Ben wakes to the sensation of something wriggling around in his arms. He huffs sleepily and pulls whatever it is closer to him, because it is actually rather warm, and tries to settle again but the something squeaks at him indignantly.

"Ben," It sighs, and his still mostly unconscious mind notices that the something sounds a lot like Rey. Its struggling intensifies. "I need to get up." It whines.

"Huh?" Ben asks, his eyes blinking open languidly. The something, it would seem, is, in fact, Rey. She fights to break the vice-like hold of his arms around her. He merely smiles into the crook of her neck and keeps his hold firm. "No, warm." He protests, his voice hoarse from sleep.

"Please, Ben," She says with a laugh. She wraps her hands around his wrists and pulls against his grip, but the effort is half-hearted at best. "Training starts today and I need to use the 'fresher and…"

"Training," Ben scoffs, releasing Rey and rolling over onto his back, his arms splayed out across nearly the entire width of the bed.

Rey rises and stands up, looking down on him with a smirk.

"You should join us." She offers.

"No thanks," Ben huffs a dry laugh, one arm flying up to fall across his eyes.

"We could use your help."

"I'm sure that my help would not be welcome." He says, shaking his head back and forth on the pillow. He removes his arm to find Rey leaning against the wall next to the door leading to the ship's refresher, watching him with clear amusement.

"So, what? You're just going to sulk around the ship all day?" She gestures around herself to the ship that surrounds them before crossing her arms over her chest.

"I've had less productive days," Ben mutters. Rey laughs fully at that.

"I can't believe you'd pass up the opportunity to 'teach me the ways of the Force.'" She lowers her voice at the last part, a clear imitation of his own deep timbre. Ben sits up sharply.

"I thought you had to use the refresher?" He asks with a frown.

"I do." She says crossing the threshold into the ship's refresher, the door sliding shut behind her.

He does not sulk inside of the Shadow all day, but neither does he join in on the training session led by Yoda and Ahsoka. Instead, he perches himself atop a rock on the edge of the clearing and watches. While Luke and Rey are clearly eager to begin, Ben's mother seems just as enthused as he is to be there.

"I don't even have one of those," She waves a hand limply at the lightsaber hanging off of Luke's belt. "I'm not sure why I need to participate."

"That's not entirely true!" Rey says, perking up. She runs into the Falcon and returns shortly after holding the hilt of Obi Wan's lightsaber. After nearly losing all of their sabers aboard the Death Star Ben had stored that particular weapon in one of the smuggling compartments aboard the ship. How Rey knew where it was, he can't say.

"It was Obi Wan's. Ben brought it with us." Rey explains, beaming, as she thrusts the weapon into his mother's open hands. Leia accepts it only very reluctantly, frowning down at the sight of it.

"The most important tool in a Jedi's training, a lightsaber is not." Yoda says as Leia thrusts the hilt into the pocket of her vest. "But more respect, should you show it." He chastises, the weapon floating out of her pocket and into Yoda's hand at his command. He considers the weapon for a sad moment before handing it to Ahsoka and beginning the first lesson.

The three Jedi-in-training practice meditation for a long while. Both Luke and Leia struggle with this task, fidgeting and becoming easily distracted by the blood-sucking bugs that hover constantly. Yoda finds Ben's mother tapping her fingers absentmindedly on her knee and whaps her hand with his gimer stick in admonition earning him one of Leia Organa's famous heated glares.

With little else to do but watch three people sit quietly in a marshy field, Ben closes his eyes and crosses his legs underneath himself. It is amazingly easy to reach out to the Force here, he can see why Yoda chose this place for his self-imposed exile. The planet is brimming with life and the Force flows as thickly as the humidity in the air.

His hands resting on his knees, Ben focuses on his breathing, the deep, slow inhale and exhale of air. It's relaxing, peaceful, even. He's not found such easy relaxation in meditation in… well, perhaps the entirety of his life. His newfound tranquility is broken by the sound of a voice from beside him.

"Join the others, you will not?"

Ben opens one eye to peek at the old Jedi Master. Yoda sits on the rock beside him, though how he managed to get up here is lost on Ben, and he looks out onto the practicing students.

