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Chapter Text

It was strange to be so near the children while they slept: a temptation and a distraction simultaneously. And something else, as well… Satisfaction, perhaps. Even contentment.

How long had it been since Vader had felt content?

And there were two of them. Children. Not just a child.

And not just the children.

His children.

Twins. Padmé had given birth to twins. 

He had thought he had a daughter.

Now he had a son. 

Luke Skywalker, the boy had told him, completely ignorant of the import of what he had told Vader. And at last Vader understood why the Force had hummed about the child, why his signature bore such a marked resemblance to Leia’s - perhaps even why his daughter had been so adamant about protecting him. She knew, even if subconsciously; she must have known that this boy was important to her.

With a kick that hard? Definitely a girl…

He had been certain they were having a girl.

It’s my motherly intuition…

Padmé had been equally adamant that the child was a boy. 

Twins.

And they had been separated. His daughter to the Organas, his son to the Lars. The children themselves did not even know of their relationship, or of their connection to Vader; he had gathered that much from their conversation. Vader wallowed in that discovery, stoking it with his anger and betrayal. Yes, he could see it now: twin children, so strong in the Force, bereft of mother and father - they would be a most useful tool. Naturally they would be split apart, shattering the twin bond before it could form: the girl to be raised with the Empire’s greatest detractors, to spew their rebellious ideologies once grown; the boy, so similar to Anakin Skywalker, to be raised as a Jedi, a focal point for their vengeance. And should Vader or the Emperor discover one, well, the other would be safely hidden away, a backup to spring when victory was in their grasp. The dark side stirred ever stronger with each revelation.

The children did question these seemingly immutable foundations of their lives, though. Leia had memories of Padmé. Luke, in particular, seemed to have some sense of the truth, if he was imagining that his father was on a long trip and would return some day. Something in him warmed to that discovery in a way very different from the heat of the dark side.

He might have killed the boy. 

That banished the small embers of warmth. He had wanted to cut the boy down where he stood when he first saw him and knew him only as a rival to his daughter. Then, when the boy kept holding them up, it occurred to him again to just abandon him. Only the princess had prevented him from doing so, otherwise his son might have been dead, either unknowingly at Vader’s own hand or after being left behind. 

Vader might have killed his own child without even knowing about it, and the rage of what might have been sent dark waves of energy around him. As it was he had spent an entire day ignoring the child and treating him with barely concealed malice. Vader had since taken steps to change that, but he could tell the boy still remained wary of him. The fact that he had discovered the truth before more damage could be done, could only be the will of the Force. It wanted father and children to reunite, and he reveled in that, though it had taken eight years.

Eight years where he had been separated from both children. From the family that was his by right. 

The Jedi had done this. It was only by their doing that such a thing had occurred. No… not just the Jedi. Obi-Wan Kenobi. Only his old master could have concocted such a devious plan. Only he might hate Vader enough, be petty and envious enough, as to stoop to use Vader’s own children against him.

He clenched his hand into a fist and almost wished some of those infected creatures might burst upon them. He needed something to loose his rage upon rather than letting it rise like a pyre in this room. 

But since the infected were not so obliging, he plotted his own vengeance. First, he must find the right moment to tell them the truth. Not now; the girl was still too antagonistic and the boy too frightened, though his son, he thought, at least had a craving for a father-figure that Vader could use to his advantage. Then, once they were off this blasted planet, his children - not just one child, but children - would be trained in the ways of the dark side, loyal only to him. He envisioned them, burning with all the powers of darkness, at his side; transported himself to a future where he would take them to Obi-Wan to show his old master, once and for all, that he, Obi-Wan, had failed. And once they had struck the old Jedi down, they would go to the Emperor and end his corrupted reign, to rule over the galaxy as a -  

Someone whimpered, but he was so lost in his own visions that for a moment he did not even register it. The sound tugged on the edge of his consciousness, plucking at the connection between him and his children. 

A connection he had not even been aware of until a few days ago. Yet now that he had finally noticed it, it seemed impossible he could have missed it at all, impossible that he could have ignored it all these years. Vader pulled out of his own thoughts and followed the two feather-thin cords that bound him to his son and daughter, so similar that he might almost have thought them one. When they split, he hesitated, then traveled down the one that led to Luke’s mind.

His son’s Force presence was as open and clear as a meadow in sunlight, completely unguarded. Vader moved along it with a deft touch, careful not to have Luke notice him (though he was asleep) or to wake him, then allowed himself to touch Luke’s mind.

A lekku wrapping around him - an endless drop to a watery cavern - hiding in a dark corner, choking on ash and smoke as screams echoed around him -

Vader pulled back slightly, enough to place him in physical awareness of Luke. The boy was beginning to kick at his blankets. Moreover, when Vader (far more tentatively) touched his daughter’s mind, he saw similar flashes of images. Luke’s dreams were leaking into hers along their twin bond, and that was disturbing her far more than Luke’s kicking. Vader lingered for a moment in Leia’s mind: catching not just fragments of Luke’s nightmares, but ones unique to Leia: men being swallowed under a mob of infected, a skeletal being crawling down a narrow corridor, a dark figure standing over her - but Vader broke off the connection before he could see more.

As if sensing the loss of his presence, Luke whimpered again, twisting in his blankets. Leia’s eyelids flickered, her own exhausted body coming to wakefulness. Left alone, they would soon awaken fully, likely gasping for air and sitting bolt upright, as Vader had so often before when he dreamt of - but he cut that memory off as well. An unbecoming confusion was beginning to well up. He had had no comfort during his nightmares; his only salve was to awaken and see that the person he had feared for still lived and lay beside him.

He doubted his own presence would provide that kind of comfort for anyone.

Reaching out, not entirely sure what to do but also not wanting the children to wake up and have to talk them back into sleeping, he let his presence flow along their twin bonds. Their own Force signatures reached out, an instinctive move as they felt his parental touch, and despite knowing that it was merely a subconscious gesture, he could not quite hold back his own pleasure at their response.

Setting that aside for perusal later (if that), he let his own dreams flow to them: glorious visions of power and freedom, of ruling over the galaxy and making it in their own image, molding it into their greatest desires. Leading a force of thousands, millions, to quell pathetic rebellions until peace would reign, forever; crushing their enemies and rivals to ensure a safe and secure galaxy; the worship of billions of beings.

