Chapter 1 – Slavery
Plot: When the Rebels storm the Imperial Palace, they make a startling discovery. One, the Emperor is long dead. Two, the rumors of Palpatine's pet dragon, Vader, are true. There are few who still know the truth, who still remember the heroic dragon-man-Jedi during the Clone Wars. Being part-Force gives one... strange abilities, something the once-Anakin Skywalker knows well.
Author's Note: Well, this is technically for two things. First and foremost, this is the gift request for Sinvulkt, who requested it eons ago. Secondly, this is part of a May 4th Exchange I joined on ao3. :P
To Sinvulkt: Sorry for taking so long to write this! I hope you enjoy the outcome! :D
I'll be posting this every other Friday, and there are three chapters. ^-^
~ Amina Gila
Luke Skywalker finds it more than a little strange that there's less resistance from Imperial troopers the closer he and the rest of the Rebels get to the Throne Room. Why would there not be more? Unless, of course, this is some master plan to lure them into a trap and kill them. He might be more worried about that if he wasn't training to be a Jedi, and if Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka Tano weren't there. They – or Obi-Wan at least, because Ahsoka insists otherwise – are fully trained Jedi.
"I don't like it either," Obi-Wan assures him as a blaster bolt from behind them takes down the last stormtrooper in their path. He probably senses Luke's uneasiness.
Luke reaches out with the Force, but he doesn't sense any danger in the Throne Room. To the contrary, he only feels something... large and dark, something not... human? Lightsaber positioned in front of him, he steps forwards and pushes the button to open the doors. With a slight whine, the doors slide open, and the Rebels step inside into the gloom within. One by one, overhead lights come on, illuminating the massive chamber.
In the front of the room is a large, ornate throne, but that's not what brings the Rebels to a standstill. No. It's the enormous dragon sprawled in the center of the room, absently pushing a bone across the floor with a claw. It's black, entirely black, so black that it doesn't even look natural. Red, glowing eyes stare at them as it slowly rises to all four legs. Its body is scaly, reptilian-like, though its belly is soft and smooth-looking. Large, leathery wings arch from its back, twitching at it looks down at them from its massive height of fifteen or twenty feet. It has a long, spiked tail which is lying on the floor.
A low, growl rumbles from its throat as it bears its long teeth in a snarl, taking a menacing step forward. That reveals the bones and – is that dried blood? – tattered black-and-red robes on the floor behind it. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the skull currently lying on the floor must have belonged to the Emperor. Presumably. If not for the situation, Luke might actually find it amusing that he was eaten by his own pet.
"Huh," Leia says behind him, "So the rumors are true then. The Emperor did have a pet dragon."
All eyes turn on her. "You knew of this?" Obi-Wan asks, visibly surprised, though there's a shadow of something else in his eyes, some feelings of disquiet to which he doesn't give voice.
She hums an agreement. "My –" she hesitates, pain flitting across her face, "My father told me about it once, a long time ago. He said that it was called Vader. He never saw it himself, but he heard about it, alright."
Some unnamed emotion flashes across Obi-Wan's face. "How curious," is all he says as he looks back at the monstrous dragon standing there.
Luke feels a pull in his gut, leading him towards it, and he cautiously takes a few steps closer, extinguishing his lightsaber and holding up his hands in a gesture of peace.
"Luke, don't," his master warns, but he doesn't listen to him.
He can't. It's as if he's... hypnotized somehow, some long-buried instinct, both in him and in the Force, pulling him towards the dragon. When he gets within a hundred feet of it, it lowers its head, a low rumble escaping it as it studies him curiously, seeming just as entranced with him as he is with it. And then, suddenly, all at once, something changes. Luke's senses sharpen, and a burning pain spreads through his body, almost as if his every muscle and bone are being ripped apart and snapped.
A choked cry escapes him, and he falls to his knees, pain momentarily whiting out his senses and blacking out his mind. When he opens his eyes again, he knows something is wrong. His senses are too sharp, too real. He can hear the beating hearts of every single Rebel in the room, and he can see things that he couldn't see before. And his body feels different too, somehow. Luke lifts his head, shaking it to clear the ringing and freezing when he sees a tan-colored, clawed paw next to him.
No. Wait. Its his. Huh?
