Chapter 17 – The Twins

Anakin was in a mad rush to get Padme to the medical facilities on the surface. At his request, Yoda went with him. Anakin did not know whether the Sith had any ability to help Padme, but if any Jedi ever could, it would be Master Yoda. It was left to Obi-Wan and Ahsoka to work out with Bail Organa the near term plans for the coordination of their activities. Worried that the Fulcrum network was potentially compromised, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and the Senator agreed on a new frequency with new encryptions before he left. The Tantive III jumped away, back to Coruscant where Senator Organa could begin his harrowing mission to infiltrate the new government as it was forming, immediately after ferrying Padme and her companions to the waiting arms of the Kallidahin doctors and their droids on Polis Massa. Shortly after they got Padme set up in a room Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and Rex arrived with the Consular ship Anakin had taken from the Temple. They found rooms for the younglings, who did not really have enough space on either of the ships they had been on for the last few hours, and then joined Yoda, who watched through a window into the room where Anakin held Padme's hand as she delivered.

Through the open intercom Yoda said, "Calm yourself Master Skywalker. Feel the Force around you, around her, around your children. Glorious moments are these when the Living Force greets new life, when out of complexity, wholeness emerges. Let your calm flow from you, into her. Yes, yes, a connection you share. Strong it is. Use it you can, comfort her you will."

With occasional words of encouragement from Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, Yoda continued to talk Anakin through the delivery, as much for the young Jedi's sake as Padme's. The doctors reported that she was responding very well and that the babies were healthy. The fact that they were babies rather than a baby came as a surprise to everyone but Padme and the doctors, who felt it should have been obvious given how much she was showing at her stage of pregnancy. The babies were on the young side, but the Jedi were assured that Pollis Massa had all the facilities necessary to accommodate any potential complications.

Labor itself lasted several hours. Anakin found himself ill-equipped to deal with something that was hurting Padme, but which he could not and should not attack and fight off. He found himself wanting to do something, anything, to help, only to be repeatedly told that there was nothing for him to do but try to help her maintain her focus. Padme, who unlike Anakin had been around pregnant women and childbirth before, found herself occasionally having to help Master Yoda calm Anakin down even as she dealt with the pains of labor.

When the babies finally came they were tears from the infants and their parents. Padme and Anakin took turns holding the children, and Obi-Wan quipped how convenient it was that there was one for each of them. Anakin had been so consumed with worry about Padme's health over the preceding weeks that he had given scant thought to names, and so it was Padme who named them Luke and Leia.

When the new parents had found a room and Rex had gone to inspect the security apparatus of the mining facility, really a small city, at which they were located, Yoda, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka were left alone. It was the first time the remaining Jedi had been alone and without Anakin, and the opportunity to discuss him and what he had done was not left unseized.

"Knew either of you, of his relationship with Senator Amidala?" Yoda asked.

"Knew? I wouldn't say 'knew', but I also wouldn't say I was terribly surprised. They have been very close throughout the war, and Anakin was always enamored with her," Obi-Wan said.

"Young Ahsoka, spent more time with him after the beginning of the war you did," Yoda said.

Ahsoka, naturally suspicious of Jedi tendencies to cast blame, asked, "What are you after Master Yoda?"

"Understanding child, only understanding," he said pleasantly.

"I knew that for Anakin there were four people in his life more important than all the rest. There was Obi-Wan and me, and the Chancellor and Senator Amidala. I don't know what I thought about their relationship. I was so young when I became Anakin's Padawan and if I had to guess I would say that whatever they are, they already were by then. He certainly never told me though," she said.

"Nor I," Obi-Wan said. "But there were times when I suspected. She always played an outsized role in his thoughts and feelings. As did Palpatine."

"Lucky we have been," Yoda said.

"Lucky?" a shocked Ahsoka asked, thinking of the losses of the day.

"Yes, lucky. Knew that Anakin was the Chosen One Palpatine did. To exploit their connection from the beginning he planned. Always in Anakin's ear his voice was, always tempting. But since the beginning of the war another voice it seems there was. Lucky we are that Padme's voice it was, one of peace, honesty and justice," Yoda. "If fallen Skywalker had, terrible the consequences for the Order would have been. For the Galaxy."

