Meeting room

Tantive IV

In orbit around Tatooine

2 days later

"What kind of plan is that?" Solo demanded incredulously. "That is completely stupid!"

The other adults in the room, one and all, turned anxious looks on Darth Vader, who was seated on an especially large chair at the foot of the table. Only yesterday, part of a med bay had been destroyed when Vader had a nightmare during a bacta treatment; only the presence of the time traveling Luke and Leia had kept the Sith from doing serious damage. Insulting Vader was a generally bad idea, but then Han Solo was still hopped up on drugs and legitimately angry about his missing right hand.

"Don't say that, Han," young Luke said protectively from his position next to Vader. "My father isn't stupid."

"I didn't say your father was stupid," Solo snapped back. "I said the plan was stupid."

"And I agree," young Leia declared from her place between her Organa parents. "I mean, I understand why you are furious with Palpatine, Lord Vader, but calling him up and telling him you have turned against him will ruin the element of surprise!"

"But the Emperor already knows," Older Leia explained. "Sith Lords have a powerful Force bond; I assure you, Darth Sidious is already well aware that his apprentice had turned against him."

"And while I agree that ordinarily a mere threat is pointless," Older Luke added, "in this case, it will be helpful. I am not gonna explain why because while I do trust you all, there is always the chance of somehow listening in..."

"Does this have something to do with time travel?" Kenobi demanded.

Older Luke and Older Leia exchanged glances and Luke said, "Yes."

Kenobi shrugged and said, "Well, all right. I can hardly argue with your methods or your suggestions given what you have already accomplished."

"I agree," Bail said. "Lord Vader, we can set up the holotransmission whenever it is convenient."

"Excellent," Breha said with an affirming nod. "Now I have another meeting in a few minutes. Dismissed."

Darth Vader, who had been prepared to argue in favor of his plan, found himself having said nothing at all.

/

Emperor's Throne Room

Imperial Palace

Imperial City

Imperial Center

2 hours later

Mas Amedda, Grand Vizier of Imperial Ruling Council, standing to one side of Emperor Palpatine, was seriously worried.

In his long and storied political career, he had seen Emperor Palpatine's reactions to countless challenging scenarios. He had seen Palpatine cajole, and threaten, and throw lightning blasts at people. He had seen him snarl and rage, and blow up entire cities. He had never, however, seen Emperor Palpatine, Darth Sidious, sitting on his throne, stress eating chocolate covered tekka nuts.

Yes, Sidious loved those delectable delights, but the Emperor's teeth weren't the best, and eating nuts was a doubtful business. The fact that Sidious, who was always careful with his health, was chomping down nuts obsessively – well, his master was seriously perturbed.

Not that Amedda could entirely blame Palpatine. Vader was a powerful enforcer of the Empire, and his defeat and kidnapping by a couple of unknown Force users, apparently Jedi, on Alderaan a few days ago was problematic in the extreme.

Who were these people? When Amedda had seen the initial holocam data from the palace in Aldera, he had wondered initially if the whole thing was some kind of sneaky trick on the part of the burgeoning Rebellion. Darth Vader was incredibly powerful; surely no Rebels, especially relatively young ones, could defeat the Sith and chop off his legs and an arm. Perhaps the video feed had been altered?

But then no one could find Vader on Alderaan, nor on board his Star Destroyer in orbit above the planet. The Tantive IV, the Organas' corvette, was gone as well. Incredible as it might seem, incredible as it was, it appeared that the Organas had captured Darth Vader.

Presumably that meant the junior Sith Lord was dead; surely no one could keep the cyborg Sith in custody, even if he was missing limbs!

It was no wonder that Palpatine was upset, but it was very very scary. Because when the Emperor was upset, people close to him died. Indeed, several courtiers had already been executed, along with no less than five Imperial guards, who had been present when the news came of Vader's disappearance.

There was a beep on the Emperor's throne and Palpatine stabbed a button with one gnarled finger.

