Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

Anakin looks on as his children watch over Rey as she heads back to the Millenium Falcon.  His gaze catches on the setting suns casting an amber glow over the pale sand.

Force but he hates Tatooine.

He shakes his head, the dark blond strands hardly moving in their ghostly form. 

Most of the Force ghosts have moved on after the battle, too weak to maintain the link between the physical and the Force, to continue to walk the way of the Whills.  Anakin and his children are the last.

And it is time for Anakin to let go.

He’s tired.

He lived his own battles between Good and Evil, seen his children and grandchildren face their battles.  It’s time to rest and hopefully settle into an afterlife.

A form settles beside him.

He shivers at the familiar feel of the Father, the Son and the Daughter: the three aspects of the Force.  They take Obi-Wan’s face.

“You have learned much,” they say.

Their whisper echoes into the Force.

Rey pauses on the ramp and looks back towards the dunes before she shakes her head and continues into the ship.

Anakin sighs.  “Yes.”

“What have you learned?” asks the Force.

Anakin tilts his head, giving his answer thought in a way he would never have done in his youth.  “There is always Light, and there is always Dark,” he begins, “and the balance between them is a choice in each individual.”  He looks across the sand towards the place he’d slaughtered the Tuskens for killing his mother.  “I chose badly, and my choices led to the galaxy being Dark for years.”

“Only your choice?” asks the Force.

“It is the only choice over which I can choose,” Anakin notes.  But he knows his choice wasn’t without influence on others.  He was born of the Force; his choice had power and influence in the way others did not.

“Which of your choices would you undo?” whispers the Force.

The whine of the Falcon taking flight arrests Anakin from answering for a long moment.  What would he change?  Going with Qui-Gon?  Saving his mother before it was too late?  Staying with the Jedi when he knew his heart was with Padmé?  Going Dark to save her only to kill her?  Years as the Emperor’s loyal dog?  The only choice he knew he didn’t want to change was saving Luke from Palpatine.  He had returned to the Light in the end if not the Jedi.

Maybe, Anakin muses, maybe the Jedi is the choice that he would have changed.  Not after meeting Padmé, when it would have been too late to stop Sidious, but at twelve years of age when he had considered leaving the Jedi only to stay in the end.  In hindsight, he knew Sidious in his Palpatine guise had manipulated the insecurity which had led him to question his place, poking at Anakin’s real misery at life in the Order, but if he had avoided falling into the Sith’s trap when he had left…

In the end his fear of what he would do if he left had kept Anakin from leaving.  He’d had no home to return to as his mother as far as he knew was still a slave, and apart from Palpatine’s vague offer which he hadn’t truly considered as an option, there had been no-one outside of the Jedi to give him shelter.  Maybe he had thought hopefully of Padmé, but she had just started her second term as Queen and had been as distant from him as an actual angel in that moment.

But that was it, Anakin thinks almost amused.  If he could change anything, perhaps if he had left the Order then, if he’d made his way back to his mother…maybe that choice could have given him the life he had truly wanted and perhaps others would have had a greater chance of making better choices too.

“So be it,” echoes the Force.

Anakin blinks. 

The Force is no longer a form beside him and only sand stretches out ahead of him.  It’s time for him to rest.  He closes his eyes and lets his form sink into the Force, heading towards what comes after…

Anakin jerks awake, bolting upright in his bed, eyes wide open and staring at the poster of a starship on the wall of his Padawan room.

What the…?!

The door is thrown open.

Anakin isn’t surprised when Obi-Wan immediately appears in its frame, almost falling through the door.

There isn’t a hint of the assured High General and Councillor Kenobi in the bed-rumpled twenty-something year old Knight, his red hair askew with the beginnings of his trademark beard adorning his face. 

“Anakin?” asks Obi-Wan urgently, still blinking back the vestiges of sleep.  “Are you alright?  Was it a bad dream?”

His Master is already smoothing Anakin’s damp hair back, hand checking for a fever briefly on his forehead as Anakin tries to bring his breathing under control.

“Anakin?” Obi-Wan tips his chin up so he can look in his eyes and…

How had Anakin never recognised the worry and love Obi-Wan had felt for him? 

Anakin is overcome as his emotions bubble up and spill over and despite knowing at twelve he had eschewed Obi-Wan treating him like a child…he throws himself into Obi-Wan’s arms.

Obi-Wan hugs him tightly as Anakin sobs years of pain and loss and heartache into his Master’s shoulder.

When he comes back to himself they are cuddled up on the sofa in the small sitting area of their apartment.  There’s an old woolly blanket that used to belong to Qui-Gon wrapped around them and Obi-Wan is still holding him.

