Chapter 8
Vader POV
The pale figure was quivering underneath him. Phantom pains shot up his leather-clad legs as he knelt at her side. One hand closed around the shoulder of a tiny woman.
"Please", she begged him, her cheeks covered in tears. "Please... father..."
The red light inched closer to her throat. Skin started to sizzle under the blade as it almost, but not quite, touched her throat.
"Please", she begged again. Her big brown eyes looked at at him, so similar to her mother's, begging for mercy.
The blade came down. One swing, one cut, one final act of atrocity.
...
Never.
Never, ever, ever. It wouldn't happen. It must not happen. Never again.
Just a nightmare. Just a nightmare.
...
She screamed. She screamed and writhed and suffered. The dark side was pulsing with every one of her convulsions. Her pain was reverberating in the Force and in its own way, it was glorious.
"Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!" she shouted.
But he just stood there, watching.
She writhed. She screamed. She suffered. And in the end, she died.
...
He wouldn't let it happen. Never. He would protect her, he would keep her close. Sidious wouldn't get anywhere near her. That was what he promised himself but there was a part of him... a small part... that wondered who it really was that brought her such suffering. The visions always ended the same way.
It wasn't Sidious who killed her.
...
He stood above her once more. He'd been here so many times, he was so tired of it.
"Please", she begged him, tears running freely. "Please, father. It hurts. Please make it stop."
"I can't", he heard himself say. "I'm not allowed to."
"Please", she begged again. "Make it stop. Make it stop, make it stop, makeitstop!"
She writhed and she thrashed and she screamed.
"MAKE IT STOP! I HATE YOU, I LIED TO YOU, I JUST USED YOU! MAKE IT STOP! MAKEITSTOP!"
Something broke. Something gave. And the blade came down.
...
They didn't stop. Once a week, twice a week. Every night now. Every night, he killed his daughter. On Sidious' orders? To punish her for a betrayal? No... The visions were getting clearer now. He did it because she asked him to.
Vader was under no illusions though, his Master surely was involved somehow. He'd seen enough victims writhe under Sith lightning to recognize the signs. She was being tortured... and ending her life was the only way he could make it stop. But he wouldn't. He couldn't. He would never. Even if she kept secrets from him. Even if she conspired behind his back with Jedis, dead and alive. Even if she betrayed him, sold him out, tried to kill him. He would never turn against her.
After all... He deserved all that and more.
When the time came, he just had to make sure it was Sidious' head his blade came down on.
...
"I can't... I can't take it anymore", she whispered under tears. "Please... just do it. Kill me. Kill me now."
"I can't. I won't. I promised not to." Even in his dream, his voice sounded broken.
"FUCK YOUR PROMISE!" she shouted, face twisting into a grimace. "What kind of useless Sith Lord are you even!? You were fine torturing me when I was just a Rebellion agent! Now you can't even do this for me!?"
"Leia..." he whispered back. Every words of hers hit like a fist to the stomach.
"I'm not your Leia! I'm not your daughter! I'm just a spy, just a liar, just your enemy! KILL ME NOW!"
"That's not true. You are my daughter. I won't kill you."
"ARGH!" she shouted and he knew if she wasn't so weak, she would've lunged at him.
"Your daughter is DEAD. I killed her! I took her place! You'll never see her again! NOW KILL ME!"
She was desperate, telling him whatever she thought he needed to hear to make her obey him. And yet... His sweet, sweet daughter would never hurl such hurtful words at him. The pain was twisting her... killing her, from the inside out. If he let it continue... What would be left of his beautiful daughter? Nothing but a shallow husk. It was ironic, really. He'd made all of these plans to turn her and now that she was on the verge of it... There was only one response.
Vader drew his blade. He owed her that much.
...
Darth Vader jerked awake. He was trembling, twitching, no doubt would be sweat-soaked if the bacta hadn't washed all such traces away. He was running out of time. The clearer the visions grew, the more anxious he became. He couldn't loose Leia. He just couldn't. He'd make the entire freaking galaxy burn before he let anything happen to her!
But his anger was useless, formless, without goal. He felt even more bloody helpless than last time. No duel, no Force technique, no amount of soldiers could save his wife from dying in childbirth. That's what he'd thought and so he'd grasped at straws to try and find a way to prolong her life through any means necessary. A path that had lead to him causing her death himself.
These visions now were at once clearer and more obscure. He would be the one to kill his daughter. Not even indirectly, no, he'd just chop her head off. That was as clear as it could be. The solution should be easy, just don't do it. But he always did. In the end, he always gave in. It wasn't anger that made him kill her. It wasn't carelessness. It was mercy. Somehow, something would cause his daughter so much pain that killing her was the only way he saw to help her.
But how? Why? Vader wouldn't do that. He knew pain. Oh, he knew pain well. As much as he loved his daughter (and yes, dammit, he was way past the point where he would delude himself into thinking he didn't), he wouldn't just kill her just because she was in pain. Pain could be survived. Pain could abate. Why, oh why was his vision-self not doing everything he could in his power to remove the source of her pain? Obviously, that source had to be Sidious. Maybe he wasn't in the same room as her, maybe he'd found a way to torture her from afar? Or send one of his henchmen to do it? Maybe it wasn't the Force but poison? Disease? But even so, there must be some trace to follow, some lead to investigate, some cure to find. Instead, he just stood there, helplessly watching as she died.
He didn't have much time left. Leia didn't look a lot older in the visions than she did now. Whatever it was, it could happen any day. He had to make his move before then. If only he could keep his Master busy, draw his attention to himself...
Vader's thoughts seethed as he went through the procedure of putting on his armour. He wouldn't be helpless. Never again. The preparations were made, the pieces in place. It was time to make a move.
Leia would live. He would make sure of it.
Half a galaxy away, Sidious grinned a dirty, yellow-teethed grin as he opened his eyes. Maybe he should be disappointed that his apprentice was falling for the same trick twice. But he decided to be proud of his own accomplishments instead. Sidious was just too good at what he was doing.
After all, how was his poor student supposed to look through his illusions? It wasn't like he what he was being shown wasn't true.
XxX
Leia POV
The journey back to Forks was nerve wracking. Guided by Alice ' instructions over the phone, Edward and Leia managed to avoid no less than three ambushes on their remaining way to the airport. There they met up with Alice and Jasper in person. There was one last tense standoff in the airport hall where Leia caught her first glimpse at Maria.
She was a Southern beauty that could've stepped right out of a swimwear ad, with long, flowing black hair, an upturned nose and an hungry glint to her eyes. She stood surrounded by no less than five other vampires, males and females, watching the Cullens as they boarded their plane.
"They'll be back", Edward said quietly as he pushed Leia along. "This isn't the end."
"I should've killed her years ago", Jasper growled. In the distance, Maria heard him loud and clear. She smiled predatory and blew him a kiss. Edward and Alice had to restrain him together lest he jump over the heads of twenty unsuspecting mortals to get to her.
During the flight, Alice kept texting on her phone and occasionally staring vacantly out of the window. Everyone was tense and quiet. After they landed in Seattle, Leia asked what was going on and Edward muttered quietly: "They're following us."
Of course they did. Leia should've known better than to assume she could avoid the entire Twilight plot this easily.
Edward hugged her close and pressed a kiss on the top of her head. "I won't let anything happen to you. I promise."
Maria and her coven weren't like James. No attack came that day or the day after or for the rest of the week. No, Maria was playing the long game. She brazenly moved her entire coven further North and had them settle in the greater Seattle area but Alice saw no immediate plans to attack. The might've skipped New Moon but Leia wouldn't be surprised at all if Maria next tried to build up her army.