"No, I've had quite enough training in my life." Ben grumbles.

"Ah, yes." Yoda hums thoughtfully. "Always a limit to what we can learn, there is."

Ben sighs heavily and rolls his eyes, his shoulders slumping as he realizes that Yoda has no plans to leave him alone any time soon.

"Maybe a limit to what I care to learn." He mumbles under his breath. "And I've had quite enough of 'masters' as well, Master Yoda."

"Failed you, your master did."

"You don't know anything about me." Ben growls, though Yoda is unaffected. The old master simply taps his gimer stick on the rock lightly.

"Need to know you, I do not, to know this." He says gravely. "Fell to the Dark Side, you did – fail you, your master did."

"I thought the Jedi would see the failure as my own." Ben scoffs.

"Failure of the student is the failure of the master. The master's burden their student's legacy is."

An annoyed puff of air exits Ben's nostrils and he grinds his teeth.

"Burden," He laughs dryly, without humor. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

Yoda turns his head to look up at Ben finally. His gold-green eyes seem to sparkle with intelligence. They belay just how old the former Grand Master is, ancient and wise, but tired as well, saddened by his own failures, perhaps. Ben knows when he is being assessed, he's the son of Leia Organa after all and much of his youth was spent around any number of politicians. He grimaces at the judgement he did not ask for.

"Pulled by both, you are. The Light and the Dark." Yoda offers after a time.

"Yeah," Ben huffs sarcastically. "Thanks for letting me know."

"But of the Dark, you are not."

"I don't know what I am." Ben says darkly.

"We are what we hold on to."

Ben barks out a dry, lung-rattling laugh at that, one so loud that it startles a nearby Luke out of his meditation. The young man glares at Ben before closing his eyes and returning his focus to the Force.

"You're saying I should 'let go'?"

"Should, should not – things I cannot tell you, these are."

Ben groans as he runs one hand slowly down his face. It is far too early in the morning for confusing, backwards Jedi 'wisdom'. He closes his eyes and straightens his back, determined to ignore Yoda should the old alien continue trying to speak with him. Luckily, the conversation seems to be over on both sides.

By the time midday hits and the sun is high in the sky, the ramshackle Jedi school has moved on from meditation. Ahsoka sits with Luke and Leia, guiding them through simple Force manipulation techniques. A few small twigs hover shakily in front of an over-confident Luke, while Leia struggles to even topple over a tower of precariously stacked stones. Rey, meanwhile, practices forms with the remote droid from the Falcon.

Ben is bored. So bored, in fact, that he has halfway entertained helping Han and Chewie with their repairs on the Falcon. It would be some kind of demented, personal torture, but it would be something to do at the very least. When Rey abandons the droid claiming it is 'too easy' Ben is only too happy to agree to spar with her.

"Whoa! What did you do to your saber?" Ahsoka calls from where she sits on the other side of the clearing. "That thing looks like it is going to explode!"

"It is perfectly safe, I assure you." Ben says, and it is almost not a lie. His lightsaber has exploded on him a few times, though it hasn't in years at this point, so he's fairly sure he's worked out most of the kinks. It's still quite unstable, but he's always sort of liked that about it.

Ben twirls the crackling red blade in front of him in a lazy figure eight and smiles as he rolls his neck. Rey comes at him with a heavy strike from the left which he blocks. The second their blades collide he is nearly overwhelmed with the distinct sensation of Rey washing over him, a result of their bond opening in a way it only ever seems to do when they are fighting, whether that be with or against each other.

He sees every move the second she decides upon it, knows how to block it instinctually. The same must happen to her. It is a wonder how they are not stuck in a never-ending blade-lock, a constant stream of move and countermove flowing between them in an endless mental feedback loop. They trade blow after blow before finally breaking apart to catch their breath.

Slow clapping echoes around the clearing. Ben turns to find Ahsoka watching them, the look on her face unimpressed.

"That looked like fun," She says with a smirk. "But next time, can you work on, you know, actual forms?" She narrows her eyes and looks Ben up and down. "You do know the basic lightsaber forms, don't you?"

