Vader wakes with a jolt as a thorny tendril rips like a prickly vine across his mind. His Master has turned his gaze on him. Their bond scratches like a burr under his skin. As he lifts his head, he sees the vague splotch of a ship streaking across the sky.
Of course, Sidious has sent his minions to see if either of his apprentices has survived.
With a flash of panic, he turns to Obi-Wan's sleeping form. As he reaches out to wake him, he freezes.
It takes a moment before he realizes that he had meant to warn him. Bewildering though it is, he does not have time to ponder the strange impulse as the old Jedi stirs and opens his eyes, the Force warning him also of the impending danger.
In silence, the Jedi's eyes light upon the descending craft, and he springs to his feet.
"You…must leave…" Anakin grates. He does not do so out of any sense of mercy. It is purely a matter of self-preservation; after all, Sidious will think him weak for having accepted Obi-Wan's assistance.
Conflict seems to wage on the Jedi's face as he ponders something, his gaze switching between Vader and the ship descending from the sky.
"Come with me." Obi-Wan he says at last, turning to Vader and offering him his hand. "It's now or never. Your children survived, Anakin. They're alive…! Please…Come with me, and meet them."
"Do…not…mock me!" He snarls, seizing Obi-Wan's throat in the Force's hold. As the old Jedi begins to choke, he staggers to his feet.
So there were the Jedi's lies!
Padmé was dead, and so was his child. The arrogance of Obi-Wan, the foolishness, to think he would fall for such a blatant trick!
"It's…true…" He gasps. Obi-Wan makes no move to defend himself. To do so would only escalate the conflict and waste valuable time.
"…twins…she had…twins!" He wheezes as he feels his wind-pipe begin to crumple. He can only hope that Vader will not harm the children should he decide to seek them out after his demise.
As the darkness closes around his vision, the pressure on his throat suddenly evaporates and Obi-Wan stumbles to his knees, gasping for air. Vader towers over him, the full height of his cybernetic legs cutting a stalwart black figure against the sky.
"If you have lied to me…" The cyborg snarls. "I will tear you apart piece-by-piece…."
Obi-Wan nods, even as he continues to gasp for breath.
"Now…" Vader growls. "You will take me to them."
"And what of…your Master?" Obi-Wan wheezes, even so, he manages to sneer around the title.
There is a brief flash of something on Vader's face that he cannot quite name.
"He has…" He pauses. It seems the cyborg is choosing his words carefully. "He has cast me out so that I might prove my worth. When I return victorious, it will be at my leisure."
Ben prays he has not misjudged the man who, despite his displays of violence, winds up leaning desperately upon his shoulders as they limp for Kenobi's hidden vessel. The rebreather labors in his ears as Vader begrudgingly rests his weight upon his smaller frame.
When they make it to the ship, in a rare turn of good luck, Ben manages to pilot the vessel out of the atmosphere without incurring any further pursuit from what is sure to be an irate group of Imperial hatchet-men.
It seems, in that capacity, the Force has yet been on his side. Nonetheless, Ben's luck is not entirely good as Vader's condition worsens. The exertion of moving has undone much of the hard-won healing of the previous days.
Though he is sure the other man would never admit it, Obi-Wan feels how the fever spikes across their bond. He has yet to mention to Anakin that he is projecting his own agonies. After all, it is useful for him to have a hidden insight into the other's moods.
Though he remains at rest, Vader feels himself growing faint as they make the journey to Tatooine. He has at least some time yet, it seems, before his Master will look for him in earnest, and he intends to use it to his full advantage. The Emperor's little games are often played slowly and patiently. Sometimes, he has been abandoned for months at a time to save himself and "prove" his worthiness as a Sith.
As much as it angers him that Kenobi would hide his children on so loathesome a planet, he has to admit it had been a successful scheme. Neither Sidious nor himself had ever been any the wiser.
His heart thumps loudly in his chest, whether from sickness or elation at the idea that his children are alive, he does not care. Even as he reels at the idea that they are alive, he hears the Force singing with Truth! Truth! Truth!
All of a sudden, the growing fever and leaking wounds begin to worry him. Though the hole in his stomach grows septic, poisoning his blood and weakening him further, he cannot die before meeting his children. He has only just learned of them! That would be Kenobi's final insult, to watch him die while dangling the fact that his children had been alive all this time in front of his face.
He reaches for the Darkside to sustain himself, but finds that it is strangely sluggish and slow to respond.
He mentions none of these things to Obi-Wan. There is no need to tempt the Jedi to take advantage of his condition and forcibly deny him the promised re-union with his offspring.
Instead, as the hours pass in silence, by turns, he quietly seethes over the Jedi's deception and rejoices over the seemingly impossible reality that his children await him.
Obi-Wan is surprised that Vader remains conscious for the duration of their journey. His injuries are graver than Obi-Wan had initially believed as they burn and swell with a growing infection.
