Vader is a terrible, terrible man. AGAIN. [OPEN]

[sin_and_misery]

Kenobi!

Vader's eyes snapped open as he jerked to consciousness, his last memory of Kenobi's smirk burnt into his memory. The treacherous Jedi had thwarted him again. Why he was not dead was beyond him, but the second time Kenobi had left him for dead without having the stomach to actually finish the deed would be the last

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[ladyofthesands]

Arha had been waiting, quietly, watching him with wide open curiosity. He had tried to kill Obi-Wan, and here we was at the end of it; stuck to a machine. He had been burned, charred at one point--this she could tell by examining him from the side of the bed. Such would explain the need for artificial support. When he did stir, Arha moved back slightly.

"I would not advise moving until we can devise a more portable unit," she said in a quiet voice. She had chosen to wear her soft brown outfit and it was unmistakably Jed-Eye; the long sleeve puddled slightly against the edge of the bed as she eased herself upright. "This one is hardly adequate. I would ask how you are feeling, but I will take a guess that comfortable was never on such a menu."

[sin_and_misery]

"Who are you? Are you responsible for the theft of my lightsaber?" He asked, drawing away from her even as she gave him space. He was frustrated by the weakness of his voice with the vocoder.

[ladyofthesands]

"I am Arha Masaari," she said, her eyebrows arched. "And I did not steal anything of yours. That is the doing of this ship. If you wish to lodge a complaint, you must take it up with the Thinking Machine, Stacy. Such is not anything I can help with."

She folded her hands across her lap, thankful that she had not worn any weapons at all. This was what Obi-Wan had meant when he said Dark Side. Anger and pain rolled up into a ball of bright hate. Arha studied him with bright blue-within-blue eyes, tilting her head slightly.

"I would offer my assistance," she said thoughtfully, "if you would take it." It was true, she was certain she could ease some of the discomfort if only briefly and with concentration, but it would require this man's cooperation and agreement. Such was how all healing worked.

[sin_and_misery]

"You are a Jedi," Vader said, scanning the room behind her for anything that could be used as a weapon. "I am not interested in any assistance you can offer."

She seemed baseline human, but he could not be certain- she may have some unknown ability that would hinder any escape attempt, he thought.

"Ships are not made to be sentient," he replied, defiant even while helpless. "Even droids do not think as organics do. The Jedi are slipping in their studies- their pool for kidnapping and brainwashing grows smaller daily."

[ladyofthesands]

"I was not always Jed-Eye," Arha said with a shrug. "It matters little, only that I have offered a few moments of painlessness. That you chose to reject it is your business. Know that such an offer is open, should you wish it." Her head tilted back the other way, the motion birdlike as as sharp as the way her eyes focused on him.

"This is no Jed-Eye ship, such rules do not apply, not that you shall believe me. Of course, I have the Force within me, so cannot be trusted. But think for a moment. What I see before me is a man who is defiant despite his physical limitations. Had you the proper equipment and tools, would you not strike me down? Would you not seek to do the same to everything in your way? Perhaps. But it would do you no good

[sin_and_misery]

"My hate," Vader rasped, raising his chin as his eyes blazed with fury, "makes me strong. Physical pain is insignificant when the power of the Dark Side and the destiny of the Galaxy flows through my veins, I can crush stars with a thought. My charge is to cull the unworthy, those that would not bow before the Emperor in his quest to create a galaxy that is actually livable. Unlike the Jedi, I am loyal to my duties. I am unconcerned about the Ohm you speak of, and am disinclined to believe your fanciful tales. There is no power that can destroy more than a planet at a time, there is no force that would destroy every planet in existence."

[ladyofthesands]

"Your Empire and Emperor are dead," Arha said, meeting his eyes with her own, and with more curiosity than anything. "Reach out your senses, listen, feel. Are there no echoes? Do you sense nothing of your Universe, your worlds, your Empire? What reason do I have to lie to you? Your hate is your own, keep it if you feel it makes you stronger, but it blinds you from the truth. As for the destiny of the Galaxy, you can forget about that. There is not a galaxy left to shape. What you say is silly."

She frowned lightly.

"I said once 'What is the Force? Surely no power like this can exist!' and I was proven wrong, for I felt it. The logic is true in this matter as well. Simply because you have not seen such a power, does not mean it is absent. It has not been witnessed. Do you wish to see? I could show you what the Ohm have done to my universe. I have seen it. I was there and I remember the way they swept down upon us all, so thick I could not see the sands of my home. I watched as they slaughtered everything and anything

[sin_and_misery]

There was no sound in the medbay but the soft, labored rhythm of Vader's breathing. What she said could not be correct- just as the news of his son, at least twice his age and alive, could not be correct- yet he felt the truth of her statement. He withdrew deeper into the Dark Side, feeling the comfort of sure, swift desire for vengeance.

"The most lasting peace is that of death," he replied, simply. "If they are all dead, then I have been spared for one purpose only- to ensure that the Jedi cannot spread to any other galaxy. My mission is far from over."

It was a non-answer to make the Emperor proud.

[ladyofthesands]

"You are a very dense man," Arha said, blinking at him before shaking her head. "You hear only what you wish to hear and let your hate blind you to all. You do not master your hate. This is the Dark Side? Your beloved Empire, your Emperor, your universe is gone and you say, 'Ah, but I must kill any remaining Jed-Eye because it is my mission'--such a thing to say."

Arha stared at him most seriously for a long while.

