Luke's eyes flew open from the brief blackout he had experienced. A hoarse cry left his throat and his cracked lips, and he looked to see a seemingly never-ending abyss before him. He had landed on his stomach, most likely bruising or even cracking a rib, and had fallen just enough so that half of his body was dangling off the walkway of the gantry. His breathing grew heavy and he tried to pull himself up only to roll over the edge from his weak and drained body.

    He cried out in panic and scrambled to grab the ledge, noticing his lightsaber was sitting on the walkway where it had fallen from his hand when he had shot through the air. He kicked his legs beneath him and tried to use his trembling arms to pull himself up, but it held no success. He grunted painfully and felt hot tears leak from his eyes just as familiar brown eyes appeared over him.

    He sighed in relief and cautiously reached out to the hand Padmé offered. Once she pulled him up fully and steadied him on his trembling, jelly-like legs, she stooped down and picked up his saber, handing it to him and then pulling her hood up where it had fallen off from the wind. Luckily, Vader hadn't noticed the slip during his attempts to avoid the vacuum himself.

    "Are you sure you're still up for this? You're bruised...and bleeding." Padmé said in concern, brushing his forehead and her hand coming back red.

    "So are you," Luke commented. "But we can still do this. I know we can...the Force won't let us down."

    Padmé sighed and adjusted her vibroblade in her hand. "Then lead the way."

    Luke nodded firmly and darted back into the window where they had been sucked out. Padmé followed closely behind him, avoiding the sharp glass and her senses on overdrive to feel for the Sith Lord's location. His presence was close but she was unable to pinpoint it through the heavy, dark shields forcibly pushing her away. It was hard enough trying to keep her own Force-presence hidden without the darkness pressing in all around her.

    However, the Force barely gave Luke and Padmé milliseconds of warning before a red blade dropped out of nowhere, cornering them back and threatening to slice them down. Luke reacted faster and whirled to parry, his blade skirting the edges of the Sith's and sending yellow sparks into their visions. Padmé instantly dove into help, rolling every which way and snapping her vibroblade in directions Vader wasn't defending as well.

    He growled in his vocoder and lunged at them both, intentionally luring them out and back towards the gantry. Exhaustion began to grip both Luke and Padmé, their breathing labored as they moved in all directions to defend themselves but also attempting to get an offensive strike somewhere amongst the heated duel. The red light came from everywhere, blinding and intimidating as it swooped around almost carelessly. The blade spun well in Vader's gloved grasp, the gripped hilt resembling that of the saber Luke was currently holding.

    It wasn't long before Vader had had them on the gantry again, looming large and allowing his cape to flap dramatically in the wind around him. His moves were graceful, easily meeting the clumsiness of the undertrained Luke and the slower slashes of the non-Force sensitive Padmé. The Force swirled around the trio and Vader suddenly lost his patience, reaching out and slamming the mystic energy right into Padmé as he drove his saber into her shoulder. She screamed, the pain white hot and Luke's cry of dismay swimming in her ear drums. As she dropped to the ground, one hand clutching her shoulder and the other still desperately holding her vibroblade, she looked up through her blood-stained curls and tried to cry out for her son.

    Luke's entire outfit was in tatters, bruises and saber cuts all down the boy's delicately fragile skin—skin that was almost gray with energy depletion and fear. They had lost...they had lost to a skilled Sith Lord who never let anyone beat him. Especially not undertrained Jedi or non-Force-sensitives.

    Another scream echoed throughout the reactor shaft they were in and Luke crumpled, his eyes squeezed shut and his chest heaving violently as he stared down at the ruby saber humming dangerously close to his nose. He swallowed tightly and glared up at Vader, trying to see behind his ocular lenses.

    "You are beaten. It is useless to resist. Don't let yourself be destroyed as Obi-Wan did..." Vader paused, turning back to Padmé's crumpled form. "And like your new mentor will be."

