The door to Anakin's cell shot open, and his old apprentice was standing in the doorway. She stepped inside and closed the door behind her. He could see her lightsabers clipped onto her belt.

"What is your true name?" she asked him immediately.

"Are we not being watched?"

"The Commander was kind enough to turn off all recording devices in this cell. I informed him that in the event you were an imposter, you might not appreciate Vader finding out."

"Can you not sense me?"

"I can, but High Command wants to make sure that you're the real you."

"You will find I am."

"OK, just to make sure, so I have something to tell them . . . what's your name?"

"My name . . . is Anakin Skywalker."

"And our late unlamented Darth Sidious's last words?"

"They were 'So be it, Jedi. Prepare to die'."

"Good, Skyguy," she said, and leaned back against the door of the cell, completely at ease. "What possessed you to turn yourself in?! You could incriminate Luke!"

"I had informed Luke that I was considering surrender. I have set my affairs in order, including the programming of my droids and the recording devices on the Amidala so as not to incriminate anybody, and I am turning myself in for a variety of reasons."

"Which are . . . ?"

"My health is failing is one of them. Since my previous operation, I have come close to collapsing several times whilst on missions and severely endangered several implementations of Operation Podrace. Seeing as I will soon be incapable of executing it, and seeing that I shall be dead in a few months, I decided that I would die as I ought."

"Die as you ought?! As a prisoner of war?! As . . . Anakin, I don't think I understand you."

"I wish to die as a Jedi," explained Anakin, "And so I must die upholding peace and justice in the Galaxy. I do not know how to bring peace, but I can die upholding justice by putting myself under it."

Ahsoka folded her arms around herself in shock. Then she looked up and let her arms fall down by her sides, mirroring Anakin's position.

"I wish Padme could have heard that," she whispered thickly. She choked back tears of grief and of joy. "And Obi-Wan, and Master Yoda." She swallowed. "They'd be proud of you, Master. And I'll tell Luke. He'll be happy to hear it. We're all proud of you, Skyguy, for getting out and getting this far."

"And I of you," said Anakin, and meant it.

Both Shiphrah and Anluaun were far too professional to let their surprise show when they were actually opening the medical readouts and stripping the Amidala for apparatus with troopers and technicians, but when they got to the Mess Hall (Doctors Cawne, Gbotaye, and Esperra were covering shift), the talk let loose.

"You'd never have guessed he were human, with that life-support," commented Anluaun.

"By all rights, he should be dead about five times over," added Shiphrah.

"He must have been in it since the Empire was born," added Anluaun. "How old do you think he is?"

"Judging by the state of his organs and biological condition, I'd say he might be in his seventies or eighties."

"What happened to him, anyway?" asked Veizer. He had supervised the collection of the medical apparatus from the Amidala, and had stayed on board to do a complete security check. "Is he a droid, an organic, or a cyborg?"

"Why, he's the most cyborg-y cyborg I ever laíd eye on," said Anluaun. Veizer noted that he had never lost his Nila dialect. "His medical notes say he was implanted with most a' his synthesisers after a burnin'."

"There were even more changes after an electrocution shock," added Shiphrah. "He's been in the wars in a figurative sense too."

"From the equipment I saw, and from what you've been telling me," said Veizer, "I gather that Vader could be quite vulnerable, if you removed his life-support and medical apparatus."

"Vulnerable? 'Ead be helpless," said Anluaun.

"I wonder how much the Imperials know," murmured Veizer. "He must have had to keep it a great secret. I can't imagine even Imperials putting up with him unless he cowed them with fear, or unless the Empire had use for him."

"That was true for twenty years," Shiphrah pointed out.

Veizer wondered if that was why Vader was turning himself in. After all, with the Emperor gone, and his personal Star Destroyer and the Death Star gone too, his clout would have fallen a long, long way. And without the Emperor to stop half the Empire splintering up into factions, like it had done so far, the Empire's fragments -

No. That theory had far too many holes in it. Perhaps he would be a bit more vulnerable without the Death Star and the Executor, but he would have been a formidable warrior nonetheless, a great figurehead for what was left of the Empire, and even if a succession crisis on a grand scale had ensued, there would be plenty of Imperials scrambling to get into Vader's good books for his military help and protection. If absolutely nothing else, he was a fine pilot - and if his slave-releasing escapades were any indication (assuming the black-suited cyborg in the brig really was Vader), still quite capable.

