!Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars

"Unidentified craft, this is the Imperial Star Destroyer, Executor. You have entered restricted air space. Prepare to send identification codes."

"Standby," Mara gritted through her teeth as she spoke through the audio comm. For the life her, Mara couldn't understand what Vader's flagship was doing in the Seswenna System? Wasn't he suppose to be chasing after the rebel fleet? After such a close call at Hoth, Vader should have considered finding the rebels a top priority, or so she thought.

Unless…

Green eyes widened in understanding and Mara fought the urge to hit the console in annoyance. Vader had come for his son. It was the only explanation.

Huffing in annoyance, Mara crossed her arms and leaned back into her seat. Studying her scopes, she read the energy wave of the Executor''s tractor beam that was currently holding her ship. It was too powerful to fight. Until Vader's officer cleared her, she wasn't going anywhere.

Her feelings told her it was going to be a long wait.


Leia slowly staggered to her feet. Her head was pounding and her back ached. The coppery tang of iron flooded her mouth indicating that she had bitten her tongue too hard. Taking deep breaths, she tried to find her equilibrium.

Two of the bounty hunters were firing at them. Fortunately for Leia, their attention seemed to have shift to the newcomer. The familiar hum of a lightsaber and it's accompanying blue blade swung in the newcomer's hands as they dodged and deflected every shot that was fire at them. The force sang true to her that this was the jedi that she had been searching for.

"Leia!" Han's voice called out urgently. Her attention immediately honed in on him. One of the bounty hunters had carried him some distance away already. Through the smoke and chaos, she watched mutely as he was dragged through the sand in an energy net before being thrown unceremoniously over the back of a swoop bike. Aside from a streak of red, Leia could not identify the bounty hunter through the smoke and fire around her. She watched helplessly as Han and his captor escaped with the damning sound of a swoop bike's zoom.

She didn't even get to tell him that she was sorry...

"Han!" Leia choked out only for the Force to cry out in warning. Ducking, she barely managed to dodge out of the way before a stray blaster bolt flew over her head. Chewbacca's angry roar could be heard over the laser fire as he returned fire. Between he and the jedi, their enemies were ultimately overwhelmed.

"Princess Leia! What about the Millennium Falcon?" Threepio called urgently. Behind him, the Falcon continued to gather flames.

"Artoo, can you access the emergency fire protocol system?" Leia demanded fighting to regain control over her own grief. The droid whistled an answer as he began to wheel towards the ship, but Chewie's alarmed snarl drowned out his reply.

Turning sharply, she watched as the wookie turned his crossbow on the brown robed jedi.

"Chewie, it's okay! This the jedi we've been looking for - General Kenobi," she told her friend urgently. In response, the jedi pulled his brown hood back to reveal a weathered human faced man with white hair and a short beard.

"Hello there," the man greeted.


The Seswenna planet system was a murky grey place with high humidity and flooded plains. Governor Moff Kaine's fortress sat on a formidable hill above said plains with enough artillery and ground force that any direct assault would be impossible. Fortunately for Wedge, Biggs, and Cracken, their near collision and disastrous landing occurred just outside of Kaine's perimeter of detection in a grove of trees off of the starboard side of the governor's own landing strip.

As lightning flashed overhead, Biggs cursed loudly and watched helplessly as Wedged forced the protruding thigh bone back into his leg.

"Does it ever stop raining?" Cracked muttered to himself irritable and used his utility light to illuminate the underside of Wedge's X-Wing. Biggs's craft was beyond repair but Cracken had been hoping that the other vessel could be repaired...

"Let's face it General - your shuttle is the only thing still flyable," Biggs joked through painful pants as Wedge finished binding his leg.

After Biggs's X-Wing and Cracken's shuttle had collided mid air, the only thing that had saved them was the system's storm. A massive lightning strike managed to dislodge them. Unfortunately Bigg's X-Wing took the brunt of it and with so much electricity coursing through his craft's circuits, his system overloaded and he lost all power. The crash that followed had Biggs being pulled from the wreckage with abrasions to the face and chest and broken thigh bone so mangled that it had tore through the sinew and muscle of his leg.

Cracken sighed.

"We're running out of time. I know we were detected by that Star Destroyer. It's only a matter of time before they send down reinforcements. These trees won't protect us forever."

