Chapter 158
Laetitia ran to the interrogation room when she hears that her father was there. She somewhat understood that Han and Rex were following her, and that Luke went to inform Ahsoka. But she couldn't be sure. She couldn't think for sure. She couldn't even breathe. She couldn't do anything.
Her father was there. Anakin ... No! Darth Vader was there.
How?! He was basically the hardest man in the whole Galaxy to capture or even try to capture. How did a bunch of Non-Force-sensitives manage to imprison him? How were they even alive?
Leah opened the door to the interrogation room and basically jumped into everyone. She could feel the fear and uneasiness all the Rebels felt without even touching the Force. It was written on their face. And they should be scared. They would be a fool not to be.
Leah walked slowly ahead, with no energy and focus. She was facing a one-way mirror and her dad was on the other side of it. Not Darth Vader, or at least, he wasn't in his scary black suit.
Instead, he was a broken man with third-degree burns all over his body, from head to toe, with no limbs whatsoever. Instead of mechanical hands and legs, he was floating in the room from his limbs. And he couldn't breathe on his own with his lungs, so he had an artificial breather attached to his nose and mouth. The sound wasn't as scary as his suit was, but it was still ... creepy.
Vader had 8 Force-cuffs, 2 on each 'limb', to stop him from getting out. There was about 20 Rebels pointing their guns at the feared Sith Lord, though their hands were shaking in fear and horror.
Leah just froze when she saw her father like that. She was now one of the few people who had known, seen and understood the difference between Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader. He wasn't just psychologically different. His appearance ...
Instead of his shining blue eyes that calmed Leah down in a second, she had to see and fear his fiery yellow eyes that were basically bleeding in the white background. He had no eyebrows and the gray scarred skin covered his body. And unfortunately, those were one of the least things horrifying him.
He didn't even have a single natural organ in his body. Because of what she had done, he was forced to replace every single organ, including his lungs, with cybernetic ones. The scars on his body ... They were the worst. The scars because of the fires of Mustafar, the scars because of the Sith-lightnings his 'Master' had given him ...
Now, she could see that there was, in fact, a human behind that scary suit. Her father was there. He wasn't, but at the same time ... he was.
"My ... God!" Rex gasped in horror.
It was ... horrible to see what his friend and General had become. Anakin Skywalker was considered to be one of the most good-looking Jedi or General in the Order. That was the reason why the HoloNet always chased after him. Now, he was ...
"I don't see any resemblance between you and your old man." Han pointed out sarcastically to loose the tension in the room.
And thank the Corellian Gods for that!
It was too much. He had only heard of the Hero With No Fear in the Clone Wars, but he was ... a sight to see.
But Leah couldn't hear any of them. She was just lost in her own mind. All this time, she was feeling what she made her father go through. Not once did she think how it affected him. He was a monster ... and now, thanks to her, he looked like a monster.
This was the life he had chosen for himself. This was what Laetitia had let him become. This was what she did in her moment on anger to her own father! This ... was her fault. All of it.
Before she knew anything, everything went dark and she heard everyone shout her name.
Ahsoka and Thexan hurried to Laetitia's room. They had heard what happened, but they didn't know which one was more impossible to believe ... That Darth Vader was now their prisoner, or that Lea had passed out!
They entered the room and saw Leah on her bed, sleeping with breathers on her mouth and nose. Even in her asleep, she looked like she was being tortured and couldn't breathe.
"What the hell happened?" Thexan asked in shock. She was finally starting to feel like her old self, again.
"She passed out ... finally." Han muttered. It was really about time that Leah had lost it and went crazy.
"When she saw General ..." Rex said, but immediately corrected his mistake.
"Darth Vader ... Him! When she saw him without his suit, she suddenly couldn't breathe and just collapsed."
Thexan sighed. He hadn't gone to see his former Master, not that he was looking forward to it. He had never seen him without his suit, but he could guess how horrible he looked like.
"I only broke a glass when I saw him. I can't imagine what it must have been like for her." Ahsoka sadly said.
When she saw her old beloved Master without suit after 16 years, she had lost control of her powers and broke a glass of water as she screamed in horror. But that was her.
Laetitia was the one who had done that to him. She was the one who was truly and actually his daughter. She was the one who he actually shared blood with!
It was no wonder that she went crazy and had a panic attack.
"I have to go back. It's better if a Jedi or a Force-sensitive is around him. It's too much of a risk." Ahsoka tiredly said. She was not pleased that she had to go back to the monster that had basically killed her Master.
"I'll go with you." Thexan said, but Ahsoka shook her head.
"No. You stay with her when she wakes up. She'll calm down if you're there ... We already have one Skywalker to deal with." She muttered.
