Chapter VI
Luke never thought he would be thinking this, but it was good to be home.
He leaped out of the speeder before it had fully stopped, smiling broadly. Just a few days ago he'd thought he'd never see the homestead again. Funny – he'd always thought this place boring and thought he'd be glad to go. But now, he felt nothing but relief at being back home.
"C'mon, Dad, I'll show you around!" he urged.
Vader climbed out of the speeder. "Not much has changed, has it?"
"You mean you've been here before?"
Vader nodded. "Before you were born, Luke. It was… when your grandmother died."
Luke's mouth gaped open. His father and mother had been mysterious entities to him before, but his grandparents were practically nonexistent. "I had a Grandma Skywalker?"
"Yes, Luke," Owen replied quietly. "She was killed by Tusken Raiders about ten years ago." He gestured vaguely at a patch of land beyond the homestead. "We buried her there."
Luke stared. "I was living next to Grandma Skywalker all this time? How come you never told me about her? Why is everything Skywalker such a secret?"
Owen sighed. "Luke, I didn't want you to find out. I didn't want you to know your father had become… Vader. I was afraid that you would be hurt… I'm sorry."
Luke opened his mouth to retort.
"Luke, there is much you don't know about me," Vader told him. "Your uncle had his reasons for keeping our relationship secret. Trust him. He loves you and wants what is best for you. As do I." He paused, as if wondering what to say next. "I will explain everything soon, but for now, please do not hate your uncle for hiding your past from you."
He wanted to say no, but the promise of an explanation was good enough for now. "Okay." Then a strange thought struck him. "What about Grandpa Skywalker? Is he buried out there too? Or is he still alive somewhere?"
Owen gave Vader a curious look, as if wondering about the answer himself. Vader was silent, taken aback by Luke's question for some reason.
"That, too, will be explained soon," Vader replied.
That didn't make Luke any happier, but he didn't argue. If he made a fuss, he might never get an explanation. "Okay."
"Good. Now…" Vader's gaze swept the farm. "I was promised a grand tour of the homestead…"
Vader's gaze rested upon something Luke hadn't noticed until now – a space yacht. The ship was a far cry from any of the rusted, patched clunkers he'd always seen buzzing to and from Mos Eisley. It was all sweeping curves and gleaming steel, speaking of elegance and grace without sacrificing speed and agility. Luke almost pinched himself to be sure of what he saw. Stars, how he'd love to fly a ship like that someday!
"That's Bail Organa's ship," Vader said in a hard voice.
"Stang it all," Owen snapped. "I was going to explain that…"
"Explain what?" Vader demanded.
Owen shifted uncomfortably. "Both Bail and Kenobi were there when Luke's mother… passed away," he explained. "I still don't know all the details… but to make a long story short, Luke wasn't the only child born that day. She was carrying twins."
Luke's jaw dropped.
"Twins?" Vader repeated, stunned. "Luke has a sibling?"
Owen nodded. "Kenobi and that dwarf what's-his-face decided to split the twins up for some reason. Bail took one, and Kenobi brought Luke here for us to raise. When Bail heard you'd come back into Luke's life, he decided to come out… and he brought Luke's twin."
Luke finally caught on. "I have a brother?" he gushed.
"No," Owen corrected. "You have a sister."
"A sister?" He couldn't keep a distasteful expression off his face. A brother would have been cool, but what good was a sister? Biggs had a sister, and she was a whiny stuck-up pain in the neck, always goggling over stupid young men and screaming at them for messing with her stuff. And all the other Anchorhead girls were the same – except for Cami, but she was almost one of the boys, so she didn't really count.
"A sister," Owen repeated. "And she's still a little shocked over suddenly having a brother, so please be kind to her."
"Leia Organa," Vader realized. "Why didn't I sense it earlier?" He shook his head as if in disbelief. "She looks so much like Padme…"
"But from what I've seen and heard, she has your attitude, Anakin," Owen said with a smile.
Something emerged from the shed that was currently serving as a stall for the dewbacks… a figure in white. It was a girl about Luke's age, with braided brown hair and brown eyes. She'd evidently been crying, for her eyes were red and a streak of damp dust marred each cheek. When she saw Vader, a mixture of emotions flashed across her face – fear, hatred, apprehension, confusion.
