A year and a half later...

"He's too quiet," Anakin said for what felt like the millionth time as he helped Obi-Wan clean up their work space in Anakin's office at the factory. They were finalizing plans for an even faster spaceship to present to NASA in a few weeks' time. There were already other astronauts on a mission to colonize Mars using the first spaceship Anakin and Obi-wan had built, but Anakin wasn't satisfied with what he considered to be a slow ship speed, and NASA seemed to be on board with the idea that they could reach their astronauts quicker with more supplies. However, this time it would be Ahsoka and William going off planet when the new ship was built and approved for takeoff.

"I agree," Obi-Wan said, rolling up more blueprints, "But, there's not much that we can do about it. We have Jedi actively looking for him now, but Palpatine is a master at what he does in keeping himself hidden if he doesn't want to be found. We both know that. We most likely won't find him until he makes another move."

He was right. Anakin (unfortunately) knew Palpatine well enough to know that what Obi-Wan said was right. That didn't mean that it wasn't driving Anakin up a wall with worry. He just had a very bad feeling that whenever Palpatine made his next move, it wouldn't be good. He almost wished he could have a dream about it just so that he would have an idea of what to expect.

Feeling stuck, Anakin took the rolled up blueprints and put them into their assigned drawer in the specially designed safe in Anakin's office, locking them up. "At least these plans are done," He grumbled, glancing around his workshop.

The desk was still cluttered with tools and half-finished projects, and there was more than one discarded tie randomly lying about, but the office was now decorated with all his favorite pictures of his family. There were lots of pictures of he and Padme: At that first Gala together, on their wedding day, on their honeymoon, as zombies at their first charity marathon, at Thanksgiving when she was heavily pregnant just before the twins were born. Plus there were pictures of them with the twins as a family, as well as pictures of each of them separately with the twins, like Anakin and Leia blowing bubbles in the backyard with Jedi trying to eat the bubbles, or him holding Luke on a skateboard, and he also had several pictures of him with his mother and large family portraits of both the Lars clan and the Amidala family…to name just a few.

"And, you finished Luke and Leia's birthday present." Obi-Wan reminded him with a grin. "See? We may not have made much progress on the Palpatine-front, but we have made progress in our careers and in our families."

Anakin glanced over at the twin wrapped up, long boxes stacked next to the door. "Yeah, I guess." He sighed. "How are Satine and Ella?" Ella, or Eloise, was Obi-Wan's daughter. She looked like her mother, all blonde and blue-eyed, but her temperament was very much that of her father's. She too was Force-Sensitive. Not in the same way that Luke and Leia were, as they were stronger in the Force being Anakin's offspring, but she was still sensitive all the same.

"They're well, thank you." Obi-Wan smiled, that faraway look coming to his eyes he always had when talking about his family. As Anakin had suspected, Obi-Wan was doing very well as a father, even if there were plenty of times when the man clearly didn't know what to do. Anakin did his best to give his friend advice, but Anakin himself wasn't a perfect father either. Actually, it was usually Padme who gave Obi-Wan and Satine the best advice, which she, in turn, had often received from Jobal and Shmi. "Ella understands that she's going to see Leia tomorrow, though she doesn't really understand the concept of birthday parties yet."

"Oh, Leia is excited as well. I think she might be annoying Luke a little with her excitement." Anakin grinned. Even though Leia was older, she adored Ella, and anytime she saw Obi-Wan, she always asked for Ella. Luke was always a bit awkward around the other little girl, and preferred to keep to his room whenever Satine brought Ella over to the house, which was usually two to three times a week, given how close their two families were.

It was hard for Anakin to read Luke's true feelings on the matter, likely because Luke probably didn't fully understand the negative feelings himself, but Anakin suspected that Luke got lonely whenever Leia ignored him to play with Ella. "When are you two going to have a boy for Luke to play with?" Anakin teased with a smirk, not for the first time.

"Very funny," Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. "Ella may not be as much of a handful as your twins, but she still requires a lot of energy. It probably won't happen for a while yet."

"I know, I'm just kidding. Sort of." Anakin would have to team up with Padme to find Luke a playmate. Gathering up the wrapped packages in both arms, Anakin nodded towards the door. "Let's go home. I'm sure Padme wants a break from the kids by now."

