"Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. I believe that is the path your father took and on that path, he lost himself completely."

-Obi-Wan to Luke, Chapter 6

Chapter 7: Bloodline

Day 1 - Centaxday

Today was Centaxday. It was the one day in the week that Vader, barring any actual battles going on, usually spend entirely on his medical check-ups. The entire morning he spend floating in his bacta tank while his armor and cybernetics were being cleaned and maintained. This was the part of his life he hated most. Blood and combat he could deal with but the boredom was killing him. He was left all alone with nothing but his thoughts and those usually took a dark turn after a while.

Today they strayed to the Princess and the weird Force-bond between them. Where could that have come from? It wasn't unheard of for enemies to form Force-bonds to each other when they met often enough. Especially the Sith tended to have somewhat obsessive personalities. But though Princess Leia had escaped him before, it wasn't like Vader's life revolved around hunting her.

A few hours into the day, Vader finally stood on his own two feet again. By then his heads-up display told him they'd reached the planet Alderaan. Considering the station's name and purpose, that did not bode well for the local population.

Sure enough, Vader was ordered to bring the Princess to the bridge. The Dark Lord was extra careful to keep his mental shields up around her. If his suspicions were right about what Tarkin was planning then he didn't fancy being in her head when it happened.

He had to admire her spirit though. She held herself bravely, insulting both Tarkin and Vader himself when she was at a total disadvantage. Even when Tarkin revealed his plan to her and gave her the chance to safe her home planet if she provided the information he wanted – she protested. And she lied.

The moment Princess Leia named Dantooine as the rebel base, Vader knew it was just another misdirection. This woman wouldn't be broken so easily, she was too strong.

Then Alderaan went up in a fiery fireball and next to him, it was as if Leia's mind exploded with it. She was wide open to him in that moment, all her pain, all her anguish revealed and battling against his shields. He was sucked into her head and for one disorientating moment there was no difference between the two Force-users. He was her and she was him – they were so similar.

That's when he realized it. She'd reminded him of her before, the way she looked, the way she talked and moved. But now she reminded him of himself as well, all that bottled up anger, that fierce will to protect what she loved or to avenge it when all else failed – she was like him. And she was like her. She was–

Then the moment was gone. Leia whirled around, using Vader's disorientation to free herself from his grip and she grabbed the lightsaber hanging from his belt. Vader didn't even know how she knew how but she managed to turn it on and swing it at Tarkin's head.

Vader moved with the speed of a lighting bolt, grabbing her wrist and holding it still. She fought against him, she screamed and shouted and cried but Vader held her securely, pinning both her arms against her body as she fought like a wild animal.

"Let go of me!" she screamed, trying to ram her foot into his crotch, "let go of me and kill me already! Just do it!"

"Are you sure she hasn't taken permanent damage from the interrogation, Lord Vader?" Tarkin asked with a derisive smile. "Maybe you should kill her right now. She's clearly too dangerous to be left alive."

Kill her now? No, he couldn't do that. Not until he had ruled out the fanciful idea he'd suddenly had about her being…

"I will keep her alive until we can verify her information."

Tarkin made a dismissive gesture. "As you wish."

"No", Leia whispered and somehow, there was a horror in her voice that hadn't been there when faced with the obliteration of her home world.

"No, you have to kill me, now!" She whirled around in Vader's arms, looking straight at him.

"Please!" she begged. "Please, just… kill me!"

"Begging for death already? What did you do to her in that cell?" Tarkin mocked. "Maybe you're right though… If she's that afraid of another round of interrogation, we should keep her until we're sure she hasn't lied."

A pair of Stormtroopers stepped forward at the Grand Moff's gesture, grabbed Leia by her arms and started dragging her away. She turned around though before the doors closed behind her. She looked at him and she consciously flared her power to get his attention.

"Please, kill me", she whispered both in his mind and out aloud.

Vader remained where he was, watching as that bright girl was dragged away, begging for him to release her.

If she had asked him for anything else in that moment, anything but death – he might've granted it to her.

The door closed behind the princess and the troopers.

"Well then", Tarkin said, "we will-"

He was interrupted by the muffled sound of laserfire. Vader was on high alert immediately and with a gesture of his hand opened the doors to the bridge. He practically ran outside and found the two troopers standing over the prone body of one Leia Organa, a hole burned vertically through her head and a rifle in her hands.

"What happened?!" he snapped even as he knelt down to coop that body up in his arms.

