fic: There's Still Time to Change the Road You're On (Star Wars; Anakin, Luke, Leia; gen)
There's Still Time to Change the Road You're On
Star Wars; Anakin, Leia, Luke; AU; 3,690 words
"Time travel? Are you kriffing kidding me?"
Once I realized I only cared about the family drama, I figured I didn't need to worry about the mechanics or results of time travel. Let's just pretend it makes sense! *hands* Title & cut-text from Led Zeppelin.
Or read it at AO3.
~*~
There's Still Time to Change the Road You're On
Anakin frowns as he brings his starfighter in for a landing next to the circle of standing stones that mark the dead drop. Jakku is not quite as terrible as Tatooine--there's only one sun, thank the Maker--but it's still full of sand and heat. He grumbles about it as he slides down the ladder and his feet hit the ground. He's going to be finding sand in his boots for weeks, and no matter how much he shakes out his clothes, the cockpit of his starfighter will also to be full of sand, and Padmé will scold him for leaving trails of sand in her sheets. He growls low in his throat even though there's no one around to hear him. He's sure this is all Obi-Wan's fault somehow. Normally, he takes the stealth missions solo and leaves Anakin to the fighting, but this time Obi-Wan is chatting up independent freighter pilots in some seedy Corellian cantina while Anakin picks up datachips from the Order's secret Separatist contacts on remote planets nobody in their right mind would willingly visit.
He finds the cache of datachips buried right where Obi-Wan said it would be, about a hundred yards past the circle of stones, marked by the scorched and pitted remains of a battle droid's head. Digging it up makes him sweaty, which means the sand that's blowing around starts sticking to his exposed skin. He's definitely making Obi-Wan take the next mission to a desert planet, and maybe in the meantime he'll demand free drinks the next time they're actually able to visit a cantina.
He's so caught up in grousing that it takes him a second longer than it should to realize that he's walking through the ring of standing stones instead of around them, as Obi-Wan had suggested. He's got just enough time to notice how weird the Force feels inside the circle before it knocks him out.
*
Anakin wakes to the whine of a speeder being pushed past the redline and the buzz of blaster fire. So, like normal, he thinks before he remembers he's supposed to be out in a deserted area on a junkyard planet nobody's paid attention to in years.
He crouches in the shadow of one of the standing stones and peers around its edge as the speeder revs closer. For a second, his heart leaps, because the driver looks like Padmé, but it can't be--she's on Coruscant, and anyway, the Force signature doesn't feel right. Unlike Padmé, the woman driving the speeder is definitely strong with the Force. And there's an unfamiliar Jedi standing up in the backseat, deflecting blaster bolts with his lightsaber. The guy's form is sloppy but he hasn't missed a shot yet. Anakin will have a few tips for him when they get closer.
They're being chased by clones on speeder bikes. No, not clones--the armor's not quite right, the shape of it subtly wrong and none of it marked by paint. And their aim is definitely off. Rex would never tolerate such poor shooting from the 501st. They don't feel like clones, either. Something weird is definitely going on here. Whoever these troopers are, they're shooting at Jedi, which makes them his problem.
Never one to ponder the oddities of the galaxy when there's a battle going on, he ignores the weirdness, ignites his lightsaber, and jumps into fight. He leaps onto the back end of the speeder and grins at the young Jedi, who stares at him in shock long enough that Anakin has to block a round of blaster fire for him and his tabards get singed in the process. It's the price of fame; Anakin's always been torn between reveling in the attention and wanting to hide from it, but most Jedi know better than to succumb to staring in the middle of a firefight. This kid must be newly knighted. Since the war began, they've been rushing padawans up through the ranks, trying to make up for all the Jedi they've lost. The way things are going, Ahsoka might be knighted even younger than he was. She's probably more ready for it than he was, too.
"Concentrate on the here and now," he says, as much to himself as to this shiny Jedi. He wrinkles his nose when he realizes he's channeling Obi-Wan. Then he shrugs it off. The kid's probably heard it a million times and paid as much attention as Anakin ever had. "Your focus determines your reality."
The kid's mouth twitches and Anakin can sense how much he wants to roll his eyes, but he doesn't, so he's already a more proper Jedi than Anakin will ever be. He laughs, letting the thrill of battle wash away all his other concerns.
Together, they make quick work of the remaining troopers, and the driver brings the speeder to a screeching halt.
"Not inside the circle, Leia," the kid says, and Leia does roll her eyes, but she also parks the speeder outside the standing stones.
