A/N: Alright, we'll see how this next chapter goes! This one is a bit more related to Episode III (ok… not really… but I'm telling a story here so you've gotta give it time to evolve). Once again, I'd very much appreciate any feedback just so I know what you guys want to read and/or whether I should keep going with this one! Anyway, enough of me plugging… well…me / here's the next part of…
The Hilt
This chapter occurs almost days after Episode III: Revenge of the Sith… and for the record, all sequences in italics will be flashbacks to parts of the film.
Chapter II: Bring Balance to the Force
His eyelids flickered slowly under the darkened hood; aroused by the presence of which he presumed was his new apprentice.
"Lord Vader…" he hissed, remaining seated behind his extravagant red and gold desk.
The new presence paused, breathed heavily, and then stepped further into the Emperor's chamber, "yes, my master..."
"I have been meditating. I have seen things. Things which disturb me greatly, my noble apprentice…" the man explained, "we have not completed our quest fully".
Darth Vader cocked his neck slightly, still adjusting to his unnatural prison in which his body was now locked – forever, "I do not understand my master… to what are you referring?" he exhaled heavily.
"Lord Vader," the man glared, his reptilian eyes cold and piercing, "we must destroy the Jedi – all of them… we must wipe them out such that they can never rise up again…"
Vader paused; his helmet removed the ability for any observer to read his expression to know, just what he was thinking, "there are fewer than a handful left, they will not ris- they cannot rise".
"I am aware of their present situation, my loyal apprentice, but there are some things which must be taken care of personally and completely," the old man lectured. Vader observed some spittle flying from the man's mouth as he spoke.
"I bid you destroy all of the Jedi," the old man ordered, "wipe them out Lord Vader, all of them".
"I have not sensed the presence of a Jedi in the galaxy… for some days now," Vader protested, "perhaps I should be better suited overseeing your new project, my master?"
"You are still adjusting, Lord Vader," the hooded man cackled, "there is much you must learn about the Dark Side of the Force…"
Vader breathed heavily again.
"My apprentice, I have seen- I have seen the hand of Master Windu at work…" the old man trailed, closing his eyes as if to picture the scene he spoke of.
"Master Windu?" Vader questioned, stepping forward, "this is… impossible".
"I am not mistaken!" the man shouted, rising to his feet and glaring at Vader, "I have seen his hand at work and I am…" he seated once more, calming and preventing the end of his own sentence. He paused and closed his eyes once more, "you will destroy the Jedi, Lord Vader".
Vader inhaled deeply and with great strain, "yes… my master… as you wish".
The Dark Lords paused. Vader was more reflective than anything, remembering the moment in which he had veritably signed Mace Windu's death certificate…
"I need him…" Anakin cried.
"He has too much control of the Senate and the Courts. He is too dangerous to be kept alive!" Mace Windu recoiled, raising his blade high.
"He has to live!" Anakin pleaded, but it was too late, Windu's Lightsaber came down with a distinctive 'swoosh'.
Anakin jumped without thinking and raised his own blade in time with Windu's, slicing upward and through the old Master's forearm and detaching the attacking hand from his body…
The hooded man lowered his head, "you are an admirable young Sith, Lord Vader… I trust you will not fail me".
Vader lowered his own head, shaking the image of Master Windu's missing hand from his mind.
Two glimmering red guards stood each side of the doors. Vader trekked past them, ignoring their intimidating helms and silent stance. His own suit was undeniably intimidating in its own right – but he was not used such a façade. The impact of what his life had become was only just dawning on him.
Vader stopped suddenly, clutching his helmet, feeling around his head with his hands, just to confirm one more time that everything around him was real – he was real.
His mind floated… flashing back to a few days earlier…
"Where is Padmé? Is she safe, is she alright?" Vader's voice croaked.
Darth Sidious revealed himself from the shadows and spoke quietly but firmly, "I'm afraid she died… it seems in your anger, you killed her…"
Droids and other metallic items began to rupture, shatter and disintegrate around the pair of Dark Lords.
Vader panicked, "I couldn't have! She was alive! I felt her! She was alive! It's impossible! Nooo!" before raising his hands upward in a plea to the Heavens.
"…my Lord, please…you alright? …shuttle…my Lord?..."
Vader's eyelids rose, and his viewing sensors came online again; the face of a young but seemingly hardened officer slowly came into lucid view.
"My Lord, are you ill?" the officer questioned, kneeling beside Vader and resting a firm hand on his shoulder.
Vader breathed deeply and rose a silent hand. Suddenly, the officer was flung through the air, across the width of the hall and slammed hard against a small marble statue, knocking it over in the process.
The officer groaned in pain and lay contorted on the ground, clutching his ribcage.
Vader breathed, rising to his feet, "let us be off, Captain, we have much work to do".
The officer continued to lie on the ground, moaning and mumbling incoherently.
Vader glanced down at the man's body and exhaled loudly. He blinked and saw, momentarily, Count Dooku's limp body, after he had executed him, in place of the officer's. Vader blinked slowly again to see the officer rubbing his head and searching for his hat.
"I am sorry Lord Vader, I will not be so insolent again," the officer groveled.
Vader placed a heavy boot atop the officer's hat.
The officer crawled on all-four's for a moment before spying his hat underneath Darth Vader's black boot. He looked slowly upward at the heavy-breathing Sith Lord.
Vader paused and bent over slowly, grabbing the officer's hat and the officer by the scruff of his neck, "here is your hat Captain," he breathed, shoving the hat on the man's chest, "I suggest you take it and that we leave now before I have to remove anything more from your head…"
The officer swallowed heavily and nodded very slowly, "as you- as you wish Lor- Lord Vader," he trembled.
