Five Things That Never Happened to Padmé Amidala

(Plus one thing that never happened to Anakin Skywalker)

I.

One passenger. Minimal cargo. Short trip. Good pay. This was supposed to be an easy job. It had been anything but.

And yet, as she and her one passenger - her one rebel agent passenger - hastily fled the site of their emergency crash landing, Padmé couldn't be resentful. The agent was a young female Miralan - younger, she realized vaguely, than her own children, but older than Padmé herself had been when she had led her people in the liberation of her planet. Padmé knew what it was to be young and idealistic and ready to save the galaxy.

"You ever think about joining up with the Alliance?" The question was posed casually, yet meant seriously, she knew. And indeed, Padmé had considered it at length over the last twenty years.

But she was not young anymore, and not so idealistic.

The Alliance meant open rebellion. It meant people who had known her in her old life. It meant the risk of attracting Imperial attention. If she were discovered - not just detained by Stormtroopers or hunted under an alias, but truly discovered, and her identity revealed - it would not be long before the Sith began to pursue her children as well. That thought alone had kept her away from the Alliance for years.

But now…

With the way this job had ended - an Imperial officer dead, a dozen runaway slaves recaptured, and her ship destroyed - it seemed she'd attracted that unwanted attention anyway.

As for her children, Leia was a known rebel leader already. And though the identity of the pilot who had destroyed the Death Star was little more than a rumor, she doubted Vader and the Emperor had failed to take notice of it.

Padmé looked back at the wreckage of the ship that had been her home and her livelihood for the last few years. If she came in like any other recruit, she could maintain a cover in the Alliance. She'd never even cross paths with her former colleagues in all likelihood, and capture by the Empire was no more likely than it was now. And maybe, just maybe, she might see one of her children for the first time since their birth...

"You know," she said to the young rebel agent, "I think it's time I did."

II.

Commander Alani Miralles was the chief communications officer for the Echo Base. Though she had only joined up two years ago, casualties were high and advancement was swift within the ranks of the rebellion, and she was older and more experienced than most of the Alliance's new recruits.

As such, when Commander Skywalker failed to report in from his patrol, it was hardly unusual that she would be involved in coordinating the search parties sent out after him, nor was it remarkable that she would personally monitor their progress over the comms.

Even her evident relief when Skywalker was brought back alive was unsurprising. He was, after all, something of a hero to the whole Alliance ever since Yavin. Everyone wanted to keep him in once piece.

Commander Alani Miralles was also, as far as anyone knew, a survivor of Alderaan.

This explained, as far as anyone was concerned, why she was so fiercely loyal to, and even protective of, Princess Leia Organa. This loyalty accounted for her refusal to evacuate the Echo Base command center until the Princess was safely aboard a transport. And this in turn was how she wound up escaping from Hoth with the Princess and Captain Solo aboard the Millennium Falcon.

When Commander Alani Miralles interrupted the Princess and Captain Solo in the midst of their first kiss, each attributed her unmistakable disapproval to the unsuitability of a smuggler with a fear of commitment as a match for the princess of her lost homeworld. True, she never said anything to this effect, but then, it might not have been appropriate for her to question the princess's judgement openly, at least not on a matter so personal.

Still, Commander Alani Miralles, who was in fact Padmé Amidala, glared daggers at Captain Solo all the way to Bespin.

III.

Vader had recognized her instantly, of course.

She'd been separated from Leia and the others immediately. Fett and the Stormtroopers had escorted them to gods knew what horrible fate, while Padmé had been shoved into a side chamber off the ceremonial dining room by two of Calrissian's men, who promptly left her alone with Vader.

Even hidden behind that monstrous black mask, Padmé did not need Jedi training to sense his fury. She was acutely familiar with his anger and what it could bring him to do. Though once she would have believed that anger could never be directed at her, that illusion had been irreparably shattered by their last meeting. He'd believed her to be working against him then; she did not want to know what he would think of her now.

But she needed to buy time.

"Lord Vader."

She had never called him that before, and the title was an accusation. But he was single-minded in his rage, and did not take the bait.

"I believed that you were dead."

Straight to the point then. Not good. She was finding it difficult to breathe, and she was unsure whether it was only the memory of that invisible hand closing around her throat or whether her husband was going to finish what he had started on Mustafar.

"You let me think that you were dead. All these years, I thought that I had killed you, and I hadn't..."

She felt cold. She wanted to run. The room was too small. Fear was taking over. But she had to distract him, had to stop his train of thought somehow. She stood her ground and raised her chin with a confidence that would have fooled anyone but him.

"Not for lack of trying."

The hands on her neck were physical this time, the mechanical limbs encased in leather that she knew had replaced his human hands.

Good, she thought desperately, Be angry at me. Stay angry at me, and do not think about anything else. Do not think about...

But she knew in an instant her own thoughts had betrayed her. Abruptly Vader's hands fell away from her, and he took a step back, almost stumbling, as if in shock.

"Twins?" His artificial voice was as close to a hiss as it could approximate. "Not just the boy, but the princess, too?" He took another step away from her, surer this time, and she knew exactly what he was thinking, what he was going to do. He turned for the door, and she panicked.

