POV: Ahsoka Skywalker

I woke up to the feeling of soft sheets and warm skin. I sighed when I heard Anakin's soft snores. I was happy to be in bed with him. Being alone in the medical ward had seriously depressed me…

I opened my eyes to see his faces inches away from mine. His warm breath blew against my face. I lifted my hand and rubbed beneath his eyes where dark bags were beginning to form. The poor man hardly gets enough sleep. I moved my hand down to his lips. I slid two of my fingers between his lips and he locked them in place. He inhaled slowly and began to shift.

I watched him stretch and felt him kick me accidentally. He licked my fingers twice before opening his mouth and eyes. "Good morning," he whispered, his voice rough with sleep.

"Good morning," I replied, smiling. I scooted closer to him, cuddling up against him. "When did you come get me, love?"

"Late last night. Satine gave Obi-Wan and me quite the scare. She had a massive nightmare. She let me see it, though she wasn't all that willing. I could understand completely why she'd reacted the way she did…"

"I'm sorry, Ani." I rubbed beneath his left eye. "Were you up really late then?"

He scooted down my body and rested his head on my chest. I ran my fingers through his hair and smiled down at him. "As soon as I got Satine to calm down, I went to get you. I'd just finished tucking you in as Cayden woke up. Once I got him back to sleep, Shmi wanted to spar with me in the training room."

"How long did all of this take?" I asked, concerned. I held his face with my right hand and rubbed his bare back with my left.

"Two hours for Satine, two hours for Cayden, three hours for Shmi. After that, Obi-Wan decided that he wanted to talk to me for an hour. He didn't know that I hadn't gotten any sleep, but he needed someone to talk to. I took a shower after that and finally got to sleep about two hours ago…"

"You must be exhausted, love. Go back to sleep."

He draped his arm over my stomach and held my side tightly. "Don't leave me," he whispered, relaxing against me.

"Never in my life would I ever dream of leaving you."

We just laid there for another hour. He did get a bit of sleep, but he kept mumbling my name. I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. I rubbed his back, tracing over the embedded scars. I felt so bad about each and every one of them – reminders that I'd failed to save him in time. He had suffered so much.

And that brought me back to his death…

I closed my eyes and tears began to drip down my cheeks.

I felt his fingers clenching around my waist and he tilted his head to look up at me sleepily. "You actually stayed in bed? Love, I didn't mean to make you –"

"You didn't make me do anything. I wanted to stay with you. I like watching you sleep. You're just wonderful to sleep with because you're so loving…"

He smiled and I ran my fingers through his hair. "Thank you, Ahsoka. Thank you for everything you've given me."

"I love you more than anything. I gave you myself because I knew you were the one for me."

"I wish you'd been my first," he sighed. "Padme wasn't worth it…"

"If I had been your first, I would have been eleven!" I laughed.

"Wow. I am such a creep. You're almost ten years younger than me. How did we make this work?" he teased.

"Old man," I whispered. "I fell for you when you fell for me. What does that make me if you're a creep?"

He thought for a moment. "The creepess," he said, smirking.

"I love how you just make up these words."

"Some might call you a victim of my desperation for you, but I call you Ahsoka, my beautiful Togruta."

I thought back to the journal I'd found about three years ago. He'd written my name as it had been before we were married and as he imagined it would be if we fell in love. His beautiful handwriting had sketched Ahsoka Tano and Ahsoka Skywalker all over several pages.

I knew he was desperate now that I look back on how he'd acted in the first few months of our partnership as Master and Padawan. He'd lectured me many times after I'd almost gotten hurt. It was nice to be somewhat close to him though… We'd known each other for a few years prior to my assignment to him.

During those lectures, – usually very harsh ones – I would just wait patiently for him to stop talking. He told me a few times that he needed me to survive, playing it off as a joke that would close the conversation abruptly.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Us," I whispered, glancing down at him.

We both looked towards the kids as Shmi began to wake up. He pushed himself up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, yawning as he stretched his arms. "That was attractive," I teased.

He shrugged and I jumped up to landing on his back, wrapping my arms around his neck. He smiled and kissed my right arm.

"Daddy?" Shmi whispered, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

"Yes, baby?" Anakin whispered, his voice very gentle despite his exhaustion.

"Can we go train?"

Anakin sighed and lowered his head. "Yeah, let's go."

"Yay!" she squealed, waking the other two up. Kaimi sat up and looked at Shmi angrily. Cayden began to wail in his crib.

