Cody watched on as his General and wife got antsier as time passed on. The 501st was coming home to Coruscant today and General Skywalker's partners had come to see him, after six months that they've been apart.
Cody did not know Senator Padmé that good, but he knew his General had missed his husband like a lost limb. I really need to stop calling him General outside of when I'm on duty, Cody thought. He is my vode now.
The 212th had been adopted by Lady Shmi as well as the 501st. The only difference was that while the 501st had taken the Skywalker last name, the 212th took their General's maiden name. The Kenobi line lived on, through them.
The 212th and 501st were not the only ones that had gotten adopted. Plo Koon could have not been faster when he had adopted the 104th and they adopted the Koon last name in honor of their kind buir. The 327th adored their General Secura with all their hearts, especially Bly. However, she was too young to adopt them. Luckily, her master-teacher was not. They now wore the Vos last name with pride. Even Mace Windu adopted his battalion. Fox and the ones staying in Curoscant got taken in by Master Shaak.
There were various stories like that. The vode now had a family beyond them and got a home beyond Kamino and the long necks. It warmed Cody's heart and gave him hope.
"Ani!/Dear heart!" Cody got startled from his thoughts as his General and Senator Padmé rushed tow ards their husband, who received them with a wide smile.
"Is that our General?" Boil asked as stunned as Cody felt, watching their usually calm and collected General, make out with his husband in the middle landing pad.
"At least you did not catch them while they were having holo-sex," Rex commented in amusement. Laughing when he earned various looks of horror from the 212th. "Yeah, my General has a thing of watching his spouses get at it."
"Stop!" Cody pleaded with his vode. "You've become quite cruel Rex'ika. At least, you are no longer afraid of having General Skywalker as your superior."
"He is vode," Rex replied firmly, being echoed by the 501st, earning surprised looks from the 212th. "Fox was right, we are lucky to have him."
"I see," Cody smiled, before gasping. "Is that the bad batch?" Cody asked Rex surprised, as he noticed who were the vode taking with the Generals and senator.
"They are new part of the 501st." Rex answered, puffing his chest proudly. "Ani'ka took us to collect them on our way here, which is why we were a little late."
"That's great!" Boil exclaimed happily.
"Come on, you all must be tired," Cody said. "Six months on the field... let's get you to the Protection Corp Headquarters to rest."
"Great!" Jesse sighed. "I love the work we've done, but I am glad we've got a month off."
"It's been tiring, but worth it," Kit agreed with his vode.
"We freed slaves and got good food in return!" Hawk exclaimed excitedly. "We got legumes, friki! Not to mention, spices from Tatooine! Ani'ka made sure to make various traditional plates of his home world. We get one warm plate a day and even a sweet to munch on!"
"Only eating those ration bars once a day is great for the morale, for sure," Jesse agreed with his fellow lieutenant.
"You guys get food other than rations?!" Boil whined. "Lucky! Why don't we too?"
"Because no one can cook in the 212th," Cody replied drily. "And if we leave it to General Kenobi we might end up with the Negotiator in flames."
As the troopers laughed and joked on their way to the Protection Corps Headquarters, Obi-Wan and Padmé had dragged Anakin to their senatorial apartment.
"What were you thinking?!" Padmé shouted, as she threw pillows towards Anakin. Anakin caught them and smiled like a goof when he saw the wedding ring in his hand- he had missed the weight on his finger. "Are you listening to me?!"
"I am angel," Anakin placated her gently, wrapping his arms around her. She tried to resist, but ended up melting in his arms- she had missed her Ani. "I'm sorry I worried you. But Aayla is my best friend and is family, like a cousin to me. I could not let her go down like that."
"Did you have to do it on your own?" Obi-Wan asked, crossing his arms over his chest with a frown.
"Come here," Anakin opened his arms beckoning Obi-Wan to join the hug. He did. "Taking anyone else would have been too dangerous. I could not protect them and keep an eye on what was happening. I needed to focus on the vultures and Aayla. Total focus. But I followed the Force and I knew every thing would end up ok."
"Reckless boy," Obi-Wan huffed fondly, kissing his forehead sweetly.
"That's our Ani," Padmé chuckled with tears in her eyes, kissing Anakin's cheek. "You had the Queen and all of Naboo quite worried. They are now bragging to anyone that can hear, that they've got the best pilot out there."
"Good, because I am the best pilot!" Anakin joked, bragging and chuckling when he received twin hits on the chest. "Ok, tough crowd."
"How did we fall in love with such an idiot?" Obi-Wan shook his head in mock exasperation, though his fond smile revealed his true feelings.
"I've got no idea," Padmé followed his game, smiling widely. "I think it was the dimples."
"They are quite enticing," Obi-Wan agreed, playing with his beard with a thoughtful expression. "It makes you want to pluck his cheeks."
"Which ones? Because my ass is always red after you finish playing with my cheeks," Anakin raised an eyebrow, smirking wickedly when Obi-Wan blushed. "Talking about playing. I loved all of your holo-calls and watching you play with yourselves and each other. They were a heaven sent in the battlefield and all those lonely nights." Anakin's smirk widened when new Padmé's cheeks became red. "However, it left me wanting more," his smirk now turned predatory. "What do you say? Are you up for some more playing?"
Anakin closed his eyes, enjoying the sun on his face as he laid down. They were in Naboo, in the Skywalker Villa. A lake that used to be part of the Naberrie property but became a wedding gift to Padmé from her parents. A huge gift. As the lake property, was as big as the main Naberrie Manor.
