I am so sorry for this ridiculous wait! This semester got crazy at the end and I was super busy working on stuff for my classes. I also hit a creative slump and all the writing I managed to do was terrible. I ended up rewriting over half this chapter. And then I had absolutely no motivation to do any sort of writing for over a month, and any motivation I could scrounge up had to go to my schoolwork. BUT! The semester is done, I have a break now and January will be super chill with just band rehearsals and then spring semester will be (hopefully!) really light. I'm hoping to get back to a more reasonable update schedule after this.

Also thanks to Mirianne for beta reading this chapter.

Chapter 10: Truth

Luke paced his new quarters, unable to tame the agitation writhing in his mind. He could feel his father's distress, despite that the Sith was trying to hide it from him, and he feared the worst from the conversation with the Emperor. The dark, roiling anger he had felt from Vader had calmed, and Luke could only assume that it had been a show for Palpatine. Which meant that the conversation had ended over ten standard minutes ago, and yet his father still had made no effort to contact him.

If the Emperor demanded I be brought to him, would Father just hand me over? Luke didn't think he would, not considering the terms of his vow and his father's words in the turbolift, but traitorous words were entirely different from traitorous actions, and after 23 years of enslavement to the Emperor, it was possible that Vader would be unable to turn against his master.

Luke shoved those thoughts from his mind. He believed in his father. He knew there was good in him, he had felt it. And even if he hadn't recanted his desire for Luke to turn, he had at least made it clear that he didn't want the Emperor to turn him. He would have to cling to that and hope it would be enough.

But his thoughts wouldn't settle, and he knew he needed to do something constructive to distract himself. His mind was too chaotic to even attempt meditation, and his body was far too wired in any case. He had been confined for the last two days, and while a lack of space to move wasn't unusual for him as a fighter pilot, at least in his X-wing his ship had freedom of movement. And forced isolation was something entirely different.

Luke's hand drifted to his lightsaber. The sitting room wasn't ideal in terms of a training room, but there was enough open space for him to run through his forms. The exercise would help get rid of his excess energy and perhaps also calm his mind.

And I should probably get used to moving with this cape, he thought, eying the piece of fabric with distaste. He flung it over his shoulder to free his left arm and unclipped his lightsaber from his belt. The familiar weight of the hilt in his hand helped to calm him somewhat, and he closed his eyes before taking a long, slow breath, imagining he was releasing his tension with the exhale of carbon dioxide. It worked only marginally, but it was as good as it was going to get under the circumstances.

Luke ignited his blade and began moving through the forms. He allowed his mind to wander as he slid between stances, relying on muscle memory. It was not the proper way to do this and he knew that he should be paying more attention to his footwork, but he was unable to keep his mental focus on the exercise. Despite this, his body moved gracefully, never missing a step, never overbalancing.

Both Obi-Wan and Yoda had remarked that he seemed to have a propensity for combat and a natural affinity with the lightsaber. Traits he shared with his father, and Yoda had exchanged several concerned and thoughtful glances with Obi-Wan's ghost over the matter. Luke had not missed them, but he had failed, perhaps, to grasp the full implications of them at the time. Learning the truth of his parentage had opened his eyes to several things, including his mentors' fears that he would follow his father into darkness.

He was now also acutely aware that he had been trained as a weapon. Obi-Wan's twist of the truth could have been intended to spare him pain, but letting him believe that Darth Vader had murdered his father had been a sure way to ignite Luke's desire for revenge. Killing the Sith had been Luke's goal for three years before he learned the truth, and he could not help but wonder whether Obi-Wan had planned on telling him before he faced Vader the final time. He had, admittedly, rushed off the last time and not given the old Jedi much of a chance to say anything, but Obi-Wan had had plenty of opportunities before that.

If I had learned that Vader was my father after I killed him… Luke gave his lightsaber a more vicious swipe than his current form change demanded. I would never have forgiven myself.

Luke reined in his anger before it could claim any real hold on him. He knew the truth now, and he hadn't killed his father. Contemplating the possibility was pointless and would only lead to him resenting his Jedi masters. And in a way, he could understand where they were coming from. They did not believe that Vader could be redeemed, and he was a threat to the Galaxy as long as he remained at the Emperor's side. Getting rid of Vader would significantly weaken the Empire, both in terms of power and morale. Much as Luke was the poster boy of the Rebellion, Vader was the face of the Empire.

