Work Text:
“Don’t go”
Obi-Wan blinked. “What?”
“I sense something. . . something is very wrong.”
Obi-Wan stepped back up the ramp. Anakin was watching him with a dark intensity. He stood at the very edge of the hanger, the sun lighting half his face while the other blurred in the darkness. It was. . . unsettling.
“Anakin--” he started, but didn’t know how to proceed. He was expected on Utapau, the council -- the Republic -- was counting on him to find and contain, or destroy, Grievous once and for all. He’d been worried about Anakin, and for good reason it seemed, but. . . the Republic must come first. Obi-Wan sighed, exhausted by the war, the politics, his duty, all of it, but. . . “Anakin,” he said again, softer, sadder. “The council--”
“Master.” Anakin grabbed his mentor’s arm and pulled him close with that same frenetic intensity. “Obi-Wan. Do you trust me?”
Obi-Wan’s eyes narrowed with concern but with a sudden burst of -- possibly Force driven? -- clarity he understood the answer had to be: “. . Yes.”
Anakin released his breath in relief. “Not here,” he murmured, and tugged on Obi-Wan’s sleeve to indicate he should follow as Anakin walked away with purpose.
With a final glance at the transport leaving without him, he did.
“Ani, is that you?” Padmé called from the inner room of their apartment. She started when Obi-Wan rounded the corner first. “Oh.”
But Anakin was just behind. “We need to talk.”
Padmé nodded, sensing their turmoil as clearly as if she were Force sensitive herself, and returned to the sofa. Anakin settled beside her as Obi-Wan took a seat opposite the couple. Padmé and Obi-Wan shared a concerned look as Anakin gathered his thoughts. Finally, he took a deep breath.
“The Chancellor. . .” Anakin voice was low and gruff with anger, and hurt. He’d been defending Palpatine to both of them as late as this morning. “It’s been the Chancellor all along. He’s behind everything.”
Obi-Wan frowned as Padmé glanced between them, disturbed. “Ani, what are you saying?”
He took another deep breath in an attempt to banish the anger, and anguish, from his voice. “I think Chancellor Palpatine is a Sith Lord.”
“A Sith Lord,” Obi-Wan repeated, sharply.
“Yes. The one we’ve been looking for.”
Obi-Wan’s frown deepened. “Anakin, that’s. . .”
“Treason,” provided Padmé.
Anakin shook his head. “He knows Sith legends. He told me.” Obi-Wan fell back in his seat in shock as Anakin turned to Padmé. “You said he’s taking more power every day.”
She shook her head at the implications. “Because of the war. . .”
Anakin leaned down to meet her eyes directly. “What if he manipulated the war?”
Padmé paled at the words, her eyes growing wide with a wave of emotions. “I. . . he told me. . . when I addressed the senate as Queen. . .” Her heart pounded in her ears as she gasped, “I put him in power.”
“You didn’t know.” Anakin leaned in closer still in an attempt to comfort her, but she was distraught.
Obi-Wan stood. “We have to tell the council.”
“No.”
“Anakin.”
He shook his head, his eyes brooking no argument. “If the Jedi attack he can arrest them -- kill them and call it a coup. And if they kill him it will look like--”
“An assassination,” Padmé finished, breathily.
Anakin nodded once. “Either way the Jedi Order are in grave danger.”
A heavy silence grew as all three contemplated the dark conclusions of Anakin’s unsubstantiated, but all too possible, accusations. Finally, Padmé straightened, a steely resolve replacing her momentary weakness.
“I’m meeting with a small group of senators this afternoon. . .” She glanced between the two Jedi. “I believe we can trust them.”
Obi-Wan nodded, if hesitantly, but Anakin’s features grew clouded once again. “Everyone I trust is in this room.” He stood, retreated to the window. Coruscant never slept, never stilled. All these years and Anakin still found it unsettling.
The others shared a look as he watched the city, scowling. Palpatine had manipulated everyone, but he’d targeted Anakin. Padmé stepped over to her husband and placed a tentative hand on his arm. “. . . . I’m so sorry, Ani.”
He touched her hand with his own. “He -- he’s been using me since I was a child.” Anakin raised his eyes to meet his mentor’s as Obi-Wan approached the couple. “You tried to tell me and I wouldn’t listen.”
“He fooled us all.” Obi-Wan touched a hand to his chin, thoughtful.
