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Luke barely recognized his childhood home.
The white hut where he had cleaned many droids and performed many maintenance work and mechanics for the farm had crumbled down onto itself.
Artoo released a sad whine behind him, and Luke appreciated his friend’s sentiment. He turned to the little blue-and-white astromech and laid a gentle hand on top of Artoo’s dome.
It was bittersweet, knowing that this was where he and Artoo met for the first time, and that Artoo brought the Empire here. He never blamed the little droid. If anything, that little droid saved him again and again. If Artoo hadn’t run away, Luke would’ve been on the farm when the Stormtroopers came and...
Luke gave Artoo one last pat before headed for to the main building of the Lars homestead. A twinge of guilt and grief swirled within him the closer he drew. He walked down the stairs, heading toward the kitchen, into the wide sand pit where a bigger hut waited, in better condition than the one above. The white had been stripped from the paint and Luke realized that the one that held his bedroom was gone.
“Sand people,” he whispered bitterly.
He paused as he felt the Force whispering to him. Fear, pain, and despair slammed into Luke and he braced himself on the stairs by pressing a hand against the sandy wall.
His prosthetic hand still took getting used to. He no longer felt the phantom pain, but the wiring and movements were stiff since he got shot there at Jabba’s sail barge. He didn’t like seeing the hole in his hand, the mechanics underneath it. Made him feel too much like...
His father.
He swallowed again, trying to release the past emotions of his home that still lingered. The last and final emotions of Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen.
He closed his eyes briefly. He should’ve been there.
You would’ve been killed too, Ben’s past voice echoed in his head.
Luke opened his eyes. That statement still didn’t comfort him, still didn’t make him feel less of not being there.
He heard Artoo whirling behind him and slowly sauntering down the steps after Luke.
The only comfort Luke took in the thought of him not being there when the only family he’d ever known were being slaughtered was that Artoo and Threepio were safe. He smiled softly at that.
He didn’t know where he would be without his feisty friend, Artoo.
The emotions settled and Luke continued his walk toward the kitchen as he entered, feelings of nostalgia washed over him. He missed his Aunt Beru’s milk, her cooking, and her ruffling his hair. He found it hard that a woman who could fight off the Sand people with such fury was easily killed by Stormtroopers.
But even Luke knew from experience, that numbers can overwhelm no matter how good a fighter you are.
Light beat down onto the table below from the hole in the ceiling. Luke trailed his fingers along the edge. The cabinets were torn and fallen crumbled debris covered a majority of the kitchen.
Luke glanced around, a tightness in his chest that wasn’t there before. He sighed and leaned against a counter.
Artoo beeped from the doorway, a soft inquiry.
“What am I doing here, Artoo?” Luke wondered aloud.
Artoo remained silent.
Luke scanned the remnants of the kitchen once more. “I don’t know, I just feel like there’s something calling me here.”
It was the same feeling he had when he felt drawn to Dagobah or felt like he was being watch, the same sensation when he felt Vader reach out to him through the Force.
He’d been ignoring his father for the past year, trying to wrap his head around the truth.
The truth he’d felt with every fiber of his being when Darth Vader uttered to him those life-changing words: “No, I am your father.”
In that moment, when Luke’s instincts accepted it while every other part of him rejected it, he felt the tangible Force connection between the two of them.
Throughout the past year, he would feel every once in a while Vader’s soft probing in the Force, his call...
Luke ignored it, every single time.
He felt a prickle of the Force on his left shoulder as if someone had gently tapped him there. He turned and swore that he felt a presence before him, a soft presence...one that felt so familiar.
Sunlight flickered off the surface of an item from inside a torn-opened cabinet. Luke lowered to his knees and reached inside, his prosthetic hand pushing aside dirt, sand, and crumbled pieces of the ceiling. Was that...a stone? His fingers gripped it and he pulled it free.
A leather strap followed after the stone he took out.
He inspected it. A japor snippet. These were commonly found on Tatooine. It was carved into an old symbol of good fortune. Luke found himself smiling. He traced his finger over the individual carvings.
There’s still good in him.
