Written for Angstober Days 8: Haunted Pet and 21: Memories.
This hand was not his. Luke stared at it, stared at the slight discolouration in the skin, the too-perfect smoothness over knuckles that should be scarred from years of tussling with Biggs and Windy, and flexed his fingers again.
"Motor functions are excellent," 2-1B said happily. Luke's mouth twitched into a sympathetic smile. He was an excellent droid and an excellent medic. "Connection has been seamless."
The motor functions were excellent, but wrong. The connection burned just below his elbow, like Vader was still holding the lightsaber against his stump.
"Thank you, Too-Onebee," Luke said. "You've done brilliantly."
"Are you sure you are well, sir?"
"I see no reason to be unwell, Master Luke," Threepio chirped from the corner. Luke glanced over at them, smiling at Leia, Threepio, and Artoo all waiting patiently for him to finish. Here for moral support.
"You're right, Threepio. There's no reason at all. This is an excellent replacement."
"But it is not the real thing," 2-1B concluded. "Do not feel obliged to hide your discomfort, sir. I have performed these operations before. I am aware that organics feel attached to their original parts. Whether I understand it or not, I understand that it is a difficult transition."
Luke looked back over his smooth-skinned, scarless knuckles. Another tiny piece of Tatooine lost. It was minute compared to what else had happened on Bespin, but…
"I'm fine, Too-Onebee. It'll just be an adjustment, like you said." He nodded at Leia. "Are Lando and Chewie ready to take off?"
"They're arguing about rewiring something in the console," she said. He appreciated the sense of humour in her tone; she was staring out into the starry expanse with a distant look that he knew meant she was thinking of Han. Guilt flared in him there, as well. Another vital piece lost, because Vader wanted to lure him in.
Because he wanted Luke.
"Oh? What terrible upgrade is it this time?"
Leia snorted. "Lando thinks he should be able to start the Falcon without getting hit by three dozen sparks from dodgy couplings."
"Well, we all know that's an unreasonable thing to demand."
Leia laughed at that, at least.
"We've got a good view of the take-off, here," she offered. "Ready to watch?" He nodded, and she switched on her comlink. "Ready to go, Lando?"
"Ready, Princess. Chewbacca has more sense than Han when it comes to this baby, at least."
A flash of anger in Leia's face. But none of it showed in her voice—Lando wasn't wrong, after all, and she had forgiven him wholeheartedly for what he'd done on Bespin.
"That he does," Luke agreed instead. "Safe flying, Lando."
"And make sure Chewbacca stays in one piece!" Threepio chided. "Not that he did the same for me, but—" Artoo cut him off with a whistle. "Yes, he did do that, but I'd have appreciated a little extra—"
Chewie roared his outrage. Luke and Leia had to chuckle.
"Alright then," Lando said. Luke could hear him flicking switches in the background. "Ready to go in five—"
A shadow fell over Home One.
"—four—"
Luke shivered.
"—three—"
I am glad you have received medical attention, Luke. But did you think you could run from me?
"—two—"
"No," Luke whispered.
"—one—"
"Lando, stop!" he shouted. Leia stared at him. "Stop— just, don't launch now."
"Luke, what is it?"
"Master Luke, are you quite well—"
But then empty space filled. Luke turned towards the viewport.
The Executor dropped out of hyperspace, dumping TIEs like baby spiders from their mother's back, and fire rained down on Home One.
"Vader," Luke said, and Leia grabbed his arm at the naked terror in his voice.
The Executor was tilted towards them, bearing down on them like a dagger slicing for his breast. Luke could see the command tower, the bridge hanging suspended over the rest of the ship, and he could imagine the dark presence standing there, his hands behind his back, waiting.
There is no escape. Don't make me destroy your Rebel friends to find you.
"Come on," Leia said, and pulled him out of the room.
"We need to get to the hangars," Luke said breathlessly as they bolted from the medbay. The droids tottered after them, Threepio complaining vociferously. "Those TIEs are gonna rake us apart, I need to get out there—"
"Wedge is acting Rogue Leader right now. You are on sick leave. You need to get to your bunk room. It's in the centre of the ship, you'll be shielded from the worst of the damage—"
"You know I'm not going to do that, Leia."
She stopped, yanking them both to a halt in front of the turbolifts, and beheld him with a grim smile.
"Then you're coming with me to the bridge," she said as she summoned the lift. "I'm not having you go out there. No one's going out there until we're sure we can't jump out of here in time. I'm not having you in danger."
"We are all in danger," Dodonna declared, his white bristles quivering as he slammed his hands down on the table. "How did Vader know where we were?"
"Someone must have revealed our location to him," Mon said calmly. Dodonna paused in his rage, then nodded. "A passing ship—"
"There have been no passing ships, Mon. We're in deep space. There are no systems around here for miles, and no way to find us." Leia shook her head. "It's not possible that someone saw us and snitched—especially so soon after we only just gathered the fleet again at the rendezvous point."
"Well, they've scattered again now," Rieekan complained, scratching his jaw. "It'll take a while to coordinate everything again. Until then, all our missions are in jeopardy."
"General, I'm concerned about how Vader found us, not the rendezvous," Leia said. The fear that had seized Luke's face was tattooed onto the inside of her skull. She hated how small Vader made even her feel. They had been fortunate they had several pre-set hyperspace jumps calculated; they had escaped before she and Luke even reached the bridge. "Commander Skywalker and I's proximity to him in recent times suggests a tracker of some sort, but we were all scanned upon our return, as were the droids. We're not being tracked."
