Luke stood next to Leia, in an area off the pressroom. In a moment, they'd go out there, face the press, and make their announcement.
His sister was all princess, cool and controlled, answering questions calmly, and bestowing smiles and compliments on the people who needed and deserved them. But he could hear her heart pounding like a march of a hundred soldiers in his ears.
Luke wasn't ignorant. True, some of that naïve farmboy still lived inside him while the rest was burned, tested, and hardened by the war and his father. Especially his father. He knew what he was announcing was not great news and that some people never would think otherwise. The entire galaxy was out there, courtesy of the media's speed. He felt their attention waiting, preparing to drill into him. For the first time, he began to feel what Leia warned him about.
But as he reached out to the Force, he sensed again the rightness in what they were doing. He kept himself from remembering how fluid the future was.
He watched her take in the people running about them, all support staff from the Republic. No one from the Embassy. His breath hitched. The night after their meeting with Mon Mothma, Leia suddenly realized the trouble their announcement would cause the Alderaani. Tarkin destroyed Alderaan; Vader served Tarkin while he did it; Leia was going to tell them she was Vader's daughter. When the thought crossed her face that the Alderaani might disown her as Organa, Luke saw his sister get close to being violently ill.
She reneged on her earlier decision to tell no one until the official announcement, and first called in Lynette Channah to her office, shutting the door and staying behind it for a brief time. When Channah came out, Luke saw the two bright spots of color high on her cheeks. She passed him without saying anything, and Leia only told him the rest of the staff was being informed that night. She then made a recorded announcement for Alderaan's survivors, sending out a call for them to gather in different meeting points around the galaxy. No one pointed out the bitter irony that it was only a short time ago she had done the same thing to promise her people she'd rebuild their home.
The Alderaani announcement would play a few moments before Leia and Luke took the podium in the pressroom. It warned the survivors that the official statement was coming immediately after the recording, and that Leia -- by her oath and duty as their princess and by her personal desire – promised to abide by whatever decision they made. Undoubtedly a vote was coming, one that put her in or out of her royal title and her representation of them.
Lando and Han had argued loudly with her about that. They said she had enemies -- people amongst the Alderaani who once fought Bail Organa for the Viceroy title, and people elsewhere in the galaxy who held a grudge from the Senate or the war. These enemies would take the opportunity to get her thrown out whether the majority cared about her relationship to Vader or not. But her chin went up and her eyes got the look that warned of an approaching storm, and the argument ended. Ended with Chewie's promise to snap any neck belonging to a person that tried to hurt her.
But Luke saw her loading her personal belongings onboard the Falcon this morning, in case she was turned out of the embassy. Saw her wistfully eyeing the portraits of the Organas christening the atriums, and the more casual holos adorning the residential floors – all property of the embassy and something she couldn't take with her if she was voted no longer a part of it.
He had gone to Wedge and the other Rogues shortly after Leia talked to Channah. Their expressions on hearing about Vader, so similar to Leia's when she heard on Endor, were a blow. He left them to think about it, and hadn't heard from any of them yet. He did hear their regular patrols were done with a lot more ferocity as if they took their internal conflict out on their beloved ships.
Luke watched Leia now as she kept her public façade strong while her doubts and fears pummeled his senses. She didn't realize she was broadcasting, and he'd have to show her some controls for her Force senses, but with all this going on, any sort of training seemed a subject best left alone.
"Leia," he said quietly. She turned towards him, eyebrows raised in question. "Would you do this for anyone else?"
She frowned. "You mean, if Mon told me to do it?"
"I mean, if someone else was your brother." He suddenly realized that if someone else was her brother, this might never be an issue. What would have happened to his father then, with a son who didn't believe in him?
She looked startled, but he was asking her to think about it so she did. "If some stranger came to me and said he was my brother… no, I wouldn't. I'd still be thrilled to find out I had a twin, but I'd never be here for some stranger. And if someone I knew and cared about – I don't know, say Wedge – was the brother, I think it'd still be no." She shrugged and a small smile peeked out. "You, and only you, always talk me into things. Han tries, but I get stubborn and only do it if I secretly want to anyway. Or because I got tired of his nagging. I told you before, Luke. You're my best friend."
