A Single Thread
Part I: A New Hope
Act II
It was not often that a Sith Lord hesitated.
Hesitation was a sign of weakness, and one that scavengers in the Empire eagerly took advantage of.
Once, a lifetime ago, he would have been praised for hesitating, for once, instead of just rushing into a situation without stopping to think. Obi-Wan had always called him reckless, but Darth Vader suspected that was simply because Kenobi had never had to deal with a temperamental daughter who was strong in the Force.
Leia brought new meaning to the word reckless, and more than once Vader had expected his suit to fail him after one of her dangerous stunts.
If this was how Kenobi had felt all those years ago, no wonder his former Master had begun to go gray so young.
At the moment, he found himself standing outside of the door to his daughter's detention cell, where Tarkin had sent her with stormtrooper escort after the destruction of Alderaan.
On the other side of the thick door, he could feel Leia's hurt.
Her sobs had long since died out, all the while that he'd stood on the bridge with Tarkin and Motti, her grief had cried out to him through the Force, and his heart had ached dully for her. He knew all too well, if he allowed himself to venture into the past that was forbidden to him now, the pain of loss, for he had suffered it many times in his life, over and over again without fail.
If he could have spared her this agony, he would have gladly done so.
There is no point in dwelling on what ifs or what might have been, an inner voice, which sounds suspiciously like his former Master, chided him. You must focus on what is.
Grunting, Vader gave a faint gesture with his hand, and the heavy door slid open.
There was no need for Leia to pretend to be devastated for the benefit of the stormtroopers who waited in the dimly lit corridor of the detention center, the despair was all too real. She sat curled up on the durasteel bench, legs drawn up to her chest and head lolled to the side, staring at nothing.
Vader stared at her for a long moment, and his containment suit must have suffered a momentary glitch, because his lungs stopped working briefly.
The door slid closed behind him with a hiss, but Leia did not look up, and Vader was surprised to realize just how small she truly appeared within the dark, foreboding durasteel cell. It was regrettable that she had to remain in the detention center cell for appearance's sake, rather than being allowed to stay in his quarters where she would be more comfortable, but he knew that she was more than capable of enduring the cramped durasteel quarters for as long as necessary.
After all, it was vital that she keep up the facade of a Rebel prisoner.
Of course, it wasn't entirely an act, Leia truly was a member of the Rebellion, at least as far as the Rebellion's leaders knew. It was all part of the plan, it had been from the start, and had proven more useful than he could have dared to hope all those years ago when Leia had first joined the Senate as the junior senator from Alderaan. In truth, Vader knew that his daughter sympathized with the Rebels, that her efforts to help further their movement went beyond just doing what was necessary to maintain her cover, but he turned a blind eye to it.
He wasn't certain why he made such indulgent allowances, but it did not matter in the end.
The time was fast approaching for Palpatine to meet his end, and once the Emperor was disposed, it would be Leia who brought the galaxy back into order and cleansed the Empire of its decaying limbs, so if she had supporters amongst the Rebel forces, all the better.
She would make an impressive Empress one day.
Her mother would have been proud.
"You could have done something," she whispered, and even though her voice was muffled, he distinctly heard it quiver.
"I could not have," Vader replied truthfully. "Not without jeopardizing everything we have worked for."
"You mean everything you've worked for, don't you?" Leia retorted bitterly, raising her head.
"Everything I have done is for you," Vader insisted firmly. "You know this, Leia. When Palpatine is dead, this Empire will be yours to run, as you see fit."
"Then why couldn't you just kill Tarkin before he blew up Alderaan and get on with killing the Emperor?" Leia asked him tearfully, looking at him with wide brown eyes, full of pain and hurt.
Her mother's eyes.
"You know why," Vader told her with quiet patience. "The time is not right for us to act."
"Alderaan is gone, Father!" Leia cried, voice thick with emotion as tears threatened to spill from her eyes. "They destroyed my homeworld in the blink of an eye! How is this not the right time for us to act?"
Vader sighed heavily and came to sit on the durasteel bench beside her. She did not move away from him, but neither did she draw closer, as she had the inexplicable habit of doing whenever they were alone. "Leia," he rumbled softly, and for the first time in many years, he felt every one of his years, throughout his entire body. Or what passed for a body, anyway. "I am not as strong nor as powerful as I once was, my injuries have weakened me."
