The Moons of Iego: The Padmé Amidala & Anakin Skywalker Website

FAN FICTION : ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

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I'm Your What?
Part 2/3

by FernWithy, Moriah Organa, SithAbigail, Vee, Mr. P

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Amidala followed Dritali into the low-slung building. It was nestled into a valley protected by the mountains, and it bore the marks of once having been a fairly gracious underground palace. It was sparsely furnished now, but densely populated. Some of the children were her own age; most were younger.

A hand rested on her arm suddenly, and she turned to see a middle-aged man, with black hair and dark eyes, his face worn with weather and care. He looked like he was seeing a ghost.

Well, maybe he was.

"Amidala..." he whispered.

She nodded, not bothering to call herself Padmé. Kitster had obviously found out the truth somewhere along the line. "Hello," she said simply. "I'm a bit lost."

Then Kit's arms wrapped around her, and she felt herself held tight. It was the embrace of a brother, a friend, but it was full of years of experience that she hadn't had yet. It felt good. "I don't understand it," he said. "But you've been missed."

A thousand questions were on Amidala's lips. Why had she separated her children? Why didn't they know of each other's existence? Was she dead? What was this Empire? Where was Ani? That last somehow seemed the most important... but suddenly she didn't want to ask it. She wanted to ask anything else. She didn't want to know any of these answers.

Kit broke the embrace, and studied her face. "How long ago?" he asked. "You look just as you did in Mos Espa ..."

"That's where I came from. I saw you just this morning at the race."

"How much do you want to know?"

"You'd tell me, just like that?"

Kit looked around the crowded room. "These are the children of a war, Amidala. A war that's been going on for twenty years. I have little interest in protecting the timeline that led to it. But I will respect your wishes in the matter."

Amidala nodded. "Thank you. I need to consider it. I've met... my son... " She thought of Luke's face, and Leia's smile. There was something in this timeline that she wanted to protect. She was suddenly very tired. "I need time to think, and rest."

"Of course. I have private rooms. You may use them if you like."

"Thank you."

He led her to a quiet study, and she laid down on a simple couch. What do I need to know? What do I need to not know?

Her mind began its slow circling again, this time in earnest, and she didn't notice that she'd fallen asleep until she was awakened by the sound of soft, steady breathing. She felt a sense of complete, unquestioning protection, and pure and unsullied love. She'd felt a glimmering of it yesterday, but many years had passed since then, and it was stronger now.

She didn't open her eyes, though she felt tears welling up under the lids as she whispered, "Hello, Ani."

*************************************

Sabè stood outside some building, waiting for Lando to come out. He had told her while stuttering, that he doubted they were in there but she insisted they look. Lando had relented but had made her stay outside.

Spotting him, she waved him over. "Were they in there?"

"Unless Padmé or Leia have a part-time job we really don't want to know about, no."

Trying to puzzle it out, she blushed when she finally did. Sabè knew she was extremely naive for sixteen at certain things, it came from being raised by a militant father. She loved her father very much but it had been a huge relief to leave home to work for Amidala.

"So do you think they're even in town?" Lando's question was lazy, he probably didn't expect an answer.

"Where else would they...be." Sabé trailed off as she saw the armored men in white look straight at her. "Run!"

To his credit, he didn't argue. He just ran as she did, cursing the outfit that slowed her so much. Entering an alley, they lay in wait until the men in white passed. "What were those things?"

Lando's voice was a little grim. "Those were stormtroopers. Still feel confident the others could handle them?"

"They're just big men with guns. That's all." Sabé nodded and clasped her hands when she noticed they were shaking a little.

"Big men with guns in troops of twelve against a kid, a handmaiden, a princess, three Jedi and a partridge in a pear tree. If they got taken by surprise...." Lando stopped that rain of thought and abruptly smiled. "But, hey, let's keep looking."

Sabé ignored her growing fear and led the way out, as queenly as Amidala ever was. Almost.

------------------

Vader stood quietly over his wife -- but it was so many years until she would be his wife, and had been so many years since! -- not knowing what to say to her. Her eyes had not opened, but she had spoken his name. His former name. The name that brought up all the unreasoning rage in his mind.

Except when she spoke it.

When she spoke it, he simply accepted it as his own, the way he might accept an old glove that didn't quite fit right anymore. "I have been called Vader for many years," he said.

"By me?"

"No. Never by you."

Her eyes opened. The tears welled out of them and spilled down her cheeks. "I want to ask what happened. I want to ask it, but I can't."

"It is well that you do not. You have some happiness in your future. I am sorry that this will cloud it."

She sat up, gazing coolly at him. "What are your intentions here?" Her eyes were neither frightened nor disgusted. All he saw was the icy appraisal of the queen of Naboo.

He stood forward into the light to submit to it. "Amidala, I have no ill intentions toward you. I merely wanted to see you. It has been... many years for me. I had not intended to wake you at all, only to stay and guard you from a second attack. I will not harm you."

Her eyes narrowed, but softened. "I believe you." She did, Vader could feel that she did in the soft aura of the Force that surrounded her. But he could also feel a high sense of nervousness, a fluttering heartbeat, a ghost-word floating through her consciouness... she was afraid of him in some way that did not appeal to him at all.

It came to him in a flash, though the fear was not fully formed in her own mind. The word that was haunting her was "husband." Vader stepped away, to give her more space. "Amidala, I desire the woman you will become. For the child you are, I have... remembered affection of friendship. You have no reason to fear... " For a moment, he was at a loss for words. He concluded simply with, "I will not touch you in that manner."

He felt the relief come from her, but also a certain self-conscious embarrassment. Vader remembered it well. She gave him a shaky smile. "Thank you, Ani. I will remember in a few years that such a statement... stings a bit."

"No, you won't."

Astonishingly, she laughed. Then she burst into tears.

Vader stood watching her, not having the first idea what to do.

------------------

Amidala got the crying fit under control. It wasn't like her, but then this was all too much. She tried to recapture the thought that it was all a dream, tried to weave any fantasy that would make this go away, but they all hit the solid, unyielding surface of the man who stood in the shadows.

Her husband-who-would-be-and-once-was. This monster, this beast in a death's head mask.

Ani.

The tears threatened again. How could she go back? How could she marry him? How could her children be born? This man... she had heard whispers of him in Mos Espa, and her captor had spoken of him as though they had the same master. How could she hold him in anything but contempt?

And yet she didn't feel that. She felt only a deep connection to him, deeper even than their shared children. She didn't want to feel it, but it was there. She heard their years together in his speech -- it was her own practiced, formal throne room speech. She saw the protective stance he took at the door. She understood that he'd spoken the simple truth when he'd said that he merely wanted to see her. She'd felt his love for her... and she felt her own potential to return it.

Even like this.

Maker help me.

"Amidala, I know this is difficult to understand... "

"How can I stop it?"

The sentence came out flatly, coldly, not at all the tone she meant, but Ani didn't react badly to it. He simply fell to his knees before her, and took her hands.

"Amidala," he said, "you cannot."

"You can't want this..."

"That isn't what I mean. This is not your responsibility. It is not your fault. It is not something you can fix."

"Is it something you could fix?"

He drew away abruptly, and stood. His voice became as cold as hers had been. "Do not make assumptions about what I want and what I do not want."

"It's too late for that, Anakin Skywalker. You already told me what you want, through your own actions. Now tell me how to help you get it."

He stood in the doorway for a moment, then simply repeated, "There is nothing you can do." He turned around. "This conversation is at an end. You will remain here until a way is discovered to return you to your own time. I have... " His voice broke for a moment, and she listened to the sound of the respirator. It was nearly a whisper when he spoke again, oddly stiff and formal. "I have enjoyed speaking with you, my love," he said, and disappeared into Sanctuary.

------------------

Vertash had twisted his ankle jumping off a couch -- it had been a spirited game of Tusken and Farmer, and Vertash, as always, had chosen to be a Tusken Raider -- and Kit was wrapping a supporting bandage around it when Anakin (or Vader, whatever he was calling himself these days; Kit wasn't picky) came out of the back room. He'd returned to Sanctuary not long after Amidala had gotten there, and asked politely enough if he might see her. Kit had told him she was sleeping; he had promised not to wake her. Somehow, Kit doubted that the promise had been kept.

Vertash wiggled his foot and cleared his throat, and Kit realized that he'd stopped rolling out the bandage. He finished it up. "Good as new," he said absently.

Vertash slipped down off the table, sought out Kerea (who was too upset by An- Vader's presence to join the games), and promptly tried to engage her in a card game of some kind. Kit had time to see her smile before he felt Vader standing behind him. Strange, how the pneumatics had become so constant that he almost didn't hear them. "What are your plans?" he asked.

"I must return her to her own time," Vader said. "Until then, she will remain here. I will watch over her and see to it that Maul brings no harm to her or to your home."

Kit wasn't sure how to bring up the next subject, so he dove straight in. "Your presence is disturbing some of the children."

Vader looked at him blankly -- of course it was blank, it was the damned mask, except that Kit thought the look underneath might be the same; blank puzzlement: And what do you want me to do about that? I have other priorities...

"I'm sorry, Anakin," he said, "but it's true. You are welcome to be here, but I can't say that I hope for a long visit. And I must ask you to..."

"I will remain discreet," Vader said.

Kit noticed that he had not been corrected on the name, but chose not to point that out. "I appreciate it."

A small hand touched Kit's, and there was no great surprise in seeing that it was Dritali's. She was looking up at Vader, her neck craned and her eyes directed nearly toward the ceiling -- she looked like a tourist getting the first glance of a skyscraper on Coruscant. "May I talk to you, Lord Vader?" she asked quietly.

"No," Anakin said, "you may not."

He turned, and went out toward the gardens.

Dritali bit her lip, and Kit was engaged in trying to cheer her up when the door to the back rooms opened again. He didn't see it.

------------------

Vader stalked through the gardens. Mainly rock gardens at this level, decorative stones, chosen for color and shape. Some such gardens could be lovely. He had seen one on the world of Reshtal which glowing obsidian and deep aquamarine... this one was a Tatooine garden. Sandstone and more sandstone, with varying degrees of red and brown. Some stones were flecked with mica. Most were just oddly shaped. It was a poor garden, shaped by children. Much like the one Kit had kept in Mos Espa, many years ago.