    Dull blue eyes suddenly lit up with fiery rage, a screech of denial on the boy's lips as he reignited his saber and lunged upwards, rolling to the side to avoid the lightsaber aimed at him. Luke only saw red, swinging madly and aimlessly until he thrusted forward and nicked Vader on the shoulder. The wound was similar to the one Padmé had and the Sith started, reeling back in sudden pain, the wires and machinery in his suit whirring in response to the sudden damage. The armor sparked and smoked next and Vader quickly adjusted the settings on his chest control pad.

    Pushed to the point of fury mixed with impatience and annoyance, Vader forgot who he was fighting and screamed despite how much it strained his burnt throat. Luke jumped back in surprise, his adrenaline now gone, and rose his saber to parry uselessly. Vader's attacks were now just as random as his own had been, the Sith determined to kill if he had to. The blade swept dangerously close to Luke's heart and he yelped, suddenly terrified to die and stumbling back towards an instrument complex attached to the end of the gantry. He ducked as Vader chopped off a piece of it and them aimed for his head, the young Jedi screaming and sobbing as he dropped to his knees and crawled to the end, his saber slowly slipping from his hand.

    Wind whipped around the two, threatening to pitch either one of them over as Vader stalked closer and closer, his ominous breathing thundering in Luke's blood-rushed eardrums. "There is no escape. Don't make me destroy you," Vader taunted, "You do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy." Stalking closer and closer...

    "I'll never join you." Luke spat, trying to ease his trembling as he brought his saber up to the Sith. Vader growled deeply, raising the glowing ruby energy into the air and staring down his stubborn child. If harming him was the only reasoning that would get through that thick skull...

    "So be it." Vader snapped, slicing down just as a scream of horror left two mouths at once. One was in blinding pain, Luke crumpling and curling around his stump of his right wrist as his saber and severed hand fell down into the abyss of the reactor shaft below. But the other scream was a word...not a word, a name...a name Vader knew...

    "Anakin!"

    The voice was more familiar now...Vader knew that voice. But it wasn't possible...he turned on his heel to find the hooded Jedi woman shakily leaning on the gantry railing to stay standing. Both ignored Luke looking up from his pain to blanch in horror, unable to process what his mentor had just shouted. If she had called Vader Anakin...then that meant that Anakin was Vader. Padmé had said she had known both Vader and Anakin in the past...and that Vader had killed her husband, Ani...Anakin.

    But if Ani was Anakin Skywalker and Anakin was Vader...then...Luke's breath hitched, his eyes wide. His father. His mother. Right there in front of him.

    He looked up with bleary eyes to see Padmé shakily facing Vader, the Sith's lightsaber still ignited, yet his stance indicating that he had no intention of using it in his current state of shock. Luke felt Padmé suddenly open up her shields, engulfing both Vader and Luke with her presence and even making the Sith take a step back.

    Vader was almost a permanent fixture of the gantry, his entire armored body still and his respirator stuttering in between heavy breaths. Gentle yet bruised hands rose up and peeled the hood off as Padmé carefully stepped forward to face Vader better.

    Troubled brown eyes looked up into the callous red-tinted ocular lenses, begging and pleading for it all to end...22 years of lies and now here they were again, an almost mirror image of Mustafar. "Ani...stop this. Now. Please."

    Vader shook out of his stupor, his shock radiating into anger. Not only had his Master lied about Luke...but his...his angel? He had killed her...he had...she was dead...it couldn't be. She had to be a clone...or a hallucination...but the Force presence was her. Warm and kind, selfless and caring, the Padmé Naberrie he had fallen in love with, married, and had a child with. 

    'Are you an angel?'

    'What?'

    'An angel. They live on the moons of Iego I think. They're the most beautiful creatures in the world.'

    "Padmé," Vader whispered, stepping forward and looking deep into the eyes of the woman he loved...had loved...that had been another life, a different man...but she was here...

    Gloved fingers suddenly rose up and pressed to the woman's temple, a strong sleep suggestion filtering over her battered mind while her gray-streaked curls flopped to the side, her body going limp. She was caught in Vader's arms with the utmost care, the Sith's prosthetic arms gentle around her delicate frame. He had hurt her...and their son...their son.

