Darth Vader strode through the corridors of the captured rebel base, following the sense of pain, desolation and betrayal he was picking up, curious about where the feeling was coming from. He knew without doubt, from the strength of the emotions he was picking up that it was a Force trained individual who was very near the end of their endurance, not a potential who had gone unfound, and untrained. It was probably one of the Emperor's hands, captured by the rebellion, and tortured for information, but Sidious hadn't mentioned losing track of any of them, not to him at least.
He reached a security door blocking a side corridor, blocking his route, and used the Force to ram it back on its track when it came up demanding a keycode. Stepping through, he shuddered, this corridor was absolutely freezing, and the torment of the only prisoner he could sense hung almost tangibly in the air. Tracing the source of the feelings, he reached the cell at the end of the corridor, this door sliding aside instantly at his touch on the controls, revealing a prisoner inside, shackled to the wall with his arms outstretched to keep him from ever sitting down, his wrists bloody and raw where he had hung by them when sleep, or unconsciousness, had overwhelmed him, and painfully thin. His head was hanging down weakly, but at the sound of the door, he looked up, and there was defiance in shockingly familiar eyes.
"I still have nothing to…Anakin?" Obi-Wan rasped, his voice hoarse, strained.
Vader considered for a moment feeling angered at the flood of relief he felt from the chained man at the sight of him, thinking that Obi-Wan was expecting to be rescued, but the imprisoned man's next words stopped the fury in its tracks.
"Am I finally to die?" he asked, weak hope in his voice.
"Why?" Vader asked softly, stepping into the room.
"You were quite clear, when we parted on Mustapha, that you would kill me if you ever saw me again. Please, keep that promise."
"No, not that, why…this?" he asked, fingering the chains and feeling the numbing sensation in his fingertips that indicated that they were Force resistant all the way from the shackles to where they were bolted into the steel wall.
"Oh, that," Obi-Wan said, his weary, rasping laugh was steeped in bitterness.
"It seems the alliance has no more love for the Jedi than you and the Emperor do, apparently, the fall of the republic was entirely and completely our fault, nothing at all to do with anything they did, or didn't do. I was in Anchorhead, getting some supplies when they found me, I wasn't carrying my saber, it was too dangerous too recognizable, so I had no defence against the stun blast that knocked me out. I woke up here, like this; it's been…weeks…I think, I can't tell any more. Just enough food and water to keep me from dying on them, while they torture me for information that I don't have, and wouldn't give them if I did," he snorted.
"Information?"
"If there are other Jedi still alive, where they are," he couldn't shrug very well in the chains, but he tried.
"Hmm, what were you doing on that Force forsaken hellhole in the first place?"
Obi-Wan hesitated, his eyes closing for a long moment.
"Oh, Force help me, I have to tell you," he breathed, sounding miserable about it.
"Tell me what?"
"Your son is there, on Tatooine, I was supposed to be watching over him, keeping him from harm."
"Keeping him from me," Vader snarled, incensed.
"Yes, Yoda thought it would be better that way, but if he starts showing potential, if they find him, this could be him one day. At least if the Empire has him, he's with his father, and you will keep him safe from them. There is a second child, a daughter, too," he said, a thread of malice creeping through him that Vader easily detected.
"Where?"
"Alderaan, Bail Organa took her," he said, the malice growing stronger.
"I thought he was your friend, why do you feel such malicious pleasure in telling me something that will get him killed?"
"They didn't find me by accident, they knew I was on Tatooine, they were looking for me there. Two people knew where I was, Yoda, who has no way of communicating with anyone, and Bail. I think he sold me out, he is after all, one of the leaders of this rebellion."
Vader drew his lightsaber, igniting it, and he saw the hope in the exhausted chameleon eyes, the readiness to die, and he considered it for a moment, before swinging the blade. Obi-Wan cried out in pain as the blade sliced through the chains, dropping his arms out of the position they had been in for so long. He disengaged the blade, and caught Obi-Wan as he crumpled, easing him down gently to the floor.
Tears of pain escaped tightly closed eyes as Obi-Wan was moved, and Vader automatically channelled healing energy through the abused muscles, making Obi-Wan cry out again as the Dark healing energy burned through him, but after a moment, he relaxed, in much less pain than he had been in since his capture.
"Why? Just kill me, please Anakin, I can't take any more."
"No, rest," he said, pressing his hand to Obi-Wan's forehead, frowning faintly at the heat he felt, and sending the strongest sleep compulsion he could through the older man.
As soon as he was satisfied that Obi-Wan was out, worryingly easily, but he would take what he could get, he gathered the frail looking form up in his arms, rising easily. It horrified him how light he was, the only time he had been this badly off after being captured had been during the war, after Jabiim, after Ventress had gotten her hands on him, but she at least had been an enemy, the people who had done this to Obi-Wan were supposedly on the same side as him.
Vader ignored the glares of the prisoners being loaded onto shuttles as he carried Obi-Wan across the landing bay toward his private ship.
"I might have known, did that scum Jedi lead you to us, did he call you to us?" one of the prisoners yelled, and Vader turned just enough to glare over his shoulder at the man, not really surprised to recognize general Dodonna, the man had always resented Obi-Wan, resented that he was a more effective general, that he had power the man envied.
"No, we followed one of your supply ships, you really should be more careful about using smugglers. Tell me Dodonna, if I hadn't sensed his presence, would you have told us he was chained down there, or would you have been content to go to your death knowing that he was dying a slow, painful, miserable death from hunger, thirst and cold, all alone in an abandoned base?"
The sneer he got from the general was answer enough to the question, and Vader welcomed the rage that coursed through him when he saw it.
"He gets a private cell in the detention block, chain him to the wall, so that he cannot sit down, reduce the temperature, hold it just above the level that will allow him to die of hypothermia, and no food or water," he ordered the troopers who were manhandling Dodonna toward the shuttles.
"Yes, Lord Vader," the slightly mechanized voice acknowledged from one of the helmeted troopers.
Dismissing the angry, struggling rebel general from his mind, he turned and started once more up the ramp of his own ship, hitting the button to close the hatch with the Force.
