Vader had a wonderful time with his son, teaching everything he could think of, his son's questions allowing him to fill in the gaps, but he was finally called away to fight for the Empire. He reluctantly left his son with the Emperor once more. Upon returning, he was desperate to see his son again.

"Master, where's my son?" he asked, as soon as they had finished debriefing.

"I'm not certain that you were successful enough," Palpatine answered.

Vader felt himself begin to shake with anger, "It was practically a suicide mission! It's a miracle I was able to bring back as many soldiers as I did!"

Palpatine looked at him doubtfully.

"Just tell me where my son is!" Vader snarled.

"He's in school, of course," Palpatine said disdainfully.

"Thank you," Vader said icily, turning to leave.

He forced himself to calm down on the walk to the school, not wanting his son to see that side of him. Heavens knew they didn't get enough time together as it was. There was no point in making it worse for the boy, giving time to anger instead of bonding.

When he reached the school, the playground was empty, but he could hear something that sounded like crying.

"Hello? Is anyone here?"

No response came, but the sobs continued.

"Hello?" perhaps they just hadn't heard the first time.

Still no answer, and Vader decided to pass through the playground and find his son, but the mournful crying made him stop in his tracks. No child should be hurt badly enough to feel the need to cry like that, and besides, it sounded almost like…

"Luke?"

No one answered, and Vader reached into the Force for his son's beacon. It pulsed back at him reassuringly, but not as strongly as usual, and with a deep blue shade to the edges of it.

Vader followed the sad pulsing to a large bush, which seemed solid until he brushed aside a few leaves. There, sitting in the darkness underneath, crying, sat his only son.

"Luke? What's wrong?"

Luke didn't seem to hear him, only curling tighter and continuing to cry.

Vader pushed his way into the bush, sitting down next to his boy and putting an arm around him, "Luke? Are you all right?"

Luke finally seemed to acknowledge his father's presence, his eyes focusing on the older man's knee, which rested against his own.

"Dad."

"So," Vader tried to joke, "I've been away for a while, and we've got a lot to catch up on. Can we start with why you're crying under a bush when you're probably supposed to be in class?"

"They said you weren't coming back," Luke divulged, "They said that you'd just dropped by so you wouldn't have to feel guilty forever, and that now you'd left me, and you weren't coming back. They said you never wanted a son, and Palpatine was stupid to have kept me as bait, because you wouldn't care if I died."

Vader fought to bite back the instinctive fury he felt at those words, "Who told you that?"

"My classmates. They said that I shouldn't stay with Palpatine. They said I should run away and try to find a life someplace else. They said… they said I should never have stayed in the first place, that all I've ever done is avoid finding anyone who really cares about me."

"I really care about you, Luke."

"I know you do, and I tried to tell them that, but now they're denying that you even exist."

"You know I exist."

Luke looked very sad, "It's just been so long since I last saw you… I almost started to believe it was just a nice dream."

"Well I'm glad you would consider it a nice dream, but I really am here for you. I'm sorry I haven't been able to make it back in a few months, it's just been disaster after disaster."

"I know. And I watch the news and try to tell myself that's why I haven't been able to go home, but that only makes it worse, because the news never says anything about you, and I'm not sure it would even if you were killed."

"I suppose it probably wouldn't, but Palpatine would tell you."

"Why?" Luke howled, "Just out of the goodness of his heart?"

"No," Vader said, lowering his voice, realizing how cruel his train of thought had been, "To kick you out. He wouldn't go on paying for your life if there was no use for you. Well, I suppose he might try to return your Force sensitivity to you and train you."

"Oh, of course."

"I'm sorry, that was insensitive. I just wanted to tell you that you would know."

"Dad, what would happen if something happened to you? Palpatine certainly wouldn't just harbour me for no reason. You're my galaxy, what would happen?"

It's like before, with Padmé, but she could at least care for herself. Luke is truly dependant. And… I don't know how to answer his questions. I don't know what he should do if I die. I don't know where he would be safe. Since the Purges… I don't have any friends I could safely leave him with. I should never have killed Obi-Wan. I should have kept him prisoner, but available if worse came to worst.

"I don't know. We'll work on that, all right? I hope we can avoid any major emergencies, so I can stay with you longer this time."

Luke nodded, "I'd like that."

"Now, first things first, I think we have some classmates who are even less sensitive than I am to deal with."

Luke grinned up at Anakin, "Yeah, I guess we do."