A/N: Wow. Can't believe it's almost been a year since I updated this thing. Unfortunately, along with everything else 2020 brought, writer's block came to settle in for the long haul. Not completely over it yet, so still don't expect frequent updates.
AU where Owen and Beru tell Luke about Vader. I don't 100% know if they knew Anakin became Vader in the movies, but in this they do. Obi-Wan told them about Anakin, but left out Leia and Padmé. That man is still keeping secrets smh. This story takes place two years before ANH and then during ANH. Everything happens the same in ANH until the scene in the hangar bay where everyone watches Vader and Obi-Wan duel each other.
WARNING: There's blood in this one. I don't think it's that graphic, but be careful just in case.
Chapter Summary: Luke finds out who Anakin Skywalker really is.
Chapter 9: Father
"Luke!"
Luke's head snapped up from where he was hunched over a small, powered-down droid. He set the hydrospanner on the workbench and stood up, using a dirty rag to wipe most of the oil from his hands. A glance outside the garage showed the twin suns were low in the sky, which meant dinner was probably ready.
"Coming, Aunt Beru!"
He found his aunt and uncle waiting for him at the table in the kitchen, no food in sight. The expressions on their faces gave him pause. Uncle Owen looked grim—well, grimmer than usual. Aunt Beru looked anxious. When she saw Luke stop in the doorway, she shot him a small smile, but it didn't reach her eyes. Eyes that were shadowed in resignation.
"Is...everything alright?" Luke asked.
"Have a seat, Luke," Uncle Owen said. "There's something we need to talk about."
Unease stirred like the beginnings of a sandstorm in his stomach. He sat down across from his aunt and uncle. "Am I in trouble?"
"No, sweetheart." Aunt Beru was quick to reassure. "You've done nothing wrong."
"Then what is it? You guys look like someone died." Luke paled, eyes widening. "Did someone die?"
"No one's dead and you're not in trouble!" Uncle Owen grumbled. Aunt Beru shot him a look and he sighed. He didn't look angry, just tired. "I'm sorry, Luke. It's just...well, we've decided it's time for you to know about your father."
Luke's brows knitted in confusion. "What about him? You told me he was a navigator on a spice freighter."
"We did, yes." Aunt Beru looked distinctly uncomfortable.
"And?" Luke prodded when no more answers were forthcoming.
Uncle Owen gazed at him for a moment. Luke started squirming under the scrutiny. Finally he said, "We dreaded the day we'd have to tell you this. But, you're almost eighteen now, and if you're serious about going to the academy…"
"We want you to know the whole truth before you make any decisions," Aunt Beru finished.
Luke looked between his aunt and uncle, confusion rising along with frustration. "What do you mean 'the whole truth?' What does going to the academy have to do with my father?"
Aunt Beru reached across the table to squeeze his hand. "Your father wasn't a navigator on a freighter, Luke."
Luke opened his mouth.
"And he's not dead," Uncle Owen said.
Luke stiffened. His mind stuttered to a halt. "What?" Luke whispered.
Distantly, he saw his aunt and uncle exchange concerned glances.
One thought shot through the haze of shock, and he stood abruptly, dislodging his aunt's hand. "Where is he?"
"Luke, honey, please sit down—"
"No!" Luke would later feel guilty for shouting at Aunt Beru, but for the moment he was too disoriented, too panicked, too confused to care. "You told me he died! Now you're saying he's alive? Where has he been? Why did he never…" His voice broke. Why did he never come for me?
"He doesn't know you exist. We had to hide you from him because…" Uncle Owen swallowed, looking pained. "Because your father is Darth Vader."
Darth Vader? The Emperor's enforcer? The brutal killing machine Luke and the other children grew up hearing horror stories about? The large, armored shadow he sometimes caught glimpses of on the HoloNews when he went to Anchorhead? That was his father?
Luke's knees went weak and he stumbled back into his seat.
"Luke?" Aunt Beru sounded cautious, as if she was waiting for him to explode or crumble.
"But…" Luke didn't feel like an almost-adult at that moment. He felt like he was five years old again, hiding under the bed because of the nightmare he'd had about Jabba's pet rancor. Uncle Owen had gotten an earful from Aunt Beru for telling Luke about it. "But I thought Anakin Skywalker was my father."
"He is," Aunt Beru said gently. "Anakin is Vader. They're the same person."
"How…? Why…?" So many questions were racing through his head, he couldn't seem to voice a single coherent thought.
Uncle Owen sighed, deep and weary and regretful. "I know this is a shock, Luke. We'll tell you what we know, and if you still have questions…" He hesitated and muttered something foul under his breath. Aunt Beru smacked him lightly on the shoulder. They seemed to have a short, silent argument. Evidently, his uncle lost because he continued—albeit grudgingly. "If you still have questions, there's someone who can explain the situation better."
"Who?"
"Ben Kenobi," Uncle Owen growled. Before Luke could ask any one of the many inquiries this answer provided, his uncle hastened to add, "But we're only going to him as a last resort!"
Luke wisely decided to leave the subject of Old Ben alone for now. Instead, he settled in to hear the story of how Anakin Skywalker managed to become Darth Vader, one of the most feared beings in the galaxy.
The stormtroopers rushed as one to the other side of the hangar, apparently to deal with some kind of disturbance. This was their best shot to reach the Falcon. Luke, Leia, and Han left the relative safety of the wall they'd sheltered behind and made a beeline for the ship. The sight at the other end of the hangar stopped them all in their tracks. The troopers that had gone to investigate earlier seemed to be transfixed as well.
Two lightsabers clashed together, one blue, one red. Their wielders, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader, were in the midst of a focused duel.
"General Kenobi?" Luke heard Leia mutter beside him.
