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The Sith Lord and the Scientist Section E - Part 6

Author's Note: Warning - there is a Vader/Leia arc after this point with graphic content. If you want to read the sections of the story with that removed from it, you will need to join the DVEB Yahoo Group and go to the relevant parts in the archived posts. The ones with the four Vader/Leia scenes are flagged and can easily be avoided. Alternatively, you can use the jump ahead links below to skip the three scenes in this part. Be aware that there are references to their relationship throughout the rest of it.

***

Maia’s asleep and beginning to dream, so I slide into her mind and remove the deeply embedded compulsion I had placed there. Amplified by my tampering, the worst of her pregnancy sickness will gradually fade now that I no longer have a need for it to protect her.

‘Sleep, my love,’ I whisper to her before I turn from the bed and leave her to rest.

She will feel more secure once our future is clearer, and today’s events and her fears associated with them have faded a little. Until then, I know I will need to give her more of my time and attention than I might have readily available to share with her.

I stop in my office, retrieve my spare lightsaber from a compartment in the wall behind my desk, and hook it onto my belt. The Sith soul trap containing my former master replaces my weapon before I slide the panel in the wall closed again and lock it. Logging onto my data terminal, I quickly scroll through the roster of prominent Rebels identified as killed during the fighting, and skip to the list of those who were captured and brought to my ship by Tremayne, noting who is healthy enough to question, then turn the screen off again.

With a gesture, I call up my holochess game for the final time. The pawn hovering at the end of the board becomes another Jedi knight allied to myself. My own piece, I move forward, to ruthlessly destroy the opposing Emperor, its holographic fragments shattering across the board to vanish into the aether. So shall all of my enemies perish, I decide.

Turning from the game, I consider what remains to be done today. The Emperor’s death must be explained in a satisfactory manner, how to deal with the captured Rebel leaders decided, reports about today’s battle be given to me by the Admirals, and Luke’s status needs to be settled. My son has refused to identify his sister, but that secret will eventually come out, whether he wants it to or not.

I chose to speak to Luke, first.

His assigned quarters are next to mine, and securely locked for his own protection, although he had agreed to stay within them. I open the door and step inside, to find him sitting in the reception area, staring at his lightsaber resting on the table in front of him.

‘Son,’ I greet him.

‘Father,’ he replies in kind.

Rather than force him to look up at me, I select the chair across from him and settle myself in it.

‘I cannot release you, Luke,’ I tell him. ‘You have been rather prominent as a Rebel and there would be too many questions asked if I let you walk free without any explanation. My choices are limited, as are yours.’

‘I know, father,’ he admits. ‘You will have to either kill me or use me in some way.’

‘Or I could reveal our relationship, suggest you were an Imperial agent, and designate you as my heir,’ I add to his list of possibilities, ‘but that requires your complete co-operation, and an agreement to stay and train with me as a Jedi. Since you are unsuited for it, I will not train you as a Sith.’

Luke stares at the floor, considering his options.

‘I shall leave you to think on it, for a while,’ I decide.

I get up and start to go to the door, but stop when I sense he is going to say something.

‘Father?’ Luke calls to me.

‘Yes?’ I answer, turning to face him.

Whatever he needs to know, I will tell him, truthfully, without any lies. I have learned from my wife the consequences of building a relationship based on manipulations and falsehoods.

‘Did you love my mother?’ he begins with one of the questions I expected to eventually hear from him.

‘Yes, Luke, I did,’ I admit. ‘Padmé meant everything to me.’

He hesitates. Another question is coming.

‘What happened?’ he asks this time.

‘That is a very long story,’ I tell him. ‘We met, fell in love, she had her career as a senator, I was a Jedi fighting in the Clone Wars. It was not easy to be together, but we managed it, somehow. Later, I was afraid of losing her, of losing you. In an attempt to save you both, manipulated by Palpatine and driven by that fear, I made a series of very bad choices, and paid the price for them.’

Luke looks thoughtful at that, and I start to wonder what lies Obi-Wan had told him about my personal history.

‘And Eri?’ he asks.

‘Her name is Maia,’ I correct him. ‘I told her to use Eritae as an alias when she was injured in her mind, terribly confused from that, and ended up with you and your friends.’

I pause, considering what to say to him.

‘When I met her, I was stranded on her homeworld, with no prospect for ever leaving it,’ I reveal.
‘She helped me when I was trapped there, and loves me, has always loved me, despite who I am and what I have done. When I had to make a choice, to stay there with her or return to my flagship, I brought her back with me. Sometimes, she can be maddeningly stubborn, but she is my wife, Luke, and I loved her from the first time I held her in my arms.’

‘She is life-bonded to you,’ he states.

‘As you are to your twin sister, if in a different way,’ I tell him.

My son looks away from me, afraid of what I might discover.

‘Luke,’ I decide to use the opportunity he has given me. ‘If you truly want to shield your sister from harm, I need to know who she is so I can protect her. Her identity won’t stay a secret forever. Truths like that always come out, and usually at the worst possible moment. If you don’t unintentionally reveal it, she might do so by accident, or someone else with that knowledge will use it with the intent of causing trouble. Once her parentage is publically known, she will become a target.’

The debate he is waging inside is reflected on his face, but I won’t push him any harder on this, at least not today.

‘Think about what I have offered and told you, my son,’ I suggest. ‘I will speak with you again, later.’

I leave Luke behind, to wrestle with his conscience and choices. My next task will be a far more difficult and unpleasant, if necessary, one. When I reach the appropriate turbolift, I take it down, into the depths of my ship and the high security prison wing. Maia must be shielded from what I will do, so carefully, selectively, I block most of what she can feel from me, allowing only my support and love for her to reach our bond.

‘Lord Tremayne,’ I greet the Inquisitor who has been waiting for me to arrive. ‘I will speak with Organa, first, since Ackbar is too damaged to be of much use to us. I want Mothma and the Princess is the only one who might know where she has gone to ground.’

‘Organa was injured in the attempted raid on the bunker,’ he reminds me.

‘Merely a flesh wound from a blaster,’ I wave his unspoken concerns aside.

I can sense his disapproval at my choice of prisoner, given his experience of how Tay Vanis fared at my hands. Tremayne prefers to cultivate a polite, gentlemanly image with female prisoners where I refuse to waste my time with such nonsense. Motioning him to follow at my side, I stop in front of the cell I need to enter.

‘There is no point in using a mind probe on her,’ I enlighten him. ‘She is naturally resistant to that. Threats of the usual type are ineffective as is the standard physical abuse, and your tactics will not work because she will see right through it. Breaking her will require a different technique entirely.’

‘Highly distasteful,’ he acknowledges, realizing what I am referring to.

‘Necessary in her case,’ I admit, ‘and I dislike it as much as you do.’

‘I will concentrate my efforts elsewhere,’ he decides, nodding to me as he goes, wanting no part in what he suspects I will do to the Princess.

Jump Ahead

I open the door to her cell, only to see her sitting on the bare floor, her face defiant and challenging. For a few seconds she meets my gaze before dropping her eyes to the floor, saving her strength for what will come. Taking two steps towards her, I wait for the door to slide closed then circle her like a predator sensing blood, pacing slowly around her, not saying a word. For many, my mere presence is enough to break them, but from our previous encounters, I know that the Princess is far more difficult to intimidate.

‘Princess Leia, I won’t waste my time using the mind probe on you,’ I inform her as I stop behind her back. ‘Your fleet has been destroyed, and your friends are dead or imprisoned, but I want to know where Mothma is hiding and I will do whatever I must to extract that information from you.’

I hook a finger into the top of the gown she has been given to wear and pull, more with the Force than physically, ripping the material open down her back. She gasps in surprise, her manacled hands flying up to her chest to hold the fabric in place over her breasts. This is not something she expected me to do. Behind her carefully held façade of calm, I can sense the first hints of fear and panic. The threat of sex with me; this is how I will break her and take what I need from her mind. With a single finger I reach down and trace her spine, noting how she flinches away in an attempt to escape it.

‘You will be mine,’ I tell her, ‘and you will tell me what I want to know.’

I set my hands on her bare shoulders, holding her in place and stroking her neck with my thumbs.

‘Yes, your highness, you will be mine, and when I make love to you, I want to hear you scream my name,’ I whisper to her in an attempt to throw her off balance.

Her reaction is to violently, physically rebuff me, shoving my hands away while somehow keeping her front covered. She makes it to her feet and flees to the farthest corner of her cell from me. Fear, for the first time, is evident on her face. I pause a moment and consider my strategy. Distasteful as it is to me to do this to her, this is obviously the approach which will yield results where other interrogation tactics have always failed.

‘Don’t you dare touch me,’ she warns me.

‘I will do with you as I please,’ I calmly inform her. ‘If I choose for you to live, you will live. If I choose for you to die at my hands, no one will stop me.’

I close the distance between us, and to make a point of it, I hold her hands in place, pinning them above her head with the Force while she fights to move them. With a quick yank on the fabric, I strip away what remains of her clothing, leaving her naked body open to my view.

‘If I choose to do this to you, no one will notice,’ I add to my previous statements. ‘If I have sex with you on the floor of this cell, no one will try to save you. No one will interfere, no one will care. There is no rescue for you and no escape. You are mine to do with as I please.’

‘You are a monster,’ she spits at me.

Her hands are secure, so I touch her face, her beautiful, perfect face, tracing her cheekbone with my gloved finger then lifting her chin up with it so that she cannot avoid looking at me.

‘I want Mothma and I want what is left of the Rebel fleet,’ I tell her. ‘You can tell me where she is hiding with the last of your ships, or I will simply take what I want from you.’

Silence.

‘Even if you refuse to talk, even if you resist me, I will be your lover, here, today, in this cell,’ I hint at possibilities, narrowing the space between us, just to see how she reacts, ‘but if you co-operate, if you tell me what I want to know, I will protect you and could even make you a second wife of mine. You would be safe, your highness, sheltered, and secure.’

This time, she twists aside, trying desperately to move away from me as much as she can manage. For a moment, I debate just how far I should go. Maia cannot feel or sense anything from me other than my love and support for her. There is nothing to stop me and I need answers. I must know where whatever is left of the Rebellion will go to regroup. The Princess is the only one I can extract this from, the only one in my hands who would have been entrusted with that knowledge.

‘You are sick and depraved,’ she tells me, refusing to look at me.

One step more, I decide.

I pull her face around, cup her cheeks with my hands.

‘You will tell me what I want to know,’ I quietly say to her, ‘and you will be mine, and by your own choosing and agreement. When I make love to you, you will scream my name and beg me for more. The first time, though, if you try to resist me, I may need to be a bit more physical with you than I prefer.’

‘You must not do this vile thing,’ she refuses me, wrenching her head free of my hands to stare at the wall in the corner again rather than face me.

‘Why shouldn’t I?’ I ask, tracing a path with my finger down her neck, between her breasts, to stop just above her navel. ‘Why shouldn’t we? We are both adults. There is nothing to stop us, but if you would prefer to avoid it then tell me where Mothma is.’

I rest my hands at her waist, caressing her middle, noting that she is not carrying her lover’s child and is fertile.

‘You must not do this to me,’ she repeats in answer, her body trembling at my touch as I move my hands up to her breasts, cupping and gently stroking them.

‘If you become pregnant with my child, you will always be safe,’ I tell her. Sliding my right hand lower, I move it to between her legs, but do not do more than rest it there. ‘Did you refuse your smuggler friend? Are you afraid because of that? Be honest with me, Leia. If you are still a virgin I will do my best to not hurt you too much and I will make sure you enjoy it.’

Now, I do stroke her, my fingers growing closer and closer to checking to see what her true status is. Her only responses are rage and stubborn silence.

‘If you want me to stop, all you need to do is name the system,’ I remind her.

I brush my fingers across her, checking and confirming my suspicions. Leia is still a virgin, but even this forced, intimate examination yields no information from her, so I remove my hand and consider what to do next. Not many choices are left. Instead, I will try something else since threatening her directly is proving ineffective.

‘I want you, your highness,’ I tell her, opting to hold her face in my hands and make her look at me once more. ‘You will be my concubine, and if you do not consent to this, your friends will pay the price for your refusal.’

There is a flicker of fear in her eyes, but for whom?

‘Your agreement, your highness,’ I repeat. ‘I do not care if you love me, like me, despise me, or hate me, but you will agree to be my concubine, and you won’t resist me when I make love to you.’

‘Monster,’ she hisses at me, spitting at my mask.

‘Shall I drag them in here, one at a time, so you can watch what I will do to them?’ I threaten. ‘Which one shall be the first to suffer for your stubbornness? The Gambler? The wookiee? Or perhaps the Jedi?...’

The fear spikes. She is emotionally attached to Luke.

‘The Jedi, then,’ I decide.

I begin to turn away from her, hoping she won’t call my bluff.

‘Yes,’ I hear her say quietly, barely above a whisper. ‘You can have me, you can do what you want with my body, but I still won’t tell you anything.’

Her first concession, first defeat, but I will continue to press until she yields all.

‘Repeat it,’ I demand. ‘Repeat it completely: I would be your concubine, Lord Vader.’

‘I would be your concubine, Lord Vader,’ she forces out the words, her second defeat.

Maia, my wife, my dearest love, forgive me this, for it is necessary, necessary politically, necessary militarily, and I have run out of choices.

‘Then, Leia Organa, I accept you as my concubine,’ I complete the ritual’s brief words. ‘You are mine, now, permanently bound to me by Sith tradition. In time, you will find that life with me can be comfortable and even enjoyable, but until you tell me what I need to know, or let me into your mind so I can take it from you, it won’t by very pleasant for you.’

I reach for my belt, releasing the buckle in back, and set it aside. My codpiece soon joins it on the floor along with my gloves. Break, I silently urge her, give in to me and tell me where to send Thrawn with his fleet. Don’t force me to do this. My erection grows, surges forth, to emerge from my bodysuit, my body reacting to her nakedness and my rising anticipation of having her. I let her see it so she will know what is coming. Her uneven, fear-filled breaths are audible to me now, but still she refuses to yield or drop her mental guard.

‘Tell me where your fleet is regrouping,’ I urge her. ‘I will release you from our verbal contract and not touch you, if you do.’

A stubborn shake of her head in denial and more silence are the only replies to that offer I receive.

‘Your consent, concubine,’ I demand from her, giving her one last opportunity to co-operate. ‘Choose, Leia: either consent to sex with me so I can consummate our contract, or name the system if you want me to free you from this.’

‘My body is yours to do with as you please, but I still won’t tell you what you want to know,’ she defiantly states.

I don’t want to do this but no other options are left.

‘Then my concubine you shall be,’ I accept her choice.

