A Prisoner of His Own Choices
"Turn back, Vader," the commander screamed from his fortress.
Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith and one of the most powerful beings in the Galactic Empire stood alone on an empty plain. His cold unfathomless hate stared through the unemotional visor attached to his face.
He gestured to the commander. "You cannot hide behind that wall forever, Elath."
He pulled his hand into a tight fist. Above on the parapet Commander Elath felt the wall at his feet beginning to crumble. Having experienced Vader's power before he knew what was happening.
"Take him down!" he hollered.
He turned back around when no one answered him. His shocked eyes saw his soldiers fleeing over the other side of the wall.
"Lord Vader!" he pleaded to the dark lord. "Lord Vader, please! I surrender!"
Vader hissed through his respiration unit. "You surrendered your life already!"
The fortress wall splintered, and Elath realised his fate. Closing his eyes, he allowed himself to fall with the crumbling stone.
His defeated form landed with a thud on the ground.
Then a large piece of rubble crushed his body.
:*:
Vader stood impassively gazing at the ruins of Elath's fortress. Another hunt over. Another target extinguished. That was all he ever did.
A lifetime ago, it had been different. Once he was known as the heroic Jedi, Anakin Skywalker, who made it his life's destiny to save others and battle with the forces of evil. Fighting against the Order of the Sith, the doctrine he now served.
But he chose to become a fool. He hungered for more. He wanted power. A right to be in full command of whatever he did. And so he listened to a man named Palpatine, the person he now called Master. He listened. He believed. He turned to the Dark Side and helped him destroy the Jedi Order. But it had earned him nothing.
In a duel with his best friend and teacher Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin was so badly injured that it required him to wear a cybernetic suit for the rest of his life. He sacrificed everything he had to gain more but end up with nothing. All his friendships. His wife Padmè Amidala, and the unborn child she had been carrying before her death. His humanity.
And all because he had listened to a man whom he now knew had always lied to him. When he awoke after recovering from his injuries, he had wanted very much to kill Palpatine but found he did not have the will to do it.
Because Palpatine was all he had left, and for the fifteen years hence, the man was still all Vader had. That, and his power to harness the Dark Side.
He was Darth Vader. The Dark Lord of the Sith. The second most powerful being in the Galactic Empire, with only his Emperor and master above him. One of the strongest and most feared warriors in the whole galaxy. He was all that.
He was also a prisoner of his own choices.
