Vader had never been to Bespin before. There had never been a reason for him to visit that particular system, nor had he ever had a desire to. It was remote and there had never been anything of interest to him there until now. Even the Death Star's construction had never held his attention, it being Sidious' project far more than it was his. Vader preferred to confront his enemies face to face and not hide behind a machine. The face mask that he had been forced to adopt after the flames of Mustafar had seared his lungs had never felt natural to him, especially not the way it had distorted his voice. It had turned him into a monster. A monster he no longer wished to be. He could never be fully human again, but he refused to be a monster. Now that he knew of Luke's survival there was no longer a reason for him to continue pretending that he was Sidious' lackey. And if the Sith lord had harmed Luke in any way, he would destroy the old man.
Finding Sidious was not difficult. In the time since he had last seen the Death Star it had become a fully formed planet; a moon that did not fit onto any of the star maps. What troubled him was that he could sense neither Luke nor Obi-Wan. Sidious had taken Luke and Obi-Wan, Vader knew that much. Whatever the aging Sith lord had planned it would no doubt involve both of them. Vader only hoped that he could keep his son alive.
And what of Obi-Wan?
Vader growled deep in his throat, annoyed at Qui-Gon's return.
He would save you. Even after all that you've done, he wouldn't hesitate to save you.
"So you say of the man ho did this to me," Vader chuckled darkly.
What option did you leave him?
Vader said nothing to that. He had no desire to speak of what had happened on Mustafar with someone who hadn't even been there. Someone who had been dead for more than a decade before it had even happened. And even though Qui-Gon said nothing else, Vader knew that he hadn't finished his interference.
At the moment, though, it didn't matter because he was within range of the Death Star and was being asked for his identification codes. In his case, though, all it took was a few terse words and eh was admitted into the airspace. He was close enough to Sidious' location that he could feel the older man's presence like a foul viscous liquid seeping into his every pour. Vader had no idea how he had never noticed such things about Sidious in the past. It should have been impossible to mask such a dark nature and yet as Palpatine he had seemed to do it with such ease.
Vader worried what else Sidious might be hiding.
Obi-Wan lay panting on the narrow shelf that was currently serving as his bunk. Every molecule in his body throbbed and he could find no relief no matter how much he sought a comfortable position. The fact that he seemed to be in some kind of Force dampened room didn't help matters either. All it did was make him feel entirely too lethargic.
He knew that Sidious wouldn't go through the trouble of keeping him alive unless there was some other ulterior motive. Given Luke's young age he suspected that it had something to do with Vader. Of course that confused Obi-Wan just as much because there was no love lost between him and Vader. Vader had killed the good man that was his best friend and Obi-Wan had left him to die on Mustafar. He hadn't wanted to kill Vader, though. He'd only wanted Anakin to come back to him. To see the idiocy of what he was doing. Dismembering him had been his only option and one that he had been reluctant to take. Vader, sadly, had left him with no alternative.
If he believed in such things, Obi-Wan would have thought it fate to have their situations reversed in such a way. Vader would now have every opportunity to destroy him the way he had once tried to do to Vader.
In a way, Obi-Wan thought it was quite fitting.
There was a woosh as the door to his cell opened. Having expected clone troopers, Obi-Wan was surprised to see Sidious himself entering the dim room. Other than the arching of an eyebrow, Obi-Wan didn't react to this new turn of events. It was rather pointless at the moment.
"I take it that Vader is on his way," Obi-Wan grunted as he heaved himself upright. "Ready once again to do his master's bidding."
Sidious chuckled quietly, the sound echoing off the walls. "What happens will be Vader's choice. He deserves it, don't you think, after what you did to him?"
"Possibly," Obi-Wan consented. "Though I can't help but wonder what would have happened had it been Master Yoda against Vader and not myself. It was what I would have preferred."
"Ahh, yes, the great General Kenobi, loyal unto the very end," Sidious sneered. "You know there was a time I was determined to make you my apprentice. You were filled with such wonderful anger and hatred when your master died. It was truly intoxicating. Unfortunately it didn't last and I was forced to look elsewhere for Maul's replacement."
Obi-Wan leaned heavily against the wall, his eyes fixed on Sidious. "You must know that I never would have been your apprentice."
"I will wager that at one time you would have said the same about your beloved former partner," the Sith lord mused, obviously quite pleased with the situation.
"I misjudged the strength of your ability to manipulate and seduce. Rest assured that will not happen a second time."
"It is only Vader that concerns me," Sidious informed him. "He is the one foolish enough to believe that he can deceive me. Instead he led me straight to his son. Without him it would have been many years before I found the youngest Skywalker and then things would have been so much more uncertain."
