Palace on Aldera
"What?" Young Luke demanded. "Darth Vader...what?"
Leia stared at the older version of her brother and said slowly, "That actually makes a lot of sense."
"How does Darth Vader being your biological father make any sense?" Queen Breha demanded, sounding more frazzled than she had in many a decade.
"Because...he said ... that's right! He asked you to watch over the boy and me. He meant...Vader meant Luke and me, because we are his children!" Leia exclaimed, her brown eyes fixed on the time traveler's face.
"Exactly," Older Luke agreed. "Exactly. He was really upset when he found out you were his daughter, because you were slated for interrogation and execution. So yeah, I wanted to go help him wipe out Palpatine, but he was insistent that I make sure you made it here to Alderaan safely."
"So...he cares about us?" younger Luke asked hopefully.
"Yes," his older counterpart said.
"No," Obi-Wan Kenobi contradicted, staggering to his feet, his face grim. "No, Luke. When your father fell to the Dark Side, he ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader. My devoted, courageous, caring friend whom I valued died. A Sith Lord does not love, twins; he is driven only by anger, ambition, and selfishness. I know that is hard to hear but it is the truth."
"No, it isn't," Older Luke snapped, his usual cheer replaced with narrowed eyes and an indignant expression. "You don't know anything about Vader's fall, Obi-Wan. He turned to the Dark Side to try to save Padme, and while he failed, and indeed was more or less responsible for her death, he did love her and he misses her terribly. Now, Luke, Leia, don't get me wrong. Darth Vader is a really terrible person. He murders and tortures and blows things up. He sucks as a human being. But he does care about his children very much. In fact, in the entire galaxy, he cares about two living people, you two."
The twins exchanged awed glances, and then Luke shook his head in confusion to say, "So why didn't he come here with you? I mean..."
"He said he was going to kill the Emperor," Leia offered. "I mean, he should be able to do that, right? Vader is so powerful."
The time traveling Jedi shook his head and bit his lip, "The Emperor is even more powerful. He is the Master Sith, you know."
"The Emperor is a Force user?" younger Luke asked in astonishment.
"Yeah, a really strong one," the other Luke said with a grimace. "He nearly killed me using a hideous manifestation of the Force called Force Lightning about ten years ago; thankfully, my father picked him up and threw him down a shaft and killed him, though my Vader died from his wounds. So in my timeline, my father is dead, and so is the Emperor, and the New Republic is pretty well established. So that's cool, but I hope with the change in timeline that things will shift sooner. That is, if your father can actually kill the..."
The time traveling Jedi Master broke off and his eyes flared wide, even as Obi-Wan Kenobi swayed and gasped aloud.
"What was that?" the old Jedi demanded.
"That...was Palpatine dying," Luke returned in an amazed tone. "I have felt him die many a time, and that was definitely him kicking the bantha. But how did Vader do it?"
"Is our father still alive?" younger Luke demanded anxiously.
"Yes, he is," his older counterpart murmured, his eyes faraway. "Yes, he is alive and...it feels like a bunch of people died with the Emperor. I wonder...I do hope Vader didn't blow up Coruscant. That would be really terrible, given how many civilians..."
The door opened abruptly, and a Pantoran aide stumbled into the room, his blue skin paler than usual, drool escaping from his mouth. "Your Highnesses!" he shrieked. "We just received word that the Death Star is in orbit around Imperial Center! In fact..."
He trailed off and lifted his hand to the comlink in his ear, then continued incredulously, "Imperial City has been destroyed by the Death Star, your Highnesses, and Emperor Palpatine was in the palace, which was at the epicenter of the blast. The Emperor...the Emperor..."
"Is dead," Older Luke said with satisfaction. "Awesome."
"The Emperor is really dead?" Bail Organa demanded, his gaze fixed on Kenobi's shocked face.
"He is," Older Luke reiterated. "Also, my toes are tingling so it is time for me to go. Young Luke, come here!"
The extremely tanned farmboy hurried over obediently, and his time traveling counterpart whispered hastily into his ear, and then disappeared.
/
Coruscant
Normal timeline
Luke Skywalker hurtled through the air, crashed into a young Jedi apprentice, and promptly got hit by a shockball in the back.
"Ugh!" he yelped, rolling painfully to his feet. "Ouch!"
"I got you, Master!" a young Togruta female said in a chipper voice.
"Yes, you did," Luke agreed with a pained smile, just as Leia and Mara, who had been watching, rushed onto the field.
"Luke, did you just get thrown into another timeline?" Leia demanded. "Mara and I just got back from a trip where we saved Padme and Vader after Mustafar, but you weren't around!"
"Yeah, but it was a weird one. I'm tired and my back hurts, so can we go get some blue milk ice cream? I'll tell you all about it."
"I will always eat ice cream," Mara declared.
