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Chapter 14 - Lights

"So, how's life on Mandalore?" she asked as Luke sat on a stone railing, giving her a view of the horizon while they faced each other.

For an academy that had been built in record time, it was a beautiful structure that was grander in some ways than Satine's palace.

"A billion times better than Tatooine," Luke answered. "I always wanted to join the military, and between the 212th, the Mandalorian warriors, and Obi-Wan, I'm probably getting one of the best educations in the galaxy."

Ahsoka shook her head, Luke was this bundle of positivity and energy. She had never met anyone quite like him.

"What about you? Coruscant seems... troubled."

She snorted, colossal understatements must have been a Kenobi thing. "Pretty bad. I mean, publicly it's bad; the Coruscantians are enraged that the war landed on their doorstep, and nearly every system in the Republic is either panicking or calling for blood."

She purposely didn't answer how she herself was doing.

"Privately?"

"It's worse. The new System of Zuko hasn't reached the news yet but with Palpatine trying to seize control, the Jedi Order has completely taken over the military. And the Temple is overrun with younglings. I had five little ones sneak into my room in attempts to hide from Master Ali-Alann. It seems that raising Mandalorian clones with Force sensitive younglings is a recipe for pure chaos."

Luke laughed, it was a good sound, "I can imagine. You know, I've noticed the clones can be quite serious, especially the officers, but when they don't think anyone's watching they act like fifteen and sixteen year olds."

Ahsoka hummed, "It's easy to forget that they are thirteen year olds trapped in adult bodies."

"I mean there are worse things, at thirteen I would have loved to have been one of the adults. I think they are more bitter about missing out on childhoods than having puberty halved."

She laughed too, "I was fourteen when I became Anakin's Padawan and began fighting in this war. I too would have been glad not to look like a kid."

He smiled at her, "What's it like being his Padawan?"

"Pretty fun, he's one of the best Generals, and really, it was kind of like having two Masters. Seeing as Anakin and I usually end up working with Obi-Wan."

Luke nodded but pressed, "But what's it really like? Did you think this was how your Padawanship would go? Is Anakin nice? I mean, when he's not in battle and having Obi-Wan throwing curve balls at him."

"Nice?" she repeated, "He certainly can be, but I don't think that's the first adjective I would use for my Master. He's a good person, just very rough around the edges. And no, this isn't how I thought my Padawanship would go, but then, I didn't predict a galactic war either."

"What's his training like?" he asked, sounding truly interested.

"Lots of saber duelling and whenever there isn't time for that, he has me fixing ships."

"Really?"

"He was a mechanic before he joined the Order, both Obi-Wan and I have picked up a thing or two over the years, beyond the basics they teach everyone at the temple, but personally, I think that's because Anakin has a penchant for adopting junker ships and never having quite enough time to repair them fully."

"Are his landings really that bad?" Luke asked, "Appo says he crushes all of the time."

She winked at him, "Not all of the time. Being in Anakin's company is always an adventure."

Luke laughed again, "So tell me a story, Senior Padawan, I must hear some of these adventures. I definitely feel like I missed out."

She grinned, and for the first time since waking up from her injuries, she forgot about her legs, about trying to get better, about the upcoming battles that she wouldn't be a part of, that even now -she was still stuck in that stupid wheelchair.

She was able to set all of it aside for the pleasure of Luke's company. A boy who seemed to hang on her every word, never taking his eyes off of her, not even to spare a glance at the stunning sunset behind him.

When Luke and Ahsoka arrived back at the palace, they found no one in the dining hall. The servers informed that the dinner had been called off and that everyone's meals were being brought to their rooms.

"Why?" Ahsoka asked.

The server shook his head, "I'm sorry, Jedi Padawan, I do not know."

Luke had a bad feeling about this. "Ahsoka, is it alright if I bring you back to the guest room? I need to go check in with my dad."

She looked as if she would argue, and then her stomach growled audibly. She seemed to blush and said quickly, "Alright, but I can get there by myself. I've stayed in this palace before."

He nodded, relieved, but he took the time to bow to her, "It was good to spend time with you again."

She smiled at him, "You'll get sick off me eventually."

He grinned, "Impossible. See you tomorrow morning." Then darted off down the halls; none of the reasons he could think of for dinner to be cancelled were good. He hadn't gotten an alert on his com, so he didn't think there had been an attack, but...

"What's wrong?" Luke asked as moments after hitting the entrance code to Satine and Obi-Wan's suit.

Cody stepped forward, already shaking his head, "Nothing, Luke."

"You're lying," he accused.

Cody gave him a hard look, but when Luke didn't fold, he sighed, "Obi-Wan and Anakin got into it."

Luke felt his lips thin, and even from outside the innermost room, Luke could feel Obi-Wan's pain in the Force.

He took in a steadying breath, then exhaled.

Maybe it was time he 'got into it' with his birth father too. He hardly managed a goodbye to Cody before returning to the hall.

He found their guest room, and unsurprisingly, Appo was there waiting for him along with Fives and Echo.

