutes, and not counted by most historians. She had originally ran as a modernist against Amidala, and the former Queen Iridina decided to revert to her birth name once she moved from throne to the Senate chambers.

"Consider yourself lucky you even get that dilemma," Han said bitterly, finishing another ale and hoping Leia would not be too mad at him. Chewie echoed his agreement beside them.

"I choose my words poorly," Eirtae said sincerely. She was flattered that the Empress had chosen her to host these all important guests, and did not want to disappoint her. "I cannot imagine the horrors you and your friends endured on your path here. But those are not our sins."

She realized in her years as Queen that it was not where she truly belonged. Her friend Dorme was Queen now, and seemed to adapt to the position better than her, but Eirtae had in a short time mastered the intricacies of the Senate better than perhaps Amidala in her day, wielding every small procedure, rule and tactic not just to survive but to thrive. Even, she hoped, had she not had the Empress's blessing.

"Honestly, I like her," Han admitted. "Your Empress, that is. She's no angel, I'm sure. No one gets that powerful without trampling over a whole lotta poor souls, but she seems to genuine enough for at least some of her schtick to not be an act."

"And even the old man isn't that bad," Han added, noting the oddity of Leia's father being around his own age. "He's certainly not warm and fuzzy like Luke, but he hasn't tried to kill me or give me the old carbon freezing treatment...yet anyway."

"Anakin is immensely powerful. He is respected and feared by the entire Galaxy, and at this point he can sit around and brood around for the of his life and get by on reputation alone, without resorting to cruelty."

"So could Darth Vader, but that didn't stop him from killing everyone in sight." Han wondered which version of the older Skywalker he would rather face; at least the other one would simply put him out of his misery early, and he didn't have to endure hours of painful small talk and passive aggressive barbs. "He's the grumpy type, huh? Just like the version I know."

"Not all the time," Eirtae said. "He can be very different, on those rare occasions I visit with the Imperial couple as friends, rather than dignitaries. Even after all these years, Anakin still acts like a lovesick teenager sometimes, and she's not much better. He can even be funny too, when it's a small audience."

"So I've noticed," Han mused. "The Vader-tamer. Who could've imagined?"

Eirtae smiled. "Technically, he's the Vader-tamer here. I think you'll see another side to Anakin on Naboo, away from all the pomp. He loves our planet, and treats it as his own homeworld. He loves his nieces too, and dotes on them entirely."

The Senate and faction leader paused, and added more solemnly, "I think they remind him of what it was like to be a father."

"I'm happy for them. Leia and Luke have found their long-lost family, all of them, but...," Han stopped, wondering why he was confiding in this total stranger, especially one who happened to be an Imperial lackey. It must have been the ales.

"You're not sure what place is there for you in this world," Eirtae said for him, finishing his thoughts. "In her life."

Force, either he was that easy to read, or this woman ranked as good a politician as the Empress, or her daughter. He did not respond, and his silence spoke as much as any words could.

"I wonder myself whether I'd be where I am had Sabe not retired from public life to raise her family."

She explained further. "She was a handmaiden, like myself, and Padme's favorite. But the Skywalkers are extremely loyal to those lucky to earn their loyalty. All of us who served her before her ascension do not find ourselves wanting under her patronage, whatever life we have chosen to pursue."

"That's a rather fancy way of describing corruption," Han said dryly. So this Empress played dirty too, just like everyone he had ever known.

"Not corruption," Eirtae said, still smiling, but more like a politician now. She sipped her ale, just as strong as the ones she ordered for him and Chewie. "What the Empress wants becomes Imperial prerogative. And the law. Fear not, young Solo. I have no doubt Anakin and Padme have passed on their sense of loyalty to their daughter. And if you all decide to stick around for awhile, I'm sure the Empress will make certain that you and your friend will be men of importance here."

Han drank, not knowing whether that thought elated him or scared him more.

Luke found his old master in what he assumed was his parents' study, a dignified room filled with shelves of old archives. This Obi-Wan, who looked so much younger, with nary a hint of grey in his hair and closely cropped beard, and whose lack of sadness and regret made him feel like a stranger.

"Master Obi-Wan," Luke called out, as the Jedi perused what seemed to be a history of the Clone Wars. He turned to face Luke with the same serenity and self-possession he remembered from years ago.

"Young Luke," the not-so-old Jedi nodded to him. "Your father tells me I, or what passed for myself in another world, served you well enough."

"You were a great mentor," Luke said, eyes welling as he finally got the opportunity to catch up with his old friend again. "I would not be who I am without you."

"And yet here you stand before me, in a strange world. Though from a certain point of view, the world you come from seems quite strange to me as well."

Luke laughed, seeing that this Obi-Wan's diction at least was not all that different one he had known.

"And what is your view of my father," Luke asked. Though this Obi-Wan was not immersed in regret, he sensed that he was not devoid of it either. "He seems to have abandoned the Jedi path."

Obi-Wan set down his holo and meandered slowly to the next shelf. Luke followed him.

"I tried my best with Anakin, of course. He tried his best to oblige me as well."

"Do. Or do not. There is no try."

The older Jedi turned to Luke, and seemed to truly scrutinize him for the first time.

"Master Yoda. He trained you too."

"For a time," Luke said, lowering his mental shields for the moment. He still did not know why he wished to keep secret his tutelage under the old Master. It was just instinctive paranoia towards the Empire, despite its differences from his. "He has passed, of his own accord."

"I see." The Jedi Master leaned down and selected an old holo, activating it. It was an old news broadcast from the Clone Wars, and Luke recognized images of his father, except younger, maybe than even him. "Based on everything I've heard, perhaps Anakin's destiny never lay with the Jedi. Not in my world. Not in yours. My old Master would have disagreed, but the Force speaks for itself."

"Why did he leave the Order?" Obi-Wan had told him about how he and his father had fought as a result of their estrangement. Here, they were at least civil.

"He loves," Obi-Wan replied emotionlessly. "Not like a Jedi, but like a husband. Or a father."

"So?" Luke was puzzled. To him, love was the simplest, most obvious emotion he knew. He loved Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen. He loves his sister, and Han, and Chewie. He is already beginning to realize how much he loves Anakin Skywalker and his Empress, and he has a feeling that he would be able to love even Darth Vader, if that Sith Lord allowed it.

"I see the extent to which our legacy was wiped out in your world," Obi-Wan said, sadness creeping into his voice for the first time. "Love for all sentient beings, and true compassion, is the way of the Jedi. But love in the form of attachments, possessive love, love colored by fear, that goes against our teachings. Our Code."

"You're saying that love can lead to the Dark Side," Luke said quietly. Though they had hinted at it in his urge to save his friends on Bespin, he wondered why neither Obi-Wan nor Master Yoda had taught him this explicitly.

"Has, many times, in the past," Obi-Wan said. The holo switched to footage of Palpatine giving a speech. "Perhaps it was even love, a misguided sense of it, no doubt, that created the Darth Vader you know."

He deactivated this holo abruptly and moved on to another one, an obscure reference to the Great Sith Wars of old. "Or perhaps, the Order was misguided in its interpretation of the Code."

He saw a shift in Luke's eyes, and continued. "We had failed, in a way. Our ways grew old and we did not adapt, while the Sith did, taking full control over the Republic right under our noses. Darth Sidious manipulated all of us, of course. The Jedi, the Republic, the Senate. Yet we willingly fought for him, killed for him. The Jedi waged a war for many years on behalf of a Sith Master."

"What happened to the Jedi," Luke asked, remembering the Empress's words. "My mother said something about an exile on Alderaan."

"Your parents saved much of the Order from Palpatine's genocide, before it could be carried out fully. Many still died, too many, but many more are alive today because of them, along with millions across the Galaxy."

Obi-Wan smiled, and continued. "Then your mother proclaimed herself an Empress and banished us from the capital world."

"Why would she do that," Luke wondered. His mother perplexed him in many ways. He could feel her kindness, her genuine care for her subjects, and her boundless compassion. And yet he had already seen firsthand evidence of her ruthlessness, much subtler than the Sith's Empire no doubt, but still nevertheless tangible.

"I was not there to see what happened firsthand," Obi-Wan pondered regretfully, grasping his bearded with one hand. "It may have been for the better anyway. Rather than involve ourselves with all the pettiness of politics, we are much more in tune with the Force these days. We meditate, we learn, we teach, we heal, and we assist your mother on the rare occasion where she asks, provided that what the Empire requires of us does not go against the Jedi way."

"Where were you when this all happened? Were you still fighting in the Clone Wars? You told me that you had fought side by side with my father, until he became Darth Vader." He had always wondered what kind of warrior the old wizard was back in his glory days, fighting alongside his father.

"Anakin is a remarkable man, Luke. He is far more clever than most people realize. Even I underestimated him at times."

Rather than explain, the older Jedi motioned for Luke to follow him to the open center of the study, where he activated what was a massive projection of the Galaxy. Obi-Wan drew three courses leaving the Core Worlds.

"The death of his children hit Anakin extremely hard, Luke. He had already left the Jedi at the time, his wife's pregnancy having revealed their secret marriage. It's possible that the Council may have decided to grant an exemption for him, due to the escalating nature of the war, but he did not give us the opportunity. He left behind a new Padawan as well, and I took it upon myself to finish her training. You met her today, at the Council."

"Director Tano," Luke said, remembering the quiet Togrutan woman who betrayed the least during the meeting. He had sensed her power in the Force too, though never did she hint towards it.

"Ahsoka, yes. We failed her too as well. The war had cost us so much. It robbed the Republic and the Senate of its soul, and the Jedi of our vision. To Anakin, losing his children was the last straw. He decided to end the war by himself. Palpatine granted him complete control of the entire Clone Army, hoping to continue his manipulation of him. He practically gave him the Republic, handing the entire Jedi Order over wholesale for a mere boy to command. He a had more power than anyone maybe, save the Chancellor himself, but somehow, Anakin had realized what we in the Jedi Council already suspected: that a spy, possibly the Sith Master, had infiltrated the heart of the Republic and the Senate itself, and was manipulating events to prolong the war for dark reasons."

Obi-Wan continued drawing the complicated lines along the map, leading each further and further into the Outer Rim.

"Anakin divided us into three armies. He cut off all communication with Coruscant, and all of a sudden, we began winning the war. Worlds after worlds were liberated under your father's direction. Every time the Separatists thought we would zig, we zagged. Every time we made the Separatists think we were going to zag, we zigged. It was a masterful campaign, and yet entirely too risky."

The three lines under Obi-Wan's fingers grew further and further apart. "Master Koon's armies made their way through Dantooine, Mygeeto, Muunilinst. My own command liberated and secured worlds like Mandalore, Felucia, and Saleucami. Anakin had stretched himself even further, fighting from Hutt Space through Bothan territories and all the way to Ryloth."

Luke's eyes widened as he studied the path of the three armies. "He separated his forces, leaving the Core vulnerable."

Obi-Wan nodded. "Practically undefended. It was brilliant, really. He acted exactly like everyone would expect of a rash young boy, barely twenty-two years of age, fresh off the greatest tragedy a man can bear. He lashed out wildly, strong and fierce in his actions, but short-sided and immature, greedily eating up every piece of action, pursuing the enemy to the ends of the Galaxy with little heed to caution.

Obi-Wan pointed out a single planet at the edge of the Outer Rim, far from Anakin's course and even further from the other two armies.

"He received word that the Separatist Council was sighted on Utapau. Capture them, and he could end the war."

He traced a several paths from the Outer Rims back into the Core. Luke saw them converge onto one route. "The Hydrian Way," he said, "left wide open."

To Luke's surprise, Obi-Wan smiled. "Utapau was a lie of course. Count Dooku and the droid General Grievous were no fools. They had regrouped, despite our endless pursuit, and was preparing to combine what remained of their armies for a massive counterattack on Coruscant itself. Anakin commanded me to retreat from my offensive and guard Carida, the supply depot for all our three armes. But not before taking away half my army for his next offensive."

Luke watched as Obi-Wan pointed out the star system, at the center of several trade routes leading right into Alderaan and Coruscant and drew two circles away from the key planet towards Utapau. "It all came down onto Carida. Dooku had a clear path to the capital, but he could not leave me threatening his rear. And I was easy pickings too, half an army guarding an all too important position; an easy appetizer for the main course. Destroy me, and he would cut off the remaining two armies from their lifelines."

Obi-Wan marked the routes of several Separatist armies converging on Carida. He looked at Luke in his pale blue eyes, and smiled again, gentler this time. "In a way, it was Anakin's ultimate compliment to me. He know that I better than anyone was prepared for the siege, and that I alone could withstand it. And I did, barely keeping my army together for days through the enemy barrage."

"You were bait," Luke realized.

"Anakin had manipulated Dooku and Grievous into combining what remained of their spent forces. He gave them a favorable position along the Hydrian Way, then lured them to abandon it in order to eliminate a despised member of the Jedi Council, the famed Negotiator for good measure. Utapau was a feint, of course, and in truth Anakin had all along plotted a course from the other side of the Outer Rim to break our siege just as the Separatists were about to get the better of me. He showed up, along with my two missing divisions, and used them to blockade the entire system as he and Master Windu pressed their advantage."

Obi-Wan traced a third line into Carida. "Of course, when Plo Koon showed up on secret orders as well, the Separatists were destroyed utterly and completely. Three armies from three directions converging upon one; with nowhere to flee, Dooku and Grievous escaped onto the planet. Anakin and I pursued them. I destroyed Grievous, and Anakin killed Dooku. He had indeed won the war with a single battle, taking advantage of how everyone, from allies, to Jedi, enemies, politicians, Sith...we had all underestimated him. He had disrupted the plans of the Sith as well, ending the war far earlier than Palpatine had planned, and separate from his control."

Entranced by the tale, Luke barely noticed as Obi-Wan put a warm fatherly hand on his shoulder, looking him deep in the eyes. "War is horrible, Luke. You know that as well as any of us; you've seen the costs, the tragedy, the suffering. In this world, you were one of its casualties. But the Carida campaign will be remembered as the epitome of the perfect battle for millennia to come. It was your father's masterpiece, Luke, as close to a work of art as you can create in such a cruel, horrible enterprise."

"And it gave my mother her crown."

"He fought. He won. Now he rests, I suppose, with an ample share of the spoils. I would not underestimate your father in politics either, Luke, but as much as he is a master of war, the political arena is your mother's playground. Opinions aside on the merits of Empire or democracy, she did as much as he to earn her title. While the war continued, Senator Amidala worked endlessly to save refugee lives, repatriate conquered worlds, negotiate compromises to prevent the Senate from falling apart, and curb the Supreme Chancellor's dictatorial powers. Their stars shone bright, and with their marriage, a scandal at first, now only served to amplify the other's. By the end of the war, she was known as the Great Compromiser, the Conscience of the Senate. Anakin, of course, got the Genius of Carida added to his repertoire, along with the Hero with No Fear."

"This is his potential," Luke said, feeling once more those pangs of pride he had always wanted to associated with his father. But the double-edged sword of his legacy remained. "It was what he could have accomplished as a Jedi, had he not fallen where I come from."

"You are living in the fruit of his accomplishments now, Luke, and they are quite different than what he could have done as a Jedi. But Anakin is his own man, he's made that very clear, and what's done is done. While I obviously don't agree with the path he has chosen, it is obvious now, with the tales you've told, that it could have been much, much, worse."

"And you serve him now, despite everything." Luke did not want to be acrimonious, especially towards a long dead friend. And he in many ways was tempted to embrace his parents' creation as well. But he needed to hear the words of justification come from the man who had taught him everything.

"The Jedi will always stand for democracy Luke. I will question what could have been. But your parents have chosen to empower to their high Council three who oppose them, and they even listen to us at times."

"You, Bail, and the Ambassador," Luke said. Again, Obi-Wan nodded.

"And Ahsoka is ambivalent at best on the ideology of it all. To me, that is no small encouragement, and I will take what I am given and do the best I can with it."

"Why," Luke asked. "Why did my mother abandon democracy?"

"That question, Luke, is theirs and theirs alone to answer."

"Leia," Anakin beckoned to his daughter. She was observing the Empress and Bail converse quietly in the corner, after the meeting had been adjourned. Leia hoped to approach the man that had raised her, and even though it shouldn't have hurt it, the fact that barely paid any thoughts to her broke her heart in a small way.

"He's different here, in so many ways." Leia had watched her adopted father serve the Empire for nineteen years as well, feigning obedience. It was the cost of protecting her, she knew, and his wife and homeland, but he had always been able to compartmentalize his sadness about the state of Galaxy when he was home with her and Breha. She wondered if they had another daughter in this world, a child to love and raise that pushed had him through the darkness of Palpatine's Empire. "The Empr...mother...said there were problems at home."

"There is...," Anakin stopped, not wanting to elaborate, but once more he could not refuse his daughters eyes, beseeching him for an answer however painful it would be. "There is an issue of infidelity. It was a scandal a few weeks ago; the whole thing has died down now somewhat, but he will have a long ways to go to repair his marriage."

"An affair," Leia repeated, curiosity turning to anger. "My mother! Poor Breha!"

She wanted to run over and slap the man that had raised her. How could he do this to her adopted mother, to the dignity of her throne and to their entire planet? Before she could do so, Anakin stepped in and pulled her away, in the opposite direction towards an open veranda overlooking the city and the Senate Building on one side.

"We are all human, I'm afraid. The Empire is no easy taskmaster. Pressures build, temptation arrives easier than it normally would. Bail is a good man, but we all make mistakes."

"Who was she," she asked, looking again at the two politicians conversing in the corner. What had they done to Bail Organa's soul?

"No one important," Anakin said. "A former aide."

Leia looked at Anakin again, eyes accusing yet wondering. "What about you? You're a war hero, second in command of the Empire. You can certainly have anyone you want."

"I already do. And no, I would never cheat on your mother." He almost sounded hurt that Leia could even bring up the idea.

"That's what I would have thought about Bail too."

"First off," Anakin chuckled, "the Empress can always sign my death warrant."

Then he turned serious. "There has never been anyone else for me besides your mother, Leia. From the moment I met her, I never wanted anyone else."

She wanted to believe him, even though her parents were technically still strangers to her. Words were words after all, but she could feel the truth to them.

"Luke was a rather easy child to raise," Anakin said after awhile. "You were more difficult, always putting up a fight, whether we wanted you to eat, or sleep, or wake, or just wear a matching pair of socks." He smiled sadly.

"When we finally got you into your crib, your mother and I would watch you sleep, proud of our work. 'She has the spirit of us combined,' she would say to me. Your mother loved you so much, because you were strong; a fighter. She loved you both of course, and we both knew that you and Luke could accomplish anything in time. But Padme worried about you more. We wanted so much to retire and return to Naboo after the war was over, and devote ourselves to raising the two of you. Padme wondered though, whether as you grew, Naboo would be enough for you."

"It must have been horrible," Leia said sympathetically, "losing your children. I could never imagine such a thing."

"But you're both here now," Anakin said, holding his two hands together under his green robes in contemplation. "For how long, I don't know. Whatever the Force wills, we will accept. Your mother is so happy to see you and your brother again, if even for a few fleeting days, and she is so proud what you both have become."

Anakin turned and looked at his daughter closely. This time, it was his eyes that were doing the begging. "But in the time you are here, please don't begrudge your mother for the crimes I committed, Leia. She doesn't deserve that."

She felt something break inside her. "Luke said that Darth Vader is a different person. He is not the man you are now, or were in our world. That Anakin Skywalker died when Vader was born."

"That is a lie," Anakin said quietly, with a hint of menace. "A myth to perpetuate the infallibility of the Jedi, as if they, unlike anyone else in this universe, do not have the capacity for great evil."

He closed his eyes. "I have seen visions of my crimes, Leia. I know full well what I could have become, what I could have done, had chance broken in different ways. I have seen the machine that you described, Leia. And worse, too. I have seen myself fully unleashed and uncaged, more powerful and terrible than even the Darth Vader you know, committing even more unspeakable crimes, destroying not just mere worlds but almost the Galaxy itself."

"But you haven't," Leia said, her voice quivering. To hear her father admit to his darkness was not something she would have ever expected of him, or Vader. "I've seen the blood your Empire has shed firsthand, and know that it will shed plenty more in the future, but you haven't destroyed or enslaved entire planets here...have you?"

"No. But I could. Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader are the same. They've always been, and will always be. Whatever I do, in this life or any other, the responsibility is always mine alone."

"Your wife," Leia said. "The Empress holds you back."

Anakin looked at his daughter, bemused. "You don't really think I believe all I say in Council meetings, do you? That I would advocate death and destruction for every small and petty case before the Empire?"

"So your counsel is a lie then?"

"It is balance," Anakin replied. "I see one possibility of what could be necessary, and give voice to it. The Empress must hear all the sides of every issue, and consider every fact and option available to her. I say what no one else on the Council would say. At the end, the Empress makes her decision with the advice she is given; I merely expand the range of her options. For what it's worth, she usually doesn't listen to me."

"But she sometimes does." Leia could accept her father's role in this Empire. She was used to that, but the idea of Padme Amidala not just merely complicit in, but fully responsible for the suppression of democracy was a betrayal that Leia was not sure she could ever entirely accept.

"Empire, Republic, Jedi, even your Rebellion. Anyone, any thing that seeks to gain and hold power must project strength, or it will not survive."

Leia wasn't sure if she wanted to keep arguing. She never imagined the prospect of getting into a political and philosophical argument with Darth Vader, but she was exhausted, not just from this recent ordeal, though it was quite enough, but from fighting her whole young life.

"You will succeed, by the way," Anakin said, changing the subject entirely. "In your world, you and your brother would have brought down the Empire. And Luke...he would have saved me from the prison of my own making. You still could, were you to return."

Leia's eyes widened. "How would you know?"

Anakin smiled, but for the first time his presence felt warm, even fatherly. "Visions, my dear Leia. In time you may learn to see them as well."

"I'm not sure if I'd want to," Leia said nervously. "The Force...Luke says I am strong in it."

"You are, Leia. Our family is, save your mother. But you should know, I never had a father. I don't say this metaphorically, it just is. I was conceived by the will of the Force itself, and my line will always be strong in it for generations to come."

"That's...that's a miracle. How is that possible?"

"The wonders of the Force are beyond our comprehension Leia. I can't explain much of what I am able to see, or foresee. I can't explain how you and your brother came to be in this world. Our decisions are our own, of course, but the Force never ceases to surprise me with the unimaginable."

"What else have you seen," Leia asked. The thought had been nagging her ever since Luke revealed her true parentage during that standoff on Endor...that she could eventually possess the same powers as her brother...or Darth Vader. "What would have happened in our world, after we overthrow the Emperor?"

"The future is always in motion, Leia. The Force allows for all things, all possibilities, in the times to come. Visions are dangerous things. Sometimes, a dark future can come to pass despite our best efforts. Our very actions to prevent one possible future may be the very thing that causes it to be."

Far away along the jagged horizon, the sun came to meet the edges of the capital world. Leia watched the sunset, having never appreciated it in her years on this artificial world in a different past. She had never seen the rough beauty on planet of cities, the miracle of sentient life meshed intricately together in a tapestry that no other place in the Galaxy could replicate.

"You will experience great joy. You, your brother, Han, your children. You will enjoy peace, prosperity, and the bounty your efforts."

Leia smiled. She knew that what she had with Han was real, and she was happy to hear her father finally acknowledge the future she envisioned for them.

He voice turned. "There will be great sadness too. And darkness. In time that will pass, but you will bear great scars from the tragedies to come."

"Because of me and Luke," she asked, voicing her deepest fears. "Because of our powers?"

Anakin shook his head. "Not likely."

Leia allowed herself to feel her despair. She felt the night air breathing through her, around her, beyond her. For the first time, she realized that she could feel her father. She felt great waves, unimaginable torrents of power...and sadness. Not for himself, but for her, and her brother. He truly cared for them, she realized. And she understood then.

"My children." He did not reply for some time, but she could feel his acknowledgement of the truth.

"The future is not set in stone, but it is more possible than not."

"Why?" Leia allowed herself to swim in her own despair. She allowed herself to breathe, to be human, to be a daughter, and a lover, and to truly feel her heart for the first time since her entire existence had been ripped away from her on the Death Star. "Why are we cursed with this darkness? This tragedy? Why can't we just be happy, and simple, and live our lives? Like normal people?!"

"Leia," Anakin said, cautiously putting his gloved arm around her. She let herself lean in to her father. "I am more powerful than any being in the history of existence. That is not a brag...it's just the fact. The Force wills what it wills, and in the end it wills balance, beyond all things. Our darker fates are our heritage and our burden, that we will all forever carry. A trade for the powers granted us. You love Han. Deeply." He did not ask. He stated.

"Yes," Leia said, missing him so much already, even though it had been mere hours.

"He loves you too," Anakin acknowledged. "He may not even realize the extent yet. But we Skywalkers are quick to love, Leia. We love hard, we feel hard...we fall hard. And that is our curse, when we fall so deeply into ourselves, and we are too powerful to contain our own nature."

Leia looked up at this man, so obviously scarred, and she realized, tortured. He had seen so much darkness, in what had already passed, and even more in what had never been. She feared the darkness within her, not knowing its potential. He knew his darkness completely, had somehow even seen it in his visions. And yet here he stood, holding on to his daughter, his family, steadying them through a universe whose infinite possibilities Leia was just beginning to learn (feel).

"How do I prevent it," Leia asked. She looked at her father, feeling his power, and the cold core mantle underwriting it. And yet her mother had been right, because she felt his love, his empathy, his...wisdom, even, and most strikingly she felt his hope for her and her family's future, a hope that was unaffected by all the darkness that he had experienced in a life not much longer than hers. She tried to reconcile this figure with the dark figure she knew in her world, one that, by his own admission, was one and the same.

There had to be a way. If it were her children, then she would raise them right, away from the darkness. If it was inevitable, then she would raise them ignorant of the Force. She acknowledged the unthinkable, that she may have to sacrifice the possibility of children to save them. Would she have to sacrifice Han too? Was fate so cruel? So staggeringly unfair?

"Nothing is certain," Anakin whispered into her ear in a voice so low she wasn't even sure she heard it. "The darker your future, the more you must appreciate what you have now. Be grateful of every moment of happiness you are lucky enough to enjoy with the ones you love. Love, Leia. Don't be afraid to love. Learn to understand love better than anything else you know, more than politics, or justice, or any other passions. Learn to love purely, unconditionally, free of fear, or apprehension, or jealousy. In time, understand that we will be cursed to fight for every moment of happiness we may enjoy. You will have to fight, Leia. Mercilessly even, we do what we must. But you must always remember the love you are fighting for."

"What about here," Leia asked after an even longer silence. Hundreds of speeders moved gracefully about in the distance, and she played a game, trying to feel the emotions and the life force on each of them. "What lies ahead of us in this world?"

"I felt your arrival before it even happened, Leia." He withdrew from her, and she saw the Empress approach them. Leia tried to sense her emotions, and felt joy and love towards her presence. She felt gratitude for the fact that her husband had finally gotten to reconnect with their daughter...and a deep, profound sadness because she had yet to do the same.

"Imagine the Force, the Galaxy as a giant pond," Anakin said, embracing his wife and kissing her forehead. He leaned down and nuzzled his cheek next to hers, then continued. "Imagine a giant boulder, immense beyond belief, crashing into that pond at light speed."

They walked over to her together, and her mother apprehensively reached a small and delicate hand towards Leia. She took it, and held it, feeling relief.

"That is how it felt when you and your brother crashed into this world," Anakin explained. "The future is so uncertain, the ripples from this disturbance in the Force so severe, that even I have not yet been able to decipher through it all."

The three of them stood there for some time, watching the stars appear one by one in the Coruscanti night, family finally linked by flesh once more.

Chapter Text

"The Chancellor is a Sith Lord."

To say Padme was shocked that her husband would walk into her office so casually and just say such a thing as if he were describing the weather or the color of a dress would be an understatement.

"What?"

He lay down on a couch at the far end of the office, holding his flesh hand painfully at his temples, his dark robes overflowing down onto the office floor.

"He told me as such," Anakin said expressionlessly. "He said the Jedi were about to betray him. And the Republic."

She dropped her data pad and rushed over to his side from her desk. He moved forward and she scooted in behind him in the couch, hoping that she could comfort him in some way. She could not imagine the betrayal he would be feeling right now, if what he was saying wasn't some elaborate joke. He had not joked for some time now.

"I've been having nightmares again." He allowed himself to lean back into her as she cradled her arms around him. After eight months away, the touch of her own husband almost felt foreign to her. Almost. With the political storm coming to a headwind since he had arrived two days prior, they had not had much of a chance to really talk, except about the political situation and what she needed her husband to do.

He had not, as she expected, reacted angrily. He remained quiet, thinking, and then told her flatly that he would do as she asked. Since then, he had been busy, coordinating the endgame of the war and directing the army to the final Separatist strongholds, while her, Bail, Mon and the rest of their allies were busying lobbying any Senator they could get ahold of on the upcoming referendum. They had a chance, she thought, as more Senators than she realized, tired by the war and all it entailed, were receptive to a change now that peace was finally timidly returning to the Galaxy. All she needed was Anakin to push them over the edge, democracy could return, and she could retire from this horrid business, knowing that she had done her job. Maybe that's why Anakin was willing to speak against the Chancellor, knowing that it would give them the chance to restart their lives together. Then this, she realized. Adding a Sith Lord to the mix would certainly change the political equations.

"That's why you haven't been sleeping." Anakin had departed for the capital almost as soon as he slew Count Dooku, leaving Masters Kenobi and Windu behind to clean up the chaos. She needed him here as well, not just for herself, but to prepare him for what she needed him to do. He had been distant in the half week since he came back, but Padme thought it was from the strain of having to speak out against his old friend, maybe some unacknowledged resentment at her for making him do so.

"They are visions, but not like what the visions I had during the war. Those came to me as I meditated. I sought them out, and the Force guided me to victory."

He sniffled several times, as if he were having trouble breathing. "I've been meditating since I've arrived back here, Padme. But nothing comes to me, except at night. And these ones are horrible."

Padme shut her eyes and clutched her husband's torso tightly, remembering the last time he had his nightmares, and the aftermath after they had arrived on Tatooine too late to save his mother. She remembered that he had been so young, so raw, so vulnerable at that time. She surmised that he felt the same way now, but after almost three years of war and death, he was better at hiding it now. She hoped that he still needed her as much now as he did then.

"Do they concern me?" She was afraid to hear the answer, and not just for her own sake.

"Yes," Anakin admitted, turn his blue eyes at her intently. "You, the Chancellor, the Jedi...everything."

"Tell me," she commanded softly. She needed to guide him through this, at such a perilous moment.

"I see the Jedi going to assassinate the Chancellor. I see...you conspiring with them." His voice and his eyes told her nothing as she tried to discern how he felt about such a possibility. She had voiced the possibility to a very few of her colleagues in the Senate, but nothing more than that. It was a contingency she held in the back of her mind, should everything else fail.

"There is chaos. There is bloodshed. And in the middle of all of it, you die."

"How?"

"I don't know. It wasn't clear. But you were screaming. In pain." She could hear the pain in his own voice, his efforts in trying to hold himself back and maintain his composure clear. "I went to see the Chancellor this morning."

Padme nodded. "To tell him about your speech." Anakin's speech before the Senate was only hours away. He would be receiving a hero's welcome, the grateful thanks from the Senate and the Republic for their savior. It would have been the moment he made his plea for a return to democracy, and for the Senate to end the Supreme Chancellor's emergency powers in the fast approaching vote. Padme had been making final preparations for the aftermath of the speech when her husband had walked in. Now, it all seemed pointless. She doubted that the speech would happen; of course Palpatine would find a way to destroy her plans, especially if he were a Sith Master.

"I didn't think I could betray him. Not without telling him my intentions, at least. And to let him know it wasn't personal."

Or willing, Padme thought. "Was he angry?"

"No, actually. He said he understood. That I was being manipulated, that we all were, by the Jedi. He said that the Jedi are zealots, and now that the war was over they, with the help of certain members of the Senate, would seek to destroy him, and everyone in his circle, in their bid to retain power over the Republic."

"Including you," Padme realized. She had never hated someone more than she hated the Supreme Chancellor right now, that he would try to drive a wedge between her and her husband now that the war was over and they were finally reunited.

"They fear me, now more than ever since I've succeeded apart from them. They would fear you as well, he said, because they would not be able to control the children we would have in the future."

"They did not interfere in any way with Luke and Leia," Padme asserted. Though she did not approve of everything about the Jedi, especially when it concerned her husband, she still respected their intentions and integrity.

"They were otherwise occupied, but no longer." Anakin turned away from her. "He also hinted at other things about you. Between you and Senator Organa."

Padme's eyes grew wide. "Anakin," she hissed indignantly. "You couldn't have believed him about that, could you? I would never!"

She waited for his response. Their marriage had not been easy, but they had survived through the worst, until now. But if he could not trust her, if he would believe Palpatine's lies after everything they had been through...she knew it was Palpatine's fault, of course, but she wasn't sure she could ever forgive his lack of faith. Or forget, if she did forgive eventually.

"No," Anakin said, saving them. "He lies, of course. That is his way."

Padme breathed a sigh of relief. He trusts me, she thought. Does that make me the fool for doubting him?

"He murdered our children, Padme. If Dooku was a Sith, then Palpatine was his master. They manipulated both sides of the war, together."

She felt her anger intensify. She had long known not to trust the Supreme Chancellor from a political standpoint, but to think that he was responsible for such a heinous act, robbing not just her but many other Senators and functionaries of their children on that fateful night...she wished that he was not a Sith so that she could take her own revenge.

"He disclaimed responsibility for the attack of course; he said Ventress went rogue and did it alone."

"You can't believe that," Padme said. It was clear now that, whomever responsibility for the attack lay, Luke and Leia...her and Anakin...were its true targets.

"Of course not. If he is so powerful, enough to cloud even my visions...then there is no way he would allow such a thing to sneak by without his knowledge or consent."

Padme felt her husband tense. She looked into his eyes, and thought she saw flecks of yellow. She blinked and looked again, and they blue like she always remembered. In a way, she was disappointed that Anakin did not take his revenge on Palpatine right then and there. The logical part of her said that he would need proof, that if he assassinated the Supreme Chancellor unsolicited that it would throw the fragile Republic into greater chaos than ever. But nevertheless, she remembered her son's clear, innocent eyes and easy smiles, her daughter's fierce determination and intelligence, apparent at such a young age, and she wanted nothing but pain for the evil creature that took them away from her, that was trying even now to take so much more from her.

"So what did you do?"

"I left. I told him I didn't know what to think. Then I went to tell the Jedi Council."

"They will seek to arrest him?"

"They told me to wait behind. They mean to kill him, of course, but are afraid that I would hurt rather than help. I sense their presences in the building as we speak. Master Yoda leads them." He breathed deeply several times. "The Force speaks to me. They will fail."

