There were two sounds: the subtle buzz immenating from the repulsorlifts of the training droid he'd finally finished the upgrades on and the soft hum of the lightsaber in his hands. Red light echoed off of the marble flooring of the room he'd claimed as his own for combat training nearly a year before and Luke let his blue eyes slip open as he loosed a breath. Okay. Time to see just how well those upgrades worked.

Before he'd fully expelled the breath the droid was on the move. It lurched to the side, a laser shooting out from one barrel and Luke's blue eyes didn't snap open until after his lightsaber was in motion to block it. He used the momentum to pivot, swinging around and ducking down to avoid another shot, before popping up and flipping over the one that followed it. He landed firmly and blocked another three in succession, his blade moving faster than any normal Human should have been able to swing it. Especially a boy of nine.

The droid jerked upward, taking the high ground, and Luke ducked and rolled to avoid the next shot. His predicted path was cut off, leaving the marble scorched in front of him. Good. The upgrades were doing what they were designed to do. He weaved to the side, and then redirected to keep up with its fast pace, the latest volley singeing the fabric of his tunic. His soft, black boot slipped across the slick floor and threw him off balance. He slid, catching himself with his left hand and was thrown fully to the floor from the next blast.

In the back of his mind Luke clocked an amused presence, but he forced it out of the way as he rolled to his feet in a motion he would have liked to have been smoother. He dodged a shot, then another, blocking a third. He blocked another and another, the final one ricocheting back towards the droid, clipping it. He swung his blade upwards, the practice-setting on the lightsaber not quite allowing the blade to slice it clean in two.

Luke stood in the middle of the room, heaving one breath after another as he glared at the sparking bit of machinery twitching on the floor. There'd been something… No, not something. Someone. He spun to the entrance and didn't see anyone there. There shouldn't have been - this entire section of the palace was closed off - but there were traces. He closed his eyes, trying to focus as he stepped forward.

When he opened them again he was at the entrance, blue gaze sweeping what appeared to be an empty hall. The strange thing was that he could still feel it: that distant amusement. Someone was there and they were toying with him.

Irritation boiled and Luke shoved it down, trying to focus it as he reached out with the Force.

There.

He turned, his lightsaber flashing open as he jumped at a shadow. He heard a step, though, caused by a little too much weight added a little too quickly to floors already prone to echo. It gave him the direction that he could chase after.

And he did. Through the hallway and around the corner. He wouldn't admit it, but it was fun. A living, breathing person was a whole lot more clever than a droid. Or at least harder to predict.

Luke reached a hallway with a set of windows overlooking the gardens below and he spotted one that had been thrown open. He dove for it just in time to see a flash of red-gold hair against the green of the tree. The girl - around his age - dropped from a lower branch and looked up, their eyes locking. She shot him a triumphant smirk and was gone, disappearing into the grove of trees and leaving him to wonder how she'd gotten into the private halls in the first place.

He didn't see the girl again for weeks, and with his father away chasing down some threat to the Empire and no summons from the Emperor, Luke had no one to ask. He'd learned fairly early on that trying to ask the Red Guard anything was a waste of breath and he wasn't allowed outside the wing where his rooms and training space were located. She wasn't dangerous, he didn't think, but certainly unexpected.

Finally, the summons came as it usually did: without warning and with what felt like no point. Luke was pulled from his studies - or, from staring at the archives of some won battle that had crossed in his mind with at least three others just like it at some point - and was escorted to the throne room where Palpatine had been speaking to an image of a Grand Admiral over the holocomm. Luke wasn't acknowledged for a long, boring stretch as the conversation continued, but even when it finally ended, the Emperor only wanted to quiz him on lessons he'd been studying. It was everything Luke could do to focus and pull the answers out of the depth of his mind. It felt pointless. Did he really think that was as important as learning about the Force?

"A question has occupied your mind, my child," Palpatine said, cutting off Luke's monotonous description of an ancient Sith battle.

And that was it. His opening. He had been so loyal to his father's rule: say nothing more than to answer the question asked. It drove him nearly mad sometimes, but for once, Palpatine had opened up the door. "I saw a girl in the palace. Around my age, red hair…"

"You wish to know who she is?" the Emperor asked, and Luke carefully felt for the best way to respond, just as Father had taught him.

