Vader stared at his son.
It appeared that he had finally accomplished what he had spent space knew how long trying to do...
And now he wanted to undo it.
He had somehow managed to cling to the darkness after Palpatine's death, but now...
Now—he realized he was free.
No longer did that large and suffocating shadow hang over him. He could finally breathe...But it had taken the reappearance of his Padmé to remind him of that.
His Padmé...
The woman who had borne him his son...and his daughter.
His son, whose blue eyes were filled with a great hatred that Vader had instilled, and his daughter, whose brown eyes were looking upon her sibling with a great horror because of what Vader had done.
Love for his family finally spread freely throughout his body, but he suddenly realized that a hint of the darkness Palpatine had introduced him so many years ago still stubbornly clung to his soul.
His emotions began to struggle, but the Light Side was beginning to win. To be free...
To have freedom...
But to get that freedom he knew he would have to help his son receive it as well. They could work through this together...His son was strong.
And he had one last card to play.
Darth Evenger felt the Force flare out briefly from his father, and his harsh blue eyes stared accusingly. "What are you doing?" he hissed.
Vader answered, "Undoing something I never should have done."
His eyes clouded, Luke noted that a secret compartment had just opened in his father's confusion-filled meditation room.
And out stepped Mara...
With a face that could've curdled Bantha milk.
"Vader, what in space did you think you were doing?" she hissed, glaring laser bolts.
A slight sense of bewilderment showing through his cloudy sapphire eyes, Evenger spoke, "What are you talking about?"
"Shut up, Skywalker."
"Do not call me that—" the young man gritted.
"What you do not know," the man in dark armor proceeded to explain, "is that Palpatine did more to your mind than you ever knew, Jade. He placed a sort of emergency Force button in your mind that would automatically turn you to our side should you choose to wander from your chosen course. It is almost like the slave device of a ship, instantly placing you in servant mode. I just removed it from your mind, Jade...She never abandoned you, Luke."
"I am no longer to be called by that name!" Evenger spat.
Watching Solo rub his neck, Padmé spoke up, "It is the name that belongs to you. You cannot forsake it."
"I already have."
"So, that's it?" Han was beginning to get worked up. "You managed to reject Palpatine's and Vader's offer before, but now you've given in? Kid, what could Vader have done without the Emperor that would have ensnared you more effectively?"
Blue eyes hesitated, glancing briefly to meet green ones.
Softly, Leia said, "All of your friends are here. There is nothing for you on the other side. What is it you want?"
He swallowed just perceptibly, taking in all of his tired-looking friends. Artoo whistled mournfully and was comforted by Threepio.
"The Empire is in shambles, farmboy," Mara whispered. "Even I know that."
"But it can be resurrected—" Evenger protested.
"No, Son. A new era has begun. I am only sorry it took me so long to discover that," Anakin spoke sorrowfully.
The redhead walked over to the torn blonde. Staring him straight in the eyes, she told him earnestly, "Let's go back home."
For a long moment, the young man steadily met Mara Jade's gaze.
And then he ran.
Every fiber in his soul was straining as he pushed his muscles to their full potential and fled. The ragged hole in the wall took him away from his family, away from Mara, away from the Light, away from the Dark...and away from his life.
Thoughts of the Force and of the Empire and the Republic had left his mind. He had only one focus.
To get away.
He didn't hear the desperate pleas of his companions as they attempted to follow him, and he barely saw the metallic walls of the halls he passed through.
He didn't know who he was anymore, and, at the moment, he didn't care. Somehow, his feet brought him to the hangar bay, and, after a quick scan of the ships, he chose a nearby H'tis fighter. He sent the clearance code soon after he prepared the fighter for take-off. As the ship rose up and shot out of the bay, he didn't notice that another fighter was following him.
He needed to get far enough away from the Super-Class Star Destroyer so he could go into hyperspace. He was so focused on doing so that his danger sense didn't warn him of the fighter on his tail until his ship had shivered and groaned and a brilliant laser flash had spread throughout his vision. Muttering unintelligibly, the young man swerved, the other fighter fluidly matching his moves.
He twisted the stick to and fro, but the other ship was persistent, and, as he had a flashback to Myrkr, he realized who his assailant was.
Space take it all! he growled inwardly, pulling a 360 degree turn. But Mara was right behind him, her laser cannons frantically spitting bolts as she aimed for a disabling blow.
He would not allow himself to be stranded out in space again and 'rescued' by her.
Dark feelings were unleashed deep within him, and he soon became the predator, firing away at Jade's fighter. But she was skilled, evading his blows and matching him maneuver for maneuver.
Luke, he heard a deep voice call in his head. In that moment of hesitation, Mara got him.
His head was jerked around as his fighter convulsed, and the ship's alarms flashed blindingly in his eyes and rang deafeningly in his ears, shouting without words: Your engines are gone!
The young man's world blurred, but familiar faces appeared in his mind. He tried to reach out for them, but they dispersed, and he was left only with darkness.
You are Darth Evenger, a voice hissed in his ear.
No. You never were. Come back, Luke, a different voice entreated him.
"I...I can't. It's too late," he whispered.
It's never too late, the second voice tried to assure him.
The other voice snarled, You are a child of the Darkness, Evenger. It is your destiny.
You are a child of the Light, the second voice countered. Love made you, and love will save you. You can control your own destiny. The Darkness holds nothing for you, Luke.
"But...how do I return?" Luke rasped, throat dry.
Reach out, Luke. Reach out for the Light. The Light will spread throughout the Darkness and purify you. Do not let the Darkness consume you anymore.
But darkness did consume him as he disappeared from the world of consciousness.
A new voice called to him distantly. Luke...Luke!
Why would anyone want to talk to him? Besides, he was fine as he was. He felt no pain.
