A/N: Thank you all for the following/favoriting/reviewing! Here's chapter 2. I will post the next one as soon as possible, stay tuned!

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or its characters. All rights belong to Disney and Lucasfilm. I only own this plot.

CHAPTER 2

The fact that an imperial had decided he was on the wrong side moments before the explosion of the new battle station seemed too convenient to Leia, and she knew Luke had always been too trusting of others, even as a jedi. As she requested the med bay, the princess could not shake the feeling that something was off. Her intuition had always been very strong, and now that she was aware it was due to her force sensitivity (though she felt like she would never get used to it), she knew ignoring it was a bad idea. Still, she was so tired and eager to celebrate the fall of Emperor Palpatine and the destruction of the second Death Star, she decided to put her worries aside for a moment. She would talk to Luke later.

Suspicious as she was, Leia knew they would probably take the stranger in. The Rebellion was not like their enemy. They accepted everyone who came to them with good intentions, and the person Luke was aiding wouldn't be the first deserter of the Empire they took under their wings. Formerly a legion of clones who were not killed during the Clone Wars, most Stormtroopers were lower class soldiers who were often physically assaulted by their superiors as a form of correction, and could be killed by a grumpy general whenever things went wrong in a mission, so it was not surprising that many of them just wanted out. Besides, although the rebellion now had the advantage on the fight against the Empire, the war was far from over. They still had to make sure all remaining imperial cells were dissolved and make the galaxy a safe place to build a new democratic government from scratch.

The new med bay arrived before her brother did, and after checking if the facility was correctly placed and fully operational, Leia took off to the clearing in the dense forest where the rebels were having a party with the Ewoks. Wedge Antilles had managed to bring Corellian brandy, and she would not miss the opportunity to drink it. The nerf herder is starting to rub off on me, she thought with a smirk as Han slipped into her mind. The smuggler, like Wedge, was from Corellia, and he would always carry bottles of the planet's famous beverage around with him. Space freighters and brandy are the only things that save Corellia from being a complete piece of poodoo, he would always say. Her lover never hid how much he disliked his homeworld. She couldn't blame him. Han had mentioned how his father, a worker in the Corellian Engineering Corporation shipyards, dreamt of leaving the planet on one of the YT-1300 vessels he used to build, and the smuggler longed for the same thing, even after his father abandoned him and died, making him work as a scrumrat for the White Worms gang.

Leia briefly thanked the Force for her fortune. Yes, her biological family was deranged to say the least, but she was lucky enough to be adopted by great parents and raised with the utmost love and care. She wondered where she would have been, had Vader kept her after her mother died. That brought up the question in the princess' head - did Vader even know he had children? Had he known she was his biological offspring when he tortured her in cold blood until she screamed? Were she and Luke by-products of violence? Had Vader attacked their biological mother? That would be low even for someone as foul as him, but even if she didn't know how, Leia remembered her mother as a very sad young woman, so the circumstances of her and Luke's birth couldn't have been the greatest. While she approached the clearing where her friends were already feasting and dancing around a bonfire to some native Ewok song, the Princess sensed her sibling landing on the moon, and along with her brother's presence, she also felt a familiar chill, which she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Leia found Han and Wedge amidst the other rebels, and as she stole the smuggler's cup of Corellian brandy, she thought, I hope Luke isn't doing anything stupid.

I hope I'm not doing anything stupid, Luke thought as he landed on Endor. Taking Darth Vader, an imperial symbol of terror, to a moon full of rebels was risky to say the least. He could be deemed as a traitor, compromise his sister's reputation, and the other members of the Alliance could finish his father off. However, the young Jedi could not think of a place in the Galaxy where Anakin would receive proper medical care without anybody asking questions, or worse, attacking them. The Home One's detachable med bays were run by 2-1B medical droids, so nobody would see Vader in his armor. After making sure there wasn't anyone nearby, Luke tried to move his father without jostling him too much. He wished he had R2 to help him at that moment, Anakin seemed like he weighed a ton in that suit.

