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If there was one habit from his days as a Jedi Vader had to carry over into Sith-hood, why did it have to be his tendency to break/lose his lightsaber? “This weapon is your life” Obi—his hated former master had drilled into him.
It was bad enough he’d been sent to Bellassa with that backstabbing, self-righteous Ferus Olin. He needed to get rid of Olin. He was too much of a threat.
Vader supposed he didn’t need his lightsaber to take Olin down, but it would be much more convincing to Palpatine if he beat him in a fight than if he killed him otherwise. And he needed to stay in Palpatine’s graces until he was ready to supplant him.
Now about that lightsaber.
He’d killed Olin’s friend Roan. Yes, it was out of spite. He wanted to make his old rival suffer. He left Olin with his own lightsaber to taunt him with his inability to save Roan. With his sense of inferiority. Oh, it felt good to be superior to Olin.
Until he’d crashed his speeder and couldn’t find his lightsaber in the wreckage.
"Every time you fly, we crash!”
“It’s not my fault. It’s the ship.”
“You always blame the ship.”
Vader hardened himself against the memory. Maybe he needed to add Ahsoka to the list of memories he wanted Zan Arbor to target. But seriously, where was his lightsaber? If it was embarrassing to admit to Obi-Wan when he’d lost it, it was a million times worse to admit it to Palpatine. And Ferus would never let him live it down.
Vader took a quick glance around the street. People were keeping their distance. Nobody wanted to approach the great Sith Lord Darth Vader. Nor did they appear to be comfortable gawking at him. Good.
He stretched out his hand and used the Force to levitate bits of the wreckage. Piece by piece, he deconstructed the crash…and there it was. Completely smashed. His respirator didn’t quite allow him to sigh, but he got as close as he could. It was toast.
Now what? No way he was going to Palpatine. The kyber crystal Palpatine had synthesized for him was damaged too badly to reuse. And he really wasn’t in the mood for a trip to Ilum and the visions that came along with it, aside from the fact that he didn’t want to associate with things that reminded him of being a Jedi. And come to think of it, the crystals probably wouldn’t come to him anyway, now he was a Sith. But where could he find another crystal to corrupt?
The Jedi Temple! He could tell Palpatine he was returning to Coruscant to do a little research. It would have to work.
~o~
Vader strode into the ruins of the Jedi Temple. Stormtroopers still patrolled the area, but he doubted any would be in the storage room in the lower levels where they’d accumulated the lightsabers of fallen Jedi.
He glanced stealthily around as he went, taking care to keep his knapsack concealed underneath his flowing cape. The stormtroopers walked past him about their own business—Imperial subordinates had already learned it was a bad idea to accost Vader. And so he made it to the storage room unimpeded.
Score! This was a treasure trove. He doubted Palpatine knew or cared how many lightsabers had been collected here, but there were so many that even if he filled his bag several times over it wouldn’t make a noticeable dent. Like a kid in a candy store, he shoveled them in, not looking long enough to identify the owners of the weapons, not even when he came across Tru Veld’s. Nope, they were his now, his backlog of kyber crystals. Palpatine would never have to know how many times Vader rebuilt his lightsaber.
~o~
“It’s over, Obi-Wan. I have the high ground.”
Vader swung his red blade in a wide arc, slicing through an imaginary Obi-Wan’s arm and legs. Yes. His old master needed to know what dismemberment felt like. What it felt like to be dropped into a river of lava. One day he’d face him again. And this time, Vader would have the high ground.
Vader Force-leaped high into the air, flipping over a stream of lava. His suit was kind of clunky, but agility workouts were a part of his self-imposed regular regimen. Yes, he did it on Mustafar whenever he could. There was nothing better to motivate you than a river of lava, and vivid memories of burning in it.
He touched down and sprung up again, trying for a double somersault. He swung his lightsaber in a wide arc as he came down, touched on a rock in the middle of lava flow, and launched spinning into the air. Palpatine made the move look easy. It wasn’t.
