#you also have the possibility of Luke recognizing his dad's Force signature

[radioactivepeasant]

Fic Prompts: Free Day Thursday

(Part 2 of yesterday's snippet!)

Something is wrong. Something is very, very wrong. 

Luke had been so sure of himself when he'd entered the chamber. He knew what he had to do, and he knew there was always a chance that he would die in the attempt. But his friends -- no, his family -- were trapped in this facility, and Luke would not let them die.

Yoda didn't understand. He claimed to have watched over Luke all his life. He criticized Luke for looking to the future and not the present. 

If the present is so important, Master, if you can see so far, why didn't you see that Leia's been tortured by Vader before? How can you be willing to let her fall into his hands again?

No. Luke would never let that happen. His friend was more important than his training: he would never choose to let someone die for his own benefit. 

That's not the kind of Jedi I'm going to be.

And so he had chosen to fight.

But there was a problem. 

Darth Vader had chosen not to fight.

The man's presence filled the room like smoke, billowing and curling around them both as though it could cut off every escape route. Maybe it could. Luke was not foolish enough to believe that Vader was vulnerable, just because he refused to draw his sword. The Force was with him, after all. Corrupted, used for selfish purposes, but nevertheless a powerful ally. 

But Vader did not attack.

Again and again he admonished Luke for his aggression. A hint of scolding. A hint of fond exasperation. As if he were a teacher correcting a favored pupil. 

Or a fa-

Luke cut off the thoughts in fury. His enemy was underestimating him. Patronizing the would-be Jedi, so sure of his own superiority. 

This was not a Darth Vader he had seen before. Where was the cold pragmatism? The apathy towards others? Clearly it had been in play when he had harmed Han and Leia and Chewie. 

"I have no specific grievance against those you keep company with."

And that was worse. Infinitely worse. Everything he had done to his friends -- to Leia! -- and he didn't even have any particular issues with them?! If he could torture someone he didn't hate, what would he do to someone he did have a grudge against?

What will he do to me?

Now he walked down the stairs, ignoring Luke's lightsaber, speaking calmly as though he could pretend he hadn't just used sentient beings as bait to draw him here. It didn't work like that! He couldn't just make Luke drop his guard with honeyed words. Every child raised on Tatooine knew the danger of those who spoke sweetly and held a transmitter behind their backs. Luke wasn't going to fall for it and he wasn't shy about saying so.

"The jakreb learns to listen before he runs," his enemy quoted suddenly. He sounded amused.

That was an old saying on Tatooine. A proverb to teach children to watch carefully for signs of danger before making a move. There should have been no reason for Vader to know it.

None whatsoever.

I don't like this. Something is wrong.

Something plucked at his memories. A tickle at the back of his mind, like a spider crawling across his skin. Nothing concrete, but a nameless, formless, something. 

"The dragon who moves too soon is a dragon who starves," Luke shot back, a little rashly.

Another old proverb. Less about wariness and caution and more about patience. 

I know what you're doing, old man. You're the dragon. I'm the jakreb. So which one of us is going to move first?

But Vader kept walking. After all this, after the horrible things he'd done just to get Luke here, he was just...just leaving?! But that didn't make any sense!

“You want me to drop my guard, so you can kill me. Just like you did to Ben!” he accused.

He turned his blade to a more horizontal guard and stepped up to the high ground. 

If Vader was trying to lure him in close enough to run him through, he was going to be disappointed. 

“Luke.” Vader shook his head and continued to descend the staircase. Again his voice was sickeningly compassionate. “Obi-wan allowed himself to be killed. What his motives could have been, I do not know. He told himself and everyone around him such pretty lies that I am no longer certain that even he knew what his motivations were. But I assure you that whatever he did, he did so deliberately.”

The bottom seemed to drop out of Luke's stomach. There was so much anger hiding in those words. Maybe Vader didn't have a vendetta against Luke's friends, but it was very clear that he'd hated Obi-wan. But why?

Ben said that Vader betrayed and murdered his father. He said nothing about Vader betraying him. And he'd given no hint that there might be particularly bad blood between them. Did he just think it wasn't Luke's business?

But Luke knew that Vader was right about one thing: Ben had chosen to die at that particular moment. “To give us time to escape," he said defiantly. Lightsaber at the ready, he cautiously began to descend the stairs after Vader. "So we could destroy your Death Star! Worked out pretty well, Vader.”

“Indeed?” 

Vader glanced back over his shoulder at Luke, then stepped off the edge of the platform. 

What the kriff?!

