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Title: Forbidden
Author: Raythe (catherinetetzlaff@sbcglobal.net)
Rating: NC-17
Characters: Luke, Vader
Disclaimer: Not mine. No money made.

Summary: After the disastrous dual on Bespin, Luke begins to dream again of his father, including one dream wherein his father is his lover. Vader discovers his son's forbidden desire and offers to make the dream a reality. But that is only the beginning, for Vader and Luke together fulfill the prophecy of the Balance of the Force. New, greater Force powers develop in both of them. Fearful of what this new future will bring, now that Luke refuses to kill his father, Obi-Wan seeks another to destroy them both.

Warnings: Luke/Vader, non-consensual sex.

Author’s Note: Just so you know I've taken a lot of liberties with the Force powers, with the origination of the Force, the idea of the Balance, Chosen One, etc. so if you're thinking, "Wait! That isn't how it is in the (fill in blank)" you're so right! Anyways, I hope you can suspend disbelief and enjoy it.

CHAPTER ONE: BURNING

Luke shifted in sleep, his feet tangling in the thin sheets, his hands fisting in the comforter as he was drawn into a familiar dream. He dreamt of a lover, a man whose features he had never seen with his physical eyes, but whose face and body were imprinted in him so deeply that they were a part of his very essence.

In the dream, Luke was sitting on a beach, his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. It was sunset, but the dying of the light did not hold his gaze; all Luke's attention was fixed on his lover instead.

His lover was a youth, perhaps in his twenties, a few years older than Luke himself. He stood before Luke half-clothed and completely unashamed. His muscled golden chest was bare. He wore only a pair of light tan pants that hung low on his hips, clung to his muscled thighs, and stopped just above his elegant bare feet.

The raging sea was at the older youth's back. The rush of the water stirred his long honey-colored hair that flowed down to his shoulders in thick waves. His eyes were arresting in the deepening twilight as they glowed yellow-gold under his arched brows. They pierced Luke's body as easily as a light saber could slice through cloth.

Then there were his lips. They were lush, shaped like a cupid's bow. They switched easily between a pout and a scowl, but they were tugged into a small smile at that moment.

In a quick fluid movement, he lowered himself to his haunches before Luke. He reached out a strong hand to grasp one of Luke's forearms. His touch burned.

"Luke, what are you thinking about?" His voice was low and smoky.

"You. I'm thinking of you. As if you don't already know," Luke said and felt a smile curl the corners of his own mouth. "And what are you thinking about?"

His lover's smile quirked larger, "You. After all there is nothing more important to me than you."

Luke's heart beat harder in his dream, heat flared in his groin and raced through his body more potent than any drug, more potent than the Force itself. He leaned forward then, his head slightly tilted to the side, and he brushed those full soft lips against Luke's own. Luke moaned, the sound coming from the back of his throat. His lover's warm pink tongue traced the line of Luke's jaw as the younger man arched into that touch.

His lover's voice was quiet, but filled with throaty promise as he spoke into Luke's left ear, "So responsive, child of my heart."

Luke's voice was equally soft, but it seemed to block out the sound of the rushing waves, the sound of his own breath and heartbeat, as he said, "Only for you, Father."

Luke woke sweat-drenched as he always did from this dream. His heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would leap out of his chest. He ran his hand through his sleep-mussed hair, thrusting the shaggy blonde locks from his eyes and ripped the sweat soaked sheets from his body.

Luke told himself that the scent of musk in the air from his release was disgusting, but he took deep breaths of it anyways. He used a corner of one to clean the semen from his bare stomach and penis. His sex ached from the touch and Luke flushed at his weakness. He flung the sheet from him so he wouldn't be tempted to touch himself to hardness again with the memory of the dream.

`What would Vader say if he knew of this dream?' Luke wondered, despair bubbling up inside of him. `But my – my lover in the dream – he's young and beautiful and whole. I know that Vader is none of those things. At least not anymore. He can't be the man in my dream.'

Yet Luke wanted his lover to be Vader. And that was the horror and the thrill of it.

He was loath to admit, too, that the way Vader looked with his black suit, mask and flowing cloak was as seductive to him as the clean-limbed youth that haunted his dreams.

'What is wrong with me that I feel this way? How can I feel this way about a man who took my hand and tortured my friends?'

He padded naked to the viewport in his room so he could stare at the black emptiness of space. He traced a path between two stars with his fingertips, wondering if there were any people in between those suns, protected from the vastness of space by durasteel and plastiglass. He snorted.

'I think this because Darth Vader could be one of those people. He is the only one I long to see.'

Luke clenched his right hand into a fist and winced. His prosthetic hand ached even though countless checks by him and the droids showed nothing wrong with it. He was assured that it was phantom pain, crossed signals in his brain that still registered his flesh and blood hand even though it was long gone, rotting or more likely incinerated on Bespin.

Some part of Luke wondered if the hand had continued to clutch onto his father's light saber as it fell to the gas planet below Cloud City, but another part of him found the thought too nauseous to contemplate. He had lost more than just his hand in Lando's city, he had lost some part of his innocence.

'But then again what kind of innocent could I have been when I had dreams of lust for my father and those started long before Bespin, they started before I ever left Tatooine.' Luke shivered and held his arms around himself thinking of the one other person who had any idea of Luke's wanton thoughts. `Uncle Owen.'

How well Luke remembered the tightening of Uncle Owen's heavily-stubbled jaw as he read the datapad that Luke had copied down his dreams in. Both the innocent adventuring about the galaxy with his beloved father ones then -- then the others. Innocent could in no way describe those.

Luke had known two burnings in his life: the one that had incinerated the Lars and their homestead and the earlier one, the one he always thought of with a capital `B.' Even though the second burning had killed his guardians and the life he had known, the first Burning resonated far more deeply to his shame, like an abscess in his soul. That Burning had nearly killed him. He had survived.

`And I didn't dream of my father again until now,' Luke realized.

Indeed the dream and the longing were back greater than before and what terrified Luke was that he knew with just a call of his mind his father would come to him. Gooseflesh suddenly covered Luke's arms.

'How desperate is my father to have me help him overthrow the Emperor and rule the galaxy? Would he offer me my most forbidden desire ... himself?'

Luke dropped to the floor into a lotus position, rested his arms palms upwards on his thighs and began counting his inhales and exhales. Hopefully meditation would allow him to let go of these evil thoughts, let go of temptation. There was goodness in Vader. Luke had sensed it. He would seek to bring his father back from the darkness. Luke's own foul desires would hopefully be burned away in the process. He would never give into them. Never expose his father to his wrongness. Vader had enough darkness in his life.

Just as meditation began to take him to calmness. Luke recognized a familiar red warmth in his thoughts, a warmth he realized had been there as he woke up and possibly even as he slept. Luke understood then that his mind was open to the bond he shared with his father.

'Oh, Force, did he experience the dream, too? Does he know my wrong feelings for him?'

CHAPTER TWO: CLOSE

Luke was frozen. Unable to break the link with his father and equally as unable to reach out to the Dark Lord. Luke licked his dry lips and gripped his naked thighs hard until he felt bruises beginning to form. 'What have I done? How can I face him now with any sort of calm and help him back to the Light? Would he even listen to my words ... the words of a ...' Luke shook his head violently. Thinking how unworthy he was would not change what had happened or help his father in any way.

Luke forced himself to take a deep breath, trying to recapture some of the calm from his earlier meditation. He was not a coward and knew he had to talk to his father over their bond. Try and explain or at least find out how much he had heard and seen. Luke reached for the link.

'Father?'

'Son.'

The deep bass rumble of Darth Vader's voice resonated in his mind. His father's words when they communicated like this almost seemed to have physical weight and texture. Luke held the word `son' in his mind and felt the layers of feeling that the Dark Lord wrapped that thought in: warmth and possession and need and ... something else so elusive that Luke couldn't grasp onto it in his current state of unease.

'Father, how long ... have you been with me tonight?'

'Long enough.'

Luke shut his eyes and counted his breaths for a moment to center himself. It was as bad as he feared. He could sense that Vader knew everything. Luke felt fear begin to claw at his belly. 'What must he think of me?' Luke grasped what little courage and light he felt he still had left and spoke to his father again.

'Father, I can explain.'

Luke stopped as he realized how ridiculous that statement actually was. 'No explanation will change the fact that I have desire for him! What could I possibly say to change that? Nothing. I must just try and talk to him of the good I sense in him but ... what weight will that hold when it is obvious to him now that I am so ... wrong inside?'

'Your dream, son, tell me how long you have had it.'

'This dream or–'

'There have been others like this?'

'No! I mean ... yes and no ... innocent dreams of ... just being with you. Not like ... not like this. I've had dreams about you ... or at least of this man ... since I was a boy.'

'And this particular dream? How long have you had it?'

Luke grabbed the blanket from his bunk and wrapped it tight around him. The sweat had dried from his body and he was chilled both inside and out.

'Since I was fifteen. I haven't had it in a long time. Meeting you at Bespin must have triggered it again.'

Luke cringed as he thought the last. 'Force! Why did I say that? Now it sounds like I found his true form attractive and ...'

'After all the lies you had been told of my death, meeting me ... knowing who I am to you ... was a shock. That was quite clear. Why did you stop having this dream, Luke?'

Luke could almost feel the searing heat of the Tatooine air at midday for a moment, the twin suns pounding against his bleeding back, the iron tang in his throat as he had sucked on his own drying blood just to get some moisture into his mouth. He forced the image away, back into the deep recesses of his mind again.

'I ... I was punished for it. Rightfully punished. I know it is wrong, Father. You needn't fear I would ...'

'Act on it?'

Luke winced and thought to himself, `Now I've made it sound like I have been thinking of acting on it!'

'Are you sure it is a dream, child?'

Luke's thoughts stuttered to a halt. Of course it was a dream! Even thought it seemed so real. Luke could still feel the shift of the sand beneath his toes on this beach, smell the salt of the water and the rush of the breeze through his hair. He'd loved the dream for its realness, had clutched it tight to his heart in the harshness of his life on Tatooine, the loneliness of being known as that strange Luke Skywalker.

'Yes, it has to be a dream. The man in it couldn't be you. He's too young and ...'

'Not destroyed like me.'

Luke thought his father had broken contact with him as the red warmth that always seemed to accompany his father's mental presence ebbed away. Why did I have to mention the man's looks? Surely just his age would have sufficed!

'Father, are you still there?'

There was a pause then the red warmth returned.

'I am here, child.'

Luke struggled to find something to say. He didn't know how to comfort his father. Now that his soul had been laid bare, he was afraid that any words he might give would be turned on him. So he asked a question instead.

'Why did you ask if I was sure it was a dream?'

'Because ... the youth ... your lover in the dream ... that is how I was ... how I looked before Obi-Wan betrayed me.'

Luke's breath caught in his throat. The youth was his father? Or at least had been his father. His body ached for a moment as he thought of those long clean limbs and acres of golden skin. Luke had always felt ridiculously small compared to his father in the dream, but that was nothing to how small he felt with Darth Vader. Subsumed. Consumed by him.

'Father, I'm sorry. You've had so much pain in your life. I ... I feel this ... my weakness ... that I have just added to it.'

There was a return of that red warmth, stronger than before. Luke felt cradled and comforted by its presence. His death grip on the comforter loosened.

'Never. You are my only joy, child of my heart.'

The term of endearment repeated from the dream now coalescing in Luke's mind was like acid.

'Don't call me that!'

'Why? It seemed to please you so much in the dream. Do you not wish to hear it from my lips?'

'Please do not ... I never meant for you to know about ... about those feelings. I would never act on them. I would never have exposed you to ... to ... this part of me. I want to help you, Father. Don't let ... my weakness ... get in the way.'

Luke slumped against the side of the bunk. He was exhausted from holding back the fear and loathing for himself he felt. Why had his father called him that? Was it to chide him? Was it to shame him further? Or is it an offering - come with me, Luke, and I'll give you what you want. `Oh, Force, let it not be the last.'

'Son, I did not mean to hurt you by calling you by that name. It is how I ... think of you.'

'That almost makes it worse.'

'Why, child?'

'Because I have taken what could have been a term of ... love ... between us and sullied it.'

'You have sullied nothing. You could sully nothing.'

'You do not believe that. You want me to join the Darkside and ... and sully the universe.'

'Sully the universe? What an image, young one! I want you to join me, Luke. I believe only that the Dark Side would give us more power to rule justly, but it is not a requirement for you to join me.'

Luke bit his lower lip at the last and thought, 'Could I rule with him and still follow the way of Ben and Yoda?'

'You would have me rule by your side even if I were to follow the Light?'

'Yes, is that not what I just said?'

'But before on Bespin you seemed to–'

'Things have changed. Or ... perhaps my own thoughts are clearer to me now.'

Luke wished he could read the underlying feelings his father was sending with those words, but he felt incapable of it. All his energy was focussed on trying to control his own emotions, which whirled around him like dervishes.

'Do you find ... the youth in the dream ... beautiful, Luke?'

Luke stopped at that. He clutched the blanket tighter around him then realized that honesty was all he had left. His head slumped forward against his chest.

'Yes, very beautiful.'

'I wish I could give you that part of me.'

'No! Don't say that! What I felt ... feel is wrong. It's not something I want ... should want. It's just something cross-wired in my brain.'

Luke thought to himself, `Cross-wired just like the pain I feel in the hand that no longer exists.' Luke flexed the prosthetic hand and felt the phantom ache again, only this time the ache seemed to spread up his whole arm and into his chest. `Something missing I can never get back. But still it wounds me.'

'Not to be trite, my son, but right and wrong are determined by one's point of view.'

'But I know these feelings are wrong, Father! That is my point of view.'

'Yet you still have them, don't you, child?'

Luke's stomach roiled as another flash of memory of the Burning, of his punishment: Uncle Owen's arm upraised above him, spittle on his chapped lips, his eyes glazed over in hate ... lust? `No, Uncle Owen hated me for what he read in my journal. Was horrified by it. My father does not seem horrified. Is that because he sees it as an opportunity to lure me to the Dark Side and him? Or could he feel something for me as I ... No! I will not journey this path. I will stop us both from going down it.'

Luke communicated over the bond, 'I fight these feelings, Father. Sometimes that's all we can do against the darkness in us. Fight it.'

'Ahh, a life of penitence, avoidance and pain, is that what you seek for yourself ... for me? The life of a Jedi. Strange that the self-proclaimed moralists of the universe always seemed to have more than their fair share of neuroses.'

'My wrongness is not caused by being a Jedi. Being a Jedi is the only thing I do that makes up for what I am.'