"And Satine probably wants a break from Ella." Obi-Wan agreed, and he helped Anakin take their stuff out to their respective vehicles, including Anakin's dark gray, four-door Ford F-150 truck, which he'd gotten right after they got back from Mars to allow Padme to keep their SUV to drive. Loading up the twins' gifts, he bid Obi-Wan goodnight and drove out of the reinforced security gate (which Anakin had designed himself), deciding to surprise his family with KFC for dinner, knowing Padme wanted to get the party decorations up tonight after they ate, and this would help out, as it meant less to clean up in the kitchen first...but KFC also reminded Anakin of Obi-Wan and the chicken suit, and as he pulled up to the restaurant, he couldn't help but smile. "Cluck, cluck," he mumbled to himself, chuckling at the memory. Palpatine was still at large, true, but that hadn't...and wouldn't...stop them from living life to the absolute fullest.


"You are under arrest, my lord!' Mace Windu said, holding his violet lightsaber to Darth Sidious' neck," Anakin said, deepening his voice so that he (sort of) sounded like Mace. Luke and Leia lay underneath their covers in their new toddler beds, wide-eyed as they listened to the climax of the story Anakin had been telling them bit by bit before their bedtime since he had returned from Mars. At first, Leia had only half-listened, but as Anakin started to use props to help him tell the story, and occasionally sent (kid-friendly) images to them through their Force connection, even she began to look forward to bedtime when their dad would tell them what they thought was just a fairytale that starred their dad, their mom, and Uncle Ben. Anakin left out the gory parts of his previous adventures, of course. Padme would kill him if he didn't, and he himself didn't want to scare the kids. But…

This part would be a little tricky.

"As Anakin entered the room, Darth Sidious spotted him." It was a bit weird to refer to himself in the third person, but he continued it so the twins wouldn't get confused. "'Anakin, I told you it would come to this! The Jedi are taking over!'"

"No," Luke frowned. "The Jedi are good. Daddy is a Jedi."

Anakin couldn't help but smile at Luke's innocence and total faith in him. Some things never changed. Anakin continued, telling the twins of how Mace and Darth Sidious each tried to convince Anakin to help them, and how Anakin didn't know what to do. "On one hand, Anakin knew that Sidious was evil."

"So help Ace." Leia said matter of factly. She looked at Anakin as if the answer were obvious, and again, Anakin was so reminded of the adult Leia he had known in his old galaxy, so driven and focused on her goals. He wondered if she had ever been tempted to do something she knew would compromise the Rebellion. Perhaps he would never know.

"Maybe," Anakin agreed, "But Darth Sidious also knew how to save Padme, remember?" It made the kids very happy that he had included their mom in the story too, and Padme said they often talked about it to her when he wasn't around. "So if Anakin killed Sidious, how would he save Padme?"

The twins didn't fully understand the idea of death, being so young, but they knew that death meant a character wasn't coming back into the story. They'd seen it in Disney movies. They'd listened to Anakin mention it about certain characters. But, they didn't really understand what it meant. "He'll save mommy," Luke decided assuredly after a bit of thought. "You always save mommy."

Anakin's heart clenched. No, not always, he thought grimly. "Do you want to know what happened?" The twins nodded eagerly. "If I tell you, will you promise to go to bed?" Another nod. "Okay."

Anakin paused, looking at his children. Did he dare tell them the truth? Or, did he tell them a happy ending? They were still so young. He tried to think back to the Disney movies he had sort of paid attention to. Did any of them have sad endings? He didn't think they did. Besides. When the conversation happened about these stories actually being real, for he and Padme had decided that one day they would tell their children the truth, how would he explain that the happy ending he'd originally told them wasn't the truth? He took a deep breath and plunged ahead. "He listened to Darth Sidious. He helped Sidious kill Mace Windu, and then Anakin helped destroy the Jedi."

Silence.

He could feel his children processing his words, unable to believe them. "Daddy!" Leia cried angrily, "That's not the ending! Tell it right!"

"Yeah, Daddy! Jedi can't die," Luke agreed, frowning in distress. "You can't be a bad guy!"

"I…" Anakin began, but the kids were riled up now. Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all.

"Tell it right!" Leia kept repeating, angry tears welling up in her brown eyes.

