Epilogue

Author's Note: I hope the time jump isn't too choppy and it would have been fun to write out the transition between these two points but... I'm trying to wrap things up. lol

~ Tirana Sorki

It's been two years since the galaxy nearly fell. Two years that so much has changed and Anakin thinks at least some of it is for the best. He and Padme certainly hadn't been planning it but they ended up having a child.

Twins.

Luke and Leia.

They're a year old now and they mean the world to him. He would do anything for them.

He left the Order so he could raise them. He hadn't wanted to exactly but the Council didn't give him a choice and there wasn't really any other choice he could have made.

But at least he was able to finish training Ahsoka to Knighthood first. She was eighteen when she was Knighted. She hadn't really wanted to be away from him any more than he wanted to let her go but the Council was insistent on having more Knights, considering the serious lack of Knights there are now. There aren't enough older Jedi to train the younger younglings anymore.

But either way, Ahsoka's still with him all the time. She didn't want to stay in the Order either. What happened to her when he was away isn't something she's ever truly let go of and she wanted to find her own path away from the Order, along with him.

Obi-Wan's still on the Council but with how much he talks to Anakin, the separation isn't as bad as he was afraid it was going to be. It's not like he never goes on missions anymore if he's absolutely needed. It's just not the official thing he spends all his time doing.

The clones are finally getting the rights they should have had long ago. Anakin's asked Padme to help push for it, along with the only other Senator who even was – Riyo Chuchi. And it's working. A lot of them have been given the option of retiring even if most of them aren't interested in it. Most of the 501st has stayed around anyway, and Anakin and Ahsoka still get to work with them sometimes.

Padme ended up staying in the Senate. She didn't really want to leave her job, and it could have nearly caused a scandal, but things blew over surprisingly quickly.

It's a better future than he thought he could have for a long time. Than he thought any of them could have.

Anakin's flying back from a brief self-appointed mission he went on with Ahsoka and the boys heading back to Padme's apartment when he calls Engel. He hasn't talked to him in a bit.

"Anakin?" Engel asks, smiling.

"I'm back," he replies cheerfully, "Everything alright?"

Engel nods, glancing over his shoulder to something out of range of the hologram.

"Is... he there?" Anakin asks after a hesitant moment.

There's nowhere else for Palpatine to hide so he's been staying here all this time. Engel and Biel live in the same apartment now. He could have taken off on his own but he hasn't. And with how long it's been... maybe helping him escape wasn't a mistake after all. The hunt for Palpatine may have died down a little but Anakin knows how badly it could go if anyone heard what really happened.

"He's out right now," Engel replies.

In disguise, as always. It still makes Anakin on edge to hear about it every time even if nothing's happened. Either he could be caught or... he could be planning something. Nothing's indicated that but he can't find it in himself to fully trust him anymore. Not after what happened. Even if they've come a long ways from where they were.

"Maybe I'll come over later," Anakin tells him, smiling faintly.

Engel nods, returning the smile. "I... just want to thank you again," he says after a pause, "For bringing me home."

"You helped bring me home. It was the least I could do." The days he was stuck on that planet with no memory of anything are so long ago now but sometimes he's still afraid that something like that could happen again since it happened once. But he knows that no one in his now very large family would ever stop looking it if did.

He tells Engel a bit about his mission while he flies the rest of the way to Padme's apartment.

They get visitors unannounced sometimes. He just didn't quite expect to walk into Padme's apartment to see Biel sitting on the floor, playing with now one year old twins.

And Engel is there too.

Or no, that's not Engel.

Palpatine risked coming here? It's unlikely anyone would notice the deception but it still has him on edge. To be fair, he's probably just being jittery because Palpatine would never take foolish risks with himself.

Biel is talking in a fake-squeaky voice, holding out his stuffed colo clawfish in front of Luke and Leia who seem fascinated with it.

It's kind of adorable.

Anakin moves to sit near Palpatine, who's just watching, an unreadable look on his face.

"Are you alright?" Anakin asks uncertainly.

Palpatine's studying him silently. "This... is what you wanted, isn't it?"

A family.

A life without constant – death.

Even if he'll keep fighting to help the way he did as a Jei because he can't imagine anything else. He still wants to do that part of it even if he can never be the Jedi the Order wanted of him.

"How could I want anything else?" he asks quietly.

