Senator Palpatine's apartment, 500 Republica Arcology, 32 BBY

Anakin Skywalker kept his eyes closed and tried focusing his anger. He had lots of things to be angry about and all of them seemed to be connected, only increasing his irritation.

It all started when Queen Amidala decided to return to her world.

Foolish girl.

His Master had explained the situation to her quite clearly. She had no army to speak off, the Trade Federation held both the planet's surface and the Space above it tightly under control. Her best bet was to await for his election to the Chancellorship and return to Naboo with whatever forces the Republic could muster. In short, she only had to follow the Plan. What seemed simple to him though would seem outlandish to some people. People that refused to work within logical patterns. Anakin didn't really care for her or her well-being. But he did care for Sabe, the handmaiden. He had spent some time with her after their first meeting but then she disappeared. She was no doubt very busy. And now, she was on the way to her death. His inability to save her made him uncomfortable. He rushed to his Master, coming as close to pleading as a Sith could without being ridiculed, to let him assist her in some manner. Even if the planet was liberated, it could very well work in their favor, he explained.

Sidious didn't care. He was adamant. He claimed that things were progressing too quickly, that the Queen had the potential to be a potent enemy for them in the future, if she received the positive popularity of retaking her planet. He also reminded him that two Jedi would be there. Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan would go with them to assist in any way they could. If they were any good, they wouldn't have let things reach this point. They would have already discovered the plan. Using the Jedi as a way to block his idea filled him with even more rage for he sensed the real reason behind the rejection of his plan. He is afraid that I'll succeed, he thought, a paranoid thing to contemplate yet perhaps a valid one. It was the fate of the Master to be surpassed by the Apprentice after all.

Anakin took a deep breath and held it in, trying to focus all the scattered rays of his anger on something more tangible, a smaller array of targets. He exhaled and repeated the procedure just like his Master had taught him. Looking into his past, Anakin tried focusing his anger on his enslavers. The people that sold him and his mother to Watto. They were usual targets and they had served him well in the past but as he pictured himself tearing Watto's wings from his back slowly, taking his time to sever every single tendon in order to maximize his pain, there came no gratification. He searched his feelings once again, looking for a suitable fulcrum to anchor his pain until he found himself on the bridge of a Trade Federation vessel. The vessel that was high above Naboo. The vessel that destroyed the Royal Yacht and his handmaiden. The bridge was full of Neimodians that had done the deed. The lightsaber in his hand erupted into crimson, glorious light and he began hacking away with careless abandon.

His meditation was interrupted by a disembodied shrilling scream. A Muun scream. The Dark Side began reverberating, its baleful energies moving and rearranging themselves to the pattern of the disturbance. To a normal being there was nothing out of the ordinary but Anakin could see it, hear it and smell it. His Master was finally doing it. Soon enough there would be only two Sith in the Galaxy. The Muun screamed again as the sizzling sound of the Force Lightning that was killing him began sapping Darth Plagueis of his strength. As one Sith died another took his place. Anakin felt his Master mocking the Muun for his short-sightedness, for his useless experiments that provided nothing of use to the Grand Plan, for his naivete in thinking that a Sith could trust another Sith completely. The list just went on and on. Anakin tried bringing himself in step with his Master, trying to simply glimpse events, to get an ever better taste of the raw power that exchange hands at that point. He could faintly start making out shapes and colors until he suddenly couldn't. Thick, oily blackness like the one that resembled the fluid he used to grease the engine of his old speeder on Tatooine surrounded him. The only thing that he could perceive was his own heartbeat until… a voice broke the silence.

"Are you happy with my fate, boy?"

Anakin froze. He had never seen Plagueis up close but he had heard his voice on older Holonet videos. "It will be your own fate one day if you are not careful, little one and that would be a shame. You have the ability to surpass me, to surpass your Master and claim for yourself the most vaunted position ever attained by a member of our Order"

"Why are you talking to me?", asked Anakin, trying to imitate the prideful manner of his Master. "You belong to the past, old Man"

"Undeserving pride… the bane of our existence." The Muun sighed in disappointment. "I was here to snatch your body little one but I overestimated my abilities". Anakin's heart beat quickened at the casual manner that Plagueis talked about the subject. The disembodied voice chuckled in amusement. "Settle down. Revenge is my only recourse now. Listen well now. Sidious believed that he was to be the Sith'ari. It is one of our older legends. Has he ever mentioned it to you?", Anakin shaked his head, curious about what would come next. "I thought not. It's not a story a Master would teach his apprentice. I did that mistake but I was naïve. The Sith'ari or the prophesied one as the old holocrons call him was to be a perfect being. He would be free of all restrictions. He would have broken all chains that might hold him. He would have been…"

"The ultimate Sith", Anakin said, remembering the Sith Code.

The spirit of the dying Muun groaned with approval. "Precisely. The Sith'ari will rise to power to lead the Sith but also destroy them in the process. Yet through their destruction, he would make them stronger than ever. I thought that I would be this being. I tried teaching Sidious that the Rule of Two would come to an end with us. Madness and stupidity, pride as I said before that I was undeserving of. I wasn't going to be the Sith'ari, Skywalker but you can be. You were born of the Force. You are already growing more powerful than he expected. You only have to survive. Grow strong, grow powerful, break the Order and build it in your image, Sith'ari. Only then, we shall rule the Galaxy, forever. You will destroy our enemies and put an end to 5000 years of War. I bow to thee, Perfect One."

And so, the spirit vanished as suddenly as it had appeared leaving him alone with the burden of the knowledge of his place in the Grand Scheme of things. Or my probable place. He would have to work for it every step of the way and work for it harder than anything he had worked for in his life.

