Darth Vader Goes to Therapy

Missing

Vader was on edge. The Force didn't feel right--something was wrong, but he couldn't tell what it was. At first he thought maybe it was left over emotions from his rather intense therapy session a few days before, but whenever he'd started dwelling on what was discussed, he closed his eyes and followed Luke's directions, imagining and placing the thoughts and emotions into the unlatched box.

And it worked...so why did he feel uneasy?

He tried meditation, but the feeling of angry ease he normally felt wasn't there. He was uncomfortable, and shifting positions in his meditation pod did not help. The Dark Side did not respond to him like it usually did.

He gave up, put his helmet back on, and went to the bridge.

If he couldn't focus, he might as well work. Perhaps then the answer would become clear.

The feeling intensified when he reached the bridge and Piett was not there. It was early in the morning cycle, and Piett was usually early to his shift on the bridge...but today, he wasn't there.

Vader paused at the door, eyes scanning faces just to be sure, before he approached a young captain.

"Where is the Admiral?"

The captain paled when he looked up from the pit to find him standing over him, but he answered clearly and quickly. "He hasn't come to the bridge, my lord. He isn't due on schedule for another thirty minutes."

Clearly he thought Vader was overreacting, and with any other Admiral he might have reluctantly agreed, but Piett was always at least an hour early. Vader had always suspected insomnia...but he supposed it was possible that the man had gotten a full nights sleep. Or perhaps he was under the weather.

The explanations didn't fit, but he supposed he could wait until the Admiral's shift time.

At least that was his initial thought, but after about five minutes that felt like an hour where the bad feeling grew and grew, he decided to trust his intuition.

Something was wrong, and somehow, Piett was involved. That...was not something he'd expected to ever think, but it was true nonetheless.

"Get me the Admiral. I want him on this bridge now." He snapped at an ensign. The man jumped a bit and hurried to comply.

Vader approached and stood over the man's shoulder as he tried to comm him. Was it just him, or did it feel like even the rings on the comm was slower?

The comm went to recorded message, which the ensign quickly left, requesting that the Admiral come to the bridge immediately.

"Keep calling." Vader pointed at the captain. "You, go find him."

As the Captain rushed off and the ensign continued trying to call, Vader stretched out with his senses to look for the familiar, tired presence of Piett.

Nothing. Sure, non-sensitives were duller in the Force, but Vader had worked with Piett long enough that he could usually pick him out easily in a crowd.

Not sensing him in the upper levels, Vader stretched further out. Perhaps he'd stopped by Luke's office--he seemed to like his son, and his son liked everyone, so...

Vader froze.

No. He...he had to be wrong.

He checked the Force and all of the presence's on his ship again. And again. And again. There were fifty thousand dull presences aboard his ship, but no bright, brilliant point of light.

Maybe he's on one of my other star destroyers?

No. There was no reason for that. It was early, and if for some reason one of his other ships in Death Squadron needed a therapist, he had a feeling Luke would set up a virtual meeting rather than leave.