Definitions of Destiny: Chapter 10
Title: Definitions of Destiny
Author: Caryn B
Fandom: Star Wars (film canon only - see notes)
Timeline: 6 months after RotJ
Pairing: Luke/Han, slash
Rating: NC-17 overall; this chapter PG-13
Warnings: None
The list of chapters is here
Chapter 10
When Luke finally found himself outside Mon Mothma's door, he felt as though he was on the edge of a change. Where the feeling came from, he wasn't sure, because it didn't seem to tie in with any of the other changes that had hit him so dramatically in the last few hours. Puzzled, he pressed the intercom and waited for the door to slide open.
Mon Mothma smiled and got up from her desk. Around her lay a realm of chaos even greater than that of Leia's office. She shifted a pile of stuff from a chair, and gestured for Luke to sit down.
"I'll try to make this fairly quick," she explained. "I know you're busy. But first - let me get you some caf."
Luke, having trailed from one meeting to the next for half the day, each one accompanied by mugs of caf, began to wonder if his whole time was going to be spent drinking the stuff. Much more of it, and he'd be climbing the walls. He thought about declining, but Mon Mothma was already asking for it over her communicator, and Luke guessed she wanted an excuse to have one herself. He wondered just what it was she was going to say.
"Do you remember you came to see me some weeks ago, to tell me about Vader?" Mon Mothma hesitated. "Your father."
"Yeah, sure." He'd hardly be likely to forget.
"I know the intention was to let me know just what the situation was with you and Leia. But I also wondered if you'd been hoping I might know something more - about your father's past?"
"I was clutching at straws really. I know next to nothing, and I knew you spent some of your time on Coruscant. I just thought there might've been a chance..."
A protocol droid arrived with the caf, and spent a few minutes fussing around pouring it, and trying to clear a space to put the tray and the individual mugs.
"I'll just hold mine thanks," Luke said, wishing the droid would give up what was a futile task.
"Yes, just put the tray on the floor please," Mon Mothma suggested. "We can manage easily enough."
The droid complied with a sigh suggestive of a less-than-patient tolerance for human foibles, and disappeared.
Mon Mothma rolled her eyes slightly, and took a grateful sip of the hot caf. She picked up the conversation where they'd left off.
"Didn't your teachers tell you any Jedi history?"
"No. In fact they positively avoided telling me anything. I only know what Ben told me - that Vader helped to hunt down and kill all the Jedi."
"Well, it's easy to see why Master Kenobi wanted to stay away from certain aspects of the past," Mon Mothma said. "But I can equally see why it matters to you to know what you can."
"Did you know Obi-Wan?"
"Not really. But Bail knew him well."
"Bail Organa?"
Mon Mothma nodded, and cleared another chair to sit down near Luke. He could sense a sort of nervousness coming from her, which was extremely unusual to say the least. Mon Mothma was one of the most composed people he knew, although presumably much of that was for public show - a necessary act of survival for many of them.
Without further preamble, Mon Mothma began to speak. "When I was a young senator in the Old Republic, Palpatine was a very popular man."
Luke said nothing - it would be impossible to reconcile his own memories of the man with anything Mon Mothma had to say of his earlier life.
"He'd worked his way up to a position of strength by cultivating that popularity. He'd been a senator, the same as thousands of others, but a series of events ensued that meant he could appear to take charge of increasing problems in the galaxy. He became a symbol for many. The ultimate peace-giver."
"Appear to take charge?"
"Yes." Mon Mothma brushed a stray strand of hair back from her face. "Luke - I know you have first-hand experience of the Emperor's true nature, but I think it's important to tell you how things were in the past. Palpatine was an extremely manipulative man. Everything he did was part of a carefully designed plot."
Luke gave a low laugh. "He didn't change much over the years then."
"I doubt it. He was also a very clever man, and none of us, at the time, had any idea just how much of his rise to power had been calculated. Years beforehand really. I was taken in by him as much as anybody at first. When I found out the true picture from Bail, it was already too late to take real action. The damage had been done."
"What happened?" Luke asked.
"It's complicated, but basically, the events that he seemed to take charge of would never have existed in the first place had he not orchestrated them."
For a brief moment Luke was back in that throne room, listening to the Emperor proclaiming that everything had taken place according to his design. He shivered involuntarily, wondering just how much hardship the Emperor had deliberately instigated in order to appear in control.
Mon Mothma downed the remains of her caf and reached for the jug, refilling both of their mugs. Luke thought she must use the high stimulant intake just to keep going. He couldn't blame her - politicians weren't the easiest people to deal with.
"I was only sixteen when he became Chancellor, but I was already active in politics. I took a lot of interest in what went on in the Senate because I wanted to join them and represent my own world. Palpatine represented Naboo. It was a small, peaceful world, not at all interested in a galactic power struggle, but Palpatine made sure it was thrust right into the middle of everything."
