Luke's bare feet slapped the floor in unsteady steps, coming closer to where Ben was doing pushups with his good arm. In the three months since Vader left, the Jedi's shoulder was healed enough to no longer need the sling but not strong enough to support him yet. He'd have to keep working to get back to his full strength for another escape attempt. Hopefully, it would be before Vader returned.

The lack of anything to do was most maddening. Ben has been imprisoned enough times and on enough long space flights to know that if he allowed himself to stop moving, the tedium would undo him. Keeping Luke out of trouble occupied most of his attention, but the confined space and lack of action were wearing on him. The Dark Side was incessant and insistent, gnawing at them both, and a man could only make so many duraplastic animals, so he'd fallen back on old training routines to keep himself focused. It wasn't that different from caring for a padawan if the padawan was knee-high and entirely dependent on him for everything.

Luke entered his field of view clutching the toy Boga. Luke toddled to a stop, falling forward onto his hands. Carefully, he pushed himself back up to his feet and looked at Ben, and the Jedi pushed his arm to full extension and raised his head. "Yes, Luke?"

The boy covered his face with his toy. Hide and seek then.

"I thought you were playing with your animals."

Luke peeked out between his short fingers, waiting.

Ben sighed. "All right."

The youngling dropped his hands and grinned, his cheeks rising to eclipse his eyes in an expression very like Anakin in the first years of his apprenticeship. The sting of the memory mixed with the relief of seeing the boy smile. It had taken them so long to get back to this point, so he laid the thought aside and crossed his arms. There was a slight twinge in his shoulder, but it didn't stop him from rocking back onto his heels. "Well, be off with you."

And Luke closed the last bit of distance and enthusiastically bonked his head against Ben's in a goodbye then toddled away, every step a small smack on the hard floor. The boy stopped only to pick up a cloth tooka Ben had tied together from an outgrown shirt. Ben shook his head and turned to face the corner. "One. Two... Three..."

Little footsteps faded, and Ben reached eleven before Luke tugged on their bond, insistent and waiting, then it dimmed as the youngling hid under his new mental shields. A cursory glance around the room confirmed that Luke wasn't anywhere in sight. Good. He was getting the hang of this game. Ben crouched and peered under the bed, then the crib. Nothing. He called loudly into the space. "Here I come, Luke."

Getting Luke to agree to hide and seek had taken close to two months. When Ben "hid" by standing around a corner or behind furniture, Luke had cried desperately for him to come back, but after a few repetitions and quiet reassurances, the youngling had come to understand that he was not being abandoned. Now he would hide on his own and, as long as Ben kept their Force bond open, even seemed to enjoy the lessons.

In the Force, the toddler tucked himself smaller, clumsily like he was pulling a blanket over his head, but it meant he was grasping the concept of shielding. Ben checked the closet then the refresher, where he spied the cabinet door cracked ever so slightly. "Luke. Are you in here?"

Slowly, he bent down and swung the cabinet door open, and Luke was curled inside at the back in a nest of knocked-over towels. The youngling squeaked and hid his face behind his tooka toy.

Ben smiled. "Well done, youngling. Out you come."

Luke rolled out of the cabinet in a wave of half-folded towels and giggled. Ben held out a hand, and Luke boosted himself to his feet and with short fingers took the offered support.

"Are you hungry?"

Luke nodded vigorously. "Ya."

"Good."

Luke still struggled to maintain a healthy weight for his age, but he was eating regularly again and growing and always preferred what Ben was eating to his own meal even if their meals were the same.

The two of them made their way out to the main room where Luke sat down among his toys, tired out from the short game, while Ben picked through their shelf-stable provisions for an appropriate snack. But by the time the Jedi turned around, Luke had nodded off, face-first into the cloth tooka with its ear in his mouth.

Ben shook his head and began to lay the food aside when a familiar, burning presence entered his awareness. That sun burning frigid, eclipsed by the eternal haze of the Dark Side.

Vader.

Luke rolled over and opened his bright blue eyes, blinked once, then rocked himself into a sitting position and stared into space for a moment. Then he looked up to Ben with an uncertain scowl. The Jedi crossed his arms. "It would seem Vader has returned."

A half-hour later, the door hissed open, and Vader swept into the room. His gaze fell on Luke, and he crossed the room with such speed and blazing intent that Ben instinctively scooped Luke off the ground, tooka and all.

"Luke." Vader didn't seem to notice the protective motion and plucked Luke from the Jedi's arms, and Ben forced himself to let the boy go. There was no telling how long Vader was going to be on Mustafar, and the last thing Ben wanted was to have Luke taken away again.

The youngling leaned as far back as his father's hold would allow, his wide eyes fixed on that black mask. His alarm flickered in the Force, and Ben braced himself for the boy to start crying and Vader's inevitable reaction.

Vader slid one hand to support Luke's head as if he were still an infant instead of a thirteen-month-old. "Luke. I have come back."

