Obi-Wan Kenobi

When Obi-Wan saw the Star Destroyer in the orbit of Tatooine only moments before it jumped into hyperspace he was already highly alarmed.

So it was probably not surprising that he grew a little careless as he landed his ship very close to the Lars homestead, to make sure Luke was alright.

Only to be greeted by an angry Owen, glowering at him.
"What are you doing here Kenobi?" he growled, making it pretty obvious that the old Jedi was not welcome, but Obi-Wan paid no mind to that right now.

"Where is Luke? Is he home?" he asked instead, causing Owen's frown to deepen even further.

"No he's not. I've sent him to Mos Espa to get some new parts for the vaporators... He's running late but he probably got held up with some of the shenanigans his friends always do..." Obi-Wan's worry increased. So he wasn't home yet? Owen didn't seem to notice though as he continued to talk. "Why? What's gotten into you, appearing here with a spaceship of all things? I've already told you-"

"I've just seen a Star Destroyer hovering over Tatooine," Obi-Wan finally interrupted. That shut Owen up.

"What?! Why? Tatooine has nothing the Empire could-"

This time he broke off for himself as he realised that yes, there was one thing the Empire could want... Especially now, as Vader had ceased to exist...

"Damn it Kenobi, if Luke is gone this will all be your fault! Leaving the planet like that... I thought you're here to protect him!" Owen suddenly started again, making Obi-Wan hold out a hand.

"Please, we don't even know if something has happened," he said, forcing himself to sound calm. "I'll fly to Mos Espa and try to find out more."

"I'll join you," Owen immediately said, cutting off any protest Obi-Wan might have had with his next words. "I know which route he usually takes. That way we can't miss him if he's only on his way home."

"Alright."

xxx

Soon enough they were back in the ship, flying along the desert as quickly as Obi-Wan dared while simultaneously being able to watch for a sign of Luke on the streets or an inkling of his Force signature, as weak as it was.

There was nothing of the latter, but after a few minutes of flying Owen suddenly gripped his shoulder. Hard.

"Stop! There, I can see something!" he said, pointing at a few dark spots in the distance.

His worry increasing even more Obi-Wan now steered towards that place and landed a little away from it, only to have Owen rush out of the door the moment the ship had landed. He followed suit, one hand at his lightsaber just in case worse came to worst.

But he needn't have bothered. Things already were at their worst, it seemed.

He could see a number of speeders standing around, surrounded by an about equal number of corpses.

He felt his blood run cold, especially once Owen cried out "That's Luke's speeder! What happened here...?"

Obi-Wan swallowed hard, as he looked around, trying to identify the corpses. He did feel a little better when he didn't seek Luke with them, but only a little, really, for he soon recognized the tracks.

And he froze, once again.

"Imperials..." he whispered, causing Owen to turn to look at him.

"What did you say?"

Obi-Wan looked again, but the patterns were still clear, the desert had not yet managed to wipe them away. A group of organized people - soldiers, they had to be - had been here very recently, probably landed with some sort of transporter.

"Imperials were here," he repeated as such, slowly, wishing Luke would just jump out behind a stone now, telling them how he had hid himself and was fine or something.

But he didn't.

"What? But how?" Owen was almost shouting, his frustration evident. "Nobody knew he was here and even if they did, how could they have known it was him?"

"I don't know," Obi-Wan admitted. But there was something else bothering him. The wounds on the fallen... They were lightsaber wounds, unmistakeable. "I am afraid... Maybe there was a Force user with them."

"So the one time you're not here an imperial Force user shows up and kidnaps Luke?! What where you thinking, leaving like that!"

"I'm sorry!" Obi-Wan answered, truly regretting his actions now. He had thought it would be fine with Vader dead, he would never have thought that after all these years somebody could discover Luke... He had only been gone for a few weeks after all, maybe two standard months... It did need a while to travel from Tatooine to Alderaan, Dagobah and then back, but... He would never have imagined something like this.

"We need to find him!" Owen started again and Obi-Wan couldn't agree more.

"Yes. I'll do all I can, I will try to enlist the help of others too. We cannot leave Luke in the hands of the Empire."

"Yes, we damn well can not! And pray that once we find him he will still be alright or you wish you would never have left your hut!"

