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It observed the scene from above, thousand eyes watching, thousand ears listening. Blinding white clashed with empty darkness. The light was calm; the dark angry. There was a flash of red and green, and the dark expanded, the light shrinking as the dark stole it into its void.
It watched and it cried, its thousand mouths chorusing the mournful tune. It watched the younger light cry with it, the bluish whiteness wavering as some of the dark seeped into it.
The younger light brushed against the dark, its edges graying as it battled the delighted dark still basking in its previous victory. The younger light was angry, and it took in the dark, graying further as its brightness diminished and it swiped blue through the darkness.
Red flashed and winked out as blue overtook the dark. The younger light was one to be cherished, it thought.
The Force has watched over Obi-Wan Kenobi since Naboo. And yet…
It has watched over Obi-Wan, yes, but it downright coddled its son, spoiled him, kept him safe and loved in its embrace. The Force loved Anakin Skywalker, the Tatooine slave boy born to the Tatooine slave woman, whom the Force loved with fierce passion. So much so that Shmi Skywalker could hear it, feel it, love it, despite only being a baseline Force sensitive.
The Force could be quite protective at times, of Shmi and Obi-Wan, and especially little Ani. Oh, how it had screamed when that tear, that rip, that bloody, festering wound named Sheev Palpatine had dared approach its son.
Its son — the dear, beloved, son of the Force — heard its shrieking cries and opened his eyes. Little Ani opened his eyes and saw, saw the sheer Darkness that emanated from Sheev Palpatine.
Oh, yes, the Force protected the ones it held dear.
But the Force was also… mischievous.
It loved to play pranks on its loved ones, loved to disrupt their peace. Then it would laugh and laugh and laugh with its chorus of mouths and voices. The Force found it hilarious.
Like now.
21 BBY, Couruscant
Anakin tried not to scream. Kriffing hell, why could the Chancellor not take no for an answer? This was the third time he’d asked Anakin to come to his office in the past week. Anakin had just gotten some dearly needed shore leave, and he was so not spending it with that wrinkled old prune. Sorry, Chancellor. I’m in the medbay right now. I’m busy then, Chancellor, Obi-Wan needs my help. He was running out of excuses.
“Chancellor contacted you again?” The smooth lilt of Obi-Wan’s Couruscanti accent drifted toward Anakin.
“What do you think?” Anakin asked, head in his hands. “Honestly, you’d think he’d gotten the hint by now.”
Obi-Wan’s Force signature brushed up against Anakin, wrapping him in an embrace of the purest light, radiant and blinding.
Are you an angel? He’d asked, back when he was a slave boy on Tatooine. Now, though, Anakin knew that Obi-Wan wasn’t an angel, but he was the closest any human could get. And Obi-Wan was his.
“Well,” Obi-Wan mused, “He is the Chancellor. I don’t think he has ever taken no as an answer before.”
Anakin sighed. “Force, why is this so difficult?”
As if on cue, the curling tendrils of the Force — of his father — booped him on his nose, before winding around him, laughing at his scandalized expression.
“Father!” Anakin cried indignantly. He wasn’t a kriffing child anymore!
Obi-Wan, who had long since stopped being surprised when Anakin called the Force father, greeted it with a “Hello there.”
The Force wound like a serpent around both their shoulders, giggling, dancing around in waves, projecting Son! Son and other son!
“Father! Stop embarrassing me!” Anakin whined, looking over at his boyfriend — yes, Anakin confessed, it was a mutual thing. What do you mean he’s emotionally constipated? — to back him up. But Obi-Wan only laughed, and Anakin pouted at the sheer indignity of it all.
“Father?” Ahsoka asked, eyes wide, and Anakin jumped. Since when was she there? Ahsoka’s head swiveled from one side to another, looking, Anakin assumed, for his father.
And well… Anakin may have neglected informing Ahsoka — and the 501st, and the 212th, and all his other friends, for that matter — of his… situation.
Obi-Wan huffed out another laugh, looking pointedly at Anakin. “I believe you dug yourself into this hole, dear one. So you are going to be the one doing the explaining.” And he crossed his arms and smirked.
Anakin groaned. Why was everyone teaming up on him?
“Skyguy?” Ahsoka asked. “What is Master Obi-Wan talking about? And who is your father?”
Anakin grimaced. “Well, Snips, you’ve already met my father before.”
“Really?” she asked. “When?”
Ignoring Obi-Wan laughing in the background, Anakin reached out to his father. Father, meet my padawan, Ahsoka, he projected to the Force.
The Force laughed, delighted, and moved to curl around Ahsoka’s shoulders in a loving embrace. Son’s padawan? It asked. Granddaughter? It patted Ahsoka’s montrals, squished her cheeks, and poked at her nose. Granddaughter granddaughter granddaughter! It giggled and settled over Ahsoka. Precious, it said. Loved. Protect.
Ahoska’s eyes opened comically wide as the Force caressed her face. “The Force is your father?” she asked, awed.
“Yeah,” said Anakin, for lack of a better response.
“Oh Force, that’s so cool!” she exclaimed, and immediately clapped a hand over her mouth. “Wait, am I allowed to say that if the Force is your father?”