Anakin feels exhausted.  He cuddles into Obi-Wan’s warmth and lets himself sleep.  He’ll deal with the time-travelling shenanigans of the Force tomorrow.   

o-O-o

The stewed grains and fruit that Obi-Wan serves for their breakfast is familiar and Anakin tucks in with fond remembrance.  His first taste of actual food for what seems like eons is blissful.

Obi-Wan slides into the seat opposite with only a mug of tea cupped between his hands.

Anakin slows the shovelling of food into his mouth to a rate which might pass for polite.  He scrapes his bowl clean. 

“More?” asks Obi-Wan.

Anakin shakes his head.  He’s sated his hunger.  He reaches for the milk Obi-Wan had set out for him.  He wishes he was old enough for the bitter brew of c’fee his preferred morning drink.

“Would you like to talk about last night?” asks Obi-Wan.

Anakin looks over at his Master and notes the worry-frown creasing Obi-Wan’s forehead.  He presses his lips together.  He hasn’t had a lot of time to consider the ramifications of his time-travel.  He wants to rant against the action of the Force because he regrets that he’s not resting in an afterlife, but he can’t deny the opportunity to make better choices.

He sighs and sets his milk down.  He holds Obi-Wan’s gaze.  “I had a vision of the future if I stay with the Jedi.”

Obi-Wan’s frown deepens.  “A vision?”

“I understand now why everyone thought it was too dangerous for me to be trained as a Jedi and nobody wanted me,” Anakin can’t quite hide the bitterness of the statement.

“Oh, Anakin,” Obi-Wan sighs.  “That’s not true.”

“Don’t deny it,” Anakin shoots back, the words spilling out of him unthinkingly.  “You only trained me because Qui-Gon made you!”

Anakin knows he should push away from the table and storm out; it’s what he would have done when he was mentally the same age as his body.  But he is much, much older than twelve, and he and Obi-Wan as ghosts had discussed and come to terms about much of their terrible start, so he stays in his seat.

Obi-Wan sets his tea down.  “I’ve been a terrible Master, haven’t I?”

Anakin blinks back his shock at Obi-Wan’s blunt statement.  “What?”

Obi-Wan sighs, his face is a picture of regret and guilt.  “I once swore that any Padawan of mine would never feel unwanted, but here we are.”

Anakin is stunned into silence.  “I don’t understand.”  He truly doesn’t.  He suspects.  He knows that for all Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan loved and respected each other that there were sore spots in their relationship.  He knew he was one of them.

Obi-Wan smiles sadly.  “Let’s just say Master Qui-Gon and I did not have the best of beginnings.”  His smile turns into a grimace.  “Perhaps even comparable to our own.”

Anakin stares at him because never in their previous time together had Obi-Wan ever confided that to him. 

“I was aged out and just beginning my service with the AgriCorps when Qui-Gon finally offered to take me as his Padawan,” Obi-Wan continues.  “He’d rejected me as too angry and likely to Fall quite a few times before that.”

Anakin blinks back his shock because the idea of Obi-Wan being likely to Fall is so ludicrous that he wonders at how Qui-Gon even imagined it.

“I owe you an apology, Anakin.  My feelings about your nebulous future with the Jedi when we first met were only that: feelings,” Obi-Wan sighs, “and while admittedly others in the Council felt the same, I know my own judgement was clouded by jealousy that you had attained Qui-Gon’s regard so easily and resentment that he would put your future ahead of mine.”

Anakin vaguely remembers the way Qui-Gon had spoken about taking Anakin as a Padawan, stating Obi-Wan was ready for his trials when rebuked that he already had one.  With the benefit of age, he could see how truly awful that whole declaration must have been for Obi-Wan. 

“Of course, some of that had nothing to do with either of us,” Obi-Wan continues, his gaze drifting away to stare sightlessly into the past, “Qui-Gon believed utterly in the prophecy and so he believed utterly in you.”  He shook his head and gave a small laugh.  “Yet, because he was a Master of the Living Force, he rejected any feelings or visions others had of the future.  ‘Stay in the here and now; be mindful of the present,’ he would say to me when I would say I had a feeling or woke from sleep after a vision.  ‘The future is always in motion,’ he’d say.”

Anakin grimaces.  It had never occurred to him that Obi-Wan’s teachings of such had been rooted in Qui-Gon’s.

“But it’s time I set aside those remonstrations,” Obi-Wan continues, as though he’s read Anakin’s mind, “what did your vision tell you of your future?”

“That if I stay with the Jedi, I’ll make bad choices,” Anakin states bluntly.  “And my choices lead others to choices which mean the end of the Jedi and the rise of the Sith.”

Obi-Wan closes his eyes briefly.

No doubt he can hear the truth ringing as clearly in the Force as Anakin can.

Obi-Wan opens his eyes and meets Anakin’s gaze.  “You could stay with the Jedi and make different choices knowing the outcome if you do not.”