"Perhaps I can... see why you wanted it now," he says after a long pause.

Anakin blinks, looking up at him. That – just wasn't what he expected to hear. "It's not of the Dark but it's..."

"That is not fully true," Palpatine muses, "Passion – everything you feel for those you consider yours is rooted in the dark. The Dark is passion of all kinds."

"You've never said that before." Is he right? It's... what he has now feels too light to be dark, but...

"I have not stopped studying the Dark Side."

Not that he expected otherwise.

Palpatine reaches for him, touching his shoulder.

Anakin shifts a little closer. He hasn't forgotten how badly things went with them once but that doesn't mean he doesn't still care for him. "Is... any of this what you want? At all?" he asks, almost shyly. He never really has before. It was just something everyone including Palpatine knew he had to accept if he wanted to live.

"You... are still mine," he says finally.

The possessiveness unsettled him at first. He's gotten used to it after a while, and – he knows the meaning behind what he's saying. It's as much of and admission as he'd actually say.

"And your brothers," Anakin adds quietly.

Palpatine nods a little.

He wishes he could stop remembering the time he hurt him. He doesn't think about it that much anymore but it still bothers him obsessively whenever he does. He still has nightmares about it.

The grip on his shoulder tightens a little, almost as though he's reading his thoughts. "I regret harming you," he says finally and Anakin swallows hard, looking away.

He doesn't really know what to say.

"And... I know I told you before, but I did not only help you when you were a padawan in the hope that you would be my apprentice."

"What else was it?" he asks, trying to ignore how vulnerable he feels talking about this. He knows Palpatine cares for him but... The entire situation is still messy.

"I would say I... saw myself in you much of the time," he answers after a pause.

Anakin's heard jerks up to look at him, blinking. He – why...

"I saw how you struggled under the Jedi's expectations and under Kenobi's. And I knew how it was with... me when I was young. Especially when I saw how much you wanted freedom, to be able to decide at least something of your own. To be able to have something of your own." Somehow, he never realized just how much Palpatine has felt this same crushing emptiness and desire to actually be something, to not lose everything, to be able to choose that Anakin himself always has.

He's mentioned a little of Cosgina in the past, enough that Anakin knows he does not like him at all, but never so directly.

"It's not all the same," Anakin has to point out finally, "I don't want Obi-Wan gone." The struggles they've always had aren't all a thing of the past, even if they aren't all better now either.

"I know," he says and he sounds a bit grudging, "He may love you but the Counsil still has no regard for you. That's the same as it was with Cosgina. Perhaps what I wanted most then was... the power of two."

He's definitely never said that so clearly.

"I would have helped you," Anakin blurts, heart clenching, "If you hadn't been doing it the way you were."

"It's not too late for that," he replies after a long pause.

Unease twists inside of him. "I don't think I – "

"You don't trust me," he interrupts, though it's not accusing.

Anakin looks away. "I... I want to. But sometimes I don't know what it is you really want." He doesn't want to be so blunt about it but he feels like maybe it needed to be said.

He can feel Palpatine's eyes on him. "Anakin." He says it gently and it's weird sometimes to remember that he's a Sith Lord who's hurt so many when he uses that tone.

He looks up uncertainly, warily. "Yes?" It's too hard to hold his gaze though, so he drops it again.

"I could have reclaimed the galaxy already. But I am well aware that if I do, you will not support me. Not now, at least. I don't want you hurt. Or for us to fight as we nearly did. If I make a move to help right any of the chaos in the galaxy now, it will be with you at my side."

Anakin just stares at him.

He – knew some of that but never so bluntly. He didn't realize the only reason Palpatine hadn't done anything yet was because he didn't want to hurt him again. It means... a lot. It means everything.

And he can only imagine how much it must have taken for Palpatine to actually spell that out because he's always uncomfortable talking about things of such a personal nature.

Anakin leans forwards impulsively, wrapping his arms around him. Palpatine returns the embrace.

The power of two, he'd said.

That's not what Anakin wants but the words still mean a lot.

What he does want is his family and he thinks that that's probably best for Palpatine too.

Maybe no one will ever be able to know him aside from Anakin, Biel, and Engel. It's not a lie he wants to have to hide but for now, at least, there's no other choice. But Anakin thinks for the first time that he feels a sense of surety that this wasn't a choice he's ever going to regret making.

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