Emperor Skywalker's Private Quarters, Royal Palace, Galactic City, Coruscant
Mara groaned and shifted uncomfortably in her chair when she heard the door chime sound in her and Luke's quarters. Not wanting to drag her very pregnant self into an upright position she instead reached out with the Force and, upon verifying the identity of the visitor, told the central computer to open the door.
The Commander of the Emperor's Guard sauntered in with a confident gate, his helmeted head held high, and a feeling of contentment oozing through the Force.
Mara chuckled as the door closed behind him. "Can I assume the princess and her smuggler consort have safely arrived at their luxurious prison?"
The red guardsman nodded. "Yes, and she wanted me to pass on their gratitude." He paused for a second before continuing. "There was actual emotion backing those words. She is truly thankful."
Mara's brow went up with surprise. She never thought Leia would come around, but perhaps she was mistaken. Maybe she will stop being an angry rebel trying desperately to topple the government. The Empress returned her attention back to the guardsman and frowned. "Will you please take that helmet off, Anakin."
"Oh," the clone pulled off the helmet and shook out his wavy blond hair that had grown out to almost shoulder length. "I wore a helmet for so long, I sometimes forget I have it on." He smiled at her sheepishly and with surprising warmth.
She still couldn't get over how much he had changed. He had once been Palpatine's ruthless enforcer. Later, after Luke joined his father in ruling the galaxy, Vader had become far less homicidal. Now that Darth Vader was no longer trapped in a faulty life support suit that kept him in constant pain, he was almost good-natured. She said almost because Anakin still had a short temper, but at least he now tried to control his emotions and not lash out violently.
"Leia and Han are happy with their new situation?" she asked.
"Yes," He placed his helmet in the crook of his arm. "They expressed shock at their good fortune."
Mara chuckled. "I don't blame them. It is an opulent mansion with every imaginable creature comfort." She cocked her head to the side and gave him a knowing look. "When you told Luke about your plans to renovate Palpatine's palace on Naboo he questioned you about the pool and gym. You said you had those amenities installed because you hoped to one day entertain grandchildren." She placed a hand on the side of her extended abdomen. "You weren't talking about this baby...were you? You're hoping that Leia and Han will have kids."
Anakin flashed a guilty grin. "Maybe."
She shifted in her chair trying to get comfortable. "That doesn't worry you?"
His brow furrowed. "Why would it?"
"Because of what you saw in the Room of Mirrors on the second Death Star. You said in many of the alternate universes it is Leia's son that turns to the darkside."
He shrugged an armored shoulder. "Yes, but in those realities her children have less than ideal childhoods. There is constant war between her government and Imperial remnants. She spends most of her time trying to run a government or a rebellion or overcoming one crisis after another. Nanny droids or sitters raised her children. She rarely had time for them. Now, time is one thing she has in abundance. If she and the smuggler want children they can. Special arrangements will be made to ensure her children are given every opportunity to have a normal childhood."
"Grandpa Skywalker...you're a big softy," Mara teased.
She expected him to scowl or at least scoff at her comment, but he made a gesture of agreement. "Only when it comes to family." He went over to the kitchen and placed his helmet on the counter before pointing to the cooling unit. "Do you mind if I get something to drink?"
"Help yourself."
He pulled a sparkling water out of the unit. "You want anything?"
She rubbed a hand over her extended belly. "No, your grandson has been headbutting my bladder for the last hour and I don't need more frequent trips to the 'fresher."
Anakin smiled widely...the smile of a proud soon-to-be grandfather. "Where's Luke?"
"He's in meetings." She threw up her hands in irritation. "Now he knows why you stepped down from being emperor. It is a tedious, thankless, and soul crushing job."
Anakin laughed before taking a long swig of his drink. He then closed his eyes and made a sound of pure delight. "I love being able to drink something other than RepMed vitapaste." When Mara gave him a confused look, he explained. "The suit could give me nutrients directly into my stomach through a gastrostomy tube or there were feeding straws in the helmet. The nutrition I needed to survive was called RepMed vitapaste and it tasted horrible, but if I didn't occasionally take a sip my mouth would dry up. It was like Palpatine had built the suit just to torture me. Every day was pain and misery." He heaved a sigh. "I suppose being in constant pain kept me fully immersed in the darkside of the Force. It was his plan all along." He took another deep breath and let it out slowly. "Even breathing was painful back then." He sat down on the couch and leaned back into the seat cushions. "Now I feel...I feel incredible." He looked over to Mara. "If I knew it was possible to transfer my conscience to a clone body, I would have done it decades ago."