Two weeks of their breaks ended up on the same time. A miracle on its own as the three of them were quite busy. Padmé in the Senate, Obi-Wan negotiating all around the galaxy, and Anakin in the battlefield. But a miracle they were planing on enjoying.
Anakin fulfilled his old promise of showing Naboo to the 501st, taking the 212th with them. Sabé even convinced Fox to allow Boba to join them. Boba was enjoying his bonding time with the rest of his vode, the 501st and 212th were also having a blast.
Right now, Anakin was laying on Obi-Wan's lap as Padmé cuddled to the blond's side. Obi-Wan was leaning against a huge tree by the lake. Meanwhile, the vode and Padmé's handmaidens were playing in the lake.
"How is the de-chipping process going?" Padmé asked, cuddling even closer to Anakin, eyes closed and enjoying the breeze.
"The 501st, 212th, 104th, 327th and every battalion that was with dear heart in the Hutt Space is free," Obi-Wan informed her. "Commander Fox and his men as well."
"Any new vode we get will get de-chipped by the Head of the Medical Division we've got," Anakin continued, not even bothering to open his eyes. "The rest of the battalions will get de-chipped while they are in Coruscant, under the security of the Protection Corps Head. We can't be too safe with their safety. It might be bad of me to say this... but we can't trust anyone with a secret like this. We can't know who could turned these to the Separatists or Sith."
The secret being the behavior inhibitors in the vode's brains. During the war in the Hutt Space, Anakin's EMP creation was the tipping point. It disabled the chips in the slaves and took weeks to be able to reactivate again. By then the planet had been won over and the slave chips taken out.
During the use of the EMPs, it was discovered that the vode had similar chips in their brains. What made them even worse was the fact that theirs was not to keep them obedient through fear, but to control the way they behaved and forced them to act in certain ways via programmed orders. To say that the Jedi, the classmates that had followed Anakin to the Hut Space, had been horrified was an understatement.
That a Jedi Master had ordered this atrocity of a clone army had already shaken their faith in the Order. It did not help that the Jedi Order, that were supposed peacekeepers, were now generals in a war. This... this, broke the camel's back. They only remained because of Anakin's dream of a galaxy without slavery and they still had to protect their vode battalion. They could not trust anyone but themselves with them. The vode had suffered enough as it is.
"Into happier news!" Padmé exclaimed, realizing the bad mood the conversation was putting Anakin in. "Did you know that Fox has started to court Sabé?"
"Really?!" Obi-Wan and Anakin turned to Padmé in surprise.
"I can see it," Obi-Wan hummed.
"But it's still shocking as heck," Anakin finished with a chuckle. "If we are talking about dating, you won't believe who I caught making out in the Command Center, after my heroic rescue."
"Aayla and Bly," Obi-Wan answered with a deadpan. "News like that travel fast through the GAR. Cody told me all about it. Bly got drunk one night in the headquarters and could not stop waxing poetry about Aayla."
"As he should!" Padmé exclaimed. "Aayla is amazing and deserves all the poetry in the world!"
"Hear! Hear!" Anakin laughed, bringing a smile to his spouses' faces. "I'm going for a swim!" He suddenly jumped on his feet and rushed towards the lake.
Obi-Wan and Padmé , who had sat up to lean against the red head, watched as Anakin was received by his men with beaming smiles.
"Something is wrong," Padmé whispered in concern. "He smiles less and is less trusting. Not that I do not think he is wrong about being more careful! But..."
"It's not dear heart," Obi-Wan agreed. He looked at his husband in thoughtfulness and worry. "Unlike us, he's been in the heart of the war... for six months! It's different from our battles in the Senate or trying to keep planets from joining the Separatists." Obi-Wan sighed sadly. "He had to cheat, lie, and kill to free slaves and end slavery in the Hutt Space. That leaves scars on anyone, even someone as bright as dear heart."
It also gave a time traveler with a lot of trauma an opportunity to stop acting so much and start showing his whole-self and his trauma, without raising suspicion.
"We must be there for him," Padmé cuddled closer to Obi-Wan with a sigh. "He will need us."
"He will, he does," Obi-Wan agreed. "This war has been hard on us and we've only just started."
"If only Palpatine would put an end to it," Padmé frowned. "He used to be my mentor and now I have to make a political party just to stop him from gaining more power. When did he become so power hungry?"
"Power corrupts anyone," Obi-Wan told her wisely. "He's been in power for a while and does not know how to let go."
"Does not know? Or does not want?" Padmé replied bitterly.
"You've done a great job," Obi-Wan turned to her. "Since the war began, he had not been able to gain any more emergency power and his allies in the Senate decrease, while yours increase."
"Mostly thanks to mother's influence and the evidence Ani keeps on finding," Padmé waved his praise away.
"Skywalker Corporation has been on the rise since the war began," Obi-Wan agreed. "Mother is now richer than anyone could imagine and donates like 70% of her earnings to the Hutt Space planets, the orphans of war, and to aid the Jedi Order. The Protection Corps are covered by dear heart's royalties."
"Did you expect anything else? They are Skywalkers!" Padmé teased him, earning a chuckle from him. "Even with only that 30% she is one of the richest women out there, matching royalty with her earnings. The Republic and Neutral Systems relay a lot on Skywalker Corporation."
"They do have the best technology out there," Obi-Wan commented.
"Angels!" They were both startled by their husband's shout out. "Come! Join us!"
"Would you look at that?" Padmé smiled, standing up.
"We can't say no," Obi-Wan chuckled, as he stood up.
It's not like any of them was ever able to say no to Anakin. That was one thing that remained the same. On both timelines.