Chapter 1
Darth Vader.
While the name itself brings fear and terror to many of the civilizations across the galaxy as he had been spreading bloodshed for almost two years now, none knows what Vader had been through, none knows his tragic past where he was betrayed and abandoned by everyone he had ever love. Many believe he is just a murderer and monster with no redeeming qualities and just took in the pleasure of slaughtering innocents. Many bounty hunters and mercenaries had tried to assassinate him when the Empire rose to took the place of the Republic, but each never been seen again, suffering the might of Vader's crimson blade or suffering his signature Force Choke which no one could escape from. Many believe he was an alien, a monster disconnected from life itself. Every single person was wrong.
Vader, as much as he is a murderer and a monster, suffers as much as they had suffered and how much would. He had fallen into the darkness in the hope to save someone whom he had cared about deeply, and in the end, he'd failed and had become the man he was today.
More machine than man, a broken man who had suffered under the Emperor's manipulations.
As a young boy, though no one would ever know this, Vader was thoughtful and intelligent. He was friendly and easily got along with others despite his status as a slave. He also had a special place in his heart for his mother, for whom he constantly built inventions to sell or to use to lighten her workload. At the coming of the Jedi, he was both helpful and generous, doing all that he could to help them off-planet, risking his life at the pod race as well as giving them the sizable reward money which he and his mother would have had use for. Though lovable, he also carried grudges and was vengeful, but he commonly held these two traits in check. He hated being treated unjustly or being wrongly accused. He was fiercely loyal, doing anything to keep those he was close to from harm, at any cost. His only price for this dedication was loyalty in return.
His separation from his mother was the hardest thing he'd ever done, and it still hurt him for years. Because of his fear of losing even more friends in such a manner, he kept to himself, fiddling around with his only friends, the Temple droids. During this, however, he grew especially close to his old Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, considering him a father and a role model. Due to his sudden escalation from slave to being known as the "Chosen One" and the rising star of the Jedi Order, pride and arrogance set in. He became cocky, self-appreciating, and he grew to hate being reprimanded or lectured. He remained most comfortable in warm environments similar to his home planet of Tatooine and had a standing argument with Amidala regarding the temperature of her apartment, which he felt was kept too low.
He was naturally honest and despised lying and deception, and especially hated politics, considering most politicians to be greedy and conceited. Kenobi's continual self-consciousness when it came to Vader hurt the boy, who at times wasn't sure whether Kenobi liked him, something his heart craved. Therefore, he turned to a more complimenting, comforting source: Palpatine.
His yearning to be loved, as well as appreciated, came out in his devotion and secret marriage to Amidala, one of the only three people he ever thought appreciated or cared for him. As his fame grew, he became more and more arrogant, and he knew that he was one of the best Jedi of the Order, believing that he could easily best any Jedi blindfolded with his lightsaber tied behind his back. His tenuous trust in the Jedi Order was shattered even further when he learned from a reluctant Obi-Wan Kenobi that the Jedi Council only intended to place Anakin on the High Council as a representative to Palpatine so they could use him to spy on the Supreme Chancellor's dealings, since he viewed the Chancellor as a friend, not to mention the head of the Republic, as he viewed such an action as treason. This coupled with his frustration at his perceived injustice at being kept at the rank of Jedi Knight made him more and more bitter and distrustful of the Jedi Council. His belief in them was shattered more and more as Skywalker's closest friend, Palpatine, swayed him from trusting them. Slowly, his bond with everyone except the Chancellor was completely shaken and broken, even that of his wife when he assumed that she had betrayed him. Born out of this conflict was the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader.
After becoming Vader, Vader's personality changed completely. He was now a rattled man, shaken by the perceived betrayal of his dearest friend, his former comrades-in-arms, and his wife. Upon donning the armor that kept him alive, Vader initially remained uncertain but regained his self-confidence following his killing of Roan Shryne on Kashyyyk. He also gained a firm belief that love was a weakness and was utterly meaningless.
