"All too easy," Vader intoned with a bit of disappointment. He had expected Skywalker's son to at least be a bit more of a challenge.

The hiss of machinery reached his ears as the carbon freezing chamber encased a person for the second time that day.

The solid slab that contained Skywalker hit the floor at the exact same moment as the door opening to admit a man with a captain's insignia and a dozen stormtroopers. The captain was a nervous looking man, and it showed on his face and in the Force although the nervousness just might have had to do with the fact that Vader was a bit notorious for choking subordinates he was displeased with.

"Captain Enlath."

"Y-yes, Milord?" the man replied hastily.

"Check that Skywalker is still alive and then summon a crew to take him to my ship," Vader ordered.

"Yes Milord, as once!" Enlath replied, saluting before moving to check the readings on the slab of carbonite. "He's alive, Lord Vader."

"Good," the Sith said, suppressing the small wave of relief he had felt. "Take Skywalker to the shuttle immediately, along with the others."

"Yes sir."

Vader turned and stalked out, the fingers of one hand still curled around the object he had summoned to him before Skywalker was frozen. He paused for a moment to study it now. It was a lightsaber, Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber to be exact. It was something he had not seen in two decades, he had thought it lost or even destroyed but Kenobi must have kept it for Skywalker all this time. How sentimental of the old fool.

Clipping the hilt to his belt opposite his own, Vader continued down the corridor, sensing people recoiling in fear as he passed them.

"Lord Vader!"

The blank-faced Commander before him saluted stiffly. Although he did not wear his fear on his face like that Enlath fool, Vader could still sense a bit of this man's fear through the Force.

"Yes Commander?"

"Calrissian has apparently turned against us and on to the side of the Rebels. A squad of his men freed Organa and the wookiee and they are now aboard the Millenium Falcon," the Imperial replied calmly.

Too rash, Calrissian, Vader thought. It didn't matter if he had claimed to be running a completely legal operation, the man was still a smuggler and a gambler and he had just placed quite a large bet for the wrong side.

"Was the hyperdrive on the Millenium Falcon disabled?" he asked the commander.

"Yes sir, it was."

"Good, they won't get far. Inform the Executor that they are to capture that ship and I want its passengers alive. No mistakes or accidental disintegrations. Understood, Commander?" Vader ordered curtly.

Saluting sharply, the commander said, "Understood Milord, I shall inform them at once," and then hurried off to do so, his pair of stormtrooper escorts following him.

Regretting that he had not flown his TIE Interceptor down to the planet, he boarded the Lambda shuttle and moments later, the ramp hissed up and shut behind him. "Is Skywalker aboard?" he asked.

"Yes sir," the lieutenant replied tersely. "In the cargo hold."

"Good. Set your course for Coruscaunt, the Emperor is most impatient for our arrival."

The journey core-ward took several hours less than expected. Of course, one of those hours had been cut off when he personally had dealt with the air controller as Darth Vader was not exactly a person to be crossed while on a mission for the Emperor.

"Take Skywalker down to the seventh level and unfreeze him," Vader commanded. "The Emperor shall send further instructions once he is free from the carbonite."

As the stormtroopers saluted and marched off to execute their orders, Vader turned on his heal and walked in the other direction. He had a report to make to his master.

-

Luke stumbled forward blindly, feeling weak and helpless as he became free from his frozen prison. Someone on either side caught him and held him upright. "Where am I?" he asked, still sightless.

"You're in the Imperial Palace on Coruscaunt, Rebel Scum," the sneering voice of a man replied.

"Why can't I see anything?" Luke asked with a touch of anxiety as his hands were roughly stun-cuffed before him and he almost fell once more.

"You were frozen in carbonite. Your vision will return in a few minutes," the man, the Imperial, replied shortly.

The next thing Luke knew, he was being roughly shoved into a turbolift and he felt it whoosh upwards. As it did, memories of what had happened at Cloud City flooded through his mind.

Ben, Yoda, why didn't you make me listen? He silently screamed through the force. But there was no answer. He hadn't really expected there to be one.

Slowly but surely, his eyesight did return as the Imperial had said it would. It went from dark blurs, to big light blurs, to blurs, to his normal vision. He almost wished it hadn't been restored for then he wouldn't be able to see the trouble he now knew he was in. The rest of his body still felt a bit weak, but there was nothing her could do about that except trust the Force. Or so Master Yoda had said.

The doors to the turbolift hissed open to reveal Darth Vader who had Luke's lightsaber on his belt.

"Good work, Commander. I shall take it from here."

Luke could barely even think anymore as he plunged into the Force, attempting to regain control over himself. Heroes of the Rebellion didn't break down at the sight of opposition and neither did Jedi. Especially Jedi.

Another door opened to disclose a great, sparsely-lit room with a large tiered platform with a throne like chair turned away, sitting at the top. As Luke watched, the chair slowly revolved to show Emperor Palpatine himself sitting in it.

"Welcome, young Skywalker," Palpatine said calmly. "I look forward to completing your training."

Luke felt his heart plummet and Obi-Wan's words to him back on Dagobah echoed through his head.

If you chose to face him, I cannot interfere.

"I will not turn to the Dark Side," the pilot said resolutely.

A truly diabolical laugh escaped the aged politican's lips. "We shall see, my very young apprentice. We shall see."