Summary: Anakin Skywalker makes a different choice, and his family flourishes in a world unmarred by the atrocities of the Sith.
Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Ben Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Leia Skywalker Solo, Han Solo, Mara Jade Skywalker, Mace Windu, Tahiri Veila, Anakin Solo, Allana Djo Solo, Padmé Naberrie Skywalker, Lando Calrissian, various OCs, and more
Timeframe: post-RotS and beyond
Genre: AU, family, humor, romance, tooth-rotting fluff
.
Two years ago, I wrote what I lovingly referred to as the Decathlon of Death (aka, The Way Out Is Through) for the Jedi Council Forums' Fanfiction Summer Olympics challenge, in which I killed a great many beloved characters and destroyed the Millennium Falcon. To make up for that bit of sadism – and to appease my friends Gabri Jade and Mira-Jade and prove to them that I'm capable of writing happy things with nary a breath of angst – this year for the 2023 Olympics challenge, I'm writing a series of vignettes and drabbles set entirely in the happy AU that branched off at the end of Enter the Foreign. That's right, friends, this is the Decathlon of Delight, and it's going to be so disgustingly wholesome that you'll be practically begging me to kill some characters when it's over. ;P
.
A Strange and Dazzling Array
.
.
Sometimes he sees another world, one that he has glimpsed only once in his waking life. And he's still not sure if what he sees in his dreams is real or simply what he wishes it to be. Because in that world, his family is happy and whole and, most importantly, alive.
—"In a Galaxy Far, Far Away", The Way Out Is Through
.
Index
.
1. Rearrange the Stars | 45 years post-RotS (26.5 ABY*) | Anakin Skywalker & Ben Skywalker
2a. The New Jedi Diplomacy | 7 years post-RotS (12 BBY) | Mace Windu
2b. Aggressive Negotiations | 7 years post-RotS (12 BBY) | Anakin Skywalker & Obi-Wan Kenobi
3. Style | 23 years post-RotS (4 ABY) | Han Solo & Lando Calrissian
4. Efflorescence | 58 years post-RotS (39 ABY) | Tahiri Veila/Demetrius Ulin (OC), Anakin Solo
5. The Courtship of Prince Isolder | 27 years post-RotS (8 ABY) | Isolder/Teneniel Djo, Luke Skywalker/Mara Jade Skywalker
6. The Droid | 72 years post-RotS (53 ABY) | HK-47 & Dorian Starskip (OC) & Veeran Starskip (OC)
7. The Great Temple Lightsaber Tournament | 49 Years post-RotS (30.5 ABY) | Eleri Skywalker (OC) & Assorted Characters
8. The Dress | 73 years post-RotS (54 ABY) | Padmé Naberrie Skywalker & Allana Djo Solo
.
.
*The Battle of Yavin never happened in this AU, but I'm including the BBY/ABY dating system anyway because alternate timelines are confusing enough :P
.
Notes: Okay, here we go! My first event is the 400 Word Cross Country (exactly 400 words about your character, couple, family or friendship with any theme), and my title comes from the song "Light" by Sleeping At Last.
.
Rearrange the Stars
45 years post-RotS (26.5 ABY)
.
In the second year of the war against the Yuuzhan Vong, his youngest grandson is born.
He has waited a long time for this moment. Truth be told, there were times when he almost allowed himself to doubt it would ever come, or that he would live to see it. But now, after so many years, after dedicating his life to his family and to the Force and trying to be worthy of the gifts that have been given him, his wait is over.
He would never share any of this with his other grandchildren, or even his own children. He would never want any of them to mistake his excitement and relief and sheer joy for favoritism, because it isn't any such thing. He loves them all so much. He loves them so much it hurts sometimes. He loves them so much that he has more than once considered shaking the stars to their foundations just to spare them pain and see them safe.
No, this isn't favoritism. This is… This is a sign that the choices he made along the way were the right ones, that no matter what happens to him now, the future is as secure as it can be, and everything will work out in the end.
He looks down into his grandson's scrunched up little face, and it takes him right back to the first time he held his own son, and the warm, hazy, soft feeling that surrounded them both in those early hours, when the world shrank and everything else – noise, burdens, uncertainty – faded away. He smiles as sleepy blue eyes open just enough to peer up at him, and grandfather and grandson gaze at each other, the former recalling the last time he looked into those eyes, the latter unaware of things like history and destiny and parallel universes, or of his connection to the old man holding him so gently.
He had a friend once, in another world, a good and brave and dear friend – and even though they were forced to part ways, he has carried the memory of that friendship within him for forty-five years, a small but steady flame, undimmed by the passage of time.
I'll never leave you.
This is an old promise, fulfilled at last.
Anakin Skywalker lifts a finger to his grandson's tiny cheek. "Hello, Ben," he whispers. "It's good to see you again."
.