"A Star Wars Parent Trap"

[Annie]

Chapter 1

"Are you sure you brought everything you'll need?"
Thirteen year old Luke Skywalker looked up at his father, clad black, still a relatively young man, with blond hair and blue eyes like his own. Luke met his stare and nodded but didn't answer in so many words.
"What's the matter, don't you want to go? We both decided this would be good for you to get away for awhile."
"What if...they find out? The other kids might laugh at me."
"Luke, you should never be ashamed of your heritage."
"You mean, the son of the Jedi 'chosen one' or the son of the sith lord who is second in command to Emperor Palpatine? You know a lot of people don't like Palpatine so they won't like us either."
"That "Jedi" business is in the past. I saw through their lies, I am where I need to be now. We have power and influence, that is all we need. If anyone makes fun of you, you should force choke them at once."
"Aww, Dad, you just can't go around doing stuff like that if you want kids to like you! I feel like such an outcast!"
"You want to pretend to be an ordinary child? I am offended. I want everyone to know you are my son, and the heir to the empire."
Luke sighed and turned his back on his father. He didn't agree with the way the empire ran things, and he wanted to change them. He had heard tales of how heroic is father had been when he was a Jedi, and he wanted him to be that man again. He tried to hide his expression, but he couldn't hide his feelings.
"I can sense a conflict in you, Luke. There must be no conflict. You take this time away at camp to think over your purpose in ilfe. Endor is very beautiful this time of year. You have yourself a good time, son."
Luke looked back at his father, Anakin Skywalker, but now going by the name Darth Vader since his Sith conversion about the time of his birth. He seemed almost normal sometimes, if only he could reach him in the right way. "I will, father." He managed to smile.
Vader smiled back at him, waved, and turned and walked away. The shuttle took off in the direction of the Endor summer camp.
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"Leia! Leia! Don't forget to write!" Padme Amidala Organa called out to her daughter as she followed her to the landing pad. "You know that holovids and telecommunicators don't work on Endor anymore since the satellite in that area was destroyed in one of the battles, and hasn't been rebuilt yet. You take care now, try to act like a normal thirteen year old girl."
"Oh, Mama, I don't want to leave Alderaan. I like it here. It's pretty and it's fun and all my friends are here."
Padme walked over and put her arm around her daughter, biting her lip, tears welling in her eyes. "I know things have been bad for you since we lost you Daddy." Padme's husband, Bail Organa, who had married Padme soon after the death of his wife about the time of Leia's birth, had been the only father Leia had ever known. He was not her biological father, but he had always been her Daddy. Padme never told her the truth about her parentage, due to a forced deal with the empire that broke her heart and nearly killed her 13 years ago. Leia never knew who her real father was, but Padme did. It was a secret she couldn't tell. Now Padme and Leia ruled all of Alderaan, though one of Bail's late wife's cousins was making a play to take over the throne, for now it was safe. Padme and Leia were much loved by the people. Despite all the priviledge, they were always heartsick inside, something nagging at them, never happy. Padme thought a chance to get away and spend carefree time with other kids her age would do Leia good. Leia knew her mother's intentions were good, and went along with it. "I love you, Mom." She hugged and kissed Padme goodbye.
"I'll look forward to your letters, though considering the way the mail runs, and with lack of technological communications over there we won't be able to get in touch much. You just take this time for yourself, dear. It's beautiful there, and you'll have so much fun."
The royal ship left the dock and headed for the summer camp on Endor.

