Escape From the Darkness

Chapter 4

Luke awoke around two hours later to find the cave empty, save for Artoo who was powered down not far away from reach. The boy sat up and winced. The painful throbbing in his ribs did not subside anyhow. To make things worse, his head was still aching and his leg was still securely immobilized – not that he expected it to be miraculously healed after such a short period of time without proper medical care. His flight suit was removed – it was still on when he first woke up – and thrown in a corner.

He spotted the emergency rations on top of one of the boxes and immediately crawled towards it, trying his best not to put too much weight on his fractured leg. He took a bar and removed the wrapping before taking a bite. His eyes bulged; that bar was disgusting! His stomach growled and he forced himself to swallow. Any food was better than having an empty stomach, especially since he was stuck in this cave and would be for who knows how long.

Vader reentered the cave exactly when his foolish son was dragging himself back to the small rock he was previously leaning on.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked, the rumbling bass of his voice reverberating on the stone walls.

Skywalker got startled at the unexpected sound and face-planted on the ground, earning a hiss of pain from him. Immediately, his father was at his side. The Sith passed a strong arm around his shoulders and waist and effortlessly lifted his son up. He rapidly crossed the short distance between the rations and the makeshift resting place before setting him down as smoothly as he possible could.

"Thanks..." Luke mumbled.

"You foolish child", Vader admonished. "What were you thinking, moving around like that? Should I remind you that you're injured, young one?"

The young man bristled at the belittling words.

"No", he replied, swallowing the sarcastic remark he wanted to throw at the older man.

"Couldn't you use the Force?"

"Try using the Force while your head is threatening to split in two as soon as you try to reach for it!"

An awkward silence filled the cave, no one knowing what else to say.

"So..." Luke eventually said when the tension became unbearable. "What happens now? Are you going to bring me to the Executor? I crashed so I guess no one knows whether I'm alive or not..."

"No."

The young man's head shot up and stared right at the opaque eyepieces of his father's mask.

"W-what?" he stammered.

Vader took a little longer to reply this time.

"You're not coming back to the Executor with me", he eventually said, choosing his words carefully.

"So where..."

"You are to go back from whenever you came from with your friends."

The last word was spat out like a bite of a food that had become unfit for eating.

"W-what?"

Luke was overwhelmed, his mind racing at the Dark Lord's unforeseen declaration. Was it just him or the more time he spent with Vader, the less things made sense? His father should have logically called for a shuttle to take him away from this decimated place. He could lock him up in a set of chambers after his injuries would be healed and start his conversion to the Dark Side. Force, he could even take him to the Emperor! But no, Vader wasn't going to do any of that. Instead of the dark future he had promised him on Bespin, when they first met face-to-face (or rather, face-to-mask), his father would give him freedom. No matter how much that thought made Luke happy, it still made him feel a little uneasy.