The Authors' Rant

D: After a long, perilious voyage undertaken to reclaim the Sense and Sensibility (and Sea Monsters) that had characterized the previous chapters, I can hereby announce you that...

Dragon: That what? The author is lazy

D: Aw, come on! I did most of the dirty work this time around, and it was Hell for me! Don't you have any pity for a poor writer-blocked writer?

Dragon: Who doesn't have writer's block? And what's pity? Is it edible?

D: ...Okay, I guess my Friday drama classes aren't working. I better get...

...On with the Story, then!

Chapter Seven: Don't Surrender

Endor, The night before the battle at the shield generator...

The last few hours would have been nearly comical, for our heroes, had they not realized they'd just been saved from fuzzy, man-eating, so-cute-they're-murderous teddy bears by See-KRIFFIN'-Threepio.

Well, it was more like Luke using the Force to make the Ewoks think Goldenrod was a God, but the Rebels were thankful no one else had been there, especially with a camera. Plus, they'd managed to convince the Ewoks into helping them take down the Death Star II's shield generator that the Imps had built on the planet, so all was well.

Or was it?

-Line Break-

"What's wrong, Luke?" Sakura asked the man, who seemed to be just standing silently on one of the bridges between the various Ewok threehouses.

"Vader's here. I could feel the conflict radiating from him everywhere." the Jedi murmured, turning at her with a tired but resolute gaze. "I have to confront him. This way, I'll be able to keep him away from you and the strike team."

He tried to turn back, but Sakura grabbed his wrist. "Don't. It's suicide, and you know it."

"I do, but...I can feel there's still a spark of good in him. I have to turn him. I have to try."

"Luke..."

"Please, Sakura. He's my father. I have to try." he pleaded, and Sakura bit her lip, eyes downcast. "I know how you feel, Luke. I...I tried the same thing, with someone I knew. For years. It...it never worked, and when Naruto got his head on it too...it was even worse. They almost died...both of them."

"What was his name?" Luke asked, and Sakura murmured: "Sasuke Uchiha. I used to love him, but...he never cared."

"I'm sorry." Luke let her lean her head on his chest, caressing her soft, pink hair. It was a moment of intimacy they both needed, and neither of them questioned it.

"I thought you were like Naruto, when I first met you...but no. You're hurting more deeply than him. You don't know if it's gonna work, or if it's the right thing to do...yet..."

"Yet I have to try."

"Do or do not, you said. There's no try." Sakura smiled playfully, despite the moment, and Luke chuckled. "Yeah."

Then, after a long pause: "Sakura, I'm sure you know what my feelings are for you."

The girl stiffened.

"I just don't want you to get hurt."

"Me either. But both of us are no strangers to pain, are we?"

They stayed like that for a long time, before Sakura finally looked up to him, emerald meeting sky.

"Luke...All this time, I've tried to ignore your feelings on me, because I was so desperate for a way back home that I thought getting attached to you would only tear you apart when I'd go away. But, facts are, you've gotten attached, and...I've got attached too, you see."

"So you..."

"Yes." a soft blush crept into her cheeks, and unconsciously, she smiled. Luke, on his part, let out a choked sound, halfway between a sob and joyous laughter, and hugged her close in the spur of the moment, Sakura burying her face in the crook of his neck.

"We're doing this together." she said firmly despite the tears threathening to spill from her eyes, and Luke nodded back, inches away from crying himself as well. "Together."

They'd have kept holding each other like that forever...

...if not for Leia's terribly untimely interruption.

"There you are, lovebirds." she smirked playfully at them, but her smile fell when she saw the tears.

"What's wrong?"

"We...we're going to give ourselves up. We need to get on board the Death Star, and this is the only way." Sakura managed to tell her, but the news did nothing except deepen her shock, and thus Luke decided to drop the bombshell. "Leia...Vader's here."

"You sensed him?"

"Yes...and this is my only chance to confront him. To turn him." he explained, and Leia's glare became icy. "I see no reason to do that. It'd be much better to blow that MONSTER up with Palpatine and the whole Death Star."

Luke paused at the harsh tone, unsure of how to say it. "Leia, do you remember Bespin?"