Padme stiffened and sat up straight. "Oh Ani. If the Jedi fail, then all hope is lost." She could feel her plans unraveling even as she spoke. A failed attempt on the Supreme Chancellor, especially at this critical moment, would clearly be seen by the general populace as a coup. It would render her husband's upcoming speech moot, and would further drive sympathy towards the Chancellor, giving him the justification to further amplify his powers amidst such chaos. If he were truly a Sith, then he would seek total power and domination, and it would have been Anakin and the Jedi who unwittingly delivered the Galaxy to him.

A knock on the door interrupted their long reverie. It was C-3PO.

"Mistress Padme. Master Anakin. The Supreme Chancellor has summoned an emergency session of the Senate in one standard hour. Apparently, attendance is mandatory..."

Anakin waved the droid away. "Thank you, 3PO. Let us get ready for the session."

"Then it is over for the Jedi," Anakin said, after the droid left the office.

"It's over for all of us, Ani. I have a feeling whatever world emerges from tonight, any hints of further opposition will no longer be tolerated." She thought of Bail, and Mon and all of her colleagues who had been brave enough to face the storm with her in the recent years, about how powerful an enemy they were about to face. What little she knew of the Sith and their history, mercy and pity were not among their traits.

"We could run away," she said. "Find a far away place and hide there forever, away from the clutches of the Chancellor."

Anakin frowned. "Palpatine...Darth Sidious...he would not let us...let me escape, Padme. He means to have me join him, and he will not rest until that happens, or until he has eliminated me as a threat."

"Of course," Padme said, thinking his husband's long and odd friendship with the Chancellor, how he had even been their savior when their marriage had been first revealed. "All this time, he was using you."

"He will stop at nothing. Your family, back on Naboo. If we had children again...he would make them all suffer to draw me out."

"You're right." Padme buried her face into her husband's hair, allowing herself to sob tearlessly several times. "We cannot run. And I cannot let democracy die, not without a fight. We must confront him."

She hated the thought, but she realized that her husband was truly the only person who could stop Palpatine now. Master Qui-Gon did believe he was the Chosen One, after all, and what moment could he have been chosen for except this? And if he failed...if Master Yoda and half the Jedi Council could not succeed...she could not bear the thought, knowing that her own death would be the least of her worries.

"I must confront him," he said sharply, turning almost violently to look at her. "You need to leave this building now. Find somewhere to hide, until this is all over."

"And leave myself a sitting duck for Palpatine's agents, who would be on the lookout for every missing figure of the opposition?"

"Yes! You know how resourceful you are. And if I die, run! Tell your family to leave Naboo now, and give them a rendezvous spot. Alive or dead, Padme, I cannot bear the thought of any harm coming to you!"

He had risen so that his face so close next to hers. She saw his eyes watering, begging her in desperation, but she could not give in. Not this time. Padme took her husband's wrist and gripped it tightly. "And have you stopped to consider that I cannot bear to lose you either? To once again wait, not knowing your fate, whether you live or die? Or something worse? And watch from a distant holo the fate of the Republic? Face it Anakin. I must go, and you cannot stop me. We must both do our duty. And besides, if I'm in danger, where else am I safer than by your side?"

He grabbed her without warning and pulled her in to kiss her. They kissed, knowing that, like that day on Geneosis, this kiss might be their last, the peril they faced this time infinitely greater. She bit his lip, trying to extract his very essence, and if he felt pain he did not react, instead digging his fingers deeper into her back as he massaged her. She held on to him like she were falling through air, through space, and he was the only one who could save her. Or perhaps they were falling together, and if they never let go they would never need land.

He held her this time, for some time. They did not need to speak, there was so little time left to waste words. Instead they sat in silence, clutching each other closely, trying to memorize each other's scents, their touch, their very essences.

"I thought I would never see you again," Anakin finally said. "After the Jedi took me away. I knew I would, because that's what the Force told me, just like it told me that I would marry you some day. But I did not know enough to trust the Force yet. My world was the Jedi, they and the Force were one and the same to me at the time. Ten years, Padme. Every night, I fell asleep thinking of you. I dreamed of you, and in the mornings I woke trying to hold on to what little I could from those dreams, because they were all I had."

A ghost of a smile appeared on her face. "But you were wrong, weren't you? The Force had better plans for both of us."

"I could not sleep," Anakin continued, "the night before we met again. I was so excited, but I was scared too. Jedi don't fear of course, but I do. I was afraid that you would not recognize me, that even if you did, it would mean nothing to you."

"I never forgot you, Ani," she said gently. "I'd be lying if I said I thought about you every day, but how could I forget the little boy who saved my planet?"

They had recited these same words to each other countless times now, reliving those moments of their lives together. In war, with the present so dark, sometimes all they could do was cling to the past. Tonight, they would tell each other the story of them, the gospel of their love, for what could be the last time.

"I saw you, and you were so beautiful. And in that moment I was heartbroken, because all I wanted to do was to rush into your arms and kiss you forever, and the fact that you did not feel the same passion that I did killed me."

"I saw a cocky, handsome young man, Anakin. It is my experience that I be wary of people like that. I had to remember that behind your countenance was the generous heart and wonderful spirit of the little boy I had known so many years ago."

She kissed him again, but gently. "He had grown, he had changed. And I discovered that I liked those changes."

She winced as he brushed away a tear from her eye. "And whatever happens tonight, I will always be glad that I opened my heart to him, and I will always be thankful for the time we had together, in this life or the next."

"I will be strong," was all Anakin said in return.

"Do you remember when you left the order? How much they hated us? Every word I said in the Senate, as Queen, was used against me." At the time, those were the darkest days of her life. She woke up every morning with Anakin by her side, and dreaded ever having to leave her bed. But she did nevertheless, and faced each day with resolve: the holonet cameras, the sniveling, contemptuous colleagues, the lewd comments from the people on the street, the smug smile of the Chancellor.

"They said vile things about you," Anakin said, his expression darkening. "They even threatened your family, those cowards. I wished I could kill them all. I still do."

"Save your anger for Palpatine, Anakin." In her mind, she remembered Obi-Wan's warnings. It was after Anakin had left the Jedi Order. He had come to their apartment, as a friend. He had warned them both, but especially her, about the dangers of the Dark Side, its lure, its temptation, now that Anakin was no longer bidden to the Jedi Code. She knew that she shouldn't be goading her husband to anger; the Chancellor had done enough of that already. "We proved them wrong, didn't we? You and I, we ended the war, we saved lives, we did all we could to save democracy. And now they love us...the same crowds that cursed us chant our names as saviors."

"So what," Anakin said bitterly, his voice breaking. "We are the heroes of the Galaxy for maybe two whole days. If I fail, then it never really happened, did it? What does it matter, the battles we won, the bills we passed? We failed as parents, we failed our families, and we failed our duties to the Republic. For all we loved, and all we struggled, that will be the only legacy we leave behind."

"The darkness will not last forever," Padme said, hopefully. "They will judge us fairly, that we failed to accomplish the impossible."

She looked at her chrono and rose, painfully leaving his grasp. "It is time. We cannot delay the inevitable."

It was time to face their destiny. No, he decided.

"I will take destiny into our own hands tonight." He rose and took her hand with his cybernetic one. He felt his lightsaber with the other, knowing he needed more than ever for his weapon to be a part of him. "No longer will fate toss us around like playthings. Padme?"

"Ani?"

"I need you to promise me something."

"Anything, Anakin," she vowed. "Always."

The skies had darkened as they sat together, and Padme had neglected to turn on the lighting. Silhouetted against the outer hallway, the tall figure of her husband looked more shadow than man.

"I need you to trust me. The future is clouded by the darkness, but I may see a path through it all. It will be a dark one, and full of dangers. Whatever happens tonight and after, I need you to stand with me."

She put her trust in her husband, because she had no choice. If he failed, then she would never see her family again; her parents, her sisters, her nieces...she would never get the chance to watch Ryoo and Pooja grow up. She would never get her own chance have children again, and raise them together with Anakin and this time, watch proudly as they grow into adulthood and beyond. And her Anakin, her life, her soul...to have only shared so few fleeting moments of happiness with him, even those marred by tragedy and doom...it was all so unthinkable, yet unavoidable. She thought about the small drawer hidden in the depths of her closet at her apartment, where she kept her most treasured possessions, a brooch from her late grandmother Winama, a drawing of her and Ani by Ryoo, an old, worn book of Naboo law from her father, a braid of dusty brown-blonde hair and a small Japor snippet carved for her by a funny little boy an eternity ago, and wondered what would happen to these things if tonight was to be their end.

"I promise."  She remembered their marriage vows, and repeated them to her husband. "Till death, I stand with you."

Last time, they were led out by enemies to their doom. This night, they would walk themselves into their arena, together.

Chapter Text

She held both her daughters' hands as she gawked like them at the procession before her. Senators, dignitaries, rulers of worlds far and wide, were slowly assembling around them in the Grand Plaza of Theed, and most of them would have paid their entire fortunes to be standing where Sola Naberrie and her family were standing now. Across the makeshift emerald throne from them she recognized few Senators, survivors of the Great Senate Purge, such as Bail Organa of Alderaan, his wife and their families by his side. Standing next to him was Obi-Wan Kenobi, one of maybe no more than five Jedi present. Beyond and above them were galleries filled with thousands of sentients; most were from Naboo, though many had traveled from offworld, and all had squatted for days for a firsthand view at the coronation of the first Galactic Empress.

The music turned solemn, and her very own sister approached the throne in small, measured steps, head bowed and hands clasped together by her midsection in reverence. Handmaidens old and new accompanied her and made sure that the folds and corners of her elegant light blue dress did not get caught along her way to the throne. She approached the seat with intense focus, not looking at the family and close friends flanking it. As she sat, two handmaidens maneuvered the train of her coronation dress so that it contoured smoothly with the steps leading down from the throne, and scurried to take their positions. She recognized Sabe and Dorme, who took their spots right next to grandmother Ryoo in her own group.

It was not her first coronation, and Sola had long learned not to allow herself to be surprised by Padme. That her little sister was talented was evident to them all from an early age, and Padme's election as Queen, before she herself had started University, had almost been expected. Even as their family fled to shelter during the Trade Federation Crisis, Sola kept her thoughts on her sister, about the burden she bore, about the guilt she no doubt felt at a catastrophe that was in no way her own fault, and she feared for Padme's life when the rumors of a battle to retake the planet started.

Then there was peace, and in those years they had truly been able to forge their relationship. The war had reminded everyone, including their Queen, that they could not take what they loved and had for granted. Though she remained busy, Padme made an effort at regular visits with her family, often at the lake louse in the privacy of the mountains. It was here that Sola remembered her fondest memories with her sister, celebrating life-days, anniversaries, her own marriage and eventually, the birth of her daughters. In this time, she had watched her own sister grow into a woman. Behind a regal mask that few saw beyond, Padme loved and was devoted to her family.

But Sola felt she knew her sister better than anyone. They brought the childish side out of each other as they raced across the lake in the early morning, before the rest of their family had woken. She remembered giggling as they played guessing games, or cooked together for a family meal, watching Padme, the consummate perfectionist, utter a rare curse upon realizing that she had burned or put too much salt into yet another ill-fortuned sauce. They talked of their dreams, hers of having kids and working with kids, and Padme's plans for when she left the throne. There was the rare uncertainty there. Sometimes Padme talked about devoting herself purely to philanthropy, travelling from planet to planet like they once did as children, helping out refugees and even freeing slaves, like the friend of hers that had blown up the Trade Federation ship. Other times she wondered if her future was in academia, lecturing on law and Naboo history at the small university not so far from Varykino, living a life of quiet austerity and study, and passing on her wisdom and convictions to future generations. All her goals, Sola remembered, inevitably involved helping others.

The moment Sola saw her sister's eyes light up with love and delight upon the birth of Ryoo, she knew how much Padme would desire her own family. She would make a wonderful mother, Sola knew, as long as she could get away from the pomp and duties of her crown. She saw how her little sister had looked bashfully at Simm, a dashing friend of Darred's who had returned from offworld mines. Other monarchs may deign to lower themselves below their title to pursue such worldly things as a meaningful relationship, but not Padme, who had left Varykino early that weekend, citing an emergency budget review that she had neglected.

So it was to be as Senator, Sola hoped her sister's inhibitions would be lowered. There was a fellow Senator in those early days, and though Sola never met him, she had not liked what she did hear of him on the holonets, and was secretly happy when it appeared that Padme had broken things off. Clovis had been among the many executed during the Purge in first days of the Empire, and though the evidence had been quite clear of his illicit transactions with the Banking Clans, Sola still wondered whether her sister had felt anything when she had pulled the trigger to end a former lover's life.

Then there was Anakin Skywalker, of course: the man who would come to define her sister's life. Sola remembered the chubby faced prodigy that she had seen on the holonets after the blockade was over, whom Padme described of so fondly. Then they met him for the first time, the teenager who came into their home filled with raw desire and wavering bravado. He had been meek and apologetic when news of their secret marriage broke, and even Ruwee did not have the heart to stay mad at him for long, seeing the happiness in his daughter's voice and eyes when they were together, and anticipating the fact that he was about to double his count of grandchildren.

She did not know that he had been behind their group for some time, and Sola and the girls could not help but stare as Anakin Skywalker emerged between several handmaidens, making his approach to the dais directly below the throne and the new Empress. The trumpets played a regal tune. Skywalker knelt, then rose, reaching out his left hand with the palm up in the opposite direction. Sola saw a bejeweled crown float towards him, gliding through the air as if it were the smoothest surface of ice, until it came to a gentle rest above his hand.

There had been the great tragedy with Luke and Leia. Sola had not seen her sister since the funeral, a private one on Naboo, and while they had cried together in each other's arms afterwards, their conversations after Padme returned to Coruscant had been rushed and almost cursory. Somehow in the intervening months, her brother-in-law had become a folk hero, then Padme emerged from the chaos with yet another crown. Sola had always known that there was a possibility, however small, that Padme could eventually rise to the position of Supreme Chancellor, gifted were her talents and pure her ideals. Now, the Empress Vader returned with talk of 'dynasty' and 'succession', changing irrevocably the lives of their entire family, and especially her two daughters. Sola Naberrie, a simple schoolteacher, now stood to inherit the entire Galaxy were the worst to happen to Padme, though she doubted her brother-in-law would allow that to happen.

Floating the crown above his hand, he bowed his head and mimicked his wife's walk towards the throne, before kneeling again several feet from her. Having never actually touched the crown the entire time, he reached his hand out and nudged the it softly through the air until it sat suspended above the Empress's lap. Sola watched, fascinated from witnessing this first hand use of the Force, as her little sister plucked the now priceless object delicately out of the air with two fingers on either hand, and whispered something inaudible back to her husband. She held the crown and lifted it high in the air with two arms held up at an angle as she stood and beheld all who were gathered before her, turning her gaze from her advisers to the general audience, and finally towards her own family. She smiled at them, and it was the same smile Sola remembered from their childhood, the little girl smiling at her older sister as she read her the legends of Old Naboo, the teenager smiling at her in joy when she announced her engagement to Darred, the young woman laughing happily with her entire family at Ryoo and Pooja playing with each other as infants.

The new Empress looked directly into Sola's eyes as she smiled, and Sola could not help but brush away all feelings other than love and pride.  The gathered crowd waited in anxious silence as the new Empress shared a personal moment with her family. With her husband still kneeling before her, the new Empress placed it herself onto the crown of her head. The crowds cheered, the politicians applauded politely, and Sola, her family, and all the handmaidens next to them cried tears of joy.

"The era of war is over. Peace has returned to the Galaxy, and the cycle of our history turns once more. We had peace once, but only now we have learned the hard lesson that its price is constant forbearance, lest we sow within our complacency the seeds for another war, each deadlier and more horrible than the last."

Unlike many members of her family, Sola never had an interest in politics. Still, she would occasionally listen to some of her sister's speeches on the holonets in order to keep up with what was going on in her life. Padme's speeches in the Senate had always come straight from the heart, and Sola could not help but be moved herself upon hearing her sister's voice, pleading and trying to tease out the better angels of a rotten body. This Empress's voice was different. Where Amidala tried to persuade, Vader commanded, each word carrying with it the weight of absolute authority.

"That which we failed in foresight before, we change our thinking and our philosophies.  Those innocent lives lost, those families forever maimed, scarred, and destroyed by the conflagration, we will forever honor with our hearts, our souls, and our newfound wisdom. Those of us who survive and stand upon this new day, we mourn those we lost and honor those who sacrificed. Those evil beings who caused and gained from the darkness and the chaos we punished, and with their blood we vow to continue to protect the righteous and destroy the wretched."

Sola thought about the smile her sister gave her minutes ago. That smile was the real Padme, the sweet and loyal baby sister who loved her family. Sola closed her eyes and wondered what visions the doomed Senators saw in her eyes in their last moments, as the new Empress mowed down with her blaster one by one through more than a third of the Senate. She had sought to hide those broadcasts from her daughters, but should have known that the only thing in the universe more powerful than her brother-in-law was the curiosity of a child. They had done bad things to deserve such a fate, Sola had to explain to them, and it was true. This was the new way now, she said; they could not afford another repeat of the Clone Wars. This was all fine for the Empire, but it was Sola, not the Empress, who had to justify these deaths to Ryoo and Pooja.

"We stand united in Empire, built upon the principles of peace and freedom, forged through the blood and pain of past mistakes, and held together by our resolve to carve into posterity a golden era for our children and theirs."

The speech ended, and thunderous applause echoed from Naboo out across the stars.

"I don't think I'm ever eating Banthas again," Luke mumbled with a full mouth as he dug into his shaak roast. He was not the only one of their group eating ravenously. A lifetime on Tatooine followed by years as a fugitive did not allow much opportunity for fine dining.

"The meats are remarkably similar," Anakin said, watching his children eat with a look of amusement. "The difference is in the preparation. The Naboo are true artists with their sauces and garnishes and can probably make a delicacy out of even a raw womp rat."

"Thank you Sola," Leia said in between bites, "for your wonderful hospitality."

Padme smiled mischievously. "My sister inherited the cooking genes in our family. I hope that she will still find the time to cook once she becomes Empress."

"You're all out of stew," an older woman said next to Luke, pretending not to notice the dirty look Sola shot back at her sister. Jobal grabbed the pot and filled his bowl before he even had a chance to answer.

"Luke," Leia asked her brother with a mischievous look in her eye. "As delicious as this meal is, do you really think it's better than my Alderaanian nerf casseroles?"

"If you're the one cooking it...," Luke wrinkled his nose, "way better."

Leia frowned, and angrily punched Han in the shoulder.

"Hey! Why'd you hit me? Luke was the one who said it."

"You thought it too. And I can't hit my brother in front of family."

"Don't worry Han," Jobal said, winking at him as she rose towards the kitchen. "I'll make sure you get an extra helping of dessert for taking Luke's punishment."

"You guys are way too good to us," Han said sheepishly, picking at his roast. It startled him how...nice...this royal family was, and though he had never had a normal family of his own, he could guess that this was what it would be like. After a brief blip of being captured, by a rebellion no less, their little ragtag group had been doing nothing but sleeping, eating and drinking in their time in this world, and he could not help but feel guilty about despite having no reason for doing so. It was just, he mused, the fact that through more than thirty years of life, Han Solo had never had a pampered moment. He looked over at Chewbacca, who seemed surprisingly nonplussed by the two teenage girls shyly touching his fur and then giggling at each other.

"Nonsense," a deep voice said from the head of the table, a man to whom even the mighty Anakin/Vader and the Empress of the entire kriffin Galaxy seemed to defer to. "You are family, you are guests, and you all look like you haven't eaten a good meal in several lifetimes. You will always be welcome here."

"I cooked for the two of you once," Sola said to Luke and Leia from across the table, pouring Luke yet another glass of wine. "Your parents didn't get the chance to bring you home until you were ten months old. I made a sugared shurra paste for you; it's traditionally the first real food we give our kids here on Naboo."

"I think it's what makes the women here all so beautiful," Anakin said with a wink at his sister-in-law.

"Anakin! Stop flirting with my sister to make me jealous."

"He's still pretty...for now," Sola replied, ignoring a raised eyebrow from her husband, a mild bespectacled man with dark brown hair. "But you really need to work with him on his pickup lines."

Padme rolled her eyes. "Don't I know it. He peaked at nine, and somehow seems to regress with every passing year."

"Anyway," Sola continued, "I was much honored to have given you your first taste of Naboo cuisine back then. Both of you couldn't stop eating it, and your mother had to step in or I probably would have fed you until your stomachs burst. You were both just that cute." She turned to Luke. "You probably don't remember now, Luke, but you were surprisingly the one who threw a huge tantrum when we took your paste away."

The heir to the Empress frowned. "Or...I guess, you never would have remembered it because it never happened to you. Since you're different from your...oh I give up!"

Luke, his mouth still full, nodded his head in agreement.

"Dammit Padme. I think you finally broke my brain, and this time for good."

"Oh Sola," Padme said in a sassy, un-Empress like voice, "I hope you don't think it's that easy to weasel your way out of the succession."

Sola turned and fixed her gaze into the eyes of a very unprepared Han. "I am a forty-one year old woman. I have raised two grown daughters, and earned degrees from university in childhood education and Naboo aquatic lifeforms. I have taught children at the academy for almost two decades now." She turned her head to Luke. "Yet your mother insists that my daughters and I take classes twice a week on how to rule a kriffin Empire! Do you realize how insane that is to me?"

"I think it makes you more sane than anyone else here," Leia said, and Han could tell from her voice that she was not entirely serious. He laughed inside, happy that the jovial mood of this oddly royal family had won over to a small degree even its fiercest ideological opponent.

"Speaking of," Anakin said, "I graded your solution to the Malastarian question. Your actions would have resulted in the devastation of several cities by the Zillo Beast."

"Nonsense, Anakin. I graded your exam as well, and your plan to transport the beast to an uninhabited world, while risky, results in the most mutually beneficial scenario. Pooja, your approach was very diplomatic as well."

The younger sister beamed at her aunt's approval, and Padme turned her attention to her older niece, who was by now in her first year at the Imperial University. "Ryoo, your utilization of the Jedi was very creative. However, you will have to consider the consequences of engaging them."

The taller of the two sisters frowned. "What would the consequences be? Wouldn't the Jedi want to save as many lives as possible?"

Padme saw that Luke had turned his attention to their conversation as well. She and Anakin had constantly bantered about which of their two nieces were better suited to inherit the throne. Pooja was a natural diplomat, just like her Aunt, and Padme knew that she would do well in politics.

"Of course they would, but you must remember that the relationship between the Jedi and the Empire is a most delicate balancing act. We must not ask their help unless absolutely necessary. Constantly utilizing them will give them leverage politically and lead some, within and outside the Order, to believe that they ought regain some of the sovereignty they the held within the Republic."

Ryoo nodded. "And any power they gain will come at the expense of the Empire's." Her personality was quite different from her sister's, Padme mused. Sola's older daughter was shyer and more aloof. She preferred the arts to civics, and had become a very talented painter. Padme thought that given the right circumstances, she could be a good Empress as well, given that she was very similar to her husband in certain aspects. Ryoo saw the world in abstracts, and often acted decisively under duress in the Imperial simulators.

"Is it truly balance if the Empire holds all the power," Luke asked to the surprise of Leia and Han.

"The Empire is the balance," said Ryoo confidently. "Allow all the disparate elements of the Galaxy to gain disproportionate power, and they will abuse it, resulting in the same chaos that created the Clone Wars. Right, Uncle Anakin?"

Anakin smiled at his niece. "You know your doctrines well. The true test now is whether you can hold your own in a debate with Luke and Leia."

"Not at my dinner table, you don't," Sola protested loudly, shooting disapproving looks at the second most powerful man in the Galaxy and his long lost son. She turned an exasperated gaze to Han. "I used to ban political talk when we ate together as a family, you know, but then one day my baby sister comes waltzing back home and says 'Hey Sis, I'm gonna be Empress now, 'kay? And you're next.' It's been a futile cause since then, but when there's no chance one of you is going completely change the other's hearts and minds within the course of a meal, why ruin it?"

"I think this family tradition isn't a bad idea, Leia." An idea popped into his head, and he looked at the Empress-in-waiting with a sardonic grin. "Now if we can add Sabaac to the dinner table then you've won a supporter for life."

"I bet Pooja would like that," Ryoo blurted out with a smirk. "She won several tournaments in academy last semester."

"Ryoo!"

"Pooja!" Sola glared at her daughter. "Who taught you how to play Sabaac?"

She looked around the table and saw two guilty faces. "Darred?!"

As the older architect stuttered trying to explain himself, Han considered the three Naberrie women closest in age to him. Out of everyone at the table, Leia was the one he could most easily imagine reigning as an Empress. She was, after all, the only one at this table who had actually received a royal upbringing. There was Sola, who seemed humble but very self-possessed and fully in her element as the future matriarch of the family. And finally, there was the actual Empress who, despite her obvious comfort in ruling the Galaxy for ten years, seemed more than happy to stay in the background amidst her family, enjoying the banter and laughing at all the jokes while holding her husband's hand. She was attractive sure, as were all the Naberrie women, but there was a vulnerability to her eyes that made Han instinctively want to protect her, even though he was sure she, and her many bodyguards, were more than capable of handling themselves. He could easily imagine how a younger Anakin, a mighty war hero that even he remembered from his far gone childhood, could have fallen in love with this woman so many years ago. He supposed that he and Anakin had more in common than anyone else at the table: a former slave and a street urchin eating with a family that, though they were modest, had not had to worry about their next meal for many generations.

"Anakin," he asked warily. "There's something that's been bothering me."

The former Jedi still couldn't help but narrow his eyes at him. "What is it Han?"

"Since I'm here...but as me, grown and all...what are the chances that the original me in this world is running around somewhere? A younger version, I guess. I was close to joining the Imperial Academy around this timeframe back where I come from." He shuddered at the prospect that some bizarre form of himself was somehow under Skywalker's command at this very moment.

Anakin looked at Luke. "You said your 3PO and R2's were deactivated when you came through the black hole."

"Yes father," Luke said in contemplation. "We left them in the shuttle back on Endor. I hope they haven't come to and thought we abandoned them."

"I doubt it," Anakin said. "The Force does not make mistakes." He looked back at Han, his blue eyes almost...sympathetic? "I'm afraid that it's very possible that the versions of you here, as well as Chewbacca, have passed. The absence of all four of you from this world may be the only reason you were allowed existence here in the first place."

"I'm dead," Han said, the thought thoroughly discombobulating, though he realized that Luke and Leia had known the same about themselves for a few days by now.

"And I'm a Sith Lord who tortured my own daughter." To Han's surprise, Anakin actually smiled at him as several members of the family winced awkwardly at his last remark. "Best just enjoy your food, Solo, and not think too deeply about these things."

"I think I trust them," Luke said. It was just them on the alcove overlooking the lake. Their grandparents were cleaning up, and Sola and her daughters were involved in yet another Imperial training lesson with their parents.

"Me too," Leia replied. The estate reminded her of a similar place on Alderaan that her father used to take her to on a warm summer's night. Despite Bail's betrayal, she still hoped to visit Alderaan while she was in this world. "They are not saints, and they'll never convince me that their Empire is the right way to go, but they've been honest with us. Do you feel that?"

"I do." He marveled at the serenity of this planet and the family he had found here. Surrounded by such beauty that he had never seen, all the pain and wars from his last life seemed so distant.

"I knew the younger one in our world," Leia said, resting her head on Han's shoulder. "Pooja. She was in the Senate alongside me, and seemed to be one of the few remaining who served with selflessness and integrity. I never would have guessed we were cousins."

"Could you imagine growing up like this," Luke asked softly. "Living in such a world, in peace, surrounded by wonderful people. I miss Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen, and they were wonderful as well, but Tatooine has a way of...hardening people." He too wondered whether he could revisit his home in this world, especially after Anakin had mentioned that the couple who raised him were still alive and well on Tatooine, obviously now a province of the Empire and apparently a vital trade hub for the Outer Rim.

"What's different isn't necessarily bad," Leia said, her eyes catching several fireflies swirling above the moonlit lake. "Our struggles made us who we are today. Do you think we can just settle down in this world as pampered royals and still...have a sense of purpose?"

"Says the pampered royal herself," Luke remarked wryly, and Han flinched, expecting a blow from Leia again. "They can be your family too one day, Han."

"I don't know. Your sister seems to have developed a nasty penchant for mild domestic violence lately."

Luke laughed as Leia shot a sharp look at Han, and continued, "you said it yourself. Father foresees that we will succeed against the Emperor. Then we'll have to grow accustomed to peace as well."

"We'll still be building, Luke. Restoring the Republic, rebuilding the Jedi Order. Isn't that what you want?"

"I do," Luke said, his voice wavering. "But it all just seems so...tiring."

"I know. But can we just leave everything behind? What about all the billions who are still suffering in our world?"

"We've already been gone for awhile now," Han said. His eyes drifted open and shut and his stomach grumbled, as he was not accustomed to feeling this full. "For all we know the war there is already lost."

"Or our world doesn't really even exist right. Not until we choose to return."

"Is that what you feel, Luke?" Leia felt the temptation of her brother's words. It was one thing to leave their burdens behind. But if they ceased to exist in the first place...

"I don't know. Father says we will meditate in the morning. The Force brought us here, and we should trust that it will lead us in the right path."

Leia closed her eyes. Whether it was the Force or not, she was already learning to feel and sense things in ways she never had before. She tried to reach for this Force now, and ask it for advice. She heard nothing but the songs of the nightbirds in the trees above her, floating over the gentle lapping waves of the lake, and felt nothing but love surrounding her from every direction.

From the moment he landed on Mandalore, the Force sang a sense of unease to him. It was not his feelings towards an unavoidable meeting with the Duchess; those were his own feelings entirely, and Obi-Wan Kenobi had long mastered himself. But there was an elusiveness to his surroundings, a collective anxiety, fear and conspiracy being exuded by many around him. He sensed a lingering darkness as well, though Obi-Wan could not pinpoint its source or essence.

He had studied the parched landscape below him on his approach into Mandalore, a system that had thrived since the end of the Clone Wars. The domed city of Sundari was as he remembered, a monument to peace and aesthetics on a planet devastated by its deadly martial heritage. The Duchess built her legacy upon institutions of art and civic pride, as reflected by the numerous parks, academies, theaters, and music halls that lined the city's main boulevards. Despite its location in the middle of an inhospitable desert, Sundari along with many of its neighboring cities had seen an influx of billions of sentients as its institutions gained prestige, drawing in the young from all corners of the Galaxy and churning out academics, artisans, and young trade professionals who formed the core of the planet's new economy.

There were drawbacks to the planet's growth however. Many of the natives who already resented to various degrees the pacifist ideals of the Duchess and the New Mandalorians were further alienated by all the migrating offworlders who continued to tilt the cultural and political balance against them. There was the question of sustainability as well on a planet with as many inhospitable zones as Mandalore. This was why it had to import a large amount of water from the nearby world of Aquaris in order to bolster its own faltering supplies, and explained its current vulnerability to the whims of the Thrustran aristocracy that controlled the watery planet's resources.

At the center of the city was the Royal Palace, and Obi-Wan reflected upon his memories in that building. Jedi do not feel nervousness, he reminded himself, only peace and compassion for all. But Obi-Wan knew himself well enough to deny his own feelings. He would have rather have started his investigation on Thrustra itself, but the high lords were already in Sundari for negotiations with the Duchess's governing council.

Only four people in his life had been able to pierce the serenity of Obi-Wan's heart. There was his old master, a complex relationship that Obi-Wan did not come close to resolving until well after the former's death. There was still much unsaid between him and Qui-Gon, despite their occasional communication following the enigmatic master's return from the netherworlds of the Force. Siri Tachi still held a place in his heart as well, but they had grown distant during the turmoil of the Clone Wars. Though he still thought of her as a close friend, any romantic feelings he had once had for his fellow Padawan had long faded. Her place was with the Order, even more than him, and while he made an effort to see her whenever he visited the new Temple on Alderaan, he would not dream of anything beyond friendly conversation now, especially since he believed that she was well on her way to a seat on the Council.

That left Skywalker and the Duchess; one who had abandoned him in principle, if not fully in spirit, and another he had abandoned more times than he would prefer to admit. Obi-Wan cursed that he had confided on his feelings with his former Padawan. He had expected him to understand, to provide him counsel even. Anakin was deeply empathetic of course, but Obi-Wan certainly could not follow the younger man's advice to defy or abandon the Order. But what was a temporary solace had become a constant weakness that Anakin and his wife were eager to prod. Obi-Wan acknowledged that Anakin did so because deep down, he wanted his old master to find happiness in the same way as he. It didn't matter, as ten years had passed since he had last seen her. Satine had moved on with her life. Obi-Wan, on the other hand, continued on as a living relic.

Anakin had been kind enough to allow him to live in his old quarters what used to be the Jedi Temple, now an Imperial Museum commemorating the events and lives lost in the Clone Wars. The opportunity to witness a legendary Jedi and war hero moving about the building as if he would in the days of the Republic was one of the main draws of the museum, and Obi-Wan honestly didn't mind conversing with some of the curious tourists, especially the children to whom he occasionally tried to impart some old Jedi mantras to.

But it was refreshing to get away from being a living exhibit and being surrounded by reminders of another life. He enjoyed his very occasional missions because it allowed him to be himself, to reflect upon the Galaxy as it was now, not what it once was, and shape it within these new confines. Any place but Mandalore, he added, as he left his lodging at a nondescript hostel in the city's lower levels and found a small cantina whose aromas reminded him of Dex's. But the situation here was truly dire, else Obi-Wan would not have agreed with the Empress's request to conduct the investigation himself. By the time he had arrived however, Obi-Wan freely admitted, because he knew himself, that he did not travel to Mandalore purely to ward off a potential humanitarian crisis. That a deep reserve of his heart personally wished to see Satine again mattered not, but he could not ignore the persistent feeling that she had once more put her own life at risk.

"A water please, along with the ale," Obi-Wan said to a barrel chested bartender. The man must have been a fighter in his youth, but age had taken its toll on his hairline and waistline. "While it's still possible to order one."

"You're telling me about it," the bartender replied. "We'll all die, and the Duchess will still dither on."

"You don't approve of her handling of the Thrustrans?"

The portly bartender shoved him his drinks. "I work in this kriffin place because I ain't versed to draw pretty pictures or teach history lessons. I come from a line of warriors, twelve generations deep. We made history, my ancestors." He coughed roughly several times, and continued. "Now, our entire people allow a weak race of cowards to hold our entire planet hostage, and we can't take what is ours because of what? Principle? Easy enough for the Duchess to allow us to die for her principles."

"You don't think her negotiations will succeed?"

"The Duchess and her ministers are weak. They've already destroyed culture, so there's no way they'd be willing to do what it takes to save our people."

A serving droid brought him his nerf stew, and Obi-Wan took several sips before motioning towards the bartender again. "I've heard whispers, you know. There are those who feel the Death Watch would do what's needed for Mandalore."

