AUTHOR'S NOTE: Leia and Vader only have so much progress they can make; I prefer to write that as a love/hate relationship. This is Leia's arc more than Vader's, but even so, thank you to those who've stuck with me through to this point. This chapter was very challenging to write, and I know it's a bit long at an approximately 15-minute read. As a side note, this is the first time I think they've activated a Force-bond, which you'll see at the end.
A large planet loomed on the horizon as Leia hit the decelerator and activated the autopilot.
Ryloth, the homeworld of the twi'leks.
Even as she clutched her Vader's wound with one hand, she reached out to activate the radio with the other. The lie that was about to fall from her lips had to be convincing. She had to land quickly, lest the TIEs catch up with them while in open space.
"Rylothian Air Control, this is Padmé Veruna." Leia brazenly borrowed her mother's name and that of a royal Nabooian house.
"I require immediate entry support."
There was a pause and then an encouraging crackle of static, followed by a thick twi'leki accent.
"We read you, Padmé; what can the planet of Ryloth offer you?"
Leia released a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.
"I am with child, and my pilot has been badly injured in an encounter with pirates; they looted our freight and left us to drift. I am invoking Interplanetary Code 118-A2 and requesting immediate landing support and medical aid."
There was a pause as she gasped against another volley of pain.
"I am a diplomat from a Nabooian royal house," she enunciated into the radio, "and we embarked on a mission of mercy to bring supplies to Alderaanian refugees in the Outer Rim."
It was both believable and unverifiable. Leia needed the Rylothians to allow the shuttle to land, and she needed to keep any identifiable details off of open radio; if the Imperials had any sense at all, they would be scanning the channels for a distress signal or any chatter that mentioned Leia Organa.
Leia groaned through yet another pang, her grip on her companion tightening as she bit back a cry of pain. Her eyes turned to the man who remained unresponsive beside her, the respirator hissing harder and faster, his face white and drenched in sweat. She could almost feel his life-force vaporizing.
"Please help us, he's bleeding to death…" She begged without any need for exaggeration. "I've already activated the landing sequence. Please allow us through. Please!"
"Understood, Lady Veruna; I am contacting my superiors. Please hold your flight pattern and refrain from descending further—"
"Negative, Control!" Leia snapped back. "Compliance impossible. My pilot is dying, and I cannot fly. The landing sequence has already been allow us to land or shoot us down and be prepared for all the galaxy to know Ryloth murdered a Nabooian diplomat."
Playing hardball was a gamble, but it was a risk Leia had to take. The longer she hung in open space, the more blood he lost, the further her labor progressed, and the more likely they'd be easy prey for any incoming Imperials.
"Listen, here, Madame, I do not appreciate your tone—!"
"He is dying! Do you understand that?!" Leia yelled, her voice cracking with real and affected emotions blending into one. Her contractions were coming harder now, and she felt just as helpless as she had at the hands of her Imperial captors.
This had to work. There was no alternative.
"Please! Naboo will pay anything you ask. Please—I can't stop the bleeding…!" Real tears began leaking from Leia's eyes as a sob of pain erupted from her throat.
The radio was silent for several moments, and for one terrible second, Leia thought that perhaps she was about to hear the whine of incoming air defense weapons.
All four of them were going to die out here. Han would be a widower, the New Republic would be demoralized…! As her thoughts began to spiral, the radio crackled to life.
"…Continue your descent, Lady Veruna; you will be met with medical aid. Transmitting landing location to autopilot now."
Leia swallowed the lump that had grown within her throat. "Understood and acknowledged. The Royal House is in your debt."
After quickly tightening the tourniquet, Leia fell into the copilot's chair, strapping herself in as the ship obediently changed direction and began choppily making its way toward the planet's main port. When they entered the Rylothian atmosphere without a TIE fighter in sight, Leia felt some of the tension in her body release, if only by a margin. As Leia breathed through her contractions, she considered the wisdom of her ruse. Ryloth had always been an independent planet; it was unlikely they preferred the Empire's heavy-handed approach to the New Republic's light touch. Even so, it would be a mistake to think they could be trusted with her true identity.
Although he own pain was increasing, she comforted herself with the fact that Ryloth was a civilized planet; they would not simply leave them to die. Blood loss and open wounds were eminently treatable with synthetic plasma and bacta. There would be nurses to help her through the birth. And, once they landed the ship, finding it would be like finding a needle in a haystack for the Imperials.
