Drabble #12
Nov. 12th, 2006 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilWell, this is a missing scene that's been done a thousand times before (I've even done previous versions of it) but I just felt like doing it...differently this time.
Dust
-------
Vader scanned the long list of names impatiently. He had demanded an immediate search for all and any persons rumored to have joined the rebels as starpilots, and his officers had obediently provided him with a mountain of useless information. Former inhabitants of Alderaan? No. He had already scoured the planet for Force-sensitive beings during his increasingly strained audiences with the traitor Organa. Nothing he had sensed there could have belonged to the one who destroyed the Death Star.
All of them too close to the Core. None of these pilots could have hidden such powers from him, living deep within the Empire's influence as they had. Vader closed the files in disgust and rose from his chair, pacing the cramped space of his chamber. It was possible, he supposed, that he could have missed someone who possessed the faint stirrings of the Force, just beginning to emerge. But the pilot he had encountered was not merely drawing on the Force by accident. He was aware. He had been taught.
Obi-Wan. Vader halted his pacing, hot anger rising, filling his mind. It would explain the smug smile on the old fool's face as he surrended to Vader, let himself be destroyed. More powerful than you can possibly imagine. Could be it be he was referring to a secret apprentice? Trained to defeat Vader?
He was not worried, of course. Vader smiled mirthlessly at the fate of any would-be Jedi who attempted to confront him in combat. The evidence of the pilot's training had been clear, but his skills were a long way from those of a Jedi. Hardly a padawan's. And nothing at all against a Sith.
Still...Obi-Wan's gall was appalling, thinking to train up a new opponent for Vader. Now that he was dead, however, Vader would have the final laugh. He would find the pilot and destroy him as he had all the treacherous Jedi.
The idea, oddly, did not give him the satisfaction he had thought it would. Why not? The Purge had been the only thing that sustained him, that gave him any purpose, during that black time when the widening hole of all he had lost threatened to tear him apart. I am Lord Vader, and I kill Jedi. He had whispered the words as a mantra when his eyes burned with the tears that would no longer form.
And yet he would not kill this beginner Jedi. Could not. Why? And why had the pilot filled his mind so constantly ever since the battle? Vader settled into his seat again and searched his circling thoughts for the reason. Killing him wouldn't be satisfying - he would have do more. Ah, there was true vengeance. Obi-Wan had thought to make the pilot his apprentice. Instead, he would be Vader's. That was right. It had long been time to take his place as Master. Vader would have done it long ago, if not for Obi-Wan's brutalities that had weakened his body so much. But he was strong enough now to overthrow the Emperor. And with this pilot, he would be ready to do it.
But who was he? Vader returned to the files and pulled up all the information he had garnered while still obsessively searching for Obi-Wan. He had abandoned the search when he no longer feared his former master's return; indeed, he relished the thought of confronting Obi-Wan and coming off victor. He looked forward to the ineitable day when Obi-Wan returned and attempted to finish what he hadn't been able to on Mustafar, when Vader would prove how much he had surpassed his old teacher. Now, however, the victory seemed to mock him. He ought to have continued searching for Obi-Wan; prevented this emergence of a new Jedi. Intently he examined the facts and rumors, the last known sighting of Obi-Wan, the traces his ship had left behind while departing Mustafar -
The ship must have been carrying someone else as well. Perhaps someone's body.
Vader's hands stiffened, their mechanisms stalled by the tension in his shoulders. Deliberately he made himself relax. There were a few possible directions Obi-Wan could have gone from there. Assuming he had already formed a connection with the handful of upstarts who would one day become the rebellion, his trail might be traced to the first abandoned base in the middle of that asteroid field - then to -
More dead ends. Vader flipped through the search information in a state of growing frustration. All that was left was rumors, the local tales of natives, whispered when they thought no Imperial agents were listening. A doddering madman on Corellia...a man living among the Wookiees on Kashyyk who never spoke or gave his name...a grizzled hermit living out beyond the Dune Sea...
Vader stared. Dune Sea? Tatooine? A slow smile twisted across his face. It would be appropriate. Obi-Wan had always spoken of his brief stay on the planet in disgust, wondering how his apprentice had ever been happy growing up there. He deserved to spend twenty years alone in the sand.
And he may very well have chosen the place knowing that Vader would never go there to look for him. In that, at least, Obi-Wan had judged correctly. Vader gave the information regarding his old home planet a cursory scan, not wanting to dwell on his memories of the place, of the things that had happened there. And then he paused.
Possible rebels from Tatooine: Biggs Darklighter. Luke Skywalker.
Everything he had believed for nearly twenty years turned to dust.