Due to the traumatic experiences he suffered on Mustafar, Vader developed a murderous obsession with finding and destroying Obi-Wan Kenobi, spending whatever time he had tracked his former master's hiding place. Many fugitive Jedi fell victim to Vader's obsession, being viciously tortured and executed regardless of whether they had information. Vader nearly fell victim to his obsession when a group of Jedi attempted to trap and eliminate Vader by falsely claiming that Kenobi would be among them at Kessel. While Vader managed to kill most of them, he was ultimately overpowered and was nearly executed until a detachment of the 501st Legion arrived and gunned down the remaining Jedi on the order of Sidious. Despite his near-death experience, Vader continued to hunt for Kenobi, although his duty to the Empire gave him little time to look for his former master.
Vader had adapted an extremely low tolerance of failure and did not get on well with many of the higher-ups in the Imperial military. He also retained his former identity's distaste for dishonesty and deception, having once gone into a massive rage that resulted in the destruction of a large part of the Jedi Council chamber upon learning that the Jedi Council, including Obi-Wan Kenobi, had hidden the location of the Ghost Prison from him as well as Palpatine. However, he did develop a tendency to craft some falsehoods, or at the very least half-truths.
While Vader appears to be completely loyal to Sidious, he secretly plotted to eliminate his Sith master on more than one occasion. Knowing that he couldn't take on his master alone, Vader's attempts to overthrow him were through extremely powerful apprentices but Force Sensitives have been hunted down and converted to Sidious's will or eliminated. It is simply too risky to attempt a coup against the man who he is forced to call Master at least right now.
A mechanical claw assembly removes his helmet, allowing him to breathe the hyper-oxygenated environment without his mask, which was otherwise necessary.
He is now entrapped in this miserable armor. Have been for the past year. Would be for the rest of his life. And despite him attempting to blame it on Kenobi, he knows that he is the only person at fault.
He was the man who Force Choked Padmé without hesitation. Despite his grievances with Kenobi, he lashed out at his angel.
Vader closes his eyes, feeling the natural instinct to sleep.
Padmé stumbles down the landing ramp into Anakin's arms. Her eyes are raw and numb; once inside the ship, her emotional control had finally shattered and she had sobbed the whole way there, crying from relentless mind-shredding dread, and so her lips were swollen and her whole body shook and she is just so grateful, so incredibly grateful, that again she flooded with fresh tears: grateful that he was alive, grateful that he'd come bounding across the landing deck to meet her, that he is still strong and beautiful, that his arms still were warm around her and his lips were soft against her hair.
"Anakin, my Anakin..." She shivers against his chest. "I've been so frightened..."
'Why?'
"Shh. Shh, it's all right." He strokes her hair until her trembling began to fade, then he cups her chin and gently raised her face to look into his eyes. "You never need to worry about me. Didn't you understand? No one can hurt me. No one will ever hurt either of us."
"It wasn't that, my love, it was—oh, Anakin, he said such terrible things about you!"
He smiles down at her. "About me? Who would want to say bad things about me?" He forced himself to chuckle, even though he had hated everything that happened. "Who would dare?"
"Obi-Wan." She smears tears from her cheeks. "He said— he told me you turned to the dark side, that you murdered Jedi... even younglings..."
Just having gotten the words out made her feel better; now all she had to do was rest in his arms while he held her and hugged her and promised her he would never do anything like any of that, and she starts half a smile aimed up toward his eyes—
But instead of the light of love in his eyes, she sees only reflections of lava.
He don't say, 'I could never turn to the dark side.'
He don't say, 'Murder younglings? Me? That's just crazy.'
He says, "Obi-Wan's alive?"
His voice drops an octave, and goes colder than the chills that are spreading from the base of her spine.
"Y-yes—he, he said he was looking for you..."
"Did you tell him where I am?" Anakin asks, and although a part... a big part of him actually didn't want to kill Kenobi, he had known that he was the only individual holding him back from accomplishing the power Palpatine spoke of.
"No, Anakin! He wants to kill you. I didn't tell him anything—I wouldn't!" Padmé cries.
Vader forces himself to grit out, "Too bad."
"Anakin, what—" she tries to speak.
Anakin sneers, though he wasn't angry with his wife nor Obi-Wan in truth, "He's a traitor, Padme. He's an enemy of the state. He has to die."
