AN:/ My editing got a tad sloppy on this chapter, I hope that you'll forgive me :)

Chapter Three

I could remember that day on Polis Massa very clearly, that day and the days before it were the worst of my life and then things that I had gone through and had done were something that I would never forget. But the most perplexing thing about those days was the death of Padme in itself the injuries in themselves shouldn't have killed her. Anakin had only choked her in the Force for five seconds at least, and yes, while she was injured, the injuries should not have killed her. My medical droid and the physicians had told us that she had simply not wanted to live anymore – it was not something that could be explained medically, in my opinion. Anakin's betrayal of her must have just broken her inside, and she slipped away – and that had been the last time I had been in a medical facility like this one. As I stood on the other side of the observation window and watched Bail and Luke huddle around Leia, I hoped that this would not be a repeat of that day, I hoped that Leia's father still had a heart.

With the lightsabers that I most definitely would be using tucked safely on the waist band of my formfitting pants, I frowned sadly at Luke. He was overcome with awful feelings in the Force, a feeling of complete and total sadness. It made me wonder if he was unconsciously unaware of his connection to her, I had no siblings, that I was aware of anyway, so I couldn't relate to him – but maybe it was happening. I had long come to the conclusion that the future of the Galaxy would be decided by those two, they were extremely powerful, their powers had only begun to manifest themselves, sure, but once they learned how to control them, the Sith, hopeful not their father, would not be able to stop them. They would correct all of this injustice.

But once again, the future hinged on the inevitable meeting between themselves and Vader, and as I folded my arms over my chest and opened myself slightly to the Force, closing my eyes and inhaling deeply. The ripples and waves in the Force itself had been reduced significantly, when there was once thousands of Jedi drawing upon the Force, there were only hundreds left, and then of course there was the Emperor, Vader and their minions. There was no point in hiding myself for the moment, he knew that I had resurfaced, he was hunting me and he would be here eventually if Bail had his way. Stretching my shoulders, I continued to heavily breathe in and out, as if I was reacquainting myself with an old friend that I hadn't seen in years. It was fairly obvious to know why I hadn't drawn on my connection to the Force that heavily over the past few years, but now that I did, I felt calmer.

Darth Vader had the propensity to inspire people to be unsettled at the thought of his arrival, but not so much with me for the obvious reason. Unlike many of his 'enemies' that he had crushed under his boot over the past five years, I knew exactly who was behind that mask. No matter what clothes he wore and no matter what person he thought he was, he was Anakin Skywalker and I had watched and observed him throughout most, if not all of his life off of Tatootine. I knew how he thought, I knew how he fought, I knew that no matter how in touch with the Dark Side he was, he was still the reckless, impulsive boy that I, for all intents and purposes, raised into adulthood. Perhaps that spoke more about my ability to teach someone than anything, that I was capable of having a hand in the creation of Darth Vader. I shook my head quickly to dislodge that thought from my overworked mind, I did not create him, I taught Anakin Skywalker – did I make mistakes? Yes I did, and did they help create Vader? Possibly, but I was not responsible for his birth as Darth Vader. Palpatine, Darth Sidious, whatever mask he wore, he created him.

And then as I stood there, watching Bail and the children, I stopped breathing for a moment because as I felt a very familiar presence collide with mine in the Force. In some ways, I was still the Master between us – these attacks through the Force, especially at long distances were amateur at best. Shutting my eyes and pouring my concentration into strengthening my resolve, I bit down on my lip as I slowly clamped down on my presence in the Force again and the weight that had seemingly placed itself on my chest was gone. Taking a deep breath in, I wiped the sweat that had percolated on my forehead off on my sleeve and worst of all, when I brought my arm up to do so – I felt very sore from an attack from Vader that only last a few seconds. I was by no means elderly or "weak' as he would consider me to be – it had just been a very long time since I had opened myself completely to the Force itself. Turning away from the observation window, I stopped as it finally occurred to me – I needed to stretch my metaphorical legs before I engaged him.

Vader had felt my presence not once but two or possibly three times – his master undoubtedly knew that I was still out there and if I remembered Vader or Anakin's penchant for grudges, their underlings had been warned to stay away from me, I was to be Vader's kill. It wasn't the best thing for me be open like this and be subject to potentially stronger mental attacks, but I had no choice, if I had any chance of surviving my encounter with Vader, I needed to do it. After all, he had exercised his powers quite healthy for the past five years – I had only touched the Force in minor ways. Finally deciding that it was best with firm nod, I departed the room, determined to reacquaint myself with the Force and with my combat abilities.

It was hard to get used to holding Anakin's weapon while fighting, his hand, even his artificial hand was enormous compared to my own and at first it was awkward to try and fight with it at first. My own lightsaber didn't take that long for me to reacquaint myself with, when I crafted the weapon after I lost the last one Naboo, it was specifically designed for my hand and for my fighting style. What I did not expect was that I was going to take to fighting very easily, like the past five years of keeping these lightsabers hidden always hadn't happened. Delivering a swift kick to the chest of my sparring partner, Bail, Breha and Leia's secretly Force Sensitive Bodyguard, Ryal – he flew back and bowed out the match to me by knelling on one knee. I was very impressed by this man, apparently, from what I had learned about him, he had been a Jedi washout, he, a native to Alderaan had gone to Coruscant when he was very young, but the council deemed him unfit.

An older man, in his mid-forties at most, he had come to the Temple at the very same time that Master Yoda had been my crèche master when I was still a very young child. And as he grinned up at me and his deep green eyes flashed with something akin to amazement, I had a flash of a memory in my mind. I knew his face, I had seen him before and quite expectantly, as I remembered the details of the memory, he had been taken to my crèche by Master Yoda to observe it. I deactivated the weapons and hooked them back onto my belt before cocking my head and smiling at him, "I do remember you! I remember thinking that you were so lucky to be attended to by Master Yoda! I was so jealous of you a-and you w-…"

"I was what, General Kenobi?" He asked me rising to his feet in one fluid motion.

