Sweat beaded across Leia's brow. The endless sea of lava was so bright it blurred her vision and she staggered in the suffocating heat. This didn't look like any planet she'd been on before. It looked like something out of a nightmare.
There was the unmistakable sound of lightsabers clashing. A voice, crying in despair, "I have failed you, Anakin. I have failed you."
Leia turned the corner and saw her father dueling with a man clad in the robes of a Jedi Knight. The two men were balancing on droids that skimmed a river of molten rock. Their lightsabers crackled in the air as they met. Blow after blow, it was clear that the men were evenly matched and fighting to kill. Leia didn't dare yell for her father for fear of distracting him, but when she tried to run to intercept the Jedi she found that they didn't seem to get any closer.
All of a sudden the Jedi leaped onto the bank of the molten river while her father glared up at him. There was nowhere for Vader to go; the Jedi occupied the high ground.
"Don't try it!" The Jedi warned.
Vader ignored him. He leapt up and attempted to sail over the Jedi, but the Jedi merely swung up with his lightsaber and neatly severed both of Vader's legs. Leia screamed in horror, but again, it was like she wasn't even there.
For a moment there was only the sound of Vader moaning in pain as the Jedi looked down at him sadly. The lava crackled menacingly mere inches away from what remained of Vader's legs.
"You were the chosen one!" The Jedi cried as he deactivated his lightsaber. "You were supposed to destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!"
A woman cried out in the distance. Leia turned but she couldn't see who it was. She looked back at her father, whose face twisted into a mask of hatred and panic. The Jedi seemed to think that Vader was beaten, but Leia knew better. She felt the Force swell.
Vader reached out his hand towards the Jedi and began to constrict his hands. There was the unmistakable sound of bone snapping, and the Jedi's neck twisted in a horribly unnatural way before he crumpled to the ground in a lifeless heap.
Leia awoke in a cold sweat. It took her several minutes to reorient to reality.
Only one word stuck out in her head.
Mustafar.
XxXxX
Several hours later Leia was walking down to the detention center tossing the word 'Mustafar' around in her head. What was Mustafar? It sounded like a planet, but Leia was fairly familiar with the layout of the galaxy and Mustafar didn't sound familiar to her. Was it a person? She wanted to ask her father, but knew that was probably a bad idea. If that had truly been a Force vision - Leia had never had one before, but had read about them in the imperial archives - she had witnessed the moment that her father had been mutilated by the rogue Jedi. She'd learned a long time ago that any questions about that day provoked unspeakable violence from her father. But what was that the Jedi had said about her father being a chosen one? She dismissed the thought as Jedi lies.
She pushed Mustafar out of her mind as she entered the control bay of the detention center. As soon as they saw her, the officers snapped to attention. "Lady Vader. We have been expecting you."
"I need the cell number for Bail Organa." She told the nearest lieutenant.
"2187." The lieutenant said promptly.
"Thank you." Leia said. "I shouldn't be too long."
She made her way down the detention block and stopped when she got to the senator's cell. After punching in the access code the door slid open and she stepped inside.
The cell was small, adorned with only a bench and a small table. The bench was currently occupied by a tall and sturdy-looking middle-aged human. He had dark hair with a close kept beard and olive skin that was currently littered with bruises. For a moment, Leia stared. After hearing all of the stories about him and seeing him from afar in the Senate, it was strange to see that this man was just that - a man.
At the sound of the door opening the man opened his eyes. "I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me."
"Oh, I would never do that." Leia said cordially. "We were just deciding what to do with you."
"Well, if you're the best that they've got, so far I'm not impressed." Bail said frankly.
Leia smiled. The senator's lunch tray shot off of his table and hit the opposite wall with a loud clatter. "Senator, I may be young, but I am not to be taken lightly."
Bail's eyes narrowed. "Wait, I know you. From the Senate. You're Lady Vader, aren't you?"
Leia inclined her head. "You have no idea how much trouble you've caused me over the last few months, trying to pin you down. I should have just sat back and waited, you were bound to slip up eventually."
When the senator didn't say anything, she continued. "It must have been the shock of your life to learn that the chit you'd stolen was blank. Personally, I don't care where they are; I'm interested in something far more valuable that you actually do have. But you had to have known the chances of you getting away were practically non-existent, to have risked it all for nothing..."
Her taunting worked. Bail Organa lunged at her, fists ready. Leia nimbly stepped aside and Bail, already weak from his imprisonment, fell to the grown at a very awkward angle. She grabbed the back of his robe and with surprising strength for someone her size, picked the senator up and sat him back on the bench. "Where is the rebel base?" She asked harshly. "I'm only going to ask you this one time. Lord Vader will be here next, and he won't be nearly as gentle as me."
To her surprise, the senator began to laugh. "I don't know."
She slammed his shoulder against the back of the cell. "You're lying."
"Young lady, I'm under no illusions that I'm getting out of here alive. So why would I tell you anything?"
Leia leaned in close to his face. "You don't understand. There are things so much worse than death."
