Sola and Ahsoka were snacking on chocolate when the couple walked in. Padmé had kept a stash in the kitchen for the past few months, and Sola had invited Ahsoka to take from it. It wasn't necessarily good for Padmé anyway.
When she walked in, Padme's face lit up and she tried to hurry over to Ahsoka. Difficult to do for her, but Ahsoka understood all the same. "I was hoping you could make it," she told her, and Ahsoka grinned from ear to ear.
"I wouldn't miss it," she promised her, and she tried to hug her, but it was difficult with her pregnant stomach. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I'm about to give birth to twins," she stated flatly, resting her hands on her stomach. "It's not very comfortable, I can tell you that much."
"I'm assuming this means you told Anakin about the 'twins' part?" Sola asked, popping another chocolate in her mouth while her sister's back was turned.
Anakin nodded, taking a seat at the counter. "About an hour ago, on the way here."
That reminded Ahsoka that she had done so, and she turned to Padmé. She still felt bad for not letting her share the news. "I would have waited for you to tell him, but it hadn't already happened, and we were almost here-"
"It's all right!" she assured her, laughing a little bit. "I'm glad you did, better sooner than later anyway." They shared a look, both knowing that Anakin would be significantly more stressed right now if she hadn't.
"You know what else is going to be better sooner rather than later?" Sola piped up, walking around the counter to her sister. "Sleep. If you don't go to bed now, you won't get a chance to later."
Peering out the windows, Anakin concurred. "It is getting late, Padmé. If it's already the end of the day..."
"What about you?" she asked, to both him and Ahsoka. "You can't just tell me to rest and not do the same."
Shaking her head, Ahsoka answered for them. "It's still the middle of the afternoon on Coruscant. I probably won't go to sleep for at least a few more hours, although I can't speak for Anakin."
He was on the same page, though. Standing up, he grabbed a glass from a cabinet and started filling it with ice water. "Let's get you resting, and see if you can't sleep through the contractions for a few more hours."
Having a feeling Padmé would want it, Sola grabbed a hot water pouch from a cabinet. Padmé wasn't going to be very comfortable tonight, but they could help her a little bit. On her way past, she told Ahsoka, "The guest room is already prepared for you, if you want to get settled for the next day or so. Other than that, feel free to make yourself at home."
"Thanks, Sola," she replied, watching Anakin and Padmé attempt to go up the stairs, slowly. "Good luck with those two."
"Oh, I'm going to send Anakin down to you before long," Sola assured her. "Once I go to bed, it's going to be his job to track the contractions. I'll let him take a break for as long as he can, because after that I'm going to make him take over Padmé duty."
Ahsoka giggled as she walked away, following Anakin and Padmé. She let herself into the guest room and set down her bag, flopping on the bed for just a minute. Even after seven months of living on her own, she still wasn't used to just how comfy beds could be on a regular basis.
She took off the clothes she had gone to work in and changed into a fresh skirt and top. She had leggings on underneath, but she took off her boots, sleeves, and gauntlets and stuffed them in her bag. Ahsoka didn't expect to get attacked while on Naboo, so there was no risk in taking off the little armor she wore normally.
After making sure Fuller hadn't called her during the hyperspace jump to Naboo, Ahsoka walked over to the window and watched the sunset for a little bit. Normally, she couldn't appreciate sunsets the way she used to, but Naboo was just so peaceful that it was impossible not to enjoy it. Not to mention, the sky was gorgeous since pollution here wasn't anywhere near as bad as it was on Coruscant. Of course, Naboo on the whole was quite a pretty planet, in Ahsoka's opinion. Definitely better than some of the other planets she had been to.
A knock came at her door, and Ahsoka turned around, calling out, "Come in!" It slid open to reveal Anakin, who had also changed into a light shirt and pants.
"Hey, did you bring your lightsabers with you?" he asked, standing in the doorway, but not quite in the room.
"I did, but why?" she asked, walking over to her bag to retrieve them, along with a roll of medical tape.
He pulled his own saber from a pocket and he flipped it in the air before catching it. "Wanted to see if you wanted to train for a bit. I need to blow of some stress, and...well, it's not like anyone else is about to volunteer."
Smiling, Ahsoka found what she was looking for and followed him out of the room. "That sounds great, but I don't know where you plan to train at. I doubt Padmé or her family want us dueling in the library or something."
