Chapter 3 – The Invisible Hand

Author's Note: In which Luke flies in a space battle with his father and meets the future Emperor again. :')

To Guest: I'm glad! :D

~ Amina Gila

The inky black color of space surrounds him outside the viewport, dotted with occasional stars in the distance. Coruscant is below – Luke has never seen the planet in person before, and he's struck by the sight. He's in the Clone Wars, with his father. For all he wanted to know Anakin, he never would have imagined this.

He's about to see the Emperor again.

Luke tries to refocus his attention on the battle despite his anxieties, and while he's never struggled with that in the past, he is now. Somewhat. Any one of a million terrible things could happen, and he doesn't know what to expect. Not that he ever knows what to expect in life, but this is worse, because he was sent here to stop so much darkness. He doesn't know how, but if his father believed he could do it, he can and will.

"Master, General Grievous' ship is directly ahead," Anakin calls over the comm system. "The one crawling with vulture droids."

Luke has fought in many battles before, but he has never flown this type of fighter before. Neither has he fought an army of only droids. It's new and it's thrilling, maybe more than usual, because he doesn't know what to expect and he's fighting with his father instead of against him, for the first time...

Second time, but it's still the first time they've fought and flown together.

"I see it," Obi-Wan confirms. "Oh, this is going to be easy."

"From experience," Luke warns, "It's always when people say that it gets hard."

Obi-Wan ignores his comment, turning to the clone pilots to order them into attack position.

"This is where the fun begins," Anakin declares – he's as cheerful and carefree as Luke always is when he's flying – and they set out.

Explosions ring out all around them, and Luke loses himself in the battle, shooting down droid after droid. They're certainly easier to hit than people, but they make up for it in numbers. He doesn't have time to pay much attention to it, though he briefly catches sight of how well Anakin is flying, and... it's far better than Luke himself. (The last time they flew in a space battle together, Vader nearly shot him down. Now he can so easily see how.) He never would have dreamed of this, and it's thrilling, to say the least, that it's happening, and he'll take advantage of it while he can. After all, he doesn't know how long he'll have.

Seeing it really makes him wonder how Anakin could have become cyborg from a crash of all things, but he doesn't know what else could have caused it. Now is not the time to think about that, though. They have a battle to win... and a Sith Lord to rescue. Maybe it would be for the best if he suffered an... accident on the way.

The clones aren't doing well, though. "I'm gonna go help them out," Anakin calls, spinning his fighter to the side, blasting through a few more droids.

"No," Obi-Wan objects, instantly, "They are doing their job so we can do ours."

Luke knows what this is like, of course. The Rebellion has had to do it to prevent greater losses from their already small numbers, but this is entirely different. Obi-Wan is a Jedi, and Luke expected differently from him, though it seems everything he once thought about Obi-Wan, and the Jedi, was wrong. Maybe Obi-Wan is right, but if they were able to rescue the Chancellor before, they won't need him here this time. Luke breaks away from the others, flying towards the clones.

"I'll help them."

They should be fine without him since they were before, so he can only hope. A stab of fear cuts through him as he watches because he still can't shake the concern that something will happen to Anakin here, but... he seems to have it handled far better than Obi-Wan, especially when it's Obi-Wan who winds up with a buzz droid covered ship.

Luke doesn't have time to watch Anakin's antics with knocking the droids off Obi-Wan's fighter, as he focuses on fighting the droids. He'll catch up later.

**w**

The others are aboard by the time he leaves the clones. Artoo directs him to where the Chancellor is, and Luke can't help thinking that droids are so much easier to skip past than stormtroopers. It doesn't take him long once he arrives on the ship, but it's a lot of ground to cover, and by the time he arrives in the room where the Sith is being held, he can hear the sound of clashing lightsabers. Anakin and Obi-Wan are fighting another red lightsaber-wielding figure, and... Luke's gaze lands on Palpatine, cuffed to the chair in the center of the room.

He looks different than he did as the Emperor, and if Luke didn't know better, he could almost think he did look like nothing more than the innocent Chancellor he claims to be. That still doesn't stop the surge of fear and rage upon seeing him again. He knows he must be careful, because Sith are well-accustomed to reading other's minds, so he turns to the battle and stops thinking about it as he was trained to do. He knows who the other Sith is – Dooku. Luke recognizes him at least, and though he didn't realize he was a Sith, it's unsurprising.

Luke ignites his lightsaber, joining the duel without a second thought. This will be... the second Sith he's fought against, but this time, he won't be alone. And he'll be fighting alongside his father instead of against him.

