Luke Vader Part 18

Luke Vader
Part 18: Brother and sister
By SJ 21-11-00/12-12-00

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See my homepage for more details.
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Special thanks to my shy, secret beta-reader and best friend, Adrianne, for her
help with the final editing of my new stories. Thanks for giving me some of your
precious time, my friend :)
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Luke's dirty shirt was off of his person before he had finished to cross the
frame of the door of the room his father chose for him; he bunched the piece of
clothe up and threw it in a corner. Someday, he admitted to himself, it might
be useful again, but for the moment, he didn't want to see it again. He equally
stripped off his boots and trousers, also threw them in a corner, then opened
his closet.

A strong body instantly jumped on him and tackled him to the floor, thus
knocking his breath out of his lungs. His lover caught his breath with a deep,
hungry kiss.

*Welcome back, Luke,* she sent him with all her feelings for him.

*Hmm, are you sure this is not an assassination attempt?* he joked half-
seriously.

He 'was' feeling dizzy from lack of oxygen. They reluctantly put an end to
their kiss.

"Positive," she smiled down, her loose hair framing the right side of her
beautiful face.

"Good, then let's resume it," he smiled, pulling her back to his lips.

*I heard that the princess is still here,* the young woman commented after a
while, slight jealousy creeping through their bond.

Luke interrupted their kiss to gaze at her.

"You know about this already?" he raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"I know about everything that I need to know, 'farmboy'," she teased him
seriously.

"Don't call me that, please," he pouted at the moniker the rebels had used for
him.

"Why? I kinda like it, farmboy," she smirked at his discomfiture.

Aware that he wouldn't make her change her mind, Luke sighed in acceptance.
Someday, perhaps, she would forget it.

"So why is the princess here?" his girlfriend inquired more seriously.

"Because I finally found out why I've always been intrigued by her," he
answered her more lightly.

"And?" she prompted him.

"She's my sister," he smiled wistfully.

Unlike his father, Mara couldn't hide her reactions behind a mask; he almost
laughed at the face she made upon hearing those news.

"You---your what?" she finally stuttered.

"My sister," he repeated. "We were separated at birth, but we ran a DNA test
and she 'is' my twin. She's also strong in the Force."

Mara slowly digested this, their kisses forgotten as she leaned up and straddled
his stomach

"So what's the plan now?" she finally asked, barely able to hide her
disappointment to have the princess nearby.

"Father and I will try to mellow her enough to add her to our family," Luke
answered simply. "Considering her years of opposition against the master, it
might take some doing, but we are confident that she will see the truth in
time."

Or so he hoped anyway.

Jade considered his words carefully, seemed to weight the fors and againsts,
then she smirked slightly at him.

"Your sister, huh?" she asked with some amusement as she realized that the
situation wasn't as it used to be anymore. "I always knew she wouldn't be any
competition for me," she smiled lustfully before capturing his lips with her
own.

*Never doubted it either,* Luke returned while he pulled her even closer to
himself. *Say, I was going to take a shower,* he informed her through the
Force. *Care to join me?*

His hands began to pull her jacket open; she helped him by peeling it off of
her body with the Force.

*As long as you let me wash you, hero of the day,* she told him lustfully.

*Like in the old Greem society, huh?* he teased her. *Well, if you want to
serve me, how can I refuse?*

*You can't,* she assured him even as she pulled him back to a sitting position.

Slowly, while not breaking their kiss, they stood back to their feet and slowly
kissed and shuffled their way into his 'fresher, leaving their remaining clothes
in their wake.

Finally, Luke sighed in bliss, he was home.

******

Not far from there, Leia sat in the completely dark cell.

Well, more like a closet, she reflected sarcastically. A closet that wasn't
giving her any clue as to how long she had been there. It was furnished with
what felt like a simple cot, a blanket, and four, close by walls. She could lay
on her back on the cot, but she had to be careful about not hitting her head or
her feet on the nearby walls. When she stretched her arms to the sides, her
hands almost brushed the two other walls.

