Vader was awoken by a soft thump, from the corner of his room. Immediately alert, he lay paralyzed in his bed, staring up at the ceiling.
If this was a rebel operative, or even one of his master's men, here to finally finish him off… They had a perfect opportunity. He was trapped, with somewhere between 'little' and 'no' range of motion, his recent voyage to the gardens with the princess having proved to be more than his body could take at the moment.
After a few terrified, painful moments, he began to push himself up, just in time to hear a small sniffle from under the window.
"Princess?" he asked uncertainly, leaning forwards, trying to see her in the scant moonlight.
"Ow," the little girl mumbled in reply.
Immediately, Vader's panic dispersed, and he reached out to the little girl, probing at her little body for damage from her fall.
"My knee hurts," Leia said pathetically, still lying where she'd fallen.
Vader sighed, slowly lying back. He would have liked to sit, to speak to his little friend, but even that was unadvisable, his doctor had told him. Closing his eyes, he swept the Force around the girl again, lifting her, and carrying her across the room, to rest on the bed next to him.
"What are you doing here, at this time of night?" he asked her, looking into her face, which was streaked with tears.
"I think I skinned my knee," Leia mumbled, looking ashamed, and drawing her knee up towards Vader's face, revealing a torn pyjama pant leg.
"Oh, no," he said, utterly forgetting how unconcerned he would have been if that had been his own injury. Carefully, he tucked back the tattered fabric, and got a look at the wound. "This may sting," he warned.
"O…okay," Leia mumbled, putting her little hand over his.
Reaching out in the Force again, he identified any notable piece of grit, and carefully pulled them out, wrapping them in a tissue that sat beside his bed, and hiding them from view.
"Alright, little one. Just a bit of debris… you're alright."
At his words, though, Leia took another mighty sniffle, and reached out to him, asking to be held.
"Oh, dear," he sighed, folding her in his arms. He had to know why she was there, if her father knew, what she was trying to achieve. But right now, it mattered more to him to simply hold her, and tend to her injuries, and comfort her.
"I h…had a bad dream!" Leia gasped, and Vader felt her tremble with the desperation of her breath.
Vader nodded, carefully tucking his thin blanket over the little girl as well.
"You need not fear it, princess. I will protect you."
He bent his head, and kissed her forehead gently, caressing her mind with the Force, and trying to lull her into comfort.
A moment ago, he had feared for his life, but even in this weakened state, he could hold a child in his arms, and assure them that it would be all right. He was Vader, after all. He was built to fight, and much as most of that architecture wasn't with him at the moment, neither was the guidance of what he had to fight for.
For now, he had his own, personal mission. Protect Leia.
"Do you wish to tell me about your dream?" he asked, looking down at her distressed face.
She bit her lip, and slowly shook her head, reaching out to touch his hospital gown. She opened her mouth, as if to explain, but then she squeezed her eyes shut again, clinging to him.
"Alright," he agreed, stroking her hair back, "No need to explain. Just rest, now. I'm here, and I can summon your father as well, if you wish."
Leia shook her head again, scooting closer to him, and he stiffened in spite of himself, not thrilled with the idea of her little limbs jabbing into his sensitive body.
"I left Daddy a note. He'll know where I am."
"I am not confident he will search your room for a note when he finds you missing," Vader sighed, accepting her as she pressed to his chest. "However, you may rest for a while, before we address that."
The girl sniffled again, and Vader let out his breath, resting his face in her hair as he felt her just breathe. She was scared, and hurt, but she was with him.
"It was only a bad dream, little one," he murmured. "I know you're frightened, but you're safe with me, I won't allow it to harm you. The galaxy is full of frightening things, but you are safe…"
He closed his eyes, drawing the Force safely around them, hiding them from the false air in the room, and the moonlight falling across his bed, and the technology monitoring him.
Right now, Leia was all that mattered. And her comfort, and the silence of holding a child in his arms. She was the galaxy, everything that mattered, and much that didn't, as well.
"Why don't you come with me," he offered, "And I will take us to a safe dream."
He didn't have many of those to offer, almost every positive thought he'd ever dared to have long having been corrupted.
But he couldn't help thinking that he could manage one last nice dream, for her.
"I will take you to meet my mother."
He felt her nod, and took a deep breath, trying to cast away years of neglect and cruelty, to remember the woman who had raised him, and the homestead where she had spent her last few years of freedom.
Tied as it was to bad memories, it must have helped to contact her spirit, as the Force so cruelly loved to connect him to Qui-Gon.
And there they were.
Himself, with his friend settled on his hip, standing in a courtyard, back on Tatooine. For a moment, Anakin cringed, feeling the suns beat down on him, and the sand threatening to get into his boots.
