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Vader had come to the conclusion that he would never truly be able to leave the deserts of Tattooine behind. They had come to encompass his entire signature within the Force. Where the Fool had been the heat of the midday suns, Vader was the freezing temperatures of the wasteland nights. Every grain of sand a cold, bitter reminder of the vast, freezing anger, and hatred he carries.
The Fool had been unable to withstand the cold, creature of heat he'd been. Vader reveled in it.
As he rode the lift down to the hanger, he let the tide of the Force flow over him. The freezing cold numbing the pain, a brief reprieve from what had come to be his entire existence. He suspected that his Master would not approve of these … moments of relief. He was to suffer, to strength his bond with the Dark, use his pain to sharpen the fangs of his hatred.
It was ridiculous to Vader.
All he knew was hatred. Hatred for Obi-Wan for leaving him like this. Hatred for the Jedi, for their weakness, for how easily manipulated they'd been. For their inability to prevent what had happened.
Hatred for the bumbling idiots that surrounded him, replacing the soldiers he'd fought every day beside. Hatred for the greedy, ignorant, short-sighted officers that disobeyed orders, seeking to further their own careers. For the Clones for siding with Kamino when the time had come.
Hatred for his Master, for pulling the string from behind, so that the little slave boy from Tattooine would never truly know freedom.
And as the lift doors opened, he blew the smoke and haze of his hatred from his mind. It was a tool, not a directive, and with enough time he would have his vengeance upon them all.
Someday, but not today.
Today, he marched towards the hangar, watching the officers and Stormtroopers alike rushing to clear the way of the monster that ruled the corridors they occupied. He could feel their fear rolling off of them in waves as he made his way to the boarding craft, the on-board pilots quick to salute as he stepped into the cockpit with them. He easily towered over them, as they worked quickly to depart the Star Destroyer.
As the shuttle finally lifted out of the larger ship's artificial gravity, Vader peered into the void. He recognized the ship of Senator Organa, though the name was lost to him at that moment. A frequent thorn in the Emperor's side, within the Senate, Vader had little wonder why they were "randomly searching" all ships that passed through the sector on their way to or from Courscant to Alderaan.
Of course, his Master found dead senators, traitor or otherwise, far more troublesome. One not made a proper example of, instead lead to matyrs for their Rebellion. Vader knew all of this, and many other ways to avoid unduly drawing his Master's ire.
Not that it took much from Vader to draw his Emperor's ire.
They were all gone, out the airlock, the moment the shuttle's landing gear touched down in the senator's hangar. His senses spread throughout the ship, skimming quickly over the nervous senator and his guard. He flooded the ship with himself, sucking the moisture from the air of the Force to leave behind his frozen desert. He would find whatever they would be attempting to-
Warmth. A spot of heat in the Force, like a campfire in the center of his freezing wasteland.
His saber was in his hand, but the feeling of this signature kept the blade unignited. It was familiar, a presence that the dark lord had not felt in some months. It was a presence of soothing hands, gentle caresses. One of love.
It had Vader clenching his teeth in rage.
How dare they!
A signature so similar, and yet so different from Hers.
It had to be a trick. A test from his Master. No one else would have enough skill in the Force to manufacture a presence as close to Hers as this. Nor would anyone else know of Her significance to him.
How dare he!
Vader would not let this … distraction deter him from his mission. He stalked off of the shuttle, ignoring the blusterings of the senator. Of his offence and outage at the search. How the Emperor himself would hear of this.
Vader's rage snarled at the imbecile, and he used that to tighten his focus. He turned to the eight stormtroopers he'd brought aboard. They would have to do.
"You two, with me. The rest of you, search the ship from top to bottom. Pull it apart piece by piece if you have to!"
"This is ridiculous! We have nothing to hide!" Senator Organa shouted at the troops as they marched away. Vader highly doubted they would find anything. The real prize would be his.
"That remains to be seen, senator." Vader seethed, his anger leading the way as he stalked through the ship, the senator and troopers chasing after him.
He moved quickly, goal clear in his mind's eye. His pace never moved above the march he set, but it rapidly ate up the ground beneath him as he moved through the ship. He was eager to remove this distraction from the Force so that he might finish his mission.
He ignored the protests at the invasion of privacy as he waved his hand at the locked bedchamber, the door trembled slightly on its tracks as it unlocked and slid open for him.
