0 ABY - Ark Angel, exiting hyperspace above Vjun
Ezra had spent most of their journey mediating, trying to regain his equilibrium. His throat still ached, and the skin was starting to purple up into dark bruises just above the collar of his uniform. If he coughed, sharp stabs of pain went up his neck, but he didn't think anything was permanently damaged. And really, he'd been lucky to get away with his life. A bit of discomfort didn't mean much, and he had been taught how to use his pain. It helped him focus on the Dark Side, to draw it to him and wrap it around him.
When he had first learned this on Mustafar it had been unpleasant after so much time using Jedi ways, but Ezra had quickly come to find it comforting. He felt strong, powerful, like this. He felt a little less alone.
The Starfall was gone. Utterly destroyed by the Rebel Alliance. He hadn't been particularly close to any of the crew on board, and he and Captain Siln had only ever had a grudging respect for each other but… he was still going to miss them.
Aphra was busy elsewhere on the ship, and her droids had retreated to power-saving mode. Even the astromech was sulking somewhere. Ezra had this room to himself. It was a small cabin with a couple of bunks, bare walls, free of the clutter that took up most of the rest of the ship. It felt unlived in. Aphra clearly didn't often travel with passengers or even any more of a crew than the droids. The starkness reminded him a little of Mustafar, but he was managing not to care too much.
When they came out of hyperspace, Ezra felt it in the tremor of the ship around him. He rose from where he had been sitting cross-legged on one of the beds and made his way to the cockpit, betting he'd find Aphra there. He was right; she glared at him when he came in, but didn't say anything disparaging. Since Vader had spared his life she seemed to have accepted his presence, although she obviously didn't like it.
"Where are we?" Ezra asked, gazing out the viewscreen at the desolate planet ahead. It was a rocky brown-grey colour swirling with sickly-looking clouds. There were hints of oceans under there, but whether they were made up of water or something less pleasant he wouldn't like to guess.
"Vjun," Aphra replied. "That's where we're meant to be anyway." She frowned at the console in front of her. "I'm not picking up anything on the scanners. I don't think Lord Vader is here yet."
"Then I suppose we… just wait in orbit then?"
"I wonder why here?" Aphra said, mostly to herself. "It's not a hyperspace lane intersection, and we had to replot our jump at Botajef to get here. So there must be a reason…"
"I sense… something about that planet," Ezra said carefully, starting to recognise what had been prickling at his senses. "The Dark Side is strong here."
"Probably Sith training stuff then." Aphra shrugged.
"I suppose Lord Vader might want to lay some groundwork before taking him to Mustafar," Ezra said. It did make sense. There were no rules against favouritism amongst the Sith, and Mustafar's training facility didn't exactly go easy on its new recruits. Luke was strong enough in the Force that there couldn't be any reason to worry about him failing one of the tests, but someone should probably explain to him that he shouldn't be so trusting. The other trainees would take advantage of that.
They began to approach the planet, intending to take up orbit around it, when suddenly the comm chirped. They were being hailed; and apparently from the planet's surface.
"Who would want to set up shop on a grubby kriff-hole of a rock like this?" Aphra muttered, but answered the hail. Both she and Ezra couldn't hide their surprise when Imperial Navy codes flashed up on the holoscreen, quickly followed by the face of an Imperial officer. He nodded to each of them in turn.
"Welcome to Vjun," the man said. "Lord Vader sent word that you would be arriving. I am Major Damant, commander of the garrison at Bast Castle. If you remain on your current trajectory, I shall send an escort to guide you to an appropriate landing platform."
"Great!" Aphra said, with a false veneer of cheer. She could not hide her confusion from the Force. The Major gave them a salute and cut the connection.
This seemed a little too easy, especially given Ezra's recent run of bad luck. Yet wasn't he part of something greater than himself now? He was part of Lord Vader's plan, and the Dark Side itself would see to it that things started to turn their way. He wondered what kind of installation this 'Bast Castle' might be. It was rumoured that Lord Vader had some kind of Sith retreat on a distant planet somewhere, but he surely wouldn't have brought them there, to such a private, even sacred, place.
Would he?
0 ABY - Millennium Falcon, Bandomeer system, Meerian Sector, Outer Rim
"Just what are you planning to do, father?" Luke asked. The Falcon was currently parked in orbit over Fitee, the third planet in the Bandomeer system, idling on low power. From here Bandomeer was just a bright spot in the endless night of space and the three Star Destroyers surrounding it were utterly invisible to the naked eye. Yet it would only take a signal from Vader to bring them here in a very short time indeed.
"I do not intend to act dishonorably," his father replied. "However we are both aware of Commander Organa priorities."
Luke closed his eyes, trying not to let his frustration show even though that was a futile prospect. Vader had already mentioned his lack of shields and his projection of his emotions, even though Luke didn't fully understand what he meant by it. "Why is this ship so important to you?" he asked. "It's nothing to do with the Emperor, is it?" His father had reacted with anger when Leia made that suggestion, but there was a lot more to this, he could feel it.
"No," Vader said. "It was your mother's ship."
"My mother?" Some indescribable, undefinable emotion stabbed through him. A part of him had suspected it had to be something like that. The yacht looked too much like the one he had seen in his vision. "I… I don't know anything about her," he said quietly. "What was she like?"
His father hesitated. It was something Luke was coming to recognise whenever he had broached a difficult topic. And what could be more difficult that this? He had to believe his father had loved her - she had spoken his name too fondly in the vision to think anything else. She had worried for him, for his safety. And… Obi-Wan had said nothing. What had happened on Mustafar?
"She had a kind heart," Vader said after a while. "She was stubborn, passionate, clever… and she was beautiful." The vocoder did not allow much emotion to leach through into his voice, but through whatever tenuous connection was allowing Luke to detect his moods he could feel his father's pain and sorrow. He could feel the echoes of love, faint and despairing. "Kenobi should not have kept her memory from you."
Luke hadn't asked… why hadn't he asked when he'd had the chance? He'd assumed at the time that Old Ben's friendship had only been with his father, that he hadn't necessarily known his mother, because surely otherwise Ben would have mentioned something… Perhaps it had been too painful for him. There had been quiet agony behind his eyes on Mustafar.
