Archive of Our Own

The rebel screamed. The rebel cried. The rebel tried to rip out his own eyes. The artisan watched with a certain detached fascination.

“Give me the location of the rebel base,” he said, “And all of this will be over.”

The rebel took four more hours to break. “Tattoine,” he gasped out through his tears, “It’s on Tattoine.”

The artisan smiled.

…---…

Eleven Months Later

Some Senator had gotten it into their head that it would be a great idea to get all the citizens of the empire to put their DNA into a large server. When a child lost their guardians, they would put their DNA into the system and the system would match them with their closest relative.

Vader hadn’t paid much attention to the motion, which had passed with a great deal of approval from Sidious- Sidious was always in favor of having more information on people. And having a system like that made sure the government didn’t really have to care about the orphaned. But now… now…

A 17-year-old boy named Luke Skywalker had taken the DNA test. The system had matched him with his closest blood relative. Vader had thought his whole family dead for 17 years. But somehow- by some miracle- his child had survived.

Vader had a son. A son that he couldn’t pick up for an entire month. In some ways the wait was agony- in others… it was important. He needed assurance that Luke would be safe with him.

Luke wouldn’t be safe with Vader, Vader had proven that with what he’d done to Padme. Anakin though… Anakin hadn’t been dangerous like that. But Anakin had murdered a village once.

He’d been angry, but as Vader had been reading How to Parent: For Parents of Distant Teens he’d realized that parents often got mad at their children. Children did not do as they were told. They were willful.

So Vader had purchased several anger management books and courses. He would have to go as Anakin of course, it wouldn’t do for Darth Vader to be seen in one of them. And besides that, Vader wouldn’t be around Luke. Vader didn’t need to learn to control his temper.

…---…

One Month later

Darth Vader was going home. That was an odd sentence for him. He didn’t normally think of himself as someone who had a home. But there it was.

There were a few… difficulties with the arrangement. First was that Vader didn’t truly want Sidious to know about his son. It was too late now, Sidious had probably known as soon as Vader had gotten the message, if not before.

The second difficulty was the reason Luke had lost his guardians. They had been killed by Stormtroopers.

The third difficulty was that Luke knew his Vader’s original name. He was expecting Anakin Skywalker, the hero, not Darth Vader, the monster.

Luke had been allowed to send a pre-recorded message to Vader before the pick-up date and he’d been so excited to meet Vader. Something in Vader balked at the thought of having to tell the boy the truth. And so, Vader had decided to… ease him into it. So to speak.

Vader needed a respirator, but he didn’t need a vocoder. His voice would just be a bit weak without it. His skin was very sensitive to any sunlight now, so he would wear a hat with a bigger brim. His eyes were half melted, so he put on a very expensive pair of sunglasses. His limbs were… what they were… but though Vader had lived for 17 years with his artificial limbs looking artificial he was able to get them covered in synthetic skin.

Synthetic skin didn’t affect their functionality at all. It just made them… easier to look at. For someone who was expecting their father to be able to greet them properly.

Vader had thought about it for a long time. Luke could not know he was Darth Vader, not at first. Not when Luke was expecting Anakin Skywalker. But Vader had been Anakin Skywalker for a long time. All he had to do was be Anakin Skywalker again when he was with Luke.

It would feel odd at first, but he knew who Anakin Skywalker was. He knew all the things that Anakin Skywalker loved. It would not be too difficult to act like he was… his old self. Only around Luke.

So. He was Anakin right now.

…---…

Luke was… incredibly nervous. When he’d done the DNA test it had confirmed the match but hadn’t given a name. It had confirmed that the match was his biological father though. And Luke- Luke had heard so many stories about his father.

He’d also heard that his father was dead.

But apparently Anakin Skywalker had never died. And he had seemed very excited about the prospect of meeting Luke- or at least he’d scheduled the pickup for the soonest time slot available.

Luke wanted to pace, but he sat still. Mostly still. His leg might have been jumping. Just a bit.

Luke heard the ship before he saw it. And when it came into view- it was beautiful. Luke’s eyes widened as he took in the extreme care his father must have used to take care of it.

