There had been quiet curiosity through the ranks when he'd boarded the Executioner. No one said anything out loud, of course, but he did wonder if all the same rumours would run through the 501st ranks that Mara had told him ran through the Palace during his tenure there. Apparently there had been all sorts of theories amongst the staff on who he was and where he'd come from. Here, Luke could feel the curious glances from behind white helmets, but no one dared ask a question beyond what they were given, which wasn't much. Even so, just as at Fortress Inquisatorious, the moment that he was introduced as Darth Vader's son he instantly became Lord Natus.
Luke shadowed his father a great deal the first three weeks, barely a moment to himself to absorb what he was observing. There was equal parts fear and respect from the 501st and never a delay when Vader gave them an order. When his father disappeared into his own chambers, Luke was expected to train. It would have felt familiar in his training at the Palace, but instead of upgraded battle droids, he faced off against select members of the 501st with their weapons set to stun.
He'd underestimated them the first time and had spent the weeks following looking for ways to adjust. Training had always been against either droids or Mara with her lightsaber, but he'd made the painful assumption that experience in the field for the last year and his control over the Force would set him up for success, and maybe it would have against any other regiment. These men - none of which ever removed their helmets or provided Luke with a name - were fast and deadly accurate. Every time he went down he thought he heard his father's demands of Again! that had sharpened his skills in his childhood. This was just the next level. Learning to defeat the 501st meant that he could square up against anyone. So each time he fell, the numbness threatening to spread and drag him under, he focused and used the Force to push life back into his limbs. He was getting better, but despite the promises, none of it seemed to be pushing back the chill his father had promised to help him tame after his battle on Anzat. All he could do was try to distract himself.
Lightsaber held at the ready, Luke closed his eyes and stretched out with his senses. Five stormtroopers encircled him, each with their blaster rifles in position. He'd been up against three of the five before, and since they wouldn't give him their names, he decided that going a second round with the trooper warranted a nickname if nothing else. Alton, Barrix, and Clyde. The other two had to earn a mental label.
Barrix moved first, the shot fired with little more than a flicker of warning. Luke dodged, pivoting to block a shot from Unknown Trooper One that came at him at the same time as Alton's shot. He cursed as Alton's clipped his right arm, numbness spreading fast enough that his fingers went loose around the hilt of his lightsaber. He called it with his left hand as he pushed off the floor, flipping through the air as two more blasts collided where he'd been standing and swung out as he landed. There was a hiss that echoed through the room as his lightsaber connected with Clyde's shot, ricocheting back into the stormtrooper and throwing him to the floor. He didn't move, the stun weapon having done its job.
Unknown Trooper Two was ready to test his merit when there was an abrupt lurch from the Star Destroyer. Luke straightened, his lightsaber still humming but dropped to his side. "It's too early to have come out of hyperspace."
"Yessir," Alton agreed.
There was movement outside, but if they were scurrying because they'd been ordered to their stations or because they were trying to figure out why they'd dropped out of hyperspace, Luke couldn't be sure. He reached out over his bond with his father and found him moving towards the bridge with purpose. He turned towards the stormtroopers and motioned to Clyde. "Get Cl… get your man to the medbay and get to your posts."
A chorus of yessir followed him as he turned on heel and started for the bridge.
There were no alarms going off, no sign of danger other than the apprehension, and no one noticed him immediately as he passed through the doors and onto the bridge. He took in the scurry of activity, his father receiving a report from the captain and the commander, and through the viewport he could see a vessel floating in their pathway. Commander Oldus Renz was the first one to notice him, but he didn't dare interrupt his Captain's report to the infamous Sith Lord. Not that Father didn't know he was there.
"…codes are old, but they check out, my lord," Captain Marrow was saying as Luke came to stand next to his father. A quick glance out of the main viewports showed an old cargo ship that appeared to be stranded close enough to their trajectory that it had pulled them from hyperspace. "Scans do indicate damage to the hyperdrive as well as…"
Luke felt Renz's gaze follow him as he took a couple steps back and squatted down to speak to one of the communication officers in the crew pit. "What were the codes?"
The officer looked up, startled, and he paled a little. "M-my lord?"
