Reliance

AN: Let me start out by saying I love Vader and Luke's father/son relationship. I love it so much in fact that I decided to try my hand at writing it. This story is formed from my own self indulgence as I am a bit of a sucker for de-aging (when done right). What started out as a drabble somehow evolved into a multi-chapter story. Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter One: The Distress Beacon

"Artoo, quit complaining. I know what I am doing." Or at least that is what Luke Skywalker kept telling himself. After all, what he was doing probably wouldn't be considered the smartest thing by most people's standards. He could practically hear Leia scolding him for risking the mission, and his life, for what could very well be a trap.

But Luke just could not ignore the distress signal his X-Wing had picked up not too long ago. It was only a little ways off course from his destination of Corellia where he was to rendezvous with Lando and Chewie. This detour should not take too long and who knows, it might be someone who by offering aid to, could in turn help the alliance.

"According to the radar, the signal is coming from the outskirts of Adana. Do you know anything about that planet, Artoo?" The droid gave a low whistle and Luke shrugged, "Me either, I wonder if-"

But the young Jedi never got to finish for it was that moment the lights on his console started flashing out in warning, "There seems to be a large ship we're picking up. Maybe they are here to answer the distress beacon too?" Luke seriously doubted that though, the ship was large enough to be one of the Imperial fleet's.

Luke's blood turned to ice as the ship came into view; it was a Super Star Destroyer, and not just any one at that. It was the Executor, Vader's ship. That brought to mind far too fresh memories of the revelation on Cloud City.

"What's Fa- Vader doing out here?" Luke thought to himself.

The astromech let out a series of beeps which Luke read in basic on the monitor, "No we can't leave. The ship with the distress beacon should be really close. Look! There it is!" Floating right on the atmospheric perimeter of the green planet was an odd ship. "Artoo, we need to turn all power down low. That should help us stay undetected by the Executor's scopes." He hoped it would anyway.

"Alright, patch me into their communications system, we gotta make this quick and get out of here."

After waiting a moment, Artoo whistled as the connection was established, "This is-uh-Owen Lars, I've picked up your distress signal and want to know what your situation is?" Static was the only response he received.

Luke licked his lips, maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. The force was starting to stir in warning.

"Okay we should probably get out of here and contact Leia, she'll want to know about that Super Star Destroyer. At least this wasn't a complete waste." That's when the odd ship started lighting up.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Luke said starting to flip the power back up in the thrusters. "Let's get out of here before-"

On instinct Luke yanked his fighter to the left as a laser blast flew past the spot he was last in. Too late, the Star Destroyer had taken notice of their presence and had wasted no time in deploying several TIEs.

"Artoo transfer power into rear shields; looks like this isn't going to be as quick as I thought."

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Darth Vader stood with his arms crossed on the command deck of the Executor. They had arrived in the Deep Core not long ago and were preparing shuttles for departure to Adana. Vader hated it out here where the dark matter was so concentrated that it warped the functioning of space. Even the planets located here did not feel stable.

He would make sure these "negotiations" would go by swiftly and smoothly. He had more important matters to contend with, namely collecting his son that had eluded his grasp not long ago on Bespin. The rejection had been….disheartening at first, but Vader was not a man to give up so easily. Rest assured Skywalker would be at his side, one way or another.

"Lord Vader, the ship with the distress signal you told us to monitor, there uh appears to be some activity. It is seems to be….pulsing sir."

Vader turned his gaze to the twitching officer, "Explain."

"Uh well, it is emitting slight waves of energy. We are uh not quite sure what is happening."

Vader loathed such quivering pests like this man. How did someone lacking a backbone even work his way up to the command deck?

They had picked up the mysterious ship on their scopes upon nearing Adana's atmosphere. It was sending out a distress signal but that was not the Empire's problem. Vader had more important matters to contend with than what was probably just some imbecile who did not realize how to operate a ship in the Deep Core. At least that had been the Sith's initial thinking, but now was the time to inspect its presence.

"Launch our fighters to investigate. If given any trouble do not hesitate to destroy it."

"My Lord, we have detected another ship. It had slipped past our radars; it looks to be one of the rebels' fighters."

This got Vader's attention, what was the Rebel Alliance doing out in the heart of the galaxy? And why was the ship not with a group?

"Capture the ship, we shall see what this Rebel is doing out here."

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Luke out maneuvered one of the fighters, looping behind it and destroying the ship with one well aimed shot, "We got him!"

Two more TIEs stayed glued to his tail, not as easily being shaken. "Artoo, what do you say we high tail it out of here before they send reinforcements? Time we hit light speed."

But when Luke pushed the button to enter into hyperspace, a loud bang resounded and his ship briefly jostled.

Blast, that doesn't sound good. Did my hyperdrive die?

Artoo screamed, "Right! I'll worry about the TIE's you focus on seeing what went wrong with our jump!"

