The boy was . . . almost beautiful, in a way.
Not because of his looks, oh no. He was rather average in appearance, not quite the Adonis his father had once been, nor in possession of the nymph-like beauty of his mother. He was a type of scrawny in-between, with his father's coloring and his mother's stature.
Yet, the physical realm wasn't where Luke Skywalker's beauty laid.
It was in the endlessness of the Force where he became magnificent, truly a wonder to behold. When viewed through the Force, his aura had once been brilliant, a swirling, powerful mass of blues and purples and greens, completely wild and untamed and utterly benevolent.
When Palpatine had seen it for the first time, he had been both repulsed by its purity and intrigued by its potential.
After all, corrupting purity was a avocation of his.
It had been a long and, at times, difficult six years since that day. But, in the end, he had won. To think that Vader had once been his masterpiece, his opus, the proof of how far he could manipulate the human mind.
Vader paled in comparison to his son.
The boy's aura, while still magnificent, was dark and broken, like shattered glass, reflecting deep reds and blacks and browns. It was no longer benevolent, but nor was it malevolent. It was in a gray area in between, reflecting on its owner's alignment.
The biggest difference, however, was that it was no longer wild, no longer untamed. The power that once crackled freely around the boy had been broken, tamed, utterly and irrevocably conquered.
He owned the boy's power, dominated it, took it, possessed it, just as he owned the boy's body, just as he had dominated it, taken it, possessed every inch of his physical being.
Luke Skywalker was undeniably his finest work. He had once been pure and innocent and peaceful, everything the Jedi could've ever wished for in a knight.
Now, he was the ultimate picture of corruption.
It was truly magnificent.
To him, it was beautiful.
Author's Note: God, I think I have a complex, or something. This is like my fifth fic where something bad happens to Luke. Come on, I like him, but it's not like he's my favorite character! So, I wonder why I always write about him . . .
Hmm, anyway, there was a discussion on livejournal (that I started) about how there was no Luke/Palpatine slash. So, I wrote this . . . thing. And all I could brave was implied slash. So there.
I apologize for inflicting this on the world. Please review? XD
Anna