Vader plummeted towards the rocks ahead. He stretched out his left hand, Force pulling himself towards shore for a safe landing. He rode through the air, his cape billowing behind him with proper dramatic effect. Too bad no one was here to see it.
He hit on his right shoulder and rolled. It wasn’t until he gained his feet that he realized he’d lost his grip on his lightsaber. He turned just in time to see it roll into the lava, the orange glow of molten rock glinting off of the hilt as it melted in the intense heat.
No way he was fishing the crystal out of that.
“Not again,” he rasped, his already loud breathing even louder from his recent exertion. “I just made that one.”
~o~
Vader really couldn’t understand the need to train up an Emperor’s Hand. Especially when Palpatine already had a Sith Apprentice and said Hand in training was a too-feisty six-year-old redheaded girl. And extra specially when said redhead was hiding in Vader’s quarters.
“I know you’re in here, Jade.” His baritone rumbled through the room, the rasp of his respirator echoing against the walls. And then he heard a child’s giggle.
“Mara Jade.”
The girl wasn’t even afraid of the lowering of his voice. Maybe it was a good thing his child hadn’t survived, since he apparently didn’t have an adequate dad voice.
A flash of red hair appeared behind his couch, then he heard a clunk and a series of steady thumps. She was in the air duct.
Vader let out a groan. Gone were the days when he could have crawled through an air duct himself. He was far too large and bulky, besides which it was hard enough to see through his helmet when standing upright. But he had a good idea of where Jade was headed. He turned, giving his cape a flourish, and headed straight for Palpatine’s throne room.
Palpatine sat on his throne, flanked by red guards, the little minx already standing by his side. Jade’s emerald eyes sparkled as he entered…and she held up his lightsaber.
Vader suppressed another groan. Of course that was what Jade had been after.
He sank to one knee in front of Palpatine.
“Rise, Lord Vader,” his master rasped.
Vader did so.
“I know why you have come,” Palpatine continued.
“Yes, Master. The girl has stolen my lightsaber from my quarters.”
“Yes.” Palpatine folded his wrinkled, spindly fingers in front of him. “She has done so on my orders.”
“Your orders?” Vader had to work to keep his tone relatively respectful. He wasn’t sure it had worked.
“I informed her that if she could successfully steal your lightsaber and return to me with it still in hand, she could keep it.”
“And I did.” Mara tilted her chin impudently.
“It was a test,” Palpatine said. “She has passed.”
“It is my lightsaber,” Vader insisted. “I built it. It is not an object fit to be pilfered by little girls.”
“Then you may construct a new lightsaber,” Palpatine said. “You have more than enough experience. And perhaps you should be more careful with the next one.”
Vader seethed, but he made sure his cloak billowed dramatically as he swept from the room, Palpatine’s cackle and Jade’s giggle following him.
He had several hilts prepared; it wouldn’t take too long to bleed and install another crystal. But he was going to need to make another visit to the storage room in the Jedi Temple pretty soon.
~o~
“You can’t win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”
Obi-Wan’s taunt rankled within Vader. More powerful? Vader was strong in the Dark Side now. He was the most powerful. One day, he’d even overthrow Palpatine. Then they’d all see his true power.
“You should not have come back.” He attacked his former master with fury. Obi-Wan would not get the high ground this time. Never mind that there was no high ground in this section of the Death Star.
“Ben?”
Vader glanced towards the distant voice. It was that blond kid, and he was with the Princess and that idiot hotshot pilot. Vader needed them to get away if the Empire was going to track that hunk of junk to the Rebel Base. But they didn’t need Obi-Wan to go with them.
He returned his attention to the fight. Obi-Wan was still looking at the kid. Perfect opportunity…missed. Obi-Wan looked back to Vader, then did something odd. He smirked and raised his lightsaber—but not in a defensive position—and just stood there. It only took Vader a split second to take advantage of the old man’s stupidity. He swung.