He was leaving! Why? Was this room a trap? Would he activate one of those machines as soon as he was out?

Oh no way. Not a chance. You don't get to walk away from me, Sithspawn.

Luke scrambled to the edge of the platform in time to see Vader stepping into one of the maintenance tunnels.

“That is a topic for speculation, I believe," the rumbling voice echoed back. Luke definitely caught some sarcasm in his tone. "But for all the times your “Ben” betrayed me, it is fitting that in his final moments he unwittingly revealed you to me. Returning what he stole all those years ago.”

What.

The reverberating breaths faded out, and Luke stood at the edge of the platform. He tried to piece together what he'd just heard logically.

Had Ben stolen something from Vader? If the Sith wanted it, it was probably a good thing Obi-wan had taken it. Whatever it was. Maybe a weapon?

Luke's heart sank as he looked down at the brilliant blue glow of his saber. 

Vader killed his father. He might have felt that Anakin's lightsaber rightfully belonged to him.

What do I do?! This is my lightsaber! My inheritance. It's all I have of my father and I will not let him take that away.

Luke's emotions twisted around each other, bending back over themselves in a discordant jangle of mismatched rhythms as he tried to understand what was happening. The grip of the saber was slick in his hands. 

I'm…

No, no, I can do this.

I'm scared 

I can do this!

He was being torn in two different directions. Every fiber of his being begged him to flee. To not walk into what could very well be a trap. But at the same time, something down that tunnel was calling him. Like a cord wrapped around his heart, steadily pulling him to an unknown destination, he felt the whispers more than he heard them.

I'm scared. 

It's alright to be scared. I'm here.

They weren't words so much as sensations. Faintly brushing against his memory like a butterfly's wing, the whispers seemed to promise that everything would be alright, he just couldn't look back. 

Frightened, but determined, Luke clipped his saber to his belt and eased over the edge of the platform. 

It's okay. I can do this. 

I can win.

Just don't look back. 

The instant Luke stepped into the tunnel, the lights snapped on. He had a feeling that he was walking into a trap. But then, the place he had just left felt like a trap, too. 

Kriff kriff kriff.

Stupid jakreb hopped right into the snare.

There was a control room at the end of the tunnel. 

There was a Sith Lord at the end of the tunnel.

Luke had his lightsaber out almost before he had time to think. 

A grate slid shut over the tunnel mouth behind him, cutting off his retreat.

Well. 

At least he could see in this room.

"Put down your weapon, young one," Vader said again. He did not even turn away from the holographic map to face Luke. 

"Not. Happening." Luke bared his teeth and forced himself to take two steps forward. "You have to answer for what you did, Vader. To my friends, and the galaxy, and the Jedi...and my father."

Quite suddenly, Vader's shoulders fell. He leaned against the projector as if he were bone-weary. 

"Child, I have done nothing to your father."

He still did not turn.

"He is a contemptible, pitiable wretch, too quick to give his loyalty to those who do not deserve it. But he is a powerful wretch. Powerful enough to conceal your existence from the emperor for the last three years."

Luke stumbled back. His father's lightsaber hung by his side uselessly.

Present tense.

Darth Vader was speaking about his father in the present tense.

Anakin Skywalker. 

Present tense.

"You...you're lying."

No please, please don't be lying-

I can't…

Don't toy with me you sleemo

Don't you dare use my father's memory as a ploy-

At last, Vader turned to face him. "I have done what I can, Luke," he said simply. "But now we are out of time."

"I have done what I can"

Something cold and clammy slithered in Luke's gut. It knotted in coils around his spine to sink its teeth into his heart. Against his will, tears sprang to his eyes.

He knew Darth Vader was evil, but this was a cruelty he had not expected. The carefully laid trap, baited with words, and the insinuations eased between sentences, struck deeper than any lightsaber's blow. He played on the memory of Luke's father -- of his loneliness, his lifelong yearning for his father -- and twisted it. Perverted it into an attempt at manipulation so blatant it could hardly be believed.

Did he believe it was an attempt at manipulation?

What if it was worse? What if Vader actually believed what he seemed to be implying? Pointing out how illogical it was could quickly become dangerous. But Luke was past the point of caring.

"You...you aren't half the man my father was!" he hissed. 

Something bitter and almost amused dripped from the Sith to puddle around Luke's fear.

"An ironic statement."

"You don't know me!" Luke continued gamely on as if he had not been interrupted. "You think you're the first person to play mind games with my memories? Huh? Kriff you!"

He swung the blade up in a ready position. 

Darth Vader tilted his head to one side, considering.

"This is not going to go the way you think."

