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Title: One Question
Author: Disco Shop Girl
Summary: Disheartened as his latest mission stretches out with no end in site, Luke receives an unexpected visit from Anakin – who hopes to cheer him up.
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Luke sighed, let his loneliness wash over him once more. It seemed this mission would stretch on ceaselessly, until he himself became one with the force. And he began to wonder if he would ever see his loved ones again.
"You can ask me one question about her," a quiet voice came from behind.
Luke turned in surprise to see the force-glowing vision of his father.
"Wh-what?" he asked, caught off guard for the first time in a long time.
"One question. That's all I can answer," Anakin murmured, hands hanging limply by his sides.
His apparition had appeared from nowhere, why now?
"Because you need it. You need something positive in your life, something to keep you going. Ask me one question about her."
Her. His mother? What was her name? Where was she from? What did they mean to each other? Who was she? Was she still alive? How had they met? Were they in love?
"What was she like?" Luke asked after a long period of silence.
Luke sunk into a nearby chair, overwhelmed for the moment. After being so demoralized for endless months, this visitation was…surprising.
The turning up of his father's mouth in the corner of a smile made the experience uplifting, without a further word spoken.
"Towards the end she was…very soft. Curvy."
Anakin's form started to shimmer, glow brighter. Because of fond memories?
"She was still pregnant with you two when I last saw her. I don't know, maybe it was because of the war."
His head dropped and he looked towards his boots for a moment. In memory? He seemed – mournful.
"She made the contrast seem all the more real. When I came back the last time we'd been on the Outer Rim for months. Instead of harsh laser bolts for days on end I'd just hear her soft voice. Instead of weeks in bunkers, filthy, with only clones for company she smelled so clean – sweet. You know?"
Luke nodded. Oh yes. He knew. The longing for Mara just returned full force. But his father pressed on to pull back his attention.
"Maybe it was because you two were making her belly round. A contrast between my capability to destroy life one day and find out we'd been creating it the next…She was just so soft!"
Luke raised an eyebrow as Anakin shivered in memory.
"Her belly was round, her breasts were round, her cheeks were so so soft – her hair was long, and I used to sink my fingers into her curls and just breathe. She used to fit in my arms and put her head just here, perfectly."
Anakin tapped the top of his chest, then looked up once more, his very being now radiating light.
"You'd hold her and it was like – holding a pillow or something. Plump but perfect."
He laughed, Luke assumed at the look on his son's face. That's how he described their mother? Plump?
"In a good way!" Anakin hurried to reassure. "It was you two that were doing it to her! When I left she was a stick! I come back and discover she's wearing dresses with full skirts to hide the fact that she's pregnant!"
Anakin stopped laughing suddenly and turned his gaze to look Luke directly in the eye. He sighed, now serious with obvious regret.
"She protected me. She was the smartest person I know of. She fought the very notion of war all the way, tried to end it, tried to end Palpatine. Led the opposition. She was so strong. I didn't quite realise until, well until she was gone. She looked after me. Or tried to. She was very good at looking after herself."
Anakin suddenly laughed and, although Luke didn't comment he did raise an eyebrow.
"Once, I snuck out of the Jedi temple for the night and was so afraid they were going to find me out and come force me back. I think it was the first time we were reunited after we'd been married. Anyway, we were getting undressed for bed. I took off my lightsaber, put it on the table next to the bed. Then I sat and watched her unstrap four different blasters and two blades from all over her body. And she finally yanked out a really long thing piece of what I thought was a hair clip or something, but turned out to be a long thin spike. A pacifist armed to the teeth. And after that I had absolutely no fear about any Jedi finding out."
He shook his head at the fondness of the memory then sighed.
"She threw out an invasion army from her home planet when she was a fourteen year old queen, and married a desperate Jedi Padawan who could only ever love her in secret – when Naboo tradition dictated she should be settling down to start a family of her own. She entered public service before her childhood had even begun, and followed me to a lava planet to try and save me as I murdered everything she held dear. She was nothing you will ever meet."
Anakin stopped and looked over his shoulder at something Luke couldn't perceive.
"She was intelligent. Strong. Beautiful. Determined. And I love her so much."
He glanced again then whispered softly
"I have to go. But you shouldn't give up hope. Your mission will one day be complete, and you will live to love and protect your own wife and children as I could only have dreamed of. Time stretches out interminably now, but it will happen. Just as I foresaw her death and the destruction of my own happiness, so have I foreseen the fulfillment of yours. Be strong Luke. Padmé's strength lives inside you."
And with that he was gone.
Padmé. Her name was Padmé.