Now he was tilting his head in that familiar way. "What'd you do?"
"Nothing."
"Really? Cos I can't help but notice that I remain cable-free and, if I say so myself, I did a hell of a lot to hack 'em off."
Luke sighed, realizing that he had absolutely no idea of how to break the news of his training to everybody, especially Han. Of everyone, he suspected that the cynical smuggler would take this the least well. But he'd better get used to explaining it--there were a lot of people who simply didn't believe that the Jedi ever existed; the Empire had put a lot of effort into reinventing them as fakers and opportunists obsessed with their own political power. Some bought into the lie, some didn't. Some never believed in the first place--which took Luke squarely back to Han, who remained crouched before him. Luke looked his friend in the eye, manner very serious.
"You know all that...Force stuff you don't believe in?" It wasn't his best opening line, he had to admit...
"Yeah, I know it," Han said slowly, realizing where this was going, "Please don't tell me you got it into your head that all that stuff Kenobi spouted is real."
"It is real."
"See, it's not..."
"Han..." Luke interrupted.
.
.
"No, listen--telling people it's real and wearing lightsabers is gonna make people do this to you." Han lifted the cable to illustrate his point. This was important. The kid did one step short of idolize that bantha-brained old hermit that he'd first come into Han's company with--to the point that he'd one admitted to Han that he'd heard Kenobi's voice over the Death Star. He'd had none of it when Han had said that in moments of high stress, pretty much everyone had some kind of weird experience. Didn't mean they were real.
At least the kid at least had the good grace to hunch down slightly in Han's still-blurred line of vision as he spoke, still trying to defend his corner. "Han..."
"Luke, Kenobi was just..." he hesitated to say it, knowing how the kid worshiped the old man, but this was important. "He was just some crazy..."
"Han, look down."
Han frowned, glancing down. "Ho! Hey! Whoa!"
He floated gently about a foot off the ground, neither boot touching the floor, still in a perfect crouch--he stretched forward quickly, hands out to catch himself...but didn't fall. "What the hell!?"
"If you struggle, it's very hard to keep you level," Luke said mildly.
"Seriously? ... You're doing this!?... Seriously!" Han babbled, arms out stiffly as if to balance himself now. "How the hell are..."
"It's all real, Han," Luke said quietly.
"Get me the hell down, then!"
.
.
Luke lowered Han gently to the ground, releasing him slowly so he took his own weight back. Han crouched in silence for long seconds, glaring at Luke.
Finally, when Luke could stand it no more he opened his mouth to speak, to be met by Han's hand before his face, one finger held up to silence him. "Okay, supposing--just supposing--that I accept that it's real for the minute..." He raised his eyebrows meaningfully at the last. "Which I'm not sayin' that I do... Can you do anything else?"
Luke shrugged unassumingly. "I can speed up my reflexes, accelerate healing, increase my physical abilities, read intent, see..."
Han sat back to yank his boot off and drop it to the ground. "Lift that up."
"Han, I just lifted you up. What..."
"I wanna see you do it on something else. Somethin' I name."
Sighing, Luke lifted the boot with the Force, turning it gently in the air at eye level. Even this small act felt good. He'd not maintained anything more than passive contact with the Force since arriving here, uncomfortable to do so this close to Vader, knowing that he would sense any contact.
Inexplicably, Han felt the need to check for forcefields, waving his hand over and about the boot. How exactly Han thought that Luke would be creating or manipulating them in an Imperial detention cell, Luke didn't know.
"It's not a trick," Luke said, giving his friend time to come to terms with this as Han tapped suspiciously at the boot.
It didn't take him too long, opportunist that he was.
"Can you open the door?"
"No. I could open a normal cell door--just blow it out--but this is different and I've been trying to figure out how. I've gone over the door repeatedly, but there's no mechanical lock at all, only an automated hinge mechanism to open the door when it's free-moving. I was looking at the structure of the roof, and I think there's a vacuum between the two doors--around this whole chamber. I think we're in a room within a room. That's why there are two doors with the outer one opening out and the inner one opening in; they're both held closed by a vacuum that exists between these two rooms. I'm pretty sure I could force the seal, but I think if I did it'd open the cell to a vacuum. I think it was made specifically to hold Jedi."
.
.
Hold Jedi..."That's why they want you, isn't it?" Han asked slowly, as it all came together.
Luke nodded slowly.
"That's why Vader was sent after you."
"Vader has his own reasons," Luke said cryptically, making Han frown at the kid.
He was different somehow; had been since Han had arrived here. Han had put it down to their less-than-favorable circumstances, but now...
Han looked closer--he seemed older...more prepossessed.
"Where were you," Han asked slowly. "When we were limping all the way to Bespin then stuck on Cloud City for weeks on end...where were you, Luke?"
Luke glanced down...and was actually about to speak when his face changed quite suddenly, a wary mask falling as he looked aside. "Vader," he whispered.
Han frowned, glancing at the blank wall where the kid was looking, confused. "What?"
A distant, muffled hiss of displaced air was followed by the grind of the heavy outer door opening. Han pushed up and back as Luke rose beside him, just as the inner door grated open and Vader stalked in, striding up to Luke without even glancing at Han, stormtroopers crowding in at the door.
"What were you doing?" Vader growled without preamble.
The kid was incredibly guarded now, but strangely unafraid. More than that even; antagonistic. Han could see it quite clearly.
"Why?" Luke challenged.
Even his voice was different; had an uncharacteristic edge to it.
Vader took one step closer, hand held out, finger up in warning. "Don't play games with me. What were you doing?"
Still Luke wouldn't back down. Han glanced at the troopers by the now-closed door. Was the kid suicidal!
"Why don't you check your security footage? Or ask your troopers in the ops room. That's their job, isn't it, to watch us?"
Han glanced up, squinting about the cell for a security lens, though he could see nothing.
"I am asking you," Vader snapped, denying none of Luke's accusations.
Luke remained silent, the air fairly buzzing between them. Han had never seen the kid like this before--he was almost unrecognizable.
"Check the wires," Vader ordered.
Two troopers rushed forward to comply, inspecting the cables which bound Luke to the wide central pillar.
"They're good, Lord Vader. No marks," came the filtered reply.
"The door," Vader said, without looking away.
The troopers pushed past Han, hustling him aside. "Hey, watch it!"
"Clean, Sir."
Vader lifted his head to study the post which Luke was tied to, then scanned the room slowly before turning back to a still-silent Luke, who fairly seethed animosity, eyes hooded, stance taut.
"If you do anything, anything at all, he will suffer," Vader growled, pointing to Han. "As will the others. They are all expendable. Remember that."
He turned, his cloak swirling about him, and was almost to the door before Luke spoke, voice tight and low. "I will."