The bartender looked around the empty cantina nervously, then angrily handed Obi-Wan his receipt. "You ask too many questions for an off-worlder. I suggest you finish what you purchased, quickly, and leave."

The man was clearly hiding something, and Obi-Wan made a mental note keep an eye on him in his time on the planet. An official looking man dressed in an all black uniform approached him at the doorway of his lodge. "Master Kenobi," he said, and gestured towards a nondescript transport. Obi-Wan nodded and walked in.

"Satine," he said, and took his seat beside the regal older woman. He had sensed her presence already and so was not surprised to find her in the transport, but he did marvel at how quickly she discovered his presence on the planet.

"Obi-Wan," the Duchess answered in voice tinted with bitterness. "I see the Empire has decided to send me their favorite lapdog."

The transport started, Obi-Wan noticed, in the direction of the royal palace. "Our friend the Empress believes the situation here to have reached a critical point. She truly wants to help your people, Satine."

The Duchess turned her attention to her fingernails. "Or, she fears a blemish on the Empire's shiny veneer. The Thrustran quarrels are with the Empire, not us. If the Empress truly cares about the Mandalorian people then she will agree to their demands."

"It is not the role of the Jedi to take sides between systems and the Empire. But surely you realize that the Empire, like any other government, cannot let itself be held hostage to the unreasonable demands of every faction."

"Then negotiate their demands until they are reasonable." Satine looked back up at Obi-Wan with a crooked eye. "That's what I'm trying to do right now. That was the role of the Jedi, was it not? Please tell me that's what your Empress sent you here to do?"

"I'm merely here to assess the situation. And remind you that there are many within the Empire who would prefer action to negotiation."

Satine narrowed her penetrating blue eyes at Obi-Wan. "Your friends sent you to spy on me then? Is that why you arrived on the planet under the cover of darkness?"

"I believe that stealth will better lead me to the truth. Have you considered that the Thrustran motivations are not entirely their own?"

"Yes, the Death Watch. I'm not blind, Obi-Wan." The Duchess gazed pensively out the viewport. "I have suffered more from that group than most. They are weak, because of our success...and because your Empire's oppression. Regardless, at the end of the day New Mandalore has simply much more to offer the Thrustrans than they."

"That they are weak is all the more reason to not underestimate what they would be willing to do." Obi-Wan hesitantly put his hand on the Duchess's shoulder; she did not react. "I'm sorry about your husband, for what it's worth." He had read of her marriage to the son of a magnate from Kuat not long after he took his place on the Empress's council. Several months ago, he had read of his death due to an apparent hyperdrive malfunction on a routine trip back to his homeworld. Many suspected that it was not an accident, and many wondered also whether he was the true target.

"How is Obin? He should be six now?"

Satine smiled. "Seven, going on eight. He is a bright boy, and kind, but he misses his father terribly." She pulled away from Obi-Wan's touch. "Would you like to meet him? He can...learn much from a Jedi right now."

"It would be my pleasure," Obi-Wan said softly. "I should have visited long ago."

"You should have," Satine said coldly. "But I didn't expect you to. You made it very clear that you preferred to pretend that our little...dalliance never happened."

"I was weak, Satine. Everything was upside down at the time. I mean, for Force's sake, I found out the Jedi had been serving the whims of a Sith Master for thirteen years. My Padawan had been framed for a crime she did not commit while I was too busy fighting said Sith's war. I watched my former Padawan destroy that Sith by wielding the Dark Side more powerfully than anyone in over a millenia. The very future of the Jedi was in question."

"That's all I was to you," Satine said in a resigned voice. "A weakness. A fallback."

She held the palm of her hand out at Obi-Wan in protest as he began to respond. "You don't need to deny the truth. I've long accepted it myself."

"It is what it is," Obi-Wan conceded. "But none of that diminishes what we had. And what I still feel for you."

"I know that, Obi-Wan. But that does not make it hurt less."

His serenity broken, he had to turn his attentions towards restraint. Both of them sat silently in the transport, gazing at the streets and monuments passing by. Many of them held fond memories for Obi-Wan, and he imagined that they meant so much more to the woman next to him.

He felt a disturbance in the Force, but it was too late. Fire erupted in the sky behind them, and the explosion jerked the transport off its course. Obi-Wan instinctively grabbed the Duchess around her waist as their vehicle plunged through the air, swerving as their driver struggled to regain control. More blasts echoed around them, and one in particular grabbed Satine's attention even in the middle of the pandemonium.

"The Palace," she cried out in fear. "Obin!"

Chapter Text

The entire planet smelled like life, Luke thought. Wonderful, simple, world affirming life. The Force acted in subtle ways here, humming a light tune through the light breeze when they emerged from the trees to an open meadow. He felt it in call of the birds from high above them on the mountain cliffs, to the constant and gentle emanations of the water which seemed to flow and disperse into every nook and cranny around them.

The path before then narrowed along a small cliff, and far below he saw a wondrous small meadow flanked by cascades in several directions. Padme stopped in front of him, and took his arm gently, pointing down.

"We sat in that meadow and talked for hours, your father and I." Her smile was as bright as the sun as she talked. "It was when we met again, when Anakin was still younger than you are now. The Galaxy was slipping into darkness, war was only days away, but in those moments, nothing else seemed to matter."

Even from over a hundred feet above, he could still see the vivid colors of the wildflowers splattered across the landscape below, gold and purple and pink and fuchsia and so many more. Luke smiled, and he thought he saw an indent in the grass below, and a young couple occupying the space.

"You were wearing a light yellow dress," Luke said hypnotically. "Father wore a black leather tunic."

She turned her head at Luke, the circles under her eyes further coloring her expression. "You can see this," Padme asked, almost longingly.

"I think so. It appears to me sometimes, images like that."

Padme let go, and continued down the trail towards Anakin and Leia. They had been walking for hours now, following a small path around the lake as it circled up the slopes of the surrounding mountains. "I envy you. I remember that day like it was yesterday; we were so innocent then. If I had your powers and could relive it..."

Luke could not shake the image from his head, nor did he want to. His parents looked so young, even his mother. She did not look like an Empress in that moment, just a girl in love.

"It was a humid day," his mother continued. "I remember it was the first time Anakin and I discussed politics. I still wonder how he managed to not break a sweat under that horridly heavy thing he was wearing."

"Your dress was very...," Luke blushed, "un-Empress like."

"That entire trip I dressed to impress your father," Padme said with a laugh, her voice in a distant place. "Even if I didn't realize my feelings yet, my wardrobe did."

"What was he like back then," Luke asked, looking ahead at the older man ahead who watched in amusement as Leia pretended to swing his lightsaber around in several exaggerated motions, unactivated of course.

"He was like any teenager," Padme answered with a guilty grin. "Impetuous, even to the point of rudeness. He was powerful, he did not fully know how to use it or control it, but when called to action he was brave and selfless with his power. He was irresistible, because he held nothing back. His love, his anger, his frustrations."

"I imagine he must have been a handful for Master Obi-Wan."

"Obi-Wan tried his best, he really did. But he could only do so much within the constraints of the Jedi Code. The Jedi preach to trust your instincts, but in reality, only the instincts they approve of. It's for the best, of course, their powers being so dangerous, but Anakin was always different from them. What he needed, they could never provide."

"That was you," Luke realized.

Padme nodded. "He would have needed to pick between me and the Jedi sooner or later. It was the same with his mother, Shmi. At such a young age, he had to make the choice to leave her so he could be trained. Then, they rejected him, only changing their minds after he blew up the Trade Federation ship. The Jedi would have preferred him to forget her forever, and the one last time they met was painful...and brief."

Luke understood, remembering what Obi-Wan, the younger version, had said to him several days ago. "He wouldn't have made the same choice again."

Padme took her son's arm, leading him as the path descended down several rocky steps into another dense pocket of trees. "You are the same age he was when the Clone Wars ended. It is remarkable, the burdens the both of you have had to bear at your age, with the weight of the entire Galaxy on your shoulders. Yet...you are both so different as well. I sense a lot of Shmi in you, Luke. You have a serenity to your heart, something that Anakin has constantly struggled to achieve, yet it comes naturally to you."

Luke ruminated over his mother's words. He remembered the cave on Dagobah, fearing the dark inheritance that he had learned of on Bespin. He should have known better, Luke thought. He was his father's son, true, and at the time Darth Vader was the only blood relative he knew in existence, but he was not a clone, and there was more to his makeup than just one man.

"Maybe it comes from all the years on Tatooine. I hated that place. I'm sure father hated it. But you learn to accept that the heat, and the sand, and the constant struggle will never end."

"It is a harsh place," Padme agreed. "I was there at the end too. Shmi was a wonderful mother. She protected Anakin from the worst, and taught him compassion and generosity. As a slave, Anakin was all she had, and yet she let him go with us."

"I can't imagine," Luke murmured. His childhood had not been easy, but at least he had had two loving guardians raise him until he had become a man. And when he finally experienced tragedy and trauma for the first time, he would have been better able to cope with it than his father.

"From what I heard, she did find happiness in the last years of her life. With Owen, and Beru, and Cliegg. But still, she deserves so much more from her fate."

The trail meandered by a small waterfall, one of the dozen they had seen already on their walk. But this one, as much as the first, still seemed a miracle to Luke. In another life, he thought, this would have been his home, and all its splendid beauty, the nature, the water would have been all that he knew. Suddenly, she turned to look at him, her brown eyes radiating a ferocity he had only seen when she leading her Council.

"Who are you, Luke Skywalker?"

"What do you mean, mother?"

"You are a Rebel, and a Jedi. You do not flout your titles, but that makes you all the more secure and comfortable in how they define you. Take away those labels, pretend such things never existed. Who are you then?"

Luke paused to think as his mother continued ahead on the path. He had never contemplated the idea that he was anything else than what had consumed his life since he had left Tatooine. That his mother could discern his weakness after knowing him mere days made him wonder whether she was either strong in the Force herself, or was somehow possessed by a deceased Master Yoda from across several universes.

"I guess...I'm just Luke. I love my friends, even though there are less of them in this world, and I would do anything for them. I see that I have more family than I can even comprehend here, and I guess I'm still trying to decide how I feel about that."

"You did not answer my question," Padme answered with the tone of an Empress. "You merely discussed others, people who matter to you."

"Maybe that's who I am then," Luke said after several silent paces. "I wish to do right, to help people, to make the Galaxy better. And I care for the people in my life...those who matter to me, they define me. I wish to serve them, to honor their cause, to do well by them. I...I fear letting them down."

The Empress stopped again to listen to her son.

"Sometimes I find myself thinking, planning, wishing things weeks or years into the future, wondering about all our fates and whether we'll succeed or fail," Luke said pensively. "Other times, all I want to do is to sit in a meadow here, watch you and father talk, listen to my sister laugh, joke around with Han and Chewie."

She took his artificial arm and studied the prosthetic, which Luke understood to be more elegant and advanced than the one his father most often kept hidden.

"The two of you are so alike," Padme said as she felt the skin-life surface of his hand, "so driven by your loyalty to others, your urge to make things right. And yet you differ in your ways. Anakin seeks to protect, and he will move galaxies to do so. You merely wish to help your loved ones, to facilitate, to blend and be one with them."

She looked up and studied his blue eyes, calmer and less intense than his father's.

"You don't quite know yourself yet, but you accept yourself all the same. Both things your father spent years struggling with. You have his powers, but your skills, through no fault of your own, are raw and untapped."

"Learn from Anakin and Obi-Wan, Luke," she pleaded, letting go of his arm. "They are vastly different from each other, and understand wisdom in different ways. Both are not wrong, and both will help you surpass either one of them."

They continued walking, and Luke wondered whether Padme spoke to him as a politician or as a mother?

"Mother," he said in a firmer voice, making her stop in her tracks and turn to him again. "Who are you? Did you dream of politics and power even while you grew up here?"

Padme laughed. "Your father asked me the same thing the first time we came to Varykino. I suppose I always wanted to help people, same as you. My family had the means, my planet has the tradition, so I traveled offworld often as a young child; my family has deep histories with both politics and philanthropy, so one naturally followed the other. With all the horrors I saw on all those beleaguered worlds, I thought politics was the best way I could make a positive difference. But I never expected to become Queen, and certainly not an Empress."

"What was it like? To be Queen at such a young age?"

He watched her mother hold her hand out as she walked, brushing it against the cream colored flowers lining the trail.

"I was too young to fear. To understand failure. The Naboo choose to value youth in their leaders, because they are pure. But purity does not always prevail in the Galaxy. Unlike you, I grew up in a world with little oppression. There was only minor corruption, from the Republic down even onto Naboo. But those little corruptions build, and accumulate, and take on a life of their own, until they all coalesced into the man we both know as Palpatine."

Luke watched his mother make her way gracefully down the trail. It must have been the hundredth time she had walked this path before, yet she still seemed to marvel in its every step, taking in her surroundings fully with every sense of hers. Here, without her throne, and her bodyguards, and her power, she could have easily been part of the landscape.

"I wanted many things, really. I felt the call of duty when I was very young. Even as a child, as content as I was swimming in the lake with my parents and wandering these same woods with Sola, I felt guilty...that I was indulging in selfish pleasures, rather than helping others. So I did my volunteer work, and that led to academies, being labelled a prodigy, and life became merely a series of steps...exams, lectures, debates, entrance to the Legislative Apprenticeships, and so on. I learned how to read people, to persuade, to manipulate...in the simplistic ways that a child can understand such complex things. I developed and honed my beliefs through my learning. Life became mere concepts, and I forgot to feel, but not completely. When I did feel, I thought of the lakes, and the trees, and my family. And I felt guilty that I was letting their lives pass too quickly before my eyes."

She closed her eyes, walking blindly down the rocky trail. Luke braced himself to catch her if she fell, but her feet knew the path as well as she knew her power.

"I was not a whole person when I met Anakin again, but I had everyone fooled. Everyone but Ani, of course. He saw through my titles, through the cracks in the facade. Like he did on Tatooine, all he saw in me was Padme: the person I was and the person I wanted to be, and I knew that I could have been a beggar, a spice smuggler, or hells, a Sith Lord, and he would have loved me all the same."

Luke couldn't help laugh as he brushed away a brief and ridiculous idea that the center of all the evil in his Empire, the puppetmaster behind Darth Vader and even the Emperor, sat the twisted form of Darth Padme. Yet as they approached the lake and yet another flat meadow, Luke felt a dark tremor in the Force. He looked ahead at Leia and thought that she felt uneasy too. Anakin's face, relaxed before, now seemed grim and impenetrable. Did his mother let slip the truth? The darkness emanated stronger and stronger around him, though they did not seem to originate from his mother. It came from the surroundings, he realized.

As they walked into the opening, Luke noticed that this meadow was different. It was manicured, not natural, and its gardens and flowers all neatly arranged alongside the stone path purely for the benefit of the visitor. He saw a stone monument adorned with the vividest flowers around it. His father and Leia were already standing before it. There was the likeness of an older woman carved on its surface, and Luke read the engraving.

"Her grave is still on Tatooine in your old homestead," Anakin said to Luke. "But we wanted to commemorate her here as well."

"What is this place," Leia asked. She must have felt it too here. Despite their peaceful surroundings, the Force swirled around them violently, darkness and light clashing with each other. It was like the cave on Dagobah, except the darkness seemed more powerful, and less ancient.

"Convergence," Padme said. "It was the estate of the Palpatine family going back many generations. I had it razed and turned into a peace garden."

Luke looked at Leia, eyes wide in shock. He had forgotten that the Emperor himself came from Naboo. It was unsettling especially now, after experiencing all its beauty, to reconcile that with the fact that it was the origin of the greatest evil he had known.

Anakin led them ahead towards the lake, where he saw two more small monuments under a tall stone mausoleum.

"These are your graves," Anakin said dispassionately. "This is where Padme and I will be buried when we pass on from this world."

"Why here," Luke asked, reading the engravings before him. It was extremely unsettling to stand before his own grave. He reached out with the Force at the monument bearing his own name...and the Force was silent.

"You were originally buried on the grounds of Varykino," Anakin answered, pointing at their retreat house, small but still visible from across the lake. "We decided to move it. Varykino should be a place of life, where we celebrate the living."

He gestured at a flat spot in the grass. "Sit. We will meditate here."

"I need you to step aside," Obi-Wan said to the pilot, who seemed all too glad to do so. He swerved the craft tightly at an angle that would have sent Satine and the rest of them all careening into the roof had it not been for their restraints. Then as fast as he could, Obi-Wan steered the transport in the other angle as the they dodged yet another piece of debris. The first wave of explosions were over, and the Force seem to settle around him, as he felt the initial feelings of shock transform into panic and fear.

"Are your communications still active," he shouted into the back seats.

"Slow," Satine said, studying her comlink as her body braced for more of Obi-Wan's piloting. "They are trying to jam us, but our grid is fighting back valiantly."

"We can't depend on their success," Obi-Wan said, pushing the transport into a steep climb as they approached the Royal Palace. Smoke rose from the building, but it appeared still mostly intact. "You need to send out a distress signal."

"To the Empire? That will practically serve as an invite to military occupation." The Duchess frowned as she read her latest messages. "There are reports of attacks on over thirty cities across the planet, and on several bases on Concordia. Sundari has been hit the hardest, and several key ports seem to have been occupied by an unidentified armed force."

"It must be the Death Watch," Obi-Wan said. "The Thrustrans do not have the means or the numbers."

Satine rose and, as the craft flew through a level and undisturbed area, moved to sit between Obi-Wan and the original pilot. She grasped his hand on the steering wheel in support. "The situation is dire, Obi-Wan. But our security forces have been preparing for such an occurrence for many years now. We can defend our own planet."

Their gaze both shifted to the Royal Palace, which they were fast approaching. Obi-Wan tensed. He realized Satine would have thought it was from her touch. She was mistaken, because he finally was able to place the familiar waves of hate and malignancy that he had felt when he had arrived in the system.

"Obin is in grave danger. I hope we are not too late."

She said nothing in return, knowing that there was nothing she could do but to trust the Jedi Warrior. Their transport landed, and a half a dozen security troops ran up to join them. She looked around and saw many more uniformed bodies spread across the plaza.

Obi-Wan moved quickly towards the palace entrance, then stopped to turn back to the Duchess.

"I must move quickly. You need to send out a distress signal. Tell them specifically to not intervene militarily, if you like. Padme will respect your wishes, I think. But ask for a small transport to get Obin off planet. You cannot afford to worry about him during this crisis."

He ran ahead into the building without waiting for an answer. He did not need to search with the Force for the Duchess's young son, though he was sure he would be able to sense traces of him through his mother's fingerprints in his presence. Instead, he followed the unmistakable fumes of the darkness, knowing that they had the same objective. The darkness was winning, and Obi-Wan channeled the Force with an urgency he had not felt since the Clone Wars and that last battle with Grievous, forgetting own aging body and weary lungs as his legs raced in a blur through the hallways and up many flights of stairs.

Even as his heart pounded, even as his soul sweated at the prospect of further pain and suffering to innocents, Obi-Wan felt more connected with the Force, and himself, than he had for a long time. The Sith were here and he, once the Galaxy's most prolific Sith-slayer before his Padawan overtook his count, was born to fight them. And yes, he decided that Darth Maul still counted as a kill despite the fact that the Sith was standing before him now, damage from Obi-Wan's prior encounter with him evident.

He heard a soft cry of fear from the room behind Maul and sent through the Force as much pressure as possible at the dark presence between him and Satine's son. Having made an effort to conceal his presence, he managed to catch Maul off guard enough for Obi-Wan to make it himself to the room's doorway, blue lightsaber ignited. The Zabrak recognized him and his eyes darkened in even more hatred, but Obi-Wan did not allow him the chance to further react before he struck, bringing his saber down towards Maul's shoulder in a blow that was deflected at the last second as his foe ignited his red saber. Maul struck back at Obi-Wan savagely, sparks flying as their slashes careened off the walls of the narrow hallway in the boy's quarters.

Maul's advance pushed Obi-Wan towards the outer hall, and he silently willed Satine to stay in the atrium. Behind them, the dark haired boy stared at the two duelists in awestruck fear. Maul saw Obi-Wan's look of concern and, with a wicked grin raised an outstretched hand and flung a set of shelves off the wall at Obin. As Obi-Wan strained through the Force deflect the projectile away from Obin, Maul struck at his arm. The shelves, narrowly missing the child, hit and shattered through the windows, and as he stretched backwards and swung his saber up and horizontally to deflect Maul's blow, the Zabrak kicked hard at Obi-Wan's ankles, knocking him off balance and onto the floor. Struggling to get up at the sharp pain from the apparently durasteel legs of Maul, Obi-Wan rolled quickly along the ground and flung himself as he rose towards the Sith, flying through the air with his saber pointed directly at his stomach. Maul grunted, and as he brought his sword up to deflect Obi-Wan's trajectory, the Jedi flipped upside down in an act of remarkable athleticism and swung his legs into the Zabrak's head. Both of them landed violently onto the floor, and Obi-Wan yelled to Satine's son, his actions having created a buffer between the Sith and the outside hall.

"Run! Find your mother downstairs, and both of you stay put with her security detail until it's safe."

The boy obliged, and Obi-Wan rolled around on the floor, narrowly avoiding a blow as Maul's strike burned a hole in the floor. Obi-Wan leaped up and faced his opponent from across the room, feeling his hatred emanate in thick waves through the Force.

"I did not expect to have my revenge so quickly, Jedi. You destroyed me. Now I will destroy you."

To his surprise, the object of his malice merely smiled at him.

"That's all you've got, Maul? I honestly liked you better when you were dead." Without giving him a chance to respond, Obi-Wan somersaulted again through the air and swung again his weapon in a lethal strike at Maul's neck. As Maul slashed back in a defensive move, Obi-Wan was able to land a more decisive kick onto the Sith's chest, landing easily on one foot. With his balance regained and his pressing charge safe for the time being, Obi-Wan released all his feelings into the Force, allowing his serenity to deflect the dark waves being broadcasted back at him.

"I'd suggest you surrender, but I doubt the Empire will show you any mercy. Still, it'd be a bit easier for me if you did."

The mechanical legs allowed him to regain his footing without much difficulty, but Obi-Wan could see the fear in the Sith's eyes.

"You got lucky, Jedi puppet. This isn't over."

Obi-Wan squared his shoulders and advanced towards the Sith. "You're rusty. I'm not. I trust I have far superior sparring partners than you, what with the elimination of your kind and all."

As he expected, Maul took the offensive at his words and lunged at him. They continued to trade blows, and Obi-Wan breathed calmly as they engaged in battle, sighing sadly at the belongings of the poor boy their duel was destroying. Having matched with mainly with Anakin the last ten years as well as Masters Yoda and Windu whenever he returned to visit the Temple on Alderaan, he did not find the skills of a half man Sith all that taxing. Maul sensed the same, and though he was far from tiring, he realized that every second he continued the fight he was allowing the Jedi to gain a better measure of his tactics. He sent a Force Shove at the Jedi Master's direction, and while Obi-Wan only flinched as he deflected it through the Force, it was time enough for Maul to backflip through the open window.

Obi-Wan saw him land on a speeder hundreds of feet below and shook his head. It was the second time he had watched Maul fall, and both times he had let the Sith escape alive.

"Coward," he muttered, and ran back out of the room to find the Duchess. He found her and her son in the Command Room, receiving a briefing from two very perturbed security chiefs.

"I have a bad feeling about this," he said, looking at the Duchess's advisors. "What further news?"

"Two Star Destroyers have just appeared in the system," one of them said. "We have ascertained that they are hostile, and do not appear to be Imperial."

"Tarkin then," Obi-Wan surmised. "It appears the rebellion has allied itself with the Death Watch and the Sith."

"I gave him asylum when he was at his most desperate," Satine said sadly. "This is how he repays Mandalore. By destroying our cities, murdering our people and sending an assassin at my son."

"Some in the rebellion have good intentions, but in their desperation for his fleet, they have allowed him to slowly corrode them from the inside."

"Obin mentioned a monster you fought. What is this you speak of the Sith?"

He looked away, not wanting to unduly worry his old love, but not wanting to lie to her either. "A relic. One I thought I had destroyed on Naboo."

"The one who killed Master Qui-Gon," Satine asked hesitatingly.

Obi-Wan nodded. "Satine," he implored. "Maul is a menace but he can be dealt with, but we both know that your forces are no match for two Star Destroyers."

He watched her soft blue eyes contemplate her choices for a long minute. "A deal with a greater devil to save us from the smaller ones."

"The Empire is many things. But you know Padme. The Empress is not without blood on her hands, but she's no devil."

Satine lowered her head in defeat, throwing her arms protectively around her son. "Very well. Do you what you must. And Obi-Wan?"

"Yes?"

Satine dug her eyes deeply into Obi-Wan's, and he felt old feelings from years ago resurfacing. "Thank you."

"Start with one blade of grass," Anakin instructed. He sat on the lawn with Luke and Leia on either side, all three of them in a meditative pose. Facing them was the Empress, smiling as she casually drank a glass of wine and nibbled on a sandwich while she bathed in the sights and sounds of her family, miraculously reunited before her, engaging with a power that was still mysterious to her after all these years.

"Immerse yourself in it. Be that blade of grass. Feel the Force flowing through it. Between you and the blade of grass, the Force does not discriminate."

Luke had not liked meditating on Dagobah, but he was a difference person now, or even since Bespin. He felt more peace within his soul and an acceptance of his own weaknesses. But the main source of his restlessness, the aching gaps in his soul, had been more than filled by his time in this world. He found his parents and answers to all the questions he never would have imagined closure on. He found a loving family and acceptance, and he was lucky enough to have embarked on this journey with his own twin sister, feeling liberated to have revealed all secrets.

"Feel the breeze," Anakin continued. "The blade of grass bends with the wind. It is the will of the Force."

Meditation was easier, Luke concluded, when you are content.

"Find an insect, a small animal. Maybe a duck or fish from the lake below. Feel the life, the Force within them. They breathe the same air, feel the same breeze, feed off the same energy."

In his mind, he felt a distinct and fleeting presence above him. It was a bird, he thought. It was hungry. It felt temptation. It was a she, he realized. Her food was in her mouth as she flew, but she resisted eating it. He felt her pull to the nest, her need to feed her young. He transferred his feelings towards the baby birds, and felt their instinctive hunger, both for their sustenance and their mother.

"This is the Living Force," Anakin emphasized. "It is the origin of the Force, and it is its only recipient. We living creatures, we luminous beings, conscious or not, sentient or not, our energies shape the universe. Without the Living Force, there is no future, no destiny, no fate. The sum of all life, all our energies, from a microscopic creature, to the grass to the trees, to the great beasts, to us, to the Empress herself, everything we are and everything we feel culminate into the flow of the Unifying Force."

Luke mourned that neither of his masters had lived enough to teach him these theological, yet basic mechanical tenets of the Force. Yoda had mentioned some of it in passing, but he had been far more concerned, even fearful, about the soul of his student than lessons that Luke imagined were basic to even a Jedi youngling.

"Far across the lake lies a field," Anakin said. "There are herd of Shaaks, feeding upon the grass. And yet, remember each blade of grass, and how the Force flows through it just as strongly as it does you or me. The fate of the grass is intertwined with the fate of the shaaks. With each movement, each decision, guided by the Living Force within each shaak, they change the course of the Force within those blades of grass. Does it feed here, or there? Does it sleep, trample or burrow in one patch or another? Where does it choose to soil the field, laying within it the seeds and beginnings of life for a whole new generation of grass?"

As he immersed himself at his father's direction, he remembered that he was no longer a Jedi, and wondered just how orthodox his teachings were relative to what Obi-Wan or Yoda believed. He heard a whisper of the Force, and realized that a Jedi Order, as diverse and expansive as it was in the days of the Republic, would certainly entertain a variety of philosophies as long as they didn't conflict with the core Code.

They continued deeper and deeper into the meditation, and Luke found himself momentarily distracted by the thought of his sister. Was she feeling the same things he was? How much did she understand their father's words? He reached out to her mentally and found a sense of curiosity and wonder. She was feeling something. He felt out towards his mother, and even though he could not see her, he knew she was smiling, as she projected love and a sense of awe towards her family. Finally, he attempted to see in to the Force presence of Anakin Skywalker, and found it like staring into a star. It was so bright, enough to blind him. And yet he understood he was not being blinded, that he was seeing darkness, a deep and terrifying darkness, flickering in and out in the core of his brilliant presence. The Force whispered to him and he felt its power as it swirled around them, their presences amplifying each other's. It seemed the entire Galaxy seemed to center around his family, and yet he felt their insignificance as well, four frail humans seated in a small field in a backwater planet seemed nothing compared to the billions and trillions of presences, grass, flowers, animals, sentients, that he now was very conscious of.

His father had said the word flow. Luke felt that word was key, and he immersed himself in the flow of the Force surrounding every life around, and every life presence changing the flow of the Force with each breath and action it took. As he followed his way through this unimaginably vast river of life, images began projecting themselves to him. He saw his past, eating a simple meal with Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen. Yet he saw another one too of himself, barely an infant, and recognized the presence of his sister. He was being swaddled by his mother in a vast city planet. He recognized it as the same apartment they had visited in Coruscant, and watched as his mother smile at the countenance of his father, still young and like him, already a seasoned warrior, with the same smile she was directing at them now.

There were different images. He saw Master Yoda sitting alone on the swamp planet. He had been alone for many years by then, contemplating the past with a sense of despair. Then he saw himself alone as well, sitting on a rocky, barren island on a lonely planet in the edges of the galaxy, feeling himself the same disappointment that he felt out of Yoda. He caught a brief glimpse of an impossibly beautiful red headed woman, and as she swung her head he saw her remarkable green eyes, first directed in hatred at him, then softening until they unmistakably reflected love. Her eyes turned to liquid, and Luke felt he was drowning in them, until he emerged from the water. It was the lake, the same lake they sat beside now. They were back at Varykino, the retreat, and they were all there, his parents, his nieces and their families. They were all older, but laughed as they swam and read and talked and joked, all in an impossible happiness.

The images faded, and he returned to his own time and place, understanding instinctively what he saw there three wholly separate visions of a future, different lives that he could have lived. He opened his eyes, and saw Leia open hers too, disoriented, exhausted, but enlightened.

"You both did well," Anakin said. "It takes significant energy to immerse yourself in the force like that, especially with so little experience. Come on, let's eat before your mother finishes all of the food."

Padme squinted her face at her husband and playfully slapped his chest as she brought over the box of sandwiches. They ate, both Luke and Leia silent as they tried to digest their feelings on the meditation. They heard the whirring of two transports speeding across the lake and approaching them. Padme looked at her husband in confusion.

"I thought we were going to hike our way back to Varykino."

"I'm afraid we do not have time, my love. I have a feeling we will be hearing from Obi-Wan when we get back, and the news will not be good."

Chapter Text

"You're all back early."

Han seemed a little too comfortable in the Naberrie cottage, lounging back in a chaise with a full glass of wine as he and Darred enjoyed Death Hunters, a holothriller about a gang of death stick chewing bounty hunters. Darred was no Chewbacca, but he and his holo-shows made for pleasant enough company with the Wookie en route to Kashyyyk visiting his family.

"Really Han," Leia asked with a raised eyebrow. "One day on Naboo and you've turned into a wine drinking dandy too?"

Han shrugged. "They've got a good selection here. This glass here is a vintage from the era of King...Teteto?"

"Tepalo," Leia corrected, sitting down on Han's lap and wishing she could change the holo to something more constructive. She noted the confused faces on both Han and Padme's faces. "For reasons that are obvious now, Bail made sure I learned much of Naboo history."

From a nearby veranda Sola emerged holding the Empress's comlink like it was a soiled diaper. "I just spoke with Master Kenobi on Mandalore. He says there's trouble but did not elaborate further."

Padme frowned. "Anakin sensed something off while they were meditating. That's why he called for the speeders early."

"Sithspit," Darred whispered at Han, shifting nervously in his seat. "I don't think the Empress approves of bounty hunters."

"Nonsense, Darred. If it's on the Holo's, I've already approved them." Padme walked up between the two men, scrutinizing their show. "Death Hunters! Ani and I love this one! Their use death sticks as a motif is so...meta"

"You guys watch these shows," Han asked with a crooked eye. "I'd think the Empress and her supreme General would have much more important things to do."

"We also don't have children, which frees up a lot of time. It's either the shows, or traveling the Empire undercover to enjoy different foods and drinks and find criminals and gangsters to kill."

"Oh," Padme exclaimed before any of them had a chance to follow up on her last statement, "this is the episode where the Imperial Agent finds out his brother-in-law's the one who's been manufacturing the death sticks all along!" Padme frowned. "You and Sola are way behind on this show."

"He's behind," Darred said, motioning at Han. "Being from another Galaxy and all. We're already in the middle of the Hapan double agents season."

"I see your Empire loves your entertainment," Han said, sipping more of his wine. He turned to Leia, the closeness of her face still a blessing after six months in carbonite. "I could get used to this, this watching-other-people-run-around-for-dear-life-thing, rather than ourselves."

"Exactly," Padme said. "Keep them happy, they're less likely to do things like join rebellions. No offense to you guys, of course."

"Palpatine could obviously have learned something from your mother in running an Empire," Anakin added. "Luke, it's a shame you didn't have stuff like this on Tatooine. Would've made the sandstorms a lot less boring."

"Speaking of Empires, this is your problem now," Sola said, handing her sister the comlink, walking up to Anakin afterwards. "By the way, you'll be disappointed to know that my daughters have forgotten all about you and are both hopelessly in love with Han now."

Anakin glared at the man holding his daughter. "Not funny, considering that Leia is barely older than Ryoo." He went to the veranda doorway, where the two teenagers were sitting outside. "Ryoo! Pooja! Come inside! Imperial Council meeting time!"

"You let them sit in on the meetings," Leia asked. She was not unfamiliar with the idea of child politicians, having been one herself. But it was one thing to in a peripheral or provincial role, another entirely sitting in on the highest councils of the entire Galaxy.

"Of course," Anakin said. "One or both of them will be Empress one day. This is the best way they'll learn."

The blue visages of the Empress's Council had already replaced the bounty hunters at the center of the Naberrie family holo-room by the time Ryoo and Pooja had arrived. The two of them took seats in between Anakin and Han, exchanging nervous looks at the latter, while Sola sat in the back of the room bearing an expression that made it clear she would rather be anywhere else in the Galaxy at the current moment. Obi-Wan briefed them from a base in Mandalore, and afterwards Ahsoka, seated with Bail and Mina in a meeting room in the Senate building, continued.

"My agents are reporting that the Death Watch is slowly taking control of the planet with the blockade and air support from the Rebel Fleet. The more territory they occupy, the more difficult it will be to maintain communications with Master Kenobi."

Anakin frowned at his former student. "Why were your agents not aware of the alliance between the Death Watch and the rebellion? This should not have taken us by surprise."

"Our operations in the Mandalore system were always limited due to the Duchess's protests. Without time to develop deep cover agents, our contacts in the system are superficial at best."

