"Ah, Lord Vader, I'm so glad you could make it," Emperor Palpatine sneered at his apprentice.

"The attack on my fleet was your doing, Master," Vader snarled under his breath.

"Yes, yes, it was indeed."

"I suppose it was a test, then." Vader was unable to keep the exasperation out of his voice. There were times he almost hated Palpatine more than Obi-Wan. At least Obi-Wan had had the courage and honesty to try to kill him directly.

"That is correct, Lord Vader."

"Did I pass?" He tried to muster at least a little bit of curiosity. Since Padme and the child had died, he hadn't felt the need to survive. He hardly cared about physical comfort anymore. As such, he didn't have much of a reason to worry about passing.

"I believe that you did. Congratulations."

Vader sighed inwardly, there was no point asking what that meant. It just meant that he wouldn't be punished for a failure.

"Wouldn't you like to know what your reward will be?" The Emperor's sneer became more obvious on his hideous and twisted face.

"I have learned better than to think that you would ever seek to reward me."

"Well, think again," The Emperor turned to some of his red guards, "Fetch the boy!"

Vader tipped his head to one side in confusion. What boy could his master possibly be talking about? He had never been especially close with a male other than Obi-Wan, and he had been dead for almost seven years.

The Emperor looked past Vader, "Good. Come here, Boy."

Vader turned to see a pale, blond boy stumble forward as one of the red robed guards hit him in the small of the back with the blunt end of a stun-stick. The child threw a glare at the guard and continued into the room, gazing at the floor. When he felt that he was safe from the guard, he looked up.

The first things Vader recognized about the boy were his blue eyes. Slowly the rest of his face registered too. Vader started to turn away, to ask his master how torment and the reminder of his failure to his family was a reward, when the boy's eyes opened wider.

"Father? Is that you?" the child asked hopefully.

Vader stared at his master in confusion.

"He is yours, my apprentice. Go to him, why don't you? Make him happy. Look at him, he has waited his whole life to meet you."

Vader turned back to the child who was now gazing at him in a mixture of hope and fear.

"Father?" he asked again, more doubtfully.

Vader moved to the boy in a daze. The child stood still for a moment, and then started to race to his father. As the boy got close, Vader knelt on the floor to catch his son in his arms.

"Father! He promised you'd come back for me, but I was starting to think you wouldn't!"

Vader ran one hand through his son's hair and smiled at the soft texture of the boy's hair as it slid through the real fingers of his left hand. He could feel the child's small frame shake as he started to cry tears of happiness into his father's tunic.

Luke, my son, my baby. Oh, child, I thought I'd lost you. Everyone told me you were dead. I'm sorry I didn't come looking for you, I'm sorry you grew up not knowing if I wanted you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

He looked up from the child in his arms at his master. It didn't make sense for the Emperor to have gone to the trouble of hiding Luke for so long and then just to give him back when Vader passed such a simple test. There had to be strings attached.

"Do you like him?" The Emperor put on his old doting tones.

"He is everything I've ever wanted," Vader answered honestly.

"Would you give your life for him?"

"In a heartbeat."

"So you would do anything to protect him, then?"

"Of course. Of course I would," Vader looked back down at the small form in his arms.

"Good, good. You will be allowed to see him when you are not on missions, but if you fail me, it's the boy who will pay the price."

Vader nodded. That made more sense. Give him everything he'd ever wanted, and then threaten to take it away.

"How has he been raised?"

"The boy's Force connection was severed the moment I found him. He has grown up in a small series of chambers near my own. His droid caregivers have raised him for his whole life. These last two years he has been attending an imperial school in a neighboring building," the Emperor droned.

"May I take him to my chambers to speak with him privately?" Vader stood with the boy in his arms.

"Yes, but you should know that he is capable of walking." Palpatine sneered.

Vader put his son down and took one small hand in his own. He led the boy down several halls until he reached a turbo-lift that carried them to a landing platform. He climbed into the driver's seat of his speeder and Luke scrambled up beside him. As Vader flew through the heavy Coruscant traffic, his son's eyes never left his face.

Finally, Vader turned to the boy, "Luke, I appreciate that this is new to you, it's new to me as well, but would you please stop staring at me? I feel like an animal in a zoo."

"Sorry," Luke smiled sheepishly and directed his attention to the air traffic streams all around him.

Suddenly something occurred to Vader, "Would you like to stay with me tonight? We could go back to your quarters and get your clothes if you like."

Luke instantly forgot about not staring at his father. Spinning back to the older man, he nodded eagerly. "Yeah! Can I? Please?"

"Why would I make the offer if I wasn't willing to go through with it? Of course you can," Vader turned the speeder sharply and Luke gave a little shriek of laughter.

Seeing his son's enjoyment of something he loved doing, Vader spun the speeder. Any normal citizen would have been arrested, but being a Dark Lord of the Sith did have a few perks, such as being allowed to do remarkably stupid things.

Luke shrieked again and gripped the edge of the seat. As they neared the Imperial Palace, Vader stopped the barrel roll and asked his son to show him where to land. Luke stared at the Palace looming ahead of him and started counting under his breath.

"There," he said, pointing.

"Okay, here we go." Vader flew down to the nearest landing platform and hopped out of the speeder. He ran around the ship and swept his son up and put him on the floor beside him. Luke grinned and kept a tight grip on his father's hand to lead him to his own quarters.

Vader allowed his son to lead him as the boy babbled happily. The halls around him blended together and all he could see was his son's eager smile. Finally, Luke turned down a maintenance hall and fell to his hands and knees to show his father through a storage cupboard door.

After crawling through a few meters of dark corridor, they emerged in a small bedroom. Luke stood up and Vader followed. Immediately Luke bounced over to the bed, wholly energised by his father's arrival. Vader followed his son over to and sat on the bed as Luke scrambled to retrieve everything he would need to stay at his father's home overnight.

Luke pulled a bag from under the bed, "I've been ready forever. Since Emperor Palpatine told me you were coming back."

"And how long has that been, exactly?"

"I dunno, a couple of years?" Luke shrugged and slung the backpack over his shoulder.

"In that case, you should probably check that the clothes will fit." Vader laughed lightly.

"Oh, yeah, I should," Luke dropped the backpack on his bed beside his father and pulled out a shirt that was at least five sizes too small.

"You're still growing, Luke. Better find some clothes that actually will fit." Vader smiled and sat back on the bed.

As he looked around his son's room the first thing he noticed was how monochromatic it all was. The walls were dark gray, the blankets on his bed were black, and the lighting cast a yellowish haze over all of it. There were no windows.

"Would you show me the rest of your quarters after, Luke?" Vader asked curiously. These surroundings weren't much of a home for a child. He hoped that one of the other rooms had some windows.

"Sure, but they're not that different."

"Are they really all this dark?"

"Yeah, but I don't really care. I don't even remember where I lived before he brought me here. You kinda get used to it," Luke pulled another shirt out of his closet and shoved it into his bag with very limited care.

"But you shouldn't have to get used to it," now that he was a parent again, Vader was instantly feeling very protective of his son.

"I really don't mind. It's not a problem for me," Luke proceeded to start trying to shove a pair of pants into the small bag. When he was done, he hopped up and led his father through the few corridors that made up his home. After his father had glanced into a small playroom (which had miraculously been filled with monochromatic toys), a small living room, and a kitchen, Luke headed back to the speeder with his father.

To start the speeder, Vader sent it straight towards the Palace at full speed then guided it up the wall to flip over completely before righting itself. As his son screamed in terror and the sound turned into a laugh, Vader smiled. He could certainly get used to having a son.