#neberrie | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

jasontoddiefor · 5 years ago

Text

Title: every planet, every star, every single grain of sand [chapter 11] Summary: The story in which Vader makes 10-year-old Luke Emperor. AN: Chapter 11 in which I fix a plot hole and introduce Pooja Naberrie, one year before her cousin becomes Emperor. Tiny Emperor Luke AU is back in action!

Read on AO3

Her name was Pooja Naberrie and she was eleven when she decided her Mom should never ever have to give a speech again.

She was young, but even then she realized that her mother didn’t want to talk about Aunt Padmé or the Empire or sacrifice or all the other things she was forced to repeat endlessly. Her mother was a great orator, she told the best bedtime stories. Sola Naberrie crafted sentences together as Naboo’s most stunning painters covered canvasses with impossible images. When listening to her, Pooja felt like she could smell the sweet flowers Sola used in her metaphors, or hear the ocean roaring in the background of a clever comparison. Her mother was a bright and vibrant spirit and Pooja wanted to be just like her, so it hurt her to see her mother all dressed up for Empire Day, taking center stage in Theed’s biggest halls and speak about Aunt Padmé in shades of gray and glory, that fit in so well with the imagery the Empire had created but had very little to do with how Pooja remembered Padmé.

She wished they wouldn’t have to attend Empire Day every year. They were supposed to be remembering Padmé happily, eating her favorite fruits and releasing lanterns into the night sky, but instead, their family was dragged in front of the entire Empire to hold a speech about better futures, evil Jedi and doing what was right. The Padmé of her mother’s speeches didn’t resemble the woman her mother usually talked about. She had been a warrior Queen, the first in decades, loud and vibrant and never would have accepted the Empire’s tyranny.

Looking back, Pooja knew she had never spent as much time with her aunt as she thought he had. Padmé had been a busy person and she’d lived on Coruscant and not back in Theed with them, but nobody could forget Queen Amidala so easily. Pooja recalled how warm her smiles had been and how she used to sneak Pooja candies when her parents weren’t looking.

Pooja had been so young still when her aunt had died, but she knew that Padmé had been supposed to come home with her baby and Uncle Ani whom they were supposed to call Knight Skywalker over the holocalls, but they never really stuck to that. Pooja had been too young then to understand that the two them weren’t supposed to be married, that there were rules about that kind of thing. All she had known was that her family was bigger and that Ani had been a part of it.

But Padmé had never come home. Instead, her aunt, her uncle and their baby had died and Pooja had to watch her mother give a stupid speech every year.

It made her angry, angry in a way that it worried her parents and grandparents, angry enough that she signed up for the politics track at school and got into screaming matches with her family about it.

At sixteen, Padmé had been Queen already.

Pooja didn’t want to be Queen, though she had certainly dreamed about training as a handmaiden like every other girl.

At sixteen, Pooja only had her eyes set on becoming more known than her mother. Just brave and bold enough that one day they wouldn’t push her mother on stage, but that Pooja could step up and let her mother rest. So Pooja did well in her classes, she wrote speeches and songs and poems, joined as many clubs as she could, went to every rally and paid attention to every political upheaval on Naboo and in the Core. She skipped grades and advanced and brushed past her parents’ worry with the strength of Shiraya, the goddess who had guided her aunt through troubling times and hopefully would do the same for Pooja.

The last day of her childhood started with the ring of the doorbell. It was a national holiday, the day before the official Senatorial campaigns started across the planet, and Pooja had slept in. She ate sweet bread for breakfast and didn’t bother to change out of her sleeping clothes. Her family had decided that today would be a lazy day for all of them. No work, no debates, only relaxing. Pooja had been very much on board with that. She’d stayed up all night finishing another assignment that was bound to get her involved in the Royal Court. And if not, she’d throw around her last name because Pooja was still aiming to get involved in politics. She knew how to fight dirty.

“I’m getting it,” her father said as the doorbell rang. A few moments later he returned, holding a letter and frowning. “It’s for you.”

Pooja accepted the letter and looked it over. She wasn’t expecting any mail, especially any that would go to her home address the old fashioned way, sealed off by the sign of the Royal House.

Sensing her family’s eyes on her, Pooja only shrugged. “I don’t know what that’s for either.”

Carefully, she opened the letter and took the flimsi inside out of it.

