Vader's Revelation
Luke made his way along the gantry above the reactor shaft. Hoping that Vader had presumed him dead, Luke was planning to try and find his friends now and rescue them from the Empire's clutches. He was just entering the control building when he suddenly felt a familiar dark presence and ignited his lightsabre. He was just in time, for Vader suddenly came out of nowhere and lunged at him. Luke blocked the attack just in time and was forced back onto the gantry. Luke was beginning to feel tired now, while Vader seemed as fresh as ever and sent a serious of powerful lightsabre blows at Luke which the young Jedi was only just able to block. Sparks flew as the two lightsabres clashed. Vader continued to force Luke back until they reached an inspection platform at the end of the gantry. One blow caused Luke to lose his footing and he fell back onto the platform. "You are beaten. It is useless to resist." Vader told Luke, aiming his lightsabre at the young Jedi's throat. "Don't let yourself be destroyed as Obi-Wan did."
Luke answered by rolling sideways and using his own lightsabre to swat Vader's away, then he leapt to his feet just in time to avoid a slashing blow from Vader. The Sith Lord made another swing at Luke, who dodged and Vader's blow hit the railing instead. Taking advantage of this, Luke lunged at Vader and his lightsabre caught the Sith Lord's shoulder armour. Vader gave a howl of pain and went at Luke even more ferociously. Luke backed off along the narrow end of the gantry as Vader's lightsabre came slashing down, severing a sensor probe. The two dualists' lightsabres made a few more clashes then Vader managed to get the upper hand, forcing Luke's lightsabre away from him and then he made a fierce lunge, his lightsabre slicing through Luke's exposed wrist. The young Jedi let out a terrible scream of agony as Vader's lightsabre completely severed his right hand, sending both it and his father's lightsabre tumbling down into the shaft. In great pain, Luke fell to his knees, cradling the stump of where his right hand had once resided.
"There is no escape. Don't make me destroy you." Vader told Luke bluntly as he deactivated his lightsabre. Luke moved back along the gantry to it's extreme end. "Luke, you do not yet realise your importance. You have only begun to discover your power." Vader tried to tempt him. "Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy."
"I'll never join you!" Luke snarled defiantly, using a conduit at the gantry's end to pull himself back to his feet.
"If you only knew the power of the Dark Side." Vader continued. "Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father."
"He told me enough." Luke retorted. "He told me you killed him."
"No... I am your father."
Luke suddenly felt his entire body go cold at these words. "No... no. That's not true. That's impossible!" he blustered, unable to believe it.
"Search your feelings. You know it to be true." Vader implored him.
Luke suddenly remembered that during his childhood, whenever he asked Uncle Owen about his father, Owen would just change the subject. Then he remembered Obi-Wan telling him about his father and recalled that Obi-Wan had been silent for a moment before answering. At the time, Luke had just assumed that Obi-Wan had just been too deeply hurt by Anakin's death, but now he couldn't help but wonder if Obi-Wan had been thinking of a lie to tell him. Worse still, Luke could sense that Vader was telling the truth. "Nooooo! No! he screamed in anguish.
"Luke, you can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this." Vader continued to try and tempt Luke. "It is your destiny! Join me... and we can rule the galaxy as father and son." He held his hand out invitingly.
Still reeling from the revelation, Luke looked around at his surroundings, trying to think of something.
"Come with me." Vader invited. "It is the only way."
But Luke had made his decision. With a defiant look at Vader, he let go of the conduit and let himself fall down the shaft, choosing death over the Dark Side. As Luke plummeted, he suddenly felt himself caught by a strong current and was pulled into an exhaust pipe. He slid to a stop inside the pipe and picked himself up, but before he had a chance to regain his bearings, a hatch beneath him slid open and he found himself sliding down another pipe and with only one hand left, he was unable to stop himself. A hatch at the end of the pipe opened and Luke fell onto a weather vane at the very base of Cloud City, landing on one of the spines. He tried to climb back up, but between having only hand and the onset of exhaustion, he was too slow and the hatch shut before he could make it, leaving him trapped on the vane. "Ben... Ben, please." he pleaded to thin air, hoping that Obi-Wan's Force spirt would help him, but it was no use. He lost his grip and fell backwards, leaving him hanging upside down. He realised that his only hope was to try and use the Force to contact Juno, a fellow Force user. "Hear me. Juno!"
~8~
As the Millennium Falcon flew through Bespin's atmosphere, Kali suddenly noticed that Juno seemed to be lost in a fog, her expression troubled. "What's wrong?" she asked her.
"It's Luke..." Juno answered. "He's in trouble! We've got to go back!"
