Chapter Text
He had turned his back to the dark and died. Vader remembered as much.
He also remembered becoming a force ghost and his horror at learning just who his daughter was. He had tortured HIS. OWN. DAUGHTER. This thought let even the presence of Yoda, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jinn pale before it. After that ... nothing.
At least until he came awake gasping like a drowning man. A certain stench and loud voices, speaking in huttese assaulted him and ... ah, so he was being punished in death for what he had done alive.
He was on Tatooine in Jabba's palace, in chains. A nightmare only second to his reality as Vader. It made sense, he mused as he got prodded with an electric rod, his muscles seizing. After all Jabba was also dead and needed to be punished and Vader was a good choice for that. On account of Jabba's age, their cruelties could hold each other in balance. About. Supposedly. Maybe. Hopefully his master would have his own punishment seeing that he was dead, too.
He looked up at Jabba, waiting for the twitching to subside and debated with himself. Luke wanted him to be light, so he would try his damnest to be, but seeing Luke and specifically Leia were the cause of Jabba's demise, a bit of killing would not go amiss here. If you could even kill someone in afterlife.
Thinking of Leia got him sidetracked. The thought of her made him simultaneously proud (she was a huttslayer!) and very, very, very angry. Vader's eyes flitted around the room. Then without warning, he threw himself off the rancor trapdoor he was lying on, pulled on the force, clenched his hand and made the nearest of Jabba's guards and followers explode into a bloody mist interspersed with meatier pieces. As pandemonium broke out, he got up, force-jumped and came down hard on Jabba's disgustingly soft form. Ignoring the pleasure slaves connected to Jabba by fancy gold chains, he detached one with the force and used it to strangle Jabba in an act of poetic justice. As Leia had. It should be familiar to the hutt. No one got to ENSLAVE. HIS. DAUGHTER.
Next, he had to dodge quickly because he had been inattentive for a bit and now every last one of Jabba's lackeys seemed to be shooting at him. How dare they. He descended into a cloud of red hot rage.
.
.
.
When he became aware of himself again, he was heaving great lungs full of air. His eyes fell downwards telling him that he was standing over the cadaver of a fat, flesh coloured twi'lek he remembered being Jabba's majordomo. "Bib" something. Vader frowned. So it turned out you could kill in afterlife, but the result wasn't what he had intended with "a bit of killing". He had not intentionally fallen this deep into the dark side of the force. Luke would be disappointed in him.
Vader heaved another deep breath and became aware that someone seemed to be speaking to him. Irritated by himself he tried to focus on where it came from. It took - and he would never admit to that if asked - entirely too long to ignore the sensation of his uneven breathing, the hair in his eyes, the clothes on his skin, to figure out that the voice came from his right side, just out of arm's reach.
Looking at the speaker, they turned out to be a green twi'lek. Young, but going by their attire surprisingly old for a pleasure slave. His brain or maybe his ears still did not parse their - her? - their words.
Until his brain started working correctly again, he had no mental capacity to spend on other people. Vader continued looking around the room for an indefinite amount of time.
When after a fashion his brain started to work again, Vader realised that the twi'lek must have been repeating themself for a while. Because the second thing he realised was that their tone had become exceedingly cautious. The third thing was that they were speaking basic with a distinct accent that told him it wasn't even their second language.
They were asking if he was injured.
"I am fine." Vader answered in huttese. Afterlife was Tatooine after all, and Tatooine meant huttese. The other slaves behind the twi'lek were whispering in it.
Had he not just killed every being in the room and the general vicinity of the entrances?
Apparently not, as the twi'lek's relieve and determination felt real in the force.
"You killed his Excellency Jabba Desilijic Tiure of Nal Hutta, Eminence of Tatooine and his closest staff. And left the slaves alive." they stated in huttese. "Do you intend to take over?"
"No."
"Then why?" they asked. The whispers behind them started to get louder.
"Because I wanted to." Vader answered truthfully and felt the twi'lek grow frustrated.
"Jabba needed a good killing."
"You killed his Excellency Jabba Desilijic Tiure." they repeated.
Vader shrugged, which was really a very strange sensation.
He felt like they were having two different conversations, which made him feel a little stupid. Nothing new and left over from Anakin, but usually solved by force-choking the other part. The feeling would fade away fast then... .
But it would disappoint Luke, so that wasn't an option anymore.
Meanwhile, his pondering appeared to have been interpreted as refusal elaborate. He felt the twi'lek steel themself, the feeling mixed with defiance and resignation.
