Landing Bay
Vader's Palace
Coruscant (formerly Imperial Center)
Six Months Later
"I will see to it that the Senate is convened as you wish," Admiral Piett said.
Vader nodded toward the admiral, who was a calm, collected, intelligent man who never seemed to have an urge to strangle anyone, and turned to march up the ramp into his private shuttle.
It was a very nice shuttle, of course, the best that money could buy. It had one gigantic seat designed specifically for his large bulk in the passenger area, and far more powerful engines than were normal for shuttles.
He settled into his seat and used the Force to lift his helmet off his head and set it aside. He had an oxygen tube running into his nose which was enough for his now significantly healed lungs. The Time Traveling Twins had also done wonders with his stomach and kidneys and liver. He could eat real food again after twenty years of nasty nutrient packets!
It was a pity that the entire galaxy knew him with the black helmet and annoying repetitious breathing. Right now, he needed to look the part of the former Emperor's second in command, now Emperor of the galaxy, and that included wearing the heavy helmet.
He pushed a button with the Force which informed the pilots that it was time to take off. It was a full minute later when the craft began to lift into the air, which he found disturbing; when he said to take off, he meant now, not sixty seconds later!
But his time traveling twins had lectured him frequently on the need to not just kill people when he was annoyed.
"You have to be patient and communicate," Older Leia had said. "I know you think that people should be able to read your mind, but they can't. Also, people sometimes get really scared of you, which is reasonable, and they freeze. You shouldn't kill people because they are scared of a 2 meter cyborg who can blow up buildings with his mind. They are being reasonable, not cowardly."
"Also," Older Luke had chimed in, "you don't want to scare your twins. I mean, Leia already is already prey to a maelstrom of hate and fear, along with a strong desire to stick a lightsaber through your cyborg guts. If you keep murdering people and generally acting like a psychotic Sith Lord, they will do their best to hide from you as long as possible."
"I am not certain that there is any hope regarding my relationship with my daughter," Vader had replied with a mixture of sorrow and guilt. "I tortured her."
"True," Leia had said judiciously, "but she might come around. Your Luke will come around sooner so long as you tone down the murder and mayhem."
These words, more than anything else, had convinced Vader to act in a way which was entirely contrary to his Sith nature. He hadn't murdered anyone for being incompetent since the Emperor died. He had spent a lot of time standing around trying to look and be patient when the various politicians squabbled over how to point the Empire in a new direction. He had even facilitated a peace treaty with the Alliance to the Restore the Republic without demanding that he be permitted to see his children!
He hadn't even put out huge bounties on his son, his daughter, and his daughter's super annoying adoptive parents. The thought that the Organas had taken HIS child and hidden her away from him, well, it made him want to slice them into dozens of pieces!
But Leia would not like that. Leia would not like that. Leia would not like. Leia...
The shuttle creaked just slightly and Vader looked out the window. They had arrived on Executor, and the landing had been perfect. He wasn't really going to kill his shuttle pilot for being slow to takeoff, but this made it a bit easier to just let go of...
The door to the cabin opened and to Vader's utter astonishment, Luke Skywalker stepped in, dressed in the garb of an Imperial pilot, but with a familiar looking lightsaber at his waist.
Not the older one, but the younger one. His son. His son!
"Luke!?" he gasped out.
"Father?" the young man said, looking horrified. "What happened to you?"
"You know what happened to him," Leia Organa said, following her twin brother into the cabin. She, too, was dressed as a pilot, and also wore a lightsaber. "Kenobi told us that our father was badly burned on Mustafar."
To Vader's bemusement, his son's blue eyes, so much like his own, filled with tears. "I had no idea...I hadn't imagined it was so bad!"
"Considering that Vader had just murdered a bunch of Jedi younglings and strangled our mother, I would say he deserved it," Leia said, her eyes flashing fire.
"Leia," Luke huffed, turning an indignant look at his twin, "if all you are going to stand around insulting Father, it would have been better if you hadn't come!"
"I came so that if Vader tries to hurt you, I can ram my lightsaber blade through his cyborg guts!" the princess of Alderaan snarled.
Vader stood up, which caused both his children to retreat a pace. Older Luke had worked on his cyborg legs and made them shorter, lighter, and in every way better, but he still loomed over the children. They had inherited Padme's petite stature.
"You have every reason to despise and hate me, Princess Leia," he said formally. "I apologize for torturing you."
Luke cringed at this blunt statement, and Leia took a step closer. "Not only did you torture me, you stood there and allowed Tarkin to fire on Alderaan. It is only thanks to our time traveling counterparts that I didn't LOSE MY PLANET!"
Very few people yelled at Darth Vader. Even fewer lived to tell the tale. But he could not blame his daughter for being royally pissed off.
"I am sorry," he said as meekly as he could.
Leia glowered at him for a minute and then turned to her brother and said, "I'm going back to the cockpit because I don't want to talk to HIM anymore. Luke, if you have any problems, let me know and I'll come back and kill him for you."
She turned on her heel and stomped away, leaving father and son alone.
"Are you sure you are Ok to breathe without your mask?" Luke asked uneasily.
Vader felt a peculiar warmth in his chest; very few people had expressed any concern about his health in the last twenty years.
"I am well, my son," he said, relishing the way 'my son' rolled off his tongue. "The Time Traveling twins did a great deal of work on my lungs and other, erm, organs. I am much healthier than I was."
"I am glad," Luke said simply, and then glanced toward the cockpit. "I'm, erm, sorry about Leia. She has every reason to despise and loathe you, of course, but I was hoping that she would be a trifle more diplomatic about it. I mean, she is a princess and a stateswoman for the Alliance."
"I tortured her," Vader said grimly. "She has every right to scream at me and even kill me. I would be glad to die at her hand, or yours, if you feel it would be best."
Luke's blue eyes widened in horror. "That would most certainly not be best! I have waited my whole life to know my father, and my sister murdering my father would be awful. Definitely not!"
The heat was spreading in his chest now, to look onto that handsome young face, to hear of his son's longing to know his father...
"I am glad," he said awkwardly.
"I am too," Luke said shyly, and then swooped forward to wrap his cyborg father in a hearty embrace. "I know everything seems pretty messed up right now, but I am certain it will all work out."
Darth Vader had experienced a great deal of tragedy in his life, and had caused even more tragedy. But now, with his Sunshine Child's strong arms around his chest, he felt an unexplained surge of optimism.
"I hope you are right, Son."
"I am," Luke replied confidently. "I am."
Author Note: That ends this arc. I am still tired from COVID so have been struggling with writing. Hope to start another arc sometime in the next few weeks.
