Chapter 13: Endgame

Palpatine's personal shuttle docked with the medical frigate in orbit around Coruscant. Hearing what had happened to Vader, he wanted to see for himself what his condition was. After his shuttle dropped him off, it disconnected so the medical ship could descend to the surface.

The emperor found Vader completely unrecognizable and marveled at the fact he was even alive. He could feel the Force flowing through him, giving his destroyed body the strength to stay on this side of the living. He was pleased to see his apprentice was still strong in the Force but wondered how he could ever be the Sith he once was with the injuries he had sustained.

Looking over the readouts from the monitors, Palpatine could see Vader was stable. That was all the computer could say. It did not possess the tools to evaluate what could be done to heal the man. It didn't matter. Palpatine had an entire medical facility ready to treat his apprentice. When the ship landed on the surface, Vader was immediately whisked away.

...

Obi-Wan took a deep breath, experiencing the musty smell of the bunker. He was in one of the many emergency bunkers the royal family of Naboo had built for itself. This one was under the main palace and was a secret addition that had been made after the Battle of Naboo. Soala had wanted a place to hide should she ever find herself trapped during an invasion in the same manner as the Neimoidian invasion.

The bunker was exactly what Obi-Wan and Padme needed. Following Soala's instructions, he landed the Sith ship in the middle of the forest that bordered Theed. There was an entrance to a tunnel that led to the bunker underneath the palace. It contained a complete medical station with a fully functional Bacta tank. Padme was immediately immersed in it.

During their short stay, Obi-Wan had only met Naboo aides who were unfamiliar to him. They introduced themselves as security officials who had been trained to deal with this very thing. Obi-Wan found that hard to believe, as up until the previous day they had thought Padme had died a year and a half ago on Geonosis. He could sense they were unnerved by everything.

Almost every aide who came to see him felt the need to tell him Soala desperately wanted to come down and see her sister but was too busy to do so. The Grand Moff who was due to be appointed the ruler of their sector was having an endless series of meetings with planetary leaders to hash out everything. It was hard for her to get away.

Obi-Wan knew what he was being told was only part of the reason Soala was staying away. The endless meetings gave her little time, but he felt so much of the reason she was staying away was the simple shock of finding out her sister was alive. Seeing her once again after believing she was dead would make it hard for her to keep her composure, and with all the meetings she was having, she couldn't risk giving away anything. She could only come to see Padme at a moment when she had time to regain her composure after the sight of her living, but seriously injured sister.

As it was getting late, Obi-Wan wondered if Soala would come to see Padme before she went to bed. He had been expecting her the previous night, but she hadn't come. He wondered if she would still be staying away this night.

Just as Obi-Wan was going to make his way to his bed, he felt the presence of someone behind him. He turned to see Queen Soala standing before him. She had an expression that was a mixture of both shock and joy. His eyes quickly moved down to her large, protruding stomach, which she was clutching tightly. He suddenly remembered seeing some news story on how she was pregnant with an heir, but he had no idea she was so close to giving birth. From the way she was clutching her stomach, he wondered if she was feeling contractions at that very moment.

"I can't believe it." She finally said. Her voice was weak because of the shock she was experiencing. Keeping her eyes on her sister in the Bacta tank, and not looking at Obi-Wan at all, she slowly made her way to it, placing a hand on the tank when she reached it.

"How did the two of you escape Geonosis?" she asked as she turned around. Obi-Wan had not been expecting the question and was taken aback.

"Um, the two of us did not escape Geonosis together. I escaped on the same Sith ship I arrived in. As for Padme, I never did find out exactly how she survived." He shook his head over the fact there were a great many things he did not know. "I haven't had a chance to talk to her about anything myself. I was fighting Vader on Mustafar when she showed up. She was immediately fired on by an Empire fighter. That was how she ended up in the condition she is now."

Soala turned her attention back to the Bacta tank as she continued stroking the glass as she stared at her sister. "Do you know what she was doing there? Was she looking for you?"

Obi-Wan opened his mouth to speak but couldn't say anything as he realized just how ignorant Soala was of everything that had transpired with the creation of the Empire. He had quite the bombshell to lay on her, and he was afraid he would send her into labor by revealing it.

