Luke's Quarters
Executor
Darth Vader strode into his son's prison and halted in awed surprise. Everything was floating. The bed, the dresser with the myriad of expensive, well made black clothing. The table.
The boy.
Luke, who was hovering in the air a meter, opened his eyes and put his feet down even as the contents of the room lowered delicately to the ground.
"The Millennium Falcon, with your friends aboard, is en route to Bespin," the Sith rumbled.
Luke winced slightly, "Did Boba Fett tell you that?"
"Yes."
"We thought he was probably the one that figured it out," Luke replied with a sigh. "You handed Solo over to him so we assumed Fett did something to earn your favor."
"May I assume that it was during an interaction at Bespin that I cut off your hand?"
"Yes," Luke agreed irritably. "It was a thoroughly rotten way to meet my father. You captured my friends, tortured them, which drew me to Bespin, then beat me up thoroughly, cut off my hand, and told me that I was your son. I know that interpersonal relationships are not really your strong point, but that was incompetent even for you."
Vader glared at the boy's insolence for a long minute, then shook his head, "Did we ever meet again?"
"We did, like a year from now, on Endor. You hauled me off to the second Death Star and the Emperor eventually encouraged me to kill you and take your place at my side. The man's just … impossible, really. Father, he is such an evil, conniving wretch. You should kill him."
Vader shook a finger at his alter son, "Do you think I do not wish to? It is impossible without my son's help!"
"I kind of doubt that," Luke replied, taking a step forward and glaring into his father's mask. "You are very smart. I think you're just not willing to do it because in some twisted, aberrant way, you are emotionally attached to Palpatine."
"I most certainly am not," Vader snarled angrily.
"Yes, you are. You loved your mother and lost her, which was tragic. I only met her briefly when we rescued her from the Tuskens, but she was a great lady. You lost my mother in ... I'm guessing childbirth?"
The furniture began shaking in Vader's distress and Luke lifted a hand to keep his bed from cracking in two, "Ok, I'm guessing that means yes. Also very, very sad. I think the whole no attachments stupidity of the Jedi Order was a real disaster but let's get real, you do attach to people and this time you're attached to a really disturbed individual. I know you are willing to get rid of Palpatine and keep Luke but you have to be willing to ditch your psycho Sith Master before you have a chance of forming a good relationship with either of your children. You can't have both, even for a small time. Palpatine isn't an idiot. He knows you aren't reliable so as soon as one of your kids turns, he'll trade you in on the new model."
"Your sister, is she strong with the Force?"
"Ye ... es, but that is all I'm telling you about her. Seriously, Father, I truly do love you but you need to shake off the Emperor or you'll never forge any kind of decent relationship with us."
"Turning back from the Dark Side is impossible, Luke."
"No, it isn't," his alter son replied, his eyes suddenly stormy with memories, "because I watched you do it. I refused to kill you and turn to the Dark and Palpatine began pummeling me with Force Lightning. You intervened and threw him into a pit, to his death, but were mortally injured in the process. I had twenty minutes with my true father, Anakin Skywalker, before he died of his injuries. Those were some of the best minutes of my life."
/
The Excelsior
In Orbit Around Hoth
"We have you on our screen now, please identify."
"Transmitting clearance code," a filtered voice responded.
The deck officer of the Excelsior stared in surprise as the code, then stood up urgently, "Captain Vuta!"
The captain strode over quickly and glanced down at the code, his eyes widening in surprise.
"Order them to dock on Landing Bay #2," Vuta ordered, sweeping briskly off the bridge. Five minutes later, he marched into the landing bay. In spite of himself, he was shocked. He was vaguely aware of the Emperor's Hand program and knew they operated outside the confines of the regular navy, but this ship was a total disaster! It was a miracle it could fly!
The ramp lowered and a red headed woman of truly startling beauty walked briskly down to meet him.
"Captain," the woman said with an indifferent nod.
"Hand," the Captain replied rather nervously. Any personal agent of the Emperor was bound to be a dangerous individual, no matter how lovely she was.
"The main hyperdrive on my ship is inoperable. I need a squad of your best men to repair her as quickly as possible."
"As you wish," Vuta replied with a thankful nod. This was, at least a simple enough request to fulfill.
/
Millennium Falcon
In hyperspace
5 hours later
The panel in the walkway was lifted away and Han and Leia and Chewbacca looked up to see Mara looking down at them.
"You can come up now," the woman said cheerfully, reaching down to give Leia a hand. The princess thankfully grasped the offered appendage and hauled herself out of the smuggling compartment of the Millennium Falcon.