"If you are not here to take over his Excellency's empire, are you intending to free us?"
The slaves behind them went deadly quiet with the feeling of suppressed hope.
They were asking him, who was arguably worse than Jabba the Hutt to ... free them. What a strange afterlife punishment.
Feeling the not-quite-there hope they were excluding, he imagined that must have been what Anakin had felt when Qui-Gon Jinn had offered to free him. For 0.5 ticks until Qui-Gon had shattered it by saying that he wouldn't free his mother. However, he was sure Luke would approve of him freeing slaves. Even if it didn't really count. They were all dead anyway.
"You know what? Sure. I don't know why it matters to you. We may be in afterlife, but I will "kill" the rest of Jabba's guards for you." Death apparently made him talkative and ... Anakin like. "Meanwhile you can look for the switches of your detonators. Jabba should have some on him."
And suddenly the feeling of hope became a supernova in the force. It was a painful feeling, but Vader supposed it had to be light anyway. It was due to something Luke would have approved, afterall.
He shook himself a bit, trying to get rid of the alien sensation of his body but only succeed in intensifying the feeling of his hair on his face. No luck there, so Vader would let the burning of the slaves' hope fill him up und ride that supernova until he had a quiet moment to see what was happening with his body. That ... was how Anakin had made the light side work, right? Vader couldn't remember (he had tried so hard to forget) anything about how access to the light side worked. Apart from the fact that peace had always been a lie for him.
Feeling strangely buoyant, Vader stepped around the carcass of the Bib twi'lek and picked up a long-ish vibro-blade. One of Jabba's lackeys must have lost it in the chaos. He couldn't keep reaching for the dark side if he wanted to keep his promise to Luke.
Palming the thing, he moved to leave through the representative doors across from Jabba's dais. Before he reached them, he turned back to the twi'lek that had been the slaves' voice.
"Stay here until I come back. Barricade all doors. I will knock." Vader thought for a moment. "... four times. I will send the other slaves your way if I can, they will also knock."
He left without waiting for an answer and used the force to get the wings to close. They fell shut with a loud bang, causing sand to fall from the ceiling and onto the corridor below. Where he stood. Vader shuddered and made a disgusted noise. Then he fell silent for a moment and listened for the different lives around him in the force.
When he was sure that he had found every last one in Jabba's fortress, he made a quick "plan". Then Vader went on his way stepping around the carnage from before, which continued a certain way into the corridor.
His plan truthfully wasn't really that, but just two decisions: which way to go first and to not go against what Luke would approve. Meaning in this instance that he would offer every lackey (not guest and neither anyone high up in Jabba's pecking order) that was clever enough not to attack him on sight, their life and a way off planet on the condition that they were to never return to Tatooine. That would hopefully satisfy Luke.
The first beings he came across were a number of guards in a guard room just far enough away from the throne room not to have noticed the earlier commotion.
The Vibro-blade held loosely in his hand by his side in a mostly non threatening position he stepped through the door and into the guard room.
"Surrender and keep your existence, your Master is dead."
Unsurprisingly they all pulled their weapons and attempted an attack. Sighing Vader lifted the vibro-blade with his right in a low guard and readied himself to direct the force with his left.
At the first shot he moved. The closest guard was was dispatched shortly with a foreward thrust of his knife that speered their throat. The second he decapticated in short order after catching and returning a few blaster bolts. The third was clever enough to use a short range weapon on him. It didn't help them any. Vader slipped under their guard as they attempted to hit him, caught their hand holding an electric rod in his left and with a foreward movement cut through their belly in a slightly diagonal manner, his momentum carrying him to his next opponent.
All in all, he got rid of the guards quickly and continued on his way.
The next few encounters went similarly until he came across the first servant. Cutting his way through the fortress, Vader had had ample time to think about what he would tell the slaves he would meet. It was not like there were guards or slaver scum waiting behind every corner. Walking through Jabba's fortress was surprisingly boring for the most part.
Seeing his bloodied appearance the slave went rigid for a tick and then moved out of the way and down to their knees. They remained with their head bowed and shaking in terror even as Vader came closer. As if running away or looking like they had fight left in them would cause a him to leash out. Unsurprising and understandable behaviour, Sidious as a Master had been much the same.
Vader stopped before them.
"Jabba the Hutt is dead. Go down to the throne room and knock four times to meet your brethren there or leave to tell those who don't know that things are changing. When I am done, you can look for your detonator."
