A Hope in Hell
By Mina

Chapter 6

"Alive, Vader is."

The words slipped into his mind, and he stirred instinctively at the name. The man who held him - Obi-Wan - tightened his grip. "No," his old master whispered, more emotions in his voice than Vader could name. "No - he can't be."

Yoda's voice was sad, tired. "True it is, Obi-Wan. Retrieved he was, by Palpatine. Treated. Replaced, much of his body has been. But gone, is Anakin."

"But..." Obi-Wan trailed off, any fight left in him seeming to be expelled in one long, tortured breath. Pain shimmered in his eyes, the hint of despairing tears. "I am sorry, Master. I could not kill him."

"Blame you, I do not," Yoda said, at length. "But shield the boy's thoughts you should, or Vader will learn of his existence. Muted, their bond should be. And leave now, you must. Grows stronger every day does Vader. Soon, strong enough will he be to seek them out, with or without the bond."

He saw Obi-Wan shake his head. Even though his vision was wavering and blurred, Vader could see the exhaustion on the Jedi's face. "I know, but there is something going on here, Master. Palpatine has been conducting research into bio-engineering, he's developed Force-suppressing drugs."

Vader heard Yoda gasp. "Research, you say?" So, the research here had been a pet project of the Emperor's, Vader acknowledged abstractly without much surprise.

"Through Separatist scientists. One of Padmé's former handmaidens showed me the facility and I infiltrated it."

"Rumours of Separatists on Naboo there is in the Senate," Yoda said, thoughtfully. "Arisen, dissenters have, since the disappearance of Senator Amidala. Angry, is Palpatine. Fears for the safety of the Naboo does Senator Organa. Believes, he does, that Palpatine will discover Amidala and destroy Theed in his rage."

"And destroy any evidence of this research at the same time," Obi-Wan added, and Vader felt a cool, logical sense of inevitability settling within him.

There was a long pause, a stretched, thin silence, during which Vader's mind raged over the possibilities. Had Palpatine attacked Naboo because of the Separatists there - or to get rid of two problems with one stone: to hide this research, no longer needed now that the Purge had been so successful, and to kill his apprentice's wife at the same time? Because, surely, if Vader had known that Padmé was alive when he had recovered, he would have abandoned Palpatine to pursue her. And the Emperor would not have stood for that.

"And Senator Amidala," Yoda said, "she lives still?"

"Barely," Obi-Wan replied, pain in his voice. "She calls for Anakin constantly. It as if... she can feel him." A strange look passed over Obi-Wan's face. "Master - could they have a bond -"

"Follow that line of thought you should not, Obi-Wan. Leave, you should. Now." Vader saw Obi-Wan tighten his jaw and look down at him. "For the boy," Yoda added. "His mother is lost."

And Obi-Wan just stared down at him. "As is his father," the Jedi whispered. "But I cannot leave her to die alone as I did Anakin."

Vader's eyes razed the room, gaze sweeping over the sleeping children. So young... all of them around the age Vader had been when he had been liberated from slavery on Tatooine. It made something inside of him ache with old memories, old fears. These were the post-War children of Theed, born after the destruction of their planet. And what, he wondered, had happened to their parents? Perhaps it had been the same fate that had befallen Dané.

Jee was sitting cross-legged in a corner of the room, sorting through the supplies he had taken from Luke. Vader walked over, stepping around the sprawled legs and arms of sleeping children. Jee was working by candlelight, the flickering glow throwing shadows across his face, deepening the scars. Vader stopped when he reached him, feeling an uneasy mixture of pity and disgust.

"These children... they are all escapees from Jandon, are they not?"

Jee didn't even look up. He continued working, nimble fingers sorting the med patches in waterproof envelopes. "That's right."

"Which is why you are so concerned about trackers."

"Right again," Jee said. "There's no way to remove them. The scientists here did their job well. Unlike normal slave trackers, these are injected and travel in the blood. They imbed anywhere. No scars to show where, and they can't be picked up on a scan."

Vader gazed down on the bowed head of the boy. "And this technology was not destroyed in the attack?"

Jee was shaking his head, even as he continued working. "Most of the scientists tried to flee the planet, some of them made it… but they left their technology here. Jandon was left behind, too. His father was working on the tracker project. He was killed in the initial blast, and no one bothered to stop and take Jandon with them." Jee paused, a flash of pain in his expression. "That happened to a lot of the kids. When people run, they don't turn around to see who's not keeping up."

"Who were your parents?" Vader asked.

