Fic: White Rabbits (Star Wars, Part 1/?)

[butterfly]

Title: White Rabbits
Chapter: 1/?
Author: Diana Michelle (butterfly)
Warnings: Spoilers for Revenge of the Sith.
Pairing: Implied Anakin/Padmé, eventual Anakin/Obi-Wan.
Rating: PG/PG-13-ish.
Summary: Through the Force, everything is connected. Luke starts to uncover some truths.
Disclaimer: Not Lucas, don't own a thing, not making any money.
Chapter Index

Chapter One – Convergence

 

The room was bare, austere even – it was oddly humbling to realize that this was where his father had chosen to live, though from what Luke had gathered, Vader hadn’t often stayed in the city, preferring instead to hide himself up on his ships.

 

Still, it seemed appropriate to start here.

 

Luke wished for a moment that Leia was here to help, but he could understand why she didn’t want to learn more about Anakin Skywalker.

 

Her adopted planet, the one that Luke knew she still thought of as ‘home’, had been destroyed by the Empire. She'd been hounded by Imperial forces all her life. And Vader had not just been the monster in the night to Leia – she’d stood before him, face to face, and had hated him, personally.

 

Luke could understand her reluctance.

 

A part of him shared it, even if he hadn’t been willing to say as much to Leia.

 

And that was why it had taken him nearly a year to get around to this.

 

Why he was hesitating, even now.

 

Still, knowledge and intuition were the balancing points. And it helped to start with knowledge.

 

This apartment had been the first known home of Darth Vader. Whenever he’d returned to Coruscant, he’d stayed in it. Yet, there was no hint of him here.

 

No hint of anyone.

 

Luke moved closer to the window of what he felt had once been a bedroom, noting that, even here, there wasn’t a single piece of furniture. He could see the faint traces of blue on the walls, though the color was buried under layers of white paint. There had once been decorative moldings on the edges of the room, there, but they had been shaven off and plastered over. The floor had also been tampered with, smoothed down and bleached until it was as pale as the walls.

 

Someone had gone to a great deal of trouble to rid this place of any trace of humanity that it had ever owned.

 

And, slowly, Luke began to realize that there was a presence here, one that felt old, like it should have long ago faded from the Force, yet had been kept unnaturally vibrant.

 

But it was not that of Darth Vader or even of Anakin Skywalker.

 

Instead, he could see the glimmer of carefully applied color around wide brown eyes and the shine of tousled dark curls spilling over pale shoulders. When he concentrated, there was a floral scent in the air, light yet intoxicating. And now he could hear the faintest shadow of a woman’s voice, sweet-toned and hopeful.

 

I want to have our baby back home on Naboo.

 

It was a soft whisper of a memory, echoed and refined until it was the only imprint in the entire apartment.

 

Something meant to be remembered.

 

Naboo… Luke could recall being told that, before the apartment had been taken over by Vader, it had been the occasional home of the Senator from Naboo.

 

Luke stretched his awareness further, trying to feel for anything more.

 

He just heard the same words as before, repeating over and over.

 

Vader had turned this entire place into a barren shrine to some unknown goddess.

 

“Who are you?” Luke whispered back, pushing with the Force. “Why are you still here?”

 

There was no answer but that lost wish, caught in an eternal loop.

 

Luke sighed and turned away from the window, heading toward the door to the bedroom. He took one step and then felt an odd quiver in the Force.

 

A lightsaber clattered to the floor.

 

And even though there was no one else in the room, suddenly, he could feel a very familiar presence.

 

“Obi-Wan?” Luke called out, walking over and then carefully picking up the lightsaber. It looked a little like old Ben’s weapon, from what Luke remembered of it, but how could it be here? Where had it come from?

 

And if he could feel Obi-Wan’s presence, why hadn’t the blasted man just shown himself?

 

His sense of Obi-Wan continued to strengthen, emanating from the same spot the lightsaber had fallen.

 

Something told Luke that he should back away, just a little.

 

And then the Force… rippled. Luke had never felt anything like it. And there, in the center of the room, the air itself seemed to be turning inward. The room darkened and Luke stumbled, propping himself up against the wall.

 

He felt an odd flash of insight – he was the power source of this, somehow. Whatever was happening was pulling the needed energy straight out of him.  

 

His vision blurred and he could feel himself sliding down the wall. He heard the dulled click of the lightsaber hitting the floor, again, and he’d never felt colder in his life. His very essence was being yanked toward the energy spike in the middle of the room, but there was no pain, just an overwhelming weakness that flooded through his system. As he felt himself hit the floor, Luke sent out a desperate mental cry to Leia, but whatever was happening, he already knew that she would arrive far too late to stop it. The air crackled around him and there was a flash of light, blinding both Luke’s vision and his sense of the Force.

 

When his vision cleared, Luke found himself to be completely speechless.

 

There, sprawled out on the bare floor of the room, was Obi-Wan Kenobi.

~end chapter one~