Yay! I passed the 100 review mark! You guys are seriously fantastic!
Anyway, hope y'all enjoy the chapter, and thanks again.
Smiles!
Lou.
"Don't shoot! It's me!" The alarmed figure in stormtrooper armor held his hands up and waved them in the air.
Han kept his blaster trained on the figure. "…Luke?"
The young Jedi removed his helmet. "Man, am I glad to see you guys! I didn't even know what cells you were in, I had to-"
"Artoo got us out," interrupted Leia with a trace of anger in her voice. "Luke, why didn't you tell us?"
The expression in the man's blue eyes was guarded. "Tell you what?"
"About Vader. Luke, the Alliance-"
"Are you going to tell them he's your father? Because I'm sure it'll sound great, Leia. The two major Rebel figureheads, Her Highness of Alderaan and the Last of the Jedi, children of the Empire's second in command. Great for morale, huh?"
His voice was more cynical then she'd heard it often before, almost like Han's.
"You could've told us," said Leia.
Oh. They thought he'd known all along, didn't they?
"He told me who he was at Bespin, Leia. It's not some giant secret I've had since I joined the Rebellion. I grew up thinking Anakin Skywalker worked on a spice freighter."
Both of them looked too upset now for Han's liking. "Yeah, he doesn't really seem like the spice freighter type."
Luke's face lit up. "Wait- so the man with the lightsaber- and the hair- that really was-"
Han smirked. "Sadly enough."
"How?"
It was, too be honest, the question (along with "how do we all get off this ship?") that they all wanted the answer to.
"I don't know," said Leia. "I don't think General Kenobi knew."
"Where is Ben?" asked Luke, tilting his head slightly to glance around the deserted hallway as if the force-ghost was hiding there.
Han breathed what was almost a silent relief. "So it's not that I just stopped being able to see him."
"You can-"
"Just add that to the list of things we don't understand, kid."
Luke scowled. "About things I don't understand. How are you here?"
"Funny little trick of fate, actually. Your father, pretty-boy, apparently found Jabba's taste in wall décor unattractive."
Luke supposed being used as wall décor was slightly better than his friend being tortured or dead, but it still wasn't something he really wanted to think about.
"It's all sort of funny, really," added Han. "Darth Vader started out with some good in him."
Luke started to say something, but he was quiet. What was he? Just some naive farm boy idealistic enough to think that maybe that good wasn't all gone. He was in minor shock about the fact that people could apparently know whose son he was and not hate him- he'd hated himself for a while- he didn't want them to think he was crazy to boot.
"Yeah," said Luke, and started to walk away, without even gesturing for them to follow.
The humans and droid did anyway.
-
Darth Vader stared at the hideous communication device in consternation. He couldn't contact the Emperor now. He had far, far more important duties, such as continuing to attempt to explain this madness.
He also had more than a slight suspicion that his master would not be overly pleased to find out about Luke being aboard- he wasn't sure he could hide that knowledge if they were face-to-face- and he knew for sure that only disaster could result if more beings than necessary found out about- about whatever it was restrained by the stormtroopers.
He gestured towards said troopers impatiently. "Get him out of my sight."
"Yes sir."
"I'm staying right here."
"Take him away," said Vader again.
Desperately, Anakin managed to fling one of the troopers off his mechanical arm. Leaning forward and tripping a second trooper, the time-traveler had time for a single triumphant smirk before pressing the on button of the communicator.
A small hologram flickered into being, and Vader's rage boiled.
-
Anakin had no real idea why he'd turned on the hologram projector. It was a combination of sheer rage at being able to do nothing, and a sense of boiling fury at being ordered around by an evil and older version of himself. When he thought that he wanted to only take orders from himself (which he thought frequently), that was not what he meant.
It was also a need to see the Emperor face-to-face. Once upon a time, if you had asked Anakin who would be the best Galactic Emperor, were such a person necessary, he probably would've said Palpatine. (Though some days he would've said himself.)