Vader dropped the man to the ground once more and headed down the corridor, his boots stomping hard with each step, away from the Emperor's chambers.
Solstice Endac shoved what very little she owned inside the case, which had once belonged to her mother, as quickly as she could. There was of course, her nightgown, torn and recently unwashed. Usually she was very careful about these things; living in the underworld of Coruscant's lower-levels was not easy – it was very a dirty place, abandoned by the wealthy.
The jewellery, which the boy had somehow 'acquired' for her as a gift, was tossed unkempt into the case along with a few other personal items; a holo-recorder, a fake speeder license and two vocal decoders – one of which, was faulty and nearly useless. She kept a hold of the pair of vocal decoders purely for sentimental reasons; the faulty one had been the boy's at one point. She remembered when he had broken it whilst fooling around with her and the two Astromech droids they constantly toyed with and teased.
A small table, which she had placed neatly next to her sleeping pallet, concealed a duo of sliding draws. She messed through the second draw quickly and emptied the few Republic Credits she had been saving onto her bed. There was, at last count, a solid eight-hundred and forty-three. Not nearly enough for two tickets, as she had originally planned for.
Ultimately, she had wanted to escape the lower levels, after some years of hard work, with the boy, to the high levels of Coruscant, to begin life anew. In the events of the past half-hour, that dream only held a spot for her. She wiped an already wet sleeve across her nose and rose to her feet again.
She spun around and scanned quickly through her limited collection of clothing, hanging somewhat neatly in her wall-dresser, and decided upon taking her favourite 'field dress' – a long, flowing dress, light and casual but still formal, in a light green colour much like her eyes. She also grabbed a bright butter-yellow tunic that her mother had once given her. She had resolved to never wear it however; she wished to save it for the days when she would finally be living in the sky-high buildings of Coruscant. Now seemed as good a time as any.
The dress she had on had become entirely filthy from wading through the waste in the trash compactor. She thought, perhaps, that she was probably in need of a wash but she could not risk losing any more time. So she stripped off the wet and smelly old dress, using the drier parts across the shoulders to soak up any residue on her legs and feet.
The butter-yellow tunic had matching brown 'smuggler's' pants, decorated with stylish yellow squares down the side – indicative of the rising trend; or so she had been told.
When she was quite satisfied with her toweling effort, she dressed in the smuggler's pants and butter-yellow jacket, which was tight fitting but not uncomfortable. She looked around the room one last time and realized that she had forgotten one thing.
The hilt.
It lay sound and quiet on her sleeping pallet. She had used some of the sheets on the sleeping pallet to clean the hilt as quickly and as best she could. In one free hand she collected the Republic Credits and began to pour them into the case. When she was satisfied the Credits were tucked and folded neatly in her dress, she grabbed the hilt. She paused, debating for a moment, where the object would be most safe. She slid the weapon, somewhat uneasily, into her pants pocket. She snapped the case shut and leveled it on the bed.
Momentarily she had forgotten the location of her boots but soon found them underneath her sleeping pallet and fixed them tightly on each foot.
She was ready to go.
She paused, taking in one last breath of the acrid atmosphere she had grown so accustomed to.
"Solstice, there's been a murder! Come quick you gotta see-"
She stood, alarmed for a moment at the presence of another being. Her attention was drawn to her doorway and outside her room she noticed a small girl.
"Carrie!" Solstice squealed, "how long have you been there?"
"Just long enough to see that silver toy you've got! What is it? Why are you packing? Are you going away?" the little girl asked in rapid-fire.
"I- I need to go away… for a little while," Solstice lied, grabbing her case and biting her lip.
"Can I come? I won't be much trouble and I don't each much and I'm sure I'll be good company-"
"I'm sure you will be too," Solstice interrupted, "but I need to do this alone Carrie".
"When will you be back? Will you bring me a present? Can I come too?" the little girl asked again, slightly frustrating Solstice.
"I can't bring you with me kid…" she answered softly, walking toward the doorway, "but look… you can have anything you want from my room. Just go on in and take whatever you want!"
Carrie's eyes widened, "anything?"
"Anything at all!" Solstice cried, "it's yours for keeps. Forever".
Carrie raced into Solstice's room and began to rummage through her clothes. Solstice smiled and swallowed, silently exiting her quarters for the last time. She walked down the corridor, only perhaps, a few steps, still smiling, and heard what sounded like a large 'clanging' in her room…
"It's just one little girl, not a bunch of scavengers… just go on Sol," she said aloud to herself.
The clanging continued as she walked briskly away from the personnel sector. Her mind was set entirely on escaping the lower-levels without anyone noticing her. Fortunately, it was past working hours and most people had retired to their families in their respective quarters, leaving the ramps, main walkways and streets of the lower-levels, largely unpopulated.
To escape the lower levels, there was but only one place a person could find a pilot, especially at such a late hour… the Cantina.
She rounded the main road from the personnel sector and walked discreetly toward the flashing lights in the distance, coming from the red-light district. Time was of the essence.
A/N: Did I get the flashback quotes right? I wasn't too sure, I asked a mate who's seen the movie twice and he said I was pretty close to spot on… also, wasn't too sure they showed the transition from Jedi Anakin to big bad Darth Vader too well in the film, so I've been playing around with what might have been going on in Vader's head post-Padmé's death, loss of his kid(s) and friends… it's a pretty big thing if you ask me and I think Padmé got it right when her final words were something like, "there's still good in him". So I'm trying to show a conflict in Vader's head between what has become and what he could have been… good idea? No? Alright… just let me know what you think.