Darth Vader lurched out of his meditation trance in an unusual state of near panic.
He was bombarded with staccato images and feelings, of a cave, of himself, young and without armor, of strange art on rocky walls. Luke was there! And then the hideous presence of Darth Sidious had approached. What had happened to his son? Did his master know where he was?
He forced himself to calm down and breathe deeply of the oxygenated air in his hyperbaric chamber, even as he used the Force to replace his helmet. He rose quickly to his feet, and reached out with his senses. Luke was in the next room of the ship, and while excited, did not seem distressed. Palpatine – Palpatine's specter was no longer present. The Bond was still broken between them.
He opened the door and stepped through into the combat chamber, where Luke had created his own tidy, personal space in one corner. Luke was standing in the center of the room, gazing at the holoscreens on the port side.
Vader looked as well. The photosensors he had placed at the entrance to the canyon that led to Kenobi's old hut showed life forms approaching.
"We have visitors?" he inquired.
Luke nodded, then turned to look straight at his father, "Yes. Leia and Han."
Vader froze, stricken by a sudden sense of betrayal, "You told me you didn't tell them where you were going."
His accusation came out harshly, and Luke winced, even as he stepped even closer to his father.
(Amazing, that. He had watched the bravest of men turn heel and run when Vader was angry. Luke, instead of fleeing, deliberately moved closer.)
"I promise you I did not tell them, Father," he said firmly.
Vader could tell his son spoke the truth, and felt a twinge of guilt. Luke had extended such trust in him to come here. The least he could do was to express his own confidence in the young Jedi's truthfulness.
Before he could apologize for his words, Luke turned back and looked at the screen, while adding, "But Leia is smart. She obviously figured out I came here, though I don't know how."
Luke shot a suspicious look at R2D2.
"Did you give her our flight plan, R2?"
R2D2 beeped indignantly. While the little droid was notorious for being an independent thinker, Vader was fairly certain he was innocent.
Luke shook his head, "Well, at any rate, she's here now. I'll go out and meet them and we'll talk in the hut. You can watch and listen through the holocam in there."
He gazed at his father directly, "Han and Leia are my very best friends, Father. Please do not harm them."
Vader nodded quickly and extended a gentle hand to touch his son's shoulder, "I promise you that I intend no injury towards them. For now, I suggest you not tell them I am here."
Luke sighed, "I won't deceive them and indeed I'm guessing they already know, but it would be best if we talked before interacting with you. You will be watching the cams so you can decide when to introduce yourself."
He stepped towards the door, then turned around, "Han may shoot at you. Fair warning."
Vader sighed, then nodded, "I understand, Son."
The young Jedi swiftly left by the front entrance, removing, then replacing, the rock covering the main door so Vader's ship remained entirely concealed. Vader switched to another holocam, one mounted such that he could see the area in front of Obi-wan's hut. While there was no sound from this cam, he could watch the reunion as it unfolded.
It was not a long time in coming. A few minutes after Luke exited the ship, a speeder bike approached with 2 sentients on board. Luke stood in front of the hut, waiting, until both riders swung off the bike. Vader easily recognized the two as the Corellian smuggler Han Solo, and the Princess of Alderaan, Leia Organa. The princess raced forward and jumped into his son's arms, even as Luke spun her around and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
Vader's scarred forehead wrinkled somewhat painfully as he contemplated the scene. He had noticed that Luke carefully avoided talking of Leia Organa with him. Was he in love with her? And if so, how did Han Solo fit into the situation? It was beyond the realm of possibility that the aristocratic princess could prefer that Corellian scum over Luke, but on the other hand, Master Yoda might have filled the boy's head with the ridiculous "no attachment" rules of the Old Order.
Though anyone privileged to watch their interactions would know they were attached. Romance or not, Luke and Princess Leia were obviously very close friends.
Very close friends.
Vader shook his head in bewilderment. He could sense Luke's joy at seeing Organa, but there was a strange counter wave in the Force. The Princess was projecting her own delight, and Vader could feel it! How odd.
Solo approached the two now, and gave the younger man a quick hug. The three stood talking for a few minutes, and then Luke gestured to them to enter Obi-wan's hut. Vader stiffened with interest. He would be able to hear their conversation now.
