(A/N: Please note that some material in this chapter may be uncomfortable for some readers.)
Chapter Twenty Seven:
Luke mused morbidly that if the floor was anything but solid metal, he'd have literally paced a rut into it by the time he felt the Executor shudder as she left hyperspace. He was worried about his sister, and not even the guards would tell him what they knew, though Luke suspected it wasn't much.
He'd barely been fed, and only given enough water to keep him from dehydration, but Luke didn't care. All he wanted was his sister's safety.
Luke sensed a shift nearby and knew the time had come for his return to Coruscant's surface... and then to journey below it. Luke swallowed with difficulty. He had spent the last four days shifting between thoughts of Leia and what would happen to him in sublevel twelve. His imagination had run rampant with nothing else to do, and Luke was on edge by now, but he looked to his training and sought to place a calm mask upon his face.
And just in time too, for the door slid open to reveal his father.
No, not father... he's just master now, Luke mused sadly.
"Let's go," Vader ordered, and Luke walked obediently from his cell, allowing Vader to herd him to the waiting shuttle.
Luke took his seat and sat in silence while he waited for the craft to leave the Super Star Destroyer and make its way through the planet's atmosphere. Luke lifted his gaze to the viewport across from him, watching what he could of the city. He didn't know when he would see the outside again, and wanted to have a final glimpse.
Vader's eyes never left Luke, but the young man said nothing about it, simply allowing his mind to wander. He did try one last time to ask about his sister, however, and gathered his thoughts.
"Please, I must know what happened to Leia," Luke whispered pleadingly.
Vader merely raised a brow, and finally turned his gaze away. Luke swallowed a well of tears, nodding slowly and shakily. So they really were done as family then. That hurt Luke a lot more than he'd thought it would, and he tried to bury the intense pain deep within himself.
It was as he sought to do this that Luke ran across his memory of the vision of his grandmother, and his heart cracked. Shmi had said Vader loved his children still... but now Luke was fully convinced that his father didn't love Luke anymore. How could he with all that he planned to do?
Be strong Luke... Shmi's voice resonated within the young man's memory.
Help me be strong Grandmother... Luke pled silently, unable to halt a single tear from falling.
"Get up." Vader snapped, and Luke realized he'd zoned out. When he came-to it was with the awareness that the shuttle was no longer moving.
With a small sigh, Luke stood, and as he walked off the ship with the Emperor, each step closer to the doors inside felt like the steps to his own funeral. Each pace became heavier, more difficult to put down until Luke was certain Vader would reach out and impatiently drag him along any second now.
When they finally achieved the inside of the building, Vader dismissed the guards and promptly grabbed Luke by the arm. His grip was like a vice, restricting and painful, but Luke didn't fight him. He was walked like a naughty school boy to a room that held a single turbolift accessible only by those who knew sublevel twelve even existed.
When Luke heard the door behind him click shut and the lock engage, his heart rate increased dramatically, and he did resist somewhat now. Vader felt his son's fear and jerked him forward, hauling a trembling Luke into the sterile white turbolift car. Once the doors hissed shut, the Emperor keyed in the destination... and Luke had to bite his lip to keep from crying.
His heart pounded with fear, but he swallowed what he could of that emotion and sought for some way to delay the inevitable. "Does Mother know I'm here?"
"She will," was the cryptic reply.
"May I see her?"
"That is her choice."
Luke realized his chit-chat was getting him nowhere and he clenched his fists. Finally the doors reopened to reveal a scary looking hallway, and it was at that point that Luke realized he had nothing to lose anymore.
"Why do you hate the Jedi so much?" he asked, looking to his captor.
"They were a lot of cowards that deserved their fate." Vader snapped.
"What did they do to you?"
"The backstabbers left your mother and me to rot in our greatest hour of need!" Vader growled, the memory of that day still enough to boil his blood. "The damned Jedi worried for years that I wasn't the best Jedi I could have been, and the one time I tried to trust them they stabbed me in the back!"
His tirade had only enraged the Emperor more and by now his grip on Luke's arm was leaving a painful bruise. Luke stumbled when Vader finally dragged him into a room, snapping at the droids within to strip the prisoner of all clothing while Vader held Luke immobile with the Force. Luke's face burned with each layer of his clothing the droids removed, and then Vader had Luke placed onto the rack in the center of the room.
However, before Luke was shackled, he decided to try one final card, praying his father was still in there somewhere underneath the cold Sith Lord.
"I saw Grandmother while I was away."
Vader froze, the temperature in the room cooling by several degrees. "What?"
Luke nodded, realizing he was playing with fire and would more than likely lose. But he had to try! "I had a vision of her... and she told me she's been trying to reach you. But that you've been closed off."
Vader narrowed his eyes, but otherwise did not move. "Proceed with utmost caution, or I warn you it won't end well."
"She doesn't like what you've been doing, and she..." Luke winced when Vader's had clenched in anger, but he plunged on daringly. Luke looked to his father earnestly. "Grandmother wouldn't want you to do this, Father. She would want us to be a real family, not to have you torture your son!"
Vader stepped abruptly forward and Force-shoved Luke violently into the rack, making the youth see stars. "You think that because you had a single vision of her that you know my mother? You are wrong! And how dare you try and bring her into this!" Vader slammed Luke's head back again, and then placed the restraints on Luke's wrists and ankles himself. "You will pay dearly for this stunt! My mother would be proud of me!"
Luke was breathing raggedly, and he shook his head. "Please don't do this..."
Vader back-handed Luke, drawing blood and then glaring murder at the blond. He watched the youth hang for a time, during which Luke felt like Vader was trying to decide what to do with the young man first.
Finally Vader used the Force to trigger the nervous system in Luke's body. Luke shifted uncomfortably at first when the metal table he was on began to feel too hot, but though it was just Vader messing with his body, Luke was soon screaming as his nerves reacted as if he was lying on a white-hot metal slab.
Vader merely stood there, listening, watching as Luke convulsed upon the rack until the Emperor had had enough. He dropped his hand and Luke collapsed against his restraints, panting. The table now felt ice-cold and the sudden switch in sensation made him feel a new level of agony.
He head his father speak to the droid. "Commence with the pre-approved program."
Luke lifted his head to watch the man he'd once called father stride from the room without a second glance.
"Father..." Luke whispered brokenly just before the droid blocked his view, a strange-looking object in hand. Luke had no idea what it did, and it terrified him to know that he was about to find out.
Someone help me... Luke pled with the Force, remembering Shmi's other advice to trust it.
Then the droid stepped forward, and Luke's eyes unwillingly followed the device as it was placed to his body...
00000
Across the stars, a young woman sat up straighter in her chair. The report she'd been reading lowered as a whisper of some sort seemed to touch her very core.
Somebody help me...
Mara frowned, wondering who could possibly reach her in such a way. Unnerved, and even a little frightened, Mara shied away from it. She knew of the Force, yes, but had very little training in it.
Besides, she had the best training available in all other combat fields, and she was top in her class at everything. Mara prided herself in learning all the necessary skills, and while it hadn't been an easy task, but it had been a worthwhile one.
So who would call to her? Was it even a call to her, or was it a general shout-out? Mara bit her lip and tried to touch the Force, but then the call seemed to vanish as if it hadn't ever been there, leaving the redhead to wonder if she'd made the whole thing up.
(A/N: Sorry for the delay yet again everyone, I was sick for several days last week, and as such my brainpower was minimal LOL. Here's a short chapter, enjoy.)