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Vader stood with his arms crossed as he watched the Imperial fighters start to close in around the X-Wing. The pilot had done well holding his own but he would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers soon enough. The Dark Lord watched the ship lurch, and suspected the fool had tried to make the jump to hyperspace.

"Blast, that doesn't sound good. Did my hyperdrive die?" Vader froze at the familiar voice that had been carried across the force. The voice of the young, untrained Jedi. The voice of Luke Skywalker, his son. The boy probably did not even realize that he was projecting his thoughts.

Without any thought he ordered all fighters to return to the ship, "I will deal with this rebel myself."

He would not put his son's life in just any pilot's hands. No, this was something Vader would do personally, "Prepare my personal ship and get the tractor beam online. I will lead him this way."

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"Huh? That's strange, all the fighters are retreating?" Luke mumbled with furrowed brows. "Any luck with that hyperdrive?" the Jedi took a minute to read the translation before huffing, "Well everything can't be fine if it's not working!"

"Son, what are you doing in this part of space?"

Luke's eyes slowly widened and his stomach churned at the deep, condescending voice that resounded in his head. Looking up from the gauges, the pilot saw an Advanced TIE fighter flying full speed at him.

Letting out a curse in Huttese, Luke pushed his ship as fast as it could go, "Artoo, I could really use lightspeed right about now!"

"There is no use resisting, son." That gave Luke an odd sense of deja-vu, but he did his best to ignore the voice that was invading his mind. Instead he focused on trying to escape.

There was no denying that Vader was a master pilot. No amount of spinning, looping, or spiraling could shake the Sith. Vader's ship started advancing on Luke's side, causing him to steer his X-Wing towards the now active mystery ship.

Without warning the craft that had seemed to come to life, let out a loud whine before firing off a wide, purple energy wave!

Luke knew he had no chance in avoiding it, "Artoo, brace yourself!" The wave hit seconds later causing his ship to shutter. All the lights in the cockpit flickered out as the X-Wing lost all power, "Artoo are you okay?"

But there was no response; it seemed his friend had lost power as well. Luke tried restarting the systems but nothing happened; they were sitting ducks. Oh no, this was bad. That meant that Vader could…

Twisting around as far as the harness would let him, Luke looked over his shoulder to see Vader's ship floating dead as well. He let out a sigh of relief, but knew he was on borrowed time before the Executor sent out men to pick them up. Now if he could just….just…..Luke froze. Flexing his hands the young Jedi wondered at the odd tingling sensation that started from the tips of his fingers and was spreading to the rest of his body. The tingling turned to burning.

Luke squeezed his eyes shut at the searing, hot pain that followed. His bones seemed to be trying to implode. He only barely registered the sound of someone screaming and it took a moment to realize it was him.

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Vader remained calm as the wave crashed over his and Luke's fighters. He even remained calm when his ship's power mysteriously shut off, but he did feel a little unnerved when he noticed both fighters were floating towards Adana's gravitational pull. And without the ships operating…the landing was sure to be a rough one.

Something suddenly felt off. His face felt as though thousands of needles were pricking at it. Vader braced himself as an onslaught of pain he could only compare to his experience on Mustafar spread across his body.

This would complicate things. He had to overcome this discomfort while trying to use the force to guide both his son's and his own craft down to the ground safely.

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Gritting his teeth together, Luke squinted through the pain as his fighter tilted downwards and none too slowly started accelerating. He had been drawn into the planet's gravitational pull. Hands shaking, Luke gripped the control stick knowing if he was to survive this he would have to work through the pain and guide his shuttle down.

Using his dwindling strength Luke yanked the stick back, straightening the ship from its perilous nose dive. Even though he had steadied his craft, he could see he was quickly approaching the forest that seemed to spread out for miles in every direction; there would be no avoiding it. He would have to try and slow down his ship or else he would soon make a nasty stain.

Luke could feel the ship starting to slow, almost as if an invisible hand had grabbed it. But he had no time to ponder it for he grunted as a particularly sharp pain shot through his head causing the edges of his vision to go dark. No, he could not pass out, not yet. Mentally shaking it off he tried to focus on the task at hand, reaching out through the force (just as Yoda had taught him) he felt the ship around him and began to tug on it. He could feel the ship responding by slowing its decent more. Luke's breaths were short and shaky; he wouldn't be able to stay awake much longer.

The ship broke through the canopy of the forest, roughly jostling Luke around in his seat. The harness, which had just a few minutes ago kept him strapped snugly in his seat, now felt loose? Branches snapped and scrapped against the viewport and Luke couldn't see a thing, relying on the force to help guide him down.

The X-Wing made impact with the ground and began skidding along the surface. The antagonizing pain reached its peak and Luke at last succumbed to darkness.

AN: There you have it folks, chapter one! And before anyone says anything, I am taking artistic liberties with how the Deep Core operates. Anyway I hope you enjoyed it, please let me know what you think in reviews, should I keep posting or never let the rest of it see the light of day? Thanks for reading!