Lady Mon Mothma, the leader of the Alliance to Restore the Republic was looking at him with eyes full of kindness, but her words still hit him like blaster fire.
"Kanan Jarrus? He died a year ago and his padawan has been declared missing-in-action. I'm terribly sorry, Luke. You'll have to find another teacher."
Luke's heart sank. Obi-wan Kenobi had given him the names of only two potential teachers who could guide him in the Force, and the first one was dead.
"And Yoda?" He asked, fearing the worst.
Mothma's eyes widened, "He told you to seek out Yoda?"
Luke felt suddenly hopeful. "Do you know where I can find him?"
Mothma shook her head, her short russet hair barely moving. "No, I have not heard a word of Yoda since the fall of the Republic. But it is quite encouraging that Obi-wan Kenobi believed him to still be alive."
Luke sighed, hope dimming. "So he might be alive but no one has heard from him in my entire lifetime?"
Mothma nodded solemnly, "I think the Alliance can be a good place for you, Luke, we may not have any Jedi to train you, but Bail mentioned you have an interest in flying?"
Luke sat up straighter, "Yes, Ma'am. I ran all the sims I could on Tatooine." Which, he had to admit, hadn't been that many. The simulator had been dead expensive and intensely popular among the young men and women ofMos Eisley.
"I'm glad to hear that. We need pilots now more than ever." Mothma told him.
"Because of the Deathstar?" Luke asked.
"Yes. The plans you and the Organas brought us were just what we needed to locate the weak point we'd heard about. Now we need to locate the battlestation itself. Once we have a location, we can launch our attack and then pilots like you will have the most important task."
Luke smiled weakly, "Alright."
"I was disappointed we could not convince your friends Solo and Chewbacca to stay on."
Luke shrugged, "I don't think Han is really the organized resistance type, Ma'am."
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When Vader did return, Leia ate her meal as she usually did. She was beyond the humiliation of being fed like a pet at this point. Vader could watch her, that was fine. She relished the warmth that kindled up in her as her body got the carbohydrates and proteins she needed. Finally she settled, full but not yet drowsy, looking up at Vader expectantly.
"I sense you have something you wish to say, young one." Vader rumbled.
Leia put down the water packet, which was of a far better quality than what came out of the faucet. She sighed, wondering if she should be fighting back, but how? Vader was clearly in control here, and she knew too well that he wouldn't hesitate to starve or torture her.
"I want to know how to use this power." She said, the words bitter in her mouth.
Vader stood watching her for a beat, then said, "A wise decision. I have a question for you to test your commitment."
Leia stiffened. She didn't have information about the location of the Alliance, hadn't Vader understood that? If she had revealed the location of their outpost on Yavin on the first day of her captivity, the Empire might have been able to stage an attack, but the Alliance would have moved by now, knowing she had been captured.
"Tell me about your droids." Vader rumbled.
Leia frowned, "My droids?"
"You sent two droids to your General Kenobi on Tatooine. I wish to know their designations."
Leia wondered exactly how much Vader knew, and if Kenobi had safely gotten the plans back to her father on Alderaan. But Vader's question seemed benign enough.
"Artoo Detoo, and Threepio." She replied, shocked to see Vader's gauntleted hands clench. There were so many, many droids in their galaxy, why did Vader care about these ones?
"How did those droids enter your service?" Vader asked.
Leia shrugged, "They've always been around Aldera Palace, they're practically part of the family."
Vader's respirator counted the seconds like a metronome. Leia wrapped her arms around herself. The warmth she'd gained from her meal already starting to dissipate.
"It so happens those very droids once belonged to me." Vader informed her in a tight monotone.
Leia doubted that. She well knew the story of how the droids had come to her family but she wasn't about to share that with Vader. She couldn't understand why Vader was lying to her about such a random thing but she decided to play along.
"Really? When?"
Vader's helmet tilted slightly, "Artoo was my astromech during the Clone Wars."
"And Threepio?" Leia asked.
"I built him with my own hands."
Leia blinked, confused and bewildered to be having a conversation like this with Darth Vader. He couldn't possibly have known her droids, surely, in nineteen years she'd have had some clue.
"You built Threepio? You?"
A static-laced sound emitted from Vader's helmet. Was he laughing at her? "I did."
Leia leaned back against the metal wall of her cell then regretted it, as it made her even colder.
"You have done well, young one. Obedience has its rewards." Vader informed her, then left the cell.