The Cullens had informed the pack about the new threat. Edward now spend every minute he wasn't hunting in the vicinity of wherever Leia was and if he did need to leave, one of his siblings would jump in for him. On sunny days Leia made it a point to practice her shooting with the wolves so there was always someone with her.
From what Edward had read and Jasper knew from experience, Maria had felt threatened for a while by the Cullen and Denali clans and wanted to expand her influence to the northern half of the continent. Now that she suspected the Cullen could soon add yet another powerful talent to their coven, she felt the need to move up her timetable. Even so, Maria was several centuries old and she was nothing if not patient. Twice Leia's protectors caught a foreign vampire sniffing around her home but so long as it didn't look like the Cullens were about to turn Leia, they still had some time. The most important thing was that Maria didn't learn about the wolves. Their alliance with them could be the trump card that could bring victory to the Cullens.
The night after she returned to Forks, Leia contacted her sister to let her know that, although her summons had come at a very inopportune time, it hadn't cost her her life. Yet. Bella was very glad to hear it and Leia was equally glad to learn that her sister hadn't gotten into too much trouble with Vader. Aside from now having five times as many guards and two security droids on permanent standby in her chambers to ward off any future assassination attempts. Bella also told her the redacted version of how she supposedly got to know Leia, who she claimed was named Bella... It sounded jumbled even to her. The point was though that they couldn't risk Vader or anyone else seeing Leia appear as herself in her ghost form so she had to make a point to appear as Bella whenever they communicated.
Leia Organa and Bella Swan were two very different people. Where Bella had been content to sit back and let herself be protected, only stepping out of her comfort zone when her parents were threatened, Leia refused to do that in her own battle. Right now, her side and Maria's were about evenly matched. Maybe she even had the advantage. If she allowed Maria to go on as she pleased, murdering people left and right and brainwashing innocents into her newborn army, then soon her chances of survival, of victory would diminish greatly.
This called for an emergency session.
And so it came that on one late summer evening, the entire Olympic Alliance: all seven Cullens, the four Denalis and the seven Quileute wolves convened in a secret meeting deep in the forest.
Jasper was the first speaker of the night. Next to Leia, he was most insistent that they needed to carry the fight to the enemy.
"Maria wants a war", he stated heatedly. "There is no doubt about that! Alice has seen it, Edward read it in Emely's mind, one of her lieutenants. She won't rest until she has the entirety of North America under her control. We have to take her out now before she starts building an army even bigger than the coven she has now!"
"Our families have lived in peace for this long because we stayed away from such politics", Tanya said, speaking for the Denali coven. "We are no rival to Maria so long as we keep to our diet."
"Maria doesn't care about what we think", Jasper insisted. "Besides, ever since our alliance with the wolves, we've made plans to claim a greater territory ourselves. Their lot making camp at Seattle definitely encroaches on that!"
"Maria can't possibly think she can take over the entire continent", Irina mused. "No single coven can control a territory this big. What's stopping us from simply moving to Europe for a few decades and return when she's calmed down a bit?"
"It's not that easy", Carlisle said quietly. "Europe already houses a large number of covens with very clearly drawn territory lines. Even with our diet, it will be hard to find any area large enough for us to move around in without stepping onto anyone's toes."
"This isn't just about territory", Sam growled, glaring at the Denali's. "When we agreed to an alliance with Cullen's clan, we did so because he claimed to put the lives of humans above the comfort of vampires. I swear if you tuck your tail between your legs now and just leave the country, this'll be the last time any of your kind are welcome in this area!"
"You think you can threaten us, mutt!?" Kate hissed. The Denali's had taken the revelation of the wolves with quite a bit of wariness. As a former member of the Volturi, Eleazar was especially concerned.
The entire wolf pack started to collectively growl at the vampires. Leia rose and slammed her hands onto the felled tree that once again served as a council table.
"We can't start fighting with each other now! We have to focus on what we have in common. Everyone of us has the same goal; to make sure our group is safe and to preserve our way of living. Even if you could just move to another continent, would you really want to!?" Carmen opened her mouth to protest but Leia rolled her eyes, already expecting the argument and continued: "Yes I know, your nature makes it necessary to move locations every couple of decades. But you're not lone vampires traveling the world. You're a family! You may change the city occasionally but do you really want to tell me that you don't see this land as your home? A home that's worth protecting? Maria isn't just an annoying neighbor down the street anymore. She set up her tent right on your front lawn and before you know it, she'll leave a huge mess! Are you going to let this stand!?"
Emmet barked out a laugh. "Like hell we are! Let's send the bitch back to hell where she belongs!"
The wolves growled again, whipped up by Leia's short speech and the younger members made agreeing exclamations.
"Everybody slow down for a moment!" Eleazar cut in sharply. "Even if we took on Maria's coven - and yes, we could do that, we have the numbers if we all work together - an alliance that big is not going to remain under the radar for very long. It's one thing to call ourselves family friends but a military alliance!? That'll bring the wrong sort of attention down on us."
"The Volturi", Carlisle said quietly.
"Exactly." Eleazar nodded. "You know how much Caius hates anything lupine. The only way this... pack", he spat out with a disgusted look towards Sam, "hasn't been targeted yet is because they don't know about them. If we go to war with them at our side, that's going to change. Do you want to drag us into battle with them too when they inevitably come for the wolves?"
"That's usually how an alliance works; both ways", Sam growled before Carlisle could say a word.
The Cullen leader tiredly rubbed his forehead. What Sam didn't know, what none of the wolves knew, really, was that by inviting the Denali's to this meeting and telling them about the wolves, it was now guaranteed that the Volturi would learn about them. During to Eleazar's status as ex-member, they had much more frequent interaction with them still than the Cullens had. Carlisle hadn't met the Italians even once ever since his first meeting with the original pack almost a century ago. The Volturi still occasionally invited Eleazar to Volterra to make use of his gift in evaluating potential recruits though. True, it had only been a matter of time till the Cullens too got a courtesy visit but it likely wouldn't have been from Aro himself, who could every thought they'd ever had with a single touch. One could even say that Eleazar's semi-frequent updates to Aro served as a means for the powerful coven to keep an eye on the entire Olympic Alliance. That was the reason why Carlisle had not told any of his extended family about the wolves thus far. It had never been all that important, never came up either as they didn't have much contact with each other, both groups keeping to their line of the territory. Before Sam shifted, he'd hoped that the gene had simply gone dormant. That the wolves had died out and thus it would never be an issue.
Now that the Denalis knew about the wolves, the Volturi soon would too and it was entirely possible that they'd send an extermination force. Carlisle couldn't really demand Sam help them against Maria if he wasn't willing to also protect them against the Volturi.
"I know the Volturi are strong", Leia said with a scowl. "But honestly, what are they going to do? We are too many at this point and with too many talents for them to easily wipe us out. If we stand together, we can make our own rules and follow our own guidance." Her lips twitched into a smile. "If we wanted to, we could make America independent. We could make this a vegetarian state. And we could allow progress where progress is possible instead of clinging to old rules just to preserve our own power." She shot a glance at Rosalie then. Her thoughts though addressed Edward next to her. Getting the Denali's on board would be important. Not only would it give them five additional vampires but Eleazar's gift could be very useful in figuring out Maria's talents. She had an idea on how to get them to agree but she wasn't sure how viable it was...
