"We can always trust Anakin to do what he thinks is right. But we can't trust him to do what he's told. He can't be made to simply obey." – Obi-Wan Kenobi

Revenge of the Sith by Matt Stover

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PART III – Claiming the Past

The planet of Dagobah was normally damp and musty, the atmosphere laden with oppressive humidity. The perpetually overcast swamp was not warm, but Luke usually found that he had to remove his jacket due to the dankness. Today was different. Luke felt cold, like the feeling of deep night on Tatooine. The weight of his teaching bore down on him. He groped for the meditative calm that Master Yoda had taught him, but it eluded him. With the information that had been imparted to him by Darth Vader now acknowledged, he now felt the weight of the past sink heavily onto his shoulders. His life was no longer folly and fodder for teenage dreams of heroic adventures.

Just a day's work in the Rebellion… another Death Star to blow up.

No more. Now purpose settled onto his bearing and something larger than himself seemed to whisper to him of his destiny - of who he was, why he was born and his place in the galaxy. It whispered he now had a legacy. He felt the irrational need to be back on the farm, back at Tosché Station, back with his friends. Maybe it was all a dream.

But it wasn't a dream. He felt his youth slip away into the sands of Tatooine, seemingly to never again be ascertained.

The hero worship of his father mocked him now, but the voice of another lingered. Somewhere in his mind's eye, he could see the face of his father. It floated before him; intense blue eyes that matched his own…then ripped cruelly away by the darkness.

He sat on the bank, looking out across the mist-covered lake and shivered. He closed his eyes and drew on the Force. Yoda was gone. Obi-Wan was gone. Their presences still lingered in the Force, weighing almost as heavy as their words.

Your father, he is.

Luke slumped forward, slowly rubbing his hands across his face. Such a short sentence to seal his fate. He was beginning to wonder if Yoda or Ben had ever planned to let him in on the secret. Or was it nothing more than a mere tragedy to them? An unfortunate biological detail…

Not that it mattered now. Vader – no, Father – had told him the truth. A truth that echoed and resonated through his soul in the same timbre that had whispered to him in the clouds of Bespin. Something manifested between the two of them and shattered all of his preconceived notions. He remembered the words he had finally dared to speak aloud to his old master.

"There is still good in him."

Obi-Wan's answer had sounded sad and tired, "He's more machine now than man. Twisted and evil."

Luke couldn't fault the old Master for not believing. Ben did not see in his former apprentice what Luke felt. He didn't hear the voice that haunted Luke's dreams almost every night now. The voice that wrapped itself around his soul like a warm blanket.

The voice that gave him the courage to face the truth that Anakin Skywalker still lived…and Luke could no more leave him in darkness than he could his newfound sister.

Leia.

How was he going to tell her?

"Bury your feelings deep down, Luke. They do you credit, but could be made to serve the Emperor."

Luke had nodded and hesitated, "Is that what happened? To my father?"

Ben had looked as if the weight of a thousand lifetimes rested on his shoulders. "I do not know, Luke. Anakin wanted power…and the Emperor offered it freely."

Luke lifted his eyes back to the moss-laden trees. But his father had power now - more power than anyone in the galaxy, save the Emperor. Yet, it did not satisfy him. Something else flowed through his father's soul now, eroding a path of pain. It was the cold hand of despair that fed the dark animal coiled within him, Luke could feel it. His father had unknowingly opened up more of himself to Luke than he realized as he reached for him, of that much Luke was sure.

The creature born of despair, fear and hate twitched and lashed out when Luke came near. It feared the light. It knew that Luke could banish it from the dark heart to which it clung, like a lover. For the light would reveal what it was hiding and guarding fiercely, even from the dark lord himself.

Luke's thoughts continued to haunt him on the journey back to the Alliance.


Darth Vader stood looking out the viewport of the bridge on the Executor. The stars sometimes provided stimulus when he strove for meditation. Often, the more he attempted the act of meditation, the more difficult it became. Although nowhere near as difficult as it had been in his younger years, when faces of victims burned past his barriers and bled through his shields.

He had not allowed himself total relief from his past. There were some things he would never forget - some faces he would never forget. This was perhaps as it should be. It defined his existence and fed the dark odium that kept him alive.

