AN: Sorry it's taken me so long to get this updated. This chapter has been a tricky one, but I think I'm set in the way that I'm going to go with this story, so that helps me with laying this chapter out, and thus there is probably going to end up being a considerable amount of foreshadowingish. Though I really don't know how it will work out until I actually sit down and write more with this.


Vader stood on the bridge of the Death Star. Officers buzzed around him, intent on their duties. "The ship is on board, sir. The vessel matches descriptions of a minor smuggling ship that the Empire has dealt with on several occasions. They are in violation of the embargo around Alderaan, but they may not have known that there was an embargo to violate," the officer at the tractor beam station said.

"Ignorance of what is going on is no excuse. They will be properly punished," Tarkin said. "Lord Vader, why don't you go see who our erstwhile guests are?"

Vader nodded to Tarkin, happy for an excuse to be out of the man's sight. He noticed that the cargo bay that contained this vessel was also the one that contained the Devastator, so he was actually rather anxious to ensure that no one got from this new ship to his.

He felt out with the Force, wondering if he could ascertain the strength of these unknown enemies, when he found not an enemy presence, but the warm presence of Obi-Wan Kenobi. He withdrew into himself as soon as he realized who it was that was on the ship. He considered, as the turbolift he was on sped its way down to the cargo bays, what it could mean for him, having Obi-Wan there. Surely Obi-Wan would still think him the lost soul that he'd been the last time that they'd had occasion to cross paths.

The doors opened, giving him no more time to think, and he strode over to the officer in charge of investigating the ship, and the cargo bay as a whole. "Lord Vader," the man said nervously. "We made a cursory examination of the ship, and the logs indicate that it was abandoned shortly after takeoff."

He nodded. "I wish to see the inside of the ship."

"Yes, my lord, I will have someone escort you," he answered quickly.

"Alone," Vader specified.

"Yes, my lord, as you wish."

"Clear the gallery as well. There will be nothing of importance going on in the cargo bay for several hours."

"Yes, my lord, at once," the man answered, and he began to do what Vader had ordered.


Leia felt something, something she would have dismissed as fantasy before she met with Jaina and Vader. That something she now called a stirring in the Force. There was a pressure, slightly, that felt familiar, not that she would have been able to articulate why.

She had insisted on Jaina taking a nap, though she remembering hating them as a child, but Jaina didn't fight her on it. She woke up, from the same stirring in the Force that was bothering Leia or at least that was the only reason that she could think of for the girl to be awake at a time when she was normally only half-way through her nap. "Unca Luke?" she asked, sleepily rubbing her eyes.

"He's not here, Jaina," she said, though identifying the presence as her brother made sense to the part of her that had sensed it.

"Yes he is, Mommy. I can feel him." Jaina definitely took after the Skywalker side of the family. "I want to see him."

"Well, you are just going to have to wait a while, then, aren't you?"

She looked downcast. "Granda said we gots to stay here."

"Your memory is impeccable."

"What's im-peck-a-ble?

"It means that you remembered well."

"So it's good?"

"Yes, it's good."

"Is Unca Luke gonna come save us?"

"I don't know. What do we need saved from?"

Jaina shrugged. "I think maybe he's saving us from boring."

Leia tried not to laugh, but it was rather hard. "I don't know that he'd come all the way to Alderaan to save us from boredom."

"Why not? He's the best Unca in the whole galaxy."


Vader was cautious as he approached the smuggler's vessel. He could feel the bright Force signatures of Obi-Wan and his son, and though their signatures were bright, he could tell that there were others aboard the vessel as well. He walked through the ship twice before deciding that they were hidden within the main room, or at least within hearing distance of the main room. "You might as well come out," he said to the apparently empty room.

No one came out though. "Obi-Wan Kenobi, I know that you are here. Come out. We should talk."

There was no response. He waited and thought for a little bit. "Or I could just go get Jaina and Leia and I will fly this ship out of here myself," he said, and smiled when that got him a response, albeit a muted one. "I'm sure Obi-Wan could tell you how excellent my piloting skills are. I still remember fondly our last flight together, in the Invisible Hand. How he doubted my piloting skills, even then, even after we'd flown thousands of missions together. I did manage to land her, though not in one piece."

"Stop tormenting the boy," a voice came from behind him.

He turned to face his former Master. "We have much to discuss."

"I had surmised that."

"Come with me to my ship."

Obi-Wan hesitated, but quickly enough he nodded. "That will be acceptable."

They walked down the ramp and across the cargo bay to the Devastator. He opened the door and turned to Obi-Wan with a flourish. Obi-Wan entered first, but fell in behind Vader as they walked through the ship. He took them to a conference room, one relatively near his quarters, but not near enough to draw Jaina's instant attention.

