Vader's Revelation

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Luke made his way along the gantry above the reactor shaft. Hoping that Vader had presumed him dead, Luke was planning to try and find his friends now and rescue them from the Empire's clutches. Luke was just entering the control building when he suddenly felt a familiar dark presence and ignited his lightsabre. He was just in time, for Vader suddenly came out of nowhere and swung a lightsabre blow at him. Luke blocked it just in time and was forced back onto the gantry. Luke was beginning to feel tired now, while Vader seemed as fresh as ever and sent a serious of powerful lightsabre blows at Luke which the young Jedi was only just able to block. Vader continued to force Luke back until they reached an inspection platform at the end of the gantry. One blow caused Luke to lose his footing and he fell back onto the platform. "You are beaten. It is useless to resist." Vader told Luke, aiming his lightsabre at Luke's throat. "Don't let yourself be destroyed as Obi-Wan did."

Luke recovered and used his own lightsabre to swat Vader's away, then he leapt to his feet just in time to avoid a slashing blow from Vader. The Sith Lord made another swing at Luke, who dodged and Vader's blow hit the railing instead. Taking advantage of this, Luke lunged at Vader and his lightsabre caught the Sith Lord's shoulder armour. Vader gave a howl of pain and made an even more vicious swipes at Luke, who ducked and the strike hit a sensor probe instead, severing it. The two dualists' lightsabres made a few more clashes then Vader managed to get the upper hand, forcing Luke's lightsabre away from him and then making a fierce lunge, his lightsabre slicing through Luke's exposed wrist. Luke gave a scream of agony as Vader's lightsabre completely severed his right hand and both it and his father's lightsabre went tumbling down into the shaft. Luke fell to his knees, cradling the stump of where his right hand had once resided.

"There is no escape. Don't make me destroy you." Vader told Luke bluntly as he deactivated his lightsabre. Luke promptly backed along the narrow beam that led to a maintenance conduit. "Luke, you do not yet realise your importance. You have only begun to discover your power." Vader tried to tempt Luke. "Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy."

"I'll never join you!" Luke snarled defiantly, using the conduit to pull himself back to his feet.

"If you only knew the power of the Dark Side." Vader continued. "Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father."

"He told me enough." Luke retorted. "He told me you killed him."

"No... I am your father."

Luke suddenly felt his entire body go cold at these words. "No... no. That's not true. That's impossible!" he blustered, unable to believe it.

"Search your feelings. You know it to be true." Vader implored him

Luke did just that. He remembered during his childhood whether he asked Uncle Owen about his father, Owen would just change the subject. Then he remembered Obi-Wan telling him about his father and recalled that Obi-Wan had been silent for a moment before answering. At the time, Luke had just assumed that Obi-Wan had just been too deeply hurt by Anakin's death, but know he couldn't help but wonder if Obi-Wan had been thinking of a lie to tell him. Worse still, Luke could sense that Vader was telling the truth. "Nooooo! No! he screamed in anguish.

"Luke, you can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this." Vader continued to try and tempt Luke. "It is your destiny! Join me... and we can rule the galaxy as father and son." He held his hand out invitingly. Still reeling from the revelation, Luke looked around at his surroundings, trying to think of something. "Come with me." Vader invited. "It is the only way."

But Luke had made his decision. With a defiant look at Vader, he let go of the conduit and let himself fall down the shaft, choosing death over the Dark Side. As Luke plummeted, he suddenly felt himself caught by a strong current and was pulled into an exhaust pipe. He slid to a stop inside the pipe and picked himself up, but before he had a chance to regain his bearings, a hatch beneath him slid open and he found himself sliding down another pipe and with only one hand left, he was unable to stop himself. A hatch at the end of the pipe opened and Luke fell onto a weather vane at the very base of Cloud City, landing on one of the spines. He tried to climb back up, but between having only hand and the onset of exhaustion, he was too slow and the hatch shut before he could make it, leaving him trapped on the vane. "Ben... Ben, please." he pleaded to thin air, hoping that Obi-Wan's Force spirt would help him, but it was no use. He lost his grip and fell backwards, leaving him hanging upside down. He realised that his only hope was to try and use the Force to contact either his cousin or his friends. "Malia, Leia. Hear me." he murmured as he concentrated.

