CHAPTER 36

"How are you feeling?"

Luke looked up to see his sister standing in the doorway.

"Bored," Luke replied. "I wish they'd let me out of here."

Leia smiled. "Aren't Jedi supposed to be patient?"

"Yeah, I suppose so," Luke admitted with a grin. "I guess I'm not quite a Jedi yet after all."

"Yes you are," Leia replied. "You've more than convinced me at least."

"Thanks," Luke said, a little embarrassed by her overt praise. "So what's new with Han?" he asked, changing the subject. "Did you …I mean, what did you tell him?"

Leia shrugged. "Not that much," she replied. "I told him that we were fine, that we had found our parents, and that Darth Vader and the emperor were dead."

Luke's eyes widened. "Not much??" he said. "Put into those terms, it sounds like a whole lot."

"I guess it is," Leia replied. "I'm still trying to get a grip on all the changes, Luke. It's been so much in such a little time. I'm still trying to assimilate it all."

Luke smiled at her. "I think you're doing great," he told her. "You've come a long way towards accepting our father, haven't you?"

Leia looked uncomfortable. "I don't know," she said. "It's still very hard to look at him without thinking of whom he was only a short time ago, Luke. He did horrible things to me, things that I still have nightmares about. You don't get over that overnight."

"Of course not," Luke conceded. "And I'm sure he doesn't expect that. But remember that it was Darth Vader who did those things, not Anakin Skywalker."

"But they are the same person, Luke," Leia retorted. "I know you don't see it that way, but the reality is they are two sides of the same coin. He realizes that himself, Luke. He said himself that he knows how much pain he has caused me," she finished quietly.

Luke watched his sister closely, sensing in her a new level of acceptance in her relationship with their father. "You've spoken to him, haven't you?" Luke asked.

Leia looked up. It still startled her that both Luke and their father had the uncanny and unnerving ability to read her emotions and even her very thoughts. "Yes," she replied at last. "I spoke with him last night. I couldn't sleep; I figured one of us needed to take the first step."

Luke smiled. "I'm so proud of you, Leia," he said. "I know that couldn't have been easy for you."

Leia shook her head. "No, it wasn't,'" she admitted. "Not at first, anyway. Once we started talking, well, it just felt…right. I don't know how to explain, it; I certainly never expected that I could talk to him that way."

"You felt the connection, Leia," Luke told her. "The same connection you share with me, you also share with him. The Force is strong with all three of us; it is what enables us to know what the other is feeling."

Leia nodded. "I don't begin to understand how all that works," she stated. "But I know what you mean. Anyway, the main reason I wanted to ask to him was because of Mother. I thought he needed a little push in her direction. I can't believe she still loves him, but she does; and it was hurting her that he was distancing himself from her."

"Do you think it did any good?" Luke asked.

Leia shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "Mother was right; he's very confused. I know he loves her, but I think he's afraid that she will reject him if he tries to reach out to her. It's a very awkward situation."

Luke sighed. "Well, you've done all that can be done, Leia," he replied. "It's up to the two of them now."

"I suppose," she replied. "Still, I'm worried about her. Let's go see how she is. I'm sure it would be okay for you to leave here, even if it's just for a little while. Just use one of your Jedi mind tricks on the medical droid."

Luke laughed as he got off the bed. "They don't work on droids," he told her. "Let's go."

Luke and Leia proceeded to their mother's quarters and stopped at the door. From inside they could hear what sounded like their father's voice, or rather, incoherent noises that resembled his voice.

The twins looked at one another, startled and confused. "What the…"Luke started, and then stopped. "Oh boy," he said, his facing turning red.
"Let's get out of here," Leia said, grabbing her brother's hand and turning to go. But the door opened at that moment and their mother stood before them.

"Hello you two," she smiled. "What a lovely surprise. Come on in."

Luke and Leia exchanged a quick a glance, and then walked in. Their father was sitting on a chair, looking over at them. "Good morning," he said. "Nice to see you up and about, son."

"Thanks," Luke replied. "It's nice to be out of that medical ward. I …I hope we're not interrupting something," he added, looking from his father back to his mother.

Padmé frowned. "Why would you think that?" she asked.

Luke and Leia looked at each other uneasily. "No reason," he lied.

"Your mother was just giving me one of her incredible shoulder massages," Anakin told them.

So that's what we heard…Luke realized with great relief.

"You're tied up in knots," Padmé said, standing behind her husband again and resuming her ministrations.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh…"Anakin said, closing his eyes. "I'd almost forgotten how well you do that," he said with a smile.

Luke and Leia exchanged a look and suppressed a laugh.

"So what's on your minds?" Anakin asked his children.

"We wanted to make sure that everything was okay with you two," Leia replied. "I guess they are," she added with a smile.