"My Lord, we're sorry but she ripped my weapon out of my hands and she just pointed it at her chin and pulled the trigger."

"How incompetent can you be, you heard how she was suicidal! Why wasn't your blaster set to stun?"

"Sir, it was."

The other trooper added quietly: "She didn't touch us Sir, not physically. The rifle just flew to her like that. It's like she's a freaking Jedi or something."

Vader choose to ignore the morons for now and instead concentrated on the body in his arms.

"Call a medic!" he shouted but even so, he knew it was too late. The blaster shot had gone up her chin straight into her brain. She had to have been dead before she even hit the ground. Her body was still warm but he could feel the last of her life drain away. That light she had in her and that anger – it just dissipated. She was gone. She was gone, forever.

Unless…

XxX

Day 146 - Centaxday

Darth Vader woke up with a start. For a moment he was profoundly disorientated. A weird tugging sensation seemed to want to pull him forward. Blinking, he realized he was still in the same bacta tank where he'd gone to sleep the last evening in preparation for the usual Centaxday maintenance. But something was different. Something-

There it was again. Someone was knocking at his mental shields.

That should be impossible. He was still on the Death Star. There were no Inquisitors on board, no Jedi in the prison complex. The only person he had a strong enough Force bond with that he'd sense more than a twitch from them was his Master and he was many light years away. That knock had felt way too strong to-

Again! What the -

Vader focused his attention on the gentle flow of the Force - and nearly had a heart attack at what he uncovered. His heart monitor actually went into overdrive as he fought to keep his composure.

There was a new Force bond.

No, not completely new - it resembled the one that had suddenly snapped into place between him and the young Alderaani Princess yesterday. But it was way stronger, shimmering thick and healthy like only the daily maintained teaching bonds he'd had to his old Jedi Master and Padawan ever had. He probed it carefully and the connection flared to life immediately.

"Vader?"

That was definitely the Princess. But she too felt stronger, much stronger in the Force. And...darker, too. Yesterday she'd been tired, exhausted, depressed and bitter. There was all that now too and more but there was also an underlying steely determination that rebuffed Vader's careful probing better than almost any mental shield he'd ever encountered.

"Princess?" he asked warily, baffled at how clearly he could hear her voice.

"I'm supposed to tell you that if you don't want to repeat Empire Day, you need to check my blood sample against the Jedi database", she said.

... What?

Following his initial shock at hearing such a weird message, Vader was for a moment overcome with memories. Empire Day, while a joyous celebration for most of the galaxy celebrating the end of the Clone Wars and the formation of the Empire, meant something entirely different to him. It was connected to pain, failure, defeat and most of all, to loss. The loss of his wife, his child, his health, his name and pretty much everything else he'd ever held dear.

The message made no sense, obviously. It would be impossible for him to repeat that day because he had nothing left to loose. The only thing it did was enrage him and he shut down the bond immediately lest he accidentally give an important prisoner an aneurism.

It took him several minutes of silently fuming over the painful memories and the nerve of the Princess to bring that up before the rest of the words registered.

How had she known to refer to that day as something he regretted? For all the Princess knew, that day should be a day of victory for him. She'd said she was supposed to tell him, so who had the message really come from? There was nobody on this station who knew his past. Even Tarkin, who Vader had worked with occasionally during the war, was not aware of his previous identity.

And checking the Princess' blood against the Jedi database? Why would he do that? Yes, she was Force-sensitive and yes she was powerful. He didn't need to check her midichlorian count to know that. There was definitely something weird going on with this Force bond between them. But she was definitely too young to be a Jedi. She could possibly have been a toddler during the initial purge. Vader winced when he remembered how young some of the Padawan and initiates had been he'd killed that day... But there had been no toddlers. The infants who were clearly too young to have yet been indoctrinated had later been transferred to the training facilities of the Inquisitor corps. Even if she'd been rescued as a baby from the temple, why would she want him to know that now?

There was only one way to find out.

Skipping his morning maintenance, Vader had the droids put him back onto his suit right away. He called a patrol and a medical/interrogation droid and made his way to the Princess' cell.

The girl flinched away from him when he entered, eying the hovering black droid with fear.

"Lord Vader", Leia said shakily. "Back for round two?"

"I recommend you do not offer resistance", he said coldly, then motioned the droid forward. The troopers took positions outside as the door closed behind him.

He felt another tug at the bond and Vader forcefully clamped down on his initial reaction, which would've been to send her back a sharp headache.