But Luke wasn't focused on Ben. He was concerned for the man, certainly, but all of his attention was riveted on Darth Vader. Darth Vader, who was his father. This was his first time seeing Vader in person. Even from this distance, he could tell the HoloNews didn't do Vader justice. They couldn't capture his sheer presence. Luke couldn't tear his eyes away. He had both hoped for and dreaded a meeting with the man who sired him. His childhood dreams of knowing his father had never completely faded, even after learning who he really was. To see him practically in the same room as Luke was at once thrilling and terrifying.
As Luke watched, alternating between fear and longing and concern, Ben stopped fighting. He stood still with his saber pointed at the ceiling and let Vader cut him down. Before Luke's eyes, he disappeared and left behind only a pile of robes.
"No!"
The shocked scream ripped out of his mouth. He'd lost too many people recently. Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen were dead, and now Ben, his last connection to Tatooine, was gone as well. He had been Luke's last connection to his father too, without going directly to the source. The source, who had just murdered the man who had been like a brother to him, according to Ben's stories about their adventures in the Clone Wars.
If Vader could kill Ben, someone he'd once been very close to, what would he do to Luke? As Vader turned toward him at the sound of his scream, Luke realized he was about to find out.
The stormtroopers had also noticed him, and they brought their blasters up and started shooting. Leia and Han shouted at him, screaming for him to shoot the blast door controls, to run to the Falcon. Luke hesitated a second too long.
Fire erupted in his chest. His mouth opened in a silent scream. All the noise—Han and Leia's screams, the stormtroopers shouting, the blaster fire—was drowned out by the blood roaring in his ears. Slowly, Luke looked down and stared in morbid fascination at the growing stain of red on his light-colored tunic. He could do nothing as his legs buckled, and he found himself lying on his back, staring at the ceiling of Docking Bay 327.
Noise and pain crashed back into his awareness.
"Luke!"
"Kid!"
Leia. Han. He turned his head enough to see them. They were huddling around the ramp of the Falcon, staring at him in horror, obviously reluctant to just leave him. But they wouldn't be able to escape in time if they came back for him.
"Go!" It came out weak and raspy. There was no way they heard him, but he knew they understood when Leia shook her head frantically and Han's jaw clenched. Luke braced himself, sucked in as deep a breath as he could, and shouted, "Go!"
He broke into a wet coughing fit that rattled his lungs. Something warm trickled from the corner of his mouth. Through blurring vision, he saw Leia's anguished expression and Han's solemn one before they ran up the ramp. Luke didn't relax until the ramp was up and the Falcon had cleared the docking bay.
It was just him now, surrounded by dozens of stormtroopers. They kept their blasters trained on him. Luke didn't see the point. He was barely in any shape to lift his head, let alone try to escape.
Luke felt Vader approach before he heard him. He could feel the cold burrow inside him, and it wasn't just from blood loss. The sound of a respirator made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Troopers moved aside as the dark behemoth strode through the ranks to tower over Luke. It was like looking up into a nightmare. He couldn't see Vader's eyes through the red-tinted lenses, but Luke knew the man's gaze was raking over him. He resisted the urge to flinch at the attention, mostly because he didn't have much strength to move. How could this monster be his father?
"Your accomplices have left you, Rebel." Luke shivered at the dark, mechanized voice. "Tell me their plans, and I will grant you a swift death. Remain silent, and I will let you drown in your own blood."
All those years as a child dreaming of meeting his father, and this is what it came to. Luke had never been more scared in his life, but he refused to let it show.
"I—" He coughed and strained for breath. "I won't...tell…"
"I will find their location no matter what you do or do not divulge. You are prolonging your suffering in vain."
Luke could feel Vader's disinterest. Vader didn't care if Luke suffered or not. He was just going through the motions, taunting him. Why did this man have to be his father? Ben was right. Vader was twisted and evil, more machine than man. Any hope Luke had had that his father might still have good in him was fading every second Luke spent in Vader's presence. There was no more light in the person looming over him like a specter of death.
"No…" Luke moaned, mortified to feel tears welling in his eyes. He was so tired. The room was beginning to spin and he felt almost like he was floating. It was so much work just to breathe. All he wanted was to close his eyes and have this be a dream.
"So be it." He heard Vader shift as if to leave and freeze. There was a long pause. "Where did you get this?"
Luke's eyes shot open—he didn't know when he'd shut them—at Vader's sharp demand. His vision cleared just in time to see Vader's gloved hand rise and the lightsaber attached to Luke's belt fly into his grasp.
"'S my father's...yours…"
Luke's muddled mind screamed at him, but he couldn't tell why. The lightsaber was his father's. Why shouldn't he say as much? His father might want it back.
Vader was utterly still; he continued to grip the lightsaber tightly in his hand. The stormtroopers shifted—whether in surprise or nervousness, Luke couldn't tell.
"Your name?" Vader barked. Luke jolted. He had to stop zoning out. His father was trying to talk to him. "What is your name?"
"'M Luke."
"Luke what?"
There was something in the air—some sense of anticipation that Luke couldn't figure out while his chest hurt, and he couldn't breathe, and he was so, so tired.
"Luke...Skywalker."
He wouldn't realize the impact of his answer until several days later, when he would wake up in an unfamiliar medical bay on an unfamiliar ship with Darth Vader hovering close by.
A/N: Hope everyone's being safe out there. Thanks for reading. :)
Also, yes, yes, I did look up the specific docking bay number that the Falcon was in on the Death Star during ANH.
Disclaimer: I know nothing about medical things. So, if surviving a chest wound like that is unrealistic, well, why complain about that when we have to contend with laser swords and space wizards who can kill people with their minds in this fandom? ;) XD