"My ship," Anakin says. "My ship is gone." He spins in a circle, as if that'll make his fighter reappear. He reaches out with his senses, with the Force, but it roils around the stones forebodingly. It reminds him of Mortis, but since he can't remember most of what happened there, he dismisses the thought. He does notice that the darkness that's been blanketing the Force since the war began has dissipated. That should be a good thing, but he wonders if even in its absence, he should be worried.
Leia raises her eyebrows and looks at the kid, who shrugs. "I'm sorry about your ship. I'm sure you'll find another way off this rock, though." He shakes his head. "I thought the Jawas were bad, but the scavengers on this planet can strip a freighter faster than anything else I've seen."
Anakin spins again, to stare at the kid, suddenly suspicious. There aren't any other Jedi from Tatooine. Most of them have never even heard of it. "Where are you from?"
"A moisture farm not far from Anchorhead." The kid offers a black-gloved hand to shake. "Luke S-solo."
He lets Luke have his lie for the moment--they're in a war zone, so he might have a good reason for using a fake name--and shakes his hand. "Anakin Skywalker. But you already knew that."
That gets a response from Leia, a wave of shock and anger so strong in the Force that almost knocks him off his feet. She's barely trained, but still more powerful than many Masters he's met. The barrel of her blaster swings up to point at his chest.
"Hey now, I just helped save your skins from those Seps and this is how you thank me?" He curls a hand around the muzzle and shoves it down. Despite her theatrics, she's not going to shoot him.
The Force pulses between them, tantalizingly bright with something he should know, and then her shields come up and he can barely sense her at all. Luke doesn't seem to be having the same problem. From the outside, it feels as if they're communicating--he can almost hear them, but they're conversing in a language he doesn't understand, or maybe he's deep under water and the sounds are all distorted. He's never been good with metaphors.
And despite what the HoloNet leads people to believe, telepathy isn't a common Jedi skill; it requires the kinds of bonds the Code frowns upon. He's not sure what these two have going on, but it's probably a secret. One more thing they have in common. He can use that.
"But I don't think your ship was scavenged or stolen," Luke says, ignoring Leia's glare. She looks about ready to spit fire; there's something familiar about her clenched jaw and narrowed eyes, and it isn't the resemblance to Padmé, though that's also still pinging some kind of warning deep inside his brain. "I think it's exactly where you landed it, twenty-odd years ago."
Leia throws up her hands and growls in disgust, and Anakin gets where she's coming from, even if he doesn't know exactly what her problem with him is.
"Time travel? Are you kriffing kidding me?" He can't quite help the way his voice rises in disbelief.
If Leia is all lethal mood swings and angry glares, Luke has the surface calm of a trained Jedi. Luckily, Anakin's used to seeing through that, and he notices that Luke's hands are clenched so tight the synthleather on his glove is straining over his knuckles. "The stone circle is a locus of the Force. Surely you can feel it?" His turmoil doesn't show in his voice. He's responding pretty well, considering. If Anakin hadn't seen weirder, he'd be freaking out too.
"I feel something, all right," Anakin mutters, annoyed. He'd thought it was just the lack of all-pervading darkness that made the Force feel different here. "And don't call me Shirley." Which earns a snort from Luke.
"There's a wreck not too far away," Luke says, as if Anakin hasn't spoken. Obi-Wan does the same thing sometimes, ignoring him as if he's still an unruly child. He doesn't often let it go, but for once, he decides not to pick a fight. "Let's get out of the sun and see if we can figure out what's going on."
Leia opens her mouth to protest and shuts it again when Luke gives her a pleading look. Instead she says, "I'm keeping an eye on you, Skywalker." She even makes his name sound like a curse. Luke muffles a laugh, but as the one on the other end of her blaster, Anakin doesn't find it funny at all.
*
Anakin generally doesn't enjoy being a passenger when someone else is driving--even the people who know how to drive go too slow--but Luke accelerates in a way Anakin finds comforting and familiar. The rush of wind as they cruise across the desert is too loud to make conversation feasible, so they don't talk on the brief ride to shelter, which turns out to be the hull of a crashed star destroyer. Anakin has a very bad feeling about that, compounded by the way Leia's still pointing her blaster at him.
"What the hell is wrong with you people?" he asks, scowling at her. He could easily disarm her, but he has a feeling she's got something worse in her back pocket, and she's not constrained by Jedi training the way Luke seems to be.
Luke sighs. "We don't have enough time for that," he says with a rueful grin that's like looking in the mirror.
It hits him all at once then, the Force bright and ringing with the truth. "Holy shit," he says, "you're my kids?"
"No," Leia spits.
