Divided Loyalties

IX

"Are you alright?".

Luke nodded weakly at his father's question, actually asking himself why he hadn't beheaded the older man directly. How could the second in charge of the Empire not own an anaesthetic?

"Very well".
Vader stood up from his chair and put the tools he had used to stitch up his son's wound back in their box. He wasn't expecting anyone knocking on his door, especially not Admiral Piett.

Struggling to find a solution, he quickly tossed a blanket over Luke's form and opened the door.

"Milord" Piett said after bowing his head "I was commanded to prepare the main hangar for some important ships which will land tomorrow. Do I have Your permission?".

Vader felt confused as he stared at his officer with growing curiosity. No visits were booked for the following day: surely it was something important if the order had been given to an Admiral and not to a simple soldier.

After a long silence he conceeded his permission, still not being able to shake off his worry. He couldn't forbid to an Imperial ship to find shelter in the Executor.

The Sith Lord quickly shut the door, almost hitting the admiral's face with it, then he marched towards the bed his son was lying on and removed the blanket. He just hoped the boy wouldn't be too angry.

"Are you alright, Luke?" Vader asked, concern creeping up behind him. Suffocating his son with a blanket after cutting his hand off and having him tortured wasn't exactly a good start for their relationship.

"Of course" the youth confirmed as he rapidly stood up and started getting dressed. His moves were uncertain and too quick when he headed back to the room Leia was in.

Vader stopped him with a cold hand on his shoulder, and luckily Luke didn't fight. He simply looked up at his father with confused, glazed eyes.

"What is happening? You are not feeling well, are you?" Vader asked, noticing an unusual spot of fear in the boy's Force signature. The Sith was afraid he had hurt his son while treating his injury, but Luke wasn't in physical pain. There was something different, a hidden terror in his presence.

"I don't know. I'm perfectly fine, but I have a bad feeling about this. I'm... confused" Luke said, fidgeting with his hands.

Vader nodded, taking a mental note of the boy's feelings, and simply suggested him to go to bed: the last days had been hard.

Luke obeyed, not too convinced, and disappeared into the room he shared with his sister.

Vader waited for his children's presences to go silent, a clear sign that they were sleeping.

Then, he slowly opened their door and peeked inside.

The Sith Lord had never experienced such a situation, he had never cared about anyone so much. When he saw his sleeping children as innocent as they had to be when they were kids, he felt like he was putting his unworthy foot in a sacred, inviolable space.
Back when they were little, when they would have deserved someone to kiss them on the forehead before sleeping, they must have looked exactly like that.

Caught by a sudden and completely new paternal instinct, with a confused guilt wrapping itself around his heart, Vader sat on the edge of Leia's bed. He gently stroked her hair, noticing the breathtaking similarity between the girl and Padmé. His Force presence filled up with nostalgia at the sight, and a tear blossomed in his yellow eye... an eye that had a strange blue track in it.

Vader quickly stopped at Luke's bedside to tuck in the sheets before going back to his room. He had to check his mask because of an unusual concentration of salty water around the eyes.

~~~

Emperor Palpatine came on an ordinary shuttle early in the morning, when Vader should have been meditating. He wasn't seeing him active in the Dark Side, which surely was not a good sign.

Slightly shaking his head, the cruel Sith Lord walked calmly towards his apprentice's personal quarters: he had to discover what was wrong with Lord Vader. Sidious was feeling disturbed and soon he was going to know why.

His presence masked, he opened the main door of Vader's apartments. In front of him, a shocking sight.

His not so powerful apprentice was sitting at a table and was serving breakfast to two youths in their early twenties, one boy and one girl... Sidious would have sworn they weren't more Imperial than Bail Organa.

The girl was short and good looking, her face framed by an elaborated hairstyle; she had that composed and uncompromising expression Palpatine had seen only in Padmé Amidala.

The boy was quite small himself, very slim but well built, with Anakin Skywalker's blue eyes and a prosthetic hand. Just like the last Jedi.

The Emperor had no doubts: the two were son and daughter of Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, and Vader knew this perfectly. But the old man decided to wait and hide his thoughts behind his all powerful mental shields.

Vader, on the other hand, had a literal heart attack when he saw his Master's devilish face: he dove in an improvised reverence, completely unprepared.

Luke sensed the devastating darkness that man was emanating, feeling it so strongly that he experienced physical cold and dizziness. Even Leia felt the Dark Side's tendrils, even if she wasn't trained at all.

"I came to visit you, Lord Vader" the Emperor declared with his demonic voice. "I want to check the situation on my Super Star Destroyer".

Vader bowed his head. "If You give me Your permission, I will show you everything personally" he suggested gently. Everything except Luke and Leia's identity.  He still didn't know what to do, but Palpatine wasn't going to touch his children.

The Emperor nodded and led Vader out of the room, thinking about the situation. If Vader wasn't trustworthy anymore, Sidious could replace him with his daughter and son. Their potential in the Force was enormous, raw and uncontaminated, especially the girl's... they were so vulnerable.

In the room Luke leant his forehead on the table, covering his head with his hands as if he wanted to shake off the malevolent presence he was feeling. Leia closed her eyes and let out the breath she hadn't realised she had held.

The situation was getting more and more complicated.

I haven't updated this story for a month and I apologise vehemently. I'm so sorry, but I had a lot of stuff to do for school and other things... I hope you'll like this chapter and forget the rest (-;
May the Force be with you!
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