"You don't want to do this, Luke," Appo warned the moment he rounded the corner. "The situation is complicated-"

"Complicated my butt, Obi-Wan isn't the only one he's hurting," Luke said as he knocked firmly.

Padme opened the door and Luke was about to say something stoic, but he noticed an extra light in the Force. So what he asked aloud was, "Are you pregnant?"

She smiled, "I am. We're having a girl."

"Who is it?" Anakin called from further in the room.

At the sound of his voice, Luke remembered his purpose, "Congratulations, but I need to speak with Anakin."

The man himself stepped into view, "What do you want?"

"What did you say to Obi-Wan?" Luke asked, moving around Padme into the room uninvited.

"That isn't any of your business, kid."

"I'm hardly two years younger than you, you bantha-behind, what did you say to Obi-Wan?"

Anakin looked angry, "That's between myself and your father."

Luke shook his head, "You really don't get it, do you? You don't understand that he loves you so much that he keeps giving you the keys to destroy him despite what you've put him through."

"What I've put him through?" Anakin demanded, "I'll be the first to admit I was not an easy Padawan but I am not-"

Luke interrupted him, "I'm not talking about what you did as a Padawan."

"What else has he told you?"

"Not much," Luke said, "seeing as he can hardly get through a conversation of these times without blaming the fall of the Republic on himself. But whatever his mistakes were, it wasn't his actions but yours that sealed our fates."

Anakin towered over him, his presence in the Force a seething mass of light cut through with deep shadows. His voice was low when he spoke, "You don't know me."

Luke laughed, "You're right, I don't know you." He waved a hand toward his mother, "I don't know her either. Which is alsoyour fault. You're the one who orphaned us. Obi-Wan hasn't even told me the whole truth of it, and I don't plan on asking him. Because I don't want to know the gory details and I don't want Obi-Wan to relive it either."

Anakin glared at him, "Why would we know each other? Do you think I know everyone on Tatooine, moisture farmer? And I didn't orphan you. Obi-Wan isn't dead, he's the one who left you."

Luke knew this wasn't the way he wanted to have this conversation, but even if Obi-Wan stood up for himself, Luke knew Obi-Wan would beat himself up for it later.

Like he was doing now.

Obi-Wan Kenobi had been through enough on account of Skywalkers.

Luke poked the bigger man in the chest, "It was always my dream to meet my father. My Uncle Owen told me he was a spicer, and I still would have given almost anything just to meet him, just for a moment to know he was more than fiction."

Anakin let out an exasperated breath, "Good for you, you struck kyber, your dad is great, and not a spicer."

Luke stepped back fighting back his own emotions, why did his family have to be so messed up? Time travelling had turned out to be the best thing that had ever happened to him, but that the other future had even been a possibility…

Luke gestured back to Padme, "I hope your daughter doesn't end up like I did."

He didn't know much about Princess Leia Organa's life, but she had ended up being a leader of war against their own father.

Anakin threw his hands up, "My daughter will never set foot on Tatooine, that I can promise you."

Luke huffed, "The only reason I was there was because of you. I should have been raised on Coruscant at the Jedi Temple or on Naboo with my bloodkin. But that wasn't possible. Because you didn't just ruin our lives, you ruined the entire galaxy!"

Padme was there now, "Alright, I've had enough today. Luke, Anakin didn't ruin the galaxy. It's fine."

Luke turned on her, "Did you support Palpatine too?"

Anakin got in his face, "You leave my wife out of this. Now that we know what Palp-"

"No!" Luke yelled, "The last time you found out, you joined him! Oh, poor Anakin, the slave boy from Tatooine, poor Darth Vader who turned on everyone who ever loved him. You call yourself a freeman? You enslaved the galaxy under a Sith Empire!"

Anakin blinked at him, "I'm not-"

"I wish you had been a spicer. When Ben first told me about you, I was amazed, in pure awe. My Father: the Jedi Knight, a war hero who fought in the Clone Wars. Legends from another age where democracy and freedom meant something more than a death sentence. He also told me you were dead. That you had died fighting in the Clone Wars."

Anakin looked pissed and Padme looked confused, as she said, "Why would Obi-Wan tell you Anakin had died?"

"Because better he was dead than be the Sith Lord who helped genocide the Jedi and teardown the Republic."

Anakin shook his head, "Obi-Wan would never- your father would never turn to the Dark Side."

"Obi-Wan didn't!" Luke exclaimed, "He watched his entire people fall, Satine died in his arms, he was forced to hide in the desert as a hermit, and he did so willingly for two decades just to keep me safe!"

"Luke, the Jedi aren't dead," Padme said, her voice taking on an edge, "Now, I don't know what your father told you-"

"Nothing!" Luke shouted, his hands shaking, these were his mother and father and they didn't recognize him, didn't even really understand that he existed.

He met Anakin's gaze, "You never told me anything because you were never there! Uncle Owen hated the Jedi, because it was the Jedi who were blamed for the Clone Wars. He would always despair my restlessness, telling me I would wind up the same way my father did. I didn't realize until Ben said he only ever had one apprentice that my uncle was worried I would become a Sith Lord like you."

