Chapter Text
Anakin Skywalker. A father.
He watched his sleeping wife as she slept, her hazel tresses covering her face. Softly, he stroked the sides of her face. He could feel the Force swirling around her, singing a lilting chorus of perfect happiness and joy.
A child. The best of him and Padme, combined into a single being he'll love and protect for the rest of his life. Leia. That'll be her name. The name of his daughter.
A girl with brown hair and hazel eyes ran towards him. "Come here, my Princess." Anakin Skywalker called to the child, who squealed and jumped into his open arms. Padme stood behind them, laughing in delight.
Darth Vader bolted upright, gasping for air. He rarely got any sleep nowadays, and if he did, he would dream of them. He tightened his fist as a solitary tear slid down his ravaged skin. It has been fifteen years since Mustafar. If his daughter were alive, he would be proclaiming her as the Crown Princess of the Empire in a year's time. Padme would have been his Queen, turning the galaxy into a peaceful and happy place where neither slavery nor corruption existed.
But that was not to be. Kenobi. Vader nearly spat as he remembered the traitor's name. Thanks to the man, everything he ever loved was dead. Gone forever. He still remembered watching Kenobi pick up his beloved Padme and leave as he burned on the banks of the lava streams. He still remembered Palpatine cruelly bringing him back to life and encasing him in this black suit. He still remembered his horror and grief when Palpatine told him that Padme and his child were gone.
And he still remembered how Palpatine clutched his throat, writhing in agony as his own monstrous creation brought his fingers together and killed him.
His comlink sounded. "What is it?" His baritone voice sounded weary rather than murderous. Perhaps, he mused to himself, he would have been far more bad tempered if that Darth Sidious was alive. "Your Highness, we have detected Jedi activity on Tatooine." Vader's lips twisted into a small smile. He had Kenobi at last.
The Dune Sea stretched far and wide. A Lambda class shuttle landed majestically at the top of a sandy hill. I thought I swore never to come back here, Vader thought to himself as he strode into the sweltering, but gradually dissipating heat.
Obi-wan Kenobi watched as the twin suns began to set. His young daughter was in the hut, playing with her new T-16 Skyhopper figurine. Obi-wan doted on the girl as his own. Anakin Skywalker would have wanted that. He would often tell the child stories of her real father, of their adventures before he died in the Jedi Purge. Anakin Skywalker's body was never found.
And then he saw the Imperial shuttle. Darth Vader was here, and neither one of them would survive if he doesn't act fast. He rushed back into the hut.
"Leia!"
A girl wearing a simple tan dress opened the doors. He took just a second to admire the two braids that he had done up for her, just as he had every day of the last fifteen years. Everything was about to crumble. This was it.
"Darth Vader is coming for us. We have to go, now!"
"Where to?" Fear flickered in her eyes. She, too, could feel the approaching Force presence.
"Away. There's no time left, quickly!"
The door slammed open. Obi-wan watched, aghast, as the Dark Lord of the Sith entered their abode.
"Obi-wan Kenobi. It's been a long time."
"You don't know what you're talking about, Darth. We've never met." Obi-wan intoned cautiously as he called his lightsaber to his hand.
"Oh, I do." The red blade burst to life, screaming its rage and fury in the form of a low, sinister hum.
Leia backed away as the two locked their blades on each other, the ghostly red glow alternating with a shining blue light. Darth Vader shot her a look from the corner of his eye. She immediately averted his glance, despite the fact that his visors were opaque from outside view.
He immediately felt her spike of fear in the Force. Interesting. A Force-sensitive child. A padawan. He would deal with the girl soon enough. Meanwhile, he had a Kenobi to contend with.
Another series of clashes ensued, before their blades locked again. This time, Vader had other ideas. He slid his saber across Kenobi's as he stepped across--
-- And cut away Obi-wan Kenobi's legs.
A rush of memories dashed to his head.
"You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you."
Kenobi fell to the ground, as Vader positioned his blade above his chest and drove it in.
"Father!" The girl rushed to his side.
Darth Vader fought to shove these unwanted thoughts back into the abyss of his mind as he took in the new information. A daughter. He smirked as he considered the possibilities. He could turn her to the dark side, twist her mind so utterly against her dead father, and replace--
-- And replace the daughter he never had.
How dare he even entertain that thought! The very idea that he would ever allow this Kenobi girl to be his Leia. The very idea!
"Don't take my daughter. Please." Obi-wan Kenobi coughed his words out. Darth Vader bent down as he watched his old enemy cough out his words. He was on the verge of death. And he whispered, "I will take yours, just as you killed mine. My brother."
And in that moment, in that moment, the Jedi realized exactly who was behind that mask.
"You are... you're..." But his last breath wasn't enough to complete his final sentence, and Obi-wan Kenobi saw his world plunge into darkness.
Outside, the last of sunshine disappeared into night.