The Water Dragon's Pearl Chapter Three

The Festival of Love on Naboo is an affair of soft reds and warm pinks. To Anakin, Padmé perfectly represents this holiday. Red adorns her soft body, while pink kisses her round face. He finds her beautiful, even as she's trying her damndest to break his mechno hand. He's read enough datapads, in the very limited free time he has between battles, on childbirth to know that it's supposed to hurt.

All I can do is watch and listen as Padmé suffers to bring Palpatine's children into the world. He said that 11-4D can handle any complications that can arise, but I wish he was here. Anakin wants to sigh, but he fears Padmé may take offense to it.

"All you need to do is be there for her, my boy."

"What will you be doing, sir?"

"I will be getting everything ready for Gallo."

"Gallo?"

"That's the name we chose for the one that is like me."

Anakin prays for this birth to be swift. Two hours later, he finally hears the cries of a baby. The droid raises it up with one set of arms to let them gaze at the bloodied baby.

"Rori." Padmé whispers weakly and then groans again as his twin follows right after him. It takes a few minutes, but the droid presents Gallo.

He, if the name is anything to go by, looks so much like Palpatine. Same red hair, though it's just fluff. Same long, regal nose. Even his row of little shark teeth are slightly crooked. But his coloration is so much lighter. He's rose pink and charcoal gray. And he has Padmé's eyes, brown and practically milky.

"Take Gallo to Sheev. He's down by the lakeshore." She commands, and Anakin hurries away to avoid witnessing the afterbirth. The moon is a crescent and cannot illuminate the path to the lakeshore, so Anakin takes great care in his movements.

Is he as fragile as human babies are? His teeth suggest that he'll be a predator to the local fish, but he's so sweet. He's not even gnawing on my finger. He just looks at me, unblinking, and searching for something. But what could he possibly want from me?

He feels the Force, nebulous and bright, reaching towards him. It, no, Gallo wants to bond with him. This few-minutes old infant wants nothing more from him than him. And it's a temptation greater than anything Anakin's felt before. Ahsoka's gone because the Order deemed her a traitor and forced her to prove her innocence. His training bond with Obi-Wan is still there, but it might as well not be considering the widening gulf between them. Suddenly, he wishes he can rid himself of the bond so he can have this new one.

He won't leave me like everyone else. But Obi-Wan would feel that bond since a baby doesn't know how to hide it. And I don't think I'd be able to hide it either since he burns so brightly. He must be truly Force–

But the Water Dragon rips the baby out of his arms and dives into the lake.

Anakin watches the dark waters for a few minutes before returning to the house. He finds Padmé breastfeeding a cleaned Rori. The prune-faced baby drinks fiercely from his mother's creamy breast like a greedy little tick. He quickly averts his eyes.

"Rori's so much like his father." Anakin sucks in some air and wills himself not imagine that delightful picture when he's alone.

"Sheev was worried that you were going to steal me away." She murmurs like he wasn't meant to hear it.

"W-What!?" He splutters like a bad engine.

"I know, but it's mostly because of his Water Dragon form. He's quite animalistic, so when a young, strapping buck like you hang around me, he gets jealous. He even felt the same about Rush."

"Rush Clovis?" The Separatist sympathizer turned Republic traitor?

"The very same. I started dating him after my 21st life day. We were both senators that, at the time, shared the same love for the Republic. He was quite easy on the eyes, but he was also kind. However, a year into our relationship, my attraction to him waned. It was then on a summer night at Varykino that the Water Dragon appeared." She stops her story in favor of giving the bossy infant at her breast a kiss on his ruddy forehead.

"Because you're his pearl."

Author's Comments: There are no links.

Considering how Anakin and Padmé aren't and never will be together in this AU, it does change things in the Clone Wars such as with Clovis, but he still dies. One day, I will write a story with him actually in it. One day.

Anyways, the next part of the series will either be a one-shot dealing with Sate Pestage finding out about Senator Palpatine's Water Dragon form or it'll be dealing with the Jedi finding out about Gallo. Or something.