Chapter 100 - A New Apprentice

Luke fastened his belt around his waist. Then he reached under his coat and pulled out the lightsaber from where his Master instructed him to hide it. He gave it a little spin, testing his ability to arm himself swiftly. It appeased him, and he gave himself a little smile in a nearby mirror. Then he reached back to rehide his weapon, and turned to leave the room.

Entering the flex space where the battleplans were being explained to the multitude of Jedi and Rebellion personnel, Luke nearly ran into his Sister. The girl reached out after making a startled sound and hugged her brother. "Oh Luke." She then pulled away with tears in her eyes. Han was there immediately to wrap her in a hug.

"'Don't die, stupid,' she means to say." Mara had her arms folded.

"I-aaaah I don't intend to." Luke stammered. "I am armed, and this is our best chance of stopping this thing." Luke reached forward to pull his girlfriend closer for a kiss.

"Luke, good you're here. We need to go over the extraction plan one more time." Anakin reached over and interrupted him, mid pucker.

With a huff and an eyeroll, "Alright Dad, I'll be along in a minute."

"No, we want you along now. Come on. Han, will you take Leia and Mara to the supply room?"

"Yes sir, Master Jedi, sir." Han inclined his head slightly.

Luke held in a chuckle. His dear overprotective father thought he was being clever when he assigned Leia and Mara to a relatively safe role of supply disbursement. It's too bad that won't last. If Luke were a betting man, he'd have his money on his Sister and Girlfriend both sneaking into the groups going down to the battle on Geonosis. And Han would probably be talked into helping, too. "I'll see you three later," he said with a wink. Luke wasn't a believer in luck, but he did not want to end this conversation with a goodbye. With a showy, proud jaunt to his step, Luke turned in the direction his father was beckoning him to go.

Midge looked up from his work when two soldiers loudly blustered in. He pulled a whistle hanging from a chain at his neck and blew into it, producing a harsh sound that made his men freeze where they were.

A second later they jumped up and their hand came up in a familiar solute. "Hail Emperor Palpatine, sir." They recited.

"You were supposed to be patrolling the west side." Midge wasn't one of those captains who had to have his men designate themselves. He recognized them immediately, and knew what duties they had been assigned.

"Yes sir, we were, but then we found him." He pulled away to reveal a young man in his early twenties.

The blond smiled and waved at him. "Hi sir, I'm Jedi knight Luke Skywalker.

Midge rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Yeah, we were going to string him up there, but we thought you might want to do the deed," His soldier explained.

Midge picked up an imperial issued booklet on regulations and used it to whack the men in front of him.

"Idiots! Don't you read regulations. Luke Skywalker is wanted… Alive."

"Oh… Well, he's alive." The one Midge was hitting choked out.

Yes, the boy was alive. And he'd be able to send him to his superiors. He'd heard the order to bring Luke in alive came from the emperor himself. Though by the big smile on his face, Midge had a hard time imagining why. What could a simpleton know that would be worth so much to the Emperor… 'Hail Palpatine,' his brain couldn't help but tag on. It was risky to think such disloyal thoughts. The Emperor was supreme. His wisdom was faultless.

"Did you disarm him?" Midge asked.

"Uh…" The twit still holding Luke stammered.

Midge reached to find the kids belt. It was fastened in an odd manner. The holster for the weapon was on his left side, instead of his right. He pulled the silver cylinder out of the holster and turned around to put it on his desk.

The boy stared at the Lightsaber. For a second his smile vanished and a forlorn look replaced it. Midge supposed he should also pat the boy down, but from all he'd heard about Jedi in his youth, a single weapon is all he expected to find.

"Good, now go take him to the hangar. He's got a party to attend, up on the Death Star."

"Ooh, a party!" Luke's smile returned.

Midge felt a headache come on him and he waved his men along. Then before they were out of the room, he picked up the Lightsaber again from his desk and handed it to one of his men. "This goes with him." The order to bring Luke in alive also included an order to confiscate his lightsaber.

As his men were walking away, Midge wondered if he should've taken a picture of the thing, and measured its weight. Regulation called him to fill out forms for all confiscated weapons. The thought of facing an imperial inquisition was enough to make his headache bloom worse. He sat back and closed his eyes.

"Halt," Lyle, designated DN-5381, called out as the prisoner he was leading walked up to a ship.

Luke stopped. "See, I told you he'd be nice about it."

Lyle punched a few buttons and the loading ramp for a nearby craft began to lower. Lyle rolled his eyes. He never would have expected a captured Jedi and rebel would be so… Luke was just a different sort. Still, he was glad he didn't have to shoot the kid. Not that he hadn't done so before, but he was hoping his current station would be free from such tasks. Afterall, what rebel would be stupid enough to fight them here?

