After they got out of the shower, the twins hoped that the council meeting would start almost immediately. It did not.

Anakin, Padmé, Obi-Wan, and Sola made a big show of taking their sweet time making lunch, eating it and savoring every bite, making sure to have lots of conversation around the table, and washing all the dishes before even moving toward the lounge. Of course, this was mostly done just because they knew Luke and Leia would rather they rush. They didn't delay for too long, though. They just wanted to poke fun, not infuriate them.

If they were honest, everyone was eager for this particular meeting. Interesting news was inbound from the Rebellion, and the family had learned to love listening to stories. This time, they were particularly interested in what Anakin had gotten himself mixed up in.

The simpler stories came first, though. Once everyone was settled in the lounge-Anakin and Padmé on the couch, Obi-Wan and Sola in chairs next to them, and the twins sitting on pillows on the ground-everyone turned to Sola.

"We've finished the last units," she began, referring to Luke and Leia's education. "They walked through a thorough analysis of the Jedi Purge and the rise of the Empire, as well as reading up on various battles, civil wars, and massacres that have happened since then. Well, as much as I could find, anyway," she grumbled, raising an eyebrow. "Wouldn't you know it? The only genocide the Empire will publish about is the clone genocide."

"Typical," Anakin muttered, and the rest of the room was in agreement with him.

Padmé shook her head, as she knew about plenty more questionable things the Empire had done than the public did. "A double lesson, then: that's a perfect example of censorship in media."

As if they didn't already know. Sola continued. "They've studied all the major forms of government, the last of which they just finished. They did very well analyzing the battles you sent us," she told Anakin, who grinned. "I still don't know how you got ahold of those records."

He shrugged. Actually, it was Artoo who had saved a few particular records, but that wasn't important. He turned to the twins. "Did you have any favorites?"

"The Mon Cala civil war," Luke decided.

"You just liked that one because it was underwater."

"It was still cool!"

Leia shook her head. "The attack on the Citadel. Isn't that place still active?"

"Unfortunately," Anakin affirmed, his gaze drifting. "I hate to think what's going on in there now."

"You're not dragging me into another infiltration mission," Obi-Wan warned, making everyone else laugh. "Once was enough."

Anakin didn't plan to attack the Citadel again (although he wouldn't be entirely opposed to it either), but he got the message. Turning to her sister, Padmé noted, "That's the last of our curriculum if I remember correctly."

She nodded, sitting back in her chair. "I've been talking around with other parents in the area. At this age, most teenagers either drop out of school to work or go to university to study if they need to. Quite frankly, I don't think Theed Conservatory offers a degree in arson, so I don't think either of you will want to attend," she told the twins.

Neither of them seemed to be jumping at the idea. "Art and music aren't exactly our forté," Luke pointed out. "There's nothing for us to do there."

"Well, at least we're all on the same page," Sola concluded. "Congratulations, you two. Unless I'm mistaken, you've graduated with an elementary diploma."

"Finally," Leia sighed, laying down on the ground. Her parents chuckled while they applauded the twins. They officially had more formal education than Anakin and Obi-Wan combined.

Speaking of Obi-Wan, he was up next. "Well, you saw their progress this morning. Luke and Leia, you've reached the stage where your training is less about teaching you new skills and more about the mastery of your favorite techniques. You have more than proven that you are very capable of being Jedi. Moving forward, you must decide what type of Jedi you will be, and that is something neither I, nor your father, nor anyone can teach you."

Both of them smiled at the praise. They knew their master, and all of their parents, were proud of them. After hearing all the stories about the heroes that raised them, they were eager to fill the boots of the generation before them. "Let me guess," Leia predicted, "we're going to be meditating a lot from now on?"

"Oh, no," Obi-Wan assured her, much to Luke's astonishment. "Meditation will help you on your journey, certainly, but you may find the path to self-discovery to be a very long, dynamic one. From what I've observed, you can learn more about yourself by jumping in the deep end than practicing in shallow waters. If you need an example, your father is sitting right there," he told them, pointing to Anakin.

