The victory party was long and loud and the Ewok's fermented berry juice packed an unexpected wallop. As a result I woke to afternoon sunlight filtering through green leaves and a slight headache. Yet despite that, and my lingering sorrow for my father, I felt pretty good. The whole universe was a cleaner, better place without the Emperor.
I found Han sitting on the upper level of the village platform nursing a bowl of berry juice as our little furry friends and assorted Rebel personnel went about their business around him. He lifted his eyebrows at me. "'Bout time you got up!"
"I had a hard day yesterday." I answered.
"Like who didn't!" he snorted and offered me the bowl. "Hair of the Wookie that clobbered you?"
"No thanks." I'd already used Jedi means to rid myself of the aftereffects of last night's bash. "Han, I think it's time for that long talk."
I'd half expected him to shy away, as he had on the command ship but he just drained the last of his drink and put the bowl down on the platform beside him. "Yeah, I've got a few questions of my own. Let's find Leia."
She wasn't in her guest house or the Chief's hut. We finally found her coming out of the store house the Rebels had taken over for a communications center. Her face was glowing.
"Luke!" she kissed me enthusiastically, then kissed Han. "You won't believe it, news is coming in from all over the Galaxy; the Imperial administration's surrendered, they want to co-operate with us for a smooth transfer of power!"
'There's something that needs doing on Coruscant.' Dai-Men had said. Now I knew what.
"And all those Grand Moffs we've been worried about have been overthrown; Argan and Biggar and Molke and the rest!" Leia continued joyfully. "And best of all the uprising on New Alderaan was led by my brother! Val never went over to the Empire at all it was all a pretense, those terrible things he said about me were just cover."
"That's fine, Leia." I said gently. I knew how much her brother Valorum's apparent defection had hurt her.
"How could I have been such an idiot?" she wondered happily. "I should have known what he was up to right off."
"Leia, we have to talk." I said.
"Yeah." put in Han. "Speaking of brothers how about you two explaining how a farm kid from Tatooine turns out to be related to an Alderaanian princess."
We went back to Leia's guest house for privacy. I took a stool, Han and Leia shared the lower bunk. He put an arm around her shoulders and looked at me. "Okay, kid, start talking."
"Leia and I are twins." I began carefully. Our parents were Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala of Naboo -"
"I know that." Han broke in. "Get to the good part, how'd you end up on Tatooine and Leia as a princess on Alderaan?"
"We had to be split up and hidden from our father." I answered quietly. "Shortly before we were born he turned to the Dark side becoming Darth Vader -"
"Whaaaa?" I'd expected a strong reaction from Han, but not quite like this. "Wait a minute - you mean Anakin Skywalker was Darth Vader?"
"That's right." I said, watching him narrowly.
He jumped up and began pacing agitatedly around the tiny hut. "I can't believe it. It was Master Skywalker who led the attack on the Temple and started the Purge?"
"I'm afraid so." I said, then curiously: "Han, did you know Father?"
He stopped pacing. "Of course not, I was just a little kid. But I'd heard of him - we'd all heard of him. He was the hero of the whole Thranta clan. I can't believe he turned!"
"It was the Emperor's doing." I told him. "I don't mean Father was blameless, he wasn't. He could and should have resisted. But he never would have turned without Palpatine's interference."
Han sat back down next to Leia, still looking shaken. "I feel sick." he said. "Anakin Skywalker Darth Vader!" he shook his head. "And it must be even worse for the two of you."
"It's hard to accept." Leia agreed quietly. "But there was still some good in him, Han, I saw a little of it years ago. And Luke managed to bring it out."
"It was Anakin Skywalker who destroyed the Emperor, Han, as he'd been born to do." I said. "He came back to us, to the good side, and the Force received him when he died."
Han, child of the Temple, knew what that meant even if Leia didn't - quite.
"You said he spoke of me." she asked hesitantly.
I nodded. "He had strong feelings for you, Leia. Always. But he never knew why until he learned he had a daughter. He knew at once it was you." Her face was mask-like but I could feel it mattered to her. Part of her badly wanted to believe in our father's love.
"Leia, he wants to talk to you."
She blinked. "He's dead. You said he was dead."
