Thalia does good on her promise and brings Anakin and Shmi home by sunrise. The Lars' are waiting outside. Cliegg looks grave, as if he was the one carrying his wife's corpse, and not her own son. Owen sheds a few tears that Thalia can't bring herself to feel sorry for. They are to blame for what happened to Anakin last night. They sent him on this quest for revenge, and she would not honor them.
But she would honor Shmi Skywalker.
She had never met the woman, and it was hard to view her as more than her mother because she'd only known her through Anakin, but she could tell from how long she survived in the camp that she had been strong. She deserved a warrior's burial. Thalia, Queen of Pelides, would give her one. She had done it before.
Her body is wrapped in cold cloths, as cold as it can be in the desert, as Anakin sits opposite Thalia in a different room. She won't let him in. She doesn't want him to see his mother in that state again; bloodied, impossibly broken.
"I am sorry." Anakin's trembling voice snaps Thalia back to reality. "About last night. I wasn't thinking clearly."
She nods. "I know."
"I didn't want you to see that," he goes on.
"I know," she repeats. "You asked me to stay back."
"I'm glad you didn't."
Thalia doesn't want to know how far he would've gone if she hadn't been there. She'd love to pretend that he would have turned back, but she isn't so sure. Hatred burned in him that night, and even now, she can smell the charring of his soul.
"I think..." he goes on, hesitant to cross a line. "I think you're good for me."
She doesn't say anything, but she smiles, and Anakin's content. She doesn't mind being the keeper of his heart, just as he is the one who sets her free. For a little while still, they are children racing each other to the sun, unaware of the cliff that would come.
"Did your mother have a religion?" she asks, gathering the sponge and bucket she would need to wash the body. "Any prayers she would like said?"
Anakin has forced a holloness back into his body, that took its rightful place and shoved any and all other emotions away from him. It was the Jedi way.
He shakes his head. "I don't know."
Thalia closes her eyes, and nods. "That's okay. I'll ask the Great Moon to watch over her."
Beru comes in, clothes in her arms, hugged tightly against her chest. "I have everything," she tells Thalia, who nods again in answer.
She watches Beru make her way to the backroom. She steps in Anakin's way as he follows.
"You don't have to see this," she tells him.
"I should be there with her," he counters.
"Anakin." She puts her hands carefully on his shoulders. "Please."
She watches the bob of his throat as he swallows thickly, fighting against himself. "I have to look out for her."
"And I have to look out for you." When his eyes look everywhere except her face, she grips him a little tighter. "I'll take care of her. Trust me. Sit down. Drink something, eat. Please."
Slowly, he looks at her, and nods, walking away. He joins Owen, and Cliegg, who didn't make any fuss about not being allowed in, who barely looked affected by Shmi's death. To them, she had been dead for a long time.
Thalia joins Beru, and wordlessly unwraps Shmi's body from the cold cloth. The smell hits her nose, and Beru starts burning aromatic herbs to cover it, ridding the room in a warm veil that clogs her throat.
"Why are you helping me?" Beru asks, focused on her hands. "I could've done it on my own."
"I know. It's why I'm helping." She didn't want anyone to face death alone, and she knew no man would be brave enough to step in.
Shmi's body is littered with wounds and scars. Whip marks can be seen everywhere Thalia's eyes settle, and she has to shove down the urge to vomit. The blood coating her body has already turned black. One of her eyes is swollen shut, and there is nothing to do about it anymore.
Thalia hands Beru a sponge, and they start cleaning the body of sand, filth, and blood. It takes three washes until the water is clear, until there is a woman and not just a corpse on the table. Beru started crying halfway through. Thalia had done it before.
"You must think I'm pathetic."
Thalia's head snaps sharply towards Beru, frowning in confusion. "Why would I?"
"Because this is my future," she gestures to Shmi. "I know Owen loves me like a farmer loves his pet. You must think me a fool for knowing it and staying with him, but I... I don't mind being loved like this. It's all I've known."
The Queen averts her gaze away from the young woman, carefully tightening the wounds of the older one closed, so that nothing feels out of place, nothing is gaping, and when they bury her, no dirt will soil her body.
"I don't think that's pathetic," she says, and she is not lying, but she knows why Beru must think so. She came barreling in her home, calling out the men's mistreatment of who they called beloved, loud and unapologetic. She was royalty, and Beru was just a farm girl. "I think it is a complicated ordeal that I don't and can never understand. I can judge men for it, because they are the reason it exists. Even then, that doesn't mean love isn't there. Just... Oh, I really wouldn't know. But I would never judge you, or Shmi."
"Why not?"
"I have never been a slave."
