Obi-Wan slowly became aware of darkness, disorientation, heavy lassitude and faint pain. He struggled to wake up anger starting to burn in him at how hard it was, until he felt Anakin pinning him both physically and psychically, preventing him from lashing out.
"Easy, you're safe, you're fine, just take it easy."
"'n'kin?" he murmured fuzzily.
"Yeah, I'm here, you're back aboard the Vengeance," he assured him.
Finally managing to force his eyes open, Obi-Wan blinked until Anakin came into focus.
"What happened?" he rasped.
"You got on the wrong side of a wampa, the rebels dropped you in bacta, then drugged you heavily and attempted to spirit you away to the fleet," Anakin told him.
"And yet…." Obi-Wan prompted, gesturing vaguely around the medical bay.
"I wasn't willing to let them just take you, so I intercepted the Falcon, took you back from them. I know we need to forge a peace with them but…"
"'s ok, you did right. So where do we stand?" he asked, hitting the control on the side of the bed to elevate the back.
"Luke, and the rebel alliance, know you are alive, they all want answers. Luke and the others opted to remain aboard the Vengeance, waiting to talk to you, Luke is…annoyed, he wants the truth. The base commander has reported to the rebels that we intercepted the Falcon, but so far no one has made any hostile moves."
"Does Luke know about you yet?"
"Not yet, no, we've also been very careful not to refer to you as Emperor," he told him.
"Yoda knows that, Qui-Gon told him," Obi-Wan said absently, wondering why the troll had kept quiet about that, it hadn't been included in the request for discretion.
"Well, he doesn't seem to have shared the information. How do you want to handle this?"
"Is it a reasonable hour to go and talk to our guests?"
"No, and I suspect the medical officer isn't planning on letting you out of his sight until morning anyway. Despite you filtering it, they did have you very heavily sedated."
"Fine, then I will speak with them in the morning, and see where that leaves us before attempting to deal with the rebel leaders," Obi-Wan sighed.
/x/
Han leaned against the viewport in the quarters they had been put in, staring out at Hoth as they orbited. Luke sat picking half-heartedly at the breakfast that had been delivered by silent storm troopers, Chewie stood silent sentinel in the corner of the room, and the little green guy was apparently meditating. For all that they were in a stateroom of some kind, not a cell, Han felt awfully like a prisoner.
Yoda stirred, his ears rising slightly.
"Here, Obi-Wan is," he said aloud, turning toward the door, the movement echoed by the other occupants of the room as the door slid open, allowing Obi-Wan to enter, followed by two armed but relaxed troopers who took up at ease positions on either side of the door.
Luke's eyes narrowed at the man dressed and cloaked in black, he looked so different from the 'old Ben' hermit figure he had met on Tatooine that it was difficult to believe the evidence of his own eyes.
"You have questions," Obi-Wan said without preamble.
"Yes, yes we do," Luke said, rising from the table and coming to stand with Yoda, feeling Han step up at his back a moment later.
"So ask, and I will answer what I can."
"Why did you do it? Why did you make us believe that you were dead?"
"Because I had to, it was time for the paths to diverge, and had I simply told you I was remaining aboard the death star, then you would have either determined to stay also, or done something equally foolish that would have got you, and probably me, captured or killed. You had your path, I had mine, and that moment required a clean break."
"Then why bother bringing me from Tatooine at all? Why tell me that you were going to train me as a Jedi?"
"I said you would be a Jedi, and you will be, provided you listen to your teacher," he said, gesturing at Yoda.
"If things had gone to plan, I would have taught you the basics of Force control and meditation, the nature of the Force, as a child, but Owen Lars thoroughly derailed that plan, threatening to turn both me and you over to the Empire. I could have kept you with me, but if I had, you would not be a Jedi Luke, I am no longer neutral enough to give you that, it was hard enough training Anakin to his own choice and I had him a lot longer."
"But…you are a Jedi, aren't you?" Luke asked uncertainly.
"No," Obi-Wan stated, his tone soft but flat.
He let his presence wash forward, brushing against them as his eyes lit amber, one corner of his mouth quirking in a small smirk as Luke backed into Han and Yoda's ears dropped at the touch of unfiltered Darkness.