The girl did not struggle, despite obviously being very wary of the needle. Her fear was flowing freely through the bond. Vader strengthened his shields and grit his teeth. He did not experience her emotions fully as his own but she certainly didn't make an effort to hide them.

The droid drew a sample of her blood. It gave a series of beeps and blinking lights before a holographic keyboard appeared at its backside. Vader started typing quickly. The analysis didn't take long. As expected, the Princess had a high midichlorian count. Very high. Very high indeed, it was a small miracle random objects didn't start to float every time she was upset. She wasn't as off the scale as Vader himself of course but still, this was impressive.

As expected, there were no matches of her DNA to any Jedi registered before the Empire was formed - wait.

Vader stared at the blinking symbols, indicating a partial match. He clicked on it.

Leia Organa's DNA was a 50% match to the marked as deceased Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker.

For a few seconds Vader just stared at the screen. The information just did not compute.

And then suddenly everything made sense.

He was looking at a positive parental test. Leia Organa was his biological daughter. She was Padmé's daughter - she had the right age, Force she even looked just like her. He could see it now, how it all could be possible - Obi-Wan must've retrieved his wife after he left Vader to die. Padmé must've lived just long enough to give birth before dying, just as she had in his vision. Then his old Master had stolen the baby but, not wanting to take it with him on the run, had given it to one of Padmé's friends and colleagues. Giving it to her family or her handmaiden would've been a bit too obvious. Bail Organa was married and as a royal couple, they had the influence to protect her.

That's why Leia was so powerful in the Force. That's how she was able to bond with him so quickly, so naturally. She was of his blood.

The Sith Lord turned to look at the Princess. His... daughter. Anger and incredulity about the way he had found out, the way he'd been betrayed, made way for a faint blossom of hope and joy.

He had a daughter. There was a part of Padmé that had survived after all. A faint memory of happier times stirred in the back of his mind. It was not all gone yet after all. It was not too late.

But how had she known? Who had given her this message? Was it Bail? Had he warned her to reveal her identity if she was ever captured by him? Vader felt a sudden stab of fear as he remembered the previous day and now he'd almost tortured his own daughter without realizing. He could've indeed repeated one of his greatest losses without even knowing. He could've lost her! And without knowing who she really was, he would've missed the narrow window of opportunity in which he could undo that mistake, using the technique Sidious had taught him long ago.

Vader's eyes widened as he was hit with another realization. What if he had already lost her? If she died on the Death Star and he only found out who she was afterwards, the only way to undo it would be to use his own death to reverse time for Leia and Leia alone.

There was nobody on this station knowledgeable enough to give Leia a message like that - except Vader himself. That meant that she'd died. She'd died once already and she'd come back and was now warning him, using the words he himself had given her in the ruined future. How he could've given her such a message if he'd killed her he didn't know but...

Vader clenched and unclenched his hands, only peripherally noticing how his power had damaged the droid.

"What did you find?" Leia asked after a long silence.

"You don't know?!" Vader asked her sharply. Had he told her how to warn him yet not told her the truth of her parentage? Or was she lying to him? By the Force... The bond. They had such a strong bond now. Something like that couldn't form overnight. Even among father and daughter, it would need more time than that. "How often have we had this conversation?"

Leia's mouth opened slightly in surprise. "This is the first time", she said eventually. "Yesterday, there wasn't enough time. You said things would go faster if I told you to run my blood sample first thing in the morning."

Vader just stared at her for a long moment.

"You died", he said at last.

Leia nodded. "Many times."

"Many times! Why didn't I save you!?" he exclaimed angrily. True, Leia was a rebel and a traitor to the Empire. But while Vader was rightly proud of his work in building this Empire and preserving peace and order, he found no joy in his existence. It was just duty, it was just a job. Vader had never been loyal to organizations or systems but to people. Traitor or not, Leia was his blood and he would keep her from dying. No matter what. Any version of himself who was aware of her origin would always do whatever it took to save her, he was sure.

With one sentence, Leia smashed that confidence. "You mean, once you stopped killing me yourself?"

Vader flinched away violently. "I killed you?" he asked weakly.

"A couple of dozen times, yes", she confirmed.

"Dozens!? How long have you been in this loop!?" Vader exclaimed.

It dawned on him with horror what must've happened. Without knowing who she truly was, he could've easily killed her during interrogation or while she was trying to escape. The Force bond though and her growing strength would've made him check her blood afterward to find an explanation. She'd died dozens of times. And dozens of times, Vader had found out only afterwards. Dozens of Vaders had made the decision to sacrifice themselves dozens of times to give her one more chance.