The twin presences recoiled. Luke’s squirming turned to thrashing, face crinkling in distress. At his side, his sister kicked, fists clenching against her blankets.

Puzzled, Vader withdrew briefly. The children calmed, but only marginally, and with his Force sense still attuned to them, he could feel their old nightmares returning, lapping at the edge of their minds. They would not stay at bay for long. And for whatever reason - pure spite, he told himself - he was now invested in ensuring it would not make a return.

He cast his mind about for some solution as the dreams intensified. An old memory was poking at him, insisting on coming to the forefront. It was a memory of Anakin Skywalker’s, and those he kept buried deep down. But finally the children’s distress became so palpable that he allowed it. 

It was a memory of when he was young, living in the slave quarters of Tatooine. He had been no stranger to nightmares even then, yet whenever he awoke, his mother was there to hold him and calm his fears and soothe him back to sleep. 

That was not something he could do. He would not coddle and indulge his children; that would only weaken them for the trials that would later come. In time, they would learn to quell their fears with the Force and use it to feed the Dark Side. 

And Darth Vader did not hold children.

But that left him with no solution at all. He hesitated, then reached out uncertainly through their bond once more. He expected this more pronounced touch of his Force presence to disturb the twins, but Luke appeared to calm the further he stretched out, while Leia’s curled body relaxed slightly. Encouraged, he went further, exploring deeper and deeper into their minds until he was right in the area where their dreams originated. Here was a whirlwind of all the events of the last days: hiding in dark spaces, fleeing along streets, explosions and red flashes of light, the borrats wading through dark water, the gunner hurtling down a walkway towards them. 

Vader pulled away. Yes, he knew all that. But what images could he conjure up to counter that, when his own most recent memories were of blood and destruction?

Even the thought of this seemed to stir them up further - images of fire and smoke and ash, of his lightsaber slicing through bodies, of unleashing the power of the Dark Side. And before that, the cold emptiness of space, the bolts of laser fire, of settlements burning, the angular bulwarks of a Star Destroyer and the fury of some failed underling, some new but no less petty attempt at backstabbing in a futile effort to climb the military ladder… a constant inferno of rage and self-loathing broken only by spiteful pleasure of the fear of those under him.

Until at last he realized he had to banish all of these and simply… be. 

Like a balm on an open wound, he felt the landscape of his children’s mind settle. Nightmares attempted to roil the surface, but he sent them back and, utilizing a technique he had not attempted for eight years, generated calming waves of the Force through their young minds. Some part of him raged at this, so used to constant turmoil, but another part relaxed into the familiarity of it. As he continued to draw away the dreams, he saw, with doubled vision, Luke’s body go still, then relax, stretching out along the length of his blanket. His sister, too, uncurled her legs, her fists loosening their hold on her dress.

After a few moments, he inspected their presences again and found only quietness. Images that were not of his own consciousness mixed with his thoughts - canyons rising over a sand dune in one, a serene lake in another - but they dispersed as quickly as they had come, part of the menage of ordinary dreamscapes. For the moment, all was well.

Gently, he drew back, gradually separating their mingled connections. It took time, unweaving himself from theirs, but he told himself that it was merely for their benefit. To cut his presence off from the children’s so abruptly would surely disturb their rest.

And if there was any other reason for his reluctance, well, that was not for anyone else to know. 

He awoke the children when he came out of his own meditative trance, sensing the start of another day. 

His son sat up first, rubbing his eyes, groggily pulling on his robe and then stretching into full wakefuless. The princess was slower, her presence still dimmed with weariness, and Vader wondered if her dreams had sapped at her reserves more than he had guessed. He himself was beginning to feel the effects of lack of sleep - he had only rested a few hours intermittently the last few days and spent the rest in meditative watchfulness or drawing on the Force for energy. 

That would only last so long, but it mattered not. They would reach the Imperial base soon. Once there, he would commandeer a ship to return to the Exactor and from there… 

Well, that would remain to be seen. But he was certain of one thing: his children would be at his side.

After a hurried meal, they departed, Vader pushing his Force senses futilely out in an attempt to assess their danger. Frustratingly, there was still nothing, whether the nothingness of lack of danger or the infected’s improbable void in the Force, he could not tell. Vader had known pain and mutilation, he knew better than most sentient beings what it was to lose so much of himself that he was dependent on a machine just to breathe. He would not compare what he felt now to what he had suffered on the banks of Mustafar. Yet to be unable to sense the life forces of any beings save his children felt as if he had been cut off from the Force, like swaddling placed over his body. The entire situation was… disconcerting.

They were in luck, though, and there were no infected apart from a couple wandering outside. He dispatched them quickly and out of sight of both children, less to spare them the trauma and moreso because his irrepressible daughter would likely start another argument with him over the sanctity of life or some other nonsense. 

The speeder was parked a little way apart from the store. Some blocks down lay the wrecked attack pods that he had thrust the two children into for safety, as well as the burnt out alleyway where he had hurled mines at troopers that he would normally have commanded. The dust from the previous skirmish had settled so that their bodies were in clear view, his lightsaber’s scorch marks starkly clear on their white armor. He tried to keep them out of sight and to hurry the two children into the speeder - not because their distress was of concern to him, merely because they had to cross as much distance as possible before night fell once again.

It was for the same reason, of course, that he had hurled the two into a pod yesterday: they were a distraction in battle and they needed to be put out of the way. There were some concerns for their safety, of course - he wanted to be sure the infected did not spread their disease to the children, not to mention their lack of training meant they were vulnerable to any violence. It was not the Sith way - as his future apprentices, they ought to be immured to violence at an early age and then further trained to use their powers - but he would rectify that later. 

Besides, the fact that they had managed to fight an infected gunner by themselves was… commendable. Yes, that was the feeling. All by themselves they had managed to take down an infected with little more than an empty blaster rifle. His daughter had been distressed, obviously, but when the time came, she had not hesitated, and Vader was certain that the fight had taught her something about the harsh realities of survival. There was no room for moralizing ideology in life. The Sith knew that. Soon, she would too.

They drove through the city, evading obstacles as they had before. The one barrier of note was a laser shield set up along one street and, Vader was sure, erected along every street in an encompassing circle similar to the ray shield and the attack pods. It was standard procedure for containing unrest. This, though, was child’s play, and he barely even slowed the speeder down as he used the Force to shut off the laser barrier long enough for them to speed through. As the buildings grew smaller and more scattered, he knew they were reaching the outskirts of the city, heading for the homes of middle-class families who could afford to live away from the bustle of industry and business. Any further and they would soon come upon the massive agricultural complexes and untouched woodlands that made up the rest of the planet.

