Title: The Beauty in Sleeping
Author: Deja Vu
Summary: This is Sleeping Beauty, Star Wars style. SimplyLauro suggested a L/M Sleeping Beauty, but it might not be exactly what you expect. It is a mixture of styles and Sleeping Beauty stories.
Rating: No language, a little violence.
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars or Sleeping Beauty, but this story is mine.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there lived a king and queen. They ruled over an entire planet, but they were very unhappy, for they had no children. They tried the potions of miracle man, were sprinkled with holy water, and used every fertility drug they came across, but still the end of every day was the same: "Oh, if only we had children!"
One day, the wife could take it no longer. She passionately kissed her startled husband goodnight and lay in bed until he fell asleep. Then she slowly rolled over and reached into her bedside table for her trusty blaster. In the dead of night, she strolled through the castle gardens until she came upon a solitary bench. She sat down on the bench and brought her blaster up to her head, but before she could pull the trigger some invisible force yanked it from her grasp.
A small, wizened alien stood looking at her with solemn eyes, her gun in his hands. "Be afraid, you should not," he said to her. "Fulfilled, your wish will be."
And he left, leaving only the blaster behind.
Startled by this encounter, the wife hurried back to her room, where her husband, who awoke suddenly, received her.
The alien's prediction came true, and the queen gave birth to a handsome boy and a beautiful girl, and the king decided to have a great feast in their honor. He invited friends, relatives, and important people from all over the galaxy, all so that he might show off his beautiful Leia and handsome Luke.
Beings of all different species came, bringing all manner of gifts. Many Force users came too, but there was one Force user that the king did not invite, and this, the king was to find, was a great mistake.
The food, prepared by the best chefs in the galaxy, was enjoyed immensely, and afterwards there was a line of people preparing to give gifts to the twin babies.
After King Anakin's friend Mon Mothma (whose Republic stretched across half the galaxy) stepped forward with her gift for the two children and then moved aside, it was the turn of a humanoid in a black cloak.
The humanoid walked forward, then pulled back his hood, revealing a face of decay and eyes of fire. It was the uninvited Force user Palpatine, whose Empire stretched across the half of the galaxy that President Mon Mothma did not preside over.
There was a collective gasp in the room, and then there was silence. Everyone wanted to know what the evil Palpatine would do.
Sneering, Palpatine looked down upon baby Luke and Leia. Leia started crying, and Luke looked up with his wide blue eyes.
"You thought you could get away with not inviting me, Anakin," Palpatine said in a sinister whisper. "You thought you could protect these two children from me...But you were wrong. I would take them from you now, but there is some powerful force that prevents me from doing so...But if I cannot have them to train in the ways of the Sith, then I shall use the ways of the Sith to ensure that Death can have them."
Smiling villainously, Emperor Palpatine began quietly chanting in the ancient Sith tongue (and none were able to move and stop him, for the words froze them to the spot), then afterwards he spoke loudly in Basic: "You might be awed by this young girl's beauty now, but before her eighteenth birthday only I shall be able to enjoy it: her beauty shall be carved into lifeless stone, mounted in my room for my eyes alone. And this pitiful boy? If I cannot train him, then he is of no use to me...His fate? He shall be cursed with a love of the stars, but this love will be his doom: though he may ride in speeder bikes, they shall never cure his longing like flying a ship among the stars would. But a ship will be his downfall. It shall crash into the mountainside, and the eternal sleep of Death shall come upon him. This, Anakin, is my gift to you." Cackling, Palpatine departed.
Anakin's wife Padmé began to weep, and the king tried to console her but his heart was heavy. Out from the shadows, where he had been watching, stepped a humanoid in a brown cloak. He pulled the cloak back, and Anakin saw that it was his old friend and mentor, Obi-Wan, and he ran to him.
"I am sorry," Obi-Wan said. "I cannot remove Palpatine's curse, but I can lessen it." He walked over to the twins, who were crying and flailing their tiny fists. He looked down upon them, and they stilled, gazing at him with big solemn eyes.
"Neither child shall die. Instead, when the time comes they shall separately fall into a deep sleep. The evil of the Sith is too great for time to break the curse. Only true love's kiss can break the spell, for evil cannot stand up against love."
"I thank you, friend," Anakin said, but there were tears shining in his eyes. He had always dreamed of taking his future son flying among the stars, but this had been taken away from him. He turned to Padmé, and they held each other and wept.
King Anakin wanted to prevent disaster from coming to his children, so he forbade any interplanetary trade to take place around the planet's capital (any ships that came into the area surrounding the capital were warned away and then blasted to pieces by high-powered lasers), and he also required that all who sculpted and chiseled (and had similar occupations) were to have tags planted upon them that would enable their location to be identified at any point (for he did not know quite what to make of Palpatine's curse concerning Leia), and they were prohibited from entering the capital. More precautions were taken as the king and queen thought of them.
Yet still both of them feared that these precautions would not be enough.