No! Don’t take him away from me!
Give this to him as a good luck charm, to remember me by.
Oh, Luke, forgive me.
Luke dropped the necklace, panting at the overwhelming feelings and snippets of memories he couldn’t grab onto and see with clarity.
He panted softly.
Those feelings...those emotions...
He felt the soft touch on his skin once more, comforting.
He knew that touch.
Luke shook his head. No. His old childhood feelings surfaced, feelings of abandonment, of shame.
He stepped back from the soft touch and the child in him whispered to the invisible figure: “You didn’t want me.”
Luke didn’t know which pained him more: finding out who his father truly was, or knowing the fact that his own mother dumped him onto his father’s stepbrother.
The Force around him heightened, and Luke was suddenly overwhelmed by an intense feeling of love...and of regret.
He wanted to run away from these feelings, he didn’t want to face the truth of why she didn’t want him, that she would look upon him now and feel that she was right in doing so.
That he was not worthy.
Luke clenched his hand and relaxed it. He took in a deep breath. If there’s one thing he learned since his ordeal on Bespin was that he had a terrible tendency to rush into danger without stepping back and looking at the full picture.
“Patience, you must learn patience,” Yoda had constantly chided him in.
I am. Luke told himself. He used that patience well when he rescued Han from Jabba earlier. He still had a lot to learn, but he liked to think he came a long way.
He inhaled another breath and bent down to pick up the japor snippet.
He couldn’t keep running away from the truth.
How could he ever hope to face his father, if he couldn’t face his mother?
He swallowed a lump and wrapped his fingers around the japor snippet. He straightened himself up and waited.
The air in front of him rippled and a blue spirit appeared before him. A woman with wavy brown hair and sharp jaw smiled warmly at him.
“Luke,” she greeted. She made his name sound like it was the whole world to her. She reached out a hand and cupped his cheek.
Luke gasped at the touch and closed his eyes, reveling in it.
He always viewed Aunt Beru as a mother to him. She treated him like her own son and always wanted what was best for him and supported his dreams.
This...this felt like all that and more.
He slowly opened his eyes, tears filling within.
“Mother,” he cracked out.
She lowered her hand and pressed it against her stomach. “I’ve always wanted you.”
Luke stepped back and bumped against the cabinet. He pressed his knuckles against his mouth to keep from crying out. That couldn’t be true. Then why...
“Why leave you?” his mother asked softly.
Luke inhaled a sharp breath. She could read his thoughts?
“Your father used the Force when he made that.” She pointed to the necklace in Luke’s hand. “He gave it to me to remember him by, as good luck charm. I wore it every day until I saw him again, and I continued to wear it when I was with him. Our love for each other is embedded through that necklace, and you’re able to connect with my spirit because you are attuned to those feelings.”
Luke reached through the Force to the necklace, tried to read it, and all he received back was a wave of unconditional love.
“How could you love...” Luke trailed off.
“Darth Vader?” she finished. “He wasn’t always Vader. To this day, I still don’t know how he turned, or why, but I could sense him changing, slipping away from me. I blamed it on the Emperor.”
Luke trailed his fingers over the japor snippet, thinking of the feelings he felt when Vader reached out to him through the Force. “I think I sense some good in him. I...just don’t know if I truly feel it, or I’m imagining it because I want it to be true.”
“What does your heart tell you?” she asked.
Luke searched her face, basking in her beauty. She reminded him of someone. “I think my heart desperately wants my father.”
She smiled, regal and knowing. “You’ve grown wise.”
Luke shrugged. “Or perhaps I’m still the naïve farmboy who hasn’t grown at all.”
“I’ve watched over you since you were...oh, perhaps five.” His mother flicked her gaze upon the room. “I’ve watched you toil on the farm, work harder than most when Owen lost a lot of workers. I saw you stand up for the farmers against Jabba’s men. You were a lot like your father, the way you always looked to the stars. Both dreaming of flying through space.” She turned to him. “I’m sorry your adventure turned out quite different than what you expected.” She reached out and grasped his real hand. “That your father turned out to be quite different.”
