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

Chapter 19

Athara completely lost track of time sitting in the cell she had been assigned. The shuttle-ride to one of the Fleet's larger cruisers, where there were actual brigs, had been painfully quiet. The guards had been so nervous around her that the instant they had led her into the cramped cell, they had left her there without another word. They hadn't even removed the binders from her wrists. Not that that was of great concern, she imagined. She had already demonstrated that she was more than capable of removing them herself.

Yet she hadn't. As soon as the door had whooshed shut, she'd slumped down onto the bench that ran the length of one durasteel wall. In that moment, she felt like she was exactly where she deserved to be. So she sat on the hard bench, binders still clamped around her wrists, ruminating on the last several weeks. She went over everything. Hoth, Dagobah, Yoda, Qui-gon, Bespin, Vader...Luke. Everything. And she came up with nothing beyond that she had made a horrible mess of things.

She never should have rejoined Vader. She should have helped her friends outright rather than biding her time for the apparently nonexistent right moment. She should have...she wasn't even sure of what all she should have done. All she knew was that she had failed. She had given into the Dark Side again when she should have resisted. She didn't have to rejoin Vader to help her friends. But she did anyway. She had been blinded to her other options. There was nothing but truth in what she had said to Luke.

She was not a good person.

Her reputation had preceded her, after all. The guards had nervously taken steps back when Leia revealed Athara's true identity. Even Luke had known the name Obscura. With one fell blow, the Alderaanian Princess had erased everything Athara had done for the Alliance. Never mind that she had never spilled a Rebel secret, or that she had faithfully run supplies for them, or that she had almost single-handedly turned several Imperial encounters to the Rebel's advantage, or helped them find new secure places for hidden bases. Not a bit seemed to matter. Innumerable Rebels had once been Imperials before their defections. Many of the leaders themselves had a decidedly Imperial history.

But she had been Vader's right hand. She had hunted down and dealt with Rebels. She had defeated them in several engagements just as she had won some for them. And Vader was responsible for far worse...

Her musings, however, were interrupted when she felt a visitor approaching. She had been sitting still for so long that she could barely feel her legs, while the coolness of the metal bench had begun seeping into her bones. Her hands were nearly numb from the binders, and she was exhausted, both physically and mentally, almost beyond reason. If not for the way the grazing blaster wound on her thigh burned, the constant throbbing pain allowing her some focus, she might not have noticed the approach at all. She certainly wasn't expecting visitors.

It was a testament to her exhaustion that she didn't even realize it was Luke until he stepped into her cell, and even then, it took her a moment to process that she wasn't hallucinating.

And then she broke down completely.

In an instant he was at her side, releasing the binders and tossing them aside before pulling her into his arms. Immediately, she was struggling to regain control, but it was far harder than it should have been. Distantly, she felt Qui-gon's comforting presence brush against her consciousness.

It was several long minutes before she was able to calm herself, though once she had, she couldn't bring herself to pull out of Luke's embrace. It was longer still before she had gathered enough courage to speak.

"I'm sorry that I never told you, Luke. I was trying so hard to leave that part of my life behind. I didn't want—" He pulled away a little, meeting her still watery eyes.