Obi-Wan reigned it in, pulling the Darkness away from them, but keeping his own place in its shadowed embrace, ensuring his eyes retained their glow.
"This is a pivotal time to the fate of this galaxy young Skywalker, you and Yoda must reshape the Jedi, whilst we reshape the Sith. Equally, the galaxy itself must be reshaped, peace won and all made strong again, for there is a danger coming that will far eclipse the decades of war all have already suffered if we are not united to face it. Twenty years we have hidden in darkness and desolation, waiting for you and your sister to be old enough to do your parts."
"I don't have a sister," Luke protested.
"You do, you know in your heart who she is, you were drawn to her the moment you saw her."
"The princess?" Luke blurted.
"Yes," the confirmation came from Yoda.
"So why did her highnessness grow up a princess and the kid got stuck on a dust ball?" Han asked sarcastically.
"They could not be raised together, so they were separated to raise them to their strengths, Leia will be instrumental in reshaping the political morass, so she was adopted by Bail Organa, to be trained in the field of politics and diplomacy. Luke was too strong in the Force to risk raising him on a Core world, he had to be hidden where the Emperor would never think to look, so he was taken to his father's step brother, where as I said, I was supposed to teach him the basics of the Jedi way."
"If you're not a Jedi, was my father really a Jedi?" Luke asked.
"Anakin, like me, was knighted as a Jedi, but no, neither of us was Jedi at the time we were knighted. We simply….steered the same course, had the same goals, for a time."
"Did you know?" Luke demanded of Yoda.
"Know I did not, well shielded by his father was Obi-Wan, well shielded by Obi-Wan was Skywalker."
"Then why did Darth Vader kill my father?" Luke asked angrily.
"Kill Anakin Skywalker Darth Vader did not, one and the same they are," Yoda said.
"No," Luke whispered, slumping to sit on the sofa in shock.
"Yoda is correct, but incorrect at the same time. Darth Vader was a creation of Sideous, the Emperor, but he was a clone of Anakin. He was killed less than a year after Sideous had unleashed him on the galaxy, and Anakin took his place, doing what he could to lessen the impact of Sideous and drones like Tarkin on planets that would not knuckle under. Who the hell do you think got the death star plans out to your rebel spies and impeded Tarkin's attempts to get them back? He was feeding the rebellion information where he could for two decades."
"And the temple slaughter?" Yoda asked quietly.
"I did not know that the clone's mind was so weak, to allow that level of manipulation, but there was nothing to be done, neither Anakin nor I were in a position to interfere at that point. I was on Utapau, trying to avoid being murdered by my troops, and Anakin was still with the cloners, out of the way."
"Is he here, on this ship now? This is his ship isn't it?"
"It is, and he is. I am not certain that you are ready to meet him, nor he to meet you," Obi-Wan said, tilting his head as he read Luke's swirling emotions, anger, fear, hope, hate, it was certainly a mess in the youth's head.
"Yoda, your student needs to meditate," he said coolly, turning away.
"Hey, just wait one damn minute," Han snarled, surging forward and grabbing his arm, only to find himself looking down the barrels of two blasters as the guards moved.
"I was patient with your lack of manners and blatant disrespect of both myself and the Force on the way to the Alderaan system, but I no longer need to be so. This is your one and only warning, do not do that again," Obi-Wan hissed, lightning dancing around his fingers.
"I have no desire to harm any of you, but I will not tolerate such actions from you, you are guests aboard this ship. Behave like it," he snarled, Shoving Han away with the Force and sweeping from the room.
"Well, that went well," Han snarked.
"Restrained he was, correct he was, rash you were, young Solo, and unsettled young Skywalker is. Calm down we all must before going further."
Yoda turned his attention toward Luke, who was staring out into space, his face white, his eyes glassy.
"My father is alive, my father is alive and I have a sister," he whispered, dazed.
"A twin sister, yes. The truth you wanted, young Skywalker, regret asking for it do you?"
"No, no I don't think so."
"Then come, meditate you must, find your centre you must, allow the new knowledge to settle before seeking more you must."
Luke followed Yoda obediently, going into the small bedroom he had chosen while Yoda paused to look at Han.
