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Title: Vader's Child
Author: Elizabeth Stuart (elizstuart@att.net)
Rating: NC-17
Characters: Luke, Vader.

Summary: Need and power draw Luke and Vader into an incestuous relationship.

Author's notes: Originally published in Dark Fantasies #5, 1997

Warning: Vader/Luke content

The makeshift cantina was dimly lit by portable gensets, and it was lively with the sounds of laughter and youth. Leia tapped her foot to the music's beat, trying, for one night, to forget that Han was lost somewhere in the galaxy, locked in a carbonite prison. She hadn't been able to rescue him, but they'd saved Luke from a deathfall into Bespin's atmosphere. The Rebel troops had spent the weeks that followed running from Imperial forces, finally finding a small moon with an atmosphere that shielded them from scans, and this celebration was a welcome respite from the work and tension. Despite their earlier defeats, optimism was tonight's ruler, and everyone was definitely in a festive mood.

Except for Luke Skywalker. Leia sighed as she looked over at him. He'd been spending more and more time alone. Now he'd moved off by himself and was sitting motionless near one of the windows, half-turned on the bench, gazing into the night sky.

She wondered what he saw there - or what he was looking for. Since their return from Cloud City, he became more subdued as each day passed. She knew that losing his hand had been a shock both physical and psychological, and perhaps being defeated in a terrible battle with the Dark Lord of the Sith - which he would not detail beyond that one fact - had been even more damaging emotionally. Maybe that was why he'd changed so drastically in so many ways.

Luke was no longer the enthusiastic youth who'd burst into her cell on the Death Star, the one determined to follow in the steps of his heroic Jedi father, nor was he the brave officer who'd led the defense of the Hoth base. Now he was quiet, introspective, a stranger who refused her repeated offers to share his confidences. It bothered her, this abrupt change into a depressed man who'd withdrawn into his own mind, oblivious to the worries of others. She wondered if he ever thought of Han.

But what troubled her the most was the rapt expression that frequently crossed Luke's face. His eyes would grow paler and larger and emit a strange glow that she didn't recognize. At those moments, he became another creature, something more than human, ethereal and other-worldly. Sometimes the corners of his mouth almost lifted in a smile; other times he appeared haunted, angry, or close to tears. She wondered if he was talking to someone she couldn't hear. He looked like that now, like he was talking to the stars and they weren't answering him.

Or worse, that they were replying.

Leia frowned, trying to brush away the beginnings of dread. Maybe this change was the effect the Force had on a Jedi. She suspected that she would never understand the Force, despite the teachings of her father. There had been many times when she was certain that it was just a myth, another religion invented to control the masses. But when she looked at Luke... well, she wasn't sure of anything.

He was more at home among the stars than among the living. There were moments, too many of them, when he felt as though he'd died in Cloud City. Or at the very least, lost his soul.

He should have died. Death would have been preferable to living with the burden that his father was supposed to be his enemy - an enemy he was expected to kill.

Luke gazed at the sweep of stars that swirled overhead. His father was out there. If he extended his senses just a bit, he would meet the Dark Lord. Many times in the past weeks, Vader had searched him out and touched his mind, sending no word other than 'son'. And often he'd returned an involuntary call of 'Father!' unable to hide his longing.

He wasn't an orphan after all - he was the son of the Empire's most visible symbol of authority. It hurt... but on some level, it didn't matter. He'd wanted a father for longer than he could remember. Maybe Vader wasn't as evil as Leia said. Maybe his father missed him and wanted to be with him, too - for his own sake, not just as an ally in a plot to overthrow the Emperor. Maybe his father hadn't abandoned him. Vader had been a soldier, called to defend the Empire - maybe he regretted leaving his son behind.

To become a Jedi like my father.... He'd wished for that. Only fools wished, Han warned him once, and added: Be happy with what you have. But Luke Skywalker had never been content. He'd always wanted more, had always searched for excitement, adventures, faster speeders, fantastic daydreams - more of anything that would help his mind escape the boredom of life on Tatooine. He'd been driven by a need he still didn't understand, and it had left him restless and dissatisfied. Maybe he should have listened to Yoda and stayed on Dagobah. Or fled Cloud City with Leia instead of searching out Vader. He should have done what people expected of a Jedi and a soldier. Instead he'd taken one step too far and discovered a truth he couldn't share with anyone.

To be a Jedi.... He didn't understand what that meant, and now there was no one to explain - except his father. Darth Vader was a Jedi, which confused him even further. Dark Side Jedi, Yoda had whispered, but what did that mean? What was the Dark Side? He'd only heard warnings, never explanations.

His father sliced off his hand. Was that what the Dark Side meant, that one could maim a son? But had he the chance, he would have killed Vader during their duel. Did that make him Dark Side, or did ignorance of his father's identity absolve him of guilt? Or were there no Dark or Light sides to the Force? Had Ben and Yoda lied to him about that, too?

Luke couldn't make sense of it. Everything was confusing, and there were no answers anywhere he looked. If he said yes, if he went with Vader... would Vader teach him, help him sort through Jedi mysteries, and... love him?

Heat warmed his cheeks. There was another reason he wanted to meet Vader again. Growing up in the barren void of the desert planet, he'd depended upon the dramatic image of Darth Vader to bring excitement via holovid newscasts... the Emperor's warrior-mystic offering the promise of a future, of a galaxy beyond Tatooine. The huge form draped in a fantastically flowing black cape, a voice of steel and honey, power radiating from every motion, obeyed, envied, flattered. How many times had he pretended that Vader was his coveted father - or himself? How often had he wanted to imitate the man, to command the Emperor's troops, to receive homage for battles won and respect for simply existing? His youthful fantasies had been fired, and he'd spent his private moments indulging them. First being Vader, then being wanted by Vader, taken by Vader. A soldier, a friend, a son, a lover. Someone important, someone indispensable. Alone, he'd touch himself, dreaming of Vader and that power unleashed, maybe even shared with him. His dreams were the reason he'd sought out Vader in Cloud City and followed a trail that had been as clear as a light shining in a darkness.

And now he was facing the reality. He could live his dreams, all of them. All he had to do was renounce the Rebellion and... take the final step.

Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru would have been ashamed that he considered such things. They'd tried to teach him their beliefs. Outwardly, he'd behaved like a good foster son, chaste, hardworking, and non-political; inwardly, he'd dreamt of power and conquest and dominion and Vader and sex that was both pleasure and pain. The mysterious masked figure, alternately tender and rough with him - and the power he attained when pain turned inward.

Pain.... Luke felt a throbbing sensation in his wrist and rubbed it absently. His arm still sent messages of phantom pain searching along nerve endings for his severed human fingers. It seemed most of the Alliance staff resented his amputation more than he did. In a way, he thought darkly, the wounding was a gift from his father, the aching a reminder of how the hand had been lost.

His father had taken it, along with his heart.

A shooting star sped past quicker than he could blink, and his thoughts went with it. Father? he questioned through the Force. Father, where are you?

He sensed the reply coming before it actually brushed his mind.

I am here, son.

Luke closed his eyes. Every time he heard that word, his need became more exquisite, and he was stricken with the desire to touch Vader, to make him proud, to share his secret fears and wishes, to be loved in every way.

I'm so lonely, Father. I need you.

There was a tiny flicker in the Force - an indication of Vader's surprise at his soul-deep cry?

I am here, the Force reiterated. Come to me, Luke. We will rule the galaxy together.

Luke smiled. His father shared his dreams. For now... I only want to know you. I want you to teach me.

A wave of something he didn't understand washed over him. It was from Vader, and it was rich with possessiveness.

I will teach you, my son. Come to me.

To you - or to the Emperor? I will not go to him!

He sensed a hesitance in the Dark Lord, then a kind of pressure that nudged his unyielding resolve.

I will come for you. Be ready.

I won't go to the Emperor. Only to you.

Luke... we must talk. We must be together. It is our destiny. Can't you feel it?

Father--

I will let no harm come to you, young one. Wait for me. I am never far from you.

The connection dissolved. Luke blinked and looked around, mildly surprised by the music and laughter. All these people. He'd forgotten where he was. For a moment, he was paralyzed, bereft of purpose. Then he stood, trying to orient himself in this emotional vacuum. Fellowship. Songs of loneliness, lost loves, and laughter. The hidden base on the Cor moon. With the Rebellion. With his friends.

Friends. He scanned the room. Princess Leia. Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca. All here. Luke Skywalker was here too, happily innocent, lost in his usual daydreaming fog.

Reality: I am Luke Skywalker.

Reality: I am Luke Vader, son of the Dark Lord.

His cloak was still draped on the empty chair next to Leia. He strode across the room and picked it up, flinging it over his shoulders and clasping it shut in one smooth movement.

"I have to leave." To his own ears, his voice sounded strange. Breathless. Excited.

The conversation at the table ceased. He surveyed them with newly acquired wisdom; their concern and puzzlement was transparent.

"Are you turning in already, Luke?" It was not the first time he'd felt the Force in Leia's voice, but tonight it shone like a beacon. "I'll walk with you."

"No." He raised his hand, commanding the Force to stop them from rising. Where had this sudden influx of power come from? Father, are you with me? He relished his unexpected omnipotence. "I have to go," he repeated. "I don't know when I'll be back. I don't know if I'll be back."

"Hey, Luke." Lando tried to push his chair, but it wouldn't move. He frowned and looked up. "Something's bothering you, I can tell. Why don't we have a drink and talk about it?"

Luke smiled at them, and the motion felt strange on his face. He released his Forcehold. Leia looked at him with some alarm. "I have to go," he repeated reasonably. "He's coming for me."

And he strode into the night, out of the encampment to the nearby clearing where he knew he must wait a little longer for the father he'd waited for all his life.

Behind him the music resumed, voices raised again in laughter and comradeship. He felt nothing for it; he didn't belong with those people who belonged together. Luke Skywalker was truly alone.

Except for his father. He folded his hands and waited patiently.

A gust of wind swelled his pale cloak. He stared at the faint shadow the other moons cast on the ground. His shadow could have been Vader's shadow, for his image was tall and broad. Powerful.

Invincible.

"Luke." Leia's hand was on his arm.

He turned and smiled at her, feeling at peace. Knowing that he was almost home. He looked at the tall man hovering by her side. "Lando," he said, bestowing a designation on the man who should have been Han.

"Yeah, Luke?"

He turned back to the stars. His home was out there, somewhere he'd never been. "He's coming."

"Luke, you're not well. Why don't you go back to the barracks and lie down? Maybe we can contact Yoda--"

"Yoda won't teach me anymore." A tiny sliver of anger shafted through him. "He will."