Thexan couldn't deny that he might have been the only one who could calm Leah down. Especially after last night ...
"Speaking of crazy Skywalkers, has anyone heard from Luke?" Han asked.
"Lux and Mon Mothma are keeping him busy with senatorial work. It's better if he's not anywhere near his ... Vader." She explained as she corrected herself.
Anakin Skywalker was NOT Darth Vader, so he had no right to call Luke Skywalker his son.
"What does he want?! Besides to kill us all, of course." Han almost shouted in frustration.
They all sighed. They could guess why he was there, but Leah was in no state to see him. She would never be able to see Vader without his suit.
"He's only said 7 words in total. 'I will only speak to Laetitia Skywalker'."
"That's not gonna happen!" Han shouted.
"Well, I'm not going in there! I'll go crazy if I see him one more time." Ahsoka cried out.
Rex walked to her and put a hand her shoulder. He knew exactly what she was going through. To see how much the man they loved had changed was shaking all of them.
"I'll go ... Once I know she's alright, I'll speak to him." Thexan said. He wanted to talk to his Master.
"And I will go with you." Rex said.
Laetitia slowly opened her eyes. She felt so weak. She tried to remember what happened ... She saw her father without suit, so she went crazy and passed out.
She exhaled deeply with tears in her eyes. Her breath was shaking. She tried to pull herself together, but it wasn't working. She felt broken ... more than she had when she was being tortured by Arcann.
Leah tried to get rid of the needles and breather attached to her body, and get up.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. You need your rest." A voice suddenly said.
Leah almost jumped up when she was broken out of her thoughts. She looked up and saw Thexan standing over the bed. He was sitting on a chair, worried about his ... whatever Leah was to him.
She didn't say anything to protest and just laid down. She didn't have the energy to speak. All she could think about was her father ... and how different he looked like because of her.
Thexan knew exactly what she was thinking. He didn't need to touch the Force to know what she was feeling. He knew her ... probably better than she knew herself.
"Would now be a … bad time ... to give you craps about why you snuck out of my bed?" He joked seriously to help her break the ice.
And it worked. Leah hid herself behind the blanket as she chuckled in embarrassment. Last night, she had finally felt peace and relaxed for the first time in 16 years. Thexan helped her ... and she thanked him by leaving his bed before he was even awake.
But, to be fair, she had freaked out and felt so awkward that she ran away before he could stop her.
"Then again, I shouldn't be surprised. This is how you always are ... Just leaving me hanging."
Leah smiled with tears in her eyes. As much as she appreciated having Thexan by her side, she was still thinking about her father. She couldn't not think about him ... What she did to him ... How he had screamed in pain when she left him ...
Thexan sighed. He knew she was too stubborn to change her mind when she was thinking or feeling guilty about something. He just moved closer and lied down on the bed with her. He wrapped his arms around her, trying to make her feel more safe.
And it was working ... for a while.
"Talk to me." He finally pleaded to her.
He was half-expecting her to ignore him or snap at him. But when she did neither, he hid his surprise. She was simply too tired to protest.
"Do you think things ever reach a point that … it's so bad that you can't come back from?" She cracked with the breather on her mouth and nose. She, like her father, couldn't breathe without it ... at least, at the moment. You could see the irony when looking at her.
"I don't think so ... I mean, you brought me back." He tried to stay positive, but Leah scoffed bitterly.
"You were never that far away. I just showed you the way. It was you who had the strength to follow."
"But you showed me the directions. And for that, I will always be thankful to you." Thexan softly said as he held her.
Leah didn't say anything. The tears were stopping her from thinking, talking or even breathing. She didn't want to cry, but she also didn't have the power to stop them, either.
"I just ... I can't believe that I ..." She tried to say but she just couldn't find the right words.
"I really am Darth Vader's daughter ... A monster." She concluded finally.
Thexan knew where she was coming from. She felt guilt more powerful than any other feeling, and right now, she was over-filled with it. She had just seen her father for the first time in 16 years. Not Darth Vader ... but her father.
And as Han liked to put it, "Laetitia Skywalker versus herself is a very ugly cage match."
"The legend my father and Master used to talk about all the time, the little girl I met when I was 8 and hurt, the one who injured my brother and caught me, and the one I am holding right in this moment ... are all the same person ... Laetitia." He told firmly told her.
"I don't care if you're a Jedi or Gray Jedi, have white hair or brown hair, normal eyes or freaky eyes, if you're Anakin Skywalker's daughter or Darth Vader's ... You'll always be just Laetitia to me." He promised her softly.
Leah couldn't come up with anything to say. She was relieved to hear that, but that still didn't change her mind. She just let herself calm down in his arms.
Done :)