The base itself was located away from both homes and the city, though not so far that they could not easily enforce any Imperial strictures as needed. The wide, straight roads of the city were gradually shifting to narrower, curved ones, made of gravel and dirt rather than synthetic materials. As he navigated them, they passed by scattered pairs or small groups of the infected, mostly humanoid types. His hand itched for his lightsaber, but it was more imperative to reach the base than to kill a few otherwise harmless infected.

It took a couple of hours but at last he saw the top of the base, rising from a clearing along the edge of the woods. Relatively small for a garrison, it was still a sprawling construction of gray ferrocrete and durasteel, hard angles and straight lines nevertheless producing a rounded top and curved edges. It sat on a wide clearing from which dozens of speeders and ships might enter and take off at will, surrounded by a wall bristling with wire and laser shielding and with antivehicle and anti-infantry artillery laid out at intervals. 

Vader pulled up at the gate, which was flanked by two large towers rising twenty feet above him. There was nobody outside, but Vader, reaching out with the Force, sensed dozens of presences in the Force - the first he had found in days that weren’t those of his children.

“Halt!” The voice came from above. “Speak, intruder, or we open fire!”

That was almost amusing. He exited the speeder so that he was in fully view of the tower.

There was a second crackle. “Put that down! Don’t you recognize who that is? It’s Lord Vader!”

A loud shuffle. Then the first voice called out, “Lord Vader?” 

Vader, inclining his head, could see two stormtroopers looking out from one of the towers, hurriedly stowing their blasters. 

“My Lord!” one of them shouted. “We heard news that you had arrived at the governor’s palace but nothing since. Our commander feared you had been killed.”

“Inform your commander that I have survived - without any aid from him,” said Vader brusquely. “And then open this gate at once. My travels through the city have produced many questions and I am most eager to hear the commander’s explanations.”

The troopers were quick to do this, the massive metal gate creaking open, and Vader returned to the speeder, with the children still strapped in, and entered the clearing, a large empty space bereft of any plant or animal life apart from Imperial troops. The base sat in the middle of it, its angular form a sharp contrast to the woodlands just outside its walls. 

With one curt command, the children hurried out of the speeder to follow him to the door, where they were met by another pair of stormtroopers. They attempted to insist that Vader show some identification - and definitely looked askance at the pair of children following after Vader - but one veiled threat was enough to cow them into compliance. The speeder was taken into their custody, to be parked alongside the few other vehicles remaining to them - including, Vader noticed after a quick scan, a shuttle that could take them off the planet.

“Lord Vader!” A man with the insignia of a junior lieutenant came hurrying down the long corridor as they entered the base itself, before quickly snapping into a salute. His eyes darted to the two mercifully silent children, and Vader could feel the mix of confusion and fear flowing off him. “Lieutenant Reston. Can I say what an honor it is to-”

Vader brushed past him, simultaneously cutting the lieutenant off. “I am not here to exchange niceties, Lieutenant. I want answers and I will have them from your commanding officer now. I also require access to your medical officer.”

“Oh, of course, Doctor Monega will be most eager to speak to you. As for the commanding officer…” He straightened. “That would be me. All others were… lost.”

Vader swept his gaze over the young man. He did not need to ask what he meant by ‘lost’. 

The lieutenant, meanwhile, was still speaking. “I-” His gaze was questioning as he stared at Luke and Leia once more. “Are these - we don’t usually allow-”

Vader cut him short. “The children are under my protection. Find them suitable quarters. I will collect them when I leave the planet.”

“Find - leave - I mean-” The lieutenant made a valiant attempt to recover himself. “My lord, civilians are usually not allowed within the base, and given there’s a quarantine-” One long, held stare from Vader was enough to quell any protests. “I - well, of course, it’s unprecedented, but, yes, I suppose I can make arrangements-”

Vader made an abrupt gesture to the children, who were slinking along the walls like they were trying to hide in them. At that, they ran forward, keeping close to him, and Vader, connecting briefly to them, sensed a myriad of emotions: confusion at being there, wonder at what they were seeing, relief at being safe and seeing others, and most of all, a deep terror of being left alone that rendered them obedient - for now. 

“Ah, my lord - Lord Vader!” The lieutenant hurried to keep up with Vader’s long strides. He shot a third look back at the children, who were struggling to keep up with them. “Before we find, er, accommodations, I must let you know that in light of the, um, unrest outside, of which I’m sure you are quite aware of, we’ve had to take some necessary precautions-”

“They are unnecessary.”

“But Doctor Monega was quite insistent, given everything that is happening-”

“I will speak to him first, then,” Vader snapped, not slowing his steps.

“But to speak to him, you must go through his, er, precautions!”

He contemplated strangling the man there to put an end to his babbling, before deciding that finding his successor would only cause more delays. “What precautions are these?” Vader demanded.

“Oh, well, you see-” The lieutenant dragged his gaze off the children (if he looked at them again, Vader swore he’d cut him down where he stood, delays or not) and made a feeble gesture at a device that directly in front of them. “You can see it there,a ctually. It was devised by the doctor, and is really a very quick and painless-”

“ What is it? ”

The young officer jumped. “Just - just a mere, a mere scanning device! We’ve calibrated to pick up any, ah, any signs of infection. Simply step through and if you’re infection-free, which of course you will be, then we can proceed!”

It was a wise move, Vader acknowledged begrudgingly, though unnecessary, as none of them were diseased. He took in the device, which appeared to be a large scanner erected to cover the walls and ceiling, and strode through without breaking step. On the other side was a full contingent of troopers as well as an ensign, holding a smaller scanner. At the sight of Vader he hurriedly shoved it behind his back and bowed low. The fear roiling off him was even more palpable than the lieutenant’s.

“Lord Vader, welcome-”

“I must return to the Exactor immediately,” said Vader without preamble. He kept one part of his awareness on the children, who had hesitated at the sight of the scanner. “Prepare a shuttle for immediate takeoff.”

“O-of course, m-my lord,” the ensign gulped. “But it might take some time to - to prepare one. There’s-”

“Boy, just step through it,” snapped Reston from somewhere behind Vader. “It’s not going to eat you.”

