Luke dropped down from the ventilation shaft through the air exchange silently into a nearly empty room in a high rise building on Corellia. Using the Force, he opened the door and in a near blur, raced to the apartment's front foyer. He deactivated the alarm system with a code he tapped into the keypad. Then, he opened the door for his Master. "Excellent, my Padawan." He walked in, eyeing the living room. It appeared as though his former Padawan's tastes ran to the spare, featuring an uncluttered, open floor plan. The floor was a dark hardwood, polished to a shine, of course. A large area rug of woven Bantha Wool broke up the hardwood look, and a sofa along with one table in front of it sat on top of it. There was a fireplace, which was cold right now. No evidence of a holoprojector. And on the other wall was the artwork by Burkle Jadly. Obi-Wan appoached the artwork, and touched one of the blocks. It shimmered under his fingertips. Luke watched this, and felt a thrill course through him. He looked outside the huge picture window, and gasped.
"Master, this view is unbelievable!" Luke breathed. Indeed, it was; mountains in the far distance, and much closer, a harbor with small passenger boats and lights that poked holes in the twilight. For a moment, it was difficult to imagine someone like Darth Vader living in a place like this. Was that why the bedroom he'd landed in earlier was practically empty?
"No doubt, that view is what costs so much money to live here, Luke," Obi-Wan commented. He kept one eye on his Padawan. The last thing he wanted was for Luke to start getting carried away by the fact that his father was wealthy beyond belief. A view like this on a Core System planet like Corellia costs far more than he cared to know any Jedi was capable of spending. And Luke had that "spending" gene, with the parents he had...
Luke tore his eyes from the view, and looked at the artwork again. "So, these have the Jedi Archives stored in them? How are we going to plug our holopads into them?"
"Happily, they don't need to be plugged in. The blocks will accept a wireless transfer; in fact, it's the only way to tranfer the data. Let's get the first memory card ready to go. I hope we brought enough. And I certainly hope we don't get any interruptions. Here, I've put in the password for my block. Start the download, while I keep watch..." Obi-Wan instructed. Luke took the holopad from it's case and placed it in front of the block Obi-Wan had pointed to. Sure, this was the easy block, because Obi-Wan's password was still good. These others though, were most likely lost forever, since the ones who guarded them were beyond their reach. Luke watched as the files began to transfer. There were thousands of them. There was enough here to take about a thousand years to read, Luke guessed. And to think, this was only the first block!
Luke snuck a look at his chrono. This was taking a really long time. And he suddenly felt a tremor in the Force. He'd felt it before...and it was really close!
"Master..." Luke breathed.
"We're going to have company; I sense him too!" Obi-Wan finished. He ignited his lightsaber and yelled "Just keep downloading, Luke. I'll handle this!"
The front door tot he apartment opened. Vader filled the doorway, but didn't have his lightsaber on. In fact, he sort of leaned in the doorway casually. "What the hell are you two doing here?"
Vader had been in his quarters in the Imperial Palace. His master wanted him nearby since Prince Xizor's misfortune. Vader began to suspect that his master was beginning to suspect something. The excuse that he had a lot on his mind wasn't going over that well with his Sith master. The truth was, Vader did have a great deal on his mind, but he also found himself dwelling on thoughts that were making him edgy. Uncomfortable. Rebellious, even.
The bond between him and his master was beginning to stifle him. Vader was outgrowing this relationship. And Darth Sidious was growing older, and his power, though the same as it always had been, was not sufficient any longer to control Vader to the extent he wished. Vader's power had grown, and even Sidious had no clue as to what Vader was capable of doing now.
Nervous energy filled Vader. The only thing he could do when he was really this wound up was fix things. He still hadn't lost his knack for fixing things. He'd prowl around the Palace, trying to find things that were broken. When he couldn't find anything there, he looked in the hangar for ships that needed parts replaced. The officers in charge had learned long ago that it was always better to just let Lord Vader tinker around down there without question. In fact, if they could come up with anything challenging, he appreciated it. And it wasn't as though he didn't do a good job fixing the broken parts, repairing broken ships.
If only he could fix what was broken in his life. If only he could fix his family.
The Emperor had come down to the hangar one day to see Vader. The officers in charge promptly departed when the Emperor arrived. Vader was sautering two wires together when Palpatine limped to the Imperial Shuttle that his apprentice was laboring over.
"You know, I never had much of a knack for building things, or making things," he commented. Vader rose from his bent knee. He had nothing to add to that comment, so he simply let the Emperor speak. "The Bothans got their information earlier today. It won't be long before our trap is sprung, and the Rebel Alliance is blown apart."
"And it won't be a moment too soon, either. There are more important things than this petty political nonsense," Vader growled. "I just hope that my son comes around before that happens."
"It is vital that you bring him before me, and soon. Do you understand me, my apprentice? Vital!" his master warned.
"I have told you Master, he will join us or die. I just don't want him to die before he gets a chance to join us," Vader snapped.
