11/23 (city streets) - Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Padmé Amidala. WHO: Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Padmé Amidala WHERE: city streets WHEN: November 23th, afternoon WHAT: Luke trying to get his bearings RATING: PG-13 STATUS: COMPLETE
Stumbling as he found that his next step went a bit further down than he'd expected, Luke caught himself on the wall, fighting back the sudden wave of sickness that assaulted his senses. Cilghal had ordered him to stay in bed and regain his strength, but Luke had never been particularly good at being idle. He was beginning to think, though, that perhaps he should have listened---he could no longer feel the presences of his students. Indeed, a million voices were suddenly crowding into his head, all demanding to be heard. With a shuddering sigh, he pulled up the dredges of his shields, and opened his eyes.
What in the two suns---?
He wasn't even in the Praxeum anymore. He was in a city; a large, sprawling, entirely-unfamiliar city surrounded by what seemed to be exclusively humans. --Judging from some of the thoughts he'd gotten, however, he had to assume that there were.. other beings out there somewhere.
Pushing off from the wall (red brick, not stone) he'd leaned on, Luke pressed fingers to his brow, taking a few more hesitant steps onto the sidewalk. Where was he? How had he gotten there? He'd just been in the temple. It had been scant hours since-- since Exar Kun had been defeated. The thought of the ancient Sith Lord still brought horrified chills to Luke's skin.
What was he going to do, now? senator PADMÉ AMIDALA
The meeting had gone well, all things considered. Just as Padmé had expected it to go, really. After all, it was obvious the firm was trying to earn her trust and the quickest way to do so was to have everyone on their best behavior. She had a feeling, though, now that the contracts had been signed and a deal had been reached, that she was going to start seeing a darker side to her new employers. It was only a matter of time.
Needing to get away from it all, she had quietly told Anakin she was going out for some fresh air and slipped out the doors without much preamble. She didn't stray too far but she did get far enough down the street that she couldn't still feel the pull of Wolfram and Hart. There was something about that place - the very building itself - that made her uneasy. Fortunately, the more distance she put between herself and the structure, the better she began to feel.
Making her way around a corner, she wasn't watching where she was going and very nearly ran into someone. "Oh, my apologies!" she exclaimed immediately, one arm going out to help steady him. A glance at his face told her that he didn't look right and her brow furrowed, concern replacing her faint embarrassment. "Are you feeling all right?" she questioned softly. "You look as though you might be ill." firstofthenew LUKE SKYWALKER
"I'm fine, thank you," was the near-immediate, polite response, and Luke straightened to try to look 'fine'. "I'm just a bit-- lost." He reached up, rubbing a hand against his eyes. "Could you tell me what.. what planet this is?" That sounded terrible, didn't it? As if he'd gotten drunk and passed out on board a completely random ship.
He glanced up at the stranger, offering a somewhat embarrassed smile, face still pale beneath the shaggy blond strands of his hair. --And then he blinked. Something.. about her seemed so terribly familiar. She reminded him of someone. Like-- like Leia, maybe.
"Ah-- I'm sorry," he added, taking a shaky breath. "Do I know you?" senator PADMÉ AMIDALA
The question caught her off-guard, although not in a bad way. It was almost as though she had meant to run into him. This was to be her new occupation, after all. Helping explain things to those who needed an explanation. She smiled.
"You're on Earth," she answered, the name still sounding strange to her. Taking a good look at him, at what he was wearing, Padmé went still at the sight of his lightsaber. He wasn't just not from here, he was from the same galaxy she was from. Slowly she raised her gaze back to his face. He was a Jedi. Yet she didn't know him. Odd.
"I don't believe we've ever met, no," she replied, although he did seem familiar in a way she couldn't quite place. "My name is Padmé Naberrie. Might I ask of yours?" she finally questioned. firstofthenew LUKE SKYWALKER
Catching the glance toward his lightsaber, Luke offered a reassuring smile, fingers moving to lightly cover it. "Luke Skywalker," he responded, offering his free hand. "I guess you already know that I'm a Jedi."