"What about Uncle Ben?" Luke asked, "He can't be gone."

"He isn't gone." Anakin agreed. "Uncle Ben escaped, and Padme went with him."

"What happened to Mommy?" Leia asked anxiously, and Anakin immediately shook his head.

"I'll tell you tomorrow. Tonight, you promised to go to bed if I told you what happened to Anakin. I did. He became a bad guy and took on the name of Darth Vader."

Now, Luke was crying. "No, Daddy, no! You're no bad guy!"

Anakin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Yeah, maybe it was a mistake to tell the kids that. Oh well. Too late now. Somehow, he doubted the twins would get to sleep anytime soon after this. "Who said that was the end of the story, Luke?"

Luke quieted, and Leia did as well. "Did you trick him, Daddy?" Leia asked. "Did you trick Idious?"

Anakin smiled sadly. If only. "You'll have to wait and find out. I promise, this isn't the end. I've still got a lot of the story to tell."

"Daddy isn't bad," Luke decided firmly.

Leia agreed, "No, Daddy isn't bad."

"You'll find out." He promised before he leaned over and made sure the covers were tucked around both of his children and kissed their foreheads tenderly. "Goodnight my little Jedi. Sweet dreams. Love you."

Luke and Leia glanced at each other, and Anakin could feel them using the Force to communicate silently with one another. He opened his mouth to remind them again to actually go to sleep, not talk to each other through the Force, but they abruptly stopped, as if sensing he were about to scold them. "Night, Daddy," They said, rolling over and burying their faces in their pillows.

Anakin was sure they would start communicating again the moment he left the room, but he didn't say anything. He needed to go help Padme in the kitchen. If they were still awake by the time he and Padme went to bed, he would deal with it then.

Turning off the light, he turned and left the room, heading into the kitchen where Threepio was holding a roll of streamers for Padme as she stood on a step stool and taped one end to the ceiling. Soft music played out over the speaker system from Padme's IPhone.

Anakin paused for a moment, taking in the picture his lovely wife presented, debating on going to her right then to pull her into his arms and kiss her soundly, but she was standing on the stool and he doubted she would appreciate him doing that while she was in such a precarious situation. So, instead, he just leaned back against the counter top and enjoyed the view as she stretched her petite frame to hang the streamers.

"How did it go?" She asked without turning around, as if she sensed his presence. Likely, she had heard his footsteps when he'd come in. They had talked about that part of the story the night before: At the time, Anakin had been unsure of what to say. Padme thought it would be okay to tell the kids a glossed-over version of the truth, but she had left the decision up to him.

"I told them that I turned evil and most of the Jedi were destroyed." He admitted, going to the box of party supplies sitting on the kitchen table. "They weren't happy."

"I didn't think they would be." Padme stepped down from off the stool, taking the rolled streamer from Threepio to start twisting it. "It's the first time they've heard something like that…well, except for in Frozen. Leia was pretty upset about Hans turning into a jerk."

Anakin made a face and rolled his eyes at the mention of Frozen, but didn't comment on it. It had been the first Disney movie he'd watched after coming to this world (he'd watched it with Ryoo, Pooja, and Padme) and the movie had quickly gotten on his nerves. Oh how he had begun to hate that movie. It was torture for parents.

He pulled out a "Happy Birthday" banner and the disposable plastic white tablecloth. "Do you want me to finish the streamers, Angel?" He asked, as Padme positioned the stool in another corner of the room to finish off that particular strand.

"I've got it." Padme assured him before climbing up on the stool again. "You can hang up the banner though." Anakin did as she asked. As he did, she continued. "They'll be told the full truth eventually. When they're older. I mean, the story doesn't technically have a sad ending, after all."

This was true. He had been given a second chance by the Force, he had found and married Padme again, and he had come back from the Dark Side. To top it off, he had his children again, he had his mother back, and he'd graduated from Stanford University with double Master's Degrees (one in Mechanical Engineering, one in Physics), and he had helped establish a new Jedi Order on Earth and built up a very successful droid business that was currently in partnership with NASA, with his best friend and mentor, Obi-Wan, both of them being co-Jedi Grandmasters of the new Order.

