Sorry, this took a bit longer to get done than I had planed on. Wrapping everything up for this story was harder than I thought it would be. Thanks for reading, and for all your encoraging and helpful comments.

If You Can't Beat 'Em

Anakin took a deep breath and straightened his robes. In one sense, he had expected this moment. He had prepared in his mind over the past few months exactly what he would say, but now he actually had to say it. To make things worse, he could not remember any of his prepared speech. When he first realized his plan to destroy the Sith, Anakin's first assumption was that he would never be able to pull it off…

Anakin laid motionless on the floor. He could not help it- tears flowed freely from his eyes and onto the cold floor. Despair seemed to be the only thing he could feel. The fact that he had no control of what was happening was torture enough for him. If he refused to turn to the Dark Side, Sidious would certainly kill his wife. Turning, however, meant turning against the Jedi, the Republic, and- ultimately- his wife. Either way, he lost. Better to die for the right than live a life of misery and destruction, he figured. Anakin would much rather live without the misery and destruction, but he also wanted to live.

Once, he had just barely touched the Dark Side, and it scared him so much that he vowed he would never steer so close to it again. The night that his mother died, he had let his emotions take control over him so much that he threw out all morals and slaughtered and entire tribe of Tuscans. The problem was not that they were innocent, but that he abused his power. Is that not what Padmé always attributed the problems in the Senate to? The abuse of power?

The Dark Side was strange. He had broken his vow and tried to use it, but the Dark Side seemed like a fire. Messing with it is dangerous, you cannot play with it for very long without getting burned, and if you are not careful, it will readily consume you. Every time he had tried to use it the past few days, it hurt. It was not just guilt. It caused him physical pain. He had no desire to be consumed by it, and every time it tried to take over him, Anakin would put out the flames and back away. Sidious, of course was very displeased with this- to put things mildly.

Anakin finally sat up and took a deep breath. Wiping his eyes dry he glared at the wall. He had overcome a lot of things in his life and he was not about to let some egotistical old guy with a power complex take him down. It drove him mad, knowing that Sidious was running the Senate, and essentially the Jedi Order, and they had no idea. It had not taken Anakin long to figure out what Sidious could want with running both sides of a war.

"I hope you trip and die." Anakin mumbled to the air. He would have killed Sidious himself, but he was no match for him. After witnessing the Sith's power, he could not even see Master Yoda being able to take him on. It would be foolishness to try to fight him. If someone wanted to kill Sidious, he would have to do subtly, without Sidious's knowledge.

Anakin stopped trying to stare a hole in the wall and rested his chin on his knee. "Why not?" he whispered. If he could learn to handle the Dark Side without being consumed by it- much like someone uses a torch- then he could gain Sidious's trust. Of course betrayal is the way of the Sith, but Sidious would not expect him to try to kill him before Anakin had learned all of Sidious's secrets. His secrets could be lost forever for all Anakin cared, but if he could convince Sidious otherwise, then he might just have a chance. It was unlikely to be successful, but he had nothing better to do.

…After sometime, Anakin had realized that his opportunity to get rid of Sidious could actually come. Every moment he could he practiced manipulating the Dark Side. It was dangerous, tiring, and frightening, but he got better at it. Faster than he had originally thought he could, Anakin had Sidious's cautious trust. He bid his time carefully, learning everything he could about the Separatists so that when he did finally rid the galaxy of Sidious, they would quickly be able to end the war. Every bit of information he felt useful, he memorized, for if he were to take notes, Dooku and Sidious would undoubtedly become suspicious.

His plans were sped up when he fell from the cliff and temporarily lost memory of it all. Since Anakin had been found by the Jedi, he knew that Sidious would want to get rid of them as quickly as possible. Anakin had to get rid of Sidious and alert the Jedi before Order 66 was executed. He had hoped that he could just poison Sidious and then go back and tell the Jedi everything, but the only thing that had gone right yesterday morning was that Sidious was indeed dead. Having five Jedi see and feel him use the Dark Side was not going to smooth over as easily as just explaining to them that he could use it without being controlled by it- and that he only had done it to stop Sidious.

Either way, Anakin would not have blamed the Jedi if they imprisoned him for it. The Dark Side and the Sith were greatly feared and hated things in the Jedi Order, and justifiably so. Still, he greatly hoped to be able to go home and raise his children with Padmé. Technically, the law that had stood for over 2,000 years demanded death as the punishment for using the Dark Side, but Anakin had explained everything to Master Windu and Master Kenobi when they arrived at the temple. Master Windu personally insured that he would not face the death penalty- since it took an unanimous vote- but Anakin still had to stand before the council. Whether or not he was imprisoned for the rest of his life was based on whether or not the rest of the Jedi council believed that the circumstances justified his decisions.

"Did they let you go, Daddy?"

"Of course they did, you idiot! He's right here."