I scooted off of the bed before Anakin had the chance to stress himself out more. I held Cayden in my arms and rocked him gently.

"Get dressed, girls," Anakin whispered. Both of them jumped up, ran to their dressers, picked out an outfit, and dashed into the bathroom, locking the door. I smiled as Anakin leaned to the right and fell onto the mattress, lying on his side. He stared up at me, smiling.

"I love when you hold him."

"Why?" I laughed.

"It completes my family picture."

I walked over to him and sat in front of his stomach. His hands roamed over my legs for a few moments and he chuckled. "You're beautiful…"

He moved his hand to my hip and continued to smile up at me. I couldn't help but smile as he began to hum the tune of his mother's song. I shifted Cayden into one arm and touched Ani's hair with my free hand.

"Sweetheart, why don't you let me take care of the kids today?"

"I'm –"

"Exhausted," I interrupted, raising my left eye marking at him.

"Baby, I'm okay. I want to spend time with them."

I raised both eye marking. "Have I ever told you that you're not one to call me 'baby' unless you're trying to desperately convince me of something?"

"Seriously?" he asked, taken aback.

"Just lie down. I'll come get you in an hour."

"Ahsoka –"

The girls burst out of the refresher, smiles on their faces. I saw Anakin give me a very distraught look. "One hour, my love," I whispered.

"Can you fight in Djem So? Don't teach her Ataru. It's such a terrible stance…"

"Love, you taught me everything you know."

"Psh," he laughed, rolling his eyes. "You only know the half of it. Djem So is much simpler than whatever you think you're doing with a saber."

"Love, I know it looks awkward to you, but have I ever gotten hurt?"

"Yes."

"With my lightsaber?"

"Again, yes."

I kissed his cheek. "Girls, Daddy's really tired. I'm going to spend some time with you today."

"Yay!" they both squealed in unison.

Ani smiled at them and then up at me. I leaned down to give him another kiss. I loved how he always closed his eyes – regardless of the length. We shared several short kisses before separating. Our eyes opened at the same time and his loving smile took my breath away.

I rubbed his cheek. "I love you."

"Me, too." He shook his head. "You, I mean."

I giggled and rolled my eyes. "I knew what you meant. Go to sleep."

He nodded and slowly crawled across the bed to tuck himself in. I smiled at his back despite the scars.

Kaimi tugged on my shirt. "Mommy, can I stay with Daddy?"

"Baby, Daddy's –"

He rolled over and smiled at her. "You can stay kiddo."

I singlehandedly lifted Kaimi onto the bed and she crawled over to him, cuddling up with him. I smiled at them before beginning to leave with Cayden and Shmi.

"You can leave him here," he whispered from the bed. "Just put him in the crib."

"Sweetheart –" I began, sighing.

"You can't hold him and train Shmi at the same time."

He sat up and threw his legs over the side of the bed. He got up and walked over to me. "Leave him here," he whispered. His deep, blue eyes looked so beautiful and I couldn't reject his words. I sighed and gave in, moving to place Cayden in the crib.

Anakin's arms wound around me after I covered Cayden up. "I love you."

I looked over my shoulder and kissed him quickly. "Love you, too." I held his hands that rested above my stomach. "Go back to bed, Ani."

He kissed my left lek once before letting me go. I walked him over to the bed and kissed his neck once he lay down on his stomach. I pulled the blanket over his back and smiled at him. "Get some rest, love. Kaimi, be nice to your father. We'll be back later."

"Yes, Mommy," she whispered sleepily.

I ran my fingers through his hair for a few moments before leaving with Shmi.

Three hours later.

Shmi had exhausted me and time had flown by too quickly. She fought exactly like Anakin did during our sessions in the past.

We entered the bedroom and she went directly over to her bed and lay down. Kaimi was on my bed beneath the covers. Anakin was curled up on the floor beside Cayden's crib. As I moved closer to him, Cayden was asleep against Anakin's chest.

I lifted Cayden and put him into the crib. Afterwards, I tried to gently lift Anakin and drag him back to the bed. He woke up, startled, and immediately flipped forward to escape my grip.

He landed in a defensive stance, hands in front of him and legs bent a bit. "Oh, it's you," he sighed.

"Geez," I laughed. "A little jumpy, are we?"

He straightened him and walked over to me. "How was training?"

"Exhausting. I'll never understand how either of you fight like that. I'm sorry that I didn't come back for you. Time was –"

"I understand," he whispered, caressing my cheek. "The best way to win is to drain the energy of your opponent. I asked her which form she wanted to learn – and I did demonstrate each one. Ataru was the most complex for me and she didn't like it either."

