Original Copies
Was everything Palpatine promised him a lie?
Growing disillusionment with the Emperors rule has Vader spending hours searching for the truth of his master's most persuasive argument for the dark side - that Sith had the ability to stop their loved ones from dying. He could simply ask Sidius, but he wants neither his lies, nor to face the terrible truth that he gave himself away for nothing. So instead he studies - soul migration, cloning, Sith arts, Jedi arts, ancient force rituals. And that's how years later he ends up in a cloned body of Anakin Skywalker with a lightsaber held to his throat by his long dead wife.
Prologue
Vader did not agree with all of Sidious' laws all of the time. Frankly, not even most of the time. But he was his Master and the Empire only flowed efficiently when a single will controlled it. Vader was the enforcement of that will and nothing more, or less. His opinions did not matter. His thoughts did not merit consideration.
But legalized slavery?
Anger flared within him. And it was not his usual anger, the one that simmered constantly and fueled his actions. No, this was a righteous anger that bubbled up from inside. From a place that he usually tried to ignore. A place that screamed at him that yet again the institution he fought for was corrupt, the ideals he upheld were worthless, and that he had merely traded one corrupt master for another. All in a misguided search for power, peace and control.
Vader supposed it was time that he became the master, but he knew his own shortcomings. He was not a politician. So despite all of his misgivings he knew he could not build a better Empire than Palpatine. So he pushed the rebellious thoughts aside to a crowded corner of his mind that whispered tales of someone he knew who could have built a better galaxy. His mind pushed back with a traitorous vision of Chancellor Amidala ordering the abolishment of slavery throughout the known galaxy. This was followed by a fanciful vision of himself enforcing the edict with a light saber through may slavers' throats.
"How did your Master keep his loved ones from dying?"
He flinched at his unintentionally defiant tone though he knew Palpatine could neither see the flinch through his mask, nor hear his tone via his mechanized voice. He had meant to ask him his bidding. But instead the thought had popped up from that part of his brain he knew to be dangerous. He had made a point of never asking. She was dead and it had not mattered. But for some reason it mattered intensely now.
"Sith don't love my boy," cackled Palpatine in response.
It took years of covert research done behind his master's back to learn the truth. Truths gathered from Jedi holocrons, Sith artifacts, ancient paper and stone texts, and his own meditation with the Force.
The closet knowledge he found on cheating death came from an old Sith holocron that spoke on the art of transmigration of the soul. As a Sith art it was only meant to save oneself, or at least had only ever been used in that manner. Upon the point of dying you could transmit your force essence into another body. You just had to be powerful and desperate enough to do so, and be able to find a host that would not immediately push you out. He worried very little about that part.
The knowledge he truly valued came from an ancient text written long before the Jedi. Every life force left an imprint, a memory that lingers long after they died. There were stories of people who could draw their loved ones force essences back to them, even after death. They were corporeal enough to speak with them. In all the texts it was only possible between beings who loved each other. No wonder the Jedi had never mastered it. But in all his attempts he could never bring her back to him. Though a desperate hope remained. He convinced himself he only failed because of his own shame of his impairments. She could not love a machine. He could not do it because he truly did not want her to see him like this.
And that had led him to his next task.
It took him years before he found a cloner he could trust. One who was both talented and willing to come with him to his palace on Mustafar to carry on his work in secrecy. The cloner reassured him he could grow him a new body, identical to his own and carrying his own unique talents, and that it could be kept an empty vessel until he needed it.
He told Vader he could grow the Senator too, if he would be so kind to obtain a sample of her genetic code. The cloner bragged that he could teach her to be just like Amidala, but Vader declined the offer. Make her an empty vessel he ordered. For he would have her or no one by his side, a copy would not be sufficient. So he did the first thing to bring him true shame in a decade and stole genetic material from a corpse.
End Prologue