Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, and no money is being made from this. I'll put them back undamaged when I'm finished playing with them, I promise.
Title: After Bespin
Summary: After Bespin, Darth Vader feels empty at his son's rejection and questions his role in Palpatine's Empire. Eventually Luke Vader. Rated T for mild drug abuse, suicidal thoughts.
Luke awoke with a smile, though he could not remember quite what he had dreamed of. It had been pleasant though, he was sure of that. He stretched luxuriously in his bed, far more comfortable than the narrow cots that were standard issue within the Rebel Alliance, then took a long water shower before dressing in the clothing his father had provided. The fabric was that of the officers' uniforms, thick and smooth, in his case plain black but without insignia. He liked that, it was very much the equivalent of what his father wore, there was no need for his father to wear any indication of his rank openly as everyone knew his importance. Soon they would know his too, they already had some idea and were friendly but respectful even knowing what little they did. Soon his true identity would be public, and everyone would show him the respect due to Vader's son, third in line to the Emperor himself. That would feel good.
As the days passed, the only blot on the landscape was his father's attitude. They sat together most evenings, talking and meditating together, only now Vader spoke openly about defeating Palpatine, and suggested plans for how they would accomplish this. He seemed angered by Luke's reluctance to plan, and Luke found himself lashing out at his father, wishing only to silence him. Oddly, something he did had the desired effect, and he had to look back through his actions to try to work out what it had been. He had 'pushed' at Vader's suit, at the controls, reaching out with his mind to quiet the older man. Ah there, that was it, a set of controls on the suit. He recognised them from his father's thoughts, though they were slow and vague at present. A convenient addition to the suit, the provision of a sedative. He would have to be cautious, but this would allow him to stop his father from becoming difficult about his ridiculous plans. Luke smiled, this was exactly the leverage he needed until they reached Coruscant, to keep his father calm and subdued.
Piett frowned. The doctor's report had not been a complete surprise, since he had noticed the signs himself, but it was still worrying that Lord Vader had slipped back into his earlier reliance on the medication provided by the suit. Piett had hoped that the arrival of Skywalker would have continued to be a positive influence, but the improvement seemed to have been short-lived. He shook his head. Orders had come in for their return to Coruscant, for Lord Vader to report personally to the Emperor at the Palace. It seemed very unlikely that his second-in-command's current state would go unnoticed by the keen eyes of the Emperor. He only hoped that Lord Vader would realise this himself and reduce his use of the chemicals in time for their arrival.
Palpatine rubbed his hands together. Things were developing even better than he had hoped. When he reached out in the Force now he could feel Dark and Light swirling together in the boy. Vader's presence on the other hand was dull and muted, his earlier increased strength from having been reunited with his son no longer in evidence. All the reports from his agents onboard the Executor confirmed what his Force sense told him. The game would be played out very soon, and the conclusion was clearer than ever. The younger Skywalker was pulling in strength from the Dark Side and would easily be swayed to embrace it fully. His pleasure at both the power and influence he now wielded, and the comforts his improved status brought, were the key. He wanted more of both, and Palpatine was in just the right position to offer them. His visit to the Palace would show that in every possible way.
Their shuttle landed on a private docking bay, and Luke followed respectfully a little behind his father as he walked at a measured pace through the Palace complex to the throne room. He was a little worried that he had overdone the sedative - his father's original plan had been for them to walk into the throne room and simply challenge Sidious. Luke's light saber was even concealed in Vader's cloak since his own outfit was too close-fitting for it to go unnoticed otherwise. Luke's plan was far more subtle, but it needed Vader to be physically and mentally slowed while still getting them past the guards and into Palpatine's presence without attracting suspicion. If his walk slowed much further, would anyone intervene? Would it occur to the guards that there was something amiss, and would they dare challenge the Dark Lord if it did?
Finally they reached the throne room and were admitted, the guards leaving them alone with the Emperor. Vader struggled to a kneeling position in front of the throne, ignored utterly by his master who had eyes only for the younger man beside him.
