Author Note: For those of you who found the previous chapter unpalatable, here is a fix it chapter of sorts. The first bit is exactly the same as the beginning of the last chapter.
Polis Massa
"Medically, she's completely healthy," the med droid said with a wave of his mechanical arms. "For reasons, we can't explain, we are losing her."
"She's dying?" Obi-Wan Kenobi demanded incredulously.
"We don't know why. She has lost the will to live," the droid replied. "We need to operate quickly if we are to save the babies."
"Babies?!" Bail Organa asked in amazement.
"She's carrying twins," the med droid explained.
Obi-Wan ran a weary hand over his mouth. First Anakin was lost to the Dark Side and the lava, and now Padme was dying? It was too much to bear.
"Who is that?" Bail demanded suddenly.
Kenobi's head jerked up in astonishment. The slight form of a female human now stood next to the prone figure of Padme Amidala on her medical bed.
"What in all the galaxies?" he cried out, rushing into the med room at the heels of Master Yoda and Bail Organa.
"Who are you?" Bail demanded harshly even as he yanked out a blaster. Given the death of the Republic, the rise of the Empire, and the slaughter of the Jedi, he couldn't take any chances about his dear friend Padme. Perhaps this woman was an assassin?
The lovely, dark haired woman lifted her gaze from Padme and she shook her head in disbelief, "Not again!"
Bail Organa blinked stupidly, "What?"
"I'm sorry," Leia apologized wearily. "I'm just bewildered as to why I'm back here again. Bail Organa, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Master Yoda, it is good to see you again. Not that you know me, of course, but I know you."
Her three conscious companions wore similar expressions of confusion and even stupidity and she continued with a sigh, "Again, I'm sorry. I'm being obscure. My name is Leia, I am the daughter of Anakin Skywalker and Padme Naberrie Amidala Skywalker, and I am from 30 years in the future. The Force keeps tossing me back in time to help timelines along, to give them a push where it's needed. I'm one of the twins hanging out in Padme's womb right now."
"Time travel impossible it is," Yoda commented disapprovingly.
"Everyone always says that," Leia retorted. "I've done it many times and I've been in this particular scenario before, of saving our mother, but Luke was with me that time."
"Luke?"
"My twin," the slight brunette answered with a glance at the pulsing mound of babies.
She shook her head now, "I am not sure I have the power to save her alone. Breaking the bond was relatively easy when we were working together, but Luke is better trained than I am."
"How did you save her?" Bail demanded urgently.
"We broke the bond between her and Vader. Palpatine is using her life force to sustain Vader's life."
Obi-Wan's eyes were wide in confusion, "Vader is dead!"
"No," Leia explained sympathetically, her hands stroking her mother's pale forehead. "No, he's not. You left him burning on Mustafar but Palpatine rushed to his side and dragged him back to Coruscant, we think. In our timeline, he was placed in life support suit with like 100% burn injury and then spent the next 2+ decades murdering people and wreaking havoc before he turned back to the Light."
Obi-Wan felt something dripping down his chin and realized, abstractly, that he was drooling in shock. Vader/Anakin still alive? 100% burns? Returned from the ...
"Not possible to turn back from the Dark Side, it is," Yoda argued.
Leia kept her eyes on Padme's face even as she stretched out in search of the bond through which Sidious was draining away her life.
"You wouldn't think a maniac like Vader could do it," she agreed abstractly, "but he did. In our original timeline and during a few of our jaunts. But enough of that. Please be quiet so I can work on breaking the bond."
/
Palpatine's Private Medical Ward
Coruscant
Sheev Palpatine, the newly crowned Emperor of the galaxy, was exhausted.
It had taken many, many years of manipulation to turn Anakin Skywalker to the Dark Side. It had taken even more years of plotting and scheming to engineer a galactic war, plot the destruction of the Republic, and blame the Jedi Order for it all. He had been swamped.
Briefly, he considered taking a quick nap. After all, if he didn't have his health, he didn't have anything. But ...
But Darth Vader had been mostly dead for hours. And for all that the former Anakin Skywalker had been a complete moron to lose a fight to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Sidious still needed him. So no, he couldn't take a nap.
The cloaked Sith Lord leaned forward slightly as the strength continued to flow from Padme Amidala, wherever she was, to the burned near corpse lying on the med table before him. Darth Vader hovered between life and death, with his continued existence depending on the fading vitality of his lovely and thoroughly annoying wife.
There was a sudden jolt in the Force and Sidious managed to turn around just in time for a green lightsaber blade to plunge through his chest. As he gasped his last breath, he noted that the young man who had appeared so suddenly looked a great deal like Anakin Skywalker ...
Luke pulled his saber back and stepped over Palpatine's smoking corpse. The med droids, being single minded in their purpose, were still laboring over the horrifically burned body of Darth Vader, formerly Anakin Skywalker.
"Oh Father," Luke murmured aloud, leaning over to gaze into the man's horribly seared face. The man was unconscious, thankfully. Luke shuddered to imagine how much pain his father had endured both on Mustafar and after he regained consciousness.
His movements caused one of the med droids focus him with one irritable eye.
"You are not a doctor," the droid agreed, "Nor are you his Royal Highness. I must, therefore, demand that you leave the room immediately."