"Get us back to the Vengeance, now, tell them I want a medical team waiting when we dock," he yelled up toward the cockpit, where his pilots were waiting, barely hearing their acknowledgement as he carried his fragile burden through to the passenger cabin, easing him down onto the narrow bunk, he draped a blanket over him, and then activated the inertial restraint field, it wouldn't stop him moving, but it would stop him being tossed from the bunk in the event they came under fire on the way back up to the Vengeance. Finally convinced that Obi-Wan was as comfortable as he could make him, he left the cabin, heading up to the cockpit, waving the pilot to stay where he was when he went to rise, to offer the pilot's chair to Vader.
"The medics will be waiting?" he asked.
"Yes, my Lord," the co-pilot said.
"Good, get us docked as fast as possible," he told them, heading back to the passenger cabin, so that he could keep an eye on Obi-Wan.
He couldn't quite figure out why he hadn't killed the man, why he was taking him for medical treatment, why he intended that he should live. He couldn't really see Obi-Wan embracing the darkness, even the malice he had evidenced when telling him that Bail Organa had his daughter, something he was going to have to attend to sooner rather than later, had barely greyed his naturally brilliantly light Force aura. He was going to have to figure out his motivation before they got back to Coruscant, anyway, because if he didn't have a good argument for keeping Obi-Wan alive, and free, then the Emperor would insist he be interrogated and executed, along with the rest of the prisoners they were gathering today.
/x/
Vader swept into the medical bay two hours after docking, just after ordering the jump to hyperspace to take them to Tatooine. He had decided that locating his son on that dust ball was the most pressing issue at the moment, having grown up there himself; he wouldn't wish that kind of a life on any child, let alone his own. Looking around, he saw the chief medical officer, and strode over to him.
"Well, what is Kenobi's condition?" he demanded.
"My Lord, we are waiting for the final test results to come back in, but…he's dying. We're trying to stabilize him, but he's on the verge of multiple organ failures, he has a fever that we're struggling to bring down, and there are so many drugs in his system that we're wary of adding any more of a load, he won't tolerate it. He's too weakened, too frail; to undergo any kind of surgery, and at this point, even putting him into bacta will probably be enough of a shock to tip him over the edge."
"Unacceptable, I want him alive."
"Respectfully, my Lord, this is not the kind of situation that a medical bay like this is geared to handle. His best chance would be if we can get him to a fully equipped medical facility on Coruscant. I would recommend putting him into stasis, there is a risk of losing him to revival shock, but it is much lower than the probability of him dying from his injuries."
Vader thought for a long moment, weighing the risks over each other, and then nodded.
"Put him in stasis, liaise with whichever med center on Coruscant you think is most appropriate when we drop out of hyperspace, to see if there is anything they think you can do for him, and make sure they are ready for him when we return."
"Yes, my Lord," the man bowed fractionally, hurrying away to do as he had been instructed, and Vader wandered over to glance down at the patient, hoping that the stubbornness that that had carried him through every other injury he had sustained would hold him now.
/x/
Vader stood on the command deck as the Vengeance dropped out of hyperspace, coasting into orbit around the sandy yellow ball of Tatooine. He didn't even need to search, he could feel the boy, his son, down there on the edge of the dune sea, and he knew without setting foot on the planet that he would find the boy with the family his mother had married into, or rather, what was left of them, his step-brother and his wife.
"Have my shuttle prepared, I won't be needing a pilot," he ordered over his shoulder to the duty officer on the bridge.
"Yes, my Lord," the man acknowledged, turning away to do as he had been told.
Vader walked down to the hanger bay, his fingers idly stroking over the hilt of his lightsaber as he contemplated the people he would find down there. He wasn't sure if he should kill them or not, they had conspired to keep his son from him, but then again, so had Obi-Wan, and he certainly had no desire to see Obi-Wan dead right now. These people were nominally his family; at least, his mother had cared about them enough to marry into the family, had they taken in his son because he was family, or as a way to get at him. There was no way he could make a decision now, he realized, it would have to wait until he got down there, until he could see for himself how they had treated his son in the three years since Mustapha.
It was edging toward dusk when he landed the shuttle a hundred yards or so from the dome that was the only part of the homestead visible above ground. His eyes skated around the barren sands, and he felt a dark suspicion worm into his mind as he caught sight of the brand new vaporator he could see atop the dune. It took a lot of money to buy new equipment, instead of patched and mended. He heard the distinctive sound of a blaster rifle being armed, and turned his head back in the direction of the house, glaring darkly at Owen, knowing the amber of his eyes was clearly visible in this light.
"Where is my son?" he demanded flatly.
"Out of your reach, get off my land, or perhaps I should just shoot you here and now."
"Don't push your luck, Lars, where is he? Where has that little bitch you married taken him?" he snarled, sensing that they were the only people here, the feeling of his son was moving further away, but they couldn't be too far, she would never dare risk being caught out on the sands after dark.
"They're safely tucked away in that kriffing Jedi watchdog's house, he won't be needing it anymore," Owen sneered.
"Kenobi?"
"Yeah, that's him, Kenobi. Prissy Jedi scum, sticking his nose in where it didn't belong, telling me how to raise the brat. He won't be sticking his nose in again, that should please you at least, I thought you wanted them all dead."
"Kenobi is mine, what did you do with him?" Vader demanded, pretending complete ignorance of Obi-Wan's fate, he wanted details; he wanted to know what Lars had done.
"I didn't do anything, except earn myself a reward by telling the men looking for him where they would be able to find him on a particular day of the week. Got him the hell off my back, brought in some much needed cash, it isn't easy, feeding a kid you know, that's why Beru and I hadn't started a family of our own when he came and dropped your brat on us."
"That was a mistake, although not your only mistake, if you had left him alone, and genuinely cared about my son, you would have lived through my retrieving him," he said flatly, raising one hand and closing his fist, squeezing hard as he focused, visualizing his step-brother's throat under his fingers, 'feeling' the delicate tissues tearing, and the bones cracking. Owen barely had time to utter a strangled protest when he felt the invisible fingers closing around his throat in a crushing grip, the next instant, his body dropped lifelessly to the sands, and Vader stepped past it, heading into the homestead, he wanted to see how his son had lived the first three years of his life.
