KEYnote!: Remember, Leia has had less than twenty-four hours to come to terms with her Jedi father being Anakin Skywalker and Anakin Skywalker being Darth Vader.

Leia: Leia has gone from Endor on the night before victory. For her and Luke their victory in Return of the Jedi was anything but guaranteed. She hasn't truly had time to put her feelings aside to think of Darth Vader as anything but a Sith. Her three dreams of him were brief and not as meaningful as they were to Luke who has had time to process.

Dead too Easy: In a real fight, if everyone is overpowered it isn't like the movies where it is drawn out, it is everyone gets one shot, maybe two and whoever slips up is dead.

Chapter 24 - Reality

Ahsoka couldn't help but stare at Anakin.

He had changed so much since the last time she had seen him, well since the last time she had seen him as him.

Nor could she help comparing him to Luke.

The Anakin she remembered had been cocky, this Anakin was more centred, even when near panicked at the prospect of his future kids being hunted.

He was still proud, and walked with power. He crossed the ever changing landscape with surety and familiarity, as if this strange world was a mere extension of who he was.

Luke walked through the world softly, as if he were an invited guest, respectful and aware of everything around him.a

It was startling to see how much their body languages were different even within the same body.

"Snips," Anakin said, glancing at her, "Do I have something on my face?"

She frowned at him, Luke would never have talked to her like that. Which, of course, solved her issue of having unexpected 'feelings' for her old Master.

Because all she felt for Anakin was a sense of family, like what she felt for Rex.

"He really is nothing like him," Rex said as if reading her thoughts.

"Who's not like who?" Anakin asked.

"General Luke isn't like you," Fives said.

"He is like Padme though," Ahsoka noted, Luke had defentaintly inherited his mother's compassion.

"I don't know," Rex said, "Luke can be as unpredictable as Padme, as in he will jump directly into the line of fire, but he doesn't have her temper."

Ahsoka nodded, "He's even more zen than Obi-Wan."

"I think Obi-Wan would be more zen if he didn't have you lot to take care of," Hevy remarked.

"Hey," Anakin warned.

But Ahsoka laughed, "He's not wrong."

Anakin shook his head, "I really can't complain about my son taking after his mother, especially if he lacks her temper. Padme has gotten herself into so much trouble over the years with her bull-headedness."

Cutup laughed, "Oh, Luke inherited her bull-headedness alright, he's just suave about it like Kenobi."

"Suave?" Anakin asked, "Why do none of you seem worried about him and Leia? This-"

"Luke can handle it," Rex said with finality, "Whatever it is, whatever surprises this world has, General Luke can and will handle it. We're all here to keep you out of trouble, Mr. Blows-Self-Up-In-Detonation."

Ahsoka sniggered at the look Anakin gave his old Captain, because Rex would have never spoken to Anakin like that before.

"What the hell did Luke do to make you not worry about him?" Anakin asked, "You worry about everyone you care about."

Ahsoka remembered Luke taking out the army of droids at the prison, remembered how easily he had handled a discussion with Count Dooku, but it was Rex who said, "He saved us from ourselves when one of the Jedi set us up against each other, he-" Rex hesitated.

"He does the impossible on a regular basis and makes you wonder why you ever even thought anything was impossible to begin with," Echo provided.

"One of the Jedi turned on you?" Anakin asked.

"On Umbara," Cutup said stiffly.

Even more angrily, Fives said "Pong Krell."

"Did the Council believe you when you reported it?" Anakin asked.

Rex shook his head, "There was no report. Krell challenged Luke to a duel, and when Krell turned to kill me mid-duel, Luke killed him. He saved my life, and I don't believe he would have killed Krell if he hadn't attacked us."

Ahsoka's heart flipped at that, and she chastised herself for it. But it was hard not to admire Luke.

She just needed to remind herself that admiration wasn't what Obi-Wan felt for Satine nor what Anakin felt for Padme.

She had never even seen Luke as Luke, whatever she felt for him was just butterflies, nothing real. She doubted he felt anything in turn for her.

Anakin had gone very quiet, "Luke killed another Jedi to protect a clone?"