"…High Command has been breathing down my neck for the last week about where you'd disappeared to, Luke," Princess Leia said as they entered the hut, "So finally Han and I decided we had to go find you since you showed no signs of reappearing after going AWOL."
Luke moved to the kitchen area of the hut, and reappeared with 2 glasses of water, which he gave to Solo and Organa. They took the glasses with gratitude and drank the water quickly. Vader's own throat ached in vicarious sympathy. Tatooine's parched wasteland had to be experienced to be truly understood.
"I have gone AWOL before without High Command getting really upset," his son responded, "and for a lot longer than this."
"Yes, but this time, my dear," Leia responded, "you wandered off with your right eye, which was quite rude of you."
Luke blinked at her in bewilderment, "What?"
"Retinal scan, Kid," Solo chimed in, "You know, that wonderful survey of your eye which lets the Alliance get access to the pile of money your Old Man left you?"
Luke looked surprised, "You mean there is more? I accessed 3 billion before I left."
"And there is another 2.7 billion waiting," Organa said with a wry smile,"2.7 billion. Everyone is drooling like a Hutt over it – just sitting there in various accounts, inaccessible, because their lone Jedi Knight decided to skip off to visit his daddy."
"You didn't tell them about that, did you?" Luke said worriedly.
"Of course not," Organa responded. (Vader relaxed slightly, then wondered why he knew instantly the Princess was telling the truth. She usually shielded very well around him, but he seemed to picking up an echo of her thoughts through Luke.)
"Truthfully," she added, "I had no idea he was here until we landed. I assumed from the vision that you had come to search for information about his time here on Tatooine, and got caught up in your research and lost track of time. You have been known to do that sort of thing."
Vader frowned, as did Luke.
"What vision?" Luke demanded.
"You know," the princess replied, "The one where you were a cute toddler eating a cookie and dribbling water in the sand. Where your aunt and uncle were talking about your grandmother and Anakin Skywalker. That vision."
Luke's face took on a look of total wonder, "I didn't tell you about that."
"No, you didn't," Leia Organa replied, "But I was apparently joined with you telepathically and saw the whole thing. I have this vague memory of you reaching out to me through the Force right before then, and apparently the link stayed open."
Luke actually gaped in astonishment.
"We should write a holobook," he said, "This is amazing stuff. Inconvenient and annoying at times, but amazing. You didn't mention all this before I left."
"You didn't mention it either," the princess replied, skewering his son with a glance.
Luke looked slightly abashed, "It seemed less complicated to not tell you where I was heading. But if you saw the vision, why didn't you expect him to be here?"
"Why would he be here? 'Last place' is what your uncle said. If it was the last place Anakin Skywalker would go, why would you expect to find Vader here?"
"Wasn't it obvious? He wanted to hide from Palpatine, so he hid here."
Princess Leia shook her head, "Not obvious to me. But that's fine. The less I understand the mental processes of Darth Vader, the better. And speaking of his lordship, is he going to grace us with his presence? He's watching all this, you said?"
Luke gestured at the holocam, "Yes, he is."
A telepathic message formed in Vader's mind
"Father, would you like to join us?"
"I'm will be there shortly," he sent back.
Vader shook his head in total bewilderment, and rapidly left his ship and walked toward the hut. The minute that it took wasn't nearly long enough for him to sufficiently cogitate over the puzzling contents of this last conversation. Was Princess Leia Organa a Force sensitive? That would explain her remarkable abilities to withstand…interrogation, and mind probes. But how had he missed it?
He stepped through the door and all three occupants fell silent. He noted that Luke stood between the front door and his friends, and Organa and Solo were standing near the door to the kitchen, where a back door led into the outside. It was of course foolish to imagine that running would help them if Vader attacked, but it was a natural enough impulse.
There was a long, awkward pause.
Vader broke it, "Princess Leia, Captain Solo, it is…surprising to see you here."
"Well, we're surprised too, your lordship," Solo said with narrowed eyes, "surprised, irritated and certainly not honored. You are not anyone's idea of an enjoyable host, as we found out at Bespin."
"The displeasure is all mine, Captain," Vader responded in kind. What did his son see in this Corellian pirate?
He continued coldly, "You were certainly not invited, and are welcome to leave immediately if you pledge not to tell anyone in either the Alliance or the Empire about my whereabouts. But perhaps that is too much to expect."