She gave a tight smile. Decades ago, he was best described as a darkside psychopath. If Darth Vader had a strong, healthy body would that have made him a more vicious and efficient killer?
Anakin noticed the change in her demeanor and correctly guessed what was bothering her. "Mara, I'm not that man anymore."
"I know." She decided to change the subject. "Was it nice seeing your daughter?"
Anakin's smile faltered a bit. "Yes. I wish I could have a relationship with her like I have with Luke, but she is still angry with Vader."
Mara noticed that Anakin had taken to talking about his former self in third person. Mara saw it as him trying to disassociate from his past. She went along with it and would discuss Anakin and Vader as if they were two different people.
"Darth Vader did unforgivable things to her and her loved ones," Mara said softly. "I guess that means you will never tell her your true identity?"
He finished his drink and set it down on the side table. "I think it is best that the galaxy believes Darth Vader is dead. You and Luke may consider revealing her paternity, but I do not want her to know I still live. I may never have a father/daughter relationship with her, but I can interact with her as the Commander of the Emperor's Guard occasionally. She knows I am a former Jedi. Perhaps she will allow me to develop a cordial relationship with her and her companion." He glanced over to her. "Mara, I...ummm...I wanted to talk to you about something."
She could feel a tinge of apprehension coming from the man making her tense. "And that is?"
He leaned forward in his seat, elbows on his knees. "I know it is only a matter of time before Luke mistakenly calls me 'father' in public and I don't want that to cause uncomfortable questions to be asked." He paused for a long moment before just blurting out his request. "So, I thought we could maybe tell the public that I am your father."
"What?" she asked in astonishment.
He put up a gloved hand. "Hear me out. I know we don't look alike, but I will have to wear my helmet in public for a while. I look too much like I did when I was a Jedi Knight. Facial recognition software will immediately associate my new face with my old." He raked a hand over his chin. "I'm not sure how old this body is, but it can't be much more than forty years old. The last time Anakin Skywalker was seen was when I was twenty-two. I look too much like my old self."
"Your plan is to keep your face covered and tell people you are my father?"
"It would explain Luke accidentally calling me father, your son can publicly call me his grandfather, and Leia won't find it suspicious if I am the guard occasionally checking in on her. There is still much animosity toward her within the Empire. Luke would send a guard he could trust and who could he trust more than someone in his own family?"
Mara thought about it and shrugged. "Anakin, I don't mind. You are already my father-in-law."
He grinned broadly and Mara was taken aback by the resemblance between Anakin and Luke. Both had blondish brown hair, a cleft chin, and blue eyes. It saddened her that he might have to wear that damn helmet for the rest of his life or until he was so old and wrinkled that no facial recognition program could identify him as Anakin with any certainty. "You should grow a thick beard," she told him. "And I could do some slicing into Imperial databases and try to purge holos of Jedi Skywalker out of the system."
He rose to retrieve another drink from the kitchen. "I really don't mind the helmet," he said as he returned and lowered himself back onto the couch while savoring his beverage.
"Anakin," Mara said softly. "I know that wearing the helmet makes it easier for you to interact with people in the way you were once accustomed...detached from personal interactions and human emotion, but you have a second chance at life. You could meet someone, marry and actually raise children of your own...the thing you wanted more than anything before Palpatine ripped that away from you."
She felt the shift in his mood from jovial to something darker. "What I wanted was a life with Padme."
She blew out a frustrated breath but dropped the subject. This was all too new for him. For decades he had lived a life devoid of love and human touch. She shouldn't push him in that direction until he was ready.
"Sorry. I would be honored to call you father and I know you will be a wonderful grandfather."
She felt the man's mood lighten. "Thank you." He ran a hand over his jaw. "Do you think I'd look good with a beard?"
"Yes, and I think it would be good for you to have some sun on your face and finally get to enjoy life...life without the helmet. You are now free to be your own man." She thought of Anakin's early life as a slave, the restrictions put on him as a Jedi and finally his life under Palpatine's thumb along with his imprisonment in a painful life support suit. Anakin Skywalker had never known freedom until now. "What are you going to do with your newfound freedom...father?"
"I suppose Commander Jade will grow a beard and think up an appropriate first name."
She grinned. "That sounds like a plan."
.
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Imperial Palace, Galactic City, Coruscant.