Vader turned, interrupting the stammering ensign, to stare at the offending lieutenant. Catching sight of Vader, he hurriedly snapped to, then said in a much softer tone, “Er, I mean - just, um, take your time, uh, youngling. It won’t hurt you.”

Luke stepped through, eyes darting nervously all over the device, and had let out a huge sigh of relief when the ensign whispered, “L-Lord Vader?”

“What?” snapped Vader, turning back around.

The ensign held his ground, but only barely. “I - I m-merely meant to-to inform you that - that a fleet of S-Star Destroyers has s-surrounded the planet and - and set up an orbital shield-”

“You, girl!” shouted the lieutenant. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”

“-a-and we will n-need to communicate with one of them to lower it before we can-”

His daughter stepped through.

An alarm shrieked, rattling the scanner and seemingly the very walls of the base. Multiple lights flashed, spinning in a whirl of blinding red and white. Leia clapped her hands over her ears, terror pouring along Vader’s own, open connection to her.

“She’s infected!” shouted Reston, drawing his blaster. In an instant he was joined by the entire troop as they circled the princess, pushing her back towards the scanner. Her mouth was open in a soundless cry, her eyes wide with fear. As the men circled her, drawing their blasters, she threw her hands up, her body curling into itself defensively. 

“Leia!” Luke yelled, trying to run back through the scanner.

“Don’t let him touch her!” shouted a trooper. His partner grabbed Luke by the back of his robe and hurled him back so hard Luke smacked into a wall.

The inferno that was the Dark Side roared to life.

“Get back! Get back!” the lieutenant screamed, waving his blaster and completely unaware of Vader bearing down on him. “Don’t let her get through! Get the-”

Whatever Reston wanted his ensign to retrieve was lost as his blaster was jerked out of his hands. So were all the other blasters, hurled away in a wave of enraged Force energy to slam against the walls. 

Vader pushed through the men like a tempest, anger rolling off him in waves that thickened the very atmosphere. Troopers were thrown back or sent sprawling as he unleashed himself on them, falling before his ire. In two steps he reached Luke and thrust the terrified boy behind him; in another he passed through the screeching scanner and smashed it with his fist to permanently silence it; on the fourth, he placed himself before the princess, his daughter, whose fear he could feel through the Force so strongly it threatened to overwhelm the maelstrom of his own rage. 

“ What, ” he hissed, “ is the meaning of this? ”

“My Lord!” was all Reston could manage.

All his menace, all his barely leashed rage, he poured into his next words. “You will let her through.” He flung a hand up as the few lucky stormtroopers who had been spared his wrath attempted to advance. “ Now! ” A clench of the first and those troopers too were flung back from them, armor clattering, uttering garbled exclamations over their vocoders.

“B-but my lord Vader, she’s - she’s infected!” 

“ What? ”

The lieutenant, rightfully terrified that he was about to be strangled for contradicting Vader, pointed frantically at the now broken scanner, which retained one weakly flashing light. “Look! That - that noise. It-it-it means an infection!” 

Infected?  

The princess?

He reached out wildly with the Force, resting on his daughter’s presence but sensing only her tiredness, a dimming of her aura from fear and… shame. 

Not confusion, not righteous disbelief - shame . 

She must have noticed his assessment of her through the Force - her eyes flicked up to his briefly - but she did not make any protestations. He did not even feel her strong-willed little mind pushing back against his Force sense. 

It could not be… surely he would have noticed… 

The men seemed to find his sudden silence more unnerving than his rage. “Ensign!” Said ensign shot frantic looks around him upon being addressed, as if searching for someone, anyone else, to take over his role. “Get over here and show Lord Vader! Find the source!”

The ensign looked as if he wanted nothing more than to melt into the walls, but years of having obedience beaten into him won out and he hurried over, making as wide a berth as he could around Vader in the narrow hallway. He held the small, curved scanner in his hands as he approached Leia, tiptoeing like she was a raging gundark.

“Now you just, ah, hold really still,” the ensign murmured. 

He reached for her. Leia recoiled.

“Hold her!” the lieutenant shouted. “Grab-”

Vader held up a hand.

The lieutenant’s words, and his movement, stopped abruptly. Everyone turned as a gurgling noise forced itself through the lieutenant’s mouth. He clutched helplessly at his throat, clawing for the invisible hand that was slowly strangling the air from his lungs.

Luke cried out. His sister gasped, and along their bond, he felt a burst of even greater terror - and anger.

“Stop it!” she screamed. “Stop that!”

She was defending him? A man who wanted to restrain her like an animal? It was surprising enough that Vader’s Force hold on the man briefly loosened, allowing him to take a gulp of air, before he tightened his grip on him once more. 

Luke ran forward as if he wanted to help, pulling himself short inches from the officer. Leia shouted again, “Let him go!” 

Vader considered her request for a moment, now that the fire that was his fury was dying slightly. The lieutenant was overly enthusiastic, but responsible. And he had learned his lesson. 

He released his grip.

The lieutenant slumped to the floor, gasping. 

“Be grateful the child is so merciful,” said Vader, low and menacing. 

The ensign was watching the whole scene with horrified eyes. Only when Vader turned to glare at him did he come back to himself. “Ah… m-m-my lord… shall - shall I-”

“Proceed,” Vader hissed.

The ensign looked read to soil himself. “R-right away, sir.” He turned to Leia, looking very pale. “Uh - child. Youngling. It’s, um okay. N-n-no sudden moves, all right? I’m just going to - to move this thing over you, okay?” He nodded his head vigorously like he was the one who needed to agree to it. “Just really gently, won’t hurt you…”

The princess shot a look at Vader, almost like she was warning him not to do anything, and despite the circumstances, he could not help feeling a little… amused . He let that trickle down their bond as well, which only made her scowl harder.

The ensign flicked a button on the side of the scanning device, which came to life with a hum. As he drew nearer to the princess, it began beeping quietly, slowly. The closer he came, though, the louder and faster it beeped. His daughter eyed it warily, her little body rigid, as he pointed its front end at her and moved it up and down, right and left, around her head, then down past her chest and abdomen before moving around to scan her back. The beeps, though quickened, stayed steady until he happened to scan her right side. Frowning, the ensign focused on that area - and jumped as it began to beep so loudly and quickly it became one long alarm. Loudest of all was when he let the end pass down her right arm, along the middle of her lower arm. 

“Ah, that means… it’s your arm,” he told her, flicking it off. “S-so… the largest concentration of viral pathogens are along your right arm. Did - did you receive a wound there? Was it exposed to any, erm, bodily fluids of the infected?”

