Bridge
Executor
"The Emperor is on his way to the bridge," a filtered voice informed Admiral Piett through his earpiece.
"Thank you," Piett said, and looked around the bridge. "Emperor on the bridge in the next few minutes!"
Everyone had been working hard, but now they worked harder. Piett took a step back as a small mouse droid, who had been removing dust from the corridor, sped up and began squeaking softly to itself.
Even the mouse droids were afraid of Darth Vader.
Two nerve wracking minutes later, the elevator's doors opened and Vader strode rapidly into the room, with the young prince at his heels. Piett had known Vader for many years, and was quite gifted at determining the cyborg's mood, but this time there was a certain frenzied enthusiasm in Vader's movements which made Piett take a half step backwards.
"Admiral!" Vader boomed, hurrying forward to place a gigantic hand on Piett's right shoulder. "I have the most wonderful news! I have a daughter!"
Piett felt shudders of terror run up and down his back at having the Sith so close, and he found himself turning his gaze away from the great mask and onto the face of Luke Skywalker, who was looking bemused.
"A daughter, your Highness?" he heard a voice say aloud, and realized it was his own voice responding appropriately.
"Yes!" Vader cried out, and now it was obvious that he was … happy? "Offices, stormtroopers, mouse droids, I have a daughter!"
Captain Needa, who was standing nearby, blurted out, "A female progeny who is the product of a female human egg and your sperm?"
There was total, shocked, horrified silence at these words and the Emperor turned to stare down at the captain, whose head lowered until he took on the look of a Nabooian crab peeking out from a pair of rocks.
"Exactly!" Vader finally crowed, and waved his arms expansively. "A daughter! To have a living son was more than I ever dreamed – but a daughter as well! I am so happy!"
Piett, and everyone else in the bridge, heaved out a deep sigh of relief, just as the elevator door opened and a medical droid rolled in, its expressionless face somehow full of indignation.
"Your Highness," the droid exclaimed. "What has you so excited? This is not good for your blood pressure!"
"B8C!" Vader cried out. "I have wonderful news. I have a daughter!"
The droid tilted its head thoughtfully and said, "Instead of a son?"
"No! Both! This is my son, Luke Skywalker," the Emperor said, grabbing Luke gently with the Force and pulling him closer to the droid. "My dear wife birthed twins!"
The med droid stared at Luke, who stared back, and then turned towards his lord and master and said patiently, "Your Highness, that is wonderful news. But as we have discussed before, you really ought not to get quite so excited. I am most pleased to see the young prince is at your side, but you are in danger of a stroke if you keep hopping around."
Again, there was a simultaneous, indrawn breath of horror throughout the bridge. What kind of droid was stupid enough to express Vader's actions as 'hopping around'?
"You are correct, of course," the Sith boomed, placing what could be construed as an affectionate hand on the droid's left arm. "I plan to live for a very long time to make up for the time missed with my children."
"Your daughter," the droid said, turning its head entirely around and then stopping to fix its gaze on the Emperor again. "I assume she is not on the bridge?"
"I do not know where she is," the Emperor admitted. "Worse than that, I do not know who she is. My son merely informed me of her existence but did not give me her name."
"She is a Rebel?" the droid asked in a professional tone, turning to inspect Luke's face.
Luke, whose brow was knit with bewilderment over his father's actions, said, "Erm, yes, she is. But that is all I am going to tell you. She is a Rebel and she doesn't like my father, which is, of course, normal, because Rebels don't like the Empire in general and Darth Vader in particular."
"I see," the droid said, and tilted its blocky head. "You look thin, Prince Vader."
"I am Luke Skywalker…"
"That is what I thought," Vader interrupted, stepping forward and taking Luke's bicep gently in one prosthetic hand. "B8C, Luke and I are going to my private medbay now and you will do a full health scan on the boy. He is criminally underfed."
"I am fine," Luke said in exasperation. "Absolutely fine!"
"Humor me, Son," Vader said, and his tone, even through the vocoder, was so pleading that Piett temporarily couldn't breathe.
Luke Skywalker rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, all right.
/
Darth Vader's Private Medbay
One Hour Later
"Your Highness," B8C said, rolling into a small office which was adjacent to the medbay. "Your son is asleep."
"Excellent," Vader said, rising ponderously to his feet. Luke had absolutely refused to have a med check with his father looming, so he had retreated to his large desk to work on reports. "I know he was tired. "
"Yes, he is tired, and somewhat malnourished, and slightly underweight," the droid said, "but none of his issues are critical. I have no doubt with good food, good sleep, and appropriate vaccinations, he will be completely restored to full health within the next two weeks."
"Thank you," Vader said, wandering over to the open door and looking out into the main med bay, whose lights were now dimmed. Luke was curled up on a bed, covered by a blanket, and he looked almost adorable, or as adorable as a young man who had blown up a Death Star containing over a million souls could look.
"By the way, your Highness," the med droid said from behind him, "I have identified your daughter."
The Sith spun around so quickly that his neck spasmed, but he barely noticed. "You what?"
"I have identified your daughter as Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, which was destroyed by the Death Star," the droid said calmly.
Vader saw red spots form in his vision at these calm words, and staggered over to collapse heavily on his chair, which managed not to break.
"Impossible!" he muttered. "Impossible!"
"Is it?" the droid asked. "I am so sorry for my error. I fear it will be necessary to do an extensive investigation of the Empire's genetic database…"
"No, no," the Emperor interrupted. "I merely meant it was impossible from a 'in the entire galaxy no one hates me as much as Leia Organa' sort of way. Why do you think she is my daughter?"
"Her blood matches both you and your son genetically," the droid said. "She had blood taken aboard Star Destroyer Devastator."
Vader's stomach had actually improved a little in the last weeks due to medical intervention, but he felt a strong urge to vomit. Yes, Organa had had blood removed so that her interrogator could prepare the perfect cocktail of drugs to inject into her using a torture droid.
He had tortured his own daughter. He had held her back while the Death Star had destroyed her planet.
"Is something wrong?"
Vader turned in his chair to observe his son, his face groggy with sleep, his blue eyes narrow with concern.
"Is Princess Leia Organa your twin sister?" he asked dully.
Luke looked shocked, startled, horrified, distressed, and irritated.
"How did you figure that out?" he demanded.
"I matched Princess Leia Organa's blood, taken some years ago while she was in Imperial custody, with yours and your father's, young prince," the droid said cheerfully.
Luke grimaced and bent a disapproving look on B8C. "You shouldn't have done that. Leia didn't want him to know."
"If she did not want the Emperor to know, she should not have permitted you to come here," the droid replied, reasonably enough. "The princess is, based on limited data, a very intelligent person and must have known that her genetic information had been obtained by the Empire."
"Don't put a billion credit bounty on her," Luke said, turning to glower at his progenitor. "She hates you enough as it is."
"So it is true," Vader said sadly. "Leia Organa is my dear Padme's daughter."
"Yes," Luke admitted.
Vader, considering his long and illustrious career in harming and harassing Leia Organa of Alderaan, shook his head and muttered. "Well, bantha poodoo."
Author Note: I know, I know, it has been too long since I updated. This summer was supposed to be kind of mellow, and then my husband's work got complicated and busy, and so I have been very busy caring for our children.