Fives glowered at him, "Yes, he did."

Anakin grinned, "How can I be this proud of someone I've never met in person?"

Rex almost smiled, "He truly is your son, you know. You should have seen what he did on Zygerria."

Ahsoka had seen. She had seen first her rescued people from Kiros, then she had seen the freed slaves on Zygerria and the terrified Zygerrians.

Luke had been ruthless, but of those dead in the city, there had only been the slavers with weapons, and while Luke's tactics had been brutal, it hadn't been anything she hadn't seen fighting at Anakin's side throughout the war. And Luke had managed to save nearly if not all of the enslaved people.

And the Zygerrians in pens freaking out about their own supposed enslavement had been sickly poetic. Ahsoka hadn't felt pity for them, especially as they had all been freed afterwards to pick up their broken city and bury their dead.

If they were missing their ships and a great deal of their wealth, well, that was only to be expected. In some ways, as much as those pens had been protecting the slaves from the Zygerrians figuring out that who the 5o1st and Luke had been trying to save the slaves, those pens had also kept the freed people from turning on them and taking revenge on any possible innocents.

"Obi-Wan mentioned he toppled slave empires. Did Luke just randomly go after the Zygerrians after leaving the Order?"

"Luke left the Order because he didn't support the war, but we kind of stumbled upon a Zygerrian ship taking the Kiros colonists to Zygerria," Fives explained.

"And he asked us if we wanted to take them down," Cutup said, "And of course, we agreed."

"The morality of the war we were made for was never wholly clear," Rex said, "But fighting slavers was clear."

Ahsoka touched Rex's arm, "You okay?"

He nodded and Anakin asked, "So Luke started a war with the Zygerrians?"

"Yes, but he also killed two Hutts," Driodbait said, "which just makes me really glad that the 7th Sky Corps joined our little Rebellion."

"Which two Hutts?"

"Gardulla the Hutt and another who no one named," Rex said.

Anakin stopped dead, and Echo bumped into him.

"Skyguy?" Ahsoka asked.

Anakin swallowed, "Gardulla owned my mother and I, she lost us in a bet to my last master before Qui-Gon won my freedom."

Ahsoka stared at him, realizing that though he said freedom, she felt that freedom wasn't what he meant.

Master Jinn had won him in a bet and taken him from his mother, whatever the Jedi Master's intentions had been, however benevolent Qui-Gon had meant them to be, it couldn't have felt all good to Anakin.

Echo put his arm around Anakin's shoulders, "Your son killed Gardulla the Hutt, your mother's grandson killed Gardulla the Hutt."

Anakin bowed his head.

Fives spoke cheerfully, "Almost accidentally, she got in Luke's way and got too rough with her current slave while trying to run away."

Anakin looked up with a smile playing on his lips, "Both my children become Hutt Slayers, I couldn't be more proud."

"Leia kills a Hutt too?" Ahsoka asked as Morai sang on her shoulder.

Anakin moved forward, "She killed Jabba the Hutt in the future."

"Luke is an actual Tatooine native," Ahsoka remarked, changing the topic slightly.

Anakin glanced at her as they walked on, "I was born on Tatooine."

"I don't know where Luke was born but he lived there long enough that he knows more than Huttuese swears," she said in turn.

Rex nodded, "He doesn't hate the planet on principle, at any rate."

"Luke wasn't a slave," Anakin retorted.

"Nope, he was a moisture farmer," Echo said with cheer, "How the best star pilot comes from that, I will never know."

"I'm the best pilot in the galaxy."

They all sniggered.

"What's so funny?" Anakin asked, "I am an excellent pilot."

"Sure," Ahsoka said, "But Luke can actually land."

"I can build a ship from scratch, can your moisture farmer do that?" Anakin asked in mock outrage.

Ahsoka smiled at him sweetly, but it was Driodbait who said, "The moisture farmer might not be a mechanic, but then, he doesn't need to patch the ship back together after every use."

Fives and Echo laughed. Ahsoka had to bite her lip.

"Triators," Anakin said, but there was warmth in his eyes, "You are all traitors."