I grab the Princess, pull her legs up around my waist, anchoring them as I have her hands, and thrust into her with one of my fingers. She cries out in shock, surprised that I have followed through with my threat and not realizing it is my hand I have chosen to use. Before I continue, I pause, and tip her face up with my free hand. Her eyes are tightly closed and a single tear runs down her cheek. I gently brush it away then pull my finger back and slowly push it into her a second time.

‘Had you co-operated, had you given me the system, you would have avoided this,’ I remind her. ‘You are my concubine now, Leia, and since this is your first time with me, I will make sure you enjoy it.’

Moving my hips against hers to hold her still, I adjust our positions, and decide to see if I can trigger an orgasm in her. My fingers stroke her, tease her, and despite her previous unwillingness, her body responds to my touches.

‘Feel that?’ I ask her as muscles close around my motionless finger inside her and her back arches, moans coming unbidden from her mouth. ‘Would you like me to do that to you again?’

‘Vader,’ my Sith name escapes from between her lips. ‘Yes’

This is her third concession. What resistance she has left will soon crumble. I roll sensitive flesh between my finger and thumb, both between her legs and on her hard nipples, prompting more of the same physical responses from her. She has stopped fighting me at last, her mind far too wrapped up in pleasure to block me out, so now I will finish it.

‘Leia,’ I call to her.

I move my finger in and out in time to her cries of pleasure, and gasp as her orgasm unexpectedly triggers my own. Her mind is open to me at last, her defenses completely breached as I had hoped they would be. Reaching deeply within her, I forge a link between us she cannot remove, and rapidly search for the secrets I require from her. When I have taken what I want, I quickly withdraw from her, stepping back both mentally and physically, leaving my semen behind on the inside of her thigh.

‘No more,’ she softly moans.

Her protest doesn’t move me. I need to ensure she is no longer capable of resisting me because I don’t want to resort to this again.

‘Once more,’ I quiet her with a finger across her mouth, ‘and I will make it more comfortable for both of us. You have given me your body to do with as I please, and I want you, Leia, so tell me you want me, my concubine.’

‘I want you, my Lord,’ she gives in to me.

I trace a path with my finger across her cheek, down to her breasts, to her stomach and then lower still, watching how she trembles as I move it. For a moment, I continue to caress her, noting her every reaction to my touch while I debate what to do with her. Executing her will be a waste. Instead, I will use her as a political pawn, a means to hasten the end of the conflict through a strategic marriage to myself.

‘No,’ I tell her. ‘First, I will take you as a wife and then I will make love to you properly.’

I rest a hand on her shoulder, holding her still.

‘Concubine you were,’ I state. ‘My wife you are and shall be. Accept your new status as my second wife, Leia.’

‘I accept you as my husband,’ she says, her voice quiet in defeat.

The Princess is resigned to her fate. She has betrayed what remains of her fellow Rebels, revealed where they will regroup, and offered up Mothma’s location to me, albeit not without a fight. Her expectation is that I will kill her once I am done with her. There is nothing left for her to lose and everything to gain by co-operating with me.

My fingers dart between her legs, checking, seeking, stroking, then entering her. I move one of them in and out while my thumb rubs against her. Her pelvis pushes on my hand as she emits little sounds of enjoyment at my touch. After a few minutes of this, I free her hands from the wall and the binders, extend the sleeping bench and lead her over to it, positioning her on it as I desire and holding her securely in place with a hand once she is ready for me. Leia flinches when I push a finger into her from behind, but this time I am able to see what I am doing to her. Instinct produces pleasure, I observe, as her moans and soft cries begin again.

‘You are a passionate creature,’ I comment when she climaxes rather quickly. ‘Perhaps I should use my fingers on you again, but not now and not today.’

I remove my finger and rub myself against her, watching her tremble each time I come close to entering her, but being careful not to penetrate her body. That will wait until tomorrow, for the private consummation after the public ritual, for when she must bleed for me. With a few mock thrusts, I hold myself tight to her body with my hand, my tip just barely inside her, and let myself climax with a cry of pleasure and triumph at her complete submission to me. Leia can feel what I am doing and breathes in sharply at the pain from the light pressure I exert to keep myself in place. My finger has opened her just enough to ensure that my semen spurts fully into her, filling her, and effectively consummating our marriage without damaging her hymen any further. Just to be certain that she cannot deny I have had sex with her, I use my smallest finger to work my semen deeply into her, then I step back and let her go.

‘You are undeniably my wife, Leia,’ I tell her.

‘What have you done to me?’ she asks.

‘Only what was necessary to consummate our marriage,’ I reply with the truth. ‘I have breached your maidenhead as required, and my semen is now deep inside you.’

Leia reaches back to confirm what I have done to her, lightly touching herself, before inspecting her blood and semen covered hand. On seeing the evidence that I have had sex with her, she closes her eyes, and lets out a stricken cry. She quickly crawls away from me and tries to stand, balancing herself by leaning a hand on the nearest wall.

‘No father does this to his child,…’ she whispers to herself, barely audible even to me.

Her words tear through me.

No father.

I look at her, transfixed by what this implies.

Her father.

I am her father.

She is my daughter.

I continue to stare at her, both fascinated and shocked by what I see in her mind and she has confirmed aloud. My daughter has been hidden in plain sight for all these years and not once did I recognize her. Obi-Wan must have taken her to Organa as an infant, hoping I would never discover the truth.

I catch her in my arms as she collapses and slowly lower her to the floor. The Princess curls up in a ball against me, too much in shock to fight, and at the moment, not caring who is holding her. I cradle her in my arms like a small child and rest her head against my chest. Her hands are tucked into her body as she shivers and begins to cry, tears tracing paths down her cheeks. In this state she is completely vulnerable, without any defenses at all. This will last for only a short time, so I quickly begin moulding her into the compliant wife and daughter I will need her to be.

‘My daughter-wife,’ I acknowledge what will be her status, manipulating her with my voice, as I form her new reality and acceptance of it in her mind. ‘You are my wife, now, Leia, my daughter and my wife, both. My wife, Leia, you are my wife, and mine, now, forever.’

Trailing my fingers over her body, I leave none of it untouched, unclaimed. Mine, I mark her with the Force, etching invisible lines of hieroglyphic Sith text across her skin. My wife, my daughter, and mine forever, I brand her. She stirs at my touch when I use part of my cloak to wipe away her tears but does not resist me as I ease her mind into sleep. I examine her face, comparing her features to those of her long dead mother. There is more of Padmé in her than in Luke, and very little of me, at least in physical appearance. In other ways, however, she is very much her father’s daughter. I lift her from the floor and lay her down on the sleeping bench. Her clothing is in rags, so I toss my cloak over her, and sit at her side. While I wait for her to recover, I replace my codpiece and belt, pull my gloves back on, and consider what I can offer to her.

‘When I first came in, you had the opportunity to tell me who you really were, but you chose not to,’ I remind her when her eyes open at last. ‘Had you been honest and truthful with me, had I known…’

‘I hate you,’ she finally says something to me.

‘You have much to hate me for,’ I acknowledge. ‘But do you truly think I would have ever harmed you, or taken you as my wife just now, if I had known you were my daughter?’

‘No,’ she softly, quietly answers me. ‘I have seen you with your Lady and little son. You love them. If you knew, you would have protected me and you would not have ….’

She drapes her face over the edge of the bench and throws up on the floor, becoming physically ill at the memory of what we have just done. I stop myself from letting out a sigh of frustration. This is going to be messy, very, very messy. Of all the possible women who could have been my daughter, she happens to be this one, the one who will make my life the most difficult.

‘I cannot break the vows we just made, nor deny the fact that I completed the binding ritual by having sex with you,’ I admit. ‘You are my wife by oath and by body, Leia. Our marriage will be acceptable to most as a political alliance aimed at promoting peace. That you are my daughter does not matter. Sith Lords tend to marry their close relations, usually their siblings or cousins. Parent-child is rarer, but still permitted.’

Leia looks away, refusing to meet my gaze. She is resigned to her situation and angry at what she has consented to. I pull her face around, forcing her to look into my mask. While I did not know she was my daughter, she did, and she still refused to tell me the truth of it, even after knowing what I would do to her, even when I was making love to her and would have stopped, at any point, had she been honest.

‘As my wife, Leia, I expect and will demand obedience from you,’ I warn her. ‘Today, I needed the truth from you and you chose to say nothing. You brought this marriage on yourself by staying silent. Never do that again.’

Fury flashes in her face, so with a quick snap of the Force, I rap her mind. She closes her eyes and shakes her head.

‘Don’t do that,’ I caution her. ‘You will control yourself in my presence, and if you don’t, I can and will discipline you without leaving a mark on your body.’

I feel her hesitate as she considers that. Leia is no fool. A lifetime in politics has taught her to wait and be patient when necessary, and to hold her tongue as well. Rising to my feet, I go to leave. She should clean up and rest, and I need to send Thrawn after Mothma and what remains of the Rebel fleet. Settling Leia’s exact status and moving her to better quarters will have to come later.

‘Wait,’ her voice stops me in place.

I turn and face her. She has pulled my cloak around to cover her naked body, and pushed herself upright on the bench.

‘There is something you need to know,’ she tells me.

Curious what her secret might be, I decide to humour her and do as requested, sitting beside her but not touching her.

‘Han and I,’ she admits, her cheeks blushing and tears starting to fall again. ‘We…’

‘You and the smuggler were lovers,’ I finish it for her, guessing what she meant to say. ‘I know he refused to surrender to Lord Tremayne and was killed in front of you.’

I receive a shake of the head in reply while she regains her self control. Her grief is new, raw, but her love for him, and his for her, at least, was genuine.

‘You were not lovers?’ I ask, surprised.

‘No,’ she admits. ‘Not entirely. We kissed and fooled around a little, but that’s all.’

I consider what I felt when I touched her and the amount of blood I saw after I had torn some of her hymen with my finger. They may have played about like teenagers do, but her maidenhead was mostly, if not completely, intact.

‘You were a virgin and wouldn’t admit it to me,’ I state the obvious.

‘Yes,’ another one word answer.

I shake my head, frustrated by her stubbornness and at what I cannot undo.

‘May I?’ I ask, moving my hand towards her middle. ‘I can easily tell if you are with child.’

There is no attempt to slap away my hand when I set it low on her stomach and peer inside her body, only to confirm what I found earlier. There is no child within her. I lift her hand in mine, move both back to where I had rested mine and give her a quick lesson, guiding her through the steps.

‘Relax, calm yourself,’ I suggest, ‘and look within. If you are pregnant, you will feel the child’s presence in the Force.’

Her startled inhalation amuses me.

‘You are not pregnant, Leia,’ I reveal to her. When her eyes go wide at that, I add, ‘This changes nothing. You are my wife, now, and were never legally his. If you do become pregnant, any child you have will be seen as mine, but will be yours to raise, alongside their half-siblings. I am not so cruel as to take them from you.’

I pull her long, silky hair back with my fingers. She is so young, so very much like my first wife. Inside me, a part of my heart aches at that long ago loss. Leia could fill that hole in my soul as a substitute for her mother, if I allow her to.

‘And what now?’ Leia asks. ‘What will you do with me?’

‘You are my wife, Leia, and as my wife, you will behave accordingly. There will be no more rebellious behaviour from you, and no more meddling in politics. I won’t force myself on you,’ I reassure her. ‘I will ask and you are allowed to decline, but remember that I have the right to produce heirs from your body, and you are obliged to give them to me. Refuse me too often, and I will take what is mine.’

I leave the rest unsaid. Let her worry about it a little. Leia will never bear any children of mine, and she is safe from my sexual urges because Maia is the only woman I want in my bed.

This time when I go to leave, I wait until I am at the door before turning to face her.

‘Tomorrow, I will marry you publically in a traditional, short Sith ceremony,’ I tell her. ‘You will co-operate and behave yourself during that, and won’t resist me during the private consummation after it. Our marriage will symbolize the Rebellion submitting to the Empire and mark the end of hostilities.’

I close the door between us, cutting off my sight of her, and rest my hands against the outside of it. What a ridiculous situation I have trapped myself in with my own cleverness. Before I stepped into her cell, my intentions were to extract the secrets hidden in Leia’s mind and then execute her, but that is impossible now. Just as with Luke, I cannot bring myself to kill my own child.

Consider your options, I warn myself. Be logical about this rather than emotional.

I have just married my virginal adult daughter, and for the ancient Sith, this was not that unusual, but for today? It would be best to keep our blood relationship secret until my position on the throne is secure. The populace will accept some eccentricities, but taking my own daughter for a wife is not one of them, not after the media have promoted me for years as a devoted family man. As Emperor, I can marry whomever I please and justify it for dynastic reasons. The announcement of my marriage to Leia needs to be made tomorrow, that she is my daughter can wait.

And Maia.

She is going to be both disappointed and furious with me, and I don’t know which will be worse - telling Maia I have taken a second wife, or admitting that wife is also my daughter.

I shove myself away from the door and walk to the nearest ‘fresher to clean my armour and body, and see to my personal requirements. Piett and Thrawn are waiting, in the main meeting room off the bridge, along with the other Grand Admirals who were involved in this morning’s battle. Each needs to make their reports and each will require new orders. Leia and my family problems will have to wait.

***

I wake from my nap with a startled jerk and start shivering. Something is wrong, but I have no idea what. Pulling Ani’s cloak up to my cheek, I breathe in his smells on it to settle myself.

Anakin? I reach for my husband.

He responds instantly.

I am fine, love, he reassures me. You were starting to have a nightmare, so I woke you up from it. Leanan should be there soon to check on you, and I wanted you to have a restful sleep rather than be upset by a bad dream.

I am tired of having naps, I tease him.

And I am bored with meetings, he teases in turn. I must debrief with the Grand Admirals, Maia. If you need me, mind call, but don’t expect a quick response.

Anakin, I touch his mind again.

Little goddess, what is bothering you? he asks.

I pull my legs up to my chest, wrap my arms around them, and rest my chin on my knees. Were he here, I would seek out his embrace for the security I feel in it. Too much has changed today for me not to be unsettled and worried.

I’m scared, Ani, I admit. What will happen to us now?

You will be my Lady, the mother of my children, and I will be a Sith Lord, Ani gently reminds me. That will never change. Hold onto me as your anchor point and I will always be there to protect and shelter you from whatever storms come our way.

Love for me floods across our bond from him, sweeping away my uncertainty and fears. I close my eyes as he holds me there, firm in his thoughts, and imagine his arms around me.

Sleep, love, he suggests.

For the second time today, I don’t resist him.

***

When I enter the meeting room, the seven Admirals present, to a man, rise from their seats. Piett, positioned to the left of my chair, steps away from the table, and drops to one knee in front of me, producing a ripple effect circling the room as none of the others wish to appear in opposition.