'And what do you think you are, Luke?'

`What am I?' Luke worried his lower lip. `What am I really?' And to his horror he found the word for it.

'Unclean.' Even Luke's mind voice was a whisper.

Luke closed his eyes again, hating that he believed this, hating that it was true. `Is this why I was unable to complete my training with Yoda? Does it mean I will be unable to rescue my father?' Luke could almost hear Darth Vader's harsh exhale of breath.

'Never say that! Never even think that!' Vader's voice was like a hiss in his mind. The anger coiling like a snake in Luke's thoughts. 'You are ... purity, goodness, light. You are ... Never think or say such a thing again, child of my heart.'

Luke felt his body embraced for a moment. The feeling of strong arms around him, sheltering him from everything, from everyone. How long had it been since he had been held? Truly embraced and cared for? He could not remember it. There had been the times when he received hugs from Leia and Han, but those were brief and congratulatory. They saved their special touches for each other. He was on the outside, looking in with benevolence, perhaps some jealousy, but happy for them all the same. He had accepted long ago that outside was where he belonged. Only with his father had he felt ... a part, included. That is why the dreams, especially the ones of love like he had tonight, had been so precious to him as a child, so precious to him now. He was the center of his father's universe in those dreams. His father would take no other into his heart, because Luke would occupy every space. `Do I not disgust him? Is he not appalled by what I want?' But there was no sense from his father that either of those things were true.

'Come to me, Luke. Or tell me where you are and I will come get you. Be by my side. Where you belong. Where I want you so desperately.'

His father's voice was like a whispered caress, skating across his skin. Luke felt himself tottering. What would it be like to feel those leather clad arms wrapped around him in an embrace? To be loved ... to be accepted ... `No! I have to go to him to save him if I go to him at all. I can't do it for my own needs or desires.'

Luke was about to respond to his father's last plea when he felt it. Yoda's voice was as green colored in Luke's mind as the Jedi Master's body was. But the green of it looked sickly and pale.

'Luke!' Even Yoda's voice sounded weak.

'Yoda?'

Luke could feel his father in his mind, listening but shielding his presence. Shock tinged with anger at Yoda's call to his son.

'Luke, you must ... must go ... to ...'

'Yoda? Where must I go? I can't hear you!'

Yoda's mind voice was gone. Snuffed out like a candle in a windstorm.

'Father, has he died?'

'He should have years ago .... But no, not yet, my son, he still lives.'

'I must go to him.'

'You will not be able to get to him in time ... unless you are one cycle's journey from him. And even then ... it is a vain thing you do Luke. He will not even leave a body behind for you to bury.'

'I must try.'

`I know, Yoda, there is no try only do.' Luke almost smiled at the remembrance.

'Forget that creature. Come to me, son.'

'Father ... I ... please ...'

'You belong by my side ... in my arms. You know this. Your dream was more than just the fantasy of a fatherless child. It is a foretelling.'

'How could that be? You would have to be–'

'Made whole again, young again for it to be true. The Force ... with it nothing is impossible, child of my heart.'

Vader's voice was like dark honey in his mind. Sweet and thick. Drowning him. The voice moved and spread, flowing down his neck, over his shoulders and pooling in his groin. Sweat broke out on Luke's chest. His breathing quickened. The voice reached his cock and wrapped it in a shivery caress. Luke arched up, neck exposed like an offering to a man that was not physically before him.

'Father ... stop this!'

Another stroke brought Luke's semi-erect cock to fullness. He gasped, his hands thumping uselessly against the floor.

'You must be close, son, to feel my caress. Tell me where you are.'

'No! Father, please!'

'Tell me, child.'

The compulsion was so strong and the pleasure nearly undid him. Luke's gaze went to the starscape and Darth Vader seemed to be able to see through Luke's eyes.

'Ah, yes, that will do. If you will not tell me then ... show me where you are, Luke.'

Luke found himself standing. The comforter pooling at his feet. He felt his father's touch tracing the backs of his calves and thighs. Brushes of heat against his buttocks as he walked to the plastiglass and gazed out. Tears started to fall from Luke's eyes as they scanned the viewport by his father's will. The Dark Lord seemed confident that he would be able to locate Luke just by the position of the stars and planets themselves. 'He will come here. Come for me and all who are with me will be destroyed. How close is he? So close. I can tell he is so close.'

'Father, please do not make me betray my friends!'

'They are traitors, son. They must be brought to justice.'

'No! They do what they think is right. Father, I beg of you.'

Fingers seemed to trace Luke's hipbones. The caress dipped down to his navel then brushed the sensitive skin just above his sex. Luke keened in the back of his throat.

'Ah, yes, I know where you are now, child of my heart. Prepare for me. I am coming.'

Only then with fear beating a tattoo against his flesh was Luke able to break the connection between them. The loss of his father's mind touch brought Luke to his knees. He sobbed for the lack of it, shamed beyond words. `I have betrayed the Rebellion by my weakness ... my desire for him.'

Luke struggled to his feet and jumped to the com to contact the bridge.

'I must get these ships away from here. We must jump to hyperspace. I pray to the Force that I am not too late.'

CHAPTER THREE: BLACK HEART OF THE UNIVERSE

Luke jabbed the numbers for the code to the bridge com. Luck was with him as his call was answered by Leia herself. She must have recognized his com number as she said, "Luke, what is it?"

"Vader."

"What?"

"He's coming, Leia. Here. Now. The ships have to get away immediately."

"How do you know, Luke?"

"I ... I just know, Leia. Please trust me on this. Coordinate with the other ships for a destination point."

There was a pause. Luke could hear her breathing. He dressed during the silence, sliding on the black pants, white under shirt and black jacket over it. His leather boots were next. They, too, were black and form-fitting and reached to just below his knees. He clipped his newly built lightsaber to his belt before she spoke again.

"All right. I trust you, Luke. The next logical place for us to go-- "

"Don't tell me!"

"What ... why?"

"Just ... don't. I won't be coming with you. I need to get my X-Wing and Artoo ready."

"Luke! What is going on?"

He ran his hands down the front of his jacket, smoothing out invisible wrinkles. His hands only shook slightly. "I ... I can't explain anything more, Leia. Get these ships out of here."

He turned off the com, cast one more look around the room, knowing he would never be coming back, turned and practically ran out the door. He hardly saw the people he passed in the hallways as he went to the hanger bay. The familiar form of the Millennium Falcon caused him to pause for just a moment at the entrance to the hanger bay, a lump in his throat, before he turned to where his X-Wing was located. 'I do this for them. It's not safe for me to be near my friends any more.'

Leia was nothing if not efficient. She had called down to the hanger bay for them to ready Luke's ship. Artoo was being lifted into his slot as Luke got to the side of the X-Wing. Leia had been very efficient in multiple ways, Luke realized, when a hand landed on his shoulder, a furry hand. Luke turned with a small smile to see Chewie and Han behind him.

"Kid, where do you think you're going?" Han asked, his right eyebrow quirked up and hands on his hips.

'Leia readies my ship for me to leave while at the same time readying Han and Chewie to stop me.' It made Luke smile then frown to think of their caring for him. 'I can't risk them any more. I must go away, far away.' Over Han's shoulder, Luke saw Leia enter the hanger bay, a determined frown marring her elfin features. Her small legs brought her over to him faster than he thought possible.

"He's leaving us, Han. And he isn't planning on coming back, are you, Luke?" Leia's intuition was right on the mark. Her brow was furrowed and her lips were pressed in a tight white line as she regarded Luke with cool eyes.

"I have to go, Leia."

"You give the Rebellion hope, Luke. You're a symbol of far more than you know. Without you ..." Leia's voice faded away.

"Kid, she's right. You're the heart of the Rebellion." Han's eyes narrowed in concern.

Luke sighed and scrubbed his forehead with his real hand. "No, I'm a vulnerability to the Rebellion. Vader can communicate with me by thought ... through the Force. And he's able to do more than that. Tonight he was able to see through my eyes and locate us. No one is safe around me. I must go! Don't you see?"

Leia's brown eyes went wide and a slight grasp came out of her lips. Han went white. Chewie roared in distress. Ever since Bespin their fear and hate of Vader had grown. A panicked tick began at Han's right eye. Leia rubbed her hands together again and again. 'They have to let me go. They can't wish to risk another unplanned encounter with the Dark Lord. If only I could be so sure of my own feelings. I want to see him more than anything yet I want to flee.'

Han wiped his palms down the front of his pants, "Can't you ... block him or something?"

"No ... not entirely, he's too powerful and I'm ... I'm vulnerable to him. Don't ask me anything more. There's no time. You have to get those ships away, Leia."

"They all ready are. The Encounter will be the last to go," Leia said. "But we're not leaving without you."

"You must! It's not safe for me to stay with you ... with anyone I care about. Anywhere I am ... he will come ... he will be able to find me."

Leia worried her bottom lip with her teeth, her eyes focussed inward as she tried to find a solution. "There's something you haven't thought of, Luke," she said softly.

"What?"

"As much as you are a ... threat ... to us, to the Rebellion, if you stay, you may very well be a greater threat if you're on your own. You'll be more vulnerable to being caught by the Empire. And Force knows ... the universe can't survive another Dark Jedi."

Luke could feel time running out as Leia spoke. He swore he heard the rasp of Vader's respirator in his ears and fought the urge to turn around and look for the imposing black figure that made Luke's heart race with conflicting emotions.

"I won't be turned, Leia. And besides ... turning me isn't in Lord Vader's plans anymore," Luke answered her, realizing that he believed what Vader had said earlier. Leia's voice was sharp, the princess, leader of the Rebellion, not the softer tones of Luke's friend.

"What exactly are his plans, Luke?"

"Yeah, kid, he's got to want to turn you to the Dark Side. I mean, Sith, isn't that what you told us that Old Ben and your other teacher warned you about?" Han offered, his handsome face pained.

"They said many things that aren't ... true."

Luke quashed the urge to rage against his two teachers. Or manipulators. 'Sending me to kill my own father unawares as if I could have survived that act. I would have known it was him the moment my light saber passed into his flesh, but by then it would have been too late.'

"Plus while you're right that I could be captured ... at least if I was, I would be the only one."

"You won't let us convince you to stay, will you, Luke?" Leia's eyes filled with tears.

"I can't allow myself to be swayed, Leia."

Luke watched as Han's protective arms went around her shoulders to comfort her. The memory of being embraced through the Force by his father like Han was embracing Leia sent a shiver of desire and regret through him. 'Not for me. Such joy and comfort is not for me.'

"I can't delay any longer," Luke said and began to climb into the cockpit of the X-Wing.

He felt a gentle hand on the back of his calf. He looked over his shoulder and down. Leia's lower lip trembled, but she put on a brave face as she always had.

"We will see you again, Luke. We will make it safe for you to come back to us. Even if I have to be the one to put a blaster bolt in Vader's black heart myself."

Luke didn't trust himself to speak for fear of what might come out. 'He's my father, Leia, I don't want him dead. Or would he say: You know how you feel about Han, well, I feel that way about Vader ... only more.' Shoving down the hysterical laughter that threatened to bubble up, he just nodded and quickly ascended the ladder and slid into the cockpit.

"May the Force be with you!" Han called that familiar greeting and Luke gave him a smile then turned his eyes away from his friends for what he believed would be the last time.

Artoo queried Luke as soon as the canopy came down about their destination.

"Dagobah, Artoo," Luke responded as he strapped on his helmet.

Luke prayed that Yoda would not pass into the Force until he found out what the Jedi Master needed him to do. But perhaps even then Yoda would appear to him as Ben had or at least whisper to him in times of trouble. A stab of loneliness hit him as he realized that soon yet another Force user would be gone from the universe. 'And there are so few of us as there is. Because of Vader. My father.' The blackness of space filled his vision as the X-Wing rushed from the hanger of the Encounter.

He watched as the starship streaked away from him into hyperspace, sending a mental goodbye to Leia, Han and Chewie. The Encounter's departure had been just in time. The pie-shaped mass of the Executor, Vader's ship, appeared not too far from where the rebel ship had been. His father's Star Destroyer carved its way through space rather than flew. It was elegant and deadly, just like Vader. Luke felt a tiny push against his mind as if Vader was knocking, seeing if anyone was home, but he resisted the intrusion this time.

Artoo was already loading the coordinates for Dagobah into the Nav-computer. He needed to get away from his father and he needed all of his mind to do it. Yet he felt a frisson of desire and dread at his father's nearness. Now that he'd had the dream again Luke could no longer deny that Vader raised needs in him he thought long dead. 'I may not be able to stop these feelings but I will not give into them. It is all I have.'

Luke was snapped out of his reverie when the X-Wing gave a jolt. He wondered if he was caught in the Executor's tractor beam. He throttled the ship full forward, but nothing happened.

"Artoo, what's wrong with the ship?"

When Luke felt his X-Wing begin to pivot so that the nose of his craft was pointed towards the planet instead of out into space, he felt the first stirrings of alarm. The ship was perfectly operational, but he was not in control of it. Something had taken over and it was not as crude as a tractor beam. Artoo gave a frightened wail.

"It'll be okay, R2. Just keep monitoring the ship's systems. We'll get out of this yet."

Luke reached out with his Force senses to see if he could determine what was pulling them towards the planet's surface. He was slammed back into his pilot's seat by a swirl of Light and Dark Side energy.

Artoo queried if he was all right.

"Yeah, thanks Artoo," Luke said.

He was grateful that his helmet absorbed most of the blow his head took. 'How can the energy be both from the Light and Dark Sides at the same time? Who could wield the Force like that?' Luke reached out again and touched the vortex of energy that was the cause of his ship's behavior. He traced it back to the planet's surface, but he could find no Force user behind the phenomena. He cut off contact with the energy when he felt it reach towards his mind. Just for moment before contact was totally lost he thought he heard a sound, like the shifting of cloth against cloth, a dry restless sound.

Luke held the useless flight stick tighter in his hand. `What in the Force is down there? And what does it want with me?' The X-Wing's descent began to increase and the planet filled most of the ship's plastiglass canopy too quickly for Luke's comfort. Artoo was frantically relaying to him all it knew about the planet's surface, which it looked like they were going to be visiting whether they wanted to or not. The air was breathable and there appeared to be large masses of life forms, but like Dagobah, nothing that resembled communities, just tons and tons of life.

"Artoo, what's the name of this world?"

Artoo came back with the answer, Radek et Ghul al'Shere, or translated into the native tongue of the explorer who first found it: Black Heart of the Universe.

"Well, isn't that cheery," Luke mumbled underneath his breath.

