Chapter 29 – Saving Each Other

"Leia!"

Her eyes widened when she saw Padmé jumping down the stairs toward her. She held her hands up defensively before Padmé went crashing into her. The deafening sound of blaster fire overwhelmed her senses and Leia shut her eyes tight, pleading for the chaos to end. Nothing made sense to her anymore.

She was crying. How it started, Leia didn't know, but there was nothing she could do to stop it. She felt so lost and so afraid. And then she heard a voice in her ear.

"I've got you. It's okay. Everything's going to be fine."

Leia opened her eyes a fraction. It was her. The woman she had so desperately yearned to meet.

"Mother," she said, voice barely audible over the thunderous noise.

"I've got you," Padmé said again.

Leia's vision was blurred with tears. "I'm so sorry," she said hoarsely. "I never should have left you. I never should have –"

She stopped talking when the blaster fire suddenly stopped. Padmé pushed herself away from Leia and glanced around. Leia heard approaching footsteps, but she only had eyes for her mother.

"Forgive me," she pleaded.

Padmé looked down at her. Mother and daughter stared at one another for a long while before a familiar voice broke the silence.

"Captain Rex, are there any casualties to report?"

The clone took his time before answering. When he did, his voice was high-pitched and quavering. "I… I don't… n-no, sir. No casualties."

"Very good, Captain."

Padmé finally broke eye contact with Leia as she got to her feet. Her jaw slackened with disbelief when she stared at the man whom Leia knew to be behind her.

"Anakin?" she asked. "How –"

"Is our daughter alright?" he interrupted.

Padmé looked down at her again. "She's… she's safe," she said faintly. "I protected her." She then leaned down and offered Leia her hand. Leia stared at it for a long moment before reaching up to grab it. Padmé helped her to her feet and, once she was fully upright, pulled her tight into a hug.

"I'm sorry too," she whispered into her ear. Leia trembled as she pressed her face against her mother's neck. Tears continued to stream down her cheeks unimpeded.

"I left you," she whimpered. "How could I have left you?"

"It's alright," Padmé cooed. "You're with me now."

Padmé released her, but Leia wanted nothing more than to continue clinging on to her. She felt better about herself in her mother's embrace.

"Leia?"

Drying her eyes with her sleeve, Leia turned around slowly. She looked up and did a double take when she saw her father. When she had first heard his voice, she had assumed that he had been fitted with his new prosthetics and returned to the suit like he had said he wanted. That wasn't the case, however. Instead, the man before her bore no resemblance to the masked monster that was Darth Vader.

The first thing she noticed was that he was about a foot shorter than he used to be. Furthermore, the bulk which the suit had provided him was now gone. All that remained was a thin man bordering on fragile. The proud brown and tan robes which he was wearing hung to his frame loosely, giving the impression that they were several sizes too large.

"How did this happen?"

Leia spun her head to the left to see that Luke had descended the stairs and come to a stop by his mother's other flank. In his right hand, the red blade of Vader continued to hum ominously.

"She saved me."

Vader – or rather, Anakin – turned to his wife. He dropped his lightsaber to the ground and extended his hand to her. She stared at it, stunned. It looked as if it was made of flesh, yet Leia knew that couldn't be. The synthetic skin on his new limbs truly made it look as if Anakin was whole once more.

"I was a fool," he said. "I didn't know how just much I had hurt you until you pulled that trigger." He swallowed hard, palm facing upward as he kept his hand outstretched. "I understand everything now. I understand who I have to be. I understand who you need me to be." A long, poignant pause followed. Finally, he spoke. "Padmé. I'm sorry."

Padmé set her jaw as she looked up from Anakin's hand. "I know you are," she said flatly. Neither blinked as they gazed at one another, Anakin's eyes glistening while Padmé's were narrowed. After several long moments, Padmé suddenly reached out and took his hand. Anakin inhaled sharply, clearly surprised that she had willingly bridged the divide between them. "You really understand now?" she asked.

"I do," he said without hesitation.

"Then you understand that you are not forgiven."

Anakin nodded solemnly. "I do," he said again.

