Luke had played the scenario over and over again in his mind on the flight to Alderaan, all the while hoping to spark some kind of glimpse into the future. He had imagined what he had thought was every different angle this conversation could play out. Best case - far fetched as it was - Organa would accept the intel and the two of them would settle on the terms of the arrangement. The absolute worst case - equally as far fetched, he thought - was that the Senator would turn him over to Palpatine for treason. There was a whole range of possibilities between those two, but in every scenario he'd assumed Organa would say something. This utter silence was deafening. And nerve wracking. It was grating on already dangerously frayed nerves.

He pushed a quick breath out through his nose. "Did you hear when I said this is time sensitive?"

"Does he know?"

Luke set his jaw, willing the calm into his voice. "You're going to have to be more specific."

"Your father. About my daughter."

"You're focusing on the wrong thing. Palpatine has —"

"Does your father know about my daughter?" Bail Organa ground out as he stood, using his desk to leverage himself. "If you've put her in danger…"

"He wouldn't hurt her."

It was Organa's turn to give a dismissive snort, but he looked to swallow the immediate response before it tumbled into the open where it couldn't be taken back. He still stood stiffly, leaning slightly on the massive desk between them, and his dark gaze bore into Luke. "You may believe that, but nothing else - no matter what it is - will be discussed until you answer my question."

Luke pulled in a breath. This was a waste of time, but he didn't have a choice. Organa was balanced perfectly in a place of access and - at least as far as his mother had believed - trustworthiness. Without him, Luke had no way to reach anyone that could help him destroy the monstrosity Sidious was building. Everything had a cost, and as absurd and petty as Organa's fear was, the truth seemed to be the price of being heard out on this.

Slowly, Luke released the breath. "It's not my secret to tell, and there's no reason for him to think I'm anything but an only child."

Organa's tense stance eased ever so slightly. "You knew."

The younger man shrugged. "I felt it when I met her, but it was just a hunch. I didn't know for sure until I saw this." He reached into his robes and pulled the disk he'd taken to carrying around with him. Organa's eyes widened as Padmé Amadala's smiling face appeared. "No one but me knows why I went looking. I won't be the one to tell anybody."

"Not even Leia?"

Luke flicked his thumb across the switch, the image disappearing. "It's not my secret to tell," he repeated carefully. Though he imagined Leia would find out someday. The Force was strong with her. It would lead her where she needed to go.

A long moment passed before Organa finally nodded, accepting the statement as truth.

"I'm coming here as much for her as I am for us," Luke said firmly, trying to steer the conversation back on topic. "The ISB has never been able to prove that your diplomatic missions are a cover to provide aid to the Rebellion and your seat in the Senate has protected you, but if the Death Star is completed, there'll be no need for the Senate. Palpatine will rule by pure, brutal force."

"Something that destructive, how could it even be powered?"

"Kyber crystals. The same that power a lightsaber. Just…. Bigger, I imagine. I've gotten ahold of the director of the project and he thinks Palpatine sent me to confirm everything is on schedule. I gave him two standard weeks to prove to me he's even capable of scaling the power source."

The colour washed out of Organa's face. "You're going to destroy a planet?"

"No. That'd bring all eyes on it. It'll be subtle. But my point is I have his ear and he's desperate to prove himself. I can get you information on it."

"And what do you expect me to do with that?"

"Don't play games. The ISB can't prove it, but we all know you have links to the Rebellion. They have firepower. Maybe not enough to overthrow the Empire, but if I can find a weakness in the design —"

"And what do you want in return?"

And this is where things got tricky. It was the only way he survived this. That his father survived. The problem was that voicing it in any other way than a vague dream to Mara left him terrified. This was treason. Active, intentional treason.

"A way out. For me, for my father, and a… friend, if she'll come. We'd all be able to bring in more intelligence than a hundred of your Fulcrum agents could ever dream of."

