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Chapter Text

💫BETTING IN A CANTEEN.

The view of space dotted with stars was broken only by the path a ship was making, which was heading towards the nearest planet, it was an Imperial Lambda-class shuttle stolen by the Rebellion days before. Luke Skywalker and Han Solo were on board, they had decided to use that ship to go more unnoticed, they didn't want the Empire to find them, they had a mission ahead, a mission to carry out.

They really would have liked to travel on the Millennium Falcon but it was risky for them to move there because it was one of the most wanted ships in the Empire, just like themselves, which was worth a reward.

Luke felt that reward as a heavy load on his back, it was something disturbingly frustrating, since the Empire had made that reward public for him it made it difficult for him to do missions, which was bad because he was the Commander of the Rebel Alliance and had to carry out numerous missions to help win the galactic war.

Luke hated not being able to do said missions more calmly, not that doing a mission was exactly calming but... it was definitely even less calming with a big reward for him.

And what was the least reassuring of all? That it was Darth Vader who requested it, Luke had first-hand evidence from the Rebel Alliance that it was the Sith Lord who was looking for him with such obsession. Luke wasn't exactly afraid of Vader, well... maybe a little, more than anything he resented and hated him since the Dark Lord had been responsible for him not having a father, Darth Vader had murdered Anakin Skywalker.

Luke had no idea what Vader would do with him if he found him... Perhaps he would publicly execute him for destroying the Empire's most prized weapon? It was probable, anyway Luke didn't want to find out, he had to avoid at all costs that his father's murderer found him and caught him.

Destroying the Death Star had been the biggest and most important mission Luke had done since he joined the Rebellion, he didn't regret doing it because otherwise the rebel base that was located on the small moon near the planet of Yavin would have been completely destroyed, probably along with the planet as well, only for the Empire to do more damage using the powerful weapon.

Undoubtedly, it had been Luke's most important mission but also the mission that had the most consequences because shortly after that reward appeared in his name, requested by Darth Vader himself, his rebellious act had not gone unnoticed by the Dark Lord of the Sith, unfortunately not.

Luke grimaced and hit the ground with the sole of his black boot more insistently, while he kept thinking, he still remembered Leia's look of sadness and compassion when she informed him of the situation and told him how many credits this bounty Vader was asking for him was worth.

At that moment Luke had turned pale, he felt so dizzy that he had to get the help of his friend to sit on a chair and take it in, he had never heard of a similar reward being asked for by anyone, not even by his friend Wedge Antilles who had defected from the Empire and had joined the Rebellion.

It was utter insanity in Luke's opinion, what Vader was offering for his capture "alive and unharmed" was almost a small moon's worth, yep, it wasn't reassuring at all but Luke had to accept it and move on, not let it stop him, it hadn't stopped Wedge, it wouldn't stop him.

Pum, pum, pum...

That constant noise was starting to irritate Han. What was it? Well... Luke's boot strucking the floor of the ship over and over without stopping, the smuggler looked away from space for a moment and directed it at his friend.

"What happens kid? I notice you're uneasy, you've been hitting the floor with your foot for a while, to be honest... it bothers me a bit." Han commented a bit sulking and made a face.

"I'm sorry." Luke immediately apologized, standing up and walking over to Han's side, then resting his palm on the back of the seat where Han was sitting piloting the ship. "Listen Han, why don't we go back to base? This is a bad idea."

"Define bad idea." Han said, hands on the controls, looking back up at the stars streaking through space.

Luke shrugged and continued.

"The credits are necessary but we're not the right people to go looking for them, someone might recognize us." The blond took his hand from the back of Han's seat, pushed back a lock of hair that had fallen on his forehead, and sighed in frustration. "Remember that there are posters with our faces scattered throughout the galaxy, they ask for an important reward for us, in my case thanks to Darth Vader, in yours thanks to Jabba."

"Pff... That won't stop me, I'm used to being searched for, I've owed Jabba money for a long time." Han commented disinterestedly, raised an eyebrow and added. "Besides, don't exaggerate, kid, they don't ask for that much."

Luke scratched his chin with the fingers of his hand and looked out the window at the vast space in front of him.

"I don't remember exactly what your reward is, but mine is big." The blonde paused briefly, grimaced, and added in a whisper that Han heard perfectly because he was sitting next to him. "It's 60.000 credits."

"What did you say?!" Han yelled in alarm, pressing a button to put the ship on autopilot and turning completely in his seat to fix his green eyes on Luke. "60.000?!"

That his friend was so surprised didn't make Luke feel any better.

"Unfortunately yes, Leia told me." Luke answered, looking at the floor and pulling up the sleeve of his yellow jacket with one hand.

"Kriff." Han cursed.

Luke frowned at that bad word, he didn't say anything because he also said it sometimes, he just couldn't help but think of Leia, she would have said something to correct Han.

"Vader is very angry with you for destroying the Death Star." Han commented rashly, making Luke nervous.

"I reckon so." Luke admitted sadly, he had thought so too, he shrugged, raised his head to look at Han, who was still paying attention to him, and added. "If not, that astronomical reward that he asks for me cannot be explained, I still don't understand how he found out that it was me." He said the last thing in a tone of complaint.

Han clucked and waved a dismissive hand, then patted Luke reassuringly on the shoulder.

"Don't worry Luke, that bucket head won't catch you, trust me." The brown-haired man said to calm him down, Luke let out a little chuckle and then shook his head, only Han could think of calling Vader "bucket head", Han smiled confidently. "I won't be caught by the Imperial soldiers or any bounty hunter either, I'm not bragging but I know how to go unnoticed by the Empire, I worked for years as a smuggler moving cargos..."

"I know." Luke interrupted him with a smile, feeling a little better, just a little, it's just... he had this bad feeling but he hadn't told Han yet.

Maybe it was a good time to do it? Or was it better to wait and see if it went away on its own? The truth was that they needed the credits but... at the expense of? And if they got caught? Or maybe they didn't, maybe no one would see them, maybe Luke was too paranoid. Did he or didn't he talk to Han about this bad feeling? young Skywalker didn't know what to do.

"What I want to get at is that you have a little bit of trust in me, Luke." Han suddenly asked, pulling his friend out of his debating thoughts. "Everything will be fine, I assure you, the mission is simple, we'll go to a canteen, I'll bet the credits we have to double them while you make sure no one recognizes us, we win, we get back on the ship and we leave, it's that simple." Han finished with a satisfied smile.

Luke brushed his blond hair back with one hand, leaving it a bit tousled.

"Sounds easy but I don't know if it's that easy." Luke opined pessimistically.

"It's easy." Han assured with an excess of confidence as he pressed buttons on the control panel, putting the ship back into manual pilot, they were about to land. "Come, sit in the copilot's seat, kid, we're going to land." He warned his friend.

Luke complied, walking around Han's seat and sitting in the vacant seat next to him, then buckling his seat belt and looking out the front window at the planet's surface. Luke smiled longingly as his blue eyes drifted from the controls that Han handled to the planet, he would have liked to pilot the ship himself since he loved to fly but had let Han take charge.

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Luke adjusted his bright yellow jacket with both hands and then with one tugged at the black T-shirt underneath, he felt a little short of breath but it wasn't exactly because of the strong smell of cigarettes that filled the place, but because of the sudden cold that was surrounding the environment, the air, himself.

It was a different cold, Luke didn't like it, and even less after approaching the Force, probing it, the Force whispered "DANGER" in his ear, reflexively Luke sucked in a big breath and then regretted it, he had to cough due to the stinking cloud of smoke that got into his throat, causing his eyes to water a little.

"Han." The blonde called him, placing the palm of his hand on the wooden table where Han was sitting with cards in his hands, betting with other people, Luke leaned over him a bit and said quietly so no one else would hear. "Let's get out of here, this is a bad idea."

Han set one of the cards down on the table to continue playing while holding the others in one hand.

"Relax kid, I don't know why you're so worried, everything is going well, so far no one recognized us." Han said to calm him down, placed another letter on the table and clarified with a smug smile. "Besides, I'm doing great with the bets, in the next hand I will surely win."

From his semi-crouched position, Luke scanned the canteen with his blue eyes, seeing nothing out of place but feeling something out of place, feeling it through the Force, obviously Han wouldn't understand because he wasn't sensitive to the Force.

Okay, Luke had no choice but to tell him about the bad feeling he was feeling since before they landed on the planet.

"It's just that I have a bad feeling." Luke was honest in a low voice, stopping looking at the canteen to look at the occupants of the table, luckily no one was paying attention to them, they were all very focused on their game.

Then Luke looked back at Han, in time to see him scowling, clearly disgusted by what he said to him.

"You always have bad feelings." The brown-haired man complained, Luke opened his mouth indignantly, ready to reply, but Han beat him to it. "Is it related to the Force?" He asked with an arched eyebrow and a slightly mocking tone, Luke pursed his lips in a thin line and nodded, Han sighed and placed another letter on the table. "I told you not to trust that mystical energy field, it's just tricks and nonsense, nothing controls your destiny kid, believe me."

Luke was starting to get annoyed, Han wasn't taking him seriously.

"And I already told you that the Force is very real, don't underestimate it." Luke advised his friend reproachfully.

"Yeah, yeah, sure." Han answered minimizing his words, Luke got annoyed, Han looked at his cards and then said in an even lower voice. "Let me bet in peace, I can't lose the last credits we have left, the Alliance won't give us more, I don't want to listen to the Princess's reprimands either."

The image of an angry Leia came to Luke's mind and he couldn't help but wince, to be honest... he didn't want to hear Leia's reprimands either, he and Han knew it was better don't to make her angry.

"Hum... fine, but hurry up." Luke said, giving up, he didn't want to argue any more but he didn't want to stay there much longer either. "I really have a bad feeling." The blond insisted with concern evident in his low tone of voice.

Luke mentally slapped himself, he had to try to control himself, the Jedi shouldn't be afraid, it was a path to the Dark Side and Luke would never go to the Dark Side.

He wish Ben had had more time to train him, more time to talk to him about the Light Side and the Dark Side, if Darth Vader hadn't killed him on the Death Star...

Luke felt a sudden anger bloom in his chest at the thought of the murderer of his father and his Jedi master but he also tried to control that feeling, anger could also lead you to the Dark Side, Han's voice brought him out of his reverie.

"Calm down, I'm almost free." The smuggler warned him, looking at his cards, he took a quick look around the canteen and then fixed his green eyes on Luke. "You know? I don't need you to keep watching, everything is calm around here, why don't you go get some fresh air until I get out?" He frowned and added. "You're getting on my nerves, wait for me outside the ship."

"Okay, I'll go, plus I can't stand the smell of cigarettes in this horrible place." Luke complained, sulking about the situation in general, gave Han a light squeeze on the shoulder and asked. "Just try not to delay."

"I already told you no, to give you an idea..." Han looked at his watch and then warned. "I'll be coming in 15 minutes."

"Okay, I'll wait for you." Luke said taking his hand off his shoulder, he straightened up, looked at the other occupants of the table, who were still too absorbed in their own games to pay attention to him, Luke felt a little more relaxed for that, he turned and walked away.

As he walked through the canteen, Luke surreptitiously reached for the blaster he kept in a holster on his weapons belt, next to his father's lightsaber that also hung from his belt.

Luke warily eyed the people and continued walking towards the exit of the establishment, ready to defend himself in case someone recognized him and tried to catch him, he read all living things through the Force and detected no danger nearby. However, the Force kept whispering "DANGER" in his ear, it was a contradictory and strange feeling.

Luke was increasingly annoyed and frustrated, when he tried to look for danger he didn't detect it and when he wasn't looking for it the Force yelled at him, he didn't understand what it meant, he didn't know what to do but it was no wonder, he was just an aspiring apprentice Jedi Padawan.

Luke didn't even know if he could consider himself a Padawan, he hadn't had enough training, since Ben was gone he had tried to teach himself to use the Force but it wasn't that easy, every time he looked for a clue that would teaching how being a Jedi ended in nothing, it was really very frustrating, he wanted to become as good a Jedi as his father and it seemed that he was far from achieving it.

Returning to the present... Luke internally reproached himself, why hadn't he stayed in the rebel base with Leia, following Mon Mothma's instructions? Why had he let himself be talked into coming to this filthy, sleazy canteen by Han? he just hoped that everything would turn out well, hopefully he could get rid of this bad feeling that he kept having.

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Luke was walking nervously in the middle of the thick vegetation, without taking his hand off the blaster, the planet where he was with Han was covered with grass, there wasn't a single stretch of land, it was full of trees and bushes, however in certain sectors there were clearings, in one of those clearings they had left the ship parked along with other ships, Luke was heading towards there but he couldn't help but be nervous.

The cold increased with each step he took, however Luke knew that it wasn't cold outside, nor inside the canteen, the blonde had already felt that cold in the canteen too, it was a different cold, it came from the Force, that's why no one but him felt it.

Luke hadn't detected any other Force-sensitive beings so far but... What if he was wrong? Perhaps he had detected someone but he was realizing it too late. Could that cold come from Darth Vader?

Suddenly like other times he heard a whisper from the Force "DANGER" but this time he heard it louder "DANGER!", so guided by his instincts he quickly jumped to the side, just in time to avoid a red hot blade coming from of a lightsaber will cut off his hand.

Luke's breath caught in his throat and his heart pounding against his chest, he raised his blue eyes and fixed them on black lenses, he could feel that eyes were staring at him through those dark lenses.

Luke couldn't believe his bad luck, he had Darth Vader in front of him, he was face to face with his father's murderer, face to face with who was looking for him with a sick obsession, offering a great reward for him to be delivered "alive and unharmed", that chase seemed to have finally ended, only a few steps separated Luke from Darth Vader. Would the young Skywalker manage to escape?

