Disclaimer: I still have no rights to these characters or their universe, and never will. George Lucas rocks, so I don't even feel bad for giving him all the credit.

Author's Note: First off, I'm sorry that somebody thought the end of ch. 1 was the end of the story. My fault for not un-checking the "completed" box when I pulled ch. 2 off for editing. Lo siento. Anyways, the really angry reviewer I got earlier had some very good points, (even though they didn't have to be so rude about it) and my friend agreed, so I changed some things to make it more realistic/likely, and am working on adding a third chapter now, which will probably be more like a short epilogue-type thing.

But enough boringness. Back to the galaxy far, far away…

:ii:

Chapter II

:ii:

Obi-Wan staggered back as he deflected the disembodied crimson blade that had come entirely out of nowhere. Palpatine had activated his lightsaber with the Force and sent it spinning toward him without bothering to call it to his hand first. It started flying back toward its master before it had even clattered to the floor, but Anakin dove in the way and snatched it out of the air.

"Circle around; we can't shoot them at this angle without hitting the Emperor!" one of the clones barked at the others, apparently taking this as a signal that they should attack. The clones formed up and rushed forward, sticking to the edges of the hallway.

"Anakin!"

"You take them. Someone has to watch Palpatine."

"They're surrounding us! I can't defend from all sides at—"

"Way ahead of you, Master."

Anakin tossed him Palpatine's lightsaber.

But blue lightning hit Obi-Wan before he could catch it, and only because he was blasted backwards off his feet did the blade narrowly miss impaling him.

The pain was indescribable, as if the searing, tearing heat was coming from inside him, from every organ and muscle at once. He cried out involuntarily, and let go of his lightsaber for fear of accidentally dismembering himself with his jerking arms. The logical side of him was speculating that this was Force lightning, most likely a dark side power of the Emperor's. The rest of his mind was too occupied with a soundless scream for any coherent thought. He heard a clone trooper blaster cocking, far too close for comfort and yet a million miles away, but he was hardly in a position to do anything about it.

He was going to die.

There was no doubt in his mind, but a little more regret than a Jedi should feel. So he let it go. It was, after all, something he was getting good at. Padmé had brought Anakin back to the light, and that was all he could have possibly hoped for.

Then, as he accepted that this would very likely be his last thought, the lightning stopped. He could smell his robes smoking, and still felt vaguely as if he was on fire, but the burning wasn't getting any stronger.

Then a blur that was probably Anakin leaped right over him, one red and one blue blade in his hands. Obi-Wan turned his head just in time to see a clone trooper fall to the ground only centimeters away, still clutching the gun that had been about to end his life. Anakin proceeded to incapacitate every last trooper in the room before the dazed Jedi Master even got to his feet.

He deactivated the two lightsabers, and just stared at the one in his left hand: Palpatine's. Then he looked up at his long-time Master with haunted eyes, an expression Obi-Wan realized he'd seen there far too often lately.

"I had to. He was going to kill you."

What was he talking about? Obi-Wan turned around, and saw that the Sith Lord was lying facedown on the floor. There was a burn hole in his back.

When he faced Anakin again, there was a lot more sympathy on his own face. He remembered all to well Anakin's refusal even to spy on Palpatine. He didn't want to imagine how hard it must have been for Anakin to kill him, even knowing he was a Sith Lord. And he had done it to save Obi-Wan, even though he had been trying to take his former Padawan's life mere hours ago.

Obi-Wan didn't know what to say.

Nevertheless, Anakin seemed to understand what was going through his head.

"We should go," he said with a small, sad smile. "Before more of them show up."

Obi-Wan nodded, and the two of them took off at a jog.

There had been a time when Anakin would have jokingly said something like, "You didn't think I would actually desert you, Master, did you?" Now, after Mustafar, a remark like that would have taken on a whole different meaning. He had fully expected, several times during that duel, to die at his best friend's hands.

He knew he should be grateful for Anakin saving his life just now, and he was, but the memory of Lord Vader sharing the same face as his apprentice and friend continued to haunt him, casting a tainted shadow on even the things Anakin did right.

