Author's Note: Thank you again to my readers and reviewers. Your feedback is, as always, greatly appreciated.

I hope you all will enjoy this next chapter...

Update: I wrote this chapter late at night so I found a lot of grammar mistakes the next day while re-reading it. So if you originally read this chapter after it was first posted, hopefully it will flow much better now. Enjoy! :)

Chapter 4

"Oh..that's easy." Ben spoke up. "He's my grandfather, Anakin Skywalker." He stated with pride and a huge smile on his bright, freckled face as all three adults looked at the 7 year old with surprise.

"Oh no." Anakin thought out loud as he covered his face with his right hand.

"Ben." Luke addressed his son with a scolding tone in his voice as he looked over at him sternly, causing Ben's bottom lip to start trembling.

"Did I say something wrong, Dad?" The young boy asked, sensing both his father's and grandfather's embarrassment and fear.

Anakin felt bad for the child as he sensed his grandson's disappointment and sadness. He looked over at Ben, who was still sitting in the chair across the room, with understanding and noticed tears forming in Ben's eyes. "No, Ben. It's ok."

"Come here, Ben." Luke requested with compassion as he reached both of his hands out towards his son. Ben got down from the chair and crossed the room to his father. "No, it's ok." He told him as he bent down and gave his son a hug.

"So you are a clone of Anakin Skywalker." Dr. Jansen stated more than asked the question as he looked pointedly at Anakin while putting his hands back in his lab coat pockets. When Anakin didn't answer him right away, he looked over to Luke to see if he would get an answer out of the Jedi Master instead. When he didn't answer him either, his attention immediately went back to Anakin.

Luke looked up at his father from where he was still kneeling on the floor, holding his son in his arms, not knowing quite what to tell the doctor. He exchanged a concerned look with his father before Anakin turned towards the doctor. "Well...it's complicated actually. To answer your question..., though, yes and no." Anakin finally told him.

Dr. Jansen took his hands out of his lab coat pockets and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "And what do you mean by that?" He asked Anakin as he cocked his head to one side and looked back at Anakin with disbelief.

Anakin gulped as he looked over to Luke for support. But Luke was even more at a loss for words than he was; and he was just shaking his head back at his father, mouthing the words 'I don't know'. Anakin sighed as he looked down and then back up at the curious doctor with complete seriousness in his crystal blue eyes. "What that means is...yes...this is a clone body of Anakin Skywalker...but no meaning...I am also truly Anakin Skywalker, not only in mind but spirit as well."

In response, the doctor looked at Anakin like he was about to have him thrown into a padded room wearing a tightly fastened straight jacket as he shifted from one foot to another. "Uh huh. Ok."

Sensing the doctor's disbelief, Luke stood up with his right arm still around his son's shoulders. "It's true, Dr. Jansen...whether you want to believe it or not." He paused. "My father's clone had been killed and my father..." He started as he then turned and smiled down at Anakin with love. "...as a Force spirit stepped into his clone's body to save me from being killed by Palpatine."

Dr. Jansen turned to look at Luke with a start. "So Palpatine was reincarnated too?!"

"Yes, Palpatine was reincarnated too." Anakin answered him matter of fact.

"And that was actually him, or his clone body, that we brought back to the ship from Geonosis?" Jansen asked, still not believing any of what he was hearing.

"Yes." Both Anakin and Luke replied to him in unison.

The middle aged doctor just shook his head as he sighed and threw his arms up in defeat. "I give up! I'll never totally understand this whole Jedi mysticism thing." He declared but then paused in thought as he looked over at Luke and then looked Anakin straight in the eye. "I admit that I have seen enough strange things in my lifetime that I'm starting to believe anything is possible at this point."

Both Luke and Anakin both reacted with shock by his response, but then let out a sigh of relief as Ben was staring up at the doctor with innocent child like awe. "So you believe us?" Anakin finally asked with caution.

Dr. Jansen just laughed with a touch of sarcasm in his voice. "No, not completely...General Skywalker. But let's just say that I'm going to try to keep an open mind with this one."