So why would he have made a strange and radical announcement over the Holonet, disappeared for several years, and then turned up demanding to be turned in? It made no sense - well, actually, if this was some part of some convoluted plot, most of which hadn't been explained, then maybe it did - but barring that, Vader's movements made almost no sense at all.

Veizer didn't know it, but several hundred parsecs away, the Rebel High Command's members - with a few exceptions - were thinking almost exactly the same thing.

He turned back to the Doctors. "He's managed to evade all notice in a galaxy that hated him all whilst doing some high-profile daring stunts. Who's to say he didn't do the same in the days of the Empire?"

"Maybe," said Anluaun. "But I'd say that his kind of equipment would be hard tae hide."

"He hid it from a good million slaves who passed through that ship of his," pointed out Shiphrah. "Since he had whole Star Destroyers at his disposal, and was second in the Empire, I guess he found it easier to hide even then."

Solicitor Hoyshin was the finest solicitor in the Saleucami Sector, which was why he'd been called in to go through Vader's will. He had been scanned, vetted, asked to swear an oath of discretion, and now the Gran stood before Commander Kryze in the Base's briefing room.

"Solicitor, we've summoned you here to read the Will of Darth Vader."

The Gran blinked.

"He turned himself into our Base about eighty hours ago, gave us a testimony for the courts and a Will. Ms. Tano gave him a preliminary questioning to establish that it was Darth Vader in our holding cells, and her intel . . . says he is."

"And I'm . . . I'm safe?" stammered out Hoyshin at last.

"As safe as we can make you, Solicitor. You have out protection."

"Well, then, we ought to get to business. You are aware that prisoners were only allowed to issue Wills or have them followed under Republic Law?"

"I am. Moderator Mothma requested that his Will should be read, regardless, so that whatever passes, we know its contents."

Kryze handed over the datapad, and the Gran began to read.

I, known to the Galaxy as Darth Vader, do in the seventh month in the reign of Queen Nivanda of Naboo, request that the following shall be carried out either during my trial or immediately after my death:

1) The delivery of all of my unrequisitioned credits and profits from the sale of my real estate properties to be put into the trust of the Jedi and their friends and affiliates to use for the profit of the Beings of this Galaxy, namely, their well-being and happiness.

2) The return of my ship, the Amidala, and its auxiliary vessel, the Queen's Daughter, to be returned to the Royal House of Naboo in perpetuity

3) That my droids found aboard the Amidala be spared a memory wipe, and be given the right to choose their own masters, and serve them in perpetuity. If said masters mistreat said Droids, they are to be given the right to leave said master for another of their choice.

4) The use of my residence on Varkhar VII, known as Sutos Castle and its grounds, be used for the rehabilitation and healing of freed slaves, and as a headquarters of a body whose purpose is to unite freed slaves with their families and loved ones in perpetuity, or until no slaves exist in this Galaxy in practice or in name.

5) That the aforementioned body to reunite slaves and their loved ones be formed under the supervision of the Chamber of Representation

6) That if I am to be executed, that Luke Skywalker remove my mask before I am dead, or lose consciousness during execution procedures

I name as the executors of my Will the following beings:

Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight; R6-B9, my astromech droid; EK-97, my psychotherapist droid; 4-86, my medical droid; R2-D2, the astromech droid who has belonged to the Royal House of Naboo, Jedi Knight and Republic General Anakin Skywalker, the Royal House of Alderaan; Doctor Aphra; Arbiter Pooja Naberrie; and Jar Jar Binks, Representative of Naboo and Bardotta.

It is my fervent hope that the Galaxy may recover from the harm I have given it.

Vader, a freedman

Hoyshin looked up. "This is unexpected, Commander. Are you sure that this is Vader's Will?"

"That's what he told us. It's also concurrent with all of the other documents he had in his possession."

"Those documents being . . . ?"

"Medical records, an abdication statement, a testimony of guilt, and some military Intel on rogue warlords."

"In that case . . . is it positive that it is Vader in that brig?"