"Anakin, please!" she cried. "Don't do this to them! Kill me if you have to, but don't turn them into you!"

He hesitated - but only for an instant. Then he was gone, and she was alone.

IV.

Luke was sitting upright on medbay the bunk, with Leia and Padmé standing on either side. His arms were wrapped around his knees, left hand grasping his right wrist, where the newly attached lifelike prosthetic hung limp. Padmé knew all too well how long it would take him to adjust to the mechanical limb.

"I don't know how much, if anything, Vader told either of you," she began, though she had a good idea that Luke at least knew something. "So I'm going to tell you all of it." Luke shifted forward nervously, confirming her suspicions, while Leia showed no reaction.

"My real name is Padmé. I'm from Naboo, not Alderaan. A long time ago, I served as Queen of my homeworld, and later as Senator. Shortly after the Clone Wars began, I secretly married Anakin Skywalker."

"The Jedi?" she heard Leia ask. "Luke's father?" She opened her eyes and looked to Luke for some reaction. He said nothing, but she could read both hope and fear in his eyes. If only she could fulfill that hope without confirming the fear as well...

"Luke's father," Padmé repeated, eyes still locked with her son, then turned her gaze to her daughter. "And yours." Then, because after all these years it could not be left unsaid any longer: "I'm your mother."

Leia reacted first. "How do we know-"

"Leia," Luke cut her off. He reached out with his left hand and caught hold of Padmé's right. "It's true. You know."

And Leia did know, Padmé could tell. She knew, the same way she had known where to find Luke during their escape. The same way Anakin had known things, with the same certainty set in her jaw and written across her brow. But knowing was not the same as understanding.

"Why now?" she demanded. "Why tell us this now? Why not before?"

"Because now Vader knows," Luke answered quietly. Padmé nodded, and his grip on her hand tightened. "It's true, isn't it? What Vader told me…" She squeezed his hand in return, preparing for what she had to say next.

"Yes. It is."

Luke seemed to shrink in on himself, but did not let go of her hand. Leia was only more confused.

"What did Vader tell you, Luke?"

But he did not answer. Perhaps he couldn't. After two decades, Padmé could still barely bring herself to speak the truth out loud. But Leia needed to know.

"Anakin was not killed with the other Jedi. He betrayed them, and joined the Emperor."

Realization dawned across Leia's face, replaced quickly with horror. "No..."

"Vader is your father."

Luke reached out towards his sister with his new right hand. She took it, and the three of them fell into an awkward embrace. As Luke and Leia processed both the pain and the joy of everything that had been revealed, for the first time in over twenty years, Padmé held her children.

V.

"There is good in him. I've felt it. We can save him."

A chill ran down her spine at Luke's words, so similar to what she herself had once said while hovering on the brink of death. She had never believed that Anakin had been lost completely, could never believe it, and yet that faith in him had nearly cost her everything.

Leia was upset. "You think you've felt it because you want to, Luke! Whoever he may have been once, there's nothing left of that now!"

"No," Padmé protested almost reflexively. "Luke is right."

They both turned to her in surprise, as if they had forgotten she was there. Luke was startled to hear her agree with him. Leia was shocked.

"Mother, you can't really believe that, with what he's capable of-"

"No one knows better what he's capable of than I do, Leia. Still, Luke is right. There is still some good in him. But...I just don't know if it's enough."

"It is," Luke insisted. "I know it is."

"Maybe," Padmé conceded, and she wanted to believe him. "But what if you're wrong? Do you realize what he could do to you? What the Emperor could do to you? You'd be risking more than just your life, Luke. Don't make me lose you like that, too."

Luke's face fell, but when he spoke again, his resolve was unchanged. "You won't. I won't let that happen. But I've got to try."

Leia continued to argue with him, but Padmé knew then there would be no changing his mind. He believed that he could save his father, and he wasn't going to give up. Anakin wouldn't have, either.

Sure enough, by the time her children boarded the stolen shuttle bound for Endor, Luke had not been swayed. Whatever Leia said or did, she knew he would find some way to go through with his plan to confront Vader, to try to draw whatever good remained in him back to the surface.

She could only hope that this time Anakin would not disappoint her.

+1

As alarms sounded and personnel ran frantically looking for any means of escape, Darth Vader slowly limped towards his shuttle, his children supporting him on either side.

No. Not Vader. Anakin Skywalker.

The Force lightning that had been meant for his daughter had destroyed his life support systems, making it increasingly difficult for him to breathe. They were halfway up the shuttle's boarding ramp when he collapsed.

"Luke...Leia...help me take this mask off."

"No!" Leia refused, at the same time that Luke protested, "But you'll die."

"Nothing can stop that now. Just once...let me look on you with my own eyes."

Neither said anything. Then, slowly, Luke removed the black helmet from his father's head, and Leia reached out to pull the mask away. Anakin and his children saw each other for the first time.

"Now, go, my children...leave me."

"No," Leia protested again. "You're coming with us. We're going to save you."

"You already have, Leia. Luke was right about me. Luke, tell your mother...she was right."