themugglepadme24: Wow! I'm honored you joined FanFiction with my story. Welcome to our universe with Laetitia :P
Chapter 182
As soon as she felt her friends' pain in the Force, Laetitia found her way to Bepsin. She didn't even know how she got there or what she was gonna do when she faced Darth Vader. She just knew that she needed to be there with her friends.
Yes, he was still the enemy, but ... he became the enemy in the first place to make sure she didn't ... He did it all to protect her. Everything had changed in seconds. How was she supposed to hate him for that? How was she supposed to fight and kill him?
She quietly passed through some Stormtroopers to find the others. She saw Chewie strangling Lando with 3PO on his back, with Ahsoka, Rex and Qi'ra. Ahsoka's lightsaber was on Qi'ra's neck, and Rex was trying to stop all of them.
But the scary thing was ... Luke and Han weren't with them! Where the hell were they?
"I had no choice!" Lando gasped to say.
"What are you doing? Trust him! Trust him!" 3PO shouted in defense of his new friend.
"Oh, we understand, Chewie, don't we? He had no choice. Neither of them did!" Ahsoka muttered angrily as she glared Qi'ra.
"I'm just trying to help." Lando chocked out.
"We don't need your help. You're the reason why this is happening in the first place!"
"Enough!" A firm voice stopped all of them.
They all turned and saw a confused and angry Laetitia. Thank the Force she was there ... but ... how did she get there? How did she know they needed her? She was supposed to be on Dagobah with Yoda.
"Let him breathe, Chewie." Leah ordered him and gave Ahsoka a look to let Qi'ra go.
Once Chewie let him go, Lando fell on the ground, gasping for air. He was sure Chewie was about to kill him if Ami hadn't interfered.
Or should he say ... Laetitia Skywalker? He had no idea that one of his friends was lying to him the entire time. He always knew there was something to her story and her that just ... didn't seem right. But he never thought that the girl he had a huge crush on would turn out to be the Leader of the Rebel Alliance against the Empire.
That just showed that he didn't know anything about Ami, or Han for that matter.
"Good. Now, can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?" Leah demanded.
"Rex and I just got here and found them here. The Gold-digger sold us out to the Empire. They found us and killed everyone!" Ahsoka hatefully explained.
To say that Leah was enraged when she heard that was ... putting it lightly. That ... Qi'ra had betrayed them! She killed all of them! How could she do that?! She knew she hated Leah, but how could she sacrifice the lives of the children and innocent people on the Base?
Leah very coldly and slowly walked towards Qi'ra, who was shaking in fear. She could swear that the color of her eyes were changing by the second. From brown to white, and white to yellow. She was completely consumed in hate and rage.
Leah just gave her the death glare for a moment. The next thing Qi'ra knew, she was on the ground her entire body in pain. Leah's punch in the stomach was enough to shut her up for now. it felt worse than a knife in the gut.
"Where are Luke and Han? Why aren't they with you?" Leah asked as she pulled herself together.
"Han is ... gone." Rex quietly said.
"What the hell does that mean? What do you mean he's gone? Gone where?"
"Darth Vader froze him in the Carbonite and sent him to Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine." He explained.
Leah didn't know what to do or say. Han was gone. Darth Vader, her father ... took him away from her. He didn't do anything wrong. His only crime was that he was her friend, and someone she loved. Normally, she would have gone straight to hating him, but she had no idea how to feel about her father now.
Everything was complicated.
"There's still a chance to save Han. They're at the east platform." Lando desperately said, which caused everyone to bring their hopes back up again.
"Good, then. Let's go." Ahsoka said, but Leah's next question stopped her.
"But where's Luke? Is he ... with Han? Frozen?" She fearfully asked.
Ahsoka turned around, her mouth open with no words. She didn't know how to answer that question. She did, but ... she didn't want to. It might have been too late. She also had no idea how Leah would react. If she heard what she wanted to know, she would lose it.
"What?" Leah asked numbly.
"He's fighting Vader." Rex quietly said, which caused Leah to almost lose it.
"By himself?!" She screamed.
"Go. We'll handle Han. You save him." Ahsoka said, but Leah was already gone.
Luke was fighting the powerful Darth Vader. Technically, it was still his first time actually using his father's lightsaber to fight an actual opponent. He had only ever dueled with Ahsoka and Laetitia. Now, in his first time, he had challenged the most powerful Sith Lord.
What the hell was he thinking?! If Leah found out, she would kill him! That is, if he survived his first duel.
But despite his capability and incapability, they fought. They fought and fought and fought. They both lost touch with reality as they were both focused on the opponent. They slowed down a bit once they were approaching the empty center of the city.
"You hold that weapon like an untrained child. You have no right to it." Vader growled.
He recognized his old lightsaber immediately in the boy's hands. He had used it for 5 years during the Clone Wars. He had also killed a lot of people with it. Separatists, Men, Women, Droids, Clones, Jedi ... Younglings.
But the question was, how did this boy find it? Vader had seen it last when Laetitia left him on Mustafar. She took it ... and gave it to him. Why? Why was he so precious to her? And why was she so precious to him?
"You, boy, are no Jedi. Who are you?" He asked.
"You killed my father." Luke venomously replied.
With every ounce and fiber in his body, he hated Darth Vader. He had taken a lot of people away from him. Owen, Beru, Biggs, Obi-wan, Laetitia ... Thexan. He had killed every member of his family. He also tortured him and Leah numerous times.
