Throne Room
Imperial Palace
Imperial City
Imperial Center
"Father, you should not kill Obi-Wan," Older Luke stated flatly.
Darth Vader was wearing a path between the throne and the giant transparisteel window which looked out over smoggy Imperial City.
"Why not?" he demanded harshly.
"Because my younger counterpart needs Ben."
"No, my son needs me. He needs me! I should have raised both of them, my son and my daughter. They were stolen from me!"
Luke stepped boldly into his Alter Father's path and grasped the cyborg's arms firmly, forcing him to stop.
"Father, listen to me. I know you are on an emotional high, or low, or whatever, from killing Sidious, but use your considerable intelligence. You were badly injured when we were born. If you had found us, do you really think Palpatine would have let you raise us?"
Vader stared back at the youthful face for a long moment, and his helmet drooped dispiritedly.
"There is some truth in what you say," he admitted. "But why Tatooine?"
"Because I was certain you would never return there," Obi-Wan stated from his cross legged position on the floor. "It seemed a safe place to hide your son."
"Could you get off the floor?" the cyborg demanded. "Your current position is most undignified."
"I'm tired. I'm too old to be taking down Sith Lords."
Vader clenched his damaged teeth and returned to his previous rant, "Tatooine is a desolate wasteland, and a dangerous one to boot. I hated it with good reason. How could you subject my boy to that environment?"
Kenobi sighed and levered himself slowly to his feet, his knees making unsettling cracking noises in the process, "Darth, listen to me; yes, Tatooine stinks. Has it occurred to you that I too spent 19 years on that dustball with your son, watching over him and caring for him and keeping him safe from Hutts and Imperials? You used to whine about Tatooine incessantly when you were only there for nine years, and you were mewling child for the first two! I don't know why you are complaining. Luke might not have been thrilled with the place, but he was loved."
"That's true," Luke agreed, "though I'm with Father that Tatooine is a desolate hole. All that sand ..."
"I hate sand. It is coarse, and rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere," Kenobi grumbled.
Darth Vader was staring at his old master as if he was a ghost, which he wasn't. Not yet, anyway.
"You also hate sand? You never told me that."
"I used to like sand," Kenobi explained in an aggrieved tone. "In my mind, sand was associated with oceans, and oceans are pleasant. But almost two decades on Tatooine has changed my mind irrevocably. Sand is loathsome."
"It is indeed," the Sith agreed.
Luke jerked slightly, causing the other two men to stare at him questioningly.
"My toes are tingling, which means I'm about to leave for my own timeline. Father, don't kill Kenobi. Also, work with the Rebellion and dismantle the Empire. Also, your health could be much improved. Palpatine kept you in a bad way because he wanted you weak. Also ..."
Luke vanished.
/
Mara's Quarters
Imperial City
"You should leave," Older Mara stated.
"And go where?" younger Mara inquired.
"To the Alliance. I hope Luke has managed to drum some sense into his father's bucket head but knowing Vader, he might just go crazy and start murdering people. You'll be safer with young Luke and Leia."
"Ok?"
"Go easy with Luke, by the way. He just got off a fifth rate farm on a ninth rate Outer Rim world. He's the very opposite of sophisticated."
"Ok."
"Take care of yourself, Mara."
Older Mara disappeared.
/
Alliance Base
Yavin
"Finally!" Older Leia yelped suddenly.
Young Luke Skywalker, thoroughly distracted by his alternate twin's shout, missed the warning in the Force and got zapped in the butt by one of the seekers.
"Ouch!"
"Sorry," Alternate Leia stated briskly, rising to her feet with her hands caressing her giant belly. "My feet are tingling so that means I am finally returning to my own timeline. Not that I don't love you all, but I so didn't want to go into labor here, of all places."
"Thanks for your help," Luke said sincerely. "I have learned a lot about using the Force."
"My pleasure."
Older Leia vanished.
/
Conference Room
Royal Palace
Alderaan
6 months later
"We wish to reconvene the Senate in five weeks, Emperor Vader," Leia Organa stated coolly. "Do you have any objection to that?"
The Sith Lord straightened his already straight back and stared directly at the diminutive princess, "Princess Leia, I love you, but I fail to see how the Senate could possibly be of help. Too many of them are puppets of the former Emperor. Most are corrupt. If you must entrust the galaxy to the vagaries of democracy, I suggest that new Senators be chosen."
"Mon?" Leia asked Mon Mothma, head of the Alliance to Restore the Republic.
"There is much in what the Emperor says," Mon agreed thoughtfully, "Perhaps we could request that the leadership of the member planets choose a representative for the Senate, and we could arrange for democratic elections for the Senators in six to twelve months?"
Leia rubbed her hand over her forehead, "But many of the governmental officials of the member planets are corrupt themselves. It is not ideal. Perhaps we should wait to hold elections and then convene the Senate? How quickly could that be accomplished?"
"Princess Leia, I love you, but I find your decision to discard the most obvious answer to be quite perplexing."
"Emperor Vader, I do not wish to be Empress!" Leia snapped angrily.
"May I ask a question?" Carlist Rieekan inquired mildly.
"Certainly," Bail Organa stated.
"What is with this 'I love you' business?" the Rebel general asked, his eyes focused on Darth Vader.
Leia groaned aloud even as Vader carefully laced his cyborg fingers, "An excellent question, General Rieekan. The reality is that I want to strangle and dismember many of the individuals in this room."
Rieekan winced at these overly descriptive words but boldly forged on, "Whom do you wish to kill?"
