CHAPTER THREE

Xil found Vader pacing the Executor's bridge. The Omwati stopped next to the ship's admiral. He said nothing; he just stood and watched to Dark Lord as he distressed the entire bridge crew.

"He's been there for about an hour," the admiral commented dryly.

"Yes, I thought as much," Xil returned, "That was when he woke up."

Admiral Piett didn't glance away from the figure of the pacing Lord of Sith, nor did he miss a beat, "The boy you brought here."

Xil nodded minutely, and then turned his eyes to Piett, "Do you know who he is?"

Piett kept his eyes firmly forward, "Yes, I recognized him."

Xil remained silent, leaving the unspoken question hanging in the air between them. After several moments, Piett spoke again.

"He's treading towards treason, isn't he?"

Xil shrugged, "So do you in staying silent."

It was then that Piett broke his forward-stare to look at the Omwati, "My loyalties lie with Lord Vader. Betraying him would be treason."

oOo

Luke cracked his eyes open the moment he was sure the room was empty. He had heard one of the doctors tell Leia that he was going to go talk to him (who 'him' was, Luke wasn't sure) and she had replied that she was going to get a few hours of sleep. Luke still had hazy and disconcerting imagines floating through his head and he still wasn't able to sort out what was real and what was a product of his twenty hour nightmare. There were two things he was sure of, though: Leia and the doctor weren't telling him everything, and the Force was screaming to him that there was something he needed to find.

He threw back the sheets of the medbay cot and slowly pushed himself up. His head swam from the movement; but he went slow and steady and was soon testing his luck at standing. He shook slightly, but sighed happily as his legs adjusted and held him. Still holding onto the bed, he looked carefully around the small room. It was an individual intensive care unit, set off from the rest of the medbay. It was a stark, sterile room that reminded Luke of no medbay he'd ever been in. Was he at some special installation? Luke could feel a slight vibration on his feet and he instantly recognized the feel of a large starship engine.

He walked in a wavering line towards the door and leaned against it for a moment to catch his breath before hitting the release. He glanced out the door to find a deserted corridor to match his room: stark and sterile. He sighed and stepped out of the room. "Aren't there any people on this ship?" he murmured, holding his hand against to cold durasteel wall to steady himself. After a several minute trek through nondescript corridors, Luke found himself standing before a lift. He reached out and touched the call button and was slightly surprised when the door opened for him.

"No clearance code?"

He stepped into the lift and looked around for a row of buttons, but found none. He resigned himself to just wait as the doors slid shut and the lift began to rise.

oOo

Vader was trying to find calm, but it had been so many years that only the chaos of the Dark Side answered his call and he was left with nothing but rage. His son was lying comfortably in his personal medbay completely obvious to the fact that he was nestled (quite literally) under his father's wing.

He didn't want to send Luke into another life-threatening panic, but he wanted to see him! He wanted to talk to him! He wanted his chance! The selfish part of him wanted to tell Luke that is was he that had saved him, he that him owed his life...

But of course Luke owed him his life, he was his father.

He mentally shook himself, disgusted with his own childishness. He didn't need recognition for saving Luke's life; it was his duty to save Luke's life—to protect Luke's life.

What had happened to him? When had he hit this low? He wanted to bring order to the universe. He couldn't even keep his family in order.

But, he reminded himself, that was before. That was when his wayward son was lost in the miasma of the Alliance. Not now. Now his son was safely tucked away. Asleep. Oblivious.

oOo

Luke's breath quickened as the lift door silently slid aside to reveal a gigantic bridge. His fingertips brushed metal as he gingerly stepped from the lift, his bare feet sticking to the cold durasteel. His limbs began to tremble, but he could not discern if it was from the chill of the immense area or the sight of the dark figure looming against the backdrop of space. The ebony cloak, the gleaming helmet, the hissing breath. Vader.

Was he still in his nightmare? Was he still trapped by the venom in his own mind?

It was then that the midnight figure turned and looked over his shoulder at the young man, catching him in his gaze like a demon on the hunt for souls. Luke stumbled back, mumbling, "No..."

A black glove rose towards him as he fell back into the lift. The glove reached for him... just as it had on Bespin.

The lift closed.

oOo

"LUKE!"

"Omph!" He stumbled and fell into a heap in the corridor, sliding across the cool floor until he crashed into a wall a few meters from the lift.

Leia scrambled to him and knelt, touching his back gingerly, "Oh Luke, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to surprise you."