Artoo answered back that the name might not be a name at all … but a warning instead. Luke snorted. A warning received well too late so it seems. Luke twisted his head to see the Executor. He pressed one hand against the canopy directly over where a sliver of the Star Destroyer was still visible. There was no doubt in his mind that he needed help and for once the thought of Vader coming to get him was more than welcome.

'Father!'

'Child, be calm. I am with you.'

Luke steadied his breathing and forced calmness upon himself like a cloak before he reached for his father's mind again.

'Something or someone using the Force is pulling my ship down to the planet.'

'Yes, young one, so I see and sense. The tractor beam of the Executor cannot stop your descent.'

Luke winced as he felt his father's displeasure with the tractor beam's technician. He wondered if the man were dead due to his failure to help Luke.

'I will be following you down to the planet, young one. I am on my way to the hangar bay now. Remain with your craft when you land. Do not go off on your own.'

Luke smiled at Vader's tone of parental admonishment. He felt a bit like a child in a store being told by their parent not to wander off. He almost laughed at the ridiculousness at that thought. Did the Dark Lord ever do anything so pedestrian as shop?

'I won't go anywhere, Father.'

'We will investigate this phenomenon together. Do not worry. You are never alone so long as I exist.'

Luke felt his chest fill with warmth at his father's words. The fear that had eaten at the edges of his thoughts fell away. He was grateful for Vader's presence and great power. Luke had no doubt that whatever lurked on the planet below would be no match for the Dark Lord. 'Not that I'm exactly helpless myself, but still … it would be good to have him at my back.' On a whim, he sent those feelings to Vader and was rewarded with a wave of pleasure, warmth and comfort from his father. Luke allowed himself to just bathe in those feelings.

His father was the only one that felt so much for him, that gave him so much in terms of emotional connection. Luke had always attributed the lack of emotional closeness he had with people to his strangeness, that they didn't want to get near him even if he longed to be near them. Then he attributed his strangeness to his ability to wield the Force, but even Ben and Yoda, both Force users themselves and obviously not afraid of such ability, had held him away from them as if to get too close was to become … contaminated. Only his father was unafraid of being with him … truly with him. Even when he knew the worst of Luke.

Luke left those thoughts to note that the X-Wing was skimming through the planet's atmosphere. Luke could see a forest's dark green and gold canopy below him. The thickness of the foliage convinced him that very little light would be able to reach the forest's floor. Anything could exist down there … in the dark.

The ship proceeded to make a controlled curve to the right, aiming the ship for what appeared to be a clearing surrounding a large stone structure that jutted out of the ground like a row of broken teeth. The X-Wing landed gently on the ground at the base of a great staircase that led into the structure. Luke's gaze drifted across the strange architecture of the building. It seemed to twist and turn at unnatural angles making him dizzy. The material it was made out of appeared to be a dull stone, the color of dried powdery blood.

'Father, I've landed. There doesn't appear to be anyone near by. It feels … deserted … empty.'

'That may be how it seems but that is not how it necessarily is. Remember your promise not to go off anywhere. Stay with the ship.'

'Yes, Father.' Luke sent a mental sigh with that thought through their connection as if he were a put-upon teenager. He felt Vader's muted amusement trickle back through the connection though there was also a flow of concern that Luke might still do something foolish or reckless. 'Father, can you see through my eyes again?'

'That would not be a wise course considering I have to fly the shuttle and vision is rather … important for that.'

'Oh, right. Good thinking. I just get the feeling that … I'm missing something here. Maybe you would notice it.'

'Tell me what you are seeing and maybe something will come to me.'

Luke realized that if he looked at a specific part of the building rather than the whole, the sense of dizziness retreated. He described to Vader the three flights of worn, wide steps that led up to what appeared to be the main entrance to the structure. If there had ever been doors to this entranceway they had long rotted away.

'The doorway is open, but there's only blackness inside from what I can see. The building itself is at least ten stories tall and at least twice as wide. It's divided into three wings. I can see two towers on the ends of each wing. And large empty balconies jut off the front of each floor. Countless windows, but just like the main doorway all I can see of the inside through them is darkness.'

'Do you feel that this darkness is natural?' Luke stretched out tentatively with the Force, mindful of how the energy sought out his mind before, but when nothing attacked him he pushed out further. 'I … don't think so. The light here is strange. It should be brighter all around but … its not. The energy that brought me here is gone, too. Or at least it's not being focussed on me and I can't feel it. There's a sense of heaviness almost … like the place is leached of life, but at the same time crammed with it. Honestly, it gives me the creeps.'

'Creeps? Hmmm, quite descriptive, young one.'

'Considering I was educated on Tatooine, you're lucky I can string a sentence together.'

'Tatooine? I ... shouldn't be surprised.'

Luke felt Vader's shock through the bond at the mention of Luke's home world. Since Tatooine was the last planet in the universe to cause excitement, his father's reaction was odd.

'Why are you not surprised?'

'I, too, was brought up on that dust ball of a planet. That Obi-Wan should take you there shows great … arrogance … and he was known for his arrogance. It almost equalled mine.'

Luke mulled over Vader's last statement. His father was confident now, as he should be considering his success rate and power, but Luke had never felt any overweening pride from him. But he was a young man, perhaps with a lot to prove, when he was taught by Obi-Wan. Maybe he used arrogance to cover up his fear that he wasn't … what he should be. The last seemed very right to Luke's thinking. He wanted to know his father's struggles so he could reach him, bring him back to the Light, but also just to know his father.

'Will you tell me about … you and Obi-Wan some time?'

'Yes, when you are safe aboard the Executor I will answer all your questions about my old master.' There was a pause and then the Dark Lord asked almost tentatively, 'Who brought you up on Tatooine?'

Luke squashed the image of the second burning from his mind and concentrated on the slithering lines of the structure so that when he said their names there was hardly any pain at all.

'Owen and Beru Lars.'

'So my step-brother and his wife were your guardians? Never let it be said that a person cannot be hidden in plain sight.'

'Step-brother? You knew Uncle Owen then?'

'Barely.'

There was a pulse of pain that the Dark Lord quickly squelched before Luke could get a grip on it. Something about his meeting with them, but Luke couldn't say what it was about that meeting that hurt his father to think about it. With a flicker of anger that his father chose to read his thoughts like a book yet shielded his own mind, Luke jabbed, 'Your Stormtroopers killed them while searching for the droids with the Death Star's plans.'

'Their deaths upset you?' From Vader's nonchalant response to their deaths, Owen and Beru themselves were not the cause of Vader's earlier discomfort. Luke should have known that his barb at his father would come right back at him.

'Of course their deaths upset me!' 'Even though they are the ones that … punished you … for dreaming of me?'

Luke found himself flushing in the cockpit, his face burning. Had his father read his thoughts again? Or did it just make logical sense that his guardians would be the ones to punish him? He never wanted his father to know what they did to him or how he failed during the punishment.

'They did … what they felt they had to do.'

Vader's voice was like a sibilant hiss as he responded, 'What they felt they had to do? Before it sounded like you agreed whole-heartedly with your punishment, but perhaps you don't?'

'I … I don't wish to speak of this anymore. It's irrelevant, Father. I will never act on my feelings—'

'I believe there are two of us in this equation, son, and you cannot speak for me on it.'

'What … what do you mean?' Luke felt every muscle in his body tense at his father's words.

'I think you know, child of my heart.'

'I … don't.'

'Your guilt and shame stops you from seeing the obvious. But perhaps … like the tale of Obi-Wan and myself … this subject should wait until we are alone together in the Executor.'

'I truly don't wish to discuss it more!'

'But I do. So we shall.'

Luke's misery was like a cloud over their mind-link as he thought to himself, `What possible purpose does he have in continuing this discussion? Could he want … want me as a lover? He said I belonged in his arms and that the dream was a vision. But does he want the dream to be more than a dream because it shows him young and whole again … or is truly being with me at least a partial reason for it? No, no, no! I must never give into this … feeling … I have for him. I must content myself with a father's love. That is so much more than I ever expected anyway.'

Vader broke the silence between them by asking more about the structure, 'Does anything about how the building looks tell you its possible purpose?'

Luke thrust aside his discomfort and focussed on his father's question. He craned his neck to the right then to the left to see if there were any other buildings around the one. 'It looks like it's the only structure around, but the forest is so thick outside the clearing that there could be a whole city underneath the canopy and I wouldn't be able to tell. Maybe it's a temple of some sort. That would explain its solitariness.'

Luke stared at the towers that perched on two of the front corners of the structure. They twirled towards the sky in an almost playful fashion. If it weren't for the dullness of the brown stone they were made of and the grimness of the overall aspect of the place, he would find their workmanship beautiful.

His attention was ripped away from the towers by a flash of movement he saw out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head quickly but only saw the dried stubby grass of the clearing and the empty steps.

'I am making my descent now, Luke. I will be with you soon.'

Before Luke could respond to his father, he saw another flash of movement on the other side of the X-Wing.

"Artoo, are you seeing anything out there?"

The droid responded with a screech. There was a hiss and pop followed by the greasy smell of frying electrical circuits. Then Luke heard a tapping on the top of the canopy. He looked directly upwards …

'FATHER! SOMETHING'S HERE! IT'S COMING IN—'

CHAPTER FOUR: MASTER OF HIMSELF AND THE DARKNESS

Darth Vader nearly crushed the shuttle controls when he heard his son's last frantic cry through their mind-link. A cry that was cut off as though slit through with a knife leaving only silence. He could not feel Luke's presence in the Force at all. 'He cannot be dead. I would sense that if he were. He is being hidden from me. Whoever has done this will not prevail.'

Vader channelled the fear and anger he felt into a cold focus on finding and saving his son. Dark Side power filled him. His actions in operating the shuttle became quicker and more precise. He landed the ship smoothly fifty feet from his son's X-Wing. He both saw and sensed that Luke was no longer in his ship or the clearing. The boy had to be shielded from sight by the forest's canopy or in the blood-colored temple.

As Vader strode down the shuttle's gangway into the clearing, his gaze was pulled away from his son's ship to the temple Luke told him about. Even with just a quick glance at it, he understood Luke's difficulty in describing the building. 'It shifts as you look at it.' The lines of the temple that were straight one minute curved sinuously the next making the eye follow angles no human mind could. Vader fought the vertigo that overcame him and wrenched his gaze away from the building. Luke was right. 'It does give one the creeps.' Vader focussed on the downed X-Wing. The ruined temple's mysteries would not distract him; his son was his only priority now.

The Dark Lord saw that the X-Wing's plastiglass canopy was shattered, an almost impossible occurrence without the G-forces of a crash from space or some well-placed laser fire from another ship. 'Yet it looks like someone just punched right through it and pulled Luke out of the cockpit.'

As he got nearer, Vader's heartbeat accelerated. There was a small streak of blood on the pilot's seat. Not enough to suggest a serious injury, but still it indicated that Luke had been hurt. Vader somehow knew that the bright red splash came from Luke and not his attacker or attackers. His son's droid was still in its socket on the ship, but was not operating. A thin trail of gray smoke from sputtering electrical circuits drifted upwards from it. 'Strange, the droid looks almost identical to my old R2 unit.'

He looked away from the ship and began scanning the ground. The Dark Lord's visor gave him several advantages over normal human eyes. One of those advantages was to be able to see minute traces of the passage of animals or people over all types of terrain. The dry stubby grass of the field was no challenge to his enhanced vision and yielded up to him a story of abduction.

It was clear that his son had been dragged by two … creatures … away from his craft. The creatures were not bipedal. Their tracks were s-shaped as if they slithered over the ground instead of walked. The size of the tracks indicated that the creatures were large as well.

Vader tightened his hands into fists at the thought of his small son being abused by these much larger beings. The irony that he had used his own greater size to intimidate his son at Bespin was not lost on him at this moment. That the plan of intimidation had not worked was simply because he did not know his son's psyche well enough then. 'The boy bucks against intimidation; it only makes him fight harder. These creatures must have had their work cut out capturing him.'

The tracks bore that supposition out. There were gouges in the red-brown earth like wounds where his son had dug in his heels and resisted being pulled by the creatures. Luke had even managed to break away from them at one point, trying to run to the forest that surrounded the clearing, but he had only gotten a few feet before being recaptured.

`Why didn't the child use his new lightsaber against them? The boy has a fair hand with a blade. He should have been able to injure the creatures if not destroy them outright.'

The Dark Lord shook his head. There were too many things wrong with this scenario and with this world. Even with his confusion over Luke's failure to use his weapon, Vader was still pleased that his son had fought and apparently fought hard against these creatures.

The Dark Lord had discovered both from that one disastrous encounter with Luke on Bespin and observing the boy's behavior and thoughts over the following months that Luke, for all his small stature, fought with frightening tenacity and courage. 'He has Padme's size, but my fire.'

Vader recognized that Luke also had Padme's delicate beauty, but until the Dark Lord had shared Luke's dream, that recognition had caused him pause. It was one thing to admire his son's loveliness in an abstract way and quite another to wonder what it would be like to crush that small lithe body against his own and stroke the silken hair and skin.

The Sith Lord had despaired following their meeting on Bespin when he could not stop imagining his son's naked golden form against black silk sheets. He had pictured the boy's head arched back as if Luke were offering his bare neck to his father as a sacrifice. Vader believed that these sexual images were coming from the Dark Side, that yet another corrupt path was being offered to him, a path that would lead him to debauch his own son. 'I feared I might force him into bed with me, but now all I need do is show him that there is no shame for what either of us feels and he will be by my side in all ways …a willing, devoted, loving son and mate. And the universe shall be ours to control.'

The Dark Lord continued to follow his son's trail. He automatically noted a few bright splashes of blood in the dead grass, which he hoped were from the earlier wound reopening due to Luke's struggles and not from new injuries. Vader was not surprised that his son's trail led up the stone steps and into the gates of the alien temple.

Vader stood before the entrance, sending out tendrils of Force sense into the darkened rooms beyond. `What gods or philosophies were worshipped here? This place reeks of ancient Force power, but it is strange …not just Dark or Light, but both folded together. An uncomfortable balance.'

Vader wondered if the odd Force presence here had affected his son's abilities, perhaps that was why Luke was unable to use his light saber. Vader felt no diminishment in his own powers but he had wielded the Force far longer and had far more training than his son.