"Of course," Leia nodded gravely, Han's haunting screams of pain echoing through her mind. Luke looked down to his mechanic hand, and then back at her: "Vader told me something, that day. He told me he didn't kill my father. He told me he WAS my father."

Leia paled.

"And you believed him?"

"I sensed it was the truth. And Master Yoda confirmed it." Luke stated, deciding it was best to be blunt about this. "He told me to come with him...and behind the facade of power and evil I saw the sheer desperation of a cripple with nothing to lose but a son he didn't even know."

"Luke, you can't be serious -" Leia began, but Luke interrupted her. "Leia. There's more."

"More?"

"More. Listen, if I...if we fail, you're the only hope left for the Alliance."

"What are you talking about, Luke?" Leia chuckled mirthlessly, looking away, her dark eyes tinted with sadness. "You have powers which I am envious of and unable to comprehend. You're a Jedi."

"One day, you could be one too." Luke smiled gently, and took her hand, and placed it over her heart. "The Force is strong in my family. I have it. My Father has it. And...my sister has it."

Suffice to say it was the first time in the whole history of the Rebellion that anyone saw Leia Organa remain shell-shocked to this extent. "I...I'm your sister?"

"Yes. I've discovered it myself just a week ago. From Master Yoda."

"So that means Vader is..."

"Yes. Let's face it, Leia. They used us. They all used us." Luke replied bitterly. "Bail Organa, Obi-Wan Kenobi. We admired them. They loved us. But still, to them we were nothing more than mere pawns to use against the Empire. Beloved pawns, sure..."

"...But still pawns on a board." Leia finished hollowly, the weight of that knowledge crushing her heart from the inside, finally allowing her newfound brother to hug her. "Then, Luke, if you go..."

"You won't be alone. Han will be there for you, and...I'll always stay with you. You'll just have to learn to see me." the two at last broke what probably was the last hug of their lives, and Leia turned to Sakura with a firm and resolute gaze, hardened brown eyes devoid of the tears that had filled them just moments before. This was General Leia Organa speaking, Survivor of Alderaan and Leader of the Rebellion. The Ice Queen herself. "I want you to promise me you'll take care of him."

"I will." Sakura replied, the readiness and sharpness of a soldier. "Until my last breath."

Leia nodded, and as the two moved to depart, she let her vulnerability slip through her icy mask. "Luke...I...I don't know if I'm ever going to accept what you told me...It's just I can't picture the man who held my arms behind my back as Alderaan burned being the same as the hero of the Clone War."

"It's life." it was Sakura who replied, looking at the older woman with understanding. "I know it sounds corny and over-used, but it's something I've experienced firsthand. Life changes everyone, and sometimes those we think to be the worst monsters reveal the misunderstood good in them, and those we think to be the greatest heroes...those we admire...they reveal themselves to be the real monsters."

Leia could only nod, lips tightly pressed together, and then she turned at Luke. "Luke, before you go, I think I may have a memory of our mother."

"You do?" Luke's attention spiked up at those words - he had no recollection at all of their real mother. And what little he had of their father weren't good memories.

"Yes. I remember this vision I had when I went to Naboo with Eevaan Verlaine, of this woman... she was so beatiful, yet so sad... I... I think she was a queen..." she told him, and trailed off as her memory tried to recapture those fleeting sensations. "...I think I saw her through the Force, Luke. She... she felt so much like you."

Luke nodded, in understanding and gratitude. "Thanks, Leia."

And then the two set off, but a gruff whisper from the shadows momentarely froze them on the spot."Leavin' the party so soon, kid?"

"Han?" Luke asked, seeing the scruffy outline of his best friend, leaning back-first on the bark of the tree. "How... how much did you hear?"

"Just everythin'." Han shrugged, and Luke's face tightened. Surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly), however, Han was unfazed. "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. After all, who am I to judge? Who is anyone to judge?"

"Thanks, Han. And...you'll take care of Leia, won't ya?" Luke nodded, humbled, and Sakura squeezed his hand. "We should go. The Sun will rise soon."

"Of course. And...May the Force be with you." Han nodded at them, and then, as they disappeared in the darkness, whispered: "You'll need it".

