Chapter Text
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I: A Long, Long, Time Ago, In A Galaxy Far Away, Naboo Was Under An Attack…
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Anakin Skywalker was sad.
Very sad, in fact. Well, okay, he wasn’t Mid-2000’s Emo Sad, but he was definitely pretty sad, and with (sort of) good reason. Mostly, because, at this particular moment in time, he was sad about not being able to sleep well, because he’d had a dream about his beautiful wife.
Okay, so there needs to be some elaboration on that statement.
Anakin had been sleeping fairly well, if you ignore the whole “fighting a war” thing which was kind of an issue for sleep anyway, because that was the only way to describe getting attacked by a boarding party while taking a shower and being forced to defend yourself with a broken toothbrush and enough soap bubbles to lather an elephant in. But then, he had a dream about his wife. His beautiful, beautiful wife. His beautiful wife who was apparently pregnant. And destined to die in childbirth.
And that was why he was sad.
Now, Anakin had failed the human biology section of the Jedi Temple’s semi-mandatory curriculum a whopping 39 times (and in a row!) but he was fairly certain that reasonably-healthy women were not supposed to die in childbirth in this day and age. Which was why his Holonet Search History had been populated with a ton of searches on the topic, and also why he hadn’t been sleeping well, because if his wife was pregnant with his child, and due to die in childbirth because of said situation, then it was up to him to rectify it somehow, without telling anyone else about the whole thing. Not because Anakin was the kind of person to not ask for help (though he certainly was, in certain matters), but because he literally couldn’t.
Obi-Wan Kenobi, his master, friend, and brother-in-arms (and the only decent cook in his little disaster friend group), would not likely understand, and would probably be very upset that he’d broken the Code. That Obi-Wan had his own girlfriend before said girlfriend had been stabbed on Mandalore a little while did not factor into Anakin’s thinking process, because had it done so, he probably would have said “fuck it” and gone to ask Obi-Wan.
Ahsoka Tano, his apprentice, friend, and sister-in-arms (and the only person who ever remembered the password to the local Holonet connection) was out of reach, having been cast out of the Jedi Order due to shenanigans of the “my friend betrayed me and framed me for terrorism, and everyone who was investigating said terrorism had the detective skills of a middle school principal” variety. He was fairly certain she wouldn’t judge his life decisions, but they weren’t exactly on speaking terms anyway, so it wouldn’t have been an avenue he could pursue.
And that was why Anakin was sitting in the kitchen at this ungodly hour, munching on something tasty (ish) and wondering what the solution to his problem was. If he had to guess, his solution probably involved a lot of screaming, and probably getting kicked out of the Jedi Order, and probably being on the Holonet more so than usual. It wasn’t like he had a better idea on hand at any rate. After all, it wasn’t like a solution was going to fall out of the sky and onto him.
Which was, of course, when it did.
There was a bright flash, the sound of thunder, and then next thing Anakin knew, he was on the floor, with several people on top of him. He was fairly certain that they weren’t here to kill him, and if he had to guess, they were in just as much pain as he was.
“Ow, fuck-”
“Someone’s armpit is in my face-”
“My leg-”
There was sandy blonde hair in Anakin’s face, then said sandy blonde hair was blown away, and a pair of very confused eyes met Anakin’s own. A young man stared at the Hero With No Fear, and then blinked once.
“...father?”
“Um…not yet?” Anakin began, and got no further because the door flew open and Obi-Wan Kenobi and a squad of clone troopers barged in, armed and ready for a fight. A moment later, a woman with brilliant red hair was shoving herself out of the impromptu pile of limbs, a lightsaber igniting in her hands (wait, was that his lightsaber?) as she stood ready.
“Farmboy, look sharp.” The woman said, as blasters pointed at her, blue-blade humming.
“Wait, wait!” Another voice interrupted, a young woman pushing herself to her feet. “Surely we can talk this out!”
“Well, I suppose violence at this time of morning would be a bit unseemly.” Obi-Wan said, gesturing for the troops around him to stand down, at least for the moment. The woman, in response, deactivated the lightsaber, but retained her battle stance. “But, I would like to know who you are and why you’re currently tackling Anakin.”
“Technically, it’s not a tackle.” Said a boy, who’d managed to sit up in the chaos of the moment. “And uh, we were sent by the Force.”
“That’s a new one on me, General.” Said one of the clone troopers, resplendent in his gear, which marked him as an officer above the other clones in the room.
“Well, Cody, Anakin is a trailblazer.” Obi-Wan conceded, as the young man on top of Anakin finally climbed off of him and helped the Hero With No Fear to his feet. “Names would help with clearing up this misunderstanding, I believe.”
“Oh, yes, I agree.” Said the young blonde next to Anakin. He then turned to Anakin himself, and said-
“I’m Luke Skywalker, and we’re here to rescue you.”