"Checking up on us, is that it?" Padmé asked with a smile.

"Well, not exactly," Luke replied defensively.

"It's okay, Luke," Padmé replied. "We had a talk, and even though we all have a long way to go, I think we're on the right track. Isn't that right, Anakin?"

Anakin made no response, as he dozed off.

"Ani?" she said, looking around at him, and then smiled seeing his sleeping face.

"Works every time," she said, looking up at her children. "He hasn't slept in days."

"Under ordinary circumstances he'd still be in the hospital," Luke pointed out. "But circumstances are anything but ordinary."
"The story of our lives," Padmé sighed, sitting down with her children. "We have never had an ordinary life, your father and I."

"None of us have had an ordinary life," Leia spoke up. "Luke and I have spent our lives living in fear of the Empire, the empire our father helped create."

Padmé looked at her daughter, stung by her words. "Is that all you see when you look at him, Leia?" she asked. "The puppet of the emperor?"

"It's hard not to remember all that he did as Darth Vader, Mother," Leia replied tersely.

"No, I'm sure it isn't," Padmé replied. "But you are not the only one in this room who suffered because of Darth Vader, Leia," she reminded her. "You'd be wise to remember that."

Leia made no reply, and Luke could feel the tension between his mother and sister. "Father was a war hero, wasn't he Mother?" he asked, trying to break the tension.

Padmé looked at her son. "Yes Luke, he was," she replied. "The Hero without Fear is what they called him during the Clone Wars."

"I wonder how many people know that Darth Vader was once the Hero Without Fear," Luke mused. Luke nodded. "Do we tell anyone of his former identity? I think if the rebel Alliance knows that he was once Darth Vader they will want to prosecute him."

"They would," Leia said. "Can you blame them? Darth Vader spent two decades persecuting the Alliance."

"No, we can't blame them," Padmé replied. "But if he is given over to be prosecuted, he will surely slip away from us again."

"Mother is right," Luke said. "I agree that Darth Vader deserves to be punished for what he did; but Darth Vader is dead. Don't you see, Leia? If Father is brought to trial, he will never know full redemption, and we will never stand a chance of being a family."

Leia frowned, torn by her sense of justice and her desperate need to have a family. How could she let Darth Vader go unpunished for all the evil deeds he had perpetrated over the years? The ghosts of all the millions of slain innocents cried out for justice; how could she ignore them?

"I don't know, Luke," she said at last, a frown creasing her brow. "I will need to think about this. I know he has changed, but we're not talking about a few misdemeanors; we're talking about mass murder, genocide; how can we let that go unpunished?"

"I want you to see something, Leia," Padmé said at last. "Before you pass judgment on your father." She walked over to the computer console and typed in a name, and then waited. When what she wanted came up, she pointed to the computer screen, indicating for Leia to come over and see what was on it. Leia reluctantly complied.

"This is the military record of Anakin Skywalker, your father," Padmé told her. "Read this, and then tell me if the decision to damn him for the crimes committed by Darth Vader seems right to you."

Leia walked over to the computer screen. She looked at the holo of her father, so young, so handsome and dashing in his Jedi robes. She looked up at her mother.

"Read it," Padmé said again.

Leia sighed, and sat down at the console to read.

Padmé watched her, and then went and sat with her son.

"Do you think this will convince her?" he asked her quietly.

Padmé shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know," she replied. "But it's always a good idea to know both sides of a story before you judge someone."

"How can you be so forgiving?" he asked her. "After all you've been through?"

Padmé looked at her son. "How can you, Luke?"

Her question startled him, and he didn't quite know how to respond. How was it he had been able to accept his after, knowing who he had been for so many years?

"I suppose I'm just desperate to know my real father," he said at last.

Padmé nodded. "Yes, I know you must be," she replied. "And I hope before long you will meet him. He's in there, Luke," she added, looking back at Anakin who was still sleeping on the chair she'd left him in. "I know he is. I'm sure you've seen glimpses of him already, just as I have."

Luke nodded, remembering the smile his father had given him when he had seen him alive in the emperor's palace back on Coruscant; of the patient manner in which he showed Luke how to construct a lightsaber, and the fierce protectiveness he'd shown when Leia was in trouble. That was Anakin Skywalker; of that there was no doubt in Luke's mind.

"Yes," Luke agreed. "More than a few. But unless Leia can see them too, our family will forever be divided."

Padmé nodded in agreement, a lump forming in her throat. No, don't let my family be torn apart again just as we have found one another…haven't we suffered enough already? Haven't we all paid the price for his fall?

"We just have to pray that she can see what we see, Luke," Padmé said, taking her son's hand. "And that she sees it before it's too late."