"I dream, mommy.", Luke said tugging at his mother's leg. "I scared now." Padmé picked him up, while she was still half asleep. She put him under her own blanket and held onto him. "You were just sleeping. It wasn't real."
Luke cuddled himself closer to his mother. "They was white men. They has black eyes and not face.", he mumbled. Padmé froze. It sounded like stormtroopers. She was pretty sure he had never seen one before.
"What did they do, Luke?", she asked, trying not to sound too alarmed. "They take me.", he told her. "Sister too." Padmé's eyes widened. "It was just a dream. Now go back to sleep and dream sweetly.
Luke nodded and pressed himself tighter in his mothers embrace. "It's gonna be fine.", she promised him with a calm voice and stroked his hair. He fell asleep after a few minutes, but the same couldn't be said about Padmé.
Anakin had these nightmares, that were visions, maybe his children inherited that. Luke couldn't have known what the stormtroopers looked like. What if he was foreseeing the future.
She tried to calm herself. Maybe he had seen a clone as a baby and only remembered it through his dreams. Perhaps it was just a nightmare. Padmé looked at Leia who was sleeping peacefully.
Probably she was overreacting. Everything would be fine. Padmé couldn't bring herself to sleep for the rest of the night. She imagined how Luke would be ripped out of her sleeping hands and Leia out of her crib.
When the morning came Padmé's eyes were underlined by dark shadows. Luke wiggled in her arms, waking up. She pressed a kiss on his hair. "Good morning dear. Did you have nice dreams?", she whispered.
Luke nodded and looked up at his mother. She stood up and set him down on the table. "I'll make some breakfast.", she said and began to make a rather poor meal. Leia began to babble too.
Padmé took Leia out of the crib and put her next to her brother. They started talking to each other in a way she didn't understand. It wasn't like confusing babbling, it was like their very own language.
She had once read that that was usual for twins. Padmé continued making food. "Mommy?", Leia asked. "Yes?", Padmé answered. "I dream same.", Leia announced. Padmé dropped the pan to the floor.
Darth Sidious felt sick. There were two of them. He had always suspected Amidala had delivered, but he hadn't known that there were two children. He felt their presence clearly. Their force signature wasn't veiled at all.
Sidious expected Anakin Skywalker's offspring to be guarded by many Jedi that were hiding them perfectly. This lack of cover was surprising.
Amidala was foolish to leave them as unprotected. Clearly she didn't have an able advisor. He called for one of his generals. "I have an assignment for you. Send clones to Thyferra." Sidious felt they were there.
Each of their force signatures were just as strong as Vader's. "I want you to look for two infants." The general blinked in surprise. "Infants, sir?", the man stammered. "Yes, infants. They should be about two years old, a boy and a girl.", Sidious pronounced
"They're with their mother.", the Emperor added. "Do you want their elimination, your majesty?", the general asked. "Bring them alive! I don't care what happens to the mother but don't bring her here.", the Emperor barked.
"Understood?", he asked impatiently. The general nodded nervously. "Yes your majesty. We'll start right now.", he promised. "Good.", Sidious hissed. The general performed a very deep bow and left the room in a hurry.
A whole battalion of clones was send to Thyferra instantly. It wouldn't take long to find the children, since obviously there wasn't even a decent effort to hide them.
Sidious couldn't wait. They would be trained as sith like their father and a whole new era would begin. The sith would take the Jedi's place in the minds of people and there would be many of them with himself as a leader.
The two would be an important step towards that goal. The Emperor had a vision. He would rule the galaxy with hundreds of force sensitive warriors that everyone would look up to.
He would keep control over all the planets through them, and when his time was over, the galaxy would never change back to the way it was before. All that would start with these two children. Sidious had to begin his plan carefully.
I was certain the two couldn't turn against him when they were older because they would be raised as fully persuaded sith. And who was better to raise children in that way than their own father?
Ahsoka pulled her hood deep in her face. "Alright, listen.", Vader began. "It's time to show off your Jedi skills. Follow me without anyone seeing you. I'll try my best but it's not gonna be easy.", he said.
Ahsoka grinned. "You'd be surprised. I've always been good at this, master.", she smiled. "I remember.", Vader nodded. "Let's do it then." Vader opened the storage unit and pulled out the mask.
Ahsoka stared at it. She knew about it, she was here anyway, but it felt different to actually see it. She had only seen photos and holos of the thing before. She had had quite some nightmares about the black inhuman features too.
She gulped and Vader looked at her apologizing before he put it over his head. In a few moments the air was filled with a mechanical breathing that gave Ahsoka goose bumps.
Vader turned away from her, he didn't want to show her the mask longer than necessary. Vader exited the TIE fighter and noticed how everyone started moving a little faster as they saw him.
Vader advanced out of the hangar. Ahsoka stayed hidden in the shuttle and waited for the right moment to follow him. He moved slowly so she wouldn't lose sight of him too quickly.
They had often infiltrated orbital stations or ships of the separatists to spy on or arrest them during the clone wars. Ahsoka had always been excellent on such missions.
Vader remembered how she was enjoying crossing the enemy territory's borders way too much. He was quite impressed as he marched through the ship's transitions.
