Fan Fiction

Author's Note:

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This story is an alternate reality story set in the Star Wars universe. It takes place in an alternate timeline, one in which Anakin Skywalker defeated Obi-Wan on Mustafar and was not burned and thus not in the famous black armor. It is set five years after the events of Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. 

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            Darth Vader, still called Anakin by his wife, lay in the tall grass of Naboo and watched the twins play with a nanny droid. At various points in the field, red-armored Sith Troopers stood guard, watching the skies, the hills, everything around them, so still they could have been statues, the gleaming crimson of their armor a contrast to the lush green of the tall grass. His wife, Queen Padme Skywalker, sat on the blanket next to him, looking toward the twins, but Vader knew she was not looking at them. They’d been married long enough for Vader to be able to know this even without sensing as much through the Force. Always a serious woman, Padme had grown sullen since the birth of the twins, a condition the medical droids and midwives insisted would pass, but it never did, for Anakin knew it was more than just the hormonal imbalance after giving birth that affected some women. She’d never been the same since he’d told her he’d killed Obi-Wan, since Order 66, all of it. Vader had come to accept the fact that it would be a permanent thing with her. He accepted it, yet it still still irritated and perplexed him.

            He couldn’t fathom why she would be sullen. The Republic had won the Clone Wars, the corruption of the Jedi had been exposed, the Order disbanded, they had two beautiful, healthy children, and she was again Queen of Naboo, Queen for Life, in fact, after a forced change to the Naboo constitution insisted upon by Vader. It wouldn’t do to have a wife of his serve as a mere Senator, especially since he knew that the Emperor’s long-term plans were to disband the Galactic Senate. They had everything anyone could ever have wanted. Why would she be sullen?

            “You are quiet, my love,” Vader said mildly. He reached out with the Force, bringing his goblet of cherry wine to his hand. In the early days of their relationship, when they were younger, things like this delighted Padme. Nowadays, she reacted to such things either not at all or negatively. Today was a not at all reaction.

            “The Parva pollen makes me sleepy,” she said dismissively. “You know this.”
           “I also know you have medicine for that. Tell me: what’s on your mind?”

             She was quiet for a moment, Vader sensing the tension within her, and he thought she might actually say what was on her mind when she said, “I’m just watching the children.” 

            Vader grunted and set his empty goblet in the grass. She had never had a problem speaking her mind before, why did she now?

            “Watching the children,” he said. “Anything else?”

            Padme sighed.

           “The children. The guards. The Imperial shuttle beyond them. The Executor hovering above Theed. I’m looking at all these things.”

            “Yes. The children are safe. You are safe. The people of Naboo are safe. The galaxy is safe. These are good things, Padme.”

            “Are they?” she mused. “Some of them, yes. Sometimes, however, I miss the Naboo I knew, the one that didn’t have two garrisons of Stormtroopers stationed in Spinnaker, or Sith Troopers in Theed, or an Imperial base on Ohma-D’un. A Naboo where Gungan City wasn’t used to train underwater troopers. You ask what I’m thinking, and there you have it.”

          The anger within Vader started to swell. His jaw cracked, and he clenched his artificial hand so hard the gears within it squealed in protest. He knew she felt this way, of course, but she hadn’t verbalized as much since the twins were babies, and his own frustration and anger that had boiled within him for months and months was about to erupt out of him when another feeling, anxiety, coming from the children, called his attention.

He looked up, finding the twins fighting over a holo-kite, each pulling the generator with both hands, demanding the other let it go.

         “Children, enough!” Padme cried. Ignoring or not hearing her, they persisted in arguing, so the nanny droid floated between them, gently placing a padded metal hand on the shoulder of each child. Snarling, Luke let go of the holo-kite and lashed out with the Force, propelling the nanny droid through the field and slamming it into the trunk of a tree, effectively destroying it.

         Vader was between the children in a flash, so fast Padme didn’t even see him move, pushing Leia back with one hand and grabbing Luke by his tunic with the other.

        “What have I told you, boy?” Vader snarled. “You never, never use your powers unless directed by me. Never!”         

        Luke, shrinking in terror from his father, pawing at his gloved hand, begged for forgiveness.

       “Look what you did to H-5,” Padme said reproachfully, pointing at the crumbled droid at the base of the tree.

       “He killed her!” Leia cried.

       “It was just a stupid droid,” Luke moaned. “I didn’t mean to!”

       “Stupid droid?” Vader hissed, “Stupid droid?” Vader let go of his son with his hand but then raised him off the ground with the Force, bringing them face to face. Tears flowed from Luke’s blue eyes while Vader’s burned orange. “Only a spoiled little boy who has grown up in a palace would treat his things so carelessly. Perhaps you’d like to live in a desert, be a slave to a filthy, stinking Toydarian, forced to work day and night, building a ‘stupid droid’ so that he and his mother could have one true friend. Would you like that, Luke? Hmm?”

