Re-Entry: Coda

by Flamethrower

Re-Entry: Coda
Author: Flamethrower
Archive: MA & The Flamethrower's Archive
Category: Q/O, AU, POV
Rating: Utterly PG
Warnings: Nope.
Spoilers: Nope.
Thanks given to all who've read this sprawling epic over the years. Your enthusiasm is the reason it exists, and I thank you for it.

Summary: All things must end, if only to begin again.

Presented unbeta'd, since it's just 3 pages. Any mistakes are mine. Or Yahoo's.

Series order:
Waking Dream
Cold
Diverging Paths
Diverging Paths II
Diverging Paths III
Diverging Paths IV
Attainment I
Attainment II
OtherWhen
OtherWhen II
OtherWhen III
OtherWhen IV
OtherWhen V
OtherWhen: Epilogue
The Yinchorri Uprising
Time Without Name I
Time Without Name II
Time Without Name III
Coalescence
Coalescence - Fusion

Republic Standard Date 5200, Seventh Month, 15th Day, Kaazcint
(Holographic Copy retrieved from bound journal of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, 4th volume)

Anakin has a baby sister.

Well, she is a sister to my brother and I as well, and in a sense, to Qui, but it's… hard to think that way, when you're used to a status quo that remained unchanged for so long. I know Anakin feels similarly - when he's not making besotted faces at Kania Cliess Lars-Skywalker, he seems dazed by the idea, despite the time we had to get used to the idea of Shmi being pregnant.

I didn't even realize Shmi's lost family was matrilineal until after the birth, with Kania still wailing indignantly about being born, when we heard our sister's name for the first time. It makes me wonder if giving Luke his father's name was the right choice - but second-guesses of that nature will make me insane in record time, so I'd best stop.

I also didn't realize that the red hair came from Dad's side of the family. Kania has beautiful wispy strands of dark red atop her tiny head. Her eyes are blue, like all human infants, but… no. I think she'll have her mother's eyes, as Leia Organa once had her grandmother's dark eyes.

It seems odd to hope, but I do one day want to see those children again, to see pale blue and dark brown eyes on tiny faces. I watched the twins grow up once, and I'd happily do it again.

All right, getting foolishly maudlin chronicling what is supposed to be a happy affair. Time to get sloshed.

Anakin Skywalker held his sister in his arms, feeling foolishly happy and far too sad all at once. He was glad that he had a sister, that Skywalkers were a little less rare, now. Yet, she was one more person in his life that he was going to have to learn to let go of, and allowing Kania Skywalker dance her own fete with Fate and the Force was going to be a test like no other.

"Hello there, little sister," he murmured to the sleeping infant, who was emitting the faint snores of the full-bellied. His mother was resting, his father was toasting his new baby girl, and Obi-Wan was trying to drink their Dad under the table. Anakin grinned and hoped Qui-Gon was mediating that little affair, or there would be some grand hangovers come morning.

"You've been born in interesting times." He sighed; Kania echoed the sound in her sleep. "But you're going to grow up surrounded by people who love you, and we'll do our best to keep your safe. Without being control freaks. You're allowed to hit me when I'm being stupid, by the way," he added.

He closed his eyes and for a moment could see a red-haired Jedi apprentice with twin Padawan braids, steady brown eyes, and a fierce scowl reminiscent of Obi-Wan and Owen. "Oh, great," Anakin muttered, staring down at his sister, unaware of the proud grin on his face. "I'll be grey-haired before I hit thirty."

"I don't understand this love affair you have with dawn," Qui-Gon Jinn said, handing his mate a steaming mug of tea.

Obi-Wan Kenobi smiled and wrapped his numbed fingers around the warm ceramic mug. "I don't get it, either. Maybe returning to Coruscant will break the habit." He shared a kiss with the man who owned his heart, something that was far more inviting than tea, before he turned his gaze back out to the snow that had been the farm's companion for endless days now. An automated plow kept the long road and the paths to the barn and animal pens clear, but the unplowed hills were buried several feet under ice, which was only going to get deeper. The steady snowfall was soothing, meditative, and it had kept his mind off dark thoughts of the Sith for the past two hours.

Qui-Gon wrapped his arm around Obi-Wan's shoulders. "We'll find him," he said.

"Of that, I have no doubt," Obi-Wan replied, feeling the prickle along his spine of some vague Foresight, one that refused to make itself known. "It's what may happen afterward that wakes me at night."

Qui-Gon didn't try to reassure him; they both knew the danger would be great, no matter the lessons that had already been learned. "Where there is life, there is hope," he said, quoting words they had both spoken long ago.

Obi-Wan grinned back. "Troublemaker."

-finis