Living Area
Varykino
Luke and Leia Skywalker's 18th Life Day
"Happy Life Day to you, happy life day to you, happy life day dear Leia and Luke! Happy Life Day to you!"
The elder set of Skywalker twins grinned and hugged as their parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins sang to them. When they were done, Ace, age 7, yelled, "I want cake!"
"I want them to open presents first!" Alixa, the female member of the younger set of Skywalker twins, demanded.
"I think cake first, and then presents," Luke said with a grin at his younger brother. "I know we are both hungry."
"But I want to show you what I made for you!" Alixa exclaimed, and burst into tears. Padme swept forward and gave her younger daughter a kiss, while Anakin sent waves of calming energy through the Force towards the little girl. Alixa was, like her older sister Leia, something of a firecracker.
Luke had, by this point, marched over to the large Life Day cake, half jogan fruitcake, half chocolate, waiting on a side table, and he used the Force to cut it into pieces and levitate the pieces onto plates. The air was suddenly filled with floating plates which the guests plucked out in the air depending on their preference. What with the younger twins squealing, and the older guests eating and talking, and the general joy and bonhomie, it was as wonderful and relaxing a day as Anakin Skywalker could remember.
Given that he was a Master Jedi, and given that life tended to be complicated, and given that he adored his family to the ends of the galaxy, 2% of his spirit and soul were standing at the ready, just in case some nefarious individual tried to gate crash the party and harm someone he loved.
Thus it was that, when two individuals soberly clad in blues and blacks, materialized out of thin air in the middle of the room and were nearly smacked in the faces by cake, it took less than a second for Anakin to grab his lightsaber and turn it on. Leia followed her father two seconds later, and Luke two seconds after that as he had used those four seconds to lower the floating slices of cake on plates onto a handy table.
The two intruders, one a male human, the other a female human, stood very still as Anakin took a careful step forward, his blue lightsaber buzzing ominously. He gazed in perplexity at the newcomers, who, firstly, had appeared out of nowhere, and secondly, looked very familiar for some reason.
"We don't mean you any harm," the woman said, her dark eyes intent. At that same moment, both trespassers dropped their shields, and the three Force sensitives in the room felt their bodies relax; these two might be total strangers and weirdos, but they were firmly Light Siders, along with being very powerful.
Anakin turned off his saber and took a step back, his eyes narrowed. "Who are you and how did you get here?"
"Um," the woman said, looking around with a knitted brow. "I am Leia, and this is Luke; we are your twins, but from a different timeline."
The Skywalkers and their various relations exchanged bewildered glances, and Padme said, "Anakin? Is this possible?"
"Time travel isn't possible," her husband said, shaking his head firmly.
"But they are very powerful Light Siders," Younger Luke argued.
"And they look a lot like us, just older," Younger Leia agreed.
"Clones, maybe?" Sola Naberrie asked uneasily.
"We aren't clones," Older Luke said. "It is a reasonable assumption in some ways, but us appearing out of thin air doesn't jive with us being clones, right?"
"True," Padme agreed thoughtfully, and then quirked an eyebrow. "Let us assume you are, in fact, from the future. Why are you here?"
The time travelers exchanged looks and the Older Luke sighed and confessed, "We're not actually sure. The Force has thrown us into a bunch of timelines over the last decade, but usually it is totally obvious what we need to do."
"This time, definitely not so much," Older Leia said. "You look...happy."
Various Skywalkers and Naberries looked at one another, and Anakin said, "Why wouldn't we be?"
"Because..." Older Luke began, and then lowered his gaze to the two little kids standing nearby, one dark haired boy and one blonde girl. He lowered himself down on one knee and said, "Who might you be?"
"I am Ace Skywalker," the boy said, and the girl chimed in, "I am Alixa Skywalker."
"We're twins!" the chorused.
The time travelers stared at one another again, and to Older Luke's considerable surprise, moisture gathered in the corner of his eyes.
"They had another set of twins, Luke," his own sister said, and she too looked on the verge of weeping.
"Why is that bad?" Anakin demanded defensively.
"It's not! It's wonderful!" his Alter Son exclaimed. "It's just amazing because..."
The door into the living room opened at this juncture, and an elderly lady hurried in, her arms full of presents.
"My dears!" Shmi Skywalker began, "I am so sorry that I was late but..."
She trailed off at the sight of her various relations standing around looking bewildered, and then her frowning gaze shifted to the unknown, strangely familiar man and woman who were staring at her as if they had just seen a ghost.
"Grandma Shmi?" the man said in a strangled tone. "What happened here?"
This, not surprisingly, bemused Shmi Skywalker, who looked in confusion at her son.
"Um, Mother, these two individuals just appeared out of thin air, literally, and have informed us that they are from a future, alternate timeline. They are, in fact, Luke and Leia but obviously considerably older."