It was what he deserved, after all. In the very deepest, concealed part of him, he granted them that power over him, though no one would ever discern this, even through the Force. This hatred for him was theirs, only he bore the mantle of it, he made sure. Because they would not, it was not their way. He used it for his own purpose.

Meditation had become easier with age and concentration. His thoughts had become easier to confine, to settle into the path that would lead him to this surreptitious place in himself. The place where he pulled from the darkness like a starved child at its mother's breast. Never seeming to find enough.

This ease that he had briefly touched on had deserted him after the discovery of his son. He could barely focus his energy in meditation without the blue eyes of his son, the eyes of another man, blazing to life before him in the red optics of the mask. They haunted him to madness.

Had they also haunted Obi-Wan?

He frowned under the mask. Where had that thought come from?

He turned to walk the length of the viewport. He could feel Luke's presence from a distance, now. It materialized in the Force like waves of water reaching the shore and then circled and skirted Vader's own sense - a tentative, cursory push in the Force.

Was Luke looking for him?

With the Emperor nearby, he did not believe he should risk open communication with his son.

Reaching desperately for composed energy and detachment, he looked in the direction of the Tion Cluster. If he could focus on that one star system, he could escape his rumination and bury himself in the dark reflection that gave him strength. So he looked harder, willing his eyes to focus through the red buzz of the computerized lenses. He concentrated so hard that his temples pounded and his vision clouded through the lens, but still the latent bond remained. Suddenly, a vibration occurred in the Force and his son's life signature sang to him. He knew meditation was lost this day. Luke was nearby.

Giving up, he stalked to the command center to inquire of the destination of the shuttle that had passed by on its way to the small moon, although he had deduced the answer already. Upon confirmation of his son's presence, he decided to leave for the Death Star. He must prepare his shields against the Emperor, he had risked much to secure Luke's safety from Xizor and there could possibly be questions. The possibility was there also that his master would see through most of the answers, of course. He tried to collect his thoughts. He must subdue the deep yearning that seemed to overcome him at the mention of Skywalker's name. It was imperative.

The feeling that the Emperor knew of Xizor's attempt on Luke's life concerned Vader. They had agreed that an attempt to turn Luke to the dark side would be made before he was destroyed. If the Emperor knew that Luke was walking into a trap, like the previous attempt on his life by the Hand, Mara Jade or by Xizor himself, this meant that the Emperor was not convinced of Luke's importance and Vader would have to alter his plans. It occurred to him that he was walking a narrow precipice with very high stakes.


Louder than any voice in the Ewok hut, Luke heard his father land on the sanctuary moon. Distracted, he pulled himself from the warm firelight of friendship and wandered down the walkway. He had not seen his father since Bespin but their connection had grown stronger with each brush against each other in the Force. The now-familiar dark aura swirled in the distance and Luke returned the contact with a brief touch of his own. He could not help the longing that surrounded being this close to his father's presence.

The time had come. Obi-Wan and his father spoke of destiny, a concept that Luke had never given much consideration. He had always thought his destiny was his own making.

But perhaps they spoke the truth. Luke's fate was indeed bonded and intertwined with Vader's and he would share his father's fate, one way or another. His father would join him…or kill him.

Luke knew little of the Emperor, but he knew that he would not escape the Death Star once he had surrendered. His resolve was firmly set. He would not turn to the dark side. And he would not run.

But he did not believe it would not come to that. Darth Vader had taken a very decided step close to the line of treason when he had turned the laser of his Star Destroyer on an Imperial ally. This was not something Luke could look over, as it spoke clearly of Vader's feelings. If nothing else, it showed the lengths Vader would go to protect Luke from everyone but himself.

Just as his father had protected him from Xizor, Luke did not believe the dark lord would turn him over to the Emperor.

The "Leia-place" in the back of his mind stirred. Instinctively, Luke blocked it from his father's approaching presence. If Luke succeeded in nothing else, his father must not know about Leia.

Luke lifted his eyes to the stars, drawing again on the Force for strength. The voice from beyond his dreams answered, stronger than he'd ever heard it before.

…there's good in him…

The phrase resolved itself, for the first time, into a woman's voice. Familiar in its conviction, and connection. A woman…a voice like Leia's…but different.

His sister's warm voice greeted him from behind and Luke turned to face her.

"Leia, do you remember your mother?"

To be continued…