"Has anyone else had any close calls with Imperials lately?" Dodonna cut in, glancing at Mon.
She shook her head. "None more so than usual."
"Usual is still too many."
"I said no, General."
It was Rieekan who said, "Then my theory is that we have an Imperial agent on board."
"Have you been monitoring transmissions?" Leia asked. "We—"
"This is a warship. We are always monitoring transmissions. All the ones we can find have been accounted for—apart from the ones sent from the Millennium Falcon." He gave her a hard look. "Captain Solo was always jumpy about his privacy. But there's been several long-range transmissions from there that we didn't ascertain the contents of in the last week."
"That makes sense, Lando's been coordinating with his contacts on Tatooine—"
"Lando Calrissian?" Dodonna asked. "The man who betrayed you to Vader in the first place?"
"He's a good man. I don't suspect him at all."
"He sold you out!" The heat in Dodonna's voice shouldn't have surprised her, but it did. He'd been close with her father; he'd known her as a child. When she'd returned to Yavin IV after the Death Star, he'd been the first to embrace her, his relief sharp and acidic.
"To protect his people," she said. "They're alive because of the choice he made. And he's working with us to mitigate the costs of that choice by rescuing Han."
"Is he?"
"He is."
"We should not jump to conclusions about spies just yet," Mon said, looking between them worriedly.
"He may still be working with Vader, as he was on Cloud City. He claims to view it as a mistake, but—"
"He doesn't," Leia said. "He doesn't regret his choice."
"There you have it."
"I'm not sure I would regret it either if I had made that choice, General," she bit out. "If I had chosen the way Baron-Administrator Calrissian did, perhaps you and I would still have a home to go back to."
Dodonna went red under his white hair, like a tomato fuzzed with mould, but the silence from everyone else was too fragile for anyone to dare to break.
"We do not think Lando Calrissian is a spy just yet," Mon repeated. "We should instead pursue other options and contingencies. Ensure we are ready to jump to hyperspace again at a moment's notice. We will shut down all non-essential comm chatter and cut off access to comms for anyone other than members of High Command." She glanced at Leia. "That includes the Millennium Falcon."
Leia nodded. "At least if they find a way to send the signal, we'll know about it."
"And then we'll get the hell out of here," Rieekan said under his breath.
"What about the rest of the fleet?" Dodonna cut in. "They must be halfway across the galaxy by now. If we don't outline a plan to find a new rendezvous point—"
"I will contact Admiral Ackbar and tell him that for now, we have chosen to wait," Leia said. "Are we all in agreement on this choice?"
They all looked at each other.
Mon added her voice to the push. "Are we?"
They were. But agreement did not equal endorsement.
"I'll wait out here until you're done," Luke said, smiling weakly at Leia. He shouldn't be following her around like this just because he had nothing to do when he was on medical leave, but she shouldn't be running errands either. She was on leave as well, for the trauma she'd endured at Cloud City.
"I won't take long," she promised, and disappeared into the comm suite. Threepio followed her, chattering about the nuances of Mon Calamari languages and asking what level of formality she'd want the message to be transmitted with, while Artoo beeped at him to shut up. The door shut on them squabbling.
Luke didn't smile, but it was a near thing. The familiar was almost painfully soothing. He crouched on the floor, staring at the blank grey wall opposite, and let out a sigh.
A playful beep interrupted his misery. He pushed himself up—wincing at how his hand responded oddly—to see a mouse droid peeking around the corner.
"Hello there," he said warmly. They only had a few reprogrammed Imperial MSE droids, usually donated by Rebels who got too attached to the one that had been on their ship before they defected, but they were unfailingly sweet. "You can approach, I won't hurt you."
It squealed and ran up to him, its back wheel squeaking. If Luke remembered correctly, mouse droids obviously didn't like being stroked the way ordinary pets did since they couldn't feel it, but he tapped its back in brisk, regular intervals. That sent vibrations through its sensors that it could feel; that sort of stimulation was enjoyable to them.
"What's up with your wheel?" Luke asked after a few minutes of tapping. It scooted forwards and backwards to emphasise its ear-splitting squeak. Luke fiddled with the wheel for a moment—it was on slightly crooked, and also hadn't been oiled in a while.
He searched in his pockets to see if he had any of the small containers of oil that were in every emergency kit; he tended to collate things in his pockets, especially when he was working in the hangar. He pulled one out and oiled the wheel afresh, straightening it up again. The mouse droid did a few loops around him on the floor in excitement, let him tap its back rhythmically for a few more minutes, then trundled into the comms centre.
Low laughter from down the hall made Luke look up. The encounter had raised his spirits enough that when Lando approached, grinning at him, he managed a grin back.
"Those things are cute, aren't they?" Lando said, his cape swinging behind him as he walked. "If I'd ever worked on a Star Destroyer I might've stuck around just for them."
"Pretty sure that's why they were stolen and reprogrammed," Luke drawled in reply, but stood up to greet Lando. "Leia's inside, if you're looking for her?"
"I was—Chewie and I wanna know what's going on with this no comms business. We've got contacts that probably think we're compromised by now because we haven't got back to them. And if the Falcon isn't cleared to leave soon—"
"You might lose your job offer as a guard?" Luke asked teasingly.
"I'll have you know that I've worked as a guard before, and I was excellent at it."
Luke snorted, waving his hand—then wincing as it spasmed slightly, not yet calibrated for that sort of movement. He still had the oil in his other hand, so he opened up the panel in his wrist and set to work on it.
