A/N: Oops, I did it again. I procrastinated real hard. Got lost in this thing. Oh baby baby.

It's Britney bitch.

A/N 2: The real author's note. I am totally doing this to waste time! But I looked over my stuff, and I think I found a natural stopping point in my writing. So there will be a few more chapters, which I will post over the course of the next couple weeks. Thanks for all the nice stuff y'all have said!

…

….

…

Chapter 2: Revenge and Other Forgotten Things

Darth Vader met Obi-wan Kenobi in a darkened hall not too far from the hangar bay that held the Corellian freighter.

A ruby blade hissed into being, swiftly followed by a blade of crystal blue.

"I've been waiting for you Kenobi. We meet again at last. The circle is now complete," Vader hissed. Portentous words summoned from a dark core of anger that had smolder in him for twenty years.

Blades swirled but did not meet. A preparing move. The red sword held defensively, the blue in a classic offensive position. There would be no surprises here, for these two men who knew each other's fighting styles so intimately. It would be a test of execution and power.

"When I left you, I was but a learner. Now I am the master." Vader's words were a mechanical as his breathing, lines delivered in a cosmic play. He felt detached. Rage simmered in him, colored the Force around him, yet he felt strangely removed from it. The anger controlled his actions and words while he watched from what felt like lightyears away.

The older man smiled gently. "Only a master of evil, Darth." The wordplay was trite, but like his smile, it was achingly familiar.

The air took on weight, visible on Kenobi's older shoulders and felt in Vader's mechanical knees. Killing intent, laced with sorrow and anger and betrayal and more, a vast tableau of sheer feeling, made the very Force quiver. It felt akin to...destiny. A great hand, moving the two players to battle.

Plasma flashed, blue and red crashing in a lightning instant. A test.

They parted. Blades shifted, twirled. Slight movements of body were gauged and dismissed. Entire sequences were fought in the mind.

The lightsabers clashed again, sizzling and sparking. A feint, a counter, a block. And then—

Kenobi slid under Vader's guard and past him entirely. Vader wasn't even singed.

The dark knight recalled what he had told Tarkin earlier: escape is not his plan.

In that case, what was?

"Your powers are weak old man," taunted Vader, eyeing how the old jedi edged back towards the doors to the hangar bay.

"You can't win, Darth. If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine." Kenobi spoke quietly, but with a disquieting confidence.

Kenobi's assurance rang through the force. Vader believed him. Despite his prodigious ability to twist the truth, Kenobi wasn't actually a very good liar.

"I loved you, Anakin!"

"LIAR!"

The memory flashed between them, sending Kenobi wincing and Vader reeling. The smell of volcanic ash was suddenly sharp in his nose and mouth, choking him with the force of his sins, his foolishness, his mistakes. Perhaps, Vader considered for the first time in years, perhaps Obi-wan hadn't been lying. If he really had been telling the truth, if Obi-wan really had loved Anakin, then Vader's rejection must have hurt Kenobi. And that was good.

Right?

Obi-wan had betrayed him, had left him to die…

Hate boiled in his veins, but beneath, a cool touch of uncertainty brushed his heart. And Vader looked.

The blades continued to flash, crimson and crystal, ice and fire, hissing and crackling and burning. Burning slowly but surely to the heart of the truth, hidden behind swirling layers of Light and Dark.

Vader slipped into defense and Obi-wan came at him in a flurry of blows. Vader moved elegantly, but automatically, suddenly truly seeing his opponent for the first time. The truth. The truth was that Obi-wan had loved Anakin. The truth was that Obi-wan fought him because Obi-wan was afraid. Afraid...that the man he had loved as a brother was gone forever. Vader surged back into the fight, pressing Obi-wan back, a new energy invigorating his old mechanical limbs, making him feel lighter than he had in a long time. Obi-wan's fear was Vader's strength, Obi-wan's loss Vader's power. It almost brushed away any feelings of regret.

So invigorated was he, that at first, he didn't notice the fight had drawn the attention of a cadre of stormtroopers and the notice of a motley group boarding the battered freighter.

But Obi-wan had, and upon realizing he was pinned between the troopers and the dark lord, he cast a serene look over his shoulder, eyes finding a specific member of the motley group, leaving himself wide open in the process.

Darth Vader automatically raised his saber and began to swing down, taking advantage of Obi-wan's distraction.

"Ben, no!"

The ruby blade halted mid-swing, sizzling mere inches from Obi-wan's unprotected neck.

That voice...surely…

Vader slowly turned, Obi-wan forgotten.

...Luke?

