Chapter Text
It wasn't the first time Anakin and Obi-Wan had taken the kids off-planet by themselves. If it had been, Anakin reflected later, it would probably also have been the last.
And yet it started off so well, at least by his family's standards, which was to say that they only had to narrowly avert one small child-instigated disaster before they managed to land the ship.
"Woah," Luke said wonderingly. His face was pressed up so close to the glass that Anakin was surprised he could see anything past the fog his breath was making. He was standing on the co-pilot seat and leaning over the console, supporting himself with both hands splayed out on the cockpit window. Anakin had half his focus on the controls and the other half on keeping a close eye on Luke's balance, because if he fell right now they were going to have a lot of very urgent problems.
"It's so pretty." Leia was leaning against the back of Anakin's chair, head propped up on his shoulder and one little hand down the neck of his shirt. Her fingers were freezing.
"Okay, I'm glad you like it, but what's the biggest rule for landing?" Anakin said, flicking several switches with one hand while manipulating the steering with the other.
"Dad!"
It was amazing, really, the way they could both whine that in the exact same tone of voice. Anakin didn't think they practised it, but he wasn't willing to stake any money on it.
And to be fair, he couldn't help but be delighted with their excitement - the way the light of the stars reflected in Leia's eyes, even the smudges from Luke's nose and fingers that Anakin would have to clean off the glass before they came home. He'd travelled with them to new planets several times now, but the awe and delight in their faces never got old.
Nor did it ever seem to wear off for either of them. Luke had been looking to the skies ever since he was an infant, and their regular visits to Coruscant weren't enough to sate the star-wandering in his heart; Anakin knew that perfectly well, because the same song had always sung in his own.
And Leia's desire to learn was too insatiable to be satisfied with a single planet, not when she knew how many others were out there. Already she'd made it known that it was untenable that she might end up in debate against someone with first hand knowledge of places and issues she only knew about in the theoretical.
A ship and the open expanse of space had always meant adventure to Anakin. He hadn't been much younger than the twins were now when that adventure had only been a dream to him. And now look where they were: his children, born free, with the galaxy before them, and he was here to see it.
As long as Luke didn't blow them up by stepping onto the control panel.
"If you can't remember the rule, I can't remember how to buy snacks," Obi-Wan said mildly, appearing in the doorway in the nick of time, as he always did. Anakin's stress dropped the appropriate two levels in response.
"Ugh," Leia said, but her somehow-still-icy fingers finally left Anakin's neck.
"But the planet," Luke protested even as large hands deftly plucked him from his precarious perch and deposited him onto the chair in a more conventional fashion.
"Is entirely visible when you're actually sitting down," Obi-Wan said firmly. "The rule?"
"Seatbelts," Luke said with a very put-upon sigh, tapping the appropriate button on his arm rest to strap himself in.
"Thank you, Luke. Leia?"
"Dad's not wearing his," Leia said mulishly, and although he couldn't see Obi-Wan, Anakin heard a muffled sort of choking sound and just knew he was holding back a laugh.
"Good point, Leia. Sit down and do yours up, and I'm sure your father will follow your good example, won't he, Anakin?"
Anakin twisted round in his seat to give a glare that he hoped clearly articulated the words I once landed half a warship on a city planet with minimal damage and saved your life all without my seatbelt on, old man. He couldn't believe he was going to lose this argument by default simply because he couldn't hand the kids that kind of ammunition. Parenthood was rough.
Obi-Wan gave him an innocent smile, already secure in his own seat. Leia snickered quietly.
Anakin put his damn seatbelt on.
His family might be comprised of imps who existed to torment him, but Anakin had to admit that the kids had a point: the planet whose atmosphere they had just entered was beautiful.
Marsenion was just so blue. Much of the planet was covered in water, certainly, though this was of a pearlescent sort which from up here shone in the light of its sun in a shimmering, spiralling way reminiscent more of an aurora than a body of water. But even the land was a similar colour, or looked it from here - great swathes of silvery blue earth.
Anakin had seen hundreds of planets, but still his breath caught in his chest as he looked over this one. He'd never get tired of this first moment of discovery, the anticipation of something new ahead. It had been different during the war, tarnished, and it had taken him a while afterwards to adjust to the fact that he didn't need to fight everywhere he went. Even now he couldn't help the threat assessment he instinctively performed, the inbuilt wariness he took with him everywhere. It was always in the back of his mind, the risk involved in travel. Naboo was a known quantity, and a safe one, well guarded these days by its own defences as well as the Jedi temple and clone patrols. The rest of the galaxy was uncertain - but they had to live, and Anakin wanted his kids to see the stars.
