Chapter Three

Bast Castle- days later

Darth Vader awoke disoriented and in pain. A medical droid was hovering over him, and he heard the sound of a ventilator nearby. And then he realized that he was connected to it. Vader frowned, which, he noted, hurt considerably and focused his eyes on the droid.

"Where…what happened?" he murmured, his voice weak.

"You're on Vjun, my lord," the droid informed him. "You arrived here nearly two days ago. You've been unconscious ever since."

Vjun? How did I get here? And why do I feel like rancor shit? And then he remembered: the Death Star, the battle. As inconceivable as the notion had once been, the Rebels had managed to destroy the mighty station. No, not the rebels, the one I sensed, the one in the trench…the one whose force signature was nearly as strong as my own, Vader recollected. It all started coming back to him now as his mind started to clear. He himself had led the TIE fighters' elite pilots into the battle, and had dispatched several rebel fighters before following a handful into the large equatorial trench. There had been but one left; and yet that one had managed to do it. Vader had been sent spiraling out away from the Death Star when a random ship appeared from no where and destroyed his wingmen. But Vader had seen the explosion on his sensors, and had managed to pilot his way to Vjun. After that, he didn't know what had happened, but obviously his medical team had brought him inside and tended to his injuries. And then he remembered why he'd come to Vjun in the first place….Leia.

"Where is the princess?" Vader asked the droid. "Is she safe? Is she all right?"

"The princess has remained in stasis since she arrived, my lord," the droid reported. "You left orders not to wake her until you were present," he reminded Vader.

So I did, Vader reflected. "I want to see her," he said. "Now."

"Yes sir," the droid replied, knowing it wasn't wise to question Darth Vader, even if his own health was questionable.

With the droid's help, Vader donned his mask and helmet and left the room he'd been recovering in. According to the medical droid, Leia was in the adjacent room, where she'd had her injuries attended to while she was asleep. Vader was most anxious to see her, and went to her at once.

"How is the princess?" Vader asked the droid who was in the room with her.

"She is stable, my lord," the droid reported. "Her injuries are healing nicely."

"Good," Vader said, and then remembered the sample of Leia's blood that he'd gathered in her cell. "Run a DNA test on this at once," he instructed the droid. "I want to see if it matches my own."

"At once, sir," the droid replied, and took the swab from Vader's outstretched hand. Vader approached Leia's bedside as the droid busied itself with its task. Her face was pale and bore many bruises. She was very still, and yet the fact that her injuries had been tended to gave him some peace of mind. He reached out his mind to hers, to determine if she was still in any pain; but what he discovered upon doing so was not what he expected. Leia's mind was sleeping, granted; it was to be expected. And yet, there was a quality to it that he didn't know how to interpret. It was as though something was askew, or out of place, and Vader couldn't figure out what it was.

"My lord," the droid said as it returned to Vader. "I have the results of the DNA test," it reported.

Vader turned to it. "Well?" he asked simply.

"The princess' DNA is a match to your own, sir," the droid reported. "She is your blood relation."

Vader nodded, and looked back at Leia. "Her brain patterns," he said, "is there …anything amiss?" he asked, hoping he was wrong.

"There appears to be some brain damage, sir," the droid replied. "Of course we won't know for certain how extensive until she is awake."

Vader frowned and sat down on the edge of his daughter's bed. "I want you to wake her," he decided. "I need to know what we're dealing with here."

"Very well sir," the droid replied, and left to prepare to awaken Leia.

Vader sat in quiet contemplation as he waited for the droid to return, watching Leia as she slept. It seems that his whole life had changed by this small piece of information. Everything he had thought was true was a lie. So now what? he thought. What do I do now?

"I'm ready to administer the stimulant, Lord Vader."
Vader looked up at the droid and nodded. "Proceed," he said.

The droid at once administered the drug into the intravenous that Leia was connected to. Vader watched her closely, his mind fixed upon hers, as she slowly regained consciousness. As soon as she was awake, he knew at once that the droid had been right. Her mind was the same as it had been when he'd reached out to her on the Death Star; there was something wrong.

"Don't be afraid," Vader told her as Leia looked up at him with large, frightened eyes. "You're safe here. Your injuries have been tended to, and no one will ever hurt you again. Do you understand?"

Leia nodded, and looked around the room, her sense of fear escalating by her strange surroundings. "Where am I?" she asked.

"You are in my home," Vader told her. "I had you brought here after Motti…well, after you were injured."
Leia frowned. "I was injured?" she asked. "How? Who's …Motti?"