His daughter’s eyes were overly large, face pale. Slowly, she rolled up her sleeve to reveal a bandage tied around it. It was pristine white, almost the exact same color as her dress.

Vader felt the Force pressing against him, whispering. Luke, behind him, was peeking out, breathing fast.

The ensign kept his distance. “Well… could - could you please take that off?”

She pulled the tape off the end and began unraveling. “It didn’t hurt,” she whispered entreatingly.

The ensign and lieutenant shared a glance but did not reply.

The bandage unrolled, falling to the ground in strands, until at last it was freed and the princess revealed her arm. She stared at it, gulping back a sudden sob.

The Force was screaming at Vader.

It was a bite mark that had been infected and turned gangrenous, but this was a gangrene far beyond normal. It more closely resembled sepsis… rot. The area directly around the wound was paler than anywhere else, as if the blood had been leached from it, while the flesh further away was red with inflammation. The very edges were raised, roughened, like scar texture, oozing pus. And the center…

The center had turned black, flesh sloughing off. There was no blood, there did not appear to be any blood left, yet the infection shot out through the blood vessels, darkening them until they were almost black, black lines shooting almost up to her elbow and down to her wrist, a stark contrast to the areas of pale and inflamed skin. 

The ensign’s voice shook as he struggled to maintain his composure. “A - a bite, sir. Hard to - to judge the time without - without knowing her life cell count, but perhaps only a day ago? Maybe two.”

Impossible. She had been with Vader by then, he had kept her out of the way, he had kept her safe. He fought to still his mind, to find some semblance of calm. He would have known if she had been hurt, surely. He would have seen, would have sensed that he failed to keep her safe…

“Any symptoms, child?” asked the ensign. “Fever, nausea, exhaustion?”

She started to shake her head, then stopped. “I feel… a little tired,” she admitted, voice the smallest it had ever been. “And… I’m not hungry even - even if I haven’t eaten in a while.” The ensign only nodded as if confirming his guess.

“Lord Vader?” said Lieutenant Reston tentatively. He was still rubbing his throat. “Surely, now, you will agree that it is best to - to keep her from entering the base? We have enacted an extraordinarily strict quarantine procedure and if we allow even one exception, it could jeo-”

Vader whirled around so fast it spread his cape out in an arc. “You will allow her entrance. I want her taken to your most senior medical officer immediately.” A most unsettling emotion was threatening to unbalance him. It felt almost like fear. “Take her there. The boy as well.” He would need to check if Luke was harboring any illness too. If he did… if it was both of them… “Show me to Doctor Monega.”

“Doctor Monega is actually our biological researcher as well as our senior medical officer,” said Lieutenant  Reston eagerly. “I can have our men take the children while you and I-”

“The children come with me,” said Vader shortly, and was oddly gratified to feel some relief from both of the twin bonds. Luke promptly ran to his sister. 

“Hey!” shouted one of the stormtroopers, one who had obviously not learned from being thrown against a wall. “Get away from her, boy!”

Vader could not keep the snarl from his voice. “ Leave him. ” The Force was calling him, urging him to shove the man back, pin him to the wall, crush his throat. Anything to relieve the growing tightness in his chest.

Lieutenant Reston made some hurried motions to the trooper, clearly a signal to stand down. The stormtrooper did so, though not without clear reluctance on his end, and coming back to attention. Luke shot him a triumphant look before grabbing his sister’s hand, sending defiant looks to all and getting a relieved look from his twin. Deprived of a target, Vader started down the corridor so fast that the lieutenant was soon struggling just to keep up, let alone lead him on.

The walk was not long, though they were clearly going deeper into the base. Multiple locked doors barred the way, though the lieutenant passed them all through easily. At several points they encountered more scanners, which forced Lieutenant Reston to override them whenever they approached. Vader kept half a mind on the two children - particularly the princess. Her flagging energy, now that he knew the reason for it, was becoming a greater concern with every minute. He itched to get to the doctor, to learn of this disease and get her under treatment. His awareness of his daughter’s diminishing spirit blotted out all else; he barely noticed the rest of the base, moving past more stormtroopers and officers and roving sentry and mouse droids without so much as a glance. 

But he did note one thing: though the base was a relatively new structure, floors still buffed, walls crisp, holocams whirring, there was a noticeable lack of manpower. He passed only two contingents of stormtroopers, and those had only two or three men apiece, and the number of officers of any rank was even more minimal. Only the droids retained their usual number. Recalling the infected stormtroopers they had encountered within the city, he could hazard a guess as to why. 

They passed through one last set of doors, a pair of them with a room separating them. There was an antiseptic look and feel to the room, like it had been freshly scrubbed, and Vader imagined that if he could still smell, it would have that stinging cleanliness associated with medcenters and labs. Immediately on entering he felt the change in air pressure as well - negative air pressure, he thought, to ensure non-contamination between the room in front of them and the rest of the base. Multiple holocams followed him as he walked through, and he heard the hum of several sets of irradiators working to kill harmful microorganisms.

Precautions that had clearly not served them well enough, he thought darkly.

Lieutenant Reston beeped them through, and Vader now entered a room that looked part surgical center and part research lab. A medical bed took up a quarter of the area, while a table was set off next to it and another at the far end. Various bits of scientific paraphernalia were scattered about: microscopes, test tubes, vials and glassware. A large, locked cabinet was at the opposite side, and a huge console littered with datapads dominated the far side. Hovering in a corner was a medical droid, wielding hypodermic injectors, mediscanners, laser scalpels, and all the other assorted tools of its kind. Vader tore his eyes away from it to eye the man at the console, who had spun around in consternation.

“Lord Vader, Doctor Monega,” Lieutenant Reston said smartly, ignoring the doctor’s ill-preparedness. “Doctor, Lord Vader requests information-”

“Spare me the introductions, Lieutenant, and return to your duties,” Vader snapped, advancing on the doctor. The man seemed ordinary enough, middle-aged, thinner than military personnel that otherwise inhabited the base, with a pinched cast to his face. Lieutenant Reston needed no excuse to depart and practically fled the room. Only inches from the doctor, Vader had to resist the urge to throttle the man. The Force swirled around him, practically shouting in significance. He was behind this, Vader knew it.

