Shadows of Tomorrow

Chapter 98 - Healing

Author's Note: Bonding! Also, there's only one chapter and the epilogue left. I can't believe it. xP

~ Amina Gila

"The last time I was here, it was far from pleasant," Marr comments, as he, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Rex, and the twins fly down in a shuttle for Fortress Vader. The planet is extremely strong in the Dark Side, and with the glowing lava covering much of the surface, it's really the perfect kind of place a Sith might want to live. He tries not to think about all the things he's heard about the Jedi who were captured and brought here over the years.

"I believe we can all say that," Obi-Wan replies, expression oddly closed off. It's unsurprisingly – this is the first time he's been here since nearly killing Anakin.

Anakin only inclines his helmet slightly, staying silent. He feels... Marr isn't sure exactly, but he nudges him with the Force, anyway, offering him silent support if he needs it.

"We can all agree," Ahsoka chirps, "Because when I was last here, Anakin and I were rescuing younglings from the Sith."

"Why were they here?" Luke wonders.

"What did they want with them?" Leia asks.

"I don't know, and that's probably for the best."

"I will never understand why you wanted a castle here," Obi-Wan grumbles.

"I did not. That is why I chose this place."

"What?" Luke asks, sounding thoroughly mind-blown.

"To fuel the Dark Side," Marr replies, "I think it's a story for another time."

They leave it at that – it's not something anyone wants to explain to the twins yet – as they land in the private hangar. It's huge and looks way unnecessarily fancy. Seriously.

"I see you're more dramatic than I remembered," Obi-Wan says flatly, as they step out into the hangar which is full of ships. Some of them with designs Marr's never even seen before. He doesn't even have to guess why.

"Are these yours?" Marr can't help inquiring.

"Yes."

"You had time to remodel ships?" Ahsoka asks dubiously.

"... Occasionally."

Luke and Leia look thoroughly enthralled, as they scan the surroundings. Luke approaches one of the nearby ones, already spewing out questions that Marr doesn't care to keep up with, and Anakin is more than happy to start answering him.

Marr smothers a laugh at the look on Obi-Wan's face. "Can you discuss this later?" his former master grumbles. "We didn't come here for this."

They finally had a break from everything going on with the Empire for the first time in a while, and they all insisted that Anakin needed to get himself treated as much as possible. He said that the best place for that would be his castle on Mustafar, and they needed to go there anyway to get Ahsoka's lightsaber, so they all decided to go. Marr left Bo and Vizma behind on Coruscant since they had no real reason to want to come here.

"We can... discuss this later," Anakin agrees reluctantly, since all three Skywalkers seem equally disappointed with the interruption.

They head out of the hangar, and Anakin leads the way through the halls. The place feels of pain, anger, fear, suffering – pretty much everything Dark. He doesn't want to know how much came from Anakin versus other people. All he knows is that all of it has been terrible on his brother's mental state.

It reminds him disturbingly of the time when he'd been captured and nearly brought here. He'd been through... a lot, but he was never tortured like that before until then. (To think Anakin lived in that environment for years...) "I wonder how things would have turned out, had I been brought here that time I was captured," Marr can't help but muse. He would have met Vader so much sooner.