Synopsis: What was going through Vader's mind as he stopped Boba Fett from shooting Chewbacca in The Empire Strikes Back? Told in first person point of view.
Familiar
"Put him in," I commanded. There was a roar of protest from the wookiee as he began throwing stormtroopers off of the platform. I felt rather than saw Fett raise his weapon. Instinct flooded through me and I placed my hand over the blaster and pushed it down.
A pause suddenly washed over me. Why? I watched as the wookiee continued causing violence and the young smuggler was yelling at him to calm down. Something from deep inside of my soul stirred. Something I had not felt in many years.
Puzzled I searched my feelings and the very depths of my soul. It was familiar. I paused my thought process as I watched two stormtroopers fastened cuffs around the wookiee's furry wrists.
I studied the scene with near fascination as the Princess's head whipped around towards me and suddenly I had understood what was so familiar about the feeling. It was compassion. I stared at her in wonder and was grateful that my expression could not be seen behind the mask. She continued to stare at me as she slowly slid over to the wookiee.
I nearly shuddered. The feeling had been compassion. Compassion for the two lovers. A compassion that I had once shared with my wife, now long and dead. The days that they had spent here on Bespin had been more than enough for me to feel the growing bond between the princess and the smuggler. A bond very similar to what I had once shared with someone else.
The princess finally broke eye contact with me and I pushed the feeling of compassion away from me. It was not useful to have that feeling; it did no good in the mission I was to accomplish. It did no good at all.
THE END