Vader left them without waiting for a response. Truthfully, he'd rather not give them time to talk to him. He had no idea what to do, if he'd inevitably make them cry. He had made a surprising number of people cry on regular basis and now he didn't even have the option of ordering them to go away or killing them. Not the worst thing that had ever happened to him, but certainly a punishment - as his afterlife was intended to be.
Everything else during his self-decided mission to rid the fortress of all slavers and accomplices went surprisingly smooth. By the time the first sun had set, Vader had found and gotten rid of every last one of them.
He had also sent off a handful of guards that had been clever enough to surrender. In the spirit of trying to be light, he had given them one of the smaller, but well maintained ships in Jabba's hangar, fit and stocked for hyperspace travel. Vader had even set an autopilot to Herdessa for them, so that they wouldn't kill themselves with faulty navigation. On Herdessa they could decide for themselves how they wanted to continue on. On account of the planet being on the Corellian Run, there were enough opportunities for those who wanted to take them.
Now all that was left to do was to tell that green twi'lek that they were free. After that, if nothing unfortunate like a scene reset would happen, - was something like that possible in afterlife? - Vader would go to visit his mother's grave. He never had before. Since burying her.
Slipping through the corridors now void of anyone "living", Vader made his way back to the throne room.
Arriving at a side door of Jabba's "throne room", he knocked four times. For a moment nothing happened, but just as he started to debate with himself if he should just leave, shuffling noises started on the other side.
Unfortunate. He would not have minded to skip the emotional part of this. He was not yet sure he would be able to not channel any resulting emotions to fuel the dark side in him.
Anyway, the task at hand. Vader settled in to wait for them open the door.
After a few minutes and a lot more noise from the other side of the door, it opened a crack wide. The green twi'lek, or more like a slim stripe of the green twi'lek, became visible.
When they recognised him, the door opened fully.
Still hoping to avoid whatever emotional upheaval the freed slaves would drown him in, Vader stayed where he was.
Murmurs picked up behind the door and anxiousness began wafting out of the throne room like a smell out of a kitchen.
Vader gritted his teeth.
Seeing that he made no move to enter, the green twi'lek looked around cautiously. Finding no one, they bared their teeth at him.
"Is it done?"
"It is."
The change was instant and it BURNED. It felt nearly as bad as Mustafar, but on a metaphysical level. Force, it burned. No, the force burned with their hope. Defiantly.
In a very strange and simultaneously painful and not painful movement, Vader detached the small sack of detonators he had been collecting, from this belt and held them out for the twi'lek to take.
"You will have to look for the rest yourselves."
The twi'lek's lekku twitched and their eyes became huge.
They quickly grabbed the sack and turned around to carefully hand it over to someone behind them. Then they turned back to face him.
"We, and the others you send to us talked. If we don't do something, the next warlord, hutt or pretended lord will move in and enslave us all again. So we will arm ourselves and we will rise up. Carry freedom south to Mos Eisly and Anchorhead. Or die trying, die free. If we make it, carry on and along the wastes north. The fighters from the pit will help us. Are you with us?"
A slave uprising on Tatooine. If he was still that fool Anakin, he would be ecstatic. There had never been one. But as it was, this was only a strange afterlife version of Tatooine. Try as they might, it would not make a difference to the living.
There wasn't anything he wanted apart from visiting his mother's grave. He never really had the chance nor the will to return after the funeral. And while she would not be in the same afterlife as him, he was sure her grave would be. This was his punishment after all.
But afterwards... .
Vader thought a bit more. Luke had seemed like the sentimental type. Carrying him outside to see the sky and holding a funeral for him. So Vader supposed supporting an uprising, even if it was in a doomed afterlife, would be something Luke would think of kindly.
If they would only stop throwing their feelings all over the place, Vader would have an easier time trying not to force choke them. But then again, this was punishment.
Coming to a decision, Vader realised that he must have lost some time again. The green twi'lek had gone back into the throne room and in their place was one of the slaves he had send back here.
Realising Vader was actually focusing at them, they stated talking.
"Oh, you're back with us. One moment please!" They turned around and called out into the direction of the throne room. "Oolak’alla, he's back!" And then turned back to him, smiling.
"I am Nemar Windracer! Thank you for spareing me! Oolak’alla will be back in a tick! What is your name?"
Vader blinked at them and wondered if he could go back to contemplating afterlife instead of putting up with the-him. But in the end that would only delay the inevitable. Unfortunate.
"Vader." He answered just as the green twi'lek came back. "You can call me Vader."