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Vader strode into the control room of the Death Star. A couple of the more junior officers and their daemons looked over at him before quickly looking away. They found him unsettling. The feeling of it lay heavy and oppressive in the room. Vader stopped a few steps away from Tarkin.
‘It’s done. I’ve brought in the Alderaanian princess,’ Vader said.
Tarkin turned away from the main control interface and stood up straight. His maritimas daemon was draped across his shoulders in her usual position. Her tongue flicked out to taste the air and her head wove in a restless pattern. ‘Good. Did you find the plans on her ship?’ Tarkin asked in a clipped tone.
‘No.’ Vader’s gaze kept getting drawn back to Tarkin’s daemon. Resentment burned in him, and he fed the feeling into the Force.
Tarkin’s expression tightened. ‘Well how hard did you look? My agents were very certain that she was the one who had them.’
‘An escape pod left the ship before we could secure complete control.’
‘Well that’s obviously where the plans were,’ Tarkin snapped. His daemon’s tail rattled in agitation and one of the officers near his shoulder flinched at the sound. So did their daemon. ‘How did the pod escape your notice?’
‘There were no life signs on board so my officers didn’t shoot it down. I sent a detachment of ’troopers down to the planet to retrieve the plans,’ said Vader steadily.
‘You don’t seem to have grasped the implications of this, Lord Vader. If the Rebels get their filthy hands on those plans then we’re leaving ourselves vulnerable to attack.’
‘This was always your pet-project, Grand Moff.’
‘This project will fortify the Empire’s position once and for all,’ said Tarkin. ‘No one will be able to stand against us once we’ve demonstrated its power!’ His maritimas hissed and Tarkin absently stroked her head. ‘You can oversee the interrogation. See if you can get any information about where the Rebels are based. She has ties with them.’
‘Very well. Has her daemon been placed in the same cell as her?’ Vader asked.
Tarkin frowned. ‘Presumably. It’s standard protocol.’
‘Have him moved to one of the adjacent cells. We’ll find out the extent of her range first of all.’
Tarkin blanched and his maritimas looped possessively around his neck. He cleared his throat. ‘You heard Lord Vader,’ he barked at one of the stormtroopers. ‘Get down to Interrogation and see that his orders are followed.’
‘Yes sir!’ the stormtrooper said and saluted. Vader was absently glad that their daemon wasn’t the standard massiff that almost all the clone ’troopers had had. This was a new era, after all.
///
Vader knelt before the wavering image of his master seated on his throne. The twirrl daemon settled in his lap was staring forward, her gaze unblinking.
‘My master, the Rebels were victorious. The Death Star is no more and I barely escaped the blast,’ Vader reported.
Sidious’s long fingers stroked over the twirrl’s short fur. ‘Do you think I am unaware of these events, my apprentice?’ Vader’s fist clenched where it rested against his side. ‘My agents informed me of this long before you dragged yourself back to Empire territory. Is there any new information you wish to provide?’
‘There was one Rebel who was directly responsible for the destruction of the Death Star,’ said Vader.
Sidious’s hand paused. ‘Explain.’
‘There was a boy, I think it was the same one who… Kenobi brought onto the Death Star itself.’ Vader had difficulty even saying the name and Sidious’s hand shifted to grip at the twirrl’s membranous wing-joint. ‘He was strong in the Force. I felt…’ He trailed off.
‘What did you feel, my apprentice?’ Sidious asked. His voice was silky and Vader felt it almost like a touch. He shivered where he knelt.
‘A connection. The feel of him in the Force resonated with me, even while we were flying.’
‘Interesting. Your report is consistent with what I’ve heard from other sources. The Rebel’s newest pilot is named Skywalker.’
A slew of emotions raced through Vader. ‘Skywalker?’
‘Yes. You must find a way to bring him to me. You cannot let him acquire power outside of our teaching. Together we will turn him and he will join us.’
Vader nodded, not trusting himself to speak. The hologram flickered out. Vader remembered the way the twirrl daemon had stared at him throughout the conference and let resentment wash over him, strengthening his grip on the Force.