Vader leaned down, saw a smooth shape that looked like a pointing hand. He had found that in the desert during a trading expedition with the jawas that Watto had sent him on. Kit had kept it. The galaxy was full of many strange puzzlements.

He reached out, found Maul easily -- he was running in the desert. Not far from... other figures. Who...?

He concentrated more deeply. Rabé. Eirtaé. Names that he had neither spoken nor thought in many years. But they had been...

...sent out in this forsaken desert, while her Highness puts herself in grave danger and...

...it really is beautiful in its own way and I wish I was home on Naboo and...

...this'm berry bad, wesa got no nothing out here in the desert, if someone's deciding to crunch us...

Sabé had split up the remaining group. Interesting strategy. It would foil the stormtroopers for a little while, if they had to search for several small groups. Oddly, Vader felt no inclination at all to send word to the military about this knowledge.

He heard a light footstep, crunching on the gravel path, and thought it was the girl Dritali again. He did not wish to be seen attached to a clinging child (though he was in an honest enough mood to admit that it was gratifying to be important to her). He spoke as he began to turn. "I was quite serious about not wishing to speak to you."

"I didn't believe you," Amidala said. "I still don't."

"Go back inside, Amidala."

She shook her head, took a few more tentative steps toward him. "I can't do that, Ani. I can't walk away from you." Then, in a quick motion, she covered the rest of the distance between them. Her arms wrapped around his waist. Her cheek pressed against the machinery of his chest.

For a moment, he was too bewildered to even comprehend what she had done. He brought his hands to her shoulders, meaning vaguely to push her away, but instead, he simply stroked her hair. It was not... in any way improper. She simply... needed comfort. It was the sort of comfort she had offered him on the ship as it left Tatooine, when he was cold. Of course, for her, that hadn't happened yet. The odd thought came into his mind that he was teaching her to comfort him... if that would happen now. He doubted it would. She would be crazy to retain any fondness for him, knowing what would happen. "You must leave me," he said, finally remembering to separate himself from her.

"Why? Are you planning to do something you don't want me to see?"

"No. But you do not belong here."

"I've met our son, Ani. I want... " She shook her head and bit her lip. "I want you to tell me that we were happy. That we... "

"We were happy," he said curtly. He thought of Luke again, Luke falling into the windswept core of Cloud City, his mutilated arm waving obscenely up. If she had met him, then he was still close. He was...

...in prison. Or at least on board the ship. I... he/I... younger... Ani had gotten him out of the cell. Vader searched for a scrap of memory of having done this, but found nothing. He had simply read his own mind. A strange, twisted feeling.

"Amidala, I must go into town. Remain here."

"No."

"Luke has been captured. I can have him released, along with the others. I will deal with them at a later point, but I cannot allow the timeline to be polluted by their capture at this juncture."

"I'm going with you."

"Amidala -- "

"This is not open for debate. If you're going, I am going. Whatever you plan to do, you can do it with me watching."

He didn't have time to argue the point with her. He turned. If she was going to follow, she'd just have to keep up.

------------------

Amidala was beginning to get a stitch in her side from running, but she did not let Anakin out of her sight, and he did not slow his pace to accomodate her. He was as stubborn as an adult as he was as a child, at any rate. But that was all right. Amidala was stubborn, too.

She ignored the pain in her side and quickened her pace, her toes catching the faint edges of his moonlit shadow. She had a mad urge to step on it, to catch it like a cape and hold him still.

There was such a frenetic energy in him, in the way he walked, the way he'd been prowling the garden... but she had held him still, just for a moment. Granted, it had been the stillness of perfect shock, but it had been some kind of stillness, at least.

And why did you do that?

Oh, but that was the question, wasn't it?

She had not intended to embrace this monster that Ani had become. He frightened her, and contemplating the things he might be capable of doing made her stomach turn. In that brief moment of touching him, she'd felt -- almost seen -- that he had done things beyond her worst imaginings. Yet, she had not let go. She had needed to know what it felt like to hold him, to be held by him. She'd needed to know what it meant that he loved her. She'd needed to know that the children they would create came from what was good and true in both of them.

And she had felt it.

When she'd first seen him there in the garden, bending stiffly to examine a red rock, the thought had come to her cleanly and firmly: I will stop this. I will not allow this to happen to him. Thoughts of what had happened to the rest of the galaxy were distant and unreal. It was Anakin Skywalker that she wanted to save. And, unfortunately, the only way to accomplish that end was to directly defy what he had become, to draw on a relationship she didn't yet understand in order to move him away from... all this.

He stopped abruptly in the fringes of Mos Espa, and held up one hand for her to stop as well. She ignored it until she was beside him. "What?"

He turned his head. She wished he wouldn't look at her; the mask was disconcerting. "The Emperor is coming," he said. "It is better for you not to see him."

"Better for which of us?"

He didn't answer. He simply stared at her for a moment more, then went into town. She followed him through twisting streets, past the spaceport, and into an open area, where a large gray ship had docked. He strode toward it without hesitation. She followed, close enough for the wind to billow his cape against her face.

A cluster of guards waited at the base of the gangplank, and they bowed to him. "Lord Vader, this is unexpected -- "

He started in without acknowledging them. Amidala started to follow, but was met by the noses of several blasters. Anakin stopped at the top of the gangplank, and stood quietly. After a moment, he simply said, "She is with me."

The guards immediately parted, and Amidala followed Vader into the ship.

The commander -- at least Amidala assumed it by his position on the bridge -- immediately stood at attention. "Lord Vader."

"It is my understanding that several Rebels have been taken prisoner."

"Yes, my Lord."

"Release them immediately. They unknowingly occupy a strategic position in current operations."

The commander looked at his feet. "I apologize, Lord Vader, but I cannot comply."

Anakin raised his hand, and the officer began to grasp at his throat. Amidala gasped.

The black mask turned toward her again, then the hand lowered and the officer drew in a sharp breath. "I'm sorry, Lord Vader."

"Why do you defy me?"

"The orders to detain them come from the Emperor himself. I cannot disobey."

------------------

Anakin stopped. His blood was suddenly cold and fiery at the same time, and his head was pounding. Across from him, Luke was staring at the arch that led into the corridor.

Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon had used mind tricks to get them into the storage room where their weapons were kept, and they'd just finished getting them (Anakin had kept his broken piece of droid) when the air changed. Luke seemed to notice it most, though Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon looked up as well, and Anakin thought Leia got a little bit pale.

But it was his own reaction that scared him, big time. He felt like all his bones were shattered and the bits were jiggling around in his muscles. He felt like diving for cover. And he felt like covering his face and crying in shame. "What's happening?" he managed to whisper.

Luke picked him up with no preliminaries shifted him to his back to be carried -- Anakin couldn't remember the last time he'd been carried anywhere -- and said, "We're getting off this ship, now."

No one offered any arguments. Leia led the way, saying briefly that she knew the ship's class.

They wound down through corridors into a cargo bay, which looked to Anakin like a dead end -- all his earlier clarity about the ship seemed to have disappeared. Leia lifted a panel in the wall, and a huge section of the hull slid sideways. An alarm sounded somewhere above.

"Run!" Qui-Gon yelled.

The four adults spilled out through the newly opened hatch, and Anakin could hear Luke's labored breathing. "I'm slowing you down!" he said. "Drop me!"

"I carried Yoda ten kilometers a day. I can -- " he gasped a breath " -- carry you two or three."

"I can run."

"I don't have time to find out."

They were up and over a dune, headed out into the desert.

Leia stopped and looked at Luke. "Where now? Can we make it to the Falcon?"

"Maybe. I don't know. This isn't my city."

"It's mine," Anakin said.

Luke nodded, and finally let go of him. He slid to the sand. It was a good thing Luke hadn't dropped him to run -- his legs were numb from being held, and he just crumpled down to his knees.

With an effort, he stood up, and started walking the blood back into his legs. "We went the other direction from where the queen's ship is. It's a long way now, and we'd have to go back through them."

"I think perhaps we should find a different solution," Qui-Gon said. He put his hands on Anakin's shoulders, and that felt good and solid. The panic that had started in the ship began to abate.

"There's a cave out there, where the jawas sometimes camp. I can get us there."

Leia was already nodding, but Luke said, "No. I think your hideouts aren't the best places to be. We should find someplace new. Someplace you haven't been before."

Anakin nodded and looked at his feet. In the calmness Qui-Gon had cast over him, pieces were beginning, slowly, to float together. "Are you going to tell me why?" he asked quietly.

Luke started to speak, then shut his mouth and shook his head.

Qui-Gon knelt down beside him. "Ani," he said, "whatever is happening here, you do not have the blame for it right now. Don't cast your eyes down. But Luke is, perhaps, right to seek out new shelter."

Anakin nodded. "Well," he said, "I'll let you guys lead, then. Does anyone know the desert?"

"I know the desert," Luke said. "Let's go."

------------------

Qui-Gon kept his hand on Ani's shoulder, partly to keep the boy calm and keep his mind from putting the whole picture together, partly to steady himself. He'd felt the new presence come on board the ship, and it was unmistakable. Anakin Skywalker wrote a unique signature on the Force, and it had broken into the world of the Imperial ship with a vengeance. It was shot through with hate and anger and fear, but its essentially self-ness was still there.

The Chosen One had turned. Was this the Balance of the Force, then? This awful destruction and oppression?

No. Qui-Gon refused to believe that. Balance meant something different. Something that was about renewal and kindness. He'd seen that as clearly as he saw the stars in the night sky above him. He'd seen it in Anakin's future, and in Shmi's eyes. The balance was the return of compassion for the individual in a galaxy that had lost sight of it...

But the Chosen One had turned.

Could a Sith even know compassion, let alone bring it to the Force?

He had an urge to steal Ani away, to raise him in this timeline and therefore steal away what he had become, but he knew he couldn't do that. And don't you mean "train," not "raise"? The boy is not your son.

Ani's small hand reached up and touched his, and he smiled. Obi-Wan, walking to their left, gave a look of semi-guarded jealousy.

Luke turned to the east, and followed a small gravel path into the foothills of the distant mountains.

------------------

Lando brushed a hand through his hair, growing a little nervous but determined not to show it. The last thing he needed was a panicked Queen.