The boy stood by the boarding ramp of the Corellian freighter, a look of horror on his face—a face that Vader would recognize anywhere, the face of his dreams.

"Darth?" ventured Obi-wan cautiously.

But the Sith lord only had eyes for the boy, who in turn only had eyes for Obi-wan.

"Ben, run!" cried the boy frantically. Obi-wan, whatever his intent regarding escape had originally been, obeyed the boy's plea and opted to flee, darting through the group of startled stormtroopers with a grace belying his age.

"You too, kid," snarled a Corellian man outfitted like a pirate. "C'mon! Princess!" he took the girl by the hand and they ran together towards the shelter of the freighter, firing at the troopers, followed closely by a tall wookiee skillfully wielding a bowcaster. Obi-wan avoided all of the blasts easily. The stormtroopers weren't so lucky.

"Shoot the control panel, kid!" yelled the pirate frantically, darting past Luke to deposit the princess on the ramp and turning to aim his blaster.

That spurred Vader into motion. Like sithing hells he was going to get trapped behind a set of blast doors by an insufferable pirate! He moved like greased lightning, even faster than he had in the aborted duel, faster than he had in years, decades even.

"Luke." The name rang through the Force as he flew after Obi-wan.

The muzzle of the boy's blaster dipped and wavered, a look of surprise on his face. The Corellian, however, spotted Vader, blanched, and grabbed the boy's arm, hauling Luke protectively behind him.

Vader growled and poured on the speed, drawing level with a surprised Obi-wan Kenobi, black cape flowing next to brown robes.

Just like old times, came the unbidden thought, and the charging men shared a glance of surprise.

Deep somewhere, something sparked and rekindled.

"Anakin?" mouthed Obi-wan, mutely. A red blade flashed in front of him, deflecting an errant shot on instinct. Obi-wan faltered in shock.

"Dammit, Luke!" growled the Corellian, who was now tugging ineffectually at the boy, trying to pull him up the boarding ramp. "Chewie, take off! Vader's coming!" he called over his shoulder. A wookiee bellow answered an affirmative from the interior of the freighter.

That snapped Luke out of it. "Not without Ben!" he said, turning a heated glare on the pirate and shoving him away. The Corellian rolled his eyes and plunged into the ship, leaving Luke alone. Undefended.

Except for the lightsaber. Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber.

The blade sizzled into being, a hot blue that Vader had thought he'd never see again.

Vader came to a stumbling halt, ignoring the wild shots of the stormtroopers, ignoring, even, as Obi-wan went back-to-back with him, shielding both Vader and Luke with twirling Soresu blaster-blocking forms.

Absently, Vader realized his own red blade was still lit, and his fingers briefly itched to test the boy, whom, he realized in waking life, was a Force-sensitive. His Force-presence was blinding, brilliant with power. Was this why he had appeared to Vader in his dreams? Was Luke the Last Jedi?

The ruby lightsaber hissed and vanished, deactivated. No, concluded Vader, studying the boy. Luke knew little if not nothing at all of the jedi, as Anakin had discovered long ago in his dreams. It must have just been a strange and simple twist of fate that led to a sharing of dreams. Luke was pure potential, untapped. Shining with Light. An endless moment stretched between the boy and the man.

And then the freighter's engines rumbled to life.

"Ben!" called Luke, his blue eyes still firmly fixed on Vader. A small crease of confusion marked his brow—he was uncertain as to why the old man had switched so suddenly from deuling the dark lord to...defending him. "Come aboard, quickly!"

Obi-wan hesitantly stepped past Vader, towards the freighter. Instantly, Vader's gloved hand shot out and caught him by the sleeve. "I surrender," said Vader lowly.

"Anakin?" asked Obi-wan again, in a cautious tone.

The mask tilted down, and the man behind it closed sith-yellow eyes. When they blinked open again, they were a brilliant, searing, familiar blue. Not that Obi-wan or Vader could see. He blinked again, and they were yellow. But the Force had shifted slightly. Light did not suddenly shine through the universe, but something, somewhere fundamentally changed.

"Yes," he said softly, reluctantly, the mask's hiss almost too subtle to be hear. "Yes, Obi-wan."

Radiant hope flashed across Obi-wan's face, and he grabbed Vader by the arm. "Let's go!"

Vader felt oddly light as he allowed Obi-wan to pull him through the blaster fire and up the boarding ramp.

"Ben—what—?" gasped Luke, stumbling backwards as Obi-wan pushed past, still practically dragging Vader, who felt a little thrill as he brushed past the boy.

"Take off, Chewbacca!" called Obi-wan. "We're all aboard now," he said more softly, turning hopeful grey-blue-green eyes upon his once-apprentice.

