Vader shot Luke again, feeling Anakin struggling deep in his heart. On the floor, Luke's emaciated body writhed. With the blaster set to stun, Luke wouldn't be harmed too badly, but each time he was shot there was a terrible agony localized a spot that quickly developed into a burn. So far, Vader had only shot the boy's arms and legs, but the first shot to his chest had brought tears of agony to his eyes, making him scream and sob.

Stop! You have to stop! He's just a boy, he can't take this. Anakin begged helplessly, fighting all the harder to get away from Vader.

We have an agreement, Anakin. You can't just beg your way out of this. Vader answered, his voice cold, uncaring.

You never said you'd hurt my son!

I said we would do something that I enjoy and you hate. It gives both of us incentive to take control of the body. And I've offered you a sporting chance.

This is a boy's life we're talking about! It's not a sport!

Oh, but just look at him! Writhing like that, can't you just feel his pain? Vader asked hungrily, basking in the child's agony.

Anakin was in tears, at least, as close as he could come, trapped in Vader's consciousness as he was. Yes, I can! Please, find something else!

No. This is obviously working perfectly. Fight me, Anakin. If you want to save yourself and your boy, you will have to try harder. Remember, when he dies, your chance is over.

Anakin's heart was torn, seeing his son struggling against the floor, begging.

"Father! Please! I thought you wanted to turn me! This isn't going to work!"

"No, boy. I changed my mind. I think I'll kill you." Vader intoned harshly.

The boy gave a sob, shaking desperately and reaching for their hands. Vader had control of those hands, though, and they only hurt the child further.

Stop! He's a child, he's just a child! Let him go!

When I chose you, I thought you were smarter than this.

When I chose to accept you, I thought you would help me!

I'm giving you more of a chance than most Sith would. You could have it much worse.

You're killing my SON! Anakin struggled to the surface, dropping the blaster instantly and gathering his son in his arms.

"What are you doing?" Luke shivered. "Why are you doing this?"

Anakin pulled his son close against himself, feeling tears starting to come to his eyes. "He's gone, Luke. He's gone." He whispered, crying into his son's hair.

Luke shook harder, trying to pull away. "What are you talking about? Why are you holding me all of a sudden? Half a minute ago you were torturing me! Please stop hurting me! Please!"

"It wasn't me, Luke, it was Vader." Anakin realized that he was using his son's name whenever he could.

Luke started to cry in fear now, "I don't understand! I thought you were Vader! You turned to the Dark Side!"

"Oh, Luke. Jedi who go to the Dark Side have never come back. They say I'm the first. It's not the way the Jedi understood it at all. I'll explain it all to you, I promise. Are you strong enough to stand?"

Luke tried to move one of his legs and he felt a tear trickle down his cheek. "No. They're all pins and needles. Would you carry me, please?" He asked hopefully, holding out his arms, which also prickled in protest.

Anakin moved one arm from around his son's shoulders to support him under the knees. He stood, the boy still snuggled in his arms. Luke squirmed into a sitting position, wrapping his arms around his father's neck.

Anakin moved to kiss his son, gently giving his son's bruised cheek his blessing to heal quickly. Finally, his tears of fear and pain dried, Luke was free to cry for happiness. He buried his nose against his father's neck and sobbed.

At first, Anakin was confused, and afraid for his son, but it slowly dawned on him why the boy was crying, and he began to rub the boy's back, just being there for him.

He carried his son into a shuttle, trying not to be too rough with his thin body. He rested the child on the co-pilot's chair and knelt down before the boy, stroking the tears from his blue eyes.

"It's all right, Luke. I love you. I'll protect you. Don't be frightened."

Luke reached out to his father's hand, taking it in his own, holding the glove to his cheek. "I'm not. I know that you'll take care of me now. I know." He smiled slightly and closed his eyes. Anakin slowly caressed his son's cheek and then moved to sit in the pilot's chair, taking to the sky.

"Where are we going, Father? I thought this was your castle."

"It is. But this is far too close to Sidious. We'll be safer on Vjun at my other castle."

