Standard disclaimers.
It was exactly as Darth Vader said: the people rejoiced at the return of their Imperial Prince. Their cheers as he was paraded in front of them still rang heavily in his mind, Luke wondering if they would still cheer if they knew the truth. After all, who would cheer for a traitor that had pretended to be dead for three years?
But truth had no meaning in this Empire; it was fear that drove them all to accept whatever the Emperor decided. No one would rebel because of this fear, no one would dare stand against the Sith Lord that had demolished the entire Rebel fleet in mere moments, but despite this, Luke was no longer afraid.
Luke no longer cared what the people felt. Everything he had fought for, everyone he had fought to free, and everything he had given up was for naught.
For three years, he had found hope. Leia Organa, Princess of Aldaraan, had become like a sister to him, and Han Solo, smuggler Captain, like an older brother. Chewie, Han's Wookie first mate, was an intent listener, and the other rebel pilots, Wedge in particular, had all become like his family.
Despite the hood he wore to hide his identity, they had learned to trust him and rely on him. With them no longer was he simply a piece in a game to be placed, but a player helping change the course of the game. Now each day he remembered how they floated dead in space because of him, and he felt as piece by piece his heart flaked away into nothingness until it was easier to remain numb.
The entire wing he was in at the palace remained under heavy guard. Every window and balcony door was locked shut with a guard posted at each one. Only when he was summoned by the Emperor for an event was he allowed out, his father remaining permanently at his side the entire excursion. No one would speak to him for fear of angering his father, and in turn, most believed he was as easily offended.
Sitting curled in the windowsill of his room, Luke pondered his fate as he stared out at the speeders flying overhead. The feeling of flying was still as fresh in his mind as the day he jumped, the wind, the lightness of his stomach, the freedom, until he had maneuvered his way into a waiting speeder.
"You must close yourself from your father and the Emperor, Luke! Now! Before your father finds you."
At first, closing their bond had felt like tearing his own apart. But Obi-wan had been there, guiding him to Dagobah and Yoda, and then on to the rebellion.
"Oh, Ben, I wish you could save me now."
But the great Jedi had long faded into the Force, along with Yoda soon after.
The door chimed twice before opening, but Luke no longer bothered to look. It was always the same.
"Luke, your training must begin today. The Emperor has commanded it."
It was said as if it was the first time this had been brought it up and not the hundredth, his father standing just inside the doorway.
"I do not wish to learn of the Force." At this point, his voice was dull and void of any emotion.
"But you will! Whether you want to or not – you will learn of the Force, and you will accept my teachings!" Darth Vader snapped, beginning to pace the confines of the room.
"No. I will not."
"Then you will be destroyed! The Emperor will not allow this forever."
Standing slowly, he ignored the way the blood rushed to his head from sitting too long, for the first time in a long while actually feeling something as he faced Vader. "Then let me die! Don't you get it? I don't want to be here anymore! I don't want to be the survivor; I killed everyone I knew by keeping my past secret from them!"
Tears rushed down his face. The sleepless nights, the hunger-less days, the numbness that he had clung too in his only hope for sanity all caught up at once, the pain overwhelming.
For a moment, Darth Vader was eerily silent, staring at the broken form of his son before him.
"My son..." Stepping forward, Vader wrapped his arms around Luke, pulling him close. "I cannot allow you to die. You are all I have left."
Growling, Luke pushed away, turning back to the window. Watching out a window, the world seemed such a happy place. People wandered the walkways, the sun continued to shine, speeders filled the air as busy people continued living completely unaware of the darkness that swelled from the core of their entire, oblivious existence.
"Join me, my son, and we can defeat the Emperor. We can create any world we want."
Luke's eyes suddenly gleamed.
"The world I want is already destroyed, and there is no way to revive it. But I can let my friends sacrifice be in vain, or I can let it make me stronger. Take me to the Emperor...Father."
Vader placed a hand upon his shoulder, squeezing gently.
"As you wish, my son."
The throne room was the only room in the palace that was kept completely dark and ominous. Palpatine liked it that way – he liked people to be uncertain when they met him, completely misled by the rest of the palace to his true character.
Now the dark hardly phased Luke. To fear the dark was a child's place; he was much more afraid of what lurked in it.