    Vader whirled to see Luke still crumpled on the instrument panel over the abyss, his eyes wide and his face passive. He was in shock. He had obviously heard the whole conversation and most likely had been making his own assumptions out of it. He was shaking like a leaf and his severed wrist was still being cradled in his arms like a newborn baby. Knowing he had no time to lose, Vader stepped towards the child and lifted him up just as easily, surprised by the sudden resistance from the boy.

    Luke kicked and screamed, demanding to be put down and half-delirious from his injury and all the shocks thrown at him at once. His youthful mind was running on overdrive, trying hard to make heads or tails of all the information that he was drowning in. Ben had told him Vader had murdered his father...his Aunt and Uncle had said his parents had died when he was born...Padmé had told him Vader had murdered her husband, yet he was her husband...

    The boy's head began to pound and his futile struggling in the Sith's arms was draining his energy faster than fighting had. Once they had left the carbon chamber, Luke had finally gone still, his breathing heavy and his eyes focused on the expanse of cape and moving boots he could see from his vantage point over his...father's shoulder. Padmé was on Vader's other shoulder and Luke let his heavy eyelids finally slide closed, their destination unknown to him as his world fogged over.

    Vader paused as Luke finally stopped squirming and chanced a glance at his small, pale son. The boy was incredibly tiny, his size taken from his mother no doubt. He sighed as best he could and moved towards his ship, instructing his med officers to treat both Luke and Padmé to full health. He tried to shake away the guilt at knowing he had been the one to harm them both that way, but they would appreciate his concerns once he could talk to them both civilly.

    He stroked Padmé's face as she remained unconscious and blinked as a hot, painful tear streaked down his scarred face. She had barely aged a day, the only indication of her age the small wrinkles under her eyes and her slowly-graying hair. His love alive all this time...his son as well...Vader suddenly growled and ignored the trembling, wide-eyed healer before him.

    His Master had a lot of explaining to do.

    He directed his pilot to take him up to his Star Destroyer, the Executor, and scowled as he saw several TIE fighters performing wild maneuvers in the sky in order to apprehend the Millennium Falcon. Since Vader had his son and now his wife, he would have cared less to just have the ship escape, but it did hold the risk that Luke's infernal friends would return with backup in order to rescue him.

    Plus, with the information given to him by one of his captain's that the rebels had managed to apprehend Fett and remove Solo from the carbonite, he knew now that he could no longer underestimate the rag-tag group. With a growl, Vader ordered more TIE pilots out after the freighter, hoping his other troopers had listened and dismantled the hyperdrive like he had instructed. It didn't take long for his shuttle to reach the Executor and he instantly sent Padmé and Luke to the medcenter, ordering the medics to lock them in a secure cell once they were done. It was only a temporary placement, but it could at least reassure the Sith that he wouldn't lose his family again.

    Once they were taken away on med-stretchers, Vader quickly strode towards the bridge and watched the firefight from the viewport. Closing his eyes tightly and ignoring the officers and techs around him, Vader stretched out through the Force for the princess, curious at her bright Force-presence once again and stretching out around it, smiling tightly as the guns on the Falcon faltered.

***

    Leia stopped firing with a gasp, darkness somehow wrapping around her mind. Cold trickled down her back and she tried desperately to push it away. She didn't know much about the Force, but this had to be it.

    "Leia! What's going on back there? Are you alright?" Lando shouted through the comm, obviously still struggling with the hyperdrive since they hadn't gone anywhere yet.

    "No, sorry. I'm alright. Just get us out of here!" Leia responded, trying to focus again but unable to ever since her right wrist had started burning a few minutes ago. She wasn't exactly sure, but something deep down was telling her that Luke was in trouble and wouldn't be getting out like she had hoped. Vader had him. "Lando, did you attempt to contact the Alliance fleet yet? In the worst case scenario we're going to need their help!"

    "I'm working on it princess!" Lando shouted back, sounding stressed and frustrated with the rickety old ship. A ship that only hours previous he had been bragging about.

    A roar of Shyriiwook that sounded slightly like a warning rumbled through the comm next and the ship tilted to one side, making Leia grunt in effort. TIE fighters were pursuing them relentlessly, only seeming to increase in number whenever she shot one down. However, each time one exploded before her, she always jerked in a sudden shock, feeling some kind of temporary void feeling before it disappeared from her mind.

