My son's eyes, they haunt me.
Summary: WARNING - Major TFA spoilers. Vader has never had a vision from the Force since his turn to the Dark Side. This vision is unlike any other he's ever had and now he knows what he must do to prevent it. Prequel One-shot to 'True Father'
Force Speech
^Force Visions^
*Thoughts*
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars and do not receive money for writing this. I just write to improve my ability and for fun.
Based on SkippingSteppingStones': 'Where your loyalties lie' with her permission
Cover art by SkippingSteppingStones and laureas
Vader's POV:
There was but one solace I had found in my new existence as the Dark Lord of the Sith. Never in the last 23 years have I been plagued by a true vision of the Force. That has ended, as has my slavery to the Dark. This vision is but a possibility, but I know how and more importantly why it could come true. I refuse to stand by and allow it when I have the knowledge to prevent it. My son's eyes still haunt me from this vision. I will NOT ALLOW IT!
I am still sitting in my hyperbaric chamber onboard my Super Star Destroyer as I dictate this. I must be as detailed as possible,
so that Luke can use this knowledge to stave off disaster. I don't
know how I'll get the chip to him, which's not relevant now. My son will receive it somehow, I'll find a way. What IS relevant the vision itself.
^It's so sudden, I hardly recognize the chrematistic feel of a Force Vision. It's been so blessedly long since they plagued me. Let the Emperor seek knowledge of the future, it has brought me nothing but grief. Yet here I stand watching as Stormtroopers invade a village, searching for something. I see a lone figure stride down the ramp of the deployment shuttle, coarse black robes flaring in the wind. His cowl is up and he wears a mask, reminisced of my own. He's strong, very strong in the Force and of the Dark Side at that. Yet I still see faint light shining from his core. His voice is distorted, he wants a map, one that will take him to his enemy
in hiding,^
^Dear Force, he's after my son! Why! Who are you with such
marvelont intent towards Luke Skywalker? Why should it be so
personal that you destroy him? The scene changes, a girl who
has been left on this horrid sandpit. She has found a droid that
holds the map of my son's refuge. Historical events are repeating themselves. Is she my granddaughter? What of that fool boy
who parades around in guise of a Sith Lord? Ah, now she has found another, a deserter from the stormtroopers. They are attacked and race to a ship, one I well recognize. The Millennium Falcon, it has been a true pain to my existence these last three years.^
^I smile to myself as she manages to launch the ancient freighter and outmaneuvers TIE fighters in a reckless bid for escape. She must be my granddaughter with the way she pilots. Only I would have been mad enough to fly though the wreckage of a Star Destroyer as to loose my enemies. She and her companion escape only to be grabbed in a smuggler's tractor beam. I clench my fist as the two children prepare to flood the ship with toxic gas. They close the hatch as the smugglers come onboard to claim their prize.^
^"Chewie, we're home" I hear to my surprise. It's that blasted Solo. The years haven't been kind to him. He has fallen back to his old smuggling ways, not that I'm shocked. The Princess is in for a disappointment. The vision flows faster now as it shows Solo in the middle of a face off between rival cartels. The Falcon flies away from Solo's former ship and heads to another planet. And there in the cellars of a smuggler's palace, I see the light saber that fell along with my son's hand in the center of Cloud City.^
^As the girl grasps the hilt we are both overwhelmed with visions of her past. A shaky metal hand coming to rest upon Artoo-Detoo's dome as it's owner takes in the destruction, the dead bodies of different beings all around him. Some are children, no older than the younglings at the Temple. I see that false Sith ignite his blade, the hilts a ridiculous addition. Flames surround him yet he doesn't strike. The girl, barely more than an infant crying to her parents as they leave her to a lonely desert existence. She lets go of the hilt and races away from the knowledge that she is of the Light.^
^Fire races through space, the power of an entire star harnessed into a beam of destruction that rips through planets light-years apart. I am stationed opposite from the Second Death Star, over the forest moon of Endor. But this monstrous abomination makes the Death Star look like a pitiful attempt at destruction. I see the girl in a torture chair facing the self-styled Sith. His Sith title is Kylo Ren, the girl's only name is Rey. As Ren takes off his mask I snarl, for his face is that of a young man with no need to use any support. Then I'm shocked to see Rey resist Kylo's attempt to invade her mind. "You're afraid." she tells him "Afraid that you'll never be as strong as Darth Vader."^
^I see Solo and the Princess. They are arguing about Kylo Ren.
"There's still good in him, Han." "He's got too much of Vader
in him, Leia." Finally he agrees to try and bring their son home.
