Father 1/1 (Star Wars)
Nov. 24th, 2010 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
st_jane_ambulanceIn an attempt to inspire myself to finish something again, here's the last thing that got done. In 2004.
Title: Father (Star Wars)
Characters: Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader
Genre: AU, gen
Word Count: 591
Summary: Luke makes a different choice.
A/N: A plotbunny bit me while watching The Empire Strikes Back for the frillionth time.
"Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son."
Father and son.
Luke's mind reeled as he clung to the end of the gantry. His wrist burned, fiery pain spreading up his arm, but that was nothing compared to the revelation he had just faced. This monster . . . his father. Why would Ben have lied to him?
He felt hot tears slip down his battered face; tears of pain, betrayal, and confusion. His grip on the large instrument was weakening rapidly -- either he would have to take his chances letting go . . . or go towards Vader.
A fall from this gantry or a fall from grace.
The black-armored man still held his hand out, waiting almost patiently, it seemed, for his decision. Luke had never known a father. He supposed Uncle Owen was the closest thing he'd had while growing up. Ben, too, had acted like he thought a father might.
But Ben lied to you, said a little voice inside Luke's mind, one that he had never heard before. This man does not lie.
Luke was tired of fighting, tired of running. In the last three years he had seen little else. He wanted it to end.
"Please," came the mechanical voice only feet away, surprisingly gentle. The single word said so much at that moment. It held hope.
A father's hope.
Luke's body trembled with fatigue and pain as the brutal wind inside the shaft threatened to send him into the abyss.
"If I join you," he said, his heart pounding, "will you let my friends go?"
"As you wish," Vader said.
Luke squeezed his eyes shut, willing his thoughts to focus. If he said yes, he would be betraying everything he had fought to gain in the last three years of his life. Everything Ben and Yoda had taught him. The Rebellion had been his life ever since he had met Ben Kenobi.
But now all that was crumbling before his eyes. The truth of the Alliance was falling away, leaving only the man in black standing before him, reaching out his hand. At Luke's most desperate and fragile of moments, only he was there to stop his fall. Only he was there to pull him back as he stood teetering on the edge of a very real abyss.
His father.
He had never had a father.
Maybe it was about time he did.
Slowly, hesitantly, Luke inched his way back toward the walkway. At the end of the narrow beam, he reached his one remaining hand toward Vader's black-gloved one. Their hands linked as a gust of wind nearly sent Luke tumbling down the enormous reactor shaft, Vader pulling him back onto the platform with inhuman strength. The last remnants of strength fled from Luke's body and he collapsed into his father's arms. Vader hefted him and carried him easily through the tunnel that led back toward the control room.
Time moved as if within a dream. His pain was fading away, replaced by a numbness that wrapped like a warm blanket around his body and mind. He felt like he was floating on air as Vader moved through Cloud City. For the first time in years, he felt safe.
I'm sorry, he thought to his friends. He knew that if he ever saw them again, he would not be fighting at their sides, but rather against them. It had been a choice between a fall from the gantry and a fall from grace.
He had chosen grace.
Title: Father (Star Wars)
Characters: Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader
Genre: AU, gen
Word Count: 591
Summary: Luke makes a different choice.
A/N: A plotbunny bit me while watching The Empire Strikes Back for the frillionth time.
"Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son."
Father and son.
Luke's mind reeled as he clung to the end of the gantry. His wrist burned, fiery pain spreading up his arm, but that was nothing compared to the revelation he had just faced. This monster . . . his father. Why would Ben have lied to him?
He felt hot tears slip down his battered face; tears of pain, betrayal, and confusion. His grip on the large instrument was weakening rapidly -- either he would have to take his chances letting go . . . or go towards Vader.
A fall from this gantry or a fall from grace.
The black-armored man still held his hand out, waiting almost patiently, it seemed, for his decision. Luke had never known a father. He supposed Uncle Owen was the closest thing he'd had while growing up. Ben, too, had acted like he thought a father might.
But Ben lied to you, said a little voice inside Luke's mind, one that he had never heard before. This man does not lie.
Luke was tired of fighting, tired of running. In the last three years he had seen little else. He wanted it to end.
"Please," came the mechanical voice only feet away, surprisingly gentle. The single word said so much at that moment. It held hope.
A father's hope.
Luke's body trembled with fatigue and pain as the brutal wind inside the shaft threatened to send him into the abyss.
"If I join you," he said, his heart pounding, "will you let my friends go?"
"As you wish," Vader said.
Luke squeezed his eyes shut, willing his thoughts to focus. If he said yes, he would be betraying everything he had fought to gain in the last three years of his life. Everything Ben and Yoda had taught him. The Rebellion had been his life ever since he had met Ben Kenobi.
But now all that was crumbling before his eyes. The truth of the Alliance was falling away, leaving only the man in black standing before him, reaching out his hand. At Luke's most desperate and fragile of moments, only he was there to stop his fall. Only he was there to pull him back as he stood teetering on the edge of a very real abyss.
His father.
He had never had a father.
Maybe it was about time he did.
Slowly, hesitantly, Luke inched his way back toward the walkway. At the end of the narrow beam, he reached his one remaining hand toward Vader's black-gloved one. Their hands linked as a gust of wind nearly sent Luke tumbling down the enormous reactor shaft, Vader pulling him back onto the platform with inhuman strength. The last remnants of strength fled from Luke's body and he collapsed into his father's arms. Vader hefted him and carried him easily through the tunnel that led back toward the control room.
Time moved as if within a dream. His pain was fading away, replaced by a numbness that wrapped like a warm blanket around his body and mind. He felt like he was floating on air as Vader moved through Cloud City. For the first time in years, he felt safe.
I'm sorry, he thought to his friends. He knew that if he ever saw them again, he would not be fighting at their sides, but rather against them. It had been a choice between a fall from the gantry and a fall from grace.
He had chosen grace.
