Chapter 24 – Chaos
"Secure the area. There's been an assassination attempt."
"There was reported Rebel activity in the area, but the two suspects managed to escape."
"We didn't get a good visual, but it seemed to be a man and a woman. We're checking the security footage now."
"There's an ambulance on the way now. Lord Vader was severely injured."
"The explosion affected three floors. Casualty count estimated to be in the dozens."
Chaos reigned.
Leia's white dress was tarnished with black soot and red blood. Her hands shook violently as she attempted to drag her father's unconscious body away from the carnage. His mechanical legs had been reduced to a jumble of wires and circuitry while his armor had been charred beyond recognition. The left half of his mask had been torn off in the explosion and she could see his eye had rolled back into his skull.
"Stay with me," she pleaded through gritted teeth. "You're going to be okay."
"You there! Stop what you're doing!"
Leia dropped Vader's arms and collapsed to her knees. She took her head into her lap and attempted to take off his helmet.
"Get her out of here!"
Leia looked away when she felt herself being pulled up by the armpits. "No!" she cried. "You don't understand!" She kicked wildly as two stormtroopers began pulling her away. Clawing at the hands on her shoulders, she lashed out in the only way she could.
"Ow!" a stormtrooper yelled. "She bit me!"
"Tase her!"
Before the stormtroopers could retaliate, Leia wrenched herself free and took off running in the opposite direction.
"Stop her!"
The stormtroopers opened fire, attempting to stun her. She weaved and dodged on pure instinct and managed to avoid all of their bolts. When she reached the door leading back to the Senate building, she was confronted by two more stormtroopers who were guarding the exit.
"Halt!"
Without knowing what she was doing, Leia swiped her hand without stopping. The stormtroopers went flying backward and collided into the wall. They fell to the ground, unconscious.
She didn't spare this a second thought as she ran into the Senate building. Fury propelled her toward the stairs. Her bare feet felt raw and her lungs were screaming in protest, but she continued to climb. Reaching the level in question, she exited the stairwell and sprinted toward the conference room. She extended her hand, and the door opened at her command.
"Leia! What happened?"
"You!"
Leia leapt on top of the table and charged toward Mothma who was standing at the opposite end. She was unable to react, eyes wide with shock as Leia's fist went barreling into her face.
"Senator!"
"Oh Force!"
"Someone stop her!"
Leia jumped off the table and on top of the prone senator. Her nose was bleeding profusely and her hands were held up in a desperate attempt to defend herself. Leia raised her fist to deliver another blow.
"Leia! I don't –"
"I know what you did! You tried to kill him!"
"No! No! I didn't! I swear! I have no idea –"
Leia tried to strike Mothma a second time, but she was prevented from doing so when three separate sets of hands grabbed her and pulled her away.
"There she is! Get her!"
"No! Back away!"
"Stand down, Rebel!"
"Lower your blaster! This is a diplomatic mission!"
Leia managed to free herself when she elbowed a general in the face. Spinning away from the Rebels, she held her hands up to the half dozen stormtroopers who had entered the room.
"It's them! They did it!" she yelled.
"Did what?"
"They orchestrated it! The Rebels tried to kill Lord Vader!"
"Who are you?" one of the stormtroopers asked her.
Leia didn't hesitate. "I'm Vader's daughter!"
The room froze. Clearly skeptical, the stormtroopers all looked at each other.
"You're lying," one of them said. "Lord Vader has no children."
"You want to test that theory?" Leia asked manically. "Arrest me, and see what happens." That gave the stormtroopers serious pause. Capitalizing on their indecision, Leia pointed at Mothma who was only now getting back to her feet. "She's the one responsible! Arrest her!"
Supported by Ackbar on the right and Rieekan on the left, Mothma wiped away some blood from her mouth before contesting this accusation. "That's absurd!" she said. "What proof do you have?"
"She's a Rebel! That's all the proof you need!"
"How dare you!" Mothma exclaimed. "You traitor!"
Incensed, Leia lunged at Mothma, only to be stopped by a pair of Rebel generals who grabbed her by the arms.
"Let me go! Let me go!"
Blaster fire pierced the air and Leia found herself released once more. The two generals restraining her fell to the floor, stunned.
"Back away from her. That's right. Do it!"
