The Millennium Falcon
"But I want to meet my father!" young Luke said indignantly.
"I know you do, but really, you don't," older Luke said. "He is a truly horrible person right now and you are far too tempting a prize."
"Tempting? I don't understand!" the young man said, obviously frustrated.
"You have the Force power of the ages," Mara explained, patting the youth on the shoulder, "and like an hour of training. You'd be a great Dark Side apprentice."
"I wouldn't…," the young began, and then trailed away and sighed deeply.
"I know," his older counterpart said sympathetically. "We stood in the desert and watched the sky, hoping Father would show up and take us away. He is rich, and powerful, and he is actually peculiarly attached to family, so it would be hard for you to withstand his offer of the galaxy."
"The Sith do not care about anyone besides themselves," Kenobi grumbled.
"Not true, but he is still super messed up," Older Luke said. "Now come on, everyone into their escape pods. Kenobi, I hope we can convince Vader to take over the Death Star and do something non-violent with it, but just in case, be sure to pull the information from R2 and prepare an attack run on that thermal exhaust port I mentioned. Now Han, you are sure you don't want to leave with them?"
Solo glowered at the escape pods, currently open to welcome their passengers, and shook his head. "I leave this ship in a coffin, or not at all," he growled. "But Chewie, if you want to…"
The resulting roaring was equivocally a no on that, and Leia said practically, "I'm not sure that Chewbacca would fit anyway. Now away you go!"
C-3PO groaned dramatically and began stiffly climbing into an escape pod. "I really do not like this…"
Older Luke used the Force to lift the protocol droid into the escape pod, then R2D2, shut it, and sent it on its merry way before the droid could finish complaining.
"Ben?" he suggested, gesturing at the next pod.
"May the Force be with you all," Kenobi said solemnly.
/
Docking Bay 327
The Death Star
Thirty Minutes Later
Darth Vader stood at the bottom of the ramp, his thumbs tucked in his belt, and stared up at the supremely battered freighter sitting in front of him. It was, frankly, a piece of junk, and he was surprised it was able to handle sublight speeds, much less hyperspace!
"Well, Vader," Governor Tarkin said irritably. "Are you going to send in the boarding party?"
"Not necessary!" a male, and ridiculously cheery, voice called from the top of the ramp. "Don't shoot!"
The Stormtroopers flanking the Sith Lord and the Moff tightened their grips on their blasters and aimed their weapons at the young man who sauntered into view at this point. Vader felt his own body stiffen as the Light Side Force Sensitive came to a stop at the bottom of the ramp, his hands lifted in the galactic gesture of surrender. Somehow he looked familiar, and yet again, Vader was certain he had never seen him before. Then his eyes dropped to the young man's waist and the Sith gestured, causing the lightsaber hanging there to leap into his own hand.
"You can come down!" the Jedi called. "Looks like they won't be shooting us on the spot!"
"Good!" a feminine voice remarked, and a moment later, a young woman appeared, with eyes as dark as particularly tasty coffee (not that Vader could drink coffee anymore) and hair that reminded him very strongly of …
But no, he would not think of her.
Also, this woman also had a lightsaber, and a moment later, her lightsaber joined her companions in Vader's large, cyborg hand.
"Oh!" the woman said, her eyes fixed on Tarkin. "Oh, Luke, look! Governor Tarkin!"
"Behave," 'Luke' said.
"I totally think it is my turn to kill him!" the woman said, her eyes shining happily and ferally.
"Behave," the young man repeated, though based on the slight curl of his lips, he was obviously amused.
Tarkin took a step forward and glowered down at the woman, who was the same height as Princess Leia, and looked like her, except her hair was shorter. She wasn't wearing those cute little ear buns, which reminded him of …
No, he would not think of her.
"You think this is amusing?" Tarkin asked in his most menacing tone.
"Kind of?" the woman said with a saucy grin. "Not for you, of course."
"Who are you?" Vader boomed suddenly, and the Stormtroopers winced collectively. To his amazement, neither of the prisoners flinched.
"Yes, let's do introductions," the man said. "I am Luke Skywalker, son of Anakin Skywalker and Padme Naberrie Amidala Skywalker, but I am in my 30's so obviously from a different timeline."
"And I am Leia Organa Skywalker Solo, twin sister of Luke, daughter of Padme and Anakin, and we all know what happened to Anakin! I am also from a different, future timeline."
Vader became a monolith. It was, it was…
"That is impossible!" Tarkin snarled, glaring at Vader. "You cannot even begin to believe that…"
"It is weird," the woman interrupted, "but actually a very reasonable explanation for what just happened. You don't think the Death Star beam just decided to deflect by happenstance, do you?"
"You are saying you deflected the beam away from Alderaan?" Tarkin snarled, and how his eyes were narrow with outraged suspicion. "Impossible!"
