Author's note: This last chapter is a series of vignettes that wrap up the story. I've broken it up into two parts, but you needn't worry., there are no more cliffhangers. ;) This chapter will be followed by an epilogue. As a side note, I've taken some liberties with point of view in this last chapter, electing to use a semi-omniscient point of view at times to relate several individual thoughts at once. This might be jarring to some of you but I think it's the most efficient way to tell the rest of the story. I hope you can handle it for one chapter. ;)

Thank you all for your continued patronage. It has been an honor sharing my story with you.

Chapter 22

Redemption, Part I

"Anakinn!"

The MedLab delivery room was full of tension. Standing impatiently outside the sterile chamber and pacing helplessly was Bail Organa. Mon Mothma and several other Senators that knew the former Queen of Naboo quite well were also in the holding room, watching the Senator from Alderaan with mild amusement. Joining this growing throng was a glut of HoloNet reporters who continually dictated notes into little audio recorders they had with them. No holorecorders were allowed in the waiting area, which had frustrated many of the intrepid journalists who felt it was their duty to record everything about this event.

Bail glared at them in disgust, but Padmé had insisted that they be allowed into the MedLab. Bail never truly understood the motivations of the Senator from Naboo but he'd learned to respect them. Now, as he listened to her scream her husband's name with every contraction that gripped her, he wondered if it really was wise to invite the news crews to remain.

The Senator had tried to distract himself from his concern for Padmé by inquiring about Obi-Wan from the Jedi Healer who was stationed outside the Jedi Master's door. He found her to be a little obtuse. After a frustrating conversation that included several repetitions of "I'm not a liberty to discuss the Jedi Master's condition," Bail had redirected his attention to learning about the fate of the now-deposed Chancellor.

Despite managing to get in contact with the Jedi Temple, he found that he was repeatedly rebuffed by a rather haggard-looking Shaak Ti, who seemed to be afflicted with the same speech impediment that the Jedi Healer suffered from. Bail did everything in his power to get something out of her, but found only a stern face and a "Everything will be explained when the time is right" for a response.

So, the Senator from Alderaan did the only thing he could do given that he couldn't help Padmé, wasn't in a position to learn anything new, and the Senate had gone immediately into recess following the vote as Padmé had been rushed to the MedLab.

Bail Organa paced.

He heard her scream again and shuddered with worry, wondering what was happening inside the delivery room...

"Anakin!" Padmé panted as another contraction finally unclenched its fist and released her taut muscles for a brief respite. She heard the medical droid on the other end of the table providing pre-programmed words of encouragement. It was telling her to remember to breathe. It was telling her that she was doing wonderfully and that any moment she would be a proud mother. It was telling her that she should concentrate on her breathing and focus all her strength on this one monumental task. It was mentioning that giving birth was the most amazing thing a living creature could hope to achieve. It was saying that Padmé Amidala was performing more beautifully at this most challenging of tasks than any in the MedDroid's recent memory. It was reminding her to breathe.

Padmé wondered how easy destroying the droid's vocabulator would be.

Shé glared at the machine with one ridiculously large eye and one insanely smaller one. The droid kept telling her to breathe. She stared at the machine that floated around the room but didn't actually do anything other than prattle out non-sequiturs and remind her to breathe. As the machine floated back yet again from some unknown table carrying some unknown and useless tools to place on the tray next to it, Padmé watched it pass within inches of her bent knee. She clearly visualized planting her foot squarely in the machine's head and knocking it clear across the room. She had no doubt she could do it. Just a little bit closer…

"Anakin!" Padmé screamed again in frustration. I need that stupid thing. But Anakin…he's useless. I'm going to kill Anakin.

"Padmé," the melodic voice of her man rang in her ears. Suddenly, she didn't feel like killing him anymore. "I'm right here! You don't need to scream my name. I'm not going anywhere. I've been here. Now…would you please just calm down?"

There is a problem that often occurs in delivery rooms across the Galaxy. It is a situation that arises when creatures with no understanding of the pain of childbirth attempt to—intentionally or not—minimize the magnificent feat.

This tendency naturally, is most common among the males of most species, although there are several species in which the male is the birthing parent. Regardless, this problem usually occurs when the offending person is doing his or her, level best to reassure and assuage the partner in pain.

For males, it is encouraging to say things like "It's not that bad" and "You can handle it" and "Other people do it all the time, why are you crying about it?" All these comments have a tendency to spur a rather undesired response from the mate, which always produces utter surprise in the reassuring partner, who cannot imagine why his or her words are not having the intended impact. This is why for thousands of years, throughout the Galaxy, men were kept out of the delivery rooms by being told to do menial and pointless tasks such as boiling water and retrieving blankets.

