"Not understand do I how could be this is!" Grandmaster Yoda declared, staring gloomily at the legless form of Sheev Palpatine. The formerly undercover Sith Lord was sitting on a hoverchair, his body firmly tied to the chair with myriad loops of steel cables.

"Mom, why does he talk like that?" inquired young Anakin Skywalker, who was standing in the corner of the Jedi Council Chamber in front of Shmi, who had her arms wrapped around him protectively.

"Master Yoda is very old, very wise, very strong in the Force, and very eccentric," Leia Organa explained to the childhood alternate of her father. "The weird speech patterns are one of his eccentric things."

"You are entirely certain of this, Jinn? You truly believe that Palpatine is a Sith Lord?" Mace Windu demanded, his handsome face furrowed in disbelief.

Qui-Gon Jinn silently started a holovid of the confrontation in Palpatine's office, which Leia had captured by attaching a small holocam to Palpatine's desk before he showed up. The Jedi, the time travelers, Padme, Anakin, and Shmi all watched as Palpatine hurled Force Lightning at Luke and fought Jinn with remarkable skill.

"Incredible," Agen Kolar murmured with a shake of his spiky head. "How did we not sense Palpatine's Dark Side power? He obviously shields incredibly well."

"And I would have taken over the galaxy if it wasn't for these meddling time travelers," Palpatine suddenly shrieked, flecks of foam frothing from his mouth. "I promise you that I will track you down and kill you slowly and painfully if it is the last thing I do!"

"He definitely sounds very evil," Padme Amidala commented worriedly. "I am not certain what we can do, however. It could be successfully argued that he was defending himself since you infiltrated his private office, Leia."

"We managed to slice his computer with R2D2's help and Palpatine's unwilling retinal scan, and found a bunch of files tying him to the Trade Federation, your Highness," Leia pointed out. "He is behind the whole blockade, of course. Darth Sidiou deliberately attacked Naboo to position himself politically so that he would be elected the next Chancellor. And from there, the Clone Wars, from there Order 66 and the destruction of most of the Jedi Order, and from there the rise of the Empire with Sheev Palpatine at its head. That is what happened in our timeline and billions of people died because of this man."

There were murmurs of distress and horror but Yoda shook his head slowly, "Right she is, the Queen. Murder him in cold blood we cannot. It is not the Jedi way. Stand trial he must before the Senate."

"And Maul as well," Jinn asked, "the junior Sith Lord?"

"There is another?" Kolar demanded with a gasp.

"Yes, Maul is a Zabrak like yourself. Obi-Wan Kenobi is guarding him now on the Queen Amidala's ship in orbit around nearby Foerost," Jinn explained. "We thought it unwise to have both Sith in the same locale. But yes, we have captured yet another Sith Lord. I am concerned with the situation, Council. If we wait, Palpatine may slip his way free. He is obviously too dangerous to be kept alive for long."

"He has much information of importance," Padme protested. "We need to know more about the leadership of the Trade Federation and if he can be convinced to talk …"

"Absolutely not," Luke snapped irritably. "Padme, don't you get it? Supreme evil. This man is supremely evil …"

"And yet if we destroy him without legal cause …'

"I agree with young Luke …"

"Luke, my toes are tingling."

"Mine too."

"You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yep."

The squabbling Jedi fell silent abruptly as their two visitors from the future suddenly vaulted toward Palpatine's hoverchair, their blue and green lightsabers leaping to life. Before their shocked eyes, the twins sliced Palpatine into eight pieces then disappeared into the ether.

The Jedi Council stared at the dismembered, smoking corpse in astonishment while Anakin grinned enthusiastically.

"Well, that takes care of that question," Jinn said finally. "Now, what shall we do about Maul?"

/

Original Timeline

Varykino Guest House

Naboo

Luke returned to the normal timeline to find himself on his bed just as his beloved wife groaned and rolled painfully to her feet, yanked from her comfortable abode by the siren call of two screaming babies.