"The codes that the freighter gave when you hailed it," he clarified.
He felt a sharp tug against the bond and the meaning from his father was clear: stand up, stop bothering with the pit officers, and return to bid side. Luke didn't budge, but instead sent a trust me back and hoped he could make good on it. If his hunch was right, his father would be pleased. If not…
"F6589D7," the officer provided, his voice trembling just a little.
Luke flashed him a grin. "Thought so." He straightened, finding his father's expectation hovering over the bridge like a storm cloud, both Commander Renz and Captain Morrow watching now as well. "It's from the series of codes that were compromised about six standard weeks ago that had me on Lothal," he stated.
"If it was compromised, it would have been flagged by our security protocols," Morrow said, his tone bordering just close enough to condescending that Luke knew how little stock he put into the teen's opinion, but just far enough that it wasn't outright disrespectful.
"Good question as to why it wasn't," Luke answered and turned to his father. "One I'd like an answer to. With permission, Father, I can put together a boarding party and find out how they were able to bypass Captain Morrow's security protocols so thoroughly."
Are you certain you are correct? his father's voice echoed in his mind.
Yes.
"My lord, if I may," Morrow started and Vader's head snapped back to look at him, the captain going instantly silent at the movement.
"You may not." He turned back to Luke. "Choose four stormtroopers to accompany us."
Us. Luke tried not to look too disappointed at that. Did his father think he couldn't handle such a simple task on his own?
No. He mentally shook it off. It didn't matter. He'd just have to prove himself here just as he'd proved that he deserved to be here. "I won't fail you, Father."
"See that you do not."
—
As quickly as Luke pulled together his boarding party, Vader was ready to assume that his son had put speed over precision. Not that any incompetent stormtroopers lasted in the 501st, but it hadn't been the approach Vader would have expected from the boy who had not only had a name for every droid he'd built as a child, but could explain every step that had gone into building it and why. Nor was it the approach Luke had actually taken, he quickly discovered as he heard his son mentally counting off the troops by names that Vader was relatively certain were not actually theirs.
And just for a moment he was catapulted to a different time with men in the armor that had inspired the stormtrooper uniform and the names they'd given themselves that their Jedi generals had called them by. And a Togruta teen who he'd given his own nickname to….
Father?
Luke's light tug on their bond caused him to physically jolt, the memory of a young woman that Anakin Skywalker had failed to protect shoved emphatically behind mental barriers and he turned his eyes on his son. You named them.
What was I supposed to do? They wouldn't tell me their real names, Luke countered. Barrix is in the lead. Left to right that's Waller, Trixi, and Flash.
With the names Vader received clips of memories as explanation. Luke meeting Barrix in the troopers' barracks wing, Waller's unmovable stance, Trixi's clever deceptions, and Flash's lightning speed at the trigger. The three men and single woman looked different under their helmets, but it took another fraction of a moment to shove at the memories of men loyal to a Jedi he counted as dead. A Jedi whose son stood before him, waiting. His son.
Luke seemed to take his silence as waiting for a debrief. The teen swallowed hard, resetting, and motioned towards the door that would open to the docking tube that connected the Executioner to the damaged freighter that had given them the name the Wanderer. "Captain Zanders is aware that we'll be boarding for inspection. I believe his focus will be on you and the stormtroopers, so I'll slip away and see if I can find what he's hiding while he gives you what I'm sure will be a less-than-honest tour."
"To his detriment, if that is true."
Luke tilted his head a little at that, but gave no verbal response. His son had a kinder heart than service to the Empire often demanded. While he had not been tested regularly in the past year with the Emperor's Hand, Vader saw the remnants of the same struggle after the Jedi's death at his hands as he'd seen years prior when he'd ended the traitor's life deep in the underground levels of Coruscant. Death weighed on Luke and left him to struggle with the chill one felt when they had not yet fully surrendered to the Dark Side. His son was clever and resourceful, but in the end, if there was any true hope that he would survive, he would need the power that could only come from the Dark Side. It was Vader's responsibility to teach him that.
The stormtroopers stood at the ready and Luke gave a sharp nod. The door hissed and the six of them moved forward towards the Wanderer.