At the moment, she was sitting against a wall, considering yet again the events
of the day.

This had to be the most unhappy day of her life, she thought glumly for the
hundredth time since her brother had locked her up.

First, she had lost her cause, then she had lost her friend, and finally, she
had lost her innocence. She was Vader's daughter... The vile, dark monster who
had tortured her and who had stood behind her as they had destroyed her home
planet... was her father.

Then, as if it wasn't enough knowledge to deal with, the young man she had
always considered as her savior had in fact been a traitor... and her brother...
His being an imperial explained many things though: their escape from the Death
Star, his destroying the same Death Star, their numerous, ensuing narrow
escapes, all the bases that had fallen after those incidents... they had been
'his' doing...

And she, most foolish rebel leader who had ever lived, had never seen past his
naive front.

She should have though, she berated herself.

She should have. But of course, she had felt so close to him that she had been
blinded... The young man had always been there to comfort her when she had
needed it, and, curse her heart, she had always felt good in his presence.

Because he had been her long-lost brother, she then understood. For a moment,
she pondered if she would have betrayed him if she had known the truth during
the Rebellion. At first, she angrily reflected that he would have deserved
whatever the others would have done to her, then, she amended that thought. She
would have tried to reform him, she admitted truthfully.

Just like, she then realized, he was probably hoping to do with her... but about
the Empire. Her blood froze in her veins at the thought of her ever becoming a
will-less slave like her father and brother, then the fire of her hatred warmed
her up again.

Her brother could try anything he wanted, she resolved adamantly; she would
never join the Empire. They had killed her family---- Or was her family the
traitor and she had been too brain-washed to see the truth for what it was?---
she wondered in sudden horror as the new possibility suddenly came to her mind.
No, she shook her head in denial. The Organa had loved her as if she had been
their own, and her mother, her mother... she had been so sad all the time, she
glumly remembered, so... empty...

Now she knew why, she realized. She too now knew the horrible secret that her
mother she had had to keep from everybody, even her own child...

The loss of her other child and husband.

But, Leia wondered in growing concern, had her mother truly known things about
her father which had made her want to return to the monster he now was?.. Had
the Jedis really isolated her from her husband because he had been a danger
to her and the children... or to them?..

She would never know, she supposed, since the Jedis were extinct now. One thing
was sure though; she could now relate to her mother's sadness.

Life was unfair.

Later, although Leia didn't know how much later, Leia's door swished open,
startling her out of her reverie. She squinted against the light that was
coming from outside.

What was it this time?.. she wondered. Nobody seemed to be standing in the
entrance. Could she try to escape? she thought in renewed hope even as she
brought her feet under her to stand up.

"Are you going to spend the rest of the day in there?" Luke's voice asked her.
"Come on, we have to talk," he then prompted her almost eagerly.

As if they were still friends, she noticed.

"Do we?" she sneered, recovering her sitting position.

"Yes," he told her, still not stepping into view. "We can do it here if you
prefer, but I thought it would be more comfortable to sit in the living room,"
he diligently explained to her.

"And what makes you think that I will talk with you?" she challenged. "How can
you be sure that I don't want to escape?"

Luke's voice became more serious, more... dangerous, she decided, exactly like
when he had mentioned his torture, she then remembered.

"I assure you that any attempt to escape would be completely useless, Sister."
he told her warningly.

Upon hearing this, she decided that she was probably better to not push his
limits. She didn't move from her spot while she continued to study her chances
of escape.

When Luke understood that she wasn't coming out anytime soon, he finally stepped
closer in the entrance, allowing her to see him; she gasped despite herself.

No wonder that he hadn't shown himself to her just yet, she conceded in slight
fear. Whereas he had always worn whites or tan fatigues, he was now wearing a
completely black, leather dress uniform that left no doubt as to his true
identity. The only thing on him that wasn't black was his lightsaber which was
dangling at his hip, a silent, deactivated threat.

Luke Vader, servant of the galactic Emperor, was speaking to her now.