Inside, he found his son's room easily, by following the bright Force signature that had been left most strongly on that room. Stepping inside, he found a comfortable bedroom with a hand sewn cover on the small bed, there were toys and games for a child in here, and a sense of peace, giving him the impression that Owen had never, or at least rarely, set foot inside this room, and that Beru had genuinely loved the little boy that Obi-Wan had placed in her care. He touched the soft toys on the bed lightly, getting a read on them, and felt that they were all equally loved, if the boy had a favourite, he had it with him, there was nothing he would need to take from here before he went after them, nothing that he could not replace when he had his children back on Coruscant, where they belonged.
Leaving the house, he climbed back up into the growing darkness, looking at the moons for a long moment, thinking about whether or not he should burn the homestead to the ground, but in the end, he decided not to, if Beru genuinely cared about his son, if she had had nothing to do with what Owen had done to Obi-Wan, he would let her live, and she would need this place, to sell, if nothing else.
/x/
Beru huddled in the small house set into the cliffs, crying quietly as she cradled the three year old Luke in her lap, fast asleep, she hated to be here, after what Owen had done, but it was the only place she could run to with Luke where they wouldn't endanger anyone else, once they heard that the star destroyer had entered orbit. The principled, quiet Jedi had been a good man, and she had been truly fond of him, though she suspected deep down that that was why Owen had given Ben away to the rebels, jealousy, and the money they had given him.
She heard the whine of repulsors, and rose, carrying Luke with her as she went to open the crude wooden door, no sense in prolonging the inevitable, and potentially making this more traumatic for Luke. The boxy white shuttle set down on the shifting sands, and the black clad figure strode down the ramp as soon as it extended, heading straight for her.
"Is that my son?" he asked.
"Yes, this is Luke," she said, shifting her grip as he started to stir at the sound of an unknown voice.
"Luke?"
"Luke Skywalker, he had already been named when Ben brought him to us, he said his mother named him before she died."
"Ben? You mean Obi-Wan?"
"I don't know, the name he gave was Ben, but he didn't always remember to answer to it. He was a nice man though; he didn't deserve what Owen did to him."
"You knew about that?"
"I found out after, when he started spending money he hadn't had before. I was so angry with him, but there was nothing I could do about it, it was too late."
"You could have left him."
"And gone where, done what? I couldn't have left Luke there with him, he resented him for not being his own son, and I would have had no way to feed him if I had run with him, I was stuck there."
"Well, you're not stuck any longer; you can either remain on the farm, or sell it."
"He's dead then?" she asked, mildly saddened for the loss of the kind young man she had once fallen in love with, but not for the loss of the unkind, petty man he had become.
"Yes, he was entirely too pleased with himself, for what he did to Obi-Wan, and he made his opinion on my son fairly clear. Is this where Obi-Wan was living?" he asked, stepping past her into the rough, comfortless dwelling, feeling his heart ache a little for his former master, this was even poorer than where he had lived as a slave, and Obi-Wan had never done too well with being overly hot, and he had come here in an effort to protect his former Padawan's son, which put a final end to his doubts on Obi-Wan's feelings toward him, if he hadn't cared, he wouldn't have taken this task on.
"Yes, he seemed terribly lonely whenever I saw him, but…I got the impression that he would have been lonely even if he had been in Mos Eisley , or Anchorhead, that whatever he was missing, it was a long way from here."
"Yes, it was," he said distractedly, his attention drawn by a rough wooden trunk at the foot of the hard looking bed.
He knelt and opened the trunk, seeing two lightsabers lying side by side atop the sparse collection of clothing inside, glinting dully in the dim light of the single glow rod that lit the room, and he felt his heart break a little more, as he realized what was missing from the lightsaber collection, Obi-Wan had kept Qui-Gon's blade after the Master had died, keeping it in a handmade box in his quarters, along with the riverstone Qui-Gon had given Obi-Wan for his thirteenth birthday, Obi-Wan had cherished them, as all he had left of his Master, and now they were lost.
"Oh, Obi-Wan," he whispered, regret curling through him for the first time. He didn't regret embracing the Dark, but he did regret what he had cost Obi-Wan when he did so.
"Do you think that you will be able to find him, to help him?" she asked, tightly hugging Luke, who was now awake, and watching this stranger with wide eyed curiosity.
"I already have him, that's how I found out about Luke," he said, taking the two lightsabers and clipping them to the opposite side of his belt to his own blade, unwilling to see Obi-Wan lose anything else, assuming he lived.
"Is he all right?"
"No, he's not, he was tortured, and starved, and drugged. He's going to die, unless the medics on Coruscant can help him, when we get back there," he said bluntly.
"I hope he lives, that he will be well," she told him.
"So do I. I have to leave now, I have another stop to make before returning to Coruscant."
Beru nodded, more tears slipping unnoticed down her face as she tightly hugged Luke once more.
"Luke, this is your father, he's come to take you home with him," she said quietly to the boy as Vader moved to stand in front of her.
"Home, father?" the child asked, confused.
"Yes, Ben told you that your uncle was being untruthful, when he said your father was dead, and now he has come to take you away on a big ship, to go to your new home."
"You come too?" he asked, his lower lip quivering.
"No Luke, I have to stay here, but your father will be there, you'll have him."
"And a sister too, a twin sister to play with," Vader added, raising an eyebrow when Beru startled at that.
"A twin?" she whispered.
"Yes, why?"
"I thought…he talks sometimes about a girl he meets when he's asleep, they play in her home, a big white building, surrounded by gardens, I thought he was making her up, an imaginary friend, because there were no other children for him to play with."
"It could very well be his sister, he is strong in the Force already, and being twins would afford them a link that even most of the old Jedi order couldn't have managed, and she is on Alderaan, which would account for the description of the place. We're going to get her next, Luke, would you like to meet her in person?" he asked.
