Don't Let Yourself Be Hurt This Time
Suggested Theme:
Main Theme- The World Spins by Julee Cruise
"Moving near the edge at night,
Dust is dancing in the space."
Darth Vader hears a woman's lilting voice coming from outside his meditation chamber. Why is there singing? It's not Empire Day. On the week of Empire Day, Coruscant becomes a non-stop party with music and wine constantly flowing; all of the citizens become drunk on joy. Oh, how he hates them.
"A dog and bird are far away."
He's never been terribly interested in music, but he's fairly certain there's some kind of a guitar accompanying the woman's singing. Along with a piano. Maybe. Padmé would've told me which instruments are being played, probably even named the songstress. She always loved music.
"The sun comes up and down each day."
He stares at the white walls of his meditation chamber, pondering what he should do. Should I investigate? For all I know Master is holding some private opera show, even though this doesn't sound like opera. Is it jizz music? I've only seen my Master listen to operas, at least when he was just a Chancellor.
"Light and shadow change the walls."
He takes one last, unassisted breath. The arm extends from the ceiling and brings down his mask, and then his helm. He hears the familiar hiss as his helmet locks into place. And then his chamber opens.
"Halley's Comet's come and gone."
He is greeted by the sight of a little boy with a red box in his little hands. The little boy has fiery locks licking at his birdy shoulders. He is as pale as paper and just as thin, which makes his blue-green eyes pop out even more on his thin, pale face. He's dressed in a white tunic with matching leggings, but no shoes.
"The things I touch are made of stone."
Vader sees the little boy looking at him, not with fear or curiosity, but in contemplation. The little boy looks down at the box and squints his eyes like there's fine print written on it, and then looks back up at him.
"Dark Father?" His voice sounds reedy like the trilling of a flute.
"No, I am Darth Vader." Vader anticipates that his booming voice will surely send shivers down the child's back, but the little boy shakes his head instead.
"Darth Vader in Ancient Sith translates to Dark Father! Your name is on the box, see!" The little boy turns the box around, and Vader can see the very fine Ancient Sith writing on it. Ancient Sith looks like pictograms chiefly using sickles as their only symbols! In other words, Vader has yet to master it like his Master has.
"….Yes, I can see that." He lies not as easily as he usually can. "You've always been a terrible liar, Ani!" His Angel used to joke with him and then would kiss him.
"Then, you know we've got to go to the Sith Shrine and then you can open it. The box says so!" The box says so! He says it like a direct command from the Force. But Vader is curious to see where this goes. And what's inside the box.
"Falling through this night, alone."
Vader steps out of his chamber and offers his left hand for the little boy to take. The little boy is only able to hold his mechno-index finger; the little boy's fingers are like the delicate legs of a spider. And nearly as thin. Vader thinks as he leads the boy out of his room and into the Palace's dark halls.
"Love,
Don't go away.
Come back this way,
Come back and stay
Forever and ever."
He watches as the little boy looks around as they walk. The once painted Jedi Halls have become barren with only a few trappings of Imperialism; an Imperial flag there, a vase of Malreaux roses here, and red and black everywhere. Palpatine red. Sith black.
"Where are we?" The little boy inevitably asks.
"The Imperial Palace." There is no wide eyes or quivering of his thin lips; the little boy looks perfectly calm. Like his Master.
"Oh, I thought it would be grander." Which surprises Vader. He's so small! Shouldn't he be marveling how big everything is? Or is he feigning toughness?
"Please, stay."
"But you're so small." My child would be bigger than him. He likes to believe.
"I'm a dragonling; I'm supposed to be small." Okay…he thinks he's a dragon? Seriously? His mind is giving me nothing. Wait, the little boy has the same hair and eyes like the…ginger. Are they one and the same? AM I IN ANOTHER FORCE VISION!?
"I wonder if we'll get to see Coop." The little boy pipes up, completely derailing Vader's existential crisis.
"What?" Vader eloquently booms.
"The song that's playing had Coop in it. And the Log Lady." Vader remains speechless for the rest of the way. And the little boy becomes silent.
"Dust is dancing in the space."
There are no guards at the turbolift, further confirming to Vader that this indeed was another Force-vision. The Crimson Guards never leave their post.
They get on the lift and descend.
"A dog and bird are far away."
It takes six minutes to reach the bottom. And in all that time, the little boy still hasn't said a word. I didn't know children could be quiet for long periods of time. Even the younglings weren't—
"IT'S THE KEYBLADE GRAVEYARD!"
"The sun comes up and down each day."