"You wouldn't go as far as a step away before you were stopped," he warned her.
"Better cooperate, don't you think?"

Unable to stand the sight of the traitor, she forgot her fear and resolve to not
move---and lunged at him. He swiftly swiveled his torso; she shot past him,
then he easily tripped her and pinned her under himself in one, agile move...yet
didn t cause her any pain, not even with her fall.

As she tried to free herself from him, she dimly noticed that he didn't seem
upset by her attack, as if he had expected her to do so, she realized.

"That was childish and too easy, even for you," he commented coolly while
holding her wrists in a strong grip between the two of them.

She continued her attempts to free herself from his weight, to no avail of
course. While she continued to struggle, it quickly dawned on her that she had
no real choice but to accept his invitation; she obviously wasn't going anywhere
anyway. Besides, she reminded herself, she would be punishing herself is she
didn't cooperate in this case.

As she was now discovering, the cold deck was far from comfortable.

"All right", she growled, putting an end to her straining against him. "Let's
take this family chit-chat to the living room, 'brother'," she sneered
sarcastically.

Luke flashed her a smile, temporarily dissolving the image of her dark brother
to replace it by that of her ex-best friend, then he gently pulled her back to
her feet in one strong yet delicate move.

Next, he invited her to walk at his side. While she accepted his invitation,
she noticed that he was between her and the door that led in the anteroom. It
denoted one more thing about her stranger of a brother; he was a professional at
whatever he did besides destroying rebellions.

A door opened upon their approach; she stepped through it, her brother right on
her heels----- and stopped in her tracks when she saw the rich decoration of the
room. The walls were covered with carved, dark wood, the floor was covered by a
soft-looking carpet and the furniture was, well...

"Worthy of a comfortable household, isn't it?" Luke asked her from her side.

She turned toward him, startled to hear him complete her thought, then glared at
him. Was he in her head now?, she wondered angrily.

"Please have a seat," he told her in a most gentleman-like manner before she had
time to seethe at him for reading her thoughts.

Instead, she refocused on yet another new aspect of his personality. If she
didn't know who he was, she conceded, she might have thought that he was a rich
aristocrat in search of a conquest. She sat in the chair that was closest to
the door. Luke sat on the couch that was in front of her, then slightly
slouched.

She used the silence to study him yet again; he seemed to appreciate the moment,
she reflected, as if he had really missed his environment. If he had, she then
estimated, then it made him materialistic.

She added it on her mental notepad.

"It's good to be back home," he told her with a slight small, as if aware of her
scrutinizing study.

Materialistic indeed, she noted on her pad. She continued to evaluate him.

"You want to ask tons of questions," he told her matter-of-factly while he
straightened to lean his elbows on his knees.

"Really?" she sneered while drawing away from him. "Is reading my mind
interesting?" she glared.

His voice gentled. "I don't need to read your mind to read your heart," he told
her. "You look exactly like I did when I first met Father," he then commented,
slightly turning his eyes downward at this.

Number two, she noted, clever.

Number three, sensitive, for a darksider, then she decided to exploit his
obvious openness and prick at the memory that seemed to sadden him.

"All right then, answer this: how did you end up with him?" she asked as
she defiantly crossed her arms in front of her chest.

If he was as clever as he seemed, she thought that he would understand that she
was playing along, but only to know him better. He wasn't winning her over.

"He bought me," her brother answered her seriously, his eyes glazing slightly as
he went back in time in his mind.

"Bought?" she gaped despite herself, unfolding her arms in shock. "As in...
slavery?"

Luke took a deep breath at this, his eyes gazing at the floor as he nodded.

"He wasn't responsible for it. I had been kidnapped and enslaved... He
just showed up at the bidding... probably under the guidance of the Force," Luke
told her in a distant voice. "Being bought by him has been my most terrifying
experience to this day," he admitted truthfully.

While Leia reflected that anybody would be terrified to be purchased by Vader,
it led her to wonder how the terrified boy had come to 'be' Vader's son and
happy to be so.

