Luke and Leia were actually triplets. Their sister, Lucinda "Lucy" Skywalker grew up as the adopted daughter of Margaret and Frank O'Neill with their own two children, Aodhinn and Fionn, in our world. Obi Wan finds Lucy as a nine year old, how he got there he does not know, but Lucy is doing something that no Jedi has done in millennia: she is teaching herself to use the force. Now, he must find a way to bring little Lucinda Skywalker home.
Lucy Skywalker was not what you would call 'normal', she never had been.She did not really play with other children unless you counted Fionn, the only sport she had any interest in was camogie and she was a very serious child.
Margaret and Frank had gone to great lengths to ensure that Lucy knew that she, unlike Fionn and Aodhinn, was adopted. Lucy had turned up on the O'Neill's doorstep, waking them up with her screams, when she was a week old. Aodhinn had been ten at the time and Fionn was the same age as Lucy, round about. The only reason they knew her name was Lucinda Skywalker was the piece of paper pinned to her yellow blanket.
Aodhinn had always considered Lucy her sister and was very protective of her. Lucy got along brilliantly with Fionn.
When Lucy turned nine, things drastically changed for her. Everyone noticed how distant she'd become, but they didn't know how many changes were taking place and the toll these changes were taking on the nine year old. They started the very morning of her birthday as she woke up. Just as her eyes opened, she was nearly given a heart attack by a glass of water flying towards her suddenly. A month later, while practicing her knitting (something she found very relaxing, especially while drinking her tea), she was surprised by the new ball of wool floating towards her when she needed it. As well as this, she noticed that she was seeing things differently, she could find out certain things about people by studying their behaviour. Things were getting worse, and Lucy was getting more and more scared.
It was after school one day, in the park, that Lucy first met the strange man in the funny dressing-gown-like clothes. Aodhinn was sitting nearby on a bench studying for her Irish exam and glancing at the swings every now and then to make sure Lucy was okay.
"Not so high Lucy," said Aodhinn, "the rope's going slack."
"You're such a wus Aodhinn," said Lucy, happy for once, "I'm not going that high!" Aodhinn scowled then looked back down at her books.
All of a sudden, there was a loud crashing noise and a groan. Lucy stopped the swing by skidding her feet along the ground ("You're going to ruin your shoes, Lucy"). Aodhinn didn't seem to hear whatever it was that crashed. Lucy ran to the source of the noise, behind a bush about fifty feet away.
Obi Wan Kenobi had crashed. Oh how he wished Anakin hadn't turned to the dark side. He had no idea where he was. He was in a large, open area covered with slightly pale green grass and trees here and there. Under the trees were dark brown, rotting leaves. The place had a kind of damp, rotting smell like in a deciduous forest after a long rain-spell.
Out of the corner of his eye, Obi Wan could see a young girl of about nine peeping around the edge of the bush he was standing behind.
"Hello there," he said, noticing that she looked scared when he spoke to her. She stepped out so that he could see her. She was about nine and had very long, mousy-brown curls. She had big hazel coloured eyes and a demure curved nose. She was wearing a purple corduroy pinafore with pink buttons at the shoulders, stripy tights, a pink long sleeved t-shirt, and blue converse shoes. To Obi Wan, she looked extremely odd. "What's your name?"
"I'm not s'pposed to talk to strangers," said the girl in a small voice.
"Well, could you tell me were I am?"
"The park, Wicklow Town, Wicklow, Ireland, Europe, Earth, the solar system, the milky way. We just did space in school."
"You seem to know a lot about space."
"I want to be an astronaut when I grow up."
"Thank you very-"
"Lucy!" yelled a female voice. "Lucinda Skywalker, you get over here right now!" Obi Wan was shocked. Yoda had never said where he was taking little Lucinda.
"I have to go now, that's my big sister. Bye!"
"Goodbye little one." Obi Wan couldn't help but reminisce over nine years ago:
"Babies?" asked Obi Wan, shocked and thinking that there must be a mistake.
"She's carrying triplets." This complicated things.
Padmé gave birth to one son and two daughters. Luke and Leia were perfectly healthy, but Lucinda was too small. She had given them quite a scare in fact, her heart wasn't beating properly and her lips began to turn blue. After several tense minutes, she returned to a normal colour and the droid pronounced her healthy. Lucinda still had to do time in the incubator though.
Obi Wan was to take Luke to live with his aunt and uncle on Tatooine, Bail Organa was to adopt Leia, which left Lucinda. There was a lot of debate over who should take Lucinda. Obviously, she would need a lot of care to make sure that her heart was alright. Finally, Yoda agreed to leave her somewhere safe, he wouldn't say where.
The next day, he was handing a sleeping Luke to his aunt Beru.
"Lucy, where were you?" asked Aodhinn, wondering where her adopted sister had been.
"I thought I saw something behind that bush, but there was nothing there."
"Hmm," said Aodhinn, not sure if she should believe Lucy or not. She was completely unaware that they were being watched.
Obi Wan couldn't resist following them home. The older girl, Lucy called her "Ay-deen", dropped her off at a big old house outside the town where they were greeted by an enormous grey dog who was pretty much at eye-level with Lucy. Aodhinn then left, saying she had to get Fionn from soccer practise. Obi Wan was surprised at how careless the girl was, there didn't appear to be any adults in the building.
A couple of minutes later, he was shaken out of his thoughts by the voice of little Lucy who had her head sticking out an upstairs window. "Why did you follow me?"