            “No!” Luke cried. “No, I wouldn’t!”

            “Anakin,” Padme said, grabbing Vader by the arm. “Enough. Let him go.”

            Glancing at Luke once more, Vader remarked, “As you wish,” and the boy fell back to the grass.  

            Luke ran to his mother, who, even though she was also cross with him, held him tenderly. She looked up at Vader and shook her head. Again, Vader didn’t need the Force to tell she was shaking it at him, not Luke.

            “He killed H-5,” Leia whined, wrapping her arms around her father’s legs.

            “I’ll get you another one,” Vader said. “I promise.”

            Vader looked back up at Padme, both of them sharing a look that seemed to say we’ll continue our conversation later, when Vader’s comm went off.

            Vader put the comm to his lips and said, “Disturbing me when I am with my family can be dangerous. This had better be important.”

            “My apologies, Lord Vader,” came the voice of the Grand Inquisitor, “but it is important. Very important indeed.”

            “I’m listening.”

            “We believe have found Master Yoda, my Lord,” the Grand Inquisitor said proudly.

            Vader and Padme met eyes. Her expression was unreadable, but her feelings were not. A stab of fear jerked through her body, one she tried to subdue before he detected it, but it was too late. Padme had always had a weakness for the Jedi she had known.

            “I shall speak with you in my shuttle,” Vader said.

            Padme and the children still outside, Vader brought up a holo image of the Grand Inquisitor on the family’s private shuttle as he gave his report. The image of the Grand Inquisitor shifted to the image of an unremarkable planet called Dagobah, then flickered to a recording.

            The images, filmed by an Imperial Probe Droid, drifted through a filthy, murky swamp. The Probe Droid navigated around trees, hanging vines, and floated over putrid brown water. It seemed to be daytime, but the sky was so full of dark clouds that it practically looked dark. The images suddenly stopped, the perspective of the droid shifting as it swiveled its head. Then, a blur, so fast even Anakin’s eyes, honed by training and the Force, nearly missed it.

            “Replay that and freeze,” he demanded.       

            The image reversed and advanced slowly. Then came the blur, just a shape at the top right edge of the image, which froze. There, on the screen, was a single eye looking at the probe droid, a pointed green ear, and part of a green face that glowed greener still from what could only be a lightsaber. The image blinked out.

            “Replay it again.”

            The Grand Inquisitor obeyed. Anakin watched it four more times, finally instructing the Grand Inquisitor to shut it off.

            “It appears to be him,” Anakin said. “It would, however, be unlike Master Yoda to make such an error.”

            “I would agree, my Lord,” the Grand Inquisitor said, “but the image appears to be authentic.”

“But how long ago was this footage taken? He could have fled by now.”

            “We have been monitoring the planet ever since receiving this transmission, my Lord,” the Grand Inquisitor said, “We have detected no ships leaving its atmosphere. If you’d like, I can send in a garrison of troops to confirm it is him.”

            “No,” Vader said brusquely. “Yoda could dispatch a garrison of Stormtroopers as quickly as a swarm of flies.” Sighing, Vader closed his eyes and reached out with the Force, recalling the images, reaching out to Dagobah, thinking of the presence of his old master.

            “It’s him,” Vader finally said. “I shall contact the Emperor and leave immediately.”

            “I shall have my Inquisitors rendezvous with you there.”

            “No,” Vader said. “I shall go alone.”

            “Lord Vader,” the Grand Inquisitor began cautiously.

            “As you are well aware, Grand Inquisitor, I dislike repeating myself.”

            “Of course, my Lord.”

           

            In their private quarters, Padme rushed around the room in a huff while Anakin stood by impatiently. She roughly put away the children’s clothes, adjusted things on shelves unnecessarily, straightened and cleaned, as if they didn’t have servants for that.

            Finally, she stopped and looked at her husband with a pained look on her face.

            “Anakin,”

            “I would assume, after these last five years, you would have tired of telling me, ‘You don’t have to do this.’”

            “I am tired of it, but I still say it. I still ask it: do you have to do this?”

            “Of course I do!” Anakin said desperately. “With Yoda alive, the Jedi have a chance of returning, the Jedi and their oppression.”

            “Yes, oppression,” Padme said, sighing. She thought back to the hours and hours of hearings in the Galactic Senate after the Jedi Purge. Naturally, there had been galactic outrage once news of the Jedi’s destruction spread from Coruscant, and answers were demanded. The Emperor paraded hundreds of witnesses in front of the assembly to attest to the claim that the Jedi were planning a hostile takeover of the galaxy: servants, maintenance droids, cleaning droids, former padawans, even three Jedi who’d been arrested that night. The star witness, of course, had been her own husband, General Anakin Skywalker, one of the greatest living veterans of the Clone Wars and one of the most famous Jedi in the order, who insisted that Count Dooku had not actually left the Jedi order but was actually working in tandem with them to cripple the galaxy with the Clone Wars. It was the Jedi Council itself that provided Dooku and General Grievous with intelligence on Republic troop movements, and it was the Council that attempted to overthrow the Senate by attempting to assassinate Chancellor Palpatine.