The Rebel delegation backed up with their hands raised as the stormtroopers moved forward.
"Line up against the wall! Now!"
"This is outrageous!" Mothma protested. "We are on a diplomatic mission! You have no right to treat us this way!"
"Silence," a stormtrooper barked.
"Rebel scum," another added.
"Keep them here," Leia ordered, standing behind the line of stormtroopers. "Don't let them leave."
"Nobody is allowed to leave the premises until the situation is contained," a stormtrooper told her. He seemed to be the commander of the group based on the orange designation on his shoulder. While maintaining his blaster on the Rebels, he spared a glance back at her. "That includes you," he said.
"What? No! I have to go! I have to find my father!"
"You're not going anywhere, ma'am."
"You don't believe me, do you?"
"It doesn't matter what I believe. I have my orders."
"And I'm overriding those orders!"
The stormtrooper shook his head. "It doesn't work that way, ma'am."
Leia stomped her foot. "I am Darth Vader's daughter!" she shrieked. "You will do as I say!"
Once again, the stormtroopers glanced at one another. "Do you have any proof of that?" the one on the far end asked.
Leia stormed over toward him. "Proof?" she repeated. "Is that what you want? Proof?" The stormtrooper hesitated momentarily before nodding. "I'll give you proof!" Thrusting her hands into the air, she sent the stormtrooper flying into the ceiling with a deafening crunch. The Rebels all gasped and the four remaining stormtroopers jumped backward in shock. Leia clenched her jaw and trembled with exertion as she kept the stormtrooper pinned to the ceiling. "Do you doubt me now?" she asked with a roar.
Everyone in the room shook their heads.
"Luke? What's wrong?"
Luke was shivering on the couch. His skin was clammy and his pupils were dilated. Looking up, he saw his mother standing above him with a concerned expression. He hadn't heard her approach. In fact, he hadn't known how he had gotten here in the first place.
"Are you sick?" she asked, kneeling down to place a hand on his forehead.
Luke shook his head. "Something horrible has happened," he said.
Padmé frowned. "Something horrible? Luke, what are you talking about?"
Luke winced as another wave of darkness washed over him. "It's… it's Leia," he realized. "She's…"
"She's what?"
His eyes widened. "Angry," he said.
At this discovery, the whole room suddenly erupted with an all too familiar sound.
"It's happening again!" Luke screamed over the klaxon. He stuffed his hands over his ears and got to his feet. "What did you do?" he asked his mother.
"Nothing, I swear!" she yelled.
"Then what triggered it?"
Padmé had no answer for him. Spinning around, she rushed off to the bedroom like she had last time. Preferring not to forge ahead without her, Luke decided to wait in the living room for her to get suited up. Amidst the chaos, Luke took the opportunity to contemplate what he had sensed.
At first, he had felt a horrible, all-consuming fear. At the time, he hadn't known who had been afraid nor what had made them so afraid. He hadn't had more than a moment to consider this question when the fear had shifted into something far more tangible.
Luke had felt the dark side before, both in Vader and in himself back in the cave on Dagobah. He had been told by Yoda and by Ben that it was no more powerful than the light, but Luke had always doubted that. Now he could be quite sure that they had lied to him. The explosion in the Force he had experienced was the most seismic disruption he had ever experienced. And at its epicenter was Leia. What could have possibly happened? Was she responsible for this disturbance? Surely that wasn't possible.
Just then, his mother returned to the living room. As he had expected, she was now fully geared up in her Mandalorian armor. She pressed a button on her forearm and Luke saw the flamethrower begin to heat up.
"Let's go," she said.
The pair ran side by side out of the apartment and down the hallway to the patio. Accompanying the deafening alarm was a deep thudding sound which caused the floors to shake. The closer they got to the patio, the louder the sound.
"Luke, look! The shields."
Just like last time, the blue shields surrounding the apartment were rippling as it absorbed blow after blow. This time, however, it wasn't Leia at the base of the dome with a lightsaber, but a half-dozen or so soldiers operating a massive cannon.
"That's an E-Web!" he heard his mother exclaim.
"A what?"
"That thing can blast through anything! Come on, let's help them!"