"Do not let that stop you next time," Anakin ordered. "Your mandate exceeds that of any local system. Just take extra precautions that they are not found out in the future."

"What of civilian casualties," Leia asked, making a point to sit between Han and the two teenagers she now eyed warily.

"There are no mass casualty events yet, but the civilian deaths are not insignificant."

"Contested areas where the Duchess's forces fight back," Obi-Wan added, "the Death Watch bombards the area regardless of civilians. We have heard little from cities already occupied by the Death Watch; I do not believe there are any mass executions yet, but let's just say that the Death Watch acts very severity to maintain their own security."

"If the fleet is present," the Empress said at Leia, "that means Tarkin is likely there as well. You and Luke are certainly aware of what he is capable of."

"And the return of the Sith," Anakin noted. "They are not known for compassion either."

Luke looked over at his mother. "You've mentioned that Mon Mothma leads the Rebel Alliance here, as she does in our world? I know her. Leia knows her. Han knows her. Whatever her ideals, I find it difficult to believe she would ally herself with a Sith."

To Leia's surprise, it was Bail Organa who answered her brother's comment.

"Mon needed a fleet, and Tarkin was able to provide one. As for the Sith, I doubt she would have been aware of his role until now, seeing as his survival was a surprise to the Empire and the Jedi alike as well."

"So now what," Ryoo suddenly asked, the teenager bearing a look of intense impatience. "Clearly the Empire has to act now? We'll look so weak if we don't do anything."

Despite his tenuous circumstances, Leia swore he saw a sparkle of humor in Obi-Wan's eyes at the teenager's words. She wondered who she reminded the Jedi Master of, and had a good guess in her mind already.

"Ambassador Bonteri, the Duchess has allowed me to issue on behalf of her system a formal request for assistance."

"If that's the case," Mina said, "then it's up to the Empress what comes next."

"We have to do something, don't we Aunt Padme?" Leia was surprised to see the teenage abandon all formalities in the middle of a Council meeting. None of the Council members themselves seemed too disturbed, so it would seem that the Imperial family was exempt from protocol.

"We can't just let innocent people die like this, can we," Pooja asked.

"And Uncle Obi-Wan's in danger too."

The Jedi Master smiled at Ryoo. "I'll be able to handle myself, young one, though I do appreciate the concern."

"Bail," Padme said, "please make clear to your faction that the Imperial intervention was clearly requested by the sovereign of Mandalore."

"Of course Your Grace. This is not any simple rebel conflict; the humanitarian aspects of this situation cannot be ignored."

"Obi-Wan," the Empress summoned next. "Please communicate to the Duchess that our presence will not be unnecessarily obtrusive. Anakin and I will personally lead the fleet and supervise the engagements."

"Of course," Obi-Wan said, raising one eyebrow. "You will be bringing the Naboo fleet?"

Padme nodded. "That will expedite our action."

"I hope you'll still be in one piece when we arrive, old man."

"May the Force be with you too, Anakin."

The meeting ended, but Sola was not finished.

"You are taking the fleet with you to Mandalore, not just the Naberrian," she asked with a frown from the back of the room, cringing as said out loud the name of the Imperial flagship bearing the name of her own family.

"Enough so we are not outnumbered," Padme replied.

"Not to be selfish," Sola continued, rising to stand next to her daughters, "but that would leave Naboo unprotected. If the rebels are mounting an offensive, then surely the homeworld of the Empress and her family would be a potential target?"

"Anakin," Padme asked, deferring the issue to her General.

"It would be unconventional strategy for the rebels to overstretch given their limited numbers," Anakin said, pacing the room and holding his chin in thought. "But Tarkin is a cunning strategist and has shown in the past that he is willing to take risks. Sola, you make a good point."

"Thanks Anakin," Sola said, slightly uncomfortable by her brother-in-law's praise. "I don't mean to pry about things, I just worry for my children and our parents."

Anakin strode up to Luke, who rose in deference at his father's approach. He beckoned at Leia, who joined them in the middle of the room as well.

"Luke. Leia. As much as I hate the idea, you are now both seasoned warriors. You will accompany your mother to Mandalore and ensure her safety."

Luke seemed to stand up straighter at his father's words. Anakin continued.

"You will help Obi-Wan on the planet if the opportunity arises, but your primary concern is to protect the Empress. I do not need to tell you how important she is to all of us."

"Ani, I'll be fine. I'll have an entire fleet with me, along with our children." Padme walked into the welcoming embrace of her husband's arms, and as she held him she seemed to be the one comforting him.

"You know how much I hate leaving you," Anakin whispered to his wife, ignoring at that moment everyone else gathered in the room. Han exchanged awkward looks with Leia and then Luke as their parents embraced ferociously, but the rest of the family seemed unfazed by their gesture of affection

"Be wary of the Sith as well," Anakin continued to his son as he let go of his wife, though he still grasped her hand with his. "Maul is a ruthless and ferocious creature; do not engage him without Obi-Wan at your side."

"Facing him can't be worse than Darth Vader," Luke said. As much as he was looking forward to joining his old mentor on Mandalore, Luke had really wanted to learn more about the Force from his father too, who had promised him a sparring session or two in the coming days. "Does this mean you're staying on Naboo?"

"Myself and Han."

"Me?"

"Han?" Leia was just as incredulous.

"With all due respect sir," Han looked around the room nervously at Darred and Sola for support, "is this a trap?"

"You're a good pilot," Anakin said, "or so you claim. You will assist me in command of the remaining fleet and coordinate them with the Naboo Home Defense forces in case of a rebel attack. The safety of the Imperial family is just as paramount as that of the Empress."

Han swore to himself, having to be separated from Leia so soon after their reunion. It seemed that Anakin/Vader would always be intent on keeping them apart, though he had to admit that protecting what seemed to be a very nice family was a much better reason than hanging in carbonite for the pleasure of a Hutt.

"If I die," he said to Leia, "tell the Galaxy my greatest flaw was trusting your family way too much."

Leia smiled as she caressed his face. "Don't be so dramatic Han. You'll be fine in Anakin's hands."

She frowned, then looked over at her father. "On second thought...Anakin...please don't kill Han."

"He caught me off guard. I will return and destroy the Jedi."

"You will do no such thing," Tarkin scolded aboard his flagship. He could see the anger reflected in Maul's eyes through the holo and wondered if the Zabrak would have struck him down were they speaking in person. But they weren't, and he continued. "You have already jeopardized this mission by pursuing a personal vendetta against Kenobi rather than supervise the hostilities."

"I have the situation well in hand," Maul said. "What I do separate from it does not matter so long as it does not jeopardize our cause."

"You have alerted a Jedi and Imperial Council member to your existence, and no good will come of that." Tarkin wiped his brow. Despite his confidence, reprimanding a (former?) Sith was a harrowing experience for him, and he did not want to further inflame the man. "We do not need to discuss this further. Your mission has been successful, and I have a new one for you."

He saw surprise register in the Zabrak's yellow eyes. "You are taking me off planet? The Duchess's forces are still fighting back, and we face further resistance with Kenobi in their ranks and the Empire's reinforcements on their way."

"Our aim is not occupation Darth, but simple sabotage. The damage has been done, and we will continue to chip away at the veneer of the Empire. There is a new opportunity that has arisen on Naboo."

"Naboo?"

"I just spoke to the former Senator. Mon's contacts have informed her that the Empire is dispatching much of the fleet here, which leaves the Empress's homeworld relatively undefended. Your brother and myself will continue to manage the situation here and withdraw our forces for the next offensive. I am dispatching two ships from the Hoth fleet to Naboo. While they engage the enemy, you will have an opening to infiltrate the planet and find the Imperial heirs. As you have already revealed yourself, there is no need to hide more than necessary. I trust you know what is needed."

He did not elaborate further, and Maul nodded, seemingly satisfied with his orders. The transmission ended, and Tarkin found himself drained by his back to back interactions with Mothma and then Maul. The latter scared him, and the former exhausted him while he used what little ability he possessed as an actor and politician to feign deference to her idealistic beliefs. He had spent what felt like hours rationalizing to her the civilian casualties on Mandalore, and he knew that, Imperial heirs or not, she would not condone the slaughter of the Empress's family. While Tarkin knew he could pin the blame on an unruly subordinate, one whose position within the Rebellion he had kept from her for now, he wondered if now was the time he unleashed himself. If everything went according to plan, the Rebellion will have gained its greatest success, and he would have been its architect. He had always intendedto remove the former Senator from Chandrila, for he doubted she was willing to do what it would take to achieve victory. Now that they were inching closer, the time was approaching for him to drop his pretenses and the need to explain himself to a superior he could not tolerate for much longer. Hoth was a remote world, and he had many operatives at the base he knew were loyal to him. Were they to stage some sort of 'accident' upon the Rebellion leader, Tarkin was certain the truth would not get out.

"I'm scared how used I am to sleeping on starships," Luke said to his sister. They strode the halls together towards the bridge, having felt the ship coming out of hyperspace. It felt right, the two of them working together on a mission, even if this time it happened to be for an Empire.

"It's much better than Hoth," Leia said. "A lot warmer."

"I know. I prefer Naboo though. Those beds they have there...Force I'm surprised I ever woke up."

Leia was about to say something about Alderaan, then stopped. She felt the familiar pangs of pain and sorrow surrounding the loss of her planet, then also remembered that it was well and thriving where they were now, though her father, the adoptive one, seemed to be an entirely different person.

"I enjoyed our time there," Leia said instead. "I had a lot of respect for Pooja, Senator Naberrie, back in my time in the Senate. That her family is so warm and genuine is no surprise."

She sighed as they caught sight of the bridge and their mother already standing there in command. "I still can't stand ideologically for an Empire...but if there has to be one, I'm glad it's in the hands of such a family."

"Our family," Luke stressed. "They've always been our family, in this world and ours. Their heritage is ours, their blood is ours."

"I know. And they made every effort to welcome us and make us feel at home. I guess I just have a lot more from my past to let go than you." She winced, realizing how that could have sounded like an insult, but Luke did not seemed fazed. It was just a matter of fact to him, she realized, the differences between their childhoods and what they left behind, and Luke had long accepted it.

"Do you think father will kill Han?"

"He better not," Leia intoned angrily. "Or else I will master the dark side somehow just so I can choke him to death."

"Not funny."

As the entered into the command room both of them were surprised to see two very familiar faces. Padme rushed to introduce them. "Luke, Leia. This is General Dodonna," she gestured towards a man whose dark beard, like Obi-Wan Kenobi's, had yet to grey. They went through the familiar process of shaking hands and meeting people they had known for years, and turned to the Mon Calamarian next to them.

"And Commander Ackbar."

Leia smiled warmly. "A pleasure, Gial."

Padme narrowed her eyes. "You are familiar with the Commander?"

"Both Jan and Gial were valuable friends and allies of ours, Your Grace." Leia noticed her mother wince slightly as she said her last two words, knowing that it hurt her that she had not accepted her as fully as Luke had yet. But it was a formal setting, she noted, and it would have been awkward to call her mommy in the presence of her military commanders.

"I am glad," Padme said. "It speaks well of our ability then to recruit the best." She turned toward her two commanders. "I must remind you again that the return of Anakin and I's children is highly classified and no one must know their identities or backstories for the time being."

"We understand, Your Grace," Dodonna said curtly. It made sense, Leia thought. The Dodonna she knew had once served the Empire as well, but had defected after seeing one too many atrocities. Perhaps the man had yet to reach his breaking point here, or more likely, there were less atrocities for him to have witnessed. The presence of the Mon Calamarian was proof enough of the latter, as it was obvious that Padme harbored none of the Xenophobia Palpatine had towards non-human species.

The Empress turned and walked towards the viewport, followed by her two officers and behind them, Luke and Leia. Below they saw the beleaguered planet itself, and a small but concentrated fleet gathered above it.

"What is our situation," Padme asked.

"We outnumber them by close to a three to two margin," Ackbar said. "The blockade occupies most of their resources, but the Rebel ships are strongly armed themselves as well."

"So a direct offensive would likely incur high casualties?"

The General nodded. "We will prevail, but it will be costly."

"There is no need to pursue such a course then," Padme said. "We have the numbers, so we will have patience. But we must remember that people are dying on Mandalore."

"Of course, Your Grace."

"Obi-Wan is down there too," Luke added, hoping he wasn't speaking out of place. While throne politics was more his sister's forte, both of them were well used to adding their input in a command room. Fortunately, his mother didn't seem to mind.

"I trust he will hold his own," she said. "But we will make every effort to help him." She strode over to the holoscreen, depicting their positions and that of their enemy. And Leia had to constantly remind herself that here, at least for now, the Rebellion was her enemy. They were commanded by the man who had destroyed Alderaan, and seemed keen to kill civilians and destroy pacifist regimes that even her mother's Empire had left alone.

Padme gestured at the screen. "We will continue a bombardment of their main fleet. This will fix their position and keep their resources busy to prevent any full counterattack. With our numbers, we can afford to dispatch at least several dozen squadrons to probe at the blockade and find its weak points."

She turned towards Luke. "Once we have made a successful breach, you may join Master Kenobi on-planet and assist in clearing the Death Watch militias."

Luke could not hide his excitement. Here was his chance to see action again, and fight alongside his first master.

"What do you expect the Rebel fleet to try? They obviously know they are outnumbered."

"Agreed, General Dodonna. From what I recall from the Clone Wars, while he may take some risks, Tarkin is inherently a cautious commander. He prefers the odds stacked in his favor, and he will not gamble what little he has for a fleet. He knows that to bring out his fleet will invite an Imperial response, so he must just wish to inflict the maximum damage before that happens. I expect that he will now try to retreat, and to do so, will attempt to create a diversion to give himself the opportunity."

"We will monitor their every move, Your Grace. Commander Ackbar himself will keep you updated on every detail of the battle."

Padme nodded and pulled in with two hands to shake the hands of both of her commanders. "I trust you will do the Empire great justice. We must destroy them here, lest we face them again above yet another world while innocents die."

"You're quite the General yourself, mother. Now I see where Leia gets it from."

Padme beamed with pride at her sons words. They were in a private lounge now, chock full of monitors where they could keep track of the battle but where they could speak in private as a family.

"You don't even need Anakin," Leia said jokingly. "You could easily put him to pasture like an old Bantha. Maybe then he can finally figure out what's wrong with Threepio."

Padme smiled back at her daughter. "I don't think that will ever happen. Trust me, Ani's attempted many upgrades on that poor thing over the years. Eventually, we've just come to realize that he just is the way he is."

Her demeanor turned serious. "Anakin is still the greatest General of our era, and his resume knows no match." Leia couldn't help but feel some pride towards her father, Luke having apprised her of the details of his Clone Wars campaigns. She had studied them herself in detail in her spare time, approving of some of his tactics, frowning at others that she thought took on way too much risk, but she couldn't argue with the results. She hoped that if she ever returned to her world, she could use some of that history and knowledge with her own battle against the Empire.

"I have learned much from him," Padme continued. "And from my own training on Naboo while I was Queen."

"He obviously trusts you to command his fleet and handle this situation yourself," Luke added.

"He better," Padme said. "I meant what I said on the bridge, by the way. There is no higher recommendation for my officers than the fact that my children trust them and hold them in high regard."

"Their brilliance won us many battles, including the one against the Death Star."

"And they accomplished more with far less in your world," Padme said. "I will tell Anakin this and we will make sure their careers advance properly." She paused. "I hope you do not think I was showing them any disrespect in dictating the plans of battle to them. I have studied much on their tactics and preferences while you were sleeping, and most of what I advised they would have likely undertaken on their own."

"Of course," Leia replied, recognizing so much of herself in her mother's thinking. "But you must have your military commanders respect you as an authority, not just as a figurehead for your husband."

Padme stared into her daughter's brown eyes, and Leia returned her scrutiny. Luke realized that this may have been the first time his sister and mother have truly understood each other. Padme took her daughter's hands, much like she did when they had first met.

"You are my daughter indeed, and Bail and Breha did an exceptional job raising you, perhaps even better than Ani and I could have done."

Luke thought he saw tears forming in his sister's eyes. "Thank you," she managed to say, and Padme nodded, knowing not to press further.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

"Wake up."

"Huh?" Han was actually thankful to hear Anakin's voice, having come at the right time in the middle of some nightmare that saw him being eaten alive by Jabba the Hutt. He would have rather have woken up to Leia comforting him and telling him everything was okay and that he was never returning to that dustball of a planet; it was something that had been happening fairly often with his mind had not yet fully recovered from the carbonite incident, but to his chagrin he was beginning to find Skywalker's presence oddly assuring as well.

"A small rebel fleet just jumped out of hyperspace. Naboo is under attack."

"That's...bad, right," Han asked groggily as he tried to remember his allegiance at the moment. Anakin ignored his confusion.

"I need you to find General Olie and help him organize the air defense while I call for backup and inform with the Council."

"Yeah, sure, let me get...," and he realized he was already dressed. He had passed out in a cot in the Theed airbase, a lot less comfortable than the Empress's mansion out by the lake. "At once, sir. What should I tell him about reinforcements?"

The supreme General nodded. "Half a fleet, I'd expect. Our moment of peril should not be long, we just need to hold on until help arrives."

"What happened?" Obi-Wan left much unsaid watching the transports depart the Temple, taking with them hundreds of Jedi, away from the sanctuary they called home for millennia. He had rushed back to Coruscant the moment he heard the news of Sidious's demise, though he had felt it in the Force as it was happening, the overwhelming darkness emanating from the center of all things in the Force. And the Sith Lord was not responsible for all of it.

"I killed the Sith Master," his old apprentice merely said in return. "It is over. The war, the conflict. Peace has returned to the Galaxy."

"So you say," Obi-Wan said, resisting the urge to shake his head at his old Padawan's usual oversimplification of things. "And the acting Empress?"

"Will act as she sees fit."

They walked into the Temple and strode silently through the Great Hall. While it was as active as it had ever been, there radiated a sense of anxiousness and unrest that Obi-Wan had not felt even during the war. Masters and Padawans alike gawked openly at the two, and Obi-Wan could not help but notice the new sight of the ever present Clone Troopers patrolling the Temple grounds. He wondered if some of these same clones were responsible for the blaster marks still visible on the Temple walls.

"As she acted to rescind immediately Palpatine's directives," Anakin continued. "Including Order 66."

"For which I will be forever grateful," Obi-Wan said sincerely. "The Jedi will always be in her debt."

"The Council does not see it that way."

He stopped, noticing Anakin's gaze boring into him, almost daring him to ask. He studied his eyes carefully, looking for signs of a certain discoloration, but saw nothing but himself in the icy blue reflection.

"She met with the Council then?"

"We met with the Council," Anakin corrected. He continued walking, and Obi-Wan followed. "They did not brief you on what was discussed?"

"It was agreed on all sides," Obi-Wan said after several steps, "that I am too personally involved in the matter."

"The wisdom of the Council," Anakin scoffed. "Cowardice. So be it."

His demeanor softened, and Anakin turned to face his former master. "I'm glad of your safe return, Obi-Wan."

For some reason, Anakin's warmth made him feel uneasy.

"I hear Alderaan is a very pleasant place," was all Obi-Wan could say back as they approached the Room of a Thousand Fountains.

"Your presence may be needed on Coruscant." Anakin took note of a small waterfall. He sat, running his hands through the water, and looked back up at Obi-Wan. "The decision has been made. What's done is done. We were friends. We fought side by side as brothers during the war. Until..."

"We did," Obi-Wan said, cutting him off. He thought of two beautiful children that Anakin lost, two miracles in the Force whose mere existence had defied the Code. He had wanted to comfort Anakin and his wife after their deaths, and almost felt relief when his old Padawan had pushed him away, sending him on his own fateful campaign. To allow himself to mourn or empathize any further would have been pushing the boundaries of his own attachment far more than Obi-Wan would have been comfortable with.

"Don't let the Jedi come between us, Obi-Wan," Anakin said, and Obi-Wan wasn't sure whether the words came across as a request or a command. "You are wise. And you know the true meaning of compassion. You are vastly superior to anyone else on the Council. I know your distaste for politicians...but we need Jedi like you here."

"I value your friendship too, Anakin. And I will let the Force guide my path."

"Listen to the Force then," Anakin said, rising. "Just remember that it does not always speak the same as the Council."  Obi-Wan could not but help think that he had heard similar words from Qui-Gon.

They resumed their walk in silence, Anakin leading him purposefully into the lower levels of the Temple.

"You want to show me something," Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin smiled sadly at him. "Your old Padawan. Our old Padawan. She has suffered for the guilt of others far too long."

His words got Obi-Wan's attention, and he looked hopefully at Anakin. "Ahsoka. You found proof of her innocence?"

"I have," Anakin said, turning a corner towards where the holding cells were. "The Force tells me she is innocent. We will investigate further until we arrive at the final truth, but that alone is proof enough for me."

"Square your shoulders. Keep them loose and fluid."

Luke silently acknowledged the older master's advice. He had dueled Vader, taken down Jabba's entire entourage, and flew through what seemed like hundreds of missions for the Alliance by now. And that was all well and good, but this constant onslaught of blaster fire was a new kind of chaos for him, and never had he needed to reach so deeply and rely on the Force to guide his every movement just to keep up with the relentless barrage.

"Watch where you deflect," Obi-Wan shouted, jumping out of the way to avoid a stray blast. "Don't just bat the bolts away, use them to your purpose."

"Easier said than done, master." Nevertheless he concentrated deeper to visualize each movement of his, trying to visualize beyond his immediate action. The next few bolts his lightsaber directed towards the enemy. Several rebels were able to dodge out of the way, but others were not so lucky. War was different when he wasn't fighting against the Empire; stormtroopers were faceless, though Luke supposed that there was a human sentient behind every one of their masks. These combatants however, wore uniforms similar to the ones he used to don, and as they fell Luke tried not to associate them with friends of his, such as Wedge. Obi-Wan is fighting on my side, he kept reminding himself, using his old master as an anchor in more than one way. Allegiances aside, Empire or Rebellion, fighting alongside Obi-Wan just felt...right.

"Keep your hips even and centered. Do not let them betray your next move. Draw strength from your core and let your movements flow from there. Let no movement go to waste."

The hallway was cleared, but Obi-Wan did not allow them any respite, sprinting ahead towards yet another lift. He activated it, and motioned for Luke to conceal himself to one side. It was empty, and then went in.

"There is a dark presence ahead. Do you sense it?"

"Yes master." Luke compared it to the darkness he had faced before. It was less contained than that of Vader, simpler perhaps but much less powerful. He remembered the Dark Jedi (?) woman on Endor; this entity was much more sure and deliberate in its energies. "Is it the Sith?"

"No," Obi-Wan replied, and Luke sensed the sadness in his voice. "Maybe his apprentice, but not Maul himself."

"Surely you don't think he's fled, do you?"

"I don't know. I haven't sensed his presence in some time. Nevermind him, we must focus on the here and now."

The lift opened, and they entered yet another hallway. They heard the scuffling of more enemies ahead, and Obi-Wan sighed, ready for another round.

"Tuck your elbows in, don't swing them around like a wild bantha," he said as they advanced once more.

He had not returned to Naboo since his near-death. Sidious would have called him weak for avoiding the place, but Maul chalked it up simply to being practical. He was in no state to confront his past in the first months afterwards, and the following years his only focus was to survive and revive himself. Then the Clone Wars erupted, and his singular aim was revenge against Kenobi, but the Jedi foiled his plans on Mandalore and he was fortunate to escape the planet without revealing the secret of his survival. The death of Sidious and the rapid advance of the Empire made it clear that he needed to stay off the radar in the Outer Rim, where he occupied himself by training his brother in the dark arts before finally making contact with Tarkin, a man he sensed who would be open to utilizing his set of talents.

Now that he was here, however, he immersed himself fully in the past, reliving every second of pain and hatred from decades past and drawing strength from it. He would not find his revenge on Kenobi on Naboo, but every step against the Empire was a step against the man who had struck him down. There was Skywalker as well, a man whom Maul hated almost as much. He was Kenobi's Padawan, for one, and if that wasn't enough, there was also the realization that Sidious craved the young man to the point of obsession, more than he had ever cared for Maul. It had been his downfall, and though Maul felt no emotion for the death of a master that had abandoned him for dead, he hated Skywalker even more for embracing, then rejecting the Dark Side, and letting his weakling of a wife take all the power that had been built and intended for the glory of the Dark Side. What a waste.

He had to avoid the city even at night with the entire planet on high alert. But though he cared little for the aesthetics of the waterfalls next to him, he enjoyed the exercise of scaling the cliffs below the palace, savoring the biting pain in his arm muscles. Were his legs able to feel the same pain...curse Kenobi.

The Imperial family occupied an annex of the Palace to separate themselves from the general populace of the city, making it easier for Maul to reach them with this shortcut, without having to cut through all the Imperial guards.

Not that it could be entirely avoided. Having reached the top of the cliffs, he hid below an awning and felt the presence of several sentries on the veranda above him. He traversed sideways along a small ledge under he was under one of them, then propelled his durasteel legs to leap over the banister, cutting down the first guard while he was midair. Landing, he saw two guards on either side of him. He sent a burst of ferocious Force energy towards one of them, enough to shove him over the railings and plunging down into the cliffs. The other guard was firing at him, but he easily deflected the man's shots and somersaulted over him. The guard screamed as Maul cut him in half at his torso the same way, he thought in satisfaction, as the Jedi had done towards him.

"All too easy," he said, reaching out with the force into the Palace. Using the light from two full moons to guide him, he stalked towards one of the windows, sensing a young woman on the other side, when a voice startled him.

"You survived. Obi-Wan hasn't gone entirely insane then."

He turned, and tried to push back a sudden pang of fear when he saw Skywalker emerge from a side entrance, followed by a very nervous looking man about the same age.

"You were supposed to be on Mandalore," he said without thinking.

"And you know way too much about where I'm supposed to be."

Maul squared his shoulders and faced his opponent, igniting his red lightsaber. He knew he was not yet prepared to face Skywalker, and looked around for an escape route. "I didn't sense you."

"I guess Sidious didn't do enough to teach you proper shielding techniques."

"I will destroy you," Maul said with more confidence than he actually possessed. To his dismay, Skywalker merely laughed as he studied his lower body, a spectacular feat of engineering.

"Whatever you say, Darth Dickless."

Lacking an appropriate reply, the Zabrak let loose a howl of rage and leaped towards his opponent's blue saber.

"Senator Mothma."

"Senator Amidala," Mon said, raising her head to look around at the office of the late Supreme Chancellor. "Or is it your Majesty now?"

I would still prefer Padme, the acting Empress thought, but didn't say.

"You must understand," she replied instead, "that I took this position...that the Senate voted to confer me this position, in order to ensure to the safety of the Jedi. No title other than Empress could have reversed Order 66."

"So you and your husband claim," Mon said, knowing that she was now treading into dangerous waters. "The Jedi live, but you hold on to your title, and you banish them."

"Alderaan is hardly banishment," Padme said, eyeing her former friend cautiously. Former, she emphasized in her mind. There will be no reconciliation. "That the Jedi failed the Republic did not mean they deserved to die. But I have a galaxy to restore, and their continued interference in our affairs is a distraction. The Jedi themselves claim they are not politicians. I am merely holding them to their own words."

"You've been busy getting rid of a lot of distractions lately, your Majesty." Mon could not hide the bitterness in her last words. "I have not seen Senator Orn Free Taa in the last standard week. Or Senator Amedda. Clovis. Dod. More and more seem to just be...vanishing."

"They are under detainment," the acting Empress acknowledged coldly. "The evidence we have uncovered...the extent of Palpatine's corruption and decay in the Senate...still poses a vital threat to the Galaxy even after his death. I cannot allow them to act freely and conspire the same as they did under the Supreme Chancellor."

"There are rumors," Mon said in a whisper. "They call it the 'list of the damned'. Senators and aides and other functionaries whose fates have already been decided by you and your husband."

"Worry not Mon. Your name is not on the list."

"It exists then. So much for the 'Great Compromiser.'"

"Many Senators committed grave crimes against the galaxy," Padme said coldly. "Their crimes will be revealed to the public in time, and they will be punished. I will set the example that corruption and excessive self-interest will no longer be tolerated."

Her words were more chilling to Mon than the ice caves of Hoth, and she noted that her old friend never once said the word 'Republic' to her, referring to her dominion as a generic 'galaxy'. For now.

"So Empress Amidala it will be then?" Mon said this without anger, but resignation.

"I have not decided upon my formal title yet," came the curt reply, confirming Mon's worst fears.

"I respected you so much once. You've suffered greatly, I know. I cannot imagine the death of your children. Or know what it felt like with Palpatine's vile attack. But you have allowed your pain to change you. I doubt you would recognize yourself if you really tried."

"You understand nothing, Senator Mothma," the Empress replied with open contempt. "And I do not expect you to."

The acting Empress made a dismissive motion with her hands, and the two clone troopers standing guard loudly opened the door to her office. Mon rose from her seat, bowed courteously, then left the room escorted by her old friend, both women knowing they would not see each other in peace again.

"We are taking heavy losses, but I am making every effort to ensure to our retreat from the sector."

Mon Mothma shivered. Having been raised in a warm part of Chandrila, she was ill-suited to the cold planet of Hoth. She preferred spending most of her time at the rebel base on Dantooine, and if she was honest with herself, for more reasons than just the planet's better climates. But someone needed to command the rebel fleet with Tarkin in the field, and Mon was thankful for the man's absence. After all these years, a part of her still found her main commander to be distasteful, but he had been the only one sympathetic and with a fleet.

The holoprojection of Tarkin fizzled, then came back into view, and Mon thought she saw anxiety in his eyes for the first time.

"Why Naboo? There is no strategic objective there. You would have been better served to call more ships to bolster your position on Mandalore."

"I can not prevail in a sustained engagement with the Empire, no matter how many ships I have. The goal is to keep the Empire on their toes, unbalanced and unable to predict where we will strike next. Naboo has given us the answer."

"My contacts within the Empire gave you the answer," Mon said, asserting herself. "So they will counter your move by moving over the Kamino fleet."

"And we will strike there," Tarkin answered. "Send the remainder of the fleet to Kamino. I myself will meet them there following our withdrawal from Mandalore."

"You are committing everything we have to Kamino," Mon said, carefully choosing her words.

"The Empire leaving their cloning technology unguarded is an unprecedented opportunity. With the cloners' blueprints, we can start building an army of our own."

And what would you do with it then, Mon asked him in her mind. But she did not question him further, knowing that he had a battle he needed to attend to.

"Looks like we're late to the party," Padme said as they examined a row of corpses littering the hallway. It was not a pretty sight, mangled and agonized faces on many of the dead. Some had been struck by blasterfire, but there were obvious lightsaber wounds to go around as well.

"It was different. Fighting against the Empire. At least you didn't have to see the faces on the stormtroopers."

The Empress motioned for the clones behind her to advance, and she and Leia followed.

"It is better this way," she said, stepping over several bodies. "War is hell...an old saying on Naboo. To see the suffering, the faces of the dead reminds you of the true cost of war. And why it's necessary to put an end to it as quickly as possible."

Leia did not respond. This was what Darth Vader saw, she thought, when he cut down her rebels. But then, what about the millions they had killed on the Death Star? Yes, the enemy had slaughtered more, and many were evil, but not all of them were. And they all had faces just the same, eyes she and Luke never looked into before condemning them to oblivion.

Shots rang out ahead and their clone team crouched down and returned fire. They were not all clones, Leia remembered. Many in the Imperial Army were volunteers, and their crack team included the best from the bred and the natural born, though which was which she could not tell from their matching helmets and armor. Leia and the Empress wore similar officer uniforms for this operation as Dodonna and Ackbar, only purple instead of blue.

"Artoo," Padme called out, as the very familiar droid popped out of a side door. "Good to see you here. How's Luke and Obi-Wan doing?"

The droid whistled something to the effect that the two were taking care of things, and projected a blueprint of the rebel destroyer.

"Good job. Can you show me where they are?"

A dot lit up on the map of where the engine room was, as Artoo said last he heard, they were advancing to face a Sith warrior there.

"Very good. Cody," Padme called ahead to the squad leader. "We will take the command room. Artoo, can you show him the way?"

As the droid rolled up to the head of the hallway, oblivious to the blaster fire, they heard footsteps approaching from behind them.

"Kriff. We're surrounded. Cover the rear!" Lacking cover, the Empress motioned Leia towards the small room that Artoo had just emerged from. As the rebels ran into view to outflank them, Padme fired off several shots at them before running herself into the next room, Leia following her. Taking a position beside either side of the door, they leaned out into the hall to fire off intermittent shots as the clones returned fire. Several of their commandos fell, and Leia watched her mother wince as their situation became more tenuous.

"We're outnumbered, Your Grace" Cody said from ahead. "We need to use detonators now before they do!"

"Do it," Padme said. "We'll seal the door so we're not in the way and rendezvous afterwards."

They fired several more shots off at the rebels before Padme activated the door lock. As explosions rang outside, they observed their surroundings within a small mess hall.

"Do you need to use the 'fresher at all," Padme asked, pointing to the corner of the room.

"I'm fine," Leia said, a bit awkwardly.

"No point in waiting around then. Obviously we can link up with your brother if Artoo came from this direction. How much of Artoo's map do you remember?"

"Enough." It was nothing compared to the Death Star. She started towards a door on the other side of the room. "I think they're three levels below us. We need to find a lift in the inventory room up ahead."

"I knew you were worth bringing around," Padme said with a smile. Before Leia could answer she thought she heard steps ahead. But did her ears register the sound, or was it her feelings? She put her index finger by her mouth and Padme nodded in understanding. They now could clearly hear several sets of footsteps approaching. Leia ran to hide herself under the table in the corner of the mess hall, while the Empress retreated back towards the hallway to conceal herself behind a ration freezer.

"...skirmish up ahead, and I definitely don't want to bump into any Jedi."

"What are they even doing here? I thought the Jedi no longer involved themselves with Imperial conflicts."

"The Duchess has her connections, you know. With the Empress and with the Jedi."

"I don't care for these Death Watch weirdos. They're too indoctrinated, can't even hold a normal conversation with any one of them before they start rambling on about honor and integrity."

Padme peeked out from the freezer and nodded to Leia across the room. Let them come, she mouthed out. Leia watched four pairs of feet march into the room, passing her as they neared her mother's position. When they were midway between the two, she fired off several shots at the group. Two of the soliders, having been hit in their legs, collapsed immediately, and Padme emerged for several seconds from behind the freezer and shot out as well, hitting one of the rebels squarely in the chest.

"Sithscum," the last standing rebel yelled, and ran towards the Empress's position. As she stepped forward to fire off one last killing shot, the rebel grabbed her forearm and the bolt flew astray. Seeing it was the Empress herself, his eyes went wide, and Padme took advantage of the brief respite to knee him in his crotch area. As he shrieked in pain, she struck the side of his head with the butt end of her blaster.