The weak sunlight made little inroads into the temple, but thankfully his visor and his own Dark Side powers allowed him to see very well in the dimness. Suddenly, Vader whipped around to face the tree line that surrounded the clearing. There had been a noise … like cloth shifting against cloth … that seemed to come from the forest, but there was no stir of wind or any sign of movement. Vader then realized why he had been so startled by the slight noise. Other than the raspy hiss of his respirator, the swish of his cape against the ground … and then that dry awful shifting …the place was silent. No animal cries, no rustling of branches, nothing. The planet seemed empty of life yet filled with it. 'Another observation I did not understand when Luke first told me, but now I do when confronted with the contradiction.'

Vader grasped the hilt of his light saber, gave the forest one last searching look and turned to enter the building. This mystery would wait until after he rescued Luke.

The darkness inside was not as absolute as he feared. The main entrance opened up into a large foyer devoid of furnishings or decoration; just pure red stone walls and floors. The ceiling was lost in gloom overhead. There were four doorways out of the foyer. They were taller and narrower than human designed thresholds. And then there was the smell: sweet and pungent like cardamom, but with a bitter, oily undercurrent. Vader gripped the hilt of his lightsaber tighter until the leather of his glove squeaked. Vader didn't need his heightened vision to see which way the creatures had taken his son; the layer of dust that evenly coated the stone floor was disturbed going towards the doorway straight ahead of him.

The Dark Lord quickly walked through the doorway and into the hallway beyond. Even in the dim light, he could see the hallway was composed of the same red stone as the rest of the building. The stone seemed to give off a reddish glow. He brushed his gloved fingers against it as he walked, startled when he sensed heat.

Doorways dotted the walls every few yards leading into darkened rooms, some of which held rotting tapestries, crumbling furniture and glinting electronics that should have been rusted or inoperative, but glowed with energy as if waiting to be used. Vader gave those rooms little attention; just enough to determine that nothing would come shambling out of them to attack.

He was so fixated on the streaks through the dust that he didn't look closely at first at the black object with a glint of silver the size of a clenched fist that lay near the right wall. It was only when he caught a whiff of leather and his son's clean scent from the object did he give it a second glance … then a third … then he picked it up. It was his son's prosthetic hand with his lightsaber still clutched. The wires that trailed out of the wrist connector told him that it had been ripped from Luke's body. Vader's breathing hitched even with the regulation of his respirator. 'Will I find other pieces of my son's body scattered about these halls like discarded children's toys?'

He disengaged the hand from the saber, tossing the prosthetic appendage to the side, while clipping his son's saber to his belt. He quickened his pace down the hallway, his rage and fear feeding the Dark Side energy that fed him in turn. He hardly noticed that the amount of Dark Side energy he was able to take in had increased two-fold from what he had ever been able to absorb before. All Vader's concentration was on the fact that whoever had taken his son, whoever had hurt his son, would pay. The whole planet would pay. And if his son was dead … the whole universe would pay.

Vader was a blur of motion as he practically flew down the hallway, following the twisting, turning trail. More and more Dark Side energy coiled within him, filling him. When he heard Luke's gasping cries from an arched doorway at the end of the hallway, Vader hardly felt the ground beneath his feet.

"Stop! Why are you doing this? What do you want? Ah! No, no, no, NO!" Luke screamed.

Vader charged into the room with his lightsaber ignited. The room was the size and shape of a small amphitheater. Vader stood on a narrow ledge of stone floor that jutted out from the doorway. He had almost stepped off the edge into the black pit that surrounded an island of stone in the center of the room. There was a fifteen-foot span from where Vader stood to the edge of the island. A flickering red Force barrier, the exact shade of Vader's light saber, surrounded the island. How his son and his captors had gotten across the span was a mystery.

Luke was stretched spread-eagle and bound on an altar of pure white stone in the center of the island. Luke's two captors slithered about him; their lower halves that of snakes with the torsos and heads of humans, though with no hair. They hawked over his son's bound body … covetous of his beauty, goodness and innocence.

One of the snake-men turned to face the Dark Lord. Where its eyes should have been there were black pits. The creature's mouth and nose were just slits in its yellowed skin. Vader was paralyzed by the sight of it, but his fear and loathing continued to increase the Dark Side energy that pooled within him. Somehow encounters with countless alien races had not prepared Vader for these … things. They were steeped in the Force, yet seemed so utterly wrong, as if they should not exist.

A forked tongue whispered out of the snake-man's mouth that watched him. It hissed, "Dark Lord."

The way it said Vader's title made it sound more like a question, a mocking question rather than an acknowledgement of Vader's status. Then it tittered confirming its disdain. It turned its back on him and continued the torture of his son. It reached with clawed hands and ripped open the front of Luke's jacket and shirt.

Luke shrieked, "No! Stop! Don't touch me!"

Vader used the Force to throw his lightsaber at the pulsing red barrier. If he could but shatter it he could use the Force to jump across the span. 'The creature will not laugh when I slice it in two with my blade … or rip it a part with my bare hands.'

But the blade did nothing to the barrier. Vader brought the blade back to his hand. He cast a desperate glance up at his son. His child's eyes met his, wet with tears and huge with fear and pain.

"FATHER! HELP ME!"

With Luke's lovely golden skin exposed to it, the snake-man leaned down over the boy and laid its lipless mouth against the center of Luke's chest. It began to suckle. Luke writhed under the creature's vile kiss, his back arching in agony, a thin scream issuing from his lips. Vader could see that the flesh around where the thing sucked was becoming blackened.

"Oh, Father, please help me!" Luke's cry was softer, filled with agony.

With a snarl of rage, Vader threw the blade again and tried to use it to bore through the barrier, but he knew even as he did it that the blade simply did not have the power to breach the barrier. 'I do not have the power to breach the barrier.'

The blade flew back to his grasp. Luke's strangled screams became murmured groans as the blackness from the suckling spread farther over his chest. Vader tried to use his Force push to throw the snake-man off his son, but the barrier stopped him from exercising his powers beyond it.

Vader wanted to scream. His son was dying right in front of him and he could do nothing … nothing. 'I am not what I should be. And my son is going to die for it.' This time instead of blaming others for his weakness, Vader blamed himself. He used that self-hatred to draw in yet more Dark Side power. He was filled to the brink with energy, more Force than flesh, but he knew it would not be enough.

Just then Luke let out a low moan, drawing his Father's attention to his son's face again. Luke's eyes fluttered open and their gazes met. Amazingly, Luke smiled at him. And Vader knew the boy was saying goodbye and telling him that he forgave him for not saving him, forgave his father his weakness. He was telling Vader that he loved him. Just then as his son's body seemed to pulse with white light, Vader heard the horrible dry shifting sound again and recognized it for what it was this time. It was the sound of the Dark Side itself speaking to him in its leathery voice. Give yourself up to me, my Dark Lord, my Chosen One. Be what you should be and you will have the power to save your son.

Vader was stymied and frantic as the seconds passed and the end of his child's existence drew ever nearer. Had he not already given himself up to the Dark Side? Had he not slaughtered younglings and every Jedi he could find all those years ago? He had even killed his beloved wife under the Dark Side's sway. How could he not be the Dark Side's already?

Luke's fair head thrashed against the altar and then Vader understood. He was still a slave. First, Watto, then the Jedi and finally the Emperor had controlled him and his destiny. They had told him what to do and he had followed their directions. As their slave, he did not own himself. He could not give what he did not own to the Darkness. He had to become the master of himself and then he would become the Master of the Dark Side. This would allow him to become what he should be. If he did not succeed in freeing himself then his son would perish. There was simply no other choice.

Vader reached within himself and cut his connection to the Emperor. For the first time he was adrift without another to control him, to define him. No longer any mortal's apprentice or servant, Vader felt as if the universe was falling around him, smothering him in blackness, but then he saw a chink of light: his love for his son. Vader released his fear, embraced his freedom, and let himself go completely into the Darkness, holding the love he had for his child like a torch to light his way.

CHAPTER FIVE: THE NEW SACRIFICE

Luke awoke like a swimmer coming out of deep water. As he sat upright in bed, he gasped for breath. Black silk sheets skimmed down his naked chest and pooled at his waist. The first thing he saw was his father standing against a backdrop of stars and the green gold planet named Black Heart of the Universe. That the stars and planets themselves should just be background for his father did not seem strange to Luke. It seemed right.

Force power swirled around his father like a second cloak. Luke felt the need to rise and walk to his father, kneel down before him and rest his head against one of the Dark Lord's powerful thighs. He could almost smell Vader's leather armor, feel the slickness of it against his cheek, and imagine the taste of it as he placed open mouth kisses along the interior of his father's legs.

Luke's thoughts stuttered to a halt as he felt his own hand go to the sheets, about to cast them back, get up and do these acts. Luke shook his head violently. 'What am I thinking? I must not … will not …absolutely cannot do those things!'

Luke wondered for a brief moment why the sexual thoughts towards his father were so fully formed and clear when the rest of his thinking was so fuzzy and strange. But the question left him, evaporating like smoke.

Luke took in his surroundings. They were on the Executor. Vader stood before a viewport at the side of Luke's bed. The Dark Lord wasn't standing in the midst of space like he had at first seemed to be. Luke had been attacked while down on the planet (by terrible, malignant creatures). His father had …saved him … then brought them both back aboard his flagship. And there was one other thing Luke realized: his father was changed. Something had happened on the planet to Vader, something profound. Luke felt that his father now had the power to extinguish the light of every star that could be seen from the viewport with just a thought. 'How can that be? When did he become so powerful? How could any Force user become that powerful? And the Force power that surrounds him … it's like the energy I felt coming off of Black Heart. Darkness and Light with a tilt towards more Darkness, but the Light is clearly there! I sense warmth … love from him. Love for me.'

"How do you feel, my son?" Father asked in his darkest honey voice that made Luke shaky with needs he didn't know how to fill.

"I … okay. Strange. I … I don't know," Luke stammered.

Luke looked down at his chest, expecting to see ripped, blackened flesh from where the creature had bitten him and drank. But his skin was smooth and warm. Then Luke froze for he was touching his chest with his right hand … yet his prosthetic hand had been torn from him on the planet by the snake creatures and this was not another false appendage. It was flesh and blood. Luke felt hysteria bubble up in his chest. Had Vader rescued his real hand from Bespin and somehow preserved it only to reattach it now? But that was impossible. Maybe the Empire had devised a way to clone limbs.

"How?" Luke said simply as he extended his new flesh and blood right hand to Vader.

Vader reached with his own hands and clasped his son's new one between them. The leather of his father's gloves was soft. 'This is the first time I've ever knowingly touched him.' Luke shivered at how right it felt.

"You regrew your hand with your Force healing power," Vader answered him.

"What? No, I couldn't have! I—"

"You did."

"How is that possible? I didn't think that even the Jedi could regrow human limbs!"

"It has not been achieved before … as far as I know. But you are changed, my child. You are more than what you were and you were already great in the Force," Vader explained. "When I … saved you … you were almost one with the Force. You were slipping away and I brought you back."

Luke struggled to understand what his father was saying. 'I almost died? Yes, that's right. I was letting go, but before I did I wanted to let Father know that I loved him and then … then … I don't remember! Why don't I remember what happened next?' Luke thumped his free hand against the mattress. That act made him realize his other hand was still carefully enclosed by his father's. He flushed at the pleasure of his father's willing touch: enjoying the heat and silky feel of his father's grasp. 'How easy it is to forget how a real hand soaks up warmth. So different than a prosthetic. How must it be for father having such little flesh left? Is he always cold? If only he could regain his limbs! Could I help make that happen?'

"Father … do you believe I could duplicate what I did with my hand for … for you?"

"You mean regrow my limbs? Heal my body?" Vader's voice was so neutral, Luke did not know what the Dark Lord thought of his statement.

"Yes, do you think—"

"The extent of your change is … unknown. I believe your powers will grow over time. So yes, it could be possible."

"I want to try … if you're willing that is," Luke said. 'Perhaps if his body is healed, his mind might heal as well, and he will abandon the Darkness that still rules him and feed the Light that is there now, too.'

Vader chuckled. "I am willing to be your guinea pig, my son, but I think you may need some practice runs before we attempt anything on my poor form."

Luke nodded quickly. He only had to think of some of his disastrous training sessions with Yoda in order to know that a lot of practice would be in order before he tried to heal his father. He was positive that something he had done with seeming ease while unconscious to his own body would not be so easy when he was awake and trying to duplicate it on another's. Luke felt a burst of his father's awesome power through their handclasp.

"I am not the only one changed, am I, Father? You are … more than you were, too."

"Yes."

"But you were not close to death … were you?" Luke stared at his father's visor, wishing he could see his eyes, read his father's emotions from them.

"Not in the way you think. My old life is … dead. I am now … a Master."

"A Jedi or … Sith Master?" Luke was uncertain what his father meant, but felt there was knowledge here that was important to understand.

"My own master," Vader answered softly, almost absently then he shook his head as if to clear it. "This conversation is not … productive right now."

"I'm sorry, Father. I didn't mean to ask so many questions. I just wish to understand what's happened to us," Luke said.

"I know, child of my heart, and you will. Just not all at once and not tonight," Vader said and squeezed his son's smaller hand gently. "You still need to rest."

Vader helped Luke slide back under the covers, only releasing the boy's new hand as he brought the sheets up over Luke's bare chest. Vader perched on the edge of the bed. Luke shifted over on his side so that he could look at Vader more easily. When he did, one of his knees brushed up against one of the Dark Lord's thighs. He quickly drew it back, but not before he noticed that his father's thigh was indeed as heavily muscled and firm as he'd imagined earlier. 'It would have to be in order to move those heavy prosthetic limbs he has.' Luke blushed at the image of that powerful thigh spreading his own bare legs.

"Quite a thrilling vision, young one, please go on," Vader said.

"Must you read my private thoughts?" Luke bleated out.

"I'm afraid that you rather screamed that last image to the universe," Vader told him and laughed.

Luke flushed a deep crimson, "So any Force sensitive person can hear my thoughts?"

"Only a powerful one."

Luke covered his face with his hands while he mumbled, "Please tell me that the Emperor has not heard the thoughts I've had about you."

"I am blocking them from him," Vader said. "Your thoughts … especially the ones of me … are not for him to experience or … enjoy."

Luke laughed bitterly, "I'm sure that he would enjoy them. Enjoy using them against me."

"You need never worry about the Emperor again, my son." The definiteness with which Vader said that statement caused Luke to start.

"This has something to do with you being your own master now, doesn't it?"

Luke's intuition was correct as Vader nodded. "Palpatine is no longer … a threat. Only an annoyance that will be destroyed in due time."

Luke felt a chill run down his spine. He didn't doubt Vader's words. He believed that now with Vader's massively increased powers the Emperor was only an annoyance. Luke also noticed that his father no longer called the Emperor by his honorific title of Master.