"Oh, yes," the boy said excitedly, squirming around and holding out his arms expectantly.
Vader obligingly lifted the boy away from her, settling him on his hip easily, and Beru smiled sadly.
"I'm sure you're going to be very happy Luke," she said, stepping aside to let Vader pass her, heading back to his shuttle, Luke waving over his shoulder at her until the ramp closed, sealing him from view.
Beru closed the door, going back inside the house, she would stay here until daylight, and then head back and take care of things back at the homestead.
/x/
Bail Organa looked up in surprise when his aide hurried into his office without signalling first, frowning when he saw the man was pale and sweating.
"Prince Organa, Lord Vader is here to see you," he gulped.
"Here? Now? I wasn't notified that his ship had entered orbit, or I would have sent a greeting party," he said, forcing his voice to remain level, even as his heart and stomach felt like they were attempting to switch places, Alderaan had been left alone since the rise of the Empire, much like Naboo, they had done nothing to attract negative attention from the Empire, or the Empire's attack dog, Vader, allowing Bail to continue silently aiding the rebellion in their efforts to overthrow them.
"Well, don't keep him waiting Dax, show him in," he said, rising nervously.
"Lord Vader, welcome to Alderaan. What can our humble planet do for you?" he asked as Vader swept into the room.
"I require nothing of Alderaan, what I require is something more personally from you."
"Of course, anything," he said, his nerves increasing, that didn't sound good.
"Firstly, you can have my daughter brought here to me, I will be taking her with me when I leave, and if I have to find her myself, I will kill anyone who gets between me and her."
"My Lord, I don't know what…"
"Do not attempt to lie to me, Organa, Obi-Wan told me that you had her."
"Obi-Wan?" he asked, biting down on the words that almost slipped out, that he had thought that Obi-Wan had been captured by the rebel alliance.
"Yes, and that is the second thing, the one that will determine how painfully you die for hiding my child from me. Why did you give Obi-Wan to your rebel cohorts? Did you know what they were going to do to him?"
"I…yes, I knew what Dodonna was more than likely going to do to him, but there was nothing I could do about it, he knew that I knew where Obi-Wan was, and he was determined to find any other Jedi that might be hiding out."
"You could have given up Yoda instead, Obi-Wan was watching over my son," he snarled.
"Dodonna didn't want Yoda, it was Obi-Wan he wanted."
"Yes, he's had it in for Obi-Wan for years, it would have been better if you had told me where he was, at least he would have died quickly, in a lightsaber battle, as he deserved. I found him shackled to a wall, in a freezing cell, starved, tortured and drugged, and this was done by people he had spent his whole life fighting for. You and your precious rebel alliance, hypocrites the lot of you, decrying the Empire, and then acting far, far worse."
"I gather then, that you have taken Dodonna's base?" Bail asked, seeing no point in denying any longer that he was connected to the rebellion.
"Yes, his interrogation should be quite entertaining; I am looking forward to it. Now, enough hedging, where is my daughter?"
Bail reached for the comm. on his desk, sighing softly before pressing the button.
"Dax, will you find Leia for me, bring her to my office."
"Now, Prince Organa?" Dax asked, a definite squeak in his voice.
"Yes, now Dax, Lord Vader wishes to meet her," he said.
"At once, my prince."
It was Breha Organa who escorted the little girl in a few minutes later, looking warily at the tall figure of the Sith Lord.
"Thank you Breha," he said, unsure how to tell her he wanted her to leave the room again.
"Leia is always thrilled to visit with you during the day, you know that dear," Breha said, picking up the tense undercurrents in the room. She knew that Leia was going to be gone after today, and more than likely, Bail was going to be killed, something she had known was a possibility from the moment he brought the child home with him, after Padme's death, she had no desire to live without the both of them, if Vader was going to kill her husband, then he could kill her too.
"Yes, I know. Leia, come here, precious, come and meet Lord Vader."
Vader watched the little girl pad over, he had seen pretty much only himself in Luke, but Leia was pure Padmé, pretty, with long, dark hair and big brown eyes.
"Leia, Lord Vader is going to be taking you away with him today," he said gently.
"No, I don't want to go away daddy."
"Precious, Lord Vader is your real father; we were just taking care of you for a while, now it's time for you to go home. I know it's scary, but you will be fine Leia."
"You have a twin brother waiting to meet you up on my ship, Leia," Vader said quietly.
"The boy from the place with all the sand?" she asked.
"Yes, that's right, his name is Luke, and he's looking forward to meeting you in person."
"But, I like it here, I don't want to leave."
"You'll grow to love Coruscant too, I first went there myself when I was just a boy, and I thought it was the coolest place I had ever seen."
She looked sulky, but didn't protest any further, obviously knowing even at only three years old that she wasn't getting a choice in this.
"Why don't you go to your room, and pick up anything you might want to take with you," Breha said gently, ushering the child to the door.
"Dax, would you walk Leia back to her room please, help her pick up a few of her favourite things, she will be leaving us today," she said, forcing herself to sound normal.
"Of course, mi'lady," he said, taking Leia's hand and leading her away.
Breha came back into the office, closing the door, moving to stand at her husband's side, in front of Vader.
"May I beg a favour, my Lord Vader?" she asked coolly.
"You can certainly ask," he said, mildly surprised, he had always thought her rather insipid, weak.
"Allow our deaths to appear accidental, some time after you have returned to Coruscant with Leia. If she were to know now that you ordered our deaths, or had a hand in them, it would create a rift between you that would never heal."
He considered for a moment, weighing his need to make them pay, against his desire to have his family as whole as it could be.
"Very well, but you will be watched, monitored closely, to ensure there is no further contact with any of the rebellion, and no attempts to escape."
"Of course," she agreed easily, she had never really approved of her husband's association with the rebellion, even if she hadn't really liked the Empire all that much either, they were still a part of it, and loyalty had been sworn. In her opinion, if Bail had wanted to be a part of the rebellion, he should have stepped down from his position as leader of Alderaan, instead of breaching his oath of loyalty, and risking the safety of all of the people of the planet.
