Darth Vader was not having a good day. Of course, that was hardly indicative of anything since he so very rarely had anything that could even somewhat be called a good day. The last very good day he'd had… was over twenty years ago.
Which was depressing.
But this day was worse than most days because somehow… somehow…. Well. They'd been fighting a group of rebels, including his son. And somehow Vader and his Imperials had been captured along with Luke and the rebels.
Vader couldn't feel the force. All of them were tied up, though they could still talk. And they'd been captured by the Itari. Which wasn't good at all.
They only took willing sacrifices, but they wouldn't let anyone in the group go until a sacrifice had volunteered. One died, the rest were set free.
That normally wouldn't be a problem. Vader would just not volunteer. But… his son was ridiculously self sacrificing. Which meant Luke would volunteer. And he'd die. Which was not the plan.
Those lying around him seemed to finally begin to stir, sitting up as best as they could with bound limbs.
Then the Itari walked in.
There were two of them, very strange people. And not just for the whole sacrifice-of-other-sentient-beings thing. All of them wore the same deep green robes, down to the same size, regardless of the size of the Itari under the robe. One of them looked to be drowning. The other looked like they were struggling to not burst out of the robe.
Strange.
Then they began talking. Explaining. "We are the Itari." Obviously. "We have no ill will towards you." As if. "However, you have all trespassed on our land and the Gods demand retribution." That's not why at all… "We require one willing sacrifice. After the one is sacrificed the rest will be released."
And Vader was speaking before his offspring could. "I volunteer." He said. He spoke softly but his voice still boomed out of the vocoder. Stupid vocoder.
Everyone in the room- well, cave. Dark cave. Fairly large though with a creepy altar in the middle- turned to stare at him.
Including the Itari. Which was just rude.
"Why?" One of the Itari, the small one said.
Because I don't want my son to be an idiot and no one would try to trade their life for mine. "Do you need to know to kill me properly?"
Both Itari flinched at that for some reason. "Sacrifice." Short one again. "We do not kill, we sacrifice. And… it'd be better if we knew why."
Why? What possible reason would they have to need to know such a thing? He couldn't really bring his son into this. Luke didn't know who he was. And… if he did… would Luke try to do something stupid then? Vader wasn't sure.
"Maybe I just don't trust the rebels to do it right." Vader said.
The Itari exchanged glances. One of the rebels had to pipe up then of course. "If you want us to kill you you sure have a funny way of showing it."
Vader scoffed. It made a very strange noise out of the vocoder. "One time I sent all the Stormtroopers back. Approached the rebel outpost on my own. Didn't lift my lightsaber, didn't do anything but walk. And they surrendered. Every single one of them surrendered without even taking a single shot. Can't trust rebels to do anything right."
The Imperials were all staring at him with something approaching horror on their faces. And… so were the rebels. Odd.
"Why don't you do it yourself then?" Same rebel. Annoying fellow.
"If I tried to shove a lightsaber through my head," that had really not been a good idea, "The suit would freeze up. I don't have wrists to slit, and whenever something inside me gets off enough for me to be in danger the suit sends a report to the Emperor." Those reports ended in Vader being fixed up. Then punished. Then fixed up again. Which was odd. If they got punishment out of the way first Vader would only need to be fixed up once.
The Itari glanced at each other, then shrugged. "We need a blood sample before the sacrifice." The short one said.
"Couldn't you just take the blood after?" One of the rebels asked.
The Itari shrugged. "It's better to know before- some species must be sacrificed differently."
Vader sighed. "You'll have to get the blood out of my shoulder."
The Itari nodded, peeling the armor off of one shoulder. The skin was pasty white and covered with as many scars as the rest of him.
The Itari stared for a long moment, then took the blood. A second later the short one cursed. "50% human 50% unknown? What even…"
"The other half is the force." Vader said. "It doesn't really seem to affect me much."
The Itari looked at each other. "If he's telling the truth…" the tall one said.
"Then we probably shouldn't kill the literal child of the force." The short one said, sighing.
You have got to be kidding me. Vader thought. The force was a terrible parent. And they thought it'd care if he died? He didn't even know if the force could care. About anything. "I doubt the force would care." Vader said, "Besides now that I've volunteered you've got to know that no one else will."
