His Eyes Almost Sing
Suggested Theme:
Main Theme- My True Love's Eyes by Jerry Goldsmith
"Living river, turn light to diamonds
When I look in my true love's eyes."
The bacta tank gives him a clumpy, white view of the world. And the Force offers him no third sight. All he can do is listen to the feminine trill.
"Come white flowers, weave us a carpet
Spreading oak make a shade where we lie.
Leaves and branches, whisper our love song,
When I look in my true love's eyes.
Young as any spring, his eyes almost sing to me."
Armitage. He knows it's the child, the past of the man destined to seduce his (possible) future Apprentince. Because who else can make it past Vaneé?
"Living river, turn light to diamonds
When I look in my true love's eyes.
Like a child feels watching a rainbow.
Like a bird feels the first time it flies.
I feel magic stirring within me,
When I look in my true love's eyes.
Young as any spring, his eyes almost sing."
Or, perhaps, it's the man? The voice sounds a little too mature to be a child's singing voice. It's soft like a woman's, so gentle like Padmé's.
"In the bumps and the hollows,
The sunlight and shadows.
He kissed her as those bluebells played.
As his lips met her breath,
He went sweetly to death
At the roots of the bluebells is where he's laid."
But Padmé couldn't sing as well as this singer. She can be on pitch, but more often than not, she would miss key notes and sound nearly tuneless to Anakin. But she could always be counted on to sing funeral songs well.
"Come dance sparrow, sing me good morning.
Rise up sun like the arch of the sky."
His heart, always burning with rage and pain, longs for a wrong note. For human imperfection. For her.
"Living river, turn light to diamonds
When I look in my true love's eyes.
Young as any spring, his eyes almost sing."
For her loving touch. For her regal face. For her beating heart.
"Living river, turn light to diamonds
When I look in my true love's eyes."
The white clumps mutate into smooth darkness. The singing has soften to a murmur. His heart is frozen in time.
"Come white flowers, weave us a carpet
Spreading oak make a shade where we lie.
Leaves and branches, whisper our love song,
When I look in my true love's eyes.
Young as any spring, his eyes almost sing to me."
Why do you sing?
I sing for Eos.
Who?
A child I want you to care for.
Why?
Because you've taken such good care of the fireflower!
A plant isn't the same as a child!
Oh, they're quite similar; I'll tell you about it when we meet face-to-face again.
And when will that be?
I would say really soon, especially with Kylo's rushing.
Kylo?
The black-haired young man that you saw me—
Don't remind me!
And I'm not certain that's his true name. You see he's going through a bit of an identity crisis. Sometimes, he's Kylo. Sometimes, he's Matt. He used to be Ben, but he's coming back in style like my favorite gum. Or maybe he'll make another name.
…It seems like I have two children to deal with.
Technically six, but two of those won't be for another decade or so.
…..I'm a Dark Lord of the Sith, not a fa—babysitter!
Eos is the only one you have to take care of.
I don't have to!
You won't be able to resist Eos.
No child will ever hold sway over me!
…Eos loves Muppets.
What?
The white, clumpy bacta drains like sour blue milk down an old sink. The hissing steam and mechanical whirrs fills his ears as his mechno limbs are reattached. Just as his helmet becomes affix to the rest of his mask, he senses another presence just outside the door.
Almost invisible in the Force like Master can be. Is this another test from—
The door opens with a quiet push, and Vader stops breathing. Not out of fear or mechanical malfunction, but because he is stupefied by what toddles in.
A baby dressed in pink. That pink can only come from mixing her white face paint with her red lips. Ani would've thought. But both Ani and Vader would have wondered how in the Netherworld can she turn her head in such an extravagant collar. The collar is shaped like the top half of a butterfly wing with a veil stretched across it like a spider web that caught a bunch of silver stars.
She steps so delicately, even with those long sleeves dragging across the floor. She must be using the Force, but she shouldn't be able to. She's so small like…and her face is just like…but her eyes are green and her hair is black. She's coming towards me, completely unafraid like…
"Eos?" His breathing apparatus distorts his raspy voice into a booming roar. She stops just a few tiny steps from him and nods.
"What are you doing here?" She blinks at him and then presents the fireflower to him.
"Can you speak?" She smiles, gently puts the pot down, and then latches herself onto one mechno leg like a lamprey.
…I am going to need Master's help.
The surprise in Vaneé's dark eyes almost gives Vader relief. But the toddler gripping his leg as he walks counteracts that relief.
