Luke Skywalker wasn't sure which fact was more amazing, that the Force was real, or that there could be a planet like Alderaan with snow, and trees, and lakes, instead of just the relentless sands of Tatooine. He could spend forever here just enjoying the coolness of the air and its scent of evergreen trees.

It had been a dizzying few days and for awhile he had actually forgotten that his Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen were dead. Somehow, the image of their smoldering corpses had been temporarily obscured by the personalities of Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi. Not to mention the monstrous battle station which had been hanging over Alderaan when they'd first flown in.

It was gone now, thank the stars, but the feeling of foreboding it had set in his heart was still there. It was Vader, Ben had explained. Luke could sense Vader's darkness without even trying. He could learn to block it out, Ben had assured him, but just now there wasn't time to teach him, and every ounce of the Jedi's concentration was going into keeping them both hidden.

That meant that now Luke had far too much time to think over how his aunt and uncle must have died. Had it been Stormtroopers with blasters? Had blasters done… that? It had been senselessly brutal, that much Luke could guess from what he'd seen. There was no way his relatives had had anything to do with galactic politics. They'd led a simple life, and they'd tried to share that with Luke. He'd resented it for nineteen years, but now he understood the alternative. He should have savored the simple knowledge that a day of hard work would end predictably with a cooked meal and a glass of blue milk. He'd known where he would sleep and had been reasonably certain he would wake up in the same place the next morning.

Now everything was upside down. They'd been on Alderaan for just a few days, and they'd met the king and queen! Obi-wan had greeted Bail Organa like an old friend. It had been very strange. The two men spoke with an understanding between them that made Luke feel sure that some key information was being omitted. This much he understood, though, Bail Organa was terribly worried about his daughter Leia. She was meant to have arrived on Tatooine together with Threepio and Artoo, but, although the droids had completed their mission, they claimed the Princess had remained on her ship.

Ben, or more correctly, Obi-wan Kenobi, appeared at the open doorway of what had become Luke's room. "Come, Luke."

Luke got to his feet, ready, at this point, to follow Ben pretty much anywhere. "Has something happened?"

Ben's mouth was tight, "Vader is on Alderaan.'

"Are you going to fight him?" Luke blurted, discomfited to see the shadow pass over Ben's face at the question.

"No." The Jedi Master said gravely. "The Viceroy wishes to meet with us. We must go."

Luke sat in the passenger seat in silence as Ben flew them up out of the village and toward the country estate where they were to meet Bail Organa. Luke didn't need to ask why they weren't going back to Aldera City. If Darth Vader was there, it was no longer safe.

"What if this is a trap?" Luke asked as they neared the forested area in which the estate was nested.

"Then we spring the trap." Ben said softly, then frowned slightly, glancing at him. "Open your mind to the Force, Luke, do you sense danger ahead?"

Luke wasn't sure he sensed anything at all. He shrugged.

"Tell me how many people are in that cottage." Ben prompted.

Luke focused. He could only sense one person and told Ben as much.

Ben smiled slightly. "Good." He parked outside the cottage. Further into the woods the main estate loomed dark and unlit.

Ben led him inside, where Bail Organa stood tall and pensive.

"He's playing games." Organa said giving Ben a dark look. "He says I have a day to give him the Rebel leader. But I am quite certain he knows I am the one he is looking for."

Ben sat heavily, stretching out his legs. "Any word of Leia?"

Organa met Luke's eyes for a swift moment then focused on the Jedi Master. "He captured her ship, I believe he must have her. Obi-wan, I am at a loss."

Ben rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Were the plans genuine, at least?"

At that Organa smiled grimly, "Yes. They appear to be. I've sent out three separate scouts with copies, at least one will reach Mon."

"Good." Ben replied. "Then there is still hope."

"You know him better than I do, Obi-wan. Would he accept a trade? Myself for Leia?"

Obi-wan shook his head, as if he had already considered this possibility, "I doubt he would honor such a bargain, and even if he did, it would be disastrous if you were interrogated."

Again Organa's gaze was on Luke. "But if he knew the truth…"

Obi-wan shook his head, "Trust me, old friend, it is better that he never know."

Organa's face crumpled, "Tell me then, Obi-wan, what is our best move?"

Obi-wan sighed, "I would like you to take Luke off planet."

Bail's jaw tightened, "And my daughter? Are we to abandon her to her fate?"

