Disclaimer: No, I don't own this. I don't make any money from it. I only live to read your reviews. And since so many of you all have requested this, here is an epilogue for "The Bitter Glass". I am not attaching it to the story proper because I don't know that I like it...but anyway, it should tie up some loose ends. Please R/R. grin
"Beloved, gaze in thine own heart, a holy tree is growing there.
From joy the holy branches start and all the trembling flowers they bear...
From there the Loves a'circle go, the flaming circle of our days,
Gyring, spiring to and fro in those great ignorant leafy ways..."
Yeats, The Two Trees
The Bitter Glass
Epilogue--Five Years Later
Anakin woke to something poking him in the back.
He turned over, careful not to disturb the dark-haired woman beside him. With reflexes born of a lifetime at war he scanned the room, searching for signs of intrusion. When none were forthcoming he allowed his body to relax, only to feel the sharp jab again. He hissed in a mouthful of air and slid out of bed, annoyance in his movements. He felt, rather then heard, the cause of his annoyance in the antechamber outside his bedroom.
Anakin stalked into the room, not bothering with the lights. A figure sat on the couch and he moved towards it, only to be stopped by the snap-hiss of a lightsaber at his throat. The green glow illuminated a familiar face.
"You're getting careless in your old age, Father."
"Look down, my son."
Luke looked to the unlit saber held a handspan over his belly and laughed, disengaging his own. "Lights," he called, and the lights sprang up, showing the pillow Luke had set on the sofa as a decoy. Anakin turned, making sure that the door to the bedroom was shut. He did not want the light to disturb Padme's sleep. He turned back to see Luke sitting comfortably in a chair, observing him with the same smile still on his face. Anakin returned it and sat opposite him.
"How's the leg?" Luke motioned to the prosthetic, the last of his mechanical limbs to be replaced with newer, cloned ones.
"Not bad. I should be up to full speed in a few weeks. How's Leia?" Luke heard the wistfulness in his father's voice. Leia had blamed Vader for the destruction of Alderaan. It was hard for her to forget that. Their relationship had always been strained. Luke drew in a breath and fixed a smile to his face.
"Huge. Medi-droid said it was twins."
"Han must be proud."
"I've never seen a man so devoted." Luke's smile became more real at the memory of Han doting on his sister, and Leia's annoyed voice telling him to stop coddling her, even as her eyes softened with affection and love.
"Luke, I am pleased to hear about your sister. But I am sure you did not come light years, and wake me in the middle of the night, to discuss Leia's marital bliss."
Luke heard the note of humor in his father's voice. "No, I didn't." The young Jedi took a deep breath, knowing what was coming. "I have an idea. And I want you to hear it through before you say anything."
He waited for his father's nod before he went on. "I've been spending the last two years searching the galaxy for other Jedi-rogues, younglings, survivors from the Purges." Anakin nodded, aware of this.
"Well, I've found some. Not many. Mainly some half-trained kids who think they have some kind of super-power. And a few that may be using the Dark side."
Anakin's eyes widened at the news. This he had not known. "You have found Darksiders?"
"Children, father. Untrained children who reached for what they could find. The thing is, they need to be taught. And by someone who knows the Dark side, and can teach them what to stay away from."
"Luke..."
"Father, I can't do it alone. I don't have the training." Vader remembered with sorrow his son's return to Dagobah, only to find Master Yoda fading fast. He had blessed the boy, announcing that his training was complete, but both father and son knew that it was far from it. He had the power of a Jedi, but so much had been lost when Master Yoda had died. "You know more about the Jedi than anyone alive. About the history and the traditions. You could teach these younglings what I cannot."
"I cannot. I am not worthy, my son."
"I don't believe that. But even it were true, Father, there is no one else."
And with that admirable bit of emotional manipulation, Anakin took on the mantle of Jedi Knight once again.
In due time his grandchildren were born. Padme wept as she looked into their perfect faces, a boy and a girl.
Anakin beamed down at them, holding the boy in his hands. He had never been able to hold his own children when they were babies. That, like so much, had been torn from him by his own grief and rage. But now... He felt tears well in the back of his throat.
"What are their names?" Luke asked.
"The girl is Jaina. And the boy..." Leia met her father's eyes, soft brown shining into his, "...he is Anakin."
And Anakin felt the tears spill over his cheeks. He laid the baby down in its cradle and hugged his daughter to him. He felt Padme standing behind him, her hand on his back, and Luke, to his left.
Family.
His family.
FIN