"I do," He snaps.

"Bound, you are." Yoda's voice calls out from behind Ben. Ben sighs, beyond exasperated with the little old Jedi Master at this point.

"What?" He asks, turning around, the word more sighed than spoken.

"Bound by the Force," Yoda explains, he gestures his walking stick between Ben and Rey. "Bound to each other.

"Bound?" Rey repeats. "Do you mean our bond?"

"A normal bond, this is not." Yoda explains looking between the two of them, his gaze appraising yet again. "No. Rare, this is, very rare, and powerful, yes, powerful also. Something unseen for generations. A dyad in the Force, you are, two that are one."

"A dyad?" Ben asks, testing the word. He's never heard or read about such a thing. Yoda hums in confirmation. "So, this is something natural – no one created it?" He asks, his heart swelling at the idea. He had known Snoke was lying.

"Not created, no, never created, never destroyed – even in death." Yoda hums. "Tried to create a dyad, the Sith did, the Sith do. Tried and failed."

"Why would the Sith try to create a… dyad?" Rey asks.

"Very powerful," Yoda says, his voice lowering, growing more serious. "Two that are one, one in spirit, one in the Force. A shared power, you have, and strong, it is, yes, very strong."

Ben frowns. He thinks he should feel… relieved, perhaps? He's known since the first time their bond fluttered to life in that interrogation room on Starkiller Base that he and Rey were inextricably linked. He'd sworn to himself after Crait that the next time he saw her he would make her see. He should feel vindicated. He's not sure what he feels, but it isn't that.

He's known that he was bound to her from the day they met, that the woman who pushed back into his mind, who overpowered him and left him awestruck and bleeding in the snow was the only one for him – but does she feel the same way? Does she fee trapped or burdened in being bound to him forever? That question is far too frightening for him to try and answer.

"Has anyone seen Luke?" Ahsoka asks looking around.

Ben scans the clearing. Luke is nowhere to be found.

"He left a while ago." Leia responds. "Does that mean training is over?"

"No," Ahsoka sighs, clearly annoyed. "What do you mean, he left? Where did he go?"

Suddenly, Ben can't hear the others, their arguing becoming nothing more than a dull roar in his ears. He feels something pulling viciously at the darkest parts of his soul. He's felt it before, he knows what it is – He knows where Luke is.

It does not take Ben any time at all to find the cave. Dripping with the Dark Side as it is, he's felt its call, its pull since the moment he landed, but he's been avoiding it, rather less than eager to see what it has to show him this time around.

The frigid evil of the place surrounds him fully as he crosses through the entrance and slowly makes his way inside. He tries to keep himself focused, calm, but worry gnaws at his gut. He tries to assure himself what whatever visions the cave choses to show him are just that, visions, and nothing more.

"Hey, kid." A voice calls out behind him and Ben fights the instinct to turn around. He presses forward but the voice continues. "I said I'd see you around."

"You're not real." Ben says, shaking his head. He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment and when he opens them Luke Skywalker is right in front of him, but not the version of Luke he is looking for. This Luke is older than Ben remembers, his hair more gray than anything, his beard longer than it's ever been before – but it doesn't matter what he looks like because he is just a vision.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, kid." Luke says with a laugh, the skin around his blue eyes crinkling. He scratches at his beard and looks around at the cave that surrounds them. "Haven't been back here in years." He muses. "I doubt I'll see what I saw last time, but who knows?"

"Stop." Ben commands. "You're not real. Leave me alone. You –" He gestures to the older Luke wildly. "You haven't even happened yet!"

"Neither have you, if I've got the year right." Vision Luke says with a shrug. "And yet, here we are."

With no argument to Luke's latest point, Ben shoulders past the vision of his former master and continues into the cave only to have Luke appear in front of him a few meters away.

"Real, not real – whether I'm a ghost or a vision or your imagination running wild, does it really matter?" Luke asks. "You know why people see things in this cave."

"Leave me alone," Ben growls, his hands balled into tight fists. He does not reach for his saber. He's already killed Luke Skywalker twice, once by his blade in this very cave and the last time indirectly, neither time did much for him, they didn't make him feel any better. "I don't want to talk to you." He reaches up with one hand and grabs at his hair in frustration. He barks a harsh laugh at the ridiculousness of his situation. "I'm trying to find you!"