“No!” shouted the kid.
But instead of a corpse slumping to the ground, the cloak collapsed empty, Obi-Wan’s body nowhere to be seen. Oh, come on. Vader should have known that when Obi-Wan forewent his typical dramatic shrugging off of his cloak that he had something even more dramatic in mind. Maybe he had learned some powerful Force tricks. But Vader had still won this round.
Wherever Kenobi’s body was, it didn’t matter. He started towards the hunk of junk that was the Princess’s escape. He needed to make it look like he intended to stop her from leaving.
“Hit the door, kid!” the pilot shouted.
The blond kid sent a volley of blaster fire his way and the blast doors angled shut. But just before they shut entirely, a blaster bolt shot through the narrow opening and sizzled into his lightsaber hilt. The crimson blade shorted out.
Vader stared at the charred mess in disbelief. It had been two years since he’d had to replace his lightsaber. He’d thought he was past this.
“Next time, try not to lose it.”
Obi-Wan’s exasperated tone echoed in his head. Vader wasn’t entirely sure if it was a memory, or if Obi-Wan was taunting him from beyond the grave.
This was just spite. All Obi-Wan’s fault. Well, if Obi-Wan could be spiteful even in death, Vader could certainly return the favor. He retrieved Obi-Wan’s lightsaber from the empty pile of clothes.
Vader had a new crystal to bleed.
~o~
Luke was fighting with Vader’s old blue lightsaber, the one Obi-Wan had taken from him at Mustafar. To be perfectly honest, Vader was surprised it had survived this long. Of course, it had probably spent a great deal of time in Kenobi’s possession, and that man had been infuriating with his protection of the lightsaber.
The question was whether Luke had inherited Vader’s propensity for lightsaber loss.
“The Force is with you, young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet.”
Luke swung at Vader, but Vader easily parried the blow. Luke’s training had nothing on Vader’s 35 years of Jedi and Sith training combined, but he could tell Luke had learned much. The boy was powerful, more powerful than he knew. Just how much of that power could he tap into? Enough to turn him to the Dark Side here and now? It would take time and training before Vader would be comfortable having Luke by his side as they overthrew Palpatine, but he could do it. And maybe boosting Luke’s ego would push him towards taking that first step. It had worked on Vader as an arrogant young Jedi.
“You have learned much, young one,” Vader said, and he was sincere about it.
“You’ll find I’m full of surprises.”
Only Vader wasn’t really surprised with what happened next. With a twist of his lightsaber, Vader swept Luke’s weapon out of his hand and sent it flying towards the carbon freezing chamber. Luke tumbled down the stairs after it. Yes, this was definitely his son.
Vader leapt over the stairs, landing with a loud, menacing thud in front of Luke. “Your destiny lies with me, Skywalker. Obi-Wan knew this to be true.”
“No.”
Maybe Vader had technically missed the toddler years with his son, but it didn’t appear he’d missed having his son tell him “no.” Well, that was part of being a dad. And part of being a Sith dad was backing your son into a carbon freezing chamber. Not like Vader hadn’t survived being frozen in carbonite before. No big deal.
Luke crawled back across the floor, seemingly unaware how close he was to the hole until he tumbled through it.
“All too easy.” Vader stretched out a hand and used the Force to pull the lever activating the chamber. “Perhaps you are not as strong as the Emperor thought.” He’d like to think he never would have been tricked that easily when he was Luke’s age, but he’d gotten himself into some pretty ridiculous situations in his youth. And gotten himself out of them.
Which, he noted, feeling his son’s Force presence suddenly above him instead of below, was exactly what Luke had just done. He looked up at his son, hanging in the cables up above, proud of the Skywalker blood showing through. “Impressive. Most impressive.”
He hurled his lightsaber towards Luke, directing it with the Force to cut the cables and startle Luke to the ground. And of course to retrieve it. He wasn’t going to lose this lightsaber.