Rex looked at him coolly from the corner of his eyes, "On the contrary, Sir, we will always be loyal to General Skywalker."

Anakin rolled his eyes, "Why do I get the feeling that this is not the last time the name thing is going to be used against me?"

"Considering most of the 501st adopted the name Skywalker," Ahsoka said, "the answer would be never, your name is never not going to be used against you."

He sighed.

Echo laughed, "Awe, we got an Obi-Wan reaction out of him."

Anakin scowled at him, before turning to Ahsoka, the sky was being overtaken by black clouds as he asked, "Speaking of Obi-Wan, him and Satine?"

Ahsoka grinned, her heart filling with warmth, "Aren't they great together? I have never seen Obi-Wan so happy. I mean even with Luke being missing for a few months and us being in a pirate war and having left the Order, he's happy."

Anakin looked startled, "I never even thought Obi-Wan would let himself fall in love. I teased him about Satine, but I didn't realize…"

"How much he buried?" she supplied, "I think Satine loved him too much to ask him to choose between her and duty, and you know Obi-Wan, he never presumes anyone cares about him."

Anakin frowned at that, "But Obi-Wan and you left the Order, was that because of Satine or Luke?"

"It was because Luke questioned the Council," Rex said, "He accused the Council of enslaving the troops by not giving us a choice in serving the Republic. General Kenobi challenged them too, but it was his leaving that convinced the Council that the Jedi Order needed to change."

Ahsoka nodded, "Master Windu was shook by Obi-Wan leaving. He, Master Plo, and Kit Fisto acted without the rest of the Council's support and elected Wolffe to the Council. It was the act that made the rest of the Order wake up, so to speak."

"So Luke causes inadvertent chaos wherever he goes?" Anakin asked.

Ahsoka smiled, "Not always inadvertently."

"Obi-Wan has stepped in as your Master, how has that been?"

She felt her smile dim, and she chose her next words carefully, "A lot more meditating."

Anakin smirked, "He can be such a bore sometimes."

Ahsoka petted Morai and avoided eye-contact as she said, "Actually, I've always hated meditation. Obi-Wan has been helping me get over that. Not being able to meditate is one reason why I wasn't chosen to be a Padawan before I turned thirteen, short fuse and all that."

"The Order does so much backwards. They act like meditation will solve everything."

"You didn't choose me either, Skyguy, Yoda chose me for you. Obi-Wan is the first Master to teach me how to meditate in a way that works for me."

Anakin looked at her.

She swallowed, "Not that it solves everything but, Obi-Wan and I are very different, but I think I am learning more from our differences…"

"More than you learned from my encouraging reckless behaviour," he said, his gaze was distant as she tried to decipher his expression.

"You're upset," she stated, "Skyguy, you are a great Maste-"

"I wasn't ready to be a Jedi Master," he cut her off, gaze still on the horizon, "And Obi-Wan probably would have chosen you as Padawan had he not been my Master when you were thirteen." He inhaled as if bracing himself, "Qui-Gon showed me a vision of the Jedi you would become."

"And?" she asked, worried about whatever future that Rex, Cody, and the others never seemed to want to discuss.

"And you didn't even become one. You dropped out of the Order because of some internal politics within the Order."

"What!?" she squeaked, "You mean on my own? Without you or Obi-Wan?"

"Yes, you were framed, apparently only Obi-Wan and I believed your innocence."

That hurt, but when she thought of how the Jedi Order had been turning on itself, on how the galaxy at large had been turning on itself.

She could understand, she didn't agree, didn't like it, but she had compassion for it.

Jedi turning on Jedi wasn't something anyone wanted to believe, but for the reckless Padawan of the reckless prodigy Chosen One, she understood why no one but Anakin and Obi-Wan would believe her innocence.

Anakin smiled down at her, "But you were an incredible warrior, Ahsoka, brave, loyal, you nearly bested me."

She felt her eyes narrow, "We were fighting?"

Any trace of his smile fell away, "I fell, Ahsoka."

It was her turn to stop in her tracks, Rex bumped into her and Morai flew off.

