Aura Thundera deonii@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: All Star Wars characters are the property of Lucasfim, and I am making no profit off this.
Part I Foreword
This is an alternate universe story where Luke and Leia are unrelated.
Luke is the only child of Anakin Skywalker and Queen Padme Amidala of Naboo.
The monarchy of Naboo is hereditary as well, making Luke the prince that
he was meant to be. It was always unfair that Leia got to be a princess,
but Luke was just a Tatooine farmboy. The story begins somewhere
around halfway through what will be Episode Three. Hopefully, I'll
be able to continue it up to and through the story of Union, as my intended
stopping point is Luke's marriage.
How did I dig myself into rewriting almost all of Star Wars?
Part I: Padme Skywalker
Padme Amidala cradled the tiny miracle of life in her arms. A son, just like her beloved Anakin. Wisps of blonde hair the color of the Tatooine sands covered the boy's scalp. And his eyes were a shocking ice blue like his father's. He was a tiny Prince of Naboo. Her little Luke.
Luke cooed and looked at his mother out of wide blue eyes. Padme couldn't resist. She cuddled her tiny baby close to her chest and adjusted the soft white silk that wrapped him. She wasn't sure what she wanted most for her tiny baby.
She wanted to mother him and make him a fine prince. She wanted to see him grow up in the same palatial halls as she had. Padme could almost see Luke in his full growth, attired in a soft blue silk tunic, with the Scar of Remembrance painted on his lip. In her vision, Luke was small, like she was. But he was a beautiful man, with almost shoulder-length wavy blonde hair. The Luke of her daydreams had a smile that would make almost any woman melt.
The second possibility was that Luke might show a talent for using the Force, if he'd inherited his father's powers. But if Luke was Jedi-born, he would be taken to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant when he was half a year old. It nearly broke Padme Amidala's heart to think that her beautiful baby boy might grow up away from her. Of course, she would be allowed to visit him at the Temple from time to time, but it would not be the same. But she could picture Luke as a Jedi, his hair short for convenience, wrapped in the black robe of a Jedi Master.
"You'll be a lady killer when you grow up, my little Luke," Amidala whispered. "Just like your daddy when he was a padawan."
Amidala cuddled Luke close and sat down. Once, Anakin had gently probed her to see if she had any power in the Force. As it turned out, she did have some power in the area of prophecy. If she stilled herself and opened her mind to the Force, she sometimes received visions of the future, with startling veracity and clarity. Luke, Padme thought. Show me my son.
A vision swam into being before her closed eyes. What Padme Amidala saw in her visions was the future as her own eyes would see it. Rather than a grandmother's view of tiny babies that she had hoped for, a startling vista filled her eyes. A grand hall on Coruscant spread below her, shimmering slightly. She stood in the far back, in a balcony of some sort.
Three men, two women, two small boys and a girl stood on the dais at the front of the room. The three children bore some sort of box between them. One of the men, draped in Jedi robes, was obviously there to officiate. The second man was obviously an attendant to the third. He wore a simple formal suit.
Amidala realized that she was watching a wedding, but whose? If it was Luke's, why was she not on the dais with him? The third man stood tall and proud, wearing a blue formal shirt with black pants beneath the flowing black cloak of a Jedi Master. A small gold crest-pin gleamed in the folds of his cloak at his throat, but she was too far away to see the design. His golden hair was longish and wavy. He had dazzling ice blue eyes and a sweet smile, but his face was marked by faint, old scars. With a pang, Padme realized that he was her tiny son Luke.
A stunning redhead in a green gown faced Luke across the dais. Her attendant was a regal woman with long brown hair who reminded her of Bail Organa. The first woman's green eyes gleamed with love and devotion for Luke. Padme's little son had found himself a definite keeper of a wife.
Parts of the vision disturbed Amidala. If that was indeed her little Luke Skywalker, Prince of Naboo, up there getting married, where was the heavy gold headpiece worn in marriage by every Nubian Queen and Queen-to-be? Luke's bride was not wearing it. And Luke himself lacked the Scar of Remembrance painted on his lip that every Nubian royal wore when being married.
The room itself disturbed her. It was much larger than any chamber on Naboo, which must be why her son was being married on Coruscant and not on his homeworld. And the room was full of very important looking beaurocrats, the sort who never took any notice of Naboo whatsoever. But they swept into the hall, looking expectant. As though this wedding was an important event that they might have been left out of. But why? Why would they care if Naboo's prince and a minor Jedi Master was being married?
Or did it have something to do with her son's chosen bride? Was she the princess and heir to some important world somewhere in the Core Systems, that she was of such importance? Padme Amidala wondered. She was worried about the future and her tiny son's place in it. Is he destined to leave Naboo to rule some Core World? Would he abandon the pure beauty of Naboo for a bigger, more important world to rule?
"Padme! Padme, come quick!" Amidala heard a voice calling from the hall below the small nursery, disrupting her vision. The images of her full-grown son wavered and vanished.
"It's me, Obi-Wan!" The voice shouted again. "Grab what you can, Padme. We have to leave Naboo as soon as possible! I raced the Emperor's fleet here to speak to you!"