I blushed and let out a very suddenly nervous little laugh, "You were the boy who gave me a flower from the Lake Level of the Temple, and you were my first crush."

That had taken place a few years before I moved up into the upper division and was eligible to be taken as a Padawan by a master, and it was a good six years before I almost didn't become a Jedi at all and served in AgriCorps for a time. He had given me the flower and kissed me on the cheek, and I had forgotten it for a time, but I was completely and totally sure that he was that same boy. He had the same light brown hair, that same smile, same sharp facial features, I was completely sure that he was him. And when he seemed to break out of his thoughtful look and yet another grin spread slowly across his face, I knew my suspicions were correct, "I had almost forgotten about that! You were the girl with the really long hair right? You kept it up in that knot and strutted around like y-…"

"Yes, yes, that was me," I told me, rolling my eyes and walking over to a bench on the side of the room to pick up a container of water. And after I got a healthy sip of it, I looked over to him and raised an eyebrow. "How isn't that you weren't placed in AgriCorps or something like that? If you demonstrated a connection to the Force there were ways that you could be of service, not that this isn't a good profession."

A wry smile curved his lips, "My parents were quite incensed that the Council had deemed me too old to train, and when the council offered that option to me, my parents actually came to Coruscant and… I will never forget this. I stood there and watched them give Master Yoda the thrashing of a life time, and I was only six years old at the time and I'm naturally amazed that he's not fearful of them."

I spied him with an incredulous look and in that moment, it made me want to meet the beings who had the fortitude, other than perhaps Emperor Palpatine himself, to look the Grand Master of the Jedi Order in the eye and berate him. Even in my years as a rebellious and petulant youth, I didn't have the fortitude to do that, and there were not many people left alive who could. But Ryal's parents were evidently one of the few and I wasn't quite sure if I gained respect for the man's parents or reviled them for disrespecting, arguably, one of the most powerful Jedi in all of history. Finally deciding to break that thought off, I laughed quietly, shook my head and we both took a seat on the bench to have a cool down before our next sparring match. What he said to me next however cast an awkward silence between us and I didn't know how much I should have revealed how much Bail would want me to reveal of the situation, "How did you manage to survive the purges for so long?"

"What has the Senator told you?" I asked him, inhaling a good breath of the clean, crisp Alderaan air – this planet was exceptionally beautiful and very, very peaceful.

"He told me that you managed to disarm Darth Vader and escape after your duel, he didn't confirm anything, but he once told me that you were the one that put him in that suit," He raised an eyebrow at me and with his albeit rudimentary sense of the Force, he was practically broadcasting his feelings and emotions and when I sensed no deception from him, I decided to at least give him a half truth of all of it.

I had encountered many undercover Imperial Intelligence Agents who thought that their deception was working and I thanked the Force that whoever was training them wasn't training Force Sensitive intelligence agents. Placing my hands in my lap, I looked over to him and smiled slightly, "I almost didn't walk away from the purges initially; I had been on assignment on Utapau when the extermination order came through. Luckily the Clone who fired on me had a bit of a sloppy aim and I survived it, narrowly of course, but I still did survive it to see what happened next. I didn't know who Darth Vader was at that time and I almost wish I didn't find out."

Ryal blinked as it dawned on him, "You know who he is under-… all of that."

I nodded, looking absently at the ground, "Yes, and I specifically get to carry the burden of knowing that the monster known as Darth Vader was once my Padawan."

"Y-You trained him?" He choked – I noticed his face had turned white.

And for good reason as well, it had been no secret that I was Anakin Skywalker's Jedi Master and had trained the "Hero With No Fear" – and he was the only Padawan that I had ever trained. There had been so many slanderous and patently false stories written about Anakin and myself over the years and so many news reports in the Republic that it was hard to miss that connection. When I nodded, he turned and stared at the ground, repeating my same action, it must have shocked the hell out of him to find out something like this. Men wanted to be him for the simple fact that women practically threw themselves at him, and the little children wanted to be him because of the hero aspect of things, he was a high profile Jedi.

But people were led to believe that Anakin Skywalker had been killed in the purges along with his fellow Jedi, and that might have been the only thing that I would ever agree with the Emperor on. And in a sense the propaganda was correct, Anakin had died, but for people to know the truth, that Anakin and Vader were the same person, I expected Ryal's reaction to be the same reaction. After all, Anakin had seemed to escape the derision that the Empire had clothed the other Jedi in at the proclamation of the Empire. For anyone who knew the situation, it was painfully obvious and yet again, I had shoulder the burden of Vader being my apprentice.

"He's really Anakin Skywalker?" The man asked me with unadulterated shock.

"Yes," I nodded, picking up the water container again. "And I've only survived the purges because I know how he thinks, I know his weaknesses and his flaws and I've used them to survive. Vader is a tough opponent and uses his pure, brute strength, but he's arrogant, overconfident and even as a Sith, he's very cocky."

More silence passed between us and just as I thought that the awkwardness had gotten the best of us, he's slight laughter drew my attention back him. Raising an eyebrow, he looked up to me and I discovered that it was a laugh that was brought on by pure and utter shock. Using the Force to feel his thoughts, my eyes widened, pure astonishment and understanding welled in his Force Aura. And I had a feeling that I knew what it was – it was so much that Anakin was Darth Vader, but it had to do with the children, "The Princess was adopted by their majesties, you were not pregnant, and whenever I've been close to Luke and Leia together, there is something about them. My intuition is telling me that they're connected in more ways than one – in fact, I'm fairly sure I know what it is, do you care to confirm?"

There was danger in letting this information out to too many people, while I didn't know Ryal well enough to trust him implicitly like Bail, I was almost completely sure that he wouldn't say a word. But the Dark Side of the Force was a slippery, convoluted and ruthless thing that would violate basic ethics to get its users exactly what they wanted. There were rituals in the Force that were practiced by the Sith to completely and totally strip the poor soul that they were interrogating of their memories. If Vader or Palpatine, or many of their acolytes captured Ryal, the truth would be there, lying in his mind for one of them to take it from him. So I simply proceeded with caution, opting not to confirm anything, but at the same time making it clear that he was correct. And then his eyes widened again and he blew out a sight. "Maybe kids would be good for him, if they can get over that mask."