He loathed him.
"I have killed many fathers. You'll have to be more specific." Vader sarcastically stated.
He didn't even care about the meaning of his words, and what it made him ... But his father was Owen Lars. He had ordered the Stormtroopers to kill him and his wife when they captured Luke. Was that why he hated him?
"You are beaten. It is useless to resist. Don't let yourself be destroyed like Obi-wan." Vader said as he held up the lightsaber.
He didn't know what he was feeling or why he was feeling it, but ... he could feel something for the boy. Maybe it was the eyes that reminded him so much of Anakin and Padme together.
But why? Why did the Force want him to care about this ... lowly life?
Luke looked up to the Sith Lord with no words, only the death glare on his face. His look indicated that he was not about to give up. Vader could feel that it was not in the boy's personality to give up. He was ... stubborner than that.
He tried to attack him, but Vader had a lot more experience than that. So he blocked the strike, twisted the lightsaber and cut his right hand in the process.
He felt no emotion when Luke screamed in pain. He, better than anyone else, knew what it was like to lose a part of your body. Or in his case, parts. He had gone through it twice. And every time, it hurt more than the last time.
Vader just watched as Luke tried to get away from the Sith Lord, but there was no space left. They were at the end of the line.
"There is no escape. Don't make me destroy you." Darth Vader coldly said.
Luke just glared Vader with the famous Skywalker death glare. He didn't know that he already had destroyed the poor boy.
"You don't realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me, and I will complete your training." He said as he held up his hand.
If Leah cared about this boy so much, she had no choice but to join her father when Luke did. It was the best way to get her attention.
"I will never join you!" Luke shouted firmly with angry tears in his blue eyes.
Once he heard that, Vader was caught off guard. Not because of what Luke said, but because of ... the eyes. They were so similar to Anakin Skywalker's, and so filled with affection like Padme's.
It was like he was the son they would have had.
"You must know I will never join the dark side willingly."
Vader remembered his own ... No. Anakin's words to the Son when he tried to seduce Anakin to the dark side. He had that firm look on his face with the conflicted tears in his eyes.
"Who are you?" He repeated himself. He needed to know who this boy was that made him feel this way.
"I am the son of ..." Luke way saying, but suddenly a voice stopped him.
"Aah!"
He looked up in shock and surprise when he noticed that yelp came from Vader. When Vader turned back, Luke saw a knife pierced on his back. It didn't actually cut through the suit, but it was enough to throw him off his balance.
Darth Vader turned around in shock and annoyance. His eyes and Luke's were both following the same thing.
Laetitia.
Her face was so red in struggle and breath shortness. Her not-illumined eyes were filled with tears. She didn't know if she was crying because her brother had just lost his hand at the hands of his father ... or that their father was there at all.
Vader was frozen when he saw his daughter. He hadn't seen her in 5 years. The last time he tried to see her was when he let himself get captured by the Rebels, and she let him go. She was dead! ... And here she was now.
But the last time he felt her in the Force was when Thexan was killed right in front of him. Her husband ... died trying to save him. The scream and wave of pain she released in the Force shook him for a whole month.
It was the worst thing he had ever felt.
Leah's eyes were fixed on her father. That was the first time she was seeing that monster ... Darth Vader ... as her father. She always believed that Anakin and Vader were two completely different people.
She had no idea how wrong she was. How a few words and facts could change her entire world, break down her beliefs and rattle her will.
She pulled herself together for only a moment to save her brother. She looked at him from the distance that she was, and told him to let go. Well, she told him to find a way out of there and get away from him, but that's what Luke did.
He just let go and threw himself down into nothingness. Leah didn't even have time to be surprised. That was ... 'Skywalker' of him.
Her eyes were, one again, fixed on her father. Not Darth Vader or Anakin Skywalker ... but her father. She didn't care who he was, a Jedi or a Sith. A warm man or a cold monster. She just knew that he was her father.
"It's not true ... right?" She numbly whispered to him in shock.
Vader was feeling a lot of mixed emotions at the moment. Sad, happy, guilty, angry ... and confused.
He expected her to grab her lightsabers and attack him immediately. He had hurt her Luke, whatever he was to her. But she did neither. She just stood there, her tortured eyes begging him to disagree with her.
What was she talking about?
"Please tell me that you didn't ... It wasn't because of me, was it?" She cried out as she let her guard down.
Now, Vader was shocked! The second she let her guard down, he felt something in the Force. Something so pure and full of light ... And it was coming from her.
Leah was ... pregnant.
He took a step back numbly and in pain. His daughter was pregnant. His Little Sky was expecting her own ... daughter. She was carrying Thexan's girl. Her girl ... His granddaughter.
How was he supposed to feel? He had basically killed Leah's husband and made their daughter live her life never knowing her father. As a father, he couldn't help but feel sorry for Thexan. He had taken so much from him ... Too much.
"Remember, when you confront your father, you must think of the life inside you. That life might be the most powerful one existed in the history of all Jedi and Sith."
Suddenly Bendu's words rang through her head. Now it all made sense. What Bendu was talking about. How he warned her about her father. The painful truth.
It was all true.
As much as she wanted to stay there and talk to her father to know the whole truth, she couldn't stay there. Her child was in danger. She needed to protect her.
She just threw herself down to Luke and get away.
Done :)