"Still having trouble with that thing?" Lando's tone was light-hearted as ever, but Luke could feel his guilt.
"Ah, I'm getting used to it. Can do most things now."
Lando's eyes twinkled. "Can you play sabacc with it yet?"
Sabacc was a great game to test his finer motor functions on, Luke had to admit. He and Lando had headed to the Falcon immediately after Leia came out, and now they were on their third hour straight of playing. Luke had lost the many nuts and bolts that constituted the contents of his pockets, as well as half his container of oil.
Lando laughed at it when he saw it. "I'll use that on the Falcon, don't worry," he promised.
"Not sure it'll go far, but you're welcome to it." Luke chucked his cards to the middle of the table. "If you're cheating—"
"There's no cheating in sabacc," Lando said. "Only being a very good player."
"You gonna tell Han that when you see him again?"
"Han knows. How'd you think he got the Falcon off me in the first place?"
"I dunno, he always struck me as a stand-up guy."
Chewie's roaring laughter disguised Leia's hurricane entrance briefly—but only briefly. When she stormed up the ramp, through to the rec room, and slammed her fist down on the table atop their scattered cards, suddenly no one was in a laughing mood.
"You need to explain yourself," she said.
Lando watched her warily. "I'm an open book, Princess," he said. "What do you need?"
"We need a record of your transmissions."
"Why?" His tone went defensive. "I told you before—my contacts are all very secretive guys, they don't want themselves being recorded. I can show you the sectors and planets I was chatting with, but the people themselves—"
"Lando, I have trusted you. I want to trust you. But you know there's a comms blackout on right now?"
"I do—put a hitch in plenty of my—"
"There's been another transmission." Luke's heart stopped. "Unauthorised. No one in High Command will account for it. If it's the spy, they might've found our coordinates again and sent them right to Vader. You're one of the only people on the ship who hasn't been totally honest about his communications, so we need you to—"
Lando was shaking his head. "I'm not a spy, Leia," he said heatedly. "I know—I know I made a mistake on Cloud City—"
"You didn't make a mistake. That's why I'm trusting you. But I'm concerned that the terrible deal Vader made you strike didn't just end at giving me and Han to him."
"Why wouldn't it? He had what he wanted; you guys just escaped—"
"You helped us escape. Luke escaped on his own."
"More or less," Luke muttered, glancing at the scattered cards over the table.
"We don't know anything about the timeline. It's possible he could tell the situation with Luke was going poorly and decided to have you break us out, to lead him back to the Rebel fleet. Let us go so he could catch all of us later."
Lando stared at her. He looked hurt. "I didn't send that transmission, Leia," he said. "When was it sent? If it's the last few hours, I have an alibi, I've been here with Luke and Chewie—"
"It was one hour ago," Leia said.
"There you go."
"Transmissions can be delayed."
"Do you want to distrust me, or—"
"No!" she said. "Not at all." She glanced at Luke. "But you brought Vader down on us once. Now Han is gone and Luke— look at him."
"Hey," Luke said, but it was weak.
"I can't let that happen again. We're jumping to hyperspace now and getting out of here, and you need to give us more information."
"I understand that, Leia. But you understand that I can't jeopardise my contacts' secrecy."
She took a deep breath. "I know." But she was still glaring daggers at Lando. She was so on edge that one more push would send her falling.
The push came in the form of a deep rumble from Home One's guts.
Everything vibrated. Leia, still standing, grabbed the edge of the table while Luke, Lando and Chewie grabbed their seats. It was the standard hum that indicated the jump to lightspeed, but… this was too much.
"What's that?" Leia demanded, as if any of them would know. Chewie roared his confusion—and concern. The sabacc cards hopped from the table like jungle frogs. "We're meant to be jumping to hyperspace, but—"
Lando said: "That's not hyperspace."
The last syllable was punctuated by a sudden jump: Luke rammed forwards, winded by the table in his stomach. Leia went flying into the wall, where she bounced off with a groan. Lando had slammed into Chewie, who was mercifully holding him steady.
The fear broiling in Luke's chest was like a beacon. That dark eye that had been scanning the skies for him irised open and with something uncomfortably like a chuckle asked: Is everything well?
Luke ignored it.
Less than ten seconds after the vibrations vanished, Leia's comm beeped. She dragged herself to her feet, leaning heavily on the wall with one hand, and pulled it out. "Commander Organa speaking."
"Leia," Mothma said immediately. "Your presence is required in High Command. Immediately. Where are you?"
"On the Falcon with Luke, Chewie, and Calrissian." Lando winced at being relegated to last name status. "What's happening?"
There is no escape, the voice promised.
"We engaged the jump to hyperspace, but something is wrong with our engines. The techs concluded that if we continued with the jump, they would explode, killing us all." A pause. "They are working to fix the problem. But our current theory is sabotage."
Leia glanced at Lando. Luke couldn't help it: he glanced at him too, but met his panicked, pleading look with a sympathetic one. "Calrissian has been visiting the engine rooms regularly in the last few cycles in order to supposedly renovate the Falcon. Is he still our primary suspect?"
"We do not… yes. Bring him, Chewbacca, and Commander Skywalker with you. We need you all to remind us of what happened on Cloud City."
The comm cut off. Luke and Leia stared at each other.
Vader said, I will see you soon, my son.
Leia stood shoulder to shoulder with Luke in front of High Command, and perhaps that was the only thing that gave her courage. Artoo and Threepio were standing in the corner bickering again, though they quietened down when the meeting commenced. Something was wrong.