Obi-Wan winced, but nodded. He would immediately contact Bail again. He needed the help of everyone he could and the Alliance had a lot of contacts throughout the galaxy. If anyone could find Luke they would, and if he himself had to play poster boy for them to get them to do it he would, too.

He wouldn't lose another Skywalker to the Dark Side. Not this time.

xxx

Anakin Skywalker

It had needed the combined efforts from Kix - the clone medic that had arrived together with Rex after his emergency signal - and Novar to keep Anakin from going completely mental over Luke's injuries.

Sure, the boy had been lucky and only gotten hit at the shoulder, but as he had worn nothing that could be called armour he still had received a severe burning.

Kix had applied first aid immediately but advised to go for Bacta just in case if this was so important to Anakin, so they had been flying back to the Vengeance at once, letting Novar take over.

Originally Anakin's intention had been to get Luke healed up and then move him back to Tatooine, no matter how much he wished it to be different. But for once the Empire did something he, in a way, benefited from: They seemed to have realised that the Star Destroyer hovering near Tatooine sent no identification signal and had decided to send two more Star Destroyers to find out what was going on - information attained by listening to the Empire's comm frequency.

So they had to leave rather quickly, unable to bring Luke back immediately, as he was still unconscious. Anakin could only hope the boy would understand, for it did look suspiciously like a kidnapping.

xxx

When Luke finally opened his eyes again Anakin's nerves were raw. He had tried to keep himself distracted by thinking of his talk with Watto earlier - who he had actually managed to convince of the truth and even strike a deal with, selling a few of the brand new TIE-fighters he still had on his Star Destroyer to the junk dealer - and how he would contact him again, but it had helped only a little. The old Toydorian had, after all, provided a few innocent stories about Luke, so his thoughts returned to the boy quickly anyway, nervously awaiting his awakening.

When it happened Luke blinked a few times in confusion, before seemingly catching on what had transpired, for he shot up immediately.

"Careful there," Anakin muttered, holding out a hand to make sure he wouldn't flee the room. Though Novar was very good with healing injuries - he was keeping in shape with the clones after all - the Bacta bandage was still wrapped around Luke's shoulder, so he was supposed to stay in bed for a little longer. And Anakin certainly intended to see that the other fully recovered.

Luke took one look at him, then at his surroundings before groaning a little.

"Where am I?" he asked, obviously nervous.

Not that Anakin wasn't too, trying his best not to fidget too much as he answered.

"Well... you got shot by this Trandoshan trash, so I took you with me to my ship to make sure it would heal up again."

Luke did look a little bit relieved at that, especially once he saw the bandage around his shoulder. Anakin wondered off-handedly if being shot by a blaster hurt more or less than being stabbed by a lightsaber, but then again, he was by now more than used to block off pain with the Force, so... It was probably not comparable.

"Uh... Thanks, then," Luke just replied awkwardly, but then his eyes widened in realisation. "Oh no... How long was I out? I need to go home, Uncle Owen will kill me! Where's the exit?"

Anakin blinked a few times before he realised that Luke had probably - hopefully! - never seen the insides of a Star Destroyer before, so he couldn't know that this unknown ship wasn't on the surface of the planet.

But the more disturbing thing of course was that they weren't even close to Tatooine anymore, currently travelling to the Savareen sector, a neighbour to the one Tatooine was in, but still quite some distance away.

"Maybe about an hour, but... Well, maybe you should send your aunt and uncle a message..." Anakin began slowly, causing Luke to frown.

"What do you mean? Why can't I just go to them? My uncle's going to kill me already."

Anakin swallowed hard before quickly muttering the reason. "You're currently on a stolen Imperial Star Destroyer, about two parsecs away from Tatooine because after we brought you here for treatment we realised that the Empire was close to catching us so we had to vanish for the moment."

Silence reigned for a short moment, until-

"What?!"

"I'm sorry!" Anakin said, feeling truly apologetic. It wasn't like he had wanted to basically kidnap the other! Or, well, maybe he had wanted to, but not intended to actually do it! "Once we're a safe distance away we'll try to see that we return when the Empire is gone... And I'm not trying to keep you prisoner or anything, I really just wanted to help you heal! Which is why I suggested telling your relatives where you are."

"Ugh..."

Luke let himself fall back into the bed with a groan.

Anakin sighed. This was probably just too much do the other - it was already almost too much for him!