"I don't think she was looking for me, I think she was looking for Vader." Obi-Wan wanted to tell her Vader was Anakin but couldn't quite bring himself to do so.

"What would she be doing, looking for Vader?" The expression on her face indicated she was both confused, and angry that her sister would take what was to her such a senseless risk.

"She wanted to see Vader because he is really Anakin. He was the Jedi who came to the rescue of Palpatine. He is the Jedi who betrayed us and is responsible for our purge."

Soala removed one hand from her stomach to lean against the Bacta tank. To Obi-Wan, she looked lightheaded. He was afraid she might faint. He took a step towards her so he would be closer in case he needed to catch her.

"It can't be true." She turned around to look at Padme as if she was expecting her sister to give her a sign. "You never would have gotten within a light year of Vader, unless he was Anakin, wouldn't you?" She stroked the glass as she talked to her sister.

While Soala looked to be calm, everything changed quickly as she winced and started slumping to the ground. She was in pain because of a contraction, but it didn't last long, and she quickly regained her balance.

"It appears my baby has decided to make its arrival." Soala was speaking in her regal, professional queen voice. It came naturally to her as she was thinking about her royal duties and responsibilities.

"Do you need any help?" Obi-Wan asked.

"No. I just pressed a button on my communicator to have an aide come and help me. While I wasn't exactly expecting my sister to be here like this, I have been spending a long time planning how the birth will happen. I always planned to have a very private birth with only my most trusted aides and advisors around. That will work out perfectly as I want Padme to be present for my birth. Soala took a view of the timer showing how much longer Padme needed to stay in the tank. It was showing there was just two hours left.

"When she comes out, I will explain everything to her and see her up to you," Obi-Wan said.

"Thank you," Soala replied.

...

Obi-Wan paced the floor outside of Soala's room. The sound of her labor screams were nearly constant now. He knew the heir was close to being born. As he passed the open door once again, he paused to look inside at the scene. Soala was lying on the bed, her husband on one side holding her right hand while Padme was on the other side holding her left hand. Padme looked remarkably healthy and happy. While Obi-Wan knew the Bacta tank would heal all her physical wounds, he wondered where her mind would be. He had no idea what she had been doing for the past year, why she had waited until now to emerge from where she had been hiding, and exactly what she had been hoping to accomplish when she came to Mustafar. When she emerged from the Bacta tank there had been numerous questions he wanted to ask her. He was refraining so she could enjoy this moment with her sister. He remembered how close the two of them had been back when he first met them.

When he arrived on Naboo two nights ago, he barely recognized where he was. He landed in the dark, and immediately headed for the underground bunker. Now that he was back in the palace, all his memories of the past on Naboo were flooding back to him. There was an intense feeling of sorrow, and it wasn't just due to the memories of Qui-Gon's death. He was feeling sorrow over everything that had happened from that moment in time. The purge of the Jedi and the rise of the Empire all happened because after the Battle of Naboo, he made the decision to train Anakin as a Jedi.

Obi-Wan pushed his sorrow aside as he knew there was no going back. He had to find a way forward. He had already taken steps to aid the nascent resistance, giving them the information they needed on what the Emperor had planned for the future. What other help he could be to them, he wasn't sure. He was a man with numerous mistakes in his past, and he wasn't sure how much he could overcome them to be trusted by others.

As he looked at Padme he wondered what she truly thought of him at the moment. The two of them shared a responsibility for everything that happened. They were the ones who failed Anakin. They had been unable to prevent his turn to the Dark Side. There was still so much he didn't know about the relationship Padme had with Anakin. All he knew was the little she had told him before they separated back on Geonosis. He hoped she trusted him enough to reveal everything to him. While he considered Anakin lost to the Dark Side forever, he was willing to entertain the possibility he could be brought back to the light. Perhaps if he and Padme shared everything they knew about him, they could find a way to do so.