Padmé's steely façade faltered when her chin began to tremble. Hand still clasped with his, she took a step forward. "I thought you were gone forever," she said, so softly that Leia could hardly hear.

Anakin's lips twitched. "So did I."

Much to the surprise to everyone, Padmé suddenly pulled Anakin into an embrace just like she had done with Leia. Amazed, her mouth fell open and she shared an incredulous look with Luke. Her brother's expression was one of the utmost astonishment. Neither could believe that this was really happening.

The sound of a large procession approaching caused the twins to startle. With Anakin and Padmé preoccupied, Leia took the initiative and summoned the discarded lightsaber to her hand. She was about to activate the blade when she stopped. Emerging from one of the hallways was not more stormtroopers like she had feared, but an old friend.

Ahsoka stopped in her tracks when she saw Anakin and Padmé embracing in the center of the room. Shocked, she stared at the bizarre sight while the rest of the Rebel leadership appeared behind her.

"Commander Tano?" she heard Mothma ask. "Shouldn't we be going?"

Ahsoka blinked a few times in bewilderment. "Um… yes, of course," she said dazedly.

At her voice, Anakin reluctantly pulled away from his wife and turned toward his former Padawan. Amused by her look of awe, Anakin smiled wryly while brushing away an errant tear. "Ahsoka," he said. "It's good to see you."

"Anakin?" was all Ahsoka was able to say in reply.

"I'm sorry to break up this reunion, but we need to get out of here," came Cara Dune's authoritative voice.

Leia turned to the shock trooper commander and did her best to stow away her shock. "How did you get here?" she asked while clipping her lightsaber back to her belt. "Where's your ship?"

"No ship," Rex answered. "There's nowhere to hide it. We had to drop in."

"You dropped in? What was your plan for getting out?"

"There wasn't one," Cara said with an impish grin. "Act first, plan later."

"An admirable mindset," Anakin quipped. He turned away from Ahsoka and eyed the Rebels. "Fortunately, I can provide us with transportation."

"You can?" Cara asked. Skeptical, she arched an eyebrow. "Who even are you?"

"A friend," he answered vaguely. "My speeder is waiting out front, but there isn't enough room for all of us. I can leave now and have a shuttle ready to go in half an hour."

"What are we supposed to do in the meantime?" one of the clones asked.

"This place is going to be crawling with Imps in a few minutes," a shock trooper contributed.

"Indeed, it will," Anakin agreed. "But they won't find you."

"How do you figure that?" Cara asked.

"Because you'll be hidden."

"Hidden where?"

"In these cells."

Silence met this suggestion. Once again, Luke and Leia glanced at each other. Was Anakin saying what they thought he was saying?

"You want us to put ourselves back in prison?" Mothma asked and Anakin turned around again.

"Only for a little while," he said. "In different cells, of course. The Imperials will have no idea where you went."

"No way! This is insane!" a Rebel general protested.

"How can we trust you if we don't even know who you are?" another asked.

"It's alright, Admiral," Ahsoka said. "I can vouch for this man."

"As can I," Rex added.

"These cells are not designed to contain Force-wielders," Anakin explained. "Ahsoka will stay behind and can break you out at any moment if you decide to do so. I would advise against that, however. You have no way out without me."

The Rebel leadership all looked to their leader. For her part, Mothma seemed just as conflicted as her peers. She took a step forward so she was standing next to Ahsoka. She considered Anakin for several long moments before turning her attention to Padmé.

"Well?" she asked her former colleague. "Should I trust him?"

Padmé hesitated. She glanced back and forth between Mothma and Anakin while everyone waited for her verdict. Finally, she gave it.

"Yes. You can trust him."

The four Skywalkers were seated in a speeder – Anakin and Padmé in front and the twins in the back. Nobody said a word. Luke and Leia glanced back and forth between their two parents while Padmé continued to stare unabashedly at Anakin, no doubt still marveling at his miraculous transformation. For his part, Anakin pretended to be oblivious to the attention and was determinedly keeping his eyes on the air lanes ahead.