She thought he was teasing, but he wasn't. "So this is just because of me?"
She stood looking at him solemnly before taking his hand. He no longer noticed that she freely grabbed his artificial one with no sign of distaste, just as she had since he lost his real one.
"Luke, you, and you being my brother, are the only things that make this bearable. No, more than bearable. Finding out about you makes me happy, very happy. Nothing, and I mean that, will ever change that."
He swallowed hard. "You're risking a lot for my sake."
"I know." She looked up into his downcast eyes. "It's hitting you, isn't it?"
He nodded. "For you, not me. I know I'm right, and I'm willing to take the risk to prove it."
"Are you?" she asked. "You're going to be a Jedi Knight for people who rejected you?" She missed how the question staggered him. A small smile lifted the corners of her mouth. "Never mind, I already know the answer. Being a Jedi is too much a part of you. You couldn't give it up, any more than you'll stop loving being a pilot."
He looked inside himself. "Are you so sure?"
"Yes, I am. I don't know everything about the Jedi, but I know all about you. And after all, who is throwing you out of the Order? You are the Order! With Master Yoda's full approval. No one can take that away, Luke. You're a Jedi. You'll be one no matter happens in the next few days."
"And what will you do?"
She smiled sadly. "No surprise that I've been thinking about it. If the Alderaani vote me out but the Republic votes for me to stay, then I'll stay. I'm not sure as what. There's no such thing as a Senator without a planet or a people, but I suppose Mon Mothma might take me on as some sort of aide. Now, if the opposite happens – if the Republic votes me out, but the Alderaani vote in favor of me -- then I'll be thrilled not to lose their faith, but I'll have to give up my title. I can't penalize my people with a princess or Senator that the Republic sees as the next Vader." She swallowed. "If the worst happens and both vote me out... I don't know, Luke. What am I going to do? Spice smuggle with Han? I'm not the type." She thrust aside the sadness, but Luke felt it hovering in her senses. "I'll tell you one thing. I'll never come back to this planet again. I've always hated Coruscant. Cold hearted rock -- everything natural was killed here a long time ago."
He agreed with that! He couldn't believe the Order had made its home here. The Force was energy comprised of all living things, and while all the different species here took part in it, it lacked the usual clean flavor of abundant plant and non-sentient animal life.
He listened to every brave word she said, and responded with the words he swore he'd hold back. "Come with me."
"What?" She was taken aback, but then grinned. "Well, what did you think I was going to do? Never speak to you again?"
"That's not what I meant."
She frowned, puzzled. "Then what did you mean?"
He meant Jedi training. That he saw them both alone, battling against a heritage that robbed them of everything. That she was right about him -- he was a Jedi even if people might think of him otherwise. And that no matter where she ended, she needed, as he needed, to be a part of that inner fire, to know it fully. That he heard Yoda's words that told him not only was he a Jedi, but...
Luke, there is another Skywalker. Pass on what you have learned.
But he also sensed her anger, her fear, and her pain for everything Vader was. She had to face it before her life could really go on.
"Never mind that. Answer something else for me instead," he said. "Do you believe what I say about our father?"
She sighed deeply, but she was too strong a person to look away. "One thing at a time, Luke. Let's just get through this."
"Getting through this means I need to know where we stand. I'm risking you—"
"If I don't take this risk with you, your fight is over before it begins. If people see us divided, they'll never listen."
He repeated firmly. "So, do you believe me? Tell me what you think."
A beat passed before she looked at him, that familiar intensity to the set of her jaw. "Tell you exactly what I think?" He nodded. "I think he saved your life because he looked at you and saw everything he gave up. I think he was ashamed at that moment for being who he was, and he made a choice. Stay with Palpatine who he made his original choice for, or save you and let what he could have been live. I believe I owe him my gratitude for that, and for destroying the Emperor. But I don't owe him anything else. Not forgiveness, not a change in my feelings towards him, nothing but my deep and sincere thanks for saving my brother and ridding this galaxy of its worst enemy. Both its enemies, because he died too."