"I've never seen Vader interact with children, but Sith, Sith are notoriously known for not differentiating between innocents and combatants," I told him absently, my mind flashing back to memories of finding bodies of small, six year old children who had been impaled on Anakin's lightsaber. I tried to remind myself that at the time, he was so deep in his bloodlust that he couldn't possibly care, but it gave me a bad inclination for the coming days. Those younglings were not capable of even moving a cup with the Force, much less trying to subvert a government and the Sith.

I still shed tears for those children when I thought about them.

And I hoped, I desperately hoped that Vader had moved beyond the wanton murder of children to satisfy his emersion to the Dark Side of the Force. I hoped that at the very least he had gained a conscious as to what was at the most basic level right and wrong. It was not historically accurate to the think that of Sith, but these two children happened to be his and I hoped that it would make all of the difference in the world. Looking back to him, I set the water container back down on the bench and raised an eyebrow, "You want to have another match?"

He smiled and nodded.

Kissing Luke on the cheek, I sat on the edge of the bed and watched as he made himself very comfortable and grinned brightly up at me. I had worked hard to change his mood after he had gone to Leia's bedside and even though I could still sense an underlying feeling of worry in him, he was significantly happier. That was probably a good thing too because when I left this room, I was going to go with Bail to send a private communication to Vader. When he would arrive I didn't know, but when he did arrive, I knew that it would be almost impossible for Luke to find happiness. Vader would undoubtedly be very angry and that would scare the daylights out of Luke and if he went ahead with the blood transfusion, Leia would be in the same position. I could not stop it no matter how much I wish that I could stop that, I couldn't – I could only shield the children from suffering too much and fight Vader into submission, it would take a lot to do that, or to death and that frankly was a hit or a miss. Vader had a clear advantage over me, but I knew where his weaknesses lay and no matter how much time would pass, it would not change at all. It took me a moment to realize that I was so caught up in my morose thoughts that I didn't realize that Luke was now frowning, concern permeating him.

"What is it?" I asked him, trying to shake my thoughts away from his father.

"You're upset," Luke answered, narrowing his eyes. "Why?"

"I'm not upset sweetheart," I smiled and leaned down to kiss him on the cheek again. "I'm just worried, I'm worried about Leia, I'm worried about you, and I'm worried about the next couple of days. Senator Organa and I are going to go contact your Father, because he's the only person that we know of who can provide the blood that Leia needs. I'm just worried about that entire thing too, don't worry."

Eventually, both Bail and I knew, we'd have to tell Luke and Leia about their connection as brother and sister, but now was not the time. The children were very perspective to the Force, I was not denying that, but they were still five year olds and I thanked the Force itself that he didn't have the knowledge or the understanding to catch onto the next logical conclusion. Now was not the time to depress him even more at the prospect of his sister's death. If he resented me later on for not telling him, then I would deal with that then, but it was not now, not at this crucial junction where their future would be at risk by their father. In the Force, I could see that Luke was not totally convinced but there was nothing I could do about it. He would just have to trust that things would work out when it was over.

"Don't worry Luke," I told him, smiling despite myself. "Everything will be alright, if something happens in the next few days between your Father and I, just know that it's not you that causing it. Remember what I said about that possible outcome?"

Luke nodded thanks to my very subtle manipulation in the Force, his eyes began to grow heavier and heavier, when he answered, it was a small and tired voice, "You said that you and Daddy would fight over who loved me the most, I 'member."

"Good," I winked at him and for the third time kissed him. "Sweet dreams."

Master Qui-Gon never believed that there was such a thing as destiny, an ardent believer in the theory of the Living Force, he lived and acted in the moment. When he trained me, he tried to instill this belief in me and frankly, there were moments when I lost and regained my faith in it. I did not believe that whatever was affecting Leia was destiny – I did not think that it was destiny that Vader had to be called to Alderaan, putting she and her brother at risk. Whatever the cause of it was an effect over her body, and it set off this chain of events. But that wasn't to say that I completely rejected the idea of the Living Force or embraced the ideals of the Unifying Force either. I was in firm disagreement with the philosophy that there were no sides to the Force and that there was no such thing as Dark Side or Light.

The proof was the fact that ever since I started drawing deeper on the Force this morning, the Force felt like it was almost crying out in pain. The Sith were probably drawing on it like it was their servant, their typical method and the various wars and skirmishes still taking place on individual planets taxed the Force very much. I believed in aspects of both of the philosophy, I knew that one was wrong and because I didn't believe that it was destiny to be doing this right now, I believed in the Living Force theory more. The Force couldn't have anticipated this moment.

"You had better have a good reason for stealing my personal communication frequency Organa," I watched as Vader…Anakin, threatened Bail from the holo projector. Even through the Holo, I could see his armor clothed arms crossing over his chest in irritation, and I didn't need to see his face to know that he was very angry. "And you should know that I will subject those who have given you this frequency to abject misery and torture – but it was obviously important enough."

I felt a stab of resentment, sadness and anger as Vader laid down his threat to Bail's contacts within Imperial Intelligence. He had made it clear how much those people had sacrificed to get him that information and it only made since that he was feeling this way after being talked that way too. Maybe Bail could warn them before Vader could get their hands on them and maybe, just maybe they'd have enough time to hide themselves from him. Shaking my thoughts away, I folded my arms over my chest and made sure that I was clearly out of the projection field. I had the distinct impression that Vader would not be shocked if he knew that I was on Alderaan but regardless, I would not reveal myself until the less it was needed.

"My lord," He bowed to him and I could sense that he was almost physically willing himself to do so. "An urgent matter has cropped here on the planet and I'm afraid that it needs your personal attention. You will of course not regret this journey."

