Intoxicating Apprentice - a Darth Vader X OC fanfiction

4 - A Distant Memory

Darth Vader's POV:
"Did you manage to get the people from tatooine?"

"Yes sir we counted and checked identification and we have collected all the people we need from this planet."

"Good" I had nodded at my top general. "Now we should have enough workers to divide between the Death Star and maintenance work on my cruiser."

While the rest of the empire thought my reasoning behind this was to get more help on the cruisers, I secretly was looking for force sensitive individuals. By collecting people from different planets I was able to weed through them and find those who had a connection to the force.

My home planet of Tatooine seemed quite promising so I had sent my men there to do what they needed to do.

While the initial plan was to find and capture people from different planets to enlist in the empire, I couldn't help but feel something was off with tatooine. Something felt different.

When the cruiser hovered above Tatooine, I had felt something I have not felt in a while.

A connection to the force.

This was my home planet so I had to find out who had ties to the force.

I was told a rock randomly hit one of my stormtroopers in the face. The crack on the helmet proved that theory, however the force exerted to create such a crack could not have been done with human strength alone.

They had concluded that the rock came from a broken window from a residential house, but something there didn't add up.

Regardless of the rock incident I had a good feeling that I would find the force sensitive individual from this most recent batch of people from Tatooine, as I had already sensed a presence on my cruiser.

I wanted an apprentice of my own so they could carry on the ways of the sith.

I decided to see the new recruits, as we liked to call them, for myself.

There were about 14 or so people in there, and 5 of them seemed to be sitting together in some sort of group.

The presence I felt in the force increased as I stood out of the room they were all being kept in. I scanned the room in hopes to find familiar faces and had not found a singular familiar face.

Until my eyes landed on the girl with the cherry colored hair.

Immediately my mind went back to my memories of my podracing days as a kid. I remember how she would sit in the front rows of the race and cheer. She was about my age and had a head full of cherry red curls that flew in the wind when it blew.

There was a moment in time our paths briefly crossed as she had wished me luck in the race. I still have a vivid memory of the young cherry haired girl giving me a hug and tucking a piece of hair behind my ear.

"You're gonna do great ani" she smiled as she disappeared back into the crowd. Part of me wondered how she knew my name.

From that day on I had not heard from her again.

Hearing of her, however, was a different question. Stories and rumors travel fast from planet to planet and half the galaxy knew the nickname 'cherry haired menace' at that point.

I knew bits and pieces of her story as she was running a bar like it was a crime syndicate and how she did not hesitate to put bullets through peoples heads for crossing her.

Something about her intrigued me. How did she go from the girl who wished me luck at a race to the girl with a trigger finger will who ran a bar and splattered people's brains on her wall for stepping out of line?

Her eyes had met mine for a brief moment, despite my helmet. It was almost as if she could see through the helmet and into my eyes.

We held each other's gaze for a moment.

Seconds later she had gone back to whatever she was talking about with that group of people she sat with.

To this day I wondered if I'd ever see her again

And here she was. Right in front of me.