A/N Luke is three in this one
Vader flew his ship in the direction of his home from the Imperial Security Bureau, it was late evening, the sunset beyond the horizon blocked by several skyscrapers. He had just finished interrogating the Senator of Ryloth. Senator Taa has been reminded to get control of his citizens, the planet's disturbing unrest with Imperial Rule has not sat well with the Emperor. If not addressed soon, a possible insurgency could rise, which was unacceptable.
Why they did not just kill the Senator to make an example out of him to Ryloth was beyond him, perhaps the Emperor found him more useful alive. The Senator was not particularly impressive, Vader was not sure how the man gained a title of authority and was sure he would fail his attempt to rest his citizens. It was only a matter of time before he would execute him, he knew then the citizens of Ryloth truly would understand who was in power.
He came upon his hanger and slowly moved his shuttle to land, he stood from the pilot's seat and shut off the engine. He exited the cockpit and walked down the exit ramp, Lekauf stood at the foot of the ramp holding a datapad. Lekauf bowed as Vader reached him and continued to walk forward through the hangar. Lekauf chased after him and walked beside him.
"Inform me on any updates, Lekauf," Vader instructed as they walked towards the lift, Lekauf quickly looked down at his datapad then back up at Vader as they entered the lift.
"There have been several reports of small insurgencies in Ryloth around Imperial bases, Senator Anren's Education Fund Act is being deliberated in the Senate, along with General Voss on stand by near the Ryloth system," Lekauf informed as they ascended in the lift.
"Order General Voss to set a blockade around Ryloth," Vader ordered, even just having spoken with the Senator he knew the insurgencies would have to be dealt with force. The lift doors opened and Vader walked down the hall.
"Yes, my Lord," Lekauf said as he followed behind him, Vader walked into his conference room and saw his son sitting in one of the conference room chairs drinking out of a sippy cup. Miss Berik stood up straight and bowed at Vader.
"Hello, my Lord." She said softly, Luke saw Vader and his eyes lit up and kicked his legs.
"Father!" Luke reached for Vader and dropped his drink, Vader held it with the force and looked to Miss Berik.
"You are dismissed," She nodded and said goodbye to Luke, she walked up to Vader and swallowed hard.
"Uhm- I just thought I should let you know Luke had woken up to a pretty bad nightmare, I just thought I should let you know in case he has any trouble falling asleep tonight." She said in a shaky voice, Vader was shocked that she walked up and spoke to him in general. She avoided saying anything more than she needed to, which is one of the aspects as to why he had hired her. This must have been important, important enough to speak with him.
Vader didn't say anything, he just walked up to Luke and Berik walked out. "You are dismissed as well, Lekauf." Lekauf bowed and left the room, Vader turned to address his son. "Hello my son, how are you doing?" Vader was slightly alarmed at hearing he had a nightmare.
Of course children had nightmares, he had read so from parenting information data chips. But only three years ago did he have nightmares that plagued him and warned him of his wife's demise. While she had tried to soothe him by reminding him dreams were metaphorical, Vader never had a metaphorical dream. His dreams were always prophetic, showing him or warning him of the future. They always came true and Vader only hoped this curse was not genetic. Vader thought that particular trait was a curse, his son didn't deserve that.
"Good!" Luke slid out of his chair, "I wanna show you something!" Luke ran out of the conference room towards his room. Vader sighed and walked out of the conference room and followed his son. He looked into his son's room and saw it was rather messy, toys and a small stack of papers lay on the floor. Paper was a rare commodity, but Vader had plenty for his son to draw with.
Luke picked up a piece of paper from the desk in his room and held it up for Vader to see, it had a tall stick person with a smaller stick person. "It is you and me, see?" Luke pointed to each figure. Vader held it, "For you." Luke smiled. Though it was simple, very obvious that a kid had drawn this, it was perfect.
"Thank you, my son." Vader would put this in his hyperbaric chamber with the rest of the drawings Luke had made for him. Where he could take off his mask and truly look at them, it was almost like a small art gallery. By now the sun was gone and the glow of Imperial City illuminated Luke's room. It was unfortunate he arrived home so late, leaving very little time to be with his son. Perhaps he could move things around to work from home more often.
"It is time for you to go to bed, little one," Vader told his son, Luke turned his head towards his bed and he could feel his son's nerves rise through the force.
"Bad dream," Luke said softly.
"What happened in your dream?" Vader asked, hoping it wasn't anything more than just a made-up scenario. Depending on Lukes's answer, Vader would find out if Luke truly had prophetic dreams.
"I was in a haunted house." Luke looked up at him worried, "And there were ghosts everywhere!" Vader looked down at Luke, feeling truly relieved he didn't have those dreams. He finally realized how scared he truly was for Luke to have that trait of his.
"It was only a dream, my son." He could say with full confidence, "Ghosts are not real." Luke tilted his head as he looked up at him.
"Really? How do you know?" Luke asked, Vader almost struggled to answer this. How do you disprove something exists? You can't really, but he wanted to ease his son's mind.
"Because, I just do, they are made up to scare children." Vader folded his arms, Luke gasped.
"Tha's mean!" Luke folded his arms, mirroring his father.
"Yes, it is rather mean, but now you know that ghosts are not real." Luke hesitated, but nodded slowly. "Now get to bed, young one." Luke turned around and climbed into bed. Vader turned the light off in Luke's room, "Goodnight, my son."
"Goodnight." Luke smiled, Vader turned and left the room. The bedroom door swooshed closed and he walked down the hall towards his conference room. He had a lot of work to do and hadn't planned on meditating anytime soon so now was the perfect time to start.