“Dear Pooja Neberrie, we are hereby inviting you to the Royal Palace of Theed for the Senatorial elections…” Pooja trailed off and read the rest of the letter in silence. She hadn’t signed up for the election, yet the letter clearly was treating her like a candidate, inviting her formally.

Sola took the letter out of her daughter’s hands and read it over, quickly frowning as well.

“Pooja,” she began to say, “did you-“

“No!” Pooja quickly interrupted her mother and jumped up, pacing across the kitchen. “I don’t want to be Senator and I’m way too young anyway.”

To make up for their young monarchs, Naboo had older, more experienced Senators. Of course, everybody could join the campaign, it would be rather ridiculous if they forbid it when their royalty were all elected children, but nobody that age ever actually had a chance.

“This must be a mistake,” her father said seriously, a hint of worry clinging to his words.

Pooja could count the times she had seen Darred Naberrie nervous or worried on two hands. Her father never liked showing how he felt, especially when he felt like it wasn’t productive to the situation.

“Probably,” Pooja agreed and went to call the Royal House to settle the issue.

It was not a mistake, she learned then, looking at the saddened face of her current queen. Pooja Naberrie was scheduled to campaign for the position as Naboo’s Senator and she was to arrive at the palace as she had been informed.

In the first moments after she’d heard the news, she was torn between fear and rage.

Pooja couldn’t possibly win the election for becoming Naboo’s Senator. She was known as a young and promising future public servant, but she wasn’t a good candidate for the second most powerful position on their planet.

In the end, it was fear that won out when she first stepped into the palace’s halls and all the other candidates, decades her senior, looked at her with barely disguised pity or anger. They all seemed to sure that she would win and Pooja desperately tried to cling to the notion that maybe this was all a mistake.

Their current Queen was her age, how was Pooja supposed to advise her on how to best proceed with ruling their planet when she had no practice doing so?

Her hopes were crushed when the Emperor sent his regards to the Naberrie family for bringing forth yet another remarkable Senator. The news arrived a day before anybody could possibly know who had actually won the election.

Pooja’s campaign had been short, local. She didn’t have enough funds and those she had were mostly spend on charities. She figured she could at least do some good with her spotlight, but in every other election it wouldn’t be enough to make her Senator.

She won anyway.

The Emperor had congratulated her on it as if he shouldn’t busy himself with a thousand different things. His homeworld or not, the Naberries, upstanding supporters of the Empire or not, he shouldn’t have the time to care about them, but he did.

The threat couldn’t be more obvious and Pooja should be mature about it, accept her fate and let only her make-up and dresses express her grief and fear, yet she couldn’t keep her thoughts to herself.

“I don’t want to go,” Pooja cried into her mother’s shirt on her last day on Naboo.

The tears wouldn’t stop falling and not even her mother’s gentle words could calm her down. She hadn’t wanted this. Pooja had made plans with many steps and other contingencies to consider for her future and none of them had included being Senator at sixteen.

“You can do it, sweetheart,” Sola said and brushed her unruly brown hair out of her face. “It's just a few years and we’ll visit as often as we can. Jar Jar will be there as well, he’s a good man and you can trust him. Just follow his lead and don’t endanger yourself.”

A hundred questions wanted to escape Pooja but she couldn’t open her mouth, didn’t dare ask them because she feared what answer she would receive should she say them out loud. The Emperor had obviously rigged the campaign so that she would be elected, what would stop him from doing it a second time? Making her Senator ensured that the Emperor’s beloved Naboo wouldn’t dare step even a hairsbreadth out of line, spread traitorous words about freedom.

Naboo, whose beloved Queen Amidala had become a martyr for the Empire, whose speeches of democracy had been twisted and turned, hidden and corrupted until all that remained of Padmé Naberrie was the idea of a brilliant woman who had dreamed of peace, freedom, justice and security for the great Empire.

“I’m supposed to represent our people,” Pooja whispered when she found her voice again. She shouldn't selfish and put her own well-being above them.

“And you will do so by staying alive despite everything the Empire does to you,” her mother told her. Her embrace was so tight, Pooja felt like she couldn’t breathe, yet she’d loath if her mother dared to loosen her grip even just slightly. “You will be as brave and strong as our lakes are deep and return home to us safe and healthy. Can you promise me that, Pooja?”

