Chapter 59:
Padmé looked up as Leia entered the room, a burned-out look in her eyes. "What happened?" she asked, concerned.
"How much do you know about what happened between Obi-wan and our father?" she asked.
Padmé looked away, the memories from that day still too painful. "Not much, Leia. Your father... attacked me when he noticed Obi-Wan... he tried to kill me because he thought I betrayed him... after that... I was unconscious."
Suddenly, behind Leia, a new voice entered the room. "Vader is not your father."
She turned, startled. "Obi-wan?"
"Anakin Skywalker is your father... not the man in the cargo hold." Obi-Wan said calmly. "Nor is Darth Atrox your brother. Luke Skywalker was consumed by Darth Atrox... just as Anakin was consumed by Darth Vader. The good men they once were are all but destroyed."
"No, you're wrong," Leia said, defensively. "I felt the good in my father, strongly. I don't know what brought it out, but I could feel it."
"And the man who turned on you in anger, despite your attempts to be of help?" Obi-wan asked shrewdly.
Leia glared back towards Obi-Wan. "Just because he betrayed you doesn't mean he will destroy his own family. He cares about us... you are too narrow-minded to see that. And Atrox, despite what you might think, is my brother. He has not been wholly consumed yet… he loves Mara Jade… he loves his unborn child!" Leia responded hotly.
Obi-wan shook his head, wearily. "That's what I thought, at first. Until I saw the holos of Anakin… murdering younglings, younger than he was when I first saw him. And then when he began choking Padmé, choking you," he turned to Padmé, "I knew then that he was gone. He was like a brother to me, my dearest friend, and my greatest failure."
"He has a right to be angry for what you did to him! I felt everything he felt when he showed me what happened that day." Leia shouted back, blind to the irony that she was defending the man who was once her enemy.
"Not a day has gone by that I have not questioned my actions that day," Obi-wan said quietly. "Whether there was anything I could have done, anything I could have said, that would have made a difference. I don't know whether it would have mattered, whether anything would have changed. But once…" he faltered. "Once the fight was over, I knew I had to get your mother off the planet, and quickly. The Emperor was on his way, and the least I could do for Anakin was to protect his loved ones. As it was, Padmé barely survived." He met Padmé's eyes for a moment, then looked back at Leia.
"Tell him that yourself." Leia muttered under her breath.
When Vader ended the memory of that painful day, Atrox was seething in a pure rage that he had never felt before, rage directed towards Obi-wan. His eyes flashed red as his rage became uncontrolled, but quickly returned yellow as he forced his emotions to obey him. "He got off too easy." Atrox muttered darkly. He was about to address his master again when he suddenly felt his sister become annoyed… very annoyed.
"Master, something is wrong with Leia." He said as he began to storm off towards Leia's quarters.
Vader followed his son to their quarters, and they burst through the door, nearly identical glares on their faces. The room's occupants turned, startled, when they entered, and everyone froze.
Vader and Atrox were speechless with shock and rage as they looked on their enemy, who gazed back at them, gravely. Leia and Padmé watched, quietly, both with mixed feelings about the encounter.
Atrox locked eyes with Obi-wan, their sickly yellow color locking with the Jedi's eyes. "If you were not already dead, I would kill you with my bare hands... after I make you pay for what you did!" Atrox roared, the dark side of the Force making his voice deeper, unhuman.
Obi-wan returned his gaze, sadness in his eyes. Addressing Vader, he said quietly, "Must you turn him down this path as well, Darth? Shall he suffer the same fate as you and the ones you loved?"
"You had no right to take my family away from me!" Vader snarled. "My son belongs at my side... as does the rest of my family." He shouted back.
"He respects my decision not to be trained in the dark side," Leia put in, trying to defend her father and prove he wasn't the monster he had been.
Obi-wan sighed, sadly, and looked at Vader. "You lost them yourself, Anakin, when you tried to choke the life out of Padmé there on the landing platform. The Force has granted you a second chance, incredible as it may seem. I pray you don't waste it."
I have no intention to... but the Force seems to have a different opinion about that. Anakin Skywalker thought to himself, under all of Vader's layers of mental shields, the thought slipping through into Darth Vader. I am the Dark Lord of the Sith! Vader remarked to an imprisoned Anakin, locked behind Vader's hold on him. I will bend the Force to my will, as every Dark Lord has done before me, and our family will be safe for ever, and the Rebellion will be crushed... with my apprentice at my side! Vader thought coldly.
Anakin attempted to reach out to his master and friend, desperate to break free of Vader's grasp on him, but was immediately subdued by Vader's iron grip before he was even able to penetrate his hold on him. Weakling. You are no match for the Dark Lord of the Sith. You are nothing compared to what I have become... I am more powerful than you ever would have been! Vader snarled mentally at Anakin, refocusing his attention on his former master.