"You can let go now," huffed Vader in not-reply, suddenly finding the mechanics lining the central hold fascinating.

"Absolutely not! You're my prisoner!" grinned the older man, with a wry glint in his eye.

Vader rolled his eyes behind the mask. "You have the strangest sense of humor, Obi-wan."

Obi-wan positively beamed at that.

Around them, the freighter rumbled and shuddered with the impact of blaster fire, sending a squealing astromech unit sliding across the durasteel floor.

"Nine Corellian hells!" exclaimed Vader, utterly, bemusedly surprised. "Artoo?"

The little blue and white droid squeaked in terror and flicked out his electric pike.

"Don't be absurd, Artoo. It's me," exclaimed Vader, looming over the furious little astromech. The droid didn't react other than sending a snap of blue electricity crackling along his electric pike. Vader faltered for a moment, then recalled something, spouting off a string of numbers

R2-D2 jolted with surprise and flipped the pike away, emitting a cautious warbling note.

"Excellent. I'm surprised that old code worked," said Vader, reaching out to give the droid a pat on the dome.

"That was a code, then, and not a sign of your imminent insanity?" asked Obi-wan wryly. The ship shuddered under their feet, and without judicious use of the Force, they both would have been sent flailing.

"It's a code we came up with so R2 could know me if I was in disguise for some reason. Amusing, really, that this is the first time I've actually used it…" The ship rattled again and Vader had to grab bodily onto R2 so the little droid wouldn't go careening across the hold. "Kriff!" swore Vader. "Does this piece of bantha poodoo ship have any inertial dampeners at all? What does that pirate think he's doing?"

"I believe we've engaged in combat with the battle station's fighter defences. Any ideas, former supreme commander?" said Obi-wan calmly.

That stung a bit. "Run like hell," opined Vader flatly. "And hope the tractor beam is still offline. I assume that's why you were skulking through the halls?"

"Correct. And don't worry, no one noticed. I'm sure we'll be fine," said Obi-wan serenely. The ship rattled and groaned in reply.

Vader gave him a flat stare, an effect not entirely ruined by the mask, as the ship seemed to be speaking for him.

"C'mon buddy, we're not out of this yet!" came a sudden shout, preceding the arrival of the Corellian pirate, dragging Luke behind him, both of them looking enthused at the prospect of blasting TIE's.

Luke slid into the tunnel leading down to the gunports with barely a suspicious second glance at the sith lord and the jedi. The pirate, however, stumbled backwards, enthusiasm turning to horror.

"Sithing kriffing hells!" swore the pirate. "What the hell is Darth Vader doing on my ship?"

"Escaping," Vader growled.

"Escaping," chirped Obi-wan.

The pirate looked as if he'd been hit with a stun bolt.

"Go on, Han, Luke can't wield both guns alone," said Obi-wan, utterly unperturbed.

Looking a bit shell-shocked, Han stumbled over to the tunnel and climbed down, a slow litany of swears gradually gaining speed and volume all the while.

"This was a bad idea," said Vader, eyeing the tunnel where the Corellian had disappeared

"It's a brilliant idea!" countered Obi-wan. "For once, I like your plan much better than my plan."

"The plan where you get cut in half?" asked Vader archly.

"Precisely. It would haved served well enough, but being alive is infinitely preferable to being dead, Force or no." Obi-wan fiddled with his sleeve, looking down. "Besides, if you had killed me, Luke's chances of ever forgiving you would dramatically decrease."

"Have I...have I already done something to him? He said that he found out that his father had been a jedi, and that he had been killed...did I do it? Did I kill his father?" asked Vader fearfully.

Obi-wan looked uneasy. "From a certain perspective…"

"Oh kriff…" groaned Vader, letting go of R2, who went trundling off. He stumbled backwards to fall into one of the seats lining the bay, mask cradled in his gloved hands.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much," consoled Obi-wan. Then his brow wrinkled. "Wait a moment...he told you? When? And how did you know his name in the first place?"

Vader leaned back, shaking his head. "This is going to sound ridiculous."

"Well, it is coming from you after all."

Vader shot the man a dirty glare, the force of it somewhat neutralized by his mask yet again. "Anyway, I met him in my dreams. When he was five. Almost every single night since then I've dreamed of him, dreamed with him. I don't know why or how...I didn't even think he was real until today."

Obi-wan tilted his head. "That is...unusual. Though not necessarily surprising. You are both very strong in the Force."

"So are you! So is the Emperor for Force sake! Why would he appear to me?"

