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Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The name repeated itself over and over in Darth Vader's mind. Each syllable was a hammer strike against a nail that dug itself deeper and deeper into him.
Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Traitor.
"You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you."
Lies.
He can still remember the black rocky sand. The flames. The smell of his own burning flesh. The screams. His own screams . . .
A scream.
It came through the Force loud and clear.
He had no doubt it came from Fortress Inquisitorius. He was currently aboard his ship in the system. Had the Inquisitors recently captured a Force Sensitive?
Another scream.
A strong one? He did not recall any reports.
Perhaps this Jedi's pathetic calls for help would lure Obi-Wan. Yes, Obi-Wan. Soon he would have him. He would not let him slip through his fingers. That man would die a slow and—
The scream again. A plea for help.
"Anakin." A female voice said. Her voice. A plea from another life ago.
Vader ground his teeth together as he marched over to his desk in his private office aboard his star destroyer. He was curious to see who this Jedi was who was able to break through his own shields. The one who reminded him of— No he would not think about that.
BEN—FATHER—SOMEONE—HELP ME—
The scream was small, pitiful in his mind, conjuring up ghosts he had tried very hard not to allow in his mind for ten years. That mission was a failure, obviously, so often when he closed his eyes, he heard them.
Calling for Anakin. Begging for his help. Their voices growing weaker until they disappeared.
Shmi. Padmé. Gone.
WANT TO GO HOME—WANT MY FATHER—
The scream in his head was so loud that it made Vader stop, burdened under the weight of it. It was so clearly a child's voice, how were they this strong?
He activated the comlink, the main frequency he used to communicate with the senior inquisitors. The fifth brother answered a moment later.
"My lord, it is an—"
"Who is she?!" Vader demanded.
The man looked blank until he clarified.
"The Jedi you are interrogating."
"There is no Jedi here, my lord. Third Sister has brought the senator's daughter. She captured her on Mapuzo."
Organa, Vader had caught a brief note of the child in Reva’s summary report. Senators were near-useless entities under the empire, but the child’s capture would mean a mountain of clean-up reports. The Third Sister was expected to leave an intact-enough corpse to stage an accident within a few days.
SOMEONE HELP ME!
The princess’s wail reverberated through the Force like a homing beacon. This went against Vader’s precedents of how much a Force-Sensitive child could emit their emotions. It would be impossible to hone his focus on the Force if she wasn’t sedated.
“Tell the Third Sister to cease interrogations until my arrival,” Vader commanded as he switched his comlink off.
His mind came to the most reasonable conclusion: a Jedi knight or Master must have been one of her birth parents, and instilled some basic training in projection for the child's own safety. Perhaps this could lead to the capture of not only Kenobi, but another hidden target.
He ordered his ship to Nur and his shuttle to be prepared.
"You were warned what defeat would bring," Vader growled as he lifted the Third Sister with the Force. She gasped and grabbed for her throat. "I will tolerate your weakness no longer."
Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan had gotten the girl and escaped.
And the Third Sister would now for such a mistake. She struggled and groaned as he held her by the throat.
"I let them go," she managed to squeeze out. He released her throat but kept her aloft. "I put a tracker on their ship. Soon the location of the network and Kenobi will be ours."
And the girl, Vader added to himself. He lowered the sister back to the floor.
"It seems I have underestimated you," he said.
"But my lord, the base was almost destroyed," the Fifth Brother said in his rasping voice.
"Kenobi is all that matters," the Third Sister cut him off.
Vader marched up to her, closing the space between them. "There can be no mistakes. Are you certain the track is with them?"
"Yes, my lord," she said. Her voice was softer. A bit more demure than a moment ago. "Where he goes, it will follow."
"Good," Vader said. "Were there any samples collected on the girl?"
"The . . . girl?" the sister asked.
"The senator's daughter. Any DNA?"
“N-no, my Lord.” Third Sister was plainly confused. “It was not necessary. She is the Senator’s daughter. We know this.”
Vader looked between the Inquisitors, unimpressed. "And neither of you felt her strength?"
Both Third Sister and Fifth Brother had the courage to make eye contact with him, but that wasn't good enough for Vader. He started pulling Third Sister towards him with the Force.
"You had her in custody, and never once sensed her power?"
"She was just a scared little girl, my Lord," Third Sister protested.
Vader wished he could take a deep breath. The sheer incompetence was overwhelming.
"Your assumptions cloud your judgment," he growled, "pray your tracker works."
He knew exactly who the Third Sister was and only kept her because of her ambitious need for revenge. Perhaps she was finally about to prove her worth if she delivered Obi-Wan to him.
He turned from the room and marched out. He dismissed the stormtroopers that had accompanied him as he made his way down to the interrogation level.
The Third Sister had been lying when she said the girl was meaningless. She knew the child was strong in the Force and had ignored it.
Weak. Pathetic.
He reminded himself again that the sister was only a tool and one that would possibly be discarded soon.
It was a shame no DNA had been collected. He could have run against the Temple and the Empire's archives to figure out her parentage.
He entered the large interrogation room.
