Where Am I Going To?
Part Two
Chapter Twenty
The Rogue Squadron pilots had just swooped in when Luke had once more shoved Lando out of the pilots seat. "My former planet, my turn to steer."
"You are insane," Lando growled, sprawled out somewhat indignantly on the ship's floor. Leia helped him up, shaking her head.
"There's no point in arguing. Look at him."
Lando did spare a glance, and Luke was not there at all. He was world's away, piloting the bulky freighter with a lightness of touch that was truly astounding. In fact, he didn't really show any signs of thought until Wedge commed in, and a brief smile burst onto his face.
"We got another call from Chewie that there was some problems going down on Coruscant."
"Did you really?"
"I take it you're fine, then?"
"Oh, you know, it's only Xizor's private navy. Nothing I can't handle."
"Right. Well, I haven't seen action for some time. Mind if we join in the party."
"By all means!"
And from there, little progress was made. At all. In fact, even Luke was starting to bite his lower lip. Leia placed a hand on his shoulder, leaning down to whisper in his ear, worried, and he faltered slightly.
"There's no way we can get out of this. Look, they've netted us in."
He didn't look at her. "Uh huh. I know. But maybe we can take a few of them down with us."
Her gaze moved from the window to him, and he did not look at her. "Luke…"
"I'm going to see if I can call truce for two seconds, get in touch with the Falleen's Fist."
"And why on earth would you do something like that?"
"Xizor still loves you, right?" he whispered, now glancing at the hand. "And he's not going to want to blow you up."
"And the point of this is…."
"I get you onto the skyhook. You stay alive."
She quickly collapsed into the co-pilot's seat, stealing one of his hands and clutching it wildly. "Luke, no!"
"Please, don't argue."
"I am staying with you."
He stared at her for a second and turned right back to the window. "I've got to protect you. What would Han say?" he laughed, and she didn't smile.
Instead, she merely held the hand tighter. "If you die, I die. And if you live, then I will live – but only by your side."
He now turned full around, wanting to argue but knowing he couldn't. Finally he said, "I love you, Leia Organa."
She fumbled slightly, smiled, squeezed his hand again. "And I will always care for you more than you will ever realize. But I don't love you the way you want me to."
He said nothing, smiled sadly, and had his attention quickly diverted, this time by Lando on the comm.
"Oh shit….Luke, we've got a problem."
"Tell me something I don't know."
"I'm not joking here," and he rattled off some coordinates for Luke to look at. His head snapped in that direction, and he very quickly paled. "Oh good Lord…."
It was The Executor and a fairly decent chunk of the Imperial Navy, slowly creeping its way in, and having clearly caught notice of the fighting. Luke swallowed hard, turned back to Leia. "Last chance to get you onto that skyhook." She scowled at him, and then at the Super Star Destroyer. Luke sighed, said nothing. Well, so much the better or worse…..
"Why aren't they firing?" wondered Wes aloud, verbalizing everyone's thoughts. And then suddenly, they were!
….But not at them.
A shot struck one of Xizor's ships head on, badly, if not fatally, taking it out. Luke could hear a collective gasp before he stood up in the chair, hands smacking the dashboard. "Yes, Father, I love you!" He burst out into crazy laughter while Leia stared at him.
"You've gone stark raving mad!"
"I can't believe it!" cried Luke. "I just can't believe it! Show that Falleen scum!"
"Luke!" Leia grabbed him by the arm, dragging him back into his chair as he hummed, occasionally bursting out into laughter. There was then a sudden bright, hot light, a very large flash, and they had to blink several times to clear their eyes of the spots dancing before them. "By the Force…." Leia whispered.
"What?" Luke asked, rubbing his eyes. "What is it?"
"Look," she pointed, her voice hoarse.
There was no skyhook. At all. It was just gone.
Luke stared like her, jaw agape, trying to process this. No skyhook. No Xizor.
His father had shot him right out of the sky. And he had to know that his son was on board the attacked vessel.
Father….
Leia snorted, shook her head. "Well, there goes another suitor. Farewell, Xizor. Rest in peace."
Luke wasn't listening, staring at the Super Star Destroyer while many of the X-Wings were getting out of there as fast as they could before any sort of attack could be formulated against them.
"Saving me from my nightmares again, Father?"
"Luke, we have to get out of here, now!" Lando was shouting through the comm., and Leia was trying desperately to wake him from his reverie.
After a moment, he blinked, said "What, huh? Yes, right, going!" He punched in the right codes, and before he knew what he was doing, they were gone.
And that was that.
…
"My Lord Vader? They've…They've gone. The Millennium Falcon as well as the Rogue Squadron pilots made a swift retreat."