Luke stayed where he was as he watched his mother run down the stairs toward the golden fountain below. Getting down on one knee, she raised her forearm and unleashed a wave of fire toward the point of impact just above the spigot. The two weapons worked in tandem to melt away the shields which finally flickered out and gave way after a minute of ceaseless barrage.
"Shields are down! Let's move!"
"Stay where you are!"
Padmé leapt to her feet and blocked the soldiers who had begun running up the stairs toward the patio. They stopped abruptly when she pointed her still-hot flamethrower at them.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"You first," a soldier demanded as he pointed a blaster back at her. A tense standoff ensued and Luke hastily made his way down the stairs toward his mother's side.
"Everyone lower their weapons!" He came to a stop at the top of the second flight of stairs and raised his hands. "You're with the Rebellion, right?" he asked the soldiers.
They hesitated. Before anyone could answer, they all spun around when they heard a speeder approaching. Lowering their blasters, they all rushed toward the edge of the patio to greet the new arrival.
"What the hell is going on?" Padmé asked him out of the corner of her mouth.
"No idea," Luke responded.
"How did it go?" he heard one of the soldiers ask.
Stepping out from the speeder was a burly female soldier. She whipped her hair back and rested her rifle on her shoulder. "Well," she answered. "The bomb went off, but we don't have the princess."
"The princess?" Luke called out. "Do you mean Leia?"
The woman soldier who seemed to be the commander of the group looked up at his voice. She squinted at him before stepping aside and glancing at someone in the speeder. "That him?" she asked.
"Oh yeah, that's him."
Stepping out from behind the commander was Han Solo. The lanky man swaggered past the commander and through the crowd of soldiers. Resting his foot on the bottom stair, he crossed his arms and looked up at Luke with a patented half-smile.
"Hey kid," he said.
Luke was stunned. "What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Saving you, obviously." Han's expression turned sour when he shifted his attention from Luke to Padmé – or as he knew her, Fett. "I didn't know you would be here too," he said. His eyes scanned up and down before settling on her face. "Got to say, I'm surprised. You're not what I expected."
"What did you expect?" Padmé asked.
Han considered this. "I don't know. Maybe someone less –"
"I wouldn't finish that if I were you," Luke growled. Surprised, Han swiveled his head back to him. "Be careful what you say to my mother."
Han's eyes widened comedically. "Your what?" he asked.
"Enough of this," Padmé snapped. "What's going on here? Who sent you? How did you know where find us?"
"We'll explain on the way," the commander answered. "For now, we need to get you out of here."
"I'm not going anywhere until you tell us who you are," Padmé said.
The commander shrugged. "Fair enough," she said. "My name's Cara. All of us except Captain Solo are Rebel shock troopers. We're here to rescue Commander Skywalker and Princess Leia."
"Not me?" Padmé asked.
"We didn't know you were here," Cara said. "Matter of fact, I don't even know who you are. Care to give me your name?"
Padmé raised her chin and clenched her jaw. "Boba Fett," she said.
"Make way. Make way."
Leia was had found herself in this situation several times before. Eight stormtroopers were marching around her in a rectangular formation – three in front, three behind, and one on each flank. This time, however, she wasn't being escorted to a prison cell. This time, they were operating on her orders.
"What's going on here?"
The procession came to a stop and the stormtroopers in front of her saluted.
"We're taking this woman to Lord Vader."
Looking through the line of stormtroopers, Leia saw that their path had been blocked by an Imperial officer with proud, greying sideburns.
"Lord Vader is incapacitated. Who gave you this order?"
"I did," Leia said.
The stormtrooper formation parted and Leia took a step forward. The officer wrinkled his nose as he took in her soot-stricken attire.
"And who might you be?"
Leia sneered at the supercilious officer. "I am your superior," she said importantly. "Now get out of the way."
The officer snorted in amusement. "I don't report to you. I don't even know who you are."
Leia narrowed her eyes and took another step toward the man. "What is your name, officer?" she asked.
The officer hesitated. Perhaps hearing the authority in her voice, he folded. "Lieutenant Joffe," he said.
"Well Lieutenant Joffe, are you familiar with what happens to people when they cross Lord Vader?"
Joffe arched an eyebrow. "You are not Lord Vader," he said.