But the most egregious of all comments to deliver to someone in the midst of giving birth—while her insides feel like they are being torn apart and a child that feels roughly the size of an battle cruiser tries desperately to force its way through a passageway that is far too small—is to "calm down." The reassuring partners, of course, never realize how intensely upsetting such a suggestion would be during such a situation. Otherwise they would find a much safer phrase of reassurance.

Anakin Skywalker didn't need to Force to tell him he was in trouble.

With strength that Anakin had never seen in his wife in all the years he'd known her, her powerful hand grabbed his robe around the neck with stunning speed and precision and pulled the corners of the cloth tight. Anakin's eyes opened wide as he realized that she was beginning to cut off his air supply. She pulled him down to her face, eyes blazing with anger.

"I AM CALM!" she screamed. Anakin's face began to redden.

"Yes…dear…" Anakin gasped out. He had the good sense not to try and pry her hand free from his collar, though he wasn't sure if he even had the strength to do so if he wanted to. "I can see that…you're calm! I'm sorry…"

Padmé glared at him a moment longer before she pushed him away with a disgusted look. She directed her wrath now at the droid standing pointlessly between her legs.

"Are you planning on doing anything down there anytime soon?" she yelled. The droid made the mistake of trying to respond with explanations of medical procedures for delivering babies. It was pointing out to Padmé that she had only become fully dilated a few moments before and that the babies might not come for several more minutes and up to an hour.

Anakin cringed.

"WHAT?" Padmé's bellow caused the gathered crowd outside her room to cringe. "An HOUR? I hope for your sake you're---aggghhhhh!"

Another contraction clenched her in its punishing claws, rendering her inarticulate. The droid observed a monitor for a moment and then rapidly moved into position. The machine quickly put special tools on its arms that looked rather like large, flat spoons.

"It would seem," the machine announced in a melodic replica of a female voice, "that you are almost ready. On your next contraction, we will begin to push."

Padmé gritted her teeth and desperately tried to breathe through the pain. She secretly yelled at herself for waiting so long to get to the MedLab. Apparently, providing anesthetizing drugs too close to the birth of the child had little or no impact on the pain and could have serious consequences for the baby. Because she had to go save the Republic from its own stupidity, now she had to suffer. At that moment, she didn't like the Republic very much.

"Can't…" she gasped. "I…just…push…NOW!"

"It would seem," the machine replied in the same musical timber, "that you are almost ready. On your next contraction, we will begin to push."

"Oh shut up!" she hollered.

The contraction began to pass. Padmé could almost feel the next one starting up. She dropped her head back and rested for a moment. She felt Anakin's flesh hand grasp hers. He stood on her left and looked lovingly into her eyes. Her heart softened as she saw him staring at her and she almost smiled.

"What are you looking at?" she asked in a playfully harsh voice.

Her face was bright red and a vein was visibly pulsing on her forehead. Sweat had matted her hair into a disheveled tangle of uncoordinated clumps and strands. Her hands were clammy and muscles were taut. Dark black circles garnered her eyes. She looked exhausted.

She was also the most beautiful woman Anakin Skywalker had ever seen.

"You," he smiled broadly at her. "I love you."

Three simple words. Three words that made her heart soar and her soul sing. Three simple words that could never describe the depth of feeling shared between these two beings that had fought incredible battles to save their Galaxy. Three simple words that meant everything. Three simple words that gave them the strength to climb any obstacle and face any threat.

"I love you, too," she whispered in response and held his hand a little tighter.

With intense suddenness, another contraction began. Padmé tightened her grip on Anakin's hand with such fierceness that the young Jedi Master began to wonder what the impact would be on his life now that he would need to get a second mechanical hand. Pain filled the air as the two lovers began their journey into parenthood.

Padmé pushed when the machine asked her to and screamed in concentration.

As the child of their dreams began to emerge, Anakin Skywalker's heart swelled with pride.

As the boy that she named Luke was gently laid next to her on an infant monitoring bed, he smiled broadly down at her.

As their girl was born moments later and she named her Leia, Anakin beamed and told her how brave and wonderful she was.

The father looked on with joy unlike any he had ever felt in his entire life. Joy would never do justice to the elation he felt. As he stared at the children—His children, he marveled at the bliss that had entered his life. But another emotion began to creep into his heart. One he hadn't expected. One that, until now, had a completely different meaning to him. One that came as realization dawned on him that he knew nothing about fatherhood—

Absolute dread.

"It's an ice-planet on the very outskirts of Republic space," Ki-Adi-Mundi announced to the gathered Jedi Masters in the Council Chambers as he pointed to the small pinprick of light that hovered at the fringes of the galactic hologram on display in the darkened room.

The irony of the miniscule light immersed in the darkness was not lost on Mace Windu, who stood impassively in the center of the myriad star systems distributed throughout the chamber.