"What?!" Lando stared, looking at her as if she'd gone mad.
"I know where Luke is."
"Where?" Kali asked urgently.
"What about those fighters?" Lando argued, knowing that the Empire would be scrambling TIE Fighters to intercept them at any moment. Chewbacca barked in agreement with Lando.
"Chewie, just do it." Leia told the Wookie firmly.
"What about Vader?" Lando continued to protest.
Chewbacca turned on the newcomer with an ominous growl.
"Alright, alright." Lando conceded.
"Hold on, Luke. We're coming." Kali whispered as Juno and and Chewbacca piloted the Falcon in an abrupt U-turn and the ship headed back towards Cloud City.
~8~
"Bring my shuttle." a seething Vader told his staff as he strode through the hallway towards a landing platform.
~8~
The Falcon approached Cloud City. "Look, someone's up there." Lando said, pointing to a figure hanging on to a weather vane beneath the city.
"It's Luke." Leia realised.
"We've gotta get him off of there quick!" Kali urged.
"Right, Chewie, slow down." Juno ordered. "We'll get underneath him. Lando, open the top hatch and catch him." So Lando rushed out of the cockpit. "Right, easy does it." Juno murmured as she and Chewbacca skilfully maneuverered the Falcon underneath where Luke was hanging.
When the ship reached the right position, it assumed a hovering stance and a hatch on the top opened to reveal Lando on a lift platform. Luke then lost his grip on the vane and fell, Lando managing to catch him, then the platform took them both back into the ship.
"Well?" Kali said impatiently into the comlink.
"Ok, let's go." Lando answered, and Juno and Chewbacca piloted the ship away from Cloud City. They were just in time, for a trio of TIE Fighters on an intercept course had entered sensor range.
Chewbacca and the women turned to see Luke, bloody and battered, enter the cockpit supported by Lando. Kali jumped up and embraced Luke, while the others let out sighs of relief. "Luke." Kali sighed, hugging the young Jedi tightly.
"Oh, Kali." Luke murmured as he lost himself in her comforting embrace.
Leia meanwhile noticed Luke's injuries. "Luke, your hand..." she began.
"Come on, let's get him to the med-bay." Juno said, and the three women helped Luke towards the passenger compartment.
Lando meanwhile took Juno's place in the pilot seat. "Alright, Chewie, let's go." he said as they piloted the ship away from Bespin.
~8~
Luke was soon resting on a cot in the passenger compartment, his right stump wrapped in a protective cuff. Kali was gently wiping his face, while Juno checked his vitals and Leia informed him of what had happened to Han. "Carbon freeze? What'll happen to him?" Luke asked weakly.
"He's in hibernation." Kali answered. "We tried to help him but we were too late." she sighed
"Lando's fixed it so we can find Boba Fett's ship." Leia added.
"Boba Fett?" Luke asked, "But who's..."
"A bounty hunter." Juno replied grimly. "He followed us here and now he's taking Han to Jabba the Hutt."
"Oh, poor Han." Luke sighed, dreading to think of what Jabba would do to Han once he received his prize.
The ship rocked suddenly from a laser blast, meaning the TIEs had caught up with them. "I'll be back." Leia told Luke, and she hurried off back to the cockpit.
"You'd better go too, Juno." Kali said to the Jedi. "I'll look after Luke."
"Right." Juno acknowledged. "Luke, you take it easy. We'll soon have ya home and fixed up, I promise." she told her fellow Jedi, then set off after Leia.
Kali and Luke were left alone. "Oh, Luke, what happened to you?" Kali sighed as she gently brushed Luke's windswept hair.
"Vader..." Luke rasped.
"I'll get him, you see if I don't." Kali said grimly. The evil Sith Lord certainly had a lot to answer for.
~8~
When Leia and Juno returned to the cockpit, they saw that the Falcon was clear of Bespin and now back in space, but they weren't alone. "Star Destroyer." Leia said, seeing the Executor looming ahead.
Lando and Chewbacca promptly took evasive action, the TIEs pursuing them relentlessly. "Alright, Chewie. Ready for lightspeed." Lando said.
"If your people fixed the hyperdrive." Juno said warily.
"All the coordinates are set, it's now or never." Leia said, finishing punching in coordinates in the navicomputer.
"Punch it." Lando ordered.
Chewbacca pulled back on the lightspeed switch. All faces were tense and expectant as the hyperdrive started to power up, but yet again, nothing happened. Three angry pairs of eyes fell on Lando as the ship was buffeted by more laser fire.
