He hadn't expected this detour to turn out quite as troublesome as it was panning out to be. Their prisoner was dead and if it had been Kallus or a third party, he didn't know. Best they could tell there were factions of the Rebellion. Some large, some small sects that banded together to push back against the Empire. Against Palpatine. While Luke had a hard time picturing someone like Organa giving an order to permanently silence an asset, that didn't mean someone else wasn't ready and willing to do what was necessary to protect their fledgling rebellion.

The same rebellion Luke was trying to make use of to destroy Palpatine's new war machine. If he was found to be at the center of two Rebel deaths and the stunting of intel, it wouldn't help his case. No… this detour had become much more complicated than he'd anticipated.

Three flights up. Far end. Locals scattered as Luke burst into the building, still brandishing his crimson lightsaber. He had no interest being caught unaware by the sniper.

He took the steps three at a time, the Force steadying his feet and giving him the added balance coupled with speed. The hard sole of his boot ground at the permacrete as he pivoted around to take the final flight and he reached ahead. Foresight wasn't a gift he could use on demand, but he could certainly get an idea of what he was rushing into.

And what was around him.

The sniper above. Mara below, but moving towards him as best she could amongst fleeing locals. And, not unexpectedly, the Executor barrelling through the hyperspace lane after them. That wasn't going to be a pleasant conversation.

The door had already been forced open - even if pushed shut again behind the sniper - and Luke focused, finding a steady and determined presence on the other side, but it didn't feel like Kallus. One of his people from the Rebellion then. Either way, he had to work fast to find a way to find a balance that wouldn't tip his hand to the Empire, but also wouldn't put him at odds with his begrudging would-be allies. He pulled in a deep breath, lowered but didn't extinguish his lightsaber, and used his left hand to direct the Force against the door, opening it the rest of the way.

The room appeared empty. A few scattered furnishings and a window that was sealed shut. He'd felt the presence though. He could still feel him. Blue eyes slipped closer and he pulled in a breath, letting the Force guide him rather than directing it and he found his gaze focused when he opened his eyes again. There. A panel in the wall that had been quickly put back into place. A secret path.

Luke moved quickly, finally shutting his lightsaber off and slipping the panel back to reveal a small passageway that required him to hunch to move through it. The panel slipped back snugly with his help and he inched forward, acutely aware of his feelings and what lay beyond.

There was a flicker just beyond the panel on the other end as it slammed open, a blaster instantly visible. The shot went off and Luke reached up, the bolt freezing in the air between him and his attacker. The dark haired man stared, surprise etched into every line on his face, with the red glowing beam hanging inches in front of Luke.

Luke's fingers twitched, giving direction, and the bolt crashed through the ceiling of the passageway. He moved quickly, pulling the sniper's blaster from his grasp and sending the weapon skidding to the side, holding the older man frozen where he was so that he couldn't access the rifle slung over his shoulder. "Who do you answer to?"

The other man's dark eyes narrowed, a forced mask of calm falling into place. "You might as well kill me," the Rebel said, his accent one that Luke couldn't readily place. "I'm not going to tell you anything."

No, he wouldn't. That was fine. Luke didn't really need him to. He just needed to listen. To feel. The Force would tell him what he needed to know.

"Do you know who I am?"

The Rebel's stony expression hardened a little more and Luke's lips twitched up.

"Good. You can tell them then."

"Tell them what?"

"That the Emperor's new weapon will be powered by Kyber Crystals." Luke ignored the shocked expression and reached forward pulling a data cylinder from the Rebel's pocket. It hung in the air, his open and consistent use of the Force leaving the other man with no question with whom he was dealing with. The disk began to fold in on itself, crumbling and sparking until it was useless, the intel in it lost. "I can't let you keep this and leave here. I'm assuming you have some sort of failsafe for this room?"

"Why would you let me go? You're —"

"I won't if the red headed woman makes her way up here before you get away."

There was a flash of hesitation - perhaps trying to figure out exactly what Luke's angle was - before he nodded towards the wall. "It's set to blow."

"You were going to take us all out, huh?" The barest of nod could be seen and Luke released his hold on the Rebel. "Then I'd go if I were you."

