AN: Sorry this is late, but I just got to editing this this morning. Why? Well, a few months ago the macafee that came with my pc ran out and so I simply downloaded the one that came from the cable package we have at home. However, I found out last night the macafee Cox cable give us for 'free' is way less reliable than the one that I bought with my computer. A trojan got onto my computer from a site I used to be able to get on without trouble as my old macafee would always detect it and got rid of it, but this one that comes with my cable let it slide through. Needless to say, I was pissed and after trying in vain to remove it manually because I wasn't sure what files to remove and unable to get my sister's computer to download something onto my thumbdrive or a cd to get rid of it, I made a new user, tranfered all my music and documents to my new administration user and deleted the old account. I was up until three o'clock. Needless to say, my trust in Cox's 'free' macafee is shaky at best and so I went and downloaded a highly reccomended free anti-malware and ran it to get rid of the remaining files that were hidden on my pc. With that catastrophe averted, I went ouside on a new mission to 'save the squash plants' which were suffering from stunted growth because the roots didn't have enough room to grow. So I put all three plants in three separate pots and they should be fine… Needless to say, there were a lot of pressing matters at hand, especiall my computer and since I need the computer to update, I decided to hold off updating until I got it straight.

Anyway, I still think this can stand alone, but I'll probably put together the epilogue and post it Monday. Nothing to say. It is what it is and it's finished.

Read, enjoy, and review!

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Chapter Thirty-nine

Shmi sighed as she looked out the window and waited for Leia and Luke. The city was nice. She loved the hustle and bustle of it all. But the only drawback was the fact that she needed someone to accompany her to go out and unfortunately Kishan didn't count. Han would have taken her, but he was busy with the fleet and Mara was just strange to her. She didn't know how Luke liked her so much. Then Lana and Abdul were off planet spending time with their parents before they became fully fledged members of the new governing body and she was still trying to convince Ventress to come to Coruscant (no luck on that one yet). Shmi groaned in impatience. Just because she was the crown princess, she had to be guarded at all times…

A princess and, technically, the empress all because she carried her father's Sith name on her birth certificate. She heard it was Leia's idea when she was younger on account that she knew it would come in handy one day. So now the public knew her as Princess Vijaya Vader, heir to the imperial throne. But Shmi doubted she would ever become empress as her brother and sister were working hard with the alliance to slowly restore the governing body back to a democracy (Somewhat. As Leia was fighting to keep control of the imperial Army with the executive branch that Shmi was currently the head of. Not that Shmi understood what that meant). But if it went at the rate Leia was advising them to take, she may very well end up on the throne officially in a few years. It was either take it slow or anarchy and outright rebellion from the moffs and other imperial officers. That much Shmi understood.

"Ready to go?"

Shmi turned around to look at Leia. "Finally. It took you long enough."

"Impatient as ever," Luke said from next to Leia in his black Jedi robes.

To everyone's surprise, instead of Luke taking to wearing the beige or brown robes of a traditional Jedi, he opted to wear black while Leia, who was more of a Sith than she was Jedi, opted to wear white all the time. Not one to be left behind, Shmi decided she would just wear the dark reds and burgandies of the Nightsisters.

"Come on," Shmi said walking ahead of them with Kishan at her side.

They started to take one of their father's specialty speeders that Leia had discovered in his personal mansion but decided against it. Leia had looked like a kid in a candy shop when she discovered it and for days she had shunned her duties to spend time in it while Luke spent his time test driving every one. Shmi on the other hand had enjoyed spending time with the clones guarding the palace grounds. Finding something pleasurable to do on their father's estates had helped filled the ache they all had with his death, particularly Leia. But worst of all was the hurt they felt when Ahsoka had disappeared. Of course, Leia, always the empathetic one, assumed that she just needed some time and she would be back and that perhaps it was best Ahsoka didn't deal with the immediate aftermath that came after the emperor's death. Of course, she could only be gone so long before they lost what little control they had over the moffs. At least they knew and somewhat respected her.