Han and Chewie climbed out without assistance and followed the two women into the cockpit, where the view of hyperspace brought a deep sense of relief into the hearts of the Rebels.
"I honestly cannot believe that worked," Leia muttered, slumping into a nearby seat.
"Of course it worked," Mara replied confidently. "The Empire is predicated on authority, authority, authority. For all that the Emperor's Hands were de facto slaves to his Royal Evilness, we did have authority over most of the random military structure since we were brainwashed to do Palpatine's will. There was no way that the captain of a mid level capital ship would deny the orders of an Emperor's Hand, especially a captain who is so mediocre as to be stuck in a mopping up action on Hoth."
"Even though they fixed the hyperdrive of the Millennium Falcon," Solo pointed out. "I mean, you'd think that would make the Imps think a little bit."
"He didn't recognize her, Han," Mara said with a brisk shake of the head. "The Falcon is an amazing ship, but her outward appearance is like so many other YT-1300f freighters. He didn't have any idea that he was fixing the hyperdrive of the freighter that most of Death Squadron has been tracking for some time. Even in my time, Han Solo always has plenty of fake IDs for his ship so of course we had plenty to choose from this time."
"So what now?" Leia asked, gazing out at the front window into hyperspace. "Where did you set our course?"
"Well, no where in particular," Mara replied even as she massaged an ache out of her neck. "We'll want to drop out of hyperspace and make a couple of course corrections, just in case Captain Vuta puts things together. You can head back to the Rebel Fleet, of course, but I would recommend going to Dagobah to find Luke."
"Dagobah?"
"Swamp planet. Not too far with a working hyperdrive. You should land, which actually might prove a little dicey — Luke says he settled his X-wing in a swamp the first time he landed — but anyway, land, tell Luke the truth about Vader and you and go from there. My Luke has said like 148 times that he so wishes he'd known the truth about Vader earlier."
The princess grimaced, "I truly wish I didn't know, Mara."
"Isn't it better to know the truth?"
"Yes," Leia said wearily. "I suppose it is. But it stinks to high heaven."
/
Luke's cell/quarters
Executor
A few hours later
"The thing is," Luke observed gravely, "Obi-Wan was such a moron in some ways."
The youth was lying flat on his back on his very comfortable bed, and was staring at the ceiling.
Darth Vader, who was seated on a gargantuan chair nearby, lifted his hidden, hairless brows in surprise, "I am not arguing with you about that, my son."
Luke chuckled and sat up, swinging his legs over the side, "Not for the reasons you probably have, though. No, the thing was that even after almost 20 years on Tatooine, he had no clue about the importance of family."
The Sith's slight amusement morphed into pain and anger, "The Jedi eschewed and despised all such relationships."
"I know, and they were idiots. I mean, I appreciate the Jedi in many ways, way way more than the Sith, but anyone who spent 19 years on Tatooine, even as a disheveled hermit in the desert, should have picked up on the fact that I would not take kindly to being trained and enticed into killing my own father."
Vader shook his head grimly, "The Jedi failed the galaxy in general, my son. The Light Side …"
"Is weak," his son interrupted firmly, leaping to his feet. "I know, I've heard it all before. Shaakwash, Father, utter shaakwash. Love and the Light saved me because my father chose to set aside his devotion to Palpatine and the Dark Side."
Vader rose to his feet, deliberately towering over his much slighter son, "You have told me that before …"
"Oh wait!" Luke said suddenly, "my toes are tingling!"
The cyborg Sith looked down at the boy's booted feet, "Is that a problem?"
"No, but it means I'm going back to the future. Here give me a hug."
Vader froze with a mixture of embarrassment and longing.
"Sith do not …"
A moment later, his son's arms were around him, the youth's face leaning up against his chest plate.
"I love you, Father."
Luke vanished.
/
Millennium Falcon
In hyperspace en route to Dagobah
"My toes are tingling, which means I'm going to vanish in just a bit," Mara told Leia. "You'll take care of that little job for me, right?"
"Absolutely, Mara," the other woman said with a determined nod. "It was great meeting you."
Leia glanced around quickly, making sure that neither of the males on board was in earshot, "Can you tell me, Mara, do Han and I …?"
"Get married? Yes. You're married and have a baby on the way."
Princess Leia Organa sucked in a surprised, delighted gasp even as Mara disappeared.
Author Note: Thank you to my editor! That you to my reviewers! One more chapter in this timeline!