Vader looked at the droid, realizing what the brain damage it had mentioned meant; Leia had suffered memory loss. How significant it was remained to be seen; but it seemed quite profound, given the fact that she didn't seem to even know who Vader was. Her usual reaction upon seeing him was one of anger and a heightened sense of defensiveness. But Vader sensed neither of these things in her now; only a sense of confusion and disorientation.

"You were injured by Motti, a man who is now dead," Vader told her finally. "I brought you here to have your injuries looked after," he explained. "To have you cared for and protected."

Leia looked up at him. "Thank you," she said. "I …I'm sorry but I don't seem to remember who you are," she admitted.

"You have suffered some memory loss as a result of your injures," Vader told her. "I'm not certain if it's permanent," he added, looking at the droid for its opinion.

"We will have to run brain scans to determine the extent of the damage," it explained.

"Do so as soon as possible," Vader instructed it. "If she needs further rehabilitation, I don't want to delay." As much as he hated the thought of his own child hating him, the thought of her suffering brain damage was far more painful to him.

"Do you remember your name, young one?" Vader asked Leia.

Leia thought for a moment, and then frowned in frustration. "No," she admitted. "I don't. I don't seem to remember anything," she added, her eyes tearing up. "This is horrible! Please tell me who I am!"

Vader hesitated for a moment, and then reached over and took one of her small hands. "Your name is Leia," he told her. "And I am your father."

Leia stared up at the masked visage of the man who was her father, her frustration augmented by the fact that she had no memory of him.

"I…I wish I could remember you," she said finally. "What's wrong with me? Why can't I remember anything?"

"The injuries you incurred have caused you to suffer memory loss," Vader explained to her once again.

Leia frowned, his words not doing anything to alleviate her anxiety. "Will I get it back?" she asked hopefully. "Please tell me I will remember my life again!"

"That is yet to be determined, Leia," Vader told her.

Leia nodded, examining her father closely. "Were you injured too?" she asked him. "Is that why you're wearing that mask?"

"I was injured many years ago," he explained.

Leia digested this cryptic piece of information, trying her best to put together a rough sketch of her life. "I wish I could remember you," she said again.

"Well, it has only been recently that we have found one another," he told her. "I believed you died before you were born along with your mother."

Leia frowned. "My mother…my mother is dead?" she asked.

Vader simply nodded.

Leia looked away as her eyes filled with tears. "I don't even remember her," she said quietly.

Vader's own emotions were threatening to surface at the thought of his dear wife. "You wouldn't have known her, Leia," he told her. "She died when you were born."

Leia frowned as tears rolled down her face. "So who raised me, then? If she died, and you thought I'd died, who took care of me when I was a baby?" she asked, looking back at Vader. "Who have I called my parents all this time?"
"You were adopted by the Viceroy of Alderaan and his wife," Vader told her. "Bail and Breha Organa. They are your adopted parents."

Leia pondered this, trying to remember, wishing that the name sounded familiar. But it didn't. "Do they know I'm here?" she asked finally. "I mean, they must be worried," she added.

Vader frowned. This was not part of his plan. He knew that if Bail Organa knew Leia was here, he'd stop at nothing to bring her back to Alderaan. And Vader wasn't about to allow that. Leia was his child, after all. He'd spent the past nineteen years without her, thinking her dead; he wasn't about to let her go now. But what could he tell her? He had here a unique opportunity to create a bond with his child. Leia had no knowledge of the animosity that existed between them, of the atrocities he had committed, and the part he'd played in the destruction of the freedom she was fighting so hard to preserve. She doesn't hate me – how can I let her go now when I know that Organa will simply make her do so again?

"No doubt," he said finally. "I will send a message to Alderaan at once if that makes you feel better," he added.

Leia nodded. "Thank you," she said. "It would."

"In the meantime, you need to regain your strength," he said. "Are you hungry?"

Leia considered for this for a moment, and then decided she was. "Yes I am, actually," she said.

"I will have one of the droids bring you a meal," he said, standing up.

"Wait," she said. Vader turned back to her.

"Please stay with me," she said. "I …I don't want to be alone."

Vader was surprised by her request. "As you wish," he replied, sending for one of the clones on his comlink. "I shall stay until you fall asleep."

Leia smiled. "Thank you," she responded. "Father."

Vader was stunned that she would call him Father after so short an acquaintance; even more so by the strength of emotion that the word elicited within him. He had spent so long sublimating any emotion that wasn't dark in nature that he scarcely knew how to feel. My child, he thought, she is a part of me…a part of Padmé…and no one will ever take her away from me again.