But the princess was looking around in fascination, daring to look up towards the sky, taking in the strange, cruel landscape, so different from her home planet.
"Mom!" Anakin called, taking an uncertain step, attempting to remember how to use organic legs as he stumbled further into the courtyard, towards the garage. He thought he remembered seeing a project of his mother's there.
"Mom, I'm home!"
The words trembled in his throat, and he grasped Leia closer to his chest as he finally managed to take a faster step, and fall into a clumsy, awkward run. Clinging too tight to Leia, his feet seeming to compete for the same ground, he pushed his way past a low wall, scrambling over another in his desperation to reach his mother.
He knew she was here this time. This time, he really got to see her again, he would get to hold her and tell her how much he loved her. He could introduce Leia to the person she'd been, not a fragile, thin memory of her.
"Mom!"
He pushed through the door, and there she was. Standing over her workbench, just looking up to see him.
His heart in his throat, he pushed forwards, aware of Leia gripping at his old Jedi robes, staring at the stranger in fascination.
"Mom," he gasped, one final time, and buried himself in her arms, Leia becoming caught in the middle. Her arms came around him, and he pressed his face into her neck, doubling up awkwardly to manage it, and breathing in her scent again at last.
She was real. She was with him. After so long trying, he had managed to get through to her, perhaps because he'd wanted it just as much for Leia.
"Who's your friend?" Shmi asked, pulling back from Anakin's arms, to pinch Leia's cheek, making the girl giggle, and swat at her.
"Mom," Anakin said, hopping up to seat himself on her workbench, holding Leia's little hand, "This is Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. She had a nightmare, and I thought she might like to meet someone who can keep her safe."
Shmi smiled at him, accepting the little girl's hand, and squeezing it gently.
"And… I wanted to see you again," he admitted, his throat compressing as he stared at her, framed by the trappings of a planet he hated, a planet that had killed her, but the one she had called home.
"I am always happy to see you, Ahni," she smiled, and Anakin pressed his face into her palm as she stroked his cheek.
He wanted this back. He wanted a loving family again, something to share with the little princess, and someone to go home to when it was all over. He wished that there was an 'always', that other visits had worked out, and that there might be more.
"Why don't you tell me about your dream," Shmi offered Leia, bending to be more on her level.
Leia trustingly reached out, intertwining her fingers with Shmi's and looking shy and nervous.
"It was really bad," she mumbled, before making a sudden scramble for Shmi's arms.
Releasing her, Anakin scooted further back on the bench, making himself comfortable as he watched his mother cradle the girl in her arms.
"What happened?" Shmi asked, and Anakin closed his eyes, remembering when she'd spoken those same words to him, and struggling not to answer, not to tell her all the horrible things he had done, and beg her for her forgiveness.
"I was in my room," Leia said, "But it was all dark, and there was something wrong! I think there was a monster, an' it almost GOT me!"
"That sounds very scary," Shmi agreed softly, and Anakin rested his head back on the pinboard over the bench, trying to memorize every shift in her tone.
"But then I came to…" the girl paused, and Anakin realized he had never told her what to call him, "Ani? And it was okay…"
"My son is very good at that," Shmi assured her, and Anakin nearly let out a sob as his mother patted his knee.
He was not good at making things okay, he wanted to cry. He was a monster now, everything he and his mother had hated and feared when he had been a child, he now embodied. He backed the Empire, with its support of slavery, of murder, of genocide…
And now he wished Leia wasn't here, that he had been able to take himself to his mother alone. He wanted to tell her the truth, so she could be angry, and tell him how wrong he had been, and how to start making things right again.
"The monster was so slippery," Leia said, and Anakin exhaled, trying to simply listen to her fears, so he could attempt to calm them himself in the future. "I tried to grab it, but it was gonna get out, an' hurt Mommy and Daddy…"
Anakin sighed, taking his mother's hand in his own, and clinging to it for dear life, as though the mere physical contact could tell her what his words couldn't.
"It was so pale, an' gross… like a worm," Leia mumbled. "It was… was…. Bad…"
"It sounds it," Shmi said, and Anakin managed to open his eyes, to see his mother cradling the trembling girl, slowly rocking her back and forth.
Anakin could hold back no longer.
"Mom? I… I wish you were still here," he croaked, slipping off the desk, and daring to slip into their hug. "I miss you so, so much…"
He felt her face pressed into his head, and choked on a sob, wrapping his arm around Leia, as something suddenly, horribly ripped at the fabric of their dream, threatening to tear him away from his mother all over again.
"It's Daddy," Leia said, and Vader felt her lean back, looking out through the back of the room. "He wants me." She turned back to him, concern written in her soft young features, "Do you want me to go back, and you stay here?"
Anakin managed to nod, pulling the girl close again. "Thank you, little one. Thank you for letting me see her once more."
