Chapter 12: Aftermath

Slowly, the sun begins to rise, dawning a new day. People on Tatooine was beginning to awake; most to suffer another day of slavery by their owners, while some of the lucky ones who had managed to find a life of gratitude was restoring their energy and was eager to begin working on whatever they could do; the moisture farmers beginning to work on the moisture vaporators and finding water that seemingly dwindled recently which was of relief to many of the natives who had to go on days end without something to drink, and other natives were going to Toshi Station to pick up Power Converters for whatever they have business with, and the bounty hunters assigned for assignments after targets either on this planet or another planet in this broken galaxy, regardless of what that assignment is as many here would outright kill children just so to maintain their reputation as bounty hunters.

After weeping for hours, the new Sith Lord, Darth Vader could do little more but to walk through the desert, and there were still tears flowing down his golden eyes.

Although he had intentions to return to Docking Bay 94 where they had their ship located, Vader had one more thing to do.

As he approaches the Lars homestead, he hadn't spared the place a second look as he strides to the graves. Vader could do little more but fall to his knees and collapse on top of the sand that was next to her tomb which is beginning to cover with sand.

Shmi Skywalker's once dear face swam in front of his eyes as he squeezed them shut, her long-forgotten caress was felt against his scarred face as he attempted to forget those memories, and he distantly felt her telling him: 'I love you, Anakin.' and 'I am proud of you, Anakin.'

As Vader wept out of mourning, the Force screamed with a warning, and he drew the lightsaber from his belt, activating the crimson blade and dashing forward at the individual who had his weapon at aim, blocking the shot into a random direction, rapidly blocking each of the blaster shots from the individual before seizing the individual with the Force and slamming him down, causing him to groan painfully.

As he approaches the person who tried to kill him, he had felt a scowl forming on his lips and his golden eyes flashing before common sense returned... somehow.

"Who are you?!" He gritted out with clenched teeth, finding that he was relatively having a difficult time to ask why he had fired at him instead of striking him down. He knew he was capable of or tending toward murder and was very murderous, though this man wasn't a Tusken Raider so he strayed himself.

It was then he had recognized the young man; although he is slightly older and his beard is wilder and spread, he was easily still recognizable. His skin is only slightly more paled and he looked 5 years older at best, no doubt thanks to living on this miserable planet where Jabba the Hutt controlled everything, but his eyes were still the same blue, and his skin hasn't paled far enough for him not to recognize him.

Apparently, the man didn't recognize him. Vader could see the anger in his eyes as he stood up and shoved the young man with quite some force, causing the man to not spike on his anger and strike him down from where he stands.

"Who the hell are you?!" Owen snapped. "You shouldn't do that around here! Tatooine is a very dangerous place to threaten somebody! You came onto private property and I have never met you! For all I know, you could be sabotaging my mother's grave! I'm protecting everyone here!"

"She's my mother, you fool," Vader said bluntly, resisting the urge to choke the man and reminding himself that he's still family. Owen was surprised into silence and the pieces apparently were coming together by his eyes flashing with recognition. "Now step aside."

"So you finally came back, Anakin," Owen said, though his voice was cold and sharp and accusing. "That's surprising, considering you left her for dead. You acted like an arrogant bastard who looked down on me and my father for not doing enough to save her even though we had done all we could the last time."

Vader scowled.

"You are partly to blame for her death, Anakin! You could have stayed here and protected her if you cared so much instead of getting involved with the Jedi's dilemma! But instead, you left her for dead so you could go live in a fancy Temple instead of helping her, you selfish bastard!"

What happened next was what he least expected.

In under one second, when he was struck it caused a high-speed neck rotation which could have easily knocked him out if he didn't fall flat. He was shocked.

Owen suddenly felt pain in his eyes, and suddenly, he was lifted from the ground and brought over Vader and slammed to the ground. Owen didn't expect it as Vader kicked him in the hip before backing off, golden eyes flashing, red lightsaber hilt in his hand but not activated.

"Do you want to repeat that statement? But be warned that I will not be as merciful." His voice was threatening, cold, and deep, extremely commanding. It was obvious that he was threatening Owen, and the young man knew he had gone too far.