"Luke!" he hears Leia shriek, and he instinctively turns towards her, pushing himself up onto four legs. Oh yay. Is he a dragon too? What is this? Some type of curse? Wonderful.
She's trying to run to him, but Obi-Wan has grabbed her and is holding her back, trying to calm her down. "Don't. Just wait," he tells her. "We don't know what's happening."
Lie, whispers the Force, far more strongly than Luke has ever heard it before, and a rage that isn't his swells into his awareness. With a growl, the black dragon begins slowly stalking towards the Rebels, towards... Obi-Wan? And Leia. Luke yelps, jumping at him, the instinct of protect screaming in his head. They crash into one another and roll across the floor in a tangle of limbs, trying to disentangle with one another.
Having a tail and wings are not very convenient, especially when he isn't used to having more than four limbs.
"Mine!" roars the black dragon – Vader, and somehow, Luke can understand him. He can hear the words in his mind as if they were spoken in Basic... or the Force. Now that he thinks about it, he can feel a golden link tying him to Vader, a link which far surpasses any he's had in the past, even the one with Leia. Although, his bond with his twin sister is almost as strong. Which is weird. Can people form Force bonds with animals?
"I'll just comm Ahsoka and tell her to meet us here," Luke hears Leia saying, voice unsteady. Ahsoka had led a strike team to provide a diversion which was supposed to enable them to take out the Emperor. However, he's already dead and probably has been for some time from the look of the bones scattered on the floor.
After some shuffling and flapping and squirming around, Luke and Vader both climb back to their feet, studying each other. "Son. Mine," purrs Vader, blinking his bright red eyes. He moves closer, and Luke instinctively steps back.
"This isn't real!" he blurts out. To his own ears, it sounds more like hissing, while still being... understandable words? Weird.
Vader tilts his head as if he can't understand what Luke is saying. Luke twists his long neck to look back at the other Rebels who are safely behind him. They're murmuring, whispering, staring at the two with wide eyes. "It could be a curse," Leia suggests finally. "Something Palpatine did to stop us? Ahsoka's on her way. Maybe she knows something. Obi-Wan, do you think it would help if we killed that dragon?" She gestures towards Vader, and some powerful, animalistic instinct bursts into flames within Luke.
He doesn't understand why the mere mention of a possible threat to Vader is making him want to rip apart all the mortals – rebels; Force, what is wrong with his brain?! – in front of him, so he fights the urge, every muscle in his body tightening as he shifts to position himself further between Vader and the others. This time, it's to keep both sides separated.
"No, I don't think that will work," Obi-Wan tells her, stepping forwards, holding both hands up. "Luke, can you understand me?"
He tries to say 'yes' instinctively, but it sounds more like a growl deep in his throat, so he settles for awkwardly nodding. "I think you can shift back to human if you focus," Obi-Wan continues.
"Trust in the Force, Luke."
Luke tries to obey, reaching out to the Force and concentrating.
"Enemy!" roars Vader, stalking a few feet forwards, glaring down at Obi-Wan. "Dangerous."
That jolts him back to full-awareness, and he whips around towards Vader again, ready to pounce on him if necessary. "Don't hurt them," he protests. "They're my friends." He doesn't even know if Vader can understand him, or why Vader's... language and manner of speaking is so different from his own. Vader sounds more animalistic than Luke does for some reason. Maybe that's because he is an animal while Luke is not. Wonderful.
Vader cocks his head to the side, studying the rebels again intently. "Friends?"
Amazing. Apparently, he can understand some things. But talking to an animal like this feels so weird... not that Luke has much room to complain since he, apparently, is an animal too right now. "Yes," he confirms.
The red eyes narrow. "No," Vader protests. "Enemy."
Great. This is going to be a long conversation. Luke turns in a small circle, testing out his wings and trying to think of something which he can do to prove that the rebels are friends, not enemies. "They won't hurt us," Luke insists, taking a few steps closer to the rebels. None of them tense or flinch much at his slow approach. "See?" He moves towards Leia, ready to let her touch him.
"Wait," Obi-Wan's voice is tinged with worry, but it's too late.
Leia staggers, falling, and before Luke's horrified eyes, she begins to change, body twisting and morphing, clothes ripping and falling to the floor. The rebels stumble back, away from her, as she becomes a dragon. Her eyes are still the same dark brown, and her body is darker chestnut color. Wonderful. Now, they're both dragons. Maybe it a curse that affects all Force-sensitives. Well, seeing as Obi-Wan hasn't been affected, that can't be it.