"How old were you?" she asked, forgetting her wariness.

Now, she wanted to know him.

"Six and a half," he informed her.

A mere child, she realized...

Four, she noted with surprising compassion, he had had a tough past.

"What happened next?" she asked him. "Did he tell you right away?"

"No. To protect me from the Emperor's wrath, he took his time to raise me and
teach me what I had to know to survive my first encounter with the Emperor," he
explained with genuine gratitude in his voice.

"What do you mean?" she asked, this time puzzled.

How could a first encounter be lethal for a child?.., she wondered uneasily

"I was rebellious, Leia," he told her, meeting her eyes this time. "I was
headstrong, defiant, disrespectful... and I was strong in the Force.

Leia was flabbergasted as she understood what he was trying to tell her. Hurt a
mere child??, she wanted to ask indignantly.

"Did he free you to teach you those things?" she asked in genuine if horrified
interest.

"No," He shook his head.

"Then how did he teach---" she began incredulously.

"Through my servitude," Luke explained. "While I was serving him, I learnt how
to use the Force, how to defer, how to fight, and a few other basic skills."

Leia had slowly began to scowl during his accounting. The thought that a mere
child would go through all this and worse at his father's hand...

His father's...

"He freed me on the day of my ninth anniversary," her brother continued as if he
were retelling a most normal story. "after I proved my worth as a future
imperial servant."

Luke then smiled wistfully at her, horrifying her even more than she was upon
realization that the said 'child' was even proud and grateful for what his
father had done to him. Vader had treated him as a slave, for Force's sake!,
she wanted to yell at him.

Then she noticed that Luke's smile softened slightly, as if sensing how
distraught she was by his tale.

"Don't worry," he tried to reassure her, "by then, he had shown me a lot of
consideration. I myself was even thinking of him as my guardian, not as my
master, and certainly not a slaver or a tyrant anymore."

Five, he was a comedian, she decided angrily as she understood where he was
going with this. He was just trying to seduce her once more.

"Oh, you'll make me cry," she sneered, foregoing whatever opening she had begun
to feel toward him. "Vader doesn't feel any feelings; he doesn't have any
heart," she pointed out coldly.

"For the others, yes, I agree, and so am I," he informed her, "but inside the
family, it is completely different. I can still remember the number of evenings
that we spent star gazing, or chatting about trivial subject, then all the hugs
he gave me when I was a child. He does have feelings," he assured her
adamantly.

"If he cares this much, 'brother'," she snickered, "how do you explain the marks
that you have on your back," she demanded meanly. "I know that you lied to me
about them."

She was glad to see him falter slightly... but not too much either.

"That was at the beginning, and they are not all his," he explained seriously,
"Some were part of my imperial training. He wasn't there when it happened."

"Except for the last time of course." she meanly reminded him.

Luke's warm gaze suddenly cooled down a few degrees, giving Leia a glimpse to
what her brother was capable of as far as feelings were concerned. He could
care, but he could hate as well.

"'That' wasn't his doing," he informed her slowly, very seriously. "It was the
fault of the Rebellion. He and I were the Emperor's tools in this operation.
It was our duty to masquerade that."

"Yet you were hurt for real---" she began to argue.

"Because I deserved it," he cut her off, his cool temper slowly giving way to a
more heated discussion. "I had no right to destroy the master's Death Star,
even to save you." he glared at her.

Leia glared back, using that silent moment to study that new data.

Her brother was obviously holding some kind of grudge against the Emperor for
hurting him through Vader, but at the same time, she understood, he wouldn't
turn against the man, not even to complain about his treatment.

Six, he was loyal to the Emperor.

Leia decided to drop the subject; instead, she came back on the caring topic

"I still won't believe that you are able to care after what you did to the
rest of the galaxy and the rebellion," she told him defiantly.

He shrugged. "Still, you now know that it is part of our private lives..."

"I don't---" she began to argue.

