What Lurks in the Dark

by DragonflyonBreak

A simple mission to check out an abandoned weapons factory turns into a dangerous fight for survival. Trust is broken, loyalties will be tested, and dark secrets are brought to light. Because sooner or later, the truth always comes out.

7. The Creature of the Mines

Summary: The final showdown.

A big thank you to Riftwalker and SpellCleaver for beta-ing this chapter for me! Their comments and advice were wildly helpful and influential in the final outcome of the chapter!

Without further ado, please enjoy!

Chapter 7: The Creature of the Mines

---

The creature of the mines had lived a long life spanning centuries, and had finally entered passed its prime.

It was aging, but it was powerful and mighty and still greatly feared among the last of its kind. It had claimed this hunting ground as its own long ago and the others had not dared venture within the bounds of its vast territory. They stayed far, far away and it was well that they did.

They were weaker than the creature was. Smaller and less deserving to live.

If given the opportunity, it would kill and devour them all, just to try and satisfy its insatiable hunger. It had never known a meal to ease the emptiness inside of it. Hunger - aching and miserable hunger had consumed the majority of its thoughts the entirety of its life.

It knew pain and it knew suffering and if it wasn't hunting to feed itself, then it hid deep in the earth away from all the little irritants of life.

The creature preferred to dwell in darkness, far away from the sun bearing down overhead and where no flickering lights in the wide expanse of its awareness could find or torment it.

More than anything, it hated the lights. They disturbed it more than its hunger ever could, provoking a cold, miserable rage that prompted it to action. There could be no rest until the lights were extinguished completely.

It had hunted them ruthlessly in its youth, sent out to do the bidding of the Dark Ones that had commanded it. The light users were clever and skilled but the creature had learned through suffering how to handle them. And they were nothing without their awareness, so that was always the first thing to go in the course of a hunt. Blind them - lame them, anything - just so long as they could not reach for their power.

They were nothing without it.

But the Dark Ones were never satisfied if the lights were simply extinguished. They were supposed to suffer. To feel pain - to know loss and misery before death consumed them.

It wasn't supposed to be quick.

Over time, the Dark Ones slowly began to disappear and the creature, passed between masters throughout the course of its life, eventually grew too powerful for them to contain any longer. It broke its bonds and disappeared on its own and was satisfied when no one ever came to retrieve it.

And the lights… the lights, those flickering, miserable little lights. The pull to hunt them was always there in the back of the creature's mind - that had been its sole purpose for so very long and it still enjoyed the hunt whenever the opportunity arose. But as with the Dark Ones, most of the lights had been extinguished years ago and despite its desperate searching, the creature could not find the ones that hadn't. Wherever they were, those small, loathsome flickering lights… they could not be found on this world. Begrudgingly, the creature had learned to ignore those occasional flickers in its awareness and merely settled into the routine of hunting for its next meal. It grew older and older still. It expanded its territory and when the time came, it finally slaughtered the little beasts of prey that had warped and damaged a far corner of its land over many, many years. It had gleefully chased them out and once they were all dead or near to it, the creature had taken the caves that they had made as its own.

Food was plentiful in the caves - while the creature had killed the vast majority of the little beasts and others had fled, some of them, of varying species and flavors, had been left behind entirely. Trapped in their own little cages, the creature enjoyed the sounds of their suffering and the near constant source of food for as long as the little beasts could hold out.

All had been quiet.

Until… a new light appeared.

And this one… this one did not flicker. It burned bright and powerful.

It shined like the sun in the sky at high noon.

It hurt and that old anger and instinct to kill it immediately began to rage inside the creature. The light did not belong here. It should not exist at all. It was too bright - it was miserable to sense and the creature felt an aching, desperate desire to eliminate the light through whatever means possible burn through it like fire.

The call to hunt rang loudly in its ears.

The creature was older now and it knew that this particular light was wildly powerful. Much stronger than any other light users that it had hunted and killed in the past.

But time and darkness had made the creature powerful too – and where the light user was young and inexperienced, the creature was old and knowledgeable. It had been taught how to deal with the light users and was certain that this one would be no different then the others. As soon as the youngling stepped foot into its territory, the creature buried it in darkness, quelling its power and senses with ease all while the youngling was none the wiser.

And it was not alone either. It was with others - little beasts of no power or importance.

But the light user cared about them. That made them somewhat significant. The light user feared for their safety and would protect them with its life if necessary.

They would be the first ones to go.

Strip the light of anything that held meaning to it, make it suffer - make it bleed. Punish it for existing. Make it know the meaning of pain before death.

The creature no longer obeyed the will of the Dark Ones but this was a lesson that it couldn't forget. The rules for the hunt had been branded into its mind long ago. Rules so old that it sometimes believed they were its own.

And the caves that the light user and its little beasts had been trapped in were a fine place to hunt.

The darkness inspired fear and the scent of death and suffering still hung heavy in the air. It set them all ill at ease and with nothing more than a few parlor tricks over the course of a few hours - exerting only the smallest effort - the creature had divided predator from prey.

The light user set off on its own, lost in a maze that it didn't know, and the creature followed the little beasts to slaughter them.

Pain was an effective punishment. It echoed in memory and the creature's memory was very long.

It would kill the others. Make them all suffer and bleed and die -

And then the light user would know their pain.

It would experience death before it could claim death as its own. It would rot in misery knowing that it failed to protect what it had cared about. Light users could not help but care and this one would suffer and the suffering would be great.

What the creature had not expected was a Dark One showing up in the middle of the hunt. Its presence was huge - vast and powerful and as dark as the storm clouds that sat heavy in the sky during the spring rains.

The creature had bristled in anger when the Dark One dared enter into its territory with no hint of fear. It had not come for the creature itself though… the light user was its offspring and it had come to retrieve it from the caves.

That was… different.

It was wrong.

The Dark Ones hunted for the light users.

They were not supposed to allow them to live.

The creature could not make head nor tail of the situation but it knew one thing for certain. It belonged to no one and it would not bend to the will of the Dark Ones again.

And this Dark One… it was weak. It did not follow the rules that had been set so long ago. It cared for the safety of its offspring and would not destroy it the way that it should.

It deserved to die for that weakness.

The creature would continue its hunt for the light user - that miserable, wretched burning sun of power. It could not abandon the call to hunt any more than it could willingly cease to breathe. The light user would suffer the death that it deserved, but the Dark One would be punished for its weakness too.

It would watch its offspring die and know its own miserable failure before the creature tore it to shreds.

---

The cavern had fallen almost completely silent.

It was shrouded in darkness and smelled of death and suffering.

It was a fitting place for traitors of the Empire to die.

The members of Rogue Squadron meant absolutely nothing to Vader.

Their lives were worthless in his eyes and he would have happily left them all to suffer a gruesome and meaningless death and never once have thought twice about his decision.

It was no less than exactly what they deserved.

Their lives, combined with the knowledge they now had, threatened Luke's safety. And Vader had dispassionately disposed of every single threat and potential threat to his son that he'd come across over the last few years.

It frustrated him now to have to exert the energy in order to save some of those very people he was more than happy to kill. He would have preferred Luke's identity to remain a secret for as long as possible and there was no promise or guarantee that Rogue Squadron would keep the knowledge to themselves..

They had abandoned Luke in the same way that the Jedi Order and Obi-Wan had abandoned Anakin all those years ago. They had determined that his worth amounted only to how much he could do for them, with no regard to the individual that he had been.

The moment Luke became an inconvenience, he had ceased to matter.

And that… that would not do.

Rogue Squadron's imminent demise was poetic justice in Vader's eyes and would solve the problems that would inevitably come with Luke's identity being known throughout the galaxy.

But despite everything that had happened… Luke wanted to save them.

He had planted his feet, putting his hurt and anger aside and chosen to stay in order to ensure their safety.

It baffled Vader that his son could continue to care so much and even go so far as to put himself in harm's way once again for people who had not even been willing to hear him out.

They had left Luke to die as surely as Vader was willing to leave them to die.

And yet… at the same time, the determination on Luke's face and his own words of warning had given Vader pause.

And if I say 'no'?

Then I guess you and I are done.

His son would not bend on this matter. Vader knew it and sensed the honesty of his words chiming in the Force.

There was something… almost remarkable about it. Something beautiful and commendable in the simplicity of Luke's decision to do what he believed was right. It stirred memories, even… when Vader, in a different life, had once had the exact same drive and spirit to never leave a man behind. He remembered his own willingness to put the safety of others before his own. He remembered being willing to do anything it took to keep his men alive, orders from Obi-Wan or the Jedi Council be damned.

It was a trait that Luke had gotten from him.

And in the same way that Vader found that he was not willing to push Luke into the Dark, despite knowing that it would be so easy to do, neither could he force his son to walk away from this.

Few people had the nerve or daring to stand up to him.

And certainly no one had ever done it with the quiet confidence that Luke had demonstrated. Vader was used to the oily, self-serving intentions of others driving their motivations. Those few people who he had been instructed to obey, or at the very least, not to kill, were almost gleeful in their sense of power over him. They stood up to him and ordered him around with false security, protected by their names and the emperor's goodwill.

Luke stood up to him with none of those things to protect him. He was motivated by the same fire and compassion that Padmé had shown on so many occasions. He was brave and he was selfless, and some long dead part of Vader was proud of the man that this child of his had become.

Luke was everything he could have ever hoped for.

If his son wanted to save his former squad mates, then Vader would not stop him.

But if they were going to save anyone, the undeserving wretches that they were… then time was of the essence.

He instructed Luke to stay close and then they moved forwards together.

The red filters of his mask had been strangely null, and he'd only seen in varying shades of black and white throughout his time in the mines. Fortunately, his eye filters were able to act as a sort of night vision, and offered him a better visual than what he imagined Luke or the others could see. The heat sensors had worked as well, and with both those features, he was quickly able to spy at least three of the members of Rogue Squadron ahead of them and to the right. They had taken cover behind a dozer and Vader frowned, looking around for any hint of the beast that had chased them there.

The cavern seemed to be rectangular in shape, though massive and comparable to one of the hangar bays on the Executor. Three, perhaps even four AT-AT's could line up behind each other from his and Luke's entrance to where he spied Rogue Squadron. Machinery had been placed strategically throughout the cavern and mine tracks were likewise spread out in their own little trails all along the floor. There were the outlines of what looked to be a few small trucks parked near a fueling station in one of the far corners….

There was space to move and that was something at least… but he couldn't spy the monster itself.

Vader glanced back to Rogue Squadron and then realized after a few seconds that there was something almost… slippery… about the space directly in front of them. Like his eyes wanted to simply pass over it entirely.

…a mind trick. One that was saying there was nothing for him to see there.

A warning bell sounded quietly in the Force and he paused and waited, gesturing for Luke to do the same.

Luke's earlier descriptions suggested that the creature's primary method of hunting was through ambush. Distorting the senses of its prey, using a form of voice mimicry to lure its victims in close… and obscuring the Force.

What he had told Luke before was true – the creature's Force abilities were most likely limited to but a few skills which had been developed and honed over a long period of time to make it a more effective and able-bodied hunter.

But it was powerful.

Far more powerful than a mere non-sentient creature should be.

He had never come across anything that could block him in the Force like this. Until Luke had appeared on the scene, Vader knew only of Sidious who could play a mind trick so effective on him. There was skill and purpose in it - and some portion of its awareness had to have constantly been on both Luke and Vader throughout the entirety of their time in the mines. It had to be, if it were to successfully keep them both contained within such a small sphere of influence.

During the hours he had searched for Luke inside the mines, Vader had managed to carve out a sort of bubble of control for himself and through the nature of his connection with Luke, had been able to extend it to his son as well.

It took concentration though and there had been and still was consistent resistance. In fact, the further down they had gotten, the more oppressive the creature's influence had become. His and Luke's connection to the Force was growing smaller and smaller the closer they'd gotten to their exit point. In here, though, it was a pressure that he could barely shift off his shoulders.

To his left, Luke's thoughts were racing but they were muffled, as if coming through a particularly thick wall. Vader could not read them with any clear distinction now and that would not do.