The spiders were back, creeping across his brain. Luke blinked and shook his head to clear it. Losing his focus here would be fatal.

"Don't fight it."

Vader raised a hand towards him, almost reaching out. 

"You have been running for a long time. It is alright to rest, now."

Was the Sith doing something to his mind?!

But Ben said mind tricks only worked on the weak-willed! And Yoda was always complaining about how stubborn he was!

"Get out of my head!" Luke shouted. Don't panic, don't panic-

"It is not me." 

Oh, gentleness did not sound right coming out of that voice.

"You have forgotten who you are, and yet from our first encounter your memories have tried to reestablish themselves. Stop fighting them, Luke. Let them flow."

Luke stopped pretending he wasn't afraid. He was terrified. He was alone in an isolated place, too far away to call for help, and trapped with a deadly enemy who meant to prey upon his very sense of self. 

His hands were shaking too badly to hold up his father's blade. This was so stupid, he was so stupid, he never should have come here! He had to get out, there had to be a way out!

Luke scanned the room frantically for an exit. He backed away from Vader and edged towards what looked like a corridor. 

"Luke."

"No!" 

Luke stumbled over a bundle of cables on the floor and nearly fell. He managed a graceful recovery despite his terror and kept moving.

"Stay away from me!"

Vader did not. He began to move at last, slow and purposeful and relentless. 

The Force moved around them like a frigid tide, pulling machinery from the walls to land behind Luke. He was cutting off his escape. The trap had been sprung.

"Stop running, Luke."

"Leave me alone!"

He was pleading now.

All sense of bravado, of dignity, had fled.

Obi-wan was right. I'm not ready. I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die-

If Leia lives, it's worth it

But I don't-

I don't want to die

And then at last, he could go no further. His calves caught on some discarded hunk of metal, and toppled him. Sharp, broken pieces dug into his back as he landed. The pain felt distant, like something that was happening to someone else. Luke's increasing disorientation muffled everything but his fear.

This was the end. Luke, on the ground at Darth Vader's feet. If the encounter didn't end in immediate death, his interrogation was likely imminent. 

But Vader 

Knelt.

He kneeled down beside Luke and rested his gloved hand on Luke's cheek. Luke was very sure that his heart was going to stop.

Oh. He's going to snap my neck. At least it'll be quick.

"Enough, child." A deep bass growl vibrated through the words. He sounded as though he was finally angry. "I am not going to kill you!"

Before Luke had time to process that, he added, "I am trying to save you."

Save me?! From what?!

Luke swung out with one arm, trying to push the dark lord away. Vader caught his wrist easily and squeezed it. 

"You know me." Each syllable dripped with an unexpected urgency. "Search your feelings: you will know it to be true. Remember, Luke. You must remember."

"No!" Luke tried in vain to pull away. "S-stop!"

He was pulled, gently, but firmly, up into a sitting position. 

He was pulled, less gently, by the thread around his soul. It reached out, straining for something it had once known. A sense of something missing. 

A sense that was being answered in kind.

And he felt something. Something he had felt before. 

Or rather 

Someone.

Luke knew the answer to the question his soul was asking. 

He didn't want to know. 

He didn't want to face it. 

No, no please-! 

"You have forgotten what you once knew," Vader murmured. "You have forgotten me. And I- I believed you had died."

Seething shadows coiled around them both. 

"The Emperor will suffer no Skywalker to be free. If he is not entirely beneath the emperor's thumb, then he must die. If you lived, his hold on me was jeopardized. Luke, he told me you were dead. But here you are, alive again!"

Skywalker. 

Vader was referring to himself as Skywalker. 

The Force resonated. A great bell seemed to have tolled, and with each reverberation the jagged pieces were forced together. 

Darkness and Light.

Hunter and quarry. 

Lost and found. 

Father and son.

Luke could not see through his tears. He didn't need to. He could feel. 

The Force was no longer a counterpoint around them. It was a harmony. And that was the hardest truth of all.

Shhh, you are safe. I'm here, I'm here.

The same soundless lullaby that had soothed his childhood nightmares. The thing he had forgotten.

His father's voice. 

I know you. 

"Oh." Darth Vader lifted him free of the machinery as easily as if he were still a little child. 

He pulled Luke into his arms. Luke did not have the strength to resist.

“There you are.”

[mysilverylining]

Previously on Neptune

I’m getting closer and closer to finally posting an update on this monster.  It occurred to me that it’s been so long since I posted, that nobody could possibly remember the plot.  Other than THOSE two scenes, I mean.  

