THE VADER / LEIA CONNECTION

A Quick Reminder Before You Begin...Again, These Are Only FRAGMENTS. I Am NOT Attempting To Rewrite The Classic Trilogy Novelizations Here. They Were Very Good. It's Just That Those Authors Did Not Know The Whole Story As We All Do NOW At That Time. I'm Just ADDING My Own Speculations To Them In Little Pieces - Not In Any Official Way, But Just Here On My Website For The Time Being!

Vader was too troubled to be able to properly meditate in his private chambers as he and his troops made their way to the Death Star. There was MUCH troubling him.

First, he hated the fact that he had to protect this damned Death Star. He had been against its construction from the beginning. Relying on weaponry was no way to rule the galaxy. It showed a weakness in The Force. The power of the Dark Side was strong enough in itself. Machinery was unreliable...useless...insignificant....could be destroyed more easily than made. He should know, after all. He had been one of the best mechanics alive even in childhood. He knew all about machinery. But The Force! There was nothing stronger than The Force - especially the Dark Side.

Palpatine was unimaginably powerful with the Dark Side of The Force. In addition to being a political genius, the man had practically the entire galaxy under his thumb for many, many years now. Yet Palpatine had grown weaker and weaker all along. The irony was that he had grown and employed so many troops - so many technical weapons with which to bully and intimidate the galaxy, that he relied less and less on The Force itself. And THAT would be his downfall. THAT would be when Vader stepped in and took control of the galaxy - the way it SHOULD be ruled.

But, alas, he was again hit with the cold, hard fact that he WAS part of The Emperor's vast array of intimidating machinery - on many levels - especially the literal level. As strong and powerful as Vader was with the Dark Side of The Force, his mostly bionic body made him weaker than his dark Master. Because of this, he knew all too well that could not overthrow Palpatine alone. He would need his own Sith apprentice to accomplish this.

DAMN Obi-Wan Kenobi for weakening him so! DAMN HIM! Over the years, Vader had constantly probed The Force to sense whether or not the man who had chosen to side with the treacherous ways of the Jedi over the love he should have had for the pupil he had all but raised was dead yet. But he sensed nothing. Either the man who had turned his beloved wife against him and had left him limbless to burn and die was indeed dead himself or had been able to cloud his existence well. Many times he had hoped that the Jedi Master who was responsible for the death of his wife and unborn child WAS still alive so that Vader would have the satisfaction of killing him himself. Yet, oddly, when fantasized such a scenario, it had a feeling of destiny as opposed to being just wishful thinking. It seemed almost connected to a change in the very atmosphere of The Force itself. And Obi-Wan had been a great part of his thoughts as of late -in a way he hadn't been before.

There WAS a great, stirring disturbance in The Force these days. His Master had felt it, too. All along there had been a great threat to Palpatine and his rule. A threat that neither of them had been able to pinpoint, yet it was there nonetheless. It was this threat that had caused his Master to continously tighten his control over the galaxy. Palpatine's fear. He was filled with great fear, but would never admit it. But despite his strength in The Force, Vader could sense it from the shriveled old man. This threat had grown stronger and stronger and now felt very near. Palpatine had sensed for quite sometime that this threat would come from the Rebellion and from somewhere in the Senate. The Senate HAD, after all, seemed to grow more and more sympathetic toward the Rebelion. The Emperor knew his only recourse would be to finally disolve and get rid of the Senate entirely. And that was exactly what he was doing at this very moment.

But there was one Senator Darth Vader knew was not attending that final meeting. The very one he had just captured and was holding prisoner - Princess Leia Organa. Despite everything else that was upsetting him, SHE disturbed him the most. The growing threat of Palpatine's days being numbered seemed to strongly involve her somehow.

He had seen her as an infant in a hologram during a visit to Alderaan on his Master's orders long ago. He had had many very brief encounters with her since, but they had always been surrounded by countless other people and both were always severely distracted by their work in the past. This was the first time the two of them had such direct contact with each other. There had always been something puzzling about her that he could never determine, but his distractions had kept him from speculating on the matter. The fact that his informants had traced Rebel spies to her and her stealing the Death Star plans had finally given him a reason to further probe the matter. Though she very clearly knew not the ways of The Force, he had sensed it in her. This latest confrontation in the halls of her ship had been very telling.

