Cloud City of Bespin

Three years after the destruction of the first Death Star

Darth Vader didn't hate the Cloud City of Bespin.

He didn't like it, either, but then, he more or less didn't like anything.

Cloud City was, at least, full of black and white and shadows and lots of places with a red glowing background (like the carbonite pit), which appealed to his limited aesthetic sensibilities.

He, Darth Vader, was a creature of the night, and a creature of cold, hard spaces, with lots of red blinky lights.

On those rare occasions when he was working on a planet full of verdant, lush plants and lots of happily flowering trees and bushes, he felt a little weird.

Anakin Skywalker had belonged on planets full of life, but Anakin was 23 years dead, leaving only a nightmare creature in a hulking black suit with majorly bad lungs.

At the moment, the lungs were turned on silent, which he could maintain for a few minutes without permanent problems. Probably the boy wasn't close enough to hear him anyway, but this day had already not gone entirely as planned, so…

The boy.

Vader might not like many things, but it still brought a strange, exotic thrill to his heart to think of Luke Skywalker.

He had first heard that name three years earlier. The boy had blown up the Death Star with a one in a million shot. He hadn't known it was his son, of course, during that last trench run in which he had nearly blasted the boy into oblivion, only to be knocked off course at the last minute by the captain of the Millennium Falcon.

(He actually was grateful to Han Solo, though that hadn't kept him from torturing the man and then putting him in carbonite and shipping him off to Jabba the Hutt.)

He had been completely certain the child had died with Padme on Mustafar.

He had been certain he had killed his wife and baby.

But no, somehow Luke had survived, and thrived, on Tatooine, of all places, and had given his old man a great deal of trouble escaping from numerous traps throughout the galaxy

Vader had been trying to find his son for almost three years and finally, today, he had met him for the first time since Cymoon, which was before Vader knew the boy was a Skywalker.

It had been Vader's intention to drop Luke tidily into carbon freeze and take him to the Executor and ... do something. Not take him to the Emperor, though of course he had said he would because Palpatine expected it. He knew there were spies in his ranks and so out loud he made it clear that he was totally loyal, and firmly intended to haul the young Rebel off to Palpatine.

But no, he wouldn't take him to the Emperor.

Anyway, Luke, while obviously poorly trained, had impressed his father by falling into the carbonite pit and then promptly jumping out before the carbonite could hit him.

The jump wasn't that amazing, but the reaction speed was!

Vader was impressed and yes, a little proud, but it meant that things were messier than he desired. He had already thrown a bunch of stuff at his son and the kid was beaten up, and had even been knocked through a window.

(He would not admit to himself that he had been briefly terrified for the child. If Luke had fallen into the core of the City, he would have been lost. Thankfully, Luke had grabbed onto a random walkway and climbed up.)

The child was tired now, very tired, though no less determined. Vader would fight him once more and this time he would prevail. He hoped he wouldn't have to do any permanent damage. He probably could just whack him softly on the head and then tie him up.

Maybe?

He hadn't brought binders because again he was thinking Luke would be encased in carbon freeze!

He would figure out something.

He stilled himself even further in the little alcove in which he was lurking, waiting for the youth's footsteps to draw closer, and closer, and…

Abruptly, he turned on his loud breathing with the Force and his lightsaber with his hand, and lunged at Luke. The Rebel brought up his blue lightsaber and managed to block Vader's red one, but young Skywalker was bruised and battered and obviously exhausted. Vader pressed his advantage, pushing his opponent out of the enclosed corridor and down a fenced area which extended to some weird little doohickey which in turn was hanging over an endless drop.

Again, he liked the aesthetic – black, white, and the occasional red blinky light. But why was this here?

Well, he didn't care much. He exchanged a few more blows and managed to knock Luke to the ground, with the boy's lightsaber held at an angle that he couldn't reach out and cut off Vader's leg or anything. If Vader had anything to say about it, he would never lose another limb. Even the mechanical ones hurt when being cut off.

"You are beaten," he snarled, looming over the much smaller form beneath him. "It is useless to resist. Don't let yourself be destroyed as Obi-Wan did!"

He could, of course, have skewered the child but he wasn't going to do that unless he had to…

Well, he wasn't going to do it at all. Because Luke was the last living being with any part of Padme.

He really should not think of her, because the tiny distraction allowed Luke to bat his lightsaber aside, roll to his feet, and yes, successfully whack him in the arm!

Which seriously hurt!

Like wow, his kid, who was pathetically trained, and very inexperienced, actually hurt him a little!

He snarled, his irritation shifting to rage at the pain, lifted his lightsaber, and…

There was a klaxon call in the Force, and Vader was suddenly aware of someone right behind him, and he, what, how…?