Luke glanced down at their joined hands. Suddenly, he couldn’t hold back the question he’d been dying to know. “Why did you give me up? Was I...Did I remind you too much of him? Was...I something to be ashamed of?”
“Giving you up was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, harder than losing Anakin to the dark side. I kept telling myself it was to protect you from the Emperor...from...your father. You must understand, when you were born early because Anakin...attacked me...”
Rage boiled within Luke. His father attacked his mother?!
“I was feeling hurt and betrayed and confused, and I was trying to stay strong for you both...”
“Both?”
She smiled sadly at him. “You have a sister. I took her with me and hid with close friends. They raised her after I passed away.”
The answer surfaced to his mind before he knew it, and his heart screamed in joy at finally acknowledging it. “Leia! Leia’s my sister.”
She squeezed Luke’s hand. “I was so happy when you two finally reunited. You never should’ve been separated.”
Luke went to ask more questions, but the sadness in her eyes stopped him. “What is it?”
“I wanted to find you days after Obi-Wan took you away. I never thought he would bring you to Tatooine, not the place Anakin grew up in. I have no idea why that thought never crossed my mind to look here. I feel so foolish now.”
She shook her head and recollected herself. “I shouldn’t be dwelling in the past. I don’t have much time with you. Why did you come here, Luke?”
Luke’s eyes swept across the kitchen, seeing it perfectly in his memories in its prime condition. He remembered talking to Aunt Beru at the table as he told her that he was going to grow up and be a pilot. I’m going to up in space and I’m going to be a pilot and travel to every part of the galaxy! I’m going to find my father’s star!
When he learned of his father’s Jedi legacy, he wanted to prove he was his father’s son, prove that he was part of something big, so that when he finally did meet his father after his death, his father would look at him with pride and say: that’s my son.
Luke rose and kicked a rock to the other side of the kitchen.
Artoo chirped in fright at Luke’s display of anger.
“I wanted nothing else but to be like my father, and he’s Darth Vader?”
“Much anger in him, like his father,” Yoda had grimly said. And rightly so.
“What if I become like him? What if I’m worst? He keeps reaching out to me, wanting me to join the dark side and...” Luke released a pained shout of frustration. He panted and squeezed his eyes shut. “I can’t do it. I either join the dark side, or kill my father...and I can’t do either.” He slumped down to the ground and placed his head between his knees. “I can’t do this alone.”
A beeping whine caught Luke’s attention, and something bumped against his knees. He glanced up and smiled at Artoo. He placed his hand on the droid’s dome, the depression lightened a bit, yet still lingered in the background.
“Luke...”
He turned to his mother, waiting for her to tell him what he knew Yoda and Obi-Wan would tell him: that he must face and defeat Darth Vader.
“Your fears are blocking your heart,” his mother said. “Your heart already knows the answer and you’re more terrified of that than anything else. Tell me. What is it telling you?”
Luke sighed and lowered his head. “I want to save him.”
“Why?”
His gaze flickered over toward her. Her face was open and she genuinely seemed like she wanted to know the answer. There was no judgement waiting, only love.
Why?
Because it’s the right thing to do.
Because it’s the Jedi way.
Because he’s my father.
Those answers...those were safe answers, those answers were only at the surface of his heart.
Why? Why did he want to save his father, Anakin Skywalker?
“Because I heard his cry for help,” Luke whispered. He turned to his mother. “When he reaches out to me through the Force, at first, all I felt was his desire for power, his pleas for me to join the dark side. Lately, I’ve been feeling something else...a consistent quiet plea for help.”
Fingers ran through his hair, and Luke wondered how it is that he’s able to feel his mother’s touch. He leaned into it and tried not to cry at the affection he’d longed for.
His mother knelt before him and smiled. “Oh, Luke. I wish I could help you through this.”
“What am I supposed to do? How do I even save him?”
His mother smiled. “When you rushed to save Leia when you received her message from Artoo, did you have a plan?”
Luke chuckled, remembering how he and the others stormed the Death Star. It felt like years ago. Had it only been four years since then?
“No, saving her was the plan. Everything else was improvised.” He shook his head. “Blast, how did we get out of there in one piece?”