Jee looked up, eyeing Vader with sharp disdain. "Does it matter? They died. A lot of people died. A lot of people are still dying. But you should know that already - after all, this destruction was your doing."

"I knew nothing of this," Vader snarled back, meeting the boy's gaze. "I was indisposed for several months."

Jee shook his head and looked back down to his work. "Yeah, whatever. It doesn't matter anyway. The trackers were left here, and Jandon has the technology to use them to track these kids. Every one of them is screwed because of it."

Vader noted the omission. "And you?"

"Me? What about me?"

"You do not have a tracker, do you?"

For the first time Jee paused, settling back against the wall and looking up at Vader. A fleeting look of pain was quickly buried beneath a mask of passive indifference. "No, I don't. I was a member of their gang until I couldn't stand it anymore. Those days, after the strike, you had to throw your lot in with whoever had the upper hand or you'd be out of the food chain. I knew Luke whilst I was -"

The words came to a strangled halt as Vader reached out with his good hand and hauled the boy to his feet, pushing him up against the wall. His hand was around the boy's scarred throat, crushing it. "You... you watched whilst they murdered the parents and enslaved the children. You helped them," Vader snarled, but quietly so he didn't wake the sleeping runaways and cause a riot. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you."

Jee had dropped the medical patches. His fingers had instinctively started clawing at Vader's hand, but he stopped suddenly, sighing. With a pained voice, he said, "Go ahead. It'd be a mercy."

A memory of his own words came back to him, slashing through his mind -

- you would be delivering me a mercy.

He relaxed his hand, just slightly. Jee looked aside, saying, "When I finally snapped, I tried to get most of them out, but I didn't manage it. Luke was one of the ones that got left behind. He was too old by then; Jandon was too dependant on his Force-skills and had him practically glued to his side. I went back to try and get the ones I'd left behind... and I was caught."

Jee went quiet, apparently lost in memories.

"And you believe they are safe here? Jandon must know of this institution," Vader hissed disdainfully.

Jee narrowed his eyes. "He knows it's somewhere in the city, but he's never found it. His father was just a technician; he never made it here. But me and Luke found it. Jandon only knows about the station they bunk down in, and the technology he got from there. He doesn't know they developed a way of shielding it. When we found this here, I got as many of the kids out of here as fast as I could."

Vader's hand spasmed with the pain reflected in the boy's eyes. "Do not try and persuade me that you are a hero. That was too little, too late."

Jee smiled grimly. "I know. But at least I tried."

The emphasis on the 'I' gave Vader pause. He dropped the boy, who rubbed at his throat ruefully. What he was suggesting cut a little close to the bone for Vader; the parallels between them so obvious they were blinding. And because of that, Vader stepped away.

"I did not come here for your life story," he spat. "I came to ask for your aid in leaving this city."

Jee arched a hairless eyebrow at that. "What makes you think I'm in a position to help?"

Vader snorted. "If Luke and I escape this planet, I give you my word I will return and evacuate you - all of you. But only if you assist us."

Jee eyed him with something like grim humour in his eyes. "You can't help us," he said.

"I can, and I will, if you aid me now."

Jee was shaking his head. "The trackers -"

"Will be of no consequence once you are away from Theed. Jandon cannot follow you into space."

The boy looked inexplicably confused by that, which was not the reaction Vader had been expecting. Then there was a sudden light of understanding in Jee's eyes, a disbelief Vader couldn't begin to comprehend.

"I see," the boy said, slowly, as if privy to a secret he hadn't shared with Vader. And that just plain irritated Vader.

"I fail to understand your hesitation. I'm offering you your freedom."

"No, you're not." Jee looked aside, down to the children still sleeping on the floor at the far end of the room. Vader could see no indecision there that was holding the boy's tongue... it was more like melancholy. Finally, the boy looked up. "All right, I'll help you. I owe it to Luke, anyway."

Confused, but satisfied with the answer, Vader replied coolly, "Good."

Jee bent down and picked up the med patches, stacking them neatly together and blowing out the candle. "It's this way," he said, picking a path across the sleeping bodies in the room.

"What is 'this way'?" Vader asked, following, careful not to trip over the children, as uncoordinated as he was with his injured leg.

Jee looked surprised. "I assumed you knew about it."

"About what?"

Jee frowned, shaking his head in disbelief. "About the speeder I've been working on."

"I can't believe Jee had this and he didn't tell me! There haven't been any working speeders in Theed since... forever!" Luke said, and Vader turned from piloting the open-topped, patched-together speeder, with more haste than was probably sensible through the chaotic streets of Naboo, to look at his son.