"We will tell them exactly what we choose to, Lord Vader," the princess sputtered back, eyes snapping, "We do not, and never will, take orders from you."
Luke stepped forward and lifted conciliating hands between the verbally sparring parties.
"Han, Leia," he turned to Vader, "Father…I think the most important thing to focus on now is Palpatine's attempt to find you."
He looked straight into his father's eyes (and Vader still had no idea how he did that), "Do you remember the vision last night when we talked in that cave?"
Vader paused. Pieces were coming back, fragments of a warm yet surreal conversation with his son, followed by memories of the icy darkness of his master's Force presence approaching.
"I don't remember it all, but I remember that you foolishly went out to try to block him. What happened?"
He was truly fearful now. Palpatine could even now be marshalling troops to destroy Tatooine across every square kilometer of livable land. If the Emperor had flushed him out, he must leave, Luke must leave, immediately.
"I stopped him," Luke said carefully, "He didn't find you."
Vader tilted his head. Luke was clearly concealing something.
"Well, I helped," the princess remarked calmly.
Luke shot a glance at her, and asked, "Leia, are you sure?"
She nodded firmly, "Yes, because that's part of what we need to talk about, right? Whether Palpatine knows about me? And if he does, then he might as well know too."
She tilted her head at Vader
Luke sighed, stepped closer to his father, and stared directly into his eyes.
Vader was aware of the power of the Force building and swirling around him. Something momentous was about to be disclosed, but he had no idea what.
"Father," Luke said gently, "I'm going to tell you something, and you will probably be upset about it. Keep in mind that this hut is not rock solid, so if you start a localized earthquake, it could all cave in on us. I'd rather that didn't happen."
He now turned and looked at his Rebel companions, "And if things do start shaking, just head out the back entrance and I'll meet up with you, Ok?"
They both nodded. The princess looked perturbed, and Solo uncharacteristically solemn.
Luke took a deep breath, "Father, Padme- Mother- bore you twins."
Vader's mind froze in complete shock. There was a second child?
After a stunned moment, his mind starting moving forward in fits and starts. A kaleidoscope of images filled his memory, of Padme with womb filled with child, of her beautiful face and her regal hair, standing by that pillar on Coruscant, telling him of her pregnancy. Of them sharing a bed, with his hand draped over her pregnant womb. Of his nightmares of her dying in childbirth.
The other one. It must have been a daughter. He had been so sure Padme was carrying a girl, even as she had been confident the child was a boy. And they had both been right.
There was something incredibly obvious in front of him, hammering at his mind, but he just couldn't see it, couldn't grasp it, couldn't think.
He had choked Padme. Had the other one died? Was Luke dealing with the horrifying trauma of losing a sibling to his hands?
"Your sister, did she live?"
He hardly recognized his own voice through the vocoder.
Luke stepped even closer and put gentle hands on his father's arms.
"Father, Leia is my twin sister."
Vader's shocked gaze swung to the princess of Alderaan. She stood there boldly, without trembling, her chin lifted defiantly, her eyes smoldering with some powerful emotion.
He gasped, and then almost choked as his mechanized breathing fought to maintain its steady rhythm.
How often had he seen Padme stand just so, with her chin lifted, with defiance in her eyes as she had faced off against corrupt politicians and assassins alike.
How could he have missed it? Leia Organa, his daughter, was the very image of Padme Amidala.
Like a tide rolling back, the shock of new awareness faded, to be replaced by horrifying memories – of a young princess cowering in a darkened cell, with an interrogator droid moving forward.
Of his own hands, covered in black gloves, cruelly holding her in place as truth drugs were injected into her body.
Of her screams of physical anguish.
Of her tide of grief at the destruction of Alderaan.
Of her intense sorrow at Bespin, watching Solo lowered into the carbonite pit.
And then the images started mingling, between Padme and Leia, both in harsh red light, both with horrified eyes as he moved to destroy all that they loved.
His self-hatred took over his mind and body, and he spiraled into darkness. He was only slightly aware of Luke's hands on his arms, calling to him, his son's attempts through the Force to lift him out of his pit of despair.
A new voice joined his son's words now, "Anakin, really now, I understand your distress but destroying my house isn't remotely helpful, is it?"
The shock of that familiar voice broke through his cocoon of torment, and he raised his head to fix his gaze on the blue figure now standing to one side of his son.
"Obi-wan?"