take the spade from my hands (and fill in the holes you've made)
Chapter Six
Darth Vader sank into his seat of his hyperbaric chamber. The last four days had been an absolute hell. The princess had escaped his clutches, the death star had been blasted to bits, an ancient ship that he had earlier captured had hit him, and a Jedi child had thwarted him.
He did, however, destroy his greatest enemy. Obi-Wan Kenobi was dead. The burnt and scared face smirked, taken a breath of purified air without his mask on. His smirk quickly turned into a frown. His master didn't seem to see the silver lining in this situation. After Vader's ship had spiraled out of control, he had almost been unable to regain control. He made his way to the closest imperial base for repairs on his own person and his ship. He immediately made contact with his master who had been less than pleased…and made that sentiment quite clear to Vader.
He was set to remedy these setbacks at once. While Vader thought the first Death Star was a pointless and overly destructive piece of technology, he had been told to commission the plans for a new one on the Emperors orders. He also had downloaded the original Death Star's surveillance while en route to the Rebel Alliance's base. He had brought the disk with him, wanting to see himself how that bothersome girl had escaped. With hindsight, he acknowledged that it was a fortunate decision, seeing on how the Death Star was no more. It was just another example of how the Force guides and influences those who are open to it.
Vader watched the video, fast-forwarding past her initial jailing, and his torturing of her. She had displayed…. immense resistance against his advances. She pushed so hard to expel him from her mind, she fell into his, seeing one of his most precious memories. She must be force sensitive. He did feel a small wave in the Force where the girl was concerned. A feeling similar but less significant when compared to Kenobi's apprentice. I should have killed her then…saved myself the trouble. The boy will be next to die when I find the rebels he brooded, watching the girl; she was kneeling on the ground as he walked out of the room.
He straitened in his seat, pausing and rewinding the video suddenly. The girl had taken something from beneath the top of her dress. A necklace? Could this have been the key to her escape? He played the video at a normal pace, zooming in on the piece of wood she held between her fingers. He paused the video, stunned.
No, it couldn't be. It is impossible.
How could the girl have his wife's pendent? The pendent he had made for her, long ago, lifetimes away. Unbidden and repressed memories washed over him as he looked from the girls face to the piece of japor. The princess…
Anakin had one arm wrapped around his love and his other rubbing little circles on her significantly pregnant stomach as they on her couch at 500 Republica. Her head was rested on his chest, a small smile playing on her lips, her eyes shut. She sighed, content, and he smiled for what seemed to be the millionth time that day. He had only returned to Coruscant the day before.
He had found out that a living, breathing embodiment of the love he shared with Padmé grew inside her. An embodiment he would die protecting, along with her mother. He kissed the top of Padmé's head and she looked up at him, eyes sparkling.
"So, I've been thinking about the baby..."
Anakin nodded, grinning widely. Just the word 'baby'.
"...I really like the name Luke" she said. "What do you think?"
"Luke?"
"Yes."
"For a boy?"
"Obviously Ani," she laughed.
"Luke is a fine name for a boy," he said. She smiled and raised her eyebrow.
"But…" she trailed off teasingly, waiting for him to finish his sentence.
"But, I think we are having a girl," he said.
She sat up straighter and he shifted to accommodate her. "Do you now?"
"Yes I do."
She tilted her head slightly, bringing one hand to play with the bottom of his hair. "What makes you say that?"
"Jedi instinct."
She smiled. "Love, while most of the time I put great stock in your Jedi instinct, I think my mother's intuition trumps it in this situation."
"Fine, father's intuition, then."
She laughed. "You can't change your reason like that!"
"You know, I can just check, it would be so e-"
"Don't you dare! I want it to be a surprise."
"Afraid you'll be wrong?" he asked, smirking slightly.
"Not at all," she said. "I bet you…five credits that we will have a beautiful baby boy in a few months."
"Alright, deal?" he said, sticking out a hand for her to shake. She smiled, placed a hand on his cheek, and kissed him softly. After a few moments, she pulled back from him, smiling.
"Deal."
"I hope that's not how you make deals in the senate, my love."
She threw back her head and laughed. "No, Ani. That's just for you."
"Good," he said and she giggled again, settling against him once more. A comfortable silence fell upon the couple. "Padmé?" he asked.
She looked up at him. "Yes?"
"I like the name Leia. For a girl, I mean."
"Leia?"
"Yes."
"Hmmm," she said thoughtfully. "Leia. Leia. It sounds quite lovely. What made you think of it? I mean, I've had nearly seven months but you've barely had a day."
He looked down at her. "Padmé, I have been in love with you since I was nine. I'm not ashamed to say I've thought of you having my children. And children need names, love."
She looked at him for a long moment before stretching up and kissing him again.
"I love you."
"I love you, too," he said. He sat up and shifted to her stomach, kissing it lightly. "And I love you, whether you are Luke Skywalker or Leia Skywalker."
…Leia.
He…he was at a lost. Could the child have survived? No! It was impossible. He killed his Angel and his unborn child. Still, he felt…something; a small push in the Force. Could it be…?