Pooja nodded and then let all her tears fall again, disappearing in the bright red fabric of her mother’s clothes. Pooja had this one last night left, she would cling to her home and pray she may return to it someday.

#star wars #pooja naberrie #padmé amidala #Anakin Skywalker #Luke Skywalker #fanfic #tiny emperor luke au #me: the naberries knew about the marriage so I can have tiny kids call Anakin 'Uncle Ani'#what do you mean this isn't canon #i'm sorry i can't read #sola naberrie

44 notes · View notes

swfanficbyjz · 7 years ago

Text

SW AU - Fate of the Master Chapter 18

<- Previous Chapter

Ahsoka herded the Skywalker family onto the ship. She'd been adamant none of them were getting involved with the Death Star situation until they had figured out how to work things out amongst themselves. She and the akul were coming, she'd claimed, purely as mediators and protection. Anakin was pretty sure Bail wouldn't have let Leia leave if Ahsoka didn't go along. Obi wan had offered to come too, but Bail had begged him to stay and help get information about the Death Star. Ahsoka had assured them both she could handle any issues that came up. "If it came to it," she had said, "I'll sic the akul on them."

Anakin didn't know where they were going or what she had in mind. All she'd say was that she had two destinations. And that the ghost crew were on standby to lend a hand at the second one. Assuming they survived the first.

The first couple days of the trip passed relatively quietly. Luke and Leia spent much of it talking between themselves or playing holochess. Anakin spent a lot of time meditating to emotionally prepare himself for the scars that were going to be ripped open. And Ahsoka spent most of her time on the bridge staring out at the stars racing by or meditating herself. They would talk a little bit, but she wouldn't give any clues about where they were going. At first she'd kept encouraging him to try and talk to his kids, but after a while she gave up.

By the fifth day, they were all getting a little tired of being cramped on the ship and tensions were starting to rise.

Anakin walked in on Luke showing Leia how to use the force, and he couldn't help but smile. Although they both stopped when they saw him. He found himself aching to train them, but they'd need to trust him first. Instead of forcing his presence on them he joined Ahsoka on the bridge with a deep sigh.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea." He said to her. She was sitting with her eyes closed. The akul near her feet. "They don't even want to be in the same room with me, not that I blame them, but how are we supposed to talk? Through the wall?"

"Maybe that's not such a bad idea," she laughed softly.

"You're not helping." He said with frustration.

"What do you want me to do?" She asked opening her eyes at last and looking at him.

"I don't know. Even when Padmé was pregnant, I never thought about what being a dad would mean. And now, after everything that has happened, coming into parenthood when they're teenagers... it's frightening. I never had a dad. And the closest role model I had was the most evil person in the galaxy."

"Would telling you to trust your instincts help?" She asked.

"Probably not." He replied.

"You first started taking care of me when I was a teenager. How did you approach it?"

"By the skin of my teeth." He said. "I spent half the time just trying to keep up with you. And the other half, trying to make sure you didn't get yourself killed."

"Okay, maybe I'm not the best example, but you did just fine with me. You talked me through things, you let me figure things out. You showed me how to learn from my mistakes. And when I wasn't driving you crazy, you loved me."

"I loved you even when you were me driving crazy." He said. “Probably more.”

She smiled at that. "Well maybe... that's where you need to start."

"By driving them crazy?"

"No, by loving them even when they are driving you crazy." She said playfully bumping him on the arm. "Think about what you wanted when you were their age. What you wished Obi wan would do or say, and start with that."

---

It was early evening when they landed on Naboo. Ahsoka admittedly enjoyed Anakin's surprise that this was where they had been headed. But she could also sense the anxiety in him. She'd chosen Naboo as their first stop because of Padmé. Where she was taking them, she hoped, would keep them from killing each other. Which, terrible as it sounded, was a real danger.

Leia had an attitude, and really no desire to have any kind of a relationship with Anakin. Luke wanted a relationship with him, but was scared. Add the influence from his sister and it was a more volatile mix than she liked. Anakin wanted to be a good dad, but he was afraid to give in to the emotions and he was struggling to overcome his past. So she'd figured that Padmé was the one common ground they all had and they needed to start somewhere. She sincerely hoped that with Padmé looking down on them, it would be enough to keep Anakin from letting his anger get the better of him.

