An AU story, at the time of ANH - what would have happened if Biggs hadn't
jumped ship and had mouthed off at the wrong moment about Luke's piloting
skills?
Chapter twelve at last. Sorry about the wait, and thanks for the reviews!
Mina
Chapter Twelve
Vader paced. He had tried to gather his wits as he ran to his quarters, and
failed. He had tried to gather his fears and stow them away someplace where
they couldn't bite, and failed. He had tried to understand how his son had
formed such a sudden connection to Princess Organa. And failed. Perhaps it had
been Vader's presence the boy had been seeking, and he had found hers by
mistake. Perhaps the torture had reeled him in to her instead. That didn't... feel
right.
"Well?"
The stars winked undisturbed by his foul mood. Sian also didn't flinch. "I
don't know." She admitted.
Had it been anyone else, she might have signed her death warrant with those
words. But his personal medic would not have admitted defeat without truly
meaning it. She pushed little blonde swirls from her eyes as she pocketed the
blood sample and turned to Vader. "He's not showing any signs of damage,
internal or external."
Damage. Sian still kept the semantics of her more technical days of
biotechnology; still went back to the language of robotics when she was
puzzled. It was hardly fitting for the son of Darth Vader, laid out cold with
his eyes forced shut on the sofa.
"He was fine earlier." The words sounded hollow even to him.
"I know. I don't understand it. You said he was... contacting someone
else?"
Vader nodded. Sian was used to his referring to the Force, used to treating the
injuries it could inflict. "The Princess."
She frowned. "He does... he is showing some of the same signs of injury
she is." She admitted, jade eyes showing confusion.
Vader's blood began to run cold and he passed into the shade of understanding.
Luke had contacted the Princess, suffered with her and taken on the injuries.
His heart froze at the thought, partly through a strange, new emotion he
tentatively identified as pity, but mostly through guilt. Why hadn't he sensed
his son's presence?
- Because he had been too concerned with getting the information out of the
Princess quickly so he could return to his now-unconscious son.
"Take him to the med bay and treat him as best you can."
She nodded and the troopers stepped in to lift Luke up. "Yes, My Lord.
I'm... not certain there is a lot we can do, however."
Vader felt his heart cool a little more, "I understand."
It was all he could say. In a bare few hours he had come so close to the boy.
Talked with him, taught him, just listened to him for a few scant minutes. To
have that ripped away now...
He shook his head, sudden feelings of protectiveness swarming in his mind.
Never again.
---
It wasn't painful, and it wasn't painless. It was just numb, and unfamiliar.
Even through closed lids, the white light burned with a fury, and even through
the confusion her world was listing and spinning underneath her. She blinked
open her eyes to meet Jade green ones, the owner of them removing a saline feed
from her arm. There was no greeting, no explanations, just a sad, stern but not
unkindly face that was stonily silent. She worked moisture across her lips
before trying to speak.
"I'm-"
"Princess Organa. Yes, I know."
Leia frowned but the woman swept from the room, apparently indifferent to her
patient's confusion, and with the click of a lock, Leia was alone.
Well... not quite. Her eyes roamed the room and rested on the other occupant of
the Imperial med bay; a slight, blonde-headed boy who couldn't be any older
than she was. He was sleeping, or perhaps unconscious, with similar IVs in his
arm to those the medic had removed from her own.
Slipping to a floor cold against her bare feet, she walked across to his
bedside and studied the sleeping boy. Dressed in plain black, his lips were
pale and his face strangely restful, eyes closed. His features had an
aristocratic gentleness that was rare in Imperial stations, but with a more
provincial mop of naturally unruly blonde hair and a sun-kissed tan that belied
an existence spent more in the outdoors than the one she had known growing up
on Alderaan. He was strangely compelling, everything from the little nick of a
cleft chin to delicate blonde lashes bled something into her, and she felt
familiarity despite being sure she had never seen him before.
Gathering the less than pristine white material of her senatorial gown, she
hopped onto the bed beside him and rested her chin on her hands, watching him
sleep. Snatching the medics report from beside his bed, she frowned as she
scrolled through it, realising from reading around the jargon clogging up the
small datapad that he was in some sort of coma.
She almost felt a strange sadness at that as she reached for a lock of blonde
hair that had fallen to the pillow. Her fingers brushed his brow and she jumped
as electricity shot down her arm. She snatched her fingers back, looking at
them in wonder, when there was a gasp of inhaled air and she looked back to the
boy; back into startlingly blue eyes. Some coma...
"Hi." She tried a smile but her tired lips found it hard to form one
after Vader's ministrations. It was replaced by an ill-timed grimace at the
fuzzy memories and he blinked in confusion at the contradiction of her friendly
greeting and her sour expression.