I could almost hear the sarcasm in his deep, baritone voice, "Should assume that you would have me step foot onto your planet without my forces around me?"

"You will not need them," Bail shook his head and I nodded, very pleased.

No matter if he was Darth Vader or Anakin Skywalker, there would always be some constants about him and his overwhelming curiosity was one of them. It did not matter if he had murderous intentions or innocent, he had always let it get the better of him and I knew with just a little bit more prodding, he'd take the bait.

"You know my policy towards liars Organa," Vader growled warningly and I knew that because of my readings on how Vader dealt with anything he found repulsive, I knew that there was a fine line between baiting Vader and angering him. He could quite easily choke Bail through the Force over this distance even, it would be easy.

When he made that familiar chocking maneuver with his fingers, I felt a tingle come up my spine and my danger senses flared to life. Using the Force to shove Bail out of the way, I stepped into the holo-projection field and glared at the miniature version of my former Padawan. Through that constant rasp from what I assumed was his mask, I heard the breath hitch in hesitation and I actually heard him rumble, and I absorbed a massive wave of shock, confusion and anger sweep over him at the sight of me. He was clearly under the impression that I wouldn't have been so foolish as to come to Alderaan, and normally I would not. Sending him a feeling of grim but nonetheless durasteel strong determination in the Force, I braced myself for the oily dark feeling and words that he would no doubt throw at me. I had to remind myself that I was only here to protect Bail and the children.

The miniature of Vader stood up and I could hear the mocking false gentle tone in his voice as he directed his voice at Bail, he was no longer viewable on the holo-projector on Vader's end, "I'm afraid that I can no longer come to Alderaan without the backing of my troops if you're harboring undesirables such this scum, Organa."

I smiled wryly at him, "I'm the only Jedi on this planet as far as I know, and no, I haven't been all these years, the Senator asked me here and I came-…"

"That is irrelevant Kenobi," Vader made a cutting gesture with his hand. "Organa is a traitor – you've just implied that the Viceroy has been in contact with you since the declaration of the new order. That makes him a traitor and a subversive."

Stepping closer to the eye of the projector, I glared at him, knowing that he would take my bait, I had to be aggressive and unyielding and present him with another option, "Oh come now Vader, if you're this distracted by the mere appearance of me… then your master must be holding your leash tighter than thought. If insist on subjugating this entire planet because of me, then that speaks your abilities really."

"Watch your tongue!" Vader raged at me and repeated the same gesture that he had with Bail only moments before, but in this instance I was able to defend myself from his attack. As I felt him reaching out through Force towards my throat, I fought back, exerting a wave of Force energy to block it away harmlessly from me.

"I am here to make sure that you don't outright kill the Viceroy without listening to him – believe me when I tell you this, he has something to tell you that you will want to hear. Once you depart without having killed anyone, I will go back into hiding and I won't bother you again," We both knew that the very last thought was completely true, that much I could ascertain, but he no longer broadcasted his thoughts to me like he did years ago. "This matter doesn't have to do with the never ending battle between the Light and the Dark Sides of the Force. This is something personal, something that has nothing to do with the Empire, only you."

At first I had been so angry that I couldn't see straight and exasperated because there was some poor fool on Coruscant whose life officially came to an end the moment Organa appeared on my personal communication station. This was still a time of growth for the Empire and while I was putting out fires in the Outer and Mid Rims, my master was dealing with stabilizing Core Worlds. But apparently his methods were not working and I blamed it on his methods. He took the political approach, preferring to use methods of professional destruction at first and if not, he simply had them executed in secret. I preferred to make an example in front of their peers and I was quite good at it too, strangling someone to death in the presence of their co-workers seemed to get the point across: do not fail me at all.

Perhaps the Director of Imperial Intelligence and I would need to talk very soon, but for now, for now I was faced with the question to go to Alderaan or not. Kenobi was there, she wouldn't have revealed herself to me unless she was sure that she could change my intention to kill her on sight. And in the Force, I was sure that they were not lying to me, but that also brought up the question as to what they were talking about? Kenobi was there, Organa ruled the planet. Normal procedure said that if I even smelled a Jedi, the planet was to be put under my direct control and to be completely cut off from the rest of the galaxy until we found the Jedi. Of course I had the authority to forgo all of that and hunt the Jedi down myself, but would it be wise in this case? I was not worried about Organa or his bodyguard, or even ten his bodyguards. What I did worry about was an entire army of his bodyguards, soldiers, Kenobi, other Jedi and not having the back up to fight them.

I could hold my own against Kenobi and I could defeat her with effort. I could easily destroy any other Jedi that she had there, because frankly, I didn't believe her when she said she was the only. But I couldn't destroy an entire army myself. I could do many things with the power of the Dark Side of the Force, but to render myself invulnerable to several hundred blaster shots and several missiles was not something that I could escape alive. Growling, I shook the thoughts from my head, I was Sith, with the Dark Side of the Force as my weapon, I could defeat anything!

If they wanted me alone, I would go alone and I would crush their skulls if they were trying to lull me into a trap. Locking eyes with my former master, I felt a tiny pang of… of longing and slowly smashed it down with the full weight of my anger.

"Personal you say?" I glared at her, my breathing becoming heavier and thus causing my breathing unit to run faster. "Fine – I will set course for Alderaan."

"It would be preferable if you did put your entire fleet in orbit, you will cause mass panic," Obi-Wan replied calmly and that irked me further. "Neither of us want your master to be aware of this meeting – I would hope that you won't when you know the truth. I'm not telling you the reason because I don't trust saying it over this network, come to Alderaan as soon as you can, come alone to the Winter Palace."

I hesitated and with effort, unclenched my fists and nodded, "Very well."