"Only to make you aware of her presence, my lord."

"And do you not think I am aware of her presence, young Natus?"

Okay, well that hadn't been the right path to take. His mind slammed to a halt, desperately scrambling for the right answer.

"Do you know why you study ancient battles?"

The change back to the previous topic spun him even further off balance. There was a shift in Palpatine's demeanor. The toying was done and he was easing into a more familiar air. Luke couldn't pinpoint when he'd started it, but when he was summoned it often shifted midway, almost like Palpatine was trying to put him at ease. But that led to yet another lesson his father had tried to teach him: the Emperor did nothing out of kindness. If he appeared to, there was another angle.

The longer it went on, the more often Palpatine offered something for nothing, the more Luke wondered if maybe Father was wrong.

"I… I guess I thought it was so I could learn how Father fights and join him someday," Luke answered, his voice uncertain.

"Perhaps," the Emperor agreed, "and that you might learn the strategies and implement them now. To know friend from foe, to decipher where allegiances should be made and where the embers of rebellion should be sniffed out." He paused and Luke felt those yellow eyes boring into him, even if his own blue had been fixed on the marble floors. "And this girl? Is she friend or foe?"

"If you brought her here, she's a friend, right?" Luke asked, feeling that the answer was wrong even as it left his lips.

"There are many that are ultimately loyal to me that will still vie for your position. Others yet that have shifted loyalties that have not yet been uncovered."

"Wouldn't you know?" Luke asked, genuinely curious of the answer.

"I do," Palpatine answered, but even as he did the two words rang through the Force as a lie. "But those loyal shall always root out the disloyal. And this girl. What do you think? What do your feeling tell you?"

Luke let his eyes flutter closed and stretched out. He pictured the girl with her smirk and her flowing red hair. She felt… good, he thought. Maybe not safe, but trustworthy. But to him or to the Emperor or both? "I think… I feel," he corrected, "that she is talented. Smart. I trust her."

"As you should," Palpatine answered, his voice more cheerful than usual. "Though… I fear your father may not see it so clearly."

Blue eyes popped open and he looked up. "Why?"

Palpatine heaved a sigh. "Your father fears much and it often blinds him. If he sees you trust another, he may fear losing you."

"He's my father," Luke answered firmly. "He won't lose me."

Palpatine hummed noncommittally and peered out from under his hood. "Only time will tell. For now, on with you. See if you can find your elusive ghost. I expect you to have a name next time I call to you."

Luke ducked his head again. "Yes, my lord," he answered and backed his way out of the throne room, past the Red Guard, and into the hall. He would need to find her, to actually seek her out. He did his best to brush off what Palpatine had said about why his father wouldn't want him to. Surely he knew that nothing could break their bond.

When Vader had first found his son and brought him to live with him on Mustafar, the boy had been like a shadow. If he were on planet, Luke was there. If his duties had taken him away, Luke would be there to greet him as soon as his shuttle touched down. When Palpatine had ordered him to bring him to Coruscant, it had been one of the few things that hadn't changed.

More independence was to be expected with age, but it was odd to find the hangar empty, especially since Luke would have known he was arriving.

Vader stretched out, searching the boy's presence out until he found him. He was focused. Overly so, and Vader let the Force guide him until he found him in the furthest hallways of the wing Palpatine had confined him to. He didn't respond to his fathers presence - or his loud footsteps or the steady, rhythmic breathing that his mask announced to the worlds - but instead was studying a door at the end of the hall.

Finally, his son tilted his head, eyes still fixed on the door. "Do you know who stays here?"

"I do not," Vader answered, searching across their bond for better understanding of the question beneath the question. And he saw her. A girl, no older than Luke himself, leading him on a chase before taking off out a window and down a tree. So, Palpatine had picked himself up a new pet to train. His Hand, he called them, even if each one thought they were the only one. Interesting that he'd chosen a child this time. More interesting yet that he'd chosen to house and presumably train her there.

Blue eyes were now fixed on him. "Who is she?"

"A distraction," Vader snapped. "Ignore her."

"But the Emperor said I need to find out her name."

"Not at the expense of your training."