“Maybe,” Anakin concedes, “but I think I would make better choices if I wasn’t a Jedi.”  He sighs.  “I don’t belong here.  It’s not my path.”

Obi-Wan nods slowly, accepting Anakin’s decision.

“It’s just…” Anakin blurts out, “I don’t know what I do now if I’m going to leave the Jedi.”

That had been the reason he’d stayed the first time round.

“Well, you could transfer to the Jedi Service Corps,” Obi-Wan suggests.  “You could join as an apprentice pilot and mechanic.  You’d get to explore the galaxy.  The Corps aren’t subject to the same restrictions as the Knights, so you’d be able to marry and have a family in the future if that is something you wanted.”

Anakin has never considered the Service Corps.  He knows about them.  He’s just never thought about them.  Even as Vader he’d disregarded them yet most of the initial rebel movement had probably stemmed from the remnants of the Corps, he muses.  Perhaps they’d also been the source of the Force sensitives identified and retrained as Inquisitors.  He’d never really questioned the origins of those he hadn’t recognised as former Jedi Knights and Masters.

“I like the idea of being a pilot,” Anakin allows, “but I don’t know that I want to be a pilot in the Service Corps.”

“That’s fair,” Obi-Wan says.  He sits back contemplatively.  “You’ve lacked the freedom of choice your whole life, Anakin, and perhaps that’s the answer to what next: you need to explore your options, see what is out there, and only then perhaps can you make an informed choice for what your path should be.”

It’s a good observation.  One that speaks truthfully not just to the boy Obi-Wan believes Anakin is, but also unknowingly to the older Anakin who truly sits in front of him.

Anakin has lacked choice his whole existence.  He’d gone from a slave with one type of Master to a Padawan with another; from a Knight being commanded by the Senate and Council in a war to a Sith apprentice and ultimately even as a Sith Lord, he had been commanded by his Emperor.

Perhaps the only true choice he’d made in his previous life had been to save Luke.

“I’d like that,” Anakin admits out loud, “but I don’t know how to do that.  I haven’t any money or…anything.”

“Well,” Obi-Wan says, “I have a bit put away for us to get started and I’ll talk to the Council.”

“Us?” Anakin’s heart pounds in his chest at the word.

“Us,” Obi-Wan says, “after all, we can’t have you wandering the galaxy alone.”

“But why?” asks Anakin bluntly.  For all he knows Obi-Wan truly cares about him, he’s never considered Obi-Wan would choose him over the Jedi.

Obi-Wan smiles.  “We may not have had the best start, Anakin, and I am sorry I made you feel that I did not want you, but you are my brother.  I love you.”  He gestures.  “Maybe we can even consider this a fresh start between us.”

“But what about the Jedi?” asks Anakin, reeling from the declaration of support.  The first time Obi-Wan had said that before had been across a molten flow of lava when they’d been trying to kill each other.

“Well, it won’t be the first time I’ve left to follow the will of the Force,” Obi-Wan admits wryly.

“What?!” Anakin almost shouts the word.

Obi-Wan gets to his feet.  “I should start making arrangements and…”

Anakin follows after him, ignoring the way his chair screeches across the floor.  “Wait, Master, you can’t just say that and leave!” 

Obi-Wan scoots out of their apartment before Anakin can catch him.  Anakin comes to a halt in front of their door and huffs.  How very like his Master.  No, not his Master, Anakin realises as he registers their conversation fully.  Not his Master, but his brother.  His brother who has chosen to follow Anakin on a new path.  The Force fairly vibrates with happiness and so does Anakin.

o-O-o

Tatooine is still as awful as Anakin remembers. 

The Lars homestead is smaller than the burned out husk that existed in the future, and it is filled with family.

No Beru yet as Owen is the same age as Anakin and more interested in running around and playing than doing his chores.  He can’t quite believe that the kid grows up to be the stuffy uncle who raises Luke.

Anakin sits on the roof of the building staring out at the setting suns.  He shifts as he feels his mother clamber up next to him.

Shmi Skywalker is worn from her years as a slave, but there is a new light inside of Shmi Lars from her brief time of freedom that Anakin cherishes seeing.

She nudges him.  “Are you sure you and Obi-Wan won’t stay longer?”

Anakin shakes his head.  Tatooine had been their unquestioned first destination.  He’d wanted to save his mother, change her destiny.  Instead, he’d found her already freed and married to Cliegg.  Somehow he’d convinced himself that she’d been freed only a short time before her death, yet the reality is very different.

She’s settled and happy.

He doesn’t know how to stop her death except come back closer to the time when she’ll be taken by the Tuskens and try to save her then.

“I just wanted to make sure you were alright,” Anakin says.

His mother wraps an arm around one of his and tucks into his side.  “You’re a good boy, Ani.”

Anakin basks in the maternal comfort.  He’d thought he’d never have this again.  “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too,” she says. 