Luke blinked again and shot Ben an uneasy glance. The Jedi kept his expression neutral and sent the boy a pulse of reassurance. Then Luke looked back to Vader and brushed short fingers against his father's eye protection. Vader relaxed, shoulders lowering, and Ben noticed the Sith seemed to be in less pain than when he left. Interesting.

"Luke, did you miss me? I have thought of you every day since I left."

The youngling tilted his head with a puzzled stare. The Sith stood cradling Luke for a long time, staring at him as if the boy would dissolve in his hands.

"He has… he has grown so much."

Ben only nodded and tried to let go of the worry that Vader would sweep away all his hard work.

"You have been teaching him to shield. Good."

Luke held his tooka up for Vader to look at. "Took."

"Yes." Vader glanced at the toy. "Yes, I see." He stood in silence, staring at his son for a long moment before tearing himself away to look at Ben. "Pack your things. We are leaving."

Of all the things he'd expected Vader to say, that had not been one. "Leaving?"

"That is what I said," Vader repeated himself more slowly. "Moving. Off Mustafar. Have your wits finally taken leave of you, Negotiator?"

Vader's long absence had not made his wit any more palatable. "Well, thank the Force, you've come to your senses. Where are we moving?"

"If I tell you, you will use it against me. Pack everything. You and Luke will never be coming back."

Ben resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Small favors."

"Do not test me, Kenobi." But it lacked the usual venom.

They were packed quickly. They didn't have much to take, a few toys, some clothes, a box of childcare supplies, so within an hour, Ben had Luke on one hip and a bag of their things over one shoulder, walking up the ramp of an imperial shuttle. There were no clones in sight, and Ben had the wild urge to bolt with Luke in tow. But Vader was already halfway up the ramp, and the moment passed. He did not look back at the castle. He had no wish to return to that nightmarish place ever again.

Once they were settled in the shuttle, Luke safely strapped into the navigator's seat, Vader opened a small case with a hypospray. Ben narrowed his eyes. "Is that a sedative?"

Vader shut the case. "If you know where you are, you will try to escape."

Ah. So it was for him, not Luke. He couldn't say that idea was any more comforting, but Luke had endured enough without his father drugging him. "That seems excessive, Vader. You have all the power here."

A beat, and anger rippled through the Sith before crushing down into yet another smoldering coal. "You will use any knowledge you gain against me. I know your tricks, Jedi."

Ben crossed his arms. "I don't suppose there's any way to make you convince you to change your mind."

"Unless you would prefer to be locked in a Mandalorian imprisonment coffin."

"Not particularly."

He slid the needle into Ben's shoulder, and it stung. The Jedi pulled back immediately, fighting the cold drug as it spread through his system, but whatever the Sith used was powerful, and Vader had more than enough knowledge of Ben's medical history to know the right dosage to put him under.

"Luke better be all right when I wake." If he woke. That was a sobering thought. He didn't think Vader would kill him, but he didn't know. He could never know. Luke whimpered and squirmed in his seat as he sensed Ben's worry.

"He will be fine." Vader's respirator cycled. "I am his father."

"That does not—" Ben was having difficulty keeping his eyes open. "I hope you've at least selected a more… suitable residence… this time."

Vader answered, but his voice was far away.

Something was touching his face. Starting awake, Ben found himself face to face with Luke. Blinking, Ben realized he was lying on some kind of soft sofa, and the youngling held his toy Boga with both hands and brightened to see the Jedi conscious. "Beh?"

Ben laid a hand on the youngling's head and gave him a quick once over. Luke was fine. He seemed brighter, smiling. Fine. Relaxing, Ben sat up, which cracked his back. He looked around and found he was in some kind of sunroom. The room was open and bright with floor to ceiling windows along one wall that let in sunlight, real sunlight, and beyond it was a sprawling green lawn surrounded on all sides by high silver walls. Glancing over his shoulder, he could see into what looked like a large house with glimpses of a sitting room and a dining table and a kitchen and stairs leading up to another level.

The Force hummed quietly, brightly like a weight had been lifted off his chest, and he could fill his lungs for the first time in months. He inhaled deeply, and the air was crisp like it had rained.

Where in the galaxy were they?

Where was Vader?

"Beh." Luke grabbed Ben's pant leg and tugged, drawing the adult's attention and pointing to the grounds. A little disoriented by the first natural light he'd seen in months, Ben got to his feet and tried the sliding glass door that led to the outside. Surprisingly, it opened. Ben narrowed his eyes at the high walls. He didn't know that planet they were on—somewhere quiet at least. If he grabbed Luke now, he could certainly make it over the walls, but after that… He also didn't know where Vader was or what kind of security systems had been put in place. No. He needed to plan, to take better stock before they tried anything like that.

