Local Drama Dad bungles father-son bonding vacation by forgetting to pack sunscreen, more at 11.
He probably shouldn't have chosen a beach on a planet with two suns, but it reminded Luke of home and he was just so excited to see the ocean, how could he possibly say no?
(Aren't these idiots from Tatooine? They should know better.)
Anyway I got sunburned over the weekend so Luke gets sunburn too. Happy Revenge of the Fifth everyone!
The doors opened without fanfare, though with the loud creaking noises they made, fanfare was unnecessary. Anakin held his wife's hand tightly as they crossed the threshold. The door shut ominously behind them, dousing the musty halls in darkness.
His breath shook as the familiar stench of Gamorreans and sentient waste penetrated his nose. Had it really been twenty years since he was last here? He had dreamed of never setting foot in here again.
He had been furious when Artoo alerted him of what the twins had gotten themselves into. He knew they were determined to rescue Solo, but did they have to dive in headfirst without a plan?
Padme had just smiled at him on the flight to his homeplanet.
"They take after you, you know."
He had taken a while to really understand what that meant.
Padme adjusted her scarf to cover her face and mask the smell, and Anakin spied the first set of guards. The thick-headed gamorreans flashed their vibro-axes at the intruders, and with a wave of Anakin's hand, they were choking on air.
"Where are my children?" He demanded, though it was unlikely they would answer. He didn't care. His children were in danger, and he was going to rescue them at whatever cost.
"E chu ta!" Huttese echoed down the hall, and Padme drew her blaster at Bib Fortuna. Twenty years and she was still the fastest draw in the galaxy.
"Take us to Jabba. now." She demanded. When Anakin looked at her he could almost hear her voice echo through the Senate Rotunda, carrying every bit of queenly grandeur as she had when he first met her.
The pale twi'lek took a moment to think it over, his lek twitching nervously.
"To tak to Jabba now." He nodded, and quickly turned heel back to the throne room.
Padme glanced at Anakin, but she didn't sheathe her blaster. Anakin squeezed her hand, and they followed Fortuna deeper into Jabba's Citadel. sometimes, aggressive negotiations were just as effective as a Jedi mind trick or two.
Fortuna had them wait in the center of the throne room, amidst the piles of barely-concious bodies too hungover for the good of their waste-processing organs. Fortuna tapped his master on the shoulder quite vigorously, and once Anakin pulled his hood down did Threepio recognize him, standing beside the giant slug like a shiny golden trophy.
"At last! Master Ani's come to rescue me! And Mistress Padme!"
Jabba growled at Fortuna's decision to wake him, and took a moment for his vision to adjust as the rest of his entourage began to stir.
"Greetings, mighty Jabba." Padme started with tension in her throat. They had agreed that she would do the negotiating. Anakin harbored far too many emotions for things to go smoothly.
"I am Padme Amidala of Naboo. This is my husband, General Anakin Skywalker." Gasps echoed through the room. Anakin had no small reputation, and certainly a Hutt's memory wasn't so short that his goons had all forgotten the Jedi who rescued Jabba's son.
Padme continued, though Jabba could hardly process what she was saying through his hangover.
"We will be taking Captain Solo and his friends. I warn you not to interfere." She held her head high.
Jabba chuckled, and spoke in a long string of huttese. Padme had to wait for Threepio's translation, but Anakin understood it perfectly, and it fanned the flame of white-hot anger in his stomach.
Threepio tittered nervously, caught between two masters. "The Mighty Jabba reminds you that you are Senator of a Republic that fell twenty-two standard revolutions ago. Your threats hold no weight here."
Anakin's mechanical hand twitched towards the saber at his belt, but Padme caught his hand with hers.
"Be that as it may, we have powerful allies even now. Do you truly think you can keep the children of General Skywalker contained in your meager dungeon?"
Jabba laughed, encouraging his menagerie to do the same. "a Jedi without his sword is useless," He waved his hand to the wall. A rectangular alcove was carved where Anakin assumed Han hung while frozen in carbonite, and now, displayed in the spotlight, were his children's lightsabers.
They had scavenged and saved and bled for his children to have the parts that they needed to make those; he had been so proud of the day Leia finally beat him in combat (Luke had distracted him, but still). For Jabba to have such weapons in his possession was like owning a piece of their soul and putting it on display.
Anakin shook his head to keep from vomitting all over Jabba's throne. He normally wouldn't much care, but he needed his wits about him to be able to save his children.
Padme nodded, and Anakin ignited his saber. The blue glow sent screams rippling through the room as he leveled it at one of Jabba's many chins.
And just like that, the wall of the throne room caved in. The two lightsabers flew across the room as a hand shot out of the dust cloud to retrieve it.
"I tried to warn you, Jabba," twin blades of blue and green sprung to life alongside Anakin's as the twins of Skywalker made themselves known.
*ha! ended up writing more than a ficlet for this one, so head on over to ao3 if ya want for some Happy Skywalker Fam AU*
“Come on, Skywalker,” Padmé says, both hands gripping the blaster.