Seeing one of collapsed rebels attempting to get on his knees to help his brethren, Leia shot the man in the back and ran out from underneath her table. As she ran, the other fallen rebel grabbed her ankle and she fell, cursing when her knee banged against the floor. She swung her blaster towards him like a club, managing to strike his foot as he kicked at her. She went to shoot the man, but off-balance, she missed and he lunged weakly at her. She heard a woman's groan from across the room and saw that her mother's opponent, despite being in obvious pain, had managed to tackle the Empress to the ground, her blaster falling to the floor beyond her reach. Struggling fiercely under the man, Padme punched him in the face several times with her small fists before he managed to pin her wrists on the ground. Having actually captured the Empress, he stared at her in confusion at what to do next.

"You planning to have your way with me," Padme taunted.

"Not a bad idea," the rebel sneered, lowering his head so close to Padme's that she could smell his breath. "After we take care of the Jedi."

Without warning, the Empress bit ferociously at the man's nose, drawing blood.

"Let me spread my legs for you like a good little girl," Padme rasped as the man yelped angrily. She moved her right leg out and banged the heel of her boot against the ground, and four sharp vibroblades sprang out in every direction. She kicked her foot back at the man's legs, the back blade screeching against the metal floor as she dug one blade deep into her combatant's calf while, at the same time, Leia managed to fire a killing shot at her last assailant. The rebel atop the Empress shrieked in agony as she withdrew the blade, loosening his grip on her right hand long enough for her to wrestle it away. She moved swiftly to push a button on the side of her belt, shooting out a small sharp projectile into the man's abdomen. Pushing him aside as he fell, she reached into her vest and pulled out a spare blaster, shooting him one last time in the chest.

As both women limped up from the ground, Padme grinned sheepishly at her daughter. "I think Anakin might actually get upset once he finds out about this little scrum." She bent down and tugged at a loop on her boot, withdrawing the daggers back into its sole.

Leia frowned. "Why didn't I get any of these toys?"

"They take several days to manufacture, and it's not like I have a bunch of spares lying around." She wrinkled her nose. "Though I probably should. Something to remedy once we're done here."

Padme jogged up towards the next room. She looked back and noted the incredulous look on her daughter's face.

"There could be more where they came from."

Padme rolled her eyes and smiled deviously, pointing to a golden band around her wrist. "You don't even want to know want to know what this chrono does."

The duel was unlike anything Han had seen in his life, and he had seen plenty. Red clashed with blue in the darkness as the two combatants exchanged endless swings and blows at each other. The Sith snarled with every breath and move, but Skywalker seemed impassive about the whole scene, almost as if he were toying with the Zabrak. He jumped backwards again to stand on the banister, seemingly oblivious to cliffs and the thousands of feet below.

"What's wrong? Don't have the balls to fight me up here? Oh wait..."

At this latest taunt, the Zabrak jumped onto the railing and the two continued their duel as they tiptoed on the impossibly narrow footing. Arm swinging wildly over the open air below, the Zabrak brought in a savage blow towards Skywalker's hip, which Anakin deflected with a parry so poweful that Han swore he felt the impact from where he was standing. The tattooed Zabrak lost his balance and he fell, hanging on to the railing only with the mechanical clench of his durasteel legs. He recovered quickly, using his legs to propel himself into the air away from Anakin. Han felt a gush of cold wind at his back, and before he knew what was happening, he saw blue tendrils of electricity flowing out of Skywalker's left hand. The energy hit the artificial lower half of the Zabrak's body, and sparks flew as the internal wiring short circuited. His lower body disabled, the Zabrak collapsed onto the ground in a heap, watching in obvious fear and swinging wildly as Skywalker approached.

"I'd love to make you suffer for Qui-Gon," Anakin said in a soft yet malevolent tone that scared Han more than even Darth Vader's voice. "And for what you would have done to my family. But I don't have the time."

He made a pushing motion with one open palm and the Zabrak's arm slammed to the ground, his lightsaber rolling harmlessly away. With one swift move, Anakin plunged his lightsaber into the Sith warrior's chest, and Han blew a sigh of relief that this awful encounter was finally over, or so he hoped. Skywalker walked over to the fallen villain's lightsaber, bending over slowly to pick it up. To his horror, he looked immediately at Han.

"Want a souvenir?"

"I'm...I'm good," Han barely managed to utter. Anakin smiled, gripping the lightsaber so strongly that it broke in his durasteel hand, then turned and heaved the weapon over the railing into the shadows below.

Chapter Text

"I'm running out of allies, Bail."

The acting Empress sighed gently in frustration, looking sadly down at her desk, a mess of datapads and flimsi. She picked out a glass of light brown liquid and drank it, face scrunching afterwards in distaste.

"A gift from Garm?"

"I'm lucky he still deigns to speak to me."

"You don't seem to need him much, seeing how many supporters you have right now," Bail said guardedly. "Many of the Senators you've jailed will have happily supported an Empress as well."

"That's the problem, isn't it? My approval is as high as ever, and most of the new Senators to be elected in their stead will follow me blindly. But our old coalition, those of us who stood the firmest against Palpatine...Fang Zar has retired. Mon might as well have; no one has heard from her since she returned to Chandrila."

She left her desk and walked up to a small painting on the wall, a pastoral scene of a small Naboo village, knowing that Bail's gaze followed her.

"Your carefully scripted interviews with the Holonets don't hurt, either."

"Choreographed," Padme corrected. "Not scripted." Bail opened his mouth to retort before quickly and literally biting his tongue. "You don't need to hide from me what you and Garm really think about how I'm handling things."

"It doesn't matter," he said, unable to hide his regret. "Our old coalition was never all that powerful anyway. Or popular. Seeing as the galaxy now sees you as the very symbol of opposition to Palpatine, you've inherited our legacy without even us dead weights dragging you down. The more information you release about his crimes and that of his supporters, the more command you will continue to wield over the Senate." It was a concession of defeat.

"They are as fickle as the popular opinion. They will support me now, out of expediency and fear, because they know to do otherwise will allow themselves to be painted as allies of Sheev."

"Not a good place to be these days," Bail said passively.

"I would never be able to rely on them. Not when it truly matters." Padme walked back to her desk, but to Bail's surprised sat on the chair next to him. "They are not the allies I need." Though I'll take their support, she thought. Padme leaned in close to Bail and looked imploringly into his dark brown eyes.

"I need you, Senator Organa. You're the only one I trust to speak for what we used to stand for, together. To give me your honest opinion when I want to hear it the least."

She stood and walked back across the desk to her own chair, pouring a glass of the Corellian whiskey and offering it to Bail.

"I want you to take charge of the Senate; take the position of Chancellor."

"Even if I wanted to, I do not have the votes." He took the glass of liquor and shook it slowly, watching in fascination the whiskey swirling in circles.

"You will once I speak in your support."

"Putting me firmly in your debt, so you can have a puppet," Bail snapped, anger sneaking into his voice for the first time. Padme was either unsurprised or unfazed.

"No. Because I want an honest and powerful Senate. If I wanted a figurehead I have plenty of sycophants to choose from. But I want balance." She banged her glass against the table as she finished her sentence. She did not do so harshly, but it was enough to convey her message. "Do you trust me, Bail?"

The Senator from Alderaan took a small sip of his drink. "I truly do not know."

"We still want the same ends, Bail. I have just...come to the conclusion that...new avenues must be explored to restore the Galaxy to what it should be. Could be. You will represent the traditions we have stood for in the past...traditions that have lasted thousands of years."

"And you will represent actual power," Bail said flatly. "What role do you see for the Senate under these new...avenues?"

"The Senate will continue to provide a voice for the Galaxy. It will run most government functions and have full powers over the treasury. Including money for the military."

"Your Clone Army," he said, not hiding his distaste. "Will the Clones report to the Senate?"

"The Army and...other judiciary functions will be, budgets aside, independent from the Senate."

"With all due respect, Padme, don't talk to me like I'm a fool. It's clear after Order 66 that whomever controls the Clones has a vice grip over the Galaxy. Whatever remains of the Senate will be mere theatrics." He looked pointedly at the clones guarding the office, their presence a very familiar sight now to everyone on Coruscant since the Supreme Chancellor's death.

"I agree, Bail. The Clones are a sensitive subject. While their implants remain, the galaxy is vulnerable. Steps have been made to experiment with the removal of the inhibitor chips, but it's a delicate process. These things take time, especially on such a grand scale. Would you hand them over to the impulsive nature of democracy, to the next Palpatine waiting in the wings, or hell, even the next Amedda?"

Bail bit his tongue, knowing his preferred response was, if not beneath him, then at the very least impolitic. He was walking a tightrope, his old friend and ally not having hesitated to order the mass arrest of many of his former colleagues; most of them he had found distasteful at the very best, but due process was still due process. But he also knew he had a longer leash than most. Mon, he knew, had exchanged words with the acting Empress, and she was still a free woman. He doubted Padme would harm him, whatever their disagreements. He had to hope at the very least, and use whatever favor he still retained with her to speak truthfully and probe further on behalf of all who were not in favor of her consolidation of power.

"Will the Senate have powers of legislation," he asked instead.

"Subject to veto."

"Meaningless, then."

"Do you trust me that much, Bail," the Empress asked, raising her voice and pushing down on the desk with both arms. "Would you join Fang and Mon in retirement and leave the entire Galaxy to my whims, or would you rather stay here and challenge me in an open forum and fight me when I'm wrong?"

"The way you speak, it is already a fait accompli. So this is how democracy dies. Quietly and unnoticed."

"It was not an easy decision. Not by far."

The senior Senator sighed and took another sip of liquor. "Tell me. Answer me this honestly, before I say anything further regarding your offer."

Padme nodded silently.

"Was this always your plan? Did you have us fooled from the very beginning?"

"I took on a teenager husband in secret, a Jedi to boot, and almost lost my career over it. Does that seem like a grand conspiracy to you?"

"Not how Sheev would have done it, I'll concede that."

The acting Empress leaned into her desk and once more stared into the Senator's eyes with unnerving intensity. "I swear to you, on my family's lives...my husband's, sister's, parents'...I did not represent myself falsely in this chamber. Not to you, not to anyone. Every action I've made since the Supreme Chancellor's death have been based on what I have seen transpire while occupying this chair."

Bail's shoulders slumped, and he looked down sadly into his lap. "I believe you. And I know you are a good person. You and Anakin both. I believe your intentions, and I believe Anakin's...instincts. The two of you may even do right for the Galaxy. Certainly it's preferable to where Palpatine would have led us." He left his seat and walked over to the transparisteel windows, holding his hands at his back and gazing into the distance. Towards the Jedi Temple where, even now, transports were still shuttling the former guardians of the Republic onto his own home planet. A Republic that no longer existed. "But to embrace the powers and framework he built, this Empire of his, that you yourself fought for so long...I...I just don't understand how you could have changed so much in such a short time."

Padme turned her chair to face him, and Bail thought he almost saw tears in her eyes. "I can argue my case to you all I want, about the failures of the Republic and the Jedi, and how they would have handed the galaxy over to a Sith Master if it weren't for my husband. But I know I won't be able to change your mind, and part of me would agree with you still."

She took a deep sip of her own drink, effortlessly taking in the harsh liquid. "Yes, I have changed." She said this slowly, giving pause between every word. "A very wise person once said that change is inevitable. You can't stop it, any more than you can stop the suns from setting."

"Who would you ask in my place if I refuse," Bail finally asked after a long pause.

"I'd say Garm, but he's even less inclined to accept than you." She turned her eyes to study the skyline. "Mina Bonteri."

"Of Onderon? The former Separatist?" Bail reacted with genuine surprise. "She is not yet reincorporated into our Senate. Not that I hold her past against her, but..."

"So you see why I need you," Padme said, voice rising. "Mina has the integrity and strength it takes to lead. And she has my confidence. But she does not have enough political capital at the moment to be effective. Besides, I have in mind a more appropriate role for her."

"That is," Bail asked, unable to hide his curiosity. The acting Empress smiled, knowing that she had a captive audience once more.

"A vast diplomatic corps," she replied, handing the Senator several of her datapads to read, "deployed across every system and planet to actively engage all local powers, leadership and opposition. A body that can provide the Senate an honest and independent assessment of galactic affairs..."

Luke looked at Obi-Wan with a quizzical eye.

"What did he say his name was?"

"Savage Opress," the massive horned Zabrak intoned angrily, lighting a red lightsaber.

The Jedi Master looked at his younger counterpart with a weary roll of the eyes.

"It's almost funny, these silly names they give each other. If you forget about the whole being-evil thing."

Opress charged at the two Jedi, swinging wildly at both and giving no heed to the fact that he was outnumbered, but his initial attack surprised Luke enough to knock him off balance and keep Obi-Wan on the defensive. He aimed a kick at Luke's legs, but the young Jedi anticipated the move and swung his lightsaber down at the appendage, forcing the Zabrak to parry away the blow at the last minute and giving Obi-Wan an opening. He struck, grazing Opress's shoulder before he was able to deflect the blow. Sensing his disadvantage, he dove to the floor and rolled away from the two Jedi, crouching defensively as he considered his next move.

"You're defeated," Obi-Wan said calmly. "There will be no mercy from the Empire, but the Jedi may be willing to grant you asylum if you commit to rehabilitating yourself."

"I'll take my chances fighting." As he braced himself for his enemies' final advance, a door opened behind him, and a small young woman jumped out.

"Leia," Luke yelled in surprise. Catching the recognition in their eyes and feeling their obvious connection in the Force, Opress spun immediately behind the woman and before she had a chance to react, saw a red lightsaber by her throat.

"Weapons. On the ground."

Luke looked uneasily at Obi-Wan, who simply shrugged his shoulders. They both deactivated their weapons and laid them down. With his one free hand, Opress called the two weapons to him.

"No Luke!"

"Don't worry Leia. We'll figure something out."

The Zabrak didn't dally further. "With me," he snarled, and he dragged the young woman across the room and disappeared just as another woman ran into the engine room.

"Leia? Where's Leia? I thought she came in here!"

"Mother?"

"Padme," Obi-Wan said, shaking his head in aggravation. "Excuse me...Your Grace...with all due respect...what in seven sith hells are the two of you doing on this ship?"

"We thought you needed help," Padme answered defensively. She noticed the lack of weapons on the two Jedi. "What in seven kriffing hells are the two of you doing, trying to take this ship by yourselves?"

"Blame your son," Obi-Wan muttered. "I couldn't talk him out of it. He has Anakin's blood in him all right."

"We had it handled until the two of you showed up."

"Until you jumped into an open spot such as Tarkin's command room and find yourselves ambushed," Padme chided. "We brought reinforcements."

"Where are they," Obi-Wan asked, rubbing his head in his hands. "And why did the two of you have to come too? This kriffing family...going to be the death of me someday."

"Leia knows what she's doing. And I didn't want to leave the two of them alone, not after so long." Padme's voice faltered near the end, before she took out her comlink.

"Cody, what's your status?"

"Just cleared sectors 9 and 15, Your Grace. We're advancing towards the bridge."

"Copy. Be advised they have captured Leia. They will likely regroup there, and the Sith will be with them."

"Roger that. We'll approach with caution."

"We're on our way to meet you. Vader out."

She noticed the reaction on Luke's face when she said out loud her title and winced sheepishly herself.

"I lost my lightsaber. I never lose my lightsaber." The Jedi Master sighed dramatically, making his perturbation obvious to all. "Your husband will never let me hear the end of this, and it's not even my fault!"

The Empress pulled out several blasters from inside her vest threw them over to Luke and Obi-Wan. "Good thing I brought spares." She turned her face, revealing a small bruise on her cheek below her right ear. "Keep me safe, Master Jedi. Anakin wouldn't appreciate it if I get more of these."

It seemed all too familiar for Leia, being led by a Sith to the repulsive presence of Wilhuff Tarkin. She noted to her satisfaction the differences in circumstance this time around. Without his superweapon, Tarkin seemed much less confident, especially seeing as he seemed to be losing the battle. His nose twitched as he received glum briefings from his commanders, dismissing them coldly one after the other. The rebel commander took his time before turning his attention to Leia, taking full advantage of what power he had over her.

"Opress tells me you are close to the two Jedi on this ship. Not that they will be of much use without these, not even the great Kenobi." Tarkin grinned at the two lightsabers he held, lighting Luke's green weapon and swinging it through the air dramatically to his own amusement.

"You underestimate them to your own peril," Leia said, seething. She did not want to reveal more to the man, but couldn't help her anger.

"You hate me," Tarkin said, carefully analyzing his prisoner's hostility and the daggers she was staring at him. "You must be heavily indoctrinated by the Empire." He walking around her, never taking his eyes off of the young woman, circling her like a predator. "You bear a resemblance to the Empress, but there are certainly billions of floozies out there who look like her."

He let his words linger, waiting for Leia to respond. When she didn't, he continued, grabbing the sleeve of her uniform. "Still...to don the royal purple singles you out. Who are you?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," Leia spat out with pure contempt.

"A cousin, perhaps? A Naberrie? A Thule?" He walked over to the Zabrak Sith, almost handing him her brother's lightsaber before deciding to clip it to his own belt as a trophy. "A valuable hostage, whomever you are. And just at the right time." He patted the Sith on his chest approvingly. "What is it the Jedi say, Savage? The Force is with us?"

As the ship rocked slightly from an Imperial bombardment, an ensign approached the Admiral. "Sir...the Imperial boarding party is approaching."

"Let them in. We all know who holds the leverage at the moment."

The sliding doors opened, and Leia heard a sharp hiss as once more the red blade found its place in front of her throat. The team of Clones ran into the room, blasters pointed, followed by Obi-Wan and her family behind them. The shock was evident as Tarkin and the rest of the rebels recognized the Empress herself in their presence, but the Admiral did not flinch.

"A rash action, Vader. I have to say I am surprised." He gestured towards Leia and wagged his finger at the group, warning sternly, "she is obviously of value to you. One false move, and she dies."

"You are outnumbered," Padme said back, steel in her voice. She looked down approvingly at a small R2 droid. "The command room is sealed, so you will not receive any more help in here. Our fleet is bearing down on you. You cannot prevail."

"Ah, but they would not shoot us down with the Empress on board, would they? And you dare not move against us because she means something to you. Or we'd already be dead. So we're at an impasse. And here's what I will offer you."

Tarkin waved his hand as if to show off his command room. "You can have the ship. Provided you survive, of course, seeing as our numbers still far outnumber yours onboard. You will open the doors and allow us to leave. We will disembark and travel freely and maybe...if we do not have any problems on our merry way, we may return you this fine young lady."

"Or parts of her," Savage growled, tightening his grip on Leia's torso.

"Shush Savage...we're not the Empire. We believe in mercy now and then," Tarkin walked up to her and to her disgust, whispered in her ear, "don't we?"

Luke felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Obi-Wan, trying his best to calm him. He nevertheless was on the verge of panic. "You have a plan right? Master?"

"You must trust in the Force Luke, above all else."

They both saw Padme brace herself to say something, but before she had a chance, the Zabrak screeched out in pain and collapsed onto his knees.

"Brother," he screamed with his eyes closed. Taking advantage of the brief respite, Leia wrenched herself from his grasp as all chaos broke out in the room, both sides now exchanging fire liberally. She ran towards Tarkin, tripping him as he fled, and both lightsabers on his belt ripped themselves away and flew through the air into the hands of their rightful owners.

"Leia," called her mother as she took a blaster from one of the clones and tossed it across the room at her. As Obi-Wan ran to the head of their group, deflecting fire and advancing toward the firing rebels, she saw her brother charge towards the Zabrak, who still knelt stunned on the floor. Coming to his senses, Opress attempted to bring his weapon forward, but not before he felt the sting of Luke's green weapon through his throat.

The death of their best warrior seemed to demoralize the group, and as the clones advanced, the few survivors raised their hands up in surrender. Leia found Luke standing over the fallen Sith, eyes still in shock and breathing heavily.

"He tried to kill you," Luke said, avoiding her eyes in shame.

She embraced her brother. "It's okay, Luke. I'm still here."

Luke stared down at his weapon in horror. "I attacked him in anger. I killed him in anger."

"You did," Obi-Wan's voice range from behind him. Luke flinched, expecting a severe reprimand, but saw only understanding in the Master's eyes. He saw his mother look upon them longingly as well, but she seemed to understand that this was a situation best suited for the Jedi to handle. "But you realize your error now."

"I touched the Dark Side."

"Yet here you stand, renouncing it." Obi-Wan walked over to the smoldering body of the fallen Sith. "We Jedi are not perfect, Luke. None of us are immune to temptation."

"But once you use the Dark Side..."

"Darth Maul is dead," Obi-Wan remarked, seemingly ignoring his young student. "He must have trained this one...his brother, and he felt it through their bond." Obi-Wan walked over to Luke, his eyes never wavering. "When I killed Maul the first time, I did so in anger as well. He had just murdered my Master."

"Oh Luke," his sister said beside him, "you're human. One mistake does not make you Vader...does it?"

"You made a grave mistake. But you are not alone in having done so. Not by far. Do not forget this moment, but do not dwell upon it either, letting your guilt consume you." Obi-Wan clasped the younger man's arm, noting its synthetic skin. "Learn from this. We will meditate together, and you will learn to release your anger and your feelings. I believe you are already doing so unconsciously, even if you're unaware of it."

"Really, Master?"

"You are a true Jedi, Luke. One of my deepest regrets is never saying this enough to your father, so I can only make it up by saying this to you...I'm proud of you."

"I am too," the Empress added, embracing her son in a fierce hug. "Both of you," she said, moving towards her daughter. "Leia, I'm sorry I got you dragged into this, but I guess we're all stronger for it."

Leia smiled at her mom. "I came willingly. And it all worked out in the end."

"All according to plan," Obi-Wan said.

"Not quite," Padme replied, frowning. She pointed to her shiny chrono. "I never got a chance to use this little gadget."

R2 whistled his agreement.

"They found him by the escape pods."

"Thanks Cody." Having taken command of the ship, they had lowered the defenses and let in several Imperial battalions, who had spent the last few hours securing the ship. The Empress studied her new prisoner, a bald, muscular man adorned in an intricate black armor who looked to be in his late thirties. "Kiin Vizsla. My intelligence tells me you are responsible for the on-planet aspects of this little insurrection."

He was terrified, Padme observed. Though he tried to maintain his bravado though his eyes and his proud posture, his quick, sporadic breathing gave him away. "I am Death Watch, like my father before me. The true soul of Mandalore will always lie with our cause."

The Empress laughed, her feminine voice making it almost sound genuine. "Then why are you here, trying to flee Mandalore with Tarkin and the rebellion?" She slapped his face like a mother playfully scolding a child, and the prisoner, constrained by his binders, nevertheless bristled violently.

"Take him over there," she pointed towards a corner next to the viewport where several clones were guarding a similarly bound Tarkin. She observed Luke, who was engrossed in a deep conversation with Obi-Wan. Padme took her hands into her hair, fiddling absentmindedly as she released the clips and bindings until the dark strands flowed freely down below her shoulders.

"How do I look," she asked on instinct, before she realized she was looking at Leia, who swore she saw her mother blush in embarrassment. "Sorry, never mind. I'm just used to Anakin always being around in these situations."

"Readying for the holonets, Your Grace?" The Jedi's tone was cold and emotionless.

"They tried to kill Satine, Obi-Wan."

"I congratulate you on your victory," was all Obi-Wan said in return, and the Empress turned towards her loyal droid.

"Cameras on, Artoo?"

The droid beeped an affirmative, and all the clones present turned to watch reverently the unfolding scene. The Empress's face betrayed no emotion, and holding her chin high in the air she walked slowly and regally towards the two prisoners kneeling on at the edge of the room.

"There is nothing so sad as a battle won, except a battle lost," the Empress proclaimed when she was standing just above the two prisoners. She projected her voice loudly, so that even Luke could hear her clearly from the other side of the bridge. To Leia, to sounded like a Queen holding court on Alderaan or Naboo. Or an Empress addressing her Senate.

"We prevailed in the field, but there is no victory in what transpired over Mandalore today, hallowed ground where so many lives were lost once again. There are no true victors in war, but those who seek to instigate, to sow discord and violence, lose the most, and their ignominy will forever be engraved in posterity."

"I will not be a part of this charade," Vizsla snarled, but before he could finish his sentence the Empress slammed the butt of her blaster hard against the right side of his face. Having not expected that kind of rebuke from the small woman before him, he could only stare back at her in unabashed shock. She bent down and whispered into his ear loud enough that Leia could hear her, though she wasn't sure about Luke or Obi-Wan.

"Mas Amedda had the same look on his face before I shot him." She took the blaster and, without hesitation, pointed it onto his forehand and fired. The man's prone form wobbled, and Padme kicked the body back so it would not land in her direction. She moved next to Tarkin.

"This is not justice," he protested, lips quivering in fear. "I demand a trial!"

"I am the Judiciary," the Empress replied coldly. "Wilhuff Tarkin, you stand accused of high treason, war crimes, and crimes against sentients." She paused. "In addition to the longstanding charge of prosecutorial malpractice from ten years ago. How do you plead?"

Tarkin started to respond, but found himself interrupted.

"Your words don't matter. The Empire finds you guilty on all counts." She kicked him in the stomach, and as he cried out in pain, Padme stuck the blaster into his mouth and fired. As he too fell, Leia couldn't help but feel a measure of satisfaction and closure. He had died once, but she had a chance to watch it now firsthand, and while part of her mind reasoned that this Tarkin was no more responsible for the destruction of Alderaan than was this Anakin responsible for the crimes of Darth Vader, she could not help but rejoice. Maybe Obi-Wan could teach her to release her anger too, before she started learning more about the Force.

"It is over," Padme said, looking over at Luke and Leia apologetically as she walked back towards the center console. A clone handed her a towel, which she used to wipe the blood off her blaster before clipping it back into her belt. Leia, conflicted as she was, did not say anything in response. Across the room Luke breathed for what he thought was the first time in several minutes. The Empress entered in a communication code at the console, and moments later the image of General Dodonna stood before them. His eyes narrowed for a brief milli-second upon seeing the blood on the Empress's uniform, before returning to his controlled demeanor.

"Your Grace. We have reestablished communications with General Skywalker on Naboo."

"Thank you Jan. Patch him in please."

The Empress's husband appeared on the holo next to Dodonna, and Leia saw for a brief moment a horrified Han behind him before he literally sprinted out of view.

"How goes the situation on Naboo," Padme asked, the concern on her face for her home planet evident.

"Reinforcements have arrived from Coruscant. The battle is in hand and we are clearing the up what remains of the rebel fleet. The Imperial family is secure."

"Thank you Anakin. And General Solo, for taking care of them."

"Uhhh," a voice said awkwardly offscreen, "it was my pleasure, ma'am. I mean, Your Grace."

Leia couldn't help but laugh hearing the voice of her beloved, her smile holding back her intense longing. Even Anakin fought to suppress a grin as he continued.

"Looks like you got your uniform a little dirty." He furrowed his eyebrows in concern, and suddenly changed his tone. "You're hurt..."

"Nothing too serious. They fared a lot worse."

"So I see," his voice trailing off, his worry evident as he stared at the bruises on the Empress's face.

"Tarkin and Vizsla is dead, and the holonets will eat the footage up," Padme said measuredly.

"Very well," Anakin relented, making it obvious to everyone that he would have more to say once they were in private. "General Dodonna, once the Empress and her crew returns to The Naberrian, set your coordinates for Alderaan. General Solo and I will meet you there."

"Alderaan?" Leia couldn't hide the excitement in her voice.

"Leia? You're there? Luke too?" To her horror, Anakin looked down uneasily, his eyes hiding something grave. He took a deep breath, and spoke quickly and curtly. "I'm sorry to deliver the bad news. A warrant has been placed for Chancellor Organa's arrest. He fled to Alderaan and has been granted asylum by the Jedi Council."

"What?" Padme moved towards Leia, but she instinctively flinched away from her mother. Luke walked up to her instead, placing his arm comfortingly around his sister.

"Please elaborate," Padme said, the hurt evident in her eyes at her daughter's reaction. "This must be a serious charge."

Anakin sighed sadly. "It was evident that the rebellion had a spy at the highest level, seeing as they knew too well our troop dispositions and areas of concern. The dispatch of the Naboo fleet to Mandalore was only known to the Council and the Empress's family present at the meeting. After the rebels conveniently attacked Naboo, I contacted each member of the Council separately and informed them of a different fleet being sent to bolster Naboo's defense. Each statement was a lie."

"This hardly sounds like proof," Leia muttered quietly, as Luke, feeling looking very uneasy himself, squeezed her arm in support.

"To Chancellor Organa I gave Kamino. Shortly afterwards, the remainder of Tarkin's fleet appeared from hyperspace in the system. They are surrounded and negotiations are in place for what will likely be an unconditional surrender, but this makes clear who has been informing to the rebellion."

"Very well," Padme said, the sadness evident on her expression as well. "We will meet on Alderaan. Empress out."

The transmissions ended, and Leia ran up to the Empress with Luke trailing her.

"Please! Mother! Please...," she cried, burying her head in Padme's shoulders. "I can't ask. I don't know how or what to ask...but please."

Padme carefully placed one hand around her daughter. "Treason at such a high level cannot be tolerated, especially when my own family was targeted." She felt Leia's body stiffen and withdraw from her. She beckoned the Jedi Master, who stepped forward. "But we will not forget Chancellor's Organa's years of service and his contributions to the peace."

"I know he's a different person here. And he's in most ways a stranger to me now. But after all that happened to Alderaan...all the years I've had to live with the consequences of my actions...I can't bear the thought..."

Obi-Wan walked up Leia as he and Luke stood protectively around the young woman. "He is under the protection of the Jedi now. We will not give him up freely...without terms."

Padme nodded approvingly at Obi-Wan's words. "The Empire will commence negotiations with the Jedi once we arrive on Alderaan. Hopefully, we will come to an compromise fair to both the accused and Imperial interests."

It was just the three family members and R2 on the transport back. Cody and his team had taken a separate shuttle out of respect to the Empress's privacy, and Obi-Wan was on his way back to Mandalore to pay a brief visit to the Duchess before returning to The Naberrian.

"In a way, I'm proud of him," Leia finally said, breaking the long silence. "He stood for democracy after all."

"I was selfish," Padme admitted. "I wanted him around for my sake. Not just because I valued his judgement, but his friendship as well. I pushed him into living a lie...the strain it must have had on his marriage...his loyalties..."

"His soul," Leia asserted angrily.

"His soul," Padme agreed. "A man of his integrity must have suffered greatly over the years. It is my fault, and I will bear this on my conscience forever."

"So you will spare him," Leia asked, a glint of hope in her eyes. "Exile, maybe?"

"It will be taken into consideration," was all the Empress was willing to say. Further silence ensued, and they all settled in for the long trip to Alderaan.

Chapter Text

A new day dawned on Coruscant, and it seemed the entire planet, much less the Galaxy surrounding it, waited with bated breath for what would come next. The Senate Hall had been the epicenter of the previous night's events, the dramatic exchanges before the death of the Supreme Chancellor having been broadcast all the way out to Tatooine and back. Smoke still billowed from the Jedi Temple, but the Clone attack had been halted prematurely, and as Masters and Padawans and younglings from across the stars emerged from hiding and began to reconcile themselves with the horrific losses the Order had suffered, the surviving members of their highest Council were marching with rigid determination to a small office in the Senate chambers.

"How do you feel?" Anakin lay in the pullout chaise of his wife's office, hoping to give his aching body some more rest, but the new acting Empress was already back at her desk, sorting out from the sordid mess left by the last Supreme Chancellor who had proclaimed himself an Emperor mere minutes before his demise.

"Sore. I still feel the pain." Everywhere in her body, pain lingered. She would never forget the few seconds when Palpatine attacked her, when it felt like she was boiling herself inside out for an eternity. There were no visible marks aside from a few burn marks, now covered up by general helpings of bacta patches, but the scars in her mind remained. "My head hurts. It comes and goes. Sometimes it feels like waves, torrentially crashing against my skull. And even when it's good, it never fully goes away."

In an instant Anakin was at his wife's side, kneeling by her chair and doing his best with the Force to send calming and healing waves into her small, too fragile form. "Did you sleep at all?"

"Yes," Padme said. "For an hour. Maybe a bit more. The nightmares..." Her voice trailed off; she had left the blinders open so that she would wake at the first light, there was so much to do, after all. She could not remember the dark dreams that plagued the few moments she had to herself to rest, and she was all too happy when she when the morning sun drew her from her sleep.  But she just so tired, not just from the trials of the past day, but what seemed to be a lifetime...since the horrible attack on the Senate that claimed the lives of her two children. If she was honest with herself, she had barely a good night's sleep since that awful day.

"I remember when Dooku hit me with the same lightning. The pains went away after a few days...but I can't imagine what it's like for someone who's not Force-sensitive. And Sidious is a lot more powerful than Dooku." He took his comlink from his belt. "Artoo. Please send for an emdee to Senator Skywalker's office."

"Empress," his wife corrected with a raised eyebrow. "What a silly concept." Despite her physical discomfort, she couldn't help but laugh. Her, Padme Naberrie, a simple girl from a mountain village on a quiet planet...Empress of the whole Galaxy. "We'll disabuse the Galaxy of that notion shortly."

Her husband looked at her with a sad, unreadable expression. "The title sounds good on you," he said simply. His body stiffened, and he stood up, wary and on edge. "The Jedi are coming ."

"Stark Castle," Leia said to her brother. Luke took in the scene before them with unabashed awe, but even he could not imagine what she was feeling now, staring at a setting she clearly never expected to see again. "It is the ancestral seat of House Organa, though it has been not been officially occupied by our family for several generations now."

The Castle was actually several. A deep ravine divided the two wings of the complex, each side seeing layers and layers of columns, windows, and terraces built upon the surrounding mountainsides, the two halves connected by a long bridge made of white Alderaanian marble. It was beautiful, if excessive, and it served as a searing reminder of the days when her ancestors had not been so public-minded as House Organa was now.

She heard footsteps behind them, and saw Han and Obi-Wan catching up them atop the hill. "In my day we used the palaces as a space for refugees and the poor. It is fitting that father would have offered this to the Jedi."

"A true testament to your family's generosity," Obi-Wan concurred. "In my time here I have always felt welcomed by your people."

Leia wandered the grassy knob, her steps following a small path down into the ravine. "Perhaps, Master Kenobi, you Jedi are not the only ones with foresight."

"You think," Luke asked, having long sensed the thoughts that her sister was finally giving voice to, "that Chancellor Organa gave this to the Jedi for selfish purposes?"

"Altruistic, but for more than one reason. Of course father would have wanted to help the Jedi, but he must have known that the day would come when he would have to come to terms with his role in the Empire. It was so in my time with him as well. Fortunately, he and Alderaan are safer here, in my m...in Amidala's Empire."

As they walked down to the grand plaza below, Luke saw several figures below awaiting them. "Master Yoda," he cried out, unable to contain his excitement.

"And that is Master Windu next to him," Obi-Wan said, unable to stop the young man from running down to towards the two Jedi Masters. His smile faded as he approached the two who stood unmoved. Slowing down, Luke could only manage an awkward bow before his old teacher.

