He was the light. The light was him. It flowed all around him, through him, and his soul sang. It rose from his inner being, gathering strength from his connection with the light, pulsating out from him through his joy. He reached out with what he would have once considered his hands and felt the vibrations of the light all around him, the light that was a part of him, the light that emitted from him.
Instinctively, he knew he was reaching a destination. He felt as if he were being stuffed back into a tighter space, becoming more dense. The light around him began to take shape—a spire here, a movement there—and slowly, like a sleeper becoming aware of being awake again, he found himself sitting in the passenger's seat of a speeder.
Anakin blinked and watched the cityscape take form before him, as if everything had been overexposed and the lights were slowly dimmed down.
Coruscant.
Like the apartment, it was perfectly simulated, but it was not the same. The dark snaking energies that intertwined with the light he had felt in life were not present here. Here, everything was clean and fresh, like the smell of the earth after a rainstorm. Clouds rose in the stratosphere on the horizon, and the rising light of the sun cast a purplish haze.
Anakin leaned over the speeder's rim, taking in the sight of the other traffic crisscrossing its way through Coruscant's skies. The wind tousled his unwieldily locks, making it dance in the air. Leaning back, Anakin laughed for what felt like the first time in centuries. This was what it felt like to fly.
Anakin felt Obi-Wan's amused glance, and he turned to his mentor. The two men exchanged a grateful smile.
Anakin turned his attention to their destination. The Jedi Temple loomed ahead, hazy in the morning light. Anakin winced slightly with a pang of guilt.
As Darth Vader, Anakin had returned to the Temple after the initial purges, but his master, the Emperor, had ordered reconstruction on the site, turning the highest turret into his personal throne room. How ironic, Anakin thought, that despite the lack of the Jedi Council in their chambers, he had continued to bow and scrape to a new master in those same hallowed halls.
Now the Temple was back, fully restored to its former glory, dazzling in the sun, the grand Jedi Guardians and warriors standing outside, carved from stone. Peering down with curiosity, Anakin watched people traversing in and out, many of whom were civilians and not Jedi at all.
Lifting his head from the sight, Anakin was about to question Obi-Wan about it when a wisp of smoke caught his eyes. The long white column plumed out of one of the spires, reminiscent of the night Anakin Skywalker had last stepped foot into the Temple and the destruction he as Darth Vader had wrought on the Jedi.
Gasping, Anakin turned his head and shielded his face from the sight. His voice shook as he cried, "It's burning! I can't! Please, Obi-Wan—!"
A reassuring hand rested on Anakin's shoulder, urging him to turn back. "Anakin! It's all right. See? Look!"
Hesitantly, Anakin returned his gaze to the Temple. Now that they were closer, Anakin could make out a small contained bonfire on the terrace of an upper level. Small figures were moving around it.
Obi-Wan pulled up to the railing and parked their speeder next to it. "Hello there!" he called out to the younglings who were running around the area, apparently playing some kind of game. Upon hearing Obi-Wan's voice, the younglings stopped and stared, their expressions pensive as if they were in deep, deep poodoo.
Obi-Wan jumped out of the speeder down to the terrace. "What are you doing out here with a bonfire...without adult supervision?" He crossed his arms in front of his chest, his voice commanding a tone of rebuke that would bring a Gundark to its knees.
Suddenly the door to the terrace opened and out burst Mace Windu welding several bars of sweets. "I got the charo bars—!" Mace's face fell when he spied Obi-Wan and Anakin on the terrace.
Obi-Wan lifted an eyebrow as he looked upon the fellow Jedi Master. "I take it you're responsible for the youngling's lack of supervision, Mace?"
"Uh..." Realising he held incriminating evidence, Mace dropped his hand and hid it behind his back. Putting on a broad smile, Mace waved his free hand and said cheerfully, "Hey, Anakin! Welcome back!"
Feeling a bit out of place, Anakin looked behind himself, then back at Mace, as if he suspected the man were greeting someone else entirely. "Uh...hello," Anakin responded.
"Oh! Before I forget..." Mace reached inside his tunic. "I believe I have something that belongs to you."
Mace took a step forward with a broad smile and held out the cylindrical object.
Anakin looked warily at it, then back at Mace.
"Go on!" Mace encouraged, waving the sabre hilt in the air before him.
Still with some hesitation, Anakin took his lightsabre back from Mace and smiled politely. "Thank you, Master Windu."
