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Chapter 8

"Oh good you're back," Nil cried, running towards Luke first thing the next morning. "We're all getting dismissed from second period so we can do a run through before the assembly… you have memorized your lines right?" Luke stared at her, blinking, and the over-excited teen literally huffed in annoyance. "The play Luke, the play!"

"You mean I'm still doing that?" Luke had imagined that they would have found someone else to play his father after the whole fiasco at practice yesterday. Yet apparently Nil expected him to go on despite having missed the majority of the only practice.

"Of course! I mean the things you said yesterday were pretty horrible but we all know you were just taking the joke too far and… well it is a tradition to have kids play their parents and no one else wanted to play Vader in case he came to the assembly since parents are invited and…"

Ah, so there was the real truth. "Yeah, I can look over the lines. But what about costumes and props? Did you really get them all together yesterday?"

Nil nodded, and Luke found himself impressed with the girl. Sure, she could be pretty insufferable at times, but she was certainly an effective worker. Maybe he should try to partner up with her for class projects sometime…

"So who is this girl Jade saw you with yesterday?" Leah asked coming up behind Luke and grabbing his shoulder. Rickon gave Leah an odd look, probably wondering what on earth she was talking about, but Luke just blushed.

"How did you even know about that? How do you even know her?" One would think that after four years Luke would be used to Leah knowing, well, everything, but this meant she was spying on spies. She could get herself killed if Jade found out.

But Leah didn't seem concerned. She shrugged casually and said, "She lives in the palace. I live in the palace. It's not that big of a place." Well that wasn't true. The palace was about the size of Anchorhead. "Who was she? Jade seemed pretty pissed that she didn't know."

"Her name is Leia, she's the princess from Alderaan," Luke told her shrugging as if somehow that would make it seem like no big deal. But it was a big deal and both Leah and Rickon knew it. Luke never hung out with any girl besides Leah outside of school. Actually, he didn't hang out with even Leah outside of school. If Luke was talking to some girl…

"I was with you all night? How did I miss a Princess?" Rickon asked sounding legitimately hurt. He'd mentioned before how cool it would be to date royalty, but Luke didn't want to tell Rickon that he probably wasn't Leia's type.

"She was at the Complex talking to your dad. I showed her around a little bit and we ran into Jade while I was doing so. It was really no big deal."

Rickon and Leah's expressions begged to differ. "Okay, but who is this Jade? How do both of you know her but not me?"

"Mara Jade, little brat with flaming red hair and a temper to match it. She's one of the Emperor's pet spies. If you ever see her run," Leah explained as the bell rung for them to head off to math class.

The three of them begun walking on their way, but Rickon was still very hyper. No one could blame him; he had just realized what Luke had known forever-Leah was not all she seemed. "And she just lives in the Palace like you do? And one of? Does the Emperor have lots of spies? Are they all pretty."

Leah laughed, "I never said she was pretty."

"She's pretty pretty," Luke admitted. Sure Mara terrified him and he had been forbidden from speaking to her by his father, but that didn't make Mara any less attractive. She was a bit young for Luke at the moment, but she was pretty.

Leah didn't find it amusing, however, that Luke thought so. Rolling her eyes she muttered some curse that Luke was pretty sure could get her expelled. He didn't get a chance to ask her about it though because they had arrived at class and been forced to take their seats.

During second period Luke made his way towards the auditorium where the other students involved in the play were gathered. They all stared at him for a moment, but went back to trying to pull together the skit on such short notice.

"Hey Luke, do you think we still have enough time for you to show me how to do a fun lightsaber fight?"

Luke groaned, having forgotten completely about his promise, but nodded. Nil had gotten a bunch of lightsaber toys for them all to use, and so Luke grabbed a red one and tossed a blue to Garoche. The older teen was pretty strong and athletic, which helped, but Luke quite literally danced circles around him. In the end though they figured out a fight scene that was way more epic than anything else in the show and called it a day.

"So I couldn't help but wonder," Garoche asked as the two of them broke for water. "Did your father really not always have a mask? My father said he needs it to breathe but I figured he was born with a defect."

Luke very much didn't want to talk about it, but resigned himself to the question. So long as he could hold his tongue it couldn't hurt to tell the truth. In fact the story was just the type of story the Empire liked to propagate. "Yeah. There was the Jedi master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the two of them fought on the planet Mustafar shortly after the rise of the republic. Mustafar is all lava and my father was burned. That's why he wears the suit."

"Wow, that sucks," Garoche declared after a moment of silence. "The Jedi were really horrible weren't they. This Kenobi guy sounds like a jerk."

Luke looked around, half expecting to see the ghost there berating him, but there was no sign of Kenobi. "He and my father were old enemies I guess. It's complicated. In the end though my father killed Kenobi so I guess he got his revenge."

"Yeah, I think I remember hearing about him actually. But that was only a few years ago right? Right about the time that you…" Garoche trailed off, making one too many connections and getting very uncomfortable. Without another word the older teen got up and went back to the rest of the group leaving Luke alone to curse his loose tongue. No wonder he was always getting in so much trouble!

In the end Nil had decided that fact or not Luke needed to wear a mask for the audience to know who he was. It was odd for Luke as he pulled on the suit and mask. Within minutes he, a boy from the desert, was burning hot, and it was basically impossible to see properly. And why was everything red? Was this actually how his father saw? Had Vader really gone without color for almost fifteen years? Did he really not even know what Luke looked like?

It was a sobering thought, and Luke resolved to be nicer to his father. He had only been injured because he was trying to save Luke's mother from dying during Luke's birth. Kenobi was the one who left him to die, but Luke was the reason his father had been without color for so long. It made him feel pretty terrible.