"I tripped," he mumbled into the floor.

"Yes. I'm sorry..."

"S'ok."

"Can you stand?"

Luke pressed his face against the floor for a moment, and then looked up at the girl looming over him. "Leia?"

She nodded.

Luke let out an anguished moan and sat up, promptly burying his face in his hands and knees. "Then it's true."

"What, Luke?"

He looked up at her, "I'm still in the nightmare."

Leia balanced on the balls of her feet, frowning at him, "You woke up from your nightmare hours ago, Luke. You're safe now. I promise."

"But..."

She reached to place her hand on his forehead, but as she moved towards him his eyes widened. He was looking over her shoulder.

Vader had stepped from the lift.

"Luke, it's —" Leia began.

He had already passed out.

oOo

"Why did this happen? He was showing signs of recovery, and then he experiences this relapse."

Dr. Oualar pressed his lips into a narrow line for a moment, gathering his thoughts, "I... Sir, I believe it is his presence here that is keeping him unstable."

Vader gazed at the Omwati with his expressionless stare, and yet was still able to convey distress. "I don't understand."

Xil looked at his feet. He could handle emergency and trauma situations. He could deal with life and death... but not this. Not telling a father this. Even this father.

"Sir... when Luke was attacked, he hadn't fully grappled with his prior... confrontation with you. As a result, the fears and uncertainties that have been with him were exaggerated one hundredfold. He's... terrified of you. And being here is going to keep him in a constant state of torment."

Vader was silent for many minutes. He finally said, "And if he were to leave?"

"It is very likely that he would recover."

"Will he recover of his fear of me?"

Xil nodded, "Yes. He simply needs to be given the opportunity to separate reality from his nightmares."

Vader swept out of the medibay, leaving Xil standing alone.

oOo

"What's going on?"

Vader stood silent, gazing at the small shuttle as it was prepped by his landing bay crew.

"Are they putting a tracking device on it?"

He said nothing.

"I'm not leaving here without Luke!"

"That won't be necessary, Princess." A quiet voice said from behind her. Leia spun, and found Xil and Kai guiding a stretcher containing Luke's sleeping form.

"We're leaving."

"B-but—" Leia stuttered as the doctor and his assistant moved past her towards the ship's boarding ramp. She turned back to Vader.

"You'll track us! This is a trap! What do you want from him! Why? WHY?"

Vader remained silent. Unmoved. He simply stared past her at the ship and the stretcher being pushed up the boarding ramp.

The princess cast him one last suspicious glare, and hurried after her friend. Soon after the ramp closed after her.

oOo

"We can't go back to the Rebel base!"

Xil gazed at the hysterical princess impassively, "And why is that?"

"We're being followed!"

"I assure you, we're not."

"But that's Vader!"

The Omwati sighed and leaned back in the pilot's seat. "Princess, with all due respect, if he merely wanted to follow us, he would have let you, Kai, and I go and kept Luke."

"I'm telling you— it's a trap."

"And I'm telling you— it's not."

She crossed her arms stubbornly, "What makes you think so?"

"Your highness, as much as you want to paint Vader as a monster, there is a man in that suit."

"No—"

He held up his hand to stop her retort, "Luke's condition is not stabilizing because he was on that ship, near Vader, the catalyst of Luke's nightmares."

"That's because he's a monster!"

"It's because Luke hasn't fully accepted who Vader is."

Leia's jaw dropped open, "You're telling me that Luke isn't healing because he's actually considering accepting that— thing as his father? And Vader understands all this and let him go?"

"Vader understood that something had to give: his dream of having his son at his side or his son's life."

"And he chose his son's life?" a whispered voice spoke from the corridor.

Both Leia and Xil jumped and turned towards the door to the cockpit.

"Luke!"

Luke was leaning heavily against the threshold; his fingers trembled as they clutched at the durasteel.

"He saved me?"

The doctor nodded.

"And then he let us all go?"

Xil confirmed again.

"Because..."

"He loves you."

Luke closed his eyes.

"Turn around," he whispered.

Leia stood, "Luke, you don't know what you're saying!"

"No. Bring me back to my father. Turn around."

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A/N: I was planning to end it there, but I've been beseeched to continue (BEFORE I posted this chapter, I might add!), so, I'm going to try to write to a second ending, but if I can't get to another satisfactory place to stop, I'm going to leave it here.

Thanks so much for reading, and all of your wonderful feedback!