Post-Medical/Around the Hospital:

After arriving and getting his debriefing, Vader took time to see to his own physical state. Awakening and not needing assistance breathing was been a shock he hadn't had time to process, feeling fabric on his skin - his skin, not a patchwork of skin, blisters, synthskin, and the wide swatches of scar tissue that was mostly still numb had bordered on sensor overload. Not that he still wasn't covered in scars - so many - but he could get a sense of feeling from them, not just pressure. It seemed his would-be captors understood his gloves and gauntlets served a practical purpose to protect his cybernetic arms and his heavy boots served the same function for his legs. And they must not have known how to take his helmet apart. The neck seal being open and having a breeze rush up against his face was certainly sensory overload. An exam - one he was unhappy about - later and a recommendation under the strongest possible terms he seek to establish care for further follow-up finished, he'd at least had a long list of options. Something he hadn't had before and some questions about the chip and a thick folder of paperwork in his hand, Vader started to explore the area. Making sure he could memorize the area in low light, as he knew his vision at nighttime would be difficult and if the helmet was damaged well.

That would be problematic at best.

Xin Night Market:

Two things Vader had purchased immediately: a large backpack in a familiar military style and a drop bag which fashioned around the waist and dropped down the length of one thigh to buckle behind his knee. He had no illusions he'd fill the military-style bag, it was partly for the familiarity of something on his back and in case of finding something bulky. The other bag, however - that was more purchased with purpose in mind. He'd spent time examining the various bags, the pouches: their size and durability of them, and the fasteners.

And he bartered expertly. He meant it for tools, bits and bobs, and technology he could salvage or break down for other parts. But he was also keeping an eye out for faces he knew.

Magic Markets

Given the odd dimensionality of this place, Vader made short work of hunting for things in the magic markets. Anything which looked like it may be related to the galaxy he was from, things relating to the Sith Order, the current one and the ancient ones. But also anything related to the Force. Be he was also searching for information on the Tethers, Tian, and Heba.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Some petulant part of him would like to insist that there's absolutely no reason why they should and she's just being ridiculous, but the truth is he does understand, even if he doesn't agree, and he's wondered over and over again whether letting the Resistance go in that instance is a concession he should have made. Though, after everything, he suspects she still would have turned against him even if he had.

"She was always alone." It's the first thing he'd seen when he looked into her mind, back then. "Her parents abandoned her on Jakku when she was young, and she spent years waiting for them to come back for her. She sees the Resistance as family she never had--though she barely even knew them at the time."

She'd barely known him, either, if he's honest, but that's beside the point. He had been offering her the belonging she was seeking, in his mind more true than anything the people she'd hardly even fought alongside could offer, and she'd refused it. Because he wasn't good enough for her. He never is. The year that's passed since has done nothing but give her more time to grow close to them, and farther from him.

"And to them, the First Order can never be anything but the enemy."

It's Kylo saying 'Jakku' that made something click. The girl - hostile, angry, seeking a fight, bring up Leia - that makes it all click.

"That girl." Even if, he knows, Kylo doesn't know what Vader is referring to. "The people or Leia?" To him there was a difference.

Because with Leia...yes...that's going to be a Problem.

He catches the recognition. Maybe Rey had already met Vader, after all.

The question prompts a quiet sigh. "Both." He doesn't know the specifics of where she stands now, but he can say that much with certainty. He'd seen how immediately she'd latched onto his father. At that time, she hadn't even met his mother, but there's no doubt in his mind that it would be the same, especially now that Rey had been working under her leadership for a year.

"I don't know how many she considers close. She's been doing a good job of keeping the bond between us quiet since then."

"She'd didn't bother introducing herself with a name." He holds gotta hand at the level of her head. "This height, brown hair, dark eyes. Fierce, all teeth and heart." Yes he can see why Kylo would be attracted. Even if he refrains from mentioning hope she's like his grandmother. And mother really. "Loyalty to ones' people is to be commended. The First Order is successful, how many of the Resistance would have execution orders?"

