Luke.
Luke turned around, looking for the source of the voice before recognizing it. Immediately, he was fully alert, dropping his hydrospanner in preference of his lightsaber before realizing the voice had spoken straight into his mind. He took a deep breath, calming himself down before thinking back at it.
Father?
Child, Vader's voice calmly replied.
Slowly relaxing, Luke sighed, Why are you talking to me?
I would like to arrange a meeting.
A… meeting? Luke asked, confused, What do you mean?
The reply came slowly, I made mistakes at Bespin. I wish to make things right between us.
Still having trouble rectifying Vader's character with the words, Luke asked again, Why?
Don't you wish to be a family?
Amazed, Luke shook his head, Well, yeah, but I didn't think you…
Didn't think I what?
I didn't think YOU wanted to be family, Luke answered, looking around his quarters slowly, mind spinning at what Vader seemed to be saying, I thought you were… too busy, or something.
Too busy for my own son? Vader's tone registered incredulity, even through the synthesizer, Meet me at Varykino, on Naboo.
Varykino? Luke asked, but he felt that Vader had already left. Still in awe, he dumped his supplies back into their bin, scooping up his pack and activating Artoo, kneeling in front of the droid.
"We're gonna meet my father," he told the droid, eager to share the news with anyone at all.
Artoo gave a long, slow, doubtful whistle.
Luke stood again, "Come on, it can't be that bad."
Giving another nervous trill, Artoo followed him through the hallways and down to the hanger. Luke greeted the guards, and was permitted to take his ship. Too impatient to wait for the machine used to get Artoo into his socket, Luke simply used the Force to lower him in, much to Artoo's displeasure. Still somewhat giddy at the idea of meeting his father, at the prospect of having a father, Luke grinned at the beeping droid, "You know I wouldn't drop you."
Artoo gave a long, mournful beep, and Luke patted the droid's round dome as he jumped up beside him before clambering into the cockpit.
As he prepped the ship for take-off Artoo gave another worried beep. Glancing down at the translator, Luke answered, "I told them I was going to take a couple of days of shore leave," he explained, "After Bespin, they've been expecting it for a while."
Artoo gave another scolding whistle, but Luke ignored him, simply lifting the ship, saying to the droid, "I'll let Leia know in a bit."
At the pronouncement, Artoo let out a furious string of noises, effectively catching Luke's attention. Glancing down at the screen, he sighed, "I know, I know. After losing Han, she should at least know what happened if this turns out to be a trap."
Artoo let out a huffy squawk, and Luke rolled his eyes, "As soon as I get to hyperspace, I'll send her something."
Immediately, he found himself plastered back against his seat, as Artoo had taken matters into his own robotic hands.
"Fine!" Luke exclaimed, digging through the pack he'd shoved behind his seat, and tugging out a data pad. He scribbled down a few lines, and marked them to be sent when a connection was available, "Happy now?" he asked his droid.
The droid just beeped sulkily.
Rolling his eyes, Luke leaned back into his seat, looking at the stars, "I can't believe he wants to see me."
Artoo responded only with annoyed silence.
"After Bespin," Luke continued, ignoring the droid's indifference, "I thought he probably didn't have any interest in being a family."
Artoo let out a long, slow beep, which sounded to Luke like an admission that Vader's intentions may in fact have been good in reaching out to his son.
"I know," he told the droid, "Maybe I am being too hopeful. It just feels so right, though."
Artoo gave what could only be described as a sigh, although Luke wasn't sure if it was of exasperation or affection.
At that moment, the ship fell out of hyperspace again, and Luke looked down at the beautiful green planet he'd been brought to, "It'd be really helpful right now if I knew what or where Varykino is…"
Again, Artoo took control of the ship, whirring in exasperation. Luke allowed the droid his turn at piloting, simply enjoying the view. The ship flew low into the atmosphere, and Luke knew that the droid had done it on purpose, as the ship continued over lush forests and oceans across a large portion of the globe. At last, the ship dipped down towards a valley, at the bottom of which was a large lake, and a single beautiful mansion.
"Wait a second!" Luke exclaimed as the ship neared the building, "We can't go there!"
Artoo gave a confused beep, and Luke looked down at the translator, through which Artoo was communicating that Vader owned the mansion.
"Vader?" Luke asked, looking at the building again, "Why would he own anything so… beautiful?"
