A.N. So… we come to the end. I'll save my stuff for the end, and I hope you enjoy this last one.

And yet. Far away, a baby girl wakes with a cry. She beats her tiny fists against the silk pillows of her little bed, and a woman hurries to the side of her cot, reaching out to pick her up. The little girl snuggles into the shoulder of the woman she will come to know as 'mother'. Her huge dark eyes close in contentment, and the woman who is not her mother lays her back in the beautiful cot.

At almost the same instant, on another world many thousands of miles away, another child is stirring. His cot has nothing like the elegance of the baby girl's. It is a rough construction, thrown together hastily out of boards and cloth rags. But when he cries, the young woman who picks him up holds him just as tenderly as the little girl is held, and the young man sitting at the table in the simple cottage looks at her with love.

Night is falling. The young woman in her plain dress rocks the fretful baby, carrying him to the door to show him the amazing sight that is the twin sunset over the desert of Tatooine. It is a sight he will fall asleep to for many nights to come, as he grows from a baby into a boy, and then into a man. The baby's eyes widen at the sky, and then slowly close. He sleeps, with the contented sigh of a well-fed, well-loved baby on his lips.

It will be many years. Many years while the two babies grow up. Long, dark years. Padme is dead, the black metal mask has closed over the face of the being who had once been Anakin Skywalker, and darkness reigns. But one day, things will change. One day, the galaxy will remember. Because hope has not died. Hope never dies. And one day, it will return.

A.N. I was going to end this with Padme's funeral, but I decided I couldn't. It was too despairing. I wanted to end with hope shining through the darkness still, so I wrote this, and I loved writing it, and I love the finished result.

And you know what… I'm going to thank you all individually. I feel that great. :)

So, in no particular order, to laloga, Lucky's Girl, SilverTongueabc, Darth-Taisha, sodorland, IBG, TheAngelofIego (Still love that name so much!) Rachie81, Omamori,Lindethiel, Thisby Solo, SabreDae, Draco Lucis, and last but not least, Callidora-Malfoy, who reviewed every single chapter!

That, of course, is just everyone who has reviewed when I post this chapter. Anyone else that has reviewed since then, I am just as grateful to you! So thank you to all of you who have reviewed (and will, maybe!): You have been just amazing. PADME/ANAKIN FOREVER!