Unfortunately, Leia's hopes diminished as the ship touched down and the viewscreen revealed her welcome party. A number of uniformed twi'leks were making their way toward the ship's landing pad and the ramp, which had opened automatically. They were a long way off yet, but they were close enough that she could see that the universal symbols of medical personnel filled out the shoulders of several shorter members.
Even still, her heart sank as she realized that several armored individuals with high-powered blaster rifles were leading her boarding party.
Although she could barely stand, Leia forced herself to unbuckle her harness and move to continue applying pressure to Vader's chest. Every drop of blood counted, and it would be a few moments before the medical personnel were able to board the vessel. The respirator was still cycling, but its mechanism was laboring with desperate-sounding whine. As pain coursed through her body, some distant part of her mind escaped the agony to wonder at how Darth Vader had become this mangled man whose life now depended on the strength of her shaking hands.
Fortunately for her sanity, Leia did not have to wonder long. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of heavy treads coming up the rampway. As the Princess turned her head, she stilled at the sight of two stout male twi'leks with bulbous foreheads aiming their blasters squarely at her chest.
"Are you Lady Padmé Veruna?" One of them asked in accented basic.
"Who else would I be?" Leia asked, "Don't stand there asking questions! Can't you see he needs help?!" She snapped, her eyes gesturing toward the man slumped in the pilot's chair. "Tell your people to hurry!"
"Forgive us, ma'am," The soldier seemed unfazed, but he answered with surprising sympathy, "medics should be here in a moment. However, you will receive treatment under protective custody as a precaution, at least, until we can verify your story."
Leia nodded in half-hearted acquiescence as several soldiers filed in after him. There was no use in provoking them further. As they searched the ship, one of them seized the blaster she had discarded in the side compartment, but otherwise, they left the ship's meager contents untouched. Afterward, the leader mumbled something into his communicator, which seemed to signal that the small freighter was clear since it was only a moment later that several green and purple-skinned medics began to clamber up the ramp.
Even as two medics rushed to examine her, she shook her head and pulled away. "Him…first." She spit out, groaning as her own pain grew stronger.
The world around her was fading away under the pain of labor, but even so, Leia did not remove her hands until one of them, a purple-skinned female, met Leia's gaze and gently pried her blood-stained fingertips from Vader's breastbone. A moment later, they'd stuffed the pulsing injury with bacta cream and cinched it with a gauze-like tourniquet. Even as two of them turned to examine Leia, her eyes followed as the third one started him on a bag of badly needed blood-replacement.
It was then that Leia allowed herself a quiet feeling of self-congratulation; he was still alive, he was still breathing. She had not failed.
With that thought, it was as if the weight of the previous three days hit her with full force. Without the distraction of worry over her companion, there was nothing to draw her attention from the agony now reigning over her body. The Princess doubled over in pain as her hands clutched around her throbbing mid-section. She realized distantly that one of the medics was speaking to her, asking her questions that Leia could only vaguely answer as she gasped against the excruciation that seemed to have hit her all at once.
It was only when they moved to place both Leia and the still-unconscious Vader on floating stretchers that Leia came to her senses enough to warn them that he might become violent if he awoke without her there. The tallest medic, an elegant-looking female, raised an inquiring eyebrow at that disclosure but seemed willing to consent to Leia's subsequent request that they be kept together.
The strange parade of soldiers and medics went on for an indeterminable time before they made it to a sterile building full of long corridors and nondescript doorways. By that point, it was increasingly difficult for Leia to focus on anything beyond the burning pain dragging her down into the depths of her own body. As she labored, she and Vader were placed within a shared operating theater, which was only bifurcated by the presence of a thin, translucent curtain. The room was dark and windowless, its surfaces covered in stainless steel and harsh lighting.
It took Leia a moment to realize that it must have been the infirmary of a detainment facility.
This revelation was only firmly cemented when she finally noticed that the medics seemed unphased by the two of the soldiers who had taken up imperious positions at the doorway, their blasters held in the ready position. It seemed she had been rescued from one prison only to send herself straight back to another. Leia would have pondered the irony more except for the terrible heat that seemed to be tearing her apart from within.
At that moment, the door opened to permit the entry of a uniformed bureaucratic-looking twi'lek with lekku so long they wrapped twice around his neck. Leia bristled at the intrusion as he bowed to her in an overly formal fashion.
