Author's Note: Finally, my PC is fixed! I'm coming at ya'll from home now. This is much better than the library. Also, I've figured with my daily updates with this, we'll be done Episode VII on Wednesday, March 21. After which, I'll take another hiatus till the month's end to edit Episode VIII, so it'll be ready by April 1.
Chapter 49 responses:
Thrawn716: He does in this chapter, hence the title.
G-Anakin 13: Thanks, I was wondering when I'd hear from you again.
dmitchell: Hmm, you'll just have to keep reading to find out.
Episode VII: Heirs of the Empire
Chapter 5: Reunited at Last
After the meeting, Antellica and Hilton joined it's surviving Moffs in the technical room once more for the next session of tests on the Death Star. And while the emperor had been invited to join them, he declined saying he had more pressing matters to attend to. Those matters, of course, being that of his daughter and the whereabouts of the Rebel Alliance.
He had to admit he was a bit anxious to see Leila again, all grown up. He wondered what she really thought of the Rebellion against the Empire and if she even remembered him. He also wondered how accomplished a Jedi she was, and if out of the twins she was the stronger Jedi because of her two years more experience then Luke.
He pondered these many things among with others as he made his way to the detention level on the fifth floor above the Core. Leila was in detention block AA23, one of two detention blocks on the station. The other was on the fifth level beneath the Core, AA86.
When he arrived, the officers stationed in the detention block's entrance acknowledged his entrance with bows and salutes.
"Your Majesty!" the officer in charge greeted. "We were alerted of your coming beforehand and welcome you. The rebel in question is in cell 2187. Is it your wish for anyone to accompany you inside?"
"No," he replied. "I am more than capable of dealing with my daughter myself, thank you."
The officer bowed. "As you wish milord."
Anakin gave a nod to him and passed by into the detention block. When he came to the cell that contained Leila, he paused a moment before pressing the door's activation key.
The sight that greeted him was a young woman of nineteen, sitting cross-legged on the black sitting block that connected to the wall behind her. Her eyes were closed and hands out on either side of her form, thumb and pointer finger circled in an O. Obviously, she was meditating.
Anakin was mildly surprised to find her so casually dressed. In all the holopics he'd seen of her, she was always so elaborately costumed, her hair usually almost always in a cinnamon bun hairstyle. But then all the pictures he'd seen of her was when she was acting her role of Leia Organa, Princess of Alderaan. She wasn't doing this now. She was simply Leila Skywalker, Jedi Knight, Leader of the Second Alliance to Restore the Galactic Republic, and First Daughter of the Emperor.
Leila's eyes opened a moment later and locked with his silently. For a moment, the two simply looked at one another, their stares reaffirming that each knew who the other was.
With a wave of his hand, Anakin had the door to the cell slide shut behind him and than proceeded slowly into the small room. Never once did Leila take her eyes off him as he came closer and closer to her. Her gaze on him was expressionless.
When he came to being no more than three meters in front of her, he stopped and simply stood. Leila's expression never changed. After a moment, he asked, "May I sit?"
The sound of his voice seemed to break her out of the revive she was in. She shook her head slightly as though clearing it and blinked. "Sit?" she asked.
"Yes, sit." He gestured to the spot beside her on the block. "May I sit there?"
Leila rolled her eyes and gave a small laugh. "Do I really have much of a choice? This is, after all, your space station, not mine."
Anakin gave a wry chuckle and sat down beside her.
Gazing at her, he began to wonder where to begin. For the past almost twenty years he'd yearned to be apart of Leila's life, and now that he was with her again, he wasn't entirely sure what to say.
"So...Leila, tell me a little about yourself."
"Excuse me?" She definitely hadn't seen that coming.
Anakin sighed. "I do believe myself to have been quite clear with my request, Leila."
"Tell you about myself?" Leila repeated in disbelief, refusing to believe what she was hearing.
He nodded.
"I thought you came here to interrogate me about the Rebel Alliance," she accused.