Realizing he'd stopped paying attention to the youngling, Ben looked down. Luke stopped short on the threshold to stare blankly at the grass. He had never seen grass before. He'd only known Tatooine sands and the metals walls of Mustafar. He didn't know what plants were or rain or flowers. He didn't know what growing things meant.

This would not do.

Ben peeled off his boots and stepped outside, giving himself a moment to adjust to the forgotten sensation of grass and dirt underfoot and of sunlight and wind that weren't trying to peel his flesh from his bones. Then he bent down and offered his hand. "It's all right, Luke. It will not hurt you."

Luke squinted suspiciously but stepped over the threshold onto the lawn. When the grass touched his feet, he squeaked and picked up one foot then the other and looked up at his guardian with horror, but Ben laughed and coaxed the boy walk further into the grass. "It's all right, Luke. Look." And he crouched down and touched the earth.

A brown bird with a bright red breast landed a few feet away, one Ben didn't recognize, and Luke shied away. Poor child. Taking another deep breath, Ben let the feeling of the Living Force flow through him to the youngling. It was warm and vast as the sunlight and encompassed the boy in a welcoming embrace as if it had been waiting for him. Luke, still clutching his toy Boga, relaxed and smiled, and he let go of Ben's hand to toddle a few steps.

They passed the next hour that way, Luke adjusting to the new sights and sounds of the outdoors while Ben watched. The grounds were large and nearly bare, dotted only with a few sporadic trees and a small pond like the previous owner hadn't known what to do with it. But this place was alive with the Living Force, more alive than he'd felt in a long time. Perhaps… perhaps he could do something with this. He and Luke could make this place grow.

Then that familiar presence caught his attention, and he turned to see Vader standing on the threshold just inside the door, watching.

Luke smiled and staggered toward his father-Ben stayed close behind. Caught in the shade of the house, Vader knelt in front of his son, and Luke stopped, still in the sunlight.

"Luke. Do you like it?"

Luke beamed and nodded, and Vader almost seemed to tremble under the weight of that smile. "I have something for you." Then Vader reached to the back of his helmet and clicked something. Air hissed out from the break in the seal, and he eased the hideous mask off like a great heaviness. Beneath was a man as pale as death, his bald head covered in long-healed burn scars. He blinked against the sunlight like it pained him, and his eyes were tired and golden and fixed on Luke. He laid the helmet aside, took both Luke's hands, and dragged a stuttering breath. The familiar respirator hiss sounded from somewhere in his chest, internal and beneath his armor.

"Luke."

The voice modulator was gone. It was Anakin's voice, hoarse and hesitant, but his. Ben crossed his arms and shuddered against a chill, and without thinking, he retreated a step and drew his shields tighter around himself. To know Vader was Anakin was one thing. To see it, to really know it… there was something sharp and twisting in his chest, and he could not bear it.

Luke shrank back from the strange face, the unfamiliar voice. The boy's face contracted in fear and he looked just about to cry, but Vader gripped his hands tighter and leaned lower, trying to make himself small enough to look Luke in the eye. "Luke, please do not turn away from me. I… I am your father."

Luke's fear shifted to confusion. He fixed a perplexed look on the helmet set aside on the floor then looked back to his father, tugged one hand free of Vader's, and set a palm on his father's scarred cheek. "Da?"

Anakin laughed a wheeze that rattled deep in his chest and caught in his throat. "Yes. Yes, my son." Smiling, Luke gently tapped his forehead to Anakin's, and his father shuddered like he was near tears. "Yes. Welcome to your new home."

Still watching, Ben retreated a step, and the grass muffled the sound. Luke took his father's battered face in both hands and smiled wide and toothless, and Anakin wept without tears. Ben retreated another step, and let the Force fall over him in a quiet shroud. This he would not endure. Another step, the wind whispering him on, Ben turned his back to the house and walked deeper into the garden.

Author's Note:

Thank you so much to everyone who has shown so much interest in this AU! I've really enjoyed writing it, and I appreciate your comments and follows!

Chapter 1 of the sequel is posted now. "where you plant a rose (a thistle cannot grow)" is a secret garden story set about seven years in the future and will follow Luke and Leia as they kick their dad further down the redemption arc path and give Obi-Wan white hair.

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Elise: Thank you! Enjoy this last chapter.

SW-0608: Alderaan here we come! A much kinder, much healthier place for Luke to grow up. Thank you!

HpDgdark: That would be awesome haha. Vader is definitely heading that way, but it will take him and Obi-Wan a little longer to reach that level of trust again. Maybe now that they're away from the nightmare castle!

SnowflakesandMozart: Thank you so much! Vader is such a massive dork lol, and I do love that about him even though it is giving Bail an instant set of grey hair. THank you for reading and for all of your comments!

RdrRandom dude: Thanks! Hahaha Breha and Bail don't deserve this at all, but it will work out for them in the end.

FireShifter: Things are looking up for these boys! Luke can have a little nice day. As a treat.