At the same time, Luke says, "Yes." He feels much more joyful than Leia does, but also resigned in a way that no one as young as he is should be. Anakin's intimately familiar with the feeling; it's the way everyone he knows feels now that the war's dragged on for a couple of years.
Luke and Leia have another one of those silent conversations, and Anakin wonders if this is how Padmé feels when he and Obi-Wan confer in the Force, excluded and unhappy about it. The currents swirling around them feel angry and resentful, with a tinge of mourning, and Anakin realizes why.
"I died, didn't I? In the war, I mean. Before you were born." He's always had the feeling he wasn't going to make it out of the war alive.
"If only," Leia mutters, but she's holstered her blaster and crossed her arms over her chest. It makes her look even smaller. He can only imagine how many times she's been underestimated because of it. It's one of Padmé's best weapons. But she also looks vulnerable, and that makes his chest ache.
"Obviously you hate me for some reason, which I probably would understand, even if it's not good for a Jedi to hate--"
"I am not a Jedi," Leia says, enunciating each word precisely.
"I can tell," he responds without missing a beat, "because you might look just like your mother, but personality-wise, you're too much like me."
Leia's mouth opens and closes in outrage. "I am nothing like you."
"Our mother?" Luke says, sad and wondering. It stops Leia's tirade in its tracks; it was probably calculated to do so. Anakin can't tell if that's Padmé's or Obi-Wan's influence, but their fingerprints are all over this kid. His kid. It figures.
"Do you not...know who she is?" Anakin asks after the silence has become uncomfortable. "Did she die?"
"Yes," Leia says, "and you--"
"Leia!" Luke's voice cracks like thunder.
She snaps her mouth shut and turns away. "Fine," she says, the fire gone out of her voice. She waves a hand dismissively. "Protect the timeline."
"I don't want to wink out of existence because we couldn't keep our mouths closed," Luke says reasonably. He offers Anakin a canteen and Anakin drinks gratefully, then wipes the excess water away with his sleeve. Which just gets more sand on his face. He sighs in resignation and offers the canteen to Leia, who takes it but doesn't drink.
"Not even to save her? Or Alderaan?" The bitterness in her tone sparks familiarity in Anakin's heart.
"I couldn't save my mother either," he offers softly. "The Tuskens--"
"I know," Luke says, putting his left hand on Anakin's arm. "Aunt Beru told me."
Beru didn't know the whole of it, and Anakin wants to keep it that way, doesn't want to talk about it any further, not even with his kids. Maybe especially not with his kids. They don't need to know all the ways he's screwed things up. And he must have screwed up massively if Owen and Beru raised his kids.
He's still trying to wrap his head around the fact that they exist. He and Padmé have always been careful; they're in the middle of fighting a war for kriff's sake. But he's also aware that the Force has taken an active role in his life before (he's still not sure he believes it caused his conception, but he's also not sure it didn't). Obi-Wan must have had kittens when he'd found out, but he must have been great with them, he and Ahsoka both.
"Just finding out about you has probably compromised the timeline," he finally says.
Leia's fear spikes in the Force before she leashes it, and Luke wraps an arm around her shoulders. "Hopefully for the better," Luke replies.
Anakin doesn't know if his daughter is terrified of him or of changing the timeline, and he'd prefer not to find out--he's pretty sure it doesn't reflect well on him. Instead, he looks around at the downed cruiser they're standing in. "The Separatists win?"
"No," Leia says, after swallowing a mouthful of water and handing Luke back his canteen. She's much calmer now, all her fires banked and smoldering. "Nobody won except the Emperor. It's taken us more than twenty years to undo his victory, and some things can never be undone."
"There must be something you can tell me to prevent that from happening."
They exchange a long look, and then Leia takes a deep breath and says, "Pay attention to the clones. There's something--we don't know how or why, but the clones turned on the Jedi not too long after the Battle of Coruscant."
Anakin aches with every fiber of his being to deny what she's saying, but he can feel the truth of it in the Force. "I--I'll look into it," he promises. The thought of the fighting coming to Coruscant, that even the very heart of the Republic isn't safe, and that the clones specifically bred to be their allies betrayed them, chills him to the bone.
"We can't stay here much longer," Luke says apologetically. "We have to meet our transport and get out of here before the Imperials come looking for their lost patrol. Do you remember what you did to get here?"
"I walked through the circle of stones," Anakin says. "Obi-Wan told me to go around but I," he looks down and laughs sheepishly, "I didn't pay attention."
Luke nods. "Okay, let's go back and drop you off. If walking into the circle doesn't send you back, we'll just have to take you with us and figure it out later."
