Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews, all of you! Especially for such an unexceptional chunk of reading…you all are too nice. This update isn't so long as the last, but it's at least twice as dramatic. Hope you'll enjoy! Tell me if you do. It makes my day. And now, without further ado or procrastination…I give you Chapter Twenty-Five. dum da-dum dum

A few days later…

Although the past few days had dimmed Vader's burning desire to kill or severely maim Han Solo on sight, the dark lord's temper had grown far sharper. His patience constantly teetered at the brink of a long and usually fatal plunge into wild fury, the repeated slips down which had already claimed the lives of at least as many stormtroopers as Solo had shot. He could only barely retain the presence of mind to realize that he should not under any circumstances visit the children in such a volatile mood.

Thanks to Solo's unanticipated arrival, Vader had found himself compelled to remain at Bast Castle for three full days more in order to make all the necessary arrangements. He'd been risking much by vanishing with Luke for as long as he had, and every additional hour could be counted on to shoot the Emperor's suspicion up another notch. Possibly two.

The fear that he might be endangering his little ones' safety was more than enough to put Vader in a fearsome temper. And in order to allay Palpatine's suspicion, he would have to stay away from Bast Castle for a very considerable length of time—certainly more than a year. In fact, two was likely to be the minimum. Faced with a lengthy separation from his children, on top of his other concerns, Vader quickly misplaced his last scrap of serenity and became a thoroughly unholy terror, raging his relentless way through itemized lists of tasks like a deranged reek.

But three days later, he was done, and the realization that he would be able to depart soon and allay Palpatine's suspicions helped him to unearth his lost patience. Luke and Han were both in their new sets of rooms, equipped with what should be more than enough to occupy two teenage boys—flight simulators, Artoo and Threepio, the Falcon in his private hangar for them to tinker with, and Captain Landre to give them lessons in naval history and strategy until Vader could provide an acceptable tutor. He'd also left Luke some books and instructions, which should be enough assistance for such a promising student to finish developing and refining basic and a few intermediate skills.

He couldn't think of anything undone that Miyr couldn't be trusted to handle…

His shuttle and the Fleet were awaiting him. Brusquely Vader pushed away the awareness that, precluding either Palpatine's improbable death or infinitely more improbable retirement, he would not return to his children for up to two years. The landing ramp of his shuttle extended, and he began to ascend—

"My lord! My lord, one moment!"

Vader turned, irritated at the prolonging of his departure. It was Landre.

"What is it?" he demanded. It went without saying that the disturbance had best be a worthy one.

"My lord, I took the precaution of having Solo's ship, the Falcon, inspected before moving it into your private hangar," Landre began. He extended his hand, holding a data chip. "Although all of the memory systems had been wiped by Solo, this chip was discovered in a miniature trash compactor which apparently malfunctioned. I thought you should see the recording it contains."

He handed Vader a miniature projector from his pocket. The annoyed dark lord took it and plugged in the chip, hoping for Landre's sake that this recording was worth his ti—

"Hey, you work!" a familiar young voice crowed out of the unit's speakers. Vader stared at the image of his son tinkering away at Threepio.

This recording had come from the Executor. He recognized the rooms he had set aside for Luke.

The chatter on the recording continued. Vader barely listened until his son was heard to say, "…My guardian gave you to me."

His eyes narrowed under the mask and he ordered the recording to back up. He watched more closely the second time…yes. Yes, the recording had been altered. By the movement of Luke's mouth, the word originally spoken had been two syllables, not three. Father.

Someone had altered this recording.

He continued watching, as the door in the image opened to reveal himself. Suddenly he recalled the conversation he had had at the time with Luke. Would you rather I called you son? Again, the words of the conversation had been changed to conceal the truth of the relationship between Vader and Luke. The recording ended.

And a cold, frightened, lethal anger began to build within Vader. Solo would have had no reason to edit the recording; therefore he had gotten this recording from someone else, who did have reason.

There was someone else in the galaxy with the dangerous information that Vader had a living child, and furthermore that said child was being hidden in his care. Someone he did not control. Someone with the resources to breach his security all the way into his private sanctum.

Artoo, Vader realized coldly. Artoo must have transmitted the recording. Well, he knew better than anyone else that he would never get any sort of admission out of the stubborn astromech. It had a rare gift for obstinacy. But there was still one other person in Bast Castle who could identify this "someone"…Han Solo.

His departure, it seemed, would have to be delayed.

…

"Sheesh, Artoo, where the heck did you pick up all this carbon scoring?"