    If...no, when she saw Luke again, she would have to ask him what it all meant. His Jedi abilities far surpassed anything she probably had, but he could at least help her understand it. She had always felt something, but she had never assumed that it would be the mystical Force. Maybe that's why her aim in the gunner chair was getting better and better the more she calmed down and focused.

    Han, still sitting in the back med-cot while the droids bickered before him, winced as the ship lurched again, getting barraged by laser fire. With shaky legs and an arm stretched out as a makeshift walking stick, Han found his way towards the cockpit to fuzzily see Lando and Chewie fussing over flashing lights and blaring alarms on the control panel. Lando adjusted a few knobs and switches, his body drenched in sweat, when he caught Han out of the corner of his eye.

    He whirled in concern and shouted for Chewie to keep working on getting the ship away from the TIEs and in a safe location to pull into hyperspace. If they could get it to work that was.

    "Han, what are you doing up here? I thought Leia told you to—"

    Han held up a hand, an unperturbed expression on his face as he pushed past the man and reached for his Wookiee co-pilot. "How's it looking pal?"

    Chewie growled in distress and gestured towards a blip on the scanners. Han narrowed his eyes to see the flashing green light through his clouded eyesight. He struggled but knew what it meant. He had spent way too many years on his ship to not know her warning signals back and front. "Star Destroyer," Han whispered, his fists clenched in worry.

    Lando swore lightly and moved back to the pilot's seat, gesturing for Chewbacca to input the final calculations for the jump. "All right, Chewie. Ready for light-speed." Lando's hand moved towards the comm and he called down to Leia, impressed with how well she was keeping their enemies off their tail. But she couldn't keep it up forever, that they all knew. "Leia, we're about to jump."

    "If your people fixed the hyperdrive." Leia's staticky voice echoed back, sounding determined yet holding an undercurrent of nervousness. She didn't want to leave Luke behind, that much was evident, but they had no other choice if they ever wanted to escape. Luke would have to be on his own for the time being...wherever he was. Han got the sickening feeling that Luke was on the Star Destroyer behind them, being tortured at that very instant like Han had been, or sealed deeply in carbonite with no possible chance at escaping...

    Another explosion rocked the ship just as the light for activating hyperspace went from red to green, indicating that the coordinates were set and ready for light speed. Han noticed first, despite being half-blind, and tensed in sudden suspense. "All the coordinates are set. It's now or never."

    Chewie barked his agreement and reached for the throttle, shoving the lever forward as Lando shouted, "Punch it!"

    The ship lurched forward, almost mocking the crew's anticipation to escape, and the ion engine's winding up sound began heartily, the two humans and the Wookiee in the cockpit tense and expectant. However, the engine suddenly spluttered and nothing happened, the sky before them remaining put and a violent flak rocking the ship once again.

    Chewie roared in frustration and banged against the panel, his vicious eyes set on Lando as the man stared with his mouth agape. "T-They told me they fixed it. I trusted them to fix it. It's not my fault!"

    Han jumped forward to stop Chewie from strangling Lando and sighed, tapping the blinking comm to be barraged with Leia's harsh curses. "Lando! What the hell is going on up there? Why aren't we moving?"

    Chewie pushed Lando and Han away angrily and stormed out of the cockpit, moving quickly to go check on the hyperdrive panel. Their only hope now was to fix it before the Star Destroyer could catch them in its tractor beam. "Leia, we've run into a bit of a problem."

    "Han?" Leia asked bewildered, but shook off her confusion and frustration at the smuggler not resting like she had told him to in order to focus on the situation. "Never mind that. I thought the hyperdrive was fixed!"

    "Vader must've had his people do something in the small case that we escaped." Lando said in distress, his hands pulling at his hair. Han rolled his eyes at his old friend, still not really sure what to make of his shifting loyalties.

    "Chewie's working on it, but we don't have much time. That Star Destroyer is getting closer and looks persistent to grab itself a ship." Han explained, hearing another string of swears leave the melodic voice of the princess.    