Ahsoka kept up without problem, efficiently sticking to the shadows or dangling from the ceiling for a few heartbeats. No one saw her as she stayed close to him. He had almost forgotten how skilled at this she had always been.
It took a few minutes until Vader had reached the entrance to his quarters. He entered the code and waited a few moments before he pressed the button to open the door.
Ahsoka rushed passed him and he closed the door behind them. He pulled the mask of his head and coughed a few times. "That thing is the worst.", he said and threw it on a table.
Ahsoka smiled. "You'll be rid of it soon enough." Vader coughed again. "Hopefully.", he agreed. Ahsoka stared at the machine in the center of the room. "What's that?", she asked curiously.
"It's called meditation chamber, even though it has nothing to do with meditation. It removes my mask and lets me breathe anyway. I won't be needing it any longer. But I can't just remove it, since I still need it officially."
Ahsoka touched the glass gently. "It looks painful." Ahsoka looked at the hook that was hovering right over the seat. "And you couldn't take it off anywhere else?", she asked in disbelief. Vader shrugged. "I would have suffocated."
The corners of Ahsoka's mouth twitched a little. "I'm sorry you endured that, master.", she mumbled. Vader raised his brows. "Ahsoka, I spent the last two years hunting down and killing your kind, don't tell me you feel sorry for me."
She bit her lip, remembering who she was in a room with. "It's your kind too, you know." Vader looked down. "It was.", he then said. "It is.", she repeated. "They're all dead, Ahsoka.", he said bitterly.
She shook her head. "Some survived. Even I did. Sure, the rest is pretty small, but there is a rest anyway." He looked at her. They were allying. And she knew where they were.
"Don't tell me.", he said quietly. "Don't put them in that risk. You won't be able to live with yourself." She stared at him, surprised that he figured out that they were hiding together so easily.
She gulped. "They asked me to join them too, but I declined. I didn't want to hide together with all the old masters. I wanted to die fighting or survive because I earned it through hard work."
Vader looked in her big blue eyes. "That was pretty reckless of you." She chuckled. "I've always been the daring type." She grinned. Vader smiled a little. "I have to report your death now. So you should hide for a moment."
Ahsoka nodded and disappeared in the next room. Vader put on his mask once more and set the holoterminal on the Emperor's frequency. "I've killed the padawan, master.", he said in a devoted tone. "Good.", the Emperor said hoarsely.
"Who was it?", he then asked. "Ahsoka Tano, master.", Vader replied. His face hardened behind the mask. Vader noticed a weak smirk behind Sidious' hood. "Excellent.", he said before he ended the connection.
Vader ripped the mask of his face and forced himself to ignore the impulse to cough again. Ahsoka stood in the doorframe. "So I'm dead now, huh.", she snarled. Vader shrugged.
"He won't be looking for you. But you need to hide your force signature." Ahsoka squared her shoulders. "Oh please. I'm not a youngling." "And you need to hide whenever the door opens. Someone might look inside."
Ahsoka nodded. "Don't leave, Ahsoka." He looked at her with an insistent look. "And don't answer calls.", he said slowly. "Alright, alright.", she held up her hands in defeat. "I'll behave, promise."
Leia had found a pretty rock and brought it inside. "Look!", she demanded and held it in front of Luke's nose. Luke giggled and fell forward. Padmé grinned into herself.
They were just so adorable. Suddenly, Leia dropped the rock and frowned. Luke turned silent too. "What's wrong?", Padmé asked as she heard the crack of a falling tree. She hurried out of the cabin to look for what had caused the noise.
She was joined by her children who were hiding behind their mother's legs. Padmé concentrated on the distance, trying to make out what that white mass was.
Padmé stared at the stormtroopers unbelieving. So many of them were marching through the forest. She didn't know what they wanted here. Maybe they were looking for a hidden rebel base.
How should they know about her and the twins? Padmé picked both of her children up and pressed them against her chest. "You can't play right now.", she whispered.
The mass of stormtroopers came closer steadily. "Mommy, I'm scared.", Leia whined and turned away from the soldiers. "Like my dream.", Luke whimpered and held onto his mother.
"It's alright, you two.", Padmé said with a shaking voice. "They'll leave again. It's going to be just fine." Both of them started crying. Padmé decided not to assume that it was their preceptive gift that was horrifying them.
One of the troopers pointed in their direction, and all of them increased speed a little. Padmé pressed herself against the wall of the cabin. Hiding inside wouldn't serve any purpose.
Running wouldn't either. The stormtroopers could just shoot her. So she gulped and waited until the soldiers had reached her. "They're human.", one of the clones stated. "A boy and a girl?", another asked.
His question was answered with a nod. The commander turned to Padmé. "How old are your children?" "Two years.", she stammered. She immediately cursed herself for being honest.
"Alright take them!", the commander barked and turned away. Padmé turned pale and her children wiggled in her arms, screaming. "No!", she shouted. "Please! They're just children!", she cried.
Two troopers stepped forward and ripped the children out of her arms. "No!", she screamed louder. "Please, please! I beg you!", she whined. A soldier held her back effortless, as her children were carried away from her.
She sobbed bitterly as she had to watch how her children cried in panic and were pulled away from her until she couldn't see them any longer. The soldiers let go of her and she fell to her knees, her tears flowing over her face.