"Lady Veruna," he began in over-exaggerated Basic, "greetings and welcome to Ryloth. I am the Secretary of Transportation, Tott Raynar. Please forgive my intrusion, but I have a few questions for you. As I am sure you know, our planet has great respect for the people of Naboo. We expect that respect to be reciprocated. As such, I am sure you would not mind explaining why an RK-3 Imperial-issued sidearm was seized from the hold of a supposed Nabooian diplomatic envoy?"
Leia pondered the wry and humorless thought that only she could manage to be cross-examined by two different uniformed weasels in one day.
"I told you—" she panted "—we were attacked by pirates."
"Hmm, yes, but there seems to be no sign of forced entry on your VCX, and your ship's computer logs appear to have been disabled."
"Security…protocol…" Leia bit out as the nurses attending her clad her in a hospital gown and began connecting vital monitors. The bureaucrat was smart. She had to give him credit. But until he could prove otherwise, he would have to treat her as if she had told the truth.
"That seems very convenient." His arms were crossed now, and the lekku tensed as he apprised the laboring woman.
It was at that moment that a young aid rushed into the room and tugged at his arm before beginning to whisper something in his ear. As the bureaucrats held their conference, Leia groaned in pain, unable to speak or respond as nurses continued to poke and prod her. She shuddered as an IV port was inserted into her arm, and a rush of cold fluids flowed into her veins. From the corner of her eye, she warily observed them doing the same to Vader.
She could sense his life force and its thready weakness, although it seemed to be gradually stabilizing. When he uttered a groan that might've been Luke's name, her mind darted to alert for fear he might lash out, but, fortunately for the medical staff, he did not wake.
Leia's attention returned to the bureaucrat as he disengaged from his aid and turned to eye her with a sudden air of hostility.
"It might interest you to know that several minutes ago, we received a generalized transmission warning us to be on the lookout for a highly dangerous humanoid female."
He paused to glance beyond the curtain to where the nurses were administering yet more synthetic plasma to her father.
"And a similarly dangerous male of unknown species who murdered a station full of unarmed men at a private mining facility on Crseih."
The Princess's already feverish temperature spiked with a flood of adrenaline before she managed to recover her wits.
"How dare you—!" She snapped, although the end of the sentence was cut off by a groan.
"Oh, I dare, 'Lady Veruna,' or whoever you really are. I have already contacted our Nabooian embassy, and they denied any knowledge of a diplomatic party in this sector."
Leia's heart dropped. She had not expected that Ryloth's inquiry would be answered so quickly.
"You have already exploited our planet's generosity," the twi'lek continued. "You will be held here under armed guard while proper reports are made to the parties, who I believe will be very interested in your whereabouts."
"Wait, no, please, it's an Imperial trick. I swear to you, I am Vice-Chancellor Leia Organa of the New Republic! I was abducted from my home and—!"
"I am done listening to your lies!" He snapped, cutting her off as he turned and stormed for the reinforced door.
"All of you!" He yelled, gesturing for the medical staff. "If they're stable, I want you out. I'm not risking my people's lives for a pair of murderers."
"And you two," he barked at the soldiers, "guard this place from the inside. Cuff them and, if they try to get away, shoot them."
Leia did not have to wonder why he had chosen to give the order in Basic. He wanted her to know exactly what fate awaited her should she attempt to flee. Tears were leaking down her face, contractions forcing her to curl into herself. If Leia had not been preoccupied with agony, she would have been overcome with despair. The Imperials were probably already en route. She wanted to scream and fight and run away from her own body.
What had she done? Oh, Force, what had she done?!
He had told her to let him die. Why hadn't she listened? A year before, she would have been glad to see him dead. She wanted Bail. She wanted Breha, not him! What had she been thinking?!
The faceless medics with their surgical masks moved and bobbed all around her, all but one filing out of the room without so much as a pitying glance. The straggler stood staring at Leia, hesitating even as her colleagues departed. This was the same woman who had complied with Leia's warning that they be kept together.
"Please," Leia begged, plaintive eyes meeting those of the statuesque twi'lek. "I am no murderer! The message is a trap. I am Leia Organa, please, my security code is 2187, please just try contacting the New Republic…"
She was babbling now, and she knew it, but desperation made people do things they would not otherwise do. Though the other woman hesitated, her eyes darting between Leia and the exit door, she ruefully shook her head in mute refusal, turning to leave like all the rest.