It seemed strange, in a way. Even though he knew he was fairly well-known as a war hero, he still--- didn't quite expect to be known on this.. Earth. Something told him that getting back to Yavin IV wouldn't be as easy as finding a ship to take him there. sithlord ANAKIN SKYWALKER
Anakin had stayed behind at Wolfram & Hart for a while, talking - well, threatening, mostly - to the lawyers and various other staff, explaining to them in detail just what would happen to them if any harm came to his wife. He kept a good lock on Padmé through the Force and was in mid-sentence when another very familiar presence assaulted his person.
In an instant, his lightsaber was out and activated as he whirled around and bolted out of the building, running down the street with Jedi speed until he reached his wife. He didn't stop at her, though, instead going for the young man who was physically older than him. Anakin grabbed him by his collar, lifted him up into the air and shoved him against the wall of the building he'd been standing next to.
He held him in place with both the Force and his own arm, holding the glowing blue blade of the lightsaber near the young man's throat. "Stop following me, boy," he bellowed in that Vader-like voice. "It's becoming a dreadful habit of your's. One that I find to be rather bothersome." senator PADMÉ AMIDALA
Padmé hadn't even had a chance to wrap her mind around the name he'd given her - Luke Skywalker - when her husband was suddenly there and was attacking him. "Ani!" she exclaimed, covering the distance between them and coming to stand beside him. "No! Stop it!"
Horrified, she looked to Luke, glad at least to see he wasn't injured. She then turned back to Anakin, her fear and shock giving way to anger. "Put him down!" she demanded in a furious tone. "He hasn't even done anything wrong." She wanted to grab him and force him away from Luke herself but she worried that doing so would only cause him to lash out even more.
Drawing in a breath and trying to find some sense of reasoning in the entire chain of events, she added in an imploring tone, "Please, let him go. He's our son and he wasn't following you. I ran into him." If he wouldn't listen to her now, she didn't know what she'd do. But she wouldn't let him hurt Luke. No matter what, she'd find a way to stop him. firstofthenew LUKE SKYWALKER
Honestly, Luke barely heard anything. He barely saw anything. The Dark Side energy surrounding him was physically painful, leaving him twitching and gasping against the brick, eyes squeezing shut against too-familiar feelings. As if he was breathing the Dark Side in, blackening his lungs, crushing him.
Exar Kun's presence had been like that. He'd been constantly there, and Luke had been.. so terribly helpless, sometimes.
And then, the Force signature was suddenly familiar, and Luke gave a silent, disbelieving shudder, eyes finally shooting open. "--Father?" he croaked, voice as hoarse as if he'd been screaming for hours. "How-- what--?"
He's our son.
Son? No.. no, it just wasn't possible. Anakin Skywalker had died with Darth Vader, and-- Luke had never known his mother at all. It.. couldn't be..
Gaze sliding toward the woman--familiar for a reason, now--desperate and a little wild, Luke lifted his hands to curl over Anakin's arm. However, he didn't bother trying to pull it away--- how could he? He couldn't.. lift a hand against the man. Never again. Not if.. he was real.
A second chance? Perhaps that's what this was. A second chance for his parents. sithlord ANAKIN SKYWALKER
Padmé's emotion-filled words and Luke's hands against the flesh of his arm made Anakin flinch, almost as if he were snapping out of some sort of trance. Immediately he let go of both the boy and his lightsaber, the blade falling to the ground and rolling down the pavement until it stopped where it met the thick base of an electric pole. He stepped back, looking almost horrified, and whirled around, moving away from both his wife and son, and coming to sit down upon the curb a good foot or two from them.
Anakin put his head in his hands, closing his eyes tight, wishing for a brief moment that he still had that fierce, black helmet on. At least within it's confinement, he'd been able to hide what emotions he was still capable of feeling. And right now? He felt...confused. Enraged, torn, hurt, sad, bewildered...