"Yes?" he barked.

A nervous, modulated voice announced, "Your Highness, we have received a transmission from someone claiming to be Lord Vader. The code and images match, your Majesty."

"What does he want?" Palpatine demanded, though to Amedda's hypersensitive ears, there was a strange anxiety in his master's tone.

"He wishes to speak to you, your Highness."

Palpatine drummed his fingers on his throne for a full ten seconds and then ordered, "On screen, now."

"Yes, your Highness."

Amedda shuffled forward a few inches, caught between intense curiosity and a desire to stay out of Palpatine's peripheral vision. It seemed he need not worry; the Emperor, while he remained seated, was leaning forward now intently, his eyes fixed on the large screen which was lowering from the ceiling. Thirty nerve-wracking seconds passed before the screen lit up and...

"Lord Vader," Palpatine hissed. "This is rather a surprise, I confess."

"Greetings," the great black mask intoned from somewhere, presumably far away. "My name is Darth Vader. You killed my wife. Prepare to die."

Amedda forgot to breathe for a few seconds. Wife? Darth Vader was not, and never had been, married! How could he even have ever, you know, the suit, it made it impossible for, you know, a husband and wife to, you know...

"Lord Vader, I ..." Palpatine began, only to be interrupted. Interrupted! No one interrupted the Emperor of the galaxy.

"Greetings," Vader said again. "My name is Darth Vader. You killed my wife. Prepare to die."

"I most certainly did not kill Padme. In your anger, you..."

"Greetings!" Vader said more loudly. "My name is Darth Vader! You killed my wife! Prepare to die!"

"Stop saying that... Aigck..."

Amedda, whose eyes had been fixed on the screen, turned in confusion which morphed into horror. The Emperor was now thrashing around on his throne, and lightning was arcing randomly from his fingertips. To his right stood a red haired girl, a mere teenager, who held a dark hilt against the Emperor's neck. The blade, if there was a blade, must be, must be...

Even as the Grand Vizier watched in terror, Palpatine's wiggling subsided and his head fell to one side. A moment later, his mouth opened and blood poured out in a copiously dramatic fashion.

What...?

There was a sudden, horrifying, familiar sound of a lightsaber and Amedda watched with dilating pupils as another redhead, this one a full grown woman, holding a blue lightsaber proceeded to battle, and defeat the four Imperial Royal guards tasked with protecting their master except that Palpatine was...was...

Mas Amedda had not been eating or drinking well in the last few days, thanks to Palpatine being in a bad mood and ordering him to do a bunch of stupid, exhausting tasks, not to mention murdering people around him.

In the wake of this unexpected, bewildering, dreadful attack, he did the most sensible thing he could think of.

He fainted.

/

Holoterminal Station

Tantive IV

In orbit around Tatooine

"Hey Luke!" Older Mara Jade exclaimed, popping into sight on the viewscreen.

"Mara!" Luke returned with a wide grin on his face. "Can you get out of my way, please, Alter Father?"

Vader obeyed rather numbly. Could it really be that easy? Was Palpatine truly dead? Surely it couldn't be that easy!

"So I assume Old Wrinkles is dead?" Older Luke asked.

"Oh yeah. Young Mara killed him with a vibroblade to the neck, which is awesome, isn't it?"

Young Mara now appeared in the viewscreen, and her expression was so fearsome that even Older Luke cringed a little.

"I wish I could kill him ten thousand times for what he did to me and the other Hands," the teenager snarled.

"Yes, he sucked," Luke agreed. "Mara, can you get your younger self off Imperial Center? She won't be safe there."

"Of course. I think it likely we'll be disappearing back to our own time soon, but I'll make sure Mara makes it safely to the rendezvous point."

"I love you, Mara."

"I love you too, Luke!"

/

Meeting Room

Tantive IV

2 hours later

"Palpatine is actually dead?!" Young Leia demanded incredulously.

