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Apparently, being a giant lizard only hurts a little less than a cyborg. He is decidedly and deeply irritated. Almost like even his scales themselves ache, and he just sits her, grumpily, waiting for…
Sidious won’t be happy. That’s really all he has to think about. His master will be angry. Vader’s angry, too. He has no idea what he got himself into, and he certainly couldn’t explain.
A familiar kid walks up in front of him, dressed in the same yellow and orange that must be getting a little small on him. Vader remembers him from Lothal. He nearly killed him. And still failed.
“Oh. Uhhhh… Kanan?” he yells over his shoulder. “Ahsoka?”
Vader blinks at him. The boy stares back.
“Hey?” the boy offers, slowly raising his hand. He’s reaching out with the Force, trying to connect.
Like he’s an animal. He is not an animal. Though he might as well be, considering everything he’s done. It’s…
Vader snarls as the boy approaches. He jumps back. “Whoa! Don’t bite me! I just wanted to know where you’re from. Are Sith creatures a thing? You feel Dark.”
Sith creatures? Vader roars angrily.
“Hey, stop snarling!” he whines. Like he’s not even scared, though Vader senses a good deal of jitteriness from him. “Are you hungry? We probably have something on the ship. “
Vader growls again. Food sounds good. He hasn’t eaten in years. Hunger is a sensation nearly foreign with how constant it is. He can eat again. It’s…
“Alright, alright!” the boy grumbles, raising his spare hand – the other holds a Sith holocron, “Fine, I’ll just go. It’s probably lonely here by yourself, though.” He slowly backs away, hand raised, then runs back to the central structure. The holocron lights up. Vader watches, eyes narrowed as it starts activating. It’s a Sith holocron, activating the Temple and lighting everything up, but apparently, the kid wasn’t trying to…. well, someone tripped him into this, and he has no idea what he’s doing. Vader could have told him himself. Vader just watches as the boy tries and fails to pull the holocron from the center, but it’s got an active shield around it. That won’t work. Idiot. His master taught him so badly.
Another figure climbs the stairs, and he freezes at the sight of her – so much taller than she used to be.
“Hey, Ahsoka,” The boy waves to her. Whoever he is, she cares about him. Vader doesn’t know why that hurts. Of course, she moved on and got a family of her own. Vader had no one, but Ahsoka had… people.
She still has a family. That’s good. It hurts, anyway.
“There’s nothing up here, but this holocron that got stuck, and this weird guarding creature. It looks hurt, though.”
“Ezra…?” she asks tentatively and warily, eyes never leaving Vader’s, slowly stepping forwards, “That’s not a creature. It’s a dragon. And… you may have met him before.”
“Yeah, he did feel familiar – wait.” His head whips round, “I felt that cold before. Lothal? No way.”
“It’s Vader,” Ahsoka replies, “Somehow, he turned into this.”
Vader growls again. He wishes he could run. These are Jedi, and he can’t fight Jedi as a dragon. He can’t use the Force. He feels it the same, but something about his ability to channel it is different, and it’s terrifying. He can just sit here and do… nothing. He wanted to see Ahsoka again. He’s waited to see her for years, but now that he is, he can’t talk.
He can’t say a word.
He can only look at her and whine.
“Vader,” Ahsoka says neutrally.
Not Anakin.
Nothing.
Just Vader.
“Uh,” the boy interjects, still poking at the shield, “How could a Sith Lord just turn into a dragon? Is that something the Dark Side teaches?”
“It must’ve been a Sith trap he walked into,” Ahsoka replies, “I don’t know. I am not familiar with anything like this, but it doesn’t change that he’s here.”
“He’s not a Sith. He’s just…” the boy waves his hand at him. “I mean, look at him.” There’s pity in his voice, and he doesn’t know if it makes him angrier or even more helpless. He growls again instead.
“Definitely still angry.” Ahsoka’s eyes narrow, “Ezra, you work on getting that holocron out. We need to leave. Now.”
Vader backs away. Come with me, he wants to say, but only growls instead. Danger is growing in the Force.
The Jedi Knight shows up. He’s wearing a mask over his face, limping as though injured. His padawan runs back to him. They pull the holocron out together. Ahsoka doesn’t move, like she’s expecting him to attack or spontaneously combust.
The Temple shudders at the holocron’s removal. “We need to go,” the Jedi Knight calls.
Ahsoka sighs, and then she turns and runs after.
She just… leaves.
Again.