It was one of those rare moments in life where Anakin had absolutely no clue as to what to do next. Oh, the dragon had some ideas, but at the moment, around her? No. Anakin refused to do any of that. She didn't need to see that side of him. Not again. senator PADMÉ AMIDALA
Padmé felt relief so strong that it nearly knocked her over when Anakin released Luke. Immediately her attention went to her son, then snapped back to her husband. She was torn who to approach first. Neither was truly injured and yet both needed her attention. Finally she turned to Luke with a small, sad smile upon her face. "Just a moment. Please, don't leave," she said quietly, studying his face, memorizing the features that, as his mother, she should have already known. How could she not have recognized him? What kind of mother didn't know their own child?
Refusing to allow herself to get swept up in her own self-doubts - there would be time for that later - Padmé next turned to Anakin. He looked so lost, so conflicted, that it made her want to weep for him. Instead, though, she approached him and paused when she was mere inches away.
"Thank you," she said softly, earnestly. She wanted to say something else but was unsure what, exactly, to say. So she simply settled for kneeling in front of him and gently raising his face until she could see it. His eyes were shut but that didn't stop her from brushing her lips against his lightly. "We aren't your enemy, Ani. Please try to remember that. I love you."
And then she released him and rose back to her feet, turning to the son that she'd never had the chance to know. The son that was now older than she was. Crossing to him, she gave him a smile, her eyes shining with emotion and unshed tears. "My dear Luke," she whispered. "Oh, I've missed you so."
She wanted to hug him, wanted to reassure herself that he was really there, in front of her. But she didn't want to force anything upon him that he didn't want, either. So she instead waited for him to reply, part of her terrified that he would rage at her then leave... and part of her terrified that he would stay. firstofthenew LUKE SKYWALKER
Having pretty much fallen where his father had dropped him, Luke was still in the process of trying to work through the rather irrational terror that was still leaving his breathing short and his vision gray around the edges. --He was, however, doing a remarkably good job of pretending everything was all right. He'd gotten rather good at it, honestly.
Having risen and dusted himself off, hands shaking only a bit, Luke glanced up as his name was spoken, blue eyes still slightly wild and vaguely defensive.
"Ma'am, I--" He caught himself, taking a rasping breath, before trying again. "I-- I mean.. Mother--" It sounded so foreign. It was a title he'd never used before, at least not in relation to himself. His aunt and uncle had never pretended to be his parents, after all, and he'd never known anyone else.. He knew what a mother was supposed to be--he'd known his friends' parents back on Tatooine--but.. it just.. didn't relate to him. He'd had a hard enough time just learning 'Father'.
He gripped his hands until his real one was white-knuckled, face a pale mask, eyes flickering between the woman who'd claimed to be his mother and--- his father. His father as he must have been before he'd been forced to wear the suit and mask of Darth Vader.
"I'm sorry," he managed after a moment of bewildered silence. "I really-- I don't know what I'm doing here. I was just on Yavin IV." sithlord ANAKIN SKYWALKER
Anakin sighed in slight protest when her lips fleetingly touched his and she drew away, feeling a slight pang of jealousy at being ignored for the boy. However, when he caught sight of the look in her eyes...he couldn't bring himself to protest. He just...couldn't. Luke, no matter how much Anakin...hated? Did he hate the boy? He didn't know, but the point was, not matter what Anakin felt towards him, he was still his son. Her son. He'd saved him from Palpatine's wrath because of that very fact, hadn't he?
He stood then, moving back to stand next to his wife, a bit protectively, even though what was left of the logical part of his brain told him that Luke would never harm his mother.
"Yavin IV?" He echoed, summoning his lightsaber back to him and hooking it on his belt, then crossing his arms over his chest and raising the eyebrow with the scar running through it at the boy. "Why in the name of crushing black holes would you go back there? It must be littered in debris by now." senator PADMÉ AMIDALA
"None of us know why, or how, we came to be here," Padmé replied, some part of her feeling compelled to at least try to ease her son's obvious confusion. She couldn't make him comfortable with calling her 'mother' (and really, didn't mind if he called her Padmé as long as he was at least willing to speak to her) and she couldn't help him get back home. The most she could do was tell him what she knew and hope it gave him some sort of peace until a better option came along.
"There has yet to be an explanation given, although there are some who claim to be working to find an answer." Claim, of course, because she still didn't fully trust her new employers or half of what they said.
