Luke was sitting at the table, watching his sister wade through hours' worth of paperwork when the bell rang. Eager to escape what had, until that point, seemed like inescapable boredom, he leapt to his feet.

"I'll get it!"

Leia nodded absently and returned to the most recent form. Han shrugged, and moved one of his pieces, making Chewbacca growl in annoyance.

He hurried from the room, making for the front door. Keying the activation switch on the door, he looked out at the two people who stood before him in very prominent Imperial uniforms.

"Hello?" he asked, confused.

One of them stepped forward, holding a data pad to his chest and looking very self-important.

"Hello, we'd like to speak to Luke Skywalker."

Mystified, Luke waved, "Speaking."

The man looked taken aback for a moment. Then he opened his mouth and continued as if nothing had happened.

"It's about Lord Vader's will."

"Uh, what?" Luke asked, perplexed.

"You are Lord Vader's only son?"

"Yeah. Do you mean to say he left me something?" Luke asked, stunned.

The men were looking at Luke with increasing doubt. "He left you everything."

"Oh." Luke said, and his response hung dully in the air, seeming inadequate. "Oh."

"If you would just sign here, Lord Vader's fortune will be transferred to your personal account."

Luke snapped himself back to the situation at hand, "I don't have one."

"What do you mean you don't have one?"

"I've never needed one. My aunt and uncle paid for all my needs back on the farm, and I haven't had my own money since. I guess you can put it into the Alliance's account, right?"

"Lord Vader was very specific with his wishes that the money be given to you specifically."

"Um…" Luke paused, biting his lip.

"All his material possessions have also been left to you."

"Oh," Luke said, wishing he hadn't answered the door.

"And, of course, his position in the Empire."

Luke found his eyes flicking to the door activation, wondering how hard it would be to slip back in and slam the door in their faces. Not too hard, he decided, it was explaining it later that would be a challenge.

"Are you done yet?" Luke asked, praying that they were.

"One last matter. The Emperor was killed before your father, correct?"

Luke had a sinking feeling he knew where they were going with that train of thought. "Yes."

"In that case, he was emperor when he died."

Luke stood and stared, unable to make himself do anything else.

"Which means that when you were left his position-"

"I understand what that means," Luke interrupted. "But that's about all I understand." He added under his breath. "Uh, I need to get someone, I'll be right back. If that's all right with you."

"Lord Skywalker, clearly you don't comprehend, we should be asking you permiss-" the man started, but Luke cut him off by going back inside and closing the door.

He felt his feet carrying him back to Han and Leia, but he felt like he was swimming. He had never been a very good swimmer.

When he re-entered the room, however, only Han and Chewbacca sat there, playing their game.

"Han?" Luke asked, horrified when his voice came out sounding choked.

"Kid?" Han turned to him, and stood up when he saw Luke's face. "What's wrong, Kid?"

"Where's Leia?" Luke asked, fighting to get his voice under his control.

"She went to get herself something to drink."

Luke started towards the kitchen.

"Hey, Kid, are you all right?" Han called after him. He didn't answer. Instead he carried on, brushing past C-3P0.

Leia was standing at the counter, adding some milk to the cup of caff that sat on the counter before her.

"Leia?"

She turned to face him, and looked taken aback by the expression on his face.

"Luke, what's wrong?"

"The people at the door…" Luke started. "Leia, it's about Father."

Leia sighed gently, "I know you don't like hearing about what he did."

Luke gulped. "Leia, it's not that. Apparently, he left a will."

"You mean he left us something?"

"Not us exactly. He wouldn't have known about you when he was writing it. But he left me everything."

"Everything?"

Luke managed a weak smile. "That's what I thought. Apparently, he did."

Leia sensed something was still missing. "What exactly does everything include?"

"His money. His possessions. And… well, let's just say I'm officially the leader of our enemy."

"He made you emperor?" Leia asked incredulously.

"I'm sure he thought he was doing me a favour." Luke mumbled.

"Oh, Luke." Leia said softly, looking at her brother. Luke was suddenly aware that he was swaying slightly from side to side. He reached out to the counter to steady himself, but he was standing farther from it than he had thought, and he fell against it. "What are we going to do now?"

"Well, can't we just explain that this is all a mistake and I can't be emperor?"