Vader stepped towards the Interrogation chair, noting that it had been set to the capacity of a prisoner with very short stature. He let out a breath of frustration, but then noticed that a few strands of long, brown hair had snagged on the head restraints.
Leia huddled close to Ben, her hands were white-knuckled as she held the edges of L0-LA. Her droid companion was one of her few sources of security after her hazardous last few days. Her other one was Ben, who she pressed her head against. Even if she felt safe now, both of these comforts could be easily stripped from her again. It felt like nothing would be the same again.
“Ben,” She spoke up against the quiet hum of the ship’s motors. “Have you ever had a nightmare while you were awake?”
Obi-wan looked down at the small child and asked, “What do you mean, Leia?”
“When I was…” Leia tried to form words to define her experience but for once, she found it hard, “When I was strapped into that machine, I thought I saw you coming for me… but I saw something else, something dark and cold, but sort of familiar.”
Obi-Wan suppressed a shudder. The most likely answer to that question was not one he wanted to give her, in the same way he had answered 'I wish I could say I was' when she had asked if he was her birth father.
"That place has seen many horrors, Leia, horrors that leave their mark upon the Force. What you felt was most likely an echo of that."
It was a half-truth. The hallway full of familiar faces was still haunting him.
"It's going to be alright, you'll never have to endure something like that again."
She stared at him in her unnerving way, and then said, "Who was that masked inquisitor on Mapuzo? The one everyone is afraid of."
Obi-Wan had hoped he would never have to tell her. But there was no hiding this from her.
"He's not an inquisitor. He is a Sith Lord."
"What is a Sif Lord?" she asked, lisping slightly on the word Sith.
Obi-Wan leaned back, stroking his beard. After a moment, he said, "Remember how I told you the Force is like switching on a light?"
She nodded.
"A Sith Lord is someone who has switched off the light and embraced the Dark. "
"You know him ... don't you?" Leia asked, her eyes wide. "He makes you sad."
Obi-Wan controlled his breath, and considered the terrible irony of the situation. It was not only that his former apprentice, Leia’s birth father, was still alive and pursuing him. He also had to consider Leia’s precarious situation. He was not inattentive of her awakening to the Force and the danger it might cause.
She probably spent her entire life around non-Force sensitives. Without anything to hone to but the flow of nature on her planet, her latent abilities were content to lie alive but dormant, like a hibernating Krayt Dragon. After her exposure to him and the Inquisitors she encountered, her sense of others’ emotions sharpened each day.
Obi-Wan had told Leia that the Force was like turning on a light in darkness. Many younglings who could recall their initiation into the Temple had a better description: To encounter so many other beacons like them was like seeing a starry night sky for the first time.
“Yes, I did know him, Leia,” He replied, trying to find the appropriate words while reminding himself that this was not a youngling he was talking to, “He was once a young pupil of mine… before…”
Obi-Wan found himself lost for words, for how to leave Leia with something comforting that wasn’t a lie she would read through. There was no longer a night sky. Only a few specks in darkness.
"Before the Empire," He settled on at last, "Before you were born. He was my friend and he isn't anymore and sometimes that is very hard for me."
"I'm sorry," Leia said, reaching out to hold his hand.
Vader paced up and down in front of the medical droid, wishing it would work faster. The inquisitors had been dispatched to ensure Obi-Wan did not escape again, and the Devastator waited in orbit for his arrival. But he could not leave without solving this mystery.
The faint glow of the droid's monitor reflected off his armor as it cycled through all the records extracted from the archives on the Jedi order.
Just when he thought he couldn't wait any longer, a record filled the screen. A long sequence of letters was highlighted about halfway down.
"We have a match for the DNA sample, Lord Vader," the droid said.
Vader stepped closer, reading the name at the top:
Anakin Skywalker.
That wasn't possible.
It couldn't be possible.
He'd seen the funeral. Watched it more times than he could count. The baby was gone, just like Padmé was gone.
And yet…
With a kick like that? Definitely a girl.
Kenobi had to have been the one to have taken Padmé from Mustafar. Was it possible that he’d done more than that?
Just when Vader had thought his hatred for his former Master could not run any deeper.
He needed to find her, he needed to RESCUE her, he could keep her safe-his thoughts came to a screeching halt. The Emperor. If the Emperor knew about the girl he would take her away. His fist tightened at the thought and the medical droid creaked and then crumpled into scrap. There would be no evidence.
Vader made it his next task to scan the monitor hooked up to the Third Sister’s tracker. It displayed a number of diverting pathways as simplified guides of the closest trade routes. Along each planet was an estimated arrival time. With capacities for hyperspace tracking in only the first few years of development, there would be no way of knowing where Kenobi and the girl were until they exited hyperspace. Only then could the tracker reconnect with a Holonet-relay satellite.
The Third Sister had explained that the tracker was hidden in an L0 unit the girl had been carrying with her. Vader recognized the model as something of a high-end droid for youngling companionship.
He allowed himself just a moment to reflect on something but the hunt for Kenobi and the child, did his daughter share the same passion for droids as he did at her age?