Besides... This was Mos Espa and fear wouldn't ever be great to show in a place like this. You could never tell who could be paying attention and with a young, pretty girl walking with him....

He might have taken risks by himself but even he had limits. Unlike Jabba, (And Lando couldn't hold in the shudder that came with the name) Lando had respect for other's lives.

"What's the matter, Captain?" The regard in Sabé's voice seemed true enough, if a little odd.

"Nothing..." Lando threw a quick smile at the teen before changing the subject. "I was on an undercover mission right before this. With a Hutt. Have you ever seen a Hutt?"

Sabé raised an eyebrow. "How could a Hutt go undercover?"

The phrase gave him a a rather silly mental image of Jabba trying to sneak around in a cloak and a wig. It might have been the panic rising up but he chuckled a little.

"Actually, the Princess and I were trying to save Han. I owed him a debt and it was my turn to pay up," Lando shifted uncomfortably. "I was really looking forward to getting off this planet. The last couple months have given me enough Outer Rim for a lifetime."

"I can imagine how one could tire of this planet ... there!" The last statement was punctured with a point towards a pair of stormtroopers. The two tried to make themselves inconspicuous until Sabè sighed in annoyance.

"This isn't getting us anywhere. If they were smart, they would have left Mos Espa long ago. We might as well be looking for them in the desert!"

Lando blinked, slowly. What was the one place he had heard most about Tatooine? Sith, the one place everyone in the rebellion had! Beggar's Canyon! Ever better, if he remembered the basic geography he had meomerized before becoming Jabba's guard, it was about an hour east.

The dark-skinned Captain grinned in anticipation. The Imps would never know to look there. Who else but the Rebels had a farmboy-turned-Jedi known for comparing shooting down the Death Star to womprat hunting?

"Come on Sabé. I know where they'll be headed."

He walked away, heading out to the desert with Sabé jogging along next to him. "You know that I didn't mean for us to look in the desert."

Which seems like a pretty good reason towards why this will be fun.

Instead he said simply, "Yeah."

An hour came quickly with the Queen making smart remarks and Lando laughing at her. Soon enough, they reached Beggar's Canyon and saw the group standing around.

Obi-Wan and Luke were sparing, wow, Obi-Wan was good. But when will those jumps ever come in handy? If he falls off a roof?

Leia was watching the spar. She looked like she wanted to get her mind off of something.

Qui-Gon was lecturing Anakin about anger and hasty decisions. Well, if the kid was anything like Luke, it was time well spent. Only problem was, Anakin looked like his mind was elsewhere.

Well, that wasn't that unusual, when he was a kid he'd never paid attention to lectures either. The thought was interuppted when Anakin stole a look at him and waved. "Captain Calrissian?"

Lando repressed a shudder when he heard the title. Which was odd, he hadn't done that since Cloud City ... with Vader.

------------------

Rabé blew out her breath, she was just beyond excited now. The fifteen-year-old had kept a sheltered life before she had been chosen by the Queen to be a handmaiden. Still, even that ended up with her stuck in a palace all day with tending to the Queen or practicing her fighting skills.

When she had discovered she was on a planet controlled by Hutts, instead of acting like anyone with sanity and being scared, she had felt overjoyed. That was mistake number one.

Mistake number two had come from not listening to her inner voice. She had just known something was going to happen but she hadn't wanted to look the fool and say it. Like she didn't look any stupider now, walking around town with a Gungan who wouldn't stop babbling about how they were all going to die?

"Mesa thinkin' wesa in twoble!" Jar Jar then did some odd thing where his tongue touched his nose. Rabè couldn't stop the smile that appeared on her face when Eirtaé reached up and bopped him softly on his head.

"Maybe you'll be quiet now, hmm?" Eirtaé did a small mock-glare, she was great at those. Too great, apparently because Jar Jar started cowering.

"Back on track -- Hey, Jar Jar, there's no need to stop walking! Look, we need to figure out a good place to search... Eirtaé, you're good with psychology, where's a good place these people would go?"

"Some place comforting. Homelike, maybe." Eirtaé's eyebrows crinkled as she thought.

They went on that way for a few minutes until Jar Jar started whining about a loud sound.

"What loud sound would that be, Jar Jar?" Rabè examinded his large ears before deciding that anything loud to him could just be a bug.

"Da sound of bad things coming thisa wayz!" He started jumping up and down, full of way to much energy.

Eirtaè sighed, " Jar Jar, nothing's around us." The younger handmaiden took a patronizing glance around them before stuttering out. "Rabè, do not tell me that's what it think it is, do not!"

Rabè turned around and immediately wished she hadn't. A horned man with tattoos littering his face stood directly in her line of vision. "I'm sure it isn't." She paused. "It looks like it's much worse."

"Do me a favor and don't have kids. I so don't think a child could stand this much comforting."

------------------

Luke had climbed up into the rocks along the canyon wall to try and meditate. His emotions had been high and vacillating all day, from the sheer joy of seeing his father whole and innocent, to sullen rage at thinking what he had become. He thought he'd come the closest in Mos Espa, just before they'd been captured... he was angry at how things turned out, and he needed to acknowledge that and deal with it... but he wanted to save this boy.

He loved his father.

In a way, it was repulsive to know that. Was he so desperate for a piece of his past that he was actually willing to forgive Darth Vader, who had spread terror and destruction across the galaxy?

But it didn't feel that way. It didn't feel like he was forgiving him at all. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his meditation -- not on the Force, or trying to see the future, but on trying to see his own heart. The vision that came was of himself, lightsaber raised, storming a vast fortress. It was guarded by Vader... but not Vader. In an upper window, looking helplessly down at the sharp rocks, was his Father, the boy down in the canyon now. He was begging, beseeching...

That was wishful thinking.

"Not necessarily."

Luke opened his eyes, startled. Qui-Gon Jinn had made his way up to the narrow place, and sat perched on a sharp rock where Luke had been unable to find purchase.

"You saw that?"

"I apologize," Jinn said, giving him a warm smile. "I didn't mean to intrude. But you... do not block terribly well. The vision simply seeped out of you. The creature at the door, this is a person you know?"

Luke nodded. "It's Father. Father as he is now."

"So I feared." Jinn looked down across the canyon, and Luke noticed for the first time that Lando had arrived, with a girl about Mother's age, dressed in a colorful uniform. Her face was painted white. Lando was looking oddly at Father. Jinn sighed. "I had wondered about your mixed feelings, padawan. You have met, then?"

"We have. We fought. He told me the truth."

"The truth is a valuable gift to give."

Luke shook his head. "Hardly a gift."

"A difficult gift, padawan. Yet still a gift, I believe. This truth you know -- it has made you see things differently."

"It's made me confused."

"Confusion is the first mark of wisdom. Only a fool is always sure."

Luke couldn't imagine why he found the conversation vaguely comforting, but he did. He smiled. "Maybe I'd rather be foolish."

"So you say now."

"Ben... Obi-Wan... told me that Vader betrayed and murdered my father. You know him. Why would he lie like that?"

"He wouldn't. I imagine he believes it, at least from some point of view... "

"Believed."

Jinn's face grew slack and sad. "That is not an easy truth to contemplate. Obi-Wan is like a son to me."

"And he was like a father to me."

Jinn raised an eyebrow, dissipating the gloom. "Which I suppose makes me your spiritual grandfather."

Luke surprised himself by giving a small laugh. "I suppose."

Jinn grew serious again. "Luke, your burden is not an easy one to bear. But there is strength in you that you do not suspect. And your vision -- "

"My vision was wishful thinking. Anakin Skywalker isn't a prisoner that Vader is keeping. They're the same person. I just want them to be different."

"I can see that, and you're correct. It would be dangerous to begin thinking of them as separate people. But the man I saw in your vision, the threshold guardian... even he is not wholly lost, at least not in your view."

"No, you're wrong, you don't know what I've seen... "

"Look at your vision again, Luke. Look closely. Watch what you see. It is not realistically true, of course, but you sense something. You sense something and you have created it symbolically."

Luke reluctantly examined his childish image again, feeling self-conscious now that he knew Jinn was looking. Father was standing at the window, looking down. Vader paced below the door, lightsaber drawn...

No, the lightsaber wasn't drawn. Vader was watching and waiting, but he wasn't attacking. Luke himself was the one doing the attacking.

He looked at the window, but that was no help. Father was reaching to him, but it was too far. His hands dangled out and...

Luke focused on the vision, seeing something suddenly that he hadn't seen before: from each of Father's fingers, a gossamer-thin thread floated down, and attached to Vader like a puppet. As he watched one of the threads broke, and Father lost control, but his face grew intent, and he spun it again somehow. He lost control, and he lost it often, Luke thought. But he could regain it.

He opened his eyes. Qui-Gon Jinn was smiling sadly. "Did you see what your vision was saying?"

------------------

Eirtaé groaned to herself as the tattooed monstrosity motioned for them to follow. A little unsteadily, they did so, not quite sure what Tattoo would do if they didn't.

Walking across the desert, Eirtaé had to shield her eyes from the biting sand. She could just imagine the galactic travel brochures. Visit Tatooine, for a day in the sun! There's always an empty beach, where you can perfect your tan. So, for fun in the sun, with gambling on the side, Tatooine!

After many bitter mental tangents, the small group reached a transport. A very expensive looking transport. What is a ship like that doing in a place like this?

Tattoo glared at them and ran a pink tongue over his fangs. He then started walking in, making it painfully clear they should follow. She had to stifle a giggle when she saw both Rabé and Jar Jar stick out their tongues at his turned back.

Unwillingly, they followed Tattoo into the complex hallway mazes. As if trying to learn the layout for an escape course wasn't hard enough, Jar Jar kept mumbling, "Thism berry bad."

After a few minutes of that, Eirtaé really wanted to hit him. Unfortunately, that would only draw unwanted attention to themselves.

Speaking of unwanted attention, Eirtaé held in a gasp as Rabé took out a bottle of bright pink nail polish and threw out the contents at Tattoo's back. Well, that's one way to get back at someone.

Finally, reached a small sparse room, where a figure sat. He turned to face them and an aura of power hit her all at once, making her want to kneel and beg and scream for forgiveness all at once.

