A/N: I don't own Star Wars or Storm Hawks. Also, this story takes place shortly after the events of A New Hope
Chapter One: A Stranger on a Strange Planet
Pain.
If Darth Vader could describe his entire life in one word it would be that one. It was pain that kept him alive long enough for his master to find his broken body after his near-fatal battle with Obi-Wan. It was pain that focused his rage on both himself and those he had left behind in his bloody path to become a Sith lord and it was pain that kept him awake as the med droids replaced his last limbs with cold steel. If Vader had any true friends in his entire life, it was pain.
Right now, his old companion was keeping him focused and alert as his ship plummeted into some unknown planet's atmosphere like a comet after drifting two close to its orbit. It had nearly three days since Vader's failure to protect the Death Star and in that time the emperor's enforcer had been helplessly tumbling through the emptiness of space after that wretched smuggler had kept him dispatching the boy had destroyed the battle station without any way of contacting his master or anyone else within the Empire .Vader made a private note in his head that if he ever found a way out of this mess, he would out who that fool was and he would find a way to make him suffer dearly.
However, now was not the time for vengeance, now was the time to stay alive long enough to see his revenge through to the end. The engines of his TIE Advanced had been completely drained of fuel and one of the wings had broken off during the free-fall. At this point, all the Sith lord could do was manage a controlled crash landing. With all of his cybernetic strength, Vader took hold of the controls of the fighter and pulled back as hard as he could and hoped he wouldn't burn up on reentry.
From his reinforced glass window, he could see a rocky surface quickly coming into view, clearly telling the Sith that this was not going to be a pleasant landing in the slightest. From within his helmet, Vader closed his eyes and silently braced himself for impact, partially hoping that the crash would kill him.
Under his mask, Vader's eyes snapped open as his breathing began to regulate properly. He quickly became aware that he was no longer within the wreckage of his craft, but instead inside of some sort of darkly lit laboratory. As he laid down on the cold steel table, he looked around the room to see both medical and engineering equipment; not doubt used to help heal him after whoever had pulled him out of his downed craft, however the question remained: who had saved him?
The Sith lord attempted to get up from the metal slab, but his wrists and ankles were held down by metal clamps. With one strong yank, he broke the restrain holding down his left arm before using his free hand to rip off the other restrain and released his legs with a wave of his hand. Despite being more or less healthy by his standards, Vader's fought off the dizziness that rattled around his head and looked around the lab, hoping to find some information as to who his saviors were and if they were to be trusted.
Out of the corner of his eye, the emperor's enforcer noticed something that was not strapped to his belt: his lightsaber. After taking a quick look around the room he was left in, his weapon was nowhere to be found. It was then that he decided to find his lightsaber and some answers outside of the medical room.
With a mere gesture of his hand, Vader opened the door to the medical and stepped out into a massive darkened hallway. No sooner had he walked into the hallway had he encountered two men who by judging their uniforms were obliviously guards and were clearly surprised to see Vader up and about. Before they could even move for their weapons, the Sith lord lifted them off of the ground and held them up by their throats in an invisible vice-grip.
"If you both wish to live, you will answer my questions" he warned them
Suddenly, a surge of pain struck Vader's from behind, making him fall to his knees and drop the two men in the process. He turned around to see a third guard standing over him with a spear-like weapon looking down him. Vader quickly took hold of the spear and yanked it out of the guard's grasp before standing back up. He cracked the spear in two with his a clench of his hand, tossing the now broken weapon aside. The other two guards who he had previously tried to interrogate rushed at him with their spears at the ready. Vader held out his hand to them, sending them both flying backwards into a wall at the end of the hallway, killing them both on impact with it. The dark lord then looked back the guard who had previously attacked as he ran down the other end of the hallway. He lifted the man up and began to slam him against both walls of the hallway over and over until he was broken corpse that Vader dropped after he was certain that he was dead.
"Perhaps I will find the answers I seek somewhere else" he thought aloud as he made his way down the hallway
As he made his way down the hallway, six more guards armed with the same spears as the previous three had came charging toward him with the full intention of killing him. Vader put his hade together as if he was praying before splitting them far apart, as he did that, the guards were flung against the walls to allow Vader to walk past them without effort as they laid on the floor, not a single one daring to stand up and challenge him as did—the live ones anyway.