"How else do you explain that you are in my former slave quarters instead of the
regular holding pens?" he demanded seriously, having recovered his cooler
attitude.

Seven, he was cold but diplomat.

"So that you can twist my heart more easily," she spat, although she wasn't that
convinced anymore.

She could somehow feel that her brother cared about her; he wanted to save her
from pain and death, just as he had promised her, she remembered once again. At
least, she then reflected, that much was clear through their strange, unwilling
bond.

Luke sighed in resignation. In time, he reminded himself.

"All right, let's do this another way. Ask me your questions," he offered
her. "No matter what they are, I will answer them."

"No matter what they are?" she asked him dubiously.

"Yes," he nodded resolutely.

He watched her furrow her delicate brows as she considered his proposal, then
she pinned him once more with her nutty gaze.

"Tell me who you really are," she asked seriously.

"Who I am?" he tilted his head in confusion.

"Ever since I met you, I keep running into different Lukes," she explained
quickly.

He laughed at her figure of speech.

"Well, I've been trained to be a man with many faces... I am, or rather was," he
corrected himself as he remembered his new status. "a secret agent for the
Emperor. With my partner, I spied, I stole information, I did whatever the
master wanted us to do. I will still do it if it is his wish," he told her
seriously.

While he had enumerated his typical mission, he had noticed the slight, shocked
widening of her eyes but at the same time, she had seemed to expect this. She
already had a good control over her emotions, he noted with interest.

"You forgot to say that you're also a dark Jedi," she added sarcastically.

"Yes, I am, and I'm proud of it," he smiled, then added: "I finished the
training when I was nine years old."

"Nine?! I never---" she gaped, then fell silent as if she had revealed
something she hadn't meant to.

Luke understood that she knew about the Jedi order.

"Where did you learn about the Jedi traditions, Leia?" he inquired in interest.

She slightly hesitated, as if pondering whether to answer him or not, then she
said: "My father told me."

Sudden tears brimmed into her eyes at this, showing how fresh the scar of that
loss still was.

"I'm sorry..." he apologized earnestly. "I didn't mean to bring that up again.
What else do you want to know?" he offered, genuinely hoping to change the
topic.

She gaped slightly at him, obviously surprised by his kindness, but she quickly
recovered her cool defiance.

"What do you plan to do with me. I'm sure 'Dad' has told you about his plans,"
she snarled.

"Except keeping you with us, nothing," he admitted.

"Nothing?!" she asked, incredulous.

"Nothing," he repeated. "In time, we hope that we will be able to trust you and
let you free. When this will happen, you will be free to choose what you want
to do with your new life, but until then, we have to protect you."

"Protect me???? From what?! Influences from the regular world?!" she snickered
sarcastically.

"From the Emperor," he corrected. "Every new Jedi potential represents a threat
to him," he explained, making sure that she understood what he was trying to
tell her.

She obviously did; she remained mute even as her beautiful features paled in
worry--- then her eyes suddenly hardened.

"Then he will simply destroy me," she finished defiantly, resignedly, ready to
accept her fate.

"No," he shook his head in denial, both for her and himself. "Your being with
us will ensure his feeling of security, hence, your safety," he explained
earnestly.

"But I won't be free," she reminded him with a glare. "I'd rather die than be a
slave," she stated defiantly.

"Do you really want to escape from us, Leia?" he asked her seriously.

"You bet I---"

If reasoning wasn't working, he thought seriously, he was going to demonstrate
the strength of their bond.

"Do you remember how you felt three days ago when you slept on me?" he asked
her, leaning forward once again.

"That wasn't---"

"significant?" Luke suggested, using the word she had in mind.

"It was---" she slightly hesitated.

"My doing?" he suggested again.

Her eyes threw laser bolts at him as she understood what he had just done. He
himself had known that a little push had been necessary, but he had never
thought that she would catch on it this fast.

"Why you inconsiderate darksider!" she exploded while leaning closer to him.
"Get out of my head, now!" she ordered, shoving her finger near his face in
warning.

