The Creation and Destruction of Worlds

by Sophie3

Wherein Luke gets an up close encounter with a blood-thirsty remnant of one of the old Sith Empires and Vader has to scramble to rescue his foolish offspring.

"My Lord?"

There was the sound of grinding metal and a faint shudder ran the length of the command table. Darth Vader did not look up from his focus on the reports in front of him, even as the flimsy table he sat at threatened to give way beneath the force of his temper. Everything in his quarters aboard the Executor had been constructed of the highest quality durasteel, but even that was flimsy compared to the power of the Force. Or his ire. Ignoring such minor irritants was a constant necessity in his life, so Vader continued unabated to study the latest reports of possible supply movements that might possibly have connections to the criminal underbelly plaguing the Empire, which might in turn possibly be connected to the infuriating Rebel Alliance. Or be nothing more than a two-bit spice smuggler. Either way, Vader would determine if there was a pursuable pattern to it and capture his prey.

"My Lord?"

There was a clatter behind him, the sound of something metal impacting the polished floors of Vader's office, and then a quite rustling noise. Vader sighed as much as the respirator would allow him to. One of his underlings was being particularly persistent. It was either a latent death wish or something of supposed importance.

"What is it?" he demanded. He still did not turn from his work, but he was gracious enough to release the choke hold he had on the man through the Force.

To the credit of his staff, the man only indulged himself in a handful of frantic gasps before managing something resembling the proper posture for a report. "My apologize, My Lord," the man wisely led with, "but the Emperor has asked for you to make contact." The 'immediately' went unsaid. As did any recognition that 'asked' was actually 'demanded'.

This time Vader was very careful to let none of his rage leak pass his shields. There was no squeal of twisting plastic or crunch of bent metal. Just the slightest of tightening of one fist.

"Make the connection," Vader barked out before shoving himself to his feet and marching towards his communication camber. It would not do to keep the Emperor waiting any longer than he already had. Besides, the sooner he saw to whatever tedious new task his master had for him, the sooner he could return to his true work. Vader had much more important things to see to than whatever recent whim of his master.

After all, somewhere out there was the majority of the Rebel forces, hidden just out of sight and just beyond his grasp.

And with them was his son.

---

"I have received good news, my Apprentice," the Emperor pontificated gleefully from across the lightyears. They had already dispensed with what passed for pleasantries from his Master and were at last coming to the heart of the matter. The Emperor was well aware of Vader's impatience in all things and naturally took delight in dragging out some of their conversations with useless banalities. Today he did in fact seem to be in a much better humor than he had been since the destruction of his prized Death Star. Based on what Vader could glimpse through the hologram, the Emperor was seated in his favorite study. Which meant the vast skyline of Coruscant would be spread out behind him and the grandiose marble chamber would be echoing with his pleased chuckles.

Infuriating was not nearly sufficient enough of a word to contain the welling of dark fire in Vader's breast. How had he gone so long enduring such? Of course, he had always thought of killing his Master. Such were the ways of the Sith. But it wasn't until recently – when new discoveries put new thoughts into his head – that Vader had come to realize how complacent he had been. How content he had been to merely police this other man's empire if it meant he occasionally got to unleash his grief and his rage on the rest of the galaxy. How petty his ambitions had been before now.

But of course, such thoughts must always be carefully guarded. Vader was much more familiar with his Master's strengths and weaknesses these days, but he would not put it past the man to have managed to hide yet even more talents. If Vader intended to survive this – if he intended to keep his son alive! – then he had to be cannier.

The Emperor's self-congratulations did not require any response from Vader, so he did not offer one. Let the old man entertain himself.

"After such a run of dismal results," the Emperor lamented, "it should be reassuring to you, my friend, that we now have made progress in such an auspicious direction. We will soon harness a power the likes of which this galaxy has not known to fear in several millennium. The great might of the Sith empire shall continue to rise!"

Vader contracted what leg muscles he still had, grinding the pathetic stumps he had left against their prosthetics. The pain helped him focus and bear the bombastic rambling of a wizened politician. Palpatine did love nothing else as he did the sound of his own voice.

"Would you perhaps care to know what great development I have led us to?" the Emperor inquired with all of the false gentility and slimy pretense that he had always had.

There was only one possible permitted answer, which Vader supposed did make his life somewhat easier. "Yes, my Master."

The Emperor cackled the way he always did when in good humor and when he had forced his apprentice to call him by title. "Word has reached my ears," he continued, "after great searching and effort, that certain artifacts of one of the illustrious Sith empires of old has in fact survived."

Such great effort and searching was usually done by Vader himself, so he was somewhat surprised to hear that Palpatine had managed something on his own. A new artifact was of much more interesting to Vader than any of the Emperor's other so called triumphs, such as the Death Star or whatever other mechanical monstrosity he had managed. Honestly, the man had all of the engineering sophistication or skill of a vapid courtesan insisting that their pleasure cruiser must also have a swimming pool.

A new Sith artifact, however, was not something one found every day. And anything of power might serve Vader just as well, if not better, than his master.

"What kind of artifact?" Vader inquired politely, his attention focused on the conversation for the first time since the call began several minutes before.

The Emperor must have been able to sense or guess as much because he oozed self-satisfaction. "A most deadly one, my Apprentice. These particular masters of old were great builders of worlds – and their ruin! Such eloquent weapons they devised to tear down entire civilizations. All were thought to be lost when their might fell, but I have received word that a few precious samples of their greatest works have yet survived intact after all of these years. An exploration team found them by mere chance," the Emperor sneered, both of them well aware that there was no such thing as chance. Not with either side of the Force. "Naturally, none of those original explorers managed to survive their blundering brush with true power, but enough of a communication was sent back to be picked up by my inquiries."

Vader might not believe in luck, but he knew damn well what it sounded like when a boon had fallen into his Master's lap and the wizened old man intended not only to make use of it but also claim full responsibility for having been given something he had not earned.

And now they came to the true crux of the matter. His Master would not have summoned him like this just to brag. Not when such daunting power could be kept secret even from his own favored servant.

"You will go and collect the samples," the Emperor ordered, his voice taking on that artificial boom of authority. "You will deliver them to a specially designed research facility in the asteroid base in the Calib system. I have already arranged for our best scientists to gather there, but you, my friend, will be charged with overseeing their task. Once we have appropriately harnessed this power, then we can select a most…appropriate test." The mere thought seemed to fill his Master with glee.

Vader on the other hand parsed through the grandiose language to the actual practical task at hand. A glorified delivery and babysitting job. As if Vader did not have more pressing – much more important – tasks at hand.

"Yes, my Master," he ground out dutifully, already calculating how much time this would cost him and just how much further from his grasp his son might slip. The boy had a penchant for trouble, and it was only a matter of time before the Emperor or some other hooligan managed to catch up to the child. He needed his father.

---

Luke would have much preferred to be piloting the shuttle himself. He never felt as at home as he did in the cockpit of a ship. And while he was perfectly well aware that there were plenty of skilled pilots in the Rebellion, there was something about relying on someone else's reflexes and not his own that made his skin crawl. Or maybe it was just this mission.

The information had been scarce but damning. The Emperor was far too pleased with himself about some new development out in the outer rim. Rumor was he had a new weapon. One to make up for the heavy blow of having lost the Death Star. Even the mere rumor of such a thing was enough to have the entire High Command of the Rebellion sitting up and taking notice. They had just managed to thwart the Emperor's plans the last time by the smallest of margins and at the very last minute. And even then, it wasn't soon enough to save poor Alderaan. The Rebellion still lived in fear of such a day coming again. It was the kind of fear that drove them onward, at least, and not the kind that paralyzed. But it also made them more than willing to throw any resource they had at stopping such a fate from ever happening again.

Which was how Commander Luke Skywalker, destroyer of the Death Star, possible Jedi in the making, and one of the best of what the Rebellion had to offer was currently leading a small ground unit into infiltrating a secret Imperial research base.

It was not the kind of mission Luke normally took the lead on. He was always first and foremost a pilot. He did his best leading Rogue Squadron against impossible odds. Or working side by side with the Princess (and sometimes Han) to track down information. Those missions were much more clandestine and independent. He and Leia worked well together, a seamless whole that could manage to slip in and out of dangerous situations on their own. Luke wasn't used to leading other soldiers on the ground. But it couldn't be too much different than leading them from the confines of a cockpit, right? Except that he was now huddled in the back of a troop transport with the rest of them instead of landing their ship. And he had to focus on pacing how fast he went to keep his troops with him and give them the guidance they needed to get the job done.

"Stay focused," he told them pointlessly, but it seemed like the kind of thing a Commander should say before leading his troops into a highly dangerous task. He tried to put as much genuine feeling into it as he could and hoped the Force would help bolster them all. "We don't know exactly what we're looking for, but if we go fast and keep it tight, we should be able to narrow it down quickly. Remember you'll need your air masks until we breach the first hull. Once in, do not lose them! We'll need it for the way out. Check every room. We don't know what exactly it is we're looking for. It could be something small. But I have a feeling we'll know it when we see it."

The words felt a bit hollow to Luke, as if he was saying them more to reassure himself than anything else. But the troops all nodded solemnly. Some of them even seemed to sit up straighter, as if they took some comfort in his words. Luke wasn't Leia. He couldn't inspire people by saying just the right thing. But he trusted his comrades and he believed in them and he hoped they felt the same way.

"No matter what," he told them, "we must destroy whatever it is the Emperor has found. It's too dangerous to allow even the slightest bit to leave this asteroid. The fate of the galaxy may very well rest on this mission. We will not fail."

"Yes, sir!" the others barked out in response, perfectly in time with each other. It was one of the few nods to discipline the Rebellion had and it was really more of a battle cry than a salute. They were ready. They knew the significance of what they did today, of what they did every day. They would not fail. Even if it meant they would die trying. Some things were worth it, and that was what the Rebellion had that the Empire never could. They believed.

Luke nodded back and slapped the release for the ramp. They had a job to do.

---

Luke wasn't so much proud of the men and women beside him as he was grateful. Proud implied that he thought he had had some hand in making them as efficient and dedicated as they were. Luke hadn't done that. They had come to Luke already like that. So instead, it was more that Luke was so very grateful to fight alongside them.

Marks was the best on-the-fly coder and splicer any smuggler could ask for. There wasn't a ship he couldn't have rewired and opening up for him in the time it took most people to fumble through an unfamiliar access code. Uriel was only there as his back-up. She had a deft hand with explosives and could smell the right level of chemical components in the dark. Becker, Tys and Peel had been running missions together for nearly a year now (a long time by Rebellion standards since most ground troops rarely lasted more than six months before being killed) and they moved like they had been practicing these exact maneuvers for weeks. As soon as Marks and Uriel had the emergency side hatch open, the other three were clearing the first hall and moving briskly forward. Luke scrambled after them, with the rest of their small group following him. He had his senses open as much as he knew how and every ounce of his being was vibrating with danger and adrenaline and an undefined need to move. Whatever was here, it was important. The Force all but screamed at him, a wordless fury that he had no hope of making sense out of other than it was desperately trying to tell him something. No choice but to move forward, he kept his lightsaber in one hand and his blaster in the other and hoped he'd be able to warn the others in time if needed.

The research facility was a fairly new one. Surfaces were still shiny and it had that slight chemical burn smell to the air that tended to linger after hatchways were attached to one another. Luke was familiar with the smell. Many of their temporary bases started out drowning in it before the scents of body odor and burnt rations took over. But while their bases were usually cobbled together from whatever spare parts could be found, this one had all but been made to order. Everything was the highest quality, fit together perfectly, and was labeled so heavily it was hard to tell which of the many warnings and signs they should pay attention too.

The halls were also eerily silent. Even for a secret military base, there seemed to be no life to the place. Luke hadn't exactly expected the tight-laced Imperials to be playing jaunty music or decorating with personal belongings the way the Rebels did, but the silence and the lack of even a passing tech made his palms itch. It was as if the entire place was too terrified to make much noise.

The sounds of boots on floor plates echoed horribly. A dozen militants moving at a quick pace was never going to be a silent affair, but Luke listened to the echoes of their own feet and felt them like the pounding of his own heart.

Maybe this wasn't a good idea, he thought helplessly. Of course it wasn't. They had all known that, but it had been necessary. But Luke couldn't help but feel like they had already made a fatal mistake and they just didn't know it yet.

It was almost a relief when Becker rounded the next corner and there was a shout of alarm. Blaster fire rang out and for a second there was an eerie silence – as if every living thing on board was holding its breath – but then time reasserted itself. Their forward troops took up an aggressive defensive position. They moved swiftly from cover to cover, determined to gain ground and unwilling to stop their steady progress down the hall even for decent cover. Luke had just stepped over the lifeless body of the first tech they had encountered when the answering force of Stormtroopers came changing towards them.

Everything after that was a blur of blaster fire, straining muscles and the shouting of the Force as one life after another on both sides snuffled out. Luke held his position as best he could and returned fire. The hallway was too narrow and filled with bulky equipment for him to be able to do much more than anyone else. If he tried to use his saber, he was going to put himself in far too vulnerable of a position to be able to do any good. But they had already lost two of theirs and it was becoming clear that the hallway was not a tenable position to hold. It was either fall back or try something desperate.