"Hey, Ben!" Luke calls out from behind him. "When you find me, go easy on him. He's just a kid and he hasn't done anything to you."

"Not yet!" Ben spits back. He's glad that Luke is behind him now, that he can't see his face.

"That's fair." Luke says, his voice sounding farther away now. Ben presses on. "For what it's worth, I'm happy for you, Ben – I'm proud of you." Ben whirls around at that, his rage mounting.

"It's worth nothing!" He roars. It feels like a lie, almost, but he says it anyway. It doesn't matter though – the vision of his uncle is gone.

It would certainly be an understatement to say that Luke had not slept well last night - he's not even entirely sure he slept at all. He'd been lying in his bunk on the Falcon, the others snoring peacefully around him when he'd heard it, clear as day.

Son.

It had been his father's voice, he's sure of that. He'd gone rigid at the sound, his eyes darting around in the darkness, so sure that someone else had heard, but no, it had only been in his head. Had that really been his father? Is he near? Does he know where Luke is? The prospect is frightening, but Luke would be lying if he said that he wouldn't speak to his father given the opportunity.

Luke responds with a tentative 'Father', just like during the battle of Yavin, but he hears no more for the rest of the night.

He wants to tell Ahsoka the moment she wakes up, but he hesitates. She seems so certain that the man Luke met, the one in the mask, is not his father any longer. Luke is… less sure. That man, whether he calls himself Anakin Skywalker or Darth Vader, had seemed to care for him, at least enough to save his life. He wishes that he had someone to talk to about this, to talk through all of the confusing emotions he has about his father, but he simply doesn't. Leia shuts down at any mention of their father, Ahsoka has gotten very sad and quiet and has quickly changed the subject the few times he's brought it up with her. All in all, Luke feels completely and horribly alone.

He has a terrible time trying to focus during meditation that morning, and it certainly doesn't help that he can hear Ben and Yoda's conversation as though it were taking place right behind him. When Luke is finally able to find Focus and immerse himself in the living Force on Dagobah, he finds that it is nearly overwhelming. He's only mediated on spaceships and Hoth thus far and the amount of life on Dagobah is astounding. He can feel it begin and end, the ebb and flow like a constant current, the pain and the joy and the warmth… and the cold.

There is something nearby, something cold and dark. It feels like death and decay and it's calling to him. The urge to go to that dark place pulls at his bones, at the sinew and the muscles that hold him together. It begs him to go. It has something for him, the thought flies just past his ears like a whispered promise. His consciousness floats there on the winds of the Force, his ever fiber shaking with anticipation. It's a cave.

He pulls himself back from that place and it feels like he hasn't had a full breath of air in well over a minute. His lungs burn as he sucks in hot oxygen, thick with humidity. A fine sheen of sweat has settled all over his body and he is trembling.

He looks around. Ahsoka is sitting across from Leia who has been struggling even more than Luke to find her center today, though it is her first time meditating ever. Ben and Yoda sit quietly on the rock nearby. Han and Chewie are still working on the Falcon. Only Rey seems to have noticed what had happened to Luke. She watches him with clear, worried eyes.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah… Yeah, I'm fine." Luke lies. He tries to laugh through his discomfort but fails. "Just tired." He adds with a shrug. Rey nods but the worried look does not leave her eyes.

Had she felt that place too? Did it call to her as it had to him? He doesn't think so. It had felt so personal, like whatever it had wanted to show him was for his eyes only.

Luke is relived when Ahsoka announces that meditation is over. He tries to pay attention to her words as she instructs him and Leia in easier methods of manipulating objects around them with the Force, but it's becoming increasingly more difficult. He can still feel the whisper sliding past him, the pull of that cave from his mind wrapping around him like a cool blanket. With every second that passes he determines that he needs to go there, that he needs to see what that place has to show him - but how to get away?