—-
One lesson that Luke had learned in his travels across the galaxy in the past year was that things rarely went as anticipated. It was a person's ability to quickly readjust that would determine success, not how closely the events followed the first edition of the plan. When he had first pitched the idea of taking a boarding crew aboard the Wanderer, he'd seen it as a way to prove himself. Force knew that with his father there, all eyes would be on him. But that's what played in Luke's favour. Captain Zanders didn't give him more than the briefest of glances, his grey eyes fixed on the looming Darth Vader.
Luke didn't wait around to test the theory out too far. Instead he slipped away from the party, finding a hallway that he could use to follow his senses down. He let his eyelids grow heavy, focusing less on sight and more on the sounds of the ship around him, to the soft sound of his boots against the floor, and, eventually, the voices that drifted towards him. Blue eyes flashed open and he leapt silently back and out of sight just in time for two crew members to pass through the connected hall.
"…secure and quiet," one said, his voice hushed.
They were making their way down the hall and Luke heard their footsteps stop. He pressed himself against the wall at his back, letting the Force enhance his hearing and instantly regretting it as metal grating scraped along permasteel, and it was everything the teen could do not to make an audible noise of his own. Another few moments and the sound resumed - presumably in the opposite direction - and the halls were left in silence.
Luke shook his head a little, trying to refocus through the sound that would likely take up residency in his brain for the next couple of days. He followed to where it had originated from and found smooth hallway floors. Dark blond brows drew together and he kept his footsteps light as he searched for… There. A small handhold that was easily missed in the groove between permasteel slats. That's how they'd moved it. He took a knee, palm flat against the cool steel, and stretched out with his senses to find multiple life forms below. Interesting.
"Who in the galaxy are you?!" And one above the hidden compartment. That would have been good to know. The man looked half panicked. "You're not supposed to be here. I should —"
He'd never been fantastic at using the Force to convince another sentient, but no time like the present to hone a skill. "Stop. You will escort me to the hidden compartment below."
The man looked at him like he'd lost his mind. "Listen, kid—"
Luke let the irritation fuel his next try. "You will escort me to the hidden compartment below."
And just like that, his eyes glazed over a little. "I will escort you to the hidden compartment below."
Okay. Good. That worked. But there were at least two more crew members already down there. As this one moved to shift the hidden door, Luke caught his arm, putting everything he had behind the words. "I am Natus, Darth Vader's son. Captain Zanders personally instructed you to escort me."
"Cap'n Zanders," he answered sluggishly, pulling the door open. Well, hopefully that wasn't all that stuck.
The hidden passage below revealed a steep set of stairs. His unwillingly-willing companion took them one at a time and Luke used the Force to move the cover back into place as he followed him down.
For a moment, the only sound was that of his escort's and his own boots on the metal stairs, but when they reached another door at the bottom - this one requiring biometric entry - and it slid open, irritated voices could be heard inside. "I warned you!" one growled, and the words were followed by the crack of electricity and the sharp cry of whoever was on the receiving end.
They circled the corner into the large room with walls covered in sound-suppressant foam. The two crewmen that he'd nearly run into turned, startled by their entrance, and just beyond them was what Zanders had been so desperate to hide from the Empire: cages filled with sentient beings being transferred. This wasn't a registered prison transport - or even an unregistered one - which really left one realistic option: slaves.
"Mick, who the hells-"
His escort - Mick - looked back at Luke as if he were working through some complex mental puzzle. Great. This wasn't the best place for the control to slip. He didn't think he'd have any problem taking down the three men, but a stray blaster bolt could easily strike one of the caged beings.
"This is Lord Vader's son," Mick stated, and while his tone was a bit bland, it wasn't wavering as if he was fighting it. "Cap'n wanted me to bring him down."
The two blanched at that. "Vader knows?"
"Did you think you could keep it from him? From the Empire?" Luke snapped, his growing anger hardening each word and he watched them pale even more as he touched the bond with his father. He was going to want to see this.