"Ahh. The young Handmaidens. Thank you, Maul, they will be of great use. You may go now." The man faced the armored men in red. "Dispose of the alien."

Rabé's voice rose, cracking just a little. "You can't do this! I don't know who you think you are but---"

"I am the Emperor, my dear. And I can do whatever I wish." Eirtaé shuddered as she watched him smile. It was sinister, it was wrong. It made her feel like she should go wash just from standing near him.

"What do you want from us?" Eirtaé was shocked to hear herself saying that, she supposed her mind was running on automatic.

"Isn't it obvious? Blackmail for your Queen and for my Skywalkers." He chuckled a little. "For what is a Sith without a following?"

Rabé, always one for information, spoke up. "I thought there could only be two, Emperor."

"Yes, well, I'm not one for tradition. Besides, young one, when they had only two, did Sith rule over all? I do."

Jar Jar, the ever straightforward, stupid guy he was, spoke up. "Thism berry nuts. Yousa berry nuts!"

A red guard took a quick glance at the Emperor and in an attempt to stop the coming ire, spoke up quickly. "Your opinion matters so much to us, alien. It really does. Now come, it's cell-time for you."

"That taken care of, do you wish to tell me how you got here?" The Emperor made sure his tone was pleasing, but Eirtaé wasn't falling for it.

"Not really." Faster then she would have thought humanly possible, blue lightening shot out of the leader's fingertips. Rabé crumpled to the ground in a grotesque parody of a puppet.

He turned. "Now, Eirtaé dear, do you wish to tell me?"

------------------

Vader could feel the Emperor somewhere nearby. His transport had landed, but his presence was so overwhelming that it seemed to come from everywhere at once, which wasn't helpful when trying to pinpoint a location. Whatever happened, he couldn't allow Amidala to see Palpatine. She would know everything then, and Palpatine was not enough of a fool to believe she would simply go back and act out the old script again. Almost enough of a fool, Vader thought sometimes, when feeling particularly morose -- his Master was powerful and intelligent, but his ego was so large that he often made very preventable mistakes by underestimating his enemies (and those he thinks are his allies, a soft voice whispered in Vader's mind, as it frequently did) -- but not quite.

He could feel Amidala a few feet behind him, could almost see her face. She would be wearing her expression of practiced academic interest, her eyebrows ever so slightly arched, eyes looking pointedly at one object or another... never wide-eyed wonder, never disinterest. I am aware, that look said. I see everything and I understand everything, or will very soon. You can hide nothing from me.

Vader stopped walking outside the room that contained his hyperbaric chamber (apparently, his presence had been expected in some quarters; a ship that suited his needs had been brought). "You cannot remain with me, Amidala," he said.

"I will remain where I choose to remain."

Her voice was neither angry nor defiant. She was stating a fact, nothing more. Vader smiled beneath his mask. "The galaxy has changed since you last walked in it."

"I can't say I find it an improvement." She came around him, gave him a guarded look.

"Though I suppose that if you really mean to send me away, you have the power at your disposal to have me dragged."

"Yes, I do."

She nodded. "Well, if that's really what you want, you can call the guards."

It was not at all what Vader wanted. The urge to have her leave had only a slight advantage in his mind as it was; the idea of seeing her dragged away by stormtroopers -- almost certainly straight to Palpatine, he was beginning to think; it would solve all the problems Palpatine perceived to remove her from the picture -- was enough to defeat it. So he simply looked away from her. "You must leave," he repeated, though he had little hope of changing her mind.

"And where would I go? Our chi -- our son has been captured, and escaped, and I don't know where he and my companions have gone. My ship is certainly observed by now."

She started to say, "Our children," Vader thought. An interesting piece of information to stow away, and it... feels true. There is another. How? But this was not the time to pursue the matter. Her suspicions were already up. She was keeping her later self's secret out of some autocannibalistic loyalty. He thought it wise not to disturb it quite yet.

"These are my private chambers," he said. "I will rejoin you shortly."

"I'm coming in with you."

"My private chambers."

"So, I'm to wait in the hall?"

Vader wanted to sigh -- loudly -- but of course it wasn't possible. "Very well," he said. "You may enter."

She smiled. "Thank you."

------------------

Amidala entered Ani's quarters not knowing what to expect at all. Yesterday, his room had been neat, if packed with too many toys and projects for its size. These quarters were beyond neat; they were sterile. Surfaces gleamed dully at her, and terminals blinked in shades of green. A viewscreen dominated one wall. The only pieces of furniture were a small couch and a metal bubble of some sort that dominated the center of the room.

Ani indicated the couch. "Sit here," he said. "I will rejoin you." He hit a control panel, and the metal bubble split open, dull teeth appearing in the maw. Ani walked toward it, like a martyr stepping into a draigon's mouth in a fairy tale. robotic arms were beginning to emerge.

Amidala had seen the beginnings of such technology -- pneumatic respirators were not completely unheard of in her own time -- and she knew the function. This bubble was a place where he could exist without the mask. She had been starting to sit on the couch -- she was willing to give him some privacy; she just didn't want to leave him -- but the implications of that hit her, and she stopped. She could see him. She could truly see Ani, not this mask. She could look into his eyes and understand who he had become and why he still loved her, and why she was not afraid of him even though she knew she should be. She could see the face of her husband. Of her otherself.

But she didn't know how to ask such thing, even how to begin to ask for it. So she simply turned to him, looked at the bubble and glanced back up.

He drew back, horrified. "No," he said. "I absolutely forbid it."

She lowered her eyes. "I understand."

To her surprise, he didn't immediately go inside and shut her out. "The oxygen would make you dizzy, anyway," he said.

"I've been dizzy before." She chanced a glance up at him.

He was standing uncertainly, his head cocked slightly to one side, one hand lifted toward the bubble controls but not doing anything. "If you see me as I am, you'll never see anything else in me," he said. "There is a face between the one you know and the one you see that I would... prefer you to think of."

"Do you think I can forget this mask?" And there it was. The truth. She hadn't realized it, and it was an ugly, awful truth. She wanted to see his face because she couldn't bear the thought of marrying a monster and a face would help... Dear Maker, am I really so shallow? She looked away, sat on the small couch. "I'm sorry. I don't mean..."

A hand fell on her shoulder, gently. "You would not be human if this did not... disturb you. We are visual creatures. I am aware of the effect. I am not offended."

"I am still sorry."

"Come. It is not a pleasant sight, but if you would see it, you may."

Amidala stood shakily, and followed him into the bubble. The teeth closed, and they stood together in the belly of the beast. Ani said nothing. He simply sat in the robotic chair, and let the machinery begin its work.

Amidala felt the effects of the changed air immediately as she heard it hissing through the vents. She felt slightly intoxicated within minutes, but also hyper-alert. The bright white of the walls seemed to glow out at her, and she could hear the ratcheting clicks of the machines as they worked around her. She kept her eyes on Ani to keep her focus.

A clamp descended from the roof to pull up his helmet, while two arms from the sides of the chair rose and undid a series of complex connections in the underworkings of the mask. He reached his own hand up to pull the the circuit-laden shell from his head.

The skin on his scalp was shockingly white, and marked with a network of thick, ropy scars. It looked like his skull had literally split open at some point.

A small robotic arm worked the breathing apparatus, and made more disconnections, and Ani finally pulled away the mask that covered his face.

The scars continued here, even more deeply offensive against a beauty Amidala could still see the shadows of, like a crystal vase glued together by a clumsy child. Tubes were permanently set into his neck at various points, and small microphones reached up from the neckpiece of the suit to rest near the corners of his mouth. But in that ruined face, under dark eyebrows that had been improbably preserved, like precious gems sinking in clay, Ani's eyes looked out at her, the same intense, gray-blue eyes that had watched her so lovingly in Watto's shop.

"Now," he said, "you have seen all."

She came forward to the chair, looked into those eyes, and smiled. Maybe it was too much oxygen, maybe it was her weariness, maybe it was just wishful thinking, but she was not repulsed by what she was seeing. All she could see was Ani, as he was last night, bone tired from working all day, falling asleep near his pod. Between that tired boy and this ruined man, the man who would be her husband hovered, and she understood that when the time came, she would be glad of it. She reached out and touched his face.

He flinched away, but couldn't go far, locked into the chair as he was. She drew her hand back instinctively, but made herself reach out again. This time, he did not avoid it. She leaned forward and kissed his forehead, for all the world as if she were the adult and he still the tired child. "Thank you, Ani," she said. "Thank you for letting me know you."

For a long moment, he simply held her gaze. Then his eyes grew distant, and he moved her hand from his face. "You have seen nothing, Amidala. Nothing of who I am now. And you have been in this atmosphere too long for your health. Leave." He placed an emergency breather in his mouth, and opened the jaws of the chamber.

Amidala nodded, and left him to his privacy.

***********************************************

Her mother was lost to the misery of the desert. The exact details were unknown, but that was the one certainty afforded Leia, and it frightened her beyond anything she'd ever felt before.

Luke and Qui-Gon stood high above her, and she wished desperately for that same sort of instant mentorship, or at the very least an immediate return to the Falcon. Just an escape from the very frightening possibility that this trip was not part of the original timeline, and her very existence might be on the verge of being erased -- that was all she wanted. She surveyed the scene about her -- Lando was bantering lightly with the Nubian Queen, Obi-Wan swung a lightsaber about with a sense of furious haste she didn't quite think was Jedi-like.

Anakin stared sourly in the direction of the city they'd just fled from. Everything came to her in a rush. The story upon story of this child's future as a very powerful Jedi connected with his initial, very visible fear for her mother. Perhaps even at this young age he has that same sense of the future that Luke does?

She bit her lip, shut her eyes, and willed everything to be right when her eyes opened.

I hope something hasn't happened.

Images of sand and sameness flooded her vision, and Anakin Skywalker turned around as if he heard her screaming, and blinked.

------------------

Anakin had been staring at the city for a long time. He wasn't dead -- he didn't know how his older self had survived the betrayal Leia had spoken of, and he was certain no-one really knew enough to tell him -- and Padmé had found him.

It was the strangest feeling. It came to him in the same way he'd ordered the guard, or flown a Pod, or known that something was about to happen back on the Queen's ship. But this Force wasn't just a tool that he used now, it felt like it was using him. It found him whenever it pleased: in Watto's shop, on the Imperial ship.

