Thirteen

The first thing Luke noted as the transport descended towards the busy terminal below was that Corellia reminded him very much of Coruscant. The loud sounds and bright lights of the city took some getting used to, especially after spending most of his life underground. Luke was a little overwhelmed by the populous congestion they encountered once they disembarked. People pressed in all around them, barely making eye contact as they busily sped to their next destination. The mechanical efficiency with which they moved was a bit jarring. Leia was moving with that same efficiency.

Luke trailed her helplessly through the active transport terminal, barely able to take the sights and noise in as fellow travelers zigzagged their way past. But while he felt wholly out of his element, Leia, on the other hand, deftly wound her way through the bustling throng as if she had visited the planet a million times before. Luke was careful to keep close on her heels for fear of losing sight of her in the dense crowd.

Corellia was temperature controlled and bright with lights and activity but without the over-abundance of urban development that typified Coruscant. There were high rise structures peppered throughout the capital city but, for the most part, Corellia remained largely comprised of vibrant green hills, lush, colorful flowers, dense forest, and vast, choppy seas. He had seen none of that while he was on Coruscant, not that he had become intimately familiar with the planet by any means.

He had only been to that urbane world once, at least that he could remember, and that had been shortly after the Rebels had reclaimed that core world following Emperor Preet's death. There had been very little natural beauty to admire on Coruscant while on Corellia, despite its busy, big city feel, there still remained an abundance of natural beauty to admire. Not that Luke was at all inclined to admire those breathtaking sights. He was too worried about his sister and the vague future that lay ahead of them both.

Leia obviously knew where she was going. There was some grand plan in place, the details of which he still had not been given. Under different circumstances, his sister's unshakeable confidence would have imbued him with a measure of comfort. He would have never questioned it at all because, even when Leia led him astray, she was rarely wrong. But now, he couldn't stop wondering about who was providing her with the coordinates to their destination. Or rather, Luke was acutely aware of who was leading. It was the what that had recently begun to fill him with doubts because he was beginning to suspect that Leia's mysterious new friend was a great deal more than a frail, old woman.

Abeloth was unquestionably powerful in the Force. She had to be. After all, she had managed to guide him and his sister across the expanse of the galaxy in virtual absentia. Her Force bond with Leia was already so incredibly strong that they could communicate telepathically with extreme ease and seemed to do so frequently. Leia had generously offered to show him how he could achieve that same "oneness" with Abeloth, but he had warily declined. Even after having his confidence in his parents shaken so profoundly, Luke maintained his reluctance to extend his trust to Leia's new friend.

Truthfully, he didn't like the influence Abeloth wielded over his sister. Every other sentence out of Leia's mouth had become punctuated with "Abeloth says this" and "Abeloth thinks that" and Luke was sure that he didn't care very much about either one. He still knew very little about Leia's shadowy friend, but what he did know already had left him with a very poor impression of her.

It bothered him greatly that Abeloth had taken it upon herself to lift the veil off their father's past. Luke had to reluctantly agree with his mother about that. There were some truths that one was not entitled to know. Further, he wondered how Abeloth had even become privy to his father's misdeeds in the first place.

Anakin Skywalker had manipulated that timeline long ago, before he and Leia were even born! Those events didn't exist in the archives of history any longer. They had been erased. So, how had Abeloth been able to access those events, those memories at all?

In addition, why would she ever reveal such things to Leia? To do so, especially given the heinous nature of their father's multiple crimes, was a particularly cruel thing to do to a child. Or perhaps, Luke simply resented her because he would have preferred not to have known about any of it. For once in his life, Luke would have been satisfied with not having all the answers.

But it was much too late to shield himself in ignorance. That bliss was beyond him now. Both he and Leia had been burdened with heavy truths that neither of them was equipped to handle. And while Leia was convinced that their father's past only confirmed every awful belief that she already held about him, Luke harbored serious doubts.

Leia hadn't been there to witness their father's destroyed expression when he realized that she knew about the things he had done in his past. She hadn't seen him break down in tears of shame over how far he had fallen while their mother cried with him. Luke had witnessed all of that. His father's remorse had been genuine. It was true that Anakin's sorrow did little to change the atrocities he had committed or temper the reality that he was even capable of such things, but the fact that he deeply regretted his actions wasn't inconsequential to Luke.

