No. 5—Every Whumpee's Needs

Blood Loss | Running Out of Air | Hypothermia

A/N: So this is set in an AU where Anakin never turned, everything turned out (mostly) fine, but the Yuuzhan Vong War happened several decades early, mostly due to Anakin constantly having visions of them, which meant the Jedi investigated, discovered, and began to spy on the Yuuzhan Vong, and when they discovered they had eventual plans for galactic attack and domination, reached out with peace envoys in hopes they could stop or at least stall the war. Which forced it to explode early or the Yuuzhan Vong risked losing their nice galaxy that was obviously totally meant for them. But this meant that all the best officers of the Empire and Alliance got to work together with the not-aged-quickly clones and anyone willing to join in, plus a bunch of Jedi, to stop the invasion (except Tarkin, who is dead. Screw you, Tarkin). Which, imo, gives them a significant advantage over the original Yuuzhan Vong War timeline.

"E chu ta slimy son of a Hutta!" Anakin spat. He stumbled down the incline to the mine entrance, dragging Luke behind him. Second-hand and stolen TIE fighters and X-wings soared over them under the Hutts' control dropping bombs. Yuuzhan-Vong plants had already sprung up outside the mine entrance.

"Well, if you were a greedy Hutt…" Luke panted. "Siding with the Yuuzhan-Vong…makes the most logical sense. They're claiming they'll let them rebuild their slave and criminal empire. We…won't."

"They're just helping everyone be wiped out!" Anakin yanked Luke into the relative shelter of the mine. "We need to get…our comms working."

Luke leaned over, his hands on his knees. "There might be some equipment…further down."

Anakin nodded. "Let's go…look."

Several levels down, they found a damaged array of comms facilities. Thankfully, not too damaged.

"I can handle fixing this. You rest," Anakin said.

Luke grimaced, but flopped down on the ground without arguing, for once. His hideous orange jumpsuit all the X-wing pilots insisted on wearing—especially the Rogues—was streaked with sweat, dirt, and Yuuzhan-Vong blood. Anakin shook his head. If Luke was going to ditch Jedi robes during battles, he should go with the less garish black jumpsuits the TIE pilots preferred. Those were what Anakin would have chosen had he not gone back to his old dark leather robes from the Clone Wars. Light robes were nice and all, but they showed blood easier, and cloth wasn't as tough as leather.

"I'm not a child, you know," Luke said. "I'm going to be fine."

Anakin drew in a steady breath and banished his scrambling fears. "Of course you will. When you rest. And we find a cure." The sickness that had plagued Luke ever since the start of the war could easily kill him. Almost had, multiple times. Only Vergere, Vokara Che, and Anakin's brute strength with the Force had kept the disease at bay.

He didn't look, but he could feel Luke rolling his eyes at him. "I'm perfectly competent in the Force and I can figure out how to eradicate the disease myself."

"I didn't say you couldn't!" Anakin ripped a panel off the comms and dug into the wires.

"You were thinking it. Very loudly. I'm not five, Dad. I'm a grown Jedi knight and I generally know what I'm doing," Luke said.

"There's no shame in accepting help," Anakin said.

"Or in accepting your son is all grown up," Luke said.

"I don't care how old you are, you'll always be my baby boy." Anakin wrangled wires together and stood up. He jammed the power button. The array flickered to life. He breathed a sigh of relief and punched in the numbers for the Republic communications. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

"Master Skywalker?" The voice was distorted by fuzz, but still recognizable.

"Thrawn? What are you doing here?" Anakin shook his head. It didn't matter how the admiral had ended up in system. "We need evacuation. We're pinned down by Vong slave forces and Hutt squadrons in a—"

Explosions echoed above the cavern ceiling, but the ground stayed solid.

"Dad?" Luke asked.

"Just hold on, I only need a few more seconds," Anakin said. "We're in a mine near the equator and—"

"Dad!"

"Luke, I'm trying to—"

"There are cracks in the ceiling. And the floor."

"What?" Anakin spun around.

Just as the ground under his feet gave way.

Pain stabbed through Anakin's chest. A horrible weight pinned him down. He thrashed, crying out.

"Dad! Calm down. Stay still." Steady hands rested on Anakin's shoulder. "I've almost got you unburied."

Anakin stilled. The weight pinning him down lifted. A loud crash echoed right near his ear. He flinched.

"Sorry. There's not much room in here," Luke said. "Are you all right?"

Anakin dragged his eyes open. Luke illuminated a small pocket of air surrounded by piled rocks with the green glow of his lightsaber. A new large patch of blood stained his orange jumpsuit on his side and his left arm.

"What…happened?" Anakin asked, his voice scratchy. Horrible pain still throbbed through his shoulder blades, his ribs, and his left leg, though the rocks pinning him down were gone.