‘My Emperor,’ Thrawn, the last to kneel, gives me that title.

They must have been discussing what to do in the wake of Palpatine’s death before I arrived. Rather than fight for position amoungst themselves, this is the path they have chosen, to put me on the throne rather than risk another candidate or one of their rivals seizing it.

‘Grand Admiral Thrawn?’ I question him.

‘You are the logical and most suitable heir, from both tactical and practical perspectives,’ he states.

‘And all of you are in agreement?’ I ask.

Silence and bowed necks. Not one of them will admit they disagreed with this idea. I walk to the closest window and look out, through the transparisteel, towards Endor and the fleet poised in space around it. My first instinct is to be cautious, the second to refuse, the third to accept. Everything I have ever wanted is being offered to me, freedom, power, the ability to do whatever I please, but power does not come without a price, never without a price, and I don’t know if I am willing to pay it.

Should I take it? I ask myself. And if I don’t?

I close my eyes and look towards the future. Two clear paths can be seen, one of relative stability, the other of chaos and civil war.

I turn to face them and make my choice.

‘I accept the throne,’ I tell them.

Their relief permeates the room.

‘Sit, gentlemen,’ I order, waving them towards their seats. ‘We have much to discuss.’

After they have resumed their places, I remain on my feet. Movement helps me to think, so I pace the room as I hear their reports, one after the other, commenting and questioning them when I need to. Lists of ships destroyed, vessels captured, casualty totals, and prisoner rosters. I have heard it all before, if rarely on this scale.

‘How many Rebel ships escaped?’ I ask that most important of questions.

‘One MC 80 Cruiser - the Defiance, several frigates and CR 90 Corvettes…’ Piett lists off the pathetic remnants of the Rebel fleet as I listen carefully.

‘They will make several jumps then rendezvous at Pax before moving on to Chardaan to retrieve Mothma,’ I reveal what I learned from Leia. ‘Grand Admiral Thrawn will take whatever ships he needs and destroy them. Mothma, I want her alive. She is responsible, more than anyone else, for the Rebellion’s longevity. Once I have her, I will publically execute her.’

‘And how reliable is the source of this information?’ Thrawn asks.

‘The source is impeccable, Admiral,’ I reply. ‘Leia Organa, herself, to be precise.’

The room erupts in heated debate as each officer in turn tries to make his voice and opinion heard above the others. Only Thrawn and Piett remain silent because both of them trust my judgement in this.

‘Enough,’ I finally silence them. ‘Grand Admiral Thrawn will pursue what remains of the Rebel fleet, and I expect to receive regular updates from him. Once he has determined which ships he needs to redeploy from the rest of yours, he will depart immediately.’

I watch six of them leave quickly, but Thrawn remains behind, obviously needing to speak with me privately.

‘You are certain she has not deceived you,’ Thrawn states.

‘One cannot easily lie mind to mind, Admiral,’ I admit, ‘and she has no reason to deceive her new husband.’

He considers that statement of mine carefully, analyzing it, picking it apart from every perspective.

‘You have chosen a political marriage of convenience,’ he finally decides. ‘Information from her in exchange for your permanent, personal protection, and a symbolic ending of the conflict made reality in your union. She is also young, beautiful, presumably fertile and able to bear you heirs, and from an ancient royal house. No one will question your choice for a second wife once she publically renounces her Rebel loyalties.’

I walk away from him and stare out the transparisteel window once again.

‘But there must be more to it than that,’ he shrewdly notes. ‘You were in the detention area for over an hour and only entered her cell, no other.’

‘You are very well informed,’ I dryly observe as I turn to face him. ‘I will spare you the effort of puzzling it out, Admiral, because I need you to be on your way. Yes, I was in her detention cell for more than an hour. For much of that time she refused to co-operate, but she eventually allowed me into her mind and gave me the information I required. After that, she agreed to be my wife and fulfilled her obligation to that verbal contract with me. I will wed her publically, tomorrow, to make it official.’

Thrawn steeples his hands and smiles, resting his index fingers across his lips. We both know each other reasonably well by now, and he has just realized I have been completely truthful with him.

‘You mentioned needing to speak with me in private,’ he reminds me.

‘Once the throne is secure, I will promote you,’ I promise him. ‘As Emperor, I cannot be constantly with the fleet, and I need someone in the role of Supreme Commander whom I trust. There will be pockets of rebellion to mop up, and other problems will probably emerge where and when least expected. Of all the Grand Admirals, you are the one best suited for those tasks.’

Thrawn rises from his chair and moves to kneel in front of me. I stop him with a gesture, amused that he feels the need to humble himself in that way.

‘That is not necessary in private, Admiral. Now, I can only send Cat to foster with your family, much as I wish I could send you a son of Maia’s as well,’ I inform him. ‘After losing Anakin, she will be reluctant to part with another child, and I will not risk stressing her by forcibly taking one from her. I will foster your son and raise him as my own, if you are still willing to exchange him for my daughter.’

‘Perhaps you will have another son, one with the Princess, you could foster when he is older?’ he suggests.

‘Perhaps,’ I mildly agree although I know that is impossible. ‘We should speak of this again, later.’

He hesitates before smiling knowingly again.

‘I would take my leave, then, my Emperor,’ Thrawn reverts to speaking formally.

‘You have my permission to go, Grand Admiral,’ I allow, before adding, ‘and may good hunting come your way.’

I wait for the door to close behind him then rest my hands on the table and lean on them. Thrawn suspects that there is more to my marriage with Leia than I will admit. Letting him think she is pregnant with my child and that I have married her because of that will deflect his curiosity for a while, until it becomes obvious that she is not, but our relationship as father and daughter will not stay hidden forever.

A chime sounds. Major Fervis is here, with an update on the investigation into Palpatine’s death. I have already confiscated the pieces of my armour Maia had used and will clean them myself to remove any evidence of who had actually worn them. No recording exists of what occurred in the throne room and Palpatine’s body disintegrated when I killed him, but I will not risk anyone discovering the truth of it.

‘Enter,’ I invite him in, moving my hands from the surface of the table to rest at my belt.

From his expression, his frustration at his lack of progress is evident. Manipulating him has been easy, but tricking the Imperial Guards, who have always been intensely loyal to my former master, has been far more difficult. For a Sith Lord, deception is a game one must learn early and well, if one is to survive.

‘My Lord,’ he greets me.

News of my new status has not spread yet.

‘Sit, Major,’ I order. ‘Tell me what you have discovered …’

***

I feel my husband fold back the blankets and his weight on the edge of the bed as he sits down. It has been hours since the children were tucked in and Leanan checked on me. A gloved hand and leather clad right arm slides under my head. The Sith Lord has left his armour on. This does not surprise me because he has done this before, usually after a battle, when he might be required quickly elsewhere on the ship and does not want to be delayed by having to dress.

‘Anakin,’ I whisper to him, catching his other hand in mine when he drapes his left arm over my hip and pulls me close to his chest with it.

‘All is well, Maia,’ he reassures me. ‘Go back to sleep.’

‘Too awake to, now,’ I admit.

‘Sit up, then, and let me hold you until you are ready to fall asleep again,’ he offers.

I push myself up, wait for him to do the same, and settle into his arms once he has propped himself against the wall. He’s warm to the touch and smells of leather. Contact with his body is comforting to me so I relax completely, for the first time since he went to talk to Luke this morning. Letting out a contented sigh, I listen to his regulated breathing and feel his hand gently caressing me across my waist.

‘Our youngest son,’ he states quietly, resting his hand on my stomach and then moving it to my cheek. ‘My beautiful, stubborn, little wife who will give birth to him for me.’

‘Leanan came and checked on us both,’ I tell my husband what the doctor has probably reported to him already. ‘He’s fine, but she expects I will be dealing with pregnancy sickness for two or three more months.’

I make a face at the prospect of being ill, every morning, every afternoon, every evening, for at least two months. There are few things I hate more than being sick.

‘I will keep you out of public view as much as I can until you are past that stage,’ Ani decides. ‘The fewer worries you will have, the better. It will be enough for you to cope with learning what you will need to do as my Empress.’

‘I don’t want to be an Empress,’ I admit.

‘I would prefer not to be an Emperor,’ he responds in kind.

The Sith Lord sighs and pulls me in tight to his chest. I stifle a yawn. While I am starting to grow sleepy, I can sense that it is important for my husband to talk to me about this, to discuss it with the one person he trusts to be completely honest with him - me.

‘I don’t have much choice in this,’ he says to me. ‘Palpatine was childless and I am his obvious successor. If I don’t take the throne there will be a power vacuum followed by a galaxy wide civil war led by the various factions who will fight for control. You’ve read some of the history of the Clone Wars, and I fought in them. I have no desire to see that sort of conflict happen again.’

‘You’ve won the power and freedom you always wanted,’ I decide.

‘Yes and no,’ he replies. ‘More power comes with less freedom in some things, but I do not intend to become a despot like Palpatine.’

‘Every political system has its flaws, Ani,’ I tell him. ‘None of them are perfect. What’s important is to understand the weaknesses and how to compensate for them, rather than to exploit them.’

‘So what would you suggest I do, o wise one?’ he teases me.

‘You want my honest opinion?’ I ask.

His fingers under my chin turn my face towards his mask so he can see my eyes, even in the darkened room.

‘Yes, Maia, I do,’ Ani reveals. ‘What I decide to do or not do will affect you.’

‘Take the throne,’ I tell him. ‘Remove the worst of the corruption where you can and then work towards a transitional government with more democracy at the planetary level. Give people more of a say locally and a means to have a voice. If they know their complaints will be heard and dealt with fairly and that they won’t be exploited for the benefit and profit of a few, their levels of discontentment will drop. A happier populace is a less rebellious populace.’

I sense a distinct flash of disappointment and anger from him, quickly hidden, but still there, and aimed at me.

‘I am not going to bring back the disaster which was the Republic,’ he spits out at me, cutting off any more I might want to add.

‘If you don’t want to hear my advice and don’t like what I have to say, then don’t ask me to tell you what I think,’ I scold him. ‘I know what worked on my homeworld, on a smaller scale, and that is what I have just described to you. There was no Republic involved in that at all, just a move towards better local governance.’

He doesn’t stop me when I pull out of his arms, roll away from him, and curl up in a ball facing the bedroom door. The next time he asks for my opinion on something political, I won’t tell him, since all it will do is make him mad at me. I close my eyes and let myself drift. Anakin will do what he wants to do, regardless of anything I say to him.

***

I resist reaching over to touch her, to wake her to hear my apology and confessions, and decide to go for a walk instead. Maia needs to sleep and I really should think seriously about what she said to me instead of just reacting negatively to it.

‘Stay and guard my Empress and heir,’ I order the red robed figures posted outside my quarters and Luke’s. ‘I wish to go for a walk, alone.’

She doesn’t know I have already accepted the throne, freely offered to me earlier today by those who decided they had the right to do so.

She doesn’t know Luke will be formally acknowledged as my heir, a future Jedi Emperor, once I have his freely given agreement to stay and train with me.

She doesn’t know that I have a grown daughter, Leia, Luke’s twin, whom I will publically marry tomorrow.

I make my way up to the command deck. Silence falls in my presence.

‘My Emperor,’ Piett calls me, moving to kneel, but I stop him with a gesture.

‘The Executor’s bridge is not a throne room, Admiral,’ I remind him. ‘Treat me as your commander, nothing more, when I am here.’

I walk to the front viewport, my favourite vantage point, and stare out at the battlestation, an expensive waste of credits which has served its purpose in drawing out the Rebels. It will be dismantled and recycled, its components reused to build more Star Destroyers.

My thoughts return to Maia. She needs to be told that I am now the Emperor, how Luke will inherit from me, and about his twin sister, Leia, her new co-wife. I need to do this carefully, gently, so as to not upset her too much. Leanan has warned me how easy it would be for her to miscarry at this stage if she is stressed. Until her pregnancy is more secure, I must take great care what I say and do.

Slipping into a meditation, I look into the immediate future. There are many paths, many choices to explore, and no guidance from Maia’s foreknowledge to draw on. Her accurate memories of my life, the ones I have seen, all ended with my death and funeral pyre. In surviving, my future, beyond today, is a complete unknown to her.

The late night bridge crew change begins. I hear the quietly given reports as one officer hands their station over to another. It’s late, very late, but I am too driven by adrenaline to sleep yet. I stare out the window until I feel my attention wandering, my mind jumping from random one idea to another.

Go back to Maia and apologize, I tell myself at last. She deserves to hear that from you.

***

DAY 17

It’s early, long before I am usually awake, but with all my naps yesterday, I am not at all tired. I hear even breathing in my ear and feel the heat from a warm body against my back. At some point last night he must have returned, stripped off his armour and climbed into bed with me. Lips kiss the nape of my neck, so I roll over, onto my back where I can see him. His mouth finds mine next, but he keeps it short, to no more than a brief kiss.

‘Good morning, my gorgeous Empress,’ he teases me.

I close my eyes and resign myself to my new reality.

‘They offered and you accepted it,’ I state the obvious.

‘Yes,’ he confirms. ‘I did. The Grand Admirals offered the throne to me and Sate Pestage agreed to it in order to avoid being killed in retaliation for claiming it himself. No one will argue with their choice, at least not publically, since I control the fleet, have the support of the Grand Admirals, and am Palpatine’s obvious successor.’

He props himself up on an elbow and looks down at me. His free hand, he places on my middle, checking on our son, yet again.

‘Why are you so worried about him, Ani?’ I ask.

‘I don’t want you to lose him,’ he admits. ‘I will try not to check on him too much, if it bothers you.’

I set my left hand over his and feel our wedding rings come into contact. There’s more to this than he wants to admit. His fingers entwine in mine, squeeze lightly as he shifts himself about. The next place he kisses me is my stomach, before he turns his cheek to rest on it, listening, it seems.

‘What are you doing?’ I ask, laughing at his silly smile.

‘Listening to our son,’ he teases. ‘Do you want me to tell you about him?’

This child is ours now. I can love him all I want, and let myself grow attached to him, knowing no one will ever take him from us.

‘Tell me, Anakin, please,’ I decide, laughing as my husband’s short hair tickles me.

‘Red headed, blue eyed, full of mischief,’ he begins a list. ‘Clumsy at times and good hearted. He will be a little shorter than me in height, but otherwise be very much like you.’

He sits up after revealing that, and holds my left hand to his chest, over his heart.

‘I owe you an apology,’ the Sith Lord admits. ‘I was rude and angry last night, and behaved very badly when I should have swallowed my pride and let you speak your opinion, which I had asked for, freely and without interruption.’

I stare at him, slightly startled by his sharp self-criticism. Compromise, I realize. He’s learned he has to do that with me and has opted to apologize now rather than let it wait and stew.