If only one of them, only one Vader for whatever reason did not make the connection after her death, the loop would've ended. And Leia would've stayed dead without him ever learning the truth.

He absolutely had to make sure she survived this day. If Leia had been stuck in a loop for long enough to build her power and the bond up this much, she was already getting used to it. Taking it for granted, not realizing in how much danger she was.

"Look, I have less than six hours till Tarkin blows up my home world. I have to sabotage the super laser and get off this station before that happens. Are you going to help me?" Leia asked with a sigh, proving his point.

"You want me to help you escape the Death Star?" Vader asked disappointed. From how strong the bond was, he could assume that she'd used it to convince him to teach her about the Force on many days. He'd hoped this meant she would be amenable to the idea of accepting her natural position at his side.

"Do you always just repeat my words back at me? Yes, I want you to help me escape this place!" Leia exclaimed. "No I won't join you, no I won't give you or Tarkin the location of the rebel base", she said both bored and annoyed before Vader had a chance to ask her any of that. "I'm not interested in becoming Queen of Alderaan before my mother doesn't die a peaceful, natural death, preferable in a few decades. Your definition of galaxy peace is diametrically opposed to mine. So no, I won't help you destroy the Rebellion to prevent a civil war and I don't care that you think we're all just puppets dancing to the Emperor's tune either. Convincing Tarkin to spare Alderaan in favour of repairing the Death Star's flaw that is the one chance to destroy this station is not an acceptable compromise. I want off this station, today, and I want to leave this monstrosity behind with no capability to use it's super laser for at least a week", she presented her terms.

"You do know that's not how it works, don't you?" Vader asked incredulously. "It's not your wish that resets the loop." She must've grown very comfortable with him in the past days or weeks to talk to him like that. A part of him was happy about that but her recklessness worried him more than anything else.

"No, it's my death. And wouldn't you know, I recently figured out how to crush my own neck with the Force - thanks for the tip, by the way", she returned obnoxiously.

This situation was getting worse all the time. Now she was committing suicide to reset the loop?! He had to stop that madness!

Vader raised a finger at her, ignoring the painful wince at the reminder of just how she must've learned to kill like that. "I could just stun you and leave you here till tomorrow, when your planet is nothing but dust!"

Cold fury spiked through the bond and Leia glared at him. "If you do that, I swear I'll start a loop that lasts for however long it takes for me to kill you. Yesterday you said I was already at Padawan level, whatever that means. I'll train till I become a Jedi Master and then I will destroy you."

Vader met her gaze incredulously. Her threat was so absurd it was almost funny. He could sense the darkness in her, the righteous fury.

"You're blackmailing me. I've corrupted you. You're pure evil", he realized. Of course such a strong Force bond to him would affect his daughter. She'd gone from a naïve rebel idealist to a hateful little brat. Force, Vader had been a father for one day and already he was failing terribly at parenting! And he couldn't even be mad at her because she reminded him so much of himself as a moody teenager!

Leia laughed. "That's rich, coming from you."

"I'm serious. You do realize revenge is not the way of the Jedi. You'd make a fantastic Sith though with that kind of attitude." Sidious would be delighted if he found out about this. Which he never would, Vader would make sure of that. His daughter didn't need any more bad influences!

"What the hell is a Sith?" she asked.

"I'm a Sith Lord", Vader said annoyed. It looked like her education in the loops had been rather lacking.

"...oh." Leia made. She was silent for a moment. Vader hoped, almost expected her to be offended, angry or desperate. Those would all be sane reactions. Being a Sith Lord was not something anyone should aspire to be. Vader himself had it basically thrust upon himself and had to make the best of it but he'd call everyone an idiot who actually wanted to be a Sith.

But Leia, once again, did not react as he'd expected. Instead of realizing how wrong the path she was on was, he felt her make a mental shrug and merely move on as if it was no big deal. "Well, is it working? Are you going to help me or not?" she challenged him.

Ugh. Curse this girl and her big brown eyes that looked so much like her mothers.

"It looks like I have no choice!" Vader huffed.

That seemed to honestly shock Leia. "Was that a yes?"

Of course he didn't want to help her escape the station. He wanted her to remain at his side forever! But evidently he'd already offered her that and much more and it had only ever ended in her death. What else was there to do but to give her what she wanted? If she was purposefully resetting the loop to save her planet, she wouldn't stop until she had accomplished that goal. She'd inherited the stubbornness of Padmé and Vader after all.