“You can’t use that against me. It’s your last name, too.”
She lifts an eyebrow and waits.
He sighs. “Skywalker-Amidala,” he amends.
“Obi-Wan, tell your padawan he’s about to be unconscious if he doesn’t assume a defensive position,” she says.
“I’m not his pada–”
“When I smuggled that lightsaber out of the temple, I didn’t anticipate it being used for this,” Obi-Wan sighs. There’s a pause, then– “Anakin. Assume a defensive position.”
“What?” he cries. “You can’t seriously expect me to–” He yelps as a blaster bolt hits the ground between his feet. He looks up, appalled.
Now, looking back at NJO, that was published in 1999-2004, I wonder how many parallels between Jaina & Jacen and their grandparents were intentional.
Jaina & Anakin:
have special name attributed to them (”The Chosen One”/”The Sword of the Jedi”);
are the best pilots of their generation;
have high military ranks and become the symbols of their respective governments;
struggle with anger management issues;
can be reckless and charge into danger without thinking;
are fiercely protective of their families, and are very afraid of losing their loved ones;
specifically warrior-type figures.
Jacen & Padmé:
share similar looks with dark hair and brown eyes;
are idealistic;
are politicians at least to some degree (for Padmé it’s a job, Jacen is the one Luke and Leia prefer to bring along for Senate meetings, and he later negotiates with the Council of Moffs on behalf of GFFA);
are very much defined by their search of the diplomatic solution in times of war;
are more rational and calm;
sometimes act as the voice of reason for Jaina & Anakin;
are also pretty cunning (although Jacen is shaped to be far more ruthless than Padmé by his experiences).
Jacen & Anakin:
are messiah figures;
are the most powerful force users of their generations;
share a lot of similar moments. For example, Anakin slaughtered the Tusken Raiders who murdered his mother, Jacen killed most of the dhuryams (on the side note, Jacen deals with this far better than Anakin, but this can be attributed to their differences in temper);
have darkness inside them.
Unfortunately, I can’t find any Padmé and Jaina parallels except their looks, but maybe there are some, and I just don’t remember the details.
•Anakin defeats Palpatine and everyone lives happily ever after
•Anakin leaves the order, and him, Ahsoka, and some members of the 501st travel around the galaxy freeing slaves
•Luke and Leia are both trained in the force
•Luke decides to become a Jedi and trains under his Uncle Obi-Wan
•Leia, being the daddy’s girl she is, joins her dad in freeing slaves.
•Anakin and Padmé have a daughter who eventually goes into politics.
•Han Solo is the smuggler Anakin works with occasionally
•He does not appreciate the way his daughter and the smuggler flirt
•Actually, no one appreciates the way Leia and Han flirt
•Ahsoka is the amazing single aunt who spars with the twins
•Padmé is so proud of everyone and everyone comes to her apartment for family dinners once a week.
An AU where the republic stays, they get rid of Sidious and the Skywalker fam stays together and everyone now knows about them, but the council couldn’t be bothered more, because Anakin saved them and ‘ah, screw it’ or something like that.
The twins are sweethearts, everyone loves them and everyone is also just like: “yeah, look at Leia, so much like her mom” and “Luke is all his father”. And it makes sense, just look at them.
-Luke, cute little blond boy, more sensitive to the Force than Leia, piloting skills of his father. Obi-Wan just looks at this little child as he flies and immediately gets flashbacks to Anakin’s podracing. He isn’t sure if this will end up good or bad, he is just sure he doesn’t want to be there to find out.
-Leia, this adorable small brunette, with beautiful hair like mama, who can, at the age of seven, destroy Mace Windu in an argument if he lets his guard down for a second the same way her mother roasts other senators in the senate.
No one doubts that this is what they will turn out to be, like father like son and like mother like daughter, no question... at least when they are kids.
Everything changes when they reach puberty. People start to notice that it is Luke, who is the gentle one, while the nicest thing Leia will do if you made her angry is stare at you until you want to be dead just to get away.
But it’s not just that. It’s subtle at first, but at the age of fourteen everyone knows. Luke is a fashion boy. The first one to notice except for Padmé is, of course, Anakin. He notices that their apartment now has two dressing rooms. Very soon he would swear that Luke’s more full than Padmé’s. When he looks in it, there isn’t an inch of the wall to be seem, because there is clothes everywhere. Anakin doesn’t mind, at least until Luke starts to violently complain that he has nothing to wear, whilst changing his outfit at least once a day and yet not wearing the same thing for a month.
All while Leia just effortlessly rocks the black jedi tunic like her dad. The only thing she does to increase her looks is use the Force to make her hair. She wouldn’t even care that much, if her perfect hair didn’t piss Luke off so hard. He just can’t control his mane like that.
This is the point where they switch. Till this moment, Luke was dad’s little boy, flying with him almost every day and Leia was helping to cheer her mom up after long day in the senate. Now it’s Leia training with her father and Luke going clothes shoping every other weekend with his mother.