"He is, but he's not gone. He'll always be with us." she bit her lip uncertainly as I continued. "He won't come to you till you're ready, till you call him. You should, Leia, for both your sakes."
"I...I'll think about it. Okay?"
I remembered what Father had said and forced myself to let it go. "You do that." then I turned to Han. "Okay, that's our story. What's yours?"
He gave me his crooked grin. "I was one of the kids being raised in the Jedi Temple. But you know that don't you?"
"I figured it out after Tatooine." I answered and shrugged. "The Force is with you, you've obviously had some training, and you're just the right age."
"What?" Leia looked from him to me in confusion. "Han's a Jedi?"
He laughed. "Not hardly, sweetheart, but I was training for one way back when I was a little kid."
"Remember what Master Jinn said about Jedi starting their training as babies." I reminded her. "There were hundreds of kids being taught in the Temple before the Purge, Han was one of them." I turned to him. "You know Dai-Men don't you?"
He grinned again. "And Obi-Wan too." I noticed he said Ben's real name the way Father did, easily and familiarly - as I'd never been able to. But they sure hadn't shown any signs of knowing each other back at Chalmun's. "You didn't recognize him?"
"I could have if I'd have let myself." he answered. "You know what I mean."
I did. Very well. I could have known who Darth Vader really was from the beginning - if I'd let myself, if I'd been ready to face it.
"Why didn't you tell me any of this before?" Leia demanded, sounding a little indignant and a little hurt.
"Because it's something I've tried real hard to forget." Han answered grimly. "I was there when Darth Vader attacked the Temple. They killed everybody; Masters, Knights, Padawans, even the kids in the schools."
I shuddered, imagining the effect of all that death on the mind of a Force sensitive child. Poor Han, no wonder he'd wanted to forget. Leia snuggled closer to him, her distress showing on her face.
"The only ones they didn't kill were the Initiates, the little kids, six and under." he continued. "They herded us together in some big, dark place...I don't know where. I don't think it was in the Temple. Luckily the surviving Jedi got to us before the Emperor could start doing whatever it was he had planned."
"I heard about the rescue, from Dai-Men." I said.
"That's when I met him," Han said, "him and his master Hamilcar Solo. They took me and a bunch of the other kids out to the far reaches and gave us to the Gypsies to raise. But we - my family and I - kept running into them, accidently on purpose like, and when I was twelve I signed aboard the Jinx as cargo boy and trainee pilot.
"Uncle Ham started to teach me about the Force, but I didn't want to learn." his face clouded. "I didn't want to be a knight I just wanted to fly ships and I didn't want anything to do with the Force. It hadn't saved Helisee so what good was It?" he thought for a moment then said slowly. "I think I was mad at It, crazy as that sounds."
"It doesn't sound crazy at all." I said quietly. "I'd probably have felt the same after what you went through."
"Who was Helisee?" Leia asked gently.
"My guardian, the Jedi I lived with. She was real old, retired and everything, but she got a few of them before they got her!" grief and pride fought in his voice. "She told me to run and I did - and then they killed her."
"There was nothing you could have done, Han." Leia said tenderly, eyes full of pity. "You were just a little boy."
He let out a long, shaky breath. "Yeah, I know. Anyway I jumped ship on Corellia and signed up at the Merchant Academy. Then I was drafted into the Imperial Starfleet." he grinned a little. "And then I helped a big, dumb Wookie slave escape and went on the run with him - and you known the rest."
By late afternoon the ground troops had rooted out the last of the Imperial hold outs. Not that the Ewok's couldn't have handled them but Alliance command figured our way would be a little more humane. Then it was time to say good-bye.
Leia gave Chief Chirpa and Logray the Alliance's thank you gifts; cloth, ration concentrates and a few small, low tech things like the emergency lamp Yoda had stolen from me on Dagobah. She cried a little as she hugged Wicket good-bye and we all promised we'd come back someday for a visit.
Back aboard the command ship none of us was surprised to learn our next stop would be Coruscant. Mon Mothma, Leia and the rest of the Alliance leadership would have to move fast to fill the vacuum left by the Emperor's fall if they wanted to restore the Republic.
