![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Otherways: OOO: Returning Home Continued
Dec. 30th, 2005 09:20 am[following this]
After divesting him of anything that might be construed as a weapon, they simply dragged him. He hadn't been stripped, yet. That would come later, behind closed doors. They had, however, taken his arm. The mechanical one. Being that it had been completely shorted out by the Emperor's Force Lightning barrage, this wasn't such a hardship. It would have only gotten in the way, after all. So, they dragged him. Down corridors, through doors. He allowed them, let them pull his unresisting body through the Palace, farther dorn and deeper in. For now, he remained limp, he had no choice. But while his body was quiescent, his mind was active. Furiously active. All of this activity led up to one simple thing. He was not about to allow himself to be stripped and imprisoned. Not about to allow Palpatine to hold Anakin's remaining child one second longer than it took him to get free of these guards and go fetch the child. He was not, in fact, going to allow Palpatine to stay Emperor for much longer. For while his Master believed Vader to have already betrayed him, only now does Vader make the conscious decision to act. To act in blatant defiance of Palpatine. To remove Palpatine from power. From life, in fact. For only now, through Palpatine's betrayal does the Emperor go from a vaguely trusted ally to an enemy who must be destroyed in Vader's eyes.
They said Anakin would be the greatest Jedi the galaxy had or would ever know. He became instead the most feared Sith of all time. And now, he becomes something else.
His limbs tingle as feeling returns.
He acts.
A minute later, every guard near him lies dead on the floor. He could have killed them all with the Force, could have crushed their windpipes or their hearts with a thought. He did it all by hand, he does not want any ripple in the Force to warn the Emperor of his apprentice's true revolt. That, and the feeling when his booted foort made a loud crunch sound issue forth from his opponent's body upon impact was rather viscerally enjoyable.
Freed of his captors and the effects of Force lightning having completely worn off, Vader stalks through the Palace unseen and unnoticed. He had spent many hours in the past year studying its entire layout, finding ways through it known by no one, the best routes to avoid any security cameras or guard patrols. He puts that time to use now, following the echoes in the Force that lead him ever closer to the only thing that matters to him now.
Luke.
As he nears his son, Vader can't help but wonder at the Palace's quiet. No alarms have sounded, there has been no increase in patrols and yet surely by now the guards tasked with his imprisonment have been discovered.
He hadn't bothered to hide them.
Surely then, the Emperor knows his wayward apprentice is loosed. Why does he not react.
This is the though that brings Vader up short. Palpatine does not react because he has no need to. He will act because he has foreseen this. He had to. This then, implies he knows Vader is coming for his son. That Palpatine is prepared. That Vader would only be storming directly into a subtle and well-conceived trap. He won't let Palpatine win that easily.
He won't let Palpatine win at all.
And so it happens that the escaped prisoner, formerly the Emperor's right hand, is spotted fleeing the Palace by several guards. Credence is lent to this when that wing of the Palace summarily explodes from the thermal detonaters left behind by Vader to cover his escape. Then, when a report of an attack by Rebels at the other end of the Palace is relayed to the emperor, Palpatine sits smug in his throne, pleased to have uncovered Vader's plot and seen his traitorous apprentice's true colors. Vader was too headstrong, too impatient, making his move, too soon. He, and his little Rebels would be crushed.
And so it also happens, that with so many little distractions that begin to eat away at the Palace's defenses, distractions tailor made to exploit weaknesses only an insider who helped design those defenses would know about, a small nursery, high in one of the towers is paid almost no attention at all. Especially now that it is obvious Vader has left his child to the Emperor. Which really should have been obvious when Vader disappeared for weeks without taking his children with him then.
And so, no one besides a small, blonde-haired, blue-eyed infant sees Vader slip into the room. No one sees him scoop the infant up into his one arm.
No one sees them leave as Vader runs out of the room, hopefully taking the child to safety.
[continuing in otherways]
After divesting him of anything that might be construed as a weapon, they simply dragged him. He hadn't been stripped, yet. That would come later, behind closed doors. They had, however, taken his arm. The mechanical one. Being that it had been completely shorted out by the Emperor's Force Lightning barrage, this wasn't such a hardship. It would have only gotten in the way, after all. So, they dragged him. Down corridors, through doors. He allowed them, let them pull his unresisting body through the Palace, farther dorn and deeper in. For now, he remained limp, he had no choice. But while his body was quiescent, his mind was active. Furiously active. All of this activity led up to one simple thing. He was not about to allow himself to be stripped and imprisoned. Not about to allow Palpatine to hold Anakin's remaining child one second longer than it took him to get free of these guards and go fetch the child. He was not, in fact, going to allow Palpatine to stay Emperor for much longer. For while his Master believed Vader to have already betrayed him, only now does Vader make the conscious decision to act. To act in blatant defiance of Palpatine. To remove Palpatine from power. From life, in fact. For only now, through Palpatine's betrayal does the Emperor go from a vaguely trusted ally to an enemy who must be destroyed in Vader's eyes.
They said Anakin would be the greatest Jedi the galaxy had or would ever know. He became instead the most feared Sith of all time. And now, he becomes something else.
His limbs tingle as feeling returns.
He acts.
A minute later, every guard near him lies dead on the floor. He could have killed them all with the Force, could have crushed their windpipes or their hearts with a thought. He did it all by hand, he does not want any ripple in the Force to warn the Emperor of his apprentice's true revolt. That, and the feeling when his booted foort made a loud crunch sound issue forth from his opponent's body upon impact was rather viscerally enjoyable.
Freed of his captors and the effects of Force lightning having completely worn off, Vader stalks through the Palace unseen and unnoticed. He had spent many hours in the past year studying its entire layout, finding ways through it known by no one, the best routes to avoid any security cameras or guard patrols. He puts that time to use now, following the echoes in the Force that lead him ever closer to the only thing that matters to him now.
Luke.
As he nears his son, Vader can't help but wonder at the Palace's quiet. No alarms have sounded, there has been no increase in patrols and yet surely by now the guards tasked with his imprisonment have been discovered.
He hadn't bothered to hide them.
Surely then, the Emperor knows his wayward apprentice is loosed. Why does he not react.
This is the though that brings Vader up short. Palpatine does not react because he has no need to. He will act because he has foreseen this. He had to. This then, implies he knows Vader is coming for his son. That Palpatine is prepared. That Vader would only be storming directly into a subtle and well-conceived trap. He won't let Palpatine win that easily.
He won't let Palpatine win at all.
And so it happens that the escaped prisoner, formerly the Emperor's right hand, is spotted fleeing the Palace by several guards. Credence is lent to this when that wing of the Palace summarily explodes from the thermal detonaters left behind by Vader to cover his escape. Then, when a report of an attack by Rebels at the other end of the Palace is relayed to the emperor, Palpatine sits smug in his throne, pleased to have uncovered Vader's plot and seen his traitorous apprentice's true colors. Vader was too headstrong, too impatient, making his move, too soon. He, and his little Rebels would be crushed.
And so it also happens, that with so many little distractions that begin to eat away at the Palace's defenses, distractions tailor made to exploit weaknesses only an insider who helped design those defenses would know about, a small nursery, high in one of the towers is paid almost no attention at all. Especially now that it is obvious Vader has left his child to the Emperor. Which really should have been obvious when Vader disappeared for weeks without taking his children with him then.
And so, no one besides a small, blonde-haired, blue-eyed infant sees Vader slip into the room. No one sees him scoop the infant up into his one arm.
No one sees them leave as Vader runs out of the room, hopefully taking the child to safety.
[continuing in otherways]