"Is that her?" asked Luke.
Owen nodded. "That's Leia. Go say hi to her."
Luke hesitated, digging his toe in the dirt.
"Go on, it won't kill you!" Owen urged.
Luke stepped forward and offered her his hand. "Hi there."
She eyed him warily.
"I'm Luke Skywalker," he tried again. "And… I guess I'm your brother."
She cautiously extended a hand. "I'm Leia Organa. I… guess… I'm your sister."
They shook briefly, then dropped their arms. Awkward silence reigned for several minutes. What was one supposed to say to a sister they hadn't met for nine years? A sister he'd never known existed…
"So," he said at last, "did you just find out about Dad too?"
That was exactly the wrong thing to say. Her brown eyes blazed, and she glared over his shoulder at Vader. "I already have a dad. Bail Organa's my dad. I don't need another dad – especially not Darth Vader."
"Hey, don't insult Dad!" Luke replied instantly. "He's not that bad…"
"Not that bad? He kills people all the time! Don't you have the Holonet out here?"
He reeled at that insult. "I watch the news, it's not like I'm stupid! But he's not like that anymore! He saved my life! He's my dad!"
"Well, you can have him, for all I care!"
"Fine, I'll take him!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
"FINE!" She folded her arms and glowered at him.
"Dumb girl," huffed Luke, stomping toward the house.
"Boys are jerks," Leia muttered, storming back to the space yacht.
Owen and Vader exchanged a long look, then shook their heads in exasperation. "Well, the first meeting was a big success," Owen remarked sarcastically.
Break…
Vader knew something was being plotted behind his back the moment he entered the house to find Yoda seated at the table, his seat boosted upward with a few cushions to put him above table level.
"Yoda?" he demanded, halting in his tracks. "You're still ALIVE?"
"Master Yoda, Vader," corrected Yoda, mouth quirking in a small grin at Vader's shock.
"Who's Yoda?" asked Leia.
"Forget that," muttered Luke. "WHAT'S Yoda?"
"A Jedi Master," Obi-wan replied to both of them as he helped Beru pull the entrée from the cooking reactor. "He was a leader of the Jedi Order in the days of the Republic and a great and cunning warrior."
"Great warrior," humphed Yoda dismissively. "Wars not make one great."
Vader's gaze moved from Yoda to Obi-wan, then back to Yoda. Stang it all, both of them! He didn't know which was worse – the company of the traitorous Master who had crippled him on Mustafar, or the presence of the code-bound dwarf who had made his life and training difficult almost from the moment he'd set foot in the Jedi Temple. Where had they been hiding all these years anyhow? And why did they drag themselves out of hiding now…
The realization hit him like a blow to the gut. Luke. They were here for his son…
"Wow, he must be a hundred," Luke breathed, awed.
"Nine hundred years old I am, young Skywalker," Yoda told him, nodding. "And respect your elders you should. No gawking, please."
Luke snapped his jaw shut, though he couldn't keep from murmuring "Nine hundred… whoa…"
"Luke, pull your head out of the clouds and help me with the table," Owen ordered. He was dragging a second table into the room to allow everyone a place to sit. The tiny dining room would be very crowded this evening.
"Everyone sit down," urged Beru, infusing as much cheer into her voice as she could. "Supper's going to get cold. Master Yoda, is there anything I can get for you? Kenobi said you don't eat meat…"
"Sufficient for me the salad is," Yoda replied.
"Very well. Vader, is there something I can do for you…"
"I dine alone," Vader replied shortly.
She took in his helmet and chest controls. "I see. Well, you don't have to eat with us, but I'd appreciate it if you at least joined us."
Reluctantly Vader seated himself between Luke and Owen. Leia sat across the table from him, pointedly looking at everything but him as she speared a piece of meat. No one spoke as plates were filled and dishes past around.