The feeling screamed through the room, written in the face of every colleague and friend she had there. General Dodonna didn't seem able to look at her.
"What is it that you wanted us to remind you of?" she asked, addressing her question to him.
Mon, her courage apparently boundless, did manage to meet her gaze. "You all gave reports on what happened at Cloud City. We would like to revisit them. You and Chewbacca first." She nodded at Chewie. "You say that you encountered Vader at a mock dinner and were then spirited away into a cell?"
Leia nodded. "Yes."
"All of you?"
"Threepio had been missing, but we later received him again. In… in pieces. Lando's men thought he was scrap, but Chewie fixed him." Chewie roared his agreement. "Other than that, we were all in the cell until Han was taken out to be tortured."
"Were you tortured?" General Rieekan asked.
Leia looked at him coolly. "Not this time, General, no."
"Have you any idea why he tortured Captain Solo?"
"Luke can explain that better than me." She glanced sideways at him.
Luke cleared his throat. He looked terrified—his skin was the colour of shaak milk and sweat gleamed on his cheeks. "I was at Jedi training. I filed a leave request form I filed after I got out of bacta on Hoth so I could go, remember?" he said. She'd forgotten how he'd told her that he'd be leaving. She'd shouted at him, she remembered, and felt a little bad. "But you know I care about Han and Leia a lot. Through the Force, I could feel their pain. Vader wanted to lure me there to capture me."
"Why?" Mon pushed.
Luke swallowed. "I'm the last Jedi, Senator Mothma. He tried to encase me in carbonite to capture me, but I got out, and we fought. He cut off my hand, threatened to kill me if I didn't join him, and when I saw no other escape I let go of the gantry I'd been holding onto."
Rieekan had already turned away from Luke, almost dismissively. "You didn't spend much time with Vader, then?"
"Not more than an hour."
"While Leia was in captivity for longer."
"Yes, but I wasn't tortured, Han was," she repeated. "Han was tortured and encased in carbonite. What more do you want to know?"
"You weren't tortured," Mon said. "Were you interfered with in any way?"
"What does that mean?" Leia snapped. She looked around at them. "What is this about? None of this is anything that isn't in our official reports."
Dodonna still wouldn't look at her. Even Mon faltered, here. But Rieekan said, "We didn't understand how the transmission could have been made. We're blocking any that don't have the right authorisation from High Command. But this one did. It was authorised with your codes."
Leia's mouth fell open. "That's impossible."
"There's much we don't understand," Mon said. "About this, and about the Force." She glanced at Luke almost apologetically. "But with Vader, the Alliance's modus operandi is to assume that nothing is impossible."
"What are you implying?" She choked. "That I'm compromised? Are you doubting my loyalties, of all people?"
"No, Leia."
"I never expected this. Is this what you all think?" She glared around at them. "I'm not—"
"The Alliance has experience of the Force being used to corrupt previously loyal members before. It may have happened without you knowing. You may be a plant, or be hypnotised, or anything like that. Perhaps he has established a connection in your mind that allows him to control you from a distance."
Beside her, Luke shuddered abruptly.
"That's a far-fetched accusation, Senator, with all due respect," he said. "There's other explanations for Leia's codes being used for this. They might have been stolen."
"I have too much faith in her security efforts to believe that," Mon said kindly, not looking away from Leia.
There was a beeping noise beneath their feet. Leia glanced down to see a mouse droid trundling along, polishing the floor. She looked up again, but Luke kept staring at it.
Dodonna leaned forwards. "I'm sorry, Leia," he said gruffly. "But you understand we have to take this precaution. For now, we have to shut you out of High Command meetings and revoke your access codes."
She took a deep breath. "I understand," she said tightly. Her fury was a familiar soldier that marched beside her. These people were familiar to her, as well, but apparently she was unfamiliar to them.
Apparently, she could not be trusted.
Leia stormed out of the room; Luke made sure to stay hot on her heels. She still glared at Lando periodically, but both Luke and Lando could tell that wasn't because she actually believed his guilt anymore. Lando had been near to the comms room, but she had never, ever given him access to her codes.
Luke paused to let the cleaning mouse droid shoot out past him, though, and watched it go with narrowed eyes. Lando stopped at his shoulder. "Are you trying to set that thing on fire?"
"No," Luke said, and stopped glowering at it like it was his father. "I'm just thinking…"
"What?" Leia snapped, turning towards him. "What are you thinking?"
"Firstly, that it's not you." That bit was added hurriedly, and he tried not to think about Senator Mothma's logic. A mental link to Vader… The ability to receive orders and be controlled from a distance… "Secondly, I don't think the spy is a humanoid."
"Who do you think it is, then?"
"I think it's a droid," he said. "Those mouse droids—"
"You're accusing the mouse droids of treachery?" Leia said, eyebrows climbing.
"No! Well, yes. They were reprogrammed in the first place. What if that reprogram—or the memory wipe—was reversed?" It was a strange thought and must be even stranger to experience. A Rebel haunted by memories of Imperial servitude.
"Then they'd keep cleaning," Leia said. "They're not programmed to be loyal to the Empire. They're programmed to do their jobs. We just reprogrammed them to be more cheerful about it."
"But they'd be a good way in, wouldn't they? They're allowed everywhere. They can connect to so many systems. If they were cleaning your room and got your codes, even if only the tiniest glimpse… when was the transmission again?"
