The challenge would be to turn him despite these beliefs; more than that, to turn them against him. To engineer a situation in which, aware that he was walking into the Darkness, the Jedi would keep walking.
He could not, in that final instant, be pushed to Darkness; he had to receive it willingly, to open his mind and his soul in acceptance.
But he could be pushed to that very brink. Harried and provoked and manipulated to that critical, pivotal moment...when he would take the Darkness and use it as his own.
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Luke sat locked again in the still gloom of his unlit room, his feet pulled up on the edge of the chair, hand to his head against the incessant pressure there, trying to reason through the vision which had turned his perceptions upside down. Not even that; no vision as such, just knowledge, bone-deep and undeniable, that he would betray Master Yoda. A truth, as absolute as death.
He gazed out across the bright, distant lights of the city, their glow casting velvet shadows about the cavernous bedroom, its overwhelming scale reminding him how desperately alone he was here.
How could he move forward now? How could he hold against this? Because he had to find a way. He wouldn't let it swallow him up in its self-fulfilling portent.
If he could just...
He paused, aware of a disturbance which rolled through the Darkness about him, trying to lock it down...
He knew before he heard the voice in the room outside, low and bass, passing out orders as if it were some divine right.
Not now... Luke thought. For all the difference it made; even if Vader had heard him, it wouldn't have slowed his footsteps. He knew he should stand, but instead he simply drew his legs up tighter, wrapping his arms about them in an uncommonly childlike gesture.
The lights in the room came on--even that was beyond his control, here--and the bolts cycled open in heavy, leaden tones.
Vader entered alone, waiting for the door to grate closed with its weighty grind.
Silence drew out, Luke not turning, though he was unable to ignore the heavy, rasping breaths of his fathe... of Vader's mask.
"Your companions are free," Vader said at last.
Luke remained still, gazing out into the night, torn by frustrations, by his own inability to act. He wanted to shout, to scream at this...thing to leave him alone, to go and never return. Yet when he finally spoke, all he could do was to ask quietly, without turning around, "What do you want from me? I have no idea why you come here."
"Neither do I," Vader admitted without rancor, voice eerily lost in that moment.
"Then go. Just...leave. Leave me alone." Why could he not do that? Why did he keep coming back to remind Luke of the weakness he too carried.
"You are already alone, by your own choice," Vader rumbled.
Luke whirled at that. "My choice? Choice! My choice is to walk out of here and never look back. My choice is for you to..." He broke off, rubbing at his aching head, tired to the grave...what was the point?
"There are still choices," Vader reminded him.
"I'll rot before I'll help you." Luke's voice was tired and hollow, but his commitment shone through.
"Then he's won. You'll serve him before the year is out."
"Because you did?"
"Because this is what he does. He defeated the Senate and the massed ranks of the Jedi at their height. He brought down a Republic. Do you think you can stand alone against him?"
Vader's voice was strangely quiet, defeated, regretful almost, to Luke's ears...or perhaps he was just tired.
"Do you see the future?" Luke asked at last, without turning.
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"I sensed the vision tonight." Vader confirmed his son's unspoken question without reluctance, aware of how it would have gnawed into the boy, left alone with his thoughts. Perhaps that was why he had come here tonight, even though now that he was here, he had no idea what to say or how to offer any kind of comfort.
His son remained silent for a long time, lost in thought. "Do you think Master Yoda sensed it?"
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Luke was aware that this question was testing the distance that he sought to maintain between himself and Vader, but in that moment was unable to stop himself, desperate for reassurance that Yoda had been forewarned.
Vader was silent for a long time, which was all the answer Luke needed. When he eventually spoke, though he tried hard to soften his tone, Luke heard only a chilling finality.
"No." Perhaps sensing Luke's desolation, Vader added, "But you are not to blame."
Luke turned slightly, though it was in disbelief, not hope.
"You once said to me that you had made your decisions. You must accept then, that Master Yoda made his. When he took you from me. When he lied to you about your past. When he.."
"Don't," Luke said quietly, the word broken by tiredness and regret; he couldn't do this again. Not tonight.
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Vader fell silent, unable to maintain his anger against that. Finally he had to speak out. Perhaps this was why he had come here, to say this: "I did not give you up, you were stolen from me. Remember that."
The boy shook his head. "Did you even try to find me?"
"I thought you lost when your mother died. I thought I had lost you both."
"But you didn't know."
"Do you think I would have deserted my own son?" Vader asked, appalled at the accusation. "If I had known you were still alive, nothing could have stopped me from finding you. They could not have hidden you from me."
The boy turned away, unable to hear this now. Unwilling. Perhaps it was easier to be angry, to have Vader angry, to reinstate those boundaries and not have to deal with any of this. "And what would you have done...brought me here?"
Vader paused at that, knowing it would have been his intent.
His son's voice fell to a bitter, accusing whisper when he spoke. "What father would do that to his own son? Ever."
"You would have been where you belonged--with your father."
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"What protection is that?" Luke asked bleakly, the rebuke obviously cutting deep, though the truth in his accusation made his victory a hollow one. "I'm very tired," Luke said at last, turning away in dismissal, still rubbing at the hazy pressure in his head.
"It is a constant here," Vader said. "But it can be pushed back. You will find that there are spaces between and about it. It is there that you learn to exist."
Luke glanced back, knowing that Vader wasn't speaking of tiredness. "To exist isn't enough."
"There are times when to exist, simply to survive, is the greatest victory of all."
Luke shook his head, chilled by the warning. "It's no victory, just a rationalization of failure."
"Is that what you believe when you look at me?" The timbre in Vader's voice carried unmistakable menace, and Luke knew he was suddenly skating very close to the edge.
But it was where he wanted to be--at least with Vader. He desired no understanding, no commonality, no blurring of the line between them. "Yes, it is."
"I command an army in its millions and stand second only to the Emperor himself. My will dictates the fate of peoples and planets and systems alike. For two decades my word has been law."