Prologue
The stars whizzed by, buildings a blur, as Anakin sped toward the Senate. His fears propelling him onward, he was oblivious to his surroundings. His mind remained focused on one thing; I have to save Padmé!
Anakin's eyes filled with tears as he pushed the craft well past its limits. He could feel the Force swirling around him, warning him that his actions were going to have serious repercussions.
He swallowed tightly, pushing the warnings away. Nothing was going to keep him from saving Padmé. He could not lose her. No matter the consequences, he would not let her die! As the round glistening Senate building came into view, he swiveled the craft around and quickly set it down.
Leaping out of the speeder, he raced forward, throwing open the building's door. He ran past the guards, ignoring their protests. Nothing would stop him from getting to Palpatine's office. Nothing.
Coming to the entryway leading to the Supreme Chancellor's office, he slowed, a cold feeling of dread building within him.
The Force surged around him, again warning that tonight's decisions would vastly affect the entire galaxy, either throwing it into utter darkness, or freeing it to the brilliance of the light.
Anakin swallowed again, stepping into his mentor's office. The cold wind blew from the broken window, billowing his cloak around him.
Mace Windu, the last of the Jedi's team, leaned over the Sith Lord. "You are under arrest, My Lord," he stated, his violet blade coming to rest just under Palpatine's exposed neck. He glanced disapprovingly at Anakin, waving his hand at him, telling him to stay where he was.
"Anakin! I told you it would come to this. I was right. The Jedi are taking over," Sidious exclaimed, drawing Anakin's attention.
"The oppression of the Sith will never return. You have lost," Windu stated, bending closer to the Dark Lord.
"No. No. You will die!" Sidious raised his hands, drawing deeply into the Dark Side of the Force as he sent a powerful blast of Force Lightning hurling straight at Mace Windu.
Anakin flinched, raising his arm, turning away, as the dark energy filled the room, blasting onto Mace Windu's ignited saber.
"He is a traitor!" Palpatine accused loudly, over the crackling of the Force Lightning.
"He's the traitor!" Mace Windu yelled back, visibly straining under the Palpatine's pressure.
The Force screamed at Anakin, issuing an even louder warning.
"I have the power to save the one you love! You must choose!"
"Don't listen to him, Anakin!" Mace Windu yelled, the Force loudly echoing his statement.
Anakin stared at the two men, their words crashing into him, pulling him in two very different directions. Each man urging him to listen, follow their path. He struggled inwardly, trying to choose between the two paths; the Light Side, the one he had served most of his life, always gentle and kind; and, the Dark Side, full of powerful promises, its dark power promising to fulfill all his hopes and dreams.
"I am going to end this once and for all." Mace Windu said, preparing to make the final blow.
"You can't, he must stand trial!" Anakin stepped forward. No! Please don't!
"He has too much control of the Senate and the Courts. He is too dangerous to be kept alive!"
"It is not the Jedi way!" Anakin argued. "He must live!" he pleaded, his eyes imploring Mace. Please! Only he can help save Padmé!
"Please don't," Palpatine begged, echoing Anakin's thoughts.
"I need him!" Anakin shouted, watching in horror as Mace Windu raised his violet lightsaber.
"No!" Anakin yelled, reacting instinctively as he leapt forward, igniting his own saber, swinging it around at Mace Windu, slicing his arm off in one smooth blow that sent his saber soaring through the air and out into the night sky.
Mace Windu screamed, stumbling backward.
Palpatine grinned before ferociously resuming his Force Lightning attack.
What have I done? Anakin thought, stepping backwards, watching as Mace Windu screamed in agony.
Sidious's Dark Force powers crashed repeatedly into Mace Windu's unshielded body; each time building greater in intensity. Until finally, it slammed into him with such a force that it sent him hurling out the broken window, falling until he was out of sight.
"What have I done?" Anakin repeated, a feeling of darkness pressing at his soul. He stumbled backwards, falling onto the stool behind him. What have I done?
"You are fulfilling your destiny, Anakin," Sidious replied, as he pulled himself to his feet and stood before him. "Become my apprentice. Learn to use the Dark Side of the Force."
Padmé. Anakin thought, his eyes filling with tears as he remembered why he had come, regardless of Mace Windu's orders. "I will do whatever you ask," he swallowed hard, once again pushing away the Force's warnings. "Just help me save Padmé's life. I can't live without her."
No! Don't! There is still time to turn back! The Force seemed to scream.
