Darth Vader: Hero of Naboo

Chapter 27

Silence.

That was the only word to describe Coruscant as the great storm began to dissipate and vanish, back from whatever nothingness it had been summoned from.

Mace Windu looked out from near the top of a skyscraper, peering out to The Works. The Sith, Sidious, was dead. And it would appear that Vader had either been lying or wrong, because the storm was dissipating much faster than Vader and Plagueis had implied. And yes, Vader definitely still lived, but more importantly, so did Master Yoda. He wanted nothing more than to rush and seek them out. However...

He turned his head, sensing a faint life signature beneath the caved-in rubble of the room.

Others needed them more urgently; his fellow masters traveling to many places that had been greatly damaged by this attack. It would take time before any kind of rescue and medical teams could arrive. Time these people might not have.

Save lives he knew needed his help or seek out the other Sith Lords that, for today at least, might not be a threat.

It wasn't an easy choice, even if it was obvious.

Meanwhile

Yoda sighed as he slouched heavily. He hadn't done anything like that in years. He hadn't had to. If he were any other creature, his lifespan would have likely been diminished from overuse of the Force on his aging body. But his kind were connected to the Force in ways few others were. It wore him out, it drained him immensely, but his end likely was not any sooner to come than it already had been.

He gazed upward at the clearing storm clouds. What he sensed was strange, but welcome. The Dark Side was dissipating far more easily than expected, as if the Light Side was gently dispersing what remained now that Sidious was dealt with. Good. Holding up that barrier for hours would have been a problem, for him and their unexpected ally in dealing with this Sith threat.

His eyes trailed over to the still form of Vader: collapsed on the ground and unmoving, his mechanical parts damaged and broken extensively. But life had not left Darth Vader, his presence in the Force stubbornly persisting despite his injuries.

Yoda wished he had a staff to lean on, but in lieu of one, he glanced over the ruined scrap metal all around them, the ground having been shredded and bent further in the wake of the storm.

The Grandmaster was spent, but even a portion of his power was more than enough for this; with a grasping motion of his hand, a piece of loose debris ripped itself away and came over to Yoda. It was ragged on the edges, but it was large enough for him to sit on. And so he did, leaping onto the sheet and keeping it afloat under his own power.

With a hum, he brought himself over to Vader and was unsurprised by what he saw: gloves stripped to reveal the robotic arms, a small pool of blood pouring out the mouth of the mask and plenty more damage. It took him another instant to take note of it, but he saw that beneath Vader's form were two lines indented into the ground, where he had literally used the Force to keep himself anchored down from Sidious's counter attack.

Anyone else, Yoda would have felt some urgency to get them medical treatment. The fact that he didn't had nothing to do with Vader being a Sith and more purely due to the Dark Lord's presence in the Force. It wasn't fading or weakening. He wasn't in any danger of dying at the moment, not so long as he could use the Dark Side to sustain himself.

Still, that didn't mean it wasn't a priority for Yoda. The bigger question was, where to take him? A medical center on Coruscant, or back to the Jedi Temple's medical corp? Those appeared to be the best choices, but Yoda wasn't sure how well Vader would react to either. The police force of Coruscant might just try to arrest the Sith Lord, and that would not end pleasantly for any that tried to contain the Sith Lord. Taking him back to the Temple might have Vader misinterpreting their actions as trying to imprison him.