"I never really liked the Death Star anyway", the Sith Lord muttered. "So yes, I'll help you. You can't spend any more time in this loop, it's obviously affecting you in a horrible way."

Sure, blowing the station would severely weaken the Empire and possibly throw the galaxy into another civil war... But if that was what was necessary to save his daughter, then he'd do it. It was about time he overthrew his Master and staged a military coup anyway, now that he thought about it. Might as well use the chaos the Rebellion would cause as a distraction.

Leia was floored. "Really?"

"Don't look so surprised. I still think it's a terrible idea but you're not giving me much of a choice. Stars, you're worse than her..." The last bit was only muttered quietly as Vader folded his arms in front of him.

"Who? My mother?" Leia asked confused.

Vader stiffened. "I thought you didn't know?"

"Didn't now what?" she made. "Why do you keep comparing me to my mother? I know you never met her, she would've mentioned you."

"She would've...? Ugh, forget it", Vader made, confusion giving way to annoyance once more when he realized she was talking about the Alderiaani queen. "I can sabotage the super laser but it will take time to do it thoroughly enough and in a way that won't be discovered right away. Arranging for a believable escape will be even more complicated. I can do the former today but it'll be way too suspicious if you escape the same day."

Leia stared him down, probing the bond with surprising expertise. Vader met her suspicion without hesitation. It was not even 9am and already, this day was too much. The craziness wasn't stopping. At times like this there was only one way to get through things alive and sane: When you can't beat them, join them. (Usually though, it was him causing the craziness and forcing people to throw up their hands in despair and join in, not the other way around.)

"Tarkin will kill me once he drags me on the bridge and the laser doesn't fire", Leia warned him.

"We're not even at Alderaan yet, Leia", Vader informed her. "If the malfunction is found before he's announced his plan to anyone, he won't lose face if he sets another course. You're just gong to spend the whole day in your cell, recovering from your latest interrogation. You'll literally just have one job, don't die. Can you do that?"

Leia prodded the bond some more, suspicious.

"I'll feel it if Alderaan is destroyed", she warned him. "It's very noticeable in the Force."

"Yes I imagine it would be", Vader said dryly. That many people passing over at once? Yeah, it would be like Order 66 all over again.

"Very well... I will trust you, Lord Vader", Leia decided reluctantly after a few more seconds.

Vader shuddered, it sounded so wrong for his daughter to call him 'Lord'. "Just Vader is fine."

"Ah. Well, you already keep calling me Leia so I suppose that's fair", she allowed. "Since you actually are going to remember this conversation now, will you tell me what you found in my blood? And where the loops come from? You promised you would", Leia claimed.

"I did no such thing", Vader denied her, picking up on her lie. "It's safer if you don't know, at least for now. All I can say is that you'll stop looping as soon as you escape the Death Star. Your recklessness has to stop!"

He would love to tell her the truth, actually, but not if he had to send her away to the Rebellion, where he couldn't follow her. If she told anyone else and the secret got out, she'd be in danger from the Emperor and maybe even her own allies. And without explaining why she was so important to him, he couldn't very well explain why he was resetting time for her.

"If you go, I won't be able to protect you", Vader said quietly.

"I don't really need protection from anyone but you", Leia claimed naively. "You're the only one who ever captured me and I've fled this cell hundreds of times. The rest of the Imps are far too incompetent."

"Now you're underestimating non-Force-sensitive. Are you sure you don't want to become my apprentice?" he couldn't help but ask. Yes his daughter was in serious danger but damn him if he didn't relish in the connection they shared. It reminded him of old times when meeting mortal danger with a joke and a quip had been second nature to him.

"Shut up. Go and save a planet", Leia returned. There was a warmth to her words that only added towards the bond between them, strengthening it further.

"Exactly like her", Vader muttered as he turned to go. Oh how much he wished he could remember the hundreds of conversations they must've shared before! No matter. With a bond that strong, Vader was confident that he'd be able to find her half a galaxy away if necessary. Even if he helped her escape now, they wouldn't be parted for long.

Vader made his way to a nearby central control station. Using his priority access codes, he overrode all restrictions and quickly programmed a small, hopefully untraceable virus that would sow some chaos in the internal system. He followed that up with a message to a few technicians, disguised as a standard alarm, that alerted them of the trouble. It shouldn't take them more than 24h to fix the issue. This would buy him, Alderaan and most importantly Leia some time. Tarkin would be alerted of the problem and be forced to postpone his demonstration.

