Epilogue

DISCLAIMER: We do not own Star Wars or any of the characters in it, though we wish we did. We only own Aniya Skywalker and Jaufre (pronounced Jaw-Free) Naberrie. =)

Author's Note: Well, I know a lot of you were probably hoping the twins might be raised as Grey Jedi or at least outside the Order, but when it comes down to it, there's kind of only four options of what could happen, since the Sith would never stop trying to get them.

1. The one we took, where they join the Jedi.

2. Qui-Gon ignores the Council and they stay on Naboo. Sidious would get Maul again and them and Plagueis would find the twins. The former Jedi would be killed in the ensuing fight, and the Sith could easily twist it so the twins blame the Jedi, and they'd fall to the Dark Side too far to ever return.

3. If the Sith couldn't get to Naboo so easily, they'd wait until someone goes to free Shmi, and then capture him to lur the others off, which would work eventually. This would probably have the same result as the previous one.

4. Or, since Sidious would still have contact with them (it would be easy, given they're on his home planet. He could use Padme to get through to them), he could make Dooku Fall and leave, taking the twins with him. Which would be cool, but it'd end up far too much like Brotherhood, and I really don't want to do a third version of that.

So out of all those options, I'm sure you can understand why we chose what we did.

~ Rivana Rita


Aniya Skywalker

"Missing someone?" I ask, sitting down next to Anakin, who's still staring out the window like he has been for a while now.

He doesn't answer, but after a long moment of silence, comments, "I wonder when we'll see Padme and Jaufre again." Oh. So that's the problem. I know he's been thinking about her – and her brother – a lot since we left Naboo to start our training on Coruscant three years ago. Three years. It has been three years since we came here, and I remember the beginning like yesterday. Maybe even clearer in some ways. They were the first real friends we ever made, the only ones we'll remember every second of our lives.

Thankfully, we were allowed to keep in contact with them. Probably because they're the only people outside from our masters who can try to help us get over everything that happened. It's really nice to have someone to talk to who can help you through your emotions. As time goes on, we've been talking to them a little less frequently. It started out as once every two weeks, but now it's gotten down to about once a month.

"I wonder also." I sigh, leaning back against the couch. Throughout the years of being here, I grown to love the place, and I love learning about the Force. And our masters. We both love each other's as much as our own. Obi-Wan is a lot like an older brother to both of us. Still, there are some things I don't like about here. Mainly the people. Nearly everyone we've met seems to think we shouldn't be trained and don't even belong here.

I have yet to make a close friend here, and strangely enough, the only girl I've ever been very close with is Padme. Naturally, it's made me really want to see her again. I want to see Jaufre again, too, though. We both do. Talking to them over a hologram just isn't quite the same as being able to see them for real, but I'm just glad we can at all.

What's really struck me as strange is that Anakin seems to miss Padme more than I do. And I have my suspicions that he cares for her more too. Which is weird. I wonder again if a thought that crossed my mind recently is right. Does he have a crush on Padme? Now that I'm older, I actually do let my mind wonder about such things. Jedi aren't allowed to have relationships, which is fine with me. I can't think of anyone I'd care to have one with. For a moment, a mental image of Jaufre flickers through my mind. No, I am not interested in that. I am not. I'm going to ask Anakin about the Padme thing sometime. Just… not right now.

"I hope we get to go on a mission soon," Anakin comments. I smirk. We haven't been allowed to go on missions yet since we are still very young. We haven't been able to do anything awesome since back at Naboo actually. As excited as I am to start going on missions, I'm honestly a little worried. Once we do, we won't be around each other as much anymore. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan won't always go everywhere together, so nor will we. And I'm not ready for things to change so much yet again.

"I hope you know we won't be with each other twenty-four seven after that," I state.

"And we are now?"

I roll my eyes. "No, but pretty much always when we're awake. Since, you know, it would be hard to cram four people into two bedrooms. Unless someone would rather sleep on the couch." We stay in separate apartments with our masters, but we're still together every chance we get.

My mind wanders back to those days three years ago when we were given a new life. The one we always wanted. I have a secret hope that we can go to Naboo again when we're older. I wonder how much, if anything, has changed. I haven't been to many places yet, so I'm still firmly convinced it's the most beautiful planet there is. It feels so peaceful, too. The planet itself practically radiates a feeling of peace and calm. It's no wonder Padme was so reluctant to go to war, being from such a place.

