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Leia deactivated the containment shield on the prison cell and stepped inside.
Vader – as much as he could still be called that; Luke certainly insisted otherwise, but Leia couldn’t bring herself to think of him as anything else – looked up at her. With more standard respiration equipment, he looked far less intimidating, but she knew full well that that didn’t make him any less dangerous.
“Daughter,” he said, something almost like wonder in his voice. The word stretched taut through her, and snapped. This was exactly why she didn’t want to be here, and exactly why she knew she needed to. They needed to clear this up, now.
“I am the daughter of Bail and Breha Organa, of the royal house of Alderaan,” she said, the only thing keeping it from being a snarl was that vicious decorum was so much more potent. “You do not have the right to call me that when you held me in place as I was forced to watch their execution.”
But her fury was not entirely contained in words, as it pricked at the edges of her eyes and slowly spilled over. Leia did not move to wipe her eyes; she hated to show this to a former enemy, but even had he been blindfolded, he would’ve sensed it, so it was pointless to hide her tears.
She took a breath.
“I am here to report that the Alliance has decided against your execution and to accept your offer to make restitution.” The debate among rebel leadership had been fraught and fierce. Luke was trusted and respected, but his word alone that Vader had turned on and killed the Emperor was not enough of a guarantee that the former Vader was now an ally.
“But let me be clear,” Leia continued. “you are guilty of crimes for which no restitution can ever be made. We will accept your help to take down the remaining holdouts of the Empire and restore the Republic, but you are not pardoned. You are restricted to Intelligence and will not join combat operations. You will not be permitted to carry a weapon, and any use of the Force must be approved by a superior officer. You may not go outside of approved areas without an appropriate escort. For right now, only Luke is qualified.”
No one else was able to deal with someone of Vader’s abilities. Leia herself might have the power, but not the training, and while R2-D2 had insisted that he had put together an extensive databank dedicated to ways to disable Vader should he prove to be a threat, no one else wanted to rely on that.
“I understand,” Vader said.
“Good,” she said, turning to leave. “Luke will be here shortly to escort you to your room.”
“Leia.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry. For all the harm I’ve done, all the darkness I’ve brought.”
The words felt sincere. If only sincerity was enough.
“Well,” Leia said, bitterly, “it’s easy to apologize to the living, isn’t it?”