He didn't hesitate this time and jumped for the window, the glass shattering around him. Luke didn't bother to see how he planned to find his way three stories below as every alarm went off in his mind. The failsafe countdown was nearing dangerous levels. He heard Mara call his name through the Force and he gave her only one instruction in return: run.

And he took his own advice, tossing the destroyed disk further into the room to let the fire melt away the evidence before he ripped the passage open again and darted through. He hit the other side as the alarm screamed, the explosion rocking the whole building, and Luke swung around, both hands outstretched as if to catch the plume of fire raging towards him. And he did. For just a moment, much like the blaster bolt, the explosion held where it was as if it were frozen in time. It pushed, though, and Luke felt his muscles ache just to hold it. The energy could be contained forever.

Luke shifted hard, bracing himself even as the flames were redirected to the outer wall, ripping at the structure and taking out everything in its path. There was enough left over to pick the young Imperial fully off his feet and throw him against the interior wall. It didn't give, and as unconsciousness swallowed him up, Luke hated to think that this was how his only personal grab for freedom might end.

—-

The Executor was one of the fastest ships in the galaxy. Vader had seen to that. While he no longer personally tinkered with his own crafts, he provided instructions on every detail of the Star Destroyer. So detailed that his lead engineer traveled with the Sith Lord and his 501st in order to take care of any needed repairs or upgrades along the way. He hadn't intended for it to be that way, but after moving through a number of incompetent engineers, he'd finally had to settle on a man who had overseen the main repairs on the Resolute during the Clone Wars. Vader had no interest in positioning anyone that had known Anakin Skywalker so close to him, much less on such a consistent basis, but Dash Hennis was a rare talent.

A rare talent that had been capable of upgrading the hyperdrive engines to the specifications that was allowing the Executor to gain on the Aeres in record time. Perhaps even close enough on the smaller Destroyer's tail that Jade would not be able to steal the intelligence out from under him. Good. Dash Hennis would live to see another rotation.

Vader pushed a breath out at the thought, opening himself up to touch lightly on the bond he shared with his son to see if they should push the drives a little harder. If he hadn't been actively reaching out, it might not have hit him quite as hard. As it was, in that moment, he might as well have been burning himself.

There was a white-hot flash, flames licking at exposed skin, and a flash of frustration mixed with pain.

Then nothing. Silence. Weighty, suffocating silence, and even though his suite forced air in and out of his damaged lungs, he couldn't breathe.

"My Lord?" Admiral Ozzel's tentative voice cut through the raging quiet, ripping Darth Vader out of the vision to find himself knelt on the bridge, his son's pain driving him to his knees in front of an entire crew desperate to pretend that they hadn't noticed. An entire crew save one perpetually stupid admiral.

Vader dragged himself back to his feet as a sputtering Ozzel fell to the floor. He wanted to gawk? Fine. Let him suffer what the Dark Lord had felt and see if he could survive the weight of it. Unlikely.

Once the older man had stilled from where he'd been writhing, Vader turned to the newest captain aboard the Executor. "Admiral Piett," Vader boomed and watched as it dawned on Piett that he'd found himself promoted.

"My lord?" came the trembling reply.

"How far are we?"

"Half an hour till we drop from light speed, my lord."

"Push the engines. Speak to Hennis if you must. We will arrive in a fraction of that time."

Then he turned to stalk off the bridge. No excuse followed him. Piett wouldn't dare.

—

He was floating. Drifting. It was strangely peaceful, even if there was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that it shouldn't be. He just couldn't remember why or even how he'd gotten to wherever he was. There was just.. the same nothingness that stretched out like water around him. But he couldn't swim.

Luke jolted up and his feet touched something that felt solid beneath them, some of the inkyness giving way to dots of light that might have been distant stars. Behind him was a flicker and he turned, the presence strangely familiar, but all he saw was the hem of a robe as its owner moved away from him. For just a moment, Luke thought he might have been back on the planet from years before where he'd seen his father and Tano and….

He knew that presence.