This thought led to an avalanche of questions. Did she look like her mother? Or did she look like him? Or perhaps like his own mother? Had she received any instruction in the ways of the Force?
For the first time in many years, his focus on Obi-Wan began to shift. Obi-Wan ... Obi-Wan was the past. This girl ... this daughter ... was the future.
He must find her.
His cape swirled as he turned and left the room. It was time to return to the Devastator.
There was a shift in the Force. Obi-Wan could feel it, something had changed. But what?
His gaze drifted over to Leia, sitting nearby and cradling her L0 unit. Soon, she’ll be home. She’ll be safe. But for how long? The Inquisitors are doing all of this to draw me out, will she ever truly be safe again?
It… it wasn’t his responsibility. Once she was safely back on Alderaan, he’d return to Tatooine. The princess of Alderaan couldn’t disappear forever, and he couldn’t hide on a planet so deep in the Core.
And there was still the matter of Luke.
Although he never expressed it, Obi-wan empathized with Owen’s desire to give the boy the opportunity to grow up with all the normalities that a free-born boy on Tatooine should expect. It was a certain hopefulness that Obi-wan could no longer see as sustainable.
The transport impacted the lower atmosphere of Jabiim with a thud that almost knocked Leia’s small form off her seat. She held Obi-Wan’s hand even tighter for support as the ship made its last few seconds of a bumpy descent to the surface.
Obi-wan walked the princess out. Her steps and gait were more hesitant than usual. The Jedi grabbed her shoulder to steady her as she descended from the ramp.
The next hour on Jabiim was all chaos as it became clear the facility was now compromised. The inquisitor who had hunted him since Tatooine was now outside the doors. Vader would arrive soon. There was only so long these people could fight off the Empire's troops once they finally broke through the door.
It was time to negotiate.
The Third Sister stood waiting outside the doors to the pathetic facility the traitors had been using to harbor Jedi fugitives.
"Where is he?" Vader demanded.
"I have him secured inside, my lord."
"Is the girl with him?"
"She must be with the other children."
"I will find her myself."
The doors opened to reveal the stormtroopers' bodies strewn about on the ground.
Vader gritted his teeth and tightened his fists as he marched into the hall. If Kenobi got away again with his daughter . . . again . . . His cape snapped behind him.
As soon as he entered the hangar, a ship launched into the air. His first instinct was to pull it down and tear it apart until he could get his hands on Obi-Wan and finish what they'd started on Mapuzo. Finally destroy him, as he'd dreamed of doing for so long.
But certain knowledge stilled his hand. Your daughter is on that ship. What if she were hurt? What if you lost her, mere hours after discovering she's alive?
He paused, honing his focus. Keep it restrained, but don’t let anything hurt her. He could do this. He could do this.
The engine that was fighting him suddenly cut out and the ship crashed to the ground in a flurry of sparks. No! He tore open the side of the ship with nothing but the Force and then he heard it.
The sound of a new engine igniting and a second ship he’d thought empty rising up above him and taking off.
Kenobi.
Rage. Black boiling rage seared through his veins. The Force cracked and sizzled around him. The decoy ship moaned as large cracks started to cross its hull. The ground shuddered and shook around him.
Kenobi had taken what was his.
Again.
Kenobi turned Padmé against him. Vader wouldn’t tolerate him poisoning his child’s mind the same. Did he intend to train her as a Jedi? The Force spilled out of Vader, unstoppable as he vented his rage. He took a step back, to ground himself in preparation to shred the decoy ship into scrap.
He heard a crunch of metal on metal, when his prosthetic foot should have dug into packed dirt. Looking down, he saw the remains of a personal, long-distance communicator.
Distracted for a moment from his intent on destruction, he used the Force and summoned the remains of the communicator to his palm.
The circuits were heavily damaged when he activated it, but he caught a few words and the unmistakable visage of Bail Organa, looking far less calm and dignified than he normally projected himself to be.
Children… Tatooine… Owen… Boy…Safe…
The words glitched and ducked in and out. But they hit Vader like a bolt of lightning.
Owen ... as in, Anakin's step-brother, Owen?
It flickered to life briefly again.
If he has learned of the children ...
Behind him, the Third Sister was attempting to sneak up behind him and stab him in the back, but he didn't have time for such insignificant things ... he needed a ship and he needed it NOW.
Reva’s full discipline would need to wait. He knew the youngling’s underlying goal had been to lure him here to exact her vengeance and Vader didn’t have time to entertain her with a fight.
He reached an arm out and caught her in a Force choke. She hadn’t even had the time to ignite her lightsaber.
“Third Sister…”
“Lord Vader,” she coughed out.
“You are demoted. Do not waste my time with your childish games.” Vader knew the Grand Inquisitor was already on route to deal with her.
The main thing on his mind was now the Scythe Transport that Reva had arrived in. It was a sleek, fast ship with a hyperdrive.
It wasn't until he was on the ship that he gave an order to his star destroyer to pursue Kenobi and the ship. Secure the ship and its occupants at all costs.
Tatooine was just as Vader remembered it.
Even with everything filtered through the red of his helmet lenses, he knew that it was still dull and flat, and that the two suns were bearing down on everything without mercy.