Tatooine is nothing like that. You know there's danger everywhere. It's a wild, uncivilized place, and even the planet itself radiates with it. Coruscant is far better, and beautiful in its own way. Still, it doesn't have that feeling of tranquility.

I still don't miss anything about Tatooine. Except our mother. It's gotten better with time, and now I can tell we don't absolutely need her with us all the time, but that doesn't mean I don't wish I knew she was fine. And that we'd be able to see her again. "I miss Mom," I blurt out.

Anakin glances at me. "Me too." I get what they say about attachments, but would seeing her really hurt? It's not like it would make us care about her any less. That will never change. I can't help but be upset with the Council. There's no reason they couldn't have brought her here. At least Qui-Gon was able to free her though.

I can't imagine what it must be like to live on Tatooine completely alone. Anakin and I had actually asked Qui-Gon if there were a way we could see or talk to her anyway, but he told us there wasn't.

Anakin must have been following the same line of thought as me because he says, "We will see her again someday. Even if it won't be for a long time."

"We promised," I agree. He's right. I just don't have a clue how we'll do that. But we will. Someday, when we're older… We'll definitely get the chance eventually.

"Maybe we'll end up nearby on a mission sometime. A slight detour wouldn't hurt," Anakin suggests optimistically.

I shrug. "Perhaps." I won't voice my skepticism, just keep it to myself. As nice as that would be, I honestly doubt it would work. The circumstances would have to be right, plus I think the Council would expect us to do something like that. At the very least, they would consider it a possibility, and probably never let us go near that area of the Outer Rim. I'm honestly afraid we'll have to wait until we become Knights when we'll have some control over where we go and what we do. But that's not going to be for many more years.

A sigh escapes me as my annoyance increases. What's wrong with attachments, with caring about people? It drives me crazy that Anakin and I have to try our best to keep how close we are a secret around everyone except our Masters. No one other than them understand it. We're practically inseparable, and I can't imagine a life without Anakin. Honestly, I don't think I'd survive it.

I get why they'd say that could be dangerous, but at the same time, it brings so much light to us. How could something that feels so positive, the only thing that can make me feel completely light sometimes, be considered dangerous and not allowed?

"You feel rather irritated," Anakin comments, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I jump, instantly worried that he could actually feel that. Our Masters probably would have too. And what's worse is that as much as I hate the darkness, I can't seem to push it off completely. I know I need to be calm, but it's not something I have an easy time with. At all. "Sorry about that," I mumble, "Just getting frustrated. I can't understand why things have to be this way."

I really, really want to blame my moments of darkness on the way we're treated most of the time, but honestly, I'm afraid that's not entirely true. Maybe it is. It'd be hard to say, but we really need to get better control on our emotions sometimes.

Shaking my head, I quickly force those thoughts out of mind. Focus on the positive side, Aniya I remind myself. Really, we do have many things to be grateful for. At least we have each other. And Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. I'm forever thankful to the Force for giving me the vision so that I was able to save Qui-Gon.

If not for that, who knows what would have happened to us? Without Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan probably wouldn't have been able to find us after we were kidnapped. And Dooku probably wouldn't have gotten involved either. We might still be in the hands of the Sith right now. I shudder at the thought.

Or in the pretty much non-existent chance that we were both trained as Jedi from the start, we wouldn't really be able to be together at all since I'm certain no other masters would be like Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan.

Chancellor Palpatine certainly kept his promise to watch over us here. For most people that would be considered a great honor. I certainly consider it one, but at the same time, for some unexplainable reason, it scares me. Over time, I've been becoming less wary of him, but the first time I saw him has stuck in my mind. I don't completely trust him, and nor do I think I ever will. I often get the feeling that when Anakin and I are around him, it's just making him pay more attention to us than the galaxy… and that is annoying. And almost unnerving. We should never be considered that important to anyone. At least not him. Maybe I'm just a skeptic, but I don't get how he could consider us that important. Not that I'm not grateful, but something feels out of place.

I don't want to tell anyone about the feeling I first got, but at least Anakin always hears me out about what I have to say when it comes to the Chancellor. He may not always completely agree with me, but he definitely doesn't fully trust Palpatine either. We're both torn on whether we're missing something huge or if he actually cares that much. I wouldn't consider it impossible, just… unlikely.

As much as I hated having to leave Tatooine several years ago, now I know it was definitely worth it. Even if being here isn't easy most of the time, I know one thing for certain. We are here where we belong. As Jedi.

Final Note: The prologue in the sequel, Path to War, will be released today as well. :)