Anakin was caressing Padmé's fingers, holding her hand as she ascended into an opulent open-top speeder on the outskirts of Sandoon. They were preparing for the very public welcome from the Mandalorian people who had flocked to the planet's capital. The royal leader and her paramour were already loaded into the first craft, ready to lead the parade. He was handing Padmé up into their own carriage, to follow after.

Just as he set a boot onto the hovering footplate, stepping up to join her, Leia let out an ear-piercing shriek. Pausing, Anakin turned back to where the twins waited with Threepio and Captain Rex. They weren't a part of the official welcome, they were destined to follow moments later under his loyal Captain's watchful eye and Threepio's meticulous care.

"Shhh, little one," Anakin soothed, stepping back down out of the carriage and lifting her up into his arms without thought. She whimpered unhappily, then settled, her huge eyes blinking up at him with wary glistening tears. "I'm here," he rumbled reassuringly.

Luke, now alone, began to sob uncontrollably without his sister's familiar presence by his side.

Padmé cautiously stepped down out of the carriage, still post-partum tentative, and reached for her distraught son. Without hesitation she lifted his small body to rest against her chest and rested her warm hand on his back.

"Leia's not far," she whispered gently. "Shhh."

Out of her peripheral vision she saw the first speeder holding Satine and Obi-Wan glide away from the dock.

"We have to go," she warned Anakin, sharing a nod with their own driver perched and ready to begin.

He looked down at Leia worriedly, then up to his wife. Knowing they would scream the onlookers into silence if left alone. The twins, he was beginning to realise, were force sensitive. And if they weren't asleep, then they liked to be near their parents and one another. He was loathe to leave them.

Padmé seemed to read his mind instantly. "They'll have to come with us," she decreed and he quickly nodded in agreement.

They both got settled into the speeder, Anakin taking his place by her side with Leia's small head finding a comfortable resting place against the dark cloak covering his broad shoulder. Padmé situated Luke in the natural cradle of her arms and comfortably settled back against the squabs, running her fingers over his cheeks as they passed through the darkened entrance of the city. For a perfect moment it was only they four, private and peaceful.

A roar went up ahead of them, the waiting crowds catching their first glimpse of the saviour Duchess. A rushing wave of suddenly overjoyed thousands lining the parade route carried the emotion through into the darkened entryway. Anakin looked up to see confetti begin flying, filling the air with a snow of colour in celebration of their dedicated Duchess returning triumphant, her romantic engagement loyally at her side. The story of dedicated hearts and the passing of more than fifteen years while they waited for one another had fast spread. The people were now clambering, eager to catch a glimpse and claim Obi-Wan as their own.

Anakin grinned at the reception his friend was getting. Swept up in the celebratory atmosphere he leaned down to place a joyful kiss on Padmé's lips as their grand speeder moved forward. She was grinning too, for her friends, for the hope of restoration of the Republic that lay before them. And for the love of her life who had lived through this ordeal, for the future they would live together and the adventures that lay ahead. She reached up to share that soft kiss with him.

"Ani," she whispered, pulling away just as they were tugged out into the light.

Their loving gaze lingered for a moment longer and then they too were showered with streamers. She had done this before, been welcomed to Mandalore on an official visit. Keeping Luke tucked protectively to her shoulder she raised a hand and waved to the excited onlookers who enthusiastically waved and cheered back.

Anakin reluctantly did the same, careful to keep Leia nice and close. As they moved along at their place in the procession that slowly wound its way to Satine's Royal Palace he couldn't help smiling, the force thronging with the adulation of thousands.

It wasn't their adulation he received, but their joy. Their thanks. Their happiness.

When speeders began pulling up in the Palace's square, they alighted onto the balcony above the crowded throng of people who had all taken to their feet in excitement. Padmé forgot her reasons, all her careful planning for just a moment, and took it in. That was the moment the holocams took over, captured the moment and it broadcast for her.

Duchess Satine stepped forward to address her people. Obi-Wan took a half step and stood silently behind her shoulder, a staunchly faithful protector.

Padmé Amidala, the fearless Senator who had risked her own life to speak in the grand chamber on Coruscant, to wrest the Republic from the hands of the evil Sith Lord, stood in beautiful perfection by Anakin Skywalker, the Hero of the Jedi. Dashing and sure he now stood tall and proud. Side by side the two shared a whispered intimacy and smile, dark toffee eyes twinkling with perfect ice blue, matching infants in each of their arms.

Ahsoka Tano appeared last of all, a lightsaber dangling on her hip and a dark-haired boy, the Senator for a previously Separatist solar system silently preceding her by a single step.

"My fellow Mandalorians," the Duchess spoke and the plaza beneath her went silent, hundreds of thousands of beings spread out before them. "We have kept the galactic war from our home and today that war comes to an end."

A sharp cry rang out and flags began waving in frantic support.

"Many have suffered, on both sides and here at home where rationing and closed trade routes have fostered greed and corruption."

A sombre silence once again began to descend. She raised her defiant chin and continued "Now, it is time to move on. Senator Amidala and I have already begun negotiations to return Mandalore and her fellow sovereign systems to the Republic. It is time we returned to peace, and prosperity."

She held out her hand, inviting them to join her.

"A new beginning!"

Obi-Wan stepped forward and took the outstretched hand though he didn't say a word, careful to craft a place for himself in this new regime, one where he did not become a part of the royal court.

"Six weeks from today I will give my heart to the Jedi I have loved since I was a girl. And we shall all once again trust our hearts to the Republic."

The roar that rose grew louder and louder, reverberating through the plaza, through the entire city. It grew so deafening that Padmé felt Luke cry out against her breastbone but couldn't actually hear him. She placed her hand over the troubled baby's ear and curled him deeper into her chest. But she beamed for her friends, for the hope they were bringing to this and many thousands of other ravaged worlds. For the people Duchess Satine served through the horrors of war, and the brief days of utter elation such as this that one would be lucky to see in their lifetime.

"Kiss her," she barely heard Anakin yell to his friend.

"I don't think now is the time," Obi-Wan didn't look towards them but she caught enough snatches to work out what he'd said.

"Now is exactly the time!" Anakin roguishly countered as the Mandalorian people beneath them chanted in anticipation and his face split into a joyous smile.

Obi-Wan seemed to assess a moment more. He finally leaned in and pressed the lightest of kisses to his Duchess's lips.

Anakin Skywalker grinned at his friend, at the way the stamping of feet in the square below made the buildings rumble. He gave them their moment, then overwhelmed by it all he bent to kiss his own passionate Senator with a mischievous smile quirking at the corners of his lips and their child squirming in his arms.

On the Duchess's other side Lux Bonteri silently slipped his hand into Ahsoka's.

The scene was broadcast across thousands of planets, seen by billions of eyes, brought hope to the darkest corners of the galaxy. The son of a founding Separatist, the leader of a neutral alliance, and the Senator at the heart of the fight for the Republic, resolutely standing side by side as the New Republic was founded in the glowing aura of a new breed of Jedi.

"Peace!" Satine declared triumphantly.

Behind the couples, waiting silently in the background with a protective stance that couldn't be shaken, Captain Rex of the 501st felt a smile twitching at his lips.

And fireworks began exploding overhead in shatteringly bright colours that split the midday sky.

Th

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