Restoration
Disclaimer: I just love it, I don't own it. (Duh!)
He feels as if he is drowning but he is not gasping for breath; sensations and images are immersing him but he can see each with a clarity unknown to him for more than twenty years. He hears voices calling someone and it is forever and yet instantly that he realizes they are calling him. His name...
"Anakin! Anakin!" He recognizes his own name and hears the urgency in the caller's voice. And still he falls, through fire, through water, through sand, through ice until, in a shattering of precious stones, in a sunburst never before glimpsed by human eyes, he stops. He is safe, protected in kind, familiar arms. This is not what I expected death to be...
"Rest, young one," the ageless voice crackles with humor. "A long trip you have made, hmm?" Anakin smiles and tries to rise, he is recognizing, belonging here.
"I can't move," he realizes, panic temporarily seizing him. "I can't see!" The visions that danced before his eyes seconds ago are gone and he has been left in darkness. Such heavy darkness...
"You are bound, Anakin," his friend, his brother soothes. "You must be patient."
"Yes, Master," his words and attitude are humble, as he rarely was before. So he is patient as another eternity passes. Suddenly his hands and feet move. The blinding light flickers before his eyes, eyes that have long gone unused. He blinks as he looks into eyes as familiar as his own.
"I can see you, Master," he gasps, holding tight to the friend he thought he had lost forever.
"You are free!" His friend is joyful, clutching him close and nearly shaking him, his arms reassuringly solid and real.
"Your son, thank him you should," the ageless master declares. "Your robes, put on they must be." Clean white robes, the attire he does not deserve, are placed on him.
"Focus, you must," his master instructs and he obeys without question. Focus...
There he sees his son and, another undeserved blessing, his son sees him as he would wish to be seen, not as the monster, not as the forgotten one, but the way he ought to have been, the way he now is. The Chosen One...
He watches the girl, his daughter as he now knows, lead his son away. He smiles, because tears do not seem to come. My son, my daughter...
"Welcome, Anakin," Obi-Wan nearly shouts and Anakin knows the children are no longer watching, he is back in the ether, the indefinable eternity. He listens as his former masters explain to him, instruct him, teach him both his first and final lessons. He listens, respectful, suppressing his one last longing until it is no longer possible.
"Masters," he hesitates, "Is it possible to see her?" They look to each other before turning to face him, their faces sober but compassionate, their eyes guarded but kind. They had known he would ask. The desire of his heart is not hidden; his entire being is understandable and known now.
"Answer that, only you can," Yoda says, still watching to see Anakin's response. Anakin does not reply. He knows the Force has given him more than he deserves and until he hears another familiar voice he continues to hesitate.
"Call her, Anakin," Qui-Gon urges, his hand resting on Anakin's shoulder. Anakin smiles, grateful for this man's belief in him.
"Anakin," Qui-Gon says again and so, he does.
Without words, almost without thought, he calls her. The jewels and the ice shatter again, the pain and separation of twenty years are felt again and he knows he cannot bear it. His heart is breaking and he cries with the agony of all he has done, all he could never repay. The darkness surrounds him, pressing him, until, in a rushing of something that is not water and yet is not wind, he feels a hand on his own.
"Ani," he hears, and he cannot breathe. The whispers of ten thousand winds blow and he hears again, "Ani."
He closes his eyes as her lips touch his own and he enfolds her in his arms. She is here, against all probability, here in his arms again as he never thought possible.
"I love you," he chokes out. And his apologies and longing and love are all tied into those three words.
"I know," her voice is sweet and familiar, but now ageless and powerful as well. "Anakin, this is why I waited. I knew there was good in you, that the Emperor could never drive it from you completely."
"Luke said that," he murmurs in wonder, leaning down against her soft brown hair. He cannot see her face but he knows she is smiling, he can feel her delight.
"I know he did," she says. "Leia and Luke are also why I waited."
And then he understands. Their love has crossed all the facade of time and space, all the barriers of life and death; their love is part of the living Force which has tied them together irrevocably, as the vows they had murmured so many years before, their love has united them beyond any physical constraints or laws.
He clutches her hand and looks down to see her timeless brown eyes looking up at him. She, in a gesture as familiar to him as any, leans against his chest and he feels his physically dead heart beating eternal beats, truly alive for perhaps the first time.
And then he knows. He knows why they have not asked him to repay his debts, why they have not asked him to make recompense for his unpardonable actions, why there is no talk of restitution. He knows the Force has given him what can never be repaid: Grace. And in that realization Anakin Skywalker becomes what the Force had always intended; he is complete.
A/N: I wrote this because to me the saga can't be complete without Anakin and Padme. ;) Thanks for reading! Check out my other stuff if you're interested. :)