Not wanting to subject Padmé to any additional time in jail, he had insisted that she accompany him to get the shuttle. Since Luke still didn't trust Anakin, he had demanded that he come along, and since Leia didn't want to feel left out, she had gone as well. Besides, she had something she needed to discuss with her father.

"Admiral Piett came to see you in the hospital," she said finally. Anakin's eyes darted up to find hers in the driving mirror.

"What did he want?" he asked.

"He said that Moff Gideon's forces are going to be invading Imperial Center within the day. Apparently Mas Amedda contacted him and demanded that he surrender."

Rather than becoming angry like she expected, Anakin smirked. "How bold," he said with sardonic appreciation.

"Piett doesn't have the forces to repel the invasion, but there's someone else who does."

"I understand, Leia," Anakin said. "And yes, I will do it."

Leia blinked a few times in surprise. "You will?"

"Of course. We have no other choice, do we?"

"Can someone tell me what's going on?" Luke asked.

Anakin laughed. "It seems I'm joining forces with the Rebellion."

Bewildered, Luke turned to her. "What's he talking about?"

"I could have explained this to you earlier if you hadn't tried to kill me," Leia said with a frown.

Now it was Anakin's turn to be surprised. "He did what!?"

"I didn't try to kill you!" Luke insisted.

"Yes you did!"

"Could we talk about this another time, perhaps?" Padmé requested from the front seat. "Leia, tell us what you're planning?"

Leia gave Luke one last sour look before turning to her mother. "We have to convince the Rebels to send their fleet to Imperial Center," she explained. "Gideon would never expect it, so he'll be totally unprepared."

"But why would the Rebels do that?" Luke asked.

"They view Gideon as the greater threat," she told him. "They already agreed to cooperate, but Father wasn't willing to do it until now."

Luke frowned as he looked back to Anakin. "So what changed?" he asked. He alone had no idea what had happened in the medical center and he was no doubt extremely confused.

Anakin didn't respond for a long while. His grip on the steering wheel tightened as he looked off at the horizon. The sun was high in the sky and the surrounding buildings cast long shadows all around them. Their speeder was spared from the darkness, however. They soared high above the shroud and were illuminated in a proud amber glow. Finally, Anakin answered, but it wasn't to Luke whom he spoke.

"You're right, I was afraid," he said to Padmé. "All I remembered about my old self was the pain. I couldn't go back to that."

"You were in pain as Vader as well," Padmé pointed out.

"But it was bearable," Anakin said. He bowed his head before looking up at the mirror again. "And when I found Leia, it was more than that. For the first time, I wasn't suffering when I was with her."

Leia swallowed hard, emotion bubbling to the surface at this heartfelt disclosure. She met his eyes in the mirror, yet quickly had to look away to brush away tears. She wasn't going to cry again. That couldn't happen.

"That's why I didn't want to do it," Anakin continued. "I wanted to stay in the suit because it protected me. But then you pulled out that blaster and gave me a choice."

"What!?" Luke exclaimed.

Leia saw Anakin smile thinly in the reflection. "I dared you to do it because I didn't think you would. I didn't think you had the strength to kill me."

"Neither did I," Padmé said.

Anakin sighed. "On Mustafar, I tried to kill you because I was in so much pain. I hated myself so much and I committed an unforgivable act because of it. But even then, I wasn't able to do it. I wasn't able to kill you." He paused to exhale, his breath shaky as he unclenched his fists and stretched out his fingers. Closing his eyes, he resumed. "So when you pulled the trigger, I understood that you were in more pain than I had ever been and that I was responsible for that pain. When I woke up and realized what you had tried to do, I stopped feeling sorry for myself and did what had to be done. I became who you needed me to be, Padmé. I became who our children needed me to be. Who the galaxy needed me to be."

Nobody spoke after that. While Anakin drove onward, the three of them all stared at him with a mixture of awe, appreciation, and sympathy. For Luke and Leia, they saw for the first time their true father. For Padmé, perhaps now she could see him as her husband once more. Forgiven or not, this man was undeniably Anakin Skywalker.

And the three of them loved him for that.