"What did he do?" Luke asked.
"There was an invasion there. It's a long and complex story, and I won't go into all the details right now. But anyway, Palpatine stood up as a savior for its people. He managed to get himself elected as Supreme Chancellor on that particular ticket. I mean, how convenient was it that Palpatine's homeworld was suddenly facing a crisis - and to deal with it effectively required a shift in government?"
"You mean he fixed the invasion?"
"He played both sides. It was all about his personal rise to power. Plus it enabled him to gain the trust of the Jedi - at least in the early days. Obi-Wan Kenobi was one of those sent by the Jedi Council to negotiate an end to the crisis, but he and his companion ended up right in the middle of the invasion. They had to flee the planet with Naboo's Queen. They took her to Coruscant, so she could appeal to the Senate. It was the start of a good friendship between the Queen of Naboo and Master Kenobi."
"So how did the Republic turn into the Empire?" Luke asked.
"It all hinged on the outcome of the Clone Wars. That, and a number of supposed threats to the Senate and everything it stood for. It enabled Palpatine to claim more and more power. The full truth didn't come out until it was all in place."
"But you did find out the truth."
Mon Mothma nodded. "Yes. Much of it from Bail. He'd originally been one of Palpatine's supporters, but he was also a good friend of the Jedi. Particularly to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Master Yoda."
"He knew Yoda?" Luke exclaimed.
Mon Mothma smiled. "You sound amazed."
"It's just - Yoda was so alone. I can't picture him anywhere else other than Dagobah, which is where I found him. There's nothing there. Just swamps, and mud... But I knew he'd taught Obi-Wan. Knew he'd been a great Jedi master, so I've no justification for being surprised."
"There was a fair amount of interaction between the Jedi Council and the Senate. Not that the Jedi took a political stance - but they were there to uphold the stability of the democracy we supposedly stood for."
"Was the Council based on Coruscant then?"
"Yes - at the Jedi Temple. The Council was a group of leading Jedi, one of which was Master Yoda. Master Kenobi was a member too by the end."
"The end? You mean the purge?"
Mon Mothma nodded grimly. "That was also part of Palpatine's scheme."
"I... Ben - Obi-Wan - told me that Vader was responsible for the deaths of all the remaining Jedi."
Mon Mothma shook her head slightly. "I don't know. He certainly didn't do it alone. The clone army killed many. Bail saw thousands of troops attacking the Jedi Temple. It burned for hours. I don't think anyone was left alive in there." She looked down at her hands for a moment, before glancing across at Luke.
Luke stared at her, frowning. "I thought the clones were on the side of the Republic - but the Jedi were too, weren't they? That means the purge wasn't just the Emperor's private vendetta."
"Yes, you're right. Palpatine claimed publicly that the Jedi had plotted to assassinate him. He said they were planning to take over the Senate - to put an end to democracy. He called them 'enemies of the Republic', announcing it at a special session of the Senate. Collaboration with the Jedi from then on was seen as treason."
"So he put himself in the role of preserver of democracy. All that explains the mixed reactions I get," Luke said quietly. "There's a lot of hatred out there for the Jedi. It's no wonder, if people believed they were only after power."
"Not everyone believed it. Increasingly, people began to realize the truth. Of course, it was all rather beside the point then."
Luke nodded. "I can see why the Emperor had to get rid of them. But why didn't the Council realize what was going on earlier?"
"Again, it was down to Palpatine's cleverness. What people wanted more than anything was somebody taking charge. Someone who'd put an end to all the fighting. The Senate voted to give Palpatine emergency powers, and he slowly began to take more and more freedom away from the Republic in the name of security. I suspect the Jedi were increasingly concerned over the powers he was assuming, but to have acted against him they'd have needed proof of corruption. It was the same for us. Several of us in the Senate felt equally as worried, but to speak out was unsafe. We didn't know at the time who to trust, and we weren't sure about the Jedi either."
Mon Mothma frowned and took a swallow of her caf. "There were at least two of our group who wanted to ally with the Jedi from the beginning. But the rest of us urged caution. It seemed too risky. Even during Palpatine's announcement about the treason of the Jedi, we didn't really understand. Or I didn't", she corrected herself. "Bail knew, because he'd ended up right in the middle of it all. Afterwards he told me everything he'd discovered from Obi-Wan and Yoda. That Palpatine had engineered the whole situation. Created all the unrest in the galaxy, simply so he could come in and take control. It worked perfectly. And he was powerful too."
Luke nodded. Both Yoda and Ben had warned him about the Emperor's powers, and then of course he'd seen them for himself. Inwardly he sighed, because although everything Mon Mothma was saying was fascinating, at the heart of the whole story Luke was failing to find his father. And it was information about him that Luke had really hoped to hear.
