Missing and Presumed Dead

Visions

Vader stared. When he'd settled in to meditate while waiting for the Executor to arrive in the Dagobah system, he certainly hadn't been prepared to find his dead offspring waiting for him.

Apparently, Luke's ghost hadn't been either.

"What...why... where ?!" Luke backed up a step, looking wildly between him and the landscape of Mustafar--the planet Vader usually ended up in during visions. It was strong with the Dark Side of the Force. It helped to rejuvenate him. When it didn't, he was often bombarded with visions from his past instead.

Visions of her.

And now, it seemed Luke's ghost had been dragged in. Vader didn't even realize he could do that, or that Luke would be strong enough to appear to him in ghost form. Their bond, while there, wasn't strong--not like his bonds had been with the boy's mother. And even when he saw her, she never seemed to know he was there.

But Luke was all too aware. He looked at Vader like he was an incensed rancor about tear him to shreds.

It stung, enough that even Vader stepped back. The movement made Luke's eyes dart to the ground, narrow suspiciously, then glare up at him again. "What in the nine Corellian hells are you doing here?"

A phrase he'd likely picked up from the smuggler. It hurt to have that thrown at him, too. He'd spent hours, days , agonizing over his son's death. He'd assumed he wouldn't see him again.

Now here he stood, backed against a cliff overlooking the very river he'd burned in, and it was as if nothing had changed.

Luke still viewed him as his enemy.

It's not like you haven't given him a reason to, the Force reminded him. Anger at himself ballooned in his chest, choking him.

The Force, he decided, was definitely cruel. It showed him his lost son, only to make it clear he wanted nothing to do with him, even in death.

But Luke could see him. He could hear him. His lost wife couldn't; Vader's pleas to her ghost fell on deaf ears.

Perhaps...

Vader straightened. He didn't fail to notice how Luke's body tensed, how he crouched low into a defensive position.

"I cannot hurt you." Vader tried. Beyond the fact that even his powers couldn't inflict pain on the dead, this was merely a vision. It was the visions that came true in waking life that were dangerous.

"Like I'd trust you ," Luke spat.

Behind the mask, he winced.

Making no sudden movements, Vader pushed back the cloak of his suit to reveal his weaponless belt. "I don't even have my lightsaber. You are safe."

The boy's eyes narrowed. "You and I both know you don't need that."

He had a point.

"I have no intention of harming you," he promised, willing for his son to feel the truth in his words. "I couldn't anyway. You're dead."

Luke stared at him, still tense, still ready to bolt at a moments notice. Where he'd go in Vader's own vision, he had no idea, but trust his son to find a way to slip through his fingers.

"Yeah," he replied, slowly. "I'm dead."

Vader frowned. An odd thing to say. Then again, he hadn't had any two-way conversations with the dead. Who knew what they liked to talk about?

"But that doesn't mean I want to be here, " his son added, that fire lighting in his blue eyes. "Where are we? Why am I here? How is this even happening?"