Of all the feelings that Luke was feeling at that moment... frustration predominated, it was clear that he was very inexperienced with the Force, he had seen it coming too late, he had realized that the cold he had been feeling was Vader too late, now the Sith Lord had found him, he had come out of some bushes and had been about to cut off his hand, or... so he thought, he didn't know the true intentions of the Dark Lord.

"Good reflexes, Skywalker." Vader congratulated him, something akin to pride ringing through his vocoder.

Luke flinched, his voice sounding terrifying, he was terrifying himself, he was a giant dressed in black armor and a cape, Darth Vader was easily a head taller than him, the contrast was stark because Luke was short, Vader was very tall.

The point is that the Dark Lord already looked scary but he looked even scarier because he had a lit lightsaber in his leather-gloved hands, a dim red light was projected on the spot, emitted by that Sith lightsaber, it was getting on Luke's nerves, maybe it was a good time to ignite his own lightsaber?

A rhythmic "kosh, kosh" was heard in the silent environment, it was the sound of Darth Vader's artificial respiration. Luke swallowed and took a cautious step back to put more distance between them, luckily Vader didn't step forward to make up the lost space but Luke had no doubt that he would at any moment, he was the prey and Vader the predator, he had to think fast what to do, he had to escape somehow, he couldn't get caught.

Vader felt Luke's fear through their bond, the boy didn't realize it but he was shouting his emotions at him, his shields were lousy, he lacked training and he would be in charge of giving it to him, he had the right to be his father.

Suddenly Vader took a step forward and Luke took another step back, the boy's blue eyes wandered over the lightsaber he held in his hands, the Sith Lord lowered the weapon a bit so he wouldn't be so scared, he hadn't thought to cut his son moments before, he was just testing him, if Luke hadn't dodged him in time... he would have deflected the red blade, he didn't want to hurt him.

However Luke didn't see it that way, for him Darth Vader was still his father's murderer because he didn't know that he was really his father, he didn't know the truth. Vader knew that Luke didn't know that he was his son but he didn't know the lie that Obi-Wan had told the boy, who had told him that he had killed his father.

"It can't be, it's Darth kriffing Vader." Luke lamented in a low voice to himself, how he wished he was at that precise moment in the ship with Han, flying away, in the end all this time he had been right, this mission was a bad idea. "What are you doing here, Vader? Don't you have an Empire to run?" Luke said in a higher tone, sounding more confident and not as fearful, pretending he didn't know about the reward Vader was offering for him.

All his confidence was lost when Vader said the following.

"You became my priority long ago, young Skywalker."

Luke felt nauseated by that revelation, he already knew it but hearing it from Darth Vader himself was strong.

The blond recovered, quickly unhooked his lightsaber from his weapons belt, ignited the blue blade and lunged at Vader, the Sith Lord stopping his attack with a simple wave of his hand, causing the two blades to collide with each other and emit a static sound.

Then Vader pushed forward and threw Luke to the ground, Luke's hand unclenched in the fall, his lightsaber extinguished and it rolled away. The boy stood up as fast as he could and ran to look for it, he would have liked to summon it with the Force but he didn't think he was capable yet, he had a hard time moving objects.

Luke crouched down and held out his hand to grab the lightsaber but before his fingers could close on the hilt the saber went flying, it passed in front of his face and went towards Vader, who took it with one hand, Luke turned to see him furious.

"Give it back to me! It was my father's lightsaber!" The blond demanded, clenching his fists at the sides of his torso.

Vader obliviously ignored his request, extinguishing his own lightsaber, clipping it onto his belt, and then clipping Luke's lightsaber to his side, keeping both lightsabers, now he needed to catch and keep the biggest prize, his son.

Then Vader reached out his hand, Luke felt his muscles go numb, he was horrified, he couldn't move.

"Ah... what... what are you...? what are you doing?" The blonde protested, trying to move but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't, it was as if invisible ropes had trapped him. "Enough! stop! let me go!"

Vader lowered his arm and walked to stand in front of Luke, who swallowed at the proximity of the Sith, Luke frowned, Vader thought that he had inherited Padmé's stubbornness, his son didn't give up and kept trying to free himself from those species of invisible ropes, he thought "kriff, Vader traped me with the Force".

Suddenly the Sith Lord released him, Luke felt his body go limp and exhaled at the sudden sensation of freedom.

"That vocabulary is not appropriate, young one." The Dark Lord chided him in his deep baritone voice.

Luke felt a chill run down his spine when he was certain that Darth Vader had read his mind, he had to be careful with what he thought, he still didn't know how to use the shields well to cover his thoughts and feelings, precisely because of that defect, Vader foresaw his next intentions, he realized that Luke wanted to snatch the lightsaber that he had hanging from his belt and he stopped him by catching his wrist.

Luke grew angry at the contact, he didn't want his father's murderer to touch him, he violently moved his arm to escape Vader's grasp but couldn't, however he didn't try for much longer, a second later he reached with his free hand to the belt pocket where he kept his blaster, unholstered it, and fired a laser beam into Vader's face, if that black helmet could even resemble a face.

Vader parried the shot with his free hand, in the meantime loosening his grip on Luke's wrist, a valuable second that the blond took advantage of to break free and run away, desperately trying to reach the ship.

His plan was to get out of Vader's sight, stay hidden in the shuttle until Vader was gone, then call Han on the comlink, explain the situation and ask him to proceed as cautiously as possible to the ship, then they would both take off and return to the Rebel Alliance base, with credits or not, it didn't matter, the important thing was to return.

If Luke was captured by Darth Vader... it was going to be very difficult to return to the Alliance, to see Leia, Han, Wedge, R2, Chewie and 3-CPO again. Vader was one of the highest authorities in the Empire, escaping from his clutches was going to be difficult, Luke didn't want to lose his friends, he had to go ahead with the new plan he had proposed, whatever the cost.

Unfortunately his utopian plan went down the drain with Vader's next move, the Sith Lord wasn't willing to let him go, not now that he had finally found him, after months of arduous and intense search throughout the galaxy. Luke kept running but couldn't get very far because Vader stopped him abruptly, using the Force he sent him flying but not very high.

That gust shook Luke, destabilized him, lifted him into the air and then made him fall, Luke didn't have time to process what happened, he only felt that he fell to the ground and rolled, filling himself with dry leaves that had fallen from the trees, in that fall the blaster slipped from his hand and landed out of his reach.

Luke lay face down on the grass, his arms folded in front of his face, he kept his eyes tightly closed and took a breath of air, he felt dust get into his mouth, he coughed a little and kept lying on the grass, he was exhausted from that short fight, if it could be called a fight.

There were light years of difference between Vader and him, Luke wasn't ready to face him, he doubted that he ever would be with the almost zero training he was having, their fight could definitely be classified as pathetic, Luke felt frustrated, ashamed and humiliated.

Luke was still with his face hidden in the grass when he heard heavy footsteps approaching and stopping beside him, he felt a shudder of anticipation, he wanted to get up but he didn't have the energy to do it, he needed a moment of rest, a moment that Vader wasn't willing to give him.

Suddenly the next thing Luke felt was a leather-gloved hand grabbing the back of his yellow jacket and lifting him off the ground, holding him suspended in the air, then that hand moved him, causing him to face Vader. Luke felt that the Sith Lord was analazing him with the look, he could see himself reflected in those black lenses, he didn't like being under his intense scrutiny.

Luke began to wave his arms and kick even though it was childish, anything to get free, he managed to kick Vader in the leg and immediately let out a groan of pain, Vader didn't seem affected in the least but he was, that leg it was very hard, evidently it was a prosthesis made of durasteel, Luke's foot had been left aching from the hard material.

Without warning his feet touched the ground again, Luke let out another groan from his sore foot, it's not like it broke or anything, it was just a blow but he needed a moment for it to stop hurting, another moment that Vader wasn't going to give him, the Sith Lord was doing everything very fast, as if he was eager to have him with him, not letting Luke process anything.

Releasing Luke's jacket, Vader wrapped an arm around the boy's waist and pulled him close, bringing Luke to rest against his hard chest, near the panel of tiny flickering lights that monitored his vital signs. Luke rested his hands on the leather of the suit that covered Vader's chest armor and tried to swallow his dislike, not liking this closeness he had with his father's killer.

Out of the corner of his eye Luke saw Vader with his free hand pull a hypospray from his hip belt, his dislike increased, with the hands still resting on the Sith Lord's chest he pushed himself back and struggled to get away, but the firm arm around his back wouldn't let him move away. Luke swallowed and continued to stare at that intimidating hypospray.

"No, no, no, no, no, please, no..." He begged trying to escape but Vader pulled him closer, keeping him trapped in a tight hug, Luke swallowed and looked scared at the hypospray. "What does that keep?" The blond asked with a trembling voice, he saw that the Dark Lord was holding it close to the side of his neck and he tilted his face to one side, trying to put as much distance as possible between him and that device with a hidden needle. "Is it a drug?!" Luke inquired, alarmed.

"Calm down, it's just a sedative, you need it for the trip." Vader explained simply, his words having no calming effect on Luke at all.

"No, no, no, please, I don't want to, I don't want to fall asleep, I don't want to go anywhere with you, don't do it, please..." His son begged on the verge of tears, still fighting uselessly to escape, Vader again thought that he had inherited his mother's stubbornness.

The best thing Vader could do was put Luke to sleep as soon as possible, the boy was very confused and for that he suffered, he needed to know the truth but this was not the appropriate place to talk about it, to reveal his parentage.

"Calm down Luke, nothing bad will happen to you, trust me." Vader said trying to make his voice sound affectionate from his voice encoder, trying to calm his son down.

Luke remembered Han's words "trust me", but Vader wasn't Han, he wasn't his friend, he was a damn murderer, his father's murderer no more and no less. Luke didn't know how he ended up in this tangled situation, his eyes filled with helpless tears and one of these tears rolled down his cheek.

"Nooooo!" Luke yelled with his eyes tightly closed, disconsolate, without warning he felt a sting in his neck and he pressed his lips into a thin line, then he opened his mouth slightly to say. "Ouch..."

The hypospray had nailed in his neck, more like... Vader had nailed it, Luke opened his eyes and felt his vision blur instantly, then his eyelids felt heavy. Vader tucked the hypospray back into his belt, put his arm around Luke's back, and held him in place with both arms, holding him close to his chest in a paternal and protective manner.

Luke felt his legs weakening and his body heavy, sleep was overcoming him quickly, fortunately Vader held him down because otherwise he would have fallen to the ground. However Luke didn't want the Sith Lord to hold him, he wanted to be as far away from him as possible but he couldn't walk away because he was drugged, he had been drugged against his will.

The blonde felt new tears escape from his eyes and bathe his cheeks, he felt despair, fear, anguish, helplessness and anger, his strong emotions were heard by Vader, Luke was unconsciously shouting them to him through the Force.

Suddenly some black and warm tendrils covered him, in his sleepy state Luke realized that it was Vader through the Force, the Sith Lord was trying to comfort him through a bond that Luke had already discovered that they had, however he didn't know why this bond felt so much stronger than his with Ben, it was a special bond.

A new wave of drowsiness shook Luke, the blonde felt like crying more forcefully but he controlled himself so as not to look more pathetic and weak than he already supposed he looked but in his defense the situation was desperate, he didn't want to fall asleep, he didn't want to be at the complete mercy of Darth Vader, besides... what about Han? he didn't want to leave him alone if Vader was on the planet, what if he found him and hurt him?

Luke had to protect his friend but unfortunately... he wasn't able to protect himself, how would he help Han? What's more... Luke doubted he would see him again, he didn't know what would happen to him now that Vader had him.

"Why... Why are...? Why are you... doing this to me?" Luke asked Vader with difficulty, his tongue felt heavy.

The blond made an effort to stay awake, rested his hands more firmly on the Sith Lord's chest, raised his head, frowned and fixed his blue eyes on Vader's black lenses, defiantly.

"Soon you will understand." Vader replied evasively.

Luke couldn't complain because a wave of sleep, stronger than the previous one, covered him. His eyes slowly closed, he felt his head tilt forward, letting his forehead rest on his captor's chest.

Luke thought he heard "my son" in his mind, in Vader's baritone voice, as if the Dark Lord had added those two words to "soon you will understand" but he no longer knew if he was dreaming, if it was reality or a fantasy created by the drug that ran through his veins, he couldn't keep thinking much about it because the darkness took over him.

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A few minutes had already passed since Luke fell sound asleep in Vader's arms, the Sith Lord had moved him back a bit so that his face was exposed, no longer being covered by his chest, so he could appreciate it well. Vader continued to contemplate his unconscious son without qualms, he had waited a long time for this moment, the long-awaited meeting with his offspring.

Vader took those minutes to analyze his son's features, so similar to his and Padmé's, for example the chin was his and the nose was that of his deceased wife. Vader could also notice that Luke had inherited his color from hair and eye color, he had blonde hair and blue eyes, though Vader was guessing the color through the black glasses.

The Sith Lord smiled under his mask, that gesture pulled his skin and made his scars ache but he didn't care, he raised a hand and with a leather-gloved finger outlined Luke's cheek, his son was perfect, he was also strong in the Force, just very inexperienced, he needed training, he also needed Vader to reason with him to choose the right path, so far he was wayward, having joined the Rebellion and choosing to be a Jedi, a total waste.

The important thing was that Vader had already found his son, he had found his whereabouts because he had an agent of the Empire infiltrated in the Rebellion who worked as a mechanic, that agent communicated with him and told him through a hologram that he had seen Luke Skywalker and Han Solo board a Lambda-class shuttle that the Alliance had stolen days before.

Vader asked for more precise information, to which the agent hacked into the computer system and database to provide him with that information, then gave Vader the coordinates of the ship's trajectory, and that was how the Sith Lord located Luke. In addition, before landing on the planet, he felt the strong presence of his son, the same one he had felt before the boy destroyed the Death Star.

