Visits from the Supreme Commander Darth Vader were infrequent, yet momentous moments.
He had only visited Aldarran twice. Once, while Bail Organa served in the senate, and a second time, while they had been in recess. Neither had been particularly pleasant. One, he had been filled with anxiety, trusting, yet never truly believing that his wife, his love, would hide what needed to be hidden and show what needed to be shown. The second he didn't allow himself to worry. Force users could detect emotion, to an extent, after all.
Bail knew he walked a fine line with the Empire. They knew he was a rebel, to an extent. Bail had at first hoped to play the part of his peers; adoring of the Empire, dedicated to its vision, but it was so obviously false he was useless to both the rebellion and the Empire. He found it easier to put up a veneer of general displeasure. He supported motions that would return power to the senate, complained to his peers of the basic rights stolen from so many, protested the few atrocities the Empire allowed to become public. Perhaps even "discreetly" conducting some of his own investigations on the more suspicious conduct of the Empire, only to come up "empty". He was not looking to overthrow the government, he was merely a concerned citizen. He was to be tolerated, but could not be condemned.
He had believed he was walking the line rather well, he was alive, after all.
That belief was rapidly dwindling as he walked down a hallway to the private port where Darth Vader had demanded entry.
On either side flanked his most trusted bodyguards. A man and woman Bail had known since before his days in politics and royalty. Two friends he had once thought he would never rise above before he had married Breha.
Breha. Dearest Breha. She had hugged him tightly goodbye. They had never been a particularly physically affectionate couple, but she had pressed her cheek to his and breathed in his memory, tears in her eyes.
They had already agreed that, should one be caught in the Rebellion, the other would play innocent. They kept up a veneer of a marriage gone sour, with only convenience and status keeping them together. He remained in the capital half the recesses the senate gave, and she ruled Alderaan and avoided Coruscant as much as possible. There were times when he went years without seeing her in person. But there was never a moment when Bail doubted his love for her. He trusted, without a doubt, that she would take care of everything.
He fisted the pill in his hand a little tighter until common sense warned him the pill would shoot out like a melon seed squeezed between teeth in his sweaty hand. When he swallowed it, he would have twenty seconds to live.
He stopped outside the doors to the hangar. A poor young technician clutching a datapad to his chest pressed a button. He saluted in the Aldderanian way, his eyes brimming. He didn't verbally acknowledge Bail's arrival, but Bail doubt he could do so without crying.
The doors slid open. The triangular personal ship of Darth Vader filled a good portion of the hangar. And Darth Vader stood at the bottom of the ramp.
To his dismay, Nuri, the guard to his right, stepped in with him.
"You will be alone." Darth Vader threatened. Not that there was a sentence he spoke that wasn't. It was an intensity that, if examined closely, revealed the remains of the man that had once been.
Nuri merely straighted, raised her chin, clutching her gun a little tighter.
Darth Vader casually raised a hand. Bail winced, but Nuri was merely shoved back, falling on her hands and knees beyond the door, which slammed shut via the force.
Bail looked down and grunted, straightening his collar to slip the pill in his mouth. One snap of his teeth, and the deed would be done.
"My Lord?" He said, clasping his wrist behind his back. "What can I do for you?"
Darth Vader said nothing. He shifted a little, the noise echoing around the shining, empty hanger, and set his hands on his belt.
"I have need of a favor." He said.
Bail bowed until something in his back popped. "What sort of favor, My Lord?"
But he said nothing. Nothing! Leaving Bail to stare at him and convince himself this was a strange little visit, worrying, of course, but not the terrifying, world ending visit that would require that pill in his mouth.
His head suddenly twitched back towards his ship, and he rasped something threatening in what sounded like Huttese. Vader knew Huttese?
Bail quickly abandoned any thoughts of the language when he heard a child's voice coming from that ship.
"-let me go- come on you big baby-"
A tiny little girl, who couldn't have been more than nine, was practically dragging a boy down the ramp of the ship. He clung stubbornly to her arm, his heels set in the ground.
"Let. Me. Go!" The girl shrieked and wrenched her arm out of his grip, running down the ramp faster than Bail would have believed possible for a child her size. She skidded to a stop in front of Bail, beaming. Her mouth opened, but she seemed to check herself, and she straightened, sobering her face into a face so cool Bail wouldn't have been ashamed to wear it himself.
"You are Bail Organa, consort to the Queen of Alderaan, and senator to the planet as well?"
Bail stared at the tiny, serious child for a moment, and suddenly thought painfully of a child queen he had known long ago. "I am." He said politely, nodding his head.
The girl held up her hands and bowed. "I am Leia Naberrie Lars Skywalker. I think-" she turned around to look at Darth Vader, biting her lip. The boy was now clinging to Darth Vader's leg, watching them sullenly.
So distracted Bail was by this he didn't hear the girl's next words. And when she spoke again, a little louder, he jumped, nearly biting down on the pill.
"I'm going to be your what?" He said, looking down in alarm at her.
"My father." She repeated, crossing her arms. "You're going to be my father."
"I'm… sorry?"
She sighed, rolling her eyes and repositioning her feet. She spoke again, her voice echoing around the room, and as if speaking to a small child. "My mother was Padme Naberrie Amidala Skywalker-"
Bail's eyes widened-
"-and you want a child, and I want to kill the Emperor so Luke and I will be safe. So I have to be in the rebellion. You're a part of the rebellion aren't you?" And she stared up at him, eyes annoyed, as if she hadn't just condemned Bail to death.