"He's startin' to give me the creeps," Lando muttered under his breath.

A small hand rested on his arm again. He shifted slightly to look at it.

"You mean Ben? Is he talking to you?"

"Ben is dead," he explained patiently. "Ben won't teach me anymore. He is coming."

"Who?" Her face paled. "Who's coming, Luke?"

"The Other," he murmured dreamily. "Yoda will soon die and then we two will be the only Jedi left. He will teach me. He wants me to rule with him."

Leia stepped back. "Lando, there's something wrong - something with the Force maybe. I don't know, but we have to get him help. Luke... come with Lando and me. Come inside."

Her little bit of Force-persuasion couldn't begin to touch him, but Luke swayed easily under his father's will, drowning in the glorious sensations. He felt exalted, touched by the gods. "You don't understand. He loves me, I can feel it. And he's coming for me."

"Luke--"

"There!" He pointed upward, toward the star that moved. The star that quickly became a small Imperial transport.

"What the-- Damn, alert the--"

"No, Lando," Luke whispered. "It's all right. It's me he's come for, not any of you."

They waited, Leia and Lando standing very close to him. The shuttle skimmed the surface and landed. A few moments of quiet, then the deck ramp began to rumble. Luke sensed the Rebels pouring out of the cantina, and he used the Force to hold them back - a Force that was augmented by another, much more powerful than his own.

Father! His heart beat faster.

Silhouetted by the light that streamed from the ship, a dark legend strode down the ramp, cape billowing as the surface wind caught it.

"By the Goddess, Luke, not Vader!"

Lando groaned. "Not again."

"Luke, even if Vader's the only Jedi left, you can't go with him," Leia whispered hotly.

He sensed the revulsion in her voice and tore his gaze away from the man who waited at the foot of the ramp, legs planted wide. "It's all right," he assured her uncertainly. Why was she so afraid?

"No, it isn't." She touched him again, this time with only her hand. Her Force knew it wasn't strong enough to reach him. "He is Evil. The Dark Side. You told me the Emperor wants you. Luke, don't surrender to Vader. You mustn't."

"What do you know of the Dark Side?" he asked curiously, but she only shook her head.

"Luke."

One word, deep and intimate, and it sent shudders coursing the length of his body. He turned to his father. One black hand outstretched, offering love and salvation. Deliverance.

Again. One hand outstretched to save him.

This time he wouldn't flee from it.

Luke took a step forward.

Leia's pain reached him.

He looked over his shoulder. "It's all right, Princess," he said gently. "He won't hurt me."

"Luke--"

"Leia," he answered her with a brilliant smile, "he loves me. He's my father."

A few more steps and he could touch his father's hand. He paused to survey the scene. Leia stared, her face full of horror. Lando, blaster dangling unused at his side, angry astonishment spread across handsome features. All the others - the ones too far away to hear his words - their weapons as useless as their feet and their voices. Frozen by the Force.

He dismissed them and turned away, smiling up at his splendid father, full of pride. "You are indeed powerful."

"As you will be, my son."

He preceded the Dark Lord up the ramp.

The voyage was short, or so it seemed to him. His mind was filled with such wonderment that he could no longer wonder at such insignificant matters as time and distance. First had come the jump into hyperspace, then the dreamlike trance in which he lost himself. Encompassing everything was the warmth of his father's mind-touch, the depth of his strength. Luke had never felt as complete and safe as he did now, wrapped in this dark cocoon of a ship with the father who had returned for him.

It was night where they landed. Three moons banished the blackness. Here was another planet of vast open spaces, with a wind that whipped tears from his eyes. He caught his cloak, clutching it against him with tight fists while he peered around curiously.

High, very high. A natural citadel perched atop a massive rock that retained an endless view of endless desert. Too much like Tatooine. Space on the top of the butte for a fully fortified complex, several hangers to accommodate varied sizes of ships, a half-dozen flyways of different lengths. A small cluster of buildings. And strange creatures who flocked to meet them.

Luke shrank back, straining to divine their intentions. He'd never seen beings such as these - except that time so long ago, in Mos Eisley with Han. His father soothed him without words.

"Welcome back, lord." The man-thing was sturdy and compact, lightly furred, its silver eye-orbs bright with intelligence. It offered a small bow that spoke of respect rather than servitude.

"Greetings, Akita." Vader waited until the entire group was assembled. He inclined his head toward Luke. "This is my son."

No further introduction was necessary. Luke heard awed murmurs and felt all eyes focus on him. He nodded in their direction, attempting a shy smile. Several beings made sounds that might have been giggles.

"Thank you for meeting us," said his father formally, and the group slowly dispersed, filling the air with rumbles, mutters, and squeaks. "My staff," Vader explained as they strode toward a sprawling, single-story structure. Their feet kicked up red-tinted dust, and it swirled in miniature tornadoes spawned by the steady wind.

Luke coughed and wiped his eyes. "What is this place?"

Beyond the low walls, a garden of heat-thrive plants created a calm environment. The gusting wind became a mild breeze, and it was much cooler than just outside the thick, sand-packed perimeter. Here there was peace, no evil could he feel. It bore no resemblance to the nightmarish place on Dagobah where he had met his father's doppelganger, just as his father was nothing like the fearsome Dark Lord of Rebel propaganda.

So many contradictions to ponder.

Vader stopped on the smooth stones that decorated an entryway. "This is my home. Now it is yours also. For as rarely or as frequently as you wish to be here." He pushed open the wide door and made a sweeping gesture with his arm. "Welcome home, my son."

Luke caught his breath, overwhelmed by the words, the action - the entire concept. Home. Father. He was looking at his dreams. Trembling with anticipation, he stepped into his future, feeling the warmth of his father's hand on his shoulder, guiding him. Welcoming.

His eyes searched out every detail, hungry for intimacy. Curving rooms connected yet very separate, lighting obscure and moody. Plants proliferating on walls, crawling up to ceilings. The furniture was low-slung and looked achingly comfortable to his weary gaze. There was nothing here to reflect the holovid image of Darth Vader, the Emperor's Right Hand. It was the home of a wealthy country squire, and it reflected personal pleasure rather than fashion. It was very nearly hedonistic.

Was there room here for him? Uncertain of his place in this bright new world, he looked questioningly at his father.

"Does the castle suit the youngest Lord Vader?" the Dark Lord asked, his deep voice rich with amusement.

A smile slowly spread across his face. It felt natural, not like the smiles on the Cor moon. "It's beautiful," Luke said happily. Then felt a blade of anxious jealousy slip into his heart. "Do you live here alone?"

A gentle mind-touch reassured him. "No longer, child of mine." Vader paused. "Come, you are very tired. I will have refreshments sent to your room, then you must sleep. We have much to discuss tomorrow."

He followed, quickening his pace to keep up with the long strides, and tried to sneak glances at the exotic artwork they passed. The spoils of war? "It surprises me that you have a home. I thought--"

"That I lived with the Emperor in Imperial City? I do, at times. But this place is for me. For us. Luke." Vader stopped and faced him. "One word of warning. I shield my home as much as possible from the Emperor. Now I am shielding you, keeping your emotions from him. As I begin to train you, shielding is the first and most important thing you must learn. Without it, we may not survive. Guard your sleep, and limit your flights of imagination during the night."

Luke blushed. His father knew about those feelings? "You mean--?"

"No, Luke, I do not mean that the Emperor would be enthralled by your erotic dreams. I am referring to your calls to me." Black fingers curled around his forearm, a hint of restrained power behind the light touch. "The expressions of anxiety that ripped my attention from my duties and drew the Emperor's interest. I will heal your pain, my son. You will never feel that way again."

When the hand released him, he entered the room - his room - with a pounding heart. It was as spacious and cool as the rest of the house. One entire wall opened onto the garden. He crossed over to it. No window or door, just the soft 'whoosh' of an air curtain to keep out pests. He inhaled the fresh new scents.

"It's wonderful."

To his left, a portion of the side wall slid back to reveal a row of clothing, all black. He flushed and looked curiously at his father. "Were you so confident that I would come to you?"

"Let us say that I was hopeful."

He tried to smile but unexpected exhaustion pulled at his face and turned his expression into a yawn.

"Go to sleep, son. My suite is next door should you need me in the night."

Heat flooded his face, and he stared fixedly at the thick carpet. "Good night... Father."

Even as he fell into a deep sleep, the realization followed him: It was the first time in his life to say those simple words. The first time he'd known such feelings of peace and serenity - and they were from the place Yoda and Ben had labeled Dark Side. If this was Darkness, it was giving him a new life, and it was the life he had always dreamed.

Vader switched off the comlink that updated him on events in the Empire. He could devote several weeks to his son's conversion unless the Rebels came up with some extraordinary plan, and there was nothing in Luke's mind to indicate the likelihood of such an occurrence.

He checked his chron and wondered when his son was going to rise. A Jedi completely attuned to the Force needed little sleep. Vader felt restless, anxious to talk to the boy. There was much he wanted to understand about Luke's existence and Obi-Wan's ultimate betrayal.

There was also much to understand about the boy himself. Vader had never known such a high level of emotional hunger in a human, and it piqued his interest. His delicate mind-probes had revealed much about the boy's foster parents - Beru, well-meaning but with priorities focused on her husband; Owen, with his hard-work ethic and no time to waste for nurturing a child's dreams. An incomplete though not uncommon upbringing. It could only have been the Force that had left Luke so famished for attention and with a strange combination of jaded innocence and adolescent yearnings. A Force child of such talent needed a Jedi's guidance from the day of his birth. Obi-Wan knew that to be true.

"You're thinking about Ben." A soft voice interrupted his concentration.

Vader was startled. The child's perceptions were more developed than he had suspected. He was torn between pride and annoyance. "Yes." He gestured to the empty seat and the pitcher of freesi juice that awaited.

Luke poured himself a glassful and gulped it thirstily. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand - a farmboy gesture, Vader chastised silently. Guiltily, Luke reached for a napkin and dabbed at his grin.

"Sorry." The crystal eyes studied him with open interest. "What were you thinking about Ben?"

"When did you meet him?"

"Two days before you killed him." Luke's answer was thoughtless. "I mean, before you--"

"Your meaning is clear." His voice held only the faintest allusion to censure, but he was pleased to see that it scratched the boy's ego. "Then you are how old - twenty?"

"Yes. Almost twenty-one," Luke replied with a hint of recrimination in his tone.

So, his old Master had stolen his son and hidden him for two decades, not only from his father but from the Force. "He was wrong to do so."

"To do what?"