Luke's signature in the Force resembled a blinding light charged with luminous energy, it was impossible for Vader to miss it when he had it close, and if he tried hard he could also find it in the distance, but that hadn't been enough to locate the exact whereabouts of his son months ago, he had needed a little extra help, that's why he had taken it upon himself to look for him, to send everyone Empire to look for him and had also dropped a priceless bounty for help from bounty hunters, but not before making it clear that he wanted Luke Skywalker "alive and unharmed", Vader wasn't going to risk harming his son just to get to him.

Luckily that worry was in the past, now Vader had his son safe and sound in his arms, the Dark Lord pulled his finger from Luke's cheek, reached for his belt, grabbed his comlink and turned it on, calling to his faithful Admiral Firmus Piett, who was on the Executor, his personal flagship, where he intended to take Luke.

In fact, Vader already had a luxurious room prepared for the boy, with everything he would need, including a large closet with clothes in his size, Vader knew the measurements his son wore thanks to spies he had in the Rebel Allianceand and Luke's holograms that he had managed to collect.

"Admiral Piett." Vader said from his comlink while holding Luke with his other arm. "I have what I came for, locating and capturing the target was easier than I imagined, it won't be necessary for me to send a battalion of soldiers from assault."

"Understood, my Lord. Shall I prepare the hangar for your arrival?" Piett consulted as he walked across the bridge of the ship "The Executor", with one arm hidden behind his back and with the other holding the communicator near his mouth.

"Indeed, fired." Vader commented in his deep baritone voice and ended the call, then settled Luke better in his arms, the boy had shifted a little in his sleep.

Vader put the communicator in his belt and looked again at his sleeping son, he looked so serene like that but he knew it wouldn't last, when he woke up he would want explanations, he would also try to escape but Vader would make sure he didn't make it, months of looking for him had been long and tedious enough for him, there's no way Vader will let Luke get away, he's his, his son, he belongs to him.

Vader couldn't continue observing his son for much longer because an annoying voice interrupted him, the Sith Lord moved his helmet in that direction, it was Han Solo, the smuggler wanted by Jabba the Hutt, who had accompanied his son to that planet.

"Luke! Luke!" Han yelled extremely worried as he ran, calling him, when he saw that Vader had him, he was horrified and furious in equal parts. "Let him go! I said let him go!" When he was ignored, he yelled even more angrily. "Leave the kid alone, bucket head!"

Han stopped a few feet from Vader and Luke, then reached for his weapons belt strapped to his hip, drew his blaster from his pocket, aimed it at Vader, and fired a laser beam that the Sith Lord easily parried with his black leather-gloved hand.

Han's eyes widened, anguished but not so much because of the missed shot, but because he had just noticed that Luke was unconscious in Darth Vader's arms. What had that black-robed giant done to the kid? Would he have drugged him?

Han felt a powerful fury inside him, clenched a fist to his side and with the other hand fired a laser beam again, Vader repelled it with amazing ease.

"If you want to live..." The Sith growled irritably.

Han frowned and kept pointing the blaster at his enemy's helmet, in an prepotent and defiant attitude, he wouldn't be intimidated by that bucket head, he was following in the same footsteps as Leia, she didn't either, she always stood up to him with enviable bravery to Vader.

"I recommend that you retire, Captain Solo, I'll give you the opportunity to return to your pathetic rebellion." The Dark Lord completed, pronouncing the word "rebellion" with hate.

That offer would have been tempting for any other rebel, after all it was not common for you to meet Darth Vader and live to tell about it, but it wasn't a good offer for Han, it was unacceptable for the brown-haired man to leave Luke behind, he was his best friend, not in a million years, the kid would return with him to the rebel base, period.

"No! I'm not leaving without Luke!" Han yelled decisively and fired several laser beams at Darth Vader, careful not to accidentally hit the kid.

Unfortunately Luke was very close to Vader, it was a bit difficult for Han to shoot like that but he had a great aim anyway and he was confident that he wouldn't hurt Luke, it was worse to leave him at the mercy of Vader. Who knew what that monster would do to him? Leia had been through one of his torture sessions on the Death Star and refused to talk about it.

The Sith Lord deflected all of Han's shots, he was surprised by Solo's loyalty, it was clear that he had a great friendship with his son but he didn't see it as a good thing. Solo was a bad influence on Luke, however that friendship would be the that it would save his life, if he were any other rebel Vader would have already killed him without hesitation but he wasn't going to do it for his son, although he didn't lack desire.

Darth Vader made an effort and kept his murderous instinct to himself, he had decided to leave Han alive for the simple reason that he didn't want Luke to hate him, it was going to be difficult for him to win the affection and trust of his son if he killed his friend. It was worth leaving Solo alive, no matter how annoying the smuggler was, however that didn't mean that he couldn't hurt him if he continued with that prepotent attitude and that lack of disrespect.

Vader snatched the blaster from him using the Force, made it fly towards him and stop two feet away, then clenched his hand into a fist and the blaster shattered, falling to pieces on the grass. Vader unclenched his hand and tilted the helmet slightly towards Han, looking at him through the black lenses.

"My patience is running out." The Sith snapped grumpily as he pointed a gloved finger at Han's face. "You'd better give up on Skywalker, after all, he just found his destiny, me, his destiny is tied to mine, there's nothing you can do to change that, you insignificant smuggler." He said the last sentence in a dangerous tone, noticeable threat under the vocoder but again... Han wouldn't be intimidated.

He took a step forward to get closer to Luke and that was his mistake, Vader lost his patience, reached out his hand and using the Force sent Han flying. The brown-haired man screamed and fell backwards on the grass, he remained stretched out on the ground for a few moments with his arms outstretched and his eyes tightly closed, trying to catch his breath, kriff, that blow had hurt him.

Without another word Vader left, but not before carrying an unconscious Luke into his arms in bridal style, Vader adjusting his grip on the back and the back of his son's knees and continued walking toward his shuttle that he had left parked in one of the clearings on that leafy planet, his heavy black cloak billowing behind him with each step he took, Vader walking rather quickly because he was eager to get back to the Executor.

He had already completed the first step, which was to catch his son, the next step was to let him rest in his personal quarters in the Executor and when he woke up... have a long talk so he would know that they were father and son, once the boy accepted the truth, he would train him so that together they would defeat the Emperor and rule the galaxy, as it should have happened years ago, Vader had lost 19 years of being with his only son, he wasn't willing to waste more time.

Chapter Text

💫TRYING TO ESCAPE FROM THE EXECUTOR.

Little by little he became aware of a very comfortable sensation that was intoxicating him, Luke didn't know what it was but he knew that he didn't want to stop feeling it, so he just kept his eyes closed to feel it better, the sensation was really relaxing and nice. Luke felt like he was on a cloud, like he was lying on a fluffy cloud, that was weird.

Luke frowned but kept his eyes closed, he didn't remember anything similar, for example he didn't have such a comfortable bed in the room he shared with Wedge and Hobbie at the Alliance base, the mattresses provided by the Rebellion for its members they were harder, far less comfortable than the cloud Luke was lying on but…why would Luke be lying on a cloud in the first place? Had he died and was now in Heaven?

Luke was worried, closed his eyes more firmly and clenched his hands into fists at his sides, however he instantly calmed down, perhaps the pleasant sensation he felt wasn't a cloud at all, but a bed with a mattress too comfortable to resemble a cloud but... why?

Luke frowned even more, kept his eyes closed and began to feel restless, he was confused, he didn't remember much, he didn't know how he got to this situation and he was still too lazy to open his eyes and try to figure it out. He felt tired, no, it was more than that because... lazy to open his eyes? Really? If something wasn't he was lazy, Luke had never been lazy. However at that moment he felt very tired, more than tired, he felt like... drugged.

Luke repeated the word several times in his mind, like a mantra "drugged, drugged, drugged", until he understood and remembered the last events of which he was aware "drug! Darth Vader drugged me and kidnapped me!".

Luke was alarmed, he made an effort despite his tiredness, his eyes widened and he sat up abruptly on the bed, he felt his heart pounding violently against his chest and his breathing was a little fast, he tried to control his emotions, after all he was a Jedi, well... an aspiring Jedi.

Luke slightly narrowed his eyes at the light that penetrated his pupils, the light from that place was blinding after having been unconscious for who knows how many hours. The blond opened his eyes again once he had gotten used to the light, he also noticed that the effects of the drug were leaving his body, which made him happy and relieved immensely, he didn't want to be drugged in an unknown place, even less on his own, he was alone, without Han or Leia, the young Skywalker yearned for the company of his friends.

Luke sighed and slowly turned his head to the sides to observe the entire perimeter, he kept looking around cautiously, discovering that he wasn't in a prisoner cell as he was supposed to be, after all he had been the cause of the destruction of the Death Star and had been caught by Darth Vader himself, the Sith Lord who had searched obsessively for him for months.

But no, despite Luke's grievous crime against the Empire and the Emperor's second-in-command... he wasn't in a common prison, which was unnerving. Instead of being locked in a hideous dimly lit cell, with bunk beds with hard mattresses, with barely a toilet and a sink, with poorly plastered walls and no paint, etc., he was in a luxurious room, the most luxurious Luke had ever seen in his life.

It seemed like a room in a palace, the room of a prince, paradoxically that fact worried Luke more than if he had woken up between the bars of a cell gate. Why was he there?

Luke needed answers but first he would get up from the huge bed he was sitting on and walk around the room, just to make sure it wasn't a trap of some kind, which wouldn't surprise him, it would be the sensible thing, he wasn't worthy of being in an imperial room of that caliber, his crimes were too serious, starting with the fact that he was a rebel, Commander Skywalker no more and no less.

Luke grabbed the very thin quilt that covered him, feeling the softness of the fabric between his fingers, it seemed to be made of velvet, anyway Luke didn't want it, he didn't want that stupid quilt, he didn't want that damn room, no matter how luxurious it was, he didn't want to be there, he wanted to go back to his friends.

In a fit of anger, Luke tightened his grip on the quilt, crumpling it in the process, and ripped it off, turning it around until it landed on the other end of the gigantic bed. The blond wanted to get up immediately but his legs felt a little weak from the drug that Darth Vader put into his system against his will, so he had no choice but to remain seated for a few more minutes.

Luke let out another sigh, he rested his palms on the soft mattress, feeling that they were sinking to the touch, he lowered his head slightly and looked at his legs, raising an eyebrow as he noticed that he was still wearing the same set of clothes that he had on that canteen where they were betting the credits with Han... how long ago? how much time had passed exactly? Luke wasn't sure if it was hours or days, he hoped it wasn't the second.

What he was sure of was that they were already looking for him, Han, led by Leia and surely the rest of his friends in the Rebellion, like Wedge, Hobbie, Zev, among others. Luke knew that they weren't going to abandon him, the loyalty of his friends conveyed calm to the blonde in that moment of uncertainty. Luke visualized the faces of Han and Leia in his mind, he also visualized R2, Chewie, C-3PO, and outlined a nostalgic smile.

Luke continued lost in thought as he looked at his clothes, he was wearing a bright yellow jacket, a black T-shirt underneath, tight brown pants and black boots. Suddenly it seemed to him that the minutes he needed to be able to stand up had already passed, so he decided to try it.

Luke sucked in a breath, and with his hands still on the mattress, he lunged forward and slid to the edge of the bed, then swung his legs out and planted his feet on the floor. He took another breath of air to cheer himself up, he took another push but this time upwards and stood up, he stood with his arms outstretched, trying to balance but it wasn't necessary, he hadn't gotten dizzy or anything like that, now he could walk around the luxurious room.

The first place Luke went to was a dressing room that had caught his attention because of its enormous size, the blond was also curious about what kind of clothes he would find stored there. Would they be the typical prisoner uniforms? They were supposed to be since, whether he was in a fancy room or a cell, Luke was still a prisoner.

The young Skywalker doubted that the door of the room didn't have a key, a lock, a lock code or whatever. Yep, he was surely locked up, Vader had gone to too much trouble to capture him, Luke had a feeling that he wouldn't let him go so easily, however he would take it upon himself to try to escape once he checked the room and verified that there was no hidden trap.

The blond stopped in front of the dressing room, grabbed the door handle and opened it, finding a lot of clothes hanging on hangers, at first glance the clothes didn't seem to be prisoner uniforms, which puzzled Luke.

Out of curiosity he grabbed a hanger and pulled it out, it had a black leather jacket with the Empire crest sewn into the left chest pocket, the garment was obviously expensive, Luke made a disgusted face and dropped it to the ground, without the slightest remorse, everything that belonged to the Empire was despicable.

"I'm not crazy about wearing something like this." The blond assured, looking at the garment with a frown and with his hands resting in fists at the sides of his waist.

He had already realized that all the clothes that were kept in that dressing room were for him, even though they weren't clothes to his liking... it was strange that they weren't prisoner clothes.

Luke looked straight ahead again, stretched out his arms, reached into the clothes on the dresser, moved some clothes on their respective hangers, and pulled out another hanger that this time had a black shirt on it, also with the Empire shield sewn into a pocket on the left side of the chest. Luke winced and instead of putting it back inside the dresser, he tossed it away, causing the garment to fall to the floor.

"Bantha shit." The blond complained between disgusted and angry.

He kept rummaging through the clothes, finding mostly black outfits, there were some gray clothes and other white clothes but they all had the damn Empire shield sewn on somewhere, including the pants.

"Does everything have the logo of the Empire?" Luke said, amazed and continued searching through the clothes, he frowned. "Besides, everything is very... black and gray, except for the white, I want something warmer, something like what I have on." He said to himself in a regretful tone.

He stopped checking the clothes, but not before taking out a hanger that had a white shirt hanging on it, and he looked at his bright yellow jacket.

