Hopes

Epilogue

I breathed in a deep breath of Coruscanti air, tasting the bitterness of pollution that drifted above, the greasiness of machines' oils that hung heavily around, and the sweetness of a hundred flowers and plants that floated from beneath and beside. This was home, and I loved every part of it.

The stone pathway across which I trod snaked through the gardens, weaving between stubby shrubs, graceful trunks with dangling branches and fluttering leaves, and small bushes with bright sprouts of lilacs, magentas, and blood oranges. Glittering droplets of dew sparkled in the morning sun, catching the golden rays that spread across the whole of the Jedi gardens. The soft grass stood cropped to its perfect height, providing a beautiful green carpet to the ground.

The busy buzz of speeders, beeping horns, and distant music filled the air, but it was the sound of approaching voices that caught my attention. I turned, my bare hand brushing over the dewdrops on the pink petals of a budding rose. A pair of children, one with closely-cut blond hair and the other with a plaited bun of brown, ran towards me, pushing and shoving like they always had. Puffing behind them was a delicate girl with a halo of pale blonde hair, her blue eyes filled with dismay.

"Wait for me, Leia!" she panted, her white skirts tangling up around her ankles. "Luke, don't go so fast!"

"Sarad!" an even younger voice squealed. "I'm coming, too!"

"Come on, then, Bri," the blonde called back to her sister.

"Dad!" the twins shrieked in excitement, bowling into my open arms and perching themselves onto my knees as I squatted.

"Hey, guys!" I laughed, adjusting my position before giving up and crumpling to my knees. "You're too big for that now! You'll break me."

"That's not possible, Uncle Anakin," Sarad informed me sombrely, her face a mirror's reflection of her mother's seriousness. "You can't be broken."

"It's true, Dad," Leia said sweetly, kissing my cheek.

"We're only seven," Luke countered, obviously displeased that his sister was the receptor of my attention. "We're not that big."

"I'm only five!" Bri exclaimed, flinging herself at me, her red hair the perfect complement to her fiery attitude.

In order to catch my flying niece, I had to sacrifice my children's position, sliding them onto the ground in a manner that I knew would not please them. The twins burst into a heated argument, with Sarad desperately putting her father's peacekeeping skills into use.

"Briikasak Kenobi, what do you think you're doing?" the sweet, stern voice of none other than Satine herself rang across the garden, and the children froze, their fight-or-flight mode activated.

Bri shrunk down at the use of her full name, her blue eyes flicking up to me as though asking for protection. Luke shot Bri a triumphant look that was swiftly gunned down by my sharp glance. Leia wisely kept her brown eyes glued to the ground.

The Duchess strode over to us, her face set in her stone and her blue skirts swishing tightly around her feet. Obi-Wan trailed behind her, his mouth downturned but his eyes twinkling in amusement. Bri burst into tears.

I cradled the child closer to my chest, looking up at her mother with an imploring gaze. "Go easy on her, Satine. She was just playing."

Satine stopped in front of us, hands on hips. "She wasn't being thoughtful of her cousins. I saw her push them out of your lap."

"It's alright, my dear," Obi-Wan reassured his wife, winking at his cowering daughter. She promptly straightened up, any traces of fear vanishing. If her father was on her side, she could do anything. "I'm sure Bri only wanted to be included. She meant no harm."