But that was the least of the three siblings' worries as they along with Kishan walked the streets of Coruscant, enjoying their newfound freedom after years of hiding. They ignored the stares and whispers they got as they passed by. It was no secret who their father was to the public. It was impossible to keep a secret after the alliance had witnessed it and part of his personal fleet. But it was okay as Leia's first order of business was to make sure that the world knew the true story before they judged him. Of course, people sucked up stories like her father's, Leia assumed. It was like something out a holo-movie (as it was holo companies were already bidding for the movie rights to it at which Leia had adamantly banned them from doing). She hadn't been wrong. The public sucked it up, and overnight, Darth Vader went from war criminal and ruthless tyrant to Anakin Skywalker, the tragic fallen hero who almost lost everything and in one final act of courage and love freed the galaxy as one holo-media network put it ("People are so fickle," Luke scoffed. "More concerned about our dad's personal life than the political backlash we might be facing."). Not only that, but there was no hiding the fact that his former student had grown up to mother all four of his children, even the ones that weren't hers, and now the words Vader and Ahsoka Tano couldn't be heard unless they were in the same sentence. The three siblings found it overly dramatic. But it had the desired effect. Whatever name their father went by, he would be remembered as one of the saviors of the galaxy despite the strocities he commited and his remaining offspring would be taken care of, for the most part anyway.

"You think she's okay?" Leia suddenly asked as they sat and ate dinner at a fast-food restaurant, something Shmi had never enjoyed before coming to Coruscant.

"Ahsoka?" Luke asked and then smiled. "Weren't you the one that said she just needed time?"

"I know," Leia said as she glanced at Shmi. "I'm just worried about her is all. It's been three months and we haven't heard from her."

"She'll be back," Shmi said surprising Luke and Leia who hadn't know she was paying attention. "I saw her come back in my dream."

Luke and Leia were still getting used to Shmi's ability to see the future, past, and present. Apparently she had been learning how to hone it on Dathomir. But it was sporadic and she still had little to no control over it.

"You sure it wasn't just a dream," Luke asked knowign sometimes Shmi couldn't tell the difference.

Shmi was quite at that point before muttering under her breath, "It was just like the one where daddy died."

Leia exchanged a look with Luke. Shmi was hard to read. She didn't act like it particularly bothered her too much that Vader had died, but sometimes she was oddly quiet and would talk to herself with a strange smile on her face.

"She'll be back," Shmi said certain, her modd lifting as quick as it had changed to begin with.

"I hope so Mimi," Leia said and dropped the money for the meal on the table. "Let's head back. Maybe we can get some sparring in."

"Are you kidding?" Luke asked as he got up. "After that meeting today all I want to do is sleep."

"Didn't Mara want your help with something?"

Luke groaned.

"Well, you're the one who owes her," Shmi said to him as they walked back to the palace. They all stopped about two blocks away as they saw a ship entering the hanger.

"I wonder who that is…" Shmi said.

But Leia had tilted her head and tensed before taking off down the block toward the hanger. She didn't even stop when Luke and Shmi called after her or even as she heard Shmi tell Kishan to go after her. Leia didn't even slow down until she made it to the hanger and saw the Naboo Cruiser parked and the ramp come down.

"Ahsoka!" she yelled and was a white blur as she barreled into the woman and embraced her.

"Leia," Ahsoka said startled and she wasn't the only one. Ahsoka had barely been able to shield Malachi from his sister's embrace, but even still he cried.

That made Leia pull away as she looked down at the little boy who's lips were curled in a pout. Leia grinned as she looked at him.

"Sorry," she said to him before looking at Ahsoka again. "Has it been that long?"

"Actually, he's a month early. At least I think so, " Ahsoka added as she passed Malachi to her and just in time…

"Mama!"

Ahsoka couldn't have braced herself for Shmi if she wanted to with the girl being naturally a little stronger than Leia was.

"Hey little one."

"Where did you go?" Shmi demanded of her.

"Tatooine," Ahsoka replied.

"You mean you voluntarily went to that dustball?" Shmi asked with a scowl, but she hadn't been the only one who said it. Luke had said the same thing verbatim coming up behind them.

