A/N: Hello everyone! Sorry for the wait. Anyway, thank you for reading, and thank you to all of you who followed, favorited, and reviewed. Laureas: I'm glad you're enjoying it! Leia, I will admit, has a long way to go. We will be getting more insight into both her journey and Anakin's in this chapter and the next. They have a lot to work through, and I doubt real healing is going to happen anytime soon. As for Obi-Wan… he has some problems of his own. Basically everyone just needs some counseling. A lot of counseling. Oh yeah, this chapter is fuuunnnn… maracollins: Thank you! I hope I live up to expectations. Stormskye: You'll like this chapter. ReySkywalker112: I think you absolutely know who that is. :) :) There is a lot of baggage that is going to make forgiveness hard for her, some of which we will explore in this chapter. Yes, poor Anakin! Let's hope he can fix things and get a happy rest of his life. Fred: I think having the "old gang" back together will absolutely help. People who know him and believe in him, who he has a past with before Vader. As far as the Rebellion brass, a lot of them did fight with him in the Clone Wars, though whether those memories will temper their opinion of him, or render his betrayal more personal will depend on the individual. I do think they are going to be very cautious about allowing him into any additional intelligence. Gaining their trust will not be particularly easy. AnakinandPadme: Oh yeah. Sooo much angst. Kondoru: I agree, though part of the problem is that the Sith do have a moral code. Completely messed up and turned around and based on strength and personal gain, but a code nonetheless. They do have things they believe in. Although, yeah, definitely very little free will involved in his case. As far as the tracker, who knows if he will tell anyone. Anakin always has been extremely closed up about that part of his past, and I can't see that changing just because he has a lot more trauma piled on top of it. Ichigo urahara shihoin: I think you'll be finding that out very soon. Disney Syndulla: Haha! I'm glad you liked it. (I enjoyed that line too) I really loved how Old Republic gave us insight into the Alderaanian culture. Anyway… Zireael07: Glad you enjoyed. Have a chapter!

I do not own Star Wars or its characters.


Chapter 7


Deep in the first death star, in a dramatically lit interrogation room, the "questioning" of the nineteen-year-old princess was entering its fourth hour.

An artificial voice emitted from the dark figure, "I will ask this once more: Where are the stolen plans? We know your team acquired them and that a handoff occurred in which they were placed aboard your vessel. You jettisoned several apparently empty escape pods when your ship was detained. We have located these pods, however the plans were not found in any of them. Where are they?"

"I will tell you nothing!" Leia spat the words back at his face, leaning forward as far as she could in her restraints. "I am a galactic senator! You can't do this!"

"Can't I?"

Tarkin strolled casually into the room, "May I ask how this is progressing?"

"You may," Vader replied, his irritated glare still fixed on the determined young woman before him. Her glare matched his invisible one, and the battle of wills raged between the two Skywalkers as the Moff impatiently waited for an answer. "Well? Have you learned anything from her?"

"I said you might ask. I did not say I would answer."

Tarkin sighed, "So, nothing. What about the mind probe? Have you broken her resistance to it yet?"

Vader wished he would shut up and leave him alone, but clearly his handler had no intention of going anywhere. Maybe a display of his ability… a hint of the wrath that could fall on the Moff should he continue to annoy the Sith. "The Alderaanians have techniques to resist it. We will have to wait for results by that road. However… it is not the only way to get information."

He reached out his hand near her head, forcibly entering her mind to search. The girl sobbed and screamed in agony at the invasion but the vicious onslaught continued regardless, Vader ripping through, searching for any hint, any clue of the droids' whereabouts.

Finally he withdrew, frustrated. How could this be? He could find no sign of his object, yet she must know. She must! There was no other way.

"What… did you just… do to me?" Leia gasped, involuntary tears shining on her cheeks as she recovered.

Tarkin ignored her, to the other man's annoyance appearing unimpressed, "Well, Lord Vader?"

He paused, "I think we must try again. It is buried deep in her mind."

"I don't know anything!" The girl yelled. Then she insistently leaned towards the Sith. "While you're interrogating me and attacking innocent relief convoys, those plans are on their way back to the Rebellion. Why don't you go find them instead of wasting time here?"

"When I want your opinion I will ask for it." He shortly replied, then turned toward Tarkin, "Don't you have something better to do? I believe we have a meeting shortly. Shouldn't you go arrange it?"

The men locked gazes, and in the end Tarkin stood and left.