He didn't deny it, not even a little. "That is... much truer than I want to admit."

"What did you learn when you jumped in the deep end?" Sola asked, mostly out of curiosity. In response, Anakin didn't speak but looked at his wife. To quite fair, he learned about his... type.

Everyone got the message and laughed, and Sola shook her head, smirking. "Never mind."

Obi-Wan turned back to his Padawans. "I promise I will be here to guide you, but I will not lead the way. Each Jedi must decide their own path, and no two paths are the same. Twins or otherwise, you won't go on the same personal journey."

Luke and Leia nodded, but secretly, they wondered if this was all building up to something. First, Sola had decided to conclude their education, and now, Obi-Wan was talking about jumping in the deep end. Was this what they thought it was? Were they finally going to join the fight?

"But enough about that," Obi-Wan interrupted their train of thought. "I want to know what you did that annoyed the emperor so much that he sent a Star Destroyer here," he told Padmé, who looked quite pleased with herself.

"Dooku attempted to revoke Imperial Order 14 at the last senate meeting," she explained, a note of disdain in her voice. She looked at her children. "I don't suppose you covered imperial orders in the last few months?"

"We did, but that wasn't one of the ones we studied."

"It established refugee reserves for those who fled the Republic after the Jedi Purge," she explained, the sour memory returning to her head. "Over thirty million people went to those camps from major systems between the activation of Order 66 and the collapse of the Republic."

It rang a bell in Luke's mind. "Wasn't that one of the factors leading to the recession that preceded the collapse?"

She nodded, glad that some of Sola's lessons had stuck with her son. "Exactly. Most of them never moved back after those major systems integrated into the Empire. Entire cultures have been cultivated there in the past decade and a half. Revoking that order would have reallocated those reserves as belonging to the system they are in."

"Which means the system can build whatever they want through the reserves, and the people who lived there would be displaced from their homes," Luke pointed out. "That would upset the entire community, probably permanently."

"Which is why I worked to shut it down," Padmé went on. "It took an eight-hour debate and a very close vote, but the senate protected the Order. Dooku retaliated by sending a Star Destroyer to orbit Naboo, most likely for the next couple of weeks."

Obi-Wan tilted his head to the side. "Hasn't he attempted this before? I could have sworn we had this exact conversation a few years ago."

Rolling her eyes, she answered, "Twice, actually. This is the third time."

"Wonderful."

"What did Bail and Mon Mothma think of it?" Anakin asked, remembering his wife's coworkers.

She thought about it for a moment before responding. "Mon Mothma's been occupied trying to coordinate efforts in the Core Worlds. She voted to protect the imperial order, but she wasn't able to help defend it. Bail helped me gather the resources I needed to construct my argument, but he's had a million other things to take care of."

"Which is why you visited him," Obi-Wan guessed. "How is he?"

"Stressed. A lot of things are moving and changing, and he feels like he isn't able to keep up," Padmé explained. "Of course, he's doing just fine and better than most people would hold up under the same circumstances. If anyone can keep up with all the chaos in the galaxy right now, it's him."

Leia crossed her legs and sat forward. "What kind of chaos?"

It wasn't easy to sum it up, but Padmé did her best: "The Rebellion is beginning to pick up momentum, which is an achievement, but it means more factors are at play. There are more refugees to supply, more rebels to coordinate, more systems to integrate. It was much easier to direct the Rebellion when it was smaller, but we could only do so much. Now our capacity for action has expanded, but keeping an eye on every piece is a bit of a stretch."

Obi-Wan drummed his fingers together before speaking. "It may be time to expand the infrastructure of the Rebellion. I'm afraid three senators may not be enough to manage an organization this extensive."

"That's one of the things Bail has been trying to set up," she agreed, nodding. "He has ideas, but setting them into motion is taking longer than he was hoping. I doubt he'll feel very calm again until this transition period has passed."

"I'm glad this is the problem you are facing," Anakin offered, looking at his wife. "A large Rebellion is a good problem to have and much better than the opposite. I know you'll find the way forward."

Padmé smiled, grateful for his support. "Thank you."

