Saga The First Casualty of War (repost): Bail Organa, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Padmé

Title: The First Casualty of the War
Author: Divapilot
Genre: Angst
Timeline: ROTS
Character: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Bail Organa, Yoda, Padmé Amidala
Summary: Every monarch requires an heir.
Notes: Repost. Written for The Death Challenge. In this case, the challenge was to kill the character in a way that was canon compliant. The name of the character and the method of death is hidden under the spoiler.

I always liked this fic; I felt it was creepily plausible,.

Spoiler

’My character was Padmé, and the method of death assigned was “overdose.”

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” (Shakespeare, Hamlet)




Bright surgical lights gave a sterile, antiseptic feel to the area as Bail Organa approached Obi-Wan Kenobi outside of the Polis Massa medical center. “How is she?” Bail asked.

Obi-Wan drew a deep breath and rubbed his sandy beard. “The med droids are still working on her. She’s too far into labor to stop the contractions. She’s going to deliver the child tonight.”

“Here?” Bail frowned. “But the medical facilities here haven’t been updated since the last archeological expedition five years ago. Wouldn’t she be better off in a more populated place?”

“With her other injuries, she may suffer worse damage if we try to move her again.” Obi-Wan pressed a sequence of buttons on a wall display, and an image of a human figure appeared on the screen. At a command, the image zoomed in to display a human skull and neck. “When Anakin choked her, he caused severe damage to her neck,” Obi -Wan explained. “The fracture of the neck bone is pressing against the spinal cord. She can still breathe on her own – she can still talk, even – but she has already lost some of the feeling in her legs.”

“How can we fix it?” Bail asked.

Obi-Wan crossed his arms inside the wide sleeves of his tunic. “That’s the problem. In order to fix it, she must be absolutely still. The med droids will need to surgically release the pressure on the spinal cord. However, childbirth requires her to move.”

“Can’t the baby be surgically delivered?” Bail asked.

“Not at this point,” Obi-Wan said, shaking his head. “She would lose too much blood. There isn’t enough in storage for both surgeries. The best we can do is hope that the stress of childbirth doesn’t do worse damage to Padmé. Then, after the baby comes, the med droids can stabilize her so we can bring her to a facility better suited to human neurological issues.”

“Alderaan has a number of excellent facilities,” suggested Bail.

“Time is of the essence,” Obi-Wan noted. “The longer Padmé’s neck is unstable, the more likely that her injuries will be permanent. They’ve implanted a temporary brace for now, but she needs far more specialized care than that.”

A cry of pain came from the adjacent room. Bail glanced at Obi-Wan before turning to go into the room. Obi-Wan bowed his head in sorrow.

The clean, sleek brightness of Padmé’s room contrasted with the anguish on her face. Dried tears streaked her cheeks, and her usually immaculate hair was pulled back into a messy knot. She turned her head at the sound of someone entering the room.

“Bail,” she said softly. She held up her hand toward him. Swiftly, he took her hand and sat on a stool beside her. He hoped his face didn’t reveal his shock at how clammy her hand was.

“I’m here, Padmé. Be strong. You’ll get through this,” he said, gently rubbing her cold fingers in his hand.

She winced in pain, her body wracked with the contraction that was coursing through it. She gripped him more tightly, and he wiped the sweat off her brow with his sleeve. When the contraction finally subsided, Padmé turned back to face him again. “The baby…” she panted.

“We will care for it until you’re better,” he assured her. Then, delicately, “Padmé, I think the baby’s father should know. I would be willing to tell him so that he can be with you.”

She turned away, wincing again. This time, however, the pain was clearly more than physical. “He can’t…”

Bail’s features froze in sudden understanding. “He was a Jedi, wasn’t he?” Padmé nodded. He stroked her hand again. So many Jedi had died in the last few hours. Padmé’s lover must have been one of them.

“I’m so sorry,” he said quietly. He gently brushed her hair away from her face. So that’s why she had refused any prenatal medical treatment, he thought to himself. The medics would have detected an elevated midichlorian count from the child, and the father would have been compromised.

