Ch. 18

Having dropped Leia and Luke off at the temple medical ward with Padme, Anakin marched through the temple furiously, both personally insulted and worried for the credibility of the Jedi. He could only imagine three scenarios in which Sidious could have been alive and free, the best being a terrible one and the worst making him void of any trust in anyone and extremely sick to his stomach. What Anakin hoped had happened was that Sidious had escaped and the Jedi Masters hadn't even known- perhaps the Sith had found a substitute to be executed for him, so that the Jedi would think he was dead. The second scenario was that the Jedi knew he had escaped, and had told no one and apparently done nothing, which brought Anakin near tears to even think about. The third, which made Anakin lose all hope in what he believed, was that for some reason the Jedi had let Sidious go knowingly, had decided he shouldn't be killed, and had tried to keep it a secret even from Anakin- or, especially from him, he mused.

He desperately wanted to believe it was the first one, and he truly thought that it was, and yet he couldn't help but feel the urge to berate the other Masters, and yell at them, and release the pent up anger that he had inside of him. He knew it was unhealthy, and not Jedi-like, to want this, but he had suffered so much pain and frustration, his children and wife had suffered so much, that he found himself placing blame everywhere. Worst of all, the Council knew how personally Sidious affected Anakin, how much Anakin had fought to destroy him, how Sidious had disgustingly exploited Anakin's feelings for Padme, and so Anakin felt extremely insulted and frustrated for having been kept in the dark about the whole matter had the Council known anything.

As Anakin marched through the temple halls, what he didn't know was that the Jedi were holding one of their monthly assemblies. Padawans and Younglings had to attend, and the assembly simply went over the Knights' and Masters' work and events of the past month and the Younglings often gave presentations. Several knights usually attended, and Masters showed up sporadically, though not often, and it was always exciting when one of the Masters or Council Members (other than Yoda and Mace who ran the assemblies) showed up.

With Obi Wan following behind desperately, trying to get Anakin to calm down, Anakin continued to march on angrily. Sensing Yoda and Mace in the largest room in the temple, the assembly room, and not thinking clearly enough to figure out what was probably going on, Anakin burst through the doors at the back of the room.

Every head turned, the youngest Younglings sitting on the floor in the front, Padawans and knights in chairs behind them, and Yoda and Mace standing in front of them all. Without even seeing them, Anakin marched dramatically down the middle aisle, his waving cloak practically hitting the Younglings he passed, his expression severely betraying him so that everyone in the room knew that something serious had happened. The youngest took it as very exciting, but the older Padawans, the knights, and especially Yoda and Mace, could tell that something was extremely wrong.

"Sidious wasn't killed?" Anakin yelled- it was an accusation. Whispers immediately broke out among everyone in the room. "How could you not tell me?" While Yoda and Mace looked at Anakin and at each other, shocked, and everyone whispered nervously to one another trying to understand the situation, Obi Wan suddenly burst in the room after Anakin.

"Anakin! Wait!" Obi Wan yelled desperately. Everyone now turned to him, and suddenly they began to notice the tattered appearance of Anakin and Obi Wan's cloaks, and the fresh cuts and bruises all over them. Anakin and Obi Wan reached the front of the room at about the same time. Obi Wan began to give a small bow to Yoda and Mace, but Anakin glared at him menacingly so he stopped and stood still. Yoda and Mace looked at each other worriedly, then back at Anakin, while Obi Wan cursed himself for having let Anakin influence his actions, knowing he would hear about that later when Anakin had calmed down.

"Anakin," Mace began, "what… how…what?" He and Yoda looked very confused.

"That's right," Anakin said angrily. "Sidious, not killed- I was under the impression you two personally saw to his execution-"

"Not in front of the Younglings Anakin," Mace scolded.

"What, because they're not old enough to deal with it?" Anakin shouted. "Well I'll have you know that my own two four year old children had to deal with being kidnapped by Sidious." Out of breath, Anakin paused to stare at the Masters and await their reactions.

"What?" Yoda asked incredulously, and he and Mace stared dumbfounded at Anakin, and then at Obi Wan, who nodded sadly. That news certainly made Anakin's anger much more understandable than before.

"Yes, in fact Master Kenobi and myself were kidnapped as well; luckily, we are trained to escape situations like that," Anakin added, now calmed down some and starting to be more sarcastic than angry. "And, oh yes, my wife, I don't know if you know her, The Chancellor of the Republic." He finished dramatically, and Obi Wan rolled his eyes.

"What, what… how did you…" Mace stuttered, still fighting to believe Anakin's story.

"Funny how no one seemed to notice," Anakin commented sarcastically. This time Obi Wan kicked him, restoring his authority. Anakin smirked at Obi Wan so that neither Yoda nor Mace could see.

Anakin backed down some, and continued more slowly and diplomatically. "Something terrible is, well, was, happening. We must have a council meeting, right away."

Yoda and Mace eyed each other again, then nodded.