"Try you should to stop him doing anything foolish, Chewbacca," he said in faint amusement, before following Luke.
Han snorted and glared at Chewie as he whuffed his amusement.
/x/
Anakin came onto the control deck to see Obi-Wan pacing from one side of the spread of viewports to the other, lighting dancing around his fingers while the captain did a masterful job of avoiding him without appearing to avoid him.
"Master?" he queried, deciding against the flippant 'I guess it didn't go well' he had considered opening with. Obi-Wan clearly wasn't in the mood.
"I swear if your daughter wasn't destined to fall for that smuggler and birth the next generation, I would space him, right here, right now," he snarled.
"Ah, and Luke?"
"Conflicted, knows about his sister, asked about you, but I'm not sure either of you are ready for it," Obi-Wan answered shortly.
Anakin hesitated, normally when Obi-Wan got like this, he would suggest sparring, or sex, but he didn't dare do either in front of the command crew, neither would come across as particularly respectful, and he would not undermine him for anything.
Obi-Wan stopped pacing and raised an eyebrow at him, indicating that he had picked up the thoughts, then smirked.
"Sparring, yes, that sounds like an excellent idea," he nodded, speaking too low for the crew to hear as he strode past Anakin in the direction of the door.
Anakin followed, pretending not to notice the relief in the crew as the Emperor, and his lightning, left the deck.
An hour later, after chasing each other to a draw around an almost empty cargo deck, they sat on a couple of crates, just taking a moment to breathe.
"Is this going to throw everything off course completely?" Anakin finally asked.
"I don't think so, no. Yoda already has Luke pretty much settled, he's still unsure about you, but I think that will work itself out with time. The alliance leadership may be wary given that both you and I have seemingly come back from the dead, on the 'wrong' side of the war in their eyes, but they can be persuaded that the new Empire will be for the good of all, not just the good of those willing to bend their necks to Sideous. The going might be a little harder than it should have been had all gone to the initial plans, but it is still workable, we can still be a cohesive whole before whatever is coming from out in the far reaches arrives."
"You still can't tell what it is?"
"No, but I know what part of it was. Outbound flight is coming home to roost."
"How? It failed, it was destroyed."
"We have only Thrawn's word for that, and I did not trust him any further than I could throw him."
"Past tense?"
"He may have attempted to assassinate me on Coruscant while you were busy tracking the traitor ships down, he may also have badly underestimated me. He is very, very dead."
"There was an assassination attempt and you didn't tell me?" Anakin asked, outraged.
"I have told you now, and it did not matter, he didn't even get close enough to pose a threat, and he was too selfish to with his information to tell those still loyal to Palpatine who took the throne. They will know when everyone else does, and you will be at my back for that."
"Alright, so now what?" Anakin asked, reluctantly putting it aside, Obi-Wan would never change, he didn't worry too much about attempts on his own life unless they came too close to success, and even then, he tended to be more dismissive than the people who cared about him liked.
"Well, now that I am no longer inclined to mayhem, I think it is time to speak with the alliance leadership about their invitation to have a talk."
"Now?"
"As good a time as any don't you think? Before they get any antsier about us having the Falcon and her crew aboard and are moved to try something silly."
"Yes Master," Anakin sighed, pushing to his feet and following Obi-Wan out of the cargo deck.
/x/
MonMothma groaned and swore angrily as she was woken from the first sleep she had gotten in days by the sound of constant hammering at her door. Getting up she pulled her robe on over her nightwear, and threw the door open, already glaring at whoever was on the other side.
"Sorry, but we have a communication from the Vengeance, they want to talk to the leaders of the alliance. You, me and the princess were requested by name," Dodonna said, not even remotely phased by the glare.
"Any mention of the crew of the Falcon?"
"No, but last report from the Hoth base command confirms they're still just sitting there in orbit, not making any other hostile move. I hate to say this, but I don't think they would have gone after the Falcon if Kenobi hadn't been aboard."
"Fine, two minutes," she sighed, ducking back into her quarters and making a quick change.
They reached the communication room as Leia, Rieekan and Ackbar came from the other direction, and waited for them to join them before going inside and taking seats around the table.