He knew it was because the Empire allowed them to escape, at the cost of Obi-wan’s life. Luke wondered if Ben had knew he would die when he boarded the Death Star and felt Darth Vader’s presence.
“Perhaps saving your father will take a bit of improvisation,” his mother said, her eyes twinkled as if sharing some hidden joke.
He smiled at her. “I think I know why I came here,” he said. Luke tried to commit the sight of her to his memory. “This was my home. My family grew up here. I...as much as the farm life bored the stars out of me and how much I craved adventure, I couldn’t leave until I knew Uncle Owen would be alright without me...I...”
“Family means everything to you, does it, Luke?”
Luke swallowed a lump in his throat. “A part of me wonders if the only reason I want to save Vader is because I want my father back.”
“Maybe a part of you does, but you want to save him because he wants to be saved. I...during my last moments with Anakin, I met with him to kill him.”
Luke inhaled a sharp breath.
“I could sense him changing, Bail and Mon Mothma, I...I discovered that he assassinated children,” her voice cracked.
Horror dawned upon Luke. He knew Darth Vader was a powerful warlord, killed many without thought and remorse, but...he murdered children?
“I knew he was going down a dark path, and that he was becoming evil, and I had to kill him for the greater good. I was close, I had the knife right at his throat and...I couldn’t do it.”
“Mother...” Luke’s heart broke for her.
“He killed me,” she whispered. “I don’t even think he was aware of what he was doing, he was just so consumed with rage and felt so betrayed.”
“It doesn’t justify his actions...” Luke paused, remembering his mother’s earlier words. “You ran away with Leia, you lived...”
She winced recalling the memory. “Bail found me on time, he had snuck onto Obi-wan’s ship. When Anakin was distracted into a duel with Obi-wan, he got me away, brought me back, saved you all. I didn’t survive too long long after that, my lungs were too severely damaged, they never healed, and when I got pneumonia...”
Luke swallowed a lump in his throat. “I’m so sorry.”
“I may not have been able to kill him, but since that day, I believed there was still good in him.”
“How?”
She trailed her fingers over the japor snippet in Luke’s hand. She chuckled and smiled warmly. “Because I believe in hope.”
Luke’s heart swelled. Stars, she was so strong and beautiful.
Her spirit flickered. She jerked at the sudden action. “I don’t have much longer. Luke.” She raised her eyes to meet his gaze and threw her arms around him. “I love you, Luke. I believe in you, and I will always be with...”
The warmth left him and Luke’s shoulder sagged as she vanished so suddenly.
He glanced down at the necklace and brushed his thumb over it.
Artoo whistled softly.
“Maybe I just need to have faith.”
Artoo beeped questionably.
“It means, Artoo, that I can save him.”
He tied the leather necklace around his neck and stood into the beam of the sun. Hope bloomed within him and Luke found himself laughing.
“Thank you, Mother.” He closed his eyes. “Thank you, Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen. I miss you all. Please stay with me.” He opened his eyes and peered into the sun.
“Improvisation,” Luke muttered.
A grin spread across his features, a swarm of cockiness swirled within. He’d been spending too much time with Han, but his best friend taught him a lot about formulating plans.
“Artoo, I’ve got an idea.”
Luke.
Luke.
Darth Vader stared out into the abyss of stars, stretching out through the Force, tried to feel his son.
Ah. There, that bright light that reminded Vader of the twin suns of Tatooine. He searched through Luke’s feelings.
A flicker of annoyance and silence.
Frustration boiled within him. The Emperor would be arriving soon at the Death Star to oversee the final stages of construction. Soon, Vader wouldn’t be needed to motivate the workers and he could redirect his full attention in seeking out his son. He’d spent a year answering his master’s beck and call...a year trying to ignore the backlash and hurt from Luke’s rejection.
The aftermath of that duel on Bespin had left Vader defeated and dismayed.
Darth Vader clenched his fists.
And the massing guilt.
Guilt at toying with his son during the duel.
For...
Inhale.
Exhale.