He doesn’t know what she expected. Anakin is gone. She has nothing to come back to.
The holocron is passed over to her, and just when he thinks the doors will close, leaving him in here, the boy turns back. He sighs tiredly, but comes back.
“Are you really going to just sit here and die?” he asks.
Yes. Why not?
Vader doesn’t move.
The boy sighs, “Okay,” he says, “I know you must be really scared right now, and this is really kind of a lot and really, really crazy, but I think we’ve all got pretty screwed up pasts. Look, I grew up in the streets, stealing from everyone to survive. I didn’t care what I was doing, and I guess there’s a little bit of me that wanted to become a Jedi to make up for it. And my friend Sabine’s got… she helped destroy her own planet or something.”
The others are calling him. Ezra doesn’t look back.
“You’re still alive right now, and if you got stuck like this, maybe that’s your chance. Come on. You can get us out of here.”
Us.
Us?
Saving Ezra won’t make up for what he did, or change who he is. That’s something the kid will probably never understand.
“Come on,” he asks again, softer, holding out his hand.
Ahsoka’s right out there.
She cares about this kid.
Vader still cares about her.
Grumpily, he turns around and lets the idiot climb on his back, diving from beneath the closing doors and flying up for the shuttle.
***
“You really think I should have that thing in my room?” the towering Lasat demands irritably.
“Why not?” Ezra asks sweetly, hands on his hips. “Your bunk’s plenty big enough for two.”
Zeb growls. “You know what? Maybe you should put him on your bunk!”
“Uh-huh! And I’ll tell Chopper to take the bolts out this time.”
Are these two seriously arguing about who’s bedroom he shares? He is not living on the Ghost. He’s a Sith Lord. He needs to get back to his master and to Mustafar. Vader growls in annoyance at them both and walks away.
He needs a ship, but he can’t fly. He is, for all intents and purposes, completely stuck.
“Oh, you’ll get used to them.” He pauses at Rex’s voice. It’s still hard to remember he’s still alive. One of the last remaining clones, no doubt. “No worse than some of the boys back in the day.”
Echo and Fives, he tries to say.
Rex laughs, though he looks pained. “Yeah.”
Vader pauses, then looks again. He understood that?
“Ahsoka tells me you’re Anakin,” Rex tells him finally, “And then you turned into this. I wish you could talk. We have so many questions.”
Vader wishes he could talk, too, but he can’t. Not in Basic, not in words that others would understand, and it’s driving him crazy. But to be fair, he could hardly hear his own voice, anyway.
“Your limbs are all mechanical now. Except your wings. How did that happen?”
Obi-Wan. Mustafar. Rather not talk about that.
Vader whines faintly and says nothing. Rex’s hand moves to touch his head, slowly, but he still whines at the contact, first he’s really had in years except when Ezra rode him.
***
“You must be hungry.” The twi’lek pilot is sweet, Vader will give her that. She’s a bit feral as a leader, but she’s so kind. He understands why her… Kanan – are they married? He’s not certain – likes her, and how she became a rebel pilot with such a reputation.
Starving would be an understatement for what he is. He’s always hungry, a sort of hunger gnawing under his skin, eating at him endlessly. He’s so, so hungry. It never goes away.
“Sorry, I don’t really know what your kind eats,” Hera continues.
“Why do we have to feed him at all?” Zeb asks.
Vader whirls, growling fiercely.
“Maybe I’ll feed you to him,” Ezra offers sweetly.
“I’ll push you in front of me,” Zeb offers, snatching up the kid by the back of his shirt.
“Go get him something to eat,” Hera orders fiercely, “Both of you. Together.”
“With him?!” they yell in unison, pointing at each other.
“Yes.”
They walk out muttering.
Echo and Fives, definitely. He hates how much it makes his heart ache.
“I’m really sorry about those two,” Hera apologizes, sitting back down in the pilot’s seat, “They fight all the time. You either ignore it, or get used to it. on the bright side, it’s a good amount of free entertainment.”
It’s…
(It just hurts, actually, because these people are a family, and this is something Vader hasn’t had in years.)
Vader slowly patters up to the front of the ship, looking over the controls. It’s high-tech and extra modified. Very fast ship. He likes it.
Hera is working on a few controls, tightening some gears.
He knows these. The toll kit is on the other side of the room beside her. Vader paws at it to pull out a wrench, kicking it towards her.
“Whoa,” she says, picking it up. “Thanks.”
Vader growls affirmatively at her.
