Chapter Text
Vader did not hunt Obi-Wan.
At least not yet.
Hunting implied urgency, impatience, and a need to end something.
What he did instead was...
worse.
Monitoring.
The reports arrived like clockwork.
Encrypted.
Routine.
Sanitized.
SUBJECT: BEN
LOCATION: TATOOINE – JUNDLAND WASTES / ANCHORHEAD
STATUS: ALIVE
There were always images of Obi-Wan from different angles.
Vader pretended—briefly—that he did not wait for them.
He pretended the delay between transmission and opening was discipline, not restraint.
That the tightness in his chest was mechanical.
That the way his hand curled, slow and deliberate, was not just muscle memory remembering a throat.
He opened them anyway.