Edward glanced at her from the corner of his eye. He let his gaze wander over the other vampires then, especially the Cullens. Alice and Jasper were very tense. The seer's warning about Leia's ambitions tearing their family apart was still fresh in her mind. But she didn't really want to give up on it and as surprising as this change of events was, it was the perfect opportunity, really.
Leia's and Edward's eyes met. Her boyfriend gave her a tiny nod.
The former princess took a deep breath.
"I understand that you're wary of committing to this alliance", she told Tanya and the other Denalis. "But we're not asking you to fight with us for nothing in return. There is a better life to gain here. " She turned towards Rosalie then. "Rose, do you want to tell them?"
"Bella, it's too soon", Carlisle protested.
"No, it's not", Rosalie disagreed. "The science is solid, Carlisle. We know we can make it work. Maybe not this year, maybe not this decade, but we can make it work." She took a deep breath and stood to face the assembly. "It could work, one day. But not so long as we are being dragged down by those that would impose their version of justice on us just to empower themselves. Leia is right. It's time we claim our home, mark our territory and start making this world a better place. For us, for our family and for those that come after."
And then she told them everything. Rosalie told them about the science, about the research Edward and her were starting into artificial wombs and in vitro fertilisation and hybridisation and what half-vampires were like. Much of it obviously went over the heads of the older vampires but the visions, those they understood.
Vampires could have babies. Emmet and Rosalie might become parents one day.
Irina and Kate clutched at each other as they heard it - they'd lost their mother to the Volturi when she tried to protect a child. Carmen clung to Eleazar with tears in her eyes when Rosalie explained how Edward had saved her DNA from a hair of her human self. She looked heartbroken.
Carmen had been a vampire way longer than Rose.
"I recently learned my true identity. My real name, from before I was turned", Alice said quietly as everyone was digesting the news. "I started this whole project of tracing my lineage. I know it's not quite the same... But every brother or sister of yours, every niece and nephew and aunt and uncle shares a little bit of your DNA. If you want to... If you would like to, we can help you trace your lineage. Find out if you still have any living relatives."
"There's a lot we can do today with gene splicing", Edward added. "With artificial fertilization, there are ways to screen for genetic diseases so only healthy embryos will get implanted. From a scientific viewpoint, it's a simple matter to go one step further... to determine the genetic material of the baby. To chose whether they are boy or girl, blonde or ginger." He smiled encouragingly, first at Esme, then at Carmen. "You could have a child that comes mainly after your mate in looks but has the same eye colour or the same nose or ears as your human self did, by taking that information from your living relatives."
"We could have a child... and it would be ours?" Carmen asked weakly. "I... I don't understand... If we take this, this information from my relatives..."
"The human DNA is incredibly complex. But more than 99% of it is the same in every single human on the planet. What makes us unique, genetically speaking, is really just a tiny fraction of it", Edward explained patiently. "A child only ever receives half of their mother's information. And from that half, not everything is even expressed as it'll have to fight for dominance against the father's half. If the genetic information a child is made of is a book, then the parts you actually notice that carry over from the mother, some details in looks and maybe personality, only make out the last few sentences on the last page. Now imagine your own mother and father as writers, who have written many different books. Books can be incredibly varied too but the books written by the same person will have a similar style and similar word choices. Now imagine someone taking the last page out of all the books your parents ever wrote, except for the one that became you yourself. All those pages will have similar words to the one written in your own book but not quite the same. Imagine those pages being thrown into the wind and spread everywhere. Some pages got ripped or lost, some were picked up and scribbled on and changed. But they all still contain bits and pieces of the original work of your parents. They all have a word here, a saying there that might also appear in your book. Those loose pages are your living relatives today. We can look them up, gather the pages and collect the words. We can put them all together like a jigsaw puzzle to find your own personal last page. We don't need the entire book. We don't even need the full page. We only need a few sentences that reflect you the way you are now."
Carmen was openly crying now. Esme was teary-eyed too even though she already knew all of this, had talked those options over with Carlisle and her children.
"I could have a baby... We could have a baby", Carmen whispered. Eleazar held her close, torn between being pained at his mate's distress and a desire to see her hopes realized.
"The Volturi would never allow it. Maybe if it was an experiment under their control..." He thought aloud, his face pained.
Carmen stiffened in his arms. "I'm not letting those old coots anywhere near my baby!"
Leia knew then that she had a new ally.
"I hope you don't expect our help in helping vampires to fucking reproduce", Sam spat out, ruining the mood.
"I don't think they'll need help with either of those things", Leia quipped, making Jacob laugh and the alpha go red.
"Your support in defending the territory will be enough", Jasper said curtly.
Carlisle straightened his shoulders then. He took one look around his family, who all gave him nods or other gestures of agreement. Then he started speaking:
"You all know me, friends. You've known me for a long time. I've always seen our... nature as a curse. Meeting my wonderful wife has made this existence bearable, even pleasurable. Growing my family has given me fulfilment. And yet... We're only ever existing. We're existing together, alongside each other and that is better than existing alone. But there is no purpose to a an existence without life. Without change. Without growth. I don't want to fight. I don't want to hurt others, human or vampire. I don't want war. But we have a chance now to make life. We have a chance to build a bridge that will truly connect us to the rest of humanity. We have a reason to want the world to continue. To be better." He gave a wry smile. "My foolish children have all made their decision already. And as much as they have given us... Maybe it's time for the young birds to leave the nest. To found their own families. This is the first time in decades that I've actually felt like a father again." His lips twitched, mock-glaring at Leia. "I'm not quite sure I like it. You've brought so much change to us when I already thought we couldn't change anymore. You made us feel alive again. For that, I have to thank you." Carlisle turned towards the other two leaders. "Tanya. Sam." And then, to her great surprise, he turned towards the princess. "Leia. If we fight, we fight for life. Will you fight for that?"
"What a question", Sam scoffed immediately.
"Only a dead person would refuse that!" Jacob hollered and looked challengingly at the others.
"And we're not dead yet", Emmet said with a dirty grin, hugging Rosalie close. "Not entirely."
Tanya shot one last uncertain look at hers sisters. At last though, she bowed her head.
"I really hope you know what you're doing, Carlisle. But fine. We'll stand with you. For life."
"For life", Alice whispered happily.
"For life!" Jacob shouted and the called got picked up by Jared, then Seth. Then Emmet grabbed Rose's arm and thrust it into the air like they'd just won the Olympics.
"FOR LIFE!"
XxX
Bella POV
Bella hadn't thought it possible for Vader to turn up security even more after the failed assassination attempt. She'd been wrong. The Sith Lord's daughter (not) was caught in a black box. She had to move out of her luxurious suite and into a much smaller hastily re-decorated cell that was closer to Vader's personal quarters. On top of that, for miles in every direction of her quarters, access was strictly prohibited to anyone without the proper clearance. Not just on her level either but the one above and below as well. Troopers had to check in via com-link every five minutes with codes that were changing all the time. Security consisted of a mix of droids and humans, the former thoroughly checked over for any tampering on a regular basis and the latter no doubt having been brainwashed by dark side powers or some such. They all took their duty very seriously but they were also no fun.
Bella would've thought it all overkill and in the beginning, she did. Until Vader told her that in the four months since the last attempt, two more had been made that had been caught by the security before they even got close enough for her to notice. She stopped complaining after that. As restricting as the measures were, Bella couldn't afford to die before she hadn't completed her mission.
