Take a super long chapter and enjoy! Also, new theory. Rey isn't Jyn Erso's daughter. Rey IS Jyn Erso reincarnated. Discuss.

Chapter 26

Luke kept a close eye on his mother's grave waiting, hoping, that he'd get a message from his father, but for a long while nothing came. He couldn't help but worry that his father was angry, that he had disappointed his father. The few times he voiced this opinion to Leia she pointed out that the Alliance had seen a severe decrease in raids from the Death Squadron. She, of course, was interpreting that as their father being worried about Luke and Leia getting caught up in an attack. Luke, of course, worried that it was just proof their father was planning something. But it appeared Leia was right because no big attack came, and, finally, a letter did.

Immediately upon returning from Naboo, Leia had told Mothma about her heritage. The Alliance leader (sheepishly) admitted that she had suspected as much since first seeing Luke and Leia together. While people who knew often commented that they looked like one of their parents, it was only when the two were together that the resemblance could be fully seen, at least by those who had known the couple. Once she discovered they both had the same birthday and that Leia was Force sensitive, well Mothma had been sure. She even swore that she'd planned on telling them when the time was right, but Luke doubted she would have any more than he would have had his hand not been forced. That's truly just the kind of news you don't want to share.

Of course having known previously didn't make Mothma any happier with the arrangement, but she agreed keeping it a secret was best. She even agreed to have their contacts on Naboo keep an eye on the grave, and so she was there when the message finally reached Luke and he opened it.

The handwriting was not his father's and it took Luke a minute to realize who the letter was even from. Once he did, however, Luke read Rickon's words avidly.

Luke,

I'm sorry I have not written, but I figured getting a letter from a member of

The Red Guard might ruin your cover in the Alliance. I am

Still in training, officially, but Palpatine oversees it

All so the title is just an excuse for them to pay me less.

The Emperor seems to have taken a liking to me. I think that he knows

That we are friends. Whatever the case the other guards say they can't

Recall a newbie being in the Emperor's presence so often so soon

After staring. But being in the Emperor's presence so often is my problem.

Palpatine is evil Luke, and from what I've overheard you know that.

He kills indiscriminately, and Alderaan was supposed to be just the beginning.

Exactly what he has planned now, however, I have yet to hear. If I do I will write.

He scares me though Luke, especially when I hear him talk about you. He

Always says that you just need to be taught the power of the Dark

Side, but he is angry and I know it. Our fathers were wrong about him

Luke. He's a monster. I hear everything he says, and he's a monster.

Exactly what you can do, I do not know, but I hear enough to know you are

Already prepared to fight him. You and your father both.

He is unguarded for a half hour every first day after lunch for meditation. People

Really mess with the Force, and that he needs the time alone to recharge.

Unless you catch him during this time, you won't be able to defeat him. And you

Need to defeat him, for the galaxy's sake. I trust your father will get this to you.

Your friend,

Rickon

At the very bottom of the paper Luke finally spotted his father's writing: Next last day, Republica500, bring your sister

"What does he want?" Mothma finally asked after the silence stretched a little bit too long for Luke to still be reading.

Luke handed over the letter to Leia first, and spoke as he did, "It's mostly a letter from my friend Rickon. He's been working as a Red Guard since graduation, and he's not too pleased with the things he's overheard. According to him the Emperor is unguarded for a half hour every First day right after lunch. All my father wrote is that he wants Leia and me to go to my apartment on last day, probably to prepare for a strike against the Emperor the next day."

Mothma took the time to read the letter after Leia handed it to her, but Luke could tell the woman's thoughts even before she read it. "It could very well be a trap. Either your friend could be trying to lure you in for the Emperor, or your father is. You haven't seen one in months and who knows where you stand with the other."

Luke knew what she said was true, but at the same time… "Rickon's not like that. He's been my best friend since we were kids."

"The Emperor personally oversees the training for the Red Guard though," Leia pointed out, but Luke sensed that she wasn't really convinced. "You never know how someone might change. You have."

"My views have changed, but not me. I wouldn't lure Rickon into a trap if my life depended on it, and Rickon is a better person than I am. He's not lying. I don't think my father is either. He cares about us. I know it. If there no other good in him I know he loves his children and he won't hurt us."

Leia flinched a bit at the plurality of Luke's words, but slowly nodded in agreement, "Even if it is a trap this is our single best chance to take out the Emperor. Even if Vader steps right in as Emperor the power shift will weaken the Empire, and if he'd ruling the galaxy he won't have the time to hunt us."