"That's her." Somehow, it doesn't surprise him that she hadn't bothered introducing herself. He wonders what exactly she had said instead that let Vader put it together just now, but the thought is cut short by Vader's question.

How, exactly, would the Resistance be dealt with if that conflict were decided once and for all? The simplest answer would be all of them, but of course that answer can't be so simple. It's a question he's managed to avoid seriously contemplating thus far. Something he hasn't wanted to.

"For now, the Resistance is less of a priority than it once was. There are few of them left, and they've been lying low." It's not a direct answer to the question, but it's the best he can give. His gaze drops away from Vader's, voice less certain.

"Their leader is my mother. Their best single fighter, the woman the Force brought me to. Another of their 'heroes' is a stormtrooper turned traitor... but also someone I know Rey would protect." It's complicated. Just so damnably complicated. A part of him wishes, not for the first time, that he were capable of just not caring about any of it. But that's never been possible, and the more he speaks to his grandfather, the more he suspects that maybe that was never possible for him, either.

He looks up again, a hint of just how lost he feels in the role of Supreme Leader visible in his expression. "What would you do?"

He can see the evasion. Terrorist, freedom fighter, it's all in whose side you're on. He's seen that. Been on the other side. Multiple times. And the evasion tells him more than the look about how lost Kylo is, how unprepared.

"I couldn't execute one of my family." And yet - he had lead the sack on the Temple. He also hadn't simply broken Ahsoka's or Obi-Wan's necks either. "If they are borrowing from the Rebellions tactics, they ate operating in cells. You'll never really know how many their are. That is something you'll have to face. There may even be members working beside you."

"I've had deserters. Some for cowardly reasons. Some for noble ones. The former I killed, the latter...I let go. You may have to do the same. Let go, make her responsible for them to keep the peace."

Vader sighed, softly. "If the Force brought you to Rey however, you can't ignore that. Because the Force won't. You don't need it screaming in your head. You have to figure out why."

Kylo had never been prepared for the role he currently finds himself in. Even in the moment he chose it. Killing Snoke hadn't been a plan. It had been a moment of opportunity born out of desperation, and one that had ultimately not played out remotely like he had hoped.

Every doubt he's had about any of it is something he's had to carefully hide so as never to reveal it to anyone but himself. Letting it be so open now is more than strange, but it seems he had been right all this time to allow his grandfather's silent spirit to serve as his one confidant. There's no judgement in Vader's answer, for all that Kylo can't completely shake the imagined criticisms that Snoke would have given in his place.

He simply nods in reply, choosing for now to let all those answers sink in rather than trying to find words to say in return.

Vader, for all his wording to Luke and Padmè didn't actually want to rule - he wanted to enforce their wills with a little of his own mass murder of slavers. So while he doesn't know everything going on inside his grandson's head, he understands better than he realizes.

"It's heavy leading. Leading my men for so long, I learned what I would and wouldn't accept from myself. What I wanted to be. Trying to step into this," what he was now, "without that would be setting myself up to fail. You're going to need help, and need to study leaders from the past. Not just me."

Kylo has never had a real chance to learn what it is he wants to be. There's only ever been what was expected of him--as the son of heroes, as the first student of Luke's rebuilt academy, as Snoke's apprentice. Even as Supreme Leader, he finds himself struggling under the eyes of those officers in the First Order who don't dare say out loud that they're simply waiting for him to fail.

"That may prove difficult, here." Not that he would be shocked at this point if some piece of particularly relevant history from his own galaxy managed to show up. As this conversation itself has proved, stranger things have already happened.

Vader had but only because of Shmi. Her fierce devotion to her son, her protecting him in ask the ways she could, her allowing him to be a child, despite everything had given him a strong sense of self. It has been worn, battered, and nearly killed but when he'd been thrust into roles by others, he'd had that. Had his own inner most thoughts and places to go to figure it out. It had helped.

"It may. One never knows what one could find. Or what may be possible to call forth." Holocrons being something he is constantly looking out for.

Arrival + Open to all

Post-Medical/Around the Hospital:

Xin Night Market:

Magic Markets

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