And, apparently, Luke was the only one strong enough to face him.

He could forgive Yoda and Obi-Wan their attempts to forge him into a weapon and train him to kill his father. They had been acting for the greater good of the Galaxy, under the delusion that Vader could never return from the Dark Side. But he would have words with them regarding their decision to keep the truth from him.

Until then, he intended to continue honing his abilities, crafting his already formidable instincts into actual skills. Even if he was no longer fighting Vader, there was still the Emperor to consider. And since Obi-Wan hadn't had much time to teach him, and Yoda had not had a lightsaber, Luke found himself looking forward to training with his father. He would actually be able to duel with him, provided Vader did not back out for fear of hurting him again.

Bored with the repetitive motions of the exercise and knowing he wasn't actually achieving anything in his distraction, Luke spun around, twirling his lightsaber in a complicated arc that was more for show than anything. The green blade hummed as it cut through the air in a mesmerizing light show, and he closed his eyes to focus on the feel of the motions rather than watching the blade.

He was not prepared for the sparking crash of his blade encountering another lightsaber. Luke gave a startled cry as the hilt was nearly wrenched from his hand and his eyes flew open to stare at his saber trapped in a blade lock with the red light of his father's.

"Impressive," Vader said, disengaging their lightsabers with a delicate twirl of his wrist before deactivating his.

Luke felt his face heat up and he looked down at the floor as he switched off his own blade. He had not sensed Vader enter the room and he kicked himself for his inattentiveness. He did not know how he could have missed the man's imposing figure, let alone the hiss of his respirator and the heavy press of his Force presence against Luke's mind.

"How long were you watching?"

"Just long enough to see you abandon your forms." He paused before admitting, "I never had much patience for them either."

Luke looked up, grinning. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

Vader ignored the jibe. "How much training have you received in lightsaber combat?"

"Obi-Wan didn't have time to teach me much," Luke said slowly. He would need to be careful with his answers or he risked betraying Yoda. But his father missed nothing.

"And yet you improved significantly between Cymoon and Bespin."

Luke set his jaw defiantly. "There were several years between those duels! Plenty of time to practice, and it was your man who trained me to fight in Grakkus's arena – "

"Sergeant Kreel," Vader interrupted, "gave a very detailed report on your progress. I know what he taught you, and I know what you knew before he got to you." Luke felt his father's satisfaction at backing him into a corner, even as his annoyance flared at the mention of Luke's time as an arena slave.

He tried to bluff his way out.

"Well – "

"Luke." Vader's tone brought all his thoughts to a standstill and he snapped his mouth shut. "Who took over your training?"

Luke frowned in mock confusion. "What?" His stubbornness was useless, he knew, but he could not give up Yoda without at least trying to deny knowledge of him.

"Luke," Vader warned. "I know you had a second master after Kenobi. You could not have progressed as much as you did without the aid of a teacher. You are talented, but not enough to learn so much on your own, not when there are no records of Jedi teaching left."

Luke sighed. "Are you going to go after them?"

Vader was silent for a long moment as Luke glared at him.

"You will not tell me unless I promise not to," Vader finally said. "And I cannot force you to tell me. So no, I will leave them alone." Luke let out his breath in a rush, relief draining the tension from his body. He had not thought that his father would try to rip the information from him, but it was certainly something that was within his power to do.

"Then why do you want to know?"

"Curiosity." Vader hesitated and then admitted, "And I need to know how much Jedi indoctrination I need to undo."

Luke laughed once. "Fine. But I will hold you to your promise to leave him alone."

"And you will at least listen to me if what I tell you contradicts what you have already learned."

"As long as it's not Dark Side."

"We already established that point."

"Okay. I didn't agree with everything he said anyways." Most notably Yoda's warnings against attachments and his insistence that Vader could never change.

Still Luke hesitated, running his thumb along the hilt of his lightsaber as he built up the courage to betray his teacher. It wasn't really a betrayal. He had his father's promise that he wouldn't go after Yoda. It would be nice not to have to watch his words, to be open about everything he knew and didn't know. If he didn't tell him now, he would inevitably slip up sometime in the future, and considering the chagrin he had felt from his father when he agreed to Luke's terms, he didn't know that Vader wouldn't go after him if he refused the deal now.

He took a deep breath. "Yoda," he admitted, dropping his gaze to the floor under the weight of guilt, despite knowing that no harm would come to the old Jedi from this.