/x/
Darth Vader sat in the dimly lit study of his home, staring blankly at the unlit comm. screen, not really thinking about anything at all, just waiting. His children were upstairs, settling into their new bedrooms under the watchful eye of a trusted servant, who would see to getting them anything they needed in the short term, and Obi-Wan's stasis unit had been shipped off to the medical facility that his Medical Officer had decided was the seriously ill Jedi's best chance of survival, so now he waited, for a report from the medical center, or the summons he knew was going to come from the Emperor. He still had no clear idea what he was going to say to Palpatine, either about his children or Obi-Wan, but one thing he was sure of, he wasn't going to let the man take any of them away from him, having them with him finally seemed to have corrected something that hadn't felt quite right since the rise of the Empire.
The screen whistled for attention, and he reached out with the Force to hit the button to accept the incoming call, not remotely surprised to see one of Palpatine's aides appear on the screen.
"Lord Vader, his Majesty demands your presence in the throne room, immediately," the aide said flatly, without preamble.
"I will be there directly," he said simply, shutting off the screen and rising to his feet.
He informed his servants that he was leaving, and that they were to watch the children, and be on the alert for any communication from the medical facility while he was gone, and then he left, climbing into his speeder and taking to the skies, heading for the palace that rose into the sky where the Jedi temple had once stood.
He could feel Palpatine's anger before he opened the door, and was ready for the virulent yellow eyed glare that nailed him in the moment he stepped into the room.
"Ah, Lord Vader. You have an explanation for me I trust? And it will be a good one too, I assume."
"Yes, Majesty. We completed the raid on the rebel base we had located with very little resistance; they didn't have time to put up much of a defence. When I was checking the base, after we had located and subdued the rebel leaders who were present at the time, I sensed the pain and suffering of a Force trained individual and followed it to the source, I…I thought while I was tracking it that it might have been one of your hands that had been captured, that you hadn't mentioned to me, or didn't yet know had been taken, but when I reached the cell, I found Obi-Wan Kenobi shackled to the wall, tortured, drugged, starved…dying. He told me that my children had not died with their mother, and he told me where they were."
"That does not explain why you have decided to go to such lengths to ensure the survival of an enemy of the Empire, one whose death sentence I ordered myself."
"I can't really explain it very well, it's…can't you feel it? That sense that something that has been subtly off since that day now has the potential to be corrected, if he lives? The Force willed that I not kill him," he said softly.
"He won't turn, he's too light."
"No, I know, I do not believe he is meant to, only one of us was to turn, and you chose that it would be me," Vader murmured, his eyes going glassy for a moment.
"As if I could have turned him," Palpatine dismissed, sneering.
Thinking about Obi-Wan, about the years they had spent together, Vader shook his head slightly.
"There were two occasions that I know of where he skirted very close to falling, if you had timed it well, you could have taken him. One was Naboo, after Qui-Gon died on Darth Maul's blade, and the other was after Rattatak, after Ventress had got hold of him, the Darkness loomed very close to him during his rescue and recovery from that, so close it scared me, I was afraid I was going to lose him, just after getting him back."
Palpatine leaned back in his throne, his mind whirling with the thought that he could have taken Kenobi from the Jedi years before he turned their Chosen one, but then he dismissed it, the past was done with now.
"Why was he imprisoned? I would have thought that the rebels would have welcomed him as one of them."
Vader felt his anger surge once more at the thought of it, their betrayal of Obi-Wan.
"It seems that they blame the Jedi for the fall of the republic, they are just as anxious to hunt them down and kill them as we are, not helped by Dodonna's personal animosity towards Obi-Wan."
"But you don't think this treatment would have the potential to turn him?"
"No."
"And you expect me to let him live regardless, to allow him to remain here? You think he would agree to this?" Palpatine asked, although he knew that he was going to give in on the subject, because he could feel the potential that Vader had mentioned, the possible difference between a struggle and many years of war to maintain the Empire, although, he did notice that already the most threatening path had faded away for some reason, and a much more stable Empire, and a faster, less bloody end to the rebellion. Much as it galled him, if Kenobi lived, he was going to have to back Vader's desire to keep him here, and not by the use of force or coercion, either.
"Very well, if he lives you have my permission to try to convince him to stay."
"My thanks, Majesty," Vader said, trying very hard not to think that he would have found a way even without permission.
"You are dismissed, I expect to be kept up to date on the outcomes of your interrogations of the captured rebels," he said.
"Yes, Majesty," he agreed, backing out of the throne room.
He frowned slightly as he walked through the palace corridors, ignoring the various courtiers and servants who bustled around the place, he hadn't even thought about the interrogations, for all that he was truly looking forward to going to work on Dodonna personally. He would have to stop by the detention center when he left here, make sure that Dodonna was still being kept as per his instructions on the ship, and make sure the interrogators left him for Vader's personal attention, and that they had started on the lesser rebels that had been captured, then on to the medical facility to see if there was any report yet on Obi-Wan's status, and finally home, to share dinner with his children, something he still had trouble believing was for real.
/x/
A staff member hurried over the moment Vader entered the medical facility, greeting him with an obsequious bow.
"My Lord Vader," he simpered.
"I am here for a report on Obi-Wan Kenobi," he said bluntly, cutting through the man's simpering air impatiently.
"Of course, Lord Vader, come this way."
He was led to a private room, where Obi-Wan lay in the only bed, looking pale and fragile, connected to more support equipment than Vader had ever seen in his life.
"We very nearly lost him to revival shock, which precipitated failure of his heart, and lungs. We're holding him as stable as we can on life support while the genetic mapping is carried out to clone replacements for the damaged organs. I won't attempt to lie to you, Lord Vader, this is going to be a hard fight, for us, and for him, he's facing a lot of surgery, and he is very weak. At this moment in time, I would put his chances of survival at little better than 50/50."
"Very well, I will expect to be kept fully informed, now leave us," he ordered.
The man bowed once more, withdrawing blessedly silently from the room, and Vader stepped up to the bedside, taking one cold hand in his, careful not to disturb the tubes and wires.
