I'm not so fond of this chapter, but that's ok, since the people he meets aren't as important as others. I'm not saying they're not important, but...hey. Why am I defending myself? And yes, I know I should take equal care in everything I write, but right now I'm incredibly sleep deprived. Maybe I'll redo this one later, when I actually have a few brain cells.

Chapter One for disclaimer.

The Masters

Eager but afraid, Anakin closed his eyes. He was anticipating…who? Even as he took a deep breath, willing himself to look, he wasn't sure. The sheer white of the light behind his eyelids indicated, he thought, someone so centered in the Living Force that should he perhaps kneel? Defer how to such a powerful being? Or maybe, if it was who he was hoping, praying for, then he should take her in his arms and never let her go…

But then, that would be just a little bit awkward, considering who was standing before him. And so he decided to take option 'A'.

He knelt.

"Master Yoda. Master Windu." He kept his head down, eyes fixed on the ground. His heart was thudding rather uncomfortably in his chest, and he wished one of them would speak so that it would quiet. After what seemed an age, Mace Windu's voice reached him.

"Anakin Skywalker. Stand, boy."

The breath he was not aware he had been holding hissed out as he stood, and he met Windu's dark brown gaze. The Jedi looked as solemn as he had in life, but there was a sparkle behind his eyes that had been missing ever since the Clone Wars had begun. He looked larger, were it possible, than he had in life, and his dark skin seemed to gleam with the light of the Force.

"Master, I cannot express…how…sorry I am," Anakin said, faltering on the words, feeling as if he were ten years old and meeting Windu for the first time. "It was my actions that killed you, and I have never forgiven myself…"

"If you cannot forgive yourself, then you will not obtain mine," Windu said. His characteristic bluntness was surprisingly refreshing, and Anakin nodded quickly.

"I didn't expect so."

"But I am more than willing to grant my forgiveness when you have released yourself from your guilt."

"Yes, Master."

"Forgive yourself, you will," Master Yoda said, and Anakin's heart ached at the familiar gravelly tones. He had missed the Jedi more than he had ever thought he would. Even Master Yoda's sayings and advice and knobby gimer stick and Windu's stern, unrelenting countenance and devotion to the old ways.

But after all, he thought wryly, he did have eternity with them.

"If allow yourself, you will," Master Yoda finished. Anakin nodded.

"It will take me some time, Master Yoda."

"Time you have plenty of," Windu said. "But we do not. Our time is limited. And so, a word of advice, young Skywalker."

"Yes, Master."

"You have come a long way from your time among the living. You have thrown aside the darkness and embraced the light, but it has not embraced you. You are still shadowed in darkness, and though all you see is light, you can not truly be light until you have forgiven yourself and all others."

"I have forgiven, well, everyone, Master," Anakin said hastily. He was still cringing inside at the thought that he still had darkness clinging to him, and he shivered, feeling dirty and contaminated. "After all, it was not they who really wronged me, but I who wronged them."

As he said the words he felt their truth, and another shiver swept his body, but it left him feeling as if he had shaken off a little of the weight still burdening his shoulders. Windu gave him a rare smile.

"Yourself, another matter is," Yoda said.

"Yes, Master."
"Take time, it will," Yoda said. "Shed the guilt, you must. Shed the shame, you must. Give it to the Force, you must. Waiting, it is, to take them from you. Only ask, must you."

"Yes, Master."

"Say the words you do, but agree with them you do not," Master Yoda said shrewdly, fixing Anakin in a piercing gaze. Anakin smiled ruefully. Yoda could still see right through him.

"No, Master. I know I must let my guilt and regrets go, but I don't how I can. I have done so much wrong."

"Perhaps help you, this will," Yoda said. "Go, Master Windu and I must. But brought others, we have."

He and Windu began to fade, but Anakin stretched out a hand. "Wait, Masters. Has not…why hasn't…is he…what I mean, is, Master Qui-Gon said that everyone has forgiven me. Is that true?" He wasn't sure he had made sense; in fact, he was positive he hadn't. But he had thought that he would have been one of the first to welcome home a wayward apprentice. Perhaps Anakin's faults had been too much? But Yoda understood.

"Find you, Obi-Wan will," he said. "Not his time, is it. See him for yourself, you will, if strong enough, you are."

"I don't know if I am."

"Then you are not," Windu said quietly. "He will wait until you are ready."

Anakin dropped his hand, his throat constricting. "Yes, Master."

"May the Force be with you, Anakin."

Anakin nearly laughed. Did they still use that phrase, here, where they were the Force? But he reveled in the familiarity of it, and replied in kind.

"And you, Masters."

They vanished, but the light lingered. It was softer now, more peaceful, but just as enveloping and warming as the presence of the two Masters had been. Padme?

But no. He was surrounded by a dozen young, strong Jedi, and he recognized none of them. Before he could collect this scattered thoughts, the one directly in front of him spoke.

"Anakin Skywalker."

"Yes? I'm sorry. I don't recognize you." But he did. It came to him, suddenly, and he swallowed. The young man smiled at him, and the wide blue eyes were as childlike and open as they had been all those years ago. "The younglings," he whispered.

"Not so young, now," another said.

"I slaughtered you."

The youngling in front of him waved a hand. "That's not important. Not here."

"But you might still be alive. You might have escaped, lived, or at least been spared being killed by someone you looked up to had I not…"

"We've forgiven and forgotten," a young woman said, and she laid a hand on his arm gently. "Why can't you?"

It was such a simple question, and Anakin had no answer. "I don't know," he said. "I don't know."

"Think about it, won't you?" the boy youngling said. "Once you answer that, your problems might be solved." He lifted a hand in farewell, and they were gone.

But their light stayed, and its brightness illuminated some of Anakin's darkness.

Review! TBC...