"You what?" she demanded.

"I became a Sith," he said if he were trying to believe it, as if it was the first time he was saying it aloud.

"Why?" she asked.

"I don't know," he said, "I mean, I know why the Dark calls to me, I know how I failed as a Jedi, but I don't know why I became a Sith. I just know that the warrior you became was independent and strong and brilliant, and that you didn't need me for that."

"Skyguy, without you, I wouldn't be me, nor would Obi-Wan."

He grinned, "So you still want to be my Padawan, despite the future?"

She didn't smile back, "I don't believe in your future, not that it couldn't happen, but because now that we know, now that we know so much about what could be we won't let it happen."

"No," Echo said with steel, "We won't."

"And that's not why Obi-Wan is going to finish my training," she finished.

"Then why?" Anakin asked.

"Because he challenges me in ways that make me grow. I am too reckless."

"Some recklessness is good, Snips, it will and has saved your life a few times."

"I am never not going to be who I am, but when I act rashly, I want to do so knowingly. I will always be willing to rush into danger, but that isn't always the best or most helpful thing to do. And I may not be as strong as you or Luke but I'm plenty strong enough that Mastering myself isn't just a goal, it's a necessity."

"And you don't think I could teach you that?"

"I don't know, do you think you've mastered yourself yet?"

He gazed at her a moment, before sighing, "Obi-Wan is going to make your wit lethal."

She grinned, "You're the one who nicknamed me Snips."

Anakin grinned back until he spotted something in the distance, his expression fell and he sprinted forward.

Ahsoka and the squadron were close behind.

Anakin dropped to his knees beside two beings that were too large to be human. One was a bald male with dark markings, almost like a Dathomirian Zabrak, his neck was bent at a terrible angle.

At his side was a female with long green hair, she had collapsed on her stomach, her hand resting on the male's as if her last act was to reach out to him.

Both their skins were grey in death.

Ahsoka looked at Anakin and she would never forget the grief on his face.

She had never seen Anakin cry before, when he got sad he got angry, but what she saw now…

She looked back at the two dead beings, and stepped back, the troops followed her lead. They let Anakin mourn his dead.

Anakin had no words to describe this loss.

His life on Mortis had not been a happy one, and the two beings that had pestered him all his days here had been his only company aside from the bird.

He had been furious with them for thinking he was their father, for being trapped in the Father's body, for being on Mortis at all.

But despite everything, he had come to care deeply for the Son and Daughter. The Daughter with her gentleness and love of all living things, the Son with his dry wit and cunning mischief. They had driven Anakin mad, especially when they fought, especially, especially when they worked together.

Yet they showed Anakin pieces of reality that he could never have imagined. Showed him aspects of the Force that neither the Jedi nor the Sith could have dreamed of.

And they had needed him, because while his body grew weaker, so had they. They were never human, but they hadn't always been insane, or at least they hadn't been when Anakin first arrived.

Whether their insanity had been caused by the Father's passing, or Anakin's refusal to fully accept that role in their lives, he might never know. But he knew that their choosing to attack Leia and Luke had been a desperate act of lost children and not reflections of who they had been in life.

Granted, the Son with all his sanity about him probably would have tried to kill anyone who came to Mortis, but the Daughter would have balanced him.

That's what they were, the Dark and the Light, and only together had they been whole. But even they had needed guidance.

Guidance that Anakin hadn't been able to give them.

Nearly eight years they had spent together and it broke his heart to see them like this. He set about righting them. He would not leave them crumpled on the ground.

He straitened the Son's limbs, folding one hand over his heart, before flipping the daughter on her back and mirroring the pose.

He brought their free hands together. Anakin rested on his knees by their heads, and touched his hands to their foreheads.

I was not your father, but I loved you all the same.

"May you be with the Force, my little ones," he whispered to them.

Light and Darkness bloomed from them both, and the Force rose about the three of them.

The Son and the Daughter faded bodily into the Force like mist dissipating in the wind.

Anakin looked up and found the ghost of the Father smiling down at him, the Son and Daughter appearing beside that grand figure. The vision was brief and when Anakin could no longer see them, he knew that reality had been altered, cemented on a path that he could only hope was better than the fate they had changed.

