Chapter 7

Obi Wan's Point of View

"I cannot believe that you are allowing this, that you're just standing here, letting him be alone with Luke, with Leia, with both of them!?" Bail was almost foaming at the mouth in absolutely fury. It had been building the moment Anakin had touched down on the planet, and it wasn't likely to change until the moment that he left it.

I gazed out at the landscape and pursed my lips.

What would Bail have me do?

Anakin Skywalker had been stubborn to the point of a migraine, and Darth Vader, I imagined, was no better. Vader, I could easily surmise, was stubborn to the point of wanton murder. That act, those feelings, that dark wave that had overtaken her the last time she had seen him in person, was something that couldn't be allowed here.

Not in front of those children.

"Like it or not Bail, he is their father," I turned and affixed him with a bit of irate glare of my own. "Do not forget that, and do not forget that Leia will live because he laid down his anger, his hatred and his fury at us to save her life - don't forget."

I placed my hand on my hip and turned to face him completely, my expression much more calm and far more pleading then it had been seconds ago, "Don't abuse his mercy, or his change of heart, I beg of you. He will not take it out on the children, he might even take it out on me, but he will rake you across the coals."

In my mind, I could see the planet burning, destroyed by fires set by the Imperials.

If Bail denied Vader the right to see his children, even after all of the overtures of peace that he had gone out of his way to give, Vader would burn the planet to the ground. What would happen afterwards was hard to see in my mind's eye. I didn't need to see a possible future to know that he would abscond with the children then.

What would happen to me in such a future wasn't something I could see?

"I don't trust him, not after what he did!" Bail snarled defiantly at me.

And I could not help but gawk openly at him.

One the one hand, he had a point, obviously.

His bitter demeanor though was shocking.

This was the man that had led the drive against the war effort, attempted to gain peace and oppose the Emperor. This man was a man of peace, a man of principle and a man of undying devotion to the idea that all beings should leave in freedom.

Now he was reduced to a stark raving madman, enraged at the idea of letting the being that had arguably precipitated the end of freedom near his own to children.

It was terribly disheartening.

"Anakin may have dealt the death blow, but the Republic was dying a slow death long before you and I were born," I informed him calmly, trying to deflect his anger off of Anakin. Anakin, Vader, whoever he was, did not need it right now, the children did not need it right now, if our plans were to survive, it couldn't happen.

And slowly, but surely, I could see Bail's face deflating.

He knew that I was right.

We were all to blame for what happened, countless Senators, countless Jedi.

We had all fallen prey to grand designs of the Sith Order.

Bail had to see that in the being that was once Anakin Skywalker, we had a chance to change all of this. If it happened slowly, or if it happened rapidly, it did not matter, the Skywalker Family was a chance to defeat the Sith and make everything right, they were our only chance. If we could not count on them, all had been lost.

"Go spy on them if you wish, but do not directly interfere," I shook my head and held a finger up to him. "Everything, the entire future, depends on them meeting."

With more and more of Anakin's old humanity being brought to the surface, the ultimate demise of Darth Vader drew closer.

With it would come the salvation of the Jedi, the Republic and the entire galaxy.

Everything needed to be perfect for it to work.

We just needed to be patient.


Darth Vader's Point of View

It was surreal.

Luke was like a mirror image of me at that age.

Down to our physical resemblance and our love for mechanics, he was my son through and through. That was the truth, that was the only truth of the matter and as time went on, I would discover more truths. Truths that would bring me indescribable joy, indescribable pleasure and lift me out of this torrent of misery.

That presented me with immeasurable challenges, ones that I would deal with later.

I wasn't going to ruin this moment.

"Are you going to help her?" Luke asked from beside me as we observed his sister.

Eventually, we were going to have to tell the Princess as well, if she lived.

That would be a discussion that I was resolved to have with Obi-Wan in the room.

There had been a time in the far past when this wouldn't have been a problem, and I would have been confident in my ability to speak with him. Perhaps even Obi-Wan would have been needed back then if we were going to have a discussion like this one. Then again, it wouldn't have been a problem back in those terribly busy days.

Back then, my children would have known who they were, and who I was.

Obi-Wan had did her best though, in a bad situation.

A very bad one.

Looking down at the innocent eyes of my son, I knew why she had done it.

This boy, he was powerful, extremely so, just waiting for someone to come along and mold that power into whatever shape that they saw fit. If he had fallen into the hands of the Emperor, he would have been molded into a weapon from the start.

If he had been in my hands, I could easily train him to kill the Emperor.

Not responding to him, I looked back up to Leia and scowled.

The idea had occurred to me, fleetingly, and I dismissed it completely.