"It's come to that, then," Amidala said, rising from her chair, face calm, her soft casual-gown trailing her graceful movement. "Palpatine has seized control of the Republic and is returning to gloat at me. I can take that he rose from our people, that he duped the Nubians. I took responsibility for things like this when I took the throne."
"No," Obi-Wan said, racing to her side. "It is worse. He has built the foundations for his New Order, and the people willingly follow him, glad to see an end to the endless beaurocracy of the Republic. The idealistic are his crusaders. My news is that Anakin is in the entourage of the Emperor. He has been turned, Padme. There was nothing I could do; I challenged him and left him for dead. The Light is lost to him. Emperor Palpatine must have saved him somehow."
"Anakin is of the Dark Side now, Padme," Obi-Wan said. "He serves the Emperor's will in all things. And the Emperor has foreseen that the Naboo and his own children will be a threat to his power. Anakin comes to eliminate that threat. We must leave now if you and your son are to survive."
Amidala cradled her tiny son to her chest. Her face became deathly pale. "It is worse than I thought, then. My cruiser is in the hangar and it is ready to make an escape. As it always has been since we escaped the Neomoidians' blockade and fought their invasion off. It seems so long ago, now...but I cannot run. I am Queen of the Naboo."
"My queen, we must go," Obi-Wan Kenobi begged. "Every second you delay, the fleet comes nearer. The Emperor saw truly. Your son is the only hope of the people of the galaxy. He is Jedi-born, destined to defeat the Emperor's evil schemes. Luke Skywalker must remain safe."
"I cannot abandon my people," Amidala said, all Queen now. "I must remain, if Naboo is to be attacked by Palpatine's forces. If my heart has led the people of Naboo to their destruction, then I must face destruction along with them and so must my prince. The people must see that Luke is of the Naboo, that he would face destruction with them, rather than run and live with his father who brought the destruction down."
"There is no point in being a martyr to a world that will die!" Obi-Wan said. "Come to the hangar now, and bring Luke. It is more important to be mother to the one who will save the living than to be dead! Luke is savior to the galaxy, the true Chosen One, the most powerful of Jedi, beloved hero to the galaxy!"
"He will be loved by none with the truth of his name known by all!" Padme said. "Luke Skywalker, Living Prince of the Dead Naboo, Son of Anakin Skywalker who destroyed that world! They would revile him, not welcome him to save them!"
"What the people think is of no consequence to you or Luke," Obi-Wan said coolly. "What matters is that you must do what is right for them, and that means leaving before Anakin gets here to murder you and Luke."
Obi-Wan would have no more arguments. "You say that the royal cruiser is ready in the hangar?"
Amidala nodded.
"Then, your highness, you will go. Now." Obi-Wan took Padme Amidala's arm and led her out of the nursery. "I remember which way to the hangars."
Obi-Wan Kenobi led the Queen through the halls at a swift pace. Padme found it hard to believe that she was fleeing her home for the second time in her life. And this time, she would not return. Anakin had fallen. And now, she knew, Naboo would fall in his wake. Luke was silent in her arms as she walked, as though he was aware of his father's betrayal.
I will not look back, Amidala thought. My life as Queen of Naboo is over. Naboo will have no more Queens, no more rulers, after me.
Queen Amidala climbed the ramp to her cruiser, the pilots summoned by Obi-Wan and Obi-Wan himself following in her wake. She never looked back on the grand halls of Theed Palace.
And as the gleaming silver craft took off, she did not look back on the lush green hills of her home.
Once in space above Naboo, Obi-Wan caught a glimpse of the flash that hailed the arrival of the first of Palpatine's scout craft. He told the pilot to go to hyperdrive, and the scene dissolved into starlines and then into the mottled purples and blues of hyperspace.
After the royal cruiser had entered the safety of hyperspace, Obi-Wan walked back to the main chamber. Amidala probably wouldn't even want to see his face, now that he had forced her to abandon her people to destruction at the hands of a Dark Lord, but he was going anyway.
Padme Amidala had changed her clothes from the soft white gown of a mother and now she wore the midnight blue gown of a Queen. Her hair was no longer in a simple braid down her back, but was now braided with sapphires and pearls and looped into a heavy, high knot on top of her head. Amidala's face was framed by a silver headpiece that fit over her forehead. A fan of blue feathers rose from the collar of her gown.
Amidala's gown was a glory in itself. Midnight blue and speckled with tiny sparkling stars, it resembled the depths of space. It was heavy and long, ornamented with onyx beads that matched the weighty beads strung around her neck. The beaded strands held the silver seal of Naboo. Queen Amidala's face had been painted white with its red tear marks and Scar of Remembrance on her lip.
The only remaining hint of Padme Skywalker was the tiny child she held in her lap. The blonde boy had been swaddled in a sparkling bit of blue cloth that matched his mother's gown. Luke was still, obviously asleep.
"You say you saw Palpatine seize control from the Senate. Is he in total control now, then? Or does the Senate remain?" Queen Amidala had returned, the consummate politician who battled for the best of her people. "If the Senate remains, there are good people there who will hear me out when I say that Palpatine has attacked us."