"No, definitely not," Anakin agreed, but he didn't lead her towards the communal rooms of the house. "There's enough space in the basement, though. Come on, I can show you."
She followed him down the hall to a door Ahsoka had never been through, and sure enough, it lead to a staircase going downwards, into an open storage area. The crates had been moved to the walls, though, and the middle of the room was uncovered. Ahsoka sat on one of the crates to tape her wrists up, since she didn't have her gauntlets to protect them.
"I see you've done this before. And you're sure no one is going to hear us down here?" Ahsoka asked, wrapping her wrists as she spoke.
"Believe me, I've tested it before," Anakin assured her. "I was fine-tuning an engine down here once, and that ended louder than we're going to be." That only earned him a look from her, though, because surely that had been an accident. "What? It wasn't my fault the ship exploded!"
She shook her head laughing. "You always blame the ship." She didn't ask, though, she could imagine what had happened without an explanation. Rolling her wrists to make sure the tape was secure, she stood up and grabbed one of her lightsabers, the one with the older crystal. Ahsoka always used this saber when she only needed one. Originally, the saber with the younger kyber crystal had been her shoto, so it just made sense to Ahsoka.
Pulling out his own lightsaber, Anakin asked, "How long has it been since you've done your fundamental sequences?"
"Oh, I have no idea," Ahsoka groaned. "I haven't had a ton of time to run sequences. I did manage to spar Ventress the other day, but that's about it."
"How's she doing? Bounty hunting still suiting her?" he wondered, having not heard from her recently. No one on the surface had, for that matter.
Ahsoka shrugged, activating the white blade. "Well, for a bounty hunter, she's fine. She hasn't told me otherwise. Still getting into trouble, though."
He stepped into stance, deciding he didn't want to know how Ventress had gotten new lightsabers. "Let's see how fast you can run the sequences. I know you're faster than Jinx, at least."
She rolled her eyes, but did as he said. It was nice to have someone watching her movements, even though there wasn't much critiquing happening. Ventress was a good dueler, but her only lessons were 'don't get hurt' and 'don't let me beat you'. It mostly consisted of each of the women hitting each other until one of them lost both of their weapons. Anakin, on the other hand, had seen Ahsoka progress for years and knew exactly where to look and what she didn't need help with. Even with a year of Inquisitorial training thrown in the mix, her real teacher could still see the same student he had spent years working with. Ahsoka could go wherever she wanted, but some habits die hard and Anakin had disciplined her to train efficiently.
Anakin felt his mind slip into old rhythms. Training with Jinx had been unfamiliar, but this was natural, this was normal. She hardly even needed correction anymore, all he had to do now was push her in ways he knew she could grow. Ahsoka was getting to the skill level where Anakin had to exert himself to make her struggle; she could match his reflexes with her speed, and his strength with her agility. After all, she was only about half a year younger than he was when they had met on Christophsis, and she had already been through a lot more than he had at that age. Also, she hadn't gotten her hand cut off yet, although she had been killed.
As they finished sequences and transitioned to just plain sparring, something was creeping up in the back of Ahsoka's mind. Some memory, or a collection of memories, but she couldn't quite pin them down. She didn't know why they were resurfacing, or what was so important about them. She was training in all of them, back at the Temple with Anakin on their breaks from the war. As she switched to the defensive, she pushed it away, not wanting to get distracted.
It was calming, to be training together again. There was no pressure to perform, just trust and a little bit of competition. Anakin knew she didn't expect him to follow any code, and Ahsoka knew he was helping her and he wasn't actually going to hurt her. She couldn't have said the same about the Sith, so it meant more to her than she would ever tell him. They were training in the Light, just like they had always done...
...and that was enough to make Ahsoka falter. She had been mid-jump when the thought came to her and she nearly missed her landing, and Anakin was able to knock her off balance and onto the ground. A second later, he was holding his saber to her, while her own was out of reach.
Anakin, of course, caught her confusion and had felt her misstep mentally. She wasn't looking at him, but staring at the lightsaber pointed towards her. Something had shaken her. "You okay?" he asked, knowing she wasn't but without any clue as to what it was that had distracted her.
Slowly, she sighed and looked up to his face. "I was just...remembering. From before the trial...how easy it was to trust the Order. What it felt like to be a part of it."
This was true, that was what she had remembered, but there was more to it, more that Anakin didn't know about. When she felt them training in the Light, for the first time in months, maybe even a year, she had felt the Darkness leave her. It had been sitting in the back of her mind, always, where the Sister resided when she wasn't in control. Yet for a moment, the Sister was gone, and in her mind's eye, she saw herself training in the Light...of the Jedi.