He had not bothered to visit Anchorhead or any other location. Much as he had tried to forget it, he remembered exactly where the Lars Homestead was. Where his mother was buried.
Was this where Kenobi had been hiding all this time? Protecting the boy?
He left the ship some distance from the farm, so as to not alert the occupants to his presence too soon. It was a long walk from the rocky outcrop, and his boots stirred up the sand around him as the suns set lower in the sky. After he passed the moisture vaporators, he spotted a young boy, who had the hood up on an old landspeeder and a socket wrench in his hand. When he caught sight of him, he straightened up immediately, eyes growing wide. It was difficult to be sure through the mask, but it appeared his son had inherited his blue eyes.
The Force glowed around him, and for a second, it felt like the whole galaxy had turned on its axis. For so long, Obi-Wan had been all that mattered. Now ... now there were his children. He was a father. This changed everything.
"Whoa! Aren't you hot in that suit?" the boy asked, staring up as he came closer. He wasn't afraid.
It was as if Vader was frozen in carbonite. He was awestruck, looking down at the boy by his side. The youngling stood up to face him at his full height, and Vader tried to absorb every detail. He must have looked the same at that age, down to the pod-racing goggles around his neck.
The boy, his son, caught on to the sound of his breath cycles, noting, “Oh, your suit’s pressurized. Are you an Imperial pilot?”
Intuitive, Vader noted, seeming to realize his breathing for the first time. He had forgotten what life was like without it. It was a much simpler time…
Images of a life he had turned away from flashed before Vader; the Jedi, no older than his son was now, standing between Obi-Wan and Padmé, training, falling in love, and then nothing. Vader settled himself back into the present as youngling prattled on, asking question after question about the Empire and his supposed job. “What kind of ship do you fly? Have you been any cool places?”
My son…
This reverie was cut short by a woman's voice shouting, "Luke! RUN!"
The Force surged with a warning, and he stretched out a hand, pulling her blaster away before she pulled the trigger.
Now the boy was afraid. This was not acceptable.
"You would be foolish to fight me," he warned. "I am here for my son."
She hesitated, confusion passing over her face. Then, "Anakin?"
When he didn’t respond, she moved closer, scrutinizing him. "We thought you were dead!" She exclaimed, "oh, this is wonderful! I'm so glad you lived."
That was not the reaction he’d expected. On any level. Vaguely, he remembered her from the last time he’d been here, over a decade ago. She’d been Owen’s girlfriend at the time. Presumably, she was his wife now.
“You will be compensated for keeping him safe,” Vader said. “But I am here now. He belongs with me.”
“Aunt Beru, what’s happening?” The boy, Luke, moved toward her, grabbing onto her skirt. “Is his name really Anakin? Like my father’s?”
Beru leveled her blaster. “Luke, go into the house; don’t come out until I say so. I’ll talk to him.”
Luke hesitated.
“Are you my father?” he piped up, and then glanced between the stranger and his aunt.
“Luke.”
Vader watched the boy run off begrudgingly but obediently. “You can’t keep him here forever. He’s my son.”
Vader expected protest from Beru, but she only dragged a hand through some sweat-pressed strands sticking to her forehead before lowering her rifle.
“The galaxy is a dangerous place. You must know firsthand how dangerous Luke’s condition would be, if he takes after you,” Beru explained, “Please come inside for something to drink. We can talk when Owen gets home.”
Vader followed Beru, deciding not to mention that he wouldn’t be able to consume anything she gave him. On the way to the main building, his eyes caught two slabs of sand-worn stone: his mother’s grave, next to Owen’s father.
Vader knelt before them.
Beru put a hand on his shoulder plating and said, “I am sorry about Shmi, and I am sorry about Luke’s mother. I am afraid I never caught her name.”
Vader pushed down the images of Padmé that threatened to overwhelm him. He hadn't even had time to consider what the existence of his children said about the circumstances of her death.
He followed Beru into the house, and stood in the dining room while she made something in the kitchen. Luke was pretending to be busy with something in the courtyard, but he kept glancing at him, clearly curious.
"Obi-Wan told us you were dead," Beru said, returning with a tray of drinks. "She gestured to the chairs. "Please, sit down."
Vader remained standing, arms folded. "Why am I not surprised that he would choose to lie about that as well?"
"Who lied?" Luke asked, hovering in the doorway.
"Luke, please, go wait outside," Beru said firmly. "This is grown-up talk."
"But I am grown up, I'm ten!" Luke protested. "Please, Aunt Beru, please, I promise I'll be good! I want to know what you're talking about!"
"He deserves the truth," Vader confirmed, taking an unsubtle step closer to his son.
"Are you really my father?" Luke asked. "Why do you wear that mask? Can I see what you look like?"
Vader was about to answer when he felt a tremor in the Force. Obi-Wan had arrived. He would not stop him. Not this time.
"I have ... business to take care of," he said, walking past the boy.
The boy ran to Vader and cut off his path before he could escape the cramped eating area. He stepped in front of Vader with his arms spread. The act was one of foolish bravery, yet Vader also realized that his son didn’t know who or what he was confronting.
