Alderaan

Darth Vader's ship glided down through Alderaan's thick atmosphere toward the landing pad outside the Organa's palace. The Sith Lord was here on official business to discuss many things, not the least of which was Bail Organa's reluctance when it came to dealing with the empire. He strode into the palace flanked by two stormtroopers, who held blasters to scare off any latent rebel scum that might be lurking around.

"Bail Organa will see you now, my Lord." A young servant opened the door to his office.

Inside, Organa was bouncing a chubby toddler on his knees. At the sight of Vader, he jerked in surprise and quickly passed the toddler to a nanny. "Take Leia to her room." In an undertone he added, "make sure she does not leave it."

Vader picked up on the fear radiating from Organa's force signature. Not unusual, given his frightening appearance and position of power. But there was an undercurrent of fear specifically concerning the child's safety. Vader didn't understand. Perhaps Organa didn't want the child to be near a tall, wheezing cyborg. "Your daughter, I presume." Vader began.

"Yes, Lord Vader." Said Organa quickly. "Now what was it you wished to speak with me about?"

"I have experienced some reluctance from you in our dealings, Organa. Do you not support the empire?"

"I do sir, I do!"

"If you give me one more excuse for why you do not yet have a military base on this planet . . ."

"As I told you before, Lord Vader, the recent snowstorm has made construction difficult."

"And as I have told you, Alderaan is of great strategic importance to the empire. You have many buildings on this planet. They seem to have been built despite the weather conditions. You have two months to finish the military base, after that there will be consequences. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Good. I will be inspecting the construction site soon." Vader stood and left the room, his cloak billowing behind him.

In the hallway he found the child, seemingly having escaped from her nursery. Rather then going back to her father's office, though, she followed Vader down the hall. Vader sighed heavily. "Return to your nursery, young one." She giggled and took a step closer. Vader tried again, this time using a mind trick. "You will return to your nursery." Still nothing. In fact, the child had grabbed his cloak and was now chewing on it! Was she force-sensitive? Seized by some impulse, Vader reached out and picked her up.

"Hi!" The child squeaked as she was lifted towards his face. "Hi!" She reached out for his mask.

Vader was stunned. The few children he'd come in contact with usually ran screaming at the sight of him, yet this one was unbothered by the suit or the mask or the loud breathing.

Organa, hearing the noise, came out of his office. "I'm so sorry, Lord Vader." He made to take the child. "Leia, come to Daddy."

Vader felt the Force rise up in him and he yanked the child out of Organa's reach. "Hold off, Organa. This child is force-sensitive! What do you mean by keeping her existence concealed like this?" Vader had wanted force-sensitives to be trained by the empire.

"Lord Vader, I insist, give me the child!"

Vader held off, looking into the little girl's eyes. Doing so felt like being stabbed in the soul, for she was roughly the age his own child could have been, had it lived. She looked back into the sockets of his mask. Their eyes aligned, and Vader felt something deeper align too, something in their souls seemed to align too.

"How did you come by this child?" Vader snarled, reaching out to choke Organa.

"My wife and I . . . adopted her . . . war orphan." Organa sputtered.

"Who authorized this?!

"Obi-Wan . . . I failed him . . ."

Vader squeezed harder and Organa's lifeless body dropped to the floor. He stormed back to his ship with the child safely under his arm. Obi-Wan. Of course it had been Obi-Wan's half-ran out of the palace, back to his ship.

"My Lord, who . . ." Admiral Piett trailed off and Vader lunged for the door of the ship.

"It is none of your concern." Vader barked. "Take us back to Coruscant, now!"

"But the site for the new base, my lord . . ."

"We are leaving. Those are my orders."

On the way back to Coruscant, Vader put Leia down on the floor of the ship and observed her. She would be about a year and a half old by now, old enough to run around and speak a few words. As she scrambled up on a seat and tried to reach for the ship's controls, he quickly realized that she was also old enough to get herself into trouble.

"No, Leia. No no. Come to Father." He quickly pulled her back. As she tried to put the end of a blaster in her mouth, Vader realized with horror that he had no idea what went into raising a child. She would certainly need a bedroom, some clothes, and some toys. His quarters on Coruscant would have to be baby proofed. Weapons would need to be locked up. Did he need a nanny? Vader shook himself. Of course he would need a nanny. He had missions to go on and work to do, none of which would be appropriate for a child.

Leia made a little gurgling sound. Vader looked down and realized she was chewing on his cape again. Were babies still teething at this age?

"Piett! Speed up! I don't care who you have to shoot down, just go!" The sooner they could get back to Coruscant, the sooner he could get Leia situated and the sooner he could begin the hunt for Kenobi.

Tatooine

"Luke! Luke no!" Shmi Skywalker set down the stack of plates she was carrying and raced across the dining room, but she was too late: her grandson Luke had upended his bowl of porridge and splattered it everywhere, though mostly on himself. "second time this week, Luke!"

Luke giggled with delight and smacked his hands against the tray of his high-chair, splattering more porridge. `

"Luke, Luke. What are we going to do with you?" Shmi picked him up and took him to his bedroom to change him into a clean set of clothes. By the time Luke had been cleaned up, Owen and Beru had cleaned up the rest of the mess in the kitchen and had turned on the holonet. Shmi set Luke down and let him toddle around while she joined Owen and Beru to watch the news.

"The empire has placed a bounty of ten thousand credits on this man's head." A reporter was speaking. "Obi-Wan Kenobi, last seen on Mustafar eighteen months ago, is armed and extremely dangerous. He must be brought in alive."

Shmi frowned. "What does the empire want with Ben?"

Owen shrugged. "Most likely to kill him. We should go and warn him if he doesn't know already." Owen thought Obi-Wan was a weirdo, but even he didn't want the man to be taken by the empire.

Shmi watched the screen in silence. It didn't surprise her that Obi-Wan was a wanted man, not really, but this was sudden. It was as if something had reminded the empire of the man's existence. "I'll take the speeder and go first thing tomorrow."

"Are you sure?" asked Beru. "You of all people know how dangerous it can be out there. . ." They all knew she was referring to Shmi's kidnapping and subsequent coma episode several years ago. She'd been on the brink of death when Anakin found her, and had fallen unconscious soon after. Anakin had not bothered to check her vital signs, which had led to him wrapping up the body and bringing it back to the farm. Fortunately Owen and Beru noticed she was still breathing not long after Anakin left.

"I'll have to. You and Owen can't be spared from the farm labor." Her coma episode had left her too weak, mentally and physically, to do heavy farm labor. "I can't let the empire have Ben." The empire had taken her son and transformed him into a monster. They weren't about to take a good family friend too.

Luke tripped and fell against the holonet projector, knocking it over and breaking the connection. "That's it. Time for bed." Shmi picked the toddler up and carried him to his room. "Tomorrow you and I are gonna visit Ben Kenobi, ok?" Luke giggle and clutched his stuffed bantha in his small fist.