Before the Saga "Braveheart", a lose Vader one-shot for the Cassie main story

Title: “Braveheart”, a lose Darth Vader one-shot

Author: AzureAngel2

Muse and 2nd editor:@DarthUncle

Main beta editor: @WarmNyota_SweetAyesha

Length: one-shot

Summary: Chandrila is light years away from Darth Vader's current destination. But a reported assault in Hannah city makes the dark lord wonder if he should not turn his star destroyer around and help justice on its way. The victims are a six year old girl and her father, Director Krennic.

Time frame: The story takes place in 14 BBY.

Place of choice: an Imperial Star destroyer

Reader warning: Please excuse my weird English! I am German. English is only my Second language!

Disclaimer: SW is owned by George Lucas, Lucas Ltd. and now The Walt Disney Company


I was the one who had it all
I was the master of my fate
I never needed anybody in my life
I learned the truth too late
I'll never shake away the pain
I close my eyes but she's still there
I let her steal into my melancholy heart
It's more than I can bear

Now I know she'll never leave me
Even as she runs away
She will still torment me
Calm me, hurt me
Move me, come what may
Wasting in my lonely tower
Waiting by an open door
I'll fool myself, she'll walk right in
And be with me for evermore

I rage against the trials of love
I curse the fading of the light
Though she's already flown so far beyond my reach
She's never out of sight

Now I know she'll never leave me
Even as she fades from view
She will still inspire me
Be a part of everything I do
Wasting in my lonely tower
Waiting by an open door
I'll fool myself, she'll walk right in
And as the long, long nights begin
I'll think of all that might have been
Waiting here for evermore


It is a fact that you inspire fear and awe in others. Sometimes even at the same moment. But after four years you still need to get used to it. So you stand your ground, imagine to be a stronghold. Invulnerable.

“There was indeed an incident in Hannah City!” the intelligence officer reports to you, a human in his late twenties.

Your right hand turns into a fist and you shake it in triumph. Of course the girl was too embarrassed to talk about it, when she contacted you. “What was it about?” you voice, trying to sound not too eager.

“Officer Cadet Piett brought his bunk mate, Officer Cadet Cassido, back to the barracks. The latter was lightly injured. A front tooth missing and a black eye.”

You wonder what had caused Director Krennic, usually a deskjocky and show-off, to lose his nerves like this. “Did he report anybody for attacking him?”

“This is the strange thing, sir.” The intelligence officer raises an eyebrow at his data pad. “Officer Cadet Cassido actually made a self-denunciation.”

These days life seldom holds any surprises for you, let alone real challenges. “Self-denunciation?” you echo.

“He reported himself for discriminating a certain Miss Krennic aged six.”

Underneath your mask you smile. The pain that it causes you does not matter.

Cassandra is actually just five years old and not the person who she is supposed to be. Identity theft and much worse crimes were committed by the man who legally adopted her.

You must admit that Krennic can be extremely gifted and clever at times. Plus he really loves his daughter. And she loves him back in return. You feel slight envy.

“Not much is known about the girl because Child Protection Services keep her records sealed,” the intelligence officer moves on. “Do you want me to look into that?”

“There is no need.”

You already know why Cassandra's records are sealed and what a powerful antagonist Child Protection Services can be.

Just for fun you had tried to make enquiries about the girl that Bail Organa and his wife, the Queen of Alderaan, have taken in. To no avail. And in the end it does not matter.

Some men were able to find fatherhood, you have lost yours to the Jedi. Without them Padmé and the baby would be still alive. To scam through adoption records is waste of time. There is no other Skywalker out there. As Darth Vader you will not be able to pass on your legacy unless you meddle around with cloning or find a worthy apprentice.

Staring ahead of you, you start to wonder how exactly your little protégée got insulted. For her the matter at hand seems to be less important than forming a friendship with Zevulon Veers.

Before you can make any further enquiries the intelligence officer moves on, Officer cadet Cassidy also accused himself to have used improper language against Director Krennic, after attacking him physically.”

You turn your back to the man in front of you and stare into the depths of space. Too many questions form in the back of your mind. “Leave the copy of the offence report with me.” You open your right palm and wait until the data disc is placed in there. Only then you say, “I want you to keep an eye on Cassido and his bunkmate.”