"Masters," Obi-Wan nodded reverently as the rest of them caught up to Luke, "may I present to you a miracle in the Force. Luke and Leia Skywalker, and their friend, Han Solo."

The tall, dark skinned Jedi bowed politely, hands held in his robes, but the diminutive Grandmaster merely circled the small group, eyes narrowing as he studied them.

"The Skywalker children, returned from the dead," he finally said. "Much of their father, I sense in them."

"Master Yoda," Luke said shyly. He sensed the same hesitation and doubts coming from the Jedi Master as when he first approached him on Dagobah. "You taught me much, where I came from."

"Taught you I did, hmm? Learn, did you? A difference, there is."

"Luke came from a much darker world, as I told the Council," Obi-Wan said, defending the young Jedi. "He received absolutely no training until his nineteenth year, and has faced darkness unlike anything we have seen. The progress he has made in such little time is, for lack of a better word, remarkable."

He beamed in pride at the praise, but to his dismay Yoda maintained his disapproval. "Darkness, I sense in him still. Fear, great attachment, for his sister, and his friends. Longing he has, for acceptance. Learned true peace, from me he has not." Resting the top of his body on his gimer stick, the Grandmaster turned to Leia and Han, who had been caught off guard by the Jedi's harsh assessment.

"Powerful, in the Force, the sister is. Clouded, the future is, between these two as well."

"Master Yoda," Obi-Wan stepped in front of the visitors protectively, "now may not be the best time for such musings.

"Remind me of Qui-Gon sometimes, you still do." Luke could not tell if this was meant as a compliment or not. Obi-Wan did not appear to dwell upon the mention of his old master, seeking to change the subject instead.

"With your permission, Masters, I would like to show our friends the Temple grounds."

To their collective relief, Mace nodded his approval. "The negotiations before us will be taxing. Master Yoda cares very much for the welfare of the Chancellor. He will gather the rest of the Council to prepare, but I would be happy to accompany you on your tour."

Leia smiled, her inner diplomat emerging. "Thank you, Master Windu. I have known these grounds since I was a small child. Father used to take us here on holidays."

"This place is very special for you," Luke said. He took in the sight of the endless palaces towering above him, their natural stone colors blending seamlessly into the mountains above. Beyond the castle grounds stood glaciers, giant ice sheets entirely different than the ones on Hoth, much more colorful and adorned by endless waterfalls. "I thought Naboo was beautiful, but Alderaan is...majestic."

"So much that Sidious would have destroyed," Obi-Wan said grimly. Even having never lived under Palpatine's Empire, the genuine sadness he felt towards a world he had never known was evident.

"All I got was some rocks and a bunch of sand. The women in this family have all the luck."

"There are many Jedi who would still prefer the old ways," Mace added as they walked inside one of the palace entrances. This section of the castle seemed to have been built out of a giant cave inside the mountain, and a long bridge connected the entrance to the quarters beyond. "Others feel that the Force is stronger here, amidst the natural setting."

"And what do you think, Master Windu?"

Mace marveled at the boldness of the young Jedi. Even some members of the Council would not have dared ask him such a question, so directly, much less a young knight.

"I welcome the three of you to our sanctuary," the older Jedi said measuredly, "but I regret the circumstances that brought you here. It may do the Jedi well to keep away from politics. Last time we played the game, we found ourselves on the precipice of our own destruction."

"Or even worse," Obi-Wan said. "Our young friends here are firsthand witnesses of a world without Jedi."

"The Force allows for all possibilities, not all of them favorable. That much remains clear."

They turned through the cavernous chambers and walked into a hallway with transpirsteel ceilings, following it until they stood outside once more, standing an overlook just below the great marble bridge. Leia looked down into the canyon, and Luke followed her gaze at the small ribbon of water below, moving up until it landed at a small path carved out onto the cliffs between them and the river.

"The ice caves," she pointed out, though Luke sensed she was hiding something in her voice. "I used to explore them in the warm seasons, to get away from the heat." She looked at the their two Jedi escorts, hope in her eyes. "I would love to show them to my brother and Han."

The office all of a sudden seemed too small for her. She had avoided the Supreme Chancellor's office, preferring to conduct her business in the space she was used to, not in the least because of her ever growing revulsion for the disgusting man, no monster, that she had once called a mentor. Anakin had insisted the clones accompany them, and as half a battalion lined the cozy walls of her office, for once she was thankful for their presence.

"You cannot be serious."

"Grave, the situation is. Danger, Senator, you are in, even if yourself you do not sense it."

Padme did not try to hide her anger at the small Jedi before her, the only survivor of the abortive attempt on Sidious. He had fallen through the Supreme Chancellor's window during the fight, and managed to land on a passing speeder. Despite obviously being worse for wear from the encounter, he apparently felt no shame in his failure and wasted no time in gathering up his forces to confront Palpatine's successor, however temporary her position was.

"I am in no danger from my own husband." She felt Anakin squeeze her shoulder in support. He stood by her side, behind her, blue eyes staring at the Jedi with an impassiveness that she wished she could show, but in his touch she sensed the same determination she felt.

"Your husband embraced the Dark Side to kill the Sith Master." This came from Ki-Adi-Mundi, one of the three Jedi Masters that accompanied Master Yoda. Padme recalled that Yoda had brought along three Masters to confront Palpatine as well, and shuddered inwards at the possibility of this encounter too ending in violence.

"He succeeded where the Jedi failed."

"And in doing so, created an even more dangerous monster," said Saesee Tiin. His hands were positioned much to close to his lightsaber for Padme's comfort. "With his powers..."

"Once set upon the dark path, no turning back there is."

"Does he look like a Sith Lord to you," Padme asked in exasperation. "All I know is that my husband saved the Galaxy from whatever horrors Palpatine had planned for it. He ended the Clone Wars, and his actions saved your own order from destruction, and even after all that, you now call for his head?"

"We are clearly not asking for anything that drastic," a female voice countered. Luminara Unduli stepped forward, but the guarded reaction from the acting Empress stopped her from advancing any further. "We merely ask that you release him into our custody."

"Evaluate, we must, the extent of his disease. Know, we do, that he has mastered the dark arts since his departure from the Jedi."

"You have no such jurisdiction," Padme countered angrily. "What you are asking for is to detain indefinitely a free citizen of the Republic on nothing but religious doctrine and baseless accusations. You expect me to hand over to you my own husband and have no say in his fate?"

"The Jedi are responsible for our own," Tiin said sternly. "Within the order or not."

"Your husband may have slayed Sidious, but in doing so he has put himself ever closer to complete control over the Republic. You must consider, Senator, that your mind may not even be your own at this moment. The Sith are capable of influencing those less powerful them in vile ways."

"That's Empress to you, Jedi." Padme could not even believe herself the venom at which she hissed the last word out, but she could no longer help herself. She was too tired to play politician. Not when her family was on the line. "That you would dare say such things...you clearly know nothing of me or Anakin."

"We know we were deceived by Sidious for decades," Ki-Adi-Mundi countered. "Powerful shields, the Sith have mastered."

"Negotiate further, we cannot," Yoda said sadly, yet harshly in a tone that Padme had never before heard from the revered Jedi Master. "Learned our lesson, we have from Sidious. Yet powerful, even he was not, compared to Skywalker. Seen such darkness from anyone, the Galaxy has not, in over a thousand years. Felt such dark power, I have never. No choice, we have, but to contain the threat before it's too late."

"And what would you do after you evaluate him?" She did not care to know their answer, but at this point she was happy to gather more ammunition for her fire. "What happens if he refuses to play the good little Padawan for you? Do you plan to lock him away forever and keep him from his rightful place by his family?"

"The path from the dark side is a long and arduous one," Luminara said gently. "If Anakin chooses the path of rehabilitation, he will need time to heal his own mind. He must be isolated, so that he cannot slip and do more damage."

"We would not look to keep him in the Temple forever," Ki-Adi-Mundi said, raising a hand to try and reassure the former Senator.

"Exile perhaps, for a chance to meditate on his actions and his soul. A suitable place, Dagobah may be, a history the Force has on that planet."

"You know as well as I that Anakin would never submit to your manipulations." She raised her hand and cupped it over his, still holding firmly to her shoulder. She worried that if he let go, she would lose him forever. "Nor does he deserve to, as an innocent man and a hero of the Republic. And I would not let him do so."

"This is why attachment is forbidden," Saesee Tiin said, stepping forward aggressively, "and this illicit union should have never taken place. We allowed Sidious to manipulate our actions for the sake of the war, but we have learned from our mistakes."

"You say it with such conviction, you must genuinely believe it to be true." She would laugh if the scene before her wasn't so absurdly real. "What if I refuse you, Masters Jedi?"

"Do our duty, we will. As you should yours, Senator."

Padme narrowed her eyes at the Jedi before her. "Know that you are addressing an Empress, not a Senator." Clutching Anakin with one hand, her other hand gripped the edge of her desk firmly, until she reached for the comlink in front of her. "I saved you. I can destroy you. Don't make me destroy you."

"You wouldn't dare..." Tiin looked as if he were about to draw his weapon.

"You do not presume what I would or wouldn't do."  Padme turned quickly to the Clones standing behind the Jedi. "Captain Rex, what would you do if the Empress ordered you to recommence with Order 66?"

"We will follow orders, ma'am."

"Thoroughly? Including the squadrons stationed by the Temple?"

"All orders will be carried out to completion, your excellency."

"All it takes is two words, Master Jedi." Her eyes gloated triumphantly as she moved the comlink by her mouth, and she thought she saw uncertainty in the Jedi's eyes for the first time all morning. "None of us in this room may survive, but there will be no one left to save your Order a second time."

"Betray, you will, everything you have stood for?"

"As far as I see it, this is the second coup the Jedi have attempted against a legitimate head of state in less than one standard day, not to mention your wish to illegally arrest a citizen of the Republic. Choose your next actions wisely, masters. Strike us down now, and few in the Galaxy will shed tears for your demise."

Padme stood, and none of the Jedi said anything in response. She turned again towards the Clone captain. "Captain Rex, please escort these subjects of the Empress back to their Temple." She turned and lowered her head, glaring fiercely into the eyes of the ancient Grandmaster. "Do not deign to return, Yoda. The era of the Jedi is over."

"Seek the advantage, you still do. Keep us hostage, you will, to press your advantage."

As the Imperial Flagship, the Naberrian had its own throne room above the command center. Gathered there now was the Empress on her throne and her husband ever on her side. Next to them stood the holo of Ahsoka, and opposite the room sat eleven of the twelve members of the Jedi Council. Obi-Wan, being a representative on both sides, sat instead between the two parties alongside Luke and Leia.

"Arrogant as I remember, Master Yoda you are," the Empress said, mimicking the ancient Jedi's dialect. "I feel comfortable here, it is my imperative, and I do not trust that you will offer us the same welcome upon your grounds as you do Chancellor Organa. Nevertheless, to call yourself a hostage is both exaggerating the situation and overestimating your own importance."

"Had the Empress had any ill intent towards you," Anakin added, "the Clones would have long stormed the temple by now." He looked over to Obi-Wan, almost ashamed of what he just said. "Not that we would ever harbor such sentiments."

"Let's not let whatever transpired in the past cloud our discussions now," Plo Koon said in a conciliatory manner. To Luke's relief, Anakin actually smiled the Kel Dorian master.

"Not all of the history is bad," he said warmly. "The Hammer of Carida. It has been far too long."

"All are welcome in the Temple," Koon said evenly. Luke remembered Plo's role in the pivotal battle of the Clone Wars, planting the final nail in the coffin of the Separatist army. There was obviously a clear tension between his parents and some of the Jedi. Especially, to his chagrin, with Master Yoda. It made sense that the former Jedi would hold a grudge against his old Order, but what surprised him was his mother's hostile attitude.

"But it cannot be a permanent safe haven for fugitives," the Empress reminded everyone, "which is why we sit here today."

The first round of negotiations had yielded nothing substantive, and despite her most desperate interest in the subject, Leia had found herself bored out of her mind. Most of the first two hours were spend debating the official venue of the negotiations, whether it be on the Naberrian, inside the Temple, or some neutral location in Aldera. Leia almost interjected to suggest one of the Queen's palaces, then remembered how little she cared about this angle of the discussion.

They spent the rest of the day reviewing legalities, each side quoting phrases of an Imperial Constitution that Leia herself had been long procrastinating on reading. By the time they wrapped up for the evening meal, even Obi-Wan seemed happy for a change of pace.

"As lovely as Alderaan is," Obi-Wan said slyly to Leia when none of the other Jedi were within earshot, "I am grateful sometimes that my presence is required on Coruscant most of the time."

"Is it always like this," Luke asked, walking up to the two of them alongside Han, both of them having helped themselves to extra servings of the stuffed nerf roasts. "The constant...bickering."

"The Council is thorough in the way we approach matters," Obi-Wan said, looking away, "and Jedi or not, patience is a virtue."

"The Empress and that little troll don't seem to care for each other," Han said, fending off a dirty look from Luke. "What? He's an odd looking creature, that's all."

"Does this go back to when the Jedi were moved to Alderaan," Luke asked. Master Yoda's thoughts were far too shielded for him, but he could not help but sense the disapproval radiating off his mother the entire meeting. While Yoda had hardly been warm to him since their arrival, he still hoped he wouldn't have to choose between two who meant so much to him.

"The revelation of Palpatine's true nature was a traumatic time for the entire Galaxy," Obi-Wan said, and it was obvious to Luke, though he was far from a politician, that the Negotiator was choosing his words carefully. "The aftermath was chaotic like nothing any of us had experienced, and many were rash in their words and their actions."

"That history means little to me," Leia said, the resolve growing in her voice. "I hope the actions of a past that never was don't come back to harm my father."

"Han?"

"Hmmm." He stirred a little in his sleep.

"What did Anakin say to you on the way to on the way here?"

"Huh?" His eyes opened, and he woke to sight of Leia leaning over him in the dark confines of their room. While Luke and the rest of his family had returned to the Naberrian, Leia had insisted on taking advantage of the opportunity to sleep upon her home soil for the first time since its destruction, and they had found a small inn not far from Stark Castle.

"Umm, mostly about flying," he murmured back. "The Falcon. We didn't talk all that much. Just watched a bunch of holoshows. And flew around. Why do you ask this now?"

"What do you think he intends to do about Bail," Leia continued, not answering Han's own question.

"I dunno, probably whatever the Empress wants him to do." He frowned, activating the light in the room. "Why do you think he would confide in me?"

"The two of you seem to be getting along recently."

"He's not a bad guy. And he seemed kinda lost there without his wife, especially after we left Naboo. Guess he just wanted someone to talk to."

"I suppose."

"Go to sleep, honey. You wore me out tonight, and we have more meetings to try and stay awake for tomorrow."

"We do, don't we," Leia said with a thoughtful face, raising her arm to turn off the light. She felt Han roll over to his side, and moved to hold his bare chest as tightly as she did when they escaped Jabba's palace. "I love you," she said softly, yet firmly, right into his ear.

"I love you too, your highnessness." She smiled more than she ever did upon hearing the term of endearment he reserved especially for her, but she did not sleep. Time passed, and sensing Han was deep in slumber, she rose.

"I love you so much Han," she whispered, running her fingers softly through his hair until she was caressing the side of his face. "You've changed a lot since when we first met. I know Luke is a good friend...but I'd like to think I was big part of it too. I love you for who you once were, and I love you for who you are now."

She sighed, and closed her eyes. "But this is for the better. In more than one way. I'll miss you, more than you can ever imagine. Anakin and Padme too. They are family, I know. And they will always be an undeniable part of me."

She opened her eyes again, and looked upon her beloved for the last time, memorizing every angle of his face and form, his gentle breathing and his peaceful expression as he slept.

"Luke will never forgive me for not saying goodbye. Tell him I'm so, so sorry."

She forced herself to pull away from him. And then she ran.

Chapter Text

After everything, there was nothing left for her to do but cry. She could think of similarly excruciating times in her life: the day her children died, Tatooine and Geonosis, the worst of the Trade Federation blockade, but truly she had never been so tried all at once in mind, body, and soul. She had nothing left within her but the need for release, and to try and find what little comfort she could in the arms of her husband and within the confines of her own apartment, a place that, because it was where she spent the most time with Anakin and the twins, was as close of a home as she could imagine away from Naboo.

"It's just not fair," she said when she was running out of tears. Outside, the storm blew and thunder rang ferociously through the neon skies, and it seemed to her that even what remained of the artificial planet's nature was lashing out at her.

"I know, Angel. Nothing is fair right now. Nothing's ever been fair."

She lifted her head over her husband's shoulder. Across the apartment stood a half open door. The twins' room had remained unchanged since the day they died. Both of them had been too occupied to renovate since then, but part of her knew that the real reason was that she and Anakin both feared wiping away what remained of their children in the material world, leaving them only their memories. But in the days when she would occasionally allow herself to wander in, looking at the colorful toys and flimsibooks that still dotted the room, it felt real enough that she half expected her haidmaidens to walk in with Luke and Leia, having just returned from the Senate creche.

"Barren." She said the word as if it were a slur. That she was no longer capable of producing life...a piece of her died with that knowledge, a vast, insurmountable part of her very being. The one tangle of hope that had driven her and Anakin since losing the twins had been the dream that once they had finally done their duty, won the war, forged the peace, restored democracy, they could retire from everything, return to Naboo, live a quiet life, and try to start a family again. It was not to replace Luke or Leia, the mere thought of that idea was heresy, but a chance to start anew seemed almost too good to be true. As it was.

"His last act was yet another curse on our family."

"I'm sorry," Anakin said, obviously just as devastated as she was. The day had started with the confrontation with the Jedi. She had put on a brave front, but even as they incited her to anger and she had threatened them in ways she could never imagine, her heart was beating with fear. She had been on the verge of panic by the time they parted, and she hoped that Anakin would have known to use his powers in the Force to shield her true feelings from the Jedi. Were they her enemies now? Who had made enemies of whom?

She did her best avoid dwelling on the consequences of what she had just done, devoting the rest of the day to pouring over all the documentation and evidence that the deceased Sith Lord had left behind. R2 and Anakin did their parts to help, the droid slicing into the former Supreme Chancellor's most encrypted files, her husband leading the Clones to forcibly seize others, starting with the archives of Mas Amedda, and every word she read strengthened her headache, as the scope of the corruption through the Senate, the Republic, and the Separatists and Banking Clans and countless local planets and corporations grew exponentially with every revelation.  It was when she thought her mind could handle no more when the emdee droid returned innocuously to her office and delivered to them the latest round of traumatizing news.

"We could adopt..."

"I can't..."

"I know. I wouldn't want to either. Not for long time, at least."

Padme scoffed. Her mind returned to the morning's events, and the grief and the anger swirling within her mind until they became one. "The Jedi would probably celebrate. No more offspring from a Sith." She had threatened to wipe out the order, she remembered again. Did she really mean it? Could she really have done it? Palpatine would have laughed at the scene from beyond the grave, she was sure, his legacy not lost after all. But what the Jedi asked of her...after everything that had happened, after she had already lost so much...it just wasn't fair.

"You stood up for me." Still holding her, he lowered his head to his wife's so their foreheads were touching. "Thank you for doing that."

"Of course I stood up for you," she said softly, yet with a small trace of indignation. "You're my husband!" Her hands traced the his right forearm, glove bare and laid naked, and she saw the lightning from outside reflected upon its golden surface. "There's no truth to what they said, is there?"

"I'm still here, aren't I?" She only needed to see into his eyes for a half second before deciding to believe him.

"So what do we do now? Will they ever come to their senses?"

She felt the pulse of his chest as he sighed sadly. "Obi-Wan, maybe. In time, some of them may not fully believe that I'm Sidious's successor. But it's true, they have drawn lessons from the Sith."

"The wrong ones," his wife muttered.

"I was a Jedi once. I know how they think. Dooku left the Order. I left the Order. Sidious played the long con and fooled them for decades. Many of them will never be convinced that I'm not doing the same thing. The apprentice murdering the master, as is the way, then plotting to hide behind his wife for even longer in plain sight."

"This isn't justice," Padme wanted to scream out loud for the galaxy to hear. "They have no proof."

"You heard Master Tiin. The Jedi make their own justice."

She lifted her small frame away from her husband's arms, rising from the couch but beckoning him with her eyes to follow her. He trailed her like a shadow to the kitchen, where she found a cabinet and, after perusing through it, took out a bottle of Naboo vintage. This one had been a belated wedding gift from her grandmother Ryoo, one of the finest bottles ever produced on the illustrious planet. They had been saving it for the day they could both retire and return to Naboo, but she had not thought about the bottle since the twins.

She opened the wine and poured two deep glasses. While Anakin sipped his slowly, she took a deep swig of her own.

"You knew this would happen, didn't you?" Padme asked this without accusation. She leaned along the edge of the counter, her back to her husband. On the night that Anakin was supposed to deliver his speech for democracy, he had been the one to ask instead that the Senate to nominate her as a temporary Empress, even as she was lying at the foot of her pod in shock and pain.

"Yes," Anakin answered honestly. "There was a strong chance of it." He tried not to flinch when Padme turned her head to face him. Her eyes showed only a sad acceptance.

"I left the Order more than two years ago. I don't know if I would have been strong enough to defeat Sidious. Not without unleashing everything I had."

"The Jedi will never forgive you for that."

"I had a Sith Master to worry about first. Killing Palpatine was...an exhilarating experience. I didn't know myself whether I would be able to return from the precipice."

"But you did."

"I did," he said, earnestly, and in that moment, as she stared into his blue eyes, she thought of the day when she had first told him of her pregnancy.

Glass in hand, she walked through the dimly lit hallway to the twins' room. Standing by the doorway, she dared not go in, but she closed her eyes and tried to remember the sound her children made as they slept, their soft breathing, faces lit by the light of the moon. She and Anakin had many a night stood here, watching them sleep, the entire family blessed with the rare moment of quiet, contented bliss. She felt the presence of her husband behind her, looming over her, yet he dared not touch her.

"I'm sorry." She didn't answer, but reached her one free hand back and found his. "We could run. But..."

"My family," she finished his sentence for him. If they fled to somewhere to the Outer Rim, or the Unknown Regions...she would never see her family again. For the sake of crimes that had never been committed. Again, it just wasn't fair.

"I am the Empress right now," Padme said slowly, still somewhat in disbelief as the words came out of her mouth. "I will not go from Empress to fugitive in the blink of an eye and condemn us to a life in hiding. Not without a fight."

"This never should have been your burden to bear."

She felt a hand grip her waist, and the familiar mesh of the outline of his body against her back. It felt right, she decided. This was where he belonged, backing her, by her side.

"The Force is cruel," she heard him say, his husky voice rising in anger for the first time since the confrontation with Palpatine. "It condemned the woman who bore the so-called Chosen One," he said these two words with disgust, "to a lifetime of pain, and an unthinkable end. It let the Sith take control of the galaxy and watched as billions suffered for their sins."

He paused, the words becoming tougher for him to speak out. "It brought us together, then pushes upon us so much pain, and tries so hard to tear us apart."

"The Force tosses us around like flimsi in the wind. If this is how it treats its own, its chosen...then the Force can go to hell," Padme spat out disgustingly. "I'm not a Jedi. I'm not a Sith. I care little for their ways. Both brought this Galaxy to the brink of destruction. Both would have destroyed us. Why should we, why should the entire galaxy, suffer for some internecine...religious dispute?"

She looked back at her husband, realization dawning in her eyes. "They can all go to hell too. And it's within my power to do make it so." Temporary power could be no savior, she knew all too well, its fickle nature she had seen firsthand when she had foolishly called for the vote of no confidence upon Chancellor Valorum. Those in power one day could easily find themselves persecuted the next, and they would be in the same place they were now.

"I know how much the Republic meant to you," Anakin said grimly. She knew that her husband did not care all that much for politics. Despite all their talks, he was still somewhat indifferent towards ideology and democracy, but she understood that for her sake, for their sake, he would sound her out, play the devil's advocate. They both needed it. "You ideals were never lip service, as it now appears to be for so many of your fellow Senators. For this to be your legacy..."

"Our legacy," she said, turning to face her husband. "This will be our child. Luke and Leia...their sacrifice...our sacrifice...will forge a new world. A better world."

Her brown eyes, still red with tears, hardened, radiating the fierce determination that he first remembered seeing on Naboo a lifetime ago. "Last night you asked me to stand by you. I did. Now I ask you to stand by me."

Anakin smiled, the first time she recalled seeing him smile since the bombing. "You know I would never deny you anything."

"Even if I'm wrong?"

"Then we will make it right." There was a relief in his voice, and a resolve that matched hers.

She walked left the doorway and walked back into their lounge, knowing he would follow. "Have I ever told you the story of Shiraya?"

"Vaguely. She is your God, correct? Whom the Naboo pray to."

Padme nodded. "Out of all the Gods, she is the most tragic. And the most revered. We pray to her because she has known sadness, and she can understand our own."

The storm had passed, and as she walked out into their veranda, she tried to imagine the smell of the rain. The smells that a storm like this may have left behind on a warm night back in her homeworld.

"There are many versions of her tale," she said, still gripping her glass of wine. "In nearly all of them, she falls in love with a mortal."

"Adono," Anakin said, remembering. "It's not a happy story."

"They never are." Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last time, she surveyed the Coruscanti skyline. She hated it, she realized. The artificial nature of the planet, the all consuming, all confining fakeness of the endless rows of veneers and towers...to her it represented everything that was wrong with the Galaxy. With Palpatine. With the corruption and decay. And yet, as she spoke, she was building higher the walls of her own prison on this world.

"There is a telling," she began, trying to recall the story from the recesses of her mind. "It's not a well known story, but it is common in some of the smaller villages of Naboo. When her father, Sun God, objected to their love, she raised her hand in rebellion, and rallied half the Gods to her side."

She blinked, trying to visualize where she was when she first heard the tale. A harsh memory came back to her. It had been early in her reign. She was visiting a small fishing village on the far northern sea. It was at an orphanage, as she rested by the water under a gray sky, when a young girl with sandy blonde hair who could not have been older than seven had been brave enough to approach her.

"It was the fiercest war Naboo had ever known, and the skies wept as Gods and mortals alike perished. Shiraya was on the verge of victory, but as she charged at her father's army, he showed himself in all his glory, blinding his enemies. Shiraya stabbed her sword forward, but when she heard a scream, it had come from the voice of the voice of her beloved instead. Instantly, she dropped her weapon, losing her will to fight, to live, and the rest of her army surrendered."

She and the girl had talked, and they exchanged stories. First they told each other of their own lives, and how they came to be. Then they told the stories of their home villages, and the girl had recited her their traditional poem of Shiraya. She had ended up forgetting the time, and would have sat by the ocean with the child till night came if it weren't for her handmaidens.

It was that same day on their return trip to Theed when news came of the Trade Federation's invasion.

"Her father banished all the Gods who joined her into the deepest reaches of the night, and they became the stars. Shiraya and her two sisters, he couldn't bear to lose, so he made them the moons, Shiraya still shining as the brighest of the three. But they were condemned to never see the light of day again."

She had returned to the village after Qui-Gon's funeral, but found little of it left. Half the village was burned, including the orphanage she had visited. There were some survivors, but she was neverable to locate that nameless girl who was brave enough to confide with a Queen.

Contemplating her glass, she drank the rest of her wine in one smooth motion. She stood, firmly as she ever had, and reached out one hand to her husband, who took it.

"It's time to rewrite the story. We will fight, but this time, in this tale, we will not lose."

"All our lives together, we've never stopped fighting." He was next to her now, and she did not need to see him to feel the arch of his back, the way he hunched protectively over her as he did by the lake on the day of their wedding.

"We fought blindly, just like in the story. Each time we claw, we scrape, we barely hang on before we're dragged kicking and screaming into the next battle. Even that first time, all we did was unknowingly place a Sith Lord in power. And keep him there as he plotted our demise." She looked to the Senate building, then to the Jedi Temple, then up at the sky. "Now we know whom we fight."

"And whom we fight for," Anakin said, finishing her thought.

Despite her pain, despite her grief, despite her exhaustion, Padme Naberrie Amidala Skywalker felt better than she had in a long time. She had her husband by her side, where he was always meant to be, balancing her out, beauty and brawn, strength and subtlety, force and grace. Together, nothing could stop them.

She wiped what remained of the drying tears from her eyes. The rain picked up again, and as she felt a gust of wind blow against her face, Padme smiled, daring it to do worse.

In the end, their escape had been shockingly easy. No one noticed her approach through the bottom the ravine, and as she suspected, the ice caves and the tunnels were abandoned in the dead of night. She shone her light through and followed the turns that she had long memorized until she found the steps leading up into the castle, built as an escape route by the old Organa kings almost a thousand years ago. She found some plain robes earlier in the village and purchased them; donning them now, she was able to wander through the temple grounds nonchalantly. Few were up at this hour, especially in the lower levels of the temple.

She did not expect Bail's quarters to be guarded. There was little reason for him to attempt an escape when the safest place for him was under the auspices of the Jedi, especially with the Empire's ships looming over the planet. She had a few guesses as to where he could be, but when she closed her eyes and let her feelings guide her, meditating even as she walked the hallways, she just knew.

Leia found him in the Gion suites, quarters she had occupied herself whenever they had visited the castle. She had long suspected that her father had given her his own favorite rooms, and was not disappointed to have been right. Bail was still up, which was no surprise either. He had always been a night owl, having often caught and admonished her when she herself used to sneak through the hallways at night, looking for mischief.

"Leia? Leia Skywalker?"

"Leia Organa," she said, emphasizing her true name. "Princess of Alderaan. Daughter of Bail and Breha Organa."

He had been reading a flimsibook, and setting it down, he regarded the intruder with confusion and apprehension.

"That's what Padme told me about you."

"I'm here to rescue you."

In the back of her mind, she tried not to remember similar words coming from a brother she had only recently discovered. Bail was apparently just as skeptical as she initially had been.

"Is this a trick?"

She pointed at the book he was holding. "The Liberation of a Senator: A Treatise on Diplomacy in an Age of War. That copy has been in our family for twelve generations. Your own father had given the book to you for your 14th name-day."

She walked up to him and, taking hold of the flimsibook now lying prone in his hands, effortlessly flipped the pages to the ones she had in mind.

"He told you to pay special heed to the chapters on the D'Astan Accords. 'The greatest triumph of a statesman lies in obscurity. Generals win the wars that happen. Diplomats win the ones that don't.'"

To her amazement, she had rendered her father speechless. She held out her hand, and he readily handed the book over. She studied the worn volume, each tear and wrinkle in the tome that she still remembered. "You gave this to me for my 13th name-day. I was the lucky thirteenth generation, the last in my world to hold this book." She handed it back to him. "Let's pray that's not the case here."

Their progress out of the castle was not a problem either. Her cover would be that he was feeling unwell, and she was there to escort him to the medbay. Her identity still a secret to most, she doubted that anyone would recognize her unless she happened upon a member of the Council at this late hour. She didn't.

Leaving the system was her greatest worry. She noted the irony that on their way to this blasted world, they had been so vexed by whether the Imperial codes the rebel intelligence had obtained were genuine. Their legitimacy was unquestionable now, as was her own ship. The question was whether her own family would notice.

"This is code two-four-six-Echo-Delta-nine-nine-Princess. Repeat, two-four-six-Echo-Delta-nine-nine-Princess."

They sat in silence, waiting anxiously the response from the Naberrian. In her mind, she pictured Anakin probing the entire system with his powers, constantly on the lookout for any disturbances he would not approve of. Now that she fully understood his powers, she did not doubt that it was possible; after all, he had sensed Obi-Wan's distress on Mandalore all the way from Naboo, and even Luke had known of her own distress on Bespin from half a galaxy away. Leia could only hope that he trusted his daughter enough, a trust, she mused, she was betraying even while Anakin Skywalker had never spoken a false word to her.

"Two-four-six-Echo-Delta-nine-nine-Princess, you are cleared."

She breathed a sigh of relief. Her father didn't. Leia wondered whether how much he truly trusted this strange young woman before him.

"How long," she asked, as she steered their small ship away from the Naberrian's loading docks.

"The last two standard years, give or take. It was not one thing Padme did, not any specific incident. I guess part of me always thought that she would eventually give up her powers and restore the Republic. Once I realized that was not going to happen..."

"No," Leia said, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "I know why you would betray the Empire. Of course you would. What I'm asking you is how long," she struggled, trying to find a way to voice her question, but couldn't, "...Breha?"

"Oh." He lowered his head, face so downcast in a way that she had never seen before, not even in their lowest moments, not even, she imagined, in the seconds before their homeworld's destruction. "I..."

"I never had a chance to meet her again. My mother that raised me. Now, she truly has no one."

"It was nothing," her father said, not meeting her gaze. "I was weak. I had gotten so used to lying. At deceiving others. At deceiving myself."

Leia saw that he was crying. She had never seen him cry before, but she did nothing to comfort him.

"It was a mistake. A brief one. It did not happen more than a few times. It would not have continued longer, even if the holonets did not catch us."

Leia barely listened to his words, focusing instead her concentration on the surface of the Naberrian as she navigated the ship by it. On that ship was her own blood, including a mother that, even after everything, she could not bring herself to hate. As they cleared the ship, she thought she forgot how to breathe.

"Why are you doing this," the stranger asked as she plotted in their course. "You clearly hate me for what I've done."

She looked back at the face of the man that had raised her. The world was upside right now. She had never felt this way around him before, he the supplicant and she the one holding the power to bequeath or deny.

"I don't hate you," she decided. "I don't know if I love you either. But my family has not been kind to you, Bail. Padme failed you here. I failed you where I come from. And the sins of Dar...of the other Anakin I knew, transcend across worlds."

She wasn't sure if he truly understood her words, and she didn't know if she cared.

"Where are you taking us," Bail finally asked just as she guided the ship into hyperspace.

"This world has passed you by," Leia said softly, vaguely. "I'm taking you to a place that still needs you."

Chapter Text

Luke sprinted into the throne room.

"Han just comm'd me! Leia's missing!"

"So is Chancellor Organa."

Lukes opened his eyes in horror, connecting the dots.

"She did it," he muttered. "She actually did it."

"Did you not suspect," Anakin asked, his eyes unreadable. He was busy plotting the ship's navigation systems with R2.

"I thought that for a brief moment...," Luke turned to his father in shock. "You knew."

"You knew?" The Empress's feet clattered across the room, and for the first time since he had known her, Luke thought he saw (or felt) true anger from his mother.

"Padme," Anakin said with his palm raised outward, trying to calm his wife. She stopped several steps before him, her initial flare gone, but still staring at her husband intently as she awaited his explanation. "Think about it. Leia is our daughter. Would you not do the same?"

"You're right," she conceded as quickly as her temple rose. "How could I have been so blind?"

Anakin walked over to her and touched his hand to the Empress's cheek, caressing it apologetically with his thumb. "You're tired, love, and you've had a very arduous week. You began to see her as a daughter, rather than the brilliant politician Leia is in her own right. For those not attuned to the Force, she can hide her true intentions as well as anyone."