He was so focused on the unnameable that, when something understandable did find its way to him, he was startled out of his skin.

"I hope something hasn't happened."

He turned around to see Leia, staring out where he had stared. She looked more than a little startled to see that he had turned around.

"She's all right," he said tiredly.

Leia's voice was barely at a whisper. "How do you know that?"

"I just do."

------------------

Rabé was exhausted. Her entire body fault like it would crumble to dust if she was so much as tapped. She had been kept up all night, answering the Emperor's questions as she deigned fit. Not the smartest move, as she had found out later.

Apparently, the Emperor liked to play with his "guests". When he had gotten bored of her apparent insolence (Not that she considered it insolence, but hey, she was willing to give on this) he had Force-pushed her into a wall, happily talking about that if she did that again, he'd have her dissected while she was still alive.

A guard had picked her up and carefully dropped her onto the floor in some cell. A bed-less cell. It seemed like they were going for sleep deprivation.

The worst thing of it all was that Rabé had the awful feeling he was someone she had met before. She wasn't sure who, she had met many people, but someone who'd she

had known long enough to make an impression.

Finally, she grew tired enough that the dank, hard floor just didn't matter and she fell into a turbulent sleep.

"I'm sorry, your Sithness. I truly am." Rabé smirked and ignored the signs Eirtaé was giving her to say sorry. Sorry? She was a lady of Naboo and she did not apologize to men who had too much self worth.

The Emporer raised a hand, after that she just knew pain. She was up against the wall, being slammed while tiny invisible pins stuck her. Over and over again, she was in throbbing pain, crying out in terror to unwavering ears. "Sorry! Sorry! I swear, by the Gods, I'm sorry!"

Just as suddenly as it had begun, it stopped.

"You've learned your lesson, haven't you? It's one that will serve you well in years to come, dear. Be warned though, you do this again and I will cut you open piece by piece while you're awake enough to seen it done. I can get my information about the Jedi and Queen just as easily from that method. Now go!"

A red armored guard picked her up and cradled the thrashing handmaiden in his arms. "I'll take her to her cell, Emperor Palpatine...."

She woke up, sweat glistening on her face. It was later, she knew that much but she still hadn't gotten enough sleep. She had a sinking feeling though, that she wouldn't be getting enough sleep for a very long time.

Trying to get her mind off what had happened, her mind clung to one thing. Palpatine and the strangely familiar voice.

No. No, it couldn't be. Rabé realized with a jolt that she had to get to the Queen before she was tricked. It would be simple after all. The kindly old Senator goes to the Queen, claiming he was in hiding. Before she knew what had happened....

Nothing was happening. Rabé was getting to her Queen, and quickly. Just as soon as she could get to Eirtaé, they were out.

------------------

The Emperor shifted impatiently, waiting for Maul to arrive. He had forgotten that Maul had always been late. Glorifying the dead, he supposed. Maul, after all, had been the first in a long line of many who had died for him.

Not the last, though. if he had it his way, there would never have to be a last.

After a few minutes, Maul arrived, tilting his head as though he was a Master giving judgment. At least Vader can't make annoying facial expressions.

Thinking of Vader, Palpatine hadn't felt his apprentice's mental presence in a while. A little odd but Vader had been doing that more and more lately. Palpatine gave him free rein though because he would come back. Rebellious apprentices always did.

Moving on, Palpatine was growing bored and he needed something to liven this situation. A fight between his two apprentices, perhaps? The son of Skywalker was on Tatooine somewhere, he could set that fight up rather well.

Deciding to search Vader's mind for a fun game, he let his mind travel the distance. A few seconds later, he drew back in disgust. No. He was not feeling good intentions! He was not! Ooh, by the Sith, Vader was caring! Feeling friendship!

I did not spend all this time working on Vader just to be foiled!

"Go Maul. Go and get the prisoners. We have business to take care of."

"Yes, Master. Including the Gungan?"

"If I hadn't wanted him, I would have said so. Were you always so needy, Maul?"

Darth Maul stalked out, putting his shields up tight.

The Emporer smirked and got off his throne, preparing to go look for his rarely used mask. It covered his scars, his wrinkles, his face. It was the toll that the Dark Side had taken and he had paid it gladly. Still, a mask would be best in this situation.

It will be a much sweeter kill if the mother of Skywalker believes she has been betrayed by an old friend... Takes away her hoper rather nicely. As it is, I know everything I must in order to defeat these Jedi. Holding her cannot help me. It can only hurt me.

And, unlike some people, I know when to cut my losses.

Unfortunately for Vader, that girl-Queen just had it coming.

------------------

Obi-Wan woke from a restless sleep. Something was wrong. He knew it, felt it in every inch of his body. He was tingling, he felt alive, he was elated, in pain, everything he had ever felt at once.

Obi-Wan had never felt anything like this but it was safe to say that it was a bad omen.

Something was amiss, something was very, very off. Yet, Qui-Gon and that annoying Luke "I'm a Jedi at Only Twenty-one" Skywalker seemed fine. They would know if something was going to happen, wouldn't they?

Hopefully.

Nothing was going to hapen here. Lando was at sentry duty and he didn't seem to think anything was amiss. The captain may not have had Jedi senses but he seemed the type to know what was going on around him.

Still. Obi-Wan walked over to Lando, motioning for him to quit.

"It's not your turn yet, kid." Lando's voice sounded sleepy, it was probably a good thing he had come over.

He tried not to take offense at the kid remark (He was twenty-four, thank-you-very-much!) and spoke quietly. "I can't sleep."

"Whatever." Lando turned to go to the small campsite but looked over his shoulder.

"Thanks, alright?"

Obi-Wan nodded and just stared at the stars, waiting for something that might not come.

------------------

Vader watched the closing of his chamber under she was completely obscured by the thick metallic walls, then ripped the emergency breather out of his mouth with enough force to cut his lip. He tasted his own blood, and spit it out. Poison.

He could still feel her kiss resting on his forehead, an exotic bird perched in the branches of the energy between them. He remembered other kisses, other caresses, bright and gleaming beacons in the dark of the night, awakening the desires of a body that no longer existed, a heart seared beyond normal functioning, a soul long ago sold. The girl outside... she was his friend. The woman she would become was his

(angel)

life, and the only part of his soul that nothing had been able to erase.

She was Amidala, but she was also, in some ways, Anakin, or, at the very least, she carried him with her. Vader had silenced his old voice as thoroughly as he could over the years, refusing to hear his name, refusing to acknowledge his past. But when Amidala re-entered his world, his name, the name he had spent two decades building, became as much a mask as the one that covered his face. And she did it without even trying.

She makes you weak.

(i don't feel weak)

She steals your anger.

(glad to get rid of it for a little while)

And with it, your power.

(nononono)

But, to the last, there was no real answer. Vader knew that he could not draw on the apparently endless reservoir of fire if he did not recapture his anger.

She shouldn't have come. She had no right to follow, and certainly not to kiss me...

It didn't work.

That's because you know, in your wretched excuse for a heart, that it started before she came back. Before she followed, before she saw, before she kissed. You know that.

He did know it. He'd been weary since Bespin. Since at last he'd shared the whole truth with Luke.

Now, they are both here, on this world. I don't stand a chance against both of them.

------------------

Mon Mothma blinked, a sign to those who knew her that something was seriously wrong. She was going to have to give a speech to her troops in a few minutes about the upcoming siege on DS2.

The thirty-one-year old redhead didn't really like running a military organization, she would be much happier making suggestions on what to do in a Senate. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option.

Some days she wasn't sure who that was more unfortunate for, herself or the soliders.

She walked a little, pondering whether the speech would go well or not.

"Yeah, I'm sure sending everyone to their deaths will go over real well," she gaped a little, bringing her hand to her lips when she realized what she had said. "Did I really say that?"

Mothma was in an uncharacteristically sarcastic mood. Normally, she was a very nice person, really she was. Calm, serene, all those nice things. She left the temper tantrums to her Generals.

She guessed that happened to people when their well planned out assaults fell to pieces. Not because of the enemy, but because your allies who could have helped on this assault still weren't here!

Luke Skywalker was needed for morale, as the only one who had been around when the original had blown up.

Chewbacca could have helped greatly as could have those Jedi Knights Leia mentioned in that brief message. But no, she had to stay on Tatooine and let the rest of the galaxy rot.

Leia and Han themselves would be of great use.

Mon Mothma could only hope they would arrive within the next three days. After that, the Rebellion couldn't afford to wait any longer.

"Please come Leia. Please." With that out, the leader of the Rebels walked into

------------------

Palpatine got out of his landspeeder and walked at a dignified pace, a reminder to Maul that he was the Master. He didn't want Maul to forget who was the Emperor, after all.

Or too forget who held the power. That had happened with the apprentice before Maul, his first apprentice, a young human female named Willow Karyk. Just look what happened to her, dead for well over 40 years.

Eirtaé, the only one around him who actually knew when to shut up, spoke up. "What are we doing?"

"Be quiet girl. You'll find out soon enough." Maul broadcast his thought rather loudly. Loud enough for Vader to have heard. Good. He would be out soon.

Palpatine had decided to make the message much better. He'd discussed it with Maul and had decided the best way to get Vader's attenton was through violence.

"Who says violence doesn't solve anything?"

Eirtaé spoke up softly. "The people who can't fight?"

He laughed and then nodded his head. In a second, Maul's lightsaber was at the throats of the handmaidens. The fear on their faces fed the Dark Side rather nicely.

Jar Jar cowering didn't really hurt his fun in this either. Ever since that Gungan had helped to defeat his troops on Naboo... Well, let's just say there was a reason Gungans weren't around in the galaxy anymore.

Let's see how Vader reacts to this.

------------------

Vader jerked, very suddenly. He was still in his chamber but he needed out and now. The Emporer and Maul had broadcast their thoughts loud enough for non-sensitives to hear and that was not good, it meant they were cocky. There would have to be a reason for that.

He put on his mask, it being the despicable thing it was and pressed a small button. It released the chamber doors with a bang.

A second later, Amidala was up and sharing a little strained smile with him. Not an expression he really wanted to see on Ami's face.