As one soldier scanned the medical personnel out the door, the other stepped toward the Princess, removing the cuffs from his belt. Although Leia thrashed and snarled in protest, the agony of labor had driven the fight from her, and the man quickly succeeded in pinning her wrists and clipping the bracelets of the durasteel cuffs around them.
It was then that the soldier turned and made the mistake of attempting to do the same to Vader. As the last medical personnel left the room, his colleague moved to join him. If Leia had possessed a greater presence of mind, she might have warned them off, but as it was, she did not quite realize what they were about to do until she heard one of the soldiers cry out in surprise.
Then came a weak but deliberate mechanical voice.
"Do…not touch…me."
Although Leia did not witness it, within seconds, there was a scuffling noise and the crash of an instrument table. She craned her neck to look as the air was filled with a terrible choking noise and then crushing silence. Leia's eyes widened in horror as she saw the two forms begin to levitate before the gurney that held her father.
"No! …stop…!" Leia panted, straining uselessly on the manacles. The Imperials might have deserved death, but not the hapless soldiers. Her words seemed to shatter a spell because the instant she spoke, their bodies thudded to the floor. Leia couldn't tell whether they were alive or dead and wasn't sure she wanted to find out.
Instead, her gaze snapped to the other patient beside her. Vader's head lolled on the gurney as he turned toward her, relief flooding over the visible upper portion of his face. The soldiers lay forgotten at his feet as if they had never existed.
"Leia…are you there?…Are you…alright? What happened?"
A contraction came over her that knocked the breath from her lungs, leaving her unable to answer. Even still, she stared with confusion as his unfocused eyes seemed to roam over her. He was a mere fifteen feet away.
"Can't you see me?" She panted, biting back the pain that threatened to choke the air from her body.
"…no…" came the heavy reply. Only then did Leia remember what the med-droid had told her long ago: he was very nearly blind, and blood loss could not have helped the matter.
"Where…am…I?" He groaned softly, attempting to sit upright.
"Ryloth. They are holding us prisoner."
His forehead lifted in sudden alarm as he comprehended her words.
"Ryloth?"
"Leia...what have you done?" he asked with sudden urgency, his synthesized voice regaining a shadow of its former ferocity as he attempted to gain his footing. "I warned you to go straight to the New Republic!"
"You think I don't know that—?!" Leia barked with a moan of pain. She squeezed her eyes shut, tears leaking out of them and running down her face. It was beginning to hurt so badly that she felt like her heart might burst.
"Forgive me for having some compassion! You must find the concept foreign!"
He ignored her outburst; instead, she felt his anxious presence reach out for her, sensing her pain as one might feel the fever of a sick child. As if in response, he struggled to his feet, making a couple of staggering steps toward her before his legs gave out beneath him, and he half crawled the rest of the way to her side.
With a wave of his fingertips, the cuffs around her wrists clicked open, but, despite herself, Leia flinched away as he lifted a cybernetic hand to brush the sticky strands of hair from her sweat-stained face.
"You need a…doctor…" he intoned, the vocoder's monotone erasing all traces of emotion.
"And I might've gotten one if it hadn't been for your Imperials!" She snapped, her hands clutching her throbbing belly.
"…I told you to let me die." He responded quietly. As if that was any kind of defense.
"It doesn't matter now. Ryloth has already contacted them. They spun some story, and the bantha-brained bureaucrats here believed it. They're coming, Lord Vader. The Imperials are coming for us because of you. Because of the Empire you built!"
He flinched and lowered his eyes as if she had struck him, and, at that moment, Leia could not deny the feeling of vindication that surged through her.
"If you want —" he began, but she cut him off before he could continue.
"What I want is for my mother to be here!" She continued almost hysterically, panting as she tried to breathe through the pain. The pangs were terrible, but even so, she forced herself to power through it.
"But you let them kill her! What I want is my husband, the man you tortured! What I want is my brother, the man you mutilated! I want them here with me, but instead, I have you and the threat of your army."
She was almost hyperventilating now, white-hot pain lacing through every inch of her body.
"Did you think saving me would make up for what you've done? I don't want you dead—I may even be able to forgive you—but I will never forget!"
His face was masked with distress as if he longed to embrace her but knew better than to try.
"You and your children cried out to me through the Force." He said softly, "Kin to kin…Blood to blood. I could no more leave you to suffer…than you could bring yourself to listen to reason and let me die."
Leia swallowed hard. There was no arguing with the truth of his words; she could feel it in the way his presence rang with sincerity.