Almost as though in answer, Artoo landed the ship a little more roughly than necessary. Rolling his eyes again at his droid's antics, Luke scrambled out of the cockpit, helping his friend down to the grass, where the droid whirred happily, and wheeled in a circle around Luke. Laughing, Luke headed up to the front of the mansion, the door opening at his approach. As he stepped inside, he looked around in awe.
"It's incredible…" he said.
Artoo screeched enthusiastically again, all reservation apparently gone. He bumped into the back of Luke's legs, and Luke allowed himself to be herded into a living room, and then knocked down onto a sofa. Still trying to take in the unexpected scene, he put a hand on Artoo's dome, "When do you think Father will get here?" he asked.
Artoo gave an uncertain beep, finally falling still, and Luke saw from the flickering of lights on his dome that he was also soaking in the surroundings. Feeling safe and comfortable, Luke crossed his arms, resting them on the silent droid. Putting his head down on his arms, he allowed himself to slip into a doze, trusting the droid to give him a good warning when Vader entered.
When he woke, it was dark in the room, and a glance at his datapad told him he'd slept for several hours. Standing up, he left the droid to continue its scans in peace. He walked out into the hallway, listening hard for Vader's distinctive breathing. When he thought he was far enough from Artoo that his voice wouldn't disrupt him, he called out, "Father? Father, are you here?"
The only thing that greeted him was further silence, save for the scurry of a cleaning droid passing his foot.
He walked out to the front lawn, looking for Vader's ship, but finding nothing. Maybe there's a hanger I didn't notice, he thought, and headed back inside to search for one. As he walked through the halls, they had a distinct feeling of long un-lived-in buildings. The lights came on for him dutifully as he walked, and he caught sight of a few more cleaning droids, but there were no signs of life.
After a while, he had to admit that there didn't seem to be a hanger to be found. He managed to find his way back to the living room Artoo had led him to, dropping down on the sofa again, making himself comfortable. At long last, the little droid activated, his dome spinning to take Luke in.
"He's not here yet," Luke informed the droid, who beeped and trundled away.
Taking off his boots, Luke stretched out on the couch, looking up at the ceiling. It wasn't like Vader to be late, he realized. Although, he thought, Vader hadn't actually specified a time. Maybe he'd misunderstood somehow, and Vader had meant later in the day. Maybe there had been something that'd held the Dark Lord up. After all, considering the sheer volume of troops he was in control of, he must've been awfully busy.
The ceiling, Luke had discovered, had a beautiful mural painted across it, and he looked at it, searching for anything of interest. After ten minutes, he'd decided it wasn't very interesting. Still, he lay where he was, now trying to imagine the characters coming to life and moving across the plaster. After another ten minutes, he'd grown bored of that too, and he sat up more, looking around the room. Upon second inspection, he discovered that there was a metal puzzle sitting on a nearby table, and he picked it up, and worked his way through solving it.
When he'd completed it for the first time, and Vader had still not appeared, he began working on putting it back together. When that failed to pass enough time for the Dark Lord to arrive, he repeated the process. By the time he'd solved it three times, a glance at the clock told him that it was well past midnight. Starting the puzzle for a fourth time, he wondered where Artoo had wandered off to. Probably back to the ship for charging.
By the fifth time putting the puzzle back together, he could complete the entire process in under a minute. Sighing, he returned it to the table, and stood up again. Leaving his boots where they were, his feet made no sound on the floor as he walked through again, "Father?" he called, "Father, are you here?"
But another glance out to the front lawn told him that no ship had appeared, and a second search of the house didn't produce a hanger. Starting to get frustrated, he walked back to the living room.
"Where is he?" he asked the night sky outside the large windows. When the darkness was unable to answer him, he sat down again, but found himself shooed away by a cleaning droid, which cleaned the entire room before it would let him in again. As he stood in the hall, waiting impatiently, he found another puzzle hanging from a coat hook, and took it down, starting to work on it. It turned out to be much harder than the first, and when the droid let him back into the room, Luke was still struggling with it. Tugging impatiently at a ring somewhat reminiscent of Vader's helmet, Luke found that the irritation he was taking out on the puzzle was really aimed at his father.
"Too busy?" he asked the shadows in the room, imagining, perhaps not too randomly, that Vader could hear him through them, "Did something more important come up? Didn't you say that you couldn't be too busy for me?"
Having given the feeling life with his words, he gave a particularly hard yank, and his prosthetic accidentally crushed one of the rings of the puzzle. Looking down at his mistake, Luke guiltily began to try to put it back to the correct shape, feeling as though it was his punishment for thinking about his father like he had.