Luke shoved the broken cable towards Vader, sending a cloud of vapor into his face. And Vader’s old lightsaber came flying through the air into his son’s outstretched hand. Vader was impressed.
Luke continued to strike and parry. Vader didn’t go all out. His son couldn’t handle that. And he wanted Luke to feel as if he was truly holding his own. He was a decent duelist—Vader could make him a master. And then they would destroy the Emperor and rule the galaxy as father and son.
But he was getting ahead of himself. He hadn’t even told Luke about his parentage yet.
Now, Luke could use some work on awareness of his surroundings. He shouldn’t have gotten hit with those heavy objects so many times. But Vader could teach him. And Luke would become unstoppable.
Vader was again impressed by how Luke handled falling out the window. His boy managed to gain a handhold on a catwalk and pulled himself to safety. But he could see Luke was tiring.
It was now or never. He had to make his big reveal, convince Luke to join him. And he would. Family was the most important thing in the galaxy, and Luke was all Vader had left of his. He would have his son by his side.
He backed Luke down the catwalk, taking his lightsaber blows down to the railing on both sides. Luke fell on his back, crawled backwards to the end of the catwalk. He didn’t have much fight left in him. With Vader’s training, Luke would last longer. He looked forward to having that bonding experience with his son, to teaching him to embrace all the power that came with the Dark Side of the Force.
“You are beaten.” Vader pointed the tip of his lightsaber at his son’s face, close enough for him to feel the heat, but not nearly close enough to actually harm him. “It is useless to resist. Don’t let yourself be destroyed as Obi-Wan did.”
Luke batted away Vader’s lightsaber with his own and gained his feet once more.
Vader had to hold back a sigh. His boy had inherited the stubborn determination from both his parents. For once, couldn’t a Skywalker just surrender?
He continued the fight down the catwalk, hoping Luke would stop before he climbed out to that narrow beam connecting the catwalk to that pillar. But Luke didn’t. He actually managed to get a good strike in on Vader’s shoulder and then climbed out.
Okay, enough of going easy. Vader swung, his lightsaber slicing through his son’s wrist. His lightsaber hand.
Shavit.
Luke’s hand…and Vader’s old lightsaber…flew through the air, falling down the apparently bottomless shaft below them. Another lightsaber gone. And it wasn’t even really Luke’s fault. Vader would have liked to have held that lightsaber again. Now he wouldn’t get that chance.
Luke was screaming his head off about his missing hand. Oh, really. Vader had lost much more of his arm than that when he was three years younger than Luke was now, and the rest of his limbs at Luke’s age. And that was nothing compared to burning. Luke would definitely need some lessons in being tough.
“There is no escape,” Vader said. Luke’s only alternative to listening to Vader now was to jump. Which he had to admit would be a very Skywalker thing to do. “Don’t make me destroy you.” The threat wasn’t exactly having the intended effect. Luke just backed away. Time for another ego boost.
“Luke, you do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.”
“I’ll never join you,” Luke declared. He climbed out onto the pillar, getting a precarious foothold on the ring around the bottom. He was going to fall if he wasn’t careful.
“If you only knew the power of the Dark Side.” Now was the time. He’d been so happy to become a father. Now he could truly be united with his son. “Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.”
“He told me enough. He told me you killed him.”
That…was an interesting lie. Leave it to Obi-Wan to come up with a story where he murdered himself. “No. I am your father.”
The horror that spread over Luke’s face was unbelievable. He’d felt sure his boy would be glad to have finally found his father.
“No. No! That’s not true! That’s impossible!”
Luke didn’t even believe him? “Search your feelings. You know it to be true.”
“Noooo!!!!!! Nooooo!!!!!!!”
This was definitely not going as planned. But he’d been good at improvised plans during the Clone Wars. Here’s to hoping he still had that touch. “Luke. You can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny. Join me and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son.”