‘Apology accepted, my Emperor,’ I tease him.

‘Never call me that, Maia,’ he insistently, quietly tells me. ‘Never, ever call me that. Continue to use Anakin or Ani, between us in private, and my Lord, if you feel it necessary to be formal, outside of my personal rooms.’

I rest a hand against his cheek and wonder what has brought on this mood in him. Yesterday, he ran from one crisis to another, dealing with Luke, sitting in endless meetings, sorting out what to do with the Rebel leaders, sending the fleet out to destroy what little of the Rebellion remained and to hunt down its fugitive figurehead… Ani must be on the edge of exhaustion.

‘There is something else we must discuss, Maia,’ my husband warns me. ‘It will upset and disturb you, but it is now a fact of life for both of us.’

Confusion must show on my face, but that doesn’t stop him from continuing.

‘As Emperor there will be times I must forge political alliances,’ he reminds me.

I shake my head, knowing full well what he is going to say.

‘Deny it, for the moment, if it makes you feel better, Maia,’ he tells me, ‘but there is the possibility that I will need to make a few political marriages.’

Ani pulls me down onto the bed and pins me in place. His lips are pressed to the center of my forehead before he kisses my mouth.

‘You will always be my Empress, my Lady, my bondmate, my merati,’ the Sith Lord reassures me. ‘No other woman will ever be your equal, and no other will spend the night in my arms.’

‘Promise?’ I ask him, knowing that once his word is given to me, he will keep it.

He sits up, pulling me with him before he leaves the bed. I watch while he opens a compartment, retrieves the Hapan dagger from it, and returns to me. A finger, laid in warning across my mouth, silences my questions. I see my husband turn the blade on himself, causing blood to well up and flow as he cuts a mark on his chest over his heart.

‘Blood oath, Maia,’ he reveals, placing the dagger in my hand. ‘I swear to you, my merati, that from this time onward, I will have no intercourse with any other woman, be she wife, concubine, or lover, without your permission and consent. Should I break this oath, it is your right to drive that blade through both her heart and mine.’

I rotate the knife in my hands, considering his words. It sounds like an air tight contract, but he has left himself an escape clause.

‘You anticipate that there will be times when you must have sex with other women,’ I tell him. ‘If I refuse you that, will you still honour your oath?’

He takes the dagger away from me and drops it on the floor.

‘Always, Maia,’ he promises as he pulls me into his arms. ‘Always.’

***

I take Maia’s hand and hold it close to my chest. She has been quiet, contemplative, ever since I brought her into my office, but I know what I must discuss with her will upset her greatly.

‘Thrawn will soon have Mothma in custody,’ I tell my wife. ‘The Rebellion will finally be decapitated, its head removed at last.’

‘It will be over that quickly?’ she asks.

‘There might be some mop up after that, but she is the only important leader they have left who is still free,’ I reply. ‘Without her, they will scatter.’

I brush her cheek with a finger and debate how to bring up the topic I dread. Dancing around it will merely delay the inevitable.

‘The Rebellion needs to die, and one way for me to do that is to symbolically end it,’ I tell her. ‘This will be hard for you to hear, harder still to accept, yet it must be done.’

My wife stiffens at that, so I pull her into my arms.

‘There is no easy way to tell you this,’ I warn, ‘so I will simply be direct and honest.’

‘Anakin?’ she asks, and I feel her worry and concern.

‘I must take a second wife, Maia. Leia Organa, to be exact. In marrying her, one of their leaders and symbols, the Rebellion will submit itself to my rule,’ I reveal. ‘I cannot do this without your consent.’

She pushes me back, steps away, and makes no effort to hide what she feels.

‘No, Anakin,’ she refuses me, her hand raised and face shocked. ‘You cannot marry her.’

***

Of all the things he could possibly have asked me to consent to, this is one I would never have expected. Take a second wife? A Rebel leader at that? And of all the women out there, he chooses her? My first reaction is to immediately refuse him.

‘No, Anakin,’ I tell him. ‘You cannot marry her.’

I wrap my arms around myself while I try to reason out why he wants to do this. To his credit, the Sith Lord doesn’t become angry with me. He simply stands there, hands resting on his belt, waiting patiently for me to calm down. When he eventually offers a hand to me, I slowly, reluctantly, accept it.

‘If there was another option,’ he quietly states, drawing me back into his embrace, ‘I would take it, but there isn’t. This is the best way to end the conflict - a resounding military defeat and a political marriage after it, one to mark an end, the other a new beginning.’

‘I don’t want you to do this,’ I say to him. ‘It’s a bad idea and I have a bad feeling about it.’

‘I understand that you don’t want me to have another wife,’ Ani tries to comfort me. ‘It is normal for you to feel jealous, but this will be a political marriage and mean nothing to me. My heart belongs to you and it always will.’

‘And if I refuse you this marriage?’ I ask, still not convinced it is the right thing to do. ‘What will you do with her?’

‘I will execute her, immediately,’ the Sith Lord reveals. ‘She can never be freed or held prisoner. That would only give the Rebels someone to rally around. No, Maia, if she is to be allowed to live, the only safe cage for her is as my wife, where she will have no power or ability to stir up trouble.’

I bite my lip and hide my face in his surcoat. He knows I spent time with Luke and Leia on Garqi and that she was kind to me. Leia is not exactly a friend, but not an enemy, either, and I don’t know what I should do. Ani will kill her, of that I have no doubt at all, and I don’t like the only other option he has given me. Her life is in my hands, I quickly realize, the decision, mine. In the end, it isn’t much of a choice to make.

‘If it makes it any easier for you to decide,’ he tells me. ‘I can tell you that the ceremony is short, and what must follow could be quite painful for her, emotionally and physically. It will be only once, Maia, only what I need to do, and then I will never touch her again unless you, specifically, allow it.’

‘I… I…,’ I discover that I can’t bring myself to say the words.

Gloved hands tip my face up so he can look at me.

‘I know what I am asking you to consent to,’ he reassures me, ‘and how difficult it is for you to agree to this.’

I close my eyes and nod my head. The faster this is done with, the better.

‘Do it quickly,’ I give my permission. ‘Do it today, and be finished with it and with her.’

***

She’s resting when I open the cell door. The noise of my entrance prompts Leia to prop herself up on an elbow and look at me. Clothed in dark grey, rather than black, with her arms bared, hair loose, and the gown floor length and flowing, she is appropriately dressed in the gown I had sent to her for what will come.

‘My daughter-wife,’ I title her.

Leia flinches at hearing her true status.

‘For now, our public wedding ceremony and private consummation,’ I warn her. ‘Afterwards, if you behave, perhaps I will let you see your friends for a few minutes before you meet my Empress, who is your senior co-wife and will always outrank you.’

When I offer my arm, she takes it and walks as I indicate, at my side. Piett stares at us as I lead Leia to the front of the Command Deck to join him. Earlier, I had instructed him in what his role would be in this, which is that of primary witness. This ceremony is merely for show, a public display of a political union between two former enemies designed to mark an end to a conflict. A large audience is not required since the announcement has been made already, but I want no one to be able to question this marriage.

‘My Emperor, your highness,’ the Admiral greets us.

I take both of Leia’s hands in mine and hold them firm, so she cannot escape from my grasp. She tries to pull back anyway, yanking on my hands until I spin her about so that her back is to me and she is held securely against my chest, her arms crossed underneath mine at her waist and drawn tight to her body. I let her fight me for another minute, refusing to loosen my hold on her. Leia is deliberately putting on a public show of resistance, but no matter what she does, I won’t harm her.

‘By my victory and your defeat you are mine,’ I state, while she struggles in my arms. Ignoring her efforts to escape, I continue with the ritual’s words, ‘mine to claim as my wife by ancient rights of capture and conquest. I am exercising that right, today, and in this place.’ I add, whispering it to her, so only she can hear it, ‘I will publically consummate our marriage right here in front of my admiral and the bridge crew, instead of doing so in private, if you continue to resist me.’

She freezes instantly in place at that threat. I ease my hold on her and turn her about to face me, her hands in mine, once again. As long as I say nothing about it, Piett and the rest of the crew will assume she was putting up a mock fight as part of the ceremony.

‘Wife to me, she shall be,’ I repeat the ancient words of public recognition.

Leia looks up into my mask. No emotion is visible on her face.

‘Husband to me, you shall be,’ she finally answers.

Her unhappiness and reluctance are obvious. This, for her, is no joyous occasion but a profound personal defeat.

I motion Piett forward and take the first silver armband from inside the ornate box he is holding. Lifting her hand up and turning it over, I secure it around Leia’s right wrist, then repeat the process for its mate on her left, before placing the other two above each of her elbows, first on the right then the left. All four are permanently sealed, now, making it impossible for Leia to remove them. Etched into their surface is my sigil so that who she is bound to in marriage can be seen clearly by all.

‘Mistress,’ I state as I brush my hand over the first armband at her right wrist, ‘concubine,’ I add when I touch the second on her left, ‘my most favoured one,’ I say when my fingers contact the third above her right elbow, ‘and second wife,’ I finish when I reach the fourth above her left.

‘I have taken you as my second wife, Leia Organa,’ I state. ‘Now, accept me as your husband.’

Silence.

‘I…’ she starts, then stops, only to falter when she tries it again. ‘I…’

I reach over to her face and lightly hold my hand against her cheek to reassure her. She must say it, difficult as it will be for her to do it.

‘I accept you…’ I gently prompt her.

‘I accept,’ she manages to speak only two words of it after a visible struggle, but it is enough.

‘As you accept me as your husband, Leia Organa, so I, Darth Vader, accept you as my wife,’ I confirm it, before finishing the public part of the ceremony, ‘Now, it is done and cannot be broken.’

She stands there, eyes downcast, silent, submissive, and apparently beaten. Piett looks at me then at her before he backs away and leaves us alone.

‘Daughter-wife,’ I softly name her for the first time in public, making sure no one other than her can hear it.

A single tear traces a path down her cheek.

‘Husband,’ she somehow says it, publicly accepting her status.

I take her hand in mine and pull her along after me, leading her into the nearby meeting room I have chosen to use. None of the recording devices in it are functioning. They were disabled earlier by me, personally, to ensure our complete privacy. I turn to my wife once the door is closed and locked, ignore the fact that she is my daughter for what must follow next, and lift her up to sit on the table. She tries to scratch at my chest box, dropping her helpless demeanor, and beats her hands against my armour, behaving exactly as I expected her to as a reluctant, captive bride.

‘That’s enough, Leia,’ I growl at her when she comes close to striking one of the controls on my chest box. ‘I will hold you down and do with you as I please if you continue to fight me.’

‘I am not going to make this easy for you,’ she defiantly tells me, her hands balled into fists and held in the air between us.

‘You don’t have a choice,’ I warn her, waving my finger in front of her face to make a point of it, ‘and neither do I. The marriage contract is equally binding on both of us.’

Jump Ahead

‘The thought of having sex with you makes me feel ill,’ Leia states, ‘and I do not intend to enjoy it.’

‘That won’t last, my wife,’ I tease her to provoke a reaction. ‘I know exactly how to give you pleasure, where to touch you, and how to touch you. You will soon be calling my name and demanding more from me, just like you did yesterday.’

I catch her hand before it connects with my shoulder, set it beside her and hold it secure, repeating the same with her other one when she swings it at my helmet. Pulling her to the edge of the table, I move her bodily, leaning her backwards until she lies flat, bending her legs and sliding her gown out of my way. I remove what armour I must and my gloves, and set all of it beside her on the table. At that, Leia attempts to move her arms again but quickly gives up once she discovers how firmly they are held in place with the Force. She was warned and I have chosen to follow through with my threat, but I will not force myself on her. I need her to willingly give herself to me.

‘Do you want me, Leia?’ I ask her once she quiets. ‘I want you, my wife, so may I have you?’

I need her formal consent and she knows it.

‘I want you, my husband, and you may have me,’ she allows, resigned to the situation and the inevitable direction it will take,  following the traditional script of this and dropping all of her futile, physical resistance.

I caress her face then her small breasts through the soft fabric of her gown, not stopping my light touches until her nipples grow hard and are visible through the material. She turns her head to the side, refusing to look at me. Rather than force her to watch, I allow this token defiance, and despite her attempts to injure me, I will be patient and gentle with her.

My fingers stroke her, producing moans from her throat that she makes no attempt to stop. When she is ready for me, her body relaxed and wet, I pause, consider. I only need to penetrate her fully once, taking her virginity from her, then leave my semen deep inside her before I pull out again, making sure she bleeds enough in doing so to demonstrate I have consummated our marriage. Nothing more is required, but since it is necessary for me to do this, I want make love to her properly and ensure my new wife enjoys it, too.

‘Leia,’ I softly call to her, persuading her with my voice, drawing on the compulsions planted in her mind, and using the link between us to ensure she co-operates. ‘I want you, my wife, so let me make love to you, with your willing participation.’

She doesn’t struggle when I move her legs to wrap them securely around my waist, nor fight as I free her hands and hold one of them lightly on her stomach in my own. Leia has chosen to meet her marital obligations and stop resisting me.

‘Are you ready?’ I ask her as a courtesy.

‘No,’ she quickly replies.

Her body trembles under my hand and her fingers flutter with nervousness in my grasp, so I set my other hand over them to help quiet her fear.

‘Leia, we will have to do this today, sooner or later,’ I remind her. ‘Refusing me now will only postpone it, not free you from your obligation. So, tell me, what are you afraid of?’

‘I am afraid you will hurt me,’ she admits.

She must have remembered how large I am from what she saw in the detention cell yesterday, and is worried about the pain she will feel.

‘I will be gentle with you, Leia,’ I reassure her, ‘and you can choose when you want me to do it. Let me move myself against you first, so you will know what I feel like. When you are ready, squeeze my hand and I will be as quick as I can. There is less pain that way.’

Her eyes meet mine and she nods her agreement, so I free one of my hands from hers and use it to move myself up and down against her, exerting the lightest of pressure at first, before gradually increasing it. Leia shivers every time I come close to sliding into her, and when she feels me push slightly harder, she suddenly grabs my hand, signalling that she is ready for me. I thrust into her immediately, penetrate her fully, and see her bleed as her maidenhead tears around me. She reacts by tightly gripping my hand and letting out a cry of pain when I first enter her, and with a sharply inhaled breath of surprise once I am entirely inside of her.

Concentrating on what I need to do, I push my body towards an orgasm, feeling the pressure build inside me, followed by the tingling sensation which tells me what is to come. The contractions begin, grow stronger, pulsing as I keep myself still and refrain from thrusting in and out of her. I firmly squeeze Leia’s hand to reassure her, and she breathes in slowly in anticipation of what I am going to do. Then, my climax begins, and I cannot stop myself from thrusting, just once, hard and deeply into her, as my semen surges out in an aching burst of necessary pleasure. I prevent myself from falling forward onto her by resting my free hand beside her chest. As always, after a strong orgasm, I feel slightly drained, but I don’t let that weakness show.

