---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ANAKIN'S REDEMPTION

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi guys! Haha, yes Leia finally forgave Anakin. I had such a chuckle reading the comments along the way about how she should hurry up and forgive him, when I knew all along this chapter was coming! Glad to see you all seemed to like it, thanks for all the great comments!

VFsnake: You can't kill Leia anymore, she's nice now hahaha!!

PhantomJedi1: Don't rush the characters? ROFLOL, it took 17 chapters for Leia to forgive Anakin and you think I'm rushing? Hehe I don't think the other readers who were desperate for her to forgive him 10 chapters ago would agree with you there! As for Han, like I said in the chapter, he forgave Lando so it stands to reason that he's a guy who lets things go quite easily. Besides, this story is not about Han and that would be an unnecessary plot point to drag things out like I did with Leia. And the spaces are the make the story easier to read on screen, otherwise it's harder to see if there are huge blocks of text.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Fourteen - Disappearance

---

A sudden noise startled Padme. She got up to peer nervously out the window. Was Anakin back to get her?

A hand clamped over Padme's mouth. She tried to scream for help but her cries were muffled. The next thing she knew everything went black.

---

"Morning all."

Anakin walked in and nodded to everyone. He stopped in front of Leia and there was a moment of awkwardness.
"Good morning, Father," Leia finally said, and stepped forward to kiss him on the cheek.

Han's jaw just about hit the floor. "What the….?"
"Good morning, Leia," Anakin said evenly. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yes Father. Better than I have in a long while."
"That's good to hear." He kissed her forehead. The two turned and walked arm in arm.
Han was still standing frozen, staring in shock.

"You might want to close your mouth there Han," commented Anakin as they walked by him. "You don't want a stray mynock to fly in there."
Han snapped his mouth shut. "But...but...but..." He gulped like a fish, blubbering.

Luke was watching approvingly on the other side of the room. Leia said something to Anakin, then left his side and approached Luke. The two stood and considered each other.

"Morning, sis," Luke finally said.
"Morning, Luke," she replied, watching him carefully.

Another pause.

"So…"
Leia sighed. "You're not going to rub my face in this, are you Luke?"
"What?" Luke frowned. "No, why would I? Whatever happened between you and Father is your business. I won't say I'm not happy about it, because I am. Very happy. But it has nothing to do with me. You came to your decision yourself, and you took as much time as you needed to make it."

Leia regarded him for a moment. "You're growing up, Luke."

Luke gave a smile with a slight blush. "So are you still going to make Father stand trial for his war crimes?" There was a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"What? Oh…no, of course not," Leia sighed. "He probably should….I mean he did some terrible things…but he did kill the Emperor. And I think he's paid for his mistakes as much as anyone can. Nobody knows about Anakin Skywalker. I think…I think it's best if the galaxy does not find out who he really is. Vader is missing in action as far as the galaxy is concerned."

"I'm glad you've changed your mind," said Luke.
Leia shrugged and looked away, a little uncomfortable. She didn't want to be having this conversation. "We talked. I saw…I saw what you've been seeing. Anakin was a young man who followed the wrong path."
Luke nodded. "You finally saw him as a person."
"Well, yes." Leia shifted awkwardly.
"But...I still don't understand the sudden turnaround," mused Luke. "Yesterday you hated him with a vengeance. Now…you're daddy's little girl all of a sudden! Hugging him, smiling when he's around…"

"He's…he's my father. He's part of me." Leia looked at Luke helplessly. She couldn't explain.

Luke smiled. "You don't have to tell me. Whe I found out he was my father, he had just cut off my hand. I hated him with a blind fury. Then he said those words…'I am your Father'…and, I don't know…I just…loved him. I can't explain it. He was evil - but he was my dad."
Leia nodded energetically, her eyes wide. "Yes, yes! There's this bond there…I felt the same for you when I realized we were twins. I don't know…I grew up knowing I was adopted, I always knew part of me was missing. I knew I had a real father out there, and as a kid I thought he would be some kind of hero..."

"So did I," Luke agreed emphatically.

"...and then finding out he was Darth Vader felt like the death of that hero. I've spent all these years thinking part of me was evil and disgusting, having come from him. To find my real father still exists..." Leia's voice trailed off and she shrugged, not knowing what more to say.

