So, here's Chapter Two, and I promise Chapter Three isn't far behind. Also, I've inserted a popular fan theory into the story, so please, feel free to tell me what you think. Enjoy.

Chapter II: Truth & Consequences

Location: Imperial Palace, Coruscant (14 BBY)

The flash of white-and-violet lightning crashed beyond the transparisteel windows, perfectly illuminating the form of the dark shadow as it moved in near-silence down the corridor. On either side of him, elite Imperial Guards snapped to attention, unmoving and silent as he passed. Indeed, the only noise to be heard was the regular, rhythmic hiss of his suit's respiration system.

A trio of aging V-Wings, flanked by a pair of newer TIE Fighters, roared past the window as they progressed along their patrol of the skies around the heart of the new Galactic Empire, their presence the sparse reminder of years long since passed. The imposing shadow that was Darth Vader paid them no attention, for they were of no consequence to him.

As he continued along his way, he could only just make out the pockmarks of black carbon scoring along the walls—were it not for the enhanced vision of his mask's photoreception suit, it was likely he'd have not seen them at all as they blinded in perfectly with the navy-blue lighting all about him. Even now, five years later, the signs of the massacre that had transpired in the building had not vanished. Complete reconstruction of what had once been the Jedi Temple was still a year out. The scars, he suspected, would be among the last visages of that night to be erased. Not for the first time, the Sith Lord privately speculated as to whether this was his master's way of reminding him that he was now upon a path from which he could never return. It would, after all, not be unlike the Dark Lord of the Sith to do so. This, of course, was evident by the fact that he had ignored the advice of his newly-appointed Grand Vizier, Mas Amedda, to raze the remains of the Temple, and had instead had order that it be reconstructed to serve as a symbol of his triumph over his timeless enemies. Vader had agreed with Mas Amedda, but that had meant little to Sheev Palpatine.

Vader, now, reached the end of the corridor and stopped just shy of the door that would lead him beyond to his master. The crimson-clad guard before him saluted, as had the others, but the Sith Lord paid him no heed. Instead, the burned eyes that rested beneath the half-inch of armored transparisteel had found themselves fixated upon another scorch mark. Unlike the other, nearly-round shapes of what had resulted from missed blaster fire, this particular mark was elongated, running in a diagonal pattern that left its direction of travel a mystery. His flesh stung as his eyes closed, that memory now flooding back to the surface.

A bar of blue plasma streaked through the air, coming close enough to his nose that he was nearly overwhelmed by the scent of burnt ozone. His own blade of blue energy came up high and then crashed down on top of the young Jedi. A credit to her training, however, she absorbed the blow and, rather than fight it directly, allowed to instead push her down to the ground before rolling away from both the blade and its determined owner.

"Your training serves you well, young one." He spoke, a rare praise for the night.

"As your treason does you." She spat, unable to fully hide the pain and anger in her voice. That failure, he decided, would be the thing that destroyed any hopes of success that she might have.

"The Council was right to promote you."

"As wrong as they were to trust you."

"I can sense your hatred for me." He said simply, his blue eyes, once so very proud, pierced through her soul, seeing her in her entirety within the force. It was there, constricted and contained, but very much alive. "Tell me—do you wish me dead?"

"I—no. I—"

"You do." He corrected. "And you want to be the one to do it."

"I—I should—"

"Yet, you do."

"I—yes. Yes, I would certainly like to."

"I know you would." He confirmed, using, now, the very words the man who'd once been his father had used with him only hours before. "I can feel your anger. It gives you focus, makes you stronger."

"I am a Jedi—"

"No." He taunted. "You are a victim, and soon, so too shall you Padawan be. If you beg me for mercy, I will kill you before I turn to him."

"No!"