"Please Obi-Wan, I know you were ready to die, more than ready, but live, please live. I don't want to lose you again, not now that the Force has brought us back together again. I…I love you Obi-Wan, even if I always was too stubborn to admit it to myself, please stay," he whispered, stroking lightly through the pale red hair with his free hand, lightly tracing the hints of grey that were starting to appear at the temples.
Obi-Wan sat shivering, huddled in a cold, formless grey place, thoroughly lost and alone. He wasn't sure what he had really expected from death, from joining the Force, but it wasn't this emptiness. He heard a single soft footstep, and then a warm and heart-wrenchingly familiar arm closed around his shoulders, pulling him against a broad, solid chest.
"Oh, my Obi-Wan."
"Qui-Gon," he breathed, turning into that warm embrace.
"Is this really what comes after death, Qui-Gon?" he asked.
"No, my precious child. You aren't dead, this is…the middle ground I suppose, where you will stay until you decide one way or the other, but it is also where those of us who are gone can speak with those who are here, if there was a strong enough connection in life."
"What decision? I already decided, I was ready to die, ready to join the Force, ready to see you again, Master."
"Do not decide hastily child, it is not your time yet, and you have more to do."
"What could there possibly still be for me to do? I failed in the one simple task you gave me, to train Anakin, and now everything is gone, the Jedi are gone, those few who are left it seems are destined to be hated by those we were once expected to spill our blood for. What possible use could I be there?"
"You didn't fail, little one, you just didn't have all the information you needed, neither did I, until it was far too late. The prophesy of the Chosen one that I saw, the version that I was working from when I found Anakin, it was incomplete. The Chosen one isn't one person, it's two, specifically, two as one, one Dark and one Light, two sides of one coin. You and Anakin were meant to be together, one of you was to choose the Darkness and the other would remain in the Light, but you were to remain together, companions, partners, perhaps even lovers, but together. Yoda very nearly destroyed the chance at the prophesy coming to pass when he sent you after Anakin three years ago, but the Force ensured you didn't kill each other, and brought him to you when you needed him the most. Remaining together, the two of you would eventually attain true balance," Qui-Gon said, the arm that wasn't still wrapped tightly around Obi-Wan gesturing slightly, a coin appearing in his hand, one face dark and one face lighter.
"What do you see?" he asked.
"A coin, with two different colored faces," he said, puzzled at the question.
"But, do the colors of the faces matter, or only the use you put it to? You could use it toward buying a weapon to hurt people, or you could use it to buy food for a starving child, but it is the same coin either way."
"There is no Dark or Light, only the Force," Obi-Wan questioned, unsure if he should be scandalized by such a notion.
"When the two of you are in balance, yes. You both came very close to it a few times during the war, when you were in battle together, when your link was at its strongest, but it was too early then, the choice hadn't been made by one of you to become the other face of the coin."
"I can hardly see Palpatine, or Yoda either for that matter, embracing such a notion."
"It doesn't matter, their times are at an end, they will be the last Jedi, and the last Sith, the future will belong to you and Anakin, you will be the ones teaching the next generation of Force users, not them, and the Empire will be stronger for it."
"Anakin rejected me, my teachings, he chose Padmé, and Palpatine, and the Empire, there is no room for me in his life," he pointed out, feeling like crying, Qui-Gon painted such a promising picture of the future, but it couldn't be.
"You're wrong, Obi-Wan," he said, gesturing with his free hand again, the coin disappearing as a wavering image appeared before them, the sound garbled as if coming through water, but clear enough for Obi-Wan to make out the words asking him to live, telling him he loved him.
"Oh," he whispered, stunned.
"There are two more things I have to tell you Obi-Wan, things I so wanted to tell you when I was alive, but was forbidden doing so until you were knighted. The first, you are my son, my own child," he said quietly.
"Why, why didn't you tell me, why did you obey their order in that when you disobeyed so readily on everything else?"
"Because they would have taken you from me, sent you away from the Jedi and placed you where I would never find you, your memories altered to stop you from finding me. That is why I disobeyed everything else so readily, it was the only way I could demonstrate my…unhappiness…with their command."
"And the second thing?"
"I carried you, I gave birth to you myself. You are capable of getting pregnant, carrying and birthing a child."
"What? Surely that at least you should have been permitted to warn me about. Not that I was particularly interested in that kind of thing, but still," he squeaked, blushing hotly.
"Don't worry little one, it wouldn't be quite that simple, you should have received a hormone injection when you reached the age of sexual maturity to kick start your breeding abilities, but they decided that that too could wait until you were knighted. I suppose with me gone, they just decided that they wouldn't tell you of it."
"Is that why I've never been remotely interested in sex? Because they decided to leave me 'switched off'?" he demanded angrily.
"Yes. It has been left so late that taking the injection now would be uncomfortable, honestly, painful, for some of the changes that will happen to your body, but your child bearing capability would not be affected; as long as you regain your health, there is no reason you cannot have a baby."
"Oh," he said again numbly, thinking it over.
"What happens, out there, if I die?" he asked quietly.
"The Darkness will continue to grow, balance will be impossible, the war with the rebels will go on, getting bloodier and bloodier as the rebels grow more desperate, and the Empire grows angrier with them. As the Jedi were virtually unopposed for a thousand years, so too will it be for the Sith, until, when the thousand years is up, the Force will once more Choose two to be the One who has the potential to bring balance."
"I don't really have a choice then, do I?" Obi-Wan asked wearily.
"Yes you do child, you have done your duty to the galaxy, you have fought, and bled, and died more than once for them, and they repaid you by trying to kill you once more, you owe them nothing, let them fight their own battles for once. Do not go back out of duty little one, go back because you want the life that is possible for you there, otherwise, much as it would sadden me to see your life cut so brutally short, I would sooner have you come home to me in the Force."
Obi-Wan curled into Qui-Gon's arms, for the first time in his life, thinking about what he wanted, what was the best thing for him to do, for his own happiness and wellbeing.
/x/
Vader stood in the viewing room, looking into the cell below, where Dodonna hung in the chains on the wall, much the way Obi-Wan had been when he had first seem him in that rebel base. He didn't turn as Palpatine glided up beside him.
