Shadows of Tomorrow

Chapter 78 - To Kneel

Vader knew Sidious would be furious from the start, but that makes it no easier to tell him what happened on Malachor – or rather, that nothing happened at all. He failed his mission, and that is never something Sidious takes kindly to. It's not something Vader is particularly appreciative of himself, either, but he... he didn't want to. He didn't want to hurt them. He can't say why – they mean nothing to him.

The very fact that Sidious summoned him to Coruscant is enough to know that his master is... not pleased. Vader regretted his decision the moment he left, but he tried to tell himself that it was worth it, but was it? Theseus and Ahsoka are traitors. They must be stopped, for the Empire. There is no excuse for failure.

The look on his master's face is all he needs to know that he is in very big trouble. Not as if he didn't already know that.

He can't lie about it, though. That's out of the question. He doesn't know what would happen if he did, and he knows better than to try. He – obviously – conveniently dodges around how he didn't fight them at all. That is one fact his master does not need to know.

"So, you have failed to defeat these insignificant troublemakers," Sidious says.

"They were more powerful than I anticipated." It's the best answer he can give, because it is true – he had no idea how difficult it would be for him to see them again, and to end them like he had been sent there to do. It doesn't change that he failed, or what will no doubt follow.

"You have failed," Sidious repeats, "To put down an extra troublesome band of rebels." There is an edge in his voice now. "Is it, perhaps, that your old... connection to these two Jedi has been interfering?"

"There is none," Vader denies immediately, perhaps too quickly. There is not. There cannot be. Anakin is gone. He is. (Then why did he let Theseus touch him? Why did he let them walk away? Why did he not even try to kill them?)

"You lack strength," his master growls. "Your mission was to destroy them."

"I will find them." It's a useless effort, he knows, to appease him. Sidious will never let this go.

He feels his master's presence in his mind, and for as expected as it was, he wasn't ready for it to happen. He's always feared his master's... anger and disappointment, both Sidious's and Obi-Wan's before. "It is as I have suspected," his master hisses. "Still the heart of that weak Jedi remains. Destroy him, Lord Vader, or I will be forced to search for a new apprentice. Do not disappoint me again. You are but a tool. You can be discarded as such."

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate gives him strength. That was one of the first lessons he learned as a Sith, and it is true now. (He can't bring himself to hate Theseus though. Ahsoka, perhaps – she did abandon him when he needed her most, but Theseus was still there. He was always there. He tried to help, even if he failed as well.)

His master raises his hands, and Vader's breathing hitches – or it would have if that were physical possible – terror coiling sharply through him. There's only a moment of warning before the lightning consumes him.

He still acutely remembers the last time this happened when he was confronted someone from... Anakin's past. That was years ago.

***

"Do you really want him dead?" the First Sister asks, staring at him through the red lenses of his mask. She sees his soul in a way no other can. Vader can't quite say what it is they share – truthfully, he doesn't know, but it's something.

He holds her gaze steadily. She is the only Inquisitor who will occasionally speak to him as an equal if they're alone. He is her superior, but they...