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At first she just was.
She knew nothing more than the warmth of her mothers womb, the press of her brother and sister. The occasional brush of her fathers mind and the warm timbre of his voice.
Then slowly she watched. And slowly she came into awareness.
She Saw it all. She would later look back on and understand the feelings that swept through her young mind. Those of great urgency, sorrow and regret as the Force pushed the unborn seer to her limits. She didn't realise it then but it was an apology for taking her childhood, her innocence in the name of saving them all. Saving the balance.
Be able to see it all. All the paths and possibilities. She never resented it. For she knew how much worse it could be.
But at the moment watch she did.
Both past and present and all possible futures.
She stood by and watched on as her father met her mother.
She watched and cheered as her father won the Boonta Eve Classic.
She saw the sad parting between her father and grandmother Shmi and her heart ached.
She shook her head at the councils inflexibility as they tested her father and deemed him not to be trained.
She watched her mother in the senate demand her planet’s freedom before the galactic senate despite being only 14.
She watched as Obi-wan defeated the Sith Apprentice Maul and mourned with him as Qui-Gon Jinn passed.
She flew with her father in the skies above Naboo.
She joined her father on his adventures with Obi-wan as his padawan.
She laughed at her father’s nerves when he met her mother again for the first time in years.
She facepalmed at her father’s flirting and asked the force how she and her siblings were ever conceived. Sand? Really?
She watched on in sadness as her father struggled with dreams of his mother and fitting in with the Jedi.
She watched on as the Jedi continued on, blind to the machinations around them, blind in their arrogance, blind to the signs sent to them by the Force, blind to the Darkness until it was to late.
She watched on helpless as her father touched the darkness for the first time, slaughtering the Tuskens knowing sadly that this was what a certain Sith Lord had conspired for.
She watched on heart bursting as her parents married each other in secret.
She watched on in dread as the clone wars started, and the Jedi’s were sucked in to the Sith’s plot; from peacekeepers to generals they became and further from the Force they strayed.
She watched the Sith's plot; her father's burgeoning relationship with Palpatine, Dooku’s frustration with the corruption in the Republic and the stagnation of the Council which led to this.
She watched the Darkness grow and more futures falter and die. Ones where they were a happy, carefree family grew less and less.
She watched as Palpatine fed her father's fear of losing her mother and them, sending him visions of her death. The Jedi’s were no help only reinforcing her father's resolve to seek another solution.
She Saw how this ended. In death, fire and agony. With her brother and sister not knowing they had been wanted, and loved nor who they really were even to each other. Her father a slave once more. Obi-wan exiled and broken, forced by the Jedi to fight a man he loved as both a son and brother. Her mother dead, murdered by Palpatine, but deliberately martyred by the Empire to strengthen their hold. Palpatine knew she would hate that, Padme Amidala Naiberrie Skywalker had always fought for democracy and to be made a symbol of a dictatorships rise, well, Palpatine is lucky Padme could not become a force ghost.
She looked inward. Her sister and brother weren’t as aware as her, without the visions to force maturity they were still barely cognizant. However when she asked for aid they were their eagerly throwing power at her. She drew them in as she would need everything to do what she intended.
Anakin was on his fifth night without much sleep. Every time he shut his eyes he saw that damn vision again and woke up fearful and sweaty. He didn’t want to go to sleep and see it, see Padme dying. He was so worried and Padme, although she seemed to heed his words, didn’t seem to truly be take it seriously. Death in childbirth was rare in the core apparently. Like really rare. Still the statistics did little to ease his mind when the last time he had had dreams his mother had died.
He tossed and turned on the couch having moved out to the living room as to not disturb Padme.
He doesn’t know when he drifted off but slowly sleep claimed him, exhaustion creeping up on him.
Anakin blinked. Where was he? Why was he here? It was all so hazy yet for some reason as he walked along the grass path with purpose.
He stopped in a meadow full of wildflowers and lush grass, the sun was warm and the breeze cool. He could here a river near by and laughter. He frowned as he followed it. The laughter continued, a woman's bell-like one, a deeper manly one and sometimes the high pitched squeals of children. He reached the edge of the river and looked across and gasped.
Padme was there. She looked amazing. She was giggling at the scene in front of her.
Anakin was so relieved to see her not dying he had to tear his eyes away from her to take in the rest of the scene.