He is provided with an opportunity when the others are distracted by Ben and Rey sparring. It is a bit of a spectacle, the blue and red sabers clashing quickly, their movements almost completely in synch, like a well-choreographed dance, but Luke allows himself to tear his attention away. He closes his eyes and reaches out with the Force. He finds that thing, that pull, that dark thread which he knows will lead him to where he needs to go.

The cave really is not too far from the clearing the group has been calling 'home' since they arrived, or perhaps it only seems that way. Luke can't be entirely sure, but he feels as though his perception of time and direction may have become distorted on the journey. In fact, he's not sure he can find his way back once everything is said and done – but he can worry about that later. A voice inside of him screams that nothing in the world matters more than entering the cave.

Still, he hesitates at the mouth of it. A gaping maw covered with tangled, swirling branches and vines. His bones turn to ice at the close proximity, cold and fragile. He struggles to breathe against the thick, suffocating Darkness that surrounds this place, that sinks into the very fabric of reality here. Luke has never before sensed such powerful Dark, not in his father, not anywhere. It is like the place itself is made of pure Dark energy.

Luke enters the cave. Loose roots hang limply from the walls and low ceiling and brush the top of his head as he makes his way further inside. Something else is here, perhaps someone else. Is it his father? Luke stills, looking around, eyes blown wide to help himself see in the dim lighting. He grasps for the lightsaber at his belt and ignites it, casting a soft, blue glow over his surroundings.

"Son,"

Luke whirls around. His father is here, blue light reflecting off of the shiny, black material of his mask and helmet. Luke's heart stutters in his chest, from fear? From excitement? He's not sure. Probably both.

"Father," Luke gasps, his breath stolen from his lungs. "What are you doing here? How did you find me?" He's not sure if he should take a step forward or a step back so he stays in place.

"Return with me, Luke." His father says, not answering any of Luke's questions, though that's not entirely strange, he never has before. "I will complete your training. You do not yet understand your potential."

"My potential?" Luke shakes his head. "What are you talking about?"

"Together, we can destroy the Emperor, put an end to this violent conflict."

Fear stabs at Luke's stomach, his father had mentioned destroying the Emperor the last time that had spoken aboard the Death Star. Luke reaches out with the Force, but it's strange, he can't feel his father at all. He still knows so little about the Force and how it works though, perhaps the strong energy of the cave blots out his Father's distinct presence. Still, something doesn't feel right.

"No, I – I can't leave my friends, I –" Luke claps one hand over his mouth. He should never have mentioned them! Are they in danger? Will his father harm them? Luke doesn't know and he feels sick with worry.

"Luke," His father extends one arm, the hand balled into a fist. "You do not yet…"

A flash of blue light cuts through his father who cries out once, his deep, mechanical voice echoing terribly off of the cavern's walls, before falling to the ground in a heap. Luke takes a step backwards in horror, his chest tightening, his lightsaber falling to his side.

"Father!" He cries out.

Luke looks up, a couple of hot tears already streaming down his face, when he catches the eyes of his father's killer – brown and familiar, but colder than he has ever seen them before. Leia's face is set in a cold, hard grimace. She stares at the pile of black material that was their father, her nose turned upwards in disgust, her mouth downturned in a harsh frown.

"Leia – how – how could you?" Luke asks, his voice small and trembling. He backs up once more as Leia's icy stare sets on him. She takes one step over their father's body, approaching Luke, her lightsaber still held in her hands, the blade crossing over her chest defensively.

"He was not our father." She explains calmly. "He was a monster. He had to be destroyed. It is our destiny."

"No," Luke cries as his back hits the wall of the cave. He claws at the slick surface with one hand. Leia tilts her head in confusion.

"Why do you think we're here, Luke?" She asks, her eyes narrowing in curiosity. She looks at him like he is a puzzle. "We must confront him." She says as though she has not just killed him.

"Our father, Leia – How – How –" But Luke can't finish, he can't speak anymore, he can hardly breathe. He closes his eyes, more tears falling in a steady stream.

Luke opens his eyes and Leia is gone and so is their father. Catching his breath, he stands up straighter, pushing himself away from the cave wall, he goes to inspect the place where his father's body had just been.