"You don't understand..." Owen begins darkly, wanting to rant on the young man for abandoning Shmi and getting involved with the way of the Jedi.

Vader knew he was in a fair position to end the man's life with this lightsaber as he had done to the innocent Tusken Raiders' camps. But he had no plans on killing Owen and he didn't even want to because Owen, rather if he wants to admit it or not, he was the last reminiscing part of his mother.

Without a thought, suddenly, Owen's throat begins to constrict and he begins to choke as the young man approaches him with a sneer.

"What do I don't understand? Are you going to turn me in for assaulting you, Lars?" Vader demands before bringing him to him and having his throat wrapped tightly around his hands. Easily, he could snap the man's neck with his bared fingers, but all he did is position his hilt at the man's throat. "Well, let me tell you something, you talk about me abandoning my mother, but did you not hear the full story? She wanted me to leave so I could live a better life, and the Jedi was the only opportunity for me to survive in this broken kriffing galaxy."

He has been through much over these years so he knew betrayal, treachery, and death.

"Let him go!" A young woman with brown hair cried, running up with a blaster in her shaking hands, having come out and just spotting someone holding her husband.

Actually obeying, Vader dropped the young man to the ground, to which he begins to cough repeatedly, grasping at his throat.

Still, Beru nervously had her blaster pointed at Vader and accidentally hit the trigger button out of fear, causing Vader to activate the red lightsaber and block the blaster shots repeatedly.

Vader scrolled over to her and raised his lightsaber up high instinctively, but then he paused himself as he remembers slaughtering the Tusken Raiders in the Tusken Village the previous night.

Owen struggled to his feet and ran in front of the young woman protectively. "Beru! Stay behind me!" Owen shouted defensively, holding his arms out.

Surprisingly, Vader didn't strike. He just stood in place and stayed like that for a minute before lowering his lightsaber and deactivating the hilt.

"I'm sorry... I will leave..." Anakin said, his eyes slowly returning to blue, closing his eyes as he tries to remember how all of this happened. It was all simply a fog; in reality, Anakin Skywalker was truly asleep on the shuttle, but Darth Vader has been moving since the previous day.

He was in a conflicting state; Anakin Skywalker wanted nothing more but to stop the violence, have Jabba the Hutt, the Hutt Clans, and many slavers face the action of their crimes and bring peace among this planet, whereas Darth Vader craved revenge, to power the people of Tatooine where they could fight for themselves, to teach anyone the consequences of opposing the planet, and to be the ruler of this planet, seizing the throne from Jabba the Hutt. If he takes over this planet, this planet would thrive yet that would be easily a dictatorship something, Anakin reminds himself, that his wife never loves.

Asajj Ventress sighs as she woke up, scanning her surroundings, and deciding to begin her day.

Still, it was complicated for her to get used to the life of not having to feed every corner and worry that a Jedi or clone troopers will fire on her and attempt to kill her so they could bring an end to one of Dooku's most skilled Assassin.

She had known that those nightmares of blaster fire and lightsabers and the screams of innocent people as they are gunned down by the battle droids and a cause she had wrongfully supported will be in her thoughts for a very long time.

Thankfully, Skywalker's friend given them the exact location of the meeting group before dismissing them and they were to meet up with him today.

She was vastly disturbed. Through the night, she had thought she had felt intoxicating darkness that she dares even say is stronger and more powerful than Count Dooku and Darth Maul but was equal in terms of Sidious.

As she sat up, she noticed, with a shock that one of her lightsaber hilts were not there, and she had immediately begun investigating, but not for long as the looming figure of Anakin Skywalker approached, though there is something off about him; the dark side of the Force completely surrounds him, along with remorse, guilt, and sadness.

If Ventress didn't know any better, she would have said he was a Sith.

Again, much to her shock, there was a lightsaber hilt resting in his gloved hand, and now she could see blood on his armor.

"Skywalker, what did you do?" She demanded, placing her hands on her hips.

"What had to be done," Skywalker responded in a monotone voice. Though he clearly was troubled, he had obviously tried to place it behind him, perhaps to take the guilt away from himself.

He hands her her lightsaber hilt and simply walked into the room, the door hissing close a second later, causing Ventress to sigh with irritation and exasperation but deciding to drop the subject as she had wanted to bake something for herself and not to mention to take a shower.