"Calm down." he soothed her, gently lowering her hand from his face. "I
apologize for this, but I wanted to demonstrate how far our link goes. I am not
in your head, Leia... not anymore than you are in mine."

"What do you mean in yours?" she queried with barely receding animosity.

"You felt my pains, remember?" he reminded her.

"Yeah, but---" she began.

"And you instinctively knew that we were close to one another, that you
could trust me," he added.

"I---" his sister tried to argue, but she was speechless.

"You came to me after the medal ceremony, remember? And you came to me all the
other times afterward. You became friend with me in no time," he continued
earnestly.

"Because of your simulated personality." she tried to argue.

"Because of our family bond, Leia..." he corrected gently. "I was too naive to
really be your friend and you know it; it was something else."

A moment of silence followed this analysis; Leia broke it a few seconds
later.

"Our twin relationship..." she whispered as if afraid to admit the truth.

"Yes." he nodded in heartfelt agreement.

Would she understand and accept it? he wondered earnestly. He tried to give her
one more reason to believe it.

"Do you want to know what was one of my hobbies for a long while?" he offered
her softly.

"What?" she shrugged.

"Collecting holos and data about you," he admitted, blushing slightly in
foolishness even as he tried to not remember the last time his master had caught
him caring 'too' much about the then unknown princess... who was now gazing at
him in disbelief.

"What?!" she gaped, leaning back in her armchair.

For a brief moment, Luke wondered if he were unknowingly repeating the mistakes
of the past about Leia, then he dismissed his fear as illogical. His master
would have not allow him to save his sister if he hadn't wanted him to use their
bond the way he was doing at the moment.

He refocused on the young woman, who still couldn't imagine a young dark Jedi
collecting holos about a princess. Well, he conceded more lightly, neither
could his girlfriend.

"Yes, I did," he nodded in confirmation. "I've never been able to explain it,
until now... Once we're back home, I'll show it to you if you want."

"And how will I know that it isn't something that you did to prepare for your
mission?" she asked him, still slightly defiant.

Because he had stashed it so far away that even 'he' hadn't taken a look at it
for years, he wanted to tell her in slight, sudden animosity to her reaction,
but he changed his mind.

"Do you feel any lie in my words?" he inquired seriously, his voice slightly
harder than he had first intended, but then, he reflected, his 'logbook' had
caused him much trouble. The mere mention of it got to him.

His sister sighed heavily in frustration; he understood that had made his point.

"No," she finally admitted out loud. "but I can't say that they're very
reassuring either," she muttered unhappily.

Luke impulsively rested his hand on her shoulder, hoping to reassure her.

"You still see us as monsters, Leia, and I understand. Nobody but Father,
myself, the Emperor and Mara know that we aren't heartless," he explained
seriously, his temper once again under perfect control.

She frowned at his words.

"Mara?"

"My partner," he explained, then sighed as he stood up. "I guess what I'm
trying to ask is: can you please give us time to prove to you that we are more
than we look?" he asked her earnestly. "You don't have to decide today about
the future... For the moment, you can just watch us as a family and make your
judgement from what you see and feel, not what you know," he offered her, hoping
to convince her to at least cooperate with them to save her life.

He himself knew that it would be a first step toward becoming a servant for
their master as well as a full member of their family.

Leia was speechless in front of such a wise offer... The most infuriating thing
of course was that he was right. She 'could' study them and confirm her
judgment that way, but, she admitted to herself, she was afraid that her
brother's words would come true. She was afraid to break and join her 'family'.

"Leia..." he said again, lightly resting his hand on her shoulder.

She looked up and met with the kindest eyes she had ever seen in her whole life.

"Trust your heart, please..." he gently told her.

And her heart, he probably knew, was telling her that she could trust her true
'family'. Well, perhaps not her father, but her brother... she could feel that
she could trust him...