            There had been a shocking, cold logic to it all, and hundreds of delegations were easily swayed. In just a few short votes, the Jedi were evil and hereby banned from ever reforming and the Republic was now the Galactic Empire.

            “What if …” Padme began, but was unable to find the words.

            “Padme,” Vader said softly, suddenly her Anakin again in that way that he would somehow rematerialize. His face was not hard, but soft, his touch gentle as he put his hands on her shoulder, and his voice had the loving tone of the young man she had known. “I do this for you, for the twins! The Clone Wars nearly destroyed the galaxy. While the Empire is not perfect, it runs with an efficiency the Republic has never enjoyed before. If the Jedi are allowed to return, that would jeopardize all of that. They would come for the Emperor, they would come for me, for us. Once they are all finally gone, we can all be at peace, and I won’t have to leave anymore. I promise.”

            Peace, he had said. She knew full well he wasn’t only sent on missions to find missing Jedi, they had the Inquisitors for that. She knew he was also sent on missions to quell dissension and rebellions on worlds that had not warmed to the Empire. She knew their palace, all the things their children had, were bathed in blood.

            “I so wish that was true,” she said sadly.

            “It is,” Vader said, bringing her to him. “I promise.”

            They embraced for a long time, until Vader finally said, “I must go.”

 

            Leia, sitting lying on her bed and making a ball float above her with her hand, watched an Imperial shuttle escorted by two Tie Fighters soar into the sky.

            “There goes father,” she said.

            Luke walked up to the window and watched the ships disappear. “Yes,” he said. “I sense this mission is more important, more dangerous than others.”

            “I felt this too.”

            He glanced over at his sister, frowning when he saw the fall hovering above her bed.

            “Father says no powers without his permission.”
           “Father isn’t here,” Leia said matter-of-factly, “and besides, I am his favorite.”

            “Are not!” Luke said.

            “Am too!”

            “Are not!”

            “Am too!”

            Luke was about to reach out with the Force and snatch the ball away from her when both of them felt a presence in the room with them.

            “Younglings,” an old voice said. “Younglings!”

            They turned, and there, sitting on one of their chairs, was the Little Green Man.

            “Fight, you should not,” he said.

            He had been coming to them for a while now. They knew he was not really here; he was somewhere else deep in the galaxy, and if they touched him, their hands would go through him, like a hologram. But he was not a hologram, but more like a projection of himself. That is what he had told them, anyway. They had both tried this. He was wearing, as he always was, his dirty robes, had his little cane sitting across his lap, his little pointed green toes wiggling from underneath his folded robe.

            He had started coming to them when they were just learning to walk. He refused to tell them his name, but insisted his mother knew who he was. He was a calm, quiet presence in their lives, so different from their quietly suffering mother and wrathful father. He was there for them when their parents fought, and he was there to comfort them when their father had chastised them. He taught them things, and he listened to them, asking only in return that they never tell their father about him. That had been surprisingly easy, for while they loved their father dearly, he was a dark and frightening man, their  young, untrained Force ability sensing the malice within him.

            “Younglings,” the Little Green Man said, somewhat more urgently. “Time, it is.”

            Luke and Leia exchanged looks.

            “It’s time?” Leia asked.

            The Little Green Man nodded.

            “Tell your mother, you should.”

 

            Padme Skywalker, Queen of Naboo, stood before her mirror, leaning against the dresser for support, and cried like a widow. She supposed that was what she was, she had been a widow since the night of the Jedi Purge, her Anakin dying right along with all the other Jedi and this, this Darth Vader, was all that remained.

            And yet it was more complicated than that. He was still her Anakin in so many ways. And yet, this Darth Vader was a different creature entirely – dark, deadly, and remote.

            “Mother,” Leia’s voice, behind her, startled her out of her weeping. She whirled around, finding both the twins standing in her room. They had a strange look on their faces, as if they’d just broken something and were afraid to tell her.

            “Children, I am sorry,” she said, wiping her eyes. “I was just …” she couldn’t find the words, so just shrugged. “having a moment.”

            “The Little Green Man was back, Mother,” Luke said.

            “He said it is time,” Leia said.

            “It’s time …” Padme whispered. She composed herself quickly, a skill she had picked up from a lifetime of public service, first as Queen Amidala, then Senator Amidala, now as Queen Skywalker.  “It’s time,” she repeated, then commanded her children to go to their room and await her summons.

            Once alone, in the desperate, cold quiet of her chambers, she wondered … could she do this?