A half hour later, the three of them were waiting in an Imperial shuttle as they waited for Anakin to return with the Rebels. Padmé had protested when Anakin told them he would be going in alone, but she quickly folded when he raised the alternative.

"I'm not saying it's not going to be dangerous, Padmé, I'm just saying that the twins shouldn't be subject to that danger," he had said. "You stay here with them and I'll be right back."

The three sat in silence while they waited. To keep her burgeoning sense of dread at bay, Leia unclipped her lightsaber from her belt and inspected it. As she turned it over in her hands, she heard Luke finally break the silence.

"I'm sorry," he said. Leia looked up to see his eyes on her. He alone was standing, arms crossed in front of his chest and foot tapping against the floor. "I shouldn't have attacked you."

Leia shook her head. "You were right to be angry. What I did was terrible."

Seated in a bucket seat against the opposite wall, Padmé spoke up. "I think we're all sorry," she said. The twins both nodded and looked down with shame. "What we need to do is move past this together. We need to trust each other, forgive each other, and most of all, love each other. Do you think we can do that?"

Luke and Leia looked at each other before turning to their mother in unison. "We can," Luke said and Leia nodded in agreement.

Padmé smiled weakly. "Good."

They fell into silence as each brooded in their own thoughts. There was something Anakin had said in the speeder which continued to nag her. Luke and Padmé had accepted it so easily, but Leia hadn't understood why.

"What did he mean when he said he tried to kill you?" she asked.

Padmé sighed. It seemed as if she had been dreading this question. Much to her surprise, Luke interjected on her behalf. "I'll tell you later," he said. "Mom doesn't like talking about it."

"That's alright, Luke," Padmé said. "I should be the one to tell her."

"You don't need to," Leia said. "I think I know anyway."

"Do you?"

"You never lied to Ahsoka, did you?"

Padmé considered this question with a furrowed brow. "Not about this," she said eventually.

"So he really did strangle you?" Padmé didn't respond, but she knew the answer anyway. "Why?"

Padmé rubbed her forehead before answering. "You heard him," she said. "He was in terrible pain."

"But why would he hurt you?" Luke asked.

"He thought I betrayed him," Padmé answered. "He figured I had teamed up with Obi-Wan to kill him, but in reality I had no idea Obi-Wan had stowed away on my ship. I tried to tell him the truth, but he refused to listen."

"He should have," Leia said.

Padmé looked up in surprise. "I agree," she said. "But the past is the past."

With these words, Leia realized that the fracture in their family had been mended. While Padmé would never be able to forgive Vader, she was willing to move on. If she could do it, then so could they. No longer would she consider her mother as Fett and no longer would Luke think of his father as Vader. No more antagonism, no more manipulation, no more division. From now on, they would be a family.

The sound of blaster fire startled Leia back to her senses. She jumped up out of her seat and reached for her lightsaber. "Come on!" she said to Luke. "Let's go!"

Padmé got to her feet as well and grabbed Luke by the arm. "No," she said. "You are staying right here. Anakin and Ahsoka can handle this without you."

"But –"

"Just go to the cockpit and get ready to take off," she ordered Luke. "Leia, you open the hatch."

The twins hesitated for a moment before complying with the orders. Leia hurried toward the back of the shuttle while Luke took off in the opposite direction. She pressed a button on the wall and a ramp began to unfurl. Once it touched down on the ground, she held a hand up to her eyes and squinted. The Rebel delegation was rushing toward the shuttle while the clones and shock troopers fended off two dozen or so stormtroopers on the docks.

"Get to the shuttle!" she heard Captain Rex yell. The soldiers obeyed the order, spinning around and taking off after the delegation. "General Skywalker! Commander Tano!" Rex called out. "Let's go!"

Ahsoka and Anakin were side by side serving as the front line of defense for the fleeing Rebels. Three lightsabers – two white and one blue – twirled about like batons as they deflected scores upon scores of blaster bolts. Hearing Rex's voice, they turned around in unison and bolted toward the shuttle.

Leia stood at the top of the ramp beckoning the Rebels onto the ship. Mothma and the generals made it on first. They were quickly followed by the soldiers.