Leia was beyond ready to get off this planet. She felt bad for General Kenobi, he looked as distraught as she felt.

Last night she had simply been the adopted daughter of Bail and Breha Organa, Princess of Alderaan, and a General in the Rebellion, until Luke told her that not only was the war hero Anakin Skywalker their father, but that Anakin Skywalker had become Darth Vader.

Darth Kriffing Vader.

She had drowned herself in Han's arms last night to try and forget, only for the new knowledge to haunt her in her dreams.

And now she had woken up in the past with her brother, who had not successfully killed himself by way of Vader, had been in the past for three years, changing more than seemed humanly possible.

She itched to understand what had been happening but though she knew Gregor, and she knew the rest weren't Imperials, and likely never would be, she didn't quite know how to talk to them.

Rex was the only clone she had ever truly been friends with.

She could have asked Obi-Wan or Luke, but Obi-Wan was lost in thought and Luke was as hyped up on the energy of this world as she was.

She longed to do something, and the very act of doing nothing was pissing her off.

Had the Rebellion in her time failed on Endor, what could Han possibly be thinking if she had disappeared like that, or did her reality just not exist anymore?

Was Han a child in the galaxy whose path might never cross hers?

Luke had said that they hadn't been conceived, yet here they were.

She couldn't begin to understand how time travel might have worked, but if it was purely magical, purely the Force that allowed them to be, then that made her feel…

Violated.

As if she were less human, less real than the beings around her. The only thing that saved her thoughts from lingering in that direction too long was that Luke was in the same boat.

Whatever was happening to them was happening to both of them, and nothing could be truly evil that kept Luke alive and himself.

He was her anchor.

Captain Appo let out a sigh of relief, "There they are."

Six clones, a Togruta woman, and Anakin Kriffing Skywalker trailing behind them.

But Leia just about forgot about him as she felt Rex's presence.

She loved Luke, she trusted him more than she trusted herself, but there was no man more reliable than Captain Rex. She let go of Luke's hand to run at him.

Maybe not the wisest thing to run at a trained soldier, but Rex didn't defend himself from the quick and tight hug she gave him, "Captain Rex, I am so glad to see you."

He blinked down at her, his expression full of surprise and he seemed at a loss as to what to say.

She smirked up at him, "You look good as a blonde, and without the beard."

Luke joined them and he grinned at the old Rebel, "That's what I told him."

Rex seemed to regain himself, as he crossed his arms, "What was so wrong with my beard that it's the first thing you both remarked upon after seeing me for the first time?"

"Your beard was white and fluffy," Luke said.

"It helped in undercover work," Leia remarked, "You looked like everyone's favourite grandpa."

One of Rex's brothers laughed and put an elbow on his shoulder, "Hear that Major, you upped rank as 'grandpa'."

Rex rolled his eyes.

Luke grinned at them all, "Leia, this is Sergeant Fives, Echo, Hevy, Cutup, Driodbait, and-"

Leia felt her eyes go wide, "You're the Domino Squadron."

Fives grinned at her, "Yes, we are."

She smiled back, "Rex spoke well of you all."

Hevy straightened, "We must have made quite the impression in your future."

Her smile slipped, "You died in the Clone Wars, though, if it matters to you, Fives earned a special assassination for nearly exposing the Emperor's plans and saving the Jedi Order."

Fives stared at her, "Nearly?"

Everyone else had joined them by now and Appo said, "Look on the bright side, Fives, you must have died before the rest of us turned on the Jedi."

"What in the karking hells are you talking about?" Rex demanded, turning a glare on Luke.

Luke met that glare with a neutral expression he used when he was telling his troops what they were about to do after C3P-O and R2 had just given them the odds. "I told you after the Citadel that the clones and the war were created to destroy the Jedi."

"But you didn't know for certain," Fives retorted.

"I do," Leia said, "And the clones won."

"Win?" Rex snapped at her, and she flinched, "What did we win, the honour of slaughtering our own family?"