"I don't even know her name," he admitted.
His father's anger rippled in the Force. "Padmé," he said. "Her name was Padmé Naberrie. She took the throne-name Padmé Amidala when she was elected Queen of Naboo."
"My mother was a queen?" Luke asked in surprise. He hadn't expected anything like that. Well, he hadn't really known what to expect. He'd thought about it when he was younger, conjured up all kinds of ideas, but even his fantasies hadn't aimed as high as that.
"And later a senator," Vader said. Was that pride Luke sensed? "She championed many worthy causes, and made many enemies doing so. It did not deter her. Indeed that was how we met for the second time, when I was assigned to protect her."
"Was that the sort of thing the Jedi did in the Republic?" Luke asked. He wasn't expecting an unbiased answer by any means, but so far his father hadn't lied to him, not outright. He was sure he would have sensed an outright lie, although he had to admit that he was less sure he would be able to detect manipulation of the truth. But Vader seemed to want to be honest with him.
"Infrequently," Vader replied. Luke waited. Nothing else appeared to be forthcoming.
"We heard a lot of legends about the Jedi on Tatooine," Luke said cautiously. "But that's all they ever were. Legends. I don't think a single person alive on the planet had ever met a Jedi - that they knew of anyway, since Ben was in hiding. Except my Aunt and Uncle I suppose, not that they ever mentioned it." He was hoping to suggest that whatever his father might want to tell him about the Jedi would have to be accepted as the truth, that there was nothing Luke knew to contradict even the worst Imperial propaganda - but by the faint trace of amusement, Vader was well aware that Luke was making a clumsy attempt at manipulation.
"The Outer Rim territories rightly never had great respect for the Jedi," his father said. "Their legends may not be factual, but in spirit they are closer to the truth than the lies of the Old Republic."
"They were meant to be guardians of peace and order." Ben had mentioned something to that effect.
"Whose peace and order?" his father said coldly. "That of a corrupt Senate? A Republic sliding closer to chaos each year? Or their own whims? By the end of the war they certainly had delusions of setting up their own state."
Luke shook his head. This was starting to get into territory he wasn't sure he was ready to deal with. He didn't know the first thing about politics, so how could he tell what sounded right here? "Where was my mother in all of this?" he asked. "You said she was a senator, right?"
"She was nothing like the rest," Vader said. "She had principles. The Empire… it was meant to be for her."
Luke's blood ran cold. He didn't know why - he didn't know what his mother might have felt about the Empire, but some instinct, or perhaps the whisper of the Force, told him she wouldn't have wanted this. Not the killing, the purges, the subjugation… "What happened?" he asked quietly.
His father fell silent again. "By that time it was already too late," he said eventually. "Kenobi had lied to her about me, about the Emperor, about what we had done to ensure the safety of the new Empire. In time I would have showed her that it was for the best, but...I do not know how she died. For a long time I thought she perished on Mustafar."
"Mustafar…" The vision. That had to be it! That was what they had seen! Should he press, should he ask more about what had happened there? But there was a tense, fragile quality to the silence that had fallen between them that said no. It wouldn't be wise, not right now. There would be plenty of time for him to ask more in the future. "Will you tell me more about her?" he asked instead.
"I shall," Vader replied. "Later. For the moment, we must deal with Commander Organa."
Luke opened his mouth to ask another question but then he felt it too; the ripple in the Force. Further out from the planet, a ship dropped out of hyperspace. It was an Alderaanian cruiser, and he barely had to reach out to sense that Leia was on board. He smiled. There was something about her being here that was comforting, even if this was far from the best of circumstances.
"I'll get Han," he said.
Vader nodded. "We shall see what trap the Commander has in store for us," he replied.
0 ABY - Alderaanian cruiser Advocate, Bandomeer system, Meerian Sector, Outer Rim
"Have the technicians finished with that yacht?" Leia asked, scanning the view of this system's third planet from the bridge. They had only just dropped out of hyperspace; not enough time to scan for the Falcon yet, but she had a firm feeling that it wasn't far away. There, wasn't that a flash of grey against the blackness of space? Her eyes fixed on it until she was certain. Yes. It was here. Han was here. So was Luke… and Vader.
"Yes, your majesty," Captain Rillan replied. "He won't get far in that ship."
"Good." Leia smiled. She had all of this planned out. "Have we got sensor lock on the Falcon?"
"Affirmative," one of the technicians replied.
"Hail Vader. Tell him we're ready to make the exchange."
The reply came quickly. Not that Leia was entirely focusing on it; she was keeping an eye on the terminal reporting the results of their long-range scans. It seemed that at the moment all three of Bandomeer's Star Destroyers were where they ought to be; in orbit around the mining planet. Not that it meant much.
"We are jamming all transmissions out of this area, aren't we?" she asked, and was given a swift confirmation. Good. No calls for help from Vader. "Start tractoring the yacht out of our hanger then."
The Falcon skimmed through space towards them. At the speeds the Corellian freighter was capable of it wouldn't be easy to get a targeting lock on them, not from a cruiser. The thought wasn't one she was really considering anyway. It was one thing to claim that she, Han and Luke would all gladly give their lives to see Vader ended when she was there in the thick of it with them. It was another thing entirely to fire on them from a capital ship.
The Nubian yacht glided away from the Advocate slowly. The Falcon slowed and came to meet it as the tractor beam disengaged, turning to present its dorsal surface and the airlock there. The two vessels docked with apparent ease, although Leia knew very well how difficult such a maneuver was when only one of the ships had a pilot at the helm. Which one of them was it, she wondered? Luke, Han or Vader? Not that it mattered. Good piloting wouldn't save that monster.
Waiting was getting on her nerves. Leia resisted the urge to pace. She was calculating timing in her head. How long to climb the ladder from the Falcon to the Amidala, navigating the tricky gravity orientation change? How long to check the systems, find nothing apparently wrong, and disengage? What if Luke decided to do something typical of him and choose this moment to try to escape Vader?
Then, finally, the airlocks separated with the slight puff of venting residual atmosphere.
"Check in with Captain Solo and ready the tractor beam again," she ordered.