Luke had been just about to give the order to retreat back to the last turn when Uriel took it upon herself to make that desperate push. It wasn't a bad move. Her explosion was localized and small enough that Luke could barely feel it from his position further back. It threw a cluster of Stormtroopers off of their feet and the distraction was enough for the Rebel side to move forward an important couple of meters that put them in a better defensive position. Part of the hallway was missing, but it wasn't enough to affect pressure control, and Luke was actually impressed. Explosives and space rarely mixed well, but Uriel knew her stuff. Though Luke supposed you didn't survive long as a bomb expert if you weren't good at not blowing yourself up.

The shock of the explosion seemed to have an even greater effect on their opponents than Luke would have expected. All of a sudden, the Rebels were gaining ground rapidly. Return fire had all but ceased. Luke had a moment to wonder why soldiers as well trained as Stormtroopers would so quickly abandon their post but then there was a sudden harsh screeching in the air. It wasn't the hull breach alarm, but it was just as grating and alarming.

"What the hell's that for?" someone shouted next to Luke and he shook his head in reply. The intruder alert had already been going off, so this was something new. It sounded like the horrible screech of tearing durasteel – a sound any pilot knew well to fear – and it made Luke's already leaping heart rate almost painful as it tried to speed up even more. He had the sudden feeling of something dark and hungry in the Force waking up.

"We need to move," he said, then repeated it at a shout in order to even hope of being heard.

But his troops misunderstood him, and instead of retreating back to find shelter, they gave a grunt and moved forward with that heroic dedication Luke had moments before been admiring that now filled him with dread.

"No, wait!" Luke tried, but it was like turning back a tide. More troops rushed by him, even as one of them paused to check if he was hurt. They didn't understand. The Stormtroopers hadn't fled because they were overwhelmed. They had ran. They had known something Luke and the Rebels didn't and they had run as if the very Sith were snapping at their heels.

"Something's wrong, we need to go back," Luke tried to tell the worried ensign who was peering at his face in concern. The man was twice Luke's age, seasoned and steady, too worried about a comrade to properly worry about himself.

When the thing came oozing out of the hole blasted in the wall, it wasn't the man next to Luke it took. They were far enough back that there was easier prey in reach. Tys was waving stragglers forward, rifle still up in the ready position but his back to what was left of the hallway wall, when something dark as space and as slick and oily as the worst cesspit reached out it's spiny clawed hands and almost lovingly wrapped them around Tys's torso.

There was a moment of shocked silence as Tys looked down in confusion at what was now wrapped around him, as if he couldn't understand where these extra arms had come from. Luke's whole body jerked in a soundless cry of denial, but it was too late. In that blink of an eye, the thing draped over Tys sank its claws in and lifted the man straight up off his feet. Tys screamed. His limbs spasmed, blaster firing wildly, a stray bolt taking down one of his comrades even as blood gushed out of his mouth in a river of dark red down his front. Tys's legs kicked uselessly as the thing holding him seemed to fold itself back up into the ceiling, into the dark space beyond the hole in the hall.

It all happened so quickly, no one was able to react. Belatedly, Peel reached out for her partner, as if to drag him back but he was already gone. She scrambled after him, climbing over the ragged and torn opening into the pitch black space beyond. Luke would have sworn he was imagining it, but there was almost the faint whistling sound coming from the gaping hole in the hallway, as if the very air was being sucked into it – very much like a hull break might sound, or a sealed room being opened when it shouldn't be.

"Don't!" Luke tried to warn her, but it was already too late. She screamed something as she let loose a volley of blaster bolts into the dark, the bright red flashes lighting up her face and almost for a moment reflecting off of something that seemed to flow out of the darkness as if its very maleficence had been given physical form. It slashed at Peel, ripping apart her throat, chest, and stomach in one lazy swipe.

Luke was in danger of vomiting where he stood. Not because he had never seen someone die before or even such bloody violence. No, it was more that there was something so inherently wrong about the creatures tearing into his people. All living things had their place in the Force. They hunted and killed and felt fear and anger the way any person might. But these things – they felt so intrinsically wrong that at first Luke couldn't even recognize them as a living creature.

People were starting to scream. A few took up defensive potions, ready to try fighting back. Others stumbled backwards, trying to put distance between themselves and whatever this was. Luke knew which was the correct response.

"Retreat!" he ordered sharply. It wasn't a command he was used to giving (they didn't normally have that luxury) but now was definitely the time to fall back and regroup. "Go, go! Back behind the last seal!" He didn't think anyone would hear him over the roar of blasters firing and panicked shouts. But something in his voice must have broken through, because everyone reacted as if he had pushed them. Soldiers stated falling back, those in the rear covering those in the front as Marks ran ahead to make sure the doorway was clear. All of them were watching the black hole their comrades and their screams had disappeared into.

Nothing surfaced. But all of them could feel it. It didn't take a Jedi to know something evil was now hunting them.

---

Vader was only half listening to the report from one of his many spies spread out throughout the galaxy. This one was relatively reliable if not terribly competent. Petty gossip, most of it, but sometimes putting together the full puzzle meant gathering many tiny useless bits of knowledge. There was only so much time in the day, however, so while she droned on to him via uplink about this or that movement, he was flicking through status reports and training drills and scheduled ports of call. His own private campaign might consume his every thought, but there was still a military to run. And Vader did so abhorred inefficiency. It would not do for his underlining to think that his distraction might protect them from taking responsibility for their failures.

So it was while he was attempting to parse out what in the seven hells his third shift command thought he was doing during next week's exercise, that he only partially heard what she had to say.

"…though why anyone would want to go to the Calib system, I don't know."

In fact, he might have missed it entirely if it wasn't for the way something cold seemed to drip down his back at the mere mention. He had learned to pay attention to such premonitions.

Vader's head swiveled sharply to face the holoprojector and the woman on the other end startled to a stop to find herself suddenly on the receiving end of his full attention.

"Repeat that," he ordered and at least she had enough sense not to waste his time prevaricating.

"My Lord, I was recounting how one of my known insurgent contacts was heavily inquiring how to locate a mysterious station in the Calib system. Since he's a known rebel, I thought it best to inform you, my Lord, in case there is something of interest to you there."

Vader cursed and slammed down his datareader. He did not have time for this nonsense! With a jerk he cut the call immediately and stormed out of his office. The commander on duty snapped to attention. "Plot a course for the Calib system," Vader growled at the man as he passed. While he would much rather leave whatever scum had come sniffing about to face his fate breaking into a facility like that, unfortunately his Master would want his pound of flesh if he found out that Vader had allowed such a breach unchecked.

By the time Vader made his way onto the bridge, it was a swarm of activity as they prepared for the jump. Moving a ship the size of the Executor was no simple task, and he felt the lengthy wait like a heavy weight around his neck. How much faster it would be to handle such things on his own! So much wasted time rushing back and forth to check on the Emperor's little pets.

The jump itself was long enough that Vader returned to overseeing his officers – this time in a much more personal manner. Looming over their shoulder while they worked might not produce the best results but he had little need for anyone who could not work under a little bit of pressure. And it was much easier to spot stupidity or laziness when he was standing there in person to bear witness to it.

For better or worse, the only fault he could find was an unfortunate tendency for the weaponry commander to stutter. Hardly enough reason to remove the man from his post when he did in fact seem to be otherwise competent. But it did little to settle the restlessness. When Palpatine had dangled the promise of Sith artifacts over him, Vader had never imagined it being something organic. He had little use for organics. But apparently the Sith Masters of old were obsessed with creating new life forms, only to find new and creatively cruel ways to snuff them out. These creatures were considered the pentacle of their achievement. So powerful, in fact, that they had in true Sith style turned on their masters and killed them.

So of course Palpatine wanted one.

And Vader had been set to fetch it. The thing had thankfully been in its dormant state, so he was able to easily turn it over to the special breed of scientists Palpatine seemed to have a never ending supply of, and that was supposed to be the end of it. And while Vader would be the last to care what happened to some rebel scum that came sniffing around where they did not belong, Vader was well aware enough to know that something as soaked in the Dark Side as these things were would wreck havoc on the galaxy were it to be set loose. And knowing the complete incompetence and irresponsibility of the Rebels, that would be exactly what they would do.

He was contemplating whether or not to let the things kill everything in the base before obliterating them from space or if it would be worth the exercise to go down personally to destroy them, when the Executor finally pulled out of hyperspace. Immediately, the communication's officer's dash lit up in a flurry of emergency calls.

And the Force sang with the presence of Skywalker's son.

This close he was impossible to miss. The boy truly had abysmal shields. It was mind boggling that Vader had not been able to sense him long before the attack on the Death Star, but he assumed that traitorous bastard Kenobi had something to do with it. Being this close to his son was like finding he could breathe again. Hope was a damning, cruel thing, but he could not help but feel an immediate swell of it to be this close to the boy.

That hope was immediately strangled, however, by the stark terror wrapped around the boy's presence.

His son was here but he was also down there with some of the worst monsters ever invented. His child – who still knew so little of the Force, who knew nothing of the truth of his heritage, and who still wielded his lightsaber like a talented but untrained child.

Vader turned without a word and stalked off of the bridge ignoring the confused entreats of his officers. The Empire could sort out their own affairs. Vader needed to get down to that space station now.

---

"Shut the door, shut the door!" someone was yelling.

Luke did his best to ignore it, fingers too busy pulling and prying and twisting wires to spare any thought for the terror he could feel rolling off of the others. It was suffocating. Almost as horrible as the slimy abyss like void these creatures seemed to create in the Force. The combination of being battered on one side and in danger of getting sucked in on the other was making it very difficult for him to focus, much less hope to shield himself from any of it. They had lost Marks this time. The last room had seemed secure enough to catch their breath in. They'd closed and locked all of the doors, but had missed an access hatch set into the ceiling.

Whatever these things were, they had spread throughout the compound like an infestation.

The door finally slid shut with a hollow thump that did little to reassure anyone crammed into a room that once might have been a laboratory. Luke had overridden the locks and frozen them in place for now, but he didn't have any faith either that that was going to hold forever.

They were down to about half of their group now. Becker was still alive and holding himself together grimly. Uriel was bleeding but still on her feet. One of the other ground troops wasn't so lucky. One of his limbs had been caught in a swipe by one of the creatures, and while they were lucky enough to pull him back to safety, he was still bleeding heavily. Oran wasn't a medic, but he was doing whatever he could to get the bleeding to stop.

"We have to get out of here," someone moaned. The shock was starting to set in and Luke could see it in the way trained fighters were starting to only react blindly to the threat instead of trying to focus.

"Did you see that one explode? Did you see what happened? Oh, god, I can smell the burning!"

That had been a particularly unpleasant surprise and how Uriel had gotten the nasty burns on her left side. She hadn't gotten far enough back as she had thought she needed to. Luke glanced over at her once more to make sure she was steady on her feet and she nodded back. She was in pain, he could feel it, but she'd always been a calm one.

"How many do you think there are?" someone else asked. There was a hint of hysteria in the question but at least it was practical. They had managed to kill two of them, but at the cost of half of their team. They knew at least a couple more were out there because they had chased them all the way here.

"Never seen anything like that."

"Do you think it's sentient?"

"No," Luke answered. Not in the way they meant. It might be intelligent, but Luke could tell the difference between an animal and a person. He was at least that much of a Jedi.

"It sure figured out that door easily enough!"

"It won't get through this one that quickly," Luke tried to reassure them. These weren't amateurs, but the fear rolling around in the Force was getting to everyone. It was making it hard to think, hard to concentrate, and hard to keep moving. Luke was used to pushing through the myriad of emotions his fellow soldiers generated during a battle, but this was threatening to roll him under. As it was, it was making it hard for him to breath. If they didn't get this under control, none of them were going to get out of here.

Luke was probably imagining it, but he could almost swear he could feel the things breathing on the other side of the durasteel door. It was a pneumatic seal, as good as any exterior hatch. Whatever they had been doing in this room, they hadn't wanted to risk anything airborne getting in or out. There was no way Luke would be able to hear anything from the other side, but that didn't stop him from feeling like the thing was leaning over his shoulder, breath cold and moist against his ear as oh so many teeth hovered just out of range.

No one seemed to agree with him about the sturdiness of the door but at least no one was willing to argue the point out load. If he could keep the team together long enough to come up with a plan, they might hold it together long enough to get out of here. People did better with a plan of action. It helped them think through their fear. Now if only Luke had such a plan...

"We need a ship," Becker offered. It was the most the man had said since Tys and Peel had been dragged off. There was a quick murmur of agreement. Luke sighed and let himself fall back to lean on the sealed door behind him. He had a moment to think about how even that small action brought him inches closer to the thing trying to kill them but mostly he was too far gone to care. Someone else was trying to come up with a plan, which meant Luke could take this small moment to try to do something about his shields. Ben hadn't shown him much, but Luke had been learning out of necessity. Ever since he had started using the Force, he had become so much more aware of everything around him. It was like never having seen color before, only to suddenly be surrounded by neon lights. It gave him a headache sometimes, when things were bad. And they couldn't get much worse than this.

"Our ship is too far!"

"What about the Imps? They have to have something."

"Not like they're going to just give to us. Or let us hitch a ride. Bastards would be all too happy to watch us all get torn to shreds or burned alive or..."

"We don't even know where their hanger is. I don't exactly fancy wandering around out there with those things? Do you?"

"I didn't say that, asshole!"

"Well, it's not a very good idea, then is it? Any better ideas, or is that the best you can manage?"

