[b]The Price of Failure[/b] - What happened to Vader after the destruction of the first Death Star?

Ciao, I am a long-time lurker on the fan fiction message bords, and have at last decided to give something back to the community

This is a story which I originally wrote in 1998 and which has subsequently undergone a lot or rewriting.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

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THE PRICE OF FAILURE

The Emperor's yellow gaze bored into Vader's eyes and held him fast. "Do you know the price of failure, Lord Vader?? his Master asked as he raised his arms to point at him. Vader's world erupted in pain.

* * *

Darth Vader clawed his way back to consciousness out of his dark nightmare. Anything was better than facing his hidden fears helplessly in a dream, even drifting through space in a short range TIE Fighter waiting to be rescued.

The Dark Lord of the Sith grimaced at the word, but it was true. Even his modified TIE lacked the capacity for lightspeed, and his short-range communication system had failed reach anyone yet. All he could do was fly towards the nearest shipping line and wait.

To preserve energy he had shut down everything but the engines, including the minimal life-support system. Since he carried his own breath-mask he was in no need of the extra air supply which would have run out long since, anyway. It was ironic that the mask which he hated so passionately had once again saved his life.

Ever since his battle with Obi-Wan, which had ended with his fall into a lava pit, he had been dependant on the full body armour and breath mask, as his burnt body was no longer able to keep him alive on its own. The healing process, enhanced by his Jedi skills, had not been able to repair the damage to his lungs, and the sight of his ravaged face was unlikely to strike such fear into the souls of every being in the galaxy as his black masked and garbed figure did now.

Vader realized that he was wasting time wallowing in pointless self-pity. He knew that he was only fooling himself. Being stuck in the middle of nowhere might not be so bad when compared to what awaited him on Coruscant.

There was really only one person in the universe who could kindle fear in Vader's black heart: his Master, Emperor Palpatine. The Sith Lord did not want to imagine what forms his master's displeasure at the disaster of Yavin would take, but in his dreams his imagination ran wild. He knew that he would be the Emperor's scapegoat, since all others who could have been held responsible had been on board the Death Star when it exploded. Damn Tarkin, for dying so conveniently!

Darth Vader knew what he himself was capable of doing to couriers of bad news. To imagine what he would do if that courier was himself responsible for the disaster... He would be lucky if the Emperor let him live at all. Vader's only chance was something he had learned from Obi-Wan's brief flicker of thought, just before the old man raised his lightsabre and awaited his ex-pupil's killing stroke. Kenobi had quickly suppressed the thought but Vader, skilled in the ways of the dark side, had heard the unspoken word.

Luke.

For Kenobi to come out of hiding, this Luke would have to be someone very important and Vader could place a pretty good guess on what he might be.

The Dark Lord's suspicions were confirmed when that last X-Wing pilot displayed such a great sensitivity to the Force. It enabled him to evade Vader's lasers and hit the two-meter shaft, setting off a chain reaction deep inside the core of the Death Star - and thus blowing it up.

Vader had often wondered whether any children of the extinct Jedi had survived, but he had never been as certain as now that indeed it was so.

Now that he knew what to look for, Vader felt the disturbance which the boy created in the Force. There was something strangely familiar about the resonance of Force energy which he identified as Luke's... He was extraordinarily strong in the Force, that much Vader could feel clearly, and he could still be turned to the dark side. With this informat

OOHH! Firsties!
Very cool, hope to see more!

I have posted this story twice by accident, so I'm going to try and close this thread.

The link to the open version of PoF is here:

http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=9263580&start=9270916