"Agree with you, I do. This news you bring us- terrible," he said respectfully. "How no one knew, understand I do not." The Masters had come to understand, if not fully accept, Anakin's temper. Though they still reproached him for it, even Mace understood that if Anakin's story was really true, he had been through a lot and was entitled to be angry.

"Is this all true, Obi Wan?" Mace asked, just to confirm.

"Unfortunately, yes," Obi Wan informed them. "It seems there has been quite a lot going on that we don't know about."

"The Chancellor was really captured?"

"Yes, but only because she went after the children with us… we will explain everything," Obi Wan answered. "I believe she will be speaking to the Senate very soon, but it might help if she were with us to embellish the story. We were separated for some time."

"In one hour, a meeting we will have. The children, bring, as well," Yoda instructed. "For now, explain this to the Younglings who saw you, we must."

Anakin and Obi Wan nodded, and this time Anakin did bow. They walked slowly back down the aisle in the middle of all of the Jedi, everyone staring at them in awe and confusion. Anakin smiled sheepishly, and he and Obi Wan exited.

"You could have treated them with a little more respect, Anakin," Obi wan said reproachfully.

"Oh they don't mind," Anakin said casually.

"It's as if you're my Padawan again," Obi Wan sighed, shaking his head.

"Except that if I was still your Padawan I would have had to bow and say, 'Yes Master,' every five seconds," Anakin laughed.

"It wouldn't hurt you to do that anyway, you know," Obi Wan said, amused.

"Yes Master," Anakin said, bowing elaborately. Obi Wan pushed him mid-bow, and Anakin fell over in a very undignified manner.

"Obi Wan, please don't beat up on him too badly," a voice said from in front of them. They turned and saw Padme standing in a doorway right in front of them. "Have pity on him, he's not strong enough to defend himself," She teased, walking over and giving Obi Wan a hug as they laughed.

"Hey!" Anakin yelled frustratedly, trying to push himself up gracefully. "Hands off of her!" he pulled Padme defensively away from Obi Wan, grumbling, and she and Obi Wan laughed.

"I was just looking for you," Padme told him, kissing him on the cheek. "Luke and Leia are fine, we're all starving. We've got to get something to eat."
"And how are you?" Anakin asked, concerned.

"The baby's fine, Anakin," Padme assured him, laughing.

"You know that isn't all I care about Padme," he said, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her on the lips.
"I know," She mumbled, returning the kiss.

"Ok then," Obi Wan said loudly, "I'll just leave you two alone. I have my own business to attend to now that we're back."

"And by business you mean your girlfriend," Anakin teased him. Obi Wan shrugged his shoulders and walked down the hall. "We will find out who it is," Anakin said firmly.

"Oh, of course," Padme agreed, watching frustratedly as Obi Wan walked away. "As soon as life is back to normal, it's my highest priority."
"Don't you have important things to do like, say, run the galaxy?" Anakin teased her.

"The galaxy seems not to have even noticed I was kidnapped, I'm not sure how much it even needs me," she joked.

"Well they did think we were on vacation-" Anakin began, always defending her, but she cut him off by kissing him.

"I know. Let's go get our children."
"Where are they?"
"Oh, I think you'll know very-"

"Daddy!" two tiny little voices cried out, and before Anakin knew it he was on the ground, the twins tackling him.

"Hi angels!" He laughed happily.

"Look!" Leia said proudly, showing Anakin her little scar again. "Aren't I brave?"
"You are very, very, brave Leia," Anakin assured her, kissing her on the forehead.

"Well, um," Luke mumbled. "Well I'm brave too!"

"Yes Luke, you're very brave too," Anakin told him, giving him a kiss too.

"We're hungry!" Leia announced.

"Well then let's get lunch," Anakin said, getting up and beginning to walk towards the cafeteria. The twins got up and ran ahead, very familiar with the temple, and he took Padme's hand and walked slowly with her, savoring the fact that his family was now safe.

"We have to go talk to the Council in an hour," he told Padme. "They want to see the children too."
"Of course," she agreed. "I will be addressing the Senate tomorrow, I just wasn't up for it today." Anakin nodded and led her down the hallway.

"I love you," he said softly, pulling her closer to him.

"I love you too," She said, and they entered the cafeteria just in time to see Luke spill an entire tray of food on a Jedi Knight. Sighing and shaking their heads, the Skywalkers happily went to deal with the problems of daily life once again.

"Isn't it nice to just have our normal lives back?" Anakin asked. Padme looked at him, and they both laughed. "Well, at least as normal as our family can get," he corrected himself, smiling warmly at his children.

Hi guys, I think I'm just going to write a couple more chapters and I'm going to skip ahead a couple of months to when the baby is born… don't worry, I'll explain what happens and everything. And a while from now I might skip way ahead to when Leia and Luke are like 18 (or like about the age of ANH) and have fun creating the crazy and hectic Skywalker family, in yet another sequel, just because once I get a lot of chapters I like to start over… Or I could write one in that timeframe completely separate from these, but the back story would be pretty similar to No Boundaries anyway, so it would basically be a sequel so there's no point really starting a whole new thing…eh let me know, hope you're still enjoying, I just have fun writing these.

-sewardsfolly