He turned to another screen and looked up all data the imperial system had. He greedily read her file. It was common knowledge that the rebel princess was adopted. Suddenly this mundane piece of evidence seemed infinitely valuable to him.
Her life date was on Imperial Day.
Imperial Day. Imperial Day was the day his wife died. He looked at the girls face, studying it carefully. She looked very much like his Padmé, but was he only seeing what he wanted to see? Was he latching on to some hope that he didn't kill his love?
No, said a voice, you didn't kill her before due to her similarities. If the child was his, there was no way he had killed Padmé. She would have to be removed in order to give birth, which means she must have lived. But who could have removed her?
Obi-Wan said the must have. He was the only other person...his master had lied to him for nearly twenty years. He…
Vader leaned back in his seat. I have a daughter he thought to himself. He had a piece of his love still with him. No, not with him. She was taken away from him, kept hidden in plain sight. She had been raised as a natural adversary. He…
Oh, Force he thought. He had tortured the girl. He had done his utmost to break her and kill her. He…he was enraged. Not only with himself but with the people who were orchestrating this whole tragedy. Obi-Wan…His Master…and Bail Organa. Organa had to know that Leia was his. He had been good friends with Padmé. He had to have known. Organa had always had gone to great lengths at keeping Leia out of Vader's sight and presence.
Leia…She must know, or at least have some sort of inkling on who her parents were. He remembered…banishing her from ever seeing Padmé's portrait in the senate. A small event in which he overlooked took on a whole new meaning. He thought Leia must know without a doubt of who her mother was.
He played the video, something inside him breaking a little more at seeing his daughter's reaction. She must have been facing something similar to what Vader himself was going through, except while he felt joy, she felt horror. Horror about who her father was. He was ashamed and disgusted with himself once more.
She was strong. He knew that before he found out she was his daughter. She must be extremely gifted in the Force to protect herself from the likes of him. He watched her with a fascination. She was his daughter. Daughter.
A stormtrooper walked into the cell and she sat up straighter. 'Aren't you a little short to be a stormtrooper?' she asked scathingly. He felt his mouth curve into a slight smile at her attitude, but stopped.
'Oh, hardy, har, har,' said the trooper, taking off his helmet, revealing not a solider but a boy. It was same boy that was on the landing platform and blew up the Death Star; Kenobi's apprentice. His daughter's eyes lit up.
'Luke!' she exclaimed throwing her arms around the boy. Luke? Another coincidence…Surely not.
'Hey sis,' said the boy as Vader's jaw dropped.
'How-'
'We got your message,' said Luke, looking to the surveillance camera and shooting it spot on. Vader snapped out of his stupor and rewound the video up until right before Luke shot it, giving him a straight on view of the boys face before the screen turned to static.
'How' indeed. Luke. Luke. Luke, the name Padmé picked out for a son. And he had called Leia 'sis'. Vader assumed it was short for sister. But that was impossible wasn't it? Not only for Vader to have a child, but two? How did he miss it? Twins?
There were just too many coincidences. The boy, Luke, had brandished an ice blue lightsaber after Vader had killed Kenobi. Could the saber be his old one? Vader looked at the boy…and saw some many aspects of himself, before he was injured. The tanned skin, the dark blonde hair, the blue eyes…
He must find out more about them. He must find them.
She always thought the phrase 'smoke coming out of one's ears' was ridicules. That is, until she had a fight with Han Solo.
Leia wasn't sure how, but a good eight out of ten times, Han Solo made her want to pull her hair out. Or his. Whatever.
She had only come down to hanger in order to discuss his supply run to Hoth. Following numerous raids on the Yavin 4 base, the alliance had relocated temporarily to a base on Thila. They were in the process of relocating once more to the Hoth system; Han, Luke, and Chewie were scheduled to make the last supply run before larger numbers of people, herself included, began transferring there.
Since she was one of the leaders of the Rebellion, she went to discuss his supply run with him; he was to leave in a week's time.
Somehow a perfectly innocent conversation turned into a heated argument. Because was a jackass. Also, he was planning on leaving the Rebellion. For Good.
"You don't care about anything other than yourself, do you?" she asked, completely exasperated. Fighting with him was unlike fighting with anyone else. She her stomach twisted and her jaw clenched and she saw red. She felt red, too, all over her face.
Han slammed his rag onto the floor, his temper getting the better of him.
"Oh yeah, excuse me for not giving about the whole goddamn galaxy when there is a giant price on my head."
"We all have prices on our head!" she exclaimed, throwing up her hands. "I have multiple bounty's out for me as well as an imperial warrant for my arrest!"
"Well, alert the holo network! The Princess is worth more than the smuggler! Shocking!"
"That's not the point!"
"No?"
"No! The point is that there is a greater good at work here!"
"It's amazing how your heart can bleed so much, shut up with all that ice" he spat taking another step closer to her.