After taking a few more paces up and down the hallway, Obi-Wan heard Soala let out the final wails of childbirth. He could hear the cries of the heir as it took its first breaths. He walked over to the door and looked inside to see Soala holding her crying baby while her husband and Padme leaned in to enjoy the moment with her. While Obi-Wan had been hoping to talk to Padme immediately, he realized he should wait a little longer to give her more time to enjoy this moment. He left to go to the room that had been assigned to him and rest.

...

When Palpatine walked into the infirmary, he was shocked at the sight before him. Vader was completely enclosed inside a glass chamber. That part didn't surprise him. What surprised him was that the man was now just a torso and head.

"What have you done to him?" Palpatine asked as he turned to the nearest medical droid. The floating droid turned in the Emperor's direction to reply.

"We were forced to amputate his remaining appendages. They were too badly burned to save. We can replace them all with mechanical appendages. He already had one, he should be able to adjust to the others without much difficulty."

"Mechanical appendages will do him no good if he can't breathe away from that apparatus."

"Yes, that is why we will be constructing a suit that will help him breathe in the same manner the chamber does."

"Good." The emperor smiled as he was pleased to know his apprentice would not end up a complete invalid. "And when will that be completed."

"In about a week."

Palpatine was relieved to know Vader would be up and walking around shortly. He pulled out his communicator to radio one of his aides. "I need you to arrange a ceremony," he began. "It is time for Lord Vader to be presented to the galaxy. I will be awarding him a medal for a successful completion of the elimination of the Jedi. I want the entirety of the press there. This ceremony should be transmitted to the entire galaxy."

...

Obi-Wan ran up the stairs to Padme's room. While the story on the news had been released a while ago, he had just seen that Vader had been rebuilt after his injuries and was finally going to make his first public appearance. He wondered how Padme would be affected by the news and was running up to see.

While he had been told where her room was, he had not seen it before. When he reached it, its large doors were open, and he could see it was a corner room that opened to a large balcony. He expected her to be up, but instead, she was lying in bed. She didn't look good, and he immediately wondered if she had a relapse of her health problems.

"What is it? Do you need a medical droid to inspect you?" He spoke in a rush as he ran up to her. "We could put you back in the Bacta tank."

"The Bacta tank isn't going to help me." Not only did Padme's voice sound weak, but she sounded like she was about to start crying.

"What's the problem then?"

"I messed up. I really screwed up everything." From Obi-Wan's vantage point, he was able to see her shaking her head. He couldn't see her face, but from her cracking voice he could tell she was starting to cry. "Everything was stable. Anakin thought I was dead, and I was living in peace and anonymity. I didn't have to worry about him trying to find me. Now, I ruined everything. Vader knows I am alive. I just saw he has been rebuilt from his injuries. The first thing he is going to do is try and find me, and with the connection we used to share, he can do it with ease."

Obi-Wan was now close enough to her to see her face. She turned to look at him. He could see the fear and the despair in it. For the first time since he had known her, she seemed to have no hope left.

"I admit I don't know everything about the connection you used to share with Anakin, but I think you are scared over nothing. You have been living for the past year with Vader completely ignorant of that fact. If he didn't even know you were alive, then there is a good chance that he will not be able to track you. You have to remember, you had that connection because of the love the two of you felt for each other. Vader has completely succumbed to the dark side now. He is incapable of love. Because of that, he will never be able to connect with you."

Padme turned her head away from Kenobi as the tears started coming down harder. Obi-Wan couldn't understand what he had said that was wrong. "I can't count on that. I can't assume Anakin won't be able to connect with me just because he's supposedly incapable of love."

"You have people willing to fight to protect you," Obi-Wan pointed out. "Besides that, you have proven yourself to be strong. You don't have to worry."

"It is not just myself I have to worry about." Padme sat up as she apparently had something significant to tell Obi-Wan. "A year ago, I gave birth to a son, Vader's son."

Obi-Wan was rendered speechless as he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "A son, where is he?"

"On Tatooine. I went there after fleeing Geonosis. He is with Owen and Beru at the moment."

"Then Vader doesn't know about him. He is safe."