"Aren't we forgetting about the distress signal?" Biggs reminded them. The three men turned to the red beacon on top of Cracken's toolbox that was repeatedly beeping. It wasn't a standard rebel signal but it wasn't an imperial one either. After they had entered the atmosphere, Cracken's instrument had picked it up. It was coming from the fortress.

"Do you think it's your contact?" Wedge asked. Cracken didn't know. The Moff had never used such a means before. Still, what if something had gone wrong?

"We'll check it out. If we split up we can cover more ground. I'll retrieve the codes from Kaine, while you two investigate the distress signal," he told them.

Biggs nodded as if in agreement before asking,

"Alright, but how will we get in?"

"Biggs's leg is broken. He's not going anywhere," Wedge reminded them pointedly.

Cracken swiped a hand through his hair and looked back at his own shuttle in the next clearing over. His vessel had taken some light damage but it only needed some minor repair. Biggs tracked his eyes.

"Why don't you guys go ahead and I'll wait with shuttle and see what I can get fixed," he suggested. Wedge and Cracken both began to protest.

"How are you even going to get over there?"

"You could carry me."

"We can't just leave you here."

"What about those codes? Wasn't that the whole reason we're here?"

Their arguments were cut short when the sound of another aircraft enter the system. It was an Imperial shuttle followed by two escorting TIE fighters.

"That's an Imperial Lambda-class T-4a shuttle," Biggs told them quietly Wedge shot him an incredulous look which Biggs returned with a sunny smile.

"You would know them as a Tyderium shuttle," he continued.

Cracken watched the shuttle intently.

"I got a bad feeling about this," he told them gravely. Wedge nodded in agreement and stood.

"If we want to get those codes, then we need to do it now."


Aboard the Tydirium shuttle, Vader sensed something was wrong before he entered the atmosphere. Luke was definitely on the planet, but his feelings were heckled. It was as if he was standing on the edge of a great chasm. Something was about to happen - to change. What was the Force trying to tell him?

As they entered the atmosphere, Vader gave the TIES escorting him permission to break formation and return to the Star Destroyers in orbit. One of the tech had informed him before his departure that the Reaper had been rendered powerless due to technical failure. Once Vader returned with Luke, he planned to investigate the matter further. No doubt his errant son had something to do with it. Vader just didn't know the specifics.

As the the TIE fighters circled around once before once more ascending the atmosphere, Vader reached out into the Force in hopes of contacting his son. He was met with the same resistance he had last time. The toxic essence of the emperor emitted from Luke, serving several purposes no doubt - one being to keep the connection between Vader and his son muffled.

Clenching his fist, Vader focused on the task at hand and began his landing procedures.

His frustration only sharpened when it became apparent that there was no landing party. One wouldn't have been welcomed but to ignore the Supreme Commander of the Imperial fleet was not something that Grand Moff Kaine could ignore. The lack of ceremony was an indication that something was wrong.

After exiting his shuttle, Vader stretched out with his senses only to be met with utter silence. He could detect a few vague life forms, but otherwise everything was silent in the Force.

Everyone was dead.

Vader scanned the empty landing platform, taking note of the shuttles and the occasional officer and stormtrooper lying discarded on the ground. Was it the rebels or was his son responsible for this? Either way, the Seswenna system was left vulnerable.

Feeling his rage building at his own confusion and frustration, Vader pulled out his comlink.

"Captain Semtin," he boomed into the device. Even from this distance he could sense the man's terror

"Yes my lord?"

"Send a ground team to secure Governor Kaine's fortress. All personnel on the surface have been terminated," he informed the captain in a clipped voice.

Brief static followed, then the captain incredulousness.

"All of them?"

"NOW CAPTAIN," Vader snapped before closing the communications. Not a moment later, a sharp warning in the Force had Vader igniting his lightsaber only to be met with harsh enemy fire from within the cover of the distant trees.

It was a sniper rifle.

Vader started for the trees when he detected further movement.

The rebels were trying to breach the compound while he was distracted. They were fast, but very afraid.

Turning abruptly around he began his march towards the fortress's stone entrance. Behind him, the rifle fire continued, but the sith didn't bother to turn around as his red lightsaber continued to parry the attacks.

Inside the fortress, Vader detected only three lifeforms - and one of the them was Luke's. No doubt the other two were the rebels. None of them were together.

Walking into the grand hall, he studied the fallen corpses around him as he disengaged his lightsaber. Security personnel, officers, stormtroopers along with prominent well dressed men and women littered the ground. Vader studied one of the bodies corpses. The wound was lightsaber inflicted.