I'm sorry, Master.

Vader's flare of rage was stronger than Luke had anticipated. It seared the air around them, crackling like a dry branch in a fire.

"He survived?" he growled, his hands tightening into fists. Luke flinched.

"Apparently." Luke's voice was barely a whisper. "Father, please – "

Vader held up a hand and Luke cut himself off.

"I will uphold my promise," he ground out. "But it was wise of you to insist on it."

"Well, I grew up on Tatooine. I learned to make careful deals."

"You were never meant to be raised there. You were born for greater things." There was a touch of bitterness in his voice and Force presence and Luke wondered if he was talking about Luke or himself.

"I don't know. I don't regret my childhood." Owen and Beru had done their best. They weren't his parents, and they had never pretended to be, but they had loved him like he was their own. They had done what they could to give him a life on the bare rock of a planet that was Tatooine. He now understood Owen's overbearing protectiveness; regardless of whether he had known what had really happened to Anakin Skywalker, the Force-sensitive son of a Jedi would have been in danger from the Empire.

"I could have given you everything." There was longing behind his words and Vader reached for Luke's arm but stopped short of touching it, letting his hand fall back to his side. The aborted touch burned, and Luke felt the phantom pressure of his father's hand on his arm, despite the lack of actual contact.

"But I would have grown up in the Emperor's shadow. Would you have even been allowed to keep me?"

Vader looked away from him, gripping his lightsaber hilt tightly. "I would have killed him before I let him take you from me."

Luke saw his opportunity. "Is that what we have to do now?" he asked quietly, trying not to hold his breath as he waited for the answer.

Vader turned back to face him. "Not yet. He commanded me to bring you to him only after you have turned." The news did not bring as much relief as Luke was expecting.

"What does that mean for us?" He noticed his hands were trembling and he clenched his fists to try and stop it.

He won't force me to turn. We have a deal, he reminded himself. But his fears were stronger than his rational mind and his next breath was shaky.

"It means we have time to plan. Luke, I…" Vader paused and Luke could feel his conflict over whatever he was about to say. "I will not make you turn."

Luke's heart stuttered. "That was part of our deal," he said carefully, not daring to hope the statement meant what he thought it did.

"No. I will never force you to turn."

Luke caught his breath and blinked rapidly, his mind scrambling to process this.

"Father…" he breathed. He gave a short laugh of relief and felt the weight of anxiety lift from his heart. "Thank you."

What made him change his mind?

Luke did not voice his thoughts, knowing it was a question Vader would not answer. Silence fell between them as Vader neither acknowledged his gratitude nor explained his decision. Instead Luke got the impression that he was studying him.

A gentle Force tug on his lightsaber made him grin, and he flipped it over, offering the hilt to his father.

"You could just ask, you know," he said as Vader took the outstretched weapon. Vader clipped his own to his belt and began examining Luke's, turning it in his hands and rubbing his thumb against the sleek metal of the hilt.

"Your lightsaber is much more like Kenobi's than like mine," Vader said, and Luke felt his disappointment keenly. That disappointment caused a flicker of guilt in Luke, but he pushed it aside. He had contemplated trying to replicate his old lightsaber when he made his new one, but something hadn't felt right about it, something about stepping out of his father's shadow and becoming his own person, regardless of whether he was thinking about his father as Anakin Skywalker, Jedi hero, or Darth Vader, Imperial Sith Lord. Now, of course, it was impossible for Luke to separate the two in his mind. They were the same person, and he could see hints of who his father had been in who he was now.

But choosing to build his saber not based on his father's was his way of saying "I'm not Anakin Skywalker, don't ask me to live up to his legacy," as well as "I'm not Darth Vader, don't assume I'll repeat his mistakes." Mostly to himself, but also to his mentors. But this wasn't something he wanted to share with his father.

"Well, all I had to go off of when I was making it were his notes." He shrugged. It was true enough. "And it fits my hand better. I'm a lot smaller than you, if you hadn't noticed."

"I did notice." Vader left it at that and returned his attention to the lightsaber. He stepped back and ignited it, keeping the green blade well away from both of them as he gave it an experimental swipe.

"This is well made. You have become very powerful indeed." Luke grinned as Vader lowered his shields and sent a surge of pride at him. He dropped his eyes to stare at his feet as they kicked at the carpet, both pleased and embarrassed by his father's praise.