The young Jedi was relieved when he managed to leave the shuttle, happily breathing the fresh forest air of Endor. Having come from a desert planet, any contact with nature Luke had was a blessing to him. No words could explain how much he disliked Tatooine and its endless sea of sand. Luke hated sand. It tended to damage devices, injure eyes and just be overall unpleasant. He wondered where he would have been raised, had Anakin never turned to the dark side. Luke realized neither Ben nor Yoda had ever told him where his father came from. They didn't want you to get attached to him because you were supposed to kill him, a small voice said in his head. Luke was suddenly consumed by rage. Obi-Wan and Yoda wanted him to kill his own father. So much for harmony and serenity. For an order of keepers of peace, they sure were murderous. The young jedi quickly realized the path he was taking with those thoughts. Rage leads to the dark side. Do you want to be like your father? The rational part of him, the one he should have been listening to since the beginning, spoke. Yoda and Obi-Wan had their own reasons to believe Vader couldn't be redeemed. Maybe that's what made the old Jedi fall, the lack of hope, he thought. Rebellions are built on hope. That phrase was spoken by no one other than Jyn Erso, a fellow rebel he didn't have the chance to meet, for she died on her successful mission to steal the plans for the Death Star, but he admired her deeply. Luke even named his starfighter squadron, the Rogue Squadron, after her team, the famous and heroic Rogue One. His sister also believed hope was the key. She always told him "hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you see it, you'll never make it through the night." She was right. It was hope that made the alliance win, and it was hope that brought Anakin back from the dark side.

And hope would make his father get better.

With newfound enthusiasm, Luke carried the elder Skywalker through the moon's deep vegetation, being careful not to be seen by anyone, rebel or native, as he searched for the med bay Leia had dispatched. Anakin's condition hadn't gotten any better. His breaths were sparse and shallow, and he would mumble incoherently from time to time. After what seemed like hours to Luke, even though it was just a few minutes, a white object that looked like a large escape pod could be seen. Luke quickened his pace as he trudged through the muddy soil, and entered the facility. The Home One's removable med bays were equipped with the necessary devices for medical emergencies, despite their small size. They could hold up to four patients at a time and were run entirely by droids.

A 2-1B unit approached Luke, who was still holding Anakin on his arms.

"Good evening, Sir. How can I be of service today?" The droid mechanically asked.

"Please, help him. I don't know the full extent of his injuries yet, but it's bad. Do whatever you can to save him, please." Luke pleaded desperately, as he panted. He knew that as a Jedi Knight he should have been able to keep his emotions in check, but that was not the time for dogmas. Anakin's condition was critical.

"Please lay him down on this bed." The droid said, gesturing towards a sterile hospital bed a few feet away from Luke, who gladly did as he was told, breathing a sigh of relief as he got rid of the weight of his father's armor. His relief was short lived, though, for not two minutes later the droid, having finished his father's body scan, let him in on his father's condition.

"Excuse me, Sir. How do you know this man?" The unit inquired.

"He's... a friend." Luke answered carefully. He didn't want to expose the nature of his relationship with Anakin just yet. "Well," the droid started, "I'm afraid your friend's condition is rather dire. He has most definitely sustained a lot of injuries through the years. Apparently, at some point in his life he was severely burned, and the wounds weren't properly healed. His lungs are also gravely damaged, which probably isn't new, because he was already using a respirator before this whole ordeal. Besides that, all of his limbs have been severed." Luke was overwhelmed. How miserable has his father's life been for all these years? Did the Emperor do all of that to him? Blind hatred coursed through his veins for the second time since he landed on the moon. He wished he could resurrect Palpatine just so he could kill him, slowly this time. Again, Luke stopped himself on his tracks. Father's own hatred has brought this on him. Palpatine manipulated him and he has already paid for that. Luke remembered how disgusted he felt of himself when the Emperor praised him as he attacked his father, blinded by his own rage. He didn't feel hatred for Palpatine back then. He just wanted to be as different from him as he could, and the very thought of doing something that would please the Sith Lord made his stomach churn. That was when he had decided he would rather die than turn into his own father, who was strong, but cruel, submissive and clearly unhappy, a hollow shell of a man.

Luke opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the 2-1B droid. "Those were his old injuries. His newer ones are quite bad as well. He has apparently been shocked, and besides damaging his life support, the electric current also burned his body even further, and gave him serious arrhythmia." The unit finished. Luke was confused. It's not like there was a medical school on Tatooine.

