Coruscant, 32 BBY

Anakin Skywalker looked at the instruments of his pod racer through the goggles of his helmet. He went through the safety checklist quickly, shifting through the various panels that controlled the small reactor of the machine, the flaps, the repulsors, the power cables and finally the heavy turbines on the each side. They were all working at peak efficiency.

The machine was his pride and joy. Assembled through the years by various piece of scrap and parts that were left behind by people that didn't understand their use, the pod racer was simple in its design. It was built around a pair of Radon-Ulzer 620c turbines that he had modified heavily. Anakin had worked hard to improve the fuel injection system in order to increase thrust. He also attached three red air scoops on the engines in order to achieve optimal maneuverability, especially while turning. The cockpit that he occupied was attached to the massive motors by Steelton control cables. Made out of highly reactive alloys, they were some of the most responsive pieces of machinery in the Galaxy. The whole structure was held together by energy binders, purple streams of energy that binded the components to each other.

And now, finally, I'll take her for a spin.

It was not something that his Master would approve of. Sidious was a proponent of the "do as I say but not as I do dogma". When he had been his age, he too was prone to joyrides with his family's speeders, enjoying the excitement and adrenaline of high speeds. It was one of the things that they had genuinely bonded over in his years of training. But after the events of the previous month, his Master had reverted to his more… protective side. Or rather limiting side, Anakin thought. It infuriated Anakin to no end. Plagueis had warned him that his Master might seek to inhibit his rise but keeping him back did the Sith no good.

Instead of dwelling on it more, he decided to do what he had set out to do. Anakin flipped the switch to open the hangar doors and raced back to his craft while placing a black helmet on his face, fully covering his features. He activated the turbines, the roar that the contraptions made as they guzzled up fuel, filling the air around him. His attention turned to the navigational computer, as he revised his flight plan. It would take him through one of the busiest lanes of the City World, a fitting challenge for his skills. With the speeds involved, one wrong move could prove fatal. Let's make sure that I won't make it then. With the flight plan ready and the green light for the engines blinking on the board, Anakin pushed the controls forward and the pod racer launched itself into the air.

He was assured that they were going to attack him as the fire spewing towers of the Industrial district came into view. Anakin had noticed the gold-black sleek silhouettes of three attack speeders a quarter of an hour ago, when they picked up his trail above Monument Plaza. He tried shaking them off his tail, leading them on a merry chase through even heavier traffic.

"HA!", he exclaimed happily as one of the speeders collided on a truck. It was flung out of its way, like a discarded toy and began falling towards the ground. Anakin began weighing his situation. The racer had no weapons to speak of. He was unarmed as well, carrying neither lightsaber nor blaster. There was only one thing that he could rely on and that was his piloting skills. There was only one solution. He would have preferred to avoid the Industrial district. The heavier elements in the air could wreck havoc to his engines but its spires, low arches, trenches and tunnels suited his plan perfectly.

He checked the mirrors behind him, making sure that the speeders were still tailing him.

One, two, three and… Go!

He turned hard to the right before lowering the sticks through which he controlled his craft downwards. The ground began racing ever closer towards him as the force of acceleration glued him to his seat. His pursuers followed suit and began their own descent towards their prey. The lead speeder opened fire, sending a few bursts of laser bolts his way. They missed the pod racer only due to a timely spin, as Anakin swerved out of the way and allowed the bolts to fall to the ground below harmlessly.

The altimeter counted down in a mad dash to reach 0 as the racer came closer and closer to the deck. Anakin brought the racer into much steeper angle of decline than it would be safe to do. A normal person lacked the reaction time to pull up in a timely manner but he was no normal person. He pulled up the sticks at the last possible moment. His engines managed to safely level off but the cables straightened out a few crucial seconds later. The cockpit grazed the ground with enough force for parts to be cut off. "Dank Farrik!", Anakin shouted as the pod racer's instruments flaired red. Reactor shell overheating. Oh great! As the realization of the extent of the damage started becoming apparent, one of his pursuers faced a more dismal and immediate end as one of the speeders came crashing into the ground, turning into a bright orange fireball.

And then there was one.

Anakin had a serious problem on his hands. In his mad dash to escape his assailants he had pushed the racer's small fusion reactor to its limits. The damage caused by grazing the ground surely excacerbated the issue. How much time do I have before I blow up?, he thought. He wasn't absolute sure but as the last remaining speeder came into view, Anakin felt the noose around him tighten. He could either turn off the engines and surrender or risk running and die.

He growled like the cornerned animal that he was, anger at his predicament rising to the surface. Anakin grabbed it as his Master had taught him and used it to sharpen his wits. Reaching out through the Force to help himself guide his pod racer with as much accuracy as possible through the maze of pipes and metal that made up this area of the City Planet, Anakin gently pushed the sticks forward to increase his speed, confident in his abilities to navigate the long and winding way. The speeder kept pursuing him, albeit with a significantly reduced speed, relying on instruments to navigate the area.