And besides that, the twins were ten now, getting close to eleven. If he and Padmé didn't take the time to show them the galaxy, it wasn't long before they'd be sneaking out to find it themselves.
So, for today, Marsenion it was.
The planet came recommended by Mace Windu, who had taken a group of padawans here on a field trip recently. It was only three hours from Naboo via hyperspace, and Mace had described it as a safe, welcoming sort of place in which even half a dozen padawans had found only minimal trouble, which was saying a lot.
Three hours was a long time to have two curious ten year olds shut inside a small spaceship, so they'd decided to stay a couple of nights rather than attempt the whole thing in a single day. Padmé had made the arrangements for a place for them to stay because she knew someone on Marsenion - which wasn't surprising, because Padmé seemed to know people everywhere.
It was unusual to be taking the kids anywhere without her, but Padmé herself had been going off planet on business anyway. Her trip was to Coruscant, meeting with Bail Organa, Mon Mothma and what had sounded like half the Jedi Council.
One of the many things Obi-Wan and Anakin had recounted about their shared vision, in the long weeks after the end of the war, was the way in which Palpatine had systematically - and disturbingly quickly - been wiping true knowledge of the Jedi from the galaxy and rewriting the history of the Republic.
It was something that hadn't been a priority until now, when Palpatine was already defeated and there was so much to be put right, but ten years down the line they were finally in a position where they felt like they truly had their feet under them. They could at last turn to other projects, and one among many of these was to preserve their culture and history. Oh, there would always be many versions of history, everyone would always see it differently; but they needed to tell theirs, and spread it, make it known so that whatever happened in future there would always be this record to stand against propaganda, and a means to ensure their way of life was preserved for their children.
It was a complex project, and Padmé had gone to Coruscant in person to meet with the others and consider the scale of records in the Jedi Temple and the Senate Archives, and what might be done.
Anakin knew it was vital because he'd seen first-hand a world where the Jedi were already becoming a myth, and though he'd been proud of it as Darth Vader, as Anakin Skywalker he was horrified by the idea.
Nonetheless, nothing short of a besieging army could have kept him willingly inside a library, so space trip with the kids it was.
Not that he would have thought it was a good idea to take them alone, even though Padmé - angel that she was - rolled her eyes and said he would have been fine. He would have stayed at home and tried to entertain them there except that, vitally, Obi-Wan had been around at the time, and Anakin had roped him into the idea of a trip without taking no for an answer.
'No' hadn't been on the table anyway, come to that. Obi-Wan had looked delighted at the invitation.
He'd been around even more than usual in the last few months, ever since the impromptu party Anakin had thrown that day at the lake house. That had marked just over a decade since the fall of Palpatine, and the end of the period their shared vision had covered. The difference between that world and this was too monumental to quantify, and outlasting the vision seemed to have lifted a great weight that Anakin, to his shame, hadn't realised that Obi-Wan was carrying. He'd relaxed in an indefinable way since then, and it manifested in him finally making himself more at home in the lake house. At last he was willing to arrive without specific invitation or notice, and Anakin had begun to grow used to waking in the morning and finding him at home, drinking tea with Padmé or coming in from a morning walk.
And he was particularly helpful with the kids, which no one was complaining about. They were, after all, ten year olds with phenomenal potential in the Force, and that was on top of the fact that they were ten year olds. The household was frantic on a good day, but the kids were actually willing to listen to Obi-Wan when it came to matters like meditation and practising their training exercises, and even occasionally on the concept of 'inside voices'. Anakin strongly suspected this was only because Obi-Wan frequently abused his position as uncle and balanced being an authority figure with spoiling them rotten, but what could you do.
Obi-Wan loved Anakin's kids. That was one constant across all worlds, and Anakin could hardly begrudge it when he was here in this one to see the way he'd sometimes enter a room to find the three of them with their heads bowed together in some scheme, only to break up into wild giggles when they saw him.
That was family, and Anakin's was wonderful, and it meant he had backup and didn't have to try to look after them on his own when Padmé was away.
He could. He totally could. And it would definitely be fine. Absolutely. It was just that this was better.
Anakin was following the flight path Mace had given him carefully, because it was tricky at first to see where it was they were heading. He knew the city they were making for was large, but it also blended into the landscape very well.