"I'm lost," Anakin said, "I'm not a Sith Lord. And Obi-Wan-"

"Isn't my genetic father, you are!" Luke cried, "Ben had to hide me from you because you would have given me to the Emperor! Just like you helped kill the Jedi for Palpatine." He touched his hand to his heart over the chest plate of his armour, "I wanted my whole life to know you! But now I just want you to stop hurting Obi-Wan! You had everything and you destroyed it all because you were either that power hungry or that weak!"

Anakin stared at him, and Padme gaped at him. Her voice was clear as she asked, "You're our son?"

Luke regretted yelling, regretted being this emotional in front of her like this rather than expressing his gratitude for being able to meet with her at all.

Anakin shook his head, "That's impossible. You are-"

"A time traveller, so is Ben. The Force brought us back. My birth name is Luke Skywalker. In our time, you became Darth Vader." Luke backed up, wishing he could redo the last few minutes, take back his outburst. But he had gone this far already, might as well say his peace.

So before he left, he said, "Whatever issues you have with Obi-Wan, you should know that despite everything, he still loves you. You might do him the courtesy of showing him some respect and stop purposely breaking his heart every time you see him."

Padme caught his hand, "Luke- where was I?"

Luke took her hand and kissed it, "You died giving birth to my twin sister and me. Obi-Wan was with you, our birthday was Empire Day, so I'm not sure if giving birth was the real cause of your death or not. I just know that the Force brought us back before the point of no return."

Tears spilled down her cheeks, "How is this possible?"

Luke shrugged, "Apparently the Force disagreed with the timeline."

"You're really our son?" Anakin asked, his eyes looking him over, "You have Padme's features."

Luke let go of his mother's hand, stepping back from them, "I am, but I'm also Obi-Wan's son. He isn't perfect, but he isn't your enemy. He can't just leave you alone either because I don't think he would survive seeing you fall again."

Anakin shook his head, "I'm not going-"

"But you did. And you took us all down with you. Whatever your history is, whatever Palpatine did to you, you have to find a way to overcome it. I never knew my twin, I would like the chance to meet at least one of my sisters." He turned his back on them before he said anything else foolish. Who was he to tell these strangers off?

Anakin caught his hand, "Luke, wait, give me a chance to-"

Luke yanked his hand back, "No, not right now. I need to go calm down."

"You still sound more like Obi-Wan's son than mine."

Luke didn't understand Anakin, not his actions, not his reactions, nor what he was capable of. He especially didn't understand why it was so hard for him to see how much people cared about him.

"I'm Shmi Skywalker's grandson."

Anakin looked as if Luke's words had finally landed a blow.

"Unlike you," Luke said, "I'm not ashamed of where I come from."

Anakin nearly spat, "I have never been ashamed of my mother."

"Then stop acting like you are owed something. No matter how ugly or cruel the world gets, you continue to be kind. That's what her legacy taught me, that continuing to be kind in the face of evil is real strength, not power." Luke stared up at his sire, "Darth Vader was a monster who terrorized the galaxy. I don't think you are that man now, but somehow you're capable of becoming him. You are capable of losing to the Dark Side. I just hope this time around you remember that a slave can be greater than the richest king."

Anakin let go of his hand as if he had burned him. "Did Obi-Wan also tell you how my mother died?"

"No, Uncle Owen, your stepbrother, told me. About how the only time you showed up at the farm was because she was dying."

"She was murdered by Tuskens. And Obi-Wan didn't let me go to her in time to save her."

Luke looked at him, just looked at him, "I doubt it was that simple, but even if it was, people die in the desert. She died a free woman with a family who loved her and witnessed her passing. That's how life works."

"It wasn't how it was supposed to happen, I became a Jedi so I could save her."

Had he been tempted to become a Sith to save Padme? To save me? Luke wondered as he said, "My grandmother wasn't yours to save, her life was her own. The Lars family has always had the funds to leave Tatooine if they wanted to, they choose to live there. She chose to live there."

"You're wrong, no one chooses to live on Tatooine."

Luke shook his head, "It certainly wasn't my choice, but you don't know how much our family loved her, how much she doted on them. Her husband died of heartbreak not long after you met him. They were hers."

"And you think that makes up for the horror of the way she died?"

Luke stepped back, talking to Anakin was tiring, he was so defensive, so sure he was right. "We aren't defined by the way we die, Father, we are defined by the way we live." He went to the door, and paused at the threshold, "Cody said you and Obi-Wan got into a fight. I know he's going to apologize to you, but you should apologize first."

"Why? Because I messed up in your future? A future that is never going to happen?"

"No," Luke said, "because apologizing to him is the right thing to do, the thing Shmi would have expected you to do, Anakin Skywalker."

Luke left before either of his birth parents could say another word. As introductions went, lecturing his birth father about his dead mother seemed like a splendid start.

Luke sighed, remembering how he hadn't had time to bury Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen beside his grandmother. He didn't think everything in the Empire was Anakin's fault, but Luke had seen his presence in the Force.

Even if they killed Palpatine tonight, Anakin was close enough, unbalanced enough, that he could still turn tomorrow.