When was the last time someone said that to him?
He keeps watching, carefully nosing at the controls. Dragons have… an enhanced sense of smell, and it’s as weird to be able to breathe in as to be able to breathe on his own again. He still has some mechanical pieces. He’s never seen his reflection, but he still can’t feel his legs, though his tail is real, and even dragging that on the ground makes him feel real enough he wants to cry.
Hera sits back down, swiping at her forehead, slowly reaching over to pet him. His entire body twitches at the sudden, unexpected contact. But it feels so…. good. He hasn’t been touched by anyone in years. Stupid animal instincts – they make him act before even thinking, and he dives forwards to rub his nose on her shoulder, begging for more. Hera lifts her arm around his neck. “They keep telling me you’re Darth Vader,” she murmurs. “I’m not sure if I believe them.”
He… is. (Isn’t he?)
***
“The wiring in this is so bad,” Sabine grouses, “I have no idea if hacked off all your legs because they thought it would be funny, but I certainly don’t.”
Vader growls up at her, but doesn’t move from his side. He hasn’t had someone work on his limbs with his agreement since the Clone Wars. This is so… strange.
“The fuel cells are half corroded. What the actual – okay, Chopper, go get me some fuel cells.”
The droid beeps.
“No!” Sabine yells, “For Vader, not yourself, you stingy trash-bucket. Come on. I’ll change yours next week.”
The droid rolls away, growling angrily.
“Sorry,” Sabine apologizes, still working, stripping entire wires off. Yeah, that’s what’s left of his leg, “I know, reattaching this is probably going to hurt a little.”
Apparently, when the Force thoughtfully forcibly shifted him into a dragon body, it never bothered fixing his limbs or giving him the easy to attach type that can be screwed on and off. Sabine will have to carefully rescue and attach the whole thing manually. Chopper is supposed to be helping, and it’s actually…
He doesn’t like being here. They’ve fed him, taken care of him, and he has no reason not to trust them, but he doesn’t deserve this kind of care.
“Alright, hold still, Sabine requests, patting his leg, “Or I’ll be screwing wires into your bones instead of metal.”
He growls grumpily and flops still. They keep working. Chopper comes back, Vader noses out a few parts, and Sabine does successfully strip enough parts to fix a leg and reattach it. It does hurt, a little – mostly the nerve connections, but when it’s on, it…
Feels real. It’s not the same as his tail or wings, but it’s so real, and he can feel pressure. It doesn’t hurt all the time. It just… is. It’s better. It’s so much better.
Vader growls in thanks, gently nosing at her. Sabine laughs, scratching his neck. “Okay! Paint time. I think we could use something other than black.” He watches warily until she grabs a bright pink bottle of spray paint.
Vader runs for his life.
“Whoa, come back! You agreed to this, you know!”
***
They go on a mission together. It’s… strange. The first time, Ahsoka has him sit out on the ship, and Hera and Kanan watch over him. Somewhat watch. Kanan is blind now. He lost his eyes to Maul. Kanan doesn’t talk to him. He seems quiet, period, and he’s still recovering. He hates that he’s starting to like it here. He’s a Sith Lord. They don’t do this.
He’s helping fighting the Empire. It’s stranger to do. Strangest to do – he was fighting for it for so many years. He believes in it. He does, but… There were so many people who he somehow never saw. People who needed help that he never helped. Not that Vader’s ever been a hero. He’s not a savior. He’s not anyone’s savior. He’s an executioner. A murderer. He can’t help anyone.
The kids are out there alone, and Vader paces the length of the ship again and again and again, waiting. The Force is tingling with warning. He can smell it, and it’s a strange feeling.
Vader pauses by the door, growling and motioning towards the opening.
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Kanan replies, managing a glare despite being blind.
Vader growls insistently, clawing at the door.
“I don’t know, Kanan,” Hera calls, “He seems pretty insistent.”
“He’s a Sith,” Kanan repeats, “And yeah, he hasn’t eaten anybody, but I still don’t trust him.”
“I think it’s worth a try,” Hera replies, “They should’ve checked in by now.”’
Kanan huffs. “Alright, are you up to flying?”
He paws the ramp down and jumps through the opening, landing on the ground. Kanan grumbles, but follows, climbing on.
It feels really, really odd to be ridden. Not that he minds, strangely. Contact is still overwhelming.
Vader flies. Flying is something he’s only gotten to do once, and it feels good. The air blowing across him, sights blurring by.