"Oh," Leia said suddenly, as they got lower and lower. "Look. Those are houses."
The buildings were made from the same shimmering stone as the surrounding landscape, and they seemed to rise like outcroppings of the earth. All curves and swirling shapes, not unnatural square lines, it was easy to glance over them without realising they were anything but natural formations at first.
The city was spread over a series of levels, a little like Coruscant, except that it looked from above like a set of huge steps. There were buildings on each plateau, but each level also stretched back into the cliff face itself, thousands of specks of light indicating caves carved into the stone.
And that was nothing to the waterfalls.
They were everywhere. Tiny falls that were nothing more than specks of light and the faint idea of movement from this height; vast cascades that stretched the full height of the city, crashing down against each successive level in layers of churning white foam.
"Woah," Anakin said, echoing his son, and he spared a moment to look round the cockpit. The kids' eyes were fixed out of the window, oblivious to him; their eyes were huge, their faces lit up and glowing slightly blue in the reflected light. Obi-Wan met his eyes with a smile, the same adrenaline-fuelled one Anakin had seen on the threshold of countless adventures.
That this one was set to be far tamer than their old adventures meant nothing; they got to share this one with the children, and that was worth far more.
On the more mundane side, it proved surprisingly difficult to find a landing spot. As they got lower, they entered a decent amount of traffic, most of it from within the atmosphere. The landing pads were hectic, and it took longer than he'd expected to secure a spot over the comm.
"This seem busier than you expected?" he said to Obi-Wan as he finally touched down and surveyed the area. There were hundreds of ships there, mostly small craft without hyperspace engines, and the pedestrian areas were full of people making their way to and from the city proper.
"Mace didn't mention this," Obi-Wan agreed, rubbing his beard thoughtfully.
That was about as much time as they had to consider it. The moment Anakin powered off the engine, the kids wriggled out of their seatbelts and raced back into the ship, practically tumbling over each other in their haste.
"Coats and hats!" Anakin yelled after them, hearing a distant "Oh, come on," from Leia that made him smile. He checked the child lock was on the ramp so they couldn't get out without him then span round to grin at Obi-Wan. "Ready for this?"
"Almost certainly not."
Anakin laughed - but as it turned out very swiftly, Obi-Wan was once again more right out of the two of them. They followed the kids, grabbing their own cold weather gear; Obi-Wan went to get the two well-stocked travel bags out of the sleeping quarters while Anakin bundled Leia into the coat that he caught her trying to hide under a chair.
The split focus turned out to be his undoing, because he'd only just got Leia's zip done up when he heard the grumbling creak of the ramp opening just as Obi-Wan emerged from the sleeping quarters, which was nowhere near the ramp controls.
"Oh, come on," Anakin groaned, and scrambled out into the corridor. "Luke, what have I told you about hacking into the ship?"
Luke blinked at him with a guileless expression that would have been more effective had the ramp not been lowering behind his back. He maintained this for a good ten seconds until the ramp clanged onto the ground, and then he sighed. "Technically, you said not to leave unsupervised, and I didn't."
"Technically, I'm confiscating your toolkit."
"Dad!"
"Lucas."
"That's not even my name," Luke groaned, and pulled the little packet of tools out of his pocket to deposit reluctantly in Anakin's hand. "You flew a starfighter on your own when you were younger than me, and you blew up a battleship with it. All I did was open a door."
"I regret telling you that story."
A large backpack appeared in Anakin's peripheral vision, and Anakin accepted it with a sigh.
"Hands, please," Obi-Wan said cheerfully, and Luke and Leia both slipped their hands into his without even a moment's protest. There was no justice here. "I want you to know how much I'm enjoying this," Obi-Wan said to Anakin, and it was delivered with every outward impression of genial, paternal happiness at a pleasant day out with his family, and yet carried an undercurrent of pure, undiluted evil.
"Believe me," Anakin griped, following the three of them down the ramp, "I'm extremely well aware."
The planet was cold, though not icy. It was winter here, and everyone they passed was dressed for it except for those of species that ran naturally warmer or favoured cool climates. It felt fairly chilly to Anakin, who never quite seemed to acclimate to winter, but if the kids felt cold they gave no sign of it; they were constantly twisting round to look at everything at once, even when Leia waved her free, mittened hand at Anakin until he took it in his own.