"No." Obi-wan Kenobi replied, his voice sounding hollow. "I will do everything within my power to free her."

Luke had been trying to follow the conversation, sure that there were key elements that were being kept secret from him. But he understood enough. Obi-wan was going to send him away so he could rescue the princess.

"Do I have a say in any of this?" Luke asked, genuinely distressed. He'd trusted Ben up to this point, but now he was going to send him away?

Ben looked at him with kind blue eyes, "There is another who can train you, Luke. But only I have a chance of freeing Leia."

Luke sighed unhappily but nodded. After that the two older men discussed details, but Luke couldn't listen. He felt more desperately alone now than he ever had before.

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.

.

Obi-wan Kenobi understood Luke's frustration. The boy was so like his father had been, good-hearted, but given to petulance, and resentment. It was, perhaps ,for the best that he not train the boy himself. He'd failed with Anakin, he could not risk failing Luke as well.

Bail was not pleased with the plan he laid out, but he agreed as Obi-wan knew he would. Bail had a kind heart, he always had. That was precisely why Obi-wan had chosen Alderaan for Leia.

He bid his old friend a farewell that could very well mark their final meeting. Luke was withdrawn at their parting, but Obi-wan could hardly blame him. The boy had lost his relatives, and his home, and was now adrift in the galaxy still unaware of the part he would have to play in the future.

Now, Obi-wan stood at the open gates of Aldera Palace, sensing the brooding presence of his former padawan within. He felt it, the moment Bail Organa's prerecorded communiqué was received by Vader and that dark intelligence reached out like a storm threatening to obliterate everything in its path.

Obi-wan was reminded of a moment late in the Clone Wars when Anakin had pretended to surrender to the Separatist Forces. It had been one of his most daring ploys, and highly illegal, but it had worked. They'd accomplished their goal and they'd lost no more men that day.

This, however, was no false surrender. He wore the old robes he had on his back the day he'd left Tatooine, and his saber hung unlit at his belt. It would be taken from him, of course. But it was hardly his only weapon.

Stormtroopers began to appear, leveling their weapons on him at a distance, but they did not strike, they merely waited.

Then the menacing black-clad form of Darth Vader appeared, striding toward him from the palace, saber lit and cape billowing.

Obi-wan raised his palms in the air, keeping his face neutral. "I surrender. It was me."

Vader leveled his red blade in his direction, "You?"

Obi-wan did not smile, though he wanted to, at the surprise that was ringing through the Force. His former padawan had not expected this.

"You told Viceroy Organa to find the Rebel responsible for the Scarif attack. Well, here I am." That had been a bit too glib, Obi-wan chided himself. His aim, his entire mission, depended on being taken alive and it wouldn't help to annoy Vader into slaying him on the spot.

Vader gestured for the Stormtroopers to move in, swarming him and removing the lightsaber he wore. His arms were pulled into stun-cuffs, though he had not resisted the manhandling.

Finally, Vader lowered his saber, stepping in so only an arm span separated them. He could feel the eyes behind that awful mask studying him. Were they still amber rimmed in crimson, or were they blue?

"You are a fool, Kenobi." Vader ground out. "Take him to the ship. He is a Jedi, every possible security precaution is warranted."

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Leia had no way to count the hours she'd been alone in her cell. No one passed through the corridor beyond and she heard no sign that there was anymother living being on the entire detention level.

She had water. The fresher built into a corner of the cell had a faucet that actually worked and the water seemed clean enough, if vaguely antiseptic. She didn't have food and she was starting to feel hollow and dizzy which suggested that it had been a few days since her last meal.

She wondered if this was an interrogation technique or if Vader had merely forgotten about her. When he appeared outside her cell she felt strangely relieved to see him.

"Are you ready to discuss what you did to Tarkin?" Vader asked in a monotone.

Leia opted for negotiation, even here. "May I have something to eat first?"

Vader merely stared at her for a moment, then typed something on his datapad. After a few minutes a Stormtrooper appeared with a meal tray which he handed to Vader without comment.

Vader turned off the red interference field and placed the tray on the ground between them. Leia retrieved it, popping it open and grabbing at the food within not caring how pathetic it made her look. She was starving.

Vader merely watched her without comment until the meal was gone. Leia's stomach felt uncomfortably full and she wished she had eaten more slowly.

"Was that the first time you used the Force?" Vader asked without preamble.

Leia blinked, stunned. It was a trick question, any simple answer she might give would incriminate her. "I'm not Force-sensitive." She said instead.