Unfortunately, she was making little to no progress in that direction. Vader was a little more open with her when it came to the outside. Bella had always had access to official news channels but now whenever she asked about some report or another, Vader would often talk more freely about what the media wasn't saying. Often times, that meant scoff and complain about the inefficiency of some Moff or another that allowed the Rebellion to get away with a minor victory.
On a more personal level though... Vader seemed to be getting worse. Before the first attempt on her life, Bella had been able to talk normally to him, sometimes even to joke around. There were times when he got angry and she made a hasty retreat but she'd thought they'd gotten... comfortable with each other. Now though, the Sith Lord seemed to be tense all the time. He was relentless in his training of her and could easily fly off the handle when he thought she didn't put enough effort into improving her combat abilities. Actual conversations with him became rarer and rarer.
It wasn't a secret why this was happening either.
Vader was afraid.
Bella could sense it more and more often when she communicated using 'Force language' with him, when she wrapped her outer shield around the tendrils of his presence reaching out to her. A part of it, she was sure, was fear of loosing her but there was something else there too. A deep-seated pain that she couldn't seem to soothe, no matter how many candy-filled bubbles she hurled at him. She tried whatever she could think of to calm him. She put more effort into her training, getting to a point where she could easily block and even deflect blaster bolts. She tried to distract him with philosophical debates. She tried to whine and beg for him to let her out, to go visit some planet or even just a moon because she was so bored - but then giving in right away when he looked like he'd rather put her back into a prison cell before he let her step a single foot out of his own personal Force-sensing range.
All of her attempts failed.
Except one.
"I was wondering", Bella said one day on the more and more rarer occasion that Vader met her for something other than training. He was keeping her company during her dinner and as she was about to finish her last course, Bella asked quietly:
"Could you... Could you tell me a bit about my mother?"
Bella felt the Sith Lord freeze at her words. The Force stilled around him before it started to sort of... vibrate, to shake slightly like a cable pulled so tense it was about to snap.
"Why do you ask that now?" he wanted to know. Even though his vocoder, the words sounded stiff.
Bella shrugged. "My... The Organas told me that she's dead. I only have one memory of her... Of her being beautiful but sad. I don't even know if it's a real memory or... or a Force-impression or something. But I figured it's probably a painful subject to talk about. I didn't want to upset you... I've been here for a while. And I won't be leaving anytime soon. So I thought I could at least try and ask..."
Vader was silent for almost a minute. Bella kept poking at a piece of cake, trying to look (yet also sort of purposefully failing) as if she didn't much care whether or not he answered at all. Padmé wasn't her mother of course. She wasn't even this symbolic figure that Vader had always been to her, during to him being such an iconic character. She was just... a character in a movie. But she was an essential part of Vader and she was honestly curious how he viewed her now, decades after his fall.
"What do you want to know?" Vader asked and it sounded almost strangled.
Bella perked up. She wasn't stupid enough to ask how Padmé had died. As exciting as it would be to watch a scene of Vader telling Leia the truth, Bella wasn't in a movie. Vader wasn't a character. He was a person, he was in pain and he needed help.
"What did she look like?" she asked instead.
"You don't... know?" Vader asked quietly and Bella thought she could feel sadness under all that pain. Sadness and... grief.
"I know her name of course. I know the general history of Padmé Amidala and of course I've seen pictures. But I would like to know how you've seen her", she elaborated.
Vader's gaze seemed to be fixed on a random piece of fruit on the table. He was silent for a few minutes and Bella stopped expecting an answer at some point. But he surprised her in the end when he spoke at last:
"She was... She was a vision of beauty. Of grace. She illuminated the entire galaxy. When in public, she often wore elaborate dresses, costumes and masks. They were like well-crafted pieces of art. But when we were alone... When she was just herself, she was a different person. Your mother's eyes were... They were these pools of warmth and wisdom, more beautiful than any night sky. I could gaze at them and see a million stories, a million lives she touched with every word, every decision she made. She was a true leader of her people, always thinking of others before herself. Her smile, it could light up the darkest of days, bringing warmth and comfort to all who were fortunate enough to bask in its glow. Our lives were filled with worries but we still found plenty of moments of joy. Her laughter was infectious. A symphony of joy that filled our home with light and love. Even in the face of life's greatest trials, she never lost that spark. That unwavering belief in the power of love to heal and uplift. And her beauty... it was not merely skin deep, but radiated from the depths of her being. It was in the way she moved, with a grace and elegance that seemed to defy gravity itself. It was in the kindness she showed to others, in the selflessness with which she lived her life. She was... she was an angel. My angel."
Bella looked at him, surprised, but not. Through the Force, she could feel his conflict, his bone-deep pain... His grief. But she could also feel an echo of the love he'd held for his wife. Without hesitating for long, she reached out to him, putting her hand above his leather-clad one.
"Thank you... for sharing that with me", she said, fighting a lone tear herself, she was that touched. She smiled, allowing herself to grieve for the passing of a wonderful person.
"You should've been a poet. That was beautiful."
Vader's vocoder gave a strangled sound.
"The galaxy would've been better off if I had made that my career, hm? Our family... would've been better off."
Bella shrugged. "It's never too late. You could start posting poems in anonymous holo forums", she jested. There was no way she was going to allow him to ruin the moment by drifting into the darkness again.
"She sounds like a wonderful person. I wish I could've known her better", Bella said quietly. "Do you think she would've liked me?"
"She would've adored you", Vader said with utter conviction.
Bella smiled and caressed Vader's presence with her own joy and peaceful contentment.
"Who picked out my name?" She wondered. "Did you ever talk about that? Or was I a surprise baby?"
"You were a a surprise, for sure", Vader replied. She could still feel the pain in him but it seemed to soothe slightly as they talked. Maybe he'd expected her to ask more painful questions but Bella was very wary of poking a hornet's nest. Padmé wasn't her mother and she didn't ask these questions because she was emotionally involved. It would be nice to be able to relay these words to Leia later but her main purpose was to drag Vader out of his misery.
"You were a ray of hope in a galaxy heading for its destruction. You were a reason to keep fighting against impossible odds. Suddenly it wasn't just about us anymore, it was about making the galaxy a place you could grow up in happily. I... failed in that regard. But you must never doubt that your mother and I loved you and that we were very much looking forward to you. Your... Your name was picked out by her. She wanted to pick a girl's name and I was to pick a boy's name. That's what we agreed on, before we knew what you were going to be", he remembered.
Bella was practically bursting with happiness at the opening Vader had unknowingly given her. She was sure the twins would be very interested in hearing this.
"Why did she pick Leia for me? What would you have named me if I were a boy and why?" she asked.
"The name Leia is derived from an older Nabooan version, 'Leisha', which means noble", Vader explained. "Much like Alderaan, the Naboo are matriarchal and though their rulers are elected, the candidates still often end up coming from a line of rulers. You would've always been a princess. For a boy, I picked 'Luke', which means bringer of light and hope. Because that was what the news of a child was to me."
Bella's face was basically split in two with a large grin. It was one thing to look up the meaning of the famous Star Wars names and wonder how much thought had been put into them. It was another entirely to hear Vader confirm it. She was a bit surprised at the origin of Leia's name. In her own world, it had the meaning of 'weary' or 'tired', which had always been a poor fit in her mind. It was nice to know that in this galaxy, there was a better story behind it. She was definitely going to tell the twins about this.
"Princess Leisha Amidala, huh? That has a certain ring to it too", Bella mused.
"Nabooan rulers chose a public name for themselves. Your mother was born Padmé Naberrie", Vader corrected her. "Of course, her private name changed after we married, at the beginning of the Clone Wars. If it were not for your adoption, you would carry my name."