Padmé turned her brown eyes to look into his. “Bail, promise me. Promise me that you’ll help to protect my child. It’s not safe...” A whimper escaped her lips as another contraction began to build.

A med droid floated in beside them. “We must tend to the patient,” it intoned softly. “Please exit the medical area. A visitor’s section has been provided for you.”

“I understand,” Bail said, as much to Padmé as to the droid. He leaned down and kissed his friend gently on the forehead. “I promise,” he whispered.

The droid quietly moved closer to examine her neck implant as the contraction continued. Bail let her hand slip back onto the bed, then left the room. He waited silently behind the operating theater window as Obi-wan and Master Yoda joined him.

Moments later, Yoda frowned. “Wrong something is,” he said. “In danger, the senator is.”

At that moment, the med droid returned to the entrance to the operating theater. “She’s lost the will to live,” it announced. “We need to operate quickly if we are to save the babies.”

“Babies?” Bail repeated, shocked.

“She’s carrying twins,” the droid explained before floating back into the surgical room. A doula droid attached a blue sterile shield over Padmé ’s waist.

Standing beside him, Obi-Wan spoke. “This makes it more complicated. I only hope that she will make it through this without increasing her injuries.”

“How can she lose the will to live?” Bail wondered aloud. The Padmé he knew, the warrior and advocate, would never back down in a time of crisis.

Yoda spoke up. “Unused to human patients the droids are. These facilities, utilized by Togruta scientists had been.”

Obi-Wan nodded knowingly. “I remember Master Shaak Ti had once told me that if a Togruta was no longer capable of taking care of himself, it was said that he had lost the will to live. The person’s tribe would make the decision whether or not to outcast him.”

They were interrupted by the voice of the med droid. “Master Kenobi, Senator Amidala wishes you to join her.” With a glance at Bail, Obi-Wan left the observation area and entered through the side door to the sterile operating theater.

Padmé was about to bring a new life amid all the death that had occurred during this horrible day. There truly was something sacred about it. Bail watched, enthralled, as Obi-Wan assisted Padmé as first one child, a boy, was born. The doula wrapped the newborn and handed him to Obi-Wan, who showed Padmé her son. She smiled weakly. “Luke,” she murmured.

Bail nodded knowingly. Luke was her grandfather’s name. Padmé had often spoken of the years she had spent on his estate, carefree childhood summers in the lake country of Naboo. Bail was not surprised that she chose to name her son after the patriarch of her family, the man whose family lineage provided the background to establish Padmé as a Princess of Theed well before she was ever queen of Naboo.

A few minutes later, another life emerged. The doula announced the arrival of a girl. Once again Obi-wan presented the newborn to her mother, who whispered her name: Leia.

A daughter.

How Breha would have wanted a daughter of her own. Their first lost child had been a girl. They had named her Nadiah, Breha had talked excitedly of playhouses and dolls, even to the point of decorating a nursery with delicate flowers and laces. When they buried Nadiah’s tiny body, they had no idea that she would be the first of five siblings to lie in the cold ground together.

Padmé had said something, but lost in his memories, Bail hadn’t heard. Her eyelids fluttered closed, and Padmé’s head lolled to the side. The med droids continued to address the needs of the two infants, and Obi-Wan slowly returned to speak with him.

“How is she?” Bail asked.

“She’s unconscious. It’s probably better that way.”

“What do you mean?”

Obi-wan’s face was grave. “The indications on the monitor showed a disruption in her spinal function. She may be permanently damaged. We will have to wait to see the extent of her neurological impairment.”

“What about the children?” Bail said, glancing at the two babies who shared one small sleeping unit.

“They should be fine. There’s no harm to them.”

Yoda closed his eyes. “Strong in the Force, these children are. A danger this presents to them.” He opened his eyes and watched through the observation window grimly. Shaking his head, he turned and walked away, his face clouded with concern.

Obi-wan turned away for a moment, and Bail reached out to steady him. “You’re exhausted,” Bail said quietly. “There is nothing else you can do. Go get some sleep. I will stay and watch over them.”