The blaster fire is easy to pick up on. Explosions and fire, too – probably Sabine’s handiwork.
A walker is closing in towards them. Vader brings them down, dropping and flying sideways, smacking into the side hard enough to topple it over sideways. It falls with a crash. Kanan jumps off, drawing his lightsaber and attacking the approaching troops. Vader jumps over them, landing in front of Ezra and Sabine, growling fiercely.
“Huh. I’m glad you showed up,” Sabine calls.
“I knew you would!” Ezra chirps, switching his lightsaber to some sort of strange blaster setting and firing at a dozen approaching troopers. That’s the first he’s ever seen that setting. It’s absolutely ridiculous, but somehow suits the kid in question, anyway.
“We need to fall back,” Kanan calls.
“I’ll cover you,” Ezra offers. Chopper beeps loudly in protest.
Ezra rolls his eyes. “Alright, you big baby, I’ll ride you instead. But remember, you owe me one!” He dodges Chopper’s efforts to zap him. “Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.”
Kanan and Sabine climb back onto him, Ezra sits on Chopper, clinging one-armed to his dome. Vader grabs Zeb, and the two of them fly away. He can’t believe he just did this. His first real step at fighting the Empire. He can’t do anything good, but… he can still do that.
***
Being a dragon doesn’t stop the dreams. It sounds crazy, when animals barely dream – or do they? – but he still jolts awake, heart pounding in the middle of the night, memories of fire and lightning filling his mind. He sits there in the hold where he sleeps near Rex for a few minutes, slowly pattering around the clone and away. he has no real destination in mind, but…
Will he hurt them, too? All he ever can do is hurt people who care about him, and he doesn’t understand why these people are going so far out of their way to be kind. They know who he is and that he doesn’t deserve it, so what’s their goal?
The Ghost is silent as everyone sleeps, until the door to the Jedi’s room opens. “Don’t sleep well?” Kanan asks from his doorway.
No. he tries to say. Kanan wouldn’t see a headshake.
He sighs. “Yeah, none of us do. You can come in here for a while if it helps.”
He…
Can do that?
Vader steps inside. The room is dark and empty, though he senses the light of a Jedi holocron somewhere in here. A light he hasn’t felt in a long time. Familiar. Something from the days of the Clone Wars. From his life as a Jedi. Being here makes him feel more than he has in years, things that remind him of the war, of before.
It’s not colorful. Kanan doesn’t believe in decorations. That’s good, he decides mirthlessly, because he could never see them again even if he did.
“You dream, too?” Vader tries to ask.
Kanan sighs, easing himself into a meditative position. “We all do. Ezra lost his parents to the Empire. Sabine, she lost her home. Hera lost her mother to the Empire, cut ties with her father, and lost her brother even before that. That was back in the Clone Wars. Zeb, of course, lost his entire planet and nearly all of his people. We all have regrets of people we couldn’t save.”
At least none of them actually killed the people they were trying to save.
“You know more than anyone how the Empire is,” Kanan continues, “There was a village on Lothal we helped. Poor people the Empire was hurting. And they killed all of them and destroyed the place. People Ezra knew.”
He knows. Because that’s what the Empire does, and that’s all Vader himself is good at. Death and destruction of the people who need help. But he can’t help. (He… did? He did help. Them.)
“Yeah,” Kanan adds, “We’ve done a lot to help people, but the Empire always keeps up with us. They always… read our moves, reply by attacking our – everyone we try to help. But as Hera says, I guess we just keep hoping we’ll finally make something better for real someday.”
Maybe.
Vader doesn’t believe him. He still curls up to sleep again, though. (He’s sleeping in a Jedi’s room now? He really lost his mind.)
***
“I wish I could still believe in you.” Ahsoka’s words are as sharp as he remembers, but still sincere, despite it all. She doesn’t spend much time here, for all the moving around she does, but the bit she’s here, she… does see him sometimes. She spends a lot of time with Ezra and Sabine, and the Ghost Crew in general.
They’re close with each other.
Not the way she was with the clones, but… still close.
I’m not Anakin, he tries to say.
Ahsoka sighs. “I know things changed for both of us,” she continues, “But I… thought I knew who you were, but can’t believe my master would ever do what you have.”
That’s what he means. He’s not him. He’s not her Anakin. He never can be again. She doesn’t deserve to stay constantly strung on the hopes that he can come back, because he can’t. There is no back. He’s just a monster, plain and simple, and everything everybody else has to say won’t change that.
