Chapter Text
The black figure watched as the young man clambered to his feet, gripped the durasteel support beam with his remaining hand and leant against it. His son, Luke Kenobi, was physically closer to him than he had been in nineteen years, but nonetheless out of reach. Worse still, he was glaring at him, nostrils flared – an inevitable consequence of the lies Obi-Wan Kenobi had no doubt fed him.
"I'll never join you," said Luke, through gritted teeth.
Behind the rigid mask that shielded his disfigured face, the Sith Lord smirked. This defiance was familiar and could one day prove useful. "If you only knew the power of the dark side," he said, through his vocabulator, "Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your other father."
Luke stepped onto the narrow ring which encircled the base of the support beam, placing himself one step closer to the chasm beneath them, then turned to face him again. "I only had one father and you killed him.
"No, I am one of your fathers, your true father."
"No, no." Luke's face twisted. His eyes bulged. "That's not true. That's impossible."
"Search your feelings. You know it to be true."
His son cried out twice more over the howling wind.
"Luke, you can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny, just as defeating the Jedi was mine. Do not mourn their loss. They sought to enslave you. I forbade it, but Obi-Wan ignored my wishes. He stole you from me, along with your mother and sister. Now you have returned. Join me and together we will rule the galaxy as father and son." He extended a gloved hand. "Come with me. It is the only way." He would be required to terminate him otherwise.
Luke did not approach him. Instead, he leaned back and plunged into the vast emptiness below.
For a moment, the Sith Lord remained on the platform, with only the rushing air and his own rasping breaths for company. Then he ambled toward the safety of the low, triangular tunnels where he had fought his latest duel.
The Force burned with the Luke's fear and desperation. The aspiring Jed was alive, but he had not only denounced his father, he had risked death to escape him. This was the boy he had held, fed and lulled to sleep for three years. Were his violent deeds enough to turn his own child against him?
No, it was Obi-Wan. He had taught Luke to hate him, to want him dead. There could be no higher betrayal.
He tried to summon the ruthless anger that had fuelled him for almost two decades, but the image of his former Master brought forth other feelings. Memories which had refused to fully fade became vivid. To his shame, he surrendered to the ceaseless stream which softened his parched heart and became lost in dreams of joy, laughter and love.