That's not right, she told herself. Just her, not the Sister. The Temple told me my path was no longer there. I'm not meant to be a part of the Jedi Order.
But I saw myself as one, she insisted, staring off into space again. I saw myself as a Jedi.
How? Is that really what I want? And how could I, with the Sister? How could I force her to live like that forever?
Ahsoka remembered Anakin was looking at her, and she shook her head. He didn't understand completely, but he turned off his saber and held a hand out to her. She took it, pulling her to her feet. Having not heard her internal conversation, he replied to the verbal one. "It was a lot simpler when we didn't understand."
She smiled half-heartedly, using the Force to pull her lightsaber back to her. "I still don't think I understand. Not everything, anyways."
"Are we ever going to understand everything?" Anakin asked, knowing the answer was no. "If anyone understood it all, we wouldn't be here."
"I know," she admitted, but it didn't seem to comfort her any. After contemplating it for a bit, she confessed, "Ever since I left the Order, my path has been less and less clear. At least as the Inquisitor, I had a mission. Now I don't even have that to guide me, I don't even have a side of the Force to follow."
Anakin sat on a storage crate nearby, wishing he could give some kind of clarity to her. "Missions make it easier to feel like you're doing something. Or at least they did, before we realized the war wasn't doing anything either."
She nodded, but then the subtext of what he said became clear. "Either?"
The sinking pit in Anakin's chest grew at its confrontation, and he couldn't hide that it was there anymore. He looked at Ahsoka, wondering if she could feel it too. "Something is happening to the Light, or is going to happen, maybe. I've always felt purpose in the Force, but it's...fading."
"Fading?" she repeated, putting her weapon back on her hip. "Fading into what?"
"I don't know," he said dejectedly. "I'm not even sure I want to know. It just looks...dim."
The Sister, seemingly having returned to her spot in Ahsoka's mind, warned her. That's not good, dim is one step away from Dark, which isn't good for a Jedi. Tentatively, she asked, "Not in the way it did with Sideous, is it?"
Thankfully, he shook his head. "No, not like that, but still..." he concentrated, against every instinct telling him not to, because he didn't know what would happen when he dived down into that pit. Anakin tried to see, but either he couldn't or he wouldn't. "All I can see is...pain."
As if on cue, he flinched and looked up, in the direction of his and Padme's room. "She's having another contraction," he announced suddenly, wishing he could take the pain away from her.
Ahsoka couldn't help but grin at the sudden shift in his focus. Still, she felt bad for Padmé too. "It's going to be a long night. Maybe you should get up there."
"And do what?" he asked, standing up again. "I can't help her, I don't even know how to. There's nothing I can..." he sighed, frustrated with himself again.
"Maybe it doesn't have to do with helping," she suggested, speaking softly. Anakin turned to look at her, and she explained. "Maybe it's more important to just be there, even if you can't stop the pain. Maybe that's enough."
Anakin didn't see how that was enough, how that could make a difference, but Ahsoka had this look on her face as if she was speaking from experience. "Does it help?" he asked her, not doubting her, but hoping she was right. "Is it enough?"
"I would have rather died for good on Mortis with you and Obi-Wan than have died alone on Dromund Kaas," she told him honestly. "It doesn't change what happens, but the weight doesn't seem as heavy when there's someone at your side."
Even though he had never seen her there, Anakin could imagine it. He still remembered the way she looked when he found her in the Lower Levels for the first time, after she had killed Palpatine. He still remembered how she had reacted when she realized she wasn't going to leave her alone, how much hope it had given her.
He looked up the stairs, where his wife was waiting for him. Still, he turned around again, forcing himself to remember that Padmé was going to be okay. "Let's go for a little longer. While we still can, anyway."
Ahsoka nodded, and she pulled her second saber to her. Without words, they resumed their duel with no further interruptions. There was some unspoken consensus between them that they weren't going to get another chance like this soon. They both knew that it wasn't appropriate for a Jedi to train a civilian, but there was no one to tell them that, no one to remind them that they had given up that privilege. The Jedi Council was lightyears away, and this moment wasn't going to last. Both Anakin and Ahsoka wanted to hold on to this peace for as long as it lasted, and their movements flowed in the steady beat of each other's presence as long as time would allow for it.