I can't, Anakin's heart broke, unable to turn away from the dark path laid out before him. "I pledge myself to your teachings." Anakin said hoarsely, slowly lowering himself onto his knees.
Anakin closed his eyes, looking deep inside himself, as he took one last longing look at the warm, comforting Light swirling brightly around him. Consciously ignoring the warnings the Force shouted at him, he pulled his gaze from the beautiful sight, gently releasing his grip on the Light Side of the Force; Anakin finally surrendered himself to the raging depths of the Dark Side.
Twenty-three years later…
Darth Vader stared blankly out the view port window and into the stars streaming past. His arms were folded behind him, his legs spread apart. The engine hummed gently in the background as his crew worked diligently around him, each silently glad of his preoccupied state of mind.
Vader turned his head away from the window, looking down as he closed his eyes. Today was the 23rd anniversary of his ascension into the Sith and the birth of the Empire. Twenty-three long years. I certainly didn't think everything would turn out this way, he thought, a feeling of grief coursing through him over Padmé's death as fresh as it was the day she had died. Oh, why didn't I listen to the Force's warnings?
Vader looked back up, knowing full well why he hadn't listened. He shook his head, I could not bear the thought of Padmé dying, and yet everything I did lead directly to her death. I don't know how I survived without her, he closed his eyes, ignoring the voice within asking how he thought this was living. Oh, why couldn't I have listened?
Vader silently sighed, he knew that Palpatine had never been completely honest about all the details surrounding Padmé's death. If she had really died that day on Mustafar's landing platform as a result of his Force choke, then how was it possible that his son Luke had survived?
Regardless, she had died, but not before leaving him his son Luke. Luke. A small smile spread across his face. He had never even dreamt of seeing his son, let alone finally getting the chance to meet him. His smile quickly turned to a frown. Luke certainly didn't seem to share that same sentiment. The look on Luke's face when he had learned that he was his father still haunted him to this day.
"I will never join you!"
Vader swallowed tightly, squeezing his eyes shut tight. Oh Luke. His beautiful son. The only evidence left of Padmé and his love.
Ever since learning of Luke, he found himself dwelling more and more on the past and his mistakes, silently wondering how things could have been different had he known what was to come. Would I have still joined Sidious? he thought to himself, once again finding himself thinking on those what ifs.
Suddenly the deck shuddered violently beneath his feet, pulling him out of his thoughts.
"Report," Vader commanded, abruptly turning around.
"Sir, our scanners indicate that the Rebel Fleet has an artificial gravity well, which they used to pull us out of hyperspace," Admiral Piett reported, coming to stand beside him. "They have also begun an attack run."
"Raise shields," Vader ordered, just as an x-wing shot past the view port, its lasers impacting the shielded hull.
"Already done, sir," Piett answered.
"Good," Darth Vader replied, turning to face Piett. "Return fire and send a squadron out to engage them.
"At once, my lord," Piett replied, looking away, as he began issuing his orders.
Vader looked back out the window; his eyes narrowing as he automatically began to search for his son's Force Presence among the enemy fighters. Vader stopped himself; he would probably be better off not knowing if his son was out there. Besides, now was not the time to dwell on his jumbled feelings; he had a job to do.
Lieutenant Commander Oli Roric nervously shifted at his post in the Engineering Department onboard the Empire's flagship, the Executor. His green-brown eyes darting around the room as he watched the crew scurry about, trying to fix the damage caused by their unexpected drop out of hyperspace and the continuing rebel attack.
An explosion caused the ship to shudder, shoving him forcefully into his console. Pushing himself upright again, he glanced nervously at the readings on his computer, praying that no one would discover his sabotage until it was too late. Hundreds of lives depended on things going right!
Oli closed his eyes. When he had joined the rebellion, he had never imagined it being anything like this. He had naively thought it was simply a matter of piloting ships and engaging the Empire in various surprise attacks. While the Alliance did use those hit and run tactics, there was a whole lot more to their strategy.
After he had completely flunked out of the pilot's training program, he had been brought into a lesser known, but equally important project, the Alliance's Sleeper Program. Its mission was to plant operatives into the service of the Empire, presenting model imperial officers. All the while, the operatives were to climb the ranks and get into the high-ranking positions that would further aid the Rebellion's cause.
Oli had joined the Rebel Alliance when he was nineteen, and had been shipped out to the Empire just as he had turned twenty-one. He had now been in the service of the Empire for six years, quietly making his way through the ranks of the Imperial fleet. That is… until now.