“I killed Dooku.” Anakin’s whole body shook with all the anger, hurt, and fear the Jedi told him to repress. “He wanted. . . he wanted me to take his place. To become. . .”
“But you didn’t.” Obi-Wan closed the space between them, closing both his hands over Anakin’s and Padmé’s. “Anakin. You are not a Sith.”
They were still a moment, contemplating the horror if Palpatine had succeeded. Anakin pulled away again. “I’m not a Jedi either.”
“Don’t say that--”
“Ani--”
“No!” Anakin roared, startling Obi-Wan and Padmé into silence. He pulled Padmé into his arms. “If I am saved it’s only because of you.” Anakin turned angry eyes to Obi-Wan. “My-- attachment!”
He spit the word toward his former master, but Obi-Wan’s eyes were sad in response, tired, lonely, even, and Anakin’s anger melted away. He glanced to Padmé, questioning. She nodded and Anakin leaned down to brush her lips, briefly, softly, but openly. He turned back to Obi-Wan. “We were married three years ago.”
Obi-Wan pursed his lips but otherwise gave no reaction.
“I’m pregnant,” continued Padmé, laying a hand on her stomach. Obi-Wan’s eyes danced with an uncertain emotion. He looked from one to the other, the two people he cared for most in the galaxy. A smile tugged at his lips despite everything.
Anakin sucked a breath over his teeth, suddenly reminded of the danger surrounding them. “And I’ve seen her die.” His hands tightened on her arms. “We need to get you somewhere safe, before we do anything--”
Padmé shook her head, cheeks flushed with a need to reject the idea. She was so tired of hiding, and there was ever more at stake. “Ani, this is more important,” she started, trying to keep her voice calm and reasonable.
“Nothing is more important,” Anakin interrupted to assert. Obi-Wan and Padmé shared a small furtive glance before both stepping closer to argue. Anakin sighed, and dropped his arms. Padmé looked to Obi-Wan again, frowning, but he remained focused on Anakin. “Nothing is more important,” he repeated, with deliberate calm. “than taking the chancellor down once and for all. But we need you, Padmé.” She locked her eyes with Anakin. “I need you.” He closed his arms around her in a tight embrace. “None of us can do this alone,” he murmured over her hair. “We have to be careful. Palpatine’s been planning this for years. For our entire lives. We have to be smart. We have to be,” his eyes flicked to look at Obi-Wan, “patient.”
Obi-Wan nodded.
Anakin pulled back to meet Padmé’s gaze again. She glanced between the two men and nodded, if reluctantly.
Anakin nodded, too, once, and crossed his arms.
“I have a plan."
* * *
The room was quiet but for the humming of Luke’s lightsaber. The boy’s brow was tight under the helmet as he wielded the saber against the remote. Obi-Wan tapped his small shoulder gently. “Remember, a Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him.” Luke frowned, but tried to relax his face the way he’d been taught. “That’s it, Luke.” The boy successfully deflected three blasts, his sister clapped in appreciation from her perch on the window behind him. Obi-Wan shook his head to shush her, but couldn’t quite hide the affection he had for their bond. “Stretch out with your feelings --” As he spoke Obi-Wan closed his eyes and Leia followed suit; all three sent tiny tendrils of emotion out into the house --
--where they were met with a burst of radiant joy. The twins eyes flew open to verify what their Force sensitivity told them. Luke dropped his tools, Leia jumped down, and they both ran up the steps of their underground home, Obi-Wan following at more leisurely pace.
“Papa! Mama!” the twins cried as emerged to find their parents rushing down the gangplank of the Nubian starship. Anakin knelt on the sand and they raced into his arms as Padmé met Obi-Wan with a kiss.
“I started training sabers!”
“Uncle Ben says I’m a natural.”
“R4 took records, wanna see, wanna see?”
“Me too me too!”
Luke’s and Leia’s voices were indistinguishable as they tried to relay everything they’d achieved in the nearly three months since they’d seen their father. Anakin scooped both into his arms and carried them, still chattering, back into the bungalow.
When the twins had run out of news -- for now -- the adults settled around the kitchen table while they played with gifts their parents brought back from Coruscant. Obi-Wan drunk in the sight of his family restored, however brief it may be. He loved the twins as his own, and the time away from their parents was normal for children destined to be Jedi. But as much as it went against the edicts he pledged most of his life to, he’d come to prefer, and cherish, their time all together.