"Vaneé."
"Yes, Lord Vader?"
"…..I will be leaving for the Palace with the child. Pack the child some food, something soft since she's one." I think she's one; she could be a small two, or an even smaller three. She then smiles at him like a very pleased tusk cat. Reminding him of her.
"Yes, my Lord." Vaneé gives a small bow before scurrying off to the kitchen. She momentarily watches the servant, but her eyes seem only captivated by the sway of his dark cloak. Those green eyes return to him.
"You can't be attached to my leg; I have to prepare my ship." She smiles coyly like Padmé did when she was waiting up for her Knight. But she lets go and stands on her own two, little feet. She looks at his hands like she was thinking about jumping up and grabbing one, but her face crumbles a bit, realizing that no jump will get her his hand.
Has she given up and decided to be a good little girl? Vader tests by walking in the direction of his hangar. Immediately, he feels the child holding to the ends of his cape like the reins of a gualama.
The child walks as he walks, no stumbling, no complaining, no laughing. But he can feel her smile.
The TIE Advanced is what he usually uses for his impromptu rendezvous with his Master, but the child clutching at his cape makes him reconsider. She would feel claustrophobic, any child would.
So he settled on the starship. The starship is one designed by his Master, sleek and able to blend into the darkness between stars, just like his Master. Normally, he would have his droid fly with him, but he intends to put the child where the droid would sit. The starship is big enough to hold the Seventh Sister, but he wants to keep the child secure in one spot.
She should be panting or whining about being made to walk for so long and so far. But she's looking at me like she's privy to something I don't know, almost whimsical like Master used to be. He almost believed she was going to put a finger to her lips like she was going to shush him, but she continues to smile at him.
Her smiles burn him like Mustafar fire.
"Will you ever speak?" She puts a finger to her fair lips in response.
In the beginning, she was content with being in the droid's seat, looking at the stars warping in the blue-white hyperspace. But she soon unbuckled herself and wriggled her way into the cock pit like a pink-skinned serpent.
And Vader lacked the will to refuse her.
Once they land in the Palace hangar, she scoots off his lap and uses one hand to grab onto his cape. The other is occupied with holding the clear baggy of sliced and peeled shuura fruit.
The Royal Guards do not stop them from entering the Palace, or even think about why a little girl dressed like a princess with a bag of fruit in one hand is with the Darth Vader. Their minds are purely focused on their duty in protecting the Emperor.
Though I can sense their confusion in the Force. Unlike them, Vader hopes his Master can rid him of this particular confusion.
She keeps her eyes down on the Wayland marble, tracing the golden lines looping and zigzagging through the white stone like lightening. They stop only a little ways from the throne, and Vader genuflects before the Emperor. She keeps staring at the gold.
"Ah, Lord Vader, I see you have brought the peculiarity with you." Peculiarity? So the child is not a disturbance in the Force? Or maybe she's just a by-product. He thinks about the other child with red hair and blue-green eyes; the true disturbance in the Force. "Rise, my Apprentice."
"Master, I was given this girl, Eos, by a…" His Master flashes his golden eyes and his thin mouth perks with a correction.
"Eos is a boy, Apprentince." Vader glances down at Eos in his pink dress and frilly collar.
"How can you tell?" His vocalizer hides his incredulity, but he knows that his Master can see it displayed like a holo-sign in the Force.
"He only has Shiraya's bottom lip." There's a pause as Eos opens his bag to snack on a sweet slice. "On Naboo, fashion is not limited by gender, but parents do like their children to be properly identified. Shiraya's bottom lip, or the one half-ruff, means that the child is a boy; if there were two, resembling a top lip, then the child is a girl."
"But how can you tell that the dress is Naboo? It could be from Alderaan." His Master raises a white eyebrow like a theater actor being asked a stupid question.
"While Alderaan and Naboo share some fashion aesthetics, Naboo is far more regal in design." Vader swears that his Master sniffs like he's offended on Naboo's behalf. Eos tilts his head like he's mildly surprised by the Emperor's emotional reaction. He then bites into another slice.
"…..I understand, my Master, but I have something more important to discuss with you." There's a flash of something dangerous in his Master's golden eyes, and he feels a shiver goes down his spine. Eos, blissfully ignorant or courageous, just rolls his eyes at the Emperor.
"About how you received the peculiarity, I presume." Vader wonders if he should send Eos out of the room. I don't think any child wants to hear about their parents' bedroom antics. Yet, he cannot keep his Master waiting.