“Doctor,” Vader said, in his most dangerous tone, “were it up to me, you would be stripped of your rank for your mishandling of this situation and this entire city wiped from existence, with you in it.” He held up a finger. “ Fortunately for you, I still have need of information. I want to know what is affecting the inhabitants of this planet and your proposed treatment, and when you can administer it to the child.” He gestured forcefully to his daughter, to Leia, who was breathing rather quickly from having to keep up with him. Luke was still gripping her hand - or perhaps she was holding his, from how tight she was squeezing it.

DoctorMonega’s eyes moved from Vader’s - too slowly for Vader’s liking - to Leia. 

They lit up at the sight of her. A wide smile spread over the thin features. 

“An infected?” he exclaimed. Disregarding Vader entirely, he grabbed the princess by the arms, pulled her from Luke’s tight grip and, ignoring her surprised flinch, dropped her unceremoniously on the medical bed.

Vader resisted the urge to strangle the man right there and then.

Luke, not to be left behind, immediately tried to hop onto the bed as well.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, boy,” said the doctor casually, pulling up the girl’s sleeve with unwonted eagerness. “Not unless you want to risk turning into something like her.”

Turning into something like her? Vader can see Luke trying to understand that phrase. The pit of his own stomach dropped - if she was ill, then her fate would be that of the many infected outside the base walls. 

But that would not happen. He would find out what the treatment was for her illness and have it given to her immediately.

Luke hovered indecisively, not sure whether to join his sister or remain where he was. Vader solved it for him; using the Force, he summoned one of the lab chairs from the table and brought it spinning next to the medical bed, then indicated for Luke to sit on it. The boy, wide-eyed at this simple display of his powers, did so, keeping a protective eye on the princess.

The doctor, who apparently doubled as a medic and researcher, immediately caught sight of her arm. Without even looking at her, he turned, snapped on a pair of gloves and goggles with lightning efficiency, then twisted her arm around - painfully. Leia caught her breath, suppressing a whimper.

“Do not mistreat her,” Vader snarled, taking a threatening step closer.

“What?” The doctor blinked at him, then down at Leia, gritting her teeth in pain. “Oh, yes. Apologies. Droid!” The droid floated over. “Scan her!” He went right back to prodding at the arm, picking up some kind of medical instrument and poking at the wound with, in Vader’s opinion, needless force. The droid placed its medisensor in front of Leia and trailed up and down her body while the doctor continued to mutter to himself. “Fascinating. Fascinating. It’s been so long since I got to examine one of these in such close proximity.” Still without looking at Leia, he asked, “How long since you were bitten?”

Seemingly without meaning to, Leia looked to Vader appealingly. Catching herself - and perhaps also realizing that Vader wouldn’t know - she whispered, “I think… three days ago? Four?”

“Truly?” The doctor peered at her from behind the goggles. He went back to poking. The wound squelched, emitting a milky pus. “Fascinating,” he said again. “The rate of development from onset is remarkably slowed … only one to two days by the look of it… Perhaps the result of unusually low life cells? Or overly high? But only a scan can tell…how many life cells do you have?” But at Leia’s confused look he muttered, “No, you wouldn’t know… Droid!” he yelled again. “Take a sample!”

Leia flinched away as the droid floated towards her, the needle point of its sampler shining under the lights.

Vader knew something of the invasiveness of medical droids. He told himself it was that and that alone that made him snatch the device from it. 

“I will handle it,” he snapped. He took Leia’s hand, trying to keep his grip gentle. Leia watched him, round-eyed. “This will not hurt,” he assured her, before pressing the device to the tip of one of her fingers. He knew it was drawing a tiny sample of blood, and it beeped when finished. He handed it to the doctor, who had been staring as well, a question in his eyes. But the sample appeared to distract him and he rapidly abandoned his patient for the console, still muttering to himself as he inserted it and began typing frantically.

A few moments passed. The doctor kept mumbling. He gasped. Then typed some more. Muttered under his breath. This might have continued, but  Vader’s limited patience had run out. “Explain. Now. ”

Doctor Monega jerked and stared at Vader, as if he’d completely forgotten his presence. “Ah. Yes. I have used this sample to run a scan determining the average number of life cells she possesses. As rate of development is correlated with this count, I am highly interested in-”

“ What, ” said Vader, with the tone of a man on the verge of Force choking not just a man, but all scientists in the vicinity, “are life cells?”

Doctor Monega actually grinned. “Ah, my greatest discovery!” He pulled down a viewscreen and, from a pocket, revealed a datacard. Plugging it into the console, he began typing even more quickly. Images flashed across it as he narrated them with all the aplomb of a HoloNet newscaster. 

“Ah, how many years ago was this? Five? Six? Hm, perhaps even seven…” He glanced at Vader. Some tiny sense of self-preservation must have sensed Vader’s rising ire and he hurried on. “Yes, let us say seven. I was conducting research as part of the Imperial Biological Weapons Division, and during my studies, discovered a quite astounding little microorganism. I recall it coming to my attention because I was finding it in samples of just about every human cell sample I had acquired. You can imagine my astonishment when I expanded my search to see that it was present in not only every human but every life form alive. Carbon-based, silicon-based; oxygen breathers, methane breathers, helium breathers; mammalian, avian, reptilian, invertebrate…” 

Vader listened, his impatience growing. 

“...nor was it limited to sentient species. By the end, I was discovering it in non-sentient species… plants and fungi… even fellow microorganisms. It was remarkable!” Different images flashed across the screen: flora and fauna, humans and Wookiees, Hutts and Rodians and Gands, Nautolans and Biths and Duros. 

There was something very familiar about this. 

“Yet I found not one mention of it in the Imperial scientific archives, nor any of the databases, or the most recent research, not even a hint that anyone was on the verge of making a similar discovery. For lack of a better term, my men and I coined them “life cells”, for it is the one commonality was that it was present in every living thing.” He displayed what appeared to be a child’s scribble of a very simple cell.

Suddenly it clicked. Midi-chlorians.

The pompous fool of a scientist had discovered midi-chlorians. Or rather, re-discovered ; after the fall of the Jedi Order, the Emperor had ordered any and all mentions of midi-chlorians purged from the records and further banned any research into the beings. It would not do to have scientists discovering the source of their powers, after all. Only Inquisitors had been provided with devices to scan for them - just because the information was destroyed did not mean they could not make use of it, and they well knew the danger of having Force-sensitive infants not under their control. Yet even the Inquisitors had been provided just the barest outline of what they were searching for, enough for them to understand what they were doing but certainly not enough for them to guess at its significance. Any such research into the topic should have led to the immediate execution of the offending scientists as well as his entire crew and the destruction of his base. Yet here was this man, alive and extolling “his” discoveries. 