She smelled filthy because she had often trained with her lightsaber against invisible enemies for hours on end to maintain her mobility and strength and also her Force Power.

She would clean herself up before going with Skywalker to meet his friend in the meeting area. According to Banai, they were going to strike in the Boonta Eve Podrace within a week from now.

Ventress went back to her room and begins training with push-ups and then going to take a shower.

Unable to rest, despite being extremely tired, Anakin had felt the dread in his system since he had found himself missing his old life and when he was innocent. Anakin can only reflect in regret and self-pity and shared many hatred for himself to immense proportions.

Anakin had hated himself even worse than he did for the last thirteen years. For his entire life, he had believed he was going to be the most powerful Jedi ever, to bring peace, justice, and security across the galaxy, to protect the innocent, and to free those slaves.

And what has he done instead of protecting the innocent? He has murdered another village of Tusken Raiders. They were not the butchers that Anakin encountered back when he had found his mother; they were innocent beings who were wrongfully slaughtered by him.

Instead of facing responsibility and accepting accountability, all the young man can actually do is place blame on himself and merely hide away like a coward.

Anakin had no intentions to speak with anyone yet when R2 managed to bypass the security code and enters, closing the door and locking it seconds later, and upon noticing his Master's sadness, he runs up against him.

The droid beeped a few times in confusion and concern, attempting to comfort his weeping Master.

"You don't understand what I have done, R2! I have killed innocent beings because I couldn't control myself! I am a monster and a murderer!" Anakin screeched, his eyes blurry by the red stains and the tears sliding out his eyes.

R2 rolled closer to Anakin's side and the Jedi in exile places his flesh hand on his companion's dome, and the droid begins beeping and tapping his knee in a scolding manner.

"Yes, I am! There's no point in denying it! Their species raped and murdered my mother, but the village I slaughtered were innocent beings! They were minding their own business and I simply walked up to them and wrongfully destroyed them!"

He would've been justified in killing any trying to attack him or preventing him or his mother from escaping or just going there and not being attacked. He arguably could've been justified in killing the leader or whoever took his mother as revenge before. Perhaps he even would've been justified in killing the militarised adults of the group as an act of warfare. But the wholesale slaughter of a group of people including civilians is genocide, and Anakin knew genocide is wrong.

This time, he had killed a bunch of innocent people for something their species did, and it was wrong.

He killed them pointlessly and aimlessly out of anger and revenge, it was cold-blooded mass murder. If he was on Coruscant and he had done that against any other individual, rather if they killed someone he loved or not, he would have been dragged to the courtroom and facing the death sentence or life imprisonment.

The droid beeped a few times in reassurance.

"That doesn't justify my actions, Artoo! Just because their species murdered my mother doesn't mean I should go to another village and slaughter them all!" Anakin screeched, grabbing his head and scraping his nails across the right side of his forehead.

Artoo beeped several times.

"I hate myself, Artoo! I didn't want to kill them, but it was not me; it was some-someone else! I couldn't control my actions!" Anakin sobbed crazily.

He was no good person, and he hadn't just had some darker tendencies. He may be an amazing fighter, pilot, and leader. He used to be an overall good kid, had great intentions, but always had a darkness inside him that he wanted to control, and what's worse is he couldn't always do so, and often brutally murdered and used the darkness, but his desire for good was always there.

All he had wanted was to be a good person and protect everyone around him, yet he has taken many innocents' lives... again.

The Jedi Code does not permit the summary execution of a defenseless opponent. It also does not permit the extermination of individuals who haven't attacked first.

'Not a Jedi.'

'But a Sith.'

As he laid there, Anakin cries, rubbing his head against his R2 unit and trembling. It was an odd scene but he hadn't cared as he needed comfort. He had known he had started down a path that he will never be able to recover from. Eventually, the Jedi would sense the rise of a new Sith, and eventually, they will check up to the edges of this galaxy to track him down.

Is it possible to be a good Sith so he would have power but save the ones he cared about? Anakin didn't want power nor did he want to harm anyone, but the things he has done are unpredictable and are certainly not Jedi worthy.

