STARWARZMYLIFE: Thank you so much! I'm sorry to hear that you don't like my story, but I am still HAPPY to hear about other things :D

Hey guys. Just a heads-up for people who are not in the Discord group: from now on, I will be uploading the few remaining chapters on ONLY Saturdays. My school is keeping me extremely busy and I don't have time to write as much as I want :(

Anyway, please read the new chapter and tell me what you thought of it!

:)

Chapter 201

Meanwhile on Endor

While Laetitia was fighting the battle of her life, Luke was also fighting a battle. A harder battle. An emotional battle ... between his mind and his heart.

He had no idea what he was supposed to do. His entire life, he hated Darth Vader for taking everything he loved away from him. He still had nightmares about the dark big man in a creepy suit from the Death Star. Now, 'the dark big man in a creepy suit' was his father.

How was he supposed to feel about that? How was he supposed to feel about his sister? Was it really okay to snap at her like that? What if that was the last thing he ever said to her?

"Hey, Luke-boy." Han's voice brought Luke back to reality.

Luke looked up and saw Han looking down on him with a huge grin on his face. It was bigger than usual, which only meant that he was there to talk to Luke about his father and sister. He was definitely not in the mood for that.

"Don't think I'm not mad at you, too. You and everyone lied to me since the second I knew you." Luke said with hatred, anger and sadness in his voice.

Han's smile disappeared from his face. He took a deep breath and sat next to the boy he had grown to love like the little brother he never had.

"I know. You have a right to be mad. We lied ... but don't hate Leah for it. She was just trying to protect your ass." Han calmly replied, which made Luke angrier and sadder.

"How could she do this? I can't believe she kept this from me."

"She thought it's best you didn't know ... at least not yet. Trust me, she wanted to tell you. She loves you too much to keep secrets from you. You have no idea how much she snapped at Mama Ewok when she took away her chance to tell you who Darth Vader was." He stated, remembering the fight between the two feisty Jedi. It was not pretty.

"She wanted to tell you ... but she also know that if you knew, you would have suffered, too. She wanted to keep it to herself, and deal with it alone ... until she absolutely couldn't anymore. It killed her to lie to you, buddy."

"But I'm her brother, her family! Is it really fair that I've been left out of all this?" Luke cried out sadly.

He didn't know what to feel. Leah lied to him for as long as he knew her. He kept the most important thing from her ... but it was all to protect him. She genuinely wanted to protect her little brother. That only made Luke be more confused.

"But you would have suffered. And that was the worse torture for Leah. Not to watch her father kill the people she loved ... but to watch you cry in pain. She chose to deal with it alone ... until now, because she couldn't lie to you any longer. So don't be too mad at her. She really was protecting you." Han softly advised him.

Luke didn't say anything and just looked away, trying to hide his tears. He had rarely seen this side of Han. He assumed Leah was more familiar with these sort of talks, since they practically grew up together.

"Come one, kid. We got a battle to finish."

"Just a second ... I need to tell her something."

To say that Laetitia was disappointed with what was happening was ... putting it lightly. She went there, and risked everything, to save her father. She knew she would have to fight him through his stubbornness, but she didn't think that she would be forced into a fight-to-death with her own father.

Darth Vader had no problem resisting the urge to comfort his daughter as he wanted her in agony of losing her friends. But when he saw her try to kill Darth Sidious, he could no longer just stand aside. He needed to save her ... from herself.

That was the whole point of him becoming Darth Vader and the enemy. All to save Leah. He couldn't let her be consumed in anger and use the dark side. He didn't want that life, his life, for her.

So he did the only thing he could do. He decided to save his Master and fight his daughter ... to save her. He ignited his red lightsaber and clashed it with her silver twin lightsabers. The betrayed look on Leah's face hurt him deeply, but he didn't want to let his smirking Master know. He would never, once again, trust that snake for a second and for anything.

If anything, he learned that one thing in the hardest way.

Leah, being the stubborn girl she was, refused to fight her father even though he wanted to fight him. She kept dodging his attacks and repeatedly told him to come back and stop fighting, but that did little good when he didn't want to come back.

He truly wanted to stay in the dark side ... to protect his daughter from having to do the same. If that was what he believed, what could she do to change his mind?

She finally used a small explosion caused by the lightsabers to hide. She needed to take a breath to calm down. She didn't know whether to scream in pain, yell in rage, cry in sadness or kick the wall in confusion.

"Leah!"