"You're thinking about Mustafar, aren't you," Anakin said. It was more a statement than a question.

"I hardly think it's something I'll ever be able to forget," he replied coldly.

Anakin was silent for a long moment.

"I know the feeling. But I don't know what to do… Now the Jedi are destroyed, and Padmé…"

Not this again. Obi-Wan was beginning to realize that Anakin did worry an awful lot more than he used to think, but only about one person.

"She's all right, Anakin. She's in one of Coruscant's best medical centers. You can go find her before we leave the planet."

"No, you don't understand…" Anakin took a deep, shuddering breath. "I had a vision, must have been days ago now, of her dying… in childbirth. Palpatine said he knew how to manipulate the Force to save people from death. I was so afraid for her… I took his offer, and everything that came with it."

He shook his head as if to dislodge memories he couldn't bear to see again.

"But he lied. Only his Sith master ever had that power, and I still don't know what it is, and I'm afraid that even after all this mess… what if she dies, Obi-Wan?"

That was it: the missing piece to the puzzle. That was what had tormented Anakin ever since they came back from the Outer Rim. It was how Anakin could justify in his mind the slaughter of a hundred innocent people, and it was why he hadn't breathed a word of his troubles to the Jedi. How could he, when he knew he would be thrown out of the Order?

Obi-Wan knew the answer a Jedi should give, but it wasn't one that would comfort Anakin in the least. The question was whether Anakin deserved his sympathy after all he had put Padmé and the Jedi through, not to mention the entire Republic.

"I don't know, Anakin," he sighed at last, unable to prolong his indecision any longer under that intense stare. Every second he hesitated, Anakin read something else into it, whether accurate or not. "We can at least be there at her side."

Anakin looked away, not as if he was staring at nothing, but as if he could actually see Padmé off in the distance. Slowly, he nodded.

"Thank you for not saying what everyone else did, even if you thought it. About 'letting things pass out of my life'."

Obi-Wan didn't reply. That remark didn't require a response, for which he was grateful. Conversation with Anakin was uncomfortably strained now, though he had been able to ignore the fact in the chaos of escaping Mustafar. That had been like switching back to default, but now… it was painfully obvious that things between them weren't the same. And they likely never would be. He couldn't get the events of the volcanic world out of his head any more than he could the things he had seen on the Temple's security holocrons.

"You're still angry with me," Anakin said softly, but still audibly over the sound of their racing footsteps. He must have known the blatant understatement would get Obi-Wan talking, or more accurately, ranting. It was the invitation he'd subconsciously been waiting for, to get all the unspoken thoughts out of the way, and he wasn't about to pass up the opportunity.

"Shouldn't I be angry? Anakin, I ought to have killed you! You helped to destroy not only the Jedi Order, but the entire Republic! Everything millions of people have worked so hard for, obliterated in one day because of your ambition! This wasn't a case of your usual thoughtlessness; you didn't even care, did you?"

Anakin uneasily averted his gaze, with an expression any schoolteacher or parent would have recognized.

"I should have told you a long time ago. That we were married, I mean. Padmé said you figured it out anyhow…"

Obi-Wan was momentarily lost by the change of topic, and didn't appreciate him dodging the question, but he decided to wait and let Anakin explain. For one more second at least.

"Tell me the truth, Obi-Wan. Would you have turned me in to the Council?"

That caught him off guard. He had never seen Anakin look so serious.

And he shouldn't even have needed to ask a question like that. As Anakin himself had said, Obi-Wan had guessed as much anyhow. What stung was the fact that Anakin had doubted his loyalty even back then. And worse yet was the knowledge that his mistrust wasn't completely unjustified. Obi-Wan had known he was the wrong person to go ask Anakin to spy on the Chancellor; that it would come back to bite him someday.

He had never expected it to be this bad, though.

"Did I?" was his simple reply.

Anakin took in a slow, deep breath, then let it out with a melancholy chuckle and a shake of his head. His hands curled into fists, then gradually unclenched again.