Both of them stayed quiet for a while after that, as Anakin didn't know what to say but also didn't want to leave. He felt horribly responsible for this whole fiasco - after all, the thugs had been after him - and besides, he was the only one on this ship Luke knew, so this way the other might not feel totally alone at least.

Though he still hadn't even given his name, afraid of the reaction he would receive...

"Say... after I got shot..." Luke suddenly muttered, sounding insecure and nervous. "Was there... someone shouting something about a son? Maybe an older Trandoshan or something?"

Anakin stiffened. He had hoped that Luke hadn't heard his little outburst and had tried his best to not think of this craziness himself. But he supposed he did owe the other the truth...

"Kind of..." he admitted, taking another deep breath to steel himself. "It was me."

Luke frowned, not yet grasping the meaning it seemed.

"You? Why?"

"I... Look, I know this sounds unbelievable, but... I'm your father."

Luke stared at him as if he was crazy. Which he was, admittedly, at least a little. But the longer Anakin was thinking about that particular thing the more he believed in it. They were already looking rather similar, their hair being the same shade of blond and both of them having similar eyes, but what did it for him was that he could feel the Force signature of Luke and it felt... familiar, in a way. Not like when he had met the other person before, but... as if he ought to know it. And he was sure Luke was a Force sensitive. This all, coupled with where Luke was from and his father's name were just too many coincidences not to be true.

Of course though, Luke didn't believe him.

"Anakin Skywalker was my father," he said resolutely. "You himself told me things about him - if those even were true. And he lived over fifteen years ago, while you're definitely under thirty."

Anakin smiled bitterly. "I guess what you're saying is correct - except for the age. I'm... around forty now, I think. And my name is Anakin. Anakin Skywalker."

Luke scowled.

"I do appreciate the rescue, but you don't have to start lying to me now. Did you ever look into a mirror? You could never pass as forty, Aunt Beru is forty-five and you look like you could be her son!"

"I never said I'm looking my age," Anakin protested, before sighing. "Look, I'll explain it to you if you'll let me. Do you know of the Force?"

xxx

He needed quite a while to convince Luke of the truth, but to be fair, it did sound rather ridiculous and Luke didn't know anything about the Force at all it seemed. In fact, Anakin was pretty sure that he was saved by Novar, who had wanted to check on Luke's wounds and then explained the situation once again, in clearer terms than Anakin could have ever done.

"So... You're my father and because an evil spirit took possession of your body you've not really lived those last years until you ripped out your own soul and put it into a younger clone body... Yes?" Luke repeated once more, sounding exhausted.

"Yes, that sums it up pretty nicely," Anakin agreed dryly. It did sound ridiculous if put like that, didn't it?

Luke just groaned and put his uninjured arm over his face as he was still lying down.

"If I may propose something, Anakin," Novar suddenly began, causing Anakin to turn to him in question. "I would suggest some rest. For both of you. I know from experience that this information can be quite... difficult to digest, I'm not even sure if I would have believed it had I not witnessed it myself. So how about we leave young Luke for the moment and let him work things out?"

Actually, that sounded like a fantastic idea. Fleeing the scene until things had cooled down? Anakin was definitely up for it right now, so he quickly nodded in agreement.

"Very well then." Novar nodded back at him before turning to Luke. "I'll leave you a holoprojector behind. Feel free to contact your family at any time. Once we lost the Imperial Star Destroyers we will immediately bring you back too, so they do not need to worry overly much. But I must insist that you will stay in bed for at least until I return to remove the Bacta bandage. Afterwards you are free to roam the ship I suppose. Is that acceptable?"

Luke still looked rather overwhelmed but nodded. While Anakin bit the inside of his lips to keep from commenting. He didn't actually mind those Imperials very much right now as while he still felt strange thinking about the fact that he had a son, that the child, Padmé's and his child, had actually been born, he really wanted to get to know the boy more now...

Still, it was clear that they couldn't just keep him imprisoned or anything, so when Novar turned to leave Anakin stood up himself, only hesitating for a moment.

"Luke... I know this stuff sounds totally incredible, but... It would be great if you gave it a chance, despite the probably more than shady first impression I made. I promise I never wished any harm to come to you and... had I known you were alive... I would have tried to fight stronger."

His last words were barely more than a whisper but he meant them as he hurried past Novar, out of the room. He really needed some time to think himself now too.