Furthermore, he and Obi-Wan had now made Earth history as the first humans to travel to Mars, and he even occasionally went with Obi-Wan to visit local schools to talk about their experiences in space. Not to mention that Padme and Satine had also teamed up to start their own legal practice, Kenobi & Skywalker, Attorneys at Law, and now he and Padme switched off weeks to work from home and watch the kids. Anakin couldn't remember ever being so happy in his entire life.

"You're right." He said, "We'll have a happy ending this time."

They worked together to finish decorating, both of them catching each other up on what had been going on at work and at home while the other was away. Padme told him of her preparations to get ready to take on a new large client the next week, and Anakin told her of the completed ship plans. He also told her that he had not only finished Luke and Leia's present, but he had boxed and wrapped it as well.

"Oh no," Padme laughed, "Maybe I should check on that wrapping job. You didn't put it in a plastic bag this time, did you?" Anakin sighed—he had put the twin's birthday present the year before in a Walmart plastic bag. It had technically been wrapped, but apparently, it hadn't been good enough, and given the look on both Padme's and Obi-Wan's faces, he doubted that he would ever live that one down.

"Of course not." He said, arching his eyebrows, "I used actual wrapping paper this time." Padme just laughed and shook her head, a smirk on her face.

They finished setting the table, and just then a Coldplay song drifted out from the speakers. One of Padme's favorites. "Good," Padme began, "Otherwise…" She stopped as Anakin suddenly took her in his arms, pulling her flush against him, beginning to sway with her to the music. "Ani," she laughed, the sound like music to his ears, "What are you doing?"

"Dancing with my beautiful wife. What does it look like?" He breathed huskily into her ear before twirling her around and guiding her smoothly back into his arms.

"My, my...Someone's been practicing," Padme smiled, and he was pleased to see that her cheeks were flushed and her eyes sparkling. He pulled her closer.

"Nah," He insisted, "I'm just very much in love."

Padme snorted at that. "I don't think love suddenly makes either of us great dancers."

"Maybe not." He agreed, "But, it certainly helps." She looked up into his eyes then, suddenly serious. "Y'know," she said, "A dance was what set us on the path to taking the next major step in our relationship in this world. Remember the Gala?"

Anakin grinned wolfishly. "I remember. You couldn't keep your hands off me."

Padme rolled her eyes, the blush deepening. "Yeah, right."

"No really," Anakin insisted with a wink, "I can't help it that I'm irresistible."

That made Padme laugh, and Anakin twirled her again. "I never said that, Ani."

"No, but you were thinking it." He said, pulling her back into his arms.

She smiled. "Okay. I was thinking it. Do you remember the dress I wore that night?"

Anakin's eyes darkened immediately and desire gleamed in his eyes. He swallowed hard and whispered, "I sure do. You looked like the galaxy itself in my arms. It's still my favorite dress on you." Padme melted into his embrace at his words, and he bent down and tenderly kissed her.

"You know," Anakin said, pulling back from their kiss, lowering his voice suggestively and leaning forward to touch his forehead to hers with an appreciative leer, "The kids are in bed," He paused and checked with the Force on the twins, "...and they're around asleep. We could…you know...recreate the...ending part of that night, too." He then frowned. "Not the nightmare part though. Let's not go there."

Now, it was Padme's turn to grin ferally. "I agree, my handsome Jedi." She whispered, as she leaned forward and kissed him deeply again.

"Oh my," Threepio fretted, waving his arms about, "I think…I'll leave you two alone and go see what R2 is up to." Neither Anakin or Padme paid him any attention as he shuffled off, leaving the two of them alone to recreate the night that had changed their relationship forever.


"Happy birthday, you two!" Ahsoka said with a smile, ruffling Luke and Leia's hair. Both of the twins made a face: Neither one of them liked having their hair ruffled.

"What do you say, kids?" Anakin reminded them, as Leia reached up to try to put her hair back in place. Ahsoka hadn't actually messed her hair up, but Leia still seemed to think so. Perhaps it was the feeling of her hair being played with that bothered her.

"Thank you, Aunt Soka." Luke mumbled, ever one to try to please his dad. Leia, on the other hand, said nothing.

"Leia," Anakin warned sternly, and she finally stopped playing with her hair, huffing a bit in annoyance.

