I don't own Star Wars.

The Slave

"And now your highness, we will discuss the location of your hidden Rebel base."

I smile in satisfaction, watching the girl's face pale as the torture droid approaches. The cell door closes behind me. Besides the torture and medical droids, the only others left in the cell with me and the princess are two guards, who I feel are completely unnecessary. Unfortunately, while I am on the Death Star, that power hungry weasel Tarkin has more authority than is good for him and insists on his own men being present.

The small girl tries to back herself as far into the corner as she can. Despite how immobile her fear seems to make her, I know she will not simply sit still and take the injection. I reach out with the Force and hold her in place, her arms tight to her sides. Her eyes grow wide with fear and she looks up at me when she feels herself restrained. The fear in her eyes would usually have left me reveling in her agony. But now I find I can't look at her. I don't know why, but I have to look away.

I turn my head so that it seems as though I am looking at one of the medical readouts that is to monitor the princess's condition. She is not to be killed…yet, so every possible precaution has been put in place to ensure she would survive.

I wait until I know the medical droid has attached the readout to her. When I dare to look back at the girl, the readout has been attached to her arm and has already begun to run test on her blood. The look in her eyes is one that is all too familiar to me. I have seen it in countless Rebel prisoners. But these eyes…

I feel unwanted memories trying to force themselves to the front of my mind. I shove them aside, and channel the anger I feel at my weakness into holding the Rebel princess even tighter in my invisible grasp.

The torture droid is hovering in the middle of the cell waiting for the order to proceed. I wave my hand and the droid starts moving towards the princess again.

Leia Organa's face has become as white as her dress and I feel her try to free herself from my grip. I feel her scream building up inside her chest, but she holds it in. She does not want to give me the satisfaction. But when the droid inserts the needle causing the serum to flow into her veins, she does scream.

I force myself to watch her face, trying to read her mind. But the look I had seen in her eyes was agonizing and her scream… I didn't think that any piece had survived all these years, but her scream tore what was left of my heart.

The instant the scream escapes her, I feel my resolve crumble. I can't handle it. As I turn and make for the cell door, I release her. The moment I release her, several things happen at once.

In my haste to leave, I trip over the I.V. tube that connected the princess to the readout, ripping the tube off the readout and out of the princess's arm causing blood to splatter on her arm and sleeve. The readout spins out of control, exposing another needle that sticks into my arm. But the needle prick is nothing compared to the blinding surge in the Force that I feel that causes both of the droids and the guards' blasters to blow apart.

At first I cannot tell where the surge came from, so I believe that I have reacted in my fury of finding the readout stuck in my arm. Hardly believing that it has even managed to pierce my armor, I rip the readout from my arm and intend to crush it. But before I can, something on the screen catches my attention. In the brief moment it had been in my arm, it had managed to test my blood next to the princess's. I freeze, staring at the readout. The guards stand nervously looking at each other waiting for an order. The princess whimpers quietly in the corner clutching at the needle injuries on both her arms, the drugs in the serum not yet taking effect.

I do not know how long it took for me to find my voice. Finally I speak without looking up from the screen. "Leave!" I command. "I will interrogate the princess alone."

After quickly picking up what blaster and droid debris they can, the guards scurry out of the cell, Tarkin's orders completely forgotten in their fear.

"All recording devices in this cell are to be deactivated immediately," I add as an afterthought just before the cell door closes.

I continue to stare at the readout, not believing what I am seeing. I sense that the recording devises have been deactivated and that I am now free to do what I wish without interference. But I just continue to stare at the readout, trying to understand how it could be possible.

I feel the girl shiver in the corner and I know that she is now unconscious. I look at her knowing now why her eyes had that terrifying effect on me…

Anakin, your breaking my heart.

Why had I not seen it? She is the image of her mother – my angel. Crushing the readout and destroying its data in the process, I walk over to her and sit on the bench, simply looking at her. Before I can stop myself or even think about my actions, I do something that I have never believed I would be able to do – I pick up my little girl and just hold her in my arms, wrapping my cloak around her to stop her shivering. How old is she? She is so small, yet she looks and acts so grown up. Three days from now it will be sixteen years ago – sixteen years since my wife died. My daughter is still only fifteen.

I can now feel that she is Force sensitive, and I smile as I realize that she is the one who blew up the droids and blasters – how fitting that the first person to make me smile is the daughter of the one who was the last to make me smile.