"I should have trusted you," he admitted at last. "But you have to be able to see why I didn't. You were asking me to spy on Palpatine…" He trailed off, looking as if he had just had an unwelcome revelation. He swallowed hard.

"And you were right. He was the Sith Lord all along… Even when I first met him."

"You're no more to blame for not realizing it than any of the rest of us," Obi-Wan assured him, half surprised at the words coming out of his own mouth. "But I think we need to finish this conversation later." They had arrived at the doors now, and he could sense a considerable number of clone troopers on the other side. The task at hand was always first priority in life-or-death situations such as this.

"Master, I helped him kill Master Windu! I didn't just let him do it, I cut his arm off!" Anakin blurted, completely disregarding Obi-Wan's last comment, raw pain and remorse cracking his voice. "And that was when I knew what Palpatine was."

With those words, those few words, the reality of how far his friend had fallen hit painfully home all over again. It was every bit as devastating as fighting him on Mustafar, just as much of a horrible jolt as seeing him massacre younglings via the security recordings. The only difference was that he could finally ask the question:

"Anakin, why?"

But he realized, as he spoke the words, that he had already been given the answer.

Palpatine had told Anakin he knew how to save Padmé… That was all it would take.

"To save her," Anakin replied, confirming what he had just figured out. "And because I believed the Jedi were plotting to take over the Republic. And because Palpatine was my friend. Or I thought he was. I don't know. Everything was so confused… I was just so afraid I'd lose Padmé, nothing else mattered."

He paused as he summoned the right words, and when he spoke again, his voice rose. Obi-Wan got the feeling that all the secrets were about to come spilling out, and that this wasn't necessarily a good thing.

"Do you know how hard it was, watching her life tick away, doing nothing, being told repeatedly that it was wrong to try to save her, to even love her?" Anakin paced restlessly back and forth, his narrowed eyes flashing with anger. "Being told that I had to… 'let go of everything I fear to lose'…? Being excluded from the Council while I did their dirty work, spying on a friend? Even you were in on it, and you never told me anything!"

Anakin was breathing hard, and now he glared blaster scores at the wall.

"Do you know what it was like to be fired on by my own troops, and then to escape only to learn I might very well be the last Jedi alive?" Obi-Wan shot back, just as intense but without the extra volume. "Do you know what it was like to return to the Temple, even knowing what I would find there? To see the bodies of friends, colleagues, even younglings, killed not only by clones, but by lightsaber? By one of our own? And then—to learn what Master Yoda had already guessed, but I'd never have dreamed of—that you were the one who fell?"

"You didn't have to go rushing off to kill me the moment you found out!"

That remark was infuriatingly unfair, not to mention untrue. Obi-Wan finally lost the last hold he had on his temper.

"It's not as if I wanted to! I had no choice! Anakin, if it was me, what would you have done? Thrown away your oath as a Jedi and joined me?"

Anakin had no answer, which was an answer in itself.

Obi-Wan kept going while he had his attention. "I had thought you were dead, but the truth was even worse. I watched my brother turn his back on everything he was and pledge his life to a Lord of the Sith. I was the one who trained you, so how could I blame anyone else? I hated myself, at least as much as you did. I wished I had died back on Naboo. I wished…" he paused, choking on the words, but he had to say them. "I wished Qui-Gon had never found you."

"Master, you don't m—"

But Anakin cut himself off. His eyes, which had remained locked onto Obi-Wan's for that entire speech, only held his gaze for one more moment, but it was enough for him to read the answer there.

"You do. You mean it."

Suddenly Obi-Wan couldn't swallow, but it had nothing to do with the dark side of the Force. Anakin's pain was tearing him apart, and he couldn't imagine why.

Anakin turned away and started pacing again. Somehow, he managed to face away from Obi-Wan the entire time.

"Anakin—"

But that was just an impulse; he didn't actually know what to say. He wasn't used to his words having much of an effect on his former Padawan, and now that they did, he wished they didn't.