Vader studied him. At this point in his development, Luke was easily controlled, and it was tempting to feed him lies. But that would bode ill for their future relationship. Better to have an emphasis on truth from the start, and then the boy would be more willing to believe the falsehoods of the future.

"You should not have been parted from the Force. It is exceptionally strong in you. There was no justification for Obi-Wan to have waited eighteen years to begin your training." But how fortunate that the overdue training had come to such an ignominious end.

"Maybe he didn't know about me."

He permitted himself a smile. "Ah. You believe the happy coincidence that he hid your birth from me, stole you from your mother, stored you on a remote wasteland, and just incidentally became a hermit and lived nearby?"

Luke shrugged, color peaking to his ears. "I guess I'm pretty stupid about a lot of things."

"No," he snapped. Nothing in the galaxy could have prevented his hand from reaching across the table to caress the face that bore the unmistakable stamp of his own, younger features. "Just untrained. I will create someone quite extraordinary out of your uncommon matter."

The boy sent him a quizzical half-smile, then touched the fingers that cupped his chin. "Why do you always wear gloves?"

The grasshopper mind of a child. Never mind, it would be corralled in time. Vader raised his right hand. "This one is a prosthetic, like yours. Another sign of our destiny." He stripped off the glove and flexed the hand; its synflesh was unmarred.

Luke frowned. "And the other?"

"Original equipment, extensively damaged."

Compassion flowed from the boy, and it unsettled Vader. "But you don't have any trouble using it, do you?"

"Its functions have been restored. The damage is purely cosmetic. In plainer words, child, it is an unpleasant sight, even for me."

"I'd like to see it." Luke held out his own hand in an imperious gesture.

Vader hesitated. The boy's Force-persuasion skills were already powerful. In time, it was possible that his son would best him, in which case it was wisest to yield a little today as insurance for tomorrow. He turned his left hand palm up and surrendered it.

Luke unfastened the clips and carefully removed the leather sheath. Vader studied the disfigured hand with a steely gaze. How ugly it must seem when compared to the perfection of youth. Luke traced the scars with his fingers, touched the puckered tissue with ill-concealed pity.

"Does it hurt?"

"No." Physically, the pain was years in the past. Emotionally, he no longer gave it thought - or hadn't, until this moment. Luke brought the hideous fingers to his cheek, and Vader disguised his dismay. The softness of young skin - how long had it been since he'd felt it? Or revealed that hand to another living creature?

"Are you like this all over?" The boy's voice quivered, setting up a resonance in the Force that his father promptly shielded.

"I--"

A kiss was pressed against his withered palm. Vader drew a sharp breath that made his respirator gasp in protest. Luke's eyes smiled at him, filled with an adoration that he had never before received - not even from this one's mother. And there was something more in the gaze than the simple worship of a child for his parent - something that could be used to control the boy. Vader withdrew his hand and curled his bare fingers, allowing them to stroke the pale cheek, indulging them in the silky coolness of golden hair. This was like nothing he'd ever known, and his tentative feelings were so complex, so confused--

Vader slipped the glove back on. "I shall begin your training today. We will work on shielding."

"You cannot shield yourself from me," the boy said slyly.

In the act of rising from the chair, he shot a sharp glance at Luke. "Nor you from me. Remember that."

"I shall." His son rose with him, pulling himself to his full, absurdly short, height. "I'm ready to begin." Then it was Luke's turn to show an indication of embarrassment. "Father?"

"What is it?"

One perfect hand rose, brushed the unblemished cheek as if to capture a memory. "I haven't been touched very often. Thank you."

Stricken by the absence of any appropriate phrases, Vader gave his son a curt nod of acknowledgment. "Let us begin your training."

He would do penance tonight and pray to the Sith spirits who ruled the Darkness to reinforce his strength against this dangerously seductive child... his child of the Sith.

Luke snapped off the lightsaber, disappointed with his performance. "I don't understand. I can't do it! What's wrong with me?"

"It is not your failure," his father said mildly. "I will help you construct a lightsaber of your own. They respond best to their creator. Your first one was impressive."

He wondered if his right hand was still attached to the old one. Perhaps someday a geoarchaeologist would find them and wonder. Perhaps one day a legend would arise of the battle between the young Jedi and his father, the Dark Lord. "It was yours."

Vader looked up. "You had mine?"

"Ben said you wanted me to have it when I was old enough, but Uncle Owen wouldn't allow it. I believed him."

"But now you do not. Or do you still distrust what I have told you, Luke?"

He closed his eyes and turned his face away. In the sanctuary offered by the darkness of the glass, disguised by the stark richness of the courtyard's succulents, he opened them again and saw the reflection of his father - a powerful giant. A man of legend, a superhuman of heroic stature. The man of his childhood fantasies. The mythical father he'd boasted about to his scornful childhood foes, the father who'd looked like Emperor Palpatine's Dark Lord. The dashing warrior, unsurpassed in skill and valor. The masked prince who'd sneak into his bed at night and touch him in vague ways. Now his imagination added an outstretched hand that beseeched his love and understanding, a gesture rich with promise. It was a heady feeling of power that rushed through him like adrenaline, the vision of the great Dark Lord pleading for his forgiveness.

Lord Darth Vader. Lord Luke Vader. Lords of the Galaxy. Father and Son.

Gods.

Cheering crowds: The Emperor is dead. Long live the Lords Vader.

He'd felt the approach of this moment since the terror above Bespin. Then, clinging to the cold metal for the sake of his life and his sanity, his father's words had pierced to his very soul and lingered no matter how hard he tried to erase them from his consciousness. Awake or asleep, he was haunted by the dream of ruling the galaxy at his father's side.

Luke swung round and removed his battle helmet, tossing it aside. "I believe you. I just don't believe you're telling me the whole truth."

The Dark Lord made a sound - or perhaps it was only in Luke's mind. A chuckle? It mirrored a depth of understanding that he hadn't felt before, not even from Ben Kenobi.

"You are the true son of your father. Stubborn to a fault."

A thrill of delight ran through him at the comparison, and he studied his father's mask. Did the voice augmenter turn upward in a smile? Did the hollow insect eyes really twinkle with amusement or was it just a reflection of light? Did that tilt of the helmet mean his father was proud of him?

Pride. Not disappointment, not rejection. Of his three Jedi teachers, only Darth Vader praised his skills and encouraged him. Only his father saw a future for him.

"I know your fears, my son. I share them."

Share? Not possible, but he didn't doubt for a moment that his father sensed his years of loneliness and frustration. Knew that he had wandered, unwanted, disconnected, through an empty and boring existence. But could Vader know the feeling that he wasn't whole, that the rest of him waited somewhere in the universe? That he had called and called and received not even a whisper in response - until after the horror of Cloud City.

And could Vader understand the stigma he bore, real or imagined, of a child without parents? A scar that had no possibility of being healed.

Until now.

This was his time. He could put everything right, throw those desperate years into ancient history where they belonged. If only he could say the words of assent that would reconnect him to his heritage. If only he could surrender the man he was struggling to become to the man who wanted his soul.

A dark glove came to rest on his shoulder.

"Can I change myself? Should I be... you?" he whispered uncertainly.

You will be my shadow, was the answer he heard in his mind. But aloud his father replied: "I don't want you to be me. I only want to help you realize your true potential."

Luke shook his head, more against the yearning caused by the words than in denial of the offer.

The hand caressed his hair, fine strands slipping easily through the gloved fingers. "You are so much like me, Luke."

The fingers brushed his face, and he trembled on the brink of understanding. "Father...."

"You have my eyes."

"Do I?" He almost asked to see his father's face, but hesitated, reluctantly acknowledging that he feared the destruction of his fantasy. "Part of me," his voice trembled with the effort of making this confession, "part of me wants to be like you."

To become the father he'd created in his mind.

For a moment he felt that he could almost reach out and touch the dream-image that had appeared to him in the cave on Dagobah. His face inside his father's helmet. Himself inside his father. His father inside him.

And still he could not grasp the true meaning.

But what if these thoughts were not his own? What if his mind was bending to the will of Vader's desires? What if his father was lying to him the way Ben had?

He hid the anguish that possibility brought behind a defiant smile. "You're very good at mind control games - almost as good as Ben. You're trying to convince me that our causes are the same. That we can join together and turn the galaxy into some kind of corrupt paradise."

"Your words, Luke, not mine." The reply came sharply, with a bitterness that equalled his own. "Don't judge me by your limitations."

He was stricken into silence, wounded by the arrow he'd meant for his father.

The Dark Lord sighed. "Luke... son. Your limitations are the result of my absence. Had I raised you, you would have been trained in the Force from babyhood. You would understand your place at my side, your importance to the galaxy. You would not now feel the confusion and loss that I sense."

"Then why did you leave me?" His grief and anger burst out with the accusation. "Why didn't you come back for me?"

"I did not know you existed. Your mind wasn't strong enough to reach out to me. Perhaps, at the moment of your birth, I might have sensed you - but I was... otherwise occupied." One hand reached up, clenched, then slowly dropped. "Had I known, I would have come for you. Obi-Wan was wrong to think that keeping us apart would bring you no harm. But he was afraid of your potential."

"That I'd become a Dark Jedi like you?" He pushed aside his sadness and tried to concentrate, to discern the truth.

"Partly. He was afraid of the scope of power we would - a son of mine would have. Obi-Wan was not always the humble, self-effacing master he appeared to you. His talent in the Force bordered on sorcery. He wanted to train me, but refused to share his deepest knowledge - he held me back, so I had to find my own way. I will not make that same mistake with you, my son."

Vader hesitated, his head turned to the side as though he listened to a voice Luke couldn't hear. "When I became powerful, Kenobi saw in me what he wanted for himself. In keeping you from me, he thought he could control us and thereby change his own destiny. Despite his dreams of greatness, he was a small man. As for Obi-Wan's carefully staged death --" Vader uttered a harsh bark of laughter "-- the sacrifice of a martyr, designed to reinforce your adolescent illusions of his godhood."

Luke leaned against a support beam. It disturbed him that these words were so powerful. He wanted to resist them, but it was impossible.

"As your first Force mentor, Obi-Wan had an unfortunately strong influence on you, that is why you continue to have difficulty accepting the truth." His father chuckled at the expression on his face. "I can see that you and I share the same annoyance that our thoughts can be so clearly perceived by another Force-sensitive."

"Is this what the Emperor does? Does he know everything you think?" His jealousy stunned him; it was bright and sharp, cutting deeply into his heart. At that moment, he would have joyfully slain Palpatine to excise him from his father's life.

"No." The answer was deliberately calming. "Nor have I ever been able to read anyone as easily as I sense your thoughts. We are not just blood, son. We are Jedi blood, a very ancient tie."

