(AN: Unlike my other stories, this one won't have named chapters. Sort of running out of creative titles, so I'm just going by the typical 'chapter' series thing. Yeah, totally original. lol)
(This is definitely AU, since its defying George Lucas' "official" canon, some of which doesn't exactly make sense to me - and to others. So enjoy the new chapter)
Bail Organa was sitting in the council chamber of his ship, the Tantive IV, with the two Jedi Masters. Kenobi, his robes still blackened from the fires of Mustafar, and Yoda, the short green-skinned Jedi Master who was the most powerful in the galaxy – or so it was purported. At eight hundred years, he was also one of the oldest Jedi left – of the two who were still alive. Even though Senator Organa thought that Yoda always looked rather old and wrinkled, the ancient Jedi Master looked even more weary and care-worn.
Great things were on his mind, it seemed.
"Alive, Senator Amidala is, hmm?" the short green Jedi Master queried.
"Yes." Organa returned, nodding wearily. It had been quite a long day – he seemed to have lost all sense of time when it came to the past few days.
"Act now we must, in order to keep her children safe." Yoda added.
"Anakin was the father," Obi-wan stated. "The Force is strong with his children, I have felt it."
"So have I." Yoda added.
"What does this mean?" Organa queried.
"Hidden, safe, the children must be kept." Yoda stated.
"Palpatine will be wary of any Force-sensitive offspring of Anakin's," Obi-wan continued. "He'll see them as a threat, or try to train them in the dark side. We cannot allow that to happen."
"What do you propose we do?" Bail asked.
"Dead the Senator must be to the public," Yoda began. "But yet with child she must appear."
"Make it appear she died with the children inside her," Bail divined. "That's brilliant!"
"And what of the children?" Obi-wan asked.
"Split up, they must be." Yoda answered.
"Wait, why?" Organa interjected. "Why do we have to split them up so early on?"
"While one Jedi alone may be difficult to sense in the vastness of the galaxy," Obi-wan replied. "Two together would create too great a target."
"So where will they go?" Organa queried.
"I will take the boy to Tatooine," Obi-wan said. "Anakin told me that he has a step-brother living somewhere on that remote planet. He will stay with them, but I'll watch after him from a distance."
"And the girl?"
"With her mother she should go." Yoda said.
"She could stay with us on Alderaan." Senator Organa said.
"It's too risky." Obi-wan returned. "Palpatine must know that you were friend to Senator Amidala. That may be the first place he'll look."
"Not if we hold her funeral on Naboo first." Bail said. "If you're right, Master Kenobi, and the Emperor is looking for Amidala's children, he will start wherever news of her first surfaces."
"And once we've laid the doppelganger Senator to rest," Obi-wan said. "We can send her and her daughter to Alderaan."
"We're a peaceful planet," Bail added. "It would be the last place the Emperor would search." He then sighed. This had been quite a long day. "What about you two?"
"Until the time is right," Yoda said, referring to both Organa and Master Kenobi. "Disappear we must."
Organa nodded, and then departed while Yoda said something to Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Senator from Alderaan had much on his plate currently. How would they get hold of the means to inter Amidala while she yet lived? Her hand-maidens, those women who had served her both as queen and as Naboo's senator, were too far from being alike to permit one of them to pose as her. Besides, for this ploy to work, the doppelganger had to actually be dead.
Cloning.
That would be the only probable choice. But merely the thought of going into Kamino, the veritable heart of the Army of the Republic – more like the Imperial Army now – just to clone the supposedly dead Senator Amidala was too risky. There was a high probability of being caught, and if they were, the secret would be secret no more. There had to be another option, a safer one, that did not have such a tiny margin of error.
Were their others? More or less trust-worthy ones, who could see to the cloning of Padme Amidala under the eyes of the Imperial government. He couldn't fix this problem immediately, though an expeditious answer was the most preferable. He had been away from Coruscant since the Reorganization, and would definitely be missed if he stayed away for too long. He would have to return to the Capitol immediately.
But first, he had some unfinished business to take care of. Those two droids that belonged to Padme had to go somewhere.
Speak of the devil...
"Oh," the golden protocol droid greeted, upon seeing the new arrival. "Senator Organa. Might I inquire as to what will happen to Artoo and I?"
The rotund astro-mech droid at C-3PO's right sent out a series of beeps and whistles that were obviously some kind of concern.
"Come with me." was all Organa said. The less they knew, the better.
"Come along, Artoo." the protocol droid said to his companion. R2-D2, the astro-mech droid, leaned forward on his locomotors, extending his third leg, and wheeled after his bipedal counterpart and the Senator from Alderaan.
They entered a long corridor, inhabited only by one other person who seemed to be on leave.
"Captain." Organa said to the man.
"Yes, Your Highness." the Captain returned.
"These two droids are in your care now." the Senator stated. "Treat them well and have them cleaned up."
"Excuse me, Senator Organa," 3PO interjected. "But we are the property of Senator Amidala. Surely we should ask her permission."
"Oh, and, uh, Antilles?" Bail said, ignoring C-3PO's interjection.
"Yes, sir?"
"Have the protocol droid's memory erased."
"I will, sir."
"What?" 3PO queried incredulously. A series of whistles that sounded like laughter erupted from the dome of the squat Artoo.
But Bail Organa was too busy to concern himself with the worries of these two droids. He had to report back to Coruscant, to ease whatever suspicions there might be upon him. The last thing he needed was Palpatine investigating him and discovering that he had been part of the Committee of 2000. Now he had to prove his loyalty, or else face the destruction of his beloved Alderaan.
And once he was free again, he could begin work on their plan.
(AN: Okay, I know this is a little bit filler, but I need to explain how Leia had memories of Tatooine [EU says she does]. Furthermore, there will be - as in The Life and Times of a Jedi Outcast - more references to how the Empire became as we know it. It's like with the Federation from Star Trek. I just gotta know how it happened)