Ahsoka Tano had repeatedly cautioned herself about getting attached to Luke, but it wasn't going well. He was a miniature version of Anakin. Pure, bright, eager for action, and determined to do his duty. Anakin had been her whole world, in those early days of her training, and now, that attachment was threatening to cloud her judgement when it came to his son.
She was painfully aware that Luke did not yet know what his father had become. It was one of the first things Bail had told her, after her arrival on Home One. Nobody knew Anakin Skywalker was Darth Vader, not even Mon Mothma. Anakin, for the Alliance, was a fallen hero from another time, not the menacing black-armored monster who now acted as Palpatine's executioner.
She understood why Obi-wan had neglected to tell Luke the truth. It was classic Obi-wan, really, and she suspected that, even in his mind, Anakin and Darth Vader existed as two very different people.
But Ahsoka knew Luke wouldn't see it that way when he finally found out the truth, and the longer he remained ignorant the more betrayed he would feel for being lied to.
So she had taken upon herself to tell him, but it was hard to find the words. She hated what Anakin had become and she hated Vader for taking Anakin away from her. But at the end of the day, they were just one person, Vader, who had all of Anakin's memories, and perhaps a few slivers of Anakin's soul.
"You're thinking about the past." Luke observed guilelessly.
Ahsoka forced herself to smile, "Yeah. About your father."
Luke lit up as she knew he would. "I can't believe he trained you and now you are training me!"
Another forced smile, "The Force works in strange ways. But Luke, you aren't your father. You are your own man, you know that, right?"
Luke laughed, "Yeah. I can't try to be like someone I've never met."
"Yes. And I think if you did meet Anakin, you'd be disappointed. No one could ever live up to the legend of the Hero with No Fear, not even Anakin himself."
Luke nodded dutifully, but she could tell he didn't really understand.
"What do you know of the Sith, Luke?" She asked, trying another vector of approach.
Luke shrugged, "They use the Dark side of the Force, Jedi use the Light. Darth Vader and the emperor are Sith, you and Obi-wan are Jedi."
She nodded, "Yeah, more or less. But Luke, I want you to understand that every Jedi has his or her struggles against the darkness. Even me, even your father, probably even Obi-wan."
Luke looked at her quizzically, "But it's evil."
She snorted, "Evil doesn't look like evil when you are close to it. It looks like good intentions."
"And do Sith struggle against light side feelings?" Luke asked curiously.
She nodded, "I suppose they do. I've met a few Sith Lords and I've found them just as complicated as Jedi." She thought of her long ago interactions with Maul, who at the end wouldn't even call himself 'Darth', so disillusioned he had become with the Jedi-Sith dichotomy.
"Have you met the emperor?" The boy asked.
Ahsoka nodded, "He's a good example, actually, because for a very long time we thought he was on our side. He pretended to be a good man, all the while orchestrating both sides of the Clone Wars."
"He was a Jedi?" Luke asked, confused.
"No, a Senator. We didn't even know he was Force-sensitive. He met with Jedi daily, but none of us knew what he was until it was far too late."
"Even my father?"
"Especially Anakin." Ahsoka said somberly as her heart began to speed up. "All the time I knew him, he was fiercely devoted to Chancellor Palpatine. I wasn't there when he finally learned the truth."
"You seem really sad now, I'm sorry for upsetting you Master Tano."
She shook her head, "The truth isn't always pleasant, Luke. There is something I've been wanting to tell you for awhile now. It will be upsetting, but I want you to remember your training, okay?"
Luke's face was suddenly pale, "Please don't say you're going away."
Her heart nearly broke. "No. I'm not leaving. I promise not to leave. Do you promise not to do anything hasty, no matter how much you dislike what I'm about to say?"
Luke frowned, "Yeah, I guess."
Ahsoka took a breath and spoke. "When Palpatine took absolute power and declared himself the emperor, Anakin stayed loyal to him."
"What?" Luke hissed. "Even though he knew Palpatine was evil?"
"There's more. I know Ben told you that Darth Vader was the one that killed your father, Luke, but that wasn't the whole story. Anakin became Darth Vader when he turned to the dark side."
There, she had said it.
Luke sat shocked for long moments, she could sense him doubting if he had heard her right, and doubting it could be true. When he finally spoke it was in a half-broken voice which threatened tears. "Are you telling me father is alive?"
Despite her own training, and the years she had had to absorb the information, Ahsoka felt it now as keenly as when she first discovered Vader's identity. "He's not the man he was." She managed to whisper. "The man he used to be was destroyed by the monster he became."
Luke burst into tears, his hands covering his face, sobs shaking his body. Ahsoka just sat with him, letting her own tears fall.
.
.
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Leia woke with tears in her eyes and no idea why. She'd shed a few, due to the utter hopelessness of her situation, sure, but things had gotten a lot easier once she'd started meditating. She didn't even feel sad, she just felt… deeply connected to the Force. But somewhere, there was someone who was crying. The sensation faded away and she dried her face.
