Vader's Folly
Author's notes: Thanks for all the positive feedback, its helped me push this chapter forward. Hope you like it. As always, Read, Enjoy and Review! Never forget to review! :D BTW in terms of SW canon, I will be a using a mix of both the new and Legends canon.
Summary: An ancient site filled with ancient technologies, of course Dr Aphra can't resist playing around. The result, one Sith Lord with a lot of options.
Chapter 1
Outer Rim, four years post the Battle of Yavin
The world had no name. Or at least none that the Galactic Empire remembered. A primitive agrarian culture inhabited one of the other continents but the smallest continent was uninhabited.
Or at least it was now uninhabited, the remains of some long dead civilization was clustered in one small area. This was the only sign that once long ago the continent hadn't been uninhabited.
Darth Vader strode thought the ruins heading towards the center of the area, Dr Aphra was waiting for him there. Her message for him had been intriguing enough that he'd diverted the Executor from Endor to come here first. She'd discovered some ancient weapon hidden and forgotten here.
He wondered what she had found? What kind of weapon was it? And more importantly, could he use it against the Emperor?
Things were coming to a head with the Rebel Alliance, the trap set on Endor would be sprung soon, and when that happened...he would have to deal with Luke.
His hard headed son would have to join him. There was no other option.
Vader wasn't fool enough not to see that Palpatine would replace him in a second with a younger more intact Sith Apprentice, just as he had done to Dooku.
He'd seen the look on Dooku's face when Palpatine had ordered him to kill him. In hindsight, the depth of the betrayal, as Dooku realised just how expendable he really was, was astounding, at least to normal folk. To Sith, this was the norm, and Vader always reminded himself of this. He would not fall into the same trap that Dooku had fallen into.
He neared the center of the ruins, and started to see signs of active restoration of the ruins. He could see droids re-purposed from his secret army walking about and going about jobs he couldn't identify.
One of the droids saw him and approached. It looked like an old Trade Federation B-1 battle droid, but like all the others here the resemblance was only skin deep. They were all updated to modern standards in all regards, but most importantly these B-1 lookalikes were silent. They spoke only when they were required to.
The droid saluted smoothly, "My Lord, Dr Aphra is this way sir." it said in its high reedy voice.
It waited at attention till Vader gave it a curt nod. It turned smoothly and marched forward, the Dark Lord following in tow.
More and more droids appeared as they approached the center of the ruins, they were going about restoring the buildings and doing other innumerable jobs that mattered not to Vader.
They eventually came to a large tower that looked to be at the center of entire settlement, they entered and inside even more droids were going about whatever business Aphra had set for them.
The droid led him to a repaired elevator that quickly took them to the top of the tower. They existed the elevator into a large hall with stacks of machinery spread across the vast space.
Vader couldn't see Aphra anywhere.
A dark silver protocol droid with glowing red optics approached them. "Ah welcome Lord Vader! It's always a pleasure to see you, we always get to terminate humanoids when you arrive!" welcomed the murderous Triple Zero. "We haven't terminated any organics since we reached this planet. And we have such a nice collection of primitives, a mere continent away."
"Cease your prattling, take me to Dr Aphra." he commanded irritably with a wave of his hand.
Triple Zero sighed, "Return to your duties." He said to the B-1 droid, "This way my Lord, she's expecting you."
A short distance away they found Aphra buried inside a console, with only her feet sticking out, hard at work, and cursing up a storm.
"Dr Aphra, report! What have you discovered here?" demanded Vader.
Her muffled voice answered him, "Can you come back later? I'm a little busy now."
"Well I never!" exclaimed Triple Zero. He reached out a hand "I'm sure a little electrical shock will make her pay attention, my Lord."
"Enough. Perhaps you misunderstood me Dr Aphra," Vader said menacingly, he gestured with a hand, Force grabbing Aphra's body and quickly pulling her out of the console.
"Oooph..." Aphra said in surprise.
She rose into the air and was suspended there upside down at eye level with Lord Vader.
"Or now is good as well." she said meekly, mentally reviewing what she had done, "Please don't kill me."
He released his Force grip on Aphra and she fell to the floor with groan of pain.
"Really you couldn't have lowered me gently?" Aphra said with a groan.
Vader controlled his impulse to throttle the demented woman, "I will not ask again, what have you discovered?"
Aphra rose from the floor dusting herself off, "This place, this whole place somehow manipulates reality." she said simply.
Vader frowned behind his mask, "What does that mean?"
Aphra scratched her head and her forehead wrinkled in confusion, "I'm actually not sure yet, they were using a very obscure dialect of Old Corellian, I'm still having trouble deciphering it. But you're lucky I just finished wring this last bit, once I activate the computers I should have more data to correlate-then I can give you few specifics...I think."