Luke remembered his vision quest on Ilum, remembered how the Dark Side of the Force had beckoned to him, how it had shadowed his own destiny.

Anakin Skywalker didn't seem to realize how close he was to the edge of the abyss.

Padme was pacing the room, "Time travel? Do we really believe that?"

Anakin ran a hand over his face as he sat heavily on the bed, "I don't. Anything is supposed to be possible within the Force. The Force is everything."

"But still…" she trailed off, "Luke does look like us."

"I won't believe it until I hear it from Obi-Wan."

"He knew your mother though. Ani, he sounded like her when he spoke."

Anakin had heard it too, the echo of his own mother in the boy claiming to be their son, "But he couldn't have known her. She's gone."

"But the Lars family," Padme said, "Your step siblings, Owen, I remember him. He must have known Shmi and he was old enough to pass on what she shared with that family."

"What do you mean? Old enough?" Anakin demanded.

"Nothing, just that you were nine the last time you spoke with her, your memories of her were that of the child's. It's possible that the Lars-"

"Knew her better?" he said, voice low.

Padme put her hands on her hips, "Stop talking to me like that."

"Like what? You're taking his sid-"

"There are no sides, Anakin!" she exclaimed, "We are all on the same side. This is why Obi-Wan is so angry with you, because he loves you, and instead of admitting to him, to me, that you need help, you fight us. At every turn you fight us. We aren't your demons, we are here to help you."

He glared at her, "What do-"

"Quit being so obtuse," she snapped.

Anakin had about had it with people yelling at him today. "You are angry with me. Because of what Luke said. Now that you know what I'm capable of-"

"I've always known what you are capable of! Obi-Wan might not have been there when your mother died but I was. You told me what you did."

He felt his heart sink, "And you forgave."

"I did, because I saw how torn up about it you were. You weren't angry at Obi-Wan, just like you aren't really mad at him now, you're angry with yourself. I married you knowing what you could do if you fell to the Dark Side of the Force, because I love you more than I could ever fear you, because I trust you to be stronger than you were that day."

He stared at her, "You thought I was weak?"

"I thought you were wrong to have killed the entire village, of course, I did Ani. And so did you, you nearly cried yourself sick afterwards."

"Those tears were for my mother."

"Not all of them," she said, blinking back her own tears, "they were for the innocence you lost that day. You were a young man playing with electricity and learning how much you stood to lose, I wasn't the only who learned something that day. I know it still haunts you."

This was all happening too fast, and he couldn't believe that Luke was really his son, because that would mean…

It would mean everything else he said was true too.

Because if it was… "Obi-Wan said that Palpatine kept me broken. I know the Dark Side is dangerous, but to turn on my own people? Whatever my issues are with the Jedi… I could never. What could Palpatine have done to me? Am I that stupid? That weak? To have let him-"

Padme sat down beside him, "He manipulated me too, Anakin, he was the one who backed me when I first ran for queen. I wasn't much older than you were when I first met him. He orchestrated the Naboo Crisis and I didn't even suspect him for a moment. I personally called the vote of no confidence. Dear Stars, all those years I thought he was my friend and he was the one who sent Darth Maul after me, and the bounty hunters, and I trusted him as much as you did."

Anakin put an arm around her, needing to know that she wasn't going to leave him, "But you disagree with him often enough."

"Anakin, I love you, but your grasp of politics is severely limited."

He tilted his head to rest his cheek on her head, "Obi-wan never seemed keen on me learning politics."

"I've listened to Obi-Wan speak, it's a bit of tongue and cheek really. He's very good at politics, at negotiating, but at the heart of it, his motives are always pure. When he says he hates politics, he means it in the same way I do, he hates corruption."

He pulled back to look down into her honeyed eyes, "Are you telling me all those times he preached about politics being evil, he was really just complaining in lofty language?"

Her lips twitched, "Essentially, yes."

Anakin groaned, covering his face with the hand that wasn't around her waist, "How could I have been so blind? I really can't see him, can I? Everything I know about him has been twisted by that kriffing psycho Chancellor."

"You and Obi-Wan are very different people, Ani, but your strengths and weaknesses complement each other well. But yes, I think Palpatine made a very neat job of making it so you could never trust Obi-Wan, your friend, mentor, and brother with your whole heart."

She hugged him as he responded, "I thought I was free, but I wasn't, Palpatine made me a slave to my own fears and doubts more surely than any detonating chip, beating, or cruelty could have."

Her hands rubbed his back, "It's not too late. You can still make things right with Obi-Wan, you can start fresh."

He shook his head, "He must hate me."

"He loves you, Ani, he always has and always will."

She said it so simply, like it was clear reality for all to see.

Everyone, but him.

"How? Why? Luke said I helped kill the Jedi, that I betrayed, that I- How could Obi-Wan not hate me?"

I hate me, he thought, because if everything Luke had said was true, then he had only confirmed every doubt he had ever harbored about himself.

Padme's answer caught him off guard, "Because Obi-Wan will always believe that it was his fault for not protecting you, just like he believes Qui-Gon's death was his fault."