Bail met her gaze calmly. "Some things are worth dying to protect."
For a moment there was silence as they each sized their opponent up. Then Leia stood up. Without a word she turned and opened the door. After a few moments her father filled the doorway. She felt, rather than saw, Bail's sudden fear. "No luck?" Vader asked almost casually.
"None." Leia said. "He's made up his mind."
"Well, we'll see about that." He turned to the senator. "Your Highness, you will now discuss the location of your hidden rebel base with me."
A lieutenant entered the cell pushing a floating metallic orb in front of him.
A mind probe. Leia could see the syringe filled with interrogation serum glinting in the light. They were supposed to be illegal. This was going too far.
Leia looked at Vader. She didn't say anything, but Vader could sense her confusion and disapproval. What had she thought he was going to do? She was going to have to learn quickly that service to the Empire meant that sometimes you had to forget about the rules and get your hands dirty.
Father…
He quickly cut her off. He is the best chance that we have of crushing the rebellion. If I have to take drastic measures to get what I want, then so be it!
There was nothing she could do. Leia didn't dare interrupt the proceedings any more. She felt Bail's eyes on her but she couldn't look at him as she left the detention center. As she made her way down the corridor, she heard Bail's cell door shut with a loud thud.
XxXxX
Luke had always been taught that fear stank worse than bantha fodder. And for the first time, he believed it. The council room was absolutely reeking. Eight Imperial generals, Grand Moff Tarkin, plus Luke and his father were clustered in a large sterile conference room. Most of the generals sat quietly, listening to a single man's rant.
"Until this battle station is fully operational, we are vulnerable. The rebellion is too well equipped, they're more dangerous than you realize."
Other than Luke, General Tagge was the youngest person in the Imperial council room, and in Luke's opinion, he was the slimiest. He had the arrogance and strut of a man who had risen quickly and dishonestly. He relied too much on blasters and terror, and was very vocally opposed to the presence of Vader, Luke, and anything he deemed 'hokey ancient religions'.
"Dangerous to your holdings perhaps, General, not to this battle station." General Romodi interjected wearily. Romodi had been around too long to be intimidated by hotheaded young officers, and he was too wary of Darth Vader and the Imperial Prince to deliberately antagonize them.
"With the Imperial Senate dissolved we have no way to keep an eye on star systems with suspected ties to the rebellion. Free from Imperial surveillance they are only going to grow." Tagge insisted. "We must move quickly to make a statement of power. This station is now the ultimate power in the universe. I suggest we use it."
"But we have Senator Organa." Governor Tarkin reminded them. "He may have been resistant to the mind probe, but we have not exhausted all of our options. He knows the location of the rebel base and when he tells us we will strike."
"Oh yes, Senator Organa. Caught in an act of espionage against the Empire with a drive of stolen plans for this battle station," Tagge flung back. "Except the data is still missing. The fact remains that our networks were hacked and a copy of the plans were stolen. They are still out there and if we don't find them, a rebel sympathizer will."
"The plans you refer to will soon be back in our hands." Vader assured the room, speaking for the first time. He nodded towards Luke. "My son will see to it."
Tagge scoffed. "Your son? That whelp barely out of his swaddlings? That's all we need, another sad devotee of that ancient mythology stumbling around as blind as the rest…"
Tagge's eyes suddenly bulged. He made an unnatural choking sound as his face began to turn an unnatural shade of blue.
"I find your lack of faith disturbing." Luke said rather mildly, his hand extended slightly towards the squirming General.
Tarkin looked from one Sith to the next. "Enough of this! Release him!"
"As you wish." Luke said nonchalantly with a flick of his wrist. Tagge immediately collapsed against the back of his chair, rapidly gasping for air.
Luke chuckled.
Tarkin banged his hand on the table to regain order. "This bickering is pointless. Now, the Imperial Prince is more than qualified to track down the stolen data tapes before any further damage can be done. And Lord and Lady Vader will provide us with the location of the rebel base by the time this battle station is operational. We will then crush the rebellion with one swift stroke."
After the officers left, Luke turned to his father. "That could have gone better."
"You didn't exactly help." Vader said icily.
"Please. Tagge is a spineless, sycophantic waste of a human being who wouldn't be able to find the stolen plans if they were delivered to him on a bantha."
"Of course he is, but that isn't the point." Vader said with an irritated wave of his hand. "We don't waste our time antagonizing insignificant scum like him."
"Fine. So do you still want me to go to Tatooine?"
Vader nodded. "None of the escape pods on the ship had been jettisoned, but the rebels were found above the planet, it's possible they could have ended up there."
"Father…" Luke said hesitantly.
"Yes, my son?"
"There seems to be another option that you haven't considered."
"And what is that?"
"Well, from everything that I have been told, it doesn't seem that the rebel spies ever had the plans. It sounds to me like they were intercepted somehow and given a fake. I don't know how, but Danuta is heavily patrolled. I don't think they were just dropped. Someone has them."
Vader nodded thoughtfully. "But that would mean the real theft was an inside job."
Luke nodded. "Exactly."