"Two hours after we left the comms suite."
"What if they plugged into the computer immediately after you used your codes and reconstructed them?" Luke pressed. "Any one of them, that is. I don't think all of them are in on it."
"You don't think every mouse droid on the ship is part of a conspiracy. That's good to know."
"It makes more sense than you being in one, Leia."
She pursed her lips.
"Not that I don't appreciate that," she said. "I just think your idea could make more sense."
"I know."
"There are dozens of mouse droids." That was an exaggeration—they were only a few, as far as a ship this size went—but not by much. "If we were to pursue that—"
"I know. But maybe keep them away from the engines while the mechanics work." He took a breath. "With any luck, surely we'll be able to escape before Vader gets here."
The voice that had been taunting Luke suggested otherwise. It suggested many other things about Luke's grip on his own mind and sanity, in fact.
Leia's face softened at his obvious nerves. "Alright," she said. "I'll convince Mon to give the order. Hopefully she won't think I'm doing this under Vader's sway, and that the mouse droids are secretly our only hope for salvation because of it." Luke forced himself to laugh, just to calm his nerves.
Artoo and Threepio caught up with them. Artoo was chattering anxiously at the top of his circuits. Luke paused next to them, frowning. "You alright, Artoo?"
"He has the most outlandish theory, Master Luke," Threepio informed him. "Really! It's offensive! Accusing one so close to him!"
Luke's stomach swooped. "What do you mean?" Artoo shrieked some more. "Artoo, what—"
Artoo regarded him solemnly for several long moments. Threepio looked Luke up and down, then seemed to hesitate.
"Really, Master Luke," he said, shuffling past him. "I… It would only hurt you as such an accusation has hurt Princess Leia, I believe."
"What does that mean, Threepio?" Luke asked. His voice was rising.
"I really couldn't repeat it." Threepio kept moving. In a moment, he was around the corner. Luke stared after him.
His own droids suspected him, now? It was almost absurd.
The only reason it wasn't absurd was because he was starting to suspect himself.
Mothma did, thankfully, give the order, though Leia said she was not exactly convinced. It was a matter of better safe than sorry, rather than any actual faith in his idea. That was fair enough. Luke was increasingly starting to doubt it as well.
Leia gave him the news on the Falcon, while he hugged his stomach. She asked if he was alright; Luke assured her he was and asked if she was. They looked at each other, indulged in a brief, tight hug, then seemed to come to a mutual consensus that they both just needed to be alone for a little while. To process this, with whatever time they might have left before Vader fell on them.
The whole ship was on edge. People called out jerky, nervous salutes and greetings as Luke walked back to his bunkroom; he responded to them all. When he finally got a turbolift to himself, he sagged against the wall. Closed his eyes. Reached deep into his mind.
Who is it? he demanded.
It is I, Vader responded drily. Luke hadn't even realised he had a sense of humour. Your father.
He slammed his hand into the wall. Who the hell is your spy on our ship?
Have you hurt yourself?
What? He lowered his hand. No. Why would you care? It's the hand you cut off.
Do not fear my coming, Luke, Vader soothed—or, tried to. It was an utterly alien concept for him, Luke could tell. All will soon be set right.
Tell me who your spy is!
I will not. It would only distress you further. But I thank you for keeping me so well-informed on your state.
Luke felt him recede, turning his attention back to whatever newest war crime he and his admirals were plotting. He screamed, alone in the turbolift.
The turbolift opened. Two techs were standing outside, staring at him.
Luke stopped screaming.
They stepped inside and rode with him a little of the way. Luke tried to keep it together—he even managed a slight smile and a nod at one tech's affectionate, "A bit strained, Commander?" and a weak apology. When they got out at their floor, it was a relief.
Thank you for keeping me so well-informed.
Was it Luke? Or was that just a jibe at how thoroughly Vader could track events through Luke's demands and rising panic? Was Vader doing to Luke what High Command thought he must be doing to Leia, using their connection to reach into his mind and influence him? Could such a connection also erase any memory of him doing this?
He didn't know. He should go back to Yoda and ask if this was possible, but—well. By the time he reached Yoda, it would be far too late.
His head swam. Wedge was in the hangar, thankfully—when he got antsy he fine-tuned his ship until she screamed with him—so there was no one in their shared bunkroom when he got in. No one but Artoo, sitting on the charging station.
Luke rolled onto the bunk and tried not to cry. He could feel Artoo's stare on him.
"Do you think it's me?" he asked. "I don't know what you told Threepio, but… If it is, I don't know what to do."
Artoo said nothing. That was odd. He was very good at staying silent, but only when he wanted to. Luke frowned, sat up, and turned towards him.
The readout on the charging station said he was fully charged. Why was he still sitting on it? None of the lights on his console were blinking…
Luke rolled off his bunk again and inched towards Artoo, tapping his dome. "Artoo?"
No response.
"Artoo!?"
He had one of his connection ports exposed, Luke realised, when he panicked and looking over every inch of his droid. The others were behind their usual flaps, but one flap was open, and the connection port was charred soot black.
Luke thumped his dome again, but his voice was weak. "Artoo?"
Artoo remained as he was: as quiet and still as the grave.
"Someone deactivated Artoo-Deetoo," General Rieekan said. "Our techs examined him and concur with your findings, Skywalker. He was sabotaged, likely by our spy."