Leia stared at him, then looked at Luke. Rex had told her stories about his life throughout her childhood and her years as a leader in the Rebellion, aside from Papa, he had been her closest advisor, her friend, but she had never once heard him refer to the Jedi as family.

He had spoken well of Obi-Wan and on rare occasions spoke of his friendship with the Hero With No Fear, but Rex had only ever spoken of the other clones as his family, his brothers.

"Why do my words shock you?" Rex asked her.

"I've just never heard you claim the Jedi as yours before," she said honestly. Her mind spun, Luke said he had arrived in the Clone Wars two years after it had started.

The Clone Wars, predictably, had defined the Republic Clones. Two years which had been all the clones had lived in the greater galaxy. Two years of civil war, of desperate fighting, of seeing the Jedi Order fracture as the galaxy fell further and further into chaos, yet Luke had been here for three years.

Three years in which the Civil War had been ended in politics more than blood, where he had crippled the Emperor, and the Jedi Order had wisened up.

The Jedi Order had officially and publicly sat a clone on their High Council and citizened all the clones as a part of the Jedi Service Corps. No, more than that, they had citizened them and given them the choice of how they wanted to live.

The Jedi Order had allowed the Rebellion to form, let tens of thousands of troops go without punishment, let a huge fraction of the galaxy split from the Republic as the Separatists had stated their reason to start the war in the first place.

Luke's actions had done more than end a war and save the Jedi, he had changed the hearts of millions.

Rex was watching her closely before he looked back at Luke, "The Jedi are ours, or at least these four are. Speaking of which, where have you been, General?"

Luke gave him innocent eyes, "I was-"

"Getting into massive amounts of trouble, as is typical," Leia answered for him.

Luke gave her a look, "I'm sorry, how many times have you been kidnapped?"

She batted her eyes, "I'm sorry, how many times have I rescued myself and my supposed rescuers?"

Luke laughed.

Anakin stepped forward then, and Leia immediately went tense, the Force around her spiralling in answer.

Luke smiled at him, "Hello, Father."

Anakin's smile was a mirror of Luke's, "Hello Luke," those blue eyes turned to her, "Leia."

He had Luke's eyes. She couldn't bring herself to say anything when all she wanted to do was spit in his face. But Luke's eyes stopped her.

"What's wrong?" Rex asked, sharp as ever.

Obi-Wan spoke low, and Leia flinched away from him, taking a step toward Luke as she hadn't realized how close the others had gotten, "He isn't going to harm you or your brother, General Organa, I promise you."

Fives blinked, "Why would Anakin hurt his own kids?"

"Power," Leia said, "Because of power."

Echo shook his head, "Our General would never hurt his family."

"Just like we would never turn on the Jedi?" Cody asked bitterly.

"Leia," Anakin spoke earnestly, "I was shown what I become, but I swear to you that I would rather die than become that. I know-"

"You know nothing," she said with deadly calm, if she wasn't careful she would start screaming at him, and with the Force driving her, egging on her emotions like liquid fuel to fire, she didn't trust what she would say, what she might do. "You know nothing of what you become, of what you do to Luke and I, what you do to the galaxy."

Rex frowned at her, "General Skywalker deserves-"

"Nothing," she cut him off, "He deserves nothing, least of all your loyalty, Rex. He will betray you."

"Leia, enough, we talked about this. Our father hasn't done anything wrong yet."

The Togruta woman stepped to Anakin's side, "Everyone has the potential to fall."

She opened her mouth but Luke spoke again, "Stop, Leia, just stop, you're being ruled by your emotions. He isn't the same person."

"But he could be."

"So could you and I," Luke countered, "But who we could be pales in comparison to who we are right now, because right now is all we have control over."

She loved her brother, she really did, but if he kept up quoting Jedi mantras at her, she was going to bop him upside the head.

Anakin took another step forward, and Leia felt her heartbeat increase. Even without the suit, he was a big man, a bigger man than Luke.

She tried to pull her brother back, but he resisted. He looked back at her, "Leia…"

But she was thrown back into last night.

But, why must you confront him? she had asked him, no begged him.