Her words saddened him, but did not surprise or shock him. She was close to where he was on Endor when he said to Vader, "I know that you were once Anakin Skywalker, my father."
Except, he truly believed that, and Leia didn't.
He glimpsed Han and Lando coming up behind her and blinked. He grinned. "I don't believe it."
She spun around and blinked herself. "Neither do I. Who paid you to get into a dress uniform?"
Han shrugged, and did it again to move around his stiff collar. He jerked a thumb at Calrissian. "His idea, sweetheart."
Lando flashed white teeth. "I always make sure I look my best when I'm going in front of the holovids." He swept his cape into a dashing bow before her.
Solo rolled his eyes. "Just be glad he got the Wook to stuff me into this torture suit, Your Princessness."
Luke caught his gaze over Leia's head as she retorted. Han and Lando weren't fooling anyone, but they'd play at the pretense. The truth was, it didn't help Luke and Leia to go out in front of the press with former drug smugglers and mercenaries. The uniforms reminded everyone of whom Solo and Calrissian chose to be now, and what they had accomplished since that change.
Threepio crossed from a computer station on the far wall, interrupting apologetically. "Mistress Leia, you asked to be notified--"
Her face became grim. "That's what I thought. Thank you, Threepio."
Han didn't look too happy over her reaction. "Notified about what?"
"The message just went out to the Alderaani."
Luke took in again the support personnel bustling around, staff only from the Republic offices.
Leia pressed on. "What about the media, Threepio?"
"Nearly everyone has arrived, Your Highness, and they each received their press kit."
"Press kit?" Lando asked.
Luke answered, although it had been his sister's idea. "Biographical information, details on our careers, that sort of thing."
Han hadn't taken his eyes off Leia. "How much longer?"
She didn't need to check with Threepio. "Not long. Let the stragglers get in and have a chance to read--" She broke off, making the men look in the direction where she stared.
Channah entered the prep room, a man at her side. They led a long line of people, some of whom Luke recognized from the Embassy while others were completely new faces. He saw, as Leia certainly did, that a few Embassy personnel weren't here, but they were a rare few.
The man stopped, and put his hand on Channah's arm, keeping her with him as he suggested the others should continue into the pressroom. As they did, each making sure to make eye contact with the princess, some also nodding, some letting the brief glance say what they wanted, Channah and this man Luke vaguely recognized came over and bowed.
"Your Highness," he said deliberately, letting it hang in the air for a beat. He wasn't much taller than Luke, his skin a mocha brown, lighter than his dark, almond shaped eyes and black short cropped hair. "The official vote will not be until some time later today, but we who either work in the Embassy or somewhere else on Coruscant held our own. You see the result." He indicated the line of Alderaani going by. Lando and Han started talking, but Channah's pointed azure gaze respectfully silenced them. The man waited for each of their people to walk past before speaking again. "We came so you would know." He nodded towards the pressroom. "And so everyone in there will know."
"Thank you, Reynold." Leia's eyes shone. "Lynette--"
Channah stopped the rest of that statement by bowing again deeply. "Your Highness." She strode towards the pressroom, head held high.
The man paused at Luke, not sure what to say, but Skywalker never thought he had a claim to the Alderaani. "Thank you for what you just did--" he began.
Leia hurriedly introduced them. "I'm sorry. Luke Skywalker, this is Reynold Idwal. We worked together in the past. He just came in last night."
Did you wonder, Leia, if he was brought in as your replacement? Channah knew by then about Vader.
But Leia's former aide just proved his loyalty. He nodded respectfully, and left in the same direction as the others.
Luke put a hand on Leia's shoulder, saying nothing, but she spoke as if he had.
"Maybe you were right, Luke." Her gaze stayed on the door where the Alderaani had passed through. "Maybe I was wrong about how people would react."
She didn't see Han and Lando exchange skeptical glances, and Luke tried to put it from his mind.
She took a deep breath, and drew herself up, lifting her own head high. "It's time," she told him.
