Walking through the senate building I carried my secrets and confusion on my back. I ran to my speeder but on the way I was met with an old friend.
As I looked out over the edge, I saw a small kid running through the market place, tan skin and brown hair who walked past. It was only for a brief moment but I wanted so badly to go hug him. My new motherly instincts wanted to go hug him and bring him home. But he didn't want to come home. It wasn't a home to him like it also was no longer a home to me.
"(Y/N)! It's been too long, how are you?" Padmé approached me and interrupted my thoughts.
"I'm sorry, Padmé this really isn't the time." I rushed past her, I ran from my thoughts and the pain in my stomach growing.
"(Y/N)? Are you alright?" She walks with me, "You look awfully pale."
"Yes, I'm fine." I said, gruffly.
"You don't look it. What's wrong?" She asked me, holding my arm, "Hey, let me help you."
"You can't!" I whisper shouted. With my anger I noticed a wet liquid seeping down my leg. I looked down and Padmé followed my eye line.
"(Y/N)... Is that.." She trailed off.
"It's not pee." I quickly said. She then stared at my belly.
"Oh my god.." She made the connection to my growing belly and the fluid that began seeping through my pants. Im assuming people just thought I was getting fat until now, I guess. I'm surprised no one in the council has brought it up. The fluid release felt relieving, but panic swept in me anyways.
"We need to get you to the medical bay." She quickly took over control from her shock.
"No! No, I can't have this baby here. I still have information I'm carrying, I haven't warned anyone." I told her. Really, this was the worst time to be in labor.
"You're in labor you can't just opt out of it?" She said, beginning to drag me as the pain was over taking my body.
I only nodded now, breathing heavy as it began feeling like someone was stabbing and twisting repeatedly in my abdomen.
"Who do you need me to get?" She asked once she finally got me to the medical bay.
"A-Anakin." I breathed out. A medical droid carried me into a private room, he injected an epidural into my back to relief me of the excruciating pain.
"He's the father?" She asked, realizing as she said it.
"Ye-Yes." I squeezed her hand tight as I felt myself regain some strength to open my eyes. I felt the numbness of my legs settle in.
"I'll go get him." She said, sadly.
"He might not be there. And if he's not just come straight back. I cannot allow for anyone else to find out without me telling them." I said.
Then she left and I was there, watching the slow drips of the catheter. The medical droid told me I was already 4-5 centimeters dilated, that would explain the pain I was feeling today.
You already know the choice you need to make...
I heard the eery voice in my head. I wanted to bang my head on a table or something just to get it out.
You must choose quickly.
I felt my heart race quickly. I was alone, and in labor with children I weren't sure were going to make it. I didn't have my husband at my side, I didn't have my padawan, I didn't have my Master, I didn't have my good friend. It felt like hours that I sat there. I tried reaching out through the force. Tugging on the faint feeling of Anakin, he was still on Coruscant. I focused on his presence as it drew nearer.
"I came as soon as she told me." Anakin burst through the door. He immediately came to my side.
"What about the Utapau system?" I asked, squeezing his hand.
"I contacted Commander Gree on the way here, your troops have Obi-Wan covered. I told him there was an emergency." He caressed my cheek to try and calm me down.
"What are we going to do?" I begged him for an answer.
"You're going to give birth, and we're going to be okay." He assured me.
"I had no idea that you two were..." Padmé trailed off as she stood on the other side of my bed.
"Married." Anakin informed her.
"Oh." She said, red flooding a bit of her cheeks, "I guess it really has been too long since we've talked, (Y/N)."
"Too long." I gave her sympathetic eyes.
I had a few more tenses in my stomach before the medical droid came rushing in.
"Excuse me General (Y/L/N). Im afraid the babies are experiencing some irregularities. We're going to need to do an emergency c-section." The droid announces.
"Babies?" Anakin interrupts, squeezing my hand tighter. It feels like he might pass out.
"What's wrong with them?" I asked the droid. I had to know, is this what my dreams were?
"We aren't sure. We need to have them outside of your uterus before we can be sure." The droid said, unplugging my epidural and replacing it with a better numbing anesthetic.
"Well then please make sure they're okay!" I said, my breathing getting harder.
"I think someone is here, I'm going to go outside." Anakin went to leave my side. I felt a new presence too.
"No! You can't leave me!" I squeezed his hand tighter and he was brought back to reality.
"I won't, I'm sorry. I won't." He whispered, "Padmé, please go check outside for me."
She nodded and then left. I was then cut away from the rest of my body. I was told when to breath, I needed to be kept awake during the whole thing. And Anakin stayed right near my face the entire time. He kept my hand in his and kept making sure his eyes were staring into his. I heard Anakin ask why they weren't crying coming out of my trance. The sweat beating down my face was wiped away by Anakin's sleeve.
You're going to need my power.. Together we can make sure your children are safe from their fate. Only through your power, will you not be ignored, will your true potential be revealed. Pledge yourself to my teachings, (Y/N)..
Palpatine's voice kept whispering my ear. I knew he was right. I knew that this was the only way to keep them. The technology we had said I was allowed to scream only once, and in that I decided it was time to give up. I needed my children. I had Anakin at my side. I would do anything to do just that.
"How are you doing, love?" Anakin asked, sweetly.
"Fine!" I yelled. It was to Anakin, but more importantly to Palpatine. And he knew it. I don't know how. But I needed him out of my head, and I needed my children to survive. As soon as I said it my mind calmed again.
With the room overwhelmed with faint crying, not just from the children, I was stitched up. I was left in the bed as the children were cleaned. They also were needed to be hooked up to machines.
"What's wrong with them?" I asked, collecting information.
"For unexplained reasons their breathing has slowed immensely." The droid explained then he left, leaving the children in their cribs next to us.
"What's wrong with them?" I asked again. I stared at them over Anakin's shoulder. I tried to calm them as they began hooking tubes to them and different things I didn't understand, "What are you doing to them?"
"They know what they're doing, it's okay." Anakin hushed my anxiety, he changed the subject when he saw it wasn't working, "You were right, there was a girl in there."
"I told you I know these kinds of things." I weakly smiled.
"I knew about the boy." He smiled.
"I want them to have the best life." I told him, my eyes fluttering.
"They will." He promised, "Because you're their mother, they will." I looked back at his beautiful eyes. I needed him so bad. I needed this life with him and the children so bad.
"I'm so proud of you." Anakin kissed my head, he didn't care if I was sweaty. I felt love, I felt happiness grow inside me. But I also found a coldness as I stared at my children. I felt coldness at the idea of how the Jedi will react to the Chosen One having 2 children and a wife, who is also force sensitive.
I felt a coldness that drew from my discussion with Palpatine. From the "prophecy" that he told me was misread. A part of me was disgusted by the thought, but another felt excited by the idea that I might not be worthless. That I might be worth more than someone pulling strings for me, that someone might actually believe I have potential.
"Get some sleep, darling." Anakin whispered, he started to stand. But I grabbed him with my other hand.
"Don't-Don't leave me." I begged.
"I won't. I'll always be here." He sat back down, holding my hands as I shifted my weight to the side. The soreness overwhelmed my achy spine and stomach but on my side felt comfortable. I faced him as Anakin stroked my hair on the hospital bed.
I felt dirty keeping these secrets from him, but I'm doing what I must.