Because...there is good in him. I've felt it. He won't turn me over to the Emperor. I can save him. I can turn him back to the good side. I have to try.

And then he had left her, her newly found brother, her only family, newly lost. Because she had been right and it had been too late for Darth Vader.

She felt the Force press at her like a wave, and she realized she wasn't powerless here, she wasn't powerless to stop Luke from confronting Darth Vader.

And as he made to pull away from her again, as Luke made to approach the traitor, something in her broke like a dam.

She yanked him back, stepping in front of him and snarled at the man, the monster who had terrorized her all her life.

The black shadow at every galactic event, the creature that had murdered her parents, both her adoptive and birth parents, the thing that had held her back as she stood helpless to save her planet.

No. Not again. Never again.

He had taken everything from her, everything, he would not take Luke too. Luke was hers.

"I am not going to hurt him!" Anakin exclaimed.

"You took his hand!" she shouted back at him.

The monster gaped at her, "What?"

"You cut off his limb in a duel, the first duel he ever fought, the first time he ever met you and you cut off his hand. You have hurt him."

He looked at her brother, "Luke, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, I was being stupid. The first time I used a lightsaber against another lightsaber wielder shouldn't have been against a Sith Lord after barely three months of training."

The Togruta gaped, "Whoa, wait, the first time you duelled with anyone was your Sith Lord father? Luke, Anakin is one of the finest duelists in the entire Order."

Luke shrugged, "Well all the Jedi were dead except Yoda who had given up ever using a lightsaber again, so-"

"Wait," the Togruta said, "What do you mean all the Jedi are dead? That isn't possible."

Leia pointed at Anakin, "Those who survived the clones, he personally hunted down. A few of the Jedi he and his Emperor turned by torturing them into insanity then releasing them like mad dogs on Jedi, but Darth Vader was an unstoppable evil in the galaxy."

Anakin shook his head, "Alright, say all that was true, but Leia, listen to me, you need to breathe, you're-"

"You cannot have my brother!" she bellowed.

"I'm not going to take Luke from you," he said in a pleading voice, his hands held up in surrender. "You must believe that I would never willingly-"

"Believe you?" she asked, a buzzing filling her ears like a ringing, but more insidious, a reminder of a nightmare she could never outrun, "I don't need to believe anything, I know what you are capable of."

"Leia, I know I failed you, but being your father would have-"

"My father," she snarled. "My father, the man who loved and raised me was Senator Bail Organa."

Anakin swallowed, but she couldn't hear it only saw his throat contract, her own voice rose as she spoke over the incessant buzzing.

"And you know what Papa told me about my birth father?"

"No," Anakin said almost too softly.

"He told me he was a Jedi Knight, that his marriage to my birth mother was a well kept secret. A secret that I was to keep or the Emperor would send his dog to kill me."

Papa hadn't phrased it like that, but everyone knew that Darth Vader killed Force sensitives.

She went on, "Of course I heard stories about the Great Hero With No Fear, Anakin Skywalker, the one General from the Republic that stayed faithful with the clones to the Empire. The one Jedi whose history was completely erased with the rest. I knew he was Luke's father, and I knew after meeting Luke that that Jedi, too, was dead."

Anakin looked at her with Luke's eyes and she hated him for it, hated him for being the source of them, "But I wasn't dead."

"No, you were worse than dead. You were the reason Luke and I couldn't be raised together, you are the reason why Luke and I had to hide what we were, why if we were ever discovered we would have been killed. By your hands."

"Where was Padme?" he asked her.

"You killed her."

"No!" Anakin and Luke bellowed.

Luke yanked his hand from hers, "No, he wouldn't, he wouldn't do that!"

Leia was too angry to check herself, she needed Luke to understand, "Papa told me that Padme Amidala stood up to Darth Vader and he injured her. Injured her badly enough that she died during our birth."

She had never seen such pain on her brother's face before, and she hated herself for telling him.

"You think I would attack my pregnant wife?" Anakin asked, his voice breaking, "I could never hurt Padme, never."