Clutching his wife protectively, he turned towards Luke. "Tell Han that he wants to see his Princess again he better get his smuggler ass back to the ship as soon as possible."

"He's already on his way," Luke said. "I think he's afraid you're going to blame him for losing her."

"The poor man never had a chance," Anakin said bemusedly. "Don't tell him that though. I wouldn't mind holding this over his head for awhile."

"How you be so nonchalant about this," Padme asked, still not entirely pacified. "I don't give a Sith's ass about Bail at this point, but our daughter just ran off to Force knows where."

"There's only one place she would go," Anakin said.

"Endor. Where we came from. She means to return."

"She did solve a problem for you, Padme, even if that was not her intent."

"What do you mean," Luke asked. He still could not believe that his father would let go of both a traitor and a daughter so easily.

"Neither me nor your mother would have wished to be too harsh on the Chancellor, yet to show him mercy would have set a bad example to the Empire for a crime that deserves zero leniency."

A small ship flashed on their screen, indicating that Han's approach.

"To tell you the truth," Anakin continued, "we didn't have an easy solution. For him to escape from the custody of the Jedi however, is as good of an outcome as we could hope for, as it undermines the Order in the eyes of public opinion more so than the Empire. Either they foolishly trusted him and were betrayed, or they themselves were treacherous and betrayed the Empress even while she journeyed across the Galaxy to negotiate with the purest of intentions."

"You are devious," Luke spat out, the distaste growing in his voice. "Is everything political with the two of you?"

"For your mother," Anakin answered impassively, "in her position, it has to be. For the two of us, let this be a lesson to you."

"A lesson? This is not a lesson I care to learn, Anakin."

"Yet listen you will," his father's voice ordered. "The Force is reflected through the nature of all beings, good, bad, and everything in between. It sees all, hears all, is all. It flows through you and I the same as it would those we despise, our worst enemies, and the Force does not judge. Mastery of the Force requires us to see and understand everything the Force sees, every perspective, every angle, even if we care not for it, whether it be politics, or jealousy, or hate. You're a fighter, Luke, but war is just an extension of politics by other means, and you need to know more than just how to swing a lightsaber to survive in this galaxy. Palpatine understood this better than anyone, while the Jedi did not see what they did not wish to see. That is why they fell in your world and came so close in ours."

"You almost sound like you admire Palpatine, the way you praise him."

"Not in the least," Anakin snapped. "But ignorance of your enemy is not the answer. Palpatine was blind too, he didn't understand..."

Luke turned and walked away, having had enough of his family for one day.

"Luke," his father's voice resonated through the cavernous chamber, and he could not help but stop. When his father spoke like that, it almost felt like the Force itself commanded him. He turned defiantly at his parents.

"You are angry."

Letting go of his wife, he walked firmly towards his son, and Luke could not help but recoil in fear as his mind immediately turned to Bespin.

"Let us spar," Anakin merely said in a gentler tone. "These emotions we'll release into the Force."

"I supposed I should be thankful for your parents," Bail said, deep in thought. "Had Palpatine lived..."

"Not for much longer," Leia said, feeling the determination return to her. She had seen the other side now, gotten to know her blood parents, and experienced the rush of being on the side of power for once. But in her heart, she was a rebel, and as they cruised back towards her destiny, she felt her old feelings, that sense of euphoria in knowing one's purpose in life, coming back to her.

"What chance do we have? Just the two of us? Without your brother, we don't even have Jedi."

"The Rebellion has suffered many blows and setbacks," Leia said, thinking of her old friends, hoping that they would be enough to fill the hole in her heart of all that she was leaving behind, "but we've persevered. Our rebellion is strong, stronger than you can imagine. The brute oppression of Palpatine is, in a perverse way, our greatest ally."

More, she realized, than any one man with a fleet.

"I don't know if Luke would follow us," she said, eyes in the distance. It was very possible he would, once he realized what they were doing. But it was his choice, just as this was hers, and she would never force him on it. "And I don't know if he would be able to. But I know we can return. And I know we will prevail."

"If you say so," this man who never was her father said, clearly not believing her.

"I feel it," Leia revealed with a proud smile. "The Force will provide."

"You are Anakin's daughter indeed," Bail remarked, not realizing how many conflicting emotions he set off with his words.

"I know him now. The man he is." The man he was. "If it comes down to it, I'll confront Darth Vader myself. He would not hurt me again..." Her words trailed off, but her belief remained. If she had learned anything about either Anakins, Vader's guilt at realizing he had tortured his own daughter would rip him apart, and she intended to take full advantage of that.

"You were friends with him once," Leia said, emerging from her own thoughts. "I wonder how well you...the you that raised me, would have known...the other one."

"I like Anakin. I've always liked Anakin. Jedi, Republic, Empire...they made him into a weapon, and he's never pretended to be anything different. The only ideology he maybe ever ascribed to was your mother...so I guess in a way he's one of the few who's remained true to the end."

"But what Padme did cuts deeper, doesn't it?" She saw the genuine sadness in his eyes at her question.

"She came into the Senate well after the rest of us." Bail flinched, realizing his words could be sending a different message. "I don't say this to discredit her, she was brilliant and pure and earned every bit of the reputation she had. But she didn't do it on her own."

"You were her mentor." Leia remembered her own father telling her about the great Padme Amidala. Sometimes he spoke of her reverently, as if she was the martyr that she was, but other times fondly, as a little sister.

"In the beginning, but she didn't need that much help from me; she had plenty of her own experience well before she became our colleague. But politics takes more than one. Myself, Garm, Mon...all of us stood by her, supported her initiatives as she gradually came to be our voice, because we trusted that...her ideals, her love for democracy...was as pure as ours. More so, even."

He looked absolutely downcast now, and for a moment Leia regretted coming to his rescue, then making him relive every moment of pain and betrayal that had created the clearly broken man next to her.

"She was so young, and many thought her naive, but those of us who were her allies, who trusted her implicitly...we all thought the galaxy could use more of her innocence."

"Instead, she took Palpatine's spot," Leia said. Despite not knowing this Bail, despite his own list of sins, she could not but feel deeply every word that all too familiar voice said, his pain becoming hers. "Why? Did she ever tell you why?"

"No, she never did." Bail reached behind and took the book the woman who claimed to be her daughter had brought along. It was his only possession now. "I asked her once, whether it had all been a lie. She denied it; she just said she changed her mind afterwards. And I believe her. I still do. I remember the long conversations we had, agonizing over the fate of democracy in the last days of the Supreme Chancellor. Even when she told me her intentions to...to take the crown, I sensed...I stared into her eyes and I saw the conflict in her."

"In the end, I guess their regime is not...entirely bad."

"That's what made everything so much harder to grapple with." He flipped through the pages absentmindedly. "A benevolent despot is not unheard of in history, but..."

"It's not sustainable. The decay would start not too many generations past the initial sovereign," Leia finished for him, remembering their past discussions.

"Nothing is immune from that," Bail said, reflecting. "The rot was extensive within the Republic as well. Palpatine did not create the corruption, but used it to exacerbate the worst aspects of the old regime in building his perfect beast."

"Perfect isn't the word I would use," Leia said under her breath, but Bail continued as if he never heard her.

"Then Palpatine died. Life was not easy for her, especially after she lost the two of you, and I have a feeling that Palpatine was constantly looking for a way to get her killed. But if anything, all that drove her more, made her fight even harder for democracy. But when she finally had the chance, rather than dismantle the machine, she stepped in, along with Anakin, and...inherited that awful man's legacy. She chose to deal the final blow to the Republic, when they were the ones who could have saved it."

The more Bail talked about her mother, the more things didn't add up for Leia. Just as she had always assumed that Darth Vader had been a monster long before he took on the mask, she had figured that Padme, in this life at least, had lost her faith in democracy far earlier. For Bail, who seemed to be as close to the Empress as anyone not in her immediate family, to puzzle over her decision, made it seem ever more hopeless that Leia would ever discover what guided her actions those critical days. She had a feeling that Anakin was the only one who truly knew, aside from the Empress herself, and now there would never be a chance for her to find the truth from them.

It was ironic, she realized, after all this time here , that her mother had become more of a mystery now than before, when all she had were those fleeting memories she could never ascertain were real (they are, the voice whispered to her). She had come to see how remarkable both her birth parents were, in good ways and in bad, but she had yet been able to connect them with the own fire burning within her heart, and determine what lessons she ought to draw from them when this was all said and done. Besides the fact that the idea of any children of hers seemed to terrify both the Grandmaster of the Jedi, and their greatest heretic.

You'll never understand, she thought, avoiding the thought of how Han would have reacted when he found her gone. And I'm glad you'll never have to understand.

"There are many moments in the last ten years that, in my dealings with her, I see Senator Amidala. Not Vader. But you've seen how ruthless she can be...when I stood there like a good little puppet and watched the purge...I wondered how long I could last under her regime."

"The purge," Leia asked, broken from her reverie. She had not heard about this yet.

"The Great Senate Purge," Bail whispered, his eyes still haunted by the memory. "They lined them all up in the Senate Plaza...nearly all of Palpatine's hardcore supporters, along with the captured Separatist Council and various other dignitaries on either side of the war."

"She lied to me. The Empire does make criminals of dissent."

"No. Like Tarkin and Vizsla, they had all committed genuine crimes. They had caused the war, profited off the war, they were responsible for many of its atrocities. But so much more than that. Many of them had done nothing more than take more than their fair share of illicit credits. Or made one too many questionable deals with various entities in exchange for their support. Or just gave their full backing to Palpatine not even because they believed in him, but just because they thought they were picking the winning side. That they deserved some sort of punishment, that was true. But for her to gun them all down just for the sake of spectacle on behalf of her Empire, for her power...I wondered then, who was this woman that I called a good friend for so long, and what was she truly capable of. I still don't know those answers."

Leia thought about watching Tarkin's body fall to the ground, and how she had reveled at the sight. Should she feel guilty for enjoying it? For being human? What would she had done, her rebellion had done, had they somehow been able to capture the same man after Alderaan? Grant him a fair trial, for one, but was there any denying the verdict for one whose crimes were so obvious? Would the end result been any different, save for who pulled the trigger?

She believed the Force told her she would win once she returned, but then what? Suppose they blew up this second Death Star with the Emperor onboard, and they were welcomed onto Coruscant with open arms. The Empire was more than just one Emperor and his enforcer. What would they do with all the moffs, who had cruelly oppressed populations and made slaves of entire species? All the admirals, many of them who carried out atrocities to follow orders rather than for their own sadistic glee or twisted beliefs. What of Amedda, Sate Prestage, Sly Moore, all of them she had no doubt would slide a vibroblade into her back and destroy Alderaan a second time over if given the chance? Let them serve their time, then return to once again threaten the peace? And, she could not forget, there was Darth Vader himself...her own father. What if she were able to save him from the dark, as Luke thought he could do. Could she bring herself to preside over his trial without prejudice? To hand over a verdict and sentence if it came down to that?

"Do you feel guilty," Leia asked, "that you helped my mother in her ascension."

"No," Bail said after a long pause. "No more guilt than I felt for supporting Palpatine initially, when we all thought he was an honest man. I don't have the Force, and I can't predict the future. I tried my best, and that is all."

He closed his eyes and leaned back into his seat. "What I do regret is getting into politics in the first place. I devoted most of my life to this damned rotten business, and look at the fruits of my labor."

"You'll soon get a second chance," Leia replied, a sparkle of hope in her eyes. "Once we defeat Darth Vader and the Emperor, we'll have a galaxy, a new Republic, to rebuild."

Leia felt his eyes on her, and though he said nothing, she knew from his wistful gaze that he envied the naivete her youth gave her. But she knew herself better.

Dueling Anakin was unlike anything he had ever experienced. Luke had came at him hard in the beginning, slashing, antagonizing, trying to pierce through his defenses, but his father had stood his ground effortlessly, seeming to anticipate and parry off every strike without making any moves back against him. Unlike Obi-Wan, who constantly talked him through battle, Anakin did not say a word, though Luke guessed that he was probably jotting down in his mind every move he made for further comment. As he tired, his father moved in for the attack, every blow so powerful that the Force seemed to shake around him. He deflected each move but felt as if his arms and shoulders were going to fall off every time he did so, and yet still he had a sense that Anakin was holding back.

His father's movements were not as controlled and centered as Obi-Wan's, and with his wider swings, Luke sensed that, quick as he was, compared to Obi-Wan Anakin gave him more of an opportunity to find and jab at a weakness if he were fast enough. They alternated back and forth, Anakin relenting long enough to for Luke to regain his strength to push back on the offensive, then striking when Luke tired and pushing him to his limits before he could catch his breath.

After what seemed like hours, Anakin back-flipped to the edge of the mat (Luke absentmindedly wondered if Darth Vader kept a sparring room aboard the Executor) and deactivated his sword, Luke doing the same, both father and son covered in sweat. As he rested his hands on his knees, he saw Anakin on the opposite corner and thought he sensed both pride and amusement emanating from his father.

"Get it all out of your system?"

"Why do you hate the Jedi?" For once, he saw that he had caught Anakin Skywalker off guard.

"Hate the Jedi," his father said puzzled, walking back onto the mat. "Did you pay attention to the negotiations at all? Did it look like I hate Obi-Wan? Mace? Plo? Siri, Aayla...hells even Ferus and I played a few rounds of Sabaac several years ago during that...incident on Zygerria. That cranky old bastard."

Resisting the small urge to ask him who won, Luke continued his line of questioning. "What about the Council members you didn't name? I could feel your...distaste towards them. And mother too..especially mother. She hates Master Yoda."

"Your mother is a saint," Anakin said, pointing a finger sternly at him. "Did you pay as close attention to the Jedi as you did us, Luke? Did you feel what Master Yoda was thinking? Tiin? Mundi?"

Luke stopped, and thought. "They didn't like her either, I don't think. Resentment."

"Hate, dare I say. But Jedi don't hate, do they?"

"They don't," Luke answered with more certainty than he felt. "Hate leads to the dark side."

"So it does. What about you? How did they feel towards you? Your sister?"

"I don't think Master Yoda...approved of us."

"Why not? You are a Jedi, are you not? A knight, who has stood up to the Sith, who faced the Dark Side but resisted it. Not to mention Leia, the noble politician and warrior who espouses the same values the Jedi used to stand for while the Republic stood."

"I think he worries for us. I'm trained. And I'm ready in my world...I have to be. But I think he worries...that in his eyes, I'm not ready yet. That I haven't had enough training...the right kind of training. That I could...still fall."

"So Jedi do feel some things then. They resent, they worry. Where does that line fall? Between resentment and hatred? Worry and fear?"

Luke shook his head in frustration. "You're arguing semantics here. Obviously the Jedi are not Sith."

"The Jedi base their entire Code on semantics," Anakin said, raising his own voice in return. "I'm obviously not accusing Yoda of being a Sith, but that doesn't mean they are infallible, that they don't let their own prejudices, their own biases, affect their judgment."

Anakin took a step back. "Raise your lightsaber. Hold it in front of you. Firmly, and brace yourself with everything you have."

Luke obeyed and watched as his father clipped his weapon to his belt and raise his one human hand. A small tendril of electricity emerged and made contact with his blade. Even as he knew to prepare for it, the initial impact had almost knocked him over. As the onslaught continued, he felt his head start to swell in pain, and in his concentration his peripheries faded away as all he saw were the colors of blue upon green. Then, it was over.

"Discharge your weapon."

He did, and watched as his father approached him. Luke did not know what to expect, and to his surprise, Anakin embraced his smaller frame with both arms. It was, he realized, what he had always imagined it would be like to hug his father, and he could not help but throw his own arms back around him. They hugged for some time before Anakin finally let go. He looked in his sons eyes, blue on blue.

"Now tell me son, do I seem like a Sith to you?"

"No," Luke replied without thinking. "Sith lightning...that's how you killed Palpatine. I looked it up on the holonets."

Anakin nodded. "That was just a small fraction of what I put Sidious through."

"How did you do it," Luke asked. "How can you just...dabble in the Dark Side like that?"

Anakin turned and paced the room. "Qui-Gon would have said because I am the Chosen One."

"The prophecy," Luke said. Leia had told him about their grandmother, and how they did not have a grandfather, not on Anakin's side at least.

"I don't know about that whole prophecy thing. All I know is that I'm different. I used to chafe against that thought. But it is what it is."

He closed his eyes, and Luke could feel the anguish emanating from his father. "We dueled for some time. With sabers. We were evenly matched, but he had decades of training on me, and I knew eventually I would slip, and he would take advantage. When Sidious lashed out at Padme, something inside me snapped. I had seen so much darkness, so much pain during the war. I myself had lost so many people important to me by then...I didn't think, I just...unleashed."

He opened his eyes and looked at Luke, but they were not the eyes of the powerful man that Luke had gotten to know, but a scared child.

"It was a rush that I could never describe...all that darkness pouring out of me. At some point, I just...stepped aside. The Force was with me, and I connected with it. I didn't create any new dark feelings...I just let all the darkness in the Galaxy that already existed, that Sidious had caused, and I channeled that energy, that torture, that anguish, back at him...the entire weight of the universe."

"So that's the answer?" Had Masters Yoda and Obi-Wan lied to him? It wasn't impossible, he realized. They had been more than willing to lie about his father. "You can use the Dark Side as long as you channel it from outside yourself?"

Anakin laughed. "No. Not by far. If anything, the temptation is even more. You see, you feel so much power coming through you, so much more power than just your own, the power of billions of tormented souls...it was so easy to be caught up in the wave...to be absorbed by it. To join, merge with it."

He reached out his hand, palm lifted up, and moved his fingers tentatively as if milking an angry bantha. "And trust me, I succumbed. I kept up the attack on Sidious, and I controlled it carefully, enough so that I would inflict the most pain, but holding back just so much as to keep him alive. And I did that for, I don't know. I lost track of time; you can watch the holonet footage if you want. I never did. Eventually, his own flesh started burning, and yet I continued until...until there was nothing left."

"You did this in front of the entire Senate," Luke said quietly, mouth gaped open. Vague images flashed in his mind, but he had no urge to delve into them further. "No wonder afterwards, they did anything you asked."

"But you saved me," Anakin said, staring at his son with a sense of shock as if he were a miracle, too good to be true. "You and Leia."

"How is that possible? We were dead...weren't we?"

Anakin nodded. "When you died, I was in agony. I blamed the Separatists, I blamed the war...but mainly, I blamed myself. For not preventing the attack, for not foreseeing it, for not reaching you in time. I tormented myself even as I killed the villainess responsible. Then your mother and I went to Naboo, for your funeral."

"Varykino," he whispered unconsciously, thinking back to the disquieting sight of seeing and sitting beside his own grave.

"It difficult at that time between your mother and I. We were both coping...separately, neither one of us ready to face what had happened, together. Padme had her family, but I had no one."

It was hard to imagine, Luke thought, his parents not functioning as one. He had never seen two people so attached, conjoined to each other, not even he and his own sister.

"The morning before I was due to fly back into battle, I sat by your burial sites. I was determined to end the war right then, and I needed to clear my head. So I meditated. I was never much good at meditation; things often got...too intense, when I turned too far inward. So I just concentrated on the little things. The blades of grass around me. The fish. The birds. The trees."

"Like you taught me and Leia."

"Like I did. I had been trying to find you through the Force. I was sure that we had this special connection, strong as you both were in the Force, that you could not be gone forever. That somewhere, your souls were still out there. I hoped that you and your sister were watching over me, and Padme. I stood by your graves every day, trying to make that connection...but nothing happened."

He was pacing the room now, visibly agitated, and Luke wondered if he needed to step forward and hold him to calm him down.

"But when I finally stopped trying so hard, and just concentrated on the Living Force...I relaxed. I did not try to bend the Force to my will, but I just focused on what was there, what was now...and I sensed you."

His father was smiling now, his expression radiating so much light so as to be contagious.

"You and Leia. You were everywhere...in the skies, in the stars, the air, the water. The grass, the flowers, the shaaks, the field. Everywhere, I felt your presences. The Force sang with your songs, and do you know what it sang?"

Luke shook his head. "No."

"Love. Overwhelming. Unconditional. Love. Love that did not hate, love that did not need, love that did not judge. Because you were one with the Force, and the Force does not judge. You were gone, but I realized you never left us, you and your sister. You were always there, and you never stopped loving us. Even though you had been too young to understand much else. Even though I failed you. Your mother saw me crying for hours by your grave sites that day, but I was crying tears of, I wouldn't call it happiness, but...relief. I saw what I had to do to end the war that day, and I never had trouble meditating since."

"The Dark Side...our souls...or whatever we had become. We pulled you from it."

"I felt your essences there too, in the Senate Chamber. And every moment I attacked Sidious, caused him pain...tortured him...I clung to your presences through the Force like a lifeline. Like an anchor through the storm. And even as the darkness threatened to drown me, you did not hate me for what I was doing, you didn't fear me. You just loved. And accepted."

His father took a deep breath, as though he had not breathed for the entire duration of his story.

"When the deed was done, I followed you like a beacon and hung on until the darkness faded. I came to, I saw Padme, I saw the politicians watching in shock, and fear, and awe. Then I did what I thought was necessary."

His father turned to one side and collapsed to his knees. Luke rushed forward to catch him, but Anakin merely held out his hand to indicate that he was fine.

"I'm so weak, Luke. Your sacrifice, you and your sister's, saved me from damnation. And what your mother sacrificed for me, continues to sacrifice for me...a billion lifetimes and I can't thank her enough for it."

"The Empire. She made the Empire for you." He and Han had listened to Leia ramble and talk herself in circles for hours, trying to figure out why Padme Amidala would betray the Republic. Now he knew.

Anakin looked at him, eyes bearing the intensest gratitude and shame. "Everything she stood for, her friends, her party, her legacy, she threw it all away for me. She took on the burdens of the galaxy, and the darkness that comes with it, so I didn't have to."

"Why would she need to do that," Luke asked, understanding and yet even more confused than before. "What does an Empire have to do with..."

"The Jedi," he said, though with no trace of bitterness. "They taught you well enough, haven't they? That once you choose the Dark Side, there is no return."

"No," Luke said, not sure what he believed anymore. Wasn't this his father standing, or rather, kneeling before him, tangible proof that Yoda had been wrong?

"They would have never left me alone. Part of me does not even blame them. I'm not the first Jedi to use the Dark Side, nor the last. Some have come back, but most did not. For their own Chosen One to have embraced the darkness so wholly, even for a short time...I myself would not believe it had I not lived it."

"But why didn't they understand that you could, because you were different? Because you were the Chosen One?"

"And overturn what their Order had taught for a thousand years, and tempt every Padawan to experiment and dabble with frying and choking each other?"

He returned to his feet. "I don't envy the decision Yoda had to make, even though he would have condemned me to a lifetime of exile, or glorified bondage. Though I doubt he would have ruminated that much over it. Most of them would believe the prophecy belonged to the Jedi only. If the Chosen One does not embody the Order, the Code, then the prophecy lies unfulfilled."

Pulling out his lightsaber, he examined the weapon, rolling it around playfully in his synthetic hand. "The Sith had to die, but nothing comes free. Someone had to make the sacrifice for their destruction. Perhaps it was meant to be the Chosen One...that was his purpose from the moment he came into existence. Instead, his own family took his place."

"It's been ten years now," Luke said. "Surely the Jedi see that you haven't turned, that you're still good. Why not tell them the truth? Tell them what you told me? You have friends there, you said it yourself! Maybe they wouldn't have believed you then, but they should by now. Tell the entire Galaxy your story..."

"What then," Anakin asked abruptly. "All power stems from a founding myth, and from there, is born legitimacy. What would happen if we told trillions of sentients that everything that have come to know, that the very foundation of their government's political legitimacy, was built on a lie? That their revered Empress destroyed a thousand year old Republic for the sake of one man?"

"But she did it out of love," Luke protested.

"Love is many wonderful things, but in politics, in power, it has no place. I may have returned from the Dark Side, but once we embarked upon the path of Empire, when we reshaped the entire Galaxy for our own selfish purposes, there could be no turning back. Not without destroying the stability of everything we built, and forever tarnishing your mother's name, the reputation she's earned over the years as a great ruler and the founder of a dynasty. And that...that is something I will never allow to happen. Not after everything she's done for me."

"Maybe the two of you deserve it," Luke pondered out loud. "You did kill Sidious. You can't imagine how many lives, how many worlds, you saved by doing that. And the Empire seems to work alright. It's not fair that after everything you did..."

"You don't have to make excuses for us, Luke. Face it. We were selfish; we took when it was our duty to sacrifice. Padme and I were meant for each other, I have no doubt to that from the moment I first saw her, but...sometimes...I don't think the two of us were ever meant to have a happy ending. Together. But we bucked destiny, and we do try to make the best of it. Yes, it's not all that bad for the Galaxy, and certainly not for us, but...both of us still have to live with the consequences of our choices. Your mother much more so than I."

"Leia should know," Luke muttered. "She would understand, it would make her rethink..."

"No," Anakin responded sharply. "You can't tell anyone. Not Han, not Obi-Wan. Especially not your sister. It's not that I don't trust her but, being so ingrained in her upbringing and experiences...she's not ready yet. This secret must stay between us."

"I understand," Luke said. They left the sparring room and walked slowly down the hallways, father and son, side by side, in silence, the passing officers and Clones knowing well enough to let them be. They arrived at Han's quarters, where Luke meant to console his friend.

"Where are we now," he asked before knocking. "These essences of the other us that you felt? Are they still present? I tried to feel something, feel for some other sense of self, when we were meditating on Naboo, and I felt nothing.

Anakin smiled. "Of course you felt nothing. They are you now, from the moment you entered this universe. How do you think I knew where to find you so quickly? I search for the two of you every morning I wake up, and cling to it through everything I have to do. When it changed, to something tangible...impossible as it is...I just knew."

"Oh," was all Luke could say.

"I hold nothing against Leia for her actions. Even if the both of you went to join the rebellion, it wouldn't matter. The love is still there. I'll always remember that quiet morning on Naboo, the smell of the leaves and the dew upon the grass, when I discovered the true nature of love from my two dead children, and how that moment freed me."

His mother was, as usual, busy with work, hunched over a set of datapads on one side of her desk, watching a holorecording of Mina Bonteri reporting on the cleanup efforts in Mandalore on the other.

She set both down when she Luke enter the room, and turned to look expectantly at him.

"I'm sorry for my outburst earlier."

"There's no need to apologize, Luke. You and your sister have taken separate paths long before we knew of each other's existence. It was bound to come up eventually."

"Still, I shouldn't have raised my voice like that."

"It was hardly a tantrum, trust me. You stood up for what you believed in. I'm proud of you for that." She glimpsed sadly at her own hands, worn from years of work. "Your father said he told you everything."

"He did," Luke said calmly.

"When I took the name Vader, I did so out of spite, I think. To spite the Sith that tormented me with those visions, to spite him for what he tried to do to my Ani, and to throw his failure in his face, even though he was dead. And to spite the Jedi as well, for their willful ignorance."

She rose and walked up to her son, standing nearly eye level with him. "It was a concept, an idea, not a tangible thing. But now, I see what that word means to the two of you...the actual harm it wrought in your world...I can't change it now. But I do regret it somewhat. And I'm sorry that it continues to bring up those awful memories for you."

"It was nothing you did, and you could have never known."

"I've done plenty, Luke," she said, sitting down upon a small couch. "Some things I will never apologize for. Other things I regret. I know that on certain topics we'll never agree, but for me to ever hurt you or Leia...I would never forgive myself."

"I never imagined that I would ever get a chance to meet my parents," Luke said, falling onto the couch next to his mother. "These last few weeks here...this is unlike anything I could have imagined, this whole," he swung his hand through the air, "Empire thing. But you, and Anakin, the two of you are everything I dreamed of when I was sitting on that barren rock, or freezing to death in some cave on Hoth."

Padme looked at her son sadly. She could already seen the lines on his young face forming; he had had to grow up so quick, and in his eyes she saw the wisdom of a much older man. "You've already decided."

He looked away.

"I don't need the Force to know."

Luke didn't respond, but rested his head on his mother's shoulder, and he just enjoyed the warmth and comfort of her presence as she wrapped her arms around him.

Chapter Text

Some had begged for their lives, crying even, if their species were capable of tears. Nute Gunray had been one of the ones who had begged the loudest, and it was his death she enjoyed the most, as she shut for the last time that painful chapter of her life. Some prayed, and Padme wondered how sincere their newfound religiosity was, considering their actions and their crimes would be considered blasphemy in most sects. Some stared at her in defiance, daring her to shoot as if she didn't have the right, yet she matched their defiance and then some. Some looked sadly, upwards at her, or downwards at the silver veneer of the platform upon the Senate plaza, and Padme wondered what they were thinking in those last seconds before their deaths? Family, perhaps? Loved ones? Even some villains were capable of love, and it was these faces that haunted her the most. Some, like Clovis, did not reveal their emotions, though Padme thought she saw glimpses of resignation intermingled with hope in his eyes. For the worst of them like Mas Amedda, their expressions were blank, their minds likely already long gone from what Anakin had inflicted upon them. He had worked on Gunray too, but somehow, after everything he was put through, the Neimoidian never lost his inner cowardice. There was almost something to admire in that, she thought. Almost.

When the long ritual was over, she was escorted by her husband to their official transport, and they sat silently as it carried them back to her apartment. They walked calmly into the lounge, where she was greeted by one of her handmaidens.

"Threepio. Close the blinds please. Dorme, you may take the day off."

As soon as the blinding flashes from the holonet reporters faded behind the curtains, she took off the black dress that she had worn for the executions. It had baked her miserably under the mid-day sun, but the color of her dress also helped camouflage the blood. It was at least loose, so that not only did it not suffocate her in the heat, it also kept her body from feeling the moisture from stains that accumulated through the execution. Handing the dress over to her husband, she took off the rest of her undergarments. She was too tired to feel shyness.

"Burn them," she said. Anakin dutifully scooped up the rest of her clothes, and she marched as quickly as she could to the 'fresher. The pulsing water in the shower helped hide her tears, and as she cleansed herself, she allowed herself the brief respite of not thinking at all, feeling nothing but the near-scalding stream raining down upon her body. She cried less now, she realized, less than she would have thought.

He was waiting outside for her afterwards, new clothes for her in his lap. It was one of her favorites, a modest green silk gown she had brought from Naboo.

"It had to be done," she said, pulling the dress over her body.

"Of course it did," Anakin replied, handing her her socks and shoes.

"The system is beyond broken." Taking her hairbrush with her, Padme walked up to the full length mirror in her bedroom, staring absently at the sight of her own hair billowing down upon gown she now wore. "No amount of committees or increments or compromises could have fixed it. Mere complicity is no excuse; the Republic died not because of one person, but because of their concerted efforts to debase the dignity and values of what they claimed to uphold."

"You don't have to justify needed to be done, especially not to me. Though you could have easily asked me to do the work. Or the clones."

"You wouldn't understand. It's politics, and...," she hesitated, "I must see it through. I passed the sentence. For the sake of my position, and for the sake of..."

Her husband appeared in the mirror behind her. He gently pried the brush from her hand, and calmed traced it down through her hair. "Talk to me, Padme. Really, talk to me. Let me in. What you just had to do...was difficult. What do you need?"

She could hear the guilt in her husband's voice, echoing her own. "I always lived for duty; it's guided me all my life. But can I still claim this as duty, wear it as my cloak, when I've abandoned my duty so completely? What makes me any different than those I just executed?"

"What makes you different? That fact that you question yourself now. You are your own harshest critic. None of those who died today could claim that."

"I liked it, Anakin," she exclaimed suddenly, urgency in her voice. "Force I liked it. I've sat powerless for so long, watching these...scum...take advantage of the galaxy. Watched them reap for themselves, lie to us and gloat that they can do so without repercussions, either because they thought we were dumb enough to believe them, or because we were too powerless to matter. They didn't smile much today, did they?"

She raised her right hand and palmed the mirror. "I had the power to wipe those smug smiles off their faces. You don't know how often I've fantasized about taking one of your lightsabers and ramming it through Amedda's arrogant lethorns, and I've dreamed of slaughtering Gunray for far longer. But those were just fantasies. Yet, today...I did it. And I liked it. Just as much as I feared I would."

She studied her own reflection. She was still young, she realized, and that scared her. She had long felt prematurely aged in mind and soul, the consequences of losing her childhood so long ago to her career, and through all the trials that followed, she would have expected to see the reflection of an old woman, not one who was young enough to still be attending University on some planets. Fifteen years had seen her transform from an idealistic child, to a wife and, too briefly, a mother. Today she stood as an Empress with blood on her hands, and she feared what the coming years would bring.

"A thousand years of Sith lords aspired to be in the position I am in now," she said, looking longingly at her husband, pleading for his condemnation. He did not oblige her.

"Then use your position to spite the legacy of the Sith. Will you answer me honestly, if I ask you a question?" His voice was soft, weak even. She studied his face through the mirror.

She wanted to say 'of course', but Padme knew that her husband would not ask for honesty if it were an easy question. So she just nodded.

"Did you like being a Senator?"

Padme frowned. This was not expected. "I did. I think I did. I spoke for what I believed in. I did my best."

"You did," Anakin concluded easily. "What about Queen? Did you enjoy that?"

She paused longer before speaking. "No. I don't think so. There were good moments, but..."

"But you poured your soul into both, did you not? Whether as Queen or Senator, you did your duty. You did what you thought was right."

"I was responsible for so much as Queen. And there was the Trade Federation. I don't think I ever recovered from that."

"You did. In the eyes of your planet, you did. You brought about an era of peace, and you were loved by the time you left. Yet you couldn't wait to leave."

"No," Padme closed her eyes. "It was a chore those last years. When they tried to amend the constitution, there were nights when I couldn't sleep."

"You were helpless as a Senator though. You fought mostly losing battles. Even when you won, you lost, with Palpatine pulling the strings. Why do you now look back so fondly on that time?"

Her shoulders slumped. She loved her husband, but this was new. He had never challenged her like this before, and she never expected him to out-debate her, to leave her without answers. "I'd say something about being part of the democratic process, and appreciating it and all that...but that would make me a hypocrite, wouldn't it?"

"I think part of you likes being powerless," Anakin said calmly, "because you fear power. You fear yourself, that you would enjoy power too much. So you weigh it down, treat it as a burden, buffer it with the idea of duty."

"As I should," she protested. "That is how tyrants are born. When they treat power as their birthright rather as a privilege."

He pressed his hands on both her shoulders, rubbing his fingers into him somehow with the same pressure between his flesh hand and his prosthetic. "I'm not saying you should go full Sidious. But do you believe you did the right thing today?"

"I don't know. I did what I had to do for the sake of the Empire. But whether it was right..."

"Is the Galaxy better off with Amedda and Gunray and their ilk dead?"

"Yes," she finally answered, exhaling deeply.