"I'm sorry," Mothma finally decided handing the letter back to Luke. "But I cannot devote Alliance resources to this. There is too much at stake. However, as he often reminds me, Luke is not a member of the Alliance, he is our guest. If he was to hire a certain smuggler to take him to Coruscant there would be nothing I could do to stop him. And if Leia felt the need to go after him because, as our guest, Luke has too much knowledge of the Alliance's workings… well I do not see how I could deny her that."

Luke and Leia nodded in understanding. Mothma could not support a mission that would, at best, replace one Sith emperor for another, but she would not deny Luke and Leia their family. She was well aware of the fact that they had very different roles to play than the rest of the galaxy simply because, like it or not, they were Vader's children. Even Leia he had acknowledged by asking Luke to bring his sister. As little as Mothma thought it possible, she could see why Luke felt there was still goodness in their father. She only hoped he was correct and she had not just let two very valuable resources be drawn into a trap.

Han was… well less than pleased about taking Luke and Leia to meet with their father. He knew, however, that they were going to find a way to go one way or another, and figured it was best he kept them in line. (As if anyone could truly keep a Skywalker in line.)

And so a few days passed and it was finally time for them to go. Luke, after a long mental debate, decided he best bring all of his stuff with him. In all reality he could not imagine things endings in a way that meant him coming back to the Alliance. Either he was going to be the son of the new Emperor and have to stay on Coruscant to try and keep his father in line, or he was going to be dead. They weren't about to fail and survive.

"You two sure about this?" Han asked once they landed on Coruscant. "Because I can get out of here before anyone even knows you came in the first place."

Luke appreciated the offer, he really did, but it was too late. He could sense his father, which meant his father could sense them. "You're welcome to leave. Whether things go right or wrong I'll doubt we'll need a ride off planet."

"No way," Han countered, proving once more that he wasn't the selfish coward he'd like to be. "I'll be right here waiting for you, unless you want me to come. I'm sure a blaster works as well against the Emperor as your sabers."

Luke severely doubted that, but he appreciated the offer. In the end, however, it was Leia that turned Han away. "I don't think we need another loose cannon. Who knows what you'll do."

"Hey, I'm as straight a shooter as they get Princess," Han countered the usual smug smile plastered on his face. He looked ready to carry on the banter, something Leia would surely accept, but they were on the clock. Their Force presences would be masked by their father's at the apartment, in a shipyard they could easily be recognized by any spy or inquisitor. If word got back to Palpatine that Luke and Leia were on Coruscant he would be understandably suspicious. So Luke began walking out of the ship therefore forcing his lovebird sister to follow.

Luke kept to the alleyways and side streets he's always used to hide from reporters, and they didn't meet a soul. Getting into Republica500 unnoticed was a little bit more difficult, but it was Luke's home. He knew how to do it, and after taking the most complicated route possible, Luke and Leia arrived at their father's apartment.

Leia hesitated a bit at the door, probably due to who was going to be inside more than where she was, so Luke grabbed her hand. "This apartment is technically mother's you know, and all of her old dresses and papers are still in there. Just talk to him and I'll show you her notes on Clone Wars Senate proceedings."

"That's cheating," Leia hissed, but she didn't stop Luke as he opened the door. Apparently bribing her with such precious relics of the past worked. Luke would have to remember that if they survived this and he ever needed something from her.

Their father sat at the kitchen table, but there was no familiarity in his posture. Whenever Luke came home from school or Rickon's to find his father doing paperwork there had always been a relaxed ease in his father's frame. Not this time. There was no paperwork, no ease. His muscles were taught and rigid, and Luke wondered for just how many hours their father had been sitting there waiting. They had never agreed on a time, after all, and it was late. Luke had wanted to give the Emperor as little time as possible to sense him and Leia, but he had, apparently, made his father think they might not be coming.

But they had come, and there was a palpable release of tension (albeit not all the tension) once he stood and faced the twins. Leia stood slightly behind Luke, her face raised in defiance, but the fear she was projecting into the Force was missed by neither father nor son.

Their father moved slowly towards them, but stopped when Leia visibly flinched, "I am glad you both came. I feared our previous encounters would stop you."

"Any chance to take down Palpatine is worth the sacrifice, even if it means working with you, Vader." Leia's voice was practically a hiss, and Luke wondered if his father flinched beneath the mask. "Luke, please show me my room."

Luke took a deep breath. He'd been expecting Leia's emotions to flare when faced with their father. At least their father seemed more hurt than angry. The last thing he needed was for things to devolve into another duel. "Leia," Luke calmly asked grabbing her hand and giving it a tight squeeze. "If we walk into the Throne Room tomorrow divided the Emperor will destroy us all. I will lock you in the smuggling compartments on the Falcon if I have to, but, as your Jedi Master, I cannot allow you to come until you let go of your hatred. Please. You don't have to love him, but don't let you hatred turn you into something equally as dark. Just hear him out."