And that was the simple truth of it all. He loved his father still. Even after everything he had learned that fact remained immutable. Luke supposed that he was much like his mother in that regard. Somehow, Padmé Amidala had managed to see beyond the mechanical monstrosity Anakin Skywalker had become to glimpse the man he truly was at his core. That was the man she loved, the one to whom she had sworn her allegiance.

For all his petty resentments towards her, Luke couldn't refute that his mother had always been an astute judge of character. Her biggest problem was that she didn't always listen to her instincts about people but, like her daughter, she was hardly ever wrong about them. For that reason, Luke knew that his father had a good heart. After all, he hadn't turned to the dark side due to a lust for power or a selfish need for recognition, but because he had been desperate to save the woman he loved.

Unfortunately, Anakin likely felt a similar desperation driving his actions now and that was a reality that Luke could not ignore. He didn't imagine that his father would tolerate anything or anyone that came between him and his children. Anakin Skywalker could and would burn the galaxy to ash to get to them. Luke had felt that determination from his father the night he'd confronted his parents.

That was his greatest fear. That was the thing that filled Luke with reservations and doubt. That was the thing that kept him from returning home. If fear of loss had caused Anakin Skywalker to embrace the dark side once…couldn't the same thing happen again? And, if so, would the fallout be even worse than it had been the first time?

He was still mostly caught up in his thoughts about it when Leia abruptly stopped short and pivoted to face him. Luke stopped as well and stared at her expectantly, noting her uneasy expression. "What?"

"I need to prepare you for something."

Luke tensed almost immediately. "What is that supposed to mean, and why do I have a bad feeling about it?"

She plucked him by the sleeve and led him over to a less crowded portion of the terminal. Once they had some degree of privacy, she addressed him again. Her general jumpiness did very little to settle his frayed nerves.

"So, I'm just going to say it outright. Abeloth is different."

"Yeah," Luke deadpanned, making a face at her, "I've picked up on that. I'm not an idiot, you know!"

"I mean she's not like you and me," Leia emphasized direly.

Luke squinted at her quizzically. "You mean she's not human? So what?"

"Not exactly that. It's a bit more complicated…" Leia hedged, "You'll see when you meet her."

"I'll see what? Is she a changeling or something?"

"Um…sort of, but not really."

"You're being way weirder than usual."

"Just promise me that you'll keep an open mind when you meet her," she pressed.

"I think I've been pretty open so far," Luke groused, "I followed you halfway across the galaxy, didn't I? I still don't know why we even came here!"

"Are you angry about that?" she asked, picking up on the mild censure in his tone.

"You're keeping secrets from me. I don't like it."

"You're keeping secrets from me too," she accused him softly, "I know what you're thinking even if you don't say it!"

Luke decided to drop the pretense with her altogether then. It was pointless to lie to her when he knew she would see right through him anyway. "I guess I wish I didn't know," he confessed in a mumble, "I just want to go back to the way things were. Don't you?"

That was a loaded question. Leia could empathize with Luke's struggle, but not at all for the same reasons at all. She and Luke didn't want the same things. He was yearning to return to what they'd had before the enemy was revealed to her. He would have preferred to remain in ignorance of Anakin Skywalker's true nature. He wanted that false life back because he couldn't perceive the incredible responsibility that had been foisted upon him. Leia, on the other hand, felt liberated by the truth. She yearned for her family as well…but it was a family free from Anakin Skywalker and his insidious influence.

Leia was grateful that she had not been deceived by him as had so many others had. If she hadn't discovered his true face, then she would have been unable to lead them. They would have been lost to his chaotic evil. She was their salvation now. But the truth was still a heavy load for Leia to carry, and she would have preferred to be without the mental anguish it brought her.

If she ever found herself yearning to go back, that was the reason. Leia didn't sleep anymore. She was besieged by constant night terrors. The things he had done and would do again were continually before her. She worried about her mother, fretted over every second that Padmé spent unprotected in his despicable presence. There was nothing she could do about that now, and the feelings of helplessness made her feel weak and heartsick. Sometimes all she could do was curl herself in a ball and weep hysterically.