Vader did his part well during the past year. He distracted the Emperor from Luke. However, Vader was no fool. He knew the Emperor probably had spies monitoring Luke.
His son would never be safe until Palpatine was dead.
He must find his son once more. Entice him to the Dark Side. Only the Dark Side would be able to save his son from Palpatine. Only together can they...
Footsteps sounded behind him and Vader straighten himself. He clasped his hands behind his back, recognizing the presence behind him.
“What is it, Admiral?”
“We’ve received word from the Emperor. It appears a Rebel attack has delayed his departure from Coruscant.”
A ripple of pleasure trickled throughout Vader at those words before impatience settled into him. How much longer before Vader could seek out his son physically again?
“The Emperor has asked for us to continue with our orders to continue to monitor the Death Star and Endor for Rebel movements.”
“Very well, Piett.” Vader stepped back from the window and scanned his view across the bridge. “You have full command of the bridge, I will retire to my chambers.”
Piett bobbed his head. “Yes, my lord.”
Vader brushed past his commander, his cape smacking the side of Piett’s leg.
Why did Luke reject him? Did he truly repulse his son so much? He’d been understanding at first. He knew he had shifted his son’s worldview, not to mention brutally cutting off his son’s own hand.
How could he allow his rage get the better of him?
He’d been so cautious throughout the fight. Testing his son, seeing how Luke reacted. His son was such a novice lightsaber fighter, he could’ve easily killed his son in the first five minutes of the duel. At least he’d thought at the time.
“You’ll find I’m full of surprises!”
Indeed, you are, my son.
It’d been a difficult duel for Vader, as he felt himself torn in obeying his master and teaching his son a lesson.
It wasn’t until Luke had slipped away from his grasp that Vader was surprised to find himself relieved that Luke had escape.
He neared his chambers and used his Force signature to open the lock. The door slid open and Vader strolled into the wide living space.
He needed to find Luke. He must find him. He didn’t understand this need to find his son. This overwhelming desire.
Vader headed for his meditation room, he needed...
Darth Vader halted as he saw a Stormtrooper standing in front of the door to his meditation room. He spun toward Vader at his arrival, adjusting his helmet at the motion.
Frustration boiled within him. When had they allowed trainees onto the Executor? Only the elite should be on this ship, and they should know that if they have reports to deliver it was always to Piett. Vader had no dealings with them.
Vader reached out into the Force, eager to teach this trooper a lesson when suddenly the old him woke from his slumber and an old Anakin quip slipped out of his mouth: “Have the Empire become so desperate that they’re recruiting below the height requirement?”
A wave of amusement splashed through the Force from the trooper. That signature...
The trooper took off his helmet, jerked his blonde hair back from his eyes and stared up at him. “Explains why I can’t see out of this helmet.”
Darth Vader was left utterly speechless. His son stood before him. His son was here of his own free accord.
Luke flashed a smile that warmed Vader’s heart. “I’m here to rescue you.”
Those words tugged at Vader’s heart. “Rescue me?” Vader stressed, mocking his son. “I feel that you’ve put yourself into a position where you are the one who needs rescuing from your friends.”
Luke shrugged, resting the trooper helmet at his hip. “They don’t know I’m here.”
“You were unwise not to inform them,” Vader said. He glanced over his son. Luke seemed to be in good condition. Vader’s gaze fell upon Luke’s right hand. It’d been replaced. A prosthetic. “How did you slip through here undetected? Even I cannot sneak through my own ship without being caught.”
There was that infectious smile again. “I had help.”
Vader stared at that smile. That open trusting smile. It eased the shields around Vader’s heart. How long had it been since someone had smile upon him like that?
He reached out and used the Force to lock his doors.
Luke turned his head, sensing it, then turned back, waiting.
A year of reaching out, a year of not hearing anything from his son...and now Luke stood before him.
What if it was all a trap organized by the Rebels?
His mind flashed back to his last encounter with Padme.
Please. Don’t be another trick.
Vader reached for the inner anger, for the Dark Side, yanking its coldness around him like a powerful shield.
Luke’s smile slowly fell.