"The system is far from any major hyperspace lane junction points and receives virtually no commercial traffic," the Cerean Jedi Master continued. "The planet is uninhabited by any sentient beings and life-form readings are minimal. It is a desolate place altogether, with extremely cold days and even colder nights. It is the last place in the Galaxy any sane person would willingly choose to live."

"Perfect," Mace replied. "This…what was the name of the planet, again?"

"Hoth," Master Ki-Adi-Mundi replied.

"Hoth…" Mace considered the word along with its namesake planet for several moments as he stared at it in the scale model of the Galaxy. "Hoth seems to be a perfect home for me. The hard life will be good to keep my mind and body distracted during the day and allow me ample opportunity to test my meditation abilities at night." He looked around the room and his eyes rested on Anakin Skywalker who stared at him directly. "You can tell the Senate whatever lie suits you best, I suppose."

"We will tell them," Obi-Wan spoke up, "that following your defeat by Anakin and your removal of power from the Senate, you escaped to the distant regions of space and that we are tracking your movements. "The truth…"

Obi-Wan paused and smiled wryly as he took in the entire room."…from a certain point of view."

Mace Windu actually smiled at that. It was not the malevolent and deeply unsettling smile he had displayed so often over the past day. It was a smile of genuine amusement.

Anakin stood and walked to the center of the room, coming to a halt less than a meter away from Mace. He stared at Mace squarely in the eyes with a look of deepening concern.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Anakin asked. "We've already fallen out of favor with the public. We can weather the outcries, if necessary. You don't have to leave—"

"Yes, I do," Mace interrupted. "The damage I've done is too great. You and the rest of the Council have a lot of work to do to regain the public trust. Right now, they blame you for the war. Fair or not, that is the way things are. The Jedi are the powerful, as your wife put it. The people right now are not interested in trusting those with power. Keeping me around—no matter how noble your motives—will only fuel their distrust of the Jedi."

Anakin opened his mouth to argue but Mace lifted his hand and silenced him. The Korun Master stepped away from Anakin and turned about the room to take in the gathered Jedi Council members.

"There are no words of apology that I can offer that will make up for the damage I have done," Mace said, his voice barely audible in the darkened room. "I don't deserve the forgiveness you all have so freely offered. Even now, a part of me rages at the thought that I am apologizing at all. That's the part of me that most needs to be on this ice-planet. There, I can try to contain the beast within me. There, I can learn what life is like without the civilization that I loved so much that it drove me to the dark. I must do this. As much for myself as for the Jedi Order."

The room fell silent for a long time. Anakin's eyes wandered around the room and observed the decimated Jedi Council. Even with all the Masters now gathered in the room, Anakin noted sadly that there were only five Jedi Masters left on a Council that normally seated twelve. Anakin grieved for the loss of the great Masters that once filled the chamber in which he now stood. Then he called on the Force and let the grief pass. It was a skill he was growing morbidly proficient at, he realized.

"As often as I can, I'll visit," Anakin announced. "I will bring you supplies and we will meditate together. If you will let me, I will guide you on the path to full acceptance in the Force."

Mace seemed to ponder this for several long seconds before responding.

"Perhaps…" Mace said finally. "…when I'm ready. For now, I will focus primarily on surviving there. I assume you will take me, given the risk to any other Jedi who might come on a journey with me?"

"Yes," Anakin replied, his voice carrying a bit of warning in it that Mace acknowledged with a curt nod. Anakin reached to his belt and retrieved Mace's lightsaber calmly. He extended it toward the former Jedi Master. "You'll need this, I imagine."

Mace looked at the hilt of his weapon longingly. He extended his mechanical hand toward it, feeling it in his grasp in the Force long before he would ever touch it. It was his greatest ally. It was his last attachment.

The Korun's gaze fell on his outstretched cybernetic hand and took in the whirring servomotors and electronic circuits that made it possible for him to hold his blade in his hand again. Faced with the personification of the hideous monstrosity that he had become, he pulled his hand back in dismay.

"No!" he responded, his voice gravelly with emotion. He turned away from Anakin's reach and shut his eyes tightly. He breathed deeply in the Force. The room remained silent as Anakin replaced the saber on his belt. Several minutes passed before Mace spoke again. "I will survive by the will of the Force," he announced at length with his back still to Anakin. "Or I won't survive at all. My weapon would only be a distraction…when I am ready…I will build a new one."

"Or you can claim your old one," Anakin replied softly as he tenderly placed his flesh hand on Mace's shoulder. "You can become the man you once were, if that is your wish, Mace. It's not about trust in the Force…it's about trust in yourself."

The Korun Master nodded but did not turn around.

Anakin called the small datasphere that powered the projection of the Galaxy to him and used a gently tug of the Force to turn up the lights in the room. The light seemed to awakenMace from his reverie and he finally lifted his downcast head and looked about the room.

"I…" Mace whispered at last, "...will never be the same."

"Perhaps," Obi-Wan replied as he stood and approached the men, "you can become better."