So, I apologize for not posting anything for however many weeks it has been. I've decided I've spent too much time fussing over this piece and just get it over with and post it lol. I'm doing that annoying author thing where I have been taking a break from "Personal Interests" but I'll eventually get back around to it.
A little background - Instead of being raised by his Aunt and Uncle on Tatooine, Luke was raised on Naboo. At fourteen, he ran away and started to explore the galaxy and survive on own when Darth Vader catches an interest...
Thanks for reading! (And and of course, standard disclaimers, I don't own Star Wars or the characters, nor do I make money from it).
"You have a good ship."
Luke froze at the mechanical voice, finger freezing over the button that would raise the docking ramp. Apparently, he was off his guard today. Quickly raising the hood on his cape, he turned to face a towering man draped in black, a cape down to the ground swirling behind him as he walked aboard Luke's ship as if he owned the place.
Luke gulped. "Off his guard" did not cover this situation.
"Lord Vader, what a...surprise."
"Is it really a surprise? I thought I announced myself quite well. You are a hard man to track down, Shadow."
Darth Vader was now wandering his ship slowly, each step precise and thought out, as if taking it all in individually.
Luke watched on warily. It was strange that the dark lord was able to continuously find him by his alias "Shadow" - the infamous and elusive thief with ties known to neither the Empire or the Rebellion. So far, no one else had ever been able to find him. It was very much so a lifestyle where the key to survival was being the hunter and not the hunted.
"By coming aboard unannounced?"
Sometimes, Luke realized with a flinch, he spoke without thinking. While Vader did not seem to mind the rather flippant remark, it was not a boundary that Luke wanted to continue to test.
Pausing in his wanderings, the dark mask turned its gaze (or at least, "gaze" is what Luke assumed it was, if Darth Vader was truly a man under all that armor) towards him. "If you paid closer attention, no one could ever enter anywhere unannounced to you. If you were trained, you would have known I was coming."
Refraining from rolling his eyes (a gesture Luke was quite certain would get him killed), Luke merely smiled politely. "I think I'm good. I am very happy with where I am currently at."
"Do not think of it as a suggestion, boy," there was an edge to the lord's voice now, tinted with darkness that chilled Luke to the center of his heart.
It was an argument they seemed to have regularly – Vader would drone on for several minutes about this "Force" thing Luke was missing out on, Luke would smile politely and decline an invitation to learn more, and Vader would leave in a rather huffy mood. Every time Luke declined, the more sour a mood Vader would leave in.
Sources (or perhaps more so just his own common sense) told him that eventually, Vader would tire of offers and force the choice upon him. How one avoids a dark lord of the entire galaxy, however, Luke had yet to ascertain. Clearly, since the problem was currently staring (once again, if Vader had eyes instead of scanners) right at him.
"I do have eyes, child. Do not wonder so loudly," but Vader sounded neither insulted nor concerned with Luke's thought.
Eyes wide, Luke stepped away, the back of his legs hitting the the pilot's chair. No matter how many conversations they had revealing Vader's ability to discern one's thoughts, it remained unnerving to Luke that not even the privacy of his mind was safe.
Without even turning towards Luke, Vader chuckled. "Another skill I can teach you – shielding your mind so others cannot read your thoughts."
"How can I help you today, my Lord?" Luke tried, deflecting the offer, hoping above all hopes that it was possible Vader was only visiting because he required some sort of service. What a seventeen year old teenager could possibly do for a dark lord of the Sith, Luke was unsure, but if he wanted to keep his head on top of his shoulders, he would figure it out.
"I have been looking for someone for quite some time – I have been told by my...resources, that you might have some valuable insight," Vader's voice unnerved Luke despite the steadiness and calmness exuding from Vader's domain.
"I might have come across them in my travels. Do you have a name?" Luke put an easy grin on his face, but internally his stomach roiled.
"I am looking for a child, seventeen years of age. He is quick witted and remains in no place long, usually just long enough to cause a hint of trouble."
Humming, Luke pulled open his log books on his ship computer. Long ago he had learned to write down any unique individuals he had stumbled across – one never knew when an ally could be useful later.
Vader paused by the only picture Luke had hung in his ship. "She is lovely."
Freezing, Luke's heart stuttered as he turned to the picture the dark lord was admiring. Heart dropping, he would have cursed would it not have given everything away. It was his Aunt's last piece of advice to him: do not show that picture to anyone. Of course, it wasn't like he regularly invited anyone onto his ship. "Yes...my Aunt gave it to me."
It was a picture of his Aunt and his mother when they were both still children, right before his mother had been voted Queen of Naboo.
While Luke had never been able to discover any history of Darth Vader from before the Empire's existence, he was certain Vader was around for far longer than anyone could imagine. It was possible he would recognize his mother as Senator Padme Amidala, and if he could recognize her, it was possible he would remember the rumors of who she had married.
