Chapter 18: Goodbye, Momma
Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Obi-Wan, and Lando soon reached Naboo. Leaving Han, Chewie, Obi-Wan and Lando at the Falcon, Luke and Leia went to the cemetery where Padmé Amidala was buried.
Leia stared nervously at her feet when they reached the right grave. Luke looked at her. "Ready?" He asked.
She shook her head and asked, "You won't be angry if I say no?"
Luke shook his head and admitted, "Truth is I'm not ready either."
Leia nodded and forced her gaze upward. The twins took the jar of their father's ashes and set it down beside the grave.
Biting her lip, she reached out and pressed one hand against the etching of her mother's face. "Momma," she choked out, before she collapsed to the ground, sobbing.
Luke silently wrapped his arms around her and hugged her as tears slid down his face as well.
The twins remained there for nearly an hour when three women came toward the grave. "Senator Organa?" one of them asked.
"Senator Naberrie," Leia replied stiffly, hiccupping slightly.
"What are you doing here? I didn't think you had heard of my aunt," Senator Naberrie continued.
Leia and Luke exchanged glances. "She, she, she was my, I mean, our mother," Leia choked out, between tears, motioning to herself and Luke.
Luke tightened his grip on his younger sister as she broke down, sobbing violently.
The oldest woman glared at the twins and said, "Don't you two lie to me. Padmé's child died with her."
"Was a test ever run to see if the child was still inside?" Leia asked.
The second oldest woman nodded. "And what were the results?" Leia pressed.
"The child was gone, we believe, forcibly removed from her womb, and the trauma of being so violently removed killed our cousin," Senator Naberrie replied.
"Um, not sure on the forcibly removed part, but we're not dead and she was our mother," Leia replied. "And it would be cousins."
"My sister was not pregnant with twins," the oldest woman snapped coldly.
The twins glanced at the grave and watched as two spirits appeared and dropped a note on the grave.
"Uh, which one of you is Sola?" Luke asked timidly.
"I am," the oldest woman replied.
He handed her the note. She read it aloud. "For Force sake, Sola stop giving my twin children such a hard time! They are my kids! They are your family! They need you, right now. Force, they're finally saying goodbye and you're trying to take that right from them? Stop being so stubborn and help them. Love, Padmé."
Stunned, Sola dropped the note. She stared at the twins numbly.
"Mom?" Senator Naberrie and the second oldest woman asked.
"Ryoo, Pooja, these are your cousins, come home at last," Sola whispered, reaching for the twins.
Luke and Leia ran into her embrace and Sola held the twins tightly.
"But then why did we hear you were dead?" Sola asked, as she hugged the twins. "That doesn't make sense. You were safe. Why you were kept from us?"
"To protect us from Vader and Sidious," Leia replied darkly.
Sola nodded. "Come on, I know two people who would love to see the two of you," Sola murmured, leading her two daughters and her newly discovered niece and nephew out of the graveyard and to her parents' home, after picking up the note again.