The summons from his Master arrived shortly after. Anakin got dressed quickly and took one of their speeders to the Kaldani Spires. It was a luxurious residential complex, built in the lavish and monumental Hesennan style of architecture reminiscent of the buildings of the Old Republic. He landed on the designated pad and walked slowly towards the connected living room of the former private residence of Darth Plagueis. The Dark Side recoiled and vibrated around him excitedly as if it was inviting him to celebrate the carnage that had taken place. His Master expected him with a delighted expression. Why wouldn't he be delighted? He just won. Anakin would have been happier himself, he had been waiting for this moment, for his official induction as a Sith Lord, for quite a while. Yet the night's revelations weighted on him. I MUSTN'T SHOW IT, his thoughts recoiled as he tried maintaining a neutral expression. The true game had just began.

He kneeled in front of his Master, both of his knees bended in deference and dutiful reverence that he was expected to show. "Congratulations, my Master", he simply said.

Sidious cackled menacingly. "Thank you, son", he replied, approaching Anakin with open arms as if he was ready to embrace him. "There is one last thing that we must do before the night is done", Sidious continued before clearing his throat. "Anakin Skywalker, I ask you plainly. Is it your will to join your destiny forever with the Order of the Sith Lords?"

Anakin didn't hesitate for a single second. "It is my will to join my destiny forever with the Order of the Sith Lords."

"Then it is done. From this day forward, now and forever more, you will be known as…". Vader, Vader, Vader, the force murmured all around him, a portent of what his Master was going to say. It was a powerful name, one filled with strength, anger, thirst for power. Anakin decided that it would serve him well. His Master repeated it and the deed was done. Sidious bid him to rise. The secret Apprentice, the boy from Tatooine was finally, irrevocably dead and gone. Only Darth Vader remained.

"Rest for tonight, my boy. A long day awaits us tomorrow. Another triumph for the Grand Plan is close at hand"

Coruscant, Grand Convocation Chamber, Senate Building

The votes were being counted. Sector by Sector, Planet by Planet, the Galaxy was choosing its new leader. Palpatine watched at the giant holographic display above the Chancellor's Podium. His name remained steadily at the top of the list with the other candidates barely breaking 100 votes in their name. It is done. By the Force, it is done, he thought. The Galaxy would be his in a very short while. A flurry of emotion was spinning in a whirlwind inside him. The culmination of decades of efforts on his part, of sleepless nights of hard work and determination was coming together.

He had every right to feel this way yet, some anxiety lingered. He had a felt small part of his Master lingering on this world for a little while after the Muun's death. He didn't know what the old fool was up to. What did he do? Had he piggybacked on him, waiting for a moment of weakness before he took him over. Others had tried it in the past. Had he reached Anakin perhaps? A dangerous possibility. His strength together with Plagueis cunning would be a potent combination. Palpatine looked at the boy sitting close by, a boy no longer. He was fully a Sith now, Darth Vader. He was reading from a datapad while he waited alongside him for the results. Palpatine couldn't afford to leave him home. The Republic's media seemed to like the image of the Elder Statesman and his young ward and Palpatine wouldn't squander even an ounce of good publicity. Or of his power. He would simply have to find a way to shackle him further. The promise of freeing his mother was one chain but another one was presenting itself. The boy seemed to be overly fond of Padme or rather her handmaiden persona. Anakin didn't know that he had observed him and he didn't know if she would survive, reports from Naboo stated that a battle between the Gungans and the Trade Federation would soon take place while she would move against the Palace of Theed. Maybe I was hasty in dismissing her. If she and Anakin were to become close... Another chain. At that moment, his Apprentice snapped his head towards the entrance to their podium. Palpatine followed his gaze, only to find Sly Moore, his Umbaran assistant and... more.

"Good news or bad news Sly?", he asked her

"You'll decide that Senator. The Trade Federation has been defeated on Naboo. A young Jedi named Obi Wan Kenobi sacrificed himself in order to destroy the Trade Federation Control Ship, disabling the Droid Army. Viceroy Gunray is in custody as well"

"Did Sabe survive?", Anakin cut in quickly. Another chain

"I don't know, Master Skywalker", Moore replied politely, humoring the person that she perceived as a mere boy. "I shall endeavour to find out"

"Do that, my dear". Palpatine said in his most fatherly tone. "And start planning for a trip there right after that. We will go there immediately, right after the acceptance speech if we can manage it. We have to tie ourselves to this victory as quickly as possible"

Author's Notes: -I can already hear all of you. Why is Obi Wan dead? I figured that since the only way the Naboo pilots won was due to Anakin, they would lose that encounter. Hard pressed for solutions, Qui-Gon and Obi would try on of their tricky ops. And since the Naboo arc demands a sacrifice, I gave it Obi. I promise that I have very interesting things planned out for Qui-Gon.

-The legend of the Sith Chosen One is an existing piece of Star Wars content. I really wished to explore it because it is as valid as the Jedi Myth and overlaps with it in many ways which arguably means that Anakin fulfilled both prophecies at once at some point.

Reviewer appreciation and interaction corner:

-Yes, she was disguising herself as Sabe at that point of her Coruscant stay and she was getting away to prepare into shifting into her Queenly role. I liked the idea of them meeting but not actually meeting just yet so I rolled with it. I apologize if it was not super clear.

-ShinRaZAFT, I'll start putting a few ideas together for his earlier years. I don't know when and in what form they'll come out but I've heard ya.

-Thanks for the Reviews, in general. The feedback is greatly appreciated

-Till we meet again.