It was the price one had to pay for being a visionary, Abeloth would often whisper.

The price was an exorbitant one, and she despised Anakin Skywalker for that. She hated him for the crimes he had committed against the galaxy and then washed away. She hated him for deceiving her mother and betraying her brother's loyalty. But mostly she hated him for not being the father to her that she had so desperately needed.

Abeloth said that it was her destiny to destroy him, but Leia wondered who had bestowed her with that destiny in the first place. Was it the will of the Force? Who had determined that she should be the one to exact vengeance against Anakin Skywalker for his crimes? She was barely eleven years old! She was still a child, and all she really wanted was her mother. In that regard, Luke wasn't wrong at all. She did want to go back.

But as soon as she had the thought, she immediately felt guilty. She could hear Abeloth chastising her for her cowardice and swiftness to shirk her Force ordained duty. Did that make her so different from Anakin Skywalker, who had been determined to set his own rules as well? Would she also follow in his footsteps and become the same abomination that he had?

No! NO!

She was better than that. Stronger than that. She would do what needed to be done, what Ben had lacked the strength to do because he had been too riddled with sentiment. She would finish what she started, and then Abeloth would provide her with relief from her nightmares. She would give her peace again.

"No," she said finally, answering Luke's earlier question, "I don't want to go back. We've come too far now. We have to see it through to the end."

"See what through?" Luke cried in frustration, "I don't even know what's happening!"

Leia ignored his outburst and turned to resume her quick pace through the terminal. "Come on. Abeloth is close by. We should hurry."

"Oh yeah, we wouldn't want to keep the great Abeloth waiting," Luke muttered under his breath irritably before jogging to catch up her.

He was surprised when she led them from the terminal completely, out beyond the cityscape until they were deep into the marketplace where the aroma of roasting meat and vegetables was heave and hagglers and pirates loitered in smoky alleyways. Luke wasn't naïve. He had been in seedy places before despite his mother's rigorous efforts to keep them sheltered from the harsher realities of life. During those years when they had been continually on the move, Padmé Skywalker had been forced to take shelter in some rather sordid places. Her numerous contacts didn't always come from society's upperclass. Most of his childhood had been spent among bounty hunters and thieves.

By the time he was eight, he had already learned how to pick a pocket and run an effective con much to his mother's dismay. He had spent practically his entire life among a "rough and tumble" element and, therefore, had become quick with his hands and feet. But there was something about where Leia was leading them that gave him a distinctive chill. He didn't have a good feeling about any of it. The churning that took residence deep in his gut harkened back to exactly how he had felt when Leia first proposed her idea to come to Corellia. Though he had gone along with it, Luke hadn't been enthused about that plan either.

But, as much as he wanted to voice his misgivings to his sister right then, Luke held his tongue for two reasons. First, he doubted that she would listen to a word he said anyway. Leia had dug in. Once she convinced herself that she was right there was no dissuading her. She was hyper fixated on completing whatever mission Abeloth had given to her, and Luke knew that nothing he said was going to make her deviate from it.

Second, he didn't have any viable alternatives to offer her. They had no place else to go. Everyone they knew was already solidly in their parents' corner. Even if they fled to their grandmother on Coruscant, Shmi Skywalker would predictably send them right back to Tatooine. They'd likely get the same result if they ran to Naboo. Or, worse yet, someone would take it upon themselves to bring Anakin and Padmé to them. If that happened, it would be all over. Leia would shut him out for good.

He had but two choices really. He could either trust his sister and follow her wherever she led him or take his chances on his own. The first option made him anxious, but the second option was beyond inconceivable. His stomach rolled sickeningly at the mere thought. He had already lost his parents. He couldn't lose Leia too.

"We're here now," she announced suddenly.