Emperor Skywalker was relieved to get back to Coruscant having finished a diplomatic summit with the Queen of the Hapes Consortium. He was thankful to be back home not only because the Queen was a very disagreeable woman, but he was forced to leave his pregnant wife so close to her due date.
The Hapan worlds, a consortium of over one hundred planets, planetoids, and habitable moons, were located within the borders of the Empire, but were left undisturbed by the Empire for centuries, mainly because travel into the area was extremely hazardous due to its location within the Transitory Mists-an area containing massive gravity wells, cosmic dust clouds and frequent ion storms.
The Empire would have left the Consortium alone for the foreseeable future if they had remained within their borders, but after the official death of Darth Vader, the current matriarch, Queen Ta'a Chume, had decided it was time to expand her domain. She obviously assumed Emperor Skywalker was weak and unwilling to defend his empire. After a few Hapan war ships, called Battle Dragons, skirmished with Imperial Star Destroyers Luke sent a delegation to Hapes to order the queen to stop her incursions into Imperial Space. The queen refused to talk to anybody but the new Emperor. Therefore, a month before his wife's due date he was forced to either fly to Hapan space or risk a war breaking out within Imperial borders.
He had arrived with Grand Admiral Thrawn's entire fleet. It was an impressive show of force that took the Hapan queen by surprise. Luke informed Queen Ta'a Chume that he was confident that his military forces could easily annex her territory into his Empire, but he had no real desire to do so. He simply wanted her to keep her military forces within their borders.
After a week of tense negotiations, Queen Ta'a Chume eventually agreed to keep her Battle Dragons within Consortium space, promising to only utilize them for planetary defenses. Luke was relieved the situation was resolved without violence, but he didn't trust Ta'a Chume. Through the Force he could sense duplicity and arrogance. To ensure her compliance he placed Imperial probe droids surrounding the borders of the Hapan domain. If Battle Dragons encroached on Imperial space again, he would know.
His private Imperial shuttle landed in the Palace docking bay and he quickly walked toward his quarters eagerly awaiting his reunion with Mara. He hoped she was in a good mood...but he somehow doubted it. Before traveling to the Hapan Consortium, Mara had been irritable and complaining about swollen ankles, tender breasts, and heartburn. As a result, a very pregnant and cantankerous former assassin was terrifying for most of the palace staff during her last trimester. The only person, other than Luke, that didn't fear her hormonal outbursts was Anakin. Luke shook his head. 'Not Anakin,' he reminded himself. After his father made the public announcement that the new Commander of the Emperor's Guard was actually Mara's father, he had taken the surname of Jade. He then went about picking a new first name. After considering an assortment of virile given-names such as Stone, Blade, Draco, Maxim, Pierce, or Steel he finally settled on the more conventional name of 'Victor'. Luke suspected he chose that name not only for the obvious reasons —victory over the rebellion, Palpatine and the Sith—but because Victor sounded slightly like Vader. Although his father now disavowed his Darth moniker and the darkside...it was a name he responded to for almost three decades and therefore having a similar sounding new name made the change easier.
Commander Victor Jade, acting as Mara's father, would check on her in Luke's absence. If she needed something—which was usually something sweet tasting—he would then order terrified stormtroopers to go to the palace commissary to bring the Empress some specific chocolate cream truffle to soothe her pregnancy cravings.
Luke chuckled at the thought of highly trained stormtroopers scrambling through the candy aisle scooping several varieties of truffles into a hand basket to increase the chance of getting the proper brand name. He could only imagine these troopers were probably reevaluating their life decisions while on these impromptu shopping trips. Luke decided anybody his father tasked for these domestic missions would be rewarded with a four-day pass. It was the least he could do to keep morale up.
As he approached his quarters, he felt a pang of pain through the Force and immediately knew it was coming from Mara. He rushed into his apartment and found his wife on their couch, her face grimacing and with hands on her belly.
Luke dropped down on the couch next to her, extending a hand to caress her stomach. "Are you in labor?"
"Contractions started a little while ago, they are infrequent, but my water just broke." She said between deep calming breaths. "I called for the medics."
The door to the quarters flew open and Luke's father stepped in. He was in his red guard armor including full helmet. "Is it time?"
"Yes," Mara said through clenched teeth. "The medics should be here soon."
"I can carry you." Luke offered.
She looked up to her husband in exasperation. "I'll probably be in labor for hours. We don't have to rush. I don't need people seeing you carrying your bloated wife through the palace."
