Darth Vader: Hero of Naboo

Chapter 8

Running away or fleeing was not something Jedi particularly liked to do. Sneaking about, waiting for the right time or retreating to a better location was not the same. Those were akin to dodging in a lightsaber duel.

Right now, it was undeniable to the Padawan Aayla Secura that they were fleeing for their lives, she and her Jedi Master, Quinlan Vos.

Actually, to be correct, they were fleeing for her life. She wasn't sure what her master could do against that...Darkness, but she knew that he believed she was not ready to face something like that. She wasn't sure she disagreed.

She continued to meditate in the small ship they had used for their undercover mission on Tatooine. It had been going well, but her Master chose to save her instead of confronting what she could only assume was a Sith. Vos had more insight, she was sure. The Jedi Knight was one of the strongest Jedi she knew, in a way, as he regularly struggled with the Dark Side. While that carried great risk to him falling, it had certain...advantages. Such that what the Dark Side concealed, Vos could still see. At least somewhat.

And his expression hadn't changed since, ever this hardened visage. As if he was watching and waiting for a great predator to make itself known. It was a face he only had when trying to deduce the best course for them to survive and it didn't leave until he believed he had found the way or been shown it by the Force. It never remained for this long.

She cringed in her meditative stance. She could feel it, feel the Sith's anger overflow as waves in the force, rolling over everything too close to it.

Apparently, being in the same region was still too close.

It had been doing that for a while now, random bursts of growing anger and frustration. She dreaded to think what had put this titan of darkness into such a foul mood and pitied the one blamed for it.

Meanwhile

'DAMN YOU SIDIOUS FOR NOT INSULATING THESE LIMBS!' Vader screamed into his mind as he pulled back his hand, again, from getting zapped by a broken fuse.

Nearby, R2D2 beeped and whirled some comments.

"I am not using the Force to do this," Vader refuted bluntly.

"Are you worried you might crush the device?" Obi-Wan asked with a hint of something he wouldn't dare call teasing.

"Padawan, do you have any conceivable idea of how to repair a null quantum field generator safely, short of dismantling the entire hyperdrive?" Vader inquired in exasperation, not looking away from his work.

"Granted, no," Obi-Wan admitted with a grimace. "I didn't think it could be damaged without ruining the rest."

"One of the other astrodroids seems to have overloaded it by mistake, likely due to being shot and malfunctioning," Vader mused with a mental hum. If he was right, that was the Force keeping the group on route to meeting his younger self. "Now grant me silence so I may get us off this planet."

Obi-Wan, honestly, couldn't agree more with that sentiment. "Very well, but should I ask the boy to come down here? I hear he's some sort of prodigy with mechanics on top of being..."

"Absurdly powerful in the force, yes. And, no. The boy may be gifted in mechanics, but as far as I am aware, he has only worked with droids and pod-racers until now. The latter of which are just similar enough to this for him to believe he is fixing something while dooming us all," Vader warned as R2 beeped. "Tell the boy the droid sends his thanks. He'll know what for, I believe," Vader translated before removing his hand as the hyperdrive started to hum, the noise rapidly increasing in sound and speed for a few moments before evening out.