Obi-Wan shook his head. "The Senate remains, but they are as councilors to Palpatine now. He is swiftly becoming an Emperor, and the galaxy will be his Empire. The Senators can speak all they like, but Palpatine will do as he wishes. Anyway, Anakin has become Darth Vader, a Dark Lord of the Sith, and he is supposedly independent of Palpatine. For the time being, at least, Palpatine cannot afford any open association with such evil."
"But if he consolidates his power and becomes an Emperor as he wishes?" Queen Amidala asked.
"If he cannot be stopped from consolidating his power further, then we are in dire trouble," Obi-Wan said. "With what he has now, he has muzzled the Jedi. We can no longer address the Senate or the people without imprisonment. He knows that the Jedi have seen through him for a long time and are in motion to stop him. Now that Anakin has fallen into his hands, I do not know what will happen. Anakin was a Master. He knew things that the Jedi Council would prefer Palpatine not know."
"Then we must move swiftly," Padme said. "The Jedi Council must be told of Luke's existence, if Luke is as important as you say. They will be valuable allies, perhaps the only allies we can count on."
"You must rest, my queen," Obi-Wan said. "I will arrange for you to speak to the Council. If Palpatine finds you on Coruscant, the Temple may be the only place where you and your son will be safe. The Jedi can guard you and Luke there."
"Very well. It shall be as you say, Obi-Wan. You may go," Amidala said, and turned away from Obi-Wan Kenobi's face, indicating that she was through speaking to him.
Obi-Wan sighed and turned around. He could talk more, but Amidala had indicated that she was done listening. Perhaps the Council could convince her that it would be best to disappear and raise Luke in quiet, not to fight for Naboo, which was surely doomed.
He sat down at the computer and started up the hyperspace comm unit to send the message. On the other end, the call was relayed through the Jedi Temple to the first available member of the Council. Unfortunately, that was Yoda, who Obi-Wan really didn't want to talk to right now. Yoda had been one of the major opponents of Anakin's training. And Yoda had been right. The galaxy would be better off right now if Anakin had been left to the simple life of a Tatooine slave.
"Told you I did," Yoda grouched at Obi-Wan. "Trouble that one was, I knew. But stubborn you are, like Qui-Gon. Trained him you had to! Hah!"
"Master, I made a mistake. I was not ready to take a padawan, especially one of Anakin's importance," Obi-Wan said. "I have Padme Skywalker with me. She has borne a son to Anakin, a boy named Luke. I have sensed the power in the boy. He is even stronger than Anakin. Luke is the true Chosen One. The Light in Luke, even as a baby, is blinding, like a beacon."
"Let Anakin escape, you did," Yoda said flatly. "Student of Palpatine he is now. The Dark Side is his chosen way. You destroyed him not. Let him free to do destruction, you did."
"Master, that's not the point," Obi-Wan said.
"My point it is," Yoda replied with a tone of reproof. "Sent you were to turn him or out of the hands of that Sith Emperor keep him. Neither did you do. Turned him further from the Light you did by injuring him."
"Then the galaxy has become an Empire, and Palpatine has declared himself Emperor in the time that I was gone," Obi-Wan muttered to himself, then spoke up. "But Master, I had no way to know that this Sith Lord Palpatine could return life to what was almost a dead body when I left it. I severed Anakin's arm, and his chest was crushed by a rock! Those wounds would have killed him within moments of when I left!"
Yoda sighed. "Failed again you have, Obi-Wan. And for it the innocents of the galaxy will pay," He said. "Forget that not. Another chance shall you have, one day. See that you fail not when the time comes. And be sure that know you difference of victory and failure that day!"
"Will you meet with Queen Amidala? She seeks an advocate for her people, to save them from the war fleet that Palpatine sent under Darth Vader's command," Obi-Wan said.
"Meet with her we shall. Take all of us to convince her it will," Yoda said. "Stubborn one she is. But also important is the raising of Luke. But bad it is that Anakin taken a name of a Sith Lord has. Turning now out of our hands is."
"Thank you, Master," Obi-Wan said with a sigh of relief, and terminated the call.
Obi-Wan got up from his chair and headed in to Amidala's throne room. "I have contacted Yoda. You have been assured a time to meet with the Jedi Council and plead your cause to them if you wish."
"That is what I intend, Obi-Wan. Do you think that they will not help me?" Amidala said, her voice tuning cold. "The Jedi were created to safeguard the galaxy, or so they say. Would they turn away a humbled Queen come to beg their aid in saving her people? If they would, then the Jedi are unworthy of the esteem this galaxy holds them in."
"The Jedi exist solely for the purpose of safeguarding the galaxy and ensuring peace. But many of the Council members are also highly gifted at prophecy and related skills. They can sense what the Force wills them to do. And the directions of the Light of the Force are always the highest priority of the Jedi."
"You are saying that the Force might wish the destruction of Naboo?" Amidala said, her voice distinctly hostile. Except, Obi-Wan knew that her hostility was carefully crafted to hide her rising fear that circumstances were indeed so. To hide her fear that the Jedi Council would indeed do nothing.
"I do not know the will of the Force myself. The Masters are always saying I can't hear the promptings of the Force over my own bumbling around," Obi-Wan said. "But that may indeed be so. However, there are other considerations."
