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The Trial of Darth Vader

Chapter 3

Anakin took his seat beside Tristain and quickly offered her his hand. "Anakin Skywalker."

"Tristain Ahtze," she said, accepting his hand.

Anakin noticed for the first time her feline features, although her fur was much shorter and her features much less defined than any feline species he was used to. She had looked so human from the back of the room. Yet the knowledge that she wasn't human somehow seemed so right for such lovely features. "If you'll forgive me for asking..."

"About my race?" Tristain interrupted, a slight purr in her voice. "Elidaelis. And before you can ask, I was never a Jedi in my life. Just a lawyer."

"What about the prosecution there?"

"Gareth Zurkian, a member of the Gachiroptera race. And yes, he was a Jedi in his life. He was known for dealing with Dark Jedi, and defending those they might hurt. Anyone who turned to the dark side came to fear him. Even now, they fear him prosecuting them."

"Have you ever won a case against him?"

"No. But then I've never lost a case to him either. This is the first time we've ever had to face each other."

"Well that's promising, at least." Anakin turned as he felt a hand lightly land on his shoulder from behind. Obi-Wan stood there, leaning in as he got his friend's attention. "Looks like I'm in good hands."

"Indeed you are," Obi-Wan agreed, returning Anakin's smile. "But I'm afraid I must be leaving."

"What? No! Obi-Wan, please, I need you here for support."

"Yoda will be with you, old friend. And I will not be gone long. Luke needs me. He needs to know how urgent the situation is in the Bakura system."

"Luke," Anakin said, his voice barely above a whisper. So, Obi-Wan was still guiding his son, still giving him what help he could. Yes, Luke was more important. His son needed to continue living. "Your right. I need you, but I'll be all right without you here for a while. But Luke needs you now, more than I do. Go, do what you can to help my son. Please, Obi-Wan, please help him so that he stays alive."

"Don't worry, Luke is strong in the Force."

Ulic noticed as Obi-Wan moved away from the man he was sponsoring. "Master Kenobi, is something wrong. Are you no longer sponsoring Jedi Skywalker?"

"Yes Master Qel-Droma, something is wrong, but I am not revoking my sponsorship of Anakin. The mortal world is in terrible danger, and I must tell Anakin's son Luke how urgent it is that he deal with it. He is currently the only Jedi who can defend the mortal world from this danger."

"Yes, of course. The younger Skywalker needs his spirit guide. Hurry to his side." Ulic then returned his attention to Anakin and Tristain. "Counselor Ahtze, I trust you and the defendant are now properly introduced."

"We are Master Qel-Droma. And I am ready for the opening arguments."

"Very well. The prosecution will now present their arguments."

Gareth Zurkian stood up and bowed ever so slightly to Ulic. He then turned towards the jury and bowed a little deeper before moving away from his table. He walked to the jurors box, head down so that his long muzzle touched his chest, arms clasped behind his back, his short reddish-brown fur seeming to glow in the light of the courtroom.

As he moved, the flaps of skin that were attached to his arms and waist flapped ever so slightly. These flaps had once been the main feature of a pair of wings the ancestors of his people had once depended on so much. Now they only offered them a chance to glide short distances or to slow one's fall.

Finally Gareth looked up, his rather large eyes wide open. His ears twitched ever so slightly as he spoke. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we have heard so often of the trials the minions of the dark side must go through to decide where they shall reside here in the afterlife. Yet it is always with the Dark Jedi that the most attention is paid. Almost always we end up hearing that these are the greatest trials we'll ever have. But I am here to tell you that this is not the truth. The greatest trials are those of the Dark Lords of the Sith, trials we could never have.

"Not the apprentices who were given the title merely because, for a period of about a couple thousand years, the Sith were forced to obey what they called the rule of two. One Master and one apprentice. And if the apprentice passed their final test the Master declared them a Dark Lord of the Sith. But before the Sith came to obey the rule of two, the title of Dark Lord was only for those who mastered the dark side. Apprentices could never fully master the dark side. They were always learning more. And yet like a Jedi Master, a Dark Lord still had much to learn once they mastered the dark side.

"Yet the true Dark Lords refused us a chance to truly try these dark side masters. Their funeral ceremonies linked their spirits with the mortal world. Even after the rule of two came to exist, we could not touch the dark side masters as we truly needed to. The Sith funeral ceremonies protected them from ever having to face full justice.

"Now the rule of two is no more. Both Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader became dark side masters. And both took on numerous students. Palpatine, having been a master for much longer than Darth Vader was the greater of the two, far more powerful. Yet he slips through our grasp because he has figured out a way to cheat death. And because he is cheating death, he does not need the protection offered by the Sith funeral ceremonies.