The emotions brewing within Leia were dark, very so, but she did not pull away from Luke. She stood her ground and gave her father an opportunity to speak. "If I had known of our relation I would never have treated you the way I did. I am not the good man Luke sees, but I do not enjoy hurting my family."

"You killed our mother, choked Luke, and tortured me, and you do not enjoy hurting your family? Everything you have done for the past eighteen years has hurt your family! You're despicable."

Each of Leia's words were daggers digging into Vader's heart, but they tortured Luke as well. He hated hearing Leia talk about their father like that. It wasn't going to make either of them feel better. "Stop, please, just stop," Luke whispered. "He didn't know, and that doesn't make it right, but he didn't know. You can't blame him after all the lies."

"No, she is correct to. The day I choked you I knew perfectly well what I was doing. But you don't know the power of the Dark Side. Leia is within her right to hate me. That hate will make her stronger."

Whether or not it was his intent, telling Leia to use her hatred showed her exactly what Luke had been saying. Using her hatred would turn her Dark, just as it had done their father. She either had to choose to be like him, or choose to forgive.

But how does someone forgive something like that? "I would like to go to bed, Luke."

Luke felt ready to scream, but listening to them fight any longer would just hurt him more. "Fine. The guest room is at the end of the hall. The room on the right is mine; the room on the left is father's. Mother's diaries are in the chest in the master bedroom through there."

There was a flicker of betrayal in Leia's eyes as Luke sent her off without even showing her to the room herself, but she simply stalked off without another word. She didn't even go to the master bedroom to look at the Senate records, and if that didn't say something about her emotional state, nothing did.

"What did she want with your mother's diaries?" There was a cold sense of dread in their father's voice when he finally broke the tense silence Leia had left in her wake.

"She just wanted to see the old Senate records," Luke sighed, pulling out a kitchen chair and crashing in it. He knew perfectly well that the comfortable persona he was putting out wasn't reality, but it was easy to pretend that the past months hadn't happened and Luke's life was once more normal. "I figured they would make a lot more sense to her than they did to me."

His father nodded, "And tell me how you even knew they were in there. I explicitly remember telling you never to go in there as it was too dangerous."

Luke snorted a laugh, "I actually believed that for like a year you know. But I figured it out around the same time I realized that 'hyperbaric' just meant 'more oxygen'."

"I am glad to know the education I paid for was worth it," his father replied, and Luke could swear there was an ounce of humor in the words. Were they really just sitting at the kitchen table teasing each other? Could they really just fall back into such a familiar pattern after months of disagreement?

Apparently not, because Luke's father's mood didn't remain light for long. "You sister is correct to hate me. I have never been the father I should be, to either of you. I should have sent you to live on Naboo the moment I discovered your existence."

"Why not just send me back to Tatooine."

"No son of mine was going to spend his life on a moisture farm," Vader easily answered. "At least on Naboo you would still have received a proper education, and I would have been able to visit you easily."

Luke couldn't help but be glad to know that even in the hypothetical universe where he'd been raised by Aunt Sola his father would still have been around. "You know Leia and I have been talking a lot about hypothetical lives, but I'm starting to think it's not worth it. This is the life we got, and it's time we accept it."

"When did you get so wise?"

Luke considered making a joke about Yoda, but then decided that if his father was unaware of the little green Jedi's hideout then it was best to keep it that way. Besides, it wasn't even the truth. "When I accepted that there is no power in darkness, only love."

"It was love for my family that drove me to where I am," Vader reminded his son. "I loved you all so much that I couldn't consider the possibility of losing you. In the end I did, more than once."

Luke couldn't help himself; he reached across the table and grabbed his father's gloved hand. It was hard and metal, of course, but then again so was Luke's. "You have more family than ever before, father. Leia will come around once we've defeated the Emperor and she can see the good in you."

"I find your faith disturbing," his father replied, but Luke could sense the palpable relief. His father had truly worried that both his children would hate him. Luke didn't though, he never could, and he didn't think Leia truly did either.

"Do we have any true plan for tomorrow?" Luke had figured that planning was why their father had risked them arriving so early, but so far they had discussed nothing of importance.

But the challenge they would face was important, and Luke wasn't sure they would be able to succeed. "The Emperor has a Sith shrine in the palace. I expect that will be where he goes to separate from the living around him and regain his strength. We will travel through the Force tunnels to the shrine and then attack him while his shields are down. I fear without the power of the Dark Side you and your sister will not be able to fight him."