The Jedi Master always needed at least a couple of minutes to reorient himself after a journey through time, so he lay quietly for three minutes and thirty seconds before rising from his soft mattress and entering the babies' room, where both his twin daughters were howling with furious indignation.

"Can I help?" he asked softly.

"Shmi is very messy," his wife murmured. "Can you change her? She doesn't like being messy."

Luke obeyed with alacrity. He really didn't have much problem with messy diapers produced by breastfed babies. Jar Jar in the trash compactor had been much stinkier!

Shmi was indeed much calmer with a clean diaper, and Luke carefully settled her so she could nurse along with her sister Beru. He then walked into the kitchen, fetched some blue milk and a bowl of shelled koja nuts, and walked back to present his offerings to his wife.

"Thank you, Farmboy," Mara Jade Skywalker said gratefully, using the Force to pop open the blue milk bottle and guzzling it down with enthusiasm.

Luke Skywalker stared at his wife and twin girls adoringly even as he stretched out a Force tendril to check on his toddler son, who was sleeping on his mattress in the bedroom next door. For all that his life had been a very challenging one, even a painful one, he was grateful for all that he had gained in a fantastic wife and (so far) three amazing, noisy, exhausting children.

/

Other Timeline

Intergalactic Police Headquarters

Coruscant

13 years later

"All I am saying is that we should check it out," Lieutenant Anakin Skywalker insisted, leaning over the holopad to glare at the report.

They were holed up in the office of Police Captain Qui-Gon Jinn, who had set aside his Jedi career to take up law enforcement, and the older man leaned back in his chair and prepared for figurative fireworks between his two most valuable underlings.

"It will take days to get to Tatooine," Lieutenant Maul growled. "We have eleven open cases, including three murders, in case you have forgotten. And if you think you are going to gallivant off to Tatooine in search of a some Hutt mobster who may or may not be there, who may or may not know where Darth Plagueis is, you've got another think coming! I am not letting you go off on some vacation, you got it?"

"Vacation?" Anakin demanded, rising to loom over his shorter partner. "Vacation? On Tatooine? That wretched planet is full of dust and sand and more dust and more sand and heat and more sand! It isn't like I want to go back to that hole. But if you want to go instead, by all means go. I suppose it might be a nice nostalgia trip for you to return to the locale where you got your legs chopped off by my daughter all those years ago!"

Maul grimaced hideously at this, "Hypothetical future daughter, Skywalker. And as a matter of fact, I like my new legs! Thanks to the rocket boosters on them, I can fly short distances. I haven't seen you do that. You wish you had nice legs, Anakin!"

"Children, children," Captain Qui-Gon Jinn remonstrated in a soothing tone. "There is no reason to quarrel and it is also supremely annoying. I am working on the police budget this morning, which is already giving me a headache. I don't need you two acting immature."

The former Darth Maul lifted his brow, "Seriously, Skywalker, do you really believe that this Hutt is working with Hego Damask, known to the Jedi as the fugitive Sith Lord, Darth Plagueis?"

"Absolutely," the young man replied stoutly. "You have seen the reports coming through from our contacts on the Outer Rim. Not only do I think Zupla the Hutt is working with the Sith Lord, I believe that Plagueis will show up on Tatooine soon! He might even be there now! I had a dream about it last night. I didn't really mean that you should go, Maul; only the Chosen One is going to be able to take on a real Sith Lord."

The temperature in the office seemed to plunge as Qui-Gon rose to his full height, permitting him to loom over both his lieutenants.

"Anakin, are you telling me you had a dream about Plagueis being located on Tatooine?"

"Yeah!"

"As in, one of your dream dreams? The prophetic ones?"

"Yeah, like the one where I dreamed about Prince Xizor of the Black Sun crime syndicate hiding in that eel pudding factory. And I was right!"

Jinn took a menacing step forward, "And you intended to charge off to Tatooine to face him alone, Anakin? Are you insane?!"

The young man with the dark blond hair and flashing blue eyes glared back at his mentor and superior officer, "What are you saying, that just 'cause I didn't grow up in the Jedi Temple and learn from Yoda that I'm a rotten fighter?"