Hours had passed and he was finally reviewing a Senators proposal, it was incredibly long and Vader had been waiting for a time like this to begin reviewing it. He was half tempted to have one of his personal aids to review it for him, though he knew better than to let someone with less authority know what was going up in the higher Imperial Government. Stuff like this was confidential.
Things had been moving smoothly for the past couple hours, the floor was quiet and Vader opened up to the force to check Luke was still sound asleep several times throughout the night. Suddenly, he felt a small disturbance in the force, so small it was almost unnoticeable. He then heard a scream, Luke's scream. He suddenly tensed up and grabbed the hilt of his saber and quickly rushed out of his conference room.
Had some assassin come for Luke? A spy? He stormed the hall towards Luke's room when Lukes bedroom door swooshed open and saw Luke run out crying. Luke ran up to him, Vader still clutched the hilt of his saber. "What happened!? Are you harmed, my son?" Vader asked. Luke buried his face in his cape and shook his head. Vader hesitantly let go of his saber, "What is troubling you?"
"A bad dream and I fell off my bed," Luke said as he stood back and wiped his eyes, "It was really scary." Luke held out his arm, "Look!" Luke's arm had a small cut, nothing bad. Must have gotten it from the fall.
"Stay right here, little one." Luke nodded as he sniffled, Vader turned into his personal chambers. His personal chamber was basically a med bay, it was full of medical equipment and medicine. He opened one of the lockers that were full of bacta patches and pulled a small pack out then walked back out to the hall. Luke stood in the hall rubbing his eyes, Vader walked up to him. "Follow me."
Vader walked towards Luke's room, Luke followed close behind him. Vader walked in and saw Luke was looking around his room wearily by the doorframe. "What are you frightened of?" Vader asked, standing in the center of Luke's room with his arms behind his back.
"Ghosts," Luke said softly, Vader sighed and beckoned for Luke to come towards him. Luke walked towards Vader from the door frame, Vader lifted him up and onto his bed.
"What have I said about ghosts?" Vader said, "They are not real."
"Ghosts were watching me!" Luke cried, "Are you sure they aren't real?" Luke asked in a whisper.
"I am positive, not hand me your arm." Luke held out the arm with the small cut, Vader grabbed his arm and put the small bacta patch on Luke. "Does it hurt?" Luke shook his head and smiled.
"Miss Berik said bacta patches make ouchies go away." Vader ruffled Lukes hair.
"Now, will you tell me what your dream was about?" Vader asked, not really knowing how to tackle this. In the past, Vader was at the receiving end of being convinced dreams were not real. He would try to comfort Luke to the best of his abilities, though he lacked confidence in said skill.
"I had a dream a ghost was watching me," Luke said softly, looking up at Vader like he was petrified. Seeing his son so terrified broke something inside of him. Vader opened their bond and sent a constant wave of calm and ease towards Luke.
"You do not have to be afraid, my son." Vader said, "Dreams are not real." For most people, though Luke did not look comforted by this statement. He still looked worried, "Why are you still frightened?"
"Will you check for ghosts?" Luke asked in a small voice then pointed towards his dark closet, Vader sighed. If this would calm his son's nerves he was willing to do it, despite how it was somewhat trivial. He walked towards Luke's closet and turned the light on.
"Your closet has been cleared, no ghosts have been found." Vader turned off the closet lights and walked back towards his son. "Now it is time for you to get back to bed, young one." Luke nodded nervously and crawled under the covers then clutched his ducky blanket.
"What if a ghost comes out when you leave? What if it gets me!" Luke asked in a frantic whisper. Vader was upset by how scared Luke was from this dream, it obviously had really affected him.
"I have checked your room, fortunately, there are no ghosts here." Vader paused, "Luke, I would never let anything harm you." Out of all the uncertainty of how to ease Luke about dreams, as he struggles with them, he was fully confident in that answer. He would never ever let anything harm his son.
"Have you had bad dreams before?" Luke asked, something inside of Vader panged. What was he supposed to say? Yes, I had a dream your mother died, surely that would upset his child. But he would not lie to him.
"Yes, I have," Vader told Luke, which seemed to pique his son's interest.
"What happened?" Luke asked as he tilted his head.
"I do not think telling you my dreams would help you." Vader said, Luke looked slightly disappointed, "But like you were scared of your dream, I was scared of mine." Luke looked at him shocked.
"You were scared?!" Luke asked in a whisper, "But you're never scared." As Vader, the only thing he feared was losing Luke. As his old, weaker self, he was frightened constantly. Now he was stronger as Vader, there was no need to be afraid all the time.
"It is time for you to get to sleep, my son," Vader said, changing the conversation.
"Okay.." Luke said in a small voice, Vader ruffled Lukes's hair and began to walk towards Lukes's bedroom door. "Wait! Make the ships fly!" Vader turned and Luke smiled widely. Vader paused by the door frame then walked back over to Luke, he lifted his hand and summoned two of Luke's model ships. He flew them low in front of Luke and watched in fascination. They flew in circles, up and down, and chased each other. Luke reached for them as he watched them go around in a circle, "Wow!" Luke smiled. Vader flew the model ships back where they were sitting.
"Goodnight, my son."
"Goodnight, father," Luke said, Vader turned to leave Luke's room and turned off his light. His poor son, plagued by bad dreams. Not something Luke deserved at all, he would try to comfort Luke with the fact that they were just dreams.
A/N Hello there! I hope you guys like this latest chapter, my sister Aaveena (her AO3 name) helped me with this chapter. Also, I am going to change my name to Skyguy on AO3 so my name is more affiliated with Star Wars. I just wanted to let people know before its changed. Again, thank you for reading! Please let me know what you guys thought! I love hearing from you!