A few minutes later Luke was on his way back upstairs, all three guards with him out of a lingering feeling of distrust. Their captain stood with his father and two stormtroopers - Barrix and Trixi likely taking a look at the damaged hyperdrive - with him, and a look of dread flashed through Captain Zanders' eyes as he seemed to piece together that the teen should have been watched more closely.
"How many?" Vader boomed and Zanders' dread spread into his movements as he started to take a step back. Luke's father reached out, gloved fingers splayed ever so slightly, and Zanders gave a strangled yelp as he was lifted off the floor.
Luke's own fingers twitched and the door they'd entered the bridge through snapped shut, cutting off the crewmen's would-be escape route. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked them before turning back to his father. "Thirty adults and about half as many children. They all looked like they could be from Outer Rim territories."
His fathers focus was fixed on the dangling captain who looked like he was desperately trying to move but couldn't. "Where were you delivering them?"
Zanders choked a little and a glove finger flicked to release the hold on his throat, even if nothing else. Zanders sucked in a lung full of air. "A buyer. On Coruscant."
Interesting. No wonder he'd had stolen codes. He'd been bold enough to try to traffic slaves on the capital planet.
"A name," Darth Vader demanded.
"I don't have it."
He choked and sputtered again, and behind Luke, one of the crew members shouted a name: "Merrick!"
Zanders crumbled to the floor as Luke's father turned his attention to the crew member. The man - though he wasn't more than a few years older than Luke - swallowed hard. "I want assurances."
"And I will have what you know, willingly or not," Vader warned.
The crew member nodded his understanding. "I… okay. Okay. Triton Merrick runs a business somewhere in the lower levels. Labor, mostly, a couple brothels. Cap'n meets him at a maintenance shop on Level Twenty."
"Stupid bastard," Zanders coughed. "You think you'll walk away?"
"Deal with him," Luke's father said and the captain seemed to catch the meaning before Luke himself. It took an uncertain, nonverbal check before his father confirmed. Kill him.
But he's unarmed. He's our prisoner.
His father didn't answer him, but instead whipped one arm out, lightsaber in hand - ignited - and sliced through the captain before anyone else in the room could process what was happening.
You will not hesitate to obey my orders again, Darth Vader instructed before turning to the stormtroopers as Luke struggled to regain his composure. "Bring him."
That cut off the immediate acknowledgment of the instruction. What about the people below deck?
I will free them, his father responded, but something about it didn't make sense. They were heading towards the exit, the other two guards thrown back against the wall hard enough to knock them out by the time they reached the bridge's door.
—
The two stormtroopers that had fixed the hyperdrive joined them as they made their way to the bridge between ships and Vader could feel his son's confusion growing. He didn't ask at first, desperately trying to cling to trust, but finally he stopped, looking back towards the hallway where the beings he worried over were still trapped. We can't just leave them, Father.
"Take him," Vader ordered and the four troopers led the slaver away. Once the bridge door was sealed again, he turned towards his son. "They are already dead."
"No they're not." His confusion and pain at the thought reminded Vader of days long gone and a boy who had allowed sentiment to cloud his judgment for too long.
And it had nearly killed him.
It had only been when he'd embraced the darkness that he had found a way to protect the one left. The same darkness could allow his son to protect himself as well, if only he'd use it, yet every opportunity Luke found to avoid it, he did.
"Is this punishment?" Luke demanded. "For not murdering the captain in cold blood?"
"It needed to be done."
"Does this?" his son demanded, hand sweeping towards the hall. "They're innocent. Possibly Imperial subjects, and what? You're just going to let them sell sentient being off to—"
"I am going to set them free."
"How?"
"In death, along with everything and everyone on this ship."
His son studied him for a long moment and he felt a strange pressure on their bond. Prodding and searching, as if he were looking for a way to convince him of another path. And then he found it, and there was a sourness from him. He pushed a breath out through his nose, turned away, drew one in, then looked to his boots. "And if I do it, you'll let them live?"
"I have no interest in the slaves they peddle, only the slavers and the buyers," he said to his son. Though perhaps it was a lie he was telling himself.
"They can leave?" Luke pressed, and in that moment Vader wasn't sure if he saw more of Padme or Anakin in him. A perfect blend of determination and passion.