/
Death Star Command Center
In orbit around Obana
Outer Rim Territories
Other timeline
6 months later
Darth Vader stared down at his holopad as he skimmed the latest reports emanating from the planet below.
Obana was an Outer Rim planet, not too far from the despicable dustball that was Tatooine, but thanks to its position near an asteroid field, it was extremely difficult to get to it through hyperspace; there were shifting gravity wells and the like, and thus the planet was nearly unpopulated.
He had managed to guide the Death Star through the various hyperspace traps and into orbit around the planet; since then, he had had organized a massive relocation of the Death Star's personnel onto the planet below. The space station was, of course, full of food and beds and all kinds of practical equipment which could be, and was, being transferred to make a few cities below for Imperial troops. There was even a separate city being set up for former prisoners, including Wookiees.
His Alter Son had told him that he was very, very fond of Wookiees.
Vader had a gift for administration and everything was going smoothly. He hadn't even had to kill anyone in more than two months, which was weird but true.
Weird because he was used to killing people who annoyed him. True because Padme had forgiven him and his kids were alive and the Emperor was dead and he felt sort of...sort of mellow.
He was also bored. Just because he was good at administration didn't mean he had to like it. BUT, the Death Star shouldn't be wandering around the galaxy right now, not with the Emperor dead and his kids probably in the thick of getting rid of the Empire. Also, Kenobi was probably running around in the Core and Mid Rim worlds being all Jedi like and heroic, and for all that Vader had mellowed, he still wanted to stab Kenobi through the heart.
But his son, Luke, probably liked Kenobi, and he didn't want to stress the boy out so...
So he would just hang out here around Obana for a while and look after the people under his care. At some point the boredom would make him go crazy, but it hadn't yet.
He needed to think about the food situation some more. The Death Star had many rations, but it wouldn't...
Like a bolt of lightning, like a massive sun flare bursting from the plasma fire of a star, a Presence suddenly crashed into Vader's Force sense. The datapad fell to the floor, and the Sith Lord stepped on it absently as the cyborg reached out toward the Being in question.
It felt like...surely it could not be...?
It was.
/
Docking Bay 325
Death Star
Ten minutes later
The Rebel X-wing settled onto the floor of the bay and thirty seconds later, the cockpit popped open. Luke Skywalker took a deep breath, stood up, and looked down at the docking bay.
Rather to his surprise, there were not a bunch of stormtroopers waiting for him. In fact, there was only one person waiting for him.
"Hello, Father," he said rather tremulously.
"Son," Vader returned, his enthusiasm obvious even through the vocoder. "Welcome."
Luke took this as a good sign and dropped gracefully onto the smooth floor of hanger bay.
"How did you find me?" Vader asked. His inclination was to rush forward but he did not want to frighten the boy.
"Um, Older Luke told me before he left to his own timeline. I am sorry it took me six months to come and visit, but I wanted to spend some time with Leia, and I needed some training..."
"You need not apologize, Son," Vader interrupted. "I am very pleased to see you, and I entirely understand why your sister is not willing to interact with me."
"Yeah, I think probably she isn't quite ready for that," Luke agreed, walking boldly toward to his sire and stopping to stare up into the great black mask. "Not that I asked her. I just kind of snuck away."
"Snuck away?"
"Yes, because Leia is...well, she is very attached to the Organas, of course, and if I had told her where you were, she would have felt obligated to tell her parents..."
"You mean that no one else knows that I brought the Death Star to Obana?" Vader asked incredulously.
"Yeah, I mean, Ben has major, major issues with you, and..."
"Ben?"
"Ben Kenobi. Obi-Wan, I guess, but I knew him as Ben on Tatooine..."
Luke trailed off and cringed as the Force suddenly turned cold with anger and hurt and fury, and then suddenly everything was quiet again, except that he no longer could sense his father's feelings at all.
"I am sorry," he said hesitantly. "I know you and he are on terrible terms, and I understand that. I probably shouldn't have mentioned him."
"No, it is not your fault," Vader returned, his fury fading away to sadness. He knew he had sinned grievously against his dear Padme and his children back at Mustafar. Indeed, Padme's forgiveness in the other timeline had brought a peace he had not known in almost twenty years. "I made terrible mistakes at the time, and so did Obi-Wan. But for now, I wish to focus entirely on you. How long can you stay, my son?"
Luke sighed in relief and said, "Well, as long as you want. I mean, forever is fine with me, if you are Ok with a sort of Rebel hanging out here. I mean, the Organas and Leia and ... other people are working to sort out the galaxy, and all I ever wanted was to spend time with my father. Also, the other Luke mentioned that your health probably could use some improvement, so if I can help in any way with that, I'd be glad to."
Again, Vader's tear ducts itched.
"Thank you, my son. I would not dream of keeping you away from your sister forever, but I too have longed to know you, so very much."
Luke, who had been very tense, grinned and said, "Great. Now I admit I'm a little hungry. Do you have any blue milk, by any chance?"