"But I'd like to be better as using it. I may have improved, but as I said, I haven't had much formal training with the lightsaber," he hinted, hoping for an invitation to spar. Luke felt a flicker of amusement from Vader. He deactivated Luke's saber and handed it back to him.

"Rest assured, I will not neglect that aspect of your training," Vader said. "But we do not have time at the moment. The Executor needs to rejoin the rest of the fleet as soon as possible, and I need to attend to several military matters I have been ignoring in the wake of your… capture." Vader seemed hesitant to use the word and Luke resisted the urge to flinch at it. But the truth remained that while Luke had already begun to feel comfortable around his father, he had not chosen to be here. If given the opportunity to leave –

Luke stopped that thought, unsure where it was leading. Would he leave? Could he possibly abandon his father now, after finally regaining him? He was still Darth Vader, still had not renounced the Dark Side, but he had accepted Luke's refusal to turn and that had to count for something. And, as much danger as it put himself and his father in, he could do some good here. Vader's words above the reactor shaft on Bespin still sang in his mind sometimes. Even if it had been meant as a lure to draw him in, even through the haze of confusion and pain Luke had felt truth in Vader's statement. He could destroy the Emperor. And now he was in a position to get close enough to do it, to tear the Empire apart from the inside.

No, Luke decided. I would not leave now even if I could.

It was a hard truth to swallow. He felt a sting of guilt as he knew he was now willfully abandoning the Alliance. He was abandoning his friends in favor of his father. But they would understand, wouldn't they, when they learned his goal? He was not a traitor, he was still on their side. He was just… going undercover. His mouth twisted into a wry smile as he remembered Wedge asking him about that very thing before he left.

And as much as Luke was disappointed that he would not get a lesson in lightsaber combat now, he knew there would be plenty of other chances. Realistically, he knew that his father could not abandon his other duties just to pay attention to him.

"Are those sensitive military matters?" Luke asked, redirecting his thoughts back to the current conversation.

"Yes," Vader growled, but there was no anger behind the sound. It felt almost… playful? Teasing, maybe? "For now. There would be a lot of questions if I brought you with me before your identity was revealed."

"So I'm stuck here?" Luke had expected this, of course, and Vader had warned him that he would be confined to his quarters at times, but it was still annoying now that it was a reality. He had not been "sent to his room," as it were, since he was a child.

"Are you uncomfortable being left alone?" There was genuine concern slipping along the bond.

"Please," Luke scoffed. "You're the one who's reluctant to let me out of your sight!" He crossed his arms, pretending to be annoyed. In truth, he was secretly more than a little pleased with the amount of attention he had been receiving from his father. It would be difficult not to appreciate that kind of single-minded, focused attention, even if it was a little overbearing. "You haven't stopped hovering since you retrieved me."

"Is that why you blocked me from your mind?" Vader's tone was unreadable, but Luke sensed the sudden increase of tension in his father's body. Obviously this was something that had been weighing on Vader's mind. Luke had been hoping he would forget about it, unwilling as he was to talk about his insecurities with his father.

"I…" he trailed off, suddenly embarrassed. Even having just made up his mind that this was where he would choose to be, it was still going to feel weird for a long while. "I'm not used to this."

"Not used to what?"

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, forgetting that he was trying to break himself of that habit.

"I don't know. All of this." He gestured vaguely, unsure how to convey exactly what he meant. "Being here, our deal, our bond, having a father – " He cut himself off, trying to tame his suddenly raging emotions. He closed his eyes, taking several deep breaths and releasing them slowly, grateful for Vader's silence, grateful that the man was allowing him space and time to collect himself. It was a consideration he never would have thought Vader capable of, before today.

Almost a year. It had been almost a year since Bespin, since the truth had destroyed Luke's understanding of the universe and rebuilt his world into something simultaneously brighter and darker. The concept of having a father he had accepted several months after the revelation, but the reality of it was still settling in, now that he was with him and likely to stay with him for… who knew how long. And the thought that soon the rest of the Galaxy would know, that Leia and Wedge and eventually Han would know that he was the son of Darth Vader, the son of the Sith who had tortured two of them, the son of the second-in-command of the Empire that had destroyed all of their lives… it was difficult to come to terms with. The only consolation, of course, was that he would be able to explain the full truth to them.

"I'm sorry," he finally said, opening his eyes to stare up at his father. "I think it's just hitting me, what I'm doing. It's… overwhelming." One corner of his lips twitched up into a tiny embarrassed smile.