"Thank you, Aunt Soka," She said, her voice barely concealing her annoyance. Anakin clenched his jaw, debating on scolding her for the attitude right then and there, but refrained. Hopefully, when Ella got there, her attitude would be better.

As the twins shuffled off to play in the living room, Ahsoka whistled. "Dang. They're in a bad mood. What's their problem?"

Anakin frowned, watching them. "I don't know." He admitted. "They woke up a bit on the grouchy side this morning."

"Did they get no sleep?" she asked, setting their present on the counter with Anakin and Padme's presents.

"No, they got sleep," he frowned. "But, I did sort of tell them how I turned to Darth Vader."

"Oh," Ahsoka said, her voice serious. "Yeah. That might have something to do with it."

Maybe she had a point. Maybe he should have at least waited until after their birthday to tell them that story. He just hoped that their mood improved as more people showed up.

Unfortunately, that was not the case.

As more and more people arrived, the twins' mood seemed to sour further and further. Sola and Darred and their girls came, and when Ryoo and Pooja tried to play with the twins, Luke completely ignored them in favor of building a racecar track, while Leia flat out told them to "Go away." Padme, shocked at the twins' rudeness, tried to intervene, reminding them that these were their cousins and that they loved them. That only got Luke to mutter a quick hello to them, and Leia tried to go back to ignoring them. The girls seemed a little offended, but being much older than the twins, they quickly found something else to do together in the backyard with R2.

Their reception of Mindy wasn't much better, nor their own grandparents. Leia immediately told her grandmother not to pick her up. "Maybe we should call this off," Anakin said quietly in his wife's ear after pulling Padme aside when she was finished apologizing to her mother for Leia's behavior. Anakin was actually glad his own mother wasn't there: It surely would have broken her heart to have traveled all the way from Idaho to see the twins and have Leia push her away like that. "I have a bad feeling about this, Angel. They're not acting like themselves."

"Ani, we've invited all these people. Obi-Wan and Satine haven't even gotten here yet. We can't just say 'Welcome to our home, put your presents on the counter and get out.' That's probably worse than the twins' behavior." She frowned, watching their children putting together Luke's racetrack in the living room while completely ignoring everyone else around them. "What on earth has gotten into them?"

"Ahsoka thinks that it might have something to do with the story last night." Anakin said, trying to reach out through his Force connection to try to get a better read on the situation. There was definitely some stress that he couldn't quite identify coming from Luke, and Leia was doing a pretty good job at blocking him, the ability that she had taken quite an interest in. It was now becoming an issue. He was definitely going to have to address that...soon.

"She's probably right." Padme sighed. "Let's just…try to keep everyone else happy. Maybe Leia will cheer up when Ella gets here."

"Let's hope so." Even if Luke continued to be in a sour mood for the rest of the party, he wouldn't likely make a big deal out of it. Leia on the other hand…

Anakin seriously hoped she cheered up soon. Right on cue, the doorbell rang. "Oh, thank goodness," Padme muttered before going to get the door. Moments later, Obi-Wan and Satine rounded the corner, little Ella held in Obi-Wan's arms. Anakin relaxed a little with Obi-Wan there. Luke loved Obi-Wan. Maybe combined, he and Obi-Wan could get Luke to cheer up while Ella played with Leia. "Hey. Thank the Force you're here."

Obi-Wan's eyebrows rose in mild amusement. "What a greeting." He teased, but as he opened his mouth to ask for further details on Anakin's interesting greeting, Leia's voice interrupted them.

"Ella!" She cried excitedly, and seconds later she was at Obi-Wan's legs, looking up expectantly, hopping a little in excitement. Anakin let out a sigh of relief as Obi-Wan set Ella down on her feet, Leia immediately beginning to tell her about anything that popped into her head.

Stepping around Leia and Ella, Obi-Wan joined Anakin in the kitchen, as Satine and Padme joined the rest of the adults in the living room eating the Subway sandwiches they had ordered for the party. "What's wrong with Luke?" Obi-Wan asked quietly, nodding towards the boy. Luke still sat in the living room, but now that Ella was here and Leia had ditched him in favor of the other little girl, he glowered at Leia's back from where he sat.

Sometimes Anakin forgot that Obi-Wan also had a bit of a Force-connection with his son, likely from their stronger Force connection in their previous life. Obi-Wan rarely used it, because he knew it weirded Anakin out a bit that he was that connected with his son.