"You are not bloated. You are pregnant and beautiful, but okay...okay," Luke said nervously before lapsing into a long awkward pause as they waited for the medics. Finally, a young Twi'lek female medic with greenish skin and wearing white scrubs entered the apartment. Following her was a human male wearing the same outfit and guiding a repulsor chair.
The medic asked Mara a few questions and then helped transfer her to the chair, then rushed her to the infirmary with Luke and his father following closely behind.
.
.
Mara was brought to the infirmary and maneuvered into the birthing room and began her preparation for delivery. Luke and his father started to enter but upon seeing a nurse removing Mara's boots and another nurse holding up a hospital gown, the former emperor made a quick about-face and marched back out the door. "I will be in the waiting room," he called to Luke over his shoulder.
The doctor entered as the medics finished putting a gown on Mara. He was a tall, middle-aged human with greying black hair and eyes so dark brown they appeared black. Mara had met with him at an increasing frequency throughout her pregnancy. What he lacked in bedside manner he made up for with technical expertise. There was no obstetrician more highly recommended within the Empire. "How are you doing Empress Skywalker?"
"Hello, Doctor Welton," Mara said calmly. "My contractions started thirty minutes ago. They are sporadic and not too painful. Is it normal to go into labor two weeks early?"
The doctor put on surgical gloves then sat down on a small stool at the end of Mara's exam table. He retracted foot stirups and guided Mara's feet into them. He then reached under her gown and did a quick pelvic exam. "Since you are at 38 weeks of gestation this is not a problem. The baby will be fine. You are in the early stages of labor. Cervix dilation is only three centimeters."
"How long before the baby will be born?" Mara asked.
The doctor stood as he removed his gloves. "It varies from mother-to-mother. Let us know when you experience the next contraction. We'll want to time them. The closer and stronger the contractions the closer you are to delivery. Labor can last for hours or even days."
"Days!" She glared at the doctor. "I want something for the pain."
"Mara," Luke said softly. "I thought you wanted natural childbirth."
She shot him a look that made him take a step back. Luke turned to the physician. "You heard her!"
He shook his head and chuckled. "Sorry, you have to be further along in labor before we give you an epidural."
Luke gave her his best soothing and reassuring smile. "Mara, let's go over those meditation techniques we practiced."
She glared at him, irritated that all the hard work to making a baby was up to her, while Luke's part was the most enjoyable. She considered grabbing hold of his hand and through their Force bond give him a glimpse of the pain she was enduring, but instead she simply sighed and nodded.
.
.
Victor paced in the waiting room. He was alone, but that was not because there weren't other mothers giving birth. Happy expectant fathers or family members would come to the waiting room, see the red armored guardsman, and flee to other parts of the infirmary. He wasn't sure why people avoided him. It wasn't like he killed anybody since becoming Commander Victor Jade. He assumed his rank and close association with the emperor intimidated people.
Luke occasionally came out to the waiting room to update him on Mara's progress, but there was no need. Victor sensed Mara's emotions and intense pain through the Force. He did not know if this was normal for a person giving birth or if here was a problem. Finally, after five hours of waiting he felt a strong feeling of elation coming from Luke and Mara. He also felt another strong Force-user in that room...his grandson.
He wanted to burst into the delivery room to see the baby but knew that was not a good idea. He chuckled to himself as he considered how pregnancy hormones and five hours of labor probably trumped his twenty thousand midichlorians any day. He didn't need Mara Force shoving him through a wall.
After thirty long minutes Luke came out in the waiting room with a small bundle in his arms. He projected pure joy though the Force as he held out the baby to his father. "I would like to introduce you to Anakin Victor Skywalker."
Victor took off his helmet revealing his now heavily bearded face and a broad smile before reaching out and gently removing the baby from his son's arms. He looked down at the newborn who had wisps of reddish blond hair and bright blue eyes. The former emperor bit down on his bottom lip as he tried to rein in his emotions. He wished he had the chance to hold Luke and Leia like this when they were born.
"He is strong with the Force," he managed to say when he felt he had control of his voice.
"He looks like his mother," Luke said.
"He has your eyes," his father pointed out.
"A good mix of genes then."
"Yes." Victor held the baby for a few more minutes before returning the child to Luke. He was somewhat overwhelmed at the changes in his life in the last few years. He found a son, then a daughter, gained a daughter-in-law and now a grandson.
Life was good.