"Hello Anakin," Ami stopped suddenly, obviously thinking of something else. If Vader had been able to roll his eyes, he would have now. He was such a fan of awkward silences. They were just so fun.

"I have to go," he paused. "I'm sorry. But please, Ami, don't come. It's not safe."

She quirked a smile, "Are you trying to ditch me?"

"Never. Now, please, stay in the ship, Amidala. I would not be very happy if anything were to happen to you because you wouldn't listen. And believe me, you do not wish to see me unhappy."

He picked up his lightsabers on the counter and left, hopefully having convinced her to stay wher it was nice and safe.

Going outside the ship, he saw a scene that shocked him. He had been expecting... I was expecting anything besides Eirtaé, one of my supporters to the Queen back then and Rabé, a friend held up hostage. And Jar Jar, a living, breathing reminder from his Padawan days.

Vader knew what he had to do. He drew his lightsaber and spoke in even tones. "Let them go."

------------------

I just do.

Leia laughed. It wasn't humor, just a fondness. Anakin Skywalker was so much like Luke that she found she could connect to him instinctively.

No, that wasn't right. It wasn't because he was so much like Luke. It was because he and Luke both had that... something... that called to her. She could connect to him as instinctively as she did in the same way she had connected to Luke on the Death Star. It was like recognizing someone she hadn't seen for a very long time.

"It's true," he said earnestly, and she realized that he thought she was doubting his sense of her mother's safety. "I don't know why I know it, but I do. Really."

She smiled at him. "I know." She sat down on the ground, crossing her legs beneath her. Standing beside her, his chin rested just above her head. He put his hand on her hair, not at all tentatively, and to her surprise, she found comfort in the gesture.

His gaze drifted out across the desert. Whatever he knew or didn't know, he was worried. "She's out there," he said. "She -- " His brow creased in a puzzled way. "She was on the ship with us. She came on when... when we all felt... when I... "

"When Vader came?" Leia finished. She felt her eyes go wide, her palms get cold and sweaty. "She's with Vader? We have to get her out of there, she's in danger; Vader is... he's... " Leia tried to think of words to explain Vader to this poor boy, words that wouldn't frighten him, but would tell him the danger. "He'll betray her," she said. "He'll betray her, just like he betrayed

(me)

you."

"He didn't betray me," Anakin Skywalker said.

"He murdered you."

"He is me."

Leia's mind refused to process that information. Impossible. She liked this boy, with his kind smile and skilled hands, his soft voice and powerful presence...

She was shaking, her vision wasn't clear. The kind smile was new. The skilled hands, the soft voice, the powerful presence... those thing she knew. Had always known.

She found that she couldn't stand. She stumbled back away from him.

He didn't follow.

------------------

Vader knew he couldn't let this happen. Amidala, perhaps not his Amidala but her all the same, was back. Right and wrong were now clearly different. No longer was everything gray.

He couldn't just say, 'Well, from a certain point of view, I did the galaxy well by killing off that planet. They were scum, ready to infest us with their ways.'

Fortunately or unfortunately, he couldn't decide, he just couldn't justify innocent killings anymore.

He supposed it was amusing. The positions had been switched. No longer was it Darth Vader with the inner voice of a Jedi Knight. Now it was Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi Knight who heard Sith Lord whisperings.

"You will let them go Maul."

"You're getting old, Vader. Let's see you try and stop me."

Nodding slowly, he pulled out his old lightsaber, it was familiar and would serve him well in this fight. Looking into it's glow he spoke. "I would rather watch you fail at stopping me."

In a flash, their blades met, hissing at each other, each trying to gain the upper hand. Listening to Palpatine's urges for a death as the blades hits were parried again and again. Hearing the wind rustle, the Force scream their names out, the smell of burning flesh as small wounds were made.

None of that mattered though, only the fight. Anything else was secondary, to be put aside. Minutes passed, hardening a determination to press on. To win, to lose, neither mattered anymore.

Maul was now running, building up speed, Vader knew this trick, you somersaulted over someone's head and then stabbed your opponent from the back.

It was much too flashy. One of the only lessons he had ever paid attention to from Master Obi-Wan was, flashy got people killed.

Apparently, Palpatine never taught that.

Vader held out his lightsaber at just the right moment, waiting for what he knew would happen.

It happened.

Maul was chopped in half, his blood grotesquely turning the sand red. Vader fell to his knees, looking at the blood on his hands. Maul had started everything, Maul had had to die. For revenge, for the loyalty left in him for the Jedi. Sick as it seemed, he was happy Maul was gone.

Shuddering after the battle haze has passed, Vader stood and wildly looked around for Palpatine. Where is he? Where--No! Ami!

------------------

Frowning, Amidala looked at Senator Palpatine. "So, the Empire just keeps you around?"

He coughed, not surprisingly, the old man was probably sickly. "It's good public relations, my dear. I was stationed on this ship a while ago, to help them make good decisions." He grimaced. "I hate it. I hate how everyone is scared of my name, I hate giving orders to kill, deciding on who lives and who dies. I hate knowing that I can do this to people to stay alive."

They turned a corner in a hallway, Amidala feeling a little uncomfortable. I have no idea how to comfort someone for something like this... Well, I'll just have to make sure he leaves with us. I'm sure Luke knows some places where the Senator can hide.... Or very possibly, Anakin does.

The thought made Amidala smile. "So, where are we going?"

"Away. I can't let you rot in this ship, Ami, until Vader tires of you and kills you like he did the original!"

No. No, no, no, he's lying. He's lying, Ani wouldn't have done that. He's a good man! Underneath everything, he had values! He wouldn't... No! Liar!

She was crying, she realized distantly. Tears were falling down her cheeks very silently. Everything was blurry, especially Senator Liar over there but that was good because if she couldn't see him, she didn't have to believe him.

"You lie."

His eyes widened and they kept on walking. "What do I have to gain from a lie? Especially when the truth is so much more painful, dear girl." He paused. "I have decided to kill you. We're now in an empty part of the ship where anyone loyal to Vader can't just accidentally shoot me down."

They stopped to a halt and Ami realized very suddenly, she was going to die. "Will you tell me why?"

"That's simple, young Queen. You see, you have turned Vader. He has, in turn, killed young Maul. Such a pity. Besides," he paused. "I just don't like you. And I am the Emperor, I can do whatever I want."

Here he ripped off his face, no, his mask, showing grotesque wrinkles, scars, everything you never wanted to see on a face and more. Amidala closed her eyes and thought of her children. If she had to die, she would not do it thinking of this old man and his lies.

"No. You can't." Vader! With a jerk Amidala opened her eyes. She saw him strike, she saw the Emperor retaliate with some lightening from his fingertips. She saw... No! Ani!

He was on the ground, writhing in pain. Amidala couldn't take it, she ran to his side and kneeled. She breathed out sayings, telling him he would be okay, that he had to be fine, that the children needed him.

The Emperor, that... So many sayings filled her head she couldn't decide on just one, laughed. "I'll leave you alone, now. Watch his death, Queen. Then run out, and tell

young Skywalker. He'll come, full of anger and then I will have my new apprentice. Farewell."

Amidala screamed full of rage, grief and fear. I'll get Luke here. I promise that.

With that vow in mind, she turned to Ani, trying desperately not to cry on him.

------------------

His first thoughts turned to the prohibitive new clicking sound accompanying his each strained breath, and these gave way to epiphany-like yet isolated flashes that reminded him that this was real, and he was going to die, and Amidala was hovering over him.

(Are you an angel?)

He wanted to laugh, but restrained himself from doing so. It was inappropriate. He winced at that, that he was maintaining the emotional mask during his last chance to rip it off -- and considered removing his physical mask, but decided against it; he was sure to be discovered by some miscreant stormtrooper, and wanted some dignity. He tried to focus on what she was saying.

It was strings of syllables, mostly incoherent, but -- as she realized that this death was not going to be immediate, but rather drawn-out as deaths go, and uncomfortable -- she calmed down, and began talking in the soothing voice she would have used on the Nubian when she would have found his younger self shivering in a corner, and he felt some surprise that he was allowing himself to be lulled into nothingness.

The children need you, Ani ...

Again, plural: children. But who? How? Only a multiple birth ...

I don't know what's happened, but I won't let it happen ... I'm going to tell ... you everything I do know. I'll kill him with my own bare hands. I'll get back to my time, and I'll -- I don't know. Give him a hug, and plunge a knife in his back. Send the entire royal guard into his quarters the next time he visits Naboo. I'll have a thousand deaths for him, Ani, all so that you might live ...

Fighting against the click-click-click, to know, to have something to impart. "The other ... child ... who?"

Her face, what he could etch out in his mind among the fading spots, twisted curiously.

Her name is Leia. She's beautiful, Ani, so strong ...

The Alderaanian princess? And yes, the surface of Ami's mind was covered in images of her, and everything about that time was made right by it, made less bewildering.

Images of the girl standing in the Great Hall in the Royal Palace on Alderaan floated up, as did memories of quashing that same voice that forced him to protect the girl who, at that very moment, fiercely believed that she was not just talking to her herself -- which inevitably dragged up every encounter with

(his family)

certain people in an inhuman clarity. Connections between them were forged at every impasse.

Beneath his mask, he smiled, and realized that she was silent, waiting for something -- for him to say something. Anything.

(There are places I cannot follow you)

Memories that weren't even his invaded his mind. She stood in his ... home, eyes turning each absent corner ...

"Ani?"

(Ani, I've come home)

Whatever grand thing he should've said left him. He stared at the girl's frightened face, and the woman's frightened face, and saw for the first time the constant.

"You're still here," he said, which drew her eyebrows together in confusion, and he

was certain that would be it--

------------------

Amidala held his hands as tightly as they could. They were twitching and convulsing, and sometimes it hurt, but this was the place Palpatine had meant her to be in, and he had taken it, and...

Oh, Maker help me... he's dying for me...

"You're still here..." he whispered, then the sounds ceased.

Not all at once. The mechanics of the suit were not equally damaged. One hand continued to move and the labored pneumatics went on, simply becoming raspier. But the sparking sounds that went through his limbs ceased, the frying sound of blown circuits... those went.

Then the pneumatics slowed completely. There was a rattle, then the ceaseless, even breath disappeared, and the night was horribly, dreadfully silent.