"Solo confirms he's alive, and alone on the Falcon," came the rapid reply. "Both his sub-lights and hyperdrive appear to have been left in working order, according to his diagnostics."
That should have made her suspicious. If Vader had enacted his own sabotage, they would have had to use the Advocate's tractor beam to pull the Falcon on board to leave the system, but he hadn't Later, she realised that this was Vader's attempt at honour - Han was no longer part of this fight. But in the moment the thought did not occur to her. "Lock on to the yacht then," she said. "Let's hope this works when he tries to run."
0 ABY - J-327 Nubian yacht Padmé Amidala, Bandomeer system, Meerian Sector, Outer Rim
"I have a bad feeling about this," Luke said, as he followed his father into the yacht. It was just as bright inside as out, clean and elegant in a way that made Vader look a little out of place. But as soon as those heavy durasteel boots hit the deck a kind of tension went out of the Force. Home, Luke thought, and then wondered if that had really been him thinking it at all.
"Commander Organa will certainly have laid a trap for me," his father told him, striding through the ship. Luke had to jog to keep up. "The cockpit is here. I will rely on your evasive maneuvers until I have made the repairs."
"What's broken?" Luke asked.
"That I have yet to discover."
That didn't make Luke feel any better. He settled into the pilot's chair, running his hands over the unfamiliar controls. The soft, red synth-leather of his seat had a comfortable, well-worn quality that spoke of many years of use. The bulk of the Alderaanian cruiser loomed outside, closer than was comfortable considering the situation. He began activating the ship's systems, running a quick diagnostic as he did so.
"Authorisation needed," the ship told him, a code input box blinking on the screen.
"Damn it," Luke said to himself. "Now what?"
"Voice-print recognised. Access granted."
"Ummm." Luke wasn't sure he wanted to know how his father had gotten his hands on his voiceprint. He probably wouldn't like the answer to that particular question. Better to just ignore it. The diagnostic at least seemed to indicate that everything was in working order - which was suspicious in and of itself.
He was just wondering what to do next when the ship's internal comms crackled. "Disengage the airlock," his father told him. "Organa will become suspicious if we delay any further."
"Okay," Luke replied, starting the process. "Have you found out what the problem is?"
"I will be having words with these Rebel engineers." Even with half the ship between them, Vader's anger still felt just as strong as when he was standing right beside him. That wasn't a good sign, and neither was the growl in his voice. "Even given their aims this is a slovenly job."
"Can you fix it?"
"Yes. They have removed several limiters on the sub-light engines; you will have to monitor their fluctuations individually from there whilst I focus on the hyperdrive motivator."
"Okay… okay, I can do this." It was either that or find out exactly how big an explosion a couple of modified Headon-5 engines were capable of making.
"They will be attempting to get a tractor lock on us," his father reminded him. "I suggest you do not let them."
"E chu ta," Luke swore under his breath, and grabbed the controls. The yacht accelerated far faster than he expected, jetting away from the Falcon. He compensated quickly, mindful of the slight tremors that were starting to run through the ship, and sent them in a tight, controlled spin that would bring them round and in close to the cruiser. When tangling with a capital ship, closer was always better. The point defence batteries started up, red bolts streaking around their path, but the Alliance ship wasn't trying too hard. Probably they were hoping the sabotaged engines would do their job for them.
"Slow, and bring us around directly behind their bridge," Vader ordered over the comms.
Luke wanted to ask why, but his father sounded distracted. He'd never actually worked on a hyperdrive himself - in fact he'd never even seen one before leaving Tatooine - but he was well aware just how complicated they were. Fixing one couldn't be easy, and it couldn't be much longer before the Alliance tired of this and sent out fighters. If the yacht had been in its normal condition Luke wouldn't have worried, but he seriously doubted he could dodge X-wings without pushing the engines just that little bit too hard. He curved another loop around the cruiser and did as he'd been told. As he slowed to hover over the rear surface of the bridge-tower he realised the logic; none of the ship's guns were set up to be able to reach them here.
Suddenly the yacht shuddered. Luke yelped and scanned the engine readouts, worried that something had just gone horribly wrong. But everything looked fine.
"I have deployed the magnetic clamp," his father told him, in a way that sounded almost reassuring.
"You're… going to pull us onto the cruiser's hull?" Luke asked, confused. "Why?"
"I intend to layer our shields in such a way as to interlock with those of the capital ship," Vader replied.
"What?" If anything, that only made him more confused. "Can you even do something like that? Surely the difference in the energy fields… the interactions would…"
"It is perfectly safe if done correctly."
"I don't think this plan sounds like a very good idea," Luke said hesitantly.
"Young one, trust me."
'Young one' Luke mouthed to himself. He felt like he should be insulted, but this was his father speaking. If anyone was allowed to call him something like that… still! He was almost twenty!
"It will give us the time we need to complete the repairs," Vader said.
Luke watched uncomfortably as the rough grey hull of the Alderaanian ship moved closer through the viewscreen. This seemed dangerous, but he did trust that his father knew what he was doing. He could sense nothing but calm confidence from him - and anger, but that was always present. He sank back in the chair, resigned to waiting. He suppose he could have volunteered to help with the hyperdrive, but he had a feeling that he would only have been in the way. Vader seemed to have everything well in hand.
0 ABY - Alderaanian cruiser Advocate, Bandomeer system, Meerian Sector, Outer Rim
"What is Vader doing?" Leia shouted to the bridge at large as the Nubian yacht leapt away from the Falcon. "He's going to do the job of killing himself for us!"
"There's no way he could have rewired the engines to compensate for removing the limiters," Captain Rillan said. "Even the best pilot in the galaxy couldn't keep the sub-lights in check long enough to get away from us. Something will blow before too long."
"He's not trying to flee," Leia growled, following the ship's erratic course as it slid towards them at some eccentric angle. "Are the weapons hot on that thing?"
Rillan shook his head. "Absolutely not."
"Then why is he coming to us?"
"Do you want us to fire?" the Lieutenant at weapons control asked.
"Yes, but aim to disable," Leia replied. "That was the whole point of this; to take him alive and recover his hostage! If he wasn't so arrogant as to think he can survive flying that death-trap we've made…"
"We've lost the targeting solution!" the Lieutenant - Mithan, wasn't it? - said, half-rising from her seat in her alarm. "He's… found a blind spot for our guns."
