Prologue:
Fall of the Jedi
Saleia's breath caught in her throat, causing her head to throb with an impossible headache. Connections she had long felt were suddenly being severed more rapidly than any automatic weapon's rate of fire. In the daunting darkness of the Jedi Temple's ventilation system she crawled along. Faint red light sifted up through the exhaust ports every so many meters, lighting her way.
She didn't know what she was sensing, but it sent waves of paralyzing grief and fear reverberating throughout her body. All she knew for certain was that Ben still lived; that -deepest of all connections- had yet to be severed. Carefully, she edged to the nearest exhaust port; stopping over it and peering timidly over it. All the while a smothering darkness gathered along the edges of her mind.
The staccato of blaster fire reached her ears from the marble floor some ten meters below, and she saw the brown robed bodies of younglings fall to the ground like mere sandbags. She heard orders being shouted, and the tapping of clone troopers' boots running across the floor.
She squint her eyes, feeling them well up with unasked for tears. Saleia shook them away and watched through the grate as padawans scampered across the floor, their lightsabers at the ready. Why wasn't she down there with them, she thought.
Then a brown robed adult entered her field of vision, wielding a blue lightsaber.
"Master Skywalker what is-!" A padawan was silenced by the newcomer. The other padawans tried to engage him in battle, but their combined efforts were no match for him. He felled them with movements so swift it was unlike anything Saleia had ever seen.
The dark side surrounded him like a cloud. Pure unrestrained rage poured from him like poison; a venom rank with the stench of the Sith. She had never encountered a Sith before; but somehow, on the deepest level, she knew he was one of them.
She shifted her weight and tried to breathe, but found that she couldn't. This man was a traitor; to the Jedi as well as the Republic. She wasn't sure how she knew, but she did; she could feel the Force whisper this into her ear as she stifled an angry and terrified sob.
She clenched a fist and shoved it in her mouth; silently pleading, please don't sense me… Like the coward she knew she was. She felt her own anger rise, her blood boiling at the sight of that Sith in a Jedi's robes.
"I know you're up there," Saleia heard him say.
Shit!
His blue hued energy blade receded into his lightsaber handle; he continued with contempt, "The Jedi have fallen, child." He turned his face up to her through the grate; his face was shrouded in shadow.
But for his eyes.
His eyes were a sickly, unnatural yellow-orange that glowed with unkempt malice. That was the only feature she could discern; and they burned into her very soul, freezing her blood. She could feel the last strands of her courage wither away and her heart stopped in fear.
His voice, silky smooth yet icy cold, spoke once more. "You would be wise in hiding. I should kill you for your cowardice, girl." He paused for a sickeningly long time before he next spoke. "But for the mere fact of your wisdom in hiding, I will allow you to continue your pitiful existence. Consider it mercy."
Saleia felt her pulse return and quicken. She gnashed her teeth.
He continued icily. "I am Darth Vader. You would do well in remembering this name. If you take up arms against me, I will destroy you." He turned away from her and stalked off, his cloak billowing out around him. The air around Saleia seemed to whisper in desperation, as if there were an undertone of regret in the man's resolve. "You have had fair warning," he said.
Stunned, Saleia slumped where she sat. She watched his figure disappear, and the silence of death ensued. Hot tears began to seep down her face, but her mouth curled into a sinister snarl. "It will be I who destroys you, Vader." Saleia felt the weight of her words; they sat upon her shoulders like stone and caused her to shudder. "Mark my words, traitor."