Darth Vader Goes to Therapy

Drugs

No one told him how annoying children could be.

He'd spent the last 23 years living a perfectly acceptable lifestyle, then one day he found his therapist son and suddenly he's forced to doubt his entire existence. Luke, true to his word, had found an impartial medical droid and had it brought aboard his ship. Vader was tempted to 'accidentally' send it out an airlock, or 'accidentally' mistake it for one of his sparring droids, but Luke wasn't stupid. He would have seen right through him, and Vader was sure he'd have to talk through his actions in the next therapy session.

He decided humoring his son and getting a second medical opinion was far less annoying than discussing his perfectly acceptable decision to dismember the new medical droid.

But then the droid came back with a list of medications that either needed to have its dosage modified, or be completely removed. He considered not telling Luke at all--it was, after all, his medical right to not tell him--but when Luke asked one morning after therapy if he'd used the droid, he couldn't help but say, "You rigged the droid against me!"

Luke blinked in surprise. "What?"

"It came back and said I should change my medications, which is exactly what you wanted!"

"Uh," Luke set his cup of hot chocolate to the side (a very un-Sithly drink), "All I want is for you to be as healthy as possible so we have more time to spend together."

"Or maybe this is one of your hippie conspiracies!" Vader pointed at him.

"I mean as a therapist I would also counsel you to make healthy decisions when it comes to your physical wellbeing, yes, but I swear, this one is even more driven by the fact that you are my father and I'd like to see you not dead."

"I am the healthiest being in the galaxy!"

"...Forgetting that you literally showed me your medical history, you were the one to tell me that it wasn't going to be a battle that killed you, it would be your physical health, so you know that isn't true."

Vader growled. "I do not have to do anything I do not wish to!"

"You're right, you don't. I'm only speaking as your son who is concerned for you, but again, I can't force you to do anything you don't wish to do. But I would be very pleased if you at least considered taking steps to take care of your physical health."

The words were like a knife to the chest because, as much as Vader didn't want to admit it, he was well aware that he'd purposefully let his health decline further than it needed to, even with the burns, scars, and his respiratory issues as they were. So Vader just roared in frustration then stormed wordlessly from the room.

He only realized later that his rash reaction caused him to cut his time short with Luke, and it only made him more furious, enough so that he again decided that he would humor his son if only to make him see that he was wrong and Vader was right. It didn't matter whether or not he kept his current medications or if he changed them, it would not improve his health. Then maybe Luke would leave him alone about making 'healthy life decisions.'

So, he summoned Luke's medical droid, and set up a plan to adjust the drugs being injected into him daily, and sent a message to Luke's comm. It was a simple recording: "I will again prove you wrong and show that you know nothing about improving my physical health by changing my drug regimen. When there is no difference, I expect you to drop the subject."

And at first, there was little to no difference. But then one day he fell asleep during a meeting. When he woke up, he found everyone had left the conference room and he was sitting alone. He later asked Piett, "Why did everyone leave the meeting early?"