Grateful when Anakin returned to her side, she glanced at him as he spoke, then looked to Luke. She wasn't sure what they were talking about and assumed it must have been something that had taken place after she had died. That was such a strange thing to think. After her death, yet here she was very much alive and without a single gap in her memory to show that any time had passed from the moment she had ceased to exist there, and begun to exist here. firstofthenew LUKE SKYWALKER
Still seeming a bit lost, Luke shook his head, slowly regaining a bit of his colour. "It's where the Praxeum is," he explained to his father, flattening his palms against his pantslegs to hide the slight, weak shake. He wasn't by any means at full capacity. Not after so much time separated from his body.
His eyes were drawn, helplessly, between his parents, as if he still couldn't quite believe they were there. --As his mother explained, Luke remained silent, trying to sort through his feelings on the matter. And then, he came to the only conclusion he could:
"I'm still trapped, aren't I?" he wondered despairingly, knees buckling beneath him and sending him against the wall to support himself. "It's another of Exar Kun's tricks." His gaze flickered upward, as if searching for some sign that it was all false. "I have to admit, he's gotten good at this. He knows just what to do and say to pick me apart." sithlord ANAKIN SKYWALKER
Anakin's eyes narrowed slightly at the boy's assumption, recognizing that name. Exar Kun. Yes, that was one of the ancient Sith Lords that Palpatine spoke of. But to Anakin's knowledge, Exar Kun hadn't been alive for centuries. Still, he felt a pang of...what was it, parental concern or protectiveness? He didn't know. But it was similar to that feeling he'd gotten right before he'd died, when Palpatine was just about the finish the boy off.
"Exar Kun's not here," he stated matter-of-factly. "I'd know if he were." And then, a bit more quietly, not really wanting to say it in front of Padmé: "...what you're feeling is probably me." senator PADMÉ AMIDALA
He thought they were a trick. An illusion. Unlike with Anakin, Padmé didn't know how to convince him otherwise. She didn't know anything about Luke besides his name and, clearly, he was a Jedi like his father. That was it. She couldn't do anything to change his mind, really, though she had to try.
"This isn't a trick," she stated firmly, refusing to react to what Anakin had said. She wasn't stupid. She could sense the darkness within him, had sensed it back on Mustafar. It hurt her to admit it, but she knew it was still there. She just held onto the hope that the man she'd fallen in love with would someday emerge victorious from the battle raging within him.
She stepped forward, then, closer to Luke. "We're real. This is all real, Luke. I know it doesn't make sense but that doesn't change the fact that it's true," she stated, her eyes pleading with him to believe her. She doubted her words would work, though. They hadn't worked with Anakin. It had taken action. Unfortunately, there was no real action she could take when it came to her son.
Helpless, she looked to her husband, hoping that somehow he might be able to do something else. Something more. Clearly, she was lost. firstofthenew LUKE SKYWALKER
Flinching as Padmé drew nearer, Luke seemed to realise that he did it and bit his lip, straightening again and taking a calming breath. "I'm sorry, I know that-- you probably are real, and really, Exar Kun must be gone, but you have to understand--" He shook his head, still looking a little white-faced. "This is.. this is very like him, to do something like this. He's good at it. He.. enjoys it." And the situation really was terribly surreal.
So surreal, perhaps, that it couldn't be anything but reality. He hoped so, at least.
He wasn't sure if he could bear to have the ancient Sith Lord push through his mind again. It had nearly killed him last time.
"Have.. the two of you been here long?" He was making an effort, he really was, but it was so hard to talk to them. To even look at them, not knowing if they were real. He wouldn't be able to bear it if they were ripped away from him. sithlord ANAKIN SKYWALKER
Anakin could've hit the boy for disbelieving Padmé's words. She was not a lier like he was, she was one of the most honest and trustworthy people in the galaxy. He could feel how tormented she was through their bond and it was taking all of his willpower not to strike out against the boy like old times.