"No, he's not." Padme started crying as she shook her head. "Vader connected with me back on Mustafar. He was able to read my thoughts and see everything that had happened over the past year. He saw an image of me with Luke and was able to feel it was our son. I messed up, I did everything wrong." The tears really started streaming down her face now. "We were safe, and unknown to Vader. Now, he knows we are both alive. And if he were to connect with me, even for just a second, he could find out where I am, where our son is, and come after us."

"That will not happen." Obi-Wan was trying to sound strong, but his resolve was weak. He didn't know what to make of the fact Vader had a son. He needed to know more about the situation. With Padme too hysterical to speak, he didn't think he could get much information out of her. He needed to find Soala, and see what she knew about this child, Luke. He knew Padme would have told her sister everything.

Opening his mouth to speak, Obi-Wan didn't know how to excuse himself. With her head back, sobbing, Padme didn't seem to be paying him any attention. He slowly crept back, before exiting through the still open door.

When Obi-Wan finally turned around, he almost ran right into Soala. "How is she?" the woman asked. "I heard the news about Vader and figured she would be concerned over it."

"She is completely distraught," Obi-Wan told her. "She is sobbing and crying with fear that Anakin will find her, and their son. I didn't know how to deal with her, so I left to come and find you."

"Let me talk to her." As Soala ran past him, he noted that she was completely unfazed that he had mentioned Luke. She was so focused on her sister she didn't see the need to ask him anything about this newfound knowledge of his.

Figuring there was nothing more he could do, Obi-Wan started to head back to his own room. He stopped dead in his tracks when he heard a bloodcurdling scream come from inside Padme's room.

"Padme!" The terror in Soala's voice was evident as she screamed her sister's name. Obi-Wan ran to the door. He looked at Padme's bed, finding it empty. His eyes darted around until they fell upon Soala. She was standing out on the balcony, looking over the railing. While Obi-Wan knew what had happened, he had to see it for himself.

Running out on the balcony and looking over the railing himself, he was able to see the body of Padme lying on the ground far below. She was lying in a pool of blood. Despite the fact he had seen a countless amount of death in his life, this proved to be too much for him. He had to cover his eyes with one hand, while putting his other arm around Soala after she leaned into him to cry on his shoulder.

...

Obi-Wan walked around like a zombie as he packed. None of the things he was packing were his own, they were just general items kept in the guest room of the Naboo palace. If he was going to make his way to Tatooine disguised as just a normal traveler, he was going to need luggage in order to look authentic. He figured Soala wouldn't mind if he took a few things.

"Leaving us already?" Soala was standing in the doorway. From the look on her face she appeared okay.

"I was thinking I should go to Tatooine."

"Are you worried that Vader might find Padme's son and come for him."

"I think the boy is safe in hiding there. If Padme believed Vader knew where Luke was, she would have done something about it."

"She killed herself to protect her child. As long as she was alive, Vader might have been able to read her mind and learn his location."

"Yes, I know that." Obi-Wan continued to concentrate on his packing as he didn't want to look at Soala.

"I think she would approve of this. You going to Tatooine to watch over Luke." She paused as she thought of something. "Is this temporary? Are you just going to stay a short time to see if Vader comes for him, then leave to fight elsewhere?"

"There is no fight to be had anywhere, at least not now. One day, the people of the galaxy might turn against the Emperor. And when they do, I will be ready to rebuild the Jedi, starting with Luke."

"From what Padme told me, Owen and Beru might not let you get too close to him now. You have time, though. One day, he will be an adult, and will be old enough to make his own decisions. Perhaps he will choose to be a Jedi."

"I certainly hope so." Soala walked right up to Obi-Wan so she could look him in the eye.

"I think if Padme would approve of this. She was always very fond of you, and always appreciated what you did for Anakin. I know she would trust you to watch over her son."

"Thank you," Obi-Wan replied.

"I didn't come down here just to tell you that. I brought you something." She held out her hand. When Obi-Wan looked at it, he could see she was holding a medal, one of the medals he and Anakin had been awarded after the Battle of Naboo. They had both been forced to decline them because of the Jedi prohibition against receiving such awards. "I know Padme would want her son to have something of his father's. I was thinking you could give this to him one day."

"Thank you," Obi-Wan said as he took it. "I already have one thing of his father's I can give him, but there is no harm in having more than one."