After all, what to do if one suddenly found out about being a father?! He wasn't exactly father material anyway... This was bound to get difficult.

xxx

Luke Skywalker

Once the two other men had left Luke didn't wait long before sitting up again. He really needed to get this message to Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen out as fast as he could! He was sure Uncle Owen would already be beyond angry with him and he didn't want to worry either of them much more.

He took the holoprojector and hesitated only a moment before recording a message on it.

"Uh... Hi there! I'm sorry for not coming home on time today, but I really wanted to tell you that I'm fine! Well, mostly fine, I got injured by Mrink but I'm currently on a ship to get it healed as I met some people who helped me out. I'll be back really soon, so... yeah. I'm sorry for all the trouble, but you really don't have to worry. I love you."

He hesitated a moment longer as he turned the recording off, but finally he just sent it away, knowing that it wasn't exactly much but it was still better than trying to explain this whole business regarding... Vengeance.

He couldn't quite get his mind around the idea that the man was supposed to be his father.

Oh, sure, having the leader of a big anti-slavery group as his father in itself sounded awesome but if said leader was - or at least looked like he was - barely a few years older than Luke himself and seemingly was able to switch between happy and angry in a few milliseconds... It wasn't just as desirable anymore.

In a way Luke did believe the man however, he had seemed honest enough when trying to explain all this and more than once he had struggled with his words - something Luke assumed a good liar wouldn't need to do.

And as the other man, the doctor, had basically recounted the same story again, it was hard to believe this to be some sort of elaborate prank. The doctor really didn't seem the type for something like that.

At least this Anakin seemed to have done better than being a spice freighter navigator. That was something, Luke supposed.

xxx

He didn't know how long he was lying around after putting the holoprojector away until he got bored. He had a lot to think about, sure, but at the same time he didn't really want to think... His father had been dead to him for eighteen years now, to change this way of thinking - if he even wanted to - would take enough time as it was.

So he chose to distract himself from everything by walking around a little. He got up, carefully trying not to move his arm much as the bandage was still wrapped around it, and began to walk a bit - after noting in relief that they had only removed his shirt and shoes.

It looked like he was in some sort of medical room as besides a bed, a chair and a small shelf there were also some machines built into the wall, looking like they might be used for diagnoses or something, but at least the room was pretty big for being inside a ship.

An imperial Star Destroyer, Vengeance had said, right? That made him wonder how big the insides really were, as far as he had understood those were huge...

Although he got distracted as he realised that there was a window nearby, close to the door. Walking towards it he couldn't help but gape a little as he realised that he could actually see space out there. Of course, there were stars visible from Tatooine at night, but Luke had never actually been anywhere close to leaving the planet with his uncle always forbidding him to go to the imperial academy.

As it was though, it was breathtaking. Sure, most of it was black nothingness, but the stars he could see almost everywhere in the distance as well as various other formations he could barely describe... This was what he had always dreamt off when thinking of becoming a pilot. What freedom it must be to travel space with just a small starship...

xxx

He got lost in his thoughts after a while, looking out into the vastness of space, until a sudden clearing of a throat behind him made him jump a little. He turned around and noticed the doctor standing a little distance behind him, arms crossed.

"Why is it that everyone always seems to disregard my advices regarding their health?" he asked dryly, but it didn't actually sounded angry. "Anakin is just the same, 'Why should I stay in bed, I feel fine' he says and rushes headfirst into the next fight. I guess I should be glad that you just walked to the window." He sighed and Luke winced a little. He had totally forgotten about that 'Please stay in bed for a while longer' thing.

"I'm sorry."

The doctor shook his head.

"Nevermind now, it should have healed already anyway. Just come here so that I can check."

Dutifully Luke returned to the bed and sat on it, with the doctor sitting down on the chair next to it as he began to open the bandage.

"How do you feel?" the doctor asked and Luke hummed.

"Fine, I guess." At least physically, the pain he had felt before was long gone and he hadn't even felt his shoulder since waking up. He didn't know if he had gotten pain relievers though, so he had no idea if this meant he was healed already or not.

At least the doctor nodded, so it couldn't have been that bad.

"Good. I take it you contacted your relatives too?"

"Yes."

"Very well."

Luke turned his head a little to look at his shoulder too. It certainly looked fine enough... Almost as if it never had been hit by anything. Bacta really was powerful, wasn't it? Though it did make him wonder...