They took a shuttle into the city, although it was a curious craft. It was a sort of boat in appearance, shaped like an elongated teardrop, made of a clear glass-like material both beneath and arching overhead. It was pleasantly warm inside, and they settled onto a bench together, squishing closer when the shuttle continued to fill up. It didn't take long, and then an attendant closed the door panel, sealing them inside.
It was an intriguingly odd journey, travelling by hovering above the road before transitioning seamlessly into a river, which it rode along against the current. Anakin itched to find out how it worked, but it was hard to get even a good look at the controls when the thing was so crowded.
"Um," Luke said suddenly, "that waterfall's getting close."
They were heading directly for a crashing tide of water. Anakin looked around, not sure if he should be worried or not, but no one else looked alarmed and Obi-Wan only shrugged, evidently not sensing any more danger in the Force than Anakin did. When they reached the waterfall there was a dizzying moment where they were completely submerged beneath the deafening pounding of water on the roof; and then his stomach lurched, the kids yelped and grabbed onto his arms, and they were rising upwards, unhindered by the force of the water, until they emerged suddenly onto the top of the falls, continuing again along the river.
"That - was - awesome!" Luke crowed, half-climbing into Anakin's lap to raise himself up another few inches to look out of the window. "How did they do that, I couldn't even feel engines, Dad, that was wizard."
Anakin didn't actually know, and he admitted as much, and spent the journey trying to puzzle it out with Luke, who already had a good mind for things like this and loved to tinker with droids and ships as much as Anakin ever had. Obi-Wan and Leia had struck up conversation with some other passengers, so Anakin let himself get lost inside the shared enthusiasm with his son.
The shuttle evidently only made one stop, and this was once they'd left the river and returned to what Anakin thought of as more conventional roads, which led into the city itself. It was an impressive sight. The buildings weren't tall, certainly not by Coruscant measures. They looked more like natural rock formations somehow, though they were clearly constructed; he could see the seams between blocks if he looked closely enough. But they blended so well with the landscape, and the rock was beautiful. From further away he'd only seen the remarkable shining hue of the stone; from closer up, he could see also that seams of shimmering colour ran through it - some kind of gemstone, he thought at first.
But then he stepped out of the shuttle, and Anakin was struck so hard by a sudden wave of feeling that he stumbled, rocking in place. It was - he didn't know what it was. But it filled him with such a strong emotion that he couldn't breathe for a moment, and felt like he might cry.
"Dad?" Leia had jumped down beside him, and her hand twisted in his sleeve. "Dad, it feels..."
"I can feel it too." Luke shuffled into Leia's side, pressing close to her. "It feels like... like ice cream in the summer. Like flying."
"It feels happy," Leia said quietly.
And Obi-Wan - Anakin turned to find him, because he didn't understand. It was so strong, so overwhelming, and he didn't know what it was he was sensing.
Obi-Wan was smiling, and though his eyes were full of tears, he did indeed look happy. "It feels like love," he said softly. "It's the crystals in the rock."
Anakin's mind boggled. "It can't be kyber? There's so much of it - and it doesn't feel like kyber."
"No, but it's something like it. It resonates in the Force in a way that's a little like kyber. No wonder Mace told us to come here," he added, shaking his head. "I can't believe he didn't tell us why."
Anakin could, actually, and he found himself thinking that he'd have to thank Mace for it later. It was overwhelming to find this unexpectedly, and yet the surprise of it felt sweeter somehow. The discovery of it. This planet was happy, at its literal core; the very stuff it was made from knew joy.
After all they'd seen, all the suffering that was behind them, to know there were places in the galaxy like this - to get to see the wonder on his children's faces as they took it in...
For that, there were no words.
Anakin just crouched down and tugged the kids into his arms, beckoned Obi-Wan to join them, and then opened his mind up to the wonder of that feeling, and felt the pulse of joy as the planet welcomed them in.
"It turns out that we've arrived at the new year," Obi-Wan explained as they made their way through the streets.
Which was no mean feat, because they weren't streets the way Anakin thought of them, sections of straight or curved road between rows of buildings. This was more like a labyrinth, constantly winding back and forth, with forks every few steps where the path parted again and again around another home or shop or art installation - it was hard to tell the difference sometimes. And there were people everywhere - market stalls, food vendors, roving salespeople with trays and carts, those with voices raised to cry out adverts and offers, and pedestrians everywhere, conversation and laughter and singing bright all around them.