"What? No," Leia protests.
"I thought you wanted to keep an eye on me," Anakin says wryly.
She sniffs disdainfully, as regal as Padmé ever was as queen. "Fine." At least this time, she leaves her blaster holstered.
*
The ride back is equally short and loud, which is irritating, because Anakin would like to make the most of his time with his kids, even if doing more than exchanging pleasantries (or threats, in Leia's case) could destroy the space-time continuum. It's a risk he's more than willing to take.
They arrive back at the stone circle and he says, "Are you sure there isn't anything you can tell me? Something small that won't ruin the timeline?"
Luke gives him a sad smile. "He'll never tell you, and you probably wouldn't believe him if he did, but Obi-Wan does love you. You're his best friend, even if it doesn't feel like it sometimes."
Anakin sucks in a surprised breath, but he can feel the truth of Luke's words in the Force. "I would like to hear him say it," he admits softly, "though it would probably cause both of us to pass out from the shock." He steps forward, arms open, and Luke moves easily into his embrace. Anakin hugs him tightly, breathes in the scent of his hair, and then steps back. "Whatever else has happened," he says, "I'm proud of you, Luke."
Luke beams at him, teary-eyed, and gives him a small nod of respect in return.
Leia raises an eyebrow, and Anakin has to laugh. "I'm not foolish enough to ask you for a hug, Leia, but whatever I did to make you hate me so much, I--" he pauses, and considers his words, how facile and false most of his apologies are, and can't bring himself to offer her more of the same. "I probably deserve it, and I truly am sorry about that." He lets his sense of chastened regret flood the Force , and she gasps in response. "Can we at least shake on it?"
She takes his offered hand between hers, as small and lovely as her mother's, and says, "It's Palpatine."
"What?"
"Palpatine is the Sith Lord. Don't trust him."
Anakin reels back from the way the truth of her statement rings in the Force, but she doesn't let go of his hand. "What?" he repeats dumbly.
She looks up at him, her gaze liquid and beseeching; her resemblance to Padmé makes him want to do whatever she asks.
"He played both sides against the middle to bring down the Jedi and the Republic. We've never been able to prove it, but my father," he flinches at that, since she so clearly doesn't mean him, and she bites her lip and for the first time shows him the smallest of mercies as she continues, "Bail Organa told me the truth. He was there, he saw it all happen." She tightens her hands on his. "Palpatine killed Senator Amidala." Luke gives her a sharp look at that, and she smiles thinly; it doesn't reach her eyes. "From a certain point of view."
"I--He's my friend," Anakin manages, aware of how ridiculous that sounds and yet unable to come up with any other argument against the truth that she's telling him.
"No," Leia says inexorably, "he's not."
"Now that Leia's completely karked the timeline, maybe you should go," Luke says ruefully. "Before we really do blink out of existence."
Leia raises her chin defiantly. "I'm willing to take that chance."
Luke smiles at her. "I know." He looks at Anakin. "She's the brave one."
Anakin nods. "Just like your mother." He swallows hard against the sudden tightness in his throat. "I can't promise things will be better," he says hoarsely, "but hopefully I can't make them any worse."
"Oh, stars, don't say things like that," Leia says with a choked-off laugh. "Now go, and try not to screw it all up this time."
He folds his hands together and bows to them both, and then steps into the ring of stones.
*
Anakin wakes with a terrible headache and a mouth that tastes like sand. He's covered in the stuff and he grumbles about it as he starts to dust himself off, and then he remembers where he was and who he met there. He'd like to dismiss it as a vision, or even a hallucination brought on by dehydration--he really needs another drink of water--but it feels real and he's always trusted his feelings.
He vows to his unborn children that he'll do better this time, and drags himself back to his ship. Artoo burbles loudly, asking if he ran into trouble picking up the datachips he came to this Force-forsaken rock to get.
"What makes you say that?" he asks, wondering if Artoo's sensors picked up the strange concentration of the Force in the stone circle. Artoo reminds him that his tabards weren't singed by blaster fire when he left the ship and he nods. "Right, yeah. Some guys on speeder bikes," he says, fingering the ragged edges of the material, the proof that he really did visit the future and meet his kids. "They won't be a problem anymore. I have the chips." Not that they matter now, in the face of everything he's learned.
He needs to see Padmé, to speak with Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, to come up with a strategy to take down the Chancellor. He's never been the best at big-picture planning--that's what Obi-Wan is for--but his mind races with thoughts and ideas. He swings up into the cockpit and says, "Let's go home, Artoo. We have a lot of work to do."
end
~*~
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~*~
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Star Wars; Anakin, Leia, Luke; AU; 3,690 words
"Time travel? Are you kriffing kidding me?"