Luke patted her arm in understanding. "You're telling the one person who knows how you feel. It took me years between discovering who he was - and accepting that he was my father, and still a good man."
Leia nodded. "I guess both of us wanted a family all this time. We've been separated for so long. Now we're all together…almost."
"Yes, almost," sighed Luke. "We just have to convince Mother…"
"I don't know how easy that's going to be. You saw how she panicked when she saw him!"
"If you can see the good in him, she will too eventually."
"I don't know Luke," Leia shook her head doubtfully. "Maybe she will. I don't fully understand the dark side and what it did to him, but I can see that Vader is gone. And I can feel his love for Mother, and his pain over her…"

"With the Force?" Luke asked hopefully.
"I don't know," frowned Leia. "I don't think it takes a Jedi to feel his pain, you can see it in his eyes. But I thought I felt something…"
"Does this mean you're willing to study the Force now?"
"I don't know…." Leia sounded dubious. "I'm still not sure it's something I want to mess with."
"Even now? Now that you see what a good man Father really is?"
"Especially now! Seeing what a sweet, gentle man Anakin is – and used to be – terrifies me! If the Force can turn a good person like him into the monster Darth Vader was…" Leia shuddered.
"But that's why we would teach you and train you," said Luke patiently. "Father was fooled by Palpatine. I almost was too. But I beat the dark side, and now Father is teaching me how to fully deal with it. We can teach you too!'

"Well maybe…but anyway, I don't have the same power that you and Father have."

"Of course you do," encouraged Luke. "You just haven't learned how to use it yet."
"Maybe." Leia didn't sound convinced. "But I can't really feel it. Just a glimpse now and then. I can't move things with my mind. I couldn't feel a thing when we were close to the ysalamiri. You felt it straight away when you lost the force. I didn't even notice that the Force was gone!"

"That's just because you haven't learned to feel it. I didn't really understand, until Obi-Wan started teaching me. Try something…concentrate, try to move that comlink over there."

Leia's face contorted in concentration. Nothing happened.

"See?" she sighed. "I think the Force skipped a generation with me. Probably you got all the mididorians and I got none."

"It's midichlorians," corrected Luke. "And they did not skip you. You can use the Force, you heard me when I called you on Bespin. "

"That's because we're TWINS," insisted Leia. "Twins can sense each other. I can feel when you're around and I know if something has happened to you…"
"Well, that's a start," Luke persisted.
"I don't know about this," sighed Leia. "I've never needed the Force anyway. I'm a diplomat, when am I going to need it?"

"You never know when you're going to be called in for 'aggressive negotiations,' said Anakin, walking up behind them and joining the conversation.

"What would those be?" said Leia, raising an eyebrow at her father as he kissed her affectionately on the cheek.

"Negotiations with a lightsaber," he said with a boyish grin. Luke laughed. Leia just looked skeptically at him.

"Well, your mother thought that was funny," he sniffed.

---

"Miss Leia, I'm sorry to bother you…"
"No Dorme, you may contact me anytime. What is it?"
"Well milady, it's just that - Miss Padme is missing! We haven't seen her since your visit. We thought that perhaps Anakin did something…"

"Anakin is with us," said Leia, concern creeping into her voice. "And he would not have done anything to her."
Anakin's eyes widened at the mention of his name. "What is it?" he mouthed at her, apprehensive.
Leia sighed. "It appears Mother may have panicked and gone back into hiding when she saw you," she told him with a sorrowful shrug.
"Oh no…" Anakin sank back into his seat, his face pale.
"I wondered that myself, milady," said Dorme. "She has done this before, when she thinks Anakin is back. Only this time, he is."
"Are the ysalamiri still there?
"No, milady, they are all gone."
Leia sighed again. "Ok, thankyou Dorme." She switched off the holovid.

Anakin sat with his head down. "I'm sorry," he mumbled. He looked so miserable that it melted Leia's heart.
"Oh Father, don't be sorry." She wrapped her arms around his neck. "We'll find her. We always do. She's run off somewhere, she'll lay low for a while, then she will contact Dorme or her parents. She's in no danger."
"I did this to her," he whispered.
"No, you….well…" Leia tried to think of a way to argue that point, but couldn't. "Yes, you did. You've done a lot of terrible things, and one of the worst was to her. She's lived a hard life because of you, and she's still running from what you did all those years ago."
She felt Anakin begin to tremble beneath her.
"But we'll find her," she insisted. "Once we get a chance to really explain, and show her that you've changed, she'll come around. If I can see the good in you, she will too."
"How will we find her?" he asked through his tears.
She looked at her father. "She's taken the ysalamiri. That's going to make it hard to detect her. Dorme has no idea where she went. We can only hope that she makes contact with one of us. It may take a while, considering this is the first time she has actually seen you, but I can't imagine she will stay silent for long now that Luke's back."
"So what are we going to do?"
Leia shrugged helplessly. "Nothing – for now. We just have to wait."

"Just sit and do nothing?" Anakin's tone was desperate.

"She could be anywhere in the universe! And if she hears that we – especially you – are out searching for her, she'll keep running. Believe me, she's done this before. Sometimes for years at a time – "

"Years?" Anakin's voice shook.

"I'm afraid so. She'll be alright."