That gave Vader plenty of time to think. Obi-wan was up to his old tricks again… but to what end? Yoda was most likely here to help him talk Vader into letting them train Luke, but what about Bail and Leia? Why were they here? He figured that, if they had intended to train her as well as Luke, they would have put her in Yoda's care or sent her to live with her brother, to ensure a Jedi watched over each child. But no, they had given her to a senator and left her generally unsupervised…
A senator. So they had planned to have his children overthrow him on two fronts, had they? His son a Jedi, to avenge the Order, and his daughter a political activist, to avenge the Republic. That made perfect sense. But now that their father was back in their lives, their plan had been disrupted… and they were working to accelerate it as much as possible. After all, if they truly wanted Leia to be reunited with her biological father, why weren't they urging her to curb her hatred? No, they wanted her to hate him, wanted to take her away from him again… and they sought to take Luke away too.
It may be too late to reclaim Leia, though I'll certainly try. But I will not lose Luke, he vowed. Not again. I die first…
"Leia," Bail said at last, "I think you have something to say to Luke."
She looked up from her plate, flushing. "Yes… I'm sorry for yelling at you, Luke. And for calling you a jerk."
Luke swallowed a mouthful of bread. "That's okay."
Vader lifted a boot and nudged his son slightly under the table.
"Oh, and I'm sorry for calling you a dumb girl." He shot his father a sideways glare.
"I accept your apology," she replied.
Bail smiled. "It's good to finally meet you, Luke. Obi-wan speaks highly of you."
Luke grunted a reply and applied himself to his plate.
"I hope to get to know you better," Bail tried again.
Luke mumbled something noncommittal. To a nine-year-old boy, filling the stomach took precedence over everything else.
Obi-wan set his utensils down. "Now that we are all together, it is time we discussed the future of the Skywalkers. The family is reunited, yes… but there are still issues to be worked out."
Owen looked up. "What issues?"
"The interests of the children," Obi-wan replied, giving Yoda a look heavy with meaning. Vader had to wonder what that was about.
"What does that mean?" asked Leia, looking concerned.
"You won't be leaving me, Leia," Bail assured her.
"I thought that was decided," Owen said pointedly. "Vader stays here with us, close to his son. And Leia's still free to visit…"
"Discuss Luke's training we must," Yoda cut in.
"Training?" repeated Luke, bewildered.
"Master Yoda, is this the best time to discuss this, with the children around…" began Bail.
"We have gone over this already," Vader snarled. "I will permit no one but myself to train Luke. End of discussion."
"Ill-advised that is," Yoda retorted. "Trained by a Jedi Luke must be. Not by a Sith."
"I have renounced my claim to the Sith Order," Vader countered.
"Then you are a Jedi?" asked Obi-wan hopefully.
Vader glared at him. "No. I will not rejoin the Jedi. I have had my fill of their self-righteous, emotion-condemning ways. Luke will learn the ways of the Force, but not of the Jedi."
Luke shoved his empty plate away. "Done, gonna go outside," he said in an uncomfortable rush, bolting from the table.
"Be back in before the suns go down!" Owen shouted at the boy's back.
Leia also abandoned her plate, though hers was still half-full. "I'm not hungry, Daddy. May I be excused?"
Bail held a hand against her forehead. "You may be coming down with something. Why don't you go lay down for awhile?"
She nodded and left the room.
Once the children had gone, Yoda resumed speaking. "Trained the boy should be, before too exposed to the dark side he is. Powerful he is in the Force, and dangerous that power can be if uncontrolled and unguided it remains. For Luke's safety, if for nothing else, agree to this you must, Vader."
"I will agree to nothing of the kind," Vader replied angrily. "You took my children from me once. I will not allow you to retake them." His gaze moved to Bail, who had paled at the comment. "Leia may be beyond my reach already, but I will not lose Luke again. I intend to be a father to him. I will not have the Order rip him from my side to satisfy their own desires."
"You misunderstand our intentions," Obi-wan replied. "We only want to help Luke…"
"And you only wanted to help Padme when you stowed away aboard her ship," Vader thundered, shooting to his feet so swiftly he upended his chair with an unpleasant clatter. "You only wanted to help me when you sliced your blade through my legs and arm. You only wanted to help the galaxy when you placed yourself on a pedestal above them, a power that held untold dominion over them and could not be questioned or challenged!"
"Sit down!" hissed Owen desperately.
