Ahsoka Tano was sleeping peacefully in her small, one-room apartment just a few miles outside of the capital of Aldera when a ripple through the Force shook her violently from her slumber.
Anger.
Hot, seething hatred.
Betrayal.
Profound sadness.
Her master. Anakin Skywalker.
No. Her former master. Or, to put it more accurately, the monster who took over her former master.
Vader.
Even after all the time and distance between them, she could still feel the emotions welling off of him like the heat from a flame. Every slice of his crimson lightsaber slicing through paint and drywall like butter. Every expletive-laden scream. His pain as he called out for Padmé. Boiling rage, hotter than the fires of Mustafar burning him alive once again.
Vader had learned the truth. And, now, he'd be coming for what was his.
His children.
The young Togruta of twenty-one years had come to this backwater planet as a fugitive from the Empire. Though she had left the Jedi Order five years earlier – a decision she later found out saved her life when her former teacher all but wiped out the Jedi one fateful night as the Empire was born – she was still a very wanted woman with a hefty price on her head.
Though she no longer considered herself a Jedi, she was still very much in tune to the Force. She had been for as long as she could remember. Being a Force-sensitive being, she figured, it's something that would stay with her no matter where she was or what she did.
The news of the Jedi purge had reached Ahsoka, who had made her home in a small, dirty mechanic's shop on the planet of Cinetas since leaving the Jedi Order a couple of years prior. Everyone she grew up with, all her friends, her family, Plo Koon, dead at the hands of the very clone troopers they led. But she didn't break down, instead choosing to immerse herself in a particularly large and complicated project as a means of distraction. Tears, she told herself, would come later.
She was deep in concentration when her datapad alerted her to a new message...from Obi-Wan Kenobi.
He was alive. Thank the gods.
The message was short – "Come now. Emergency." – and included a set of coordinates, all in code.
She dropped what she was doing, ran to the nearby hangar where her starship was parked and climbed in. In a matter of minutes, she was high above the planet's stratosphere. She plugged the coordinates into the navi-computer, which would take her to...Polis Massa? That couldn't be right. She plugged in the coordinates again, wondering if she got a number wrong. Again, the screen pulled up the mining colony. She plugged in the coordinates a third time just to be sure. Once again, Polis Massa.
With a lump in her throat and her heart beating through her chest, Ahsoka made the jump to hyperspace.
Now that she had a name and room number in hand, Ahsoka ran down the halls of the medical center as fast as her feet would carry her, relying on the Force to calm her racing heart.
She turned the corner, nearly knocking over a crash cart in the process, and made it to her destination – to see Obi-Wan slumped beside the operating table, his head in his hands. The body on the stretcher above was already covered, the white sheet concealing its identity. She was too late.
Behind her, she heard the sound of approaching footsteps of Master Yoda. She turned around and looked down at him.
"Master Yoda," she said sadly. "I came as quickly as I could."
"Good it is to see you well, young padawan. Grown, you have."
"The babies. Are the babies okay?"
"Healthy, the children are. Strong. Come, Ahsoka. Much we have to discuss."
Ahsoka sat at the card table in the darkened room, clutching a cup of caf – two sugar, two cream – that had long since turned cold. She had lost all interest in drinking it, but kept clutching it to keep her shaking hands occupied.
"You know, caf stunts your growth, Snips. Sometimes I wonder how your tiny little feet even reach the speeder pedals."
"I reach them just fine, Skyguy, and my growth is stunted anyway. Might as well have the caf."
"Suit yourself, short stuff."
She sighed at the memory, her breath coming out in a shudder.
Yoda stood on a chair situated on the other side of the table. In another, to Ahsoka's right, sat Obi-Wan. They'd told her everything, about how Anakin had turned to the dark side, how he had killed younglings and even infants in the Temple nursery, how he nearly killed Padmé.
"Not Anakin," she said incredulously. "Killing...younglings? My-my master's not capable of that. And he loved Pad- Senator Amidala. He'd never hurt her. What you're saying...it doesn't make sense."
"Gone your master is, Ahsoka. Consumed he is by Darth Vader. Allow the Emperor to know the children are alive, we must not."
Ahsoka swallowed hard.
"So, what's going to happen to them?"
"Split them up, we have decided. To Alderaan, you will go, to watch over the girl. Watch over the boy on Tatooine, Obi-Wan will. Keep them safe from the Empire, we must, until the time is right. Our last hope, they are."
They sat across from each other, Bail Organa in his leather studded chair on one side of his desk and Ahsoka in one of the chairs on the other. She could cut the tension with a knife.
