PSL: Naboo

[hisfathersimage]

Luke ignored Vader for the rest of the trip.

For a moment, he had almost forgotten who and what he was dealing with. A totally self centred, self absorbed creature of darkness, boiled in rage and suffering who wanted him to convert to his way of thinking and start up a second reign of terror and horror after killing Palpatine.

And in aid of doing that, they were going... to Naboo?

He wasn't really sure why they were on their way there. It was his mother's home world. It was Palpatine's home world. It was a paradise of water and greenery that had produced something so rotten and evil that the galaxy heaved to try and dislodge it from itself.

He stands in the cockpit's doorway, nursing his stump in his left hand and watching hyperspace, preparing for the shock of dropping back out again.

Comments

[nouskaiananki]

He can sense Luke there, of course but for now, he ignores him. The navicomputer is blank and silent. No astromech beeps or trills as he sets up the drop.

Indeed, his eyes aren't even open, reaching out in the Force, feeling everything.

Counting down inside his head.

5

4

3

2

Now.

The controls move seemingly of their own accord, buttons depress, switches flip and they are there.

Naboo's triple moons to their side, the green and blue planet before them. And suddenly Vader filled with an aching so over powering it feels like it'll crush what's left of his heart, a light on his chest panel flashing alarmingly, Bee Two starting to stir behind Luke, just in case.

Padmé's home.
What should have been Luke's home.

Someone took that from him. Still, for all the anger that inspires, he reaches back out for Luke. Wanting to expirence this with him.

[hisfathersimage]

Luke is fairly sure that Vader is navigating them through hyperspace. Which is impossible, but all things are possible, through the Force, and surely someone did it before they developed the technology to do it.

Normally, exiting hyperspace bring a flush of awareness, of real space and the Force within it, the scents and feelings of the nearby worlds washing over him.

All he feels now is Vader's presence.

"It looks beautiful from up here."

[nouskaiananki]

Vader is indeed navigating them, Skywalking Thrawn had called it. The Chiss still did it that way, but he believed they used technology first or at the same time.

With them out of hyperspace, he can pull back some, giving Luke space.

"The third world I saw, as I remember it." Quietly.

[hisfathersimage]

Luke still doesn't reach out towards Naboo, though he becomes more aware of it. The tension of it, a knife's edge balance between what the world is and where it's being pushed.

"What was the second?"

[nouskaiananki]

"Coruscant."

Vader's path wasn't straight on - he wasn't going to a port, and with his transponder, no one was going to hail him.

It gave Luke a good view, from Thneed to the country.

[hisfathersimage]

"I know the Jedi Temple was there. I never understood why. I heard there's no nature left on Coruscant. Hasn't been for thousands of years."

[nouskaiananki]

"Correct. They built it so an old Sith Temple as a war trophy. It has changed hands multiple times."

Palpatine was residing inside it now, he could imagine the rituals trading place inside it.

After a moment.

"There is a Core planet they would use when the Sith had Coruscant or they were not welcome."

[hisfathersimage]

The Core holds little appeal to Luke. It's too noisy and cluttered, always has been, from the first time he went even a little way into it.

He doesn't get it.

"This place seems nicer."

[nouskaiananki]

There are still Jedi Temples within the Empire. Places the Inquisitors had been too young to know, save one. Places Jocasta Nu had deleted from the Archieve in her fight to save it from him, Palpatine, the Grand Inquisitor. Places Palpatine didn't know of. The old woman probably would have survived, had she abandoned it.

But now...

Now they may serve a purpose. A place to hide Luke away. From the Rebellion, Palpatine, Yoda. To reflect and realize the tone of the Jedi was over.

Darth Vader had seen to it.

But for now, he directs them out, over the vast oceans, a mountain range, over fields the size of entire cities, such vivid greens and blues from rivers and lakes.

The lakes growing more numerous, larger, Vader transfixed on something.

Come away with me! I love you!

A stick vibrates, as if the ball is held by a shaky hand. The paint cracks into spiderwebs. The orb explodes, covering Vader in the debris.

The dragon roars, lunges, opens is jaws and burns him, flames fresh. Raw.

Stop! Stop now... come back!

Abruptly Vader slams his fists down into the armrests of the chair, leaving them cracked. The pain radiates into what's left of his bones, screaming, wailing, sending wave after wave of pain into arms he no longer has, the pain ripping him down into the Dark, as if he is dropped into a gravity well.


It's Dark. Cold. And quiets the phantoms. His fists relax, fingers extending.

New thread!

[nouskaiananki]

Luckily there are fruit trees, pears and plums, with ripe fruit, berry bushes, and even (in tribute to the Naberrie Clan) a grape vine trellis heavy with fruit.

And in the waters edge and small pools among the rocky shore were small crustaceans darting about and in the clearer areas of water, plenty of fish of various sizes.

Vader meanwhile stayed inside, his presence retreating into inside.

[hisfathersimage]

Luke came back and cooked up something edible.

It wasn't going to win awards, but it tasted fine and was not rations and was made of fresh things.

He finished off with some of the fresh fruit from outside, more fresh water and then headed to the living area, stretching out on a couch to get some sleep. He didn't know how long he'd have here, but sleeping in the shuttle was far from ideal.

[nouskaiananki]

At least the kitchen was stocked with the basics?

Vader meanwhile can still be felt, but he's retreated into the back of the villa, into the bedroom next to the never used nursery - her bedroom, then their's, it's easy to guess - but he's pulled into himself, curling around himself like a serpent or a mighty kryat, right into a ball of coils.

Bee Two is no where to be seen.

[hisfathersimage]

Luke sleeps as long as he can.