Luke doubted that he would be able to use something of that color again if he didn't escape from there, wherever he was, he had a feeling that in a large Imperial ship, perhaps it was a Star Destroyer or worse... The Executor, Darth Vader's personal flagship.

Luke felt a chill run down his spine at the last possibility that occurred to him, he hoped he wasn't inside Vader's ship, he really hoped he wasn't. Luke closed his eyes and concentrated on the Force, he would try to verify if Vader was on the ship, he would do it by tracking his presence, he had already felt it on the planet where they were with Han, he could feel it now as well if Vader was nearby.

The blonde remained with his eyes closed to concentrate better, calmed his breathing and searched but fortunately he didn't feel the presence of the Sith Lord, no matter how hard he searched he couldn't find his signature in the Force, that meant he wasn't on the ship. Luke was certain that now his chances of escaping were even greater if Vader wasn't around, the young Skywalker opened his eyes again and looked at the shirt in his hands.

"Stars, this is my size." Luke murmured in astonishment, looking at the size of the white shirt he had pulled from the hanger.

He dropped the hanger to the floor and with his free hand he grabbed the label that was on the inside of the collar of the shirt, turned it inside out and verified that it was indeed his size. Luke felt a chill because he was short, he wasn't within standard sizes, it was strange that this shirt was his size.

Luke tossed the shirt to the floor, reached into the dresser and checked the tags on many items of clothing, feeling his heart pounding fiercely against his chest in anticipation. Would everything else be his size? Hopefully not.

"No... it can't be... everything is my size." Luke discovered with horror.

It had already seemed strange to him that they weren't prisoner clothes but it seemed to him that it was even more strange that everything had his size, they were clothes that would fit him perfectly if he put them on, Luke suddenly felt nauseated.

That meant that Darth Vader's obsession with him was so great that he even knew the size of the clothes he was wearing, Luke swallowed, worried, he couldn't believe that all the clothes were his size, that there were no variety of sizes, it seemed clothes designed especially for him, it was chilling.

Luke swallowed again, that Darth Vader had obtained the measurements of the clothes he was wearing was really chilling to him, it was a very harassing attitude. What was that strange Sith Lord bringing with him? Luke didn't want to know. What if he didn't want to kill him after all, but make him his apprentice?

Luke shuddered and dropped a piece of clothing he had in his hands at the terrifying thought, there was no way he was going to become a Sith, ever, the best thing he could do was stop wasting time, quickly check the rest of the room and then try to escape, he wanted to go back to the Rebel Alliance base with his friends.

Luke looked to the side and it was at that moment that he just noticed a large transparisteel window that overlooked space, he barely woke up and sat up in bed, he hadn't noticed it, perhaps because he was still under the influence of the drug, the issue is that now he did notice the window. Luke ran towards it and rested his palms on the glass, he looked desperately not only at the immense space furrowed with stars, but also at the edges of the gigantic ship, it was the Executor, the worst case scenario he had imagined, he was trapped in Darth Vader's ship.

"No!" The blonde shouted helplessly as he hit the glass with his fist, he rested his forehead on the transparisteel and let out a breath that formed a vaporous stain on the resistant material, after seconds that march vanished and Luke looked again at space and the terrifying spaceship. "Why... why is this happening to me?" He muttered with resignation.

Luke closed his eyes for a moment, cursing his luck, then he ended up accepting it, that's what he got for being inexperienced in the Force, he should never have allowed Vader to catch him though... he didn't really allow it, he tried to avoid it at all costs but he fell short, his effort to avoid capture was in vain because he was an aspiring Jedi Padawan, without a master because Vader had taken it upon himself to kill him, just as he had taken it upon himself to kill his father, who had also been a great Jedi master and Luke knew that if he had lived he would have taught him.

But no, Vader took away that possibility to him by killing Anakin Skywalker and then by killing Ben, the only person who understood Luke, his uncles Owen and Beru Lars had never understood him, not when it came to his powers, that Luke had manifested on more than one occasion but it was just Ben who warned him, his uncles instead cowardly evaded the issue, Luke didn't understand why.

They also avoided the subject of his biological parents, they never wanted to talk to him about them. The only thing Luke had known was that his father was a navigator on a spice freighter, that was what his uncle Owen told him but later he found out that it was a lie, Ben told him that he had actually been his Jedi Padawan who was later killed by Darth Vader, and as for his mother... Luke didn't know anything about her, not even her name, he didn't realize to ask Ben when he could, he had gotten too distracted by his father's story and the lightsaber Ben gave him, also from his father.

Luke ground his teeth angrily as he remembered that Vader had it now, on top of that that damn murderer had the nerve to take his father's lightsaber from him, Luke needed to get it back but... actually it was more necessary to escape, he would concentrate on that, he had no choice but to give up the lightsaber, then he could make one himself, when he learned enough about the Force, after all it was a duty to himself, every Jedi built his own weapon, he would be no exception, maybe he used green kyber crystals, he wanted a green energy blade.

Luke stopped fabulating with his future lightsaber, opened his eyes, gave the Executor one last look, then turned away from the window and headed towards another sector of the large room, ending up in a smaller room, next to the main room, it was a desk.

There was a very fine wooden piece of furniture that had a computer on it and in front of it a black leather chair with little wheels, there was a set of sofas, one large with three sections and two smaller individual ones, in the center a coffee table, there was another desk that didn't have a computer on top, it was a free desk with drawers, there were also many libraries with shelves full of books.

Luke raised an eyebrow at the last, curiously he approached one of the shelves and took a book in his hands, read the cover, the book was titled "The Story of the Rise of the Galactic Empire".

Luke grimaced and tossed the book over his shoulder, which fell to the ground with a thud. The blond ran his blue eyes over the titles of the other books that were stored, discovering that they were all related to the Empire but not just that... they were educational, teaching books.

A horrible idea crossed his mind, Luke looked successively at the libraries and the desk, reaching an ugly and obvious conclusion, evidently Vader not only wanted to make him his Sith apprentice, but also wanted to instruct him in everything related to the Empire, he would make him study as if he were a university student. Luke flatly refused to learn about the history of the Empire, never, he had to escape how much before.

The blond ran out of the desk and finished checking the rest of the room, finding an elegant and luxurious living room, worthy of a 5-star hotel, a bathroom and a pantry, equipped with all the comforts, including a hydromassage shower, a huge kitchen full of goods.

Luke was tempted to steal an apple from a wicker basket on an island in the center of the kitchen because he was very hungry but he feared that it had drugs or something similar and would make him sleepy, so he discarded it, he needed to be wide awake to escape.

Luke didn't trust anything in that room that seemed more like a home than a room, it was even bigger than his home on Tatooine, in short, he didn't trust anything, much less the food that could be infected with drug, it could be a trap, he wouldn't fall for it, not again.

Luke ran towards the big doors that in his opinion led to the exit, he grabbed a door handle and tried to open it but it couldn't, he kept trying, pulling the handle harder but to no avail, the door was locked as he supposed that would be.

Luke let go of the handle and let out an annoyed snort, then brushed back a lock of his blond hair that had fallen over his forehead, his pulse racing with adrenaline, he tried to calm down because his attitude wouldn't help him escape, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the Force that flowed through him, looking for living things that were near the doors of the room.

It didn't take Luke much work to locate them, he could clearly feel the presence of two Stormtroopers in a corridor outside the room, the soldiers from assault were standing near the doors, surely guarding in case he escaped.

Luke must think of a ingenious idea, they wouldn't let him out just because, suddenly something occurred to him, the blond opened his eyes and outlined a mischievous smile, then he put on a fake face of distress and hit one of the doors with his fist to get the attention of the Stormtroopers.

"Hello?! Is there someone there?!" Luke shouted in a powerful and somewhat broken voice, feigning desperation. "I need help! please! I'm Luke Skywalker!" He said his first and last name on purpose because he had a plan.

He would use the knowledge of the bounty Vader asked for him to his advantage, the message he sent that he be delivered "alive and unharmed", all Luke had to do was lie that he was dying, so the soldiers from assault cared and opened the door to help him, they had to make sure of his well-being.

Luke had the suspicion that if something happened to him while under the care of those two Stormtroopers... Vader would execute them, after all it was clear that he was important to the Sith Lord, he wanted to make him his apprentice and that couldn't be done if Luke died.

"I'm bleeding to death!" Luke lied convincingly, noticing the fear and dismay of the soldiers outside, feeling their emotions through the Force. The blonde flashed a fleeting mischievous smile and kept shouting. "I'm serious! Since I don't want to be executed by Darth Vader I tried to commit suicide! I used one of the razors in the bathroom to cut my wrist! Oh! It hurts me! It hurts a lot and it burns me! I made a mistake! I regretted! I don't want to die! I am very young! I'm only 19 years old! I don't want to die! please!" Luke repeatedly banged his fist on the door and yelled non-stop. "Help! Help! Help!"

That was enough, the Stormtroopers decided to see Luke, they had to verify that he was okay, otherwise they would be the ones that were bad, they would die as soon as Lord Vader returned to the Executor.

Luke heard a sound similar to a "tin, tin" and immediately took off from the door, apparently the soldiers from assault had unlocked the doors with a code, a second later Luke saw one of the soldiers cautiously open one of the doors and say.

"Calm down, young Skywalker, we'll take you immediately to the medical wing so the doctors can attend to your wound."

"I don't think so." Luke answered firmly, rushing towards the soldier and kneeing him in the stomach, pushing him away from the door so he could get out and dropping him to the ground.

The soldier held his stomach with both arms and lay on the floor, while letting out a groan of pain. Luke also felt pain but not as much, his knee hurt with the blow because the soldier was wearing armor. However it didn't have the hardness of Darth Vader's armor, not even close.

The Dark Lord's armor seemed to be made of durasteel, Luke winced as he remembered how he had kicked him on the planet and only gotten a sore foot, while Vader hadn't.

Luke scrambled out the door, leaping over the fallen soldier blocking his path, landing on the ground in front of the soldier and smirking at the standing Stormtrooper.

"Thanks for opening the door for me, it was what I needed to escape from this stupid imperial ship." Luke said, feeling that he sounded like Han, his habits had already rubbed off on him from spending so much time with him.

Luke balled his hand into a fist, thrust his arm back, then brought it forward, punching the soldier from assault in the gleaming white helmet hard, where his cheek was supposed to be under that armor.

The Stormtrooper spun around and fell to the ground, Luke waved his hand in an attempt to get the pain out of hitting that armor, then he glanced at it and noticed that it was turning red but there was no time to waste.

Luke reached down and stole the blaster from the second downed soldier, the soldier didn't resist, he let him take it out of his hand because he was stunned by the blow. Luke got a good grip on the blaster and was about to stand up but felt a warning through the Force, he turned around still crouching and fired a laser beam at the first Stormtrooper he had kneed to the stomach, his laser beam colliding with a stun beam the stormtrooper had thrown at him, that was the warning he felt through the Force, the stun bolt the soldier from assault fired at him.

Both rays emitted sparks after the clash and dissolved in the air, Luke looked annoyed at the soldier, he had tried to render him unconscious with that stun ray, he thought that the fact that it was a ray configured to stun and not a ray configured to kill left in evidence that Vader really wanted him "alive and unharmed".

Luke had rarely seen soldiers from assault firing stun rays, they always tried to kill the rebels, except for those who wanted to take prisoners, Luke didn't give it much thought, he fired again, hitting the soldier square in the arm, forcing him to drop his blaster. Luke jumped to his feet, turned, and ran before the other soldier tried to stun him.

Just when he thought about it he felt another warning from the Force, Luke jumped to the right, just in time to dodge a stun bolt that passed to his left, very close to him. Luke felt another warning from the Force and jumped to the left, another stun beam whizzed past him.

Still running Luke looked over his shoulder and started shooting beam after laser beam at the Stormtrooper that was attacking him, luckily one of those beams hit him, knocking him out.

Luke heaved a sigh of relief, looked ahead again and kept running as fast as he could, feeling how strands of his blond hair hit his forehead from the wind he generated as he ran. Luke was worried about the noise that the blaster shots had made, he had to get away fast, it was a matter of time before they noticed his absence and more soldiers from assault started looking for him.

"Kriff." Luke cursed suddenly as his eyes widened, his breath caught in his throat for a moment, he staggered and had to hold on to the wall next to him with one hand for balance, he rested the other hand that was holding the blaster on his knee, stared at the floor and swallowed. "No..." The blonde whispered desperately, he took his hand from the wall, straightened up and looked at the endless corridor in front of him. "No, no, no, nooooo!" He shouted helplessly.

The reason for his despair was that he had just felt the presence of Darth Vader.

Luke didn't know where the Sith Lord had been before but evidently he hadn't been on the ship, he had searched for his presence and hadn't found it, although Luke was inexperienced in the Force he doubted that he had been wrong about that because it was impossible for Vader's presence went unnoticed by him after their meeting on the planet, their bond was getting stronger, Luke didn't understand why but he didn't like it, and now that Vader was on the ship... the blond felt like the presence of the Lord Dark overwhelmed him, radiated possessiveness and distracted him, it was very... very strong.

Luke swallowed again, the blaster wobbling in his trembling hand and threatening to fall to the floor, the young Skywalker getting a better grip but continuing to stare off down the corridor, fearing at any moment to see the silhouette of the imposing black armor that Darth Vader wore.

Luke regretted having wasted so much time checking the room for a non-existent trap, he should have escaped as soon as the drug Vader injected him left his system, now... now it wasn't impossible but it would undoubtedly be more difficult because the arrival from Darth Vader to the Executor... it had complicated everything.

Chapter Text

💫MENTAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN FATHER AND SON.

