On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter XLII

"What do you mean you lost her?" Padmé's holo was asking, not appearing pleased. "I thought you said you could track her."

"I forgot to take her new friend into account," Vader answered in a near growl—none too pleased himself. Clearly, Luna had been teaching her new partner a few tricks and, as usual, was one step ahead of him when it came to strategy. If she hadn't gotten the other pilot involved and tried to lose him herself, he would have eventually caught her when the Delta ran out of fuel. Perhaps if things hadn't gone sideways during their escape and he had caught up to her sooner, she wouldn't even have made it onto her fighter.

Of course, by that point Vader had been more concerned with Luna's injury then actually catching her. There had been a reason he had rushed to her aid instead of waiting to grab her before she reached her fighter.

At the reminder, the Sith Lord's hand almost instinctively moved to his side. It had been many years since he had last gained a similar injury, but he would have sworn the secondhand pain had felt a million times worse. Instinctively, Vader sent a probe across their bond to check on Luna, only to be met by the impenetrable wall he had been forced to grow used to rather than the vague sense of his apprentice's wellbeing. It felt wrong. Incredibly wrong, this inability to feel her presence, to be unable to sense whether or not she was well.

"Did you manage to speak with her?" the Sith asked, returning to the conversation at hand. "You said you ran into each other."

"Briefly. I was too shocked to say much of anything," Padmé admitted, an expression of enease flitting across her face so quickly that Vader nearly missed it.

"Did something happen?"

"....Nothing I shouldn't have expected," she responded, voice a little too firm and detached for his taste.

"Let me guess: You saw her fighting."

"That would not be the proper term for what I witnessed! It was like walking into a horror holo!"

"....I don't believe I follow. You've already bared witness to—"

"Oh, easy for you to say!"

"I would suggest you think very carefully about what I'm going to say next," Vader rumbled. The last thing he wanted to do was further distance Padmé, but there were few things he wouldn't do to protect his children—Luna, of course, being counted among them. "If that is how you will react to seeing Luna operating at her full potential, then I don't believe you should go near her."

"Why you—"

"Hear me out," the Sith interrupted. His wife was clearly fuming, but she closed her mouth. "If you can not handle seeing what she is now, then you will only hurt her when you finally meet with her. I can handle your hate; she can not. She was in a delicate mental state when she left, and I don't know how much she has recovered since."

"....You've never fully explained why she left," Padmé said after a moment. Vader winced. The topic was not one he was comfortable with, but she had asked and in truth deserved to know.

"There were a matter of reasons that, when combined, lead to her actions. Her memories and the emotions that had come with them being left to fester. Things from the past felt more recent to her. We weren't properly communicating either. I said something the heat of the moment that caused a reaction I never would have imagined."

"What exactly did you say?"

"I told her she wasn't a Sith and to leave."

"Why?"

"I'm sure the twins told you about the...." worthless excuse of a human being. "Well, who caught a ride from Earth?"

"Someone named Henry Ramsey. They said he was working with Palpatine," Padmé answered. Vader frowned, easily seeing she knew nothing of the man's true importance.

"That's Luna's father."

"What?!"

"Yes, well, he's locked up here. Luna wanted to kill him on sight for reasons that were not without merit. I managed to prevent her from doing so and keep myself from doing the same," Vader shook his head, trying to rid himself of the violent thoughts dancing through his mind. He hated to be grateful to a Jedi, but if Obi-Wan hadn't been around to take care of the Earthen, then the Sith would have long since killed the man. Vader honestly didn't know why he was still trying to hold back—it wasn't as though Luna cared for her birth father. "My point is she may interpret your actions or words for something you don't mean. If I hadn't...." The Sith sighed. No point in drowning in what ifs. "I should have known better than to let her push me away when she recalled the Republic's fall."

"Hindsight twenty-twenty," Padmé pointed out, voice measured as though she wasn't completely comfortable with the words that had just left her mouth. "Luna overreacted too."

"Doesn't change what happened, but do you understand what I'm saying? Luna may be capable of violence now, but that doesn't mean she's much different from who she was before. You are fully capable of hurting her without meaning to."