"Whom do I not wish to kill?" the Emperor demanded rhetorically. "Obi-Wan Kenobi took my infant children from me and hid them away. Bail and Breha Organa raised my daughter in the very sight of Palpatine himself. Many high profile Alliance members, some of them here, put my daughter in danger by allowing her to participate in the retrieval of the Death Star plans at Scarif. Mon Mothma, a former senator, has the audacity to be alive when my dear Padme is gone. Captain Solo is a gormless vagabond who has caught the eye of my daughter. He is not worthy of her ..."
"What exactly does gormless mean?" Solo demanded aloud.
"Foolish and dull," Leia replied absently, her brown eyes focused intently on her biological father, "I will marry whom I want, when I want, Vader."
"I accept that," the Sith rumbled, "even as I accept that you and your brother do not wish me to murder those whom you love. Therefore, I add the phrase 'I love you' frequently during these meetings to remind myself not to lash out."
"We appreciate your restraint," Mothma said diplomatically, though she was slightly pale.
"If you love me, Father, you will blow this meeting and go work on your TIE Advanced with me. Politics are so boring!" Luke whined.
Vader quivered noticeably. He also found meetings excessively tedious. Leia enjoyed negotiations and political machinations, as her mother had before her, but poor Luke …
"Please do, your Highness," Leia said primly. "We would be delighted to continue our discussion of the Senate while you and Luke take a break."
Darth Vader hesitated another moment before rising to his full, menacing, two meter height.
"Admiral Piett?"
"Yes, your Highness?"
"I expect a full report regarding the discussions while I am absent."
"Yes, your Highness."
"Princess Leia?"
Leia sighed, "Yes?"
"I love you."
The slight figure of Luke Skywalker dashed for the door to the conference room, with his giant father lumbering after him, and the entire room of individuals, Rebel and Imperial alike, heaved a collective sigh of relief.
"Well, now, let's get to work," Leia stated with determination. "The more we can get done before Vader gets back, the better."
She glanced at Admiral Piett and his Imperial underlings and smiled slightly, "I am allowed to say things like that since he's my biological father."
"Of course, your Highness," Piett replied meekly.
"Vader is right about one thing," Mon Mothma murmured thoughtfully. "It will take some time to convene a truly representative Senate."
"He's right about something else," Breha Organa chimed in unexpectedly. "You'd be a great Empress, Leia."
"No, I wouldn't."
There was a long pause as the Alliance attendees gazed at her and the Imperials looked terrified.
"Mon, Carlist, Mama, Papa, really, I don't want to be Empress."
Bail Organa looked fondly, if sadly, at his daughter, "Leia, it is not a question of what you want to be. The question is, what is best for the galaxy. The current Emperor is, frankly, terrifying. I believe he is not the best individual to lead the galaxy during this turbulent period."
"I don't want to be a figurehead," Leia snapped, rising to her feet and beginning to stalk menacingly around the table. "If I become Empress, then my position will inevitably become more and more that of a token. I love politics. I want to get my hands dirty, so to speak, not hang out in a royal palace and go to fancy parties with Solo …"
"That does sound terrible," Solo muttered.
"Exactly. A figurehead leader needs to be willing to be above the political fray, to dwell apart from it. I don't want to be that person!"
Admiral Firmus Piett cleared his throat carefully and the princess of Alderaan gazed at him curiously.
"Yes, Admiral?"
"If that is truly your desire, your Highness?"
"Yes?"
"Might I suggest your brother as an appropriate Emperor?"
/
Darth Vader's private hanger
"Hand me that hydrospanner, Son."
"Here you go. Thanks so much for getting me out of there, Father. I thought I would die of boredom."
"Indeed."
"And I can tell things are going well without us. Leia seems very happy."
/
Leia and Han's apartment
Varykino
Naboo
3 months later (in the original timeline)
Han Solo stepped into his bedroom and halted with a mixture of joy, awe, and amazement.
His beautiful wife was lying reclined on their bed with their twins — one boy, one girl — nursing vigorously.
The joy was over his wife and babies.
The awe was that he had been so blessed to have such a family.
The amazement was that his babies were hovering in the air.
Leia opened her eyes halfway and grinned, "Hi there."
"Am I right that the Jedi Order banned this use of the Force?" Han inquired in a teasing tone, even as he carefully sat down on the side of the bed. His son Bail opened one doubtful eye but continued to apply himself to the most important business of his young life.
"It does seem like cheating," Leia agreed softly. "I was talking to Marina Antilles on the com yesterday because she's 3 months ahead of us on the whole twin thing. She said nursing them at the same time was a nightmare because when one baby was situated the other would pull off and it was just crazy. And here I am, able to make the babies hover conveniently in the air. But I'm so tired I don't even feel guilty."
"Here," Han said, handing over a large glass. Leia reached out a hand and gulped down the frosted chocolate shake in exactly 73 seconds, then leaned back with a sigh.
"Thanks."
"Um, shall I get you another one?"
"Please, in addition to being incredibly tired, I'm constantly hungry and thirsty."
"You are eating for three.
"Yes."
"Are you all right, Leia?" Han asked worriedly. Labor had been hard, caring for infant twins was far more exhausting than he had imagined, and he had neither birthed nor needed to produce food for his offspring.
Leia Organa Solo gazed at her daughter Breha, her son Bail, and then at her husband.
She smiled mistily, "I'm better than all right. I'm happier than I've ever been."
Author Note: I hope and pray you all are staying safe from coronavirus while people get back to work, because work is important and necessary. Thanks to those of you still reading and reviewing, and thank you, dear husband, for editing!