"Ben told me."

"Told you, yes. But could not share it with you. That is your father's responsibility. The father teaches the son - it is our way."

"You should have found me sooner," Luke repeated stubbornly and turned away, confused by his conflicting feelings. So much of his life was lost and could never be recovered - stolen by Ben Kenobi, the man he'd thought was his friend. He should be furious... but a Jedi didn't feel anger, Yoda said.

But you are not a Jedi yet....

How could he ever become something he didn't understand?

His father moved behind him, strong arms circling his shoulders, pulling him back, sheltering him. Perhaps it was an apology of sorts. He felt the cold of the helmet as it bowed down against his own head, the gentle pulse of the respirator, the hum of machinery that kept his father alive in impure atmospheres.

...more machine than man....

Was that Ben's voice? Luke raised his head. Even if it was, it was just another of his lies. This was not a machine that held him.

"Your emotions call to the Emperor. He responds to the Dark. Calm yourself - or I will do it for you."

"Then do it," he whispered, relinquishing his will to the guidance of his long-awaited father. The Force trickled from Vader, at first gentle and erratic like a million crazed fireflies darting through the night sky. It increased, creating a refuge from his confusion. Luke felt something press against his breastbone - from the inside. A feeling - the Dark, the Light? No, something more, something better.

I'm here, son. I will protect you.

I know you will. But, Father, what is this feeling? I like it....

Wanting. Fulfillment. Both and neither. It is everything for which you hunger, young one. It is all your wishes come true.

Darth Vader clasped his son tightly, satisfaction rushing through his veins. Luke was so immature, so naive. It was scarcely sporting to alter his perceptions, to play on his emotions as easily as fingers plucked a stringed instrument. But there was no alternative. The boy had to come to the Dark Side to be under his protection, otherwise the Emperor would never allow him to live and risk fulfillment of the boy's destructive destiny. It was fortunate, indeed, that the child was affected by his words. Perhaps Obi-Wan had done him a favor after all. Now Luke was so starved for his father's affection that he was more easily led.

Son of Skywalker, the Emperor had hissed, outraged. The boy seeks my annihilation.

Vader's child, in his own thoughts. My son. Mine, belonging to me, part of me. The one who will set me free of my enslavement to Palpatine and give me the throne.

Vader closed his eyes. It would be a relief to again be alone, to remove his battle gear and not see the world through computer-enhanced orbs. The images were imprecise, too digitized to give him the true sense of his son. He longed to rip off this armor and to once again feel the softness of the boy's face under his touch - soft as his own flesh had been before synflesh replaced it - to press a kiss in the silky hair, to inhale its fresh scent, to hear his son's voice with his own ears.

He sensed the boy's raging need. "Luke," he whispered persuasively, "stay with me. Only our combined strength can save us. You and I share one mind, one heart. One destiny from which there is no escape."

The boy struggled in his grasp, and Vader released him. "Ben said that I had to confront you. I thought he meant--"

"That murdering your father was your destiny?" He watched Luke's anguish and held his great body in check, fists clenched at his side. "And still you think that I am the Evil One?" He spat the words. "They tortured you with that command - and for what reason? Why should you kill me?" His fury built. "They had their own agenda and it had nothing to do with you. I was one of them, and I preferred the Dark Side. The Dark called to them, but they were cowards and ran from it. I accepted their betrayals, but I cannot accept what they tried to compel you to do. They were sentencing you to your own destruction. Or could you have knowingly murdered your father and then resumed your life?"

Vader walked a few steps away to compose himself. He would free his son from the isolation of his grief, teach him the legacy of his Sith forebearers, as he should have been taught at his father's knee.

"Father?"

He returned to Luke's side. "Yes, son?" Pleased, he sensed the thrill that ran through the boy each time he used that designation.

Two small, strong hands grabbed his arms. "Why did they do it? Why did they tell me to kill you? You're not evil - not really."

Not evil. Though the galaxy might disagree, he knew it was his curse. Neither strong enough nor evil enough to be a true Sith and hold the Thousandworlds in his fist. Always he had lived in the Sorcerer's shadow, watchful, waiting for his chance. Now....

With this boy, his wait was ended. "They assumed that you would destroy me," he replied evasively. "Then my murder would have eliminated you, also - or at best left you a Force cripple, unable to cope with patricide. Now tell me again, Luke, which of us is evil - Obi-Wan or me?"

"No!" Pain radiated out from the boy in palpable shock waves. Surely the Emperor must sense it. Vader tried to block the feelings, to contain them here in their home, to keep the Emperor out of their lives for at least a short while longer.

"That doesn't make sense. It couldn't be for selfish reasons - not just because they hated you - or me. I don't believe it. You're lying to me - just like they did!"

Curse be to the Sith who created this difficult child. Vader hesitated before surrendering to the decision that the truth was unavoidable. He clasped the boy's hands between his two, offering his own strength as an anchor. "Forgive me for what I must reveal to you. But this is your destiny. You were meant to correct my 'failure'. I was supposed to destroy the Emperor, not become his servant."

Pale lips parted. "You?"

"Yes. When I failed, The Jedi intended to use you to destroy the Dark Dynasty with one blow of your lightsaber. Your action would have destroyed me, the Dark Lord, and crippled you, my heir. Then, due to grief over the destruction of his future, they hoped my own father would wither and die."

Luke looked up at him, eyes huge with fear and reluctance, face so white that its tones barely registered as human through his sensors. "Your f-father? I don't understand."

"Yes, you do," Vader answered as gently as he could. "He is--"

"No!" Luke's voice cracked, and he pulled his hands free. "I don't want to hear anymore - it's not possible!"

"You must. At some level, you understood your destiny even before we met. - as I understood mine from the moment your grandfather restored my life and made me his Right Hand."

"No!"

Despite their mental connection, he was ill-prepared for the shattering denial that battered his mind. It took all Vader's Force mastery to take control and bury himself in Luke's senses. Quickly, he built walls to keep the truth inside and force Luke into acceptance. The boy could do it, and the damage would not be irreparable. Skywalkers were a strong line - he bore witness to that strength.

Luke began to fight his control, and Vader took a mental step backward, startled by the strength young Skywalker revealed. "You're lying," the boy accused, his voice tight with pain. "I want to know what happened to you. What happened to your body - what Obi-Wan did. I want the truth from you. No more lies, Father - not from you, not from anyone."

Incensed, Vader forced his way back into his son's mind to discover what barrier remained. He found a protected corner, a place where the boy still believed in Kenobi, a place strong with the Light. Until that place was destroyed, they could never be joined. Obi-Wan! His rage, so long denied an outlet, began to surge inside him, and it was a pleasure set it free.. Obi-Wan wasn't here to receive it, but his loyal apprentice was.

"Very well. You wish to know how I was damaged, son of mine?" He paced his words slowly and deliberately. It would be cruel, and he would glory in that cruelty. It was time to eliminate the rest of his son's resistance with a stunning display of his power. "I will show you. Behold - this is what your Obi-Wan did to me. Now you will live it, too."

With the strength of the Dark Force, he thrust Luke backward in Time and into the lava pit that had eaten through his body while Obi-Wan watched and gloated and laughed.

Now the boy would understand all.

Luke awoke with a start, pulse fluttering wildly in this throat. It took a few minutes to calm himself, to realize that he was in his father's home, safe, not drowning in a fiery pool of hell, and that what he dreamed had never happened - to him. But in the weeks since his father had shown him the images, the scalding torture had become part of his own memory. He'd lived through the horror and its aftermath: Kenobi; lightsabers clashing as teacher turned on student; pushed into a pool of lava that instantly cooked the flesh from his bones; magically lifted from the liquid fire by the invisible Masters of Darkness, Sith spirits. Then had come months of pain, years of restorative surgeries, failure after failure, despair, courage, Palpatine's constant presence.... Now Luke knew his father's agonies intimately, and the realization that he could offer no solace and no cure unsettled him. What sort of ruin lay behind the mask? Did his father have the face of a monster instead of a man? He couldn't ask and put his father through more pain. But... do I look like you used to? he wondered wistfully.

He swung his legs out of bed and paused in front of the mirror. His reflection reassured him. There were no burns, no scars; his limbs were tanned and lithe, muscles more sharply defined than they had ever been. Weeks of pushing his body's limits, both here and on Dagobah, had left him in superb physical condition. He slid his hands over his torso, allowing himself a moment to enjoy his frustrated sensuality before belting a loose robe over his nakedness. A more immediate urge demanded to be sated. He was starving.

From the kitchen cooler he grabbed a cold roos leg and tore at the tough flesh with his teeth, strolling into the spacious study where his father was watching holocasts from the Empire. Luke studied the black figure of his dreams and nightmares. Vader had never given any indication of the pain he'd suffered, and Luke's admiration was grew.

"What's new?"

"Your unconventional breakfast, for one." A large hand flicked off the vid. "A minor metropolis on Den Two has been wiped out - by a small meteorite, they believe."

"Damn. Why didn't I feel it?" The depth of the catastrophe touched him only peripherally. The fact that he hadn't sensed it was much more distressing. Shouldn't a Jedi know such things?

"It surprises me that you did not. Perhaps in your sleep... did you have a bad dream?"

"The usual." He shrugged, feeling oddly disoriented. "Maybe I've just had too many tragedies to sense another one."

"And exactly what great tragedies have you had in your short life, my son?"

"How quickly you forget." His response held anger, but it was more a matter of form than fury. "You took away my life and everyone I had. Your troopers killed Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen - don't you care? They were your relatives, too."

"They were neither relatives of mine nor yours. Your 'uncle' was Obi-Wan's brother."

"Ben's? Are you certain?" He remembered the bloodless reaction of his former master to their massacre. "He didn't even flinch when he heard they were dead." His estimation of the old Jedi rose a notch.

"He was a hard man who had lived long and seen much. Perhaps his compassion had withered."

"Maybe." He tossed the unfinished fowl aside with a moue of distaste and sprawled in a chair, hooking one leg over the arm. He rubbed his fingers along the smooth skin of his exposed thigh. "Doesn't it bother you that your troopers destroyed my life?" he asked, disguising his uneasiness as an idle question. He felt so strange today, so detached, as if....

Something was going to happen... something more important than a meteorite obliterating a city.

Vader watched him. "If they hadn't, you would still be a callow, fatherless farmboy, anxious to get off that useless rock. Was your old life so preferable?"

It was logic with which he couldn't disagree. He wanted to surrender to it, but he also wanted to battle. "Other people's lives are a high price to pay for my happiness."