“I don’t know how to let you go,” Anakin admits.  “I never did.  It’s why I can’t be a Jedi.”

His mother hums thoughtfully.  “We love each other, Ani.  That will never change.”  She taps her chest.  “I keep you here always just as you keep me here.”  She taps his chest.  “You don’t have to let me go, because even if we never saw each other again in this life, you’d always have me.”

Anakin feels his eyes start to burn with tears and he turns his head away, blinking into the fading sunlight.  “What if I told you to stay on Tatooine would mean your certain death?”

Her gaze snaps to his and he can’t look away from her piercing eyes. 

“Is that why your Obi-Wan offered to relocate us to Alderaan?”

He had?

Anakin blinks back his surprise.  “I didn’t know he’d done that.”

His mother arches one eyebrow and hums again.  “I think he worries about how you worry about me.”  She smiles as he stiffens and bumps their shoulders together.  “Hush, Ani, he guards your secrets well, but I’m your mother, I know.”

She probably did, Anakin realises.  She was very adept at understanding Obi-Wan and Obi-Wan seemed to adore her on sight.

“I will die whether I leave Tatooine or stay, Ani,” she says softly.  “The only thing certain in life is that one day we die.”

Anakin flinches at the hard truth.  He’d forgotten that his mother never shied away from life’s harsher realities.  She had been a slave and too used to them. 

“But if I tell you what I saw…”

“It will be no different to the truth I have seen myself,” she cuts in.

He stares at her.

She lifts a hand and smooths a lock of hair away from his eyes.  She cups his cheek.  “I have always known that my last breath will be taken looking into the eyes of my son one last time.”

Anakin lets his tears fall and he presses into her embrace.  “How can you bear knowing it?”  How can I bear it, he thinks.

“Because if my last sight is of you, how can I not?” whispers his mother.

They hold each other for a long moment.

A sweep of cold night air drifts across them and makes them shiver.

His mother eases back and wipes the tears from his cheeks.  “I don’t want you to dwell on the future you’ve seen, Ani.  Promise me.”

“But we could change it,” Anakin points out.  “If you go and stay on Alderaan, what I saw will never happen.”

“And I will still die one day,” his mother says again.  She clasps his face in one hand, her thumb stroking over his cheekbone.  “My choice is to stay here.”

And she had been given so few choices in her life.

Anakin sighs.  “Will you promise to be careful when you’re checking on the equipment and not to ever go alone?”  

“I promise,” she says.  “And you will promise to visit often now you no longer will be a Jedi.”

Anakin nods even if he hates Tatooine he’ll return to see his mother.  “I’m sorry I can’t stay.”

She looks at him knowingly.  “You deserve the freedom to make your own choice.”

“Obi-Wan says the same,” Anakin notes.

“Obi-Wan is a good man.”

“He’s my brother,” Anakin says.

“Well, we should probably climb down before your brother returns from town and freaks out at us being on the roof again,” his mother teases.

Anakin smiles and follows her down.

o-O-o

The first attempt to kidnap him comes as they’re leaving Tatooine.  A random gang tries to ambush them as they approach their ship’s hangar.  Anakin still doesn’t quite know how Obi-Wan wrangled them a ship from the Jedi, but he’s glad they’re not having to travel the galaxy on public transport.

Obi-Wan dispatches them quickly enough with Anakin providing an over-powered assist which is just about believable for a child Force prodigy and doesn’t give away just how well trained he truly is.

The second attempt is a pirate attack which Obi-Wan also takes care of with his usual competence.  They jump into hyperspace.

Half-way to Alderaan, Obi-Wan receives a transmission from Count Dooku offering to host them on Serrano.

Anakin slides into his seat in their small dining area as Obi-Wan strokes his beard and contemplates the invite.  “You don’t want us to go.”

“It is…suspicious,” Obi-Wan says.  “If he’d reached out before we left the temple, I might have considered it, but on the heels of the attacks we’ve just encountered…it feels like we’re being herded into accepting a very convenient sanctuary.”

“Do you think he’s a bad guy?” asks Anakin bluntly.  He knows Dooku is a bad guy, but he hasn’t quite worked out how to tell Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan sighs.  “I think Qui-Gon never introduced me to him, and I dislike that this is the first time Count Dooku has ever reached out to us.”

That makes sense.  Dooku had been groomed by Sidious for years and he’d ostensibly left the Jedi Order over Qui-Gon’s death.  A concerned Grandmaster would have reached out then.

The timing of this invite doesn’t surprise Anakin.  He figures Palpatine, or rather Sidious, has probably given the capture of Obi-Wan and Anakin to Dooku to keep his own hands clean.