"What about Vader? Did Bail Organa talk about him at all?"
Mon Mothma shook her head. "Not in the way you mean. As an enemy of the Alliance, we spoke of him a lot. But I think it's now clear to me that Bail knew of Darth Vader's true identity. There's something I remember. It was shortly after the declaration of the Empire. Palpatine called many meetings then - it was necessary for him to keep the senators sweet in those early days. He hadn't yet begun to govern by force, and he wanted co-operation, not unrest. Bail and I didn't usually sit together during meetings because we didn't want to draw attention to our friendship, or to anything that might've seemed like a plot. But on this one occasion he came into the Chandrilan pod. Palpatine was in the central pod, and next to him was this - thing."
She looked at Luke apologetically. "I'm sorry, Luke. But right from the start, there was something shocking about Vader. Even though it was the first time we'd seen him, and we knew nothing about him - he seemed to come from nowhere. But Palpatine introduced him to the Senate that day, and I remember how Bail just froze. It was like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. And then, suddenly, without a word to me, he just got up and left. He told me later that Master Yoda had explained about Vader's Jedi past, and I put Bail's reaction down to the same feelings of revulsion I'd felt. Of course, it's obvious to me now that he had good reason for not disclosing his knowledge of who Vader really was."
"Leia," Luke said. He felt shaky inside, thinking how Palpatine had fully expected to be able to introduce a new apprentice to the galaxy, all those years after presenting Vader to them. He tried to imagine himself in that role, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Emperor, and assuming public responsibility for untold horrors.
But Mon Mothma was replying to Luke's statement, and mentally he shook himself, trying to displace the unease that was gnawing away at his insides.
"He'd have done what he could to protect her. Not just to keep her identity a secret from Vader, but also to save her from the truth. I don't know if that was the right thing to do. I know she's finding it difficult now."
"I wonder if Bail had just been waiting for the right moment..." Luke said.
"Do you think so?"
"He couldn't have known he'd never get the chance to tell Leia the truth. But he did tell her about Obi-Wan. Leia knew he existed, and she knew he'd fought with Bail Organa in the Clone Wars. It's so strange. It was Leia's message to Obi-Wan that got me involved in everything in the first place. And Bail had planted the seeds of that by telling her about him."
"I didn't even know Master Kenobi was still alive until you turned up," Mon Mothma admitted. "It was a huge surprise to me. I know Bail had helped Obi-Wan and Yoda to escape, and he told me they'd had to disappear for their own safety. With no mention of them for so many years, I suppose I just assumed they'd died."
"They needed to stay hidden. Obi-Wan couldn't risk Vader discovering where he was. But Bail would've told Leia about him for a reason. He must've known that someday, somehow, connections might be made, and things would start to happen. And because Bail had known Ben was on Tatooine, he'd have known why. He'd have known I was there too. And he'd have known Leia was my sister."
Mon Mothma nodded. "Yes, he must've known that. I've started to believe he knew a great deal about the circumstances of your birth."
Luke stared at her for a long moment before he spoke. "Do you mean, about our mother?"
Mon Mothma got up from her chair and walked across to the desk. She fiddled about with datacards, trying to set them straight. It was a clear delaying tactic, but Luke waited in silence. After all, he'd already waited for over two decades.
Finally, Mon Mothma spoke. "There are things I've thought about since you first came to see me. Purely in my own mind you understand. Bail told me nothing. Knowledge was dangerous back then, and as we've already said, there were people to protect. I could be completely wrong."
"I'd like to hear what you think."
Mon Mothma studied Luke. "Will you tell me something? It's not a subject of conversation you'll like, I'm sure. But it's important."
"I can try."
"When you came to see me before, Han said Vader told you at Bespin that he was your father."
"That's right."
"He knew you existed, before then?"
"Oh, he knew alright. He lured me there to tell me that. It was part of his plan."
"So he'd always known? Had he been searching for you since you were a baby?"
Luke frowned. "I don't think so, but I'm not sure. Ben told me we were hidden from Vader when we were born. Maybe he found out later. Perhaps it had something to do with my training, making Vader either sense my existence, or realizing he had to do something about me. But Vader definitely hadn't known about Leia. It was me that revealed her to him - only I didn't mean to."
Luke shrugged, and looked back at Mon Mothma. "Vader can't have been there at the birth, otherwise he'd have known there were two of us."
"If there is anything in what I'm thinking, it would make sense that Vader would not have known you existed. Not until you came to the Empire's attention maybe."
"Why?"
Mon Mothma sighed. "Bear with me. I'm going to explain something else from the past."
Luke nodded in silence.
