Prologue

Sand crunched under the man's footsteps, the sun beating down upon his dark robe. Tatooine was a hot, miserable place in the best of weather and clothing - and a dark, long robe and hood did nothing to help change that.

But Sidious did not notice. His body's discomfort, the pain of the heat, the fatigue from a night with too little sleep - all of those emotions were reflexively funneled inside of him, stoking the flames of his ever-burning anger. Burning them into the Force, as his thoughts flitted above, cool and dispassionate.

Sidious' eyes scanned the surroundings, covered by his hood – in the same way as he reached out with ghostly tendrils of the Force. When dealing with a Hutt, even a Sith needed to exercise caution.

A corner of his mind reflected on the task at hand, as he approached the grotesquely massive, garish entrance of Gardulla's palace. Just like the rest of her operations on the sandy, dusty planet, it had been financed by generous loans from Sidious' master. A cut of gambling profits streaming off world had been the financial return, but it was now time for another one. Gardulla still had contacts within Nar Shadda, contacts that had information that the Grand Plan now needed.

A pair of hulky Gamorrean guards stepped forward to bar the way, disgusting squeals and grunts sullying the air around him. Sidious' disgust burned a brighter flare in the furnace of his Anger, and he flicked his finger. The Force sang its familiar beautiful, terrifying, powerful song. Both figures froze in place, porcine faces growing still with horror as the Sith Lord stepped past them and through the door.

Yes, Gardulla would have the information he seeked - the whereabouts of the estranged Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas.

Sidious' path through the dirty, badly lit corridors of the Hutt's palace was quick. It took just the barest sliver of the Force, just a thin scalpel of focus, to clear the way. Mercenaries and guards took a detour, servants stopped to clean a room, grab a new platter of drinks or food, petitioners paused to recite their memorized pleas. None noticed the compulsion of the ghostly figure moving through them, his presence simply gone before they realized it was there. To control such weak willed minds was as natural as breathing to Darth Sidious.

"Gardulla." His voice cut across the drivel of sounds filling her throne room, and the Hutt's watery eyes turns towards him. Sidious' lips curl into a sardonic grin, hidden in the shadows of his cloak. "Damask is calling in your debt."

Her answer is filled with surprise and grovelling, in the booming tones of a Hutt lady. Sidious ignores the protests, stepping closer with her entourage nervously shuffling around behind him.

"No, not later. Now." He orders, voice calm and unyielding. "Your agents on Nar Shadda. They will find where the Jedi Sifo-Dyas is."

This would have been much easier if he could have simply used a hologram from Coruscant or Naboo. But his Master had been clear, this time - to meet the Hutt face to face. A way to humble an overly talented and proud apprentice, no doubt. That realization had been added fuel to the cold flame inside of Sidious, carefully controlling the emotions.

"And that will settle the debt-favor?" Gardulla replied in Huttese, and it took effort not to roll his eyes. No wonder that the Hutt had fallen so far on her luck that she'd fled to this backwater, or that she hadn't even had the funds to set herself up.

"It will be a sufficient start." Sidious answers, tone curt as he turns around. The sound of the Hutt's annoyed gargling was like music in his ears, and a little of his amusement trickled into his voice. "You have a day, Gardulla."

That would have been it, normally. He'd stride out of the hall, get the information soon, and then move on - starting the subtle twisting and prodding of the paranoid Jedi master, just like he and Plagueis had been slowly manipulating his dreams, his visions.

But something unexpected happened, something that not even Darth Sidious could foresee – an occurrence growing rarer by the day.

One of the dozens of cowering figures in the room, stepping back from the path he was taking. A young woman, holding a babe in her hands. A child, not even a year old, but... a single look, and the wave of pure potential, of strength in the Force, crashed against Sidious' impeccable mental barriers like a battering ram. He almost stumbled, an unthinkable break of his countenance. This was vast potential power on a scale he'd never felt before, and simply in the form of a backwater infant? There were Jedi Master that registered more weakly in the Force!

Sidious' mind whirled, the discovery slotting into place. This was valuable, incredibly so. The chance to mold an apprentice from young age was one the Jedi had always applied, and the Sith used to practice before the necessary introduction of the Rule of Two. Since then, his order hadn't used it much - but Sidious' astute mind raced through the possibilities and advantages, probing towards the child and the future, the Force blazing momentarily around him. By the time he'd reached the young slave girl, he'd already made up his mind.

"The boy is coming with me."

And so it was, that Anakin Skywalker was freed from one master, and claimed by another.

O - O - O - O - O

Author's Note: Thanks for reading my first foray into the world of Fanfiction! The idea for this story snuck up on me as I was looking around at the Star Wars fandom - what if Anakin had been found by Palpatine as a baby? Trained as a Sith from the beginning, his mindset set from childhood by Sidious.

How would that affect the future events, the war and manipulations? Hopefully, this will lay out one possible path…

Any comments or thoughts (positive or negative) would be greatly appreciated!