Lady Obscura: Vader's Shadow [Star Wars | Luke Skywalker]

Chapter 4

It wasn't long before Athara came to, though her head was pounding in the aftermath of Alderaan's destruction. It was a testament to her bruised and battered state of mind that one of the first truly coherent thoughts that popped into her head was that comfort of the mysterious presence would certainly be welcome now.

As if in response, a fleeting brush of concern touched her mind before vanishing without a trace. Groaning, she pushed all thought of the feeling or presence or whatever it was aside. Carefully she pulled herself to her feet and stumbled the first few steps to the 'fresher. After splashing cold water in her face several times, trying to clear the feelings and the mental ache lingering from the mental devastation Alderaan's destruction had wreaked upon her mind, she looked up into the mirror above the sink.

She should've expected the vivid yellow eyes that stared back at her, but they still startled her nonetheless. She had fully immersed herself in the Dark Side to shield her mind from the shock of feeling an entire planet's destruction; of course it was going to manifest itself. Then again, she so rarely immersed herself so completely that having her eyes change from a dark grey-blue to a garish yellow was always a bit of a shock. That's why she usually avoided mirrors when she let the Dark Side have free reign over her.

Tugging off her now crumpled cloak, Athara set about at least putting the rest of her appearance to rights since there was little she could do about her eyes. For that, she needed to be patient until the effects of the Dark Side's use wore off.

She had messed up, big time, and she knew it.

From the instant that the laser beam reached Alderaan's atmosphere Athara's memory was blurred. Even after she submerged herself in the Dark Side, her mind hadn't cleared enough to process exactly what happened next. She vaguely remembered letting loose a wave of rage that damaged consoles and viewscreens. After that, she recalled only that Vader had pulled her away from the Control Room and even carried her part of the way to their quarters. She had been so unprepared for Alderaan's destruction that she had lost control completely. She had released enough power in her pain and fury that the damage she caused was akin to that a violent outburst from her Master would produce.

Now she was afraid she had ruined everything her Master had worked so hard to do in order to train her, to protect her. There was no doubt the Emperor would have felt something of her outburst. Alderaan's destruction may have drowned out the extent of it, but he would know. Whether or not her cover was blown was now a lingering concern for Athara, and she couldn't stop herself from begging the Force that it wasn't.

Pushing her fears aside as best she could, she quickly brushed out her long, honey-brown hair, braiding bits back to keep most of the persistent strands out of her face before coiling and pinning the rest of it at the base of her skull. She then washed her face, hoping her complexion would once again be clear, and not the blotchy red that high emotions and trauma caused. Her long burgundy tunic was horribly wrinkled but Athara did her best to smooth it out. It wouldn't do to appear as disheveled and agitated as she felt.

Throughout her limited lessons on Sith history and theory, the things past Masters of her order had done in the pursuit of power had repulsed her, though she never allowed herself to show it. Anything that created pain, fear and anger was a potential conduit of the Dark Side; a way to channel and gather more power than a single Dark Lord of the Sith could summon on his own. With that kind of massive potential, the Sith Lords of the past had done awesome, terrible things, things that had given Athara nightmares for weeks. She was not like that, and while her Master would use the fear of his opponents against them, he would never use something as abominable as the destruction of an entire planet to fuel his own power. It was unthinkable, even for Vader.