"Stop it," she said. "Stop talking like that... you're frightening me!"
"You're not the one who needs to be afraid."
"It's like—it's like—" Tears brims again. "I don't even know who you are anymore..."
"I'm the man who loves you," he said, but he said it through clenched teeth. "I'm the man who would do anything to protect you. Everything I have done, I have done for you."
"Anakin..." Horror squeezes her voice down to a whisper: small, and fragile, and very young. "...what have you done?"
And she prays that he wouldn't actually answer.
"What I have done is bring peace to the Republic."
"The Republic is dead," she whispers. "You killed it. You and Palpatine."
"It needed to die."
New tears start, but they didn't matter; she'll never have enough tears for this. "Anakin, can't we just...go? Please. Let's leave. Together. Today. Now. Before you—before something happens—"
"Nothing will happen. Nothing can happen. Let Palpatine call himself Emperor. Let him. He can do the dirty work, all the messy, brutal oppression it'll take to unite the galaxy forever— unite it against him. He'll make himself into the most hated man in history. And when the time is right, we'll throw him down—"
"Anakin, stop—"
Anakin wants nothing more but to accept. He doesn't enjoy killing the younglings and destroy the Order that he had once called his home long ago. That's why he was crying on the Control Center previously on this said planet, why he hates himself from that point on. He almost immediately began to feel remorse for the things he'd done, but by the same token he felt that the atrocities he'd already committed had already set him on the path he is taking.
Further complicating things is the fact that he was carrying around a ton of psychological trauma from the war he'd been fighting and growing up a slave. He is no stranger to the sight of children dying. Many people who have survived that kind of horror learn to disengage from their actions and essentially act on autopilot. Combine that with the no doubt overwhelming feelings of power brought on by deliberately drawing on the dark side…
"Don't you see? We'll be heroes. The whole galaxy will love us, and we will rule. Together." Anakin continues, but the former Jedi isn't certain if he was attempting to convince himself or her.
"Please stop—Anakin, please, stop, I can't stand it..." she pleads.
He isn't listening to her. He isn't looking at her. He is looking past her shoulder.
Feral joy burns from his eyes, and his face is no longer human.
"You..."
From behind her, calmly precise, with that clipped Coruscanti accent: "Padmé. Move away from him."
"Obi-Wan?" She whirls, and he is on the landing ramp, still and sad. "No!"
"You," growls a voice that should have been her love's. "You brought him here..."
She turns back, and now he was looking at her. His eyes are full of flames, those lovely orbs no more and replaced by a demon; a devil from the Force's hell itself.
"Anakin?"
"Padmé, move away." There is an urgency in Obi-Wan's voice that sounds closer to fear than Padmé had ever heard from him. "He's not who you think he is. He will harm you."
Anakin's lips peel off his teeth. "I would thank you for this if it were a gift of love."
Trembling, shaking her head, she begins to back away. "No, Anakin—no..."
"Palpatine was right. Sometimes it is the closest who cannot see. I loved you too much, Padmé." Vader hisses, glaring at the woman he would have brought every planet down to the ground to keep her safe. She'd betrayed him! She shall pay for her deception! Both of them shall!
He makes a fist, and she couldn't breathe.
"I loved you too much to see you! To see what you are!"
A veil of red descends on the world. She claws at her throat, but there is nothing there her hands can touch.
"Let her go, Anakin."
His answer is a predator's snarl, over the body of its prey. "You will not take her from me!"
She wants to scream, to beg, to howl, No, Anakin, I'm sorry! I'm sorry... I love you..., but her lock throat strangled the truth inside her head, and the world-veil of red smoked toward black.
"Let her go!" Obi-Wan cries desperately, unable to believe his eyes. How could sweet Anakin Skywalker become this monster?
"Never!"
The ground falls away beneath her, and then a white flash of impact blasts her into the night.
Vader startles awake. Although no one would ever see it, although no one would never understand, Darth Vader is sobbing, dearly missing his wife, the woman who had betrayed him and brought Kenobi to Mustafar to kill him.