"When it became obvious that Palpatine wasn't handing back his emergency powers, a group of us met up in Bail's chambers to discuss this. They were dangerous times to be talking that way. Going against the Chancellor would have amounted to siding with the separatists, and that could've got you a charge of treason. We had to be careful even how we spoke amongst ourselves, because we weren't sure if we could trust each other. We didn't put a name to what we were doing, but we knew we had to take some sort of action to counteract Palpatine's powers. We swore ourselves to secrecy."
"That's how you started the Rebel Alliance?" Luke asked.
"Yes - although we didn't know back then just where it was going to take us. We were simply a small group of worried politicians, thinking only of diplomatic means to get our voices heard." She smiled ruefully. "Incredible how naïve we were really. And now there are so few of us remaining from that time. How I wish all the others were still around to witness what we've achieved."
"Who were the others?" Luke asked.
"Bail of course. Fang Zar from Sern Prime and Terr Taneel from Neelanon. All three of them dead now. Padmé Amidala from Naboo-"
"Naboo? Palpatine's homeworld?" Luke interrupted.
"She was the former queen. The one who'd escaped the invasion army with Obi-Wan Kenobi. She'd been more shocked than any of us by the actions of Palpatine, given that she'd had a more specific friendship with him."
"When you mentioned her before, you said she'd become friendly with Obi-Wan too," Luke said.
Mon Mothma nodded. "She had close links with the Jedi. During one of our meetings she told us that. She wanted to enlist a particular Jedi's help. We said no. At the time we didn't know who we could trust. We wanted to leave the Jedi out of it."
"She was talking about Obi-Wan?"
Mon Mothma hesitated. "It's possible. But all my instincts told me she wasn't. There was something about the way she said it. Almost... secretive. I got the sense that something was very wrong, but I didn't want to put it to her there and then. Not in front of the other senators."
"What d'you mean?"
"You know Luke, there are some things I've always been very good at doing. One of those is reading between the lines, and the other is sensing subterfuge in others. It's been very useful to me over the years, as I'm sure you can imagine. I'm not saying that the senator was doing anything underhand, but there was something she was trying to hide from everybody. And if someone's trying to hide such a thing, it leads directly to the assumption that there has to be a good reason for the deception."
"I'm not sure I understand. You think she was working against you all? That she was spying for Palpatine?"
"No - nothing like that!" Mon Mothma said quickly. "I think she was totally loyal to us, and to our cause. This was something much more personal." Mon Mothma glanced briefly down into her caf mug, then back up at Luke. "She was pregnant, but she was doing her very best to hide that fact."
Once again, Luke found himself staring at Mon Mothma. It took him a few seconds to find his voice. "What happened to her?"
Mon Mothma held Luke's gaze levelly, but her eyes were troubled. "She died. It would've been around the time the baby was due. And around the time that you and Leia must've been born. The time of the purge."
"The time of my father's fall," Luke whispered. "The baby... Do you know-?"
"Died with her - I believed at the time."
"And now?"
Mon Mothma shook her head. "Now... I don't know what to think."
"How did she die?"
"I don't know. I never understood it at the time. There were secrets there. In those last days she'd been deeply troubled. I knew it was something more than politics, but I didn't think it was my place to ask her. People are entitled to privacy in their lives. Bail said there'd been some medical complication, and the droids had tried to save her. It never rang completely true, but Bail was very distressed about it, and I didn't question him. He had to take her body back to her family. I know that wasn't easy for him - they'd been living in fear for her life for years."
Mon Mothma pushed the caf jug over to Luke, and he refilled his mug automatically, not noticing what he was doing.
"And then Bail suddenly had a new, adopted baby daughter," Mon Mothma continued. "I never drew any conclusions. Orphaned babies were everywhere..."
"But now you're drawing conclusions?"
"You understand this is all supposition. I have no proof. As a probability, it's not even likely. The galaxy is immense. All the Jedi traveled widely, met countless numbers of different humans. And people's reasons for secrecy are as varied and never-ending as everything else."
"But you've got your instincts," Luke stated.
"That's all I've got. But... there is someone else you can talk to. Someone who may know more than I do."
"Who? Everyone likely to really know seems to be dead."
"This person isn't. I introduced you to him this morning."
"Senator Danu?" Luke asked, surprised.
"He was one of our group - there from the beginning. He had links with the Jedi, and he'd grown closer to Senator Amidala because they shared that same belief in the Jedi."
"Yes... but for him to understand what I'm asking, it'd mean telling him the truth. About Vader."
Mon Mothma inclined her head. "That has to be your decision. But for what it's worth, I'm certain he'll be on your side. And I'd trust him with my life."
"You said he'd been in exile for years. You haven't seen him in all that time?"
"That's true," Mon Mothma conceded, "but I'm going on those instincts again."