"We seem to have had them anyway," Obi-Wan said.

"No Master Kenobi, if joined by Anakin the clones at the Temple were, think you that any would have survived?" Yoda said.

"Anakin would never do that!" Ahsoka all but shouted.

"And thankful to young Padme we must be for that," Yoda said.

"And this voice he spoke of," Obi-Wan said. "What do you think it is?"

"Thoughts I have, secrets I must share. Hard won they were and almost lost today," Yoda said. When he saw Ahsoka yawn he smiled and said, "But wait they can for another day. Weary you are young Ahsoka and need you we will over the coming days. Rest you need."

"Very well Master," Ahsoka said and went to find quarters for herself. Any inclination she had to argue was overpowered by her intense fatigue, physical, emotional and mental. She was aware that the conversation would go on without her, but she did not mind especially. They were Masters, and she was only a Padawan. A Knight, she corrected herself, and even through her weariness some pride found its way into her heart.

After she left Obi-Wan asked Yoda, "I agree that Padme's influence has been beneficial, but what do we do about it now? Anakin is in violation of the Code."

"Not entirely uncommon that is, as know well you do," Yoda said. "And changed the Code many times has. Long ago, before even my time, marry and have children Jedi could."

"But the Code was changed to outlaw that practice for a reason, a very good one it seems to me," Obi-Wan said.

"Reasons good can be, without being conclusive. Have you never drawn strength from a connection, an attachment?" Yoda asked.

"Yes, and sorrow along with it," Obi-Wan answered, thinking of Satine.

"Change the Code will have to do now regardless of Anakin Skywalker. A new form the Jedi Order must take, reduced as it is," Yoda said.

Obi-Wan started to speak and then closed his mouth. Yoda gave him a quizzical look and Obi-Wan took a deep breath and broached the subject that had been occupying his thoughts since the delivery, "And his children?"

"Felt it you did?" Yoda asked, his voice grave and quiet.

"Yes. I think I know now what Master Qui-Gon felt, all those years ago on Tatooine. I have never felt a tremor in the force like I did when they were born," Obi-Wan said.

"A tremor our enemy also could feel. Fear he must now know," Yoda said.

"He meant to get Anakin and the children under his control, didn't he?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Know this I do not. But fit it does. A powerful apprentice Anakin would make," Yoda said. "Stopping him, difficult it would have been. Stopping him and his children, when grown they became, impossible."

While the Masters spoke of him, Anakin was trying to lull his babies to sleep. Padme had needed no such help. Her eyes had closed almost as soon as they hit a pillow, despite her best efforts. Anakin sat next to her in bed, his back against the wall of the convalescent room the Kallidahins had found for them, a baby in each arm. He was humming softly. It was some song from his youth, from Tatooine. Perhaps his own mother had sung it to him once upon a time, but he could not remember. He dearly wished she had lived to see her grandchildren. His mind went back to that night, that terrible night when he found her. He remembered his dreams, when she had called out to him.

He had told Palpatine of those dreams, of finding his mother and of what he had done afterward. He had told his enemy of his weakness, had handed his enemy a weapon to use against him. And Palpatine had used it. Of that Anakin was now sure. Padme's relatively easy delivery had confirmed it for him. The dreams of her death had been no prophecy of the future, they had been a lie planted in his mind by Palpatine. Anakin had gone to Palpatine as little more than a child, confided in him, looking for understanding he felt he would not get from the Jedi who were always suspicious of his connection to his mother. And the Sith had used that moment of vulnerability, used his mother's memory, to do something horrible. Like a snake waiting beneath still waters, ready to strike those desperate with thirst.

Feeling himself grow more agitated, and worried that his unease would transfer to the twins, who had fallen asleep, he moved them to their basinets, sliding them gently from his arms onto the firm cushions using the Force. He then went to the window which looked out over the dark side of the mining facility. Pollis Massa either had no moons or none were visible, and all Anakin could see were stars. One of those stars belonged to Coruscant, where his enemy hid in darkness. But if Palpatine could put thoughts into his mind, if there was a connection there to be exploited, then Anakin reasoned that he could do it as well. He turned his mind to those false dreams, he focused on them, this time without any fear of their truth. He concentrated intensely on them, and began to notice things about them he hadn't before. A darkness, a slipperiness, a taint. He grabbed onto it with his mind, and felt something try to pull away from him, trying to run, to hide.