Dooku seems momentarily surprised at Luke's sudden appearance, but he covers it well. The red blade spins back and forth between all three of theirs, always able to block them right in time. Their duel is nothing like the ones Luke fought with Vader, or the one he saw with Ben and Vader. It's far faster, tenser, and skilled – they're actively trying to kill each other, and no one is holding back. They have far more skill than Luke knew was required in lightsaber combat – it's another thing that was lost with the Jedi.

Luke lunges forwards, swinging at the Sith, only for the Force to suddenly tighten around his neck. He's heard of Vader doing things like this before, but never has he been on the receiving end of it. He's seen recordings of it, too, after Bespin, when he was watching everything he could about his father, both to learn more of the person and of the Force.

He tries – and fails – to draw in a breath, panic clawing at him. He doesn't know how to fight against this. Anakin swings for the Sith's head, but Dooku kicks him back. And the next thing Luke knows as his vision starts darkening, he's being flung across the room. He hits the wall – or something, at least – before landing on the floor. The last thing he registers before his vision blacks out is the flare of fury in the Force that for the first time reminds him way too much of Vader.

He has no idea how long it's been when he reawakens to Anakin crouching next to him. "Luke?"

"What happened?" he asks, slowly pushing himself up, shaking off the pain lingering in his head. His neck hurts – it's definitely bruised, but that's the least of their concerns.

Palpatine is hovering a short distance away, watching them, and something about the gaze seriously unsettles him.

"Dooku is dead. We must leave before the ship is destroyed."

Right on cue, the ship trembles, as if in imminent warning of how close it is to falling apart. They need to hurry, and it reminds him painfully again of how he escaped the Death Star barely on time with his father's body.

Luke hastily climbs to his feet and glances around. Obi-Wan is trapped under a section of the balcony. Anakin immediately hurries over to him, with Luke close behind. Obi-Wan is unconscious, but the injury probably isn't too serious.

"There's no time," Palpatine protests, "We must get off this ship before it's too late."

What? He really thinks they're just going to abandon Obi-Wan?!

"He seems to be alright," Anakin observes, ignoring him.

"Leave him or we'll never make it!" He actually sounds alarmed, but Luke doesn't believe it for a moment. The situation is tense, to be sure, but he wasn't remotely concerned when the Death Star was about to blow up.

"His fate will be the same as ours," Anakin replies firmly. It's unsettling because it's... true. All three of them died on the Death Star, though on two different ones.

Anakin picks up Obi-Wan before they return to the turbolift they came through, except it's not responding. There is a space battle going on and the Invisible Hand is badly damaged despite the ship's size. Anakin calls for Artoo over the comm – Luke still can't believe they owned the same droid – but the ship suddenly lurches, the gravity shifting from the floor to one of the sides. Anakin climbs through the door into the elevator shaft, the side of which is now the floor. Luke scrambles through with ease – he's well accustomed to such antics. He's always liked climbing, and this is easier than most things he's done. He pointedly ignores the Chancellor's show of following them when he could have just as well jumped.

"This won't last long," Luke warns.

"Which is why we must hurry," Anakin replies, and no sooner does he say that than the gravity starts returning to what should have been the floor. Luke catches a handhold on the shaft's side. The others fall a short distance below before Anakin grabs onto something with his mechanical hand, holding onto Obi-Wan with his free arm.

Luke realizes with much disappointment that the Chancellor is still with them, holding onto Anakin – he had really hoped the Sith would fall to the bottom of the shaft and die like he did before, and wouldn't that be fitting?

Except now Luke really has no idea what to do. The entire situation is... odd, to say the least, because Luke has never been on a mission with another Jedi. He's accustomed to following orders and whatnot, but the circumstances behind it are different from what he's dealt with. Normally, it wouldn't be hard to get out of this, but he doesn't know his surroundings anymore. It makes it very, very hard for him to take the lead.

Instincts tell him to climb down the shaft and through a doorway where they can find the hangar, but that's easier said than done.

He pushes himself back from the wall, looking down, searching for an opening. That's when Obi-Wan finally stirs, fading back into consciousness. He must realize where he is first because he lets out a most ungraceful yelp before latching himself onto Anakin for dear life.

"Easy. We're in a bit of a situation here," Anakin warns.

Luke might have laughed if it didn't suddenly strike him again that in his time, Vader killed Obi-Wan. He still doesn't know why that happened, because from what he's seeing here... they were extremely close.

"Did I miss something?" Obi-Wan asks.