"Yes," Older Luke said simply.

The younger twins turned to stare at Obi-Wan Kenobi, whose blue eyes were pools of bewildered exultation.

"It is true," the Jedi Master said. "I sense it in the Force. The Emperor is dead."

The elder Organas and Han Solo made happy noises, and Darth Vader breathed on, steadily, though his Force sense was viciously satisfied.

"It just seems a little anti-climactic," Young Leia mused. "I mean, Palpatine was the vicious dictator of the galaxy and suddenly a teenager stabs him in the neck with a vibroblade and kills him?"

"Well, not just any teenager. The thirteen year old version of my wife killed Palpatine. " Older Luke explained. "You haven't had the pleasure of meeting Mara Jade, but she is a terror. I mean, her teen self is a terror, and she is also terror. Together, they are terror squared."

"But it was your biological father who made it happen," Older Leia continued, giving Vader an approving look. "You have no idea how strong the bond between Sith Lords is; when Vader broke the bond between them, it sent the entire fabric of the Force into a maelstrom of confusion. If the two Maras had snuck into the throne room on a normal day, the Emperor and his guards would have taken them easily enough; but with Vader threatening him and confusing him, Palpatine wasn't paying enough attention to his own surroundings."

"So you knew your wife was on Imperial Center?" Kenobi asked, pulling himself out of his reverie.

"Yeah, we had a joint dream when I took a nap yesterday. I didn't want anyone knowing that there would be an attack close to home, and Mara also had to convince her younger self that Palpatine was not worthy of her devotion..."

"Why would she think that Palpatine was...?"

"Oh! Tingling toes, Leia!"

"I feel them," Leia answered quickly. "Ok, we gotta go. Be nice to Mara and the other Emperor's Hands; they have had a hard life."

"Father, I love you!" Older Luke told Vader.

The time traveling twins disappeared.

Han Solo waited a full minute before clearing his throat and saying to the elder Organas, "So, when do you think your daughter will be old enough to date me?"

Darth Vader, who had been focusing happily on how much better he felt with Palpatine dead and gone, sat up straight and declaimed authoritatively, "Leia will never be old enough to date you, Solo! You are not worthy of her!"

Solo smirked and said, "Well, we'll see about that, won't we?"

/

Organa Solo apartment

Coruscant

10 years later

"Ohhhhhh," Leia groaned. "I feel terrible."

"My poor Leia," her twin said, wrapping a gentle arm around her back and putting his other hand on her forehead. "Here, let me try to help."

A full minute passed before Leia Organa, Princess of Alderaan, straightened up with a surprised smile and said, "Thanks. I feel so much better."

"You gotta show me that trick, Kid," Han Solo said, his usually insouciance replaced with deep concern for his beautiful wife.

"My pleasure," Luke said with a grin. "We should definitely train the Jedi to help with morning sickness."

"Morning sickness, my tooka," Leia grumbled. "It is more like all day sickness, and the evenings are the worst."

"It was the same for me," Mara Jade Skywalker declared, waddling ponderously into the Solos' main living area. "I usually woke up feeling pretty good, but by evening I was tired and just miserable."

"But you are Ok now?" Leia asked in what she knew was a piteous tone.

"The nausea is gone," her sister-in-law assured her. "It went away at like 15 weeks. Now of course I look and feel like a purrgil, but at least I don't feel like tossing my cookies anymore."

"Well, that's something," Leia responded, eying Mara uneasily.

"It is so much better, I promise. I mean yes, I can't sleep and this boy is kicking me relentlessly in the bladder, and my back hurts..."

"I don't need to know more," Leia said hastily. "I just want to survive this trimester before worrying about the end."

"Good thinking," Mara answered and then frowned as she ran her hand uneasily over her bulbous belly.

"Are you all right?" Luke demanded, jumping to his feet.

"I'm fine, my love. Just fine. I have been having contractions today quite regularly so maybe today will be the day."

