Darth Vader Goes to Therapy

Rebellion Therapy

Negotiations. How did one negotiate? Sith did not negotiate–they demanded. Vader had already tried that, and the end result was finding out he had a daughter–one he'd tortured and would probably hate him for the rest of forever. So, if he had any hope of seeing either of his children, he had to learn to negotiate fast, and he couldn't rely on the ways of the Sith to do it.

He'd learned as a Jedi...

He swallowed the immediate anger that rose at the very thought of doing anything a Jedi would do, but if he wanted Luke...

Casting his memory back, he tried to remember his negotiation lessons. He'd spent so long trying to forget the past, the memories were now hazy. Still, as he recalled them, he remembered that even as a Jedi, his style was literally called "aggressive negotiations." If it wasn't aggressive, Kenobi did it...usually while he did something completely unpeaceful in the background.

Worse, he had no doubt, considering Kenobi's talent in negotiations, that he'd probably get involved, and he couldn't afford to lose his composure just because Kenobi happened to be there. As much as he oh so wanted to.

So, thinking back on his time as a jedi was unhelpful.

"Do you have any ideas?" he asked his Support Luke.

"While I am an incredibly accurate representation of your son," Support Luke said in that annoyingly professional tone Luke liked to use, "I am still a figment of your imagination and am therefore limited to what you can come up with, so, if you're stumped, I'm stumped."

"Unhelpful," Vader growled, "and unacceptable, given the circumstances. You will resent me and I will lose all of my stars if I give up and bring you back by force."

"That would be a shame," Support Luke agreed, "those stars even glitter. You'd better come up with something. Perhaps there's someone on board who could negotiate for you?"

As a matter of fact, he did have a hostage negotiator on board. Considering that he never negotiated, the man had to be assigned to another duty. What that was, he had no idea, but he was sure the skills remained.

But...

"No. I do not want anyone else to know I have a rebel daughter and that my relationship with you is not strictly professional. If the Emperor found out, your lives would be in danger."

"That is rather problematic," Support Luke agreed, "maybe someone could teach you?"

The idea was ridiculous. If Kenobi couldn't teach him to negotiate, no one could. Then again, he'd never had sufficient motivation, which he certainly had now. "It could take days to learn this."

"Let's be real, it might take years, but it's better than nothing." Support Luke corrected rather unhelpfully.

His entire being cringed at the thought of lessons, but Support Luke was right. He could not afford to fail and lose his family again. He would do what needed to be done.

But first...

He pulled out his comm and dialed his contact number for Leia.

Veers' son (Zeck? Reck? Zit? He couldn't remember), and Vader blinked when the image before him showed the boy with wet hair and no shirt. The boy must have been equally surprised to see him because he yelped and dove out of the frame.

"Why are you calling?!" came his voice, along with the sound of things being thrown around off image.

"You are well aware. It appears that Veers did not teach you to answer the comm professionally, which I would not have expected."