~8~

As the Millennium Falcon flew through Bespin's atmosphere, Chewbacca suddenly noticed Malia lean forward, rubbing her temples. He asked her if she was ok. "Yeah, fine. Just a headache." Malia told him, assuming it was simply a side-effect of her earlier experience with an interrogator droid. Then she noticed that Leia had zoned out. "Leia? What is it?" she asked

"Luke." Leia murmured to no one in particular, then suddenly snapped out of her trance. "We've got to go back." she told the others.

"What?!" Lando stared, looking at Leia as if she'd gone mad.

"I know where Luke is." Leia said

"What?! Where?" Malia asked urgently

"What about those fighters?" Lando argued, knowing that the Empire would be scrambling TIE Fighters to intercept them at any moment.

"I don't care. If Leia knows where Luke is, then we're going back." Malia told him firmly

"What about Vader?" Lando continued to protest.

Chewbacca roared at him, telling him that they were going back and that was it.

"Alright, alright." Lando conceded.

Malia and Chewbacca piloted the Falcon in an abrupt U-turn and the ship headed back towards Cloud City.

~8~

"Bring my shuttle." a seething Vader told his staff as he strode through the hallway towards a landing platform.

~8~

The Falcon approached Cloud City. "Look, someone's up there." Lando said, pointing to a figure hanging on to a weather vane beneath the city.

"It's Luke." Leia realised

"Right, Chewie, we'll get under him." Malia said. "We've gotta get him off there quick!"

"Lando, open the top hatch." Leia ordered, and Lando went off to do so.

"Ok, easy does it." Malia murmured as she and Chewbacca skilfully flew the Falcon underneath where Luke was hanging.

When the ship reached the right position, it assumed a hovering stance and a hatch on the top opened to reveal Lando on a lift platform. Luke then lost his grip on the vane and fell, Lando managing to catch him, then the platform took them both back into the ship.

"Well?" Malia said impatiently into the comlink

"Ok, let's go." Lando answered, and Malia and Chewbacca piloted the ship away from Cloud City. They were just in time, for a trio of TIE Fighters on an intercept course had entered sensor range.

Lando and Luke had soon reached the cockpit. Malia promptly rushed over to her injured cousin and hugged him tightly. "Oh, Luke. I'm so glad you're safe." she breathed, then she noticed the extent of Luke's injuries. "Luke, your hand!" she gasped in horror.

"Come on, let's get him to the med-bay." Leia said, and both women helped Luke to the passenger compartment.

Lando meanwhile took Malia's place in the pilot seat. "Alright, Chewie, let's go." he said as they piloted the ship away from Bespin.

~8~

Luke was soon lying in a bed in the passenger compartment while Malia and Leia tended to his injuries and told him of Han's fate. "Carbon freeze? What'll happen to him?" Luke asked weakly

"Apparently, he's in hibernation." Malia replied, tending to a bruise on Luke's face. "We tried to help him but we were too late." she sighed

"Lando's fixed it so we can find Boba Fett's ship." Leia added, wrapping the stump of where Luke's right hand had been in a tourniquet.

"Boba Fett?" Luke asked. "But who's..."

"A bounty hunter." Malia replied, "He followed us here and now he's taking Han to Jabba the Hutt."

"Oh, poor Han." Luke sighed, dreading to think of what Jabba would do to Han once he received his prize.

The ship rocked suddenly from a laser blast, meaning the TIEs had caught up with them. "I'll be back." Leia told Luke, and she hurried off back to the cockpit.

"You go with her." Luke told Malia. "I'll be fine."

"Alright. You just rest now, Luke." Malia told him, then she followed Leia.

"When the two women reached the cockpit, they saw that the Falcon was clear of Bespin and now back in space, but they weren't alone. "Star Destroyer." Leia said, seeing the Executor looming ahead.

Lando and Chewbacca promptly took evasive action, the TIEs pursuing them relentlessly. "Alright, Chewie. Ready for lightspeed." Lando said

"If your people fixed the hyperdrive." Leia said warily

"All the coordinates are set, it's now or never." Malia said, finishing punching in coordinates in the navicomputer.

"Punch it." Lando ordered. Chewbacca hit the switch. Yet again, there was a spluttering sound and the hyperdrive failed to engage. Three angry pairs of eyes fell on Lando as the ship was buffeted by more laser fire. "They told me they fixed it." Lando said meekly as he stood up to check the instruments. "I trusted 'em to fix it! It's not my fault!"