The heavy black cloak billowed behind his boots, it moved with each of Darth Vader's steps through the corridors of the Executor, the Sith Lord had arrived from a mandatory and urgent meeting to which the Emperor had sent him, he hadn't wanted to attend but he couldn't disobey his master, not yet because he couldn't face him, Luke wasn't trained in the Force, he couldn't help him overthrow him. 

Speaking of Luke... Vader ached to be with his son so he could finally reveal the truth about his parentage, he hadn't wanted to leave him alone, locked in the room that he prepared for him knowing that his son would wake up when the sleep drug wore off and that he would be very confused but there really was no choice, he had to go to the meeting on the planet that the Emperor indicated to him.

Vader couldn't take risks, if his master ordered him to do something he had to comply to the letter, otherwise he would be suspicious that something happened. 

His master still didn't know about Luke's existence despite the reward that Vader asked for him, the Sith Lord still didn't know how, it was a miracle, maybe he had been too busy to pay attention to the holonews, anyway, the point was that he didn't know and Vader would see to it that it continued to be that way, that he didn't know, never, otherwise he would want to steal him from him to make him his Sith apprentice.

Vader wouldn't allow it, his son had already been stolen once, the person responsible was Obi-Wan Kenobi, he wouldn't let it happen again, Luke was his and only his, he was his son, he belonged to him. 

Suddenly an alarm began to sound, followed by flashing red lights, snapping Vader out of his thoughts about his son, the Dark Lord tilted his helmet up and looked up at the ceiling through the black lenses of the mask, that meant... that Luke had escaped. 

Vader had ordered the uniformed soldiers on the bridge to turn on the alarm in case Skywalker left the room, he hadn't thought it would really happen, he had made sure Luke was well locked up but obviously he had been wrong.

He had underestimated his son, he was more slippery than he thought, he was going to have to improve security for the future, he wouldn't allow Luke to escape, not now or ever, he didn't want his son to be away from him, Vader had already lost 19 years to know to his offspring, he would waste no more time. 

The alarm went off and on, Vader stopped, hid his hands behind his back, turned and faced Admiral Piett and General Veers, who had been walking behind him, one on either side, escorting him. 

"Admiral Piett." The Sith Lord called with authority, his voice eerie through his voice scrambler. 

"Yes my Lord?" Piett replied with a serene expression, expertly hiding his fear. 

"Organize a squad of soldiers from assault, I want you to immediately search every corner of the ship for Luke Skywalker, starting with the hangars, he can't escape." Vader ordered, sounding more serious than before. 

"Understood, Sir." The Admiral replied and nodded his head. 

"Don't fail me, Admiral." Vader warned in a serious voice, pointing a black leather-gloved finger at his face. 

Piett nodded, turned and ran off, Vader turning to Veers, who swallowed nervously, not as good as Piett at hiding his fear. 

"General Veers, I want you to go right now to young Skywalker's room and check it out." The Sith Lord ordered as he rested his leather-gloved hands on the belt of his robotic suit. "See if you find anything out of place." 

"To order, my Lord." The General answered, raising a hand to his forehead, making a military salute, then he lowered his arm, leaving it firmly attached to his side and began to move away, but the voice of his boss stopped him. 

"Oh... I also want you to bring a group of droids to assist you as I highly doubt your ability to accomplish this task alone." Vader snapped, waving a dismissive hand. 

Veers shuddered, he wasn't at all offended by what his boss told him, he was just afraid, very afraid, it was obvious that Lord Vader was in a bad mood, the best thing he could do was flee as soon as possible and do what was ordered, otherwise his life would slip away like a breath, no matter if he was a General or not. 

Darth Vader had killed many generals before, the ones he found incompetent, Veers didn't want to suffer the same horrible fate, he also didn't want to experience suffocation again, like the time he disrespected Lord Vader on the Death Star, if it weren't for Commander Tarkin, may he rest in peace, who saved him... he would have died on that occasion. 

"Hurry and don't fail me, General." Vader warned, snapping Veers out of his reverie. 

The General saw with horror that the Sith Lord was pointing at him, he nodded hastily, turned around and ran towards the young Skywalker's room, he still didn't understand why Vader was taking so much trouble with that brat, why he was giving him a special treatment, why did he seem to care about him. 

Veers didn't understand why Vader didn't simply torture Commander Skywalker and kill him like so many other rebels he had captured, however... it wasn't his duty to meddle, just do what he was ordered if he valued his life, curiosity could kill him. 

Veers continued running and turned into a side corridor, he hoped that Lord Vader couldn't read his thoughts with the great distance he had put between them, rumors were circulating throughout the galaxy that Darth Vader, in addition to suffocating people, could reading the thoughts of the weak-minded, Veers believed it.

He would never underestimate the Force again, not after Lord Vader's lesson to him.

💫💫💫💫 

10 minutes before...

It had taken Luke a few minutes to recover from the shock of knowing that Darth Vader was on the Executor, he ran again and tried to escape but unfortunately he was seen by Stormtroopers.

Luke shot them down with the blaster he had stolen, he thought everything was going moderately well until a shrill alarm began to sound, followed by flashing red lights, that gave Luke a bad omen, things weren't going well at all. 

"Obviously that alarm goes off because they already know I escaped but it doesn't matter, I can still escape." Luke muttered to himself as he leaned his back against a wall, holding the blaster against his chest, he had dodged a stun ray shot just in time. 

Luke sighed, took a quick look around the edge of the wall and fired several laser beams at the Stormtrooper that was bothering him, then he moved his body back and returned to take refuge in the wall, keeping his back against it, he hoped one of those rays it would have hit the Stormtrooper. 

"I just have to get to a hangar, steal a ship, take off, get out of the Executor and when I'm in space... travel at the speed of light to any system that isn't this, I'll program the coordinates of the Alliance base later." Luke commented on his plan in a low voice.

He needed to say it because he felt that it sounded easier that way than it was, in reality it wasn't easy at all but it was his only option, he refused to remain a prisoner.

Luke poked his head over the edge of the wall, a serious mistake as he felt a stun beam pass near him, brushing his cheek, the problem was that so many Stormtroopers were shooting at him that Luke no longer felt isolated warnings from the Force, all the time he heard in his mind "DANGER!" so he no longer noticed the difference, unfortunately he was in constant danger. 

Luke made a face after that stun beam passed so close to him, he hid again and leaned even closer to the wall, he closed his eyes for a moment and thought resignedly while brushing a lock of his blond hair from his forehead "kriff I wanted to escape that way but it's full of soldiers from assault, I'll have to go the other way."

Luke opened his eyes just in time to see new stun bolts whizzing past him, one nearly touched the tip of his nose, Luke frowned and was glad he had a small nose but was still disgusted, really those damn Stormtroopers they were bothering him. 

Luke pushed himself off the wall, peered cautiously over the edge and fired many laser beams, then turned and ran, not knowing exactly where he was going but having no choice, the path he had been heading towards was blocked by a squad of soldiers from assault. 

Luke needed to find a hangar fast, before the number of Stormtroopers increased enough to stop him, yep, the situation wasn't encouraging, to top it off that screeching alarm kept going off and the damn red blinking lights kept illuminating the surroundings, making him nervous, feeling that diminished his concentration. 

💫💫💫💫 

Present...

Luke stumbled, he had tripped over a fallen blaster, that meant that he had already passed through that place, the ship looked like a damn maze.

The blond recovered his balance, avoiding falling to the ground, he snorted, upset by the tight situation in which he was involved, and kept running, he felt how the blond strands of his hair hit his forehead from the speed he was using when running, a speed that he suddenly realized was higher than normal.

"Great" Thought Luke suddenly happy and excited, he flashed a winning smile and thought smugly "I'm using one of the Jedi's powers, it's about time", maybe the adrenaline was favoring him after all. 

Luke turned a corner and unfortunately he found a battalion of Stormtroopers waiting for him, he saw how they all raised their weapons, all the blasters were pointed at his face.

The blonde's eyes widened, fortunately he quickly recovered from the shock, he turned around, turned the corner again, feeling shots of stun rays behind his back, and went back the way he had come.

Luke assessed his chances while running aimlessly, the biggest drawback he currently had was the Stormtroopers since miraculously he hadn't met Darth Vader yet, Luke hoped it would stay that way, he didn't want to come face to face again with the Sith Lord who had kidnapped him, the thing was, Luke needed to get rid of the stalking of the soldiers from assault, immediately, so it would be easier for him to find a hangar. 

An idea came to his mind, Luke smiled confidently. What if he used the trick Ben showed him on Tatooine? That of controlling the mind of the mentally weak? young Skywalker could use it to outwit some soldiers from assault that were blocking his way, he really would like to get rid of some of them by controlling his mind. 

Suddenly Luke's smile faded from his face, being replaced by a grimace, if he was completely honest with himself... he felt he couldn't do it, running at super speed was one thing but controlling minds another, it seemed more complex, although he saw how Ben did it on Tatooine it didn't seem easy to him, in fact it still didn't seem easy to him, however he never tried it, maybe it was a matter of trying? 

"No, there's no time for tests" Luke mentally told himself as he shook his head, the waves of his straight blond hair behind his ears tossing at the movement, Luke looked straight ahead again, he narrowed his blue eyes and said to himself with determination "I must escape".

"You won't escape Luke, I assure you and even if you did, I would find you again, I will never stop looking for you until I have you, you can't run away from me forever" a voice told him clearly in his mind, with great determination and firmness. 

Luke stumbled again but this time not because of a dropped blaster, but because he had recognized Darth Vader's voice, it was easy to identify it by the low sound it made through the vocoder. 

The blond recovered his balance and kept running but he couldn't help but shudder, not only from the fact that Vader was speaking to him again in his mind, but from the strong phrases he said to him, which echoed in his ears, as if he had heard them in live and direct. 

"I would find you again", "I will never stop looking for you until I have you", "you can't run away from me forever", Luke felt a chill. Was Vader serious? Wouldn't he stop chasing him? Why? Why was this happening to him? It wasn't fair, he tried not to let despair take over him but he failed miserably.

"What?! How?!" Luke mentally yelled on impulse, "are you reading my mind?!" he asked Vader in dismay, in an accusing tone. 

It bothered Luke because it wasn't the first time, Vader had already read it to him on the planet where he had been captured, Luke had said... more like he had thought a bad word and the Sith Lord had reprimanded him. 

Luke was scowling but he raised both eyebrows as he heard some kind of laughter echoing through his mind, it made his skin crawl but he managed not to stumble a third time, he kept running, feeling his heart pounding against his chest in the process. 

"I'm not the one reading your mind, you're yelling your thoughts at me without realizing it," Vader replied in his baritone voice, amused. 

Luke retorted with his tongue. 

"Kriff, I hate this strange bond we share" The blond complained as he sprinted towards a hangar, he hoped to find one soon, preferably before coming face to face with Vader.

"I think I told you that vocabulary is not appropriate, young one" The Sith Lord scolded, igniting Luke's anger. 

Was he serious? He had no right to tell him that! The one who did have the right was his father and he had no father because of him! 

"You're a fucking hypocrite!" Luke yelled at him angrily through his bond, unable to contain himself, just in case he added firmly "Enough! Leave me alone!" The blonde was tempted to add something else, he wanted to call Vader "damn stalker" but thought it was going too far. 

Luke didn't want to arouse a murderous instinct in Vader, he didn't want to provoke him, perhaps he regretted wanting to make him his Sith apprentice and decided to kill him like his father. 

Luckily Vader didn't answer him, just in case Luke didn't talk to himself again in his mind, so Vader didn't listen to him, Luke still didn't understand how it was him the one who was shouting his thoughts to Vader, was he so bad using the Force? Did he know so little about that energy field? stars, how he wished he had a master, if only Ben was here... 

At the thought of Ben, Luke's face lit up, it was very strange but on occasions he had helped him, the problem was that Luke didn't know how to contact him, he had a bond with him, yes, much weaker than the one he had with Vader but a bond at last. 

Before he had a chance to contact his late master, Luke felt Vader's trademark black tendrils wrap around him, wanting to trap him and he shuddered, the Sith Lord was trying to locate him through their bond, Luke couldn't allow it, he couldn't let him go through the Force because it would give him his exact location, Luke didn't want to be found. 

"Kriff, this damn bond I have with Vader will give me away." Luke swore, more desperate than angry, grimaced and added regretfully. "I have to hide my presence from him though... I don't quite know how to do it but I'll try." Said the last decided. 

The blond stopped running, leaned against a wall, closed his eyes, tried to calm his racing heart and controlled his breathing, trying to calm down, fortunately there was no Stormtrooper in the corridor he was in at that moment, which favored to his concentration. 

Luke tightened his eyelids a little more and made all his efforts to hide his presence from Darth Vader, following his instincts, they had helped him on the planet when Vader wanted to cut off his hand, perhaps his instincts would help him now too. 

Luke tried to cover himself with mental shields, hiding his thoughts and feelings, also his signature in the Force, he felt Vader's black tendrils slowly moving away from him, Luke was creating an imaginary wall between them, he still didn't know how he was doing it but the important thing was that it was working, just like the power of running at super speed worked for him. 

"Stop avoiding me" Luke suddenly heard Vader's voice in his mind, he sounded annoyed. 

Far from feeling daunted, Luke felt emboldened. 

"No" Luke replied defiantly and continued to lock the shields into their bond. 

He heard something like a snort, generated by Vader's vocoder. 

"As you wish Luke, I'll find you anyway and then I'll catch you" The Dark Lord threatened with an overconfidence in himself. 

"We'll see, Vader" Luke retorted bravely but his mental voice didn't convey the same confidence as his personal stalker's. 

The electrifying sound of a stun ray shot caused Luke's eyes to snap open, the shot hit the wall, right next to him, millimeters from his arm, and generated sparks on impact.

