Inheritence

Chapter 7 - Duel To The Death

Author's Note: In which truces are broken and made.

WARNING: Failed suicide attempt.

~ Amina Gila

"I didn't realize all this boring paperwork was involved in learning to be a proper Sith," grumbles Ahsoka, setting her datapad down on the table with maybe a little unnecessary force.

"No, but it's involved in learning how to run an Empire." She's fairly certain Vader is a lot more irritated than she is, but it's not showing. Thankfully, or they would have turned this into nothing but a rant-party.

One thing is for sure. He's the strangest Sith she's ever met. He's lost in the Dark Side, but at the same time he... lacks much of the brutality all other Sith wield, and is... almost too caring, honestly. Yes, Dooku was caring at times, but not like this. And there's also the fact that Vader is so uncontrolled that it makes her question the sanity of whoever trained him before Sidious. Well, that would be Kenobi. She always knew he was an arrogant idiot, but she always thought he was old enough to know what he was doing when he took Skywalker as his padawan. Apparently not.

Getting stuck helping her master raise his newborn babies isn't helping. How can a Sith even have a child? Vader's... wife, Senator Amidala, died. Sidious killed her, and now he's stuck raising their twins alone. Except, she's reluctantly dragged in to help him. Seriously, taking care of a baby shouldn't be so ridiculously stressful, but there's nothing she hates more. Or almost nothing. "I'm beginning to think I like babysitting duty better than this!" She misses Dooku. At least he wouldn't have made her do this.

"Focus," Vader snaps.

"Fine!"

Ten minutes or so – it could have been hours for all she cares – Ahsoka looks up again. It's no wonder Sidious was such a grouchy old man, dealing with all this political nonsense all the time. She'll turn out like that before she reaches twenty if she's not careful. "Why haven't you bled your lightsaber crystal yet?"

"I thought I told you to stop talking."

"You did. But I'm curious. I mean you're a Sith, so why would you want to keep your lightsaber blue?"

Vader sighs in a way that heavily implies his patience is running very short. "Sidious never told me, and it isn't something the Jedi teach."

"What?!" Ahsoka all but screeches. "If you're the Sith Master, at least you should try to be convincing about it!"

The death glare Vader gives her would have been enough to frighten anyone else. Luckily, Ahsoka's dealt with Sith Lords her whole life, and manages to remain completely unfazed. She's hardly certain how most Sith are supposed to behave towards their masters, and she's mildly concerned about the future of their Order, because no way is this right.

He looks like he's about to make an equally snarky comeback, but suddenly stiffens, looking up. He looks torn between fear and relief. She's fairly certain that he's sensing something, and this isn't a sign of him about to go all out Sith Lord on her for being annoying, but he is rather unpredictable like that. "Master?" Ahsoka asks quietly, warily. She doesn't know what could be enough to make someone like Vader scared, but she ought to be concerned, too.

"I sense..." He jolts to his feet all at once, gaze riveted on the doorway.

Ahsoka nudges outwards with the Force, trying to sense the traces of some sort of disturbance or danger. All she manages to pick up are the lingering traces of the presence of someone who seems familiar, yet... no. That's impossible. He was dead, right? She threw him off a cliff! How could he have survived that? And if he apparently did, where has he been these past several weeks while they try to run the new Empire?