"What does that mean?" He asked, a bit annoyed at the droids technical vocabulary.

"It means your friend's heart rate is unstable, and that condition is potentially fatal." The droid answered. Luke was crestfallen. Had he come all that way just to have his hopes shattered and watch his father die?

"Is there any chance he could survive?" The Jedi asked sadly, and not even the droid was able to not feel sympathy for him.

"We can try a few options, but since the patient is unconscious, you need to give us your authorization." The unit said, giving him a holopad to sign.

"Do whatever you can." Luke said, signing the authorization. Please save my father, he thought.

"Very well. We'll try to stabilize him now. I suggest that you rest for a while. You too look like you have been through a lot." The droid said, and then pointed at Anakin. "Since he is the only patient here, feel free to use another one of the beds of this facility."

Luke didn't know if it was the force of just sheer adrenaline that gave him strength to stay up and alert enough to carry his father's heavy form through the forest and take the necessary actions to save him. As the 2-1B unit tended to his father's wounds, the young Jedi started to realize how exhausted he truly was. Although it wasn't debilitating, Palpatine's force lightning took a toll on his body. Exhaling, Luke sit down on a bed beside the one Anakin lay on, and decided to rest for a few minutes. He had a celebration to go to, after all, and there was nothing he could do for Anakin besides letting the droid work on him.

"Aren't you two going to eat anything?" Lando asked Leia and Han. He had some kind of skewered meat snack on a plate, one of the delicacies prepared by the ewoks. Having arrived on the moon several hours earlier than her fellow rebel, Leia knew by then what kind of meat the ewoks were probably barbecuing, since the natives had tried to eat Luke, Han and Chewie. She exchanged a quick glance with her lover, who gave her one of his sly smirks. "Well, considering that what you're currently feasting on is stormtrooper beef, I'll pass." She said, snickering. Han could not miss the opportunity to add insult to injury. "Yeah, I'm not big on cannibalism either."

Lando looked horrified. He glanced at the plate on his hand and placed it on a nearby tree stump, grimacing. "Well, it's true what they say. Ignorance really is bliss", the smuggler said as he left to greet Wedge Antilles, making the couple chuckle loudly.

Han looked at Leia. "Where's Luke? He should be here by now." The Princess also worried for her brother. He sounded fine when he commed her earlier, but he could have been lying to keep her from worrying. She also did not know whether the former imperial's intentions were genuine. He may as well have taken advantage of Luke's physical condition to hurt him, after all, the remnants of the Empire would be seeking revenge and trying to keep the dictatorship alive. Her worries were quelled when Luke appeared in the clearing, looking a little tired, but fine nevertheless. She smiled broadly as she ran to her brother, hugging him for what seemed to be the first time in decades. She had been so scared of losing him, Luke felt like a part of her she never knew was missing. She let him go so he could hug Han and their other friends, but he was quick to return to her.

"I'm so glad you are okay", Leia told her brother. Luke scratched the back of his head and waved dismissively. "You know I'm not defeated that easily." The princess rolled her eyes at that. She knew Luke thought he was going to die by the hands of the Emperor.

"Hey, what's important is that Emperor Wrinkleface is dead now. We won't have to deal with that sithspit ever again." Han joined the conversation. "Let's focus on what really matters right now: these bottles of Corellian brandy aren't going to drink themselves." The smuggler finished with a smile. Luke smiled, but Leia noticed his mind was elsewhere. When Han turned around to open the bottles, she whispered to her brother, "what's wrong?" The princess could barely hear herself over the sound of the Ewoks' music.

Luke seemed pensive, like he was considering whether he'd tell her what concerned him or not.

"I'll tell you later." When Leia opened her mouth to protest, he added "so we can speak in private".

It can't be something urgent, Leia thought, otherwise he would have told me by now.

But Leia was too curious, and she just knew whatever was bothering Luke had to do with the former imperial he had brought to the moon. "Well, we can go somewhere private now and discuss that." She pressed, but Han heard her and spoke before her brother could answer.

"Why don't we focus on having fun for a change? We just won a decisive battle on this war, for Force's sake."

