Chapter 7

Vader was anxious to hear what the medical droid had in mind. Cured? Healed? After all these years? It had been such a dream of his. Days and nights on end he had lay in his chamber, dreaming of combining his power with Luke's to help heal him. He had fanasized about walking side by side with Luke, talking to him, free of the suit, as normal beings do. Could it actually happen? "Well, tell me." he begged the droid XC-454.

"Lord Vader, do you have any siblings?"

"No" His heart sank with a heavy sigh. "Is that necessary?"

"Well, either siblings, or a child, but I know you don't have any children." The droid put his head down.

"Children? Yes I do!" Vader said with raised enthusiasm. "I only recently found out. I have a grown son and daughter."

"This is good, very good." The droid informed him. "What we will need is specimens. They must be a genetic match for you. We take a bit of skin tissue, and lung tissue, even hair follicles, and grow them, then make them a part of you. Do you think one of your children will be willing to donate?"

Vader was concerned. "Will this hurt them? How much tissue is needed?"

"VERY small amount. It will not even be noticed."

Vader smiled. "Then I hope we can do this! I believe my son will do this for me! But, how long will it take?"

"Not long at all. We can regrow the tissue in a matter of days to cover all of your damaged skin and internal lung tissue."

Vader couldn't believe it. "How is that possible?"

The droid looked offended. "Lord Vader, for years science has had the technology to create clones from human tissue, and to excellerate their growth rate alarmingly. So why would you question that only a few parts could be regrown?"

Vader was furious. Of course! This procedure had existed all along, and Palpatine had not told him! Even after Luke was discovered. He wanted him to remain a freak in a black costume all his life. His hatred for Palpatine was so overwhelming he felt the dark side returning to his nature. He had felt it all but leave in his happiness, but now his anger and bitterness were great. All this time, he could have been cured, or at least improved. All this time he suffered needlessly! The droid further explained that though his limbs could nto be regrown, they could be replaced with more lightweight and functional ones with lifelike skin covering and more sensitive nerve like feelings. Vader closed his eyes and imaged how great it was going to be to be whole again! He would be able to breathe again! He would be able to walk about looking like a normal man, not a character. He had to ask Luke. But yes, he was sure Luke would agree. Surely Luke would be excited at the prospect of a healthy, normal father!

On Dagobah, the glowy spirits of Obi Wan and Yoda felt a disturbance in the force. They could no longer sense Leia. It upset them. They must try to commune with the eternal force to find her location. Surely she was among the living, she had to be! She had to be found, and trained, and used to stop Luke and Vader from ruling the galaxy as father and son with the dark side. Unknown to them, and their feelings, Luke and Vader were perhaps not as Sithy as they were suspecting.

Vader called Luke to come to his side. He filled him in on the surgery plans, and Luke was willing and ready to cooperate. He said any small sacrifce to save his father any more pain would be a pleasure. The droids took a small piece of Luke's skin from his back, a small section of hair follicles from the underneath back part of his head. Neither of these even showed, and would easily be grown over and back. His hair hid the small spot on his scalp, his clothes the one on his back. The most invasive sample taking would be from his lungs. He did not need surgery, it was extracted by going down his windpipe with a laser hose. Other than gagging, he hardly felt it. It was just a little scraping and did no damage to him. It was two tiny specks of cells, not even making a wound in Luke's lung tissue, but they would regrow the damaged lung tissue Vader would need to breathe again. Vader was concerned that Luke had been hurt, but he and the droids assured him it was minimal and almost insignficant to a healthy young man in good shape.Luke stood up and smiled, showing his father he was fine. He would rest a few days, and in those few days, the tissue would be growing inside the laboratory, and then on Vader, making him almost normal again. Luke was almost as excited as Vader, whose heart was pounding too fast for his mechanized breathing. But he would not need that much longer. Soon, very soon, things would be different for Vader. He would be more his old again. And maybe, with that, more like Anakin Skywalker.

Landing on Kashyyk, Chewy, Han, and Leia were at a loss to explain what had happened. With all the technology available to the galaxy, time travel had been an impossibility. And here they had discovered it accidently.

"Chewy, are you sure we are in the past?" Han questioned in his sarcastic tone. Chewy pointed out things to him and promised him he was right. They were living in the times of the Clone Wars, the days when the Wookies battled bravely for their freedom. These were the last days of the Jedi knights, just before the Empire, he explained. Leia was stunned.

"Chewy, does that mean- my father- Anakin Skywalker- was still a Jedi, and my mother, was still alive?"

"Rrrrahhhh!" He barked. That meant, yes.

Leia was feeling full of mixed emotions. She feared they would never be able to travel back to their own time, yet she couldn't help but see this as a way to save her parents. If she could find them in time, she might be able to stop the whole bad series of events from happening. But then, how would that affect her own current existence? Or Luke's? She'd have to figure it out, somehow. She had been feeling so strange lately, and so much a part of the force, she knew this turn of events had to have meaning.

Han stared around in a daze, and shook his head. "Well Chewy, do you, did you- know of anyone around here who could fix hyperdrive? I think our problems are beyond our own control. We need help."

Leia took that in more than one way. Help. That was something she surely could use. There was so much to do, in this time, and the other, if they could ever get back. And if they were to change things here and now, what would that mean for what was going on in their own time?