Luke ducked his head, his mood soured. But then, just as quickly, Vader felt it lighten. "I did just finish the repairs on my upgraded Marksman. Wanna see?"

"I have no doubt you've engineered a dangerous sparring tool," Vader answered solemnly, "but I wish to see your progress training against it."

The boy's mood lifted a little more as he darted past him, eager to show off his advancements since his father had been away. He stopped, though, and turned, his smile reaching those blue eyes. "I missed you," he said. "Are you going to stay a while this time?"

Despite his own earlier moroseness at his son's lack of greeting when he arrived, the words caught Vader by surprise. That sort of vocalized sentiment had no place in these halls. It was dangerous, yet he could not find it in him to chide his son over it. Instead he pushed a long breath out through the vent in his mask and started forward, forcing Luke to have to jog to keep up. "Do not think my absence is any excuse for laziness."

Luke laughed at that, the sound real and dangerously light as it echoed off the marble floors. "Never."

"He is progressing well," Palpatine said as he watched the holorecording of Luke dancing around the training space, toying with the droid and allowing its system to learn his movements before taking it on in earnest. "I remember a formattable youth that mastered Form Five once. He does not have your physical strength, but much of your former speed." The words sounded like praise on the surface, but it was impossible to miss the underlying truth beneath them: Luke was every bit as talented as Anakin Skywalker had been at his age and, if he remained on the path the Emperor wanted him on, he would someday be much more than Vader had become.

"There's a softness in him, though," Palpatine mused as the projection of Luke bent to pick up a piece of the droid, cringing as he did at the charred edges. "I would have thought that would have been dealt with by now, Lord Vader."

Vader didn't answer immediately, turning one response after another over in his mind. Perhaps this was his chance. "Children grow out of such sentiments when they're faced with true battle. Allow me to take him with me on the Executioner."

Palatine turned yellow eyes on him and he could feel his Master looking for ulterior motives. "No," he drawled at last. "The time is not yet right."

It was a dangerous game being played, and Vader knew one move too far would only serve to cause Palpatine to try to create a wedge between father and son. It was the reason that he had wanted him on Mustafar and the reason —

"Though the child has been separated from others far too long," Palpatine mused. "Book learning and combat with droids will only take him so far."

The girl. So Palatine had sent her.

"He is yet to bring me her name. Why do you think it is taking him so long?"

He knew. That was clear enough from the question. "His focus has been on his training."

"Finding her is part of his training. And hers. You will not interfere again."

There was a long moment as two powerful wills battled for dominance over a child that wouldn't even know he was the center of it.

"Though, if he has devoted so much time to his training, then perhaps it is time to showcase those skills. One of your own battle droids, perhaps."

Vader's would-be argument about Luke and the girl ground to an abrupt halt at the meaning behind the words. It was presented as a chance, but it was a threat. Keep pushing, remain defiant, and Luke would pay the price.

"If you believe the girl will teach him a valuable lesson, then it is as you will it, my Master."

"Yes," Palpatine hummed and settled back into his throne, seemingly content to keep Vader knelt before him until he tired of his presence.

He didn't know much about the girl with the red hair, but he did know that she liked a challenge. Part of that challenge, he'd decided, must have been to avoid being found. So far, she'd won that, but that didn't mean he hadn't gotten close.

There was the first time at the windows. Later, he could have sworn he felt the same spark of amused mischief in the halls, but this time he didn't hear or see her. The time after that he couldn't feel her through the Force, but he knew he was being watched. Okay. She wanted to use him to learn whatever her Master was teaching her. Fine. Luke would just have to work on his investigative skills.

He started with the room his father had found him standing in front of. It'd taken a few tries - rewiring an entry pads were a little different than rewiring a droid - but he'd gotten inside. There wasn't a lot to see. A bed, a few articles of clothing, and a datapad with a few familiar tomes of ancient battles downloaded to it. Interesting. She was studying some of the same history. Not that that did him any good. Or did it?

Luke minimised the book and navigated to the data settings of the device. Maybe, if the Force was with him, he could piece together some kind of identification data. If not a name, at least another clue.

A notification window popped up. Nice try. Look higher.

Blond brows knit together and he frowned. Higher? The library? No. That didn't feel right. But maybe the landing pad. Maybe. There wasn't any higher you could really go, and definitely not in this wing of the palace.