Bella raised an eyebrow at him in silent challenge.
It took the Sith Lord only a few seconds of hesitance to admit:
"Skywalker. You would've been Leia Skywalker."
"Leia Skywalker", she repeated, thoroughly savouring the sound of that. It was not lost to her at all how significant it was for Vader to speak that name aloud. To admit that it had once been his. She didn't want to push too much by asking him if he still considered himself a Skywalker. She felt in her heart that she knew the answer already, even if it might be one Vader wasn't quite ready to accept himself yet.
Then, following an impulse, she stood, rounded the table wrapped her arms around the armoured Sith Lord.
"I think I would've been happy as Leia Skwalker", she whispered, her face right next to his helmet.
Vader was very stiff in her arms and she could feel phantom pains shot through him through the Force as she hugged him. And yet there was also something deep and meaningful and hopeful there. She poured all her love and her hope for the future into the Force. It wasn't the first time she'd touched Vader but previously their interactions had only ever been an occasional brushing of arms or his hand on her cheek. Bella was very used to receiving regular hugs from her mum though. Physical contact was important. People got lonely without it. She got lonely without it. And for Vader, who couldn't even have all that much sensation in his prosthetics, it must've been even worse. This, he could feel. This, he could feel very much.
Vader's vocoder was making strange noises. She wanted to take pity on him after a few moments and step back but suddenly Vader's arms were around her, holding her tight but gently.
"I miss her", Vader admitted quietly. "I miss her so very much. I'd give anything to turn back time. To make our family whole again."
"We can't turn back time", Bella said soothingly. "But we can take care of the family we have left. We can even grow them. Who knows, maybe one day I'll meet a dashing prince and you'll have lots of little grand kids to spoil."
Vader's vocoder made another strange noise, this time sounding a little like a growl.
"Nobody will ever be good enough for you." He allowed her enough freedom to take a step back, though his hands lingered on her arms. "Anyone who tries has to get past me first."
Bella laughed. "Well, there's not going to be much of a Skywalker dynasty with that attitude, father."
She felt his pride, his joy and knew he was merely joking. Well, half-joking really. If Bella actually ever got herself a boyfriend, said boyfriend would have to learn to accept her bond with her new adoptive father and that was admittedly a bit of a challenge.
"Thank you for sharing those memories with me", Bella said, smiling softly at him.
"No, thank you, Leia. It's been a long time since I was able to think about her without..." He trailed off and lowered his arms. "You've given me more than you can imagine. Every moment with you is a gift", he settled on.
If he went on like that, she'd have to give him homework in poem writing for real. It was a bit weird to hear Anakin's waxing poetics in real life, especially coming from that helmet but in written form? She'd take it.
"You're being mischievous again. What are you planning?" Vader asked a bit warily, sensing her emotions.
"I think I have to hurry back to my room and work on my diary", Bella admitted unashamed. "I want to be able to quote you in twenty years still. Everybody must know about your talents."
"If you dare lose a word about anything spoken in this room, I'll permanently cut off our media access", he threatened her.
"...How about I promise to keep it within the Skywalker family? I do so have to tell any future children I have", she negotiated with a grin.
"You're a menace. Go to your room, daughter."
"Yes, dad."
Bella was practically dancing on her way back. Operation Lightify was pretty much a success.
XxX
Bella POV
After weeks, months even of bugging her adoptive father about getting to see something other than her small cell, Bella finally won.
Vader had decided that Bella had improved enough in her combat training that she could be trusted with a real blade. Half of it, she was sure, was his paranoia about assassin's catching her off guard and unarmed again. She was still strictly forbidden from training on her own with a real saber, even if it was just katas. The danger of hurting herself was very real after all. But she would be allowed (actually she was ordered to) carry the weapon with her always, which was an enormous show of trust in her eyes. It also meant Vader thought it was time for her to start training with droids that she was actually allowed to damage. This was a part of real battle Vader thought she would need to get used to. Bella was honestly quite proud to be trusted so much. Both trusted to be capable enough not to have any accidents and trusted not to escape and use the weapon to cut down any troopers. Granted, it was more a situation of weighting the danger of leaving her unarmed when the Emperor sent out people to kill her on a weekly basis against her ability and trustworthiness but she'd take it.
Since Bella was still refusing to use any lightsaber or crystal belonging to a dead person, she was to find her own.
Vader didn't tell anyone, including her, what he was planning until two hours before departure. Bella threw together a bag of necessities and, brimming with excitement, boarded a heavily armed military transporter after Vader and a by now familiar squad of loyal troopers. They would not be going to Ilum, the planet hosting the greatest and most famous source of natural kyber in the galaxy. That would be too obvious. Instead, they travelled to Dantooine.
The times when Dantooine housed a Jedi Temple were long gone. For a short time the Rebellion had settled there but they'd been driven away years ago when the Empire came to mine the kyber. As an outer rim planet it only had a skeleton crew of an Imperial presence, which Vader hoped might limit the number of people who learned of their journey there and the speed at which such news travelled.
The kyber mine on Dantooine was not particularly large and had already run dry and put on hold. But while projects like the Death Star required massive amounts of kyber, Bella just needed one tiny crystal. On a far away low priority planet like this one, the chances were best that the lower quality machines had missed something.
So it came that Bella and Vader were walking down the long, dark and abandoned mine shafts together. Her adoptive father talked quietly about how to feel the kyber, how to tune herself in to it and follow the energy in the stone. He warned her not to loose herself too deeply though as some of the older corridors were poorly maintained and in danger of collapsing. Bella tried, she really did but she honestly couldn't feel a thing.
Vader's vocoder made a strange noise, which she by now could confidently identify as a sigh.
"Finding a crystal for your saber is a deeply spiritual and personal procedure. My presence is disturbing your ability to tune into the sensation. It is like following a whisper in the middle of a storm. I will wait here for you. If you find your crystal or if you see anything suspicious, anything at all, call me immediately. Through the Force and the communicator."
"I will, father", Bella promised, excited and happy at getting to experience something as iconic as the search for her own crystal.
She left the Sith Lord behind and started to walk deeper down into the convoluted maze of mine shafts, her path only illuminated by a single glow stick and the target laser of the blaster Vader had insisted she carry for self-defense.
Little did they know that they were not the only ones visiting the mines that day.
XxX
War had come to Forks.
None of the normal human citizen knew this, of course. But at the end of August, their town became a battlefield of the supernatural.
With Edward too worried about Leia to leave her presence for long and Jasper busy organizing the training, they had decided against trying to send anyone out to gather information about their enemies on their home turf and instead relied almost entirely on Alice.
This turned out to be a mistake.
Sure, without Alice the wouldn't know that Maria was definitely building her own newborn army, just as Leia had feared. They wouldn't know what kind of talents Maria had secured for herself. They wouldn't know that Maria focused almost all of her personal attention on making sure she had the absolute loyalty of every one of her soldiers and instead left any actual attack plans to her lieutenants, Emely and Mario. Without Alice, the Olympic Alliance wouldn't have been able to catch the three newborns sniffing around their territory, trying their hands at some information gathering themselves.
But Alice couldn't see everything. Twice she send out members to chase a threat that wasn't there because someone had changed their mind at the last minute. Whenever the wolves were involved, her visions became useless. Plus Maria knew exactly how Alice' gift worked. No doubt she had kept herself up to date on what her ex-vampire pet was doing, still grumpy after centuries about Jasper leaving her side. From what Alice could tell, her strategy largely involved gathering as much information as she could via small groups and then have said groups dump it in chunks onto a lieutenant, who then had to come up with a plan on very short notice and implement it right away. It didn't make for the most efficient plans but it evened the playing field by making sure the Alliance had just as little time to prepare as their enemies.