[Annie]

Chapter 2

Padme went back inside the palace and threw herself down on a satin padded lounger. All the extravagance in the galaxy could not mend her broken heart. She had recently lost her husband, Bail Organa, when the alliance frigate he was travelling on was blown up by an imperial cruiser. He had been her comfort and her soulmate, and partner in politics for the last 13 years, leaders of the Rebel Alliance against the Empire. It was a pity they were never able to have a child of their own, but even that wouldn't have secured the throne from Bail's late wife's second cousin Ramstead who was making a bold power play to take it over. Padme thought monarchy an archaic and ineffective system of government. She had experience, she'd been an elected queen, and a senator, why was she not fit to rule Alderaan? There were many threats to the planet, the Empire threatening to punish their insubordination and rebellous standards by blowing the planet to bits. Sometimes she thought only the secret knowledge that his daughter was here was the only thing preventing Darth Vader from carrying out the Emperor's plans. Now that the civil war was raging, she felt it safer to send Leia to Endor, far from any Imperial activiity, safe from harm, she hoped.

Looking out the window, her heart sank a second time as she recalled a hurt even older, even deeper. The loss of her beloved Anakin Skywalker, and the man he once was. After she nearly died in childbirth, it was decided for the sake of all they should go their separate ways, and while it devastated her, she made the deal to split custody with him down the middle- Anakin, Vader, would take Luke, she would take Leia. Both would be raised without knowledge of each other, or know the truth of their parentage. Padme had never seen her son in person since that day. Though his public appearances were few and far between, she had managed to catch a few glimpses of the beautiful blond boy who reminded her so much of his father when he was young, and they were so innocent, and still had all the chances in the galaxy ahead of them.....
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Darth Vader strode jauntily toward the Emperor's throne room. He was dressed completely in black, parts of his outfit armour plated for his own protection. He wore high black boots, and a black gauntlet glove over his right mechanical hand. Most of the time he wore a similar one on his left. A long flowing cape was fastened around his strong shoulders. In battle and on missions, he wore a fearsome black helmet, but on his own time, he preferrred to go without its heavy burden. He hadn't worn it to send his son off to camp, and he wasn' t wearing it now. His blond hair was swept back, wild curls stuck out here and there. He had refused Palpatine's repeated harassment that he cut it in the same short style as the Imperial officers. His face was almost as handsome and youthful as it had been that day thirteen years in the past when he had made the fateful decision to turn to the dark side and follow Palpatine, the sith Lord Sidious, all powerful Galactic Emperor. He stood before him now.

Bowing down on one knee, his fist over his heart, his head bent low, he spoke. "What is thy bidding, my master?"
"You may rise, Lord Vader." Palpatine spoke, his yellow eyes staring out of his dark hood, his face more aged but not so different than thirteen years before either.
Vader stood up, raising his blue eyes to face his master. Palpatine was concerned that Vader's eyes had not gone yellow as his had, and at times he questioned his true devotion to the sith. Vader delivered the news. "My son has been sent to camp for the duration of the summer. I am free to devote all my time to your plans."
"Good, good. It is best our young apprentice not be around, there are tough times ahead. We have decided to go ahead with the blockade and potential destruction of Alderaan."
Vader's blue eyes directly turned to Sidious. "Alderaan? I thought we had agreed to let that be."
"YOU agreed. Why do you care, after what that woman did to you?"
"It's not her! I care nothing for her. It's that it would be a waste. There are so many useful natural resources and factories on that planet."
"Then perhaps we could invent a weapon that would kill all of the inhabitants but leave the planet intact?"
"Too dangerous. It might also make it useless to us. We must not damage Alderaan."