The problem of how Anakin was going to stop Sidious has been one he’s been thinking about since he woke up back in the past.  Checking on his mother had taken priority and he hadn’t really gotten a lot further on Sidious than ‘avoid him’ (which is why he demurred when Obi-Wan had offered to take him to Naboo regardless of how much he wants to see Padmé), and ‘say no when the Sith Emperor offers to make Anakin his apprentice.’

He bites his lip.  It hadn’t occurred to him that his decision to leave the Jedi would put Obi-Wan and himself at any real risk.  He’s a fully trained Sith Lord and Jedi; he’s fully capable of protecting them even if he is inhabiting his younger body.  Still, Obi-Wan doesn’t know that and the last two attacks have seen Obi-Wan put himself between Anakin and any attacker.  Anakin’s beginning to realise his new choice may see Obi-Wan killed protecting him.

“This invitation feels like a trap,” Obi-Wan says.

Oh.

A trap.

A Sith-shaped Dooku-made trap.

Presented to Anakin on a plate.

If he could take Dooku off the board early…surely it won’t stop Sidious, but it could delay him for years.

Anakin looks over at Obi-Wan.  “If this is a trap, perhaps we should spring it.”

Obi-Wan stares at him with raised eyebrows.  “Well, that was Qui-Gon’s preferred method of dealing with traps, but you are only twelve now, Anakin.  If this is a trap, I’d rather not risk you.”

Anakin feels momentarily warmed at Obi-Wan’s obvious love for him.  He nudges Obi-Wan’s foot under the table.  “We could line up some back-up?  Make sure he knows we’ve told people where we’re going so he won’t try something really bad.”

Obi-Wan rubs his chin.  “Perhaps.”

Anakin rolls his eyes because he knows that’s Obi-Wan conceding that they’re going to Serrano.

Two calls later and they’re on their way.

Weirdly for all the fighting against Dooku they’d done in the past, Anakin realises that they’d never actually gone to Serrano.  The planet’s only inhabitable continent is covered by a dense forest and Anakin spots twelve castles and towns as they fly past on the way to Dooku’s fortress.

Obi-Wan sets the ship down next to a fleet of smaller inter-planetary vessels.  They depart the hangar to be greeted by Dooku and his sister, Lady Jenza.

It’s all very civilised.

If it is a trap Dooku intends to lure them in with the good food and comfortable beds Lady Jenza provides for them, and with the appearance of belated concern for his lineage. 

Anakin knows better.

Obi-Wan knows better.

They’ve been there a week and it’s the middle of the night when Anakin sneaks out, impatient to finally get to the trap part of their visit.  He leaves Obi-Wan asleep in the comfortable rooms they’ve been assigned.

He pads silently along the corridors to Dooku’s study.

It seems the likely place for Dooku to have something incriminating.

Or to be doing something incriminating, like being in the middle of a holocall with Jango Fett.

Kamino.

Anakin swears under his breath because he hasn’t thought about the clones since his time travel and they’d been so much a part of Sidious’ plot to eliminate the Jedi…

“It seems I have a visitor,” Dooku’s pronouncement brings Anakin’s attention abruptly back to the present.

Dooku is peering down his imperious nose at where Anakin is tucked away by the open door. 

“I will return to you later, Fett,” Dooku stabs a button and the holocall ends abruptly.  He sweeps around to face Anakin.  “Well, young Skywalker, this is unfortunate.”

Anakin ignites his lightsabre.  “For you, Count, but I’ll offer you a choice.  Stand down and come back to the Light or die.”

“And who is going to kill me, little slave?  You?” Dooku’s lightsabre flares red in the dark of the half-lit study and he attacks.

Anakin finds himself on the back foot.  Dooku is powerful and Anakin is a child – a fit, athletic child to be certain but he lacks the muscle density of an adult, the power of his old mechanical suit.  He bolsters his strength with the Force as he parries each slash and stroke of Dooku’s blade.

They dance around the study and out…into the corridor…

There is a shriek from a nearby servant and a cry from another…running footsteps…

Anakin ignores the frightened white face of a maid as she scurries back into a side-corridor as Dooku rains down relentless blow after blow.

The Dark side whispers to him, but Anakin thinks about Luke.  He uses his smaller size to dodge and dart around a corner and…

They are in the main hall where Dooku holds court as Count.  There are priceless tapestries depicting the history of Serrano all around them. 

Anakin slides across the polished tiled floor and sends an old painting arcing towards Dooku…

The Count bats it away and sends lightning towards him in return.

Anakin leaps to avoid it…

And sees the lightsabre blow too late…his own lightsabre flies from his grasp…

He instinctively throws out his hand and Dooku’s blade comes back down…

The searing pain of losing his hand flashes through him. For a moment he’s caught in the memory of the first time he lost his hand back in a cave in Geonosis before the real physical pain of losing his hand again brings him back to the present…

He looks up and sees Dooku’s lightsabre descending to end him and…

A blue beam of light appears between Anakin and the red blade.

