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CHAPTER FIVE

"Don't leave him!"

"Strap him in! He's agitating that blaster wound."

"You can't leave him!"

Han turned in the pilot seat and leveled a glare at his young friend. "Luke, he wouldn't want you to die picking up his body. Sit down."

Luke drew a deep, but broken, breath. He was in his sister's arms, shaking. He felt nothing but blind panic. This wasn't right. This was not what was supposed to happen.

Darth Vader— his father— was not supposed to die.

He was supposed to save him. He wanted to save him.

"Why?"

The last broke from his thoughts and issued from his throat as a choked moan. He went limp, and allowed Lando and Leia to strap him into a seat.

As the shuttle bolted from Home One towards the Star Destroyer Vengeance, Luke stared at the scuffmark his boot had left on the polished console.

And felt nothing.

oOo

The ramp wasn't even fully extended when Xelar screamed from it for a medic. Leia thought it ironic that he was calling so frantically for help for Luke, when he looked as though he could use a week long stay in the medi-bay himself. She pressed her hand against Luke's chest and just watched his blank expression as a medic sprinted up the ramp and knelt beside him.

"Blaster wound?"

She nodded.

"This is his only injury?"

Leia pressed her lips together. "He may be in shock. He just watched his father die."

"Wh-what?"

Leia turned to regard the voice behind her; an admiral, she could tell from the bars adorning his chest.

"Lord Vader is dead," she said softly.

The medic and admiral paused, seemingly frozen, and then both sprung into action. The medic was checking Luke over like he was a delicate child and the admiral was suddenly kneeling next to the medic, staring into Luke's face.

"Highness, can you hear me?"

Leia started. "What did you just call him?"

The admiral looked up at her with hard eyes. "Emperor Vader left clear instructions. His son was his heir."

Luke broke out of his stupor and narrowed his eyes at the admiral. "He left such instructions?" His voice was low, but held a tight edge to it.

The admiral lifted his chin, a reaction clearly sculpted by years of service in the Imperial Navy. "He did, Highness."

Luke's expression darkened. "He knew."

"Pardon, Highness?"

Suddenly Luke rose; he brushed the medic away from him like a fly and stormed from the shuttle. "Admiral!"

The admiral hurried to Luke's side, struggling to keep up. "Yes, Highness?"

"Bring me to the bridge. Prepare to engage the Rebels."

The admiral nodded and directed him to the lift. As the doors parted, Leia yelled to him from the ramp of the shuttle.

"Luke! What are you doing? What about the things you said to those soldiers? What about starting anew?"

Luke looked over his shoulder at his sister, fury ablaze in his eyes. "They killed my father. All amnesty they would have had is now void."

"Luke!"

The lift closed on her cry.

oOo

Admiral Tulsa watched Luke Skywalker pace the bridge out of the corner of his eye. The young man was a whirlwind of furious energy. He would look up from his frantic inner musings every time a ship was destroyed. The young man always looked a split moment before a ship broke apart, as if he somehow sensed the impending death. Then he would continue his pacing. He ignored the sobs of his sister against the chest of her friend. The former Rebels were gathered at the back of the bridge, well out of the way, and subtly guarded by Trooper Cometfaller.

The trooper had refused his new emperor's leave to visit the medi-bay while enroute to the bridge. Instead, he had fallen into step next to the young man and introduced himself. At the introduction, Luke Skywalker's step had faltered, and he looked over Cometfaller with a critical and almost wary eye.

"You have been held by the Rebels since the battle?" the emperor asked.

Cometfaller nodded. "Yes, highness. I apologize if any of the information revealed during my interrogation endangered you. I had no idea of its significance."

Skywalker pressed his lips together: thoughtful, grim. "There is no need for regrets now, Cometfaller."

Cometfaller reached the doors to the bridge and activated the release. He stepped back and bowed, indicating that Skywalker should precede him. As the young man walked past the stormtrooper, he paused, and glanced over his shoulder at his three friends following at a distance. "Keep them out of the way, would you, Cometfaller? I don't think they'll understand."

Cometfaller bowed lower. "I will do as you command, my emperor."

