PART 2
It didn't take long to explore the other side. The shadow creature was correct. There were no escape options. Luke and Darth Vader had discussed using the Force to pull down the hallway and create an exit, but the Sith Lord determined that that wouldn't work.
"This chamber is the lowest level of the complex," said Vader. He had stretched out with the Force to examine the option.
"In other words, if we use the Force to create a new exit, most likely everything above our heads will come crashing down on top of us?" clarified Luke.
"Indeed," replied the Dark Lord.
They slowly made their way back toward the chamber, though they stopped far enough back that the creature wouldn't be able to attack. Luke put his back against the wall and slid down to the ground. He put his head back.
"Tired, my son?" asked Vader. The tone seemed soft.
"You seem to enjoy saying that," replied Luke. His eyes were shut.
"Saying what?" asked the Sith Lord.
"My son," replied Luke.
"But you are, Luke," said Vader.
The boy did not reply. Vader waited a moment, then spoke again. "You don't look well."
Luke's skin seemed unnaturally pale, especially for a former native of a desert world. There were lines, from pain or fatigue, the Sith Lord wasn't sure, that cut into the boy's face around his mouth and eyes.
"The numbness is gone from my leg," replied the boy. He rubbed his hand, his real flesh and blood hand, across his face. "Overall I feel like I haven't slept well in days, which doesn't make sense. I shouldn't be this tired!"
"A side effect from it feeding on you, most likely," replied Vader.
Luke dropped his hand and looked up at the Sith Lord. "What do you mean?"
"When you leaped across the chamber, it fed from you," explained Vader. "It's the reason why your leg was cold and numb afterward. Why it gave out on you when you tried to stand. Did you not sense it grab you?"
"I thought that was you," replied Luke. The boy frowned. "Trying to stop me from getting away." Luke looked away, toward the chamber, before putting his head back against the wall. His eyes drifted shut for a moment before he opened them again.
"Rest, Luke," said Vader.
"I don't have time to rest," replied Luke, as he blinked his eyes rapidly, attempting to drive away the need to sleep.
"We have time for you to rest," replied Vader. Vader lifted his hand. Sleep. The command was sent deep into Luke's mind. The boy attempted to fight it but quickly lost. The boy drifted off to sleep, with Vader keeping watch.
A few minutes later, Luke slowly slid down the wall, until he laid curled on his side. Vader watched Luke. The Dark Lord didn't want to admit it, but the moment was precious. It was the first time he had seen his son quiet and at peace. Cymoon 1. Vrogas Vas. K43. Bespin. The boy was always in motion whenever Darth Vader laid eyes on him.
"Dark One."
The Sith Lord raised his eyes and looked down the hallway. The shadow creature floated in its chamber. It drifted side to side, but did not come closer to Luke or Vader.
"I can help you with the boy," it whispered.
"The boy is mine," growled Vader.
"He's strong in the Light," it whispered. The shadow drifted closer and seemed to stand on the very edge of the flooring at the end of the hall. "If I take some, it would be easier for you to take him from this place. He fights you as much as he fights me."
Vader said nothing as he considered the being's words. It was true. As soon as Luke and he escaped, the boy would then turn his attention to escaping his father. If Luke were weak from feeding the creature, it would make things easier for Vader to take him to his ship and from the planet.
"Bring the boy to me, Dark One," it whispered. "I shall consume enough to make him weak and helpless for you."
The creature floated closer. Still not close enough for Vader to worry that it could grab Luke, though he kept an eye on the boy.
"I can take him while he sleeps, Dark One," it whispered. "He will never know."
"And could you stop yourself from draining him?" asked Vader.
The being laughed. "Of course, Dark One."
The Sith Lord heard the lie in its words. Vader stepped forward. His cape flowed with his movement and blocked the creature's view of Luke sleeping on the ground.
"Do not take me for a fool!" snapped Darth Vader. "I can hear the lie in your words!"
"His Light is so delicious," it whispered. The being slowly backed away. "I will have him, Dark One. It has been many years since I've tasted anything so pure."
"He's mine and you will not have him," roared Vader.
With a laugh, the creature disappeared.
…...
"Luke." The voice was female and cooed his name.
The blond Rebel opened his eyes and found himself laying in a field at dusk. The sky was painted in brilliant shades of red and purple. The sun was completely gone from the sky and Luke could see the faintest shadow of the moon on the opposite horizon.
His eyes shifted from the sky and took in the female standing near him. With the shadows, he couldn't see her face. She wore a gown and he could feel the material brush at his legs as she walked up next to him. Though she was clothed, Luke could see her body through the dress she wore, almost like the gown was completely transparent. She was curved in all the right places.