"An astute observation," Leia quipped. Pointing a finger at the lieutenant's chin, Leia expression turned stormy and her tone darkened. "But if Lord Vader were to learn that you disrespected me, that would be very bad for you."
The lieutenant gulped at this threat. His eyes darted away from her toward the stormtrooper commander.
"It would be wise of you to step aside, sir," the commander told him.
The lieutenant hesitated for a moment longer before nodding. "Very well," he said.
"Lead us to him," Leia ordered.
Vader had been taken to the largest and most extensive hospital complex in all of Coruscant. The pristine white walls and highly sophisticated med droids inspired confidence, but Leia couldn't help but fear for her father nonetheless. He was fragile as it was, having lost all of his limbs twenty years ago. Could he really survive another traumatic incident like this?
He would have to. She wasn't going to lose him. She had only just started to get to know him! It wouldn't be fair!
But nothing ever was.
"Excuse me! Excuse me! You can't go in here!"
The procession was marching down a long hallway and had just reached an airlock leading toward the operating room when a female doctor came running toward them from the opposite direction. In her hands were two pint-sized bags of blood. Leia waved her stormtrooper delegation aside and approached the doctor.
"Is Lord Vader in there?" she asked.
"He is," the doctor confirmed.
"I need to see him."
"I can't let anyone in there. We haven't finished operating."
"Can you tell me what his status is?"
The harried doctor let out an exasperated sigh. "Please allow me to do my job," she requested. "Now, if you will excuse me."
Leia considered strong-arming the doctor for an answer but ultimately decided against it. "You heard her," she said to the stormtroopers behind her. "Get out of her way."
"Thank you," the doctor said before hurrying toward the airlock.
"Doctor, wait," Leia said just as the door opened. "Do you need more blood?"
The doctor turned to give her a strange look. "Are you looking to donate?" she asked. Her tone indicated that she was stunned that anyone would ever be so generous as to help Darth Vader.
Aggrieved on behalf of her father, Leia nodded curtly. "Anything I can do to help."
The doctor furrowed her brow. "That's, um… that's very considerate. You wouldn't happen to know if you share his blood type?"
"I suspect we do, but I can't know for sure."
"And why would you suspect that?"
"Because I'm his daughter."
The doctor's perplexed expression turned incredulous. "You're his…?"
Leia sighed. "You heard me, doctor."
The doctor blinked a few times. "I… very well, then," she stammered. "I'll send a droid out in a minute." Leia nodded and the doctor spared her one last curious look before stepping into the airlock.
The doctor was true to her word. A few minutes after she had left, a med droid emerged from the airlock and took Leia away to get her blood tested. Once it was confirmed that she and Vader shared the same blood type, the droid drew a pint of her blood.
Returning to the hallway, she requested that the stormtroopers and Lieutenant Joffe give her some space. They seemed more than happy to oblige. Once she was alone, Leia began to pace back and forth down the length of the hallway. Occasionally, a droid would leave the operating room, but they wouldn't tell her any more than the doctor had.
An hour had passed, and Leia had given up pacing in favor of sitting on the ground with her back pressed against the wall. Hands rested on the back of her head, she leaned forward and rested her forehead against her knees. Closing her eyes, she relived the horrible moment when the port had exploded. Fiery debris radiated outward and Leia found herself falling deeper and deeper into the abyss…
Continue with the operation. You may fire when ready.
What!?
You're far too trusting.
"Excuse me? Ma'am?"
Leia's eyes flew open. Realizing that she was digging her fingernails into the back of her skull, Leia unclenched and forced herself to take a deep breath. Craning her head up, she saw the doctor standing over her. Her tousled brown hair and ghostly pale skin spoke volumes about the stress she was under. No doubt she could see the same in Leia's similar dishevelment.
"We're done."
Leia arduously got to her feet. "And?" she asked. "How is he?"
"Alive," the doctor said. "He lost a lot of blood."
"But he's going to okay, right?"
The doctor hesitated. "Could you tell me more about Lord… I mean, about your father's prosthetics?"
"What about them?"
"What do you know about them? About how they were applied, perhaps?"
Leia shook her head. "Sorry, I don't know much," she said. "Why is this relevant?"
"I've never seen anything like them, that's all."
"So this is purely academic?" Leia asked harshly.