"Thank you, Doctor." Anakin replied to him. "That's a lot more than we could hope to expect."

Meanwhile out in the hall outside of Luke's med bay room...

"If you're looking for your brother, he's in his friend's room with the doctor." The nurse, who had scolded Luke earlier for being out of his bed, told Leia as she paused just outside her brother's door.

Leia, who was now wearing a burgundy dress and had her hair in twin braids looped at the back of her head, turned to look at the nurse with surprise. "Then he's awake? His friend, I mean?"

"Yup! Just a little while ago." The nurse informed her grudgingly as she put her hands on her hips. "Please tell that brother of yours that he needs to return to his room. He shouldn't be wandering about in his condition."

Leia couldn't help but snicker as she covered her mouth with her right hand to try to hide it from the nurse. "Yes...well...if you haven't noticed, Luke has quite a will of his own."

"Humph! Tell me about it! He may be a Jedi Master, but that doesn't mean he's any less mortal." The nurse replied and then left in a huff as she turned to walk down the hall.

Leia paused for a moment as she looked towards the door where she knew her father and brother were and became very serious as she thought about what she might find on the other side of that door. I truly don't know what to think of all this. Has he truly and totally returned to the Light Side of the Force as Luke believes? Leia thought to herself as she continued to stare in the direction of her father's room. "Well...here goes nothing." She mumbled to herself as she walked closer to the door.

Just as Leia reached the door, it abruptly opened to reveal the doctor who had been taking care of both her brother's and her father's cases. "My apologies, Princess." Dr. Jansen apologized as they both recovered from their startled reactions after almost running into each other.

"It's quite alright, Doctor." She paused. "Is it ok for me to go in?" Leia asked him with curiosity evident in her voice.

The doctor weakly smiled. "Of course." He told Leia as he walked passed her, but then he stopped and turned back towards her. "See if you can get that brother of yours to return to his room. He's being quite stubborn about it. If I have to send orderlies in to retrieve him and strap him to his bed, I will."

Leia snickered. "Well, I hope it doesn't come to that." She replied with a warm smile, seeing a slight sparkle in the doctor's eyes to indicate he was mostly kidding. "I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you." Dr. Jansen said with a slight bow to his head. "That's all that I ask."

Leia then nodded and looked up at the him with curiosity. "How is Luke's...friend?"

The doctor couldn't help but chuckle. "I know who he is, Princess." Jansen paused. "Well...at least who he claims to be."

Leia looked at him with shock. "Who told you?"

"That little nephew of yours." Jansen stated with a small smile. "Out of the mouths of babes, as you might say."

"Yes." Leia replied while trying to still keep her composure. "Who exactly did Ben say he is?" She cautiously asked him.

"Your father, of course...Anakin Skywalker." Jansen replied and then sighed while shaking his head. "I still don't quite believe it...but he certainly looks like the holovids I saw of him from the Clone Wars." He said as Leia looked at him with awe without saying a word. "Well...I must go and check on some of my other patients. I will check back on Anakin and Luke later."

"Thank you, Doctor Jansen." Leia said as she gave the seasoned doctor a warm smile. The doctor simply nodded and turned to leave. As she watched him depart down the hall, she thought about what the implications were of Luke's and her father being back amongst them alive again. Has he truly...totally changed to who he had been before his turn to the Dark Side? She then spun around to look at the door again, hearing laughter coming from inside her father's room, sparking her curiosity about the man even more. Well, there is one good way of finding out. She said in her mind as she opened the door and walked into the room.

Upon seeing Leia enter the room, Anakin, who had been laughing at a discussion they were having, all the sudden became serious as he noticed Leia standing just inside the door staring at him with complete shock written across her face. "Hello, Leia." Anakin finally said, which caused Leia to blink once.

"Hello." Leia finally replied, not entirely sure how to address the former Lord Vader...as well as her biological father...Anakin Skywalker.