"So, the Prince has finally decided to grace the world with his presence, has he?" Palpatine's voice whispered over him, a shiver running down his spine.
Frowning, Luke remained kneeling before the throne, his father standing somewhere off behind him.
"Yes, yes, let your bitterness guide you. You want to hurt someone for your friends, don't you? You blame the Empire for their deaths, young Prince."
Slithery as a snake, Luke fought as the voice spiked unexpected emotions at the mention of what he had lost.
"Who else is to blame, your Highness?" Luke finally asked, realizing the Emperor was expecting a response.
Cackling, the Emperor shook his head mockingly. "Perhaps themselves? After all, there would have been no need to quell a rebellion if a rebellion had not begun."
"You are a murderer! You are what is wrong with the Empire!" Luke spat, ignoring the warning his father gave him through the Force.
"Then strike me down, Jedi."
Before him appeared a lightsaber, the hilt glinting brilliantly. Taking it in his hand, Luke felt as all his emotions clashed against one another, the blue blade illuminated before him. The sorrow for his friends, the pain for all he had suffered, the years of being alone and struggling with the doubt of his own worth. The anger at his father for leaving him there, for letting him struggle in the idea that it would make him strong.
A brightness in the Emperor's eyes brought him pause, Luke feeling a single tear slip down his cheek at the realization that this was exactly as the Emperor wanted. Palpatine wanted him to fall to the darkside; they thought the deaths of everyone would make him join them.
Glancing back at his father, Luke watched as Vader moved to stand beside Palpatine, the three of them in a stand off. All the people in the galaxy, and none even realizing at this very moment that light and dark were about to clash spectacularly.
Raising the blade, Luke yelled, preparing to strike, feeling as his father reached for his own weapon. Luke did not expect to land a blow, but perhaps the Emperor would find it within his own mercy and merely end the threat before him.
But the weapon did not move to stop Luke's blade like the Emperor clearly expected. Before Luke could even bring his arm down to strike, the Emperor's rasping cackling was ceased as a red blade suddenly appeared through his chest where his heart should be. Eyes widening, the Emperor turned to stare open mouthed at Vader, but was unable to say a word. Within moments, the yellow eyes were fading, all that was left an empty robe.
Pausing, Luke blinked once before turning off his blade. "You destroyed him?"
"He needed to be destroyed. It is the way of the Sith."
The two now stood before each other.
Luke broke the silence. "What now? I return to my life as prisoner? I've helped you with your task, now you'll destroy me?"
The frustration his father felt bled through from the Force. "No, Luke, you will join me. Together, we will rule the galaxy as father and son. Embrace your power, accept your destiny!"
And Luke suddenly realized what he must do to stop his father. Raising the hilt of his sword, he took a stance.
"Luke, please, think about what you are doing! Why must you persist in fighting me?"
A small smile came to Luke's lips. "Fight you? No. I will not fight you, Father."
"Then what do you think you are doing?"
A true grin finally came over Luke as he stood before the empty robes of the dead Emperor of the galaxy and the soon to be new tyrant taking his place.
"This." Lighting the sword, Luke grunted once as he felt it slice through his chest, collapsing to the floor with a final gasp.
"NO!" Vader's howl echoed against the tall walls, the father falling to his knees before the stilling form of the son.
"Father..." Luke breathed out, panting heavily for breath. Once empty eyes searched Vader's mask, feeling as he was lifted gently into trembling arms. "Father...there is...good...in you."
"Luke, you will not die. I will not allow it! Not again," Vader scooped him up and headed for the doors.
Laughing brokenly, Luke shook his head weakly. "Don't...can't...without them..."
If he lived on, staring out a window at a world that went on without him, Luke was not sure he would have survived anyhow. But without the rebellion, there was no escape. There was no one left to seek shelter with, and no one left to laugh with and live with.
No, if he lived, there was truly nothing to live for anymore except for a father that thought living was the same as surviving.
"You will live for me, child! Fight! Do not leave me as your mother did."
"Nothing...fight...for. No life...here. Let me go. I...cannot follow..."
It was getting hard to breathe, the words jumbling in his brain and his tongue feeling too thick and clumsy to get the words out.
