Across fictive worlds

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Vader POV

The pale figure was quivering underneath him. Phantom pains shot up his leather-clad legs as he knelt at her side. One hand closed around the shoulder of a tiny woman.

"Please", she begged him, her cheeks covered in tears. "Please... father..."

The red light inched closer to her throat. Skin started to sizzle under the blade as it almost, but not quite, touched her throat.

"Please", she begged again. Her big brown eyes looked at at him, so similar to her mother's, begging for mercy.

The blade came down. One swing, one cut, one final act of atrocity.

...

Never.

Never, ever, ever. It wouldn't happen. It must not happen. Never again.

Just a nightmare. Just a nightmare.

...

She screamed. She screamed and writhed and suffered. The dark side was pulsing with every one of her convulsions. Her pain was reverberating in the Force and in its own way, it was glorious.

"Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!" she shouted.

But he just stood there, watching.

She writhed. She screamed. She suffered. And in the end, she died.

...

He wouldn't let it happen. Never. He would protect her, he would keep her close. Sidious wouldn't get anywhere near her. That was what he promised himself but there was a part of him... a small part... that wondered who it really was that brought her such suffering. The visions always ended the same way.

It wasn't Sidious who killed her.

...

He stood above her once more. He'd been here so many times, he was so tired of it.

"Please", she begged him, tears running freely. "Please, father. It hurts. Please make it stop."

"I can't", he heard himself say. "I'm not allowed to."

"Please", she begged again. "Make it stop. Make it stop, make it stop, makeitstop!"

She writhed and she thrashed and she screamed.

"MAKE IT STOP! I HATE YOU, I LIED TO YOU, I JUST USED YOU! MAKE IT STOP! MAKEITSTOP!"

Something broke. Something gave. And the blade came down.

...

They didn't stop. Once a week, twice a week. Every night now. Every night, he killed his daughter. On Sidious' orders? To punish her for a betrayal? No... The visions were getting clearer now. He did it because she asked him to.

Vader was under no illusions though, his Master surely was involved somehow. He'd seen enough victims writhe under Sith lightning to recognize the signs. She was being tortured... and ending her life was the only way he could make it stop. But he wouldn't. He couldn't. He would never. Even if she kept secrets from him. Even if she conspired behind his back with Jedis, dead and alive. Even if she betrayed him, sold him out, tried to kill him. He would never turn against her.

After all... He deserved all that and more.

When the time came, he just had to make sure it was Sidious' head his blade came down on.