She noticed the heat in her cell increase slightly, and some hours later a half dozen Stormtroopers led her at blaster point, to another cell very different from the one she had been inhabiting.
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Vader pondered the girl's responses, particularly her incredulity that he had owned both Artoo Detoo and Threepio. He remembered the protocol droid's obsequious personality vividly though it had been a lifetime since he'd seen either of his old droids. Artoo had come with him to Mustafar, of course, his last loyal friend.
But she'd had Threepio. His wife. She'd had him with her on Coruscant on that last wretched day. He'd been there in the background when Anakin had bid her farewell on his way to Mustafar to end the war. Had she had him on this ship with her when she'd followed him? Anakin had been so distracted by Kenobi's appearance he hadn't noticed. But she must have done. He remembered achingly that she had suggested they run away together, hide from the war and just be together. And he'd wanted that, desperately, but at the time it hadn't felt unnecessary, he'd thought they could have so much more... But she'd been ready to disappear, that meant it was very likely that she'd brought along the protocol droid that was so dear to them both.
Well, he finally had Kenobi in his grasp. It was about time the man finish the story which had begun on Mustafar.
Kenobi was till groggy from sedation but Vader loomed over him, waiting.
Blue eyes, nested in graying skin regarded him first blankly, and then with resignation. "How is Leia?" His old master asked.
"She is alive." Vader responded, knowing such an answer would be quite unsatisfactory to a bleeding heart like Kenobi.
Kenobi sighed, carefully bringing his shacked hands up to rub awkwardly at his eyes. "The sedative gas is overkill, don't you think?"
Vader did not respond to the question, but posed one of his own, "Tell me, after you left me crippled and destroyed on Mustafar, where did you go?"
Kenobi's eyes grew wary at that, which meant he had something to hide.
"You stole Padme's body. Why?"
Kenobi's expression was grim indeed and he seemed to consider his words carefully, "A bit late for concern on your part. You put her in that state."
Vader's cybernetic hands clenched and he wished, again, that he could cast the lightning and truly make Kenobi suffer. "Tell me now or I will torture the girl until you do."
Kenobi's face was overcome with a look of disgust mixed with panic. "You mustn't."
"Then answer me." Vader growled.
Kenobi sighed and spoke slowly, "I took Padme to Polis Massa. Her remains later were delivered to Naboo."
Vader considered Kenobi's sense in the Force. The words were true, but there was something hidden in among them.
"And the droids?" Vader pressed.
Kenobi relaxed ever so slightly at the question. "Bail met with me on Polis Massa. I gave your droids to him." He explained easily. "I was quite surprised when they appeared on Tatooine."
"So the droids were with Bail Organa on Alderaan all that time?" Vader asked.
Kenobi actually shrugged, "I suppose they must have been."
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Leia sat in her new cell, for she'd be a fool to think of it as just a room. It had a door which didn't open from the inside, and no viewport, but it did have a proper bed, with blankets, and a full fresher where she could, and did, take a hot shower. She was not surprised when meals started showing up in greater frequency, provided through a slot in the wall which led who knew where.
Things had gotten better because she had cooperated. She hadn't even started learning the Force, she'd just spoken about her droids, but strangely, she'd pleased Vader, and this was her reward.
So she slept, warm and full, for as long as she could, waking to eat whenever she'd hear a tray deposited, then returning to sleep. She wasn't sure of the passage of time but it had been six, or perhaps seven meals, and countless hours of sleep before Vader returned.
"Thank you." She said her captor, for she felt painfully, troublingly grateful that the very person who had caused her discomfort was now contributing to her well-being. Her father had never been willing to tell her much about the techniques the Empire used to soften prisoners, but she was sure she was being subjected to one. She couldn't help feeling grateful to Vader, even though he was the cause of all her problems.
"Your tone has much improved." Vader commented idly.
Leia understood the comment for what it was, an effort to communicate, but her reply still came out rather snide. "Yes, rest and nutrition do wonders."
"You will have to learn to do without both, eventually, if you are to become a true warrior." Vader replied.
Leia swallowed reflexively. "I just want to be free."
Vader considered her, then waved away her concern with a dismissive gesture of his hand. "You have long to go before that moment, young one. Let us speak of the Force."
Vader instructed her on how to sit in meditation, though he himself preferred to remain standing. The key, he said, was to listen deeply within one's mind, until knowledge of the outside world arose.
"You mean this ship?" Leia clarified.