"Tano believes so. We have samples of the prisoner's genetic data, but we're still waiting on the Imperials to provide Vader's genetic signature. All suit measurements and such match up exactly to everything we know about Vader. In other words, we're as sure as we can possibly be at present that our prisoner is not an imposter."

Korkie had a lot of trouble imagining why any being (unless they were seven feet tall and had a death wish) would be willing to disguise himself as Darth Vader, but he had done his best to follow up on that lead to ensure that the being in cell 2017 was the genuine article. And apart from all the completely left-field actions, everything matched up.

The Gran sighed, and picked up that datapad again. "It's a funny choice of executors," he said. "There's nary a lawyer among them. Just Jedi, Droids, and political staff. Several imperially-aligned lawyers could have been named."

"Solicitor Hoyshin? You are aware that any extrapolation you make is to be made available for military Intel?"

"Yes, Commander, I am." Hoyshin had already been notified that the conversation would be recorded, but that his image would be fuzzed and his voice signature scrambled for the purposes of security. He tapped the datapad. "This Will seems to me to have been drawn up by an amateur. Since Vader could have called an Imperial lawyer if he wished, that's quite surprising."

"He seems to have been trying to keep a low profile ever since Endor. What makes you think it's amateurish?"

Hoyshin snorted. "Simple. If had summoned a lawyer and informed him that he wanted his Will to be ironclad enough to be enforced in the current times, this would have stated what laws he wanted it carried out under, and it would have stood up to that set of laws and many others.

"Of course, if had summoned any lawyer, or even a clerk to help him draft this, then it would have been twenty times longer and full of redundant terms and pronouns. This just reads like a list of last requests."

"What does that mean, Mr. Hoyshin?"

Hoyshin lifted his hands, the Gran equivalent of a shrug. "Too early to tell yet."

"What does it mean in an immediate sense?"

"Well, whether or not the contents of his Will are executed depends on whatever law he's tried under. If he is to be tried under Imperial law, whether or not this can be carried out will depend on the opinion - and, if we're to be practical here - the interests - of the Judge. Imperial courts don't have a jury.

"If he's tried under Old Republic Law, then yes, our prisoner is legally entitled to have his Will executed. Of course, since he is to be tried for war crimes, and crimes against sentience, the Will can be challenged. I expect people would like to get their hands on his money, of course - and it's not as though he's done a very good job of safeguarding it, I must say. And of course he's named civilians - or at least, non-lawyers as his executors. That was permissible under both the Empire and the Republic, but it is certainly ill-advised.

"And then of course, there is the matter of droids. They generally aren't recognised as sentient beings, under either law. Even if the circumstances are good, it will be hard enough to let them choose their own masters, never mind act as executors of his Will."

"You know," said Korkie, "I don't think I would ever had expected something like this, ever. And I grew up in the Clone Wars. We used to get broadcasts of Jedi exploits every day in the news. My Aunt was friends with some of the best heroes of that war. I've seen some pretty strange and dangerous things . . . but none so much as this."

Hoyshin sighed. "I had just opened my practice when war came," he returned. "The Galaxy is changing now, in a way it hasn't before . . . in a way it did in the Clone Wars . . . but now, for the better."

"If we help it. However much the Galaxy may change without us, we ourselves must improve it. Ahsoka Tano taught me that. And so did my Aunt." he sighed. "We're on the cusp of something, I think, Mr. Hoyshin. Something is about to change, something big. Something that we'll all have a hand in, just by being near Vader."

He turned to face the Gran. "Saying that, do you wish to leave this and go home? I can't force you into this, any more than I could ask the Moon to stop rising."

Hoyshin cast his mind back to his childhood on Malastare. He thought of his father, who had told him to always act with honour and courage. He thought of his mother, who had taught him to always do the best for people. He thought of his brother and of his younger sister. He thought of his nieces and nephews, and how they deserved a better galaxy than he had lived in all his life.

"I shall continue with my assigned task, Commander Kryze," he said. "My task as a Solicitor, and my task to offer service to this Galaxy. Now, there's an appendix here about his credit storage and another about the real estate properties . . .

Anakin had been aware of what Master Windu would have probably called a Shatterpoint coming up on the horizon, but, in the more immediate sense, there was something else coming up. It was rather small in scope and impact, all things considered, or it would be if all went according to procedure, but, should misfortune befall, there was a chance it should spiral into something bigger.