The two troopers moved in first, quickly checking over the bed, while the senator looked on exasperated. Vader stayed back, near the door, trying to push away the heat so that he might find its source. Then he felt it, the prickling of concern. He could almost hear the way the senator's eyes rolled around in his head, as they couldn't resist locking onto the closet door, before leaping away to the chest plate of the Dark Lord.
Vader stepped forward, and the troopers snapped to attention. He moved up to the closet, the only sound in the room his own breathing, as the senator's fear and anxiety created a noxious smell in the Force. A wave of his hand had the closet door slide open with a thunk.
Vader glared at the interior of the small, darkened room, not bothering to turn on the light. It wouldn't illuminate anything he could not already see. The senator's robes hung neatly in their place, unaware of the wraith that had stepped into the room with them. His disdain only growing as he looked each of them over. None were befitting of Her. None carried Her presence on them.
By now, the senators anxiety was so thick, Vader half expected it to slow his own movements as the memories of the room filled him. A lever hidden at the back of the room, the senator's frequent comings and goings from this place he wanted to hide. He reached with the Force, to the small gray lever, hidden to match the color of the walls around him. A small twitch of his fingers had it giving an audible groan as it was wrenched upwards, opening the wall at the back of the closet.
Vader had to fight to continue standing upright as the Force flooded out around him in an eager swell to escape the confinement of the room. Warmth pushing eagerly against him, around him, through him. It chased away the biting cold, and eagerly soothing the pain that lingered in the cold's absence.
In that moment, Vader realized he had been wrong. This was had not been a measly campfire, one that a Jedi or his master had tended to carefully to mimic Her. Instead, he had found the surface of an ocean in the Force. A relief of sunbaked warmth, with a depth behind that was just waiting to be tapped.
He snarled as he stepped into the converted panic room. The faint indents in the carpet showed where a couch had once been, a wall of monitors with access to the various cameras across the ship, that were all currently dark. Now, the lone piece of furniture in the room was a small crib. Vader stepped up to the crib, and another wave of warmth washed over him, whatever rage he'd been building eroding further away.
He loomed over the crib, and all he could see when he looked over the infant, was Her. The girl had Her dark hair, soft face, her very presence in the Force was similar to Her. But it was when her eyes opened that Vader had to stagger back a step. To force his damaged lungs to take in the air that the apparatus he wore provided. Her eyes were those of the Fool.
As though he'd been struck, his rage burned back all the brighter as Vader whirled around, the senator's throat already crushing in his grip through the Force. "How dare you." His voice low, reverberated through the room, easily drowning out the desperate gasps for air.
The senator clawed at his own throat as his feet lifted from the ground, eyes boring into the monster in black metal before him. "I'll...give...you...nothing."
"Not willingly." Vader growled, and let the power of the Force race through him. Whatever mental barriers the senator held were simply rolled over, as though they did not exist in the face of the Lord of the Sith. Images, moments, and scenes all flashed through the forced bond created. Images of Her wracked in pain in a medical bay. Echoing cries of a newborn in the "palace" of Alderaan, a facility unbefitting of prisoner's of the empire, as far as Vader was concerned. The senator agreeing to take the child on a trip to Courscant to give his wife a break. Shouted orders to "Return her to her crib, and get the droid to medical, now!" when the captain reported a Star Destroyer was going to be conducting searches.
Vader crushed down further and flung the weak man away. A metallic clang echoed through the makeshift nursery as Vader turned away. He approached the crib again, peering down at the child that regarded him with curious eyes. He blinked, surprised at her silence. Other children he'd...interacted with were quick to cry in his presence, especially as he'd worked to fulfill his mission. He gently lowered fingers to her, twitching them idly as she cooed happily and reached up to them, a light giggle filling his mind.
"Lord Vader?" he barely looked over his shoulder to acknowledge the two stormtroopers that stood uneasily behind him. One boldly gestured towards where the senator lay crumpled on the floor. "What should we do with him, sir?"
A tremor of anticipation trembled through his spine. "If he still breathes, bring him back to the ship."
"And the girl?"
Vader's gaze descended back to her. Her gaze still on his machine form, a smile and interest still on the lights on his chest. "I will bring her. Contact the search team and order them to pick up a nurse droid from the med-bay and make way for the shuttle. We have what we came for."
The soldiers nodded, and stepped away. Vader gently lifted the small child, a faint thought echoing in his mind of, Padme, thank you.