As I blindly tightened my hold on the waist of the body lying next to me, my eyes snapped open at the soft sigh of contentment. The face of t-the… woman lying next to me was obscured in a thick mess of tangled brown hair, and when I tried to reach out in the Force to try and figure out who she was without waking her, I actually gasped in shock. I felt nothing, absolutely nothing – for the very first time in my life, I couldn't feel the Force, wherever I was anyway. Pulling my hand back from the woman's waist, I did a double take at the sight of my… my arm, my actual arm, the hand and the arm that I lost in my duel with Count Dooku when I was a teenager. Curiosity, intrigue, and fear flooded through me as I pulled my other arm out of the thick layer of duvets and I choked down a gasp at the sight of it. I just needed one more affirmation that whatever was taking place at this moment was not real, and not seeming to care about whoever was sleeping with me, I frantically ripped at the blankets and fell back in shock at the sight of my legs. Laying there, looking up at the vaulted ceiling of whatever this room was, I tried to make sense of whatever this was. If this was some sort of dream or vision, it was wildly vivid.

It was wildly vivid, because as I looked down at my almost completely exposed body, along with all of my original extremities, there was not a burn, wound or scar in sight. With that thought, I began to pat my head and after I ran my hand through my hair, I was actually starting to become more frightened then anything. I had not feared something like this since I was a small boy, even the all-consuming fear of having visions of my wife's death in childbirth didn't scare me as much as this. Count Dooku had taken one of my hands and Obi-Wan Kenobi had taken the other, my legs and had left me to burn on the bank of a river of lava. I had been confined to that infernal suit, my injuries so severe that I couldn't breathe outside of a specially designed hyperbaric chamber. Doing at the sight of a mirror on the other side of the room, I could see clearly that it was as if all of those events hadn't transpired. Throwing my legs over the side of the bed, I hesitated slightly as I stood up on my real legs for the first time in years. Throwing caution to the wind, I took a tentative step forward, and then another one and began my walk to the mirror. Along the way, I wiggled my toes into the soft carpet, relishing the feeling.

When I arrived at the mirror, I choked on yet another gasp as I ran my fingers over my face. It was as if the past eight years of my life had never happened, the only thing anchored in reality at this point was the scar over my eye socket. If the woman on the bed had not stirred into consciousness, I might have just stood there, looking at the face of a man that did not exist anymore and the face of a man that I secretly would give anything to be again. That wasn't to say that I didn't regret the past five years, but it would have been so much more bearable to be able to breathe on my own and see with my own eyes. Turning back, I peered at the woman with curiosity, not outright hostility, something that I hadn't given many beings for a long time. But I felt a torrid of emotions inundate of mind as I finally realized who the woman was and this torrent of emotions quickly dissolved in anger, curiosity and a small twinge of awe – it was Obi-Wan, the accursed, beautiful witch that turned my life upside down and made it a completely blistering hell. I clenched my fists in anger as she leaned up in the bed, tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear and looked up to me warily, "What are you doing here?"

"I was about to ask you the same question," I growled angrily at her, rooted to the spot, wanting to know exactly what she intended by this painful and obvious farce.

I watched as she sat up in the bed, pulled her legs to her chest and turned to look out at the wide sweeping balcony that was bathed in moonlight. Sparing a second to share in the sight, I would not give her the satisfaction of knowing that I was very much enjoying the feel of a light breeze blowing across my face. But when I tossed the foolish sentiment aside, I gritted my teeth and watched as her typically wide blue eyes widened and her long brown locks fluttered with a stronger gust of the breeze. Then she turned back to me and a cryptic smile came to her face, "I have done nothing, right now, I'm quite sure that I'm enjoying a peaceful sleep."

Still not moving, I snorted angrily, "I'm sure, but you didn't answer my question."

"This is the first time that I've opened myself completely to the Force in a very long time Anaki-…" Before I had to hear another one of her riddles, I interrupted her. I had not been Anakin Skywalker in a very long time, that was not my name and for Kenobi to use it-… it brought back a torrent of unwanted memories and feelings.

"That is not my name! He is dead! You killed him!" I pointed glared angrily at her.

What happened next was something that I had never gotten to see from Obi-Wan before, granted, during the first decade of my training of a Jedi, she had gotten annoyed with me on more than one occasion. But, and I could barely admit this to myself, the expression on her face was anger that I had never seen from her before. I would never tell her that it sent a shiver down my spine to see pure blue fire in her eyes and when she tore the covers off of her, summoned her robe and stood up. Ignoring the spark of an all familiar emotion at the sight of all of her bare skin, I watched as she tied the pale robe around her body and marched around the bed directly to me and jabbed and finger in my chest. Obi-Wan Kenobi had never been one to let her emotions run so unrestrained and no matter how much I wanted to strangle her, there was a part of me who wanted to see it that would never die. It was that poor beleaguered boy who suffered under her awful care.

"I did not kill him! You did! It's not so much the matter of all of the atrocities that you've committed in the name of your precious Empire, and it wasn't Mustafar that killed Anakin Skywalker, it was the fact that you started believing it all. No matter how much you try, Anakin Skywalker will never die, I can assure you," She was in my face now and a little voice in the back of my mind pondered briefly that age had been very good to her. "But don't you ever say that to me again! You know nothing of how much I cared for you or how much it took to even get myself to fight you!"

"You lie!" I snapped back at her, moving to get into her face this time.

She looked back up to me with that defiant look again, and it had been a long time since I had this experience and had someone stand up to me like this, "I have done many things to you in my life Anakin, and many things that I can never undo-…"

I blinked as her voice broke slightly and a tear streamed down her face – that was something that I had never, ever seen from her before. The closest time that I had ever come to seeing her actually cry was in the first two or three years of our time together, when she was still mourning for Qui-Gon and she would go off to her quarters to brood whenever I mentioned her. She grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me closer to her, presumably so that she could make sure that I was looking at her directly in the eye when she told me this, "…but I have never lied to you!"

"Then why am I here?" My former self coming out in more ways than I'd like to admit, it was painfully clear that I had no power in whatever I was. It would be a much more different situation if I had control, but this place felt like a manifestation of the Force's power under Obi-Wan's sole control. As long as it was just the two of us, I could at least be less threating with her, my master was not here and neither were the Jedi. And I wanted answers, a lot of answers – now was the best time for them, when I arrived on Alderaan, things would be too fast paced for good answers.