"The ship will be theirs to do with what they will. I will not stand in their way," Vader vowed.
Luke studied him for another long moment before giving a sharp nod and turning down the hall. It was necessary, Vader reminded himself as he heard the lightsaber ignite and the first cry from down the hall. The darkness had saved him. It hadn't been easy, but it had made him strong. To survive, Luke had to be strong.
—
He lay curled up on his bed in the small room he called his own on the Executioner, the chill settling even deeper into his bones than after Anzat. They hadn't been innocent, but the majority of them had been unarmed. The few that managed to get a blaster leveled at him hadn't landed a shot before they were cut down. Even if it had bought innocent people their lives, it didn't feel like justice.
Luke curled into himself and reached one hand out to the table by his bed, fingers pressing the button on the comm. He waited and waited, but she didn't pick up. Not that that was unusual. The Emperor kept his Hand busy, but as the comm pinged an alert that Mara was unavailable, he felt the chill reach a little deeper. A little more permanent.
The door to his room slid open without warning and Luke was halfway to laying into the intruder before he realized it was his father. He sank back instantly, having only made it to his knees from the curled position, and wished he was anywhere but right there.
He hated it. After so long wanting to be near to his father, he simultaneously hated being near him and hated himself for feeling that way in that moment.
The door slid shut behind Darth Vader, sealing them in the room. "You did well today."
"Thank you, Father," Luke answered hollowly.
"It was necessary. It will pass."
"You keep saying that."
"You are not using it. What do you feel?"
Luke sank back against the bed, avoiding eye contact. "I don't know."
"Search your feelings."
The teen pushed a frustrated breath out his nose. "Frustrated?" he tried, and when his father didn't admonish him he continued. "Angry. Confused. Upset." He drew in a deep breath, feeling the weight before he breathed out the final confession. "Guilt."
"You ended the lives of enemies of our Empire. Do not feel guilt for that. Do you recall what I taught you about fear when you were young?"
"You told me to use it. Sharpen it."
"And you did. If you allow your feelings to control you, you will drown in them. Instead, use them. Sharpen the fear to wield as a weapon. Hone the frustration to balance it. Harden the guilt and use it to climb above. Only then will you be ready."
Luke blinked hard, turning his gaze on his father. "For what?"
His father didn't answer at first. He just stood there, a towering man hidden behind a mask, often even to his own son. "If I'm supposed to learn, I need to know."
There was another beat of hesitation. Then another before Vader finally loosed what sounded a little like a sigh through his mask. He moved closer than Luke often found him these days, but did not take a seat with him. "In the end there are only two," the Sith Apprentice said. "In the end, either we will be pit against each other-"
"No," Luke managed. "I won't. I won't fight you."
His father reached a gloved hand out and it rested on his head like when he was young. "- or against him. You must be ready. You must be strong. You must master the Dark Side to do that. It is the only way."
Luke reached up and took his father's hand, wrapping his fingers around the rough material. "I won't let him take you from me," he swore. "Or me from you."
"Then we are agreed."
He swallowed hard, forcing down all of the other ways they might find down with the lump in his throat. "Yes, Father."
TBC
Notes: Well this chapter hurt to write. I do think that, in canon, all of the terror Vader brought down on Luke after he found out that he was his son was his twisted way of protecting him. If he could turn him, if he could teach him to use the power of the Dark Side, they could rise up against Palpatine and defeat him together. I think Luke's life was tremendously more important to him than his happiness, and that was after knowing him for something like five minutes lol. The interesting journey here is Vader watching his son grow.. seeing pieces of Padme in him in his heart and even pieces of himself that he'd tried to forget. In many ways, Luke was more of a canon to him in canon until the end, but here Vader knows him deeply. It's an interesting and painful journey sometimes to find that balance in these chapters.
All that to say, sorry for the long wait :') I'm hoping the next one will be a bit quicker, as I'm going to get to play with some characters I adore and set up some story threads that I'm absurdly excited about. That and Mara will be back in the next chapter, so at least Luke will get a little break from the saturating darkness his father brings.
Next Time: Luke returns to Lothal with his father.