"She...She is my daughter", Vader said when the shock had subsided. Bail was surprised to hear his voice sound so human. It was easy to forget that the dark menace before him used to be Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi knight.
"Yes", Bail answered dejectedly. There was no point in lying anymore.
Vader turned to her once more, but now really he was really seeing her. His daughter. He forgot that he was still angry with Bail and any thought about the rebellion went away from his mind.
For once in his life, Vader was speechless. He wanted to ask how it was possible. But he felt no words coming out of his mouth because he already knew the answer. She must have lived long enough to deliver the baby.
Which means that I didn't kill her.
"How?", Vader asked. He had to be sure. He had to know for sure what happened to her. And if there was any chance of her being alive.
"Padme lived to deliver the babies...", Bail answered truthfully and his voice was laced with sadness. He still missed Padme, even after all these years.
It felt like weight the size of a mountain had been lifted off of his shoulders, the cloud of darkness inside him becoming smaller and smaller since he now knew that the years of self-torment and guilt were because of a lie.
A lie created by the emperor, he realized. I knew she was alive, I felt it. Yet, he lied to me, probably to increase my self-hatred, further immersing me in the dark side.
But he could hardly focus on his increasing anger, now directed at the emperor, when he saw the adorable face of his daughter, her warm brown eyes directly focusing on him.
He remembered what he wanted to ask and looked at Bail Organa once more.
"What happened after that...?", Vader asked but he was scared to know the answer.
He almost didn't dare to think what he thought thereafter.
What if she's still alive?
Maybe she believes that Anakin died that day on Mustafar since Obi-Wan left me for dead. It would not surprise me if he told her that I was dead. That liar!
He felt the need to crush something with his hands as he thought of his old master. But then a depressing thought entered his mind.
Maybe she's hiding from me, too scared of me - scared of what I've become.
He still remembered her face, full of fear and sorrow, as he strangled the life out of her. The face that haunted him in his nightmares.
"She died, but not as a result of childbirth. They said she had lost the will to live.", Bail answered looking down on the floor.
And with those words, any hope Vader had left was crushed. Silence laid between them for a moment, their shared sadness over Padme's death filling the air, weighing it down like a dark cloud filled with rain.
Lost the will to live, Vader thought. Is this The Force's way of punishing me? , he thought. The irony of the situation didn't escape him. He had tried to save her by sacrificing his soul which ended up being the thing that killed her. He almost wanted to laugh at his own stupidity. But he couldn't. It felt like he could never laugh again.
The silence lasted a couple of minutes until Leia's voice interrupted it.
"Why are you so sad, daddy?", Leia asked. Vader was surprised by her question until he realized who it was meant for.
"You will understand when you older", Bail answered her but felt even more sadness as he realized that he would never see her grow up.
That shook Vader out of his thoughts and made him look at the 5-year-old again.
"You are coming with me now, little one.", Vader said cautiously. He was afraid of frightening the girl, but to his dislike, the vocal modulator made the words sound robotic and harsh.
"Why?", she asked, wide-eyed and with no hint of fear in her voice.
"Because I'm your father.", he said calmly.
"No, you're not. He's my daddy.", she said pointing at Bail with a frown on her face.
"Leia...", Bail said trying to hide the fear in his voice. He knew that this was the only option right now. Against Vader he was powerless. "Breha and I will always be your mother and father, but...he is your biological father."
Her eyes started watering and her lips trembled.
"But I don't want to leave my daddy.", she exclaimed, tears falling down her cheeks.
Bail felt his heart clench in his chest. She didn't deserve to go away with that monster.
"Could she not stay here? Where she is safe...", Bail started but knew that Vader would never agree to his proposition.
"Or at least let her come visit me once in a while.", Bail pleaded.
"No. She is mine, Vader replied. Organa had stolen his child, the last piece of Padme that he had left. And he thought he had the right to her. That rebel scum, Vader thought grinding his teeth. The darkness was swelling in him, threatening to overtake him entirely. He knew he had to keep himself in check. He didn't want to risk hurting Leia while completely submersed in the dark side. He had learned that lesson a long time ago.
"And she will live with me from now on.", he said, the finality in his words marking an end to the conversation.
Bail gasped but didn't reply as he felt the sadness taking over him again. There was no point anymore. He would lose Leia soon and never see her again.
"I am your father. Now, come with me.", Vader said losing his patience as he quickly picked up the small 5-year-old and put her over his shoulder.
"Goodbye, Leia. I love you", Bail said with glistening eyes.
"Goodbye, daddy. I love you too", she said quietly but to everyone's surprise, she started to punch Vader on his shoulder, trying to make him put her down.
She has definitely inherited my temper, Vader thought to himself and smiled behind the mask. That anger would be an advantage to her. It will make her strong in the dark side of the Force, Vader mused to himself. Yes, her strength in the Force was impressive. She would become a powerful sith. A foreign feeling rose up in his chest, which he then realized was parental pride.
"Now be still, Leia.", he said, trying to calm her down.
"Fine.", she shouted and kept quiet, probably realizing that there was no point in fighting anymore. He sat her down on the floor. "But only if I get to see my daddy again...", she said quietly, her eyes filling up with tears as she looked up at him.
"It's a deal.", Vader said reluctantly, a little annoyed but slightly amused by the fact that she was making demands in her current position. She was definitely Padme's daughter, he thought. Then, Vader felt a warm, unfamiliar feeling in his chest. The hole in his heart that Padme left there didn't ache as much as it used to. Once more he felt complete.