It was a picnic by the looks. Padme seemed entranced by the a tall man and the three children. Anakin felt an echoed of jealousy worm its way in when the little girl with brown ringlets in her hair pleaded “Please daddy can we be a space ship! The one where you saved Mama and Naboo!”
The boy with blonde hair and blue eyes “Yeah Daddy let’s be a space ship! I’ll be R2!”
“I don’t know Luke, Leia. You guys are getting awful big.”
The girl with golden curls smirked “Daddy’s getting old he might not be able do the space ship anymore” Padme snorted at this.
Anakin’s breath caught as the man turned around. It was him, only older, happier and relaxed in a way he had never really been since becoming a Jedi.
“Lyra, did you call your Daddy old?”
“You must be coz even uncle Obi can do the space ship still”
Other him gasped him mock offense “Are you calling me older than Obi-wan?” He rushed at the girl who shrugged clearly enjoying it “Come here you little womp rat, how dare you. I’ll show you whose the best space ship around!”
Padme snorted inelegantly with laughter as she watch as Lyra send a triumphant look to her as their father swung the around the other two making over done ship noises much to their delight .
Anakin watched on with tears in his eyes. This is what he wanted. He knows he was selfish trying to be everything, a Jedi, a husband, a father to-be, but all he had ever wanted was to belong. To have someone love him. He thought he would find that at the Jedi.
But no.
All he found was more rules. More control. More suspicion. Obi-wan had been the only saving grace so he stayed not wanting to disappoint his master.
He finally found what he was looking for in Padme. And this, this is what he had wanted without really knowing it.
He didn’t know what he was going to do but he moved forward.
“You cannot interact with them”
He started, hand jumping to the non-existent saber at his waist as he spun around. She stood a few meters from him smiling calmly at him. She was beautiful he mused. Not as beautiful as his Angel but who was. Her face framed by golden curls that fell to her waist and were tied back with a plaits in simple Nubian design, with golden skin and bright green eyes. Her clothes were also simple but spoke of needing ease of movement.
“What?”
“You cannot interact with them” she repeated nodding to the picnic across the river.
“Why can’t I?”
She smiled a little bit more melancholic “Because it isn’t real. It’s a memory, a possibility, a dream at the moment.”
“So…it hasn’t happened yet?”
“Maybe it will. Maybe it won’t. It depends”
Anakin hated jedi double speak “Depends on what?”
“Well a number of things. But I suppose a lot depends on you Anakin Skywalker and the choices you make”
Anakin looked over a the scene with a happy and alive Padme laughing with his gorgeous children. He would do anything to make this reality.
Suddenly a thunder cloud seemed to roll over the scene. And the girl next to him sighed, almost resigned.
“Be careful Anakin Skywalker, sometimes doing everything you can to make something real will cause that very thing to slip through your fingers”
Anakin shivered as her words sounded foreboding. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean sometimes the hardest thing in the world is to do nothing”
Nothing. That was indeed hard for him to do. Anakin knew he was a person of action. So how could he just sit here if he knew Padme might die? If his children might die?
The girl shook her head as if she could read his mind. Perhaps she could. “You know the statistics. How do you know it isn’t the fact that you aren’t there the cause? If you are out chasing some snake-oil scheme rather that at home with your pregnant wife doing everything she asks of you and in case she does have complications, how do you know you aren’t the indirect cause?”
Anakin gaped. He hadn’t though of that. Maybe the force was warning him to stay with Padme? Padme did have Threepio but droids did shutdown and charge.
The more he thought about it the more it made sense. Even with his mother. If he had just been there nothing would have happened.
So he would just have to stick close. Padme would understand.
“You’re right. I’ll stay by her side.”
She smiled at him like she was proud of him.
“That’s great. Be the husband your supposed to be. Tell the jedi to get stuffed if need be.”
Okay that might be easier said than done Anakin mused. This was certainly a weird vision if it was telling the jedi to get stuffed…
He glanced at the girl bemused “Who are you by the way?”
She sent a brilliant grin at him “what? you can’t see the resemblance?” She crossed her arms and sent a familiar smirk “Uncle Obi always did say it was uncanny but he is a romantic. Personally I think I’m way better looking than you father.”
Father…? Anakin felt his eyes pop as the vision fade and Lyra laughed. He must’ve fainted or faded for the last thing he heard was “Don’t worry father I’ll also keep Sidious from sending those horrible visions about mother too. Make sure you bring her Nubian chocolate with mint. Its her favourite.”