Luke stared wide-eyed at the mark left on the wall, his breath was stuck in his throat, it was a miracle that stun ray hadn't hit him, if it had happened he'd be passed out, at the complete mercy of Darth Vader, and his escape plan would have failed. 

Luke jumped to the side to dodge a new stun beam that flew at him, said beam hitting the wall squarely, Luke looked to the side and narrowed his eyes at a squad of soldiers from assault who were pointing their blasters at him, without any nerve. 

"Okay, it's time to move." Luke said to himself. 

He got off the wall and ran, shooting over the shoulder at the Stormtroopers who had reached him, he heard that several laser beams hit, since he felt how the bodies of the Stormtroopers hit the ground after falling wounded. 

💫💫💫💫 

After several rounds and turns through the corridors of the Executor... Luke managed to find a hangar in that gigantic ship in which it was very easy to get lost, he also managed to get on a ship, an imperial Lambda class shuttle, despite the Stormtrooper battalion that was waiting for him. 

Luke supposed the same thing would have happened in any other hangar, surely they were all preemptively packed with soldiers from assault, since it was obvious that to escape he had to steal a ship and these were kept in the hangars. 

Anyway, Luke was happy, believing that against all odds he would escape but he felt Darth Vader's presence stronger than ever, despite the mental shields he was trying so hard to maintain, this caused him concern, it was obvious that the Sith Lord was in the hangar. 

Luke closed his eyes for a moment and launched a series of curse words in a low voice, in the end he wasn't having as much luck as he thought, he had ended up running into Darth Vader, only the material that made up the ship separated them, Luke felt a chill, he opened his eyes and looked at a specific point of the ship, he could feel Vader's gaze on him, as if he were looking at him through the shuttle's transparisteel. 

Luke hurried to take off, he squeezed the controls and took flight, then he began to head towards the exit of the hangar, he could see the space through the large opening that connected the exterior with the interior of the Executor, the blonde leaned back on his seat while continuing to hold the handlebar levers with his hands and then heaved a sigh of relief, however his relief vanished within a second due to a strong jolt. 

Luke leaned forward from the abrupt and rude movement, almost hitting his forehead with the keyboard full of buttons but luckily it didn't happen, he straightened up and his blue eyes widened, the shuttle was no longer moving towards space, it was stuck firmly in place, neither moving forward nor back, and it kept shaking. 

Luke felt like he was caught in a tractor beam, much like he did on the Millennium Falcon, when he, Han, Ben, Chewie, R2, and C-3PO were caught in the Death Star's tractor beam, yet Luke knew that this time the fact that he couldn't escape was not the work of any tractor beam, but of Vader, the Dark Lord was holding him back using the Force. 

Stars, how Luke wished he had R2 at that very moment to help him, perhaps the droid did some miraculous maneuver that made him escape from Vader but no, it wasn't possible.

Luke grimaced in concern at his sad reality, he was alone and apparently he would continue alone because Vader was about to catch him, the blonde felt immense frustration seizing him, he hit the keyboard with his fist and let out a helpless cry. 

"No! No, no, no, no, nooo!" Luke yelled in despair as he felt how the shuttle continued to shake, then he took a deep breath, trying to calm down, he thought of Han, who rarely lost his cool and always he managed to escape, despite the adversity. "It doesn't matter... you won't catch me, Vader!" The blonde yelled in a fit of bravery. 

He grabbed the handlebar levers again and tilted them forward, taking forward momentum, the ship advanced a little, not enough to escape, Luke didn't give up and kept trying but after a few seconds the ship stopped, for more than Luke tried to take control, he couldn't, he couldn't do anything. 

"No! Corellian hell, I lost control of the ship." The blonde protested, then punched the keyboard again and snorted. "Damn Vader." Luke's look changed from one of anger to one of horror. "I can't let him get me again, no, please Ben, help me." He begged desperately, unconsciously going to his bond with Obi-Wan. 

"Run Luke" Ben replied through the Force. 

Luke was surprised that he answered him. 

"It's what I'm trying to do but I can't" The young Skywalker mentally warned him with frustration, however this time it wasn't Ben who answered him, but Vader.

"Stop communicating with that old man" The Sith Lord ordered angrily. 

Luke was more annoyed than he was that in desperation he had unintentionally dropped the shields, fully ceasing his bond with Vader and losing his bond with Ben. 

It was very easy for Luke to connect with Vader through the Force, it came naturally to him despite not wanting to do it, on the other hand with Ben it was more difficult and he did want to connect with him, that frustrated him, Luke felt the need to go back to talk to his late Jedi master but he no longer had the necessary concentration and all thanks to Vader, it was so annoying. 

Luke was really angry, he wanted to reply to Vader but before he could think of an appropriate response to throw at him he noticed that the shuttle in which he was aboard stopped shaking and began to descend to the ground, slowly and delicately, it was noticeable that Vader was being careful not to hurt him, handling the ship with extreme caution, Luke couldn't believe that he was so expert in using the Force to move such a large and heavy object like a shuttle. 

"No, no, no, no, no!" Luke began to mutter as he frantically pressed button after button, trying to take control again of the ship he stole but it was impossible. 

Vader was in control now and he was seriously an expert in using the Force, he wouldn't be able to escape from him anymore, not while he was in the same place, Luke would have to come up with another escape plan when he was out of Vader's sights. Although with his recent escape attempt... he didn't know when it would be, he hoped that Vader wouldn't start taking him to all his meetings as long as he didn't lose sight of him. Would he be capable of something like that? 

Luke didn't doubt it, Vader was a bloody stalker and he didn't understand why, yes, obviously he wanted to make him his Sith apprentice but Luke felt that there was something beyond all this, something hidden that he hadn't yet managed to discover, it was a presentiment that the Force whispered, as if trying to tell him something, yet Luke wasn't expert enough to be able to read it correctly. 

For getting lost in his thoughts... Luke didn't notice that he had already landed in the hangar, it was Vader's voice coming through the speakers that brought him back to reality.

"Either you go down yourself or I'll get you down Skywalker, you have a minute to choose." Vader said with a serious and authoritative voice, holding a communicator near his mask, he had taken it from his belt, his voice was amplified in the cabin where Luke was, thanks to some speakers inside the shuttle. 

Vader could have mentally communicated with his son as he was doing but he wanted to show authority and one way to do it was to give him that order in front of the battalion of Stormtroopers that were behind him in the hangar, arranged in orderly rows, surely Luke would be intimidated, would he back down and give up escaping or... that's what Vader wanted to believe, his son was more determined than he thought, an attitude he got from his mother, from Padmé. 

Blinking several times at the ultimatum Vader had just given him, Luke swallowed, slumped back in his seat and thought bitterly and with a touch of despair, "a minute... kriff! I don't have time to think in a minute, it has to be a bad joke!".

"It's not a bad joke, it's reality young one, you have 48 seconds left" Vader let him know, impassive. 

Luke buried his face in his hands and held back a sob, then took his hands from his face and shook his head, jumped up from his seat, turned and looked at the ship, it was full of boxes that surely contained tools, Luke was tempted to hide behind a box but immediately dismissed the idea, it didn't make sense. 

Vader had found him by following his presence despite the fact that Luke tried to hide it and now he could feel it perfectly because Luke had dropped his mental shields, it was no longer worth the blond trying to cover himself with them because even if he succeeded and managed to completely hide (something he had not done so far, he had only managed to partially cover himself) Vader already knew he was in the shuttle, it was a matter of breaking it in and he would find him, besides... Luke didn't have the necessary concentration to return to try, he was too altered and had to be calm. 

Luke felt bad with himself, disappointed that he was having such a hard time concentrating, maybe he wasn't that good at using shields after all, but on the other hand... he obviously lacked practice, anyway, the thing was, Luke couldn't hide from the Sith Lord and time was running out so he had to resort to plan B: defend himself and avoid being caught. 

Luke looked at the only weapon he had at hand, unfortunately a blaster, it wouldn't help him against Vader, just like it didn't help him on the planet, in that pathetic confrontation Luke had only managed to fire a shot that was easily eluded by the Dark Lord. 

Luke moved as far as he could from the door that was the closed boarding ramp, keeping his back pressed against the wall of the shuttle, he took a deep breath for courage, raised both arms, holding the blaster with his hands, and pointed to the closed door, attentive and waiting for Vader to appear soon, the minute of tolerance he had given him was almost up. 

Luke was ready to shoot Vader as he went in looking for him, he felt a chill remembering the words his father's murderer said in his mind "I'll find you and then I'll catch you", Luke swallowed in anticipation, sadly he had already found him, now he was going to catch him but he had to try to avoid it. 

Luke frowned at the blaster he was gripping tightly in his hands and then looked back at the closed door, he winced, yep, he felt like that blaster wasn't the greatest protection, it seriously hadn't helped him one bit on the planet, he wished he had his lightsaber back, which hadn't helped him in his first confrontation with Vader either but was definitely a much better weapon than a blaster, plus it was the weapon created by his father, a great Jedi apprentice. 

Before Luke could think about the lightsaber any further... the door had been flung open with a crash that made him jump a little in place, it had been ripped off its hinges and then gone flying somewhere in the hangar. Luke watched in horror as the bolts from the broken hinges flew and shot into the air, then heard the loud thud as the shuttle door hit the ground. 

The blonde was speechless, the blaster trembled slightly in his hands from shock but he managed to keep a grip on it and not let it fall, the terrifying situation he had just witnessed was a demonstration of Vader's power and how expert he was using the Force.

Luke thought he had seen the worst but no, the worst was seeing Vader entering the shuttle, he had taken a great leap, since he had ripped off the boarding ramp and had no other way to get on the ship, and then he had fallen with grace on the ground, a few feet from Luke. 

The blond snapped out of his stunned state as he heard the rhythmic "kosh, kosh" of the Dark Lord's artificial respiration, tightening his grip on the blaster in his hands and beginning to fire one laser beam after another, watching in dismay at the ease with which Vader repelled them, it had only been enough for him to raise a hand clad in a black leather glove and begin to move it from one side to the other, causing the laser beams to hit the walls of the shuttle and leave burn marks. 

Luke began to feel that despair was taking over him but still he didn't give up and kept firing, noticing with horror that Vader was getting closer, walking with a resolute and determined step towards him, ignoring the shots, as if they were simply flies that bothered him in his walk. 

Luke wanted to move back to get more distance between himself and Vader but he couldn't because he was already backed against the wall, so he tried to side-leap to get out of his way but he wasn't fast enough, Vader closed the distance between them with two quick strides, then grabbed the blaster Luke was holding, yanked it out of his hands, tossed it over his shoulder, reached for Luke again, grabbed his wrist, and yanked him off the wall, giving him a yank as he took a step back, forcing Luke to follow him. 

Luke stumbled forward from the sudden movement Vader forced him to make and to avoid hitting himself he had to put his free hand on the Sith Lord's chest, his face coming close to the small blinking colored lights on the control panel, before that Luke could process the situation... he felt Vader tug at him again, dragging him along. 

Removing his hand from his enemy's chest, Luke took another clumsy step forward, raising his head and glaring blue eyes at the Sith Lord, who was unfazed by his venomous glare and kept backing away, walking backwards toward the opening of the shuttle and forcing Luke to keep up with him, by pulling on his wrist. 

Luke frowned and pursed his lips in a thin line at the annoyance that invaded him, he wouldn't let himself be dragged around like a wayward child, he dug his heels into the ground to hold himself in place and jerked his arm violently, trying to wriggle out of Vader's durasteel grip but to no avail, the Dark Lord continued to carry him to the other end of the shuttle, with the utmost ease. 

In the blink of an eye Luke noticed that Vader had already reached the hollow of the ship, out of mere curiosity the blonde glanced down and felt himself turn pale by the huge battalion of Stormtroopers that were in the hangar, formed in orderly rows, with their blasters in their hands.

Luke's hope was gone, he saw no close possibility of escape, much less with Darth Vader inches from him. 

Luke parted his lips and tried to breathe rhythmically, he felt his breathing accelerated, he also felt that his heart was beating strongly against his chest due to the adrenaline of the situation, however it wasn't for less, he was in trouble, between a rock and a hard place, just as it happened on the planet where they were with Han, betting the credits of the Rebel Alliance in that cheap canteen. 

Luke heard the "kosh, kosh" of Vader's breathing, as if he were closer, he swallowed, stopped looking at the Stormtroopers and looked pleadingly at Vader, who had his gaze fixed on him.

Luke noticed that he was indeed closer, the Sith Lord had moved forward, making the difference in height between them even more evident, Vader was easily a head taller than Luke and looked imposing in that black armor, accompanied by a cape. 

"Please Vader, I..." Luke got stuck with his own words, he couldn't believe that he was saying "please" to his father's murderer again, he shook his head, looked at Vader even more pleadingly and continued with his explanation. "I don't want... I don't want to go with you, no." The blond complained in dismay and tugged at his wrist again.

He felt the texture of the leather of Vader's glove fingers against his skin and he felt even more the firmness with which the Dark Lord held him, it was clear that he wasn't willing to let him go, Luke didn't want to beg again because it seemed pathetic and it went against his pride but he had no other choice.

"Let me go, please, leave me." The blond begged desperately.

Vader obliviously ignored his request, as any answer brought his free hand up to Luke's face and with his fingers brushed back the blond locks that had fallen over his forehead and almost covered his blue eyes.

Luke was left in shock by the smoothness with which Vader did that and from the gesture itself, the situation really was strange, he didn't understand what Vader wanted from him, he was supposed to have killed him a long time ago, how he had killed his father, Anakin Skywalker. 

Luke was still lost in his thoughts but he perfectly noticed a touch on his waist, it was Vader who had surrounded it with his free arm, like the time he captured him on the planet, and then he pulled him closer to him, leaving Luke stuck against his chest, the blond swallowed and inertialy rested his palms on the robotic suit, then pressed back, trying to pull away but only succeeded in making Vader tighten his grip and bring him closer to his chest. 