            She had thought of leaving Anakin the moment she awoke on the Emperor’s personal shuttle, her throat still sore from Anakin choking her, and upon learning of the Jedi Purge and that he had killed his best friend, Obi-Wan, she nearly demanded they take her back to Naboo immediately. However, in the presence of Palpatine, Emperor Palpatine, and his apprentice, now calling himself Darth Vader, she learned that her ability to demand things had been greatly diminished. She was queen of her home world and wife to the second most powerful man in the galaxy, but she found out very quickly she had very little say in anything that happened to her. Or her children.

            And Anakin was her husband, her beloved Ani, the father of the twins growing in her belly, twins that arrived that very same day. How could she leave him? If only he could make her understand what had happened? How could the Jedi, the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy for over a thousand generations, be evil, corrupt, and at the heart of the war? How could the Sith, contrary to everything one was taught in ancient history, be the “good” ones? Padme knew that politics, galactic governance, and everything in between were complicated and had lured the strongest people astray, but this, this did not make sense, and for years after, she begged Anakin to explain it to her, to make it make sense.

            He never could.

            She reached up and squeezed her right earring, opening a secret compartment in the wall where three bags, packed especially for this occasion, waited for her. She sighed wearily.

            Anakin would never stop looking for the three of them once they were gone, he would shirk his official duties in order to search for them. She imagined him torturing and killing their household staff in order to find out where she’d gone, even long after he’d come to realize they did not know. She visualized him destroying the royal palace and laying waste to Theed in his rage. She wondered if, were he to find them, would he kill her? Would he snap her neck with his robotic hand, take her breath away with a Force-choke, or run her through with his crimson lightsaber? The Anakin she had once known would not have done any of these things, she was sure of that, but Darth Vader was not her Anakin anymore. He was the Emperor’s, and she had seen this version of Anakin kill subordinates before, let alone knowing full well what he did when he went out searching for surviving Jedi. This Anakin had killed his best friend, Obi-Wan Kenobi, on Mustafar, still keeping his old master’s lightsaber mounted on a shelf in their chambers as a memento of his freedom from the Jedi.

            And now he was heading to the Executor to hunt Master Yoda, the final (apparently) living member of the council. She knew he would cut his old master down without a second thought, and she wondered darkly what would happen to her and the children should Yoda, a powerful Jedi in his day, killed Anakin? What would happen to her and the twins? She knew what would happen, and that was why she was afraid.

            Palpatine would take the twins. He may let Padme live at first, at least while the twins were still young, but once they got older, their abilities stronger, a strong-willed, opinionated mother would just be a nuisance, and she would be eliminated. She did not care what happened to her, but she would not let that monster take her children. Neither of these monsters, she corrected herself.

            She gathered her bags.

           

            Vader’s TIE Advanced X1 TIE Fighter breached the clouds of Dagobah and screeched over the swampy, slimy land below. His TIE Fighter, like all TIE Fighters, was loud, possibly alerting the former master of his presence, but that would not matter now. The Executor and three other Star Destroyers were in orbit, monitoring every possible escape route.

            Of course, Yoda wouldn’t need the sound of the TIE Fighter to alert him to Vader’s presence. He likely knew he was here. That was fine, too.

            There were no good spots to land his TIE in the vicinity of the holo recording, so he hovered the ship above a clearing, put it on autopilot, and leapt out of it, landing firmly on his feet in wet, smelly grass.

            Vader looked disdainfully at the landscape of the place. It was wet and ugly, a tangle of vines and trees and stinking plant life. Vader understood why Yoda had hidden himself here.

            He moved through the jungle, climbing over obstacles, hopping from rock to rock to cross running water, using his lightsaber to cut down trees or other hanging foliage he could not pass, all the while reaching out for the Force, searching for the former master.

            “Anakin,” a calm, wise voice said. “Don’t.”

            It was the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn, the Jedi who had plucked him from Tatooine and delivered him to the Jedi Order like some bounty, leaving his mother to remain in the clutches of Watto. Vader had come to both blame the Jedi master for everything that had happened but also thank him for it. Were it not for Qui-Gon, he would never have met Padme, never found the Emperor, and would never have been able to help destroy the Jedi. And yet, it was Qui-Gon’s cold indifference that led to his mother’s death. He could have taken her from Watto. He could have cut him down with his green lightsaber of the stupid Toydarian tried to stop him, and yet he left her there, for all he cared about was snatching this Force-sensitive boy from his home, the same way all Jedi plucked children from the arms of their parents for centuries.

             No longer.

            He ignored Qui-Gon’s voice, and moved on.

            He sensed something, suddenly, something that did not make much sense to him. He sensed the power of the Dark Side. He followed this feeling; it pulled at him like an icy cold tether, leading to a cave made from a tangle of trees. As he approached, he heard a laugh, light at first, then growing in intensity. It was the Emperor.