Shmi walked over to place her gifts on a table and then turned a bright eyed gaze on her Other Grandchildren.
"It is very nice to meet you both," she said placidly.
This provoked a chuckle from young Leia, who hurried over to embrace her paternal grandmother. "Grandmamma, you are the one person who has accepted them calmly."
"I am also old and well used to odd things happening to me, most of them good things," Shmi said, and leaned over to plant a kiss on the girl's forehead.
"It's unbelievable!" Older Luke said in an awed tone. "Everything is going so...so well!"
Again, various people looked at various other people.
"What happened in your timeline?" Padme finally asked, though her voice shook slightly, wondering if she really should ask.
"I'm not sure you really need to know," Older Leia said, blowing out a long breath. "I think we are both bemused at how well you are doing, but there is no need to burden you with the sorrows of our own past."
"You don't think something bad is about to happen?" Anakin asked worriedly, sending out Force tendrils in every direction.
The intruders did the same, and Older Luke said, a minute later, "No, I don't sense any danger, and in any case, every other time we have time traveled, it has been obvious that we need to do something, and quickly. This time, no, it just feels… nice."
"And peaceful," his twin remarked with a smile, and turned toward the door. "I do think you have a visitor coming…"
The door opened, and the tall Gungan, Jar Jar Binks, marched into the room with a large wrapped box in his arms.
"Uncle Jar Jar!" the younger twins squealed, and hurled themselves at the tall alien. Binks released the present, which floated gently onto the ground, and pulled Ace and Alixa into his arms. "Good morning, young ones," he said, planting a kiss on first the small blonde, and then the small brunette, head. "It is wonderful to see you."
Older Luke, who had been feeling bemused, was so shocked at these words that he choked. Older Leia absently whacked him on the back with one hand while staring open mouthed at the Gungan who had, the last time she had met him, been a nearly unintelligible idiot who fell into a trash compactor.
"You can talk normally!" Older Luke finally gasped out.
Jar Jar turned a puzzled look on him, and now the Time Traveling twins noted the lightsaber hanging on his belt.
"And you are?" he asked courteously.
"Luke and Leia Skywalker," Anakin said with aplomb, stepping forward and whacking a welcoming hand on Jar Jar's shoulder. "They are our older twins, but from a future, different timeline."
"They came to eat cake, maybe?" Alixa suggested from her position in Jar Jar's strong right arm.
"I personally would love some cake," Older Leia said, having recovered sufficiently to speak intelligibly. "I would also love to speak to erm, um, Jedi Binks?"
"Of course! Of course!" Binks replied, lowering the younger children to the floor. "My dear younglings, would you care to open that package together?"
"It's for us?" Alix demanded, his dark eyes flashing with excitement.
"Indeed it is. I saw these in a toy shop and was certain you would love them!"
This provoked the little Skywalkers to leap upon the box with the enthusiasm of a coco claw fish eating a sailor who had fallen off his ship. Shmi stepped forward to assist them, and Anakin, Padme, both sets of Luke and Leia, miscellaneous extended family, and Jar Jar made their way into a large adjacent sitting room, though they waited for the time travelers and the Gungan to collect their individual pieces of cake.
Everyone found an appropriate seat, and for two minutes, all was silent except for the shrieks of the younger twins next door (the gift was, apparently, magnetic tiles which could be built into interesting shapes and forms), and the sound of two humans and a Gungan eating cake.
"That was amazing," Luke said. "I love chocolate cake!"
"And I love jogan fruit," Leia said with a blissful sigh.
"I love both," Jar Jar said with a grin, "which is why I took a half piece of each."
"Oh, you could have taken a whole piece of each," Padme said. "We have plenty leftover. And the last thing I want is for the younger twins to stuff themselves silly and try to sleep on a sugar high."
Older Luke set aside his plate and said, "So Master Jar Jar, I sense you are a strong Force Sensitive, which is admittedly very strange, as the only time we met a Jar Jar in our time traveling, he wasn't very smart and he spoke very oddly."
"Meesa want help?" Jar Jar suddenly brayed. "Meesa need food?"
The time travelers jumped and exchanged startled looks.
"Exactly like that!" Older Leia said. "Exactly! So it was … was an act? And if so, why?"
"It was an act, yes," Jar Jar said, returning to his cultured and intelligible speech patterns. "Have you met Master Jinn in your travels?"
"Qui-Gon? Yes," Older Luke said.
"He was master to my own master, Obi-Wan Kenobi," Anakin said.
Again, the older twins exchanged glances.
"We know Obi-Wan very well," Leia said.
Jar Jar nodded and continued, "Jinn was a maverick of sorts; more than that, he sensed, through the Force, that a great darkness was approaching. When we met, when I was but ten years of age, he discovered I was a Force sensitive. But he did not take me to the Jedi Temple. He urged my parents to keep me safe and visited when he could and trained me in the ways of the Force."