"Uh... hi." He said. He brought a tanned hand up to rub his eyes, and
frowned to himself when it caught on the IV leads.
"Here, let me help." She hopped back to the cold white floor and
belatedly wondered if her shoes were around here if she still wore her
senatorial dress.
She slipped her fingers around the needle into his arm and pulled it out
slowly, feeling that same tingling when she touched his skin. It bled only a
little as he sat up and rubbed his hands through his hair, creating little
spikes and curls that were strangely charming.
"I'm Leia." She smiled, managing it this time. His eyes narrowed on
her before he grinned with a winning smile that she felt could melt any heart.
"Luke. Luke Skywalker." He offered his hand and she shook it, a grin
of her own plastering her face. She wondered at not immediately telling him who
she was, but pushed it aside. For once, a little anonymity might be nice. He
pushed up to a sitting position and looked around the med bay before groaning
and rubbing the nape of his neck.
She opened her lips to ask if her was okay but he waved her off, "I think
I'm going to have to get used to waking up in here." He groaned, lips
curling into a smile. Yes, she could understand that statement; it was
something she was beginning to wonder about herself.
He looked at her quizzically, eyes sparkling. "Do I know you?" He
asked.
He breath caught and she shrugged. "I was going to ask you the same thing.
You seem... familiar." It sounded foolish, and Princess-Senator Organa
rarely allowed herself to be heard saying anything that could be called as
foolish. Still, he was so disarming.
He stared at her, blue eyes ripping right through her, taking in her loose
chestnut hair and wide brown eyes. Suddenly, he sucked in a breath that made
her shiver. "It's you." He whispered, breath against her skin
as he leant closer to her, looking intently into her eyes.
Shocked by his reaction she stepped away until she backed into the bed behind
her, frowning. "Excuse me?" She said in her most regal voice. He was
completely unfazed, despite the blush turning his cheeks ruddy.
"You... I saw you. In a dream, or a vision maybe. You were being... "
She hissed in recognition and remembrance and he stopped as if burnt, hopping
from the bed and reaching a hand to steady her. "Leia?"
"You!" She said. "You were there, in the cell. I thought... I
thought it was just a dream, or a delusion."
Blonde hair; blue eyes you could sink into; infinite compassion... could it
have been real? She re-ran the memories quickly, not certain what was real and what
was her imagination playing tricks on her. He was there, that she remembered.
But...
"... how?" She whispered.
A frown puckered smooth skin and he walked thoughtfully away from her,
movements a little stiff and belying further a more provincial background than
her own. He shrugged his shoulders, the black fabric shifting across the
muscles there. Those muscles... a delicately formed waist... slim hips and -
She shook her head fiercely, glad he wasn't looking at her as she was sure she
must have flushed bright red. What was she doing, Princess of Alderaan eyeing
up a man – boy – she had barely known five minutes? Why was he so damn
attractive?
"I don't know. Maybe it was the Force." He almost looked embarrassed
as he turned back to her and she hurriedly looked away, studying a chart on his
vacated bedside in an attempt to hide her own embarrassment. If only those blue
eyes weren't so compelling, hiding behind lowered blond lashes. She struggled
to reconstruct her quiet dignity from whatever was left after her jaunt through
examining his blonde, tanned, firm body -
Stop it Leia! He doesn't even know your last name!
"The Force?" She gave a sceptical elevation of her eyebrows, regal
composure intact still despite the conspiracies of her hormones. She sat back
on the bed and concentrated furiously at the problem at hand, not the boy in
front of her.
"Yeah, you're right. That sounds stupid." He shrugged again.
"No, I didn't mean that. It's just, how could it be the Force?" She
asked, tongue not as sharp as usual. Normally she would have snapped at him,
but she felt a strange gratitude that he had been there through her
interrogation. Gratitude, and a compelling connection to him. He roamed the
room, pursing his lips. She smiled at the childish expression and quickly hid
it as he turned back to her, expression serious.
"Well... Vader said I could use the Force, so I guess I might have done
something. Uncle Owen was always moaning about me doing that." He gave an
odd little grin, then focused behind her, eyes lit up. "Hey look,
fruit."
"Huh?" She chuckled. She'd had a chastising remark ready for him, but
she looked on in wonder as he rushed past her and reached for a small bowl of
fruit. He lifted a piece and studied it with great interest. She felt another
smile cross her lips and wondered at how this boy could make her smile so much
without ever really cracking a joke.
"Its just a piece of fruit." She said, rolling her eyes.
"Oh, well, yeah. But we didn't really get fruit on Tatooine." He bit
into it and smiled appreciatively before backing up to his bed again. Beneath
her own vacated bed lay a pair of white boots. Hers, she realised. She snagged
them and put them on as he ate, shaking her head in bemusement as his words
suddenly caught up with her.