Say! The Force replied. Precious, loved, son’s padawan can say! Say and will protect! It wrapped tighter around Ahsoka, in mimicry of a hug but not restrained by the mere two arms most beings had.
Ahsoka laughed. “Okay, okay. Thank you.”
Anakin turned to Obi-Wan, who was observing them with an affectionate gaze. Anakin smiled at Obi-Wan, who smiled back.
“So, darling,” Obi-Wan said in that frustratingly smooth voice of his that made Anakin’s knees weak. “When are you going to be telling our men? Or Padmé, for that matter?”
“Um,” Anakin said, mind still fixated on Obi-Wan’s voice. “Next chance I get, I guess?”
A shriek of joy interrupted the moment. The two Jedi turned their heads to see Ahsoka buoyed on the Force as if surfing on air, giggling all the while.
Both men sighed. Laughter and happiness was hard to come by in wartime. Already a year into the Clone War, they’d experienced so much pain and death that moments like these were greatly cherished. They found comfort in each other, in that strange family of theirs — that consisted of the Jedi and hundreds of thousands of clone troopers — because to not do so would lead to certain sadness. It was a depressing time, and Anakin was loath to bring Ahsoka along dangerous missions — or missions at all — for fear that raising a teenager through war would be detrimental.
Nonetheless, they had to fight, and they would continue to do so until they won. Anything other than victory was unimaginable.
“Ani!”
The door to Senator Padmé Amidala’s apartment opened before Anakin could knock.
“Padmé,” Anakin replied in kind. “It’s wonderful to see you.”
“Oh, Ani, it’s so good to see you too. You look exhausted,” Padmé said, fussing over Anakin. “Come in, we have a lot to catch up on.”
Padmé took Anakin’s hand and led him into her apartment, sitting him down on a plush couch, before heading deeper into her rooms, returning with two glasses of the fine Aldaraanian wines the two enjoyed.
Anakin accepted his glass gratefully, taking a sip. “How has the Senate been? How’s your Clone Rights Bill coming along?”
“It’s been a nightmare. Nobody can agree on anything, although,” her lips quirked in a smile. “That’s to be expected. But I don’t doubt you’ve probably had it worse, out at the front.”
Anakin sighed. “Yeah, the Seppies just keep on coming at us. Every campaign we just lose—” his voice cracked. “—so many men. I didn’t get the chance to learn all their names yet and by the time I do, they’re just… gone.”
“Oh, Ani,” Padmé said soothingly, pulling Anakin into her warm embrace, which Anakin positively melted into. “You can’t blame their deaths on yourself. You tried your best, and that’s all that matters.”
“But if I’d tried a bit more—”
“Shh,” Padmé hushed. “Does Captain Rex blame you? Do any of your troopers blame you?”
Silence.
“Then you shouldn’t blame yourself.”
The Force chose that moment to make itself known, sweeping around the two of them and nodding with a thousand heads in agreement with Padmé’s statement.
Padmé, of course, felt nothing, but Anakin felt his father’s attempt to soothe him.
“Thanks, Padmé,” Anakin said absentmindedly. “It seems my father agrees with you.”
“Your father?” Padmé inquired. “I thought you didn’t have a father.”
“Is that what I said?” Anakin asked. “Well, I suppose my mother never told me the truth, so I guess that is what I might have told you.”
Padmé raised a questioning brow.
Anakin sighed. “The Force.”
“What?”
“The Force is my father.”
“So is… he? They? It?” Padmé waved a hand vaguely. “Is your father with you all the time?”
“I guess.”
“Huh. Weird, but okay.”
And that was that.
21 BBY, The Resolute
Captain Rex had seen tons of his General’s jetii osik, but this one took the ration bar (they couldn’t afford cake).
It started when Commander Tano was practically bouncing off the walls when she came to tell Rex that the General requested to speak with him. Strange. Rex brushed it off.
The meeting started out normally enough, the blue holos of Cody and General Kenobi projected on the comm unit as they discussed strategy. When at last they finished, the blue lights of hyperspace bleeding into Rex’s eyes, Commander Tano nudged General Skywalker.
“Skyguy,” she said. “Don’t you remember that you agreed to tell the men about you know the next chance you got?”
Rex looked over at Cody, who seemed as confused as he was, although General Kenobi was smiling.
“I do recall you said that, Anakin,” General Kenobi said.
Rex’s general groaned. “Really, teaming up on me again?”
“Uh, sir, what is it you were supposed to tell us?” Rex asked.
General Skywalker sighed loudly. “It’s about my father.”
“Your father, sir? I thought the jetii didn’t have parents.”
Behind him, Commander Tano sniggered.
“Not quite, Captain,” General Kenobi cut in. “The Jedi are simply raised away from their families, that’s all. Although—” here, he smirked. “—Anakin is ever the exception.”
General Skywalker sighed even louder, somehow. “Look, the Force is my father, okay? Which is why I have these Chosen One allegations and whatever.”
His general was the son of the Force? Honestly, Rex shouldn’t even be surprised. At least it explained the weird Force osik.