I can end this now. I should end this now. Power down, hide, save myself for another fight. It was a victory in and of itself, albeit a reduced one. He would live but he wouldn't learn anything about his pursuers. But how can I take them down?, he thought while dashing swiftly through a tight spot between two beams, before checking the temperature on the reactor shell, steadily rising. Anakin had no weapons to fire back. That was the simplest fact.

The Force shall free me! The Force was a weapon in and of itself, a tool that his enemies didn't possess. And he would use it to the best of his ability. Pushing the sticks forward again, Anakin let a little smile creep on his face.

He felt the incoming chasm, a defunct trash compactor a few meters before he came upon it. The pod racer dove into the chasm coming to a stop a few inches off the ground before it gently touched the durasteel floor of the canyon-like rift. Anakin shut down controls with quick and frenzied movements, letting out a sigh of relief at having overcome at least one of his hurdles. He dropped his helmet on the floor, relaxing his neck as its weight was lifted off his head before he exited the cockpit. Satisfied that there were no witnesses around, he began pacing as he waited for his prey like a patient hunter.

His pursuers didn't leave him waiting for long. A few minutes later, the speeder came into view, limping above his landing spot. Its low speed and the pieces of metal protruding from its fuselage belied the fact that his pursuers weren't having the easiest time following him. As the speeder floated above him, Vader closed his eyes and focused. He had seen this specific model and make before and thusly, he knew the approximate location of the repulsors that kept it afloat. Vader tried picturing them with his mind's eye and then squeezed his fists. The speeder protested and groaned as it suddenly lost altitude, becoming a piece of metal that gravity happily pulled down. It came down with a crashing sound as metal and electronics were twisted, turned and fused into the approximate shape of a ball by the force of the fall. "HA!", Vader exclaimed, supremely pleased with himself.

With quick and spirited, almost gleeful steps Anakin approached the downed speeder as two figures, clad in golden armor writhed in pain inside.

"No, gentelmen, please don't stand up for my sake", he shouted out as one of the people inside the speeder began pushing at the glass canopy of the speeder, trying to get out. Vader extended his right arm and pushed the canopy down with the Force, keeping it firmly in place. It refused to even budge anymore, any attempt by the speeder's occupants to force it open failing miserably. They began panicking, shifting their gaze between some unseen danger within their speeder and himself, unable to decide which threat was the more immediate.

"Are you afraid of a child?", Vader kept mocking them as he walked the final few steps between his racer and the speeder. "You were so intent on killing me and now you are afr... Oh! Oh I see!" His voice grew even more exhilirated as flames sprung from under their feet. "I must have hit something else alongside the repulsorlifts", he continued while touching the glass. "A circuit maybe... Hey,what did I hit exactly?", he asked excitedly, relishing in their fear and anguish.

"Please it was an excercise. Please!", the golden armored soldiers pleaded with him

"Well nobody told me. Who send you?"

"Lord Sidious. Your Master, your Master!"

What? WHAT?! His nostrils flared in anger. So that was what it had come down to. Hunting him in the streets like a common criminal, a gutless thug. So much for being the pinnacle of the Sith Order, the legacy and chosen successors of Darth Bane.

"The exercise was a success. I've learned another valuable lesson. Thank you", he merely said, too deep in his thoughts to care any further.

Vader kept the canopy tightly closed down. The smell of burning electronics and boiling flesh permeated the air around him as he walked towards his damaged racer. If he wants to kill me then he'll have to do it like a Sith. If he is unwilling to face me then the issue should be forced and settled.

Vader waltzed into his Master's empty office, anger guiding his step. He didn't plan on staying for long, merely making a stop. If he was going to face Darth Sidious he would need a lightsaber. He knew that his Master kept a spare lightsaber in here. Turning left, into the corridor that led to the Private Office of the Chancellor, Vader found what he was looking for. His Master's Neuronium statues, made in the image of long dead philosophers and sages, looked down on him in silent judgement. Vader brought each one of them down until he found what he was looking for. The lightsaber flew to his hand. He pressed the button on its hilt and the blood red plasma seared through the air. Perfect. Now time to find Sidious.

"I am here, son."

The voice came from the Private Office. It was in the form of Palpatine but it was undeniably used by Sidious. The word son had none of the warmth that it carried whenever other people were present, none of the fatherly charm that it usually carried. It was filled to the brim with disdain and hatred instead, the Dark Side dripping from it. The doors to the private office opened and the Dark Lord came out, walking slowly but confidently. Only then did Anakin notice the windows. All of them were shut, covered by plasteel shutters. He was expecting this.