"Surprising, yes," Luke said judiciously. "Impossible, no. We inherited our power from our father, who is the strongest Force sensitive in the galaxy, and I am including Palpatine; don't get me wrong, the Emperor is freaky powerful, but along with that, he is amazingly manipulative. I mean, he could write a book entitled, " How to commit genocide, overthrow governments, and manipulate nine year olds who were rescued from desert planets."
"I think that book wouldn't appeal to most readers," Leia replied.
Tarkin turned abruptly and glared at the Sith Lord, who was staring at Leia. "Can this be true, Vader?"
"Yes," the deep voice proclaimed a few seconds later.
"What? The deflection, or the time travel?"
"Both. The prisoners are incredibly powerful in the Force, and it is impossible that I would not have sensed them before this if they were trained in this … timeline."
Tarkin loudly ground his teeth and turned back toward the prisoners. "It does not matter that you deflected it once. In a few hours, the Death Star will be at full charge and we will destroy Alderaan once and for all!"
"Luke?" Leia piped up, her brown eyes fixed hopefully on Tarkin.
"Go ahead," Luke said with a sigh.
Tarkin stiffened for half a second, and then his neck broke, which killed him, and he fell over with a thump.
There was a soft yelp from an officer, and a couple of idiotic stormtroopers even fired their blasters. Luke and Leia deflected the rays into the floor and Vader spun around. "Hold your fire!"
"Yes, sir," the officer said shakily.
"I think we should talk, don't you?" Luke suggested, stepping forward boldly and looking up into his Alter Father's face.
Vader, who was genuinely feeling whoozy, drew on the Force to keep himself from fainting. He had kids? Tarkin was dead? He had kids?
"Yes," the deep voice declared, and he was pleased that he didn't sound shaky. "Yes, we should talk."
/
Cell Block AA23
Fifteen minutes later
"I have orders to bring Princess Leia Organa to the control room," the red haired woman said calmly.
The duty officer cast a nervous glance at the monitor in front of him, which depicted an image of this very female, plus various dimmed information; apparently this was a member of the Hands program, which was very classified, and he didn't want to have anything to do with it.
"Yes, Ma'am," he said respectfully, and gestured toward two stormtroopers.
Mara waited with outward calm and inward impatience; she wanted to get young Leia off the Death Star before Vader grabbed her, as the girl had been through chaos in the last few days. The last thing young Leia wanted was to hang out with her supremely screwed up biological father.
Two minute later, the diminutive princess, her hands bound, was escorted out of the narrow, dark corridor and into the slightly brighter command center of the cell block.
"I will take her from here," Mara said, stepping forward and grasping young Leia's arm.
The duty officer twitched. "Madame, orders are that all prisoners be escorted by..."
He trailed off at the dangerous light in Mara's eyes, and instead gestured weakly toward the elevator. "As you wish, Madame."
Mara pulled young Leia into the elevator, which closed behind them, and then quickly reached out with the Force and caused the girl's binders to fall to the floor with a clatter.
Leia, who had been maintaining a stoic demeanor, turned in surprise which morphed into shock as Mara pulled a blaster out of her boot and handed it to her.
"Here, take this," she said. "Oh, I'm here to rescue you."
"Who are you?" Leia demanded suspiciously, though she accepted the blaster with enthusiasm.
"Long story, but it is reasonable to say that Obi-Wan Kenobi sent me."
"Obi-Wan Kenobi?" Leia demanded, perking up. "Where is he?"
"He's on Alderaan, along with R2D2. By now I hope they have made their way to your parents."
Leia forced back tears. She didn't have time to cry, though the thought of Alderaan's near miss made her want to curl up in a ball and cry.
"I just hope that a weakness can be found," Leia said.
Mara opened her mouth and then closed it. There was no time to explain everything and the important thing was to get Leia off of the Death Star to safety.
/
Death Star Command Center
"Where is my son?" Darth Vader demanded, staring hungrily into the face of his Alter Son.
"He is on Alderaan," Luke said absently, and then pointed. "Leia, can you destroy that?"
Leia, whose lightsaber was humming happily, promptly sliced into another control panel and then thrust the blade into the wall, which provoked a satisfying spasm of buzzing and arcing from various electronics.
"Alderaan?" Vader repeated, and his tone was hollow. "Do you mean to say that if Alderaan had been destroyed...?"
"No, no," Luke said. "Young Luke landed on Alderaan via escape pod after we arrived in system and Leia and my wife and I deflected the Death Star's laser beam."
Vader opened his mouth to ask one question, and found himself asking another. "You have a wife?"
"Yes, and Leia has a husband. We have four kids each, including a set of twins each. Yes, we are tired."
Vader found himself torn between envy (his kids got to have children without anyone apparently yelling and freaking out about attachment?) and concern. "We must bring my son on board immediately to join his sister! He is not safe on Alderaan!"
"Actually, he isn't safe so long as Palpatine lives," Leia said brightly. "So the question is, how are you going to kill the old rancor?"