Leia closes her eyes and turns her head to look away from me as she realizes what I have done. A few quiet sobs escape from her as do some tears.  She never imagined that Darth Vader, her father, would be her husband, nor did she expect to feel so much physical pain and emotional turmoil when I took her virginity from her.

‘Leia, it’s alright to cry,’ I soothe her, speaking softly, gently, trying to comfort her as best I can when the tears continue to fall. ‘I have finished what was required of me, and you are my wife in fact as well as name. I know it was painful for you and that couldn’t be avoided, but it shouldn’t hurt the next time.’ I pause then ask the mandatory questions, the ones I cannot avoid, ‘What do you want me to do, my wife? Do you want me to make love to you again, or do you want me to stop now?’

I stay motionless within her, allowing another erection to slowly grow while waiting patiently for her to sort out what she feels and wants. After the consummation, she has the right to refuse me whenever she chooses, and as a virgin bride, the right to demand sex from me on her wedding day. Whichever choice she makes must be her decision, not mine, so even though I want to make love to her again, I won’t try to influence her in this.

‘I want you to make love to me,’ she whispers to me when I caress her face, brushing away the tears she has shed. ‘I shouldn’t want this. I shouldn’t want you. I shouldn’t love you, but I do.’

This is not what I expected to hear from her, but I can feel her desire for me through our link just as she must sense mine for her in the same way. My emotions are directly fueling hers, and hers, to a lesser extent, are influencing mine.

‘You are my wife, Leia,’ I quietly remind her, lightly squeezing her hand to calm her uncertainty. ‘You should love me, want me, and want this.’

I rest my hands beside her on the table and rock my hips against her, slowly at first, but growing faster until I am smoothly thrusting in and out of her, and soon her soft cries of enjoyment fill the room. Slower, I remind myself, be sure you enjoy it, too, and give maximum pleasure to her at the same time. I want Leia to always remember her first session of love making with me for how good it felt and not for the initial pain. Her nails claw at my forearms, fingers grabbing a secure hold on my leather armour, and as her gasps grow louder, in time to my thrusts, I finally feel her tight body respond around me. She screams my name when her muscles clamp down hard about me, and at that, I let myself go, burying myself in her, my back arching as I drive myself deeply within her and groan in relief as I climax for a second time. When I look at her face, her eyes are half-open, lips parted and cheeks flushed.

‘You enjoyed that, my little virgin bride,’ I tell her, ‘and so did I.’

Her eagerness in making love to me is a surprise, given our past history and our relationship as parent and child. Feelings of sexual desire and lust, which I did not expect to experience, are beginning to grow in me.

I want her.

I want her, and I do not care that she is my daughter. Leia is permanently, invisibly marked as my wife on both her body and soul. She is mine, my new lover and my new wife. Right now, I want to give her pleasure, to receive it in return, and to hear her scream my name as we both climax together.

‘I want you, my wife,’ I admit to her. ‘I want to make love to you, again.’

‘And I want you, husband,’ she insists, echoing my own desires. ‘I want you to make love to me like that again.’

I hold her chin in my palm and touch her quivering mouth with my thumb. This is Leia herself asking for more, of her own free will. Brushing against her mind, I discover what she has done. To cope with this experience she is allowing herself to see only her caring and gentle husband making love to her, not her ruthless Sith Lord father. For now, in this moment, we have both decided to ignore her parentage, accept the situation we are in as husband and wife, and simply enjoy having sex with each other.

‘Since you wish it, I will,’ I agree.

I let her rest a minute while I use my control over my body to quickly drive another erection, and prepare myself for another extended round of love making. Leia wants this, wants me, so I will oblige her. This time, though, I temper my thrusts, keeping them long and slow, prompting her to urge me to speed up. Refusing to give in to her, I instead slide my hands down to her hips from where they had been resting on her breasts and pull her hard against my body, leaving no space at all between us. We are now joined as completely in body as is possible. She hisses in pain at how much I have forced her open and cries out to me as she climaxes again.

Deep inside her, I feel myself swell, throb, then spasm rhythmically as my third orgasm begins. Unable to stop myself, I grind my hips against her, needing more, wanting more, although it is impossible for me to be any deeper within her. I moan her name as my semen pulses out of me and into her, my body shaking from the pleasure of it, and my hands grabbing for and finding hers. Soon, all too soon, it is over, except for the lingering ache that will quickly pass. I lift her up from the table, letting myself slide out of her, and gather her into my arms. We are both finished, spent, our bodies separated from one another once more, but I do not want it to end.

Emotions stir deep in my heart as I hold her close to me; protectiveness for her as my captured bride, possessiveness and tenderness as her first lover, and love and sexual desire for her as my wife. I let all of these feelings grow, well up and sweep over me, each in turn, until I understand what all of it means: I am deeply, passionately in love with my own daughter. Shaken by this revelation, I run my fingers through her hair to soothe myself. She is my daughter, I remind myself, and my wife. I am allowed to have my daughter as my wife, and I love her as my daughter-wife. There is nothing wrong with what I feel for her, but for our relationship to work, for our marriage to succeed, she needs to love me in return and accept who and what we are to one another. I will have to risk hearing a negative reaction from her, and tell her the truth of what I feel.

‘I love you, my wife,’ I admit to her, holding her secure against my chest, her head tucked beneath my mask and hands caught between us.

‘And I love you, husband,’ she replies in kind.

Is this the truth from her or a convenient lie? I lean back just enough that I can look at her. Her face is radiant with the afterglow of our lovemaking, but her feelings are conflicted, confused. She is torn between accepting me as her beloved husband, and rejecting both of our relationships entirely.

‘Say it again,’ I prompt her.

The hand she raises to touch the cheek of my mask is trembling. She’s afraid of what she feels and scared of what my reaction will be. I take her other hand in mine and give it a gentle squeeze of encouragement to prompt her to answer me.

‘Say it,’ I urge her. ‘Tell me what you honestly feel.’

‘I love you, my husband,’ she responds, choosing to accept our marriage, but not her parentage, and being completely truthful in how she feels.

I settle her in my arms again and think about how complicated my life has just become. If Leia had rejected me outright, I would have treated ours as a political marriage where there would be little social and no intimate contact between us. Instead, she has chosen to love me as her husband and I want a real marriage with her. I cannot and will not set her aside. So, how am I going to manage two wives, both of whom I love deeply and passionately? Somehow, I will have to sort this out, but no matter what I do, Maia will be very upset and profoundly hurt. Later, I decide, one thing at a time. For now, there are more pressing concerns to deal with.

‘You need to see to yourself and clean up,’ I tell Leia. ‘You have bled and will probably be sore.’

Leia pushes herself back from me once I step away from her, and I can see her blood and my semen on her. There are towels conveniently at hand in anticipation of this need, so I grab one, and hold it against her body. I leave that cloth there for her to use while I wipe myself with a second one, and replace my gloves, codpiece and belt.

‘A sacrificial offering of my maiden’s blood, from the Rebellion to the Empire, just as you required from me,’ she dryly states, looking at the blood and semen soaked cloth when she hands it to me, ‘and the visible evidence of my lost virginity and your potent virility.’

‘I do not intend to put it on public display as a trophy,’ I reply, annoyed at what she was implying. ‘You know it is a part of the usual rites when the woman marrying a ruler is a virgin, and in our case, the only one who needs to see it is me.’

‘Perhaps you should put it on display as the ancient houses still tend to do when a marriage might be contested,’ she suggests. ‘It would silence anyone who questions the validity of our marriage. No one could deny that physical proof of consummation, or that the Princess has been truly deflowered by the Emperor.’

‘Contrary to Rebel propaganda,’ I growl at her, ‘I am not a cruel, emotionless killing machine who has no feelings or consideration for others. Those I care for, those I love, I treat with respect and kindness. I will never subject you to that sort of public humiliation.’

I carefully fold that towel and hide it inside my surcoat, along with the one I had cleaned myself with. As soon as I have the opportunity to destroy them, I will. Leia’s hands pull her gown down to cover herself once she is off of the table, and she takes a minute to smooth her hair neatly into place. Then, she steps closer, slides her arms around my waist and to my back as she draws herself to me. This is not the post-coital reaction I had expected, given how she had physically attacked me earlier, so I humour her, hold her secure in my arms, and let her relax with her head resting on my chest.

Leia is short in stature, like her mother, and was as passionate in her love making today as Padmé was during our wedding night on Naboo so very long ago. I close my eyes and let myself imagine that the woman in my arms is my first wife, not my third, and that it was Padmé who I had just been making love to, not our daughter. They are similar in so many ways that this is not a difficult thing for me to do. I breathe in deeply, overriding my respirator. Leia is my lost love, my Padmé, returned to me at last.

‘Husband,’ Leia tells me, interrupting my thoughts, ‘I really do love you and I want to be your wife.’

‘Leia, you are my wife,’ I reassure her, ‘and no one can deny that status to you. The vows we made are permanently binding once the marriage is consummated. For a Sith Lord, divorce from this type of marriage does not exist. You are my wife, you will always be my wife, and I love you.’

‘I need to …’ she starts to say something to me.

I freeze in place, stop her words with a finger across her lips and tip my head. What am I sensing? No, not a what, but a whom. I move my hand to rest low on her stomach, and know exactly what has happened. Somehow, despite the vasectomy I had performed on myself, Leia is now pregnant with the child who will be my fifth son and first grandson.

I debate what I should do about this. Leia is healthy, young, and strong, and should be able to carry him safely to term, but do I really want to let her give birth to this son sired by me, her own father? Tapping into the Force, I question his future. He will be strong, smart, gifted with the Force like my other sons, and most importantly, normal and healthy. Gently, lightly, I touch my daughter’s mind. She wanted to have a child with her smuggler friend, and should not object to having one of mine instead. I want this child, I decide, this son of Leia and myself.

‘You will bear me a son, Leia,’ I reveal to her.

She stares at me then sets her hand above mine on her middle. Instead of being upset at what both of us can sense, she smiles, pleased by what she has discovered rather than being shocked at the prospect of being pregnant with her own father’s child.

‘No, it’s Han’s son, not yours,’ she denies the truth.

Wishful thinking on her part, since I know otherwise, but it would be best to have Leanan confirm her son’s parentage and figure out how this happened.

‘You are my wife and he is legally my son. He will be raised as my son, regardless of his sire, but I am certain he is mine,’ I remind her. ‘Anything you need, anything he needs, it will be yours.’

‘I need to know my brother is safe and unharmed,’ Leia admits.

‘Brother?’ I ask, curious to hear what she will say about Luke.

‘Luke Skywalker is your son, my twin brother,’ she confesses. ‘I am sure you are holding him prisoner somewhere on your ship.’

I laugh, amused by her request and admission.

‘I have known for years that Luke is my son,’ I reveal. ‘That he had a twin, that you are his twin is what I did not know.’

Framing her face with my hands, I look directly into her eyes.

‘Luke is safe, Leia. He is my eldest son, my heir, and he is not a prisoner, but my guest. His personal quarters are next to mine.’ I promise her, ‘I have no intentions of harming him, and I will take you to see him, now.’

***

I try to avoid spilling my cup of millaflower tea as I lift it from the table to take a sip. My hands are shaking with nervousness and I am still upset more than an hour after Ani left to marry Leia Organa. At least he was completely honest about it, telling me that this was only politics to him and that he had no interest in her other than as a means to help end the war. I only wish he could have found some way to avoid having sex with her. The thought of that happening between the two of them disturbs me deeply, and I don’t understand why. It’s only the once, I remind myself, and he said it would be rather painful for her. She is petite, tiny in stature, and he’s huge in comparison. Were it not my husband she was marrying, I could almost feel sorry for her, but I know Ani will try to avoid hurting her too much. It’s in his nature to be kind in that way.

Tipping my head, I touch our bond. True to his promised word, I cannot sense or feel any of what he is doing with his new wife; only his deep love for me and calm support are there. After another ten minutes, a light ripple of affection comes across to me. They have finished at last and Ani has chosen that gentle way to let me know.

Soon, he will bring her here to meet me, and I have no idea what I am supposed to do. How does one greet their co-wife? What are we supposed to talk about, if anything? She was a prominent Rebel and I on the opposing side. We have met before and spent time together on Garqi, but no matter what either of us says, this will be awkward, I decide.

I look up from reading my datapad when Ani and Leia eventually come back to his quarters. She is holding his arm and he is resting his other hand on top of hers in a protective and possessive manner. Luke is right behind them when he storms in, furious, his Jedi calm completely shattered. Curious, and determined to find out what could possibly be wrong, I stand up from my chair, tea cup in hand, take a few steps over to the den’s doorway, and stare at them. They are completely distracted by their own concerns and not one of them notices I am there.

‘I need to talk to you, father,’ Luke loudly and angrily demands, ‘and I want you to listen to me, too. You can’t ignore this like you just tried to walk away from me.’

‘We are in private, now, Luke, unlike in the corridor, and this room is secure,’ Ani tells his son. ‘Go ahead and say what you feel you must. No one can overhear it.’

‘Luke, don’t. Please, don’t,’ Leia pleads with him. ‘You need to be rational about this and accept it, just as I have. I love him, I have married him, and he is in every way my husband.’

She lays a hand on Luke’s arm, trying to calm him, but he is having none of it. Luke pushes her roughly away, leaving Ani to catch her when she stumbles. My new co-wife turns to our shared husband for shelter, backing out of Luke’s reach and into the Sith Lord’s protective embrace.

‘How could you do it, Leia?’ Luke verbally attacks her. ‘Han died only yesterday and you married Vader today? You knew he was my father, you knew what he was to you, and you did it anyway!’

‘Luke, you need to control yourself,’ Ani warns him as he pulls Leia close and shelters her in his arms. ‘She didn’t tell me the truth and reveal who she really was until after it was far too late, and now it can never be undone. It is perfectly acceptable for me, as the Emperor, to have this type of marriage as well as multiple wives.’

‘I don’t care what you are allowed to do!’ Luke snaps, furious, his control completely gone. ‘It’s still wrong to marry your own daughter and have sex with her!’

The tea in the bottom of my cup begins to slosh as my hands shake uncontrollably.

‘What’s even worse,’ Luke continues to rage, ‘is that she’s pregnant by you, her own father. Don’t even attempt to deny it! I can sense your child inside her. He wasn’t there two days ago and is obviously yours!’