"You're going down a path I can't follow!"
The pained words came from his father's mind, his father having forgotten his shields in his horrified haste to reach help, but it was not his father who spoke them. It was the broken voice of a woman, one whom Luke thought felt very familiar, but he was too out of sorts to place it.
The face of death now stared down at him, Luke barely watching as the lights spun by overhead. Everything had fallen to a light spin, the only moments he remembered between the gasps of his breath.
"Never. I will not let you leave me, not you too."
It was the last thing he heard before it all fell black.
Luke woke, gasping. For a long moment, he was startled, unsure where he was.
There was a bed beneath him, perfectly formed to the shape of his body as he sunk into it's softness.
The windows in the room showed the busy skies of Coruscant.
Everything in his room was in it's place, exactly as it all should be.
There felt like something was still missing.
That "something" appeared to have stepped into the room, the feeling of anxiety melting away as Luke turned to the door.
"Good morning, my son," Emperor Vader entered, his black suit and cape trimmed in elegant gold.
"Father!" Luke grinned, rolling out of bed, only to wince as he stumbled to his feet. Wrapping an arm around his ribs, he waited out the wave of discomfort.
Strong hands steadied him gently. "Careful, my son, your injuries are still healing."
"What happened, Father? How did I get injured? How long have I been asleep?"
The more questions he asked, the more his thoughts became jumbled. Dizzy, Luke would have fallen if his father hadn't helped him sit back down on the bed.
"Luke, are you well? Should I call for the medic? Do you truly not remember what has happened?" Vader asked, concerned.
Slowly, Luke shook his head. "Sorry, no, I'm alright. I think I remember...we killed Palpatine together, but he hurt me, right?"
"Yes, my son. It is my fault – I was unable to stop him in time to prevent your injury."
Thinking hard, Luke remembered the flash of a blue blade, the strike of a red one.
"Yes...I remember...and the rebellion!"
For a long moment, Vader simply watched, as if unsure what to say.
Luke grinned excitedly. "We defeated the rebellion, Father! My long con of infiltrating their ranks paid off, and we destroyed them! We've freed the galaxy!"
It all still felt like the entire adventure had been one very long, very nightmarish dream, but the doctors, he finally remembered, had repeatedly assured him that was normal in cases like this. It must have been a nightmare because sometimes he swore that the smiles and laughter and joy he had in his time there pretended to feel felt so real.
Vader had let out a relieved sigh, contentment flooding the force. "Yes, my Prince. The rebellion is defeated all due to your efforts. Come, let us have breakfast."
"You are the best, Father," Luke grinned, letting his father help him up and lead him to the table for breakfast.
Once they were both settled, Vader watched him for a long moment.
"What is it, Father?" Luke paused in his breakfast, watching back. Even though he could not see his father's eyes, it felt as though Luke could see the haunted gleam reflected in them.
Seeming to come to terms with something, Vader folded his fingers gently on top of the table. "Nothing, my son, I am just relieved at your rapid recovery. You must tell me of your grand adventure with the rebels, we have not yet had a chance to speak of it."
Grinning, Luke launched into his tale starting from the point of his infiltration three years ago, shoving the feelings of doubt aside. After all, why would he have reason to ever doubt his father?
Emperor Vader watched as his son cheerfully continued to chatter away about his grand adventures within the rebel base.
The wounds his son had dealt himself had been grievous, but thankfully for him and several Imperial medics not quite fatal. It had been a long and arduous journey for his son's recovery, even if the boy did not remember.
No, his son did remember a journey, one that Vader was currently hardly listening to even if it did not appear so to Luke. After all, Vader already knew exactly what had happened; they were details that he knew intimately because he himself had planted them there in his son's mind.
Now, the pain for the rebels that his son had cared for so deeply would bring back no heartfelt memories, the only emotion his son would carry from his time with them the victory of their defeat. The wounds his son now carried would be thought of as a valiant effort in the freeing of the galaxy from a tyrannical ruler. Luke would remember now only the loyalty to his father that he believed he had upheld his entire life, the Prince of the Imperial Empire, ruling by his father's side.
As far as Emperor Vader was concerned, life was now exactly as it should be.