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An odd unfamiliar longing tended to interfere with Darth Vader's plans within the last two months. His patience was never a virtue to boast with, yet then it turned almost a nonexistent part of his personality. A treacherous land laid before him to step on, four prolong years now fleeted like a fortnight before the siege of another system accused of hiding the Rebellion or their allies. The distance he kept from the child, unavailable with his studies, now lessened. Luke was about to become a pilot, the exhausting course of training almost finished. The graduation and grouping into divisions came next. No way one of the best with fighters could be assigned under someone else's command.
And an unavoidable fact of their meeting to happen soon stirred something long forgotten under the chestplate. A feeling, impossible to identify, clouded judgement, and for a while Vader had to admit his inability to divide Anakin's remnants of a new personality he'd been building through years. It seemed almost uncanny to feel a thing so warm and uplifting, nightmares and guilt hovering just above, bot not bothering so far. After watching over with no words to say, no guidance to provide, Vader finally could take his son under protection and develop the plan or even make it come true. But an urgent need to ensure the safety of the most precious gift from his wife cam first at present. The system assigned cadets according to the needs of fleets, usually sending them under grand-admirals command. Luke might be under Thrawn, which meant his career going up with an excessive speed. Or he might go under someone, who didn't deserve his father's respect. Of course, Palpatine chose the marionettes carefully, meticulously, their talent unsurpassed. Yet Vader listed the Executioner for having new crew member from fresh flesh, the position of the pilot in the Black Esquardon vacant ever since the veil was taken off. It was meant to be Luke's place ever since, of course, and until his graduation the team remained with an empty seat in position. The Supreme Commander filled the hole in formation with himself.
Palpatine believed it was a game to entertain the scorched mind, and Vader only waited. The less his master knew, the better. No doubts came that Luke could get higher and higher on a navy ladder, but the Emperor laying his eyes on him meant his inevitable doom. That was not a sabacc table to gamble brainlessly.
Only the headquarters of the Academy transmitted the ceremony on the Holonet. The elite, son and daughters of high-ranks smiled into the objectives, waved, their regalias shining under artificial light. An unnaturally neat picture, presentation of strength to restrain enemies hidden here and there. Roughly sixty-five percent of the graduates had real value, on Coruscant the number decreased to forty if no less. Pompous and turgid teenagers, drunk with their parents' powers easily found themself position no higher than lieutenant. Sometimes mommy or daddy pulled their children higher, but one fail sent them down. And sometimes, Vader personally disliked the option, to Kessel's mining camps for corrupting the system providing the Empire with security and its citizens with a mere ability to sleep tight at night.
The Executioner reached Lothal's orbit an hour before the ceremony would take place. Usually Palpatine forced his student into the Coruscant's bewildered celebration, officers jubilant with their heirs reaching the first step of an adultery. Now Vader himself was in the place of a proud parent, so he prolonged the expansion mission to never make it in time to the capital. The shuttle landed on the surface, and the lush greenery of the world rustled under soft breeze. Lively place, Vader though, colours striking as never before. The belated thought of such a suspicious state of him mind made him uneasy. He really wanted to meet the child, even though he barely allowed himself looking at the logs of his student activity. Not just his own excitement - if it could be named as softly and childishly -, but the other's expectations and thoughts. The bond formed between them with a short time, and now, as Vader accepted the future with his son beside him, it strengthened, a thin string now a huge and heavy rope. And it would be even stronger, a weakness for Darth Vader, a benefit for Luke Lars.
Here, on Lothal, things were held different. Vader turned out to be an unexpected guest - he secretly liked the lack of decoration, strictly official visit, almost an inspection. They offered him to speak something for graduates, but silence would teach them better. There were no guiding voice in a battle beside your own, and nobody took the responsibility of your actions. The Imperial Navy service required soldiers, not kindergarten attendees, not a faceless mass, but solid souls and minds.
Actually, Vader expected Luke to make a speech, one of the top, but the boy stood in line, his mental smile palpable. A silly feeling of his happiness both irritated and amused, though the distance blurred his face. He was one of many there, and still his presence overpowered anything Vader used to meet, a soft shine, a sunrise he lost hope to ever meet again. When camera zoomed at them, a dozen of cadets with merit badges on their toneless grey uniform, the world shook, his heart sank, and his mind went suddenly blank. The expression in his eyes, Naboo-lake-blue, resembled of a thing Vader dreamed of letting go - Padme. She stood there, inside him, the deadly determination to make the universe better filling the air, bursting in a firework. Sleepless night of work didn't matter now as the result flourished. The slight nod, the salute, the small composure - Vader might swore Padme was there, a guardian angel of the son she foreseen to give life to.
Through the ton of fixator Vader could still catch the slight curls Luke's hair had on its ends. Everything in him screamed of the relation, and nobody could see it, nobody beside him, sitting so far, impossible to reach.
"If I'm not getting Lars today, commander, I will be extremely displeased."
His name, as expected, was the first in the list.