Now for the real work.

Vader set the cameras for a few important areas on a recording loop and changed the patrol schedule and routes. Then he wiped all traces of his meddling and made his way into the heart of the station.

Half an our later he stood on a thin walkway, looking ahead at one of three giant green kyber crystals. The crystal was embedded in a network of durasteel beams, with pipes filled with liquid carbonite running across the ceiling, cooling the entire chamber to nearly freezing temperatures. Along the wall to his right there hung a set of dormant maintenance droids. They were small, disc-shaped machines with spider-like legs that could hold various tools. They were all outfitted with tubes that could be connected to the cooling system. After the super laser was fired, they would be floating all along the crystal, cooling the heated reactor stone with carbonite.

Vader raised one hand and used the Force to rip one of the droids out of its case. The droid rattled and beeped in distress. The Sith Lord flung it into the abyss below the walkway and waited for it to stop screeching. Eventually the droid recovered and its repulsors countered its momentum. The moment the droid started to stabilize and float back up, Vader stepped off the railing.

For a few moments the Sith Lord was in free fall, plummeting into the abyss. Then his feet hit the disc-shaped droid, which screeched again and wobbled around. Arms spread to either side of him to keep his balance, Vader waited for the droid to stabilize. Then he used the Force to guide the tiny electrical currents running through the machine, overriding it's artificial intelligence to make it float where he wanted to go.

The droid had no optical sensors and could only sense massive heat so it continued to beep very confused as it started to float up to the green crystal.

Holding the droid in place, Vader stopped in front of the kyber. He let his gaze wander up and down, wondering how many holy Jedi sites had to be plundered to harvest this much kyber. How much must the stone have suffered as it was pressed together into such a gigantic shape. One could almost feel sorry for it. Especially since Vader was about to make it worse.

The Sith Lord took a deep, rattling breath through his respirator and put the palm of his mechanical right hand against the softly glowing crystal.

Kyber was not alive and did not have a conscience the way living creatures did. But among all other inanimate materials, it was the one most attuned to the Force. For the Jedi, kyber was sacred and so there wasn't much research on its nature. The Sith of course had no such concerns. Vader had read old manuscripts and half crazed scribbling of old Sith Lords indicating that kyber was a crystal that formed when ordinary crystal formed around and enclosed within large amounts of midichlorians, which remained stuck inside as if in the resin of a tree. Kyber grew most prominently in caves that also housed rare moss and at times small animals that provided the tiny microorganisms with nourishment.

Whatever the case, the crystal felt alive and Vader could connect with it, the way he could connect with any lightsaber crystal, albeit of course not as much as with his personal one.

"I'm sorry about this", Vader said quietly and was himself surprised that he actually meant it.

The he closed his eyes. He focused inwards, focused on his pain. The physical pain first, always present, old aching injuries acting up, a constant buzzing at the back of his mind. Then he reluctantly allowed his mind to wander into the past. Remembering Padmé's face as she cried, begging him to leave with her. Remembering how her face turned red and then purple as he choked her. Then he thought of Leia, at the hints she'd dropped of how often he had killed her, tortured her, tormented her. His precious daughter, the last remnant of his love, he'd done such terrible things to her. He'd been too blind, too stupid to recognize what was now so very obvious to him. To her, he was a monster, an enemy that she tried to trick and use and blackmail but he would never be a father to her. She hated him, would rather die than stand at his side, would rather die than allow her own world to burn, which she had another father living on that she actually loved...

Vader poured all of his pain, all his regret and self-loathing into the crystal in front of him. He filled it up with hatred that was aimed inwards. And where his palm touched the surface, slowly a spiderweb of small, red lines started to creep into the green crystal.

The Death Star's core was bleeding.

XxX

AN: Aaaand we're officially done with Centaxday! This is also the last chapter that we get exclusively from one POV because let me tell you, Taugnsday is going to be chaotic!

Thank you so much for you kind reviews. Please let me know what you thought about Vader's POV in this chapter, especially what he did to the Death Star. I'm having flashbacks of a young Anakin building his first lightsaber and making a few of them explode by accident when not handling his crystal correctly, then amplifying that a hundred fold with the DT... It's probably not entirely compliant with regular SW lore but I loved the idea of Vader using his self-hatred to corrupt the DT laser into self-destruction. What do you think?