"Alright, Fulcrum," Sola said, speaking up before Anakin and Padmé could make heart eyes at each other for too long. "Spill. What the blazes happened to you?"

He laughed a little bit, mostly because of how much had happened to him recently. "Where did we leave off last?"

"You were beginning to coordinate with the Ghost crew more often," Leia reminded him.

Anakin snapped his fingers as he remembered. "Right. Not long after I left last time, Phoenix group was attacked by Barriss Offee, making it the first time anyone has seen her since she entered Tyrannus' service. Much later, we discovered that she has been operating under the name 'Jadis.'"

Those who recognized the name didn't look happy about the news. Sola tilted her head. "She was the Jedi that betrayed Ahsoka, right?"

"Among other things, yeah," Anakin reminded her. It was a little harder for Sola to track the history of the Clone Wars, as she had never lived through it. He always made sure to help clarify stories or details when she needed it. "I was tasked with trying to track and anticipate her movements, but looking back on it, I never found much. I think once Tyrannus realized I was in the picture, he pulled Jadis back.

"What I did find was two more Inquisitors, the Fifth Brother, and the Seventh Sister. Well, the Ghost crew found them. They started chasing them everywhere. The one time I got the coordinates that put us a step ahead of them, they found out that we were operating out of Garel and forced Phoenix group to relocate."

"Where are they now?"

"You thinking about crashing the party?" Anakin asked, raising an eyebrow at Luke. "Nice try, kiddo, but if I tell you where it's at, you'll be there by tomorrow morning. All you two get to know is that it's called Chopper Base."

Leia squinted at him. "Isn't that the name of the droid that's in Ezra's crew?"

Tilting his head, Obi-Wan asked, "How do you remember the name of their droid?"

She shrugged, not giving an answer.

Anakin grinned a little as he went on. "Kanan and Ezra suggested that we should go to the Jedi temple on Lothal. When we get there, all three of us got separated, and we each had a vision. The first news out of all of this came from Kanan's vision: he was Knighted."

Everyone's ears perked up at that. They knew Knighthood was a huge accomplishment for a Jedi. "Mine was similar: I saw the temple on Coruscant. Any guesses on who was waiting there for me?"

"Papa Quigee?" Luke asked, and Anakin nodded while smirking. When Luke was very little, he couldn't quite say Qui-Gon, so he pronounced it 'kwi-gee.' Leia started copying him, and before long, the entire family adopted the name. It drove Qui-Gon insane.

"Yeah. He was waiting in the lobby, but when he took me upstairs, I saw the old Jedi Council as well. They told me that they weren't going to interfere with anything that happened from that day on, and they gave me a promotion."

From next to him, Obi-Wan smiled proudly. "Everyone, you're looking at the newly appointed Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker."

They began cheering, celebrating the occasion. Anakin did his best not to be awkward about it, but he was proud. It had taken a long time to get here.

He continued once they were done. "Papa Quigee and I talked for a while longer, but as I was leaving, I saw one more person." Anakin looked up at the empty room, his smile wider than ever. "You ready?"

Ahsoka, who was present and waiting for this moment, blew upward by Anakin's right hand. That was a 'yes.'

Looking back at the others, who were confused except for Obi-Wan, he began to explain. "You guys have been noticing warm air flowing around the house, right?"

"That was the other thing I forgot to mention," Sola remembered, groaning. "A technician visited a few weeks ago but couldn't find anything wrong with the heater."

"It's not the heater," Anakin assured her, looking back at the twins. "It's an old friend. Your other aunt is here."

Their eyes went wide, as well as Padmé's and Sola's. Ahsoka blew a larger gust around all of them right on cue, warming them just a little bit. Everyone was silent, shocked by the news, and Anakin sat back. "It took me a while, but I finally put the pieces together. I guess Qui-Gon's training with her has been going well because Ahsoka has learned how to interact with our world again. It's not much, but it's definitely there."

"In true Ahsoka fashion," Padmé realized softly, "she's shown up when we least expected her. We should have known."

