Title: The Illusionist
Chapter: 1. Revelations
Keywords: Luke Skywalker, Vader, father, son,
Author: Wellingtonboots
Archive: home page
Summary: Post-ESB. With the rebellion perilously close to extermination, Han frozen in carbonite, and the emergence of a mysterious, sinister order, Luke is thrown into a tornado of political intrigue and menacing underworlds as he starts to doubt the truth of his lineage.
AN: My first Star wars fic, go easy on me. Shameless father son story with Inquisitors, Prince Xizor and Dash Rendar thrown into the mix. Please Review!
Revelations
The Citadel Inquistorium was situated on the Sa'gih Pass, perilously close to the wild country. However its occupants had no fear of the elements, such was their power that nature in all its glory could not drive them from their rightful place.
The Citadel was aptly named in that it resembled the grandiose architecture of the Imperial Palace rather than the traditional Parkith style of unimaginative square blocks studded with narrow concave windows. It had been designed with the might of the Empire in mind and the architect, recently deceased, studiously incorporated all the main fear imposing tactics of Imperial buildings. The building and all its various extensions were built of pure black granite, no doubt obtained from classified sources. Two huge spires pierced the skyline on either side of the central dome, like the spinnerets of a mosque.
Not many ever beheld the great building and those that did rarely lived to tell of it. The physical environment complemented the dark foreboding appearance; green-grey mountains rose out of the crust like jagged teeth and the howling wind carried the screams far into the wild country.
Luke Skywalker had rarely been so frustrated in his life. Even Uncle Owen's infamous unfixable moisture vapours had never managed to cause so much ire. Anger was not the Jedi way but right now, Luke could not see how containing his fury was at all possible.
The pathetic excuse for a flight worthy ship lay limply in the hangar, totally unresponsive to anything Luke and R2 had tried over the past several hours.
"Master Luke, May I interest you in some nutritional sustenance?" inquired C3PO's perfect basic. R2 beeped with such a severe irritation that even Luke could not match it.
"Well I am only offering my considerable services to Master Luke. You seem to be getting in the way…"
"Listen CPO," snapped Luke as he withdrew his gloved hand from the tangled nest of fried wires, "just stay outside and inform the others I don't want to be disturbed."
The golden protocol droid seemed rather abashed but retreated quietly as per his control circuits leaving Luke and R2 to stew in peace.
The rebel alliance was running short of X wings. In reality they had always been short of snub fighters but right now there seemed to be a crisis. The Empire was stepping up its campaign against the Alliance, hoping to finally eliminate them once and for all.
The Emperor must be growing impatient and Vader…well Luke would rather not think what Vader wanted. He had tried to think about him as little as possible. The initial trauma had started to subside but the conflicting emotions still stayed with him like a terrible weight on his soul. It drained his
However Luke did have too much time to dwell on his troubled thoughts these days. When he was not flying missions, which was the majority of the time, he spent his hours patching up the skeleton wrecks of the remaining X-Wings. One of the few advantages of the job meant that he did not have to socialize any more. Ever since that fateful night he had felt tainted and alone. Sithspawn! That was what he was and he simply wasn't fit to socialise with the others. His time as the innocent Farmboy hero had come to an end.
The rebel base had recently moved to Yuifar, a remote but otherwise habitable moon in the Outer Rim. The move had been a risky one but none the less successful, the Empire had yet to rear its ugly in this stagnant part of the galaxy. Not that the favourable conditions would last, High Command was already planning another move, according to rumours, but had not seen to inform the Rogue Squads of the exact details. This development, under normal circumstance, would have raised a few eyebrows but there had been so many extraordinary things happening that the Rogues had almost become immune to surprise.
Peace and quiet were rare commodities in the rebellion, for only five minutes after C3PO's departure another ill mannered intruder entered the hangar, though with less dignity.
"Commander Luke, are you in there?" inquired Jun Mahoney, a recent transfer and a definite rooky. "The Princess wants me to tell you that she wants to see you," added Jun importantly and Luke saw the young man, barely out of his teens, standing nervously behind a crate of soldering material.
"Tell, Leia that I'm busy," said Luke curtly and instantly regretted his sharp tone of voice. However the rookie did not seem to be discouraged,
"She told me you would say that, and she told me to tell you that if you want Han back you'd better pull yourself together," he declared proudly. Luke saw just short of taking back his previous sense of regret but the full meaning of the words slowly penetrated his irritable mind.
"Has she found a lead?" demanded Luke climbing out from under the X-Wing.
"She said that you'll have to talk to her yourself," replied the younger pilot as he stepped out from behind the crate. "Personally Commander Luke, I think that it's not very healthy to spend all your time in the hangar without any company," he added rather boldly.
