Padme stared at her Alter Husband in bewilderment. "What do you mean? You must go back to your own timeline, of course."

"I do not want to."

Anakin rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Of course you want to! Your children, Luke and Leia, are waiting for you there! Leia is in a high security cell! You have to save her."

Silence fell for a moment. Luke opened his mouth to say something, then closed it. He wasn't quite certain where Vader's head was at and...

"I have lived every day of the past 19 years without you, Padme," Vader suddenly said, his anguish palpable even through the vocoder. "Every day, every hour, every minute, every second. I cannot live without you again. I promise I will not interfere with you... you and your husband, but I need to be in a galaxy where your bright light has not been extinguished."

"But your children!" Anakin exclaimed, and then fell silent as Padme shot him a commanding look.

"Vader," the former queen of Naboo said, stepping closer and placing a delicate hand on his arm. "Listen to me, please. The Padme of your timeline is dead, and thus I must speak on her behalf. I forgive you, do you understand? And I love you. I love you very much, and I always will."

"I attacked you," the Sith muttered.

"I know," Padme said gently, "and I truly forgive you. You lost your mother in a most painful, agonizing way, and the nightmares about my own death in childbirth sent you over the edge. The Jedi screwed up, and I messed up, and..."

"You were perfect!" Vader riposted.

Padme smiled sadly at this and said, "I have never been perfect, Anakin. I should have left the Senate when I got pregnant with our children. It was too much; the political shenanigans and the war and the pregnancy; we were both pushed to the very edge. No, Ani, I thought I could handle it all; I thought we both could. We were wrong."

"She's right," Luke said sympathetically. "I think people like us tend to think we can do it all if we try hard enough, but everyone has limits."

"But you do have to go back," Padme said gravely. "My Anakin is right; your children are waiting for you. They need you."

"My daughter hates me, and my son probably as well."

"Your son has lived his entire life longing to know you," Luke declared. "Padme's right; you need to go back. For that matter, you don't have a choice. The Force just decides where you go and when you return."

"Is there any warning on when you will leave?" Padme asked anxiously.

"Our toes start tingling."

"Mine will not," Vader grumbled, "because my legs are prosthetics."

"True," Luke agreed. "Now, Anakin, I really am curious; how did you end up still wearing the Vader suit and yet you are here, with your family."

"Well, that is a long story," Anakin admitted. "With Palpatine dead and everything in disarray after I was so badly injured, I wasn't sure what to do. My first thought was to find Padme and it didn't take long for me to ..."

"Oh, my toes are tingling!" Luke exclaimed. "Guess I won't get to hear the story. Bye!"

"Padme, I love you!" Vader exclaimed.

"I love you too, Anakin," Padme answered.

Luke and Vader vanished.

"Well, that was very interesting," Anakin said a moment later.

"Yes, it was," Padme said with a sigh. "I do hope that Vader will be all right, and his children too."

"We did what we could. Now, can we go grab the twins before their brains rot from watching too much of My Little Loth-Cat?"

"Of course, my love!"

/

First Death Star

In Orbit around Scarif

Vader appeared back in the conference room to discover everyone staring at him. Apparently his departure had not gone entirely unnoticed, and his arrival earned even more stares, especially since his Alter Son had appeared next to him.

"Vader!" Tarkin exclaimed. "What happened? And who is that?"

Darth Vader, formerly Anakin Skywalker, had learned, in the last two decades, the value of thinking before he acted. But now, with his darling Padme's beautiful voice ringing in his ears, with the knowledge that he had not one but two healthy children to protect, he decided this was no time for random talking.

A moment later, his red lightsaber leapt to life. A moment after that, he cut down Tarkin, who looked more shocked than afraid. This was followed by shouts and screams from the other officers present, but Vader moved rapidly and within a minute, all were dead, along with the two guards at the door, both of whom had been too stunned to bring their weapons to bear. Not that a couple of blasters would have done anything to Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith.

"Well, that was ... resolute," Luke commented from his position behind Tarkin's chair, where he had sensibly retreated to once Vader started swinging his saber. "I wasn't sure if you were going to go full bore rancor like that, but I approve."

"There is not time for tedious talking," Vader said resolutely. "We must rescue my daughter."

/

Cell 2187

Cell Block AA-23

Death Star

The door to Leia Organa's cell slid open and the princess of Alderaan sat up straight on the metal pallet which was the room's only amenity. A moment later, she caught sight of Darth Vader, who proceeded to lower his head and ducked within. He was followed by a black clad man of medium height, who looked to be some thirty years old and had a lightsaber hilt swinging from his waist.

Leia compressed her lips and swallowed hard. She had no illusions about what would happen in the next few minutes; indeed, she had trained long and hard to keep silent during interrogation but now, with the death head of a Sith Lord looming over her, she prayed she could indeed hide the location of the Rebel Base.