"Dooku is dead," Luke calls down to him, "And the ship is badly damaged."

A sound above them draws Luke's attention upwards – the elevator was above them and now it's heading down. This is the second time in the past week Luke has been stuck over a shaft under dangerous circumstances – the first being when Sidious was electrocuting him and... now. It's coming too fast, and Anakin is unable to get through to Artoo to shut it down. Either the droid is otherwise occupied, or their transmissions are being jammed.

"Too late," Obi-Wan yells, "Jump!"

What he means is let go, which Luke does immediately. They're going at freefall down the shaft, and Anakin and Obi-Wan latch their grappling hook onto the sides of the walls. Obi-Wan catches onto Luke – since Anakin is busy with Palpatine, who Luke still wishes he would drop – and they swing through the doorway together, landing in a pile on the floor right as the turbolift plummets past the opening.

Luke hastily untangles himself from the others, doing his best to discreetly move away from Palpatine. Being this close to the Sith is incredibly uncomfortable, and he loathes having to act like Palpatine is someone other than who he really is. He doesn't know how he'll be able to keep the act – or if he needs to. He would rather not break it to Anakin, and he's definitely not foolish enough to drop the act in front of the future Emperor himself.

He'll have to deal with it until they're out of here. Should he tell someone? It might – On second thought, he probably shouldn't think about this right in front of the Sith.

It makes him feel sick to see how much Anakin clearly cares for Palpatine. They're close on a personal level, and he has no idea how that could've happened. It doesn't make sense.

They take off through the halls of the ship, and Luke turns his focus to their surroundings again. There aren't any droids nearby, but he can't shake the feeling that they're being watched. Which is likely true, because he's certain there's cameras here, and –

Suddenly, a ray shield drops around them.

Obi-Wan looks around, scowling. "Wait a minute. How did this happen? We're smarter than this!"

"Apparently not," Anakin replies, ever the perfect picture of cheer.

"What now?" Luke asks, turning to the others. He's had experience with many things before, but this is different, and he doesn't see a way to get the ray shield down. The only thing he can think of is using the Force to deactivate it, which he can try doing, but he doesn't know if it'll work.

"I say patience," Anakin says simply.

"Patience?" Obi-Wan repeats incredulously, crossing his arms. He looks beyond cranky, and Luke is severely tempted to laugh though he's no more appreciative of the situation himself.

"A Jedi is patient," Luke quips.

"We won't be leaving this ray shield by standing here!"

"Artoo will be along in a few moments, and then he'll release it," Anakin replies.

"Can't we use the Force?" Luke objects.

A loud whistling catches his attention – Artoo rolls into the hall so fast he slams into the wall opposite where he came from hard enough that he rebounds off it and spins around a few times.

"See? No problem," Anakin replies, only seconds before a group of droids march around the corner. Artoo tries to zap one of them, only for it to kick him over.

"Do you have a plan B?" Obi-Wan grumbles.

Fine. Luke reaches out with the Force, trying to find some way to deactivate it. He'd have to destroy the device it originates from, and he won't have time to do that and fight off the droids without being shot.

"We'll surrender," Obi-Wan decides, right before the droids surround them.

Luke doesn't understand the reasoning behind this – they could easily escape on the way to the bridge with three Jedi here, after all, even if it would be hard – but he doesn't protest. His father must know what he's doing, right? He's accustomed to dealing with droids, after all. He's surrendered himself before to get through enemy lines, which Luke imagines is what the plan is. That doesn't mean he's happy to give up his lightsaber to the droids.

Luke can't help finding it satisfying to see Palpatine in binders. What if he could accidentally make sure he got shot in the coming battle? Very unlikely, but it would certainly make everything easier.

A cyborg is the one who greets them as they're brought into the bridge – General Grievous, based on his description. "Ah, yes," he croaks in a very deep, raspy voice, "The Negotiator. General Kenobi. We've been waiting for you. That wasn't much of a rescue."

A droid passes the General their lightsabers. "You're welcome," it says as he snatches them away without so much as acknowledging the droid's existence.

"And..." Grievous says, moving closer. He's more intimidating than Vader somehow, likely because his cybernetic parts emphasize his reptilian appearance. He's prowling over Anakin now, way too close for comfort, and Luke tenses up on instinct, wanting more than anything to make sure his father is safe. "Anakin Skywalker." His father turns away slightly without otherwise moving, clearly uncomfortable but refusing to show sign of weakness. "I was expecting someone with your reputation to be a little... older."