"I have come to realize that I was wrong, on a great many fronts. Palpatine told me that I had killed Padmé on Mustafar. I have since found that she lived long enough to have twins. Leia is here with me, and Luke, whom you have been watching over. Every single thing I found out only weakened my trust in him. I now understand that it was wrong to have let him manipulate me.

"I want you to understand why I did it. I had nightmares, starting the night we got back from the Outer Rim Sieges, that Padmé would die in childbirth. You saw what I was like with the nightmares of my mother's death, and having lost my mother after visions, you, I'm sure, can only imagine how I felt when I started having visions of Padmé's death. It was that desperation to save her that caused me to turn to Palpatine. He said there was a Sith power that could save her, and there is, but love and hate cannot exist in their most pure forms inside one person. He didn't tell me that when I turned to the dark side, I would lose my love. I would lose my reason for existing, and live only in hate, anger, and pain.

"I found, three weeks ago, that there was still within me the capacity for love. As I said, love and hate cannot exist within one person in their most pure forms. Being a Sith is distilling oneself to a being capable of holding the most pure form of hate inside."

It was at that moment, that lull where Vader had expected Obi-Wan to say something that Jaina decided to enter the room. "Granda," she squealed as she entered the room.

"Jaya, Granda's busy," he scolded her gently as she climbed into his lap.

"But you're never too busy for me."

"Granda's having a grown-up conversation."

"Oh," she said, biting her lip. "I'll go get Mommy, and is Unca Luke going to come visit?"

"I don't know yet, but yes, go find your mother and I will come get you when there is something you may do," she bounced down from his lap, and headed out the door. "She came here from the future," he explained to Obi-Wan.

"Anakin," Obi-Wan began hesitantly, "Anakin, I want to help you, I just don't know how."

"Help me defeat the Emperor. We'll figure the rest out later."

Obi-Wan closed his eyes and shook his head. "You still haven't learned to plan better than that?"

"I've never needed a plan better than that."

"Let me think about it for a while."

"You have as much time as you need."

"Thank you. I would like an opportunity to speak with Jaya."

"I would welcome your opinion of her. The conclusion that she came to the past was a difficult one."


Luke was not particularly happy with the current situation. Vader had come inside their ship, and he had known Obi-Wan was there. He'd known how to get to Han, too. Threatening to fly the ship himself was more than Han could take. It had taken half the day to get him to quiet down after that, but mostly going down to the engine deck, instead of staying where they were, all cramped up. It didn't seem like they would be able to hide there forever.

"So, the old fossil was his teacher once?" Luke nodded distractedly. He could almost hear voices calling out his name, and it wasn't easy to pay attention when that was the case. He hadn't been anywhere like this place, with the eerie voices calling him. "Wonder what he was like as a student."

Luke shrugged. "Ben didn't say much beyond the fact that he trained Vader. They seem to be on pretty good terms, considering."

"Considering what?"

"That Vader is evil."

Han seemed to have no argument with that. Luke wasn't one to accept the word of another on the state of someone's soul, though. Some would have said that he was too much like his mother in that respect, though he didn't know that.


Leia wasn't prepared when Jaina slipped from her grasp, heading to another part of the ship at top speed. She assumed Jaya was heading for someone she considered family. Leia walked after her at a more sedate pace, analyzing what had been happening that whole afternoon. There was this base hum that she'd begun to hear; her connection to the Force, she supposed. There was also a tug that she could feel that she corresponded to a hole she'd felt all of her life; her twin. She wanted badly to go to him, but she didn't dare. She was in a precarious position at best. The man who had once been her father was hiding her from the Empire, at great risk to himself, were he to be found out, especially by the Emperor. He was parsecs away, thankfully, but he had spies and cronies all over the Empire.

As she mused about what she should do, Jaina returned. "Granda is talking grown-up."

"And who is he talking to?"

Jaina shrugged. "A old Jedi with a beard."

Leia nodded. "Do you know this Jedi's name?"

Jaina shook her head. "Maybe Granda will let you stay with them. He said he was talking grown-up, and that made him too busy for me to be there."

Leia sighed. "Perhaps. Do you want something to eat?"

Jaina thought about that for a moment. "Not really, Mommy. I want to go see Granda, and see if he will go find Unca Luke and bring him to see us."

"I see."

"Do you want to go talk to Granda for me?"

"I don't think that's a particularly good idea."

"Why?"

"Because, he is busy. I don't think he will be not busy for quite some time."

A door ahead of them opened, and Vader came out. "There you two are. Good. Come in here, please?"

Jaina squealed. "I was right, Mommy," she said, and ran over to Vader, embracing one of his legs. She shook her head at her daughter's antics, heading into the room after them.