"We meet at last, young Skywalker. I trust you like what you have seen of my palace so far?" The boy's impressions, of sheer size and opulence, had rung through the Force on his approach. He blushed at being so easily read, but Palpatine continued "Oh there's no need to be bashful. You see what power brings, and you want that for yourself. There's nothing to be ashamed of in that. Everyone wants power, though some pretend to want it so that they can help others. I prefer honesty myself. Power and wealth. They are their own rewards." He finally spared a glance at his apprentice, and flicked his attention over him in the Force. He was barely conscious, or so it seemed, his presence in the Force scarcely detectable, his thoughts slow and ponderous.
"Your father seems a little... subdued... this morning. I do hope he isn't out of sorts?"
The boy blushed again. "I... ah... he kept getting upset at me, so I, um, started giving him a little something to calm him down. He was really very upset this morning."
"Just because you wouldn't take that pretty little blue light saber he has in his pocket and strike me down without warning?"
Another blush, and a stammered attempt to explain, which Palpatine waved away with a smile. "Honesty, child. There will need to be honesty between us. I have no secrets from those I trust, and I don't expect them to have any from me. It seems your father has forgotten that of late. But he does have his little tantrums, I'm afraid."
He gazed directly at Luke now, holding his eyes for much longer than was comfortable. "So. You have come to see me. How very kind of you to visit an old man. Now, perhaps you'd like to tell me about your ambitions? And please, no silliness about wanting only to serve. We know each other far better than that, I am sure."
He felt the Dark Side stir in the boy, prompting his responses, his desires. "I want..." he straightened and his expression cleared "I want position and status. I want you to train me. Vader has taught me a little, but he won't allow me to develop fully, he thinks I should be happy simply to obey him. I know that you can teach me far more. I want to eat good food and wine, wear expensive clothes, drive a fast speeder. I grew up with nothing, doing manual labour. I want what I was born to, what I was denied at birth."
Palpatine smiled, every word rang true. And he would be more than happy to provide training, the boy's potential was unmatched, perhaps even at the level his father had had before Mustafar. But there would have to be a commitment first, some sign of loyalty.
"And what will you give me in exchange? You came here with a weapon concealed, to cut a man down in cold blood. Are you still prepared to do that?"
The Dark Side swirled again, and he could see that the young Skywalker was tempted, that his loyalty to his father was a shallow thing and could be easily uprooted. But then a pulse of Light side energy ran through the small frame and he shuddered. "No! No that would be wrong. A Jedi only kills when it cannot be avoided." How odd. Did he consider himself a Jedi then, despite the almost complete lack of training and the Darkness flowing around him? The youth frowned, seeming to struggle against himself. "I... don't think I could do that" he muttered.
"Look at me boy!" He met the gaze directly. "Does Kenobi still have so much influence on you? Will you cling to his pathetic teachings? What have they ever given you?"
"No. I ... sometimes... it's like he's still there. Still telling me what to do. I don't know why. He was nothing to me, I only knew him a few days. But it feels..." his voice trailed off, clearly unable to find words for what he was experiencing.
"Come here, stand right in front of me" He took the boy's chin in his hand and pushed his awareness deep into the jumbled mind, feeling around. Darkness was all through him, desire, ambition, resentment, all crowding his thoughts, feeling so very much like his father's emotions at a similar age. But there was something else, something deep inside, where he couldn't easily reach, a buried spark. It would be just like Kenobi to have meddled, leaving some part of his personality and awareness in young Skywalker, some attempt to protect him from the influence of the Sith, to fight against the Dark Side when it claimed him.
Palpatine paused to consider. It would be risky to take action, but the boy could not be his until that spark was crushed. The boy himself was no threat, he had no understanding of what it was or what Palpatine would do. A flick of his attention towards his wayward apprentice reassured him that there would be no interference from that quarter. The older Skywalker was close to taking a nap in his uncomfortable but stable position on one knee at the foot of the throne.
No time like the present then.