She had known that ever since he had barged in her detention block, she
reluctantly admitted. Despite the fact that he had been a spy who was going to
use her to infiltrate the Rebellion, she had instinctively trusted him. In
fact, she had always felt that deep trust whenever she had been close to him,
when she had huddled against him in search of comfort... and even after
he had revealed his true self, she realized, she had been tempted to lean
against his close-by body and just trust him.

Her assaults on him, she then understood, hadn't been caused by a lack of trust,
but by her dark anger... She didn't know yet about her father, but despite what
her brother had done to her cause and herself, she was ready to give him a
chance.

If a very slight one.

"All right, Luke," she nodded. "I will give you one chance to show yourself
worthy of our bond," she told him haughtily, falling back in the manners of the
court of Alderaan. "And I will trust 'my' feelings."

She expected him to be irked by her arrogance, but instead, he smiled in
happiness.

"You will not regret it, Leia. I promise you won't regret it."

He offered her his hand to help her up from the armchair.

"Do you give me your word that you won't try to escape?" he asked her as she
stood up.

"As I understand, it would be useless, right?" she asked him seriously.

"Right. Come, I'll show around and which room you can have if you want to."

Still holding her hand, he shifted his hold, then led her back into the corridor
where he explained to her the security grid that was around the main door, then
led her to his own, well-furbished room in his father's quarters.

He opened the door.

"It will be more comfortable than the closet," he told her as he entered.

"Hey, Flyboy---" Mara began, then stopped short as she spotted the petite
brunette who was following him.

Leia also stopped in her tracks in surprise. She obviously hadn't expected to
find a beautiful woman in her brother's room. Luke introduced the two young
women to one another.

"Mara, this is my sister, Leia. Leia, this is my partner, Mara Jade."

He chuckled inwardly as the two young women sized each other up for a few more
seconds.

"Pleased to meet you, Mara," Leia finally said coolly.

"The same, I'm sure," Mara retorted, walking closer to the twins. "Can I speak
with you for a moment, flyboy?" she then asked her boyfriend.

"Sure." He turned toward his sister. "Excuse us a moment," he told her before
following his girlfriend in the corridor.

*What do you think you're doing?* Mara asked him through the Force while she
glared at him.

*I'm trying to show her around. What's wrong with this?* he asked her.

*You told her about us!* she exclaimed in disbelief.

*Yes,* he shrugged as if it her identity wouldn't matter much to his sister. *If
we want to gain her trust, we have to trust her first. Besides, with my cover
blown up, she knows that I'm a spy.*

*You still didn't have to tell her about me,* Mara growled, frustrated.

Luke took her hand in his own. *Mara, come on, it's not this bad... She won't
tell your secret to anybody else anyway.*

He was relieved to hear her sight in acceptance of his logic.

*Will you spend all your time with her now?* she then asked, slight animosity
creeping back into her voice.

Luke's lips twitched into a smirk.

*Am I mistaken or are you jealous of my sister?* he asked, pulling her closer to
himself. *I thought that she wasn't any competition for you,* he teased her.
*Well, what do you think, farmboy? You've been fascinated by her for years,
which got you in trouble by the way, and you now have her with you, and---*

Luke interrupted her tirade with a deep kiss.

*I love you, Mara, and only you. I don't want to kiss her; I want to kiss you,*
he sent with all his passion and love. *I don't want to spend all my life with
her; I want to spend it with you.*

His lover twined her arms around his neck and deepened their kiss, forgetting
all her arguments about caring too much and having to check with the Emperor
first.

In the still opened door, Leia watched them silently, startled to witness such a
display of love in the heart of the Empire.

Even though she wasn't trained yet, she could feel the deep love that was
radiating from her brother and his lover, leaving no doubt that it was true
love, not just a physical thing.

If her brother was able to love a woman like that, she slowly mused, then he was
probably able to love on a simpler level too... and if 'he' could do that,
then..., she sigh in reluctant acceptance, Vader might also be able to at least
care, although she would believe this part when she'd see it, she resolved.

When her brother returned alone, she pretended to have inspected the room.

******

To be continued in part 19: Daughter