Part One: The Death of Dreams
She felt the strange sensation of flesh, of limbs heavy and awkward, of skin that was tingling from contact. She became aware of voices, sometimes near and sometimes far away. Sometimes the voices would talk to her and she was entranced by the nonsense syllibants.
Eyelids fluttered. Light blinded her. She fought it but the light would not let her go. It urged her. She did not have the strength to resist it.
"Doctor, I think she's regaining conciousness."
She squinted into the brightness. A head leaned over her. Hands touched her wrist, then withdrew. She blinked, opened her mouth to speak. No sound came out. She swallowed, tried again.
"Where?" she managed.
"Shhh, don't try to speak," a voice said. "We removed your breathe tube yesterday but your throat is still swollen." The figure leaned closer, coalesced into a face.
"You're at the Tonoya Medical Centre on Naboo."
She nodded to indicate that she understood.
"You were transferred to our facility twelve years ago. You have been in a coma for the past twenty years."
Coma? She searched her memory. She remembered pain- so much pain! A ripping, tearing sensation, and then something slipped free and she heard a baby's cry.
Luke? Leia?
"Do you remember your name?"
Her name? Did she have a name?
"Padme," she mouthed.
The voiced asked her some more questions but she could not answer, not now.
Padme's eyelids slid shut and she drifted away.
The doctors branded her a medical miracle, a sleeper who had awakened after two decades to a new world. She was expected to make a full recovery. She almost laughed at that. How could she recover? She could not even bear to remember her life. The doctors asked her questions about who she was and she refused to answer. She fiened amnesia and after a few weeks they stopped asking.
The nurses called her a mystery.
"You were brought here one night without even a name. No record, nothing. We know you came from Alderaan and that the royal family itself paid for your care." The nurse who told her all this spoke with the guilty air of someone imparting a great secret. "There was an emergency contact, in case you ever woke up, but it was Bail Organa, and he..." Her voice trailed off.
He was dead, she'd learned. Killed, along with the entire planet in one terrific burst from a space station called the Death Star. So much had changed since the Republic had become an Empire. The Jedi Order was gone. The Senate had been dissolved. The Emperor ruled by fear, crushing all those who opposed him. Those who spoke out against such tyranny were imprisoned or killed, annihilated like the citizens of Alderaan by the Emperor's second, Darth Vader.
This much Padme had gathered from the snippets of conversation that she overheard and the news stories she read on the broadcasts. It only left her hungry to know more. Where was Anakin? Where were her children?
At night, after the nurses had made their rounds, she would sneak on trembling legs across the hall and sit at the computer console, imputing name after name.
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Member of the treasonous Jedi Order, killed by Darth Vader.
Yoda: Jedi Master and member of the Jedi Council. Thought to have been integral in the plot to overthrow the Senate and kill then-Chancellor Palpatine. Missing; presumed killed by Darth Vader.
Name after name, loved ones, friends, family...all dead and destroyed by the Empire, by Darth Vader.
Vader himself was an enigma. He was Sith Lord- a Darksider who had single-handedly slaughtered most of the Jedi. He was second to the Emperor, commander of the entire Fleet, and a master tactician. He was the scourge of the Rebel Alliance and a veteran of the Clone Wars.
And he had killed Anakin.
She had imput the name on the srcond night, unable to keep from seeing the truth any longer.
Anakin Skywalker: member of the treasonous Jedi Council. Died during the Clone Wars, presumed killed by Darth Vader.
Dead.
Her Anakin was dead.
She remembered the last time she had seen him, felt his words like a knife in her gut.
The Jedi turned against me; Don't you turn against me!
He'd been so lost then, so sunk in Darkness that she could not reach him. He had been manipulated by Palpatine, just as they had all been. And when he had outlived his usefulness, Palpatine had had him killed.
Oh Ani! Padme mourned. My poor, lost love!
Darth Vader had killed him, just as he's killed her friend, Obi-Wan. Padme felt a fierce rush of fury, followed by a sense of loss so great it took her breath away. She stumbled to her room, laid on the bed, and let the tears come.
She did not return to the console for three nights.
The entry for Luke Skywalker was not as long as Vader's but it much more enlightening.
Luke Skywalker: Home planet Tatooine, parentage unknown. Member of the Rebel Alliance. Pilor responsible for the destruction of the Death Star and the loss of 2155 Imperial personnel. Wanted on charges of treason, conspiracy, murder and galactic terrorism.
There was a holo and she enlarged it. The image was jumpy, fuzzy and unfocused. It showed a boy walking
down the corridor of what looked like a space station; a boy in dune-colored trousers and a loose fitting tunic. A boy with blong hair and an open, expressive face. Padme felt her heart catch as she watched him, frozen in time. He looked so like another little boy that she'd met long ago on Tatooine.
Did he know who his father was? Was he a Jedi like Anakin? Is that why he'd joined the Rebels?
Padme felt her eyes cloud with tears but she caught them, replaced the grief with anger.
Anger at the man who had murdered her husband.
Anger at the man who pursued her son.
Anger at the man who poisoned the galaxy.
Vader.
As Padme's body grew stronger, so too did her resolve to find her children. Luke had been easy. Leia however...
There was no entry for a 'Leia Skywalker' in the database. Nor was there a 'Leia Amidala' or a 'Leia Nabarrie'.
Perhaps they had changed her name. It stood to reason. If her twins were as Force-strong as their father, it made sense to seperate them.
'Leia Kenobi'- no record found.
'Leia Windu'- no record found.
'Leia Jinn'- no record found.
In frustration Padme began to imput names at random, refusing to even entertain the notion that her daughter's given name might have been changed as well.
'Leia Sonola'- no record found.
'Leia Riddici'- no record found.
'Leia Mothma'- no record found.
When she finally hit on it Padme cursed herself for every kind of fool. Bail Organa had been her friend and her supporter in the Senate. And hadn't he told her often enough how much he and his wife longed for a little girl of their own?
Princess Leia Organa, the screen read, Home planet, Alderaan. Adopted daughter of Bail and Brehe Organa. Former Senator for Alderaan, member of the Rebel Alliance. Assumed mastermind behind numerous plots against the Empire, including the infamous attack on the Death Star. Wanted for treason, conspiracy and crimes against the galaxy.
So...Leia was a Rebel too? Did she know her brother? Were they friends?
Padme considered her optioned.
It had now been three months since she'd come out of the coma. She was now fully recovered, except for occasional bouts of weakness. The doctors had cleared her to leave. She had a bit of money left over from her care and nothing to hold her here.
She had to find her children. She had to know them.
But where to start?
The answer was not hard. The image of a blond boy in desert clothes was burned on her brain. Tatooine. She would go to Tatooine.