When they got to her planned destination, she turned on them. "Okay," she said, they all looked at her. "Senator Organa talked to the Queen, who was nice enough to grant us access to this place. But there are ground rules: do not destroy anything, do not kill each other, and none of you are coming out until you've worked it out." She pulled some cuffs out of her bag, "and I swear, I will put these force binders on all of you if I have to." They nodded a little scared of her. Good, now we're getting somewhere.

"What is this place?" Luke asked.

"You'll see." She answered vaguely.

"You know, there were probably plenty of dark rooms on Alderaan you could've locked us in." Leia sassed.

Ahsoka didn't satisfy her with a response. She just turned around and unlocked the padlock with the key she'd been given by the groundskeeper. The door opened but the room was so dark nobody could tell what it was.

"In you go." She said. She shut the door behind them and put the padlock back in place.

"Wait, you're not coming in?" She heard Anakin say from the other side. He sounded a little frantic.

"Good luck," she whispered knowing he couldn't hear her.

"It's so dark in here! You couldn't give us a light?" She heard Leia say.

"You'll get one soon enough," she murmured. And slunk down to the floor and rested her head back on the door. "Your turn, Padmé." She said out loud.

The akul was looking at her curiously. "I know," she whispered to it. "It's going to be a long night." She didn't even hope they'd be best friends by morning, but she was hoping at the very least they'd figure out how to be civil to each other. At least then they'd have a starting point. She pointed to the fields beyond the graveyard. "You might find something to snack on in that direction. Just go easy." She said patting the akul on the head. "I'd go hunt with you, but I have to make sure they live through this." It rumbled and took off in the direction she'd pointed. It stopped to look back at her once and then disappeared in the darkness of night.

---

It was pitch black in the room Ahsoka had put them in. He couldn't see either Luke or Leia even though they couldn't be that far away. It was the one thing he admittedly missed about his Vader suit; built-in night vision.

He tentatively tried to walk forward, running into what seemed to be a table height smooth surface. Why had Ahsoka left them in the dark? Did she think if they couldn't see each other, they wouldn't be able to kill each other? He turned to the right and took a few steps forward.

"Ouch! That's my foot!" Came Leia's voice. Great, she already hated him, now he was stepping on her.

"Sorry," he murmured, backing away. He felt like he couldn't do anything right. He was tired of feeling like that. It reminded him of what Ahsoka had said on the ship, ‘remember what you'd wished Obi wan would say or do and start with that...’ the thing he remembered wishing for the most was Obi wan to stop criticizing him so much. He wasn't sure that really applied at the moment.

He tried walking around the other side of the table thing, using it to guide his movement. His eyes were starting to adjust, but there wasn't much to see. Ahsoka would have no problem in here, she had a predator's vision. He managed to stop in time before bumping into Luke.

He knew he should be the one to start the conversation first, but he had no idea what to say. What would they want to hear, or not want to hear? What did he even have in common with them? They both showed force sensitivity, but offering to train them right now, was probably not the best opening line considering how quickly it would lead to questions about what had led him to the dark side.

"So?" He started. Was it safe to talk about the weather? Or this nice room they were locked in and couldn't see? Or dive immediately into the bigger wounds? "I imagine you probably have burning questions. Who wants to start?" He tried to sound nonchalant, but neither Luke or Leia responded immediately. I'll get you for this, Ahsoka.

But just before he could say anything else, a bright light came on outside. Shining through a stained glass window, shedding the room in a soft bluish glow. His breath caught in his throat as he looked up at the window. It was the most beautiful representation of Padmé he'd ever seen. And that's when he realized what he thought was a table was actually a coffin.

"Oh," was all he could say as the emotions overwhelmed him. This was where Padmé had been buried. It was her mausoleum. He had never given much thought to it. He knelt down at the foot, tears rolling down his cheeks before he could stop them.

Luke glanced at him. "Is that?" He started.

"Our mother," Leia finished for him.

"Padmé Neberrie Amidala," Luke read off the plaque. "Princess of Theed, Queen of Naboo, and senator of the Chommell sector and Naboo in the Grand Republic. A true servant of the people. Born 46 BBY. Died 19 BBY. Beloved daughter and sister." He finished reading. "Why doesn't it say wife and mother?" Luke asked.