"Kenobi?" Luke's voice echoed, bouncing off the nothingness and beyond. When no answer came, he took a tentative step forward, finding the flooring - or lack there of - seemingly solid beneath his boots, and tried a different approach. "Uncle Ben?"

There was a stirring around him. A whisper he couldn't quite catch, but he was certain it was coming from just beyond. He took off towards it, the first two or three steps the same as the last, until he felt himself pitch forward and back into darkness.

—

The explosion shook the entire building, the throngs of people trying to escape what they must have assumed was an inevitable end to an Imperial raid screaming and crying as dustings from the ceiling crumbled around them. They slammed into her, jolting and tossing her smaller frame around in the mayhem fueled by fear, and her green gaze flickered up just in time to see the crack forming in the plaster above. It was coming down. Strange that it hadn't simply broken the building in half. They must have had Luke to thank for that.

Mara's hand shot up on instinct as a loud CRACK broke through the panicked screams. The Force obeyed her command, the dangerously large chunk of the ceiling held suspended over them as the last of the fleeing crowds shoved their way out of the single entrance and exit. Once clear, she let it fall, the dust kicking up around her and choking her. She didn't have time to waste though. Luke hadn't been in the midst of the fleeing crowd.

She'd only been a floor below the room when Luke's demand of run had slammed into her mind and it didn't take her long to race up the mostly-intact stairs now that they were empty. There was a large chunk of the far wall that had been blown to pieces from the bomb and Mara stumbled over debris to get a look. Nothing had survived. Even the floor below was a wreck and the outer wall was decimated. If Kallus had been in there, there was nothing left. If Luke….

The jolt of fear threatened to overwhelm her and she took a breath. No. She was pretty sure she'd know if he was dead. Wouldn't she? She pulled in a breath and focused. There. Faint and muted, but she felt him.

Mara followed that feeling to the door that must have led into the apartment before it had been blown to pieces. The front end wasn't in much better shape. The sliding door panels crackled and sparked, hanging at an awkward angle that forced her to pry them open. The outside wall was gone in this room too, as was part of the ceiling. It left pipes and wires and other materials used to put the building together hanging at a precarious angle. Pieces of furniture were splintered and scattered, and slouched against one of only two intact walls was a familiar form. He was covered in dust and soot and far, far to still.

She could feel the heat under her boots as she picked her way over to him, taking a knee and focusing on her training to keep the useless fear at bay. First was a pulse. He had one. Good. Next were injuries. First glance showed a deep gash over his right brow, blood mixing with grime down the side of his face. Her hands traveled, searching by physical touch mixed with Force-enhanced exploration. His tunic was ripped in several places, and a careful tug of the fabric revealed debris-turned-projectiles had caused what she hoped was superficial damage. Nothing seemed lodged deeper than a night in a bacta tank couldn't fix. Then there was the way his left leg was bent. And his right hand, though the latter also showed significant burns. He had tried to stop it, but he must have known that energy couldn't be indefinitely contained. No. He had redirected it.

A soft moan caught her attention and she saw a pair of sky-blue eyes slide sluggishly open, the right squinting against the blood caked to the side of his face. "Mara?"

"Hey, flyboy," she greeted softly. "Find some trouble?"

"Usually," he croaked, shifting as if he were testing out what would move and what wouldn't. Or shouldn't, but the immediate look of regret that flashed across his face. He groaned and seemed to decide to stay where he was.

That wasn't going to work. "We need to get out of this place. I don't think the structure was great to begin with, but there are deep cracks all along the ground floor's ceiling. If it collapses, it could all go from there."

He frowned at what Mara would have argued was sound logic, but she hadn't just gotten blown up either. She gave him another half a moment to prepare before bending down, wrapping his left arm around her shoulders and instructing him to lean. For once, he listened, and they started their slow hobble around debris and out the door. He was quiet, and she tried to be as subtle as possible when she gently probed to find out if it was injury-induced or not.

"I'm okay," he huffed as they turned to start very slowly down the damaged stairs.

"Then we need to look at your definition of that word."

A small snort of laughter escaped him and Mara's lips twitched up. He stumbled and they stopped, both adjusting their grips before they started again. "I just mean that I will be," he corrected the earlier statement, though his voice was softer now and a little more strained.

