Burnt Leaves

It was a dark and stormy night. That was a line he'd heard in a lot of stories when he was a kid, it sounded catchy, but the real thing left much to be desired, especially if you were caught out in it.

Luke Skywalker coughed hard and wrapped his arms even tighter around himself as he futilely tried to curl into a tighter ball to get warm. He was soaking wet and his nose was assaulted by several combined odors of wet rain and burnt remains. After getting lost in the storm, he'd sought refuge in a small cave, the only thing that actually kept the rain off of him was when the wind chose to blow the other way. He'd found a dry spot to build a fire and fed it with whatever he'd been able to find; pieces of wood, blades of dry grass, fruit cores, and leaves, so many, different sizes, different shapes, all different colors, it was something he had never seen before. They'd all burnt, not big, not for long, it put out more of an acrid smell than actual heat. It was a different smell than the burnt ozone from a blaster shot, it was like nothing he'd ever known before, and he could only wonder if the rain made the smell worse, like the old stereotype on Tatooine about the smell of a wet bantha, it was more of an expression than anything because there wasn't enough water for it to happen regularly.

He didn't have any idea what planet he was on, he didn't know anything about the place when he made his emergency landing, but he'd quickly found out. Apparently it was a planet that had changing seasons. Where once the grass had been green and rich, most of it had turned brown and shriveled into sticks. The trees he'd seen, had originally had big green leaves, but they had turned to various colors, some were still in the process of turning and they were also in the process of falling off the trees.

Another conclusion he'd drawn is that there had to be some form of life on this planet. Something or something had taken large orange gourds and carved faces in them, they were scattered and strewn and smashed all along the ground. But he'd found no signs of life tonight, just miles and miles of dead grass and piles of multi-colored, dead, crumpling leaves, some he tripped and fell in up to his waist.

How had he even gotten here? He didn't know, all he knew was he had to wait until the storm ended, or the sun came up, whichever occurred first, to find out why his X-wing had malfunctioned, so he could get out of here. He had to get back to Tatooine. He had to.

Luke felt his body trembling from the cold, he had no idea how many hours it was until morning, but somewhere in the back of his mind he had a strong feeling that he wasn't going to last that long.

Help, he thought in the recesses of his mind, wishing somebody could actually hear, somebody please help me.

He curled his nose at the acrid odor of burnt leaves and wood and the cold wet dirt, he wished that sleep would take him, but for the first time in a long time he was truly starting to feel that all luck had run out for him.


Help, somebody please help me.

"Luke?"

It seemed a strange request from the same nerf headed boy who chose to throw himself off the gantry and very likely chance killing himself rather than join his father. But the message rang loud and clear in Darth Vader's mind like a warning klaxon. Wherever Luke was, something was wrong.

Vader tried to communicate with his son through their bond in the Force to find out what was going on, but there was no further response, just that meager plea for help.

He tried using the Force to search his son's feelings and get any kind of reading on his whereabouts. A strange planet where the weather was cold and rainy, the vegetation was dead and dormant for the season. A planet where before the rain had started, there had been a full moon, a large moon that had glowed bright yellow before turning blood red.

"I have you now," Vader said, more to himself than to his son.

He took his private shuttle and flew to a neighboring planet in the system. All too easy, his son had practically come right to him.

As his shuttle prepared to land, he could make out another ship down below, Luke's X-wing. He was here. But he wasn't with the ship.

Luke, where are you?

All he got in answer was a sound of chattered moaning and a heavy sensation of misery, but he could feel the boy's presence close by.

The torrential weather conditions would've made it nearly impossible for anyone else flying into the atmosphere at that time. Once the shuttle touched down, Vader was aware of a high pitched wailing sound the wind was making outside, as if it were a living thing.

Banshees, that was the term he'd always heard to describe such a sound. He'd never seen one, he doubted anybody ever had, but there didn't seem to be anymore fitting word to apply to a howling scream like that.

Wherever Luke was, he wouldn't be able to hear his father, and it seemed wherever he was, he hadn't seen the shuttle. But the Force told him his son was somewhere nearby. He tried again to reach his son, and he was able to get a reading of Luke's location.

The dark lord exited his shuttle and was met with pouring rain, howling winds, crashing thunder, blinding lightning. His life support suit was made to withstand any damage from the elements, small favors. Luke's presence in the Force was practically calling out to him like a homing beacon. He followed the sensation until he came to a small cave. He crouched down and looked inside, a small fire just past the entrance had died out, and beyond that, curled in a tight ball, shivering with the cold, dressed in his flight suit.