Old times that he didn't want Padmé to know about. Ever. But, he might just have to evoke something from said old times to convince the boy they were real. What could he--
"Tell your sister," he said to Luke, looking the boy straight in the eyes, "you were right." senator PADMÉ AMIDALA
Up until that point, some part of Padmé had clung to the hope that Anakin had only really known who Luke was through the Force. When he hadn't answered her question about their children the night before, she had assumed he didn't know them. It was only now, when he made the comment about Leia, who had yet to even come up in conversation, that she realized he had known them in some fashion. Known them well enough to have a conversation with one child, in regards to another, that had clearly taken place at some point in the twenty-three years since she had died.
That, perhaps, hurt most of all. The fact that he would keep something from her in regards to their own children was like a knife to her heart. She sucked in a sharp breath and stepped back, away from Luke yes, but especially away from Anakin. She couldn't think about this right now. She needed to focus on Luke. So she did her best to ignore the pain - even if it was making it hard for her to even breathe - and focused on her son, willing him to understand and believe whatever it was that his father had alluded toward. firstofthenew LUKE SKYWALKER
Oh. Oh-- No, it couldn't possibly be Exar Kun. It couldn't. That memory, hearing his father's voice, seeing him, looking into his eyes--- it was one of the most treasured, protected memories he had. It was locked down so tightly in his mind that no one would be able to take it from him. Not even Exar Kun.
This, then-- everything. It was real.
Expelling a short, sobbing breath, Luke closed his eyes, fingers curling in the fabric against his chest. "You're both real. Oh Force. You're real." Real.
His eyes were snapping back open, then, and he took a hesitant step forward, a hand lifting to hover just inches away from his mother's face, as if he wanted to touch her, but wasn't certain if it was allowed. --With a desperate, pleading glance to his father, he finally enveloped the dark-haired woman in a hug. sithlord ANAKIN SKYWALKER
Anakin wasn't really focused on Luke anymore. While he'd succeeded in convincing the boy that they were real by the only means he saw short of smacking him, he'd also let out a blip that had made an answer to a question she'd asked him last night void. He'd mentioned Leia, thus proving to Padmé that he had indeed known their children. He could feel her anger towards him, her disappointment, and felt like hitting himself. He'd gotten her child to believe she was real, hadn't he?
He let out a long sigh as Luke looked to him pleadingly, nodding, though unsure of why he had to give the boy permission to hug the mother who had wanted to embrace him moments before.
Watching as son and mother embraced, he reached out to the former through the Force, probing the boy's mind and telling him: Do not speak to her of anything that's happened in regards to the relationship between you, myself, or your sister. She is not ready to hear about any of that, about what I've done...
He then drew his mind back, turning away and going to stand by the street, pretending to be very interested in how the traffic light that hung above his head worked. senator PADMÉ AMIDALA
A sound that was a mixture of a laugh and a sob sounded from Padmé as Luke finally hugged her. She had been so convinced that he would hate her for having left him and his sister. A part of her hated herself for having done so. She should have fought harder, should have listened to Obi-Wan. But she'd been so convinced that Anakin was lost to her, if not dead than turned to the Dark Side with no chance of returning, and it had hurt so much...
None of that mattered now, though. Even her anger at her husband for having essentially lied to her about knowing their children dissipated at that embrace. Her eyes slid closed and she wrapped her own arms around Luke, clinging tightly to the man that had once been the beautiful baby she'd tried to touch upon her death bed.
"Oh, my boy," she murmured against the fabric of his clothing. "My dear, sweet boy." She pulled back, just enough to peer up at him with a tearful smile. Slowly she raised one trembling hand to his forehead, fingertips brushing against his skin and tracing a soft, gentle line down his cheek.
"I'm so very, truly sorry, Luke," she whispered almost inaudibly. "I should never have left you." Rising up on her toes she pressed a soft kiss to the cheek she'd just touched and hugged him once more before slowly, almost reluctantly, releasing him. Wiping at her eyes she half-turned, seeking out Anakin and finding him near the street.
"Oh, Ani," she murmured. She was still upset with him but Padmé never could stay angry with him for long. He tried, so hard, that she could hardly fault him for not getting it right once in a while. Contrary to what others may think, he was only human. firstofthenew LUKE SKYWALKER
Luke would have reassured his father, but really, he knew very well that it wasn't his place to say anything to his mother. Indeed, it was up to Anakin himself to make peace with his past, and what he told Padmé was also strictly up to him. It had been.. years, after all, for Luke, and he had never blamed his father for what he'd done. Perhaps Luke forgave too easily, too quickly, but it was simply who he was.