"I take it that you no longer plan to turn me over to him then?"

"No, never. You are mine."

Luke's back stiffened at his father's possessive tone. "I am my own, Father."

Vader nodded slowly, "Yes, my son, you are your own … as well."

Luke watched with wide eyes as Vader slowly reached forward and began to stroke his hair. Goosebumps covered his arms. His touch is so gentle. 'Strange to think that the only other "caress" I've had from him before was that of his blade through my wrist.' Luke flexed his new hand under the covers, relishing the sensitivity of the flesh and blood appendage, as he skimmed the silk sheets with the pads of his fingers.

"My child, I noticed as I undressed you—"

"Undressed me!" Luke flew upright in the bed.

"Yes, I undressed you. I could not very well leave you in the rags those creatures made of your clothing," Vader explained patiently, but Luke swore he heard amusement in the mechanical voice.

"But you were the one to undress me? Not a droid or something?"

"Yes, I thought you would appreciate the fact that I unclothed you and did not give such an … intimate … task to another." Vader gently pushed Luke back against the pillows and continued to pet his head.

"But—"

"I don't believe there are any `buts,' Luke."

"I suppose. It's just …"

"Just what?"

"I haven't been undressed by someone since I was two!" Luke explained.

"Hmmm. Well, now you have had the experience again. Perhaps it will not be the last time you are undressed by another. And next time you will not be unconscious and will get to enjoy the experience." Now Luke was certain he heard laughter in his father's tone. "As I was saying, child, when I undressed you, I noticed that you have scars … along you lower back. Your increased Force powers would have gotten rid of those when it regenerated your hand yet … even unconscious you fought their healing. Why?"

Luke froze as his father mentioned the scars on his back. 'Please, Father, let us not talk of this. Do not probe in this dark place within me.' Just thinking about the scars made him remember the punishment. He could almost hear the whistle the belt made as it came down on his lower back. Just for a moment, he felt Uncle Owen's breath, scented with spice, brush across his shoulders as the man exhaled with every blow. Then came the Burning. 'Oh, Force, I do not wish to remember that.'

"I … I don't know why I did not allow them to heal," Luke mumbled, his eyes skittering away from his father.

Vader's hand stilled in his stroking of Luke's hair. "Do not lie to me, Luke. I will not tolerate lies from your mouth … no matter how sweet that mouth is."

Luke felt flushed and chilled under his father's ebony gaze. 'My mouth looks … sweet to him?'

"The scars are from my … punishment."

"For dreaming of me?"

Luke nodded then rolled onto his other side so his back was towards his father. He scrunched his body into a tight ball. The sheets were pulled down as he shifted; revealing his scarred lower back. He felt his father trace those scars with his fingertips. Luke tried to squirm away from that touch, but his father gripped his exposed hip and kept him in place. Vader then pressed his left hand flush against Luke's marked skin. Luke shivered. The scars had always been sensitive, but under his father's touch they burned. Luke found himself wondering what it would feel like to have his father's chest pressed up against the scars as he thrust into Luke's most intimate place. Sweat and leather and scarred skin. Luke shook with it. 'What is wrong with me? How can I think these things?'

Vader began stroking the scars again as his deep voice rumbled, "Even marred like this you are still so lovely. So beautiful, my son."

Luke squeezed his eyes shut and said, "Please, Father, do not … play with me. I know I am not … lovely or beautiful. And I know that you do not truly feel as … as I shamefully do. You are just saying these things to … to manipulate me somehow."

"You assume much, child, and all of it wrong," Vader's voice took on a decidedly cool note. "Your lack of faith in your desirability disturbs me greatly. Does this stem from your time with Owen and Beru or is there more to it than that?"

With the end of that statement, the Dark Lord began raking through Luke's memories. With a burst of fury, Luke threw his father out of his mind while at the same time scuttling away from Vader's physical touch. Luke slid off the other side of the bed from the Dark Lord.

Red with anger, Luke spit out, "Never paw through my mind again! If I wish you to know something, I will tell you!"

Vader stood, his huge form blocking out the little light brought into the room through the viewport. Luke felt a cold trill of fear as his father's anger spilled out at him in the form of Dark Side energy. It rolled across the room in black waves, surrounding Luke in a blanket of darkness; Luke felt crushed under its weight. He stumbled, almost fell down to his knees. The icy chill froze his lungs.

"Father! Please, stop!" Luke gasped for breath when the crushing waves of Force abruptly retreated. There was a tense silence broken only by the sound of Vader's respirator and Luke's tortured breaths. "Need I fear your temper every time we disagree, Father?" Luke wheezed.

Vader was silent for a moment. His hands tightened into fists then released. "No, young one. I will not hurt you … again … merely because we disagree. But you should be more careful of your tongue and actions around me. I am not used to defiance and I do not tolerate it well."

"I wasn't being defiant." Luke heard Vader's snort of disbelief then Luke added, "I wasn't meaning to be defiant then. But you have no right to rummage through my mind without my permission!"

Vader's voice was clipped and cold. "I am your father. I have the right to know what has caused this harm to your psyche. I must know in order to help you and you are not inclined to be truthful or forthcoming about it with me."

"That is my choice, Father. My choice whether or not to accept your help. My choice whether or not to tell you of my history, thoughts and feelings. My choices, Father. Mine."

"You are incorrect, child. Those choices are actually mine," Vader said. "You have lived too long without my guidance and your mind and body have suffered for it. As your parent I must do what is best for you even if you do not like it."

"I am hardly a child anymore, Father. I have my own will and intelligence. I use both to make decisions for myself," Luke said as he drew himself up to his full height. 'If only I were taller this would make more of an impression. I must look like a mouse trying to scare a tree by standing up on my hind legs.'

Vader seemed to straighten up as well and unlike his son, his formidable height seemed to cast a shadow over the boy. "I see. You think because you have reached the cusp of manhood that you do not need a father's guidance or advice."

"I did not say that! I would … value your guidance and advice, but I will not give up my will to you and blindly obey … even though you are my father."

Vader's voice changed from edged to purring in moments. "What if I were also your lover as well as your father? Would you obey me then?"

"What?" Gooseflesh coated Luke's arms.

"I have found that people who will not listen to a parent's commands are more than willing to listen to a lover's. Is that true of you, Luke?"

"We aren't lovers so it's—"

"But if we were."

"But we are not! We will never be, because you are my father!"

Vader was silent. He cocked his head to one side as if Luke were some interesting animal he was studying … studying to take apart.

"Why do you fight your sexual feelings towards me, Luke?"

Luke's mouth fell open. "Because … because they are … wrong. You are my father … I should not … not feel or … want that with you!"

"So it is not sexual thoughts in general that distress you?"

"No, of course not!" Luke crossed his arms over his bare chest, suddenly very aware that he was wearing only a pair of form fitting black boxers.

"Really? You've had many lovers then in your life with whom you've enjoyed … sexual intimacies?"

Luke scowled. "The number of lovers I've had—"

"How many?" Vader pressed.

Luke scowled harder at his father, "That's irrelevant!"

"Only because you do not wish to reveal the number to me," Vader commented softly.

"None! Okay, I've had none. No lovers. I've only been kissed once and that was by Leia to make Han jealous. Satisfied, Father?" Luke's chest heaved. He tried to find that peaceful center of himself, but it seemed to elude him entirely.

"Why have you had none?" Vader idly traced the edges of the viewport as he asked, his voice even softer than before.

"What?" Luke's throat tightened and he suddenly didn't feel like he could swallow.

"My impression was that you trained with Obi-Wan then Yoda for only a short time. So you had many teenage hormonal years before their ridiculous notions of celibacy would have been pressed upon you. So why have you had no lovers?"

Vader dropped his hand from the viewport and turned his attention fully on Luke. It felt like a laser, boring through Luke's defenses.

"I … I don't know," Luke mumbled. "People just weren't … interested, I guess."

Luke thought, 'And I was obsessed with you most of those years. Force, like I am now.'

"Not interested? When you look like you do?"

"Look like what?" Luke glanced down at his own body to see what Vader was talking about.

"When you look as lovely as you do," Vader husked softly and Luke saw him glance at the black silk sheets of the bed as if remembering Luke upon them.

Luke pressed his lips tight together, a tremor running through him. "I'm not lovely or beautiful or handsome or any of those things!"

"So you say. What about accomplished?"

"Accomplished?" Luke snorted, his mind flashing back to his failures at training with Yoda.

"Yes, accomplished, oh great destroyer of the Death Star, hero of the Rebellion, last remaining Jedi Knight," Vader said.

"By the time I … I was accomplished as you say, I had already begun my Jedi training and knew about the … the celibacy thing," Luke answered. Silently adding, 'And therefore I had an excuse not to seek out romantic attachments.'

"And you were never tempted to break that rule? Even when men and women were beating down your door? To bed a hero is an aphrodisiac to most," Vader observed and Luke could almost imagine Vader cocking an eyebrow up at him under the mask.

"No one was beating down my door exactly. Besides with a war on and constantly having to evade Imperials, romance was not high on my to- do list," Luke said.

"But it appears that it was high on Princess Leia's and General Solo's lists? And probably high on everyone else's lists in the Rebellion who were faced with very little chance of there being a tomorrow, I would imagine."

Luke shut his eyes tightly for a moment and kept them closed as he finally spoke at least part of the truth to his father, "People find me … off-putting somehow. They might admire me from afar, but no one wants to … know me … be with me. Not romantically anyways."

"You are an icon to them. A symbol," Vader said. "No one romances a symbol."

"Like you are a symbol for the Empire?"

"Ah, but it is easier for me. I do not look for romance … or I have not. In the past, I have merely taken those I wished to. Quenched my thirst in willing or unwilling bodies and moved on."

Vader shrugged as if his mention of coercion of bed partners was nothing extraordinary. Luke's blue eyes opened wide and he looked at the strong, imposing black clad figure, wondering how many were taken against their will and how many more wished fervently that it was them in Vader's bed. 'And what do I wish?'

"You've … raped … people?" Luke's voice was hoarse.

Vader looked at him a long quiet moment, "They gave me what I wanted, because I am who I am. Would they have chosen it otherwise … sought me out? Some would not have for sure.

"And you are alright with that? Knowing that they … gave into you, because you are the Dark Lord of the Sith?" Luke clenched his fists at his side, unable to comprehend his father's matter of fact attitude about this.

"They received pleasure from the experience."

"How can you know?"

"Because I was in their minds when I took them."

Luke gasped. He sat down on the edge of the bed, his legs suddenly unable to hold him. With his back to Vader, all he could hear was his father's beautiful voice answering him, but its beauty, like the whole of the Dark Lord's allure, could be like a poisonous flower.

"You are innocent, Luke, when it comes to the ways people truly interact with each other. Even though I sense that you have been hurt grievously, you believe in the intrinsic goodness of people. I suppose I should be grateful for that considering it was what allowed you to see past my … mask."

"Why could you not satisfy yourself with those who were willing? I am sure there were many of those," Luke said weakly, his hands fisting in the silk coverlet; the material felt like water underneath his hands and he couldn't hold onto it.

"Because sometimes the unwilling ones … or I should say the ones that are unwilling at first are far more … satisfying."

Luke's back twitched. His father suddenly sounded much closer than he had before. Luke felt the whisper of a touch between his shoulder blades. He scrambled to his feet, whirling around to face his father. The Dark Lord had not moved from his position by the viewport, or at least he had managed to get back there before Luke could turn and face him.

"But you need not worry, young one."

"Worry about what?" Luke's voice sounded so small and breathless.

"I have no desire to seek out other bed partners now."

"Other?" Luke felt sweat break out across his upper lip and his palms.

"Yes, other. I have all I want … right here," Vader's voice was low and smooth. He stepped around to the foot of the bed, the distance between father and son suddenly halving.

"You mean … you mean …" Luke repeated, swallowing hard, his eye flickering to the door then to the bed as if he could not decide where he wished his legs would take him.

"I mean I desire only one person now. The one I died for and was reborn for. The light in my darkness."

Vader took another step forward. Luke retreated until his naked back was flush up against one of the bedroom's walls. Vader crossed those last feet between them. He reached forward and traced Luke's cheek with one gloved index finger. Luke's breathing deepened. His face flushed pink and his blue eyes dilated. 'I'm on fire. I'm burning.'

"You are the only one I wish in my bed, child of my heart. I pray that you come to it willingly … for you will come to it either way."

"No … no, Father, we cannot … must not do this!"

Luke's mind felt like it was short circuiting. Vader brushed a gloved thumb across his son's full pink lips. Luke moaned softly, but bit his lip to cut off the wanton sound.

"Oh, but my son, my beautiful, responsive son, we are destined to be together not only as parent and child but as lovers. It is the will of the Force."

"No no no no," Luke said as he thrashed his head back and forth against the wall.

"Let me show you that we are meant. Your body already knows that you are mine, now your mind just needs to catch up."

Vader cupped his son's chin, stopping the boy from shaking his head and making him look up at his father. "I wish I could … kiss you right this moment, Luke. But …" Vader's head tilted to the side. "The Force provides as it does in so many cases."

Suddenly, Luke felt lips pressed against his own, it was the ghost of a kiss, a kiss through the Force. His father's hands roamed his muscled arms and chest while the ghost kiss continued. Vader twisted Luke's nipples until they pebbled beneath his hands. Luke cried out and arched against his father's leather clad body. The feeling of his father's form, hard and strong and demanding, against his own sent shockwaves through Luke.

"Please … oh, please, Father!" Luke cried, not knowing whether he wanted Vader to stop or bring this fire within him to greater heights Vader's hands trailed down his son's chest, past the soft downy hair of his son's lower stomach to the top of the black briefs. Luke thrust up against his father's hand unconsciously. The boy keened in the back of his throat. Vader grasped his son's arousal through the shorts. Luke's member twitched and throbbed as Vader stroked it.

"See your body knows to whom it belongs," Vader said. "It knows its mine."

"Do not say that, Father! Do not think it! We must … fight this temptation … whatever it is between us!" Luke sobbed and ripped himself out of Vader's grasp. His erection ached, demanding to be put back in his father's capable hands, but Luke ignored its pleas. Instead, he sank down on the floor, brought his knees up to his chest, and wrapped his arms around them. Vader loomed over him, so close that his cape brushed against Luke's skin.

Yet Vader's voice was softer, gentler than it had ever been, "You want to be with me so much yet you fight it twice as hard. It is more than the prohibition against incest that fuels you. Why do you do this, Luke?"

"Because I … love you." Luke's voice broke at the end.

