In Which Vader Discovers He is a Father

Darien Whit

Full of tears and diapers and sleepless nights and endless existential dread

So much existential dread.

And nightmares, oh the nightmares. It seemed every time he closed his eyes he saw it anew. The Temple burning. The dead bodies. Everywhere, dead bodies. Dead children. Young and innocent, dead before their lives could start.

The boy, the one who died trying to keep him safe, weighed the heaviest on his heart. So much destruction, so much terror, and at the heart of it all was a man he had once believed to be a friend.

There was only one thing that brought him comfort at night when the dreams woke him from his sleep.

His Leia.

She was his anchor.

His lifeline.

His whole world.

His daughter!

Which is why when the guards came looking for him on the morning when his world ended, he was asleep in her room, passed out asleep in the chair in the corner.

"Sir, there is a ship entering orbit. There was only one pilot on board, and he is requesting access to land at the Palace's landing pad. Says he is an Imperial Representative?"

"Did he provide you with any sort of personal codes or name? Surely he knows we can not clear him to land without some proof of his story."

"Yes sir. He said his name was Darth Vader? His codes all checked out."

It was over.

It was all over.

He had barely even started to get to know her, and already his greatest joy would be lost to him forever.

Breha was spending her morning locked in meetings with advisers, working out exactly how to best respond to the government that had replaced their beloved Republic. He was afraid those meetings would have to be put on hold. This was infinitely more important.

Four words spoken into his comm, heart sinking like a weight, and his wife was pulled into the terrible panic alongside him. "My love, he's here."

______________________________________________

The Queen and her husband were waiting for him at the platform.

Good, they understood his importance.

His eyes lingered overly long on the Viceroy. On Padmé's closest friend. Thankfully the mask prevented anyone from knowing where it was he looked.

That was not his life now, it had happened to someone else.

In the end Skywalker had been nothing more than a sad deluded fool. He would not let himself get trapped by Skywalker's weaknesses.

The Royal couple watched him with an uneasy air. It suffused the Force around them.

They were terrified.

Good.

They should be.

"Lord Vader, it is my honor to welcome you to Alderaan. May I ask what is the purpose of this visit? We have complied in full with the Emperor's orders, and have neared completion of our new constitution and charter in response to the change in the codes." The Queen was good at masking her feelings, but not good enough. He knew she hated him, almost as much as he hated himself.

He did not know what cause he had given for such personal hatred. He was still unknown to all within the Empire. Unrecognized. So how and why had he come to occupy such a place of loathing here already?