"Where?" Leia demanded, coming over to look at the terminals herself. The Advocate's external blueprints spread out in front of her, blinking with a hundred informative updates of ship systems which were of less concern to her right now that Vader's exact location.
"To the rear of the bridge tower." Lieutenant Mithan pointed. "And…" she blinked. "There's some really strange readings coming from our shields there."
Leia felt a horrible suspicion rise up in the back of her mind. "Get a security team as close as they can to that point of the hull," she said. No time to launch fighters; by the time they were in position their target would no longer be anywhere they could reach.
"You can't possibly be suggesting…" Captain Rillan said, turning ashen.
"That kriffing suit of his doesn't care if he's in atmosphere or vacuum - it'll protect him all the same," Leia said, nodding. "And if there's one thing that can cut through meters of durasteel plating, it's a lightsaber. So yes, Captain, I am saying exactly that. He's going to board us."
0 ABY - J-327 Nubian yacht Padmé Amidala, Bandomeer system, Meerian Sector, Outer Rim
There was no sign of any fighters. Luke knew the cruiser had to have some, so where were they? Even if they couldn't risk firing on them when they were so closer to the Alliance ship's hull, he would have thought they would at least send out a couple of X-wings to try and catch them when they tried to run. They couldn't stay here forever, after all! He'd never have thought he would say something like this under the circumstances, but he was bored.
Sighing, he activated the internal comms. "Father, how are the repairs to the hyperdrive going?" he asked, trying not to sound too impatient. He knew he should just wait, that the job wasn't exactly a simple one…
There wasn't any reply. Luke frowned. He tried pushing the comm button again, thinking perhaps it was just the unfamiliar systems, but no, he could hear the faint buzz of the open connection and the hum of machinery from the engine bay. So… why wasn't Vader answering? Surely there wasn't anything that could have gone wrong in such a short space of time? Was he just one of these people that got so wrapped up in fixing a problem that they barely paid any attention to the rest of the world around them? Maybe that was it. And he didn't feel anything unusual through the Force.
In fact, he wasn't feeling much of anything of his father through the Force. That was more worrying. This strange connection they had… he had been able to feel something from Vader ever since leaving Vrogas Vas, so why would that change?
This wasn't right. Luke left the cockpit, sure now that he had to investigate. It wasn't as though he had been doing anything critical up there anyway.
The ship was quiet and still. Luke trotted down the stairs to the lower deck and by dint of some exploring found the room where the hyperspace engine was housed. At the moment it had been elevated up out of its housing underneath the flooring and showed signs of recent repair. However, everything seemed to be finished. To Luke's admittedly inexperienced eye, it looked functional. Recently soldered wiring and circuitry was in place, and all that seemed left was to let it slot back down into proper position. So… where was his father?
Luke reached out for their connection. It had been continuing to grow stronger, and now he could envision it as a physical link between his mind and Vader's. There was nothing wrong with his end, but it felt as though a wall had been built up at the other side - or perhaps a set of blast doors lowered. He couldn't get any sense of what his father was feeling or doing right now. Luke resisted the urge to curse in frustration.
It shouldn't be hard to find his father in the Force, surely! His presence was so strong! Even without this particular connection, if he just stretched his senses out… even if he wasn't very good at it he should be able to feel something…
Luke knelt down on the hard metal floor and tried to concentrate. He knew what the Force felt like, he knew what it was like to touch it, he had done it without thinking about it before… It came almost easily this time. The Alderaanian ship was beneath him, all the lives on it like the lights of stars in the distance. And there was Leia - he didn't know how he knew it was her, but he would have recognised her anywhere. And… his father. Cold fire, a dark sun burning, deadly and burning with rage.
On board the Alliance cruiser.
No! What had he done?! How had he even managed to get in there? There was an airlock on the yacht but Luke hadn't seen any vacuum suits. Except... that Vader wouldn't need one. And his lightsaber would be able to cut a way inside.
I can't stop him, Luke thought. I can't go after him through vacuum. He's going to kill them all and there's nothing I can do about it.
Father, you promised you wouldn't do anything to hurt me. Please, don't do this.
Luke's thoughts churned inside his skull. He fought to think of a solution. Maybe he couldn't board the cruiser the same way Vader had, but there had to be another way! If he could find the control to disengage the magnetic clamp, he could skim close enough to the cruiser's hull to make it to their hangar bay. Once inside, he had Alliance passwords that would prove who he was. He didn't have much time, but he had to try! Lives were depending on it.
He had to stop his father from doing this.
0 ABY - Alderaanian cruiser Advocate, Bandomeer system, Meerian Sector, Outer Rim
Leia watched the destruction from the bridge cameras. The moment they had identified the hull segment where Vader was cutting through, the blast-doors had been lowered around that area. That hadn't held him for long. After the first time he'd carved a hole through into the next part of a corridor - with the natural result of depressurising it - she had ordered them to let him through the next one and close it behind him, purely so that her soldiers would have an atmosphere to breath when they tried to fight him. She hadn't been expecting their success, not against that monster, not in confined spaces which favoured him, but even one lucky hit…
There had been no such luck. Vader was a one man army, seemingly untouchable, projecting an aura of terror wherever he went. He was coming straight for the bridge, and it wouldn't be long before he made it here.
"Pull them back," Leia ordered, as the camera caught a good view of another Rebel sliced in half by that deadly red blade. "This is pointless. We'll have to make our stand here."
"Yes your majesty," Rillan replied, kind enough not to point out that they were no more likely to be successful. She had expected some trap from Vader, but nothing so bold as this! Piloting a ship made deadly to the slightest wrong move just so he could mount a one man boarding action where it would be the hardest to stop him and with the most for him to gain… She had underestimated him. She should have known better.
Leia drew the lightsaber from her jacket. At least they had this. It might not be enough, but it would at least slow him down. Fighting him herself might buy the bridge crew the opportunity to shoot him in the back; surely he couldn't defend from blasters and a lightsaber at once!