"Wait, she's here? Now?" Leia asked, looking around. Ahsoka responded by kicking up wind right next to her. She smiled in awe, holding up a hand to feel it. Aunty Soka was there.

Luke and Leia had really only ever been able to feel Ahsoka through her lightsabers before, but this was different. This wasn't a relic of Ahsoka that she had left behind but something that was happening now. In a way, this was the first time they 'met' in sixteen years, since the day they had been born.

Looking back at Anakin, Padmé made another connection: "Last night, before we fell asleep..."

"She was right here with us," he affirmed, nodding. "She may be dead, but she's not gone. Not by a long shot."

Ahsoka's wind curled around the twins again before settling in between them. The large stream split into two much smaller ones, but they began to swirl steadily around two hands: one of Luke's and one of Leia's.

She's back, Leia thought, and she looked at her brother. Luke heard her and grinned down at his hand, squeezing it as if Ahsoka were actually holding it.

Maybe the twins had never met Ahsoka, but they did remember her. They knew how she felt, and somewhere in the back of their heads, they remembered Ahsoka singing to them. For a long time, they didn't have words to describe what they knew, but when they heard and saw the recording of Ahsoka singing, they connected the dots between her voice and the warm, calming presence from long ago.

The Naberrie family had learned several years ago that Qui-Gon was teaching Ahsoka how to project a Force Ghost, but he had also warned them that it would be a long process. Despite not wanting to get their hopes up too far, Luke and Leia hoped that they would get to actually talk to her one day. This wasn't quite that, but it was something, and surely it was a step closer than she was before.

Luke looked up at his dad. "Did you get to talk to her? Like... actually speak?"

"Sort of," Anakin admitted, "not really. She said a few words, but before I could respond, those Inquisitors I talked about earlier attacked the temple, and we ran out of time."

"Oh, great."

"Don't worry, the story goes downhill from here," Anakin warned him. "Wanna guess who Ezra saw in his vision?"

The twins looked at each other, telepathically deciding what their guess was. After a moment, they gave up. "Who was it?"

"Yoda."

His name didn't get anywhere near the same joyful response Ahsoka's name had gotten. If anything, the listeners cringed. No one thought very highly of him anymore.

Sola sat back in her seat, grinning slightly. "I'm detecting a note of disappointment in the room."

"Has he changed in the past sixteen years?" Padmé asked, recalling the last time Anakin and Obi-Wan had spoken with him.

"If I had to guess, no," Anakin confessed, sitting back on the couch and sighing. "They had a conversation, and Ezra said that he wanted to fight the Empire. Yoda responded by telling him to go to Malachor." He looked at the twins. "Ring a bell?"

"It's taboo, right?" Luke remembered from Obi-Wan's lessons. "The Jedi didn't say why it was forbidden, but they know it was dangerous, so they didn't let anyone go there."

Sola wasn't totally fluent in the ways of the old Jedi Order, but she knew a few things. "That sounds like a red flag to me."

Giving Sola a thumbs up, Anakin nodded. "It was, but as you know, telling a teenager to stay put when they want to go somewhere usually doesn't work. I figured Kanan and I would go with him to lend a hand if something went wrong."

"Let me guess: something went wrong?"

"Very wrong," he confirmed. "I'll spare you the finer details, but there are several things that happened: We met a new Inquisitor who used to be a Padawan in the Jedi Order. It was one of Kanan's old friends, actually, which didn't help anything."

Luke felt sympathetic for Kanan. "Must have been hard for him."

Shaking his head, Anakin explained, "I remember how I felt when I thought Ahsoka was the First Sister in the beginning. Looking at the face of a friend and believing that they're trying to kill you... and this time, it isn't some trick."

Ahsoka's wind whirled a little faster around the twins' hands as if she were squeezing them. Luke and Leia knew what Ahsoka had done to kill Sidious all those years ago. The parts they had been told were shocking enough, and they had a feeling that the whole story was a lot more painful.

Anakin reeled his thoughts back and kept going. "That Inquisitor, the Eighth Brother, is alive, but the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister are dead by Maul's hand. Also worth noting, Maul is alive and is causing issues."