She worked at the console, the entire thing lit up with a dim light. She continued working tapping away at keys.
Vader watched impatiently as Aphra worked at the console. After a short time the glow, grew stronger. A small rumble started to echo in Vader's ear.
"Ok now things are looking up now," commented Aphra as she continued to work.
"You have your answers now?" Vader demanded, the rumble slowly growing louder.
"Not in the slightest, just more questions." Aphra answered in mystification.
"What about the rumbling? Is this your doing?" The rumbling sound was peaking now and constant.
Aphra's head jerked towards Vader, "What rumbling?!"
"Are you sure your auditory receptors are functioning correctly, my lord?" Triple Zero asked, his red optics gazing blankly at the Dark Lord.
Vader's head jerked between the two alarmed by their answers. He reached out with the Force just as the rumbling, in a sudden crescendo, reached a deafening peak.
Pain exploded all over his body as the Force exploded into turmoil. Power surged through every neuron of his body overloading all his senses.
He grit his teeth and rode the waves of pain, using it to fuel his connection to the Dark Side, trying to stave off and stay afloat amid the sudden changes in the Force, but the waves continued to intensify exponentially until he could no longer take it.
Vader roared in pain as darkness claimed him.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
Consciousness returned slowly to Vader as the Force calmed and once more became placid. The storm that had developed, finally subsiding. Very slowly his overloaded senses began to return to normal. He was numb, blind and deaf, the Force had overloaded everything in him. Eventually, the numbness subsided, his hearing was the first to return to normal.
"...The Rebels may actually give you a medal for killing him, if that is any consolation," he heard Triple Zero say, in a by the way tone.
It took a moment for him to regain his bearings, he realised that he was lying flat out on his back on the ground. He continued to lie there unmoving taking stock of his surroundings, the Force wasn't silent and still roared, though in a much muted sense. His head was spinning with flashes of things too fast to see.
"What would I do with a medal? It's more fun working for him!" cried Aphra in annoyance. The conversation continued on above his head without him.
With an effort he lurched up, staggering to his feet, head still spinning.
"Are you ok? What happened?" Aphra asked.
"What did you do?" Vader demanded angrily, slowly regaining his equilibrium.
"What did I do? I just activated the console, it didn't do anything," retorted Aphra.
"Obviously it did." Vader fumed. "The Force is in turmoil. Find out what you did!"
Aphra frowned and shook her head, "Nothing has changed."
"Check again...now!"
Aphra turned to Triple Zero, "Status reports, all units, now!"
Triple Zero who had been quietly watching the two of them, "Of course, it will be just a minute." he stood still and communed silently using his internal comm unit to talk to the other droids at the excavation site.
He suddenly jerked and turned to Vader, "The Executor has disappeared from orbit," pronounced Triple Zero in simple tones, belying the import of the words.
A chill settled in Vader's stomach. Super Star Destroyers do not just disappear!
"What do you mean disappeared?!" screeched Aphra, "Did the Rebel fleet show up her or something?"
"No mistress, according BT's long range sensors, it was there one moment and the next it was gone, it did not explode or jump to hyperspace."
The chill condensed into carbonite in Vader's innards. There were too many unknowns here. What had Aphra inadvertently done?
"What did you do?" Vader asked again, his voice deadly calm, as the Force finally settled down and became placid again.
"What me? Do? I didn't do a damn thing except turn on the console to get more info about the weapon. Liked you asked for," exhaled Aphra in exasperation.
"Find out what's happened then...now!" Vader commanded angrily, with the Force now returned to normal, his head had finally stopped spinning.
Aphra pursed her lips, flustered and disturbed, and stepped up to the console she had working on.
"Carefully," added Vader menacingly.
She winced and went about her work.
She worked diligently at the console for a few moments before freezing, "Oops..."
Vader crossed his arms across his broad chest, but didn't say anything. Behind his mask, he frowned as he felt shock and disbelief rolling off Aphra in waves.
"Wait...this can't be right..." he fingers flew across the keys on the console, "We need to get to my ship, I need to verify this, because this is impossible."
"What have you done?" Vader demanded again, the tone of his voice offering dire consequences if she did not answer him properly this time.
She turned to face Vader, her face white with shock, "If this correct we've traveled...back in time."
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
Vader stared at the Holonet display in disbelief, unmoving and in shock, as he watched Padmé-his Padmé, vibrant, powerful and very much alive, addressed the Republic Senate. The words didn't register in his mind, her strong voice causing an ache in his body, harkening back to old days long gone and buried in his battle scarred psyche.
