A/N: Hello everyone! New chapter out, complete with plot! I hope you all love it :) Many thanks to everyone who favorited and reviewed, and a warm welcome to all my new followers. I love all my readers! Thank you!

Sinvulkt: Thankfully, I think they will ;) Upstart Psycho: I'm glad you liked it. :) Yes, Leia is slowly coming around, difficult as reconciliation can be for both of them. WarBerserk: Soon… soon. Steps toward that occur this chapter, we should get there sometime in the next few. I'm glad you're excited for it, and I hope you enjoy the journey to get there :) Jedi Alex Colbent: You're right ;) ishigo urahara Shihoin: Thank you so much! DS2010: Well, he likes Leia being happy at least. Misterfishy: Thank you for letting me know. It has been fixed. Courtesy Trefflin: He will not be executed, don't worry. And who says him going to prison is the end of the story? ;) Leia is trying to make sense of things, coming to terms with her family's tragic past and figuring out where to go from here. With reevaluating Anakin's place in her life, and who he is as a person, naturally she wanted the truth about what happened. As far as the deaths… she's a soldier, who has killed plenty of stormtroopers and Imperial personnel herself. I doubt she would bother being overly judgmental about that. I am so glad you liked it! I hope you enjoy this one!

I do not own Star Wars or its characters.

Chapter 33

Ahsoka stayed with Anakin after their conversation, not talking as he didn't seem to want to, but staying busy with a pad in his general vicinity. He had his eyes closed, meditating and redirecting his focus away from the pain in his stumps. Even so, Ahsoka wanted to make sure he didn't feel alone, so she simply stayed near him, in silence, until a droid arrived from the medbay to reattach his prosthetics. At that point she withdrew, not wanting to intrude or crowd him on something so private.

She found Luke waiting outside, having completed his business and returned with the droid. "Hey. I wanted to talk to you."

"Oh?" She was honestly a bit distracted. Now that she was out of the room she was starting to have doubts. Had Anakin's promise been sincere, or had it simply been a response to her threat to put him on suicide watch? Had that made him withdraw into himself and decide not to tell her when he was having such thoughts? Had she somehow made things worse again? "What is it?"

"I have questions about the bounty hunter." He paused, as though waiting for permission to continue.

She really did want to go off alone to sort through exactly what had happened in there and whether Anakin could be trusted with taking care of himself, but then Luke was right. They did need to finish their briefing, interrupted as it had been. She nodded.

"You both mentioned someone named 'Ventress.' Can you tell me more about her?"

"What do you want to know?"

"Anything you can tell me might be helpful. I just want to know what we might be dealing with here."

It was a reasonable request, even if they weren't certain of the hunter's identity. And while Ahsoka was no expert, Ventress had had a file back in the Clone Wars, and she had spent some time with her, so she at least knew something.

She looked around. This might not be a particularly frequented area, but it still wasn't nearly private enough for her. Motioning to Luke, she drew him into a nearby meeting room where she proceeded with the details. "Her name is Asajj Ventress. Her current whereabouts, allegences, and-" She recalled what Anakin had said about the woman being killed by Inquisitors, "-Apparently even whether she is alive is unknown, but I can tell you something of her past." Ahsoka paused, then continued, "She was born on the planet Dathomir into a cult called the 'Nightsisters,' but when she was still a baby their leader, 'Mother' Talzin sold her to outsiders."

"Sold her?" Luke was quite familiar with slavery, his childhood had been spent on Tattooine and his time with the Rebellion had sometimes brought him into conflict and contact with various cartels and criminal elements after all, but it still was tragic to hear. All the more reason to turn and recruit her then. Her current business may have been unavoidable, and cruelty certainly was an intrinsic part of that business. Her behavior may not have been her own choice.