I brush a few loose strands of hair back from her face and try to read her mind. I find nothing about the Rebel base, but I had not expected to and I soon realize that I am not trying very hard. I gently reach into her mind to wake her, but when she opens her eyes she is not the same girl I had seen only moments before. She is delirious, her fight is gone, and so is her spiteful personality. It seems the serum had a greater effect on her than I had anticipated.

Seeing my daughter like this, I have no desire to ask her about the Rebels. And yet, I have no end to the questions I want to ask. Why is she an Organa? Where is Padmé? Leia is living proof that she did not die on Mustafar as my master has made me believe. So what happened to her? If she had survived Mustafar, what could have caused her to give up our child? Was she lied to about Leia just as I had been? Is she out there somewhere having mourned the death of her infant daughter just as I have mourned for her and our child for almost sixteen years? Or did the sudden, broken emptiness I felt when I took my first breath in this suit mark the death of my beloved? Does Leia even know her parents' names?

I had never called her or referred to her as just Leia. Doing so will feel shamefully foreign to me I realize, and will feel the same for her as well. But I have to use her name…just once. "Who was your mother, Leia?" I ask.

My daughter looks up at my mask, but there is no recognition in her face. "Breha Organa," she says quietly.

"No," I shake my head. "No. I mean your real mother. Your birth mother." I can hear the panic and desperation in my voice even through the voice simulator. I stroke her face as though hoping that will draw out the information I need. As I do so, I feel myself believing that this is just another interrogation. Not the one I thought I would be conducting an hour ago, but an interrogation nonetheless.

No, I cannot think like that. I am not going to hurt her. I will protect her. The Darkness cannot drag me down…at least I will not let it do so near my daughter. I will not hurt her as I did her mother, and I will not let myself think that I could hurt her. But I also need information to know what to do next.

"Leia," I try again, "who was your birth mother?"

She starts at her name this time, but then slips back into her compliant stupor. "I don't know," she says.

"What happened to her?" I feel desperate. If my daughter had survived Mustafar, maybe my angel had too. I need to find out what happened.

"She died."

Two words. Two simple words, but enough to almost shatter my world all over again. But she had be a baby. She couldn't have remembered. There might have been a mistake.

"What happened, Leia?" I ask, leaving the question wide open. In addition to forcing most prisoners to speak, the serum also keeps them from speaking when it is unnecessary. This question I hope will allow her to say everything she knows about her birth.

"My father fought in the Clone Wars" she says, "and was killed when Palpatine became the emperor. My parents thought that his death had something to do with my mother's. They told me that she tried to save him, but she was injured. He died when she was hurt, and she did not last much longer. She lived just long enough to give birth to me and name me. I was adopted by the Organas and taken to Alderaan in the next few days."

Her words cut deeper that I thought could ever be possible. Anakin Skywalker – that was the father she was told of. Not me.

Anakin Skywalker fought in the Clone Wars and was destroyed when Palpatine became the emperor. Anakin Skywalker's death had everything to do with her mother's. She tried to save him, but she was attacked. Anakin Skywalker died when I choked her, and according to my master, she did not last much longer and died on Mustafar from my attack. But according to my daughter, she lived just long enough to give birth to her and name her Leia. In the next few days, she too was no longer a Skywalker.

All my actions…blindingly obvious to those who know, yet mercifully hidden from my daughter. Every word carefully selected to shield her from the truth of the monster her father had become. In her mind, her father died a hero. Darth Vader had played no part in the destruction of her family. I silently thank the Organas for shielding her from this.

I ask her nothing more. I have no strength to do so. I sense that Leia is slowly becoming more aware of what is going on around her. I can feel her already carefully placed shields growing stronger. Before she can push me out entirely and keep it from be very effective, I reach gently into her mind again and push her back into unconsciousness. I then begin to build my own shields inside her mind, hiding the Alliance so that not even the emperor can find it as well as putting it farther from my own reach.

I wish with all my heart to take this mask off for just a moment. I have to leave, but I want to kiss my daughter before I go. I gently bring her face up to my mask – it is the closest thing to kissing her face that I can do right now. When I come back, I make sure I have the time it takes to remove the mask.

As I hold Leia, I feel a crushing sensation in my chest that I can't explain. It feels so familiar. It is painful, but not a kind of pain I ever felt as a Sith. Is it possible? Could it really be…?

I gently lay my child back on the bench. As I look into her sleeping face I know…

I love her. With every fiber of my being, I love my daughter. And I will do everything I can to protect her from Sidious. To my dying breath, I will protect my baby girl.

My Leia.

My angel's princess.