"I hope so," Luke said, planting a kiss on Mara's forehead. "This being overdue nonsense is for the sand fleas."

"So I heard Anakin got sent off to Dachat," Han commented, walking over to sit down next to his wife. "Are you allowed to tell us what is going on there?"

"It is secret but not super secret so yeah, I can tell you," Luke said. "Apparently some idiot made a mistake at the uranium facility on Dachat, and there was a minor explosion; no disaster yet, but Father is needed to move barrels around and stuff like that to make sure none of the radioactive waste is blown up and spread into the atmosphere and water supply."

"That sounds...dangerous," Leia said with a frown.

"Well, Ahsoka is with him so it should be Ok," Luke said, though his tone was worried.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Han declared reassuringly. "I know you two work together really well, but Tano is no slouch."

"She's great, and I wouldn't dream of being away from Mara when... Mara?"

"And there's another one," Mara said with a pained grimace. "Yep, getting exciting here."

/

Uranium processing facility

Dachat

"Well, this is fun," Ahsoka Tano said sarcastically, lifting her gloved hands to wave them in front of her helmeted head. She could see nothing. Nothing at all.

"Stand still for just a minute, Snips," Anakin Skywalker ordered, reaching out with his Force sense to visualize the area around them. The pair could not see anything with their eyes thanks to the smoke from the fires within the facility.

"Ok, follow me five steps forward and three steps to the left," he said aloud. It was a little strange having to talk out loud to his partner, but while he and Ahsoka were an incredible team, they didn't have quite the bond that Anakin and Luke Skywalker had together.

Ahsoka followed cautiously, using her Force sense to avoid anything that might trip her up.

"Stop," Anakin ordered. "I am going to do a fine scan of the radioactive hot spots with my suit, which will take a few minutes."

Ahsoka sighed and said, "I can't imagine how annoying it must be to be in that suit all the time, Skyguy. I already feel my skin crawling and I've been in this thing for like an hour."

Anakin shook his head, though of course his former apprentice could not see the movement. "The suit tormented me every minute when I was under Palpatine's rule, Ahsoka. Now that I am free from him and the Dark Side, and thanks to the Organas, Obi-Wan, and the twins, I am in relatively good shape. I'll never be star in the Galaxy's Best Looking Male Sentients' yearly calendar, but to be able to live without the helmet most of the time is enough."

"I wish they could fix everything," Ahsoka said gloomily.

"Well, maybe they can, some day," Anakin responded. "Luke is willing to travel to Kamino one of these years to see if the scientists can do something to clone my organs, but there hasn't been time. I mean, toppling the Empire, and democratically electing Bail Organa, and kicking some of the stupid aspects of the Jedi Code into the Sarlacc pit; that's all taken time."

"It has," Ahsoka agreed. "How is the scan coming along?"

"Patience," Anakin said in a pious tone. "You must have patience."

"Skyguy..."

"Ok, It is 67%, no 68% done. There is a major area of radioactivity north north west of here; probably a container broke open. We'll have to move it."

"I still think droids could have done this," Ahsoka grumbled.

"Maybe, but there isn't a great deal of time. If anything shifts in here, and something gets too hot, it could..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Spare me the comments about my possible imminent death. How are your twins doing?"

"Great. Leia is pretty sick from the pregnancy, I know. Luke is hovering over Mara, of course, with their son due last week."

"They are wonderful people, Anakin."

Anakin Skywalker, formerly Darth Vader, felt tears form in his healed eyes. "I know, Snips. I know. My kids are amazing. I am a lousy excuse for a human being and I deserve death..."

"The New Republic pardoned you," Tano interrupted. "Plus you keep doing horribly and lousy and dangerous jobs for the Republic, so there is that."

"100% complete. Let's go!"

/

Med Center

Coruscant

10 hours later

Luke Skywalker leaned forward to kiss his newborn son on the head. "Welcome, little Christopher. Welcome to the galaxy."