"That is understandable." Vader paused for a moment, and Luke could feel his eyes on him. Then the impression of a sigh came across their link. "As for our bond… Force bonds normally take years to become as strong as ours. Training bonds between masters and padawans need to be cultivated. I can only assume the strength of ours is the product of blood. It should have developed naturally as you grew, but because we were… separated, you never had time to become used to it."

This was straying too close to Luke's earlier fears for comfort, but now that Vader had brought the topic up, he could not help but voice his doubts. "So it's natural? For me to be so connected to you?" He felt foolish just for saying the words, and heat flooded his face. He still could not understand how he had developed such a strong attachment to Vader in such a short amount of time.

Vader's hand came up, and he lightly brushed the back of it against Luke's cheek. The motion startled Luke. It was such a casual touch, and very gentle. There was none of Vader's typical harshness in the gesture. And it served no purpose. All his physical contact with his father up to this point had been for protection, or guidance, or examination of injuries. Or at least had been disguised as such. Even Vader's fiddling with his clothing had had a surface reason. This seemed to be simply for the purpose of touching him.

"I do not know for sure." Vader's voice when he spoke was quiet. "I have nothing to compare this to, and this sort of bond was not something the Jedi had much information on."

Luke frowned.

"Why not?"

"Jedi were not allowed to have attachments." Bitter anger swelled in Vader's mind and Luke winced. "Thus having children was… not something that generally happened to Jedi."

Obi-Wan never said anything about this. He made it seem like it wasn't odd for my father to have had a child. Though I suppose it does explain some people's reactions when I said I was the son of a Jedi…

"I wasn't supposed to exist?" Luke asked cautiously, hoping for more information about the circumstances of his birth. That, along with the identity of his mother and the reason for his father's fall, was the thing he was most curious about.

Vader growled. "You were not a mistake!"

Luke's heart skipped a beat at the ferocity of the statement. It eased a small ache he hadn't realized he had been carrying since he had learned the truth of his parentage.

"That… wasn't what I was implying, Father."

Vader looked away from him, and Luke sighed when he allowed the silence to stretch. Obviously this wasn't a topic he was willing to discuss. He was about to tell his father to just go deal with whatever military matters needed his attention when Vader spoke.

"You may have been unplanned," he said slowly, "but you were never… unwanted."

Luke dropped his gaze to the floor, blinking sudden moisture away from his eyes. "Well, that's always good to hear," he murmured.

"Luke, if I had known…" Vader took a step closer, closing the distance between them. He slipped his fingers beneath Luke's chin and tilted his head up until he met Vader's gaze. "I would have torn the Galaxy apart planet by planet to find you if I had known you had survived."

Having grown up as an orphan, even with a loving aunt and uncle, the vehement assertion that he was wanted was a bit heady. Among the taunts about being the son of a slave and an unknown woman had been equally vicious jabs about his orphan status. Many nights during his young childhood it had taken Beru hours to calm him, reassure him that he had not been intentionally abandoned, that she and Owen loved him and his parents would have too.

The moisture that had been accumulating in the corners of his eyes threatened to spill down his cheeks, and he blinked furiously. He would not cry in front of his father. He twisted his head away from Vader's touch, turning away as he fought to get his reactions under control.

"Luke?" Vader's hand fell on his shoulder, and Luke resisted the gentle pressure his father exerted on him, trying to turn him back to face him.

"Why did you think I was dead?" Luke asked, his voice a near whisper.

Vader's grip tightened, his fingers digging into the soft skin on the front of Luke's shoulder almost hard enough to hurt. This was the big question, the why that was somehow tangled up with his father's fall, if the timeline Luke had constructed in his head was in any way accurate. Darth Vader had risen with the Empire, as far as anyone could tell, and Luke had been born that same day. Maybe it was a prompt from the Force, or simply his own intuition, but he knew there was some connection there. Though perhaps it was simply that he had been removed from his father's influence for his own protection after Anakin fell.

"You were… hidden from me. I was told your mother had died before she had given birth. Obviously, this was untrue."

"Who told you?"

"The Emperor," Vader ground out. His fingers twitched, again tightening his grip on Luke's shoulder and Luke bit his tongue to keep from crying out at the momentary sharp pain. "He lied to me, he told me I – " He cut himself off and Luke finally turned to regard his father.