"You're from Tatooine?" Tatooine, where the Tantive IV had been
captured. Was he a local? From the moisture farms, perhaps, by his tanned skin
and firm-
Stop it, Leia!
"Yeah." He mumbled around eating.
"Do you know General Kenobi? Did he get the droids?" She asked,
feeling feverish. There was really no reason for this boy to know Kenobi from a
whole planet full of people, or to know if Artoo had found him and he had
gotten away.
She had hoped for a reaction, but not the one she received. His expression
soured and he looked down at the half-eaten fruit in disgust before throwing it
to the trash. "Old Ben? Yeah, I know Ben." He said, expression sad
and angry.
Confused, concerned, she crossed the distance to him. "Hey, what's
wrong?" She put a tentative hand on his shoulder at the hurt in those
blue, blue eyes and he jumped as if burnt.
"Nothing." He hissed, backing rapidly away.
She frowned and found her regal bearing planting hands on her hips. "What
is it?" She asked, voice of authority. He flinched, then glared, but it
lacked vehemence.
"Ben tried to kill me." He fixed her with a soul-shattering gaze and
she felt her composure falter just a little.
"What?"
"He tried to kill me." He repeated, offering no explanation. Looking
into those eyes, she thought perhaps it was because he didn't have one to give.
Still, she moved forwards again, trying to get him to stop moving away from
her. His presence was comforting; the only thing offering her any sanity during
her Imperial imprisonment.
"Why?"
His jaw set in a hard line and he suddenly looked much older. "I don't
really know, I'm just a desert farmboy. No one special… Vader said it was
because I can use the Force. But... I don't really know." His words were
as sour as his expression, and she saw the resentment.
"Vader?" She asked gently. "You're Vader's prisoner too?" Well,
of course he was – they were in Darth Vader's personal med bay. He could be
little else.
He nodded his head but his eyes glazed over a little. She touched his arm,
feeling that spark and seeing his head shoot up at the contact. So – it wasn't
just her.
"I guess so. I don't really know. I mean... I'm not in a cell, not like
you were and..." He stopped and shivered; the room cooled a few degrees.
She saw memories there that she shared.
She frowned, swiping at dark hair falling in her eyes and feeling the aches
from her session with the Dark Lord begin to burn again. "Where is he
keeping you then?" She asked, voice dusky and honey-dipped.
He gave a little nervous shrug, full of provincial embarrassment and
uncertainty, not at all like the men she knew from Alderaani court, all
cheap-silk charm and mile-wide smiles. "His quarters."
His quarters? That meant – Her hand left his reflexively and she inhaled
sharply.
"What? What is it?" He asked, earnest.
"So, you're Darth Vader's new pet, huh?" She hissed, "Something
to play with in-between torture sessions and murdering?" The words were
small, cruel, and hit well on the mark. He flinched.
"'Pet'?" He whispered, eyes glazing again.
She strode away from him, then whirled when a thought struck her, "Or are
you a plant?" She hissed, all caustic and trembling with anger.
"Couldn't get it out of me through torture so you'll try a little friendly
persuasion?"
She pointed a finger at him, incensed, "Well, crawl back to your master,
little pet. If I'm not betraying the rebels after a few hours of
torture, I'm certainly not going to for some callow farmboy."
She realised she was talking to the air, almost as if there were camera
watching, recording. And perhaps there were.
She focused on Luke again and felt her steely hatred start to crumble. He was
pale, shaking, hurt. Just a kid in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"I... no! I never..." He choked and turned his back on her. "I
don't know why Vader is keeping me." He said, words solid, dispassionate,
"Maybe you're right, maybe I'm just some idle pastime for him." He
sounded truly hurt, abandoned, rejected. "But I'm not working for him! I
wouldn't... couldn't help him do that."
She saw those black-draped shoulders shake and felt guilt hammer at her
stomach. Leia had jumped to the conclusion yet again, and been horribly wrong.
He wasn't an agent. They would have picked someone far more convincing.
"I'm... sorry, Luke. I wasn't thinking." She bit her lip when he
refused to turn back to her. "I guess... I just can't think of any other
reason for Vader to keep you."
There was a silence broken only by the humm of air-conditioning and medical
equipment. Finally he turned back to her, eyes softening. "He said... he
said he wants to teach me to use the Force."
"Why? He destroyed all the Jedi, why try and train someone new?" She
was thinking out loud and he shook his head.
"I really don't know about any of that.... no one ever told me." He
said. She looked at him sadly, realising the predicament. At least she
understood why she was a prisoner. "He said my father was a Jedi.
Anakin Skywalker."