It seemed to take forever for the ship to land and the ramp to lower. Luke stood up, feeling like he was about to vibrate out of his skin.

And then Anakin Skywalker exited the starship.

The first thing Luke noticed was the almost comically large hat. The second thing he noticed was that his father was very, very tall. As he drew closer Luke noticed other things. He was wearing sunglasses and seemed to have some sort of respirator. The uncovered skin was either scarred red or a pasty white.

But that didn’t matter. This was his father. “You’re really here,” Luke said when Anakin came to a stop in front of him. “You’re really alive.”

Anakin seemed to hesitate for a moment, then he nodded. “I’m here son.”

Luke took that as an invitation and flung his arms around his father. His father stood stock still for a moment before hesitantly wrapping his arms around Luke as well. “Luke,” he said, “my son. My son.”

…---…

Eventually Anakin had to go finish the paperwork that would allow him to actually bring Luke with him.

Luke waited somewhat less than patiently.

Finally Anakin swept back into the room. Luke couldn’t really see his face but it felt like Anakin was smiling. “Come,” he said, holding a hand out to Luke, “It’s time to go home.”

Home. Luke thought, taking his father’s hand and letting Anakin pull him to his feet, it’ll be nice to go home.

…---…

Anakin showed Luke around their new home with no small amount of trepidation. He’d never bothered with buying somewhere to live before, that had always been provided for him by his various… employers.

But Luke couldn’t stay in the palace, for obvious reasons, so Anakin had purchased this apartment for the two of them. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, Anakin’s heavily modified so he could actually use it.

Luke seemed suitably impressed but the living areas, but Anakin had only put the basics in his room. “We can buy you clothes or decorations and things later today if you’d like,” Anakin said.

“Alright,” Luke said, “Could I have a little time to put my stuff away first?”

Anakin nodded, “Of course,” he said, “Take your time. I’m not in a rush.”

Anakin hadn’t realized how much stuff went in to raising a child. Luke needed clothes, food, a place to stay, he needed to be registered for school, he needed his own comm link he needed some means of transportation- Anakin had managed to set most of it up before Luke came but clothes were hard because he hadn’t known Luke’s size.

Anakin had also programmed several droids who’d be able to take care of Luke while Anakin was away on missions.

Vader would need to be away more than Anakin really liked, but it was the only way.

…---…

The first few days were… awkward. Luke had always wanted to meet his father and he could tell that Anakin was very happy to meet him but Luke didn’t know what to talk about.

He wanted to know how Anakin had managed to survive the Jedi purges. He wanted to know why Anakin had joined the empire in the end. He wanted to know if Anakin had known about him. He wanted to know about his mother, to hear any stories Anakin had about his grandmother. But all of it seemed hard to bring up.

Anakin had registered Luke for school but Luke didn’t have to start going until the week was over.

So that meant days of spending time with his father, realizing that he couldn’t even try to smooth things over with food because Anakin could no longer eat solid food.

It was Anakin who eventually brought an end to the awkwardness. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions for me,” Anakin said, “And I have a lot for you as well. Why don’t we trade? I ask one, then you ask one. You can skip a question if you want, but the other person gets two questions on the next round.”

Luke nodded eagerly.

“As the youngest here you get to go first,” Anakin said.

Luke hesitated for a moment. “How did you meet my mom?” he asked. It seemed an innocuous enough question.

Anakin leaned back in his chair, laughing. It was a quiet- strained sound. Luke didn’t think he had the lung capacity for much more than that. “We met when I was nine,” he said, “She was a queen and I was a slave. But her planet had been attacked and her hyperdrive was broken. She landed on Tatooine with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. They didn’t have the right sort of money to buy a hyperdrive, but I was a podracer. They bet on me and were able to get their hyperdrive and free me in the process.”

Luke blinked. He had known precisely none of that before this very moment. Anakin didn’t give him very much time to process the information. “Who did you grow up with?”

The conversation continued for hours and at the end of it Luke felt more… settled than he had in months.

Luke realized that he wanted this to last. But he also knew that it couldn’t.