"It is a frequent occurrence, Luke, for a Jedi. I'm sure Obi-Wan considered their deaths a small cost since the result was to set you on the path to your destiny."

His father's philosophies made sense. His motives were pure and straightforward, not like the calculated manipulations of Ben and Yoda. And there was something about Vader's cold logic that excited and empowered him, giving him strange, lush feelings he'd never had before. Now he could see himself reflected in Vader's mind, as if in a great cloudy mirror that magnified him many times. He studied that mental image, running his fingers through his hair, gratified by its added length and luxuriant texture. Everything about his body had improved tenfold. If this was a side effect of embracing Dark powers, he was all for it.

"My heartbreaker son."

He dropped his hand, eyes narrowing. "What does that mean?"

There was a shadow of angry envy in Vader's voice. "You have a cruel, careless beauty about you. I think you will cause great pain to people who have the misfortune to care for you."

A small smile canted his lips. "Including you, Father?" he challenged pitilessly.

"You forget yourself!" the Dark Lord hissed. "Remember your destiny."

"Let me guess. My destiny is to kneel at your feet? Sorcerer's apprentice."

"I have no doubt of that." Vader leaned forward, elbows resting on the pale, rich wood of the table's surface. "Soon, I think, it will be time for you to return to your friends."

"Go back?" Luke blinked. "No! I thought you wanted me with you. We're going to confront the Emperor. I'm not afraid of him anymore."

"You should be. You are not yet prepared, and I do not want to risk you. Your powers require some practical experience. Your position as an Alliance pilot - "

"I'm not leaving," Luke said firmly and changed the subject. Perhaps if he demonstrated again what a quick study he was, his father wouldn't make him go. "I need you to teach me. I've already learned so much from you."

"More than you realize." Vader stood, towering over him. "Clothe yourself and we will go into the desert and practice what you have learned."

The large sun was cresting the horizon, but the desert still held the night's cool. Luke bounded out of the speeder, spreading his arms to welcome the rising warmth with an exultant gesture. He felt so alive, so happy, so - real.

"What else do you feel, child of my heart?"

Laughing, he spun in a circle. "I feel - powerful! Like I'm going to explode! Like I can do anything!"

"Then proceed."

Freedom erupted out of him, totally unfettered. He was gloriously alive, a god in charge of the universe. This was the Force! This was what had been missing in his life, this would fulfill him. All around the sand rose and grew into towers, a castle whose builder had been crazed by the sheer power of creation. He laughed at it, building and building until he was enclosed in the darkness of a dungeon - then smashed it with the force of a typhoon, sand swirling but never daring to touch him.

He ran through the storm, and it parted for him, creating a motile archway. He flung himself at his father's feet, panting. "I'm a god!" he declared impulsively. "We both are!"

"Yes."

He felt the swell of Vader's power as it grew to twine with his. Together they began to build, until a sky-splitting spire of sand stood in the empty desert, higher than any mountain he'd ever seen. "We can do anything," he whispered in awe, slowing rising to his feet.

"Yes. The Force is with us." Vader turned abruptly and grabbed his forearms. "We can take one more step. If you are not afraid."

His breath clogged in his throat, and he trembled with impatience. "I'm not afraid of anything! What is it?"

"We can join our minds." The fingers tightened. "A Jedi can only link with his equal. We will forever bonded more closely than you can imagine. I will always be inside you and you inside me. Always touching, needing no one else. Always with the other's power at his command. No one will be able to stop us."

Omnipotence! He knew his feverish enthusiasm blazed through his gasping breaths and lit his eyes. Power... he craved it the way a hungry child did the sweetness of candy. And to bond with the Dark Lord... was this what the vision in the Dagobah cave meant? "Yes, I want to - but..."

The grip tightened further, biting into his flesh, bruising him. He allowed himself to feel the pain and revel in the sensations it created, his perceptions overflowing with frantic anticipation.

"What?" his father growled.

"It feels...." With a confused blend of pride and chagrin, he let his father see his lust, daring the older man to either criticize or indulge him.

A bark of laughter was torn from the Dark Lord. "Power is an aphrodisiac, Luke. But never allow sex to stand in the way of power. As a Jedi, you may find that while sexual indulgence is a pleasurable sensation, it is a small delight when compared with exercising your other powers. And the consequences...."

"What consequences?" he asked, shaking his head, trying to clear the fog that was smothering him.

Vader's voice lowered. "Luke, a Jedi must not have children. I should not have - it is why you feel so much pain, because you are the child of a Jedi. The Force is too strong in you."

Too strong? Then the meaning of Vader's words sunk in, and Luke blinked. "But.... Your father had you! Are you saying that I can't-- I mean, can I still...?"

"There is no contraception that will prevent a Jedi baby."

He stared at the Dark Lord, his mind whirling. Yoda hadn't mentioned this - and neither had Ben. Yet when he considered it, they had both been living as hermits, alone and chaste. And hadn't he felt it all his life, this knowledge that he would never have a woman? He'd thought it had meant something different. "But I'm your child," he said finally, "and we're both Jedi. Won't any kind of bonding--"

"A Jedi parent-child bond is rare; very little is known about its effects. There may be a possibility of... one's personality becoming... submerged."

"Did that happen with you and--"

"The danger is passed for us," his father interrupted impatiently, "Once we join, all your senses will be heightened. You will be part of me. You will learn to hide nothing from me. You will be unable to hide from me." The voice turned into velvet and stroked his senses. "Nor will you want to."

There was a faint warning voice in his head, but it was so small, its words so meaningless, that it was simple to ignore it. Luke raised his hands and gripped them around the powerful arms, dizzy with excitement. "Do it," he whispered, willingly succumbing to the shadowy realm of unspoken desires. Take me, be part of me, Dark Lord, before I take you - but he dared not utter his challenge aloud.

Sand whirled, mad dancers centering on them. His body was racked with convulsions, and the cold strength of his father's embrace was essential to keep him on his feet. Storm clouds moved across his vision, swooping by his closed lids like winged demons. His mind was pierced, severed, then returned to him reformed, and in it he could feel his father's irresistible will. He felt the other's mighty body as if it were his own, knew all its strengths and understood the machinery that supported it. He felt both cold contempt and fiery passion in their mind - one mind now, not just his alone - and fusing with it came his own youthful exhilaration and a dying memory of innocence. Every feeling swirling and merging until he thought he might explode from the volatile mixture.

It stopped with soul-shocking abruptness. He shuddered against his father, panting, and squinted up at the sun that blazed directly above him. Had so much time passed? Confusion clouded his thoughts; he drew away from the tall figure of his father. What had he done?

"It is too late for second thoughts, young one. Once done, it cannot be undone."

The father-part of him was disoriented too. Together they worked, picking careful steps through the shambles, gathering up the silver threads of remembrances. "We can still be private. I feel you, but... I have my own thoughts. And... Father?" His voice was husky with emotion. "I don't want to undo it."

"Yes." There was a faint tremble in the Vader's voice because, Luke instantly understood, he was no more familiar with these feelings than was his son.

His compassion flooded both of them, and their thoughts turned inward. The present and future Dark Lords remained motionless in the desert as the sun traversed the sky and darkness settled once again upon the land.

He raised his head. His father lounged in one of the living area's comfortable chairs, bent leg propped casually on a polished table of naturally-shaped wood. "It seems like I make a lot of mistakes," Luke said despairingly, staring at the shards that had been an example of rare Alderaani pottery.

"Learning is constant," Vader answered mildly. "You are not unwise for your few years and lack of experience. Good judgment will come. And good balance," he added drily.

Some of his depression slipped away. No one else would ever understand how his father could soothe him. His deficiencies were smoothed over with matter-of-fact encouragement. "I love you," he whispered impulsively. It was so easy to say those words to this man, words that he had never considered saying to anyone else.

"Yes." Vader clasped both hands around his knee and studied him. "You need a haircut. You are beginning to resemble a pelted creature."

He laughed, delighted with the ordinariness of the conversation. "I like it long."

"Long it may remain, but the lack of style is unbecoming. We shall trim it."

"It looks fine," he protested.

"Why look merely 'fine' when you could be beautiful?"

Luke caught his breath. "All right," he whispered. He came to sit on the floor by his father's chair. He leaned his arm on the black-clad knee, rested his cheek against it, pleased when his touch was accepted. "I've missed you. I mean - "

"I know what you mean, son." His unspoken invitation was answered when his father's hand began to stroke his hair. "Since I have known you, I have often thought about the moments we did not share."

He ducked his head under the caress, longing to hear the words. "Like what?" he coaxed.

The Dark Lord chuckled, indulging his blatant entreaty. "Mmm... Luke as a babe in my arms. Luke as a toddler, falling over his own feet. Luke the adolescent, discovering adventure with me. Luke the teenager, driving me to distraction with demands for his own skyhopper. Luke and the thrill of his first love."

The images were so like his own dreams, but these had no possibility of coming true. Did that realization sadden his father? "That's one you haven't missed. I never fell in love. Back on Tatooine... no one really liked me. Except Biggs Darklighter - he was my friend. But he died during the assault on the Death Star. I guess... you killed him," he added pensively.

The hand rested against his head, benediction and consolation. "You were miles above those commoners on Tatooine, my child. They were jealous of your brilliance. You should have been with me. I would have taken you soaring."

"I wanted a father." He laughed awkwardly. Such simple words couldn't describe his years of loneliness. "I missed you and - everything." He thought of Owen and Beru without regret. "They told me lies about you."

The gloved hand raised his chin until he stared directly into the black orbs. "You have me now, young one. I will never leave you."

Why did it still seem like a dream? Where was reality, where was disappointment? This was too much happiness... it couldn't be real. "What about my... grandfather?" he whispered, stumbling over the word. "Will he want to see me?"

His father sighed. "Of course. Soon. Luke... he receives enjoyment from observing suffering. Any failures or errors on your part would bring him great pleasure."

Luke shuddered. "Is there no love in him at all?"

"None."

"Someday... tell me about you and him. But... not now." He twisted his legs around. "I'll try not to make any mistakes when I meet him."

Vader was silent for several moments. "It would be better if you did."

Luke bowed his head. Here was the Darkness - and it was no less than he'd expected. Pain and pleasure, love and hate. He'd always known there were no vast differences between them; now he saw they were inexorably linked. Power was with them, too, and he wanted that more than anything else.

Except for his father. And even that once-simple desire had become complex.

"My little Shadow Jedi."

Luke looked up questioningly.

"Neither Dark nor Light.... Go now," his father said gently. "Amuse yourself. There is a gift - Akita will show you. I must attend to my duties."