With a vicious scream, now, the young Jedi charged forward, her blade swinging to and fro with surprising vigor. She was genuinely angry, and suddenly she was pushing the young man back, further so that he had ever intended. Had she a bit more experience, he mused, she might even be a genuine threat to him. She made a move to his left, and he blocked accordingly. Too late, however, he realized his error. Her blade snapped off and was suddenly sailing through the air. When it landed in her other hand, it snapped back to life, perfectly poised.

He acted on pure instinct and slapped her upon the face with the back of his head. This, in turn, spun her in a complete circle, yet when she turned back around her foot lashed outwards, catching him in his own face and knocking him backwards, his eyes momentarily closed from the force of the impact.

The pained face of his beloved wife swam before him, now, her mouth open, her breath ragged as she panted. Her beautiful face was covered in a cold sweat the likes of which he'd never have expected.

"Obi-Wan." She whispered, unable to catch her breath. A baby's soft coo, then, stole his attention away from what—no. "…is good…"

"NO!" Anakin Skywalker bellowed as he extended his arm out, his palm open. The young woman froze mid-leap, her lightsaber held high above her head. His fist clinched and then he pushed her down the length of the corridor. Before his foe had a moment to breath, he threw his lightsaber out, his victory assured.

At the last possible moment, though, she brought her lightsaber down before her, blocking his strike. The fallen Jedi Knight never afford her a chance to recover. Even as the cool metal of his hilt slammed back into his hand, he brought the blade swinging down, causing both her hand and the lightsaber held within it to tumble to the ground. Her scream never distracted him as he buried his blade into the wall and brought it down, cleaving through her neck and then her breast until the top right half of her torso fell free from the rest of her body.

Ignoring the mess before him, his hand reached out and a moment later the door that led to the Jedi Council's war room in the crown of the central Temple Spire opened. Beyond, two dozen young souls prepared to become one with the Force.

"Lord Vader?"

The guard's words broke him free of his reprieve. "I—"

"What is it?"

"I—our Lord Emperor is expecting you, My Lord."

"I should think so," Vader commented, betraying no sign of what emotions he might be suppressing. "Considering he did summon me."

"Of course, My Lord." The guard triggered the door's release and stood aside, allowing Vader entry into the throne room beyond. Ignoring the guard, Vader strode confidently across the threshold, forcing his mind back to the topic at hand.

This was his first meeting with his master since he'd encountered the Jedi on Nur. His master had commanded him to return with the Holocron and its hidden list, yet he had failed, and the Jedi had escaped with the means to potentially rebuild the Order. His master, as he knew too well, was not one to suffer failure lightly, a fact even the mighty Darth Vader had learned the hard way. Nonetheless, Vader took his place in the middle of the room and knelt, lowering his head before his master; to make the Emperor wait, after all, was to merely invite greater pain and suffering on his end.

"What is thy bidding, My Master?"

"You seem on edge, Lord Vader. Tell me—what troubles you, My Apprentice?"

Vader chose his next words with great care. Palpatine almost certainly already knew his answer; the question itself was both a formality—and a test. Even now, after five years, the Dark Lord was constantly testing and pushing his apprentice. Without fail.

"I failed you, My Master."

"Did you?"

"My mission was to obtain the Holocron and the list of Force-Sensitive—"

"Come now, Old Friend." Palpatine interjected dismissively. "There is scarcely any need for us to lie to one another."

"I—"

"You had no intention of returning that list to me." Palpatine answered. "Had you recovered it, you would likely have destroyed it, as you did when you executed the Jedi Librarian."

"Jocasta Nu—"

"Her outing your previous existence as Anakin Skywalker only served you a convenient excuse, Lord Vader. Regardless, you could easily have secured the list and then executed the traitor."

Vader did not answer, nor, it seemed, did he need to.

"Lord Vader, this is nothing to be ashamed of. It is in the nature of the Sith to covet power influence."

"Yes, Master."

"As my apprentice, you were quite correct in destroying that list. Had you not, I may well have found a candidate stronger even than you, and he might have replaced you, just as you replaced Lord Tyranus. It is my responsibility, after all, to take only the strongest candidate as my Sith Apprentice, be it you, Lord Vader, or someone else. I absolutely expected it."