Ahsoka sighed, "The details aren't clear. It is unknown whether money changed hands, or who she was given to. It may have been the Sith, the Jedi, or some unknown third party. Talzin has had dealings with the Sith in the past, and gave them two other children in her possession, so that seems to be the most likely option." She paused, gathering her thoughts and changing course. "Ventress does show up in Jedi records briefly, at a later date. A knight found her wandering in a warzone and took her for his apprentice."

"So, she did become a Jedi."

"Not exactly. All I know, if I remember the intel right, is that he never brought her to Coruscant for some reason. He was killed some years later, and she vanished. She didn't resurface until the Clone Wars, when Count Dooku had apparently taken her as his apprentice."

That name… Luke thought it sounded familiar. "Who was that again?"

Ahsoka interrupted her story for a quick explanation. "Dooku was Sidious's apprentice during the war, before Anakin. The Rule of Two says that there can only be two Sith, so Dooku kept her as an assassin, but we believed that he was secretly keeping her as his apprentice until he could kill his Master."

There it was again. Another vague mention of this previous apprentice of the Emperor's; the man his father had apparently replaced. He must have been important at the time, but Luke had hardly even heard of him. It was remarkable how quickly someone could be forgotten.

However, there was something else there, an opportunity to learn more about his father's condition. Maybe it wasn't fully related, but the story of another in so similar a position had to have something useful in it, right? So he asked. "I still want to finish talking about Ventress, but if you wouldn't mind, how did Dooku fall?"

Ahsoka paused to think, debating how much to say and how to say it. "You knew Obi-Wan well, didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"His master, Qui-Gon Jinn, was murdered in front of him. Qui-Gon was Dooku's padawan." She paused. "Dooku's family had money, he was even in line for a title, so when he fought with the Council about what happened it was an easy decision for him to leave the Order. Palpatine must have found him after that."

Luke wasn't sure what to say. "Oh." There didn't seem to be any lesson in that, other than that perhaps Jedi in the past had been too vulnerable. He didn't know why his father turned, other than that it must have been extremely personal. "You don't know why my father turned, do you?"

"No, Luke. I'm sorry. He still won't talk about it."

He nodded. It was what he had expected. They would keep trying periodically, but in all honesty Luke didn't hold out much hope. Even on his best and most open days, just a vague hint at the topic would make him fully shut down.

Ahsoka continued with their briefing. "She fought hard during the Clone Wars, but at a certain point Dooku cut her off. I have no idea why." She paused. The next part would be tricky. They still hadn't explained to Luke the circumstances of her departure from the Order, and explaining how Ventress had helped her would be difficult without mentioning it. Finally, she decided on a half-truth and launched into it. "The next time I met her she was a bounty hunter. Actually, she was hunting me for the bounty on my head. The strange thing is, she didn't turn me in. She helped me." She paused, reminiscent. "If it wasn't for Ventress, I would be dead. She saved my life. But Luke, listen to me. Do not mistake that one act of mercy with a kind heart. Ventress is ruthless. She will do anything, ignore every moral code, just to get at her target. If you see her again, don't play it soft." The boy would naturally assume this incident had happened under the Empire, which was her intention. It wasn't a lie, per se, but a half-truth with enough obvious conclusions that he would be unlikely to pry.
Thankfully, he didn't, but instead pivoted to another question. "Was there ever any record of her working with a partner?"

"No, not at all. She's… actually pretty antisocial. I can't see her getting along with someone for more than a few hours, especially on an even footing. Why do you ask?"

"She had a girl with her. Tall, maybe early-to-mid-teens, dark hair, black and silver lightsaber with a green blade like mine." He paused, "There might be something in the file when we get to Mustafar."

Now there was something that had bothered Ahsoka. Granted, it was completely off topic, but she felt that talk of Ventress has run its course anyway. "About that…"

"Yes?"

"Luke, are you sure that he should go… to Mustafar?"

"Why not?"

"It would be a pretty strong reminder of Vader, don't you think?"