Anakin jerked back from her, "That's not true. How could he possibly thin-" Though Anakin knew exactly how his mentor could think that. But Obi-Wan had to know, at least logically, that it wasn't true.

"You were nine years old when Qui-Gon died. You didn't see Obi-Wan's face at the funeral."

"Yes, I did, he was emotionless."

She shook her head, "No, before he went to your side, he had been crying for some time. But he was careful around you. You had just been separated from your mother and then lost the man who had freed you, likely one of the first outsiders beyond your mother that you had ever trusted. On top of, being thrown in a world and culture completely foreign to you. Obi-Wan tried being your rock even as he himself was grieving."

"It would have been better if he showed me that. His stoicism made me feel alone, made me think that the Jedi didn't care about each other."

She cupped his face, "That's what Palpatine would have you think, but do you want to know what I think?"

"Yes," he said, simply resting his face in her hands. "I always want to know what you think, Padme."

She held him as if he was precious, "You would have felt better if Obi-Wan fell apart because then you could have taken care of him. Just like you did for me and your mother. You never wanted to need saving, you wanted to be needed."

Those words struck something deep, something that was more true than he wanted to admit. He likely needed help, had needed help for most of his life, but what was the problem with needing someone to help?

It was admitting you weren't in control of your own life. Asking for help was akin to putting yourself at someone else's mercy.

Obi-Wan had been trying to help him from the beginning, but it was so much easier to fight his Master than to admit, even to himself, that he was out of control.

It's why he hadn't asked for help with his visions, it's why when Obi-Wan pressed him for not sleeping well at night, Anakin had downplayed the visions as mere nightmares, unfairly expecting Obi-Wan to understand that his confiding in him at all was sign enough that it was a matter of grievest importance.

He closed his eyes, pulling Padme onto his lap as his mind swam with memories that followed the same pattern.

It was just as Padme had said: Anakin had needed Obi-Wan but instead of accepting help, he had fought Obi-Wan every step of the way. So whenever Obi-Wan did make his own missteps, his own human, fallible choices, they were just that much more magnified in their relationship. And from Obi-Wan, Anakin had painted the whole Order with that same brush. All to the point where his only real confidant was Chancellor Palpatine.

Palpatine, who was a Force forsaken Sith Lord.

"I played right into his hand," he said miserably.

Padme kissed his jaw, tucking herself in tighter against him, "We haven't lost, Anakin." Then pulled back to see his face, "You need to go apologize to your time travelling Master."

He groaned, "So we are just going to accept that?"

"I mean, Obi-Wan has been acting weird, and I really don't buy that he's been sneaking off to Tatooine intermittently over the last two decades without anyone noticing."

"True," Anakin said, "And he really has changed. He acts older and a little unhinged. My Obi-Wan would have never provoked Palpatine to get himself kicked out of the Order."

"His eyes are older," she agreed.

Anakin sighed, "Time travel. I'm not going to get used to that. We have a son who we know nothing about who is nearly our age."

She grinned, "On the brightside, Luke is adorable, and Obi-Wan is actually old enough to be the father figure you always needed him to be."

He huffed at her, "You are taking far too much enjoyment teasing me of late."

Padme grinned, "It's either the hormones, or my finally getting to brag to my nearest and dearest, that yes, I did claim you, as mine and mine alone."

Anakin laughed, "I never wonder why I married you but I often wondered why you married me."

"Because," Padme said, brushing his hair back, "You were a conundrum of being the most earnest and dangerous person I had ever met. Marrying you was like wedding fire, I knew I would never not want you and I knew you would never think me too intense, too ambitious. You loved me for everything most people shun me for. I love you because of how freely you gave me your heart."

"You are my heart, Padme, you give me hope that tomorrow can be better than today," he said before he pulled her in for a real kiss.

"I never thought I would find a home again," Obi-Wan said, running his thumb over Satine's palm.

They were sitting on a sofa in their personal sitting room.

The tinted, blaster resistant windows overlooked the side of the palace that mountain range could be seen beyond the city limits.

"I never thought I would allow a military academy to be built," she grumped.

He grinned, "Your father would have been ecstatic."

"Oh, no doubt," she touched his cheek, "Do you want to talk about what happened with Anakin?"

He sighed, holding her hand to his face, "I didn't intend for that."

"I know. But after what he did… I'm amazed you still..."

He closed his eyes, and let out a breath, and whispered, "Twenty years, Satine, seeing him like this… it's so abstract."

"Obi-Wan, my love, look at me."

He opened his eyes as she held his face, "I'm real, we are real. We are alive. You are here with me."

It's what she said to him whenever he woke in their bed from a nightmare. It was so strange to not be alone anymore that there were a few times he thought he was still dreaming.

"I love you, my Duchess," he said.

She gave him hopeful eyes, "Enough to shave your beard for me?"

He laughed.

Resting her hands on his chest, she continued, "You can grow it back, I just want to know how well you aged."

Still chuckling, he kissed her nose, "I will shave it off tonight."

She looked so delighted, her expression had a touch of wickedness to it.

He cleared his throat and tapped her shoulder, she gave him her back so he could start undoing her elaborate headdress.