“Help, you say? From the Rebels? Tell me, Luke, and I will not ask again, why are you here?”
Luke searched Vader’s mask, and somehow managed to look right into Vader’s eyes, despite the eyemask. It unnerved him. “I’m here to rescue you, Father.”
Vader’s hold on the Dark Side faltered at those words. “So...” he drawled out, trying to sense Luke’s motivation, to read his son’s intentions through the Force. “You’ve accepted the truth.”
As if sensing Vader probing along his Force shields, Luke rolled his shoulders back, keeping his gaze staring into Vader’s eyes. “If the truth is that you’re Anakin Skywalker—”
Rage boiled at the name and Vader lashed out in the Force.
Luke skidded back at the sudden push, blinking in surprise.
Vader held up a finger. “That name no longer has any meaning to me.”
Luke narrowed his gaze. “The name of your true self? The name of the man who’s been reaching out to me the past year?” Luke shook his head and leveled his gaze. “You’re Anakin Skywalker, my father.”
Vader’s heart thumped hard in his chest.
He was not prepared for this. His son had caught him off guard. He needed to leave, before his emotions controlled him and he did something he regretted.
Luke’s hand shot out and gripped Vader’s wrist. The Force trembled around Vader. No one had ever dared to touch him.
Luke didn’t pull his hand back. He held his ground. “You’ve been trying to get in contact for me for a year.” His voice softened. “I’m here now. I’m sorry it took so long. I...” He swallowed. “Why have you been calling me?”
Vader allowed his son to keep his touch upon him. This soft touch of love. Why? Was it real? Did Luke truly care about him?
“Why?” Luke repeated. “To rule the galaxy as father and son? To make me join the Dark Side? Or was there something else?”
Vader took Luke’s hand off him. “You are too naïve, my son. I have orders from my master to bring you before him. That is all there is to it.”
Luke’s forehead burrowed and he chuckled mirthlessly. “In our last conversation together, you told me the Emperor has foreseen me destroying him. You begged me to join you, not the Emperor. To rule the galaxy as father and son.”
“That offer has long since passed. Situations have changed. I must obey my master.”
“Why?” Luke stressed. “What happens if you don’t?”
Vader stepped back. No one has ever asked him that before. “What do you mean situations have changed? Are you talking about me rejecting the Dark Side? Refusing to join you? Or you don’t think I’m strong enough to defeat the Emperor?”
Vader struggled to keep his feelings buried as Luke’s words threatened to dig them up. He refused to allow the Emperor to sense these emotions, and he couldn’t afford to have his son see them, use them against him, exploit him, strip him down like the Emperor.
When did Vader allow his fear to consume him once more?
“You don’t think I’m strong enough?” Luke scoffed. “I know that, but...” His words trailed off.
“The Dark Side offers you power that you can never imagine,” Vader said, offering the temptation to Luke once more.
“I...I don’t want power,” Luke stammered.
“Everyone wants power,” Vader declared with utmost authority.
“Why do you want power?”
Why did Luke keep redirecting it back onto him? Why did he force Vader to reflect upon himself?
“Why did you join the Dark Side?” Luke whispered.
Vader ground his teeth, breathing heavily. Various memories surfaced...of Padme...betraying him. She sought him out to kill him...after everything he did to protect her. “To protect...your mother...” he forced out. “And you.”
Luke drew in a sharp breath. The helmet cluttered onto the floor, surprising him. He winced. He bent down and picked it up. He stared into the helmet. “You think only the Dark Side will save me now?”
“From the Emperor, yes.”
Pain streaked upon Luke’s features. Vader could sense the turmoil within Luke, a conflict stirring. He was unable to pinpoint the exact feelings. His son had learned how to guard his emotions well since Bespin.
Guilt licked at Vader as he remembered that encounter.
He should’ve had better control.
“I have the Dark Side in me, Father,” he said, oh, so softly and with so much pain.
It made Vader’s fatherly instincts arise and he wanted to embrace his son so tight and never let him go.
“I’ve used it...” Luke ran his thumb over the eyemask of the Stormtrooper helmet. “I used it to slaughter Jabba’s entire entourage.” Luke chuckled again. “I guess we’re not all that different, are we?”