"That's right." He muttered too softly for the voice modulator to pick up, "Do as you're told." He looked back at Leia, "Now, where were we?"

Tears shone on her cheeks, and as she spoke she blinked away more, "What sort of monster are you?"

"A highly skilled one."

She stared at him, "You're psychotic."

Vader stepped closer, grasping her chin in one hand and pressing her head back against the vertical table, his face inches from hers. He smiled under the mask, "I know."


"No… Stop… Please…" Anakin moaned in his sleep, tossing and turning as much as the life support allowed.

"Please… Leia!.. No… Don't…" A dark figure moved concernedly from the corner of the room, approaching the bed as the nightmare worsened.

As he did so memories flooded over Obi-Wan of earlier years, of the young boy whose traumatic nightmares he had so often soothed. He could not hold him now, as he had then. Any attempts to do so merely resulted in his hand passing ethereally through the other's body. However he reached out through their bond in the Force, attempting to calm and comfort his padawan's troubled mind. "Sleep, little one." He whispered, "Do not fear. All is well. By morning it will pass."

"O…Obi…" Anakin whimpered in his sleep, one hand reflexively straying towards his master, subconsciously seeking comfort there as he had so many times before. Despite this, the distressed, tense lines in his forehead eased at the onslaught in the Force and he fell into a more relaxed sleep.

Obi-Wan nearly wept as he watched him. The wonderful, sweet, cherubic boy that he had raised from childhood lay before him mutilated and broken, needlessly, he now saw. Anakin's actions had not been those of an irredeemable monster driven mad by power. They were the desperate flounderings of a frightened child crying out for help. Flounderings that he had ignored.

If only he had done more, he thought. If only he had reached out! Perhaps Anakin would now be all right, perhaps he would be well and standing beside him, fighting the Empire instead of lying here recovering from it. Obi-Wan had had a chance to save him, and he had thrown it away. He could have saved him, he knew it!

Instead he had driven his friend further into the cold embrace of the dark side, left him screaming to burn to death. Why hadn't he done more? He could have retrieved him after that fateful leap, before the lava claimed him, ignored the screams of pain and promises of revenge and taken him somewhere safe, had Padme help him drag his friend back to the light.

"This is all my fault. I am so sorry, Anakin. I failed you. I'm so sorry."

He drew back as the other man stirred, fearing discovery. He couldn't let him lie here alone when everyone left, but he also couldn't bear to talk to him. Not yet. He didn't know if he ever would.

He quickly disappeared as the door opened.


Ahsoka shut off the communicator and slumped back in her seat, exhaling. She had felt a shift in the Force as she entered the system, a distant presence she had thought felt like Vader. She had been frightened, worrying that the fleet was under attack, however command had said they were fine. It had to be her imagination. Vader was dead anyway, both Sith had died on Endor. She had learned when she awoke to celebrating in the streets, and had retreated from the celebrants to mourn. Now she was returning to the Rebellion. She might as well; it was over. Anakin was dead; all her efforts to find him after Malachor had failed; he had died on the dark side. So what was she feeling?

She sat up, determinedly flying toward the fleet. She couldn't learn anything sitting here.


It took her some time to extricate herself from the waiting officers. They were standing in the hanger when she arrived, all hungry for a briefing from their long-missing agent. Eventually she escaped, wandering through the ship in pursuit of the mysterious presence that grew ever stronger. Finally she stood outside the door to one of the med-bay rooms, hesitating. Did she really want to know what was inside? It felt like Vader, but… not. Lighter for one thing. There was still so much dark, but the she could feel light breaking through.

The door opened on its own, the sensor becoming aware of her presence, but she didn't move. She couldn't. She had waited so long for this, but now that she was here she wasn't sure that she was ready to know. Her last meeting with him ran through her head, the horrible gold eyes that had looked at her with such hate, his voice, not the suit's, saying so matter-a-factly that he would kill her. Did she even want to know what that suit had concealed? Why he was wearing it? Assuming it's him in that room, she hastily added. She had thought he was dead and been proven wrong again and again… she just couldn't bring herself to get her hopes up now. It couldn't be him in there, he was dead. And besides, if it was him, they never would leave this room free of guards. It was just her overactive imagination. It had to be.

But that nagging feeling refused to leave her. She could feel Anakin's presence in the Force, no matter how much she told herself it was impossible. Something was in there, and she had to know what. So she steeled herself, sighed, and entered.