❝ we're all on borrowed time, it's just about
what you decide to do with it that
makes it count. ❞

—

CARINA SPUN IN HER SHEETS, groaning slightly as she stirred in her sleep. The mother slowly blinked, squinting her eyes as she adjusted to the unwelcome light.

Algora pulled herself upright, running a hand through her tousled chestnut locks as dread flushed through current state. Each day felt like it's own week the longer she spent confined in her cell— and she absolutely hated it.

"Good morning."

Carina jolted violently in her place whilst her head snapped to the side to see Obi-Wan sat at the table just a few feet from her. The brunette blinked, "What is your problem?"

Obi-Wan tipped his head slightly to the side in a playful manner, "Should I wish you a terrible morning then?" Algora narrowed her eyes at the male, "You can't give me a heads up that you're going to appear out of thin air? Five seconds would do you know."

Kenobi rolled his eyes at the younger woman, "Still the same I see." Carina swung her legs over the edge of the bed before shaking her head in disagreement, "Far from it actually." Obi-Wan noticed how her eyes glazed over with almost unnoticeable sadness, but he'd caught it. "Do you miss your younger self?" The force ghost voiced his question, even if he himself knew the answer.

Carina swallowed audibly, her eyes fixed on the floor beneath her as heavy silence weighed the atmosphere surrounding the two old friends. "I do and I don't. She was happier, more carefree, felt as if she was actually doing something in this corrupted galaxy. Yet at the same time she was arrogant, gullible, and underestimated everyone entirely."

Obi-Wan's expression faltered slightly, "You can't keep blaming yourself, Carina. You didn't know—" but the Jedi Master could not continue as Algora quickly snapped back in response, "But I did. I did know, the thought always lingered in my mind. I saw what Palpatine was doing and I knew he was doing it to Anakin because he'd tried to do it with me."

Kenobi's brows quirked up in sudden curiosity, having had no knowledge of such a thing, "Palpatine attempted to make you his apprentice?" Carina hesitantly nodded, her hands clasping themselves together, "He did, manipulation seems to be one of his specialties. Though, with me he failed."

"Why did I have no knowledge of this?" The male curiously questioned before the mother licked her dried lips, "I was ashamed. Had I said— done something to prevent the fate bestowed upon Anakin, we wouldn't be here."

Obi-Wan shook his head in disagreement with what the brunette had spewed, "No, you cannot continue glancing back through the years to hold resentment for yourself. You were young and tried to keep hope. That is not a weakness, hope it was keeps us going."

Carina scoffed out slightly, "Is it?" Kenobi raised a brow at her, "Why are you still here then?" The mother's expression morphed into that of a startled one, staying utterly silent as Kenobi urged on, "You could have given up long ago, allowed yourself to die that day you brought Luke and Leia into this galaxy or remained hidden on a planet far from here."

Algora swallowed thickly, her hands clenching as she spoke, "I continued for my children."

"In hopes that they would live the life taken from you, in hopes that perhaps one day truth could come to light and they'd find out you're their mother."

Obi-Wan hadn't spoken a single lie. No matter how much Carina raged about losing hope, she always reserved the smallest bit. For her children— for her husband that was taken from her.

Algora had grown bitter for even allowing herself to hold hope for Vader, she despised herself for it and wished for it to rid itself. But it never did. Her heart was latching onto that small hope for her husband to return, a lost cause a part of her mind never seized to remind her of.

"It's okay to have hope for yourself, Carina." Kenobi softly told the mother. Carina's chest heaved, her heavy breaths cutting through the silence that fell over the two. Kenobi stood from the chair he was sat in before smiling at the woman he'd watched grow up, "There is always something left to look forward to. For many years you tried to deny yourself of it, but don't do so anymore."

Carina allowed his words to sink in, feeling the meaning behind them hit her like a bucket of cold water. A part of her knew what he was hinting at, but the other chanted it couldn't be. Algora broke out from her trance, blinking as she was met with an empty seat before her.