On August 28th, a late Thursday afternoon, three small packs of newborn vampires of three each attacked Forks at three separate points, one heading for the hospital, the other heading for the high school and one attacking the reservation. Their mission was apparently nothing but hunting and if possible, bring back a few new newborns. Alice predicted the former in time and Jasper send out two groups of his own to dispatch the enemies, one made of Denali's and one made of Carlisle, Emmet, Rose and Esme. The pack was enthusiastically chasing their own attackers. Somewhere, someone changed his mind and while half their forces were busy trying to intercept the enemies, a third team lead by Emely managed to slip through their lines and got to work ripping cables out of the earth and felling radio masts, quickly turning the entire town into a communication dead zone.
This was how the Alliance got caught flat-footed when a lone vampire sneaked into the Forks Police department. Even though she saw it coming, Alice had no way to warn anyone in time.
Jasper, who had been coordinating the attacks from afar till communications were cut, left his mate in charge and headed to the station with a worried Edward and a panicked Leia. Alice had foreseen a single newborn sneaking into the station but in between the time she got her vision and send them on their way and the actual attack, someone must've changed their mind again - it was no ordinary newborn who came for the police. It was Melissa White, the new trump card of Maria's coven.
By the time the three burst into the station , Charlie Swan was already gone. And there never had been any chance for them to make it in time.
XxX
Charlie POV
Charlie felt as if he'd stepped into some kind of thriller movie. Everything was so surreal. The chief of police had been back to duty for just two months after his injuries had finally healed completely. Routine had just returned and everything seemed to be going well. Sometimes he was a bit lonely when his daughter went on sleepovers on weekends or short vacation trip with her boyfriend and their family. But Charlie had been young once too and his little girl always looked so happy with her Edward so he was content.
But now his entire world was being turned upside town.
It had all started with this crazy beautiful woman stepping into his office, smiling at him in a seductive way that he'd never had directed at him ever before in his life. She called herself Melissa. Gorgeous figure, silky blonde, almost white hair and eyes the colour of fresh blood. The woman told him a crazy story. A story about vampires being real, living among normal American citizen. Feeding on the people he was sworn to protect. The Cullens were vampires. Carlisle was a not a doctor but a butcher, sucking the life out of people who trusted him to aid them! The Cullen children going around seducing young teenagers and his daughter - his precious daughter was nothing more than an enthralled piece of cattle being lead around like a pig to the slaughter.
He wanted to call her crazy. Just a crazy lady. A crazy lady with skin as white as snow and eyes as red as blood and fangs blinking when she smiled and a voice like bells that very much enchanted him.
"You don't believe me?" Melissa asked, actually sounding hurt. "That's alright. I can show you proof."
And then she'd grabbed his arm and Charlie felt himself dissolve from the inside out and folded back together again and everything was black for a second and then bright again and suddenly he wasn't standing in his office anymore. Instead he was standing in a dark hall, a storage hall from the looks of it with all of its windows covered with black paint and only a handful of naked light bulbs spending light. Said light was illuminating a gruesome sight. There were at least twenty more of those red-eyes, pale-skinned people around, easily distinguished by their otherworldly beauty. It was sick how this beauty drew Charlie's gaze first, even before the... bodies. Horribly mangled bodies, arms and legs ripped off, the whole ground covered in blood-
The moment Charlie appeared, several of the - well - vampires - started to hiss and then they moved in a blur and Melissa grabbed onto Charlie again and one nauseating moment later they were standing at the other end of the hall. The sound of rocks crashing against each other was heard as two of the feral vampires met each other mid-air and came down in a tangle of limps.
"Children, please. Let's behave around our guest."
Charlie turned to see yet another gorgeous woman, this one with long flowing black hair, step towards them gracefully. Unlike most of the beasts her clothing was impeccable and clean. She paid the animals no mind that were digging their fangs into human body parts. At her back, there was another vampire, a male with dirty brown hair, looking like he'd just stepped out of a magazine. He lacked the confidence and surety of the female, appeared more twitchy and regarded Charlie hungrily.
"Forgive the lack of... proper decor", the black haired woman said with the voice of angels. She turned towards the other beasts and Charlie thought she was going to say something but her mouth just sort of blurred. Yet the feral vampires seemed thoroughly cowed and he saw two of them wrangle down the unruly ones that had jumped at Charlie before.
The black haired woman turned back towards him. "We are in a bit of a situation here I'm afraid. My name is Maria." She smiled at him and held out her hand, palm down as if she expected him to kiss it or something. But Charlie was frozen in shock and fear.
Fucking vampires. Yesterday he would've scoffed at the mere idea but well... He believed his own eyes.
"What do you want form me?" he managed to get out eventually. From the way the others looked upon her, she seemed to be the lead vampire. If he was just... just food to feed her brood, surely there wouldn't be a reason to talk to him. Surely they wouldn't have risked coming to the police station, kidnapping him right out of his work place with that weird shadow teleportation trick of theirs.
"My, we just want to help you, little mortal", Maria said sweetly. Before Charlie knew what was happening she'd guided him to sit on a crate.
"Don't mind Mario, my dear. Just listen to me", she whispered, leaning down to cup his face. Charlie flinched when another pair of cool hands touched his temple. He hadn't even noticed the male vampire moving to stand behind him.
"Listen closely. We are your friends", Maria said. The mere idea was so ridiculous that Charlie scoffed.
"Your town was invaded by an evil, evil vampire clan. The Cullens are not like us. They don't kill their victims quickly and painlessly. No, they enslave them and keep them for months, years sometimes under their influence. Your daughter is their victim. And you want to protect her, don't you?"
Of course he wanted to protect his Bella, his precious child.
Maria smiled and Charlie only realized then that he'd nodded. He aborted the movement and his eyes widened slightly in horror. Charlie had never been a fan of horror movies but he had heard stories about vampires hypnotizing their victims. He tried to stand up but Maria pushed him down again.
"Oh, none of that, my dear. You need our help to protect your daughter."
"I need to protect her from you!" Charlie hissed. He knew it was hopeless. He didn't even carry his gun on his person and even if he did, how much good would that do against a vampire? Chances were these people would kill him today. But he would not let them mess with his head!
"He's resisting me", the male, Mario, said from behind him.
"What do you mean he's fucking resisting you?!" Maria snarled, suddenly not sounding seductive at all.
Charlie couldn't see the other vampire's face but he felt quite a bit smug just from hearing him hesitate before answering:
"I don't know, it's hard to describe. It's like there's a thick fog around his mind."
"Can't you push through it?" Melissa asked from behind Maria.
"No", Charlie made and tried to push the hands away from his temples. "Leave my fog alone!" he might as well have tried to push away his own ears for all the good it did him.
"Just continue. It's harder than usual but I'll get there", Mario said darkly.
Maria slapped his face then, lightly but it still stung and Charlie was forced to look back into her eyes.
"Here's what's going to happen, my dear", she said sweetly. "We're going to turn you. We're going to give you immortality. You can be part of our lovely coven here. That's what you want, isn't it? That's what you've always wanted."
She wasn't... wrong, was she? It was true, as a child Charlie had been a bit obsessed with vampire stories. He'd watched so many movies, read so many books about them. He'd always dreamed what it would be like, to fly through the night like a bat... like batman. To punish criminals properly instead of just locking them away. But these vampires, they didn't do that. There was no way this horrific cannibalistic cult was anything like that.