The cup slips from my hands, drops to the floor, and smashes into fragments, the tea splattering everywhere in the silence that final bombshell from him produces. My ears ring for a few seconds and my sight blurs. Anakin has unknowingly married and had sex with his adult daughter, and Leia is now pregnant with her own father’s child. It is too many shocks for me to bear all at once. My hand reaches for the wall for support only to miss it. Pain lances through me and my knees give out at the agony I feel as something rips inside me. Unable to stop myself, I fall, silently screaming to Ani for help as I go.

‘Maia!’ I hear my husband cry out in alarm. ‘No!’

He doesn’t make it to me before I hit the floor.

***

‘I do not want to hear one more word from you,’ I snap at Luke, furious with my son’s inability to regulate his mouth.

For the first time today, he has the decency and foresight to keep silent. I look past him, into my bedroom, where Maia, her hands shaking with pain and shock, and face as white the mothsilk sheet beneath her, is being tended to by the doctor and Leia. When I lifted her from the floor, she was bleeding in the same way she had with Mikal, and by the time I laid her on the bed, she was clearly in considerable pain and at risk of a miscarriage. I know she should really be in Medical, but nothing more can be done for her there than here, and my quarters are far more secure. The meds will either work or not, her pregnancy will be saved or lost, and there is not one thing I can do about it to help her.

‘Father…,’ he starts.

‘Not. One. More. Word,’ I remind him, stabbing his chest with my finger to punctuate each word in turn. ‘You will to listen to everything I say and then think about it for a while.’

This time, he obeys.

Luke, you should have told me she was your sister when I gave you the chance; Leia, you should have been honest and admitted you were my daughter when I first stepped into your cell. I would never have taken Leia as a concubine and then my wife if either of them had done that. Luke, however, doesn’t need to know what happened in that detention cell yesterday. For him, only today’s events matter.

‘If you had admitted to me that she was your sister or if she had been honest and told me before the binding ritual that she was my daughter, I would not have gone through with the marriage,’ I reveal to him. ‘That, however, is not what happened. You refused to tell me who she was and she said nothing until after everything was finished and the consummation complete. Now that she is pregnant with my child, it is impossible for me to divorce her. Leia is my wife, Luke, and I cannot and will not undo that.’

I walk back to the bedroom’s doorway, watch Leanan start an i.v. drip below the med cuff she has already attached to Maia’s arm and hand the fluid bag to Leia to hold. My daughter senses my eyes on her and looks up. Leia’s face is calm, so the situation must be better than I had first feared. Maia’s eyes are closed, her breathing slower and more regular, and the pain I can feel from her is receding at last. The doctor’s meds have had a positive effect. Turning on my heel, I return to where Luke is standing beside the Holonet terminal. I need to explain my marriage to his sister in a way he will understand and accept.

‘Luke, bloodlines are important in maintaining Force potential within families. Sith rulers commonly married their sisters or half-sisters to produce their heirs,’ I tell him. ‘Sometimes father married daughter, if no sister or suitable cousin existed. I have no living female relatives of marriageable age other than Leia, and no other possible option, if I am to follow tradition in this matter. Regardless of all that, you have heard her declare her love for me, consent to our marriage, and admit to consummating it with me. I have not forced her to do any of these things; she has chosen to do them herself. Leia is my daughter, my wife, and the mother of my child, and I love her as all three of those. Accept these facts, my son, because they will not change.’

He refuses to meet my eyes and looks away. Logic and facts, I remind myself. If he cannot muster an effective argument, he will eventually give in to reason.

‘Now, go to your quarters, Luke,’ I order him out. ‘Go and think about what I have told you; think about what has happened to Leia because you refused to be honest with me, and consider carefully the consequences of not controlling your mouth. If Maia miscarries as a result of your foolishness, you will have to live with that for the rest of your life.’

I watch him retreat from my quarters and stalk to the door of his own. Anger rolls off of him in waves. He is furious at my marriage to his sister, and incensed that I have scolded him like a child and sent him to his rooms for his behaviour. It will be many hours before Luke calms down and is reasonable again. Until then, I will leave him alone. When he is ready to talk to me, he will seek me out.

Turning about, I walk to my bedroom, wave Leia from her position beside Maia, and sit down in her place.

‘Doctor?’ I prompt.

‘Subchorionic bleed, like she had with her first pregnancy, and probably for the same reason,’ Leanan confirms my suspicions. ‘This is the result of too much stress, and I have warned you repeatedly about that. She must rest. Her stress levels must drop. If they do not, she will miscarry, and the next time this happens, I might not be able to stop it.’

I take Maia’s hand in mine and lightly hold it, taking care to not wake her. This is my fault for not being honest with her about Leia. Had she known, Luke’s outburst would not have had such a negative effect on her.

‘There is nothing more I can do except wait and hope the meds continue to do their job overnight,’ the doctor admits.

Leanan gathers up her equipment and removes the i.v., leaving me to hold the gauze firm against Maia’s arm to stop it from bleeding.

‘The med cuff needs to stay on for the night and I will remove it tomorrow. The sedative will help her sleep for several hours and she must be kept quiet after she wakes,’ she warns. ‘Don’t ever leave her on her own. It’s too risky. If she starts bleeding again, you must comm me immediately.’

‘You will be called if you are needed, doctor,’ I dismiss her.

I wait until she has left before I reach over and rest a hand against Maia’s cheek.

>Maìá, my little goddess, my merati,< I address her in Sith, not wanting Leia to understand my words. >What a mess I have made of this, and you have paid the price for it. My love, I do hope you can forgive me.<

‘You really do love her,’ Leia quietly observes. ‘Most in the Alliance believe it is just an act you put on in public for the holocameras and reporters. I used to think that way, too, until I saw you with her and your children on Aargau. I know you are life-bonded because Chewie figured that out when she was on the Falcon. Luke never realized you were her husband, but I did - when I saw her on Aargau in person.’

‘It is no act, Leia. I loved her almost from the first moment I met her, and she has always loved me,’ I reveal. ‘Fate pulled us together and bound us as one. She is my merati, my soul sworn and soul bonded mate, the other half of my being. Neither of us can live without the other.’

‘Seeing you with her, now, it’s so obvious what exists between you,’ Leia states. ‘She’s your opposite and complement - your perfect match - good natured, sweet-tempered, kind, and with a wicked sense of humour, and I like her, too. When she was with us on Garqi she was helpful to us, if in her own stubborn way. Once I knew who she really was and that you were her husband, I kept silent and never told anyone. I owed her and you that much, at least, for letting all of us go.’

‘Her ‘Rebel adventure’,’ I reply with an ironic laugh. ‘I think she enjoyed that excursion to Garqi, until I had to go rescue her from my own troops. The idea of being on an adventure with me sounded far more appealing to her than it actually was once the blaster bolts began to fly.’

I lift my hand away from Maia’s arm. The bleeding from the needle has stopped and she is still deeply sedated. Taking care not to wake her, I set her hand on her chest and lightly squeeze it.

‘I must check to see if anything requires my attention,’ I tell Leia. ‘Stay with her, watch her for me, while I do that. I should not be long.’

Leia resumes the place I had taken from her, so I make my way quickly to my office. The Force has been prodding at me, warning me about something, and it soon appears on my data station. A message drone has arrived from Bakura, carrying news of an invasion and a request for aid from my dead master. Frowning at the images of the alien ships on my screen, I consider my options. I must return to Coruscant and cannot deal with this in person. Thrawn is busy hunting Mothma for me, and I will not recall him from that task. Of the other Grand Admirals here, only Osvald Teshik is renowned as a strategist, and capable of dealing with an unknown opponent. I quickly comm a request to the Eleemosynary, instructing Teshik to come to the Executor to meet with me. He will need to be sent on his way immediately and with enough ships to ensure a victory.

More meetings, I silently curse, the bane and price of my new position.

I shut the terminal off with a touch and return to Maia’s side, swapping places with Leia yet again. Maia needs me, but I must be elsewhere in a few minutes.

‘Bad news?’ Leia asks.

‘Yes,’ I confirm. ‘Bakura has sent a message drone requesting military aid. There is an unknown alien fleet attacking them, and I must organize the task force Admiral Teshik will need. I cannot remain here with her, much as I want to be at her side. Leia, I need you to stay with her in my place and to make her obey the doctor’s orders.’ 

This will be a test for her, to see if she will put my interests and Maia’s safety ahead of her past allegiances. I will be able to sense if Maia is in distress and send help to her, even if Leia chooses not to act.

‘I will stay with her and make sure she remains in bed,’ Leia accepts my challenge. ‘She is my co-wife and I feel responsible for what has happened to her.’

‘Guard her well, Leia,’ I warn her. ‘Make sure she stays in bed and rests, as the doctor ordered, or I will hold you responsible for any harm which comes to her.’

‘Daddy!’ I hear Mikal call to me.

My second son runs into the room, climbs onto my lap, wraps his arms around my neck, and looks at his mother.

‘Mommy needs to sleep,’ I tell him, ‘and you need to have your nap.’

‘I’m sorry, my Lord,’ Cyran apologizes. ‘He ran ahead of me.’

‘No harm done, Lieutenant,’ I reassure her. ‘Put the children to bed for me, and I will ensure they sleep for a few hours.’

Mikal stares at Leia, but doesn’t resist when Cyran leads him into his room along with his sisters. I wait, patiently, until all three are in bed and settled before I go see to them myself.

‘Sleep,’ I compel each in turn, easing them into a deep slumber.

Once I know they will not stir, I step out of their bedroom and close the door.

‘They will sleep for a few hours,’ I tell Cyran and Leia. ‘You can go, Lieutenant. Leia, keep watch over my Empress and comm me if there are any problems.’

I hand my comlink to Leia after setting it to my personal channel, brush Maia’s cheek with my fingers, and reluctantly leave, knowing that she needs to rest.

***

‘Don’t move,’ a familiar female voice orders. ‘I was told to stay with you, and to keep you quiet and where you are in bed.’

I open my eyes to see Leia sitting next to me in one of the chairs. She is watching me and obviously worried. There is no sign of Luke or Ani.

‘You have had a terrible shock, and that is entirely Luke’s fault,’ Leia apologizes. ‘Sometimes he doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.’

I close my eyes and think. Events of the past few hours flash through my mind. Luke was yelling at his father and sister when I fainted. Ani had picked me up from the floor and moved me to the bed, panicking at how much I was bleeding, and fearing a miscarriage was imminent. Leanan came as fast as she could and filled me full of meds, knocking me out for the afternoon, and stopping the internal tear from growing worse.

My hand slides down to my stomach, to find my son there, safe, but I suspect I have had a very close call. There is not much pain to be felt any more, rather a low, dull ache pulses inside me instead. Leia lifts my hand away from my stomach and squeezes it to reassure me.

‘You were bleeding, but it stopped quickly once the meds were in you,’ she tells me. ‘The doctor wants you to rest and stay in bed. She told us she will remove the med cuff tomorrow, and that you will need it overnight to help heal the tear inside.’

Leia helps me to sit up and to take a few sips from a glass of water she hands to me. I observe her closely, but she gives no outward sign that our strange situation and new relationship as co-wives bothers her. Staying silent, I continue to slowly swallow small mouthfuls of water from the glass and wait for her to continue talking, letting her say what she wants while I debate how to handle her marriage to our shared husband.

‘Luke has been locked in his quarters,’ she admits. ‘I have never seen him like that before - raging, almost insanely. He didn’t calm down until I repeatedly told him our father had no idea I was his daughter before I married him.’

‘But you knew and you …,’ I choke on what I was about to say.

She shifts uncomfortably. We both know what happened. Leia knowingly married and had sex with her own father while deliberately keeping him ignorant about their blood relationship.

‘He demanded the marriage and I was afraid he would hurt Luke if I didn’t agree to it. He didn’t know, and I didn’t tell him the entire truth of it, how he was my father and Luke my twin brother, until after …’ she pauses, acutely embarrassed then finishes, ‘… until after he made love to me this morning, and then discovered I was pregnant.’

Anakin, I think to myself, what a spectacular mess you have landed all of us in, and this time it is not going to go away or have an easy fix.

***

‘Well?’ I question the doctor as I pace back and forth in her office.

I have just been subjected to a humiliating, if necessary, series of tests and am in no mood to trade barbs with her. Providing the sample while she watched was bad enough. Having her physically examine me to find where the presumed problem lay was worse.

‘You might be the Emperor, but you certainly don’t know anything about fertility after a vasectomy,’ she tells me. ‘I assumed you would educate yourself about this after you did it to yourself, and that was a mistake on my part. You need to use birth control of some sort for at least three months, and preferably six, following the procedure, if you want to be sure to prevent a pregnancy.’

‘So, the child really is mine,’ I decide.

‘Your sample contained active sperm, so unless your new wife had sex with somebody else in the past day, then yes, the child is yours,’ she confirms.

‘She couldn’t have,’ I admit, without really thinking about it. ‘Leia was a virgin when I first had sex with her and she had no opportunity to be with someone else.’

I consider what I should do. This means I can still sire children, if only by storing my semen for later use as I have done once already. Maia’s health is far too important to risk with another pregnancy, but Leia is young and strong. She is perfectly able to bear children for me and will deliver our first son, my son and grandson in one, before the end of the year. The problem will be convincing Maia to allow it.

‘I need to think about this,’ I tell Leanan, ‘but I want you to store the rest of the sample I gave to you today for future use, and if you give me some privacy and wait a few minutes, I will provide you with another to store with it.’

***

‘Help me up, please,’ I ask of Leia. ‘I need to talk to my husband.’

‘I am not going to comm him for you,’ she refuses to help me. ‘A distress call sent by message drone has arrived from Bakura. They need military assistance. He will be in meetings all afternoon to deal with that and shouldn’t be disturbed.’

‘He won’t mind,’ I tell her, ‘and he will want to know how I am doing.’

Leia stares at me in the same way Ani does when I am being uncooperative and he wants me to behave myself.

‘You are supposed to stay in bed and rest,’ she insists. ‘If you start bleeding again because I don’t keep you still and quiet, I will be the one held responsible and punished for it.’

I give up, for the moment, realizing that he must have set her as a guard on my behaviour, and instead look at her with my augmented senses. She is definitely pregnant with a Force gifted son, one who will be stronger than any of mine. There is no way Ani or Luke could miss sensing this child within her, this son and grandson of my husband.

‘We will both be giving our husband a son,’ I dryly state. ‘Although how he managed that with you, I am not quite sure. He sterilized himself weeks ago and is supposed to be infertile.’

‘It’s Han’s son, not his,’ Leia tells me. ‘He thinks it is his, but I know it is Han’s.’

I shake my head and let out a sigh. Her child’s Force signature is far too strong for him to have been sired by the smuggler.

‘Are you sure?’ I ask her. ‘When were you last with Han?’

‘Two nights ago, but we didn’t have time to do anything,’ she tells me.