The Force was weird. Meditation was like a sixth sense, showing her a million hidden things. Learning to push and pull objects with the Force had been, she had to admit, quite entertaining. She reached out now, using the Force to lift her boots, which Vader had recently provided, and levitate them around the room, then back to their place at the foot of her bed. Boots meant that she wouldn't be in this cell forever, she understood that much.
But right now, there was nowhere to go, so she settled back onto her bed, kneeling in meditation to see what would appear. She was aware of the Star Destroyer around her, the ISD Devastator. She remembered clearly the moment when it had come out of hyperspace behind them at Tatooine. It had swallowed her up ways she couldn't even count.
This floor was part of the detention level, unusual because she was the only prisoner, though there was the movements of workers, set up on their tasks, which seemed to have to do with creating a single larger space out of several smaller cells. Somewhere for Vader train her, she guessed, but pushed the thought away, she wanted to see, not to think.
Vader was easy to find, a vortex of machination and anger, currently on the command deck. But there was another presence, one far lighter and much more diffuse, and she was drawn to it. There was a heavily fortified medbay with a single occupant, unconscious and hooked up to various life-support equipment. He shone, he glowed brightly compared to anyone else on the ship. But she had the strange sense he was not merely sleeping, he was gone. She was seeing a body, but its inhabitant was elsewhere. Who was this man, and why was Vader keeping him like that?
That was the question on her mind when Vader next came to visit her. He cocked his mask, and she felt his own Force senses prickle over her, searching what insight he could about her thoughts, her mood, and her intentions.
"There is another Force sensitive on this ship." She reported. "Very different from you."
Vader inclined his helmet, "Did you only sense him recently? He has been onboard nearly as long as you have."
"Who is he?" Leia asked.
"Do you not recognize the man?"
Leia thought about that, "Should I? I sense he's an old man whose been living in a harsh climate. Is that General Kenobi?" Her heart plummeted at the thought.
"Well done. Yes, that is your General Kenobi."
Leia felt sick and oddly betrayed, "You've had him here this whole time?"
"Since Alderaan." Vader supplied. "He volunteered himself as the mastermind of the Scariff attack."
Leia blinked, "But that's ridiculous."
Static. "Yes. It was a harebrained ploy to distract me from your parents' escape to the Rebellion."
Another brutal impact of new information.
"Then they are safe." She whispered, mostly to her self.
"For now." Vader agreed ominously.
Leia forced herself to focus on the more immediate matter. "What are you doing to General Kenobi?"
"Keeping him alive." Vader stated icily.
"You said he made it to Alderaan, did he—?"
Vader knew what she meant to ask. "Yes. He was able to hand off the plans to your Rebellion. Congratulations, your mission was not a complete failure despite your death."
Leia frowned up at Vader, "Why are you saying all this? What do you expect me to do?"
A sense of amusement from Vader, "I expect you to realize the galaxy moves on even after your passing."
"I'm not dead!" She yelled, fiery ticks of anger lighting within her.
"Your parents mourned you and have since moved on to other matters." Vader continued.
She knew he was trying to provoke a reaction, but she didn't care. She hated him in that moment and she attacked, just as she had with Tarkin.
But it wasn't the same. Vader could shield himself from her. Her energy was scattered and, abruptly, exhausted.
"A worthy attempt, young one." Vader rumbled, unperturbed that Leia had tried to rip him apart with her mind.
Leia felt terribly tired, her anger spent. "You didn't answer my question." She whispered, once she'd caught her breath. "About General Kenobi."
"What do you think you know of him?" Vader asked sharply.
Leia shrugged, "He was a General in the Clone Wars and a Jedi Master. He's the one who arranged my adoption into the House of Organa."
"What?" Vader asked, his tone dangerous even through his mask.
Leia frowned, unsure why it mattered, "I am war orphan, Lord Vader. Obi-wan Kenobi brought me to my adoptive parents when I was an infant."
"Where did Obi-wan find you? Who were your parents?" Vader's voice was as hard as kyber.
Leia shrugged, "I don't know! How should I know that? All my life I've avoided asking the question of who my biological parents were and what their part was in the war! It doesn't matter. They don't matter!" She was yelling by the end of it, and felt absurdly close to tears.
Vader stood stock still, but his sense in the Force was electric. "Stay here." He commanded, quite unnecessarily, then stalked from her cell, the door sliding shut behind him.
Before Leia could processes anything Vader was back, a hypo looking small and fragile in his gloved hand.
"I require a sample of your blood." His voice was rigid as though he was fighting for control.
Leia held out her hand for the hypo. At least he was letting her draw her own blood rather than taking it from her. She jabbed the hypo into her forearm not letting her expression change as it pricked her and withdrew a small amount of her blood.
She held the device out to Vader who received it wordlessly. Then he was gone and she was left blinking in confusion at what had just happened.