Chapter 17 – Conflagration

One day later

A morose Luke was seated at the island in the kitchen with a bowl of cereal in front of him. He absentmindedly twirled the spoon around the perimeter of the bowl as he stared blankly at the refrigerator in front of him.

It had been two weeks since Vader had interned him and his mother in this apartment. While Luke was used to the mundane from his moisture farming days on Tatooine, he had never before experienced boredom of this scale. At least while he was on Tatooine he had lots of hard work to do. Here in this prison, Luke had nothing to do whatsoever.

It hadn't helped that he and his mother had been avoiding each other lately. Part of that was on account of them simply growing tired of one another. Two weeks with the same person was enough to drive anyone crazy. But Luke suspected there was something more to it. His mother was disappointed in him for failing to conform to her interpretation of Vader.

She wanted him to make a choice Luke didn't want to have to make. Why must it be that he could only have one parent? Why couldn't he have both? Padmé simply wouldn't allow it, however. Him or me, she would say. You can't have it any other way, Luke.

Luke refused to give her the answer she wanted. His big show of indecision was disingenuous, however. Luke knew that if push came to shove, he would choose her over Vader. He felt guilty about that, but there was little point in denying the truth. His mother loved and cared about him. When had Vader ever expressed that type of affection or even interest? His father was a fearsome man who – while undeniably sympathetic – was emotionally distant and recluse.

Luke quickly purged these thoughts from his mind when he heard footsteps in the living room which were followed soon thereafter by high-pitched voice.

"Luke!" his mother called out. "Get in here!"

Frowning down at his soggy cereal, Luke quickly stood up and walked over toward the sink. Upon depositing the bowl, he spun around and hurried toward the living room. He arrived to find a tense scene. Vader was in the corner of the room by the hallway with his helmet tucked under his arm. Padmé – who he had last seen sitting on the couch with a holobook and a cup of tea – was now standing with her blaster clutched firmly in both hands.

"He's here," Vader said. "Can you put that away now?"

"Fine," Padmé said as she begrudgingly returned the blaster to her belt.

"You know, we don't have to do this every time," Vader pointed out as Luke walked over toward his mother. She seemed to unclench as he approached, placed at ease by his proximity.

"Don't tell me what to do," she growled.

In the past, Luke might have tried to attenuate the hostility of the situation. Now, however, he knew better than to bother. Instead, he merely stood by his mother's side and waited for Vader to get to business. He never came to visit them without a reason.

"I have a surprise for you," Vader said finally. He smiled tentatively at Padmé who unsurprisingly did not reciprocate. He waited a few moments for Padmé to engage with him, but he gave up quite quickly. "I have a meeting with the Rebel Alliance this morning," he told her.

"What?" Luke exclaimed.

Vader nodded. "That's right," he said. He was practically brimming with delight at Luke's surprise. No doubt, he had hoped that this news would impress them. Padmé, however, was more sober in her reaction.

"Are you going to be signing a truce with them?" she asked.

"Not quite yet," Vader said. "But things might move in that direction if the meeting goes well," he added hastily when Padmé frowned disapprovingly.

"That's great!" Luke said. He nudged his mother gently. "Isn't it?" he asked her.

"It's certainly unexpected," she said.

"I can't stay long. I've got to be at the Senate in half an hour. I was hoping… well, I was hoping you might want to accompany me."

Padmé frowned at this offer. "I thought we'd been over this –" she began to say, but Vader cut her off.

"I know, I know," he said, raising his left hand in surrender. "It's just that your old friend Senator Mothma is going to be there, and I thought you might want to see her."

Padmé blinked a few times in surprise. She seemed to be taken aback by Vader's consideration. "I, uh… well…"

"You're friends with Mothma?" Luke asked. "You never told me about that."

"We were colleagues," Padmé said. "I wouldn't say we were friends, exactly."

"You're being modest," Vader said. "All of your colleagues adored you, Padmé."

Padmé blushed at the praise. Luke shared a furtive glance with Vader, each of them encouraged by how well she had received the compliment. Could it be that they had made some progress? Had Vader been slowly chipping away at Padmé's frigid exterior? Up to this point, Luke hadn't seen any evidence to suggest that he had, but his mother was a difficult woman to get a read on.

"I, um… I don't think it's a good idea," Padmé said. "I'd be a distraction."

"How so?"

"Everyone thinks I'm dead."

"Not even the Rebels know?"

"Nobody but Ahsoka and Rex knows." Padmé's expression turned bitter. "Not even my family knows, I might add."