For moments, neither man spoke, the room instead now filled only with Vader's mechanical breathing.

"You are not the first Sith to conspire against his master, nor, do I suspect, shall you be the last."

"Yes, Master."

"Make no mistake, Lord Vader—the day shall well come when you decide that I have taught you all that I can, and when that day arrives you will make every effort to kill me. I expect it—perhaps I even look forward to it. It is of no concern. I should, however, like to offer you some wisdom to remember, when and should that day arrive."

"Master?"

"Destroy me, My Apprentice, completely and utterly. Do not hesitate, show no mercy."

"I—"

"Because I assure you, Lord Vader, you will have but one chance to seize my power for your own. If you fail, you are weak, and if you are weak, you are of no use to me. If you're of no use to me—"

"Then you will discard me."

"As I have discarded your predecessors when they, too, outgrew my purposes for them."

Darth Sidious now turned and approached his apprentice. His brand of darkness was unlike anything Vader himself had ever before known. Whereas Vader was a hot rage that burned greater than the lava of Mustafar, Sidious's was a blank void colder than either Hoth or Illum, as uncaring and emotionless as an asteroid slamming into a primitive planet.

Vader waited in silence for his punishment, already having made peace with what was soon to come. Instead, however, a leathery hand emerged from the folds of the Dark Lord's robes and rested itself kindly upon his armored shoulder.

"Stand, My Friend, and let us speak no more of this morbid subject for now. You failed to provide me with the list, as I knew you would."

"Because the list was not the true purpose of my visit to Nur."

"Your insight serves you well, Lord Vader. Of course, that does beg the question; If I sent you to Fortress Inquisitorious not for the list—"

"Then why did you send me?"

"Tell me, Vader—why did I send you to Nur, if not for the list?"

His answer was instant, for there was but one other reason that stood out to him, one so obvious and blatant that he should have seen it from the beginning.

"To embolden the remaining Jedi. Their apparent success against a Sith Lord possesses the power to draw out additional Jedi survivors to challenge us."

"Very good, My Apprentice, yes."

"Yet you once told me that the surviving Jedi were of no concern to us."

"And at that time, five years ago, they were not." Palpatine dismissed. "Now, however, that has changed."

"Something has happened."

Palpatine, in response, turned and made for his desk, beckoning for Vader to follow him. The Dark Lord took his seat at the desk that was similar to the desk he'd used while still Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. His hand pressed a single button that caused the table to give birth to a holorecording taken from a Stormtrooper's helmet.

"This footage was recorded shortly after you reported to me your failure on Nur." And without affording his apprentice any chance to speak, the Emperor activated the recording.

As Vader watched, nine troopers moved ahead of the trooper recording the mission. Each trooper, his rifle raised, stood to the side, allowing the recording trooper a clear shot at the great door ahead of him.

"Fifth Squad in position." The trooper advised, speaking directly through his helmet's commlink.

"Third Squad in position." Came his response.

"Eighth Squad in position."

"Fourth Squad in position."

Vader continued to listen as squad after squad radioed their ready status. Eventually, the entire platoon had advised that they were in position.

"Recon-2187 in position." A new voice advised. "One target in sight."

"Advise, Recon-2187—is it Target Delta?"

"Unnknown. Target is human, approximately two meters in height, wearing dark brown or black clothing of unknown style and make. Weapons scan indicate target is armed."

"What's the specs on the armament?"

"I—"

"Recon-2187, what are the specs on target's armament?"

"I—it's a Jedi, Lieutenant. Target—target is a Jedi."

"Has target made you?"

"Negative, Sir—it doesn't appear so."

"Fools." Vader breathed, his words as emotionless as his helmet as he watched the trooper place his explosive ordinance along the frame of the door.

"Lord Vader?"