Luke nodded. All of this was something he'd expected—expected, and shouted at Vader about, his terror for his droid tearing out of him and shooting across their bond like butterfly knives, with no response—but the frank, clinical delivery almost hurt. "If this is what you wanted to speak to me about, Generals, I didn't see anything or anyone. I was in the turbolift until a few minutes before I entered my bunkroom—two techs saw me there."
"They've already vouched for you, Skywalker," Mothma said gently. "They said you seemed quite upset. Understandable."
Luke swallowed.
"But that's not why we wished to speak with you," she continued. Dodonna hovered behind her, too restless to sit, apparently, but Rieekan leaned in closer at the words. "With your droid's sabotage, this is something else that has happened in close proximity to Leia or Lando Calrissian. You know that they were both our primary suspects before, simply due to potential corruption by Vader."
"It's not either of them," Luke said weakly.
"I'm aware of your theory about the droids. It may be a droid. But there is no reason a random droid would have Leia's codes." She looked at Rieekan, who nodded. "We simply want your opinion on whether Leia or Lando have been acting suspiciously recently."
"They haven't."
"Your loyalty is admirable, but—"
"They haven't," Luke insisted. And then—he made a decision.
His droid was deactivated. His friends were in danger. He had to mitigate the risk.
He closed his eyes to keep from crying. "But I might've been."
The atmosphere in the room stilled. Dodonna stopped pacing. Sat down.
"Skywalker?" Mothma prompted. "What does that mean?"
Luke sighed. Opened his eyes. Then opened his mouth.
"You wanted to know anything that we might've left out of the reports on Bespin," he said. "The only thing left out was left out by me. I went to fight Vader. I escaped the carbonite. We fought, I struck him and angered him, he cut off my hand in retaliation, essentially ending the fight. He told me to join him, or I would be destroyed."
"And then you let go and fell," Mothma finished.
"One more thing happened before that," Luke corrected, his mouth curving into a humourless smile. "He was trying to convince me to join him. He said—and I could feel it was true through the Force, which is the worst part—he said…"
"He told you that he was your father."
Luke's hands spasmed into fists; he jerked back as though he'd been slapped, his eyes crunched shut. Then he took a deep breath and focused on Senator Mothma: her red hair, open, intent face. It was not a face devoid of sympathy.
Rieekan and Dodonna's were—though they were mostly shocked—but he didn't look at them. He kept looking at her. "He told me he was my father," he confirmed. And: "You knew?"
"It was a secret Bail trusted me with a long time ago, that Darth Vader used to be Anakin Skywalker," she said. "When you came to us, I did not know if you already knew or not."
"I didn't!" he insisted. "I didn't know until— until after he'd cut off my hand." That hand balled into a fist again. "But something about the knowledge created… something. The Force is strange. I can still communicate with Ben Kenobi—I've told you that before—through telepathy. I can hear Vader's voice in my head in the same way, though I've always ignored it. It wasn't until you gave your theory on what happened to Leia that I thought about what this could mean."
"You," Dodonna said, staring, "are Vader's son." The disgust in his voice made Luke ill.
"Yes," he whispered. And, before Rieekan could form his growing fury into another gut punch, he continued—"I don't know if this is the explanation, I don't know if this is completely unrelated. I don't have any memory of being controlled; that could be part of the control. But if Vader is using the bond between us to… puppet… me, I could have stolen Leia's codes. She trusts me; I could have got close enough. I'm a pilot, and I need to know coordinates, so I'd have known them and been able to transmit them. I've been to the engine room for extra assistance when the mechanics were overworked. And I could have deactivated my own droid if Artoo realised what I was doing."
"Skywalker, if you and Vader can communicate via the Force, why would he need you to steal Leia's codes in order to transmit the coordinates?" Mothma interjected. That was the only thing that seemed to stop Dodonna from reaching over the table between them and strangling him. "He could have had you send him the coordinates through your mental link, and we would be none the wiser. There would be no need to sabotage the engines, as we would not have tried to leave."
Luke swallowed. "I don't know," he confessed. "But I think it's the most plausible theory so far."
"You don't believe in your own ideas about the droids?"
"I think it's the more plausible theory so far," he repeated. "And if there's the tiniest chance I'm the problem, you need to lock me up. I need you to lock me up, so I can't threaten any of them."
Rieekan studied him again, his anger fading slightly. His tone still shook with it, but Luke had to appreciate the frank respect he was showing as well. "We'll lock you up, Skywalker," he assured him. "You know that you're a threat no matter what."
"I know."
"This cannot get out," he warned. "You should have told us in your report."
"I— I couldn't—"
"You should've. At least it's only been a week." He passed a hand in front of his face, then turned to Mothma. "We can't let it get out that Skywalker is Vader's kid, and we definitely can't let it get out that we've locked him up."
"The hit to morale would indeed be catastrophic."
"We have the private cells," Dodonna interrupted. "We've always had one or two private cells for the imprisonment of more contentious prisoners. Skywalker can spend some time in there until we figure out what the hell is going on. Maybe his father will end up killing us all and releasing him."
Luke flinched.
But when they put him in the cell, a soundproof box under the bridge, the guards droids sworn to secrecy, he felt a great weight roll off his shoulders. Relief flooded him, like when he'd reached home just before a sandstorm hit. Everything might be alien, it might be impossible to know who to trust, but at least here everyone else was safe from him.
He sat down cross-legged on the floor and leaned against the wall. They've imprisoned me, he thought loudly. I told them the truth. You can't use me to sabotage them all anymore. They know.
What they do or don't know is irrelevant, came the answer. I am glad to know they have rejected you. You should never have been with them in the first place.