"The Hutts' ships figured out where we went and bombed the mine with bunker busters," Luke said. "We got caught up in a collapse."

Anakin grimaced. "I know that. What happened to you, specifically?"

"Oh." Luke glanced down. "A rock. And one of the comm unit's panels stabbed into my side. I don't think it's too deep."

But even before Anakin's eyes, the stain on Luke's side slowly grew. "It's bleeding pretty bad."

"It'll be fine." Luke panted hard. "What about you? How bad do you think you're hurt?"

"I don't know." Anakin gritted his teeth and pushed himself up. Blinding pain shot white across his vision, but he pushed through it and sat up. "Nothing a…bacta tank can't fix." He tipped forward, towards Luke.

Luke jumped. "Shavit." He dropped his lightsaber and caught Anakin with his right hand, likely his only good hand. "We really should start carrying around light sources other than our lightsabers." His lightsaber deactivated, plunging them into complete darkness.

"Too much extra weight." Anakin steadied himself and moved to sit beside Luke, leaning against the rock. He panted for breath. "Are you…having trouble breathing too or is it just me?" It could just be his injury, but the air seemed to be getting thin.

"It's not just…you." Luke fumbled around by his side. "I think the air's…running out."

Anakin shot up and felt his belt. "Where's my lightsaber?"

"On my belt," Luke said. "Next to mine."

"Good." Anakin sank back against the rock. Obi-Wan would make fun of him so much if he came back without a lightsaber.

Luke leaned against Anakin's side, laying his head on his shoulder. "Dad? Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," Anakin said. "You know you can ask me anything."

"Were you scared when you found out Mom was pregnant with us? I mean, before the whole vision thing," Luke said. "Did you feel like you could be a good father?"

Anakin sighed. Where was this coming from? Was Luke really old enough for this conversation already? He was in his twenties, a few years older than Anakin had been when he had become a father, and Luke had married Mara just before the war started, but… How were his kids old enough to have kids already? Leia being pregnant with twins was frightening enough. "I was pretty scared. Very excited, over the moons, but yeah. I was terrified. I never really had a father, so I didn't know what having one was like. I didn't really have an example to draw on, someone to emulate. Even after you and your sister were born, it was so frightening to have two little lives under my responsibility, actual people to raise that I could mess up if I wasn't careful. But I just tried to do my best and love you and spend as much time with you as I could, and the rest kind of fell into place eventually. I don't think I've messed up too badly, have I?"

Luke laughed. "No, you haven't." He panted hard. "I think that's…part of what…scares me so much. You were such a good…father. What if I don't…measure up?"

Anakin extracted his arm from Luke's weight and wrapped it around his oldest son's shoulders. "You will. I have faith in you. You're a better…Jedi than I am. I'm sure you'll…measure up in…fatherhood too."

"I am not a better Jedi than you," Luke said. "You're making things up."

Anakin snorted. "You're far more mature than I was at your age."

"That's because I had an amazing father," Luke said.

Anakin smiled. He had no words for his son's high—and inaccurate—praise, so he pressed a kiss to the top of his head. He could still feel the tiny baby boy he'd held against his chest just minutes after Luke's birth, yet here his baby was, all grown up and having babies of his own. "I assume there's something you want to tell me?"

Exhaustion dragged down Luke's voice when he spoke. The lack of air and the blood loss were pulling him down quickly. "Mara wants to keep it a secret for a while yet."

Anakin's smile widened. Even that tired admission revealed the truth. "I promise to act surprised when she tells everyone."

Luke sighed, nestling into Anakin's side. "She…thinks it's a boy. It's too early to tell by scan but…she checked with the Force."

"Congratulations." That made a third grandchild of Anakin's that had yet to be born. As long as everyone involved could make it through the next couple months, that is. "A son, huh?"

"I just hope he…has a father to raise him," Luke said. "Even if I'm not very good at it. I want to be there."

Anakin drew in a deep breath and gazed around him. He couldn't see a thing, but the rocks still blocked them off from the surface. "You should go into a hibernation trance so you can last until Thrawn finds us." The Chiss officer wouldn't let them die under the ground if he could help it. They just had to live long enough to be dug out.

"What about you?" Luke asked.

"I'll be right behind you," Anakin said.

"All right. I love you, Father." Luke's breathing slowed down as he pulled himself into a hibernation trance.

"I love you too, son." Anakin wrapped his arms around Luke as he dropped into his own hibernation trance, setting himself to be pulled out at the sound of his own name.

"…the Skywalkers. Are either of them still alive?" Thrawn asked.

Anakin groaned. He didn't have the strength to do anything else before he slipped under, but that was enough.

"They're alive," Thrawn said. "Get them to the ship and into medical immediately."

They were safe. Anakin allowed himself a smile as he dropped back into darkness.