The boy had brightened considerably after the previous night's talk, as if a terrible weight had been taken from his shoulders and he could just be a boy... for a little while at least.

Luke was holding his arms out to the side, palms side on, as if he was slicing through the wind with the speed of their travel. The wind ruffled his hair, and he must have sensed Vader's regard because he turned and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry," he said.

"'Sorry'?" Vader repeated, confused.

"I guess you must think I'm an idiot right now, but this is... this is great. I never imagined I'd get to do this."

"To do what? To ride in a speeder?"

Luke flushed, and the words tumbled out, "Not with my father, anyway," before he bit his lip and looked away.

The warm feeling that swelled in his chest at that sentiment was vaguely uncomfortable, and Vader said, "Wait until you see your mother's ship."

Through his slowly returning Force-sense, Vader caught a flicker of melancholy at those words, and he turned to Luke again, trusting the piloting to his instincts. "What is it?"

"Nothing," Luke replied quickly - too quickly.

Was it that Vader had mentioned Luke's mother? Vader started, realising that he himself had not felt any of his customary emotions at the memories of Padmé - no anger, no betrayal, no hatred. Just... memories, melting into the past.

Or maybe it was more than that. He needed his Force-sense back to read his son properly. There was a flicker of awareness returning to him, a thready, tentative touch on the Force. But when he reached out with his still pitifully weak sense, the boy was strangely closed to him, despite their conversation the previous night.

He felt as if he was missing something vital, still, but what it was he couldn't say. And probably it didn't matter. It would be something from Luke's past, his childhood, that could be dealt with once they were away from this damnable planet. Vader's focus right now needed to be on getting away, and quickly. There was simply no time to stop and demand answers from the boy.

Perhaps it was connected with Jee. Certainly as Vader had watched him bid goodbye to the other boy, Luke had seemed... downhearted. As if he didn't think he would see the youth again, although Vader had explained to Luke his intention to return and free Jee and his pitiful band of runaways.

He shook his head: his son was certainly erratic. He must have got that from his mother's side.

The speeder's engine finally stuttered and died. Vader hit the ignition again, but he knew nothing would happen. He'd already squeezed what little energy that had been left in the repulsors as far as it would go.

They'd travelled several miles, through and beyond the medical and business districts that circled the historical heart of the city they'd started from. Now they were out in the residential areas. It was quieter here, almost ominously quiet. Some of the buildings had collapsed, crumbled like kicked-in sandcastles. Vader's Force sense was returning, slowly, and yet he felt no people nearby, not even the fearful, distrustful people they'd been able to glimpse, just occasionally, in the inner city. The silence was almost deafening.

As he'd predicted, the speeder refused to start up again. He sighed and glanced around. It was nearing dark anyway, and it wasn't safe to be travelling through the rubble of the streets without lights.

He glanced over at Luke, who was sleeping soundly in the passenger seat, curled up, looking more like a young child than he ever had. Vader stopped for a moment and took his hands off the controls. He looked down on Luke, torn between the oddly parental urge to allow him to sleep and the more sensible one of rousing him.

In the end, he clipped the blaster Jee had relinquished back to him onto his belt and climbed out of the speeder. He moved around to Luke's side, opening the door and lifting the boy with his one good arm, balancing him over his shoulder. He was almost surprised by how light his son was. It felt like he held nothing more substantial in his arms than air and hopes.

With Luke pressed firmly against his shoulder, Vader turned and headed towards a substantial looking dwelling a little along the cracked and broken road.

The door was off the latch, and he pushed inside, using his returning Force-sense to scan the area as best he could. But this wasn't as easy as it used to be. The Dark Side didn't swim to his call as it had before, and Vader felt irritation teasing his control. Still, it was enough to know that no one was home. Visual inspection confirmed that. The place was covered in a thick layer of dust that his steps displaced, sending spinning clouds of it into the air.

There was a large kitchen area, and Vader bypassed it long enough to settle Luke onto one of the large couches in the lounge area before turning back and rummaging through the cupboards.

Given how scarce supplies appeared to be for Jandon's and Jee's gangs, he was almost surprised to find the cupboards bursting with items - food, drink, household essentials. He stilled, a tickle of foreboding running down his spine. This place was utterly empty, and obviously had been for years, so why had it never been looted?

He turned a slow circle, surveying the evidence of a hurried evacuation: overturned furniture, a litter of items that had spilled from bags, even a canvas sack in the corner, its bottom seam having given way and spilled supplies over the floor. The sack and its contents had been abandoned where they had fallen, left to sit, discarded, as whoever had left here had fled without the time to find another method of carrying the items.