Gathering his irritation, he pulled the Dark Side in close and then pressed it outwards towards that space in the void directly in front of Rogue Squadron. It was slippery - oily, even… but there was something… there was something there.

Something that dared to push back.

Vader held his ground, strengthening his resolve and in front of him, there was a flicker - a shadow or a wisp of something big against the wall.

And then he felt it.

A black, deep seated hatred bled momentarily into the Force. It was directed at him… but even more specifically, it seemed to be directed at Luke.

It hates the bright light that burns, the Force whispered. The warning seemed to come as though from far away. It hates the bright light that burns.

It was gone in the blink of an eye but Vader knew what he'd felt and it was enough to make him regret being so quick to agree to help.

A fierce protective rage curled tight in his stomach and Vader tightened his grip on his lightsaber. The Dark Side thrummed in his veins, more powerfully than it had at any other time in the mines. He drew on anger and shoved the void off of him, hard enough that the beast itself was startled by his ferocity.

In front of his eyes, the heat sensors finally lit up as a new heat signature flickered into view. A massive, twelve-foot long form stood near the dozer and in front of Rogue Squadron, glaring in his and Luke's direction. The oily presence moved, bearing down on him again ten-fold as it seemed to sense that it was being seen. Its heat signature flickered in and out of view every few seconds before disappearing again.

This was no ordinary Force sensitive beast.

It hunted Jedi.

---

Wedge froze, his mind almost blanking out entirely as he stared disbelievingly at the two figures – at Luke and Vader – standing together in what looked like an almost united front.

How… how was that possible?

Where had Vader even come from?

What. The. Hell?

How could he be here in this damn nightmare of a mine? The last that Wedge had heard, the Executor had been reported to be several systems away, somewhere near Onderon if he remembered correctly, with several other warships from the Imperial fleet.

And why was Luke with him now?

Could… could Cesi actually have been right? About Luke being an Imperial spy, giving away the location of the Rebel Alliance?

Almost immediately, Wedge rejected the idea. He was ashamed that the thought even crossed his mind.

It couldn't be that.

It couldn't be.

It didn't make any fucking sense. There was nothing on this planet - it was an in and out search mission involving only half of Rogue Squadron. A mission that Luke had told High Command twice that they should avoid entirely. He hadn't wanted to be here and he would have had nothing to gain from almost being blown up with the rest of them. Not only that but the Rebel base wasn't located anywhere near this planet.

It would have been a complete waste of the Empire's time.

And the point of a damn spy was to stay under the radar. Not get caught or killed with the enemy.

Besides… Luke hadn't been lying.

He wasn't that good of a liar. He never had been and the hurt expression on his face earlier had been completely genuine. If he'd honestly been a spy for the Empire, he would have just slaughtered them rather than let them walk away knowing his secret.

Vader showing up though… that was a coincidence that Wedge couldn't make sense of. That was… it didn't look great. It looked pretty fucking bad from his viewpoint, quite honestly. But there had to be some kind of an explanation for it.

There had to be.

Wedge just wasn't certain what it was.

His thoughts and questions were interrupted by a faint shuffling sound behind him, and Wedge heard one of the others step forward to stand at his shoulder.

"Holy… shit." Tycho breathed. Wedge tore his eyes away from Vader and glanced at his friend.

Ty's eyes were wide and he looked just as stunned as Wedge felt. Then his face twisted in anger, and he stepped forward out from the tentative safety of the dozer and was firing off a shot at Vader with his blaster before Wedge could even think to try and stop him.

The red blaster bolt sailed through the air and might have even had a chance at hitting the black monster except at the very last second, it froze and hovered in the air, and then it veered to the side, changing its course and hitting the wall instead.

Wedge lunged, grabbing Tycho by the back of his jacket and yanking him backwards even as he tried to fire another shot.

"Get off – get off me!"

"ENOUGH!" Wedge shoved Tycho back against the dozer and stood so that he was blocking his way.

"What the hell is going on?" Cesi demanded incredulously. He was ignored.

Tycho glared angrily at him and Cesi slowly began climbing back up to his feet. His good arm was pressed tightly against his wounded one, trying to stem the blood flow. His leather jacket and shirt underneath it were already soaked and his face was pale and pinched with pain.

Wedge raised his hands placatingly, breathing heavily even as his mind raced with questions and fear.

"He – he fucking killed my family!" Tycho hissed at him, pointing an angry finger in Vader's general direction.

"I know!" Wedge said quickly. And he did know – he understood because he felt the same hate and anger igniting like a wildfire in his veins. Vader was a monster, one of the true horrors of the galaxy, and he had killed so many people. "I know, I get it, Ty. I do, but I think we have bigger problems right now – "

There was a hiss of rage and all three of them froze once again as they heard the creature begin to move.

Heart clenching in cold fear, Wedge twisted away from Ty and Cesi and poked his head out once again to see that the creature had dropped lower to the ground in a crouch, its black eyes glittering like two silver orbs in the dim lighting as it slinked its way towards the walls of the cavern.

Wedge watched it move and realized that it didn't care about them anymore – why would it, when they were no real threat at all? It had all the time in the world to hunt them and there was nothing they could do about it so long as they were trapped down here. Its attention was solely on the newcomers and it moved so silently, slinking along the edge of the wall as if it planned to sneak up behind them both.

An ambush attack, like it had done when it had killed Caleb.

Wedge let his eyes flicker back and forth between Luke and Vader and then the creature a few times. Why were they just standing there…?

"They don't see it." He whispered in a moment of realization. "They're still blind."

If… the creature was distracted by them… then Wedge should take the opportunity to grab the others and leave. Cesi and Zach were both hurt now and if the creature was distracted and focusing all of its attention on Luke and Vader then they might have the chance they needed to find a keycard and get the hell out.

That was the smart thing to do.

It was what he should do.

But… if he didn't believe that Luke was a spy… then Wedge couldn't imagine that he was with Vader willingly now. Not after what had happened at Bespin.

Could he really abandon Luke to the monster that had brutalized him?

…was he willing to risk everyone else's lives to try and help?

Wedge briefly closed his eyes, torn in two. Both scenarios felt like the right and wrong decision. In both of them, there was still a good chance someone would die. How was he supposed to choose?

When he opened his eyes again just moments later, he'd made his decision.

Wedge wasn't going to turn his back on Luke again.

"Cesi, go get Zach and try and get the hell out of here if you can." He ordered, stepping forwards. He was stopped abruptly by a hand grabbing at his arm.

"Where are you going?" Tycho demanded, looking at him like he'd gone insane.

Wedge pulled his arm back. "I need the rifle."

Ty's eyes widened. "You're not going out there – "

"I am going out there." Wedge said firmly. "We need the rifle and if they can't see the damn thing – "

"We?" Tycho hissed incredulously. "You can't expect me to go out there and help Darth Vader. I don't give a damn and you can't fucking make me. Leave him to kill the damn thing himself - that's what he's good at!"

"I'm going to help Luke." Wedge snapped back at him quickly. "Because I sure as hell give a damn about him. And you did too – unless you were lying through your teeth when you said that you thought we had all fucked up earlier."

Wedge didn't care if it was a cheap shot or not. But there was no place to be delicate when confronting a harsh truth.

And the truth was that Luke hadn't deserved the way that they'd treated him.

They should never have left him behind.

Ty blanched, almost speechless. He opened and closed his mouth a few times but seemed unable to get the words out. "But… he's – he's with Vader," he said helplessly.

"Yeah, and we left him behind first." Wedge reminded him. "I didn't send him away just so he could get caught by the fucking Empire. Just because he's Vader's son doesn't mean he's a bad person, right?"

"You can't know that they aren't working together - "

"I didn't ask for your opinion, Cesi! Your job right now is to live. Find a keycard and get the hell out of here." Wedge snapped in frustration.

Cesi recoiled in surprise but Wedge didn't wait to see or hear his response, focusing instead on Tycho.

"Are you going to help me get Luke?" he asked quietly.

Tycho turned away, caught by his own words. He ran agitated hands through his hair, turned away, and finally he just shook his head. Wedge nodded, understanding the conflict but feeling disappointed all the same. "Then help Cesi and Zach. Get them out. If… if you make it back to the ships… just leave. Don't wait for me."

He didn't need to say that there might not be anyone for them to wait for.

He waited for a few seconds more, with the faint hope that Tycho would turn and face him and that this wouldn't be it between them. But those few seconds passed and then Wedge turned away.

There was no going back to fix his earlier mistakes. He knew that… but Wedge would be damned if he ran away and abandoned a friend for a second time today.

Wedge peered around the dozer and scanned for the rifle that had been abandoned in the dirt again. It only took him a second or two to find it. He took a shallow, but steadying breath and then bolted outwards, running as fast as he could and lunging for the rifle that Cesi had dropped. He picked it up, racked it back, and scanned for the creature once again. It was moving quickly in the shadows and the darkness made it so hard to see.

He inched forwards slowly, not wanting to advance forwards too far but needing to see better if he was going to have a hope of hitting it.

One rifle wasn't going to take down this monster… and Wedge knew by this point that he wasn't going to be the one to kill it. But that was not his concern anymore. If Luke… and Vader had a general idea of where it was then so much the better. The pain from the rifle would set the creature off in a rage again but it meant that Luke would hopefully know where not to be.

And if Vader was distracted… well, Luke did have an impressive record of escaping capture by the skin of his teeth.

All he needed was the opportunity.

Wedge found a good spot with some cover, brought the rifle up to his shoulder, sighted his target, and prepared to fire.

---

From the corner of his eye, Luke saw Vader pause and then gesture for Luke to do the same. He stopped, holding steady and waiting for direction. The small hairs on the back of his neck and arms rose eerily as a feeling of gross anticipation overcame him.

There were some faint lights up ahead of them, from flashlights or lanterns that had been left on the ground… but it was mostly dark to his eyes. He could distinguish some faint outlines of objects and machines that stood in their way, looming black shadows against even blacker darkness… but there was no hint of movement.

No sound or whisper to suggest that anything was there at all.

The familiar smell of rotting corpses was overpowering though. There were many dead down here. Luke didn't need to see them in order to know that it was true.

Faint whispers from the Force breathed danger and go back even as the pressure on and around them increased. It felt wrong to ignore the warnings and whatever sphere of influence that Vader had made for them had grown smaller. His stomach twisted uneasily at the idea of floundering in that black void of nothingness once again.

It felt like the cavern had eyes everywhere and he desperately wished he could see where the mimic was. For anything - a hint, a whisper even.

A faint sense of irritation flickered briefly along the intertwined strings of themselves and then Luke felt his father's Force presence shift and press forwards. Dark and rolling, it pressed itself up against the void and pushed hard.

Luke briefly sensed something dark and oily - a hatred that he could just barely grasp onto - and then in the blink of an eye, his father was pissed and his anger drowned out everything else. The Force blackened in Vader's rage and his Force presence surged forwards, throwing itself against the void with all the power of a warship and pushing -

The pressure lifted off of them both for a few split seconds before bearing down on them again. He turned, startled and confused to look at his father but didn't have the chance to ask him what had happened before the sound of a blaster suddenly rang out from the darkness.

He twisted back in time to see a bright gray blaster bolt flying in their direction. Vader lifted a hand, freezing the blaster bolt in the air as it drew near and then with a frustrated wave, he sent it veering off to the side where it slammed into the wall instead.

Adrenaline burned in his veins and while Luke had honestly expected nothing less from the others at this point, he was still surprised at how angry he suddenly felt because that blaster bolt had been aimed at his father -

"ENOUGH!"

That sounded like Wedge. Luke spared a thought to hope that, no matter what he felt personally, Wedge would at least have the good sense to stop the others from firing more shots at them.

"Stupid fools." Vader hissed under his breath.

All things considered, Luke couldn't help but agree with him.

There is no emotion, there is peace.

Luke tried to clear his mind of anger, breathing out through his nose. It helped and a second or two later he turned back to his father.

"What do we do?" he whispered. "How do we fight what we can't see?"