"Luke, I'm afraid it's not going to be that easy. You can't just refuse. The Empire would fall into anarchy, and that's not as good for us as you would think."

Luke sighed. "I was afraid of that. So, I should pass command onto the high council?"

Leia shook her head, "That won't be possible either. There would be civil war within the Empire. We would have imperials killing imperials, imperials killing rebels, rebels killing imperials, and rebels killing rebels. Not to mention that some of those imperials would be loyal to us."

Luke's handhold suddenly didn't seem quite as firm as it had. He sank to the floor, leaning against the cupboards. His sister knelt before him, concern etched in her features.

"Luke?"

He nodded, feeling ill. At that moment, the door behind him opened, and Han came in. When he spotted the twins sitting on the floor of the kitchen, he hurried over to them.

"What happened?" he asked urgently.

Leia moved aside so he could see her brother, and Han's expression softened. "Kid, what's wrong?"

Luke shook his head, trying to communicate that he couldn't speak at the moment, and Han put one hand on his knee.

"It's something to do with the guys at the door, isn't it?"

"Oh, blast. I left them there." Luke managed to get through his tears.

"Hey, don't worry 'bout it. If anyone should be apologising, I'd say it's them."

"Han, it's about our father. He left Luke the Empire, and I don't think Luke's ready for that." She turned to Luke. "Luke, I'll try to talk to them, I'll see what I can do. I'll tell them you're doing something very sophisticated and emperor-worthy." She smiled, but when Luke didn't smile back, returned to business. "Han, would you get Luke to bed, please?"

Luke saw Han nod, and he felt the other man carefully lift him to his feet. He heard his sister returning to the doorway, and just caught the beginning of her excuses for him before Han was helping him into bed with all of his clothes still on. He resisted for just long enough to pull his shirt off before submitting.

"Leia will make sure everything works out in the end," Han assured him.

Luke nodded silently.

"She's good at that, you know?"

"I know."

"Listen, Kid, they've got no right to do this to you."

"Mhmm," Luke said, noncommittally.

"I can go and beat them up right now if it'd make you feel better."

The ghost of a smile flickered across Luke's face as he shook his head slowly.

"Yeah, didn't think you'd like that. Well, I know it'd make me feel better. You know how I hate to see you like this."

The traces of the smile lingered a bit after that comment, bolstering Han's enthusiasm.

"What was your dad thinkin', leavin' the Empire to a farm kid like you?" Han asked, scruffing his young friend's hair with one hand.

He had taken a misstep. Luke gave a sniffle and tears started to slip from his lashes again.

"Oh, no. No, you don't kid. Don't start crying again now. Don't even think about it," Han warned playfully. When his words failed to provoke even a bit of a smile, he dropped the attempt, brushing away Luke's tears with the edge of his blanket.

"I bet you're right, you know. He probably did think he was being nice. Even if he had been thinking about you trying to rebuild the Republic and the Jedi Order. I mean, he had that Ben character when he was a Jedi, and from what I heard he relied on him for just about everything political. I can see why, I would've too. Did you know Obi-Wan used to be known as The Negotiator?"

Luke sniffed, "No."

"Well, he was."

"Did my father have a name like that?"

"Yeah, he was the Chosen One."

Luke smiled slightly, "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Chosen for what, exactly?"

Han shrugged, "I dunno, I think there was supposed to be a prophesy of some kind."

Luke nodded. "There's so much I'm never going to know about him," he said sadly.

Han didn't speak, gently hugging his young friend. And then something occurred to him, "You know what's all over the black market?" he asked.

Luke looked at him in surprise, "Uh, a lot of drugs and weapons?"

"Uh, well, that too. What I was thinking of is Old Republic news footage."

"Really?"

"It's contraband, isn't it?"

"Good point."

"I can talk to some people and see if we can get some footage of your dad."

"That'd be great." Luke said.

"Maybe we'll even be able to work out who your mom was."

Luke laughed awkwardly, "Let's not, okay? I think I'd rather be told than take my best guess."

"Yeah, I guess that was a bit creepy, wasn't it?"

"A bit, yeah." Luke smiled.

"I think I'm gonna check with your sister, see how she's doing."

Luke nodded, and curled up, feeling considerably better.