"Palpatine has consolidated his power further," Amidala said.
Obi-Wan nodded. "The Senators are merely his pawns, existing for show. Palpatine is indeed Emperor now. And as such, the Jedi are a threat to him, and so he is a threat to our continued existence. With your husband at his side, there may be no stopping him if he chooses to destroy the Jedi. We can only hope to escape Palpatine's wrath long enough to produce a champion to defeat him."
"And that champion may be my son," Amidala replied. "What if I say no? I may refuse to let the Jedi have him. I would see to it that he is raised like a Prince of Naboo should be."
"Padme, I sensed the Light in him. Your son would never be happy in a palace, confined by the silk robes of a prince," Obi-Wan said. "Something within him would forever draw him toward the Jedi...or the Sith, whoever is near who can wield the Force. Its power would pull him in, much as Anakin was drawn to Qui-Gon and myself when we were on Tatooine. You remember his curiosity about all things Jedi when we were there."
"It was long ago," Amidala said, all Queen. "My people need an heir to the throne. Luke is my only child. I will not let him free of his birth obligation so easily. He is Prince to the Naboo, and with that he will be content."
"I suggest you speak to the Council on this matter. They know who they intend for the Champion of the Jedi. I am not a confidant of the Council as Qui-Gon was," Obi-Wan replied. The conversation infuriated him. Amidala was a fiercely stubborn woman, a trait that in her son would be valuable, but now in her was a stumbling block. He turned around and began to walk out of the Queen's throne room, intending to go to a bunk and get some rest.
"I did not give you leave to go, General Kenobi," Amidala's voice commanded.
"A Jedi need answer to no one but the Council," Obi-Wan replied. "We do not obey any authority except our own." The door swished shut behind him, leaving an infuriated Queen in his wake, clutching the armrests of her throne in a crushing grip.
Obi-Wan carefully avoided the Queen's presence for the next two days that they spent in hyperspace on the way to Coruscant. He knew that she would be angered by his presence after his deliberate defiance. But it had been necessary. Amidala had to learn that the Jedi were compelled by the laws of the Force alone, and nothing in her power could sway decisions of the Council.
However, as the royal cruiser put down on a landing pad at the Jedi Temple, it was impossible for him to continue avoiding Amidala. As they walked down the ramp, Amidala was reserved and quiet. Her hair hung in elaborately braided tendrils that sparkled with rubies and carved plaques of the opalescent blue tulis shell common in Naboo's seas. Tulis shell and ruby beads dangled from her headpiece to frame her face.
The gown Queen Amidala had chosen to face the Council in was red velvet bordered with blue. Elaborate carvings of fantastical mythic beasts, carved from tulis shells, ornamented the hem of the gown. Over the gown, she wore a blue cloak that shimmered with swirled designs embroidered in ruby beads. In her arms, she held her tiny son, swaddled in red and blue velvet.
"I will take you to the Council chamber," a young padawan said, stepping forward from the group that had greeted them upon their landing.
"I thank you," Amidala said, gracefully following the young padawan.
Obi-Wan sighed, wondering about the battle that he knew would be forthcoming as soon as Amidala began to speak to the Council.
Amidala carefully kept her composure as the young padawan led her to the room at the top of the tallest tower of the Temple. He backed away as the door opened and motioned for Amidala to continue alone.
Inside the room, a collection of varied beings sat in a circle. She recognized them from the times she had seen the Council members speak before the Senate.
Mace Windu spoke first. "Welcome, Padme Skywalker, mother of Luke. We are glad to see that Obi-Wan succeeded in getting you off Naboo before Darth Vader's attack."
"I have not come to address you as Padme Skywalker, the wife of the traitorous Anakin Skywalker. I come to you as Queen Amidala of the Naboo, to request your help for my people," Amidala said proudly.
"My lady, you have no people to be Queen of. Your husband has become Dark Lord Darth Vader. He has poisoned the air and water of Naboo. Your people are dead and your world will not be habitable, even for recolonization, for at least twenty years," Mace said solemnly.
"You tricked me into abandoning my people to death. You sent Obi-Wan to force me to break my vows as Queen. My son will grow up without his people and his culture,"Amidala accused.
"Your vows as Queen of the Naboo are unimportant. There is a more important task for your to fulfill than that of a martyred Queen of a backwater world." Mace began, but Yoda motioned him to silence so he might speak to the enraged Queen.
"Savior of the Galaxy your son will be. Train him myself, I will," Yoda said. "Strong in him the Force is and already Light is in him. As never was his father. The Chosen One indeed your son is."
"My son is no one's chosen one. That garbage destroyed the loving man I married," Amidala said. "My son is no pawn for you to use against the Emperor, no chattel for you to destroy his life by binding him to your order. He will be raised as a Prince, as best I can."
"Do you honestly believe that without the help of the Jedi, either of you will survive?" Mace Windu said calmly. "The self-declared Emperor knows that Anakin is the Destined Father of the Chosen One, who will defeat him. He will take any steps necessary to neutralize and destroy Anakin's offspring. Your little Luke will never know the life of a Prince of Naboo. He will be dead before his second birthday if you leave the protection of the Jedi."