Ahsoka exchanged a look with Luke before he finally sighed and hugged her around the shoulders.

"It was the only place I knew no one would look for me. If there's one thing I know, Skywalkers hate Tatooine," she joked but then said seriously, "I just needed to be alone for a while."

"Leia figured," Luke said to her.

"Wait a minute," Leia said. "You gave birth by yourself."

"Well technically yes," Ahsoka admitted. "But your dad was there."

Shmi blinked at that point and went over to look at the little one that was beginning to fuss in Leia's arms.

"A baby…" she said in awe.

"Okay," Leia said. "Lots of explanations to go around. Let's have tea or coffe or something."

"No," Ahsoka said. "Before we get settled, there's something I want us to do first on Naboo. Where's your father's ashes?"

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"Where are we going mama?" Shmi asked.

"You'll see," Ahsoka said as she took the same path she had taken twenty years earlier when she handed Leia over to her father as a baby and then twelve years later again with Leia walking between her and Vader.

"I haven't been here in a decade," Leia breathed. "I didn't even think to come here when I was here three months ago."

"Where?" Luke asked.

"That's right," Leia said to him. "You've never been here."

"Here?" Luke said as Ahsoka stopped.

"Yes," the torgruta woman said. "Here."

Luke took in a sharp breath as he laid eyes on his mother's tomb for the first time Ahsoka hadn't even glanced at the tomb when she first came and was barely able to look at it the last time she came. But now, she felt more at peace that she had back then.

PADME 'AMIDALA' NABERRIE

Daughter

Sister

Queen

Wife

Mother

Ahsoka remembered before she went into hiding she had fought tooth and nail for wife and mother to be put on the tombstone, even though she had refused to reveal who Padmé's husband had been. It took a little more convincing for them to put mother at the bottom on the grounds that just because she hadn't given birth didn't mean she wasn't a mother yet.

"We should get that changed," Leia said referring to her mother's name. "That woman was a Skywalker in every sense of the word."

They were silent as they looked at the tomb until Ahsoka finally opened the container with Anakin's ashes and said, "I thought this would be fitting."

She then spread the ashes all over Padmé's grave.

"Now we definitely have to get it changed," Luke said and then looked at Ahsoka. "So now what?"

"We rebuild," Ahsoka said to him.

"Rebuild?" Leia said with a frown. "The Jedi?"

"No," Ahsoka said as the wind blew a little. "We won't let titles separate us anymore. We'll just be force servants. That's what your father wanted."

The wind blew harder and Malachi cried a little.

"Wow," Ahsoka said rocking him. "It's windy."

"Look!" Shmi said pointing to the gravestone.

Everyone glanced back at the tomb and none could help but laugh. They had learned not to be surprised at strange things anymore. They chalked it all up to the force.

PADME 'AMIDALA' NABERRIE SKYWALKER

Daughter

Sister

Queen

Wife

Mother

ANAKIN SKYWALKER

Son

Brother

Hero

Husband

Father

Lover

May they be Remembered

Ahsoka felt the wind blow again and saw a blue shimmering out the corner of her eyes. She looked over and saw Anakin's blue shimmering form standing there, grasping the hand of another form, a proud smile on both their faces.

"Is that…" Ahsoka began catching Luke, Leia, and Shmi's attention.

Leia smiled. "Mother…"

Padmé only waved from next to Anakin before putting that hand in Anakin's hand also. The two didn't linger and immediately faded away.

Thank you, Ahsoka. Well done, Padmé's voice said in the wind.

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AN: I was thinking about Lion King when I wrote what Padmé said at the end, where Mufasa's voice told Simba, "Well done, my son," at the end of… I think it was Lion King 2. Anyway, for all intents and purposes, this is done and I'll be marking this complete. Thanks for reading. I'm glad you stuck with me to the end. Stayed tuned for LoL: Arc 3 which I'm starting to work on again and my time travel fic feature Shmi and her future parents. Until next time, Lady Dae out.

Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!