The astromech only gave a nonchalant twitter. Luke scowled at the patch marring the droid's silvery skin, scraping away at it furiously with a smoother as he tried to level out the scorched spot with the rest of the casing. He was beginning to think he might just have to start replacing the droid's plating to get rid of all the scoring on its shell.

So intent was the young man on his task—deliberately intent, the better to forget that his father was leaving today—that he jumped when the door hissed open behind his back. The smoother's edge drew a fresh score line down Artoo's barrel body; he threw it down in frustration as he whirled around. Doggone it, if that was Miyr again—

"Father!" he gasped in total surprise, quickly picking himself up off the floor. "I—I thought you were leaving."

A rush of what might be the hottest anger he had ever sensed from his father seemed to heat and chill him at the same time. His delighted surprise suffered a quick death as he backed up a step instinctively, terrified that his father was angry with him, at a loss for what he could have done.

"I was detained," his father said, his voice dangerously close to a hiss. The black helmet shifted to focus on Artoo. "Get that droid out of this room," he ordered.

Luke obeyed in record time, but his fingers shook as he shut the door behind Artoo. Slowly, battling to contain his fear, he turned back around.

"Come here."

Luke did not dare refuse…yet he couldn't make himself go closer. His feet would not go. His heart pounded so hard it was nearly painful, and his mouth had gone dry as the Dune Sea. Do what he says, Luke! he shouted at himself.

Still he stood frozen by the door, not responding to the order. His father turned angrily around.

"Come here."

Luke found himself shaking his head almost convulsively. What was he thinking? This wasn't the way to make his father less angry!

His father stalked towards him, anger resounding through the floor with every stride, and after roughly an eternity he was standing in front of Luke. Luke flinched instinctively when he raised his hand—but the hand came down very gently to grip his shoulder, in that familiar gesture of soothing. When Vader again spoke, his anger had been brought under control.

"Do not be afraid," his father told him. "I am not angry with you."

Luke wanted to slump against the doorframe with relief. Instead he was guided over to his bed and told to sit down, which was not a difficult order to follow.

His father withdrew a miniature data projector from his pocket and clenched it furiously. "It seems that someone has managed to penetrate my security. My men retrieved a holo of you repairing your droids aboard the Executor." The data projector went sailing across the room on a direct and very damaging collision course with the wall. "It was found aboard your friend's ship."

Luke sucked in his breath, instantly terrified for Han's safety.

"It is clear from the recording," his father continued in a tightly leashed tone, "that your friend must have received it from another individual, who presumably planted the spy system within your astromech."

Though his fear for Han dwindled some, it was replaced as it went by the fear that Artoo would be taken away from him.

"Luke, I do not have the necessary time to question your friend as to the source of this recording. He is far too recalcitrant, and I must leave quickly." His father turned to him. "You will retrieve this information in my stead. When you have it, you will inform me through the Force as I have taught you. Is this clear?"

"You want me to interrogate Han?" Luke could hardly believe his ears.

His father turned sharply as he continued to pace the confines of Luke's bedroom. "Did I not state that?" Impatience had added itself to his father's swirling, dark aura.

"He won't tell me," Luke tried softly.

"If your friend refuses to cooperate, then you will rip it directly from his mind," Vader said sharply. "Perhaps it would teach him respect—"

Luke whispered something that Vader must have misheard. "What did you say?" the dark lord demanded, facing his child.

Luke lifted his head, displaying a spark of defiance in his blue eyes that Vader had last seen in them when they were colored green. "I said, I won't do that."

The anger rose to a dangerous pitch within his breast. "You will do as I say," Vader said coldly.

Luke leapt up, inspired by a sudden streak of boldness he'd nearly forgotten he had. "Not if it's wrong, I won't," he asserted.

"You are young and misguided," his father retorted. "You have no true understanding of the nature of right and wrong. I will be the judge of it, and you will accept my judgment."

Luke stood his ground with all of his mother's stubbornness. "It's wrong, and I'm not going to do it!"

The next instant his father's hand streaked out and grabbed him angrily by the collar. "For the sake of your own and your sisters' safety, which is far superior to any concern I may happen to harbor for Solo, you most certainly will do whatever is necessary!" He lifted Luke's chin abruptly, forcing him to meet the dark gaze of the mask's eyeplates. "Should you choose to disobey me in this, I will be forced to summon Solo to Imperial Center and interrogate him myself. If that becomes necessary, you will not see him again, child, whether here at Bast Castle or anywhere else."

Luke fell back onto his bed when his father abruptly let go of him and stalked back towards the door. "I expect a response from you within three days," he said. "Captain Landre will have your astromech cleared of its spy programs." With that, Darth Vader was gone.