Deception | Anakin Skywalker x Reader

|18| The prisoners

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2.2k words

Warning: the end of this part gets a bit dark but it will all make sense in the end

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The ship shudders to a stop as it touches down on the metal surface of the Fortress Inquisitorious. The boarding ramp lowers, and I step out, pushing the slavers' leader, Darius, in front of me. His hands are cuffed, and from where I'm standing I can see that the chains are making his wrists red. I inwardly smirk, after what he did to Rex and I, this is the least he deserves (and I don't doubt that a sore wrist will be the least of his problems when Vader gets his hands on him).

The three Stormtroopers, who were asked to accompany me, follow close behind, gripping the arms of the other slavers, and pulling them along. Our footsteps echo around the main entrance of the Fortress, and a few Imperial workers stop what they are doing to stare. I shoot them my fiercest look, "Carry on." I tell them, signalling to them to continue with what they were doing. They don't move at first, not until I see one person in particular glance down at the grand inquisitor badge attached to my chest and he gestures to the rest, urging them to refocus on their work.

We march towards the turbolifts at the other side of the hangar and only when we reach the doors, and my hand hovers beside the button to call the lift do we hear a small cough. "Excuse me, ma'am."

"What?" I spin around, and give the balding man dressed in minor rank Imperial clothing, a glare.

"We'll need to see your identity badge before we can let you go any further."

"I am the Grand Inquisitor and I am trying to escort these prisoners down to their cells. A mission Lord Vader asked me to do specifically so if you have a problem with that you can speak to him yourself." I am pleased to say he flinches when I mention Vader's name. I lightly push him out of the way and call the lift.

The doors open and I step into the small box, pushing Darius in ahead of me (much more roughly than I did to the security man). That's when I notice that there isn't enough room for us two and the other prisoners with their accompanying Stormtroopers. "We'll go down first and you can follow after." I tell them and they nod their assent.

Darius smirks at this but I ignore him, pushing in the button to take us to the lowest floor. The doors slide to a close and I lean slightly against the back wall.

I usually hate doing this job, taking prisoners, who don't deserve to be prisoners, down to meet their ends in the dank underground, because let's be honest no-one ever comes back from this turbolift ride. But a part of me is not disliking it so much this time. I know everyone has a right to a fair trial but how many innocent people have Darius and his gang turned into slaves. How many people has he taken the lives of, whether through killing them or by selling them as property?

A part of me hopes Vader wants to deal with these people himself because he cares about all the lives lost to slavery each year but it's more probable that he's disgusted by the fact that these slavers make up their own rules; they aren't following the rules of the Empire.

No matter what my feelings might be about Anakin Skywalker's true nature and how I don't think he could do anything so cruel, I have to remember that on the night I walked through the Jedi Temple I heard that one clone call the man slaughtering the innocent younglings Lord Vader. He was responsible for so many deaths. How can someone who would do that be considered innocent in all this? But then again I've killed people, but that was for the greater good. Right?