Then the door to his cell slid open, and he saw Ahsoka standing outside with two dozen soldiers, who had two dozen blasters trained on him. And not just ordinary blasters; these were energy-iron blasters, which fired bolts of pure electro-magnetic energy and charged molecular particles in addition to the usual plasma bolts. He could stop them, of course, but in the event that something actually landed on his armour, it would fritz his systems enough to incapacitate him for a good while, if not actually kill him. Well, seeing as he had asked Ahsoka not to divulge anything about his true identity, it would be illogical to be angry for her for turning up with a squad of crack shots, especially if he was about to be moved somewhere.

He was mildly surprised to find that he was not angry with her at all for anything. Lack of anger where he would once have choked men to death was something that had been happening with increasing frequency over the past few years.

"Listen," said Ahsoka, "We're moving you. In a minute, after I've put some cuffs on you, I'll tell you to step out of your cell. After that, you will follow the yellow fluorescent lines painted on the walls and the floor into the temporary holding room in the ship that's gonna carry you. Once you're safely in there, I'll loosen to cuffs a bit to make you more comfortable for the duration of the journey, and when we land, somebody will brief you on getting to your new holding space. I warn you, if you try to make a prison break, we have crack men and all the Jedi we could muster all over this building."

"Thank you," said Anakin sincerely, and held out his arms for the cuffs before he realised that he might have caused Ahsoka's latest batch of troopers to die from the shock of seeing Darth Vader thanking someone.

One cuff wrapped around his right arm above his elbow; the other went around his left wrist. There was a reinforced fibreglass-plasma cord barely three centimetres long binding him together, so he had to fold his left arm awkwardly over his body. It was a restricting position, if he did say so himself.

"OK, now take three steps out of your cell and no further."

Anakin complied. There was an antechamber to his cell, so he stepped into that, as the various troopers shuffled around so that they surrounded him.

"Now follow me."

They walked through the trooper-lined fluorescent-painted corridors of Tarkinville Base. Anakin could see Jedi on his way through - brown-haired Jarrus and his former Apprentice, who was exactly the same age as Luke - a former Inquisitor and a handful of youths, and Luke himself, as he stepped into the hangar, empty save for a refurbished Separatist ship and plenty of soldiers covering all points of entry and exit. This move had been planned well, at least on this side.

"My compliments to the organiser of this operation. It has been well planned."

"Don't jinx it," said Ahsoka sternly. "Beings like us have a funny habit of attracting misfortune when we say such things."

They walked into the ship and Anakin was shepherded into another holding cell. Ahsoka set to lengthening the fibreglass cord between the cuffs. It stretched out to about ten centimetres, which gave Anakin a lot more freedom of movement.

"I did not sense the Princess of Alderaan," he said. Ahsoka looked up.

"She's not here."

"I hope she is well."

"She's as well as is to be expected," said Ahsoka. "We decided that she wasn't ready for a task like this one."

Anakin would have liked to send his regards, but remorse was suddenly choking him and closing up his throat. After all he had put his daughter through, what was there to say to her? Short of bringing Alderaan back, what could he do to atone? She had lost far more than he had, at her age, and unlike him, she might never have a chance to gain it back.

Ahsoka stepped out of her master's cell and palmed the door shut. She felt the ship lift under her feet, and she headed toward the cockpit to inform Commander Kryze and General Ackbar that the thing the galaxy called Darth Vader was safely secure.

She thought of Leia on the way. Leia was her apprentice; hers and Luke's. And Ahsoka got the distinct sense that Leia would have to face her father soon. She had insisted - vehemently - on not coming this time, and neither Luke nor Ahsoka had had the heart to force her.

She would have to face her father soon, or she would never have closure; and that was even more dangerous than the possible consequences of facing him.

Even if she did face him, Ahsoka's vision was unclouded enough to realise that the outcome of it would have implications for the whole galaxy. Yes, something was coming. Something that could decide the fate of the Alliance, the Galaxy, what was left of the Jedi.