Amidala was rattled by Mace Windu's calm discussion of the death of her son. Her little Luke, who was now all she had left of Naboo. Tears pricked her eyes. "There will be no safety for me anywhere," she said, "if Palpatine is so determined to see me and Luke dead."
"Palpatine does not know of Luke's birth," Mace Windu said. "He lied to Anakin. We intercepted his transmission to Anakin's ship. His message consisted of this: the Senate had received a transmission from Naboo. In a terrible accident, his onetime comrade, the Gungan Jar Jar Binks accidentally struck you. You fell down the stairs. The shock caused you to lose your unborn son, Anakin's heir, and during the miscarriage, you bled to death."
"He came to Naboo to destroy the Gungans for your death," Mace said after a pause. "Naboo was poisoned from the air. Your resort, where he believed you to have died, was bombed out of existence. Anakin will never know that you live, and Palpatine will never know that you two are not dead. Only a small remnant of the Naboo people still live."
"Even the existence of the Jedi is a threat to his power," Amidala said. "You would be among the first to begin a rebellion against him, because you sense his mastery over the Dark Side powers. Are you not worried?"
"I have seen what will become of the Jedi," said a voice behind her. Amidala whirled to face a dark woman wearing a tribal headdress with her Jedi Master's robe. "We are doomed to die at Palpatine and Anakin's hands."
"You speak so calmly of your own death," Amidala spat. "Are the mighty Jedi all cowards then, that they would allow themselves to be destroyed?"
"We cannot hearten the people against Palpatine now," Adi Gallia said. "Things are actually moving through the government, getting done. Oppression seems far away to them. He is their savior from the decay that was indeed at the heart of the Republic. There is nothing we can do; the ordinary folk are turning against the Jedi now. Some of us will escape, and the Jedi will rise again when the time is right. I have seen it, at the hands of a man who might be the mightiest Master of the Light ever born."
"You have seen," Amidala said sourly. "But one of Anakin's favorite proverbs is that the future is always in motion. What if you are wrong?"
"There is always that possibility," the female Master said. "But we will fight to our deaths. And you and Luke will not stay here in the Temple. It is no longer a safe place. Luke will be fostered with a trustworthy man on a backwater in the Outer Rim. You will be given a new identity and a new home elsewhere in the Rim."
"What?" Amidala shouted. "NO. I refuse it. My son is all I have left of Naboo. I will not be parted from him while I live."
"Two are more conspicuous than one, my lady," Mace Windu said. "We are not heartless. You will know where your son is and you will be allowed to visit him."
"But not to know him." Amidala replied. "I will be forced to watch as he grows up, ignorant of the traditions of his people. He will speak his first words to another mother. His Mother's Celebration gifts will go to another."
"Would you rather see him die?" Mace replied.
"Perhaps death would be better than living a lie," Amidala said, her voice hard as granite.
"See through you I do, Padme Skywalker," Yoda said. "Wish your son to live you do."
Padme's lip trembled. "I would not be a mother if I did not wish for my son to live at any cost to myself, but would prefer to keep him near to me. I would not be a Queen if I did not want to see him know the ways of his people."
"But the pride that makes you wish him dead rather than raised by another is totally unnecessary," Mace said.
"My pride is all I have left," Amidala snapped. "I have had everything else taken from me. My homeworld. My people whom I ruled. My husband. And now you would take my son. Would you take all I have left to hold to?"
"Your pride will see you dead," Mace Windu replied. "If you keep your pride and a high place, you will draw Palpatine's attention and attract your own demise and that of your son. Pride will only see you and Luke in the grave and Palpatine forever on the throne."
"Very well," Amidala said, cuddling her son. "Have it your way. I have had a vision of my son's wedding. I want to make sure it happens, and I want to be there when it does. But I want to know who you have found to care for my son. It must be someone trustworthy."
"Do you know that Obi-Wan has a brother?" Mace asked. "Oraun-Wai Kenobi, also trained as a Jedi. He has agreed to take in your son, and he is certain that his wife will be glad. She is infertile, a heavy burden for any woman to bear. He has agreed to play the part of Owen Lars, a gruff and difficult to love Tatooine moisture farmer and Luke's uncle."
"Oraun-Wai Kenobi?" Amidala asked.
Mace made a gesture with his hand, and the doors at the back of the room slid open. A tall Jedi who rather resembled Obi-Wan strode into the room. "Oraun-Wai Kenobi, this is Queen Padme Amidala Skywalker and her son Luke," Mace said.
Oraun-Wai nodded to her. "You're a lovely lady," he said, with a quiet, courteous voice. A soft, friendly smile played at his lips. "It's easy to see how Anakin was so infatuated. And this is your little son that I am to care for."
Amidala pulled back the swaddlings to expose Luke's face and arms. Luke cooed up at Oraun-Wai, then reached up with a tiny hand to grab the Jedi's nose.
Oraun-Wai laughed and tenderly disengaged Luke's hand, then looked back at Amidala. "You realize that Luke's life will not be an easy one. I will have to play the role of a gruff, hardened farmer by name of Owen Lars. I won't be able to lavish Luke with the love that a child so sweet deserves. But my wife will love the boy very much. And I will hold my own feelings locked deep. Luke, I think, will always be an easy one to love. May I hold him?"