“How was the capitol?” he asked, finally, ready to move on to the news of the rebellion as much as he knew it would likely take them away again that much quicker.
Padmé took a deep breath before answering, “It worked.”
Obi-Wan’s eyes grew wide. He glanced from Padmé to Anakin, both unable to hide the mix of emotions that threatened to overwhelm. His face probably looked the same.
“He’s . . .”
Padmé nodded. “Palpatine has been removed from power.” Obi-Wan’s breath caught. They’d been working so hard for so long. It seemed impossible it might be over. “Bail’s already input a proposal to remove the governors, and the clones are being recalled from most battlegrounds.” There would be skirmishes for years, she knew, but the war as it was was finally drawing to a close.
“What will happen to them?”
Anakin played with his fork idly as he answered. Obi-Wan smiled, he never was able to stay still. “The bioneurofeedback protocol has been remarkable -- Rex reports an eighty seven percent success rate.” Anakin grinned at Obi-Wan’s blank expression. “It means the great majority of the clones will be able to be integrated into the New Republic.”
“As citizens,” added Padmé.
Anakin smiled and grasped her hand across the table. “But that’s not the most exciting news.”
Obi-Wan looked from one to the other, expectantly.
“Mon Mothma’s asked me to lead her cabinet,” Padmé explained, blushing -- still, after all this time -- at the look of pride and adoration on Anakin’s face. Still, after all this time.
“She’s the new chancellor?” Obi-Wan was incredulous; it felt like they’d been fighting for years and now, suddenly, the brighter future they’d wanted was falling into place.
“Interim, but we believe we have the votes.” Padmé nodded to her husband. “She asked Anakin, too.”
Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow. “And?”
It was Anakin’s turn to blush as they both waited for his answer. “I’m weighing my options. For the first time in my life. . . I have some.” Padmé leaned over to kiss his cheek and Obi-Wan placed his hand over both of theirs. He felt love emanating from all sides.
A toy fighter hit the table suddenly, breaking the reverie, but only adding to the love as Luke ran over to reclaim it. Anakin picked up the plane with the Force and flew it around their heads a few times before landing it in his son’s waiting hands.
“Did you hear that, little man? Mama’s gonna be in charge.”
“Mon Mothma’s going to be in charge,” corrected Padmé with an indulgent smile.
“Your time will come, Queen Amidala.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to rule the galaxy.”
Anakin met her eyes over their son’s head. “I know. That’s why you’re perfect for the job.”
Padmé choked back a sob weighted with the long years of war, fear, separation, and -- hope. The steady, enduring hope that buoyed their rebellion and now lit up Anakin’s eyes. And behind him, Obi-Wan nodded in agreement.
“If Mama’s in charge do you hafta leave again?”
Padmé glanced down to find her daughter’s expressive eyes wide with worry. She started to shake her head but Anakin answered first.
“Yes.” He crouched down to meet Leia at her level. “But this time, you’re coming with us.” He glanced up to include Obi-Wan. “All of you.”
Leia’s wide eyes turned from worry to excitement. “Really?!” Her brother flew his plane over to her side and grabbed her hand to hear the confirmation.
“Really,” Anakin answered. The twins squealed and started dancing around the table in delight. Obi-Wan felt ten years of tension fall away as Padmé laughed and impulsively joined in the dance.
Anakin turned his attention to the man who followed him into exile. “The Order wants to meet with you as soon as possible. Ahsoka, too.” Obi-Wan’s expression betrayed a thousand questions but he didn’t ask any of them. “I think . . . I think they’re ready for change.” Obi-Wan’s eyes were as wide with worry as Leia’s had been. Anakin grinned and leaned in to brush his lips briefly, softly, openly. “Really.”
“Uncle Ben! Uncle Ben! We’re going to Coruscant!”
“Will you show us the Jedi temple?”
“And the library?”
“And the school?”
Again the twins voices were indistinguishable in their glee. Obi-Wan held Anakin’s gaze over the top of their heads, widening it to include Padmé as she slid in next to Anakin, all five entwined in the low light as the suns sank in the sky outside.
“I would like to very much, my little padawans.”
Song: In My Veins
Artist: Andrew Belle (ft. Erin McCarley)
Clips: Star Wars Episodes I, II, II; Inception
Anakin: Hayden Christensen
Obi-Wan: Ewan McGregor
Padmé: Natalie Portman
Luke: Ty Simpkins
Leia: Diana Petrovich