Chapter 21
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All over the HoloNet, video clips of the Death Star's destruction were displayed on every channel, every frequency.
Anakin flipped off the hologram display, and sighed. The new Republic was in its youthful stages, and the first election of Senators was upcoming in a few days. Bail Organa was already elected as Supreme Chancellor. Anakin had to agree it was a good choice, if only because Padme used to trust him.
A new Jedi Temple had been constructed, more powerful and more full of the Force than ever. Tarra was training the new Jedi recruits – Anakin would only pop in now and then to help the younglings with their lightsaber techniques. At Anakin's request, the Jedi Code had changed. People were allowed to love, after all. Anakin was not going to risk another Jedi falling to the Dark Side because he or she couldn't love.
And as his thoughts trailed to other things, other people, his burning heart fueled by its own flame, Anakin put his head in hands. Padme. The younglings. Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan. Anakin would dearly miss his old friend. Although the Jedi Master had visited him frequently, in the dark, in the same, glowing, green light he had been in the Death Star, Anakin couldn't help but think it wasn't enough. It wasn't real enough.
And Padme ... Padme never visited him. She couldn't, she wasn't so finely attuned to the Force. Anakin wished she could, but it wasn't much he could do.
"This is why Jedi release all attachments, Anakin ..." Obi-Wan's voice floated through the depths of his mind.
"Have you heard the tale of Darth Plagueis the Wise?" Palpatine's ghostly voice overrode Obi-Wan's. "He could stop people from dying. He could bring people back to life."
Anakin stood up.
"All I want you to do, Anakin, is to do what you want."
"What I want?"
"Yes, Anakin, think! The Jedi are holding you back from your true greatness. You know what you really want to do, Anakin, I am telling you to go do it!"
And right now, Anakin knew what he wanted. A fire burned in his chest. He could bring them all back. He could bring back those he loved. All the younglings could be brought back. Yoda. Mace Windu. Qui-Gon. Obi-Wan. Padme.
The fire spread to his eyes, and Anakin strode to the door of his room in the new Jedi Temple.
"Anakin?" Tarra called out. "Anakin, where are you going?"
"Out," Anakin answered shortly. "Where are the younglings?"
"Meditating in their chambers," Tarra said, kissing Anakin lightly on the cheek.
"Leia's meditating? Somehow, I doubt that," Anakin said, laughing slightly, and wrapping his arms around Tarra's slim frame.
"Everything's fine now, Anakin, where could you possibly be going? I never felt any disturbance in the ..."
"I'm going to undo everything I did as a Sith. I'm going to try ... to use my powers, and to save the people I loved."
Tarra's face peered up at Anakin in their embrace. "Padme?" she whispered.
Anakin nodded. "Obi-Wan, too. And Yoda. And all the younglings."
"Anakin ... but ... how? You said Palpatine never taught you ..."
"He didn't, but I'm going to try anyway." Anakin bent down and kissed Tarra tenderly on the lips. "Goodbye, Tarra."
Tarra's eyes shone with tears. "You're leaving ... now?" Anakin nodded.
"Then ... I'm going with you."
Anakin looked at her sharply. "What? What about the younglings?"
"They'll be fine. Remember the old Jedi we found in Dantooine? He's training them now anyway, they don't really need me."
Anakin looked at her. "They don't?" He asked, blankly.
"No, Anakin, they don't." Tarra said, smiling.
"Then ..."
"So I'm going, right?"
"I ... guess." Anakin said, his face still blank. Then he split into a wide grin. "Yeah, great, let's go. I can't wait to tell Obi-Wan just how much he owes me."
And the two Jedi-turned-Sith-turned-Jedi set off, across the halls of the Jedi Temple, seeking truth, life, death, and knowledge.
--
"Blast," Obi-Wan said. "I was just getting used to this Force Apparition thing."
Master Qui-Gon chuckled. "The galaxy isn't that bad, my padawan."
"I'm not ... a padawan anymore," Obi-Wan said quietly.
"I didn't say you were. I said you were my padawan. And that, you are, and always will be."
Meanwhile, Yoda wasn't taking this any easier. "Bring me back? To be old again, I don't wish to be!"
Mace Windu spoke. "I, on the other hand, want to go back. First of all, because I want my skin to be brownagain, thank you very much. And I would also like to teach Skywalker a lesson." He smiled. "It will be a long day for him when I get back."
"When? Don't you mean, if?" asked Qui-Gon.
"No, master," Obi-Wan said lightly. "I'm pretty sure it's when. We'll be back on Coruscant before we know it."
"I want to see that Jedi Temple with my own eyes."
"You will. Soon."
Yoda only grumbled.
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END STORY! I hope you guys enjoyed it, it was a short chapter, but what do you expect in an ending? This ending, of course, opens the story up to a possibility of a sequel, although that one won't come out until much later. Junior year is starting to take its toll.