Chapter 12

Leia and Obi-Wan hurried through the corridors, trying to formulate a plan. It would not be easy to get Vader safely off the moon, but Leia was determined to do so. She was adamant to the point that Obi-Wan had commented to her how much like her father she was.

"Am I really?" she asked, stopping and looking at the old Jedi.

"Yes, you are," he replied. "Anakin was always very single minded, very difficult to dissuade from doing something when he was convinced he was right."

Leia smiled. "Sounds like he and I would get along famously," she said.

She saw her brother and Han Solo approaching and ran to meet them.

"What's going on?" Luke said. "Is …he still in the brig?"

"Yes," nodded Leia. "And you're just in time to help me get him out."

Han frowned. "You're going to let him out?" he asked incredulously. "Are you nuts??"

"No, I most certainly am not nuts," Leia retorted. "He helped me escape, he helped all of us," she told the cocky young pilot. "We owe him ."

Han shook his head in disbelief. "Well count me out, sister," he said ruefully. "You want to get yourself court marshaled you go right ahead. Come on, kid," he said, turning to leave. "Kid?"

Luke stood looking at his sister, trying to decide what to do.

Leia could see her brother's hesitation, and took him by the hand. "Luke, he's our father," she said. "Whatever else he has done, he is our father, our flesh and blood. He has come so far to change, and if we abandon him now, all that will be for nothing. I don't want that to happen, do you?"

Luke shook his head. "No," he said. "Of course not."

"I want to meet Anakin Skywalker," Leia said. "I want to know him, the great hero, the man who sacrificed everything for the love of a woman, our mother. That man is inside of him, I've seen glimpses of him. If we help him, if we support him, he will find his way back, I just know it!"

Luke was moved by his sister's words, and looked at Obi-Wan. "Ben?" he said. "What do you think? Is there a chance he could be turned back to the good side?"

Kenobi nodded. "Yes Luke," he said. "I never would have imagined it possible, but I do believe it. It has already begun."

Luke had to admit that he too had seen the changes, felt the good man within the Dark Lord. How could he turn his back on that man?

"Okay," Luke said at last. "Tell me what to do."

Vader had commenced pacing in his cell, like an animal in a cage, his mind working furiously to find a way out. The thought that perhaps his daughter might come to his aide had crossed his mind, but no doubt she would take great risk to do so, and he did no wish her to endanger herself.

His thoughts turned to his son as well, his pride for him filling him with an unusual warm feeling. This is what it feels like to be a father, he realized. Both of his children had given him reason to be proud. Padmé would have been proud of them too, he thought, the image of her face jumping unheeded to his mind. I did not kill her, he thought, the knowledge of it still a shock to him. He lied to me, he thought as his thoughts grew dark. I swore my allegiance to him; I sold my soul to him…all for a lie, all for nothing…

Vader knew his master well enough to know that by now there was an enormous bounty on his head. Sidious did not take betrayal lightly, and that is exactly how he would see what Vader had done. The irony of his situation was not lost on him. In saving his children he had burned all bridges with the Empire, and put himself in the position of an enemy of that Empire; yet, the Alliance which he had delivered his daughter too also considered him their sworn enemy. So, in essence, he was without allies, a man without a future. He had sacrificed everything to save his daughter…just as he done so twenty years earlier to save her mother. But you were unable to save Padmé…this time you did it, this time you did save the one you love.

Vader's musings were interrupted when he sensed a tremor in the Force. At once he realized what it meant; his children were close by. He looked around at the carnage he was surrounded by; would they believe him when he said he was provoked to kill the four men whose bodies lay obscenely around the cell? We shall soon see, he thought as he heard the door being deactivated. He stepped back as the door slid open, revealing his daughter and son.

"Leia, Luke," Vader began, not at all surprised to see them. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think?" Leia replied. "We're here to …." She stopped when she saw the four dead men within the cell. Suddenly she was filled with a cold sense of anxiety. What am I doing? She thought. Was Dodonna right? Is my father beyond redemption?

"They attacked me," Vader told his children, seeing the look of horror and shock in their eyes. "I complied with their requests, but they saw fit to try to inflict bodily harm upon me. I acted in self defense."

Luke and Leia looked at one another. They wanted to believe their father, but his predilection for violence made it hard to do so.

"If you doubt me," Vader spoke up, "the security holos will verify what I have told you."

"The security cameras!" Leia suddenly remembered. She looked up and saw that the recording device was pointed towards the ceiling at a most unusual angle. She looked back at her father for an explanation.

"I… thought perhaps it was a wise precaution," he explained, "given the fact that the two of you must not be implicated in any of this."

Luke smiled. "Very thoughtful," he commented. "Any ideas how we can get you out of here without anyone seeing us?"

"You lead the way," Vader replied. "And leave the rest to me."

"You're not going to just kill everyone we encounter, all you?" Luke asked with a frown.