Once I realized I only cared about the family drama, I figured I didn't need to worry about the mechanics or results of time travel. Let's just pretend it makes sense! *hands* Title & cut-text from Led Zeppelin.
Or read it at AO3.
~*~
There's Still Time to Change the Road You're On
Anakin frowns as he brings his starfighter in for a landing next to the circle of standing stones that mark the dead drop. Jakku is not quite as terrible as Tatooine--there's only one sun, thank the Maker--but it's still full of sand and heat. He grumbles about it as he slides down the ladder and his feet hit the ground. He's going to be finding sand in his boots for weeks, and no matter how much he shakes out his clothes, the cockpit of his starfighter will also to be full of sand, and Padmé will scold him for leaving trails of sand in her sheets. He growls low in his throat even though there's no one around to hear him. He's sure this is all Obi-Wan's fault somehow. Normally, he takes the stealth missions solo and leaves Anakin to the fighting, but this time Obi-Wan is chatting up independent freighter pilots in some seedy Corellian cantina while Anakin picks up datachips from the Order's secret Separatist contacts on remote planets nobody in their right mind would willingly visit.
He finds the cache of datachips buried right where Obi-Wan said it would be, about a hundred yards past the circle of stones, marked by the scorched and pitted remains of a battle droid's head. Digging it up makes him sweaty, which means the sand that's blowing around starts sticking to his exposed skin. He's definitely making Obi-Wan take the next mission to a desert planet, and maybe in the meantime he'll demand free drinks the next time they're actually able to visit a cantina.
He's so caught up in grousing that it takes him a second longer than it should to realize that he's walking through the ring of standing stones instead of around them, as Obi-Wan had suggested. He's got just enough time to notice how weird the Force feels inside the circle before it knocks him out.
*
Anakin wakes to the whine of a speeder being pushed past the redline and the buzz of blaster fire. So, like normal, he thinks before he remembers he's supposed to be out in a deserted area on a junkyard planet nobody's paid attention to in years.
He crouches in the shadow of one of the standing stones and peers around its edge as the speeder revs closer. For a second, his heart leaps, because the driver looks like Padmé, but it can't be--she's on Coruscant, and anyway, the Force signature doesn't feel right. Unlike Padmé, the woman driving the speeder is definitely strong with the Force. And there's an unfamiliar Jedi standing up in the backseat, deflecting blaster bolts with his lightsaber. The guy's form is sloppy but he hasn't missed a shot yet. Anakin will have a few tips for him when they get closer.
They're being chased by clones on speeder bikes. No, not clones--the armor's not quite right, the shape of it subtly wrong and none of it marked by paint. And their aim is definitely off. Rex would never tolerate such poor shooting from the 501st. They don't feel like clones, either. Something weird is definitely going on here. Whoever these troopers are, they're shooting at Jedi, which makes them his problem.
Never one to ponder the oddities of the galaxy when there's a battle going on, he ignores the weirdness, ignites his lightsaber, and jumps into fight. He leaps onto the back end of the speeder and grins at the young Jedi, who stares at him in shock long enough that Anakin has to block a round of blaster fire for him and his tabards get singed in the process. It's the price of fame; Anakin's always been torn between reveling in the attention and wanting to hide from it, but most Jedi know better than to succumb to staring in the middle of a firefight. This kid must be newly knighted. Since the war began, they've been rushing padawans up through the ranks, trying to make up for all the Jedi they've lost. The way things are going, Ahsoka might be knighted even younger than he was. She's probably more ready for it than he was, too.
"Concentrate on the here and now," he says, as much to himself as to this shiny Jedi. He wrinkles his nose when he realizes he's channeling Obi-Wan. Then he shrugs it off. The kid's probably heard it a million times and paid as much attention as Anakin ever had. "Your focus determines your reality."
The kid's mouth twitches and Anakin can sense how much he wants to roll his eyes, but he doesn't, so he's already a more proper Jedi than Anakin will ever be. He laughs, letting the thrill of battle wash away all his other concerns.
Together, they make quick work of the remaining troopers, and the driver brings the speeder to a screeching halt.
"Not inside the circle, Leia," the kid says, and Leia does roll her eyes, but she also parks the speeder outside the standing stones.