"General Grievous," Anakin replies, suddenly smirking much too smugly. "You're shorter than I expected."

"Jedi scum," snarls Grievous, turning to stare down at Luke.

"We have a job to do, Anakin. Try not to upset him," Obi-Wan chides, obviously amused.

"Another Jedi I have not been acquainted with," he continues, "But you shall die as well, and your lightsabers will make a fine addition to my collection." He gleefully spins the three lightsabers around and tucks them into a pocket in his cape that looks specifically designed to hold them. It's sickening to see beings like this. Luke has encountered a great deal of... galactic scum while fighting the Empire, but this is on a completely different level. He has never met someone who collected personal objects from those they murdered as trophies.

"Not this time," Obi-Wan replies, smirking. The look on his face is something Luke can, quite frankly, only describe as 'boyish excitement' which is mildly disturbing because he thinks Obi-Wan is far too old for that. Maybe. He doesn't know because Ben looked quite old, but he looks a full three or four decades younger now. "And this time, you won't escape."

Anakin takes that as his cue to move. "Artoo!" he calls sharply, and the droid spins its dome around, shooting electricity at the battle droids nearby it.

Obi-Wan spins around, using the Force to grab his lightsaber. He cuts himself free and spins around, freeing Anakin and Luke from their binders.

The last time that happened... it was when his father died.

Both Skywalkers grab their lightsabers, spinning into motion.

"Crush them!" roars Grievous, "Make them suffer!" In that moment, Luke can see why he was the Separatist's most hated, brutal, and heartless general.

Luke would have gone for Grievous himself, but the bodyguard droids with the cyborg act faster, igniting their electrostaffs and moving forwards. After exchanging a few blows with one, Obi-Wan takes over, and Luke takes down the few nearby battle droids before taking off after Grievous. He knows that the cyborg will be difficult to fight, but he's a Jedi, too. Most information about Grievous has been destroyed, but Luke is still willing to take the risk if it means ending the war here and now, the war that he is still fighting years later.

Anakin wins his fight with ease, lopping the droid in two and letting it fall, sparking, to the floor before going after the Chancellor where he was being taken off by battle droids.

Grievous pulls out two lightsabers – one green and one blue.

Luke knows how deadly the cyborg was, but that was in history. There's more, and he doesn't know, but he can't imagine Grievous was any deadlier than Vader, so he throws caution into the wind, delving into the Force and jumping at him.

Grievous cackles, blocking Luke's blow. He shoves back against it with a crippling strength, and Luke skids backwards, struggling to remain upright. Vader was like this too, much of the time. A single blow is nearly enough to knock someone off-balance. Luke pulls back and comes around, trying a few different angles.

The cyborg brings his sabers down towards Luke's head, and he instantly raises his own to parry... only to be kicked across the room into a nearby console before falling onto the floor. It knocks the air out of him, and he lands awkwardly on his side, slamming his hands on the floor to keep himself from faceplanting.

Being kicked with a metal leg isn't like being kicked normally – it's more like being hit with a swinging metal... something, and it really hurts. He's well accustomed to pain, and his hand still hurts sometimes, more than he wants to think about, but it's still enough to get him down, if only for a moment. His chest hurts where Grievous kicked him, and his back and side are throbbing in at least three places.

Only a dozen bruises to add on top of the burns he already has from Sidious' lightning, that's all.

Somewhere, he hears his father call his name before there's a clanking sound – Grievous must be trying to escape and extinguishes his lightsabers. When Luke looks up again, he sees Anakin and Obi-Wan cornering Grievous. Good. He can't escape. He must have before, assuming this went similarly, but it would be a great step in preventing the Empire if the last major Separatist leader was killed here and now.

"You lose, General Kenobi," Grievous snarls, and Luke wonders for a fleeting moment why he's mainly focused on Obi-Wan before the cyborg suddenly swings his electrostaff at the viewport... instead of them.

Cracks rapidly spread across the transparisteel, and it shatters. Luke has only a split second to scramble for a handhold, knowing what's about to happen, but he doesn't reach one. He thinks he hears Anakin calling him again, but the sound is sucked into space as the viewport shatters entirely. Grievous is the first to go out, but the vacuum is strong enough to rip out anything that's not strongly attached to the floor, which, unfortunately, includes Luke. (It's a pity it doesn't take out Palpatine.)