Luke and little Ben turned to look at Leia with greetings as they both watched her reaction to Anakin unfold. "Well, I supposed I better go before Nurse 'Palpatine' comes back in here and drags me back to my room." Luke informed them.

This comment caused the others in the room to chuckle, feeling some of the tension disburse that had started to build since Leia entered the room. "Perhaps you should, Luke." Anakin told his son with a warm smile.

Luke nodded in response to his father's suggestion and then turned to his son. "Come on, Ben." Luke coaxed his son as he smiled down at him and started to guide him towards the door.

But then Ben got away from his father's grasp and ran over to Anakin's bed. He jumped up on it, wrapping his small arms around his grandfather's neck causing Anakin to return his grandson's embrace. "I'm really glad you're here, Grandfather." The boy exclaimed as he gave his grandfather a kiss on the cheek and then just as abruptly as he tackled Anakin just moments before with his obvious signs of affection for him, he released his hold and then moved quickly back over to his father's side.

"Me too, Ben." Anakin told his grandson as they both exchanged loving, warm smiles.

Luke smiled at his son's loving reaction towards his father, looking down at his son while putting his right arm around the boy's shoulders again. Ben looked back up at his father with innocent adoration in his eyes. "That was very nice of you, Ben." Luke told his son as they then looked back at Anakin. "I'll be back in a little while, Father...when Nurse 'Palpatine' isn't lookin'." He said with a smirk.

Anakin just shook his head and laughed. "Ok, Luke. Get some rest. We can talk more later. I love you both."

Luke nodded as both father and son smiled back at Anakin. Just before leaving the room, Luke stopped next to his sister, who was still staring at her father. He put his left hand on her right shoulder. "Go ahead. He won't bite, you know." He told her with a smirk.

Leia let out a nervous laugh and then turned to look at her brother with love. "I'll be in to talk to you in a little while." Leia told him as she turned again to look at Anakin with an almost sadness yet curiosity mixed in with her swirling emotions. Luke nodded as he patted his sister's shoulder and then led Ben out of the room.

"Now I know who my son, Jacen, truly resembles." Leia finally said after a long awkward silence between the two. "But I don't remember you looking like this when you appeared to me as a Force spirit all those years ago."

Anakin just weakly smiled as he looked down at his hands sitting on top of the blanket. "I appeared to you as I thought you would expect me to look like...as a man old enough to be your father."

Leia started moving closer to Anakin, studying him as she did. "Why did you do it?"

Anakin looked up at his daughter with confusion. "Do what exactly?"

"Why did you turn to the Dark Side?" Leia asked him as she continued to study the handsome, young features of a man much younger than should be possible for a man of his age...or at least the age he would have been had he lived after the Battle of Endor.

Anakin sighed, looking down and then up at his daughter, his blue eyes sparkling with tears starting to pool in them. "I did it to save your mother...from death." He paused. "At least that's what I was promised by Palpatine."

Leia looked at him with surprise as she not only saw the love for her mother in his eyes but also felt it flowing through the Force from her father's bright aura. "Then you really did love her?" She finally asked him as she now found herself standing right next to his bed and lowered herself into the guest chair.

Anakin looked over at his daughter with love, tears still glistening in his eyes. "Yes...very much." He paused as he closed his eyes and then opened them as a single tear started running down his right cheek. "She was my wife. We had been married for 3 years...before..." He just couldn't get himself to say the rest of the sentence. Before what? Before I strangled her...killed her...with my jealousy...my rage?

Leia looked at her father with concern as she noticed he was now sobbing, covering his face with both of his hands. "You still mourn her deeply...after all this time...you never have truly been able to move on?"

With a muffled voice, Anakin tried to answer. "It's my fault she's dead."

Leia's couldn't help but sympathize with her father's grief as she felt her own eyes filling with tears. "Why was it your fault?" She asked but Anakin wouldn't answer her. He just shook his head and continued to sob, not daring to look his daughter in the eye. "Please tell me." Leia pleaded as she found herself subconsciously reaching out to her father with her left hand, putting it on his shoulder in a comforting manner. "If you can't tell me why you think it was your fault, then please at least tell me...Who was our mother?" She asked with curiosity.