They haven't—
And it is good to know that you will be in a cell, away from danger, when I arrive with my forces. We can take the ship without fear for damaging you, then.
You can't take the ship. They'll be gone before you get here, and—
I still have my sources on board, Luke. Do not fear. This will not impact my plans. A pause, as if he was savouring Luke's horror. We will see each other very soon.
Home had been a mirage on the horizon. His relief fled, and the sandstorm closed in.
"Bantha shit," Leia said, staring at Mon. "You can't tell me you believed that."
Mon steepled her fingers and tried very hard not to look stressed. "I can vouch for Commander Skywalker's claims. Darth Vader is indeed Anakin Skywalker."
"Says who!?"
"Your father, Leia. He was the one who told me."
Leia opened her mouth. Closed it again. Clenched her jaw. "Are you sure he was correct in this?"
"Commander Skywalker says that he is sure of it. The Force rings of truth."
"Whatever that means," Leia said bitterly. "There's no way Luke could've done it—for the same reason I couldn't have done it. We've been together for days, we've barely let each other out of our sight. I'd have noticed if Luke stole my codes and snuck off to transmit our coordinates."
"There is always the possibility that the both of you are corrupted."
Leia gaped. "That's absurd!"
"It is." Mon pinched the bridge of her nose. "Even I have to admit that. But Commander Skywalker will remain in the detention level. It's High Command's detention level, if you're concerned. We don't want this getting out."
"Obviously! This is ridiculous. It would destroy any faith people have in this council's decision-making capabilities!" Leia threw her hands up, rocking back in her chair. When Mon had asked her to come in to talk with her about something, she hadn't expected this. "And as you said—why would he have needed to transmit the coordinates if he could just send them to Vader through the Force?"
"Leia."
"Commander Skywalker isn't guilty at all, it's impossible—"
"Leia."
"—and you're gonna imprison one of our best soldiers at a time like—"
"Leia!" Mon raised her voice, which she rarely did. "I do not think Commander Skywalker is guilty either. But he thinks himself guilty."
Leia quietened, her heart pounding. "He does?"
"He hears Vader's voice in his head constantly," Mon said gently. "I am not indifferent to the suffering of survivors of horrible events such as this. He is convinced that he is a threat. By imprisoning him—imprisoning him and treating him well, specifically—not only do we forestall other members of High Command getting nervous that Vader's son is walking around our ship, but it calms his own nerves. He was convinced that he could be harming the Alliance. Harming you."
She stared at Mon. Her expression was deadly serious. Leia could see her logic, but—"So, you're not gonna let him out until we know for sure he didn't do it. Until he knows for sure."
"Yes."
"Mon—"
"I am reinstating your powers as a member of High Command, Leia," Mon said. "If you want to save your friend, and the rest of us, you need to find the real spy."
Leia nodded—slowly, then more quickly. "I'll find them," she swore. First… "I need to round up all the karking droids on this ship."
"The mouse droids?" Mon's scepticism was audible.
"No. All the droids. Luke was right that they have the best chance of access—and of deactivating Artoo."
"Then hurry," Mon said. "Time is running out."
"How much do we have left?"
The ship rocked. Something squeezed Leia's mind like a vice—a darkness sweeping over her, as physical as it was metaphysical. Leia's comlink buzzed: emergency message after emergency message after—
"It would seem," Mon said, preternaturally calmly, "none."
From the bridge, the Executor was even more terrifying than it had been from the medbay. Leia's mouth went dry.
"Scramble our fighters!" Dodonna roared. TIEs shrieked past them, close enough that Leia, standing on the bridge, had the urge to duck. Fire rained against their shields; Leia watched them sputter and fade. "Get them out there!"
But even as the X-wings roared out, one thing caught Leia's eye against the black velvet backdrop of space: a single, ivory ship.
"That's Vader coming," she said, heart racing. More were emptying out of the Executor's belly: more darts, more ships the colour of bone, racing for them. "They've got a boarding party."
"Shoot them down!" Dodonna roared. The officers leapt to action and the guns blazed to life.
But still Vader's ship drew inexorably closer.
Luke felt the ship shudder; his stomach shuddered with it. That terrible feeling had only grown until he felt almost ready to vomit from the intensity of it. They were under attack. They were under attack, and it had to be—
Soon, Luke, his father promised. You have nothing to fear.
Luke shouted and shouted and shouted. The droid guards around the corner didn't react, as far as he could hear. But another droid did.
"Master Luke? Master Luke! Oh, I am ever so glad to see you alive!"
"Threepio!" He surged to the front of the cell and reached through the bars. "What's happening? Are we under attack?"
"Lord Vader has caught up to us! He is engaged in a boarding party as we speak! The fighters have been scrambled, but—"
"You need to get me out of here, Threepio!" Luke shoved at the door. "I need to help!"
"That's why I'm here, Master Luke! I have been ordered to escort you to safety." Threepio waved a code cylinder against the door; it beeped and popped open. Luke ducked out of the cell immediately and was halfway down the corridor in a heartbeat.
"Wait! Master Luke! Wait!"
Luke did not wait. Threepio ran after him, but panic had seized him, and there was no slowing down. He raced around the corner, past the guard droid—the guard droid who looked suspiciously non-operational—and around another corner, to where he remembered the door to the detention level to be. He skidded to a halt in front of it, panting—then abruptly realised he didn't have the key to unlock it. Threepio did.
But that didn't matter, because there were people coming. Luke's heart hammered; he backed away as the door hissed open.
