Padme had long prided herself on her ability to adjust quickly to new circumstances. One moment, she was standing in her cabin on her Star Skiff en route to Polis Massa. The next, she was standing in a large, austere, dark room, with windows which revealed the familiar bright lights of Coruscant at night. A meter away from her stood a cloaked and hooded figure. Where was she? Who was this?
The figure in question turned quickly toward her and a second later, she recognized the skeletal face of Emperor Sheev Palpatine.
Padme froze for all of one second before she reacted to her pregnancy hormones and recent outrage and punched the Emperor in his bony jaw.
A moment later, she found herself being hurled across the room, only to be gently stopped by a warm, Force hug.
"Padme!" Luke Skywalker exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
"I have no idea!" she squawked indignantly. "One second I was in my Star Skiff, the next I was here!"
Mara stared at her Alter mother-in-law incredulously, "You traveled as well? We didn't think that was possible ..."
"Padme?"
The deep voice was a strange one, a mechanical one, but there was a profound sense of incredulity in the flattened tone. Padme turned quickly to be confronted by something out of a nightmare, a two meter cyborg, black from head to foot, with a strange mask out of which emanated repetitive breathing sounds.
"Padme?" the apparition asked again in wonder.
"Erm, yes, I am Padme," she replied, taking a cautious step back and toward her Alter son. "Who are you?"
She felt the Older Luke step up beside her and a moment later, he had wrapped his left arm around her even as he kept his unlit lightsaber clutched in his right hand.
"This is Vader, Padme," he explained gently. "The man who was once Anakin."
Padme stared at the apparition in wonder and her eyes filled with horrified tears, "No, no, it cannot be!"
"I'm afraid it is," Luke continued sympathetically. "He fell in lava and was badly burned, and was placed in life support. I confess I'm pretty surprised he survived at all given that Palpatine couldn't drain your life force to sustain him after he was so horribly injured."
There was an odd gasp from the vocoder and Palpatine spoke quickly, "Lord Vader, this woman is an imposter, perhaps a clone, perhaps someone who merely looks like your ... like Padme Amidala. It is a cruel trick to play on you, my apprentice."
Padme turned on the Emperor, her eyes blazing with hormonal fury, "How dare you! You manipulated me, Anakin, the entire Senate, and now you are saying I am not even me. Shut your foul mouth!"
The Emperor's eyes burned with fury and he lifted his hands; a moment later, lightning arced from his twisted fingers. Luke shifted position in an instant and lifted his lightsaber, catching the electricity on the glowing blade. After thirty seconds of this standoff, Palpatine lowered his arms, his expression now a mixture of concern and bemusement.
"Padme," Leia said firmly, stepping forward to flank the Senator from Naboo. "I know you have every reason to hate Palpatine's guts, but do keep in mind he is a very powerful Sith Lord. Don't get yourself electrified; it wouldn't be good for the babies."
"You ... you are pregnant?" Vader demanded, suddenly harsh.
Padme turned in astonishment, "Um what? If you are really Anakin, you would know I am pregnant ..."
"We time traveled," Luke explained, "so to him, it seems weird you are still pregnant. We just came from Mustafar, the day you were burned so badly, Vader. How long has it been since then?"
Vader stared at the dark blond man, his entire form rigid with disbelief and confusion.
"Two years," he said, "but time travel is impossible!"
"We've done it many times," Luke declared cheerfully, "though never with Padme before, and we've never done two jumps like this. It is all so weird! I didn't think a non-Force Sensitive could jump!"
"It was the blood transfusion, I expect," Mara suggested from her position by the elevator which provided egress from the Emperor's throne room. She had gotten a side panel open and was busy messing with it.
"Mara, you are brilliant!" Luke exclaimed. "Of course that's it! Leia's blood boosted Padme's midichlorian count high enough for a leap!"
"Time travel is impossible, Lord Vader," Palpatine insisted. "I do not know who these interlopers are, but Padme Amidala is dead and these others are dangerous Jedi! I order you to destroy them now!"
Vader stared at his master, then back at the woman who looked exactly like his beloved wife.
"You are dead, Padme," he said finally, his tone bleak with sorrow, and the wave of remorse and self-hatred was so strong that Luke and Leia had to throw up shields to protect themselves.
Padme gazed up at the giant, lifted one hand up, pulled out the japor snippet which was always around her neck, and showed it to the cyborg.
"Space is cold, Anakin," she said simply.
