The holding cells deep within the temple where both Maul and Palpatine were being kept were a lot different from the ones in which Ahsoka had once interviewed a detained Letta Turmond after the bombings all those months ago. This was a high-security area the likes of which she'd never actually seen, though she supposed it made sense that the Jedi temple, central home of their Order, would contain places in which to keep the most powerful dark siders in the galaxy.

Obi-Wan did not give her all the details of security, which Ahsoka assumed was Council-only information, but he did tell her that the walls of the rooms that now housed the two Sith Lords were lined with a refined Force-dampening ore mined from the depths of Ilum. It wasn't anything that actually negated the prisoner's ability to use the Force, he said, but rather kept all their power contained in their cell so they could not use it to harm others. It was a technology she'd never heard of so it was interesting to learn about, but it was also very telling. After all, injected Force-suppressors and the like were hardly something that the high and mighty Jedi would ever stoop so low to use (Ahsoka's words, not Obi-Wan's), not even on the most dangerous people that posed the greatest threat to the existence of their entire Order….

Ahem. Sorry. Ahsoka's feelings toward the Jedi were a little mixed right now, was all. Being home was…weird. If things had been normal, if she'd returned out of genuine interest in being here, it would be different. And she had been prepared to return to the temple with Maul, and she had known that tensions might be a little high. But after everything with Palpatine, and Anakin, and the Council, she just…she didn't really want to be here that much at all.

But still, she had captured Maul, and now she felt an obligation to see this chapter of her life through to conclusion. She didn't know exactly what that conclusion would be, as the future right now was even more uncertain than it had ever been, but the least she could do was go with Obi-Wan to interrogate Maul and pass the torch over to him. Maul was sort of Obi-Wan's problem after all, and as Maul himself had admitted, Ahsoka had been sort of a placeholder for Obi-Wan from the moment she got recruited by Bo-Katan to save Mandalore….

Ah. Life was so strange right now.

She entered Maul's prison chamber with Obi-Wan. It was a three step process — outside the door to the first room stood a pair of faceless temple guards, two of the same kind that had ripped her silka bead Padawan braid from her head when she'd been expelled. They flanked the door and gripped their dual-bladed lightsabers in a defensive hold at waist height. Through the door that they were guarding, there was a room with a panel of security screens, monitoring the prisoner from multiple angles, and before the console sat a security droid and a Jedi Master. This time it was not one of the Council — three of them had been killed by Palpatine and most were off-world fighting droids — but Obi-Wan said there was a rotation of masters that took shifts monitoring the prisoners to ensure they did not try anything the temple guards couldn't handle.

In through another door, finally, was Maul, and in here Ahsoka could sense exactly what Obi-Wan had meant about the Force-dampening…it wasn't that she couldn't feel the Force. She could, but it was…stuffy. Contained. Like she was shut off, suddenly, from the world around her, as if the Force itself only existed in this room. Ancient Jedi technology, Obi-Wan had said, sort of like a one way mirror — apparently one outside the room could feel the prisoner but the prisoner could not feel them. Interesting. One learned new things about the temple every day they were here.

Inside this room, Maul sat on the far side of a pair of red, buzzing ray shields that acted as a sort of room divider. Ahsoka supposed there were two to allow for the passage of food and other supplies in between the two halves of the room. Maul looked up sharply, sensing them, and rose slowly to his feet.

"Kenobi," he said, and Ahsoka heard a sort of visceral malice in his voice that he had never used on her, at least not so passionately. "How cruel fate would seem. I suppose you recall the last time we looked upon each other in such a way, when I cut down your master as easily as a knife cuts through butter?"

"I do seem to recall," Obi-Wan said lightly, and Ahsoka was surprised to hear a hint of amusement in his voice as he surveyed the fallen Sith. He crossed his arms over his chest. "On that note — how are your legs?"

Maul ignored his taunt. "And you bring Lady Tano here with you. Come to gloat over my defeat, have you? Or shall you release this ray shield so that I may have such an honor?"

"On the contrary," Obi-Wan said, "Gloating would require me to stoop to your level. We simply have some questions for you, and it would be advantageous for all of us if you were to answer honestly."

"Advantageous?" Maul said, incredulity saturating his voice. "What benefit could the Jedi possibly give to me — or better yet, what punishment? Torture? Coercion? Hardly the Jedi way, is it?"

Ahsoka cut in, "You were willing to work with me before."

"Before I was captured? Before I was thrown in this prison cell to rot?"

"Before you told me that your plan was to murder Anakin."