Vader stalked onwards through the now-deserted corridors. For a moment, she thought she saw him stop, hesitate, but whatever had caused that soon passed. He continued on until he stood in front of the triple-thickness blast doors that guarded the bridge. Without hesitation, his blade plunged into the metal, hilt deep. From her own side of the doors Leia could see the cherry-red glow start to appear, small at first but rapidly growing in size and brightness. Molten durasteel started to run down the inner surface of the doors, gradually revealing the spitting red tip of the lightsaber.
Cutting through was not a quick procedure. Leia watched the slow arc form and wondered if it almost might be better to let him through. At least that would get it over with. She could practically taste the fear in the air, and the wait was only making things worse. This felt like being trapped like lopers in a burrow with a hungry garral outside.
"Hold steady," she said out loud. "Be patient everyone. Make sure our systems are shut down - we have to limit what damage he can do from here." If she couldn't save the bridge crew, at least she might be able to save everyone else.
A man-sized semicircle of durasteel pushed forwards with a shriek of metal on metal. It slid to one side to reveal Vader, his hand still held out before him. The monster took his time, ducking under the still-glowing rim of the opening he had created and stalking forward, his lightsaber held before him. Leia ignited her own, feeling the warmth of the green plasma against her face.
"Organa," Vader snarled. He no longer sounded cold, emotionless. He was more than angry; he was furious. "You will pay for your actions."
"If you've come to kill me you can certainly try," Leia replied. She had anger of her own, and plenty of it. It didn't matter to her why Vader had taken up some kind of personal vendetta against her, although given that this seemed to have arisen in the short time since Vrogas Vas it had to have something to do with the Amidala. She had faced death at the Empire's hands before, and she would not give in to it quietly. She would fight back.
Vader said nothing more. He strode towards her, heedless of the bridge officers opening fire on him. Blaster bolts were batted aside in a flurry of red and then he was on her. The crimson lightsaber swept down and Leia blocked instinctively. The blades crackled together for a moment before Vader attacked again. There was no longer any time for Leia to pay attention to anything else going on in the room; it was as much as she could do to stay alive. She wasn't thinking about what she was doing, she was just reacting, and although it was working better than she had hoped she wouldn't stay lucky for long.
Then suddenly all she felt was pain. Her right wrist exploded into fire and she stumbled backwards, unable to keep herself from crying out. Her hand… her hand was gone. Leia looked down at the cauterised stump in horror. Vader paused only long enough to deflect a few further shots from the crew and then raised the red blade for the killing blow.
Another lightsaber hummed into existence between them. Leia looked up to see just about the last possible person she had expected. Luke Skywalker. How had he even gotten here? He stood between them - Leia could only see his back but determination was written in every line of his body.
"Stand aside," Vader said.
"No," Luke replied. He wasn't attacking… but neither was Vader. Even the blaster shots died away as the whole room watched the confrontation playing out in front of them. Leia did her best to focus past the pain. She had felt worse than this. Vader had done worse than this to her.
"You were meant to remain on the ship, young one," Vader said.
"Did you really think I wasn't going to notice!" Luke shouted. "Leia is my friend. Everyone on board this cruiser… why are you doing this? It's me you wanted - we could have just left here!"
Because this is war, Leia wanted to answer him. Luke knew that as well as everyone else, why was he choosing now to be naive?
"You are well aware what your friend has done to Padmé's ship," Vader growled. The way he said it made it sound… personal, Leia realised. This wasn't fear of his Master's punishment for losing the vessel. This was something else. But… what? Why would a Nubian royal yacht matter so much to a monster like Vader?
"So you were going to kill her for it!" Luke said. "No. I won't let you."
"That is not up to you. Return to the ship."
"No," Luke said. And then, quietly enough that Leia must have been the only person close enough to hear it. "Father… you made me a promise. I'm going to keep you to it.."
What? Father? Leia went cold. For some reason she didn't doubt in the slightest that this was the truth - she was certain that Vader really was Luke's father. But how was that possible? How could someone as good as Luke possibly have that brute in his family?
Vader's helmet turned from his son's face towards hers. He knew she had heard that, she realised. She could almost feel his rage shimmering through the air between them. Leia grit her teeth and struggled to her feet, leaning heavily on a control panel for support. Pain stabbed up and down her arm.
"A quick death is more than you deserve Organa," he finally said. "This is not over."
Vader's lightsaber deactivated with a hiss, and she watched Luke relax. He too put his blade away. Then with one swift, unexpected motion Vader grabbed Luke by the waist and bodily heaved him over his shoulder. Luke yelped. "Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
"Securing my hostage," Vader announced, clearly making sure that his words carried to the bridge at large, and stalked away.
Leia leaned back against the controls and did her best not to fall over. The ship and everyone on board were safe now but… what she had learned was disturbing. Luke's father was Anakin Skywalker, which meant Vader… She was going to have to discuss this with Mon Mothma. She had been a senator in the old Republic. She had known the Jedi Knights of the Clone Wars. Perhaps she would know what to do about this.
0 ABY - J-327 Nubian yacht Padmé Amidala, Bandomeer to Vjun
Vader's mind was filled with the burning rage of justice delayed. Organa yet lived, despite that she had dared to harm Padmé's ship, had desecrated her memory by doing so. His anger, and the cloak of the Dark Side it drew to it, were so thick around him that every rasp of his respirator seemed to draw it in and out of his lungs. He tasted the ash of Mustafar's choking air on his tongue.
The moment he boarded the yacht with Luke still wriggling over his shoulder he put the boy down and headed for the cockpit, locking the door behind him. He didn't trust himself around his son at the moment. The boy's actions weren't his fault - he had never known Padmé, he couldn't truly appreciate the insult that Organa had given her, he could only think of his friend first. But only half of him could appreciate that; the other half wanted to lash out and barely cared what target it might hit. He was not going to allow that part control.
He left the cruiser's hangar at high speed - perhaps faster than was wise. The engines strained and vibrated with a high whine, but he calmed them a little with the Force. It gave him something to do, something to concentrate on that wasn't pure rage. He plotted their jump into the nav computer and sent them smoothly into hyperspace, feeling the Force-presence of the lifeforms on the Rebel ship disappear behind them. The time would come, he promised himself, that he would have his revenge on Leia Organa. Perhaps when his son had finally embraced the power of the Dark Side, when Vader had told him more about his mother, perhaps then he would understand the necessity of doing so.