Doctor Monega was now displaying the image of a typical virus, polyhedral and bristling with spikes. “Now, you can imagine that this discovery put some incredible ideas to my mind. A life form common to all living things? There’s power in that, Lord Vader… from a scientific viewpoint. Our division had come up with any number of biological weapons, and so I thought… something that could target a life cell? Well, what targets a cell? What co-opts a cell’s very processes for itself? And of course, it was obvious: a virus.”

Vader was very still as he stared at the facsimile of the viral reproductive cycle, but redrawn to show the virus eating at a midi-chlorian.

“It took years of work, many failures. But I was persistent, I knew I had something of great value. For you see…” Doctor Monega showed a chart. “I soon discovered that there was some correlation between these cells and the Jedi. And I found it here, on this very planet. As it turned out, a few years ago, the governor had wiped out this agricultural group of some kind - apparently a corps that the Jedi sent those they rejected? Well, he purged most of them but there were a few survivors that they sent to us, and I thought, why not test them, and well…”

The Agricultural Corps, Vader realized, one of four branches that the Jedi sent those who were deemed to be Force-sensitive, but not strong enough to pass the Trials. They and other groups like them had been scattered all over the galaxy at the time of Order 66, going virtually unnoticed in some areas. Palpatine had ordered them rounded up or wiped out, oftentimes at Vader’s hand. 

Apparently he had missed one.

The doctor was still speaking. His viewscreen now showed a lightsaber-wielding “Jedi” with a crudely drawn face and a virus attempting to attack it. “I noticed upon injection of this virus a most astonishing effect: the symptoms of these survivors progressed faster than those of others! Examination of their corpses yielded the cause: these rejected Jedi had higher life cell counts than most other beings, hence the rate of the disease progressing exponentially faster!” He mused, “They had quite a few things to say, some of them did, in their delirium: apparently the Jedi would conduct certain tests of their own on the children that they stole, measure the count of these life cells. I had thought those that did not meet their standards were summarily killed, but instead they exiled them to backwater planets…. Though, Lord Vader, you would know even more about this than I do,” he chuckled. “And so I thought: a weapon to target the straggling Jedi out there? To target any that might become like them? Or even further: a weapon that could decimate any planet hiding them. Or any planet at all! Imagine how easily we could cow any rebellion, how quickly we’d crush those who dare to stand against us.”

He said it all perfunctorily, like it was a speech memorized by rote. He did not care, Vader realized; the Jedi, the Imperial military, the deaths around him - none of it concerned him apart from the science. 

Vader spoke. “I know of these cells you speak of. They were well-known in the era of the corrupt Republic - studied by the Jedi. ” The doctor opened his mouth but Vader overrode him. “You are arrogant to think that you are the first to discover them and presumptuous to have continued to let it go forward at all.” He placed his hand on his lightsaber. “Research into these cells is banned. The penalty for breaking it is immediate execution.”

“My Lord, I’m sure there’s been some mistake!” exclaimed the doctor, looking panicked for the first time during their conversation. 

“There is no mistake.” Darkness wrapped his form.

“No, no, I would never do this without - without approval. And I did not!” He backed into his desk. “You allowed this, my Lord!”

The words seemed to hit him somewhere in the chest. I…? “What?”

Doctor Monega fumbled about a drawer until he found a piece of flimsi. “You see? Your signature granting me approval to continue my studies, as well as His Majesty’s. I made the presentation before the Emperor myself.”

Vader snatched the flimsi from the doctor, his mind reeling. He recognized immediately the nondescript form, full of dense legalese, that he had signed off on, one of thousands of pieces of paperwork he had received in the last eight years. This one merely asked permission to research “a biological project of some importance towards exterminating the Jedi”. That had likely been enough to convince the Emperor… and Vader himself.

So it was true then. 

I did this.  

The Force swirled around him. This was my doing.  

All the sickness, the violence, the deaths… and Leia… his daughter… “And how does this… virus… work?”

“Ah. Well.” Another click, this time to display an image of a virus with the same general shape, but colored in patches of red and black, receptors dotting its pitted surface. “Infection occurs through bodily fluids: blood, saliva, the like. And only in beings with a functional circulatory system: we did not want to risk it becoming airborne, you see.” He waved a finger. “Bad enough that most everything alive has these cells.”

Everything living… that meant not only sentient beings but semi- and non-sentient ones. Small mercy that the need for a circulatory system at least eliminated most kinds of flora and simple, single-celled beings.

And he had done this.

“The onset between transmission and symptoms is short,” continued Doctor Monega, “though dependent on the amount of life cells present. The more there are, the faster the development.”

“Yet the… princess,” said Vader slowly, every word a stabbing pain in his chest, “claims she was bitten days ago. And her… ‘life cell’... count is quite high.”

“My scans indicate that she has over ten thousand at present, and that is with the virus coursing through her system,” nodded Doctor Monega, apparently too wrapped up in his presentation to ask how Vader knew that. “An unprecedented number. Were she healthy, I can’t even begin to speculate how high it might be. Twelve thousand perhaps? Or maybe even fifteen thousand? Or-” 

“Over twenty thousand,” Vader said automatically.

Doctor Monega blinked. “Well… perhaps, my lord. That seems astronomically high, but…” He shook his head. “At any rate, the progression of her illness, based on her life cell count, is quite puzzling. By all accounts, she ought to have turned into one of those ravening beasts within hours.” 

Leia, still sitting on the bed, let out a tiny gasp. Vader reached for their bond almost on instinct, but could find nothing to send her. 

Doctor Monega continued, oblivious, “I can only venture a guess as to the reason, but perhaps her ludicrously high number of these cells has offered some sort of protective barrier. We did have a few rare test subjects with unusually high counts who defied our predictions. Oh, not as high as hers, perhaps only ten thousand or thereabouts… but I was sure they would have turned within a day. Instead they held out for four, close to five days.” He spread his hands. “Or perhaps there’s just so many of them that it takes time for the virus to infect them all. Who can say?” 

The Force, Vader realized. It was the Force, flowing through the midi-chlorians. All life flowed through it, all energy, and with so high a count, it was fighting, pushing back against the disease trying to overcome it.