Luke gave up internally, he had no escape from Vader, he had a wrist trapped in his hand, his waist was encircled by his arm and he was stuck to his chest, the blonde stopped struggling physically and grimaced, then rested his forehead on Vader's chest, and closed his eyes. 

"Why? Why? Why?" Luke muttered over and over again, clearly desperate. 

Vader felt bad, he wanted to have Luke close because he needed him but it wasn't the way, it was time for him to spare his son all the suffering, he was very confused, he needed... no, he deserved to know the truth and as soon as possible, However, Vader wouldn't tell him there, in that broken shuttle, it wasn't the appropriate place, he would do it in Luke's chambers that he had ordered them to be prepared for him with such care, awaiting his arrival like a father who waits anxiously and joy the birth of a child. 

Luke was no longer a baby, he was 19 years old but Vader could never be with him because he mistakenly believed that he had died in his mother's womb and that he had lost him and Padmé, he couldn't have him close, enjoy him, however a few months ago he discovered that he had lived and now he had the possibility of being a present father, it had been difficult for him to find and capture his son but he had finally succeeded.

Vader was eager to spend time with Luke, the time had come for them to strengthen their bond of father and son they already had through the Force. 

"Leave me, leave me, leave me." Luke repeated in an angry whisper, his eyes still closed. 

The blond had renewed his attempts to fight because he felt the possessiveness that Vader radiated through their bond, Luke had his hands resting on his captor's chest and was pushing himself backwards, trying to break free of his grip, Vader didn't let him go, he tightened his arm tighter, once he had a secure hold on his son, releasing his wrist, slipping his arm behind his knees and lifting him off the ground, carrying him bridal style. 

Luke's eyes widened and his stomach dropped with the apprehension that invaded him at being carried in such a childish way, as if he were a small child, on top of that he was being carried in the arms of his father's murderer, it was too painful to bear, he immediately placed his palms on Vader's chest, near the panel of tiny blinking lights that monitored his vital signs, pressed back again, and began to kick. 

"What do you think you're doing?!" Luke demanded indignantly, raising his head, fixing his blue eyes on Vader's black lenses and shooting him a murderous glare. "Put me down right now!" Demanded the blond as he continued doing pressure on his captor's chest, trying to escape, and he wouldn't stop kicking. 

Although with this last action Luke didn't achieve anything, he only kicked the air, logically he couldn't kick Vader because of the position in which he was being lifted but it was a form of protest to show his discontent. 

"Listen, Luke." Vader spoke with his baritone voice.

Luke stood still and looked at him, he had heard Vader call him "Luke" many times but he never ceased to be surprised, the Sith Lord was not known for being someone who called the people by name, he was cold and evil.

"It's time we talked about something very important but first I'll take you back to your room." Vader warned him, sounding mysterious. 

Luke felt annoyed at the fact of having to return to the luxurious room from which he had escaped with so much effort, it was like starting from scratch, yes, he was annoyed but above all nervous.

The blonde felt another drop in his stomach generated by uncertain of whatever Vader had to tell him, Luke began to shake with anticipation, helplessly.

What did Vader want to discuss with him? Luke frowned, trying to focus, he could feel the Force flowing through him, it whispered to him that it was something of the utmost importance, a deep subject that would change his life.

What could it be? Luke gave a worried look, he didn't want to know, he just wanted to escape and he was further and further away from achieving it, again he wondered, why? Why did all this happen to him? it was not fair.

Vader felt his internal conflict of feelings and tilted his helmet towards him, Luke could feel the Sith Lord's gaze through those black lenses, he swallowed again, more concerned than before.

Kriff, he was certain that the "conversation" Vader wanted to have with him wouldn't please him, unfortunately Luke would have no choice but to listen, it was too late to escape, he had failed, he had fallen back into the clutches of Darth Vader, the representative of his constant concern, the one responsible for Luke having to be permanently on the run.

The young Skywalker wanted to cry, it really wasn't fair, what had he done to deserve this?

Chapter Text

💫SKYWALKER REBELLION.

From one second to another Luke began to feel a wind whipping his face, it was because Darth Vader had jumped from the broken shuttle carrying him in his arms bridal style and the movement of falling generated wind which was what Luke felt.

Suddenly the wind stopped, Vader had already landed on his feet in the hangar, Luke frowned, raised a hand and tried to smooth his blond hair that had been disheveled.

"I can't wait for us to have this conversation." The Dark Lord spoke suddenly, without a filter, being extremely direct, his deep baritone voice raised the hairs on Luke's arms.

The blond swallowed and raised his head, fixing his blue eyes in the black lenses of Darth Vader's helmet, though the mask was expressionless... Luke could feel the Sith Lord's intense gaze on him, he didn't like the sensation.

"If you hadn't tried to escape..." Vader added in a reproachful tone, Luke swallowed again. "We would have talked as soon as I got back from my meeting, you made me waste time young one, however now we'll catch up, I'll also take the opportunity to explain to you some rules now that you'll be living in the Executor, consider it your new home." Vader explained in a firm tone, making Luke furious.

Who the hell did he think he was to tell him what to do? he was acting like uncle Owen.

"This will never be my home!" Luke contradicted him with an angry shout, in a fit of bravery or perhaps stupidity, it was difficult to discern but in defense of the young one... he was living in an extreme situation. "My home is in the Allian...!"

"You're not going back to any of their pathetic and rudimentary bases." Vader interrupted him sharply, speaking scornfully about the Rebel Alliance, Luke glared at him, Vader ignored him and said even more firmly. "Now you're on the Empire's side, you'd better get used to it, I won't let you go astray."

Luke put a hand on his chest and pressed to try to get away, kicking at the same time.

"I won't let you control my life!" The blond snapped as he continued his tantrums. "You have no right...! Mmm!"

Luke would gladly have continued to complain but he couldn't because Vader had covered his mouth with one hand, the blond's eyes widened, he felt the texture of the black leather glove against his lips, he also felt the hardness of that huge durasteel hand.

"Silence." Vader ordered with a cold tone, Luke flinched, the Sith Lord took his hand from his mouth but pointed a gloved finger at his face. "I don't want to hear another of your screams, Skywalker." He warned with vehemently, he crouched a little, setting Luke gently on the ground, then straightened up again to his full intimidating height, yet kept very close to his reckless son in case he should run away. "Now..."

Luke hadn't yet seriously considered his chances of escaping when without warning he heard the sudden sound of a "click", it was a pair of handcuffs that had been closed on his wrists, he felt the cold of the metal making contact with his skin.

Luke blinked a few times, totally surprised, then he looked down and fixed his blue eyes on the cold metal manacles that now encircled his wrists.

Luke put a bad face and pulled his hands to the sides, trying to extend his arms but only managed to earn himself an annoying pain/burning in his wrists and his skin turning red, his powers didn't include super strength to help him break the wives.

Plan A he would have to get the key that Vader obviously had stored in his belt or plan B he would have to use the Force to try to open them himself, the latter was totally possible but unfortunately Luke didn't know how to do it, he had a hard time manipulating objects and levitating them... let's not even talk, opening locked handcuffs seemed very difficult, yep, Luke wasn't going to make it.

The young Skywalker clenched his hands into fists of sheer frustration and helplessness, huffed, trying to compose himself, opened his hands and left them still in front of him, resting against his abdomen, he looked at the reflection of the light that shone in one of the handcuffs and remained lost in thought.

The truth was that Vader never ceased to amaze him, he was an expert captor, in the blink of an eye he had removed the handcuffs from his belt and placed them on Luke, the blonde remembered their previous meeting on the planet, when the Lord Sith also took from his belt a hypospray with a hidden injection with a sedative inside. 

It seemed that Vader had a whole kit prepared with multiple tools to capture him in any situation, that frustrated Luke, he hated being his prey and he hated even more that Vader took such pains with him, he had never heard of him chasing another rebel with such stubbornness, it seemed that Vader had an unhealthy obsession with him.

A sudden and slight pressure on his right shoulder was what brought Luke back to reality, the blonde raised his head and looked at Vader's big hand resting on top of him, then moved his head up a little more and looked at the intimidating black helmet that was pointed in his direction.

Vader was staring at him, had all his attention on him, Luke swallowed nervously, again he could see himself reflected in the black lenses of that inscrutable mask.

"I'll take you to your room." The Dark Lord informed after an awkward silence in which neither of them did anything more than hold their gazes, trying to win a staring battle that had been generated, Luke was the one who lost, it was only when he looked to the side that Vader spoke.

The Dark Lord didn't wait for an answer from Luke, much less waited for his consent, he simply limited himself to complying with his personal whim so he tightened his grip on the young Skywalker's shoulder, pushed him somewhat roughly forward, placing him in front of him and then forced him to walk forward, dragging him at a brisk pace in the direction of the hangar exit.

Vader was trying to control his anger, he looked at the star-studded space offered by the large opening in the hangar and then looked at the disheveled blond hair of his son walking in front of him, he felt another renewed wave of fury assail him, remembering the fact that Luke was in this hangar because he had stolen a shuttle and had tried to escape increased his anger, he didn't want to lose his son again, not now that he had found him after months of intense searching and persecution throughout the galaxy.

Luke gasped and felt a chill run down his spine but he managed to keep walking or should he say... trotting? In front of Vader, the fury that radiated from the Sith Lord behind him hadn't gone unnoticed by him.

It was a fury that Luke was avoiding thinking about, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and connected with the Force to calm himself, that "mystical energy field", Han's nickname for the Force, was its anchor.

Still with his eyes closed, Luke was more aware of the entire environment around him, in addition to the obvious fury that Vader exuded, the blonde felt other feelings, he noticed something similar to grief, fear and dismay, all those feelings were projected through of the Force and flooded him, overwhelmed him with how powerful they were.

Luke opened his eyes and looked to the sides of the gigantic hangar, he verified that those feelings came from the Stormtrooper patrols that were still formed in orderly lines, a blush covered the blond's cheeks because he had just realized the embarrassing realization that they had witnessed his pathetic spectacle just recently, they had seen him kicking like a capricious child in Darth Vader's arms.

They had also seen how Vader covered his mouth with his hand and then pointed at his face with his index finger! as if Luke was a little kid and not a 19 year old teenager! It had been an extremely embarrassing situation!

Luke wanted the earth to swallow him, he had been so absorbed in his discussion with Vader that he had forgotten about the presence of the Stormtroopers, oh stars, he really wanted the earth to swallow him, on top of that his current situation was not only humiliating, but also desperate, he was in the custody of Darth Vader, to top it off in handcuffs, without his lightsaber or blaster.

Luke decided to put the shame aside, he subtly looked at his hands trapped in the metal handcuffs, then looked straight ahead again and began to plot in his head multiple ways to escape from Vader, most of them utopian given his complicated situation, he had to make an effort.

The sooner he thought of something useful the better, he must not allow Vader to lock him up in that luxurious room again, nor to give him the "conversation" that he had said he would.

Luke kept stumbling ahead of Vader, who had already led him out of the hangar and was now leading him through the corridors of the Executor at a brisk pace, his strides much longer than Luke's, which was logical because he was more than a head taller than him.

So far Luke had never seen Vader run but from the accelerated pace with which he forced him to walk... it seemed that he was running, you could tell that he was in a hurry to lock him up.

From time to time they would come across uniformed Imperial soldiers or Stormtroopers, who ignored them and continued with their duties, Luke didn't know if out of work commitment, loyalty to the Empire or fear of Vader, he supposed that most of them for the last, the soldiers tried to spend as little time as possible in his presence.

Despite not tolerating the Empire... Luke didn't blame them, moreover, he felt sorry for them, being the focus of Darth Vader's attention was extremely stressful.

Speaking of Vader... how much was he thinking? Luke noticed that his anger had vanished. What would he feel then now? Did he even have feelings? Or was he a machine in its entirety?

Luke felt a sudden curiosity taking over him, he shouldn't feel that way, after all Vader was the murderer of his father but... Luke felt curious, he wanted to know what he was feeling.

The young Skywalker projected himself into the Force and picked up part of Vader's emotions, only part of it because the Sith Lord was partially covering himself with mental shields, evidently not fully intending to hide his emotions completely, otherwise Luke wouldn't have been able to feel them in the first place.

Anyway... what Luke felt from Vader left him baffled, it was a mixture of emotions inappropriate for him, joy, longing and... anticipation predominating.

Luke swallowed hard, he repeated in his mind "anticipation, anticipation, anticipation", it was obvious that Vader felt that from their impending conversation.

Luke felt a surge of panic, whatever Vader wanted to say to him... he didn't want to hear it so in an impulsive act he dug the heels of his black boots into the ground, it was a poor attempt to stop advancing but it was one of the few things he could do, then he began to move his shoulders capriciously to the sides to wriggle out of Vader's grasp, he wanted his big, heavy durasteel hand off his shoulder so he'd slip away and run.

Unfortunately the Sith didn't let him go, quite the contrary, he tightened his grip on him, tightening his fingers on his shoulder, which caused Luke to let out a small moan of pain, at which Vader softened his grip but kept it firm and kept dragging Luke.

The boy kept his feet anchored to the ground but still couldn't stay in place, he began to slide forward, he thought for two seconds about his humiliating situation, he looked like a dancer being dragged on an ice rink because the damned tiles in that corridor of the Executor were very smooth and shiny, they seemed polished, they didn't help him in his attempt to remain steady. 

"I wish they were porous" Luke thought dejectedly as he grimaced and walked on his own two feet again, no longer allowing Vader to make him slide on the ground, it seemed even more demeaning to him, he preferred that Vader drag him stumbling.

Luke heard Vader's laughter echoing through his mind and shuddered, his lips parting in a thin line and his blue eyes widening. 

