(Note: Credit to the artist for the artwork above, it is not mine.)

The next couple of days proved interesting, to say the least. Neither Anakin nor Padmé had anticipated the amount of work and attention required by one child- much less two. Every couple of hours, little Luke and Leia would scream because they were hungry or tired. It was as if they cycled through a whole day in a matter of hours. They couldn't sleep through the night and they were constantly hungry.

Much to Anakin's surprise, Padmé managed the situation with relative ease and calmness. She seemed to have a natural instinct for it- she knew how to hold them, when to feed them, when to try to put them to sleep. When Anakin finally asked her about it once, she admitted that she had already done some research beforehand, and that she had talked to her sister, who had young children as well. At least Padmé seemed to know what she was doing- Anakin did not have the slightest idea how all this worked.

A few short nights later, Luke and Leia were finally asleep, after a significant amount of coaxing. Anakin and Padmé tried to go back to bed themselves, even though they knew the babies would wake up again soon.

"It makes me wonder how people ever learn to sleep at night in the first place," Anakin said as they stared up at their plain little ceiling.

Padmé laughed softly. "Don't worry, they'll learn eventually. One day, we'll just wake up and realize that we slept through the whole night."

She had just finished speaking when a thump sounded on the roof, as if something heavy had just landed on it.

Padmé stared at Anakin tensely. "What was that?"

"No idea."

"We should find out."

"I'll head up and check it out," he told her. "You stay with the babies."

Padmé nodded and her silvery blue nightgown swished as she got up to check on Luke and Leia. Anakin grabbed his lightsaber, threw on a shirt, and headed outside.

The noise had not occurred again- maybe it was nothing. But why did he have the feeling that it actually was something to worry about?

They lived on the top floor of the apartment complex, so Anakin just had to climb a flight of stairs to get to the roof. Once up there, he couldn't see anything. Just the antennas and other hardware on the roof, and the city lights twinkling off in the distance.

But as he looked more closely, he could just barely make out an obscure, indefinite blob shape that blended in quite well with the darkness. It didn't move at all. Anakin crept closer to it.

Hopefully he wouldn't have to use his lightsaber, since it was technically illegal to have one now, and it would be easily seen in the darkness.

All of a sudden, the shape changed dramatically- it elongated into the form of a person who was wearing a heavy cloak. Apparently the person had been crouching. A flash of blue lit the whole area- a blue lightsaber. And it wasn't Anakin's.

The person had seen him and was running right at him. He was forced to activate his lightsaber in order to meet the attack.

The person's first swing was heavy and fast, full of momentum, and it took a lot of effort to block. The blinding white light flashed dizzyingly in front of their faces as they clashed their blades. Anakin found that he didn't have to think very hard about his movements- it was all instinct, muscle memory and the Force.

As they fought, they moved quickly around the roof, and the wind blew in strong gusts. The moving air blew the figure's hood back, revealing a scarred, pale, female face. She was surprisingly tall for a woman- almost as tall as Anakin.

Her lightsaber was blue, indicating that she was a Jedi- or once was, anyway. But her presence in the Force was dark and intense, like the disturbance in the Force when the Jedi Temple was attacked. Her strokes were harsh and powerful- each one was an expression of anger too deep for words. Anakin understood far too well what it was like to use fighting this way, as a venting mechanism.

But for once, he was not in that position- he was here only to defend himself.

On one particular stroke, they landed on a clash- holding their lightsabers still and leaning heavily on each other's blades. The woman was surprisingly strong; she didn't give any ground even as Anakin pushed on her blade.

"What... are you... doing... here?" Anakin demanded, voice tight with concentration.

The woman said nothing; she only scowled grimly. Then her presence in the Force surged, and she thrust her hand forward in a Force push.

It was like being hit hard by a giant metal ball. The impact stung, and for a terrifying moment Anakin couldn't breathe. He hit the floor precariously close to the edge of the roof, and his momentum was such that he fell right off.

Just in time, he grabbed the edge of the roof and was hanging on to it only with his mechanical arm. The woman was running straight for the stairs that led into their apartment, where Padmé and the babies still were.

With difficulty, Anakin grabbed the roof with his other hand. The surface of the roof was rough and there was no good way to hold on to it. His grip slipped a few times, but he did manage to pull himself back up. It was a good thing he did chin-ups regularly.

Trying not to think about how close he had been to falling ten stories to the ground, he sprinted towards the stairs that led back inside.

A scream sounded from downstairs. Padmé.

Anakin found the attacker with her lightsaber plunged through the door, trying to cut a circle so she could get in. He rushed up and slashed at her back, forcing her to withdraw her lightsaber to block it. They resumed their vigorous swings and parries.

"Do whatever you want with me," Anakin snapped, "but leave them alone!"

The woman stared at him with her bloodshot eyes. "I've killed many Jedi within the past few days... You'll be no trouble." Her voice was low and hoarse, and her gaze landed on the door which she had been trying to get through. "I'll have them, too!"

Anakin realized that this warrior must have aided the Republic- or, the Empire now- in the Jedi Purge. And it seemed as though she was once a Jedi herself. "Traitor! How could you!" he exclaimed.

The woman laughed harshly- a hollow, barking sound. "Me? I'm not the one who left my mentor to die!"

Was she referring to the incident with Palpatine and Windu? If so, how did she know about it?

They could hear the babies crying in the apartment. The woman kept trying to get past Anakin and enter the room, but he was trying to drive her back up the stairs. He refused to let this deranged creature get to his new little family, which had been through so much already.

After what seemed like several grueling hours, Anakin could sense his opponent beginning to weaken. She stumbled more and her strokes became clumsier. She even struck the wall with her lightsaber once, in an attempt to hit Anakin. He took advantage of this, using stylized techniques to make every stroke more heavy, but not less precise. It worked- the woman was forced to retreat up the stairs. As she scrambled to climb them, he slashed low at her ankles, and she didn't block. A hissing sound erupted and steam rose into the air as the laser-hot plasma made contact with her body. She screamed loudly, almost wailing.

But before Anakin could get close enough to fully disarm her, she shot a grappling hook to the ceiling and pulled herself up with it. Her thick robes fluttered in the moving air. Anakin jumped high up, using the Force to move faster and farther.

The woman, clenching her jaw and inhaling sharply in pain, reached the roof and shot another grappling hook to something above. Anakin felt no pity towards her. She was lucky she still had all her limbs. A couple of burns on her ankles would heal quickly.

She had shot her grappling hook towards a small, barely visible ship hovering high up in the air, and was moving quickly towards it. "The Emperor doesn't take too kindly to traitorous, ungrateful pupils!" she screamed down at him. "Or rebellious, insurrectionist Senators! You both need to watch your backs... or deal with his wrath!"

(Author's Note: What did you think of the first (and only) OC in this story? I hope you all really, REALLY appreciate this chapter because I wrote it while on vacation! Yep, I had to drag my laptop around in my carry-on bag in the airport, and sneak in a paragraph or two whenever I had a spare moment, so releasing this new chapter was no small feat! But I really enjoyed writing the first real fight scene, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as well!

Don't forget to vote if you liked the chapter, and please comment with any random thoughts you may have! Remember, if you vote AND comment on 4 consecutive chapters, you will be PMed a special sneak peek to the next chapter. Thanks for reading!)