Luke desperately want to tell Mahoney to stop calling his Commander Luke, he wasn't that much of a commander, and even if he was he would rather be called "Commander Skywalker". Suddenly a flash of memory echoed through his mind,
"What was the name of that clone wars commander again?" hissed Biggs out of the corner of his mouth,
"Commander Skywalker," whispered Luke, "like me."
Biggs had snorted so loudly that day, the teacher had made both of them stand outside in the sun during the lunch break but Luke had not been deterred. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that he was related to Commander Skywalker, The Hero with No Fear and Jedi Knight. His dream had come true when Ben Kenobi gave him "his father's" light sabre only to be shattered on Bespin by those few terrible words.
"Commander Luke, are you alright?" asked Mahoney looking concerned and slightly bewildered. Luke snapped back to reality.
"I'm fine, thanks, and just call me Luke," muttered Luke. "I'll see Leia, but not now, just tell her I'll see her soon."
"I can't do that Commander Luke," protested Mahoney with righteous indignation. "The Princess said…"
"Alright," muttered Luke and jammed the spare parts he was still holding into his pockets. "Keep working R2."
Luke had long since given up arguing with Leia, she could easily be ten times more stubborn than he was. Besides, he had to berate himself for not seeing her sooner. Leia had also suffered on Bespin.
Mahoney was thankfully silent during their trip to Leia's quarters at the other end of the compound. The door com peeped in a tone that Luke did not recognize and the door slide open with a most horrible grating noise. Mahoney smiled apologetically and stepped aside to allow Luke into the room. However he did not leave as Luke had assumed he would, instead he stumbled in after Luke, having tripped on the threshold.
"Master Luke, I'm so happy to see you," gushed C3PO with as much emotion as a protocol droid could.
"I just saw you five minutes ago," said Luke feeling bemused.
"Oh, no Master Luke, I am glad for Princess Leia, she ahs not been feeling herself lately and I was beginning to worry…"
"It's alright C3PO, I'm not dying!" shouted Leia's indignantly from the bedroom.
"Leia, you wanted to see me," shouted Luke; unsure of whether he should approach the bedroom.
"Just come in, I'm…a bit under the weather," said Leia and the doors to her personal room slid open rather less noisily. She was not visible however, which meant that Luke would have to go to her. Through his connection with the force he could feel Mahoney behind him casually admiring C3PO.
"Princess Leia would like to thank you for doing such a good job, Jun Mahoney," said C3PO politely.
"Oh…" muttered Mahoney clearly hoping for some personal praise from the princess. "I'll go now," he strode awkwardly towards the front door and ended up sprawled in the hallway after tripping over the threshold.
Luke torn between helping Mahoney and tending to Leia, decided on the former but before he could offer any words of comfort the young pilot had already fled the scene.
"His coordination is somewhat below the norm, Master Luke," commented C3PO and shuffled over to the coffee table to tidy up what looked like several days worth of coffee mugs.
"Luke?" came Leia's voice, "are you still there?"
"I'm coming Leia," said Luke dutifully and walked into the bedroom, only to reel back in shock. Princess Leia, the headstrong, courageous leader of the rebellion was lying in bed under several layers of thermal blankets. "Leia, are you sick?" cried Luke feeling instantly distressed. He had never seen Leia look so vulnerable in all his time in his company.
"I'm fine Luke, don't over react, you're beginning to sound like 3PO. I've just got a slight stomach ache that's all," she assured him and patted a spot on the bed. There was no other furniture in the room apart from the built in storage compartments that looked like they didn't work.
"Leia, you could be reacting adversely to the effects of this new planet. You have to inform the medics, it could be serious!" insisted Luke, feeling the panic rising in his throat. He had already lost Han, he didn't want to lose Leia as well.
"Luke, listen, this happens to me all the time!" said Leia with equal ferocity. "I wouldn't have called you if I had a choice but right now I don't so…"
"It's happened before? Why have you never told me?" demanded Luke.
"Listen, farm boy," snapped Leia her limited amount of patience wasted, "it happens to every girl once a month on a regular basis." The information sunk in and Luke found himself blushing with embarrassment but somehow the explanation sounded wrong.
"I…well…never mind," muttered Luke.
"Doesn't matter, I needed to get you out of that horrible hangar. You've been so very distant, Luke."
"I've been busy. We're short on supplies, I've got to make the resources last for as long as possible," muttered Luke still feeling mortified.
"Luke, I need to ask you now…what happened between you and Vader," she stared right at him and for a split second he felt as if she was looking right through his defences. He was stunned, shocked, he simply wasn't ready to say that out loud.
"I…"
"Luke I understand that it is very traumatic but there have been some wild rumours floating around about you…"
"What!" Luke reared back off the bed as if a nexu had attacked him. "What have they been saying!" Could someone have found out, how was it possible! Only two other people knew about that, one was dead and the other was an Imperial.
"Luke, calm down. What has happened to you? Ever since…you've changed so much," said Leia. "I've been so worried about you, Luke."