"Oh, wait, it's just a dusty field of Sith Swords." The little boy has the gall to sound so disappointed by this. As they walk across the Sith Sword-strewn battlefield, Vader wonders what is going on in the little boy's mind.
Does he even have a mind? This is a Force-vision after all; he could be like a ghost from my past. But I don't ever remember murdering a youngling with red hair. And the Jedi wouldn't have left him this thin. No, this boy looks like the ginger from the other vision, even got the same slightly crooked teeth. But what's the point of him in these visions? To let me know he grows up to suck off my future Apprentince? I am so pfassking confused. Vader shakes his helm as they finally make it to the Shrine's entrance.
"The river flows out to the sea."
Now, he expects the little boy to double over; the darkness here loves tormenting innocents like him. Innocents like his Angel.
But the little boy gives him a quizzical look, clearly asking why they stopped. This is a Force-vision; it's practically a dream, so why should the child be in pain? He's not even real.
They go into the Sith Shrine.
"Love,
Don't go away.
Come back this way,
Come back and stay
Forever and ever."
"It's like were inside the Great Dragon!" The little boy finally gives the proper reaction: excitement. The inside of the Sith Shrine has always reminded Vader of the skeletal ribs of a Greater Krayt Dragon. If the ribs were made of its teeth and thrumming like a dark heart.
"Yes, perhaps the Shrine was carved from its remains." I don't know what a Great Dragon is, but at least it's not as weird as Log Lady! The little boy grins at his gallows humor. The little boy then let goes of his hand and holds out the box before him with both of his hands.
"We're here now. You can open the box!" Or perhaps that's what he's excited for. He's as curious as my child would be. He likes to believe. The box does not have any bows or strings keeping the top on, so he simply plucks the top off with one hand.
"The world spins…"
Inside the box is a flower in a red pot. The flower's petals are shaped like stars; he would've almost believed it to be a starblossom if it wasn't for the color. The color reminds him of the gold-red sparks of fires, of Palpatine's graying hair back when he was just a Senator and he was just a boy.
"It's a fireflower from Dune!" Never heard of that planet.
"Dune?" The little boy is smiling with such whimsy that he's reminded of Chancellor Palpatine.
"Dune's a desert planet in a galaxy far, far away!" Vader resists his natural urge to shudder. He hates deserts as much as he hates fire.
"If it's a desert planet, then how can it produce such a beautiful flower?" Nothing beautiful ever comes from deserts. "But, Ani, you came from a desert!"
"There is beauty even in the most barren of places." It sounds likes the poetic crap that Kenobi would spout. And then the most awful thought takes hold of him.
What if the ginger is Kenobi's long-lost son? No, wait, it'd be more like grandson or even great-grandson. Then again, I am presuming my Apprentince and his ginger are like fifty years in the future. Or more. So grandson or great-grandson would be more likely. But…he can't be Kenobi's. He's not a heartless prick! And he doesn't look anything like Kenobi, and I don't think Kenobi was a true ginger anyways. Vader then hears a large whistle like something from an ancient factory.
"What is your name?" He asks the little boy. He feels like the vision is about to end at any moment. The little boy smiles sadly and holds the flower closer to him, a petal-spark catches the side of his little neck.
"Armitage."
Darth Vader finds himself back in his meditation chamber. He reaches out in the Force and feels the puny lives making their way about the Palace. This is not a Force-vision. This is the real world.
It was just a Force-vision. It was just a Force-vision. It was—He looks down in his lap, and his weak lungs seize.
In his lap is a flower. A flower in a red pot with star-shaped petals. A flower colored like fiery sparks.
The fireflower of Dune.
Author's Comments- Here are the links:
Here is the concept art that I am using as the Sith Shrine, or Temple really, which lied under the Jedi Temple. Yes, it's the same one from James Luceno's Tarkin. I believe this concept art was supposed to be used in an episode in which Ahsoka comes back in CW, but the show got cancelled before it even got a chance to be animated: a href=" . /starwars/images/5/50/Coruscant_Sith_temple_concept_ /revision/latest?cb=20160715184515"Link/a
Poor Vader, nothing really good happens to him when gingers are involved. And vice versa considering a certain Emperor. But, hey, he gets a flower and no youngling died in this! Minus the ones that were implied, but that was mostly off-screen.
Next time: Armitage goes out for a night on the town for the first time in like…ever. Kylo gets to watch Sheeva and tries not to screw vis up. Chantique Ren goes and bangs the Cinnamon Roll, while Nihl Ren courts Thanisson.