"Of course not, Anakin," the older man replied patiently. "You are the most powerful Force Sensitive in the galaxy and a wily and skilled swordsman. But Darth Plagueis has been around a very long time and is no slouch as a fighter either. We need to let Master Yoda know his location and then a bunch of us will pounce on him and dismember him, just as your hypothetical future children cut Sidious into pieces."

"He is right, Anakin," Maul chimed in, dropping his sarcastic demeanor in the hope of getting through the head of his stubborn friend. "Plagueis taught Sidious, and Sidious taught me, and you know I'm a decent fighter."

"You are amazing," Anakin agreed reluctantly. "When we spar, we are evenly matched even though you are such a shorty."

"I am not a shorty," the Zabrak returned indignantly. "It's just that I'm surrounded by looming humans!"

"Ok, fine, tell Yoda," Anakin allowed, turning back to his mentor.

"Thank you," Jinn responded sarcastically. "I was not planning to tell him until you gave me permission, of course."

Anakin blushed a little, "It's just that I don't think Master Yoda likes me very much."

"Of course he doesn't," Maul agreed cheerfully. "You came here to Coruscant as a dewy eyed 9 year old and broke the Jedi Order into pieces. You managed to turn me back to the Light Side, and Jinn left the Jedi and you live with your mother. Now we've got trained Force Sensitives working as policemen and mechanics, and Obi-Wan Kenobi is off procreating with Duchess Satine after marrying her ..."

"None of that is my fault," Skywalker insisted in a grumpy tone.

"Not at all," Qui-Gon agreed soothingly. "You were the catalyst for needed change. But even if Yoda doesn't like you, as you put it, he does want to destroy Plagueis, and we all respect your dreams."

"Ok, fine. But you don't need to be like a mother hen clucking over her chick, Captain. I can take care of myself; you don't need to worry about me."

"I am so not worried about you," Jinn riposted. "I am afraid of Senator Amidala. If I let her fiancé die in a fight against a Sith Lord, I shudder to think of the repercussions. Your Padme is scary."

"She is," Maul agreed. "She looks like a porcelain doll ... but with lots of pointy teeth."

"Yes." Skywalker admitted, a besotted expression in his eyes.

"So I will talk to Yoda, we'll put together a strike team, and we'll go to Tatooine and finally put an end to Plagueis."

"Sounds great, Captain."

/

Varykino

2 weeks later

Padme Amidala Naberrie stood under the large Zaela tree which shaded the east terrace of her beloved Varykino. Across from her stood her tall fiancé, soon to be husband. Anakin had not fared well in his fight against the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis and was now sporting a prosthetic leg and a rather dramatic scar above the right eyebrow. Indeed, it had taken major pressure from both Amidala and Qui-Gon Jinn to spring Anakin from the hospital; Padme might have suggested that a fully trained essentially Jedi would leave if he felt like it, which facilitated the doctors' decisions to let a most recalcitrant patient go.

But at least Plagueis was finally dead. Anakin Skywalker was not a Jedi, but a member of law enforcement. Padme Amidala was the Senator from Naboo, and Anakin would be able to follow her back and forth from Naboo to Coruscant doing his police work thanks to the power of the Holonet Quoom app.

She glanced around joyfully at their audience: Shmi Skywalker, silver haired and delighted at the wedding of her only son, Darth Maul, grinning openly at his compatriot, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Duchess Satine with their three children, even Mace Windu had made the trip for the ceremony.

She turned back to gaze into the eyes of her beloved Anakin. She knew that in an alternate timeline he had fallen to the Dark Side but she had utter confidence that in this life, he would remain focused on the Light with the former Darth Maul, Qui-Gon Jinn, his mother, and his wife to spur him towards reasonable decisions.

He was a good person, and a particularly handsome one, and she loved him dearly.

She reached to him and they grasped hands as the ceremony began.

Author Note: I like the idea of people with Force potential getting into a bunch of different fields; doctors, nurses, social workers, law enforcement. Seems healthy to me.