The Galaxy was a much lighter place than it had been previously; a palpable sense of hope and peace was perpetually filling the air; but it was fragile, so fragile. Nothing like the Empire would ever rise again; Ahsoka was sure of it . . . but chaos and anarchy and warring could. She would have to speak to Luke about this. He didn't seem quite aware of it himself, but that boy had his mother's vision. His sister tended to focus on the here and now; the immediate problem; but she was very much capable of seeing the bigger picture, something their father had always had trouble with.

Until now, that is. Her master had been a fine Jedi in his time; and now he was an even better one. It was only a pity it had taken twenty years of darkness and genocide and slavery for him to get to this point.

She sighed. It would be useless to admit that she wasn't grieving, again, for her master's actions on the galaxy. She would have to set herself aside for Leia's sake, to guide her and to help her. But it was not good to grieve alone. Grieving with somebody else made it bearable. And she would do the same for him.

Thankfully, the entire Chamber had kept generally silent whilst the Testimony had played, even if it had taken three days to get through it all. Lando supposed they were all too stunned to do anything else.

"That's a longer list than I cared to hear," muttered Han, looking vaguely nauseated.

"Makes the likes of Azmorigan and Jabba look about as principled as your wife," Lando muttered back.

"Leia," said Han with a smuggler's pride, "Is quite willing to be as unprincipled as you when the situation calls for it. You didn't forget what happened to Jabba, did you, pal?"

Chewie told them to stop arguing like children.

"Oh, fine," muttered Lando, with a theatrically long-suffering sigh.

Chewie informed them both that they would be coming up to forty in a few short years, and that it was considered unseemly for men of their age to act like twenty-somethings both in civilised and uncivilised space.

"Ok, Chewie. I take it back. So does Lando -" (said Lando scowled) "-don't ya?"

"Yes," muttered Lando. They turned their attention back to the Chamber, which, for this session, was packed with Arbiters, Imperials, and Republicans. Bonteri had been chosen as the Speaker for this session; Koinyaro Hrital had been chosen as the Arbiter.

"Representatives," began Bonteri, "Today the matter of Vader's trial has been brought before us, and we have the responsibility of carrying this through. Now let the Representatives of the Imperial party speak.

The Representative in question was the Grand Moff Bolona. The most preeminent man in the Empire, he was a fierce warlord and a staunch supporter of the person of Vader, but reasonable enough to negotiate and to make temporary truces to the Rebels.

"Since His Majesty has abdicated in favour of Skywalker," he began, "The Empire will follow whatever procedure His Imperial Majesty the Emperor Skywalker deems fit."

Hrital turned to the Republicans. "Let the Representatives of the Republican party speak."

"We propose," said Mothma, "That Vader stand trial under the laws of the Old Republic.

"Let the Representatives of the Workingmen's Brotherhood speak." The Workingmen's Brotherhood had started as a sort of unofficial worker's union in the shipyards of Bestine in the days when the Empire had begun using the population as industrial slave labor. When it came to nasty showdowns party-politics style between the imperial and republican factions, they kept declaring themselves apolitical, but their actions belied a different course of action. From humble origins, the idea, intel and resources had grown softly but surely under imperial rule, as slaves and workers had come together to pool resources and intel to keep each other alive and in good condition.

After Endor, they had begun to come out of the woodwork, and had grown exponentially. It was a diverse, broad organisation, subscribed to, by now, by almost a third of civilised space's honest workforce, held together by the interests of ordinary working beings, and yet it had percolated galactic society in many social strata, including lawyers, senators and teachers; and one of its hallmarks was its stauch loyalty to the Jedi.

And as such, they were a generally a lot more sympathetic to the republican party than the imperial one, although there were several voices within it who claimed that the Old Republic had never done much for the likes of them.

At any one time there tended to be at least ten representatives of the Brotherhood in the Chamber, complete with their own personal arbiter to sort out intra-Brotherhood disputes.

"Us proposes," began Laeg Joiner in broken basic, "Ey that . . . that him a-going tried. No that us want see him pulled leg from arm . . ." He flushed at his poor attempts at speaking Basic and began muttering in Huttese to one of his compatriots.

"Laeg means that as much as we'd all like to see-a Vader ripped limb from limb," explained Andeis Mazoga, "He ought to be given a trial."

"Speaker, permission to clarify details?" called Hrital.

"Permission granted, Arbiter."