------
Oops, that's much longer than a drabble. Darn it, I just couldn't trim it down. I've really got to reign in these rambling tendencies. ;)
Dust
-------
Vader scanned the long list of names impatiently. He had demanded an immediate search for all and any persons rumored to have joined the rebels as starpilots, and his officers had obediently provided him with a mountain of useless information. Former inhabitants of Alderaan? No. He had already scoured the planet for Force-sensitive beings during his increasingly strained audiences with the traitor Organa. Nothing he had sensed there could have belonged to the one who destroyed the Death Star.
All of them too close to the Core. None of these pilots could have hidden such powers from him, living deep within the Empire's influence as they had. Vader closed the files in disgust and rose from his chair, pacing the cramped space of his chamber. It was possible, he supposed, that he could have missed someone who possessed the faint stirrings of the Force, just beginning to emerge. But the pilot he had encountered was not merely drawing on the Force by accident. He was aware. He had been taught.
Obi-Wan. Vader halted his pacing, hot anger rising, filling his mind. It would explain the smug smile on the old fool's face as he surrended to Vader, let himself be destroyed. More powerful than you can possibly imagine. Could be it be he was referring to a secret apprentice? Trained to defeat Vader?
He was not worried, of course. Vader smiled mirthlessly at the fate of any would-be Jedi who attempted to confront him in combat. The evidence of the pilot's training had been clear, but his skills were a long way from those of a Jedi. Hardly a padawan's. And nothing at all against a Sith.
Still...Obi-Wan's gall was appalling, thinking to train up a new opponent for Vader. Now that he was dead, however, Vader would have the final laugh. He would find the pilot and destroy him as he had all the treacherous Jedi.
The idea, oddly, did not give him the satisfaction he had thought it would. Why not? The Purge had been the only thing that sustained him, that gave him any purpose, during that black time when the widening hole of all he had lost threatened to tear him apart. I am Lord Vader, and I kill Jedi. He had whispered the words as a mantra when his eyes burned with the tears that would no longer form.
And yet he would not kill this beginner Jedi. Could not. Why? And why had the pilot filled his mind so constantly ever since the battle? Vader settled into his seat again and searched his circling thoughts for the reason. Killing him wouldn't be satisfying - he would have do more. Ah, there was true vengeance. Obi-Wan had thought to make the pilot his apprentice. Instead, he would be Vader's. That was right. It had long been time to take his place as Master. Vader would have done it long ago, if not for Obi-Wan's brutalities that had weakened his body so much. But he was strong enough now to overthrow the Emperor. And with this pilot, he would be ready to do it.
But who was he? Vader returned to the files and pulled up all the information he had garnered while still obsessively searching for Obi-Wan. He had abandoned the search when he no longer feared his former master's return; indeed, he relished the thought of confronting Obi-Wan and coming off victor. He looked forward to the ineitable day when Obi-Wan returned and attempted to finish what he hadn't been able to on Mustafar, when Vader would prove how much he had surpassed his old teacher. Now, however, the victory seemed to mock him. He ought to have continued searching for Obi-Wan; prevented this emergence of a new Jedi. Intently he examined the facts and rumors, the last known sighting of Obi-Wan, the traces his ship had left behind while departing Mustafar -
The ship must have been carrying someone else as well. Perhaps someone's body.
Vader's hands stiffened, their mechanisms stalled by the tension in his shoulders. Deliberately he made himself relax. There were a few possible directions Obi-Wan could have gone from there. Assuming he had already formed a connection with the handful of upstarts who would one day become the rebellion, his trail might be traced to the first abandoned base in the middle of that asteroid field - then to -
More dead ends. Vader flipped through the search information in a state of growing frustration. All that was left was rumors, the local tales of natives, whispered when they thought no Imperial agents were listening. A doddering madman on Corellia...a man living among the Wookiees on Kashyyk who never spoke or gave his name...a grizzled hermit living out beyond the Dune Sea...
Vader stared. Dune Sea? Tatooine? A slow smile twisted across his face. It would be appropriate. Obi-Wan had always spoken of his brief stay on the planet in disgust, wondering how his apprentice had ever been happy growing up there. He deserved to spend twenty years alone in the sand.
And he may very well have chosen the place knowing that Vader would never go there to look for him. In that, at least, Obi-Wan had judged correctly. Vader gave the information regarding his old home planet a cursory scan, not wanting to dwell on his memories of the place, of the things that had happened there. And then he paused.
Possible rebels from Tatooine: Biggs Darklighter. Luke Skywalker.
Everything he had believed for nearly twenty years turned to dust.
------
Oops, that's much longer than a drabble. Darn it, I just couldn't trim it down. I've really got to reign in these rambling tendencies. ;)
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Date: 2006-11-13 02:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-13 02:10 am (UTC)