Revealed Identities

Chapter 14: Face to Face

Luke maneuvered his X-wing with caution as the high-winds of Gefoga rocked his ship. Artoo twittered nervously to remind Luke that the ship was not capable of standing up to such high winds for such a long period of time.

"We're nearly there." Luke reassured the little droid. He looked around for an indiscreet place to land. Han had managed to forge a new X-wing number, as well as a new ID for himself so that they would not be recognized. Luke new that there was Imperial presence on Gefoga, so he knew that he couldn't risk landing where the majority did. He sighed in remembrance. Han had not been happy when he had heard about his decision to go to Gefoga. He had been even less happy to agree to find a separate ship for Jallishka to fly by himself. Han still did not like Jallishka being near Luke.

Jallishka had arrived the day before, and he and Luke had decided that they would not make contact until Luke had reached the surface.

Luke considered himself a good pilot, but he didn't hesitate to let out a sigh of relief when he finally landed. Artoo let out a small beep of joy as well. After he was satisfied with the security of his ship, Luke set out to find a small local terminal, Artoo following obediently behind. He keyed Jallishka's comlink and gave him the signal that he arrived and where he was. It only took about a minute for Jallishka's reply to come back through.

I'll be there in two standard hours, was the message that Luke got. Knowing that he had time to kill, Luke decided to grab something to eat. He had seen a strip of restaurants and pubs lining their way down the main roadway that Luke had walked to find the terminal. He headed back up to a pub that looked half-decent.

Han looked over the information that the Toydarian had given them when they had first arrived on Rempinto. They already knew where Luke was, and had been, but now Han focused on the other details, like where Nekem had last been seen. He had accessed his bank account from an unknown planet, and Han picked up the co-ordinates and found the approximate place where the planet would be. He checked his map and sure enough, a planet sat there on the outer-rim territories with no apparent system title.

"We need to go there." Han pointed at the place on the digital map. Leia frowned.

"I do not like the idea of leaving Luke so far away with Vader so close to him." Leia said firmly.

"What are we gonna do? Do you want to alert the entire fleet? Hey, come on. I mean, those reports that the Alliance sent to us said that Vader was dead. Luke probably won't even end up meeting with Vader." Han remarked off-handedly.

"Do you really believe that?" Leia wondered. Leia's eyes locked onto Han's, and she could tell that he didn't. He looked away without responding.

"I thought you didn't want to see your father." Han replied. Leia's eyes flashed at him coldly.

"He's not my father," she snapped, "I'm just rethinking my decision, that's all."

"So, in other words, go spy on the kid?" Han gave her a quirky smile.

"You make it sound so terrible." Leia muttered. "Fine, let's go to this wayward planet. I hope you know what you're doing."

"Me too." Han replied under his breath.

Gefoga looked beautiful from space, Anakin mused to himself. Lush colors covered the planet, and Anakin wondered now that he no longer held service to the Emperor, where he could possibly go into hiding if his son did not wish for his help. Anakin frowned at that thought. If his son did not allow him to help, he would feel even more responsible for the pain he had caused. He wished to do something. He knew that he could never make up for the terrible things that he had done, but still, to sit around and do nothing was not an option in his mind.

The winds whipped around his ship, but Anakin had no worries about it. Watto had trained him years ago about flying in winds, just in case he was ever in a pod-race when a sand storm began.

Thinking back to those days, he realized he had been happier as a slave than as a Sith lord. He had always needed to be the person someone looked to as a lean on. In his younger years it had been his mom, and even as he trained as a Jedi, he had always imagined himself as the person his mom looked to to come back and liberate her. Then, of course, there had been Padmé, and Anakin wondered where he had gone wrong with her. Had it been from the start? But that was something that was too painful for him to dwell on for very long.

Now he had his children. Or at least his son. Luke seemed to want to help him, and in return, Anakin desperately wanted to help his son in return: in this case, giving Luke valued information about the Empire. Anakin wondered about Leia though. The Force had always let him know that she was much more important to him just a source of information. He had realized that when Tarkin had told Vader to kill the princess. Some paternal instinct had kept making up excuses for Vader not to kill her. Anakin grimaced at that thought.

All of those reasons had been barely better than death.

Anakin stretched out with the Force to find his son's Force presence. It glowed brightly and untamed through the Force. It was a wonder he had not seen it before. He suspected it had to do with the efficiency that his former master had done in hiding Luke. Anakin smiled at the thought of his master, something he had not done in years. Although he had also felt that he could out-stripe Obi-Wan's skills, even as a padawan, he had always felt pride in his Jedi master's abilities. He had found out the hard way that Obi-Wan was a better swordsman when he challenged Obi-Wan to a duel years before.

He shook his head. It did not do any good to dwell on the past and forget to live his life. Anakin guided his craft with gentle ease into the docking bay where he suspected his son's X-wing to be. Sure enough, Anakin noticed a lopsided cover that he recognized as the form of an X-wing. He got out of his own ship (one that he had designed himself) and followed the blaze of Luke's presence. Anakin felt a strange sort of anxiousness that he had not felt at their last encounter. He was meeting his son. His son. Anakin did not know why it felt so good to say those words over and over again in his mind. Perhaps it was because this time he hoped for more from his son besides obedience. He wanted someone to love him again. Anakin laughed out loud. It amused him to think of someone loving him when he was nothing but a monster. Luke had been right about him.

Anakin reached the small pub where Luke waited. He looked through the window, and saw his son. Jallishka sat nearby, as well as a little droid. It looked strangely familiar, but Anakin did not take a second look as he entered the pub. He inhaled deeply, and began to walk over to his son.

"Have you contacted Han and Leia?" Jallishka asked in his raspy voice as he sat down at Luke's table. Luke had jumped; he had not heard the alien's approach.

"Not yet, I was going to wait until we met him." Luke explained. Jallishka looked at the cup Luke had before him.

"You are drinking alcohol?" Jallishka said in a scolding tone of voice. Luke rolled his eyes. All he needed was for some alien who had tried to kill him to tell him what he should and should not do.

"No. I'm not stupid. I need to be able to think straight." Luke muttered. Not that he hadn't tried. The legal drinking age on Tatooine was 17, but at this place it was 24, and Luke had not thought to ask Han to give him an older age on his fake ID. Luke had finished his lunch about ten minutes ago, but Jallishka ordered something, so Luke asked for a small desert.

In the middle of eating the fruit-filled pastry, Luke felt the strange sensation that he was being watched. He looked up in mid-bite to see a tall man staring back at him. His face was well weathered, and he looked like he had once been quite handsome, but his eyes interested Luke the most. His eyes were almost exactly the same color as his, and they looked as if they held deep secrets that people only had nightmares about. Luke didn't realize he had been staring until the man came over to their table.

"May I sit with you?" The man smiled, his voice quite smooth and easy to listen to. Luke shrugged and scooted over for the man to sit down. Jallishka, on the other hand, looked utterly shocked.

"Master?" Jallishka practically squeaked. Luke did a double take. His fork dropped to his plate with a clatter of surprise.

"Father...?" Luke whispered. The man spoke:

"I told you I had changed."

Next part...Father and Son