            Frowning, Vader headed toward the cave.

            The Emperor. He gave Vader his blessing to go after Yoda alone, but had he changed his mind? Did he decide that he must be the one to slay Master Yoda after failing to do so during the Jedi Purge? Vader knew the Emperor was jealous of him. He envied his youth, his growing power, even his young family. Had he decided to deny his apprentice this honor and claim it for himself? Vader could see him doing something like that.

            The figure of the Emperor, just a black, triangular shape in the dark, waited for him in the cave, still laughing.

            “Master …” Vader began. He could sense the menace rolling off of his master, could sense he was about to attack. “I did not expect you.”

            Palpatine’s face was illuminated in red as he ignited his lightsaber. Without a word, he leapt at Vader, using a Force Scream to stun him, aiming his saber for Vader’s chest.

            Vader ignited his lightsaber and parried the attack in the same motion, launching a counteroffensive of his own.

            Emperor and Apprentice fought ferociously in the small, dark place, searing limbs off the trees with their lightsabers and starting mini fires in their wake. The Emperor, as he often did during such things, laughed the entire time, which enraged Vader. He’s mocking me, Vader thought. He thinks I am not worthy. His arrogance will be his undoing.

            And then it happened. Vader baited his master and Palpatine took the bait, thrusting his saber at Vader’s chest. Sidestepping the attack, he slashed downward, taking off both of Palpatine’s arms with one strike and then his head with the next.

            The body went in one direction while the head went the other. It rolled unevenly to a stop, eyes up.  The head was not that of his Master, but rather of Padme.

            Screaming, Vader attacked the cave with all his might, cutting through the tangled ropes of vines, slashing down trees, using the Force to blast holes through it until finally, he emerged back out into the swamp. He turned back around and, using his remaining human hand, incinerated the rest of the tree cave with a blast of Force Lightning.

            Panting, sweaty, Vader extinguished his lightsaber and turned around.

            Master Yoda stood across from him, resting both his little green hands on his cane, looking at him reproachfully.

            “Young Skywalker,” Yoda said. “Still so angry, you are.”

            Vader reignited his lightsaber.

            “Master Yoda,” Vader hissed. “I’ve been looking for you.”

            “Found me, you have.” Yoda glanced beyond Vader at the crackling remnants of the cave.
“What saw you in the Cave of Evil, young Skywalker?”

            “Anakin Skywalker is dead,” Vader proclaimed. “I am Darth Vader.”

            “The boy I first met when Qui-Gon brought him before me, I still see.”
           Snarling, Vader leapt at Master Yoda, who lifted his hand casually, as if he was telling Vader to stand back, and Vader was propelled backward and into the burning cave.

            Vader hopped from the flames, casting his burning cloak aside and turning back toward the Jedi Master.

            But he was no longer there.

           

            “I’m sorry, Ma’am,” the Sith Trooper said , “But we shall have to accompany you. Lord Vader’s orders.”

            Exiting the royal chambers with the twins in tow, Padme had found the hall guarded by two crimson Sith Troopers. This was rare. The palace was one of the safest places in the entire galaxy, the entire planet transformed into a veritable fortress under Imperial rule. Guards, while always present, were usually only visible when there was a security threat.

            “Am I not Queen?” Padme demanded, “Do I not rule Naboo?”

            The Sith Troopers stared at her silently from behind their crimson helmets, as if considering their answer carefully. “You rule Naboo, Ma’am,” the trooper admitted, “but we must obey Lord Vader’s orders. We are happy to escort you and the children anywhere you would like to go.”

            She opened her mouth to protest when, next to her, Leia said, “You don’t need to escort us anywhere.”

            The Sith Troopers glanced down at her as if trying to comprehend what they’d just heard. Then, one of them said, “We don’t need to escort you anywhere.”

            “We are free to go where we wish,” Luke said.

            “You’re free to go where you wish,” the Sith Trooper said.

            “You don't need to tell anyone you saw us leave,” Leia added.

            “We don’t need to tell anyone you left,” the Sith Trooper agreed.

            “Let’s go,” Luke said, grabbing Padme by one hand as Leia grabbed her with the other.

            Padme, sure that their exit was going to be more difficult than she planned, looked back over her shoulder at the Sith Troopers, who stood guard, looking out the window as if they weren’t even there.

            Once out of earshot of the Sith Troopers and in the turbolift, Padme bent down to the children, whispering, “How did you know how to do that? Is that something your father taught you?”

            “No,” Luke said, “It was the Little Green Man.”

            “The Little Green Man …” Padme said.

            “He told us we may have to.” Leia said.

            “Well,” Padme said sadly, thinking it was this very same man her husband was on his way to destroy, “the Little Green Man is very wise.”

            For the first time since beginning this perilous errand, Padme thought it might actually work.