Luke grimaced in distaste as he took in their surroundings. Their final destination was both surprising and not surprising at all. For lack of a better description, "here" seemed to be a dilapidated hole in the wall with an entrance that was covered by a dirty and worn scrap of tapestry that likely served as a poor barrier against the outside elements. "Here" was also rather isolated from the rest of the small marketplace, set away in its on little corner, out of the purview of curious eyes.

"You brought us all the way to Corellia for this?" Luke balked.

Leia nodded, oblivious or, at least, unaffected by his obvious distaste. "Abeloth is expecting us," she said.

She pushed aside the tapestry and disappeared inside, leaving Luke with little choice but to trail her once again. The interior of the place was murky. There was a small bar, a few scattered tables and little else to the establishment. The air was stale and choked with the heavy aroma of tabacc and sweat. Off in a distant corner, several patrons gave them only cursory attention before they returned to their gambling. Luke imagined that two human children in such a place would draw attention, but no one seemed to pay them much attention as they made their way through.

"Where are you taking us?" Luke hissed at Leia in an underbreath when it became clear that she intended to lead them to the back of the establishment.

"She's here."

Leia had no sooner said the words than a figure materialized from the shadows, just beyond the corner leading to the rear exit. "Hello, my child," a heavy, rumbling voice greeted them, "I am pleased that you have made it safely."

Luke jumped in dismay. Far from the frail old woman he had been expecting, he and Leia were instead greeted by a very tall and very gaunt Duro who, in Luke's humble opinion, had seen much better days. He was dressed in a dirty, faded flightsuit that was ragged around the cuffs and torn in several places. It hung off his bony frame awkwardly. His boots had long since lost their polished shine and were now scuffed and well worn.

His skin, which Luke assumed had once been a pale green typified by oily smoothness, was now sickly gray and thin and flaking all over. His large eyes were sunken deep into his emaciated skull, but they gleamed with a sharp, metallic silver light. As he raised his vine-like fingers to place an affectionate hand atop Leia's head, Luke noted that his eyes seemed to be the only thing about the Duro that pulsed with any sort of vibrancy. The rest of him radiated the aura of approaching death. He was like a walking corpse. Naturally, Luke recoiled from him.

But Leia acted as if she saw none of that. She turned towards Luke with a small smile that was punctuated with burgeoning pride. "This is Abeloth." She quickly added when she noted her brother's stricken expression, "I told you that she was different."

"It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Luke Skywalker," Duro-Abeloth greeted him, "Leia speaks very highly of you."

"That's great. She didn't quite prepare me for you though," Luke countered bluntly.

"Does this form unnerve you?" Duro-Abeloth asked, "Leia informed me that you have been acquainted with many Duros. I had hoped this body would put you at ease."

"Th-Thank you. That is very…um…very…"

Luke trailed off into inane silence. Although he wanted to have a cordial exchange because he was being treated cordially and that was the polite thing to do (Padmé Skywalker would expect nothing less), Luke was too unnerved by the entire encounter to put forth much effort in civility. It was all too weird…the mysterious trip to Corellia, the emaciated Duro, and the surreal reality that while he had been expecting an old woman, he got a skeletal Duro instead. Most importantly, Leia's nonchalant attitude about everything certainly wasn't helping matters!

In fact, her calm acceptance of everything only made Luke more anxious. He couldn't push down his concerns any longer. Without a second thought, he snagged hold of Leia's sleeve and began tugging her closer.

"I'm sorry…miss…uh…madam…uh, sir…whatever you are," he stammered, backing up several steps, "Can you excuse us for just one moment? I need to have a quick conversation with my sister."

"Of course. But you must hurry. We shall depart soon."

Luke made a face, biting back his sharp retort that he had zero intention of going anywhere with her-him and instead pulled Leia aside so that they were out of earshot. Once he had created enough distance where he could speak with her in relative privacy, Luke rounded on Leia incredulously. He could have gladly shaken her senseless right then. Especially because she had the sheer audacity to glare at him, as if he had been the one to blindside her and not the other way around.

"Are you out of your mind?" he grated through clenched teeth.

"What's wrong with you? You're being very rude to her," she admonished tautly.

"I could give a flying kriff! Offending Abeloth or whatever that is happens to be the least of my worries right now," he hissed, "You have to see that this isn't a good situation, Leia! We need to go now!"