All he wanted was to keep them safe. And look at what he did instead? He’s a monster. Ahsoka’s right about that.
Then go, he growls. And stop coming back. You’re looking at a ghost.
“I should,” she says, “But I can’t. Ezra says there’s still good in you. I know, it’s Ezra, and he wants to think that in everyone, but I… want to believe him.”
If she stays, she’ll get herself killed. He doesn’t want that. He doesn’t want that for any of them. Maybe it would be best if he just… left. At least he could spare them all the trouble. He’s wrong, Vader tells her, and backs away, though he doesn’t have the heart to leave.
Ahsoka walked away from him. He won’t do the same to her, even if he should. He waits until she’s called away, until the dark of the night when everyone is sleeping, and flies.
***
It’s lonely out here. As a Sith, as Darth Vader, it’s insane that it bothers him, but only now does he realize how he was starting to grow attached to them. A Sith doesn’t get attached. He shouldn’t be loyal to anyone but his master, and then he met these people. He shouldn’t be, but he can’t help it, either. He swears he doesn’t mean to be, but… it doesn’t go away.
Kanan was so twitchy about him, but he still understood. He tries to tell himself that no one really does, but he can’t deny that truth. Out here, anyway, perched on a mountain peak and growling angrily at the spiders attacking him, he can admit it to himself.
Hera was so nice. She let him stay there, fed him – Ezra came back for him, Sabine’s been trying to work on his limbs from time to time. The stupid pink sparkly stripes on his right wing stay to show for it. Zeb is… Zeb, and seeing Rex is good. Chopper, for all his irritatingness, is… not bad company. He can be nice when he tries. It’s primarily Zeb and Ezra that he picks on. They fight a lot, and he misses the noise.
He misses…
Them.
But they’ll be safer without him.
He’ll just sit here for eternity if it means keeping them safe.
That has nothing to do with Sidious, or the Empire. He’s here because… he can be. He can make choices again, even stuck as an animal.
Maybe he can still choose to help.
***
He’s still sitting there – this time sleeping – when a speeder sounds, and lifts his head.
The two that climb out are, of all people, Ezra and Sabine, the girl with the machine said to keep the spiders out tucked under her arm.
“Whoa, okay, don’t run off!” Ezra protests as he starts standing, “I just want to talk, okay?”
Alright, alright, fine, he’ll hear him through, though he has no idea why he’s doing this, because it has nothing to do with actually caring to hear.
“I know Ahsoka’s been being a little bitey lately,” Ezra offers, “But you were still great on the Ghost, okay?”
That’s what he came here to say? That they miss him? Is this boy serious? Vader growls disbelievingly and looks away, studying the landscape for the best place to take off too.
“Okay,” Sabine says, climbing the cliffside and sitting beside him, dropping the machine nearby, “I know you didn’t come out here because you wanted to, so, what’s wrong?”
It feels silly to say it when he’s looking at them again, but having the kids here is still… well, they came here because they were stupid enough to care. He didn’t know anyone was capable of that anymore. Not after Mustafar. After Jabi’im.
“I didn’t want you to feel like you had to leave,” Ezra fumbles, sitting on his other side. This is insane. Being tucked here between the two stupid teens who have started tagging him everywhere. He’s Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, and then he got turned into a dragon and is being worshiped by these two random rebels.
He does need to go. Because he’s getting too attached to these people, and they are to him. They shouldn’t.
He growls and nods at their speeder in the best indication he can think of to tell them to leave.
“I know a few things about being alone,” Sabine tells him flatly, “And I can tell you that when I say that, I don’t really want to be alone. No one does.”
He – doesn’t. He really doesn’t, but it’s safter for everyone that way.
“It isn’t?” Ezra asks, “I mean, I – I never understood why you’d always run off to –” He cuts himself off, shoulders slumping a little, guilt flickering up into the Force. “Oh, Sabine, I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” she replies, “I always told you to go.”
“Yeah, but –”
“I don’t want to talk about Mandalore. Or what happened there,” she interrupts, “But I did… a lot of things. I made some mistakes, and I helped enslave it. My people. That’s not something you’d ever understand, Ezra. At least I hope it isn’t.”
He clamps his jaw shut, sitting there in sullen misery.
Vader doesn’t know why that hurts.
He doesn’t know much about Sabine. She doesn’t trust people, and she doesn’t share things. It’s so hard for her to do anything. But he understands that, since… he’s awful, too. Maybe they all are. It doesn’t matter. She shouldn’t have to deal with him. He stands again, starting to stretch his wings.