Leia might only have a few weeks training, but she would be fine, and Luke knew that he was stronger than his father, Dark Side or no. "We will succeed, and you will see that you do not need the Dark Side to protect your family."

"I think it is time you went to bed, my son."

Luke tried to keep the smirk off his face. He did not have the added advantage of a mask to hide his amusement at their banter, "I'm eighteen, dad. I think I am old enough to decide when to go to bed… and so I'm going to bed. Not because you told me to, but because I have decided to."

The sound that followed Luke out of the room could not possibly have been Darth Vader's laugh, but it made Luke smile anyways. The goodness he'd been bringing out of his father for years had done most of the job subconsciously. All Luke needed to do was push his father back over the precipice of darkness and into the abyss of light.

And he needed to do it before Leia found herself dangling from the dark path as well.

Despite Luke's firm words, he could not fall asleep. Lying in his bed, thinking about the upcoming fight and how it would be the decisive moment for his family, it was enough to drive Luke mad. And the worst bit was that his bed didn't really feel like his bed. It was too soft, too familiar. The Alliance beds were hard and springy, but the foam mattress on Luke's bed was still indented by his shape. Luke could even see how he'd grown over time from how deep the indents were. It was so odd, and so familiar.

The door to Luke's room creaked open, and Luke defensively reached for his lightsaber. In the end it turned out to be Leia's figure illuminated by his green blade, and so Luke turned off the weapon and used the Force to flick on the light.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," Leia apologized coming to sit on the foot of Luke's bed. "I thought I'd sensed you up."

Luke couldn't help but be impressed with how well her training was going. She wasn't perhaps as strong as he was, but she carried weight with the Force. Luke was convinced that was half of why she was such a good politician. "You were right. Something about being home after so long makes it hard."

Leia nodded, and Luke cursed a little bit. Leia would never get to return home. "So this is your room… is that the Falcon on the wall?"

Luke looked over to the mural Nila had painted during his first days with his father. It was indeed the Falcon, having been painted at the request of Han. How many times had Luke looked at that painting over the years? He practically didn't even realize the murals were still there, but they were. Even as Luke's sheets became a standard black and the toy models disappeared, the murals Nila had so painstakingly painted never disappeared. Luke couldn't imagine his room without them. "I wasn't kidding about Han working for my father in the beginning. I know it's hard to believe, but that was a long time ago."

Leia nodded, "I know… You know I've spent so many years trying to honor my father's legacy, and I knew all that time I was adopted, but it never crossed my mind that that meant I would have a second legacy to live up to."

"There's nothing he expects of you," Luke reminded her gently reaching out to squeeze her hand. "Nothing either of us do. If you want to tell yourself tomorrow that you're fighting the Emperor as a member of the Alliance and not as a Skywalker you're welcome to do so. But you can't go into this with hatred in you. Palpatine will just turn you against us."

Leia nodded, "I know, but I can't stop hating him. He held me and forced me to watch as Alderaan was destroyed! I can't stop picturing it, and I know he didn't care at all. Billions of people, women, children, sons, daughters, were blown up and he didn't care. He only cares about you, and maybe me, I don't even know, but he's evil Luke, and I'm not sure the good in him is going to be enough. How are you going to feel when Palpatine is dead and he's taken over as Emperor and nothing changes? How are you going to feel when you have to either fight him or accept his indifference to life?"

"I have to believe that the love he has for us will be enough," Luke admitted. Leia's worries were his own, but Luke couldn't afford to think that way. "And if you can't let go of the hatred I can't let you come tomorrow. I can't risk losing you to the Dark Side."

"You can't stop me from coming," Leia reminded, standing abruptly. "I'm nothing like him Luke. I'm not going to fall to the Dark Side. It's natural and good to hate evil things."

Perhaps, but it wasn't good to hate people. Luke's words obviously weren't working, however, and if Leia was right about something it was Luke's inability to stop her from coming. He just had to hope something could get through to her before it was too late. "Here," Luke finally whispered getting up and pulling a box from beneath his desk. "I won't try to stop you from coming. I won't warn you of the consequences again, but I want you to read these letters. Father wrote them to his daughter every day from when he found out Mother was pregnant until the one year anniversary of our supposed death. Just read them, please, and then tomorrow when we defeat the Emperor, you can decide what to do next."

Leia made no promises, but she left the room with the letters. Luke found himself laying back down in his bed and wondering how in the galaxy it was possible for one family to be so messed up.