Although Darth Vader could not see his son entering the beast's mouth, he could sense it through the Force.
Curse Palpatine! Vader should never have listened to that obsessed tyrant.
You mindless fool! Your son is going to pay for this with his life!
He should have gone with his gut instinct, which had very clearly told him not to even bring Luke into the same room as this monster.
He mentally went through his extensive list of Huttese, Toydarian, Corellian, and Wookiee swearwords, several of which he made up on the spot.
He began to go through them all over again, this time out loud, when he noticed that something was nagging at the edge of his consciousness.
He could still sense Luke's Force presence!
It was faint...But it was there.
Well, Luke's Force presence was definitely there...
And he felt like he was about to faint...
The noxious fumes that seemed to originate from the creature's throat almost made him throw up in disgust. The Deh'th'tu'thouw's saliva was sticky, and it coated him like persistent mud.
After he had been dumped inside the creature's mouth, he'd blindly felt around until he touched its monstrous teeth. He'd then grabbed on after a millisecond of hesitation and gotten as good of a hold as could be expected in his predicament.
Its dry, sand-papery tongue was now bashing against him painfully, and his body was aching horribly and begging him to give in.
But he wouldn't let himself give in.
Luke refused to give the Emperor the satisfaction of knowing that his death had resulted from a forced encounter with one of his cruel pets. No, his death would be more honorable than that.
His wrist throbbed in a constant reminder of its sprained condition, and Luke's grip was slowly slipping. He wasn't sure how much longer it would be before he slid down its throat and found out which stomach he was going to.
A particularly pessimistic person might think that he had been merely been thinking of a thousand death scenarios, holding on for dear life, and doing little else besides hoping.
And they would have been partially right.
He was frightened, grasping the tooth with all his strength, and hoping. But he was also concentrating on making its heart stop beating. But his efforts were all in vain because when he stopped one heart and started to work on another the first one would just start beating again. He tried splitting his concentration, but it was hard to focus since his entire body was throbbing in pain.
He sighed in resignation. Scratch that plan.
The irony was not lost on him.
Giving a grim smile, he tried to rack his brain for another idea, the gruesome tongue still splattering against him and trying to remove him from his handhold. The Deh'th'tu'thouw let out a confused and slightly agitated purrl.
He'd have to find another organ to wreak havoc on, since he wasn't having much look in stopping its blood flow...
What about its brain?
Nah, too complicated...
He could plug an artery...Rip its spinal cord...
Neither thought appealed to him, though it wasn't like he had much choice...
But then again, there was always the jugular vein.
It might be a bit bloody, but seeing as how he was inside its mouth he didn't see how it would affect him much.
The Deh'th'tu'thouw was now gnashing its teeth together to get him to let loose, and it let out a great roar in annoyance.
Luke winced. Any more of that and he wouldn't have to worry about hearing its banshee cry.
He would have preferred to have a very large weapon to complete the task (well, it would have needed to be a very very large weapon), but he would have to deal with using the Force.
He allowed himself a brief smile. He'd never thought that he'd be complaining about having to use the Force to save his life.
Mystical energy field that it was, it was more than adequate to complete the task.
The Jedi called the Force to himself and concentrated on the Deh'th'tu'thouw's neck. It didn't take too much searching before he sensed the large, pulsing vein.
A small part of Luke wished that he didn't have to kill it. He wanted to save his life, but he didn't hold the beast's primal instincts against it. It wasn't its fault that it had such a predatory appetite...
It was hard to explain what he did next, but if someone had asked Luke how he did it, he would have replied that he had somehow shaped the Force into a dagger...and stabbed.
With a roar that Luke probably could have heard all the way back in his cell, the beast started hacking desperately and throwing itself around.
The sheer immensity of its desperate bucking and whipping back of its head was enough to tear its tooth from Luke's death-grip and fling him out of its mouth, causing him to hit the floor with a sickening thud.
The Deh'th'tu'thouw threw back its head and let loose its final death-cry, the horrendous sound ending with a strangled cough as it collapsed onto the ground.
But Luke was unable to hear it. After slamming onto the floor, he had had been knocked into blissful unconsciousness.
Darth Vader had been alarmed when the beast had seemingly started throwing itself around for no obvious reason. But it had came close to the edge of the cage during its panicked bucking, and he had seen the red blood darkening the purple fur on its neck.