And it was truly elaborate, having Padme show up on a social visit had inspired Satine's creativity.

"It's alright to want me, Obi-Wan, I want you too."

He kissed the nape of her neck in response rather than voicing his insecurities that she had so easily deduced.

There were times, like now, where the strength of his desire for her overwhelmed him. He had been raised to be wary of intimacy, though when he was younger he certainly experimented, he hadn't in recent decades. He couldn't risk unwittingly exposing himself or Luke to danger.

Plus, his heart had never recovered from losing Satine.

He had been so certain that Luke was the last person he would care for deeply enough to feel broken-hearted over if he passed.

There was no accounting for the circumstance he found himself in now. Sometimes he felt suns at high noon, other days he felt as if everything were so fragile that a heavy breath could send the pieces scattering.

Being with Satine healed more than it hurt, but he still had moments of feeling like a pervert wanting her the way he did. He had spent so many years wanting no one, denying all needs for community, friendship, company, that embracing love vaguely immoral.

"Talk to me, Duke of Mandalore," Satine demanded softly as her silk hair came undone beneath his fingers.

"Hmmm…" he hummed, putting a leg up along the couch so she would be closer to him.

She scooted back, trailing a hand up his leg. They had already removed their armour. "Words, Kenobi," she said firmly, even as she shivered again as his fingers brushed her scalp.

"I'm afraid of Anakin."

"Understandable."

"He's my Padawan."

"So? You know what he's capable of Obi-Wan. I'm afraid of him too."

His heart squeezed at that, and he almost whispered, "Luke has the same potential."

"No, he doesn't. Luke isn't anything like Anakin."

Obi-Wan didn't answer that.

She glanced over her shoulder, "You disagree?"

He sighed, "The longer I spend time in Luke's immediate company, the more I realize how it could have been with Anakin and I. Luke is like his father if Anakin had no fears. Luke is almost truly fearless. He's a natural to the Jedi, and on the rare occasions he is afraid, he turns to the Force."

"You are older now, Obi-Wan, and Luke trusts, probably has trusted you, even subconsciously, all of his life. You never had that with Anakin."

"No, I didn't. Holding Luke in my arms was one of the strangest experiences of my entire life."

He had just finished taking down her hair, all the pins and ornaments rested on the low table. She turned, settling herself against his chest, "Why?"

"Because I had just left Anakin for dead and there was Padme, losing her mind over the loss of her husband, and in all the death and sorrow and chaos. On the very day the Order fell and the Empire rose from the ashes of a torn Republic, here was this little life, this beautiful light in my arms.

"I almost laughed at Yoda when he said they were our only hope. These two babies that had been conceived in secret, whose very existence had likely brought Anakin to the brink, yet they were our hope. Luke was mine. He was living proof that in all this darkness light could prevail.

"And he was Anakin's, as much as he had destroyed, he made Luke too. Padme's dying words that there was still good in him. I didn't believe her then, but I believed Luke was the product of not fear and despair but love and perseverance."

Satine blinked back tears and wrapped him in an embrace.

He held her back, opening himself up to the Force. Satine couldn't feel the Force, but he could feel the light of her, feel her love for him, for Luke, for her people, for life in the greater galaxy. He basked in her emotions, wondering if this is how Anakin sought comfort from Padme.

Satine was everything Obi-Wan wanted in life, and he gave his fear that this would not last to the Force, the Force filling him in turn, centring him in the moment. He breathed in deeply, the jasmine and citrus smell of her filling his longs.

Like a stone thrown into a pool, he felt Anakin's turbulent signature a moment before a knock came at their door.

"Skywalker is here," Cody said through the door, "do you want me to tell him to leave?"

Obi-Wan exhaled sharply as the moment slipped from his grasp, his focus from the Living Force slipping to his usually constant awareness of the Cosmic Force.

Satine pulled back from him, anger sparking on her expression. She caught his arm, but he shook his head, "No, he and I need to talk."

Her lips thinned in disagreement, "I like Anakin, but you will always be my priority. Do not let him rip your heart out or I will put a hole through his."

He gasped, "Such harsh words from my little pacifist? What are we coming too?"

She stood, catching his hands to pull him up with her, "You are mine, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and I will protect you with everything that I am."

He kissed her.

A second pounding on the door, this one much louder, "Call your Marshall off," Anakin said, "We need to talk, Master."

Satine pulled back and rolled her eyes, and muttered, "How is he that rude while being-"

"He's Anakin," he said, stealing another brief kiss before walking around her to answer the door.

When he opened it, Cody's hand was itching toward his blaster and Anakin was glaring at him.

"Alright, you two. Come, Anakin, we can talk on the balcony," Obi-Wan said, unable to keep the exhaustion from his tone even as he signalled a dismissal to Cody and Waxer.

Anakin followed him like a storm, and Obi-Wan felt his shoulder blades tightening with every step.

This wasn't normal, Anakin usually avoided him for the night or even days after they had a fight.

When they got to balcony railing, the lights of distant traffic, small flickers compared to swarming rivers of Courscanti traffic, he turned to his old Padawan.