Luke smiled at her. "Okay. But it's not just my decision. I need to speak to Leia."
chapter 11
Author: Caryn B
Fandom: Star Wars (film canon only - see notes)
Timeline: 6 months after RotJ
Pairing: Luke/Han, slash
Rating: NC-17 overall; this chapter PG-13
Warnings: None
The list of chapters is here
Chapter 10
When Luke finally found himself outside Mon Mothma's door, he felt as though he was on the edge of a change. Where the feeling came from, he wasn't sure, because it didn't seem to tie in with any of the other changes that had hit him so dramatically in the last few hours. Puzzled, he pressed the intercom and waited for the door to slide open.
Mon Mothma smiled and got up from her desk. Around her lay a realm of chaos even greater than that of Leia's office. She shifted a pile of stuff from a chair, and gestured for Luke to sit down.
"I'll try to make this fairly quick," she explained. "I know you're busy. But first - let me get you some caf."
Luke, having trailed from one meeting to the next for half the day, each one accompanied by mugs of caf, began to wonder if his whole time was going to be spent drinking the stuff. Much more of it, and he'd be climbing the walls. He thought about declining, but Mon Mothma was already asking for it over her communicator, and Luke guessed she wanted an excuse to have one herself. He wondered just what it was she was going to say.
"Do you remember you came to see me some weeks ago, to tell me about Vader?" Mon Mothma hesitated. "Your father."
"Yeah, sure." He'd hardly be likely to forget.
"I know the intention was to let me know just what the situation was with you and Leia. But I also wondered if you'd been hoping I might know something more - about your father's past?"
"I was clutching at straws really. I know next to nothing, and I knew you spent some of your time on Coruscant. I just thought there might've been a chance..."
A protocol droid arrived with the caf, and spent a few minutes fussing around pouring it, and trying to clear a space to put the tray and the individual mugs.
"I'll just hold mine thanks," Luke said, wishing the droid would give up what was a futile task.
"Yes, just put the tray on the floor please," Mon Mothma suggested. "We can manage easily enough."
The droid complied with a sigh suggestive of a less-than-patient tolerance for human foibles, and disappeared.
Mon Mothma rolled her eyes slightly, and took a grateful sip of the hot caf. She picked up the conversation where they'd left off.
"Didn't your teachers tell you any Jedi history?"
"No. In fact they positively avoided telling me anything. I only know what Ben told me - that Vader helped to hunt down and kill all the Jedi."
"Well, it's easy to see why Master Kenobi wanted to stay away from certain aspects of the past," Mon Mothma said. "But I can equally see why it matters to you to know what you can."
"Did you know Obi-Wan?"
"Not really. But Bail knew him well."
"Bail Organa?"
Mon Mothma nodded, and cleared another chair to sit down near Luke. He could sense a sort of nervousness coming from her, which was extremely unusual to say the least. Mon Mothma was one of the most composed people he knew, although presumably much of that was for public show - a necessary act of survival for many of them.
Without further preamble, Mon Mothma began to speak. "When I was a young senator in the Old Republic, Palpatine was a very popular man."
Luke said nothing - it would be impossible to reconcile his own memories of the man with anything Mon Mothma had to say of his earlier life.
"He'd worked his way up to a position of strength by cultivating that popularity. He'd been a senator, the same as thousands of others, but a series of events ensued that meant he could appear to take charge of increasing problems in the galaxy. He became a symbol for many. The ultimate peace-giver."
"Appear to take charge?"
"Yes." Mon Mothma brushed a stray strand of hair back from her face. "Luke - I know you have first-hand experience of the Emperor's true nature, but I think it's important to tell you how things were in the past. Palpatine was an extremely manipulative man. Everything he did was part of a carefully designed plot."
Luke gave a low laugh. "He didn't change much over the years then."
"I doubt it. He was also a very clever man, and none of us, at the time, had any idea just how much of his rise to power had been calculated. Years beforehand really. I was taken in by him as much as anybody at first. When I found out the true picture from Bail, it was already too late to take real action. The damage had been done."
"What happened?" Luke asked.
"It's complicated, but basically, the events that he seemed to take charge of would never have existed in the first place had he not orchestrated them."
For a brief moment Luke was back in that throne room, listening to the Emperor proclaiming that everything had taken place according to his design. He shivered involuntarily, wondering just how much hardship the Emperor had deliberately instigated in order to appear in control.
Mon Mothma downed the remains of her caf and reached for the jug, refilling both of their mugs. Luke thought she must use the high stimulant intake just to keep going. He couldn't blame her - politicians weren't the easiest people to deal with.
"I was only sixteen when he became Chancellor, but I was already active in politics. I took a lot of interest in what went on in the Senate because I wanted to join them and represent my own world. Palpatine represented Naboo. It was a small, peaceful world, not at all interested in a galactic power struggle, but Palpatine made sure it was thrust right into the middle of everything."