She bent over him, pulling him up to her with weary arms. A shock went through one hand as a bit of stray electrical wire touched her skin, but she didn't care. "Ani," she whispered to him. "My Ani..."

All sense left her for a moment, all will to act. She simply wanted to stay here in the desert, holding her husband-to-be in her arms and waiting for whatever end might come.

Run, Amidala.

She lifted her head. The voice was coming from both everywhere and nowhere.

"Ani?"

Run. He will return. Quickly.

The strength began to come back into her legs -- his strength? her own? were they different? -- and she stood uncertainly. She could still stop this. This was not inevitable. And she had to get home to do it. But she couldn't leave him here, for the desert scavengers. She had to take him with her. She owed him --

Amidala, don't think. Run.

She ran, closing her heart to the thought of the womp rats and dragons coming to feed.

Her feet carried her into the open desert. She had never been here, but she felt every turn in her bones. There was a strange, fading sensation as she left him behind... and another sense as she...

Approached him?

Yes. She could see, in the distance, the faint light of a glowstick.

Ani was ahead. Her own Ani.

And she would see to it that nothing ever hurt him again.

------------------

Luke felt Vader's passing like the shifting of the sand -- a vortex opened in the Force, a swirling vacuum that pulled at him like the winds of a sandstorm and blinded him like the suns. He'd fallen to his knees without knowing it, and he felt Qui-Gon Jinn's hands on his shoulders.

"Luke!"

"He's gone."

A pause, slight. "Yes, I believe so."

"Master!" Ben's voice broke the night, and the sound of pebbles sliding marked his progress up the cliff face. He was in a hurry. "Master! Come quickly! It's the boy!"

Luke thought he wouldn't have the strength to stand -- how can anything hit that hard without any warning? -- but he found himself running after Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, scrambling down into the canyon.

Lando and the Queen were standing back in frightened silence. Leia stood at the edge of their small circle, watching with cool, frightened eyes.

Father was on his knees, the glowstick in his hand held in a grip so tight that Luke could see the strain of it even from fifty meters. His arms were pressed across his chest, and he was gasping for air.

If it hit me that hard, losing a father I feared and avoided, Luke thought, what must it have felt like to him, literally losing himself, and at close range?

He glanced at Leia, who had taken a tentative step forward, then stepped back again. Her eyes told the story -- one or the other of them had put the pieces together, and she knew. She knew and couldn't come to terms with it. And that was without knowing... the rest. He wanted her there, but there was no time to convince her. He strode to their father, and knelt beside him in the sand, placing his hands as Qui-Gon had a few moments ago.

"Let it go through you, Father," he said. "It is not happening in your now. It's a vision. A dream."

"Not a dream," he gasped. "Can't... breathe..."

"Try," Luke said. "Concentrate on it. Breathe in."

Father struggled, as if he couldn't remember how to inhale, then suddenly drew in a chestful of air with a loud hiss. Luke saw some sand drawn into his mouth.

"Now, let it out."

The exhalation was easier. Father breathed out explosively, then his lungs resumed a normal, if thin and rapid, pattern. He might hyperventilate, but if he passed out from it, his body would take over.

Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon had approached while Luke wasn't concentrating on them, and they began to examine Father, more, Luke thought, for the calming measure of ritual than to find out what was wrong. "Are you in pain, Ani?" Qui-Gon asked.

Father shook his head. His breathing was normalizing. "Dead," he said.

Obi-Wan took over. "Anakin, you've had a strange experience. Perhaps one that no one else will have."

"Don't want it."

"But you are not dead, not at this point in your life. You must return to the Living."

Father was calming quickly, gaining control. "Okay."

Qui-Gon was rubbing Father's hands quickly, getting the blood flowing again. "You're doing well, Ani. You'll do just fine."

"Then Vader is dead?"

They turned.

Leia was standing behind them, her face unreadable. "Is that what... what you all felt?"

"And what you felt," Luke said, not wanting to let her off the hook.

She didn't argue. She looked down at Father. "If Vader was keeping my mother safe -- though I don't believe it -- then where is she now? If he is gone, where is she?"

This sobered Father instantly. "I don't know."

Luke searched out across the desert for his mother's presence. She was there, somewhere, but...

Father closed his eyes, and held out the hand with the glowstick in it. And whispered,

"Amidala."

Luke glanced back at the Queen, but she hadn't responded at all.

Then, a small figure crested a dune, and Luke heard the tattered remnants of an anguished cry echoing against the canyon walls. "Ani!"

Father's eyes opened, and he ran, apparently recovering completely from not being able to breathe. "Padmé!" he called. "Padmé, we're here! We're here!"

It must have taken a few minutes for her to approach, but to Luke it seemed instantaneous. Mother appeared on the dune, far away, then she was in the camp, and her arms were wrapped tightly around Father and she kissed his forehead. She was whispering, "You're here, you're safe, you'll be all right. I'm sorry, sorry... " The apology simply repeated itself.

Father finally pulled away. "What are you sorry for?"

Mother looked down. "You just... died for me."

Father smiled. "Good," he said firmly. "At least I'll do something worth doing."

Mother looked at him, horrified. "Ani... "

"I'll like dying for you."

Luke didn't see it coming at all. Mother rounded her arm at Father quickly, and landed a slap across his face that resounded through the canyon. Then she burst into tears and clung to him again.

Father looked like he had no idea what to do. Luke didn't, either.

He looked to Leia. She was watching their parents with a mixture of wonder and terror on her face. Did she know?

Or did she fear that she was going to be erased from existence?

------------------

Obi-Wan stood still, very, very still for a few minutes after Padmé had calmed down, lest someone interrupt his thoughts. It's my fault.

I knew something would happen, I could feel it. I should have told Master but I was too afraid he's laugh and tell me that he couldn't sense anything. That he liked Skywalker more then he did me.

Okay, I'm an idiot. I must have brain damage from falling down the banister's as an initiate for so many years.

After he'd berated himself enough, he walked over to Skywalker, with a suitable foolhardy and typically Obi-Wan plan. "We need to confront him. To stop him from hurting anyone else."

"Him who?"

"Palpatine him-who! The man who just killed your father defending your mother?" Realizing he'd just given the Jedi a major guilt trip, Obi backed up his train of thought a little. "It's my fault, you know."

Luke laughed a little cynically. "I'm sure."

It is! It is too my fault, Skywalker! He was careful to block the thought from his Master, Master had enough on his mind right now.

"Look, B-- Obi-Wan. I'm sure you think it's your fault but you see, and my friend Han taught me about this, you have a guilt problem. You just take problems and assume it's your fault. It's not healthy, Obi-Wan. You can't change the past."

"What are we doing now, then?" He instantly regretted his reply and made a never-mind gesture.

"You're changing the past," Luke obviously didn't know the never-mind gesture. "Once in a millennium opportunity. Besides, you're changing the future, to then go back into the past and create an alternate future where this never happened and we never existed."

"That makes no sense."

"Didn't you ever watch sci-fi programs as a kid? They explained everything." Luke did seem like the type who had watched those stupid shows about people going to the outer rim while wearing bad toupees. Wait, he was getting jealous again. That was bad.

Back off Obi!

"But wait, if you change the future so we're not here at this time, who will help you get back to change the past?" Okay, apparently, Luke had never learned when to stop so other's brains didn't explode.

"Can we just pretend we're from mirror worlds?" Such an easy theory. Of course, it was never the easier theories. Things had to be bizarre to work.

"If we were mirror worlds, you'd all be on drugs and spice from Kessel." Luke raised an eyebrow after saying this, like he was evaluating a druggie. Funny, Luke, very funny.

"Look, not everything revolves around Holovids, okay? ... How's alternate

dimensions that are almost exactly the same?"

"Works for me," Luke's voice got tight suddenly. "You can come but I want to kill Palpatine by myself, face to face. Make sure he doesn't cheat, stop any guards, but he is mine."

Obi blinked uncomfortably but he knew when it was time to be serious. "Fine. We might as well go now, we've already got the nervous terror down pat." After a pause, Obi continued. "Master won't let us go until after hours of plans and by that time we'll be expected. Besides, Ani needs him and right now, Ani comes first. You can block your presence, right?"

Luke kinda flinched, obviously embarrassed. Obi-Wan tried to hold in a smirk.

"I'm pretty bad at it... Master Yoda tried to teach me but it's really hard to learn stuff while you're standing on your head. Maybe you can help?"

"I'll try. C'mon, we should get going. We don't have any idea where the ship is so... Besides, we can talk about bad theories and an actual working plan of action. Before they notice we're missing, okay?"

"Sounds good."

------------------

Luke shrugged a little mentally as they walked along the dusty sand. He had to do this. It was his Father, someone he hadn't known but someone who had been given his automatic love.

I loved him. I didn't want to but I did.

Even if that hadn't been enough, he had heard Mother's cries of anguish. Vader had died for her and that was enough to redeem anyone in Luke's eyes.

He might have joked around with Obi-Wan before to take his mind off things but that

had only been that nervous tension that sets in after trauma. Some people need to be slapped, well, Luke and Obi-Wan needed to tell bad jokes and banter.

Besides, that was just fun.

It didn't mean they were thoughtless. Quite the opposite, Luke cared too much. He just couldn't handle that his Father was dead and that he had never gotten to help him. To even talk to him about something besides joining the Empire!

But, what-ifs were no good for Jedi.They had way to many crises to do what-ifs at every one. That was for snobby reporters.

The duo could sense Palpatine, it was weaker then usual, easier to pinpoint. They had been walking in that direction for a while now, they thought they were getting close.

Thanks to Palpatine, he never would have that chance. And he wanted to make sure Palpatine could never do that to anyone else again.

Obi-Wan's reasons for coming were much simpler. He was a Jedi, who knew what he needed to do. A semi-rebellious Jedi, Luke guessed, because he wouldn't tell his Master where they were going. Truthfully though, Luke had a very bad feeling about Master Jinn and Sith.

Trying to distract himself from that line of thought, he focussed on what he had just learned. Obi had taught him how to shield his presence from others. Learning how to do it from Obi was a lot easier than from Yoda, who spoke backwards and insisted on him doing it in the most ridiculous situations.

Like he was ever going to need to block his presence running while in a swamp, using his telekinsis to juggle bowls of porridge while carrying Yoda on his back?

