Chapter 4
Luke sighed heavily as he settled into the Falcon's seat. It had been two days since his encounter with Vader and now they were about to make the journey to the Executer.
Watching Han sit down Luke wondered if Han really wanted to do this, afterall this was Darth Vader!
Luke lost himself in his thoughts and all to soon they were approaching the Executer and all the doubt that Luke had been pushing away for the last two days suddenly poured into Luke all at once.
Once again Han gave the codes and they made the short trip to the ship. When they landed Han jumped out of his seat, while Luke followed at a more sensible speed.
As Luke neared the exit he could hear Han talking with the imperials, Vader barely said anything and when he did he sounded distracted. Finally Luke could delay no longer and he approached the top of the ramp. Once there he straight away noticed Vader staring at the entrance to the Falcon, basically where Luke himself was standing.
When Vader saw Luke he seemed relieved. Luke did a double take. Relieved? Yup Luke could definitely see relief in those golden eyes.
Luke walked down the ramp.
It was similar to the last time only this time round Luke didn't have to carry the crates off the Falcon. Han supervised the imperials. The good thing that came from him not helping was that his foot was safe from injury. However the bad side was that he was stuck next to Vader.
After about 15 minutes they still hadn't finished and were currently waiting for some droids that would unload the heavy crates.
Luke wasn't surprised he himself had had to get his hands on some droids to load the cargo.
"How long do you think this will take?" Luke jumped slightly when Vader addressed him.
Luke fumbled for reply "er...I-I'm not sure, some of those crates are really heavy, from the looks of it there's still quite a few still to unload...sir."
"I thought as much" Vader mused, he looked at Luke with that same puzzled look he had on the other day.
Luke found himself doing the exact same thing to Vader.
Vader spoke again "forgive me having to ask this but have we met before? Excluding the other day of course, I feel as though I should know you."
Luke thought hard for a few seconds "I don't recall having met you before my lord."
Vader nodded lost in thought "what is your name?"
"Luke sir" Luke stated.
"Luke...?"
Briefly Luke wondered whether or not he should make up a last name instead of giving his real one. But there wasn't anything wrong with giving his name was there?
So having convinced himself Luke said "Skywalker. It's Luke Skywalker sir."
VADER
Vader listened to the boy's thoughts as Luke considered whether or not telling Vader his true name was a good idea. Vader's lips twitched upwards in amusement. The boy picked to tell Vader his true name.
"Skywalker. It's Luke Skywalker sir." Vader stared at Luke for a full ten seconds not blinking, finally he managed to choke out "Skywalker?"
Luke nodded.
Vader's emotions exploded as he slowly took in the news. Luke Skywalker.
Was it possible that this boy was his son? He couldn't be!
A little voice inside Vader's head said "he can't be you son, you killed Padme" Vader flinched away from the voice but it carried on "your baby died that night, you killed your baby."
Before Vader was completely taken over with despair a new kinder voice took over "that's not true though is it? When you left Padme she was alive. And you can sense the truth in the boy's words, and his name is Luke. In fact it's very possible he is your son."
Considering both sides Vader decided the only way to solve this was a DNA test. Only then could he be sure.
LUKE
Luke watched Vader with a raised eyebrow. Had he said something wrong? Vader looked as though he were about to explode.
However as quickly as these emotions crossed Vader's face they disappeared. He now looked as he had a few minutes ago before they had started talking.
Luke felt the confusion on his face and he looked back to the unloading to hide it from Vader. Even with his face turned from Vader, Luke could still feel the sith's eyes watching him with curiosity.
Briefly Luke considered asking Vader what was wrong and whether he himself had said anything that might provoke such a reaction.
VADER
Vader frowned. The only way to find out if this boy truly was his son would be to do a DNA test.
However Vader was still trying to figure out how he'd get Luke's DNA without arousing suspicion.
As it turned out though Vader needn't have worried about that problem because as he drifted out of his thoughts he realized something was wrong. Somehow one of the droids lifting the cargo was out of control.
The droid was stick thin from the stomach down. The body gradually grew wider from there and the arms were huge, those same arms were also holding a very large box that looked very heavy and could cause some serious damage. The top half of the droid was also spinning...
It was also coming towards himself and his son. Wait no. Vader shook his head, Luke. The droid was heading towards himself and Luke.
Vader shot another look towards Luke, the boy was just standing there watching as the droid advanced on him, why wasn't he moving?
Coming to his senses Luke jumped out of the way and avoided the near painful collision.
Luke looked at the droid once more, it was coming towards him again!
"Ow it really hurts!"
Luke frowned and looked towards the voice. Han. He was sitting on the floor holding his arm.
Luke raised an eyebrow.
Then Luke was flung backwards from a shattering explosion to his head, for a few moments Luke experienced very bright white light. His vision returned, it was fuzzy and blurred and there was spinning. Shock jolted through him as he slowly realized that the stupid droid had hit him with it's spinning arms. As Luke tried to concentrate he felt a warm liquid trail down his right cheek, still somewhat out of it Luke reached to his cheek and flinched as a sheering pain shot through him.
He could already feel the bruises coming on.
The more alarming and pressing matter though was the fact that the crazy robot was coming for him once again.
Wondering if he could fight it or at least stand up Luke almost didn't see Vader approach the droid. And he looked angry. Proper ticked off. Then Vader outstretched his hand toward the droid and it shattered.
Poof. It was gone.
Luke took in the sight of flying metal, looked at Vader who happened to be looking back at him, nodded to himself and fell back fainting.
He could have sworn before he passed out he felt a hand catch his head before hitting the ground.
VADER
Vader stared down at Luke with a worried expression, he had his hand under Luke's head, he slowly moved it and ran it through the blond hair. Abruptly he stood and motioned to the stormtroopers.
They stepped forward.
"Take him to the medical centre" Vader ordered.
Just before they leaned down to take Luke Vader added "and be careful with him, don't harm him!"
"Yes Sir" the stormtroopers replied.
Vader watched the stormtroopers as they took Luke.
After clearing the mess in the hangar Lord Vader stalked towards the med centre.
As he stepped through the doorway he immediately saw Luke lying unconscious on a bed with bandages on his face. Vader walked over to the bed and looked at his possible son, he couldn't see how injured he was due to the amount of bandages.
Hearing a noise and turning towards it, Vader saw that there was movement in the back of the room behind equipment. A closer inspection told Vader that it was the doctor.
When the doctor caught sight of his lord he stopped what he was doing and at once went to him.
"My Lord."
Vader looked the man up and down, he wasn't trembling, and he hadn't paled. Inside Vader smiled.
"Doctor I need you to do a DNA test for me." Vader stated.
Then Vader in detail described exactly who's DNA needed comparing with his own and why.
Looking at the doctor Vader said "this is confidential."
Much to Vader shock it looked as though the doctor had trouble not rolling his eyes.
"I assure you my lord all my work is confidential."
Vader tilted his head slightly then nodded.
"Doctor let me know when you have the results."