"My ship," Anakin says. "My ship is gone." He spins in a circle, as if that'll make his fighter reappear. He reaches out with his senses, with the Force, but it roils around the stones forebodingly. It reminds him of Mortis, but since he can't remember most of what happened there, he dismisses the thought. He does notice that the darkness that's been blanketing the Force since the war began has dissipated. That should be a good thing, but he wonders if even in its absence, he should be worried.
Leia raises her eyebrows and looks at the kid, who shrugs. "I'm sorry about your ship. I'm sure you'll find another way off this rock, though." He shakes his head. "I thought the Jawas were bad, but the scavengers on this planet can strip a freighter faster than anything else I've seen."
Anakin spins again, to stare at the kid, suddenly suspicious. There aren't any other Jedi from Tatooine. Most of them have never even heard of it. "Where are you from?"
"A moisture farm not far from Anchorhead." The kid offers a black-gloved hand to shake. "Luke S-solo."
He lets Luke have his lie for the moment--they're in a war zone, so he might have a good reason for using a fake name--and shakes his hand. "Anakin Skywalker. But you already knew that."
That gets a response from Leia, a wave of shock and anger so strong in the Force that almost knocks him off his feet. She's barely trained, but still more powerful than many Masters he's met. The barrel of her blaster swings up to point at his chest.
"Hey now, I just helped save your skins from those Seps and this is how you thank me?" He curls a hand around the muzzle and shoves it down. Despite her theatrics, she's not going to shoot him.
The Force pulses between them, tantalizingly bright with something he should know, and then her shields come up and he can barely sense her at all. Luke doesn't seem to be having the same problem. From the outside, it feels as if they're communicating--he can almost hear them, but they're conversing in a language he doesn't understand, or maybe he's deep under water and the sounds are all distorted. He's never been good with metaphors.
And despite what the HoloNet leads people to believe, telepathy isn't a common Jedi skill; it requires the kinds of bonds the Code frowns upon. He's not sure what these two have going on, but it's probably a secret. One more thing they have in common. He can use that.
"But I don't think your ship was scavenged or stolen," Luke says, ignoring Leia's glare. She looks about ready to spit fire; there's something familiar about her clenched jaw and narrowed eyes, and it isn't the resemblance to Padmé, though that's also still pinging some kind of warning deep inside his brain. "I think it's exactly where you landed it, twenty-odd years ago."
Leia throws up her hands and growls in disgust, and Anakin gets where she's coming from, even if he doesn't know exactly what her problem with him is.
"Time travel? Are you kriffing kidding me?" He can't quite help the way his voice rises in disbelief.
If Leia is all lethal mood swings and angry glares, Luke has the surface calm of a trained Jedi. Luckily, Anakin's used to seeing through that, and he notices that Luke's hands are clenched so tight the synthleather on his glove is straining over his knuckles. "The stone circle is a locus of the Force. Surely you can feel it?" His turmoil doesn't show in his voice. He's responding pretty well, considering. If Anakin hadn't seen weirder, he'd be freaking out too.
"I feel something, all right," Anakin mutters, annoyed. He'd thought it was just the lack of all-pervading darkness that made the Force feel different here. "And don't call me Shirley." Which earns a snort from Luke.
"There's a wreck not too far away," Luke says, as if Anakin hasn't spoken. Obi-Wan does the same thing sometimes, ignoring him as if he's still an unruly child. He doesn't often let it go, but for once, he decides not to pick a fight. "Let's get out of the sun and see if we can figure out what's going on."
Leia opens her mouth to protest and shuts it again when Luke gives her a pleading look. Instead she says, "I'm keeping an eye on you, Skywalker." She even makes his name sound like a curse. Luke muffles a laugh, but as the one on the other end of her blaster, Anakin doesn't find it funny at all.
*
Anakin generally doesn't enjoy being a passenger when someone else is driving--even the people who know how to drive go too slow--but Luke accelerates in a way Anakin finds comforting and familiar. The rush of wind as they cruise across the desert is too loud to make conversation feasible, so they don't talk on the brief ride to shelter, which turns out to be the hull of a crashed star destroyer. Anakin has a very bad feeling about that, compounded by the way Leia's still pointing her blaster at him.
"What the hell is wrong with you people?" he asks, scowling at her. He could easily disarm her, but he has a feeling she's got something worse in her back pocket, and she's not constrained by Jedi training the way Luke seems to be.
Luke sighs. "We don't have enough time for that," he says with a rueful grin that's like looking in the mirror.
It hits him all at once then, the Force bright and ringing with the truth. "Holy shit," he says, "you're my kids?"
"No," Leia spits.