Luke! the voice became more urgent.
What?
Kid, come back.
Why? He liked it here.
Please, Luke.
Please...That was a kind word. Kind...What was kind again?
Luke, come on, please.
He liked kind, didn't he?
Farmboy...
Farmboy. That sounded familiar. Was he a...farmboy?
You can't ignore us forever.
Sure he could. Couldn't he?...Should he?
Farmboy, we...The voice got quieter. We love you.
Love...That was a word which...He knew what love was, it was...it was kind...
Luke.
But there was pain in that world. If he went there, there would be pain...
But there would also be love.
Love...
He wanted love...
One of the voices got clearer, "I think he might be coming back to us."
Colors began to swirl in front of him as if someone were twisting a paintbrush around in a bucket of rainbow paint. His head throbbed, and he almost went back to that other place, the place without pain.
"Don't leave, farmboy," the voice pleaded.
The voice sounded...sad...He didn't want the voice to be sad...
He continued trying to escape from the darkness, and he soon found a salty taste in his mouth. The throbbing began again, but he gritted his teeth, and his eyes began to focus.
Caring faces slowly began to surround him, and, after a brown-headed petite form flung itself at him for an embrace, he groaned.
"Sorry, Luke," Leia whispered, hugging him tightly with closed eyes and then straightening up and backing a few steps away from her brother. She looked at Mara.
The redheaded woman knelt on the floor beside Luke, who was lying down on a cot. They were in the medbay of the Super-Class Star Destroyer. Mara tentatively took Luke's hand after he sat up, and she gazed into his pained blue eyes. "Farmboy...Don't you ever do that again."
The smile Luke cracked was small, but it was enough to get her to continue. "Blast, Skywalker, I was afraid we were going to lose you."
Luke looked down, disheartened, and spoke in a small voice, "I had lost myself."
"Skywalker..." When Luke didn't move, Mara finally ventured, "Luke..."
He finally lifted his quivering chin.
And it was then that Luke melted.
His eyes jammed shut and his chin was pulled down to his chest as if a magnet were forcing it, and he suddenly wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball on the cot and cry the day away.
After a moment of reluctance, Mara moved from her position on the floor to a seated spot on the edge of the cot, pulling Luke into her arms and rubbing his back comfortingly.
Sensing their need for privacy, all suddenly found other places to look. Padmé smiled understandingly at Anakin, Han grinned knowingly at Leia, and Artoo whistled cheerfully at Threepio.
Green eyes closed, Mara Jade finally let herself have a much-needed sigh of relief. Everything was going to be fine.
"I bet ten credits he'll ask her tonight."
"Tonight?" the other man asked questioningly. "Do you not think that is too soon?"
Han gave his famous scoundrel grin to his father-in-law, "You don't know Luke the way I do."
Anakin raised a just barely noticeable eyebrow, looking down at an old Jedi Master. "What do you think?"
"Difficult to see, the future is," Yoda said seriously. Then a slow grin spread across the green alien's face. "Know not do I if wait that long he can."
Obi-Wan chuckled, "You're right about that."
Anakin Skywalker smiled warmly, resisting the urge to reach up and run a hand across the newly growing fuzz on top of his head. Obi-Wan and Yoda had helped him heal nicely. A few more weeks, and he would be like his old self.
Well, at least, he'd be old...
Shaking his head slightly to himself, he reflected, Well, I've had my youth. Now I need to let my son have his.
It was a motley group that was sitting in anticipation at the Solo dinner table. Chewbacca was sitting at Han's side, Leia was sporting a secretive smile at her husband's other side, Threepio was denying to Artoo that anything of any importance was going to happen that night (after all, he was "made to understand human behavior"), three old Jedi Masters were exchanging knowing looks, and three young children were bouncing off the walls. The centers of all this madness were oblivious.
"Aunt Mara?" Jacen called the Master Trader's attention. "When are you and Uncle Luke gonna—ow!" he squealed as Jaina elbowed him.
"Be nice to your brother, Jaina, and eat your supper," Leia admonished with a twinkle in her eye.
Sticking her tongue out, the little girl began following Leia's instructions.
Chuckling, Yoda took a spoonful of his specially made 'soup à la swamp,' making a contented noise as he did so.
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes and then surveyed the different-colored orbs dancing in the faces around him. Han just might be right.
After dinner, they had gone to the living room and sent the kids off to bed. The tension in the air was suddenly thick, and Mara and Luke seemed to be the only ones who didn't feel it. Mara was laughing at some joke Luke had told when suddenly the whole room went still.
Luke was on the floor, on his knees...
Crawling around.
"Found it!" he exclaimed triumphantly, holding up the hairpin Mara had lost and forcing himself to his feet. The other room inhabitants let out the air they had been holding, making faces at each other.
Leaning down, Anakin whispered to Han, who was diagonal from him, "I may yet collect that bet."
"Just wait," Han murmured.
Luke grinned over at Mara, speaking through the Force. Think we should tell them now?
I dunno, she returned. I like watching them squirm.
Shaking his head, he finally stood up, his eyes sparkling mischievously. "Mara and I are going to—"
Breaths caught in their throats, the onlookers...looked on.
"—complete her training," Luke finished, getting sour glances from more yet again disappointed relatives and friends. "But that will be...after our wedding."
Han's jaw nearly dropped to the floor. Smirking, Anakin Skywalker held out his hand, "I believe that is ten credits you owe me, Solo."
"But—" he groaned, "that's not fair!"
"Even a Corellian can't determine the odds when it comes to Jedi," Leia said with a grin.
Chewbacca gave a deep Wookiee laugh.
Crossing his arms, Han slouched back against the couch, his mood not improved by Yoda's words of wisdom: "To a Corellian, the odds tell you should not, but never presume to think that knowledge of Jedi you have got."