The really odd thing about the costume was that it came with a voice modulator and everything. When Luke spoke he sounded just like his father. Actually, he seemed to be his father in the suit, minus over a foot of height.

"You almost look loyal in that suite, rebel scum."

Luke found moving to be a bit difficult in the costume, and so it took him a minute to turn and face Brandon. Once he did turn it took all of Luke's willpower not to laugh. Brandon looked ridiculous dressed as the Emperor, but not nearly ugly enough. (Which was a shame.) No, he just looked like a child playing dress up which, in a very real sense, he was.

"Is this really the best the Alliance can do? A scrawny kid defending them? It's pitiful."

"I'm sorry the Rebels killed your father Brandon, really," Luke told the bully calling on the Force to help him have patience. "But they have hurt people I care about too. And I don't care if you think I'm a rebel, I'm not. I'm actually in line for the throne, so perhaps you should think before agitating me."

Brandon laughed, but looked visibly nervous. "As if anyone would ever let you on the throne. They'd have to be out of their mind."

"Careful," Luke warned Brandon. Obviously Brandon was too obsessed with his hatred of Luke to realize who was being an idiot this time. "Calling the Emperor of the galaxy crazy is treason. Which one of us would be the Rebel then?"

Brandon's eyes filled with panicked fury, and he looked ready to either cry or punch Luke in the face. Unfortunately for him, he went with the second option. Sighing to himself Luke grabbed Brandon's hand mid punch and pulled it out at an awkward angle. "You will never come near me again, or I will tell my father and then you'll get to see how a lightsaber works up close and personal."

Brandon at this point did start to cry, and Luke let him go. As Brandon ran away everyone stared at them until Garoche finally laughed. "Sith's Hell Luke that was terrifying, but I think I'm glad someone finally put that dork in his place."

Everyone else laughed awkwardly, but Luke noticed everyone giving him a wide birth of space. He tried to brush it off, but it hurt to know they were all scared of him. It seemed that even when he kept his temper people still seemed bothered by Luke. He literally could not win.

Luckily Luke didn't have much time to think on it because places were called and the assembly began. On the other side of the curtain Mr. Raybag welcomes the students and their esteemed family members, and Luke suddenly felt nervous. What if he messed up? What if he didn't mess up and everyone was terrified by his lightsaber duel? What if one of the esteemed family members gathered told Luke's father…

"Fifteen years ago the galaxy was engaged in a great war," Nil began narrating, and Luke attempted to push away his fear. Fear was not the way of the Jedi, and even if he was dressed as a Sith Luke was a Jedi.

When it was Luke's turn to enter and 'defend the Emperor', he walked onto the stage with the focus of a Jedi master. He was completely oblivious to every member of the audience as he and Garoche fought. Completely oblivious of everything but the Force and their fight until he heard Garoche yell, "I, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, will destroy you Vader. And your family!"

The lines were improvised, and Luke could hear the cast and the audience get uncomfortable with them. Luke himself was furious at Garoche for making such a comment, and found himself going out of their choreography. Pushing off with the Force Luke jumped and spun over Garoche, "stabbing" him in the back. Garoche fell and the crowd cheered, but Luke was oblivious. All he knew was that there was one person in the audience not clapping. One person in the audience that was furious. One person that was not supposed to be there- his Father.

Luke kept going, knowing he'd be in so much trouble for ruining the play, but his heart was no longer in it. All that was going on in his head was how furious his father was. Luke could feel the Sith's fury radiating through the Force. Luke hadn't seen his father this angry since he'd fought and killed the real Obi-Wan.

Perhaps that was why Luke lingered after the end of the performance. Everyone else changed quickly and went out to be with their families, but not Luke. No, he lingered back stage, and quite possibly would have stayed there until his death had he not felt his father calling to him through their training bond. The message was quite clear-the longer we wait to talk about this the more trouble you'll be in.

Luckily the other families had gone on to the reception, so the only person left in the auditorium was Luke's father. He looked pretty ridiculous in the school, as he generally looked ridiculous anywhere but the bridge of a ship. His mask hid his face as always, but Luke was pretty sure even a non-Force-Sensitive could feel the sheer fury radiating from his father.

"Imagine my surprise when I come back from my mission early and find an invitation from your principle to a play about my life," Vader began his voice sounding even more intimidating than normal. "Are you attempting to get me to kill you because it certainly seems as if you are."

"The Kenobi line wasn't in the script I swear!" Luke cried out, looking even smaller than he was beneath his father's gaze. "He just figured it out! And I was going to ask you about the play but then you had gone on a mission and I had been suspended and it just slipped my mind and I figured you'd say yes anyways so... I didn't even want to do it but everyone was saying I had to because of some stupid tradition."

Vader raised his hand, and Luke thought for a second he was going to get Force choked. He realized, however, that his father was just trying to quiet him. Vader had not missed his son's fear, however, and attempted to keep his calm so not as to provoke Luke more. If there was one thing he'd learned in his years of parenting it was that Luke was never more irrational then when he was scared. "Please, enlighten me on what possessed you to think I would say yes to you dressing up as me for a stupid Empire Day play!"

"Because you love the Empire?"

Vader practically growled, and probably would have broken a finger from clenching it too hard if his fingers weren't all metal. "You knew I would not approve and so you did not tell me. Admit it."

"Fine! Fine! I knew you'd kill me if I told you but I didn't want to upset anyone at school by not doing it and I thought it would be fun. And it was fun! It was so much fun to be able to show everyone what I can do instead of everyone just assuming all I did was go around and kill people like you!"

It was Vader's breaking point, and for a fleeting second Luke couldn't breathe. He clawed at his throat desperately, and Vader released him, but the damage was already done. Luke ran away crying, and his father had just received confirmation that he was the most unfit father in the galaxy.