"We were talking to a family on the shuttle," Obi-Wan went on, stepping out of the way as a trio of Besalisk children ran past, giggling and shoving at each other while holding various treats in their other hands. "They live elsewhere on the planet, but come here for the new year's celebrations - it sounds like a lot of residents do. The day itself is tomorrow, but the festival started yesterday. It's a very important celebration to them, but they welcome visitors, luckily for us. I'm told it's an event that's meant to be shared."
"There's going to be food and games and rides somewhere and storytelling and food," Leia said, yanking on Anakin's hand. "Float me, Dad, I can't see anything. Please," she added after a moment's thought.
"I've got a better idea," Anakin said, lifting her up; if he used the Force to help him swing her up onto his shoulders - and to lighten the load when she got there - then no one needed to know. She was still small for her age, but not really small enough for this, and yet Anakin would not be admitting that until he had to.
Luke, for once, seemed to see better opportunities on the ground. "That smells good," he said pleadingly as he tugged on Obi-Wan's hand, face turned towards the nearest food stall. Which did, in fairness, smell amazing.
"He's got a point," Anakin observed, grinning.
Obi-Wan gave a sigh in which Anakin could very clearly hear despair about travelling with three ten year olds, but he didn't bother to hide his smile. "I suppose we do need fortification before we explore."
Luke cheered, and Leia tapped her hands on Anakin's head in approval. "We need to try everything," she announced firmly, and Anakin - who by this point in his life knew his strengths and weaknesses and where exactly resisting the more harmless of his children's requests fell on that scale - accepted his fate.
By the time they made it to their accommodation for the next couple of days, the sun had well and truly set and Anakin had been using the Force to reinforce his own endurance for at least four hours. They had to rely on repeatedly asking for directions in order to find the place, which proved to be three levels up and seven waterfalls along from where they'd got off the shuttle. It was an annex attached to the home of a lovely woman called Minerva, who was not the lady Padme knew on Marsenion but the friend of a friend of a cousin or something that Anakin was frankly too exhausted to keep track of.
Anakin had stayed in far grander places, but there was something special about this one. The large seam of crystal on the outside of the building followed through into the interior, where it cast a soft purple glow over the space that worked in harmony with the gentle artificial lighting spotted around the ceiling. It was laid out over a single floor and despite being generous, with two bedrooms, a large living space, kitchen and bathroom, it gave an overall impression of cosiness. The stone walls were warm somehow rather than cool, and the furniture was all deep, warm shades of colour, low to the ground and richly patterned. Anakin had become accustomed to the crystals, no longer as overwhelmed as he had been at first, and now what he felt was like a gentle pulse of greeting, like the wave of an old friend from across the street.
If Anakin was tired, the kids had to be exhausted, but they weren't showing it yet. It felt like they ran around the entire bungalow five times while Anakin and Obi-Wan exchanged a look and both collapsed wordlessly onto the nearest sofa. Both children were draped in necklaces and garlands made of tiny glowing leaves, and their faces were covered in glitter the provenance of which Anakin couldn't even guess. He probably ought to send them for showers, but for everyone's sakes that was going to have to wait until morning.
"Dad, dad, dad, where's your comm, we've got to call Mom, I want to show her what I bought!"
Anakin passed Leia the comm without a second thought. He'd been keeping Padmé posted through the day, but he knew she'd want to hear from the kids, and that call would give them at least ten minutes.
"In your room, okay? You two get to pick a room, but if you argue about beds, I'm getting you the most boring, healthy breakfast I can find."
Leia ran off, yelling, "Luke, Dad says we can have pancakes if I get to pick first!"
"That is... not what I..." Anakin considered this, then the lack of arguing he could hear from the other rooms, and decided to let that one go.
"Do you remember that week when you decided you didn't want to wear anything except your underwear because another youngling had dared you?" Obi-Wan said with an annoying amount of cheer for someone who was definitely as knackered as Anakin. "I had to chase you through the entire temple with a robe and Mace wouldn't stop laughing at me for a month. You really do deserve this."
Anakin gave him a baleful glare. "You had the option to change your mind about me. I'm stuck with them."
And he was kidding about that - of course he was kidding, because the kids were his entire world, they were the very best of the galaxy, and nothing in it was worth a single thing without them. He wouldn't trade a second of it away.