Mace grabbed Anakin's forearm and gave it a tight squeeze. "I know you haven't made your decision yet on rejoining the Jedi but...I trust you. I have faith in you." To add weight to his point, Mace took another step forward and patted Anakin on the shoulder.
Anakin regarded the silver object in his hands. "Th—thank you."
Obi-Wan, his arms still crossed, continued to look bemusedly at Mace. The dark-skinned man fidgeted, then said, "Uh...we were about to make goo bars. Care to join us?" He smiled broadly, showing off his teeth.
Obi-Wan chuckled and uncrossed his arms. He turned and winked to the younglings who had been watching them. Seeing that the fellow Jedi was not really angry at them, they smiled back and giggled. Anakin found his former master's laid-back attitude a comforting relief and smiled as well.
"Perhaps some other time," Obi-Wan responded. He put a hand on Anakin's shoulder. "There's some folks waiting to welcome home this young man." Obi-Wan softly smiled up at his friend, his friend smiling back in response.
"Bye, Obi-Wan!" the younglings chorused, waving. "Good-bye, Anakin!"
The two Jedis waved back as they made their way to the doorway into the Temple.
"Well," Anakin spoke, still smiling warily. "That was...unexpected."
"I suspect you'll find a lot has changed here," Obi-Wan explained as he palmed the door. As if to make his point, large broad leaves blocked the entryway.
"What the—?" Anakin exclaimed as he pushed aside the foliage. Inside was a veritable jungle, green plants covering nearly every surface, pushing their way toward the towering heights of the Great Hall. Light streamed high overhead, and various calls of creatures chirped and gurgled from the shadows.
Anakin's eyes traversed the dance of light and shadows playing before him, his face an unwieldily tangle of emotions from awe to disbelief. Through the Force, Anakin was bombarded by unbridled energies, not only from the life force of the wildlife before him, but from something else, something Anakin had not touched upon in a long, long time. Somewhere within the Temple walls, people were experiencing joy and happiness.
"Welcome you home, I do!" a familiar voice called out to them. Anakin turned to find a very spry Yoda swinging down from a vine. Somersaulting elegantly to the ground, the Jedi's brown ponytail whipped behind his ear as he landed.
Ponytail!
Anakin blinked as the diminutive Jedi Master walked towards him, unaided by a gimmer stick and unhindered by age in the first time for centuries. "Master Yoda?" Anakin wondered if what he was seeing was real. "You look...different."
"Different, you say?" questioned Yoda impishly. "Why think you I look different?"
"Oh...I dunno." Anakin shrugged. "Maybe it's the hair?"
"My own hair, this is!" Yoda stamped his foot with mock indignance.
Raising his hand defensively, Anakin replied, "Okay, okay!"
Beside them, Obi-Wan laughed silently.
"What you laugh at?" Yoda continued his pretend tirade, focusing on his former apprentice.
Obi-Wan wiped away a tear from his eye and replied, "Just enjoying my own private showing of Rintz and Stagnold, Master."
"Tut, tut, you two," spoke a deep and familiar voice behind Obi-Wan and Anakin. "You should know better than to tease little Ani."
Anakin spun round, startled to see—"Qui-Gon!"
The towering Jedi smiled gently down on him. "Welcome home, Anakin."
Anakin reached out a hand and touched Qui-Gon's tunic. "Y—you're real."
"As real as you or Yoda or Obi-Wan—yes." A twinkle of humour glittered in Qui-Gon's eye as he watched Anakin come to terms with his new reality.
"And...the dream? That was real, too, wasn't it?" Anakin recalled the moments between his old life and his new one, the second chance he had relived to set things right.
"Yes, Anakin. Everything is real here. Your focus—your thoughts—manifest your reality," Qui-Gon explained.
Obi-Wan continued, "This place is made up of our thoughts, our memories. Things appear real here because we wish them to be."
Anakin turned and looked down at Yoda. He quoted the old Master, "'Luminous beings are we—not this crude matter.'"
"Paying attention were you?" teased Yoda. "Perhaps forgive you I will the comment you made about my hair."
"Master!" Anakin replied exasperated. Obi-Wan laughed out loud as Qui-Gon chuckled.
Taking a step forward, Qui-Gon rested a hand on Anakin's shoulder. Despite how tall Anakin had grown, it still seemed that the Jedi Master towered over him.
In a serious tone, Qui-Gon spoke, "Anakin, there are still things left undone—still fears you must face. I've come to bring you to the Council chambers."
Anakin looked up at Qui-Gon and frowned. In those moments between his physical life and this new one, he had faced the Council. The two members he had feared the most—who had also feared him—had made their peace with him. Who could possibly be in the chambers Anakin must still face?