"Things were complicated, Mother," he offered after a moment, tasting the word again and smiling a bit foolishly at it. And then he sobered again, giving her a gentle, affectionate look. "--You shouldn't apologise, anyway. It wasn't your fault." sithlord ANAKIN SKYWALKER
"It was mine," Anakin found himself answering, looking down and balling his gloved hand into a fist as flashes of him choking Padmé on Mustafar filtered through his damaged mind.
He heard his wife's sympathetic voice, but did not want to listen to it right now, so he merely cast a glance, then looked back down, torn between taking off and staying glue to the spot he was.
So weak, the dragon in his mind taunted. So, so very weak... senator PADMÉ AMIDALA
"It was not!" Padmé objected, giving Anakin a look that was a mixture of horror and dismay before fading into a slightly heartbroken expression. She wanted to ask him to join them, plead with him to at least try, but she knew her request would be futile. If Anakin didn't want to be a part of this, he wouldn't be. She could ask and he might oblige, but he wouldn't have any desire on his own and that, ultimately, was what she hoped for. So instead she glanced toward Luke, almost in the faint hope he might somehow help but also just because of the fact that she could look at him.
Her expression turned into a smile that was filled with nothing but the purest of love as she looked upon her son. She'd never had a chance to truly bond with her children after they were born but that didn't mean the maternal instinct wasn't strong within her. They were a part of her, a very representation of the love she and Anakin shared, and the happiness she felt at finally being near one of them was nearly enough to steal her breath away.
"It doesn't matter anymore," she decided, even though she didn't agree with Anakin and never would. If anyone was to blame for her death, it was her. She was the one who had given up, who had simply lost the will to live a moment longer. She'd spent nearly all of her life fighting and, when it had mattered the most, she had simply surrendered.
Reaching for Luke again, she gently took one of his hands within both of hers. It was warm beneath her touch. Warm and strong and so very real. "I'm here now and I'm not going anywhere," she said with certainty before giving a gentle squeeze of his hand and releasing him once more. firstofthenew LUKE SKYWALKER
Carefully curling his artificial hand and moving it away from her sight (it looked fairly normal, but then-- some people could just tell about it), Luke gave her a brilliant smile, though the look in his eyes was faintly troubled as they slid toward his father, who still had his back turned toward them.
"--Father," he breathed, his own heart breaking at the obvious pain the man known as Darth Vader was feeling. She doesn't blame you, you know. How could she? She loves you. He hesitated, giving Padmé a soft, distracted, reassuring smile, before stepping around her and moving to brush fingers carefully against his father's real arm. For what little it may or may not mean, so do I. It wasn't a lie, and it hasn't changed.
It never would, either. No matter what his father did, no matter his.. sins, Luke would always, always forgive him for it. If not Anakin's family, then who would? sithlord ANAKIN SKYWALKER
Don't you think I know that, boy? Anakin pulled away from his grasp, giving Luke a look and shaking his head, coming to stand in between his son and wife. He balled a fist, whirling around to face Luke once again.
I don't understand why you insist on forgiving me for what I did to you and your sister. I cut off your HAND! How can you forgive something like that? I do not deserve forgiveness. You have barely begun to understand the brunt of the horrors I've committed. senator PADMÉ AMIDALA
Padmé may not know of the Jedi ability to communicate telepathically through the Force, but she was hardly an idiot. She knew her husband well enough to know when he was having a conversation with someone, even if no actual words were being spoken. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't slightly annoyed at the fact that it was taking place right in front of her, too. So she decided to do something about it, rather than let that annoyance turn into downright anger.
"Stop it," she announced in a flat, hard tone, pinning both father and son with the same look. "Whatever it is you're doing without my being aware, stop it. If you can't say it in front of me, then kindly save it for a time when I'm not present." firstofthenew LUKE SKYWALKER
You're my father, was Luke's response, simple, uncomplicated, and loving. How could I not forgive you?