"Target is sitting down to eat. We are a go. I repeat, we are a go."

"Copy last, Recon-2187. All squads, target is confirmed to be a Jedi. Will make entry in thirty. All units, fire to exterminate with extreme prejudice. Take no chances—we can make positive identification postmortem."

The ten squad sergeants quickly voiced their agreement in near-total unison.

"Entry in 10…"

Vader listened as the platoon's Lieutenant counted down from that point. The trooper now held his blaster rifle in one hand while holding the detonator in his other.

"Zero! Move it, troopers! GO, GO, GO!"

The trooper depressed the button atop the detonator and the resulting explosion sent duracreet and durasteel exploding in every direction. With no hesitation, the troopers filed into the room, their blasters at the ready. Vader watched as a the stormtroopers surrounded a cloaked figure kneeling before a small table in the center of the room.

"Fire!"

Fifty blaster rifles opened up with an angry orchestra of death and destruction; the cloaked figure stood no chance. After a full minute of firing, the rifles fell silent as the cloaked man crumpled forward, smoke rising from the holes riddling his cloak.

"Seventh Platoon to D Company Command—target neutralized."

"Copy, Seventh Platoon; awaiting affirmative of target's identification."

The trooper moved forward and bent down, pulling the unfortunate target over onto his back. However—

"Target was a decoy, Lieutenant!"

It was, indeed. The cloaked "man" had, in fact, been a child's large, plush toy dressed in a cloak.

"Say—"

"Seventh Squad to Lieu—we've—we've been flanked!"

Immediately, the lights went out as blaster fire simultaneously began filling the room. Screams and instructions being shouted drowned out nearly every other sound until—

Snap-hiss.

The unmistakable sound of a lightsaber hissing to life, as soft as it seemed, drowned out every other noise.

A Jedi.

The crimson blaster fire of the new, streamlined E-11 Blaster Rifles, not even a year old, seemed to fill every inch of air. However, they were proving to be utterly ineffective as a single bar of amethyst plasma danced in and about amongst the troopers. One-by-one, each stormtrooper collapsed.

Vader watched and waited, his anger growing with every trooper that fell as he waited to see the Jedi's face. This Jedi, however, seemed perfectly capable of keeping his identity a secret, remaining perfect concealed in the shadows. He remained silent, but deep down—he knew this saber style quite well. It was aggressive and powerful, its base that of the now-defunct style of Juyo. It drew from the Dark Side of the Force, and yet it seemed to still serve the Force's Light Side. It took the darkness and made it a servant.

A servant of the Light.

The trooper fired his rifle one last time before being lifted in the air and thrown backwards. As soon as he landed, he stood up, but that violet lightsaber was already on top of him, burying itself in his neck. The trooper, now dead, slumped down to the floor.

The fight was, it became clear, now over. The only sound that could now be heard was a pair of heavy footsteps that were casually approaching the slain trooper. Soon after, a sleeve of brown material appeared, and from its depths extended a mechanical, artificial hand that took hold of the lightsaber and switched it off. It was here, now, that Palpatine paused the holorecording.

"Tell me, Lord Vader—what do you make of this? Not many Jedi wielded a lightsaber of such a color. In fact, to my knowledge, only—"

"His body was never recovered."

"He was the third-most powerful Jedi in the entire Order, after all; even from such a fall, and with his injuries, he was not guaranteed death."

"You are on this Council, but we do not grant you the rank of Master."

Vader immediately forced those words out of his mind once more, that memory no longer relevant. Its speaker had, after all, learned just how much more powerful he'd become, and had, in the end, paid the price for his lack of respect.

Only, now—

"If it is Mace Windu," Mas Amedda spoke, appearing almost like smoke from the far corner of the room. "He must not be allowed to escape the planet."

Vader neither turned to acknowledge the Chagrian Grand Vizier, nor did he mention him by name. "Escape is not his intention."