At the same time, Luke says, "Yes." He feels much more joyful than Leia does, but also resigned in a way that no one as young as he is should be. Anakin's intimately familiar with the feeling; it's the way everyone he knows feels now that the war's dragged on for a couple of years.
Luke and Leia have another one of those silent conversations, and Anakin wonders if this is how Padmé feels when he and Obi-Wan confer in the Force, excluded and unhappy about it. The currents swirling around them feel angry and resentful, with a tinge of mourning, and Anakin realizes why.
"I died, didn't I? In the war, I mean. Before you were born." He's always had the feeling he wasn't going to make it out of the war alive.
"If only," Leia mutters, but she's holstered her blaster and crossed her arms over her chest. It makes her look even smaller. He can only imagine how many times she's been underestimated because of it. It's one of Padmé's best weapons. But she also looks vulnerable, and that makes his chest ache.
"Obviously you hate me for some reason, which I probably would understand, even if it's not good for a Jedi to hate--"
"I am not a Jedi," Leia says, enunciating each word precisely.
"I can tell," he responds without missing a beat, "because you might look just like your mother, but personality-wise, you're too much like me."
Leia's mouth opens and closes in outrage. "I am nothing like you."
"Our mother?" Luke says, sad and wondering. It stops Leia's tirade in its tracks; it was probably calculated to do so. Anakin can't tell if that's Padmé's or Obi-Wan's influence, but their fingerprints are all over this kid. His kid. It figures.
"Do you not...know who she is?" Anakin asks after the silence has become uncomfortable. "Did she die?"
"Yes," Leia says, "and you--"
"Leia!" Luke's voice cracks like thunder.
She snaps her mouth shut and turns away. "Fine," she says, the fire gone out of her voice. She waves a hand dismissively. "Protect the timeline."
"I don't want to wink out of existence because we couldn't keep our mouths closed," Luke says reasonably. He offers Anakin a canteen and Anakin drinks gratefully, then wipes the excess water away with his sleeve. Which just gets more sand on his face. He sighs in resignation and offers the canteen to Leia, who takes it but doesn't drink.
"Not even to save her? Or Alderaan?" The bitterness in her tone sparks familiarity in Anakin's heart.
"I couldn't save my mother either," he offers softly. "The Tuskens--"
"I know," Luke says, putting his left hand on Anakin's arm. "Aunt Beru told me."
Beru didn't know the whole of it, and Anakin wants to keep it that way, doesn't want to talk about it any further, not even with his kids. Maybe especially not with his kids. They don't need to know all the ways he's screwed things up. And he must have screwed up massively if Owen and Beru raised his kids.
He's still trying to wrap his head around the fact that they exist. He and Padmé have always been careful; they're in the middle of fighting a war for kriff's sake. But he's also aware that the Force has taken an active role in his life before (he's still not sure he believes it caused his conception, but he's also not sure it didn't). Obi-Wan must have had kittens when he'd found out, but he must have been great with them, he and Ahsoka both.
"Just finding out about you has probably compromised the timeline," he finally says.
Leia's fear spikes in the Force before she leashes it, and Luke wraps an arm around her shoulders. "Hopefully for the better," Luke replies.
Anakin doesn't know if his daughter is terrified of him or of changing the timeline, and he'd prefer not to find out--he's pretty sure it doesn't reflect well on him. Instead, he looks around at the downed cruiser they're standing in. "The Separatists win?"
"No," Leia says, after swallowing a mouthful of water and handing Luke back his canteen. She's much calmer now, all her fires banked and smoldering. "Nobody won except the Emperor. It's taken us more than twenty years to undo his victory, and some things can never be undone."
"There must be something you can tell me to prevent that from happening."
They exchange a long look, and then Leia takes a deep breath and says, "Pay attention to the clones. There's something--we don't know how or why, but the clones turned on the Jedi not too long after the Battle of Coruscant."
Anakin aches with every fiber of his being to deny what she's saying, but he can feel the truth of it in the Force. "I--I'll look into it," he promises. The thought of the fighting coming to Coruscant, that even the very heart of the Republic isn't safe, and that the clones specifically bred to be their allies betrayed them, chills him to the bone.
"We can't stay here much longer," Luke says apologetically. "We have to meet our transport and get out of here before the Imperials come looking for their lost patrol. Do you remember what you did to get here?"
"I walked through the circle of stones," Anakin says. "Obi-Wan told me to go around but I," he looks down and laughs sheepishly, "I didn't pay attention."
Luke nods. "Okay, let's go back and drop you off. If walking into the circle doesn't send you back, we'll just have to take you with us and figure it out later."