Besides, one thing he had learned in the last two decades was patience.
0 ABY - Bast Castle, Vjun, Nuiri sector, Outer Rim
As the Major had promised, a trio of TIE-fighters met Aphra's ship just above atmosphere, dropping into place behind them. The leader pinged their comm channel and Aphra answered it, her eyes remaining trained on the targeting computers. Ezra couldn't blame her for being cautious. These were Lord Vader's men but… the instincts of mistrust had been well trained into him. You couldn't count on another Inquisitor to have your back if they sensed weakness, let alone a member of one of the other Imperial military services.
"You'll want to keep your shields up until we reach Bast Castle," the squadron leader said. "The rain here is… well, you'll see. Transmitting flight path to you now."
"Why would I put my shields down?" Aphra asked rhetorically, although the channel wasn't active when she said it, Ezra noticed. She pulled up the information that had been sent over and looked through it, then adjusted their course planetward.
The TIE escort continued to shadow the Ark Angel as it soared down through thick, poisonous-looking cloud cover and into a storm. Fat droplets splattered on the shields over the viewscreen and evaporated with hisses of energy. Lightning flashed nearby. Ezra might not have been the one at the controls, but he could feel the way the winds were buffeting their craft. How did the TIE's even fly in this?
After a short while a dark spire loomed ahead of them, too thin to be a mountain, but impressive in its height. Buildings nestled at the foot, and windows glowed like so many tiny lights. In the darkness of the cloud cover it would have been easy to miss this place for all its size, save for when lightning lit it up briefly and brilliantly. Ezra began to realise that he'd been wrong. This was Lord Vader's Sith retreat. And they had been told to come here, specifically. Equal amounts of excitement and terror thrilled through him.
The fighters directed them to land in a hangar bay at ground level of the complex. It wasn't the only one; there were a number of massive durasteel doors set all along the outer wall of the building. Ezra wondered why bother when there didn't seem to be any other people out here. Magnetic fields would have done the job of keeping out the rain just as well. So what threat were the doors protecting from?
Once the Ark Angel had landed inside the docking bay, Ezra followed Aphra out to where they were met by a squad of stormtroopers, plus Major Damant. The stormtroopers were… not standard. The armour didn't look quite right, as though the design was subtly different, and there were blue markings everywhere. Ezra had been taught all of the details of the Imperial military as part of Inquisitorius training, including marks of rank and specialisation. These weren't in any of the files he had seen. And yet they did seem somehow familiar… He supposed they were specific to Lord Vader. Vader's Fist, the fabled 501st Legion, were all the best of the best. Vader's personal guard could only be of superlative quality.
"Greetings, Twelfth Brother, Doctor Aphra," Major Damant said, nodding to them both cordially. "Rooms have been assigned for your use. I have been instructed to take you to them until Lord Vader returns. The droids also."
"I'm sure they'd be happy to stay with the ship," Aphra said. "This is a hell of a facility you've got here, but Triple-Zero tends to get irritable with nothing to do."
"Our instructions were clear."
Aphra shrugged. "I'll fetch them," she said, and disappeared back up the ramp.
Ezra waited for her uncomfortably. The Major wasn't staring at him, but it certainly felt like he was. Or perhaps it was the troopers. Someone had an eye for aesthetics - this squad were all exactly the same height. If it weren't for the small variations in their armour markings he would never have been able to tell one from the other. Not that it was ever easy, but Ezra had been taught to manage it, and the Force helped. But even their Force signatures were strangely uniform.
Aphra reappeared with her two droids and Luke's astromech behind her. "I think we're ready for the grand tour," she said, grinning.
"Not that one," Major Damant said, pointing. Artoo gave a little warble of surprise.
"You're in charge," Aphra said. "Although I hope you're gonna be careful with it; I don't think its master would be pleased if he doesn't find it in the same condition he left it."
Major Damant didn't answer. He motioned to a pair of the troopers, who approached Artoo. The droid squawked and extended its shock probe in a threatening way. The Major sighed. "Droid - unit R2-D2. Recall the Socorro campaign?"
Whatever kind of code that was, it pacified Artoo. He put away the probe and followed the two stormtroopers with happy beeps. Ezra wondered at the significance of this, but it was hardly important right now. He would have the chance to ask Luke when he and Lord Vader arrived.
"Now that's over, shall we proceed?" Major Damant said.
He and Aphra followed the Major, Beetee and Triple-Zero following on behind. Even though they were only passing through unremarkable corridors, Ezra still found it hard to contain his excitement. Bast Castle was built entirely out of black stone, black duracrete, black plasteel, with the occasional highlight of dull chrome. There were shadows everywhere, shadows that almost felt alive. Occasionally he saw more stormtroopers, a glaring contrast in their white armour even despite those blue markings. The Dark Side pressed in all around him.
Aphra noticed, of course. She might have had some cutting words to say - he could still feel her dislike for him - if it wasn't for her own evident curiosity. "What's gotten into you?" she finally asked.
Ezra tried to think of how to explain it. "This place is… it's sacred," he said. "There have always been rumours in the Inquisitorius about Lord Vader's Sith retreat and I never thought I would actually get to be here! I didn't think anyone but those highest up in the Imperial hierarchy even knew where it was!"
Aphra didn't say much in return, although she hummed thoughtfully, but her pleasure was obvious. But not for the same reasons. The ways of the Force meant little to her. She didn't respect Darth Vader because he was a Sith, she respected him because he was powerful. If Vjun was important to him, then it was important to her.
Just walking through the halls of the castle was an experience in itself. Everything here was steeped in the power of the Dark Side. It was like being back on Mustafar, but without all the bad memories. Not that he ought to be shying away from those memories, Ezra admitted to himself. The training was harsh for a reason, after all. If he couldn't use the pain to his own advantage, what kind of Inquisitor was he? Still, here the underlying atmosphere seemed more... melancholy somehow, rather than the constant current of vicious rage that it was easy to fall prey to on Mustafar.