Anakin’s head snaps up to look at a furious-looking Obi-Wan.

“Get him to safety!” Obi-Wan orders and moves…

Anakin blinks as an old and grizzled guard steps forward and stoops to pick him up.

“No,” Anakin protests weakly, “I have to help Obi-Wan.”

“Your Obi-Wan’s got it covered, kid,” the guard says grimly.

Anakin looks back and…

Obi-Wan is fighting Dooku.  In the past, Anakin can’t remember Obi-Wan becoming a Master of Soresu until the Clone Wars, but Obi-Wan is fighting as though he has already mastered the defensive style, taking blow after blow from Dooku and never faltering.

Anakin struggles weakly as the guard carries him towards the door where the servants and a distressed-looking Lady Jenza are gathered.

Anakin peers around the guard’s armoured shoulder to see and…

Obi-Wan is suddenly victorious, disarming Dooku and his lightsabre is at the Count’s throat.

Everything stills.

Even the guard stops.

“Surrender, Count,” Obi-Wan says grimly.

Dooku shifts, almost subtly, there’s a glint of steel and Anakin tries to reach out with the Force to stop him…

Obi-Wan bats the knife away and in his next stroke, Dooku’s head is separated from his body.

It’s over.

Anakin’s stunned gaze locks onto Obi-Wan’s bowed head as he extinguishes his lightsabre and grieves for the Fallen Jedi.

Anakin blinks heavily.

Obi-Wan is suddenly there, taking Anakin from the guard and…Anakin closes his eyes and lets the pain carry him away into unconsciousness.

o-O-o

“What were you thinking?!” 

Anakin grimaces as he pokes at his new prosthetic hand.  It’s not as good as any of his old ones but he figures he can spend the next month tweaking it into what he needs.  He squirms on the infirmary bed and avoids Obi-Wan’s glare.  He’s been expecting the lecture since he’d woken up that morning after the events of the night before.

“Really, Anakin,” Obi-Wan continues, “what possessed you to sneak out and take on Dooku all by yourself?”

Anakin sighs.  “I defeated him in the vision.”

“And how old were you in your vision when you did that?” asks Obi-Wan pointedly.

Anakin grimaces again.  “I’m injured!” He complains.  “You shouldn’t yell at me.”

“Your mother gave me permission to yell at you,” Obi-Wan says.

Anakin’s head jerks up and he stares at Obi-Wan horrified.  “You told my mother?!”

Obi-Wan raises an eyebrow as he shifts into his usual position, hands tucked under his elbows in the voluminous sleeves of his outer robe.  “I believed Shmi would appreciate being informed that her son was injured.”  His expression shifts into a look of bewilderment.  “She’s on her way.”

Anakin stares at him.  “What?”

“She asked me to send someone to collect her,” Obi-Wan tells him.  “Knight Vos will return with her in the next ten-day.”

Vos who had supposedly been on their way as their back-up, Anakin thought absently before the rest of the sentence sunk in. 

His mother was leaving Tatooine? 

And was coming to Serrano?

“I’m really not that injured,” Anakin notes weakly.

Obi-Wan returns to looking unimpressed.  “You lost a hand, Anakin!”  He closes his eyes briefly before reopening them.  “Dooku almost killed you.  When I got to the hall…I was almost too late to stop his blow.”

Anakin bites his lip and ducks his head.  “I’m sorry.”

Lady Jenza bustles in.  She looks the picture of dignified mourning in a long black dress with a high collar and long sleeves. “Count Kenobi, the Council is gathered and is waiting for you.”

Anakin’s lips twitch and he wrestles down the smile he wants to make at Obi-Wan’s horrified expression before his Master manages to wrestle it into a simile of the diplomatic mask of the Negotiator.

“Lady Jenza, as I explained I have no intention of taking over the leadership of Serrano,” Obi-Wan states firmly. 

“And as I explained,” Lady Jenza responds tartly, “whether you want it or not, you are the rightful Count of Serrano by way of conquest.  We’ve already conceded to your rule. Better you than my brother. He was planning to assassinate me you know.”  She looks smugly satisfied.  “I have gathered the Council as you asked.”

Obi-Wan looks over at Anakin.  “I need to…” he clearly struggles for words which is fascinating for Anakin to watch, “…sort this out,” he says finally. “Will you be alright here for a moment?”

Anakin nods his head.

Obi-Wan makes to leave but stops for a moment and reaches out to gently cup Anakin’s face with one hand.  “Try not to get into any trouble while I’m gone.”

“I promise,” Anakin says.

Lady Jenza nods briskly at Anakin and follows Obi-Wan from the room. Anakin rather thinks Obi-Wan is going to lose his bid to give up Serrano’s leadership.