His grip on the thing tightened. It was like a string tied to his mind that stretched off into the darkness. He knew that every pull could be felt by the being at the other end. He felt certain his own thoughts could be transmitted along that string. His eyes closed, his faced twisted in a mixture of rage and effort, Anakin focused on one thought, putting all his anger, all his bitterness into it. Palpatine had used the memory of his dead mother to try to turn him into something foul. He had used Padme and his children to try to make him a slave. There was only one thing to do in return, one message to send.

On a ship in the center of a convoy of Star Destroyers in orbit above Coruscant, Palpatine was in meditation himself, trying to figure out what to do now that his plan had fallen apart. He did not linger on the partial successes. Certainly he had killed most of the Jedi. His hold over the levers of power in the Republic was stronger than it had ever been. But Anakin had slipped through his fingers. There was a critical mass of Jedi, young and old, remaining. He had always known that there would be no way Order 66 would have a 100% effective kill rate. He always knew that dozens, perhaps hundreds of Jedi would survive. But they were meant to be scattered across the galaxy, alone and leaderless. And the strongest of the Jedi were supposed to have been dead. In such a state the remainder could be picked off slowly. A Jedi without an Order was a weak thing.

But now they had would have a leader, a natural leader who had saved the next generation of Jedi; a story that would no doubt spread throughout the galaxy, eventually to reach all the fugitive Jedi. Anakin was surely already beginning the process of reconstituting an Order in hiding as Palpatine sat thinking about what to do. The Jedi were reduced in number, but they were not gone, and now they knew who their enemy was. A thousand years of Sith secrecy had been wagered against the destruction of the Jedi Order, and Palpatine had lost the wager. And he still did not know why.

He had spent the hours since his speech trying to figure out the reason for his failure, trying to discover the power that had intervened against him. His victory had been so close he could see it. He had felt Anakin breaking, falling into his hands. And now, from the brink of victory, he had been plunged into terror. He had felt, just as Yoda had guessed he would, the birth of Anakin's children. He could not tell that two of them had been born, and so he interpreted the impact their latent power made on his mind as a Force potential of a single individual, one whose power went far beyond even Anakin's. He knew that he needed to kill or acquire that power soon, before it could be made to serve the purposes of the Jedi. He was hard at work coming up with a plan to do so when he felt Anakin probing the connection Palpatine had formed between their two minds. Palpatine had tried to hide it from him, but to no avail. He had felt Anakin's rage build and then, before Palpatine could sever the connection, a thought came across it.

"I am going to kill you," Anakin's voice said in Palpatine's mind.

Palpatine did not answer. He waited to see Anakin's next move. There were ways to harm someone through connections like this, but while he was sure that Anakin was powerful enough to do so, he was also sure the boy did not know the techniques involved. Palpatine knew them and knew that killing someone remotely in that fashion was likely beyond his own power, perhaps beyond the power of any Force user in history until Anakin. But there was a chance that raw strength could compensate for lack of knowledge, and so Palpatine waited, marshalling his resources to resist the incursion Anakin might attempt.

But rather than striking out at him Anakin simply added a coda to his message before severing the connection between them himself, saying, "But only after I make you beg me to do it."

In the world between worlds Rey sat in meditation, sensing the new trajectory of events in the quasi-world that Anakin was creating. She had pushed herself to her limits communicating with him in the moments after his spirit arrived in the past and her recovery from that exertion was slow. Her awareness of what was going on in that world centered on Anakin, though she could see things he could not. She had seen the darkness about to overwhelm the light in the galaxy, and had seen Anakin fight that tide of darkness back. She had seen the hope for the future as a tiny flame and had watched as its flames grew. But in the heart of the fire she saw a darkness forming. A small point of black within the light of the flame, like some kind of inverted star. When she focused on it the darkness seemed to grow and to take the form of the silhouette of a man. She concentrated as hard as she could on that man of darkness standing in the center of the flames, and when she looked at his face, she saw Anakin's eyes looking back at her.