"They told me they fixed it." Lando said meekly as he stood up to check the instruments. "I trusted 'em to fix it! It's not my fault!"
Juno rolled her eyes at him and went into the aft hold to look at the hyperdrive. Chewbacca followed her, giving Lando an angry shove as he passed him.
~8~
Vader strode onto the Executor's bridge. "They'll be in range of our tractor beam in moments, my Lord." Admiral Piett reported
"Did your men deactivate the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon?" Vader asked him.
"Yes, my Lord."
"Good. Prepare the boarding party and set your weapons for stun." Vader ordered.
"Yes, my Lord." Piett nodded and turned to an officer standing next to him. "Lieutenant?"
"Yes, sir." the lieutenant nodded and went off to see to it, while Vader turned to look at the distant Falcon out the window.
~8~
Chewbacca fussed around the Falcon's aft compartment, busy trying to fix the errant hyperdrive, while Juno worked at the engineering station. R2 meanwhile was busy re connecting one of 3PO's legs. "Noisy brute." 3PO grumbled as Chewbacca banged around behind them. "Why don't we just go to lightspeed?"
R2 beeped in response.
"We can't? How would YOU know the hyperdrive is deactivated?" 3PO asked disdainfully.
Juno's head whipped round as she overheard this. "What?!"
R2 whistled knowingly to 3PO.
"The city's central computer told you? R2-D2, you know better than to trust a strange computer." 3PO chided him.
Juno hurried over to them. "What was that about the hyperdrive?" she asked urgently.
R2 whistled a stream of beeps to 3PO. "He says that the hyperdrive was deactivated by the Empire's men." 3PO translated.
"Can you reactivate it?" Juno asked R2, who beeped an affirmative.
~8~
Vader watched as the TIEs forced the Falcon closer to the Executor. "Luke." he murmured, reaching out through the Force.
~8~
Luke realised that his father's ship was near. He felt resigned to his fate, sensing that he was beaten, more emotionally than physically. "Father." he breathed, sitting up in his bed.
"Son, come with me." Vader's voice said in his head
"Ben, why didn't you tell me?" Luke murmured as he got to his feet.
Kali, who had been checking the storage compartments for something to ease Luke's pain, happened to turn around at that moment. "Luke, what're you doing?" she asked as she saw Luke started to get out of bed.
Luke didn't answer her and just walked towards the cockpit, as if he was in a trance.
~8~
Lando and Leia did their best to keep the Falcon out of range of the TIEs' laser fire. "Chewie!" Lando yelled into the radio, knowing that they couldn't keep it up forever.
Just then, Luke entered the cockpit, closely followed by Kali. "It's Vader." Luke murmured as he sat down in one of the seats.
~8~
"Luke." Vader said, reaching out through the Force again. "It is your destiny."
~8~
Luke closed his eyes, concentrating on trying to form a mental barrier in his mind. "Ben... why didn't you tell me?" he whispered.
Kali overhead him and looked at him in confusion, wandering what he was going on about. Then she saw the Imperial flagship almost on top of them. "Juno, Chewie, I don't wanna rush either of ya, but we've got a Star Destroyer bearing down on us!" she said into the comlink.
"Alight, stand by. I think we've got it." Juno answered.
~8~
"Alert all commands. Ready for the tractor beam." Piett ordered the Executor's crew.
~8~
"Come on! C'mon!" Juno urged R2 as the Astromech droid trundled over to the engineering station.
R2 moved a circuit on a control panel and the panel lit up.
~8~
Luke, Kali, Leia and Lando were suddenly thrown back in their seats as the Falcon's hyperdrive finally whirred into life and the ship sped off into hyperspace, safely out of the Empire's clutches. "About damn time!" Kali laughed in relief.
~8~
"Oh, you did it!" Juno laughed, patting R2 on the dome. "I sure wish we'd had you with us earlier, R2."
~8~
Piett watched anxiously as Vader looked out of the window at the empty space where the Falcon had just been. Any moment, he expected the Sith Lord to turn round and unleash his wraith on him for his failure to capture the ship. Instead, Vader just turned on his heel and left the bridge, too wrapped up in his own thoughts to bother with punishing anyone.
Author's notes: And here's Vader's epic revelation. Note that I had Luke reach out to Juno instead Leia. I figured that a fully-trained Jedi like Juno would be better at sensing Luke's predicament, so I had her be the one he reached out to. Leia's still Force-sensitive, though, so don't worry. Unfortunately, Kali does get somewhat lost in the shuffle here, but I did have her play nurse to the injured Luke and I'll try to give them a moment next time. So, just one more chapter to go and that's a wrap. Join me next time for the finish!