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Anakin could hear the suit’s functions beginning to shut down, overloaded by Sidious’ lightning. He was dying.
“Father!” Luke looked frantic. His son. He was so glad to see him one last time, his son who managed the impossible, who brought him back to the light side of the force. “We can save you. It's not too late!”
“It's alright, Luke,” Anakin said. “There's no time. The suit won't last. It won’t keep me alive for more than a few minutes. This is my fate.”
“But–” Luke’s face fell. He knew the truth. There was nothing they could do.
Anakin smiled slightly. “I am proud of you, my son. I will become one with the force, but do not doubt that I love you.”
His last thought before he died was that it had been extremely satisfying to toss Sidious down that reactor shaft.
Anakin jolted up with a gasp. Blinking, he patted himself down, and yep, he did still have all his limbs. Sighing in relief, he laid back down onto the bed, spreading out his arms. His hand brushed something warm, and he jolted up again.
“Padmé!”
“Ani?” His wife squinted at him, confused. “What's wrong?”
“Absolutely nothing,” he said, beaming and kissing her on the forehead. “Where's Luke and Leia?”
“In the living room with Obi-Wan and Ahsoka,” Padmé murmured, burrowing herself deeper into the pillows. “I passed the twins off, because I couldn't deal with them this early when they burst in a few hours ago. I don't think you could either, because you mumbled about ‘hidden rebel bases’ or something while tickling Leia, half-asleep.”
“Huh.” Anakin said. “Alright. Sleep well, I'm going to find Obi-Wan.”
He got out of the bed and pulled on a robe before heading out to the living room. The closer he got, the more urgency he felt. He took the last few steps at a run, flinging open the door separating it from the rest of the house.
“ Obi-Wan! You will not believe the weird dream I had!”
At the noise of the door opening, Obi-Wan had jolted, almost falling off the couch where he'd been lying down. Sitting on the floor next to him, Luke frowned disapprovingly. Anakin had probably woken up Padmé with that doorslam, oops.
Seeing him, Leia screeched happily and started rapidly patting Ahsoka on the cheek.
“Wait,” Anakin frowned, “Where’s Cody and Rex?”
Ahsoka craned her neck up to look at him before letting her head fall back to the ground. His former padawan was lying on the ground, she looked too tired and it was too early to try and move more than that. The fact that Leia was sitting on her chest didn’t help matters, either. “In the kitchen, I think. They said it was too early for, and I quote, “Jedi nonsense” so you could probably expect them in half an hour after having commandeered your kitchen. Hopefully in the making-food sense.”
“Yeah, Padmé said the same thing about the twins,” Anakin said thoughtfully. “That I understand, because they’re three and absolute menaces, but are we that bad?”
Ahsoka shrugged, jostling Leia, who started giggling. “Nah.”
“Yes, entirely .” Obi-Wan said, groaning slightly as he pushed himself into a sitting position.
Both Anakin and Ahsoka gasped with horror. “How could you say such a thing?” Anakin exclaimed. On the floor, Ahsoka dramatically covered her eyes with her arm.
“That. That’s why.” Obi-Wan gestured at the two of them. “You’re giving me grey hair.”
Anakin rolled his eyes. “Okay, sure, you have like three in total, but of course it’s our fault.”
“Now,” Obi-Wan said, running a hand through his hair. He looked rumpled, as if he didn’t sleep well, which wasn’t aided by the fact he insisted on sleeping on the couch instead of staying in a perfectly reasonable guest room with the excuse that Ahsoka could take it. Ahsoka on the other hand, had decided to make a blanket fort in the living room. “What is it that required you bursting in here before nine?”
“Right, so. You know how I said I had a super weird dream? Whatever you’re thinking, this is stranger.”
“Not sure about that,” Ahsoka said, voice slightly muffled as Leia steadily grew more amused by covering and uncovering her mouth with her hands. “Do you want to know about the one with the entire 501st, a bucket of pink paint, and some rapidly multiplying fluffballs?”
“No I do not.” Anakin declared. “That sounds mildly cursed, but given our lives, not entirely out of the realm of possibility. But this was weird, because I dreamt up like, a solid twenty years? You know when you dream up a normal day, and so you wake up and think it’s Friday, but it’s actually Thursday? That, but worse.”
Obi-Wan sighed again. “The point, if you will, Anakin.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m getting there. The set up is that this was so long, and detailed, I actually thought this was real! But it absolutely wasn’t because so many things that would never happen, happened?” Anakin frantically gestured around, before settling on pointing to Ahsoka. “Like, for example, the Council kicked Ahsoka out when that didn’t happen and the rest of that mess did?”
“Ugh.” Ahsoka made a face. “Don’t speak of that cursed reality to me.”
