My dear readers, tomorrow I am off to destinations south to escape the Hothlike snow and ice of Canada for a week. I'm afraid the chances of me being able to post a chapter during this time are approximately 3720 to 1, so you'll have to enjoy this last one until the week following this one. Thank you all again for the amazing support of this story! Cheers!
Chapter 57
Lord Vader…can you hear me?
I am not Vader anymore; I have renounced the Dark Side.
You may think you have, but I know you better than that. I know your lust for power is too strong for you to ignore it for long.
You don't know me at all, you never did.
I want you to come home, Lord Vader, back where you belong. You don't belong among those pathetic rebels – your strength is wasted there. Come back here and all will be forgotten.
Never.
You can have whatever you wish- if it's power you want, I will give it to you. I can give you anything you want- can the rebels you have taken up with say the same?
I have something now that you would never give me- acceptance, freedom, and love.
Love? Since when does a Sith need love? If it's your wife you want, then fine, you can have her with you if you wish. I will even help you search for a way to repair your injuries so you can be whole again.
I am whole again, you twisted monster. More whole than you could ever be in a thousand life times.
I see…well then bring your wife with you, share your life with her here, return to my right hand, my friend, and I will reward you handsomely for your loyalty.
I would rather go through the fires of Mustafar a thousand times than join you again, Sidious! The time will come when I will come back to you, but it will not be to join you, it will be to destroy you.
You cannot destroy your own kind, Vader…and we are the same, you and I, don't try to deny it.
No! I am redeemed! I will never turn to the Dark Side again, do you hear me? Never!
Who are you trying to convince, Vader? Me or yourself?
Anakin woke with a start, his heart thumping hard in his chest. He sat up in the bed, astonished to find himself bathed in sweat. What the hell was that? he wondered anxiously. A dream or a conversation? Running his hands through his sweaty hair, he summoned the Force to calm his rattled nerves and slow the hammering of his heart.
"Ani?" Padmé asked sleepily, turning to him. "You okay?"
"Yes," he lied, bending down and kissing her bare shoulder. "Go back to sleep."
"Okay," she murmured and was soon sound asleep again. Anakin moved over to the other side of the bed and got off. Picking up his sleep pants from where they had been tossed the previous night, he pulled them on and left room, closing the door silently behind him.
Anakin walked over to the vast picture window in the large central living area. Folding his arms, he stood staring outside as the lights of passing vehicles flickered across the ebony sky.
"Can't sleep?" he asked as he sensed his daughter approaching him.
"No, you?" she asked as she came over to stand beside him.
"Well I was asleep," he told her.
"So what happened?" she asked. "Bad dream?"
"I don't know," he told her truthfully. He turned and looked at her. "I think the emperor contacted me, Leia. He's trying to get me to rejoin the Dark Side."
Leia stood perfectly still as she felt a cold wave of anxiety filling her. "Dad, no," she finally said. "Please tell me you told him where to go and how to get there."
Anakin was mildly shocked by her colorful choice of words. No doubt the influence of that pirate again, he thought bitterly. "Well yes, in so many words," he replied. "Don't worry, Leia," he assured her. "I have no intention of returning to the Dark Side. Clearly Palpatine is desperate now that his brilliant protégé is dead," he added wryly.
Leia smiled. "No doubt," she agreed.
"At any rate," Anakin said as he walked across the room. "I let him know in no uncertain terms that I had renounced the Dark Side, and that the only circumstances under which I would return to him was to destroy him."
"I'm sure he wasn't too pleased about that," Leia commented, joining her father on the sofa.
"No, I'm sure he wasn't," Anakin replied. He looked at his daughter, hating the tension that had suddenly sprung up between them. "I hate this, Leia," he said.
She frowned, knowing exactly what he meant. "I do too," she said. "I'm sorry I called you a hypocrite."
"And I'm sorry I treated you like a child," he countered.
"I'm sorry I called you a stubborn, overbearing nerf herder," Leia said.
Anakin frowned. "You didn't," he said.
"No, but I was thinking it," she said with a grin.
Anakin was shocked, but then had to laugh.
"I suppose I will have to learn some modicum of tolerance," he admitted with a dramatic sigh. "And keep my opinions to myself."
"All I'm asking is that you give him a chance," Leia said. "I know you two got off to a rough start," she added, wincing at the understatement, "but as hard as this may be to believe, you actually have a lot in common."
Anakin snorted in response. "You're right, that is hard to believe."
"Dad," Leia said. "Come on."
"Okay, okay," Anakin relented. "I'm sorry. I will try to see beyond the smuggler to the man you so obviously believe is underneath his arrogant, cocky, sarcastic..."
"Dad!"
"Façade. Okay? Is that good enough?"
Leia sighed. "I suppose so," she said.
"Good. I'm just glad you're alright," he said, his more tone serious. "Good old Obi-Wan," he added with a smile. "As reliable as ever."
Leia observed her father for a moment. "He's really missed you, Dad," she told him. "I know he feels largely responsible for what happened to you."
"He shouldn't," he replied. "I was not exactly an easy padawan to deal with. Which reminds me," he said, turning and looking at her. "He's not pleased with you for the way you ditched him back on Hoth," he told her.
"No, I'm sure he isn't," she said.
"And neither am I, to be honest," he added. "He is your master, Leia; you need to respect him and do as his bids." Did I just say that?? he thought incredulously.
"Yes, Dad," she said, properly contrite.