A green lightsaber slashed down like a guillotine and he tried to dodge, but he couldn't, and the blade cut off his right hand at the wrist, and hand and lightsaber tumbled into the abyss below them.

He fell back onto the walkway, which shook under his weight, and howled with shock and yes, pain, because electrical synapses in the amputated mechanical limb were yelling at his organic parts of his upper arm.

Also, he was seriously in trouble! Because looming over him now was a black clad figure with a green blade pointed directly at his throat. He was also confused. Where had this person come from? Also, the face of his attacker looked oddly familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. Not that it mattered. He was, apparently going to die, because he could now tell through the Force that this man was a strong Force sensitive and Vader had lost his lightsaber along with his hand.

"Who are you?" Luke rasped, and Vader tilted his helmet a little to observe his son, who was now leaning against a railing, gasping for air, his own blue lightsaber still lit and buzzling ominously.

That was a very good question.

"That is a good question," the Other Man said, taking a step closer to the youth. Vader managed to sit up and then, given that his opponent showed no signs of chopping his head off, grabbed the railing with his remaining hand and hauled himself to his feet, which allowed him to loom over both younger men. It was, at least, less undignified, though he was still a short both a hand and a lightsaber.

"I am Luke Skywalker," the Other continued cheerfully, "but I am like thirteen years older than you are and from a different timeline. Obviously."

Silence for a moment and then, "What?" the boy asked.

"Other timeline and older," Older Luke (?) said succinctly. "So we should go, probably..."

"I don't understand how that could be," Young Luke said, his breathing slowing to a more normal pace, "but we need to kill him before we go anywhere."

Vader stiffened and reached out through the Force in an attempt to grab his old blue lightsaber, but before he could yank it out of the young man's hand, the saber was pulled into the left hand of the intruder.

"We're not doing that," Older Luke said.

Luke's eyes flared wide, and he shook his bruised head. "Why not? He tortured Han and Leia and Chewie, and he killed my father!"

"He didn't kill your father," the older Luke said, and now his expression was both grave and compassionate. "Obi-Wan lied to you about that."

"What? Why would he lie to me?"

"Because Darth Vader was formerly Anakin Skywalker, and he is your father."

Silence fell for five seconds and then the younger man's eyes flared wide and cried out, "No, that's not true, that's impossible!"

"It isn't," the other man said sympathetically. "Actually, it makes a lot of sense if you know the whole story, but thanks to almost no one knowing the truth, and the people that did know the truth lying about it, you didn't know."

Luke whimpered and turned his head toward the Dark Lord, who was feeling a mixture of confused, irritable, and relieved? Because it seemed like Older Luke wasn't going to kill him?

Or allow him to be killed?

But why was Older Luke a Light Sider if he knew...

"Why are you a Jedi?" Vader demanded of the supposed Time Traveler.

"Because I never turned to the Dark Side," the man said calmly. Yes, definitely an Older Luke; felt like his son, except way more mature, and that power...

"You told me the truth of our relationship right here, on this gantry, except that no one showed up to save me so I lost my right hand and my lightsaber to you. Then you decided to tell me the truth. I have said this to many versions of you, but you are clueless as a father."

There was a soft gasp from young Luke, and the boy clutched at his right hand. "You lost your hand?"

"I did, and you would have too if I hadn't showed up with five seconds to spare. Which is annoying." And then to no one in particular, "Do you think you could give me a little more time!?"

Vader reached out through the Force in search of another crazy powerful Light Sider in the area, and came up empty.

"Who are you talking to?" he demanded.

"Oh, sorry, The Force. More than a decade ago I was messing with a Jedi Temple and managed to get sent back through time to Coruscant so I could wipe out Palpatine before you turned. I thought it was a one and done, but then the Force just kept grabbing me and hurling me into different timelines. Usually I have to act in less than ten seconds, which is annoying. Like if I had a minute to pull myself together...! But noooo, the Force has a sense of humor!"

"Are you really my father?" younger Luke asked forlornly, his gaze fixed on Vader's mask.

"Yes, I am your father."

He had not expected cries of joy at this pronouncement, but he felt a strange tickle in his chest at the tears which sprang into his son's eyes.

"Why... how...?" the boy moaned, and then turned a puzzled look on his feet.

"What's wrong?" Older Luke asked sharply, looking dismayed for the first time.

"My toes are tingling..." the boy said and then, to Vader's astonishment, disappeared.

"Um," the older version of Vader's son said, looking down at his own feet. "Um..."

And disappeared.

Ten seconds later, the view shifted from Bespin to blackness, as Vader disappeared off the metal walkway as well.