He stared the petite Togruta down, his anger palpable even to a non Force-sensitive creature. Ahsoka anticipated this and did her best to brace herself accordingly. Of course she didn't feel great suggesting taking little Leia away from her family, but the extreme circumstances didn't leave her much choice. She had come here to keep the young girl safe and she was just trying to do her job.
"Absolutely not, Ahsoka," Bail said, his commanding but normally level-headed tone of voice rising to a near shout. "Out of the question."
"I don't like this any more than you do but, Bail, he killed children. He strangled and beat up the woman carrying his own children. He's very dangerous. If she stays, he'll find and kill you. I'll protect her with my life. I swear it. No harm will come to her."
"No. She stays with us. End of discussion."
Ahsoka sighed. She had considered going to Tatooine, but reconsidered, realizing the conversation would likely be just as fruitless there.
"Then will you at least let me stay here with her? As protection?"
A small voice interrupted their conversation.
"Daddy? Auntie 'Soka?"
Little Leia Organa stood in the doorway, one hand rubbing her eyes and the other clutching the threadbare pink blanket she absolutely insisted on carrying with her wherever she went.
"Leia, it's late," Bail said, getting up from his desk and walking toward the small girl. "What are you doing up?"
"I'm scared. I heard yelling."
"It's OK," he said reassuringly, picking the little girl up. He placed Leia's head on his shoulder and smoothed out her long brown hair. "We were just talking. Let's go back to bed. You have school tomorrow."
"But I want to see Auntie 'Soka."
"She'll be here in the morning. Won't you, Ahsoka?"
Ahsoka nodded.
"I promise, little one," she said. "But for right now, Daddy and I need to talk about some grown up stuff, OK? It's late. Go back to bed."
With that, Bail carried the little girl out of the room.
Ahsoka was still waiting when, about a half hour later, Bail returned with two glasses and a decanter full of what she guessed was Alderaanian whiskey.
"She reminds me so much of Padmé," Bail said with a small chuckle as he sat down at the desk and filled the small glasses with the amber-colored liquid. "Just...everything about her. Leia makes me so proud. She's so smart. Asks so many questions. And she's kind. But that damned angry streak of hers…she has a lot of her father in her, too. That's what I'm afraid of."
He took a swig from his glass. Ahsoka followed suit. This particular bottle of whiskey was stronger than what she was used to, and it burned as it made its way to her stomach.
"As soon as we brought her home, she started moving things. Stuffed animals, toys, you name it. One time she even saved her nanny from falling off a cliff," he said with a heavy sigh. "I guess it was only a matter of time until Vader learned the truth. I just…didn't think it would be so soon."
"Bail, I'll do everything I can to make sure she's safe."
Bail nodded.
"I know," he said. "All right, you can stay. Just...protect her. Please. She's my baby girl."
Anakin was on a mission on some faraway planet and, for the first time in a long while, Ahsoka hadn't joined him. The Jedi Council instead requested she stay on Coruscant, much to her chagrin. Much like her master, the teenager craved adventure and excitement and would have much preferred going with him over staying at the Jedi Temple.
But orders were orders and after getting in some serious trouble for stowing away on the last mission she wasn't supposed to be on, Ahsoka decided it would be best not to push her luck.
"Rest and meditate, you should, Padawan," Grand Master Yoda had told her. "Dismissed, you are."
And she followed the diminutive master's orders – for about a day. Then, after she had grown bored of hanging around the Temple, Ahsoka eventually made her way to Padmé's apartment a few miles away. She'd always thought of Padmé as an older sister and genuinely enjoyed spending time with the young senator. Even a quiet night in playing cards or holochess beat the boredom of aimlessly wandering the temple or studying in the library.
Ahsoka rang the doorbell. A few seconds later Padmé, still dressed in one of her heavy Senate gowns and her dark hair in one of many extravagant coiffures, answered.
"Ahsoka, this is a pleasant surprise. Please, come in."
A few hours later, the two women were in Padmé's speeder, heading back to her apartment after a wonderful meal out. For Ahsoka, it was a welcome change from some of the more questionable fare served in the mess hall at the Temple or the dried rations kept aboard the Republic starships. They did their job providing energy and nutrition, sure, but left a lot to be desired otherwise.
Padmé landed the speeder at the private dock right outside her apartment. The pair hopped out and made their way into the apartment.
"Thank you for supper," Ahsoka said. "It sure beat what I probably would have eaten at the Temple. Jedi can do a lot of things, but cooking isn't one of them."
"Anytime, Ahsoka," she replied, the back of her hand up against her mouth. "If you'll excuse me..."