Older Luke nodded with understanding. "I see; he was keeping you away from the Temple so that you could be kind of …"
"An Undercover Jedi," Older Leia finished.
"Exactly. Moreover, he suggested that I learn to act the fool, which was actually quite enjoyable for me. I always liked acting. So I was able to help Master Jinn kill Darth Maul on Tatooine, and then eight years later I figured out that Palpatine was a Sith Lord. Master Jinn wanted to take it to the Council, but I was concerned that such an act would trigger some kind of diabolical activity, so I poisoned him one night."
"That is AWESOME!" the time travelers exclaimed, which caused Padme's eyebrows to climb nearly to her hairline.
"You approve of assassination?" she demanded. "I understand why Jar Jar did it, but I think it would have been better to take it to the Jedi Council or the Senate."
Older Leia shook her head and said, "No, Master Binks had the right of it. Palpatine was a master of manipulation, and in our timeline he managed to kill you, Padme, right after we were born, and turn Anakin to the Dark Side. No, the best Palpatine is a dead Palpatine, and Luke and I have spent many happy hours killing him in creative ways in different timelines. Master Jinn, you have my profound respect and thanks."
Anakin had turned pale at these words, and the other Luke and Leia gasped in unison.
"Father turned to the Dark Side?" younger Luke demanded. "I don't believe it!"
Older Leia looked apologetic and said, "I probably shouldn't have told you that, as it is not your reality. But Palpatine acted as a friend to Anakin and ... it was a mess."
"What about Grandma Shmi?" Older Luke demanded. "How did she survive the Tuskens?"
Anakin's fists tightened, and he rolled to his full height. "What about my mother and the Tusken Raiders?"
"In our timeline," Time Traveling Luke said, "she was captured by Tuskens when you were, um…"
"Nineteen standard years old, I think?" Leia continued. "They killed her."
"Oh," Anakin replied, openly relaxing. "Yeah, obviously that didn't happen. Jar Jar freed her like two months after I left Tatooine at the age of nine."
Again, the time travelers shot admiring glances at Binks, and Leia said, "That is wonderful."
Jar Jar shrugged. "Master Jinn and I knew that Anakin was a very powerful Force Sensitive, and that having his mother in slavery wouldn't be good for him."
"How did you convince Watto to free him?"
"Oh, I threatened to cut him into pieces," Jar Jar said breezily. "I mean, I paid him too, but I said that it wasn't Ok to own slaves and that Shmi deserved a better life, and if he didn't want to find himself short a few limbs, he had better remove her transmitter and the hand her over."
"That is direct," Older Luke said in an approving tone.
"I like it," his twin chimed in.
Silence fell for a few minutes, and finally Older Leia said, "So Palpatine has been dead for decades, Anakin and Padme are happily married, their two sets of twins are growing up in a safe and protected home, and everything is good."
"Pretty much," Jar Jar said complacently.
/
Normal Timeline
The Skywalkers' Home on Coruscant
"Are you Ok, Luke?" Mara asked worriedly as her husband wandered vaguely into the living room.
"Erm, yes," Luke said, passing his prosthetic hand through his dark blond hair.
"Did you just time travel?" Mara demanded, narrowing her green eyes.
Luke flopped onto the couch next to her and put an arm around her. "Yes, we did."
"What happened?"
Luke released a slow breath and said, "Everything was perfect."
"What?!"
"Yeah, there were no problems. Basically, Leia and I got to see what life would have been like if Palpatine had been wiped out early, and Grandma Shmi had been released from slavery when Anakin was nine years old, and Padme and Anakin were married and living together, not separated through the idiocy of the Jedi. They even had a second set of twins."
"Oh, wow."
"Yeah, it was crazy in a good way. And you want to know the catalyst for all this wonderful change?"
"What?"
"Who actually. Jar Jar Binks."
Mara mulled this over at some length and then said, "Wasn't he an idiot?"
"Totally, but in this timeline, he was a gifted Force Sensitive pretending to be an idiot, working with Master Qui-Gon Jinn, who was alive and well when our counterparts turned 18 years old, anyway."
"Wow."
"Wow indeed."
Luke sighed and tightened his hold on his wife. "I don't want to change my life, exactly, but it is nice to know there is one timeline out there were things went really well."
The door opened at this juncture and a horde of younger Skywalkers and Solos rushed into the room, with Leia and Han in their midst.
"Leia!" Luke said. "Wasn't that awesome?"
"It was! It was. Praise the Force for Jar Jar Binks!"
"Indeed!"
Author Note: That's it for this timeline. This was inspired by Hero100100 who asked for Jar Jar Binks as a Jedi Knight.
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