"I see it." Vader said darkly, and his mask seemed to move minutely as though he were tracking something. Luke could feel the intensity of his thoughts but couldn't discern enough to know what they were. "Ten o'clock. Along the far wall."

Luke turned, adjusting his stance and trying to see what his father could see through the shadows of darkness.

He saw absolutely nothing.

"How do you know?" Luke asked, adjusting his grip on his lightsaber.

"Heat sensors. I'll show you." Vader said. A moment later, he nudged Luke gently in the Force, pressing against what was left of his shields still standing erect between them.

Luke hesitated but only a few seconds passed before he brought them down completely and allowed his father access to his mind.

Almost immediately, there was a strange pulling sensation, almost like he was being sucked through a tube at a frighteningly fast speed and then his vision blurred and shifted in a way that twisted his stomach – it was such a disorienting experience that it took his brain a few long seconds to comprehend that he was suddenly seeing double.

Through his own eyes and, amazingly, through his father's. Trying to comprehend two different views was making his brain go haywire and so Luke closed his eyes to try and find some relief from it. It helped – the double vision ceased immediately and Luke could finally discern what he was being shown through his father's eyes.

His fathers vision was different – lighter even, though Luke could not say through what meant. The lenses curved his vision a little but the real difference came in what had to be infrared signatures. He intuitively knew that his father's vision was typically veiled in red, but like his own, everything to his father's eyes was tinted in differing shades of black and white.

And there was a massive light gray blur moving stealthily along the far wall, just as his father had said. It flickered in and out of view every few seconds but it was tall and long. The more in sync Luke became with his father, the more features he could start to make out. A long tail, and a spiky ridged back, and six legs – one back set and two in the front.

It was huge and Luke couldn't help but remember with unease the terrible face he'd seen yesterday poking out from the shadows. Its evil black eyes and gaping maw filled with massive, razor sharp teeth. That distinct feeling of malicious intent - it came back full force.

Whatever this thing was… it didn't like him.

Luke knew it and he was suddenly certain that Vader knew it too.

It needed to die.

Vader turned his head minutely, following the creature as it moved and then Luke's vision suddenly blurred again. In an instant, he was falling back into his own head with a breathless gasp. His eyes flew open and his own sight returned to him.

He looked immediately to the far wall and another image – the same one from just seconds before, from a slightly different angle and from Vader's much taller perspective – flashed in front of his eyes for the briefest moment.

"Do exactly what I say, when I say it – do you understand me?" Vader demanded quietly.

Luke nodded. "Yes."

"Good." His father hesitated for a moment and then asked, "How do you feel about being bait?"

Luke shot him an incredulous look. "I'm not fond of that idea. Like, at all." he whispered back harshly.

Another flickering update passed in front of his eyes. The mimic was moving now but there was no noise to indicate that anything around them was moving at all.

He reached outwards in the Force and tried to find the mimic, searching in the direction where he knew it to be. Luke only felt the wall of their mental cage and then that empty void of nothingness.

"I won't let anything happen. Are you familiar with hammer and anvil?"

Luke blinked, mind racing as he tried to remember the term. "It's… it's a military tactic."

One that utilized two separate forces in an attack. A more stationary one that was meant to keep an enemy occupied while the second force, the mobile one, maneuvered around the enemy and attacked from the side or behind while its attention was stolen elsewhere.

"Yes."

Another update. The mimic was a ways off but coming closer still.

Luke bit his lip and felt jittery with nerves at the idea. It wasn't a great plan and he was not thrilled with the idea of being the anvil in this scenario. But… there were only two of them and Luke couldn't see. At least he still had his lightsaber. With a sigh, he nodded his consent. "Where do you want me?"

"Hold steady and be prepared to move when I tell you. Timing will be everything."

And then his father moved, quickly disappearing into the shadows. Luke was able to sense his father's attention on him faintly through the Force and in turn, he briefly kept track of Vader through the sound of his respirator before it went strangely quiet and then through the occasional glow of his lightsaber. It was a darker gray than his own was and bizarrely enough, Luke found himself wishing it were its usual red.

An update passed in front of his eyes and he was startled by how much closer the creature already was.

The mimic was big but it obviously wasn't slow. It had covered more than half the distance that stood between them in maybe twenty seconds. His heart pounded even as a strange sort of calm came over him. It happened sometimes right before battle - he'd first experienced it before firing the shot that destroyed the Death Star and a few other times in the years since then too.

The Force was still whispering danger in his ears and Luke felt his muscles tense with the anticipation of knowing that something was about to happen.

Another flickering picture from his father. The angle of it put his father not quite behind the mimic now. It would still have to pass Vader to get to Luke.

Everything was still so… damn… quiet.

…danger…

Luke felt his heart skip a wild beat in his chest as a loud whirring sound sounded overhead at last. It was the telltale sound of the power system coming to life and the realization was jarring. It felt wildly out of place - wrong, even.

Danger.

He took a step backwards, raising his lightsaber defensively as various kinds of machinery began to hum loudly all around him.

DANGER.

The sound of damaged electric wires sparked and hissed somewhere nearby and it took Luke a few seconds too long to realize what was going to happen.

In a blinding flash, the lights came on.

---

"Son of a bitch!" Wedge cursed, lowering his rifle and raising an arm to try and protect his eyes from the sudden blinding flare of lights. He was aware of other startled cries of pain from the others and he felt his heart pound.

He tried to open his eyes under the safety of his arm acting as a protective barrier but quickly shut them tight again.

It was too much - it was too bright, he couldn't see anything and dear Force, it hurt.

There was an angry, reptilian hiss and then the sound of displaced rocks and gravel as that damn monster began to run.

"Luke! Move, NOW!"

Wedge forced his eyes open at the sound of Vader's voice shouting out a frantic order and saw through blurry eyes as Luke stumbled backwards, one arm raised to protect his eyes while blindly swinging the blade of his lightsaber with the other -

Wedge flew to his feet, stepping out from the relative safety of his cover and brought the rifle back to his shoulder and fired a shot half blind just as the creature lunged at Luke, its long front legs extended and its maw opened wide.

His aim was true and the shot hit the creature near the back of its neck and knocked it off course. It screamed angrily, spinning around in a sudden rage and sending Luke flying into the wall with one angry swish of its tail as it searched for the source of its pain.

When it didn't immediately find him, Wedge had the faint hope that maybe the lights had blinded it as well as the rest of them.

Sparks and the sound of live wires short-circuiting sounded in his ears before Luke was suddenly crying out in agony.

No. No no no.

"LUKE!" Vader shouted before he could, reappearing from wherever he'd gone to and taking off in Luke's direction in a dead sprint.

Wedge had never seen him run before. Vader always seemed to stroll, whether in public or on the battlefield. It was always the same and gave off the impression that he was never bothered by anyone or anything. That he was someone who thought that life had no value and considered everything to be beneath him. Just a cold, ruthless machine of a man.

A killer all the way down to his bones.

Except he was running now as if… as if Luke's life mattered to him.

Vader would get to him much quicker than Wedge could.

The creature hissed again, showing off its massive teeth, the thin plating around its neck flaring outwards. It moved to intercept Vader and Luke was still crying out in pain, the sound of electricity sparking angrily -

Wedge didn't even hesitate. He ran forwards a few yards for a better aim and then fired at the monster again and again, trying not to think about how he was covering Darth Vader, and redirected the creature's attention to him instead.

---

There was a horrible distorted sense of pain and panic from Luke's end of their Force bond, and the familiar agony of being electrocuted ran in phantom leaps and bounds through his mind.

Luke was screaming.

Vader abandoned his plan and ran.

His suit was not designed to run. It was too heavy and had been mounted to what was left of his ruined body through surgically implanted bolts in his back and sides. It was a miserable, chronic pain that he had had to learn how to live with and was made worse through intense strain. He could feel it now; the pulling and tearing of sensitive skin and the warm trickle of blood under his clothes. He barely noticed and didn't give a damn either way.

Vader had eyes and ears for nothing except Luke.

The pain in his body, the idiot members of Rogue Squadron, the Force sensitive monster - none of it mattered.

Luke was not meant to know such pain - it was not to be borne.

Another rifle blast echoed in the cavern behind him that he barely heard.

Vader covered the distance between them in what felt like seconds before skidding to a halt. He swung his lightsaber, severing the damaged wiring hanging from the wall in a series of long, entangled vines. Luke slumped immediately as the electric charges came to an abrupt stop, coughing and trembling in a daze.

Vader turned off his lightsaber and grabbed Luke by the bicep, pulling him free of the wires and yanking him up to his feet. Luke was unsteady - wavering and still riding out the aftershocks of pain. There were some electrical burns on his face and flesh hand where his skin had come in contact with the wires. The synth-skin on the prosthetic looked charred and melted in some spots but was hopefully still functional.

"You alright?" Vader demanded.

"No." Luke choked out, coughing and clutching the front of his suit for balance. "Was… was that - your plan?"

Vader didn't bother to answer that question because no - that had not been his plan.

His plan would have worked.

It would have been easy.

A rifle sounded again - and again, and he looked back to see one lone member of Rogue Squadron firing steadily at the creature. The impact of each round caused the beast to momentarily flicker into view on his heat sensors and seemed to force it back a tiny bit. Vader could feel its Force presence blackening in a total rage.

The beast was large and undoubtedly clever but it would have been such a simple matter to back it into a corner with Luke acting as bait. He was quick and light on his feet and while he provided a tantalizing distraction, Vader could have easily masked himself in the Force and snuck up on it to deliver a killing blow.

It seemed to spin in a circle now, knocking smaller equipment over and spitting its displeasure as it searched for the source of its pain. When it didn't immediately seem to see the one Rogue firing at it, Vader spared a thought to think that the lights coming on had temporarily blinded it as well.

Danger.

He narrowed his eyes, pressing up against the wall in the Force that kept him contained in such a small sphere of influence. It was tighter then it had been even moments ago and he couldn't stretch his Force presence out more than a few feet in front of him.

Vader had just about had enough of this.

Danger.

Danger.

Still pissed, Vader took advantage of the distraction that was being offered and bent low, heaving Luke up and over one shoulder. Vader held him in place by the back of his knees, ignoring his groans of pain and demands to be put back down, and then took off, moving to find them better cover once again.

---

Zach must have gotten the power back on.

It was the only explanation that Cesi could think of for what had happened. He didn't know how his friend had managed it but he was at least grateful to know that he was still alive. But in trying to help, Zach had just blinded every single one of them.

He hated to think what might have happened if the lights had come on even just a few minutes earlier.

"Luke, move! NOW!"

Vader's deep baritone voice was commanding and powerful and it shook him down to the core.

They needed to get out.

"Cesi, come on!"

Another set of boots appeared in his limited line of sight and then Tycho was slipping underneath his bad shoulder and helping support him. The motion hurt like an absolute bitch and Cesi pressed his hand harder against his wounds, willing the pain to disappear. He did his best to control his breathing and not get too light headed.

Blinking rapidly, Cesi willed his vision to adjust. The rifle went off seconds later and there was the sound of that damn monster screeching in the background and his head was pounding. Cesi braced against the tire of the dozer and tried not to throw up, staring down at the ground and trying to make sense of the rocks and gravel that were slowly but surely coming back into view.

A decent sized drop of blood plopped on top of his boot, followed quickly by another and then another. Squeezing his eyes tight, Cesi dropped his arm and pressed his shaking hand up against the jagged tears in his shoulder instead.

Tycho pushed him a little, urging him to move again.

"I'm okay," he said, forcing his feet to move. They felt heavy, like big blocks of cement.

His hand was already completely stained red with blood.

And… someone was screaming.

The realization came to him as if from far away, the sound nearly hidden behind the creature's own screeching.

"LUKE!"

BAM!

Cesi jerked his head up and turned around in time to see Wedge stepping out from his place of cover and begin advancing forwards, firing the rifle at the creature in rapid succession.

Neither Skywalker or Vader were anywhere that Cesi could see. He seemed to be completely alone.