"Ah, yes," Maul said, pacing back and forth slowly, as if on the prowl. "I'm sure the girl informed you of my plans, Kenobi. Would that I had sought to take your apprentice's life, rather than your lover's, and prevented this crisis before it could occur."

"Yes, I heard about your prophetic visions," Obi-Wan replied cooly. "There seems to be an uptick of those recently. Fortunately, I'm happy to inform you they do not always come true, and it seems yours are no exception."

Maul's yellow eyes visibly narrowed. "What has happened?"

Ahsoka said, "A better question is, if you wanted to defeat Darth Sidious so badly, why didn't you tell me he was the Supreme Chancellor?"

Understanding seemed to dawn on Maul's face. "I see, I see. So that is the source of dark energy I feel wrapping itself around this temple like a Caskan wolf-snake…my master is here as well?"

"Kindly answer Ahsoka's question, Maul," Obi-Wan said.

"Ah, ah, ah," Maul taunted, a cruel smile twisting across his features, baring his yellow teeth. "I may no longer be a Sith, Kenobi, but neither am I your pawn. To reveal my information would have handed all the cards over to your precious Council. It was all in my visions, you see. Each time I would see it — the Jedi Council, confronting Sidious only to die trying. To fail miserably, and give birth to a new Lord of the Sith, one that would tear down every last fabric of stability remaining in this wretched galaxy. Speaking of whom…where is your precious protégé, Skywalker?"

"Out of your reach, Maul," Obi-Wan said, and Ahsoka turned to see a sort of fire lit in her grandmaster's eyes. "Understand me, as long as I live, neither you nor any other Sith will ever lay a finger on him again."

"You are not out of the asteroid field yet, Kenobi," Maul said mockingly. He continued to pace around as he spoke, as if drawing in energy from the Force itself even in a room as contained as this. "You felt it, as I did. You feel it even now. That boy, your apprentice, is a cancer. He draws in darkness like a black hole draws gravity. I should have cut him down all those years ago on Tatooine, as I tried to do with your master. As long as he lives, as long as Darth Sidious lives, the Force will continue to scream with chaos and Skywalker will fall. If you were truly so wise, you would heed my warning."

Obi-Wan took a moment, and Ahsoka heard him draw in and release a calming breath. Casually, as if this were just a chat, he said, "So I take it you've no interest in helping us with Sidious?"

Maul shook his head mutely, though it didn't feel like an answer to Obi-Wan's question, and turned away.

"It's not too late," Ahsoka said, watching him. "The Council isn't entirely heartless. You could at least talk with them."

Making not the slightest sound, Maul simply sat down on the floor and closed his eyes, sinking into meditation. In her periphery, Ahsoka saw Obi-Wan shaking his head as well before turning away and heading out of the cell, back into the Force's loving embrace.

She walked with him for a while in silence, each of them stuck deep in their own thoughts, and after a while she wasn't really sure where he was going and didn't really know where she should be going, either. She got the impression that both of them were trying to process what Maul had said.

Eventually, pausing beside a great window with waning sunlight filtering in like a gentle cascade, Obi-Wan turned to her fully and said, "Ahsoka…I've been thinking." She looked up at him, and suddenly he seemed sad. "I'm not sure that my apology to you that night was good enough. I really, truly am sorry about what happened. There's not a single thing that happened that was fair to you, and you shouldn't have had to go through that. I'm sorry for what the Council did, and I'm sorry for the part I played in it. I should have been there for you, but I wasn't. We all should have."

Taking this in, Ahsoka's mouth twisted into a frown. "Thank you," she said slowly, not really quite sure how she felt about it even now. "Honestly, I've been trying not to think about any of it, but being back here makes it kind of hard. But I appreciate that, Obi-Wan. I really do. I just…don't think the rest of the Council feels the same."

He nodded, looking weary. "I can't speak for them, but I suspect you may be right. I'm sure they feel some remorse — as you said, they are not heartless — but I'm not certain they're entirely…self-aware. I've been having more and more arguments with them of late, and I can't help but feeling like my voice just gets drowned out. I have no doubt their intentions are good, but their execution is…lacking."

"Their lack of execution is the problem if you ask me," she said coolly. "They should just kill Palpatine and be done with it." She paused, but raised her hand between them before he could reply. "I know, I know, it's not the Jedi way. And it's not that I've walked away from that myself, exactly. I've been trying to uphold the Order's principles while I was gone, but sometimes action just needs to be taken. This isn't just a traitor, a dark sider, this is a Sith Lord! The Sith are the Jedi's job! Don't you think we should be taking care of him?"