Luke did his best to tune it out. Of course everyone was afraid. And fear made people angry. But they needed to work together right now. Luke couldn't do much for his fellow soldiers, but he tried to get his own hammering heart under control and give off as much of a calm presence as he could. Maybe if he led by example, then the others would do better. He could feel each one of them like tiny dust storms, ramping up further and further. Becker's fury, Uriel's pain, Oran's panic, a stranger's terror…

Luke's eyes snapped open and his head jerked around to the left. There was one too many bright spots of terror in the room and no one else had noticed yet. It wasn't the sticky burning darkness of one of the creatures, so Luke didn't hesitate to push his way around teammate's and the room's equipment to reach a back cabinet and fling the door open.

For an Imperial, he was a bit on the scrawny size and had somehow managed to wedge himself in between the chemical jars and stationery. The man let out a low moan at being discovered. His arms and hands were pinned in awkwardly, but he still managed to show his empty hands. Luke stared down at him, suddenly aware that it wasn't just his comrades who were terrified and in danger. There was an entire station here. Stormtroopers, officers, scientists and crew. All of which would be trying to outrun these things. All of which would be desperate for any way out. Hiding in a flimsy storage locker was not exactly the brightest move, but people weren't always very bright when they were scared.

Or kind.

Someone shoved passed Luke and took a hold of the quivering man and dragged him forcibly out of his hiding place. He was slammed down on his back across one of the work tables, more than one very pissed off Rebel gathered around.

"What the fuck is this? You've got to be fuckin shitting me, you piece of shit! You're in here hiding while those things of yours are out there killing people?"

"Wait!" Luke said but no one seemed to want to listen to him much anymore.

"You cowardly piece of shit. We ought to open the doors and send you out there to keep 'em busy while we run away."

The Imperial scientist was starting to moan wordless and shake his head as if he could deny his very existence.

"That's not going to help anybody," Luke pointed out sternly. He was still the one nominally in charge of this mission, and he had not intended to give this desperate group a victim to direct all of their fear and anger towards. Luke was the one who had found him and now he was responsible for the man, for better or worse.

"Might not," Becker agreed reasonably from his side of the room. "But it would make me feel better."

Luke glared back at him. "We don't do that."

"Who says?" someone muttered and Luke slapped a hand down on the metal table.

"We don't do that," he repeated firmly, trying his best to keep his own fear and anger under control. "We're better than them. Also, it's not actually going to help us any, so how about we focus on what will?" Luke stared down as many of them as he could before shifting to look at the man still pinned down. "You work here, right?" The man was too scared to answer but Luke didn't really need one. "Right. Any idea what those things are and where they come from?"

"Probably something they invented," Oran muttered. "Wouldn't put it past them."

The man shook his head frantically. At first Luke thought he was just trying to deny any and all involvement in any of this, but he finally seemed to find his voice. "Didn't. Vader brought it. Some kind of artifact. Supposed to be contained."

Vader.

Why did it always come back to that man? It had been several months since the destruction of the Death Star and Luke had already failed to kill him once. The man had somehow always managed to survive and go on to terrorize not only the rest of the galaxy but the nightmares of every Rebel. Worse, he seemed to have become fixated with killing Luke. Sure, the ridiculously high bounty said wanted alive only, but Luke had no illusions on what that meant. Death was going to be slow and nasty if he ever got caught. There was no end to the depravity Vader was capable of and it didn't shock Luke in the least to find out the man was somehow connected to all of this.

"He's not here," Luke stated, mostly to reassure himself. He wasn't always good at sensing other beings - hence why it took him so long to realize there was one more life force in this room than there should have been - but Vader was hard to miss. Even with the things here messing with his perception, Luke still would have been able to sense Vader if he was that close. The asteroid was only so big. There would be nowhere to hide if that was the case.

The Imperial shook his head again. "He didn't stay. Just gave us our work."

"Those things!"

Slowly, hesitantly, the scientist nodded. "Study only!" he argued. "They're supposed to be kept in quarantine. The isolation is supposed to make them dormant. They wouldn't have been able to get out without the breach!"

"What breach?"

"The giant hole blasted in the containment wall!"

Uriel paled, one hand reaching out to steady herself on the nearest surface. Explosives were always dangerous in space stations. Too much and everything could be over for everyone very quickly. But Uriel was one of the best. She knew how to time and scale her materials just right. It wasn't her fault that this time things went horribly horribly wrong.

"Are you saying this is our fault!" another soldier shouted. The one holding the man down gave him such a violent shake that his head bounced off of the metal table. It wasn't enough to do serious damage but it was pushing it.

"You - you all b-broke in!"

"Why you-"

"Alright, alright!" Luke shouted. "These things shouldn't exist in the first place," he pointed out. It didn't clear them of all culpability, but it was still true. "Is that what you all were doing here?" Luke asked. "Are they the weapon?"

The man nodded. He was either too scared or too callus to show any regret for it. Imperial scientists had a reputation for being willing to do anything. Luke wished he could say it surprised him. Even a Force null should have been able to tell there was something horribly wrong with these things. But Luke was well aware that just because people were capable of being better, didn't mean that they would. He might not have lost his faith in beings, but he wasn't a fool either.

"Alright then," he continued calmly. "This is what we're here for." Everyone turned to stare at him as if that had never accorded to any of them. Luke huffed. "We got word of a secret deadly weapon and we've found it. It's maybe even worse than we thought it would be. That doesn't change anything about this mission. We have to figure out how to destroy each and every one of these things and make damn sure none of them survive and make it into the Emperor's hands. If just one of them gets off of here, who knows what will happen." Though Luke could imagine. The Force was almost screaming with it. Death, destruction, fear in all corners of the galaxy.

Just what men like Vader and the Emperor would want.

"We have to stop them," Luke repeated firmly, with all of the conviction he had ever had since joining the desperate push of the rebellion.

"How?"

Good question. Luke took a deep breath and did his best to let the Force guide him. "We need to destroy the facility. We need to make sure everything and anything is destroyed as part of it. Then we need a ship to get ourselves out of here."

"Blow the entire facility?" Uriel suggested, as if tasting the idea in her mouth and seeing how it felt.

Luke nodded. He turned to the one source of info they had and asked the scientist "can they survive in space?"

The man shook his head, but then paused and nodded before shaking it again. The man holding him down growled and shook him again, not exactly helping with the clear communication. Luke put a hand on the Rebel's shoulder, not holding him back but trying to impart as much calm as he could. "Well?" Luke asked.

"Short bursts," the man rushed to say once given a chance. He was very eager to be as useful as possible. "It's still an organic. But short bursts won't harm it."

"Well, then, we'll just have to make sure it's more than a short burst if it comes to that." the scientist stared back at him as if Luke had suggested the Emperor might be coming around for tea, but the Rebel team was starting to come around. Even the man holding down the Imperial looked less focused on getting some revenge and more like he wanted to hear what Luke had to say.

"We blow the base, and do our best to get as many of the things as we can. The elements - or lack thereof - will take care of anything we miss."

It wasn't a full plan, but it was at least somewhere to start. Uriel was nodding along slowly. "I can do that," she agreed. Her voice was still strained and so much more reserved than he was used to hearing from her, but at least she was on board. Luke didn't ask her how she was going to manage with one arm so badly damaged. He'd have to trust her to know her own business.

"How do we get out of this room?" Becker asked. Another good question Luke didn't have an answer for yet, but surely they could come up with something together! Suddenly, their safe haven was feeling much more like a prison.

"We'll need a distraction," Luke started. He'd been staring absently trying to think when his focus snapped back to their best source of information. "You can log into the computers, right?" Luke asked him. "If we could get into the computers, we might be able to keep the things busy enough to give us a chance." He was warming up to the idea. "We'll split into two groups. One will go for the ship and pick us up, the other prime the charges."

"Not it," someone muttered but no one was brave enough to say it loudly. Luke let it go. He couldn't ask any of them to do more than they were capable of - but he also didn't want to encourage that kind of thinking by dignifying it with a response. There was no question which group Luke would be a part of. He was the commander in charge of this mission. It was his plan. And as the only Force user there, he had the best chance of getting out of this alive. There wasn't much that held up against a lightsaber and Luke could feel the creatures' sickening hunger to kill. It wasn't enough to let him pinpoint how close one of the things were, but it gave him some edge.

"How many kits do we have?" Luke asked the group. He still had his slung around behind him, but he had a feeling more than one person had lost theirs. There'd been more pressing concerns than worrying about their oxygen masks. A few hands went up, more than Luke would have expected. But these were good soldiers, even if they were fraying around the edges right now. They knew the importance of survival gear. The few that didn't raise their hand did suddenly look a little panicked, but Luke did his best to put that at ease. He immediately unhooked his and passed it to the man standing closest to him. The sudden burst of relief and gratitude and awe was almost as bad as the negative emotions at pounding at Luke's poor shields, but he tried to soak it up as best he could. He was going to need to hold on to this memory of being able to save one person at a time. He was going to need the reminder once he got out there on his own facing these creatures.

Uriel's kit had been one of the ones lost but Becker unhooked his and tossed it onto the table. "Might as well," he grumbled.

Luke gave it a moment before asking as gently as he could. "Anyone else?" He didn't want to have to take anyone on this suicide run whose choice had been forced on them by lack of a kit, but he could never ask someone else to give up theirs. They could probably do it with three, but then the other team was going to be short a kit. Becker's was still on the table and the two without one eyed it and each other warily. Finally, a Bothan named Yormik pushed his way to the front and gently sat his down. He didn't say anything.

"Okay," Luke told them. "Let's work on this distraction."

---

Vader's preferred ship would always be his modified Advanced Tie Fighter. It had been a personal project of his for years. The one thing he had truly enjoyed doing and considered his own – though that was before finding out about his son. It was as close to a work of art as he could manage, but it also had the very unfortunate limitation of being designed for one.

Vader was not leaving this hunk of rock without his son, so it had to be a shuttle.

It was clunky and slow. He had to wait far longer than he would have liked for the engines to warm up, and as it was he skipped far more of the safety procedures than he should have. The ship could manage it. His son might not have the luxury of that time. Finally free of the Star Destroyer, he passed another Imperial shuttle fleeing away from the station. It was a futile attempt. It had no sooner cleared Vader's ship than it was blasted away. Vader had been very clear in the directions he had given his bridge crew. Nothing escaped this rock without his permission. It was far too much of a risk to take. The Emperor might insist Vader rescue one of his precious samples, but nothing else was of any value on this rock. Except for his son. Once Vader had his child safely ensconced behind his protection, then he could worry about isolating one of these damn things to take back with him for his Master and then vaporize anything else that remained.

The hangar was empty when Vader first entered it. Landing on a small base like this wasn't as easy, but Vader also didn't care what external damage he caused. The station wide alarms were still blaring when he exited the shuttle. Clearly, no one had taken the time to turn them off. Vader had little patience for inefficiency, but in this case he supposed it was only a natural reaction to the stark terror these Sith creations caused.

No one was left in the hanger - those that could certainly must have tried to flee and were now no more than atoms - but when Vader made his way into the first hall, he quickly heard the sound of running feet. Two Stormtroopers came barreling around the corner. Their armor was gouged in places dangerously close to being fatal, but both of them seemed to be on their feet and in good working order. At first they didn't even seem to see the Sith Lord standing in the middle of the hallway, all of their attention was focused on the door to the hanger. But some form of self-preservation must have kicked in because they both stuttered to a stop a few feet away from him. There was a slight delay before one, then the other, managed to snap out the best salute they could manage.

"Where is your commanding officer?" Vader demanded.

The one on the left didn't hesitate this time. "He ran away. Sir."

"I see. It did not serve him well," Vader was gracious enough to inform them. "This facility is now under quarantine under my command. Guard the ship until I return. Anything attempting to leave without my approval will be destroyed."

The soldiers were smart enough to recognize their only escape route. They both saluted much more sharply this time and hurried passed him. The hanger might not be the most defensible position but it wasn't the worst. Good sightlines would give them a decent chance of surviving. And it would make it very evident if there was any attempt by these monsters to board his ship, even if the troops themselves did not survive such an assault.

Vader could no longer breath in deeply to center himself, but he had long ago learned how to balance controlling the raging inferno inside him and reaching out. His son was so close. But that wonderfully bright, uncontrolled and unfiltered, glowing warmth was just out of reach and marred by the stain of filth covering every inch of this facility. The creatures may have been mostly dormant until this point, but the miasma of their existence had seeped into every pore. To be honest, Vader was surprised they had not had any cases of cracked scientists before now. That much maleficent energy could easily turn a man mad. But maybe the Emperor's pet scientists were already that way.

Vader cursed. He could feel his son was near, but in the maze of tunnels it would be difficult to find him. There was no time for this!

The alarms suddenly cut off - as if a wire had been pulled. Vader couldn't help but glance upward, directing his gaze to where he knew the closest security camera would be. Someone else was still alive and up to something in this death trap.

That was when the fire retardant system kicked on, flooding the hallway with white smoke.

---

Luke kept his eyes closed and trusted in the Force. He didn't tell the three people following along behind him that he wasn't looking where he was going. He had reassured all of them that he could find his way through the smoke even if visibility would be temporarily cut down to nearly nothing. The logic was that if they couldn't see, then their opponents couldn't either. Even if the things ran on another sense, such as smell or heat, the thick chemicals in the air would muddle any attempts to track them.