Just as she reached his waist, she stepped over him, with one leg on either side of his waist. Slowly she sank down until she was sitting on him. His hips held her weight, though she didn't seem to weigh much.
"Luke," she whispered.
She bent down and placed her lips against his. He was expecting her lips to be warm, but they were cool. In fact, everywhere her body touched his, she was cool.
"Warm me, Luke," she whispered. Her teeth nipped at his lower lip. "Share your Light with me."
Luke opened his mouth, to speak, but she thrust her tongue into his mouth. She tasted sweet, but her tongue was cool like the rest of her. He raised his hands and grabbed her upper arms. He pushed her back from him, so he could sit up, though she remained on his lap.
"Who...where am I?" said Luke. His words were confused. He didn't remember how he ended up in the field he was in. He had been...with someone. Her? But it hadn't been a field. He remembered a ceiling and walls of stone.
"You're with me, Luke," she whispered.
She leaned forward and kissed his lips. She arched her body into Luke's, rubbing her chest against his. If she had been a real woman, Luke was sure he would have felt her body heat, but all he felt was cold. Cold like his lips felt.
Luke! Not a female voice this time. It was a male voice. Demanding. Wake up, Luke! The voice sounded vaguely familiar.
She rocked on his hips and the motion distracted Luke from the male voice. "Ignore him, Luke," she whispered. She pressed her lips against his. "He wants to keep us apart."
She knocked Luke's hands from her arms and pushed him back down. She kissed his mouth, then trailed her lips across his cheek. Luke shivered. He felt cold all over, not just his lips.
"Give me your Light, Luke," she whispered. "And I shall give you pleasure in return."
She sat back up and laid her palms flat against his chest. She trailed them down. One hand stopped at his stomach and kneaded the muscles there. The other hand slipped down further. She rotated her wrist and slid her hand between their bodies. Luke gasped and she purred at the noise.
LUKE! The male voice was getting louder.
"Give me all your Light, Luke," she whispered. The hand slid out from between their bodies and she slowly moved both of her hands back up his chest. She leaned down and kissed his cold lips. Her lips drifted from his lips to his chin and slid down to kiss his neck where his pulse beat.
One moment, she nuzzled his neck, then next she was gone. A man, dressed in a black robe, stood over them both. His hands, gloved in black, gripped her hair as he dragged her from Luke. The man threw her away from them both. She landed, crouched, and on the balls of her feet. She hissed at the black robed man.
"I can take his Light with pleasure or pain, Dark One," she hissed. "But I will have him."
Luke's attention shift from the woman to the dark robed man. Except for the robe being black, it was similar in cut and style to the robe Ben had worn. For a moment, the hood on the robe shifted, and Luke thought he saw blue eyes and blond hair.
The Dark Side of the Force swirled and suddenly, the field was gone. Luke blinked his eyes. He was back in the hallway with Darth Vader. Luke woke on his side. His back was pressed against the wall.
"Easy, Luke," said Vader. The man was kneeling next to him. His hand on Luke's shoulder.
As the adrenaline faded, Luke shivered. He was cold. So cold. Vader reached up, opened the clasp of his cape, and pulled the cape off his shoulder. He wrapped the younger man in the fabric.
"She...It was feeding on me in the dream," said Luke, as he pulled the cape tighter against his body. The black cloth was not enough to warm his body.
"Yes," replied Vader. He stood up and towered over his son. The boy continued to shiver and the Sith Lord noted that he was even paler than before.
"We need to get out of here," said Luke. He shifted on the ground and sat up, pressing his back against the wall. While the blond Rebel didn't note that he had said "we" instead of "I", it was not missed by the Dark Lord.
Pushing the cape aside, the boy attempted to stand and almost fell back down. Vader placed a hand on Luke's left arm, to help steady the boy. Even with his father's hand on his arm, Luke felt unstable. He leaned against the wall.
"I feel worse than before I slept," mumbled Luke.
"With each feeding, the creature will grow stronger. I did not think it had taken enough from you the first time to be able to reach you here, otherwise I would not have had you sleep," said the older man.
"Do we back further down the hall to get away from her?" asked Luke.
"It may have taken enough from you to attack you no matter where you are on this side of the chamber," replied Vader. He stared at the end of the hall and the doorway to the creature's chamber. "There is a barrier that the creature cannot cross on the other side."
"So we take the risk and try to jump the chamber, knowing that she's waiting for us?" asked the boy. Vader shifted his gaze back to Luke at the boy's question and found the Rebel was staring at him.
"Do not trust him, Luke."
The boy and Sith Lord turned their attention to the chamber. The creature was floating, less transparent than the first time Luke saw her.
"And you expect me to trust you," replied Luke. His voice was filled with disbelief.
