Revealed Identities

Chapter 5: The Emperor's Bidding

Luke stared at Darth Vader with a mixture of horror and disbelief on his face. "No." Luke whispered, shaking his head. Vader just couldn't be his father, he just couldn't. The Force swirled around him, and for the first time since he had become open to his presence, he tried to quell what it was telling him.

"Do not try to deny the truth, my son," Vader urged, stepping towards Luke. Luke slid across the wall, distancing himself from the man claiming to be his father.

"You're lying," Luke hissed, his eyes downcast on the floor. The man that he had idolized and hero-worshiped his whole childhood, his whole life, turned out to be his worst enemy. He stood against everything that Luke believed.

"I am not as malevolent as you make me out to be," Vader started, but Luke's anger burst out before he could stopper it.

"Stay out of my mind you monster!" Luke screamed. Monster. That hit Vader too close to home for his pleasure. His entire life had been defeating the monsters of the universe, and one of them had been the Jedi themselves. To be called a monster, and to be called a monster by his son, no less, made something inside of Vader crack.

"I am not a monster! You know not of which you speak, young one!" Vader denied, deeply offended. Luke was surprised at what he had sparked in Vader. There was something there, something that seemed to scream out at him: a voice that sounded vaguely familiar, like his own, screaming out in need. If his anger and hatred for Vader had not covered it, he would have felt his own ache to answer that plea, the desperate need for compassion.

"My father wouldn't be like you," Luke said, knowing he couldn't quite grasp the words he needed to express his shock and horror.

"But I am your father. And I want you to join me. You will have plenty of time to think it over. Goodnight…son." In a gracefully fluid motion, he exited the room, the blaster shielded doors shutting and locking swiftly behind him.

Luke lied down on the bed in his cell. 'Ben,' Luke thought to himself, 'why didn't you tell me?'

Nekem looked around at the small room that his superiors had assigned him because of his predicament. Some of his things had been brought into the new room. He smiled hollowly as he picked up his pillow and ripped the seams. The padding inside the pillow had made it impossible for the technicians who had scanned his things to pick up on the blaster he always kept hidden there.

How ironic that he had kept it there in case of an Imperial raid, yet now he found himself a prisoner of the alliance. Had all his years of service meant nothing? If they didn't understand what he was trying to do, if all his years of service were overlooked so easily then it meant that he was no longer welcomed here. It was obvious that he could no longer stay with the alliance, and he would die before he spent the rest of his life in a cell.

He tried opening the door and found it locked, and to his bitter dismay, that someone had had the nerve to command a guard to watch over him.

"Don't try anything funny!" He heard the guard yell. During his "hearing" he had gotten the impression that he was under just house arrest; now he knew how little trust they had in him. Oh well. Might as well get it over and done with. Nekem knocked on the door and hollered out to the guards.

"I need to use the 'fresher!" Nekem bellowed.

"You have one in your quarters," came the muffled reply.

"This one's broken." After a few seconds hesitation, the guard opened the door, his blaster drawn. But Nekem had been trained in battle since eight years before the Rebellion had even begun, and his reflexes almost rivaled the famous quickness of a dug. He pulled the trigger before the other man had any chance to defend himself, not even bothering to put it on stun. The guard dropped dead at his feet.

"Sweet dreams." Nekem muttered before heading towards his old quarters to pick up a few extra things.

Leia looked at her chrono and sighed. She felt something had gone terribly wrong. Yet she didn't know what.

"Princess Leia! Princess Leia!" C-3PO hollered as he entered Leia's chambers.

"What is it Threepio?" Leia asked. It wasn't unusual for C-3PO to be a pessimist and think that everything was something horrible, but she had a feeling the droid was about to reveal some particularly bad news.

"General Nekem has stolen a small transport and seems to have stolen quite a bit of Rebel Alliance documentary. It's projected he is going to the Empire and use it to barter with."

"What?" Leia asked, jumping to her feet. She keyed in Han's frequency on her comlink.

"Han!" she called, using his private channel.

"What is it?" Han asked disgruntled, sounding as though he had been in the middle of fixing something.

"Nekem's gone," Leia informed him.

"Yes, Chewie and I are already preparing the Millennium Falcon to go after him."

"What?" Leia asked.

"Someone has to stop him from giving the information to the Imps. General Yashitar asked us if we would go after him. Wedge offered to go with the Rogues, but they wanted someone more discreet. We were more than willing to take the job to do what we can for the kid. Hey, we could always use an extra hand..." Han offered hopefully.

"I'll inform Yashitar that I'm going as well."

"Wonderful," Han said, Leia could almost feel his smile beneath his words.

"Leia out."

Vader knew his luck had run out when Admiral Zephery came before him with a command from the Emperor. The fact that the message had said command rather than message meant that the Emperor had found out what exactly had happened with Luke, and that he was considerably incensed if not enraged with his apprentice for not reporting the developments immediately.

It surprised the dark lord to find that his master waited expectantly on the other side of the com. Normally when his master found fault with him, he made Vader sweat it out for a long period of time.

"What is your bidding my master?" Vader asked.

"The boy who destroyed the Death Star...is it true that he is the son of Skywalker?" The Emperor asked harshly.

"Yes, my master."

"And you have him with you?"

"Yes, my master."

"I see." The Emperor allowed a long enough pause to try to get a handle on Darth Vader's thoughts. Vader kept them as neutral as possible. "He is powerful, is he not?"

"Exceptionally."

"Bring him before me." The Emperor did not wait for any further discussion as he ended the transmission. Vader stood up and went to check on Luke. He did not like this one bit. He did not know if the Emperor suspected his true intentions for the boy or not, but he would not let that ugly, decrepit, serpent toy with his son. The Emperor had promised to aid him in saving the life of his wife and unborn child. While Palpatine may have forgotten that was the reason Vader had turned to the darkside, Vader certainly hadn't. To have his son in front of him only to have Palpatine already commanding him to hand over his son was not something Vader would stand for. He needed to convince Luke to join him, and he needed to convince him quickly.

Next part...Escape Routes