Not only was The Force with her, but she had just shown him that she had quite a fiery spirit and was quick to anger - admirable traits that made her ripe to be able to be turned and trained in the ways of the Dark Side. But first, she would have to be made to realize and accept and come to terms with the fact that she had Force abilities in the first place. But that would be a matter that would need to be tended to at a later time. And he had time. She was now in his clutches and he would not let her go. She would be the key to track down and destroy the Rebellion. Once that was accomplished, he would deal with her and her Force abilities.

But there was more about her than all this that disturbed him. Both in appearance and in personality, she reminded him of his long dead wife, Padme. He knew there was no way there could possibly be any connection. Padme and child were dead. Yet the Princess still flooded his head with painful memories of his beloved. He fought hard to keep these memories at bay. They threatened his very hold on the Dark Side and that was something he could not afford to lose. Especially now that he sensed things were coming together. His master would soon be destroyed. He knew it. He FELT it. And he would finally be able to take his rightful place on the throne. He needed to keep his strength in The Force. Could Leia possibly be the one destined to become his apprentice and destroy the Emperor? Only time would tell. But first, he needed to use her to destroy the Rebellion. Only then could he focus on finally destroying Palpatine.

"HER RESISTANCE TO THE MIND PROBE IS CONSIDERABLE..."

The Princess had defeated the mind probe! There was no longer any doubt in his mind that the Force was with her. Only someone strong with The Force could have endured that kind of pain and agony and not broken down.

Secretly, Vader had used the mind probe more to test whether or not she was indeed Force sensitive than to discover the location of the Rebel Base, although he felt the probe would reward him with BOTH answers. So, she DID have The Force! Interesting. Very interesting. His thoughts were suddenly distracted by an Imperial officer telling him that Tarkin wished to speak with him. Tarkin wanted desperately to get the information from the Princess, kill her, and be done with it. The two had never gotten along and Tarkin hated her. No doubt upon hearing that the mind probe failed, Tarkin would hasten to have her executed. Vader realized he would have to intervene. There was more to this woman than any of them realized and he would need to keep her alive. He turned and followed the officer.

"HOLDING MY LEASH?"

Darth Vader had been against blowing up Alderaan, as much as had hated the place and the people it spawned. He didn't think Tarkin would actually go through with it, though. He thought it was just a ploy to get the Princess to talk. And she did talk. How truthful she was was yet to be seen. The Emperor must have given Tarkin his approval for Alderaan's destruction behind Vader's back. Palpatine had done something this drastic to the Empire WITHOUT consulting HIM about it. It must have been Tarkin's doing. He knew how ambitious and power-hungry and sneaky Tarkin had always been. But side-stepping Vader's position this way....this infuriated Vader. He wanted nothing more at the moment than to reach out and strangle the life out of Tarkin right there on the spot. He almost sympathized with the Princess for a moment. But her comment implying - however harshly truthful - that Vader was nothing more than The Emperor's lap dog quickly dispensed with any concern for Alderaan's survival. He couldn't stand her father, Bail, to begin with. He had always suspected that Bail had worked with Obi-Wan and Yoda to undermine his extermination of the Jedi Order so many years ago. And he found Alderaan in general to be self righteous and hypocritical. And though he had to admit he admired Leia's spirit and defiance, her comment reminded him that she came from these people who thought they knew everything - thought they were so much better than everyone else. They deserved what they were about to get.

"TERMINATE HER. IMMEDIATELY."

It came as no surprise to Darth Vader that Dantooine was not the Rebel Base. At least not any longer. He had sensed that Princess Leia had been using truth when she mentioned Dantooine. But he had felt no sense of betyrayal in her when she had given them the name. He was frustrated with this news, but yet he could not help but admire her conviction. She had this in common with him - that strength of conviction.

It also came to no surprise to him that Grand Moff Tarkin did not waste a breath demanding her immediate execution. The man ran this station well, but he was not the sort who could see the bigger picture. At least not pertaining to anything beyond his own career. No matter. Tarkin may be in charge of the Death Star. But Vader was still the right hand of The Emperor himself. He would see to it that Leia was not terminated.

At the moment, Vader found his mind wandering to Obi-Wan again. Not a day went by that he was remndind of Kenobi. He remembered the Jedi Master all too well with every assisted breath, every glance through the electronic goggles of his mask, with every step of his bionic legs. This helped to fill him with the daily dose of anger that made Darth Vader the second most powerful and feared man in the galaxy. Second most. But not for long. His capture of the Princess had triggered events that he somehow KNEW would see the end of Palpatine. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew. But WHY had the memory of Obi-Wan Kenobi been filling his mind lately like never before? What could that possibly mean?

