Prologue
Yoda scrunched his nose up with a snort. Skywalker was too much like his father – already convinced he knew better than anyone else. The vision of his friends in pain and terrible danger was no doubt horrifying, but panic was just not acceptable in the mind of a Jedi. Another week or two and Luke might have understood that more. This was one of many things he disliked about visions of the future – their complete and utter disregard for timing. He did not need to hear the whine of repuslorlifts to know that Luke Skywalker's X-Wing fighter was taking off, and any chance he'd had of convincing the stubborn boy not to go – small as it always had been – was lost. The boy was simply not ready to face Darth Vader, and Yoda knew he was not likely to ever return.
A ghostly figure appeared beside Yoda and sighed, its frustration evident. "That boy," muttered Obi-Wan Kenobi, "was our only hope."
"No." Yoda did not bother to hide his scowl as the spacecraft disappeared from view. "There is another."
.***********************************************************.
Luke Skywalker saw Darth Vader stretch his arm out and make a fist, and in the back of his mind he couldn't help thinking how odd it was to see such a menacing figure try to be imploring.
"Luke, you can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this; it is your destiny. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son!"
The shock of losing his right hand had been nothing compared to this. Alone, Vader's words would have meant little. But Luke's growing strength in the Force had not helped him here – he'd sensed the truth of the words the moment he'd heard them. He was Vader's son.
What horrified Luke more than anything else, however, were his own feelings. He knew his first instinct should be gratitude that this monster had not raised him. But his first, primal reaction to the news, before he'd had time to think, was anger. Fury that this practically all-powerful Dark Lord had left him to waste away his formative years on a moisture farm on a desert wasteland of a planet.
Fear, anger, aggression…the Dark Side are they.
He was missing his right hand, but perhaps he could still fight. As he reached out with the Force, he could not sense his weapon. How far down does this shaft go? Luke wondered. He looked down and could not see a bottom.
Vader leaned over the rail, extending a hand out to Luke. "Come with me. It is the only way."
Luke turned back to face him, finally having made up his mind. Vader straightened, expecting capitulation. But if the light saber was lost, then the shaft might be a way out. The younger Skywalker smiled sadly. Yoda had been right; he hadn't been ready. Then he released his grip on the pipe and let Bespin's gravity take him.
.
Vader had only nanoseconds to act. That death would be preferable to a chance, however small, to make things right: this was incomprehensible to him. Could this truly be his son? He could feel the limitations of the mechanical pieces that made up so much of his body. He should not be this weary from a mere duel. He should be quicker, more agile, less reliant on brute force. All he had done over the years was a testament to his strength in the Force. Any other Jedi would have been rendered almost useless with so much of his living body gone. Despite his power, despite everything, Obi-Wan really had destroyed him that day. One stroke of a light saber had reduced him from the greatest Jedi the galaxy had ever seen, to the greatest joke the galaxy had ever seen. The Emperor knew this. The few times he had not expressed bitter disappointment, he had been quite smug. Here was a student who would never be the master.
Vader realized all this, but he had never lost hope. Oh, he knew he had damned himself many times over in his service to the Empire. But he had not lost hope for the galaxy, for the dream he and Padme had so long ago. Only his death would make that dream vanish. All through the years, he had waited for the time that Emperor Palpatine would take on another apprentice, waiting for the opportunity to enlist another's aid in finally getting his revenge for the lies told to him, and for the loss of Padme. Years of waiting, but the Emperor knew a good situation when he saw one. Vader had begun to wonder if Palpatine considered himself to be immortal, and would never take on another apprentice. He was truly shocked when the Emperor agreed to his suggestion that Luke could be turned to the Dark Side. He did not quite trust the Emperor's motives, but he was confident he could accomplish his own goals before whatever plans the Emperor had could be realized.
And now his one chance was falling down a ventilation shaft.
No! He shoved his despair aside and let his rage flood his senses. The Emperor must pay! His son would be the answer! He knew Calrissian's repair crew had sabotaged the Millennium Falcon so that it would never be able to leave Bespin. It was possible Luke was making a calculated move and would survive the fall. But Darth Vader had searched too long and too hard. Luke was his chance to make things right. He could not accept the chance that his son might die in such a way as this. Vader reached both arms out over the railing. This mechanical body might be clumsy, but his will would not be denied. The power of the Dark Side was his!