Luke made his way up the rarely used starecase, not willing to let the lift give him away. As he drew closer, he could feel her, and his steps quickened until he was taking two steps at a time. He hit the top and the doors slid open, the breeze that came with standing this far above the traffic of the ever-busy Coruscant met him there. He breathed it in, eyes closed for a moment, before he let them open to search the flat landing pad.

And then he saw her. She wasn't hiding. In fact, she was sitting in plain site on the low, outer wall of the landing pad. Her back was to him, knees were bent with feet dangling over the edge, and the breeze teased at her long red-gold hair. She didn't turn, but he felt her amusement flicker from her. "Took you long enough."

Luke made his way over to where she was seated. "Maybe you're bad at leaving clues," he offered.

"Maybe you're bad at following them." She turned, that same triumphant smirk she'd worn the first day he met her tilting her lips. "You afraid of heights?"

"No." He hopped up to join her, swinging his legs around to dangle off the edge like hers. "I come up here all the time."

"On the ledge?"

"Sometimes, but mostly just the landing pad."

"I know. To see your father when he lands," she said matter-of-factly. "You weren't up here when he came back a few days ago."

Luke blinked hard, turning to look at her. "You've been following me?"

"You broke in my room," she countered, as if the day's event had had anything to do with her supposed weeks - maybe longer - of following him. "How'd you get in?"

"Rewired the security panel."

She hummed thoughtfully at that. "You're good at that, aren't you? Like the training droid?"

He shrugged. "I guess." A moment passed, then another, and he watched her out of the corner of his eye. "How long have you been at the palace?"

"I don't know. More than a year. Maybe a few."

"Were you here before I got here?"

It was her turn to shrug. And then she was moving, a foot underneath her and she pushed her weight up and back, flipping to the flat surface behind them. She was halfway turned to the door by the time he scurried to his feet. "Hey, wait! I'm supposed to get your name!" he called after her.

She tilted her head. "You ask a lot of questions. What do I get?"

"My name's…" He swallowed his real name before he could let it slip. Sure, she was within the walls of the Palace, but Father hadn't been exactly happy about Luke's search, and the Emperor had said that no one could know his real name or it'd put his father at risk. "Natus," he supplied the name Palpatine had given him instead.

"Okay." She kept moving towards the door.

Luke thought quickly. A name for a name wasn't going to be enough. Something more interesting then. "You like training droids? My father uses these upgraded battle droids. They're faster and stronger than the one you saw in the training room." She stopped, but didn't turn. It was like she was waiting. "You wanna see?"

He saw her pretty green gaze flicker back to look at him and a shadow of her smirk returned. "What are you waiting for, Natus?" she asked, and Luke grinned as he started for the door to the stairwell.

His father was going to kill him. Okay, killing him might be a stretch, but if he caught even a hint that Luke had gotten into the private training rooms - much less brought the girl with him - he was pretty sure he'd receive a lesson in just why everyone was so afraid of him. He wasn't even on planet that afternoon, though. He was in orbit in the Executioner. It was as good of a chance as he was going to get until a mission took him to a different system.

Luke had never been into his father's private suite without him, but he knew enough to know the rooms that were absolutely off limits. The meditation chamber, for one. The private bacta tank and medical facility was definitely on that list. Really, the whole set of rooms, but there was a quick path to get directly to the large, open training arena that Luke wasn't technically allowed into without his father. It was fine. In and out and he'd never even know they were there. He was being careful enough.

His guest was less so. She took in every inch of the bare internal hallway and the closed doors that led to the off-limits rooms. Luke could feel the unasked questions bubbling up inside of her, even if he didn't know what they were. Finally, as they ducked into the training room, one slipped out. "Does Darth Vader sleep?"

Luke spun on his heel. "Of course he sleeps. Who doesn't sleep?"

"Droids?"

"He's not a droid."

"He's not all human either, is he?"

"Do you wanna see the battle droid's or not?" Luke demanded, his tone sharper than he'd really meant for it to be.

The red headed girl shrugged, seemingly unphased by his tone. "That's why we're here."

