Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Star Wars. That honor belongs to Disney and Lucasfilm.
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Prologue (Circa 17 BBY)
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
Transparisteel was a sturdy material, all things considered. One which, though weaker than durasteel, held its own against many things, like blasters or the stress of spaceflight. However, neither a few rounds from a blaster nor the exit of the stratosphere possessed the raw, unlimited power that the force did. Controlled, harnessed fury shattered the windows of the building and, as if a gale had appeared out of nowhere on a relatively calm day, threw Dan Halamn out of where a window had once been just a few seconds prior and onto the grass below. The black figure that had chased him to the second floor of the building simply leapt 15 feet to the ground as if it was nothing. Which it, in actuality, wasn't; not for a Lord of the Sith anyway.
As the black figure advanced towards his sorry state, Dan tried to move in some way or another. Summoning all his strength, he attempted to push himself off the floor and get up, only to find one of his legs with a bone sticking out of it. It was at around this point, with the black figure and its loud breathing device towering over him, that he realised he was going to die.
At least, he thought, he would try and look this thing in the eye. If it had one, for the black 'eyes' of the mask stared at him with a fury that the grille-like mouth only served to compliment. Looking at his assailant now, he felt fear he had never felt before. A fear that made him cold with dread, and even, in a twisted way, quelled the pain he felt moments before. After what felt like hours but probably was only a few seconds, the huge, towering figure spoke, with a deep, bass-filled tone coming out of its vocabulator.
"Do not think, Halamn, you can die a death with valour after living the life of slime. Your actions warranted your ending. A pitiful pathetic man, ending his life on a pitiful pathetic world, with nobody to even care to attend the funeral."
The shock and horror of his situation never even got a chance to make its way to be processed in full by Halamn's brain. A crimson blade ignited and sliced through what had been Dan Halamn merely seconds before. The movement was so quick and perfect that few would have seen it, for as soon as it was over, the blade retracted back into the cylinder which held it. An artistic execution, perhaps if there ever was one. That was it. He was gone.
The black-armoured being, which had assumed the role of judge, jury and executioner, walked away without as much as a brief glance at the corpse. It would rot away, he surmised, and no one would care to come for him. His relief in finishing his task and his walk back to his shuttle, which was a not considerable distance away, was startled by a noise. Turning around, he saw two small boys of the ages of no more than five or so (though he suspected the smaller, black haired boy was less than three) stood over the body.
"Daddy" cried out the slightly larger, blond haired boy in distress. "Daddy, wake up!"
The boy prodded and kept prodding at Halamn's fallen body for a good minute or so before the other boy turned and stared directly at the black-armoured being. Being three years old, he did not have the greatest gasp of galactic basic, but the message was clear: he knew the name of the person who had killed 'Daddy'. "Darth Vader" he said, "Bade, it Darth Vader". Bade, the elder of the two boys, got up from his sunken state and moved so that he could look at Vader directly himself. It would, unbeknownst to him, most likely be the last thing he ever saw.
Vader, though a man with very little moral boundaries left to cross, did not regard the inevitable murder of infants as something which brought him much pleasure, even as a Sith lord. Yes, he had killed children in the past, but only in two situations. The first was, as an angry, revenge-driven youth of about 20, he had massacred a tribe of Tusken Raiders. However, the key term there was "angry". He had lost his mother to that tribe, and had regretted his actions afterward. The second time was three years after that, when he had, after finally shedding his identity as Anakin Skywalker and becoming Darth Vader, led the assault on the Jedi Temple. Under orders from his master, he had (or, he and the help of a legion of clones had) killed all those who resided within it, including the younglings. He had however justified this by rationalising in his mind that he was acting under orders, and the end justified his means.
Whilst thinking over this subject, Vader realised there was a third time he had killed an infant, albeit not directly. It had happened nearly two years ago, but it was the worst of the three moments. The one day of his life he wished he could change everything about. When she had come to him on Mustafar, despite him telling her to not do so. When she had begged him to leave everything he had done for her and just run away with her into nowhere. When she rejected him asking to rule the galaxy with him, telling him that he had gone down a path that was impossible to follow. When she had taken his traitorous former master with her in her ship and brought him there to kill him.
When he hadn't listened to her pleas or to her desperate cries and her proclamations she loved him. When he had choked her and killed her, and consequentially, the child that resided within her womb. When he, after being crippled, maimed, and left to burn by a man he had considered his brother for most of his life, had been put in this wretched suit and become nothing more than a lackey, a plush lapdog. When he had done everything to save her and it hadn't been enough. When he had lost the only person who ever loved him or cared for him based on who he really was, not what they wanted him to be.
He didn't know what it was, but undoubtedly thinking of her might have just been what made him deactivate his lightsaber and tell the boys to come with him. He didn't even register killing the officer standing guard at the entrance to his shuttle so as to keep the boys' existence a secret. His master would conclude that he had gone weak, had found surrogate children in place of the one he had lost, and was not worthy of his servitude towards his master.
It turned out to be the wise decision. Vader had not seemed to have noted beforehand, but reaching out towards them, he felt both boys' strong force presence. Why, he wondered, had Halamn not given them to the Jedi when the order was still around? Expanding on his thought, he concluded that Halamn had worked as a criminal during a galaxy-wide conflict, and his two children would have therefore simply slipped under the Jedi's radar. Though he was sceptical, after Mustafar, of midichlorian counts and their relevance to one's abilities with the force, both boys had high counts. Not, he noted, as high as his (he took some pride in this fact), but far higher than the average Jedi.
What would he do with them? That was a question he could not answer. They were too powerful to simply be paraded around; the Emperor, though far too overconfident for his own good, was not a fool. Any force-sensitive child was likely to be killed, or at best, taken in and be made little more than a slave. So, it seemed, there was only really one decision. He would train the two boys as apprentices of his. Yes, he had been given the task of training the Inquisitorious, but they were limited in terms of their ability. These boys had potential which exceeded far and above any half-decent Jedi who had given up the flawed ideals of their order and turned to the dark side. Eventually, one would kill the other and the one who did would be powerful enough to be used as a tool by him to overthrow Emperor Palpatine, and place the Empire in Vader's hands. Nothing would stand in his way now but time and patience.
Little did Vader know, but his decision to take the two sons of Dan Halamn with him would have a greater impact on galactic history than he dreamed of.
A.N: The premise of this is inspired by The Force Unleashed, but the rest is very different - you'll have to wait and see. Also, bits of both the new canon (Inquisitors, The Knights of Ren) and the old (Emperors Hands) will be referenced in this. But maybe the old canon will become the new canon.