.
Exhausted, wounded, in shock both mental and physical, Luke Skywalker struggled to keep from blacking out as he fell. There was no telling where the shaft would end up, and he knew if he allowed even a moment of unconsciousness he would be unlikely to ever wake up. So great was the struggle to stay awake, that it took him several moments to realize he had reversed direction. Too weak to fight back, he could still feel the Force in Darth Vader as he was being pulled back up. Perhaps Ben could… Luke didn't even know what a ghost might be able to do.
"Ben!" His voice was barely a whisper. "Ben, please…" Nothing.
"Ben…" Still nothing. He had been warned that he would be alone in this. The railing he had fallen from came back into view, Vader leaning out over it. The Dark Lord was hunched over, as if he too were about to fall. Panic seized Luke, and in his semi-conscious state he reached out through the Force to someone he never would have thought of.
" Leia… Hear me… Leia!"
.
Leia Organa already had a dozen plans in place to try to intercept the bounty hunter, Boba Fett, on his way to Jabba the Hutt's palace. But she knew none of them had a very high chance of succeeding. She would never give up, though. She would rescue Han, and make Jabba regret interfering with the Alliance's war with the Empire. Imperial TIE fighters were already scrambled, chasing the Millennium Falcon, but she didn't think to order someone to shoot at them as she kept plotting.
A sudden tickle at the edge of her mind caused her to freeze. She could almost hear someone calling out to her. Was it…?
"Luke," she whispered.
The touch came back to her mind, but this time she was ready and curiosity got the best of her before she realized what was happening.
She was back on Bespin, being carried in someone's arms. She looked up and saw the black mask of Darth Vader himself. No! She had escaped! What had happened? She tried to scream, but nothing came out. She tried to move, but for some reason she was just too weary.
"Ben… " she felt herself mutter. Why? She'd never called the man that. She knew him by his true name, Obi-Wan. Besides, she'd seen him die – struck down by Darth Vader.
"Yoda…" Again she said something that didn't make any sense to her. What had happened?
"Leia!"
The shock of her own name made her sit up, accidentally knocking her head against Lando's. "Ow," they said in unison. Lando stared at her, probably thinking she was insane. Right then, she wasn't sure herself. She blinked as she glanced around the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. She was sitting on the floor of the cockpit - apparently she had fallen out of her chair. What had just happened? It seemed so real. But it was Luke who had insisted on calling the old Jedi "Ben", not her…
Finally she thought she understood. Dream or vision, real or imagined, for those few moments she had not seen through her own eyes, but Luke Skywalker's.
She leaped to her feet, grabbing Chewbacca by the arm. "We've got to go back!"
Lando was incredulous. "What?"
Chewbacca roared, agreeing with Lando for the first time since they'd met.
"Luke is in trouble!"
Lando tried a different approach. "What about those fighters?"
The Wookie roared, gesturing toward a screen that showed a number of blips converging on their position.
"Chewie, just do it!"
"What about Vader?"
Leia raised her fist, seriously about to strike the man.
He must have seen something in her eyes. "All right, all right, all right!" Lando had barely spoken the words before both he and Leia were clutching at their seats as Chewie turned the Falcon around.
.
Luke was no longer able to stop himself from drifting in and out of consciousness, although he knew he was never out for more than a few moments at a time. He should have listened.
"Not ready are you!" Yoda's wrinkled face scowled up at him.
"Luke!"
He had blacked out again! It was getting harder to wake himself.
"Luke!"
With a groan, he lifted his head. That was no dream. Leia? She'd actually heard him?
His stomach leaped as he saw that Vader had his light saber out. No! She had to get away! He turned in the direction the Dark Lord was facing and there she was, just rushing through a doorway with her blaster out.
She fired three quick shots, all of which glanced harmlessly off the Sith Lord's weapon. Luke hadn't recovered his voice yet, but his mind was screaming at her. What are you thinking? You're going to be killed! Something apparently told her to duck, and a chunk of metal whipped over her head. A shot from her blaster disintegrated the thing, but as she turned back to Vader, Luke saw his father's hand twitch and he instinctively tried to reach out to his friend using the Force. Panic gripped Luke as he struggled to sit up, only to watch Leia take a glancing blow to her shoulder. The Force was not responding to him at all.