Luke didn’t respond. He just looked down at the shaft beneath him.
He wouldn’t. Surely he wouldn’t.
“Come with me. It is the only way.”
And then Luke let go. He plummeted, not even doing much to use the Force to slow his fall.
Vader stepped to the edge of the catwalk and looked down at his son. What had he really expected? This was his son, after all. Vader had lost count of the number of times he’d pulled the same stunt, though obviously for different reasons. Not the least of which was the annoyance it gave Obi-Wan.
He didn’t even realize he’d lost his grip on his lightsaber until he saw it plummeting away after Luke.
This was not how this day was supposed to go. But when two Skywalkers were involved, two lost lightsabers and a dramatic exit was about what could be expected.
~o~
“I see you have constructed a new lightsaber.” Vader ignited his son’s weapon—a brilliant green blade that reminded him of Qui-Gon’s, of Yoda’s, of Ahsoka’s. He had let them all down. He was letting Luke down. But he didn’t have a choice. Palpatine was too powerful.
Memories aside, he had to admire Luke’s lightsaber. He’d done a good job with it, and he hadn’t even had nearly as much practice as Vader had. “Your skills are now complete,” Vader continued. Especially for a Skywalker. “Indeed, you are powerful as the Emperor has foreseen.”
Luke took a step towards his father. “Come with me,” he begged.
If only he could. “Obi-Wan once thought as you do. You don’t know the power of the Dark Side. I must obey my Master.”
“I will not turn.” Luke hadn’t gotten his calmness from Vader, that was for sure. He’d been well trained. “And you will be forced to kill me.”
Vader wouldn’t allow that to happen. He couldn’t kill his son. But… “If that is your destiny—”
“Search your feelings, Father. You can’t do this. I feel the conflict within you.”
Luke was more right than he knew. Only he didn’t understand the power the Dark Side held over its servants. Once you start down the dark path…
“It is too late for me, son.” But it wasn’t too late for Luke. He could only hope that Luke would be strong enough to resist Sidious.
~o~
Vader was proud of his son. He was doing well to resist Palpatine, and his lightsaber skills had increased significantly since Bespin. He was even doing a decent job of hiding himself in the Force as he physically hid underneath the platform in the throne room.
“You cannot hide forever, Luke.”
“I will not fight you.”
Ah, there he was. “Give yourself to the Dark Side. It is the only way to save your friends.”
Vader probed at Luke’s thoughts. How close was his son to the Dark Side? Would he actually turn? Was his love for them—
“Your thoughts betray you. Your feelings for them are strong. Especially for…your sister.” Vader had a daughter too? And Luke was thinking of…Leia. Leia Organa. Yes, that actually made perfect sense now that he thought about it. And she, though untrained in the ways of the Force, most definitely had it in her to take down Palpatine.
“So…you have a twin sister,” Vader continued, keeping the taunts up for Palpatine’s benefit. “Your feelings have now betrayed her too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his failure is complete. If you will not turn to the Dark Side, then perhaps she will.”
“No!” Luke’s anger and hatred surged as he rushed at Vader, lightsaber ignited.
Maybe Vader had been wrong after all for his momentary thought that Leia would be a better candidate for destroying Palpatine. Fighting with his anger, Luke was strong. And feeling that darkness coming from the son who had previously exuded so much light was disconcerting enough that it drove Vader back. Vader should be glad. But he wasn’t.
Luke slashed and hacked at Vader. Vader blocked Luke’s strikes, but he was tiring. And suddenly Luke’s green blade slashed through Vader’s right wrist. Vader’s robotic hand fell away, his lightsaber rolling off the platform into the abyss below.
Of course. The story of his life. But in this moment, Vader didn’t care that his lightsaber was gone, that he didn’t actually have any more kyber crystals in reserve, that his prosthetics were damaged. What he cared about was his son, standing over him, pointing his lightsaber at his throat, an expression of anger and hatred on his face. This was not what he wanted for his son.