"Yes, I was", he continued, replying once again to his thoughts. Vader turned his lightsaber towards his Master, assuming the balanced two handed guard of Form IV. "All of this must so embarrassing for you, my Apprentice. I understand your anger, of course and it is good that you have tapped into it but you have gone a step too far. You've become lost to it. It uses you, you do not use it. That is why you thought that challenging me now was wise, that is why you didn't stop and question the lack of guards." Palpatine stopped for a moment, bringing his own lightsaber down his sleeve. "And that is why you are still very much the Apprentice."

And then, Vader's Master almost run him through, closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye. Lightsabers clashed as Vader managed to defend himself at the last possible moment. He was pushed back as his Master's flurry of attacks forced him into the defensive, a very poor imitation of Form III. The fight had gone very differently in his mind. Fantasies usually did and just like all of them, this one was rapidly disintegrating under the weight of reality.

"Sloppy. Useless. Undisciplined", Sidious shouted at him with every hit that he delivered, mocking his poor deflections, as he made him retreat into the Ceremonial Office of the Chancellor. Instead of Senators and Representatives, it was now home to two very angry Sith Lords. "Did you kill my servants or did they just left you alone because you didn't deserve their attention?" A gutteral snicker followed his question, another hit to the pride of the young boy.

"I bur... Ah!", Vader began speaking, only to be interrupted another strike. "I BURNED THEM ALIVE! AND I'LL DO THE SAME TO YOU", he offered in defiance. Empty defiance that couldn't be supported by his skills. Some might have even called it spirit.

"I wish you could. But you cannot. You are merely a weak boy. You want to save your mother? You can't even save yourself"

I can't... NO! NO!

"NOOOOOOOO!", Vader screamed. His eyes were slammed shut, as the scream that was filled with all the frustration, rage and pure, unadultarated hate for the man in front him, reverberated from him in waves. They were immaterial at first but then Vader felt that the power that came from his lungs had an effect in the real world, smashing into everything that stood in front of him. Glass, plasteel, wood, he could hear all of them getting smashed into pieces around him.

When he opened his eyes, the only thing he could see was his Master's office. It laid mauled and destroyed, the effects of his involuntary reaction having gutted it. The window behind it was broken. A large hole had been made on the plasteel shutters perha...

Where is he? Where is my Master?

His thoughts refocused on the Wookie in the room. His master was nowhere to be seen. He couldn't hear his lightsaber's buzz, neither his breathing. He looked around the room for him and he was nowhere to be found. Unwilling to be caught unawares, Vader retreated to a corner of the room and began counting.

One, two... Ten

He turned his gaze to the window and the large hole created on it. The enormity of the situation that had just been created by his actions hitted him a few minutes later, as overwhelmingly and as purely as the rage had earlier. He fell on his knees, the lightsaber shutting down in front of him as it fell harmlessly on the ground. What should I do? Am I the Master now? No, he couldn't die just like that. He surely had a backup plan. Some kind of platform waiting for him perhaps or use the Force in some manner. Wait, could the Jedi feel my anguish, the scream? His breathing became faster, full of anxiety. The old man had a point. He had been sloppy, rushing to kill him for submitting him to a mere test of his abilities, believing that he would be successful because some prophecy and a voice told him that he could do it. What was he supposed to do after he had killed him? How could he possibly finish the Grand Plan on his own?

USELESS, USELESS

"No", he said to nobody in particular. I am not useless. Whether he had killed his Master or not, he had won this duel. That meant something. It meant that he could do it again, if need be. It meant that he was, by right, the Dark Lord of the Sith, a mere Apprentice no more. As long as he lived, the Sith lived.

And in order for them to keep living, Darth Vader rose to his feet, a renewed sense of purpose filling his being. He would have to find a way out of this world. Even at their current state, the Jedi probably felt whatever transpired here and they would spring into action. If they found him now, they could swiftly defeat him. He would have to keep hiding, keep getting stronger, keep honing his abilities in order to reshape himself into a true vessel of the Force. Into a Sith Lord worthy of the name.

Author's notes:

-OOF, boy. This thing went into a completely different way than I expected it to. I was initially going to keep things simple, have them fight and Anakin be wounded in some manner as a punishment but when I was writing the insults that Palpatine threw his way, I don't know how to explain it exactly. It felt too real. A quick search at Wookiepedia confirmed that Force Scream was an involuntary reaction and then I went on from there.

-This was a very action packed chapter for me. I had trouble writing fights in the past but I think that I have made these good enough. Any feedback is welcome of course.

-We have reached sort of the end point of what I would call the Episode 1 of this adventure. Usually at this point I like to take stock of the situation and plan things out for the future. The next chapter will be sort of a filler one, presenting the choices that Anakin has and perhaps setting up some things for the future. I'd be very much interested in seeing some of your ideas about where do you see him going and who knows, if they fit into the plan (which is in no way rigid as you just saw), you may see some of your ideas in my writing.

-Yes, the Wookie in the room is my Star Wars version of the Elephant in the room.

-Till we meet again.