He nodded and took a step away, Lando joining him as he mentioned Chewie was in the back of the pressroom now. "Just in case." Neither turned around nor listened to Han and Leia as Solo pressed his lips to hers and they murmured something to each other.
She stepped up to Luke's side and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "For luck," she smiled.
They entered the pressroom together. Appearing before the media was still very new to him, and he found it hard to take the assault of lights, holovid cameras, and journalist questions in stride. That made it even more necessary that Leia should speak first. He was impressed how confidently she faced everyone, a small smile on her lips, as her apprehension gave him a different assault on his senses.
Threepio moved in front of the podium. "Princess Organa and Commander Skywalker will be making a brief statement followed by a question and answer period."
Just then, Wedge Antilles and the other members of Rogue Squadron filtered into the back of the room. Wedge solemnly saluted Luke, and then grinned. The other pilots flipped salutes to him too; some of them carefully kept out of sight of the holocams as they weren't suitable for public viewing.
One of the huge boulders pressing on Luke's chest rolled away. He saluted – properly – back, and several journalists turned to see at whom. It made an important note later that the Alderaani and Rogue flight came out in support of their people, knowing what they did.
Leia moved forward. "Thank you all for coming. You already know this announcement regards something personal for Luke and I--"
He saw some of the reporters glance from Leia to Han and then to him, clearly wondering if the gossip channels had been following the wrong couple.
"—I am also reiterating that we will be touching on some events you're already familiar with. It's necessary for today's new information to make sense. One such event is Commander Skywalker's foster family on Tatooine…"
Quite a few people opened their press kits again.
"…along with the reports he heard from people who knew his father, Anakin Skywalker." She barely paused, and Luke doubted anyone but he and Han saw her quick motion to lick her lips.
All of this went over well, but when she next announced the Organas had adopted her, stunned silence reigned over the room.
"Who my birth family was," she continued immediately, keeping the same calm, confident voice, "was as much a secret to me as anyone else outside the Organa family. The secrecy was necessary. My birth mother gave me to the Organas because her own life was at risk from Palpatine. She felt that danger passed to me as her child. The Organas promised to raise me as their own, keeping me safe from her enemies."
Luke spoke now. "As you probably have already guessed, the first part of our announcement is how Leia and I, in looking for our blood relatives, found each other. This chain of events is very involved and begins with what Leia just explained about our mother's life being threatened by Palpatine." He summarized how he and Leia were separated at birth with him being taken by Kenobi to Tatooine while Leia knew their mother for her first years.
Only veteran reporters such as these could hold on the questions threatening to burst from their mouths, or not make outright exclamations of shock. Experience from too many war announcements in the days since Endor. Some even served the news when Palpatine was Chancellor, and remembered the day he announced himself Emperor – these were people who knew how to wait, hear everything thrown at them, rapidly process the dizzying amount of information, and prepare their questions for later.
"The next part of our announcement deals with our father himself, Anakin Skywalker," Luke continued. He felt Leia brace herself and realized with surprise that he did too. "I discovered this information myself right before and during the battle of Endor. I spoke with my sister--" How good it felt to say those words in public for the first time. "—about it later and we've been researching it until this time."
That covered the time period from Endor until today, and hopefully bypassed any accusations of keeping it a secret for so long.
"My father was apprenticed to General and Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. He fought in the Clone Wars as well as representing and defending the first Republic. Master Kenobi noted his strength in the Force as well as being an accomplished pilot. But as I discovered before Endor, his service took an ugly turn."
Luke continued to read the carefully prepared words just as they were written, but no amount of time and effort, not even from someone of Leia's experience, would make the statement an easy thing to hear… or say. In one second, he uttered the words that made headlines and newscasts around the galaxy. One reporter after another was going to say the same words in some version of their own that night and repeatedly in the days to come.
