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]

"The petty squabbles of the Galaxy are beneath a man such as Luke," Vader replied, "he should have a life of his own- the life I tried to make for him."

[starlightace]

Nanoha shook her head. "I think it's the other way around. It's because he doesn't consider people in need beneath him that he's such a great man."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"He will be killed one day because of their inability to be civil!" Vader snapped. "His own life wasted trying to preserve theirs!"

[starlightace]

"Isn't it his choice what he wants to do with his own life? If he doesn't think it's wasted, than it isn't." Nanoha retorted pleasantly.

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"NO!" Vader shouted, slamming his fist into his thigh. "He is never allowed to leave me! Never! Not once I have found him again!"

He is on the border of hysteria.

[starlightace]

Nanoha's expression morphed into something neutral, unreadable, though her gentle tone never wavered. "Then from what I hear, that makes you just like the Jedi, doesn't it?"

"They wanted to control people, just like you want to control your son. He's a great man, Vader. He's free to choose as he wishes."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

Vader actually rose out of his chair, towering over her.

"Do not ever say that. I know what is best for my own son! I will not see him dead!" Vader hissed. "He is my only, perfect son, and I will not let him leave me ever again. I will have the power to stop death! I alone!"

He sounded more than a little unhinged. Reasoning...will not get you far.

[starlightace]

And Nanoha floated up as well, stepping towards him so that she was looking straight up at him - meeting his gaze unflinchingly, not backing away. "I'm sorry," she responded after a moment's pause.

"As a mother, I can tell you without a doubt that you're wrong. And that if you tried to control him like that, he'd just come to resent you as you resent the Jedi."

"Calm down, Vader."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"DO NOT TELL ME I AM WRONG! NOT WHEN I HAVE WAITED YEARS TO BE REUNITED WITH MY SON!" Vader is spitting now, ready to do something drastic if it came to that. "I AM NOT THE JEDI, I GAVE EVERYTHING FOR HIM! EVERYTHING! I WILL NOT HAVE HIM LEAVE ME! I WILL BE CALM WHEN I KNOW THAT HE IS NOT THROWING HIS LIFE AWAY!"

[starlightace]

"You are wrong," Nanoha said firmly. "Listen to yourself! What kind of parent wants to control their child so completely?"

"We're supposed to guide them, not chain them! They need to make their own mistakes and their own choices!"

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"Not if it leads to his death! I will keep him under lock and key if that is what it takes! I will be dead myself before I see him doing something foolish!" Vader seethed. "I will not see him growing cold on the sand! Never!"

[starlightace]

She shook her head, though her eyes never left his. "That's why we have to trust them. Luke is a great man - he's wise, he's strong, and he knows his convictions. You can't treat him like he's just a little child. You can't shelter and coddle him from everything; not when he's just as ready to meat it head-on as you are."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"I can and I will. He has seen enough! They have done enough to him-- never again," Vader said, as though he were taking a solemn oath, "he was stolen from me once, and now he is back and I will not go back to anything else."

[starlightace]

She tilted her chin up at the man. "Even if that isn't what he wants?"

"You'd intentionally cause him misery?"

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"I AM HIS FATHER! I LOVE HIM- HE WILL UNDERSTAND THAT! THE JEDI DO NOT LOVE HIM! THEY DO NOT LOVE, THEY CANNOT LOVE-- I AM THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN!" Vader is breathing heavily in between outbursts, worn but still furious.

[starlightace]

Nanoha said nothing. She just gave him a Look.

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, Vader doesn't burn out easy once he gets started.

"I HATE THEM, I HATE THEM FOR TAKING HIM FROM ME!" he fumed, "I WILL SEE EVERY ONE OF THEM SUFFER FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO HIM!"

[starlightace]

"Causing more pain never solved anything," she said quietly but no less resolutely. "And it will never win over your son's kind heart. He'll just see you as cruel."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"Luke would not see justice go undone," Vader growled, resuming his seat and steepling his fingers. "He will know that I only care for him. He and his sister..."

[starlightace]

"You're contradicting yourself," Nanoha pointed out. "You say he wouldn't see justice go undone, but that he'd let you lock him away from helping carry out that justice?"

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"Of course I would be the one carrying out said justice!" Vader snapped. "He would merely not like to see criminals escape their punishment."

[starlightace]

"So you want to try to twist his viewpoint to match your own? You want to lock him up and not let him do as his heart tells him?" Nanoha shook her head. "That's not love. No parent should wish that for their child."

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"You are like the Jedi! You do not know the first thing about loving someone, yet you feel free to preach about it to the masses! I can love my son! I am capable of it! I can be his father, you would cast me aside as Kenobi did and I WILL HAVE NONE OF IT!" Again, Vader slammed his fist into his thigh for emphasis. "I CAN BE EVERYTHING HE WISHES ME TO AND MORE"

[starlightace]

Nanoha's eyes flashed in the first genuine expression of anger she'd worn in the conversation thus far, her calm, gentle demeanor cracking. She stepped in, leaning close to Vader and raising a finger. "What makes you think you could ever have the right," she said in a low voice that brimmed with emotion, "to tell me what I know about loving someone? About loving my partner and our daughter?"

"You don't know me at all. You haven't even tried to understand a thing. You've just been ranting to me about what you want, not about what Luke wants! What sort of a parent is that?!"

"I know that Luke wants you in his life, but that doesn't mean you get to tell him how to live!"

[sin-and-misery.livejournal.com]

"You would see them dead!" Vader shouted back. He understood anger. He knew anger inside and out. "You would see the one you love and your child with their throats torn out to appeal some sort of Utopian philosophy rather than do what must be done! You live in a world of fantasy while reality creeps closer and closer, waiting to snatch your loved ones from your arms and you will do NOTHING TO STOP IT!"