Anakin throws himself back on his pillows and stares at the ceiling.  The future has changed irrevocably with Dooku’s death.  He’s suddenly exhausted, too tired to contemplate what it all means. 

Sidious will be furious. 

And then there’s the clones and Fett.

And Maul.  Ventress.  Grievous.

There’s a lot still to fix.

Later, Anakin thinks, he’ll think about it all later.

He lets himself sleep.

o-O-o

Ten Years Later

Anakin hasn’t been back to Coruscant since he left but Obi-Wan is being honoured for his humanitarian work by Chancellor Organa and Anakin wouldn’t miss it for the galaxy.

Organa pins the medal on Obi-Wan’s chest and Anakin claps loudly along with the rest of the Serrano contingent.  Beside him, Jango Fett steadies his son, Boba with hands on the young boy’s shoulders.  Crammed into the back, a young Cody and Alpha-17 are clapping as loudly as Anakin.

Fett and the clones had taken residence on Serrano in the wake of their discovery after Dooku’s death.  Obi-Wan had extended an offer of citizenship and sanctuary as a way of compensating Fett for Dooku’s actions in mentally manipulating the Mandalorian into the whole clone arrangement. 

Satine Kryze’s complaints to the Republic about Serrano harbouring the Mand’alor, his colony of clones and True Mandalorians have only increased in the wake of Fett marrying Obi-Wan two years before after foiling an assassination attempt by Maul. 

Anakin still can’t quite believe that happened, especially as he remembers teasing Obi-Wan about his brother’s relationship with Satine back in the old timeline.  But Obi-Wan seems happy with Fett and being buir to the many clones who form their extended family.  That’s all that’s important.

Kryze’s complaints have largely gone dismissed by the Senate and the Jedi Council who had been grateful to hand the whole mess of the clones over to Obi-Wan given they had been dealing with cleaning up after the revelation of Sidious. 

Dooku’s study had been a treasure trove of intelligence and evidence of Palpatine’s crimes as a Sith leading to an attempted arrest by a team of Jedi, a fierce battle and only Mace Windu surviving the whole affair.  The Jedi have spent the years since running down Palpatine’s back-up plans and ensuring that the Sith has no path back to power.

Anakin sometimes feels guilty about not dealing with Sidious himself but he hadn’t even known about the whole thing until it was over. 

Bail Organa had been elected Chancellor in the wake of Palpatine’s demise and he’s done a good job of setting the Republic back on its feet and battling the corruption that had been poisoning it from within, the poison which had helped Palpatine to power. 

Lady Jenza signals for the Senate pod to return to its bay and they make their way to the Senate room designated for the reception celebration.

Anakin isn’t surprised when he’s collared soon after entering by Master Koon and a familiar Togruta Padawan wanting to talk about the status of the new spaceship fleet the Order has requisitioned from the Serrano shipyards.  Anakin has been the Chief Design Engineer since he turned sixteen and he loves it.  Still, as Ashoka excitedly asks him another question and he answers, he can’t help but wistfully remember his own time as her Master.

Koon moves away to join Windu in a discussion on the other side of the room and Anakin heads for the bar.

“Ani?”

Anakin freezes for a second in accepting his tankard of ale before he nods at the bartender and turns to face her.

Padmé.

She looks beautiful.  Her deep forest green dress with its gold-patterned over-robe sets off her tanned complexion, tawny eyes, and her caramel brown hair to perfection.  He drinks in the sight of her.

He’s chosen not to approach her, not to contact her.  He loves her, but he knows his love for her had led him to some toxic places in the past timeline.

Padmé smiles widely at him.  “It is you, isn’t it?” She offers her hand.  “It’s me, Ani – Padmé.” 

“Mi’lady,” Anakin responds with a bow.  He takes her offered hand and kisses her knuckles, pleased when he sees a faint blush on her cheeks.  “It’s good to see you, Senator Amidala.” 

“Padmé, Anakin,” Padmé insists, “unless you’d like me to call you Lord Skywalker.”

Anakin pulls a suitably mortified face.  “Please don’t.” He gestures towards the bartender.  “May I get you a drink?”

“A Naboo peach wine would be lovely,” Padmé confirms.

Anakin almost smiles.  Their past wedding toast had been with a similar wine.  “Are you enjoying the Senate?”

“I’ll be relieved when this second term is over,” Padmé says.  “I couldn’t refuse the Queen’s request after what happened with…with Palpatine, and I hope that we’ve done enough to restore our reputation.”

“I’m certain you have,” Anakin says, “Obi-Wan has mentioned your work in the Slavery Abolition Committee.”

Padmé nods.  “I was pleased to hear of the slave rebellion on Tatooine.”  Her eyes meet his with the same sharp intelligence he has always loved about her.  “Obi-Wan says you got caught up in it when you were both visiting your mother.”

Anakin shrugs.  Got caught up or incited…they are very similar terms. 