"—can't believe they actually locked Skywalker up."
"Yeah, you'd think traitors and terrorists would stick together."
"I dunno, it's good to know they have standards—"
The last trooper broke off when he saw Luke, slowly backing away, and raised his blaster. Luke dived out of the way of the stun bolt that came shooting for him, but the second one was better aimed. These weren't just any stormtroopers. They had the pauldrons of the 501st, and the second shot soaked right through him.
He was insensible for less than a minute, but it was enough. When the world shivered back into focus, he was on his knees, hands snapped in a pair of binders behind him. Luke panicked and surged to his feet, yanking away, but the stormtroopers seized his shoulders. He couldn't move.
"Master Luke! Master Luke! Wait, you must— oh my." Luke twisted around to see Threepio standing in the door, having finally caught up. The code cylinder dangled from his hand. "Is this really necessary, sirs?"
"You've done your part, droid, now do us all a favour and shut up. He'll be fine."
"Very well. As long as Master Vader is pleased." Threepio trotted up to beside Luke. His demeanour was totally unchanged, despite the sudden and violent rage Luke felt towards him; he tilted his head as he always did when he was very satisfied with himself. "You must be so excited to see him again, Master Luke!"
"Threepio?" Luke asked, his voice a guttural cry.
"What is wrong, Master Luke?" Threepio stepped towards him, fussing as ever, but a trooper swore and waved him back. "How rude. Master Luke, would you like a politer escort? Your father gave clear instructions that you were to be respected and uninjured—"
"My father?"
"The Maker, yes." Threepio would have beamed, had he been human. "Master Ani."
Vader met them on the bridge when the slaughter was done. The moment stormtroopers had stormed through the doors, two had shot straight for Leia: she beat them back with her own blaster, but the numbing edge of a stun blast had sent her face into the floor. When she woke, she was caught in binders, and a monster was staring down at her.
"Vader," she spat.
He looked at her more intently than he ever had. "Leia," he said.
He turned away, to where Mon was still on her feet and lifting her chin against the indignity of being held captive at blasterpoint. He loomed over her. "Senator Mothma. Your folly seems to know no bounds."
"Your cruelty is ever more boundless, Vader," she murmured. "We've erased all files on board, all information. Even if you kill every last one of us, you will not find our allies. This Alliance cannot be killed."
"Would that I cared about your allies."
She pinched her lips. "This is an execution of High Command, then?"
"I have no interest in killing you. Yet. For now, you face the fate of imprisonment, as you saw fit to bestow it on my son."
Leia's lip curled back from her teeth. Vader seemed to notice—tossed her a brief look—but he seemed strangely proud, proud and satisfied, as he returned his gaze to Mothma.
"I thank you for it," he said. "It made this invasion much simpler. And will do the same for his turn to the dark side."
"I imprisoned Commander Skywalker because I trusted his judgement. Something tells me you will not do the same."
Vader seized her fragile throat in one hand, like he'd done to Captain Antilles. A whimper fled Leia's mouth.
"You know nothing about my family," he hissed. "You will be confined to your own brig, as you confined him, and if you act up, or if either of my children defy me, all of your surviving Rebel compatriots will die there when I bombard it into naught but ash and flame."
A quiet chuckle escaped Mon. "Children, then? I suspected. She looks so much like Pad—"
Vader struck Mon hard enough to knock her out. She slumped back into the arms of the troopers holding her, who muttered acerbic remarks. He turned back to Leia.
"A brig is a preferable place to your company, Lord Vader," she informed him.
"You will be disappointed then, Leia," he said, again having the audacity to use her given name. "Take her to the shuttle."
Leia didn't have a chance to demand answers before she was dragged away.
"Luke!" Leia's voice made him look up from his dull seat, straining against his restraints. No luck there. "Luke— Threepio?"
"Mistress Leia!" Threepio said happily. "I am thrilled to see you joining us. Master Vader—"
"Master Vader?" Leia spat. The troopers wrestled her into the seat opposite Luke on the shuttle, strapping her in. "What the hells—"
"Did you know that when Vader was nine years old, he built Threepio?" Luke asked, voice shaking. "He was Vader's droid, and then Vader's wife's droid, for years. When your father received him, he wiped his memory."
Leia still looked baffled, but her lips formed a round oh. "Threepio went missing on Cloud City," she said.
Luke nodded tightly. "Vader found him."
"All this time, it was Threepio?"
"Acting on my orders." Vader's bulk and presence filled the entire ship. Luke shuddered, his right hand clenching instinctively. The way Leia cowered away hurt his heart. "This is the family he should be serving. Not the Organas. Not the Rebellion. I am going to reclaim him and bring him home." He surveyed them. "As I will the both of you."
"The hell you will."
"The both of us?"
"Your father stole Threepio and Artoo from my dying wife." Luke glanced sideways at his friend, newly reactivated, bound in the corner and raging. He was irrationally terrified that the moment Artoo got the whole story, he would betray them all for Vader as well. Had he had his memory wiped as well? Had he known the truth all along? "They were not the only thing he stole."
Leia said, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Set a course for Mustafar," Vader ordered the pilot, who saluted and strode into the shuttle cockpit. It seemed they weren't going back to the Executor, after all. "There is a great deal to inform you of. Soon, you will change your mind."
"I highly doubt that."
"Do not be so certain, Leia. Luke." He stood between them and had the nerve to reach for their hands. They could not stop him from seizing them in his durasteel grip. "You are both coming home."