With dread, Anakin realised what it was. He lowered his eyes in shame, and replied, "I understand, Qui-Gon. I am ready to face what I've done."
Silently, they approached the Council chamber doors. Anakin eyed the tall wooden doors warily. The Emperor had burned away the etched lettering around the door frame and replaced it with dark metal, but here in this place of memory, the Jedi Code continued to shine brightly:
There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no passion; there is serenity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
The last time he read that Code was the last time he stepped through that door as Anakin Skywalker—and emerged as Darth Vader, ordained by the blood of innocents.
Anakin took a deep breath.
The doors parted, and the mid-day sun illuminated the room from all sides, but there was no one in the circle of seats. Puzzled, Anakin stepped inside, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon following.
Stopping just inside the circle, Anakin spied little heads hiding behind the chairs as youngling voices chattered quietly. His blood turned cold as the sense of déjà vu washed over him like a tidal wave. Just as before, a little blonde-haired boy came out from behind Mace's chair, clutching his training sabre and called, "Master Skywalker!"
Anakin's body shook from head to toe as the boy stood before him, the youngling's eyes shining up with a mixture of fear and admiration. "Welcome home, Master Skywalker!"
Breath caught in Anakin's throat as all the other children poured out from behind the chairs, also chiming their greetings of welcome, their faces alight with beaming smiles.
Shuddering, Anakin fell to his knees before the boy, his eyes glistening with tears that would not fall. The boy smiled with understanding and took another step, then opened his arms wide.
Anakin grabbed ahold of the boy and took him in his arms like a man drowning in his own regrets. He pressed the boy's body to his own and sobbed incoherently into the boy's cheeks. His eyes pressed shut, Anakin felt many pairs of hands touch him—his head, his shoulders, his back—as both children and his two mentors accepted him in a forgiving embrace.
The boy pulled away, joy shining in his eyes as he spoke. "Master Skywalker! Look!" The boy dashed off behind them, past the open doors. Anakin stood and watched as the boy took the hand of a fair-haired woman and brought her in to the chambers. Bringing her before Anakin, the boy declared, "This is my mum!"
Anakin looked down at the boy, then up at the mother. He felt no anger or hatred from either one of them—from anyone. Instead, only happiness and joy permeated the Force.
The woman extended her hand. "I wanted to thank you," she said as she took Anakin's hand in her own. "If not for you, I would never have known my son." After shaking hands with Anakin, she put her hands around the boy's head and smiled down at him. Anakin sensed she truly was grateful, although it continued to mystify him as to why.
One by one the children brought forward their parents, the parents speaking words of thanks and gratitude. Anakin shook each hand in turn, but his mind swirled out of control.
"Excuse me," he said at last and stormed out of the room, leaving the glad parents with their Jedi younglings.
Anakin stopped and leaned against the transparisteel that looked into the depths of the city from outside the Council chambers. He felt his former master approach from behind. In nearly a whisper, Anakin questioned, "Why are they thanking me? Because I killed them?"
Obi-Wan crossed his wrists inside the folds of his cloak as he stood beside his friend. With a gentle voice, the older man requested, "Tell me what happened."
Anakin turned slightly, his eyes probing Obi-Wan's. Finding no judgment there, Anakin began, "I asked them...if they remembered their mothers...before I killed them." Anakin's eyes flickered up again, and again Obi-Wan did not scowl nor judge him with a look of reprimand as he often did in his youth. His old master had accepted Anakin as he was, evil deeds and all.
"Do you still remember your mother?" Obi-Wan's voice was kind, although he knew his words stirred harsh memories.
Anakin looked down again. "I've tried so long not to."
"Then, perhaps, like these younglings, it is time for you to remember again."
Anakin shook his head. "Would she want to...after all I've done? I killed so many...so many..." He lifted his hands, staring at them intently as if he knew he would see blood there.
Placing a hand on his friend's shoulder, Obi-Wan said, "If these children can forgive you for what you've done...don't you think your mother has enough love in her heart to forgive you as well?"
Anakin glanced up from his hands into Obi-Wan's eyes. They were glistening in pain from watching his former apprentice unable to forgive himself. Anakin straightened, facing Obi-Wan, and looked over his shoulder to see Qui-Gon standing in the door frame behind them, his face full of silent understanding and compassion. Their eyes met, and the Jedi Master nodded his agreement to Obi-Wan's words.
Refocusing on his former master and resting his own hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder, Anakin said, "I want to see my mother."