It had been so simple a statement, but it meant infinitely more than anyone besides the two of them could have hoped to understand. Had Qui-Gon not stumbled across this anomalous boy when he did, Anakin would still be a slave to a junk dealer on an arid, Hutt-occupied Outer Rim world. He would never have known a better life, never had the faintest glimpse of hope of fulfilling his dreams, forced to tolerate a meager, useless existence that ran completely opposite his character.

But more than that, Obi-Wan had essentially just said he considered all the time and training he'd spent with his Padawan, all the things they'd learned from each other, years of fighting side by side in a struggle that went far deeper the war itself, a bond strengthened by a promise to a Jedi master who had meant the world to both of them, the close friendship that intertwined their whole lives, everything they'd ever gone through—to be an absolute waste.

"I swear to you," Anakin said at last, his voice wavering but cold, still facing the opposite wall, "I would undo it all if I could." He turned, only partway, only enough to see Obi-Wan's reaction, and there was a hint of Vader in his eyes. "But I—"

"Can't."

Anakin nodded reproachfully, and deep heart-wrenching hurt seemed to melt Vader away as quickly as he had come. Obi-Wan realized at last that he'd seen glimpses of this dark creature in Anakin all along, and that only now did it have a name.

No, that wasn't quite right either. Its name was still Anakin Skywalker. It was part of who he was, not some alter ego that seized control every once in a while. It was all Anakin, and it always had been, as far as the Jedi Master knew.

Yet Obi-Wan couldn't hate him.

"And I know nothing but erasing the past will ever be enough…" Anakin went on, light-years away in his own little world. He held his empty hands out in front of him, as if letting the past slip away through his fingers… Obi-Wan saw falling sand, always falling, no matter how tight he tried to hold on, blowing away on the desert wind… What? These weren't his memories.

Then he realized: That was Tatooine.

He was seeing Anakin's.

"…but I'm going to try."

Obi-Wan was jolted from further reflection. He couldn't have understood correctly. It was too improbable, after all that had happened…

"Try what?" he asked warily.

Then Anakin erased all his doubts, in seven simple words.

"I want to be a Jedi again."

Obi-Wan must have blinked half a dozen times before he remembered he had the ability to speak.

"What about Padmé? And your child? You can't be serious—"

"Obi-Wan," Anakin began, with the look of someone trying to explain how stealing wasn't exactly wrong, "You said Master Yoda survived, right? That means you and I are still two thirds of the Council—"

"Anakin—"

"Well, why not? That rule doesn't conflict with upholding peace and justice and all that. It's ridiculous, and it gets broken anyway. I know I'm not the first Jedi to marry."

Though he didn't particularly like hearing any Jedi rule reduced to dust, Obi-Wan couldn't deny that he was most likely right. About the last part anyway. However, that wasn't the real reason he'd objected. Killing a temple full of Jedi students was a little more troublesome than breaking one rule.

But he couldn't bring himself to say so. Rubbing that in Anakin's face again right now would be not only counterproductive but bordering on cruel.

"And it will happen again, sooner or later," Anakin went on, arguing an argument that, in Obi-Wan's mind, was already over. "Changing the rule to allow marriage would only get it out in the open. That has to be a good thing. All this deception is what destroyed the Order last time." Then as an afterthought, he added, "I hate secrets."

That was an understatement if Obi-Wan had ever heard one. He rolled his eyes.

"I know you do."

"And I know you do. Come on, Obi-Wan."

Despite the fact that he knew he was going to give in, he still didn't want to. Anakin was exploiting the Council's majority-rules system, and switching back and forth between Jedi and Sith a little too easily for Obi-Wan's comfort. Long accustomed to being Anakin's teacher, this bothered him on several levels.

And besides that, his former apprentice had a way of rubbing it in his face whenever he won an argument, an occurrence that was becoming less of a rarity these days.

But all this is nothing really, compared to how aggressive negotiations were going.

"All right," he relented with a weary sigh. "I can't imagine Master Yoda will like it, but at this point every decision affects whether or not the Order will survive. The current situation might be desperate enough that he'll agree."