.
Darth Vader was tired. The duel with his son had taken far more out of him than he had expected. After lifting his son out of the ventilation shaft, he only had enough energy to lift small objects to hurl at the princess. How had she known that first one was coming? It was almost as if…
He looked down at his son, struggling to sit up. He looked back at the Princess, scrambling to her feet. She fired her weapon at him again, and this time she had to duck as the blast was deflected in such a way that it came right back at her.
Yes. This close, he could feel her. The Force was not awakened in her when he had been torturing her mere hours before, but it was certainly with her now. He strode forward, raising his light saber. She could not be allowed to threaten the rule of him and his son!
From behind Vader came a desperate howl. "Nooooo!"
Leia flew out of the room, and a massive pipe fixture broke loose from the ceiling and crashed to the floor, blocking the doorway. Vader turned to Luke, but the boy had passed out from the effort. The Dark Lord growled, knowing that if he tried to lift that pipe in his current state, he could very well suffer the same level of exhaustion.
An Ugnaught technician timidly piped up in its alien language from behind a piece of equipment. Though Vader, like all Imperials, had never learned any other language but Basic, he understood it was informing him that the chamber was ready.
.
Leia awoke to Lando's irate voice.
"…damn lucky I was able to find this room before any stormtroopers spotted us!"
The sounds Chewbacca made in reply were hardly soothing, but Leia took comfort in the Wookie's presence. He was her closest link to Han, for the moment.
"Dear oh dear, I am not at all sure such threats are appropriate to the situation!"
Leia couldn't help smiling at Threepio's comment. But the smile only lasted a moment. "Where's Luke?"
"Leia!"
Artoo started rolling back and forth, chirping and beeping with shrill insistence. Threepio leaned down toward him. "A message? From Master Luke?"
"Play it," Leia commanded immediately.
"I don't think we have time…" She hushed Lando as a faint hologram of Luke appeared.
"Leia, Han… If you're seeing this, then I have failed. Most likely I'm dead." Leia shook her head. She recognized the room she'd found him and Vader in – the same room where Han had been frozen in carbonite. A chill ran through her as she realized Vader had always intended to take Luke alive. But the hologram was not done.
"I know you and the Alliance will be busier than ever now, but I need to ask a final favor. I need you to send a message to a system called Dagobah…"
"Really, Leia, you should send someone else." Lando wore his most condescending smile for this speech. "The place could be dangerous. Someone who's handy with a blaster, but also has a bit of charm and flair…"
"You may address me as Princess, Calrissian. And there is no way I'm trusting this to anyone else, not even Chewie. Not even Han, if he were here." Leia frowned, resting a hand on R2. "I don't know who these people are that Luke found, but they could be very useful to the Alliance. I need to see for myself how best to deal with them."
"You've never even flown a snubfighter before!"
Leia looked up at Luke's X-wing. "Artoo is more than capable of keeping me on the correct course and initiating the landing sequence. That is all I'll need."
The droid whistled and chirped in agreement.
"Are you sure you wouldn't rather take the Millennium Falcon, your Highness?"
"No, Threepio. Artoo is the only one of us they've seen before, and they're familiar with Luke's ship. Besides, as Lando pointed out, I'm hardly ready to handle combat in this thing. I'll need the Falcon to run interference for me." She smirked as Lando groaned. "Now help me up."
Once seated in the fighter, she pulled on Luke's helmet - it fit surprisingly well - and strapped herself in. "Ready, Artoo?"
.
The face frozen in carbonite stared straight down. No grimace as the cold took hold, only a grim determination. It made Vader proud. The resemblance was startling, but also frustrating. He had hoped to see more of Padme in his son's face. No, the only living person now who had ever made him think of Padme was the rebel princess from Alderaan. Even that was more of a stubborn cast to her eyes than any physical…
No, that was not quite right. The princess did have some physical characteristics. Taller perhaps, with a more masculine jawline, but other than that she could almost be…
Foolishness. Padme had died after giving birth. He had seen it. She had given birth to Luke and had died. Because he had failed. Because Palpatine had lied. Still, he had some new missions for Imperial Intelligence. The Force was with the princess, and Vader could not allow her to jeopardize his New Empire.