Med Bay
Rebel Base
Hoth
"Master Luke, sir, it's so good to see you fully functioning again!" C-3PO said perkily.
"Thanks, Threepio," Luke said, relishing both the comparative warmth of the med bay and his own moderately pain free body. R2D2 whistled and his protocol counterpart continued, "R2 expresses his relief also."
The door to the med bay opened and Han Solo swaggered in with his Wookiee copilot at his heels. "How you feeling, Kid? Hey, you don't look so bad to me. In fact, you look strong enough to pull the ears off a gundark."
"Thanks to you," Luke said from his position on his bed. He had recently been attacked by a giant white Wampa, nearly frozen to death, seen a vision of Ben Kenobi, been rescued by Han out in a blizzard, been thrust by Han into the entrails of a dead Tauntaun to keep warm, been hauled back to base, dropped into bacta, and was now alive and well. It had been a rather unsuccessful trip out onto the frozen icescape of Hoth, but at least he was alive and had all his limbs.
"That's two you owe me, Junior," Han said, provoking a soft laugh from the shorter man.
Solo turned around to address the other person in the room. "Well, your Worship, looks like you managed to keep me around a little while longer."
Leia Organa glared at the smuggler and said, "I had nothing to do with it. General Riekkan thinks it's dangerous for any ships to leave until we activate the energy field."
"That's a good story," Solo drawled back. "I think you just can't bear to let a gorgeous guy like me out of your sight."
Leia narrowed her eyes. "I don't know where you get your delusions, laser brain."
Chewbacca released a hearty Wookiee laugh, which caused his copilot to turn on the two meter walking carpet and say, "Laugh it up, fuzzball."
He wandered over to put an arm around the princess and continued, "But you didn't see us alone in the south passage. She expressed her true feelings for me."
Leia stared at the dark haired man incredulously, "Why you stuck up, half witted, scruffy-looking, nerf-herder!"
Han wandered away again, a look of wounded disbelief on his face. "Who's scruffy looking?"
He turned to Luke, who was watching with obvious unease. "I must have hit pretty close to the mark to get her all riled up like that, huh, Kid?"
Leia looked upset for a moment, and then her usual mask fell back into place. "Well, I guess you don't know everything about women yet."
She marched over to Luke, grabbed him, leaned over and…
"STOP!" a female voice screamed.
Solo spun around with his blaster out, only to freeze in astonishment. His actions were mirrored, more or less, except for the flourishing of weapons, by Leia, Luke, Chewbacca, and the droids, who were, one and all, completely bewildered.
"Who … who are you?" Leia demanded after a few seconds as she peered at the woman who had appeared, apparently of nowhere, and was standing in the corner of the medbay. A woman with dark hair and eyes, the same height, the same nose, the same chin, the…
"I'm you," Older Leia said, letting her shoulders relax at having prevented her younger self from kissing her own brother. Ick. "I am from a different timeline that is like, erm, ten years from now, but different. I'm sorry, I'm not explaining this very well. I'm just…yeah, this is so uncomfortable."
Luke sat up and swung his legs over the side of his bed, then stood up cautiously. "Time travel? Is that possible?"
"'Course not, Kid," Han barked, keeping his blaster trained on the Older Leia. "She must be a clone of Leia, which is nasty!"
"Don't be silly, Han," Older Leia said, waving a finger. The blaster was yanked from Han's hand and floated over to land on a convenient counter in the corner. "How would a clone of Leia appear out of nothingness at a secret Rebel base? I know this is weird, but that's just ridiculous."
"Did you…just use the Force to grab that blaster?" Luke asked incredulously.
"Yep," the older woman said gravely. "I am – Leia is - as strong a Force sensitive as you are, Luke."
Younger Leia wrinkled her nose in confusion. "That's…that's not possible! I'm not Jedi!"
"Not yet, but you might be later," her older counterpart said. "I am, but of course we are changing the timeline here…anyway, I never know how much time I have so let me get straight to the point. Luke and Leia, you are twins. So you shouldn't be kissing each other because that is weird and disgusting."
Silence fell for thirty seconds and the time traveler struggled not to laugh at the sight of the three humans and one Wookiee all staring at her with mouths hanging open.