Tycho froze at the sight, hesitating. Then he was turning back, shrugging out of his jacket. He took a short moment and tossed it at Cesi.

Cesi caught it, confused, and then looked at his friend. "What are you doing?"

BAM!

"Damn it!" Tycho whispered angrily, quickly reaching for his blaster and checking the settings with a pissed off expression on his face. "I gotta go help him."

BAM!

"Are you out of your damn mind?" Cesi asked disbelievingly.

"Yeah, probably." Tycho glanced at him. "Can you get Zach on your own? You're bleeding really bad."

Cesi looked down at his shirt and the blood that was seeping out through his fingers from the jagged holes in his chest that burned like fire with every breath that he took. "Yeah, I hadn't fucking noticed."

Tycho's lips twitched in almost reluctant humor, though it did nothing to erase the scowl on his face.

"Why… why are you doing this?" Cesi hissed in pain as he slowly straightened up. He could feel that some of the muscles in his shoulder were shredded and tried not to think about it too much. If he did, he'd probably throw up.

A tear slipped down Tycho's face. "Wedge is my friend." He said quietly. After a moment he added, "And so is Luke. I… I owe him this much."

Cesi wasn't sure what to say to that.

He still wasn't certain that Skywalker was who everyone thought he was – and him showing up with Vader had done nothing to convince him otherwise. But Wedge and Tycho had known him longer - had flown on more missions with him at the helm. Maybe they could see something that he wasn't.

Or maybe they were just completely wrong.

Skywalker had no reason to want to come back and save them, after all.

But… as much as he didn't understand a damn thing about Luke fucking Skywalker, he did understand loyalty to a friend. That much… that much he could understand.

"That blaster is shit against the damn thing, you know that." Cesi pointed out instead.

"Doesn't mean it likes it." Ty said stiffly. "It's better than nothing, in any case. Besides - I owe it some pain for what it did to Caleb." he glanced at him again. "Try not to get too much blood on that jacket, okay? It's one of my favorites."

Cesi bit back the urge to say he didn't need it at all but couldn't bring himself to actually speak the words out loud. The gesture was made out of concern and so he bundled the jacket up a little and pressed it hard against the jagged holes that had been torn into his upper arm and shoulder. He was only grateful that he hadn't actually been bitten – the wounds hurt but he couldn't feel any fire running through his veins. Based on what had happened to Zach, the damn thing was probably venomous as hell.

"Oh, fuck this." Ty muttered under his breath. "Fuck Vader and the whole damn Empire."

Tycho took a deep breath and then he was gone.

---

"Put me down -"

"Enough."

Vader paused, looked around and promptly decided that he hated this place. With the lights on, the depravity of it all was being thrown in his face.

The dead were everywhere.

The doonium in this mine was being used to help create the second Death Star, Vader remembered. All of these slaves - and some unlucky Imperials - had all been left here to rot for that mechanical abomination.

It was disgusting.

It was not what he had created the Empire for.

BAM!

There was a large wheeled loader standing nearby and unless the damn beast knew how to throw things, it wasn't going to move. He crossed the distance and moved behind it, placing the machinery between him and the beast and then lowered Luke to the ground carefully. Despite his best efforts to stay upright, Luke's legs folded underneath him and he collapsed against one of the wheels, hissing in pain..

"Are you alright?" Vader demanded again, searching along their bond again for any hint of severe or lasting damage. Their connection was fuzzy enough now that he couldn't tell for certain. Surface level though, he spied electric burns on Luke's neck and temple, a hair's breadth away from one of his eyes, and a few others on his flesh hand. There were undoubtedly others, hidden beneath his layers of clothes.

Vader tried to put himself at ease by acknowledging that he had done a lot worse to Luke on Bespin.

It didn't help.

Luke waved him off. "I'm fine," he coughed. "But the others - "

"Let them rot," Vader hissed, his irritation at the little idiots skyrocketing once again. Blaster fire began to sound with the accompanying flashes of bright gray light. Items were being knocked over and he thought he could hear the angry, reptilian hissing of the creature itself.

His plan would have worked.

Luke gave him a dirty look and began trying to pull himself to his feet. His feet slipped underneath him more than once. "No. I'll get them myself if I have to."

For the love of the Force.

"Must you be so obstinate?"

"Yeah," Luke snarked, finally managing to leverage himself up against the loader and wrapping an arm around sore ribs. "And I consider it one of my better qualities."

…his son was exactly like Anakin, Vader realized with no small amount of dismay. He had her kind nature but Anakin's bullheaded stubbornness.

There would be no reasoning with him.

BAM!

They should have just left when they'd had the chance.

BAM!

"Stay here." Vader growled sharply, pointing a finger at Luke's face. "I will deal with this."

"I can help - "

"No, you will stay here."

The last thing he wanted was Luke getting hurt again.

He breathed out through his nose and rolled his shoulders before stepping back out into the open. Vader could feel the weight of the creature's presence bearing down on him hard now and the Force warned him not to get too close just yet, lest it go away entirely.

How could he kill it from here though if he couldn't see it?

BAM!

The bright gray image of the beast flickered into view for a brief moment and Vader watched as it turned and lunged, snapping its jowls at the Rogue who was moving around it in a wide side-stepping circle. He immediately lowered his rifle and turned, sprinting off to find safety.

As powerful as it may be, the beast was not infallible.

Pain and distractions were making it less precise. It could only focus on so many things at once, after all.

A thought suddenly occurred to him that perhaps …his distraction was making him less powerful too.

Frowning at the realization, Vader quickly tightened his hold on his connection with Luke, wrapping the intertwining strings of their bond in a tight mental fist so it wouldn't be lost to him again, keeping just the barest hint of a connection open between them. He moved further forwards, leaving the loader behind him and then… Vader pulled all of his power back. All the effort it took to shield his son from the creature's oppressive influence - he brought it back to himself and then he reached out into the Force and pushed with everything that he had against the void.

Black rage immediately pounded like a heartbeat in the Force and he felt beasts-anger-light-Dark-kill kill kill in a sickening mantra of near single-minded bloodlust.

The mental cage began to give a little underneath his immense strength and Vader smirked ever so slightly and took the opportunity to grab at the beast before clenching his hand into a fist and squeezing.

His hold on the creature was slippery - precarious, even - and he couldn't quite pinpoint exactly where he had it… but the beast finally shrieked in agony as its bones began to break with snapping sounds that were all too satisfying.

---

Wedge drew up short and looked over his shoulder, momentarily stunned as the creature suddenly began to shriek and howl. It was a far different noise than he'd heard from it yet and combined with the disgusting sound of snapping bones and the sight of one of its front legs bending forwards unnaturally… it made his stomach twist and roll.

From overhead, Tycho had frozen as well, his steady stream of blaster fire coming to an abrupt halt. He spared only the briefest moment to be wildly grateful that his friend had come back to help him and fervently wished he'd been the kind of leader where none of this would have been necessary in the first place.

Then he shoved those thoughts away and Wedge followed in the direction that Tycho seemed to be staring in and caught sight of Vader emerging once again from the shadows. He was alone this time and he was so damn tall.

A walking nightmare of a man and it was utterly terrifying to be so close to him now. He always looked the same - no expression, no personality. No hint or sign to suggest whether or not he experienced emotion at all.

Wedge had seen him once or twice during his time with the Empire. Brief glimpses, really - but he'd never gone to battle with Vader leading the charge. The people that had always spoke of the experience with breathless awe and a healthy amount of fearful respect.

He had a little more experience with going to battle against Vader and somehow, through sheer luck alone, had made it onto the list of those fortunate few who'd come out of it alive.

But not like this, when there was nothing except space and a monster standing between them.

Luke was the only one that could claim that unique honor.

Luke.

…if Vader was distracted, then where was Luke?

Heart suddenly pounding, Wedge looked up sharply and then ran the distance to stand underneath the walkway just below where Tycho was standing and quickly switched the safety on the rifle to the ON position.

"Ty, catch!" He shouted before tossing the rifle upwards. Tycho leaned over the railing and caught it by the barrel and pulled it up before racking it back and bringing it up to his shoulder and firing off another round. The beast shrieked, jerking to the side as the round made impact.

"Go get Luke," Tycho called down tightly. "Behind the loader - I can handle this."

Wedge turned and got out of the way dodging a torn up corpse. He took cover, crouching low to better hide behind a few minecarts that were left sitting on their rails. Vader had pulled Luke from the wires and then carried him off, him protesting all the while - but which one was the loader? There were a few big pieces of equipment and his day job wasn't exactly construction.

The rifle went off again and he shook his head.

He'd figure it out.

Wedge moved quickly, arching out in a wide half circle to position himself more behind Vader. He seemed to be keeping himself at a deliberate distance from the creature while still moving forwards towards it, almost forcing the creature back.

Tycho began firing his weapon more consistently, turning the creature's attention away every time it seemed to try and move towards Vader himself, like an irritating fly that one just couldn't manage to swat out of their way. It shook its massive head, snarling in pain, and the sound of bones snapping sounded loud again.

Why couldn't Vader just break its damn neck instead of being a sadistic psychopath?

Unless… maybe he couldn't.

Luke hadn't had the Force in the mines.

How Vader still did, Wedge couldn't even begin to guess - but perhaps that was why he was keeping his distance and not attacking the creature outright.

Or maybe he just didn't want to stray too far away from Luke.

Wedge bit his lip. It didn't matter either way, so long as he stayed busy. Tycho would be okay for a few minutes on his own. He had taken the high ground once again and Wedge wasn't going to waste the opportunity that was being given to him. He moved quickly, hoping to avoid Vader's attention for as long as possible.

He'd thought that the dark had been bad but everything looked so much worse in the light.

There were so many dead.

And there were rats.

He hadn't seen or heard them earlier - but even they were abandoning their free meals and were scampering to get out of the way. Wedge tried to avoid stepping on them but heard more than one angry squeak beneath his boot. He felt one run across his boot and finally kicked another directly out of his path in frustration.

It landed on the bloated stomach of a decomposing Gigoran. A metal collar and chain were still attached to its neck and the body seemed to be writhing with maggots.

Wedge swallowed back his gag reflex and hurried away, flinching whenever the rifle went off or a loud smashing sound echoed through the cavern.

He hated the Empire. He hated it.

Suddenly, from the corner of his eyes, there was a flash of yellow and he turned to see what it was.

"Luke!" Wedge shouted, finally catching sight of his friend sitting against a wheel of what must be a dozer. He covered the small remaining distance between them and grabbed Luke by the shoulders, looking him over. "Luke, Luke – I'm so sorry! Are you alright? Are you okay?"

Luke hissed in pain and pulled away from him. He was pale and had one arm around his ribs, obviously trying to breathe shallowly. Having been swatted by the creature as well, Wedge was willing to bet he had a few busted ribs - not including whatever Vader might have done to him already. Luke looked more than a little singed, tired, and his jacket, the yellow leather one that Wedge hadn't remembered him wearing earlier, was torn and scratched up in places… but at least he hadn't been put in binders.

Short of shooting them off, Wedge didn't have the tools with him to get someone out of Imperial grade designs.

"I'm fine." Skywalker said tightly, his blue eyes flickering back to Vader anxiously. "But all of you need to get out of here. Where's the exit? It's supposed to be on this level."

Wedge forced himself to ignore his regrets and straightened up. Getting Luke and everyone else out took priority over his own failures. He looked around before orienting himself in the direction of the emergency exit. "It's over that way," he said, pointing. "But Luke, it's locked. It's been password protected."

Luke's face twisted and he looked briefly baffled by the idea that an emergency exit would be locked. "Who the hell…?" he cut off mid-sentence, shaking his head. "Never mind – what… what kind of system is it?"

"A computer system?" Wedge offered helplessly. "I don't know, Luke - it looks Standard Imperial to me. It needs a keycard or an override code. Can… can you hack it?"

Luke opened his mouth to respond but just then there was the squealing sound of metal being shredded. Luke pulled himself to his feet and for a moment, it seemed as if nothing had happened between them at all. They were friends and comrades and together, they peered around the loader as one to look and see.