"I understand that Prince Xizor's attempts on young Skywalker's life have stopped. Why are you still worried?" the Emperor asked. "I hope that your feelings are clear on this matter. He must be brought before me. He must be turned to the Dark Side. He must not become a Jedi."
"Master, it would be impossible for him to become a Jedi. We have seen to the destruction of the Order. We stand in the very space where the Temple once stood. There is no one left to teach Luke the ways of the Force. The only knowledge he has is innate, almost instinctive. Much like I was before I was trained," Vader pointed out.
"Then why do I sense such a disturbance in the Force?" Palaptine demanded.
"I have felt it also, my Master," Vader answered evasively.
"I beleive the boy is growing in his strength. I don't think he's fumbling as much as you say. What happened at Prince Xizor's building a few weeks ago was caused by your son," he said. "I know that what the Underlord of Black Sun says should not be taken very seriously, but for him to report that there was a Jedi with him causes me a great deal of discomfort. A great deal, Lord Vader."
"Who do you think the Jedi is?" Vader asked, almost peevishly.
The Emperor began to pace, slowly tapping his walking stick on the polished floor. "I don't know," he answered almost as peevishly. "But if Luke Skywalker has made contact with a surviving Jedi Knight, he may have convinced him to train him!"
Vader stilled his thoughts. He didn't dare let any thought of what he'd done surface. Instead he thought of Mace Windu, that fool whose doom was set from the day he learned the Jedi were losing their powers. "Vader, don't be silly. Master Windu is long dead. We saw to that. Perhaps you are right; there are no more Jedi around that young Skywalker could contact. Still, I want you to go now. Double your efforts to find your son. I will supervise the final phase of the construction of the Death Star myself. I want him brought to me, Vader. Is that perfectly clear?"
"As you wish, my Master..."
The Emperor limped out the way he limped in. Vader felt a pang of guilt. He shouldn't be so nasty to someone who was obviously ill. He picked up a tool, determined not to think about his troubles any longer, at least for the rest of the day. He could start tracking down his son tomorrow, couldn't he? His comlink beeped. Vader looked at the contact number, and it wasn't Obi-Wan's comlink, or anyone else he knew. It was, however, a number based on Corellia.
Puzzled, he answered, "Vader here."
A hologram appeared of a young man he had never seen before. He had a uniform on, but he wasn't any sort of Imperial officer. "Lord Vader, this is Agent Corran Horn from CorSec. We have strong reason to believe there's been a security breach in your apartment at Harbor Tower. We received a video stream a short time ago from the security company who had installed the surveillence cameras in your apartment."
"Agent Horn, who broke into my apartment?" Vader asked breathlessly.
"We got no id's from the very brief visuals we grabbed from the camera stream. All we could determine is that there were two human males..."
"Ah, I know exactly who they are, Agent Horn. Don't try to apprehend them yourself; they are both Jedi Adepts. I will handle this myself," Vader instructed him.
"Please make sure you contact CorSec when you arrive on Corellia, Lord Vader. We will be more than happy to assist you in apprehending these criminals." The young CorSec agent signed off. Sure, Vader thought grouchily, that was more like a threat that he'd better get CorSec's approval before apprehending two Jedi Knights. The fools! Well, he had his ways of ducking even the famed Corellian Security.
Luke's heart pounded as he watched Obi-Wan slowly raise his blue lightsaber in a defense position. All thoughts of watching files download left him. "Father!" he blurted out as Vader walked into his apartment.
"Or should I even ask? I've been wondering whether you'd ever get around to seeing my Jadly original in person, Obi-Wan," Vader said as he sauntered over to the beautiful abstract design covering the Jedi Archives like branches of a leafy tree. Vader touched one of the blocks with his gloved hand, then added, "I'm sure you saw that silly fluff article years ago, Obi-Wan. I was so hoping you had read it. Or at least, someone from the Jedi Council. I knew that Order 66 hadn't gotten every last one of you; I had wondered if the Jedi Archives would be enough to lure you out. It must have killed you to know they were in my possession..." he taunted.
"Better in your possession than destroyed forever," Luke pointed out. Vader turned to face Luke. "I have quite a few things that I've wanted to say to you for some time now. But the most important thing is this; I see proof in front of me, here, that you have great regrets about what you'd done!" Luke pointed to the Jadly artwork. To his mind, it was proof positive that Vader has it in him to defy the Emperor.
"Luke, my dear son..." Vader sighed, pacing around his sofa like a great black sabercat. "Oddly enough, my master and I were talking of you just hours ago. He's quite keen on meeting you."
Luke straghtened his back. "No doubt. But I will not turn to the Dark Side, Father. I will not become a slave, like you have been all your life, to the shadow. And I will never become the slave of a Sith, like you have." Luke eyed his father's gloves, how his fists tightened in tension. "In fact," he ventured, "I think you know this. And in fact, I don't think that you really want me to turn..."
"You stop this dangerous talk now!" Vader hissed, drawing away from Luke. He turned on Obi-Wan. "I see you just can't wait to get your revenge on me for drawing you into the living realm again, my former master. You want a piece of me? You just give it your best shot!"