The shadow being laughed. "I do not deny what I am." It drifted closer. "I'm willing to grant you pleasure for what you will give me. Your last moment in bliss rather than pain and suffering."
"Not interested," replied the blond young man.
"You say that as if you have a choice," it replied.
Vader took a step forward, putting himself between the creature and his son. The shadow being shifted its attention to look at the Sith Lord, but it turned its gaze back to Luke.
"He was tempted," the creature whispered.
Darth Vader stiffened at those words. Luke looked from the shadow creature to the man standing near him.
"I doubt you have anything to offer him that he'd be tempted by," returned Luke.
The creature laughed again. "Not tempted by flesh, but by helping me feed."
"What? Give me to you to save himself?" asked Luke. While his voice projected confidence, he could feel the Dark Side of the Force moving around Darth Vader. The Sith was anger. "You can't feed on him, so he had nothing to worry about from you."
"Not to save himself, Luke, but to capture you."
Now it was Luke's turn to stiffen and his gaze quickly shifted to Darth Vader, only to return his attention to the shadow creature when it spoke again.
"He considered letting me feed on you, to make you weak, so it would be easier for him to take you from this planet."
Luke turned his attention from the creature to the Sith Lord standing near him. Darth Vader had done many terrible things in order to capture Luke. The most recent flashed through the boy's mind. Leia and Han. He had felt their pain in the Force. Vader had tortured them at Bespin solely to bait a trap for Luke.
"Fa...Vader. Is that true?" Luke asked. The doubt could clearly be heard in the boy's voice.
The blond hero could see Vader's tightly clenched hands. The Dark Side of the Force swirled around the Sith Lord. Luke could see the the man was furious and Luke worried as to why. Is he angry because she's lying...or is she telling the truth? Luke's question, though not spoken out loud, was heard by Darth Vader through the Force. The Sith Lord could feel the boy's doubt pressing against him.
"How do you think I slipped into your dreams, Luke?" it whispered and drifted closer. "And the Dark One showed in time to stop me from taking too much."
Uncertainty made Luke take a step back from Darth Vader and the creature attacked. With a powerful Force shove, Darth Vader was thrown. He went flying back, while at the same time, the creature launched itself at Luke. The boy's back hit the wall and the creature wrapped itself around him.
The previous two encounters, Luke had felt cold when the creature touched him. But this time, its touch was freezing. Colder than the winds of Hoth. It bite into his skin and mind. He could feel the creature draining his life! His heart skipped a beat and his lungs struggled to expand with his breaths. Luke cried out in pain and the cry echoed in the Force.
Father!
"Luke!" shouted Vader, as he rushed toward his son.
Vader wrapped his son in a Force hold and pulled him away from the creature.
"No!" hissed the shadow creature, as it attempted to follow Luke.
Instead of pulling Luke toward him, Vader pushed the boy down the hall, across the chamber, and onto the other side. As his Force grip released the boy, Luke slumped to the ground. The creature crossed the chamber and started to move down the other hall, only to stop and screech.
The silver barrier was the only thing that kept the creature trapped and Luke was safely on the other side. Since the shadow being couldn't cross the barrier, Luke was beyond its reach. The shadow creature turned from Luke and rushed back toward Vader.
"I will feast on your Light," it screamed.
Darth Vader drew on the Dark Side of the Force. His anger at how the creature had hurt Luke. Not once, not twice, but three times and Vader had failed to keep his child safe from the creature. Just as Anakin had failed his mother and...Padmé.
Vader fed the Dark Side his disappointment. That the boy had doubted his father and believed that the Dark Lord would give his child to the creature to be food. That Vader would allow another to hurt his son.
Wrapped in the Dark Side of the Force, Darth Vader met and pushed through the shadow creature. The shadow creature attempted to feed on his Light, but the Sith Lord shoved the Dark Side of the Force into it. The creature screamed in pain. It was meant to consume the fragile Light Side of the Force. It could not take the Dark Side. The Sith Lord took pleasure in its pain and used it to strengthen himself. He cleared the chamber and landed on the other side.
The Sith Lord turned back and examined the chamber. He could not see nor sense the shadow being. He did not believe he had killed it, but whatever strength it had gained from feeding from Luke had been lost.
Darth Vader turned back and looked down at Luke. The boy was unconscious on the floor. The Sith could see marks on the boy's face. He knelt down and rubbed his thumb across the boy's cheek and it came away wet from the tears the boy had shed when the creature fed on him. In that same moment of suffering, Luke had called him. He had recognized Darth Vader as his father.
The Sith Lord stood back up. Raising a hand, he used the Force to lift Luke from the ground. He had his son and the boy had accepted him. Now it was time to destroy the Emperor and rule the galaxy together.
THE END