"You're his only hope, Luke." Calls a voice from behind him – Luke's own voice, he realizes with a start.

He turns quickly on his heels, nearly slipping on the wet cave floor. The Luke from his nightmare is there, the one dressed all in black. They stand as mirror images of each other. The black-clad Luke holds a lightsaber in his hand as well, but his blade is bright red, his eyes a glowing yellow. He smiles while Luke does not.

"You know what you have to do." He says coolly. "Are you strong enough, farm boy?" He mocks, laughing, his mouth turning up in a caricature of a smile.

Luke closes his eyes, the one hand not grasping his lightsaber flying up to his hair, griping the blond locks tightly near the root and giving them a sharp tug. His mind is reeling, he's so confused and sad and scared.

"Shut up!" He cries out, slashing his blade blindly at the other Luke, the Dark one, the one who wears his face but is not him.

"Luke?" A voice calls out behind him, deep and familiar, but lost as he is Luke cannot place it.

Luke opens his eyes and the other him is gone, vanished like his father and sister, but he is not alone, he feels another presence in the cave behind him. He turns quickly. Ben is here. Luke extends his lightsaber towards the man.

"Go away!" He shouts. He's not sure what's real anymore. He just needs everyone to leave him alone. Ben scowls at the sight of the blade, the blue light casting dark shadows over his sharp features. "Please," He begs pitifully, a ragged sob escaping his chest. "Just go away."

Luke sinks to his knees, his legs too shaky to stand any longer. His lightsaber falls to the ground beside him and Luke's hands fly up to his eyes, trying in vain to stop the tears flowing freely there. His back heaves with choked cries.

Ben approaches slowly, like Luke is a wounded animal.

"Whatever you saw," He says slowly, the low tones of his voice reverberating around them. "It wasn't real."

"No," Luke says sharply. "I know what I saw – there's something here, I can feel it."

"There's nothing here." Ben says. "Just you and me."

"But – I – But I saw…"

"What ever you saw is only what you brought in with you." Ben is right beside him now. The man pulls Luke up by one arm and Luke doesn't fight him, just wipes the drying tears from his cheeks. "Only what you can't let go of." He adds lowly.

"What – What does that mean?"

"This cave is strong with the Dark Side." Ben explains as he leads them back to the entrance, his hand never leaving Luke's arm. "It called to you, right?" He asks, looking back at Luke. Luke nods slowly. "That's what it does. It shows you your fears, premonitions sometimes."

"Premonitions? Like visions of the future?" Luke asks, fresh fear clawing its way back up his throat. What he had seen – Leia and his father, that Dark version of himself, could they truly be visions of things to come? His stomach churns at the thought.

"That is what that word means, yes." Ben says sharply.

They exit the cave together and Luke looks up towards the sky, the sun is already setting. How long had he been in there for?

"Is that what I saw? How do I know if what I saw is going to happen?" He asks, trying to keep the panic from his voice and failing.

"You can't." Ben responds with a damning shrug.

Luke isn't sure how long or how far they walk through the swamp before Ben lets go of Luke's arm, apparently trusting him to walk the rest of the way on his own. Luke looks up at the taller man – he looks tense, though what else is new, and sad. Dark circles hang heavy under his eyes.

"Did you see something?" Luke asks quietly. Ben does not look at him or acknowledge that he has spoken at all, so Luke elaborates. "Did you see a vision in the cave?"

Ben doesn't speak for a long time and Luke starts to think that he won't. He's known Ben to do that before, just completely ignore questions he either doesn't want to or seemingly doesn't care enough to answer. Luke is surprised when he speaks.

"No, nothing." Ben says, his tone almost soft – for Ben. "Just you."

"I want them brought directly to me – alive and unharmed." Vader commands deeply as a personal assistant hands datachips to the gathered group of bounty hunters. The chips hold all of the names and known aliases of the group of rebels traveling with his children along with holo-profiles of his son, his daughter and the smuggler, Han Solo, a former Imperial soldier. Of course, there is no information on the two time travelers, but the information the datachips do contain will have to be sufficient.

"That means no disintegrations." Vader adds, thrusting one finger violently at the bounty hunter clad in Mandalorian armor.