"Wh….at…?" Han finally snorted inelegantly. "What?!"
"Luke and Leia are the twin progeny of Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala Naberrie Skywalker," Older Leia said patiently. "They…"
"Padme Amidala!" Leia demanded. "The Senator from Naboo?"
"Yes, and formerly the queen of Naboo. Padme and Bail Organa were really good friends in the Senate, and when the Republic fell and Palpatine rose to power, and Padme died after giving birth to you two, Bail and Breha adopted Leia and Luke was sent off to Tatooine. My Luke is still vaguely annoyed about that since Tatooine is full of sand, which is rough, coarse, and irritating."
Luke was staring at Leia, his face pale, his blue eyes wide. "I still can't…I just can't believe that Leia is a … I just can't…"
"It seems awfully unlikely!" Han insisted.
"Two One Bee," Older Leia said, turning toward the med droid. "Override Code NM1367. Compare DNA of Commander Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa for genetic match."
Han, Luke, and young Leia swung their gazes onto the med droid, who tilted his mechanical head, cogitated for 3.4 seconds, and then announced, "DNA match of 99.998% between Skywalker, Luke and Organa, Leia."
"What exactly does that mean?" Han demanded, rather idiotically, but he was, after all, startled.
"Given the age of the two humans in question, there is a 99.998% chance that the two individuals in question are full siblings, unless they are the progeny of two couples who are, in turn, identical twins with one another, which would…"
"That's enough, 2-1B," Older Leia interrupted, which caused the med droid to subside into soft medical mutterings.
"What was that about identical twins?" Luke asked in bewilderment.
Older Leia sighed and said, "If your mother and Leia's mother were identical twins, and your father and Leia's father were identical twins, and they married each other, then the genetics would make it look like you two are twins when in fact you would be cousins, but of course that didn't happen. Anakin doesn't have an identical twin, and Padme doesn't have an identical twin. Trust me, Anakin and Padme are both your parents."
Luke and young Leia stared at one another and then fell into one another's arms, and both of them wept in a very touching way. Older Leia wandered over to where Han was standing in shock and said, "I think this is obvious, but Leia was just intending to annoy you by kissing Luke. She doesn't really have romantic feelings for him."
"Um, how do you…?" Han began, and then rolled his eyes. "Sorry, this happened in your, um, timeline, I guess…?"
"Yeah, and I did kiss Luke, which in retrospect is an unpleasant memory for both of us, which is why I yelled when I showed up here."
"Um, yeah," Han said, sounding rather dazed. "Yeah, that's um…so, are you saying that Leia, you know, that her Worshipfulness, I mean…"
"I'm married to the Han Solo in my timeline, and we have four kids together," Older Leia said with amusement. A moment later, her smile changed to one of horror.
"Not yet!" she yelped, looking down at her feet, which were tingling. She lifted her head and said, very, very, very quickly, "Luke, Leia, Anakin Skywalker fell! Vader is your father!"
Older Leia vanished.
"What did she say?" Luke asked in confusion.
"No idea, Kid," Han replied.
/
Executor
Main Bridge
Captain Firmus Piett frowned thoughtfully at the holoscreen in front of him, on which a rather grainy image had formed, an image of ... of... well, lifeforms, anyway. It was not definite proof of the location of a Rebel Base, but Hoth was a dismal place, and only desperate sentients, those who were hellbent on avoiding the notice of the Empire, would settle in such a planet.
Decision made, the captain lifted his head, scanned his near visual range, and called out, "Admiral?"
Admiral Ozzel, short, red haired, and cranky looking, with General Maximilian Veers at his side, approached with a disapproving frown. "Yes, Captain?"
Piett straightened and said, "I think we've got something, sir. The report is only a fragment…"
He broke off at the sudden sound of blaster shots, which caused all three officers to turn toward the bridge. What they saw defied belief; a man stood on the bridge where no man had been before, a man with dark blond hair, dressed in black, and swinging a green lightsaber, which deflected the shots of the various stormtroopers who had opened fire, because that's what troopers did, even when surrounded by men and valuable equipment and…
Captain Piett yelped as a blaster shot grazed his shoulder, and he lurched to one side. What in all the galaxy…?