She smiled, "Yes, I remember my father talking about a Jedi called Anakin
Skywalker." He looked up, startled. "I think he might have been quite
famous."
He opened his mouth to ask more, a wide grin spreading across it, but suddenly
looked to the far door before it opened and a terribly familiar presence swept
into the room. Luke's Master and her nemesis; Darth Vader. Hate swelled and the
track lines of hypodermics stung in sympathy.
"Darth Vader." She hissed. "How kind of you to honour us with a
visit-"
He gave her a cursory glance, then brushed past her to Luke's side, towering
above them both. She gaped in astonishment as he placed a hand on Luke's
forehead and Luke backed hurriedly away to collide with a wall.
"You're awake." He said, clearly addressing Skywalker with a little
twinge of astonishment.
Luke stood his ground and gazed up into the mask. "Yes..."
"You seem surprised Vader, what did you do to him?" Leia interjected
between the two, trying to protect her newfound friend.
Vader turned to her, exasperated already. "I am. He was in a coma. What
did you do?"
She glared, not letting the confusion over this suddenly-concerned Vader phase
her, "Nothing, he just woke up." Which wasn't quite true; Luke had
woken when she touched him, but she wasn't inclined to be interrogated in any
way by the Dark Lord.
"What happened to me?" Luke asked Vader, voice surprisingly strong
and demanding. His eyes flicked to Leia.
"That, child, is what I intend to find out." Vader said, surprisingly
affectionate. There was something between these two that chilled her blood.
"But not now." He turned to Leia and now her breath definitely did
freeze. "Princess, you must accompany me to the bridge." Luke jumped
when he addressed her as 'Princess', shock clear on his face.
Her eyes narrowed to bare slits, voice as frosty as the ground on the Alderaani
royal mountain retreats, "Why should I do that, Lord Vader?"
In answer he grabbed her arm and she winced when his fingers enclosed on the
needle points there. He started to drag her towards the door, obviously in a
foul mood. Whether that was from his confusion at Luke's awakening or her own
defiance she couldn't say.
"No! I..."
Luke leapt forward then and pulled her from Vader's grasp with surprising
strength. "Leave her alone." He hissed. Leia just gaped.
"Luke..."
Luke planted himself between them, and shook his head, sending blonde bangs
over his eyes. "You tortured her! I felt it!" The words were harsh
but the voice barely audible, shivering with hatred Leia was sure didn't belong
to that soft voice.
Vader reached for her again and Luke stepped between them again. With surprising
urgency, Vader backhanded Luke across the face and sent him sprawling to the
floor before grabbing her arm again, squeezing even harder. Luke sat down
heavily on the floor from the blow, dazed. Vader stilled suddenly and turned to
the boy, his breath coming out in a rush. For long, torturous seconds Master
and pet looked at each other and the air was shattered only when Luke raised a
hand gingerly to his bloodless cheek.
Vader started for him and this time it was Leia's turn to haul the Dark Lord
back. "Leave him alone!" She spat. "He hasn't done
anything!"
Not true; he had just defended her despite her cruel words earlier. There was a
deep, enticing side to this boy that went far beyond the farmboy good looks and
naïve allure.
Vader stopped, very still, and let Leia's hand go. She wished she knew what was
rampaging through that dark mind as she bent and helped Luke up, glaring at the
Dark Lord all the time. Luke gave her a weak smile, but looked shocked, but she
didn't know why he should be surprised; Vader was hardly known for his
compassion.
Finally, Vader broke out of his reverie and spoke, "Princess, you must
accompany me to the bridge." He said, words soft, sad. He was talking to
her but his gaze was on the boy beside her. "Governor Tarkin wishes to
talk with you. Do not make me force you anymore."
At that Luke's jaw set hard and his hand squeezed hers, and she thought she
understood a little of those masked thoughts. Don't make me force you – I
don't mind fighting you, but I don't want to hurt Luke any more.
She shivered and nodded her head.
"I'm coming too." Luke said. Leia looked at him with twin feelings of
astonishment and gratitude. Never, never before had she formed such a firm
connection so quickly. But there was something there, and they both felt it.
And now he wanted to try and protect her any way he could. He glared at Vader,
little thunderbolts of determination in his eyes. His blue, blue eyes.
Vader must have seen it too. "Very well, follow me." He turned
swiftly, hurriedly, nervously from the room and strode through the door. Leia
looked nervously at her would-be bodyguard and shrugged as troopers entered to
escort them to the bridge. Luke tried not to stare in wonderment at the
corridors; Vader occasionally looked back at the defiant children following
reluctantly.
It was a short walk, but it would be the longest day of her life.
They've met, they've talked, they're getting on (sort of)… Liked?
Mina.