Chewbacca just shoved him out of the way as he went into the aft hold to look at the hyperdrive, while Malia took the Wookie's place in the co-pilot's seat.

~8~

Vader strode onto the Executor's bridge. "They'll be in range of our tractor beam in moments, my Lord." Admiral Piett reported

"Did your men deactivate the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon?" Vader asked him

"Yes, my Lord."

"Good. Prepare the boarding party and set your weapons for stun." Vader ordered

"Yes, my Lord." Piett nodded and turned to an officer standing next to him. "Lieutenant?"

"Yes, sir." the lieutenant nodded and went off to see to it, while Vader turned to look at the distant Falcon out the window.

~8~

Chewbacca fussed around the Falcon's aft compartment, busy trying to fix the errant hyperdrive. Artoo meanwhile was busy repairing Threepio. "Noisy brute." Threepio grumbled as Chewbacca banged around behind them. "Why don't we just go to lightspeed?"

Artoo beeped something to him

"We can't? How would YOU know the hyperdrive is deactivated?" Threepio asked disdainfully

Artoo beeped an answer.

"The city's central computer told you? R2-D2, you know better than to trust a strange computer." Threepio chided, then flinched as sparks flew from where Artoo was reattaching Threepio's left leg. "Ouch! Pay attention to what you're doing!"

~8~

Vader watched as the TIEs forced the Falcon closer to the Executor. "Luke." he murmured, reaching out with the Force.

~8~

"Father?" Luke breathed, sitting up in his bed.

"Son, come with me." Vader's voice said in his head

"Ben, why didn't you tell me?" Luke murmured as he got to his feet.

~8~

Malia and Leia did their best to keep the Falcon out of range of the TIEs' laser fire while Lando worked on the control panels. "Chewie!" he yelled into the radio, knowing that the women couldn't keep it up forever.

In an attempt to buy them some more time, Malia piloted the Falcon close to the Executor, hoping to starve off the tractor beam just long enough for Chewbacca to finish repairing the hyperdrive. Suddenly, she saw Luke enter the cockpit. "Luke, you need to rest." she told him.

"It's Vader." Luke told her and sat down in one of the seats.

~8~

"Luke..." Vader said, reaching out through the Force again, "it is your destiny."

~8~

Luke closed his eyes, concentrating on trying to form a mental barrier in his mind. "Ben... why didn't you tell me?" he whispered

Malia overhead him and looked at him in confusion, wandering what he hadn't been told. Then she turned her attention back to the problem in hand. "We're nearly in range of the tractor beam." she warned. "We're outta time."

~8~

"Alert all commands. Ready for the tractor beam." Piett ordered the Executor's crew.

~8~

Artoo abandoned his repairs to Threepio and trundled over to the Falcon's engineering station. "Artoo, come back at once! You haven't finished with ME yet!" Threepio complained, holding up his right leg. "You don't know how to fix the hyperdrive. Chewbacca can do it. I'm standing here in pieces and you're having delusions of grandeur!"

Artoo ignored him and plugged his datalink into the engineering station then he reactivated the hyperdrive.

~8~

Luke, Malia, Leia and Lando were suddenly thrown back in their seats as the Falcon's hyperdrive finally whirred into life and the ship sped off into hyperspace, safely out of the Empire's clutches. "About damn time!" Malia laughed in relief.

~8~

Piett watched anxiously as Vader looked out of the window at the empty space where the Falcon had just been. Any moment, he expected the Sith Lord to turn round and unleash his wraith on him for his failure to capture the ship. Instead, Vader just turned on his heel and left the bridge, too wrapped up in his own thoughts to bother with punishing anyone.

Author's notes: And so we have the epic reveal of Vader's secret. Ah, I can only imagine how audiences reacted to that moment during Empire Strikes Back's cinematic premiere in 1980! Back then there was no internet and George Lucas kept it secret to only a handful of people, so it must've been earthshattering to audiences! Something to note, Malia demonstrates some slight Force sensitivity in this chapter. As I mentioned back in A New Hope, I don't plan on having Malia become a Jedi, but I think it won't hurt to give her a little bit of Force sensitivity. Hope I managed to do the duel between Luke and Vader justice. With this chapter complete, we're nearly at the end of this story, just one more chapter to go. So, hope you like this chapter and hope to see you all next time for the finale!