She wanted to hit him. She was furious. How dare he! As if he knew her heart! She opened her mouth, angry retort on the tip of her tongue when she heard a rattling next to her. She turned her head to see Han's tool box violently shaking beside them.
She gasped, taking a step back and the rattling stopped. She looked at Han, whose mouth was hanging open.
"I…" she said, taking another step back.
"Lei-" but she turned, walking briskly away from him, not daring to run and call attention to herself. She found a narrow passage way, inclined up. She climbed the winding ramp higher and higher until she reached a small cave. It looked out over other mountains and the forest that surrounded their base. A secret place; only she and her brother knew about it.
Leia stood close to the edge, arms crossed, lips pushed together as tears fell down her face. She was terrified.
She was so angry with Han that she made his toolbox shake. She lost control and manipulated the Force in way…
Just like him she thought, terror climbing up her body. Just like he does. Oh, Spirits.
She was the ultimate genetic joke. She, who worked so hard against the empire, who wanted so badly to do good, was the daughter of a monster. How could it be possible? She wouldn't use the Force, no matter how strongly it ran in her deranged gene pool.
And Luke! Sweet, good, Luke! He looked up to their father so much. He idolized Anakin Skywalker. Her poor, sweet brother knew nothing of their true parentage. He had been patient with her these last few weeks, not understanding when she abruptly left every time he tried to tell her stories of heroics that Ben had told him of their father; attributing it to the trauma of Alderaan (not that Alderaan wasn't a factor to her bouts of melancholy).
And Ben was another matter entirely.
She looked out over Thila, but didn't not really seeing it. Dark, loathing thoughts bounced around in her mind. She heard footsteps ascending her hiding spot. She wiped her eyes hurriedly, knowing it was pointless. Her brother would sense her sadness.
"Princess," said Han. Leia stiffened, surprise. She didn't turn around as she tried to wrestle her emotions back into herself.
"Go away, Han."
"I…are you crying?"
"No," she said stubbornly, wiping her face again as she forced herself to stop.
"I…frack Leia, I didn't mean to make you cry."
She let out a sardonic chuckle. "Yes, because you would be thing to make me cry, Han. It's not like I have any other reason to be upset," she said, hopping he would leave like most did whenever a reference to Alderaan was made around her.
"Look, I ain't stupid. I know you've got other reasons, but…I didn't help…and I don't know. I mean…well, I guess I'm sorry."
Did he just apologize to her? She so desperately wanted to turn around and look at him. Nevertheless, a bigger part of her just wanted him to turn around and leave. She said nothing.
"You know," he said after a few moments "I bet Luke could teach ya how to stop that shaking thi-"
"No! I…I don't want to learn anything about it. I don't want to be trained. I want nothing to do with it."
She heard him take a step closer to the edge. He was standing next to her. She closed her eyes. She could almost see him, hands in his pockets, sleeves rolled up, hair moving in the breeze. "Why?" he asked confused.
"It doesn't matter."
"Look sweetheart, I don't put much weight in this whole 'Force' thing. I mean, more than I did before I met your brother, but I still think it's kinda hokey, ya know? But you…you and the kid got something most people don't. There is no denying that."
"I've seen the damage it can do. I don't want any part of it."
"Using your own logic, you can say that it was your duty to use it," he said, using one of her many reasons on why he should stay in the Rebellion against her.
She turned to face him. "Just drop it, okay?" she spat angrily.
He looked down at her face, taking it in. A long moment passed. "What are you hiding?" he asked suddenly.
"I- what? Nothing," she said, surprised, about to take a step back, but he grabbed her forearms.
"No, you are. What is it? What's going on with you?"
"Han-" she growled.
He let go of her, raising his hands in surrender. "You know what? Fine. Don't talk to me. Talk to Luke. Tell Luke. Cause whatever it is, it's cracking your precious façade, which means it must be eatin' you up inside. I asked him where'd you be. He told me you'd be up here. He's worried about you." So am I, he added silently.
She took two steps back, back colliding with rock. "I…I can't talk to Luke about it," she said, shaking her head slightly, looking at the floor.
"Why not?" said Han, frustrated.
She looked up at him, crossed her arms, and felt as if she was going to cry again. Damn him. "The tru…it would devastate him," she said quietly, looking off into the sky. The sun was setting.
"Does it have to do with him?" he asked. He determined silence was enough of an answer. "You've gotta talk to him."
"No."
Han looked at her critically. "He would wanna know. Even if it's got nothing to do with him, he'd wanna know. And if it does have something to do with him, you gotta tell him. You owe it to him. You would want to know if it were reversed."
She sighed heavily. "I could have gone my whole life happy not knowing this."
"What if this thing came out," said Han slowly "and he found out you knew? Don't make that choice for him. Wouldn't you rather tell him, then him finding out through someone else?" Again, she said nothing. He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Look, just think about it okay?"
She turned to look at him again. "Why do you care?" she asked.
Why did he care? If anything he should have left a long time ago. He shouldn't be here, talking to this Rebel Princess. He had no place here, especially with her. What was he doing?
He looked down at her. "I…I just do."