"Great," grumbles Leia, swishing her tail. "Now what?"
"Offspring." Vader sounds surprised.
"Obi-Wan said we can shift back," Luke suggests, side-eyeing Vader, who is making no sense. He pokes at the black dragon's mind, finding it exactly as simplistic and animalistic as he had thought. Except, he discovers that the other dragon is... strong with the Force. That's possible? He's seen many strange things before, but an animal which is so blindly bright with the Force is strange. It doesn't help that he can sense he has a bond with Vader. None of this makes sense.
Luke tries reaching inwards with the Force, and as he does, he notices that his ability to feel the Force is enhanced somehow. It's not that he's more powerful; it's that he's somehow more aware. It doesn't make sense, and it's as thrilling as it is terrifying. Now that he's actually concentrating on it, he can feel the Force pulsing through him, powerful and overwhelming. It's never been like this before. He can acutely feel all life everywhere.
"How?" demands Leia.
"I don't know!" So what if he sounds a little hysterical. He has no idea what to do, exactly, and the thought of forever being a dragon is terrifying. He's not a dragon! He's a person!
"Stay," Vader says, circling around and lying down on the floor near the throne, poking one of the bones with a claw and turning it over, before looking up at them. He seems... content, and Luke wonders what it is that he even wants. Can he want anything? He's an animal. Animals have instincts. Does he – oh Force, does he think that Luke and Leia are his children?! The mere thought makes him want to shudder.
The tense uncertainty in the room is broken when Ahsoka and her group of rebels – including Han and Chewie – come hurrying up, stopping abruptly when they see the scene in front of them.
**w**
The floor here is... nice. Comfortable. Vader has no intention of moving if he doesn't have to. He doesn't understand why the others aren't coming to join him here. This is the first time he's ever seen another of his kind, and he's glad, because it means he isn't alone anymore. Well, maybe he hasn't really been alone for more than a few months – hunting excursions aside – but still. After he killed the... Emperor – or that's what the other mortals always called him; they have strange customs, and for the life of him, Vader can't understand why they would want to chain themselves so. It's better to be wild and free. Vader called him Master – he has hardly seen anyone in here until now.
Vader doesn't really understand what they want, much less what they're doing here. As long as they leave him alone, it doesn't matter. The others though... he studies the tan and chestnut dragons with avid interest. They are familiar, somehow, though he can't explain it. Offspring, some instinct insists, and he obeys it. These two are his offspring. Maybe he can't remember them or anything before he came here, but it must be true.
And then, another group of individuals enter the room. His attention is drawn from the dragons – and the old man who is Enemy – to an adult... Togruta? What a strange name. She stills, eyes widening, and Vader knows that she is surprised in much the same way he knows how others feel. "W-what?" she stammers, shaking herself.
"What happened?" yelps one of the mortals.
"Obi-Wan and I will deal with this, Han," the Togruta says. "I think the rest of you should leave." Vader ignores her, sniffing the bone from Master near his paw and purring contentedly that it's still there. No one else can touch it because it's his now. And he has to make sure that Master won't come back again. He is Enemy, too.
The mortals argue amongst themselves, and Vader turns his head to the other dragons. Who were once not dragons. That confuses him, too. How can they... shift like that? They seem to understand the others, which is odd, because Vader himself often doesn't. He tries, but things don't usually make sense to him. Sometimes, things feel distantly familiar, but it's only fleeting.
He watches, suspicious, as the mortals leave, closing the doors and leaving the old Enemy and the adult... Friend? – He knows on some instinctual level that she is not bad – behind. And the two dragons. "Come," he calls to them, thinking that it might be nice for all of them to curl together on the floor for a time before they need to leave to hunt. Companionship is foreign to him, but something is strange about the way they're acting. Can they not sense the connection between them? He can.
"Why should I?" the chestnut female asks.
He blinks at her. "Family," he answers, standing.
"What in the name of the Force is going on?!" the adult Friend demands, her voice sharp.
Vader tenses, instinctively, bracing himself for the pain he often felt when Master was angry. But then he relaxes again, because they won't do that. They feel bright and warm, not bitingly cold and bad. She is... familiar to him, though he can't ever remember seeing her. He must have though, and for a moment, he remembers a flash of explosions and fire, a young girl clinging to his back as he flies through the skies. Then, it's gone again, just as suddenly, only a faint impression left behind.