Vader winced at the accusatory tone. "Perhaps, you're right," he said, disregarding the latter comment. "But we need to start planning for this."

"Planning for what?"

"Revealing you publicly."

Padmé frowned. "Why would you do that?" she asked. "If I'm your prisoner, why bother?"

Vader pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "You're my wife, Padmé, not my prisoner," he insisted.

"How can you say that?" Padmé asked shrilly. "You don't allow Luke and me to leave!"

"Because it's dangerous," Vader tried to say, but Padmé refused to listen.

"Why don't you stop it with the games and put a chip in me like your mother had?" she asked. Vader looked as if he had just been slapped across the face. He narrowed his eyes contemptuously before stuffing his helmet back on "Go ahead and do it!" Padmé yelled after him when he turned around and made to leave. "Make me your slave! I know you want to! Just do it already!"

"Mom, stop," Luke pleaded. He grabbed her arm and restrained her when she tried to run after Vader toward the patio. "Don't go after him," Luke told her. "It won't help."

Padmé shrugged him off but didn't pursue Vader down the hallway. Instead she huffed angrily and sat back down on the couch. "The audacity," she mumbled to herself as she shook her head.

Luke glanced down the hallway before sitting down next to her. "What did you mean by that?" he asked, speaking softly for fear that Vader might somehow overhear.

"What did I mean by what?"

"About the chip? And about… his mother?"

Padmé clenched her jaw and looked down at her lap. "He's such a hypocrite," she said.

"How so?" Luke pried.

Padmé sighed before standing up. She paced away a few lengths before spinning around to look him in the eye. "How much did your aunt and uncle tell you about him?" she asked.

Caught off guard by this question, Luke took a few moments to answer. "Um… not much," he said. "I told you everything they told me. They just said he was a navigator on a spice freighter, that's all."

"Nothing about who he was before that? Nothing about his mother?"

"They just said she died," Luke said. "Her grave was right outside our homestead."

Padmé nodded. "Anakin was the one who buried her there," she said in a distant voice.

"He did?" Luke asked, eyes widening. Owen and Beru had never told him that.

Padmé turned to look out the window. Luke followed her gaze to see a pristine blue sky. The lambent morning sun was baring down on them, causing Luke to squint. "There's a reason why I don't tell you things, Luke," Padmé said. She considered the skyline for a moment longer before turning back around, her figure blocking out the sun. "Vader's not someone you want to look at too closely," she said, chuckling humorlessly.

"What do you mean? Why not?"

"He's a walking contradiction," Padmé said as she crossed the room back toward him. She took a seat on the opposite couch and rubbed her forehead wearily. "He and his mother were slaves," she told him.

Luke was sure he must have misheard her. "Slaves?" he repeated.

"And yet he doesn't have a problem with locking us up in here," she snarled. "I can't tell if he honestly doesn't see the parallels or if he just doesn't care about being a hypocrite."

"That can't be," Luke said dazedly. "I thought…"

"Thought what?"

Tatooine was a highly stratified society, and there was very little intermingling between the different hierarchies. While the slave population was sizable, Luke hadn't interacted much with them. He had seen slaves from time to time in Anchorhead, but he had never gotten to know any of them particularly well. The concept of slavery had always just made him uncomfortable.

"He doesn't deserve sympathy for this," Padmé said. "He may have been a slave, but he supported an Empire which propagated it on a massive scale."

Luke looked down as he processed this. Truth be told, sympathy hadn't been his initial instinct. Instead, he had simply been shocked. But now that he thought about it, he couldn't help but share his mother's point of view. How could Vader be so willing to keep them here under lock and key considering his own experiences?

"He has no moral compass," Padmé continued her campaign, oblivious that Luke already agreed with her. "He'll pretend like he does, but that's only because he wants us to think he's not all that bad. But he is, Luke. He's a terrible, terrible man. The things he's done… the lives he's destroyed… there can be no redemption for that."

"He's never going to let us go," Luke said. The reality had just sunk in for him. He was going to be a prisoner for the rest of his life.

Vader had no qualms with hypocrisy whatsoever. He would keep them as his own personal slaves out of sheer desperation. Because he was desperate, wasn't he? Desperate for a family, a friend, a supporter. He had none of those things. Neither Padmé nor Luke would be able to be that person for him, but Vader would keep them here anyway on the off chance that one of them might thaw.

"That's why we have to escape," his mother said. She leaned forward and placed a hand on his knee. "I'm going to get us out of here, Luke. You just have to trust me."