It wasn't the greatest of plans, but it was a functioning one.

The trick was leading the others. Uriel was still injured, even if she was trying to act like it was nothing. The burn had been server, and even before they had moved out into the smoke filled hallway, her breathing had been becoming increasingly strained. So they had her nestled up right behind Luke, one hand on his shoulder so as not to lose him. Becker and Yomik brought up the rear as closely as they dared.

The last one in their sorry little group was the Imperial scientist. They couldn't just leave him cowering on his own but there was no equipment to spare. So Luke had offered him a deal.

"Help us set this place to blow and we'll take you with us."

The man hadn't trusted it and more than one Rebel had voiced strong objections - but Luke was not leaving another being behind with these things. The man hadn't had a choice. No one - not even Luke - was willing to give him a weapon and he was forced to trail along behind them on his own, but they did their best not to leave him behind. Uriel might know what she was doing, but it would be helpful to have one of the top minds of the facility on hand to set the charges for maximum destruction.

The smoke was thinning slowly. It was designed to put out a fire, not kill everything living in the base. Limited exposure mostly caused temporary irritation. The loss of vision, difficulty breathing, and head-spinning chemical high was all temporary. Under normal situations, someone caught in it could just wait for it to end. They'd be miserable but unharmed. Luke's team didn't have that luxury. While the others tried to make a break for the nearest airlock, they had the much more arduous task of getting to the facility's central control room. Uriel was confident there'd be enough equipment and raw materials there to make this place nothing but a crater, with no pesky computer overrides needed.

Luke had already made more turns than he could keep track of, but he knew they were on the right path. The station had the feel of something fabricated elsewhere and transported in parts, all of which fit back together like a complicated maze. They'd been managing - right up until something cold and slimy seemed to crawl its way up Luke's back. He slammed to a halt, almost taking Uriel down with him. Becker came up alongside them, rifle up to help provide cover and Yormik begrudgingly allowed the Imp scientist to cower behind them.

Luke strained to see through the fog. The chemicals were making his eyes burn and tear up and he couldn't actually see anything.

But they were no longer alone in that hallway.

Luke carefully slipped out from Uriel's grip. He was going to need the room. He'd already given his blaster to one of the others, but his lightsaber was going to be his best bet against something like this.

"Which way?" Becker hissed quietly.

Luke wasn't sure. All of his focus was on the thing waiting for him. It hadn't attacked yet, as if it were waiting for him to get just a little bit closer. Luke took a step forward, putting more space between him and the people he had to protect.

Yomik growled at the Imp and the man finally yelped "left!"

There was a scratching noise in response and Luke braced himself. "Go!" he hissed. "Go, I'll catch up!"

To give the others credit, they hesitated. Up until then, everything had been a mad dash to escape. There'd been little time to think about your comrades when you were constantly only one step away from certain death. But Becker was a practical man. He led the way, peeling off to the left and moving fast. There wasn't time to make sure the way was clear, not with something hunting them from the other end.

Luke stayed braced for an attack, ready to spring into action at the slightest hint of movement. If they could get past this hurdle, they might just be able to make it the rest of the way. He just needed to hold this line. Once the others were out of the way, he waited, certain the attack would come at any moment. But his impatience got the better of him, and he finally edge forward slowly, sliding one foot along then the other, trying to hold his form the best way he knew how.

For a moment he began to wonder if he had actually imagined it. The Force was so thick with darkness, it was possible his senses had become confused. Then something came at him from behind.

Luke only had the faintest of warnings. The kind that had kept him alive more than once when weaving between stone columns in his speeder or dodging Imperial fire. He threw himself to the right, valuing speed over finesse. His lightsaber came up in a desperate attempt at a guard position. The thing lunged for him but yanked it's glistening claws back just shy of losing the limb. The other one was rushing up the hallway and Luke pivoted to swing his saber around in an arch meant to keep both of them at bay. A dagger like tail whipped up and towards his face and he ducked his chin down to avoid it.

The things had him pinned between them in the narrow hallway and he had to get out of there. His lightsaber might be the best defense against them, but it was better in an open area where he could move more freely. But they were so fast! He had no more chased off one than the other was coming for him. Claws, and teeth, and spear like tails whipping through the air almost faster than he could follow. The remnants of the white smoke swooshed around them eerily. It didn't hinder either side, but it made it even more surreal to focus on. This close to the things, it was hard for Luke to think of anything but the yawning abyss they seemed to be in the Force. The way they pulled at everything calm and sane in him and seemed to echo back and amplify his fear.

He already knew he was well and truly afraid. He didn't need the help!

One sharp claw caught the top of his shoulder. Not deep enough to pull him off his feet, but enough to rip an agonizing gouge into the skin below. Blood splatter on the floor, threatening his already shaky footing. He chased that one off with a backwards swing, but the move left him open to the other one. He scrambled back as far as he could in order to get his saber back up in front of him. He wasn't going to last much longer like this. His experience in battle might be limited, but even he knew that once you were hit, it was all going to quickly go downhill from there.

He had to get out of there somehow.

The others had taken the nearest hallway, so he couldn't try darting in that direction. It wouldn't do a lot of good to buy the others time if he just ended up leading the monsters to them. But the only other exits were so far away and he didn't know how he was even going to get an opening big enough to try to run - much less out pace two of these things.

That was when a third one came leisurely padding around the corner. Its slimy hard exterior made it look like they should either clack as they walked or at least make some kind of squelching noise. But it was completely silent. Even the two fighting Luke had barely made a noise. That disconnect of so much horror without a sound to herald it only made it even more frightening to see the third one slowly and silently make its way to join in on trying to kill Luke.

There was no way he could hold off three of them!

But he didn't have a choice, did he? It was either let the fear paralyze him or at least try to do something. He was going to have to make a break for it. There was no way he was going to get clear of them without getting hurt, if not killed, but he had to at least try. Staying put was certainly going to be the end of him.

Just as he was working up the nerve to try, everything went to hell.

---

Vader stepped over another dead body without hesitation. It was wearing the standard Imperial greys and had the wrong colored hair, so it was of no interest to him. He had checked several rooms already and found plenty of evidence on how quickly his Master's pets had made their way through the installation. There were far more large smears of red blood than bodies, however. Which meant the things were dragging off the dead for who knew what. The scientists assigned to study the beasts had mostly written of their impressive durability and violence. While they had been quick to congratulate each other on the viciousness of the beasts, there had been little of actual substance on how they operated or why. A Sith creature wouldn't need much motivation other than to kill, but perhaps if they had done their jobs a little bit better then they would have survived their encounters with the beasts. Or at least have provided Vader with better information on how to safely find his son.

By this point, nearly everything else had either fled or was dead. The lack of distraction made it easier to hear even the slightest hint of noise.

And the hum of a lightsaber was distinctive.

Vader wasted no time in crossing the distance. These blasted hallways were all interconnected so much that the noise echoed oddly. It was costing him valuable seconds. Without being able to clearly pinpoint his son's Force signature, it was hard to know which way to turn. The fresh streak of blood going around a corner was his first clue. One of the creatures had passed this way very recently. The beasts were made out of the Dark Side. They would keep hunting until there was nothing left to hunt. And their favorite type of prey would be a Force sensitive. Vader was not at all surprised to find three of them descending on his son.

In fact, he was relieved.

The boy was still on his own two feet, even if he was looking a little roughed up. He had his saber out in front of him and was doing a poor job of scaring off the creatures. But he was defending himself. He had managed to survive long enough for Vader to get to him. And now that Vader was there, he could put an end to this nonsense.

The closest beast was the one that had left the blood stains and it barely had time to react before Vader was on it. It lashed out instinctively, tearing at his suit and trying to rip his organs out through his chest. Vader cursed as the thing managed some damage to the exoskeleton of his suit. It was no match for an enraged Sith Master, however. Not on its own. Vader struck it down - making sure to be thorough. It was unclear exactly how much damage one of these things could withstand and still be hazardous. It was best not to take any chances. Thankfully, a lightsaber was in fact the ideal weapon for dealing with them. Instantly cauterized wounds left little room for the animal's natural defenses of acidic blood to counterattack. Soon enough he had a pile of reptile-like parts at his feet and was able to move on to rescuing his son.

The son of Skywalker was still as young and clumsy as Vader remembered him. It was clear that his training had been sorely lacking - and oversight Vader planned on correcting as soon as possible. The boy's destiny was far too great to leave such things to chance. The Force seemed to unabashedly radiate off of the boy, but all of the distortion and interference of the beasts made it difficult to truly revel in being so close to his child.

And the boy was clearly terrified. He was struggling to maintain even a basic Soresu form while at the same time darting his eyes over toward Vader in fear. Foolish boy. Couldn't he tell that the creatures were far more dangerous to him than Vader was?

The problem was, his son was far too close to them. Like scavengers, they scrambled around his son's light trying to steal what they could. Vader could easily wade into their midst, confident in his own abilities and with little concern for his own welfare. But there was far too much of a chance of accidentally hurting his son. Or worse.

Vader let that fear and anger push him forward. He crossed the distance in only a few quick strides. The beast closest to him lashed out at him with its deadly tail, even as it tried to rip off his son's face. Vader sliced the offending appendage cleanly off. It gave him enough of a gap to reach through the flailing limbs and grab a hold of his son. The boy was slight like his mother, slight but determined. His shoulder felt ever so fragile beneath Vader's glove and in the tight clasp of his prosthetic. But the boy didn't go easily.

That damnable blue lightsaber came swinging up toward Vader's face, as if the boy intended to behead him with such a sloppy slash. Vader batted it away before swinging the child around behind him. Normally, that would be enough to put an end to any threat. Few things got past Darth Vader. But these were Sith born demons, and they continued to scramble and try to claw their way to his boy. Vader had no choice but to fall into a far more defensive stance than he would have liked.

It had been years since he had had to take up a defensive positioning, but he found it came naturally to him to keep the child hidden safely behind his bulk.

---

Luke was dead. He was so, so dead.

He had known the odds were not in his favor as soon as he had sent the others off without him. A Jedi might not believe in luck, but they could certainly die from a lack of it. Luke hadn't been willing to give up though. He had a better chance of surviving than most, and maybe he could manage to run away enough to get to safety. But such illusions were shattered as soon as that man came charging around the corner.

Vader. Here! Of all of the rotten luck in the galaxy. If there really was no such thing as luck, only the Force, then Luke had a serious bone to pick with it about constantly throwing him and this man together. It was as if something malicious out there was taunting him - constantly bringing him so close to his father's murderer, only to foil any attempts Luke made at taking his revenge.

And now this added insult to injury. Realistically, Luke's chances of getting away from the dark creatures attacking him had been close to nil. Now, even if he did get away, he was only going to get struck down by Vader. There was no way Luke could stand up against both fronts.

Look at the way Vader slashed through the one closest to him! Luke might be outnumbered, but he was humble enough to know that even one of these things was going to be a tough fight for him. But Vader tore it to pieces with a sort of calm focus that made the hair on the back of Luke's neck stand up. It was hard to imagine being that good at killing. And somehow, even through the thick fog of panic and terror these monsters created, Luke was still able to feel a whooshing dropping feeling in his stomach as all that rage and focus came barreling down the hallway towards him.

Honestly. What had he ever done to this man to gain that much attention? Luke knew why he hated Vader, but part of him was still perplexed at the man's focus in return. Sure, Luke had blown up a Death Star (among other things). But so had a lot of their pilots! Well, at least one or two others had at least helped. So why him?

That question ran through his mind even as he desperately tried to keep his skin intact. He didn't have much more attention to spare beyond ducking and dodging and flicking his saber back and forth as quickly as he could. So it may have taken him slightly by surprise to have Vader grab at him. Part of him had been expecting an attack. He wasn't foolish. Vader radiated in the Dark Side of the Force just as much as these beasts. But while they were a cold slimy kind of dark that threatened to suck you into their abyss, Vader was all fire and raging storms and overwhelming power. There was no way Luke could miss that coming up on him. But he'd been thinking he'd need to parry a lightsaber thrust. Not watch out for a hand.

It was embarrassing to say he didn't even try dodging it at first. His instincts failed him, not even hinting that he might be in danger, and he found himself being yanked nearly off his feet. The creature closest to him made one last grab but a red saber came swooshing down to fend off the greedy hand. That was impetus enough to get Luke swinging back. It was a horrible attempt. He was off balance, yanked halfway around, and with his back mostly to Vader. He wasn't surprised in the least when Vader batted it away the same way one might wave off a pesky bird. What did surprise Luke was to find himself with such a clear shot afterwards. Vader had pulled him so far that Luke was now behind the man, with a clear opening at his back. Such an opportunity was never going to present itself again! Luke didn't even think. He raised his saber, determined to act - to avenge his father, to end Vader's reign of terror, to save himself and his friends.

But Vader didn't even seem to notice.

He was too busy making much better work of dealing with the monsters. He was holding both of them off much more confidently than Luke had and had even already disarmed one of them. It was likely only a matter of time before he rendered both of them no longer a threat. And still he didn't not even look at Luke. Ignored him completely. And maybe Luke should have been enraged by that. Did this man think he was so incompetent, so insignificant, that he did not even care if he presented his back to him?