"Because of me..." Anakin spoke at last. They both turned to look at him. "I was written out of her story because so few people knew we'd been married. And they didn't mention the both of you, to protect you from me."

"Did you love her?" Leia asked.

"Too much." Anakin replied.

"So if mom was a queen, and you're a princess," Luke said to Leia. "Does that make me a prince?"

"I'm a princess only because I was adopted by a royal family, not because of our mother." Leia said. "I don't think it counts."

"You both are royalty." Anakin said, standing up. "I'm the only one here that never was."

"Was she the queen when you married her?" Luke asked.

"No." Anakin replied. "But she was when I met her."

"Dad..." Leia said and then stammered embarrassed, "I mean... Senator Organa, told me some things about mom, but never anything about the two of you together."

"You can still call him dad, if you want. We all know he deserves the title more than me." At Anakin's statement, Leia softened for the first time since he met her. "Did he tell you anything about me?"

"No," she said, "he said he didn't know much about you."

"Okay, then I'll start at the beginning, I guess. I was a slave on Tatooine. The Hutts sold me and my mother, your grandmother, to a Toydarian named Watto."

"Watto?" Luke interrupted. "I know Watto. He's an old beggar in Mos Eisley. He owned you?"

"Yes," Anakin replied.

"Wow," Luke said. "I hated being a moisture farmer, but I can't imagine being a slave."

"Me either." Leia said.

"You probably had slaves." Luke said.

"Of course not!" She replied offended. "We had people that worked for us, but we didn't OWN them. They could come and go. My dad was always against slavery. He even felt the clones were slaves."

"I thought the clones had free will?" Luke said.

"They did, but they were created to serve the republic. If they did not, they were considered deserters and punished." Anakin answered.

"So they were slaves." Luke concluded.

"Yes." Anakin said flinching. He'd never really thought about it. He'd loved each and every one he'd met as an individual in spite of their identical faces. It was easy to forget that even though they seemed to always be ready for a fight, they'd been designed and crafted that way. Designed to want to fight. Designed to follow orders. Designed to kill and be killed. All at the whim of whoever was ordering them around. He made a mental note to apologize to Rex. It suddenly bothered him that as someone who had always been so against slavery he couldn't recognize others in the same position. And that he'd let it, no... helped it continue after becoming Vader. It made his skin crawl.

He looked at the two faces of his beautiful children and even though their expressions had become less hostile, he felt completely undeserving of their attention and love. And maybe that was why they struggled to see eye to eye. How could he expect them to want him around or love him, when he couldn't even love himself?

"I knew our grandmother had been a slave, but I didn't know you had been one too. What was it like?" Luke asked.

Anakin felt his muscles tightening as his fists balled up. How do you explain that kind of hopelessness and fear? To know what it's like to be a slave, you have to live it. Which is probably why so many senators had never cared enough to put it forward as a priority issue. They could never know what it was like. But to his surprise, Leia was the one that answered.

"You can't just ask him what it was like! It was probably dreadful!"

"Sorry," Luke said.

"So if you were a slave on Tatooine, way in the outer rim, how did you meet a queen? It doesn't seem likely that she'd take a pleasure trip there." Leia commented.

---

As Anakin told them the story of how he met Padmé all those years ago, he felt lighter and lighter. It was painful too, but it made him feel better to get it off his chest. They listened to him and asked questions, and he was surprised at how much easier it was to talk to them in just a short amount of time. It helped to imagine what it must be like each raised in vastly different worlds, each with some information but plenty of missing pieces, finally getting to hear how it all came together.

He was watching them just as closely as they were watching him. And as the time passed, he started seeing little pieces of Padmé in them. He saw pieces of himself in them too, but thankfully not the bad stuff. Leia sometimes reminded him more of Ahsoka than Padmé, but they'd both had more than their fair share of sass. Luke was more mild mannered, and it reminded him of his mother, Shmi.

He'd been really terrified of what Ahsoka had planned for them, but he was finding himself more and more grateful for this opportunity to just sit down and get to know each other. Even though they were in Padmé's tomb, it kind of felt like they actually were a real family. The stained glass image of his late wife, was so realistic, she could have been standing there. He hoped that wherever she was, she was smiling at them.

He made a promise to himself at some point during the night, that no matter how many mistakes he'd made in his life, he would do whatever it took to make it up to them; to give them the best possible life he could.