Amidala's tears built in her eyes as she nodded and placed Luke in Oraun-Wai's arms. "I see the necessity. He will live an anonymous life among the moisture farmers of Tatooine, where nobody bothers much with enforcing the law. And when he comes of age he will be trained by a Master Jedi for a great destiny. But what is to become of me?"
"You will be given the name of Miri Avendahl and sent to be a servant to a young, wealthy man on Ord Mantell," Mace Windu replied. "If you can do it."
"I can," Amidala said. "Every child of the Naboo royalty spent a year in the home of a nobleman, acting as a servant. It teaches humility. And I think I still remember what to do."
"Good," Mace said. "He is good to his servants. You will have vacation time and enough money to go to Tatooine and see your son."
"I am grateful," Amidala said. "But if things do not go as you have said, you will be sorry that you ever made me and my son go through this living hell," she snarled menacingly.
"Obi-Wan will watch over Luke as well as Oraun-Wai. He will live separate, but nearby, on Tatooine. Your son will be safe," the dark woman said. "He must remain safe. He is the hope of the galaxy."
A tear trickled down Padme's cheek, creating a trail in her makeup. "Must we go to our refuges today?" she asked.
"No, tomorrow Luke must go with Oraun-Wai to Tatooine and you might as well go to Ord Mantell tomorrow too, because every minute you stay on Coruscant increases your danger. But tonight you can have with Luke," Mace said. "Oraun-Wai, would you take Padme Skywalker to a private room, somewhere quiet?"
Oraun-Wai nodded. "I'll see to it," he replied, leading Padme out of the Council chamber and into the lift. Once on a lower floor of the Temple, he stepped out of the lift and beckoned to Amidala to follow him. Cradling her child, Amidala followed, keeping her head high and proud and showing no more emotion.
Then the door shut between Padme Skywalker and Oraun-Wai. At last, Padme gave in to the despair at her husband's betrayal. The tears flowed freely now, causing Amidala's makeup to smear and run, leaving trails down to stain the collar of her gown. Padme Skywalker had many things to cry for: her people; her husband's betrayal, evil and the living death Obi-Wan had confined him to; the never-ending toil of a servant's life to which she would be confined and the loss of her status; and the life her tiny son faced on a poor Tatooine moisture farm.
Eventually, a tiny coo from Luke brought Padme out of her sadness. She smiled down at her tiny son as she unfastened the top of her gown and allowed Luke to latch onto a nipple and gulp his dinner.
"Enjoy your dinner, kid," Padme said, her voice a thin echo of itself. "It's the last you'll taste of your momma's milk. I know you'll never remember me, but Oraun-Wai will take good care of you...not that I want to give you to him."
Luke looked up at his mother and made a soft gurgling sound. His golden hair formed a fuzzy halo around his head. He was a beautiful boy, and it sent a pang to Amidala's heart that she would never see him grow, going from cute baby to a handsome man.
"Oh, Luke," she said, cuddling the child close. "I don't want to lose you."
Eventually, Padme Skywalker drifted off to sleep. The rising sun of Coruscant woke her in the morning. She looked in the mirror. Her face was a smeared mass of crusted makeup and her eyes were red. All in all, she looked like some bedraggled creature that had crawled out of Naboo's swamps.
Padme removed the crumpled gown that she'd worn the day before and wiped away her makeup before getting into the shower. As she looked down on the cloth, smeared with red, white and pink, she realized that it was the last time that she would ever wear the heavy ceremonial makeup. One of the last reminders of her life as a Queen was gone.
After showering, Padme picked up a simple tunic and pants made from common cloth. She made a face at the clothing, then sighed and put it on. She folded up her ornate gown and laid it in the heavy metal chest that the Jedi provided so that she could leave some momentoes for Luke. The chest was Force-keyed only to open for Luke after she closed it.
Padme looked in the mirror. The clothes belonged to the poor servant Miri Avendahl, but her flowing, glossy hair and proud face did not. Padme let her face droop and show some of the sadness she felt inside, letting the iron control of Queen Amidala drift away. As she did, her face resembled more that of a low-born servant.
But the hair was still out of place in the illusion of tiredness and poverty. Slowly, Padme tied a red silk ribbon around her hair at her shoulders. From there, she proceeded to braid the heavy mass that reached to her knees until she reached the end. There, she tied a second ribbon. With that done, Padme cut the braid free of her head.
Padme's neck felt suddenly rubbery from the lost weight. She resolutely coiled the heavy braid, thick as her arm and longer, and laid it in the chest atop her gowns. Also in the box were a collection of a Prince's jewels that she'd had made for Luke when he reached his full growth. While fleeing Naboo, she'd managed to save them.
When Padme looked in the mirror, she saw a woman
with one bad haircut staring back at her. Smiling a little, Padme
lifted the shears and proceeded to neaten the cut until her hair was all
an even shoulder-
length. Now she looked like an ordinary servant woman from Ord
Mantell. She slowly walked over to Luke's cradle in the corner and
lifted out her baby. He was still swaddled in ornate quilted velvet
blankets and soft white silk.