Anakin sighed, crossing his arms across his chest as he continued to watch Luke. "Both of the kids have been in a bit of a bad mood today. I think it has something to do with the fact that I sort of told them last night about how I turned to the Dark Side. They don't even know the story is real, and they didn't react well to it, let's put it that way."

"Well," Obi-Wan frowned, rubbing his beard, "They are three. Maybe you should have waited…"

"I know that. I just thought that I should be as honest as possible with them from the start." He sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "I probably could have picked a better night to tell them though."

"Probably." Obi-Wan agreed. "Regardless, you've told them now. You'll just have to let them process it in their own way and time, and you'll have to really let them process it when they figure out that it's not just a cool bedtime story. By the way, Luke's headed to his room."

Anakin whirled around. Sure enough, Luke was edging around the grownups, trying not to be noticed as he made a break for his bedroom, as he usually did whenever Ella came over and took his sister's attention.

"Luke!"

Luke flinched and stopped, looking up at his dad sheepishly. "Hi, Daddy," he mumbled before ducking his head.

"Where are you going, Buddy?" He asked, going over to his son and kneeling down so they were eye level with each other. "Don't you want to see all the people who came to wish you a happy birthday?" Luke thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. An honest answer.

"Why not?"

"I dunno, Daddy." He shrugged his shoulders. Anakin looked at him skeptically. Clearly, the boy wasn't telling him everything.

"Luke," He began, warningly, but Padme's voice drifted over the room, stopping him.

"Time for cake!" She called, bringing out the cake they had ordered for their birthday. One half of it was green frosting (Luke's favorite color) and the other half was white frosting (Leia's favorite color). There were unlit candles stuck into the cake, ready to be lit and blown out.

Anakin could hear Pooja and Ryoo squeal in delight from the backyard, soon making an appearance at Padme's side, following her to the table, as R2 tootled and beeped, rolling in from the backyard behind them. Mindy, Ahsoka, and Satine stopped whatever conversation they were having to join Padme, Mindy asking if Padme needed help setting up the table. Ruwee fished the lighter out of the top cupboard, and Jobal pulled out the ice cream. Leia and Ella stopped playing and wandered over to the table, looking at the cake with eagerness.

Anakin looked back at his son to find Luke looking at the cake, debating on whether or not to approach. "Do you want cake, Luke?" A nod. "Ok, why don't we get some cake and ice cream? Then maybe your mom will let you and Leia open your presents." He leaned forward so that only Luke could hear. "After that, you and I can go play in your room. How does that sound?"

That caused Luke to break into a smile. "Okay, Daddy," He said, and ran over to the table.

"The wonders of cake." Obi-Wan chuckled. "Somehow, I have a feeling that Ella is going to make another mess of herself with it rather than actually eat it."

"I have a feeling my kids won't be much cleaner." Anakin agreed, standing back up. "Let's go be supportive dads, shall we?"

As Anakin and Obi-Wan joined their friends and family at the table, Ruwee handed Anakin the lighter. "Here. A father should do the honor of lighting their kid's candles."

Anakin took the lighter. "Thanks," He said, trying to smile for his father-in-law. Things were much better between them now with Luke and Leia in their lives, but anytime the twins did something with their Force-powers in front of Ruwee and Jobal, they still got this grave look on their faces that drove Anakin up a wall. Every time, they would always cast glances over at Anakin, blame evident in their eyes. They loved Luke and Leia, but they were also terrified of the power Anakin had given them.

It was all Anakin could do to not throw them out of his house every time it happened, but for his wife's and the twins' sake, he managed to restrain himself.

Luke and Leia climbed into their respective chairs of honor, both of them staring intently at the cake before them. They were just old enough not to reach out and try to start grabbing handfuls of the cake, but Anakin could tell that they were getting a bit antsy. Satine sat herself next to Leia, holding Ella in her lap, who also stared at the cake intently.

"Alright," Anakin said, beginning to light the six candles: Three for each side of the cake. Luke and Leia leaned forward, their eyes bright with anticipation. "Here we go!" A chorus of happy birthday began, and, sensing that the time for cake was drawing near, Luke and Leia were practically bouncing.