She seemed taken aback by my quiet tone and without a word she turned away, wrapping her arms around her chest and slowly began to walk to the open balcony, and for a moment, I watched as she stood silhouetted in the light. I allowed myself one thought that I was otherwise deem distracting, it was the simple fact that she and Padme had been the most important things in my life and both of them had been in trouble, I didn't know who I attempt to save first. Deciding that she was wordlessly expecting me to join her, I blew out a sight of irritation and decided to follow her. And when I arrived to flank her, she turned to me and a look of intense sadness and concentration came over her face, "I don't exactly know why you are here, but I am thinking that it is because of our bond, and before you say something to the contrary, it's there. I have not lowered my defenses like this in years and it wouldn't be surprising if my mind reached out to yours while I was asleep Anakin."

I looked down to my body and noting its completeness again and then looked back up to her with a raised eyebrow, I needed an explanation my appearance in this place, "And why do I look like this exactly? Why not allow me to enter your dreams in my actual form? And better yet, why am I sleeping with you in a bed like this?"

She trailed her eyes down my body, and it was something in her eyes that made the most absurd thought pop into mind for only a moment. It was the way her eyes seemed to have lingered and hugged the sight for one moment for too long and when she brought her eyes back up to mine, she turned and looked away. Then I knew she was about to lie, the way she pursed her lips and refused to make eye contact, she had never been a good liar, "I don't know why, but that is not the important part."

I decided not to push it for the moment, because I knew that she was correct and instead. I put my hands on my hips purely out of habit over the past five years, and I was not bothered at all by my immodest lack of clothing and the cold breeze. In that moment, I tried for my next pressing thought, "Why have you come back?! If you would have just stayed away, stayed hidden I wouldn't have ever found you."

A wry smile came across her lips and she turned and grinned, "You'd better be careful Lord Vader, if I didn't know you any better, I would think that you care."

"I don't," I defended hotly, no matter how my thoughts were telling me otherwise, wanting to desperately tell her to leave and never appear again. "You are a Jedi, and I've spent the past few years wiping them out and it's never nice to see one again, but you, you are a particularly troublesome Jedi for me, one I never wanted to see."

She turned to me and smiled again, "Whatever you say."

"You don't believe me?! How shocking," I spat back at her with heavy sarcasm.

"I really don't believe you, but that's not the point either," She said, finally turning back and walking around me to head back into the strange room. "I did not reveal myself out of some dangerous need to entice you to come and chase me; I came out of hiding for a good reason. Senator Organa and I didn't plan on telling you this until you physically landed on Alderaan, but I suppose this environment is a better place."

I knew she was about to drop a missile on me, Obi-Wan always had a way of doing that, a typical method in which she did it: she tried to soften the blow by talking up her justification and her reasoning and then let me have it. She had done it since the day Qui-Gon Jinn had died, through ten years of an admittedly strained relationship, a war and even now when we were on opposite sides of the board. Turning back to me, she frowned, "You must understand something, Senator Organa, Master Yoda and I didn't do this to spite you, or to seek some sort of petty revenge on you after all that you had done. You need to keep in mind that we did what we did because you or more specifically, your master wouldn't have offered them a great life."

I narrowed my eyes and approached her slowly, a sinking, sad and very, very angry feeling welling up inside of me; I knew who she was referring to before she even said it. "Don't you dare presume to tell me that Kenobi! Padme is dead! Our child is dead! Anakin Skywalker is dead! Do not feed me even more of your offending lies!"

"Padme is dead," She nodded and I felt something stab at me, five years later and it still hurt as much as the day that I heard the news. But for the uncountable time since I had awoken into this dream, vision or connection that she had trapped me in, I just stared wordlessly at her, completely dumbstruck. "But, she died shortly after she gave birth and named your children, they're alive Anakin, and up until two days ago they were perfectly happy and healthy. That's why I came out of hiding, Bail knew that he could only turn to you to help and he asked me to come back to Alderaan so that he had at least some chance of surviving an encounter with you."

By the time she finished, I had walked back to the bed and stared numbly at the floor with my hands hanging deadly in my lap. I was far too overwhelmed to be angry and I was far too numb to be outwardly sad, there were so many revelations in her words for me to even pretend to be angry. When I felt the bed next to me sink and I felt her hand on my shoulder, it was then that I turned to her and saw her face, and I sneered at her, "W-why!? Why did you take them from me Kenobi?!"

My life had been completely empty since that day, complete with mourning of my wife and my children to make it a flaming hell. I couldn't say that they would have been happiest with living with me, in fact it was quite easy to assume that they wouldn't. A Star Destroyer was no home for children and the Imperial Palace would be even worse, I was Sith, but in regards to my own children, I shifted into the mindset of my former self. I witnessed with my own eyes the treatment that my master inflicted upon the people who lived in his palace, and even before she could offer a defense, I understood her reasoning. I didn't like it, they were my children, but if my children were safer and happier with Kenobi and Organa, then so be it.

"I did not take them from you," She defended and I was too overwhelmed to respond again. "You and I both know what would have happened if I had allowed you to take them, Palpatine would have twisted them into something that was unrecognizable. I took the boy, Bail took the girl, we've raised them to have happy childhoods, more than you could have ever given them in your state, and you cannot be so foolish as not see that yourself. Do not blame everything on me Anakin."

I shot up from the bed, turned and bared my teeth at her and I didn't even care anymore that tears were freely running down my face, "I would not have done that if she had not brought you there to kill me!"

"She didn't know what I was on that ship," She answered calmly and my heart sunk.

"W-what?!" I couldn't help but choke out.