Luke moved over to the storage closet and opened the door to reveal the towering, charging giants. There were three of them - one fewer than there'd been the last time he'd been here, which likely meant his father had damaged one beyond repair - and the girl came to stand right next to him, startling him a little. She moved like a ghost.

"Whose lightsaber was this?" she asked, reaching out to touch the weapon clutched in the middle droid's hand. Luke didn't have time to answer, though, as a set of red eyes lit up, causing her to freeze where she stood. "Did you do that?"

"No. It must have some sort of sensor on it. It's fine. There's gotta be a way to power it back-" He was on his way to check the back of the droid when everything inside of him screamed danger. He reacted, jumping back and reaching for her, but she was already moving as the blue lightsaber snapped into existence. He blinked at it, surprised by the colour for half a beat.

"Move!" the girl yelled and he felt her hand take hold of his wrist, pulling him out of the way. As the laser blade swept through the space he'd just been standing in, the strangeness of the colour didn't seem to matter as much anymore.

He jumped back, right hand reaching for his own lightsaber on his belt, and the red blade leapt to life.

"Guess we're going to fight it then," she grumbled off to his side and he risked a look as she activated her own magenta blade.

"Do they all look different?" he demanded and she balked at him.

"That's what you care about?!"

Luke dodged the sweep of the blue blade at him, dancing out of its way and flashed her a grin. "What? You're the one that wanted to see it."

"Not fight it!" she snapped as she blocked a swing at her clumsily so that she almost lost her grip. Interesting. So she was great at puzzles and sneaking around, but duelling didn't look like it was her specialty.

Luke slipped around the droid, catching it unaware, and swung his blade hard at a weak point at the droid's knees. The contact caused it to spark a bit, but no real damage was done other than to piss the droid off. It turned and attacked with brute force. Luke barely had time to flick the power up to a higher level to parry.

"Were you on training mode?" the redhead demanded.

"That's what I use with mine."

"You think your dad's gonna use a training setting? They're his droids!"

Luke didn't bother answering as he shoved hard, but the height and the weight was more than he'd ever trained against. He didn't have time to get out from under the blade to try to counter the height difference between himself and the droid, but instead was forced to one knee under the weight of the attack.

"Natus!" he heard the redhead cry and she rushed the droid. It pivoted, slamming its blade into hers hard enough to knock her lightsaber from her grip and reached around with its left hand, hauling her up and off the floor. Fear mixed with anger, and Luke wasn't sure which was hers and which was his own, but he took the only opportunity he had. Using the Force, he sprung up from the floor, slashing out and he took the droid's left arm clean off. The droid swung around with the blade, enough momentum that, even though he brought his blade up to block, Luke was tossed into the wall. Hard.

He felt himself sliding down, unable to get his feet under him or pull his focus together. It seemed like all he could do to keep his eyes open, and he was failing at even that. His vision swam as the droid loomed closer, coming in for the finishing blow.

And then it stopped as if frozen in place. Luke blinked, trying to clear his vision as the giant, black droid was lifted off the floor, lightsaber dropping harmlessly, and began folding in on itself. It sparked and sizzled, crumpling in as tightly as it looked like it could go, then it was crushed some more. The ball of metal and gears dropped heavily next to the lightsaber and Luke finally looked beyond it to see his father standing with his gloved hand outstretched, fingers curled, and rage rolling off of him.

Yeah. This had been a terrible idea.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd been that afraid, not that she let on during her report. Mara kept her chin up, her voice steady, and her eyes fixed on her Emperor's yellow ones as she spoke. It wasn't hard when she recounted what led up to the event, or even the event itself. It wasn't something she'd intentionally repeat, but she'd been relatively sure that they'd get out of it alive, despite Natus' distraction at points.

No, it wasn't until she got to the part about Vader's entrance into the matter that she had to steady herself. He'd simply appeared without warning, destroying his droid as easily as if it had been a thin parchment in his hand. She had only seen him in passing before that day and never with his attention anywhere directed at her. She could still feel the cold that crept into her. It was deep and it left her shivering. Despite her control, she felt the shudder pass through her.

"And then?" the Emperor prompted.

"He told me to get out. I didn't think it'd be smart to stay."

"Bright girl," her master praised and she felt some of the cold recede. "And the boy?"