 

            Vader walked through the humid, filthy jungle, reaching out with the Force, searching for Yoda. He could see why the old master would choose such a planet for his hiding place. It was remote, largely unknown, and so teeming with life that it was hard to pinpoint a single life form even with the most advanced equipment. There was also something off about this world, Vader realized. The Force was strong here. While Yoda likely had the ability to hide himself from Vader, he felt as if the planet itself surged with the Force in a strange balance of the Light and Dark sides.

            He was still disturbed by the encounter in the tree cave. Clearly a vision, it felt so real, more real than any vision he’d ever had. And it was the Dark Side that showed him this vision, not the Light, which confused him.

            He sensed danger a millisecond before it was upon him. He whirled toward the sensation, igniting his lightsaber, but found nothing there but more greasy vines and gurgling, filthy water.

            Something burst forth from the pond nearest to him, a slimy, gray-purple tentacle that wrapped around his ankle, yanking him toward the water and certainly to the hungry maw of whatever owned it. Taking care to avoid severing his own foot, he cut away the tentacle easily, the stump, spitting black, viscous blood, retreating into the water.

            The pond suddenly bubbled as if set to boil, and a hideous, multi-tentacled horror erupted from its depths, howling in rage and pain. It lashed at Vader with its tentacles; the first two, he cut away easily, while the third, sneaky and fast, wrapped around his midsection and hoisted him into the air. He lifted his lightsaber to strike it, but the beast, apparently learning from its errors, fastened a tentacle around his right arm to stay his blade. A mouth the size of the viewport on his TIE Fighter opened in the thing’s head, a mouth full of jagged teeth, and the monster pulled him to it.

            He extended his left hand, reached out with the Force, and blasted the monster with Force Lightning at close range. Howling, the monster dropped him and retreated to the pond, its head smoking.

            Vader got to his feet, made a futile effort to brush the mud from his clothes, and moved on, seething mad.

            He saw a light ahead, a dim, flickering glow that could only be a fire. He headed toward it.

           

            Sneaking through the palace was easy. Padme knew every inch of the place, every secret passage, every possible route, and had plotted their exit ahead of time, making sure to choose halls that did not have droids or cameras watching them.

            She and the twins emerged from the palace’s main building into a service alley behind it. This was a place she had only been as a child, when playing games with her friends. As part of the palace grounds, it was well kept and not filthy, but it was plain and well-worn, a far cry from the areas they usually traveled in.

            “Why are we here?” Luke asked.

            “We are … expected,” Padme said.

            A City of Theed waste management vehicle hovered in their direction, coming to a rumbling stop right before them. A side door opened, and behind it stood a huge Lasat wearing a bright orange sanitation uniform.

            “Good day, your majesties,” the Lasat rumbled in his curious accent, bowing his great, purple head slightly. “I take it we’re ready to depart?”

            “We’re going on that?” Leia asked, incredulous.

            “Now, now, princess,” the Lasat said. “It may not be a Nubian Royal Starship, but it’s a bit nicer than it looks.”

            He reached behind him, hit a button, and the side of the vehicle, the part where the trash would normally be loaded and compressed, hissed open. It was not dirty nor dingy at all inside, but rather, transformed into a sort of mini transport, including proper, padded seating.

            “Not like any trash vehicle I’ve ever seen,” Luke said.

            “Well then, climb aboard and enjoy the ride. I’m Zeb. I’ll be escorting you out of the city.”

           

            Vader approached the small domicile slowly, his lightsaber already ignited.

            It was a roundish, plain, shabby structure, likely appealing to Master Yoda’s ego and how he liked to view himself as a “simple” being. Through the small window, Vader could see a tiny fire flickering in a fireplace and could smell something foul cooking over it.

            He lifted his left hand, opened it all the way, then snapped it tightly into a fist. The structure imploded, crumpling in on itself, extinguishing the fire, upsetting the foul-smelling stew, and destroying whatever, whoever, was inside. He opened his fist and the debris scattered in every direction.

            He approached cautiously, kicking his way through the remains of the house, looking for signs of the Jedi Master. He found none.

            “Ah, Skywalker,” Yoda’s voice came from behind him. Vader looked, and Yoda was now there, standing where Vader had been just a moment before. “Still troubled by your time in the cave, hmm?”

            “I told you,” Vader said. “Anakin is dead.”

            “And Darth Vader is all that remains,” Yoda said. “Heard this before, I have.”

            “And yet you seek to anger me by using a name that no longer exists?”
           “Is not Skywalker the name of your wife? Your children? Was it not the name of your mother?”

            Vader gritted his teeth.

            “You do not speak of my family.”

            “What saw you in the cave?”

            “Shadows and ghosts. Just you soon shall be.”