Vader walked to the sack and emptied it. A number of useful items spilled into his hands: candles, for one, with a firelighter, and vacuum-packed foods. He stared at the items, feeling unsettled but unable to say why.

In truth, though, it came down to the question of why this house had never been looted, why the survivors of assault hadn't sought refuge here, as they had in the inner city.

Was it just that this was a richer area, that the occupants had been able to get off-planet rather than being trapped here when the spaceports were taken out? But if so, why had those who'd been left behind never come and pillaged here?

"Father?" A quiet voice asked, and Vader turned at the sound. Luke had propped himself up on his elbows and was looking at him through sleep-dazed eyes. "Where are we?"

Abandoning his misgivings for the moment, Vader returned to the lounge area, seating himself on the couch next to Luke. "I believe we are in one of the richer suburbs. The speeder ran out of power. Here, there is food." He handed Luke one of the vacuum-sealed packets and saw the boy's eyes light up. Clearly it had been a while since he had seen anything as appetising. He awoke quickly, shuffling upright and tucking his feet under him as he tore open the seal.

Vader busied himself with finding places to balance the candles and then lighting them. He settled back and watched with an alien feeling of fond amusement as Luke devoured the packet of food in less time that it would have taken Vader to merely assure himself that the contents were edible.

Maybe sensing Vader's regard, Luke looked up and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry - just haven't, you know, seen food like this for a while." He wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "How far did we get?"

Vader considered that question, uncertain of the answer. The route he'd been forced to drive was circuitous, but he had remained roughly on the course Luke had outlined two nights ago, back in the basement of the research facility. How far they had actually travelled towards that place, though, was difficult to say.

In the end, all he said was, "We have taken many hours off our travel. Perhaps days." He paused. "We will rest here until morning, and then continue. Jandon cannot catch us even if he can track us, now, and it cannot be much further to the ship..." He trailed off because Luke was looking at him in alarm, his eyes wide.

"We can't stop now! We have to keep going!" he said, putting the empty food packet aside. "We can walk in the dark, it'll be fine."

Vader frowned. "We should rest. It could still be several miles' walk across the ruins and you, young one, are not used to such a high level of physical exertion."

Luke flushed at that. "I can make it," he said, and there was something almost desperate in his voice. "Honest."

Vader shook his head. "No, we will rest and - Luke!" Vader lurched forward as Luke stood up from his seat as if to protest more adamantly and suddenly doubled over in pain. The pain was strong enough that Vader felt it reach out to him despite his still damnably weak Force sense. He caught the boy by his upper arms and stared down at him. "What was that?" he demanded.

Luke was grimacing, clutching his stomach. "I've just... got a pain.…" he said, and tried to sit back down. Vader sat with him, drawing him against his side. Something had flared in him when he saw Luke contract, something parental and protective. Convulsively, he clutched the boy closer.

"What sort of pain?" Vader asked.

Luke shrugged. "I don't know. It's gone now, anyway," he said, but he was breathing fast and shallow, and Vader felt that ominous trickle of worry press against his mind again.

"Luke -"

"I'm alright, I'm alright," the boy said. "Just... tired." And he leant his head against Vader's shoulder, sighing.

Vader looked down at the blond mop of hair, feeling uneasy. But it was probably just the fact the boy had eaten too quickly and on a stomach more used to emergency rations than real food. There was no reason to feel so apprehensive... and yet he did. Absently, he traced the scar on the boy's temple with his gloved fingertip.

"Well, then, sleep. I will wake you before sunrise and we can start again. It can only be a few miles to your mother's ship... and then we can leave this accursed planet."

"Yeah," Luke said noncommittally. He pressed himself closer, and Vader didn't really mind, though he knew it was probably undignified for a Dark Lord to coddle his son so. But then... was he still a Dark Lord? He wasn't certain. Even before he'd come to Naboo he had doubted his choices, doubted his master.

And now, after finding Luke, those doubts had escalated. It had only been days, but in that short time the years of Darkness and isolation had turned from feeling necessary for his survival to feeling utterly wasteful and wanton.

He sighed. If only he could meditate... but that would have to wait until they left Naboo and he had his son firmly by his side, safe and secure. Then, and only then, could he make plans for the future. For now, though, he must be patient.

"Luke," he said, on a strange whim, "when we leave here, I will show you the galaxy, as I never got to see it. Without war and death and..." He trailed off, uncertain what he was trying to say. To promise he would always be there, as he had failed to be for the past thirteen years? Perhaps. "Luke..." he started again - and then stopped, because Luke had started snoring quietly.