Something tells you that the latter is of more importance to you than the actual offender. You bet that Officer Cadet Piett made his friend confess. But he might not have been the one who gave him a friendly reminder.

“Does the director take his bodyguards on private trips?” you wonder loud enough for the intelligence officer to hear.

“Actually, he has given them order to stay away from his father's apple farm, but the protection detail has standing orders to keep him safe at all times. We do not want delays over public or private matters. He claims though that Agent Kallus would be able to cover his back for the time given.”

An apple farm. You only know moisture farms. The ones on Tatooine are not the most spectacular sight.

Your fingers close tighter around the disc.

Cassandra just made you think of Tatooine.

“Bless you, cousin! Curse you!” you think inside your helmet.

Still you can't help it to see the clone of Nagina as a family member. The only family member you have. Between you and your dark master things are very different. And they always will be.

“Has the director asked for holiday leave via the official channels?”

“Yes, sir, though he left before his request was granted. But Governor Tarkin did not call him back. Each time Krennic asks for home office days or family vacation, he manages to get a lot done in his absence. Most of his communications are with the scientist Galen Erso on the Eadu base.”

If it would be up to you 'Project Celestial Power' should never see its finalisation. You are the most powerful weapon of the Empire. Not some space station with a super laser.

To break the will of a kyber crystal, to make it bleed takes more than a crystallographer and a power-hungry engineer. They simply cannot handle the corruption. It will take them years. Your dark master should know that, but perhaps he is too stubborn to realise that the technology of the Celestials is not meant to be for forming a Sith Empire.

You laugh inwardly.

Well, when you are back on Coruscant, you should do Cassandra the favour and call her back. Not to ask about her father's progress. You doubt that he shares knowledge of his work with her. No, you will simply check out the status of her relationship to Zevulon Veers.

It is worth building up an Empire for future generations to live in. You can imagine Cassandra and the Veers boy to be part of that bright future that you help to create.



Sources:
The song “Evermore” by Dan Stevens (2017)
Wookieepedia – The Star Wars Wiki
Jedipedia, a free German Star Wars-Encyclopaedia

 

Wonderful reflections, made even more so by the second person

 

Intriguing to see Darth Vader manoeuvring himself into a sort of guardian angel over Cassie, and great bits of insight in his thinking about Krennic, and the Death Star itself, as well as his relation to the emperor. That relationship soured quickly, didn't it? Yeah, I get why the Emperor was angry/annoyed he didn't get the great SIth apprentice he expected (though, maybe then he'd not have been alive any more himself at this time ...), though after having seen AotC and RotS it is hard to see how he expected anything else (even if the clone wars and Legends books around that time show Anakin in a more interesting light). [sorry, couldn't help myself there].

Good for Vader, and our New Hope that he doesn't feel a need to inform his emperor what's going on with Cassie. On that note, glad he didn't penetrate the Child Services records on that certain Alderanian princess, that might have led to quite a few questions. 'At the end it does not matter' yeah, sure, best if you keep thinking that right until the end.

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha & @DarthUncle, thanks for always reacting to my fanfics and seeking a real dialogue with me. This is something that not many seek nowadays. Everybody seems to be busy with themselves. I am very grateful.

A fellow fanfic writer criticized me that I always try to see the good in every character, even a villain. Well, if I would stop doing that, it should stop working as a kindergarten teacher. Because I do believe that nobody should be left behind. I believe in second, third and even forth chances.

And a bad guy, who reveals a human heart, is more frightening, I would say.

Vader is not a Cyberman or a Darlek. That makes him more dangerous from my point-of-view. And being human got him into the very dark place in which he is trapped.

His relationship with Cassandra is rare, but it is certainly not based on angst. I am too old writing about that.

Like Frances "Fanny" Price from Jane Austen´s "Mansfield Park" my heroine has this much older cousin being caught in a bad place. In one of the film versions Tom Bertram is send off to the colonies by his father, Sir Thomas Bertram (baronet). It is shown that the family riches come from slave trade. Tom returns home, sick in body and soul. His cousin nurses him back to health, even she is appalled by his diary.