"What did he do?" Luke asked.
"There was an invasion there. It's a long and complex story, and I won't go into all the details right now. But anyway, Palpatine stood up as a savior for its people. He managed to get himself elected as Supreme Chancellor on that particular ticket. I mean, how convenient was it that Palpatine's homeworld was suddenly facing a crisis - and to deal with it effectively required a shift in government?"
"You mean he fixed the invasion?"
"He played both sides. It was all about his personal rise to power. Plus it enabled him to gain the trust of the Jedi - at least in the early days. Obi-Wan Kenobi was one of those sent by the Jedi Council to negotiate an end to the crisis, but he and his companion ended up right in the middle of the invasion. They had to flee the planet with Naboo's Queen. They took her to Coruscant, so she could appeal to the Senate. It was the start of a good friendship between the Queen of Naboo and Master Kenobi."
"So how did the Republic turn into the Empire?" Luke asked.
"It all hinged on the outcome of the Clone Wars. That, and a number of supposed threats to the Senate and everything it stood for. It enabled Palpatine to claim more and more power. The full truth didn't come out until it was all in place."
"But you did find out the truth."
Mon Mothma nodded. "Yes. Much of it from Bail. He'd originally been one of Palpatine's supporters, but he was also a good friend of the Jedi. Particularly to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Master Yoda."
"He knew Yoda?" Luke exclaimed.
Mon Mothma smiled. "You sound amazed."
"It's just - Yoda was so alone. I can't picture him anywhere else other than Dagobah, which is where I found him. There's nothing there. Just swamps, and mud... But I knew he'd taught Obi-Wan. Knew he'd been a great Jedi master, so I've no justification for being surprised."
"There was a fair amount of interaction between the Jedi Council and the Senate. Not that the Jedi took a political stance - but they were there to uphold the stability of the democracy we supposedly stood for."
"Was the Council based on Coruscant then?"
"Yes - at the Jedi Temple. The Council was a group of leading Jedi, one of which was Master Yoda. Master Kenobi was a member too by the end."
"The end? You mean the purge?"
Mon Mothma nodded grimly. "That was also part of Palpatine's scheme."
"I... Ben - Obi-Wan - told me that Vader was responsible for the deaths of all the remaining Jedi."
Mon Mothma shook her head slightly. "I don't know. He certainly didn't do it alone. The clone army killed many. Bail saw thousands of troops attacking the Jedi Temple. It burned for hours. I don't think anyone was left alive in there." She looked down at her hands for a moment, before glancing across at Luke.
Luke stared at her, frowning. "I thought the clones were on the side of the Republic - but the Jedi were too, weren't they? That means the purge wasn't just the Emperor's private vendetta."
"Yes, you're right. Palpatine claimed publicly that the Jedi had plotted to assassinate him. He said they were planning to take over the Senate - to put an end to democracy. He called them 'enemies of the Republic', announcing it at a special session of the Senate. Collaboration with the Jedi from then on was seen as treason."
"So he put himself in the role of preserver of democracy. All that explains the mixed reactions I get," Luke said quietly. "There's a lot of hatred out there for the Jedi. It's no wonder, if people believed they were only after power."
"Not everyone believed it. Increasingly, people began to realize the truth. Of course, it was all rather beside the point then."
Luke nodded. "I can see why the Emperor had to get rid of them. But why didn't the Council realize what was going on earlier?"
"Again, it was down to Palpatine's cleverness. What people wanted more than anything was somebody taking charge. Someone who'd put an end to all the fighting. The Senate voted to give Palpatine emergency powers, and he slowly began to take more and more freedom away from the Republic in the name of security. I suspect the Jedi were increasingly concerned over the powers he was assuming, but to have acted against him they'd have needed proof of corruption. It was the same for us. Several of us in the Senate felt equally as worried, but to speak out was unsafe. We didn't know at the time who to trust, and we weren't sure about the Jedi either."
Mon Mothma frowned and took a swallow of her caf. "There were at least two of our group who wanted to ally with the Jedi from the beginning. But the rest of us urged caution. It seemed too risky. Even during Palpatine's announcement about the treason of the Jedi, we didn't really understand. Or I didn't", she corrected herself. "Bail knew, because he'd ended up right in the middle of it all. Afterwards he told me everything he'd discovered from Obi-Wan and Yoda. That Palpatine had engineered the whole situation. Created all the unrest in the galaxy, simply so he could come in and take control. It worked perfectly. And he was powerful too."
Luke nodded. Both Yoda and Ben had warned him about the Emperor's powers, and then of course he'd seen them for himself. Inwardly he sighed, because although everything Mon Mothma was saying was fascinating, at the heart of the whole story Luke was failing to find his father. And it was information about him that Luke had really hoped to hear.