            Vader leapt at him, swinging his lightsaber in a downward arc. Yoda, in that perplexing way he did, cast aside his cane as if he didn’t even need it, and called his lightsaber to his hand, igniting it and parrying Vader’s strike.

            Enraged, Vader attacked viciously, slashing and hacking at the shorter opponent. Yoda, though centuries old and likely out of practice, deflected each attack, managing to return with two strikes of his own, which Vader blocked.

            Jedi Master and Sith Lord circled, holding their respective green and red blades in front of them. Yoda remained impassive, while Vader’s face burned with rage. He snarled before he attacked, which Yoda parried easily, then returned with a thrust that Vader barely deflected.  

Yoda flipped into the air to avoid Vader’s next attack, then did it again. As he landed, he reached out with the Force, propelling Vader away from him.

            From his back, Vader lifted a hand, pulling a large, ancient tree from the ground, roots and all, and hurled it at his former master, who dodged it just in time.

            The two adversaries charged at each other, meeting halfway, their sabers crashing together.

           

            Zeb helped Luke, Leia, and Padme off the sanitation vehicle and onto the loading dock of an old, dirty spaceport outside Theed, where a junk transport sat whirring before them.

            “Let’s move along now,” Zeb said, “Quick-like. There you go!”

            “First a trash compactor and now a junker?” Leia moaned.

            “Just temporary, princess,” Zeb said. “And we’ve got snacks and drinks on board. On you go!”

            He ushered the twins to the ramp, both of whom scampered up, as if racing each other, disappearing into the light of the ship.

            “My lady?” Zeb asked, offering a hand.

            Padme took it and started to ascend the ramp with Zeb but then stopped, as if the gravity of what she was doing suddenly crashed over her. She looked over her shoulder at Theed, the spires of the palace poking above it. She was leaving Naboo, the planet of her birth, very likely for the last time. She was leaving her childhood home, her people, and her husband, a husband who would be merciless in his pursuit of them. She was escaping a nightmare, yes, but what kind of nightmare was she unleashing, she wondered.

            “My lady,” Zeb said, “We really must be going.”

            “Is this the right thing?” she asked out loud. “Will this even work?”

            “All we can do is try, my lady,” Zeb said. “Come. Everything had been well-planned and arranged.”

            A single tear rolling down her cheek, Padme nodded and followed Zeb on board.

            The fight had moved into the jungle, and Vader stalked his prey with the silent, deadly efficiency of a predator. He walked amid the tangled roots and hanging vines slowly, listening, reaching out with the Force. He knew Yoda was still here. Even if he’d fled, they would catch him above the planet.

            Growing impatient, he tried goading him.

            “Do you know I’m the one that cut off Master Windu’s hand?” he asked. “My master blasted him with Force Lightning and cast him through the window. There are some that say he survived and is out there somewhere. Truly, I hope he is. I would take his other hand and then his legs before I took his head. He never liked me, never trusted me. I suppose he’d been right about me all along.” He looked for movement in the darkness, tried to sense anything. He could not, so he continued.

            “Obi-Wan failed on Mustafar. It wasn’t for lack of trying. In the end, it was his weakness that cost him his life. You see, he held back. He held back as if he hoped, at the last second, I’d seek some sort of redemption and grovel at his feet. A second’s hesitation was all it took. I stabbed him in the chest and threw his body into the magma. It cooked him like bantha meat. You should have seen it, Master Yoda.

            “And then there were the younglings. The fear in their eyes. Most of them didn’t even run, did you know that? It was as if they could not comprehend what they were seeing.”

            Across from Vader, a green lightsaber snapped to life, illuminating Yoda behind it.

            “See their faces when you look at your own children, do you?”

            “I told you,” Vader snarled. “Do NOT talk about my family!”

            He charged.

           

            The tensest moments on their journey thus far happened above the planet as they were questioned by Executor. Zeb, however, remained calm, gave the proper authorization codes, and they were allowed through unimpeded. Padme had feared something going wrong the whole day and knew the biggest chance of that happening was now.

            But instead, they jumped to lightspeed.

            “We’ll be on this ship for a bit,” Zeb said, “then we’ll transfer to another.”

            The transfer happened quickly. They dropped out of lightspeed and rendezvoused with a VCX-100 class light freighter, which Zeb called the Ghost. They connected to the Ghost and boarded it as quickly as possible. The pilot and copilot of the junker joined them as they crossed over, where they were met by a green-skinned Twi’lek, who identified herself as Hera Syndulla.

            “Captain Hera Syndulla,” Zeb corrected.

            Smiling modestly at him, Hera crouched down to the twins’ level. “All right, your majesties, let’s get you settled in so we can be off.”

            “I like your head-tails,” Leia said, touching one of them.

            “You shouldn’t touch other people without asking,” Luke said.

            “It’s all right,” Hera said. “I like your curls.” She gave one of Leia’s curls a playful tug.

