Darth Vader's Private Quarters

Imperial City

Imperial Center

Darth Vader groaned loudly and gritted his (somewhat repaired) teeth as he glared into his holoterminal. During his three years as junior Sith Lord, he had found himself doing a remarkable amount of boring holowork, but that was nothing, nothing at all, to being Emperor of the known galaxy. How had Palpatine endured it?

Of course, Palpatine had a variety of underlings that he sort of trusted; Mas Amedda, for example, was a skilled bureaucrat and had probably handled a great deal of tedious, high level work in his day. Unfortunately, Amedda was not in any way loyal to Vader and had suffered an unfortunate fall off a twenty story building only the day before.

Ah well, once he got the Empire in some sort of order, he could probably lay off all this annoying work, but for now, he was rather miserable. Who knew that being the leader of the Empire could be so painfully dull?

There was a beep, indicating an incoming call, and Vader smiled. This was his private number, and only a few high level officials had it. Furthermore, if they were bothering him at midnight, it was important. Whatever the issue was, it was way more fun than what he was doing now.

With a twitch of the Force, he lifted his heavy helmet onto his bald head; the Sith Lord no longer needed life support for his lungs so long as he was not running around chopping sentients in half; however, he still wore the helmet when interacting with this underlings. The Empire was in enough upheaval without confusing everyone with a suddenly very different appearance in their leader.

He hit the accept button with the Force and then gasped. (He could gasp now, thanks to Older Luke's work on his lungs. How cool to be able to gasp at will!)

"Luke!" he exclaimed. The image which had formed on his holoscreen was indeed that of his Alter Son, who was seated on a rather dilapidated chair with an ochre wall behind him. On his lap was a small, tanned child with sun bleached hair. "What are you doing? I thought you went back to your timeline!"

"I thought I was going to too, but the Force had different ideas. This little guy on my lap is your son ... umm, me ... at age 3."

Vader's eyes dropped immediately, incredulously, to the small one and allowed himself the luxury of another dramatic gasp. His son ... his son...

"I thought," he said hesitantly, "that you wished to keep my children hidden for at least a time."

"Yeah," Luke agreed, taking a bite of a bread roll and chewing rapidly. "Sorry, I'm hungry. Yeah, I was thinking we should because most three year olds are super difficult. I visited Luke's sister elsewhere, and while she is happy and healthy and well cared for, she is also a complete terror. This little guy is just adorable and remarkably obedient. It is almost scary, except I know from personal experience he will cause all kinds of healthy trouble in a few years. You'll have to keep your hangers locked up tight, or he'll be stealing your starfighters and blasting into space in a couple of years."

"You...you are going to allow me...?" he began, and found himself too choked up to continue.

"Yep, that's the plan. But I want you to bring his guardians with him when you come to fetch him, Ok? They just found out today that you are still alive and agree that you should have him, but they also are important to him. Also, you are kind of running the galaxy and won't have all the time in the world to take care of him. Does that seem reasonable?"

Darth Vader, formerly Anakin Skywalker, would have cut out his newly healed lungs and offered them as a burnt sacrifice if it would get him his son.

"Yes, of course," he rumbled hastily.

"Who dat?" Little Luke suddenly asked, pointing toward him through the holoscreen.

"That is your father, Luke," Older Luke said affectionately.

"Fa'ter! Fa'ter!" the little one exclaimed, bouncing up and down on his Alter's lap.

"What did I tell you! He's so cute!" Luke exclaimed. "We're on Tatooine and his guardians are Owen and Beru Lars. I assume you know the way."

Vader felt a distant, deep crash of outrage that his son was being raised on that desolate hellhole of a planet, but there was no time for recriminations.

"I will be there in two days," he promised.

"Sounds good. Skywalker out."

The holoscreens on both ends shut down and Older Luke used the Force to spin his chair around ten times, causing the little one on his lap to giggle hysterically. When he finally stopped the whirling, he shot a frowning look at his own feet.

"I wonder what else I am supposed to do in this time line?" he mused. "I mean, I love you all, but I miss my own wife and kids. I keep expecting my toes to start tingling, but they just aren't."

Obi-Wan, who was slumped morosely in the corner of the living room, said gloomily, "I wish to say, one more time, that this is a terrible mistake."

"Obi-Wan!" Luke exclaimed. "That's what I need to do. Obi-Wan, get out of here. Father will go full rancor if you are here when he shows up; that is the last thing Little Luke needs for his first official meeting with his Papa."

Kenobi blinked and he slid even farther down such that he was almost supine. "I have failed," he said. "Anakin might just as well kill me."

"Stop being dramatic, Obi-Wan. You are a good man in spite of your emotional blockages. There is a whole galaxy out there that could use a Jedi, and if you absolutely feel the need to watch over Anakin's children, you could go hang with Luke's sister until she matures a lot."

Kenobi's lips twisted and he dragged himself into a seating position. "I could do that," he admitted.

"Then do. And now my toes are tingling, so I guess that was my last job. Bye everyone!"

Luke disappeared.

/

Emperor Vader's reception room

Emperor Vader's Palace

7 years later

"Father?"