"What about Vader? Did Bail Organa talk about him at all?"
Mon Mothma shook her head. "Not in the way you mean. As an enemy of the Alliance, we spoke of him a lot. But I think it's now clear to me that Bail knew of Darth Vader's true identity. There's something I remember. It was shortly after the declaration of the Empire. Palpatine called many meetings then - it was necessary for him to keep the senators sweet in those early days. He hadn't yet begun to govern by force, and he wanted co-operation, not unrest. Bail and I didn't usually sit together during meetings because we didn't want to draw attention to our friendship, or to anything that might've seemed like a plot. But on this one occasion he came into the Chandrilan pod. Palpatine was in the central pod, and next to him was this - thing."
She looked at Luke apologetically. "I'm sorry, Luke. But right from the start, there was something shocking about Vader. Even though it was the first time we'd seen him, and we knew nothing about him - he seemed to come from nowhere. But Palpatine introduced him to the Senate that day, and I remember how Bail just froze. It was like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. And then, suddenly, without a word to me, he just got up and left. He told me later that Master Yoda had explained about Vader's Jedi past, and I put Bail's reaction down to the same feelings of revulsion I'd felt. Of course, it's obvious to me now that he had good reason for not disclosing his knowledge of who Vader really was."
"Leia," Luke said. He felt shaky inside, thinking how Palpatine had fully expected to be able to introduce a new apprentice to the galaxy, all those years after presenting Vader to them. He tried to imagine himself in that role, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Emperor, and assuming public responsibility for untold horrors.
But Mon Mothma was replying to Luke's statement, and mentally he shook himself, trying to displace the unease that was gnawing away at his insides.
"He'd have done what he could to protect her. Not just to keep her identity a secret from Vader, but also to save her from the truth. I don't know if that was the right thing to do. I know she's finding it difficult now."
"I wonder if Bail had just been waiting for the right moment..." Luke said.
"Do you think so?"
"He couldn't have known he'd never get the chance to tell Leia the truth. But he did tell her about Obi-Wan. Leia knew he existed, and she knew he'd fought with Bail Organa in the Clone Wars. It's so strange. It was Leia's message to Obi-Wan that got me involved in everything in the first place. And Bail had planted the seeds of that by telling her about him."
"I didn't even know Master Kenobi was still alive until you turned up," Mon Mothma admitted. "It was a huge surprise to me. I know Bail had helped Obi-Wan and Yoda to escape, and he told me they'd had to disappear for their own safety. With no mention of them for so many years, I suppose I just assumed they'd died."
"They needed to stay hidden. Obi-Wan couldn't risk Vader discovering where he was. But Bail would've told Leia about him for a reason. He must've known that someday, somehow, connections might be made, and things would start to happen. And because Bail had known Ben was on Tatooine, he'd have known why. He'd have known I was there too. And he'd have known Leia was my sister."
Mon Mothma nodded. "Yes, he must've known that. I've started to believe he knew a great deal about the circumstances of your birth."
Luke stared at her for a long moment before he spoke. "Do you mean, about our mother?"
Mon Mothma got up from her chair and walked across to the desk. She fiddled about with datacards, trying to set them straight. It was a clear delaying tactic, but Luke waited in silence. After all, he'd already waited for over two decades.
Finally, Mon Mothma spoke. "There are things I've thought about since you first came to see me. Purely in my own mind you understand. Bail told me nothing. Knowledge was dangerous back then, and as we've already said, there were people to protect. I could be completely wrong."
"I'd like to hear what you think."
Mon Mothma studied Luke. "Will you tell me something? It's not a subject of conversation you'll like, I'm sure. But it's important."
"I can try."
"When you came to see me before, Han said Vader told you at Bespin that he was your father."
"That's right."
"He knew you existed, before then?"
"Oh, he knew alright. He lured me there to tell me that. It was part of his plan."
"So he'd always known? Had he been searching for you since you were a baby?"
Luke frowned. "I don't think so, but I'm not sure. Ben told me we were hidden from Vader when we were born. Maybe he found out later. Perhaps it had something to do with my training, making Vader either sense my existence, or realizing he had to do something about me. But Vader definitely hadn't known about Leia. It was me that revealed her to him - only I didn't mean to."
Luke shrugged, and looked back at Mon Mothma. "Vader can't have been there at the birth, otherwise he'd have known there were two of us."
"If there is anything in what I'm thinking, it would make sense that Vader would not have known you existed. Not until you came to the Empire's attention maybe."
"Why?"
Mon Mothma sighed. "Bear with me. I'm going to explain something else from the past."
Luke nodded in silence.
