#(he is afraid)

on Albert’s dime of course

@jacqueline-muller

I, uh.........

unprompted ask !

IT’S TERRIFYING TO HAVE THE OTHER COME SO CLOSE,   convincing himself in the back of his mind that he’s done nothing  WRONG  to warrant a  beating.   the two of them tend to be on good terms,  or as  good  as they could be for how much he avoids being alone with the other.  his silence is often comforting to someone who struggles so deeply with conversing with other people.   if he was to talk,   jacket was  one of the best listeners;  or he just tuned everything out,  it was impossible to tell.   HOUSTON  is smaller than him by a few inches,  only making the closeness more frightening to him.   it really  emphasizes  the height advantage that JACKET  has.   

Not like anyone knew about his dramatic exit. 

Sidious was keeping everything undercover while taking temporary control over the Navy and the different fractions Vader had been responsible for. After all, there was no need for panic. He would find a new apprentice in no time and Vader would be hunted down viciously until he had been dealt with. No need to worry. 

To be known to the universe that Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith and current Emperor of the known galaxy doesn't do his paperwork. He hadn't done it since his Senator's days and those were a lifetime ago. 

What he didn't know was that half of the Empire had been piloted by Vader, without anyone, including Vader, understanding that little fact. 

Now the Navy didn't have a leader to order them around and the new one, whom Sidious immediately assigned once he saw the huge amount of paperwork received every day from every starship the Empire commanded, was horribly incompetent compared to Vader's 18 years of experience with war-waging and 28 years of just dealing with idiots with too much power. 

The said leader was the sole reason as to why the Navy had stopped all campaigns and actions. 

Unrelated to the crisis of the Dark users in charge, the medical facilities and medical department, in general, had had such a huge jump in improvements and treatments since the birth of the Empire: big donations, sponsors, etc. And when the same donator, who had been donating huge sums ever since the reformation of the Republic, came seeking help wearing an awfully familiar suit, the medics turned a blind eye to the identity of the said donator. 

The man that walked out a year later was in his mid-30s with dark blond fuzzies and slight scar tissue all over his body.

He was wearing a clear mask, which covered half of his face. The medics said he could take it off after he came back for examination, to check how the cloned tissue had aligned itself in the body. Not because the snarky person has wormed himself into their hearts. No, no, milord. 

During the year in which that patient had been treated, the Empire had fallen into a full-blown crisis. 

Sidious finally started doing paperwork and due to that, half of his staff disappeared mysteriously (more paperwork!? If he had to do paperwork every time he strangled someone, he, when Vader is brought back, would spend eternity torturing his wayward apprentice (Sidious was also impressed that his apprentice had continued killing his subordinates even after having to deal with that much paperwork. Maybe he needed an aide. Mas Amedda had been useful in doing paperwork)). 

While that was happening the newly promoted Grand Inquisitor, now Sith Apprentice was absolutely incompetent in leading a battle or grasping basic strategies. 

He had been a Temple Guardian, not a General! 

He had been in charge of the Inquisitors and it had been a breeze, but now being Head Enforcer of the Imperial Navy he barely got any sleep. 

Vader had had the patience of a Jedi if he had dealt with these idiots and hadn't slaughtered every single one of them (Piett and Veers quickly changed ships after a few days in the company of their new commander). 

7 out of 8 of the battles fought, were lost, because of poor communication, bad strategy (Darth Reznar wouldn't admit weakness and he also wouldn't ask for pointers), or just plain lack of resources. 

Apparently, half of the money that powered the War front had come from Vader's own paper check. The ships the war needed couldn't be built without the money. And 5 out of 6 money concerning bills that the Senate voted in, went to Tarkin and his Death Star. 

So Vader, as his Master knew, spent his fortune on ships. He just hadn't known that it was such a highly needed and used ships! (though Vader's private star-fighter collection was still one of the greatest in the galaxy). 

When Sidious tried to take Vader's funds he was unpleasantly surprised that the billions upon billions of credits were taken out from the fund and moved to somewhere else. 

By the time Vader could breathe freely, the Emperor had put a mindboggling bounty on Vader's head. 

Said individual was having the time of his life, traveling around the galaxy (and killing slavers. Ziggeria who? Hutts where?) 

He still avoided Tatooine, even his early retirement wouldn't make him step on the damn planet, but Nar Shadda had quickly found itself with no Hutts, slavers and a new government. 

Who knew arguing with Padmè and doing Sidious' paperwork would have been that useful? 

The Emperor was loosing power: the Hutts were fighting amongst themselves, the Ziggerians were somehow brought into the conflict and the Empire was losing it's footing, trying to fight both. 

The Dark Lord was sure that his wayward apprentice was responsible for that, but no matter what he did there was no sign from the damn cyborg. 

The trackers weren't working, the kill switch was useless and no one could find Darth Vader. 

The Rebellion was shocked, they kept gaining ground and no one was opposing them.

The fact that Vader was not MIA, but had actually defected was a shocking and rather disturbing thought. Well, at least it was after the cheers had quieted down. 

After all, what was possible to make the Emperor's Dog abound his master. No one really wanted to consider what might have been so terrifying. 

There were rumors circulating around that Vader had just retired. 

Those rumors sure sounded nice, if it wasn't for the high bounty Vader had, the rumors might have been true. 

After several months, in which the strangeness of the situation hadn't lessened, several slicing teams tried to find out what was actually happening and why was the Empire in crisis.

What they found was holo footage of the last meeting Darth Vader had. 

After that, they quickly connected the dates and understood that not only Vader had had more experience in battle than was possible for a living being to have in this time period, but he also had carried the Imperial Navy on his armed shoulders. While supporting medical research and school systems whilst reading every report given to him as an Enforcer of a Navy that had millions of ships. 

No wonder he had started killing his own people.

If he had so much paperwork, Bail would have taken early retirement at 25 and moved to Aldera's mountains where he would no longer need to look at holopads. 

And Vader had been leading campaigns, approving strategies and all in all commanding all star-destroyers, while leading his battles from the front lines. 

The only person he had met, that had such terrifying efficiency was Obi-Wan Kenobi. 

Apparently, his apprentice had taken after his master more than they had all thought he had. (Not true, Vader spent a year learning to be more efficient. Then, Sidious hadn't been drunk on his unlimited power and was quite painful to deal with if you couldn't reach his standards. Standards that weren't known by said apprentice, except that they apparently included paperwork, slaughter, conquering everything and everyone, and bringing prosperity to the Empire. Vader could do that, after all, if Obi-Wan had dealt with being High General and Jedi Councilor, Vader surely could deal with all of that (he couldn't. But he learned and so he could)). 

Not that Bail was feeling any sympathy for the Sith. 

After all, he had left and the Empire was crumbling on itself while in the middle of a war between the Hutt clans. Being attacked from three sides, the reign of terror and tyranny would end. 

The previous Senator of Alderaan wasn't thinking about the terrifying and incredibly capable ex-Sith running loose in the galaxy. 

He definitely wasn't thinking about that no one knew how he looked or where he was.

And he definitely wasn't waiting for the comm to connect him with a ginger friend of his so he could ask for help finding the man.

Hyde in his AU: I am the most powerful parasite, I have possessed a Gaster and everyone is afrAid of me