"But how?" he asked.

Padmé didn't get a chance to answer because just then a horribly loud noise blared to life. Startled, Luke jumped up to his feet and covered his ears with his hands.

"What's happening?" Luke asked, yelling over the deafening sound.

Padmé seemed just as bewildered as him. Getting to her feet, she ran down the hallway toward her bedroom.

"Where are you going?" Luke called after her. Unsure what to do, Luke elected to go in the opposite direction. Taking off down the hallway toward the patio, Luke winced as the sound grew even louder. He seemed to be approaching the source.

Arriving at the veranda, Luke craned his head in awe when he saw the formerly invisible shields rippling around the apartment. Concentric waves were radiating outward from a point at the base. As he looked down toward the epicenter, Luke's mouth fell open when he saw who it was hacking away at the shields with a blue lightsaber

"Leia?" he asked. What was she doing here? And was that his lightsaber she was using? Surely he must be dreaming, but not even in his dreams could he have conceived of such a bizarre scenario. What was going on?

Luke was about to rush forward when something caught his eye. Looking up toward the sky, he gasped.

"Leia!" he yelled despite knowing that she could hear him on account to the shields. "Run!"

A shiny black shuttle was descending toward the apartment. Hearing the sound, Leia stopped attempting to penetrate the shields and spun around to see it for herself.

"Run!"

Vader had returned.

The plan had quickly gone awry. Having arrived on the surface of Imperial Center, Leia slipped away from the Alliance's delegation and took a speeder to the address which Ahsoka had provided for her. Up to this point, she had been surprised by how smoothly things had been going.

Upon arriving at the apartment, however, Leia's fate quickly turned sour. The moment she alighted from her speeder, Leia's comlink had vibrated. Frustrated, Leia tore the device off her belt and activated it.

"What?"

"Leia, you need to get out of there now," said Mothma's panicked voice. "Vader's a no show!"

"Where is he?"

"I have no idea! You could be going to him for all I know!"

Leia considered her options before electing to turn off the comlink. Tossing it aside, Leia hurried up the stairs and toward the apartment. She had come this far, hadn't she? There was no way she was going to turn away now!

At this thought, Leia ran face first into something invisible. Losing her balance, Leia tumbled down the stairs and landed flat on her back. Grimacing in pain, she propped herself up on her elbows and looked up to see a massive blue dome separating her from the veranda.

Leia was beginning to panic now. What was she going to do? She couldn't penetrate these shields! Legs wobbling as she got back to her feet, Leia pulled her blaster and opened fire at the dome. Unsurprisingly, the bolt had no effect whatsoever. A shock wave rippled outward at the point of impact but no damage was inflicted. In a move of utmost desperation, Leia drew her lightsaber and activated the blade.

Charging back up the stairs, Leia raised her lightsaber over her head and slashed it down at the shields. A bright red slash mark flared up at the point of contact, giving Leia cause for optimism. She gave it another go, and the wound in the shields deepened further still. Again, and again, and again…

Leia suddenly froze mid-swing. Her whole body went cold and goosebumps erupted on the back of her neck. Lowering the blade, she turned around slowly to see a terrifying sight.

A jet black speeder was hovering above her own at the edge of the patio. Standing upright in the driver's seat was Darth Vader himself. The colossus of a man was staring down at her with his red lightsaber in hand. Leia was paralyzed with fear, unable to move a muscle as Vader loomed above.

"Where did you get that blade?" he asked in a booming voice.

Leia didn't respond. Instead, she reached for her blaster with shaking hands and pointed it at Vader's head. He easily deflected the bolt when she opened fire, cutting it down with his blade before propelling himself into the air. Leia watched in awe as Vader landed softly at the base of the stairs.

"Wait –" she tried to say, but Vader didn't give her a chance to explain herself. Lightsaber raised over his shoulder, Vader leapt up the stairs toward her. Leia ducked, barely managing to avoid the brutal blow aimed at her neck. She staggered away from Vader and desperately held her lightsaber up in a futile attempt to defend herself.

"You're no Jedi!" Vader roared as their blades clashed. Leia grimaced as she attempted in vain to push him away. "That doesn't belong to you!"

"You don't understand!" Leia pleaded as Vader swung at her a second time. Leia jumped out of the way and tripped over the edge of the stairs. The lightsaber went flying out of her hands as she tumbled down the stairs for a second time. Flipping over onto her back, Leia's eyes widened in terror when she saw Vader descending the stairs toward her.

"How did you find this place? Who sent you?"

"I can explain!"