"I…" Obi Wan was, for once, stumped. "I knew your parents."
"Well, Frank and Margaret wont be back until later, they're at work."
"I mean your real parents; Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala."
"How do I know your telling the truth? I don't know my parents real names, you could have made them up." Obi Wan decided a visual was needed. He sent images to the girl mentally of his memories of Anakin and Padmé, a skill he'd recently mastered. He was very careful to only send her only the good memories; when he first met Anakin, Anakin's training, a few comical images of how Anakin used to act around Padmé, and images of Padmé speaking in the senate.
"How did you do that?" asked Lucy, "It's like something out of Star Trek!" Obi Wan smiled, she was just like Anakin, in looks and personality, but she was slightly different. She was braver, like Padmé. "Do you want to come in? Margaret made biscuits this morning. They're only porridge cookies and they're not as nice as shortbreads, but they're still good."
"Are you sure your Margaret and Frank wont mind?"
"They might, but Aodhinn didn't hear you crash, and that was loud, maybe they cant see you either."
"All right, if you insist." Lucy closed the window and ran down the stairs - Obi Wan could hear her - and opened the door. Obi Wan was greeted by what he at first thought was a big grey carpet, but was actually what Lucy called an "Irish wolfhound" by the name of Molly. He followed the girl into the kitchen where she climbed up on a chair to get a red polka-dot tin which, he assumed, held the biscuits Lucy had spoken of.
"So," said Lucy, "where are you from?"
"Far away from here, on another planet in fact."
"What planet, Mars, Jupiter…?" Obi Wan smiled, none of the other planets in the solar system had any life readings.
"Not in the solar system, much further away. I grew up on a planet called Coruscant, a couple of hundred light-years from here." Lucy was unsure as to whether or not to believe her new friend.
"If your from somewhere that far away, this planet must seem really primitive compared to there."
"In some ways, yes, but in others, not so much. People here are all educated and cared for, where I come from there's an oppressive empire ruling the entire galaxy. They do not care about the needs of people."
"Not everyone here is cared for properly. In places like Africa there are people dying of starvation every day. There are countries under oppressive governments here too, the same as the empire where you come from."
"Lucinda Skywalker, you are wiser than your years." Lucy smiled at the compliment. "You're very serious for a nine year-old, you know that?"
"Everyone says that, Margaret used to think there was something wrong with me because of it. I don't get along with anyone my age except Fionn, and even then, I get along better with Molly. I'm not hugely interested in sports, but I'm good at camogie. And… and I can do things that aren't normal."
"How do you mean?"
"I can move stuff with my mind, and I can see… things in my sleep. It's almost like seeing the future."
"What can you see?"
"Horrible things. It's always the same; I see my family die."
"You must not pay attention to these visions, they will lead you to the dark side of the force."
"What's the force?"
"The force is what controls all of us, but certain people are more force sensitive than others and can use it to move things and other such things."
"Cool!" Obi Wan smiled, she was definitely her father's daughter. "I've seen movies where people can do that, like Harry Potter, but the books were better with that one."
"They normally are."
"That's what Aodhinn always says. When the movie of Eragon came out, she was livid 'cause it didn't follow the books properly. I was the same with Prince Caspian, even though the movie was really good. They pretty much made the whole thing up from the first half-hour onwards."
"I've stopped going to see movies of books I liked."
"What's your favourite cartoon?"
"I'm… not sure."
"Mine's Scooby Doo, not the new ones though, the really old ones that Frank and Margaret watched when they were my age."
"What's that about then?" Lucy looked shocked. How could anyone not know what Scooby Doo was about?
"Well, the main characters are a great Dane called Scooby Doo and his best friends, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne and Velma. They have this kind of group called Mystery Inc. and they drive around the place in the Mystery Machine solving mysteries with people dressed up as ghosts and monsters. It's awesome!" Obi Wan could only smile and nod.
When Margaret and Frank arrived home, Lucinda's theory proved to be correct. Margaret and Frank couldn't see Obi Wan. Lucy snuck some leftovers of the casserole they'd had for dinner and a slice of the apple pie they'd had for dessert. Obi Wan slept on an airbed Lucy found, complete with pump, in the cupboard under the stairs.
That night, all the people trying to sleep upstairs could hear was Margaret and Frank arguing.
"She's not even our daughter!" yelled Margaret.
"But we took her in! She might as well be!"
"Think about it Frank, why the hell are we looking after somebody else's child? She's unwanted, and she's a loser!" Obi Wan could see a tear flowing down Lucy's face.
"Are they always like this?" he asked, concerned for his old friend's daughter. She nodded silently. The door opened suddenly to reveal Aodhinn.
Hey," she said, sympathetic towards her adopted sister. She flicked on the lights, walked over to the bed and pulled Lucy into a hug. "Why d'you take out the airbed?"
"It's for my friend," she said in a small voice.
"Lucy, I think you're a bit old for imaginary friends."
"He's not imaginary! He's real!" They were interrupted by a crash and a thud downstairs.
"I'll go down and see what's happened," said Aodhinn, worried now about her parents rather than her sister's mental health. There was a scream and Aodhinn was suddenly back in Lucy's room, barring the door with a chair.
"What's wrong?" asked Lucy. Aodhinn was dialling a number into her phone. "Aodhinn, what's wrong?" she stopped.
"Dad's dead."