Obi-Wan looked out the window, raising a hand to scratch at his beard. His thoughtful pose. "It's not so simple. You know that."

"I do," Ahsoka said, annoyed. "But it can be. There's no reason for it not to be."

He looked unsure, like he wanted to agree. She was sure he did. But he wasn't agreeing, and that was the problem.

She sighed. "I accept your apology, Obi-Wan. And like you said, we're friends. But you need to start thinking for yourself, and not about what the Council would want. You said it yourself — the Council isn't always right. And lately, they've just been flat out wrong. I know I'm biased, and I'm not completely devoid of respect for them, but you know it, and I know it. Whatever the Council is doing isn't good enough."

"It's not that I don't agree with you," Obi-Wan said, his voice very hushed. He wouldn't meet her eyes. "But there's more at stake than you seem willing to admit. Palpatine has the entire government wrapped around his finger, just as he had with Anakin. And if it was so hard to convince one person of Palpatine's intentions, how hard do you think it will be to convince the Senate? Ans even if we were to do away with him so easily, it would be seen as…as a coup. A revolution. The Republic needs us, Ahsoka, even if they don't know it. We have to proceed with caution."

Frowning, Ahsoka released the tension in her shoulders and nodded dully. "I guess you'd know better than I do. I just wish Anakin had killed him when he had the chance. Or Windu, or anyone. It's just such a bad situation."

"On that we agree."

Turning away from him and beginning to walk down the hall, she said just loudly enough for him to her her, "Maybe if we're lucky he'll choke on his dinner. That seems to be the only way we might get rid of him."

She heard him chuckle, and couldn't dampen her own grim smile as she pictured that image in her head.

On the last day before they were allowed to take the twins home, Yoda came to see him. Anakin was sitting with Padmé beside the incubators as they had been for over a week now, simply enjoying a reprieve from the weary dreadfulness of life, when the little Grand Master flew in through the door astride his small hoverseat. It was an unplanned meeting, though one Anakin had known to expect, and in truth it surprised him that it had taken this long. But then, he supposed, there were other things going on.

Yoda hovered over to them, and without a word took a look down at the two sleeping, nearly identical babies. The Force hummed with gentle contentment as he said, "Always nice, it is, to be around humans closer to my size." He turned to them. "Congratulations to both of you. Warms my heart it does to see such pure light mixed in with all the dark. Good to see new life being brought in amidst all the death."

Padmé leaned in with a smile. "Thank you, Master Yoda. This is Leia, and Luke. They're going home tomorrow."

Yoda watched the babies for a moment, and then said, "Considered, have you, whether you would have them raised in the temple?"

Anakin was about to respond but lightning quick, Padmé put a firm hand on his thigh to stop him from being impulsive. She said, "The Naboo value family above all else, as I'm sure you can understand. I have great respect for the Jedi, but we will be raising them ourselves."

Yoda nodded, accepting this. "Take children by force, you know we do not. Offered I did out of goodwill, and obligation. Heartless I am not. Happy for you, I am. But caution you, I must," he added, looking at Anakin now. "If intend to teach them the ways of the Force you do, mastery you must first gain over yourself. Otherwise consequences there might be, as well you know."

Anakin felt Padmé's eyes on him, but he looked away from both of them. He didn't want to have this conversation, even now, even though that was exactly why Yoda was here.

"Talk we must, young Skywalker," Yoda said, sensing Anakin's thought. "Come."

Standing wordlessly, Anakin pressed a kiss into Padmé's hair and followed the wizened Jedi Master down the hall, into an empty area in the Halls of Healing dedicated to contemplation and recuperation. Yoda motioned with clawed fingers for Anakin to sit opposite him.

They sat there for a moment in silence, the gentle trickle of a fountain providing the only ambient noise. Anakin remembered barely two weeks ago, when they had mirrored this position in Yoda's own quarters. Then, Yoda said, "Long overdue this talk is. Suspected I have for some time that acted on your attachment to the senator you did. Correct I was."

Anakin sighed, deep and likewise overdue. "I am sorry I lied to you, Master. It's true that being a Jedi means everything to me…but so does Padmé."

Yoda nodded. "Many exceptions we have made for you before, but stand with tradition this time I must. Have both lives, you cannot. Know this you do."