The Itari looked to one another, then nodded. Vader would have breathed a sigh of relief but those always made such strange noises out of the vocoder. Vader remained silent.
…-…
"So…" Luke said, and Vader sat up a little straighter. "You're going to be dead soon?"
Vader glanced at the Itari. They seemed to be preparing… something. He wasn't exactly sure what was taking them so long. "Yes." He said.
Luke was hesitant for a moment longer. "Why'd you betray and murder my father?"
There was nothing in Vader's mouth for him to choke on and he somehow managed it anyways. "What?!"
Luke's expression hardened. "You heard me."
"I didn't kill him." Vader said, which was somewhat ironic really. The fact that it was true anyways. "It was tempting because the man was an idiot but… no. I did not kill Anakin Skywalker." I just killed his wife… Or… he'd probably killed her? She'd been alive. Alive. And Sidious had been the one to say he'd killed her. Sith weren't trustworthy. And how would Luke even be alive if he'd killed her?
Luke obviously didn't believe him. "Who killed him then?" Luke demanded and Vader cocked his head slightly to one side. He obviously couldn't tell the boy the truth…. Not with the crowd… but… "Who said anything about your father being dead?"
Luke's eyes practically bugged out of his head as his mouth gaped open. "You're lying." His words were soft though, almost reverent.
Vader shrugged as well as he could bound as he was. "Was the only thing Obi-Wan ever told you about your parents that I betrayed and murdered your father?"
Luke's eyes darkened again as his mouth snapped shut. Then opened again just as quickly. "He said my father was a hero."
That… felt a bit like a punch to the gut honestly. When he and Obi-Wan had fought on the Death Star Obi-Wan had called him Darth. Darth- a title but not a name. And yet, Obi-Wan had told his son that he was a hero. And also that he'd betrayed and murdered… himself.
"And your mother?" Vader asked.
There seemed to be a collective wave of blinking across both sides.
"You knew her?" Luke said, and his voice was so hopeful even though it was so obvious he wasn't trying to be.
"Padme Amidala." Vader said, and he was almost glad that the Vocoder hadn't transmitted how reverent his voice had gotten.
"That's her name?" Luke asked, and he looked dazed.
Vader blinked. "They didn't even tell you her name? Of all the foolish things… of the two of them your mother was the good one. Why would they try to make your father a hero when your mother actually was one?"
It seemed a good point to him… but his opinion didn't hold much weight among rebels.
"If she was such a hero why'd you kill her?" Leia. Leia the venomous little princess. Vader felt like the air had been sucked from his lungs even while it was being forced in.
"I didn't kill her." Vader said. "I didn't." He couldn't of. He'd thought for so long… but if Luke was alive…
"Really." Leia said.
Vader nodded, sharply. "The last time I saw her alive she was still pregnant. Luke couldn't have been born if I'd killed her. So I couldn't have."
That didn't seem to reassure her much..
Vader didn't want to talk about that anymore. "What's taking so long?" He snapped at the Itari. They glanced at each other once again.
"Do you want to die?" The tall one this time. Vader blinked.
His immediate answer was no but it seemed to shrivel on his tongue. Did he want to die? Or did he want to see Padme again? Did he want everything to stop hurting?
"It's not a sacrifice if you want to die." The short one said, voice oddly soft. "We can't accept volunteers who are mentally unstable."
Vader stared at the two of them for a long moment. "You're joking." He said. "We've already confirmed that no one else will volunteer now that I already have."
The Itari shrugged. "The price we'll have to pay." They said.
And then they were all led to the surface.
They weren't untied. But that would be fixed easily enough once he could get a solid enough grip on the force again.
"How's anyone supposed to find us down here?" It was an Imperial.
"There's a tracker in the suit." Vader said, shrugging. "Empire should find us soon enough."
Which would be nice if it meant he could finally capture his son.
The Imperial didn't look exceptionally pleased by that either. "Why do you have a tracker in your suit?" he asked, then looked like he wished he could take it back.
"Can't take the suit off." Vader said, shrugging again. "Good a place as any. Best to be able to find lost weapons."
"What else does your suit do?" One of the rebels this time, looking honestly curious.
"It breathes for me. And keeps my heart beating. Covers the four prosthetic limbs. Speaks for me. Helps me see and hear." There was more of course… but also no need to cover all that.
For now… for now he just kept breathing.