//
Across the galaxy, the Force flared.
A certain green gremlin of a grandmaster of an order fell off his seat, a man who looked like the guy from Snakes On A Plane felt a headache blossom into being, an old man behind all of the pain and turmoil currently plaguing the galaxy suddenly felt the urge to blow his brains out with the nearest blaster (he did not, sadly) and on the whole anyone who generally had some tangible connection to the Force got the feeling that their lives were about to be way more difficult now, which, in fairness, they were entirely correct about.
“W-What?” Anakin said, and the boy, no, Luke, smiled a smile that he’d only ever seen on his wife.
“I’m Luke Skywalker, and we-” He said, gesturing at the various people behind him. “-are here to rescue you.”
“From what?” Anakin managed to get out, his voice becoming increasingly high pitched. He was fairly certain that he didn’t need rescuing from his current situation, so he wasn’t entirely sure what Luke meant.
“What Farmboy means to say is, we’re here to rescue you from your own bad life decisions.” The redheaded woman said, before she extended a hand, which Anakin took. “Mara Jade Skywalker, I’m Luke’s wife, which makes me your daughter-in-law. And these are our kids.”
The girl waved at him. “I’m Rey Skywalker, your granddaughter, though I’m not technically related. But I am a Skywalker!” She declared.
“And I’m Ben Skywalker.” Said the boy standing next to her. “I’m also a Skywalker, but I’m blood, unlike my sister. And I’m named after Master Kenobi, in honor of his time spent mentoring my father during the early days of his journey as a Jedi.” Obi-Wan felt a brief moment of pride that someone admired him enough to name a child after him, before he began realizing, with dawning horror, that apparently, his future self had thought it was a good idea to mentor another Skywalker. But more importantly, Obi-Wan was coming to a far, far more horrifying realization.
Anakin had multiplied.
“So, you say the Force sent you here?” He asked, deciding to just ask the important questions to get things over with, so he could go get a glass of wine and unwind from the incoming headache.
“Yes, it did.” Luke said. “Along with some others…who seem to have been waylaid.”
“Others?” Anakin asked, equal parts hope and anticipation in his voice, and Luke nodded, beaming at his father.
“Well, my sister and her family came along for the ride…”
“I have a daughter?”
“Leia? Yeah, she’s a great sister. We’re twins, but I’m the older one by about thirty seconds or so. She’s more like you, actually-”
As Anakin came to the realization he was going to be a father to at least two children and in turn, a grandfather to a number of grandchildren, Obi-Wan appended his previous realization.
Anakin hadn’t just multiplied, he’d gone into exponents.
“Um, sir?” Cody asked, and Obi-Wan took a long, deep breath.
“Let’s give Anakin some privacy, so he can sort out his family issues.” The Negotiator said. “And someone find me a drink. Or ten.”
Cody was chuckling as he followed his general out the room.
“Gladly, sir.”
//
Anakin had a son.
He had a daughter too. And he had a daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren! Okay, so one was adopted, but it wasn’t like Anakin was picky. His visions were false! His wife, his beautiful pregnant wife, wasn’t about to die in childbirth, because these wonderful, wonderful family members were right in front of him, proving that theory wrong!
Suck it, visions!
A table had hastily been cleaned up and claimed by the group, and Anakin had spent several minutes just marveling at his family from the future. For the most part, they seemed quite content to let Anakin do his marveling, and to indulge his questions. He’d gone with Luke first, to the gentle amusement of Mara, and Luke had been happy to answer his father’s every question.
“How old are you?”
“Technically, I’m in my twenties, but I was in my fifties when the Force brought me back here. Not that I mind being able to stretch without popping every joint in my body, one of the benefits of having the Force adjust my age.” Anakin had nodded sagely at that last part, knowing very well that The Force Did It was a fairly reasonable explanation for most things, and he had the feeling the situation at hand wasn’t going to be easily explained in a single conversation anyway.
“Is Leia a Jedi too?”
“Yes, though she’s less involved with the Order than I am. She’s the more political one of us. Not that it stops her from breaking out her lightsaber and laying waste to whatever tries to go at her. And she did train Rey after…things happened and I was unable to do so.” Anakin felt pride, that was definitely his little girl! No way would he raise a daughter who couldn’t throw hands with the best of them, and neither would Padmé. Nor would Padmé raise their daughter to be anything less than the best politician around. All in all, it sounded like Leia (his daughter!) was going to be the diplomat of the family going forward, and Anakin was perfectly fine with that.
“How did you and Mara meet?”
“I tried to kill him.” Mara interjected, causing Anakin to turn and stare at his daughter-in-law.