He turns and strides out of the room, his cape billowing behind him. He detests having to work with such scum, it is below him, but the simple, irritating truth is that he simply cannot be in more than one place at a time, and he does not trust any of the Imperial agents with this task. A bounty hunter's allegiance is fluid, their master being the one with the most credits to offer, an Imperial spy's loyalty defaults to the Emperor and Vader needs to tightly control the flow of information on this matter to his master. An Inquisitor would be ideal for a job of this magnitude, if only had had any of the Inquisitorius left at his disposal.

He stops in front of his bacta tank and the droids immediately begin removing pieces of his armor. They are rough with him, but they are programed to be. They remove the helmet from his head and instantly replace it with an oxygen mask and his body is lowered into the warm blue gel. The effect is immediately relieving, some of the constant pain he lives with dissipating.

Vader closes his eyes and begins to mediate. Perhaps he can reach his son again, convince the boy to join him. Vader still believes the Rebel base to be in a cold environment based on the girl's attire, and knowing that his son is nearby certainly narrows down the possible locations to a much more manageable number, but if he can contact the boy again, perhaps he can get a more concrete answer. He grasps violently at the Force when a voice rips him from his trance.

"Anakin," The voice, the voice of a dead man, the voice of Kenobi forces Vader's eyes open. "You look well." Kenobi taunts.

This should be impossible, Vader knows. Kenobi is dead. Vader had felt him vanish from the fabric of the galaxy himself, still, there is no denying the gratingly familiar Force presence of his former master, and Vader has learned to stop questioning the seemingly impossible.

At least I am alive. Vader responds in his mind. He cannot speak around the oxygen mask, and even if he could, his vocal cords were so irreparably damaged after his duel with that traitor, without his vocoder, his voice would be nothing more than a whisper at the loudest. Kenobi has the audacity to chuckle at Vader's words.

"I suppose that depends on your point of view."

What 'point of view'? Vader questions angrily. I am alive and you are dead. There is no more to it than that.

"Again, with the absolutes," Kenobi shakes his head. "Perhaps there is more to life than being alive?"

Have you nothing better to do than haunt me? Vader asks, growing tired of Kenobi's brand of wisdom.

"I've been watching you and, I must say, I am surprised." Kenobi ignores Vader's question and tucks his hands into the sleeves of his brown robe. It is difficult to tell through the blue-tinted gel of the bacta, but it almost seems that the man is glowing blue around the edges. "I never imagined the man I left on Mustafar could care for his children, but perhaps I should have. You always held such a great capacity for caring. I suppose I thought you too far gone."

Sith do not care, they do not have compassion. Vader would never see his children harmed, of course, but though he had once had the ability to love, to care, that has long since been lost to him. The heart that beats in his chest is nothing more than a muscle powered by the living tomb of his suit. Whatever Kenobi thinks he sees, it is nothing more than the irrational sentimentality of a doddering old fool.

The man you left to burn alive, the man whose children you stole? Vader growls.

"Yes," Kenobi says, having the gall to seem almost regretful. "The more merciful thing would have been to kill you, but I wasn't strong enough. I apologize for that."

You apologize for not killing me? Vader is nearly surprised that the old, dead Jedi would be so blatant in his cruelty – nearly.

"There are many things I should apologize for." Kenobi says and it sounds like a confession. "I wasn't the master you needed, clearly, or the friend."

Friends, Vader scoffs. Is that what we were?

"I would like to think so." Kenobi says sadly. "I meant what I said. I did love you, Anakin. You were my brother. It pains me to see you like this."

You did this to me! Vader rages, his blood boiling in his veins.

"I didn't mean your physical form." Kenboi responds softly, sadly.

Will you leave me in peace?

"I thought peace was a lie?" Kenobi remarks coolly.

Leave! Vader's voice reverberates around in his mind, his anger shaking the transparisteel of the bacta tank, a pipe bursts nearby.

Kenobi vanishes into thin air. Vader is finally alone, the chamber around him quiet but for the hissing of steam escaping the burst pipe nearby. Vader finds no peace in his requested solitude as it is, after all, a lie.