The arm on his injured side hung uselessly as he leaned against the bedside railing for support. Whatever good their treatment had done him, he was just as weak, foolish, small, and pathetic as he had been right after Endor when he'd begged for her compassion as if he deserved it.
As if sensing her thoughts, there was a responsive crackle of static: "…you are right, child, I am…weak…and a fool…I have made grave mistakes, but please believe me when I say I will never again allow them to hurt you..."
"And how, exactly, will you stop them," she spit back, crying out against a wave of contractions, "when you cannot even see?"
"I do not…need my eyes to see, Leia."
"So you'll kill them like you killed those men?" Leia shrieked, gesturing to the soldiers prone on the ground. "More blood? More death?!"
He did not bother to defend himself.
As if on cue, both turned to look as their conversation was interrupted by a beeping noise as the door to the room slid open and permitted the entry of the tall twi'lek from before. The door had closed behind the twi'lek before she noticed the soldiers prone on the floor and their assailant kneeling at Leia's side. As soon as she processed the scene before her, the woman cried out in Rylothian, lunging to reopen the door panel. But before she could make it, an unseen power seized her and lifted her high into the air.
"You are safe so long as you do not betray us." All traces of weakness were gone from the vocoder. Instead, his words came out as a sinister and veiled threat. The woman nodded quickly, her hands grasping uselessly for her throat.
"Alright, that's enough! Put her down." Leia yelled, seizing Vader's extended arm in an iron grip. He gave her a look of silent apology before gingerly lowering the coughing twi'lek to the ground.
"I came to help you." The twi'lek said hoarsely. "I checked on your story…and now a message has been sent to the New Republic; they are sending a convoy…Please…please don't hurt me…"
"You will not be harmed," Leia gasped, clutching her stomach, "and my sincerest apologies for the actions of my…bodyguard…"
"When you have recovered yourself, you should tend to them." Vader interrupted, gesturing toward the two soldiers who remained prone on the ground.
Leia's eyes widened.
"But I thought…?" She wheezed through another wave of pain; the unspoken "I thought they were dead" hung in the air as her eyes roamed over him. Her heart softened imperceptibly as he turned to meet her gaze. Of all the things she might have expected from him. That had not been one of them.
"They are alive." He intoned softly as the twi'lek turned her back to them, scrambling to check on her fallen comrades, "merely unconscious."
Even as she felt the start of another contraction, Leia reflexively lifted a hand to steady his uninjured shoulder as he slumped against the frame of her hospital bed. The exertion had clearly done no favors for his weakened body.
Vader's milky eyes bore into Leia's, his tired gaze filled with a strange hope even as he rested against her hand.
There was a moaning noise as the two twi'leki soldiers came back around under the influence of administered smelling salts. The medic spoke to them in low tones that Leia could not quite perceive. Still, whatever she said seemed to have an instantaneous effect as the men suddenly stumbled to their feet, their eyes fixed with terror on Vader's grizzled face. After collecting their weapons, the pair backed out of the room as quickly as possible, fumbling as they scanned their ID cards and rushed through the doorway.
That left behind the twi'lek medic, whose face was cast in strange shadows by the harsh light of the operating theater. The poor woman looked terrified; even so, she straightened her spine and faced them with all the courage she could muster.
"Secretary Raynar asked me to beg your forgiveness…"
Wasn't that just like a bureaucrat? Sending a subordinate to apologize for their mistake…!
"And tell you that, should the Imperial remnants you identified arrive before the New Republic, you will have the full might of Ryloth's defenses at your disposal. Right now, a military garrison is being posted outside of this infirmary and will remain there until your people arrive."
"Some good that does me!" Leia snarled. Although she had become somewhat accustomed to the pain she had felt to that point, she could tell that something was changing. Her labor pangs were becoming sharper and longer.
"There is nothing else for them to do, Vice-Chancellor," Vader spoke, somehow assuming the role of political advisor, his emphasis on her title reminding her to control her anger. "All we can do is wait."
The twi'lek nodded in affirmation, seemingly relieved not to have found herself being strangled.
"In the meantime," Vader continued, his eyes turning to the twi'lek, "as a gesture of good faith, you, and only you, will attend the Vice-Chancellor and see to her comfort. Do we make ourselves clear?"
The woman once more nodded responsively. "If you'll allow it, Vice-Chancellor. I only need a moment to gather some supplies."