‘The doctor will ask you this, too. When was your last cycle?’ I prod her to start thinking.

There is thoughtfulness on her face for a moment then her lips move as she starts counting days. When she has the answer, her expression turns to one of shock, as she realizes who her child’s father really is.

‘I feel ill,’ she says.

‘’Fresher, that door, quickly,’ I tell her, pointing in the direction she needs to run. ‘Towels are in the middle compartments.’

I give her five minutes of privacy before carefully throwing the blankets off of myself, slowly getting out of bed, and going to check on her. Leia is seated where I usually am under the same circumstances, and looking a bit green. Knowing she will need it, I retrieve a glass from one of the compartments, fill it with water, and hand it to her. She drinks it quickly and returns it to me, so I set it aside where she can reach it.

‘I didn’t want this,’ she admits, sounding a bit lost and waving one of her hands at the silver armbands and her stomach. ‘I didn’t want any of this.’

For all her years of political experience and time spent fighting as a Rebel, Leia has nothing to draw on to help her cope with the situation she is now in - married to and pregnant by her own Sith Lord father.

‘I will help you to adjust,’ I offer. ‘Living with our husband is not easy, but I have figured out how to manage him. For you, it might be more difficult. You are his daughter, his wife, and the mother of his son, but you are not life-bonded to him in the way that I am.’

Leia lurches forward to throw up again. When she sits up, I do the only thing I can think of to comfort her. I sit down beside her, open my arms and let her fall into them. She starts to cry, so I respond by wiping her tears away with a soft cloth and rocking her like a child.

‘I tried, I really did try to resist him,’ she confesses to me, ‘but yesterday he was ruthless and relentless, and I didn’t have a choice. He told me he would hurt Luke if I didn’t agree to it, so I did. I went through with the marriage and had sex with him. I didn’t want to do it, but I had to protect Luke.’

This confirms what I had suspected, that Ani had coerced her by some means into agreeing to their marriage. Threatening her brother was the leverage he had used.

Her sobs grow audibly louder.

‘I don’t know what is wrong with me,’ she somehow manages to speak. ‘I loved Han and I miss him terribly, but I love my new husband, too. Today, he was gentle and kind, and patient with me. I know I shouldn’t feel this way, but I love him and need him, and I want him to make love to me again.’

The emotions pouring off of her are unmistakeable. Leia is conflicted and torn, grieving for Han, angry that she is in a marriage she didn’t really want, and distraught about the son she is now pregnant with, but despite all of that, she really does love our shared husband, and desperately wants her father sexually, even though this type of relationship is strictly forbidden under normal circumstances. I know how potent a lover Ani can be and how easy it must have been for him to manipulate her. Leia never had a chance once he started making love to her, took her virginity from her, and broke through her emotional resistance to him. She’s his, now, bound to him in more ways than just marriage and blood, and that is his doing, not hers.

I brush Leia’s hair back from her face and do my best to soothe her with my empathy as she continues to cry, her head resting on my chest. She cannot hide what she feels from me. Leia is genuinely, deeply in love with her own father. There is no way Ani can put her aside and treat theirs as a convenient, political marriage because her feelings for him are too strong to be ignored or dismissed, and her son must be publically acknowledged as his. To be fair to her, he will have to treat her as my equal in marriage, and I cannot help feeling jealous, angry, and extremely hurt that his actions and choices have led to this.

I close my eyes and concentrate on not taking my anger out on Leia. She deserves my compassion, not my disdain. None of this is her fault. That responsibility lies solely with our husband.

Anakin, I tell my husband. You have much to answer to me for.

***

Anakin, you have much to answer to me for, Maia tells me over our bond.

I don’t answer.

I cannot answer.

There is nothing I can say which will comfort her, ease her pain, or satisfy her anger.

Her emotional agony at what I have done to her and to Leia threatens to overwhelm me, so I block her out for a moment. It is the only way I can cope with what I feel from her.

The one person I should never harm, my soul bonded merati, has been deeply and permanently injured by my choices and actions. My daughter, whom I should have treated as a treasured child, I have knowingly taken as a wife and sired a son on instead. My eldest son, the one I need to be my right hand, I have angered to the point where he is refusing to speak to me.

I stare out through the transparisteel windows, ignoring the activity of the bridge crew behind me, and watch the fleet Osvald Teshik is taking to Bakura jump into hyperspace. Soon, we will depart with my own fleet for Coruscant, where I will formally claim the throne. Before we arrive, I must have my personal life settled, my two wives somehow living in harmony with one another and with myself, and my eldest son securely in place as my heir. I have no idea how I will manage all of that and repair the damage I have done to my relationship with Maia.

It is fortunate that the Executor will be in hyperspace for much of the next two weeks because I will need every minute of that time.

***

‘Leia,’ I tell my new co-wife. ‘Let’s see if one of the patches I use for pregnancy sickness will help you.’

She has been throwing up, off and on, for the past hour, and needs to stop that before she ends up in Medical. I open the compartment with the med patches and dig out one for nausea along with a sedative patch to help her rest. There are no objections when I slide the back of her gown down, just enough to stick both of them between her shoulders.

‘We should both go lie down and rest,’ I suggest. ‘The children will be awake from their naps, soon, but I can keep them busy so they don’t disturb you.’

I stand up and offer her my hand. She hesitates then takes it.

‘You have been kind to me, without having any reason to be,’ she tells me.

‘I have every reason to be kind to you,’ I reply. ‘We are co-wives, Leia, whether we want to be or not. If we are to live in close quarters and share our husband between us equally, we need to tolerate one another at the very least, but I hope you are willing to be my friend, instead of a rival.’

She stands, takes a step, and breathes in slowly before carefully sitting down again. Her body has finally decided to let her know the full consequences of our husband being her first lover. I know what she is feeling, and why, having experienced it myself. Anakin is well endowed and no matter how careful he was, he probably tore and bruised her today.

‘Use this, both inside and out. It’s what the doctor recommends for your problem,’ I advise her after retrieving the ointment in question and handing it to her. ‘I’ll leave you to see to yourself and go check on Mikal. He’s usually awake before his sisters.’

My son, of course, is out of bed, on the floor in his room, busy putting a puzzle together. I select a few books from the shelf, take his hand, and lead him into my bedroom, closing the door after him to let his sisters sleep a while longer. We snuggle up to one another on the bed while I read to him from his favourite story book. Leia takes her time, not opening the door to the ‘fresher for another ten minutes.

‘Eri,’ she calls to me.

‘It’s Maia, actually,’ I gently correct her.

‘Maia, I need some help,’ Leia admits.

‘Be good for mommy and look at your books,’ I tell Mikal.

I leave my son in the middle of the bed and go to see what Leia’s problem is. She closes the door after me and slowly, carefully, sits down. I join her and wait to hear what she has to say.

‘Is it normal to hurt like this?’ she asks me.

She must have spent the past ten minutes working up the courage to ask me that.

‘Your mother never told you what to expect,’ I state the obvious, ‘and you never asked any of your female friends about it.’

She shakes her head and looks embarrassed at having to admit to her lack of knowledge on the topic. I rest my hand on top of hers and sigh. Sex-ed must not have been on her list of required courses, and it sounds like she was never curious enough about it to do her own research on the topic. It feels decidedly strange to be playing the role of older sister for my stepdaughter and telling her what she needs to know.

‘The first time you have sex it can be very painful, especially if he is large and you are not open enough for him to easily enter you,’ I tell her the truth of it. ‘When that is the case, no matter how careful he is, you will probably tear, bruise, and bleed. If you do not treat your injuries after that, you might be sore for several days. After you heal, sex should not hurt again unless he is very rough or too hasty with you. Use the ointment, Leia. It will stop the pain and the bacta in it will heal you quickly, within hours, if the damage is minor.’

I stand up, intending to leave, to give her some privacy, but Leia stops me by pulling on my hand.

‘Yes?’ I question her.

‘May I think of you as an older sister?’ she asks.

I turn around and face her, relieved she has chosen to be a friend, rather than a foe.

‘Sister-wife, I name you,’ I solemnly state.

She smiles and begins to laugh, making me smile and laugh in return.

‘Sister-wives,’ she accepts my offer of friendship.

***

When I finally return to my quarters, I discover Maia, propped up in bed, quietly reading. Leia is asleep, curled up next to her, with Mikal tucked in between my two wives looking at a picture book. The twins are sprawled across the foot of the bed, busy colouring and chattering happily to themselves.

On the surface it appears to be a quiet domestic scene.

Underneath, I can feel the tension between myself and Maia. She is still angry, very angry, and justifiably so, but won’t say anything until we are alone.

‘Hello, gorgeous,’ I tease her.

‘Hi, handsome,’ she replies automatically.

Her response is purely out of habit.

‘Daddy!’ Mikal cries on hearing and seeing me.

His flight from the bed to greet me rouses Leia. I pick Mikal up, but my eyes are elsewhere, on my daughter-wife. She sits up, looks at me, rests one hand on her stomach, raises the other to her mouth, then bolts for the ‘fresher. Maia sets her datapad aside at that and sighs.

‘Mikal, go play with your sisters in your room,’ Maia instructs our son. ‘I will read you a story, and put you to bed, later.’

I set my son down and watch all three of our children happily run off, leaving me to face my wife, alone.

‘She’s terribly upset that you, her own father, sired that child on her today. So upset, in fact, that even with med patches she can’t keep anything down,’ Maia tells me. ‘I know why she is worried and distraught, and you need to reassure her that her child will be normal and healthy when he is born, in spite of you being both his father and grandfather.’

I don’t reply. There is nothing I can say to that.

‘Leia’s son is yours, Anakin, so don’t deny it,’ she accuses me.

‘Yes, her son is mine,’ I confirm. ‘I didn’t know that I am still fertile and will be for at least another two months. I can still sire children, later, if I store some samples, now. It’s risky for you to bear another child, but …’

‘… but you think you can persuade me to let you use Leia as a substitute and instead have her produce children for you,’ she finishes for me.

I take a step towards her. After years of marriage, Maia is able to read my intentions, at least in some things.

‘My answer is ‘no,’ Anakin, and it will always be ‘no’,’ she firmly refuses. ‘There is nothing I can do about your marriage to Leia, or the son you sired on her today, but there will never be another one.’

‘And if I refuse to agree to this?’ I ask.

‘Then you will do without, indefinitely, and I will cut off our bond as much as I can,’ she decides, and I know these are threats she will carry out.

‘Maia,’ I tell her, in an attempt to convince her otherwise, ‘She’s young and strong, and will be fertile for many years. I need heirs from her.’

‘No, you don’t,’ she reminds me. ‘You have Luke, Leia, Mikal, the twins, our youngest son, and now Leia’s son. Seven children are more than enough.’

I cannot debate her logic, and this is one argument I will never be allowed to win.

‘Very well,’ I concede. ‘There will be no more children of mine from Leia.’

I reach over and offer a hand to her in apology, holding hers when she accepts it.

‘I dislike arguing with you,’ I admit, ‘but I do enjoy making up with you afterwards. Unfortunately, you need to rest and heal, and it will be days before we can…’

I abandon what I was going to say, release Maia’s hand, and watch Leia come out of the ‘fresher. My new wife stops, drops her eyes and blushes deeply at my scrutiny. She’s beautiful, far more beautiful than I had really noticed before, and so very much like her mother in appearance and mannerisms. Fascinated, I stare at this almost, but not quite, copy of Padmé and feel my body begin to respond to her, my erection growing, as she responds in kind to me, her breathing and flushed appearance reflecting her rising desire. I want her beneath me and I want to be in her …

It’s Leia’s wedding night, and she wants you, Anakin, just as much as you want her, Maia quietly observes, barely brushing against my mind. I will go see to the children and stay with them for the night so you two will have some privacy. Just be courteous enough to change the sheets and clean yourself up when you are done.

Maia picks up her datapad, slips into our children’s bedroom, and closes and locks the door behind her, leaving Leia and I alone.

‘Leia,’ I call her name, holding my hands out to her.

She runs to me without any hesitation and entwines her fingers in mine.

‘Let me hold you and check on our son,’ I offer, pulling her into my arms.

Leia shivers at my touch, and at the gentle probe with the Force I use to see how our child is faring.

‘Our son is fine, Leia,’ I assure her as I stroke her stomach possessively. ‘He will be normal, healthy, and strong when you give birth to him. Not surprisingly, as an adult he will look much like myself at that age, and have many of my abilities. He will be like my other son, Mikal, too, full of mischief, bright, and spend most of his time keeping his mother rather busy. You do not need to worry about him.’

I brush the tears of relief from her face. She was genuinely, deeply disturbed that there might be something wrong with our child and I should have said something to her immediately, rather than waiting.

‘I need to shield him,’ I warn her. ‘You don’t have the training to do this yet, so watch and feel what I do.’

Taking her hand in mine, I hold it over our son and spin the protections he will need around him, hiding him from unwanted attention and firmly anchoring the shields to Leia.

‘You should work with Maia on how to properly shield him,’ I suggest. ‘She has the time to teach you, which I do not.’

I release her hand, only to see her raise it to my mask, and rest it on the cheek of that.

‘I want you, my husband,’ she tells me.

‘You can have me, my wife,’ I confirm.

‘But your Lady?’ Leia asks, wondering.

‘My Empress has given us leave to use my private quarters,’ I reveal. ‘I can take my armour off, Leia. I will be able to kiss you and you will see me as I really am.’

She trembles a little, unsure of me, of what I might do. I wave my hand at the controls, closing and sealing the door, and activating the various systems needed to pressurize and purify the air.

‘Breathe,’ I remind Leia. ‘The oxygen content will be higher, and the medications make it smell odd, but it won’t harm you.’

‘Lord Vader,’ she starts, but I correct her with, ‘Anakin, Leia. Call me that in private. I prefer that you leave my Sith name and title outside my quarters, and use Anakin only in here.’

I pull her over to the bed and push her down, to sit on the edge of it. While I wait for the system’s light to flash green, I drop my armour on the floor, one piece at a time, then walk over to the table to remove my helmet. The lights, I dim, bathing the room in twilight before I finally strip off my leather body armour. Leia’s eyes never leave me.  When I finally join her, sitting next to her on the bed, she reaches a hand up, touching my face, exploring my scars without any fear.

‘Anakin Skywalker,’ she uses my old name. ‘You don’t look like what I expected, given the few old holos I have seen.’

‘And what did you expect? A monster?’ I tease her. ‘If my face displeases you, I can always put my armour back on.’

Jump Ahead

‘It doesn’t,’ she tells me.

I move my face closer to hers.

‘It doesn’t what?’ I prompt.

Closer, still, almost touching mouths.