The creature had backed up a fair distance and had taken one of the minecarts in one of its front paws. Its wicked claws were digging gouges into the thick metal sides with horrifying ease. It backed up a little more, hissing a terrible sound and then in an impressive display of physical strength, flung the entire cart directly at Vader.

He dodged it effortlessly, side-stepping it with almost casual ease. The minecart hit the wall and the sound of it echoed powerfully through the cavern. In front of Vader, the mine tracks that had been bolted into the floor immediately groaned and both sides of the rails suddenly snapped in half across the middle with ease. They peeled up off the ground and then hovered momentarily in the air before one of them was launched forwards at the creature with a wave of Vader's hand, flying almost faster than Wedge could follow.

As it neared the creature, it slowed down and the railing began to crunch, bending in on itself until it was left hovering in mid-air, shaking as though being pushed and manipulated by two separate forces.

Wedge didn't want to think about what kind of power it took to crush a steel beam like that.

And… he had been right after all.

The creature was Force sensitive.

The second rail went flying, arching outwards slightly as if to hit the creature from the side but it was deflected and imbedded itself a few feet into the stone wall instead.

"We gotta go." Wedge breathed.

"I need my lightsaber." Luke said at the same time. He turned and looked at him. "Just have Caleb hack the system - he should know how to do it."

Wedge grabbed at the sleeve of his leather jacket, startled at how quickly Luke made to leave. "Wait - wait! I can't, Caleb is dead. But we can just go, forget the lightsaber and let's get out of here now, while he's distracted!"

Luke froze, turning back to him with wide eyes. "Caleb is dead?"

Wedge nodded, throat thick with emotion. "I'm so sorry. For everything." He repeated quietly, running a shaky hand through his tousled hair. "But I need your help, Luke. Please."

A mixture of emotions flitted across Luke's face and then he ran his prosthetic hand through his hair. He glanced back at Vader and then to the elevator, once… twice… three times. Then his eyes widened and he dropped his hand and dug into his pockets, searching for something – whatever it was, he found it quickly and held it up for him to see.

It was a keycard.

"I need my lightsaber." Luke said quietly, extending the card to him. "I'll help you. But I need my weapon."

Wedge swallowed, accepting the card and slipping it into his back pocket. They could leave - they had their way out and the idea of going back out there and exposing himself to either of the two monsters just for a weapon was terrifying.

It was utterly asinine.

But he wasn't going to leave Luke behind a second time... and if Vader was going to be on their tails, then they might just need it.

"Let's go get it then."

---

Zach.

It was only the thought of his friend that convinced Cesi to turn away from the fight. It felt so very wrong to turn his back on an enemy and leave two of his friends behind unprotected.

It seemed that he was getting a lot of practice doing that today.

But Zach needed to get out of this damn mine or else he was going to die.

And Cesi was bleeding – badly - and combined with his busted ribs, he knew that he wasn't going to be much help to the others at this point. Not with his arm out of commission the way it was. He was lucky it hadn't been torn off. He thought of Caleb and his heart ached.

Cesi turned and after briefly looking around to get a better grasp of his surroundings. He hadn't gone far since the start of this thing and he easily spotted the stairs that had taken them up to the second level walkway and from there, found the alcove that the elevator itself was tucked into. It seemed farther off then he had thought that it would be.

He took off at an awkward run, navigating his way through machinery and dodging fallen bodies of the slaves that had been slaughtered here weeks before. He only stopped to check the rotting corpses of the few fallen Imperials for a keycard that would get the elevator working.

He didn't find one.

Desperate, he looked around again because there had to be something down here that could help them.

All Cesi wanted to do was save his friend and everything was stacked up against him - he hadn't felt so completely useless since he'd been a child dodging both his fathers belt and his drunken wrath.

There.

Another Imp uniform.

It was further away but the effort to check would be worth it.

He took off, stumbling a little over his own feet and trying to remember how to breathe properly as his vision began to blur.

There was a crash behind him and the creature screeched in anger and pain and Cesi felt his heart leapt in his chest. He turned, using his free hand to wipe sweat – or perhaps tears – from his face as he tried to find Tycho or Wedge, or hell, even Skywalker at this point.

He walked backwards without seeing, torn in two at the thought of leaving the others but needing – needing with an ache so desperate and painful to ensure that Zach lived and got out of this nightmare alive that he couldn't bring himself to run back and help them.

There was so much noise and his head was still pounding from earlier – he took another step backwards and didn't notice when the ground beneath him became metal instead of dirt. He didn't hear the hum of machinery that sounded low and rumbling behind him over the shrieking and fighting and a blaster that was going off over and over and over again.

He took another step back and this time, he noticed when his foot met nothing but air.

"Shit, SHIT!" Cesi gasped, flailing as he lost his balance and fell backwards. Instinct and blind panic had him throwing his arms out in front of him, forcing his upper body to lean forwards once again. His gut slammed against the edge of something hard and his vision nearly blacked out entirely as the air was knocked from his lungs. His ribs ached, a pounding, grinding, miserable pain like he'd never known before. He clenched his fingers even as he began to slip, scrambling desperately to find something to grab onto but the metal beneath his fingers was slick and there were no grooves or bumps for him to snag on to.

There was a loud whirring noise behind him – no, below him – and Cesi felt his heart racing an insane, frantic beat as terror filled him to the brim.

He didn't know what was at the bottom of whatever pit he was slipping into but he knew that it was bad. It was bad and he didn't want to die –

"HEY!" Cesi shouted desperately, trying to muscle his way up but lacking the strength that he needed. His hands were slick with his own blood and the metal seemed so damn slick. "Someone – HELP ME!"

---

They hadn't gone more than a few steps when Luke heard someone cry out for help. He drew up short and turned around again, searching for whoever it was that had called out for help.

The lights still felt too bright and painful to his eyes but at least he could see clearly again.

But he didn't see anyone.

And as much as he tried, Luke couldn't sense anyone either.

The Force was gone.

There was nothing except the tiniest thread of awareness that stretched solely to his father. It seemed that Vader had dropped him back into that black void of nothingness all over again and the loss of what little he'd had hurt. Someone might as well be gouging his eyes out or be driving sharp little needles underneath his fingernails - both of those forms of torture were vastly preferable to the dead emptiness that was currently suffocating him.

If it was Vader's way of keeping him out of the fight, then it was pretty damn effective.

Or at least, it might have been, if Luke wasn't just as stubborn as his father apparently was. All he needed was his blade and he could rejoin the attack - if Vader was the anvil now, then all he had to do was show Luke where the monster was and he would be the hammer -

"Wedge!" The voice called again, more desperately than before. "Someone - HELP ME!"

Luke spun around in a circle and saw from the corner of his eye that Wedge was doing the same, his blaster held up at high ready.

There.

It was Cesi, Luke realized. Hanging on to the edge of some kind of pit that was set in the ground and seeming unable to pull himself out, maybe thirty or forty yards off.

Feeling torn, Luke spared a half second to glance at his father and hope that he would continue to hold his own before he turned back around and took off running as fast as his feet could carry him.

---

No one was going to hear him.

Not over the sounds of that damn monster – not when they were all equally fighting to survive.

Cesi closed his eyes as he felt his fingers slipping further. He tried to tighten his grip, willing his fingers to find something to grab onto but there was nothing and despite his best efforts, he was sliding, centimeter… by… centimeter.

He let out a weak sob as he came to the very edge, his fingers hanging on to almost nothing and then -

And then he slipped.

He fell.

There was a moment of what felt like complete and utter weightlessness as he fell towards whatever terrible fate that awaited him at the very bottom and Cesi knew this was it – it was all over for him and all he could think was that he would never know what happened to the others, whether they lived or died or not –

And then just as quickly as he fell, there was a sudden vice-like grip on his wrist, and he felt as his shoulder was almost ripped out of its socket as his fall jerked to an abrupt halt. Stunned, Cesi opened his eyes and looked up at whoever had saved him.

It was Skywalker.

"Don't let go!" Skywalker grunted, straining to pull Cesi back up. Cesi didn't have time to feel stunned, instinctively grasping back at Luke's hand as adrenaline flooded his system once again.

"Give me your other hand - " Cesi gasped back.

Sweat dripped down Skywalker's temples. "I can't - " he said tightly, curling the arm clutching his up a little. Cesi kicked his feet, trying to find traction on the wall of the damn hole and help pull himself out, but there was nothing to brace them against. Skywalker's arm trembled and then uncurled again, dropping Cesi back down to where he'd been. It was only then that Cesi realized that the other one - his false and stronger hand, was presumably holding on to something else so that he wasn't pulled over the edge by the weight of Cesi's body.

Cesi tried once again to muscle his way back up but his arm was still slick with blood and he was weak – he didn't have the strength that he needed to get himself over the lip. He tried to swing his leg over the edge but couldn't catch the edge. In any part, the motion jarred his busted ribs and at the same time, his grip on Luke slipped and he would have fallen completely if Skywalker hadn't managed to keep ahold of him, though he slid forwards further towards the edge as well.

"I got you – I won't let you fall, just hang on!" Skywalker repeated quickly.

The sound of the blaster rifle echoed in the cavern and the damn monster screamed out in anger and pain and it seemed to drown out everything else.

Wedge bolted after Luke, holstering his weapon as he ran.

That damn crusher.

The doors had been left open.

Wedge had left them open.

And now it stood as another painful testament to his failings as a leader.

All he could think was why had he been so stupid as to leave the crusher open? Why the hell hadn't he just closed the damn thing earlier? It would have been so easy! What if it fucking killed someone?

Luke got there first, throwing himself forwards and snatching Cesi's arm just as he slipped and fell. Wedge was only a little ways behind him and as soon as he was close enough, he threw his body over the back of Luke's legs to help hold him in place.

"Luke! I got you! Pull him up!"

Luke immediately reached down with his other hand and grabbed a hold of the back of Cesi's belt and with a shout of fury and determination, heaved him the rest of the way up and over the edge.

Together he and Luke dragged Cesi away from the edge of the pit and then Wedge went back and with Luke's help, they heaved the heavy metal doors up and slammed the one side closed before moving to do the same to the other.

"You alright?" Wedge demanded, falling to his knees in front of his friend. He barely noticed as Luke moved out of the way. Cesi was still where they'd left him and his hands were shaking something fierce. His breathing was hard and fast and Wedge couldn't imagine what was going through his head.

All he could hear was the grinding motor of the damn crusher sounding loud in his ears - his own failures laughing at him in the cruelest way. His heartbeat seemed to pound in time with it and he wanted to throw up.

Cesi could have died.

He almost died and it would have been all his fault.

Just like Caleb.

But perhaps even worse because this was something Wedge had had control over. He should have known better. He should have been thinking more clearly. He should have done it differently.

Dear Force, why hadn't he just closed the damn thing when he'd had the chance? Why why why - ?

Wedge grabbed Cesi, barely remembering to try and be gentle and checking to see that he wasn't any more injured than he'd been before. "Cesi – are you alright?"

Cesi only nodded - he seemed completely shaken. He was horribly pale now and dark eyes kept flickering back to the crusher even as he pressed a blood-soaked hand numbly up against his damaged arm. "I'm good – I'm okay." He croaked hoarsely.

"Are you sure?"

"No!" Cesi snapped at him, his shoulders tight with pain and tension. He kept his eyes firmly on the ground, using what seemed like tactical breathing exercises to calm down. A small voice in the back of Wedge's mind whispered a reminder that Cesi didn't like attention and he slowly sat back, wiping sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.

He'd almost gotten someone else killed.

Wedge jumped at the sound of an absolutely thunderous crash and turned, trying in vain to calm his shattered nerves.

Vader and the creature were closer then they'd been before and there was a trail of debris and destruction marking their path through the cavern. One of the large support pillars had collapsed, throwing up dirt and dust that seemed to sit like fog in the air and obscuring the section of the cavern. The lights nearest to Vader flickered for a few seconds and his red lightsaber lit a path as he advanced on the beast, his cape flaring out behind him.