"I will only kill if I must," Vader replied. "The Force will cloak us when necessary." He sensed his children's reticence. "Perhaps you'd like to reconsider your involvement," he suggested.

Leia shook her head. "No," she said, grabbing her father's hand. "You risked everything to save us, now we're going to do the same for you. Come on!"

The recentness of the Rebel victory worked in the favor of the fugitives, for most of the personnel were in the great audience hall celebrating. Leia, being familiar with the layout of the base, managed to find the less populated corridors and passageways to the docking bay where Obi-Wan had arranged to meet the three of them.

"Where will you go?" Luke asked his father as they made their way through the winding corridors.

"I do not know," Vader replied. "I will not return to the Empire," he told them. "I could not even if I wanted to. My recent actions have made me a wanted man. And it is obvious that your Rebel leaders are unwilling to consider that a man can change."

"So what will you do?" Leia asked.

"I must find out what happened to your mother," Vader replied. The fate of his wife had been gnawing away at his mind ever since he learned that she had not died at his hand. "I want to learn the truth about her death, and if there was any way it could have been prevented."

"What do you hope to gain by knowing that?" Luke asked. "Isn't it sort of like pouring salt on an open wound?"

Vader was silent as he considered his son's question. "I have lived with the pain of her death for close to twenty years, Luke," he replied at last as they entered the hangar. "There is nothing that can rival that pain, not anymore. I must know the truth if I am ever to know peace."

"I will tell you the truth, Anakin," Obi-Wan said as he watched the exchange between Vader and his children.

Vader looked at his old Jedi. "What do you know of truth, old man?" he retorted. "How can any of us believe you after the way you…."

"Padmé did not die in childbirth, Anakin," Kenobi cut in.

"What?" Leia cried.

"What happened to her?" Luke asked. "Where is she??

"I don't know where she is," Obi-Wan replied. "But I promise you that she did not die when the two of you were born."

Vader stood as though his boots had become adhered to the floor beneath them. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, the blood pounding in his ears.

"If she did not die," he began, "then why were the twins taken from her and raised apart? Who did that to her?" he demanded.

Obi-Wan looked up at Vader. "She had serious complications when the twins were born," he told him. "And very nearly did die. Due to the complications she slipped into a coma for weeks, and the doctors did not give her much hope of surviving. That is why the twins were taken."
"You left her alone?" Vader asked furiously. "You stole her children from her and then left her alone to die?" he roared, taking a step towards Obi-Wan.

"Stop, please!" Leia implored, trying to hold her father back. "I'm sure that wasn't what happened!"

"No, it was not," Kenobi replied. "Yoda remained with Padmé while Bail Organa and I took the twins to a safe hiding spot. Time was of the essence; we knew that if Palpatine learned of their existence, he would have taken the twins and destroyed them. We couldn't take that chance." He looked at Vader who stood listening silently to Kenobi's tale. "I returned to see her, to the medical facility at Polis Massa as soon as I could, only to find that she was gone. None of the doctors there would tell me where, for she had sworn them all to secrecy. All they would tell me was that she believed the babies had died, and no one there told her otherwise. Apparently Master Yoda felt that if she knew that they were alive she would have tried to search for them, and would have endangered all three of them in the process."

Vader was silent as he digested all this information, his mind racing in a thousand directions. Was she alive? If she was, where was she? What did the belief that her babies had died done to her?

"Stand aside, Obi-Wan," Vader said at last as he headed for one of the rebel ships.

"Where are you going?" Leia cried, running after him.

Vader turned to his children. "I am going to find your mother," he replied. "If she is alive, I will find her, I promise you that."

Luke and Leia were torn; they wanted desperately to go with their father, to help him search for their mother. And yet they both felt a sense of duty and obligation to the Rebel Alliance, and felt compelled to do everything they could to help it.

"When I find her, I will bring her home to you," Vader said, touching his daughter's face. "I swear it."

Leia nodded. "I know you will," she said. "Good luck, Father."

Vader was moved, hearing his child call him father for the first time.

"May the Force be with you, Father," Luke said.

Vader turned to his son next and put a hand on his shoulder. "And with you, my son," he replied.

And then without another word, he proceeded to the nearest ship and climbed on board. He stopped when he noticed Obi-Wan climbing into the cockpit of the neighboring ship.

"What are you doing, old man?" Vader asked.

"You're going to need some help," Obi-Wan replied. "Besides, how far do you think you'll get looking like the most notorious man in the galaxy?"

Vader paused, not having given any consideration to that. He was nothing if not infamous.

"And what do you suggest?" Vader asked at last.

"You'll just have to wait and see," Obi-Wan returned with a grin.

Vader shook his head. "I should have killed you when I had the chance," he grumbled.

Obi-Wan only chuckled as both men climbed into their fighters and prepared to leave.