The song ended. "Make a wish!" Padme smiled, standing next to Anakin. She leaned into him, an unconscious gesture on her part, but Anakin couldn't help but notice it all the same.

Taking deep breaths (or as deep as they could), Luke and Leia blew out the candles on their side of the cake. "Good job," Padme said, moving to cut the cake.

She never got to. That's when everything hit the fan.

It started out simply enough. Leia turned to Ella, asking, "Do you want some cake, Ella?"

"Cake!" Ella agreed, but being only a year and a half, Ella waited on no one to get her the cake. Instead, before Satine could move to stop her, Ella leaned over and grabbed the corner of the cake in her small fist.

Anakin felt Luke snap rather than saw it. Outwardly, Luke was a picture of serious calm, but inside Anakin could feel Luke's annoyance and jealousy boiling past the tipping point. Still, ever the calm boy Luke was, he merely turned to Ella and said, "No Ella, wait your turn."

It might have ended at that, but then there was Leia. Likely, she too could feel the animosity behind her brother's calm façade, and she took offense to Luke's rebuke. She whirled on Luke, glaring. "Be nice, Lukie!"

Luke's entire body tensed. Luke despised being called Lukie. Anytime Leia called him that, Luke got mad. "My name is Luke, not Lukie!" He glared back.

"Lukie!" Leia said again, "Say sorry to Ella!"

"No!" Luke said. By now, the entire room was silent.

"Luke," Padme began, "Leia…"

"Say sorry!" Leia was yelling now.

"Leia!" Anakin stepped forward, reaching for his daughter.

"NO!" Luke yelled back, and with that yell, there was a surge through the Force and the cake exploded.

Chaos. Absolute chaos. There was a lot of yelling as everyone was splattered in the face with a bunch of chocolate cake. Even Padme jumped a bit, though Anakin had been expecting it after feeling the surge through the Force and managed to throw up a shield to block both of them as bits of cake covered everything in sight. Once the cake had stopped flying and the initial shock of the explosion had passed, Sola groaned. "Why is it whenever I come over to this house, something weird happens?" she asked, but no one dared to answer. Instead, everyone stood frozen, waiting to see what happened next.

Ella and Mindy seemed to be the only ones who were okay with the explosion of cake. "Cake!" Ella said happily as she began to lick the cake off of herself where she could.

"And good cake at that." Mindy agreed, using her plastic fork to scrape some cake off of her arm.

Luke and Leia stared at each other, both of them the most covered with the cake, neither saying anything. That didn't last long. Leia burst into angry tears. "MOMMY LOOK WHAT LUKIE DID!" She cried, pointing to Luke.

Luke sat there, completely stunned, the anger long gone. "I'm…I didn't mean to," He said weakly, though he didn't sound like he believed that.

"YES YOU DID!" Leia yelled, "YOUR FAULT!"

Padme met Anakin's eyes, both of them almost as stunned as the rest of their guests. Luke had never reacted that way…in this world at least. Anakin had recognized as Darth Vader that Luke wasn't totally his mother's son when it came to the Force. He had used that as his bargaining chip to keep the Emperor from outright trying to kill Luke in the first place. This was, however, the first time Anakin was seeing it in this world.

At a very rotten time, too.

Communicating silently with his wife, Anakin moved, scooping up Luke. "Alright," He said, "Let's go." He could feel Luke tense in his arms: he knew that he was in trouble. As Anakin left the room, he heard Padme scoop Leia up, which Leia vocally disagreed with.

They had to separate them. They had to get them to calm down.

Ignoring everyone's stares, Anakin brought Luke out of the kitchen and down the hall, bringing him not to his shared room with Leia, but into his own room, closing the door behind them with a gentle push of the Force. He didn't say a word until he sat down on the bed, holding Luke firmly in his lap.

Luke didn't move. He didn't look at his father.

"Luke." Anakin said sternly. Luke flinched, but didn't look up at him. Anakin could feel the regret and confusion swirling within his son. "Luke. Look at me." Hesitantly, Luke looked up, meeting Anakin's gaze with a wince. Force, his son was covered in cake…He would need to make sure none of it got on their white comforter. Padme would make him get the stain out if it did. "What's bothering you, son?" Anakin's voice was firm, but it was also gentle. How Anakin reacted to this incident would set the tone for how Luke would expect for him to react when he made mistakes with his Force abilities in the future. If he didn't treat this right, Luke might be hesitant to come to him later to seek answers to improve his Force abilities.