But even as Luke had his saber raised to attack - he couldn't. Not because he felt he owed this man anything. He had no illusions that this was actually a rescue for its own sake. Whatever Vader wanted, it would not be something good. There had to be a nefarious plot at work. But still. Luke could hardly strike down a man that wasn't even looking at him, could he? Maybe it would be the only time Luke could actually win a fight against Vader, and maybe Vader had more than earned such a fate. But that wasn't who Luke was, was it? It would be as bad as killing an unarmed man. Maybe even worse. For while Vader surely had an evil plot at work - and was maybe responsible for this mess in the first place - he had in fact….well, rescue was too strong of a word but he had taken on Luke's fight as if it were his own.

It might have been the just, logical, and reasonable thing to kill Vader then when he had a chance. And maybe Luke would bitterly regret this day for the rest of his life. But it still wouldn't be right.

Luke sighed and dropped his arms back down. Vader had taken over the fight so thoroughly, that there wasn't much Luke could even do to help their cause. Vader was quite a bit taller than him this close up (not that that was at all intimidating…) and he had Luke all but pinned in between him and the wall. The creatures kept trying to sneak an arm or a tail around Vader to get at Luke, but before Luke could even try to defend himself, Vader's saber was there. Either chasing the offending appendage back or removing it entirely.

As Luke suspected, it was only a matter of time. One of them finally went down, missing its head. The body continued to jerk sporadically in what Luke assumed were misfiring nerves. But it did get a bit too close to their legs for Vader's liking and he halved it again in one effortless down swipe. The other fell apart much more quickly and thoroughly. Within seconds Vader turned the tide of the battle into an offensive one, pushing back against the beast until it started to give way - and also lose parts of itself.

In moments there was only silence and a hallway full of burnt husks. The hum of their two lightsabers was the only noise. That and Vader's respirator. The entire battle had been silent, but the lack of ringing in the Force as the battle ended felt as deafening as if someone had just cut a loud engine, one they had been so accustomed to that they hadn't noticed how deafening it was until its absence.

Vader turned slowly to stare at Luke and Luke wasn't sure what to do. After so much terror, he wasn't sure if he could even muster enough energy to be properly frightened. He still had his saber activated in one hand. He should probably prepare himself for an attack. But there was something so bizarre about Vader rescuing him from evil monsters that he wasn't sure quite how to respond.

Finally, Vader announced "there will be more of them."

Luke startled. Vader's voice was surprisingly...calm. Luke hadn't thought the respirator was capable of such. "I noticed," he replied dumbly.

Vader's respirator inhaled and exhaled twice as they both contemplated the cleverness of that statement. "You should not be here," Vader finally announced.

And that was finally enough to get Luke's brain working again. "You shouldn't have death monsters!" he shouted back. Because, honestly, who thought these things were a good idea? Vader might be a Sith, but surely he found these things just as creepy as Luke did. Anyone who could feel the Force had to!

"This was not my idea!" Vader roared back. He had his saber still activated but his body was angled so that he could point a finger in Luke's face.

"So?" Luke shouted back. Because he was not going to be yelled at and not give back as good as he got. Part of him was aware that yelling in a dangerous situation like this, where there were literal monsters hunting them, was maybe not a good idea. Most of him just wanted to rant and rage at Vader. It might not be as satisfying as winning a lightsaber duel, but it did make him feel better.

"We do not have time for this!" Vader argued back - a clear cop out if Luke had ever heard one! But Vader was striding towards him with purpose. Luke tried to scramble backwards, saber held tight in one hand. But Vader never swung his up to attack Luke. Instead, he once more grabbed onto Luke's arm and merely continued stalking down the hallway, dragging Luke along like so much extra luggage.

"Hey!"

"You are wasting time we can ill afford. We must leave the premise immediately.'

"We?" Luke demanded. There was no we!

The grip on Luke's arm tightened painfully and it was oddly that that made Luke first realize that it hadn't been rough beforehand. Insistent. Commanding. But not brutal the way Luke had always assumed Vader couldn't help but be. "I have secured transportation. You will be on it."

And that sounded way more like a threat than an offer. "Why?" Luke demanded back. He wasn't going to get free short of slicing off the man's hand and that was a bit further than Luke was willing to go yet. He mostly used his lightsaber for defense or deflection. Attacking another being, particularly one that wasn't immediately trying to kill him, was a bit more than he could stomach at the moment. Besides, if Vader did have a way out, Luke might need it. "What do you care if I survive or not?" Which was maybe not the question to ask the genocidal manic - not when you secretly wanted to steal his ship - but it was too bizarre not to ask.

"You speak of things you do not understand, Skywalker."

"I know enough," Luke retorted sharply. He didn't need to be lectured by Vader of all people! "What are you going to do about them?"

Vader did not slow down. He seemed to know the way back to where his ship was, because he led Luke unflinchingly down one hallway after another. For a brief moment, they paused, the faint sound of something scrambling in the distance. Whatever it was - and Luke suspected he knew - it did not come their direction. But Luke was not imagining it when Vader started stalking down the hallways a little faster in the opposite direction.

"The creatures will be dealt with," Vader finally graced him with an answer.

"Dealt with how?"

"That is none of your concern."

Luke scowled back and started actively trying to slow the man down. In all honesty, Luke would be more than happy to get off of this rock the fastest way possible. Leaving as Vader's prisoner was maybe not ideal, but at least it would get him out alive. Escaping imprisonment later would not be the first time for Luke and at least it was a possibility. Staying here was a guaranteed death sentence. But that ominous statement by Vader did not bode well for Luke's comrades or their plan to blow up the facility.

At first Vader ignored his feeble attempts at slowing down the larger and stronger man. But then suddenly he stopped. All of that power and momentum came to a screeching halt and Vader spun to face him.

"What have you done?" he hissed. He did not have to raise his voice for it to sound like thunder. He seemed to have finally cottoned on that maybe Luke had had a purpose in being here and he did not seem happy about it.

Luke straightened his shoulders and glared right back without hesitation. "We made a plan to clean up your mess."

"And was that a part of your plan?"

Luke blushed. He knew exactly what Vader was referring too. "I had to buy time for the others. I thought I could handle it. At least better than any of them could have."

Vader shook him slightly. "Their insignificant lives would hardly have been worth it!" Luke couldn't' see Vader's face, of course, but he had the distinct feeling the man was glaring at him. "And what exactly have you and your ridiculous friends planned now?"

"We were merely cleaning up your mess!" because it was important that no one forget who started all of this. The Emperor and his mad bids for even more death and destruction were going to be the ruin of the galaxy. This was only on example and further proof of why the Rebellion so desperately needed to win.

"How?"

Luke tried to shake off the man's grip. "They're organics, aren't they? If we blow up the base, either the explosion or the vacuum of space will kill all of them."

Vader was back to staring from behind that daunting mask and Luke scowled back. The man's grip was like trying to get free of a metal pincher. No matter how much Luke pointedly shook his arm, that grip didn't change.

"How long?" Vader demanded.

"How long for what?"

"Until the blast, you idiot child!"

"Oh!" Luke hadn't really worried about that before now. He was a bit too focused on surviving the more immediate threats trying to rip off his face. "Maybe 60 minutes? Give or take. Hey!" Vader's sharp spin nearly took Luke off of his feet. If he had thought the man was in a rush before, it was nothing compared to now. Luke could barely keep up but he had a feeling Vader would have no issue with bodily dragging him the rest of the way if necessary.

"Foolish idiot!" Vader said, his respirator snapping and hissing around the words.

"Hey!"

"Such a stupid plan!"

"It is not! What else were we supposed to do? Those things have to be destroyed!"

"These are Sith constructs, you ignorant child! They are not going to be destroyed by something as petty as a small explosion."

"It was going to be a big explosion!" Luke reasoned before Vader's words actually caught up with him. This time he didn't make a half-hearted attempt at stopping them. This time he planted his feet, yanked back as hard as he could and pushed back. It was enough to bring Vader once more to a halt, this one much more of a stumble, but it wasn't enough to get him free. "Wait, what? Why won't it work?"

"These are creatures designed specifically to outlast, out hunt and out kill anything else! You think you and your pathetic little friends were going to be able to kill all of them that easily?"

"But the scientist said-"

"Force save me from the Emperor's scientists! They could not find their way through an empty hanger with a map and a flashlight! What these fools understand about these creatures barely even scratches the surface. Tell me, Skywalker, do you honestly think they would be that easy to kill? Is that what the Force is telling you?"

Luke didn't know what the Force was telling him half of the time and it seemed to only be worse any time he was remotely near Vader. Everything got so jumbled! But now that he stopped to think about it, now that Vader had said as much, it did seem rather naïve to believe they could manage such a thing so easily.

"Well, what should we do then?"

"We are getting you on that ship and off of this station. I will manage a retrieval team at a later date. The things can fester here all they want for now."

"Retrieval?" Luke parroted, suddenly feeling horribly sick. "You - you can't mean that. You've seen what these things can do! They can't be allowed to exist. If even one of them got loose out there…'

"Entire civilizations would crumble, yes. That is rather the point."

"You can't let that happen!" Luke cried. "Surely even you wouldn't want something like that."

"It is not a case of want, boy."

"Then help me destroy them!"

That - that wasn't exactly what Luke had meant to say. He stared at Vader in horror as they both caught their breath. Of course Luke was going to have to figure out a way to destroy the beasts. But he had never once thought about asking Vader for help. He couldn't imagine asking Vader for anything. But there it was - the words were out there and even worse, Vader seemed to be taking a long time thinking them over.

Finally, Vader shook his head. Luke didn't know if he was relieved or not. It was tempting to just pretend this conversation had never happened but it would have made the task before Luke so much easier if he had had someone as powerful as Vader on his side.

What was he even thinking! Vader - on his side?

"This does not involve you, young Skywalker."

"Yes, it does! I'm here now and that makes me involved! I can't just walk away from this!"

"Walk or be dragged, it does not matter to me," Vader threatened.

But Luke had had enough of that. Vader clearly didn't plan on killing him right away - for whatever reason. Which was the only advantage Luke was going to get. He brought his lightsaber up between them, the position mostly defensive but it did put the edge of his blade perilously close to the arm Vader was using to hold onto Luke. "I'm not leaving," Luke threatened back. "So you can either help me before the 60 minutes are up or you can go on without me." And without your arm, went unsaid. Luke might not be willing to strike the man down in cold blood from behind, but he was more than willing to remove a limb if it meant doing what he had to do to save the rest of the galaxy from these things. They were far too dangerous to be left alive and it was clear that they could not rely on the Empire to do anything about it.

Vader's grip tightened but he did not move. "This is foolish!"

Luke would have shrugged, but all of his attention was focused on holding his tense form. "What's necessary is never foolish."

Vader glared at him. Precious time was ticking by and every moment might be the next that more of those things would find them. Finally, Vader made a noise that might have been a sigh. That or a heavily distorted curse. "Fine!" he barked before letting go of Luke for the first time since he had appeared. Once more that finger was being wagged in his face and Luke had the absurd feeling that they had done this before. "But you will follow my lead."

"Fine!'

"Fine!" Vader snapped back.

Actually, Luke had no idea where to go next so he was really hoping Vader had some kind of clue. The Force was a mess of darkness and death and it was hard to imagine anything living was still there. But Luke knew there had to be more monsters hidden. They just had to find them and make sure they were all dead. And then get the hell out of there before Uriel and the others blew the place. And preferably find a chance for Luke to sneak away from Vader and escape with his friends.

Easy.

"So which way?"

---

Infuriating! Ridiculous! Reckless!

There was no way Vader was ever as foolish in his youth as this ridiculous child of his was. He certainly would not have made it to adulthood if he had been. It was a miracle the boy had managed this long without him. But from now on, Vader was going to be the only one doing anything reckless!

...the point was, he was not letting his child go rushing off blindly into danger. Especially not now that he was finally in Vader's grasp. The boy was following along behind him obediently but Vader was under no illusion that that would change once an opportunity presented itself. But the boy was correct. Once these things were dealt with, there would be far fewer threats to his son and he could use whatever force necessary to get the boy on his ship.

They just needed to move quickly.

The first attack came almost as soon as they started heading back towards the center of the facility. The beasts were territorial after all. They did not appreciate becoming the hunted. Two of them came scurrying down the hallway, running along the ceiling as if gravity had little meaning to them. Vader immediately stepped forward to meet them. They may be resistant to Force attacks, but they would fall easily enough under his saber. He had not expected his child to take up position alongside him. The hallway was not very wide, but there was enough room for two trained combatants to stand abreast. It would certainly prevent the creatures from using their preferred method of attempting to swarm in from both sides. As long as Vader was mindful of his son, he should be able to compensate for any deficiencies in the child's training. It was a distant memory, but Vader still could recall how to adjust his stance and awareness to move as a team. Like a teacher and a student. A father and a child.

Skywalker's form was abysmal, that was true enough. But his instincts were good. When Vader went for his preferred high attack, the boy was there immediately guarding from below. Which was fortunate, since these things withered and twisted like eels to lash out at any opening. Working together, their numbers equal, it was quick work to slice through them.

Vader felt nothing but a grim satisfaction that he had once more proven himself superior. But then his foolish child had turned to him, with just the slightest hint of a cocky, happy grin on his face and Vader was struck suddenly by the enormity of it all. Here he was, fighting side by side with his son. Such a treasure, one that he had for so long never even considered possible. And even these last few months, it had been more of a fever dream. A burning possibility but with no substance.

Now he knew what it felt like.