When they finally arrived at their quarters, which were more luxurious than they really deserved, Ezra took advantage of the showers - real hot water! - to wash away some of the sweat and dirt of Vrogas Vas. He therefore missed some kind of drama with Triple-Zero and one of the stormtroopers. The first he knew of it was when he stepped out of the fresher and saw Aphra arguing with an angry trooper while two others dragged one of their comrades away, hanging limply between them. After a moment the trooper with the arrow painted on his helmet whirled away and strode out of the room.
"Idiots," Aphra said, to the room at large. "I told them to stay out of our way."
"I don't even want to know," Ezra replied, sitting down on one of the couches and trying to untangle his wet hair with his fingers. He hadn't been able to find a comb.
"I've sent BeeTee and Triple-Zero into that bedroom," Aphra said, pointing. "Don't go inside - or maybe do! I could do with a good laugh."
"I'm sure Lord Vader will arrive soon," Ezra said, thinking that might be the source of her apparent agitation.
"I hope we don't have to stay here too long," Aphra replied, glaring around the perfectly innocent room. "This isn't my scene. I don't hang around with the Empire - that hasn't historically ended very well for me." Ezra wasn't buying it - moments ago she had been just as excited to be here as he was. Maybe it was just the presence of the troops that was putting her on edge.
"Maybe Lord Vader will have something else for you to do while he trains his son," Ezra suggested.
"Man, did I misjudge that kid," Aphra said, shaking her head. "Vader Junior… Those Jedi have a lot to answer for."
"Yes," Ezra said, letting the rage flash through him. "But everything will be put right now."
"You've changed your tune all of a sudden," Aphra sneered. "What happened to 'kriff Lord Vader's orders, I do what I like'?"
"I was doing as the Force guided me!" Ezra replied, meeting her anger with his own. "I was helping Luke!"
"And now?"
"If you're asking me whose side I'm on, it doesn't matter! There are no sides here."
"You think after two decades of Jedi indoctrination this kid is just going to accept the truth?" Aphra asked. "That he's going to become a good little Sith? We're all going to have to pull together here to get Luke to see the light and help Lord Vader's plans along."
"He doesn't need our help," Ezra said. "He's a Lord of the Sith!"
Aphra frowned. "The mark of a good leader is knowing how to use the skills of those around you," she said. "And I think you'd be the first to be thankful that Lord Vader knows that, since it's the only reason you're still alive. If you weren't useful to him in some way I doubt Luke's words would have saved you."
Somehow Ezra felt that wasn't true, and that Aphra was well aware of that fact. But she was so loyal to Vader that it practically burned in the Force, and in her eyes he was nothing but a traitor. She would say a lot of dubious things if they would hurt him. And lying was familiar to her; she was a smuggler after all.
"My goal here is to see Luke become a Sith," he said. "To see him at his father's side where he belongs. I'll do what I can to make that happen."
"Then we're on the same side," Aphra said, with a smile that was more of a threat. "So long as you remember you work for Lord Vader, not his Jedi-raised son."
Ezra wasn't about to forget it. Second chances didn't come around more than once.
0 ABY - Alderaanian cruiser Advocate, Bandomeer system, Meerian Sector, Outer Rim
Leia had wanted to contact Mon immediately, but Captain Rillan had talked enough sense into her to receive proper medical attention first. She had to admit to herself that she probably wasn't thinking clearly at the moment. Her brain was flooded with stress chemicals and endorphins and frankly, her head was spinning. Rillan escorted her personally down to the med bay, possibly to make sure she didn't get distracted en route, then left her in the care of the senior medic and her droids.
The first thing they did was to give her an injection of painkillers. It wasn't until she felt her muscles relax and her jaw unclench that she realised how bad it had been. Her head felt a very little bit clearer, but the world still felt as though it was happening at a remove, as though her body existed several feet away from her. Her severed hand and the lightsaber it was still clutching had been retrieved from the floor of the bridge, but a cursory examination had Doctor Os Kel tutting to herself and looking unhappy.
"There's too much damage to the tissues to reattach it," the Mon Cal told Leia. "In the interests of honesty, I've never seen a lightsaber wound before, although I've read about them. The blade's heat causes internal burns to a significant radius around the obvious injury - even with bacta this will result in heavy scarring within most of your forearm. Our only option is to amputate up to healthy tissue and have a cybernetic replacement made."
The idea was unpleasant, but Leia wasn't about to ignore reality. If Os Kel said this was the only way, then she trusted her medical opinion. "How long will it take to have it built?" she asked.
"A temporary prosthetic will be available in a matter of days," the doctor replied. "We will need to take scans of your other hand for correct measurements of the permanent prosthetic, and manufacturing the parts will take some weeks. There are companies which sell cybernetics to civilians, but the best models are only available to Imperial military and their sale is closely controlled. We can do better ourselves."
"Fine," Leia said. "It doesn't matter to me what it looks like as long as it does what I need it to."
"It would be best if we perform the initial surgery immediately," the doctor said. "To allow for clean healing. There is a risk of infection otherwise."
"I need to speak to Mon Mothma…" Leia objected.
"Is it time sensitive?"
"I… no. I suppose not." She did feel very weary. Perhaps it would be better to get this over with. She could sleep, and talk to Mon when she was sharper.
"Then we shall prepare." Os Kel motioned her droids over, and had Leia lie down on a narrow white plas bed nearby. She felt the sting of something in the crook of her arm. "Just relax. When you wake up, the procedure will be over with."
Leia drifted off on a haze of clouds, and did not dream.
When she woke up, she didn't hurt anywhere. Leia sat up cautiously, fully expecting the momentary light-headedness that had her blinking for a moment, and looked down at where her right hand used to be. The stump was being supported by a sling around her neck and had been encased in some kind of medical capsule, a readout beeping on its side. She suspected it was probably full of bacta solution. She slipped off the bed and looked around. Doctor Os Kel was nowhere to be seen, but one of the droids looked up at her sudden movements and wheeled over.
"Greetings Commander Organa," it said. "The surgery went well. You are free to leave at your convenience, but please return after a day cycle so that we can check that healing is progressing. I have also been authorised to supply you with these analgesics." It held out a little tub in its multi-tool claws towards her. She took it and checked inside; it was full of tiny white capsules.
"Thank you," she said. "Is there a comm terminal around here?" She didn't feel quite up to walking back to her temporary quarters, or to the bridge.