“Good. Your hate has made you powerful. Now, fulfill your destiny and take your father’s place at my side.”
That seemed to shock Luke to his senses. He looked at Vader’s severed hand, at the exposed wires, then at his own prosthetic.
And then he did something even Vader in all his years had never done. He tossed away his perfectly good, fully functioning lightsaber. On purpose. In front of a very dangerous Sith Lord. Obi-Wan clearly hadn’t driven the “your lightsaber is your life” lesson home.
Vader suppressed a groan. His son still had much to learn, after all. But his heart swelled with pride at Luke’s next words.
“I’ll never turn to the Dark Side. You’ve failed, Your Highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.”
“So be it. Jedi. If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed.”
Vader knew what Force lightning felt like. It was unspeakable torture, especially when perpetrated by Palpatine, and extra specially when the end goal was death.
Luke was in agony. Vader could see it with his eyes and feel it with the Force. Luke pleaded with Vader to save him. And oh, how he wanted to. But he must obey his master. The Dark Side was too strong. Besides, he no longer had his own lightsaber to deflect the lightning and he wasn’t sure where Luke’s had landed when he’d carelessly thrown it away.
But Luke’s cries for help were more than he could bear. This was his son. Vader loved him.
“Now, young Skywalker, you will die.”
As Palpatine unleashed his full fury, something in Vader snapped. Palpatine didn’t control him anymore. The Dark Side didn’t control him anymore.
He was Anakin Skywalker, and lightsaber or no lightsaber, he was going to save his son.
Anakin picked up Palpatine, heedless of the lightning that ricocheted around, frying his life support systems, and hurled his former master over the railing into the bottomless pit. Something exploded down there, and Palpatine was just as gone as Anakin’s last lightsaber.
Maybe it was fate that Anakin no longer had a spare kyber crystal. He didn’t need one. Wouldn’t need another lightsaber.
But Luke did.
“Luke, your lightsaber,” Anakin rasped through his damaged respirator as Luke dragged him out of the throne room.
“We have to go, Father,” Luke said. “We can’t be here when this thing blows.”
“Your lightsaber is your life.” The words were hard to get out, but he knew Luke heard him.
“Yes, Father.” It barely took Luke a minute to locate and retrieve his weapon.
Satisfied, Anakin allowed Luke to help him to the hangar. But he was growing weaker by the second. Without his life support systems functioning, he was dying. And as anxious as Luke was to get his father to a med center, Anakin knew it was futile. Especially since Luke himself was still reeling from the Force lightning, and thus not really strong enough to carry Anakin.
Anakin sank to the ramp of the Imperial Shuttle they had taken up to the second Death Star. “Luke, help me take this mask off.”
“But you’ll die.”
“Nothing can stop that now. Just for once…let me look on you…with my own eyes.”
Slowly, Luke lifted the mask.
Anakin looked truly into the face of his son for the first time. He smiled with his pride in the man Luke had become. “Now…go, my son. Leave me.”
“No. You’re coming with me. I’ll not leave you here. I’ve got to save you.”
“You already have, Luke.” Luke had had such confidence that there was still good in him. That he could be Anakin again. “You were right. Tell your sister…you were right.”
“Father,” Luke choked out.
“Luke.” Anakin had one more important piece of information to give his son, one he clearly needed as much as Anakin had. And Luke was a better man than his father. He would heed it. “Take better care of your lightsaber than I did mine.”
Luke smiled through his tears. “I will, Father.”
“I love you, son.”
“I love you too, Father.”
Anakin smiled, his last sight before his eyes slipped closed for the last time his son’s lightsaber hanging on his belt, in a place he was confident it would keep for decades to come.
~o~
Little did he know, his last Jedi lightsaber, lost by him on Mustafar, lost by Luke on Bespin, would come just five years later to his future daughter-in-law and past lightsaber thief, Mara Jade. A lightsaber lost to be lost no more.