Their landing is uneventful and, upon disembarking, Vader swats away his offered hands, instead, choosing to rise and stride from the ship under his own power. His muscles shaking as staggers ever-so-slightly, but, fool-hardy or not, Obi-Wan grants him this one dignity.
"Where are they?" Vader growls, surveying the desert with all the hatred he can muster.
"They are…" Obi-Wan hesitates. "They are with your step-brother. But please…let me go on ahead…"
"So you can warn them?" Vader snaps. "I think not." Before Obi-Wan can respond, he is marching off into the desert with the sure-footedness of one who knows every inch of it by heart.
"Wait…Anakin…" He yells, swallowing hard as the cyborg stops. "It's not…it's not both of them. It's just Luke. Your son….We separated them."
Before he knows it, a wall of power knocks him brutally across the dry oasis. He lands with a thud in the soft soil, clouds of dust kicking up around him.
He coughs and stumbles to his feet as Anakin whirls on him.
When is he going to finally learn that he cannot trust the word of Obi-Wan Kenobi? Of course, the Jedi deceived him!
"Is the boy even here, Obi-Wan?!" He roars. "Or do you toy with me even still?!" The use of so much oxygen is making him dizzy, but his anger is too great to care. "You had better pray for your sake that I find him in the home of Owen Lars—if I do not, I will make good on my promise, and I will tear you apart!"
His lungs are burning even more than usual. The effort of speaking with such force and clarity is draining what little strength remains. Even so, he turns and storms off into the desert, shaking with the exertion of holding himself together.
Light or Dark, he does not care, he reaches out to the Force and draws on whatever it will give him to keep putting one foot in front of the other. He hears Kenobi trailing after him and, despite his own pride, he feels his heart achingly painfully over this fresh betrayal. Stupid though it was, the Padawan in him still wanted desperately to trust the words of the Jedi.
He presses on for almost a mile, his vision blurring and his limbs shaking as he drives himself on with the desperate need to find the child that he hopes is real and no figment of a mendacious old hermit.
Eventually, he stumbles, and with a growl of frustration, he realizes he cannot rise.
The world is spinning as he sees Obi-Wan's now familiar silhouette fill his vision. He wants to rage at the old man. Scream at him. Hurt him! But he is too hot and too weak to pretend he has the strength to press on under his own power.
Predictably, Anakin cannot keep up this level of activity for very long. He has still held out far longer than any normal Jedi, but he is tiring rapidly.
Ben keeps his distance, but when the black shape crumples into the sands, he comes forward and kneels slowly by his side. Their previous excursion has proven the rebreather is inadequate for such activity, and the infection that has taken hold has certainly done Vader no favors.
Truthfully, Ben knows he deserves Vader's distrust. He had lied to him. At least implicitly. There had been many earlier moments when he might have clarified that they would not find both children on Tattooine, but he had been so hesitant to disturb their tentative truce that he had been unable to make himself say anything before they had actually arrived.
Now he regrets that decision as Anakin flinches away from his touch. The touch he had leaned into under his delirium now causes him to withdraw in disgust, and Obi-Wan cannot help but feel that he deserves it.
When, at last, he coaxes Vader's arm over his shoulder and assists him to rise, he feels the unnatural heat coming off of the other man's body, even through the black armor baking beneath the blazing suns. While Obi-Wan can feel the illness for himself across their bond, to touch and sense him burning with fever is something different, and his heart twists with guilt. He needs medical attention, far better than the rudimentary care Ben has given him.
But, like with so many things, Ben has yet again failed. And as he struggles under the cyborg's hulking mechanized frame, the Jedi cannot help but wonder if he is doomed to relive this purgatory forever.
Obi-Wan is stronger than Vader remembers. Odd that he would gain strength in the desert, but he supposes a life of brute work has hardened him.
He does not want his child to see him like this, dependent on the support of his enemy, but he admits that he could not have stood, let alone made it to the Lars' homestead without Obi-Wan supporting his weight.
As the little profile of the adobe house looms in his vision, the Force begins to sing, and his heart beats even louder. He thinks he hears the laughter of a small boy, carried on the desert winds, and he feels as if his soul might burst. His child is here! His living child! He has been raised here. In the place where he grew up. In the place where his mother died. He is alive!
When they draw closer to the doorway, his anger at Obi-Wan is forgotten as he hears small footfalls racing about the interior of the house.
As they stagger across the threshold, it is as if a tension line has finally snapped, and weariness suddenly overwhelms him. It has taken all but the last of meager reserves to make it to their destination, and before he quite knows it, he finds himself fainting on Obi-Wan's shoulders.
Author's Notes: I'm flying through these first couple of chapters so people have a sense for the story. Expect the pace to slow down after this. As always guest reviews = no registration.