"Hold your fire!" Darth Vader snarled, and the shots mercifully stopped. The intruder paused for a few seconds and then turned off his green saber, tossed it at Vader, who caught it in a posture which indicated surprise, and lifted his hands in the universal token of surrender.
"Thank you!" the young man said. "Seriously, it amazes me how trigger happy your troopers are, Lord Vader. I mean, Executor is nineteen kilometers of death and destruction, but she is also a Lady, and she doesn't deserve to be treated like this by her own people…"
"Who are you?" Ozzel demanded furiously, stalking down the bridge toward the young man. Piett, after a quick inspection of his arm, which was bleeding sluggishly, followed with Veers a pace behind him.
The young man, sensibly, was watching Lord Vader, but he answered readily enough as troopers approached and bound his hands in front of him. "I'm Luke Skywalker but not, of course, the Luke Skywalker from this timeline. I'm in my thirties now, and the Force keeps tossing me back in time…"
Piett stared at the prisoner incredulously who did look a lot like Skywalker, but not really. There were distinct changes from the holos that he and every officer were forced to consider every single freaking day, because Vader wanted Skywalker. He wanted wanted wanted wanted wanted Skywalker.
The young man turned his head at this juncture and stared into Piett's now thoroughly unnerved eyes.
"I probably don't look exactly like the holos you have for Skywalker, Admiral Piett," he explained cheerfully. "I keep getting hurt in various creative ways so it changed my looks, but I am Luke Skywalker from like a decade from now, in an alternate timeline…"
Piett gulped at this answer. Was this man reading his mind?
Ozzel, naturally enough, seized on the least important aspect of this remarkable speech.
"That is Captain Piett!" he exclaimed. "I am Admiral of Death Squadron."
The prisoner turned a frowning look on the Admiral and said, "Ozzel? Is that who you are? Admiral Ozzel?"
"I am," Ozzel snapped.
Skywalker turned to look out the viewport thoughtfully and said, "So, it's been like three years since my counterpart blew up the Death Star?"
"So you admit it!" Ozzel cried out, nearly frothing at the mouth.
"Admit it! I'm proud of it!" the prisoner said insouciantly, "though only because it allowed the Rebellion to live another day. I mean, I'm sad about everyone who died on the Death Star but if you are going to make giant, planet destroying space stations, I'm afraid you have to take the chance of them getting blown up."
Darth Vader, who had been impersonating a black monolith throughout this entire discussion, finally took a few menacing steps forward, which caused Piett, Veers, Ozzel, and every sentient in sight to cringe slightly.
Except for the prisoner, who turned what could only be described as a mocking stare on the Sith Lord.
"So I lived, and I didn't turn," Skywalker said cheerfully. "So there go all your grand plans, right? In fact, you both died in my timeline, and I lived, which is pretty crazy, but that is, in fact, what happened."
Vader stared down ominously at the youth, who was at least a head shorter than he was. For such a dangerous, difficult, desperate man, Skywalker was remarkably small.
"I take after my mother," the young man explained, shooting a quick glance at Piett. "That's why I'm so short. My twin sister is tiny as well."
Vader actually rocked back a little at these words.
"Sister?" he boomed, and the entire bridge rattled slightly.
"Yep, sister," Skywalker said, and Piett eyed him with lightheaded wonder. Why would Darth Vader care about Skywalker having a sister? And why was Skywalker so...so chipper?
The youth continued, "See, Padme was carrying twins, and we were both born alive and well. Mother died a few minutes later in my timeline and, I assume, in this one as well. My sister and I have gone back in time a few times and saved her, but I'm afraid we are more than twenty years too late this time, which is very sad. She was a wonderful person."
The great masked head dipped a little and the voice, when it came out of the vocoder, was a little choked. "She...she..."
Suddenly, out of the very air, two more forms appeared on the bridge, both female, both dark haired, both pale, both beautiful, with the younger one being supported by the older one.
Darth Vader, Dark Lord of Sith, wobbled in place and cried out, "Padme!"
Author Note: Someone suggested I stop THE KISS. Thanks for that idea! Thanks also for other ideas you all are suggesting via reviews. There have been some great ones and I have incorporated a couple so far.