"Luke, get us out of here!" Padmé said from behind her.

The shuttle took off before Anakin and Ahsoka had boarded. Leia's felt a jolt of panic, but her fears were quickly allayed when the two Jedi jumped onto the shuttle with apparent ease. Once they were securely in the cabin, Leia mashed the button and sealed the hatch.

"You seem out of breath. What happened? Did you get out of shape in your old age?"

Leia turned around to see Ahsoka smirking at her former master. Pressing his hand against the wall, Anakin leaned forward and gasped for air.

"Very funny," he wheezed.

Ahsoka's expression faltered when she saw his grimace. Concerned, Leia hurried forward and placed a hand on her father's back. "Are you okay?" she asked him.

Anakin pushed himself away from the wall and stood upright. "I'm okay," he said. He flexed his arms and winced. "Still getting used to these, that's all."

"They're not hurting you, are they?"

"No, no pain," he assured her. "I've just got to break them in, that's all."

"You could probably put some weight on too, I'd reckon." Leia looked up to see Rex walking toward them. He stopped next to Ahsoka and eyed Anakin over. "Seems like you lost a good thirty pounds. And it's not like you had much to spare to begin with."

"Unlike you," Ahsoka quipped.

"Hey!"

Ahsoka and Rex laughed but Anakin didn't react. He seemed to be uncomfortable with the camaraderie.

"So would someone care to explain what just happened?" Ahsoka asked after an awkward silence. "It's great to have you back, Skyguy, but I'm not quite sure how it's possible."

Leia frowned at their lack of consideration. Couldn't they see he didn't want to talk about it? Perhaps they didn't understand him as well as she did. Perhaps they saw him as someone else entirely.

"Maybe we could talk about this later," she suggested. She tried her best to be diplomatic, but a hint of irritation inevitably seeped into her voice. "We have more important things to deal with now."

Ahsoka nodded. "Of course," she said readily. "You're right, Princess."

Anakin was willing to smile at that. "She usually is," he said. Appreciating the compliment, Leia beamed at him. "Come on," Anakin said with a gesture of his head. "We need to talk with your Rebel friends."

"Right," Leia said.

"Hold on for a second," Ahsoka said when they turned to walk away. "Before you do that, do you mind if I have a word with Leia?"

Anakin glanced at her and she gave him a reassuring nod. "Very well," he said. "Don't be long." He then walked off toward the Rebels who had congregated in the far end of the cabin. She smiled when she saw her mother speaking with Mothma, Ackbar, and a few other Rebel leaders.

"Rex, give us a minute, would you?"

"Sure thing, Commander."

Leia turned back to Ahsoka. Once Rex had left them, her former teacher spoke in a hushed tone.

"It seems you took my advice to heart," she said, her eyes twinkling. "I'm glad."

"I tried to hate him, but it wasn't so easy," Leia said. "He was just so… human."

Ahsoka shook her head in amazement as she looked off at Anakin who was standing next to his wife. "I don't believe it," she said. "Last time I saw him…" She trailed off as a distant expression passed her eyes. "Safe to say, I never thought this was possible," she said finally.

"He isn't the same person you knew in the Clone Wars," Leia said urgently. "He's recovering, but he can't just flip a switch. It's going to take time."

Ahsoka bowed her head. "I'll back off. I can see he's not comfortable around me."

"Thank you for understanding," Leia said.

Ahsoka smiled. "He has you though, doesn't he? It's amazing. When did I see you last? Two weeks ago? You wanted him dead then and now you two are like best friends."

"I guess," Leia said meekly.

"It seems like I was right," Ahsoka said. "You were the one to save him after all."

At once, Leia rejected the praise. "It wasn't me, it was her. She deserves all the credit."

Ahsoka's smile faded. "I doubted her."

"So did I," Leia admitted. "So did everyone."

A beat passed as both of them looked back toward Anakin and Padmé. From a distance, they looked so happy by each other's side. They completed each other, in a way.

"They saved each other," Leia said after a moment of contemplation.

"And maybe just yet they'll save us all," Ahsoka added.