As he continued to walk through the unknown building, he came across a set of large double-doors. At first he thought nothing of it and wanted to move on, but a feeling within him told him to look to see what was beyond those doors in order to find the answers he sought after. With a powerful Force push, he flung the massive doors open to let him step into the mysterious room.
The room in question appeared to be a throne room, one that almost reminded Vader of Sidious's throne room on Coruscant—only more primitive it its design in comparison with his. The throne room was empty and silent—except for Vader's breathing, but he could sense the presence of someone or something else within the room with him, waiting for the right moment or at least what they thought would be the right moment to strike him down in an ambush.
Then out of the darkness of the room, a trio of crystal-tipped arrows flew out of it and toward the Sith's head at incredible speed, but Vader merely raised his hand and stopped the arrow in mid-air before crushing them with The Force. Just as he had done that, a hulking heavily armored man with a large mace burst from the shadows, letting out a battle-cry as he swing his weapon at Vader as he did. The dark lord dodged the mace before pushing the brute back with a powerful Force-push that sent him back into the darkness. More arrows were fired at him and while he managed to knock away two of the arrows away with a wave of his hand the third struck him in the cybernetic part of his right arm, making him wince in pain under his helmet. As he pulled the arrow out of his arm, a tall purple haired woman holding a bow and arrow in her hands slowly stepped out of the shadows to face him.
"You should have stayed in your room" she mockingly sneered as she drew back her bow
"And you should fight instead of talk" the Sith lord replied calmly
Using The Force, Vader levitated the arrow that was in his arm in mid-air before shooting it off through the air at a high velocity before going right the woman's shoulder, making her cry out in pain as she dropped to her knees in agony, letting go of her bow as she did. Vader then took hold of her throat through The Force and lifted her into the air; all the while she coughed and gagged for air. It was at this time that the brutish man rushed out of the darkness of the throne room, only now this time he had a look of panic on his face instead of bravado and rage.
"Ravess!" he shouted in fear before glaring at Vader "release her now!"
"As you wish" the dark lord answered plainly
He then flung the wounded woman at the large man, knocking them both down, knocking them both unconscious upon hitting one another. Even though he had bested the two warriors, he still sensed a third presence in the room.
"Well then, it would appear its down to you" Vader said to shadows of the throne room "I wonder: will you stand and fight or kneel and surrender?"
His answer came in the form of a red blast of energy that knocked Vader aback and might have damaged him worse had he not used The Force to put up a shield around himself at the last second; something he should have done in his battle with the woman called Ravess. Out of the dark, a dark haired man dressed in light armor and holding a blade made of red energy that Vader almost mistook as a lightsaber stepped out to face him.
"Does that answer your question?" the man asked darkly as he made a wicked smirk form on his lips
Vader said nothing in response; he instead waiting for the fight was to come next. The man bolted toward with his weapon at the ready to cut him down. The man swung his blade at Vader's neck, to which Vader narrowly avoided and knocked him back with a Force-push, however instead of flying into a wall like the others had, his opponent only skidded back a few feet back, probably having some sort of mechanism that kept him grounded within his boots. The man rushed at Vader once more, only this time the dark lord was prepared. When the man made another swing at him with his energy blade, Vader reached out and grabbed unto his wrist, holding the blade back from striking. With his free hand, Vader delivered a strong blow to his enemy's stomach, knocking the air out of him as he did. The Sith then gave the swordsman's wrist a good twist, forcing him to release his weapon and drop it to the floor.
Even though he was without his weapon, Vader's attacker gathered up his strength and punched the cybernetic Sith lord in the face, knocking back and forcing him to release his grasp on him. The swordsman kept up his assaulted with a round house kick to Vader's chest that made his stumble back even further. He attempted to swing his fist and the Sith's face again, but Vader grabbed his fist tightened his grip on it to the point of breaking his hand with his robotic strength, forcing a pain-filled scream out of his enemy's mouth as he did. Vader took hold of his attacker's chest-plate and held him steady as he began to pummel the swordsman's face repeatedly to the point his face became a bloody mess. With every punch, Vader felt his rage flow like a powerful river throughout his body even more; he was never a person who did something like this, but the anger swelling up inside of him felt almost euphoric to him, like it was an outlet from the hell he had been going through since the destruction of the Death Star. With one last punch, he released the man's chest-plate and let him fall limply to the ground.