“Alright, we can forget that part. But the important things! I was evil for some reason? And Padmé spontaneously died of a broken heart or some nonsense! That’s totally false, because we all remember how she was literally doing work for the senate right up until not even five minutes before she gave birth! If, and I must emphasize the when wouldn't matter, if I did go evil, Padmé absolutely could and would kick my ass!” Anakin finished triumphantly, accepting the toy speeder Luke held out to him.
Ahsoka snorted in laughter, and Leia clapped enthusiastically, still sitting on her chest. “That's hilarious, and also completely believable. Padmé can be scary .”
“I know, right?” Anakin said, sitting down on the floor next to her and bopping Leia lightly on the nose. “And Obi-Wan was like, this depressed hermit, on Tatooine of all places!”
Obi-Wan frowned at him, looking slightly pale. “Luke was a genuine desert kid, but Leia was a literal princess. I think Bail and Breha adopted her? Cause like the whole ‘galaxy in chaos’ and Padmé up and dying of sadness or something ridiculous.”
“Anakin,” he said gravely, “I may have had the same vision.”
“Really? Huh,” Anakin said. “I wonder if I was like, projecting or something on accident, because my shielding is better than that, and you got some of the spillover.”
“Areyousureaboutthat?” Ahsoka coughed into her fist. Anakin elbowed her.
“Yeah, because if it wasn’t, you’d have gotten it too.”
“Okay, fair,” she acknowledged. Leia poked her in the nose. “Ow! Sharp baby nails!”
Obi-Wan shook his head. “Thank goodness. That must be it, then. I can’t think of anything else, either.”
Anakin nodded sagely, before nudging Obi-Wan in the ribs with his foot.
“Anakin!”
“Gotcha!”
Obi-Wan threw one of the couch pillows at his face. Anakin toppled over and lay on the floor, clutching it to his chest. “It was extremely weird, though. I can’t stop thinking about it. Like, it was basically that whole thing a few years back with the clones and the inhibitor chips? That but way worse , and I hate to say it, we were eerily close to that actually happening.”
“Yeah, it was like genuine nightmare fuel. The whole Order 66 thing? So easily could have been a disaster. Palpatine’s consolidation of the Supreme Chancellor’s powers—he was so close to actually declaring himself emperor.” Anakin shuddered “For that dream though? I was basically a depressed cyborg for twenty years—”
“Do you mean a sigh-borg?” Ahsoka asked, snickering.
“No, be quiet. Anyways, I kidnapped Leia somehow? And blew up Alderaan with this thing called the Death Star, after which you showed up,” Anakin kicked Obi-Wan in the shin, who winced, “We had the absolute worst duel ever, compared to the one we had on Mustafar with all the acrobatics and lava, and you straight up disappeared. Luke then came in with the rebellion, and blew up the Death Star, and they escaped—”
“Ah, I remember that.” Obi-Wan mused, laying back on the couch with an arm over his eyes.
“What?” Anakin asked, “Were you like a mysterious ghost mentor or something?”
“Yes, actually.”
“Really? Wild. That Solo kid got frozen in carbonite, and I think I heard about Leia killing Jabba the Hutt, which good for her! It was about time someone finally did it. Someone decided it was a great idea to build a second Death Star, which again, ended in disaster. Palpatine tried to get Luke to turn to the dark side, and very narrowly failed because Palps wanted him to kill me and vice versa...so that was a really crappy, but I did get to do a whole dramatic heel-face turn betrayal and toss Palpatine down a reactor shaft, so I think it was worth it.”
Ahsoka snorted from the floor, bouncing Leia up and down on her chest. “Wow. While you were busy being evil and all that, what was I doing?”
Anakin held up his hands, shrugging helplessly. “Now bear in mind, I was, again, evil or whatever, so I don’t actually know that much. However, I think you were like this super secret spy, subverting the empire at every turn, and sabotaging it’s operations. There was this whole bunch of drama I wasn’t present for with some rebels and you and Rex kicked ass.”
“So, while your subconscious decided you’d end up a sad cyborg if the galaxy inexplicably went to hell, you thought I would be like Raines Tron, and save the day.” Ahsoka said, referencing the popular Nabooian fictional heroine who worked for the queen as a part of her top secret spy corps.
“Yeah, pretty much.”
Obi-Wan sighed before heaving himself up off the couch. Luke shakily stood up and toddled after him. Anakin would have been still in awe that they were walking if it wasn’t for the fact that the twins had instantly become menaces. “It’s too early to deal with anymore of this. I’m going to make tea. Goodbye.”
“Buh-bye!” Ahsoka waved Leia’s small hand after him, until the girl decided it was a good idea to smack Ahsoka on the forehead again. “Ow!”
Anakin dropped another pillow on her head while Leia cackled.