"It's really easy."

"Says you."

"Come with me. They're all sleeping." He sighed and pulled his shirt into his hands, slipping it over his head. I took his hand, pulled his saber to my belt, and we ran to the closest training room.

I tossed his saber to him as he stood across the mat.

We both activated our sabers. "Okay, hold it like –" He immediately flipped his saber, holding it the way I would. "Just like that."

"I've seen you hold it before. It's just awkward to swing."

"Swing."

He was awkward with it. Normally, he'd never be caught swinging anywhere but through the air at his opponent. Now, he slashed into the mat unintentionally.

I chuckled and deactivated my saber. "Okay, love. First of all, you're tense and frustrated. You need to relax. Second, when have you ever seen me stand straight when I fight?"

I moved closer to him and grabbed his right arm, positioning it correctly. The rest of his body shifted to compensate for the new position. "See? It wasn't that hard," I teased him, smiling.

He rolled his eyes. "Unless you're me."

Once I perfected his stance, – which took a while because he started kissing me – I moved across the mat and stood as he did. "Mirror me."

I swung forward and he did the same. I completed several other motions and he was able to keep up with me. I took a step back and smiled widely. "I'm impressed, Master Jedi."

He cocked an eyebrow, smirking. "If you're impressed by that," he breathed, sweat dripping over his brow. "You'll be really impressed by this."

He stared at me without blinking and I was very confused. Within moments, my body began to move on its own. "What the –"

"It's me," he whispered. He kissed me quickly, caressing my lek in his flesh hand.

"You can make me move?"

"I've moved you since before we were married," he teased. I rolled my eyes as he kissed me again. "If I focus hard enough, I'm able to manipulate your limbs without a problem."

I kissed his jaw before backing up a bit. "Once again, you've impressed me. Show me what I taught you, love."

"I recall being the one that taught you." He was just teasing me left and right today.

"You taught me everything but this."

I got into my stance and he mimicked me. He relaxed himself and bent his knees a bit, holding the saber backwards. He did look a bit better and more comfortable, which was nice.

He spun around – pulling a Djem So move – and swung with a lot of force. We began to go back and forth, testing each other's limits. I felt his exhilaration as he was able to connect blows with my lightsaber.

After a few minutes, he dropped his saber and clutched his head. I threw my saber to the floor and stepped forward to catch him as he began to tip towards me. "Ani, what's wrong?" I asked quickly, lowering him to the floor.

His eyes were glazed over and looked distant. From that look, I assumed he was having a premonition. I wasn't able to see into his thoughts for some reason.

I heard him gasp quietly once and then it turned into a bloodcurdling scream. He sounded like he was in so much pain. His back arched in my lap and I didn't know what to do. I held him tightly, fear seeping into every bit of my being.

After a few minutes of enduring his tormented scream, he went limp. "Anakin!" I screamed.

His breath had ceased and coolness began to rise from his body. I hit my comlink quickly, assuming that I would go into shock and depression soon enough. "Obi-Wan!" I shouted into the device. "I need you in training room four-A immediately!"

"I'm on my way."

Several moments later, Obi-Wan burst through the door and ran to me. He knelt beside me as I shifted Anakin's body. "What happened?"

By this point, I was completely in tears. This was the second time he'd died in my arms, but I didn't understand what had happened this time. Obi-Wan touched his neck and gasped quietly. "Ahsoka…"

"I don't know what happened to him. We were messing around and sparring…" I trailed off. "He was in pain and then… this."

Anakin's eyes were closed as I held his head against my chest. His skin was cool and pale. "Come on, Ani…" I whispered, hoping beyond hope that something would bring him back again.

His back arched again and his eyes opened, a scream bursting through his lips. For a few moments, his eyes glowed a bright white coloring, but then they returned to their normal, beautiful blue shade. He rolled off of me quickly, holding himself up between Obi-Wan and me, and began to cough up blood.

Obi-Wan and I immediately grabbed him. I couldn't lose him a third time. "Ani, what happened?"

He looked directly at Obi-Wan, staring wide-eyed. "It's Anima."

A/N: Well, this is officially the end of Rising and Falling 3. I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it! The poll for Rising and Falling 4 will end on December 17th. Depending on the poll, the YouTube preview should be posted on the exact same day. Get your votes in soon! Thank you to all of the readers that have kept going with this series. You're all so inspiring and I absolutely love talking to you wonderful people!