"Luke."


Luke was cold. He was cold, but he wasn't curled on his side anymore, he was laying flat on his back. That was strange. Also strange was the fact he couldn't hear the rain anymore. He couldn't feel the rain anymore either. He couldn't smell that combined wet/burnt odor anymore. But he was still so cold. He tried shivering but it didn't really work. He felt like he was pinned in place. He felt like something was hugging him. Something...or someone?

He opened his eyes and was met with the sight of a darkened med bay, not one of the Alliance's either, it had to be an Imperial bay, even in the dark he could tell everything was a sterile gray. He looked around, but he didn't see anyone, not even a medic droid on duty. He was laying on a bed in the bay covered with a blanket, he moved to sit up and try to figure out where he was, but he froze and his eyes widened in panic. He couldn't move.

The first thought in his mind was that somehow he must've been paralyzed, but craning his neck down, he saw he'd been strapped to the bed.

"What the-"

The door to the bay whooshed open and Luke looked up and felt icy chills running through his body as he saw Darth Vader enter the room. He struggled against the restraints but to no avail.

"Be quiet," the dark lord told him as he stepped over towards the young Jedi, "as far as the people on this ship know, the bay is empty tonight."

It didn't stop Luke from trying to wriggle loose, though he wasn't getting anywhere. "What...what...how did you find me?"

"Like I said before," Vader told him, "I am your father."

"No," Luke shook his head and groaned, "It's not true, it can't be true!"

"We have already had that discussion once," Vader told him, a sound resembling a growl emitting through his voice modulator, "you know it to be true."

"But it can't be!" Luke insisted.

Luke felt something finally give way, he was able to pull his prosthetic hand loose from under the restraint, and he pulled it out from the blanket and held it up. "You'd do this to your own son?"

"That was unfortunate," Vader answered dismissively.

"Unfortunate!"

Hush!

Luke wasn't sure if he'd actually heard the word, or just felt it in his brain, but it gave him a cold feeling inside his temples.

"Why would you do that to your own son?"

"To stop you," Vader said simply. "You refused to listen to me, you were too busy trying to destroy me."

"So you cut off my hand?!" Luke demanded to know.

Maybe it was his imagination but it looked like the tinted lenses of Vader's mask looked towards the floor for a second before the dark lord answered, "I regret that, but if you had proper training, you would know it is standard procedure to end a conflict."

"Proper training...as a Jedi, or a sith?" Luke asked accusingly.

"There truly is a thin line between the two, young one," Vader told him, "the difference is one trains you to be weak, the other offers you power unimaginable."

"Power?" Luke spat in disbelief, then his eyes widened as another realization set in when he felt the sheet under him brush his skin, "Where are my clothes?"

"They were soaking wet, you can't wear them," Vader told him.

The non-answer aside, Luke felt a new and chilling sense of panic as he demanded to know, "Where are my clothes?"

There was something else weighing heavily on his mind at that moment, and apparently it was too much for him to shield from the dark lord.

"You're looking for this?"

Luke felt his jaw drop when he saw Vader produce a green kyber crystal between his glove clad fingers.

"No!" he threw himself back against the bed, still futilely writhing under the restraints, "Please!"

"So..." the word hung in the air like an omen. Darth Vader looked down at him and said, even through his vocoder managing a tone of suspicion, "You seek to build a new light saber."

Luke swallowed a lump in his throat and flopped back against the pillow as he admitted in defeat, "Yes."

Vader gazed at the crystal held between his leather clad thumb and index finger. The silence in the room was heavy, if there had been any doubt, this confirmed that the Rebel lieutenant was truly unarmed and had no means of defense against the man in black.

"So you seek to destroy me."

The words caught Luke off guard and he just stared at Vader for a moment in a shocked silence.

"I...no..."

The answer seemed to surprise both men.

"If what you say is true," Luke started to say.

"I have no reason to lie, you know that," Vader pointed out.

Luke nodded reluctantly.

"If you really are my father...I...no, I don't want to destroy you, but I won't join you either, not even to defeat the emperor."

Aside from the mechanical breathing of Darth Vader's respirator, the man was silent for a moment as he contemplated this. He looked to the crystal again and told Luke, "So explain this."

"I need it," Luke said through gritted teeth as he struggled against the straps again. "I need it to-"

"To what?" Vader asked.

"I need it to save my friend!"