"What did he tell you?"

Vader released his shoulder and turned his head away from him.

"It does not matter." His shields were locked down tightly, cutting Luke off from any impression of his father's emotions. Faint unease stirred in his stomach. He remembered the brief flash of his father's memory in the hangar bay of the Subjugator, his mother lying unconscious on the ground. He had been pulled from the memory very quickly and it had been difficult to tell with her loose clothing, but she could have been pregnant. Luke felt nauseous as he realized he had a very good idea of what the Emperor had told his father.

"How did she die?" he asked quietly.

"This is not something I wish to discuss." His tone was sharp, biting even through the vocoder, and he clenched his hands into fists at his side.

"The Emperor told you you killed her, didn't he?" Luke's heart was in his throat, making it difficult to breathe, and he steeled himself for Vader's reaction. But his father said nothing and that was confirmation enough. Luke closed his eyes and forced himself to take a breath, letting it out slowly.

"What happened?"

Vader was silent for a long moment before he turned away from Luke completely.

"I… never meant to hurt her. I never wanted to. She… betrayed – I thought she…" He shook his head, his stammered words grinding to a halt.

Luke watched his father's back cautiously. His old fear of Darth Vader threatened to resurface and he tried to fight it down. It wasn't like he hadn't known that his father was capable of violence, capable of hurting people close to him. He flexed his own prosthetic hand out of habit. But it was different, wasn't it, knowing that his father had attacked his mother? Hurt someone he had loved enough to break the rules of the Order he had sworn his life to?

For a moment, Luke teetered on the edge, his mind replaying every horror story he had ever heard of Darth Vader's atrocities against every memory he had of his father's gentleness with him. Against his hope that his father could come back to the light. He had to cling to the belief that he could save his father, or else face the idea that he had made a terrible mistake in allying himself with him and had doomed the Alliance to failure. With that belief, that decision to bring his father back, had to come forgiveness.

"You didn't kill her," Luke said softly. "You couldn't have, or I would be dead."

Luke approached his father slowly, moving to stand in front of him. He reached out to touch his father's arm, but Vader jerked it away the moment his fingers brushed against the leather of the sleeve.

"You should be running from me."

Luke crossed his arms. "I'm not abandoning you. Whatever you've done, Father, it's done. You can't change it. And I haven't come this far just to back out now. I'm not going to give up on you."

"Luke – " Whatever Vader had intended to say was interrupted by the insistent beeping of his comlink. He turned away from Luke to answer it and Luke tried to bite back his disappointment at losing the opportunity to hear his father's response. The Sith would take this distraction as an excuse to avoid continuing the conversation and Luke knew his father would not be so open about this topic again for a long time. He could not help but feel guilty for bringing up his mother, even as indirectly as he had. As curious as he was, he knew his father's reluctance to speak of her, and now he understood at least part of the reason why. Whether or not Vader's actions had contributed to her death, he had believed she had died at his hand for over twenty years and with her, their son. The weight of that… Luke's thoughts drifted to Han, encased in carbonite because of him. His guilt over that was difficult to bear, and Han was still alive. He could only imagine how exponentially worse it would have been if Han had died.

"I am needed elsewhere." Luke was startled from his thoughts when Vader spoke. "As I said, I have matters to attend to." His voice was flat, no attempt to fight the regulation of his vocoder. Any emotional vulnerability that Vader might have had moments before was gone, locked away behind a mask more impenetrable than the one he wore over his face. "Stay here."

Luke nodded even as Vader turned to leave. He watched him walk away, the pang of loss in his chest more from the sudden emotional distance he felt between them than the rapidly increasing physical distance. He could not allow his father to go without offering some sort of apology or reassurance. He did not want to lose the progress they had gained, could not bear to see his father close himself off again. There was too much at stake, both for them personally and the entire Galaxy.

"Father," he called. Vader paused in the doorway but did not turn. Luke took a breath, unsure what he could possibly say to convey what he was feeling. His emotions were a tangled mess, his mind still reeling from the whiplash of their conversation. But his lips moved of their own accord, his lungs pushing air past vocal cords to form words he knew were true even as he said them. "I won't leave you."

For a moment, Vader remained motionless, and even his harsh breathing seemed muted. Then a minute amount of tension drained from his shoulders, and his hands relaxed at his sides, his fingers slowly uncurling from their tight fists.

"I know, my son."