"What law do you propose he be tried under?" asked Hrital.

The Representatives of the Workingmen's Brotherhood looked at each other.

"I think that Andro Michna's our man," said one of them.

"We'll call Michna and Astron," said another. They're our legal experts; they'll know what to do."

A moment later, the holographic forms of a Toydarian and an Ithorian popped up. They evidently both understood Joiner's butchered Basic, because they told him that in their opinion, the Alderaani judicial system was generally regarded as one of the best, and failing that, the Coruscanti one - at least the one it had been allowed to have in the days of the Republic - was quite good, and the same went for the Ithorian one. It was decided that this was the law the Brotherhood would prefer Vader to be tried under.

"Let the Representatives of the Odjala Sector speak . . . "

When the it got too late to continue proceedings, Han and Leia returned home to crash in what had once been the Imperial Palace, which had been requisitioned for accommodation purposes. The Chamber of Representation was a converted building in the until-recently-derelict Works, so even with Han and Chewie driving the speeder, it had taken a good half-hour to get back.

"Are you alright, sweetheart?" asked Han when they were seated on a sofa, with a spread of Alderaani spicy cuisine in front of them. Leia sighed and leaned her head against Han's shoulder.

"I'm tired, Han. And I'm dreadfully worried about the proceedings."

"Because they're going reeal slow, darling?"

"No. This is a very big matter, Han; lack of speed is only to be expected, especially since he's not actually out on the rampage. No, it's the size of this matter that worries me."

"Darling, I'm a poor General with no training in politics. Care to explain in simple terms? So I can understand."

"Well, this trial . . ." Leia sighed. "This trial - and the way things are going, it looks like it's going to be a proper trial, at least - is going to set the precedent for how we treat every other war criminal that comes after Vader. What law we try him under, how all the factions co-operate, and what Constitution we end up negotiating. Or, best case scenario, deciding on. The point is that the future of the Galaxy is at stake here, again. We've lived through cataclysmic galaxy-changing events, Han, and this is another one of them. The outcome could be anything."

Han sighed. "Ya know, you Skywalker lot have a funny knack of being attracted to galaxy-changing events. Or maybe you attract them. Seven hells, I hope this kid don't get into much trouble as you and Luke." He grinned. "Just enough trouble to make life exciting." He put his hand over Leia's womb.

A/N: 'Seeing the Universe through red/green filters' is the far, far, away Galaxy's answer to 'seeing the world through jade/rose coloured glasses'.

Also, Vader styles himself as a 'freedman' on his Will. Historically, a 'Freeman' was a man who was born free, and a 'Freedman' was a man who had been a slave but who had (legally) gained his freedom. Since I see Vader as someone who was essentially Palpatine's slave, as well as a slave to all of Anakin's fears and issues, I decided that post-Vader Anakin would style himself as a freedman, since he had gained his freedom through finding the courage to let go and to admit his mistakes - thus freeing himself from the various constraints imposed on him since childhood.

Now: points for guessing who Laeg Joiner and compatriots are named after and what the Workingmen's Brotherhood is based on . . . I decided to ease those guys in to tip the balance in favour of democracy. Maybe one day, I'll tell their story.

Finally, a note on how the provisional government of the Alliance works: the Chamber of Representation is basically a place where everybody can turn up to air their grievances that they can't sort out themselves. After an issue is presented, MODERATORS decide its priority, and ARBITERS take the concerned parties aside (with a handful of witnesses) and work out a way to address said grievance. Day-to-day business and sentientarian/sapientarian/humanitarian causes is actually going well; but the different factions of the Alliance, without a leader (nobody can agree on how to proceed with ANYTHING) so stuff like, say, re-writing a Constitution and working out what everybody's responsibilities are in blanket terms (i.e. how much power ex-Imp Moffs have) isn't going anywhere.

Of course, Vader could have stopped this himself by allowing free elections, but he doesn't trust himself that much when it comes to politics and galaxy-running anymore, so he's turned the responsibility over to Luke by abdicating in his favour, because a) he trusts Luke, b) he feels Luke has better judgement than he ever did c) Luke takes after Padmé d) Luke is surrounded by good, levelheaded advisors, including one Alderaanian princess who happens to be his sister.