Working with the theory that Sheev Palpatine made a Midi-chlorian experiment on Shmi Skywalker (the very part that GL took out of the script for RotS!!!), I made Vader and Nagina cousins. When arcane Sith magic forces her soul into a new clone body, it gets attached to Vader and not to the Emperor any longer. The latter does not feel the clone in the Force any more and therefore believes it to be death after the explosion on Scarif, that Orson Krennic orchestrated in a rather mad, complicated plan.

Cassie shares some sentiments with Nagina, but also has different views here and again.

Let us say that all in all Vader is intrigued by Cassie and also feels mercy for the child, that is but brave and truthful. Therefore he takes it easy on her. Why? Because he can.

 

I always felt that Vader is intrigued by the strength of the feelings Nagina has for her uncle, where he himself is only the pupil to his master, she treated him, on a human level, as an equal, and Sheev responded in a similar way (apart from trying to get her out of the way of his Great Sith Empire Plot, of course). But Vader's relation with Nagina came too late for it to make a huge impact on him.

Still, it did seem to leave a lasting impact, and on the strength of that he seems to formed a bond with a little girl that has a lot in common, but who has quite a different upbringing. Perhaps Vader is somewhat jealous too, for while he shared the lack of a father with Nagina, and, as Anakin, sort of vied for Sheev's attention with her - so that they both had sheev (and Anakin had Obi, when he bothered to listen to him) as a flawed ersatz father figure - Cassie of course has Krennic.

And here Vader observes how the Director Krennic he knows and doesn't value all that much, is in another part of his life a real, genuine, good father to the girl, by his own choice. I can imagine that fascinating him on multiple levels. He never got the chance to be a father himself (well, not until a short moment before his death anyway), and while expecting a child he chose to make his own fears and anxieties, not to mention ambition, take precedence like a true Sith, and now he's in a teacher/learner relationship with someone who chose him, but also sort of abandoned him as he was deemed flawed (and of course, there's that abusive element that is a deliberate part of the Sith Rule of Two).

And he chooses her, the Nagina clone, as a teacher, but also acts like an older brother/protector to both Nagina and now Cassie. I am glad that the bit of Anakin that's still in there, which appreciated cleverness, daring and braveness, helps him do that.

 

When you write things like this @DarthUncle, I am deeply impressed. Somebody who understands my story, cherishes them and is not crossed when a trip to the fridge takes a little eternity.

Without your steady and loving encouragement, even when it is about dropping a plot line, minimizing a dialogue or not adding TMI, none of my fics would be possible.

Now the ice crème delivery service is on its way to the kitchen!

 

Enjoyed this the second time even more than the first. Loved recalling Cassandra visiting her Gramps LOL and meeting Zevulon Veers

 

Have to echo that - I came for the pretty picture, I stayed and reread for the text, the memories and feelings described, and called up from my own mind.

And completely independently, I cuckled - but also, I had forgot about that bit of a close shave again, and have to say you cleverly inserted it with double purpose of showing Vader's insight into how much effort Krennic went through, and of reminding us that he has good excuses to tell himself there's no Skywalker left, even though the rest of the post shows that at least in him, there is some, and maybe if he trusted that side of him, he'd dare to hope a child (or perhaps, that little girl! on Alderaan?) is still there.

LOL, aww. Ever the conflict within him, and he is blocked from realising it, seeing it only as weakness, while it might just be the strength of humanity that is still in him (having rewatched The Rise of Skywalker again yesterday, now on blue ray, find it poignant that Ben Skywalker/Kylo Ren too had such a conflict, only he was slightly quicker in resolving it perhaps)

And interesting too, how I now (see above), think a bit differently about the Vader internal side of that - no doubt remolded and formed by reading your work, which always cointains a thread of making the right choices and of the promise of redemption through them.

Thanks for adding this beautiful visual art to the story and guiding us back here after some 20 months, in which this great one-shot had become occluded, though it's message not forgotten.

 

@DarthUncle: I waited some time to react on your comment, just to be on the safe side. Thanks for undergoing so much trouble to write such a neat and jolly good analysis.

I love you very much! And your wits! But of course I also married you for a 1.001 other things!

When I have finished my e-book version of "The Rise of Skywalker" I will give it to you, because the conflict of Vader´s grandson is done nicely in there. You should read it, definitely.

But I need to warn you. There are no pictures whatsoever. For it´s an e-book and not one of my stories.