"But Darth Vader never figured out how to cheat death. And he never received the Sith funeral ceremonies. This has brought him before us today. A Dark Lord, master of the dark side.

"The defense will try painting you a sad story of a man who was merely a pawn in Palpatine's plans. They will try to tell you how his redemption out shines the atrocities he committed. But it is all just a story. Anakin Skywalker willingly joined forces with Palpatine, knowing well what he was doing. He had been trained as a Jedi, and as a Jedi he knew where the dark side would lead. Yet he eagerly accepted it's temptations. And he just as eagerly turned on his fellow Jedi, preying on them and justifying his actions by proclaiming the Jedi had betrayed the Republic.

"When it became known that it was he who was hunting his brethren, Anakin fought a near fatal duel with his Jedi Master, a dule he lost. Left to face death, a death he deserved for the betrayal of his fellow Jedi and the Republic he had once sworn to protect, his life was saved by his dark side master. He became more machine than man, he ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became truly became Darth Vader once and for all. Before it had been a mere name for him, not one he was ready to fully live by. Now it was more than a name, it was a life he chose to embrace.

"He ceased to prey almost strictly on the Jedi, using his power to spread fear into the hearts of all in Palpatine's empire. Darth Vader brutally and savagely carried out the Emperor's will. His very name was enough to make people tremble in fear.

"There is no way a man such as this could truly have been redeemed in such a short span of time. He still clings to his evil, hiding it from us so that he may escape the punishment that he so richly deserves. Yet over the course of this hearing, I shall prove to you just how evil a man he still is."

Gareth bowed once more before returning to his seat, leaving the jury mumuring in his wake. And they were not the only ones murmuring. Ulic silenced the courtroom. "The defense will now present their opening arguments."

Tristain got up with less show than Gareth. She gave a simple bow to both Ulic and the jury before moving to stand before the jury. "Ladies and gentlemen, the prosecutor has told you that this is a case of good vs. evil, emphasizing that fact often by pointing out that we have never truly been able to try a full Sith Lord. Yet it is an attempt to blind you. All trials are trials of good and evil. And full fledged Sith Lords, the type Jedi Zurkian calls the masters of the dark side, are not the only ones who can master the dark side. Any student of the Force can become a master of the light side or the dark side.

"We have seen the trials of numerous dark side masters. But the prosecution wants to blind you to this fact because he is more eager to convict a full-fledged Sith Lord. And he believes that if you are blinded to what this trial is about, to what every trial in this life is about, that he will get his conviction.

"But this is more than a mere trial of good versus evil. It is a trial to decide the fate of a man who at the very end of his life found redemption. Already, my client has admitted to having committed acts for which there can be no mercy. Perhaps he is right. Yet the fact is that despite the evil he committed in life, my client never fully gave himself over to the dark side.

"Those who give themselves over fully to the dark side do not want redemption. They want that which they believe the dark side gives them. They release what good is in them, or at the very least they bury it so deeply that they can never again be redeemed. They believe the dark side allows them to heal wounds that are life threatening. But only if they give themselves over to it fully.

"We have seen many trials of those who have given themselves over fully. And some of them have been able to use the dark side to heal life threatening wounds, just as some on the light side have done the same thing using that side of the Force. But only if they give themselves over fully. And the dark side extracts a grave toll. Those who give themselves over so fully waste away. They may live hundreds of years, but they become the living dead. And even in death, they still look like the living dead.

"My client never gave himself to the dark side so fully that he could not be redeemed. As a result, he could never recover from the wounds he received as the result of a duel with his Jedi Master. Though he tried often to use the dark side to heal his broken body. And what was left of his body never showed the signs of wasting away from countless years of using the dark side. Even in death he does not look like someone who spent the better part of his life as a servant of evil.

"This is a trial of redemption. If we overlook that fact, if we convict a man who found redemption because he served the dark side for so long, then we will be saying that the dark side is stronger. Redemption is perhaps one of the finer points of the light side. But by saying it does not mater, we will be saying that only those we can approve of can find redemption. By saying that, we are saying that redemption is not a finer part of the light side, but a law we can apply to those we want to be a part of society, our society. And by doing that, we will be acting no different from those who use the dark side to rule."

As Tristain returned to her seat, the murmuring once more returned. As did Obi-Wan, who silently moved to the front of the courtroom. He bowed quickly to Ulic before taking his seat. Ulic nodded to him and then motioned for everyone to be silent. "The prosecution shall call it's first witness."