It was a great cost for him to admit that aloud, when he had spent so long trying to deny it to himself.
Across Leia's face, he saw a frown starting to blossom, one of concern and pity, and he quickly pushed on, wishing to remove that look at once.
"We must bide our time until the moment is right," he told her solemnly, gazing directly into her dark eyes, eyes so familiar that they still, after all these years, caused a small ache somewhere deep inside of him. "If I had stopped Tarkin from destroying Alderaan, our hand would have been revealed to the Emperor, and all would have been lost."
"I know," Leia murmured, and he sensed that she did know, but cold knowledge did little to soothe her wounded spirit or nurse her broken heart.
"I am sorry for the loss of your people," Vader assured her quietly, and lifted a gloved hand to touch her cheek briefly, a touch which she instinctively leaned into. "I know that Alderaan was dear to you, just as I know that Organa was dear to you."
His daughter's eyes fell closed, and a single tear slipped past her eyelashes to slide down her cheek.
"He was a good man," Vader said begrudgingly, wiping the tear with his thumb and then letting his hand fall to his side once more. "And he took good care of you, for which I am most grateful."
"I hate him," Leia whispered, and Vader did not need clarification on who she meant. "My whole world, my people, my friends, the Organas... he murdered them all, without even blinking an eye."
"I promise you, Leia, Tarkin will pay," Vader vowed lowly, cold steel forging in his chest at the thought of the man who had caused his only child, the last gift that his wife had given him, so much pain. "When the time is right, he will pay for what he has taken from you."
Tearfully, Leia nodded, and swallowed hard before opening her eyes. "Have the scouts returned from Dantooine yet?" she asked, and he permitted the change of subject, understanding that it would take time for her wounds to heal.
Some of his never had.
"Yes," he confirmed evenly. "Tarkin was most displeased to find that there were no Rebels there to be dealt with."
"Too bad the disappointment didn't kill him," Leia seethed.
"He has ordered you to be terminated," Vader informed her, and imagined she would have been pleased to learn that he'd felt the urge to choke the Governor himself at the decree.
"Not very original, is he?" Leia scoffed, indifferent to the news and not concerned by it in the least as she fixed him with a steady, trusting gaze. "So how are you going to get me out of this one?"
Vader rose to his feet in a smooth movement. "I am not," he replied calmly.
"What?" Leia demanded, and her composure faltered as her eyes went wide with alarm.
"There is no need for me to do anything," Vader explained gently. "Obi-Wan will do it for me. The old fool will come to rescue you, and I will ensure that you conveniently manage to escape the Death Star and return to the Rebellion."
"And what if Kenobi doesn't come?" Leia pressed anxiously.
"He will come," Vader responded without hesitation. "Rest assured, Leia, Obi-Wan will come for you. He will find a way to rescue you, no matter what it takes."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because," Vader answered, with a slight grimace beneath the mask. "You are the daughter of his only apprentice."
"It's that simple, is it?" Leia muttered skeptically.
"Yes," Vader assured her flatly. "It is that simple."
Leia looked at him for a long moment, and he knew she was itching to ask questions, but he had been more than fair in sharing details of the life that was no longer his over the years, and she knew better than to press for more, particularly on the subject of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
"I hope you're right," she sighed instead. "Because if he doesn't show, I'll be forced to use the Force to knock out one of the stormtroopers posted outside of my cell and don his armor to escape on my own."
"I sincerely hope it does not come to that," Vader retorted dryly. "Because you would never be able to pull it off."
"Oh, really?" Leia challenged, chin rising in regal defiance that she had gotten entirely from her mother, with some of his own stubbornness thrown in for good measure.
"Yes," Vader replied in amusement. "Really."
"And why is that?" Leia demanded.
Leia who had never liked to be told to act like a lady or behave like a princess, who had bristled when she was little and told by sons of Alderaanian nobles that she couldn't do something because she was small or female.
She was her father's daughter, as much as she had the look of her mother.
"Because, little one," Vader said, allowing himself a smile behind the mask. "You are entirely too short to be a stormtrooper."
Startled, Leia blinked at him, and then she did something that no one else in the entire galaxy would have ever had the courage to do.
And stuck her tongue out at the Sith Lord.