Leia nodded mutely as all the muscles in her abdomen clenched. This was a new phase of pain, one she had not even been able to imagine before. Her voice seemed to have died in her throat, even the sinews of her neck pulled taut by the contractions that wracked her body.
Against the protests of her consciousness, Leia found herself sinking deeper and deeper into her body, her nerves lighting up with pure fire. Sweat burned her eyes as she squeezed them shut. There were footsteps around her as she forced herself to inhale and exhale. In a matter of moments, the contractions went from bad to worse, forcing a guttural cry from her throat. The hiss of Vader's respirator was a steady comfort, a sound she clung to in the black abyss of fire. But even it seemed to stumble as she sobbed in pain.
A moment later, a sense of helpless terror washed over her. Still, it seemed distant somehow, like the empathy one might feel for a character in a holonovella. It took a few seconds before she realized what, or rather, whose emotions she was feeling.
"You're afraid…" She gasped with confusion, opening her eyes to fix Vader with a look of surprise.
The feeling instantly disappeared, and he looked away from her, his face pained with something far more significant than physical discomfort.
"You reminded me of your mother." He told her quietly. "The way she looked before she…died."
Leia did not have time to think as another contraction seized her, and all conscious thought was obliterated by pain. The twi'lek had returned now; she was checking and measuring, counting Leia's heartbeat and that of the babies.
The woman's questions rang in Leia's ears as the Princess did her best to respond. Her hands ached from their white-knuckled grip on the rails of the hospital bed. Sweat was rushing down her face, her cracked lips bleeding from where she bit them.
Time felt like it was standing still. Everything burned. Everything hurt. All thoughts of the New Republic and the Imperials remained far away. There was nothing but white-hot fire that rippled under her skin, making it feel as if her body might collapse in on itself.
No matter when or if the rival factions decided to arrive, the babies were coming first.
As a general rule, Leia did not panic, but that did not mean she was not afraid. Was it supposed to hurt this much? What if something was wrong? Would the twi'lek have told her? She tried to calm herself by picturing Han's face, Luke's laughter, and the embrace of her parents. But such phantoms were of little comfort.
She couldn't get enough air. Her heart was hammering faster and faster. She tried to open her eyes, but her vision blurred so that all she could see were smears of stark shadows and humanoid shapes. Someone was speaking to her. Calling her name. Telling her something. But her heartbeat was so loud within her ears that she could not hear it.
It was so hard to breathe…!
Out of nowhere, a shape resembling a hand enfolded itself over her white-knuckled fist. Without hesitation, she greedily seized it, clutching it as if her life depended on it. After a moment, she felt a surge of warmth, safety, and protectiveness wrap itself around her, filling her thoughts and pervading her being until she noticed absently that it no longer hurt to breathe.
As her burning lungs filled with air, her hearing sharpened, her heartbeat receding into the background. The pain and pressure were still there, but it had become secondary to the feelings of strength, affection, and courage washing over her.
For what seemed like hours, Leia merely basked in the sea of comfort.
She did not know how long they stayed that way before Leia heard the buzz of the vocoder's static as urgent words were exchanged beyond her realm of hearing.
She whimpered as the hand extricated itself, only to cry out with relief a moment later as it returned to place something deliciously cold across her forehead. Then the metal hand once again took hold of her waiting palm, the fingers awkwardly squeezing hers back as a surprisingly familiar voice echoed in her mind.
You are progressing well, or so I am told. But, I am afraid I am going to have to leave you now, my daughter. I know you are afraid, but all will be well. Luke will be here soon. I have sensed him. Just breathe and leave the rest to me.
"No, don't go …!" She rasped aloud, forcing her eyes to focus as his metal fingers drew away.
Cling to this bond, my child. I will not leave you until the breath leaves my body. I promised I would not let them hurt you. And, so long as the Force wills it, I will keep that promise.
Although her fingers reached plaintively for him, he wrenched himself away from her, limping with forced steadiness for the doorway.
Vader! Father! She screamed after him from inside her mind.
There was a pause.
Anakin. My name is Anakin.
Even as the doors shut behind him, the blanket of courage muting her pain never left her.
END NOTES: I haven't decided yet if I want Anakin to die at the end of this (I'm leaning 70-30 in favor of his survival but could be persuaded otherwise). Let me know if the PMs or reviews. As always, guest reviews do not require registration and take 15 seconds. I love comments and criticism!