Vader stood staring at the spot where Xizor had once been living and breathing. Very really, very tangible, mildly threatening.
"Yes, thank you, Captain Idorath."
Idorath breathed a sigh of relief, glad not to be dead. "Should we continue our course for Coruscant, sir?"
"Yes, that would be good."
He clicked his heels together, gave a militaristic bow. "Sir. I'll see to your shuttle once we are close enough to orbit."
Vader this time didn't respond, still watching.
Real, tangible, and threatening. Only because he had once upon a time dared to touch a hair on his son's perfect head.
Vader closed his eyes, took in a bigger breath than usual. Those days had been almost….happy in comparison to now. Unless Xizor had to come on the scene, but he'd carefully hidden Luke away after that first encounter. The emperor had not been pleased that he had tried to chock the head of Black Sun, but the incident had been explained, and Vader made it clear he was very unrepentant. In such situations, there was little to do. Any punishment would only have strengthened Vader's dogged determination to keep his son and heir to the throne out of as much danger as possible.
But there were enough things out there that he could never protect him from.
"You didn't save me from my nightmares…Obi-Wan would do that…."
He probably had no idea how those words tortured him. He neither slept nor lived nor breathed for days at a time if they dared to creep into his thoughts. Obi-Wan. Always compared to Obi-Wan. Anakin, you should exercise more control, do as your master does. Anakin, you will never be a truly good Jedi until you control you anger, like Obi-Wan. Anakin, Obi-Wan would never have fallen to the Dark Side.
Vader, your son loves Obi-Wan better than he loves you.
Did he?
Luke….
What was it Jade had said to him those two years ago? That he'd never kill him. That he was too weak, too much of a father. And she'd never let him. What had she meant by that last statement? Crazy, insubordinate girl. She and Luke had used to run here and there and everywhere together. Nobody could understand why. Their destinies were entirely different, their places and uses very much apart. So why were they always glued together.
Was he too weak a person, too much a father to have killed his son?
Well, he did just fire on Xizor's skyhook. But that could be explained away in a million different ways none of which involving Luke.
But he did think about him constantly.
I still love you more than you will ever know.
Oh yes, yes he did. He always would. There was no escape for it. He'd been willing to choke the head of Black Sun, kill Obi-Wan, risk his position, even kill his Master's other favorite and get into something of an argument with the Emperor's Hand over it. And he would do far worse if it were necessary. He adored that boy, he always would.
I miss you.
And that was the real tragedy of it. He found he could revel in little pleasure of finally knocking off Xizor, shoving him out of his way. And in a way, he was just as glad Luke had escaped.
Something told him that he would be seeing him again. Sooner than he might think. But not soon enough.
I love you.
To Be Continued…
Sorry for the long break, guys! I've been super busy, and desperately needed the sabbatical. I do greatly appreciate your patience. And with that….PART TWO IS OVER! WHOOT! Wow, what do you know? It's the exact same length as Part One. Ironic. Anywho, the next chapter will be the transition into Part Three and Return of the Jedi. It's that power packed finales that awaits! Whoot! Keep reading, loyal fans, I'll try and make updates a bit more often.
East Coast Ryder: Oh, wow, thank you
Schnickledooger: Sorry I didn't respond, I got your review too late '. Anyway, don't distress. As for Xizor, insulting Shmi, Padmè, and Luke all in the same paragraph is like pointing a gun at your chest and asking someone to fire. He's toast.
Stephanie C: Why choke someone when blowing them up into teeny tiny pieces is oh so satisfying?
Yeah, and she hasn't even met Jabba yet! Personally, I think Xizor's her best choice out of the bunch.
Shi Feng Huang: Oh 'twas pretty. Shiny lights….
darth mojo the spork: Thank you very much It takes constant improvement, but I don't think I do so bad, myself. If you look at the earliest chapter of this and the latest, you can detect differences. At least, I can. But that could just be me.
Myotismon13: Bad idea? No, no, I think it falls into the category of suicidal.
Katharina: I can see how you might take it as a gay relationship, but it's honestly not. I have no problems with slash, but I don't really like it. Luke just had a huge mental breakdown and Obi-Wan was the only stable thing to cling to. So he did. And once Luke clings, he clings. So, no, it's not a gay relationship. Because frankly, Obi-Wan's waaay too old. But that's not the point.
denique: I trust the release from the cliffhanger satisfied you.
Shi Feng Huang: I dunno, I'm not quite sure Vader would look good in snake skin….. What disappointed me about SotE was that Xizor was such a complete gary-stu. For such a dynamic sounding character, I was expecting a couple more faults and some things to make him way more interesting. Too bad. Maybe I should stop before my head explodes, but I kinda like my Xizor better than the real one. And there's my ego boost for the day.