“Haven’t you been taking care of business for the last ten years?” The youngling demanded, “Why do you have to leave right now?”
“Luke!” Beru shouted to her ward, “He is our guest. You need to give him space!”
“He’s not a guest! He’s family!” Luke insisted, “He shouldn’t have to leave again!”
Despite the pain that doing so caused him, Vader knelt, putting his mask at a level with Luke’s guileless eyes. “I will come back. And when I do, nothing will ever make me leave again. I give you my word. But this must be finished first.” Kenobi would pay for depriving him of his family.
The boy’s lip quivered slightly. “Please don’t be mad at me.”
Luke thought… Vader cringed inwardly as he realized his son was afraid of him in that moment. “I am not angry with you, young one. And I will never do anything that would endanger you. But this is something I have needed to do for a very long time.”
Bail Organa was waiting at the pre-arranged coordinates when Obi-Wan set the ship down. Leia barrelled out of the ship like a baby Reek at the sight of her father, and flung herself into his arms.
"Oh, thank you, Obi-Wan," Bail said, hugging his daughter like he'd never let go. "Thank you. Leia, thank the Force you're safe."
"Did you find Owen?" Obi-Wan asked.
Bail nodded over Leia's head. "He's on his way back to the farm now. I saw Vader's ship."
"He'll come after me," Obi-Wan said. "Once he is away from the farm, take the children and Owen and Beru to safety as soon as you can."
"But what about you?" Leia asked, peeking out from Bail's arms.
Obi-Wan met her gaze for a moment, and then looked towards the sandy horizon. What of him? Did he have the emotional strength to face his fallen brother?
“My duty is to ensure the safety of the children,” he said finally. “If I have to give my life to keep them safe, I will.”
“But, Obi-Wan—“
“We always knew this would be a possibility, Bail. They matter more.”
“You can’t!” Leia protested. “Ben, I don’t understand, I thought the Sif wanted you, that’s what you told me. Why are you talking like he’s after me now?”
Obi-Wan met Bail's gaze, and he gave a small nod.
"Leia, do you remember how I said I didn't know your birth parents?"
Leia nodded.
"I only told you that to keep you safe. The truth is ... your birth father was a Jedi."
Leia processed what Obi-Wan said. She allowed herself to let go of her father’s hand, looking back as if he might vanish if she blinked. With a deep breath, she stepped forward and tugged Obi-Wan’s sleeve.
“He’s your friend,” Leia explained, “The Sif was your friend. He’s why you were so sad when talking to… me.”
Obi-Wan closed his eyes. Untrained, she was still so perceptive of the way the Force moved around them. In a better world, she might have become a capable Jedi.
“He was,” he said finally. “But he despises me now. And that hatred may be enough to allow you and a boy very like you to escape from him and the Empire.”
“Obi-Wan,” Bail’s voice strained with a wave of emotions. Leia seemed to understand and stepped back toward her father.
“I’ll be good, Papa,” she promised, her clear brown gaze still on Obi-Wan.
“Be ready as soon as the Larses arrive,” Obi-Wan said, trying to ignore how his hand wanted to shake as he reached for his lightsaber. “You may have to—"
“You just focus on your task at hand,” Bail cut him off. “Go, now.”
Meanwhile, Vader's attempt to leave the Lars farm to finally take care of Obi-Wan was disrupted yet again. This time by Owen's arrival.
"Uncle Owen!" Luke shouted, as soon as his uncle appeared at the top of the stairs down to the courtyard. "Look! My father has come home! He's alive!"
Owen looked Vader up and down, his expression somewhere between confusion and fear. "Anakin?" he inquired.
"That is no longer my name," Vader explained.
"You changed your name?" Beru asked, from the doorway through to the dining room. "Shmi loved the name Anakin."
Vader hesitated. "It was given to me by my Master," he said. "Anakin is dead."
Owen looked him up and down. "So are you Luke's father or not?"
"I am."
"Then you're still Anakin to me." And, to Vader's surprise, Owen glowered. He looked from Luke, clinging to Vader's hand like a limpet, back to Vader. "Where have you been?"
“Busy. I’ll be taking Luke now. Thank you for looking after him.” Vader’s words were clipped and for a few beats, everyone was silent.
“You can’t have him. We’re his family now.” Owen was defiant, his arms crossed and his stare fixed at Vader’s eyepiece.
Luke looked from his father to his uncle, confused. “Dad, can you stay?” he asked in compromise. Yes, Luke loved Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, but now that he had his father, Luke didn’t want to lose him.
"You know that you can't just rip a child away from everything he's ever known," Beru said. "Be reasonable. Where do you plan to take him? Do you have a home suitable for a child?"
If he were reasonable, Vader might have conceded that Beru was right. None of his residences were suited to raising a child. They could barely be called residences, they were fortresses at best, prisons at worst. But even so…
“I do not belong here.” Amidst the sand and death and failure. “Neither does he. He is meant for more.”
“That isn’t your call to make,” Owen said bluntly. “We were told to keep him safe. And for our mother’s memory, for your memory, we’ve done that.”