If this wheel’s a-rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’

Anyway, I’ve written up a recap.  Feel free to sing along in the style of Braindead, if you so desire. 

Spoilers under the cut  

Prologue:

Homicide Detective Veronica Mars exits a crime scene in a blind rage.  An unidentified male watches her through binoculars from a nearby building as she assaults a gate and her boss, and fantasizes about doing vile things.  

Episode One:

Here, the author experiments with a different writing style, turning what should be an easy drive to town into thousands of words too long.  A bored and exhausted Veronica finally makes it to her dad’s doorstep.  

She’s quit her job on the force, gave up her lease, and wants her old life back.  Keith tentatively welcomes her home, and it feels just like old times when Veronica catches a glimpse of his special lady friend on his phone’s wallpaper and erupts.     

By some non-contrived and totally coincidental twist of fate, Jackie Cook arrives back in Neptune with her eight year old son, and wants to hire Mars Investigations to clear her father’s name.  He’s been fired from his job as a baseball coach at Hearst, and is potentially facing criminal charges for game fixing.  Sure, he’s done it before, but this time he’s TOTALLY innocent.  She swears.  “Oh, and by the way, maybe don’t mention it to Wallace that I’m back in town.  He kinda had a meltdown the last time we saw each other.”   

Veronica joins Wallace and Weevil for dinner at Neptune’s new celebrity restaurant.  Wallace has been divorced for about a year now, from Jane Kuhne, and while he doesn’t regret leaving, the experience has altered his disposition.  Weevil seems suspiciously (V’s words, not mine) happy running the city’s Fleet Services Department.  “He knows people”.    

She vaguely mentions her new case, and Weevil fills her in on the tightened security over at Hearst. 

Wallace is looking forward to strutting the stage in the upcoming bachelor auction, which trigger’s Veronica’s protective nature.  She decides to attend.  You know, to scare off  vet the bidders.  

The following day, Veronica sets to work making a Hearst ID badge out Weevil’s old one, and phone-squabbling with her former partner-slash-friend-with-benefits, Joe.  He doesn’t take the breakup well.  

For insurance reasons, Keith needs her to renew her P.I. license.  Oh no!  She missed the final deadline by a few months, and now she’ll have to begin the entire process all over again.  Never fear, there’s a special extension document that will grant her a little extra time.  All it needs is a signature from the County Supervisor.

“Great dad!  I’ll get right on that, but now I’ll have to cut you off mid-sentence to deal with this service worker, and I’m probably going to turn off my phone afterwards, because my ex is just SO obsessed with me, and I can’t deal with him calling anymore.  But I’ll be sure to butter up Mayor Jenkins with some tiramisu.  K. Bye.”

The mayor’s assistant is none other than Gia Goodman, and maybe Veronica can just sneak past her.  Sure, crawling down the hallway is a little bit undignified, but everyone knows how hard it is to break away from a Gia conversation once she starts rambling.  

Having vanquished the obstacles of timid service-men, pissed ex-FWBs, and chatty secretaries, Veronica arrives at the Wizard’s Mayor’s inner sanctum.  Holding up her tiramisu bribe, she announces her presence.  

Whaddya know?  The mayor is her old friend, Logan Echolls.  

Veronica and Logan have a long and productive conversation.  Sans words.  And clothing.  Horizontally.  

Episode Two

Logan Echolls has zero chill, so literally nobody is surprised when he immediately admits that he’s still in love with Veronica.  

Veronica:  “Um...yeah.  I’m just here to get a form signed.  Also, we are never ever ever getting back together.  

Logan:  You DO still love me!  I knew it.  

Dessert interlude.  

Veronica drives and angsts and mopes and angsts.  

Madison Sinclair has undergone a personality transplant in the intervening years (Caitlin Ford has not).  She tries to apologize to Veronica at Java the Hut, even inviting her to attend the bachelor auction, but things take a turn for the ugly when she mentions the “L” word.  Insults are exchanged, and Madison’s idle threat to bid 17K on Logan at the auction ends up trapping her when Caitlin repeats it to the HBIC.   Trying again to make amends, Madison follows Veronica over to her car where she learns the truth of Veronica’s rape at Shelly’s party and Dick’s part in it.  

Mac calls Veronica at home to apologize for missing dinner the night before, but it’s hard to find time for fun when you’re doing the work of the boss in addition to your own.  Mac despises Madison for keeping her from visiting her bio-mom in the weeks before her death.  Checking the mail, she finds a postcard warning her to resign from Casablancas.  