They silently dress Shmi up. The clothes are modest, but Beru claimed that they were her favorites, and Thalia didn't say anything. When they're done, the corpse looks half-alive, despite the tumefied eye, and the impossible frown of her lips – a dislocated jaw that no amount of bandages could fix in this state.
"How was she?" Thalia asks, desperate for an account of Shmi's personality that isn't dependent on a man.
Beru wipes her tears. "Kind," she starts. "Smart, too. She was able to bring anything back to life in the vaporators. Selfless." She nods, mostly to herself. "She was a good woman."
There was never a doubt in Thalia's mind that she would be anything but. She smiles at Beru in thanks, and fishes for something in her pocket. Softly, Thalia places two Pelidian coins against Shmi's eyes.
"What are those?"
"Coins for safe passage to the Dark Moon, Eurydice," she recounts. "Anakin didn't know if his mother believed in any religion and I..." She swallows the lump in her throat. "I've only ever done this one before." She's relieved to see the coin hides most of Shmi's black eye. She wouldn't want Anakin to see her like that again.
Beru washes her hands, and sits down, wiping her forehead. "What do you think happens? After death?"
Thalia carefully puts away everything they used, throwing out the sponges and the water. "Orpheus – my Great Moon Goddess, leads the soul to Eurydice, the Dark Moon. It's a tedious task. The coins are used to ensure their passage."
"Money matters once you are gone?"
"No, it's the sound they make. That allows Orpheus to know the souls are following."
Beru nods, drinking in her words. "Well, what if there are no coins?"
"In that case, the souls are lost in space and they become stars. It's not a lonely thing, they dance together every night." Thalia shakes her head thoughtfully. "The coins, really, are a royal custom. The souls of our Queens rest on the Dark Moon. That's how it's always been."
"Wouldn't a slave be out of place there?" The words are harsh, but Beru isn't; she is curious, if not a little worried.
Thalia shakes her head. "No, I don't think so. I've heard of less deserving Queens getting there."
Thalia herself won't get to the Dark Moon. Unless she dies in the following years of her reign – monarchs are allowed a five year period of Ascension, as it is called – she would end in the stars. She doesn't mind at all. Her people will end up in the stars, and she knows her rightful place will be with them.
She looks at Beru, and kindly says, "Do you mind telling Anakin that Shmi will be ready soon?"
"Not at all. Thank you." She nods, though she doesn't know why she is being thanked. "I think you must be a great Queen."
Not for long, she wants to say, but guards herself from it. Instead, she just smiles, and waits for Beru to leave. Once she is alone with Shmi, she walks to the table, and stands behind her head.
Softly, she cups her cheeks in her hands, and Thalia raises her face towards the ceiling. Anywhere in the universe, the Great Moon is able to hear her prayer. In the old Pelidian dialect, Thalia asks of Orpheus to guide Shmi's soul, take care of her and find her a place on the Dark Moon where she will thrive. Somewhere with vaporators. Somewhere she can rest and think of herself first.
When she is done, she closes her eyes, and is surprised to feel a tear run down her cheek. Silently, she asks her sister to look out for Shmi when she joins her.
Shmi Skywalker's funeral is modest. Thalia helps Anakin dig the hole next to the Lars' house, close to the vaporators, at Beru's request. Owen tried to object that it would be too far away from the house, but Beru stood her ground.
When Anakin couldn't dig anymore, Thalia covered the body with dirt, and stood back to let the family say their goodbye.
"I know wherever you are, it's become a better place," Cliegg says to the grave. "You were the most loving partner a man could ever have. Goodbye, my darling wife. And thank you."
Thalia doesn't say anything, but Beru sends her a glance, from where she is holding Owen's hand. She nods at her. Beru nods back.
Anakin steps forward, hands balled into fists and face stuck in desperate resolve. He falls to his knees in front of his mother's tomb, and gathers sand in his hand. Even if she can't see his face, Thalia can see the rigidity of his shoulder.
"I wasn't strong enough to save you, mother," he apologizes. "I wasn't strong enough. But I promise I won't fail again." He stands up. "I miss you... So much." The sentence is pronounced through gritted teeth.
He steps back, and Thalia grabs his sand-ridden hand, squeezing it despite the scratch of the dirt against her palm. She wonders whether he speaks of being strong enough to resist the Darkside, or strong enough to cheat death, like he claimed the night prior. She won't ask. She's scared too, holding him is easier.
Anakin's eyes on her are heavy when she turns to face him. His hair against the sun is lighter, but his eyes remain clouded. His mouth, despite his best efforts, is down-turned, and she can see the eventual wobble of his chin.
"Where is she now?" he asks her.
Thalia looks back at the tomb, but it isn't what Anakin meant. She squeezes his hand again.
"Free."
Author's Note: "This is such a filler" to you. To me this is giving my queen Shmi the funeral she deserved!!!!!