"I've been worried about you too, Leia, but I promise you we will get Han back."
"Says you, who has been spending all his time tinkering with rubbish," muttered Leia disapprovingly and Luke instantly felt a wave of guilt wash over him. He had let his own abused emotions prevent him from looking after the people were important to him.
"I'm sorry, Leia, I've just been so confused lately…" he realised the words were badly chosen even before they resounded through the room.
"Confused! Luke what have you got to be confused about? Don't tell me, Vader tried to recruit you! Of course why wouldn't he, that evil, murderous monster! What did he say to you? You can't honestly have taken him seriously! I bet he's been trained in the art of manipulation, maybe he even used one of those mind tricks on you!"
"Leia," said Luke feeling alarmed at the depth of feeling in her rant. "He didn't do anything of the sort…" or did he?
Luke knew that Vader was force sensitive; Ben always made it very clear the extraordinary extent of Vader's force abilities. Luke had witnessed the tremendous power for himself as he tried to duel with the Dark Lord. Although he was sure he had not been treated to the real power of Darth Vader, the Sith had only been toying with him back then.
Luke was too untrained to recognize a "sophisticated" mind trick, if such a thing should exist. However he was quite sure that Vader could control even the strongest of minds and possibly without his victims even knowing.
Suddenly a small but bright ray of hope shone into the dark recesses of his troubled mind. If Vader had been using a mind trick…if he had influenced Luke's mind…then it might not be true!
Search you're feelings, you know it to be true…
Of course he had felt the truth rip through the force like a tidal wave but what if Vader had orchestrated the whole set-up to turn Luke to the Dark Side by pretending to be his father?
A surge of elation washed over Luke's being, a small hope of freedom sparked what life was left in him and drowned out the small but insistent voice in the back of his mind. He was free… free to pursue his dreams, free to fight for freedom and justice without feeling like a hypocrite, free to just be Luke Skywalker again.
"Luke, are you alright!" Leia's shrill voice pulled him back to the present like a tractor beam.
"I'm…fine," muttered Luke, his mind still reeling from the possibilities. Now the more he thought about it the more his conclusion seemed to make sense. Why should he believe the word of a merciless killer over the words of wise old master Yoda, or Ben Kenobi who watched over him all these years?
"Luke? Luke? Have you been listening to a word I've said?" demanded Leia, waving her hands in front of his eyes.
"Yes…yes. Listen Leia, I…I need to some time alone to rethink some…stuff," said Luke as he tried to calm his erratic heart beat.
"But you just got here," said Leia, looking confused and a little…hurt?
"I know, listen Leia. I just need some privacy…I don't mean to upset you but…I'm just not ready, but I will be…" his explanation sounded lame and weak even to his own ears, but the revelations were still swirling around in his mind like a tornado, sweeping aside all feelings of inadequacy.
Leia's eyes softened somewhat, perhaps she could see some reason behind his behaviour,
"I won't pretend to agree with your method of dealing with issues, but I respect your privacy Luke," she paused rather uncertainly, "and just remember, if you ever need to talk, I'll always be here…no matter what."
Luke was moved by her sudden display of affection but it seemed somewhat insignificant in the drama being played out by his emotions. He was free! The sense of elation was exuberating and he felt like leaping for joy. However a small but insistent part of his brain gnawed at his joy and gave him a growing sense of unease.
"I see you later," said Luke and departed without looking back at the small, frail figure lying under the blankets.
C3PO followed Luke to the door and so did his incessant chatter,
"I do hope you will be alright on your own Master Luke. My circuits tell me that humans need company and R2…"
"I understand 3PO, I'll be fine," stated Luke insistently and hurried out of the door with a mental note to come back and fix the doors.
When he was finally alone in the corridor, he let out a slow sign of relief. The emotional turmoil had drained his senses and now he felt as if he could simply flop down in the middle of the hallway and stay there for all eternity.
It's too good to be true, why did I never think of it before? the same thoughts bombarded his brain. His stupidity seemed blindingly obvious to him now; Luke Skywalker son of Darth Vader? Even if someone had found out, no one would believe a word of it.
"I am Luke Skywalker, son of Anakin Skywalker, a hero and a Jedi," proclaimed Luke to the empty corridor and slowly but surely a grin formed on his face. To hear the truth ring out from his voice seemed to lift the once heavy burden from his shoulders.
Suddenly a presence registered in the force and Luke turned around hastily, afraid that someone might have heard him talking to himself. However as the footsteps approached he could feel that it was Lando Calrissian. The force around the man was tense, almost excited.
"Luke!" cried Calrissian once Luke was in sight range, "Luke! We've found Han!"
AN: Hope you liked it please review, even if it's just to tell me my facts are wrong. If anyone likes Harry Potter, I've got too many fics on that.