Damn the Emperor and his pets. If Luke wanted to kill all of the blasted things, then Vader was going to help him do so! They would be glorious in battle together!

Vader offered his son a jaunty salute with his saber, the closest thing to comradery he could manage, before leading them onward. This was perhaps the most cheerful he had been in over two decades. Never mind that there was a hive of horrid beasts to exterminate, and a pending explosion, or the fact that his own child still did not know the truth of his parentage - for now they would destroy things together! It would be good training for later, Vader decided. It was important that his son gain field experience. It would also help Vader judge his abilities under realistic conditions. They could then work more efficiently at improving them before having to face the Emperor.

"How do you know where you're going?" Skywalker finally asked. He was having a hard time keeping up with Vader's longer stride but he jogged along with great determination. "I can't make heads or tails of anything with all this distortion."

"It is intentional. These creatures were designed to hunt not just any sentients but to particularly go after Force sensitives. The befuddlement of one's senses is part of their prowess."

"Yeah, I kind of figured that part out. But, like, how are you figuring out where to go? I'm already lost just with these hallways. How do you know where they'll be?"

Vader would not admit it out loud, but perhaps the scientists had been of more use than Vader would normally expect. They had at least identified a few key traits. "They are hive creatures. They will have happily spread out killing anything they can get their hands on, but there will be a central...nest."

"Wow, that doesn't sound ominous or anything."

"Do not overly concern yourself with such things, young Skywalker," Vader reassured him. "The queen is only a juvenile and should not be much more of a challenge than any of the others."

"Queen? Force!"

"Indeed. Be grateful she has not had time to mature. If the records are to be believed, she could easily gain the length of a small cruiser."

Skywalker wasted the time and effort to stare incredulously up at Vader. It made him nearly trip over a hatchway opening, but the boy was light and nimble on his feet and overcame it. "Wow."

"Indeed."

"And who thought this was a good idea?"

Vader frowned. He did not appreciate the implication that it was his judgement in question by his own child, but he could agree that the Emperor had been incredibly reckless and stupid with this move. There was a reason such creatures went out of use - and a large part of that had to do with their unfortunate tendency to try to eat their masters. Vader had intended to wait to have any political conversations with his son until after he had explained their undeniable bond. Treason was also not something to be discussed lightly while still within an Imperial facility. But that did not mean that Vader could not lay some groundwork. "The Emperor values only his own power. He grows increasingly paranoid as he ages and withers. He knows that a united and powerful front could be his undoing." Would be. Vader would see to it. Not only because the Emperor would never allow someone like the son of Skywalker to live free. For too long, Vader had been stifled by his Master. Tormented by his past and left with only the dregs of what had once been a great dream to sustain him. Now that he had his son with him, it was time to forge a new future. The way things should have been from the very beginning. The Emperor was right to fear the son of Skywalker and Vader intended to make him very aware of it.

His son listened closely and Vader took that as a sign that the boy might be ready to understand such things. But then the child said "you know, you sound an awful lot like someone from the Rebellion just now," and Vader had to clench his fist not to lash out at the foolish child.

"Do not be ridiculous! That pathetic band of miscreants, criminals and anarchists are a plague upon the galaxy. One that will also soon be corrected."

Vader did not have to be able to sense his son clearly in the Force to feel the displeasure radiating off of the boy. "It won't if I have anything to do with it," he declared confidently. "The Imperials are the true criminals that need to be corrected. The number of people they have tortured and killed and enslaved! They're even worse than the Hutts."

Little in the galaxy was worse than a Hutt, in Vader's opinion, and if the boy had been raised on Tatooine the way the reports said then he should have known that. "The galaxy only recognizes one authority, boy. And that is power. Power and fear. You cannot hope to control or change the galaxy without it."

But the youth was already shaking his head, his naivety too strong to listen to the lessons Vader had had to learn the hard way. "Things can be better. They don't have to be like that. Only someone like you would think that was the only way to live. The Republic-"

"The Republic was a failed state propped up upon nothing more than corruption and exploitation and hypocrisy. It was doomed to fall. And if it were not for the interference of the Jedi and other irresponsible anarchists like your friends and the chaos they have wrought upon the galaxy, then there would have long ago been true peace and order."

"Peace?" the boy parroted back sharply. "Order? What order? The kind where everyone who might argue is dead? That's your order!"

"It is efficient."

Skywalker had stopped at this point, standing foolishly in the middle of the hallway and staring at him as if he had for some unknown reason expected Vader to say anything differently. The boy was a mess of swirling emotions. The miasma of these creatures may have been clinging to him up until then, but the outrage seemed to be burning off the fear well enough. Useful, if perhaps not the best time for this debate. Clearly his son had some deep routed misconceptions. Likely fed by that liar Kenobi's mistruths, deceptions, and flat out bald faced lies. Vader might be enraged just at the very thought of it, but even he understood that shaking the boy wasn't likely to knock some sense into him. At least not yet.

"Are we done with this conversation?" Vader asked coolly. As much as part of him wanted to have the screaming yelling fight his son seemed to be gearing up for, Vader would much rather see it done in the safety of his own quarters. Where they would not be threatened by vicious animals. Or the remote possibility that Skywalker might still slip through his grasp and escape.

There would be plenty of time later to make the boy see sense.

Based on the sound of pure rage that came out of the young man's throat, Vader was somewhat impressed that he didn't lash out physically. "Yes! We're done! So done!" the boy snapped before storming ahead.

Teenagers!

---

Stupid!

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Luke didn't even know why he was letting it upset him so. It wasn't like it was a surprise to anyone to find out that Vader was a totalitarian who had little respect for the lives of others. The man had murdered thousands. Maybe even more than that! Including Luke's father! One of those 'chaotic' 'irresponsible' jedi that Vader so hated. Of course Vader would believe he was right all along. It was stupid to think he should know better. That didn't change the fact that all of Luke was humming and vibrating with the need to make this man understand.

Yes, Luke still wanted his revenge. This temporary alliance for the greater good did not change the fact that the man was a murder and at the very least needed to be held responsible for his crimes. None of that had changed.

Luke just wanted him to understand that as well.

And maybe that wasn't so crazy, Luke tried to tell himself. It didn't mean he cared about anything to do with this man. He just wanted him to understand why what he had done was wrong. Revenge didn't have much meaning did it, if the person didn't understand why.

Still stupid. Luke shouldn't even be talking to him. They had a job to do and none of that required making small talk with Darth Vader, for Force sake!

And yet, the silence stretched on as they slowly made their way through one layer after another of security and lab rooms and hallways. Vader didn't seem plagued by a crisis of consciousness. He seemed more than content to march alongside Luke as if there was nowhere else in the galaxy he would rather be. It made Luke uncomfortable in ways he couldn't explain. As if there was something right or natural about the two of them being together.

For all Luke knew, maybe hunting dangerous Dark Side creatures were just what Dark Lords did for fun and maybe it had nothing to do with Luke. He should just ignore the man and focus on the task at hand. They were still on a tight and fatal deadline. There was no reason to discuss anything.

"Why haven't we seen more of them?" Luke finally broke and asked. The silence was starting to bother him. He could recognize the pressure on his mind of fear and aggression that had filled the halls ever since the things had gotten loose. He could ignore that well enough, just like a proper Jedi should. But the silence from Vader was its own sort of torment. Like an unreachable itch. Something Luke just had to poke at.

"They're waiting for us," Vader answered readily enough. Apparently, he had no compunction against small talk. And also, no concern that they were apparently walking into a trap.

"They know we're coming?"

"Nature did not make these things, Skywalker. They are far more clever and efficient than any animal."

"Great," Luke muttered. A cornered animal was dangerous enough. He didn't need a supernaturally intelligent one. "How many do you think?"

"That depends. How many did you manage to kill before my arrival?"

Luke flushed. Vader made that sound like Luke had been sitting around waiting for a rescue or something. "A few," he hedged. Mostly their group had focused on running the hell away. The things were fast, deadly, and bled acid. It was not going to be a fight they were going to win. When Vader gave him a silent look, Luke sighed. "Only two. Uriel blew one up and I took one down when it tried to follow us through a blast door."

Vader shook his head but said nothing. It wasn't Luke's fault he hadn't done better on his own! He was the commander for this mission. He had to focus on keeping his troops alive. That made it hard to go off on his own fighting. Running in close quarters with a bunch of other people didn't leave you a lot of room to go swinging a lightsaber around.

"There will be at least a dozen waiting for us then," Vader announced. "Plus the queen. The hive will focus on protecting her. She will either attack us herself - in which case I will handle her - or she will attempt to run away. You will guard the exit and make sure she does not. If she attempts to move your direction, you will notify me immediately and I will handle the issue."

"What about the other dozen?" Luke asked incredulously. Sure, the plan had some logic to it. They could not afford to go chasing any of these things down. Not on the timeline they had. But guarding a door was surely not the best use of Luke's skills. He may not be good enough to defend Vader yet, but he wasn't incompetent!

"I will handle them. You need not concern yourself with such things." From anyone else, being told not to worry about something might be reassuring. With Vader it sounded much more like a not so thinly veiled insult to his ability to do anything competently.

"I can help!"

"And you will, young one. By guarding the door."

Luke groaned in frustration. It wasn't that he exactly wanted to go wading into a room of these things - in fact the very thought was like a ball of ice settling in his stomach and he was worried that the overwhelming terror these things gave off would in fact make him freeze entirely if he got too close to that many of them - but he was not going to be regulated to the sidelines like some child!

"I can fight!" he argued.

Vader carelessly reached out as if to pat him on the shoulder and Luke instinctively threw himself back so hard he ran into the wall. Both of them came to a screeching halt. Vader still had the hand outstretched, staring at it as he too was confused as to why he would do such a thing. Luke was more frightened than confused. It didn't matter that they were temporarily working together and had even had a not-so-civil conversation. And maybe deep down there was a part of him that wanted to understand why such a man had turned traitor and killer and wanted to know what he even wanted from Luke, but none of that outweighed the absolute certainty that this man was a danger to him. Perhaps more so than Luke would ever be able to understand. The Force was all but screaming with it - whatever this was between them, no matter how much Luke wanted to understand it, that didn't change the fact that this man was the most dangerous thing Luke would ever face. It was like something was both intentionally throwing them together but also trying desperately to warn Luke about what would happen if he let himself get too close.

All he knew was he wasn't ready for that. Not yet. Maybe he never would be, but please, not yet.

Vader finally withdrew his hand, still studying it as if it were something new to him. "There are conversations you and I need to have, young one. Ones that are best done behind the safety of my own security."

Luke tried to get his breathing back under control, pushing off of the wall and standing normally again as if he hadn't full body flinched away from the man. His head was a mess of conflicting impulses. It had to be this place getting to him. He'd seen how it was tearing down the others, eating away at their focus and resolve, making them sloppy. That was all this was. There was nothing for Luke to be afraid of other than a possibly very violent death.

Nothing at all.

He didn't answer. Vader clearly felt he had all sorts of words of wisdom to share with an outlaw Jedi-wanna-be, but Luke wasn't planning on sticking around to hear any of it. He needed Vader's help to kill these things, but after that, they were both going to go their separate ways. Vader might not think so, but Luke was certain of it. He was not going anywhere with this man and he certainly was not going to listen to anything he had to say that needed to be said somewhere 'safe'.

The first sign that they were getting close to their destination was when something made a disgustingly squelch noise under Luke's boot. It was both slippery and sticky and he nearly lost his footing trying to recoil. The slick goo like substance under his foot clung as he tried to pull away. "I don't want to know, do I?" Luke asked glumly. He was no stranger to questionable substances. He'd grown up on a farm and had spent the last several months living in questionable accommodations, overcrowded with far too many beings. He knew a biological substance when he saw one and he knew he never wanted to know.

"They are attempting to build a new hive," Vader informed him in a clinical tone that was oddly reassuring. As if the practical considerations far outweighed any ick factor. "The surplus of material will encourage them to attempt to reproduce."

Yep, not asking about the sticky substance. "What surplus material? What did they not have before?"

"Fresh bodies."

Right. Should have stuck with not asking. Luke breathed in through his mouth, wiped off his shoe as best he could, and continued following. This was a thing that had to be done and once it was done and over with, then he could think about all of the horrible connotations and what-ifs. Right now, he had to focus on the here and now.

The first couple were waiting for them around the bend. They had found what was perhaps the best ambush point and attempted to drop directly on top of Luke's and Vader's heads. The Force might be moving sluggishly through all of this filth, but it still flared up at the last possible second. Luke threw himself backwards in time with Vader, both of them swinging their sabers around to defend. It was hard in the bottleneck of the space. Luke might not have minded terribly getting to stab Vader or remove a limb, but it seemed like poor form to do so only by accident because there wasn't enough space to swing around two sabers. Finally, Vader not so politely nudged him backwards and gave himself enough room to truly go after the things - hacking away with seeming little concern for the sharp claws trying to get at him.

Maybe Vader just couldn't feel anything.

Still, it left Luke open to deal with the one that came sneaking around from behind. It must have been following them for some time. But Luke was ready when it made its leaping dash towards their rear and managed to take it down with only a few blows. By the time he finished, Vader was down to the last few killing strikes. Luke jumped in right away. The one between them was already on the ground but it had not given up trying to kill which ever one of them it could reach. Luke severed the last remaining arm just above the elbow, cutting off an attempt by the creature to gut Vader. As soon as Luke's saber cleared, Vader moved in to sever the thing's head. For two people who had no reason to work together, it was oddly synchronized. But maybe all Force users were like that and Luke just didn't know better. Vader certainly did not seem to find it odd. He gestured for Luke to keep up. The door in front of them opened on its own, but Vader strode through it like it was only natural that it should.