This is what's it like to be Darth Vader; you would be incredibly powerful. You would be feared across every planet in the known universe. Your very image would send shivers down the spines of even the bravest of men. Your very name would inspire fear into every man, woman, and child, who walked the galaxy. You would be able to crush bones with your mind, bend people's will to your own with the slightest thought, and a tank cloaked in black.
However, you will forever be haunted by your past, present, and future. You realize the mistakes of your past, from killing your wife to slaying children where they stood, will forever define you and who you are. Your present, a neverending stream of self-loathing only distracted by more slaughtering of villages, to planets, to solar systems. Your future, bleak beyond measure, as all you see is being a puppet to the most powerful man in the universe, who you hate with all your being, from the top of your plated helmet to the soles of your boots. However, you have chosen this life, so this is the cross must bear for your sins.
This is also the physical torment you will go through. Although your suit will grant you superhuman strength, you are in constant agony. The flames of Mustafar burnt you to the point where you were forced to be fitted with poorly constructed false limbs, or just organs simply grown from a vat. These are a consistent source of discomfort, as are the painkillers constantly coursing through your bloodstream to numb your ravaged body. You will never feel whole again, more machine than man, fueled by hatred and sorrow for the rest of your days.
Her face... implant in his thoughts... have been since he had choked her on Mustafar.
Padmé... she had never wanted an Empire... never wanted Anakin to become this-this thing... and oh she had been correct. So correct.
She had wanted a democracy...
But she was dead. She is dead. She wouldn't come back. Her legacy shall continue on in him, and now rethinking the subject, her legacy may very well be disrespected as a mass murderer is continuing her legacy.
No!
He can't do this anymore; he can't live by a lie. Everything, in one day, was stripped of him. And it's all Palpatine's fault! He should have never listened to that manipulator! He is now a slave once more!
The light that his angel had seen in him begins burning up.
Thinking about it, why would Padmé want to rule the galaxy and accept him killing children when she was pregnant with her own children?
Vader knows that he must retreat. To bestow as the name of Darth Vader is a punishment for him because it reminds him of what he has done to the innocent Jedi in the Temple and his angel on Mustafar, the love of his life. All are dead because he was manipulated and the willing slave.
Vader walks out of the chambers, grabbing the blasted lightsaber he had constructed not that long ago and planting it on his belt.
It is time for Vader to amend his actions; he should have done this after Mustafar because his Master lied to him. He promised to save her, but he had not only lost everything and everyone he had ever known but his children and wife!
Vader vows revenge against Darth Sidious. How should he do this? He would disappear in the eyes of the Empire, and anyone who searches for him shall perish.
He would come back, stronger than ever, and he would strike Sidious down. He would find a way to become stronger than the man who he is forced to call Master and he would cut off his head. He shall pay for his deceits!
As he boards his TIE Fighter, Vader begins disabling the trackers on the TIE Fighter, none of the admirals or officers daring to stare at him with suspicion as they hadn't craved gaining a cruel death by the Dark Lord who already made quite a reputation by the man in the Imperial Ranks. Anyone who questions him doesn't have a likely chance of surviving long.
Without hesitation, he powers up the engines, bringing the ship to life. He begins clicking the buttons as his TIE Fighter is interjected from the Star Destroyer.
Where Vader is going, he has no idea but he cannot remain here and continue to serve that man, despite the large part of him; the part warning him of the consequences should the Emperor track him down and the power he can gain by staying at such a man's side and enduring his presence until he is strong enough.
Angered, Vader ignores the calls as the fighter enters a ring and he pulls the lever, taking himself into hyperspace.
By the time anyone knows his disappearance, he would be long gone.
Arthur's note: Long story short, I thought of a story where Vader redeems himself one to two years after the rise of the Empire. I also had this idea because of Force Unleashed 1 where Galen begins the Rebel Alliance and wonder... what if Vader began the Rebel Alliance? I realize that if Vader leaves the Empire after Padmé's death or at least 1 to 2 years, he would actually have probably done something like this.
This story would not have any more chapters besides this one until I am either completed with Chronicles of the Force or almost done. Not to mention a Twist in the Force.
May the Force be with you all always.
