A/N: Originally posted on ao3 under the pen name youngjusticewriter.
Even though Leia's adoptive father had held Fulcrum in such high regards Leia doesn't want to be here. Asking what Vader was like when he was man instead of the monster that Leia only knew.
But Luke ... he wants to know - wants her to know despite her objections. Leia is doing this for her brother. Not for Vader or even herself.
Her mother (not the sad beautiful one - and what else could she have been like as Vader's lover?- but her adoptive one, the one who had raised her) had once told her when she had been young that by understanding she would be able to move on. To let go. Maybe even forgive.
But that's the thing - the thing Luke never understands- Leia does not want to understand her father and his actions. It's better that way for her. Because it will be easier for Leia to hold onto the anger she feels for the man that was her father. (The man that could have raised her and Luke instead of working for the Emperor.)
But anger is unbecoming of Jedi in training that Leia is. Anger and hatred are the ways of the Sith - the way of Emperor and of Darth Vader - not the Jedi. Not of Luke who is so unlike Leia. He's hopeful while she is jaded. He's willing to forgive while Leia is unwilling to forget those who have wronged her or the people she cares for.
What does that mean for her and her future? Had Vader once been like her in his youth? Or had he been like Luke?
Leia doesn't know nor she does care to learn (because what it mean).