Organa's brows drew together, his tone skeptical as he spoke. "And your father wants this?"

"Father knows the two of us don't survive if Palpatine does. He's always known that. This may not be… how he planned to deal with it, but we have to do something. If he has to choose - really has to choose - he'll choose me."

A sigh escaped the older man and he shook his head. "Natus —"

"Luke," he corrected, "but you already knew that."

"It's the name your mother gave you."

"I'll handle Father and get you the intel. I need your word that when this comes out - because Sidious sees everything eventually - we have a place to go."

"I can't unilaterally make that decision," Organa said softly.

Luke stood in the room, his sister's adopted father refusing to meet his eyes now. He felt exposed, even more than he had been before, but as he searched for the right path forward, dark eyes met his. "But I've been told I'm very persuasive. Get the intel, Luke, and I give you my word that you won't be standing alone in this. I'll make sure you're all protected."

The young Imperial loosed a surprisingly shaky breath and nodded. But then a flicker through the Foce caught his attention. The only warning he felt before the door burst open.

—-

Luke. The name was bizarrely familiar, even if it wasn't a common name on Alderaan or any name that stood out from her travels. Even so, the name had come crashing down into place, fitting in ways Natus never did. While Leia was relatively certain that Natus and Vader were not the son and father's given names, logic reminded her that Natus wouldn't have given his real name to a scruffy looking smuggler that would sell it to the highest bidder once he'd parted ways with the younger man. Even so…. the name clicked into place like a missing piece on a droid undergoing repairs. She couldn't explain it, but she knew it, and in her experience her instincts on matters like this were rarely wrong.

"You know you're going to get me in a lot of trouble," Solo said from a few steps behind her, his gait slower despite his height. Where Leia moved with urgency, her steps quick and precise, Solo seemed to be trying to buy time with his hands in his pockets, his slower steps, and the way he kept hanging back.

"I'll handle Natus."

"You seem real sure the guy I brought in is this Natus friend of yours."

"We're not friends," Leia countered and she could practically feel him quirk an eyebrow at her.

Suddenly - and irritatingly smoothly - he'd picked up the pace and had appeared at her side, confirming the quirked eyebrow and a lopsided smirk to accompany it. "Boyfriend then?"

"Certainly not."

Solo hummed softly at that, the smirk only broadening as if he were somehow invested in the answer. She huffed and turned her attention back to the office door they were approaching, channeling all of her irritation with the smug pilot into the quick shove she gave to them, barreling in without warning.

And there he was. Vader's own son standing with her father and she could feel the last tendrils of his attempted mind control burning away with her anger as his blue eyes met her own brown. "Leia," he breathed. "What are you—"

"You want to play Sith mind games with me, this is what you get," she snapped. "I found why there was no record of you coming to Alderaan. A smuggler? What could possibly be so —"

"Solo?" Natus demanded, gaze snapping behind her like he'd just realized the pilot was there.

Solo, for his part, raised his hands in mock surrender. "Don't look at me. Her eminence over here -"

"I told you to stop calling me that!"

"— came barging in, throwing threats around, and —"

"Enough," Father cut in, almost forgotten from where he'd been standing with Natus. "Leia, what do you mean by Sith mind games?"

Leia saw Natus tense a little at that and she had to struggle to keep her expression even. "He can manipulate some people to do what he wants. He tried it on me, but it didn't work."

"And you couldn't just tell me that at the time?" Natus groused.

"Usually you can find more information if you dig a little deeper rather than just relying on a liar's word."

"I didn't lie to you. I was trying to protect you."

"I don't need your protection, Luke."

It had been an impulse decision to see how he reacted to the name, and Vader's son certainly reacted. Something shifted in the air, almost like a chill had settled over them. His eyes - usually light and amused when he spoke with her - turned hard and the door slammed shut behind her without anyone touching it. Every one of his muscles must have been tensed.

But, strangely enough, it was her father that spoke. "Where did you hear that name?"