Obi-Wan held his lightsaber steady and said with a smirk, "I didn't think you had any more body parts to spare, Vader."
"I daresay you have much more to lose than do I, Obi-Wan," Vader countered.
Obi-Wan smirked. "If you spent even half the time polishing your lightsaber skills as you do polishing your helmet, Vader, I'd be a bit more worried!"
Luke watched in horror as Vader's red lightsaber hummed to life almost instantly. "Father, no!" he yelled just as Vader began twirling and spinning the lightsaber around his helmet, filling the room with the deadly sound of his Sith blade. Luke held his breath. Vader stopped with the right arm tucked back, horizontal by his head, and the left extended outward.
To Luke's utter shock, Obi-Wan smiled lightly. "I stand corrected. It appears as though you have been practicing after all."
"Oh, so I did it right this time?" Vader asked. Was Luke imagining it, or was Vader actually looking for Obi-Wan's approval? Unfortunately, from Obi-Wan's expression, Luke could judge right away that he wasn't totally happy.
"Well," he said tightly, "let's just say that it's better than before."
"What?" Vader snarled. Then he turned to Luke. "You see? You see what I had to deal with?"
Luke's mouth just hung open. His father had just dazzled him with some sort of lightsaber finesse, and Obi-Wan wasn't approving? And was that his father whining? He had this mad urge to laugh. Instead, he swallowed it down and said instead, "Are you going to teach me how to do that?"
Both his father and his Jedi master said in unison, "Of course!" Obi-Wan then added, "Naturally, I'll be teaching you, since your father seems to have trouble remembering how to do it."
"So, you admit now that you are the better one to teach my son?" Vader asked as he shut his lightsaber off.
Obi-Wan shut his off as well, but still held onto it. "That was not exactly what I was implying. I still beleive that Master Yoda would have been the better candidate to train Luke."
Vader took a step backward and began prowling the room again. "Well, since he's with you, and since I said so, things remain as they are." Just then, there was a loud knocking at Vader's door.
"This is CorSec, open up in there now!"
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes, Luke frowned, and Vader groaned. "Agent Horn, is that you?"
"Lord Vader, I thought I made it very clear that any apprehension must be done with CorSec agents present!" Vader opened the door to a dark haired young man with a serious look on his face.
"And I thought I told you that I was to deal with them alone," Vader said crisply. Just as Agent Horn opened his mouth to protest, Vader added, "Since you're here, however, you may assist me with the weight of CorSec behind me." He pointed at Luke. "I want that one to turn over his comlink right now."
"No way," Obi-Wan said, flashing the lightsaber once again. Agent Horn had his blaster out just as quickly. "You have little chance of successfully shooting me with that clumsy weapon, and I would not like to see you get harmed. You're only doing your job."
"All it takes is one shot, sir. Last I heard, blasters kill Jedi just as much as they kill anyone else," Horn answered back calmly.
Luke made a quick assessment of the situation. He dug his comlink out of his pocket and handed it to his father. "Thank you. I'm glad someone around here is capable of being reasonable," Vader said lightly as he took a glance at the comlink. Luke watched him turn it on, look at it for a moment, then to his great surprise, handed it back to Luke. "Now, Agent Horn, I think we'll leave these two here. It's not like there's much of anything they can steal. Although I am rather partial to the bantha wool rug..."
Agent Horn's jaw dropped. "These two broke into your apartment. They need to be arrested!"
"Now, you can go ahead and do that if you wish. I daresay, they won't be in your custody for very long. And besides, I got what I wanted out of them. Maybe, if they hang around here long enough, they'll get their fill of the Jadly and leave me in peace. Just make certain you two lock up before you leave. May the Force be with you both." Vader swept out.
"Could someone please explain what just went on here?" Agent Horn demanded.
Luke grinned. "It was Jedi business, beyond CorSec's scope. Don't worry; I'm sure we'll be seeing eachother again. But for now, we've got work to do..." Agent Horn frowned deeply, then left the apartment as well.
"Luke! The rebellion is in terrible danger!" Obi-Wan gasped as soon as Horn closed the door behind him.
"No it isn't. My father wanted only one number off my comlink," Luke began.
"Of course! Princess Leia!" Obi-Wan winced. He started to pace back and forth. "He can't afford to contact her. We wanted to keep her identity still secret from the Emperor!"
"We have to trust that Vader will keep her safe. So far, he's had her in his custody twice, and she's still no closer to being discovered than before," Luke pointed out.
"Luke! How can we possibly trust him?" Obi-Wan argued.
"Because," Luke answered, bending down to pick a peice of crumpled flimsy off the floor, "my father doesn't have the agenda we seem to think he has. Look at this!" He handed the flimsy to Obi-Wan. The Jedi Master's eyes widened in shock.
"Luke! He's given us the passwords to the Archive blocks!"
Sorry guys, I had to just kind of throw this on. I'll go and fix up some stuff ASAP.