Children of the Force

Chapter 3 - Wherever I Will Go

Author's Note: Enjoy the bonding! :)

PS. IceyGemini drew some fanart for this fic that you can find on ao3. :D

~ Amina Gila

Luke feels numb with horror as he continues trailing Vader, though staying quiet. Seeing his father being tortured by Sidious in person is entirely different than knowing it happened in the past.

Vader doesn't believe he's real, or at least Luke doesn't think so, and it... hurts, because he just wants to get to know him. But he'll have to be patient.

It's not as though he won't have all the time in the world now. Because he's dead. Bitterness, anger, and despair flood him every time it sinks in again, that he's going to be here for all eternity. It shouldn't have happened now, even if it's obviously inevitable. It feels slightly easier to accept than it did earlier, but he... just doesn't want it yet. It's not fair.

And if he were still alive, Vader wouldn't be questioning if he was real. They'd be able to –

But would he even have found out about his father? Certainly, he wouldn't understand him the way he does know. And this way, he can easily hide from Sidious. That wouldn't be true if they were together in person.

Vader goes to a room on his ship with a bacta tank, and Luke watches, feeling sick as the droids remove his armor. Fresh electric burns snake across his skin, and... His skin might look better overall than it did ten years ago, but it's still awful. And the scars across his head from Ben's lightsaber is –

Maybe Luke should leave. This is... invasive, and he doesn't know that his father wants him here. At the same time, leaving him alone after he's been alone all this time feels.... wrong. It's not like he'll even know Luke is watching, anyway, so he –

"I know you are there," Vader's voice sounds in his mind, and he jumps.

"You can hear my thoughts?" Luke practically splutters. This – what – he had no idea Vader could hear him, or even sense him here.

"You are projecting. Loudly." He can't tell what Vader's thinking, especially when he's pretty much motionless, floating in the bacta tank.

"Oh." Luke bites his no longer existent lip, hope suddenly sparking to life. "Does that mean you know I'm real?"

"I am aware you are a lingering spirit. Your identity is still in question."

"You're my father," Luke repeats, wishing desperately to the Force that Vader's going to believe him, because really, he can't prove it. Wait, yes, he can. "You can go to Tatooine if you want. I – I lived with Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. I wanted to be a pilot because I heard you were one, too."

Vader's presence has stilled completely at the names. He knew them, obviously. How well, Luke has no idea.

"The stormtroopers killed you?" Vader asks, slowly, "And what of... your uncle and aunt?"

"They – They're gone too," Luke replies, haltingly. At least, he thinks so. He doesn't know if he'll ever see them again. Unless he passes on or whatever. And he... doesn't want to do that. Not yet. It's ridiculous how much he misses them suddenly, for as much as he was always impatient to just move off of the farm. They're dead too, and that separation is permanent. He'd been trying not to think about it until now.

"You are... nineteen," Vader states, more than asks, voice strangely distant now. His telepathic voice is so different than the one from his vocoder. It sounds much like Anakin.

"Yes," Luke replies, "Ben – Obi-Wan, I mean – lived on Tatooine too."

The sudden rush of anger catches by her surprise, even if it probably shouldn't. "Obi-Wan was there?"