Darth Vader's Shuttle

En Route to Endor

Fifteen minutes later

The Death Star exploded into a million, quadrillion, bajillion pieces, but the augmented shields of Vader's shuttle held, though the ship trembled so much that Young Luke was almost knocked off his feet. Older Luke had sensibly strapped himself in, and Vader was curled up in a wretched ball on the floor, and while he shifted a little as the ship bucked in protest, he was too heavy to move much.

"Maybe I'd better sit down," Young Luke muttered, collapsing onto a seat close to his older alter. "So … now what?"

His counterpart cast a worried glance at the humped form of the Alter cyborg and shook his head. "I don't know," he admitted. "In my timeline, I refused to turn to the Dark Side and Palpatine decided to kill me by blasting me with Force Lightning. I was almost dead when my father decided he loved me enough to intervene, and he picked up Palpatine and threw him down a handy shaft, whereupon he exploded dramatically. Father was terribly injured from our fight and from the Force Lightning, and died in my arms a few minutes later."

"Your fight?" Luke demanded in astonishment. "Why did you fight him?"

"Oh, you know, the Rebel fleet was being decimated and Palpatine was so annoying; I finally attacked him and Father intervened. Then we battled for a while and finally I'm like, nope, not gonna fight my own father and then like an idiot, he nicked it out of my head that I had a twin sister. He said he was going to try to turn her to the Dark Side and I went rancor on him and chopped off his right hand. It's mechanical, but he did seem kind of tired after that."

Younger Luke shot a horrified look at Vader. "Yes, that would really piss me off," he admitted. "I can totally see that happening."

"I should have killed him the first day I laid eyes on him," Vader growled from his fetal position on the floor.

"Who?" both Lukes asked.

"Palpatine."

"Well, that wasn't going to happen," the older version of his son pointed out. "You were like, what, nine years old?"

"I should have reached out with my hand and tore his vile vocal cords out of his puny throat…"

"You were nine, Father…"'

"And then," Vader continued, sitting up as he apparently picked up steam, "I should have disemboweled him and wrapped his intestines around his skull, and then I would have broken every bone in his body, after which I would have…"

"He still sounds very Dark Side," Luke said worriedly as Vader rambled on.

"Ye...es, I think he is," Older Luke agreed thoughtfully. "He was Light after he saved me, but he hasn't saved you in this version. That's awkward."

"I should have killed him as soon I knew your name, my son," Vader moaned, curling up on the floor again. "For so many years, I believed I had killed her, my Angel..."

"It sounds like he really loved our mother," Young Luke said softly and sadly.

"He did," Older Luke confirmed. "Her name was Padme Naberrie Amidala Skywalker, and she was first a young queen of Naboo, and then a Senator. Leia and Mara and I have met her a few times in other trips through time, and she was awesome. Leia looks a lot like her."

"I should have seen my Angel in the Organa's face," Vader groaned.

The two Lukes exchanged worried glances. "He sounds kind of...depressed," the younger version commented.

"I think he feels very guilty, which isn't out of line given his life choices, but it makes me nervous," Older Luke said. "Normal people when they feel terrible go into therapy and buy plushies, or they go off and drink themselves into oblivion. The former is healthy and the latter is not, but regardless, they don't take down entire ecosystems when they aren't doing well."

"So you said you've been back in time more than once. How did you deal with this situation in the past?"

"We...didn't," his older counterpart mused. "He was never quite this wreaked, though I don't know why."

"Well, his actions the last day have been particularly lousy," Leia pointed out, striding into the main bay of the shuttle. "I mean, Luke, all full of dewy eyed optimism and nobility, actually surrendered to him here on Endor, and the rat dragged him to the Emperor. That's a pretty rotten thing to do to your little boy."

Young Luke flushed a little. "I'm not a little boy."

"I know," Leia assured him quickly. "You and your sister both have lived more in your 23 years than most people do in a lifetime. Still, you do look incredibly young, really, at least compared to my Luke."

The younger man cast a thoughtful look at his counterpart and winced openly. "Actually, you do look pretty vagabond. How old are you, anyway?"

"I'm a little over thirty."

Luke winced again. Was he going to look that exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes, in a mere decade?

"It isn't the years, Kid, it's the kids," Older Luke explained as he ran a galaxy weary finger along his unshaved chin.

"Huh?" Luke asked.

"Our twins are teething," the older Luke explained, "and they are up all the time. Though rarely at the same time. Mara and I are taking turns getting up with them but still, we are wiped. We'll get through it, but it's no fun."

"Now my twins did just fine with teething," Leia bragged.

"That, my dear sister, is a very dangerous thing for a newly pregnant woman to say. Your kid is going to be a terror just to rid you of the idea that you are in any way in control of such things as teething pain."

Leia Organa Solo scowled ferociously. "How did you know that?" she demanded irascibly. "I am like, two weeks pregnant!"

"I am your twin brother," the Jedi Master returned insouciantly. "I didn't know the moment of conception because I am too polite, but it wasn't like I could miss a blazing new Force presence once we met for dinner at Dex's Diner that day about a week ago!"

"You must kill me, Luke," Darth Vader declared, yanking attention away from the squabbling, time traveling twins.

Luke Skywalker stared at his father in horror. "What?"

"Luke," the Sith rasped, sitting up and reaching out a tremulous hand, "I attacked your mother. I cut off your hand. I tortured your sister. There is nothing I can give you that is worth the pain I would bring into your life. Please, please, just end it."

Luke turned absolutely white and swayed. "But...but Father. I ... I love you..."

"Hey!" snarled Leia Organa, dropping to her knees and leaning forward to smack her Alter Father on the helmet. "Cut that out! This is not about you at all, you got it?"

He actually whimpered softly through his vocoder and cringed back. "I hurt you. I put Solo in carbonite."

"Yes," Leia growled. "You suck as a father, without a doubt. But whether you understand it or not, your son loves you to the ends of the galaxy, along with having the moral fiber to say no to your desire for galactic conquest. Now sit up and pull yourself together! You don't get to decide to die right now. We were sent back in time to save you and by the Maw, you are being saved! Stop being a selfish jerk!"

Vader stared at her blankly for a full thirty seconds and then nodded slowly. "As you wish."

"Good," the woman responded coolly. "Now don't do anything stupid or I'll come back and smack some sense into you. Got it?"

"Yes," the cyborg said meekly.

"Tingling toes..." Older Luke said suddenly.

"Yeah," Leia agreed, glancing over as the shuttle settled a random grassy space on Endor. "Luke, your twin is going to take a little time to get over hating Vader's guts. Just go with it."

"I will," Luke promised, rising to his feet. "Anything else?"

"My counterpart is going to be working for a guy named Talon Karrde in about a year so you might want to track her down then," Mara announced, stepping into the main bay of the shuttle. "Not that you have to marry her, but we make a good..."

The threesome vanished.

Luke stared at the now empty space for all of a few seconds and then dropped down to his knees next to Vader. "I do love you, Father."

"I do not deserve..."

"I love you."

"I am a monster and..."

"I love you."

"I deserve death because..."

"I love you."

Darth Vader sighed loudly. "Very well, my son. And ... I love you too."

In that moment, Luke knew that while there would be complications, everything was going to be all right.