When Anakin returned to his wife's apartment after making his best attempt to explain the situation to the Council, the only noticeable difference from the truth being omitting Luke and Han's presence, he found Luke sitting in front of Padme, who seemed not angry so much as vaguely disappointed.
"Do you think something's gone wrong?" Obi-Wan asked, getting out of the speeder.
"I hope not," Anakin said, hurrying to the door. He pushed it open as quickly as he could, "What happened?"
Luke spun around, and Padme turned towards him as well, "I thought we said we wouldn't keep secrets from one another."
"What?"
"I didn't mean to tell her," Luke said quickly.
Padme turned to their son for a moment, and her expression softened, "I told you it was a boy," she said, pressing a hand to her womb.
Anakin smiled at her, then stepped forward and hugged her.
"I don't think either one of you has the right to be angry about keeping secrets," Obi-Wan commented wryly.
Anakin released his wife and sat down next to his son, "In keeping our secret you sort of lose the right to say anything yourself."
Padme sat down on Anakin's other side, and Obi-Wan took a chair across from the Skywalkers. Anakin took Padme's hand, glad to finally be able to do so before his master. Obi-Wan smiled and sighed.
Just to annoy him, Anakin kissed his wife, who laughed and shoved him away.
"I should have suspected when you were so desperate to convince me that I was in love with Duchess Satine."
"You are in love with her," Anakin said.
"I'm not," Obi-Wan said exasperatedly.
"You definitely are," Anakin said, turning to Padme, "Isn't he?"
"Don't pull me into this," Padme smiled, "You can be vicious once you start arguing like this."
Luke snorted, "I'll say. You're worse than my sister."
The room fell silent, but Anakin didn't notice. His eyes had leapt to Padme's belly, and her hands had ended up there too. He reached into the Force and tried to sense the baby's presence.
"Sister?" he heard Obi-Wan ask distantly.
Anakin could only sense blurry, tired, presence in his wife, and he tried instead to sense where the baby's limbs and head were. Sure enough, he sensed two little heads, and too many limbs for a single child, though he'd given up counting when he'd reached two heads.
He pulled his presence back, glancing at his son, who was looking across the room in glazed horror, then turning back to his wife.
"Twins," he said, patting Padme's belly.
She took his hand and squeezed it very tightly, "Two children."
Obi-Wan just shook his head.
"I was already having enough trouble believing I'm going to be the father of one child," Anakin said, still feeling stunned.
"Leia," Luke mumbled, "I forgot her entirely," he seemed very shaken, "What if she's not alive when I get back?"
"Luke," Anakin said, waving a hand before his son's face. Luke turned and focussed his eyes, "Luke, I'm sure she can take care of herself," he said, hoping he was right.
Luke bit his lip, "Yeah," he said.
"You said you have good friends who will be caring for her," Anakin soothed.
Luke nodded, but he still seemed worried.
As Anakin sat and looked at his son, trying to decide how best to comfort him, the doorbell rang, and Padme quickly moved to answer it, hiding her swollen belly as she stood.
"Han," she said, and stepped aside, returning to the sofa to lean on Anakin tiredly.
Han entered and began to come over to his friend before seeming to notice how Luke was feeling.
"Kid? What's wrong?" he stood in front of Luke, who had started to cry. As the tears slipped down his cheeks, Han sat down next to him and hugged him one-armed, "What is it?"
"I forgot her," Luke said, furiously wiping at the tears, frustrated with himself, "I completely forgot about my sister."
"Sister?" Han asked, with every ounce as much confusion as the others had found.
Luke gaped at him, "You don't even know yet. What kind of brother am I? It's Leia. She's my twin sister."
"Oh," Han said, looking at Luke in amazement, "Well. I'm sure she's just fine."
"Yeah, I'm sure she is. I just- I feel funny about having forgotten her."
"How long have you known? Please tell me it's since she kissed you," he said.
Luke laughed weakly, "Yeah. I only found out just before our hyperdrives malfunctioned."
"That's good."
"Yeah."