Weird…
He woke the next day rested and, maybe not at peace, but in a better frame of mind.
‘Ani?’
He blinked, oh he was on the couch having moved here after the nightmare.
‘out here Angel’
Padme emerged from the bedroom, seeing him on the couch her expression turned sad ‘Nightmares again?’
Anakin stared at her, the vision overlapping what he was seeing of Padme now. His daughter’s words echoing in his mind. It would indeed be hard to do nothing, he still felt the burning, driving need to do something to save Padme but…
If what his daughter said was true…
A sudden indignant chime rang through the force. Anakin almost tripped over with the sheer strength it held.
He slowly walked over to Padme who was looking at him strangely and placed a hand over her large belly. Another indignant wave came plus what almost felt like a disdainful sniff if that was even possible this time, Anakin laughed in disbelief and wonder. He could feel the three signatures almost melded together indecipherably, if he hadn’t been their father he doubted he would’ve felt a difference at all.
‘Ani, what is it? you’re making me worried.’
He sent his Angel a blinding smile ‘I can feel them, our children.”
She gasped and looked in wonder at her belly then double-taked ‘Children?!’
Anakin laughed “Yes, Triplets. I saw them Angel. They chased away the nightmares. Their going to be so beautiful, so powerful’
Her eyes were wet and she was also looking down at her belly with amazement ‘Wow children…. What are they like Ani?’
‘Luke looks like me, but darker blonde with blue eyes. Leia looks like you with brown hair and my mother’s eyes. Lyra looks both of us to be honest but she has my blonde curls, height. I don’t know where the green eyes came from” he mused.
Padme listened enraptured and smiled at the last comment. “The Naiberrie line has always had green eyes. I was one of the few that didn’t get it, I got my eyes from papa’s.” She smiled softly at her belly, “I can’t wait to met them Ani.”
“They are extraordinary just like you.”
“I’m glad they took your nightmares away.”
Due to Lyra and the Force's intervention, Sidious could no longer send the visions of Padme dying to Anakin, even his visits with young Skywalker halted as Anakin took his daughter's warning to heart and in fact stuck like a burr to Padme for the rest of her pregnancy. Anakin always sucked at lying and deception so when the Jedi Council finally called him out for abandoning the war effort, he did indeed tell them to get stuffed in no uncertain terms. They tried sending Obi-wan to convince Skywalker to come to his senses. All this did was get two emotionally constipated men to finally talk about their relationship and also bring it into the light that Obi-wan kind of already knew about Anakin's relationship with Padme. All this was due to the insistence of Padme who wasn't a senator for nothing and her stubborn unborn daughter, both did not want Anakin to lose his relationship with Obi-wan.
Sidious did not let go of his dream having the Chosen One as his apprectice because if anything Sith's are obsessive. So he set out to make it happen anyway, and tried to manipulate it so that it looked like the Jedi kidnapped and accidently killed Padme. It might've worked if Anakin was not sticking to his wife like a limpet and Padme wasn't carrying three very powerful Force gifted babies, one of which was quite aware. The assassination failed and Sidious was revealed, angry at the betrayal and determined to protect his wife and children Anakin vanquishes Sidious before Order 66 can be administered. The Jedi aren't slackers, they figure things out and arrive a bit after the fight begins. Anakin freely admits without them there he wouldn't haven been able to defeat Sidious, let alone protect his heavily pregnant wife.
The stress of the fight brings on Padme's labor and Anakin is right there to swoop in and ensure the best medical care. Luke, Leia and Lyra Skywalker are all born. It wasn't to a whole new galaxy but it was a galaxy that had had its eyes opened and hopefully they do better this time.
Anakin didn't care about the galaxy, he was the happiest he had ever been holding his wife and three beautiful children with Obi-wan standing nearby staring at each of children thrust into his hand with sort of non-plus wonder. Anakin held his youngest who was smiling, sending waves of 'proud of you', he laughed as she giggled because seriously who was the parent here "Thank you, thank you, thank you" he whispered into her soft downey hair that he knew would someday become the beautiful blonde curls he had seen.
The Force itself sighed in relief. Things weren't perfect but they rarely are. With the galaxy on this path, they had a better chance of staying balanced.