I am sorry this one's a bit short. The next one is probably going to be longer. Thanks for reading! Smiles. Lou.
"That's Naboo?"
Luke's voice shook only slightly as he stared out the porthole at the green and blue planet. Something about this place felt right.
"That's Naboo," confirmed Leia.
Luke hadn't seen very many planets from space. Even once he'd joined the Rebellion, most of his missions hadn't involved time for sight-seeing. His eyes widened involuntarily as the Falcon entered a closer orbit. "It's beautiful."
"From up here," said Han, joining in the conversation from his seat. "It's not so pretty once we get down. Swarming with Imps."
"We'll be fine," said Leia. "I hope."
Luke merely nodded absently. "You two don't have to come," he said, almost offhand.
"We aren't leaving you alone, Luke." Han's voice betrayed more worry than he wanted it to. "But are you sure-"
"I need to find out who she was, Han." With that, Luke stalked out of the room, headed for the cargo hold and their rather rudimentary disguises.
Both his friends stared after him.
"Stang, I wish Chewie were here. He could probably knock some sense into the kid."
"Han, haven't we had this discussion-"
"I know, I know, but honestly, I'm starting to wonder if he'd all happy like this even if the Emperor was his mother."
Presumably that sentence had not come out the way Han had intended. "If the Emperor was his mother?"
"Or Mothma, or somebody," continued the smuggler. "All I'm saying is, he's acting insane."
Leia sighed. "It's the Force, Han."
"You are not buying into that-"
At that moment, the ship was hailed. "Come in, unidentified craft. You are entering a restricted travel zone. Please state your name and business."
For a second, Han was afraid he'd forgotten the false name of his ship- that's what came of letting some one else pick it out. "Hello, Naboo, this is the Star's Fortune, on a recreational trip. Civilian."
Behind him, Leia made a rather disapproving noise. "You were supposed to-"
"Destination?"
"Um, the capital."
"Theed," put in Leia.
"I know that," said Han. "I was just trying to clarify it for them-"
"Do you have clearance codes?"
Confident he could at least to this to Her Highness's specifications, Han fed the code into the reader.
"Confirmed, Star's Fortune. Welcome to Naboo."
Well, thought Han, there goes the easy part.
-
The streets of Theed were wide, stone, and far, far too empty.
"I have a really bad feeling about this," muttered Han out of the corner of his mouth at Leia, who continued staring straight ahead.
The Falcon had touched down easily in a mostly-deserted hangar, which in Han's opinion had been suspicious enough. He, at least, had lived in the real world long enough to know that when there are less enemies around than you thought there would be, it meant that they were in your ship stealing your spice.
Or the relative Imperial equivalent.
Luke ignored the both of them. He'd been given directions to the tomb- she died, everyone had repeated, over and over- by High Command, but he was barely glancing at them. He knew where he was going.
And he knew, more than his friends thought that he did, that they thought he was being a fool.
But they didn't understand. Something about this felt right.
And then, as their destination came into view over a small hill, something felt very, very wrong.
-
The details of the mission had merely confirmed Vader's belief that Palpatine had merely sent him to this accursed place out of pure sadism.
And Darth Vader could, up to a point, understand that. Certainly he was going to enjoy causing suffering to anyone who looked at him sideways on the voyage back to Imperial Center.
But that did not justify sending him here.
Nothing, nothing in the universe, could justify sending him here. What did his master think he had been doing?
"Milord?"
Vader did not even turn to look at the officer.
"Milord, we are still unable to locate the base commander."
That was the mission. A commander of a remarkably unimportant base on an incredibly- completely- insignificant planet had failed to return from his lunch break.
And for some reason this required the time of the second most important person in the galaxy. All plans for Sidious' destruction had been moved up several slots in Vader's mind. He was not a lapdog.
"Milord?"
The officer was about two syllables away from death by this point. "If-"
"I will supervise the search myself."
Anything to get off this place sooner.
He could feel several of the base's inhabitants staring after him in alarm, but he ignored them.
The streets were vacant except for a few stray stormtroopers. Those, too, were ignored. There was no sign of anyone who could possibly be the base commander, but Vader was scarcely even looking for him.
He strode down the streets. He had left his memories behind years ago. Decades ago. He knew that. This planet should have had no more effect on him than any other site of an unimportant mission.
He tried to turn his mind to other things. The complete failure of Imperial intelligence on the Rebellion lately. His new flagship being behind schedule. The Empire was a mess. He would fix that, of course, when he ruled it. No more funds wasted on gigantic battle stations, conspiracies among the Moffs made punishable immediately by death instead of just whenever Palpatine felt like it, the remnants of bureaucracy as eliminated as his master had once promised they'd be.
It could have been that way already.
For a second, Vader allowed himself to imagine what had once been his dream, himself- maskless, whole- standing, overlooking Coruscant. His wife beside them- their child-
He banished the vision. That was impossible now. At least he had had his revenge on Obi-Wan.
He was so preoccupied with that memory- why had Kenobi smiled when he died?- that he did not notice where his feet were taking him until he had already arrived.
Padmé's tomb.
He had seen it, years ago, in holos long destroyed. He had even been there, once or twice, decades ago. He had sworn never to give into that weakness again.
As he stood, fists clenched, trying to get his old dreams out of his head, he heard a furious yell.