When the ring was at least recognizable, he looked at it again, suddenly feeling resentful, "Why should I be punished?" he asked the deformed metal, "I'm not the one committing random acts of violence and abandonment against my family."
Feeling that he was in danger of crushing the iron, this time on purpose, he put the puzzle down. Looking around the room again, he found he was having more trouble finding it beautiful. This wasn't a home. Not Vader's. Not his. Not anyone's. It was just a cold, empty building.
He crossed his arms, closing in on himself, "What do I do if Vader doesn't come?" he asked the twisted metal, "How long should I wait for him?"
After a few minutes, he spoke again, "I'm not even sure I want him to come now."
Sighing in frustration with himself, he stood up, "Why do you even own this place?" he asked, "It's obvious you don't use it. And I'm guessing you didn't plan to make this our home after all."
Thinking that if Vader did plan to use it as a home for the two of them, there would have to be bedrooms, he began another search of the house. When he had scoured the building, he returned to the one bedroom he'd found. There hadn't been a hyperbaric chamber anywhere, but maybe Vader had planned to give Luke the place to himself. After all, Luke thought, he was an adult, and maybe Vader had thought he'd be more comfortable with his own place.
Searching for verification, he opened a door which he guessed led to a closet, wondering if Vader might have stocked it for him. But, no, all the garments were women's clothing, and he closed the door quickly, embarrassed. Once he'd managed to overcome the awkwardness of looking into someone else's closet, his irritation quickly returned.
Dropping down on the bed, he gave an annoyed sigh, "That's great, Father. Invite me home, but don't actually make it a home, and don't be here when I arrive, or even for hours afterw-," he broke off, having spotted something sitting on the end table at the side of the bed.
Curiously, Luke gathered the frame up off the table. It'd fallen over at some point, probably victim of some overly-zealous cleaning droid, and when he lifted it, it rained some glass. Giving it a good shake to get as much of the sharp material as possible off, Luke turned it over, and looked down into the smiling faces of an instantly-recognizable couple.
My parents, Luke thought, carefully smoothing down a slice through the woman's round belly. Looking at his father's affectionate smirk as he hugged his wife, Luke thought, She was already pregnant with me. How much did I miss having a real family by?
Suddenly, the disrepair of the photo, the only damaged thing in the house, made him angry. Carefully taking it from the frame, he turned it over, taking some medical tape out of his pocket and repairing it as best he could before returning it to its frame, sweeping the broken glass to the floor to be gathered by one of the droids.
Although it was better than the photo lying face down, broken, the hasty repair job was far from perfect, and Luke asked the photo of his father now, "The picture of your family didn't matter as much as the rest of the building, huh? Everything else had to be perfect, but it didn't matter to you if Mom's photo was cut through? Why is this even still here if you never visit? I'd wanna carry something like this with me."
He looked at the frame as a whole again, wondering about picking it up and taking it back to the Alliance with him, but something about it felt wrong.
"You wouldn't even want me to have this, would you?" he accused the smiling face, "You're not a Jedi anymore. You're probably not even capable of love."
He found himself lifting his hand, and reaching towards the photo, as though he could will the scene into existence in his present, but as he touched the Jedi's robes, his finger left a large red smear over Anakin's heart, and he realized he was bleeding.
Standing up, he moved to another door, assuming it was a 'fresher, but as he opened the door, he found instead a baby's room, and for a stunned second, his eyes roved the sheer comfort of the room, before he was slamming the door closed, putting his bleeding finger in his mouth, running to find another 'fresher. And, more importantly, leave the broken family scene behind.
Running the cut under cold water, he looked up from his hands and found himself reflected in a large mirror, his father's features unmistakeable in his own face.
Almost before he could stop himself, he found he was moving to smash the mirror, not wanting to see their similarities. Taking a shaky, furious breath, he stepped back, glaring at his reflection, "No," he told the face, which seemed more and more like Anakin's, "You can't make me into you. I won't let you take my future away from me."
For a moment, Luke could've sworn his reflection smirked. Unable to take his eyes off it, he felt behind him for the doorknob, turning it and slipping out, quickly shutting it after himself.
But even away from his reflection, he was suddenly aware of his father's presence throughout the house, and it seemed that the shadows resolved themselves into the dark form of the Sith.
"No!" he told the shadows, "This isn't what I want! I don't know what I was thinking, believing I wanted you! You've done nothing to deserve a family! Nothing to deserve me, or my mom!"