    Leia continued to swivel back and forth in the gunner chair, intently firing at TIEs and trying her best not to panic. The cold presence was still snaking around her, teasing her and demanding entry as she forcibly pushed it out. It was determined to know of her power, of her memories, but she was equally determined and full of angry frustration.

    Vader jerked back briefly on the bridge of his ship and allowed a cycle of his respirator to go through before wheeling towards his entrusted Admiral.

    Firmus Piett looked bravely up at his superior and fought pride as he brought the Dark Lord good news. "They'll be in range of our tractor beam in moments, my lord."

    Vader nodded, pleased. "Did your men deactivate the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon?"

    "Yes, my lord." Piett said with his chin raised.

    "Good. Prepare the boarding party and set your weapons for stun." Vader ordered, knowing that he would definitely never gain Luke's trust if he outright killed his little friends. He needed to tread carefully when it came to his son's fragile emotions. He had a tendency to feel a bit too much...much like Vader did at times. Especially now that he had Padmé.

    "Yes, my lord." Piett interrupted Vader's thoughts, bowing low and moving to order troopers out to the docking bay.

    The Falcon continued to try its best to outmaneuver the TIEs, going every which way in order to get out of range of the inevitable tractor beam creeping towards it. Lando continued to fly despite his shaking hands, Han beside him and able to co-pilot with his vision almost fully returned now. Chewie still struggled with sparking wires in the back and Leia held off the Imperials, her breathing labored.

    "Han, keep trying to contact the fleet. Leia said they're out last hope." Lando instructed, his eyes still consistently flicking towards the red light on the hyperdrive panel. Han simply nodded, not wanting to distract Lando any more than he already was while flying, and reached for the long-range commlink.

    It was static for several moments, the signal still reaching out towards the hidden Rebels who had long since scattered since Hoth. They could only hope that their small distress signal could make its way to High Command.

    Meanwhile, in the back of the ship, Artoo was beeping as he was working on connecting wires into Threepio's removed leg. Both of the droids tried their best to ignore Chewbacca as he came clambering into the back and lifted the grated panels off the floor to mess with the hyperdrive. His grunting however annoyed Threepio to no end, the droid's tolerance level finally drying up with the Wookiee after being carried on his back for what felt like forever earlier. "Noisy brute. Why don't we just go into light-speed?" The protocol droid was honestly confused why they still needed to be fumbling with the hyperdrive at this very moment.

    Exasperated, Artoo stopped his work and beeped up at his companion, getting a shocked noise out of the golden droid. "What do you mean we can't? How would you know the hyperdrive is deactivated?"

    Artoo whistled knowingly, annoyed that nobody had bothered to listen to him when he had first warned about it before they had even entered the ship. Threepio startled back, concerned for his astromech friend. "The city's central computer told you? Artoo-Detoo, you know better than to trust a strange computer." Artoo moved his electric prod forward in annoyance at Threepio's overprotectiveness, electronically snickering as Threepio yelped in surprise. "Ouch! Pay attention to what you're doing!"

    Chewie was still working beneath them, angrily whacking the panel with a hydrospanner and unintentionally sending showering sparks all the way up to the cockpit. Lando and Han ignored them however, taking every few moments to shout back at the Wookiee to hurry up.

    On the Executor, Admiral Piett fought a smile at his victory, turning towards a tech with a neutral expression, "Alert all commands. Ready for tractor beam."

    Vader heard this news and stood straighter, pleased at the fact that his troops had finally stepped up their work. He had his son, his wife, and now a band of rebels, all of which would work to benefit him in his personal and war life.

    However, on the Falcon, Artoo couldn't help but notice the stress level of all his organic masters on board, Threepio's yammering not even making it through his filter as he thought about what he could do to help. He remembered Mistress Padmé telling him to help the rebels escape and that Luke was his main priority if they didn't get back in time. The astromech wanted desperately to go after his master, but he didn't know how. So the best thing to do would help with the ship that was always breaking, that was the least he could do since the central computer in Cloud City had told him what was wrong with it.