It had then given out a loud cry and sent his son flying out of its mouth to slam down on the ground so heavily that the pain must have been horrendous. After it had gotten rid of its prospective meal, it had let loose a disconcerting howl that had made the Sith Lord back up a few steps uneasily despite knowing that the cage's bars gave him protection from the beast.
The Deh'th'tu'thouw had finally broken down and slumped to the floor beside Luke, the tip of its large tail pinning down the boy's right arm.
Darth Vader cautiously entered and walked up to the beast to ensure that it was fully dead. He prodded it carefully with his booted foot.
Its body remained still, so he turned around to look at Luke, satisfied with his observation. But without warning, it jumped up into the air with a screech, its body twisting towards the Dark Lord. Just when it was almost on top of the scrambling Darth Vader, it jerked backwards as if shot. Its body fell heavily to the ground, and this time a massive paw trapped Luke under one of its pointed claws.
Warily watching the Deh'th'tu'thouw, Vader strode over to his imprisoned son.
The boy's chest rose and fell, but it was with a struggling effort. His Force presence was flickering, and the blood-spattered youth looked worse for the wear.
Luke's blood mingled with the hideous monster's, and it was hard to tell which scarlet liquid belonged to whom.
After a final laborious breath, Skywalker was motionless.
Shavit! Vader inwardly hissed. Curse my wretched body!
Due to his eternal need for a respirator, he was unable to perform the CPR that his son undoubtedly needed, and by the time he called the medics in it would be too late.
Darth Vader was about to have a raging Sith fit at his helplessness, but a familiar voice from his past spoke to him: The Force you must use before all is lost.
With a few misgivings, he called the Force to him and used it to pump the air back into Luke. He didn't know how he managed to do it, but somehow he managed.
For a few apprehensive seconds nothing happened, but then Luke started coughing horrendously. Luke's eyes opened painfully, widening at the sight of the enormous paw above him.
Softly, Vader questioned, "How are you feeling, Son?"
Luke didn't reply, he just shut his eyes and concentrated on reducing the pain. "Dead?" he managed to ask.
"Yes, it is," Vader replied, secretly enthralled that his son was still alive.
But Luke wasn't exactly ecstatic about his survival. He felt like a herd of banthas were ruthlessly ramming against his skull, and his sprained, broken, and cracked bones were complaining terribly. His bruises were also throbbing painfully, and he was about give in to the void that was relentlessly trying to suck him in.
Black dots danced in front of his eyes, and his head was spinning. The Force seemed to elude him, and Darth Vader's dark presence was clouding the little concentration he had left.
After looking him over, the Sith Lord decided that he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon...But if he didn't get help of some kind soon, then he was going to the graveyard.
Uncertainly, Vader scooped up Luke into his arms gently. Luke moaned in pain at the movement and shifted slightly. Darth Vader slowly walked out of the room and down the hallways, erasing the memories of the few curious people that they passed had of them together.
Vader slowly laid his son on the floor. He wasn't allowed to help his son into a healing trance...But Jade was.
Distrustful of her as he was, he knew that she felt something for his currently vulnerable son. Behind a block that hid his message from the Emperor, he sent through the Force: Luke needs you.
I'm coming, she sent back, a hint of concern in the brief contact.
With a last hidden but loving look at his son, Darth Vader left.
When Mara Jade arrived, Luke was breathing quickly, shaking, and sweating. He appeared to be in shock. She immediately bent down to his side and tried to calm him down. "Shh, shh. It'll be okay..." She sent a Force tendril to reassure him, and it helped a little bit.
"I'm going to put you in a healing trance," Mara's voice came to the Jedi distantly.
He gave a small affirmative nod, and she brought the Force about him, albeit a little unsurely. She had never attempted to put someone in a healing trance before.
The Tatooinian farmboy easily succumbed to the pain-free state that the trance provided.
Mara reported to her Master and, with unease, noted that Vader was standing nearby waiting for orders.
The Emperor spoke, "You will take Mara with you, Lord Vader. Once inside, you are to instruct her to rough young Skywalker up a little, to 'try to convince him to turn.' She will seem utterly shocked and appalled by the thought of having to do so. If it does not work, and I'm sure that it won't, then she is to 'sneak' back in later and sincerely apologize and try to regain his affection. Do you understand?"
Mara Jade and Darth Vader nodded in unison, though neither of them liked the plan. Both knew better than to argue with Palpatine.
"Good."