Waves of pain, washing over him. Burning… The smell of charred flesh.

Fire. Smoke. His lungs contracting violently for air. Gasping.

Flames, everywhere. The pain.

His legs - gone. His best friend – gone. His angel – gone. His child – gone.

Nothing left but pain.

It would eat him alive… consume his body.

Flames everywhere.

Darkness surrounding. Despair. Agony. Anger… Hate.

All lost. All but pain.

A figure, above the smoke. Dark and withered. Coming to claim him.

Darkness.

A hand, reaching out to him, shaking his burnt shoulder. He screamed in pain. Agony.

"Luke! Luke! Come back."

Whose….whose voice was calling him? He focused on it, past the overwhelming pain. Like an anchor, he reached out to grab it, to save himself from insanity.

"Focus on me Luke. Come back. You're safe, with me."

Safe… The grip on his shoulder was no longer painful. It encompassed him, protected him. He closed his eyes, feeling another reach out and soothe his mind. Relaxing, Luke calmed his violent breathing, and brought himself back to reality, away from the darkness of his dreams.

"What did you dream, child?"

Luke glanced up, and saw the black mask starring down at him. The hands around his shoulders were covered in leather. He tried to jerk back, away from the touch, but Vader seemed disinclined to let him go. "Fire." Luke mumbled, "A fire you know well."

Luke felt Vader stretching out and enter his mind briefly, then hiss angrily. "That is something you should not have seen." He pulled away quickly, standing up and turning his back on Luke.

Slowly, Luke sat up and gazed at him, wondering what was going on in that complex mind, "It was a vision the force gave me. There was a reason."

"You will learn, Luke, that most things in life have no reason. There is no benevolent force that guides everything. Only pain will come from this vision." Vader told him.

"Not only pain," Luke reasoned, "I saw what you went through, I lived it. That's something no one else will understand."

"I do not need to be understood!" Vader snapped, "I am far more concerned why you dreamed one of my memories. It must not happen again."

There was silence in the room for a minute, "Where did you learn your mother's name?" Vader asked finally, suspicion in his voice.

Luke glanced away quickly, closing his eyes and raising his shields. "It isn't important."

"I will know child." Vader answered firmly. He paced over to where Luke sat, and his hand reached out, with both firmness and gentleness, to tilt Luke's head upwards toward himself. "Did you dream about her too?"

Luke winced at the bitterness in his father's voice, "I…have dreamt about many things …father."

His father let out his breath in frustration. Obviously, he did not like others knowing his personal memories any more than Luke. Luke stood up and faced him as well as he could from his smaller height, "I saw it all father. I saw you and mother grow closer to each other through the years. I saw how you were ripped apart."

"By Obi-Wan." Vader growled, "He made me kill my own wife."

Luke shook his head firmly, "You didn't kill Padme." Vader's head snapped towards him.

"I…didn't?" For the first time ever, Vader spoke to Luke with uncertainty in his voice. Suddenly, a glimmer of Anakin shone through.

Luke opened his mind willingly to Vader, and beckoned him to enter. Hesitantly, his father did, and Luke drew him into the vision of what occurred after his fateful duel.

"You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you."

Obi-wan, back at the ship… Padme lying down, alive…entering unconsciousness…

Vader tried to pull away as Luke sensed fresh pain wash over him, seeing again his beloved wife drifting closer to the death that would claim her. 'Not yet' Luke sent, feeling his father resisting, but he was in control, holding his father fast in his mental grip. There was more for Vader to see.

Obi-Wan covering his head with his arms… Finding a corner of the ship – sobbing.

"I have failed you, Anakin. I have failed you."

Tears running down his face…

All at once, Vader broke away from Luke's hold on him, breathing hard. He swayed unsteadily on his feet, and Luke reached out to keep him from falling over.

Luke extended his senses as far as he could, pushing them to the limit to reach out and feel what Vader felt. He had to know, he had to find the right words to say in so volatile a moment. Here his father was open before him, if only he could be strong enough to show him the truth!

"Everything does happen for a reason father. I have been shown these visions to help you - to show you the truth. Good can still come from all this pain and suffering, if only you will let it." Luke urged.

Hedrew closer to Vader, for the first time in his life unafraid of the proximity. His careful touch on his father's arm strengthened and he projected towards him all the comfort and peace he could muster, "You did not kill her, Anakin." Luke said in little more than a whisper, "Let go of your guilt."

"I cannot." Vader rasped in reply, "I…" His head hung lung, as his breathing became more and more erratic as his machines fought to resume their mechanical precision, "I cannot be saved after what I have done. This is my hell."

With a great heave, he was again on his feet, pushing Luke away. While before his mind lay open to Luke, he fiercely withdrew from their contact, both mental and physical. "You are my son," he growled, "You belong to me. This is your fate."

Vader turned and left the room is a quick stride, as if departing from the very gates of Erebus with demons on his tail. Luke was tempted to feel despair, and grief, over coming so close to bringing Anakin out of his prison, yet he was also in awe.

For a few brief and fleeting moments, he had seen the inner soul of the man he called father, and what horrors tormented him. And he had seen a glimmer of light…

And a voice in his head… "There is good in him…I know there is still…"

'What games do you play, in your hours alone, my father? Whatdarkness conceals AnakinSkywalker,behind that mask?'

Many hours passed before a new face appeared at his door – a hardened older man with several scars at odd angles across his face. Though.. not quite so old as Luke first thought. He was merely battle hardened. His uniform was dark and fitted, but lacked the usual shows of rank. Then again, Luke did not expect his father's officers to be quite ordinary, nor soft in the face.

'Perhaps I'll look like that after long enough with Vader'

Before Luke could ask any questions, the man spoke, "I'm the personal aide towards Darth Vader. You are to come with me, Skywalker, to Lord Vader's shuttle." The voice was clipped, but not altogether unpleasant. It lacked any sympathy, but displayed no agression.

Was his father so afraid to see him again, that he sent an aide in his place? Was he to have a chance to show him the truth again? "Where is the shuttle going?" Luke asked, studying the man before him, who was not in the least disturbed by his scrutiny.

Yet with his question, something flickered before the man's face for a moment – a shadow behind his eyes, where the light of the room was paled with what thoughts lived within. But that was only for a moment.

"Come." he said again, more forcefully this time, and Luke complied silently, interested to learn what means his mysterious father was trying now. Escape was not so pressing a thing, when he was faced with such an awesome opportunity. They could never be a family, his father and he, but they could be whole, without the darkness that was Vader. With a heavily armed stormtrooper escort in the hall, he was marched out to the hanger, and whatever fate Vader had planned for him.

A/N. Sorry for the long wait, and the shortness of the chapter! I'm just running out the door now to visit my grandmother in the hospital.