"I am his son," Luke replied firmly. "Therefore, as a family member, I insist on remaining."
The droid cocked its head slightly, "According to my records, the patient does not have a son."
"You can do a genetic test if you like," Luke murmured soothingly, even as he sidled closer to his father. Vader/Anakin was in terrible shape, and he would die if Luke didn't intervene.
So he did. Luke Skywalker was an incredibly powerful Force Sensitive, a well trained Force Sensitive, and a Force Sensitive who truly loved his complicated, incredibly screwed up, currently evil father. He poured that love and power into the form lying before him, and deep inside the body of Darth Vader, healing began.
Darth Vader awoke in agony, his lungs struggling to bring oxygen into his broken body. He opened his eyes in confusion and terror. Where was he? Where was she?
"Where is Padme? Is she safe? Is she all right?" he rasped through swollen lips.
Luke's eyes teared up.
"Yes, she is all right. She is safe," he assured Anakin Skywalker.
/
"It's a girl," Obi-Wan told the groaning woman.
"Leia," Padme cried out. Yoda and Bail, who had retreated outside the delivery room, glanced at one another.
"Told the truth she did," Yoda stated. "Never heard of time travel have I, but her daughter she is.
"Everything is going to be all right," older Leia said to her mother.
(Because of course, infant Leia wasn't able to talk. Yet.)
Padme Amidala Naberrie Skywalker turned her face towards the feminine form next to her. She didn't know who this woman was, but she instinctively felt that she could trust her, whoever she was.
"Here, sit up a little bit," Leia coaxed, manipulating the bed to raise her mother's upper body. "Obi-Wan, I think since Padme has had such a hard time, you should get the babies checked to ensure their body temperature is sufficient and that their oxygen levels are high enough. They'll be Ok for a short time before you feed them."
She looked down on Padme curiously, "Do you wish to nurse them?"
"Yes, yes, of course," Padme replied. "I'm so tired, though ..."
"I gave birth to twins of my own a year ago," Leia said fondly. "I wanted to nurse them immediately but I was totally wrecked, so it was a couple of hours before I could wake up enough to try. They'll be Ok if you take a short nap."
"Thank you," Padme replied, and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep immediately. Leia called a few blankets into her hands and carefully covered her mother up.
Bail Organa and Yoda entered the room cautiously.
"Is she going to be all right?" Bail asked softly.
"Yes," Leia assured him. "I was able to break the bond between Padme and Vader, though it was a lot easier this time. I am quite certain the Emperor is dead."
"Dead?" Bail demanded incredulously.
"Right she is," Yoda commented solemnly. "Darkness diminished it has. What happened I know not."
"I suspect," Leia murmured wryly, "that my brother happened."
/
Polis Massa
8 hours later
"And Luke has conked out again," Padme said with a sigh.
"Totally normal," Leia pronounced. "My twins were almost full term and they still struggled to stay awake long enough to eat. All they wanted to do was sleep!"
"So I know I've been putting this off because I was so tired, and then learning to nurse the babies, and everything, but who are you?" Padme inquired softly.
Leia smiled a little, "You won't believe it."
"Try me."
"I'm your daughter Leia from 30 years in the future."
Padme stared straight into the woman's face, looking for a telltale smirk or grin or something. She was extremely adept at reading faces.
The woman looked completely rational and sincere.
"You can't be serious."
"I am totally serious," Leia murmured, reaching out a hand to stroke the bald head of her young self. "I'm this baby in thirty years, except not this baby exactly because we totally changed the timeline. In our timeline, you died in childbirth."
Padme flinched in horror and her eyes filled with hormonal tears, "I truly thought I was dying when I got here. I don't understand what happened."
Leia hesitated, then decided on the truth, "Palpatine, who is a Sith Lord, was draining your life force to sustain Vader's."
"Vader?"
Her Alter daughter grimaced and nodded, "You know him as your husband, Anakin Skywalker. He was given the title Darth Vader when he pledged himself to the Dark Side."
Padme's hands were full of babies so she couldn't wipe away her tears, and Leia leaned over and tenderly ran a soft cloth across her mother's face.
"You are allowed to cry," Leia said softly. "What happened with our father was a tragedy."
"Is he ... is he dead?"
"I don't think so," Leia said in a reassuring tone. "I think my twin brother Luke was tossed to wherever this version of our father was taken by Palpatine. The Emperor is dead, probably at my brother's hand, and I would guess Luke saved Vader."
The door slid open and Obi-Wan Kenobi rushed in, only to stop in complete horror at the sight of Padme Skywalker breastfeeding her babies.
"I'm so sorry," he gulped, lowering his eyes to the floor. "Er, Leia, a ship just came out of hyperspace and ..."
"And it's my brother," Leia finished excited, rising to her feet. She frowned slightly, reaching out with the Force. "He has Vader with him."
"I will tell Master Yoda to meet us at the landing platform. Vader is dangerous."
Leia rolled her eyes even as she dragged Kenobi out into the hallway, away from Padme's hearing.
"May I remind you that you left him to burn in a lava field," she hissed softly. "He's a mess. By all means be there in case he lashes out, but don't pull a lightsaber on him. He doesn't even have any arms right now."
Kenobi flinched.
/
Author Note: Ok, I will stop here. I will write another chapter in this timeline.