An angry hiss echoed back at him and then Vader faltered in his step for the briefest moments. A blaster shot instantly rang out from the second level walkway, followed by another and then another.

"I missed - you… Ani. I - missed you… so much."

The creature's warped voice sounded again. This time it was the haunting, echoing sound of a woman whose voice sounded weak and fading.

Ani.

Anakin, Wedge realized dumbly.

Because Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader were actually one and the same.

"Ani, I - missed… you. So - much. So… much."

The air turned cold.

Frigid and sharp enough to draw blood. It was filled with pain and anger so real and palpable that for a few seconds, Wedge could easily imagine that it was his own. Power crackled in the air once again – lightning in a terrible storm – and all around him, metal began to bend and shriek in tune with the rage and pain that was Vader's.

"Oh shit." Luke breathed.

---

The small intertwining threads that connected Luke to his father blackened with rage.

A juxtaposition of emotions flooded along their bond, unguarded and powerful, almost enough to knock the very air from Luke's lungs.

Hurt. Grief. Shock. Anger. Pain. Longing.

There was so much feeling. Old hurt and sorrows that spanned a lifetime and somehow felt as though they were still fresh and new. It felt like what Luke imagined deep grooves being carved into raw, flayed skin felt like. It was a wonder that his father hadn't drowned in the misery of it all a long time ago.

"Be brave… Ani. Don't… look - back."

Though Luke had never known or heard it before, he knew without needing to be told that the gentle voice the mimic was now stealing belonged to his late grandmother.

"Don't - look back. Be brave – Ani. Don't – look… back."

Shrapnel and debris flew through the air all around them like it had all been sucked up into a whirlwind and was launched at the monster without hesitation or mercy. Metal and rocks and pieces of machinery slammed into a space that suddenly shimmered like refraction on the distant Desert sands at high noon and hints… or flickers of the mimic appeared for brief instances in front of his eyes. Not the bright gray images shared with him from his father.

It was actually coming into view for a few sparse seconds at a time.

Objects were embedding themselves deep into its thick hide and it screeched in pain and rage, stumbling about and almost collapsing entirely under the absolutely brutal assault. In flashes that came in time with the creature's appearance, Luke felt the Force stir as it reacted.

The inky black void seemed to pulse and instantly some pieces of flying debris veered off before making contact with it, crashing into walls and machinery with a clatter.

His father took advantage of its distraction and lifted a hand, curling his fingers inwards and somehow latching on to the mimic with the Force. The intent to tear its lungs to shreds and watch it suffocate flitted over from his fathers side of their bond. The mimic twisted, using one of its long front legs to start ripping the offending pieces of metal from its hide and Luke watched in amazement as its injuries immediately began to stitch themselves together.

What was this thing?

There was no way it could just be a Force sensitive animal.

Animals - even predators, knew when they were outmatched. They knew when to turn tail and run. And if Vader hadn't been trying before, he certainly was now. Luke had the terrifying thought that Vader's rage, the way it was now, could tear worlds apart as effectively as any Death Star ever could.

But this thing… this thing was just taking the abuse.

It didn't make sense.

No animal would do that - not for a meal as small and petty as they all individually were.

No… no, it had to be something more than a motivation for food or even territory.

It was taunting his father because it wanted to. There was a reason behind it. Which meant that… that it knew what it was doing.

"I missed - you." It said angrily and warnings began to ring loudly in Luke's head. "Ani - I… missed you - so… much."

"ENOUGH!" Vader bellowed. Clenching his fist, the Dark side gathered in the air above his father and then arched outwards like a funnel cloud and slammed into the mimic with ruthless force. It was easily pushed down under the power of his fathers rage.

Danger.

Vader took off and Luke could only stare, his heart pounding a wild beat in his chest as his fathers own words of caution played on repeat in his mind.

Have a plan or move with caution. Blindly rushing into unknowns is always a fools errand.

"I… missed - you so… much."

This wasn't a plan.

This wasn't caution.

It was just rage.

And the creature wasn't even trying to get back up. The mimic was just letting his father come at it. It was doing nothing to escape the hold Vader had on it. It was just taunting and waiting… and its long spiked tail swished behind it once like a loth-cat getting ready to pounce.

DANGER.

Luke started running, ignoring the startled shouts and cries for him to come back. He had eyes and ears only for his father. He was approaching the refracted air, where the mimics head must be, raising his lightsaber to deliver what would surely be a killing blow, and ignoring everything else -

"Father, wait - "

The world around Luke completely whited out.

---

For the second time in so short a period, pain flooded through his and Luke's Force bond with reckless abandon.

The only difference was that this time, Vader did not know which one of them was suffering.

His head had already been pounding - a torturous ache that had sprung up and startled him almost as much as the sound of his mother's voice had. He could feel the creature ripping into his mind, tearing through his memories in a manner that was eerily similar to the Sith version of a memory walk and had been further exacerbated by his own attempts to force it out.

It clung to him viciously, in a manner that he had not anticipated.

It wanted to hurt him.

And now… now it was as though he were being consumed in the fires of Mustafar all over again. The hot sting of Obi-Wan and her betrayal curling in his blood like a knife that had shredded his heart was fresh and new and the heat - the hot, burning anguish that ate at his body and mind.

It was torturous, the worst pain he'd ever known - scalding and terrible, eating through layers and layers of his flesh, melting his lungs and scorching his eyes, and why couldn't Obi-Wan just kill him already?

He wanted to die and he deserved to die for all that he'd done and there was no going back and please, please just kill him.

The mental claws scraping inside his head brought him back just enough to realize that it was a memory - Mustafar had been years and years ago and somewhere in the here and now… someone terribly and wonderfully important to him was crying out in agony.

Luke.

The beast wanted to hurt him but even more… it wanted to hurt Luke.

He couldn't allow that.

He wouldn't.

He grasped at the fluttering strings of the Force and forcibly wrapped his presence around the claws the beast had sunk into his mind and yanked -

It felt like hot fire and acid and the pains of Mustafar echoed loudly around him. Vader gritted his teeth and pulled again - and again, forcing the creature out of his mind but refusing to let it go either. He could feel it now - its anger, its hatred, the very breath in its lungs.

It lived only to kill.

And Vader knew it wouldn't stop hunting until it killed Luke. He found the string of light that connected them together and felt the dark void pressing down on it. The beast was forcing his memories down their connection, forcing Luke to experience what he felt. Vader snarled and threw up his shields, closing himself off from Luke entirely.

The beast was clever.

More than he'd thought it would be.

That had been his mistake.

The creature's mistake was in the fact that it preferred to play with its victims instead of killing them outright.

Vader gathered his power together, pulled himself to his knees and then pushed.

---

As quickly as it had begun, it ended, and Luke was gasping and coughing and crying, tasting blood in his mouth and scrambling blindly backwards in a desperate attempt to get away and avoid having to experience that torture all over again –

His limbs were trembling from shock and the phantom pain of what he could only name as being burned alive ate at his mind. Then there were hands hooking underneath his armpits, dragging him backwards across the ground -

He felt empty.

Something was gone.

Something important - what was it… where was…?

"Luke – Luke!"

Luke blinked, staring unseeingly up at… at Wedge… and tried to comprehend what the hell that had been and why – why…?

"Are you alright?" Wedge demanded almost hysterically. "Where are you hurt?"

Everywhere. He wanted to scream but even as he thought it, Luke realized that the pain was fading and then was gone entirely. He looked down at himself, half expecting to see fire or burns engulfing his body but he was fine.

He was fine.

His hands were shaking but he was fine.

Luke shook his head quickly, swallowing thickly and trying to chase the memory of that terrible pain and suffering away. "I'm okay. I think I'm okay, I swear. Where's my – "

His father threw out a hand and his lightsaber flew into it. He reignited the blade with a kreesh and then charged forwards, swinging the bright red blade in an angry, but graceful overarching swing at the mimic. The creature lashed out with one of its long front legs as if to swat his father away from it but the lightsaber made first contact.

An agonized, ungodly screech sounded, loud and grating until Luke was convinced his ears would start bleeding if it didn't stop. The sound of a lightsaber humming as it moved through the air sounded and Luke looked to see his father advancing mercilessly on the creature and it scrambling backwards to get away for the first time.

It snarled at him furiously and Luke saw that it was missing one of its front legs.

Vader lifted a hand and for the smallest moment, the creature seemed to lift off of the ground entirely, hanging weightless in the air before it was slammed back down with enough force to break steel beams. The lightsaber swung in the air again and the creature twisted its head out of the way at the very last second, turning to lash out with its tail instead.

Vader jumped, dodging it entirely and slashed another long gash into the mimics back flank. He paused, slowly herding the creature into the corner of the cavern closest to where they were, trapping it so that it had nowhere to go.

It hissed deeply, glowering darkly at Vader and flaring its neck plates out wide.

Luke was aware of Wedge and Cesi beside him, watching everything with wide disbelieving eyes.

A truck creaked and groaned as it was lifted off the ground by invisible hands and with a wave of his fist, Vader launched the entire thing at the mimic -

At the last possible second, the creature crouched low and rushed past Vader with horrifying speed. At the same time, there was a loud, thunderous crash as the truck slammed into a row of large metal barrels that were sitting along the wall, each of which had a triangle with a flame in the middle plastered on the front.

They exploded in a fiery blaze that had all of them shielding their eyes from the explosion and the intense surge of heat that followed it. Vader himself was thrown backwards in the blast and a cry of pain could be heard from before the sound of it disappeared in the rest of the noise and confusion. Flames twenty or thirty feet high spewed up the walls and lit up the cavern in a terrifying blaze that was enveloped in walls of poofy black smoke.

Almost instantly, some of the lights overhead began to flicker as the delicate wiring along that side of the wall burned, hissing and sparking in the flames.

"No. No, no, no – " Luke whispered before scrambling up to his feet, scanning the smoke and flames desperately. "Father!"

There was no reply and he tried looking for their bond in the Force and for the first time since Vader had found him, he felt nothing but darkness.

What… what if he was gone?

That seemed... impossible.

It was too soon.

He wanted more time and it wasn't supposed to just end here.

Not like this.

Nothing was supposed to be more powerful than his father.

Luke looked around and thought that he saw Tycho running along the upper walkway in their direction before smoke and flames obscured him from view.

He took a few more steps forwards, using his sleeve to cover his airways before hollering, "FATHER!"

"WEDGE! LOOK OUT!"

Up on the walkway, Tycho skidded to a halt and moments later, the smoke and flames rose up higher in the air and blocked him from view entirely – but a rifle blast sounded just seconds later, and they saw the bright red bolt emerge from the smoke and shoot straight through the air. From somewhere in front of them, Luke heard the mimic hiss in pain and anger as the shot made contact with it.

The smoke parted, twirling and spinning as the creature advanced forwards towards them and this time… this time, Luke could see it.

Really, truly see it.

It was as horrible and monstrous as he remembered it being. That awful face that had glared out at him through the shadows of the mine.

It had hated him then and it most certainly hated him now.

At least the feeling was mutual.

"Stay behind me." Luke ordered tightly, his own righteous anger igniting like a fire inside of him. He heard Wedge and Cesi's shuffling feet and sensed more than saw them both taking refuge behind him.

Father had said the creature was manipulating him. That it was trapping him inside his own mind and cutting him off from the Force.

But it was still there for him to reach for - Vader and the tiny whispers he felt even now had proven that to be true.

He just wanted it back.

Luke searched inwards again and found nothing.

The mimic took another step towards him and the moment seemed so slow. It was as if there was all the time in the world for him to try and figure this out. He searched again, looking for anything and was frustrated again by the nothingness he felt.

The Force is not lost to either of us, is it?

But it's gone. It's been gone.

Why hadn't he asked his father how he'd managed to shift the void off of him? How had he found the Force?

It feels like nothing, as you say, because the creature in the mines is manipulating you.

…how… how had Yoda lifted his X-wing out of the water?

I don't believe it.

That is why you fail.

Father had said that the Force was still there.

Could the answer really be that simple?