"What? No," Leia protests.
"I thought you wanted to keep an eye on me," Anakin says wryly.
She sniffs disdainfully, as regal as Padmé ever was as queen. "Fine." At least this time, she leaves her blaster holstered.
*
The ride back is equally short and loud, which is irritating, because Anakin would like to make the most of his time with his kids, even if doing more than exchanging pleasantries (or threats, in Leia's case) could destroy the space-time continuum. It's a risk he's more than willing to take.
They arrive back at the stone circle and he says, "Are you sure there isn't anything you can tell me? Something small that won't ruin the timeline?"
Luke gives him a sad smile. "He'll never tell you, and you probably wouldn't believe him if he did, but Obi-Wan does love you. You're his best friend, even if it doesn't feel like it sometimes."
Anakin sucks in a surprised breath, but he can feel the truth of Luke's words in the Force. "I would like to hear him say it," he admits softly, "though it would probably cause both of us to pass out from the shock." He steps forward, arms open, and Luke moves easily into his embrace. Anakin hugs him tightly, breathes in the scent of his hair, and then steps back. "Whatever else has happened," he says, "I'm proud of you, Luke."
Luke beams at him, teary-eyed, and gives him a small nod of respect in return.
Leia raises an eyebrow, and Anakin has to laugh. "I'm not foolish enough to ask you for a hug, Leia, but whatever I did to make you hate me so much, I--" he pauses, and considers his words, how facile and false most of his apologies are, and can't bring himself to offer her more of the same. "I probably deserve it, and I truly am sorry about that." He lets his sense of chastened regret flood the Force , and she gasps in response. "Can we at least shake on it?"
She takes his offered hand between hers, as small and lovely as her mother's, and says, "It's Palpatine."
"What?"
"Palpatine is the Sith Lord. Don't trust him."
Anakin reels back from the way the truth of her statement rings in the Force, but she doesn't let go of his hand. "What?" he repeats dumbly.
She looks up at him, her gaze liquid and beseeching; her resemblance to Padmé makes him want to do whatever she asks.
"He played both sides against the middle to bring down the Jedi and the Republic. We've never been able to prove it, but my father," he flinches at that, since she so clearly doesn't mean him, and she bites her lip and for the first time shows him the smallest of mercies as she continues, "Bail Organa told me the truth. He was there, he saw it all happen." She tightens her hands on his. "Palpatine killed Senator Amidala." Luke gives her a sharp look at that, and she smiles thinly; it doesn't reach her eyes. "From a certain point of view."
"I--He's my friend," Anakin manages, aware of how ridiculous that sounds and yet unable to come up with any other argument against the truth that she's telling him.
"No," Leia says inexorably, "he's not."
"Now that Leia's completely karked the timeline, maybe you should go," Luke says ruefully. "Before we really do blink out of existence."
Leia raises her chin defiantly. "I'm willing to take that chance."
Luke smiles at her. "I know." He looks at Anakin. "She's the brave one."
Anakin nods. "Just like your mother." He swallows hard against the sudden tightness in his throat. "I can't promise things will be better," he says hoarsely, "but hopefully I can't make them any worse."
"Oh, stars, don't say things like that," Leia says with a choked-off laugh. "Now go, and try not to screw it all up this time."
He folds his hands together and bows to them both, and then steps into the ring of stones.
*
Anakin wakes with a terrible headache and a mouth that tastes like sand. He's covered in the stuff and he grumbles about it as he starts to dust himself off, and then he remembers where he was and who he met there. He'd like to dismiss it as a vision, or even a hallucination brought on by dehydration--he really needs another drink of water--but it feels real and he's always trusted his feelings.
He vows to his unborn children that he'll do better this time, and drags himself back to his ship. Artoo burbles loudly, asking if he ran into trouble picking up the datachips he came to this Force-forsaken rock to get.
"What makes you say that?" he asks, wondering if Artoo's sensors picked up the strange concentration of the Force in the stone circle. Artoo reminds him that his tabards weren't singed by blaster fire when he left the ship and he nods. "Right, yeah. Some guys on speeder bikes," he says, fingering the ragged edges of the material, the proof that he really did visit the future and meet his kids. "They won't be a problem anymore. I have the chips." Not that they matter now, in the face of everything he's learned.
He needs to see Padmé, to speak with Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, to come up with a strategy to take down the Chancellor. He's never been the best at big-picture planning--that's what Obi-Wan is for--but his mind races with thoughts and ideas. He swings up into the cockpit and says, "Let's go home, Artoo. We have a lot of work to do."
end
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