    With a distracted whistle, Artoo wheeled away from Threepio and began to move a circuit on the control panel Chewbacca was working on. The Wookiee barked at him in confusion just as Threepio began to chatter again, this time in an affronted tone. "Artoo, come back at once! You haven't finished with me yet! You don't know how to fix the hyperdrive. Chewbacca can do it. I'm standing here in pieces, and you're having delusions of grandeur!"

    A spark and a jerk in the ship, Lando and Han looking incredulously at the hyperdrive light suddenly flicking to green. Han grabbed the lever before Lando did, wishing he could hug his furry friend at the moment, and jammed it forward, almost crying at the stars beginning to streak just as—

    The Millennium Falcon was suddenly jerked back, throwing everyone back into their seats and Artoo toppling on top of Chewie still crouched underneath the floor panels. The Wookiee let out a howl of pain and the men in the cockpit gaped at the hyperdrive light fading back to red.

    The comm connected to Leia's headpiece in the gunner came on, the voice somber. "The TIEs stopped firing. We're in the tractor beam."

    "We were too late." Lando breathed, his hands suddenly shaking at the thought of facing Vader again. Despite everything that had happened, Han clapped his friend on the shoulder in reassurance. Lando weakly smiled at him and Han pressed the comm to speak to the princess, trying to remain positive.

    "Get up here and get yourself a blaster Leia. We're gonna have to fight." Han said, getting no response but hearing Leia's footsteps down the corridor as she made her way into the cockpit. She leaned over the pilot and co-pilot chairs and looked towards the long-range comm with a hopeful expression.    

    "Any word from the fleet?" She asked, crumpling at Han's frown just as the static emitting from the communicator disappeared to be replaced with a barely audible voice.

    'Echo Base to Millenium Falcon, we've received your distress signal. Your location is being marked down and we will send a few squadrons over as soon as we can. Do you copy?'

    Leia jumped for the machine, holding on tightly to their last hope. "Yes. This is Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. Alert High Command that this is a code red situation. We are in the Executor's tractor beam and will most likely be sent towards the prison yards on Coruscant if we can't fight our way out of it. Also captured with me are Captain Han Solo and his co-pilot Chewbacca; Baron-Administrator of Cloud City,  Lando Calrissian; Commander Luke Skywalker; two Alliance-loyal droids, and—" Leia paused, biting her lip. Who exactly had been with Luke when she had saw him back in that corridor inside the city? "...and a Jedi Master."

    The line was silent before the voice carefully responded, 'Understood Princess. Stay safe and May the Force be with you.'

    "Thank you." Leia said, deleting all traces of the call before shutting off the comm completely. Despite the aid they needed, she wouldn't risk the Empire tracking down the badly wounded Rebellion through their distress call.

    With a sigh, Leia collapsed into one of the chairs, looking up at Lando and Han's worried faces and grabbing that blaster Han had told her to get.

    "Jedi Master?" Han inquired, prepping his own blaster and tossing another to Lando.    

    "I don't know. It's just a feeling. I barely even saw who it was with Luke yet...I knew her somehow." Leia shrugged.

    "So it was a woman?" Lando asked as well, looking up as Chewie clambered into the cockpit with his bowcaster already held firm in his paws.

    "I suppose so. And if she is a Jedi, then she should provide Luke protection until we can get to him." Leia said with lowered eyes.

    "So Vader did get him." Han said solemnly.

    Leia nodded, not sure how she knew, but just knowing.

    "Then what are we waiting for?" Lando asked.

    The ship shook once more as it docked and the sound of banging and shouting came from the door by the ramp. It was time.

    Little did the rebels know, Vader was standing outside with the boarding party, his hand rested calmly on his saber and his focus intense. He had dealt with enough for the day and these rebels would not make it any worse.

    He had them now.

    He had everything.

***

A/N

you guys have been waiting for this and i have been struggling to write it but here it is! I finally got my big climax in there yay!

*exhausted sigh*

lol, anyways, i really hope you guys liked it, but the fun is just beginning i promise. i have lots more planned and i hope this is coming out better than i think it is when i write it. XD

love you guys and thank you so much for 10K on Ghost already!!!

PS - you guys ready for the rogue one trailer this friday?!?! i'm not ready!! XD

May the Force be with You,

- lucky_ducky_123