"When it became obvious that Palpatine wasn't handing back his emergency powers, a group of us met up in Bail's chambers to discuss this. They were dangerous times to be talking that way. Going against the Chancellor would have amounted to siding with the separatists, and that could've got you a charge of treason. We had to be careful even how we spoke amongst ourselves, because we weren't sure if we could trust each other. We didn't put a name to what we were doing, but we knew we had to take some sort of action to counteract Palpatine's powers. We swore ourselves to secrecy."
"That's how you started the Rebel Alliance?" Luke asked.
"Yes - although we didn't know back then just where it was going to take us. We were simply a small group of worried politicians, thinking only of diplomatic means to get our voices heard." She smiled ruefully. "Incredible how naïve we were really. And now there are so few of us remaining from that time. How I wish all the others were still around to witness what we've achieved."
"Who were the others?" Luke asked.
"Bail of course. Fang Zar from Sern Prime and Terr Taneel from Neelanon. All three of them dead now. Padmé Amidala from Naboo-"
"Naboo? Palpatine's homeworld?" Luke interrupted.
"She was the former queen. The one who'd escaped the invasion army with Obi-Wan Kenobi. She'd been more shocked than any of us by the actions of Palpatine, given that she'd had a more specific friendship with him."
"When you mentioned her before, you said she'd become friendly with Obi-Wan too," Luke said.
Mon Mothma nodded. "She had close links with the Jedi. During one of our meetings she told us that. She wanted to enlist a particular Jedi's help. We said no. At the time we didn't know who we could trust. We wanted to leave the Jedi out of it."
"She was talking about Obi-Wan?"
Mon Mothma hesitated. "It's possible. But all my instincts told me she wasn't. There was something about the way she said it. Almost... secretive. I got the sense that something was very wrong, but I didn't want to put it to her there and then. Not in front of the other senators."
"What d'you mean?"
"You know Luke, there are some things I've always been very good at doing. One of those is reading between the lines, and the other is sensing subterfuge in others. It's been very useful to me over the years, as I'm sure you can imagine. I'm not saying that the senator was doing anything underhand, but there was something she was trying to hide from everybody. And if someone's trying to hide such a thing, it leads directly to the assumption that there has to be a good reason for the deception."
"I'm not sure I understand. You think she was working against you all? That she was spying for Palpatine?"
"No - nothing like that!" Mon Mothma said quickly. "I think she was totally loyal to us, and to our cause. This was something much more personal." Mon Mothma glanced briefly down into her caf mug, then back up at Luke. "She was pregnant, but she was doing her very best to hide that fact."
Once again, Luke found himself staring at Mon Mothma. It took him a few seconds to find his voice. "What happened to her?"
Mon Mothma held Luke's gaze levelly, but her eyes were troubled. "She died. It would've been around the time the baby was due. And around the time that you and Leia must've been born. The time of the purge."
"The time of my father's fall," Luke whispered. "The baby... Do you know-?"
"Died with her - I believed at the time."
"And now?"
Mon Mothma shook her head. "Now... I don't know what to think."
"How did she die?"
"I don't know. I never understood it at the time. There were secrets there. In those last days she'd been deeply troubled. I knew it was something more than politics, but I didn't think it was my place to ask her. People are entitled to privacy in their lives. Bail said there'd been some medical complication, and the droids had tried to save her. It never rang completely true, but Bail was very distressed about it, and I didn't question him. He had to take her body back to her family. I know that wasn't easy for him - they'd been living in fear for her life for years."
Mon Mothma pushed the caf jug over to Luke, and he refilled his mug automatically, not noticing what he was doing.
"And then Bail suddenly had a new, adopted baby daughter," Mon Mothma continued. "I never drew any conclusions. Orphaned babies were everywhere..."
"But now you're drawing conclusions?"
"You understand this is all supposition. I have no proof. As a probability, it's not even likely. The galaxy is immense. All the Jedi traveled widely, met countless numbers of different humans. And people's reasons for secrecy are as varied and never-ending as everything else."
"But you've got your instincts," Luke stated.
"That's all I've got. But... there is someone else you can talk to. Someone who may know more than I do."
"Who? Everyone likely to really know seems to be dead."
"This person isn't. I introduced you to him this morning."
"Senator Danu?" Luke asked, surprised.
"He was one of our group - there from the beginning. He had links with the Jedi, and he'd grown closer to Senator Amidala because they shared that same belief in the Jedi."
"Yes... but for him to understand what I'm asking, it'd mean telling him the truth. About Vader."
Mon Mothma inclined her head. "That has to be your decision. But for what it's worth, I'm certain he'll be on your side. And I'd trust him with my life."
"You said he'd been in exile for years. You haven't seen him in all that time?"
"That's true," Mon Mothma conceded, "but I'm going on those instincts again."
Luke smiled at her. "Okay. But it's not just my decision. I need to speak to Leia."
chapter 11