Before he could say anything, Anakin said, "I'm sorry, Obi-Wan."

Obi-Wan gaped at him, "You're what?"

Anakin rolled his eyes crossing his arms, "I'm sorry, alright. For the secrets, for lying to you, for never coming to you for help, for never accepting your help when you offered it, for treating you like the villain when you were only trying to teach me. I am sorry for it all, but mostly, I am sorry for letting you down, for hurting you."

Obi-Wan was rendered quite speechless, he didn't know what to do or say. He couldn't remember Anakin ever apologizing to him without a flippant or sullen tone.

Anakin glared at him, "You're not going to say anything? You always have a comeback."

Obi-Wan held up his hands, "I know better than to look a gift-eopie in the mouth."

Anakin's arms dropped, "Did you really live on Tatooine as a hermit for twenty years to keep Luke safe? Safe from me?"

Obi-Wan felt the blood drain from his face, but he had told Luke it was his right to confide in his birth parents whenever he wanted. "Nineteen years, and it wasn't entirely for Luke's sake. Any Jedi who survived the fall of the Republic was being hunted. If I hadn't had Luke, I likely would have been picked off in the early days of the Rebellion."

Anakin looked distraught, "Are you really saying all of the Jedi were killed?"

The majority died by your hand personally, Obi-Wan thought as he leaned back on the railing, "Yoda was the only other I knew of, I'm not sure who else made it."

"Ahsoka?"

Obi-Wan shook his head, "I don't know."

"What did you think?" Anakin demanded.

"That her chances of survival weren't high. The Empire killed known Force sensitives. Did Luke tell Padme too?"

"We were together, he was mad at me for upsetting you."

Obi-Wan was both moved by this and depressed, "He shouldn't have, not for my sake."

"Stop it," Anakin said, coming lean against the railing too, "You're as bad as I am."

Obi-Wan tilted his head, "How do you mean?"

"The self deprivation; I've been told it's unhealthy."

Obi-Wan laughed, "Padme is wiser than the both of us put together, Satine has been giving me similar council."

"I think we will both live longer if we listen to our wives."

"Undoubtedly," Obi-Wan said, relaxing as it sunk in that Anakin wasn't here to continue the fight.

It was also a bit of relief to not hold back about the alternating factor in his life about the time travel.

"Luke told me my mother would have been disappointed in me."

Obi-Wan physically flinched, "I never meant for him to see you as Darth Vader, that's not how I portrayed you to him."

Anakin turned from the view to meet his gaze directly, "He wasn't talking about that, he was talking about the way that I treat you. About the way I chase after power. I don't know how I ever got into my head that being the Chosen One, that if I had enough power, that I would never be afraid, never lose the people that I love. Luke reminded me that my mother valued kindness to others above all else.

"Luke reflects that. He never met my mother, but I heard her speaking through him."

"Owen and Beru Lars loved him dearly, your mother was never forgotten."

"You sound sad," Anakin said perspectively, "Did something happen to them?"

"They were murdered by Imperials right before we time travelled on our way to a station in Mos Eisley."

Anakin shook his head, "I still can't believe you raised my son on Tatooine, of all places. Why didn't you bring him and his sister to Padme's family?"

"Naboo did rather well in the Empire, Padme's family would have been under surveillance. We made arrangements so that Padme still looked pregnant for her funeral."

"Luke said he thought she died in childbirth, but he didn't know why?"

Because you choked her and she went into shock because of your turning against all she had ever strived for, he thought, but aloud, he said, "There were some complications. But you have nothing to fear for your daughter. Padme is in good health."

"Obi-Wan, why did I fall to the Dark Side?"

He looked away from Anakin's earnest face, he couldn't look at him as he said the next, "I would like to say I haven't spent the last twenty years obsessing over why you betrayed us, but it was probably my favourite pastime."

Anakin said nothing.

Obi-Wan sighed, and looked back at him, "In all honesty, I don't know. To this day, it doesn't make sense to me. I mean, Dooku tried destroying the Order, but he was cold, calculated, you were so much stronger than Ventress that is no comparison. You reminded me of Darth Maul, you were mad, lethal, you destroyed everything, and you enjoyed the power it gave you."

Anakin shuddered, "I don't… why? How could I let that happen to me?"

Obi-Wan remembered the events on Mortis. "If I had to guess, Darth Sidious was tormenting you with visions. He made you believe that Padme was in mortal danger, and he offered you immortality."

Anakin stared at him, "Immortality? Was I high?"

Obi-Wan quirked a smile at him, "You were driven to your breaking point."

"And I broke."

Obi-Wan nodded.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too, Anakin."

Anakin reached out to him, and Obi-Wan didn't flinch back as Anakin pulled him into a hug.

Obi-Wan hugged him back, feeling as if there might be hope for the two of them after all.

"Assigning blame will not bring peace to either of your hearts."

Obi-Wan pulled back to face that familiar voice with exasperation, "Oh, so now you show up."

Anakin whirled to face the ghostly figure, "Qui-Gon Jinn?" He looked back at Obi-Wan with wide eyes, asking without words if he saw him too.