Luke nodded slowly. "Will you tell me what happened, please?"

Anakin nodded, turning his ship away from the ground, up at the heavens. "Tell me what you understand of the Dark Side."

"The way it was explained to me, someone, usually a Jedi or Jedi in training, is power hungry, and impatient with their training. They are found by a Sith Lord who invites them to the Dark Side. On the Dark Side, they use their anger to draw on the Force. They don't care about anyone but themselves."

"That's what the Jedi would tell you, I know that much. But really, it's more like this." He programed the navicomputer and set off into hyperspace. "As you said, a Jedi wants more power, more quickly, and a Sith finds them. But it's not just using anger. Your Sith Master will find a Sith Lord to pair you with. Sith Lords aren't Jedi who've turned, they're more like," he paused to think, "Demons, I guess. It's not that the Jedi is given another name when they turn, it's really that the Jedi allows the Sith Lord to take his body in return for something. Then the body takes on the Sith Lord's name."

Luke gaped at his father, "I'm confused."

"I don't doubt it. With any luck, it'll start to make more sense. What I wanted was the power to protect your mother, and you. Sidious found the Sith Lord Vader to team with me."

"Sorry, is the demon or the person Palpatine?"

"The human's name is Palpatine. The Sith is Sidious."

Luke nodded.

"He chose Vader to work with me. At first, Vader was willing to stay back in my mind when I was with those I loved. I don't know if that's how it always works, but it was how he functioned. He taught me to trust him wholeheartedly. He would come out with his anger when I was in trouble, and save me. Then I would go to meet your mother, and he would draw back. In fact, he was so gradual about it, I didn't really notice our relationship changing, giving him more power. For all I know, he was suggesting that I "turn to the Dark Side" from the first time I let my anger get the better of me and he found a nook he could sneak through.

"He did let himself take control of more and more aspects of our shared life. About a year after I lost you and your mother, he finally took control completely. Since then, all I've been able to do is make suggestions on survival, and beg him not to destroy people. He respected me much of the time, allowed me to make him seem more human. The Sith Lords do not know how to be humans and blend in. I've been able to save lives through begging.

"Really, Vader wasn't so bad. There are much worse Sith Lords to be paired with. Sidious, for example, has a reputation of sneaking into the mind of the youngest child he can and taking root deeply before a sudden and complete take-over of their mind. He's the only Sith who can blend in by himself. Many Sith Lords lie to their host to get more power in their mind if they're not strong enough to steal the power. Vader didn't lie, and he didn't ignore me completely, nor did he destroy my consciousness, as Sith Lords have been known to do."

"How do you know all this?"

"The information about other Sith Lords is all information from Vader, but anything about Vader is my own opinion."

"But didn't he tell you he could save Mom?"

"No. Palpatine made that promise. Vader didn't even know of it until it was too late. When I told him what he'd done, in the form of an accusation, he was shocked. He explained to me once that he listened to the person he'd taken because he found that it kept him stronger to have their personality as well. That and they could help him blend in, of course. He was honest enough to tell me that the only reason he did as I wished was because I could help him in some small ways. My consciousness is more aware of what the body sees in the corners of his eyes. I've warned Vader before any harm can come many times."

"If one of the better Sith Lords can torture their host's son, what would the worse ones do?" Luke asked with a shiver.

"Vader was also vastly competitive. He suggested that we fight for the body, when I became too upset by anything he tried to do. I was warning him of things that weren't happening, wounding his pride by making him appear foolish. The idea of the contest was that if I could take control of the body back from him for even just a second, I could keep it. I thought he meant just in our regular life, I never thought he'd go after you. He said that we would do something he enjoyed and I hated. I assumed it would be torture at that point, but I never thought he'd personalize it so much that he'd hurt you.

"He was right, though, it did give us both an excellent reason to hold onto the body. I'm glad I was stronger. So glad." Anakin repeated, looking at his son, curled on the co-pilot's chair, looking very young, and small, and innocent. "He would have killed you. And the last rule to our agreement was that if I couldn't take control before you died, he would crush my consciousness as well."