"Well, if it's any consolation, we can go back to see how she's doing effective now. I've got the hyperdrive working again."
"I'm still not sure if I want to go back permanently."
Anakin suddenly realized how used to having Luke present he had become. The boy had become one of his best friends, an easy tie to sanity, so quickly. He didn't want the boy to leave, he realized. It's Luke's destiny. I shouldn't try to affect him. But Luke had turned to Anakin, asking for his opinion.
Anakin sighed, "It's your future," he said, "But why don't you want to go back?" He swallowed quickly, "It's where your family and friends are. Where you belong."
"No!" Luke exclaimed suddenly, and extremely passionately, "It's not where I belong! And my family is right here!"
"What I meant is that you were born and raised there. It's your reality. In about twenty years it'll be my reality as well. We'll see each other again, I promise." He carefully omitted the fact that Padme would never see their grown son again.
"It's not your reality," Luke retorted desperately, "It can't be. This must have changed something!"
Anakin noticed he was shaking, turning white, although he was unsure if it was anger or fear that was causing it, "What's wrong?"
Luke had twisted himself away from Han, "I mean that you can't be destined to be Vader! You just can't be."
Anakin's galaxy was falling apart again, the foundations of everything he believed being shaken again, "I killed your teachers?"
Anakin wanted Luke to deny it, to say that he had meant to say something else, but the boy only clenched his hands into fists and said, "You killed Obi-Wan. You destroyed the entire galaxy."
Anakin brushed Han, who was trying to hug Luke again, away and hugged his son tightly, wanting not to believe him, "I turned to the Dark Side?" he asked.
Luke shook, "Yes. You did. Palpatine. He turned you."
Palpatine?"
"Yes," Luke said seriously, "And you must have been terribly wounded, because Vader wears a life support suit constantly. You killed the entire Jedi Order, and," Luke's arms tightened around Anakin's neck, "I think it was you who killed Mom."
"And I cut off your hand," Anakin said, stunned, "I didn't know, did I?"
"You did!" Luke said shrilly, "You're the one who told me how we're related."
Finally, Anakin couldn't take it anymore. He let go of his son, carefully depositing him in Han's arms. He stood, and walked into Padme's bedroom in a daze. It couldn't have been him who had mistreated Luke so terribly. He couldn't be the reason Luke had been so scarred that Anakin had easily believed that he was a slave who'd had a cruel master. And surely Palpatine, the one person who he could trust with everything, even his marriage to Padme, couldn't have been the one to turn him. Surely not.
But you would trust him if he told you it was the only way to save Padme from her mysterious death.
Anakin sat down hard on Padme's bed, burying his face in his hands. More than anything, he couldn't have been the one who'd killed Padme. He simply couldn't have been. He loved her. She meant everything to him.
"Anakin?"
Anakin forced himself to look up, "Angel."
She came to him and sat beside him, putting her arms around him.
"He has nightmares about me, Padme. Our son has nightmares about what I've done to him. What am I going to become? What am I already?"
She didn't answer, merely holding him more tightly.
"I killed the tuscan raiders who killed my mother. I killed them and took pleasure in it. I've told myself it's an isolated event, and that it doesn't mean anything, but if Luke says I'm going to turn to the Dark Side, it must be more than that."
"Anakin, Luke wouldn't have told you all this if he didn't believe that you'd been changed by our encounter in some way."
"Father?"
Anakin turned away, sure he didn't deserve to set eyes on his son.
"Luke, this isn't a good time," Padme said gently, and Anakin heard Luke's footsteps retreating.
"No," he heard his voice say, and found himself on his feet, "This is a good time. This is the only good time. I have to kill Palpatine, and you have to come with me. To keep me on track."
Luke turned back to him, and he saw tears in the boy's eyes, "I didn't come back to ask that of you," he said, "I just wanted to apologize for breaking down like that."
"I know. But you're going home soon, aren't you?"
"I need to know that Leia's all right."
"And you can't leave me to deal with Palpatine alone. You know I won't be able to. You need to come with me and take care of it right now."
Luke nodded, "Yes. I'll come with you."