Anakin started to wipe the tears from his eyes with his hands as he sniffled and tried to regain some of his composure, reaching into the Light Side of the Force to calm himself. He then took a deep breath and opened his eyes, turning to look into his daughter's eyes. Padme's eyes. He thought causing another tear to start its descent down his cheek as he answered her. "Her name was Padme Amidala Naberrie...Skywalker." He told Leia, relieved in a way that he could actually speak her full true name out loud for the first time.

Leia's eyes got as big as saucers. "Senator Amidala...of Naboo?" She asked with shock.

Anakin weakly smiled back at his daughter. "Yes." He paused. "But when I first met her, she was the Queen of Naboo."

Leia couldn't believe her ears as she leaned back in her chair, taking her hand off of her father's shoulder as she did. I am Senator Padme Amidala's daughter. "I always admired her...when my...um...I mean my adoptive father, Bail Organa, used to talk about her. I grew up wanting to be just like her."

Anakin weakly smiled at his daughter. "And you did. You always reminded me of her, you know...even...when I was..."

"Darth Vader?" Leia finished for him to his surprise.

Anakin nodded. "Yes." He answered her before taking a deep breath and releasing it. "I loved your mother more than life itself. But our marriage was kept a secret because Jedi weren't allowed to marry. We weren't allowed to have any attachments. I would have been expelled from the order if our marriage had been exposed."

This response truly surprised Leia. "I had no idea." She told him and then paused as she continued to look at him with compassion yet awe. "Luke never mentioned it."

"He doesn't know." Anakin replied with a sad smile. After another awkward silence between father and daughter, Anakin finally spoke. "When I get out of here, I would like to go to Naboo...and visit her grave."

"Can I come with you?" Leia asked him, surprising even herself.

"Of course, Leia. I'm sure Luke would like to come with us as well." Anakin told her as they exchanged a sad but, for the first time, a truly loving glance that was also returned by Leia.

Leia looked down and then up at Anakin. "I find it hard to hate you now...despite everything that happened in the past."

"Hate is a strong emotion that leads to the Dark Side." Anakin simply told her matter of fact. "I am glad you have been able to let your hatred of me go over the years. Luke has taught you well." He then paused before continuing. "But will you ever forgive me...for what I became...what I did to you, your brother, the galaxy?"

"To Han?" Leia added as she looked at her father trying to gage his emotions. All I feel from him is intense sadness, remorse...and love.

"Yes, even to General Solo." Anakin answered her. He sighed before continuing. "For what it's worth, I knew General Solo would be ok when I sent him with the bounty hunter."

Leia looked at him with confusion. "Why? How did you know?"

Anakin couldn't help but snicker and quickly covered his mouth with his right hand to stifle it. "I'm sorry...it's not really a laughing matter." He sighed. "But I knew he would be ok...because during the Clone Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi, myself and some others were all encased in carbonite to hide our life signs during a mission."

"Really?!" Leia exclaimed with surprise as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, remembering what else had happened that horrible day. "But what about you sending him to Jabba the Hutt? He could have been fed to his pet Rancor."

Anakin just sighed. "Let me guess...Solo ended up being Jabba's prize possession and was prominently displayed on the wall in his throne room...complete with spot lights."

Leia gave him a startled look at his insight but then a thought occurred to her. "You had spies planted in Jabba's palace. They told you that."

Anakin shook his head. "No, I did not. But I knew Jabba and how all the Hutts thought." He sighed as he looked away and then back at his daughter. "I was a slave on Tatooine...until I was taken to the Jedi Temple at age 9 to study and train to become a Jedi."

"I know." Leia replied. "I was given your mother's holojournal by the woman who found it...on Tatooine."

Anakin looked at her with surprise but then he paused as he was sensing something from his daughter. "And that's why you named your youngest son after me?"

