BEACH BAD, BEACH BAD [OPEN]

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

To say Vader was out of his element was the understatement of the millennium. He'd taken refuge under a large umbrella and was seated in his his chair as though it were the Emperor's own throne. Under the pretense of meditating, he was keeping a three-foot radius of space around him sand-free.

His beach towel would stay immaculate until he got someone else's blood on it.

Comments

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"You do not enjoy this procedure any more than I do," Vader murmured, with one foot still in his fantasy, "stubborn woman."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"You are wrong. I enjoy the healing, but the initial approach is always a shock. I do not dislike it, it is just difficult for a moment," she mumbled back. "And you enjoy being as stubborn as I. It is a challenge I have never faced, making your lungs work properly. That is what I enjoy most."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"I am still only entertainment to you," Vader replied, unable to muster the energy to get properly flustered. His eyes were half closed as he stared out over the ocean. "You are sick."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"Says the man with machines that keep him breathing!" Arha said, her laugh more of a sigh. "I find my entertainment in you because you resist things so very strongly, especially things that could benefit you. Perhaps it is the wrong word. I am, always, pleased to aid you. If such a sentiment makes me ill, then it is a thing without cure. I shall heal you until you are able to breathe without that machine."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"I will see to it myself that the machines stop doing their job the instant I am finished with mine," he replied, but that excuse was getting tired. "I will live with the reminders of my failure because..."

He was just as tired as if he'd fought her tooth and nail. His train of thought was getting harder to keep coherent.

"...because it is what I have earned. What I deserve."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"Hush," Arha murmured, leaning her head back against the arm of his chair. "No one deserves to depend on machines to live. It matters not if you kill one or a billions, or if you fail in something very important. No one deserves that. That you are thusly is an unfortunate thing, and one I am attempting to remedy."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"You do not know me," Vader replied, sourly. "You do not know what I did to Padme..."

He trails off.

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"Ill choices," Arha said very softly, "are things that will stay with us until we die. It does not mean you deserve something truly terrible. You mourn your mistakes and you keep moving forward, letting your past mistakes inform your future choices."

She tipped her face into the sun,

"You have your children here, with them, in them, is your wife, no?" Arha murmured almost lazily, pulling images from his much earlier barrage. The images paused on a dark haired woman, this was Padme, and she was pregnant. This was among the images he had tried to punch her with. "The only thing you may do to ease the mistakes of your past is to pour yourself into finding a way to create a better future with your children."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

I hurt her.

"They should have her as well," Vader mumbled. "She should be here with them. It was not my intention...I lost her when I lost them. They know."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"If it was within my power," Arha mumbled. "This would be a thing I would do. It is enough that you have lost something that was very precious. I have been told that there are many universes, many alternate ones where the choices made differently play out. Perhaps, in one of these places, your family is intact, with both your Padme and yourself. Such is a good thing to think about."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"I have dreamed it, perhaps it is so," Vader said, slowly. "But if it were I would have found my double and taken his place by now. I would see him die by my own bare hands- he didn't give what I gave."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"It is an interesting means of suicide," Arha offered with a soft snort.

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"Anakin Skywalker was always to weak to live," he said. "He didn't give what I did to have his...perfect life."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps such a man would have given in other ways," she said thoughtfully. "When faced with the challenges you had to face, perhaps he chose differently. To take from him what he braved to get, such is foolish and undermines the ways of the universe. In any case, you cannot have what you have lost, but, perhaps there is a chance your wife is among those in the pods. It is possible that you may see her once more. The ship itself may surprise you one day. It is enough to have hope that you may be reunited with her."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

Vader opened his mouth to protest-- I gave everything and was left with nothing, he does not deserve to have Padme while he lives as a slave to the Jedi-- but nothing emerged. He could not bear the idea having to wait, day after day, not knowing which pod held his wife if she were there at all, if she would take him back, if she would know him...

But he still felt a spark of hope accompanying his longing.

"When would I see her?"

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"This I cannot know," Arha said softly, tilting her head to peer at him upside down. "But when there is pod-popping, the chance exists that she may emerge the same as you did. It is good to have such hope. I do not think any I know shall come, but you still have a wife that may come to you."

Arha flashed a bright grin.

"This is a good thing. And a good thing that I repair your lungs, too."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

Vader shook his head.

"It is unlikely that Padme will have me back in my current state, as used as I am," he said, lightly. "But being in her presence is enough. She deserves a man that is whole, but I...I will be happy to hear her speak."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps," Arha said, thinking quite seriously, "we may be able to restore you. I do not know if it is possible, but I wish to try. And your wife will love you still, no matter the current state of your body. This is what love is."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

Vader continued to shake his head. "The Emperor afforded me the best of care. If he could not fix what Kenobi wrought, then it is not possible."

His eyes seemed a little bit less sickly yellow as he thought of Padme. "She is like my children-- she only deserves the best."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"Vader," Arha said, smiling--albeit upside down, "do I not heal your lungs when your emperor cannot? Set aside your disbelief. I shall do all I can to aid you in this matter. You see the truth in my words, no? We will work together, so that if your wife should come out of the pods, she will see you and know you. This I promise you. It may be difficult, but I wish to try as hard as I can."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"You are determined to do what cannot be done," Vader said, "you would move mountains simply because I told you they are too firmly rooted to be budged. Did my son tell you to be this way?"

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"I have always been this way since I was a child," Arha said, her laugh bright and her blue-within-blue eyes fairly sparkling with humor. "Your son would not tell me to be anything but my own self. I am this way, always, no matter if I am in your company or not. Give me something to move and I will move it or perish trying."

She flicked her fingers and radiated contentment and a brighter flash of dazzling joy.

"I would do this for you."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"I doubt it. For my son, perhaps, or even for Padme, who is long dead, but for me?" he turned to give her a weak glare. "I will discovery our true motives soon enough."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"Why not?" Arha said with a soft snort. "If no one else will do something for you, then I shall." She shrugged lightly. "I have said what I shall do and I shall do my best to stay true to my word. You may argue against this all you wish, but what I say I will do I will do to the best of my ability."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

Vader rested his head back against his chair.

"Then it would appear I have no choice," he said, but his heart wasn't in it. He was day dreaming of Padme now, he could almost see her before him.