His mother's voice, however, brought his eyes toward her, and he offered a quiet, apologetic glance. "I'm sorry," he said softly, "it's not that you're meant to be left out-- it's just that it's.. easier to communicate this way." He smiled, the expression fragile and worried. "It's.. you can't really lie, mind-to-mind. You can feel the difference. And--" He glanced back at his father. "I think-- I think that Father needs to know that nothing I tell him is a lie." sithlord ANAKIN SKYWALKER
Anakin nodded in agreement, even though he was very reluctant to do so. The Vader side of him hated admitting that the boy was right, but all too often, he was. Luke was living proof of the person Anakin could've been if he hadn't screwed up, if he'd just listened to Obi-Wan and not taken Palpatine's twisted advice. Anakin didn't hate Luke, no...he was more jealous of the boy than anything. He was supposed to be the greatest Jedi whoever lived, not a viscious murder and oppresser.
We'll talk more about this later, Anakin told his son, breaking off the connection and turning towards his wife.
"I'm sorry," he told her. "There are just some things I'm not ready to discuss with you yet."
And that was the honest truth. senator PADMÉ AMIDALA
Padmé may not like the fact that Anakin didn't want to discuss things with her but apparently felt perfectly fine discussing them with a son that she hardly knew and that he had deliberately misled her about knowing, but she was also grateful he was at least honest enough to admit such a thing to her. Still she couldn't help but be worried. Shutting her out had helped lead to their downfall before. She didn't want to see it happen again, and could only hope Anakin would have learned enough of a lesson to not allow history to repeat itself once more.
That wasn't something to fret about at the moment, however. She didn't want her reunion with her son tainted by her own fears and concerns. So she simply offered a smile to them both and decided to deal with the rest at another point in time.
"It's all right," she assured them both. "At least you feel the need to explain." Which would have to be good enough, for now.
Her gaze seeking out Luke once more, scarcely able to believe he was truly there, she smiled that same sweet, tender smile from before. "So tell me," she spoke after a moment, wanting at least a few answers to things he was willing to part with, "what have you been doing with yourself?" firstofthenew LUKE SKYWALKER
Giving his father a quietly-apologetic look, Luke offered his mother a smile. He was a bit uncertain of how much to tell her, though. "I'm-- well, I'm working on gathering Force-sensitives again to train. A.. a new generation of Jedi, I suppose, now that it's.. safe for us to exist." He reached up, pushing his hair away from his face a bit nervously. "Leia is the president of the New Republic, by the way. She has three children. They're all-- amazing. I spoil them a lot." His smile turned faintly embarrassed, and he rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. "I'm not really sure what else to say."
There was a lot of information that he could give her, but most of it pertained to being in dangerous situations and nearly getting himself killed. And he rather doubted that any mother wanted to hear those sorts of things. sithlord ANAKIN SKYWALKER
It was no surprise to Anakin that Leia had become president of the restored Republic. While the girl had his temper, she had her mother's talent for diplomacy. She'd been in politics when Anakin had first encountered her. So young, taking Bail Organa's place in the Senate, but she had, admittedly, held her own pretty well.
Wait. She had...kids? Anakin felt anger wash over him and he balled his flesh hand into a fist.
Padmé couldn't help the proud smile that filled her face at Luke's words. She had questions about some of what he'd said but something told her not to ask them. If he had skimmed over parts and seemed hesitant, she trusted he had a good reason. So instead she focused on everything else.
Her son was training other Force-sensitives and her daughter was president of the New Republic. Truly, better lives for her children she doubted she could have chosen herself. Even if she knew they came with dangers that she, as their mother, didn't feel entirely comfortable with. Still, it wasn't as though Padmé had any room to talk about avoiding situations just due to the danger of it. And while she was a lot of things, hypocritical was not one of them.
"Kids?" she echoed after a second. She was a grandmother? That... was a lot to take in, although her smile grew rather than falter. The family she had wanted to desperately had come to pass even if she hadn't been there to see it happen. "I'm certain they're wonderful."
A light frown marred her features, although it was one born of confusion rather than anger as she looked first to Anakin, then to Luke. "Solo?" she questioned.