"But if he doesn't, promise you'll vote—"

"Anakin, yes. I'm on your side," he cut him off, trying not to sound exasperated. "I always have been."

His former Padawan smiled, truly smiled, for the first time since before he had become Darth Vader. Since… Obi-Wan couldn't even remember when. But it didn't matter now.

His face gathered itself into a frown once again as he remembered that was far from the last of their troubles.

"Now our remaining dilemma is that, as you may recall, all Jedi are still considered enemies of the Empire. No one else knows Sidious's true identity, and I can't imagine the people taking too kindly to the assassination of their new Emperor. You realize that we'll most likely have to go into hiding until the government sorts itself out, which could be a very long time."

"I know," Anakin replied impatiently, "but I don't think his identity will stay secret much longer. The Senate building has security cams too. They'll have to do an investigation before a new government is set up, and once the HoloNet learns that Palpatine was a Lord of the Sith, people may not mind being rid of him so much."

Obi-Wan was doubtful that it would be that easy, but he had to admit it sounded possible. Information like that tended to leak out, one way or another. Maybe, just maybe, the name of the Jedi could still be redeemed before every last one of them was killed. It was more hope than they'd had in a while, although not quite enough for Obi-Wan's peace of mind. Who would take Palpatine's place? How long would it be before the galaxy was safe for Jedi once more? Where could they hide in the meantime, and how in the stars was he going to convince Anakin to leave Padmé for even one day, let alone the weeks it would most likely take before—

"Now can we go find Padmé?" Anakin asked, assuming he'd won and ended the debate.

Obi-Wan reflected that he'd spent far too much time with his friend if he knew him that much better than he knew himself.

"I suppose so," he replied nevertheless. He'd had more than enough fighting with Anakin for today. The only problem was that they still had to sneak out of the most heavily guarded building on Coruscant, past countless professional soldiers on a very alert lookout for Jedi. This might have been the predicament it sounded, if they weren't Jedi. This was all in a day's work for keepers of galactic peace, whether that was a good thing or not.

"Shall we leave the same way we came in?" Obi-Wan suggested briskly.

Anakin visibly wilted, rolling his eyes.

"There are a hundred other ways—"

"All of them involving someone getting hurt."

"Master Yoda found another way out," Anakin insisted, far from willing to give up, "and he's even more of a pacifist than you are."

"Yes, but our way would never have worked for him, and it's possible that his wouldn't work for us. There's no way of knowing."

"Maybe you should just ask him then. You have a comlink, don't you?" Anakin asked, a self-satisfied smirk in his eyes and eyes only. He had perfected that look during his years as Obi-Wan's apprentice; enough to mock his Master but not enough to give Obi-Wan a legitimate reason to reprimand him for it.

Obi-Wan just stared at him for a moment, shaking his head.

"You really don't like wearing those things, do you?"

The muscles in Anakin's jaw clenched.

"Easy for you to say. I'm a lot taller than you are, if you haven't noticed." Before Obi-Wan could respond, he held up a hand and conceded, "But I'll wear the stupid disguise anyway, all right? Let's just get it over with. And I'm doing all the talking. You're horrible at imitating their accent."

"Excuse me? This coming from someone half a head taller than they should be?"

Anakin tipped his head and raised his eyebrows in a look Obi-Wan himself had given his Padawan time and time again—one that says, "Are you absolutely sure you don't want to change your mind before I reduce your argument to dust?"

But that small victory wasn't going to be enough for Anakin's ego. Obi-Wan sighed impatiently at his own error, knowing it was too late to take it back.

"So you're agreeing with me. You admit your plan is hopelessly flawed."

This time it was Obi-Wan's turn to roll his eyes.

"Fine, I walked right into that one. But no, I'm not agreeing, and this argument is useless anyhow. I thought you were anxious to see Padmé."

Anakin went deadly serious again in a heartbeat, as Obi-Wan knew he would.

"You're right. There's no time to lose. Let's go."

:ii:

Five minutes later, two clone troopers marched into the med center. The instant the elevator door snapped shut and they were alone, the suspiciously tall one ripped his helmet off.