///
‘The link between the spirit and the Force, daemons are. For most, tenuous, is the link, but for some…’ Yoda trailed off and closed his eyes.
Luke sat opposite him, cross-legged, with Cahya sitting in his lap. ‘For some what?’ Luke asked.
Yoda’s eyes opened. ‘For some, deep is the connection to the Force, they connect through it, all at once. Unnecessary is close contact between a daemon and a body. Instead, through the Force, contact is maintained. The Jedi of old, long was their range.’
Cahya’s long ears twitched and she looked up at Luke. ‘That sounds useful, but pretty unpleasant.’
‘Oh! Is that where your daemon is?’ Luke asked. ‘How long is your range?’
Yoda chuckled. ‘No. Internal daemons, my species has.’ He looked off into the middle distance. ‘Long, my exile has been.’
Cahya shuddered. Luke knew that species with internal daemons weren’t uncommon, but it had always sounded worrying. He couldn’t imagine not being able to physically hold such an integral part of himself. Yoda must be lonelier than Luke could even imagine. ‘How long can a Jedi’s range be?’ he asked quietly.
‘A planet, a system maybe, for long-lived Jedi. Increases over time, it does, when the Force is used.’
Luke gaped at his teacher. ‘No way!’
Yoda merely looked at him.
Cahya hopped down of Luke’s lap and bounded to the edge of their range. It was maybe further than it had been, but it was hard to tell. They hadn’t really tested their range recently. That was something kids did.
‘Does that mean eventually you get infinite range? If you use the Force enough?’
‘No!’ Yoda snapped. ‘Always there is a connection and never does it break! Only Sith something so damaging, so dangerous, would do.’
Cahya hopped back toward Luke and he scooped her up, hugging her furred body close. ‘I was just asking.’
Yoda sighed. ‘Yes. Good it is to seek knowledge. But meditate you should. Much there is to learn.’
Luke nodded and closed his eyes. Cahya sat up on her hind legs beside him and tried not to distract her human.
///
Luke clung to the pillar with his remaining hand. Tears streaked his face, not just from the pain in his wrist, but from what his instincts were telling him through the Force. Darth Vader was his father. Luke had tried to kill him and was now feeling true temptation to turn. Cahya trembled beside him on the platform where they were suspended above the yawning drop.
The fight with Vader had been terrifying. Luke had finally grasped the difference between species with internal daemons and whatever it was that was wrong with Vader. The Force was bright around daemons and around people who shared the same body as their daemon. Around Vader there was none of that golden warmth. There was only a terrible emptiness where a daemon was meant to be.
Luke wondered how Vader was still alive, still capable of speech and thought. Yoda’s words had come back to him in the middle of the duel, how only a Sith would do something so damaging as severing their connection with their daemon. Cahya hadn’t had anyone to fight while they’d duelled Vader and she’d raced past them in a bid to keep away from the clash of lightsabers.
Even though Vader was clearly trying to take him alive, Luke was deathly afraid of what he might do to Cahya, of what a Sith might be able to do to another person’s daemon connection. In the end, there was only one choice that Luke could make. ‘I’ll never join you!’ he yelled.
Vader stared at him for a long moment. ‘Come with me, it’s the only way.’
Luke shook his head, but Vader was right, there was no escape, only surrender or death at the hands of his father.
Luke looked down at Cahya. She met his gaze steadily and he read the same sense of determination in her bright eyes. They wouldn’t give in, not to Vader, not like this. Luke’s gaze drifted past Cahya, toward the drop. There was one way out. Luke drew in a final deep breath and let go, wondering if the fall or the separation pain would kill him first.
As Luke tumbled down the shaft, his connection to Cahya spun out between them. There was no pain of separation, only an awareness of each other magnified through the Force. Even at this distance he knew she was there, an undeniable part of him.