"You love me?" Vader repeated and there was a note of wonder there just for a moment. "But that is illogical, my son. Why should your love of me make you deny your desire for me? I have made it perfectly clear that your desire is very welcome."

"If I give in to this desire … if we become lovers … then I cannot help you get back to the Light. And I do not think that there is anyone else in the universe that you would let close enough to bring you back there," Luke explained softly, his chin pressed tight against the tops of his knees. "So if I fail then … you may be forever lost to the Dark Side."

Vader gave a bark of laughter, "I am beyond the Light, child. I am the Dark."

"You are not as black as all that, Father. I feel the goodness in you."

"That is my love for you that you sense, child of my heart. Love flourishes in the Dark."

"Possession, obsession and unnatural lust, not love, are what reside in the Dark, Darth Vader," Obi-Wan's voice shattered the communion between father and son.

"Obi-Wan, I see that killing you was not enough to stop your incessant lecturing," Darth Vader said as he pivoted on his heels to face the misty blue figure that appeared at the edge of the bed.

Luke peered up at his old master, quickly wiped the tears from his face, and tottered to his feet, "Ben!"

Obi-Wan gave Luke a smile, but it was small and tinged with sadness and something else. Fear. 'But why? Why would Ben fear me?' Obi-Wan for all his bravado towards Vader also seemed more disturbed by the Dark Lord now then he ever had in life. His misty form seemed to retreat from Luke's father's presence. Vader, for his part, appeared to enjoy stalking the dead Jedi around the room. Luke found his voice again, "Ben, why did you not tell me Vader is my father? Why did you tell me Vader killed my father?"

The misty form wavered, but Ben tried to put on a serene countenance, "What I told you was the truth … from a certain point of view."

Vader gave a quick bark of anger and his gaze met his son's as he said, "The depth of your lies amazes even me, Obi-Wan."

Luke clenched his hands into fists. His body pounded with anger. 'Could Ben be so … arrogant … as to still defend his actions? Act as if what he told me wasn't a truth so twisted it could only be a lie?' But then Luke looked over at his father and a part of him softened. Whatever Obi Wan and Yoda had intended by their deceit they had not succeeded. He knew Vader was his father. They were together now … with a whole new set of issues, but together.

Luke took his anger towards the old Jedi and let it go. When he focused back on Ben again, he realized that his old teacher was staring at his regrown hand. Luke flexed it and offered Ben a closer look … if dead Jedi need to physically be closer to see anything!

"How …" Ben began and stopped. He seemed paralyzed by the sight of Luke's new hand.

"I regrew it," Luke explained.

"But no one has the power to—" Ben cut himself off as he turned and looked at Vader.

That sense of change Luke had noticed earlier about his father was more pronounced. The Dark Lord's power was like a mantle over them, velvety blackness that pulsed with purple light. But there was Light Force energy present, too, a cool blue white, that was wrapped up inexplicably with the Dark. Like snakes coiled about each other. Luke realized that this was but a taste of the boundless energy that Vader now controlled.

"What has happened here?" Ben's voice sounded raspy, breathless, frightened. "You are both … what has happened?"

"Does not your oneness with the Force tell you what has happened, Obi-Wan?" Vader's voice was heavily laced with sarcasm. "Are you not supposed to be all knowing and all powerful now that you have joined with the Light Side?"

Ben frowned and his image shivered for a moment. Vader's melodious voice rolled on, "I see you are not all you thought you would be in your afterlife with the Force. Fascinating."

"The only fascinating thing, Darth, is that you are not festering where you stand with that much Dark Side energy flowing through you," Ben said.

"Your understanding of the Force, let alone its Dark Side, is hardly a definitive one. You are like a customer who enters a store and sees only one item that store offers even though there are millions of items actually there. That is the Force to you. It is why you are so ignorant."

Ben stared past Vader to Luke, his eyes flickering down to the regrown hand. "You are wrong, Darth."

"But you fear I am not," Vader said. "I fear nothing."

"Now that is most certainly a lie, Obi-Wan," Vader laughed.

"Ben," Luke tentatively began. "Ben, what is going on here? You do seem … afraid. Even of me."

"I am not afraid, Luke. I am disturbed, because there is something more unnatural going on here than your attraction to each other," Ben said and Luke flinched at the word unnatural. Ben softened his tone, "Luke, you must listen to me. In order to bring balance to the Force you must destroy Vader!"

Luke was shaking his head before he said, "No! I could never … would never do that now that I know he is my father."

"Do you honestly believe that patricide will balance the Force?" Vader asked the dead Jedi. "Such an evil act. An act that would not only destroy the father, but the son as well in its wake."

Luke searched Obi Wan's flickering countenance. "Ben, I would have known Vader was my father the moment I struck him down and that … that would have killed me, too. How could you not have realized that then? How can you not realize it would destroy me to kill him now?"

"I'm afraid, child of my heart, he did and does realize that. He knew exactly what would happen to you when he began this game. He just did not care," Vader answered.

"No! Ben, tell him that isn't true. I was your student … your friend! You wouldn't have betrayed me like that!"

Luke was shaking. He could see his own hands trembling in front of him as he reached out to the incorporeal form of his old teacher. Ben's face was strangely unexpressive. His eyes were fixed on Luke's face, but they showed nothing.

"Some things are worth more than an individual life, Luke."

"What are you saying?" Luke asked.

"Only that what I did … what Yoda did … was for the greater good, but it required sacrifice. Your life was … what was needed," Ben explained slowly.

"But it's my life, Ben. It wasn't yours to … sacrifice," Luke breathed the last words. He felt so cold. He had never felt this cold before. Not even when he'd left Tatooine for the first time and was in space. Luke's teeth began to chatter and he hunched down to try and get warm.

"I would think the Jedi would know better than to meddle with people's lives in order to bring about some outcome in their favor," Vader said by Luke's shoulder.

"After all, the last time they did so they were cut down like wheat." Vader covered his son's shaking body with a blanket then steadied the boy gently against his chest. Luke turned his head to press his cheek against Vader's arm.

"You must understand, Luke, that it gave me no pleasure thinking that you might die. But you were our only hope," Obi-Wan said, his blue form going thready and indistinct for a moment.

Luke realized the wetness that he felt on his face were more tears. He expected them to freeze to his face he was so chilled. But something about Ben's statement that Luke was the only hope rang false and filled him with heat. 'He believes there is another. Another person he can influence to kill Vader … to kill me, too.'

Luke's head whipped forward to face the dead Jedi. Luke's eyes burned with a white hot flame. "You are lying again, Ben. You are going to try and recruit another to murder Vader and … me. Who is it? Who are you going to convince to sacrifice for your vision of the universe?"

Ben retreated from the preternatural radiance of the boy's eyes. The old Jedi actually raised his hands up in front of him as if he were warding off a blow. Vader chuckled at the spirit's display.

"Ben, who are you going to lie to next? Tell me who you seek to betray us!"

The dead Jedi did not answer. Instead, Ben's misty form broke apart into a million glowing pieces that slowly winked out. As the last fragment died, Luke turned to look up at his father's visor.

"Did he reveal to you who it is that he seeks to turn against us, son?"

Luke nodded. His blue eyes filled with tears that he blinked back. "Leia. He seeks Leia."

CHAPTER SIX: BEHIND THE MASK

Vader watched his son fight back tears. Obi-Wan's betrayal was like a brand on Luke's psyche. It was so strong that Vader himself felt the burn of it through their bond. Vader gently squeezed one of his son's shoulders and the boy drew nearer to him, half resting his head against Vader's chest. Luke's ragged breathing eased and the sensation of being scalded faded the longer Vader held him. The silence in the room was broken by the discreet sound of the com chiming.

Vader opened the channel with a wave of his hand and Admiral Piett's voice flowed into the room. "Lord Vader, the Emperor wishes to communicate with you via the holonet."

The boy tensed in Vader's light embrace. Luke's crystalline eyes searched the mask as if the piece of durasteel would reveal Vader's intent. Just for a moment, Vader wondered if somehow Luke could see through it to the real him with the Force. He found the thought both disquieting and intriguing. He did not want his son to see his ruined visage until after their physical relationship began. It would be easier to persuade the boy into bed that way. 'We will be everything to each other if only I can break through the restrictions he has set up around himself against it.'

"Put the Emperor through to the holonet chamber in my quarters, Admiral."

"Yes, Lord Vader."

The com clicked off and the silence was back except for the mechanical sound of Vader's respirator. Luke tightened his grip on the blanket around his shoulders, but the boy's face remained upturned to watch his. Again that urge to lean down and kiss those full lips presented itself to Vader. How long had it been since he'd had the desire to kiss? Not since his first few years under the mask. But that had been born out of habit, not actual desire to connect with another person.

"What does the Emperor want? Does he know about ... about me being here?"

"He felt me withdraw from him on Black Heart. I broke our master-apprentice bond. I am surprised that he did not attempt to communicate with me earlier."

But then again Vader's surprise was not all that great. Palpatine had been slipping of late: allowing the Rebellion to get out of hand, taxing onerously, inciting petty feuds where order would serve better, not to mention the massive destruction of life through the Death Star and other biological and chemical weapons. Killing and fear were all well and good, but overused they made even the most docile people rebel. Palpatine was also busy training another apprentice, Mara Jade, code-named the Emperor's Hand. Palpatine believed that Vader was unaware of her existence, but even before the change he underwent on Black Heart, Vader knew of the Emperor's plans in that arena. The Dark Lord intended to enjoy destroying another one of his old masters and his new pet. But first he had other things to attend to. Like seducing his son.

Vader tenderly brushed a stray lock of hair from Luke's forehead. The boy leaned into the touch instinctively, and then when he caught himself doing so, quickly pulled back. Vader chuckled at that and Luke bit his lower lip, but he also gave his father one of those serene yet challenging Jedi looks that seemed to say, 'Yes, Father, you may know my weakness, but I intend to fight you every step of the way.' Despite what he had told Luke earlier, his son's defiance was refreshing and almost welcome.

"Can the Emperor not talk to you like we do with our minds?" Luke asked.

"If I allowed it."

"But you don't allow it?" Luke's right eyebrow quirked up and a slight smile touched his lips.

"No, child of my heart, I do not allow it. I have never wished to have such an intimate connection between him and I."

He saw the boy frown at his use of that term of endearment coupled with the belief that their mind-talk was somehow sexual. 'The child had a one-track mind though he denies that sex is important to him.'

"Intimate and illicit are two different things, Luke."

Luke closed his eyes for a moment. Vader cupped Luke's face with one hand and the boy's eyes opened slowly to fix on Vader's visor.

'I … I don't wish to stop communicating this way even if it is … illicit. It makes me feel closer to you in a good way. I don't want to lose that.'

'Brave child.'

Luke gave him a half-smile. 'You've no idea.'

'I might have some. You are my son after all. But I look forward to you surprising me.'

Vader was pleased when Luke did not draw away from his touch or their embrace. He wondered if it was a weakening in the boy's resolve to deny their attraction for each other. He resisted the urge to look in Luke's thoughts to confirm this theory. His son's anger at his earlier intrusion was still too fresh between them to risk another uninvited stroll through Luke's mind.

Vader switched over to speaking out loud again. "Do you wish to accompany me when I speak to the Emperor, Luke? Perhaps it would put your mind at ease that I have no intention of turning you over to him."

The boy nodded. "It is not that I am ... worried about what you might say to him, Father. It's just that I don't wish to be ... to be alone right now. If that's all right with you."

Vader smiled. 'Obi-Wan, you might as well have whipped the boy into my arms. Who else can he trust now that his dearest teacher has betrayed him? And now that teacher seeks to turn his friends into his deadliest enemies. I am the only one Luke has left.'

"Come, son. The holonet chamber is this way through our shared sitting room. Your quarters and mine are connected," Vader explained as he lightly put his hand at the base of Luke's spine and urged him towards the door. It slid open with a whoosh and they entered the sitting room, one wall of which was a plastiglass viewport revealing a wide swath of stars and a larger view of the gold-green planet, Black Heart than could be seen from Luke's bedroom.

Vader watched the slowly spinning sphere for a moment. He had much to thank that twisted place for and it was not done serving him yet. The Dark Side whispered to him that great knowledge was stored in the still functioning database in the temple. This information would be of use to explain his own and his son's deepening powers. He and Luke would have to return there together soon to download the material they needed and gather the unique and powerful light saber crystals that grew in the planet's system of caves.

Vader, with Luke at his side, crossed through the comfortable sitting room. He noted that Luke's eyes took in the over-sized black leather couches and the Daika crystal table with a bowl of Saressian blood fruit in its center. Vader had ordered the fruit and various other treats for his son's eating pleasure. The Dark Lord knew that Luke would not be the only one to enjoy the food as he envisioned his son with crimson juice flowing down his chin after biting into one of the bulbous blood fruits. He marvelled at his own desire for the child. 'I have not felt such hunger for another since Padme.' The thought lay there stillborn.

She would not approve of his seduction of their son. She would be horrified. He glanced down at the golden head by his side as the neared the door to the holonet chamber. Shouldn't the knowledge of her censure lessen his desire for their child? But one glance up at him from Luke's luminous eyes and the thought disappeared. Padme was no longer with him. She had taken Obi-Wan's part and she had died.

"Through here, my son." Vader gestured and the door to the holonet chamber slid open.

Luke hesitated at the doorway.

"What is it, Luke?"

His son gave a little laugh. "I just realized that I have nothing on but my underwear and a blanket. Somehow that was not how I pictured being seen by the Emperor for the first time."

"He will only be able to see what is within a five foot diameter from the holonet itself. Remain outside that area and he will not see you at all," Vader assured him and gently patted the boys shoulder. "I will also continue to block his knowledge of your presence."

Luke took a deep breath and walked into the holonet chamber. Already the bluish image of the Emperor seated on a dais was visible on the holonet's platform. Vader gestured for Luke to stand in the corner where he could see and hear everything that took place, but would be hidden from the Emperor's sight. Vader himself stepped within the holonet's field of vision, but he did not kneel, nor did he bow. He stood upright and made no greeting. These facts did not appear to register on the Emperor.

"Ah, Lord Vader, you took your time in coming to answer my summons."

Vader remained silent. Palpatine was fond of hearing his own voice and Vader had no desire to say anything.

"So my tardy apprentice, there was a ... disturbance … a ripple in the Force earlier. Did you feel it?"

Vader resisted the urge to laugh. 'Yes, old fool, that was me becoming one with the Dark Side and it was far more than a ripple.'

"Yes, Palpatine, I ... experienced it."

