Master Yoda's Chambers

Jedi Temple

Coruscant

Ten Hours Later

Jedi Master Yoda sat on his favorite cushion in his own private room, which had a window which looked out over the sprawling cityscape of Coruscant.

At the moment, the old Jedi's eyes were closed, because he needed to concentrate hard.

There had been a great disturbance in the Force a few hours previously, felt by many of the Jedi Masters, and everyone who could be spared was hanging out in his or her chambers seeking wisdom about it.

Yoda, as the oldest and grandest Jedi of them all, felt a certain pressure to figure out what was going on. The disturbance seemed a Light one, but still, it was weird and bewildering.

He tried to sink into the Force but it was tough for some reason. He felt like there was something happening, right now, in his very own room, that was distracting him, but that was silly. No one was going to sneak up on him here, or bother him, not here in the Temple, but still, he felt like…

Abruptly, he opened his big green eyes and released a shriek at the sight of a man of some thirty years of age, standing in the middle of the room, clad in black attire, with a lightsaber at his waist, staring at him.

"Sorry, Master Yoda," the man said, raising placating hands. "I didn't mean to bother you. I'm not really here – I am Force projecting myself."

This, if anything, boggled Yoda even more. Very few people were capable of Force projecting, and he knew every single last one of those people. So who was this?

"Are you who?" he sputtered, rising to his feet.

"Well, my name is Luke," the man explained, dropping down onto the floor in a cross legged position so they could talk face to face. "My body is currently on Tatooine on the Outer Room, but I am also from a future timeline and just showed up a few hours ago."

Yoda shifted from boggled to entirely stupefied.

"Impossible time travel is," he muttered.

"Lots of people say that," Luke said cheerily, "but they are wrong. Anyway, this is hard work projecting so far so just come to Tatooine to Gardulla the Hutt's palace, will you? And please bring Qui Gon Jinn if he is around. Thanks!"

The man vanished.

/

Varykino

Naboo

Mid Morning

Ruwee and Jobal Naberrie had intended on having a peaceful morning, or as much of a peaceful morning as possible given they had two small children, but the arrival of three women, one of them with a four-month-old infant in her arms, had pretty much wrecked that plan.

"You're who?" Ruwee asked of their guests, who had somehow talked their way past a human major domo.

"I'm Leia," the older dark haired woman said, "and I'm a time traveler from like fifty plus years in the future. I am also your daughter Padme's daughter. This is Mara, my sister-in-law, who is married to my twin brother Luke. And this is Shmi Skywalker, with baby Anakin in her arms. Anakin is my father and was married to Padme. Mara and I come from another timeline, of course, and we just rescued Shmi and Anakin from a grouchy Hutt named Gardulla, who was ruling a Hutt clan on Tatooine."

The Naberries blinked at Leia, and then turned to gaze into one another's eyes, and Jobal said, "Erm, Ruwee, should we…?"

They had been married long enough that he knew what she was thinking without her saying it; these people were obviously crazy, and what were they going to do?

"Varykino has a med droid," he said, "We can test the baby and Padme and … and Leia."

"But it is absurd! Time travel is impossible, and as for Padme, she is only five years old!" his wife said with wide eyes, and Ruwee said, "It is so absurd that it might be true. If it isn't, we'll have to call the authorities to take these fine ladies to a mental hospital in Theed."

The woman named Leia chuckled and said, "It won't come to that and I agree checking is a good idea."

Half an hour later, all the tests had been done, which proved, most definitely, that Leia's genetics were half from Baby Anakin, and half from five year old Padme, and that Shmi was the mother of Baby Anakin, and given the ages of everyone involved, it pretty much proved time travel.

Which was super bizarre and weird.

"So Padme will have a daughter who is a Jedi?" Jobal asked as she handed out glasses of blue milk to her guests. Padme, after being summoned for the test, had been taken outside by a servant to climb a tree, which was currently her favorite form of entertainment.

"Not necessarily," Leia said, floating the glass to her lips as she rocked Baby Anakin, who was a trifle fussy.

Mara continued, "Our arrival here is changing the timeline, of course, and there it is not a definite thing that your daughter and Anakin will make a match of it."

Jobal frowned. "But if they do not marry and bear children, what happens to you?"

"Nothing at all," Leia said. "There are multiple timelines so your timeline will spiral somewhere else. Anakin and Padme might end up married, but they might not. Either way is cool."