Skywalker nodded and stepped onto the bridge as the admiral issued the command to engage the Rebel fleet. Cometfaller turned his gaze towards the approaching trio, one of which had saved him from his cell, and knew that the young emperor was right: they wouldn't understand what needed to be done.

The sob that escaped the princess as the first Rebel ship was reduced to rubble confirmed his misgiving.

oOo

It was like a dark cloud rolling forth from the Star Destroyer Vengeance: a wave of Dark Side energy sweeping across space to consume everything in its path, swift and terrible anger reaching forward to decimate every last remnant of the Rebel Alliance.

All according to plan.

Vader smiled darkly as he witnessed his son's full fury and might. His fleet was mercilessly destroying everything that Luke Skywalker ever stood for, and being led by that very man.

Vader kept his stolen shuttle well out of range, watching and waiting.

He didn't have time to coax his son from his idealistic shell, and so he'd been forced to break his son's innocence in a less than gentle manner.

And the Rebels had played into it so well.

First, torturing Xelar Cometfaller and replacing him with a Special Ops. Agent, then giving that agent the order to eliminate Luke Skywalker. He had dampened Luke's Force senses so that he could neither sense the danger nor defend himself, but the agent recklessly taunting Luke by telling him that his sister would die as well could not have been better if he had planned it himself. He had, of course, issued the Force suggestion into the mind of the Rebel soldier who had fired on Luke, and ensured that the wound would not be fatal. The final piece of his plan fell into place when Luke witnessed the Rebels "killing" him, the father that Luke was so desperate to save. Projecting an illusion of himself falling under the Rebels' fire while he stole a small shuttle had been child's play.

It was all perfect.

And now Luke knew the power of the Dark Side.

Vader watched as a well placed missile caused Home One to break apart from the inside and scatter across the vacuum of space.

It was time. He set his course for the Vengeance.

oOo

"My Emperor!"

Luke turned from the viewport where he had watched the complete destruction of his past and regarded the admiral standing behind him. He said nothing, merely raising his eyebrow in inquiry.

"There is a shuttle that has just come within range."

Luke turned fully from the viewport, his stance suggesting that the man should explain— quickly.

"It is a Rebel shuttle, but it is transmitting Imperial codes..."

Luke's eyes widened. "High ranking codes?"

The admiral drew a deep breath, knowing that if he raised the hopes of the boy and this turned out to be a false— he'd likely be dead within the hour.

He nodded, and watched the fiery anger that had burned in the young man's eyes fade to be replaced with a mixture of hope— and horror.

"Your Highness..."

Luke shook his head and headed for the lift. "Allow the shuttle to land... I... I will..."

The door closed between the admiral and the young man, but not before the admiral saw the look of utter defeat on the boy's face.

oOo

Luke was trembling in every inch of his body as the shuttle landed. He could clearly sense the presence of his father aboard. The craft settled and the ramp began to extend, and a wave of guilt washed over Luke, leaving him breathless.

He'd abandoned his father. He'd left him for dead.

He'd left him.

He fell to his knees as Vader emerged from the shuttle and began his descent. Luke bowed his head and felt tears pool in his eyes and race down his cheeks.

"I have failed you," he whispered as his father stopped before him.

A hand clasped his chin and brought his face up. Vader was crouched before him, staring into his eyes.

"No. You did beautifully, son."

"I left. I could have saved you!"

"I am fine."

"But..."

"Luke," Vader took his son by the shoulder and guided him to stand. "You have made me proud. You are truly my heir."

Vader pressed his hand into Luke's back and steered the young man towards the lift. They passed Xelar Cometfaller who had followed the young man from the bridge, never failing in his duty to be at the young Skywalker's side while Vader was unable to be. Vader met the stormtrooper's eye and nodded discretely: the man had played his role very well. He would be rewarded handsomely. Allowing himself to be captured and tortured by the enemy in order to reveal certain truths to the right ears was no small feat.

Vader looked down at his son and smiled. The boy was numb, dazed, confused, and steeped in the Dark Side. No matter how much Vader reassured him, he'd always blame himself for leaving his father for dead. He'd live the rest of his life trying to atone for his mistake. He would never know calm; only anger, guilt, frustration.

Only the Dark Side.

Perfect.