"I do not normally resort to such brutish tactics, but you forced my hand" the Sith informed his fallen adversary before adding "literality"
Just then, Vader heard the sound of clapping, as if someone was applauding his brutality. He turned to the doorway of the throne room and saw a young girl no more then sixteen or seventeen and dressed a dark purple robe standing before him. For a moment, Vader had thought that he was standing in front of his master once again. The teenager's cold violet eyes looked at the Sith lord with a sense of confidence and without the slightest trance of fear within them. Even though the girl appeared small and feeble compared to the dark lord, Vader couldn't help but sense that there was more to this child then met the eye.
"Impressive…" she began as she looked around the room full of beaten foes "Most impressive"
"It would be unwise to challenge me, child" Vader warned "I am not above killing children"
"Challenge you?" the girl inquired before chuckling as if she was told a joke "Is that anyway to talk to the person who saved your life?"
Before Vader could say anything, the girl continued.
"My men saw your craft fall from the sky within the edge of my kingdom" the girl explained "When they found your ship, they pulled you from the wreckage and thought you were dead, but that is clearly not the case"
It was becoming quickly clear to the cyborg that this girl must be this world's ruler of sorts. Again, before Vader could speak up, the girl pulled out an all too familiar object out from the sleeve of her robe: his lightsaber.
"When we searched your body, we found this" she continued before activating his weapon "I was going to keep it for myself. It's has such a beautiful design to it. Elegant, precise and deadly"
"And mine" the Sith lord added on harshly as he Force-pulled the blade out of her hand and into his own
He pointed the lightsaber at the girl, who still showed no fear of the towering figure before her.
"You tell me you are and what star system I am currently in" Vader commanded "Then you will have your men assist me with repairs with my ship and escort me back to Imperial space where you then join the Empire if you have not already or be destroyed!"
The teenager gave Vader an almost confused look on her face, it was if she been told some fantastic story just now.
"Star system? Empire?" she replied like they were foreign words to her "Is that were you come from?"
Now it was Vader's turn to be confused.
"The people of this world haven't even flown into orbit yet" she told him "Before you crashed here, we just assumed that we were the only life in the universe"
As strange as it was for the Sith to hear this, it wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility for Vader. Even before the Empire had come to be, there were still thousands of undiscovered worlds that had no knowledge of the universe around them that one way or another found out that there was a bigger galaxy around them waiting to be explored.
"Regardless, you will help me repair my ship" he demanded "Or else…"
The teenager laugh haughtily before saying "Or else what?"
Vader lifted his hand to Force-choke the child to get his point across, but suddenly the girl raised her hand as well, making Vader rise off of the ground much to his surprise. She then drew what appeared to be a staff with a purple crystal at the tip of it out from underneath her robe and send a powerful blast of dark energy at the Sith lord. It was almost as if he was being struck by his master's Force lightning as the electric energy coursed painfully throughout his body, while this was going on, the girl's trio of underlings slowly picked themselves off of the floor and joined their master and reveled in their enemy's suffering, but Vader would not give them the pleasure of hearing him screaming in agony; for pain was his one true friend.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, the girl dropped Vader to the ground. As he slowly rose back to his feet, the girl approached him with hesitation of harm.
"I think we understand each other" she informed him with a dark grin
"It is clear you want something from me" Vader said "What is it?"
"I'm glad you asked" she answered slyly "You see, my empire is having...difficulty with a pesky rebellion so to speak and I believe your just the person to help me end this conflict once and for all"
"And in return?" the dark lord insisted
"I'll do what I can to help you fix your ship and return to your precious Empire" the girl answered "But, for now you shall become my right hand man"
"But Master Cyclonis!" the swordsman suddenly blurted out "I am your second in command! He's—"
"The man who defeated all three of you in under five minutes!" the girl now known as Cyclonis cut him off harshly before looking back at Vader "So, do we have a deal mister..?"
"Vader" her new second in command said "And we do indeed have a deal, but know this child: You are no master of mine and if you think of betraying me; no amount of power you have will save you from me"
"Fair enough" Cyclonis answered with a nod "welcome to the Cyclonian Empire, Vader"
Inwardly, Vader did not like the idea of serving someone else other then Sidious at all, but on the other hand, there was a good chance that his master may have already written him off as dead after the events of the fall of the Death Star and could be searching for a new apprentice at this very moment. There was also a way this could work in Vader's favor, he had always craved a kingdom of his own to rule and perhaps the universe had dropped him to this strange world for just that purpose. But, for now he would serve Cyclonis, at least until the time was right.