The shadow stood, immobile, and Luke shivered, "I don't know if this is your cruel idea of a joke, or if you're trying to tell me to leave, and never come back! Well, don't worry! That's the one thing everyone agrees on! No one wants me to have a home with you! No one except me, and even I'm starting to agree!"
The shadow seemed to draw a rattling breath, and Luke drew his lightsaber, knowing in his heart that the shadow wasn't the man he'd been waiting for, "No, I don't deserve you. I don't deserve anyone, apparently!" he laughed suddenly, brokenly, "I'm just a tool. Just the galaxy's only Jedi. Why would I need a family? That's completely outside of my purpose!"
He approached the shadow, lightsaber buzzing ominously, and as he neared the apparition, the shadows were lit by the green light of the blade. Far from being comforted by the demon's disappearance, Luke felt as though the evil presence had dissipated throughout the building, seeping into every nook and cranny, and even the Jedi's own heart.
"No," he said, lowering his blade, "There's no reason to care for me. Not if I'll complete the Jedi's work for them as a broken soul. Not if I can do what you want without any effort on your part. I don't know why I dared to think you'd be any different than they were."
Shivering in the sterile hallway, the building no longer seeming like a level of heaven at all, but purgatory, Luke added to himself, childishly, "Mr. Practicality himself…"
Suddenly, a tendril of tangible darkness touched Luke's mind, and he jumped, raising his weapon again. As he turned, searching for the threat, he shivered again, "Just leave me alone!"
You are alone, Vader's mind noted, And breaking down, by the looks of it.
"Why wouldn't I be?" I demand, "You sent me to this hellhole!"
Sent you? Vader asked, his tone confused.
"Last night!" Luke insisted, still searching for evil he could destroy with his blade, "You spoke to me, and told me to come to this… this… house of horrors!"
Where are you?
"Varykino!" Luke retorted, angry and frightened.
Varykino? Vader asked, What are you doing there?
"You sent me!" Luke yelled, "You told me to meet you here! If this is some kind of joke, I'm not laughing!"
Vader didn't respond with words, but Luke felt the presence reaching into his mind, and felt a slow sigh from the older man as the Dark Lord's presence descended to Luke's heart, and Luke felt it lighten considerably, "You imagined that you heard me," Vader supplied gently.
"I imagined it?" Luke asked, instinctively clinging to the human reality of his father in the dark nightmare scape of the hallway, "But I'd never even heard of this place."
The darkness shimmered suddenly, and Luke raised his lightsaber again, but it resolved itself into the man from the photo, although aged. Luke let out a gasping breath of relief, and the man sighed, reaching out and placing a hand on Luke's shoulder, gently guiding him away.
"You sensed some of the truth of our family," he explained, leading Luke to sit on the sofa again, before noticing the damaged puzzle and pushing it away.
"This was where you and Mom lived," Luke nodded, "I found a photo… my room."
Vader sighed, sitting down next to him, and pulling him close, "I apologize," he said gently, "I had no reason to believe you would ever find this place."
Luke allowed himself to be supported, sighing weakly, "So… you didn't want to rebuild our family," he mumbled into his father's shoulder.
"Now," Luke heard the smirk in his father's voice as Vader began to stroke his hair soothingly, "I don't believe I said that."
"Maybe it's best if we don't…" Luke sighed, thinking of the twisted nightmare.
Vader's hand stilled, although he drew Luke closer again, "I was afraid you would say that."
"I want to," he said, "I've never wanted anything more. But I'm afraid of what might happen to us if we try."
"I won't allow you to be hurt," Vader promised.
Luke simply slumped into his father's arms, giving up on independence absolutely, "Will you come and really meet me?"
Vader sighed, "I will not be as comfortable to hug if I come in the flesh."
Luke shook his head, "I don't care. I just want you to really be here."
Vader withdrew, standing up, "Did you bring any of your friends?"
Luke looked up at him, "I've got Artoo, but I think he's outside charging."
"Perhaps you should find somewhere other than the house," Vader suggested, indicating a window, "Outside, for instance."
Luke nodded, smiling slightly, "Yeah… the sun should be coming up soon, too."
Vader smiled, taking Luke's shoulder, and leading him outside, "I will be with you soon," he promised, kissing Luke before dissipating into the sunlight.
"See you," Luke nodded, dropping down to the dew soaked lawn, relaxing in the new light of early morning.