"How come you've got access to Bacta anyway?" he muttered after a moment, unable to reign in his curiosity as the man seemed nice enough.

"We have our sources," he answered evasively though, making Luke sigh. "Sorry, but it's not really my place to tell you these things, although I'd wager that Anakin would be more than happy to tell you whatever you want to know."

Now, with this Anakin again...

"And you really think he is my father...?" Luke muttered quietly, still not really believing this whole thing. Maybe it was easier to understand if the person in question wasn't present?

"Yes," the doctor immediately answered though. "Or, well, at least I believe he could be, age wise. I have seen him back when he was still in his old body, possessed by the spirit we told you about. Of course, I cannot possibly be sure about the origin of this spirit, for I have no way to prove anything connected to the Force, but I do know that the very obvious signs of what can also be seen as an extreme case of a split personality have vanished the moment he... changed bodies. He still isn't exactly sane I am afraid, but he is a lot better than before."

Luke sighed. This still sounded incredible. But he just couldn't outright dismiss it. He didn't know why, all this talk about this Force, it sounded so... crazy, but then again, he had been living all his life on Tatooine, what did he know about what else was out there in the galaxy?

"But how could he be my father? I mean... if that's the case, then who is my mother?"

"That I don't know," the doctor confessed with a light shrug. "I have never asked him as he always seemed reluctant to talk too much about his past. But his name really is Anakin, I am pretty sure of that. Everything else... Well, I learned to trust him with what he tells me, but I can understand if you don't. Although do keep in mind that at least some of the soldiers aboard seem to know him too so this does add some credibility to his claims."

Luke sighed. Of course, nothing could be just easy with Vengeance - or Anakin, which was obviously the name the man went by, no matter his relation to Luke.

"Alright... Thank you for your opinion."

Some more silence followed during which Luke tried to decide what to do about this whole situation, but he really had no idea except for letting it come to him. After all, it wasn't like he had to deal with all this for very long, right? So he could just ignore the weirdness for the moment, maybe he would even be able to enjoy being in space for the first time!

"Looks like it has healed well," the doctor finally broke the silence after some more inspecting. "You should be free to go. I'll bring you a new shirt in a moment if you want and then you can leave the room. I would suggest getting a tour of the ship first though, it is pretty big and you getting lost might drive Anakin into another frenzy. Something nobody wants to experience, trust me."

Luke just stared for a moment, before shaking his head. Yes, somehow he believed he didn't want to know.

"Alright, a shirt would be nice, thank you. I guess Ven- Anakin would be the one giving the tour, then? To ensure I'm not getting lost?"

The other man shrugged.

"I suspect so. But if you really have a problem with him just say so now, we can arrange for someone else."

Luke thought about it, but finally decided against it. As weird as he thought this Anakin was, he didn't seem like a bad guy and maybe actually getting to know him would make this whole mess a bit clearer? If this was madness, some sort of elaborate trap or, in fact, the truth?

So, finally another chapter is done, yay! :)
Needed a bit longer to bring myself to post it since I'm not 100% happy with how it turned out, but I think it turned out the best I could do with the story flowing the way it does.
At least we got some more interaction between Anakin and Luke!

Next chapter should have even more of that, and sooner or later Obi-Wan will surely start to get behind this whole thing too, though I don't yet know exactly when. Should be interesting though, so stay tuned. ;)

(Review answers:

bugaboo13: I'm sorry that this update needed so long again, I'd like to write more but I don't have so much time anymore and there are so many things I want to do... I hope you liked it anyway, and I do have some plans for other characters to appear in the future too, so... maybe? ;)
Nite Mohz: Thanks a lot! :) Currently the idea is to go about as far as the movies did, so probably not much longer than what in canon was ~5 ABY? But let's see how things will develop... I did once toy with the idea of a sequel for the farther future, but really, these things are ages away...
Guest: Thank you so much! And I'm so sorry that I needed this long for the update, I'll try to write more :x Hope you liked Obi-Wan's reaction anyway. And don't worry, I will try to get his character more diplomatic. Though I do think he did get a little weird with old age, but maybe the stress of finding Luke and dealing with a younger Anakin will make him remember his youth again, haha. :p

Thank you all for your reviews, even the one liners make me very happy and I hope you will continue to like it even with updates being as slow as they currently are.)