Luke grew thoughtful. He had to admit, she had a point. Of course he was familiar with the rumors of Lord Vader's black fortress, surrounded by cliffs and rivers of lava. The place where Jedi went and never came back. How could he not know of it?

Such a horrible, evil place must be filled to bursting with Darkness. "You're worried about him, going to a place where the Dark Side has such a strong hold."

"Its difficult for him here. Taking him to Mustafar… I'm not sure he's ready."

Finally Luke dismissed her concerns, shaking them off and pushing back. "He said himself that we would need him to get inside at all. Don't you think he knows what it's like? I don't think my father would suggest going there if he didn't think he could handle it."

Ahsoka turned quiet, her fears following their conversation at the front of her mind. "I don't know what your father does or doesn't think."

Luke regarded her. "He hasn't betrayed us yet."

She was silent.

He continued. "Look, regardless of anything else, my life matters to him, and he doesn't want to fall again. Whatever his own reasons for wanting to go back there, I think we can trust that we will all come through it unscathed."

"How would we even get him there? Leadership doesn't exactly seem eager to let him out, and if they do they're going to be more suspicious than ever. Forget them easing restrictions, they'll probably pile on more."

Luke smiled conspiratorially, "I had a thought about that. Nothing's official yet, but I talked to Garul…"

Excitedly he told her his plan to sneak his father away, as well as the steps he had already taken toward implementation.

Later, as Luke prepared in his quarters for the training session Leia had promised, he still debated whether he should be doing this.

A memory from his training had come to him, Yoda's voice warning about partial training and the danger of opening a greater connection to the Force without learning how to properly handle it, but he dismissed it. He had been fine, after all. Hadn't Yoda and Ben both been certain that he would fall if he went to Bespin? Hadn't they both been certain that Vader's fate was irreversible, the only solution for him to kill his own father? Hadn't they warned and endlessly lectured about attachment, only for all of it to be proven not only wrong, but harmful? Surely Leia of all people would be all right. She knew what she wanted, what she was ready for, and who was he to issue ultimatums about what he would or would not teach. What she wanted was such a little thing, such a reasonable thing, a thing that he had so desperately wanted for them to have and share, how could he demand that she immediately dive in headfirst to training she wasn't ready to commit to?

No. Yoda had been an eccentric teacher at best, and surely his dogmatic obsession with not even teaching the smallest things by themselves had been a part of that eccentricity. He and his sister could strengthen their bond, she would have greater control over her own mind and shielding, and she would come away from the experience with a positive impression of the Jedi and the Force, making her more likely to return for more training later.

It was all perfect, and he was right.

Leia arrived and they settled in. He had arranged cushions on the floor and candles, creating a relaxing atmosphere that would hopefully facilitate meditation and opening to the Force. He answered some basic questions, explained what the Force was and how they related to it as Force users, and agreed to her request that this be kept secret. She wasn't really sure about any of it, she said, and she didn't want to get everyone else involved and feel a lot of pressure.

Luke felt that was reasonable.

Finally, they reached the topic Leia had come for.

"All right, I've been wondering. How does that whole 'bond' thing work?"

Now here was something Luke was eager to discuss. Thanks to the old rules, there were so many things that the Jedi could only now start researching. "So, Ahsoka couldn't really tell me a lot about this. The Jedi didn't know much about families since… we aren't supposed to have them. How we think it works, from what we've seen of mine, is it develops if you spend a lot of time with someone, as in a master-padawan relationship, or if you're related it just happens." He paused, "Although I guess you and I must have spent a lot of time together before we were born… but Father was away at war so he wouldn't have been around and I had a bond with him from the start so… Oh, I don't know."

Leia blinked. With how enthusiastically he had invited her to train a while ago, she hadn't expected it to be quite so… immediately chaotic.

Unplanned

Awkward

It's Luke. She reminded herself with amusement. What did you expect?

They completed some exercises related to helping her feel the flow of the Force, increasing her connection to it, and being aware of their bond. They didn't spend much time on it, but today was just an introduction.