Obi-Wan looked at Bail gratefully. “I’ll be back in a few hours,” he said, then turned and left the room, followed by Yoda.

Bail sat down on one of the cushioned benches in the room. From his vantage point, he watched Padmé lying on the examining table. The children had been cleaned and given synthetic mother’s milk, and were resting fitfully in a sleep unit by her side.

There had been hope, once, that his own child would enter the galaxy, but that hope had dimmed over the years. Breha’s fragile medical state had not permitted her to carry a child to term. Each pregnancy began with guarded optimism, only to end in despair. Now he was almost in his fifties and no closer to an heir.

What was needed was a child who had the proper bloodline. A child of royal family, who had the ancestry and heritage necessary to continue the royal line of Alderaan.

Padmé, of course, she would most likely retreat to her home in Naboo, where a team of assistants would care for the children. Would that be fair to them? Didn’t these babies deserve a family, with both a mother and a father who would love them beyond measure?

Bail sat down and closed his eyes. There was much to think about.

Hours later, he realized he had fallen asleep on the cushioned bench. He sat up to see Obi-Wan sitting beside him. “How is Padmé?” he asked, rubbing his temples.

“Not good, I’m afraid. Her spinal cord is compressed. The damage appears to be permanent. She has limited mobility from the neck down.”

“But I saw her move her hands earlier,” Bail said. “She can get better, right?”

Obi-Wan bowed his head. “Master Yoda spoke with the med droid. It seems unlikely.”

“Will she have any sensation or feeling, at least?” Bail asked quietly.

“Right now, she is being protected from the pain of the injury by an injection of prithyomine,” Obi-Wan said. Bail raised an eyebrow in surprised recognition. Breha’s doctor had prescribed prithyomine when she had suffered her most recent seizures. It was a powerful muscle relaxant.

“What about the babies?”

Obi-Wan stood up. “Come look for yourself.” He gestured with a nod of his head. Bail stood up and joined him at the window. The two infants were asleep in a single sleep unit, the boy’s tiny hand wrapped around the girl’s. Obi-Wan spoke in a low voice, although the men were alone in the room. “The boy’s Force signature is stronger than the girl’s, although hers is very high in itself. I think that’s why I never suspected twins – his Force signature masked his sister’s.”

Bail shot a glance at the Jedi. “Master Yoda had said earlier that the children were in danger. Can they be sensed by others?”

“Eventually, yes. And the children seem to amplify each other.” Obi-Wan turned to face Bail. “They cannot stay together if they are to be kept from the Sith.”

Bail looked at the unconscious form of Padmé, lying on the padded table near her newborns. “Padmé will not accept that. She will fight to keep them together and with her.”

Obi-Wan drew a deep breath. “Padmé will not be able to defend them. Anakin will find her, and when he does, he will find the children and bring them to the Sith.”

Bail absorbed this information quietly. “So Anakin is the father.”

Obi-Wan’s features hardened for a moment, as if to recover from an unspeakable memory. “Anakin lives. I sense it. And when he is strong enough, he will find her. The children cannot be raised as Sith. It would be disastrous for the entire galaxy.”

“Then Padmé must not be allowed to keep them.” Bail’s mind returned to the conversation he had had with Padmé before she had delivered the babies. She herself had made him promise to help protect the children.

Obi-Wan was silent for a long moment, as the two men watched the infants stir in their sleep. Then he placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder before turning away and heading down the darkened corridor.

Bail watched him leave for a moment, then turned to look at the scene before him. Padmé would never agree to giving up the children, that much he knew for certain. She would die first.

It was so brutally unfair to Padmé. It occurred to him how unfair the galaxy had been to him, too, considering all he had sacrificed for it. How many times had he placed himself in danger to protect others? How many long weeks had he spent away from his home planet, his palace, his wife? All he had ever desired was a child to complete his family, to bring joy to Breha.

The situation was truly tragic. And yet, some good could still come of it. He could take Leia; she had the royal lineage from her ancestors on Naboo to qualify her as an acceptable adoptive child. And Breha’s heart might finally heal from the pain of losing little Nadiah so many years ago if there were a daughter to bring laughter into their childless home.