Gently, Padme unwrapped her child. Luke cried a little as the cool air met his soft skin, but Padme swiftly slipped the tiny Tatooine-style shirt and pants onto him. Then Padme wrapped the sand-colored blanket about Luke.
Luke snuggled down into the Tatooin blanket like a native son of the world. "I hope you'll be happy on Tatooine, Luke," Padme whispered sadly. "Your father was a Tatooin, you know. But I'm a water girl. Naboo is ... was a watery world. It remains to be seen whether you'll be a water boy or a desert boy. If you're a water boy, you'll be forever unhappy on Tatooine."
Luke cooed, evidently liking his new clothes. He was beautiful in the pale rose light of the Coruscant sunrise, his blonde hair, pale skin, and blue eyes shining.
Give me another vision, Padme thought, kneeling in the center of her room. Give me hope that I will be reunited with my son when he is grown. Please tell me that he will know me and learn of his true heritage.
Suddenly, Padme saw what she'd wished to. In her vision, her adult son, barely taller than she was, was holding her arms in a tight grip. His blue eyes held an accusation, of something which she was sure was not her fault. Behind him stood his wife, protectively shielding a tiny bundle with her body.
What happened next startled Padme out of her vision trance. The words that adult Luke spoke to her burned themselves deeply and painfully, forever branding her heart.
"Who in Sith are you, old woman?"
Padme crumpled to the floor, tears streaking her face. So her tiny son would not remember her at all, then. She cradled Luke close, treasuring her last few moments with him. Soon Oraun-Wai would be knocking on the door, and destiny would part them.
True to her thought, there was indeed a knock at the door. Oraun-Wai Kenobi stood there. His appearance had changed to that of a scruffy Tatooine farmer, wearing a different, sand-colored robe and blue pants and shirt.
"I've come for Luke," he said. "My ship leaves for Tatooine in twenty minutes. Would you like to come with me and carry Luke to the landing pad? You don't have to."
"I will," Padme replied. "It will give me a few more minutes to try to say goodbye to Luke. But I don't think I ever will be able to say goodbye to him."
"I promise to love and cherish the boy, and I know my wife, Beru, will," Oraun-Wai said. "And to protect him as best as I can. You do understand that I will have to be harsh with the boy sometimes, to hide his power from him and the Emperor until he comes of age to use it."
"I understand," Padme said. "I do not wish to see anyone being harsh with my son, but these are not good times we live in."
Oraun-Wai saw a single tear drip onto Luke's swaddlings, but Padme refused to show any outward sign of the heartbreak that she had to be feeling.
When they reached the landing pad, Padme Skywalker had to give Luke to Oraun-Wai. She laid the tiny bundle in Oraun-Wai's arms, then wiped away her tears.
"You have the trunk that I left for him?" Padme asked.
Oraun-Wai nodded. "After we left, two padawans carried it down. It's good, solid, thermosealed steel. It should stand up to Tatooine's climate just fine."
"Goodbye, Luke," Padme said, stroking her son's cheek. "I hope someday I might know you again. But wherever you go and whatever befalls you, I will always love you."
"Goodbye, Padme...I mean Miri," Oraun-Wai said. "May the Light of the Force surround you on Ord Mantell and guide you back to your son on the day that Palpatine is no more."
Padme smiled at him through her tears. "May the Force be with you, Oraun-Wai...now please leave before I take my son back."
Oraun-Wai smiled. "As you wish," he said, and walked up the ramp to disappear into his ship. The hatch closed behind him.
As Oraun-Wai's ship took off, Padme sank to the ground. She was crying again. Padme had thought that she had cried out all her tears the night before, but she had been wrong. Then she had had Luke for comfort, to hold in her arms. Now, Luke was gone, and she cried for the loss of her child. Her little Luke, who had seemed to light rooms by his presence, was gone.
Padme turned, still sniffling, from the launchpad and lugged her bag. She was headed for the commercial spaceport to catch her transport. An occasional tear ran down her face, but Padme gulped back her sobs.
Padme felt no real need to say goodbye to Obi-Wan. If it wasn't for that failure of a Jedi, Padme thought wrathfully, none of us would be in this mess. Anakin, Luke and I would be a family. At home, on Naboo. She ignored the fact that without Obi-Wan, she probably never would have even met Anakin, and therefore never had Luke.
Padme hailed an aircar on one of the many plazas around the Temple. As the massive pyramidial shape of the Jedi Temple receeded behind her, Amidala did look back. Maybe she was trying to catch a glimpse of Oraun-Wai returning for some unknown reason. Even Padme herself did not know. But the spaceport and the concerns of a servant of a Mantellian lord soon returned to Padme's list of major worrries.
Once offloaded at the spaceport, Padme found the battered old passenger transport without too many problems. However, when signing the register, it took a considerable effort to sign the name of Miri Avendahl. Padme sighed as she looked at the wavery signature, supposing that she had better get used to being Miri.
Padme hefted her bag and headed to her assigned bunk on the transport. She was sharing the room with four other women. She settled her belongings and then left to look around. Miri easily found the mess hall where she would eat on her way to Ord Mantell. Other than that, there was not much in the ship. She returned to the bunk room.