            “Come along, children,” Padme said.

            Standing, Hera looked to Zeb and said, “Send the distress signal.”

            “Right away.”

            After they were buckled in and it started moving, the Ghost swung around and destroyed the junker ship with a quick blast of laser fire. Padme understood what they were trying to do. A distress signal and debris would confuse the Empire at first, but it would never convince Anakin. Never.

            “Make sure everyone’s locked in,” Hera said over the intercom, “we’re about to make the jump to lightspeed.”

            “Locked and loaded, Captain!” Zeb cried.

            Brilliant cones of light started streaking by the viewports, and they were yanked into their seats as the ship blasted forward.

 

            A little smile, peaceful and relieved, came over Yoda’s face, as he felt the presence of the twins rocket away from the Mid Rim. He let up in his attack.

            “What is this?” Vader asked. “A trick? You are giving up?”

            “An inevitability,” Yoda said. “Done, my work is.”

            Yoda held his lightsaber vertically at his chest and closed his eyes.

            Vader hesitated, sure that this was some trick, but he swung his blade anyway, propelling it with all his rage, all his might.

            It cut through Yoda easily, but then … oddly, all that fell to the mud was the old master’s lightsaber and tattered, dirty clothing.

            Vader stepped on the old Jedi robes, feeling for any sign of Yoda. He could find none.

            Yoda was ancient, wise, and knew many tricks, but Vader could not think of one that would make him just disappear like that. He had struck, he’d felt it,  and yet … where was he? Was he so old that he just disintegrated?

            He turned off his lightsaber, hung it from his belt, and took out his comm. “Grand Inquisitor,” he said.

            “Yes, my Lord?”

            “You may land your forces now. I want them to search every inch of this area.”

            “Of course. And what are we looking for, my Lord?”

            Vader glanced down at the robes. He picked up the lightsaber. It was real, still warm from the battle, and the robes were cloven in half, still smoking from his strike.

            “Anything,” he said.

            The Inquisitors found a small shuttlecraft covered in vines and other filth, likely the one Yoda had used to come here five years ago. Stormtroopers sifted through the remains of Yoda’s house and combed the surrounding area, finding nothing else of interest.

            Vader rolled Yoda’s small lightsaber over in his hand, his brow furrowed in irritated concentration. He could not sense the old master anywhere.

            His comm went off, drawing him out of his own mind, and he answered it.

            Captain Ozzel’s voice, sounding uncertain and scared, came through. “Lord Vader, I am sorry to disturb but-”

            “What is it, Admiral?” He could tell something was wrong.

            “I – I am not quite sure how to explain this, my Lord, and please – know this information comes from Naboo, not from me…”

            “What information?” Vader hissed.

            “Well, you see my Lord, your wife, your children. They’re missing …”

            Vader clenched the comm so hard in his hands that it nearly broke.

            “What do you mean … ‘missing’?”

           

            Padme, Luke, and Leia were given long, heavy coats before they exited the Ghost. Zeb, wearing one of his own, showed them how to zip them up all the way and how to raise the hood. “You shouldn’t need your goggles,” he said, “but there are some in the coat just in case.”

            They walked down the ramp and stepped into the frigid and yet furiously busy Hangar Bay 7 on Hoth. It appeared to have been carved right out of an icy mountain; enormous icicles hung from the ceiling, and frost covered the ground. All around them were unfamiliar ships and speeders, tended by droids and dozens and dozens of men and women of a variety of species wearing heavy cold-weather clothing.

            Looking over it, Padme realized that the place was new, and still under construction.

            Hera Syndulla and Zeb walked behind the royal family, ushering them farther in, where the temperature rose but just slightly. Padme expected a welcome committee, but let out a little gasp of surprise when Ashoka Tano, wearing a heavy cloak over her Jedi robes, stepped through the crowd to greet them.

            “Ashoka!” Padme rushed to her and they embraced, the children noting their mother was crying again while this strange woman whispered to her.

            Ashoka went to the children. “Younglings,” she said, bowing her head slightly. Leia noticed she carried not one but two lightsabers on her belt. “I trust you had a pleasant journey?”

            “The Little Green Man said we must go away on a secret journey,” Luke said. “He said our father could not come. Is that true?”

            “Yes. You will understand, in time.”

            “Are you a Jedi?” Leia asked.

            “Yes, I am.” Ashoka said with a smile. “So is he.”

            A young man in Jedi robes walked over to them. “Hello,” he said. I’m Kanan Jarrus. You must be Luke and Leia. Welcome.”

            “Father said there are no more Jedi,” Luke said doubtfully.

            “There are some. There are others here. Perhaps you’d like to meet them?”

            The twins exchanged a doubtful look. “Yes?” Leia said.

            “Come,” Ashoka said. “Let’s get you inside and get you something warm to drink. You should all rest, for there is much, much to do.”