Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
In the darkness he drifted, unaware of the passage of time or of anything else other than the peace that he was feeling right now. Suddenly a speck of light appeared, shining blindingly in sharp contrast to its surroundings.
He willed himself towards the light, curious.
As he got closer random flashes of color whipped through his mind, each important in its own way, but he couldn't remember…
A flash of a female face… brown hair, human…
A sense of closeness and safety…
Just as he got close enough so that the white light appeared to be roughly the size of a person, white-hot pain erupted throughout him, piercing, like lightning.
Lightning…
There was something nagging at him, lurking in a corner of his mind.
Something important.
A flash of a black cloaked machine-man.
Something he had to remember.
Arches of mesmerizing golden light dancing in the humming air…
But he felt a strange reluctance to do so.
Flash of yellow teeth in a parody of a smile…
He sank back down into the darkness, lost in an endless abyss of nothingness, with a fleeting feeling that something was very wrong.
-------------------------------------------------------
Vader stared at the prone figure of his son lying in the medical bay. For Luke's disobedience and stubbornness to turn to the dark side, the Emperor would have killed him if Vader didn't step in, in time.
Flashback
To his right, arches of yellow-white lighting raced up and down the writhing Luke as he screamed in pain and in defiance towards the Emperor.
Glancing to his left, was the grinning Sith Lord as he used his dark side charged lighting to painfully kill his latest victim.
Turning back to his son, Vader could see that Luke had started to smoke and electrical burns were appearing all over his body, deepening in color as the slow torture dragged on.
Caught between the duty and loyalty he owed to Emperor Palpatine and his newfound feelings Luke had unburied Vader was at a loss of how to end the situation with Luke's life and Palpatine's trust intact.
Reaching for the Force, Vader sent a quick prayer that everything will turn out to be all right.
Daring to disrupt the flow of electricity by jerking his master's arms away from the direction of his son, Darth Vader kneeled down before his master and started to plead, the first time he had done so since the time long ago when he was weak and pleaded for the same man to help him save his beloved Padmé.
"My master, please cease and desist immediately. I ask… no… I beg you to stop and spare the boy's life. I strongly believe that the boy has sufficiently learned his lesson."
The Emperor curled his lips. "I fear that the boy is becoming too close to you and is blinding you to your better judgment. The son of Skywalker has had his chance and he has refused my offer for power. He is of no further use to me."
"My lord, the boy does not see how generous you are to give him your offer. I ask that you give the boy one final chance and he will become a powerful ally on our side and will prove to be the ultimate end of the Rebel Alliance. I will take personal responsibility in showing him the error of his ways."
The Emperor stared at his kneeling apprentice, contemplating Vader's words. The boy is extremely sensitive to the Force and will be worth all the trouble if he can only be turned.
"Very well. I shall give him one last chance. However, this time if he doesn't prove to be as you say, you will personally kill him in front of me. You have six months."
Summoning his personal guards, Palpatine gestured at the crumpled heap in the middle of the throne room. "Take him to the medical bay and see to him that he gets top priority treatment."
The silent red clad guards bowed and with one on each side, lifted and carefully drag Luke to his new destination.
"Thank you, my lord. I will not fail you."
"See to it that you don't. Dismissed."
END FLASHBACK
"You will come to see it my way, my son. I will make you see the superiority of the Dark Side and you shall join me, one way or another. I swear it."
AN: Well, I didn't exactly succeed in doing what I was aiming to do when I originally took the long break, but at least the story has finally been updated. I'm not sure if any of the original readers are still waiting for the next update on this chapter. I know by now, I would have given up on this story and gone looking for another story with a better update record. But, if you are still reading this story after so long, I am very grateful and thankful that you stuck around. THANK YOU!!!! Unfortunately as I said, I didn't really succeed in what I was planning to do, due to a combination of persistant writer's block and life. I will keep working on the story, but the next update will probably not be for a long time again. I'm really really sorry.