Leia watched her father, sensing conflict within him, and almost without recognizing it, heard the slightest whisper in her head, in her father's voice, yet unlike the tone she was used to. There was an urgency to it.
Leia, h—
The voice was cut off, abruptly, and she felt the darkness descend around her father again. She frowned, troubled by what she had sensed.
Obi-wan turned his head, sharply, as if sensing what had occurred. After a moment, he said, quietly, "Perhaps there is more here than meets the eye, as you believe, Leia. Be vigilant."
"Everyone in this room knows that there is more going on here, Obi-Wan. You have just been too self-centered to ask us what it is... do you even care or are you trying to destroy the family we just got back?" Padmé said to Obi-Wan sternly, before turning to Atrox, her eyes full of sympathy.
At that moment, the door slid open. Mara Jade stood in the doorway, lightsaber ignited. Her blade hissed closed as she took in the scene before her. She glared at the shimmering image of the aged Jedi, realizing the cause of her master's wrath. A snarl curled her lip. "What are you doing here, Jedi?"
Obi-wan's eyes flicked from Atrox to the young woman, sensing the tiny life force growing inside her. "What has happened?" he asked Padmé, his voice revealing the concern he genuinely felt.
After a moment, Padmé slowly turned her head back towards Obi-wan. "She is with child," Padmé whispered, pausing for a moment. "The Emperor has been having visions from the Force about the... future for them." She added even softer, the pain of what her husband had described to her echoed in her voice.
Obi-wan's eyes narrowed. "What kind of visions? Like… the ones he had before?"
Padmé nodded, quietly. "Worse." She sighed. "If these visions come to pass, the galaxy will be utterly lost, as well as Luke and the rest of our family."
Atrox's face was etched even further with rage, rage toward Obi-Wan, and toward whoever would assassinate his apprentice. He turned around and stalked out of the room. "Like the ghost of someone who has lied to me for my entire life will be of any help. If he were living, I would love the pleasure of killing him with my bare hands." Atrox growled coldly as he left the room and headed for his own quarters.
Mara shot Obi-wan a dark look, and followed her master, leaving Vader, Padmé and Leia alone with the aged Jedi Master.
"He's been like that ever since he found out," Leia muttered under her breath, eyeing Atrox as he left.
Obi-wan shook his head, sadly, and turned back to Padmé. "Tell me about these visions," he said gently.
As Padmé was about to speak, she was interrupted by Vader. "Leave my wife out of this, Kenobi," he spat, glaring at Obi-Wan.
He turned his eyes towards Vader, mildly. "Then describe what you experienced to me." He paused. "I'm trying to help you, Anakin, and your family."
"The same way you 'helped' my family the last time you intervened?" Vader snarled, eyeing the ghost before him coldly from under his hood.
"Yes," Obi-wan said calmly. "If I had not led Padmé to your daughter, she would still be stranded aboard her ship outside of known space." He did not add that her ship had been sabotaged during the Sith's attack on Dagobah.
Vader turned to look at his wife, a questioning look on his face.
She nodded. "It's the truth."
"Tell him, father," Leia put in suddenly. "If he has anything that could help us, we should at least give him the chance."
Vader turned his hard gaze over to Leia, glaring at her for several moments. "We don't need his help," he said coldly.
She glared back at him. "Unless you've come up with anything, I suggest you give him a chance. At the very least, it can't hurt anything, and if there's even a chance that he could help save them, don't you think we should consider it?"
Vader stared at her for several moments, his cold gaze boring into her. "Very well," he sneered, turning towards Obi-wan. "An assassin is going to murder Mara Jade in childbirth, killing both her and their child. My apprentice will react as I did, and will destroy the rest of our family in an attempt to deaden the pain, including myself, before taking his place as ruler of the Empire."
Obi-wan was silent, turning over the information in his head. At last, he said, "That's… horrible. I'm so sorry." He frowned. "This… assassin, have you been able to determine anything about him from the vision?"
Vader stared at him in annoyance. "I think he is a she, and she seemed familiar to me somehow."
It was Obi-wan's turn to stare for a moment, taken aback by his retort. "Well, then… I suppose for her to make it that far without your sensing something was wrong, she would need to be Force-sensitive, probably with at least some training. Are you aware of any you have had contact with in recent memory?"
"No," Vader replied. "Well…" he paused. "There was a girl I was… instructing. She had some skill with the Force, I was going to present her to Palpatine once she had proved herself. Once I had my son, however, I abandoned her training. I suppose she is with Imperial Intelligence now."
"Find out what became of her," Obi-wan advised. "Even if she is not the one, it is a start."