Miri sat on her bunk, daydreaming of Anakin and the palaces of Naboo. So lost in dreams was she that she failed to notice the arrival of another woman. The other woman was a tall, pretty redhead with blazing green eyes.
The shrill cry of an infant the age of her little Luke jolted Miri out of her reverie. She looked up to see a beautiful redheaded woman holding a tiny baby against her breast.
"Who...?" was all Miri could get out past the threatening tears.
"Me? I'm Moira Jade and this is my daughter Mara," she said, sitting on the bed beside Miri. "This ship isn't fit for a garbage scow. To think that I was once called Lady Jade and traveled in luxury."
Miri nodded agreement. "What happened to you that you're going to Ord Mantell in this trash heap?"
"My husband," Moira said, bowing her head. "He was Lord Ruler of Khonsu Province on Toriya Prime. Palpatine had him executed for allowing a Jedi Academy in Khonsu and refusing to dissolve the Academy. I'm Force-strong, and I wasn't about to stick around and give Palpatine another target, so I took a job in Lord Tanas Lai's house as a servant."
"Tanas Lai? I'm going there too," Miri said, startled.
"Good, then we'll be friends. I have a feeling that you came from better circumstances than an ordinary servant, so I can talk to you and you'll understand," Moira said. "Let's hear your story."
"It's much the same," Miri said. "My husband was a Jedi. Palpatine took him from me. My son is Force-strong, and the Jedi sent him away from me to live somewhere in the Outer Rim where Palpatine can't get to him."
"Your mind is shuttered tight, Miri..." Moira said. "I think that there's more to this than you're letting on, but I won't press you for it."
The ship shuddered beneath Miri and Moira as it left the atmosphere of Coruscant behind. The days in hyperspace were difficult for Moira. There was nothing to do but talk to her newfound friend, and she had to be careful to avoid all talk of her life as Queen Padme Amidala Skywalker.
Miri clutched Moira's hand in nervousness as they disembarked. Tanas Lai had sent a speeder for them, and she was not sure what to expect. They looked around. The only speeder in the vicinity was a luxury model, but it was marked with the garnfish crest of Tanas Lai's house. The two women approached, hoping to ask directions to their own speeder.
A tall young man with a flow of white hair stepped out of the speeder. From the picture that Obi-Wan had showed her, Miri knew that this was Tanas Lai himself.
"Are you two Moira Jade and Miri Avendahl?" he asked in soft, gentle tones. "I regret that you came so quickly, or I would have arranged for better transport for you. That scow is not fit for transporting womp rats."
"We are," Moira replied, her voice squeaky with nervousness.
"There's no need to be afraid of me," Lord Lai replied. "I think you two will do nicely. You see, my wife is pregnant and she wanted two well educated servants to tidy her rooms and keep her company when I am away on buisness. I see you have a child, Moira. My wife will like to see her."
Miri smiled. This lord was not so bad after all. And the work would be light. Lord Lai motioned them into the waiting speeder. The city flashed past, and they emerged into the beautiful countryside. The grassy plains reminded Miri of Naboo, and she gasped.
"Is something wrong?" Lai asked.
"It's beautiful," Miri breathed. "Like my home."
"The grasslands here were always my favorite part of this planet," Lai said. "That's why I chose to locate my home here."
The speeder eventually passed between two posts marked with the Lai crest, evidently marking the boundaries of the Lord's estate. A large but comfortable looking house was visible in the midst of pleasant gardens. Some small children were visible, running amidst the flowerbeds or splashing in the shallow pools.
"Welcome to my estate," Lai said. "On the maps, it's called Taalora. Here, we call it the Village of Fountains, because that's what this really is; a village. No one here is a servant, truly, even if I pay their wages. You are all free to roam where you will on the grounds on your free time. You'll be given a cottage...would the two of you like to room together?"
Miri looked at Moira, and they nodded in tandem.
"Very well," Lai said. "Follow me."
He led them to a small, peaceful-looking thatch-roofed cottage. Inside was an airy living space and two bedrooms. In the middle of the tiny house was a courtyard with a quietly gurgling fountain ornamented with fantastic beasts and at the top, the miniature image of a crowned female Jedi, seated in quiet meditation.
Miri and Moira settled easily into their jobs staying with Lady Lai. Lady Lai wanted companionship more than anything, and that Moira and Miri were glad to provide. Life for them continued in this peaceful pattern for many years, even as the Empire rose and good people fell. The Emperor respected Lord Lai, for he owned many shipyards that produced excellent capital ships of which Palpatine was fond for his own transportation.
On Tatooine, Owen Lars laid the tiny baby Luke into the arms of his infertile wife Beru. Beru loved the tiny child from the moment that Owen said that the boy was hers to keep and raise. Owen played gruff, but in truth, the small, sweet-smelling bundle with the halo of fuzzy blond curls was very dear to him.
Years of peaceful life passed for Luke, and he would grow from baby to young boy before anything would trouble the quiet but difficult life on Tatooine.
Continued in For Love of a Skywalker Part II: Owen Lars