Her angry scowl was abruptly replaced with an imploring pout when he began tugging her away. She resisted his efforts to pull her along. "You promised me that you would keep an open mind," she reminded him petulantly.

"You said she wasn't like us! I was expecting webbed fingers or an extra leg, not that she could be random strangers at will!"

"It's hard to explain."

"You don't have to explain it! I don't care! No matter what you say, I don't want any part of it! Let's. Go. Now!"

"You're only being this way because you don't understand!"

Luke stared at her as if he fully believed she had lost her mind and, right that second, he wasn't entirely sure that she hadn't. "I'm not sure you and I are seeing the same thing!"

"I was shocked the first time too."

"Leia, have you taken a good look at that Duro?" Luke muttered surreptitiously, "I don't know how he's even standing upright!" He cast a furtive look at the aforementioned, shuddering to himself as he took in his wasted appearance once again. "Is that what she does to people?"

"Abeloth is very powerful. I think it's because the Force bond he shares with her must be very taxing physically," she replied, "Maybe that's why he looks the way he does."

"You think?" Luke sputtered in disbelief, "Shouldn't you know?"

"It's not like I've ever asked her but, she's not hurting them! That much I do know!"

"Is that supposed to make me feel better? He looks half dead, Leia!" Luke emphasized dramatically, "Is that what she wants to do to us because, if so, I'll pass! I don't like this situation at all! I want to leave!"

"She doesn't force it on them," Leia cried in explanation, "It's mutual!" Luke scoffed, but she scrambled to make her case, nonetheless. "Feel for yourself! He's not scared of her! He wants her to be part of him! Besides, she has to share their bodies!"

"Share their bodies?" Luke echoed incredulously, "Are you listening to yourself?"

This was getting worse and worse by the second! Luke didn't often throw tantrums. In fact, he prided himself on being the more levelheaded of the two of them. Leia was always the one who led with her emotions. This time, however, she was the calm one and he was the one on the verge of shouting hysterically. Luke felt as if the whole world had turned upside down.

Perhaps because, under any other circumstances, his always suspicious-by-nature younger sister would have been out the door already as soon as she saw the Duro while dragging him behind her. None of this would have been acceptable to her. Yet there was something about Abeloth that made her overlook things that she would not have normally overlooked, and Luke could not fathom the reason why.

He was still trying to make sense of it when Duro stepped forward to address him. It took every ounce of willpower Luke had not to take a reflexive step backwards. Especially when it was painfully apparent that he-she-it had been privy to their hushed exchange the entire time. Though Luke was sure Abeloth meant her next words to him to be reassuring, he was hardly put at ease by her candid explanation.

"The bond that I share with this Duro is a symbiotic one, Luke Skywalker," she told him matter-of-factly, "He gains something from our connection just as do I. These ones who welcome me are able to go where I physically cannot."

"And why can't you go?" Luke charged, "Where's your body?"

"I have been trapped beyond shadows for a millennium," Duro-Abeloth replied.

"We're going to help free her," Leia said as if she believed that explanation would solve everything for Luke. It did not.

For a second time, Luke whipped to face his sister, his manner both dubious and desperate. "That's it? That's your plan? That's why you brought us here?" he exclaimed, throwing cautious glances between his sister and her strange companion, "Leia, do you have any idea what you're doing? I don't know what beyond shadows is but…if someone trapped her there, maybe that's for a good reason! We shouldn't get mixed up in this!"

"You do not trust me, Luke Skywalker," Duro-Abeloth observed softly.

Luke met her eyes in an unwavering stare. "No. I don't. Not one bit."

Surprisingly, the Duro-Abeloth smiled at his response, revealing the rows of pointed, decayed teeth within his lipless mouth. "Good. Very good. You are a very wise young man. You should not extend your trust so easily. To do so makes you vulnerable to betrayal."

"That's how she became trapped in beyond shadows, Luke," Leia whispered, "She didn't do anything wrong. Her family betrayed her…just like Anakin Skywalker betrayed us. She understands what we're going through better than anyone."