Emperor Vader looked at his ten year old son and asked, "Yes, Luke?"

"Are we almost done?" the prince of the Empire asked piteously. He was on his own small throne next to his father, but his posture was unconventional. The boy was, in fact, curled up like a Nabooian pretzel.

Anakin Skywalker reached out a hand and ruffled his son's blond locks affectionately.

"We are," he promised. "We have only to speak briefly to the Senator of Alderaan, and then we can go fly together."

Luke Skywalker grinned ecstatically just as the door chimed to warn them of the approach of yet another senator. Vaderkin forced his lips to curl up a little. Luke had told him more than once that his resting face was a grumpy face, and Bail Organa was an important colleague. Like Anavader, Organa was determined to stamp out slavery in the Outer Rim, which annoyed many of his Core World colleagues who thought the Senate had more important things to do than bother with suffering slaves on distant, impoverished worlds. Emperor Vader found such a view disgusting, but he had been told (again, by his son) that murdering lots of people who disagreed with him wasn't a great way to rule.

Luke was so very wise for his tender years.

To Vader's surprise, Organa was not alone. He was accompanied, amazingly enough, by his wife, Breha Organa, who rarely left Alderaan, and a young girl with dark braids. This must be the Organa's daughter, whom he had never seen.

"Your Highnesses," Bail Organa said, and all three Organas bowed to the rulers of the galaxy. Vader waved an irritable hand and said, "Rise, Senator Organa, and introduce us to your family."

The small family stood and the senator, who was looking pale, nodded obediently and said. "Your Highnesses, may I please introduce my wife, Queen Breha Organa of Alderaan."

"Hi," Luke piped up, smiling at the beautiful woman who was, like her consort, looking worried.

"And this," Bail continued, gently moving the young girl in front of him, "this is Leia, our adopted daughter, who was born 10 years ago on Polis Massa, to Padme Amidala Naberrie Skywalker. She is your son's twin sister."

Darth Vader, formerly Anakin Skywalker...

Anakin Skywalker, formerly Darth Vader, before which he was Anakin Skywalker...

Luke's twin sister.

Padme's daughter.

His daughter.

"You are my twin sister!" Luke shrieked excitedly, rolling off his throne in an inelegant heap, leaping to his feet, and bounding forward to embrace the girl. "You are Leia?"

"Yes," Leia responded, and she suddenly burst into tears.

Anavader sucked in a horrified breath. Why was his daughter crying? What was wrong?

Luke only tightened his hold and Anakin felt, through the Force, his son reach out and push reassurance through their rapidly strengthening twin bond.

"It is Ok, Leia," Luke murmured. "It's Ok."

"I don't want to live here on Imperial Center! I love Alderaan," Leia sobbed. "And what about my parents? Will he hurt them?"

"Please do not worry," Luke assured her, and turned to stare at his father as he spoke through the Force. "You need to reassure her, Father, that you won't harm her adoptive family or her planet, or force her to live here with us."

Vaderkin's anger at being separated from his daughter for so long was more than overcome by his happiness at finally seeing the girl. He had trusted the long departed Older Luke that Leia was being cared for well, but he had still worried for her. It was a dangerous galaxy, after all.

Another nudge from his son made him open his mostly healed mouth to say quickly, "You need not live here permanently, Princess Leia, though I hope that your brother and I will have the opportunity to spend more time with you. I also pledge that I will not harm your adoptive family or your planet."

Leia abruptly pulled away from her twin and marched forward a few bold steps, her posture so much like her mother's that his heart physically ached. "Do you promise?"

"I do."

"What about Obi-Wan Kenobi? Are you going to kill him?" she continued, causing the elder Organas to suck in horrified breaths.

Vader gritted his teeth, and Anakin ungritted them.

"I will not harm Kenobi; was he watching over you all these years?"

"He was," Queen Breha admitted, her eyes wide with worry.

Vader wanted to plunge his lightsaber through his older mentor's guts, but Anakin was mostly in control these days.

"I lost my way ten years ago," Anakin admitted. "Kenobi was right to attempt to stop me. At the time, I was not pleased to survive the experience, but now I am blessed to be able to see both of my children alive and healthy and well."

(For a brief moment, his ears rang with the screams of the Jedi younglings as he cut them down.)

"If I may say so, Your Highness, you look very well," Bail Organa said with uncertainty. "I understand from Obi-Wan that..."

"I was badly injured," Anakin agreed, shooting a warning glance at his twins, who were now off to one side conversing softly. It would not do to describe in detail all that had happened to him in the lava fields of Mustafar. "I understand you met Luke's older counterpart some seven years ago?"

"From the future? Yes," Breha agreed.

"After we killed Palpatine and before he was taken away, Older Luke spent several days healing my organs. He insisted that the Light Side of the Force was the only way to bring about such healing, and it turned out he was entirely correct. I have largely turned back to the Light now, and with my son's help, my body is greatly healed."

"I am glad, your Highness," Bail said sincerely.

Anakin Skywalker turned to look at his twin children, who were now hugging again, and his eyes sparkled with tears from his repaired tear ducts. "So am I."