They had been protected and shielded at all costs, and they had many purposes left in life. None of those reasons involved him, or Leia, kneeling to me with the corpse of the Emperor laying between us. No, they would not be turned, and not by me.

"Of course," I attempted to convey my smile as best as I could. "It will be alright."

I laid my hand on Luke's shoulder, and my smile painfully grew when I felt him explode with happiness in his Force Presence. He was a boy, a boy who simply wanted the approval of... me - and that was something that I wasn't at all used to.

At least not with the approval being tinged with abject fear.

But at least one of my children didn't fear me, that was all that I could ask.


Obi-Wan's Point of View

I rolled my eyes and continued to sip my caf.

The Dark Lord of the Sith, and his five year old son were chatting about ships and parts as if they were discussing the weather. What was annoying me slightly was the fact that Luke had managed to get in a few shots at me about not providing him with enough of either of those things, much to his father's dark amusement.

"Engine parts are expensive," I tried to adopt my typical sage-like tone that I had adopted with Anakin got this way with me. "Too expensive for you to tinker with."

Anakin's son or not, I wasn't going to waste money for very expensive parts for a five year old, just so that he could break them and have the money go to waste.

"I had the money to do that when I was his age," I turned to lock eyes with Vader, and I could feel him boring holes into me. "I was enslaved to a Hutt and I still did."

I fixed him with an wry look, "Things are slightly worse for the two of us."

I silently noted that Luke did not even bat at an eye at the slavery revelation.

I would have to make a note to talk to him about it later.

"It's very expensive living like we do!" I defend myself as I was on the receiving of two Skywalker glares. That was something that I didn't wish on the most evil being in the entire galaxy. "I try to scrape together the credits - but sometimes I can-..."

"Then perhaps I should provide the money for his hobby?" Anakin suggested.

With his vocal enhancer, the question came out as more of a purr.

I raised a single eyebrow in response.

I didn't object to the idea necessarily, I could only assume that in his dual roles as the second most powerful man in the galaxy and student to the Emperor, he was indescribably wealthy. Any credits that he could afford to give to me would probably be nothing, and if they were substantial enough, he probably would not notice it.

"I-..." I began to attempt to try and form some sort of response.

The door to the chambers that we were sitting in slid open, and all three of our heads all turned simultaneously to the door. I could sense the urgency in the mind of our guest, and his underlying fear over having to face the occupant to my right.

"Master Kenobi, Lord Vader," I smiled slightly at the man in an attempt to alleviate his fear, but I sensed it did nothing of the sort, if anything, his fear grew in leaps and bounds at the sight of Vader. The man bore awful news, that much was clear.

Based on his appearance, he had to be a senior technician in the medical lab that was caring for Leia. On older man, with graying auburn hair, the insignia on the upper right hand side of his uniform also identified him as corporal in the Militia.

"What is it Doctor?" I assumed a serious tone - a massive change of face for me.

"There's been a revelation regarding the Princess's illness, and Viceroy had ordered me to fetch the two of you," He replied and turned to bow his head at Vader. "This also does concern you Lord Vader, there is something we think you need to see ."

I nodded and turned back to Luke, "Sweetheart?"

"Yeah - yeah," Luke grumbled. "I'll go find the Queen's handmaidens."

I smiled and leaned forward to ruffle his hair.

All the while, Vader was silent, and I feel apprehension rolling off of him in waves.


Darth Vader's Point of View

"My Lord, Your Excellency, Master Jedi," The Chief Medical Officer charged with the wellbeing of my daughter bowed to the three of us as he stood in front of a holo-projector. I gave him a simple nod and folded my arms across my chest in return.

The man needed to get on with it.

"What was so urgent?" Organa asked from the other side of Obi-Wan.

He nodded and turned to activate the projector, "As you know, you ordered us to isolate a single strand of the illness that Princess Leia has contracted. You wanted to know if we could attack the virus at the cellular level. An hour ago we finished the full spectrum analysis, and we discovered something quite troubling within it."

I watched as what appeared to be a cellular nucleolus came onto the projector.

If my breathing could have stopped it would have, because I instantly recognized the genetic signature that was clearly present inside of the nucleolus itself.

"What is that?" Organa let out a surprised gasp. "That cannot be natural."

The Doctor adopted an accusatory look and turned to me, "Lord Vader?"

I paid him no mind though.

I paid no mind the fact that the only noise in the room was my respirator.

I paid no mind to the feeling of the eyes of both Obi-Wan and Organa on me.

The Imperial Intelligence Service had attempted to assassinate my own child with a virus that I ordered created, one that I helped design for that matter.

And there was the very real possibility that they already accomplished their goal.

No one could shake me into awareness because of that.