"Father, don't do this. Please." Leia pleaded to Bail.
"I'm sorry, Leia. But Vader and I are enemies. Think about all the horrible things he did. Look at what he did to our family. Would you really choose his side over mine?" Bail said.
"Father, I'm not going to choose. My real family is important to me and so are you."
"Well, that's going to be difficult, isn't it? Because I am going after your father."
"You need help. Please let me help you."
"What I need is Vader's suffering."
"Leia, we need to get out of here. Now." Luke said.
Leia stared at Bail with pleading eyes and didn't move. This time, Luke said more firmly, "Leia, please. We need to get out of here."
Leia reluctantly turned away from Bail and headed over to her family, preparing to leave. Han placed his arm around her and Anakin took one glance at Bail before turning away. All of a sudden, the walls around them collapsed and iron bars were placed around everyone, except Bail who was standing outside of them. Han looked for an escape and when he couldn't find one, he turned angrily towards Bail.
"What are you doing? Why do you have us trapped in this cage?" Han demanded.
"I'm sorry, but I cannot let you all just escape." Bail said. He pulled out a vial from his coat pocket and drank it.
Leia stared at him, bewildered and unsure what her father was up to. Her face went from confusion to shock as she saw her father's face transformed from Bail to--
"You!" Leia gasped.
The man smirked and nodded his head.
"You're not Bail, are you?" Padme asked.
The man shook his head.
"Who are you?" Han asked.
The man merely smiled coldly at him.
"What is going on here?" Luke demanded.
"Tell us who you are and what you want!" Mara said.
The man finally responded. "Do either of you want to explain? Leia? Anakin?"
Everyone turned to Leia and Anakin who were looking at the man in shock, but seemed to know who he was.
"Do you two know this person?" Padme asked.
"Earl? What are you doing?" Leia said.
"Getting my revenge of course." The man, now known to everyone as Earl, said.
"Revenge? On me?"
"No, of course not you, love. On your father."
Leia looked over at Anakin, who seemed to understood why Earl wanted revenge on him. Leia had an idea as to why Earl was after him, but everyone else looked at the two of them cluelessly.
"Why do you want revenge on my father?" Luke asked.
"I'm sure Leia and Anakin can answer that for you."
Anakin and Leia looked at each other.
"Perhaps you should start." Anakin said to his daughter.
Leia swallowed and nodded her head. "Alright." She said softly. "Earl used to be my boyfriend."
"Boyfriend?" Luke said, surprised.
"Yes, a few years ago. Earl's family was acquainted with mine. His parents died when he was nine, but he inherited most of their money. We began dating when we were teens."
Leia was in her room, brushing her long brown hair and inspecting her face in the mirror when her mother called her.
"I'll be right down." Leia called. She put down her brush and left her room to go downstairs. Her mother was standing in the foyer with Earl.
"Hi, Earl!" Leia greeted.
"Hello! You look nice." Earl said as he looked at Leia.
"Thank you. Do you want to go for a walk?"
"Yes, I would."
The two of them left the Organa palace and took a walk up the valley. They have only been dating for a couple of months and were still in the beginning of their courtship.
"I have something for you." Earl said as he pulled out a black velvet box from his pocket and handed it to Leia.
Leia stopped walking as she opened up the box. Inside was a beautiful diamond necklace and the sun's light on the diamonds made them sparkle and shine. "Oh Earl, it's gorgeous. Thank you!"
There was a satisified gleam in Earl's eyes as he noticied the effect the necklace had on Leia and knew that it was because of him.
"I appreciated Earl's gifts, but they were never really important. I would have been fine with him even if he couldn't buy me such presents." Leia explained and noticed an odd look on Earl's face when she said that.
"Earl, what's wrong?" Leia asked.
Earl was sitting on Leia's couch, his hands shaking. "I lost all of it."
"Your money?"
Earl nodded. "Y-Yes. I spent it all. I'm so sorry."
"You must have some left."
"No, it's all gone. I was irresponsible."
Leia sighed and then reached for the necklace around her neck. She took the diamond necklace off and handed it to Earl. "Here, take this. You can sell it. It would give you some of your money back."
Earl frowned at the necklace and then looked up at Leia. "No, I can't take that. It's yours. I gave it to you as a gift."
"Earl, you have no choice. You ran out of money. You need it."
"I am not going to sell something I gave to you! Don't you think I have some pride?"
"Earl, it's just a necklace!"
"Just a necklace? So you don't care about the gifts I give you?" Earl looked hurt.