"Affirmative," the droid relied. "I shall show you."
There was another room behind the main med bay. She sat down in the gratifyingly comfortable chair and told the droid it could go, then booted up the computer and activated the secure channel using her personal codes. She felt a lot better for her extended nap, although that might have been the painkillers talking. Her mind was not quite as sharp as she'd hoped, but she didn't hurt anywhere. It would have to do.
Mon Mothma answered her comm after a short wait. The holo showed that she was replying from a meeting room on board the current Home One, along with Generals Dodonna and Rieekan.
"It is good to see you well, Commander Organa," Mon said. "Captain Rillan has already submitted his report of the events that occurred in the Bandomeer system. We are all glad that you survived Vader's attack, but we were hoping to hear your own analysis of what happened."
"You must admit that Vader acted… strangely," Rieekan said, nodding. "No-one aside from yourself was close enough to hear what Skywalker said to him to cause him to break off his assault."
"That is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about Mon," Leia said. "You all know who Luke's father is?"
"Yes," Dodonna replied. "Anakin Skywalker, a Knight of the old Jedi Order. Although I'm not sure what that has to do with the current situation. Why, do you have some reason to believe that isn't the case?"
"No, I'm sure that Luke is that man's son," Leia replied. "I just wondered if any of you had met him during the Clone Wars, or knew how he was supposed to have died?"
"Supposed to have died?" Mon raised an eyebrow. "You believe that what General Kenobi told Luke was incorrect?"
"Maybe. I'll be more sure if I can get a better idea of what happened around the end of the Clone Wars."
Dodonna shook his head. "I do not believe I ever actually met the Hero with No Fear," he said apologetically. "He was not one of the Jedi I worked with during the war."
"I did meet General Skywalker several times during the Clone Wars," Mon said. "He was often seen around the Senate building. He was particular friends with one of my colleagues; Senator Padmé Amidala." Mon laughed softly. "I say colleague. She was a dear friend. In fact, she was one of the three of us who came up with the idea for the Alliance as a political entity, along with myself and your father."
"What happened to her?" Leia said, surprised. That name… she had been looking for some sort of connection between Vader and Skywalker but she hadn't expected to find one so easily! "My father never mentioned her."
"She died - or was killed - just before Palpatine announced the formation of the Empire. We were all devastated to learn of her death - Bail was always convinced it was murder. He thought the Emperor had her assassinated."
And then he had given Vader her regnal ship? Leia was only becoming more sure that Vader and Anakin Skywalker were one and the same. What exactly was the relationship between Skywalker and Senator Amidala?
"So Anakin Skywalker was a friend of hers?" she asked.
"Closer, I think, than just a friend," Mon replied. "Not that there were ever anything but rumours, but the two of them weren't very subtle. The way Padmé talked about him… Bail and I had long suspected they were lovers… and then she became pregnant. She refused to tell anyone who the father was, but who else could it have been?"
"She was Luke's mother?" Leia asked, eyes wide, unable to hide her shock. It all made sense now… Vader's uncharacteristic protectiveness of that yacht was because of her.
"That was my first reaction when he turned up," Mon said. "But Padmé was still pregnant at her funeral… or whoever killed her wanted everyone to think that was the case… I suppose it is the only explanation. Bail was the one to recover her body, but he never mentioned anything about a son to me."
"And where was Anakin during all this? Where was he at the end of the Clone Wars?"
"Let me think," Mon said, hearing the tension in Leia's voice and frowning. "The Jedi were always secretive and only more so in wartime - they kept their internal matters closed to the rest of the galaxy. It's been a long time, and I'm not sure I remember exactly but… I think General Skywalker had been appointed as the primary liaison between the Chancellor and the Jedi Council. He was on Coruscant when Order 66 was implemented. I would assume he was at the Jedi Temple when the clones marched on it; there is no way he could have survived. Even he couldn't have fought off an entire battalion."
"Not unless he wasn't fighting them at all," Leia said.
"What are you suggesting?" General Dodonna asked.
"That Anakin Skywalker is still very much alive, although not going by that name anymore," Leia said. She felt angry enough to spit. So much for the Jedi hero of the Clone Wars Luke had looked up to! How long had Skywalker been working for Palpatine? How long had he been a traitor to all that was good and right in the galaxy? And Luke… how must he feel, now that he knew the truth? Vader clearly didn't want him dead anymore, but she doubted that what he had planned for Luke would be anything pleasant.
"What do you mean?" General Rieekan leaned forwards, looking excited. "If there's another retired Jedi out there, if he's anything like those that have worked with the Alliance before, if he's like Fulcrum was…"
"No," Leia replied, although she took note of that code name. Fulcrum… that sounded somehow familiar, but she had never heard of any Alliance Jedi before now. She hadn't even thought there had been any Jedi left aside from Kenobi. "There's a reason that Vader backed down when Luke confronted him. What Luke said to him… he called him 'Father'."
The silence drew out, long and horrible.
"No…" Mon said. "No surely not. Skywalker? He was nothing like Vader!"
"Hmmm…" Dodonna stroked his beard, looking troubled. "I may never had met him, but I knew his reputation. He was an excellent pilot and tactician, even if his plans tended to be… unusual at best. I cannot speak as to his character, but in military ability…"
"If only Kenobi was still alive so we could ask him," Rieekan said. "From the story Luke Skywalker gave the Alliance, the Jedi had been very certain that Vader killed Anakin Skywalker. There must have been a reason for that."
"What we really need is to ask another Jedi who was alive back then," Mon said quietly. "Tell me Rieekan - is Fulcrum still alive?"
"We haven't heard anything from her in years," General Rieekan replied. "She just went quiet one day. Bail was always her primary contact though - he knew how to contact her. I didn't. But she was managing that cell out on the Outer Rim… Spectre, wasn't it? If anyone knows what happened to her, they might."
"Return to the fleet, and bring Captain Solo with you," Mon Mothma ordered. "He might have heard something while he was a hostage. We can debrief the pair of you thoroughly, and then we can send you to meet with the Spectre cell and investigate this matter further."
Leia nodded. "I'll pass that on to Captain Rillan," she said.