"This is the last prisoner left now, Lord Vader, do you really think that there is anything more you can extract from him?"
"No, but it isn't about getting information from him anymore. I fully believe we have everything that he could tell us, we have the locations of a half dozen more rebel bases than we got from the rank and file we interrogated. This isn't about information from him anymore; this is about him paying for what he did to Obi-Wan. For every day that Obi-Wan lies in a coma in that depressing room, I will deny Dodonna the release of death."
"Ah yes, Kenobi; what is his condition now?"
"Most of the surgeries are done, there is one more to replace his damaged kidneys, and then it would just be a matter of building up his strength, getting him back to full health, but he shows no sign of coming out of the coma."
"Hmm, and your children?"
"Settling in well, they are doing well at school, and even Leia is thinking less about the life she had before, in fact, it may be time to arrange the accident for Bail and Breha Organa soon."
"Good, then you will stop finding reasons not to go and take out some of those rebel bases we have been told of, won't you, before they take it into their heads to scuttle under different rocks."
Vader managed to avoid pulling a face, knowing that the Emperor would not appreciate it, he supposed he was fortunate that Palpatine had given him a month's grace before sending him back out again, and the rebels did need to be taken care of, but damn it, he didn't want to go.
"Yes, Majesty, I will order the Vengeance readied to leave orbit," he said.
"Good," Palpatine said simply, leaving the room.
Vader muttered a soft curse under his breath, and went looking for the officer in charge of the detention center, to make sure that Dodonna would receive the appropriate treatment while he was away, and then headed over to the medical facility, to ensure the same thing regarding Obi-Wan, before heading off to face the more difficult task of the three.
The children were together in their playroom when he got him, one dark and one blond head bent together over a book they were reading.
"Luke, Leia," he said quietly, entering the room.
"Father," they said in unison, putting the book down and hurrying over to stand in front of him.
He knelt so that he was more of a height with them, and sighed softly.
"I have to go away for a little while, there are some enemy bases we have found the location of, that the Emperor has ordered me to go and deal with," he said gently.
"What about us?" Luke asked.
"I will be leaving Devin in charge here, I want you two to mind what he says, and be good. I'll try to call every day to speak with you," he promised.
"Yes, father," they said as one.
"Good, you two go back to your book, I'll come and see you again before I leave," he said.
They scampered back over to their book, and he left the room, going to make his preparations to leave.
/x/
Vader leaned back in his chair, scrubbing his hands across his face tiredly. He had been out on the Vengeance for the better part of a month now, and while he had managed to speak to the children nearly every night, he missed being there with them, and he could tell that they weren't happy either. They had worked their way through all of the bases that had been identified by their previous prisoners, and while some had been deserted, the rebels already relocated, others they had wiped out of existence, taking the base commanders prisoner, and killing everyone else, but they hadn't found any of the other suspected rebel leaders.
Leaning forward again, he routed another call through to Coruscant, he had to report in to Palpatine, he was hoping the man would tell him he could return to Coruscant now, there was little else he could do out here until their prisoners had been interrogated, and after a month, the Vengeance needed to put in for resupply anyway, weapons were getting low.
He moved to the other pickup as the call was transferred to the Emperor, going down on one knee and bowing his head.
"What news, Lord Vader?"
"We have raided all of the rebel bases we were given the locations of, and have several more prisoners, the base commanders, from the bases that had not been abandoned, but none of the suspected ranking rebel leaders were found at these locations. Vengeance needs to put in for re-supply; we have lost thirty percent of our TIE fighters, and are no longer carrying enough weaponry to launch another full scale attack."
"Very well, return to Coruscant, we will see what the interrogators can get out of your prisoners."
"Yes, Majesty," he said, relief coursing through him.
"Hmm, I thought that would please you," Palpatine said, cutting the connection.
Vader didn't let the abrupt termination of the communication bother him; he had to get this ship headed home.
/x/
Obi-Wan opened his eyes to see an unfamiliar ceiling above him, shadowy in the dim light that suffused the room. He felt like he had been blown up, and someone hadn't quite put all his pieces back in the right place, everything hurt vaguely, and his limbs didn't seem to want to move. He could see IV lines coming from somewhere above him, so he figured there were needles in him somewhere, and forcing his head to turn, he could see wires and tubes vanishing under the sheet that covered him, a lot of them. His memory seemed to be one big, empty void; he had no idea how he had gotten into this state, or where he was.
A young woman in a med-tech uniform came into the room, starting to check everything connected to him before realizing he was watching her.
"Oh, you're finally with us, we were beginning to worry," she said, raising the light level in the room fractionally and moving to stand beside him.
"I need to ask you some questions, just to see how you're doing," she said lightly, checking his pulse, and his pupil reaction.
"Questions?" he asked hoarsely, irrational fear shuddering through him from nowhere at the thought.
"Nothing too taxing," she said cheerfully, registering the jump in his pulse rate with a slight frown.
"Ok, I suppose," he croaked uncertainly.
"Can you tell me your name?"
"Kenobi," he said.
"Do you know where you are?"
"Medical…somewhere."
"Ok, and the last thing you remember?"
"Sand, heat," he frowned.
"You don't remember how you came to be hurt?" she asked.
"No."
"All right, you take it easy, I'll let healer Morden know that you're awake," she said.
"Wait, water, please."
"I don't think you're allowed water just yet, I'll bring you some ice, ok?"
"Thank you."
She brought him some chipped ice and left him alone again to stare at the ceiling and try to figure out what was going on.
The next person through the door though wasn't healer Morden, whoever he might be, Anakin burst into the room in a flurry of dark fabric.
"You're awake, you're really awake," he breathed, hurrying to the bedside.
"Anakin?" he asked, his confusion growing, he definitely remembered the carnage in the temple, and the fight on Mustapha, why was Anakin suddenly acting the way he always had when Obi-Wan was hurt before that? He stiffened suddenly, gasping hard as seeing Anakin unlocked all the memories that had been out of reach, capture, pain, torture and misery, Anakin finding him, and talking in that other place with Qui-Gon.