There was another silence in the room, heavier than before.

"Explain," Vader said.

"Han Solo, the one you turned over to the bounty hunters and had carbon frozen," Luke said. "Jabba the Hutt has him and I have to save Han from him."

"What do you know about Jabba the Hutt?"

"I know enough, I spent my whole life on Tatooine," Luke said.

"Tatooine?"

Even through the modulator, that word seemed to strike a nerve in the dark lord.

Luke nodded.

"You..." the word seemed to stick in Darth Vader's vocoder. "You were raised on Tatooine?"

Luke nodded again, cluelessly.

"Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru raised me...they said you were a navigator on a spice freighter...I never knew the truth until Ben told me."

"Who?"

"Ben Kenobi."

"Obi-Wan."

The way Vader said the name seemed to fill the room with an arctic chill.

Luke nodded, "Yeah, he said that used to be his name."

"It was."

"He said you killed my father. Why...why would he tell me that? He had to know who you really are, right?" Luke was suddenly thinking of things he'd never really thought to question before, not to the extent he was anyway. "Why wouldn't he tell me the truth?"

"Obi-Wan was a fool," Vader said. "He betrayed us both."

"How'd he betray you?" Luke asked.

"He threw me into a pit of molten lava and left me to die."

"Ben?" Luke's eyes widened to their full capacity. "No, he couldn't, he..."

Vader took two steps towards the bed and towered over Luke, he bent over and grabbed the boy hard, Luke grimaced under his touch, but after a few seconds he realized Vader wasn't attacking him, wasn't trying to kill him, wasn't harming him...he couldn't figure out what the man was doing then, but then he realized what it was he was feeling. Under the leather, there was the rough sensation of durasteel.

Prosthetics.

Prosthetic hands.

Not only that.

Prosthetic arms.

"Father," Luke about choked on the word as he realized just what it all meant.

The two durasteel hands grabbed his remaining flesh one under the blanket.

"Believe me, Luke, I do understand what I put you through, and I do regret it," Vader told him. "But as I said, it was necessary."

Luke felt like his brain was frozen.

"I don't understand," he said helplessly. "I don't understand any of this."

"Neither do I," Vader said, surprising Luke. "Obi-Wan hid you from me, but he didn't raise you?"

Luke shook his head. "He was just a nice old hermit we knew, Uncle Owen didn't want me hanging around him." He felt a rock in his stomach as he fully understood now just why that was.

"Owen? Owen Lars?"

Luke nodded. "He really was your brother?"

"Not by blood," Vader answered. "We had very few encounters with one another. Why would Obi-Wan give you to him?"

Luke tried to shrug his shoulders but could only manage one.

"Why am I tied up?" he asked. "You know I'm unarmed."

"So you won't try to escape."

Luke shot him a cynical look. "I don't have any clothes. Do you have any idea how cold it is out there? I'd die before I got back to..."

"Your X-wing."

"You knew about that," Luke said in mild disbelief.

"I saw it when I landed," Vader answered.

Luke was tempted to ask where it was but he remembered it wouldn't do any good, if Vader had him, he was his prisoner now.

"Why did you come here?" Vader asked.

Luke pursed his lips together as he debated whether he should tell him or not.

"I had to make an unexpected landing, I started having problems with the controls of the ship, I was going to try and get it fixed, but then the storm started...it got dark real quick and the rain came down so hard I couldn't see...I just...stumbled through in the storm for the longest time until I found that cave."

"What were you doing in this system?" Vader wanted to know.

Luke nodded to the crystal he was holding.

"I need a new light saber, I found a planet where the kyber crystals grow, and I was heading back to Tatooine when I started having trouble," Luke said.

He didn't know why he said it, but the next words out of his mouth as he stared at the green crystal were, "I wanted to find a blue one, to make another like your...your original light saber...but I couldn't find one."

He raised his head and looked up at Darth Vader and said, "I don't want to fight you...and I don't really care if I get killed...I've already lost so many people who meant anything to me, but if you're going to hand me over to the emperor, can I just save Han from Jabba first?"

"Why is this so important to you?" Vader inquired.

"Because he's my friend...he's one of my only friends," Luke said. "He saved my life more than once. He's the closest friend I have...I don't expect you to understand...when I went to Cloud City I was trying to save them, but I failed...if I'm going to die I want to at least redeem myself to Han first."

"You would really be willing to give up your life in exchange for your friends?" Vader seemed surprised.

