Chapter Text
When Luke (not Lukka, never Lukka, Lukka was too weak to survive) woke up, he felt better rested than he had in… however long it had been. He had lost track long ago.
He could feel the cushioned mattress below him and made sure to hold still, as he was still unaware of what type of test this could be. For now, he just lay there, enjoying the heavy weight of the blankets above him as he worked to mask his heartbeat.
He had noticed he was in a hospital bed, so most likely it was time to run more tests on his power with the force. Those never happened until he was awake enough to feel all of them. He knew the beings liked to watch his pain. He also knew it was only a matter of time until his father came in and said-
“I know you’re awake.” Luke’s eyes shot open. That shouldn’t have been possible. His father hated and banned any mention of his home world. He started thinking it through. Could this be an attempt to see what his reaction to his mother language would be, or was it an attempt to see if he would react at all? Oh Ar-Amu, had he just failed?
As he struggled to keep his breathing even, the person in front of him started speaking again, this time in Basic. “Hey, hey. Kid, can you understand me?” At Luke’s nod, the man seemed to relax. “Good. Now, do you remember how I showed you to breathe earlier? In four, hold four, out four, hold four. Remember?”
Luke shut his eyes, trying to do what the man said. He… vaguely remembered. He followed what the man said, as it seemed to work last time. His breathing seemed to calm down, and he relaxed.
When he finally opened his eyes again, the man was watching him carefully, expression blank. That’s when it hit him. He wasn’t with his father anymore. He got away, and the presence, the man in front of him, had found him. The man didn’t seem to hate him for using the Dark, in fact, he seemed to care for him.
This made him start to cry.
Why would a random person care about him when his own father and sister seemed to care less for his survival? Hen knew he couldn’t truly blame his sister, after all his presence was probably a nightmare to her. That didn’t change the fact that it still stung.
The man seemed to visibly startle at the crying, not quite knowing how to get it to stop. Through his tears, Luke started to laugh at the thought. The laughter helped calm him down, centering him on the present.
As he got a better look at the room, he quickly realized it was the same medbay he was in earlier. Not yet sure if he could speak, he remembered he knew Basic sign.
‘Where are we?’ he signed swiftly. To the man’s credit, he took the change in communication in stride. “We are currently docked and preparing to disembark the ship to head to the council chambers. We were waiting for you to wake up, as you are not yet fully healed. The only way the medics would let you go was if we let you fully rest, and I must say, after that display of power, I must feel inclined to agree.”
Luke nodded, understanding, signing as he began to stand. ‘I apologize for holding us up. It will not happen again. I am prepared to leave now.’
“Woah, kid! That was not what I meant. You needed rest to help recover, and that should always be the priority. Also, what do you think you are doing? You are not going to be walking there. We have a wheel chair ready to get you there.” At this, the man brought over an electric wheel chair for him to sit in. It seemed a little small, he was an adult after all, but it was probably just due to malnutrition.
As he sat down, he realized just how high end it was. It wasn’t bulky, and there was a touch pad on both sides that he would use to steer it. He fiddled around with it for a bit before he signed that he was ready to go.
“Alright then, follow me.” The man started towards the medbay doors, and Luke moved to follow, when he suddenly caught his reflection. It took him a solid minute for the information to compute with his brain. That explains that, I guess.
“Kid? Something wrong?” He glanced up, realizing the man had noticed he had stopped. ‘I’m a child.’ He signed. “Well… yeah. Were you not before?” The man looked genuinely confused at his statement. ‘Nope. When I stopped keeping track, I was about 24. Should we keep going?’ He made sure to give an innocent smile as he asked, as if he hadn’t just possibly broken a man’s concept of time. “Yeah kid, let's just go.” He answered with a sigh.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the pair approached the two large doors, Luke could feel the warmth radiating from the room. Knowing what could happen if he didn’t, he started to put up the blocks for his presence in the Dark.
“Don’t do that.” He froze, as if caught. ‘Do what?’ he signed innocently, hoping he meant something different.
“Don’t block your presence. First off, long term blocks can harm you, both physically and mentally. Second, your blocks are frankly pretty weak. It will be easy to sense that you have them up, and will seem suspicious. Lastly, what you have is a gift. You have been at perfect equilibrium for the last five days. That is supposed to be physically impossible. You have proved that it is only improbable. So, Don’t. Block. Your presence.”
With that, he turned and walked into the room, holding the doors for Luke to scramble to get his chair through.
Once he had entered, he froze. Not because of the grandeur of the room or his own fear, but because sitting in front of him, watching with guarded expressions, were a group of beings that were definitely supposed to be dead. Two of which he had seen die with his own eyes.
He shakily raised his hands, ready to sign… something, when he felt the last three presences enter the room. The first two were barely worth a glance to him, one of them with no true force presence at all. It was the last one, the one that had haunted him for Ar-Amu knew how long.
As his breathing started to shake, it all clicked. How he could be so young, how all of these people could be alive, and how that presence could stand to be so clean.
“Keekta-du,” he practically growled as he tried to turn his chair. It was too slow, so he pushed himself out of it to stand. “You depur, you KEEKTA-DU!” He was practically standing on his own, and the man (Mace?) was looking like he was ready to restrain him, as he screeched at the one whom he was forced to call his father. “You don’t deserve to be called Ipa.” He hissed it so quietly he was surprised to see that kriffing man flinch back in horror, as if he had been struck.
He sat back down with a huff and a sneer. After a deep breath to compose himself, he turned to the council. ‘I am Lukka Ekkreth, or Luke Skywalker in your Basic tongue. Yes, I am that keekta-du’s son, no I do not recognize him as my father. It would appear I am in the past, as in my time all of you are dead. Any questions? No? Good. I shall take my leave now.’ With that, he pushed open the doors with the force and rolled outside to wait for Mace.