The room beyond might at one point have been a mess hall. Luke had been in enough at this point that he recognized the basic layout. Rebel bases might be more haphazard in their layouts and organizations, but serving food to a large number of beings was generally a straightforward task. There were only so many possible arrangements. There along the wall was what appeared to be a serving bar. The access to the kitchen was all but obscured by shadows and what looked like entire walls of the sticky substance, but the basic shape was still visible. There were a few stray chairs scattered about the space, most of them knocked over. A few even broken and left in shattered pieces. A couple of tables were on their sides and huddled along one wall, as if someone at one point had tried to seek shelter there. Luke knew how useless that would have been. He and his troops had put durasteel walls between themselves and these creatures and that still wasn't enough. Flimsy cafeteria tables wouldn't have even posed a challenge for the beasts, but how scared those people must have been! Luke shuddered to even think about it and did his best to keep his own thoughts in his head and no one else's. He didn't want to know how those people died. What they had felt in those last desperate moments.

The rest of the room was unrecognizable. It had only been maybe an hour or two since this nightmare had started, but the creatures had been very busy. Vader had described it as a hive, and now Luke could see what he meant. There were glob-like structures rising out of the floor or descending from the ceiling, like grotesque versions of stalagmite and stalactites. But despite the somewhat natural looking form, there was nothing natural about these things, Luke knew. These creatures were somehow building them and there was no evolutionary guidance to it. These things did not belong in any circle of life but stood outside of it and it colored everything they did.

There were bodies spread throughout the room. Luke tried not to look at them, but they were everywhere. Some looked like they had stayed where they had fallen. Others appeared to almost be propped up along the walls. As if something twisted and morbid thought they made for good decorations. Or maybe that was just how they stored things - a sack of flesh hanging off a hook. Many were torn and mangled. All had such expressions of terror on their faces. As if for each one of them there had been just enough time for them to truly understand what was happening to them before they were brutally killed. Many of the eyes were rolled back in fear but still wide open and gaping at Luke.

Crying out in terror.

Luke had to force himself to look away, to focus on the threat in front of him. One of the beasts was crouched near to them. It was perched as if on a ledge, on the very edge of their mucus construction. A sentry or a guard, perhaps. It watched them warily and Luke knew that it would spring into action with no notice.

There were more of them behind that one. It seemed Vader's count was not too far off, though Luke feared there were more that they simply weren't seeing. At least half a dozen were spread out waiting for them, circled loosely around the center. There was a type of constructed crater in the center, a bowl shaped structure built of mucus and rising out of the smooth manufactured surface of the floor. In the center of it was hunched an even larger creature. It had the same basic shape as the others, Luke supposed. But it was nearly twice the size, with elongated features that seemed disproportionate. It was the kind of vile unnaturalness that the mind subconsciously objected to. Nothing natural had a head that big and survived. Or claws that long and harp. Or such a distended rib cage. Even the joints didn't seem to make any sense. All of it was just wrong. Perverse. Seething with the Dark Side of the Force.

It seemed like the kind of thing a man like Darth Vader might take pride in. He was a Sith, wasn't he? A user of the Dark Side of the Force. Such a vile creature must only seem appropriate to him. But when Luke risked glancing at the other man, he seemed just as focused on eradicating the beasts as Luke was. Maybe not for the same reasons, but they almost seemed to offend his sensibilities. It wasn't ideal, but Luke would take what he could get. Because faced with so many silently blood-thirsty black holes in the Force, Luke knew he desperately needed the help. These things were going to rip him to shreds if he tried to face them on his own.

"The door," Vader intoned.

And like a cue, that reminder set everything into motion. The one closest to them jumped immediately for Vader's head. It was a brave if hopeless attack. Vader was already slashing up into the thing's body. Luke scrambled back, ducking what was going to be a flying body part if he judged correctly. It put him into position to intercept one of the ones coming from the side. It might not be the 'just guard the door' strategy Vader had dictated, but the man couldn't take on all of them on his own. Luke was more than willing to let him take on most of them, but this one was Luke's.

The fight after that was very fast and frantic. The monsters moved with such speed and such ferocity, it was hard to even see a blow coming. Luke had his hands full with the few he took on. The majority of the creatures did seem to see Vader as the bigger threat and went after him with a kind of single-minded focus. But Vader seemed to be able to keep up with them. For such a large slow moving man, he certainly had no trouble pivoting sharply and slashing over and over again through body after body.

The couple of stragglers that went after Luke were more than enough to keep him busy. There was a tense moment when he had two of the things battering at him at the same time. They were smart enough to try to avoid his saber and it was quickly turning into a game of who would tire first and make a mistake. But Luke gritted his teeth and pushed through it. They had to make sure every one of these things was destroyed. It was too important to leave it to chance. Vader seemed to think they would survive even the destruction of the base and Luke couldn't let that happen. Focusing on that and letting his mind empty out of any and all other thoughts helped Luke push through. He just needed one lucky hit! Just one moment when the Force guided him faster than his opponent - and finally it happened. One of the things got too close, trying to push too fast, and Luke took off a chunk of its head. It howled - and oh Force how could it still be alive after that? - before cutting off suddenly and dropping to the ground. Luke prayed that meant it was actually and truly dead before focusing all of his attention and energy on doing the same to the other one.

His contributions to their efforts might not have been as impressive as Vader's, but he was holding the line. None of these things were getting out of this room alive. Luke would see to that.

His confidence waved, however, when the thing in its nest started to push its way up to its feet. It appeared to struggle, as if its distorted and spindly looking limbs were in fact as impossible as they seemed. But once it got to its feet, it seemed to have no difficulty moving. In a few long steps, it pulled itself out of its nest and seemed to cross the room in great strides - so much faster than it had seemed! Luke barely had a moment to back up and get his saber in front of him before the thing was bearing down on him. The others had remained mute through every attack, as if silent death itself had been made flesh. But this one hissed like a broken life-support system, a sound so much more threatening than any screech or growl could have been.

The fear and the anger and the hate rolled over Luke like gusts in a sandstorm. It made him tremble. It made it hard to breath. But Luke kept his saber up in the basic guard position Ben had taught him, the bright blue of his father's saber something to focus on. Something that would protect him. Luke knew he wasn't worthy of his father's saber. He didn't need anyone else to tell him that. But he also had to believe that it would protect him. It was a belief he had held deep in his heart since the moment Ben had put it in his hands and told him his father had once been a Jedi.

The queen bared down on him with no concern for the threat he presented. She lashed out with one clawed hand - and hand that was as big across as Luke's entire torso! Luke slashed at it, trying to keep his movements small and tight. He couldn't afford to open himself up too much or the thing would be on him before he could bring his saber back around to protect himself. But the abortive flick was enough to singe what might have been the thing's knuckles and it jerked its hand back. The queen did not stop, however. The lightsaber burn didn't even cause her to hesitate. The other hand was already swinging around for him and somehow her tail reached up, up, and up - coming down on him from over her head. Luke didn't have time to be afraid. He parried one and dodge the other, twisting back around as quickly as he could to try to sever the tail. But even though its spike had gouged deep into the floor, the tail whipped back up and around before coming at him sideways.

Luke was not going to win his fight. It didn't take a genius or a great Jedi to figure that out. If he was hard pressed to take on more than one of the beasts on his own, this great big hunkering one was more than he could handle. But Vader had his hands full with the rest of the room and Luke was just going to have to do the best he could. He let it crowd him backwards, dancing to get out of the way of its many attacks. But he wasn't going to let it through the door. Vader was right. It was too dangerous to risk.

There was a shout from the other side of the room. It was distorted and mechanical but still distinctively human in contrast to the monsters. Luke couldn't even look. He hoped Vader wasn't being overwhelmed. Then he had a moment to regret that thought, only to be ashamed all over again. Vader might not deserve better but Luke was capable of better. Either way, there was nothing he could do for him. Luke managed to burn the queen again, twice, when she left herself open to attack. It didn't accomplish anything more than to piss her off, but at least it kept the thing's multiple mouths filled with jagged sharp teeth away from Luke's face. He's rather not go that way, thanks. Having his chest ripped out sounded better, and that was about as low as the bar could go.

Vader shouted again. Luke even thought it might have been his name. But there was no reason Vader would be calling out to him.

The tail managed to catch Luke upside the head at one point. Luke had no time to do more than feel the impact, the burst of fiery pain, and keep moving. It must have just nicked him or he would be too dead to worry about anything. But even just that brush was enough force to addle his senses and send a gush of hot blood immediately flowing down his neck and soaking into his shit like a bucket had been dumped on him. Luke staggered, that one misstep putting him in the line for the next attack. The queen attempted once more to bat him aside. She didn't even seem to care if he lived or died. As if the horrible ruthlessness of the others was so mild as to be insignificant to her. She just wanted the annoying little thing out of her way.

But Luke wasn't moving. His ears might have been still ringing from the blow, but he managed to get his arm up and brace himself. He would not move. Claws scrapped across his back, trying to find purchase but instead ripping straight through skin and the thin muscle on top with no resistance. Luke would have screamed from the pain, but the rest of the monster's hand had latched onto his right arm, wary of the saber in his grip even as it yanked and pulled at muscle and bone and all but ripped the arm off from the elbow down.

That pain was so overwhelming there wasn't space for anything else.

Distantly, Luke was aware of losing his grip on his saber. His right arm was a shredded mess but he really should have been able to hold on to the saber with his left. He was going to need that if he had any hope of surviving this. But it failed him, and his father's saber clattered useless to the floor. Luke's arm now divided below the elbow. One piece still had the hand attached, even if it hung uselessly on the end, like a wet rag that flapped about with no connecting muscle or structure to hold it together. The other half of his arm was splintered off at a nearly 90 degree angle. It shook and rattled as the queen jerked her claws free of him. Bits of flesh hit the deck and it took Luke a moment to work out that that was part of his arm muscle laying there on the floor now. It looked very different when it was on the outside of his body and unattached.

He really needed to pick up his father's saber. In part, because he needed to defend himself. He also needed to defend the door. But also because it was his father's, the only thing he had ever had of the man, and Luke certainly couldn't go leaving it laying around like that, could he?

The tail was coming back again. Luke could see it. The Force was screaming at him to do something about it. The Force was always trying to tell Luke what he should or should not do to survive. It was helpful like that. But it was also kind of annoying. Luke knew damn well he needed to move. He needed to run away, or at least fight back. But despite all of the clamoring in his head to do something, all he could manage was lifting up his left (still whole!) arm as if to shield his head. It was going to be very unfortunate when this evil creature split his head open like it had his arm. There was going to be such a mess.

The Force was great for letting you see a blow before it happened. As if time itself had slowed down to give you time to escape. Except it made it even more horrible and long and drawn out when you couldn't. Luke watched the tail come for him, ready to punch a hole clean through his skull and there was nothing he could do about it.

But when the tail was still about a meter away – which was still a wonderfully huge distance when you thought for sure it was going to be your death - it suddenly jerked backwards and around as if seeking out a new target.

That was when Vader came climbing up the queen's back.

---

Things were going well. Vader was no stranger to the battlefield and he cut through his opponents the same way he would any others. Certainly, his Master's pets did make for more of a challenge that any droid ever had or even the pathetic resistance managed. It was in fact almost invigorating. The Dark Side of the Force was a whirlwind around both him and his opponents, both equal in their mastery of it and urged onward by its power. Defeating these beasts, taking his victory, that would be a great accomplishment! He could feel the power he would gain from it and reveled in it. This was what his son needed to understand! The Jedi were not just traitorous and blinded by their own petty beliefs, but they were also too weak to know what real power was! Surely, once the boy saw how this battle had gone, he would understand the necessity of the Dark Side of the Force!

Dimly, Vader was aware of the child fighting on his own. Never too much, Vader was sure. Just enough to keep him busy. It was a risk, but the son of Skywalker was up for it, Vader was certain. The boy was holding his own well enough and Vader did have his own troubles to worry about. These beasts were not going to go down without a fight. They too understood the hunger for power and how to use pain and fear and rage to their advantage.

He was not so deeply absorbed by the ebb and flow of battle that he missed the movement of the queen. He may not have seen her rise out of her nest, but he certainly noticed the sharp flare of fear from his son. The boy may have grumbled about his assigned task but he had so far performed it admirably. And while his cry in the Force may not have been intentional, it was enough to signal Vader that it was time for him to shift his focus. But he had no more than taken a step in that direction when several of the beast all jumped for him at the same time. Pushing against the blasted things with the Force was useless. It rolled off of them like water on oil. Vader had no choice but to brace himself for impact and swing around in his own defense. It was a desperate attempt by the animals but surely once he felled one or two of them they would regroup. That would be all the opening he would need to cross the room and be back by his child's side.

Except the beasts did not withdraw.