Leia blinked in confusion. Why would he know it?

"Kriff it all, Mara," Natus - or perhaps Luke - snarled under his breath and he turned that dangerous look on Solo. "She should never have used it with you."

Solo took a step back, real fear creeping into his expression. "Listen, I don't know what's going on. I just gave her the fake name your friend gave me. It's fake, right? Don't know, don't care. I'm just here to fly you in and out and get paid. No need to—" Solo choked to a stop, eyes widening and Leia saw Luke's head tilt ever so slightly, his fingers twitching at his side, and Solo couldn't seem to catch his breath.

"No!" Leia shouted, realizing what he was doing. "I brought him into this. I —"

"Luke, stop," her father said as he reached a hand out, clasping the younger man's shoulder. "You dragged him into this. He's an innocent bystander."

"That could now get us all killed."

Solo choked again and Leia looked between the three men frantically. She couldn't stop it. She had only wanted answers and now something that had been said had set Natus off.

"Then we make sure that his loyalty is with us. I imagine it can be bought, can't it, Captain?"

Solo nodded emphatically, but Natus didn't seem convinced just yet.

Leia's father loosed a shaky breath. "Luke, I know you don't remember your mother, but I do. You're right that she was my friend and that we trusted each other. I can tell you she wouldn't want you to hurt an innocent man."

There was a beat of quiet, save for Solo's desperate attempt to breathe, but then something changed in those blue eyes and Luke released the captain. Solo sucked in a lungful of air and dropped to his knees. Leia knelt with him, a hand on his back and coaxing him through it.

"You have two options, Solo," Natus said, his voice strained and raw. "You can continue to help me get to where I need to go when the Empire can't know and be paid handsomely for it or you can betray me. Neither the Senator or his daughter can save you if it's the latter."

"There an option in there where I just walk away?" Solo coughed out.

"No."

There was a long moment, but there really wasn't a. Voice to be made. Solo cleared his throat and gave a small nod, a forced nonchalance in his tone. "It's gonna be a hefty fee."

"You'll be paid. Regularly and in full each time."

Slowly - and steadier than Leia might have anticipated - the smuggler got to his feet and rubbed at his throat. "You got yourself a deal then."

The chill dissipated and Leia saw her father sigh heavily. "Alright. You should know what you're getting into —"

"No. Absolutely not," Solo countered with raised hands and a step back. "I'm just the pilot. I'm here to get paid, not get into the middle of whatever this is. Less I know the better."

Leia's gaze shifted between each of the men, but she was the one who spoke. "You better be there when he needs to leave."

"I like my head attached to my neck. Not crossing him, sweetheart."

He pivoted towards the door, leaving the three remaining. Leia turned back to them. "He may want to be kept out of the loop, but I don't. I won't be kept out. Start talking."

"Take a seat," her father instructed in that tone that said he knew he didn't have another choice. "We'll get you caught up."

—-

It was dangerous to have the Aeres orbiting the planet, but it added a sense of authority to the demands Luke had made. He hadn't told his crew anything but to remain steady over the north-western hemisphere, which would keep them on the opposite side of the planet that Krennic planned to use for the experiment, and to shut down the sensors that might pick up on said experiment.

The planet had been inhabited once, but after nearly twenty years of being used for various Imperial experiments, all that remained was a desolate wasteland in the Outer Rim that no longer even had a name. Only a number was left: EX1003, and along with the name and its former inhabitants, the history of the world had been wiped from existence as well. It was strange and it was eerie, but in a way that Luke didn't think would have bothered him before. It wouldn't have bothered him now if they weren't there to test a weapon that could erase the existence of any planet that Darth Sidious chose on his whim.

Luke rarely wore a military uniform, opting instead for dark robes that allowed him to move easier when an inevitable battle erupted around him, but he'd pulled the crisp white uniform from the back of his closet. It was stiff and limited his stride. The uniform boots were louder and his shuttle was met with an irritating number of crewmen.