‘Displease me,’ she says. ‘I …’

At that I set my lips on hers, silencing her, and half-expecting her to pull away. Instead, her arms wrap tightly around me and her mouth opens, drawing me in. I dive between her lips with my tongue, thrust with it, taste the sweetness of her mouth, use all of my tricks, and am rewarded by her hands sliding my bodysuit from my shoulders down to my waist. I stop her from going farther, catching her hands in mine, kissing her wrists one after the other.

‘I want you, my wife,’ I whisper in her ear. ‘I want you under me, I want to be in you, I want to make love to you …’                            

She’s ready and more than willing, I decide, when she sets her mouth on mine again and silences me the same way I had her. My hands quickly find the back of her dress and release its closures. This time, she shoves it down, revealing her breasts to me. I caress them, each in turn, then kiss them. When I start to nurse at one, she gasps, so I move my mouth to the other and continue to swirl my tongue around the nipple. As I increase the gentle suction, I hear her begin to moan with pleasure and feel her fingers in my hair as she holds my head against her chest.

‘Do you like that?’ I ask. ‘Shall I do more?’

‘Make love to me,’ Leia urges me onwards.

There is no resistance when I ease her onto her back, tug her gown off and pull her knees up and out of my way. Everything is there to be touched, kissed, and explored. I start between her legs, kissing her gently at first, then more roughly, investigating her thoroughly with my tongue and mouth, gauging how much pressure to use by the sounds she makes. For the first time she tries to pull away at my touch, the sensations she is experiencing being a bit too much for her. I take her hand in mine and hold it against her stomach, using my physical strength to anchor her to the bed so she cannot move to avoid my mouth.

Soft cries and gasps escape from Leia’s throat, growing louder and more intense the longer I work my mouth and tongue against her. A little more, I decide, a little more, and her back arches as she finally climaxes, hard and long, the nails of her free hand drawing lines across my shoulder. For another minute I keep my mouth busy, this time darting into her with my tongue as deeply as I can, savouring the fluids her orgasm produced. She smells good and tastes sweet, just like Padmé always did, so I set my mouth on her again, the urgency of my efforts driving her to climax once more.

‘Anakin,’ she screams as her second orgasm reaches its peak.

I pull my mouth away from her and rest my head on her stomach, my arms to either side of her chest.

‘That felt … incredible,’ she admits, her voice husky and dreamlike.

This must have been the first two times she experienced that so strongly.

‘More of the same?’ I suggest, but her answer is to pull my head to hers and kiss me on the mouth.

‘I want you in me, Anakin,’ she whispers. ‘I want you to make me scream your name. I want you to teach me everything you know about lovemaking.’

I set my lips on hers and kiss her again, gently at first, then more demanding, thrusting in and out with my tongue and exploring her mouth with it. She trembles beneath me, but still yields to my every wish. Sliding my mouth from hers to her ear, I nip her lobe, and breathe in the scent of her hair, her long, dark hair which is so very much like her mother’s.

‘I love you, my wife,’ I whisper to her, ‘and I will teach you whatever you want to know.’

Her fingers trace a path down my back, following the scars across it, before returning to my front to circle around my chest box.

‘I love you, too, husband,’ Leia admits. ‘Tell me what you want me to do.’

‘Do for me what I just did for you,’ I suggest. ‘If you don’t know how, I will help you.’

She sits up, shoves me backwards on the bed, and eagerly sets her mouth on me. I feel myself respond, flesh tightening, filling, as her efforts drive my erection. Leia must have learned this from those few intimate encounters she had with her smuggler. There is no hesitation or shyness in anything she does to me; all of it is designed to drive my desire for her. When her tongue finally swirls around the tip, one of Padmé’s favourite tricks, I push her away and pull off my body suit, throwing it on the floor, freeing myself completely. After shifting her to the center of the bed, I thrust into her, hard, fast, not stopping or slowing until I feel her on the brink of another orgasm. Then, I halt in place and wait for her to beg me to continue, repeating this until neither of us can bear it much longer. When I finally let her have what both of us want, she screams my name, but the one which comes from my throat is Padmé’s.

***

I set the book on the shelf, kiss each of my children in turn and dim the lights in their room. Ani and Leia are still in our bed, still having sex, and it will be hours before they are done. Sitting on a blanket on the floor, I let my mind drift into meditation, losing myself in the currents in the Force around me. Eventually, I come back to myself, briefly stretch my muscles and stand up. Going over to the door, I rest my hand on it and close my eyes. There is silence in the room beyond. Ani and Leia have finished at last, and to give them privacy on their wedding night, I will spend mine in here, sharing a bed with Mikal.

Don’t cry, I scold myself as I pull my hand away. You have been strong for this long, so keep it under control. I close my eyes and think about my husband and Leia. They are completely driven by the intense love they have for one another, to the point where their relationship as father and daughter means nothing to them, and neither of them can hide what they want from each other or from my empathy. Forbidding sex to them would only drive them into doing it in secret, despite any oath my husband might have sworn to me, so it is simplest to openly accept it.

And it hurts.

How it hurts.

It hurts more than anything to know that the man I love, the man I am eternally bound to, has fallen deeply in love with his own daughter, and wants her so badly that he will ignore my feelings and pain just to have her. Worst of all, there is nothing I can do about it. Ani will do what he wants, with whomever he wants, and tonight, he wanted to have sex with Leia, not to comfort and see to me, the one who almost lost his child today. With that realization, I accept the fact the Leia has replaced me in Ani’s heart and I have lost him to her.

I slide down to the floor, curl up with my head on my knees, feel the agony of heart break wash over me, and finally let myself cry, making no effort to stop and thoroughly soaking the skirt and bodice of my gown with my tears.

Maia, I hear Ani in my mind. Don’t cry, please, little goddess. I never meant to hurt you and I can feel your distress.

The door opens behind me and strong, gentle arms lift me from the floor. He closes off the children’s room, carries me over to the bed and sits down with me on his lap. The sheets have been changed and Ani’s hair is damp from a shower, his robe loosely wrapped around him to leave his chest open to the air to dry. There is no evidence of what they had been doing to be seen or smelt. Leia is asleep, curled up on the other side of the bed, obviously sated and exhausted.

I want you in my arms, he tries to reassure me, and I want you in my bed, not Leia.

She’s young and pretty, and I am a cranky, miserable old bat, I tell him.

You are my beautiful Empress who keeps me in line, my merati to whom I am bound, and my shieldmaiden who protects me in battle. She will never be your equal. Unfortunately, she has just discovered sex and can’t get enough of it, Ani ruefully states. I have only myself to blame for that, and…

His thought trails off into silence as he settles me in his arms.

Why, Anakin, why? I ask him, letting him feel my distress and grief. Why marry her when it wasn’t really necessary?

I feel his lips against my temple then my cheek. He tastes fresh tears on my skin before brushing them away with his fingers.

If I had known how much this would hurt you, I would not have asked you to allow it, and I most certainly would never have done it, Ani tries to comfort me. I cannot change it now, my love; all I can do is make it easier for you to bear.

I let him continue to caress my face, my hair, my body. He desperately wants me to accept his marriage to Leia, and needs to know that I still love him despite the pain he has caused me. Burying my face in his chest, I force him to listen to me cry, allowing the heart break I feel to be expressed in a way he cannot ignore or block out.

Maia, little love, please, the Sith Lord begins to beg of me. Please don’t cry. I never meant to hurt you. I never intended for any of this to happen the way that it has. Please forgive me. Please.

I close my eyes as the sobs continue. Every hurt he has ever inflicted on me rears its ugly head and demands to be acknowledged. Ani holds me tight as I tremble in his arms. He’s given up on trying to comfort me and has opted to rock me slowly in his arms while he waits for my emotions to run their course.

Anakin, I finally whisper to him, in his mind.

Maia, he answers just as delicately.

With a slow, deep inhalation, I nestle into his shoulder and decide that the only way to manage this is if I tell him exactly how I feel and what I think about Leia and their marriage.

I don’t want to share you with anyone. You’re mine, not hers, I admit to how I feel, but you have decided that she is more important to you than I am, that you love her more than I, and I will just have to swallow my pride and live with that no matter how much it hurts.

Maia…, he tries to respond to that, but I shut him up by setting my fingers across his lips.

I can live with her as a co-wife, I tell him, because Leia and I actually like each other and we can get along with one another in close quarters. I can even accept you being married to your daughter, and understand why since the ancient kings whose battles I studied married their sisters and sometimes their daughters, too, for dynastic reasons. That you love each other is only to be expected, Anakin, but what I cannot and will not tolerate is you behaving like a love-struck fool, lusting after her all the time like a stag in the rut chasing a hind in heat, and her behaving the same way towards you. If the two of you intend to act that way with each other, then send me to Vjun with the children and leave us in peace.

Silence in response. I leave him to sort out his own feelings about what I have said to him, and lean against his warm, strong chest. My husband holds me close, absent mindedly stroking my hair as he works out what to say to me.

Leia reminds me far too much of her mother, and I want her because of that, because of a woman dead for more than twenty years, a first love long lost, and a life-bond forever shattered, he finally admits and I feel that ancient heart break and its echoes of pain and grief from him. Knowing where my attraction to her comes from, I can control it. Padmé is gone. As much as I want to do it, as much as I want to believe Padmé has returned to me as Leia, I cannot replace her with our daughter.

He tips my head up with a hand and lightly kisses me on the mouth. I deepen our kiss and at the same time slide into his mind, letting my empathy guide me. There is more to this than what he is willing to admit. Their desire for one another is far too strong to only be simple attraction, and when I discover why, I pull back in surprise, breaking our kiss.

I don’t want to hurt you, Maia, so I will never touch her again, Ani promises. She will be my wife in name only, and I will make it clear to her how things must be between the three of us.

My husband is offering to effectively give Leia up as his wife, which is not what I had asked him to do. I have no desire to cause them pain by forcing them apart in that way. The Sith Lord might be willing to be that cruel to Leia, but I am not. And since he won’t willingly acknowledge their newly developed bond, I will make him do that right now.

Anakin, I tell him. Leia is bonded to you. I feel him flinch in my arms as I force him to face that fact. I know you never intended for that to happen, but it has. Leia has filled the places her mother’s death made vacant in your heart, your mind, and your soul. You cannot put her aside; she is your bondmate, your wife, and the mother of your son, and she truly loves you. I hesitate then concede, doing what I must for all of us, despite the pain I will have to constantly live with because of it, Leia and I will share you. Your nights will be with me, sleeping in our bed, but if you want to have sex with her, if you want to spend time with her, I won’t stop you. Just be courteous to both of us in what you choose to do.

I kiss him and keep my lips on his until he yields and gives me a proper, deep and passionate kiss. Finally, he pulls away and brushes my cheek with his mouth instead.

I do not deserve you, my wise little goddess. Now, you asked me why I married her and I owe you the truth. Yesterday, I went into Leia’s detention cell expecting to use the threat of sex with me to pull the information I needed from her, he reveals. She didn’t break, not when I forced her to swear the concubine’s oath by threatening Luke, and not when I was about to take her virginity from her. I had to simulate sex with her, using my fingers, because nothing else would breach her mental defenses. It wasn’t until after I had married her, with the intent of using that to help end the Rebellion, that she told me I was her father. Before that, I had planned to execute her once she was no longer useful; after, I was stuck with no other choice. I couldn’t kill my own daughter.

I carefully consider what to say to him. As for how Ani chose to deal with the problem he had created for himself, I can’t fault him for that. He really didn’t have any other practical options where he could both protect Leia and honour the contract he had made with her.

Anakin, I understand that you were merely making public a contract committed to already in private, but you should have been honest with me about it, I tell him, and I am troubled that she is pregnant with your son when you should have taken precautions to prevent that. However, it’s done, cannot be changed, and we will all have to live with it.

Tucking my head under Ani’s chin, I feel myself start to drift. My husband continues to stroke my hair, and surprisingly, doesn’t respond to my criticisms. He will think about it all, for a while, before he discusses it with me further, so I will leave the subject alone until he does that. I nestle into his bare chest - he’s here for me, and I am comfortable. Today has been stressful, I ache inside, and I need to sleep.

I want to hold you in my arms for the night, and I really don’t want us to share our bed with her, Ani admits. We’ll use my meditation pod and sleep in there, tonight. Tomorrow, I will move all of us into the Emperor’s quarters on my ship. They have rarely been used so you can outfit them as you wish. Leia will have her own suite, the one you would normally be given as my Empress. I want you with me, in my arms, in my bed, rather than sleep alone, so we two will share my rooms as you have just asked me to and we have always done, only in the Emperor’s suite, instead of here.

He releases me from his arms and retrieves the chest box he wears with his armour from the compartment he keeps it in. I watch as he quickly swaps it with the smaller one he uses in the bedroom, disconnecting then reconnecting the leads which control his breathing and pacemaker before strapping it in place on his body. Once that chore is done, he wraps his black Jedi Master robes around him, covering the chest box, and secures them in place with a belt. Ani grabs his lightsaber and hooks it on his belt, refusing to leave himself unarmed, even in his personal quarters.

No armour? I question, puzzled by his choice to leave it off.

The pod is close and there won’t be enough room for both of us if I wear my armour, he decides.

I let him help me change into a nightgown and put on his old robe I use as a housecoat over top of it. While the room depressurizes, Ani lifts me up in his arms. He hasn’t done this before, left his armour off in this way, but that doesn’t stop or slow him. The Sith Lord very rapidly has his meditation pod open, his command chair flattened out into a bed, and us in it.

Think of it as a camping trip, Ani teases me, and the pod as a tent.

The top of the pod lowers, sealing both of us in. It’s cozy in here, warm, and dark, and it smells the same as the medicated air in our bedroom. I pull his hand tight against my chest, ignoring the chest box and lightsaber poking into my back. He is no longer selectively blocking me out and I can feel everything he is once again. Love is what is strongest, for me, for our children, for Luke, and for Leia and his new son within her. Concern and worry are there, too, but these are focussed on me.

‘I need to take much better care of you,’ Ani tells me. ‘No more stress, no more worries. Today, you came too close to losing our son. You will rest until we reach Coruscant and I will personally see to it that you do so. These are your doctor’s orders, Maia, and mine as well. I expect you to obey them.’

‘Can Michael visit me?’ I ask. ‘He could keep me company while you are busy.’

‘Your brother is a pest,’ my husband decides, ‘but if he is willing to leave me alone, and act as a Jedi healer watching over you for me, he may visit you. Now, go to sleep, Maia.’

‘Tell me a story, Anakin,’ I ask of him. ‘Tell me about a camping trip you were on.’

Warm lips kiss the nape of my neck. He will humour me and I will fall asleep long before he is finished.

‘Let me tell you what happened after the first Battle of Yavin, when my TIE crashed on Vaal…’ he begins his tale.

Part 7

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