"Go ahead," she said to the young man working the board.
He worked the controls for a moment, and the holo-projector sprang to life to reveal Obi-Wan Kenobi, leaning back in a chair in what appeared to be a fairly dimly lit room, a tall, cloaked figure that was definitely not the armoured form of Darth Vader standing at his shoulder.
"Greetings, MonMothma, your Highness, Dodonna and Rieekan, I'm afraid I don't know your other companion there."
"This is Admiral Ackbar. To what do we owe the….pleasure of your call?" MonMothma asked, pulling on all her diplomatic training not to sound as sarcastic as she felt.
"I called to thank you for your invitation to talk, although I didn't appreciate the delivery method much. I find communication much more effective than kidnapping," Obi-Wan said smoothly, resting his chin on steepled fingers.
"And yet you have taken the Falcon and her crew."
"Not at all, they were brought aboard so that I could be retrieved, they chose to remain aboard temporarily. Young Skywalker had questions, much as you do, and he opted to wait for his answers, while his companions were unwilling to leave him alone here. They are free to leave any time they wish."
"And you will of course allow us to speak with them, so that we can verify that for ourselves?" Leia demanded icily.
"Of course, even better, I will bring them to you personally. I called because I do wish to speak with you, I simply prefer not to do it as a prisoner."
"What do you think we have to speak about? You have joined the Empire," Dodonna pointed out.
"A cease fire, with a view to negotiating peace."
"The Empire is willing to surrender?" Rieekan ask, leaning forward.
"No more than you are, that does not however preclude negotiating a peace that works for all concerned. We will leave you to discuss it, we don't expect you to decide immediately. Leave the channel open, I will have Solo and the others escorted here so that you can assure yourselves they're not prisoners."
"Silence the feed but leave the connection open," MonMothma said after the two people walked out of range.
"They will be able to track our location if we do that, this whole thing could just be a set up to find out where we are," Dodonna warned.
"They already know where we are Jan," MonMothma sighed.
"What are you thinking?" Rieekan asked.
"I'm thinking of at least agreeing to talk. They could have wiped us out more than once recently and they haven't. This war does need to end Carlist, and frankly, if anyone can come up with an agreement both sides will be able to deal with its Kenobi."
"He's a traitor, he's with the Empire," Leia said in disbelief.
"That doesn't mean he's not looking for the best deal for everyone," MonMothma pointed out.
Whatever Leia might have had to say about that was cut off when Luke and the others walked into range of the feed.
"Are you all right?" Leia demanded the moment the sound was back on.
"We're ok," Luke said quietly, giving Leia a look she couldn't quite decipher.
"Kenobi stated you had chosen to remain aboard after they had picked you up, is this true?" Dodonna asked bluntly.
"They have said several times that we were free to leave," Han said noncommittally.
"Then why have you stayed?"
"Because I wanted to know why he pretended to die, I wanted to know what else there was that wasn't what he had led me to believe," Luke said dully.
"Did you get answers?" Leia asked.
"Yes."
"So, why did he fake his death?" MonMothma prompted.
Luke opened his mouth and then closed it again, looking hopelessly at Yoda, but surprisingly it was Han who spoke next.
"That's probably something you should hear from him, much as it galls me to say this, I think he really does want this war over for everyone's benefit. In amongst some kind of personal stuff he told the kid, he did say that there was something worse coming."
"We'll take it under advisement, will you be testing their assertion that you can leave anytime soon?"
"Yes," Han said, ignoring the dark look that earned him from Luke.
"Then contact us when you're clear, and we'll go from there," MonMothma said firmly, indicating to cut the channel.
Aboard the Vengeance, Luke glared at Han.
"I don't want to leave yet," he said.
"Kid, you need to get your head straight from what you already heard, and if he's being honest, there will be time for the rest, if he's not being honest, we need to go while the going is good."
"Correct Solo is, time it is to leave, for now."
"Fine," Luke gave in, his shoulders dropping. He knew Han was right, and he might not get a chance to know his father yet, but there was still a sister to get to know better, he wondered what she would make of suddenly having him as a brother, then winced, what would she make of finding out the man who had worn the armour of Darth Vader all these years was her father.
tbc