Vader nearly killed his stepbrother then and there for daring to claim Shmi as true family. Only Luke’s presence stopped him. But for someone clearly unskilled in the Force, Owen was looking at him with all the intensity of a grandmaster staring down a nine-year-old boy to tell him that he was dangerous.
“You never answered my question,” Owen said, emboldened by the silence. “Where have you been? And why is it increasingly seeming like one of the things I need to protect him from is you?”
"Please don't fight!" Luke insisted. To Vader's surprise, he tugged at his cape. "Can I show you my room? I'm building something."
A memory bubbled up from the mental tomb where he kept Anakin's life. Wanting Padmé to see his room. To try and impress her with a droid he was building.
He was about to explain to the boy that would have to wait, when he felt another tremor in the Force. Obi-Wan's presence still loomed large, waiting for him in the desert. But now, he could sense his daughter as well. He had brought her here, of all places.
It was all too obvious what his plan was. Lure him away from the children and then have them taken away from him again. It would be best if he kept his son beside him, and his daughter too, if he could reach her.
"You can show me later," he said. "Right now, I want to show you something." He reached down and took Luke's hand, letting his gloved, mechanical fingers close tightly around the small digits of his child, and felt a warmth spread through him.
"You can't—" Owen started to speak, but Vader held up his hand in warning.
"I will not allow harm to come to him, whatever lies you may have been given to believe. But he needs to know the real truth."
He wanted Kenobi to admit everything in front of the children. There would be no pretenses of morality from his former master this time.
Owen looked to his wife. Unlike his nephew, he was aware that each word anyone said to Vader was laced with a dangerous instability.
That look was enough to make Beru adjust her belt under her apron until a small firearm holster was visible on her hip. It appeared to be a modified version of a target blaster, a stun weapon rather than a deadly one.
“Luke, if you’re going to go with your father, I want you to have something to keep yourself safe,” She explained while unhooking the holster. She exchanged another glance with Owen before addressing Vader, “You remember what it’s like here.”
“You don’t have to be so worried,” Luke spoke to his aunt, while taking the small arm from her as she passed it into his free hand, “I’m going to come back.”
Vader tugged Luke on and he trotted beside him, asking near-constant questions all the way to the boundary of the farm. The sand swirled around them, blocking the view of the horizon, but Vader knew where Obi-Wan was. His presence was intolerable.
"Where are we going?" Luke asked, finally.
"To find Obi-Wan."
"Who's Obi-Wan? Is he your friend?"
"No."
"Then why are we—" Luke broke off, and then pointed. "Is that him?"
Obi-Wan appeared out of the swirling sand, lightsaber in his hand but not ignited.
“Let the boy go.” Obi-wan sounded tired, and Vader took a small amount of pleasure in that. Fighting him a second time would be that much easier.
“He is safe with me. Unlike you.” Vader produced his own lightsaber. “Where is she?”
“Why do you ask when you know I will not tell you?”
“You took them from me once, I will not allow you to do it again. Now tell me where she is.”
Obi-Wan took one decisive step closer. “I will not allow them to follow the path you have taken, Padmé would not—“
“YOU DO NOT SAY HER NAME!” Vader’s voice was a roar in his ears, but the vocoder of the mask translated it to the same controlled monotone as his other speech. “SHE WOULD STILL BE HERE IF NOT FOR YOU!”
“So that’s what you choose to believe, Anakin,” Obi-Wan scoffed, “Padmé died by your hand, because of what you’ve become.”
“LIAR!” Vader shouted, “YOU TOOK PADMÉ FROM ME BUT I REFUSE TO LET YOU TAKE MY CHILDREN.” He raised his lightsaber, ready to strike. “If you will not tell me where she is, then I will find her myself.”
“Your move.” Obi-Wan raised his blade to defend.
Vader moved forward to strike first, but his hand snagged on something. Vader looked down at the impediment: his son’s palm was firmly gripping his.
Luke wouldn’t meet his gaze, he was looking out towards Obi-Wan. A sickly expression of shock and fear spread over the boy’s features.
Vader couldn’t hear what the boy said, his voice was too quiet, perhaps not there at all, but the Sith Lord could read lips.
“Padmé?”
Obi-Wan took advantage of his distraction to Force push him away from Luke. Then he rushed to stand between him and the boy, lightsaber raised. Behind him, a speeder roared up in a cloud of sand, driven by Bail Organa. Beru was in the front seat, and behind her ... a girl.
"Ben!" she shouted.
"Luke!" Beru called, standing up. "Run, sweetheart!"
But Luke seemed frozen, staring at him with some strange mix of longing and fear. Then the girl jumped out of the speeder and came running towards the boy. He couldn't do anything but stare. She looked just like Padmé. His daughter.
"Are you all right?" she asked the boy, reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder. Then she looked from him to Obi-Wan, and said, "Ben? Is he my father?"
The girl’s presence was enough to shake Luke out of some of his daze. He took a step back from the combatants, but he didn’t seem sure what direction he wanted to go. He looked to Vader, the speeder, and then focused on the girl next to him.