He had gone.

The brunette ran her hand over her face, an annoyed sigh escaping her parted lips when the door to her room clicked open. A familiar presence plagued her mind just was the very person treaded into the dim lit room.

Carina's expression faded that into a distant one, her eyes unreadable as her shoulders tensed ever so slightly. Vader noticed the change in his wife's entire stance almost immediately as he stepped into the chambers, "What a drastic change."

Carina couldn't hold her tongue back as she snarked back in instinct, "Can you blame me?" Darth quirked up a brow behind his mask, a pleasant glint shining in his blue eyes upon finally hearing Carina speak, "No, I cannot."

Algora clenched her jaw harshly, her patience was wearing thin, and that usually meant she ran her mouth more than she probably should, "And what is the point of keeping me in this blasted cell? Please do enlighten me. Am I merely a trophy in a display case or perhaps the days are counting down until I am to meet death."

Vader blinked at the brunette, at least her habits had not changed throughout the long years. Her outburst made his mind drift to the clone wars era, his thoughts recalling the time Carina's patience had run dry resulting in an entire lecture as to why he should pick his moments to make his snarky— or as she called it— vexing comments that should should stay sealed in his lips.

The Sith Lord snapped back into the moment, his gaze resting on the woman before him who had seemed to take his prolonged silence as an answer. Vader exhaled heavily before responding, "No one will be killing you, that I can assure you of."

Carina let out an incredulous scoff, her eyes widening as if he'd grown two heads, "Oh, because your words is so trusting. I'd forgotten how sincere your promises are, how childish of me."

"Carina—"

"Your words mean nothing to me, Vader. Everything with you is lie after lie after lie. So you've truly lost your sanity— if you ever even had it— if you think for even a second I'll ever believe you."

Vader stilled in his spot, each of her words hitting like a lightsaber slashing its way at him. She was right, she had no reason to trust him. A fact he would soon strive to remedy, a part of him was willing to do just about anything to Carina to even be civil with him. Yet, another part was still loyal to Palpatine, stopping himself from giving into his desire entirely.

"You are correct. You have no reason to believe anything that comes from me."

Carina narrowed her eyes at the Sith suspiciously, her chin tipping upwards ever so slightly. Why he was attempting to play civil was beyond her. "What's the reason for keeping me here then?"

Vader raises his head slightly, silently contemplating whether or not to tell her the raw truth, yet he knew exactly how she would react when the words left his lips.

"For the same reason I am after Luke."

Realization washed over the brunettes features, leaving her stunned for a long second before her demeanor quickly morphed into that of rage, "You really think you can twist my son and I's mind to become what you are? Is that truly what you are implying?"

"It is, you two will join us."

Carina slowly stood from her place on the bed, her eyes burning into the male before her as she struggled to maintain rational, "You have left me with absolutely nothing— not even my freedom. So I will quicker die than have you corrupt my son just as Palpatine once did with you. I'd rather you take my own life as payment, if it pleases you but lay a hand on my child and I won't hesitate to wreck havoc on you and your measly empire. Try it, please— tempt me."

Darth stood unfamiliar with the rage emitting from his wife, a hidden part of him intimidated by it but masked it well as he breathed, "That is not the Jedi way."

Algora features contorted into distaste, "I am no Jedi." Her voice came out soft— almost a whisper and to any stranger it would've seemed friendly but to those who knew the mother, would know her words were laced with poison, her eyes giving away her true intentions.

Darth flexed his hands at his side, "And yet I am the one who has fallen?" Carina grit her teeth but kept her words to herself, forcefully swallowing as her emotions were just a slip away from getting the best of her.

Vader licked his lips before turning to head for the door, "We will see who gives in."

Carina watched the door click closed behind the male and she breathed heavily to herself, she was afraid of what she herself would do if anything happened to Luke.

All that was assured is that not a soul alive could stop the mother.

—

AUTHORS NOTE,
i love carina when she doesn't hold the jedi morals tbh