Work Text:
The moment he senses the intimidating presence in the Force, which is even more sinister than his own, Vader is so startled that he immediately drops the freshly soldered circuit board before hastily placing the switched-off welding torch on his workbench.
What the...?
Although this gesture is completely pointless, he scratches the smooth black surface of his helmet. Old habits die hard.
This is... unexpected.
And utterly peculiar. He has never visited him unannounced before.
What does he want here?
And why wasn't he informed of his arrival?
Looks like he will have to Force-choke some unfortunate subordinate for this failure.
As he surveys the creative chaos of his office on the Devastator, which he has largely converted into a workshop so that he can tinker undisturbed and distract himself from the constant pain and misery of his existence whenever his bloodthirsty duties to the Empire allow him a break, he suddenly has a bad feeling about it.
Oh kriff, what a mess! Seized by a slight panic, he rushes to pick up cables, speeder and droid parts and tosses them into a large box, folding up the blueprints lying on the floor showing prototypes of spaceships and combat droids he has designed, as well as a multifunctional kitchen appliance.
Even an Imperial leader is allowed to have a hobby, right?
Although he does not shy away from using the Force to move things along, he does not get very far with tidying up before the automatic doors open and a gaunt, stooped figure, clad in a black cloak and leaning on a cane, enters.
Vader has no opportunity to properly greet his venerable visitor or kneel before him, as thin, spindly legs instantly stumble over the cover of an astromech, followed by a curse not meant for public consumption.
He flinches but remains speechless, too taken aback by this unsolicited surprise.
He just wanted to build himself a new metallic friend, even if it could never replace the old one.
Well, he doesn't have any friends left. So he takes what he can get.
“Vader!” Sidious roars indignantly as he rubs his aching, bony knee.
Looking around, the Emperor sees nothing but scrap metal and tools scattered everywhere. What kind of pigsty is this? This is not the office of a high-ranking Imperial navy officer. It's a junkyard. How convenient that he decided to drop by unannounced.
No wonder the latest campaign to subjugate yet another system that resists the Empire's “friendly” invitation to become part of something greater that will bring peace and prosperity to the galaxy is not progressing when Vader is busy tinkering and realizing his technical pipe dreams instead of fulfilling his duty as a military leader.
“My apologies for the mess, I wasn’t prepared for your arrival, Master,” Vader finally mumbles awkwardly.
“Well, I can see that,” Palpatine replies in an icy voice as he approaches his apprentice’s desk, which is littered with unprocessed datapads and surrounded by small spaceship models, cables, and circuits.
Oh, for the sake of the Force! This cluttered place looks like a boy's playroom.
Completely unworthy of Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith, who is supposed to be his most effective weapon for conquering, securing, and expanding his Empire... at least... until...
…project Stardust comes to fruition.
But there is still a long way ahead to create an impressive weapon of mass destruction that will eclipse everything else in terms of its means and capabilities of terror.
Sidious snorts contemptuously as he discovers the switched-off holo device on the desk. He cannot approve of his apprentice indulging in such sentimentality.
He knows what it displays before he switches it on. Amidala, who else?
Yet he is mistaken, profoundly so.
Golden eyes widen as the three-dimensional image comes to life.
It is not the dead, naive senator who appears as a bluish hologram.
Instead, the disgustingly charming smile of a certain bearded Jedi Master suddenly beams at him smugly.
A testament to better times, not for the glorious Empire, but for the grrr... deceitful, inefficient, corrupt Republic.
Kenobi!?
What the...?
This is unexpected.
The sight of so much kindness and beauty instantly causes him discomfort.
And to make matters worse, a nonchalant “Hello there!” rings out from the lips of the manifestation of this unspeakable man... making Sidious want to puke.
Oh dear, Vader must have completely lost it. There’s no other explanation, is there?
“My dear apprentice, do you find this appropriate!?” he barks at his subordinate, his anger growing and clouding the Force.
An awkward “Um...” is all that comes out of the vocoder.
The younger Sith Lord is momentarily at a loss.
What an embarrassing mess!
No one has unauthorized access to his quarters. And no one would dare enter here uninvited... except...
Why does that sleemo have to show up here without warning?
Vader's intense annoyance causes him to forget something crucial.
“I heard that!” comes the immediate rebuke from his superior.
Kark! He really is a kriffing idiot, the former Jedi scolds himself while raising his mental shields. He should have hidden his thoughts better. How is he going to get out of this now?
“I, um... can explain, my Emperor.”
“Oh, now I'm curious, Lord Vader.”
A devious smile appears on a gray, shriveled countenance. Yes, Sidious enjoys humiliating him, testing him, challenging him, degrading him. That's nothing new.
This is one of the few moments in which Vader is glad that his breathing and most of his bodily functions are artificially regulated.
Because there is one crucial problem: he is unable to explain it. He can't plausibly justify why the picture of the man he should hate above all else is on his desk and not that of his deceased wife.
Or rather, he knows that his new master would not be pleased with the truth.
His black-gloved durasteel fingers unconsciously reach for the blue shimmering hologram, as if he could really touch it, touch him... to remember... that his life wasn't always this karked up.
Startled by himself, he withdraws.
Yet there is no point in deceiving himself.
Despite what his old master did to him...
...what he has made of him...
...he misses him.
He misses him terribly... his Obi-Wan: his warm voice, his charming smile, his beautiful eyes, his gentle hands, his... um... other body parts...