"He stayed."

"And did he get your name?"

Mara had to school her expression quickly as she realized she'd never given it. Natus had earned it after everything, and she knew he owed it to the Emperor as proof, but after everything she'd just left.

"Yes," she lied, hoping it was convincing. She'd meant to give it, and that was the real test. It wasn't Natus' fault she'd scurried out.

The Emperor hummed softly to himself and she wasn't sure if he'd sensed the small lie or not. "You may return to your studies."

The dismissal was clear. She offered a quick bow and hurried out, but instead of heading up to the library, Mara headed outside. She circled around the edge of the Palace and to the gardens below, looking up and gauging her position. No. That would have been his training room, and he wasn't there. She inched over another handful of rooms' worth and found a tree that got her to a terrace. From the terrace there was a drainage pipe that led to another three floors and to a window with a balcony. She stepped onto it and stretched out with the Force. He was alone, but the frigid cold presence of his father wasn't far. The window was safer and would provide a relatively quick exit. She flipped over the opposite edge of the balcony and inched her way across a decorative ledge until she reached a set of closed, double windows and peered inside. It was a large room with model spacecrafts and half-finished droids lying about. In the corner sat Natus, his head down and his shoulders hunched in defeat. She popped her knuckles against the window.

Natus looked up, startled. Despite everything that had happened that day she saw a small smile tilt his lips and he unfolded himself from the floor, moving to unlock the window. "Hi."

"Hello," she answered, swinging one leg over to the inside of the window for a more secure perch. "How bad was it?"

Natus cringed. "Just be glad you got out of there when you did."

"I wasn't given much choice," she reminded him. His father had sent her skidding towards the door with his barely contained anger shoving her the rest of the way out. She guessed she was lucky he didn't do to her what he'd done to the droid.

"Right. Sorry about that."

The concern for her feelings was strange. She didn't claim to have a whole lot of experience with Siths - or future Siths? She really wasn't sure how that worked - but she was pretty sure that worrying over someone's feelings wasn't part of a Dark Lord's job description. "We both survived."

"You could have warned me you don't know how to fight with a lightsaber."

"I just started learning," she argued, but caught herself, tilting her head. "What good would it have done anyway? We didn't exactly go in there to fight them."

"True," Natus chuckled.

"Anyway. I'm much better with a blaster."

Natus scrunched his nose. "You're a kid."

"So are you. Doesn't stop us from training to serve our Emperor."

There was a subtle shift in his mood that she couldn't quite pinpoint. Before she could try to pick it apart, it was gone and he frowned a little. "I guess I lost this one, huh?"

"What'dya mean?"

"Your name. I thought, maybe…"

"You'd show me a killer droid and I'd tell you?"

He shrugged and she felt the edges of her lips tilt upward.

"You don't know anything about girls, do you?"

"I don't really know much about people," he admitted, a sad undertone to his voice, but then he met her eyes. "But I bet you're not like most girls."

Her smirk drew a little closer to something real and she leaned in close to his ear like she was telling him a secret. "Mara Jade," she whispered.

And then they both felt it. That cold that would precede his father. Mara offered him that real smile before she swung her leg around, moving quickly to her escape even as the door to Natus' room opened. Vader wouldn't see her. Natus might be good with a lightsaber, but her specialty was finding ways to get in where no one else could. Maybe she could teach him. Just not today. Probably not for a while, but he had her name now, just like the Emperor had wanted, and if the Emperor wanted them to help each other, not even Lord Vader could keep them apart.

TBC

Notes: No matter the age, Luke and Mara are fully capable of finding trouble no matter where they go :P

This chapter was a lot of fun. Typically I use pretty detailed plotpoints for my multi chapter stories just like I do in my original work, but I'm approaching this story a bit differently in that I have a document highlighting Luke's path through the his upbringing in the Empire and beyond. Each chapter I'm finding the story that best reflects both the plot points and the emotional touchstones for that path. I'm really hoping to stay on a fairly regular schedule for chapter updates. The goal is every Friday. Saying that... I'll be out of town next Friday, so it could very easily be an off week :')

Hope you're enjoying the ride as much as I am so far!

Next Time: Mara helps to broaden Luke's worldview and Vader makes good on an old promise.