Something else occurred to him. “Can these infected sense others?” He recalled, suddenly, how almost every instance of using the Force had brought an attack on them. How they had seemed to sense them even at a distance. Were they bright beacons in the darkness of these creatures’ minds, their tremendous Force potential a danger?

“Yes, we designed it that way,” said Doctor Monega. “It is the virus, you see? It wants to continue spreading, it hungers for beings with more life cells. The creatures crave what they have lost. Clever, eh? And the more life cells you have, the more likely you will be attacked. And the more infected there are, the more likely you are to be hunted - and found.” 

His mind was a morass, the pieces of the puzzle gradually coming together. This was why he could not sense the creatures with the Force. Why Leia’s presence was so dimmed. Why it seemed that they were always attacked whenever they merely passed by an area… or when he used the Force itself. They were like a burning star in this Force-dead world; little wonder they were such easy targets. Leather creaked as he clenched a fist. A disease that targeted midi-chlorians itself. How had the Force itself not rebelled against that?

“And you spread this here,” Vader said slowly. “Deliberately.”

Doctor Monega drew in a breath. “Ah. That. No.” He shrugged. “An accident. We were transferring some samples. A leak occurred - one of the locals. They had no idea of the value, or danger, of what they were transporting. Lack of safety precautions - they neglected to put on one of the suits, you see. They cut their hand and spilled some sample on themself, then promptly went home without informing anybody. They lived within the city, so by the time we realized, the infection had spread beyond what we could control.”

If he could strangle an entire base, he would. “What is the treatment?”

The doctor looked surprised. “There is none. It is a virus, Lord Vader, and one we especially designed to have no cure. Any care would be a temporary measure, merely an alleviating of her symptoms. It would not rid her of the disease. We developed no antivirals, no vaccines. Not to mention the fact that it targets these life cells… I imagine the only cure is to destroy all of those, but that would possibly kill the victim regardless.”

Destroy the midi-chlorians… He did not look at Leia. If he looked at Leia, he might very well destroy something else. “Then the girl’s… prognosis?”

“I’m surprised she has not turned already,” said Doctor Monega callously. “The high life cell count, I suppose. It’s a… buffer, if you will. There are so many that it is taking the disease more time than usual to infect her. But at some point, that buffer will be overcome, and then, I imagine, the infection will come very fast and very strong.”

Vader briefly but quite seriously considered throwing the man to the mercy of his own creations. An infection… that causes its victims to die only to rise again… “So the girl will die.”

Leia was very silent.

“Not precisely,” said the doctor. “The victim enters a coma quite close to death - the failure of the life cells, you know. A death-like coma, if you will. The first time it happened we even buried a few. But the virus offers itself as a replacement of sorts, reanimating circulation, respiration, metabolism, even a rudimentary intelligence. Those are the creatures I’m sure you’ve encountered. In a few cases, we’ve seen some incredible mutations, such as regen-”

“And the boy?” Vader interrupted.

“The boy?” Doctor Monega shot a surprised look at Luke. It was the first time he had even glanced at him. “If the scanner did not activate, then he is well. They are state of the art, my lord, I designed them myself. Even a singular viral particle is detectable.” He shrugged. “Assuming he is not bitten or scratched in the future. If he continues to stay in such close proximity to the girl, I imagine he’ll be her first victim.”

Leia’s breathing was loud in the silence. Luke’s hand was pressed against his mouth.

Vader turned to Leia. She tensed, staring at him and through him. He lifted her off the bed, setting her on the ground. She did not protest this, which was worrisome in itself. He gestured for Luke to follow them. He went to the door and found Lieutenant Reston waiting outside. 

“You have an empty set of private quarters?” When Lieutenant Reston nodded, Vader shoved the children in his direction. “Take them there. Do not disturb them if you value your life.”

The Dark Side coiled around Vader as he turned to the oblivious Doctor Monega. His hand fell once again to his lightsaber. A quick death by choking was too good for him. This required a level of personal care and attention that Vader normally reserved only for the Jedi.

Doctor Monega was watching him approach, brow furrowed. Vader sensed no fear or apprehension; the man, for all his insights into infectious diseases, seemed totally unaware of his impending doom. Vader’s thumb found the hilt of his lightsaber.

“You care for the girl,” said the doctor suddenly, “don’t you?”

The sheer audacity of the question was the only thing that stopped Vader in his tracks.

The doctor turned abruptly and busied himself with his lab table. While his back was to the console, Vader held out a hand on impulse. The datacard, containing all the doctor’s information, flew into his hand. As Doctor Monega began stuffing things inside the a container that Vader recognized as a medpac, Vader hid the data card in his belt just as the doctor finished and turned. The other man proffered the medpac to Vader.

“There’s no saving her,” he said matter-of-factly, as if he had no feelings about it one way or another, “but you might take these. Fatigue and lack of appetite are the first symptoms. During this time, the wound also turns gangrenous, as you have observed. For most, these all occur within the first day, though the child’s rate is, as we know, slowed. Around the second day, the victim experiences fever, nausea, and vomiting, along with general weakness. By the third, they fall into a deep unconsciousness that turns into a coma. The transformation usually occurs just hours after that last symptom.” 

Vader stared at the medpac.

The doctor followed his gaze and nodded, pointing to each item. “They won’t cure her. They simply provide palliative care. Bacta patches. It won’t help what she has, but you can use it for other wounds. Painkillers. Energy stimshots. She will not want to eat, so hydration capsules, nutrient capsules. Muscle relaxants.” He pointed to another hypodermic injector. “For the seizures. When she falls into a coma, she is nearing the end.” He touched one last hypo. “Use this then. One dose only. You understand me? Just one dose.” He handed the box over. “The transformation only occurs if the patient awakens from their coma. If they die, they do not change, you see?” He nodded to the hypo again. “For a painless end.” 

For a second as Vader took it, he felt the Force call on his rage, his helplessness. It yearned to choke the life out of the man, to slice him limb by limb, to take his vengeance with as much coldness as the doctor had when he created his foul disease. 

But what would it change? Would it rid Leia of the disease? Would it turn back time to before she had been bitten? Allow him to discover it earlier? He may as well attempt, futilely, to kill the virus, or all of the infected, or the Force itself for showing him he had a daughter before ripping her away from him.

Or himself.

He had done this to her.

Leia, the princess, his daughter, was dying.

And he did not know what to do.