He shook this all off. For now, he had his own plans for the Princess and he had to find ways to call Tarkin off her. In the middle of this discussion, he was interrupted by news of a freighter that had been pulled in by the Death Star's tractor bram - a ship that had come from Tatooine and had been flying through the remains of the Alderaan system. This provided the perfect reason to call off Leia's execution. However, the arrival of this ship brought with it a great disturnbance of The Force.

Vader went to investigate the ship personally. An officer reported to him that there were no life forms aboard the ship. But yet he SENSED life. he sensed a great deal MORE than life. It didn't make any sense. But this disturbance was too great for Vader to keep his focus. Part of the disturbance seemed to have included what felt like the presence of Obi-Wan. But how was that possible if no one could be found on the ship? Had he been thinking of Obi-Wan so much recently that his mind and sense of The Force was playing tricks on him?

He decided to have the stormtroopers and scanning crews take care of the matter. He had to leave the area to clear his mind.

"OBI-WAN IS HERE..."

The second Vader heard that Princess had been freed, he knew the sense of the old Jedi's presence had NOT been a ruse of his imagination. It all made sense now. It was perfectly clear. He now knew WHY Obi-Wan had been on his mind so greatly. It was a preminition. A warning. And he also now knew why his fantasy of killing the man felt more like a future truth than a fancy. Obi-Wan was in league with Princess Leia and the stolen Death Star plans. He must be training Leia. He must know she would be most valuable to Vader and he has come to personally see her away so she could not be turned. But in addition to that, he had also come to finish the job he had not completed some twenty years ago - to destroy Darth Vader. But this time he would not win. This time Vader WOULD destroy HIM. Darth Vader left Tarkin and sought out the Jedi Master he had been hoping to kill for what seemed like a lifetime. He would finally get his revenge.

"I SHALL BECOME MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE."

He disappeared! The Jedi had just completely disappeared! Had he struck him down? Surely he had. What kind of trick was this? Vader prodded Obi-Wan's robes with his feet. But there was no trace of the Jedi Master. In the man's place, was a sense of The Force that was nearly overwhelming. Had he been right? Had Obi-Wan become much more powerul in death?

But Vader had no time to figure the mystery out. The Princess was escaping along with her colleagues. Although he had a homing beacon placed on the captured ship, he couldn't make it look too easy for her.The doors shut right in front of him, though. He could have easily opened them again without a wave of a finger. But he didn't. Instead, he listened as the ship took off from the Death Star hangar. As planned.

BETWEEN "A NEW HOPE" AND "THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK":

Skywalker! Luke Skywalker, the man had said. This Luke Skywalker was the young pilot strong enough with The Force to destroy the Death Star! Oh, the painful memories that came flooding back at the very mention of his former last name! Could this be someone who just happened to have the same name? He wanted to believe that, but no. It COULDN'T be! HOW could it be?! But, yet the boy had shown up with Obi-Wan, rescued the Princess, and destroyed the Death Star. Vader had sensed The Force with him very strongly while pursuing him down the Death Star trench. This was no coincidence. The boy must be his son. Did this mean that Padme was still alive? He probed with all the focus he could muster. But there was not a trace of her that he could feel. She must be dead, after all. This was a trick of Obi-Wan's! Obi-Wan had hidden the boy away from him all this time and trained him in the ways of THe Force! Had pitted his own son against him just as he his wife! But this could all be undone. It WOULD be all undone!

Leia Organa was strong with The Force, yes. But now he realized it wasn't her who was the catalyst for the shift in The Force or the threat Palpatine had always feared. She was merely a pawn of The Force to bring his son into the picture, it turned out. It was Skywalker Palpatine feared. The son of The Chosen One. And he had just proven his power by destroying the Death Star.

This was it! It was to be his own son who was destined to become his apprentice. It was his own son who could destroy The Empreror! Vader had been right. Everything HAD been coming together. His dark Master would soon be dead. And it would be the Skywalkers who would rule the galaxy!

Luckily, The Emperor had sent him on several other missions that would keep him busy. He would have to find Luke before Palpatine discovered this.