Exhausted even though all he had done was sit up, Obi-Wan allowed himself to slump further against the wall behind him. "You do recall that Vader's pride was ultimately part of his downfall? He thought himself to be invincible and took a foolish risk that left him as little more than a charred ruin of a man. It surprises me that you bothered to save him given his state. Especially since you knew that Luke was out there somewhere."
"Insurance in case Luke failed to live up to his father's potential."
"Of course."
Glancing over his shoulder, Sidious nodded for the two guards to enter the cell. "Bring him."
Obi-Wan knew better than to waste his strength fighting. Fighting now meant the possibility that he would not be able to take advantage of later situations that could lead to both his and Luke's freedom. Situations that Obi-Wan planned to take full advantage of even if it meant finally killing the man he would have once given his life for.
It didn't surprise Vader that he was ordered into what amounted to Sidious' throne room on the Death Star. In the plans it had simply been called an "audience room," but there was no masking the fact that it was the room that Sidious had decided would be the one that he would use to strike fear into the galaxy. An emperor who could destroy an entire planet with the mere flick of a wrist. At the moment, his master was planning to make the planet of Alderaan the first victim of this new weapon. Senator Organa was entirely too troublesome for his own good and Sidious meant to remove him permanently. However, there was no telling what the months that were still needed to complete the Death Star would bring. Some other fool could just as easily earn Sidious' ire in that period and save Organa and Alderaan from its intended fate.
Obi-Wan kneeling in the center of the throne room collared and bound also wasn't much of a surprise. Yet even bound and without the impressive robes of a Jedi, Obi-Wan still looked formidable. There was a strength and pride in him that had not yet been broken. Vader looked forward to being the one to finally destroy the great Obi-Wan Kenobi. Vader had expected Sidious to play with him for a while, waiting for him to make a mistake and reveal that he'd known about Luke and Obi-Wan. Vader was no unsure how to deal with the situation. He didn't want to risk Luke.
"I was unaware that we had a guest," Vader mused aloud as he strode across the walkway that separated the main part of the room from the entrance.
From his seat at the viewport, Sidious inclined his head briefly. "I thought it would be a welcome surprise."
"Most welcome," Vader agreed. "I didn't think that Obi-Wan was foolish enough to get caught. My former master must be getting weak in his old age."
"As I told your puppeteer earlier, Vader, I was having an off day," Obi-Wan sighed, looking more bemused than frightened by the situation that would eventually lead to his death.
The blast of Force lightning that struck Obi-Wan in the back and propelled him forward onto his face caught both of them off guard. With his hands bound behind him, Obi-Wan couldn't catch himself and when he rolled onto his side after the impact there was blood dribbling from his nose.
"Still quite insolent after all this time. Really, Kenobi, this is quite tiresome."
Chuckling wetly, Obi-Wan struggled onto his knees. "I must agree with you, Sidious. This is quite tiresome. So please begin whatever game you have in mind and let us get on with it."
Inside his mask, Vader could only gape at Obi-Wan. His former master had always been stubborn, but at the moment that stubbornness was bordering on suicidal. Like him, though, Obi-Wan probably knew that he would not survive. That Sidious was only playing a game with him. It was probably only sheer force of will that kept Obi-Wan upright during the second volley of lightning directed at his back.
When Sidious let up his attack, Obi-Wan was panting, his entire body trembling with the effort it took to remain upright.
"All this time you have evaded us, Kenobi," the Emperor sneered, finally rising up from his throne-like chair. "Denying my apprentice his much deserved vengeance. And now he shall finally have revenge for the murder of his family. Take what is yours, my apprentice."
Sidious' eyes never wavered from Obi-Wan's huddled form as he addressed Vader at the end. When those eyes did fall on him, though, Vader felt as though they were piercing right through the mask and all of his secrets.
"Oh yes, Vader, I know what you're trying to hide from me," Sidious murmured, his voice a venomous thing. "There is no need to wear that cumbersome mask. Let your former master—your supposed friend –see just what he has done to you. Let your face be the last that he sees as you have your revenge."
For a second, Vader thought about insisting on his continued need for his mask, but knew that it would be useless in the end. Sidious would see right through his lies. With one final glance at Obi-Wan, Vader switched the audio respirator off and disengaged the clasps on his mask. With no place to set it down, Vader simply let the now-useless mask tumble to the ground, the sound of its landing the only one in the room aside from Obi-Wan's labored breathing.
"You did not think to hide such things from me, did you, Lord Vader?" Sidious chastised, shaking his head briefly.