"And beyond it. The Force has no limits, if you have sufficient will to channel it."
"How will I know what's real and what's my own imagination?" She asked, for she could only imagine tricking herself into seeing something because she was desperate to do so.
"A wise question. When you think you have been able to see in the Force, we will discuss it."
Leia nodded, settling in try meditation. It was a remarkably peaceful technique to be learning from the man who'd made his career slaughtering Jedi.
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Much to his delight, Luke had found an old friend among the Alliance pilots. Biggs Darklighter was almost as new to the Alliance as he was, and he helped Luke fit in with the more experienced pilots. Here on Home One they had a couple of X-wing flight sims and they ran them as often as they could, as the actual X-wings were not accessible while the ship was in Hyperspace.
And it was always in Hyperspace. Home One, being the mobile command post of the Alliance and the home of its leadership, jumped again and again, day and night, to avoid Imperial detection. There were multiple planet-side outposts, he was told, but he didn't need to know where they were. Information came with trust, and that took time, he was told.
He checked in with Breha and Bail Organa when he could. Bail was often in meetings with the leadership, strategizing the Alliance's next moves, but the queen of Alderaan received him with kindness every time he appeared at her door. She told him stories about Leia, and about his own parents, Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala. It turned out both of his parents had been exceedingly close to the center of power in the Republic, the very man who would become emperor, Sheev Palpatine. It was strange to imagine that the people who had been his parents had led such intrepid lives.
He made time to practice the little Ben had taught him about using the Force. He could summon objects easily now, and, in the privacy of his quarters, he lit his father's blade and did abbreviated forms of the lightsaber kata Ben had shown him. But it wasn't nearly enough. He wished desperately that a teacher would appear, someone who could teach him to fight as well as Ben could have.
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The Force niggled at him like an itch under his armor, suggesting that there was something he was failing to understand. The irritation of it drew him back to Kenobi, who looked paler and weaker than ever.
"I have begun training the girl." He told Kenobi, keen to observe his reaction.
His old master's expression became distraught, "Do not hurt her, I beg you."
"Why?" Vader bit back.
Kenobi grimaced, "What do you want from me, Anakin? I would give anything to stay your hand from harming Leia Organa."
"She matters to you. Tell me why."
"Because she is innocent, as Padme was." Kenobi replied.
Vader thought this a bit rich seeing as his late wife, very much like the Princess of Alderaan, had been something of a seditionist. "No one in innocent in war," he replied tightly.
Obi-wan sighed. "I suspect I will die here, Anakin. Either by your hand or your neglect. This old body is breaking down and I am eager to meet with what comes next."
"And what? You cannot truly expect compassion from me."
Obi-wan shook his head, "I recognize you are not the man you used to be, though I wish you were. There are things I would say to that man, if I could."
Vader prepared to say that there was nothing Obi-wan had to say that he wanted to hear, but the Force, gnawing at him with jagged teeth, hinted that there was, indeed, something important he was missing.
"Speak then, if you must." He rumbled.
Obi-wan bowed his head and spoke softly, but clearly. "There is still hope in this galaxy. It lies in the complete eradication of the Sith, and you were always destined to achieve that. Everything relies on your choices, Anakin. But if you harm Leia Organa, you will destroy any chance of that victory."
Vader stared at his old master, finding it exceedingly strange the man would say this, to him, now. If he believed the man, which he didn't, then all he had to do, to ensure a lasting triumph of the Darkness was kill a nineteen-year old girl over whom he already had complete control. But why did Obi-wan Kenobi think Leia Organa was so special?
He was about to asked that question, when Kenobi let out a puff of breath and collapsed into a heap among his restraints. He was alive, but fading quickly.
Vader was annoyed, if Kenobi thought he could cut short their conversation by dying, he was sorely mistaken. He commed in his own private medics and gave them their orders. "Sedate him, use bacta and whatever else you require to restore his health. It will be your heads if he dies." He watched the medical officers pack Kenobi into a medi-sled and take him away. He stared at the shackles on the floor.
Why was Leia Organa special? How could she be the means to a Light Side victory? He used his data pad to watch his feed of the girl in her new quarters. She was exercising, and seemed to be gaining strength. He'd not yet sensed any breakthrough to the Force, but he knew she was meditating diligently and he saw no need to interrupt her progress at this point. He was giving her what he'd never had, a neutral space in which to focus completely on her training, without a care for the galaxy beyond.