Her eyes were sad and there was another tinge of that unidentifiable emotion that Obi-Wan had in her eye with me for the past ten years. When she spoke to me, she spoke to me with a tone that was soft and yet had durasteel behind it, "You heard me Anakin, she did not know that I had stowed away on her ship – she was my only link to finding you and I took it, I did not know you would react that way, though I should have. You had been on a murderous rampage for the past three days, but you were so deep in your bloodlust and she tried to tell you, but you couldn't listen t-…"

"No need to twist the knife Obi-Wan," I told her morosely, I still hated the ground that she walked on, but in that moment, I no longer wanted to rip her to pieces.

"She believed in you, you know," She said absently, as I shifted my gaze to hers, listening to every word, after all, she seemed to be on the last few people to see Padme alive. "Her last words were to make me promise to protect those children and to never give up hope that underneath that suit, you are still Anakin Skywalker."

"What did she name them?" I asked her suddenly, breaking from the topic.

Obi-Wan turned to me and her eyes softened, "Luke is the boy's name, and Leia is the girl, they seem to be a perfect match of their parents down to the color of their hair. I'm not sure if the Senator has made Leia aware of who her parents are, but Luke knows, Luke knows who his mother and father are and he's been scared out of his wits knowing that you're coming here. He hasn't said anything, but there is a deep seeded fear in his mind that you are going to take him from me and kill me."

'The idea had occurred to me,' I thought wryly, but in something that I hadn't expected myself to do, I shrunk back from the idea of that. No matter what issues Obi-Wan and I had between each other, I did have to admit one thing, I had to admit that I was grateful that she kept Luke away from my master. I would say the same for Organa too, but if I knew him like I did, then he would be snide and petty about it and if he did tell… my daughter… that I was her father, it wouldn't cast me in a very sympathetic light. Shaking my head absently, I finally finding the words to say, not necessarily to her, but just to myself, this experience had been completely surreal for me. I was a father, and I knew that I wasn't going to kill Obi-Wan Kenobi, threaten? Yes, kill? No, "I suppose that explains Organa's fear around me."

"Leia is dying, Anakin," She said and I turned back to her, my mouth open.

Struggling to form words, I felt more tears run down my cheeks, "W-wha…"

"But her doctors are saying that she needs a genetically similar blood transfusion, and she seems to have inherited your blood type, Luke did not," She said, looking down at the hands in her lap. "I'm not asking you to donate blood to her for my or Bail's sake, I'm asking you to do it for Leia, Luke and Padme. Padme would expect nothing less from you, even if you think you're Darth Vader, Luke deserves to know his sister and Leia, Leia deserves to experience life, she's only just gotten started."

No matter how much I didn't want to admit it, and no matter how much my emersion in the Sith teachings were telling me otherwise, Obi-Wan was right. I was no longer Anakin Skywalker, but regardless of a name or a personality, those were my children, they were Padme's children. They were one of the last pieces of a part of my life I didn't get to live anymore and unlike the pieces that I had destroyed, I was not going to let these two go. Looking back to her, I looked her square in the eye, my senses returning to me, "My ship will arrive in that system in two days, I will order it to hold position at the edge of the system and I'll take shuttle to the planet myself. Then I will give Leia all that she needs to make a full recovery…"

Obi-Wan smiled softly and nodded, "Alright."

"And I want to meet Luke," I told her, my gaze not necessarily hard.

She was silent for a moment, looking down at the floor and I didn't need the Force to tell me that she had reservations, "…okay, but if you attempt to take him or Leia back to that madman you call a master, I do anything and everything to stop you."

"I will not take them," I sighed sadly, no matter how much I wanted to do it, Obi-Wan had made a point that I could not argue with, they were the only thing left of Padme. I would not let the only thing left of Padme be twisted into what I had been.

"Alright," Obi-Wan nodded.

Narrowing my eyes at her, I felt some resentment return, "I still despise you."

I silently observed as she let out a shuddered breath and nodded, the last time we had even spoken, she had tried to tell me that she loved me and would have done anything for me. But I had been so beyond blinded by my fresh emersion to the Dark Side of the Force that everything she said was a lie, "I don't understand why you do, but I know… and you may hate me for the rest of your life, but it's not mutual."

"I'm only sparing you for Luke's sake," I reminded her, not completely convinced.

"I know," Obi-Wan nodded.

"And I still have to fight you, but I will not kill you," That was going to be necessary even if I didn't want to do it, I had to make it seem like I had battled her. A thought occurred to me, "After, I will report to my master and to the Inquisitors that you have been killed and you can take Luke back into hiding without fear of the Empire."

I could have sworn I saw her hold back a tear, "Very well."

"And pondering you as of late, I've been thinking about a few things and presuming that this is the last time that you and I will ever talk like this, may I do something, just once?" I asked her – if I was going to sever my connections to Obi-Wan and in the process keep both her and Luke safe, I needed to end this last thought of her.

She raised an eyebrow, "Of course."

In all of my days, through all of my experiences, this was something that I thought I would never do. For the Force's sake, this woman had practically raised me, but then again, we grew up together in a sense as well. Standing up, I slowly stood in front of her and then just as slowly leaned down and pressed her lips against mine. After a single second of shock and Obi-Wan began to respond to the kiss, I broke away and cleared my throat. Pretending not to notice the shocked expression on her face, I looked at the wall on the back of the bed, trying to figure out some way to break the connection. However, once again, Obi-Wan caught me by surprise and interrupted my attempt to break out of whatever dream-hold she had over me, "What was that for?"

"Just satisfying a curiosity, that's all," I told her softly, turning my attention away.

"Seeing as this is going to be one of the last time that you and I ever speak like this again, I suppose that I have some confessions of my own and maybe some last words that I have to say while it's just the two of us," I opened my eyes and looked at her, and noticed that she was looking at the ground between us. The only reason I was still listening at this point was because of the reasoning that she had laid out. All of my experiences in my life before the Sith were rooted with her and I… I just wanted to know. "When I first met you, I thought you were just another being that Master Qui-Gon had taken pity on, and I felt that there was something dangerous about you, I thought training you would be a big mistake on the council's part."