"Get up," Darth Vader ordered brusquely.

Leia narrowed her eyes and glared at him. "Why should I do anything you want, Vader? I am a member of the Imperial Senate being unlawfully detained..."

"You really don't have a clue how to talk to normal people, do you?" the other man interrupted patiently. "Not that Leia is exactly normal, but still, you should work on being polite."

"There is no time for courtesy," Vader snapped. "There is limited time before the Emperor discovers what is happening."

"I know," the other man agreed, rolling his blue eyes heavenward, "but still, snapping at the princess isn't going to work. If you are excruciatingly polite, maybe that will surprise her enough to cooperate."

Leia blinked at the man, then at Vader, who was gazing at her with an odd rigidity in his posture.

A moment later, her breath caught in her throat as the Sith lowered himself onto his knee and bowed his great head to her. "Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, I request, most humbly, that you accompany me and Luke to the hanger bay, so that you can return to Alderaan."

Leia stared open mouthed at the Sith, then up at 'Luke' – whoever he was.

"I'm dreaming," she muttered.

"No, you're not," Luke said cheerfully. "Ok, Fa...Lord Vader, I think that's enough kneeling. Go ahead and get up. Princess Leia, please; Lord Vader just killed Tarkin and associates and we need to get you to safety. There is no time for long explanations."

"Vader killed...?"

"Tarkin, yep," Luke said in a sunny tone. "I know, weird, huh? Look, I know you don't think you can trust me, but you can trust me. Ok?"

Leia peered incredulously at the older man, her forehead creased in bewilderment. Naturally she couldn't trust this unknown individual except that she could. She had always had an amazing capacity for understanding the hearts of people she met; this man, whoever he was, was Good.

"Ok," she answered.

/

Hanger Bay 37

Death Star

15 minutes later

"Keep her safe," Vader ordered, his voice trembling a little. "And the boy as well."

"I will do my best," Luke answered reassuringly. "But what are you going to do? I mean..."

The great hands clenched and the leather creaked ominously.

"I will kill Palpatine."

Leia Organa, a silent and confused bystander, allowed her mouth to drop open but Luke merely frowned and said, "Can you, alone? I think I should come with you..."

"No," Vader interrupted, his form alarmingly rigid. " No, you must protect the children. I will deal with Sidious myself."

Luke narrowed his eyes and then shrugged. His Father, regardless of timeline, was a remarkably stubborn man.

"All right," the younger man said and then added, "remember what I said about the Death Star. I am all for blowing it up, but there are a lot of innocents on board here."

Vader stared at the Alter Son incredulously. "You are a very peculiar individual."

Luke's lips twisted wryly and he said, "Yes, my father thought so too."

/

Imperial Shuttle

En route to Alderaan

Twenty minutes later

Leia Organa sat in the copilot's seat of the shuttle and cast a confused look at the pilot. Her rescuer...or was he her captor? ...had led her to the cockpit of the shuttle, told her to strap in, and taken off. Luke, who was obviously an experienced pilot, had smoothly guided the ship out of the hanger and into space. Scarif hung in the distance, still damaged from the Death Star's blast only a few days previously. She wondered about the Death Star plans; had R2 found Obi-Wan Kenobi?

The shuttle went into lightspeed and Leia relaxed. In spite of her interior certainty that she could trust Luke, her brain had been screaming to her for several minutes now. Whoever he was, he was on speaking terms with DARTH VADER, which made him an enemy! Except that she felt a bond with this man like ... like the one she had with her own parents. It was very weird and unnerving, but at least they were in lightspeed now. Darth Vader was now many million and millions of kilometers away.

"I am sure you are hungry and thirsty," Luke said, rising to his feet and gesturing toward Leia's harness. To her shock, the buckles promptly came loose. She jerked in surprise and her companion grimaced apologetically. "I am sorry; I didn't mean to alarm you."

Leia rose rather shakily to her feet, her eyes shifting from the lightsaber hilt on her companion's belt to the man's face. "Who are you?" she demanded. "What are you?"

"My name...my name is Luke Skywalker, and I am a Jedi Knight."

"A Jedi?" Leia replied, her voice squeaking in an embarrassing way. "That's...that's impossible! First, they are mostly dead. Second, you are on good terms with Darth Vader!"

"Yeah," Luke agreed, "I know that is very suspect but it is complicated and..."

"Listen," Leia interrupted, finally allowing her anxious outrage to overwhelm her. "I don't know who you are, or where you came from, but I want you to tell me everything now!"

"I will," Luke promised, and then amended, "Or rather, I will tell you some things. You wouldn't believe the craziest thing so we will wait on that. But yeah, I will tell you about my identity. However, let's get some food and drink for you first; I know from bitter experience that Imperial prison food is lousy."

Leia narrowed her eyes, blew out her breath and finally nodded. "Thanks, I am starving."

/