Earlier that morning, he had received a heavily encrypted message, giving him strict orders effectively terminating his sleeper status. The message had been brief, stating that the Executor's current course for the planet Banarive was detrimental to an important rebel base hidden there. The base itself was an vital training ground, and most definitely not one of the more easily evacuated bases. Oli knew that given of the speed at which the Executor was moving, they didn't have enough time to evacuate the entire base.
The mission was clear; he was to sabotage the hyperdrive engine, using any means necessary. Meanwhile, the Alliance would find someway to temporarily halt the Executor's path and then engage it. Their goal was to cause as much damage to the ship's major systems as they possibly could, thus buying them enough time to get all the sensitive equipment and personnel off the planet.
Oli took a deep breath, bracing himself as the ship once again shuddered under the rebel's attack. It's now or never! he thought, activating the controls that would trigger a chain reaction, causing the hyperdrive to overheat and explode.
"Commander Roric, what do you think you are doing?" Commander Ander Gavar, hissed, placing a firm hand on Oli's shoulder, holding him in place.
Oli froze, a drop of sweat slowly dripping down his forehead. Commander Gavar, the Head of the Engineering Department, was a very dangerous man and had a suspicious nature a parsec long.
"My job, sir…," Oli nervously replied, silently praying that Gavar would, however unlikely, accept that answer and not press the matter further.
"Really," Gavar commented, raising an eyebrow as he leaned over Oli's shoulder. "That doesn't look like…" A loud explosion rocked though the room, cutting him off.
Oli grabbed onto the console, closing his eyes as an even stronger, more violent explosion shook the entire ship.
Unprepared for the explosion, Commander Gavar and several other personnel were sent flying across the room and violently into the ship's bulkhead.
Darth Vader once again stared out the view port window, watching as the battle raged on, lights flickering in the black of space as red and green laser blasts pounded on the various ships.
To anyone who appreciated the fine art of piloting a spacecraft, it was a thing of beauty to watch the ships twisting and turning in an elegant dance, each striving to overcome their enemy whether it be the Rebellion's or the Empire's own fighters. Had it not ultimately resulted in the loss of his own fighter pilots, Vader could have immersed himself completely in watching their intricate maneuvers, remembering when he himself had participated in the deadly dance.
He sighed, silently longing to join them, as he turned away from the window, his black cape swirling around him. Ever since his defeat at Yavin, the Emperor had strictly forbidden him from joining his fighter pilots, citing that he was much too valuable to needlessly risk his own life; especially, when there were many other highly trained officers willing and able to fight for the glory of the Empire.
And even though he didn't agree with the Emperor's logic, he had other no choice but to follow his master's foolish orders, in spite of the fact that, the last time he had participated in a battle, it had saved his life. He had been safely within the cockpit of his Tie Advanced when the Death Star had blown, killing all those who had foolishly thought themselves secured within its hull. Ironically, had he stayed in the Death Star, as now ordered, the explosion would have killed him.
He sighed, he felt more like a slave, now, under the Emperor's rule then he had in his entire life. Sidious owned his very soul and he wasn't strong enough to take it back. His fiery will had long since left him; leaving in its place a cold, broken man, one without the strength to overthrow his dark master.
When he had first learned of his son Luke, it had given him hope that maybe, just maybe, together with his son he could break free of Sidious's viselike grip. Old hope and dreams had sprung to life, propelling him onward, giving him the strength he needed to become more daring then he had been in a long time.
It had become a desperate search to find his son, dreaming that when he finally did find him, everything would go right for once in his life. Unfortunately, things didn't go as he had planned. Luke rejected him, just as Padmé had, and all traces of his hope had died, leaving him even more broken then before.
Suddenly, the ship shuddered, the deck shaking beneath his feet. "Report," Vader once again commanded, looking back at Admiral Piett.
Piett quickly glanced up at him, before looking back down at the console before him. "Sir, the Rebels have broken through our shields and…"
Vader glanced sharply out the window, the Force swirling around him, issuing a vague warning of impending danger. "Order a full retreat; get the Executor as far away from that gravity well as you possibly can!"
"Yes sir," Piett replied, quickly issuing his commands.
The Force suddenly surged around him, just as another explosion violently rocked through the Executor. Not being prepared for the powerful upheaval, Vader suddenly found himself hurling across the room and into the side of the ship. His ebony helmet smacked dangerously into the bulkhead, leaving a large dent, as he crashed unconscious to the hard deck.