Obi-Wan had no idea what game Vader was playing at, but he doubted very much that it would end positively for either of them. More frustrating was that Obi-Wan now found himself stuck in the middle of it whether he would want to be or not. More frustrating was that he was currently cut off from the Force. It made him entirely too vulnerable. Both he and Luke since at the moment he was the only protection the little boy had.
"I only wanted to ensure that I could survive without the mask before revealing that I no longer needed it."
"And now that you can, there is no longer need for such pretences," Sidious assured him. "It is quite fitting that it is your face that Kenobi will last see as he had intended for his to be the last you'd see on Mustafar. Kill him."
Obi-Wan wasn't quite sure what to make of the fact that Vader didn't automatically move to kill him. On Endor he could make sense of it because Luke had been there. That there had been enough humanity left in Vader to not murder him in front of the child. Luke wasn't there this time; only him, Vader and Sidious.
Vader must have hesitated too long because Obi-Wan once again found his body electrified by that cursed blue lightning. He slumped forward before he could even attempt to steady himself.
"Why do you hesitate, Vader? This is the man who stole your life," Sidious hissed, his voice louder as he advanced. "He's responsible for Padmé's death and the death of your unborn child."
With his head bowed slightly, Obi-Wan had the perfect vantage point to see Vader's fingers clench around the hilt of his lightsaber.
Sidious was lying to him. He was trying to hide his own son from him. Vader wasn't fool enough to think that it was to make him angry enough to kill Obi-Wan that Sidious was distorting facts. Luke was to be his replacement. A lifetime ago Vader had been the one to do away with an apprentice that Sidious no longer had any use for. He would be the one to die this time and Sidious would raise Luke and turn him into some dark monstrosity that wasn't even a shadow of the happy little boy he'd seen on Endor.
"You know that he's lying," Obi-Wan said calmly. "Padmé was a friend and I would never do anything but love any child she bore. Any child of yours."
Obi-Wan cried out as he was struck in the shoulder by Sidious' lightning, his body spinning before sprawling on his left side.
"Finish him now, Lord Vader."
"Luke knows who you are. He knows the man that you were and loves him," Obi-Wan insisted, his voice cracking at the end as Sidious once again lashed out. "Your son loves you, Anakin! Don't let Sidious destroy him!"
Doubt tried to insist that Obi-Wan was lying to him—only trying to save himself –but years of living and fighting beside the man told him otherwise. For all that he and Obi-Wan had ever been at odds, the older man had never lied to him. Not like Sidious had time and again.
The thought hadn't even completed itself in his mind when he was jumping forward to block the crackling energy from weakening Obi-Wan further. His lightsaber was ignited, red fending off the blue lightning. Every muscle in his mechanically enhanced body straining, Vader took a few steps forward, brining him closer to Sidious. Two steps became three and still he held out even as his arms began to tremble.
"He is deceiving you," Sidious cried as he found himself being bombarded by the dark energy. "He allowed Padmé to die and he left you to burn on Mustafar."
Vader hesitated for a moment, his memories of Mustafar coming suddenly to the fore. It was only for a second, but it was enough time for Sidious. A sudden surge of energy found Vader without his lightsaber, the full force of the blast against his chest. He stumbled briefly, but managed to pick up a forward momentum. It was sheer will that kept him moving forward. Sidious had destroyed his life. Sidious had filled his head so full of lies that he hadn't been able to think straight. He'd believed Sidious when he should have listened to Padmé and gone to Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan would have helped him.
The constant stream of energy on his prosthetic limbs was wreaking havoc on the sensitive gears and motors. Wires were frying and the limbs themselves were twitching sporadically, especially his fingers and toes. Knowing that he would not have long before he lost control completely, Vader steeled himself and called forth Sidious' lightsaber from where it hung at his hip. The instant that his fingers closed around the hilt, he ignited it and brought it up so that the blade was absorbing the lightning. Vader's fingers continued to pulse as a result of misfiring circuits so he gripped the hilt extra tight as he once again began to advance.
"You stole my family and you stole my life," Vader ground out, glaring at the man he had once trusted above all others. "You used me!"
Dropping down suddenly to his knees, Vader swung the lightsaber out in an arch first to his left, over his shoulder and head before swinging it around. Right through Sidious' mid section. Immediately he could feel the release of tension as the Force lightning ended at the same moment Sidious' life did.
Vader continued to kneel in the same spot, panting, the lightsaber tumbling from nerveless fingers. For several long seconds he stared down at the wreck of a body that had been the most feared being in the galaxy. Emperor Palpatine. Darth Sidious. The man who had laid waste to his life.
"Anakin?"