I smirked and snorted, "You were very much right."

"No," She shook her head as she looked up to me with a sad smile. "I wasn't right, if I had just been more attentive, if I had just not made the mistakes that I made with you when I first began to train you, then perhaps you might not have gravitated towards your current master. Perhaps if I had been quick enough and had been able to keep Qui-Gon from being killed, you could have gone to him, but if I hadn't done then, then my prediction would have been wrong. I'm sorry for making you feel like I would have thrown you to the Kath Hounds immediately if I had found out about Padme, and most of all, I'm sorry for making you feel like you were worth nothing or that I was teaching you out of obligation, that's not the truth of the matter Anakin."

The opening of old wounds was something that I had occurred frequently over the past five years, but these wounds had not been touched in some time, not since the fires of Mustafar. When I fought her there, I poured what anger and resentment I had for her into my seemingly inexhaustible pool of hate, anger and rage. But, and even if she didn't know it, she had slowly picked away at most if not every reason that I had come up to hate her in the midst of my legendary rages about her. She had mutilated me, left me to burn, instigated the death of my wife, took my children from me and yet… for the first time in a very long time, I couldn't bring myself to hate her to the point of killing her. It might backfire when I left this environment, but this encounter with her had calmed me, something abhorrent and very had for Sith, who depended on the emotions of hate and rage to sustain their power.

But there were always of remedying that little fact.

Palpatine for example, I had very good reason to despise the very air that he breathed for the simple fact that he allowed me to believe that I had killed my wife and child, or children and didn't allow me a moment to try and find the truth. He took exceptional pleasure in exploiting it and reminding me of it when I tended to wavier with my duties, and for his amusement. He would be the perfect outlet for that need to survive and to triumph over my enemies. As far as Obi-Wan went, I could only real thing I could hate her for was the condition that she left me in after our last duel. The smaller things, the screaming and the insults that she threw at me as a child, those things were petty and small – but they were counterbalanced by the fact of how she treated my children and how she wasn't vindictive about all of it.

A lesser and more bitter woman would not tell Luke about me, and even thought I had initially thought so, she was not lying – I could see it in her eyes. My problems with Obi-Wan were not anything to drag my children into and the only reason that I was overlooking the fact that she was a Jedi, a woman who was legally and literally my enemy, was because of my children. I would never admit to myself that I knew I was lying about that, but it did not matter, Obi-Wan and Organa would not die because they protected my children from a fate that I wouldn't wish on them with anything. One day, if they wanted to join me, the situation would be different, but for now, they were too young and I-I… trusted Obi-Wan to protect them for now.

That last thought was completely true, but it was still very surreal.

"What's your point?" I asked her, becoming very overwhelmed again.

She stood up from the bed with arms folded over her chest and looked me square in the eye, "I almost fell to the Dark Side once because I let my anger over someone threatening you, I killed three people with a movement of my fingers. And to be honest, if I had not separated myself from you afterwards… I think I would have done it again. No matter how much you may hate or resent me, I want you to know that I care about you in a way that I shouldn't, even now. I've held onto that secret for nearly a decade and I don't think I couldn't stand it if I didn't tell you once."

A tight feeling welled up in my gut and I wasn't angry, or overwhelmed, I wasn't even purely shocked, it was a strange combination of curiosity, shock, utter disbelief and another emotion that I couldn't quite pick up on. I was no fool, I knew the implication of her words and suddenly everything made sense, my appearance, that look that she gave me only moments before, it was mindboggling. With one eyebrow firmly raised, I looked down at her as if she had three heads, "A-are you saying-…?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying Anakin," She nodded gravely before turning around and sighing deeply. It was strange to look at her in this new light, it wasn't something that I was afraid of or hated, but the unknown had always done this sort of thing. And this was a new level of our relationship for me, a very unknown one that I neither feared, hated or resented like the others. "For the first few years after Padme's death, I was very depressed, aside from the obvious reasons that everything that I had ever known had been completely destroyed. I knew that there was something between the two of you, but I never pressed you on it out of fear of what I would find, both for myself and you. It took me awhile to accept the fact that you had a wife, and when I did, she suddenly because the luckiest being to ever exist."

Turning back to me, she smiled again and my breath caught, thi-this revelation had changed my perception of her and it was not bad at all. I would always love Padme, she was my wife and the mother of my children, but Obi-Wan, she was something else entirely, "Forgive me – I'm just an old woman rambling about a little crush."

Finally finding the words to speak, I blinked at her, rather stupidly and shook my head stiffly, what I said to her made her grin wryly, "Y-You're hardly old Kenobi."

"Flattery will get you everywhere Lord Vader," She teased me, and looked back up to me with hooded eyes. "But I hardly think that matters anymore, I-I just wanted to you know that there was a time when I would have killed to protect you without question, and I would have done everything to see you happy. These past few years have been dreadful for me, obviously – but add in this and it becomes worse. Don't you say that I never cared for you or loved you Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader, whoever you are – because I did and I still do, more than you will ever really know."

Impaired by her words and too frozen to think of something, anything say too her, I got another surprise when Obi-Wan placed her small hands on my bare chest and leaned up and kissed me. It was a gentle kiss, but it told me all I needed to know about what she had just said to me and I knew that it was all true. But before I could even been spurred into responding because of that, the vision, the dream, whatever it was, faded, instantaneously. And when I woke up, I was screaming, no matter how much pain it caused me, I was beside myself with a need to go back to whatever that was. Looking down to my lap, panting heavily, I grimaced at the sight of my suit and the pure white walls of the hyperbaric chamber. The grimace was for another thought as well, it was something that I would have though abhorrent before I had fallen asleep. But I had been so rattled and so shocked by all of the things that she had told me in whatever that was that I could not possibly bring myself care about it.

Whatever that was, whatever that place was, it was paradise and I would give anything to go back to it. And now that I was awake and conscious, I was back in hell and I screamed because for the foreseeable future, there was no way out of it.