"Can you duel?" Luke's thoughts were jerked back to the dusty desert with Obi-Wan's question.

"I'm okay. Plus, Palpatine isn't used to it, he uses lightning. I've read all the reports, he doesn't do his own fighting." Luke was counting on that factor, he knew he was in good shape and during that whole Jabba problem he had been forced to get very good and fast.

Whether Palpatine knew it or now, the Emporer was at his weakest. Palpatine had just killed his right-hand man and now he had no apprentice to draw strength from. Two Jedi against the old man probably wouldn't even be fair.

"Don't underestimate him, Skywalker." Luke blinked, just a little.

"How--" Unfortunately, he was interrupted. Gee, this trip to Tatooine was pretty much parallel to his childhood here.

"You need to shield your thoughts better. It's really eerie, since your Force-signature is blocked, your thoughts are coming from nowhere." He paused. "As for the other issue, I'm a Padawan, it's our mission in life to be overconfident. You're a Knight, you're supposed to be serene."

Luke tried to bring up his shields as Obi's talked. The slightly older boy's voice seemed a little strained. Is he -- No, he couldn't be jealous. That's stupid. He's Obi-Wan Kenobi, I'm well, me.

"I'm not quite a Knight. Master Yoda said I had a little more to do before I had to leave. And after that, everything just got a little busy."

"You're lucky. I have, oh, another year before trials. I end up going on so many unlucky missions, it's a little hard to catch up with my studies."

"I'm not that lucky, really......" Luke trailed off as he saw Obi stop, very suddenly. Looking up, he gulped. It was Vader's ship. And absolutely, most definitely, Palpatine was inside.

------------------

The scariness of the whole thing was wearing off, and Anakin was starting to feel like himself again.

Padmé was still holding on to him, which he didn't mind -- it was better than getting slapped, anyway -- even though his shoulder was hurting a little bit from being pulled in a weird direction and he was uncomfortably warm. He squirmed to find a better place, and her arms loosened. She looked at him like she was vaguely surprised to find him there, then let go. He didn't have time to miss her before one arm found its way around his shoulders again, but this time it wasn't quite so... weird. Her arm was just slung around him, just like any of his buddies, and she was giving him a normal smile. He returned it. She kissed his cheek and mussed up his hair. He rolled his eyes at her, and she just shook her head. She looked embarrassed, and he caught the edge of a thought -- (this is silly, i have to let go of the poor kid, but i can't not yet just a little longer...) -- that seemed to be looping around in her brain.

What the heck was she talking to him... to me about out there? he wondered, but didn't ask. Instead, he asked, "Where's Luke?"

Padmé looked up, noticed that they were alone again. She stood, reducing her touch to a hand resting lightly on top of his head. "Leia?" she called.

The princess appeared tentatively at the edge of the light. "Yes?"

"Where's your... where's Luke?"

"I thought he was still with you."

Anakin shook his head, but didn't say anything. He hadn't forgotten that Leia didn't seem to like him much, now that he said he was Vader. He really didn't think she'd like it much if he told her that Vader was her father. It would probably make her feel really bad. She didn't so much as glance at him, though, so it didn't matter.

"He left us," Amidala said. "I appear to have been... acting outside of people's comfort zones."

Leia nodded solemnly. "I'm sure it was upsetting. I'm... glad he saved you."

Qui-Gon showed up behind her. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but have any of you seen Obi-Wan?"

------------------

Leia's mind had been turning over the possibility of her own annihilation ever since she saw that her mother was falling in love with some strange dream she had about Anakin Skywalker. She was able to contemplate it more easily than she thought, and even wondered clinically what changes it would make in Luke, to have a different mother. Maybe we'll merge, she thought. And maybe there won't be Vader at all. But the thinking took a lot of energy, made her other thoughts fuzzy and unclear as she answered Mother's questions, and avoided looking at Anakin Skywalker.

But her thoughts cleared immediately upon hearing Jinn's question. Of course. Luke had been with Obi-Wan. She'd seen them together, after her mother had returned. Then they hadn't been there anymore. "They're going off after Palpatine."

"Good!" Mother said.

"Not good," Qui-Gon corrected her. "They are both full of anger, and if he truly is Sith -- "

"He is. Trust me."

" -- then he will use their anger to his own advantage, and destroy them with it."

"I'll go," Leia said. "I'll get them."

Mother shook her head. "No. I've lost enough family tonight."

At first, Leia didn't catch it, then it sank in. "You know? You know I'm your family?"

"Of course I know. We'll discuss it later. When I figure it out. Right now, we need to find your brother."

***************************************

A slight armored guard hid in the shadows of the Emperor's throne room. He was a red Imperial Guard, the best the Imperials had to offer. No ego was involved in that statement, just fact.

The guard's name was Drake Denok and he had been ordered to watch the proceedings. Not to ever make a move, just watch. That was something extremly hard for him but he had to follow orders.

Drake really wasn't too clear on what standing still would accomplish. Unfortunately, the Emperor was a little hard to follow. Whether that was from genius or insanity, Drake didn't know.

Slinking into the shadows even further, Drake watched as the two subjects entered, looking self-righteous and justified in their place in the galaxy.

"You killed my Father, Palpatine." Luke Skywalker. Well known Rebel and well known by Imperials for being a brat.

"And you brought Kenobi. Most unexpected, Skywalker. Not to say I don't like surprises, I do, very, very much."

"Meaning..." Obi-Wan looked pointedly indifferent.

He's scared. Not so much for himself but that Palpatine will kill someone close to him. His Master, perhaps?

"I'll kill them, you know. I sent orders. My special unit was deployed to kill them a while back. My unit's very good, they were just waiting for you to leave. By now... Well, say bye bye to Mommy, will you Luke?"

They won't believe that. They're JediRebels, making them smarter then the average Rebel!

"You're lying!" Luke and Obi-Wan were in sync with that that one. It was painfully obvious to everyone in the room that they didn't believe Emperor Palpatine was lying.

"Am I? Now, now, I could do that easily, why would I lie about it? As we speak, Kenobi's Master, Luke's parents, his sister... Everyone. They're just about to be dead by my hand," he paused. "I love being me.

"Oh, and Kenobi, since I know you're wondering, you can't warn Qui-Gon because I cut off all your mental communications. A Sith trade secret, you know."

Again, in sync, the duo raised their lightsabers and charged forward. The Jedi were greeted by short bursts of lightning from Palpatine. The not-very-well-thought-out pattern was repeated three times.

He supposed they were grief-stricken, for no actual reason all at all. They didn't know that though and Drake wasn't going to tell them that and then get himself killed. That would just be stupid.

"I swear by the Force, I will kill you for even trying to hurt them." The comment was spoken softly by Obi-Wan and no one seemed to be expecting an attack after it.

That was right when he threw his 'saber straight at the Emperor.

With the darkside helping though, the lightsaber swerved right back into Luke's leg.

Ouch. Ouch, ouch, ouch.

Luke crumbled, and tried to softly pull it out to no avail. "Aaah! No! This smegging hurts! Sith!"

Finally Luke just yanked it and the blood stopped after a full five minutes of Obi-Wan apologizing frantically and the Emperor laughing extremely hard.

"Poor, poor, Skywalker. And, soon, you'll have no Mommy to kiss it better."

The Emperor really needs to learn some better taunts then that.

Luke sat there seething while Obi-Wan looked like he was about to explode.

The stares the Jedi were sending the Emperor's way made Drake shudder. It reminded him of how that man with the tattoos had looked, the one who had called himself the..... apprentice!

By the Force.... The whole point of this was for the Emporer to get himself some Sith trainees! No!

------------------

Han focused his eyes on a tiny chip in the naviputer, willing the last of the cloudy vision away. The miniscule circuits began to show themselves as shadows, then finally swam up into clarity.

Okay, still sick, but sick and seeing is better than sick and blind, especially if you're going to get the Falcon off the ground.

And that, he figured, was what he'd have to do.

He hadn't been worried at first. They'd been gone awhile, but hell, they'd been on Tatooine for months. Luke had lived here. They knew their way around. He'd gotten cleaned up, changed his clothes... then, there'd been a brief, intercepted message.

Vader was here. All he could think of was Leia. She had risked everything to save him, now, here he was, safe on a ship, while she was in worse danger than Jabba could even think of putting either one of them in. Lando was probably right -- there wasn't a lot he could do in his present condition -- but when he'd come to, his head aching more than before and the bleary vision back with a vengeance, he'd thought, The double-crossing son-of-a-Hutt did it again.

He'd come to his senses quickly enough -- Chewie had gone with Lando, and that was enough to convince Han that Lando wasn't doing anything sneaky -- but he was left with a gnawing guilt for still being here. He thought of following them, but realized that would just end up being more trouble: someone else would have to find him when it was time to go. Better if he stuck around to be the finder.

So he powered up the Falcon, making her ready to go in a flash, and started running scans to find their commlinks.

The Queen's party was easy to find -- the old style signals were the only ones of their kind -- but they were scattered in clumps around a five-kilometer radius. Chewie was with them. Han signaled him, and was gratified to get an immediate, if subdued, reply.

"Chewie, who you got with you?"

Chewie paused -- it was hard to give names in Wookiee -- then finally avoided the names altogether by saying it was the pilot and the security officer.

"Yeah, well, tell Panaka to start calling in his troops. If we need to make a quick getaway, it's going to be hard to catch them like this."

A voice said, "Excuse me, may I?" and Chewie barked away from the microphone. A minute later, Panaka came on. "Captain Solo, our ship is undoubtedly under surveillance. We thought it wise to stay away from it."

Han guessed that made sense. He checked the locations of the other comm-links.

"Look, Lando and one of your people are coming toward the three of you. Go do a check on your ship. See if you can get to it. I can probably get people off on the Falcon, if it's an emergency, but you're going to need that ship if you're planning on going home anyway. Keep a lock on this signal."

"I read you," Panaka said. "I don't think any of our people has found anything anyway."

Han didn't bother to ask what they thought they were looking for. "Just keep it together," he said. "Be ready to make a run for it."

"All right. Panaka out."

The communication was cut curtly -- he was old style military -- but Han had already occupied himself with programming in a launch.

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--->continue to part 3

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