Clenching his fist, Vader tried to identify the strange emotional trying to well within him as he passed the bodies of several small children. They were probably members of Kaine's family.

It was just like the Jedi Temple.

Blaster fire marked the wall with ugly scorches and lights sparked inoperable above him. Taking in the broken glass of windows, wrecked droids, and smashed furniture, Vader felt the poison of his son's deeds. It was almost as if the wreckage itself radiated his son's emotions. They wreaked of his anger, and despair… and madness. It was suffocating in a way that Vader's suit could never fix.

Clenching his fists, Vader plowed through the mess and made his way to the turbo lifts. He sensed Luke's presence below him and so that was where he would go.

To his annoyance, the doors were both gaping open and the nearby control panel indicated that the lift had descended to the basement floor before malfunctioning. The rebels thought they were clever in delaying him but they were fools if they thought that would stop him from retrieving his son.

Igniting his lightsaber, Vader looked down into the dark depths of the lift. The darkness swallowed everything making it impossible to see but he didn't care. Luke was somewhere at the bottom. Without preamble he jumped into its pit.


The apprentice forced down the urge to smile nastily as he sensed a life form approaching. Vader was here now too, somewhere above him but it didn't matter. He refused to let it matter.

The hum of the turbo lifts indicated that someone had arrived.

Unlike the standard imperial prisons, the fortress had no proceeding hall. There was no wall, window or barrier from the cells to the lifts. It was an old fashion design - the lack of security indicated that it had relied on sentries. However, from his brief stay there, the apprentice concluded that because of the general decay around him combined with the lack of prisoners and guards, the dungeon was rarely used.

There was only silence and darkness. It made the apprentice's head hurt, even as he tried to relish in it.

Now the light and sound of a turbo lift flooded the darkness.

Patience, he reminded himself as the door opened to reveal a single silhouette of a person.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" a voice called.

"Yes," the apprentice answered, wincing at the true hoarseness of his voice. His time away from his master not only took a toll on his mind, but his body as well.

The silhouette flashed a maintenance light towards the cell. Luke thought he saw a man with dark hair.

"Yes in here," the apprentice called urgently. Vader had detected him. The Sith was coming.

The dark haired man finally spotted him and walked over.

"I see you now. You have a distress beacon. Hold on, I'll get you out of there."

"Hurry. You need to disable the lifts," the apprentice told the man suddenly. Immediate confusion followed as the man stepped closer to his cell.

"What? I don't-"

"Darth Vader is here and he is following you!" the apprentice told him and to his silent annoyance he detected a small but real fear inside of him at the thought of the confrontation that would follow. What would the Sith lord do? Vader was Luke's father, not the apprentice's. The apprentice belonged to Sidious.

"What?" the man gasped and with the drive of fear, the man produced a blaster and directed it at the turbo lifts.

"He's come to kill me. Please fire!" the apprentice urged. For a moment, he wasn't sure that the man would. In the end his fear won out though, and he did.

Smoke filled the dungeon as the lift's control panel was blasted into smithereens. The dark haired man watched, tense, as the sparks flew from the damage before turning uneasily to the apprentice.

"How do you know Vader's here? We watched the shuttle land but the rain prevented us from seeing much."

"I just know," the apprentice told him impatiently. The turbo lifts would only delay the inevitable. The Sith would come. His wallowing presence was nearly on top of them. Unfortunately his short answer only made matters worse. The dark haired man's wariness was turning into suspicion.

"How did you activate a distress signal from inside your cell?" he demanded, making no move to open the cell.

The sound of something heavy colliding in the wall above the lifts had them both jumping. Almost immediately red sparks began to fly and the sound of shredding metal sang in harmony with the dreadful sound of a lightsaber's hum.

"Please. He's going to kill me," the apprentice begged, forcing himself to remain behind the bars. His dark powers and skill would make it very easy to escape but the plan would only work if the rebels helped him.

The dark haired man however, seemed glued to the spot. Petrified, he had completely forgotten about the weapon in his hands.

Reaching his own gloved hand out through the bars, the apprentice clasped the dark haired man's upper arm, effectively catching his attention and forcing him to focus. Vader arrived, slicing his way through the wall's durasteel and stone with a red lightsaber in his hands; but the fear clouding the dark haired man's eyes turned to clarity and understanding when he heard the apprentice say,

"My name is Luke Skywalker and I'm a jedi."

The words damned them all.