"You killed Obi-Wan," she countered, turning all her hatred back on the man who deserved it, "You killed the Jedi. You've killed hundreds of thousands if not millions. You are evil."

"No," Anakin said, shaking his head, "I love my wife, I love her more than anything. I would die for her!"

"Then you should have!" Leia roared.

Anakin roared right back at her, "I will not harm the ones I love!"

The whirring, buzzing noise of the droid increased as she stepped in front of Luke. She would not cower in the corner like she had the last time.

What was a physical pain to her anymore compared to everything she had lived through since?

"You don't love!"

"I don't even know you and Luke but I love you already!" was his response, "Please, just give me a chance to prove-"

"You took everything from me!" she screamed, "You killed my mother! You took Luke away from me! You enslaved the galaxy! You destroyed Alderaan and murdered my parents, my people!"

The whirring of the interrogation droid increased as the needle pierced her skin.

But what was the pain now? Alderaan was already gone. Vader could not be allowed to find the Rebel base, not now, Alderaan needed to be avenged.

"Leia, please!" Luke's voice, dim and half remembered as she felt the others close in around them.

"NO!" she said, and everyone but Darth Vader and Luke was blown back.

She snarled at the monster.

He would have to kill her this time, the pain was mind numbing, her fingertips tingle as electric pain streaked through her veins.

She was burning, her heart beating with acid, her chest hollow caverns of rippling agony.

She felt as if she was dying.

"And now, your highness, we will discuss the location of your hidden Rebel base."

The monster cloaked in black, his helm taking away any shred of lifelikeness. He was less alive than the droid flashing light in her face.

If she just told him, the pain would be over.

But if she died, then too, the pain would be over, so she pushed through it, holding onto her own thoughts, her own freedom. She reached for a handhold to fight the presence trying to invade her mind.

Darth Vader could break her body, he could crush her mind, but she wouldn't give him her soul.

She would not give him the Rebel base.

She bared her teeth at the beast breathing audibly before her. She had no more words, and when she screamed it wasn't from the unimaginable pain tearing through her, but rage, rage that he would dare face her again!

He had failed against her on the Death Star, he had lost her on Bespin.

Bespin.

Han.

Luke.

He was behind her, she felt him now, she couldn't let Vader use the droid on him, because that, she realized, would break her. She couldn't watch Luke go through this torture, she could not.

She reached for her blaster blindly through the pain, but Luke's words came back to her; That isn't going to do us much good if they are as strong as I think they are.

Blasters never had worked on Darth Vader.

So she reached for her brother's lightsaber instead.

The green light, the hum and feel of it cutting through the sound of droid's hissing as she lunged forward at Darth Vader.

He was going to kill her, but she didn't care. Luke would have time to run and she would be back with her family, her people.

But Luke didn't run, he threw himself in front of the Sith, and she screamed in horror as the emerald light slid through his middle.

She couldn't turn the blade off fast enough, throwing it away from her, she caught Luke as he fell forward.

The Force left her, the buzzing stopped, the cell around her dropped away to open sky dark with clouds, and she was left with nothing as she dropped to the ground with her twin, his life, his tenacious light dimming with every heartbeat.

Leia barely noticed the tears streaming down her face as the reality of what had just happened sunk in.

What had she done?

What have I done!?

Rex and others were pulling Anakin away from them, away from her.

The Togruta woman was cradling Luke's head on her lap, Obi-Wan was at Luke's other side across from Leia, his steady hands peeling Luke's tunic back to reveal the wound.

It was too high to have hit a kidney, too low to have pierced a lung, but that didn't matter. It was a death blow, and though his death would be slow, it wouldn't be slow enough to give them time to save him.

What was left of her heart shattered. "Luke," she sobbed.

He reached a hand up, and she caught that hand, his real one, and cradled its warmth to her cheek. "I forgive you," he said weakly.

She couldn't breathe as she clung to him, "Don't," she begged for the impossible, "don't leave me."

Not like this.

Not ever.

"I love you," he said, his eyes fluttering shut with pain.

"I love you too," she managed as she waited for her last hope in the galaxy to die.

AN: Reactions, thoughts, convor birds, or feedback, please?