"No, of course not. Your father's legs bore the brunt of the explosion, which is a good thing considering they were artificial and can be replaced. We had to remove the prosthetics, but we had considerable difficulty with that."
"Why?"
"Because they were drilled into the bone."
Based on the doctor's grimace, Leia could tell that this was not standard procedure. "What are you telling me, doctor?"
The doctor pursed their lips before extending a hand to Leia. Wrapping it around her shoulder, she steered Leia away down the hallway. They walked away slowly for a few feet before the doctor spoke.
"I have never before seen an artificial limb affixed to a living being in such a barbaric way," she said in a heavy voice. "Not only would the procedure have been excruciatingly painful, but he must have been in agony with every step he took afterward."
Leia's mouth felt dry. She licked her lips and looked away from the doctor's solicitous gaze. "I… I didn't know."
The doctor stopped walking and turned to face her. "I would never allow any of my patients to endure that level of suffering. Not even if –" She stopped herself, but Leia knew what she had been about to say. "I want to help him," the doctor said after a brief pause.
"Help him how? By giving him new prosthetics?"
She nodded. "There are far more humane alternatives," she said. "Technology in this field has developed rapidly over the past decade. We can even fit him with synthetic skin if he wants."
"That sounds great," Leia said, yet internally she was brimming with questions. Why hadn't Vader sought out these upgrades beforehand? Had he not known that there was an alternative?
"I can't do anything without his permission, however," the doctor said.
"When will he be awake?"
"Not for a while, I'm afraid. We're waiting for his condition to stabilize first before we begin our first round of bacta treatment. He'll most likely be unconscious for at least the next twenty-four hours."
"I want to be here when he wakes."
The doctor stopped walking and turned to face her directly. "I would advise that you go home and get some rest," she said. "It looks like you went through quite an ordeal today."
"I can't do that," Leia said, and for more reason than one. She quite literally could not go home. The shields to the apartment only responded to Vader's voice.
"I can't make you do anything you don't want," the doctor conceded. "But there's nothing you can do for him today."
"I want to see him. Would that be possible?"
"I suppose."
"Then lead me to him."
"I must warn you, his appearance may be quite jarring."
"Lead me to him, doctor."
The doctor bowed her head and turned around. "Very well," she said with a sigh.
Leia followed her back down the hallway and into the airlock. Once the door had sealed shut behind them, a jet of pressurized air blasted them both before they were permitted entry into the operation room.
She paled when she laid eyes on the figure on the bed. The stumps of his legs were wrapped in a heavy gauze and Leia instinctively felt squeamish when she looked at them. Eyes gravitating upward, she saw that he had been stripped out of his suit and his torso was bare. Burn marks pocked his flesh from his hips up to his shoulders. The few blotches of skin which had not been affected by the blast were practically translucent because of how pallid it was.
It was a gruesome sight, yet Leia pushed forward in spite of her discomfort. Coming to her father's bedside, she suppressed a sob when she looked down at his face. The entire left half was coated in a shiny ointment. Scabs and scars blotted out much of his countenance. The right half had miraculously avoided comparable damage, and were it not for that, Leia would have had no way to know if the man before her was her father.
"The bacta will help with the scarring, but he will never look exactly the same," she heard the doctor say from the corner of the room. "All things considered, it's a miracle he avoided as much damage as he did."
Leia shut her eyes and released a shaky breath. Feeling nauseous, she took a half step away from the bed.
"Perhaps there's something you could help us with."
Leia glanced up at the doctor. "Yes?" she asked weakly.
The doctor was holding the breastplate of her father's armor. The buttons were all flashing and a warbling alarm was blaring from the speaker. "Do you have any idea how to turn this off?"
Leia frowned as she walked over toward the doctor. Taking the breastplate from her, she considered the complex array of buttons. Hesitantly, she pressed one at random.
"Alarm system at home base activated," the speaker announced before falling silent. Leia's eyes widened.
"What does that mean?" the doctor asked.
Leia handed the breastplate back to her. "They're trying to escape," she growled. The doctor blinked a few times in bewilderment and Leia looked up to meet her gaze. "I have to go," she said. "I have to stop them."
"Stop whom?" the doctor asked.
"The traitors," Leia snarled.
Author's Note: Dark side Leia is best side Leia. Sorry, you can't change my mind.