"That's not what I meant. I just mean that I don't need expensive gifts from you. All I care about is you. So please, take the necklace. I don't want to see you in a panic like this."
Earl sighed and looked at the necklace. Leia was unsure what he was thinking. Earl then shook his head and said, "No. I will not sell it. I will fix this problem on my own. I don't want to drag you into this."
"But Earl, what are you going to do?"
"Don't worry. I'll find a way." Earl quickly kissed Leia before exiting her house.
"Perhaps I should continue the story from here." Anakin said.
"How do you fit into this?" Padme asked.
"Earl came to me when he needed money." Anakin said.
"So you want to work for the Empire?" Vader asked.
"Yes, I do." Earl said.
"We don't just take anyone." Vader explained.
"I know, but I am good. I promise. I'm really determined here."
"What is your motivation then?"
"I really need the money."
Vader was quiet for a moment. "Aren't you seeing Princess Leia Organa, the Senator of Alderaan?"
"Yes. Why?"
"I do not trust her."
"There's nothing to distrust in her." Earl said, a little too quickly.
"I sense fear in you."
"I am not afraid."
Vader was again quiet for a moment. "You're hired."
"What?"
"You're hired."
"I am? For what?"
"You will become the Empire's spy. I want you to find out who is an enemy to the Empire and report those to me. Find out who is in the Rebellion, what they're up to, where their bases are, and anything else that is useful."
Earl nodded his head in an agreement. "Alright, I will accept this post."
"Good. I want you to keep an eye on your girlfriend."
"Leia? Why?"
"As I said, I do not trust her. If she has anything to do with the Rebellion, I want to know. And do not even think about covering for her. I will find out. Your loyalty is to the Empire now, and we do not take well to disloyalty."
Earl nodded. "I understand."
"I guess it's my turn again." Leia said.
"Don't talk to me!"
"Leia, please!"
"I don't want to see you ever again!"
"Leia, listen to me. It's the only way for me to earn my money back."
"You would sink so low--"
"I need this job! Please understand!"
"Earl, I'm part of the Rebellion! How can you be a spy for the Empire? That means you have to turn me in!"
"I am not going to do that. I would never betray you like that. I will never tell Vader or anyone from the Empire what you're really doing."
"But Vader will be suspicious if you can't find any traitor to the Empire. You'll get fired if you're not coming up with anything."
"I'm sure I can find some people who are traitors."
Leia looked at Earl in shock. "So you'll turn in others as long as it's not me? To hell with everyone else then, huh?"
"Leia, please."
"I thought I knew you, Earl. But now all I know is that you just care about money!"
"Leia, I would never betray you. You know I care about you."
"You don't understand, Earl. When you betray the Rebellion, you betray me!"
"And then you know the rest." Leia said to Anakin.
"You want to quit your job?" Vader asked coldly.
"Yes." Earl gulped.
"And why is that? Did Princess Leia take badly to your new job?"
"She has nothing to do with this."
"Really?" Vader asked, skeptically.
"Yes."
"Then why?"
"I realized that this is a dangerous job. I don't want to put myself in that position."
"Dangerous?"
"Yes."
"Surely you knew that coming here for a job, you would get a job that would put you in some kind of danger."
"Yes, I knew that. But it hit me at how dangerous this would be. I want to quit."
"You know what I think?"
"What?"
"You are a liar. You do not want this job because you're afraid to betray people you know."
Earl's eyes widened. "No, that's not it at all."
"I told you I do not take disloyalty easily."
"No, please."
"You are to be imprisoned for betrayal to the Empire. You will have no trial."
Earl spoke. "And I was imprisoned. Thanks to Vader, I lost the girl I loved and my freedom. But now I will have my revenge. Leia, I pretended to be Bail to get you to come with me. But you have chose to stay with the man who broke us up in the first place. You were angry at me for taking a job from Vader, yet you forgave him for doing worse things than I had ever done and you chose to be loyal to him. And as for you Vader, you put me in prison because I wanted to protect your daughter. I suffered because of you and now you will pay. You will die. As for the others, your lives will be spared if and only if, Leia agrees to marry me."
Let me know what you all think of the chapter. I meant to update sooner, but this chapter took me awhile and I had to decide how much of this little story I wanted to reveal. I thought I should just give it all, so I can save the next chapter for the action. I kept the suspense going long enough so I think it's time for the truth. So yes, Earl is the one behind all those threats and now you know why. In the next chapter, we will see if he'll succeed with his threats or not and if Anakin and his family get out of this. Please leave me a review and share your thoughts on the chapter.