"I'm never going to join you. I'm a servant of the people, I'd sooner join a vampire hunter group then you!" he snarled.
"Oh you silly little thing. Why do you say that? Don't you remember? You already tried that... and failed. You tried to hunt the Cullens when they came after your daughter. The first time you discovered bite marks at her neck, you teamed up with those crazy boys from the reservation and you tried to hunt them. But you failed. You failed and all your friends died", Maria reminded him.
Yes... Charlie remembered. How could he have forgotten? That disastrous hunt that had cost him five of his colleagues. How? How could he have forgotten? Their faces, their cries for help, their names... They had been his friends, his closest friends and yet...
"They tried to make you forget. But you remember, don't you? Because you're such a smart man. You knew back then that if you really wanted to free your daughter from their influence, you needed the power of a vampire. They're never going to let her go. She's too tasty. But you can save her. With our help, you can save her. Just like I saved you."
She had, hadn't she? When Charlie stumbled out of that house, the screams of his dying friends in his ears still, it was this woman who had been there, who'd carried him through the forest, helped him wash off the scent of blood in the river, to loose his attackers in the wilderness...
"Why did you help me?" he asked hoarsely. "Why help me again now? What's in it for you?"
"You are such a precious gem. Not many vampires are born with special abilities, like Melissa or Mario. They are so very useful. You are not the only one who has lost friends to the Cullens. I did too. Oh yes I did... I lost my precious Jasper. He was mine, you know? My child. But they stole him from me", she whispered, caressing Charlie's face where she'd slapped him. "They can do that, you know, they can make you forget your past. But Mario here, he can uncover it. That's his special talent. He can recover memories that others made you forget. You are special. The fact that Mario has such trouble helping you proves it. Maybe your talent will help you guard yourself from Edward, the mind reader or maybe even my Jasper, with his manipulation of emotions, hm? Wouldn't that be interesting? All you need to do is promise that you'll fight for me. We will help you get your revenge and free your daughter..."
That... sounded like a really good offer. It was because of those blasted mind magics of the two Cullen teenagers that their trap hadn't worked and his friends had died. If Charlie was somehow protected from that, it would explain why he was the only one who had survived. But something was wrong, wasn't it? Hadn't Maria expressed just minutes ago that she was surprised he could resist Mario?
"I don't believe you. I don't trust you", he spat out. "I'm not listening to you anymore!" And he shut his eyes and he started singing his favourite country song in his head and tap his foot in tact with the music.
"Let's just kill him, this is wasting time!" Melissa complained.
There was a hiss and a growl and a crack but Charlie resolutely kept his eyes shut.
"Work harder!" Maria demanded angrily.
"I'm doing the best I can! I need more time. He's resisting deletion much more than addition!" Mario replied. He sounded afraid.
"He will still be useful even if he's not fully under our control", another female voice added quietly, an unfamiliar one. "Just seeing him will unsettle our enemies. We need three days to turn him fully, that's plenty of time for Mario to work on him."
"The turning does make deletion easier", Mario replied. "But it's much harder to add things to a newborn and if he truly grows resistant, it might become impossible."
Maria growled. "Lock him in the other room. Get him away from the others and keep working on him for now. You have three hours. If you can't get him fully under in that time, serve yourself."
Charlie started to repeat the orders in his mind over and over again. No matter how clearly he remembered Edward quoting his own thoughts back at him or Jasper hitting him with a wave of fear, he could no longer trust those memories. It was obvious from this conversation. It was these vampires that were trying to mess with his mind, adding and deleting things as they pleased. Damn, for all he knew the Cullens weren't even vampires! But his daughter was real. He was... pretty sure his daughter was real. For Bella, he must not succumb to their magics. He had to remember. Maria was the enemy. Mario was the enemy. Melissa was the enemy. They were altering his mind, nothing they said was true. Vampires had killed his friends and yes he had to save his daughter but not with the help of these monsters-
"Come along, little mortal", Mario said almost gently and pulled him to his feet. "That's alright. You're confused. I'll help you sort out this mess."
XxX
Bella POV
Bella's path lead her deeper and deeper into the mine. Her outer shield doubled as her very own Force-sense so she spread it out, farther and farther, much farther than she'd ever tried before. Her mind brushed against tiny forms of life, small mammals and worms and insects burrowing into the earth. Vader was like a huge flame calmly burning in the distance, like a beacon showing her the way home as she descended down, down, down. She tried her best to ignore him and to turn her attention to the earth and stone around her. Her mind travelled between the different energies. She was guided by them. Time lost all meaning. Bella walked with her eyes closed, only guided by the Force. She had never felt more at peace before... And there... Wasn't there a tiny pinprick of light shining a bit brighter than the others?
Bella followed the light, feeling like a ball of yarn that someone was rolling up, ever following an invisible string that pulled her forward. Everything else faded into the background. All that was important was the light.
Finally the light was right in front of her. Bella opened her eyes and her eyes widened in wonder. Entranced, she reached out her hand towards a small crevasse right in front of her. It looked no different than the stone around it and only when she held her glow stick right in front of it could she maybe make out something that could be a reflection. But with her mind's eyes, she saw what she couldn't with her body alone. There was... something in that crevasse. She almost wanted to say someone because it felt more like a presence than merely an energy source. It felt... happy. But also sad. It felt like it was yearning for something.
"Hello my friend", she whispered, putting her palm on the cold stone. "You're one of the last of your kind, aren't you?"
Bella had always sucked at any Force technique not related to her inherit talent. That included levitation. But now, for the very first time, as she touched her mind to the crystal, the crystal responded... It wriggled in its cold embrace and with just a bit of gently coaxing, it came loose. Slowly, magically, the crystal came floating out of the crevasse and Bella could swear she saw it glowing in a soft, holy light.
Her crystal. Her very own kyber crystal.
Filled with wonder and happiness, Bella looked down at the softly glowing, luminescent green stone in her hand as if it was a precious pet or a dear friend. This was hers. This was a real, physical proof that she was indeed a Force-sensitive. A proof that she belonged in this galaxy. She'd had no idea how much that meant to her until she held it in her hand.
"Leia?"
The spell broken suddenly. Bella reflexively pulled her outer shield tight around her and whirled around as she suddenly heard a voice call out. A figure stepped out of the shadows and into the light of her glow stick, a figure that was as familiar as the voice.
"L-Luke?" Bella whispered, shocked to her very core.
Luke hadn't changed much at first glance. He was wearing a dirty poncho over a light brown shirt, dark pants and leather boots. Ordinary civilian clothing meant to blend in. He'd grown an inch or two and he was leaner. The greater difference was in the way he moved. More sure, yet careful. Elegant, like a cat. She spotted the blink of a reflection from the lightsaber dangling from his hip.
Father's lightsaber.
Bella hadn't felt him approach at all. Or maybe she had - his presence was noticeable now that she could focus on it. He had evidently a lot of practice in cloaking himself. But if she hadn't been that focused on her crystal, Bella would've noticed such a familiar person approach this close to her.
"Luke, what are you doing here?", Bella asked without thinking, still not entirely recovered from her small spiritual journey.
Luke smiled at her wryly. He reached into a pouch at his belt and showed her a small, glowing shard.
"Same thing as you, I suppose. Mine's blue."
Bella answered his smile with one of her own. She held up her own crystal proudly. "Green for me!"