"You do have full medical on the Aeres, don't you?"

"Yes, but it can wait."

"For what exactly?"

"Won't you want to see if there's anything left?"

She quirked an eyebrow at him. "There's not a floor left. If Kallus was standing there, there's nothing left."

They hit the landing between the second and third floors and Mara spotted the cracks in the floor that reached all the way through to what became the ceiling below. The pressure from the explosion might not have taken out large chunks of this part of the building, but it had done damage that could become very dangerous very quickly. Especially with only one good leg that Luke could put weight on at the moment.

"It wasn't Kallus." There was something strange in his words, almost like he wasn't sure of them, but as he coughed Mara brushed it off.

"Anyone we have in our sights?"

"No. I didn't recognise him. My guess is I'll have a day or two I can look through the database. See if I can put a name to the face."

"You're going to have more than a day or two if you actually listen to the medics," Mara groused and they hit the bottom level. He tensed. "What?"

His eyes were closed and he breathed out, "My father is here."

"On planet?"

"Just came of hyperspace."

She nodded, even if his eyes were still closed. "How angry is he?"

"Not thrilled, but he seems more focused on me." Those blue eyes slid back open and turned to focus on Mara. "I'll protect you."

"You're not a tool in my weapons depot," Mara reminded him softly and pulled a strained smile from him.

"I'll protect you, just like I'll protect him. From each other…. From everything. Even from the Emperor himself." He sagged a little bit and Mara frowned, letting the last statement go.

"Let's get you to medical."

He gave the smallest sound of acknowledgement and Mara reached to the Force to help support him as they made their way back towards the hangars, chaos in their wake.

—

He was in and out from the moment he woke up in the crumbling building through his and Mara's trek back to the Aeres. His father arrived. Like had felt it, but his father had gone to the planet's surface before he came up to the Aeres. Good thing too. Luke had had to drag himself out of bed - fighting the medication struggling to sedate him the whole way - to make good on his promise to Mara. Father hadn't laid a hand on her or even moved so that he didn't have to, but he was on a dangerous edge. Just not so far that he was more focused on Mara's supposed betrayal than his bruised and bandaged son fresh out of the bacta tank and leaning heavily on the doorframe leading back to the med bay. So Mara had relented - something that seemed to take a good bit of her will to do - and the medical bay cleared as Darth Vader led an exhausted Natus back to his bed.

"It's not her fault," Luke murmured as he settled back.

He could practically feel his father's disagreeable look through the opaque mask. He caught a glimmer of confirmation as light shifted and gave him a glance through the lenses. "You were there as a shield against me."

"She called before you showed up."

"You trust her too quickly."

Luke forced his eyes open from where they were growing heavy and he looked to his father. "I do trust her. I understand why you don't, but we have different experiences with her. Different ties. I'm not asking you to trust her yourself, but to trust me."

There was a long moment and Luke could feel his father weighing something. "Tell me what you saw."

Good. He was dropping it. At least for now. "We had the traitor Los with us. A sniper took him out and went for the intel. I chased him upstairs, Mara got delayed by the crowds, and I found him. It wasn't Kallus. Some dark haired man with an accent I didn't recognise. The bomb went off and I was thrown. From what I saw of the destruction, no one could have survived that direct blast. It would have incinerated him."

"You were fortunate," Father murmured, old memories tugging at him. Luke didn't know the whole story, just that Kenobi - Uncle Ben - had nearly burned him alive. Funny. He thought he'd heard his voice, though he couldn't recall where now.

Suddenly a piece of bent metal was cradled in a black glove in front of his face. "Do you know what this is?"

Luke didn't try to taper his surprise. Father would pick up on that. "A data disk. How did it survive?"

"Reinforced materials," his father answered. The bend is not from the explosion."

"How can you be sure?"

He held it closer for examination. "No fire or human hand did this."

For a moment, Luke could have sworn he was being accused of it, but then his father continued. "Jade did not wish for me to obtain this information."

And there it was. The hyper fixation. "Mara didn't come upstairs until after the blast. Look. There are scorch marks too."