"Master, perhaps, it would be best if I didn't discuss such….sensitive details in front of Eos." Eos raises a perfect eyebrow at him, while his Master wears a bemused smirk.
"Then, he may keep my guards company if you wish." Vader feels something burning in him akin to pleasure like whenever the Chancellor paid Anakin a compliment, which was often. Vader turns his helm down at the child who is mildly munching on the rest of his slices.
"Eos…." Vader pauses for a moment to scrape together a plausible excuse. "The Emperor and I have business to discuss. Wouldn't you like to play with the guards?"
Eos blinks like a pondering owl, but slowly nods. He looks at the double doors and they open by his Master's will. The child toddles away with only three slices left in his little bag.
The doors lock with an audible click.
"Proceed, Apprentice."
"Master, approximately nine standard weeks ago, I was caught up in a…..Force-vision. In the Force-vision, I saw a young man with black hair and a large nose receiving dubious fellatio from another young man with red hair and covered in green, alien tattoos." He pauses searching for shock or anger, but his Master only grimaces with disgust.
"Was there anything else to this Force-vision?"
"The ginger was singing with a woman's voice, and I believe that the brunette, whose name might be Kylo, Matt, or Ben, was paralyzed because he didn't even twitch….." He notices a twitch in his Master's right hand like he's about to face-palm. "I also had two more visions."
"I do hope less sexual in nature."
"They are, Master." Vader assures him. "The second vision had jizz music and the ginger man as a child named Armitage in a white tunic and leggings. He gave me a present while escorting me to the shrine. The present was this fireflower from a planet called Dune. When I came back to reality, the flower was there."
He pauses, waiting for a comment from his Master, but his Master remains silent.
"The final vision involved more singing by who I presume is Armitage in his adult form. He was singing while I was in my bacta tank, and then I fell asleep. He informed me that he was going to leave the child, Eos, in my care and promised that we'll meet again soon. After I woke up and put on my suit, Eos was there."
Vader hesitates to ask the question that bothers, and his Master picks up on it in the Force.
"What else is on your mind, Apprentice?"
"Master, what are Muppets?"
Now, his Master furrows his thick brows, expressing his confusion clearly. "I have not heard of these Muppets, but, perhaps, my archives can enlighten us."
After several hours of researching, the two Sith Lords turn up nothing on these Muppets, and Vader feels his head ache after reading too many books written in the troublesome Ancient Sith. His Master was not disappointed at finding nothing; he loves researching as much as he loves wine and the arts.
"Apprentice, keep the child by your side; I have a feeling this 'Armitage' and brunette will come back for him. And when they do, you can interrogate them."
"And what will we do with the child after that?"
"…Perhaps, you can keep him. I sense the Force in him, and he hides it so very well. The child could serve us well."
"Master, how am I supposed to care for him?"
"Feed him, shelter him, and educate him."
"What about clothing him?"
"I will handle that, my Apprentice. It is a bit late to plan a full spring wardrobe, but not for the summer…"
He politely left his Master alone after that to pick up the child.
The child is right outside the doors with the Red Guards who stand motionlessly. And Vader quickly notices that the child is sparkling like someone bathed him in glitter. He looks at the guards who offer no explanation. The child puts his sparkling arms up, wanting to be picked up.
Oh, great, now I'm going to get glitter on my suit! But he picks up the child. Eos then turns his head away, wrinkles his nose, and sneezes a cloud of glitter.
Author's Comments- Here are the links:
Here is what inspires Eos's outfit; that Elizabethan collar is something I can see part of Naboo fashion, possibly when Palpatine was a baby: a href=" . img/croppedphotos/2018/01/24/Queen_Elizabeths_Secret_Agents_BI_Rainbow_Portrait_ ?90232451fbcadccc64a17de7521d859a8f88077d"Link/a
Here is an image of Darth Vader's starship that apparently belonged to Darth Sidious in the past; I don't follow the comics, so I'm using Wookie to educate myself. I think the ship in this image reminds me of a heel that belongs on a Transformer. Not Animated Starscream because the heel is not high enough: a href=" . "Link/a
Aww, Vader gets to play great-granddaddy to a great-grandson that he doesn't know is of his lineage! And Sidious gets to design his clothes because I know that Naboo in him will SEIZE any opportunity to be fashionable, even if it's vicariously through a one-year-old. And I finally dragged Sidious into this series!
Next part in the series will finally have that mother and son reunion with 50% more dragon!