Disclaimer: *choke* No… I'll never… *gasp* say that… Disney… *choke* owns… Star Wars… *wheeze*
Anyway… Enjoy!
Chapter 9- Fett's Truth
Boba Fett's ship approached the Exactor a little over five standard weeks after he'd left. When he landed and barely waited for the landing ramp to lower before striding through the hanger and down the Exactor's corridors leaving his stormtrooper escort struggling to keep up with him. When he reached Vader's quarters he thumbed open the door and stepped inside expecting to see Leia waiting for him, but the room was empty. When he had visited this area in the past Vader had already been in the room waiting to discuss the reason for their meeting.
Several minutes dragged by for Boba as he shifted uncomfortably waiting for his daughter. He grew restless very quickly, yanked his helmet off, and began to pace around the spartan room. He stopped several minutes later when he heard voices on the other side of the door.
"... is why there are rules, Leia."
"I know, but…"
"No 'buts' Leia. I don't have many rules, and the ones that I do have are there so that this does not happen."
"Okay, oaky. Dad's here, can I see him now?"
"Of course."
At this the door opened revealing Leia with her arm bandaged standing next to Vader whose posture radiated irritation. When Leia saw Boba she squealed and ran into his arms, ignoring her injury in her excitement. Boba had dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around his baby girl, kissing her hair and muttering, "I've missed you Princess."
"I missed you too dad!"
"Did you learn a lot from Lord Vader?"
"Yes! He taught me how to meditate and move things with the Force, and I learned how to fight with a lightsaber and how to use the force to fly ships!..." Leia babbled on about everything that she had learned while Boba smiled down at her. She was now pacing around the room excitedly demonstrating new fighting techniques that Vader had taught her. Boba found himself surprised by how much time Vader had spent with his daughter. He had thought that Vader would view Leia's training as a chore, something to be worked on when he wasn't busy with more pressing matters, but it seemed that Vader had made Leia his priority.
"Leia," Vader's rumbling voice filled the room, "Go to the meditation room, focus on clearing your mind even in your state of high emotion. There are things that I must discuss with your father." Leia nodded glumly and dragged her feet all the way down the corridor.
When Leia had disappeared behind the door Boba rose to his feet, placed his helmet back on his head, and turned to face Vader. "You don't usually want to discuss my hunts for you. What is different this time?"
"This is not about your hunt. I wish to discuss your daughter."
"Oh." Boba's heart sank, he felt sure that this conversation would not be one he enjoyed. If Vader had simply wanted to tell him that Leia had made decent progress, or about any mischief that she'd made while in his care, he would not have needed to send Leia out of the room. "What about her do you wish to discuss?"
Vader sensed that Boba's guard was now up. "She is a quick learner, and has immense raw talent even without training. It makes me wonder."
"What do you wonder about?"
Vader was silent for a few moments, formulating his words, "Her heritage." Boba looked sharply at Vader, not knowing what the sith lord meant by that. "We are old friends Boba, and I hope that you know I do not mean to pry or be insensitive toward you, but there are several things that you, and Leia, have mentioned that lead to questions."
Boba nodded, "Ask what you need to."
"In our initial discussion about Leia's Force sensitivity you told me that Kenobi had killed her mother to take and train Leia. Why would Kenobi be so sure that Leia would be valuable to the scattered remains of the Jedi? Was her mother a Jedi?"
Boba inhaled deeply, knowing that what he was about to reveal meant placing his most dangerous secret with Vader. "No. Her mother was a senator from the planet Naboo during the time of the Republic. I am not Leia's true father, but when Padmé died her final request was that I save her children. I took Leia from Bail Organa who planned to raise her as a weapon for the Jedi. I can only assume that her father was a Jedi, and my suspicion is that Skywalker was the father."
At the mention of a senator from Naboo the Force began to scream at Vader, and when the name of his late wife was mentioned his world went silent. At the conclusion of Boba's summary of the attempt to kidnap Leia everything was still, but only for a moment. Vader's mind then exploded into a whirlpool of frenzied thought at all of the information, some that Boba Fett didn't even realise he had imparted. Leia is my child. Sidious lied to me, Padmé did not die by my hand. Kenobi murdered my wife… "I was right." was the only thing that emerged, in as close to a whisper as his vocaliser would allow.
