Leia POV

Leia woke to find Captain Piett wringing his hands.

She coughed; her throat still sore but not closing on her anymore.

"Oh!" Piett exclaimed, pulling down on his jacket and straightening.

"How are you feeling Leia?"

Leia sat up, Piett solicitously propping up some pillows to provide her support.

"I'm alive," Leia said sardonically, "which is more than I expected."

"Oh, yes, I can understand that," Piett said quietly, his hand going to his throat.

"You got my comm, then?"

"Indeed," Piett said, "I was startled when I found you in such a condition. I'm sure there must have been some kind of misunderstanding."

Piett looked hopeful and terrified at the same time.

Leia snorted.

"You could say that. If you're asking if Vader wanted me dead, then I'm pretty sure that's a no."

Piett slumped slightly, his breath coming out in a whoosh.

Leia's lip twitched in amusement.

"You're not bad for an Emp," Leia said, "You took a big risk bringing me to medical, didn't you?"

Piett looked away with a slight nod.

"You did the right thing. I wouldn't want you to end up in my position when Vader discovered my 'accidental' death."

"Yes, well, I'm am relieved you will recover. The doctor said you could return to your quarters once you awoke, so if I may…"

Piett held out an arm to steady Leia as she slid off the gurney.

She did not release his arm (he was a comforting bit of familiarity, however slight) as they walked back to her assigned rooms.

Piett entered the code to Vader's wing. The doors opened.

Piett grabbed her, spinning her around, covering her with his body as a wave of darkness roared through the corridor.

Leia gasped, pulled down to her knees as Piett fell forwards with a grunt, still using his body to shield Leia from the icy, punishing black tempest.

There was nothing to see, nothing to feel except the whipping, bitter blackness and Piett's tremblingly protective embrace.

Piett was ripped away and Leia cried out, reaching for him futilely.

Leia shielded her face with her forearms and shouted into the void.

"Stop!"

The wind sputtered to a stop.

The blackness dropped to the ground like rain and dissolved.

There, standing in the doorway, was Luke.

"Luke?" Leia said, lowering her arms and looking around at the dissipating darkness.

"Hello Leia," Luke said with a wide grin (too wide).

Leia hesitated.

"Is everything ok?" she asked.

"Everything is wonderful! You're alive, Vader's helpless, and we are going to rescue our father and destroy the Empire!"

Leia blinked. That was… a lot.

"Excuse me?" Leia said, moving towards Luke, "What exactly happened while I was out?"

Luke laughed and Leia couldn't help but cringe. That was not a happy laugh.

She saw Piett curled up against the wall of the corridor beyond the doorway and relaxed a bit as she noted that he was still breathing.

"Let's see! You died. I went crazy. Me and Vader had a heart to heart. You lived. I beat up Vader. Yeah, that's about it."

"Okay, let's unpack that in a minute. For now, I want to know what that," Leia waved to the air in general, "black thing was."

"Oh! That was me!" Luke said, bouncing on his toes, "Wizard, yeah?"

Leia pinched her forehead with a deep sigh.

"Can we sit down somewhere and talk about this?"

"Sure!" Luke said, plopping to the floor and patting the ground next to him.

With some amount of trepidation, (this was her brother, no need to be scared) Leia sat across from Luke, carefully maneuvering Luke to have his back to Piett. Luke seemed unstable and Leia had a bad feeling that Piett wouldn't survive another encounter.

Leia's stomach sank when she saw Luke's blue eyes had turned into a disturbingly bright yellow. That couldn't be good.

"Can we start from the beginning?" Leia asked, dredging up her calm senator voice.

"Yeah, so I felt you get hurt and Vader did it and then you were fading and I felt your light go out…"

Leia tried to keep her eyes on her brother as darkness billowed across the floor like fog.

"So, I got really mad and destroyed my room and called Captain Piett because I didn't have Vader's comm number and told him to tell Vader I had information for him, and I did!" Luke chirped, fog fading to grey.

"And Vader actually came, can you believe it?! And I knocked him down on his ass. And we talked and I asked him why he killed you and he said 'I dunno'" Luke mimicked a low, grating voice.

"Then I found out our father is still alive! Isn't that great? And I have you back, and we're going to rescue him and kill the Emperor and destroy the Empire and everything!"

Leia gaped. What. The. Kriff.

"Uh, Luke…" Luke cut her off.

"And I got really mad again and threw things but I can't aim stuff very well yet, and then your light came back and everything just…" Luke paused and tilted his head, smiling at her.

Leia relaxed a bit. The smile was genuine and he finally looked like her brother again.

"Everything just got really clear. And I knew what to do. So, I ripped Vader's leg off," Luke said casually. Like disabling Vader was a simple thing. Like ripping legs off was commonplace.

"What?!" Leia screeched, jumping to her feet.

"Yeah," Luke stood too, bouncing on his toes, "It was really fun. The Force is wizard and can do lots of neat things! I ended up stabbing his other leg and his arms too, but he didn't bleed and I think he's mostly machine, but not all machine because he has to breathe."

Unlike you, Leia thought, a bit hysterical. She was having trouble following this mad ramble of horror. Her brother had defeated Darth Vader. And it was easy for him?!

"So you killed him?" Leia asked weakly.

Luke pouted.

"No, not yet. I really, really wanted to, especially more because he told me he killed our mother."

Leia sucked in a pained breath, but Luke just continued obliviously.

"But we need him to find our father and so I let him live. But if you want, I'll kill him and we can find another way?" Luke asked, tilting his head like he had just asked her if she wanted a sandwich.

"I-I need a minute to think," Leia said, her hands fisted in her clothing, knuckles white.

What in the nine Sith hells was…

Oh Kark. Sith. Evil Jedi. Luke was ripping legs off and giving off black stuff when he was angry and talked casually about killing people and…

Luke was a Sith.

Leia looked up at her brother's manic yellow eyes and shuddered. He'd gone mad. Utterly mad. And he had the Force and could do just about anything.

And she suspected the only thing that was protecting her was the fact that she was his sister.

"Let's wait to kill Vader," she said at last.

Killing would set Luke off for sure. Leia had a sickening feeling that the scent of blood would send him into a killing frenzy, like a Fillian Sharptooth.

"Okay," Luke said with a clap of his hands.

And how had she missed that? He had two hands again! His new hand was an undulating ebony with fingers that ended in deadly sharp claws and seemed to vary in length at random intervals.

Leia wanted to vomit.

Luke smiled.

"So, what's next?"

END of Story 1