"Go. No, not to the cockpit. Into the hold." Lyle followed Luke onto the ship and pushed his hand onto the keypad to seal the door to the hold. Then he followed his fellow officer up to the cockpit. Despite the man being his bunkmate, Lyle didn't know him as anything besides his designation, PL-9952. It was against regulation to use your actual name once you were given a designation as a cadet.

A group of imperial soldiers were there to take the prisoner, when Lyle and PL-9952 pulled into the Hangar.

"His weapon, Sir." PL handed the captain the silver Lightsaber.

With a push of a button, the captain activated the saber and its blue blade came out. He swung it around playfully for a minute, and then with a click, deactivated it. "Good, good. The orders were to bring this in with the Jedi-scum-rat." Now for the prisoner.

"He's in the hold, sir." Lyle walked up to the door. He put his hand on the panel and with a woosh, the door to the cell opened.

"Come with me." The captain ordered.

Luke looked slightly worried for a second. Until he saw his lightsaber in the captain's hands, and a calmness came over his face. He stood up from the bench and followed the Captain out of the hold. He gave a yell, as the soldiers threw him against a wall and cuffed his hands behind his back. Lyle felt a twinge of pity for him at that moment, but such feelings were hardly useful for a soldier, such as himself. As he was trained to, he let the moment pass. When Luke was led out of their craft, he and PL would head back down to the station on Geonosis below. He hoped the rest of his day went quietly, and that there were no other Jedi-scum-rats to be captured on the planet below.

The other Jedi were all waiting with bated breaths on the edge of the solar system. Hidden from long range sensors by a White Dwarf Star they were within range of. In the capital or control ship, Obi-Wan stood with his first Padawan, and a few others as they waited for news.

"I should have enhanced the Ultra-sonic receptors on that thing. We're going to miss his signal." the boy's father worried.

"Anakin." Obi-Wan caught himself before he gave a parental glare. That sort of thing never worked with the boy from Tatooine. "We expected this to happen. The station has a low level shield around it. Those wiretaps, the ones we put on him, have to randomly change their signal until they find a frequency that gets through. It will take a while."

"Master Skywalker, Sir." said the man seated behind the computer. They all looked up instantly. An image formed on the Holo-screen.

"Wow! You don't design them small." came Luke's voice. The camera was attached to his vest, so they didn't see his face. Instead they saw a massive chamber.

"Halt." Luke turned around to see the human imperial officer giving him the grand tour.

"When y'all said there would be a party up here, I admit that I kinda thought you were kidding me. But you know, this space would do well for a shin-dig."

"Oh, we're going to have a party all-right. Kneel." The imperial ordered. He took off the cuffs from Luke's wrists and used his blaster to get Luke to obey him. Luke kneeled with his hands above his head.

Suddenly, a shaft above lowered and a throne chair turned around in the space. The face upon that throne made everyone go white with shock.

"You've made it, my boy." Darth Sidious chuckled. "My new apprentice, I shall call you…" The former chancellor seemed to think for a second. "Darth Zoon."

There was a moment where they heard Luke choke in shock. "Never," he sounded resolute in his answer.

"Oh, I wasn't asking you for permission." Palpatine waved his hand, and another man wheeled out a chair with crude needles poking out of the back of it. "Have a seat, my boy." Other imperial hands grabbed Luke from either side and pulled him towards the chair.

Obi-Wan hesitated a glance at Anakin. A stone-cold look was in his eye, and his hand went down to his saber-belt. "We're going to need to rework the battle plans now. If we are going in there. We need to alter the strategy now."

Obi-Wan knew, if Anakin could arm himself now, he'd go on a rain of terror through the ship, smashing equipment and all. He also knew, if anything could help him recover, it was giving him a task.

"Okay. Pull up those boards. We still need a force to attack the planet. The station's power source is still likely attached to the Planet. But we can't allow them to get word out once we attack it…" And General Skywalker began moving pieces on their board, as he explained a new strategy.

Hello,

For Luke's Darth name, I took inspiration from the original. Vader is Dutch for father, so I translated Son into Dutch and got Zoon. I hope it doesn't sound too odd for a Sith moniker.

I have more surprises I hope to hold out for the next chapter. Decided to delete a scene in this so I could have a bigger reveal later on.

And I know Obi-Wan's fears for Anakin in the last scene were more Kylo-Ren. But hey- He just watched his Son get captured by Darth Sidious. If anything justifies a rage fueled tantrum, that's it.