"If most Sith Lords crush the host's consciousness, why does Palpatine still go by both names? Is Sidious like Vader in that he lets them keep their consciousness? He didn't seem like he would. He'd simply have a baby's consciousness."

"Palpatine was different for Sidious. Palpatine was as close to the Jedi's idea of the "Dark Side" as anyone ever has been. He was a psychotic, sadistic murderer. He was only five when Sidious took him, but he had already killed. They got along disturbingly well. Palpatine also had the ability to appear sweet and innocent as a child, and Sidious let him have control of the body enough for him to mature. He grew up to be a skilled politician. Sidious used Palpatine to simulate balance. It was how they gained so much power."

Luke stared out at the stars, "Wow."

"I know." Anakin nodded and rested his chin on his folded hands, staring at his son.

"I never imagined you went through all that. Force, I thought that was you who did all those horrible things."

"And you loved me anyway?" Anakin asked, reaching out to take the boy's burned arm in his hands. Luke stood up and allowed himself to be led to sit on his father's lap.

"You were my father. I was an orphan for all I knew. I'd wanted desperately to know you my whole life."

Anakin was silent, unsure what to say, or even if there was anything appropriate to say. Finally, he decided that if there was, it was too late for it now; the gap had been too long. Slowly, he stroked his son's back, feeling the boy's shoulder blades, his ribs, the way his body shook constantly, an aftereffect of what had been done to him. He pulled his son against himself, feeling his son's breathing quicken and looking into his eyes to see tears there once more.

"I'm sorry, Luke."

Luke shrugged tiredly, "It wasn't your fault. It was Vader."

Anakin snugged his son's body closer against himself, hiding him in the protective warmth of his robes. Luke closed his eyes, resting his head on his father's tunic and breathing in the smell that he hoped would become the smell he associated with home.

"How were you healed?"

"What?" Anakin looked down at his son, who had effectively made his father's cloak into a cocoon around himself.

"Obi-Wan said that he'd wounded you badly in a battle. I've never heard him swear like he did when he caught the first glimpse of your face in the holonews."

"Oh, right. He did wound me, which I'd rather not talk about, but many Sith Lords heal and preserve their hosts, especially if the host is powerful. Vader was able to heal my body completely."

"Then why is your hand prosthetic?"

"How did you know?" Anakin asking in surprise, looking at his glove.

"There's a tiny hole," Luke said, pointing, "Right there."

Anakin smiled, "Oh, all right. I asked him to leave that unhealed. A bit of a reminder of better times, when I was with your mother, I suppose. It's a strange choice, I guess. She never liked the prosthetic hand."

"I guess Palpatine isn't as good a host as you are then."

"Not quite, why?"

"Well, it doesn't look much like Sidious has been caring for him."

"He has been. But even the Sith Lords' power isn't limitless. He's been ancient for as long as I've known him. I met him when I was nine."

Luke nodded finally, then pressed his head against his father's chest, just wanting to be held. Anakin looked down at the thin body and wrapped his arms more tightly around him. He kissed the boy's forehead and waited as his child's breathing slowed before evening out in sleep. Again he kissed his son, who slept on. He closed his own eyes, resting his head back against the chair.

"Artoo?" He called softly. The little droid trundled into the cockpit. "Take us down to my castle when we come out of hyperspace."

The droid beeped and Anakin nodded, "Thanks."

He sat in the chair for a few minutes before giving up on trying to sleep there. He gathered his son in his arms and carried him back into the living quarters. He tried to put the boy on a bed so he could climb into his own, but the boy stirred and caught one hand in his father's tunic. Anakin looked at the sleeping boy's face, which appeared slightly frightened.

"It's all right, Luke. Let me go, please."

Luke didn't seem to wake up any more, but his grip on his father's shirt tightened.

Anakin sighed and picked the boy back up, sitting down on the bed. He scooted back, laughing quietly at how stupid he felt, and then lay down, which left his son snuggled against his chest. Slowly, he managed to ease the blanket out from under both of them and tucked them in.

"Goodnight, Luke." He whispered into his son's hair, closing his eyes to sleep for the first time in years.