"I don't know how they stand it. I feel claustrophobic in full body armor after about thirty seconds."

"It's better than being shot to pieces, which is what will happen if you take it off," Obi-Wan told him impatiently for the third time, his filtered voice crackling with static.

Anakin gave the blank stare of his Master's helmet his most skeptical look.

"And exactly who in a medical center is going to shoot dangerous renegade Jedi?"

"If they reported us, legions of real troopers would swarm this place within minutes."

"Yeah, which gives us plenty of time to escape, unless we're wearing these ridiculous things that make you run like a one-legged bantha."

Anakin proceeded to take off the rest of the armor as well, until he was once again wearing only his painfully recognizable Jedi robes. It made no difference really; removing his helmet would have been enough, since the whole blasted war had made him so famous.

Surprisingly, Obi-Wan's resigned sigh came across without static. Anakin smiled.

I win.

He was frustrated to find that he still felt like a nervous wreck, rising upward at this painstakingly slow crawl. He flicked a glance at the ceiling, considering dealing with this elevator the same way he had the one on the Invisible Hand…

"No," said Obi-Wan as he piled his armor next to Anakin's, starting to get fed up with his characteristic impatience. "I know what you're thinking, and it's not a good idea. At any rate, there's nothing you can d—"

"Master, this waiting will be the death of me. I have to know if she's okay."

Anakin was entirely serious, and he hoped Obi-Wan realized it. With or without his former Master's approval, he was getting out of here. It had been hard enough leaving Padmé to go face the Emperor, but he had known that was necessary. Stupid unreasonably slow elevators didn't fit that category.

"Oh, all right."

Anakin did a double-take.

"What?"

Dumstruck, he watched Obi-Wan activate his lightsaber and carve a hole in the elevator's ceiling. Only at the last second did he think to back out of the way so it didn't crash down on his head.

Obi-Wan is actually going along with it?

"But you owe me for this," the Jedi Master was saying, "and don't make me remind you who had to save the galaxy from Darth Vader all by himself."

"Almost makes up for me saving your life eleven times," Anakin retorted, straightening his robes smugly and shooting Obi-Wan his "I just won and you know it" look.

"Eleven?" Obi-Wan echoed doubtfully, arching an eyebrow. "When was the—"

"The tenth was back there on Mustafar when I let you off the hook after you tried to kill me, plus when I saved you from the Emperor just now."

Without waiting for a response, Anakin leapt through the hole in the ceiling and landed lightly on the elevator's top. Obi-Wan joined him a moment later.

"All the credit for Mustafar should go to Padmé, and you forget I spared your life first. It doesn't count." After a pause, he admitted, "I'll let you have the last one though."

"Fine," Anakin amended, pulling out his tiny grappling device. Obi-Wan did the same. As they made their ascent, at least three times the speed of the elevator, he added, "I'll give you one thing though, Master. For all the times I've saved your skin, you were the toughest opponent I ever fought."

He didn't have to look to see Obi-Wan's rueful smile.

"That's quite a compliment, coming from the Chosen One. But I'd rather be your friend any day."

This time, Anakin did glance at him, and he could see that Obi-Wan meant it. Very rarely did he let him glimpse any emotion but fatherly disapproval, so it meant that much more when he did. The Jedi Master's expression said that no matter what happened now, he wanted that one simple fact to be set straight.

I'm probably the only person in the whole galaxy that could ever have turned him against me.

Oblivious to Anakin's thoughts, Obi-Wan went on more lightheartedly, "And my chances of living long enough to grow grey hair are considerably greater when I'm not your archenemy, I should think."

Anakin couldn't resist; that was a perfect trap he'd just walked into.

"Oh, that's not a problem, Master," he said, feigning innocence. "You're already so close."

He laughed at Obi-Wan's appalled silence.

"I'm only sixteen years ahead of you, and when you're old and senile, then we'll see who's laughing."

"Yeah, right, remind me then, if you have anything left of a memory by that point. I wouldn't be so—"

"All right, all right. You win," Obi-Wan muttered. "No need to completely destroy whatever self esteem I might have had."

