The Moons of Iego: The Padmé Amidala & Anakin Skywalker Website

FAN FICTION : EPISODE III ERA (PRE-ROTS)

-------------------------------------------

You Were Mine

--------------------------------

Amidala Padmé Naberrie sighed to herself as she rocked the cradles. She'd had to argue, barter, plead, and finally get on her knees and BEG Obi-Wan and Bail to let her have the twins together. Just this one night. It had been so long... too long. Far too long since she'd seen her babies. Why, Luke had been barely five days old when she'd left him with Beru and Owen. And she'd been forced to leave Leia alone with Bail and Saché by the sudden arrival of...

Who was Amidala kidding? It wasn't the twins she'd wanted tonight. Not completely. It was their father.

Ani had changed, these past four years. She'd heard awful rumors, of his cruelty and unforgiving nature... but then, Padmé had also heard whispers of an unmatchable sense of fairness, and hidden, unexpected kindnesses. That sounded far more like her husband than the man who'd nearly caught her on Alderaan with Leia.

Suddenly, snapping Amidala out of her reverie, the twins cried out as a single voice. "Sh, sh." The former Queen whispered as she picked them up. Though four years old, they were still small enough to comfortably fit together on her lap. So Amidala set them there, and in a low voice began telling stories of long ago.

"Once upon a dream, in a place very far from here, there was a Knight---a Knight in shining armor, who married a Queen. The Knight was incredibly handsome, and the people of her world called the Queen the most beautiful ruler in three hundred years. They had two children which they loved very much, but the Knight had to go away for a while on a long journey... a journey through his heart..."

Obi-Wan Kenobi smiled a twisted smile as he entered the small, nondescript Alderaanian hotel room where the Queen and her two children lay. Far from the three bunks, two small and one normal-sized, the Queen---for even what was left of the Nubians still regarded her as Queen---and the twins lay comfortably together in a rocking chair between the two small beds.

"Your Highness." Obi-Wan stated softly, not wanting to wake the twins.

Without opening her eyes, Amidala's voice---her true voice, not the dry, brittle accent she used as Queen---answered. "Obi-Wan Kenobi, I have known you for more than half my life. I married your Padawan. You've helped keep me and my children safe. I believe it's time for you to call me by my name. And since there is no Nubian government, I am no longer Queen."

"A ruler is not in the eye of the beholder, but of the people."

"Jedi wisdom?" Amidala's voice held the slightest tinge of pained sarcasm.

Obi-Wan nodded. "It is useful to know what the people think, for in any system, they are the true government."

Amidala didn't answer, but instead opened her eyes and ran the fingers of her right hand through Leia's hair, while gently brushing Luke's forehead. "Come on, sweeties. It's time to wake up."

Leia's thumb went to her mouth, but Luke showed the Jedi and the Queen his bright blue eyes and sleepily asked, "We goin' home yet, Pa'me?"

Amidala's lips tightened. //They'll never go *home.*// "Yes, Lukie. You're going home."

Waking up completely, Leia took her thumb out of her mouth and grabbed her mother's long, beautiful hair. "I wanna go back to dadda, Pa'me." Amidala swallowed hard---past four years of pain---and nodded. Handing Luke over to Obi-Wan, physically and emotionally, Amidala gazed into two big pairs of eyes---one blue, one brown as her own.

"I want you two to promise me something, all right?" Two identical nods. "Whatever happens to you, wherever you go, even when you're all grown up and have children of your own..." //What wouldn't I give to see that day?

Ani.//

"Remember that story I told you, okay? Remember it, and tell it to your children and their children and THEIR children, so no one ever forgets it. Okay?" Again, the twins nodded.

As they parted outside the hotel, Obi-Wan for the nearest spaceport and Amidala for the Organa's palace, Obi-Wan asked, "What story?"

Amidala smiled softly, a smile to beat even the Mona Lisa's of pain and suffering and incredible joy. "A story about a Knight, and a Queen, and a long journey. Maybe I will tell it to you someday."

Obi-Wan nodded. "Perhaps I know the tale."

"Goodbye, friend, Master of my husband."

"Goodbye Your Highness... Amidala."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amidala Padmé Naberrie bit her lip and stared sorrowfully as Saché Organa, her best and oldest friend, welcomed Leia home. "Mommy!" the small brunette girl had shouted joyfully upon Saché's appearance, leaping from her *mother*'s arms and running to the former Handmaiden.

Always conscious of her friend's feelings, Saché glanced up apologetically. "I'm sorry, Your... Padmé."

Amidala had already decided, long before she had first brought Leia to Organa Palace four years ago, that she could deal with Leia calling another woman "mommy."

It was when Bail came upon the tearful scene that she lost twenty years of carefully cultivated diplomatic control.

"You are not her father! You are NOT her father! You are not her FATHER! YOU AREN'T HER FATHER!" The Nubian Queen screamed, restrained by two Alderaanian guards. Bail shot a worried glance at Saché and carried Leia away, out of Amidala's sight. As soon as the Prince of House Organa and *her daughter* were gone, Amidala slumped against the guards. "Two years, Saché. In the two years I lived here, she never called him that. I only saw them together at the dinner table, where she always called him 'Sir.' Saché, he's not her father!"

"For all intents and purposes, he is, Ami." Saché's voice was firm but calm. If Amidala couldn't get past this now, she never would. "He will raise her, he will take care of her, he will teach her right from wrong. I know you hate it Ami, but it's best. For her."

"But..." Amidala trailed off sorrowfully.

"But what?" Saché asked gently, feeling she already knew.

Amidala's reply was a single tortured whisper. "Ani."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entering the large suite on the space liner *Gem of Alderaan,* Amidala sat on one of the beautifully furnished chairs in her cabin and wondered what was left in her life.

Leia, her sweet darling, left to be the Princess she was---but on the wrong planet, with the wrong parents. Alderaan was wonderful, but it wasn't Naboo.

Luke, stuck on the same dry, dusty planet his father had grown up on, without even a real family and only the last of the Jedi for guidance and real love.

And last but never, ever least, Ani. She had lost him over four years ago---but it seemed both like no time had past since she last saw him, standing in the doorway of Theed Palace and warning her to run, and like it had been an eternity since their last kiss.

There was nothing left. Nothing, that is, but life itself. And despite how much it hurt to keep, Amidala knew herself well enough to know that she could never give it up.

Even if she had wanted to.

She didn't know where she'd go now, or who she would become. But Amidala Padmé Naberrie did know this; no matter what happened to the rest of her life, she would never cease to wake up in the dead of night, using all her self-control to keep from screaming, and remember.... . remember the better times, when Anakin had belonged to her and her alone.

<<back to episode iii era p/a fanfiction
<<back to p/a fanfiction