"Obi-Wan?" he could hear the alarm in Anakin's voice, and feel the pressure of miss-matched hands on his shoulders.
"I'm ok, I'm ok, I just remember…everything," he gasped.
"You're safe now, I'm not going to let them hurt you again," he promised darkly.
"Don't make promises you can't keep Anakin, not again, there's still a war on, you can't promise to keep me from harm. I…I will accept a promise that you will do your best not to hurt me again," he said hesitantly.
"That you can have without reservation. Obi-Wan, I am sorry for what happened, I…I knew this was the path I was meant to follow, but I never wanted to hurt you, never wanted to take everything from you."
"I know, neither of us had all the information we needed, if we had, it would have been a lot more painless for both of us. Qui-Gon told me the Prophesy was incomplete, that it was both of us together that mattered, and that it isn't too late, if we want it."
"Yes."
"Good, did…did you find the twins?" he asked.
"I did, they're here on Coruscant now. Obi-Wan, it was Owen who told the rebels Dodonna sent after you where they could find you."
"That surprises me less than you might think, he resented me intervening when he tried to tell Luke that you were dead, that Beru would side with me on the subject. Does that mean that Bail wasn't involved?" he asked, guilt in his tone for the malice he had bourn toward the Alderaanian.
"No, he told them what planet to look on, but given where you were living, they probably never would have found you if Owen hadn't given you to them."
"You saw where I had been living."
"Yes, Beru ran there when I entered orbit of Tatooine, she had no part in what Owen did by the way, she said she hoped you were all right."
"She's still alive?"
"Yes, I had no reason to kill her. I retrieved your lightsabers for you, from the trunk."
"Thank you, I would have hated to lose them, although, one of them is rightfully yours."
"No it isn't, it's yours, you were right when you said I no longer had a right to carry that particular blade. Obi-Wan, I'm sorry you lost Master Qui-Gon's 'saber."
"That's all right Anakin, it still exists, I know that much, it will return to me, when the time is right."
Healer Morden bustled in then, hesitating fractionally, but then moving to the bedside.
"Lord Vader, we need to run a number of tests on our patient, and assess how much of this support equipment he's ready to come off. It would be best if you came back tomorrow," he said, hoping he wasn't going to be executed on the spot for speaking to the Dark Lord that way.
"Obi-Wan?"
"It's ok, we can talk tomorrow," he promised the younger man.
Vader nodded and withdrew from the room, leaving Obi-Wan to the mercy of the healers. He found his feet taking him in the direction of the detention center, and headed down to Dodonna's cell, shuddering at the cold as he stepped inside, meeting the glare of the weary, bloodshot eyes with equanimity.
"I am sure that you will be thrilled to hear that Obi-Wan is conscious, and well on his way to recovering," he said acidly.
"I hoped…I had done…enough to kill…the Jedi freak," Dodonna gasped painfully.
"Tut tut, and I had come here to finally release you to death. Well, perhaps a few more days will make you more grateful," he said, turning for the door.
Dodonna tried to spit at him, but couldn't work up enough saliva, he was only given enough food and water to keep him alive, his body wouldn't waste anything.
"Nasty habit that Dodonna, perhaps a gag will serve you well until I deem it time to let you die," he sneered, walking out of the door.
He headed for home then; he had promised the twins he would be back in time to put them to bed, when he had run out in the middle of dinner on sensing Obi-Wan surfacing.
/x/
Vader stood in the throne room later that night, his hands clasped behind his back as he gazed out across the cityscape, waiting for Palpatine to finish whatever report he was reading from a data-pad.
"So, Lord Vader, what have you left your happy little family to tell me?" he asked, only the barest hint of acid in his tone, Vader hadn't really lost any effectiveness since finding his children, only his desire to be out in space all the time.
"Obi-Wan is conscious, he seems…content…to be here."
"That is a good thing is it not, in light of the fact you want him to stay. What is bothering you about it?"
"He seems…different, more at peace with my turning. I kind of expected fireworks, having to argue with him to get him to agree, and it has thrown me a little that it didn't happen."
"Did he say anything that might explain this oddity?"
"Just that Qui-Gon had told him that the prophesy was incomplete, that it was about both of us together, but…I don't understand when he could have told him this."
"He was very near death; I believe you said that he technically was dead at one point when they brought him out of stasis. I have never experienced it personally, but apparently there is a state of 'limbo' where those that are near death can be contacted by those who have passed into the Force."
"So Qui-Gon could be responsible for this acceptance?"
"I don't know, it is just a suggestion, I think this is something you need to talk of with him, not me."
"I suppose. I also wanted to ask if you have stored anything that came out of the Jedi temple before the site was razed."
"Possibly, I did order it stripped, why?"
"Obi-Wan had Qui-Gon's lightsaber in his quarters, in a box with a rock that he gave him when he was thirteen, it was all he had left of his Master. He said the lightsaber hasn't been destroyed, I would like to return it to him, if I can."
"I ordered all of the Jedi blades destroyed," Palpatine stated coldly.
"Yes, but if someone packed it up somewhere without looking in the box…"
"Or if someone decided to keep an illicit souvenir that they thought I would not find out about," Palpatine added in annoyance.
"Or…if someone went in ahead of your people and took it. We never did manage to confirm Windu's death, and he knew Obi-Wan had that blade, well away from the areas you ordered stripped first, the armoury and the manufacturing section."
"A Jedi loose on Coruscant for three years would have come to my attention by now, as would one attempting to leave in the aftermath. Kenobi and Yoda would never have gotten away if the little green troll hadn't inconvenienced me so, in that last battle. And they were definitely the last ones off Coruscant."
"Not if he's simply laying low, and garnering information for the rebels, or any other Jedi that might be out there."
"I will have my Hands look into the possibilities, if Windu is anywhere on Coruscant, I want to know about, and if they should find your Jedi's lost memento among the things removed from the Temple, I will have them deliver it to you, for you to return to him," he said.
"Thank you, Majesty," he said, recognizing a dismissal when he heard one, he withdrew from the room.
tbc