"This is our floor," Anakin realized suddenly, their entire conversation instantly slipping from his mind. Now he just had to open the door before the elevator arrived and flattened them.

But Obi-Wan must have been thinking the same thing, because it snapped open a fraction of a second later.

A little Twi'lek girl and her father happened to be waiting for the elevator, and their jaws dropped simultaneously at the sight of the two dangling Jedi.

"That's Obi-Wan and Ana—" the girl started to say, but she lost her train of thought as she noticed Anakin starting to swing toward them. He could already feel the draft from the oncoming elevator, not to mention the bite of the cord cutting into his hands, and he wasn't going to wait much longer.

"Excuse us, please," he said in mid-somersault.

The little girl's father pushed her defensively behind his back as the two Jedi landed in front of him.

"I'll call security!" he threatened, backing slowly away. "Everyone here has heard all about the Jedi rebellion, and you won't—"
"Go on and find her, Anakin," Obi-Wan interrupted quietly, noting Anakin's impatiently rigid stare. "I'll fill this fellow in on current events."

With a nod of profound gratitude, Anakin took off down the hall, Obi-Wan's calm, patient voice receding into the distance. It was probably in both of their best interest for Obi-Wan to handle it himself. Convincing frightened civilians that the Jedi could be trusted when all the information they'd been given pointed to the contrary was a very delicate undertaking, and Anakin didn't have the patience. Talking to some jumped-up stranger was the last thing he wanted to be doing right now, when Padmé could be dying…

He was so close now… but of course the hallways had to be light-years long, didn't they? T37, T35, T33… He was looking for T21. This was just as bad as the elevator except that this time, there was no shortcut.

He drew on the Force to allow his legs to carry him even faster, something he'd been doing far too often since this war began.

Always running, running, running, and even that doesn't guarantee you won't be too late. Like Mom…

There it was. T21. He stopped short.

Now that he was here, he was afraid to go inside.

Leaning his arm on the wall to support himself, he stood there torn in indecision. It was ridiculous, he knew, but what if the truth he had to face was one he would never be able to accept? It had nearly destroyed him just thinking he was going to lose her. Dealing with her loss for every day of the rest of his life was unimaginable.

He couldn't do it.

Even Lord Vader couldn't.

His gaze lingered on the door's control panel. All he had to do was reach out and press it, and all the answers would be his…

But he couldn't force his hand to move.

When the door shot open unexpectedly, he jumped almost foot in the air. A medical droid, who had apparently just been exiting, looked almost as surprised as he was.

"I'm terribly sorry," it jabbered in its clanging voice. "Were you trying to get in? The control panel is right there next to—"

"Is she alright?"

It blinked electronic eyes at him, apparently confused.

"The patient? She—"

"Anakin?"

That was her voice, coming from inside. He nearly collapsed in relief, a huge grin blossoming on his face without asking his brain whether it should.

He shouldered the droid aside—surely even Obi-Wan wouldn't have cared about being polite at this point—and raced into the room.

She was sitting up, evidently waiting for him, looking tired but very much alive, and beautiful, and perfect, and everything he had hardly dared to hope.

Then he noticed she was holding a baby.

As Anakin started moving over to her bedside, another medical droid approached him and handed over… another baby?

"That's Luke," Padmé told him, laughing at the astonished look on his face. "And this is Leia. They're twins."

What kind of a name is Luke? And why did she already name them before I got here? he wondered, but he knew better than to ask those questions, and honestly he was too happy to mind.

As Anakin stared down into round, blue baby eyes that were familiar in some indefinable way, he finally felt that the galaxy might be possible to put back together. After all, he was made for fixing things. He could see that now, looking back, and doubted that he would ever have been truly happy as a Sith Lord. He didn't know what future the Force held for him, but he was going to try something new and not fight it.

He had a family to think about now.

"Hello, Luke," he said somewhat shyly as the baby blinked up at him, "I'm your father."

Somehow, the words just seemed to fit.