"Vader?" Boba said softly, in the same tone he used when Leia had nightmares. "What is it?"
"You said… Padmé, Senator Amidala, was her mother?"
"Yes. And I assume that Anakin Skywalker was her father."
"He was." Vader's world had been turned upside down. His child was alive. He had a daughter.
"How do you know?"
If Vader could have taken a deep breath, he would. But his respirator forced his breaths to come as evenly as always. "I was Anakin Skywalker. I was married to Padmé."
Boba's eyes widened as far as they could. "You? You were married to the senator? That means… you are Leia's father?"
"Yes… I was right. Padmé swore that the child was going to be a boy, but I knew that she would be a girl…"
"You were both right." Boba murmured, thinking now of Luke who was still lost somewhere out in the galaxy.
"What do you mean?" Vader's voice was no longer soft and reverent, the question had been barked in his usual manner.
"She had twins. A boy and a girl." Boba's anger toward the Jedi overtook him again. "They split them up. Kenobi took Luke and Organa took Leia. By the time I found them Kenobi had gone, I rescued Leia from Organa but have never been able to find Luke."
The Force boiled around Vader, his rage at Kenobi increased as this new atrocity was added to the list of Kenobi's betrayals. He crippled me, murdered my wife, split up my children, and kidnapped my son.
Down the corridor Leia was ripped from her meditation by the shock waves rippling through the Force, she could feel anger and hatred coming from both Lord Vader and her dad. Fearing the worst, Leia wrenched open the door and tore down the corridor to where she could feel the two men. She burst into the room a complete wreck, the Force crackling with her anxiety. She could feel the dark and heavy cloud that surrounded Vader, and the burning anger that consumed her father.
Vader was the first to realise that Leia had entered the room distressed, Boba soon after him.
"Princess, what's wrong?" Boba asked, attempting to calm himself. Leia crumpled to the ground and rocked herself back and forth, clutching her knees to her chest. Boba tried to reach for her, and the Force whispered a warning to Vader. Only a second later both men had been flung across the room, slamming into the far wall, by the accidental outburst from a distraught Leia.
As he was held against the wall, unable to move, Vader did something that he had not done in over thirteen years. He reached for the Light. Vader closed his eyes and focused on the times in his life when he had been truly happy and at peace. He thought of meeting Padmé, his wedding, the day that Padmé had told him that she was pregnant, he thought of his mother's embrace, and of the faith that Qui-Gon Jinn had in him so long ago. Wrapping these memories and feelings around him he stretched out to the Force, begging for the Light to return to him.
And it did. The Light side of the Force felt warm and gentle, an old friend welcoming him back. It mourned everything that he had done as Vader, and for the man he used to be. As Anakin focused on the Light it came quickly and naturally, feeling like a lost part of himself returning. Still focusing on the Light he reached out in the Force to Leia, his daughter.
He felt her pain and her fear, the waves of fear that she projected into the Force. She feared for Boba, and for him. Her concern for him startled Anakin, she cared even though she remained ignorant of their true relationship. He gently brushed her Force signature with his own, again seeing the similarities to himself in her, but also now recognising the other parts of her signature. He felt the warm soothing glow that he had felt in Padmé's presence, the resilience that was in his mother, and something beautifully and wonderfully Leia. He felt her fear melt into confusion as she registered the change in his presence.
Anakin held the connection with Leia, soothing her with the Light, until she calmed enough to drop her fathers from the wall. "What's wrong, Princess?" Boba questioned quietly, his tone and stance indicating his fear of causing another outburst.
"I… I could feel…" Leia's voice shook as she stammered out her fears, "Both of you… so angry… I thought… hurt each other…"
Boba and Anakin looked at each other, "No Princess, we were angry at someone else. We found something out…"
The same thought was in both men's minds: how to tell Leia what they had just discovered.
Author's Note: Hello everyone! I'm so sorry about the long break and I will try to do better, but unfortunately I can't guarantee anything. I have a lot on my plate right now with school and work, I honestly forgot about writing fanfiction for a while. Updates may be sporadic, but I promise that I'm not abandoning this story and I will finish it. Reviews may help remind me to update more frequently!
xx
Eponine-Skywalker7