Leia rolled away when Vader's lightsaber plunged down toward her. She leapt to her feet with surprising grace as the red blade went cutting through the marble ground. Seeing her lightsaber dangling on the precipice of the patio, Leia ran to go collect it.

"Stop right there!"

The lightsaber was suddenly lifted into the air and went soaring past her head. Leia spun around to see Vader snag the hilt out of the air as he marched toward her.

"No, don't –"

Vader didn't listen to her. Rearing the deactivated hilt backward, he smashed it into Leia's temple. She vaguely registered falling backward when everything went black.

"No! No! Stop it! Stop it!"

Luke was pleading hysterically with Vader as he watched him attack the princess. His cries went unheard, however. Leia was on her back at the base of the stairs and Vader had his lightsaber raised in preparation for the final blow. He couldn't watch…

"Luke! Get out of the way!"

Swiveling his head to the voice, he saw his mother running toward him. She was dressed in all of her Mandalorian armor save for the helmet which had been lost in the Imperial Palace.

"Mom! He's going to kill her!" Returning his attention to the duel, Luke saw that Leia had somehow evaded Vader's lightsaber and was running away toward the edge of the patio.

"Get out of the way!"

Luke did as she asked. Raising her right arm, Padmé unleashed a wave of flames toward the spot in the shields where Leia had been previously attempting to cut through with her lightsaber. A searing heat hit Luke's face, and he had to back away as the shields began to melt away.

"Stop right there!" he heard Vader bellow.

Looking away from the flames, Luke saw Vader summoning a lightsaber to his outstretched hand.

"No wait –"

Vader smashed the butt of the lightsaber into Leia's forehead and the princess collapsed to the ground. Luke watched in horror as Vader loomed over her prone figure. His red lightsaber was still humming in his right hand. He could kill her if he wanted…

"Get away from her!"

Vader spun around to see that Padmé had made her way through the shields. His eyes widened and he jumped out of the way just as she fired her blaster at him. He wasn't quick enough, however, and the bolt went tearing through his mechanical left shoulder.

"Stop!" Luke yelled as he ran after her through the fuming hole in the shields.

Padmé disregarded him and opened fire a second time. This time, however, Vader was better prepared to defend himself. He deflected the bolt with his lightsaber and thrust out his left hand at Padmé. Her wrist twitched, and the blaster went soaring out of her hands and over the edge of the patio. Unfazed, Padmé raised her right arm and unleashed a second wave of fire from her flamethrower.

The flames didn't reach Vader, however. Left hand still extended outward, Vader somehow managed to halt the fiery salvo. Red hot tendrils of fire licked Vader's mechanical fingers as they coalesced into a billowing cloud in front of him. Luke came to a stop by his mother's side and felt his mouth fall open at the awesome display. Padmé too seemed to be stunned, and she quickly turned the flamethrower off. Exhausted, Vader collapsed to his knees and looked up at both of them as the flames dissipated.

"Well?" he asked. "Do you still want to escape? Now's your chance."

Luke and Padmé both glanced over at the speeder parked up against the patio. Leia must have taken it here. How she had known to come here at all, however, Luke hadn't the faintest idea.

"Did you kill her?" Padmé asked, her voice hoarse as she took a step forward.

Vader glanced over at Leia's unconscious form behind him. "She's alive," he said.

Padmé followed Vader's gaze toward Leia. "Get up," she ordered, pointing her still-hot flamethrower at Vader.

Vader did so, grimacing as he clutched his wounded shoulder. Once he was out of the way, Padmé and Luke both hurried forward toward Leia.

"Leia?" Padmé asked as she fell to her knees at the princess' side. "Leia, can you hear me?" Padmé took Leia's face into her hands and inspected the burgeoning bruise above her left eyebrow. "Oh, Leia," she whispered as she brushed her thumb over the wound.

Luke furrowed his brow in confusion. Why was his mother acting this way with Leia? She barely knew the princess.

"We need to get her inside," Padmé said. "Luke, could you –"

"Allow me."

Luke turned around to see that Vader had taken off his helmet and had deactivated the shields. Taking a few steps toward Leia and Padmé, Vader kneeled down and scooped the younger woman's body up with his right hand. Luke gave Vader a wide berth as he casually tossed Leia over his shoulder and began walking up the stairs toward the apartment.

"What… what just happened?" Luke asked once Padmé had stood back up.

She gave him a nervous look. "I'll explain later," she mumbled. Without elaborating any further, Padmé followed after Vader and left a stunned Luke in her wake.