Besides, even if Padmé’s injuries were healed and her health restored, it would be too late and the children would be lost to the Sith forever. Someday, these two tiny babies might grow up to become the key to overthrowing the emperor’s regime. They were too important to leave to chance.

Bail recognized the tiny spark of rebellion against the newly formed Sith Empire. This was a war – and war had casualties. His time for action, he realized, was now.

Bail looked at Padmé, then at counter behind her, where the syringe of the light fluid that he recognized as prithyomine was placed. She’s asleep, he reasoned. She will never know what happened.

Quietly, he entered the surgical theater. “Padmé, my friend,” he said, sitting down beside her and taking her hand, “This will be your last act of selflessness. You will be remembered as a great hero.”

Bail had seen the doctors inject his wife enough times to know what to do. When it was over, he placed the empty syringe back on the counter. Standing up, he said a silent farewell to his friend before going over to the children, where his daughter was sleeping peacefully.

 

Wow, so amazingly plausible and conceivable as the best? Most prudent? Course of action.

 

Oh, Bail, what have you done? Perhaps for the best. He was right in that Padme would never have given up her babies had she lived.

Well done.

 

Oh wow. This... I mean... Wow. I'm not sure I like this Bail Organa at all! And yet...it all makes sense. Thank you for writing around the "she's lost the will to live" business and making it work (it's seriously my biggest Prequel peeve). This was horrifying and plausible. Well done.

 

Holy kriff! That was cold, Bail. But wow, what an amazing story, divapilot! *flails hugely*

I can't help but wonder at Bail's motivations here. His thoughts are filled with his own anguish and Breha's over their lost babies. It's horrible what the two of them endured - five children lost. Then suddenly, here is a little girl newly born with the right lineage that's necessary to be adopted into the royal family of Alderaan, whose mother is unable to care for her. Suddenly, Bail is certain that Padmé will never listen to reason about the twins, that she'll fight tooth and nail to keep both of them with her, regardless of the danger it puts them in. He didn't even try to discuss the matter with her, just instead jumped to quietly supplying her with an overdose so as to clear the way for him to adopt Leia while assuring Padmé that she'll be remembered as a hero. It's like he's trying to absolve himself of this crime.

Heh, Bail better watch himself when he dies. Padmé will be waiting for him. *smirk*

This was utterly spectacular! Thank you so much for sharing!

 

Holy cow! That was intense and, as people have said, very plausible. Shows that with the necessary motivation, people are capable of anything.

So good!

 

In a little more than 24 hours, I read a story where Anakin is a cheater and a story where Bail is a killer out of some psycho thriller film. The world is fine, but I probably am not.

The end shock aside, I loved Yoda and Obi-Wan's conversation, the baby Luke taking care of baby Leia and his ability to, err, channel the Force in the womb and make his own sister undetectable.

However, one thing that stands out more than everything else is Yoda saying that "the senator is in danger" and then, they assume that the danger is directly related to Padmé's injuries. Seems that even the closest of the close in terms of future is in motion, huh?

Great read!

 

Now that's how you do a disturbing take on canon. Which changes absolutely nothing on the surface, but underneath it's deeply twisted. Great job! I especially like how you've gotten into Bail's head here, explaining why he would do this to his friend in the context of all the heartache that has been beating them down throughout the Clone Wars. The way that he just kind of slides into the idea that this is like a recompense for all the suffering he and Breha have been through, and that affects his judgment of Padme's ability to deal. I mean, I love the wonderful-people versions of Bail and Breha that are prevalent in fanon but it's fascinating to see a creepy mirror version that could be just this close to what we see onscreen for all we know. Brr!

Edit: And I share your suspicion of that whole "will to live" diagnosis coming from a droid in a medical facility that was presumable geared for the species that lived around Polis Massa and not humans.

 

Wow...this is dark. I love Bail, but this seems like it could be plausible, in his and Breha's own fertility issues and musings on the greater good. Just chilling at the end there.

I LOVE your explanation for the "losing the will to live" nonsense, and also why the twins needed to be split up (which never made much sense to me, but completely does here.)