Suddenly Leah heard a voice in the Force. She immediately recognized the voice. She needed to hear it that desperately that she forgot about Vader and Sidious feeling his presence.

"Luke? What the ..."

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that, not since you were going to ..." He stopped midway to find the words.

"I know what was driving you. You didn't tell me who our father really was because you didn't want me to get hurt in the way you were. He was your world ... and you watched him crumble in front of you. I understand why you couldn't tell me. When you care about someone so much, it's hard to hurt them ... even if what you're telling them is the truth."

Leah couldn't see or think clearly because of the tears in her eyes. Was Luke really forgiving her for lying t him for his whole life? Was he really that kind and understanding? If so, he definitely got that from their mother, not their Skywalker father.

"I still should've told you. You had a right to know."

"Yeah, I did ... but now that I do, I wish I never found out. I wish I could say it didn't hurt me … but it did. Not because you kept the truth from, but for being his son. I understand why you kept the truth from me ... and I forgive you."

"I'm so sorry, Luke."

"The thing is, I think I knew. deep down, I always knew. I mean, when you got worked up every time his name was mentioned, the way he wanted to have you, how he knew everything about you ... I just hoped that if I didn't think about it, it wouldn't be true. But it's him ... he's really our father." Luke sighed on the other side of the conversation.

"Leah ... save him. If you truly believe that there is good in him, then you owe it to him, to me, to Ahsoka and Iliana, and also to yourself to at least try. If half of the stories you told me about our father is true, then ... he's not that much of a Sith Lord. He's just ... confused, which is why he needs you. So save him, and please come back."

Leah let a tear fall from her eye. She was so grateful to have him in her life. She would be lost in her own anger and darkness without him and any of his friends. They were her hope, her reason to live.

"I will."

"A brother!" Darth Vader suddenly gasped after 20 years.

Laetitia almost jumped up from her place. She immediately shut the Force line between her and her brother. How could she have been so careless to actually open herself and Luke to two dangerous Sith Lords? How could she let them, let him, find about Luke?

"So ... you have a brother, who is alive." He 'bitterly' hissed, remembering the lie she told him years ago.

"Your feelings have now betrayed him, too. You and Obi-wan were wise to hide him from me. Now that old man's failure is complete. If you will not turn to the dark side, then perhaps he will." He said to set her off.

And it worked perfectly. When he mentioned something about Luke turning to the dark side, Leah was drowning in rage. She had never felt this dangerous and angry before. Never in her life.

"Never!" She shouted and threw herself at him with her lightsabers shining in her hands.

She felt the call of the dark side, and she answered it. Since she had once opened herself up to the dark side of the Force, she could never completely close it. But as a Gray Jedi, she knew how to control it or even actually use it.

This time, she wasn't acting like a Jedi, Gray Jedi, Rebel or anything. She was a ... Sith Lord. All Vader and Sidious could feel from her was pure rage and hatred. While it pleased the Emperor, it terrified her father.

He never wanted this life for her. If she turned to the dark side now, then everything he had done was for nothing. Everyone he had killed died for nothing. He was failing.

Darth Vader was holding back. He was extremely and emotionally conflicted. He was not fighting at anywhere near his full ability, mostly just trying to scare or provoke Leah than to actually strike her. He was deeply conflicted, torn between love for his daughter and the hatred that had consumed his life for so long. His internal fight was distracting him from the external one.

Leah had no chance of actually winning without using the dark side. Her sheer rage combined with Vader's hesitance to hurt her daughter and his surprise at Leah's sudden ferocity would have prevented him from mounting an offensive of his own, if he even wanted to. Basically, if Vader didn't care about Leah, if he truly wanted her dead, she would be dead

As strong as she was, Leah was only 'equal' to an emotionally conflicted Vader, nothing more.

But while Vader, or rather Anakin, was feeling conflicted whether or not to hurt his daughter, Leah already attacked him. Before he knew it, he fell on the ground as his right mechanical hand was thrown off. He gasped a bit as he watched his daughter, whose eyes were glowing yellow ... with a tear falling from them.

Leah grunted in pain and struggle when she cut off the hand of her own father. She had done it before, but after knowing what she did now, she never thought she would ever do it again. Before she could react or do anything, her eyes grabbed something shiny dropping to the ground.

She deactivated her lightsabers, despite her anger and logic telling her otherwise. She bent down and grabbed that shiny thing in her hand to take a closer look at it.

It was ... her necklace. The one Anakin had given her when she was born. The one she lost when she died.