Luke wasn't so sure about that claim, but he didn't refute Leia as he continued to regard Abeloth warily. "What do you want from us?"

"I wish only to help you."

"Help us do what?"

"Those answers will come in due time, young one," Abeloth said, "For now, we must be on our way. This is not a place for children."

Luke stubbornly kept himself rooted in place and held Leia firm, preventing her from falling into step behind Abeloth. "We're not going anywhere with you until you tell us what you want and why you really brought us here!"

As expected, Leia began protesting wildly. "Why are you being this way?" she cried, "She's done nothing but show us kindness and protect us!"

"Protect us? She blew our whole family apart, Leia! It's all a mess because of her!"

"No! The man who claims to be our father did that," she countered fiercely, "He made the mess, not Abeloth! That's why you're so angry. That's why you don't trust her. You don't really think she's trying to trick me. You don't like her because she told me the truth…and you wish you didn't know it." Luke didn't answer the charge, but the way his eyes dropped away from hers was proof enough that Leia was right. "You can't make yourself hate him even after everything he did, so you hate her instead."

Her ability to read his innermost thoughts with such instinctual ease left Luke deflated. He slumped forward in weary defeat. "We don't know her, Leia," he whispered, his reply thickened with tears.

"We don't know him either," she whispered back.

Duro-Abeloth stepped closer then, her incandescent eyes gleaming with hypnotic light. "You do not have to trust me, young one," she cajoled in a gentle tone, "Trust your sister. It is enough for now."

Luke glanced from Duro-Abeloth back to Leia's beseeching features. Leia had extended her hand to him, a clear indication that she meant for him to follow her. There had never been a time in their entire lives when Leia hadn't had his back. She wouldn't knowingly lead him off into destruction. She had always been his greatest champion. He needed to be hers as well. Whether fortune or folly, if she was determined to keep pressing forward then he was equally determined to follow her.

He reached out and took hold of her hand, hoping devoutly that she knew what she was doing.

"You're being very quiet."

Ahsoka's soft observation was hardly an exaggeration. Anakin had been unusually taciturn ever since they left Tatooine. In the old days, he and Obi-Wan had served as co-pilots while she, the young, green padawan, had been relegated to navigation duty with Artoo. This time, however, Anakin had chosen to hang back and defer his seat as pilot to Obi-Wan while he assisted the astromech. Ahsoka wasn't sure if his persistent silence was because he alone knew the coordinates to "new Mortis" as they were calling it, his general anxiety over the prospect of seeing the planet again, his worry about his children or if he was simply aching for Padmé. She suspected that it was a combination of everything. Consequently, she wasn't entirely offended when she took the empty seat next to him and Anakin looked less than thrilled.

"Have I ever struck you as being especially chatty before?" he wondered.

She bit back her answering smirk. "I suppose you have a point there."

"Shouldn't you be flying the ship with Obi-Wan?"

"He's got it. I'd rather know what's bothering you."

"A better question would be what's not bothering me," Anakin countered wryly.

"I know that it's been a stressful few days for you," she acknowledged.

"Try weeks. Years even. It never ends."

Ahsoka nudged him with her shoulder, sensing what he meant even when he didn't elaborate further. "She'll come around, you know?" she whispered, "That was a huge secret you kept from her, Anakin. She's not trying to push you away. She just wants…"

"…Normalcy? Yes, I know that."

"She still loves you very much."

"I know that too."

"Then what are you thinking?" Ahsoka asked.

"They won't come around, Snips. Not ever."

Ahsoka didn't need clarification on who "they" were. That had been the unacknowledged bantha in the room ever since Padmé had called and begged her to come to Tatooine right away. The children knew the truth about Anakin's past now, like most everyone in his closest inner circle did. But whereas they had only been exposed to the truth via Anakin's retelling, an oral history that had most certainly been sanitized of its more brutal details and colored by his own self-hatred, Leia had apparently seen the unfiltered version of what he had become. And that had been traumatic enough, not only to send Leia fleeing from Anakin, but to also convince Luke to accompany her as well.

She could imagine what the children must be thinking and feeling at that moment. Ahsoka could also imagine the pain Anakin must be experiencing. She ached with sorrow on his behalf.