"I have had enough of the Jedi Order's 'help,'" Vader continued, ignoring his stepbrother. "If you really need a savior for your Order, scour the orphanages. Doubtless you can find at least one Force-strong child to induct into your Order… one without prior attachments." The last he grated out in a bitter tone before whirling and storming away.
Had he remained within earshot, he would have been deeply disturbed by Yoda's next words – "Tried to change his mind we did and we couldn't. Regretful it is. Do this the hard way we must…"
Break…
A shot at Darth Vader. This Mothma had never anticipated. She had hoped, in the absence of the Emperor, to garner support for the resistance, perhaps even strike at a few of the Moffs. But an opportunity to capture Vader…
The suns of Tatooine had dipped below the horizon and drenched the parched landscape in dusk, providing much-needed cover for herself and her "troops," if they could be called that. She adjusted her macroscope to the night-vision setting and focused it upon the farmer's homestead just a kilometer ahead. Owen Lars was not a proud man, content with his old but reliable machines and his plain but comfortable home, never setting his sights farther than the next harvest. Quite the opposite of the ambitious, menacing, black-clad Sith that now supposedly resided within his home… as a brother, if their contact's account was to be believed.
Zevul Lodestar lowered his scope. "This should be it. The doctor gave us this location." He shot Mothma a wry look. "Let's just hope Vader's brother got the mellow side of the gene pool."
Behind them, Chewbacca and Han readied their own weapons, keeping a wary eye on the homestead. The rest of their fighters, twenty-five ragtag humans and humanoids, crouched low to the sands. Their forces were comprised of former Senate Guards, hired mercenaries, Royal Guards who had switched sides along with their captain, and survivors of the Empire's brutal strike against the alien uprising on Corusant two years ago. A rough collection, but all they had at the moment. She could only hope they could hold their own against a Dark Lord.
"Thank the stars Yoda is still alive," Mothma murmured. "And that he is on our side. Perhaps, with his aid, we have a chance."
"I don't know, my lady," Zevul said unsurely. "Something about this whole operation unsettles me. I get the feeling that this Yoda character has his own itinerary."
"He is helping us," she countered. "That is all that counts. And may I remind you that you brought Boba Fett into this, and he most definitely has his own itinerary."
Zevul's gaze flickered to the bounty hunter, who stood perfectly at ease beside Han. "Okay, I concede that point." He looked at Mothma again. "What about Vader's son? What's to become of him?"
"Yoda says he has that handled," Mothma replied. "Myself, I can only speculate. But he has lived with family up until now. I don't see why that would change."
"Are we just gonna stand here?" demanded Han. "I thought we were going after Vader, not collecting dust here."
"Patience, child," she told him. "You will face Vader soon enough. Too soon, in fact."
"I'm not a child," Han snapped. "I'm twelve. And I'd rather go out fighting than freeze to death here on this rock."
Fett glowered down at the boy. "Lodestar, why do we need this kid?" he grated.
"Don't look at me, she hired him on," Zevul replied, pointing at Mothma.
A distant shout cut across the rapidly cooling night air. "Luke, I'm shutting down the power! Come inside!"
"Coming, Uncle Owen!" came the youthful reply.
The lights outside the homestead flicked out. The signal.
Mothma raised her hand, the order to advance. Her fighters fanned out to encircle the homestead.
Break…
Obi-wan crept through the darkened garage, careful to avoid making any sound. It would do no good to awaken anyone, especially Master Yoda. And with eight people packed into a home that normally sheltered three, it was almost impossible to move without waking someone.
Why was he doing this anyhow? Part of him screamed that his actions tonight would betray the Order, that Yoda's wisdom in this matter was to be trusted implicitly, that Vader was truly a threat to his son. But another part of him knew that to separate father and son now would do greater harm than good. Yes, the Order had to live on. Yes, it would be dangerous for Vader to train Luke. Yes, Vader was still incredibly dangerous.
And yet, if Luke could recognize the good in his father, couldn't he also draw that good out?
Vader's door was locked. Obi-wan delved into the Force, reached into the workings of the lock, and nudged it open. He had to warn Vader at once, before the resistance Yoda had spoken of arrived. And he had to trust that Vader would believe him.