Hey Everyone! Hope you are all doing alright! Sorry it's been like 2 weeks and this chapter is short. I'll try to do better in the future :) Anyway, let me know how you all like this chapter and what you think is going to happen! Enjoy! Lots of Love - Lorna :)
Vader woke up, but he didn't remember ever falling asleep. Everything about the last night was muddled and soon forgotten, and it was more than a little eerie that he no longer questioned the lost time. It was just an after effect of Palpatine's temper tantrums, and maybe it was alarming when he would wake up in a pool of his own sick and sweat but that was just part of the punishment. He supposed he finally had given up, no longer cared about his well being. It's not like anyone else did. His entire body felt like pain, his bones shards of glass that dug into his skin. Vader and Anakin now had one shared trait, they both enjoyed the feeling. Vader liked that it brought him further into the darkness, and Anakin enjoyed that felt like some sort of atonement, that it was a vulnerability. He was surprised however when he saw Obi Wan standing off to the side, staring at him with unmasked concern and something akin to awe.
Vader didn't quite know how to deal with this. Anger, however, was usually his safest option.
He let the force power around him, and focused it around Obi Wan's neck. He pulled the man off the ground, dangling him by his neck. Not enough to kill, just enough to frighten. Obi Wan choked and sputtered, but he did not seem even remotely scared. Neither did he make a move to stop Vader, physically or with the force.
Vader dropped the man with an audible bang as the body of his old master hit the metal floor. Wheezing, Obi Wan waited until he regained his breath. Vader just watched, more exhausted than ever before, though he didn't quite know why he was feeling exasperated rather than vengeful. He didn't expect however, the first words Obi Wan managed to speak. Threats, he was prepared for. Pleads, maybe. Lectures felt like an inevitable. Not…
"Are you alright?"
Honest concern.
He didn't know how to respond to that either.
"You should be more concerned about yourself Kenobi. Never know who you might meet on this ship." He grinned and Obi Wan flinched. That sent a sharp spike of satisfaction through Vader that might have mimicked happiness, but it left him feeling hollow as it drained away.
"I have duties to attend to. I'll be back later."
Obi Wan nodded quietly, rubbing his throats as if he could wipe away the memory of invisible fingers constricting around his windpipe, choking the air out of his lungs.
"You-" Obi Wan hesitated for a moment, the rasp still prevalent as he forced himself to continue. "-you don't deserve what you're putting yourself through."
Vader froze. "I don't know what you mean Kenobi."
He acted callous as he slammed and locked the door shut, but something in him started cracking and it hurt like nothing he had felt for such a long time. Vader hated this pain, but Anakin held onto the pain like a lifeline. It meant he could feel something other than rage, other than hatred or worse, apathy, and he welcomed the feeling of his frantically beating heart.