No! This is not how it was supposed to go! He searches desperately for something to grasp onto, but there's nothing, and there's so little air he can barely breathe from the force with which it's being ripped out of the ship. The Force wraps around him, holding him in place, pulling him away from the viewport. He turns to look at the others – it's his father. Of course, it was. Anakin saved him a second time now. It means a lot, because he knows how hard it is for Anakin to keep himself from being sucked into space, and he's willing to nearly sacrifice himself again to save Luke.

This version of his father doesn't even know him, though Luke supposes Vader never did, either, but this is different somehow. It's before his Fall, and Vader had years to go back on the decision he made and regret everything he did and chose another path. He expected Anakin to be... darker, and he wonders again how his father could have Fallen.

Obi-Wan reaches forwards, hitting a button on the controls, and a blast shield finally closes over the opening.

The ship is shielded from the vacuum of space again, and Anakin lowers Luke to the floor with a ridiculous amount of gentleness – really, he's jumped from far greater heights before. It would hardly have hurt. Anakin himself stumbles when he hits the ground, leaning against the control panel next to him, gasping in the spaceship's now painfully thin air. There's plenty of air left in the rest of it, but it's taking time to spread out.

Luke stumbles to his feet, leaning against the structure nearby him as he struggles to catch his breath. It feels impossibly hard. Anakin suddenly appears at his side, touching his arm. "Just breathe, son. We'll be alright."

Despite knowing the severity of what's about to happen, Luke finds that he believes him unquestioningly. This is the first time they've touched each other, except when Luke was carrying Vader, of course, and that was different. This is his father in flesh and blood and everything Luke had dreamed of.

He dives forwards, wrapping his arms around Anakin, completely uncaring of the chaos around him and how much it hurts to touch anything. Anakin shifts, then reaches up to pull him tightly against him. This... is all he wanted for years. He's immediately overwhelmed by the flood of emotions, and he can only let himself melt into the embrace. "Are you okay?" Anakin asks.

"It's nothing that won't heal," Luke replies and pointedly doesn't think about how one of the first times he met his father, he was injured in a way that can never heal. His wrist is throbbing too, and he wonders if his hand was damaged in the Emperor's lightning. Likely, the electricity was attracted to the metal and burned him worst in that area. Maybe he'll check it when he has time.

Anakin looks down at him, frowning. "I can feel your pain. It hurts when I touch you."

"It's nothing," he assures, even if it really does sting. He doesn't want this moment to end. He pulls away so they can turn back to the fight, anyway, because in the background, Obi-Wan is occupying himself with cutting anything that moves – except Palpatine, of course, unfortunately – into at least four pieces before finally leaving it alone on the floor. It seems a bit like overkill, but Luke never fought droids, so he wouldn't know.

It's a beeping alarm on the controls that gets them back to the front of the ship.

The ship is shaking violently, which means they're crashing, and apparently, Grievous launched all the escape pods. What if this has something to do with how Anakin ended up as a cyborg in the future?! Although... that wouldn't explain why Obi-Wan was perfectly fine. Palpatine certainly looked pretty deformed, though, so maybe Obi-Wan just got lucky? Luke forces those thoughts from mind – it will change nothing.

"Can you fly a cruiser like this?" Obi-Wan asks.

"You mean, can I land what's left of it?" Anakin replies.

"Well?"

"There isn't much to fly," Luke points out, "But we'll make it work. I can help."

Anakin heads for the pilot seat, and Luke scrambles for the one on his left where he has more leverage to help. The outside of the ship glows from the furiously burning fire outside as they hurdle towards the surface.

They work together with ease, and Luke thinks this is probably one of the first time he's flown with a pilot who's better than him. It'll be the last, too, if he's not careful. No one could do this better than his father, and he quickly understands why Vader was such a feared pilot.

The ship is quite literally in pieces by the time they hit the landing strip, but they make it out in one piece, so he won't complain about it.

Obi-Wan is oddly cheerful now that they're in a very tense life-and-death situation. He's cranky unless there's action, Luke decides. "Another happy landing," Obi-Wan declares cheerily when they touch down, running a hand through his hair before letting it drop to his side.

Anakin's gaze lingers on him before he turns back to Luke. "We've had better," he agrees, his relief clear.

"Now what happens?" Luke asks, trying his best not to look at the Chancellor. He can sense the man's gaze on him, and it's unnerving.

"I don't believe I have ever met your acquaintance," Palpatine says, and Luke tries not to stiffen.

He's about to answer, his mind whirling to come up with something believable, but Anakin beats him to it.

"It sounds outrageous," he answers, standing up and turning around. "His name is Luke Skywalker, and he's my – uh... time-traveling son."

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