"But you don't allow yourself to rejoice, because to you, it's not just them dying. It's about how you gain personally from their deaths as well."

"No. Even if I didn't pull the trigger, if I just signed the order and then retired immediately...this would clearly still weigh on me."

"Because you have a conscience. But part of you would still revel in signing Nute's death warrant. Part of you might even wish to carry it out yourself."

She nodded, not wanting to answer.

"I'm not asking you to lose your conscience Padme; that is the spine of your soul, and I love you for that. I just don't want you to deny yourself, and hurt yourself when you don't have to. You can be selfish, and still carry out your duty at the same time. You can do the right thing, and still enjoy it."

His hands returned to her hair, and she looked at the reflection of her husband in a new light. His figure was still imposing, the scar over his eye still menacing, but his eyes were now timid in a way they never had been. In the day he still stalked around the capitol, striking even more fear and awe than before as he carried out her orders, commanding his army as well as overseeing the many corruption probes. But when he was home, when he could truly be himself, he seemed aimless, doing nothing but wait on her endless, as if he were her handmaiden instead of her husband.

She wondered about the prophecy. If it were true, then he had done his part; he had balanced the Force when he destroyed Sidious. He had done his duty to the Galaxy too, ending the Clone Wars. As she felt his fingers through her hair, earnestly braiding and tying it into her one of her official headdresses, she remembered how young he was as well, younger than her, she kept reminding herself. If he were a figure of prophecy as Qui-Gon had claimed, what there was left for him now that he had fulfilled it, with an entire lifetime ahead of him?

"It's easy for me to believe that now. And for there to even be truth in it. But I'm the Empress now. Who will stop me if I cross that line while acting on my own impulses?"

She felt his hands stop, fingers still entwined in her hair. "I'll speak up. When you are out of line, I will let you know."

"Ha!" Despite the seriousness of their conversation, she could not help herself from bursting out in laughter. "Anakin Skywalker! You're the biggest flunkey I have! You would aspire to be my own personal Amedda, except much much worse."

He shrugged, and resumed braiding her hair. "You did the unthinkable for me, Angel. To protect me. To save me. All I want to do is to help you torture yourself less for doing so."

"Have you had a chance to review my speech," she asked, suddenly eager to change the subject.

"I have," Anakin said. "It was good, but..."

"You can be honest with me." A cruel smirk appeared on her lips. "Full immunity. I won't treat you like I did Gunray."

"I'd feed myself to a rancor before that." Anakin laughed as well. "I liked it. That's the problem...I liked to a bit too much for your tastes, I think. It doesn't sound like something Amidala would write."

"There's more than just one speech that the young Amidala would frown upon," Padme said, absorbing her husband's words. "I miss her," she said quietly afterward, more to herself than to Anakin.

"I fell in love with Padme, not Amidala. That's who I swore my life to, who I'll love and whom I'll follow, whatever title she chooses to bestow upon herself."

"They've gotten used to dropping 'Senator', but some of them still call me that." She had officially adopted her husband's name after the revelation of her marriage, but for expediency had never bothered to change her official Senatorial title. "Mon and her faction, they wield the word at me as an insult."

"Let them say what they want then. What truth is there in a name?"

"What truth is there in power?  It's a precarious thing, isn't it? So fleeting at its best, so distasteful at its worst."

"I was a slave. All I knew of power at first was that it was something others had. Over me. Over my mother."

"Now power has become you."

"It's yours, love. I've had my power. Power over the army...power over the Republic. Power over the Force." He made a face. "Yet what did all of that matter, if I didn't have power over my own fate?"

The war and the Sith were not the only duties her husband had fulfilled. He had always joked around about how she ought to be the 'Supreme Queen' of the Republic, especially when she was venting over a particularly agonizing day in the Senate. Now that had come true as well.

"But yes, I recognize the irony right now. I have my freedom, and you lose yours."

"It was my choice, Anakin. You set it up so I could have a choice, and I chose you. I chose us. I would have chosen us even if it made us paupers. That it landed us here..."

By making the choice she did, Padme realized that she had rendered her husband's place in the galaxy complete. What else did he have to pursue in life, besides to protect her and her position? Maybe, she hoped, with all the burdens of the world off his shoulders, he could start to discover himself.

"When I shot them, I thought about all the bodies and mass graves on Naboo after the war, all the missing fathers and mothers and children who were never identified. I thought about Luke and Leia, about how I'll never see the sparkle in their eyes again, or hear the sound of their laughter. I thought about you, how both Jedi and Sith tried to lay claim to you, though they have no right. Because only I have that right."

"I like it," she relented. "I like not having to rely on others for justice. I like not having to wait to see the right thing done. I don't miss the frustration of helplessness when the reprehensible happens, and having known all along it was inevitable despite my best efforts. But I fear that as the years go on, my ideas of justice will change, as they have already changed so much. I fear what I will eventually ask you to do on my behalf, in my name. I fear this word dynasty, of what it could do to my family. And I fear for Ryoo and Pooja...what kind of Empire I will hand over to them down the road."

"The Jedi say fear leads to the Dark Side, but not knowing your own fears is just as harmful, I think. You're right. I probably won't challenge you much, especially not in politics. But that's because I trust you. You should learn to trust yourself more, too." He bent down, and she watched him kiss her gently on one ear. "But hold on to Amidala, even if she hates you. Don't let her torment you with guilt, but don't let her die either."

He finished, having wrapped her hair into several bows and buns around her ceremonial headdress. It was not as well done as Dorme's or Motee's works, but it would do, she decided. A part of her mind told her that, after the day's events, it might behoove her to look a bit more disheveled when delivering her address.

"Do you think we'll ever get the chance to just be normal again?"

"I don't think we ever had that chance to begin with. But we've already come so far. I wouldn't bet against us."

"Kriff, they found us."

Leia was not accustomed to swearing in front of her father. Nor was she all that surprised when the silhouette of the Naberrian appeared over Endor not long after they had, not with three of the Galaxy's three best pilots onboard. What mattered was that they would not dare to shoot the ship down with her onboard with Bail, and that from now on, she was in charge of any negotiations going forth.

She answered the incoming signal. It was Luke, as she expected, her demeanor already defensive.

"I won't surrender him, Luke." Her brother's eyes were tranquil, yet sad. Her heart screamed, and she ignored it.

"They don't expect you to. They just want to talk."

"Enough words have been exchanged. I only care about consequences now."

"Father knew, Leia. He let it happen."

Her heart startled, and yet she should have known. In truth, a part of her did know. But she had to keep her front. "What does he intend to do then?"

"They've guaranteed the Chancellor's safety, as long as we are here. Just land on planet, Leia. We'll join you. No Clones, no troops. Just our family. And Han."

She couldn't help but grimace at the sound of his name. "Hardly a guarantee, Luke. We all know how dangerous Anakin can be."

"If you don't trust them, then trust me, Leia. I promise you, on my life. On my word." Her brother's words rang so sincere, the truth so set in stone. It reminded her of how calm he had been in Jabba's palace, when the odds were stacked against them and yet he had no doubts they would prevail. How she had known that fact as well merely seconds after seeing him walk into the throne room.

"Fine," she said, gritting her teeth. It wasn't like she had much of a choice anyway. This was not her universe, not her life. She had no allies, no connections, no friends. All she had now, Leia realized, were the bonds between herself and a family she had never known, and the hope that those bonds were stronger than she would hope to admit.

"You don't have to do this for me," Bail said quietly after the transmission ended. "I made my choices, and I will face them as I should have long ago."

"I'm not doing this for you," Leia said softly but curtly. She turned away from the now former Chancellor and directed her attention at locating the shuttle they had left behind on the moon.

As it began, so it would end on Endor, Leia reminisced. The ancient trees stood over them as before, oblivious to all that had transpired in the weeks between. She had never noticed the trees before, having had more urgent thoughts on her mind the last time she was here. They dwarfed her, she saw now, more than most trees did. They were alive too, the Force singing to her from every corner of this small moon. There was more to this place than she had first realized, and the Force whispered her to pay heed to the here and now. On this world, and in the other.

A small shuttle landed on the other side of the clearing. Luke emerged from it first. The sun blinded her from seeing clearly his face, but she sensed he was serene as usual, but also sad, though she could not discern why. She trusted that he had not lied to her, and that he would have been wise enough to know if their parents were misleading him. She stepped anxiously off the shuttle and down the ramp, leaving Bail inside for the time being, and walked into the meadow to meet her brother. Before she had a chance, however, a second figure burst out and ran towards her, passing Luke as he did so.

"Han!"

He stopped short of her. She saw that he wanted to embrace her, but he couldn't bring himself to do so. She cringed when she recognized the hurt in his eyes, and the anger. She didn't want to face him, but she did. "I'm sorry Han. I didn't want this. I don't know what to say."

"How about why, princess?" Luke walked up behind him, and put his hand onto Han's shoulder, looking at both of them with understanding. Han flinched when he touched him, but he was too preoccupied with Leia to brush him off. "Okay, so maybe you got tired of me, who knows? But you left your own brother behind too!"

"You wouldn't understand," she said, trying to withhold her emotions from her voice. "You belong here. You have a place here. It'll be better for you."

"What?" His expression betrayed shock and horror. "No! What would make you think I'd rather stay here, without you? You didn't even ask..."

"You can't come, Han. It's better for everyone. For the Galaxy."

Leia's voice trailed off, and Han looked over to Luke in confusion. It was his sister after all, and nothing she was saying was making sense, yet Luke seemed wearily passive about the whole situation.

"It's okay Han," Luke said in a tone that clearly told his friend let me handle this. He took one step closer to his sister. "Leia. You should stay."

"I can't...," she said weakly, not able to bring herself to confront the two people still alive that meant the most to her.

"The future is always in motion. Nothing is set, and we alone should not be so arrogant as to think we can singlehandedly interpret or change what the Force intends."

"What are you two talking about," Han looked at Luke, befuddled. He was expecting the young man to plead for the sake of family, or reason, or love. Not this Force mumbo-jumbo again, though he knew well now that it was much more than trickery. Luke only looked at Leia expectantly, silently willing her to explain.

"Remember what Master Yoda said to us at the Temple?"

"The little green thing?" Han rolled his eyes, searching his memory. The arrogant little Jedi had only given the two of them a glance before walking away. Even Darth Vader had paid him more respect than that. "Something about us being mostly cloudy? I had no clue what he was talking about."

"Anakin had sensed the same thing. When he sensed our future."

"Back on Coruscant? He said we would kick the Empire's ass, didn't he?"

"There's more. I didn't want to believe it then, but I haven't been able to get it out of my head. Master Yoda's words only confirmed it." She sighed, taking a deep breath. "I've inherited my father's powers, same as my brother."

Han nodded, waiting for her to go on. This was clearly no surprise to him, but as much as he wanted to comment, he knew he needed to let her continue, lest she change her mind and never speak to him the truth.

"Our child will be strong in the Force as well. But they will fall."

"What do you mean, fall," Han said, trying to put the pieces together in his head. "You mean...like Vader? Our child will become..."

"Or worse. I don't know." Her fears spoken, she could not help herself as she collapsed forward onto Han, resting her head into his chest to hide the tears that were starting to flow. And despite his anger at her, for not telling him, for not trusting him, he could not help but put his arms around her in return.

"He was lying to you, princess. He never liked me. He wants to drive us apart."

"You're both wrong," Luke's voice interrupted both of them. "Father was not trying to scare Leia off you. He saw a future, and he could not withhold that knowledge from his own daughter."

Han shook his head in disbelief, his friend having turned against him.

"But it's only one possible future, Leia. And you told me yourself, it happens after we defeat Palpatine. In a different world."

"Leia," he pressed further. "Father turned in our world. He didn't turn here. It wasn't inevitable. Nothing is."

It was Leia's turn to shake her head. "The power is still there, regardless of worlds. The potential is there. Even Master Yoda can sense it. I can't risk...I can't subject the Galaxy to this. Not again. Not once."

Luke walked up to the couple and placed one hand on each of their backs. "That's why you should stay. Things are different. The Jedi Order still stands. Obi-Wan's alive. They won't let your children fall to the Dark Side. Neither will Anakin."

Still holding her head close enough that she could hear the furious thumping of his heart, Leia dared to look at her brother. "Do you really believe that?"

"He understands the darkness better than anyone, Leia. He doesn't deny it, but accepts it, and lives with it every day, unlike any Jedi in this world or ours. I know you don't trust him, not after all that Vader's done, but I want you to trust me when I say that...I don't believe there is anyone who can better safeguard your child, should you choose to have one." Her brother's smile could have warmed her heart, were it not already consoled by Han's embrace. "Don't lose hope, Leia. Believe in Han. Believe in your family, yourself, your future."

"And don't you...ever...pull...something...like...that...again," Han said furiously, though he knew that he was no longer mad at Leia anymore. Not that he had been truly angry in the first place. Just hurt, and scared. "We're a team now, remember? Whatever decisions we make, we make together. You trust me enough for that, don't you?"

"I do," Leia said, smiling at Han and her brother. "I'm sorry. To both of you."

"It's okay," Luke said, his tone more solemn than she expected. "You didn't mean to hurt us. You're my sister. It took us long enough to find each other, to find our family in these...galaxies. Let's not cloud what time we have together with recriminations and hurt feelings."

"...what time we have together...," Leia blinked. She had been so nervous about Bail, so conflicted about Han, that she had not bothered to see her brother, to really see him. This should have been a happy moment, and yet his eyes were infinitely sad.

"Luke," she said, pushing herself away from Han slightly, "why are you looking at me...looking at us like that?"

His smile made her even more apprehensive. "You were right. Someone does have to go back."

Han recoiled as well. "For him? You don't even know him. Neither one of you do, really. And you said so yourself...they don't want to kill him. Maybe they'll just let him...run off the Jakku or something."

"Maybe. But the Force has given him another chance. It's a gift, don't you see?"

She didn't see. She had herself thought the same thing mere minutes ago, but she didn't see that now. Not when the price was her own brother, despite how she had been ready to leave him just before. It was different, the thought of Luke leaving her, leaving them, somehow felt worse. At least she had Bail, and he would have Han, his parents, even his aunt and uncle on Tatooine, Obi-Wan, the Jedi, several different ideologies that he was clearly much more ready to accept than she. But for him to leave them all with nothing but a stranger in tow...

"But this isn't for Bail, Leia. This is for me. It's for Anakin Skywalker, the one out there who still needs us...needs me more than ever. For the galaxy, our Galaxy...this is what I was meant to do."

"It's your duty," Leia mouthed back, understanding all too well.

"For the Jedi. For democracy. For decency, and peace." He looked back to the shuttle Leia had absconded with. "I'll miss you. Our Galaxy will miss you. But neither one of us can think of a wiser and better person to rebuild it with, short of yourself."

She clenched her nose tightly, sniffling. He was right, he knew. His arguments were hers, had he tried to talk her out of leaving. And so he had, but the price was so steep for both of them. For everyone. She looked over to the other ship, sensing the anxious presences of her blood parents aboard.

"They know?"

"They know." Luke pulled away from them, meaning to walk back to the transport he had arrived in. "Tell Bail to give us some time. No harm will come to him. Let's just have a few hours to spend together, as a family."

The way in which he uttered that last word broke her heart.

"Are you going to go after Mon now," Luke asked. His mind was already transitioning back to the mission he had been on before any of this happened. As he recalled the older woman's words, briefing them on their original mission back on Sullust, he thought about how, despite her association with Tarkin, there was something to respect about the fact that Mon Mothma had remained true to her path in both worlds.

Padme laughed. "I'll let her stew over the consequences of Mandalore and the loss of her fleet. She can keep chewing the grass on Dantooine for all I care."

"You know where she is? And she's still alive?" She should have known by now how her mother handled the Empire a bit differently than what she was used to, but these little things kept surprising her.

"Of course we do," Anakin said. "She's not the only one with spies."

"Mon would make the perfect martyr," Padme said, a tinge of bitterness in her voice. "I will not give her that satisfaction."

They walked as a family aimlessly through the trees, Han included, though this hike was much more bittersweet than the one on Naboo for obvious reasons. For a brief moment, Luke wondered whether it was better that the Jedi didn't believe in attachments, as it would make saying goodbye so much easier. But no, he wouldn't trade this sense of melancholy for all the riches in both galaxies if it would have robbed him of the time he had with his family.

He missed Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru of course, and lamented the fact that he would not have the opportunity to see them again on Tatooine, apparently long incorporated into the Empire. They were doing well, and even owned several moistrure farms now. He remembered of the small homestead he grew up on, when he had no one but the two of them, and no hope of a different life beyond the sand and heat and the occasional boisterous Jawa.

"Will it be Empress Leia next time I see you?"

Her sister snorted in a very un-princess like manner. "I'll let that stay on the Naberrie side of the family." She turned serious. "There will be a next time, won't there be? Luke?"

"Yeah kid. I know you gotta roast the Emperor and all that, but then what's the point of staying? Leave the politicians to do their politician things."

"Maybe," Luke said. He didn't know. "I'm not sure if that's how it all works. You know I'd love to come back to you guys, but something tells me I'm needed more over there."

"What does your heart tell you," Anakin asked.

"That I'll see you all again," Luke said after a considerable amount of thought.

"Then you will," his father concluded simply.

"Find my parents, when you're finished with all that...," she shrugged her hand in the air, at a loss if words, "rebellion nonsense. They must be so devastated, especially after all these years. You will be welcomed."

"I will," Luke said sincerely. "Now that I think about it, Naboo wouldn't be a bad place to restart the Jedi Order."

He saw a skeptical look from both his parents, but continued. "I never would have imagined that the Jedi would have been so entwined with politics. Even Master Windu said that in hindsight, some separation was not a bad thing."

"It is wise, to heed the lessons of this world and yours, but," his mother frowned, clearly trying to think of a diplomatic way to voice her thoughts, "I don't think that Naboo has the infrastructure to support something like that. Tatooine could work though?"

Both father and son shuddered at the thought.

"I'd rather Hoth. Less sand."

"Amen," Anakin scowled at his wife. "Some things you just don't joke about."

"Hmmpft," Padme frowned, crossing her arms. "Was it funny when you woke me up in the middle the night to tell me Theed was under attack from rogue Clones? Or when you reprogrammed Threepio to only speak Huttese right before my summit with the Hapans? Or when you told me that Obi-Wan had tragically passed away from an unfortunate incident with a herd of banthas? Or when..."

"Okay! We get your point. You don't have to keep embarrassing me in front of our grown children."

"I don't know, mother. I wouldn't mind hearing more." It felt good to laugh, to not have to spend all the final moments he had with his family in some form of bizarre, Force-induced mourning. "Father doesn't seem like the joking type."

"Oh he isn't. Except with me. And sometimes Obi-Wan. Lucky us."

"If your world exists, and our world exists," Luke said, looking up at the darkening sky now covered in magnificent hues of orange and pink, "I wonder if there's some world out there where there's no Jedi, no Sith, no Empire, no Rebellions. Just us. A normal family, living happily, arguing, joking around just like this. Just living."

"I don't think any of us were cut out to be normal," Padme said, still looking at Anakin with an evil grin. "But that was our dream, to raise you both on Naboo, away from everything."

"I don't know," Anakin said, holding his wife a bit tighter to his side. "But we can hope, can't we? I can't imagine Darth Vader would have been able to think something like this conceivable either."

"Neither did I," Luke said, almost to himself.

The glint of the shuttle ahead beneath the setting sun dampened all their moods, knowing their time had run its course. They saw a man walking in lone contemplation nearby, and upon seeing them, Bail turned to walk back into the ship that had been displaced out of time and space. He was stopped by the Empress's voice.

"Bail."

He was downcast when they approached him, but he nevertheless looked his old friends in their eyes. "I'm sorry, Padme. I never imagined they would go after your family."

"You were wronged too," Padme admitted. "Things did not work out for us. But don't hold that against my son."

"You know I won't. I'll take care of him."

"If you don't mind," Anakin said, gesturing at Luke. "We'd like some time..."

"Of course." He looked over at his daughter that never was, and nodded. "Leia. It's been a pleasure getting to know you. I wish we had more time."

"Me too," Leia said, smiling warmly, knowing this would be the closest she would ever get for closure with the man who had raised her. "Tell Mon she still owes Han that raise."

"Damn right."

As Bail left, they heard a whistle and a chirp as R2 rolled across the forest floor.

"Artoo! I was worried you wouldn't make it in time." Anakin half ran to the droid, who opened a small panel to hand him a small bag. He took it and, beaming, walked over towards Luke.

"I want you to have this."

Luke could tell from the outline of the bag that it contained numerous holocrons. Of what, he could only guess. Ancient Jedi knowledge? Ancient Sith knowledge? Footage of Imperial propaganda and the Empress's speeches?

His father pulled out several of them, showing them to his son with almost a sense of pride. "Death Hunters, seasons one through ten."

"Oh."

"Trust me, it'll make hyperspace pass a lot quicker." He rummaged through the bag and further examined the contents. "Oh, here's The Falleen Wire. That's partially based on when Ahsoka took down the Black Sun. And ooo, Game of Counts!"

"Game of Counts?"

"It's a good show. It's about these noble houses on Serenno, how they jockey around for power."

"Oh," Han's eyes lit up in recognition. "That's the one with the Krayt Dragons, right?"

"Trust me," Anakin said to his puzzled son. "It does actually makes sense."

He pulled out one last holocron to show Luke. "Flipping Tatooine. There was a real estate boom about four years ago."

"On that dust ball?"

"You'd be surprised what happens when you remove the Hutt presence," Padme said.

"Anyway," Anakin continued, "they have these people who go over there and remodel or rebuild a lot of the hovels and homesteads. Even Owen and Beru got in on a few episodes."

"Huh. I guess that would interesting to see."

They all exchanged extended hugs with the prodigal son, Han barely avoiding saying something about kicking Vader's ass when he returned.

"I'll miss you guys," Luke said, holding back his tears. He rarely cried, and it wasn't that he had anything against crying, but for some reason he didn't want his sister to see him doing that. "I miss you all already."

"Remember Luke," Anakin said, patting him on the shoulder. "It's about love. I'd tell you to avoid all the pitfalls that can lead to the Dark Side, but you already know that. But sometimes it's easier said than done. When that time comes, remember the ones you love, and hold on to them."

"I will dad. I won't ever forget any of you." They hugged one last time. "May the Force be with you."

"I wish you good fortune in your wars to come."

As he walked back to the ship, Luke couldn't help himself from looking back at his family every so often, trying to memorize everything about the way they looked, the way they felt. Even as he plotted their return coordinates, he kept gazing out the viewport, occasionally waving at them until they disappeared out of view.

Chapter Text

"May those who dare defy the Gods never find peace" - Ancient Naboo proverb

Flames billowed up through the tall trees of Endor. Several, high in the outposts above, rang with the sounds of laughter, and celebration, and freedom. One fire on the forest floor burned differently. It cackled unnaturally, sending sparks flying in all directions and releasing the ashes into the clean night air, and tended to by a solitary figure.

Luke Skywalker watched his father burn, and never felt more alone. He had his friends, that was true, Wedge and Wes and Lando and all the other rebel brethren he had fought in the trenches with for the last three years. They were currently drinking and singing and cheering somewhere on the moon. Many had been elated by the ghost Luke had brought with him but for Luke, the people that mattered to him the most were missing. All the laughing seemed less jovial without Han, all the joy seemed empty without his own twin sister.

And there were his parents. He would never forget the eyes of his father, his real father, as they looked upon each other for the first and last time. Luke wept for the dying man whose final act had been a sacrifice, committed out of love for his family, and could not help but think of the other Anakin he had met. Where did one end and the other begin? He mourned Darth Vader, he mourned the man he could have been, and he hoped that in his final moments, his father had been able to glimpse into his thoughts and sense that, somewhere out there across time and space, there lived another Anakin Skywalker who was loved, who continued to love, who had found happiness, and strength, and peace within himself.

His last words, his last thoughts, had been directed towards his sister. He wanted Luke to tell her that he had been right, that Anakin Skywalker had not died, after all.

"She knows," he whispered to the fire before him, the silhouette of his father's helmet still imposing even as it burned. "She learns this as we speak, every single day. One day, she'll allow herself to love you as her own."

He missed them. He could return, the portal could still be there, if the Force allowed it. But he knew it was not his time. He had a Galaxy to heal, a Jedi Order to rebuild, and something told him there were many things he still needed to learn. Things about the Force, things about himself that, despite the wisdom of the Jedi and the Empire in the other world, he could only discover through adversity, through loneliness. One day, when this Galaxy was finished with him (and it would be, that was the way of things), he would go back. But not yet. Maybe not ever. He wondered if he was destined to be alone forever.

Maybe he could find love, find a woman he loved as much as his father loved Padme. But was that what he really wanted? Would love keep him anchored here? Would he have to sacrifice his family for love? Thoughts of his mother never left him. He missed her warmth, the kind, gentle, generous woman he saw beneath the sometimes cruel exterior she had to bear. He still did not know what had happened to her here, but sensed that it was unspeakably tragic. Perhaps it was fitting that she reigned supreme in another world, as if the Force wanted to balance the injustices done her here.

He remembered her words, to find her family here. That meant he had family too. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. They were his blood, just as much as Anakin or Padme or Leia. From what little time he spent with them, he knew he would be welcomed on Naboo with open arms, along with many generous bottles of wine. Perhaps he would not be so alone, as long as he didn't allow himself to be.

As the pyre died down, and all he could hear were the insects chirping around him, he turned to leave. A fleeting light danced out of the corner of his eye, and when he looked in its direction, he saw (sensed) the presence of old Ben Kenobi, his first master. His eyes seemed no longer so ancient, his smile no longer so sad, and the ghost beamed with pride, a brighter shade of the pride he had felt from him on Mandalore. He saw Master Yoda besides him, his face kind and understanding, eyes that knew him as a student who succeeded, rather than a stranger who might fail.

He smiled back at them. Their faith in him had not been misplaced, their time not wasted, their cause not lost. To Yoda's right, a new apparition appeared, and Luke knew who this was before he even saw him. He was younger, much younger, than the Anakin he had met. He sensed more pain, more conflict from him, and a deeper sense of shame and self-loathing that betrayed his amiable expression. He sensed her presence here as well, though he could not see her, he felt her love, and relief that things had turned out right in the end between her husband and son.

As he considered the different fathers he had known, and how they had all been one and the same, the uncertain young man, the powerful overlord, the doting husband, the patient father, the wise master without an Order, the tormented Sith, the redeemed soul, or hells, even the avid holoshow junkie, he barely caught a knowing wink from the now smirking ghost.

Yes, Luke realized. One day he would find his way home. One day, he would be reunited with the ones he loved most; not in death, but in life. The Force would provide.

The fallout from the Chancellor's betrayal was quickly replaced in the news by the sensational return of the Empress's grown daughter from the dead. Some questioned the news, the science, the motivations for such a grand and bizarre conspiracy, but most accepted the miracle as it was, having long grown used to the ways of Jedi, the Sith, as well as the one who stepped away from both (in most minds, there was little separation between them all). The Empire was trusted by most, so if the Empress said it was so, then it was.

Leia Skywalker took her place in the Senate shortly afterwards, her mother granting her an at-large seat. Her decision to take her biological father's name had not been easy, but it was, among other things, politically expedient. The name Organa held little capital after the scandals, and while she continued to visit Breha, it was as a friend and not a daughter. Besides, Leia reasoned, she had done her part for her own heritage...as much as she could in this Empire, for both worlds. Neverthless, Leia cried when Breha generously granted her use of the Royal Palace for her and Han's wedding ceremony; as lovely as Varykino was, this had only been one place she had always imagined herself getting married.

Change came quickly, as it always did. The Empress called for new elections after the mysterious disappearance of the longtime Chancellor, the Soft Imperialists sweeping the vote in immediate aftermath of the rebel atrocities on Mandalore. Leia joined the opposition of course, one of the few gains for the Soft Loyalists, Garm taking leadership of the party with Leia under his wing. The idea that daughter could speak against mother further bolstered the image of the Empire throughout the Galaxy. She could never fully embrace the idea, and certainly scoffed at any suggestion that she propose herself to succeed her mother, but Leia found herself content with her place in the Senate. One day she would lead; this everyone, including Garm, knew, and while she would never be Empress, most believed that she could eventually leave an even greater mark in history as a Chancellor and a diplomat.

The future moved ever aggressively at the expense of the present. Not long after the crisis and the new elections, Obi-Wan Kenobi stepped down from both the Imperial and Jedi Councils, relocating instead to Mandalore. He cited his wish to merely aide the Duchess in rebuilding her planet and keeping the peace, and nothing else, but most in the know knew better. He was replaced on the Council by Plo Koon, whose relationship with her parents, while cordial, remained amicably professional.

The Empress herself retired not much longer after that, less than two standard years after they last saw Luke, citing her longstanding wish to become a free woman before she turned forty. She was replaced by her older sister Sola who, as the new Empress Velana, promised an era of peace and understanding; it was commonly said that she only agreed to reign long enough for her daughters to prepare themselves for the throne, and while her unstated impermanence would have hurt her politically in most circumstances, her faithful Chancellor and fellow Naboo Eirtae Karryne saw to it that the new Empress, as she did the last, further consolidated power within the parameters of the law, though, Leia often grumbled, that woman was all too skilled at stretching the law for her purposes. The Army didn't hurt either, and while Anakin retained titular control, in reality he handed over everyday management to Jan Dodonna, who occupied his seat on the Council in most occasions, save the rare times when the legendary General was on planet.

Leia decided to learn more about the Force from Anakin, though turning down all but the most rudimentary lightsaber training. They focused more on meditation, especially the control and release of her emotions, skills she found useful in the political realm. Her duties kept her busy, as did Han's and Chewbacca's, Anakin having given them positions in the Engineering Corps of the Army, but not before they scoured the Galaxy searching for Lando and the Falcon. When they did eventually locate both, it was the Empress's largesse, rather than Han's Sabaac skills, that regained for him his beloved ship, though he often grumbled that he could have won it again nevertheless.

Life was satisfactory for Leia. Even good, were she to permit herself to admit it, and enjoy it. She had a role, a place, a voice, and a new family she had never expected. Her parents were as inseparable as ever, even more so after the retirement, often disappearing for months at a time to far-flung reaches of space only Anakin could chart out, sometimes accompanied by Ahsoka in what Leia assumed to be more than just purely recreational outings, considering the bodies and political aftermath they often left behind. When they were not gallivanting across the Galaxy, Anakin and Padme divided their time between Coruscant and Naboo, and Leia made what efforts she could to see them. True familial relationships take time, but for once, time was a commodity that she had. And one day, as she caressed the flat of her stomach with a knowing smile, she knew she would be seeing her family much more in the years to come. She reached out with the Force into the void and beyond, hoping to reach someone dear to her across immeasurable stars.

In her opinion, Varykino was best just after the warm seasons. They swam less because the water was colder, but Padme liked waking up early and watching the cool mist rise off the surface of the lake as the sun rose. The clouds burned off by midday, clearing their view of the mountains, and the afternoon sun was still warm enough for them to enjoy as they lounged along the beach after yet another full meal. Closing her eyes to hear nothing but the gentle lapping of the water and feel nothing but the rays of the sun, she enjoyed, for what seemed like the first time in her reign, the blissfulness of not thinking, not acting, not doing.

She jolted awake when her head slipped to her right. Her eyes opened, and she saw her husband deep in his own afternoon nap, nestled in the beach chair next to hers. Their hands were joined, having found their way to each other even as they slept. Entranced with the rhythmic movements of his chest, she was happy to see the peaceful expression on his face. It had been a long time since he had had his nightmares, though she figured he was the cause of plenty these days for many in the galaxy. Yet here he looked so harmless, so innocent, sleeping next to her. He was like a wild beast, dangerous and feral when unleashed, and only she held the keys to taming him, because he had known her as a cub.

"Uncle Ani! Uncle Ani!" The shrill voices of her nieces jolted both of them up. "You promised us you would make ice treats."

The younger girl jumped into his lap and tugged his hair, while Ryoo, who now liked to think of herself as more mature than her sister, stood aloofly by.

"Oof," Anakin said groggily, looking over at Padme with one crooked eyebrow, "I thought I said Threepio would make you ice treats."

"Mommy says we have to wait thirty minutes after we eat to go swimming so our stomachs don't go boo," Ryoo said, shaking her arms urgently as she spoke, "and the water's gonna be too cold for swimming soon and we want to go swimming today cause mommy says we have to study all tomorrow!"

Padme saw a woman emerge running out of the house just as her daughters mentioned her.

"Ryoo! Pooja! I told you not to bother them!"

"It's okay Sola," Padme said as she sat up, "they're fine."

"I know you came here to relax..."

"Mommy said if we bother Empress Padme too much she won't come visit us again." Pooja looked at her aunt in horror. "I'm sorry, Aunt Padme. Can you come back? Pleeeease? We looove you!"

Padme reached over and tussled her niece's hair affectionately. "You're not bothering us at all, Pooja. In fact, you're perfect, both of you. This is all just so...perfect."

Anakin lifted the smaller girl high in the air, and she squealed and squirmed in delight before he passed her over to his wife. "I suppose I should check on Threepio. Wonder which circuits are malfunctioning today."

"I wonder which ones aren't," Padme said sarcastically.

"Ani," she called when he was already halfway up the small hill.

"What is it?"

"Can you get me a glass of ice wine? While you're up?"

"Red or white?"

"One of each," she asked in her most charming voice. "And an orange one too. We can share them."

Sola had taken Anakin's seat later in the day. They swam until the water became cold, and the two sisters now watched as Anakin engaged the girls in some kind of play-acting lightsaber duel, only using twigs and branches as weapons.

"I'm glad you're here. We barely saw you last time you were back."

"I know," Padme said ruefully. "The coronation was hectic, and we had to return to Coruscant so soon after for the new Senators. Has it really been over a year?"

"Hmmm. Sounds like time flies when you're running the Galaxy."

Padme grinned evilly. "One day you'll find out for yourself, sis."

"You're the worst."

"No, you are."

They both turned their attention towards the small pier. Ryoo stood triumphantly, shouting in glee as her and her sister had somehow cornered their mighty opponent at the water's edge. With a determined huff, Pooja charged and pushed him into the water, but not before Anakin pulled her in with him. As Ryoo mocked them from above, an invisible force lifted her in air, and she screamed as if she were being attacked by a sith as it flung her gently into the water next to her sister.

As Padme watched her husband flail about the lake, surrounded by two hysterical kids and splashing waves of cold water at both, their eyes met for a brief second. His seemed to radiate happiness and contentment, and in that moment Padme saw not just the weary eyes of a war hero, but those of an innocent little boy from Tatooine, brimming with hope despite his circumstances. She saw the raw desire and unwavering confidence from a young man, tantalized by the one thing he could not have, and she saw the devotion and unconditional love of a new father, cautiously hopeful for the future. He grinned at her and she blushed unbecomingly, not as an Empress with endless meetings and dealings and crises yet ahead of her, but as if she were the bashful teenager she had never been.

It was worth it, she decided.