"My Lord Vader," Palpatine said softly. "I am much relieved. I had grown worried and fearful for your health during your extended absence."

Vader winced. The honeyed tones issuing from the comlink were a sign of great displeasure. "My conversion of young Skywalker took longer than I expected. His will is great. However, I am pleased to report that I have succeeded."

"You have turned him to the Dark Side?" Disbelief was reflected in the Emperor's words.

"I have direct influence over his mind," Vader replied, prevaricating slightly.

"Aaah." It was a sigh of pleasure. "I will enjoy observing his final metamorphosis. However, I would hope, Lord Vader, that your control over your son is indisputable. I would truly regret your failure in this matter."

A thinly veiled threat that he was intended to recognize as such. "My control over the boy is complete, master."

"If you were to find some... lapse in his conversion," the Emperor continued, ignoring his servant's words, "you would, of course, take immediate remedial action."

He recited the words that Palpatine wanted to hear. "He will join us or die, my master."

"Excellent."

The transmission ended, and Vader switched off his comlink. He wondered if Palpatine discerned the depths of his treason and to what extent his power base, as well as his Force skills, had expanded over the years while remaining ever hidden from the Emperor. Soon he would rule the Empire, expanding it beyond the reaches of the galaxy, and his son would be at his side, an extension of his power. Emperor Vader's Right Hand.

Foolish child. He leaned back in the chair, indulging in uncharacteristic idleness. Carelessly, he searched for Luke. Found him practicing unorthodox maneuvers in his new gift, a modified TIE interceptor, much like Vader's personal fighter. He smiled into Luke's mind, letting the boy feel his touch. A rush of cheerful emotions shot back at him.

Interesting. Luke had found that his happiness came from the Dark Side, that the wasteful Light brought nothing but martyrdom and a boring existence. Vader withdrew his presence, leaving a delicate connection to ensure that the child didn't crash his ship into a meteor or run into another of life's absurdities.

Even considering Luke's previously sheltered existence and his extraordinary naivete, Vader found it disturbing that the boy believed the mythical concept of mind-joining when it had merely been another way to bind his son to him. But Luke not only believed it, he'd embraced it with fervor. As if he really trusted that the Dark Lord of the Sith would voluntarily share his powers with a boy whose awesome skills were so uncontrolled, a boy hungry for the stimulation that conflict provided.

The arrogance that implied disturbed him, as did the depths to which the boy plunged with a nudge from the Dark Side. There appeared to be a deep well of vanity and insolence in his son which he didn't care to evoke.

Vader stood and paced to the patio, glaring at the desert flowers that bloomed in the cool of the night. Something else had changed since that "joining", and brutal honesty compelled him to admit that the boy's free-ranging emotions were affecting him. It had not been his intention, but there seemed to be no way to halt the progression of these distasteful emotions. It was mostly sexual, but there was something else with him now; a feeling that had not always been a stranger to him. With scientific objectivity, he scrutinized and attempted to identify it. As near as his examination could determine, it appeared to be remorse. Absurd, really, but there it was and he would have to endure it.

And worse than remorse was this unmistakable feeling of loneliness. Damnit, he missed the boy. Immediately he realized the value of that thought and sent it to his son. Luke's reaction was as he'd expected - a sweeping wave of longing, a poorly hidden rush of lust.

Improbably, that response also caused an inconvenient reaction in him. Vader made an involuntary gesture of frustration with his hand.

He began to pace restlessly, annoyed with himself for this atypically skittish behavior. Why these ludicrous feelings of anxiety? Why this single, overriding worry that he would lose Luke? There was no force more powerful than the boy's love for his father - not even Palpatine could separate them.

Yet he worried.

His rational mind reminded him that he would be continuously monitoring the boy and if any problem arose he could take mental control. Surely the risks were worth the reward. The entire galaxy worshiping Emperor Vader.... Once Luke surrendered his self to his father, nothing would stop them. The combined power of Jedi parent and child was unequaled in the galaxy. The only person who could thwart his plans was Luke himself.

But the irrational part of him still had qualms. He reinforced the connection with his son, felt Luke's response like an embrace. It was foolish to worry. The boy hadn't even shown any indication of wanting to return to his friends, so why... ?

He looked down at his closed fist. Odd that he hadn't remembered grasping anything. Slowly, with an intensifying feeling of dread, he uncurled his fingers. The first pale blossom of the night had been crushed in his grip, its ivory petals bruised and crumbled. He closed his fist around it again and stared up at the night sky.

Unlike the flower, his son would be undamaged by his touch. Of this he was certain. Quite certain.

With an angry gesture, Vader threw the broken petals to the ground and pivoted on his heel. It was time to bring Luke to the Empire.

Vader probed his son's mind carefully. Praise the Sith, the boy was still asleep. The Dark Lord relaxed, tossing aside his dignity to sprawl across the overstuffed sofa. He'd never imagined that having a son could be so taxing.

He reflected on recent events. Luke still needed to learn discipline and how to channel the impatience and Dark power that simmered beneath the boy's usual exuberance. Left as it was, one day it would not be only Alderaani pottery and TIE fighters that suffered from his temper - one day the violent release of Luke's repressions could have disastrous consequences to those around him. If his Forceful abilities continued to grow, as it appeared they were doing, it would take all of Vader's cunning to keep the youth under his control. Fortunately, he understood the most direct route: emotional appeals and overt affection were what the boy craved. As long as Vader continued to use them successfully, he could set aside his natural fear that one day Luke would destroy him along with the Emperor.

There was the possibility, of course, that Palpatine would be fascinated by this boy who was more like him than his own son had ever been. Vader frowned, uncertain of his feelings in that regard, then dismissed the problem as unworthy of his concern.

The way to deal with his son's sexuality was not as simply defined, particularly since it was focused on his father. That was where the path became more dangerous.

He had no scruples against engaging in a sexual relationship with his son - indeed, the boy was disturbingly desirable - but the emotional consequences would be difficult to predict. Sex would add to his control as long as the relationship was successful. Any problems, any jealousies, any slights real or imagined, had the potential to unleash Luke's terrible fury. And the Dark Lord definitely didn't want to be on the receiving end of that reaction. Luke could destroy him in a fit of rage, because he would find it very difficult to defend himself against this vulnerable child he'd brought into existence - a weakness he disliked admitting, but his reluctance had to be acknowledged.

He'd been unable to kill Luke in Cloud City; even earlier, in the Death Star trench, he hadn't fired the final torpedo that would have blown the little x-wing to bits. He'd sensed a connection between them then; now, as they spent time together, he admitted a growing attachment to his son.

Regardless of his feelings, it would require careful thinking before he could decide on the direction in which Luke's passions could be safely turned. In the meanwhile, he would exert a bit more control over his son's mind and cool those reckless desires... if he could.

"Good morning, Father."

He lifted his head. In the bright light of day, Luke appeared as sleepy-eyed and tousle-headed as an innocent baby... dragon. Vader smiled at the comparison. "Good morning, boy. I trust you slept well?"

"I did, though I don't know why," Luke admitted sheepishly. "I should have had nightmares about wrecking the TIE." He stretched his arms over his head, waving them in giant arcs. He paced to the window and back, then flung himself onto the other end of the sofa with the restlessness of youth. He draped one leg over the sofa arm and swung it. "So what are we going to do now? Will we stay here? Are we going into the desert again? Do you want to - "

"I must return to my flagship," Vader interrupted before the endless list of possibilities could continue. " I would very much like for you to come with me. You need command experience. And I dislike being parted from you."

It was the last that would make the most impression on the vulnerable man-child that lived inside his son; that was why he'd added it. Not surprisingly, Luke's eyes brightened at the statement. "I wouldn't like that either, but... your flagship? Somehow I can't see myself as an Imperial officer."

"You wouldn't be. You would be a Lord and responsible only to me and to the Emperor."

"Not the Emperor." A flicker of anxiety briefly touched the crystal eyes. "I... worry about him... but I'm not sure why."

"It would be a matter of protocol only. I would be the buffer between the two of you. The Emperor rarely strays into space so you need not concern yourself. In any case, I suspect that he should be more afraid of you than you of him."

Luke giggled. "I like the sound of that! So can I be Lord Skywalker? Lord Skywalker of Tatooine! That would show all those idiots back home!" He swung around to sit cross-legged. The sofa cushions tipped, and the Dark Lord braced himself with one foot planted on the floor.

"You may choose another name." Sith help him be patient!

"I think I'd like to keep the family one."

"You must consider, Luke," he replied carefully, "that 'Skywalker' has negative connotations within the Empire. You will be working alongside officers and soldiers who lost friends and family members on the Death Star."

Luke's excitement subsided, and his expression became grave. "I never thought of that."

"You rarely seem to think about the consequences of your actions, son."

The mouth opened to issue a protest, then snapped shut again. The boy shrugged. "We're alike in that, aren't we? So... you want me to be Luke Vader."

"Perhaps that is not the best choice either," he said stiffly.

"No?" The bright mood vanished, consumed by something darker. "You don't want people to know I'm your son? Are you ashamed of me?"

"Sometimes a secret is best revealed when its significance can be utilized to its fullest extent."

Luke frowned. "So I can be anyone. Or no one at all."

There was a certain pleasure in knowing that he could so easily control his son's moods. "Just come with me, my precocious offspring. I will teach you everything I know. And perhaps you will teach me a few things."

Luke gave a short laugh. "That would be interesting! Father...."

He recognized that yearning tone. "What?" he asked warily.

"I liked it that time you called me 'child of my heart'."

Moments such as these, when the boy's shy innocence resurfaced, unsettled his composure. But he reached over and ruffled the sunny hair. "Well, then, child of my heart, can I offer you breakfast before we start another long day?"

"Sure! I can fix it. I'm starving!" Luke leaped to his feet, his exuberance restored. "Are we leaving today?"

"For - ?"

"Oh." Color swept into the boy's cheeks. "For your flagship. Yes, Father, I'll be honored to accompany you and be your Shadow Lord. I don't ever want to be apart from you again."

A possibility that was both reassuring and frightening. Vader accepted the hand his son proffered and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet, envying the agility of youth. "Excellent. We shall toast a long and productive association."

"With Norvanian grog?" Luke suggested brightly.

The idea of an intoxicated Skywalker filled him with misgivings. "I think not. We shall rest today and return to the fleet tomorrow."

"Rest? Well... I'll find something to do. I have to think of a name - that won't be easy! And I'll be ready to go first thing in the morning!"

He didn't doubt it for a moment. Vader watched wordlessly as his son bounded from the room.