The Emperor was silent for a moment, his robes seemed to shift around him as though a breeze were blowing, but Vader knew it was the Force power the Emperor wielded shifting the cloth as he sought to probe Vader's thoughts. Vader allowed the Emperor to see only a few of his surface thoughts and feelings that revealed essentially nothing. The Emperor's eyebrows had also lifted at the Dark Lord calling him by his given name.

"Vader ... are you feeling well?"

"Very well." Vader thought to himself, 'You are so used to me bowing and scraping and begging that you do not even realize what is missing with me merely standing before you like this.'

The Emperor's disfigured brow furrowed. His hands fluttered against the arms of his throne.

"Have you found Skywalker yet?"

"Yes, I have my son here with me." Vader added in his head, 'In this chamber with me. Not that you know, because I block it from you as I have blocked all that occurred on Black Heart and all that will come to pass.'

"Excellent!" The old man cackled. "You must bring him to me now. Together we will turn him to the Dark Side and--"

"No." Vader said simply and heard his son give a startled gasp as if until this moment the boy had not truly believed that Vader did not want to corrupt him. This was the time to win Luke's trust. What he said to the Emperor would not truly matter, as the old Sith would not remember a word of it after this conversation.

"What?" Palpatine's voice cracked with surprise.

"Luke wishes to follow the Light Side of the Force. I believe he should be allowed to continue that path. It is the one he was made for after all."

Palpatine's mouth opened and shut several times. "Vader ... have you lost your mind?"

Vader give a bark of laughter. "No, Palpatine. I have lost ... and you have taken ... many things over the years, but my mind was not one of them."

The Emperor leaned back in his throne, his fingers tapping an obscene melody against the throne's arms. "You are foolish and insane by showing me this blatant display of disobedience, Vader."

"Not in the least."

"Oh? Do you honestly believe that I will let this go?"

"Of course you will."

Palpatine's left eyebrow lifted. "And why would I do such a thing?"

"Because you will not recall this conversation as it actually occurred, but only as I wish you to remember it."

Palpatine's eyelids suddenly slid closed to half-mast as Vader spoke. Vader's golden tones filled the room and flowed through the holonet link.

"You will recall that you ordered me to keep the boy at my side until I see fit to bring him to Coruscant."

The Emperor nodded, his actions slowed to almost half-speed.

"You will be pleased by all the actions I have taken and will not bother me with any requests until I come to see you. You will believe that everything is going according to your plan. Is that clear?" Vader asked quietly.

"Yes, yes," Palpatine said and rubbed his brow as if felt a headache coming on. Suddenly his head lifted and he smiled hugely at the Dark Lord, revealing cracked teeth. "I am very pleased with you, my apprentice. Keep the boy with you until you believe he is ready to come to Coruscant. We will speak ... later."

The image of the Emperor winked out and only then did Vader turn to look at his son. Luke's mouth was opened in an 'o' of surprise. "How ... how did you do that? I mean I saw Ben do it to some stormtroopers in Mos Eisley, but he said they had weak minds! I would never think the Emperor was weak-minded."

"He is weak compared to me," Vader answered simply and Luke's stunned expression grew.

"What happened to you down on Black Heart exactly?"

"I changed. Or rather, I was given the opportunity to become what I always should have been."

When Vader did not explain further, Luke pursed his lips in thought. It was clear the boy wanted to question him extensively. But answers would be best given on the planet's surface where Luke could see the evidence of their destiny together.

"You need to rest, my son. I know that you have many questions and I do have some answers to give you, but they would be best discussed after you have a chance to sleep and recover more fully from your encounter with the Viateen."

"The Viateen?"

"The snake-creatures from Black Heart."

Luke stiffened, his eyes going dark and wide, as he remembered his capture and torture. "They … the Viateen … wanted ... wanted to ...devour me."

Vader's hands clenched into fists. 'He feels the violation so keenly. Why should that still surprise me even after seeing what a sensitive child he is? Killing the two who dared touch him was not enough.' But Vader was uncertain what would be enough. There were still other Viateen down on the planet's surface. The others now acknowledged him as the true Dark Lord. But he could never forgive them for standing by while his son was ravaged by others of their kind. He had not yet decided on what punishment he should unleash upon them. They might have a use yet so he was content to let them stew below, wondering what he would do, rather than rashly act.

"You need not fear them, my child. They have been brought to heel," Vader said quietly and reached to adjust the blanket more evenly around his son's shoulders to keep him warm.

Luke's fear was broken by his touch. He saw the joy his gentle act had on Luke. The boy's face lit up with an incandescent smile. 'Has this child had no kindness in his young life? Has no one reached out to him?' Luke had all but intimated that none had. How could anyone resist him though? Huge blue eyes, golden skin and hair. 'Like one of those space angels I believed Padme once to be. It is inscrutable.' That Luke's isolation only helped Vader's plan of seduction was not lost on the Dark Lord, but still he felt a sharp sense of injustice that his son had suffered such loneliness for no good cause. 'He will never be so alone again.' Vader sent that thought through their bond and saw the boy blush and look down.

"Do I seem so needy to you, Father?" Luke asked, his eyes fixed on his own bare feet.

"Not needy. Just ... isolated. Perhaps we both have been," Vader answered. "Together we need not fear such loneliness any longer."

'I am glad that I can help you also in some small way.' Luke sent through their bond instead of speaking.

'As am I.'

Vader wished to reach out and hold Luke at that moment, but the boy was still so skittish with such overt acts of affection. What also stopped Vader's action was the fact that his respirator with its sharp buttons and switches was right at the level where Luke's head would rest against his chest in such an embrace. He had long ago accepted the limitations of his ruined form, but now it began to bother him for no other reason than it seemed designed to keep him and his son physically a part. He would have to think of ways in which to get around these difficulties. 'Perhaps I should send Luke to sickbay tomorrow in order to start his healing training. Possibly he could heal my lungs sufficiently to allow the respirator to be used only occasionally. Then at least I could embrace him fully.'

The thought that Luke could possibly repair other parts of his body was too much to hope for and Vader did not wish to indulge in daydreams. He took the boy back to his sleeping chambers and helped him crawl back in bed. Luke's eyes were already drooping. Vader cast a sleep net with the Force around his son and Luke fell unconscious as soon as his head hit the pillow. The Dark Lord remained seated at Luke's bedside the entire time the boy slept, keeping bad dreams at bay and planning their future together.

- - -

Luke awoke to the sensation of the Dark Lord carding through his hair. He lay there for a moment with his eyes closed just to enjoy his father's touch for a little longer. 'I know I should not, but surely normal fathers can touch their sons this way and it is not wrong.' Somehow he knew that his father had stayed with him while he slept and Luke tried not to enjoy that thought too much. He was not some baby to need his father to watch over him like a nightlight in the dark. 'Nor should I wish my father to remain in my bedroom with me for any other reason.' But he couldn't help the happiness that flowed through him like warm honey.

"Are you going to sleep all the hours away, young one? Or will you open your eyes now?"

Blushing at his bluff being called, Luke opened his eyes. "Thank you for … staying with me."

"I would wish to be nowhere else."

Luke smiled and the happiness he felt inside seemed to triple. He stretched his arms above his head and stretched. His father chuckled.

"What?"

"You look like a lazy, well-petted cat."

"I can't help it. I haven't slept this well since … since I can remember actually," Luke answered, realizing how truly rested he felt and content. 'No need to fear Imperials or Vader coming to get me any more. I wonder how Leia, Han, Chewie and Threepio are doing? Perhaps Ben has already contacted Leia and she ... hates me now. Have I lost them all forever?' Then as Luke thought on all his friends, he realized that there was one that was closer to hand, but still missing. 'Force, I forgot about Artoo!' "Father, on the planet ... with my ship … there was a droid … he—"

"I had your ship and your droid brought up. The ship is in the hanger bay being repaired and the droid is receiving maintenance."

Luke sighed hugely. "Thank the Force."

"The droid is special to you?" Vader traced a strange design over and over on the comforter with one finger when he asked that, not meeting his son's gaze suddenly.

"He's saved my butt more times than I can say," Luke answered.

Still tracing the design and not looking at him, Vader said, "It is strange, but perhaps not as the Force works in many ways. Your droid was once mine."

"That's amazing, Father! Artoo never said anything about being owned by a Skywalker before, but his memory had probably been wiped since then." Luke bolted upright in bed, a large smile on his face. 'To think that all along I had something of Father's and I had no idea.'

"Yes, I once owned him and a protocol droid—"

"C-3PO?"

"Yes, how did you—"

"They were together when Uncle Owen bought them from the Jawas. Threepio is still with Leia and Han."

"The droids were on Tatooine?"

"Yeah, they were … well, not that it matters now but … they were the droids your storm troopers were looking for when they killed Unc… they were the droids with the Death Star plans."

Vader stood abruptly. He went and stood by the viewport with his hands clasped behind his back.

"Father," Luke began tentatively, suddenly unsure of his father's mood. He began picking at the top of the comforter. "Perhaps I shouldn't have said anything … I didn't mean to upset you."

"It is not your fault, child. Just to think that my own droids, one of which I built with my own hands, was used against me is … disturbing," Vader explained and his voice was slightly clipped, but suddenly his tone warmed. "I am glad that Artoo at least was protecting you in some way."

"He's been … a great friend to me, I guess you could say. You didn't have the techs wipe his memory, did you?"

"No, just repair the damage that was done by the Viateen." Vader turned to face him again. "Why?"

Luke sighed. "I know that most people would think it strange, but Artoo is … like a person to me. I can't imagine taking away his memories. It would be like wiping out his personality. Besides even though he's quirky because of it, he also is more intuitive in helping me. He understands what I need from him before I do sometimes."

Vader nodded briskly. "I felt the same way about him. I missed them both after Obi-Wan took them from me."

Luke's head jerked up. "What? But Ben when he saw them acted like he never knew them! He even said he didn't recall owning any droids!"

"Well, he never did own them, so in his philosophy of truth telling, I suppose that wasn't all a lie."

Luke shook his head. "I don't understand him at all … or how he can be considered a Jedi and not a Sith. I mean how can lying be right and loving too much be wrong? Everything he and Yoda taught me seems ... incomplete, somehow."

"The Jedi philosophy is flawed. The Jedi based their rules on what actions or emotions they saw as leading to the Light or Dark Side, but it was never as … set in stone as they claimed it was. In fact, the circular logic of many of their rules and restrictions lead many to be called Dark Jedi who were not and vice versa."

Luke observed his father closely for a moment as Vader smoothed down the front of his uniform. "Is the way of the Sith any better?"

"No."

Luke's eyes widened at that. "But you follow it, don't you?"

"I did, but I have known for years it was just as flawed a philosophy."

"Then what is the right way?"

Vader sat on the edge of the bed again and his weight caused Luke to slide towards his father. Luke's whole left flank ended up being pressed against Vader's side and Luke flushed. Vader put a hand down on the bed on the other side of him, essentially trapping Luke where he was. Luke felt almost dizzy from the feeling of his father's strong form against his. And his father's scent of leather and something warm and spicy wrapped around him leaving him in an almost warm hazy glow.

"On the planet, in the temple, there are answers, Luke. The truth of the Force and our place in it are there. I wish us to go back down to the surface and view them together."

"Back to Black Heart?" Luke's voice was hardly above a whisper. His earlier arousal felt as if it had been doused with ice water. His father moved the hand he had placed on the bed at Luke's side and slid it underneath Luke's legs, pulling the boy closer as he did so.

"I know you are afraid to go back there, child, but you need not be. I will be with you."

Trembling from his father's closeness and his fear of the planet, Luke said, "But the Viateen—"

"They will do nothing to you. They serve the Dark Side and … me, now."

Luke wrapped his arms around his chest. He wanted to pull his legs up, too, but Vader held them firmly. "I … I don't know if I can do it, Father."

"You can, child. It is necessary for many reasons. Not the least of which is to face the violation that was done to you there."

"You don't understand! I tried to use my light saber on them, but as soon as I would cut them down they would reform and come at me again! Until one of them ripped … ripped my hand off. It laughed at me and said … things … about what it was going to do to me when it got me on the … altar." Luke shook and Vader rubbed his shoulders and biceps.

"I destroyed those that touched you. If you wish it … I will destroy all of them before we go back there." Luke's eyes widened in horror.

"No! I don't want that!"

"But if it is the only way you will return to Black Heart, I will be forced to do it anyway," Vader said softly.

Luke dropped his head down onto his chest, gripping his own biceps tightly, "You do not need to destroy them. I will go even if a whole army of them is there to greet us."

"It is wise to face your fears, young one, rather than to let them rule you."

"Would you really destroy a whole race just for..."

"For you? Yes, child of my heart. I would do far more than that."

Vader's mask seemed to dip closer to his face and Luke felt his father's love for him over their bond. The red warmth of Vader's mind-presence filled him and Luke shivered with it. 'No wonder the Jedi feared loving too much if it can lead a person to annihilate a whole species. But to think he feels that much for me! I can hardly believe it.'

Luke reached up and held his fingers just centimeters above the mask's surface. Vader's breath even though regulated by the respirator seemed to catch when he did this. The Dark Lord did not move.

"I am not worth so much, Father," Luke whispered as he let his fingers rest against the mask.

There was a flash of light and Luke saw a face superimposed over the mask. It was bald, pale as milk, with yellow bags under the eyes, a hawk-like nose, a shrunken mouth and long gashes, almost like fissures, over the top of the skull. Blinking and eyes tearing from the bright flash, Luke dropped his hands down.

"Young one, what is it?"

"I … I saw your face."

"What?" There was a tremor in Vader's voice. "My face … as it is now?"

"I … I don't know, but I think—"

Vader was suddenly on his feet, hands clenching into fists spasmodically. His breathing was far more rapid than it should have been. "You should not have looked! I did not want you to … why did you have to … now you know and will not want … will not…"

Luke reached out towards his father. "It changes nothing of how I feel for you! Father, please, it's all right. I didn't mean to look. I didn't know I could! Please, please don't be angry or … afraid."

Vader stared at him, those obsidian eyes reflecting only Luke's own form back at him. His father's voice was so cold as he said, "I must go to the Bridge now, Luke, for a few hours. There is a sonic shower and clothes that should fit you in the closet. And there is breakfast set out for you in the sitting room."

Luke threw the covers back and stepped out of bed towards his father. Vader retreated one step. Then as if realizing what he had done, the Dark Lord stepped closer to Luke than he had been originally.

"Father, please, don't leave like this."

"I am trying to stop a confrontation between us, young one."