Their son? How could... I finally admit to myself, yes of course
he's their son. I knew onboard the First Death Star that Leia was
mine. She also looks far too old for her age. Even now it seems
I haunt her. Then I am standing in a room that reminds me too much of Bespin. I see Solo call out his son's true name. "BEN! Come home! Let it go." I shake my head in horror, knowing Han had said the wrong thing. Just as Obi-wan always had with the best of intentions.^
^I cannot help but scream at the boy as he slaughters his father. Of all the heinous acts this blasted fool has made in my name, sacrificing his father to me is too much! Han Solo is many things, including cowardly. Yes I say cowardly for he will run if he can. Yet he always returned to face what ever scared him off in the first place. Who was more brave in the end? He was for I had been running for the last two decades. Where was the 'Hero with No fear' now?^
^After a fierce fight between Kylo and Rey, she returns with the Stormtrooper who has no name but Finn. So like the clones of Kamino. I think briefly of Rex and his brothers, the ones who deserted. She hugs Leia as they come back from Starkiller base. And Artoo wakes from his long slumber, giving them the rest of the map to my son. It is a water planet with large islands that Rey and Chewbacca land the Falcon on. She climbs the steps, her anticipation and mine growing. I suddenly long to see my son yet fear the sight. How much has he changed from now?^
^Rey reaches the top at last. A lone figure stand staring out to the ocean as if in search of answers. It is my son my Luke, it must be. She extends the hilt of the light saber to him, trepridation plain on her face. He finally turns and lowers his hood, the hand I amputated now plain durasteel. It is Luke, but oh Force how he has aged. The look in his eyes, they are too much. Too much like Kenobi before I cut him down on the First Death Star. I cannot stand to see them, so dull and nearly dead.
Yet I do not, cannot turn away.^
^Some one dares to call to me now even as I reach out to them both. No, they do not call on me but to the fiend I have become. They call not upon Anakin Skywalker, but call to Darth Vader and my vision goes red. I feel the Force surrounds me, the helmet enclose me. I lose sight of my son, my precious Luke and I feel the Dark Side rise in a storm. Who ever is calling me will PAY!^
What happened next had to been the will of the Force. I realized that somehow I had been temporally transported forward in time to the possible future. I felt the Dark Side close in around me. Cloying and decaying was the sense of this time. Only when the Emperor first came to power had the Force felt so polluted and only for a short time. Now it's ebb and follow was but a putrid sludge where nothing clean could long remain. In front of me on his knees was the one known as Kylo Ren. I took sour satisfaction in the obvious wounds that Rey had caused him. He had yet to notice me as he was kneeling in front of... my mask?
It was indeed my mask and helm, burnt and distorted from fire. Almost as if someone had tried to give me a proper Jedi funeral. I hardly deserved such now. Only Luke would have learned that the Jedi chose to immolate their dead. I realized that Kylo was speaking to the mask as if speaking to me. "I've finally done it, Grandfather. I have finally killed Han Solo. The Supreme Leader says that all that remains is to destroy Luke Skywalker and I will be as powerful as you."
I normally remember even in my worst rages the damage I inflicted on others. This was a new height of rage, one I hadn't succumbed to since I became Darth Vader. The obscene gloat that he'd done me proud by throwing away what I would burn upon Mustafar a thousand times over to have back! It raged in my ears until I hear the sounds of choking. I unclenched my fist and Key- no Ben dropped to the ground gasping, with a look of fearful adoration upon his scarred face. It sickened me.
"You have no right to address me as 'Grandfather' foolish brat,"I hissed at him before he could speak. He nodded and then moved to kneel at my feet. Growling, I pushed him back into the shards of my mask. This overgrown youngling needed a quick and brutal reality check. He'd get no praise from me. "Teach me then, Master as I have called for so long." *How could any descendent of mine be so dense. Not even Solo could have been..* I thought then trailed off. Leia would never have known any other father but Bail Organa.
Imperial propaganda and the Emperor had wiped clean the records of the Jedi, of the Clone Wars. What was left I had made my personal mission to destroy. I wished no trace of 'Anakin Skywalker' to ever be found. I had done my duty too well it seemed. Otherwise Solo would never had been so afraid of his own son. I shoved Kylo into the wall with a flicker of the Force at that thought. "Heed my words well foolish boy. Go to you mother who still believes in the Light inside you. Renounce the name of 'Kylo Ren' and take back what has been so generously offered to you, the chance I've never been given."
"I turned to the Dark Side for my family and destroyed it. You've been offered what I have always wanted. Return to your family. Or continue with the knowledge that I renounce any ties to you as my kin. And should you dare to strike down my son Luke Skywalker, may the Force itself CURSE YOU!" I all but roared at him. I could feel the Force gathering around me and I grabbed my future mask and shattered what was left of it into rusted ash. "So you know this was no vision, boy. You have been warned." I looked into his eyes full of shock and confusion even as my own vision whited out.
My son's eyes still haunt me. The light shining from him nearly obliterated by ignorance of the past, it is a pain unlike anything I
have ever known. Wait no, this is not part of a vision. Luke is in
pain here and NOW! The Emperor has betrayed me again!
Not this time 'my Master'! I renounce you! You have lost, for I will find Luke and together we will destroy your poison forever. I AM Anakin Skywalker. Hang on Luke, my son. Your true father is coming.. hang on.