It was discovered today that Darth Vader's legacy lives on in, astonishingly, in his newly found children. Children who are none other than the well-known Republic leader, Princess Leia Organa, and Commander Luke Skywalker, supposedly a Jedi Knight. In fact, their father, Anakin Skywalker reportedly was a Jedi himself before taking up his service with Emperor Palpatine as Darth Vader…
The Force immediately made Luke feel the shift in the room. Feelings of hate, feelings of betrayal, images of Vader overlaid on Leia and him. Some sat in stunned silence, some held judgement, but the barrage of negative emotion battered his mind. Leia unconsciously sensed it too, and her shoulders drew back in a stiff line.
Even the veteran journalists here barely noted the rest of the speech, and struck verbally the instant after the prepared statement's conclusion.
"Are you resigning your positions in the Republic?"
"No," Leia answered. "Resigning would be a statement of guilt, and we've done nothing wrong."
Another person, a male Twilek, gestured to speak. "Surely you see that your character is compromised. How is anyone to believe you are not a risk to the Republic? Who can trust a Jedi Order founded by Vader's son?"
"Anakin Skywalker," Luke corrected.
"By your own admission, they are one and the same."
"No," Luke pressed. "They are not. I was quite clear on that point."
But the Twilek dismissed this, and Luke felt his temper heat. He used the Force to calm himself. He was no good to himself or anybody else if he lost control.
"Your reputation was already tarnished by the company you keep." The Twilek pointedly gazed at Han and Lando.
Leia interrupted. "You have my records, including my days in the Senate as well as the war. And Luke not only created and commanded Rogue Flight, he served in the battles against both Death Stars, including the destruction of the first one. He also was trained both by Master Kenobi and Master Yoda to become a Jedi."
"And my other point?" the Twilek pressed, again indicating Solo and Calrissian.
Han, who had kept his arms locked over his chest in a barely restrained stance this whole time, now shifted into something more dangerous. "You got a problem with me?"
Leia held up her hand – the pressroom was no place for a cantina brawl – but Lando spoke up, coming to the podium.
"Wait a minute. I'd like to answer that. Han here was with the Rebellion since he first helped Luke and General Kenobi smuggle the Death Star plans to Yavin, as well as rescuing Princess Leia. He fought in that battle, providing cover that knocked Vader out of the firefight and gave Luke a chance to destroy the station. And that was just the first instance of how much he gave. I joined after the seizure of Bespin by the Empire, including leading the fighter squadrons against the second Death Star. Now, maybe that's not equal to the records of the other people I'm proud to stand with up here. But I would like to know, who in this audience risked your life to bring down the Empire? Raise your hand if you took any action instead of standing around waiting for the Rebellion to do it for you."
Low, grumbled mumbling answered him, but no one raised their hand. Instead, they accused him of grandstanding.
Leia argued against that. "You may not like his answer, but the question was on the floor and it has been answered. If you do not want any more such responses, I suggest you remember no one is on trial here."
The Twilek reporter who started this downward spiral snapped back. "Perhaps some of you need to be, if this galaxy is ever to feel safe again. Putting you on trial--"
"For what crime?" she demanded. "Being born?"
His mouth opened and closed, and finally he bared pointed teeth. Others in the room seemed torn on which way to fall, for or against his stand, and Luke felt Leia's worry that they had lost all control.
But she never backed down. "I remind you this is a personal statement that Luke and I willingly came forward to make. We did not have to. We could have kept this information to ourselves rather than risk any negative response. We chose to do this because we had nothing to hide. We did no wrong."
Another reported leapt to her feet. "Besides yourselves and your official records, what witnesses do you offer for what happened?"
"No one else is alive," Luke answered. "Both of my masters are gone. So are obviously my father--" a ripple of distaste seeped across the room at the Vader reference. "and my foster family."
"And the Organas? No one has left any account of their place in this?"
"We're well aware of how sad a story it is," Leia said grimly.
"Are you just as aware no one's alive to confirm your story?" was the acerbic reply.
"Not quite," someone else answered.
The voice came from the back of the room, and the hum from the reporters turned to confusion before recognition shot them to their feet. Berthold Emyr, a former Senator from Tenoch and a Rebellion leader -- rumored to be soon appointed as Mothma's majordomo -- stood inside the door and announced:
"Gentlebeings, the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic."