Vader turned his head away to the wall. Palpatine could still read his feelings. "I sense conflict in you, Lord Vader."
"There is no conflict!" Vader snapped, his head only half turned toward Sidious."It's not because of her, it's that I don't believe wasting Alderaan is the best thing for the Empire. Why should I care about her? I gave up everything to save her, I turned to the dark side, betrayed the Jedi who were my brothers, killed the separatists, all because you promised me her life! And so she survived her difficult childbirth, and what did she do? Did she thank me? Did she love me? NO! She rejected me!" "I can't believe what I'm hearing!" He mocked her, raising a melodramatic hand to his forehead. "I don't know you anymore, Anakin! You're going down a path I can't ffollow! You're breaking my heart! "Well, damn her, what about MY heart?She betrayed me, she rejected me for Bail Organa, how could she? I'd have done anything to save her, I'd have burned for her, I'd have died for her...." His eyes began to sting as he fought the tears. He turned to the wall so Sidious wouldn't see his weakness. In a low voice, he asked "You DID save her, didn't you, Master? It was your power, our power that saved her life, so it was all worth it, wasn't it?" The sad blue eyes glanced up for an answer.
"Of course I saved her, no power is greater than mine. You have done well not to forget that. You are fortunate that I have allowed your daughter to remain unexposed for her true identity and legacy. As long as you continue to remember who your master is, your children will remain safe. You haven't forgotten your pledge of loyalty to me that allowed them to live, have you?"
"No, Master. I am your faithful apprentice and servant." He bowed before Sidious once again."Luke is of no threat to you. Leia doesn't even know who she really is. She thinks Organa is her father. She has no idea I am her father, or that Luke is her brother. She knows nothing of the force."
"Gooood, goood." He smiled. "As long as things remain in my control, no harm will come."
"Thank you, my Master."
"You may go about your business, Lord Vader."
"Yes, Master."
Vader walked away, back to face the duties as second in command of the Empire. He recalled again, now that the wound was fresh again, how painful it was to lose Padme. Though he had saved her life, he could not save her love. She turned against him, and married Organa, more suited to her political leanings. She was heartbroken when the Emperor made the deal to let her keep Leia only on the condition that Vader keep Luke, the heir to the sith future. For her own safety as well as Leia's, Padme- and Vader- had sadly allowed the secret to cover the truth all these years. The twins had grown up not knowing each other existed, or who their parents really were, or the whole story behind it all. Vader was thankful that her life and the lives of the children had been saved, though it had been medical expertise and not Palpatine that had saved them, the Emperor used this to manipulate him. Due to the timing of the emergency birth, Vader had been spared having anything to do with Order 66, and had since then avoided being involved in any hunting down or killing of any remaining Jedi. He knew the raid on the temple had been thwarted by an early alert, and that many of them had gotten away. He could still feel his old master Obi-Wan in the force, but could not locate him. The Jedi were now enemies of the Empire, and were in hiding spread throughout the galaxy.

A hooded figure in the Endor forest struggled with the burden of the tents he carried on his back and in his arms. "I''m getting too old for this sort of thing." He said breathlessly to his younger fellow camp counselor, a friendly young blonde woman named Irista.
"Oh come on, Mister Ben. You're not that old, barely 50."
"No, but the weight of the years and the burdens I have born have worn me beyond my years. If there was something I could do to help free the galaxy of the Empire..."
"Shh, don't talk that way. You don't know who's listening. If they find out you used to be a Jedi.."
"You haven't told anyone that, have you? I regret telling those battle stories around the campfire a few years ago."
"No, we haven't told. The Empire is nowhere near here, and no one I know would care to tip them off."
"Well, good!" He laughed, his teeth showing through his partially grayed beard. "When are the children set to arrive?"
"They should be coming sometime today. You know they're mostly rich brats with their own shuttles, others will be on the transport station from Yavin."
"Rich kids need a break too, don't be too resentful of them."
"Oh, I try not to be, but when you have people like the princess of Alderaan on the list,,,"
Ben froze in his tracks. "The pricess of Alderaan is coming here?"
"Yes, her name is Leia Organa. And what's worse, I think there's some kid connected to the hiarchy of the Empire coming too. They've tried to disguise him by calling him Tony Stone, but I think he's Darth Vader's son, Luke Skywalker. We must be very careful with him around."
Ben turned his face to the sky and rubbed his beard, drifting off into his own thoughts and memories. "Indeed we must."

A bright flash pierced the sky as the first transport carrying campers came through the clouds. Other vehicles soon followed. Summer camp was about to begin.