a/n:Wow that's a bad title.
Since I'm not hugely into the reading of everything that is Star Wars, I must say that anything in here that sounds incorrect probably is. Let's just say it's AU, unless one of you that is well-versed in Padme Naberrie history comes forth and says 'Gee, I never heard anything about her parents dying or living. Might as well let you have your fun.'
I'm going to have my fun. And I'm going to enjoy it.
Uncovered Pieces---------
"You look troubled."
Leia Organa Solo was indeed a troubled woman. It had been a troubling afternoon with troubled efforts to unlock the names and faces of a family and past that had long been forgotten. Her mind was still staggering under the weight of her findings and her face was heavy with both relief and sadness.
"Luke, what was our mother's name?"
Startled blue eyes met uneasy brown ones. For all of his Jedi knowledge, Luke Skywalker could not form an answer to his sister's basic question. It was something that he should have known, yet something that eluded him for no reason other than he'd never stopped to search his own history.
"Why do you ask?"
"So you've never stopped to look either," Leia affirmed. "The very thought of our father kept me from looking further into our family history. I was afraid of what I would find."
"That's understandable given the nature of the only biological family we had ever known outside of each other. Subconsciously I think that may have been holding me back as well."
She sighed heavily. "Have you ever heard of a planet near the outer rim by the name of Naboo?"
"Yes, I think I read something about it somewhere in the history texts," he said. "There was a battle there between the Naboo and the Trade Federation just before the beginning of the Clone Wars. What's that got to do with our Mother?"
Leia's brow creased significantly and a flash of anxiety came crushing into Luke harder than any emotion he'd ever felt from his sister before. It was hard to make any sense of her thoughts as her mind struggled to deal with whatever gargantuan dilemma she couldn't seem to spell out for him.
"Leia, tell me what's happened," Luke pleaded, kneeling down before her. He took her hands into his own in an attempt to comfort her racing psyche.
"Oh, Luke, there's so much that we don't know about ourselves," she whispered. "Places, things, people that are still out there. We have history hidden right in front of us, disguised in computers and droids that know more about out family than we do."
"What about our family?" he asked curiously. "I thought our families had all passed on."
"That's what I thought too until this afternoon. Luke, I spent four hours in the archives this afternoon researching our lineage. Our real lineage, not our adoptive families."
"What did you find?"
"People that we never knew existed," she breathed out.
Standing up, she walked over to her desk and picked up a manila envelope with Archive stamping. It was thick with paper, and Leia opened the cover to the top page. She held up a picture of a brightly dressed woman in an extravagant gown and an ornate hairstyle. Her face was pale with red dots on either cheek and a stripe of red on her bottom lip.
Luke studied the picture for a moment.
"This is Queen Padme Amidala," Leia said. "Our mother."
The Jedi's steady breathing faltered as a shocked numbness came over him. It had been a very long time since his last immensely good surprise, but seeing a picture of his birth mother was just the kind of thing that he hadn't been expecting.
Luke sat down on the floor and leaned back on his mechanical hand. He used the other hand to run over his face, smooth out the odd sensation of no feeling. He didn't look at Leia, only held out his hand for the file that she willingly gave him.
"I made two copies of everything," she said quietly. "This one is yours."
Staring intently at the file, he took note of the resemblance between he and Leia and this long-dead woman. They were all subtle similarities, but there was no mistaking that she was his mother. Reading the full title of the name, he recited the words in his head.
Queen Padme Naberrie Amidala. Mother.
Flipping to the next page he read briefly about his mother's childhood volunteer efforts in the Refugee Relief Movement and involvement in the Apprentice Legislature. He was surprised to learn that she had risen to the position of Queen by the young age of fourteen. He browsed through her various credentials before moving onto the pages listing known family and other associations.
He stared at the names of his grandparents Jobal and Ruwee Naberrie. They had lived in a small mountain village before moving to the capital city of Theed with their eldest daughter Sola and her husband Darred. The couple had two children Ryoo and Pooja that were more than likely grown with families of their own.
Luke flipped over to read about the Clone Wars and their mother's involvement. There was mention of their father, Anakin, who had been assigned as her protector. There was a computer security camera image of Padme and Anakin together in unknown corridor. It seemed almost odd to associate the man who was known as Darth Vader to anyone that seemed so wholesome and kind. Together they must have made an intimidating pair.
He scanned briefly over sketchy information provided about their mother's death. The recorded data was very incomplete. It only listed an unknown cause of death and a date of burial. Luke wondered if his father had ever thought of visiting the grave of the fallen woman, though he knew it was unlikely that his father had ever been there.
For the next few minutes Leia let her brother scan through the pages of the file by himself. He did so in quiet contemplation, stopping occasionally on a certain page to read more in detail of the person or the planet or town. When he was done he set the file on the ground next to his feet.
"This is so much to take in," he breathed. "Some of these people are still alive out there. I wonder if they even know who we are."
"They probably never even knew about us," she reasoned. "The Jedi of the Old Republic weren't exactly noted for their high tolerance in matters of home and family. And with Mother being a senator it would have put both she and our father at high risk."
"So we were their secret," Luke stated.
"A good one at that," Leia added.
Closing his eyes, Luke tried to picture a reality where he and Leia had grown up with the brightly dressed Padme Amidala and Jedi master Anakin Skywalker somewhere nondescript with plants and animals and a home that never was. He could see the four of them happy in their simplicity, content to grow and just be. There was no war, no hate in his false reality. There was nothing to corrupt and maim and kill.
Leia's immense feeling of sadness broke through his daydream. They shared a sadness that came with the knowledge that this woman, this Padme Amidala was long dead. They would never know her, never know her loving touch. She would never know her grandchildren and never hold her family within the circle of her arms.
"Part of me can't help but wonder what things could have been like if father wouldn't have fallen to the dark side," Leia wondered. "Would we have grown into the people we are today?"
"Do you regret how everything came out in the end?" Luke asked curiously.
"No, I've got a wonderful husband and three beautiful children to show for everything. If father had never fallen to the dark side then surely I wouldn't have been fortunate enough to walk down my destined path."
"I'm not so sure fortunate is the word I would use. After all, look at everything that we've lost."
"And look at everything we've gained," she said ardently. "I don't know about you, but I'm happy with the life I've lead. Parents or no, I couldn't ask for anything more than I've been given."
"Spoken like a true Jedi," Luke grinned.
"Well someone around here has to come up with the all-knowing wisdom," she teased.
Luke turned more serious as his thoughts came back to the matter at hand. "Still, we've got family and history out there, Leia. The hidden pieces of our past are out there waiting for us."
"One of these days we'll find them, I'm sure."
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a/n: This chapter took me like three hours of family and city and planet research to finish. I just couldn't make things up unless there was absolutely nothing to go on. Hope it doesn't seem too out of sorts or too farfetched. But I've seen worse, so maybe I shouldn't be so pessimistic about it…
It's a fanfiction sin to read without reviewing.