"I have my suspicions. Perhaps...you needed it?"

Vader shook his head in confusion. "Why would I need him? I mean...I want him to visit, I enjoy spending time with him, but I don't need it…"

Obi-wan leveled him a serious look. "Anakin, I expected to die today. I expected to meet a man deeply entrenched in the darkness, with no hope of ever seeing the light again. Instead I met a man that I thought was lost a long time ago. You are still ensconced in the Dark, I sense, but not as much as feared. There is something of the Light there now. And with it...I can't help but hope. I feel that Luke was the catalyst for this."

Vader felt conflicted. He still experienced guilt and betrayal and anger, this conversation was frustrating, this situation was aggravating—the ship gave an almighty rumble as the lateral thrusters failed—he still loved his wife and mourned for her, and he loved Luke. He despised Palpatine, and still held no small amount of ill will towards Obi-Wan and the old Jedi Order. He felt too much, too fiercely to not be using the Dark Side...right?

"Anakin…"

"What, Obi-wan?" growled Vader tetchily.

"You're free of the Emperor's grasp right now—you're free to make your own choices. Just trust yourself, alright? It's not the Force that makes you powerful...it's your heart." Obi-wan favored Vader with a warm, if cautious, smile, before adding, "I think I'll go to the cockpit and see what's going on."

Vader could do nothing but gape at Obi-wan (not that his old master could tell) as the man swept out of the hold with a flutter of his brown robes. What Obi-wan had just said contradicted almost everything he had ever been taught. It was always trust the Force, or trust me, or trust the Council. Anakin was always wrong in some way—part of the reckless attitude he had back during the Clones Wars and during his jedi apprenticeship had simply been due to the fact that his reasoning went a little like 'I'll get into trouble anyway, so why not?'. Palpatine had offered the idea that Anakin had always been right, and that the jedi were always in the wrong, but in the end, that had boiled down to asking Anakin to trust Palpatine. And he had. The one time he had truly trusted himself with a big decision, he made the decision to trust Palpatine. Which had turned out brilliantly of course.Trusting himself had gotten him here, after all, stuck in a mechanical suit and enslaved to the Emperor. So why in hells would Obi-wan tell him to trust himself of all things?

Cheers came from the passage leading to the gunports, followed by the distinctive lurch of a ship entering hyperspace, distracting him from his thoughts.

They had escaped the Death Star in one piece. Remarkable, considering the state of the ship, thought Vader, amused. He wondered what Tarkin thought of that—a battered old Corellian freighter and its crew infiltrating, rescuing the princess, and escaping from the technological terror that the Grand Moff had considered both infallible and invulnerable. Admittedly, the escape had been a bit easy, considered Vader. Just because the tractor beam had been disabled and the turbolaser had been powered down didn't mean that the battle station didn't have a terrifying array of gun emplacements and a massive contingent of TIE fighters for protection. From what it seemed, Luke and the pirate couldn't have fought off more than ten fighters, and Vader was willing to bet the number had actually been less. That was...too easy.

Vader stood quickly and strode to the cockpit, bypassing a nonchalant R2 working to free an increasingly frantic C-3PO (and what was Threepio doing aboard?) from some sparking wires on the way.

"Obi-wan!" he said sharply, ignoring the other occupants of the cockpit. "We're being tracked."

The princess turned around in her seat to stare at him in shock, and the Wookiee let out a brief bellow. Obi-wan just hmm'd an agreement. "That would explain why we escaped so easily," he said, looking contemplative.

"Like kreth!" exclaimed the pirate, returning from the gunport and pushing past Vader to take the pilot's seat, yanking off his gloves angrily. "Kenobi you've got five seconds to explain why in the hells Darth Vader is aboard my ship, or I start shooting!"

"In this case, I'd shoot first and ask questions later if I were you, smuggler," said the princess, a positively murderous look on her pretty face.

"Now, now," chuckled Obi-wan indulgently. "There's no need for violence."

"Negotiator…" murmured Vader, exasperated.

"Always," agreed Obi-wan, eyes twinkling. "The answer is simple: Darth Vader isn't aboard the Falcon at all."

Everyone, including Vader, stared at the old jedi with slack jaws, the same thought—is he crazy?—written across their features clear as a Nubian day.

"What is that supposed to mean, Ben?" came a quiet voice from behind Vader's broad, black-clothed form.

Vader flinched and turned, revealing a figure too short to be a stormtrooper dressed in Tatooine desert rags, brilliantly blue eyes tight with uncertainty under a fringe of sun-bleached blonde hair.

Luke.

…

…. End Chapter 2

…