Luke narrowed his eyes and tried to believe that it was actually there. And this time, when he reached for the Force… he felt something shift at his touch.

In front of him, the creature hesitated for the first time, narrowing its black eyes at him as if sensing a change. Thin plating around his head and neck flared outwards and it hissed that familiar reptilian hiss and arched its back like a pissed off loth cat.

"Come on, you bastard." Luke said between gritted teeth, easily matching the creature's anger with his own. "Come and get me."

---

This whole time, Luke hadn't been afraid of being captured by Vader. Wedge had gotten that all wrong. The anxious, almost fearful glances back and forth - the need to have his lightsaber - all of it. He had misunderstood entirely.

Luke wasn't afraid of his father.

He had wanted to help him.

The realization floored him and Wedge honestly didn't know what to do with it.

He wasn't sure what it meant or how it fit into his understanding of anything anymore. And unfortunately, he didn't have the luxury right now of trying to figure it out either.

The creature was coming back.

It hissed darkly, its black eyes glinting wickedly in the light of the fire that was burning. The smell of some kind of gasoline was strong in the air.

Then Wedge felt a sharp, agonizing pain pound in both temples, almost as if something were clawing its way into his brain. He gasped out loud, one hand flying to press against his forehead. "Oh, shit - " he hissed, eyes immediately beginning to water in pain. "Oh shit, oh shit - "

"Wedge - come… inside," His mother's voice called out and he felt his blood run cold. It was horrifying to hear her now after she'd been gone for what felt like so long. "Time to… eat - Wedge. Time for… dinner."

It was wrong.

Wedge needed it to stop.

"No, you don't - " Luke hissed. He took another bold step forward as if to better shield them both, lifted his left hand and in a manner that was far too similar to Vader, began to curl his fingers inwards; instantly, there was a sick sort of screeching sound in front of them and then the creature spun in a furious rage, coughing and hacking as it was mercilessly choked –

The clawing fingers in his brain released their hold on him almost immediately. The ground almost seemed to lurch underneath him and Wedge grabbed blindly at Cesi standing next to him in order to try and hold himself steady, trying to comprehend what had happened.

The dangling hook of a dragline standing in front of them was swaying slightly.

Something had happened.

Wedge blinked and looked at Luke again.

And… for the first time, he saw it.

The resemblance between Luke and Vader.

It had seemed so impossible earlier.

He hadn't understood it - and he still didn't, not really but… he could see it now even with the lack of any physical resemblance to compare them to.

A blast from the rifle sounded once more, the red streak of light punching the creature backwards a few steps. Luke slid forward as a result, as if he were being pulled by an invisible line. He dug his heels into the ground and kept his fist curled tight though, the muscles in his arm and neck straining with effort it took to hold on.

The creature hacked a breathless sound, unable to draw in breath as it tried to break free-

Looking at him now, in this one moment, Wedge could absolutely believe that Luke Skywalker was the son of Darth Vader.

---

"Come on – " Skywalker forced out between gritted teeth, beads of sweat slipping down his temples. "Just… break."

The rifle went off again and the blast seemed to hit the creature in the neck, forcing more air from its lungs in a wheezing kind of snarl. Skywalker suddenly gasped, his face whitening in pain and then the ground lurched again, more powerfully this time. It rippled like a rolling earthquake and the epicenter was the creature itself. The power of it sent both him and Wedge stumbling to their knees.

Cesi braced his hands against the ground while Wedge tried to do the same, attempting to find his balance while the world seemed to do its damnedest to fall apart.

"Luke." The creature spat out, turning its massive head back to glare at Skywalker with black eyes. The ground rippled again and this time, Skywalker did lose his balance stumbling as if he'd been personally pushed over.

The creature drew in a breath of air and its maw hung open as it panted. Angry, echoing words spewed out in Vader's deep baritone voice. "Luke – come… with me."

Skywalker cried out, lifting a hand to clench at his hair with a knuckle-white fist.

Wedge scrambled forwards to cover Skywalker and fired his blaster in rapid succession as the creature stepped towards them again. It hissed, undeterred and took another step and the ground trembled, rippling and lurching violently.

Skywalker blindly waved one hand and the dragline that stood perhaps twenty feet in front of them swayed and then slowly tilted to the side with a groan before finally toppling over in front of the creature with a mighty crash. It jumped backwards and hissed its reptilian hiss before turning, vanishing like a wraith into the smoke again to find a way around it.

Wedge scooted closer to Skywalker and grabbed him with one hand by the shoulder, keeping his blaster extended outwards with his other hand.

"Luke… Luke!" He said urgently, shrewdly searching for any hint of movement in the smoke and flames. "We need to move, come on!"

"Can't -" Skywalker choked out in a pained whimper. There were little trails of blood bleeding out from his eyes now.

All three of them looked up as one unit while the terrifying imitation of Vader's breathing sounded to the right of them now. It was much closer than before.

"Luke – I… am your – father." The creature snarled, its awful face appearing once again from behind a massive piece of machinery. Smoke and fire billowed behind it and it glared at the three of them with its black eyes. Wedge saw its muscles tense as it prepared to move. "I am – your… father. Luke… join – me."

Skywalker scrambled backwards on his butt, pushing both Cesi and Wedge behind him, and then throwing his arms out in front of them protectively as the creature suddenly lunged towards them with a screech. The sound echoed throughout the cavern and made his blood run cold. Tycho's rifle sounded again and again and again with no effect and this was it, they were all going to die -

It was within just twelve feet of them, maw opened wide, one of its long front legs outstretched, when a massive rush of power exploded around them, throwing up dirt and rocks, and Cesi watched in total shock and amazement as the creature was violently thrown backwards away from them. It slammed into a massive pipe that was protruding from the wall and hit the ground with a scream of fury even as it immediately scrambled to find its footing once again.

And then Vader was there, placing himself firmly between Skywalker and the monster, Skywalker's green lightsaber in hand. One gloved hand was outstretched, and Cesi could feel the hair on the back of his neck raise as he felt the sheer amount of raw power that was lighting up the very air. It was nothing that he could see and the best that he could compare the feeling to was electricity in a lightning storm.

The creature was hissing, and it lunged forwards towards them again only to immediately hit an invisible barrier. It screamed in frustration and raged, seeming to strain against some incredible power but was unable to advance forwards.

"Luke, get up!" Vader snapped over a smoldering shoulder. In fact, there was smoke rising up in several places on his suit and there were patches burnt out of his cape rimmed with red and orange. "Stay on your feet!"

In front of them, Skywalker had a look of utter relief on his face, and he quickly scrambled to obey. He shedded his jacket, tossing it aside and using the sleeve of his black shirt to wipe the blood from his eyes, painting streaks across his face.

"Are you alright?" Skywalker asked quickly. His eyes briefly dotted over Vader's figure, as if trying to assess him for injuries. There was a crack running down the back length of his mask and wires were exposed and charred in the shoulder of one of his arms - a prosthetic arm, Cesi realized dumbly. He wondered what other injuries there were that they couldn't see.

"No." Vader snarled shortly, his fearsome gaze locked solely on the creature. The black hatred in the air felt so tangible that Cesi was convinced he could reach out and touch it with his fingers.

Skywalker's expression twisted uneasily but his attention was diverted by the creature slamming up against the barrier and shrieking its outrage. Then it twisted, using its teeth to rip more protruding metal from its body.

"Nothing we're doing is having an effect on it." Skywalker said quickly, wincing as he coughed. "And the smoke - "

"The power is still on." Vader assured him tightly. "The air filtration system will push most of it outside."

Cesi glanced around, coughing into his sleeve but even now… it seemed like Vader was right. The smoke was dark but if he looked closely enough, there were corners of the cavern where the smoke seemed to be being pulled towards and then slowly sucked upwards.

"Don't… look back – Ani." It hissed angrily, adding a sinister edge to a voice that was otherwise soft and gentle. "Be brave. Don't – look… back."

"I cannot keep it back for long. Take the others and get out." Vader continued stiffly.

"Yeah, because you're doing so great on your own." Skywalker snarked at him, shaking his head. "If you can hold it for a little longer, we could make a run for it -"

"No." Vader said immediately. He turned his head to look at Skywalker then. "It will continue its hunt for us outside the mines as well."

Skywalker paused, glancing back at the creature. "But nothing we're doing is having an effect on it." he said, sounding stressed.

"You need something that will pack a bigger punch." Wedge interjected. His expression blanched almost immediately and he looked uneasily at Vader who stared right back at him. "It's… it's healing too quickly."

His evil red eye lenses trained on him and Cesi stirred, ready to reach for his blaster at the slightest hint of trouble -

"Captain Antilles, take your men and get out.:

Wedge paused and glanced uneasily between the two and clearly at odds with the idea of taking orders from Vader.

Skywalker offered him a quick reassuring smile. "It's okay, Wedge. I'll be alright. Do you still have the keycard I gave you?"

A keycard?

Cesi jerked his head around to stare at Wedge, suddenly breathless.

Wedge nodded, digging his hand into his back pocket. He froze, a horrified expression coming across his face. He searched his other one and then dug into his jacket but seemed to come up with the same result.

"Luke - " Wedge said, his voice sounding strangled even to himself. "I don't, I don't have it. It must have fallen out somewhere - "

"Go with them - "

"Yeah, because you're doing so great on your own!" Skywalker snapped back at him. Vader made a sound of frustration and then Skywalker paused. "Father, the computer - it's a standard Imperial system. It will accept an override code."

The creature rushed the invisible line again and while it obviously was hitting something, there was no sound to show for the massive beast slamming its full weight against whatever that something was – though Vader slid backwards on his feet a few inches before tightening his stance and taking a difficult step forwards.

"I am not giving rebels my personal code." He said incredulously.

Skywalker waved a hand, deflecting a piece of the broken walkway that was flying their way. It crashed into the wall with a loud bang that echoed throughout the cavern. "I'm a rebel and you said you would help me!" Skywalker snapped. "Just change the damn code when we get out of here!"

"Luke – "

"Father!"

Vader snarled in frustration and he swung Skywalker's lightsaber to split a massive piece of debris right now down the middle. The broken pieces veered off to the side and avoided them all by a hairsbreadth. "Five – eight – five – three!" he snapped.

"Thank you!"

"Five – eight – five – three." Wedge said, repeating it a few times with eyes wide. He twisted, turning to Cesi. "Tell me the code."

Cesi quickly repeated the numbers.

Wedge nodded and then shoved him with one hand. "Good, now go! Get Zach - I'll find Tycho!"

With one last look at Skywalker, Wedge turned and took off.

Cesi watched for a moment as the creature began slinking its way between the massive pieces of machinery once again, searching for a weak spot in the Force wall, perhaps. When it didn't find one, it began to pace back and forth along the border of power that marked a line where it could no longer pass, like an animal in a zoo, frustrated and angry.

"Ani… be brave - don't… look back. Don't - look… back, Ani."

The air began to feel like lightning in a storm once again.

Cold and dark and dangerous.

Cesi turned and ran and he didn't dare look back.

---

Luke stepped so that he once again stood side by side with his father, pushing as much of his Force presence as he could up against the creature to help keep it back and away from them for as long as possible. He was still trapped in a type of cage but it was nothing like before.

Together they both watched as the mimic glared at them and then its massive head raised and it looked around, searching for… something – after a moment, it glanced back at them and then ducked low, slinking behind some of the larger pieces of machinery. Luke looked in the direction it was heading and saw that it was clearly making for one of the exits in the wall.

He dared to hope that maybe it had finally had enough but didn't have enough time to finish the thought before Vader clenched a fist and brought his arm close to his chest with an angry jerk. The metal walkway above the closest exit was instantly torn out from the wall and crumbled to the ground with a loud crash. Jagged pieces of metal and rebar blocked the way in a massive heap.

His father wasn't going to let it leave now – perhaps he might have, earlier, before it had done so much damage to the both of them. Before it had dared to resurrect his grandmother's voice and taunted his father with words of love and painful goodbyes from the past.

Now it was personal.

But how were they supposed to kill it?