Obi-Wan smiled, "You believed time travel but not in Force ghosts. Come now, Padawan, we saw him on Mortis."

"That was Mortis!" Anakin exclaimed.

"Fair enough," he conceded. Before glaring at his own ghostly Master, "Are you my Qui-Gon or the one from this timeline?"

Qui-Gon folded his arms, "Time is meaningless within the Force."

Anakin recovered and snapped, "Is it? Is it really? Then what's the future, Qui-Ghost?"

Qui-Gon raised a slightly translucent brow at him, "That is not how this works."

"Then how does it work?" Anakin asked.

"Meditation."
This time Obi-Wan did laugh at the look of befuddled outrage on Anakin's face. But he asked, "Why now? I've been reaching out to you?"

"Your mind was not at rest, but I was with you."

Obi-Wan frowned, feeling far more at peace now than he had living on Tatooine.

"I'm not at peace," Anakin said, "and I can see you."

Qui-Gon nodded, "Through Obi-Wan you are able to perceive me. Always will you be his Padawan, as he will always be mine. These bonds between us can be broken, muddled, and healed as they have been tonight."

"Master," Obi-Wan said, "I'm not quite sure-"

"In pushing Anakin away, you pushed me away as well, Obi-Wan. Luke was able to reach me in the Force, though he didn't know me."

"When?"

"His vision quest on Ilum," Qui-Gon said, "and he could reach us all if he attempted it. You've done well in teaching him, Obi-Wan. The life of a Tatooine moisture farmer prepped him in ways that the Temple could not."

"Extensive levels of boredom?" Anakin stated flatly.

Qui-Gon bowed his head, "Quite so. I myself found the Force wandering the jungles of undeveloped planets more deeply than I was ever able to on Coruscant."

Obi-Wan opened himself wider to the Force, and felt the training bonds between himself Luke first, but the between him and Anakin were stronger than Obi-Wan could ever recall them being.

But he also sensed something off with Qui-Gon, "What is wrong?"

"Things have been set in motion," Qui-Gon said, "Anakin, there is much Obi-Wan could still teach you, but in truth, he has already given all you need. You must be critical of your own heart." Qui-Gon looked back to Obi-Wan, "You must push Luke, the tide has already shifted to him, he must end what Anakin began."

"Why can't you just say anything plainly?" Anakin demanded.

Qui-Gon smiled at him, "Because I see too many possibilities. The Jedi must reclaim the Republic as their own and when Darth Sidious runs, you must be prepared to end him."

"Reclaim the Republic?" Anakin asked, "And ending him is the plan."

Qui-Gon sighed, "Mace Windu must disregard Yoda's advice as Dooku did. Sidious's poison runs further and deeper than you know. The plans that Leia delivered to you, Obi-Wan."

"I never saw them," Obi-Wan said, "I don't even know what they were about."

"Nor do I but, the chain of it, that plan is already in motion. It is these threads in addition to immediate problems that you must solve."

Anakin folded his arms, "Do you ever show up to tell Obi-Wan he's doing a good job, or just to chat?"

Qui-Gon blinked at him, then he smiled, "Such things lose their appeal when there is no tea to be enjoyed." He met Obi-Wan's gaze, "I am happy for you and Satine. I wish I had been as open with Tahl as the both of you are with your wives." He smiled wider glancing over the rail, "I also approve of your apprentices."

Qui-Gon winked at them, then dissipated back into the Force.

"What in the bantha manure piles was that? Does he just show up like that?"

Obi-Wan leaned over the rail to try and spot what Qui-Gon had been looking at, "Talking to Qui-Gon is how I earned myself the prestigious title of Crazy Old Ben."

Obi-Wan smiled, his heart warming as he saw the scene unfolding on the lower balcony that was distant enough to be able to hear in either direction unless they were yelling at each other.

"What are you smirking about?" Anakin asked, leaning his upper body almost fully over the rail to peer into the night.

Ahsoka and Luke were sitting together beneath the stars talking between themselves like two friends finding more in each other than they initially thought possible.

Anakin looked back at Obi-Wan smiling, "Your son or mine, that's adorable. He is possibly the only boy I don't feel like threatening for looking at my Padawan like she is the only female in the galaxy."

Obi-Wan's own smile grew, "It is quite remarkable how we all took so strongly to Qui-Gon's maverick leanings."

"Maybe he wasn't a maverick, maybe he was what the Jedi Order should be aspiring toward," Anakin said.

Obi-Wan thought of how happy he was with Satine, how her strength and love made him better as Tahl had made Qui-Gon better. Even after Tahl's death, it had made Qui-Gon more compassionate, more understanding of the people outside the Temple.

"Perhaps you're right," Obi-Wan said, bumping shoulders with Anakin, "I am happy to have you back, little brother."

"I love you, Obi-Wan."

Obi-Wan felt something in his soul breath, "I love you, too, Anakin."

They spied on their Padawans in a peaceful silence, the night breeze washing away the anxiety of the day.

AN: Phew, wasn't planning these chapters, but the characters have spoken. Thoughts, reactions, yes, Ahsoka/Luke ship is sailing, or feedback?