The Warrior's Path

Chapter 4 - Searching

Author's Note: I should probably give a warning for minor torture. Nothing worse than what we see in canon though! Yet... ;) xD

~ Amina Gila

Vader has no idea how much time has passed since his capture when he regains consciousness. He's cuffed with Force restraints which makes it hard for him to properly reach out with the Force. All of his attempts feel... uncontrolled. He can feel the panic begins to crawl within him. He's never felt like this before, not even when he was a prisoner of the Sith so many years ago, but it's very disconcerting and scary.

He lets out a shaky breath, squeezing his eyes closed and tuning out his own thoughts, focusing on what he can sense around him. The vibrations beneath him let him know that he's on a large ship, probably a Star Destroyer. The trap was set up for them, for him. It's not easy for anyone to get the jump on him like that, but somehow, it happened.

It helps to know that he's not alone. Though Vader would rather that Ahsoka not have been captured, it... helps. He knows she's here – he can feel her in the Force nearby though he doesn't know how close or far away she is – and if they're together, they only need to stay that way until their family comes for them. His father will come, of course, and possibly even Anakin and Obi-Wan, too. They're not alone now, not like he and his father were so many years ago.

But Vader wishes that he had at least been able to spare his sister from this fate. She shouldn't have been captured. They would do anything for each other, and Vader remembers, with some amusement, something that happened some years ago. Anakin had been teasing Ahsoka, asking her if she would ever want to marry and have a family.

"I'm already married," she had sassed him with a grin. "Vader and I are married to our siblinghood. We don't need anything else."

Anakin had laughed at that, but he'd understood. Vader has never felt the inclination to have a romantic relationship with someone, and perhaps that's a result of his experiences as a child, or perhaps it's because of what he endured in the Sith's hands. It doesn't really matter either way, of course. Ahsoka is much the same. Growing up in a war matured her beyond her years; she had to grow up too fast. The two of them have each other, and they will never need or want anything more. Sometimes, siblings are better than anything.

Vader is pulled from his musings – oh, he's actually smiling slightly at that old memory; it was a good distraction – when the cell door opens. Stormtroopers are swarming outside, their blasters aimed on him. "Come," barks the leader, and Vader rises, stepping out into the hall. Ahsoka is there too, cuffed like he is, and there's at least a full squadron of troopers there as well. The two of them are marched in silence to a hanger bay and loaded into a shuttle. Vader doesn't ask any questions – he knows better than to do that anyways – and no one offers up any information.

Ahsoka gives him a strained, reassuring smile which he returns with a nod of his own. The shuttle descends, and Vader reaches out with the Force as best he can, trying to sense something beyond the suffocating feel of the restraints. They're... on Coruscant? Maybe? Or some other place which has a lot of people anyways. But it does make sense that they would be taken to Coruscant. That knowledge sends a chill of fear through him. He – no, he's not ready to face Sidious. He doesn't think he ever will be, and he's certainly not ready while they're on their own like this. If his father or Anakin or even Obi-Wan were here, it might be different.

The fact that he was captured makes him wonder if Sidious knows about him and his father, about them coming from another reality. Or will Sidious think that he's captured his long-lost not-apprentice? Perhaps until he sees them. Physically, Vader is almost identical to Anakin, but there are a few differences. For one, he's obviously younger, and his hair is much shorter. He also doesn't have the unmistakable scar next to his right eye or the prosthetic hand. His clothes are dark though, like Anakin's used to be. He's wearing a tight-fighting jumpsuit-type thing which is good for combat purposes.