To be honest, he misses him every day and...
...every... night.
He closes his broken eyes behind this confining mask as memories of better times surface unbidden:
Scenes of camaraderie, friendship, solidarity, brotherhood,... and... more...
Two Jedi generals, former Master and Padawan, caught up in a cruel war, finding comfort and warmth in each other's arms, gentle caresses in the shadows, two well-trained bodies moving in perfect synchronicity as they become one, passion meeting tenderness, a soft beard that tickles nonetheless, heated tongue battles, entangled in a friendly duel, vows of love and laughter in the dark...
Forbidden attachment. A scandalous secret that only the legendary team itself was privy to.
Not even... she knew that his heart didn't belong to her alone.
Gone. Over. Meaningless. He betrayed him, left him to die in agony.
He loved him. He hates him... he...
Reopening his eyes, he calls upon the dark side to give him strength.
The past is the past.
All of this should have ceased to matter long ago. He must finally leave this weakness behind.
Nevertheless, his feelings are his own business. It is none of Sidious' concern.
He remains silent... for too long... until he feels the threatening wave of anger in the Force rushing toward him like a powerful tsunami.
“Well, I'm waiting, Lord Vader.”
“Um... actually, the picture is there because I need to memorize his…um this traitor's face so that...”
Sidious huffs in response to this audacity. Is he mocking him?
Sure, and his voice too, or what?
As if Vader could ever forget the face of Kenobi, the man who turned a once dashing, young general into... this... a half-cyborg.
How dare he provoke him like that?
“Nice try. But I think you'll have to come up with a better excuse, my boy.”
Vader frowns his pale, scarred forehead behind the creepy mask that hides his disfigured face, while the Emperor takes a step back and stares at him menacingly with golden eyes.
Great, of course Palpatine doesn't buy it.
“Um...”
He can't think of any other explanation so quickly. He has never been particularly eloquent. And he is not good at lying either. He prefers to leave that dubious art to others.
“I'm afraid I'll have to reconsider your promotion to supreme commander. That may have been a bit hasty of me,” hisses the illegitimate ruler of a significant part of the galaxy sourly.
A distorted sigh escapes the vocoder, which sounds deceptively human. It is all so unfair. He has worked so hard, willingly stepping over so many bodies, and no one appreciates it.
He might as well have stayed in the Jedi Order.
At least he was treated better there. There were even people who... The image of the attractive, auburn-haired Jedi Master is complemented in his mind by a cheeky, grinning girl with blue and white striped montrals and orange skin, which makes him sigh even deeper.
Well, she left him too, even before his... fall.
Everyone he loved has abandoned him or is dead.
Anticipating severe punishment—at least in the form of agonizing Force lightning—Vader closes his eyes again.
Whatever Sidious does to him this time, he will survive. After all, he is accustomed to pain.
But instead of feeling pain, he hears a sudden rumbling, followed by a curse, a hard impact, a groan, an unpleasant cracking sound, all culminating in a dull thud as something heavy hits the floor.
Then nothing. Nothing but silence. Pleasant silence. Liberating silence.
Puzzled, Vader reopens his eyes and his gaze falls on the Emperor, who is lying on the floor next to the durasteel arm of a battle droid that he had planned to assemble later.
As if spellbound, he stares at the motionless body, then notices the blood on the sharp corner of his workbench and next to Palpatine's head.
Did he slip on the droid part? Or on the hydrospanner next to it, which he failed to put away?
Whatever the case, he must have stumbled and hit his head.
He really should tidy up a bit, um... or maybe not.
Vader waits quietly and silently while his brain works overtime. It takes a while before it dawns on him.
Unable to grasp this twist of fate, he tentatively kicks the limp body with the tip of his black boot.
It still doesn't move.
The moment he turns to the Force to verify his suspicion, he senses an enormous, sinister cloud of dark energy dissolve into nothingness.
An amazed, deep “Oops!” eventually escapes from the vocoder once he realizes the situation.
What a pathetic, banal end for an evil, brilliant mastermind. Downright ridiculous.
And he didn't even push him.
A clear case of serendipity. The Force must truly be with him, the Dark Lord concludes, as he does something he hasn't done since the death of the unfortunate, naive Jedi named Anakin Skywalker on the lava shores of Mustafar, which led to Vader's resurrection from his ashes:
He smiles.
It seems as if a new hope has emerged. At last, he is free. He will seize his second chance and never be a slave again, he resolves.
Black-gloved durasteel fingers reach out toward the blue shimmering hologram, tracing the well-groomed beard as if they could actually caress it, then the Sith Lord leaves his chambers with determined steps, his black cloak billowing behind him.
Time to claim his Empire...
Once that is settled, he will find Keno...
…no, his Obi-Wan.
He will find him, even if he has to turn over every single stone in the entire kriffing galaxy.
Not to kill him, though.
No. He has something else in mind for him. His victory-intoxicated brain is already forging wacky plans and putting him in a merciful mood.
Yes. His old master will get a chance to make amends for his crimes and betrayal.
He will show him his place by bringing him where he belongs: at his side...
…on his...
...well, later. All in good time.
Yet he can already see it clearly before him:
He and Obi-Wan. Sith and Jedi. Black and white. Dark and light. Two complementary halves becoming one again.
Together, as a reunited team, they will rule the galaxy and bring balance to the Force.
It is already written in the stars.
***