In the scorching hot depths of hell Palpatine the Emperor waited. This was his eternity. Darkness. He once loved the darkness. But the heat... the sweltering heat… Fire singed his lungs. This was probably only a tenth of what it was like to be Anakin on that lava bank on Mustafar.
For Palpatine, there was nothing to do in hell except brood. He would brood over the missed opportunities. The fact that he trusted Vader and just as he foresaw his second-in-command would betray him for the boy, Luke Skywalker -- life of the New Jedi Order. Someone he detested with every fiber of what used to be his being now rebuilt what he'd so tactfully destroyed. Everything he used to facilitate Anakin's fall did the opposite for Luke. Love… passion, devotion. These were things Anakin felt at one time for him – their friendship. What he felt for his pathetic senator wife -- Padme and their unborn children.
Love was once his undoing and now it had been used to save him.
What does one do with endless time? Create disturbances outside of the spiritual realm? But how? How would one implement acts of revenge upon the living – more specifically, acts of revenge upon the ones who sent him to this tortuous place?
As he understood it there were three levels of the spiritual afterlife. Force heaven, Force hell, and Force purgatory. He'd not seen Anakin in Force hell. Or else he would feel him. After all, his powers remained. He could even use sith lightening in Force hell. Anakin certainly was unworthy of heaven. Did he wait in Force purgatory?
If he crossed paths with Vader in the after life their meeting would be unpleasant. In the mean time he hoped Anakin suffered for the ultimate breach of Sithdom. LOVE. No Sith should ever be capable of it. Before Luke, he thought he sufficiently killed what was left of the boy's spirit. But Anakin somehow found himself capable of loving Luke after all those years. After all the wars, the battles, the murders...
Arrrrrrgh!
Torture... torture... torture... Palpatine wailed. He was god of the Galactic Empire. But what was he now? An anguished voice in a sea of many.
"You will pay for your for your betrayal Darth Vader..." he mumbled.
And when Palpatine made a promise, he delivered.