Luke hoped he wasn't insulting Akita by banishing him from the kitchen, but for once he wanted to prepare his father's breakfast himself. He wasn't such a bad cook; one advantage of living on a wasteland planet like Tatooine was that everyone learned the basic survival skills.

So it was with pride that he placed the heaping plate in front of the Dark Lord. The meal of eggs and fried strips might not look pretty, but it would taste wonderful. His father studied it silently.

"Try it. It's good," Luke urged, dropping into a chair.

"How do you expect me to eat this?"

For a moment he was confused. Then: "Oh. You could... take off your mask," he suggested hesitantly. "I wouldn't mind. You don't have to eat by yourself every day."

"I prefer to dine in my chambers," Vader said stiffly, then softened the rejection by reaching across the table and squeezing his hand.

The touch reminded Luke of another time. Color rushed into his face, and he had to force his voice to be steady. He didn't want to bring it up, but it was proper to do so. And he was curious. "I want to apologize for...um, what happened."

"I beg your pardon?"

"For... you know. In the desert." His cheeks were burning; the temperature in the room must have warmed by a hundred degrees. "When I... I...." It was impossible to continue. He drooped in his chair. Picking up the fork, he flattened the mound of eggs.

"When you were sexually aroused?"

Shame filled his heart as he nodded. How could his father talk of it so bluntly?

"It's all right, Luke."

Easy for you to say. He shook his head.

"I fully understand why you feel that way."

"I don't. I've never...."

"I know you haven't. Which is part of the reason. You have never loved a woman, you have never engaged in intercourse, you have never had an emotional closeness such as you have with me - and now you have learned that some of those things are not possible for you. It is not surprising that your latent sexual urges would become linked to the stimulation our new relationship provides."

"But it's not right. I'm your son," he said tentatively, wondering if Vader's values were as rigid as those he'd known on Tatooine.

"There are no moral considerations such as right or wrong regarding physical relations between people."

He blinked. "There aren't?" This was contrary to what Owen and Beru had taught him so many years ago. But he liked this new rule better.

Much better.

"Of course not. Anything is acceptable as long as all parties are willing." Vader lifted the plate and stared at its contents.

Luke watched him. "It felt for a moment like... you were willing," he finally breathed daringly.

The helmet tilted toward him. "Of course I was, child. Aside from the emotional closeness I feel for you, you are a very attractive and, I suspect, sensual young man. And, my boy, when you aimed that intensity at me, it was difficult to resist."

"Really?" He rested his chin in his hand and watched his father stand there with that shattering calmness. Luke Skywalker, attractive and sensual? But... sometimes he did feel that way. And he liked that feeling. "So...?"

"Eat your breakfast."

"I am." He was giddy, nearly giggling. Did he hold a certain power over the Dark Lord? He pushed the eggs around with his fork. "So... are we going to do it?"

"You are the most precocious-- You may be attractive and erotic, but you are still my son."

"But you said there were no moral--"

"I know what I said. You need not repeat my words back to me." Vader's mood became serious. "The emotional consequences of such a relationship would be grave for both of us. I do not want to risk hurting you."

"How could you hurt me? You're my father - I love you!"

The Dark Lord reached for his hand again. "Exactly. You are very vulnerable right now. This is a difficult time for you in many ways. It would be quite easy for your love for me to turn into romantic love. And that is how you could be hurt."

"Why - don't you love me?" He knew the answer, but refused to accept what his father was saying. This was something he wanted, and he was determined to have it.

"Don't be childish." Vader's tone was tense, as though he was losing patience. "I am not, however, prepared to 'fall in love' with anyone, least of all you."

The scornful words pierced his heart, and Vader released his fingers. "You see? Already you are hurt."

Luke slumped back in the chair, his appetite gone. He nodded. "I guess... I just wanted to.... I didn't mean...."

"Perhaps you should follow my example and keep your mouth closed unless you are eating. If you will excuse me...."

Startled, he looked up. For the first time in quite awhile, he couldn't read his father's mood. Subdued, Luke folded a cold fried strip and slowly chewed it, listening to the heavy thudding of booted footsteps as his father crossed the foyer.

It was a perilous path he tread when he walked alongside the Dark Lord of the Sith. His father might not always indulge his foolishness. In fact, his ultimate folly might be in assuming that he was safe from Lord Vader's famous brutality because he was his son... in reality, that might put him in mortal danger. He really did need to be more careful.

Luke vowed to himself that he would work harder. At everything. He would make his father proud, not angry.

And his father would learn to want him, too.

A dangerous excitement coiled in the pit of his stomach like a viper. Luke studied his reflection in the full-length mirror. His nerves were alive with dangerous feelings of pride, power, and lust, and they showed in the image that was reflected back at him. His face was pale except for flushed cheeks that made him look as if he'd been running across the icy, wind-swept plains of Hoth. His hair was sun-bleached and nearly shoulder length, but it had been styled beautifully. In short, he looked... damnably sexy.

Which was a total waste.

Deliberately, he filled his thoughts with bitter, defiant pride and gazed arrogantly in the glass. There was something wild and dangerous about him now - he was no longer an ignorant farmboy. He imagined himself a rogue prince whose sprawling kingdom was a savage and untamed wilderness... or a young Vader whose kingdom was the galaxy.

He wore his new uniform - luxurious black leather, a duplicate of his father's ensemble without the life support apparatus. Black knee boots polished until they glistened. Padded shoulders and chest tapering down to a nipped waist, then soft leather that caressed his thighs like searching fingers. High, square black collar to frame his face. Fallen angel was the description that leaped into his mind. If he met himself on the street, he would be stunned by the sight of such beauty. And maybe a little afraid.

"Luke."

He turned. His father slipped leather gloves over his hands. They were heavy with sensors and protective armor. Luke wet his lips as his pulse raced. There was something unquestionably erotic about being dressed. He held deathly still as the gloves were fastened. Vader clenched both his wrists with a tight grip. Luke stared at the black mask, senses running wild. He craved being touched; every fiber of his being screamed for it. He swayed with unbearable tension, and his father released him. Disappointment surged through him like a living thing.

"I have something else for you." The Dark Lord's voice was gruff. "Close your eyes."

He waited, listening, attuned to every movement. Trembled as the large hands brushed his throat. Twice. Then the hands turned him to face the mirror again.

"Look at yourself, my son." Pride shimmered across the Force.

Luke stared. Color rose high in his cheeks, and his eyes glowed with unfulfilled passion. Two iridescent stars shimmered on either side of his high collar, reflecting prismatic colors. He gasped. "Father?"

"The Stars of the Order of the Jedi." Vader stood behind him, gloved hands resting on his shoulders, pulling him back against the broad chest. In the mirror, it seemed to Luke as though they blended into one great, dark being. "They were mine. I wore them proudly for many years. This may be the only pair left in existence."

Because you killed the other Jedi. "Thank you, my father...." He didn't understand why his words were slurred. Eyelids half closed, Luke leaned his head back, exposing his pale throat.

Reflected in the glass, Vader's fingers caressed its slender expanse, lingering where the pulse fluttered wildly. "You are indeed beautiful, child of my heart."

He felt like a spoiled, beloved pet. Lazily turned his head to the side. The great black hand slid across his cheek, brushed over his mouth. His teeth nipped at the tips of the fingers. The thundering of Vader's heart vibrated the length of his spine. He closed his eyes. Waited.

"It's time."

He turned drowsily, wavering inches away as though his father's body was magnetized, and he was being inexorably pulled toward the older man. "Is it?" he whispered huskily.

Vader's respirator seemed to skip a breath. "For... our journey. We must go." He stepped back and turned away.

It was like a splash of water in his face. Luke blinked. "Yes, of course." The words caught in his throat. Why was he so out of control like this? What was it about his Vader's nearness that made him crave... that which his father withheld. "Father?"

The Dark Lord spun round, cape swirling like huge wings. Luke's face was caught and framed by rough fingers. "Later," the rich voice hissed.

He nodded automatically. Later... for what? He felt so much confusion and his body ached so.... Later... how long did he have to wait?

More shattering questions, the answers to which he both dreaded and coveted. He followed, leaving his new home without a backward glance, following the father for whom he had waited for so many years. The father who would grant all his wishes, touch him and love him--

No. Luke cleared his mind. He must concentrate his new duties at his father's side. He would learn Imperial strategies and....

Betray his Rebel friends? Put his father on the galaxy's throne - or rule by himself?

His choices were no longer clear.

Luke's unnatural reticence held for an entire day until they came into visual contact with the distant Executor. Vader had allowed his son that solitude, breaking the silence as they approached his Star Destroyer.

"Have you decided upon a name for yourself?"

"Yes." Luke looked at him, an even expression on the usually mobile face. "I'm going to keep Skywalker."

Vader shook his head. "A poor choice. I thought you understood that."

"I do," the boy said quietly. "But it's my name, and it was your name for a long time. I'd rather be straightforward from the beginning than have everyone mock me later for hiding behind a pseudonym."

"An honorable objective, certainly. But there is a second interpretation. Under another name they will come to know you without prejudice, and learn to trust and respect you so that when your true identity is revealed - "

"All that trust will be ripped away."

"The trust and respect which you have earned will outweigh the fact that you turned the Death Star into so much space trash."

"We're both right." Luke half-smiled. "But I don't want to have a new identity. I don't want to be a stranger to myself or to the people who've known me. I've always been Skywalker. I'm proud of being Skywalker. I was proud as a child because the name belonged to my father." The gaze focused on him. "It was all I had of you. Besides... who's going to harass a Skywalker who hangs out with the Dark Lord?"

"None of my crew," Vader conceded tiredly.

"Well, then." Luke spread his hands wide in a gesture of satisfaction. "There you have it."

"Very well. You are Luke Skywalker, Shadow Lord of the Sith."

A strange expression flitted across the boy's face. "I suppose I am."

"Having second thoughts?"

"Don't I always?" The blond head turned toward the craft's front viewport. Stars lit the blackness outside, distant ones sparkling like jewels on a cold, delicate necklace. "I wish... things had been different. No Empire, no Alliance, no war. Then we could have been together - I don't know, somewhere else doing something else - smugglers or pirates or mercenaries-- Anything but this. It... won't bring us happiness."

There was a sense of foreboding in his son's voice that disquieted him. "You wish to be an ordinary mortal?" Vader asked.

The head turned again, and crystal eyes settled on him. "I wish it for both of us."

"Have you never heard the phrase 'be careful for what you wish'?"

"That was a careful wish." Luke sighed. "It's been difficult to give up my way of life and learn new beliefs."