"I am." Vader replied forcefully. "I sensed it very clearly when you called on the Dark Side in the depths of your anger and used it to annihilate your enemy. It was most impressive."

The approval in his voice was deeply unsettling. But she had felt something she couldn't explain. "I was angry." She agreed. "I wished what he wanted to do to Alderaan would happen to him. But there is no way I could have done that."

"Then you have had no training?" Vader asked.

"I'm trained as a Senator, Lord Vader." She pointed out tartly.

"You were." Vader corrected. "But now you are merely my prisoner. A statement will be released that the Princess of Alderaan was executed for her part in the Scarif attack."

Leia swallowed, hating Vader. She wondered if she hated him hard enough might he, like Tarkin, simply explode?

Nothing of the sort happened.

"I see." Vader said. "Yes, you have much potential. I shall enjoy training you."

Again, somehow, she had pleased the monster that stood towering over her and that wasn't good.

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Vader left the girl to her thoughts, eager to visit his other prisoner, whom he had ordered locked down in a far corner of the ship. It was a little used secure bay, filled now with interference rays among other precautions. In the center of it Kenobi sat calmly, shackled to the ground with stun cuffs on his hands, and a similar device around his throat.

"You've gotten old." Vader observed, looking down at his former mentor.

Kenobi smiled at that, "Yes. It happens to us all, Anakin."

Vader felt a spike of rage at the use of his former name, "I am not that man."

Kenobi's stun cuffs clinked as he shifted on the floor. "As you say, Darth."

Somehow that was worse, but Vader chose not to rise to the bait. "Why did you surrender?"

His old master was still smiling vaguely under his beard, "To allow Bail Organa and his family to escape the planet. They are far beyond your reach, now."

"A favorable exchange, in that case." Vader spoke his thoughts. "I would have come to Alderaan far sooner if I had suspected it would lure you out of hiding."

"When I saw your Empire's battle station over Alderaan I feared I was too late. Was there a mechanical error? I can't imagine any other reason why you would not fire it on a peaceful planet. "

Vader smiled beneath his mask, "You over-estimate my affection for the Deathstar. The reason it did not fire was due to the untimely termination of Grand Moff Tarkin."

Kenobi's bushy white eyebrows shot up, "You killed Wilhuff Tarkin?"

"No. Another performed that task. But I do not mourn him." Vader replied honestly.

"No, I don't suppose you would. There was bad blood between you and he twenty years ago, I can only imagine the ways he's found to annoy you since then." Kenobi said with an uncomfortable knowledge.

"I do not wish to discuss the past." Vader snapped, as far as he was concerned his past was dead.

"You weren't born in that breath suit." Kenobi observed.

Vader realized then how inconvenient it was going to be to have his old master as a prisoner. So long as he lived, Kenobi would not stop reminding him of the man he had once been. But he was a trove of knowledge about the remaining Jedi and the Rebellion, Vader could not kill him.

"I was." He argued stiffly. "You killed Anakin Skywalker on Mustafar, or has age addled your brain?"

At that Kenobi's smile disappeared, replaced by a familiar somber look. "I did not kill you, and I deeply regret the manner in which I left you."

"Enough." Vader spat, irritated.

A chime sounded on his communicator and the voice of one of his officer's spoke, "Lord Vader, the emperor commands that you make contact immediately."

Vader stalked from the room, snapping his orders to the troopers who lingered beyond the entryway.

He opted to return to the secure Holo communicator in his private quarters, where he knelt as the projected form of the emperor appeared above him.

"My master."

"Explain yourself, Lord Vader." The emperor's palid mouth said, just visible beneath the hood of his cloak.

"I have captured Obi-wan Kenobi, my master."

"Indeed?" Palpatine asked, a ragged grin now revealing ruined teeth. "Was he hiding on Alderaan all this time?"

In a flash of insight Vader realized that might indeed be the case. "Possibly, my master. My interrogation has only just begun."

"Tell me, Lord Vader, how will you guarantee the Jedi will not escape your custody? We are both familiar with his ingenuity, I'm sure."

Vader explained the precautions he had instituted.

The empire listened with apparent patience, then threw down his next barbed question. "And can you guarantee you will not be maneuvered by him, as you were countless times in the past?"

Vader clenched his jaw painfully. "He means nothing to me, Master."

Palpatine merely chuckled at that.