XII

Hello everyone! Sorry for the superlong hiatus - I'm afraid acadamia has taken over my life. Anyway, midway through writing this I saw 'The Force Awakens' (squee!), so this does have some small elements from that. Nothing major, not really a spoiler, just a little about where the stormtroopers come from now that they aren't clones.

My son.

I have a… I have a son!

Padme will be so happy whe-

Must have been.

Padme must have been happy when she found out.

But who could it be?

It must be someone I've met, surely. But who would be the right age-

Luke…

Luke is my son...

Luke is my son!

That brave, selfless man?

My son?

After Ahsoka's outburst, Anakin appeared to have gone into a daze. He had simply sat heavily on the table and had let Ahsoka, still red with anger and embarrassment, patch him up. Leia had quickly left to warn Luke, mumbling a cursory excuse, but neither of them seemed to notice. They both seemed so wrapped up in their own worlds, it was surprising that they still remembered to breathe.

A long, heavy silence.

Ahsoka finished bandaging the wound and knelt to pick up the two halves of Anakin's tunic.

"Ahsoka, I-"

"Anakin-"

They both fell silent again.

Then Ahsoka offered a sheepish smile.

"Sorry about your tunic?" she offered, taking a blanket from a cupboard.

Anakin shrugged and wrapped it around his shoulders. "It's fine."

"… Black never really suited you anyway."

"….."

"…"

"…"

"….."

"So…"

"So."

"A son huh?"

"Yup."

"Who-?"

"Um.. I'm not sure if I can actually tell you hi-"

"It's Luke, isn't it?"

"How did you...?"

Anakin sighed deeply and ran a hand through his hair.

"You guys told me he lived with Owen and Beru. Where else would a son of mine go if I died?"

"Anakin…"

"Which must mean that Padme died in childbirth."

"Anakin -"

"But why would she just die? She's so strong and brave… She would have gone down fighting…. But why didn't I protect her? Unless - Unless I died first. Oh Force, I never even got to hold my own son…"

Anakin trailed off, voice trembling. Ahsoka put a comforting arm on his shoulder.

"Look, Anakin, no one knows how or why you were sent here. Maybe the whole point was for you to change the future, to stop the Empire from ever rising in the first place."

Maybe the future isn't set in stone. Maybe you won't be Darth Vader after all.

"Tell me more about him. Vader, I mean." asked Anakin.

For a second, Ahsoka almost thought he had read her mind. She fumbled for something to say, but Anakin continued, "Well, I guess you wouldn't know much about him… That's probably why you haven't tried to use his history against him."

"What?" Ahsoka exclaimed.

"Well, he's a monster, isn't he? If I knew where he came from or who his family was, I would use them against him! "

"Are you saying that you think its okay to hurt innocent people to get back at him?"

"I didn't say I would hurt them! I'm not a bad guy, Ahsoka. I'd just… use them as leverage against them, hold them hostage."

"And what if he didn't respond to empty threats?"

Anakin's eyes hardened. "Ahsoka, sometimes in war we have to do things we regret."

Ahsoka's temper, normally dormant, flared up. "You think I don't know that, Skywalker? You might have forgotten, but I've lived through much more of the war than you have. This is the second time I'm in a high position, maybe even indispensable in a war. How long have the Clone Wars been going on for you? Six months? Seven? Don't you dare presume to know what I've gone through. Not till you've gone through it with me."

'Was this the kind of thinking that got him to open up to the Dark Side? Was that stupid, stupid war the reason he turned?'

Anakin was glaring at her now, stance wide, fists clenched, and Ahsoka could feel the Force vibrating with their combined anger. She took a deep breath, and tried to release all her rage into the Force. After a moment, Anakin did the same, though she could still feel some residual anger lingering around him. Unfortunately for the two over-emotional Jedi, anger had never been easy to let go of, so they were still seething

They sat in silence, both of them too angry at each other to speak first. They might have sat there all day if Luke hadn't burst into the infirmary.

"Hey, Ahsoka, we captured some stormtroopers, thought you'd like to help interrogate…?" He trailed off, noticing the tension in the air. "Is everything okay?"

Ahsoka forced a smile. "No, everything's fine, Luke. I'll be over in just a minute."

"We'll be over in just a minute." corrected Anakin smoothly.

Luke shrugged. "Okay, well, we're waiting for you."

As soon as Luke had left, Ahsoka turned back to Anakin.

"Don't say a word." she warned. "Don't even act like you know, or…"

She trailed off, and sighed.

"Just… don't say anything, okay?"

Anakin nodded, a bit confused, but he supposed Ahsoka would know what effect it would have on his son (his son!) than he would. The wisps of anger left in his belly churned at that thought, that his padawan knew his and Padme's son better than they ever could.

Ahsoka stood and stretched, feeling her muscles ache a bit. She hated interrogating captured clones. They were always so… certain of their beliefs in the beginning, but then they would start to weaken, unravel… until they broke down. It was cruel, and it was pointless- they never gave up anything of use. Not until their conditioning wore off, and that normally took so long that the information was obsolete. Besides, they always reminded her of her old friends, the clones who fought by her side in the Clone War.

Anakin stood too, and once again seemed to know what she was thinking.

"So… Have you- Do you know what.." He kept trailing off, unable to say it out loud. Finally he just settled on a simple question.

"Rex and Cody ?"

Ahsoka shook her head. It had been so long - They'd probably died by now. She hadn't seen nor heard from them, and she was a little glad. At least she could hope that they had managed, somehow, to overcome Order 66. She couldn't imagine them turning on her fellow Jedi - she didn't want to.

"Well? Are we going?" asked Anakin impatiently. He seemed a bit jittery and Ahsoka didn't blame him. He'd gone from commanding an army of clones to fighting them, and she knew that he'd always treated them as individual people and not as disposable cardboard soldiers.

"Anakin, just remember - these Stormtroopers aren't clones. They just wear the same uniform."

"If they're not clones, where do they come from?" he frowned.

Ahsoka sighed, and they started the walk towards the interrogation rooms.

"They're taken when they are children, from their homes," she explained "And they are 'conditioned' to follow their leader and be loyal to the Empire."

"They kidnap children and brainwash them?"

"Basically."

Anakin frowned, and she could feel his anger manifesting itself around him.

"Mas-Anakin."

"What?"

"Calm down."

"My wife and I died before we could take care of our children, Palpatine's actually a Sith Lord and he's kidnapping children to work for him and all the Jedi are dead too! What's to be calm about?!"

"You're too angry to work and think rationally."

"I'm fine, Padawan"

"Anger does not befit a Jedi. Neither does pettiness. You can join us once you're done with your tantrum."

"Excuse me?"

Anakin's voice was louder now, and he looked furious. Ahsoka felt a bit bad, but shrugged it off. He needed to learn how to control his emotions, and if she had to be the one to teach him, so be it.

"You heard me."

She walked down the corridor, and sighed in relief when he didn't follow.

Just another A/N : So my original plan was to take long breaks between chapters but keep giving you regular updates monthly or something, but IB is taking it's toll, and new plot bunnies keep distracting me. I'm giving you this chapter to say that I will NEVER abandon this story, but you should probably consider it to be on temporary hiatus. Updates will be sporadic and infrequent, but they will come out. Any advice or ideas or anything else will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you for all your support! Hope to keep seeing you!