"Leia, don't call your brother an idiot." She was about to argue, but knowing better, she angrily stuck her thumb back in her mouth.

Luke looked up at him dreamy-eyed. "I'm glad you got to be my daddy."

Anakin smiled and kissed the top of his messy blond head. "Me too."

"I'm going to be just like you when I grow up."

"Please don't."

Luke burrowed his head in Anakin's chest and giggled. Anakin smiled again. He enjoyed Luke's happy, free spirit. Some times Anakin wished that he was the one that was more like Luke.

Leia, on the other hand, was his challenge. Sometimes it got to him, but he really needed the challenge sometimes now that the war was over and he only joined Obi-Wan for the occasional mission- which were often more for old times sake since they were typically boring missions anyway. Leia kept him on his toes in a different but fulfilling way.

He felt her relax against him as she started to calm down over her brief argument with Luke. After a minute, Leia climbed up so that she could speak in her father's ear and whispered, "I'm sleepy."

"You ready for bed?"

She nodded.

"I'm not!" Luke flailed back on the couch in attempt to emphasize his statement, but would have ended up falling off if Anakin had not caught him.

"Oh, yes you are. Let's go."

Leia immediately jumped down and ran for her bedroom. Anakin sighed, and picked up his yawning son. Luke wrapped his tiny arms around his neck, and by the time Anakin had laid him down in his bed, he was fighting to keep his eyes open. He mumbled unintelligibly as Anakin pulled the covers over him. "Love you too, son."

Anakin crept into Leia's room, expecting her to be already in bed and asleep. Instead, her silhouette was seen in the window. Using a chair, she had climbed up on the dresser and was staring out at the busy Coruscant night sky. "Hey." He came up beside her and picked her up and brushed a few tears off of her cheeks. "What's wrong?"

"Are you sure the bad man's gone?"

"Yes."

"He's not going to take you away."

"Leia he's been dead for awhile now. I'm not going anywhere."

She sniffled and laid against him. "I'm sorry." She whimpered.

"For what?"

"I don't want to be just like you when I grow up."

Anakin laughed as he laid her in bed. "Leia, I don't want you to. I want you to grow up and be Leia Skywalker- no one else."

She sleepily nodded. "Okay." Kissing him, she laid down and curled up, thumb in mouth.

Anakin smiled and brushed her hair from her face. "Love you."

Makin his way to the kitchen, Anakin started to clean up his attempt to cook dinner- they had ended up ordering out. Usually, C3PO did the cooking when Padmé was gone, but Anakin had lent him to Obi-Wan as a translator while he was away. Obi-Wan did not really need him, but Padmé's trip was longer than usual, and the droid was staring to drive him crazy.

After he finished cleaning up, Anakin checked on the children one more time, then stretched out on the couch with a holopad. He pulled up his most recent ship design and began working on some of the finishing touches.

Anakin stood with the doors to the Jedi Council chamber looming before him. He had explained his actions before the council only a few hours before. Every minute that passed by laid heavily on him as he awaited their decision. Now that it was time to face that decision, his instincts told him to run away as fast as he could. That was not a viable option though.

Steeling his courage, Anakin took a deep breath and walked in to stand before the council.

"Anakin. Anakin?"

"He's opening his eyes."

"Anakin, can you hear me?" Obi-Wan's voice seemed to echo around him again.

"Hmm…" Slowly, his eyes fluttered open. Obi-Wan was standing over him.

"Anakin, can you talk to us?" Some lady he did not recognize came into view.

As his head cleared, Anakin braced himself with his elbows and sat up. Obi-Wan put a hand on Anakin's shoulder to support his shaky friend. "Where am I?"

"You're at the healer's. We're back on Coruscant now."

Anakin furrowed his brow. "What happened?"

"There was an earthquake that collapsed several of the underground tunnels on Geonosis. You've been unconscious for the past three days."

Anakin thought for a moment. The last time he was on Geonosis was- "There was a-" he began excitedly, but Obi-Wan held up a hand.

"I know. There were over two-hundred thousand droids down there. Most of them were destroyed in the earthquake."

Anakin laughed and rubbed his temples.

"What?"

"It's just- Obi-Wan, I've had the craziest dream. You wouldn't even believe- it was so vivid."

Obi-Wan raised a brow. "Please tell me you're not dreaming of the future again."

Anakin smiled and shook his head. "Nah, there's no way even, oh… ninety percent of it was real." He laughed again at the thought. Palpatine- a Sith? How ridiculous!

Okay, so there actually is a possiblity for sequal to this. Whether or not I would take into account the last section is acctualy a possiblity both ways. So if you liked this story, be aware that their may be a second half. However, I do intend to finish "Touch Me Not" and possibly "Around the Galazy in 80 Days" before I start on another piece.

Again, thanks for reading, everyone!