Luke's smile widened a bit and he stepped closer towards her. He looked as relieved as Bella felt. She'd missed Luke. Sometimes though you didn't really notice just how much you missed someone until you saw them again after a long time. Yet for one precious moment it was as if they hadn't been parted for months.
Luke was now standing right in front of her.
"Leia, why haven't we heard anything from you?", he asked her. "Sometimes I wasn't even sure if you were still alive." He sounded calm as he spoke but there was just the tiniest hint of something in his eyes. So used was Bella to having to read an expressionless cyborg that she automatically unfurled her shield, wrapping it around her brother-in-heart to feel what words could not say.
As calm as he appeared on the outside, inside Luke was nearly overflowing with worry. He was scared, not for his own life or safety but for hers. There was hope too, a bitter, desperate hope struggling against the onslaught.
"It's okay", she hurried to say and gave a wavering smile. "See, I'm still alive."
Luke crossed the distance between them in a flash and put his hands on her shoulders, reagarding her from every angle as if looking for injuries.
"What, you don't believe me?" She laughed nervously. "I said I'm fine."
"Leia, how can you be fine?" Luke asked incredulously. "You've been Vader's captive for months and I haven't heard from you. I know we promised that we wouldn't interfere if one of us got captured. But now you're here and... you are neither imprisoned nor in chains. You've been training, I can tell. What is going on?"
But Bella could only stare at Luke. It dawned on her how this must look to him and she cursed herself for being so stupid. Yoda hadn't believed she could do it and even Qui-Gon, who saw her progress every day, had been doubtful for the longest time. How in the hell was she supposed to explain this to Luke now?
"Leia! Answer me!", Luke repeated, shaking her a bit. The pain was now obvious in his eyes.
At last, Bella snapped out of it.
"Luke, stop it! I'm sorry for not contacting you sooner. Really, I am", she said and tried not to show how relieved she was when Luke allowed her to extract herself from his grip without a fight. "I'm basically locked in my cell every moment that I'm not spending in Vader's presence. My only contact to the outside world has been Master Qui-Gon Jinn, the ghost of an old Jedi Master and he can only make contact with people who contact him first. I had no way to communicate with you without ghosting to you directly, thereby giving away your location." She smiled and took his hands, uncomfortably thinking back to the very start of her operation when she had walked around on eggshells around Vader. She pulled her shield back just a bit and prepared a bubble of Force-candy. Good thing she had practice with calming Skywalkers.
"I am fine. I'm not turning to the dark side, I haven't betrayed the Rebellion and I haven't been tortured or brainwashed. I've agreed to some purely physical combat training in exchange for being allowed to continue my Jedi studies under Master Qui-Gon. Vader is getting antsy because the Emperor is sending out assassins after me. He wants me to build my own weapon for self-defence. That's all. I swear it."
Luke's hands in hers were trembling just the tiniest bit. She gave him a Force-hug, slowly wrapping her candy-bubble full of love and reassurance and shhh, it's alright around him, knowing how it always calmed Vader. Indeed, it had a similar effect on Luke. He pulled her close, hugged her for real even as she wrapped her presence around him and with each shuddering breath he took, she could feel the tension leave him.
"I was so worried for you", he mumbled into the hood of Bella's coat. "I thought... Since you're so good at hiding, maybe I wouldn't even feel it if you..." He trailed off, voice broken and Bella made shushing sounds, rubbing calming circles on his back.
"I'm fine. I'm alright. My biggest enemy was boredom, honestly. I'm sure you've lived a lot more dangerous as Jedi padawan Darklighter, on the run from the Empire and all."
"How can you say that?! Vader is infamous for even killing his own subordinates when they anger him!" Luke protested. "And what's that about assassins?"
"Only one ever made it through and my handmaiden took him down before he could harm me. And I can't say anything about how Vader treats his people. I've never seen him kill a person myself. Like I said, I rarely get to leave my room", she told him.
"I'm glad if he hasn't hurt you", Luke said hesitantly. "And I'll make sure he never gets the chance. The Rebellion has grown a lot since you left, Leia. We can hide you better now. We have a fleet to defend planets like Alderaan." He hugged her again, his breath tickling in her neck. His relief was palpable. "You never have to go back to that monster again. Obi-Wan is nearby. He'll help to distract Vader and then we're out of here."
Bella...probably should've expected that. But everything had happened so fast she... She hadn't. And so she stiffened and she slowly pushed Luke away and she could see the alarm in his eyes and felt his rising fear and anger even before she opened her mouth.
Bella chose her words very carefully.
"Luke... I haven't been entirely idle all this time. I do have my own mission. My own war to fight. No more or less important than yours. Vader has tried to draw me to the dark side. Of course he has. And I did the same thing. I tried to draw him to the light side." She gave him a shy smile, still holding him in a Force hug of good and calm feelings. "And Luke... It's working. I'm winning that fight. You should hear how he talks sometimes nowadays, see how he's changed-"
"I should see him? Talk to him?!" Luke repeated incredulously. "Are you listening to yourself, Leia?! We have to get away from him! He's hunting Jedi like me! He's killed - so many - he's killed our mother-"
Bella cursed herself. She was loosing him.
"I know - I know, I'm sorry. Poor choice of words. I don't mean that you should come and see him right now", she clarified quickly. "I'm just saying - I'm working on him. Working to help him see the light again. And I'm much more successful in that than he is in selling me his evil empire. I can't stop now. This is too important."
"It's Darth Vader, Leia! You don't know half the things he's done. I do, Obi-Wan told me! You can't just... turn him back into a Jedi or something!"
"So what, it's hopeless then?" Bella asked challenging. She softened her voice and cupped his cheek with the palm of her hand. "Isn't the Rebellion build on hope? Isn't that the essence of the light side, to hope for something better and fight for it? You know what Vader told me, just last week? I asked him who picked out my name. He told me he'd agreed with our mother when she was pregnant that if it was a girl, she'd get to pick and if it was a boy, he would." She smiled as she saw Luke's eyes widen. "He said to me, if I was a boy he would've named me Luke, bringer of light and hope, because that was what the news of a child was to him. So... Don't ever tell me I have to give up hope. I'm not going to, not as long as you live."
"But... Leia. It's... It's Darth Vader", Luke repeated helplessly.
"Yes, today it's Darth Vader", she confirmed. "Give me six more months though and I'll have him answer to his true name again. I know I can do it. I'm almost there!"
The not-quite twins stared at each other, tense and stubborn. The seconds dragged on and on and then...
It was like a pillar of fire suddenly ignited to her senses. Vader flaring his presence in the Force like that was usually a bad sign. Especially since she could infer from Luke's words that it probably meant he'd found Obi-Wan.
Unexpectedly though, the fire that was Vader in the Force was not anger, hatred or even fear. There was just a burning determination.
Vader would never allow a Jedi, least of all Obi-Wan, to take his daughter away. There was just no way. But he didn't immediately fall into a panic at the possibility of Bella walking into a Rebellion trap or getting rescued/kidnapped. Neither did he let his painful and tainted past with the old Jedi overwhelm him. And honestly... In that moment, Bella was pretty darn proud of him for that.
"Leia, we have to leave, now!" Luke urged her.
"I agree. We can't let those two fight", Bella replied. She started to run back the way she'd come and though she heard Luke curse behind her, he didn't try to stop her and merely hurried after her.
XxX
AN:
Please leave a review.
I'm serious, life sucks right now and I need to smile.
Need.
To.
Smile.
Or I'll end up killing Vader's daughter.