"I do," Anakin said. "And I am grateful for the opportunity you've given me. Being a Jedi was my childhood dream, but I know now that the image I formed of them on Tatooine was not true to life. When Qui-Gon recruited me he didn't tell me I wouldn't be able to have attachments. I understand in theory why it has to be that way, but it wasn't ever something I planned on doing. There were a lot of things I was unprepared for, but that was the biggest one." He sighed again. "And I shouldn't have lied, and I won't excuse it, but neither do I regret it, even now."

"The first Jedi to be in this situation, you are not," Yoda said. "Thousands of generations have I seen come and go, but never have we been brought so close to our demise. Never has a Sith Lord so nearly infiltrated our defenses. To blame for Sidious's behavior you are not, but understand you must why able to exploit you he was. Even if leave the Order you do, mastery of yourself you must achieve. A one time struggle this may not be. Temptation you may face again, if careful you are not."

Bowing his head, Anakin closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable.

Yoda made a gruff-sounding noise. "Here to expel you I am not." Anakin looked up sharply. "Rather I would give you a choice. Rather I would give you the chance to walk away, as did your Padawan."

Anakin felt his mouth fall slightly open. "May I ask why?"

There was a thoughtful pause as Yoda considered what to say. "Innocent in this matter, the Council is not. Done much thinking I have these last few days. Spoken with Obi-Wan, I have. Understand, I do, the circumstances in which Sidious managed to corrupt you. A responsibility to you we had, and misread the Force I did. Blinded were we, that we could not see the Sith Lord so close. A poor judgement it was to allow him access to you as a child. Ignorant we were of the signs. Blame no one for this I do, but the dark Lord of the Sith. Deep in his machinations we all fell, and blamed for this you must not be."

"But I still broke your rules. What does that have to do with my attachment?"

"Nothing. And everything," Yoda said, and Anakin had to bite down a groan. The crypticness of a Jedi Master was the last thing he wanted to try to decipher right now. He was still so tired, down to his bones. "Sought attachments you did not only out of weakness, but out of loneliness. Felt you did that belonged with the Jedi you did not. Done more to fix this, perhaps we could have."

That made enough sense, but even so — "With all due respect, Master," Anakin said quietly, "I do not believe attachment inherently means weakness."

"Hmm. Attempting to criticize you I am not. Everyone has weaknesses. A natural part of life they are. Trying to shame you I am not. Cautioning you, I am. Powerful you are, Anakin, and drawn to your power others are. The first Sidious was not, and the last he will not be. Finished with you, he may not be."

Anakin looked at him, suddenly anxious. "What do you mean?"

"Protect you from him we will, as best we can," Yoda said, "But powerful is he as well. Control he has over the Senate and the courts. While he lives, seek your power he will. Unpredictable is the future, as is he. Strike back against us, he may. Ready you must be."

He swallowed, and it was like a pebble was stuck in his throat. "The prophecy, you mean?"

Yoda raised his hand. "Concerned with prophecy I am not. Ask you to face him I will not. But see him again you may. Talk there is in the Senate of a trial. Only so much can we control the situation. Forced to leave the temple, he may be. Dangerous is that possibility."

As much as he hated to show weakness in front of Yoda, Anakin could not help but to drop his face in his hands. "I can't do it again, Master. Even now it's like he's in my head, just biding his time. I feel like no matter what I do I've already lost."

"Control," Yoda said, "You must gain control. Lost you have not. Join him you did not. Still time there is. Control yourself you can."

Anakin just nodded, not believing it was true.

Yoda exhaled, and suddenly he looked more tired than Anakin had ever seen him. Anakin couldn't blame him. To top off an already nine hundred year lifespan with a war and the resurgence of the Sith must be exhausting. Anakin was already exhausted enough, but he could only imagine how that must feel.

"Time for us to part ways it is, I think" Yoda said. "Served well you have in your time with the Jedi, but coming to a close that chapter is."

Anakin nodded again. "Thank you, Master Yoda. I appreciate your support, and your understanding."

"Come to me if help you need," Yoda said, raising a hand as if in farewell. "Wish you and your family well, I do. May the Force be with you."

"May the Force be with you, Master. And likewise. If you need help, I'll do what I can."

Yoda graced him with a subtle smile and bade him dismissal.

Feeling numb, Anakin left and walked back down the corridor to the twins, collapsing back in the chair next to Padmé's. She looked at him over Luke, who she was nursing. "So what did he say?"

Instead of answering, Anakin just turned toward her and rested his forehead on her shoulder and didn't answer. He didn't want to think about it right now.

He didn't really want to think about anything at all.