Luke and Leia the twin children of Darth Vader and heirs to the Emperor himself, defect. When they do, it’s naturally a dream come true for the Rebellion and the mother they never knew, one that’s been a long time in the making.
But they have to get to that point first.
Or: Darth Vader unwittingly sends his children down the merry path of treason...and the ugly, painful fallout.
Eclipse
is a completed Star Wars fic on Archive of Our Own; it’s a darker story, but epic, emotional, and beautiful, with deep insight into the characters' psyches and great moments that drive the story forward.
Eclipse provides examples of:
- Backstab Backfire: A dying Tarkin tries to shoot Luke in the back. Luke casually redirects the bolt into his throat.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between Luke and the Sixth Sister
- Brother–Sister Team: Applies more to the first half, but Luke and Leia are the perfect team of Sith warriors; the Empire isn’t so happy about that when this is turned against them.
- Captured on Purpose: Luke deliberately betrays Galen Erso to get him on board Tarkin's Star Destroyer so that Han can break him out and get him to the Rebellion
- The Cavalry: When the Rebel fleet arrives over Coruscant, the are heavily outnumbered by the fleet defending the planet. To make matters worse, another fleet arrives, bringing MORE Star Destroyers and even the Executor. Then the new ships start launching fighters against Palpatine's forces and hails Home One. Cue intense cheering.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: What Palpatine does to Luke after he tries to escape
- Classic Villain: Palpatine, like in canon, is an example of a Classic Villain. He wears dark colors, delights in evil, and has no qualms about killing, torturing, or inflicting any kind of pain on the heroes.
- Dark Action Girl: Even after joining the Rebellion, Leia struggles with her anger and tends to do things in a slightly more aggressive way than she does in canon.
- Diabolus ex Machina: Used to devastating effect. Around the midway point, Luke and Leia are about to escape to the Rebellion, Leia makes it to safety, Luke jumps...and then Darth Vader freezes him in midair, chokes him, cuts off his hand, knocks him unconscious, and throws him to the Stormtroopers to take him away. It abruptly cuts off any hope that both the twins were going to make it away, gives Luke lots of physical pain and Leia emotional pain, and keeps Luke and Leia separated for most of the fic.
- Final Battle: Happens when Operation Eclipse is executed, Vader, Ahsoka, Yoda, and other surviving Jedi come to face Palpatine for the final time. It's as epic as you think. Also doubles as The Cavalry.
- Given Name Reveal: While assigned to the Imperial Archives as a punishment, Luke finds a folder containing the profiles of each inquisitor, including their real names. In particular, he finds out that the Sixth Sister's birth name was Mara Jade. Later on, he inadvertently reveals this to her while she treats his wounds from one of Palpatine's torture sessions.
- Heel–Face Turn: Applies to both Luke and Leia; they were terrible toward the Rebellion, and end up supporting them...albeit in different ways, since Luke has to be sneaky about it after he’s captured.
- How Much More Can He Take?: Applies to Luke during the second half of the story; first he is stopped from escaping by Vader, who then cuts off his hand—similar to canon, but somehow more traumatic—gives him to Palpatine, who has him terribly tortured, comes to believe it was Vader who tortures him, then is put under the watchful eye of Governor Tarkin, who regularly abuses him. Poor boy.
- Heir Club for Men: More by Palpatine’s choice, but Luke is the one who Vader believes will succeed him...and so, he allows Luke to “hero-worship” him, leading to many of their issues in Part II of the fic.
- Inciting Incident: The story begins with business as usual—Luke and Leia assist Palpatine in interrogating, psychologically tormenting, and then killing a failed governor—but when they arrive back at home, Vader drops several bombs on them: first, Palpatine put a slave transmitter in his suit, and second, he intends to overthrow Palpatine and he wants the twins’ help in doing it.
- It's Personal: Vader didn’t have to aggressively try to hunt his daughter down after she joined the Rebellion, sending her threats as messages and giving her ultimatums. He didn’t have to cut off Luke’s hand and “give him to a slaver,” but he did, because the twins’ betrayal reminded him of what he believed was Padme’s betrayal, which made it all the worse for him.
- Million to One Chance: Similar to canon, but still applies here: the goal of destroying the Death Star seems just as hopeless here as it does in canon, and the characters bend over backwards and get themselves horribly injured trying to do it.
- Parental Abandonment: Exaggerated to a horrible degree. After maiming Luke and throwing him to Palpatine, Vader literally leaves and refuses to come back for months during his search for Leia, despite how much he must be feeling Luke’s pain. Look, I know you feel betrayed, but come on, dude.
- The Reveal: The turning point for Luke and Leia in the story is during part one, when they force Vader to reveal to them that he found them on Tatooine, killed Owen and Beru, as well as Obi-Wan, kidnapped them, and placed mental blocks in their minds to make them think they had grown up with him. Hoo boy. It’s no wonder they betray him a few chapters later.
- Secret-Keeper: Mara could have called out Luke to Tarkin when he falsely claimed that he sensed the deaths of Han and Galen Erso during their escape, but instead she backs up his lie for her own reasons.
- Shoot Out the Lock: Subverted. Tarkin shoots out the access panel to the Scarif data vault in order to deny Luke any way to open the massive door. Luke manages to open the door with the Force anyway.
- Turn Out Like His Father: Applies to both Luke and Leia. They are both expected to be as terrible as their father, they are called Vader’s demon twins, but throughout the story, both of them subvert this; Leia resists her Dark self in a vision, and Luke shows kindness to many people, including orchestrating Galen Erso’s escape.