It was like finding out that Obi-Wan was evil.
Like Obi-Wan finding out that I was evil.
He had felt horribly, hideously betrayed when Obi-Wan had told him about the founding of the Empire and the reasons behind his turn. But it had followed so close before the worst, the news that he had killed Padmé, that he hadn't thought about it for long.
Well, now he was thinking about it. As the communicator flickered and Imperial troops seized Anakin's arms again- he didn't make this easy for them-, the Jedi leaned forward as far as he could to see the hologram.
It was letters.
Greetings, said the letters, which were scrolling up to a vanishing point. You have reached Coruscant Love Connections! Find your soulmate in a few easy steps.
Anakin stared at the figure who appeared, boggle-eyed. If that was Palpatine, Anakin himself was a three-eyed rancor.
"Hel-lo," said the sultry figure in a seductive tone. "I'm afraid you're on hold right now. Please listen to this medley of hit tunes from-"
A black-gloved fist nearly split the projector in half from the force of its hit. The officer holding it buckled, his face a series of interesting blotchy colors.
"That," said Vader nastily, "was not the Emperor." It was perhaps the understatement of the day.
"No, milord," said the petrified Unfortunate Officer, or at least he tried to. As Vader clenched his fist again, the man's voice turned into a strangled squeak.
Anakin stared in horror. The man was dying. He- no, it wasn't him- was standing there, killing someone in cold blood.
Anakin wasn't sure just what he could do, but his futile struggles against the grips of the stormtroopers holding his arms became more frantic. He let loose a yell.
The officer in front of him continued to die.
Anakin watched his lifeless head hit the cold floor of the room.
Watched as they fell in front of him, his friends, his allies, his rivals, the younglings.
"No!" yelled Anakin. A blaster jabbed him painfully in the side, and he ignored it. "No!" He shut his eyes in defeat, trying to shut the visions out.
The troopers to either side stared at each other's helmets in alarm.
Vader whirled suddenly towards Anakin. "Young fool, you will-"
"Well," said a slightly distorted but familiar voice. "This is most interesting."
-
Hologram Controller Droid 130X was merely performing his duties as laid out by his programming. The ship's computer had contacted him with a few requests ("Malfunction in bridge. Message unanswered." "Designation R2D2 wishing encryption codes A through Z12.") and he'd preformed excellently, his internal records reporting 99.7 efficiency for the day. It would've been higher if he'd been recharged lately, but humans were always forgetful in that respect.
No, Onethree was quite proud of himself, or as proud as his limited emotion circuits would allow him to be.
And so, "Urgency Code, Link To Meditation Pod Chamber" had been carried out with the same efficiency that Onethree felt marked his career. And he was even prouder. It wasn't every day one ran across such an interesting and high-level message. Imperial Center!
There were only two beings in the galaxy pleased with the immediate results of Onethree's action, and the droid was the only one of them who would be pleased for very long.
He turned on the larger receiver on the wall of the pod chamber.
-
"Anakin," said the hologram of the Emperor, an evil smile sliding across the transparent face. "What a surprise and pleasure! Lord Vader, why did you not inform me of this? I wasn't at all sure where he had ended up."
Every bit of the false enthusiasm rang horribly familiar in Anakin's ears. Palpatine (What had happened to his face? Was everyone a freak in the future, or just himself, Palpatine, and old-transparent-Obi-Wan?). His mentor, his friend, always there to listen to his complaints.
Always there to tell him he was unappreciated, underestimated, unloved, deserved better.
I wasn't at all sure where he had ended up.
Horror rang in the Jedi's ears.
"You- you sent me here?"
"Of course. Anakin, what did they tell you?"
No one had told him anything. And this horrible mockery of a friendly, caring voice was not going to tell him anything either.
"Release him."
Anakin dropped to the ground. It felt uncomfortably like kneeling.
Rise.
He wasn't sure who had said that one. All the not-his memories were back. They were flooding into his mind, all of them over a horrible laughing face.
Anakin screamed.