"Snips," he says, and he doesn't even know why he says it. It's a question, maybe. He doesn't know. Rising, he paces back and forth in front of the throne, guarding his territory.
"What?" The tan male sounds confused.
Vader feels his confusion, and that, he can understand. Words, for the most part, mean nothing to him. There are Titles for important mortals, of course, but the rest of his "vocabulary" are as much instincts as anything else. "Fly," he suggests, moving to the window, and rearing up on his back legs to see through it properly. He loves flying. It's a freedom. It's something that Master never let him do, except on occasion, at night. But when he flies, he feels free.
"I don't think that's a good idea," the tan male answers uncertainly. "I think we should wait."
Wait. Vader understands that, so with a whine expressing his frustration with that, he stalks over to the throne and flops out on the floor again. Old Enemy is the only danger here, and Vader is good at sleeping with one eye open.
**w**
Ahsoka isn't sure if she should laugh or cry at suddenly being surrounded by dragons again. Cry, probably. She wants to cry, because it's been so long since she's seen one. She thought she never would again, not after everything fell apart. Obi-Wan explained, briefly, how both Luke and Leia shifted into dragons when they got too close to Vader. It doesn't make sense to her. If they were going to shift, why did they not do so a long time ago when they first started training? That's what happened with – with Anakin.
Maybe she never saw any of it, but she does remember hearing the stories. And she definitely heard all the whispers at the Temple when she grew up about the Chosen One dragon living in their midst. Anakin had first shifted when he started actively connecting with the Force. The Council, apparently, theorized that his strong connection with the Force was too much for his human body to handle, and so, the Force gave him the ability to shift to a more endurable dragon form which could handle the power.
But as a side effect, if he remained in his dragon form for too long, he would lose his humanity. His mind would revert to entirely animalistic instincts. Probably, she supposes, to keep anyone who has so much power from actually using it long-term. Anakin could never stay shifted for longer than a day before he started being affected. She remembers, once, how she had to coax him to shift back to his human form, because his animalistic instincts had started taking over.
Ahsoka can't help but stare at the black dragon – Vader, his name is, apparently – wondering. She knows Anakin was a tan-gold, much like Luke is now. His eyes were a bright blue. As a dragon, he was majestic. Vader is... similar to what she remembers of Anakin, in many ways, though his coloration is all wrong. The way his muscles ripple beneath his skin, his every move filled with a silent power, is so familiar.
"Who is he?" she demands, turning to Obi-Wan. "You know, don't you?" His silence, his expression... all of it says that he does know, but he simply is unwilling to share what he thinks. A part of her wonders if that is Anakin, though it seems so impossible, because the coloration is all wrong. Anakin could never control what color he was. He could only control whether or not he shifted to dragon... and with much concentration, if his prosthetic arm and Jedi robes shifted with him.
Obi-Wan's expression shutters entirely at the question, and Ahsoka grits her teeth, but he speaks before she can keep pushing. "We need to help the twins shift back."
She opens and closes her mouth wordlessly as realization begins to dawn. "It's him, isn't it." It's not a question. She has so many questions, not least of which is how he ended up looking like that, but she knows. Even if Obi-Wan denies it, Ahsoka doesn't think she could believe him.
Obi-Wan seems intent on ignoring her – or maybe not – but before he can respond, the door opens behind them and Rex enters, carrying clothes for Luke and Leia; Ahsoka had asked him to get something for them when they shift back. They're not used to that aspect of shifting, unlike Anakin was. Rex makes no move to leave, closing the door behind him, so she lets him stay. It's not as if he doesn't know about dragons. He witnessed Anakin's heroics as one, many times.
"This doesn't seem real," Rex comments dryly, shaking his head. "The last time I saw one of these, it was the General."
"I think," Ahsoka murmurs, quietly, "That is him."
Rex stiffens. "You can't be serious."
She shrugs slightly, meeting the red eyes of the black dragon. "I guess we'll find out. I don't know how much of anything human is left in there though, but maybe... I can get through to him. Maybe." She has to hope. Even if it isn't Anakin, whoever it is shouldn't be trapped as a dragon for the rest of his life.
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