“I-I’m alright,” Luke managed to say, “Have I met you before?”
Leia cupped her brother’s hand in hers. “Don’t be afraid,” she assured him.
"No."
Vader held out the hand not gripping his lightsaber and focused very intently— not on the children, but on their clothes, using that as the tether by which he pulled them towards him with the Force.
Luke gasped in shock, unable to move, but Leia squirmed and struggled to break free. "Stop it!" She demanded imperiously. "Let go!"
No, little one, never again...
"Let them go!" Obi-Wan was already attempting to push him back, but his power was no match for his desire to reclaim his children. Not even Obi-Wan mattered anymore. Only them. Vader deactivated his lightsaber and summoned the Force again, causing a mountain of sand to rise up between them. The two younglings were attempting to run, but he pulled them up from the sand, carrying them one under each arm. His ship was a short distance away, but reaching it would require speed the children did not possess.
Just as he began to leap towards the rocks, his daughter gave him a hard kick. "Let me down at once! I am a princess of Alderaan!"
Before Vader could respond, he saw that Senator Organa had climbed out of his speeder. "Leia! No !" he cried. "Lord Vader! Unhand my daughter immediately!"
"SHE IS NOT YOURS!" Vader roared, the Force lifting the pathetic lifeform up to gasp for air almost without his conscious effort. "YOU STOLE HER!" His senses left him as he felt himself immersed in the Dark Side, fueled by his anger at the baby-thieving Jedi and Senator. It had not been enough to bury his wife; they had to take all that was left of her, probably taking the children right from her womb, away from their true family. He was only vaguely aware of the girl's thrashing and screaming as she called for that man, but each call was a stab to his already long-shattered heart. It should have been him she was calling for, his shadow she looked to for protection, his side she learned by. There was only one Queen and Senator worthy to raise the girl, and she was gone.
In his grief and anger, clutching the girl tight to his chest, he did not notice that the boy had slipped away until he saw him grasping the hand of the senator while both ran back to the speeder.
No. Not again.
"LUKE!" His son's name was etched on every cell of his body as he screamed it out. Not again, not again, please, please. He dropped to his knees, despite the pain it caused him.
Everyone seemed to freeze, staring at him. Even Leia stilled in his arms.
"Don't," he whispered now. "Don't take him from me. Don't take either of them. Please. Not again."
It was pathetic. Unbecoming of the Sith. But he wasn't a Sith at this moment. He was a father who needed his children.
Obi-Wan was staring at him. Organa had gone still only for a moment, trying to back away with Luke still in his arms. But Luke refused to budge.
“What happened to you?” he asked. Vader stared at him silently. “What did you do?”
The echo of Vaders desperate, vulnerable shout still hung in the air around them. No one wanted to interrupt it.
Except Luke. And now Leia.
“Why doesn’t my father want me to go with you?” she demanded, stronger than Luke, a fire in her voice so much like her mother’s. “What are you going to do with us?”
Vader looked down at Leia. Looked across to Luke. For a moment, he saw another young boy, looking up at him with trust and innocence the way Luke had when they first met.
Master Skywalker, there are too many of them. What are we going to do?
“Anakin, listen to reason!” Obi-wan called, his lightsaber still burning, but lowered, “After what happened to Padmé, I was terrified of what harm the Empire could do to her children!”
Vader stood inert. He could hear his voice croak, while his vocoder emitted a tone with more confidence, as he asked, “What happened to Padmé?”
“She…” Obi-wan started, looking first to Leia who again stilled in Vader’s arms. He never would have imagined saying this to the poor child if her life wasn’t immediately in danger. “She had been unconscious for hours in Mustafar’s atmosphere. She barely lived long enough to name the twins.”
Vader felt pain ripple through the Force, stronger and closer than Obi-wan’s. It came from the girl under his arm. Moments later, an echo pulsed from the boy.
"You loved her," his daughter said, easing herself to a standing position, but keeping her hand on his arm. "More than anything."
She was looking at him in a way as if to see right through the mask and all the armor.
"Leia, come away!" Bail called. Owen and Beru had appeared now, taking Luke from his arms.
"No," Leia said, stubbornly. "He's my father too. And ... he needs help."
Vader looked down at his daughter, then sank to her level until they were eye to eye. He was silent, except for his breathing as he contemplated his answer. “I did. She was brave, confident, fearless, and stubborn, much like you.”
Leia nodded intently. “You miss her too.”
“So much.” His voice cracked between the words, but it didn’t translate in the mechanical voice.
“I feel like I remember her…” Leia started, “She was beautiful and kind, but sad.” Then she shook her head. “I don’t remember anything else.”
"Aunt Beru," Luke said, reaching up to tug at his aunt's arm. "Can they all stay at the farm? I want to get to know my father. And ... my sister."
Leia turned from Vader, and looked between Bail, Obi-Wan, and Luke.
"Luke is my brother?"
Obi-Wan nodded. "Your twin brother."
Luke slipped away from Owen and Beru, and came to stand in front of Leia. They both shared a smile.
"I always wanted a sister," Luke said.