Madison flashes-back on her romance with her secret lovah.  He showed up in her life when she was reeling from her mom’s death, depressed, and taking some nasty drugs.  He helped her get cleaned up, and set her on the path of redemption through contribution.  She confesses what happened with Veronica, and how she’d trapped herself into bidding on Logan.  Loverboy doesn’t like it, but assures her he’s not mad, and confesses his love to her.  

Veronica wakes to find a food truck in the driveway, sent by Logan, who intends to win her heart through her stomach.  

Veronica and Keith interrogate Terrance Cook, compiling a list of suspects consisting of rivals and ex-lovers.  

At Hearst, Veronica recognizes the assistant coach as Luke Haldeman.  He supports his boss’ story.  She interviews the players, who react to her with hostility, sexism, and shameless flirtation. 

Later, at Neptunalia, Veronica receives a phone call from one of the players, disguising their voice, and pointing the finger at Luke for the thrown game.  

Logan shows up, and plies Veronica with food and flirtation.  He makes a bargain with Veronica that she’ll agree to go on a date with him if he can win her an “I love you beary much” bear. There is no such bear on the fairgrounds (as she’d suspected) , which is fine, because he’s a crappy ring toss player, anyway.  Veronica wins him a bear instead, and then they head to the Ferris Wheel for another...um...productive conversation.  

It’s time for the bachelor auction.  Veronica runs into Weevil, and together, they interviews one of the Hearst baseball players, who just happens to be bartending.  There’s probably an age-related continuity error there, if you squint. 

Weevil’s attitude about Veronica being in Neptune is a bit fishy.  Why is he practically shoving her out the door?  Well, it turns out, Weevil and Logan have taken their bromance to a new level.  Best friend charms, and everything.  An understandably weirded-out Veronica explains that there’s nothing to see.  Logan, who?  I don’t know any Logan.  Gia arrives minutes later, outing their sexy-times on Logan’s desk.  Weevil gives exasperation face.  

The auction begins.  Jackie reveals herself by submitting the winning bid on Wallace.  St. Mac of Arc plays martyr and bids on Dick.  You know, to keep him from committing office shenanigans with Gia.  Veronica does NOT bid on Logan.  She takes off when it becomes clear that Madison is sticking to her word.  

Veronica meets up with Mac and Jackie the next morning at Java.  They commiserate on the upcoming dates.  They part ways when Jackie gets a call that her father’s been arrested. 

At the Sheriff’s Department, VVL tries to keep Veronica from consulting with Terrance Cook.  She runs into Carmen Ruiz on the way out, who’s now married (with children) to Tad.  Yes, that Tad.  Barf.  She can’t look Veronica in the eyes, and has the demeanor of an abused wife.  

In the women’s room, while taking out her anger on a garbage can, Veronica meets Deputy Siobhan Fitzpatrick.  Siobhanica hit it off immediately, as they’re both cops, both despise Tad, and have many other things in common.  Maybe TOO much in common.  Record scratch.  Turns out, Siobhan used to be engaged to Logan.   And, almost as bad, had been allowed to honey trap for Keith.  Not fair.  

Back at Mars Investigations, Veronica finds a newspaper that shows her and Logan locking lips at Neptunaila.   Mac arrives, introducing Veronica’s new part-time hacker, Lauren Sinclair.  

The auction dates begin, and Madison isn’t having the best night.  First, Logan is snippy and dramatic, and polishing off his drinks a bit too quickly.  Then, she’s shut-down when she attempts to apologize to Mac.  She does, however, agree to reach out to the MacKenzies, and feels pretty good about it.  Finally, Dick tries to stop her on the way back from the bathroom.  After what she learned from Veronica, he’s the LAST person she wants to be alone in a hallway with.  Back at the table, she finally has an adult conversation with Logan, and (maybe?) a new truce?  

Mac’s time isn’t much better.  Dick is being blackmailed, which is fine.  Couldn’t happen to a better man.  But he’s been given a month to resign, and the blackmailer wants her out too.  

Across town, Wallace is sullen and unresponsive on his date with Jackie.  She calls him out on some harsh truths, and almost seems to be getting through to him.  Then his ex sister-in-law shows up, and starts snapping pictures of them.  They make a quick exit, and an awkward goodbye.  

It’s late and Veronica receives a text that Logan is at Madison’s place, and wasted.  She’d better come get him if she doesn’t want him driving.  Veronica drives to Madison’s house.  She has an emotional crises, thinking she’s been set up, and is going to find them in bed together.  

When she finally opens the bedroom door, Madison is alone.  And dead.  Dun dun dun.