The cyborg's lungs heaved out of sync with the respirator and he took a sudden step forward, "Oh Padme, it is you."
"Of course it is," she assured him, lifting up one delicate hand to caress his helmet. "Oh Anakin, come back to me, please!"
"Padme!" He cried out suddenly. "I am sorry, so very sorry! I attacked you and I …"
"I forgive you, my love," Padme replied, her eyes filled with tears.
Emperor Palpatine, realizing that his control of the situation was spiraling out of his grasp, cursed aloud and gestured toward his throne, pushing a button to call his Royal Guards to the throne room.
Luke and Leia both lit their lightsabers and took a step toward the Sith Lord, causing Vader to stiffen with uncertainty.
"Lord Vader, assist me!" The elder Sith Lord ordered. "Do not let them kill me!"
"You know," Luke said conversationally, "you really are adorable in a horrible, Sithly way. Vader turned to the Dark Side to save Padme and here she is, safe and sound, and by now he must know you completely suck convor eggs as a master. If he has to choose between you and Padme, credits to crumblebuns he'll choose Padme and his twins."
"Twins?" Vader demanded in wonder.
"Yes, twins," Padme declared, grasping her husband's cyborg hands. "I am carrying twins, Ani, a boy and a girl. You thought I carried a girl, and I a boy, and we are both right!"
Vader looked down at his wife, then at Palpatine, clearly struggling between his Dark bond to his master and his love for his wife.
"Lord Vader, can you just protect Padme, please?" Luke requested. "You don't have to kill Palpatine, which I know would be kind of tough for you, but if you just stand aside we'll take care of it. But Padme does need protection — Palpatine is entirely capable of trying to strangle her, or break her neck, or throw lightning at her."
"I will keep you safe," Vader vowed, stepping even closer to the petite woman in front of him. "But the Royal Guards will be here soon and even if you can destroy Palpatine, which I doubt, they will prove too much for three Jedi to handle."
"The guards won't be here any time soon," Mara explained in a sunny tone, "because I just inputted security codes locking down the entire throne room. Your Highness, for future reference, though you don't have much of a future, you should really change your codes more often. I'm from sixteen years from now, and you are using the same codes …"
"What?" Palpatine squawked in confusion, lighting his red saber and making a vicious swipe toward Luke, which the Jedi Master blocked with ease.
"The three of us are from the future," Leia declared. "Luke and I are Padme and Anakin's twin children from our timeline, and Mara is Luke's wife. And yes, we're going to kill you right now because we know all your tricks and have killed you many times before though truly, it never grows boring."
Vader grunted in astonishment and drew Padme close to him as the battle began to rage. Before his astonished eyes, the dark blond male and brunette female began a glorious dance which beat off Palpatine's saber strokes, and his Force Lightning, and after only three frenetic minutes, the redheaded woman did a double flip through the air and cut off Palpatine's head, which bounced twice before rolling to rest against the throne.
"Well, that was fun," Luke declared, shutting off his saber and wiping his sweaty hair away from his forehead. "I truly never get tired of killing Palpatine. You'd think I might but ..."
"You are ... my children?" Vader asked in shock.
"Well, your Alter children," Leia explained. "We are from another timeline, which went down very differently. Padme died in childbirth when Palpatine drained her life force to sustain your own after Mustafar."
"I still don't really know how you survived this time," Luke chimed in, bewildered.
Vader stared at him gravely and the great mask nodded in wonder, "You reached out to me at Mustafar two years ago, through the Force, did you not?"
"I did, yes," Luke said solemnly.
"I recognize you now. Your power quenched the flames which were destroying me, and brought immediate relief. I have no doubt my injuries would have been even more severe if you had not … not assisted me."
"I'm glad," Luke declared, smiling up at his great Alter sire. "I am very glad. You were a rotten father in many ways, but I always loved you."
"Tingling toes, Luke," Mara said.
"Yes, it looks like we are jumping again. Padme, I suggest you become Empress," Leia began.
"I don't want to be Empress!" Her alter mother declared indignantly.
"Just for a bit, until you can transition to a democracy …"
The threesome vanished and Padme found herself clutching her husband's arm tightly, fearful that she would, once again, vanish into the ether.
But no, this time she stayed put. She closed her eyes and found herself swaying on her feet, causing her husband to tighten his hold on her bulbous form.
"Are you well?" he asked urgently. "Padme?"
"Just tired," she assured, smiling up at him. "It has been a thoroughly exhausting day.