Luke felt it when Cahya leapt after him. She was directing her fall better than he had and she managed to land on him seconds after he hit the bottom of the shaft. A trapdoor opened suddenly beneath them and they fell again. Luke barely caught himself on one of the metal struts hanging below Cloud City. There was a second of blind panic as Luke tried to hold both himself and Cahya, but she was digging her paws into his shirt and just managing to cling to him.
The two of them hung below the city and the wind dried the tears on Luke’s cheeks.
‘We did the right thing,’ Cahya said to him, pushing her muzzle against his shoulder.
‘I know,’ Luke affirmed.
///
Luke stared down at where he’d cut through Vader’s armour. He looked down at his own gloved hand, remembering the pain and the sense of loss. The anger drained from him and now the exposed wires and machinery just made him feel pity. He depowered his lightsaber and turned back to the Emperor, who still sat on his chair, holding his twirrl daemon in his lap. She had been very agitated during the fight, though the Emperor gave no outward sign of strong emotion, even in the Force.
‘I’m not going to kill Vader and I’m not going to turn,’ he said. Cahya hopped up to him from where she’d been keeping out of the fight and Luke swept her up into his free arm.
The Emperor stood and the twirrl daemon swooped down to land on the ground at his feet. She looked like she was about to charge forward. Luke could feel true rage coursing through the Emperor for the first time since he’d come on board.
‘If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed,’ said the Emperor.
Vader rose to stand at the Emperor’s side and folded his arms. ‘Vader!’ the Emperor’s daemon snapped, but both of them ignored her.
The Emperor raised his hands and electricity arched from them and hit Luke and Cahya. Agony overwhelmed everything and Luke screamed. His body convulsed as the crackling electricity lanced down his nerves. There was a brief pause as the Emperor spoke, but Luke could barely think, barely feel anything but the aftershocks of pain.
It began again. Luke managed to beg his father for help, even as a fresh scream tore from his throat. Beside him Cahya squealed as the lightning tore into her. The torture obliterated anything but the feel of pain, narrowing their focus completely. Then it stopped. Everything stopped. Luke raised his head just in time to see Vader throwing the Emperor down the huge shaft in the centre of the room. Lightning crackled across the Emperor and Vader’s dark armour. The Emperor plummeted down and a huge wave of dark side power rose up and broke over the whole room.
Luke got shakily to his feet and Cahya hopped over to him unsteadily. Vader was resting his weight heavily against the railing and his breathing apparatus sounded badly damaged. Luke lurched over to him and helped him lie down on the floor. Suddenly, the Emperor’s twirrl daemon ran toward them, her wings open along her sides. Luke cried out and activated his lightsaber on instinct. Surely the Emperor was dead, surely–
‘Stop...’ Vader’s command was weak and plaintive. It was the tone that had Luke deactivating the blade.
‘Anakin,’ said the twirrl daemon. Her voice cracked on the name. Luke’s eyes widen. No, no it wasn’t possible. The twirrl halted by Vader’s shoulder and pressed against the side of his helmet. One of Vader’s hands came up and stroked over her head and back.
‘Nireh. It’s been too long.’
Luke stared at them. In his mind’s eye he saw the Emperor holding Vader’s daemon, touching her. Cahya was leaning hard against Luke’s knee. She couldn’t seem to stop trembling. Luke picked her up.
‘You did the right thing,’ Vader’s daemon said. Then she bent closer to Vader and talked rapidly in a low voice. Vader only interjected with single word responses.
After a while she spoke up again. ‘A shame we won’t get to fly together, one last time.’
Luke swallowed. It wasn’t fair. Vader had done the right thing, and just now, when he finally had his daemon back… Luke could feel the pain that was radiating from Vader’s daemon, and from Vader himself.
‘Hey, let me down,’ said Cahya. Luke did so, feeling numb. Cahya hopped over to the twirrl. Her last few steps were hesitant and she waited until she got the twirrl’s attention. ‘Hi, I’m Cahya.’
The twirrl walked over to her and they gently touched noses. She smiled, though it was a sad expression. ‘Hello, I’m Nireh. I am… so pleased to finally meet you.’