Bonus Chapter - Vader

DISCLAIMER: We do not own Star Wars, even if we wish we did. xD

Author's Note: Well, someone was wondering what Vader was thinking during and after the duel on Bespin, so we decided to write it and see for ourselves. :P

~ Amina Gila

"There is no escape," Vader warns, stepping up to the edge of walkway opposite his son and Ahsoka. "Don't make me destroy you." But if he's being honest with himself, he knows he could never do that. He could never kill Luke. "You do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy."

Then, he turns to his old Padawan. When he first saw her, he couldn't believe it. He had killed her himself on Malachor, but that apparently didn't stop the Force from bringing her from the past. She looks just like she did when she left. She's even dressed the same. At first, that only fueled his rage; rage that she'd abandoned him, but now that the fight has paused, he finds himself again remembering how he used to feel towards her… before. "Ahsoka, you do not need to fight me. Join me. We have fought together in the past, and we can do so again in the future." The same hope he had on Malachor returns. Maybe, this time, she'll actually listen.

"I will never help enslave the galaxy to a dictator," Ahsoka retorts defiantly, "The Anakin I knew would never have asked such a thing from me." And just like that, his hope is shattered, like it was on Malachor. She wants him to be someone he isn't. She refuses to accept him as he is, and that hurts.

"The Anakin you knew is dead," Vader snarls. Fine. She can continue to refuse him, reject him. She's not of his blood. His son, on the other hand, has no excuses. He will not be permitted to leave him. "Luke, it is not too late. You can still join me, and I will let her go." He extinguishes his lightsaber as Luke finally reaches the end of the walk where Ahsoka is. She helps him get a grip on the complex next to her.

"I'll never join you!" Luke shouts, glaring back at him.

"If you only knew the power of the Dark Side. Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father," Vader intones. He doesn't miss how Ahsoka tenses ever so slightly at his words, looking at Luke with concern. Curious.

"He told me enough!" Luke yells, "It was you who killed him." Vader clenches his fists as his anger inflames further. Of course, Kenobi would have fed Luke those lies. He would seek to turn the boy against his own father after stealing him away. Had Vader known that Padme's child lived, the current situation would be vastly different.

"No. I am your father."

Luke stares at him in shock before shaking his head in desperate denial. "No," he protests, "No. That's not true. That's impossible!"

"Search your feelings. You know it to be true." Vader can tell that through his conflict, Luke has instinctively accepted this truth.

"No!" his son screams.

"Luke. You can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny. Join me and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son," he urges. "Come with me. It's the only way."

Luke and Ahsoka glance at each other, but he doesn't think anything of it until they suddenly let go, allowing themselves to fall down the pit and disappear from sight, leaving him feeling oddly bereft and alone. Always alone.

"Listen, I would never let anyone hurt you, Ahsoka, never!"

"I am ordering you to put down your lightsaber and come with me now. Trust me."

"I do trust you, but you know as well as I do that no one else will believe me. Anakin, you have to trust me now."

"Ahsoka, I do trust you."

"I know you do. Wish me luck."

"I'm sorry, Master, but I'm not coming back."

"What about me? I believed in you. I stood by you!"

"I know you believe in me, Anakin, and I'm grateful for that, but this isn't about you."

"Maybe. But I have to sort this out on my own. Without the Council. And without you."

He remembers her walking away that day, leaving him completely alone. And he remembers how cold she was when she came back, acting as though their friendship had meant nothing to her.

"We'll have to catch up another time."

It was as if his feelings no longer mattered to her. And he remembers seeing her again on that fateful day on Malachor.

"Anakin. I won't leave you. Not this time."

But she did. She left him again. She left him alone.

"Then you will die."

Fury boils up, and he lashes out, crushing some of the devices around him, the Force screaming with his rage and pain. She'll always leave him, like everyone else. Like she did before. His son's reaction hurt, true, but it was to be expected. It was highly unlikely that he leap into his father's arms upon hearing the news. They are meant to be together, and Vader will find him again.

Vader reaches out briefly to his bond with Ahsoka. "You left me. Again," he snarls, before severing the connection. He doesn't want to listen to her lies or rationalizations. His focus is Luke. He has to get his son back. Turning, Vader heads back to his ship.

**w**

Vader lifts Ahsoka's lightsaber, turning it over in his hands. It's the one he found buried in the snow on that abandoned planet so long ago. And on that planet, the clones of the 501st who he sent with his sister lay forever. It had been years after the Purge when he'd finally found their resting place, and until shortly before Malachor, he'd assumed that Ahsoka and Rex were dead along with all the others.

His Ahsoka, his little sister, is truly dead now, because of him. He ignites the lightsaber, staring at the humming blue blade, though it's tinged slightly red from his helmet. And for at least a moment, he allows himself to remember.

How he kept Ahsoka's lightsabers and her padawan braid with him much of the time after she left the Order. How he eventually changed her lightsaber crystals to blue. How he spent so long hoping against hope that maybe one day she'd come back. And finally… how he'd found this lightsaber in the snow on that planet. He'd spent so long keeping it with him, because it was his last connection to her, he could never have mistaken the design.

And, for once, as he thinks about the day when she walked away from him and the Jedi Order, he doesn't feel the anger he often does. Just pain… and a mixture of longing, guilt, and self-loathing.

But now, his Snips is gone forever. Because he killed her.

Padme is gone forever, too, for the same reason.

Obi-Wan betrayed and left him a long time ago.

The only one he has left now is Luke, who is currently out in the galaxy with his rebel companions.

Then there's young Ahsoka, from the past, who is still out there somewhere. If it wasn't for their faint – albeit closed off – bond, he could almost let himself believe that her presence on Bespin was nothing more than a creation of the Force to torment him, if not his own imagination.

She's probably still with his son, watching over him like he should have been. If he could find her, find them, there's still a chance that he could persuade them to unite with him. Even if Ahsoka will never accept the Dark Side, he's certain she'd still jump at the chance to help him destroy Sidious.

What would she think if she knew that he'd killed her in this timeline? Would she even want anything to do with him? Then again, does she want anything to do with him now? After she knows that he's a Sith? When he gave her the chance on Bespin, she refused. She let go…

If the Force brought her here from the past – he's not sure what else could have, because something like that is impossible otherwise to the best of his knowledge – there had to be some reason for it. Is it to allow her to change the present? Or is it to guide her to alter the past timeline? If she returns to her time, will the changes she'll undoubtedly make affect this future?

For a moment – just a moment – Vader allows himself to imagine such a world. A world where she never leaves the Order and stays with him. Where Padme doesn't die, and he's able to raise Luke himself together with her. And yes, where Obi-Wan doesn't betray and abandon him.

But those hopes, dreams… are nothing more than that. They're not realistic. Besides, even if the Force sends Ahsoka back to the past, that doesn't mean she's going to choose to stay with him now any more than she did then. And even if she did, he'd probably never know. Whatever may happen in such a universe would likely branch off into another timeline without having any impact on the present.

But at this point, he's willing to try.