She never felt safe without having that piece of jewelry around her neck. She desperately searched for it when she had a chance to. She cried for it like a baby would cry for their toy. It was the last thing she had from her father.

But it turned out her father was in possession of it the entire time. After he heard the news of her death, he must have gone back to the place and searched in the burnt iron to look for his daughter, only to find her necklace. He ... kept it close for years.

"You know what I love the most about you, Little? Not that you have your mother's eyes or that you have my courage or sarcasm or stubbornness or everything, heh heh ... It's the way you love. You don't love easily, but when you do, you passionately love and you live for it. Just remember, no matter what happens, never lose that. Don't let anyone take that away from you."

Leah tried to fight the tears as she remembered what Anakin once told her. She hung the necklace from her hand and just stared at it as she sobbed quietly. Her eyes went back to Vader, who was still lying on the ground ... without a hand. She glanced back at her own hand and the necklace to find the peace within herself.

She repeatedly took deep breath to calm down and let go of the dark side. She needed to calm down. If not to save herself, she should calm down to not give Palpatine the satisfaction of destroying her.

She wiped the tears from her face and turned back to Sidious, who was watching the whole thing and did not do a thing. It caught him by surprise when she threw away her lightsabers just when she was winning the fight.

He knew she could use it perfectly well. He witnessed it firsthand. She overpowered and beat Darth Vader, the unstoppable Sith Lord who no one had been able to touch, even though it was with the power of the dark side.

But when she looked back at his hand and her necklace, she realized something. That she was playing right into Palpatine's game. It didn't matter who won between Leah and Vader. If Vader killed Leah, Palpatine still has his apprentice, with finally nothing to draw his loyalty away. If Leah killed Vader in anger, she took a step towards the dark side and Palpatine could kill her when she was conflicted.

There would be no victory for either of them in the 'beat the other to death' game. The only way to win ... was not to play.

And that was what she did. She rejected the idea that she had to defeat Vader, or that she could defeat Palpatine by fighting him. She simply threw away the lightsabers to remove the temptation of using it.

And that would be what ultimately defeats the Emperor. Not Leah's ability to fight ... but her refusal to fight.

"I will never turn to the dark side. You've failed, Your Highness." Leah finally said, practically spitting the name.

Sidious was suddenly reminded of the vision he had ... and his son. 'You've failed, Your Highness', 'you're wrong, Your Highness'. The girl was saying the exact thing Thexan told him before he decided to sacrifice himself for her.

"I am a Jedi, like my father before me."

She didn't care if she just called herself a Jedi. As much as she hated them, being a Jedi was far better than being a Sith. Besides, it was to make a point. She wanted to make her stand very clearly ... that she would rather die, watch everyone she loved die ... but turn to the dark side.

"So be it ... Jedi." Palpatine roared as he threw Leah to the other side of the room with his Sith-lightning.

His laughter turned into anger, and the other way around. He needed to make sure he won either way, no matter what would happen. He had back-up plans for his back-up plans. He always did.

"If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed." He calmly stated.

Blinding bolts of energy, purple lightning, shot from the Emperor's hands at Leah. To his surprise, the young Gray Jedi tried to use the Force to deflect the lightning and wave of pain. Even though she was successful for only a second, as the lightning came with more speed and power, Leah's efforts were fruitless. She shrunk before the waves, her knees buckling.

The wounded Vader struggled to his feet, and moved to stand at his Master's side as he watched his daughter refuse to even grunt in pain.

"Young fool ... Only now, at the end, do you understand." Sidious mocked her beliefs

Leah was almost unconscious beneath the continuing assault of the Emperor's lightning. She tried to fight back as she refused to fall into the endless pit. She only grunted when she tried to get up, using the ground. Vader and Sidious both applauded her for her resilience.

"Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the dark side. You have paid the price for your lack of vision."

Vader was mentally fighting to even choose to what to do. Could he really stand aside and watch his precious Little Sky be tortured to death? But then again, could he really free himself from the grip of the dark side and kill his Master?

What could he do? He was a failure as a father, as a Jedi, even as a Sith. He was the absolute failure.

He suddenly froze in his place when he noticed Leah murmuring something in the pain she was feeling. He had to narrow his eyes and think for a moment to be able to make the words out.

'Dad'.

She was calling for him. He remembered what he promised her when she was a kid ... that every time she was in trouble, all she had to do was call for him. 'Dad' and he would show up for his little girl. He promised that he would always be there for her.

What the hell was he doing now?

Done :(