With those words he saluted them (for they were about to rock), and the two young warriors made their way through the foliage, up to the base of a familiar Sith Lord who was patiently waiting for them.

-Line Break-

"Sir, these two are Rebels who have surrendered themselves to our forces." the security officer managed to state with a voice steely enough not to let the imposing shadow in the corner know how intimidated he was by his mere presence and mechanical breathing.

For Darth Vader, the Executioner of the Empire, Dark Lord of the Sith, would always know.

He did not feel fear. He commanded fear. And respect.

You could be a cadet stormtrooper coming from a backwater mudhole like Tattooine or Naar Shadda, you could be a high-ranking officer born from one of the wealthiest Coruscanti families, to Vader it was all the same. And if you didn't give him those two things he commanded...well, you could only hope that reincarnation was something more than just a belief.

There were those who said that Vader was intimidated by no one. Not even the Emperor. There were those that said that the Emperor was just a puppet he manipulated. There were those who knew better and thus had the intelligence to keep their mouth shut.

And to which category belonged Jaan Semyurr, a lowly security officer whom only duty in this moment was to hand Vader the weapons of two rebels who had approached (and surrendered) to a random patrol?

Frankly, he didn't care. And Vader sure as in the Nine Corellian Hells didn't, either.

Thus when Vader ordered to leave him alone with the two rebels, both Semyurr and the patrol accompanying him were more than happy to oblige.

And so the Dark Lord was left alone, his mechanical breathing being the only sound that could be heard, aside from those of the forest.

"So you have indeed come. Both of you."

Silence.

"Sakura Haruno. We finally meet, child." this time, the Dark Lord's statement wasn't met by silence. Rather, by a surprised gasp coming from the lips of the aforementioned kunoichi. "How do you know my name?"

"Boba Fett was greatly impressed by your performance on Tattooine. Suffice to say it impressed even me...and if his condition had permitted him to join us, you'd have seen for yourself how much of a grudge he's able to hold when someone makes that kind of impression on him."

"Sorry to hear that." Sakura sarcastically snapped, as Vader ignited Luke's lightsaber and gave it a few swings to try it out. Almost immediately, however, the Sith Lord seemed to be pleased with the weapon, and held it for Luke to see. "A true Jedi weapon. I see you've finally built your own. You're a true Jedi Knight now."

"Not yet." came Luke's cold reply and, strange as it may sound, the hint of a sneer permeated Vader's next few words. "Of course. Obi-Wan and Yoda will surely have already told you of what your 'final test' will consist, haven't they?"

"It needn't come to that, Father." Luke staunchely answered. "If you'd just remember who you were - if you'd just remember Anakin Skywalker - you could finally come free from the Emperor's shadow. You could be free. You could be able to do something you've desired since you were a child slave on Tattooine - something you never really managed to do, neither by becoming a Jedi nor by becoming a Sith. "

Something stirred inside Vader at those words. He had not expected the boy to have such knowledge of his past. "If you ever knew anything about my chains, you'd understand why I can't break free of them." Once a slave, always a slave. "And if you knew anything about the reason I turned to the Dark Side...but you can't understand." he knew he spoke the truth. But then he felt the strange connection between Sakura and Luke. "Or maybe...can you?"

"I think I'm getting the idea that I can." Luke realized, and Vader ominously turned to Sakura, effortlessly returning an obscure, giant boogeyman. "You have not spoken much, yet."

"That's because I don't have any words to explain how much I downright pity you right now." Sakura's frost was back in place, and the Sith knew she knew, too.

"You don't know nothing of the power of the Dark Side." Vader hollowly replied, beckoning them to enter the elevator. "The Emperor will show you the true ways of the Force. He is your master, now."

The Authors' Rant

D: The ultimate battle of the Original Trilogy is near... I can only hope that the Sequel Trilogy can back up enough bite not to disappoint... what do you think, Dragon?

Dragon: Oh, I've seen Episode VII, and it was amazing! I'm pretty sure that *spoiler* is the *spoiler* of *spoiler* and *spoiler*, and that *spoiler* who is *spoiler spoiler* will turn out to be *spoiler's spoiler*! Now how awesome would that be?

D: (Quoting River Song here) Spoilers...(by the way, the title was derived from a Joan Jett song)