Luke nodded. "Yes."

There was a brief silence in the room before the voice modulator seemed to bark back, "Foolish."

"I said you wouldn't understand," Luke replied. "Right now this is more important to me than anything. Let me save my friend, and I will turn myself over to you afterwards. Just leave them alone, please, it's me you want."

Vader didn't answer, Luke wondered if he was seriously considering it.

"What do you know about Jabba's palace?" the question surprised Luke.

"We have a friend there posing as one of the guards," Luke said. "I know there's a trap floor that leads straight down to a rancor pit, that's what happens to people who displease Jabba. I'm going to go in and give Jabba an ultimatum, either he lets us all go, or he will be destroyed."

"You know he won't agree to that," Vader said.

Luke nodded. "Hence why I need the light saber, but he won't be able to say that I didn't warn him."

Vader was silent for another moment before concluding, "This means a great deal to you."

"More than you could imagine," Luke replied. "He's been my family ever since Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were murdered, after you killed Ben. He..." it felt very weird to actually be discussing this with Darth Vader of all people, but given he wasn't going anywhere anyway and he didn't seem to be in any immediate danger, Luke couldn't see why not. "He acts like a tough guy, he pretends he's only out for himself and for money...but I know better...he saved my life during the dog fight when we blew up the Death Star...when we were on Hoth, he rode out after the base was locked down for the night to find me when I got attacked by a wampa, he kept me alive until help arrived. He's risked his life for me countless times. If I'm going to die I just want a clean conscience that I didn't turn my back on him after everything he's done for me."

There was another moment of silence, Luke wished he could get a reading on just what was going through his father's mind, but his shields were too strong.

"Why am I here?" he asked.

What he didn't say filled the room just as loud. Why a med bay instead of a detention cell?

"You're not going anywhere tonight," Vader said in lieu of an answer. He reached a hand out and lightly pressed Luke's forehead and pushed him back against the pillow. "Rest."

Luke looked at him curiously. What did that mean? What happened tomorrow? But the word seemed to echo in his mind and he felt his eyelids growing heavy and he lost the will to fight sleep.


"Luke, wake up."

"Hmm?" Luke's eyes fluttered open and it took a few seconds for him to remember where he was and what happened. He was still in the med bay, but the room wasn't as dark now. Vader was standing over him. Without even touching him, Luke felt the straps holding him to the bed come undone.

"What's going on?" he asked, still not quite awake.

As his eyes started to focus he saw something else. Vader dropped something across the foot of the bay bed. It was a set of clothes, pure black.

"Put them on."

He didn't need to be told twice. However as he hurriedly got dressed, he couldn't help noticing how well they fit him.

"Where...where did these come from?" he found himself asking as he pulled on the boots.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he remembered Leia's comment when they first met about being too short for a Stormtrooper, and from what he'd seen of the Imperial officers, it wasn't likely he could pass for one of them either.

"That is irrelevant," Vader told him.

Luke felt his fingers fumbling with the laces and forced himself to focus. His heart was racing and his head felt like it was spinning, he had no idea what was going on, what was happening.

And it didn't get any less confusing when he turned to Vader and saw the black gloved hand outstretched with the green crystal resting in the palm of it. It took a few seconds but his brain finally registered what was happening.

"Thank you," he said as he took the crystal and put it in his pocket.

"Don't thank me," Vader told him. "I'm not doing you any favors, this is merely a stay of execution for you to get your 'final affairs' in order to save your friend. Make no mistake, you can't escape your destiny, we will meet again, and when we do, you will either turn to the Dark side, or you will be destroyed by it."

Luke nodded. "I know."

Through the corner of his eye he noticed there was an article of clothing still laying on the bed. A pair of black gloves. He put them on, the one on his flesh hand felt tight and uncomfortable, on his prosthetic, it didn't really matter. He peeled off the left glove and left it where it was.

"What do you know about Jabba the Hutt's sarlacc pit?" Vader asked.

The question came out of nowhere and Luke's mind went blank.

"Huh?"

"At the Dune Sea, there's the Pit of Carkoon, the sarlacc's nesting place. Should you manage to kill the rancor in Jabba's palace but fail to destroy him, you will be taken out there on his sand barge and fed to the sarlacc," Vader explained.

"I don't intend to fail to kill Jabba," Luke replied.

"Nobody does," Vader pointed out. "Jabba knows about the Force, he knows about the Jedi order, he will take precautions to prevent you from carrying out your plans."