“And I understand Serrano has provided the new government there with a great deal of assistance,” Padmé continues.

“We were only glad to be of help,” Anakin demurs.

“You sound like Obi-Wan,” Padmé laughs.

“He did raise me,” Anakin notes wryly.

Padmé smiles.  “He’s very proud of you.  He says your new ship design is giving all the competition fits.”

“I love flying,” Anakin says.

“I remember,” Padmé teases.  “Of course, you were much smaller back then.”

Anakin swallows down the comment that springs to mind and congratulates himself on not mentioning her height.  “I’ve grown up.”

“Yes,” Padmé says, considering him with a frank gaze, “you have.”

It’s his turn to blush.

Padmé bites her lip and takes a sip of her wine.  “You know I was surprised to hear that you and Obi-Wan left the Jedi when I met with him again.  You both would have been very welcome on Naboo.”

“I don’t think we really knew where we were going when we left, but Serrano has been good for us,” Anakin says truthfully.  Obi-Wan had turned the planet into a force for good and hasn’t looked back. 

“I guess I can’t argue with that,” Padmé says with a warm smile.  “And I certainly won’t argue against having Obi-Wan in the Senate.  He’s brilliant and he’ll be a shoe-in for the next Chancellor.”

Anakin almost chokes on his drink.  Force.  Obi-Wan will hate that idea.

Padmé laughs as though she knows.  She probably does.  “Will you take over from Obi-Wan as Senator?”

Anakin shakes his head.  “Cody, probably.  He has a head for politics and leadership.  I’ll stick to flying.”

Across the room one of her aides signals to her and Padmé’s smile dims.  “I guess I should get back to work.”

Anakin nods.  “It is lovely to see you again, Padmé.”

“Perhaps we could have dinner before you leave Coruscant? I’d love to catch-up properly,” Padmé asks boldly.

Anakin blinks.  He’s a little taken aback because he’d been the one to pursue her the last time, but he can’t deny the thrill of knowing she wants him.

“I’d like that,” he says unable to say anything else.

“Then I’ll be in touch,” Padmé says.  She moves away and he watches her go.

Obi-Wan steps up beside him.  “I do hope you managed to speak in complete sentences to her, Anakin.  She’s been looking forward to seeing you again since I confirmed you were attending.”

Anakin shoots him a mock-look of annoyance.  “I managed just fine, thank you, Obi-Wan.  And I’ll have you know she invited me for dinner.”

Obi-Wan’s blue eyes warmed with amusement.  “Did she indeed?”  He shook his head.  “And there I thought she was a woman with impeccably good taste.”

Anakin flinches a little at the teasing remark.  He knows Obi-Wan is only joking; banter is their thing, but…

“Anakin?” asks Obi-Wan gently, pulling them to the side of the bar where they can speak quietly and in the illusion of privacy.

Anakin flushes.  “She’s always been out of my league and…” he looks back over to where Padmé is talking with a group of Senators.  “I’m not sure the two of us together would be a good idea after what I saw in the…the vision.  You know…that one.”

Obi-Wan hums.  “Your vision.  You haven’t mentioned that for years now.”

Anakin grimaces.  “It hasn’t been relevant for a lot of years now.”

Obi-Wan hums again, stroking his beard thoughtfully.  “You changed a great deal, Anakin, when you left the Jedi.  You’re not the same person you saw in your vision.”

“I loved her so much I burned the galaxy to ash to save her,” Anakin murmurs, his eyes on Padmé.  “How can I trust myself not to do that again?”

Obi-Wan’s hand lands on his shoulder and Anakin turns to face his brother. 

“The fact that you question yourself is admirable, Anakin,” Obi-Wan says, “but let us not throw the twins out with the bathwater.  You’re not a Jedi Knight, nor a Sith Lord. There is no reason you cannot have love and a family.” 

Anakin absorbs that truth with a sharp intake of breath.  Of course.  He’s not a Jedi Knight. He can love Padmé openly this time.  There is no reason to sneak around and hide.  No Sidious playing with his fears. 

Obi-Wan smiles and squeezes his shoulder.  “You’re a good man, Anakin, and for some reason Padmé returns your interest and affection.  You shouldn’t deny yourself exploring the opportunity a little even if it leads no further than dinner.”

Anakin nods, feeling a little shaky.  Obi-Wan is right.  It is only dinner.

Obi-Wan pats his shoulder.  “Excellent,” he says, “although for the record I would really like to be invited to the wedding this time, Padawan.” 

What?

Obi-Wan smiles wickedly and walks away.

What?

Anakin stares after him in shock.

Did Obi-Wan…?

Twins. 

He’d said, ‘throw the twins out with the bathwater’ and…

Anakin downs his drink and goes after his brother to demand an explanation for not telling him sooner that he’d travelled back in time with him.

fin.