Sidious pushed further into the boy's consciousness, burrowing down through emotions and memories, seeking that little spark that had been buried there, perhaps shortly after his birth when Kenobi had first hidden the child. Deeper and deeper, leaving his own shields far behind, confident that the young man could do nothing even if he disliked the intrusion. There. Finally he felt the tiny spark of Light Side. He looked around him carefully, besides that spark he could feel nothing but the Dark, which could be no threat to him. He wrapped his own energy around the spark and slowly crushed it, choking the life out of it with a feeling of exultation until it was completely obliterated. Then he flowed back out, or tried to. The Dark energy around him felt smotheringly tight. But that was impossible, it could do nothing to harm him, they were the same. Yet the feeling of being crushed continued to grow. How could this be?
He thrashed around him, before realising with a sudden certainty that he had been tricked. The Light had been elsewhere too, and had surrounded him even as he believed he had crushed it. He fought back, but somehow the boy's Light side had been far stronger than it had first appeared. He had sensed only a Dark energy, so like that of Vader... so very like... the deception was obvious now and Palpatine lashed out viciously at Vader's presence around him. The darkness within the boy had not been his own at all, it had been the essence of his father. No wonder the armoured body had been so inert, it was as empty as his own body currently was. All three of them were in here together, and at least one would be utterly defeated before they would separate.
He tried to reason with Vader, to convince him to help him defeat the young usurper. But he could sense his apprentice's fatalism. He had agreed to this, knowing that he would be crushed along with Palpatine, accepting this as the price of his master's death. Palpatine continued to fight, hoping to convince the boy that they could negotiate. But he could make no contact with the younger Skywalker, as the older one's consciousness continued to surround him completely. Did the boy even know that he would kill his father as well? Palpatine would never know. He felt himself being crushed, all thoughts focussed in on avoiding death, but unable to escape it. With his last conscious thought, he cursed Vader and promised him eternal torment in the next life, where his apprentice would be joining him almost at once. That was a small consolation as he felt himself wink out of existence.
Luke continued to push in on the darkness inside him. He knew he could not afford to let Palpatine continue to live, even at the risk of his father's life. He had agreed, reluctantly, that there could be no weakness at the end. But he had a new plan, one that he knew could work now that he felt the difference in his father's spirit. At first when they had meditated together, the presence of the Light side of the Force had been like poison to his father, but he had learned to tolerate, even welcome, it as they grew to know each other. And now, he no longer had to crush, he could... permeate? Was that the word? He no longer tried to constrict and crush the other presence within him, simply poured Light into it, washing away the Darkness, until there was only Light through both of them. Only then did he loosen his grip, allowing his father's spirit to flow out of him and his own to focus back into his normal consciousness. His body shuddered and caught its breath as he came back to something like normality, then he pulled his face away from the hand that still held his chin, looking in fear at Palpatine, struck with sudden horror that he could likewise be returning to consciousness if this had gone wrong. But the body was still and empty, and he knew that Palpatine's spirit was truly gone.
He turned quickly to Vader then, unmoving at the foot of the throne. Had he killed his own father as well? The respirator was still functioning, the lights on the life support suit flickered as normal. But that proved nothing. He grabbed his father's arms, and lowered the silent form to the ground as gently as he could. There was nothing for a long moment, then hands clutched at his arms and the respirator hitched awkwardly as Vader struggled to breathe, and then the hands were reaching up to the mask and helmet, pulling awkwardly at them. "Take off the helmet". He complied. It was clear that his father had been damaged terribly by what they had done, and that even the functions of the suit could no longer sustain him adequately. Luke tried to suppress his own feelings of pain and loss. This moment was for his father, he could grieve in his own time. His hands released the clasps with some difficulty, removing first the back part of the helmet and then the mask, allowing him to see his father's face for the first time. He was smiling, though clearly struggling for breath. His skin was deathly pale and completely hairless, with ugly scars across his face and head.
"I'm so sorry father. I wanted to save you"