Anakin thought about two ancient Sith from the past, Darth Vectivus, who he had managed to read about in the Jedi Archives when he was younger, though he was caught and received a heavy reprimand about how the Sith is evil and that he should never fool himself in believing there is a Sith who is pure.

Upon his own ascension to Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vectivus retained the principles and ethical standing of his previous existence. With that foundation he avoided the trappings of the Sith who preceded him; he was never motivated by galactic domination or an all-consuming hatred of the Jedi, and he instead chose to live the remainder of his days luxuriously in the company of his loved ones. However, Vectivus was still a ruthless individual, partly connected to his background as a businessman, and was willing to do whatever it took to succeed, a trait he promoted in others as well.

There was also Darth Gravid who believed there was room for the light side of the force, compassion, and altruism in the Sith Order. Unfortunately, he went crazy trying to do, figured the only way to save the Sith was to destroy all its prior teachings and relics and was killed by his apprentice, but not before he destroyed numbers of Sith relics and holocrons.

In a highly similar vein is Kel'eth ur, who believed that fear and passion, the emotions the Sith used most often to channel The Force, were lies, fear's power being fleeting and passion being easy to manipulate, arguing that true power came when one were no longer afraid. He claimed that although he was dead, he was eternal and at peace and that there was only The Force.

Could Anakin find a way to balance the light side and dark side and finally gain self-control? Can he prove the Jedi wrong?

No!

If they find out he touch the dark side as much as he has, regardless of touching the light side as well, they would merely assume that he's a Sith and that he should be locked up in their Prism so he wouldn't pose a threat to their precious Order, and dogmatic Obi-Wan would probably remain loyal to the Council instead of him.

To the Jedi, all of the Sith were purely evil. The Jedi are often simplistic, naive, and contradictory and corrupt. But they still follow a code of self-denial, discipline, and altruism. They follow a path that assumes objective truth to which they know they are subject, though they are fuzzy on what that truth is.

The Sith, on the other hand, are openly hedonistic, self-centered, and unrepentant. Each sees him or herself as the center of the universe. The Sith path itself involves cold-blooded murder as a conscious and necessary thing.

Besides, he needs to stop relying on others. His time as a Jedi failed him so why shouldn't he become a Sith and become far more powerful?

At least, he isn't doing such things as leading armies of child slave soldiers, teaching emotional repression, and declaring himself judge, jury, and executioner of a lawful head of state.

He was no longer Anakin Skywalker... well not the same Anakin Skywalker from before. He has been Anakin Skywalker for years and he has faced betrayal, attempting to bury the resentment and anger for the Jedi for years, yet it was all for nothing.

Darth Vader has risen to take his place.

And Vader became determined that Darth Vader shall kill Jabba the Hutt and Anakin Skywalker shall assure Tatooine is in accurate and suitable hands.

Arthur's note: I'm sorry to everyone who was hoping Anakin would close out the Sith within himself, but a Grey Sith version of Vader has rarely been done before or so I haven't ran into many of them. Thanks to not being Palpatine's apprentice, he isn't machine or cold as he was in the Original Trilogy nor would he accidentally harm his family and friends, but he is certainly an emotional Sith and his own Sith. I'm not certain if one can become a Sith individually, but there is the first Sith who started down the Sith Legacy, Ajunta Pall, so I'm going by the fact that the dark side of the Force has given Anakin a Sith name.

I hope I got Owen Lars reaction correctly to Anakin and how he dislikes Anakin. I don't hate Owen Lars (per se) but I feel like he doesn't understand Anakin in the slightest. Originally, that part wasn't suppose to be there but I added it in as it fits in. Considering the Original Trilogy shows Owen believe Anakin shouldn't have left, I decided to have them have tension.

Happy New Year, everyone! We're well away from 2020 and is now ascending into 2021 which is either a good thing or a bad thing! *Sighs* It really felt like I just began 2020 as this entire year was just boring for me and life ain't as fun as it use to be, but I'm doing good thanks mainly to the Clone Wars season 7 and I can't wait until Bad Batch this year! I hope you are all safe and I hope this year would be better as what's happening has been going on for a whole year and hopefully, life would improve! Again, Happy New Year!

May the Force be with you all always!