"Kill Jed-Eye? What does this serve? A master who is dead, a universe that is dead, a vengeance that is purposeless. Such does nothing in the end of all things. Why save you? You let your emotions run about as badly as I do! I rejoice in the Force and you hate," she wiggled her fingers as if to shoo a bug, "in it. You would kill, maim, reshape, I would heal, reknit, fix. Spreading Jed-Eye? This is not the problem. We are not breeding and producing tiny little Jed-Eye in this place to spread and conquer galaxies by seed and conquest." Arha half snorted in laughter, then shook her head, bewildered at the

[sin_and_misery]

"What purpose does it serve to kill the Jedi? Does the Order no longer teach of justice?" Vader drew himself up on the bed, still to weak to rise to his feet but as imposing as a seated figure could be.

"Their crimes did not die with the Galaxy-- and they clearly have no stopped committing those crimes, either. The stain spreads as their numbers swell. When the Jedi are dead, I will at last be allowed to die. I do not wish to live where I no longer have a purpose. What happens after that is none of my concern."

"I will remain loyal. I still remember my duty."

[ladyofthesands]

"The Jed-Eye Order as you know it died a very long time ago--such I have been told," Arha said. "The crimes you speak of have faded into the darkness of time. You alone carry their weight and your anger is just the wind passing across the mouth of a long forgotten cave. Your duty is hollow and empty and the justice you speak of cooled by the distance from one era to another. It is time to make yourself anew, if you can."

She regarded him thoughtfully, watching the way he gathered himself as if to intimidate her. It did not work. He had not braved the sands of Arrakis, his storm came from other sources, other places--from within and from without. It marked him as her blue-within-blue eyes marked her, she with an addiction that meant death if interrupted, his with a body that could not sustain itself without aid.

"Loyalty to the dead," she said softly. "Do the dead not deserve to be avenged properly? You say duty but this duty of yours is not in service of an Empire. I think it is not. It is selfish and weak. If you had a

[sin_and_misery]

"Do not dare presume to lecture me on loyalty- I have had my oaths tested again and again as the stain of blood grew wider and wider about me. You may disguise it with pretty metaphors, but as long as Kenobi draws breath his evil poisons you and every other Jedi-- it poisons my son."

Vader was grinding his teeth between proclamations, his body screamed for action rather than this back-and-forth useless exchange.

"Call me selfish if you will, but as it stands now I am the Empire. You cannot know what I sacrificed to breath life into the Galaxy once again, to create order from madness, but it will not be wasted. I am my purpose- I will see it through, then gladly turn my lightsaber upon my self to see every last trace of the Jedi erased."

[ladyofthesands]

"Tell me," she said simply, her palms turned up. "I cannot know of these things you speak of--truly I cannot. I am not even from your universe and I have never seen it but through the Thinking Machine. Tell me your tale, pour it out before me. I have nowhere to be but here."

Her eyes flicked over his face.

"I am, too, the head of the Order I come from in my own universe. The last of the Bene Gesserit. You know nothing of my own trials nor of the chaos I have seen and survived." There was more behind her voice than that of the twenty-six year old woman that now sat at his bedside. There was the press of more than five-thousand years worth of genetic memory behind it. She was old and sharp and different with eyes that reflected it.

"As to your son," she said, "I have never met a more remarkable man. If you lay aside your hate for a moment, you should be proud. He has rebuilt the Jed-Eye and left the trappings of the Order that stifled it and, perhaps you, aside. I do not know how such is poison..."

[sin_and_misery]

"You wish to know of Anakin Skywalker- he was weak and foolish, and consequently, he is a dead man. I was born from his ashes, when Kenobi thought that the mercy of death was beneath me and left me to burn alive. I owe you nothing- I do not care for your story any more than you would care for a mine."

Vader froze, his jaw tightened and veins stood out prominently in his forehead.

"My son is forever lost to me. Do not speak to me of how I can be proud of a man I can never know, a man who has been programmed to fight against me to my death-- a man I will have to put out of his own misery if I cannot save him from Kenobi's ministering. You may speak to me of hatred, but the Jedi will never be content until they have intruded upon every last facet of who I am and made it nothing."

[ladyofthesands]

"You would be wrong in that I would sit to hear your story," Arha said. "But, I think, you are set in seeing your world through a certain lens. I do not think there is much I can say that will give you what you truly seek. You wish a son, yet he has turned himself into the Force and away from hate, sorrow, and darkness--this does not make him lost to you. He is still your son and will still sit with you. He shall not kill you. Luke has found his way without Obi-Wan and the things he has learned have changed him into the man he is this day. He has been through much, both dark and light, and has struck a balance and peace between them."

Such is what she saw when she looked at Luke.

"You say 'the Jed-Eye' as if they are a massive force uprising against you that needs to be crushed. In reality, they are all survivors, all who are aboard this ship. They harm no one by being here, though you would surely kill them all. You may try, but this ship will not let you succeed

[sin_and_misery]

"I will take nothing from a Jedi," Vader said, drawing upon all his teachings he had received at the foot of the Emperor. The truth of Arha's words was completely lost on him.

"I do not need your false pity, nor do I need your disdain or supposed joy-- all these things are lies. The Jedi feel nothing. Nothing! You cannot fathom the bonds of blood because they are forbidden to you, and I do not encourage you to try, lest you fall and find yourself no better than I am. Then you would be unable to stare down at me from your vantage point and gloat in such a manner. Wrap yourself within the teachings of your false prophets, if they truly allow you to sleep soundly."