"Off the record though," Anakin continued. "I'm very impressed that you were able to ditch him. Not happy, but impressed."
Leia looked up at him with a small grin.
"How did you manage it?" he asked.
"Um, well…" Leia began, a little embarrassedly, "we were on our way to the transport, which I had no real intention of boarding, when I told him I had to go back to my quarters, that I'd forgotten something important."
Anakin frowned. "I can't imagine how he fell for that," he said. "A pretty flimsy excuse and he bought it?"
"Well, I didn't tell you what I told him I forgot," Leia said. "I told him that I forgot my…female necessities. He didn't question me at all."
Anakin burst into laughter, the thought of how embarrassed Obi-Wan must have been at that moment making him laugh even harder.
"Force that is funny," he said after a few moments. "He always was a squeamish one when it came to anything female. Did his face go all red and did he stroke his beard like mad?"
Leia nodded, giggling madly. "Yes, that's it exactly! You know him so well!"
"Well, you don't spend that much time with someone without getting to know everything about them," he said. "I used to love to tease him, poor Obi-Wan. He never knew what to expect from me next. I guess I wasn't exactly what you'd call a model pupil."
"He told me you saved his life more times than he can remember," she said. "That matters more than following the rules all the time."
Anakin nodded. "True," he said. A smile spread across his face as a memory unfolded in his mind.
"What?" Leia asked, seeing that he was amused by something.
"No, I shouldn't tell you," he said. "It would embarrass him."
"Oh come on," she said. "I told you what I said to him. It's your turn now."
Anakin laughed. "I'm definitely a bad influence on you," he decided. "But okay. During the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan and I had many adventures as you can imagine. But there was one that will always stand out in my mind as being perhaps the funniest thing I've ever seen."
Leia's eyes went as wide as saucers at this point. "Oh, tell me, tell me!"
Anakin chuckled at her enthusiasm. "We were on the planet Cato Nemoidia, deep inside the caverns. I won't go into all the details of the mission, suffice it to say we had been warned about some spores that tended to have an unusual affect on humans. As Jedi we always carried rebreathers with us in case we had to enter an area with conditions not suitable to humans, but something must have happened to his, because he was exposed to these spores. Leia, he looked like he'd downed three bottles of Kittani's Finest. When I got there he was just standing in place, but he was swaying and tottering and reeling, all the while evading and even parrying a steady stream of laser blast! And if that wasn't ridiculous enough, sometimes he'd even stop to congratulate himself on what a fine job he was doing!"
Leia laughed until she had tears streaming down her face as her father described the antics of the normally dignified Jedi Master, intoxicated and giddy from the effects of free flying spores deep within the caverns of Cato Nemoidia.
Padmé watched from the doorway as the two of them laughed together and smiled. That's more like it; she thought to herself and then returned to bed.
At breakfast the next morning Anakin braced himself for the arrival of Han Solo, determined not to let his obvious dislike and mistrust of the man be quite so obvious. But the moment Han walked in the door, or rather swaggered through the door in Anakin's eyes, he immediately began to have visions of him slipping and falling with his legs shooting up in the air, and he had to try hard not to laugh out loud at the image. He looked away in order to regain his air of quiet dignity lest Leia see that he was smirking and guess the reason why.
"Morning, uh, sir," Han said as Leia held onto his arm, no doubt directing him to her father.
"Solo," Anakin replied simply.
Leia looked from one to the other, realizing that it was going to be a hard sell to both to get them to accept the other. She nudged Han in the ribs, earning her a sharp look from him.
"Look, I ...uh, know we kind of got off to a bit of a rough start," Han began nervously.
"You invited me to jump out of your ship while it was airborne," Anakin remembered, enjoying the moment immensely. "And then you said my act of benevolence, which I believe meant saving my daughter's life, meant jack squat to you," he continued. "And then I think you called me a liar when I told Luke I was his father. So if that constitutes a rough start, then yes, I'd have to agree with you."
Han was unnerved by Anakin's cool, composed manner, by the icy stare of his cerulean eyes, but most of all by the manner in which he had succinctly summed up their first encounter. He swallowed, realizing that this was not going to be easy. Anakin Skywalker may be Leia's father, but he was also more intimidating than anyone Han had ever encountered. And that was saying a lot.
"Yeah, well," Han began. "About that. I suppose maybe I was a little …judgmental," he said, forcing the words out. "Wouldn't be the first time," he added, trying to lighten the mood. Anakin merely watched him squirm, doing his best not to show his enjoyment openly.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is, can we start over, you and me?" Han asked. "Let bygones be bygones sorta thing?"
Anakin moved his eyes slowly from Han to his daughter, who was looking up at him with the same big brown eyes that her mother had used to her advantage on many occasions. I did promise to try, didn't I? he reflected glumly. He looked back at Han.
"I suppose that is acceptable," he said, choosing his words deliberately. "But mark my words, Captain," he added, not about to let the chance to take Han down a peg or two slip away. "I will be watching."
Han swallowed again, trying to appear unfazed, but failing miserably. He merely nodded and then turned away. Leia looked up at her father with a smile. "Was that so hard?" she asked.
"Do you really want me to answer that?" Anakin replied.
"No," Leia replied and then left to join Han and Luke.
Padmé, who had been watching the exchange, came over to Anakin and kissed him on the cheek.
"What did I do to deserve that?" he asked.
"You're a good father," she told him.
Anakin couldn't help but smile at her comment. "Come on," he said, taking her hand. "Let's find a place to sit before Luke eats everything on the table."