A sick glee of pride grew in Vader’s chest. His son eradicated the criminal world of Jabba’s. In one swift stroke. His pride was quickly washed out by a sense of fear. Not for himself, but for Luke. He had a brief flash of Luke dressed as him, Luke as a Sith Lord. Did he want that for Luke?
Luke paused and his eyes shot up toward Vader. A ghost of a smile tugged at Luke’s lips but he contained it. He must’ve sensed something from Vader.
Vader checked his mind shields.
His son inhaled another breath, and a strange calm overtook him. He looked older and wiser. “I refuse to join the Dark Side because that means I would be consumed by it, and I don’t want that. I’ll be a fool to say that it doesn’t exist in me, though. But that doesn’t mean that I wish to join the good side of the Force.”
Vader found himself holding his breath. Did his son realize the magnitude of his words? Luke was basically refusing the teachings of the Jedi Order.
“You’re rejecting the light side?” Vader stressed.
Luke blinked as if surprised by this revelation of himself. “I guess I am. I want to be a Jedi, but...” Determination filled Luke’s eyes. “If becoming a Jedi means that I have to destroy you, then I don’t want to be one. I can’t kill you, Father, and I won’t.” The smile returned, that bright beautiful smile. “So, I’m here to save you.”
“I don’t need saving, son,” Vader said. That smile was so infectious. Vader felt the corner of his own lips tugging.
Luke’s smile turned sad. Why? “I admire your loyalty, father, but the Emperor doesn’t deserve it.”
A sharpness twisted in Vader’s heart, the Force tightened around them. A part of him, deep, deep inside, cried out in relief at Luke’s words, it wanted to reach out and beg for his help. Vader quashed that part of him down, allowing rage to fuel him.
Luke’s features morphed into one of seriousness. “Father. You deserve to be free.”
Vader’s hold on the Force unleashed.
Luke was sent flying across the room and he slammed against the door, falling to the floor with a heavy thud.
The helmet clattered and rolled toward Vader’s boots.
Luke rose to his feet, unsteadily. He wiped at a trickle of blood that dripped down the side of his face. He glowered at Vader. “It’s a truth you need to remember.”
Vader reached out his hand and gripped the air. The Force obeyed his commands and Luke suddenly gagged, hands shooting up to his neck as if to pry off an invisible rope. Vader used the Force to drag Luke’s body across the room until he was hovering in front of Vader’s face, choking.
Instead of fear, instead of blind panic, Luke only continued to glower up with fierce willpower. He tried to gasp in air.
Vader increased the pressure around Luke’s neck. The boy needed to remember that Vader was a powerful Sith that people cowered in fear at, that Vader deserved no freedom, that Vader deserved to be chained.
Luke narrowed his eyes in concentration.
Vader felt the Force quiver around him. Good. His son was going to fight back.
His cape whipped from his back and over his head.
He...was not expecting that.
A thump was heard and Vader moved the edge of his heavy cape from behind his head and allowed it to drape over his shoulder and down his back.
Luke knelt on the ground, wheezing in the air he’d lost.
Why was there no fear radiating off his son?
At Bespin there was SO MUCH!
Who was this boy? No. Who was this man who stood before Vader?
Luke coughed and straightened himself back up. A dark redness formed around his neck that caused Vader to realize how close he’d been in killing his son.
“I know...” Luke coughed and wheezed again. When he spoke his voice was raspy. “I know that you’ve murdered children, slaughtered the Jedis...so many people, done thing as a warlord...nearly killed my mother...and me...” Luke strained to raise his head to meet his father’s gaze. “There’s still good in you. I can feel it. I can hear it...” Their gaze met. Luke reached out and gripped the side of Vader’s shoulders, and Vader wished he could feel Luke’s touch through the durasteel. “Come with me.”
What kind of man sneaks on-board a high-class military ship to rescue a father who’s done nothing but brought him pain?
If Vader declined, would Luke be forced to think of the greater good? Like his mother had done? He was a Rebel Commander after all.