"What makes you think that?"
"Why else would you be here?"
"I want to know and spend time with my daughter."
Leila was skeptical. "Really?"
Again, he nodded. "Yes."
Leila studied him a moment, looking into his mask as if for an answer, wanting to believe what he was saying to be true, but knowing if it was impossible.
"What do you want to know about me that you couldn't have just found out from a computer file?"
Anakin shrugged. "Your life growing up, interests you have, your outlook on life. Things like that."
Again, Leila studied him, looking for deception but finding none. Shrugging, she went through with his request.
For the next two hours, they talked about various things, mainly concerning Leila's upbringings. Anakin also, upon request, told Leila about his life before he was Emperor, as a slave, Jedi, and servant boy for Palpatine. He also made sure to explain in great detail how he'd gotten to be in his present condition with the life-sustaining suit.
Both listened intently to what the other had to say, and as time passed by, they found themselves growing more comfortable in each other's company.
At the end of this two-hour session, Anakin decided to have Leila moved to a room in his quarters three levels below.
"Why?" Leila asked, suddenly suspicious again.
"Because I don't want you to stay in this cell," he explained. "You are my daughter; a Princess by both blood and adoption. Such figures do not belong in environments such as this."
Leila smiled slightly. "Yes, but in all this chatter you seemed to have forgotten that I am also your prisoner."
"You are only my prisoner if you choose to be Leila," he said. "Remember that. From everything I've told you about the Jedi, it can easily be said that they put me in the position I'm in now."
"True, but-"
"And when they stole you and Luke from me when you were mere infants," he added. "That wasn't very Jedi like. They did it out of revenge. And then lying to you, saying your parents were dead and that's why they took you."
"Yes, but later they told us the truth," Leila countered. "And their reason for lying to begin with."
"Which was...?"
"To protect us," she answered, to which Anakin gave a dry laugh.
"Protect you from what? Me! I wouldn't hurt my own flesh and blood. I've never done anything but love. It's others that do all the taking away and hurting. After all I've told you, you can't possibly still be siding with the Jedi."
"This isn't about sides...father."
Anakin sat back somewhat and even Leila surprised herself.
"Look," she continued, "I just-I don't know. Maybe I'm just so confused I don't know what it is I should be thinking. Just give me time. I-" She stopped and sighed, not knowing what else to say.
Anakin nodded and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I understand."
Leila looked up at him. "Really? Do you really understand, or is that something you're just saying?"
"I'd say I have an idea of how you're feeling."
Leila shrugged. "Fair enough."
Anakin led Leila out of the cell and detention block, and they took a lift down to the second level above the Core. The entire level was reserved for his use as living quarters. Besides himself and Hilton, no one else stayed on this level as of the present. Antellica had a suite on the sixth level beneath the Core.
This fact led to Leila asking about her younger half-siblings, to which Anakin was more then happy to answer and said he'd arrange for Hilton to come see her sometime in-between the youngster's hobby of strolling about the space station.
Leila was allowed to pick whichever room she wanted in her father's quarters. She chose the room closet to the library due to her love of books. A love it seemed she shared with her half-sister, Lacovia.
"That's one of her favorite past times," he said as the two strolled around the massive room Leila picked out with a black décor. "Besides killing people that is." He gave a small laugh, but stopped at Leila's look of disgust. He cleared his throat and continued. "Ever since she was a little girl, she'd curl up with a book and read for hours."
An image of a five-year-old Lacovia chatting excitedly about a new book she got filled Anakin's memory. It seemed only yesterday that Lacovia was that small little girl, but alas it wasn't. As he'd learned long years before, watching his nephew grow, children grew up so fast with no ways of stopping it. He thought this again as he looked at Leila, who smiled and he wished more then ever that the mask was gone and he could smile back. Alas, that was not the case and never would be.
Clapping her on the shoulder once more, he left with the promise that he would return soon and that there should be some food in the kitchen chambers she'd find of interest.