“Don’t go,” Ezra requests, turning to face him. “I… know you think running off would be easier for all of us, but we want you here. We do, I promise. You’ll always have a home here. All of us – we’ve been alone for some time. That’s what brought us together.”
“It’s true,” Sabine agrees, “They rescued me, and I’ve been with them ever since. We’re family because we don’t have anywhere else to be, but this one has given me more than my old one ever did. I know you did some pretty screwed up things, but so have we, and I want to give you a chance to have somewhere to belong.”
They care. About him?
She’s serious.
They want him. he can’t remember the last time someone wanted to help hm. Maybe a few people in the war, but his mind goes all the way back to Qui-Gon and Tatooine, and it’s crazy the ones to drag him out of this slavery are a couple of…. infuriating teenagers.
“She’s telling the truth, you know,” Ezra adds, “A – at least I think you know. We do want you. It’s nice to have you around.”
He’s insane, Vader bemoans, but unfortunately, lizard speak doesn’t convey that very well. Is he really going to go back a second time? Because if he does, he won’t leave again.
“We can spend time together,” Sabine offers, stroking the scales on his side. “Hey, I can use you as a paint board. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?”
Not pink! He growls.
“What about orange? Or gold? Green maybe? And purple?”
Disgusting. He’ll kill Sidious alone with his horrible color scheme.
He misses the color, though.
“We can spend time together,” Ezra offers hopefully, “You don’t have to be alone all the time.” Come on.” He slowly raises his hand towards him.
They really… want him to come.
Vader slowly leans forwards, nosing his hand.
(He thinks he’s going to be okay. It’s a strange feeling.)
***
He was curled in the hold again, somewhere amidst a pile of the crew who insisted on sleeping on top of each other last night. The boys used to do that. Snuggle piles? Vader had forgotten, but when he wakes to the familiar rushing of a respirator and a red-tinted world, his heart would have skipped a beat if it could.
He expects the pain to rush back in, not that it isn’t, but it… doesn’t. His limbs aren’t spasming anymore, and he feels…
He feels.
Not cold, dark, and empty.
No. He feels… whole.
“W – whoa.” Ezra rolls over, shoved against his side – this is much weirder as a person again – and slowly props himself up. “You were shapeshifted this whole time?”
“Do not ask me,” Vader complains. (Does he really use that name?)
The rest of the room is slowly picking themselves up. Chopper flips himself back on and starts screaming the alarm in droid speak.
“Huh,” Hera says, blinking, “It was actually you this whole time.”
“Oh, and look!” Sabine adds gleefully, “It kept my paintings!”
Vader looks down at himself, colored in paint, and tries to sigh. “Impressive.” He flips his cape over – apparently, that is what got turned into his wings? Sabine carefully painted part of Ahsoka’s markings onto one of them, and it’s now been slightly squished, but still obediently a piece of his cape.
“You’re not the only one who’s freaking out,” Zeb whispers to Hera, ears twitching, “We threw a walker at him.”
“I tried to kill you, too,” Vader reminds, slowly scraping himself off the floor. He’s tired still, but moving doesn’t hurt as much. He feels…
Light.
Like something he hasn’t felt in years.
“How did this happen?” Rex asks.
“The Force,” Kanan and Ahsoka chorus, the togruta unexpectedly standing in the doorway.
“I thought it was some sort of Sith trap,” Ahsoka continues, “Aimed for Dark Siders. I… guess since it no longer feels the Dark Side on you, you’re human again.”
“He’ll shift back if he uses the Dark Side again?” Kanan asks.
“I think he might’ve broken it,” she answers, “I don’t know.”
“Oh,” Ezra says with disappointment, and everyone pauses to look at him. “I – I – uh,” he fumbles desperately, “I didn’t mean that! I just… he was so cute as a dragon.” No one moves. Ezra facepalms. “Okay, okay, whatever, I…”
“I might still be able to shift,” he says, because flying felt so, so good. And it’s the best chance he has at being able to feel anything ever again. “But that is not our concern right now. Is there a ship I can borrow?”
“You can take the Phantom. Why? Where are you going?” Hera asks.
“You offered me a place here,” Vader replies, “But there is one thing I must complete first.”
Because they will never be safe so long as Sidious is alive, and he will never let his master hurt this family. It won’t be an easy fight, but if it means he can come back here, have them, it will be worth it.