Vader placed his hands on his hip and turned his back. H hated this, giving Luke another test. “It’s too late for me, son. Now go. Run back to your friends. Leave me.”
He waited. For the oncoming death blow. For a lightsaber to be ignited, if Luke ever made one for himself. For the threat of the Force. Anything.
“I’ll not leave you here,” Luke declared.
Vader could sense the truth in that statement. The Force bond between them heightened, strengthened, and Vader felt Luke lower his shields and he overwhelmed by so many emotions.
“If you can’t come with me,” Luke said. “Then I’ll stay with you.”
A tremble reverberated throughout the Force.
For the first time in years, tears prickled at Vader’s eyes. A foreign emotion engulfed him that Vader couldn’t remember what it was. Happiness? Love?
Luke was willing to sacrifice himself for Vader?
Vader shook his head. “Luke, if the Emperor should find you here...”
“I’ll be discreet. I snuck onto the detention center on the Death Star once.”
“You were not quite discreet,” Vader said dryly.
Luke ducked his head, trying to hide a shy smile. “Everyone’s bound to get caught sometimes, if the Emperor discovers me here, then I’ll fight him. But, I promise you, I won’t leave you.”
Vader’s throat worked.
How was that such a simple gesture evoked emotions Vader long buried?
Vader slowly turned back toward Luke. “You, my son, are full of surprises.”
Luke grinned.
An old saying Vader remembered reading off an old ancient temple plaque surfaced: Light and Darkness. One must understand and accept the darkness within in order to be consumed by the light.
Was it because Luke understood and accepted the Dark Side within him that he was able to understand and accept the Dark Side that consumed his father?
His son may have rejected the Jedi doctrine that Anakin was taught, but Luke’s very spirit was consumed with light, with...the embodiment of a true Jedi.
Perhaps Darth Vader was consumed by the Dark Side because he hated the darkness within himself, hated how he easily gave into his rage, hated how he blindly obeyed his master, hated every fiber of his being, hated himself for killing his wife and unborn child...hated how he’d become the very thing he swore he never would be again: a slave.
“I’m here to rescue you.”
This was no longer a rescue attempt.
This was a sacrifice.
Luke was willing to give up everything for Vader.
It all clicked in Vader’s mind.
This wasn’t a planned action. Luke snuck on-board impulsively. This was a spur of the action moment that Luke was improvising on the spot.
All toward one goal: to save Vader.
Vader could sense that through the Force.
It almost brought back old memories when he and Padme decided to rescue Obi-wan in the spur of the moment, when Anakin piloted a ship and did crazy maneuvers.
He wondered if his brash impulsiveness was motivated by a strong inner moral desire.
Vader had watched the security tapes before they blew up the first Death Star. Luke and his smuggler friend barged up to the detention center by “transporting” a Wookie dressed as Stormtroopers.
Luke charged at him at Cymoon 1 to save the slaves and his friends, to “avenge” his father.
Vader knew Luke’s weakness. He exposed it, by using Luke’s own friends as bait to lure him to Cloud City, to their fated Bespin duel.
“I must ask, young one,” Vader said and he softly smiled as Luke bristled at the nickname, “do you realize the gravity of the situation you’ll be putting yourself in?”
“You’re my father. You’re family. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for family, you should know that.”
Perhaps...
Perhaps it was time Vader allowed a bit of the old Anakin to shine forth once more.
Perhaps...he should learn a bit from his son.
Impulsiveness. He still had that trait. Did he not?
Could he trust to listen to his heart once more, instead of relying on others to determine his actions for him, instead of allowing his rage to control him?
He grabbed the Stormtrooper helmet and held it out to Luke. “I hoped you’ve learned from your previous rescue attempts, son, because your escape plans need much work.”
Luke’s eyes widened.
It seemed that Darth Vader can take even his son by surprise.
Luke’s surprise didn’t last long. He held up a comlink, his excited smile causing Vader to smirk. “R2? We’re on our way.”
Vader may still be consumed by the Dark Side, he may not have accepted his own inner darkness, but he could use his son’s light as a beacon.
A beacon of hope.