“You tried to kill him?” He said, protectiveness bubbling up in his chest before he corralled it, seeing as it was extremely unlikely that Mara would actually try to do so ever again. Well, unless Luke was as bad a cook as he was, in which case he conceded it might be justifiable in such a scenario.
“Several times, actually.” Luke said, leaning on Mara’s shoulder. “Then we had to rely on each other to survive, and then that turned into mutual respect, and then friendship, and then love…” He had a dreamy smile on his face. ‘...we got married, and then we had Ben, and then Rey came along later. All in all, a fairly typical Skywalker marriage.”
“For the record, when you consider how Aunt Leia and Uncle Han met, mom and dad’s meeting is fairly benign.” Ben interjected.
“That’s debatable.” Rey chimed.
“So, are you a Master?” Anakin asked, after a moment. He wondered exactly how high his son had climbed in the ranks of the Order. He imagined that his son was at least a Knight, or even a Master! Anakin would be proud of him whatever rank he was though, what mattered was that his son and accompanying family was here with him.
“Grandmaster, actually.” Luke said, and Anakin felt pride well up inside of him. His son was the Grandmaster of the entire Order! He hoped he’d put in some good reforms, and maybe gotten rid of that stupid statue in the East Wing of the Temple. “I succeeded Master Yoda in the position after…the new generation of Jedi rose. It’s been a lot of trial and error on my part, leading the Order.” He winced slightly, and Anakin figured that there was a story there that he wasn’t inclined to pursue just yet. If he had to guess, Yoda had taken part in training his little boy (okay, so Luke clearly wasn’t so little anymore) and seeing him pass on had been difficult for Luke, especially since living up to the 8 to 9 hundred year old codger’s legacy was not an easy task, even for a Skywalker.
For a moment, he was glad he was a simple, humble knight.
“Farmboy’s done just fine.” Mara said. “He’s got Leia and I to keep him in check, not to mention the others. The future of the Order is in good hands…though it’d be nice to have some of the old hands on deck this go around, if we succeed in helping you find a better path.”
“What do you mean by that?” Anakin asked, and Luke and Mara looked at one another. It was Rey who broke the silence.
“Well, at the end of the Clone Wars, the Jedi were massacred…”
//
Obi-Wan was on his fourth glass of wine.
There were Skywalkers. Skywalkers. Plural. Now, on the whole, it seemed as though said Skywalkers were slightly less likely to cause a roaring fire within the first ten minutes of waking up, but the point was, the Force had seen fit to decree that Anakin would multiply, and then go into exponents, and that Obi-Wan Kenobi would decide to train another Skywalker.
Though, judging by the way Luke’s impression in the Force felt, it seemed as though his apprenticeship would go more smoothly than Anakin’s had, but Obi-Wan felt a need to preemptively order more medical supplies, a couple new books on stress management, and some spare lightsaber parts anyway. If Luke was anything like his father, which he probably was, then it was best to be prepared for another decade or so worth of Skywalker Shenanigans, which would hopefully not involve a nest of gundarks, or crashing a ship or thirty, or the thing on Cato Nemoidia, which all involved refused to speak of, ever.
So caught up in his preparations for Training Luke Skywalker Because I’m A Sucker For Punishment Apparently, that it never occurred to Obi-Wan as to why he had trained Anakin’s son, and not Anakin himself.
The door opened.
Anakin stumbled into Obi-Wan’s room, and immediately grabbed the other man, and hugged him. He looked shaken, and Obi-Wan fell back upon an old habit of his and guided Anakin to sit down on the bed with him.
“They’re all going to die.” He murmured, and Obi-Wan stiffened.
“Who is?” He questioned.
“Everyone.”
“...and I presume you have a plan to avert this?” Obi-Wan asked. “Because, I for one, would like to not die, nor would I like to see you die, or any one of our friends.”
“Well, I have a concept of a plan.” Anakin mumbled. “It involves killing someone.”
“And I’m sure we’ll work out the finer details once it becomes more clear what our goal is, beyond kill someone, which is a very nebulous goal at present.” Obi-Wan said. “...how is the family, by the way? Any charming observations of your future son and his family?” He added, electing to shift the subject to alleviate Anakin’s attitude.
“Well, can you believe Luke doesn’t hate sand like I do?”
//
Somewhere, Sheev Palpatine got the feeling his life’s plans were about to be ruined.
He dismissed that feeling, there was no way that would ever happen. He was a master planner, he had plans, and those plans had backup plans, and those backup plans had backup plans. He was pretty sure that whatever had caused the Force to become very active today was something he could account for, plan for, and work with.
He was wrong, of course, but he had no way of knowing that.
//
Elsewhere…
“Kix, hey, hey Kix!”
“Yes, Captain?”
“I need you to perform brain surgery on me.”
“What?”
//