Leia nodded her head as she looked down at her hands clasped in her lap. "Yes...I guess that was my way of letting go of my hatred for you. I got to see who you had been through my grandmother's eyes by viewing her holojournal. I knew then that you weren't always evil, but that Palpatine had twisted you into being evil."

"I'm sorry you lost your son, Anakin Solo." Anakin told her wanting to comfort her for the loss of her son, his namesake. "He died bravely and honorably. I just wish I could have saved him like I was able to save Luke this time."

Leia couldn't help but smile through her tears at her father. "You were there...when...it happened. You were there to welcome him into the Force?"

Anakin nodded and smiled back at her. "Yes." He paused. "And he loves all of you very much. He doesn't want you to mourn him, but to honor him by loving his memory."

Leia started to sob as more tears started to fall down her cheeks. She covered her face with both of her hands as she bent over, setting her elbows on her knees. She heard the bed creak and shortly thereafter a warm hand on her left shoulder. She looked up with tear filled eyes into her father's blue eyes that were looking at her with love and compassion. "Thank you for that." She told him as tears continued to fall down her cheeks.

Anakin was rubbing her back with his left hand. "I just wish I could take all of your pain away." He told her.

Leia weakly smiled up at her father. "You really have changed haven't you? Darth Vader truly died all those years ago on the Death Star."

Anakin nodded. "Yes." He paused. "Darth Vader died a little each day I knew my son was alive...and then even more when I found out you were my daughter, Leia." He paused as a haunted smile crossed his features. "I think deep down I always knew...even if my conscious mind didn't believe it."

Leia smiled warmly at him. "You know...I did notice you let me get in your face and would never do anything about it."

Anakin laughed. "That's when you reminded me of your mother the most. You actually scared me because of that, even though I tried very hard not to show it."

Leia couldn't help but laugh. "Who would have thought that Darth Vader could have been so sentimental?"

"Yes, who would have thought." Anakin replied with a weak smile, but then became serious as his thoughts started drifting towards his wife's memory again. "Padme would have been so proud of you, Leia." He told her as he smiled at her with love.

Leia couldn't help but smile as tears of joy started to fall down her cheeks now. "Thank you...Father. That means a lot to me."

Anakin looked at her with a startled expression on his face. "You called me Father." He paused as he let this sink into his psyche. "Does this mean that you accept me? As your father now?" He asked her with his heart beaming with happiness and hope.

Leia gave him a huge smile as she nodded. "Yes. I do accept you...as my father."

"Thank you, Leia." Anakin replied. "You don't know how much that means to me. If only your mother was here...my life would be complete right now." He said as his blue eyes glistened and sparkled with joy and sadness at the same time.

It was then that a thought occurred to her that she hadn't even considered before during their very emotional and love filled conversation. "I just realized something."

Anakin glanced at her with curiosity. "And what is that?"

Leia looked directly into his eyes. "I'm Senator Pooja Naberrie's cousin. I've been friends with her for years." She told him as a smile formed on her lips. "I believe she is on Naboo now on vacation with her family. I could contact her to let her know that we are coming to Naboo to visit." It was only then that she noticed that her father hadn't answered her yet. He was just staring at her with a shocked look on his face.

"You know Pooja?" Anakin finally asked her more as a statement than a question.

"Yes." Leia replied with confusion. "I don't understand. What's wrong?"

Anakin just shook himself out of his shocked state and smiled at his daughter while feeling ashamed of himself for causing her worry. "Nothing is wrong. It's just...I don't know...when you mentioned her name it's like I felt your mother's presence in the Force."

Leia looked at him with continued confusion. "I don't understand. What do you think it means?"

Anakin shook his head. "I don't know. It's hard to explain. I've never experienced anything quite like that before." He then paused as he closed his eyes, trying to tune himself into the Light Side of the Force looking for answers. He then looked up into his daughter's troubled face. "I feel I need to speak with Pooja in person. Like there is something very important the Force wants me to know...and maybe she can tell me."

"About my mother?" Leia replied with surprise.

Anakin looked directly into Leia's big, brown eyes. So much like Padme's eyes. "Yes, Leia. About your mother."