"Confrontation? What? Why?"

"You are lying to me again!"

"What do you think I am lying to you about?"

"That your feelings have not changed since you … saw me. The ruin that is now me," Vader hissed.

"That's not a lie," Luke answered and kept his voice level and calm. He did not back up when his father loomed over him.

With a bitter laugh, Vader said, "Oh, truly? Are you telling me that you are just as attracted to the visage that you saw I now bear, scarred and horrible, as you were for the clean-limbed youth I was in your dream?"

"Yes."

"Liar! Poor liar at that!"

Luke refused to flinch at his father's vindictive tone. He could imagine the pain that his disfigurement caused his father. To be stripped of the mask without it physically leaving him must have been a shock at the very least. 'And if I am to convince him that I am not lying I must be totally honest with him and with myself about how incredibly sexually drawn to him I am even now as he tries to terrorize me.'

"How you look is not what has ever attracted me to you." Luke raised a hand up to stop his father from interrupting. "I am not saying that I did not find the youth in the dream beautiful. But that wasn't what drew me in."

Vader snorted, his hands tightly clenched in front of him. Luke pressed on. "It was you … the essence of you that made me and makes me … want so many things I shouldn't … things I don't even understand fully. That essence of you has not changed. No, that's not quite true. You are more you now than you were in any of those dreams. And I … I still, even as I stand here, knowing how you look under the mask, want to … to have you touch me like you did last night. Even though I know its wrong for me to want it. Even though I know it might damn us both to eternal darkness. I still want you, Father."

"You expect me to believe these … wild protestations of desire?"

Even though Vader's words were still angry, his whole form seemed to relax and Luke felt the slightest caress of his father's mind against his own.

"Not from my mouth. But from my mind. I give you permission, Father, to look into my mind and see for yourself if I lie or not."

Luke braced himself for the invasion. He opened himself up to their bond as far as he could and waited, arms tense at his side, jaw clenched as if expecting pain. Vader cocked his head to the side, watching him for long moments.

"I believe you, child of my heart," he said softly.

Luke gasped. "But you haven't … you haven't looked inside my head yet!"

"I do not have to."

Luke swallowed back tears. His father believed him. It felt like a step forward in their relationship. But Luke felt that he wanted to do something more … give his father more assurance. Luke reached up for his father's mask again. The Dark Lord froze, but did not stop him from touching the mask once more. Luke saw his father's ruined face superimposed over the durasteel again. He pulled his father's head down so that their faces were a mere inch apart. Trembling so badly he thought he would collapse on the floor, Luke leaned forward and kissed the mask hard and long where it covered his father's lips. There was only the metallic taste of durasteel, not his father's flavor, but it had to be enough for now.

"I would do this if there was no mask between us, Father. I would do it again and again and again if I could," Luke said, his voice shaking as badly as his body.

Vader caught his arms as Luke began to crumple down to the floor and drew Luke against his chest as gently as the respirator would allow.

His voice was so soft as he said, "I thought you were … fighting this attraction between us, my son."

"I am … was. I don't know what to do any more. I love you and I can't stop … desiring you. I just know that I don't wish to hurt you. And acting on my desire this time seemed like it would hurt you less than denying it."

Luke wrapped his arms around his father's waist and held him tight. Vader was silent for some minutes, rocking his son gently, before he said, "Thank you, Luke."

"I love you, Father," Luke murmured from where his face was stuffed against his father's arm.

"And I you, child of my heart."

After long moments, Luke felt his father reluctantly urging him to let go.

"I am sorry, Luke, but I truly must go to the Bridge now. I was not … lying about that earlier just to get away."

Luke nodded and wiped away the tears that had fallen.

Vader gently caressed his cheek. "When you are ready, the stormtroopers outside our quarters will take you to Sick Bay. You should practice your healing powers."

"On people?" Luke couldn't keep the shock out of his voice.

"I have made arrangements with Dr. Nakima to provide you with … volunteers."

Even though he was hesitant to start another argument with his father after what they had just gone through, Luke had to know if the people he was to practice on were there of their own free will. "Father, are these volunteers really volunteers or were they conscripted into service as guinea pigs?"

"They are brain damaged troopers and will die once taken off life support. So nothing you do can hurt them any more than they already are."

Luke gave a gasp of sorrow. Vader touched his chin lightly for a moment to calm him.

"How …"

"Were they injured? They were quelling a Rebel assault on Tanos IV."

Luke worried his lower lip and looked away from Vader. 'How many people have died because of this war? Will it be worth it if the Empire falls if millions have died?' Luke realized then that millions already had died. After all weren't there at least a million souls on the Death Star when he blew it to smithereens? 'I alone have caused a catastrophic death toll in this conflict and Ben urged me to do it.' Knowing that it had saved his friends and the other rebels somehow didn't console him as much as it used to. How lucky was he that his father was flying that day and not on the Bridge of the Death Star? What if he had killed his father then? 'I would have flown my X-Wing straight into Yavin's surface when I realized what I had done. My father's life is worth more to me than the million other souls I destroyed. Maybe Ben is right to be afraid of us.' Luke shook himself as he realized his father was watching him carefully.

Once he seemed sure that Luke was paying attention again and not ruminating, he said, "The troopers' families already believe them to have died so … if you make any errors on them … no one but you and I will know."

Luke let out a harsh exhale of breath. "Perhaps it isn't such a good idea that I practice on people at all. Even if these men are to … die … it does not seem right to torture their poor bodies more."

"They are beyond feeling, child. This is the best way to improve your abilities. Think of those you could help if you had control of your healing powers."

"You did not see the mistakes I made when I was Yoda's apprentice. Father, I am not--"

"That was more likely Yoda's method of teaching rather than your inability to learn. You are different than any other apprentice he had ever had and you are even more different now. Trust yourself … as I do." Vader punctuated that last statement by tilting Luke's head up to look at him. Luke felt a lightening in his chest. To hear his father intimate that he had pride and belief in him was overwhelming. Luke had a feeling that these things, just like his trust, were not earned lightly. Luke nodded. Vader ran his fingers through Luke's hair and turned to leave the room.

Just as Vader reached the doorway, Luke called out to him. "Father! Thank you. I won't … won't disappoint you."

"Learning is always difficult, Luke, with its successes and failures. All I expect is that you do what you can as best as you can. I will join you in the Sick Bay in two standard hours."

- - -

Luke had showered, dressed and eaten. He was still amazed at the beauty of the clothes his father had left for him in the two huge closets. Tunics, pants and leather boots all in the darkest, softest black he had ever seen. They mirrored the Jedi warrior uniform he had worn on Black Heart that was destroyed by the Viateen. But these clothes were of far greater quality. The cloth when it moved across his skin felt almost like a caress. He was glad he had chosen to eat the blood fruit while leaning over the glass table as the juice seemed to want to spurt over everything and he was anxious not to spoil any of his new clothes.

The troopers who greeted him outside the door to his and his father's chambers were polite if distant. He caught each of them more than once turning their heads to look at him. 'Why are they so curious about me? Do they know who I am? Do they know what I am to Vader?' For one moment, Luke wondered if they thought he was Vader's lover and he felt a flash of heat run through him.

The troopers ushered him into Sick Bay and left to await him outside the door once he was finished practicing. There was only a white medi-tech droid present.

"Hello, how may MD-357 serve you today?" The droid asked as it trundled over to him.

"I'm here to see Dr. Nakima."

"Unfortunately, Dr. Nakima has left due to an emergency."

"Oh, well, do you know when she'll be back?"

"Unknown. Is there something that I may help you with today?"

Luke worried at his lower lip. He was anxious to start practicing his healing powers. Though he did not want to tell his father this, he still wished to heal him. It would take away a lot of his father's pain and disgust for himself if some of his disfigurement could be healed. Luke came to a decision.

"Yes, MD-357, I wish to see the troopers that are on life support. I have been granted permission to ... to work on them."

"Ah, yes, the troopers that were on life support. This way, this way," the droid answered and wheeled forward into a doorway that lead into a smaller room in the back with four medi-beds.

Luke wondered if the troopers' conditions had improved based on the droid's comment about the troopers no longer being on life support. But before he could ask the droid, there was a commotion in the room they left as another one of the ill soldiers had awoken and needed pain medication. Luke turned to look at the four men, no, boys, perhaps even younger than me, that were lying on the medi-beds. Each had close-cropped haircuts and large muscular bodies. The skin visible on each man was pale and drawn. Wounds to the men's heads and necks looked like livid blooms against the white flesh. Sheets were identically drawn up to their chests and their arms lay straight on either side of their bodies. Each man's eyes were closed and Luke had the bizarre desire to know what their eye colors were.

The room was so quiet that he could almost believe he was the only living person in it, but when he reached out to each of the men with the Force he could feel weak flickering flames of white light indicating the presence of their spirits. Satisfied with what he felt, Luke dropped down to the floor into a lotus position and began to meditate. He needed to be absolutely clear and calm before he attempted to help the men.

He allowed his consciousness to gather the four flames he saw to him. Without knowing exactly why he did this, he began to feed the flames little bits of Light Side Force energy that existed in the room. The flames began to brighten and grow. Luke swore he could feel the warmth from the men's spirits all around him. As their flames got bigger the warmth seemed to seep into every pore of his skin. It allowed Luke to feel his own spiritual flame. His was like a bonfire in comparison to the men's who were more like the flickering flames of candles. He touched each of their lights with his own and felt and saw them explode with life. Interestingly, instead of his own fire becoming lessened by the contact, it seemed to grow fractionally greater.

His first clue that this envisioned touching of spiritual Force energy was truly helping the men physically was when he heard four almost identical inhales of breath from the men on the medi-beds. Then he heard coughing and sputtering. Luke opened his eyes to the sight of the troopers all sitting upright on the medi-beds, holding their heads in their hands, groaning and trying to talk. The trooper closest to his left side was the first to turn and look at him. The man's eyes were green. Forest green. Luke felt his heart beating a staccato rhythm in his chest. Hadn't his father said these men were brain dead? They certainly weren't now! And he hadn't even touched them. The wounds that had been on their faces and necks were also healed. It had been so easy! Nothing he had ever done, except flying, had ever come to him so naturally. Perhaps I am meant to be a healer!

Luke quickly rose up and walked over to the side of the medi-bed of the trooper with green eyes. He said, "How are you feeling?"

The trooper furrowed his brow for a moment then answered, "Good. I feel ... pretty good. Like I slept for a week." The green-eyed trooper smiled hugely at him then. "Sir ... I ... you seem familiar to me. Did we serve together or ... something?"

Luke grinned. "I'm a little short to be a trooper like you. So no, we didn't serve together. I just ... was helping to heal you. You were in a battle and were hurt, but you're all right now. Or you will be as soon as Dr. Nakima comes to check you out."

Luke glanced at the other three men in the room. One set of brown eyes, one set of gray and the last set is blue. All were looking at him with curiosity, intelligence and ... warmth. Yes, he saw warmth there as if they sub-consciously knew what he had done for them. He had never felt such a sense of accomplishment before. He had helped people, truly helped them, in an amazing way that only a Force-sensitive person could do. He couldn't wait for his father to know! As if answering his wish, he heard and felt Vader enter the Sick Bay at that moment, over half a standard hour early. He was speaking with what must be Dr. Nakima.

"My gods, MD-357, you didn't send him in there, did you?" Dr. Nakima's voice was gravelly almost as if she smoked Ilurian tabac sticks too often.

Without waiting for an answer, Vader was already coming through the doorway into the chamber with Luke and the troopers as the droid began to speak. Vader froze as he took in the sight of the four men sitting upright and Luke grinning at him from the green-eyed troopers' side.

"Father! Look, they're awake! I was able to wake them and they seem ... okay. At least, they tell me that they feel good."

Luke was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet with excitement. When they saw Vader, the troopers attempted to scramble up to salute.

"Lord Vader!" Each man cried in unison, obviously shocked that their supreme commander should be in their sick room.

"Don't get up yet!" Luke urged and gestured for the men to ease back under the covers. "You may not be fully recovered."

Dr. Nakima rushed in at that moment, her black eyes widening and a gasp breaking from her red lips. She made a strange sign in front of her chest and grasped the front of her white uniform. "But this is impossible--"

Vader cut her off with a wave of one powerful hand. "We will not discuss this here. Men, at ease. Rest now. The doctor will be back in to see you shortly."

The troopers nodded and Luke saw them only fractionally relax. Their curious, awed faces still rivetted to Vader. Luke was absurdly proud at that moment at the respect his father invited from these men that served him. It outshone his own pride in himself for helping the troopers. Vader gestured for Luke and the doctor to proceed him through the chamber door. Luke felt he flew more than walked out the door, his good mood was so powerful.

As soon as Vader exited the chamber he gestured for the door to shut. "Now," his deep bass voice rumbled. "Dr. Nakima, are you positive that these troopers--"

"They were as I told you, Lord Vader!"

The doctor was shaking, Luke realized, and her normally creamy golden skin was an unnatural shade of gray. Shock was the only explanation for her look and the fact that she would interrupt his father, Luke guessed.

"What did you tell him about the troopers?" Luke asked.

Vader turned and held him in that obsidian gaze for a long time. Then he reached out and grasped his son's shoulder as though to steady him for bad news. Luke's gaze flicked from him to the shaken doctor.

"What is the matter, Father? Dr. Nakima? The troopers ... they seem fine. I mean I know they have yet to be checked out and all, but they ... I believe they will be all right. The Force tells me so."

"I have no doubt as to what you say, Luke," Vader's voice was quiet, but intense for all its low tones. "It is what they were before you ... helped them that has ... shocked the doctor and ... myself, slightly."

"And what were they? Please, make me understand. You told me they were brain dead and ..."

The doctor looked at him with fear and shock in her black eyes. She moistened her dry lips with her tongue before speaking. "They were not only brain dead when you ... when you went in to see them. They were ... fully dead."

Luke shook his head at her. "No, you're wrong. That's impossible! They ..."

Then he remembered what the droid had said about the troopers no longer being on life support, the silence in the troopers' room, the lack of movement of the troopers' chests, and the gray pallor of their flesh. Luke began to shake his head violently. His father's grip on him tightened.

"No! They were alive ... they must have been ... I felt their spirits! Father, I felt their spirits!"

Vader pulled him into his embrace. Luke did not care when he was pressed against the knobs and buttons of the respirator, he had to get as close as he possibly could to his father. Had to hold onto his father's strength for all he was worth.

Dr. Nakima's hoarse voice cut through Luke's denial like a saber. "The troopers were dead. And you ... you brought them back to life."

Part 2

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