"Are you sure that Abeloth isn't warping Leia's perception somehow?" she asked, "Maybe she is making things appear worse than what they actually were."

"I doubt it. Leia described that day on Mustafar to Luke as if she had been standing right there to witness it," he replied gruffly, "I suppose, in a way, she had been."

Ahsoka groaned his name. "How bad was it?"

"I've done things that you could never imagine, Ahsoka." There was a deadened look in his eyes that made her shiver. Anakin looked away from her with a rough swallow. "When I first came back here, I kept waiting for some kind of punishment to come down on me for all of those sins," he recounted softly, "I thought the worst thing that could happen was losing Padmé or my children…that I would eventually be forced to pay for the blood I spilled with theirs. I couldn't imagine anything more terrifying than one of them dying.

"But I was wrong. There are some things that are far worse than death…like having your own children look at you with fear and disgust or having them shrink away from you because they are terrified that you will hurt them. They believe you're capable of it." He brushed away the mutinous tear that tracked his cheek. "So, that's the thing I've been waiting for this entire time. This is the penalty I'm to pay."

"I don't think that's true, Anakin."

"The irony is, I can take the knowledge away from them," he whispered, as if she hadn't spoken at all, "Did you know that? I could pluck it from their minds like fruit from a tree just the same way the Father plucked it from mine. It would be like none of this ever happened."

"Would you do that?"

Anakin paused, as if he was genuinely considering the idea before he finally gave a resolute shake of his head. "No," he said, "I won't do that. I won't rob them of their agency as I was robbed of mine. If they want to hate me for the rest of their lives for the things that I've done, then that is their choice to make. It's not as if I don't deserve it."

"That will break you. It's breaking you now."

"It won't break me, Ahsoka," he muttered, "I learned that about myself long ago. I bend. Sometimes it feels like I'm bending past my limits, but I never break. I will find a way to come to terms. I always do, but I couldn't bear it if Luke and Leia hated Padmé for my sins. She doesn't deserve that. Promise me you won't let that happen."

"I won't," she vowed, "But you should stop talking to me like you won't be there to help them come around. I don't like it."

He said nothing to that, and his resulting silence immediately gave Ahsoka shivers of apprehension because she suspected what it might mean. The tacit implication chilled her. Ahsoka fixed Anakin with a reproving glare.

"If you even think of leaving Padmé alone to raise that baby, I will throttle you, Anakin Skywalker!"

He grunted a short, amused laugh at her threat. It never occurred to him to question her about how she had guessed his and Padmé's secret so quickly. Honestly, Anakin wasn't even surprised. Ahsoka shared the same intuitive connection with Padmé that he did. After all they had endured together following the Empire's rise, the two women had become closer than friends. They were sisters now. For that reason, Anakin didn't take offense at Ahsoka's fierce reaction. In fact, he was grateful for it.

"I'd like to keep this new pregnancy between you and me," he told her, "No one must know. Not even Obi-Wan."

"Why? You know that you can trust him. And, despite the circumstances, this is happy news."

"That is up for debate, my friend," Anakin replied, "But as far as Obi-Wan is concerned, he'll tell the Council because he's obligated to do so, and they will feel entitled to my child like they always do…but especially this one."

"Will it…be like you?" Ahsoka prompted gently.

"She will be an irresistible force of nature," he told her.

"I'm afraid that's an appropriate description for all of your children, Anakin," Ahsoka volleyed back with an ironic grin.

"I suppose you have a point there," he said, turning her earlier words to him back at her. Anakin found himself smiling then, albeit much too briefly. Within seconds, his expression was somber once more. "But I would like more time for Padmé to figure out how she feels about this baby before this becomes common knowledge. I need that time too."

"I understand."

"And you don't have to worry," Anakin reassured her, "I have no intention of disappearing on her. She and I are committed to facing whatever comes together. We've been apart for ten years already. That's enough. Unfortunately, I have no idea what will happen when I confront Abeloth or what the outcome will be." The corners of his mouth quirked in a grim smile. "It never hurts to have a plan B, Snips."