Yes; in truth he already had the power to remove the troublesome Jedi Master--he lacked only the conviction. And Palpatine would provide that; his will, his word as law.
He laughed in gratified anticipation to no one but himself.
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To be continued...
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Chapter 17
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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
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Standing in the brooding, opulent grandeur of Korriban Hall, the looming ante-chamber to the Emperor's grand, sprawling apartments in the South Tower, Vader was well aware that Jade, the Emperor's Hand, watched him with narrowed eyes as he awaited his Master's convenience. He had arrived back on Imperial Center only hours ago, and he knew well that his Master would find some other task which would send him far away from here. He didn't want Vader near when he was dealing with his son--didn't want that complication.
And Vader was only too willing to oblige. To be here now was...uncomfortable. If the boy would just relent. He knew his Master, knew what he intended. Knew what he would do to gain it.
Staring out across the teeming, impersonal darkness of the city-planet, Vader willed his own insular composure, a heavy, familiar indifference which had always been both calming and smothering for decades now...until his son had arrived, firing old ambitions with an unanticipated twist.
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Mara seethed as she watched this hulking brute standing in silent meditation, unaffected by her scornful glare.
How could he be here, now? How could he stand so calm and unmoved when he knew what was happening to his own son?
When she had been called down to the detention level just hours after the expiry of the twelve-week agreement which had held Skywalker to an uneasy truce, Mara had known that Palpatine would have been livid. Had known that his fury would have been directed at Skywalker.
Not because he had defied Palpatine, but because he had succeeded so effortlessly.
But she hadn't been prepared for his injuries. She should have been. Knowing her master as she did, she should have been, but this...this had affected her in ways she hadn't anticipated. Ways she was finding it harder and harder to ignore.
She couldn't leave it alone--she had to speak. "Will you be visiting your son, Lord Vader?"
"No," he replied without turning.
"How convenient," Mara murmured, turning away.
Vader rounded on her, his venom laced growl taking her by surprise in its intensity. "You know nothing of this!"
Shocked as she was, Mara wasn't intimidated. Her position afforded her protection even from Vader, and though she didn't think she could take him in a fair fight, she had never fought fair in her life. Either physically, or with words...
"But I do know the Emperor, and I know what he'll do. As do you."
But if Mara wasn't above taking unfair advantage, then Vader was all too ready to follow suit. "And why would you care?"
That reduced her to silence for long seconds, having no legitimate reply. Eventually Vader turned away, the conversation finished as far as he was concerned. As far as Mara was concerned, she was only just warming up.
"I doubt he would recognize you now, anyway."
Oh, that was a body-blow. She had the satisfaction of seeing him stiffen at her barbed words, so casually uttered. For long seconds he stared at her, but just as she thought he might actually show some speck of human compassion for his son he turned away again, his voice stony.
"If he had done as I had said, I could have protected him. I would have brought him here a Sith, given him the power to face any enemy."
All her anger and frustration boiled over at that unaffected rebuff. "For you. To remove for you the last impediment to your rise to power. The only thing which you hadn't the strength or resolve to remove yourself."
"Have a care," Vader growled as he turned to step close, towering over her. "You are not nearly as far beyond my reach as you believe."
"Nor you mine," Mara assured, willing herself to stand her ground in the face of that looming threat. "I know what you want--what you've always wanted."
"I serve my Master," he said, bass tones rumbling through her chest.
Mara raised her chin. "To what end?"
"To whatever end he desires."
The lie came easily, Mara knew--he had spoken it so many times perhaps he even believed it himself. "And the life of your son doesn't factor into that?" She knew him so well--knew exactly how to provoke him, how to bring down his guard, as she did now.
"You could not possibly understand. This is his destiny. He will become more powerful than any Jedi--any Sith. More powerful than the Emperor."
Mara tilted her head. "That's treason."
"It is destiny. Even the Emperor bows to that. Even Luke must, eventually. He could no more escape it than--"
"There's no such thing as destiny, we make our own. Don't try to validate your actions."
"Did he make this destiny? Is it by choice that he is here today?" Vader snapped, silencing her. "Do you think I wanted to see him hurt?"
That last threw Mara--the frustration in his voice, the subtle vein of repressed unease. It tempered her own voice in reply, though she couldn't hide the challenge. "You brought him here, to the Emperor."
Vader turned away, all emotion reined in again. "If he does as he is ordered, then no harm will come to him."
"You know he won't do that." Mara stepped back into the Dark Lord's range of vision, demanding attention. "I know he won't do that and I'm only a bystander. How can you not!?"
"He will do as he is told, eventually," Vader said dispassionately. And Mara knew he was right...but she knew the cost.
"Yes, he will. Whatever the Emperor molds him into he will be," she allowed, the words contained within a long sigh of absolute certainty. "But it won't be Luke Skywalker, no any more. Luke Skywalker will be long gone, driven out to make room for the Emperor's new Sith."
Vader turned incrementally at this, though Mara had no idea if he was looking at her or not, behind that obsidian mask. No idea if he felt anything at all on hearing the truth in her words--neither guilt nor compassion nor loss.
No idea why she did.
The silence hung heavy, long minutes timed out by Vader's labored breathing...
"Destiny demands a price," he rumbled at last.
Mara slumped, her own voice dull, laced with defeat at the realization. "You'll let Palpatine destroy him, won't you?"
"The Emperor will give him everything." Vader's voice was a study of restrained logic. "Power, authority, status."
"And the fact that he doesn't want those things doesn't figure at all, huh?"
"He should want them."
"Why? Because you do?"
That brought his head around. "Because it is his right."
"His right? Have you seen him," Mara blurted out. "Do you have any concept of what he's going through--what rights he's had taken from him?"
Vader only turned away in dispassionate, willful denial.
"You have no idea what Palpatine..." She broke off, unable to accuse her master despite her knowledge. Despite the fact that when she closed her eyes, it was Skywalker who she saw, battered and beaten. Skywalker for whom she felt a creeping empathy regardless of her every conscious rebuff; his sense in the Force that assaulted her dreams, fragmented and tormented, lost and alone.
"It is worth the price," Vader said evenly. "He will understand that one day. This is a necessary evil."
"For what?"
"That he may serve... become worthy in the Emperor's eyes. Inherit that which he deserves."
And there it was. Vader wanted for his son the one thing he knew he himself would never have: the Empire. And that ambition blinded him to all other concerns--even this.