And of course Obi-Wan knew that perfectly well, and it wasn't that part he was unsatisfied with. "No, I couldn't," he said softly. "I was just as 'stuck', Anakin. I can't tell you when it first happened, because it wasn't when we first met, because the idea of you even wanting to be a Jedi hadn't occurred to me then, let alone that you would be my padawan. But when you were, it didn't take long - there was a moment when I just knew. And it was like that first moment when you held your children."
Look, Anakin knew Obi-Wan loved him. He knew it in his bones. It was one of the facts of the universe. Planets orbited stars, humans needed oxygen to live, Obi-Wan Kenobi loved Anakin Skywalker.
But to think of it like that? Anakin remembered that moment. He hadn't been there for the birth, or for a short while afterwards; the twins had been born in the immediate aftermath of the fight against Palpatine, when Anakin had been in the most tumultuous and dangerous moments of his life and had charged himself into the care of the Jedi Council, too terrified to go near his wife. But when he had seen her again, when he'd seen the children, when he'd held his babies in his arms - he'd changed in that moment, completely and forever. He'd looked at the impossible smallness of them, their delicate little fingers, the unfocused blinking of their eyes, the way they needed him, relied on him. The way he loved them even though he'd never seen them before, with a love that was too big to hold within his body, a love that exceeded even the way he loved Padmé, which he'd thought was the most anyone could ever feel until that day.
Like that, Obi-Wan had loved Anakin as a child, even when he made as much trouble as he had?
"You made my life ten times harder, of course," Obi-Wan said, doing that thing he did where his eyes smiled even though his mouth didn't, as if he thought he could hide his mirth from Anakin. "But I wouldn't change a thing."
"Even the robes?"
Obi-Wan made a so-so motion with his hand, eyes still sparkling, but then he said, "Would you change either of them?"
No, Anakin thought, even as the kids charged back out of their bedroom, still yelling into the comm, and Luke leapt at Anakin and managed to knee him in the crotch before Anakin could catch him. No, he wouldn't change any of it.
It was nonetheless a relief that the kids crashed only about ten minutes later, and they crashed hard. They'd consumed what had looked like pretty much their own body weights in food today (and Anakin couldn't talk because he'd tried even more than they had), but it had been hard to say no when there was such a mix of familiar favourites and tantalisingly new treats being sold. They'd also run what had felt like the length and breadth of the city, including an awful lot of stairs; taken part in several competitions and had to be held back from trying to enter a swimming race in one of the rivers despite it being winter and them not even having swimming costumes; ridden several rides including one that involved a covered tunnel slide that went through a waterfall; gone round a maze set into the cave tunnels twice; and engaged dozens of people in conversation, most of whom had been delighted by the onslaught of genuinely interested questions.
It had been a wonderful day, but it was also very clear that it had been more quiet when Mace came here.
Luke fell asleep while he was brushing his teeth, and Leia made a genuine and baffled attempt to put her pyjama trousers on as a shirt. Anakin and Obi-Wan were carrying a twin each by the time they got them tucked into bed, no stories or songs required; Leia had a new book stuffed under her pillow and Luke was hugging a scale model of the shuttle they'd ridden earlier, which couldn't possibly be comfortable.
It wasn't even all that late, but there was no contemplation of trying to stay up any later than the kids. It was barely any later when they were both collapsed in the other twin room, blinking blearily up at the ceiling. The crystals embedded in the rock were fewer and fainter in here, giving off only a gentle blue glow that reminded Anakin fondly of his lightsaber.
"Good planet," Anakin said around a wide, jaw-cracking yawn. "I'm glad we came." He rolled his head over on his pillow to face Obi-Wan, even though it felt like it weighed ten stone. "I'm glad you came with us."
"Even though we're going to have to haul all those souvenirs back to the ship?" Anakin couldn't quite see his face, but he could hear the smile.
"You bought 'em, you carry 'em."
If Obi-Wan said anything else, Anakin didn't hear it. He was asleep in moments, and his dreams were full of crystals and laughter.
It only felt like seconds later when he was being shaken awake by a rough, urgent hand.
"Anakin!"
"Wha..." Anakin fumbled around. It was lighter than it had been before but he felt bleary, like he'd not had enough sleep. "What?" He'd grown so used to peaceful awakenings, or at least no more harsh than his kids yelling for him, that it was harder to shake into alertfulness than it used to be.
"Anakin, wake up." It was Obi-Wan, and there was a tone to his voice that shook the sleep from Anakin, that sent a jolt of adrenaline and fear right through him.
"Anakin, I can't find the children."