Room 317 [after workshops]

[tatooine_doofus]

After his workshop with Mr. Winchester, Luke came back to his room to convince Artoo that Leia had gone home.

Artoo, still in the closet, remained unconvinced.

"I wouldn't lie to you about this," Luke told the door, rolling his eyes. "She came, she saw him, she had ice cream, she went home. Really."

Artoo let out a mournful whistle.

"Fine," Luke said, flouncing back to his bed. "I'll be over here, practicing levitation with Yoda who's a turtle again, thank the Force."

Yoda? Not thrilled by getting spun through the air again, but he couldn't talk any more, so no one cared.

The door was cracked open.

[OOC: Conversation between Luke & Rikku is locked to them and the topic is NFB, thanks!]

I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow

Comments

[the_merriest]

Rikku looked over at him. "The guys who ... oh. You mean ..."

And then she smiled, a little sadly. "It's kind of nice to know, isn't it? That they're out there, helping. Somehow. Yeah?"

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke smiled ruefully. "The Jedi take it to a freakishly literal place," he said. "I heard Ben telling me when to shoot. Needless to say, the Emperor and Vader weren't particularly pleased to have their favorite new toy blown up, so after a few more battles, the Rebellion sent me here to get out of their way."

He sighed. "And Vader found out and followed."

[the_merriest]

Rikku nodded. "They were with you. That's ... that's really something, you know?"

And then shook her head again. "Here, you mean Fandom!? Why did they let him teach?! I thought this was supposed to be safe, didn't he ... wasn't he trying to ... are you okay!?"

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Principal Washburn had her reasons, too," Luke said sadly, flexing his gloved hand. "And of course he was trying something. Just not exactly what the Emperor'd had in mind."

He blew out a breath. "A Jedi has two paths in front of him: serve the light or take the power he has in the Force and twist it to serve his own ends. Darth Vader had taken the second path...and he wanted me to join him there."

[the_merriest]

"Were they good reasons!? Had she hit her head!? Luke, they let Hades be the vice-principal and he tried to get my soul and maybe he was kidding but I don't think he was!" there was a lot of flailing to accompany that, and then Rikku took a deep breath.

"Whoa. Sorry. Kinda freaked all over your story. Okay. So ... Jedi aren't always good? I thought they were about balance and all that. And ..." She shook her head, almost laughing a little. "I guess he didn't know you very well, huh? I can't see you tempted to the whole evil thing."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"...you're going to tell me about the soul thing some time soon," Luke said, and it wasn't really a request.

"And the reason Principal Washburn let Vader be here was pretty much the same reason he thought I might go along with his clearly insane plan. Um. After he made me think everyone else I loved was going to die and chopping off my hand," Luke said, taking a deep breath.

"He was my father."

He winced, waiting for the fallout.

[the_merriest]

"Totally," Rikku said, nodding, to the first part. "Long story and it's okay now, I talked to your dad about it and it's all good."

And then she sat waiting while the rest of the story unfolded itself and ...

Couldn't wrap her mind around it.

"Your ..." She shook her head. "It ... no, Luke, I met your father, right? And he's really nice and ... and he's a Jedi, and you said ... this guy was evil, yeah? That can't be right."

She stared in disbelief. "How did he ... why would he think that he was ... how ... why would he say that? It ... doesn't make any ... sense."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"It doesn't mean it wasn't true," Luke said softly. "He'd been a Jedi, he chose the Dark Side, and the fall...was catastrophic. That's why Leia and I were separated, why she was hidden, why Ben let himself be killed...."

By his former best friend. Nicely done, Obi-Wan.

[the_merriest]

Words tumbled out as she tried to wrap her mind around it. "Your dad ... Professor Skywalker ... he w-was ... he ... the one who'd been ... trying to kill you and ... and he ..."

There was a long moment before she realized that whatever she was feeling had nothing to do with any of this, and she wrapped her arms around him again and squeezed, hard.

She didn't really have any words for that. Maybe she didn't need any.

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke bit down on his lower lip as he clung to Rikku for a long moment. "He wasn't trying to kill me," he insisted softly. "Because he could've done it without really putting in much effort."

[the_merriest]

Rikku wasn't letting go any time soon. "That doesn't make it any better. Why was he ... all the Jedi, and ... your sister, would he have killed her!? Luke, that's ... how do you even ... why? You said he fell hard, but ... to go from the guy teaching flight to ... to someone evil ..."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Technically, he went from being someone evil to the guy teaching flight," Luke said with a rueful little smile. "We get a happy ending. Well, sort of. We set new standards for bizarre."

[the_merriest]

Rikku pulled back just a little to get a better view of his face. "W-wait. He's ... I thought it was a timeline thing. He's ..."

She smiled, tentatively. "Whoa. He ... he stopped being evil? That's ... Luke, that's incredible."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke smiled more. "He was my father. I couldn't just leave him like that. Besides, Rory wouldn't let me."

[the_merriest]

"Hey, I'm not surprised that you did it. I'm just ... you know. Kinda shocked it worked." Rikku beamed. "Wait, so Rory ... she used to, uh. She used to go out with him, didn't she?! She knows he was ... whoa."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"They were very serious," Luke said. "It hasn't been an easy year for her."

Luke liked focusing on other people's emotions. It stopped him from examining his own.

"So I went home in November to get a new hand and he went back to explain to his Emperor that I'd said no--I've never asked him how that meeting went, but I'm guessing not great--and we were both back here for the next semester. And Rory spent every week in his office trying to bring him back." He shook his head. "I didn't want to get too close. I was still pretty angry."

[the_merriest]

"I don't think it's been an easy year for any of you," Rikku said, giving him a sympathetic smile. "And your hand, that's so ... that's why it has the weird machinery thing? ... Wait, your dad did that?! He cut it off!?"

She stared for a long time and then leaned in to squeeze Luke again. "I don't blame you," she said softly. "I mean, it's not just the hand, it's ... everything. Yeah? That's a lot to ask."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Well, he blew up my sister's homeworld and dropped her boyfriend into liquid metal," Luke said. "I got off kinda easy."

[the_merriest]

"No," Rikku said softly. "You didn't."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke blew out a breath. "Yeah," he admitted.

"Anyway, back home the Emperor decided that rebuilding the Death Star was a fantastic idea. The Rebellion, you know, disagreed. A lot. We caught what we thought was a lucky break--we discovered where it was being constructed and believed that its weapons weren't operational. I went home to help. Vader went home for his own reasons."

[the_merriest]

Rikku nodded. "He ... he went to help set it up? For the Emperor. And why ... why was he so ... tied to him, anyway? The Emperor, I mean. Were they using each other or ..."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke nodded. "The Emperor was a Sith, too. I don't know if he was ever a Jedi, though. Records are, not surprisingly, really, nonexistent about him. He was the master. Vader was the apprentice."

He paused. "I don't really know a lot about how it worked. My father's not exactly an unencrypted data card on, well, anything."

[the_merriest]

"Have you tried asking him?" Rikku shrugged hesitantly. "He's ... it's different now, right? I mean. I bet he doesn't want to talk about it much, but ... if it's important ..."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke pressed his lips together. "He'll talk when he's ready," he decided.

Luke was always a little too forgiving.

"So I went home, saw the Death Star and decided that it was now or never in bringing him back. I surrendered to a regiment of stormtroopers on Endor and asked him to remember who he was."

[the_merriest]

Rikku stared. "Wait, you mean ... just like that? Hey, I let them arrest me, stop being evil, let's go home?"