He sliced clean through one that did not even attempt to defend itself. These creatures might not be sentient, but they were very intelligent. And had enough instinct to fight for the survival of the species. Vader lashed out again and again, but the things were fearless. They cared little for what limbs they lost, just as long as they could keep him from their queen. One of the downed ones even managed to use its jaw to latch onto one of his boots. The deadly sharp teeth went straight through the armor and thick material until they chipped harmlessly against reinforced durasteel. His prosthetics were built not only to withstand damage but also to hold up to the amount of strain a Dark Lord of the Sith put his body through. Let the damn thing chip it's teeth. But it wasn't just the teeth. The torn half of its body dragged behind him like an anchor holding him in place. Another tried to grab onto his arm in a similar manner but he managed to twist out of the way.

Vader couldn't break free of the things. They swarmed around him, darting back and forth before leaping at him. There was always one lunging from the front and from the sides and even from overhead. It was taking all of Vader's concentration just to keep them from tearing him apart.

And he had lost sight of his son.

There was nothing in view but the broad back and bulbous head of the queen. Even as a juvenile, she stood twice as tall as Vader and cut him off completely from his child. Vader knew the boy was still fighting. He could feel the child's fear and determination even over the filth in the room. And something was certainly vexing the queen. He caught a glimpse of that deadly tail slashing through the air and it drove all thought from Vader.

He had to get to Skywalker. He could not lose the boy.

That one clear thought filled him with such rage and power that he tore through several of the beasts in one go. The Force might skitter off of their hides, but Vader's rage was something else. He physically ripped the next one apart, ignoring the splatter and hiss as their deadly blood coated the floor and scorched his outer layer of armor. Let it burn all of the way through, for all he cared. Vader was no stranger to burns. But he would not lose his child. Not again.

The overwhelming need to save his child, to protect the son of Skywalker, fueled him on as little had before. He cut through half his opponents in one go, the remaining few scattered by the viciousness of his assault. They clambered over their dead brethren, spiny claws outstretched, trying to ensnare him once more. Vader knocked away another, screaming in his fury. He would not be held back.

And then Luke screamed.

It was high pitched and warbling and stuttered out at the end as if there wasn't enough air for so much pain. And for one heart stopping moment, Vader feared it was a sign that the child wasn't breathing any more. But the Force still vibrated with his presence, it almost seemed to scream in agony along with him, and it summoned Vader as inescapably as the heat from the Tatooine suns. Vader tore through the last remaining resistance, vaulted over the pile of dead, and launched himself at the thing that would dare harm his son. In two steps he brought himself up the thing's tail and onto its massive shoulders. It rippled and rolled beneath him, the skin and bones seeming to shift as if they had a mind of their own and the whole vile thing covered in a layer of ooze. But Vader did not care. He grasped the thing firmly by its crown, ignored the vicious tail that tried to sever his head from his body, and shove his saber through its cranium.

And still the thing did not die. It thrashed wildly beneath him, claws scratching through his shoulder guards and arms and even into what little bit of flesh there was on his back. Vader ignored it all. He pulled at the thing's head, as it was some unruly beast, and forced it back from his child.

Luke was still on his feet. The brave, foolish, wonderful child. But his face was painted in blood, eyes glazed over as if life were only an illusion and his arm a shredded mess of strips and bones and shattered pieces that would never ever be repaired.

His son.

Vader screamed again. All of the fury of having lost the boy and the boy's mother and the overwhelming fear that it could happen again - that it was already too late - all of it came roaring out of him as he slashed and stabbed and ripped the blasted thing apart piece by piece. The acid burnt at his gloves and the creature collapsed beneath him and yet still he raged against it. Tore at it until nothing was left but a burning heap of seared and melted flesh. His respirator struggled to keep up with his pace and he sucked air through it greedily as he raked his saber through what little remained of his opponent.

There was a soft thump behind him. An almost gentle noise in the aftermath of his rage and the thing's hissing cries and the violence. As if something small and soft had been dropped from a great height. Vader turned his head slowly to see.

The child was on his side on the floor. He wasn't moving. He didn't even appear to be in any pain despite the bloody remains of his arm. The pool of blood around him was growing, however.

Vader scrambled across the distance. The floor was a mess of blood, mucus and bits of gore. And his child was lying in it. He gripped the boy's mangled arm firmly, positioning his hand so that the reinforced grip would act as a tourniquet for now. Dismemberment from a lightsaber was traumatic enough, Vader knew full well, but at least the wound was clean and cauterized. This was a ripped and shredded mess that bled enthusiastically and might easily kill the boy.

"Luke?" he demanded. There was no softness in his voice. Vader did not remember how to be soft or gentle or kind. He knew how to give orders - ones that expected to be obeyed. He knew how to take control of a situation and force it to his will. And once upon a time, he even knew how to protect something.

The boy didn't respond at first, but Vader's attempts to move him brought him gasping back into consciousness.

"Luke," Vader repeated. He needed the boy to focus. He was in mortal peril, but he was strong with the Force. If he could get the child to use that strength, it would buy them time. "You will live," he told the boy. "But you must concentrate."

The child seemed confused. Vader doubted Kenobi had taken the time to try to teach him any advanced Jedi healing techniques but Skywalker's son had proven himself a natural more than once. Perhaps even better for his lack of training. The Force knew, using the Force seemed to come naturally to the boy and his lack of control only seemed a benefit at times. Vader needed that now. He needed Luke's natural predisposition for the Light to keep him alive long enough for Vader to do something about this.

Scooping the boy up was never going to be painless, so Vader didn't waste time trying to be gentle. They needed to move. Luke whimpered as Vader set a fast pace. His blasted suit was not designed for running long distances - much less doing so carrying a grown man's weight - and Vader cursed it to every hell he could think of.

Luke moaned with each jarring step over a bulkhead or connection. He made no attempt to break free or even to protect his mangled arm. There wasn't enough left to be able to anyway. The only concession to comfort Vader had given was piling the ragged bits that were left on top of his son chest instead of trapping them between his grip on the boy or leaving them to dangle. There would be no saving the arm, Vader knew. Even the best medical droids could only do so much patchwork. It would need to be replaced. The only question now was how far up the arm they would have to go with the prosthetic. And whether or not the child would survive long enough to see medical care.

He had to. Vader would not lose him again. He couldn't bear to live through that again and he would not bear to let the rest of the galaxy survive such a thing. He would tear it all down, if that was the case. Let it all burn the way he had. Why should they get to live when his son did not?

He never should have risked the boy by letting him stay. It had seemed such a simple request to indulge at the time. He was not blind to the fact that convincing his son to abandon his stupid rebellion and the lies the Jedi had taught him would not be an easy task. He had hoped to sweeten the boy's disposition by permitting this reckless adventure. A common enemy did wonders for bringing people together, after all. Vader had had some naive hope that it would make the boy more inclined to trust him when he learned the truth. Perhaps, even feel some affection for his father.

Foolish, all of it. Recklessly, unforgivably foolish. Vader had known better. Had life not taught him time and time again that anything good in this galaxy would be snuffed out? He never should have let the boy anywhere near the things. He was Vader's responsibility now, and he would not lose the boy the way he had lost the child's mother.

---

Luke was grateful not to remember much of what happened after the queen attacked him. He recalled enough to know it was never something he wanted to think about ever again. Even just the edges of that memory made his stomach drop and his hands sweat. There were some things the brain just wasn't equipped for dealing with. Having half your arm torn off in pieces was one of them.

It was so much better to simply feel nothing.

Luke had woken up in more than one medical ward over the last few months and he wasn't startled to see the white ceiling above or hear the gentle hum of working machines. Whatever it was, it wasn't bad enough to drop him in a bacta tank but was still severe enough that he was on some truly wonderful drugs. He couldn't feel much of anything really, and that was always a sign that something was badly damaged. Luke couldn't remember the last time he hadn't had a sore muscle or an aching blister or at least a headache from spending too long either trying to use the Force or repairing a fiddly bit of machinery. But nothing hurt when he woke up and Luke took that with a resigned weariness.

He turned his head slightly, glad that at least seemed to work and wasn't causing stars to appear before his eyes or any shooting pain. Sometimes one of his friends would be waiting for him to wake up, if they had the extra time and didn't mind taking their rest break in the med wing. Barring that, Luke was also fairly familiar with most of the med droids. One of them ought to be able to tell him where he was and what had happened.

There was a droid nearby, as expected. It was busily working away at something to his left. It had the practical framework most non-commercial medical droids had. A utilitarian grey frame, a selection of diagnostics tools at the ready, and none of the frills or soft edges you might see in private hospitals where patients could afford to spend more to have a medical droid that looked soothing. It certainly didn't bother Luke. If anything, the medical droids he had seen on the run with the Rebellion had been better than the ones his family had had access to on Tatooine.

It had been a while though, since Luke had seen one this shiny. There wasn't a dint or scuff mark to be seen on the thing. And the rest of the room was a perfect contrast between pure white and a uniform shiny grey. Much nicer than he normally saw, which didn't make him feel any better. Something really had must have happened for his friends to have taken him somewhere like this.

"Leave us," a voice boomed from Luke's right and immediately the medical droid dropped what it was doing and rolled out of the door. Luke had a brief glimpse of an equally pristine and uniform hallway beyond before the doors snapped shut and he became once more aware of the very loud hissing in the room.

He had really preferred not thinking about things, but it looked like that was no longer an option.

He and Vader had attacked a hive of Sith-begotten monsters and had apparently both survived it. Not surprising, for a Dark Lord of the Sith, but Luke had been fairly certain more than once that he wasn't going to make it off of that rock.

As it was, he knew he hadn't made it off whole. He didn't raise his head to look. He wasn't sure if he had enough energy to sit up that much and besides, he already knew what he would find. It was an odd sensation. Learning how to use the Force had made him so much more aware of his body and where it was at all times. Having a piece of it missing (and yet not) was so very confusing. He knew where his arm ought to be, but he also knew where the flesh ended. But the conflicting sensations were as real and vivid in his mind and yet at odds.

"The queen?" Luke asked. Because when he tried turning his head the other direction, all he could see was Vader looming by his bedside - staring at him. It should be very frightening, but Luke didn't have much energy left for being frightened. It was also possible he was on quite a lot of painkillers and sedatives. Enough to make him wonder if this was in fact the first time he had awoken or if he had been going in and out of a drugged haze before this. He felt relatively clear minded, if still detached and exhausted.

"Destroyed," Vader confirmed.

Well, Luke sure as hell hadn't been the one to do that, but "that's good," he said. At least something had gone right.

Luke didn't know if it was better or worse that Vader wasn't sitting. Sitting implied the intention to wait for a person to wake up, but the hovering was just as oppressive.

"The base?" he asked. He might as well take advantage of the odd situation wherein Vader was apparently willing to answer his questions and wasn't torturing him instead for information. Or simply killing him outright.

"Destroyed as well."

That was good. They had been thorough. None of those things would get off and threaten anyone else. That almost made this whole thing worth it. Luke was young and reckless and knew damn well he was a good pilot, but he had been in the Rebellion long enough to know that people died on missions and the best you could hope for was that it maybe meant something. Stopping a horde of vicious evil monsters wasn't too shabby.

He couldn't help but wonder about the others, however. They had split up more than once, and he didn't know if any of them had made it to their goals or not. The base had blown though, so that implied at least Uriel had done whatever it was she had planned to do. Sometimes small victories were the best you could hope for. It wasn't like Luke could ask if any ships had made it clear of the destruction beforehand. The Empire never would have allowed them to escape if they had been spotted. And if Vader was here, then that meant there was also enough firepower to take out their small cruiser.

Luke tried to relax back onto the medical bed as best as he could. He certainly hadn't expected to survive, much less receive what seemed to be actually quite good medical care. Who knew when next he'd be able to enjoy such comforts? Might as well try to soak it up now while he could. Maybe that would make what was coming next easier to bear. But it was one thing to tell himself that and another to actually do it. Vader's attention was focused and unwavering and it made Luke feel like he was at the center of the galaxy's attention. The Force was still a bit fuzzy around the edges - probably from all of the good drugs - but the yawning emptiness of the dark creatures were gone and now it was easy to feel the storm standing mere inches away. So much rage and frantic energy all trapped in one person…

"What happens to me now?" Luke asked quietly. He hadn't been executed yet, and someone had gone to a lot of effort to patch him up. He didn't know what to make of that. Vader wasn't exactly known for taking prisoners alive, but even if he did, Luke doubted many of them ever saw the inside of a medical facility. Much less made comfortable with some very expensive narcotics.

"You will heal," Vader intoned. The man had such a way of saying things, as if he dared the universe to dare do other than what he commanded. And maybe when you got to be a Dark Lord of the Sith, that was just how things worked. Luke doubted it was worth the trade off, but he could admit a little bit of envy.

Vader had both of his hands hooked into his belt, elbows raised beneath his cape like some large bird of prey posing before it struck. And Luke was certain he did not imagine it that the Dark Lord took one small step closer. At this point, if Luke had had a right hand, he would have been close enough to touch. "You will heal," Vader repeated, "and then I will train you."

That - was not what Luke had expected. He blinked up at the dark specter hovering over his bedside and ran that through his head one more time. It still didn't make any sense. Unless train was a very loose euphemism for kill, torture and maim. "You," Luke muttered. "Train me?"

"Yes."

And once more, there was that booming voice. That absolute certainty that this was the way the universe should be. That there was no question in Vader's mind or hesitation.

It was the complete opposite for Luke. "Why?" he demanded back. Not because he felt like he had any room to make demands but because the very idea was so preposterous it couldn't go unquestioned.

"Because," Vader told him gently. "You are my son."