She was already walking past him before the words were out of his reptilian mouth. Ackbar came with her as well as Etta Karnik, another Alliance leader and former Senator.
Mothma held up her hand to courteously silence the applause before she stepped up to the podium. "I apologize for the interruption, but I would like to handle part of this question myself. While we are still searching for any files existing before the Empire, we have found these in the Imperial network. According to experts, they bear Palpatine's personal encryption. You will have a chance to verify all this for yourselves."
Another buzz of voices as Mothma nodded to an assistant who stepped next to Artoo Detoo at a computer station. The man quickly brought up the promised files onto a screen that dominated the room's left hand wall.
A woman appeared in elegant robes, her wide brown eyes snapping with strength as she made some argument. Next to her, a tall dark man with a black goatee leaned to whisper something in her ear as she paused for her off screen opponent.
Leia suddenly grabbed Luke's wrist. "Luke, that's her! That's our mother."
He couldn't tear his eyes off the image and he didn't realize he had stopped breathing until his lungs seized for oxygen. As he deeply inhaled, still staring, he heard Leia's almost child-like excitement.
"That's my father with her."
Holocams grabbed that image of her and spread it like wildfire for days: the sight of Princess Leia gazing at once both so happily and so sadly at Bail Organa with those wistful words, "That's my father." More than one reporter's head turned towards her, noting what she said, and some distrust dissipated from the air.
Mothma spoke firmly. "Those of you who, like me, served in those last days before Palpatine declared himself Emperor will most likely remember the woman you are looking at now. She made a respectable and honored name for herself as a staunch supporter of peace and rights in the galaxy. She is Padmé Amidala, former Senator and Queen of the Naboo." A smile lit her face beautifully. "As Princess Leia has already noted, the man next to Senator Amidala in this image is Senator Bail Organa, former Viceroy and Prince of Alderaan."
She gestured again to the assistant at the computer. The image reduced to two-thirds of the screen as columns of notes scrolled along side of it.
"You can see here that these notes, made by Palpatine himself, not only confirm the Senator's identity, but explains his concerns over her influence in the Senate. Especially regarding issues she unknowingly opposed him on. Because of this opposition, he identifies--" she signaled once more and they zoomed in on a block of notes enlarged so they were easily seen. "— assassination attempts he made against Senator Amidala going back as far as the Trade Federation's blockade on Naboo. These reports also list--" More notes highlighted. "—her relationship with Jedi Anakin Skywalker, fears that the Emperor kept quiet but acted on.
Copies of the file were handed out, and Luke and Leia eagerly snatched at them.
One reporter took advantage of this pause to yell a question. "Chancellor Mothma, what is the Republic's stance on Skywalker and Organa?"
Her gaze now steel, she impaled the man with both look and words. "Do not insult our intelligence or our loyalty to suggest we would do anything but recognize two people who have served so well and so faithfully. My Council met this morning only as a matter of formality, and the vote was overwhelmingly to ask them to continue their service which has so honored us over the years." He opened his mouth and she cut him off. "I also suggest you don't insult such an accomplished woman as their mother or a man of such integrity as Bail Organa as to make juvenile ideas against Princess Organa's or Jedi Skywalker's loyalty to this galaxy. If just one of us in this government had any doubts about them, we would not be asking them to undertake the mission to Naboo next month."
Luke hid his startled surprise as best as possible in front of everyone, but he shared it with Leia as they looked at each other happily. They were going to Naboo. Their mother's planet.
"Who better to go to Palpatine's homeworld and let them know we remember the Nubians as people of strength and veracity, not sullied by one man's actions, than the former Queen and Senator's children?"
A cacophony of questions and shouts rang out while Mothma darted a glance to a bemused Leia who nodded in understanding. The Chancellor faced front again.
"This conference is over. Thank you for your time and good day."
Threepio's prim voice sounded over the din, "No, no, no! Master Luke and Mistress Leia are not available for any more questions right now! You have all the information you need to confirm--" as Chewbacca pushed through the crowd, forming a wall of formidable muscle, blocking the others as they ducked out of the room.