---

Ahsoka paced back and forth outside the mausoleum, she really hoped they were getting along in there and that forcing them together like this hadn't been a fatal mistake. The akul had been gone for half the night, and returned from his hunt with something for her to eat too. It was agitated watching her pace, but she couldn't help it. She sincerely wanted to open the door and check on them, but this was something they needed to figure out without her. Especially if she ended up not sticking around.

The truth was though, if they were going to destroy the Death Star and the empire, and rebuild the Republic, they were going to need the Skywalkers. Even though she'd stopped letting herself be consumed by the fate and destiny talk from before, she couldn't deny the power each one of them possessed. Anakin had once told her that no one person could change the course of the galaxy. But then he'd proceeded to do exactly that. Yes, he'd been the unwitting marionette in a bunch of different people's games, but it was truly his power that tipped the scale, regardless of which side he fought for. He'd been unlike any other Jedi. And he'd been unlike any other Sith. And now he was unlike any other regular person. He would always be special even if he no longer had a role to play as the Chosen One.

And with two children in tow, probably equal in power to him or at least off the charts... this whole family would be a force to be reckoned with. They needed each other. Luke and Leia needed to be trained by him, and he needed something to live for and fight for. Thankfully, the emperor, was dead. And no matter who might try to take his place, the Sith had been shattered too. There wasn't, she hoped, anybody still out there that could try to take advantage of their combined power.

Maul was the only one she could think of, but she doubted any of them, especially once they bonded, would fall for any of his lies. If they got through tonight. Their true training could begin.

Just before the sun rose, she unlocked the padlock and opened the door. She was surprised to find them all huddled together under the window asleep on the floor. There was hope for them yet, she smiled to herself. That went even better than she'd imagined. She almost didn't want to wake them, but one of the conditions of using this place had been to clear out before sunrise so it could open to visitors who wished to pay their respect.

---

Anakin felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up. Ahsoka was standing over them. He smiled sleepily at her and tried to get up, only to realize that he was pinned down. Leia was cuddled up behind Luke and they were both resting on his chest. His back was aching, he could only guess that he'd fallen asleep in such a weird position to accommodate them.

Ahsoka stepped back and snapped a holopic of them, "for posterity" she'd said. He just wanted to stick his tongue out at her. He hadn't thought that whatever she'd had planned would work, but once again, she had proven she knew far better than him. How did she just know how to handle all this stuff now? Or was it because of her it was actually working?

He'd been starting to notice that she seemed to be looking for a kind of exit from his life. He really didn't want her to go. He understood what she was trying to teach him, but even if he learned it, he still wanted her there. It was admittedly weird to think that sitting in the very tomb of the person he'd once thought he could never live without. But he had a strong feeling that Padmé would understand. He knew his life shouldn't revolve around another. But was it so wrong to want to be with them? To want them close?

He'd loved Padmé with everything he was. He'd once thought that she was his heart and his own could never beat without her there. But now as he looked up at Ahsoka, this beautiful person inside and out, who for years he'd had a very different kind of relationship with, he was starting to understand that there can be two hearts, they just beat for each other. And he loved Ahsoka, he didn't want to live without her in his life in some way. He was afraid to let her go, but it was more from a knowledge of what his life would be like without her rather than whether or not he would survive.

He never could have imagined all those years ago, how a snippy, little kid, could become so important to him. But then he glanced down first at Leia and then Luke, and he supposed, it wasn't all that surprising. The Jedi had been right, he'd always had attachment issues.

"Ahsoka..." he said, needing to tell her before the kids woke up. "Without you, I am a scarred and broken person. Without you, I am a mess. But the truth is, I will still be that with you there. It's just that when you're there, it doesn't seem so bad..." he trailed off hoping she understood what he was trying to say. "That's how it's always been, I just never fully understood that."

He reached up one of his mechanical hands to her and she took it.

"I don't need you to stay so that I'm okay; I want you to stay, because I like you here." He said.

"Then here I'll stay." She replied. She leaned down and kissed the shiny metal of the hand she was holding. And even though he knew it was impossible, he was certain he'd felt it.

Then she gently helped him rouse his sleepy kids and they walked back to the ship, Luke and Leia yawning the whole way.

Next Chapter ->

4 notes · View notes