Vader and Aphra stood inside the new, heavily modified and enhanced, Ark Angel 3. The first two iterations of the Ark Angel had been destroyed and this third one had been a gift from Vader for services rendered.
They stood now, in a special secured communication suite in the ship's belly, that also doubled as a small private study. Half the room was given over to the most advanced communication gear Aphra could get her hands on, while the other half had a workbench and comfortable chair. The bench with littered with various technological gadgets.
Padmé finished speaking and Chancellor Palpatine appeared on the screen, his voice gracious and open.
"This really isn't right," said Dr Aphra in very shocked voice, eyes wide with shock and face so pale she almost appeared to be an albino, "This is down right impossible".
Padmé's previous words finally registered in his fugue stated mind, and all of his thought processes came to a crashing halt.
She had been talking about the rising issue of separatism being championed by the former Jedi Master, Count Dooku, that was plaguing the Republic. If he remembered correctly, then this was several weeks before the assassination attempt on the landing platform, that had killed her loyal Handmaiden, Cordé.
Ideas, plans and previously unfeasible possibilities appeared in Vader's mind and the enormity of the situation they were in, finally registered.
"Leave me!" he boomed, "leave...now!".
Aphra gave him a look, but this time sensed that any banter might be extra hazardous to her health today.
Quickly she left the suite, leaving Vader alone with his suddenly awakened imagination.
There was chair with armrests behind Aphra's workbench, once he was alone, he numbly walked towards it and flopped into it.
He sat there for five minutes, one thought repeating in his mind. He was unable to think of anything else...and all the possibilities that stemmed from this thought.
She's alive. Padmé's alive.
He gripped the armrests with both arms, he did not realise how hard he was holding on, until they started to splinter in his hands.
He looked down at his hands in surprise, holding the splintered remains of the arm rests. The black gauntlets covering his prosthetic hands. He dropped the remains to the floor and stared at his hands. He opened and closed them as if he was seeing them for the first time. The pain of losing them on both occasions came roaring back at him. Geonosis and Mustafar. So much pain associated with those two places.
Suddenly old thoughts plagued his mind, so many old choices and actions. Each with horrific consequences unbeknownst to him till he was completely trapped. All leading up to where he had been. All leading to Palpatine. The formation of the Empire. To his ascension as Dark Lord of the Sith.
He'd been trapped for so long, he'd forgotten he'd been in a cage. Luke's appearance had shown him the bars again, but he'd still been trapped.
No choices. No options. Darkness and loss at each turn. More self-loathing with each turn.
Serve his master or die.
Deliver his son to his master or die.
Deliver his son to his master and die.
Deliver his son to his master and watch Luke die.
But now suddenly, the bars were gone. He was a free agent, an unknown element that nobody would or could see coming.
He could save Padmé, change everything.
He had to think this through, no impatience here, no rash moves. He had to be subtle.
For Padmé to live, Palpatine had to die.
Palpatine dies, Padmé lives.
Vader nodded slowly, he needed a plan. Most importantly he needed Palpatine off balance till he was ready to strike.
Vader grabbed a datapad off Aphra's workbench and started tapping away. The beginnings of a plan coming together.
He would not fail her this time.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
Vader stared at the datapad, the beginning of a list in front of him:
Palpatine
Kinman Doriana
Sate Pestage
Armand Isard
Wilhuff Tarkin
Count Dooku
Zam Wesell
Jango Fett
Durge
Cad Bane
Darth Maul
Mother Talzin
General Grievous
Poggle the Lesser
Nute Gunray
Shu Mai
Wat Tambour
San Hill
Rush Clovis
Savage Oppress
Asajj Ventress
Most of these needed to die, some needed to die screaming, but not all. The bounty hunters could be bought, and could in fact prove to be valuable agents, with the exception of Durge. The insane Gen'Dai would not be dependable. But he needed credits for this, where to get the credits? Perhaps Aphra had some ideas about that.
He skipped ahead, choosing to come back to that point later.
He paused at Ventress's name and tapped it slowly. Could he co-opt her? She was very much in the same boat as him, used by both Palpatine and Dooku and then discarded. She could be a useful minion.
He smiled at the irony of possibly making Ventress, his apprentice.
They would all have to be dealt with in one manner or another before he confronted Palpatine. But they were not his first concern. There was one event he could and would change first.
He rose from behind the desk, he could feel Aphra sitting listlessly in the cockpit. He strode there quickly.
"Dr Aphra! Prepare your ship, we are leaving this world," he boomed.
"Yeah? And where are we going?" Aphra's brown eyes glinted with uncertainty. The reality and full implications of their impossible situation still not fully realised.
"Tatooine."
Author's Notes: Vader's plan is coming together, lots of ripple in the making :);)As always, don't forget to review! :D