"Han's right you know", Luke said, lighting up. "It really can wait."

"See? The kid knows the voice of reason when he hears it." Han joked, making Leia roll her eyes, snorting.

"Okay, hotshot. Give me that bottle." She said, winking at the smuggler, as he handed her the brandy.

"I want some too", Luke said. Han feigned shock. "You're not drinking milk this time? It's really the end of the Galaxy as we know it, the galaxy is upside down." The smuggler earned a giggle from Leia, who passed the bottle to her brother.

Luke sighed internally as he drank the brandy. Leia was more attuned to his feelings than he thought, it was the second time in less than three days she had noticed his uneasiness, first about telling her the truth about their kinship, now, about Anakin. Luke would tell her about him the next day. He did not want to spoil his sister's night with more drama, or his own for that matter.

Soon, more rebels and Ewoks joined the group and all worries about the person in the med bay a few miles from there laid forgotten as they happily celebrated a much needed victory that would change everything for them and for the galaxy as a whole.

After the party was over, Luke returned to the isolated facility in the middle of the dense forest of Endor where his father lay on a bed, hooked up to several monitors and tubes, fighting for his life. As the young Jedi sat on the bed beside Anakin's, he wondered if the elder Skywalker would actually be thankful for not being left for dead. Anakin had a grueling recovery ahead of him and he would have to face the consequences of his actions as Darth Vader - that included not only having to hide his identity from the whole galaxy, but also dealing with the guilt of having done such terrible deeds. As he made himself comfortable, Luke noticed how exhausted he was, yet the thoughts about his father and the future overwhelmed him enough to keep him awake. Closing his eyes, he tried to force himself to sleep, knowing he had a lot to do the following morning.

Leia was lost, which was weird and unusual. She had always been very proud of her pathfinding skills, having taken Chief Pangie's course when she was sixteen, which seemed like forever ago even though not even ten years had passed since her first class. Besides, she knew this place. It was Endor, more specifically the part where the shield generator for the second Death Star was located. Leia knew the place like the back of her hand by now, so she could not understand why the place where the rebel accomodations were set up was just a big clearing in the dense forest of the moon. The princess tried to look for someone, anyone, that could help her but the place seemed completely empty. There was no sign of sentients anywhere, not even Ewoks. Frowning, she wondered what could possibly have happened to make everybody evacuate the moon. Why couldn't she remember anything? And why was she left behind? Luke, Han and Chewie would never do that to her. She looked around, squinting, searching for any sign of life. For a short moment, she thought she had really been left alone on Endor, but that presumption died as soon as it came, when her eyes met the sight of the detachable med bay she had requested for Luke earlier. Leia ran towards it, trembling with relief when she reached its entrance. However, the feeling was short-lived. As soon as the door opened, a dark void appeared and she was sucked into it so quickly she didn't even have time to scream in horror.

With a jolt, Leia woke up to see she was inside one of the rebels' accomodations. She looked to her left and saw a sleeping Han, snoring beside her. Sighing in relief, she tried to comprehend the nightmare she just had. The dream seemed to lead her to the med bay where Luke probably was at that moment. She tried to search for her brother in the Force, just like she had done before when the Death Star exploded. It did not take long for her to sense his presence, but there was an interference she had never felt before, and the more she focused on it, the more familiar it felt. Was that the former Imperial her brother had saved? She decided she would not stay there and do nothing. That nightmare had to mean something. Not even bothering to change her clothes, she took off to the med bay in her nitghtgown, breathing in the fresh forest air as she panted.

The minute she arrived in the facility, she could focus on the presence more clearly, and recognized it. Leia hadn't known at the time, but she had felt it before. That was when it clicked to her. A former imperial. He was hurt. Luke requested another med bay so no rebel could see him, and had been hesitant to talk about it with her back at the party. Feeling utterly revulsed, Leia opened the door and her suspicions were confirmed.

Inside the med bay was Luke, looking tired, but very much awake, especially now that he looked at her as if she was a ghost. Beside her brother was the presence that had given her chills more than once before, and that moment was no different. Lying on a bed connected to many life support machines was none other than Darth Vader, out of his famous armor, which lay on a table next to him.

Consumed by shock, all Leia could do was mutter, "Luke?"