There was a soft sound from his father's mask that few would have picked up on. "Then there are few options left."

"Which are?"

"That the Rebel is Force-sensitive."

Okay. There were worse directions he could go than that one. "Didn't do him much good if he was." Luke loosed a breath and reached out with his uninjured hand. He closed his father's fingers around the severely damaged data disk and let it linger there. The next words tumbled unbidden from his mouth. "Stay, Father, and I'll help you see if there's anything to recover tomorrow."

Death Vader tensed, but then seemed to remember that Luke had demanded even the droids to clear the area. He returned the disk to a fold in his suit and his gloves hand came to rest against the side of his son's face. Luke couldn't recall ever being wrapped up in an embrace by his father, but this was as close as the Sith Apprentice dared to come. As he slipped into sleep, Luke reached up, wrapping his fingers around mechanical ones and held on.

—-

Mara took a knee, waiting for the comm system to connect. There was a long, drawn out moment before her Master's image flickered into place. It was large, focused in on his sunken eyes shrouded by his dark cloak and he raised a bony finger as if he might stroke her cheek. "My child, what troubles you?"

She had known what she would say until the moment the comm connected, but now her throat ran dry. Her green gaze shifted up, looking into her Emperor's face. She owed him everything. Her life, her devotion. And she gave it with only one reservation. One she hadn't truly admitted until that day. I love you had wedged an opening that had made her uncomfortable, but only because she knew what came with that. Because she knew I'll protect you was right on its heels. Mara had thought she was ready, but she'd been wrong.

"I failed in my attempt to drive them apart today," she admitted a truth softly.

"And does one failure dictate your future success, child?"

I'll protect you. Even from the Emperor himself.

The truth was that he couldn't. Luke didn't know Palpatine like Mara did. No one did. Perhaps not even Vader. But she had his ear. His trust. Because of that, she decided what happened here. She decided if destroying the only other person he loved was truly protecting the man she didn't want to lose.

"No, my lord," she breathed, ducking her head a little lower.

She wasn't sure what success looked like, but there was no doubt that failure looked like, and she'd caught a glimpse of that when she'd seen Luke crumpled on the filthy floor that day, death surrounding him.

And she'd be damned if she let his death become a reality.

—-

Cassian Andor moved like a shadow through the Yavin base. He'd done his duty. The threat had been terminated and they were safe. For now. It wouldn't last long if the little Sith Apprentice had told him anything remotely true.

But what would have been the point of the lie? That's what he'd wrestled with the whole flight back. Confirmation of the new weapon they'd only heard whispers of and the power source behind it. It made no sense, but there was also no faking who he was. Darth Natus had made certain of that.

"Lord Natus," Kallus corrected in his upper level Coriscanti accent that made Andor want to twitch at times. He managed to keep a straight face as he stood in front of his fellow Fulcrum Agent, two generals, and three members of thecouncil. "No one refers to him by the same title as his father."

"Regardless," Andor grumbled, his dark gaze sweeping across the small cluster of Alliance members that were privy to the report.

Senator Mon Mothma sighed. "Were you able to recover the data disk?"

"No. He destroyed it."

"So it's a total loss, despite going out of our way to assassinate an asset," Kallus said pointedly, his gaze fixed accusingly on General Draven.

"Not entirely." All eyes returned to the dark haired Fulcrum Agent. "I caught a name. It might lead somewhere."

"And that was?" former Senator Organa prompted.

"Jyn Erso."

TBC

Notes: So... I swear I'm still alive. I'm so, so sorry that this chapter took this long, but it's here now and, honestly, I'm really happy with it. There are pieces of it that just flowed so insanely well when I picked it up after some time away. Like Vader's scene... previously he was just alone in his meditation chamber. Why do that when you can stick him in front of an entire audience for a situation like that? XD I'm also excited because a few added details are helping tie together pieces of the story that have been planned for ages, but I needed a good bridge to get to them. All in all, if you're having trouble writing, apparently the cure is time and Dave Filloni's amazing work.

Next Time: Luke and Leia go on a supposed recon mission to Jedha.