"Lovely indeed."
It was impossible with the mechanical voice at that moment to discern any sort of emotion, Luke for once reaching out to brush against the presence that surrounded him constantly. Instantly he pulled away from it, recoiling from the bitter sorrow that flooded his senses at the slight touch.
Curious eyes fell upon the dark figure. Why is it that his mother would make Darth Vader...sad?
"Um...anything else about who you are looking for?"
"Yes. He was taken as a babe and hidden away from his true family on the planet of Naboo...or thereabouts."
Luke's fingers were no longer typing. Vader continued. "Extremely strong in the Force...or at least, the potential to be with guidance. However, he continues to exert resistance towards being easily found."
The computer was entirely ignored, Luke turning to stare at Vader openly. The dark figure was now towering before him, arms crossed.
"What are you playing at?" Luke finally demanded.
"Playing at? I am playing at nothing. I am merely providing you with what you need to know. Unless you think you know enough now to find who I seek."
"What else do you know?" the Japor ivory wood snippet around his neck felt like it was burning into his chest, the last link to his mother he had. Perhaps if he pretended he did not know who Vader was looking for, the Sith would leave him alone...or at least, alive.
"The last bits of information I know are he has been on the run since fourteen, and his mother is Padme Amidala-Skywalker."
Fingers twitching, Luke hoped he was discretely moving his right hand towards his hip.
"What do you want with...him?" Standing, he began to move slowly towards the right, Vader remaining still.
Chuckling, Vader shook his head. "Only to reunite a son with his father, where he belongs."
The lightsaber Luke had been holding tightly gripped dropped to the floor with a clatter, Luke growing pale.
"Son?"
Darth Vader did not answer immediately, instead focusing on the blade now on the ground. Luke stumbled back a step when it floated through the air to Vader's hand, the blue blade lighting with a hiss.
"Where did you get this?" For once, there was a harshness behind the words, a darkness swirling around them as if the very air was growing thick with hatred.
Gulping, he steeled himself, getting to his feet. Moving himself within reach of the blade, he held his head high and met Vader's gaze. "It was my Father's blade. An old man who knew him gave it to me before he passed."
The room seemed to freeze in place. The blue blade wavered until Vader shut it off, holding it loosely in his hand. Stalking forward like a panther out of patience ready to pounce, Luke held his breath as a large, black gloved hand roughly grabbed his chin, turning it up further and pushing down the hood to expose his blond locks and blue eyes.
"It seems I am in your debt after all, child."
"W-why? I haven't found who you're looking for."
"Oh, child, it appears you have."
"What? How? Who?"
Darth Vader stared down at him, remaining ominously silent. Luke's eyes went wide as he read between the lines.
"M-me? But..."
Vader moved to look out the view port of the ship, as if admiring the view (if one could find anything to admire in a dirty ship port). "I've had my suspicions – a lightsaber wielding youth with powerful force potential? It was almost painfully obvious. Senator Amidala was your mother, wasn't she?"
Remaining silent would do him nothing. "She was. And my father was the Jedi Knight, Anakin Skywalker."
For an instant, an intense rage filled the cockpit, a feeling of drowning out of water mixed with burning in the sands of a desert. Vader had not moved a muscle, but his cape rippled at the bottom as if in it's own miniature windstorm. "What is your name?"
"My name?" Luke responded dumbly.
"Everyone refers to you as Shadow, but that cannot possibly be the name Padme Amidala bestowed upon you. What is it?" There was a patience in his words that Luke knew was a blessing not offered to everyone facing his wrath.
"Luke. She named me Luke."
"Luke," Vader echoed it, still not turning from the window. For a minute, all that could be heard was the steady rhythm of Vader's respirator.
Clearing his throat, Luke continued even though Vader made no recognition of him. "My Lord...why were you looking for me? Is Anakin Skywalker alive?"
Immediately at the mention of his father, a wind ripped through the cabin, Luke flattening against the walls. Darth Vader turned inch by inch until he was facing the boy. "That weak fool is dead and will remain dead. No, I was not seeking to reunite you with Anakin Skywalker." The name came out a sneer.
It was not fear that kept Luke from speaking, but a feeling that Vader was going to continue anyway. The feeling proved right as Vader spoke next.
"No. I am your father."
Luke couldn't help but press back against the wall despite the disappearance of the wind, trying to escape the dark tendrils that appeared at that moment. The tangling tentacles surrounded him in a cocoon of suffocation, entirely possessive. The presence surrounding him screamed in warning, but more importantly, it screamed in truth. Eyes growing wide, Luke realized with trembling apprehension that he wouldn't be escaping the dark lord or the Empire today.
Once again, thanks for reading! I always appreciate constructive criticism :) Have a great day! (Or night, evening, afternoon, etc)