"My Lord Natus," Krennic greeted, giving a small bow so that his cape swept out. "Welcome."

"All this wasn't needed," Luke answered with a sharp wave towards the men and women in Impirial Navy uniforms lined up along the sides of the walkway. "I'm sure they have duties they could be seeing to."

"Of course, my lord. It's just…. protocol, of course, when a ranking member such as your father or yourself or -"

"And what rank is that?"

That stopped him and he cleared his throat, seemingly desperate to hide his discomfort. He was nervous, which either meant that he expected this to go poorly, that Tarkin had been pushing down on him again, or both.

Luke met his gaze. "I'm not Tarkin. There's no need for some grand gesture, Director. Only results." From the way Krennic's tenseness eased just a little, it looked like Tarkin was the culprit.

"Of course, my lord. Your time is valuable, and I shouldn't want to waste any of it."

They moved together and the crewmen dispersed behind them, eager to get back to whatever work they had to do rather than stand at full attention to welcome Vader's son for a minute longer. Luke glanced out of the corner of his eye, watching Krennic. "You've said nothing of this to Tarkin."

The director appeared startled by the question given as a statement, but recovered relatively quickly. "No, my lord. You had mentioned that he might -"

"Try to step in? You and I both know he would. He's here for the glory. I'm here to further the Empire and make sure that our enemies are dealt with in the most efficient way possible."

Krennic nodded eagerly to that. "Of course. You'll see today that this weapon will have the capacity to bring any Rebellion to its knees before it ever gains footing."

"And the lead scientists on this? I'd like to meet them today. If things go well, congratulations will be in order." And if not, the whole Empire knew what his father would have done to them. The threat was certainly easy to hear in the unspoken words.

"I'm…. afraid he's still on Eadu. With the construction near completion, the refining of the additional crystals needed to bring the Death Star to full power has their focus."

Which made sense, of course, but Luke had hoped this would be his in to find out exactly who was working beneath Krennic. The whole program was a blackhole of information and he didn't want to find a way to destroy the damned thing just to have another one pop up in its place. Well, at least he had a location. He could track down information from there.

They moved through the station, the halls quieter than they would be once it was fully operational. They were running on a skeleton crew for security's sake at this point, which left Luke to wonder what essential work his welcoming crew had been pulled from. Krennic was nothing if not ambitious, and while Vader likely would have been his preference, Luke represented a chance to make sure that Palpatine praised the director for all of his accomplishments rather than Tarkin.

Doors slid open to allow them access to the battle station's bridge. A few men and women scurried - likely having taken a different route back to their stations so that they didn't appear to rush past their director and Lord Natus - but Luke's gaze was fixed on the viewport. He recognized the upgraded window that could be toggled between an unencumbered view of outside space, visuals piped in from the computer system, and the typical screen that blacked out the view when needed. In this case, they seemed to be following a droid on the ground that was feeding images back to them.

"I trust this test won't set off any alarms," Luke said as he watched the video sweep the desolate land below. "The Senate can't know about this yet."

"All precautions have been taken, my lord," Krennic assured him.

"And the target?"

"There's an old temple left standing in this hemisphere. We should get the exact coordinates… there we are."

Luke watched as the image flickered onto the screen. Standing tall against the ravished land around it was what he instinctively knew had been a Jedi temple. Ancient and forgotten, the decades had marched on as it had been left to neglect without the old Order to maintain it. Now, just as they had been, it would be wiped away until even the memory of it faded from the galaxy.

"My lord?" Krennic prompted.

"When you're ready, director," Luke answered, his voice smaller than it should have been. He listened to Krennic order a single reactor ignition to target the temple, and his voice might as well have been heard from down a long corridor as the younger Imperial turned to force himself to watch.