"You think I do not understand this?" He stared fixedly at the Executor, a symbol of the rewards his sacrifices had earned him. "I, too, gave up a life when I became Darth Vader. It was, as you succinctly say, 'difficult' for me also."

Luke touched his arm. "I'm sorry."

"For?"

"I feel your pain, Father. Someday will you tell me how you made the decision to surrender your identity and take another path?"

He smiled behind his mask. "Someday you may ask yourself that same question."

Luke blinked and withdrew his hand. "I doubt it," he said coldly. "Can I fly us up to the ship?"

Wordlessly he released the controls. His son handled the craft expertly; despite the unfortunate episode with the TIE, Luke had obviously inherited his father's piloting skills.

"How long have you had this shuttle?"

"Several years."

"Really?" It was more an exclamation of surprise than a question. "I seem to lose all my ships, one way or another."

"Really?" Vader mimicked gently. "I had noticed. Next time I shall buy you a used fighter. I had no idea that raising a son was such an expensive proposition."

Luke laughed. As they approached the Executor, Vader retook the controls. Final security clearance obtained, he brought the ship down in a perfect landing in the main bay.

Luke draped the black cape over his shoulders. Instead of placing a battle helmet on his head, he pulled the hood up and forward. It was an eerie reminder of the Emperor. Palpatine always liked to hide his corrupt visage in the shadows offered by thick fabric.

"Do I look all right?"

His son's nervousness rippled through the Force. Vader mentally reached out to calm him. "There is no need for worry."

Luke rolled his eyes upward. "Right. And taun-tauns can fly."

Vader paused before disembarking. "It would be appropriate for us to address each other as Lord Vader and Lord Skywalker."

"Are we going to pretend to be strangers? Or merely unrelated?"

His son's sharp tongue reminded him very much of his own. "You must learn never to reveal everything at once. Let your knowledge trickle to others in ways best suited to your purpose. For now, you will be another mysterious sorcerer. Fear and uncertainty are the quickest routes to obedience."

"If not respect."

He shook a warning finger at his son. Luke grinned at him, and he felt an answering smile twitch his mouth. Annoying, aggravating, thoroughly impossible, and thoroughly charming. A true Vader.

Admiral Piett stood at the foot of the ramp with his usual ramrod-straight posture and painfully tense expression around his mouth. A platoon of stormtroopers flanked their disembarkation route. Vader gave no indication of his approval of the reception. He stopped in front of the Admiral and gestured Luke to his side.

"Admiral Piett, this is Luke Skywalker."

Piett's eyes widened, and his lips formed a protest. "The rebel traitor? M'lord!"

"The former rebel," Vader clarified. "I can now reveal to you that Lord Skywalker is, in truth, a Shadow Lord of the Sith and has come to rejoin our cause. He will serve at my side. You will take orders from him as you would from me. Inform the command crew."

They left an astonished Piett to mull that over. Luke's steps were definitely lighter.

I can command your Star Destroyer? All right!

Merely a figure of speech. If you do anything to 'lose' the Executor, I will flay you to ribbons myself.

Touchy, touchy, Father. There was a ripple of laughter in the Force. Still, flaying might not be a bad idea.

Administering discipline always gave him a rush of pleasure... the feel of another's wounded soul at his mercy, knowing he held the power to renew or defile it... or leave it waiting, uncertain for eternity. Since he didn't want to kill Captain Redah, the Dark Lord refrained from using the most efficient method of dispatching a wayward officer, crushing the windpipe and the fine bones of the neck. This time he dispensed fiery wedges of pain that would not leave Redah permanently crippled; there was no reason to deprive the Empire of a fine officer who would undoubtedly learn the error of his ways. The same could not have been said of Redah's former crew.

Vader sensed his son approaching. To Luke he sent a warning squeeze to the throat. Do not interfere. This is my way. His child brushed off the threat and came to stand by his side. Clear eyes took in the scene that had rapidly unfolded. Redah, and a mistake by his maintenance crew that had nearly shut down the main tubes from the reactor that powered the destroyer. An unfortunate error, and one that Redah would never repeat. The rest of the command crew sat frozen in their places, either watching the writhing captain with fear in their hearts or staring fixedly at their monitors. Admiral Piett stood near Redah, fright and anger apparent in his expression.

Vader felt a wave of calmness fall over the bridge. Gently at first, it swept out of Luke to touch Piett, then moved over the rest of the crew. There was a perceptible lightening of the dark atmosphere, and Piett's expression changed to one of patient waiting. Even Redah relaxed as much as possible in the circumstances. Interesting. A technique he never would have thought of using. The Dark Lord completed his discipline, and Piett gestured to the military police to remove Redah for a short period of recuperative incarceration.

Vader paced the skydeck, son at his side. A fascinating approach, my child.

I trust it met with your approval, Father. The bright eyes turned on him.

Perhaps. We shall see if any consequences arise. It is not wise to allow your crew to become comfortable.

I hardly think we need worry about that, Father! I merely soothed a few rebellious thoughts.

It may be an interesting shortcut to loyalty. As I said, we shall see.

Indeed we shall. With a little grin of triumph, Luke altered his course and headed for Redah's vacant station. Vader nodded his approval of the action. These past weeks Luke had learned well. He had not overstepped his blossoming authority nor openly defied his father. Having his son learning at his side had a benefit that Vader had not anticipated. For the first time that he could remember, he was actually enjoying his command.

Palpatine would be horrified. Which, of course, made it all the better.

The Dark Lord inhaled the purified oxygen that pumped into his meditation pod. It was refreshing, a welcome respite from the forced air that his respirator provided. His moments in the chamber were his reward at the end of each long day spent on the bridge, planning the next attack against the Rebels or recalcitrant planets. Now he sensed his son was in their communal quarters and commanded the mechanical arms to replace his helmet. Once it was in place, he ordered the chamber parted, the top half to raise. He swiveled his chair.

Luke was sprawled on the couch, legs stretched out, half asleep. Wake up, child.

"I'm awake," came the mumbled protest. "Though I don't know why." The blond head lifted, eyes squinting to seek out the chron and reacting with surprise. "It's early yet."

"Shall we party?"

Luke laughed at his teasing. "I think not, Father. Remember your place."

"You are sitting in my place." He rose and waited while Luke removed his legs and dropped his feet to the floor, groaning in protest. When Vader had settled against the cushions, he made an assenting gesture with one hand, and Luke curled against him, head resting on his leg.

"Are you tired, young one?" Vader asked solicitously, stroking the slender neck with a possessiveness that grew fiercer as Luke became more independent.

A shiver ran through the boy's body. Luke rubbed his cheek against the leather, though Vader could not tell if the response was meant to be affirmative or negative. Fingers cautiously inched up to rest on his knee. They moved in a barely perceptible motion that was too light to be called a caress.

"Not really," Luke finally said. He sat up, sliding his hand onto his father's thigh.

Vader hid his smile. The touch was delicious, familiar... tempting. "Perhaps we should engage in lightsaber practice."

The blue eyes widened, and Luke blushed, snatching his hand away. "Uh... I.... Whatever you want."

He laughed aloud, unable to control his delight. "Or are you hungry?"

The blush deepened. "I'm... uh... not.... I don't know."

"For one who professes to be brimming with desires, you show little interest in fulfilling any of them." He shifted and rubbed the boy's arm, unwilling to relinquish contact.

Luke slouched and was silent for several minutes. Finally: "Father?"

He waited.

"In your meditation chamber...."

"Yes?" He hoped this was not going to be one of those painful sessions during which he had to continually prompt Luke to release his questions.

"You have your helmet removed and... maintenance done on your... life support equipment?"

The Dark Lord remained silent.

"Why...." Luke hesitated. "Why didn't Jedi healing powers work on you? How can a Jedi be so badly damaged yet remain alive? Why couldn't you repair your lungs? Why can't you do it now? Why are you dependent on mechanical--"

"Are you planning on allowing me a moment to answer?" His fingers moved upward to stroke worry from the forehead, smooth away lines of concern.

"Oh. Sorry. Go ahead."

He lifted his head and stared across the room at the tapestry that covered the opposite wall... Jedi warriors being slaughtered in an ancient, bloody battle against Sith magicians. The Power of the Dark Side. "I was very badly damaged. The Jedi left me to die. Sith spirits maintained my essence but elected not to restore my body's functions. Instead, they gave me into the care of my father. Palpatine returned my life, but preferred to leave me... this way. He felt that a threatening, masked figure would be of more use to him than-- I was once like you, son. Handsome, charismatic, and arrogant in that knowledge. The Emperor felt I would serve him better without those... distractions." He faltered and cleared his throat. "We need be very careful that he does not cultivate a similar aspiration for you. We must destroy him."

Luke straightened and reached for him. "The Emperor left you like this? Why can't you heal yourself?"

"I have attempted and been partially successful at small repairs, however...."

"What?"

He looked down at the hand that rested on his waist, so pale against his reinforced black armor. It was possible, he supposed, that the Emperor would not be offended by Luke's beauty... but unlikely. Palpatine would have to die quickly before he struck at Luke and deformed him forever. "The Emperor has built a barrier in my mind that prevents me from performing major repairs."

"He built--" Luke caught his breath, horror spreading across his features. "Father... may I see your face?"

Vader hesitated. The request had been brewing for months, but he hadn't prepared an answer. The mask was more than a symbol, it was his entire identity. To remove it would leave his soul bared, in jeopardy, exposed to his son's probes.

Strangely, the notion didn't frighten him as much as it should. He, who had trusted no one in his life, was beginning to trust Luke.

"The aeration process to purify the oxygen in this room will take several minutes," he began, and stopped when he saw the surprise and pleasure in Luke's eyes. Involuntarily, his fingers returned to the boy's cheek and rested there.

They stared at each other. Vader watched, hypnotized, as Luke's breaths became quicker, then he felt his own respirator increase its rate. He wanted... everything. But did he dare risk--

A chime from the comscreen made Luke start. Vader withdrew his hand and allowed the screen to flicker to life. Sentra Rrullin appeared, haughty and full of his usual sense of self-importance.

"My lord - lords, please pardon the intrusion. The Emperor commands you both to make contact with him immediately." The narrow eyes flicked over Luke, and Vader detected a sense of scorn that puzzled him.

He waited until Captain Rrullin's image had faded, then faced his son's anxiety. "There is nothing to fear. From this distance, only Palpatine's image can reach us through the holo. He cannot touch you. Follow my example."

Luke nodded, and they waited in tense silence as the signal traveled through the vast reaches of space. When the connection was established, Vader knelt on one knee on the transmitting pad. "What is thy bidding, my master?"

The image wavered. The great distance made it indistinct and erratic. "Lord