With that, Padmé quickly turned away and headed toward the nearby half-bathroom. A few seconds after she shut the door, Ahsoka could hear her coughing and retching. This went on for a few minutes until a flushed and teary-eyed Padmé re-emerged.
"Padmé, are you OK?"
"Yeah, I'm all right," she replied weakly. "Just...been a little under the weather lately."
Ahsoka took a quick look at Padmé's face. Her eyes looked much darker than usual, like she was missing out on some much needed sleep. Much of this could have been attributed to the stress of her job, but Ahsoka sensed something more was going on with the senator than she was letting on.
"If you're ill, I can leave. You look like you could use some rest."
"Please, stay. It was probably just something I ate. Besides, I could use the company."
As Padmé turned from her and headed toward the living area, Ahsoka picked up on another presence in the room. She probed a bit more, wondering if her mind was playing tricks on her. The two auras she felt were faint, but definitely there. They were bright, innocent, warm, unlike anything Ahsoka had felt before. Still, there was no mistaking it.
Padmé was pregnant.
"Auntie 'Soka?"
For the second time that night, Ahsoka was prematurely awakened from her slumber, this time by Leia tugging on one of the blue and white-striped lekku cascading from her head down her shoulders. Ahsoka was in the middle of a growth spurt and her lekku, which had grown another two or three inches seemingly overnight, were even more sensitive than usual. The child certainly didn't mean any harm by it, but it sure did hurt.
Bail had graciously allowed Ahsoka to stay in the bedroom adjacent to Leia's. But, for Ahsoka, sleep was hard to come by. Finally, after several hours of tossing and turning, she had finally succumbed to exhaustion – only two hours prior.
Ahsoka let out a sleepy groan.
"Ouch," she said groggily, rubbing the tender spot where Leia had grabbed. "What is it, little one?"
"I hafta pee."
"Then go pee."
"I'm scared."
Ahsoka let out a sigh. Protecting the young girl was, after all, the reason why she was here in the first place – even if all she was protecting Leia from at that moment was the Boogie Man. She sat up and pulled the covers back, then she stretched a bit before finally standing up.
"All right, little one," Ahsoka said, taking her hand. "Let's go."
Ahsoka listened to the familiar timbre of Obi-Wan's voice as she stood in the doorway to the hospital's nursery.It was familiar to her, but different at the same time. Sad, yet still with a tinge of hope.He was...singing? It was foreign to Ahsoka. In the 17 years she had known her normally sassy grandmaster, she'd never once heard him sing.
It was a familiar lullaby, much like the one Anakin once sang to her when she caught a particularly bad strain of the flu and was admitted to the Healers' hall at the Jedi Temple. At the time, the hardheaded teenage padawan was annoyed by Anakin's tone-deaf rendition, and all she wanted to do was sleep, but now she'd give anything to hear him sing it again.
The baby in his arms waved its little fist in the air as Obi-Wan sang the final verse.
Obi-Wan finished the song and looked up at her, sensing her trepidation.
"They don't bite,
you know," he said with a small smile.Ahsoka chuckled. She made her way to the rocking chair in which Obi-Wan was sitting and holding a small bundle wrapped in a blue cotton blanket. As she looked down at the infant, she couldn't help but feel a small pang of sadness. This was wrong. It should be Anakin and Padmé rocking their children and singing them lullabies in their home, not Obi-Wan on some cold rock in the middle of nowhere.
The baby, picking up on Ahsoka's feelings, scrunched its face up and began to fuss.
"
Oh. Shhh. It's all right, little one," Obi-Wan said, gently stroking its temple with two of his fingers. Almost instantly, the child stopped crying. "Shield your emotions, Ahsoka. You're upsetting him."
"
So...they're already strong in the Force?"
"Very."
The boy looked just like Anakin, from the wisps of golden blond hair on his head to his cerulean eyes down to the defiant wrinkle in his brow when Obi-Wan shushed him. Not even a day old and already giving Obi-Wan trouble, she thought.
"They're beautiful. What are their names?"
"This is Luke. And that," he said, motioning to the sleeping infant in the crib next to the rocking chair. "Is Leia."
"
Can I hold her?"
He nodded.
She lifted the tiny girl from her crib, trying her best not to disturb her sleep, and settled into the rocking chair next to Obi-Wan. As she looked down at the infant, she swallowed another wave of sadness, this time shielding herself so the baby couldn't feel it.
If her brother was the spitting image of his father, Leia looked just like her mother: the olive skin, the
head full of already thick dark brown hair, the delicate chin, even the regal glare that came so naturally to Padmé. The child stirred in her arms, opening her eyes to look up at the Togruta.
"Hello, little one. I'm your Aunt Ahsoka."