The entire base buzzed with power, gathering as the view shifted back to the planet from above, the droid that had been left to provide the coordinates not long for its existence. A chill swept through Luke as the shot went off, a single beam barreling down towards the temple and he squared his shoulders to keep himself still. It struck the planet, and even if he could no longer see the temple itself, he could feel it. The chill settled deep in his chest and spread through him as the planet exploded upward where the structure had been. It wasn't fear, but understanding. This was wrong.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Krennic asked, his voice filled with wonder as chunks of rock and plumes of fire reached up towards the atmosphere. "When completed, this base will be capable of fracturing a planet to its core and destroying it. No one will dare stand against the Empire."

"No one will be able to," Luke breathed, gathering himself. "You've done… well, director."

"Then you'll speak to the Emperor?"

Luke turned, finding the older man's eager gaze fixed on him. "I have good things to report to him, but it's not completed. I want to be kept up to date as things progress."

"Of course, my lord," Krennic answered, barely containing himself. It was what the director wanted to hear and what would keep Luke in the loop moving forward.

—

He hadn't lived a sheltered life. Violence and death had surrounded him from an early age and, just as Father had taught him, he'd learned to use it to his advantage. Very little phased him quite like each new piece of the dangerous puzzle that was Sidious' Death Star. With its completion the Emperor would have no use for both father and son to play the role of visible enforcers. The planet killer could do that work for him with no threat of pushback. The future that both Luke and Vader had known was coming for some time was rapidly becoming their present, and Luke could only hope he had time to destroy it.

No. He had to make time. The only way to do that would be to throw a wrench into the Krennic's process. He was gathering Kyber crystals from somewhere and sending them to Eadu for refinement to power the battle station's main weapon. Going directly to Eadu was risky, but he might be able to track down the mining operation and slow the process there.

Captain Renz greeted him in the hangar bay upon his return to the Aeres, putting a momentary pause to Luke's swirling thoughts as he picked through the reasons Renz wouldn't have simply waited for him on the bridge, as was their habit. The Imperial captain looked strained as he stood waiting at the bottom of the shuttle's ramp, and Luke forced himself to focus. "Captain."

"My lord," Renz greeted back, his back straight and shoulders squared.

Luke nodded and Renz fell into step with him. He didn't like the way the hesitation other man seemed unable to get around. Luke was many things, but he'd never been one to go after the messenger without cause. The only thing that sprang to mind was that Renz had overlooked a sensor that he'd been instructed to turn off to keep the Aeres from catching a signal from the Death Star, thought that wasn't probable either after all the years Renz had successfully cleaned up behind the Executor's former captain when he'd served as Commander for Luke's father. Renz was nothing if not thorough in his duties. "Whatever it is, Captain, out with it."

"We've been called away, sir."

Dread settled in. "By the Emperor?"

"No, my lord. By his Hand. She was… quite insistent. And quite perturbed by the fact that you were unreachable."

Ah. That explained the nervousness then. Mara never did like being told to wait.

"She said she would come to us and I know how sensitive you said this mission was —"

"You gave her our location?"

All at once the strain was replaced by offense. "My lord, I would never betray your confidence."

"Brave man standing up to the Emperor's Hand," Luke chuckled and his smirk broadened nearly to a smile. "Don't worry. You're under my protection. Even from her."

"Thank you, Lord Natus."

"I'll take her transmission in my quarters. Did she leave coordinates?"

"She did."

"Then let's get going." Everything else would have to wait. He didn't dare give Mara a reason to start asking questions just yet.

TBC

Notes: I had hit a point in this story where I had a lot of wiggle room when it came to events. It was more about keeping my own timeline straight rather than having to match it up to canon's. I took a few days to really work through to make sure everything's lined up timeline wise for the next few chapters and there'll be several cameos along the way! Some that we've seen before, some that we haven't. Anyone want to take a guess?

Next Time: Luke finds himself between his father, Mara, and his undefined new alliance with the Rebels when Mara pulls him in to help with an intelligence breach.