HEROES AND VILLAINS By Kondoru.
Alternative ending to RotJ
Standard Disclaimers.
Thanks to Budgie for Beating.
Chapter Two; In which Leia has Big plans for her Father.
Things had improved for Darth Vader. Just a bit. No longer was he hung up as Princess General Leia's war trophy, he was now housed in a cell in the lowest level of the Imperial Palace. (Now designated as The Alliance Gang Hut.)
In spite of his immobility he was still chained. He was missing his interesting view as well.
"Cheer up!" Hemmel had said when he came in bearing a big basket. "I have water and vitapaste."
"Thank You." Said his victim. Darth Vader hated vitapaste.
Hemmel busied himself tending to his ex-master, replacing his power cells, plugging new tubes of water and vitapaste into the slots in his chest plate. "Hold steady" He gently turned over Darth Vader and renewed the waste pouches in his back armour. (Darth Vaders anatomy was nothing but surprising.) "My! This is concentrated looking."
"Too many trips round recycling." Grunted Vader. His HUD had been warning him about that part of his system two days running.
"How long can you live on the suit?" Asked Hemmel.
"It's never been tested fully." Vader replied gruffly. "Depends on many factors." He added.
"Never mind; you have enough to drink now." Captain Hemmel said thoughtfully. He righted his unfortunate charge, and exited the cell.
He had left the basket behind, with its contents of vitapaste packets, both empty and full. The Sith Lord wondered if Hemmel was being unduly influenced by his new found friends, -this was most untidy.
Still…
Darth Vader pursed his lips, he began tweaking around the packets using his telekinesis. Such exercises often occupied him when pensive; they helped calm him down.
Several hours passed in this absorbing activity. He was feeling a lot better now.
The door clanged to. Darth Vader was treated to the sight of the Royal Bovver boots.
Uh oh.
"Put that down." Snarled Leia.
Darth Vader dropped the packet. "Princess?" he opened innocently.
Princess General Leia bent down to look at her prisoner. Her face was grim.
"Come to gloat?" Darth Vader said sadly. He knew this was not going to be a productive interrogation session. (Hadn't he already given the Alliance all the intel he knew?)
"Yes, I'm gloating." She gave a not nice smile. "I've got lots to gloat over."
"Huh!"
"The term Ysalmiri mean anything to you?" Leia paused. "I've managed to locate some Ysalmiri." She looked as smug as a Tooka cat who has taken over the Dairy.
Ysalmiri.
Kriff.
Darth Vader went pale under his mask.
She smiled. "I see you recognise the term. It's costing the Alliance a lot of money but it's worth it to see you broken for good."
"Please..." It was fortunate that his vocabuliser had no way of showing emotion.
This was his one big fear. To have the Force taken from him.
"Don't beg for mercy...I never begged for mercy from `you` did I? Twice you tortured me...And I defied you."
Darth Vader wanted to remind her about Grand Moff Tarkin's success. He decided that wasn't a good idea. "You're just as evil as Palpatine! You take everything from me!"
Leia gave a dreadful grin. "That's the idea!"
"Can I negotiate? The Force...Or my limbs back?" Darth Vader was shaking inside his armour.
Leia waved a hand. "No, you get nothing. Except your just desserts"
Han sat down next to his shaggy coated companion. "Leia is so smug today."
Chewbacca nodded. "I think she has won some victory over Darth Vader."
Han shook his head sadly. "The man is as unbreakable as the durasteel he is made from….If he had not shared so many Imperial secrets…I doubt Leia would be able to prise them from him…Not without using methods that the Alliance…Might not agree with."
"At least we have the 501st now…And the Executor." His first mate reminded him.
They both knew that Leia was itching to do something extreme to her ebon armoured nemesis.
The day before the trial Luke visited.
"I suppose they won't allow me to see you again?" Luke was pensive.
Vader shook his head. "I doubt it." He said sadly "just remember I love you. That's all you need to know."
"A lot of the council are on yours or at least my side, they won't stand for such ill treatment."
"Softies"
Luke sighed. "That's a harsh thing to say. I want...Everyone wants...And yes, that includes my sister! To turn over a new leaf."
"Leia doesn't like me." Vader said flatly. "She doesn't see her father when she looks at my admittedly unappealing form. She sees the monster who tortured her and held her while Tarkin blew up her planet."
"Are you that person?"
"Yes I am!"
"And am I my sister?" Luke said miserably.
"You have Padme's temperament and my looks...Unfortunately Leia has Padme's looks...And my temperament."
Luke was angry. "After all they did to you...And you still have helped them...And now this. I won't allow for it."
"I don't see you running the Rebellion." Darth Vader said spitefully. "That's Leia job."
"I want to see you treated with a bit more sympathy." Luke said, sniffling. "I'm proposing that you be permitted tools and materials to fix your limbs though telekinesis." He smiled idealistically "you can do that, can't you?"
"That's a nice idea but I'm afraid me regaining my mobility will cause security to have a connuption fit. " Darth Vader snarled. "It's only because I am a basket case that I haven't been turbolasered into a smear on the floor."
"That's a good way of putting it." Luke gave a mirthless laugh.
"Have you heard about Ysalmiri?" Darth Vader opened.
"What's that?" It was obvious Luke had not.
"A Ysalmiri is a little furry animal, runs free when young, as adults they are sessile on a Olbio tree…Only occur on Myrkr, and because of their habits, terribly hard to keep in captivity." Darth Vader gave his grunting laugh. "Bit like a Sith Lord really. And it's a good thing. Know why?"
Luke shook his head in confusion. "You fear them. Why?"
"They block the Force." Darth Vaders face was grim. "The Ysalmiri's predators hunt using the Force."
"Can they do that?" Luke was horrified. "What about your rights?"
"Yes they can and Leia will tell everyone it's in the public interest. I have no rights."
"You do." Protested his son. "I will get you a lawyer."
"Try telling that to the person who has spent the last ten days hung in chains! And the person who is going to get a vital part of him forcibly removed!" Darth Vader paused. "What Lawyer would want to deal with me anyway?"
"But taking away the Force…I have only used it for the past five years of my life…It is now so much a part of me." Luke moaned. "To lose it would be like losing a sense…Or a limb."
"Please don't remind me." The Dark Lord said sorrowfully. "I would much rather die than suffer `that`" He snarled. "Remember I am more dependent on the Force than most people. However it won't be long."
"No!" It had come to this; had it?
"I'm sorry, my son, this trial is `not` going to end with me being shipped off to a nice cosy maximum security jail like the Shard in order to enjoy lots of free time to meditate and polish my tarnished soul…It's going to end up with me dead."
Luke wailed.
"I don't mind dying." Darth Vader said slowly.
Luke was upset, as he always was when his father brought up the subject of death. "We have had this conversation before. I want you to live. Being dead." He sniffed, "I have seen too many dead."
"Leia wants me to suffer." He sighed. "As I will do when my new `therapy animal` arrives."
"After all you have been through...You're still a decent man."
Darth Vader curled his lip "I'm sorry. I'm not a good man at all."
"You saved me!" Luke protested.
"Yes, for selfish reasons..."
The next morning the Ysalmiri was delivered. Luke was still in bed, having spent much of the night in speaking to Miss Yanadai. Scamp as the girl was, she did take an interest in sentient rights.
He felt his father's sullen presence snuffed out like a candle.
"Is this what it is like to lose a father?" He asked Artoo.
Leia, for all she might deny it, had a Force connection with her sire too. She also felt the Ysalmiri arrive.
She did not feel sad at her father's absence. Instead she felt very pleased.