When he gets up, he gets another tree fruit and some water and eventually goes looking for Vader or Bee-Two, or anyone else who might exist in these areas and hasn't been chased off by the Sith Lord.

[nouskaiananki]

The island finest have staff, other than the cleaning and landscaping bots, but there is wildlife.

Marks in the carpet point to Bee Two hand been moving some the villa - even near Luke, checking on him while he slept, and down the hallway towards Vader.

But an Imperial Shuttle is doing all the work needed to keep others away or at least from crossing the vast lake to the villa. There is someone lurking, if Luke reaches out to feel for anyone, a middle age woman with hostile feeling toward the Empire and is presence oh Naboo in general and here in this place in particular.

Vader, eventually, leaves the room he's locked himself in. There's a rawness to his emotions, like a wound ripped open, a deep unending sadness under all the rage.

"No one would mind if you packed yourself fruit to take with you, otherwise it will go to rot," is all he says.

[hisfathersimage]

Luke does reach out, mostly just to see what there is and he almost misses her under the rumble and thunder of Vader's presence.

But she's near and she's not a fan of the Empire and there's an off chance he can try and get a message to the Rebellion, let them know he's alive for now. He doesn't know if he'll be allowed to get near her or if he can speak to her if he does, so he takes a little time, just a little, to find a small rock and carve into it with his mind and a couple of stolen tools.

(He is not good with his left hand and writing.)

He pockets the rock and goes looking for her. At worst, he hopes he can drop the stone near her, the message nice and easy.

To Leia. Love Luke. And a few dots that mark out a particular constellation in a particular sky that they shared once.

[nouskaiananki]

She isn't staying in one place - could be mistaken for a someone out liking for a lost shaak and curious about the activity on the villa. It'd take the Force to know otherwise, and she was quite good. If Luke really managed to lock onto her, she was the weaver of the fabric scrapes, torn from larger pieces around the villa, including the silk around his right arm.

But once she notices Luke noticing her, he is in her focus. Even if he doesn't appear to be. And from her side of the shore she moves, not to the spot closest to the island, but one must sheltered, a boggy, sandy marsh from the shore. A small sandy beach on his, a stilt filled, dangerous pass of water between them. It's swimible - but predators lurk, the Force warning of them.

And it's far too wide to simply leap.

[hisfathersimage]

She looks like Leia.

She looks like he imagines Leia's mother would have looked.

He can't yell to her, can't risk trying to send anything in the Force, but he can lift his left hand, the stone on it. He can look at her face and will the stone over to her, easily floating it to her side and holding it until he can drop it into her hands.

"Please," he mouths. And then turns and heads back to the villa, before Vader comes looking for him.

[hisfathersimage]

"I don't want to live on a shuttle. It's not healthy. Not for me. Probably not you, either, if only mentally." Living in the shuttle is not an option going forward, Luke is determined about that.

[nouskaiananki]

Nothing about Vader is healthy, and he's not even going to try to argue on that. "I'm sure you won't be harmed by a few days until we can transfer to an actual ship. Even if we went straight to one of my properties, you'd still find it without supplies necessitating a stop regardess."

Luke is not likely to be impressed with any of Vader's properties either - they aren't meant for living beings really.

[hisfathersimage]

Well, no. So long as transferring to larger living quarters is happening in the foreseeable future.

"Are you planning on trying to continue my training?"

[nouskaiananki]

"Yes I am." A pause. "Did Kenobi or anyone else ever show you holocron?"

He knows what ones were missing in the Temple's Archieves. He doesn't know what ones Yoda had in his personal quarters, but he knew Obi-Wan didn't have any unaccounted for on his. But who knew what they may have found.

[hisfathersimage]

Luke is quiet for a moment.

"I was caught on Nar Shaddar and given to a Hutt, Grakkus. This was probably only a few months after Yavin. He collected anything from the Jedi or Sith he could find. He'd heard I was the 'last Jedi' as he put it. He gave me a crystal and said it was a holocron and if I was really a Jedi, I would be able to turn it on and I have to the count of five to do so."

Luke had turned on the holocron. And every other Force activated device within the vast vault of stolen belongings.

"I met Kreel then. He gave me some basic lightsaber training, under the guise of being the 'Gamemaster' and me having to put on a good show. I think we got out only just ahead of the Imperial troops."

He'd escaped with his lightsaber and a deep sense of loss for the history and culture that the Emperor undoubtedly took and destroyed.

[nouskaiananki]

Vader prickles so violently there's almost a haze around him as soon as Luke mentioned the word "Hutt". Luckily for them both Luke hasn't bonded enough with him for the echo of memories to carry easily, there are memories Luke doesn't need. Such as being barely more than a toddler and watching a playmate, freshly cooked, being eaten by Gardulla.

"He shouldn't have those." His tone is icy. "Do you want get them? I can show you how to open them." A pause. "I can open the Sith ones. So can you. It is the process to open the Jedi ones, but only a Jedi can open them. It's why Palpatine occasionally orders Jedi captured alive."

It's also why Vader made sure to kill them.

[hisfathersimage]

Luckily, Luke is not an instinctively strong telepath. He can tell something he just said upset Vader, there's a flare of something subtle, revulsion, maybe, horror before everything vanishes in the familiar storm of rage and hate.

"You took them. Well, the Empire. Your elite troops, as I said, including Kreel. I have no idea what happened to his collection after I escaped, but there were at least... a dozen, I guess? That I saw activate."

[nouskaiananki]

Vader mouths curses, purposefully not putting air behind the words the vocal amplifier doesn't pick them up.

Holocrons ate a familiar battle ground between him and Palpatine but he lost this one, thoroughly.

"I have my own. Including many from the Jedi Temple Archives. I shall teach you with those."