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

[hisfathersimage]

"I'm already going to have to have a finger's width excised, apparently. Cauterisation damage." The heat damage internally would have to be removed surgically before anything new was attempted.

But he takes the cover anyway, slipping it over the patch covered stump.

[nouskaiananki]

"Yes that will be done for you. Under sedation." He isn't really speaking to Luke.

Vader keeps folding, this time a large piece of white lace and holds it out for Luke.

"A gift from your mother."

[hisfathersimage]

Luke looks at it, then back up to Vader. "What is it?"

[nouskaiananki]

"If you ever marry, you are supposed to work a piece of this into your clothing for the wedding, then pass it on to your children. It is a tie to your Clan, the Naberrie."

She had explained it once, when explaining Naboo's Clan structure.

[hisfathersimage]

If Vader had said anything else, he would've got an earful.

Instead, Luke looks at the material and nods. "Yeah. Okay." It seems unlikely, but he can accept this connection to a nebulous future and lost past.

[nouskaiananki]

There are a lot of other things he could say, could continue to say. But he's said what is important, and Luke seems accept that.

Progress?

"She made her veil from it." Not that he thinks Luke will wear a veil but. He wants him to know Padmé, to love her as much as he does, and it's a topic they haven't ended up fighting about.

[hisfathersimage]

"I'm not really anticipating a future where I get much romance, let alone married in some way or have children." Because his future currently seems to involve being hauled around by Vader until he snap and kills him, tries to turn him or gives him to the Emperor.

[nouskaiananki]

"Things change."

Luke is older than Padmé was when they married, and she would be older than him.

But things did change, opinions changed, and he knew that.

[hisfathersimage]

"Yeah. A week ago, I had two hands."

It was easier than reflecting on what he had actually lost.

[nouskaiananki]

Fine, be that way.

"It is just a hand."

[hisfathersimage]

"But I was attached to it."

[nouskaiananki]

There's is just a faint pause in Vader's rhythm of breathing.

Because he can't laugh against the pressure, but without it, there's no sound.

"Your arm is still more intact than either of mine." Combined.

[hisfathersimage]

He can't laugh... but he's amuse and Luke can feel that, a sizzle of bubbles across his awareness.

"Yeah, well, it's still fairly recent for me."

[nouskaiananki]

Shockingly, he does have a sense of humor. It's just a bit twisted.

"The pain will mostly pass. You'd have been better off bringing a blaster and slugiron until you've more training."

Should be be telling Luke how to counter Force Users? Probably not. It's he going to anyway? Clearly.

[hisfathersimage]

Luke doesn't respond to that. Slugthrowers were monstrous, and yes, he was a good blaster shot, but blasters were nothing against a lightsaber.

And... he had held his own. For a while. Vader was talking to him like he was as good as-

Well. Maybe he was as good as untrained. Master Yoda had tried to tell him.

No time for that now. He had his allocated breakdown for the day.

"What now?"

[nouskaiananki]

More monsterious than allowing Palpatine to exist?

Still-

-Vader can't quite cast away the unbidden memory of Ahsoka, more than a decade younger that Luke glaring, blue eyes angry and hurt.

"I wanted you to surrender. For what you have, it was admirable. You could be so much more in just a few years. But you share Anakin's weakness, you wouldn't abandon your friends. I knew that. I took advantage of that."

That didn't banish her face. But it faded it.

"Food. Or rations, whichever you prefer. I want to see her before we leave this planet."

[hisfathersimage]

"They're not my friends. They're my family."

Han, Leia, Chewie, they were his family when his was dead. Kept him alive when he should died.

"I'm going to go catch some food in that case. You can go and... do whatever you want to."

[nouskaiananki]

"Is there a difference?"

Padmé had thought so. Had family, beloved friends, handmaidens, close friends, far friends, co-workers, staff, constitutes, advisors, strangers - so many groups to sort people into.

For Vader it had been much more simple. Those who were his, those he much endure, those who were enemies, those he may ignore.

Friends didn't factor. Allies, but other than Piett, Vaneé, who was left?

"Go."

He didn't plan to leave Luke alone on the island, but he didn't need to tie him underfoot either.

[hisfathersimage]

"Maybe not. But loving them isn't a weakness."

What he did was entirely on him, not on his love for them. He'd been reckless and he was paying for it.

He left without saying anything more. He didn't have any weapons, but he could probably find some crabs or the like and hit them with a rock. Or just go and pick some fruit from the trees.

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.