Obi-Wan had not taken his eyes away from Vader, but his stance was more open now. "Will you agree to talk?" he said. "Anakin ... if you love these children, then you must protect them from Palpatine. You know what he will do to them."
I can handle Sidious. The instinct rose up in Vader’s throat, then died. The reality of the situation was that he depended on his filthy, treacherous master. That was exactly how the old man liked it most of the time. Except when he was raging about Vader’s uselessness and incompetence.
He’d say the children would be ideal replacements for their father. He’d probably train them personally.
“Anakin.” Obi-Wan spoke again and the use of his old name felt like a saber in Vader’s chest. “Whatever else you may think, everyone here wants to protect them.”
Vader re-examined his two children. Their big youthful eyes addressed him with more curiosity than the worried adults who surrounded them. The Force matched those emotions, and it gave Vader a frightening realization.
Strong as these children were in the Force, they were as vulnerable as newly hatched Krayt Dragons. These weren't Sideous's killers, not yet. Too young to be the age of Padawans, he could only imagine them being trusted with a blaster or training lightsaber to protect themselves. Vader acknowledged a modified, stun blaster hanging from Luke’s belt, and the child was already moving closer to him and his sister — disregarding the danger he was in.
How could he protect them? Would he keep them by his side at all times, or would that draw more unwanted attention to the younglings? Part of him could acknowledge the reality his children would live under, while part of him would die if he was separated from his children again.
He chose his words, “Please, give me time to spend with them. They will not come to harm.”
"Then the Emperor must be destroyed," Obi-Wan said wearily. As much as Vader hated to admit it, he knew his old master was right: his children would never be safe for as long as Sidious lived. The Sith would sink his claws in little by little, and by the time the children understood that, it would be too late. Just like ... No. He couldn't dwell on that. He had to think of what to do now. Obi-Wan had always criticized his lack of foresight; let him see now how his old student could plan.
"He is too powerful," Vader intoned, "to be destroyed right away." He saw the children's faces fall, and it tore at his heart like Tatooine's sandstorms had torn at his skin. "But the future is not so certain."
The children's faces lit up, and he saw a glimmer in even his old master's eyes. "Lord Sidious believes himself invincible. His Empire is a product of years of scheming to pull the strings of the entire galaxy, and his abilities draw upon the depths of the Dark Side. He cannot fathom anyone else defeating him."
"Like Cousin Niano," he heard a small voice speak up. Looking down, he saw it was his beautiful daughter— Leia, he reminded himself. "If he thinks he's better than everyone, we'll just have to show him what a pathetic life-form he really is."
“You will do no such thing.” Vader and Bail Organa spoke with one voice, surprising the Sith Lord. But there was no kriffing way Sidious was going to be allowed near either of the children.
“What?”
“That’s not fair!”
“We can help!”
The twins practically overlapped, identical outrage and indignation etched on their faces.
Of every story or public text about the Sith that Obi-wan read, there was nothing to prepare him for this circumstance.
Betrayal, violence, and heartbreak were expected from the ancient religion of the Sith. No tome or age-rusted datapad ever mentioned what to do when you saw one of these monsters walking hand in hand with their children.
With coaxing, and an agreement that the twins would not have to say goodbye to their father just yet, the Skywalker trio boarded the landspeeder and returned to the Lars homestead. The rising temperature was becoming dangerous, above all to the young twins.
The Jedi watched cautiously from the shadowed sidelines of the courtyard, with the two moisture farmers and the monarchs of Alderaan, as Vader directed the twins in a sparring game made for younglings. Training blades were swapped out with desert-whitened sticks of wood.
“Hey!” Owen called from the sidelines, “Luke, that’s your sister! Knock it off!”
Luke had foregone the rule to only contact his opponent’s “blade” and punched Leia after she won a round. As cute as the twins were, Obi-wan had forgotten how much younglings liked to scrap with each other when they thought no one was paying close enough attention.
Vader observed from the side, without correcting his son, and Obi-Wan used that as an opening. Approaching the side of his now much-taller, former padawan, he suggested, “Luke broke a rule. I’m surprised you’re not disciplining him.”
“Leia kicked him in the shin a moment ago. He was entitled to revenge. Besides, they’re better behaved than Inquisitors,” Vader replied.
Obi-wan let himself smile when the Sith turned his head. It was such an Anakin thing to say.
"They—"
"When—"
Both men spoke at once and while Obi-Wan chuckled, Vader could only exhale to indicate his amusement.
"Go on," he said, and it was difficult to be sure whether his tone was grudging or indulgent, even to himself.
"When I got the call to rescue Leia, I thought it was Padmé she would resemble, given the circumstances," Obi-Wan said, "but then she has that knack you had for finding trouble and driving me mad with worry. And Luke... sometimes, I look at him and I swear it's the day Qui-Gon brought you back. They are both your children."
"They are hers as well," Vader felt his voice break. "They are hers. And they belong to the guardians... the parents you chose." It was not an easy thing for him to admit, but he couldn't deny it. Nor would he try to, for the sake of Luke and Leia. "They'll need the strengths of all their parents for what lies ahead."