And yet… there was the boy clinging to Darth Vader's leg, and the girl hardly seemed to be afraid of Darth Vader at all.
Bail crossed his arms as well, a little smile appearing on his face. "And what does Lord Vader think of that, Leia Naberrie Lars Skywalker?"
"Oh he suggested it." She said, like it was the most natural thing in the world that Vader, of all people, would bring a child to join the Rebellion. "He said you could be trusted to take good care of me." Then she squirmed for a moment, and she asked shyly, "I'd be a princess, right? If I was your daughter?"
Bail almost laughed. Almost. "You would be." He confirmed.
"No!" The boy screamed. He ran across the room, arms pumping. "Leia?"
"Lukali." Darth Vader barked, and the boy skidded to a halt.
He turned back to Vader. "But- please. She's going to go away-"
"It is what is right, Lukali."
"No." Luke screamed, stamping his foot. "No. You promised- you promised-" his chin wobbled, and he looked at Leia. She stared intently down at her toes, fists clenched. He turned back to Vader. "Don't let her go. Don't let her go we're supposed to be together. We're two we're two we supposed- We're-" He stopped. His face twisted and he charged at Darth Vader, fists raised. He punched Vader stomach, his tiny hands bouncing off the armor, kicked his ankles, screamed words that even Bail could identify as Huttese cursing.
But Darth Vader did nothing. He just stood there. He didn't even try to stop the boy. And the boy continued to attack him, seemly unafraid of any punishment, screaming over and over and over- "I hate you! I hate you both! I hate you both!"
He took a few steps back and raise his hands, rushing forward to shove him over. It didn't even nudge the mass of machine that was Darth Vader. The boy bounced back and fell on his own rear, where he curled into a ball and burst into tears.
Bail and Vader watched him sob heaves into his knees, nearly choking on his own grief. Every breath coming with a pound of phlegm.
"Leialee." Darth Vader said simply.
Leia looked up at him, silent tears streaming down her face. Slowly she walked across the metal floor and sat next to Luke, tucking her own legs up against her chest.
"Do you remember when Uncle Lars used to say that we should enjoy playing for as long as we could because one day we were gonna grow up and be big enough to help out on the farm?" She asked.
"No." The boy snapped.
Leia took his hand, he yanked it away, but she followed it, and clenched it with with her own. She squeezed her eyes shut, breathing deeply, and opened them again. "Now do you remember?"
The boy's head raised slightly, and he glared at her with angry eyes. "Yes." He warbled miserably.
"Well," she swallowed, and scooted a little closer. "I think we're grown up now."
And Luke broke into sobs again, only this time he clung to Leia, and she clung to him, and she was crying too, and she was whispering things, comforting thing- "-I'll study real hard, be the youngest Senator ever, and you gotta practice too, so you'll be ready." and, "It's going to be okay, you'll have Daddy, and I'll be fine." and one heart wrenching, "I love you Luke."
And when Luke quieted again at last, she stood up. She nodded to Darth Vader, who nodded in return, and she trotted over to Bail, taking his hand with a watery smile.
Bail stared at her. She looked up at him, waiting with a polite little face. It made it easy to ignore the shining of her eyes, and the redness of her skin where she had wiped the tears away.
"Isn't… isn't there anything you wish to take with you?" Was all he could manage.
She looked at Luke, who was still on the floor, and back at Bail. "Nothing I can." She said, quietly.
"I… see. Erm, Lord Vader, if there is anything else?" Bail looked up the Sith Lord. Searching for anything, anything that would explain this situation.
"I entrust my daughter's care to you, Organa."
Bail stared for a moment, then his eyes softened.
Padme you were right.
"Well… let me take you to meet my wife." He said finally, and held out his hand. The girl clasped it and skipped out of the room to keep up with him, but in an elegant sort of way, the way a princess would walk.
"Who was that boy?" Bail asked, as the doors shut behind them. He ignored the stares from the guards, and the hangar boy.
"My brother." She confirmed. "Luke. Or well, Lukali. But he's Luke for short." She heaved her shoulder and sighed theatrically. "I wish he was more understanding, he gets very upset when we're apart." She explained to him, as if Bail had not just seen the incident in the hangar.
"Yes." Bail said quietly, thinking of Breha. "It is a difficult burden. It does not become easier, you merely become better at holding it."
Leia nodded slowly, her face tight with thought. "Thank you." She said. "I hope-" she paused, and corrected herself. "I know we'll always be two though, no matter how far apart we are."
"That is very true." Bail admitted, and adjusted his collar again, popping the pill out of his mouth. "Everyone, I wish for you to meet your new princess, Leia Organa."
Leia smiled at them all and bowed, just the way he had. Nuri, and the other guard and the hangar boy all stared, until finally Nuri bowed in return.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, your Highness." She said.
Leia puffed up like a wild chicken at the attention. "It's a pleasure to meet you too." She turned to the Hangar boy. "You ought to open the hangar, Daddy will want to leave soon." Her heels spun on her heels and she tugged Bail's hand. "Come." She ordered. "I want to meet mother."
Bail chuckled, and followed after her.