Wedge hadn't been wrong - they needed something more powerful. Something quicker than trying to choke it out or breaking it piece by piece.

Where were they going to get something that packed a bigger punch than his father though?

Vader had bent and broken the damn thing more than once already and it kept getting up again. It healed too quickly. At this rate, the only thing that was going to kill it was a bomb –

Luke froze, his racing thoughts coming to a screeching halt as he finally remembered.

He dug his hand into his pockets, searching desperately until he felt his fingers land on a small, round piece of metal.

"Father." Luke said breathlessly, holding up his hand to show him the transmitter that he'd taken from the spine of the dead Wookie slave just the other day. He'd almost forgotten that he'd even had it.

Transmitters could blow a full-grown man to pieces in the blink of an eye. Their small size was deceptive to someone who didn't know the danger of them – they were wildly powerful and if they could just get in the right place, it would do more than its fair share of damage.

Their eyes met and Luke knew without needing to ask that they were on the same page.

Hammer and anvil.

"Do you know how to activate it?"

Luke nodded. "Beru taught me how."

"Then I'll hold it for you." Vader said. The Force began to darken as his father pulled on the Dark Side once again, forcing it to respond and obey his will. He clenched his fist and Luke felt it rush forwards in front of them like a black fog of hate and anger. Seconds later, the mimic was shrieking in pain, a gurgling choking sound escaping its throat as it began to squirm violently from side to side, trying to escape from the death hold his father had on it.

It shook its massive head and slammed into the side of a dozer and knocked it a few feet. Luke thought for a moment that it might even tip over entirely but then the creature was digging its claws into the dirt and resisting as his father pulled it backwards towards the wall inch… by… inch.

Vader snatched Luke's arm just as he took a steadying breath, grabbing him by the bicep and preventing him from advancing forwards. Luke turned to look at him, startled. Their eyes met once again and some unnamable emotion passed between them.

"What?"

There was a half second of hesitation.

"Be careful." Vader finally warned.

Luke glanced back at the mimic and then offered his father a small reassuring smile. "I got this." He promised.

The grip on his arm tightened for the briefest moment, almost enough to hurt and then Vader was releasing him. "Go."

And then Luke took off, moving as agilely as he could, letting whatever remnants of the Force he could snag propel him forwards.

His lungs and chest burned as he ran, pushing his body past the last of his endurance. Once he was close enough, he tugged on the Force and used it to leap up to the top of the dozer. He landed lightly on the balls of his feet and without hesitating, jumped for the second story walkway that sat only a few feet higher. Most of it had already been destroyed or was otherwise unsteady at this point but this part looked to be mounted well enough into the wall that it might be willing to withstand his weight for a few moments.

Luke turned, finding his balance easily and looked down at the creature struggling just below him. He could hear the disgusting crunching and snapping of bones over the sounds of its angry screeches as his father continued to try and break it faster than it could heal. The walls above him seemed to tremble and he felt the walkway shaking under his feet as the creature's Force presence began to ripple out around them once again.

The chip was held loosely in his closed fist and he scanned the beast quickly before finding his target location and leaping off the walkway a short distance onto the mimic's back.

It hissed in rage and anger and Luke could feel its powerful muscles shifting under his feet and knew that it would throw him off in an instant were his father not keeping it mostly in place. He moved quickly between the spines and found his balance near its shoulder blades. In a quick movement, he planted the transmitter on the back of the mimic's neck, the tiny but effective barbs on the back implanting themselves in the mimic's thick, scaly hide. They wouldn't have sunk in too deeply but Luke only needed it to stay in place for a few seconds. He pressed down on the small green light with his thumb and held it down to the count of five.

A shrill beep sounded outwards, above the sound of screeching, and then the color changed from green to a flashing red, indicating its imminent detonation in –

five…

four…

three…

Luke turned and leapt for the ground below him but moved just a second too slow. Behind him, the creature screeched in absolute agony as the transmitter went off with a blast that threw Luke off balance. He hit the ground hard, with enough force to knock the air from his lungs, and then skidded a little ways. The creature was still shrieking and he quickly covered his head with his arms as a splatter of hot liquid fell over him that could only be blood and other such disgusting things. Then Luke was moving, scrambling to his feet, heedless of whatever pain he was in, knowing only that he needed to move -

He'd only managed to put just a few feet of distance between him and the mimic when an absolutely massive wave of power exploded behind him in the Force, like a massive krayt dragon erupting out from underneath the desert sand.

"Son of a bitch!" Luke gasped, as he was once again thrown off his feet. He barely managed to catch himself on his forearms as he fell, his head and mind exploding as the Force returned and his awareness of the galaxy once again flooded his senses. It was overwhelming – a beautiful and terrible agony that seemed to penetrate every fiber of his being and extended across the entire universe.

He couldn't think or hear anything and for a brief moment, Luke forgot everything. He dazedly watched stars blink in and out of existence throughout time itself, and watched distant planets rotate on their axis'. He felt the heartbeats of millions -of what must have been every life form on every planet in the entire sector – from tiny rodents in their burrows under the earth, to fowls gliding gracefully in the air, and sentient species going about their lives. Somewhere in the galaxy, Han was still encased in carbonite, his thoughts frozen and lingering on Leia's face as though it were the last thing he'd wanted to see and then Yoda on Dagobah, leaning on his staff in the doorway of his hut, staring out into the Force and it felt like he was looking straight at Luke and knew… then he was gone, lost in the millions of others that flashed in front of his eyes.

There were massive creatures that were centuries old deep in the oceans, singing songs as old as the galaxy itself. The mimic's two massive hearts sounded like a war drum in his head, and lastly he recognized the small number of people that were spread out immediately around him, their emotions bleeding into the Force like black ink spilled on white paper.

There was so much… it was marvelous - a wonder and a beauty that he had no words to describe. It also hurt - it was painful and terrifying to see so much and he wasn't prepared for the experience… but it would be easy, effortless even, to simply get lost in it all. Some small part of him, instinct perhaps, whispered that that was a dangerous thing to do but he, for the life of him, couldn't really understand why that would be….

"Luke!"

He twitched, feeling the dirt and rocks under his hands. His flesh hand had been scraped raw and he knew it was bleeding. The realization brought him back a little, grounding him in the strangest way.

"LUKE!"

Luke.

That was… that was his name.

"GET UP!"

Luke blinked, the swirling images of distant stars and galaxies being replaced by red dirt, flame, and smoke. His eyes were stinging painfully and he remembered… that he needed to move. Moving was important. The Force and someone else - maybe even more than one someone - were shouting at him to move.

He needed to move now.

Dazed, his head and ears ringing, Luke forced himself to find his feet, trying to bring his awareness back to the here and now. Almost immediately, they slipped underneath him and he felt his knees slam into the ground, though the hurt felt as though it came from far away. He felt as unsteady as a newborn bantha experiencing the desert sand for the first time. How the… hell were limbs supposed to work…?

The massive creatures in the oceans sang and sang and somewhere else in the galaxy, far, far away a strange looking bird had its feathers ruffled by a breeze as it sat on the twig of a tree in full blossom-

- the Force wanted him to move -

Luke blinked again, lifting his head to look around and saw as the mimic stumbled, its massive body slamming sideways into the wall. It was covered in blood and gore now and something about its face or neck seemed terribly wrong but he couldn't spare the seconds to understand why.

Laughter and music from a festival on a planet light years away echoed strangely in his ears but more immediately, metal groaned loudly overhead and the sound was grating and miserable to his ears under the cacophony of noise. He looked up, following the sound.

Above him, the structural integrity of the walkway had already been damaged earlier and the force of the explosion from the transmitter going off had rocked it back into the wall and it was all going to fall down and Luke was right underneath it –

Strong arms yanked him up to his feet and there was a brief flurry of movement that churned his stomach in the most sickening kind of way before Luke felt as he was pulled close to someone's chest. Danger danger DANGER rang like a blaring fire alarm in the Force and Luke instinctively raised his arms to try and protect his head. The respirator breathing in his ear gave away who it was behind him and then Vader was twisting around and hunching over him protectively as metal, rock, and debris fell around them in an absolutely deafening crash.

It seemed to last for an age though in reality it was probably only twenty or twenty-five seconds at most before the thundering noise quieted down to a few occasional crashes from falling debris hitting the ground… and then nothing at all.

It was quiet.

It took Luke a few seconds longer to realize that his mind was growing quiet again too. His father's familiar Force signature was a gentle pressure curled around and on top of his own, like a weighted blanket. It acted as a shield to protect him from the painful awareness that had thrown him off his feet and there were almost indiscernible whisperings of quiet calm relax that were easing the tsunami of pain and awareness which had taken over his mind.

Every part of him ached, all the way down to the marrow in his bones and he couldn't remember a time, save perhaps in the days following Bespin, where had felt so completely exhausted.

Luke slowly lowered his arms and then raised his head to survey their surroundings. Behind him, Vader let go of his protective hold and took a small step back to create a little distance between them but kept a steadying hand on his shoulder and his force presence curled protectively around his own.

"Are you alright?"

His voice seemed to boom. It sounded harsh and loud to his ears and for a split second Luke thought that he could see the sound waves rippling outwards in the air in front of him. They almost seemed to dance, twirling in an intricate sort of way and were made of colors he'd never seen before. Then he blinked and then they were gone.

"I… I think so?"

The whispers - the call to become one with the Force slowly slipped away and Luke breathed a sigh of relief when reality finally seemed to cement itself once again.

Something shifted behind them and rocks clattered lightly as they were displaced. Together, he and Vader turned as one.

Underneath a pile of metal grates and beams and fallen rocks, laid the mimic.

It wasn't dead yet but it would be soon. Its breathing was wet and labored.

Luke could only stare at the twitching, gasping creature. He felt nothing.

The transmitter chip had done its job well and it had blown a massive hole into the back of the mimic's neck. How the damn thing hadn't blown its head off entirely, Luke couldn't begin to guess… but the damage was done nonetheless. Exposed spinal cord, shards of broken bone, and torn muscle tissue were visible. Blood seeped from the wound freely, dripping down its scaly leather neck and pooling in a large puddle around its body. Many of the impressive spikes that had adorned its back were broken or missing entirely and some of its limbs were grotesquely broken, courtesy of his father's rage. It had been impaled by more than one piece of rebar.

Pinned to the ground like an insect to a board.

Its massive legs twitched every few seconds and they slowly approached it, Luke leaning on his father for support. The creature's black eyes turned once again to focus on them and seconds later, a sharp, miserable pain instantly shot through his head. Luke gasped in surprise, raising a hand to press against his temple as the mimic forced its way into his mind once again. Its maw fell open and this time, an unfamiliar voice, weak and feminine, sounded out from it.

"…Luke… Lu-ke…."

Beside him, his father stiffened and his thoughts were quickly closed off before Luke could do more than register the grief and pain that the sound of that voice provoked.

He was confused for two or three seconds before it clicked, and he remembered and then understood.

The creature only copied the voices of blood relatives.

"…hi Luke." It gasped wetly, mimicking the quiet voice of a woman whose name he'd never known. Luke felt his head pound in utter agony, pulsing as memories that were too old for him to remember on his own were ripped from his mind. Weak cries of pain briefly followed the sound of his name. "Luke… hi – Lu…ke – Le… Le…."

Luke couldn't stand to hear anymore and he took a moment to gently tug his lightsaber away from his father. The light was a bright, brilliant green once again and inside, Luke could feel the kyber crystal humming with satisfaction. It felt like reuniting with a long lost friend. He stepped forward, raising his weapon high and in one a clean stroke, he severed the mimic's head before it could utter another word.

His headache immediately faded to something easy and manageable and Luke watched as the creatures' black eyes slowly glassed over on its disembodied head and the monstrous, twitching body finally grew still at last.

It was over.

---

A/N Thank you all for your patience and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter!

It is hands down the hardest thing I've ever written and I hope that it lived up to the hype.

Let me know what you think in the comments and seriously, thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far! I've loved your reactions and have been so delighted at the story's response! Hope to see you all again with chapter 8! :D