"Here's the thing, though," Mara said. "In our timeline, Shmi and Anakin were enslaved on Tatooine and that was obviously a lousy situation. Anakin was freed at the age of nine, though his mother was not, and he was taken to Coruscant to be trained as a Jedi, and that actually didn't work out great either. He is very powerful in the Force and being separated from Shmi seemed the best of bad options, but we know that the separation was really hard on Anakin. The best thing would be for the Skywalkers to live here quietly on Naboo and Anakin can grow up with a normal childhood. For that to happen, you will need to help."

"Of course we will," Ruwee said immediately. "Of course. But surely if young Anakin is a Force user, he needs to be trained?"

"He does, but not as an infant. It really is not good to separate babies from their parents," Leia said. "I know the Jedi of this time in history do it, but it causes a lot of pain for the child, which can in turn cause significant turmoil, especially for a crazy powerful person like Anakin. Trust us on this."

"What happened to my son?" Shmi said, speaking for the first time in many minutes.

Mara and Leia exchanged glances, and Leia said, "Look, we don't like hiding info, but this is disturbing. Are you sure you want to hear it?"

"I am," Shmi said resolutely.

Leia blew out a breath and turned her gaze on the angelic baby sleeping in her arms.

"In our timeline," she explained, "you and Anakin were sold to a Toydarian merchant named Watto, who had a shop in Mos Espa. This was when Anakin was 4 years old or so. Then when Anakin was 9, Padme and a couple of Jedi traveled to Tatooine for complicated reasons, and one of them figured out that Anakin was very powerful in the Force. The Jedi managed to free him, but not you, Shmi. You were eventually sold to a farmer named Lars, who freed and married you. But then the Tusken Raiders took you and you died when Anakin was nineteen years old."

Shmi, her face pale, reached out hands towards her son, and Leia carefully floated the infant into his mother's arms.

"If we were separated that long, I hope that Anakin was not too distressed?" Shmi asked.

"He was absolutely devastated," Mara said. "He loved you very much, and furthermore, had been having visions of your death so he felt guilty too. A few years later, he started having visions of Padme dying in childbirth with their twins, and he went kind of nuts and joined up with a bad guy named Sheev Palpatine."

There was a united squawk from the Naberrie, and Ruwee demanded, "The Senator?"

"Y…e…e…s?" Mara said, looking at Leia, who nodded. "Yes, that's right. He had already been a Senator for nearly a decade when Anakin was born. His master is still around too, of course. We'll have to take care of both of them."

"We should wait for Luke," Mara said. "Two Sith Lords are gonna be a fair amount of work."

"Maul is alive too," Leia mused, "and I think he is already working for Palpatine."

"Sounds like we have our work cut out for us," Mara said cheerily.

/

Gardulla the Hutt's Palace

Three Days Later

Qui Gon Jinn expertly piloted the shuttle into a cave and lowered it onto the rock floor. His co-pilot, seventeen year old Obi-Wan Kenobi, stared out of the cockpit window with a frown.

"Who do you think this person is?" the young man asked suspiciously and Grand Master Yoda, who was extricating himself from a tiny seat on one side of the cockpit, said, "Know I do not, but powerful he is if able to project across galaxy he did.

"I don't like sand. It's course, rough, irritating, and it gets everywhere," Kenobi whined.

"Sand is lousy," a male voice said from behind them, and all three Jedi spun around, their lightsabers springing to life.

The man standing behind them raised his hands carefully and said, with a grin, "Calm down. I'm on your side."

"How get in here did you?" Yoda demanded, his green lightsaber still humming like an angry bee.

"Well, I caused the ramp to come down using the Force," the Unknown said cheerfully, "but what you really want to know is how I managed to sneak up on you."

At this moment, Yoda, Jinn, and Kenobi felt a great swoosh in the Force, and abruptly, incredibly, a staggeringly powerful Light Side Force presence filled their awareness. Kenobi was sufficiently startled that he yelped and nearly fell over backwards, and Jinn reached out an arm to support his apprentice.

"Who are you?" Jinn demanded, lowering his lightsaber and turning it off. A moment later, his two companions also turned off their sabers.

"As I told Yoda," the man said, "My name is Luke and I am from the future, and from a different timeline. I have been sent by the Force to this time and place to sort out some major problems for the galaxy. But shall we go outside and get some fresh air? This cave is actually kind of nice because it is blocked from the sun so not ridiculously hot. Also, while I don't think anyone will try to attack us, I would prefer to be out of this shuttle."

Yoda and Jinn exchanged glances and the old elf nodded. "Go outside we will."