"Lord Vader is correct." Palpatine spoke, concurring with his pupil, now. "The wretched man has had ample opportunity to escape."

"Forgive me, Master, but if he's spent the last five years in hiding, why reveal himself now? Surely he knows it to be suicide."

"Why, indeed? What do you make of his timing, Vader?"

His master's words from before now replayed through his mind. "This footage was recorded shortly after you reported to me your failure on Nur."

"You claimed this occurred shortly after my report to you from Fortress Inquisitorious." Vader paused. "How shortly after?"

"Within the hour."

Vader knew what this meant and so, he would wager, did his master. "Even our most secure communications have been compromised—we have a spy."

"Indeed, Lord Vader, we do. But—who?"

"I will quickly get to the bottom of this—"

"In time, My Apprentice, in time."

"Master?"

"Our enemies believe we yet remain ignorant of their success in hacking into our comm systems."

"You want to use their success against them." Vader spoke. It wasn't a question.

"Indeed. Only a fool discards a tool while it's still useful."

"What is your plan, My Master?"

"It's time, Vader, for you to earn your title as a Dark Lord of the Sith. You have, thus far, been useful to me, I will admit. However, unlocking secrets of the Force and putting down rebellions is one thing; hunting down a leader of the Jedi Order and exterminating him is quite another."

"I have killed members of the Jedi—"

"Bah! A priest and an old woman are hardly worthy challenges for a Lord of the Sith! Neither Eeth Koth nor Jocasta Nu were suitable opponents for a true Sith. Neither was Obi-Wan Kenobi," Palpatine added, almost as an afterthought. "Yet look how your encounter with him ended."

Against his will, his fist clinched in anger, and in that moment, the Sith wanted nothing more than to reach out and remind his master just how incredibly powerful he still was. However, he'd used the Force against his master once before—he had no illusions as to how merciful Darth Sidious would be if he did so again. No, now was not the time for that.

Not yet.

"Do not underestimate how much you disappointed me with your failure on Mustafar, Lord Vader."

"As you wish, Master."

"You are a powerful Sith, Lord Vader." Palpatine continued, his words momentarily taking Vader by surprise. "As disappointed as I've been in your failure, I am nonetheless proud of the strengths you've gained since then."

"You—are?"

"The stronger the apprentice, the greater the master." Sidious explained with confidence. "Your strength is a testament to my own powers, and I suspect you've yet to reach your full potential. That is the opportunity I am now awarding you."

"What is thy bidding, My Master?" Vader asked once again, his soul filled with a renewed focus.

"I am leaving Imperial City."

This was a shock that even Vader had not expected. In the five years since his rise to the position of Galactic Emperor, Darth Sidious had left the capital of his new Empire only a handful of times.

"Master?"

"This Jedi has remained in hiding for five years, successfully avoiding even my notice. He only became bold enough to begin attacking Imperial patrols after the events of Nur, but so long as a Sith he marks as his equal remains, he will be hesitant to take his attacks further—"

"But if you leave, your absence will be an opportunity he cannot ignore."

"I will visit Grand Moff Tarkin and tour the construction that has been completed on the battle station. As you've noted, Vader, my leaving the capital will give Mace Windu the chance he so desperately desires. Grand Vizier."

"Yes, My Lord Emperor?"

"In my absence, you will command the Senate Floor; I have complete faith in you to keep the bureaucrats in line."

"Of course, Master."

"While I am away, Lord Vader, you will have complete command of the planet's military and law enforcement resources. Do whatever must be done to ensure this Jedi is eliminated before I return."

"As you wish, My Master."

"And continue pressuring the Jedi who escaped you on Nur—with any luck, they will draw additional Jedi out of hiding. If they do—make the message clear, Lord Vader: the Flame of the Jedi has been extinguished, and so too shall be any remaining sparks. Let their deaths be the final chapter in the Book of Rebellion."

Dun Dun! So, what'd ya'll think?