No pressure.

Luke frowned. "I dunno."

"No," Anakin shook his head. "You know what's bothering you. Tell me. Do you not like Ella?"

Luke made a face. "No, but…she's a girl."

Anakin raised an eyebrow. "So?"

"So," Luke reasoned, "Girls have cooties."

The corners of Anakin's mouth twitched as he restrained himself from laughing. He didn't know where Luke had heard that, exactly, but it explained some of his behavior towards Ella. "You do know that Leia is a girl too, right?"

Luke shrugged. "She's not a girl. She's my sister. Sister's don't have cooties."

This was clearly something that he would need to address, but he knew at the moment that it wasn't the heart of the issue. "And you're sad when Leia plays with Ella more than you?" A nod. "Luke, it's okay for you and Leia to have other friends. If she wants to play with Ella for a little while, that's okay. She's your sister. You two have plenty of time to play when Ella isn't here."

"I guess." Luke relented, though he still didn't look happy about it.

Anakin waited for a moment, assessing Luke's feelings through their Force bond. "That's not the only thing that's making you sad, is it?" Luke shook his head. "What else is wrong?"

Luke continued to frown. "I had," he hesitated, either because he was forming the words in his head, or because he wasn't sure how Anakin would react, he didn't know. "I had a bad dream last night."

Anakin tensed. Oh no. No. He didn't pass on his less-than-desirable power to see the future with dreams, did he? He seriously hoped not, and if he did, he hoped that it wouldn't plague his children at such a young age.

But then he said, "I had a dream that you didn't like me, and we were hurting."

Anakin relaxed, but only a little. It was just a normal nightmare. Even as Darth Vader, he never hated his son. "Did Leia have that dream too?" Anakin already knew the answer, but Luke nodded. "Is that why you two were sad this morning?" Another nod. Anakin held him closer to him, not caring that he was getting cake all over himself in the process. "Luke, I love you. I have always loved you, and your sister as well. It was just a bad dream."

"But the you in the story wanted to be a bad guy," Luke said, "What if you be a bad guy now?"

"I'm not going to be a bad guy. I promise." Not again. "I'm going to stay with you and be your dad who loves you. Your mom is going to stay with you too, and so is Leia." When Luke still seemed skeptical, Anakin sighed. "I promise. Do I break my promises?"

Luke shook his head. "No."

"So if I promise to always love you, does that mean I'll always love you?"

Luke nodded. "Yes."

"Then forget about the dream. It's just a bad dream." He kissed the top of his son's head. "Now. Are you ready to say sorry to Leia?"

Luke thought about it carefully for a moment. "Yes." He finally said, and Anakin could feel that Luke wasn't just saying that to make him happy. He really did want to make up with his sister. Now, hopefully Leia was as forgiving as her brother.

"Good." Anakin stood, still holding Luke in his arms. "Then you're going to get cleaned up." He glanced at the bed, noticing a few crumbs, but nothing that would stain the sheets and inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay daddy." Luke paused. "Daddy? Leia will be with me forever, won't she?"

Anakin stopped, looking back down at his son. Luke looked so serious, worry in those clear blue eyes. It was almost as if…but the twins hadn't showed any signs of remembering their past. It couldn't be. "Of course Luke," Anakin said, "Why would you ask that?"

Luke shrugged. "I dunno." He said. "Let's go say sorry."

Anakin debated on pressing Luke for more answers, but he could tell that it wouldn't do any good. Not now at least. "Alright." Anakin said, carrying him out of the room. "Let's go find your sister."


So, sorry for the sort of late update. I got really sick with the flu all last week. Missed a bunch of work. My dad was in town too, and I barely got to see him. Lame. At one point there was talk about me going to the ER, but thankfully I improved and I'm all better now. Still, I feel like maybe this chapter suffered a bit because of that. So hopefully you guys liked it! I'm SUPER excited for next chapter, so I'll hopefully update faster. And if You're an Ahsoka fan, you'll see more of her next chapter.

The song that Anakin and Padme dance to in this chapter is "Til Kingdom Come" by Coldplay. I love that song to death.

Review!

Love,

Sarah