For some reason that sent an icy chill down Luke's back. "What precautions?"

"For one thing, you can forget using the Jedi mind tricks on Jabba, he is immune, though his guards may not be. For another, his guards keep special binders for the likes of you which are able to suppress your power in the Force, you would be a sitting quadduck."

Luke pressed his gloved hand against his mouth and nose as he considered this. He'd already been working out a plan for months to try and get Han back from Jabba, and with Lando's help from the inside he'd been trying to anticipate every possible obstacle they could be going up against, but he hadn't considered that possibility.

"So I'd have to have my light saber somewhere I could access it without using the Force and without anyone at the palace knowing," he realized, "I'd need it to cut through the binders."

"You may want to consider a decoy," Vader suggested. "Perhaps one of those droids from Cloud City."

"A decoy?" Luke thought about it. "Artoo, that could work." He blinked and asked, "If you think this is a dumb idea, why are you helping me?"

"I'm not helping you," Vader said. "I'm merely pointing out your options, what you choose to do with them is up to you. Follow me."

"Where're we going?" Luke asked as they left the med bay.

Vader guided him through a set of corridors leading to the boarding ramp of the flagship. Outside the storm had ended and the sky was changing from pitch black to a dark gray, it either was morning, or would be soon.

"I don't even remember where I landed," Luke admitted, "that storm..."

"This way," Vader told him.

"How did you find me?" Luke asked again as he all but ran to keep up with his father.

"I know this planet," Vader answered, "you would do well to avoid it in the future."

"Why?" Luke asked.

Strangely enough even Darth Vader of all people seemed to have a hard time explaining it.

"Do you know where you are?"

Luke shook his head.

"This is the planet Samhain, one of the mysteries of the universe," Vader told him. "A strange presence has always rested in the atmosphere of this planet. Even the emperor has never attempted to rule over it."

"The emperor's afraid of this place?" Luke asked, but he received no answer as his father grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him along.

"It is a siren planet," Vader said, "over the years it has lured in many pilots, most of whom were never seen again, ones who were, reported witnessing many strange and inexplicable things."

Luke saw his X-wing ahead, and it occurred to him that his father was rushing him towards it.

"I need to find out what's wrong with it," he said.

"Check the controls first," Vader told him.

Luke didn't get it whatsoever, but he climbed into the cockpit and went through the motions of preparing the ship for takeoff.

"I don't get it," he said when he exited the ship. "Last night it wouldn't work."

"Remember what I said about avoiding this planet in the future," Vader told him. "There's a reason it's drawn in so many victims."

Luke blinked. "You mean it tampered with the controls?"

"Trust me, young one, there are far stranger things out in the galaxy," the dark lord replied.

Luke looked overwhelmed by this revelation.

"What about you?" he asked.

"I too will be leaving soon...remember, we will meet again, you cannot escape your destiny."

He nodded. "I know."

No further words were said, Luke returned to his ship and in a few minutes had exited the planet's atmosphere.

Vader watched the X-wing as it disappeared from the sight of the human eye. The next time they met his son would either join him, or be forced by the emperor to turn to the dark side.

There was a reason why he had rushed Luke out to his ship and gotten him off this planet. Were it possible, Vader would select this plain to be the place of Palpatine's death, but he knew nothing would ever draw the emperor here. He knew its reputation too well and knew to avoid it.

As he returned to the Executor, Vader passed what Luke had missed during the storm. Large pits that were charred black. Ceremonial burnings were a common occurrence on this planet, what no survivors ever knew was whether it was the work of a hidden tribe of people...or the planet's own doing. Vader looked to one pit, and another, most of the remains were seared into blackened debris, but there still remained, clearly visible now in the early morning light, piles of blackened bones. Whoever, or whatever had done this, had thankfully not claimed Luke as one of its many victims, and the flagship would be leaving before the same forces could attempt anything with himself or any of the Imperial crew.

If Palpatine ever found out Vader had found his son and brought him aboard his ship, and then released him, let the boy go...he chose not to think about that. Palpatine would not find out, that was precisely why Vader had sneaked Luke on board and kept him in the med bay and gotten him back off the ship without anyone knowing. What the Imperial officers would never do, knew better than to ever do, was question his orders. Nobody asked why he'd ordered the ship brought to this planet, he didn't have to explain himself to them. Soon they would leave, and it would be just as if he had never found Luke. All that would remain would be a small pile of ashes and burnt leaves in the cave where he'd found his son.