"This ship would look very rustic if it were that way, young one", The Sith Lord mentally replied with amusement as he gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze and then tightened his grip again to continue leading him down the corridor.

Luke frowned, extremely disgusted. 

"Stop reading my mind!" The blond demanded with a yell as he waved his handcuffed hands in front of his face, emphasizing his point.

Vader found that gesture a little cute, Luke felt it through their bond and freaked out, what had Vader just felt for him?! Tenderness?! What the hell?! 

"I already told you that I don't read it to you, you shout your thoughts at me without realizing it." Vader answered with his baritone voice, impassive, without losing his calm like Luke.

The young Skywalker clucked, still angry, whatever it was, it was a violation of his privacy, period. 

"Never mind!" Luke yelled fed up, tripping over his own feet because Vader had increased the pace of his strides.

Luke barely regained his balance and began to trot down the corridors, still feeling the firm grip of the Sith Lord on his shoulder. Luke saw that a uniformed soldier had surreptitiously eyed him with pity, his cheeks were hot with shame.

It was all Darth kriffing Vader's fault, Luke tried to ignore the presence of the Imperials aboard the Executor and yelled to Vader with annoyance.

"Don't talk into my mind either! it impresses me! your kriffing voice echoes in my head!"

"That's because you're not used to it, Luke." Vader explained expertly, somehow managing to annoy Luke even more.

"What am I not used to? What am I not used to?" The boy repeated incredulously, his blond eyebrows raised but he drew them together in a frown and clarified angrily. "I don't want to be used to it so don't talk to me like that anymore!"

Luke jerked his shoulders to escape Vader's grasp but the Dark Lord held him back and squeezed his fingers a little tighter, then shifted him, leaving him right in front of him and continued to push him down the corridor, Luke letting out a groan of pure frustration.

"You'll get used to the feeling because I like to talk to you that way." Luke heard Vader say behind him through his voice encoder, he shuddered and swallowed, the Sith Lord continued with conviction. "It's a good instruction for that you learn to manage your powers, they also reinforce our bond that I want to keep strong."

"What are you saying...?!" Luke stammered with his eyes wide open, incredulous, swallowed again and yelled indignantly. "No! I don't want you to teach me anything! just... stop!"

Luke heard Vader's baritone make a strange sound, something like a snort, though he couldn't tell if it was that or a sigh, it was hard to tell.

"I don't understand why you refuse to learn about the Force." Vader snarled from behind him, his temper evident.

So in the end Vader did want him as his Sith apprentice, Luke shuddered again but hid his fear well, or well... at least he tried, at least the fact that he was very angry as well as scared helped him.

"Oh, believe me, I didn't refuse." Luke contradicted him with a bitter chuckle, he gave a fake smile and added. "I'm always looking to learn but..." The blond put a bad face and yelled angrily but recklessly, given who he was talking to, the most feared being in the galaxy. "From a Jedi master! not from a kriffing Sith like you!"

This time Vader got seriously angry, Luke noticed it immediately, he felt the room temperature drop a few degrees, he shuddered for the umpteenth time, Vader constantly caused him to shiver, for one thing or another.

The next thing Luke noticed was that Vader stopped dragging him, he had abruptly stopped his pace, the boy wanted to run away immediately but he had no chance, Vader turned him around, making him face him, he released his shoulder and at the speed of light he grabbed him again, this time by the arm, then yanked Luke right in front of him, very, very close.

Luke's blue eyes widened, he wanted to move back but Vader caught him by the chin with his free hand, Luke pursed his lips and moved his face to the side for him to let go but the Sith Lord didn't let him go, he held his chin firmly and raised his head a little, so that Luke was looking directly into the black lenses, the boy stopped struggling but kept his eyes tightly shut.

"Look at me." Vader asked rather, commanded.

Luke obeyed, he didn't dare to contradict him so he slowly opened his eyes and looked back at him a little scared, although something inside told him that Vader wasn't going to hurt him... that wasn't enough for him not to be afraid of him, especially at that moment when the Dark Lord looked so intimidating.

Vader sensed Luke's fear through their bond but decided to be serious anyway, his son must change his rebellious behavior. 

"Don't disrespect me, young Skywalker." Vader warned with a threatening tone that made Luke shudder. "I won't allow such acts of rebellion on your part despite how valuable and important you are to me." Said that the Sith Lord released his chin.

Luke immediately turned his face away, then took two steps back to regain his bubble of personal space, he wanted to get further away but couldn't because Vader was still holding his arm, Luke looked down for a moment and stared at his hands caught in the cuffs, he twitched his fingers nervously.

Suddenly Luke regretted his fearful attitude so he raised his chin in a haughty position and stared at Vader, who hadn't stopped looking at him at any time, Luke wouldn't deny it, he was afraid, yes, but he would be a little defiant to preserve his pride.

There was a long silence between the two, who kept looking at each other, this silence was broken by Vader, what he said made Luke's blood boil with rage.

"Turns out you need not only Force classes but education classes as well." Vader said dismissively.

Luke was tempted first to send him to a mountain of bantha shit and second to answer him "my uncles took great care to give me an education, on Tatooine we harvested moisture farms, even I helped not only harvesting but also doing jobs in a workshop mechanics to have enough funds to pay for school", but he didn't want to tell Vader.

One... he didn't deserve to know anything about his life, two... well, there were many more reasons.

Luke felt a turmoil of emotions inside him that he was doing his best to keep hidden from Vader through the mental shields he was learning to wield, the blond was partly angry that Vader kept trying to control him, partly humiliated that he had told him that he needed education classes and partly scared because he also told him that he was "valuable and important to him", something that Luke already knew but that never ceased to surprise him.

And as if all of the above weren't enough... Vader wanted to teach him about the Force, Luke didn't want to learn the Dark Side, he didn't want to become a Sith, he wanted to be a Jedi, like his father.

In short, what Luke wanted to do the most was insult Vader, even in another language, for example in the Hutt language that he had learned from his uncles who had learned it from his paternal grandmother, Shmi Skywalker, it was the language of the slaves.

Luke gave a mischievous smile, surely Vader wouldn't understand, however he erased the smile, put on a serious expression and restrained himself, swallowing his chain of Huttese insults, he decided to remain silent out of an instinct of self-preservation, he wasn't that stupid as if to challenge Vader at that moment and test his patience, you could tell he was in a very bad mood.

Luke felt Vader tighten his grip on his arm a little more and then pull him closer, wanting to place him next to him, obviously preparing to continue leading him through the corridors to his room now that he had finally stayed still and quiet.

The blonde felt his heart beating suddenly fast in his chest, he was nervous about the "conversation" they were going to have, he entered a difficult crossroads, was he still fighting uselessly or was he giving up now? luckily he didn't have to decide because Vader stopped, leaving him mere inches from his imposing black armor.

Luke didn't understand why until he heard hurried footsteps at the end of the corridor where they were at that moment, it was the first time that someone had dared to approach them, so far all the other soldiers had ignored them completely or had pretended not to pay attention to them.

"Brilliant!" thought Luke excitedly, "now Vader will be distracted by whoever he is coming to see him, this is my chance to escape! I must make the most of it!".

Luke drew his foot back, fully ready to kick Vader hard in the leg, knowing he would hurt himself, hurt as much as trying to kick the hard horn of a nerf, one of Tatooine's creatures, but willing to do it anyway, he had to escape as he could and if to achieve it he was left with a wounded foot... so be it.

Luke seemed to forget that Vader could read his thoughts and feelings, more so now that he had recklessly dropped his mental shields due to lack of concentration, so he shouldn't have been surprised when the Sith Lord stopped him but... what was surprising wasn't the fact that he had stopped him but the way in which he had done it!

Luke blinked a few times and stared at Vader's long heavy cloak, which resembled an endless black waterfall, blinked a few more times and finally understood his current situation.

He was slung over one of Vader's shoulders like a sack of potatoes! it had happened so fast... Vader had moved so fast...

Luke winced in pain and let out a small moan, his stomach felt pressed against the hard armor of the Dark Lord's armored shoulder, he wasn't in a very comfortable position, let's say, it hurt, on top of that he was hanging his head in front of Vader's back, which only gave him a very close view of his cloak and the texture of the cloth, also had his hands dangling in front of him, still caught in the metal manacles and... oh no! his butt was in full view of the officer who had already reached them and stopped in front of Vader!

In a panic Luke began to kick but Vader immobilized him very easily, he only had to put an arm on the back of his knees and problem solved, he had put an end to his childish fight.

Luke pouted, grabbed the cloak of Vader with his hands still tied, he clenched it into a fist and began to shake it to the sides, in protest, he heard a growl from Vader but still he didn't stop and continued to tug at his cloak.

Luke thought with a frown "I want him to go to a kriffing bantha mountain shit", he heard another growl from Vader and felt a wave of annoyance pass through their bond, Vader's annoyance intoxicated Luke and made his own annoyance grow.

The boy gritted his teeth and moved his hands more forcefully, crumpling his captor's cloak in the process.

"I've had enough of your tantrums, Luke." Vader warned him in a dark voice, adjusting Luke better on his shoulder and then pressing his grip on the back of his knees, leaving him more immobile than before, which annoyed his son.

"Ah... Let me go! Put me down! Let me!" Luke yelled with red cheeks from embarrassment.

The position in which he was loaded was very humiliating, he felt totally indignant, he tried to kick without any success, he let out a groan and kept pulling the black cloak.

Firmus Piett was the Imperial who had come practically running and who for a few moments had been standing silently in front of Vader, despite the strangeness of the situation, Piett was waiting to see what he would do, he didn't dare to interrupt but the report he was to give to Lord Vader was of the utmost importance.

It turns out that after he found out that the young Skywalker had been captured again by Lord Vader, he and the other uniformed soldiers on the bridge had resumed their normal activities, also the rest of the Imperials on the Executor, however after a few minutes he received a report that he had to deliver to Lord Vader yes or yes.

He was looking for the Dark Lord until he finally found him in a somewhat... peculiar situation with the young Skywalker, Piett like so many other imperials was curious to know who this kid was for Lord Vader but he mustn't meddle if he wanted to keep breathing, thank you.

The report that Piett had to give to his boss was a holodisk containing a hologram with data on the coordinates of the location of Princess Leia Organa who, together with Han Solo, had been sighted by imperial hunting ships, they were in a ship identified as the Millennium Falcon, in a nearby system, evidently searching for the young Skywalker, wanted to rescue him.

Piett had first-hand information that Organa and Solo were very close friends with Skywalker, not just his comrades in the Rebel Alliance.

"Hum... my Lord? Should I come back another time?" Admiral Piett asked as he held the holodisk in his right hand, he felt enormous bewilderment but he was an expert in managing his emotions so he kept a neutral face and arms hidden behind his back.

"No." Vader answered and turned his helmet in Piett's direction. "I suppose you've come to give me a report on some situation that requires my attention so just give it to me and be quick Admiral, when I have time I'll see it, now I have urgent matters I have to deal with the young Skywalker and I don't want to postpone them any longer." He sentenced with a serious tone.

"I don't want to talk to you!" Luke protested immediately and tugged at Vader's cloak again, he had stopped when he heard that he was talking to the Admiral. "I don't want to! I don't want to! I don't want to...!" He was repeating over and over infatuatedly, behaving like a little kid and not the teenager he was until Vader shut him up.

"Silence." The Sith Lord ordered vehemently, although he hadn't shouted... that order had sounded very intimidating anyway.

Luke shuddered, stopped twisting Vader's cloak between his fingers and was speechless, he felt a few vibrations in his stomach, it was Vader's fault that he had spoken again through his vocoder.

"Or I'll put you to sleep with a suggestion from the Force." The Dark Lord threatened, worrying Luke.

The blond's blue eyes widened, could Vader do something like that? Obviously yes, he was terrified.

"No, please don't, don't put me back to sleep, I beg you." Luke begged, throwing away his dignity but... what else could he do?

Vader had already put him to sleep once even though he begged him not to, he could perfectly do it again and he was sure that if he yelled at him he would do it with more enthusiasm, he was just warning him to keep quiet.

"Then I want you to stop your fighting immediately and stay quiet all the way to your room." Vader snapped in his baritone voice, patting Luke on the back with his free hand and asking. "Understood?"

Again Luke had to swallow his rage, first Vader was telling him what to do, second he teased him by giving him a friendly pat on the back, who did he think? ugh! How he hated him! but he was going to have to listen to him whether he liked it or not.

"Ye... Yes..." Luke whispered with great difficulty, stars, how hard it had been for him to pronounce that simple word.

"Fine, good boy." Vader said satisfied, patting Luke on the back again, the boy ground his teeth in anger, Vader leaving his son alone and turning to Piett, then waved his hand, urging him to speak. "The report, Admiral." He reminded him.

Piett nodded, drawing his right arm from behind his back and extending it toward Lord Vader, then opening his hand, palm up, where the holodisk rested.

"The report is inside this holodisk, my Lord." The Admiral warned him, still with a neutral face and a cordial tone.

Vader practically snatched it out of his hand in his haste to leave with his son as soon as possible. 

"Fired, return to your duties." The Dark Lord ordered as he tucked the holodisk into his belt on his hip.

"Aye, my Lord." Piett answered, standing up straight and making a military farewell gesture with one hand resting on his forehead, then he turned around and walked away at the pace of a soldier.

Luke let out a small moan, knowing that now all of Darth Vader's attention was back on him.

"Well... it's time we talked Skywalker." Vader informed savoring the words, Luke swallowed, Vader began to walk down the corridor with a determined step and gave his son another annoying slap on the back. "Remember to stay quiet until we get there if you don't want to go to bed early today." Vader said that last more in a mocking way than as an order.

Luke gritted his teeth again, Vader was so annoying! he hated him! he seriously hated him!

He only hoped that he could escape from this conversation although... he found it difficult.