Previously: Piett finds out Luke and Leia are siblings. He helps Luke recover from Vader's mind probe.
In this chapter: Vader thinks Leia is the better child, Leia loses her temper, and miscommunication abounds.
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Leia POV
After cleaning up and donning the baggy grey clothes she had been provided with, Leia had been sitting on the couch in her quarters paging through a data-novel; trying to distract herself from thinking about Luke (he's fine, he has to be) and thinking about Lord Vader (he hasn't done anything to her, yet).
The door opened without notification (Captain Piett had used the chime) and Leia jumped to her feet, the data-pad clattering to the floor, as Lord Vader stomped into the room.
He was obviously angry, Leia swore she could see a thunder-cloud over his helmeted head, and she braced herself for violence. Her mind flashed to Kenobi's beheading, Luke's strangulation, the invisible force that had slammed her into the wall.
Lord Vader paced in front of the doorway; his hands fisted. Leia carefully slid away from the couch and toward the fresher. Not that having another door between her and Lord Vader would mean anything, but having a bolt-hole would at least protect her from any thrown objects. Lord Vader seemed like the kind of man to throw things, and people, when he was angry.
"Your brother is weak. Kenobi did not train him in anything but basic lightsaber techniques! He has nothing better than the natural shielding any competent sentient has! Probing his mind was as easy as tearing through wet flimsy."
Leia went white as she realized what Lord Vader was saying. He had tortured her brother? Had dug into his mind?!
Lord Vader turned on her, suddenly stopping his pacing. He came closer, and Leia froze.
"Why can't he be more like you, Leia?"
He came closer, and Leia froze.
"Spirited. Determined. Resilient. You never sobbed pathetically when I invaded your mind. Your shields held up, even against my overwhelming strength. Admirable."
Lord Vader reached up and caressed her cheek with the back of his gloved hand.
"So much like your mother."
Leia's mind twisted, the implications swirling. Luke was hurt. Vader was touching her. Lord Vader knew her mother- admired her mother.
"M-my mother?" she breathed, and then her eyes narrowed.
"You killed Mama," Leia growled, her eyes burning with unshed tears; Alderaan exploding in her mind's eye.
His hand was around her throat and Leia gaped up at him, unable to breathe.
Kriff it, she had let her anger kill her this time. She was supposed to be with Lord Vader willingly, and now she had angered him, and now he was going to kill her, and it was all her fault, and he was going to kill Luke because he…
"Who told you that?!" Lord Vader roared, his vocoder cracking as it tried to cope with the volume.
Leia flinched and wrapped her hands around his wrist, trying to breathe as he lifted her from the ground.
Kriff him.
She looked straight into the mask's lifeless eyes.
"I… was… there," Leia managed to get out from between clenched teeth.
Vader stopped breathing, the silence filling the room for long moments as blackness crept around the edges of Leia's vision.
He dropped her to the floor and she fell on her knees, coughing and gulping in air.
He backed away, looking down at his hand.
"You were there," Vader said, his voice sounding raspy.
Maybe he had broken his vocoder, Leia though maliciously. It was painful to swallow.
"I'm sorry," Vader said.
Leia looked up at him in disbelief. Did he just apologize to her?
"I-I didn't mean to… I…" Vader said, the vocoder's tone jumping up and down so that it was hard to understand his words.
Abruptly, he turned and left, almost running.
Leia fell to her rear on the cold metal floor and stared at the door. Her hand was on her throat, but her mind was everywhere else.
What had just happened?
She should be dead. Vader should have strangled her, right here, and probably broken her neck to top it off. She should be a smear of grey at his boots, still and pale as Vader's dark presence loomed above her body.
Instead, he had apologized (to her!) and ran from the room.
What had made him change his mind? What had scared (was that the right emotion?) Vader enough for him to run away?
Leia flopped back, her arms falling to her sides as she stared up at the ceiling and flinched with every swallow.
And Luke. What had he said about Luke?
Weak? Crying? His mind ripped into?
Leia's throat tightened and she remembered Vader slicing into her mind; a pitiless blade of obsidian that cut through her thoughts, her memories, until it hit the thick icy wall that her tutors had taught her.
He had tried to pierce her fortifications, but like the glaciers of her home (gone, all gone), the ice was thick and old and shattered into daggers when touched, revealing more ice underneath; constantly building up as the snow froze on top of it and the deep seas froze beneath it.
But Luke had no instructor. General Kenobi never taught him? Had Luke been lost?
Why hadn't Luke been with her? How had they gotten separated? Why wasn't Luke a Prince of Alderaan? Why hadn't he been at her side, learning together to resist the darkness?
Where had he been? Did he have anyone to take care of him?
Leia fought back tears; her throat tight, tight. Where was Luke from? Did he know the people who had helped rescue her? Were they his friends or was he alone? Did General Kenobi just find him? Was he bringing Luke to meet her?
Was Luke a Jedi?
Vader had said General Kenobi had taught him to fight with a Jedi's weapon. Did that make him a Jedi? Did he have the Force?
Leia didn't know. She didn't know anything; except she knew (she knew) that Luke was her brother.
It was hard to breathe. Was she panicking? Leia sat up, croaked, and fell back down, her breath wheezing.
No, she was dying.
She wanted to laugh. Vader had killed her after all. Maybe that was what he apologized for.
Leia looked over at the comm that Captain Piett had left on her food tray.
Leia struggled to her knees, pushing away the numbness that was creeping up her extremities.
After dragging herself to the table, she flailed and knocked the tray off; the comm landing (blessedly) in reach.
Leia pressed the button and the darkness won.