Months had passed as young Ritara continued her Force training and the ways of the New Order under Sidious' tutelage. Her master had begun to focus his intent on the young Jedi Anakin Skywalker coaxing him with information that only he would be privy to, it was not her intent. Her early missions involved a few rogue Separatist underlings to goad into continuing the fledgling Clone Wars after their devastating defeat on Coruscant while General Grievous counseled the primary leaders on Utapau.
It was during a crisp dusk while making repairs to the Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive that a single LAAT landed upon docking bay three-twenty-four of the Senate offices. Ritara knew to keep her attentions away from the four Jedi Masters whose intention to arrest her master she felt in the Force. The Haruun Kal Jedi, Mace Windu followed by the Nautolan Kit Fisto, a Zabrakian Agen Kolar and Iktochi Saesee Tiin disembarked from the LAAT, unaware of the Force-sensitive in their midst. Moments later, she felt a sudden pulse in the Force, as if the fury of a thousand Jedi Masters echoed across the Senate halls in Palpatine's offices.
Her mind filled with a sense of accomplishment as the lesser Jedi Masters were snuffed from existence in a matter of minutes. She felt her Master sparring with Mace Windu for what seemed like hours, during which, the rush of midichlorians in her body foretold of Anakin Skywalker landing on a docking bay above her, then suddenly, the lives of Jedi were erased. A brooding sense of victory flushed into her body as she ceased her repairs to focus on the telepathic resonances of her Master assigning his Executor, Darth Vader.
Vader would only become the muscle behind the new Empire, assigned to more militaristic tasks while her goals would require a more covert approach. During the rise of the Empire after the execution of Order Sixty-Six, her missions were focused on the rising Rebellion that formed in the Senate; convincing Senators or otherwise removing their bodies in a cover-up of accidental motives. Darth Vader was assigned to the more influential tasks of hunting Jedi that escaped the clone revolution, of which she was not qualified.
One such mission placed of high level importance that the founder of the Alliance to Restore the Republic was discovered to be Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan; one of whom that Palpatine had suspected shortly before he became Emperor. Upon further investigation Ritara discovered that her own senator from Naboo, Padmé Amidala had also founded this alliance. Her mission had been to assassinate Organa and the top leaders of the Alliance including Mon Mothma.
Corellian Senator, Garm Bel Iblis discovered that the Millennium Falcon, assigned as a gift from his planet to Naboo had never returned to the custody of the Royal Family. Suspecting theft and the sightings of a similar ship used around other mysterious disappearances, Bel Iblis suspected the pilot had been responsible. Fabricating evidence to clear the Alliance, Ritara had been duped by her own mission into a paper trail of forged documents and alibis of which her own Master had never suspected in his arrogance.
As the months passed further, Ritara had become noticeably hampered. Fearing detection, Emperor Palpatine assigned her to his home on Naboo to deliver her child; a child with the potential to become her successor. Within the medical confines assigned by the finest of Imperial doctors, Ritara Jade gave birth to a healthy daughter. Adopting her second half of her codename as her surname, she named her daughter Mara Jade. The child bore many striking resemblances to her physicality including her emerald eyes and fire-shorn hair. During a furlough of a standard year, Ritara grew to love her own child, replacing her love for the Empire as a need to raise her daughter apart from her teachings.
Palpatine feared this decision. Under the cover of night, Ritara fled with her child toward Theed similar to her fashion she made over a year ago with Teek. This time, Palpatine did not plant this as a ruse. Palpatine assigned Darth Vader to the task of eliminating the rogue assassin, sensing potential Force-abilities with the offspring, she was to be spared. News of Vader's arrival on Naboo triggered fear amongst the Senate. Rumors spread of Naboo's allegiance towards the Empire when the menacing hulk of metal and man presided onto Naboo.
The once powerful Jedi, who betrothed the former Queen reflected upon his time as Anakin Skywalker. This was the home to the woman that he lost, the woman he loved, the woman he sold his soul for. There was no time for recollection; he had a mission to complete. Vader's Theta-class shuttle came under the dead of night, the cold blackness as pitch as his armor. Thousands of distant stars fluttered on this moonlit night paled by both of Naboo's moons.
No stormtroopers accompanied him, for this was Vader's assignment alone. The Emperor had entrusted Ritara with the loyal devotion to her Empire, but she has now betrayed her liege into hiding. Her ignorance must be met, and his Executor was assigned with this simple task. Mechanical breathing formed a sense of ominous prelusion piercing the crisp autumn air of this Naboo night. Stretching from Vader's sinister mask, his breaths formed sinister ripples amongst the stillness.
Feeling his way using the Force, Ritara was not difficult to find. His cold, raven boots clamored upon the stone walkways towards the small hovel that Ritara had secluded inside for the past few months. Startled from her slumber, she awoke in her nightgown flowing to her ankles of cerulean seas whipping during her flight towards young Mara's bedroom. She felt Vader's presence in the Force knowing the Executor was near. Mara Jade, barely reaching a year of age stretched her swaddling-clothed arms from her crib toward her mother. Before she could reach the toddler, the sound of a thousand wooden splinters shattered into the hovel from the metallic boot of the machine.
A cold, calculating killer efficient in the manners of the dark side, trained in his youth by a Jedi Master clamored upon her abode. His murders were unremorseful and had rumored to have slaughtered Jedi younglings upon his turn to the dark side. Rumors be true, Ritara would defend her daughter's life to her death. Ritara gazed into the unwavering, raven eye sockets of Vader's death mask. The menacing rasps scared her toddler into a loud wail as a lightsaber blade of crimson erupted to Vader's side.
Ritara withdrew her child from her arms, back into the crib. Her icy stare gazed beyond her fiery hair in a futile attempt to persuade Vader using the Force. Vader was unflinching; the ripples in the Force she threw at him caused a glimmer of laughter inside his charred heart.
Vader would allow her to try, hoping that her skills would succumb and her death would become less painful to her. Vader only had to murder her, taking her child towards the Emperor's tutelage as commanded. That is the way of the Empire, the way of the Hands of the New Order. Death is the ultimate loyalty where even in death; Ritara Jade would prove loyalty or be sacrificed for the cause.
Ritara turned towards her child to cover her sight from the horrifying visage who stood before her. She looked at her lovely child who shared the same physical features; a tear strode down her soft, pale cheeks. A final moment, a tender moment, the Empire was forever.
Crimson-colored light punctured Rité's backside, exiting through her stomach. A stunned shock echoed upon her face, her eyes filled with a single tear. The odor of scarred, cauterized flesh emanated as the acrid air of war. The light blade retracts from Rité's lifeless body slumping onto the ground. A single tear plops onto her face from another soul as the humming reverberations from the lightsaber pounded as it were the drums of death.
History, the past, flowed through the Force as she touched upon the spirit of her lost lover. The lover she sacrificed in the name of loyalty, young Mara's father. A thought from Teek's life flushed into her mind as she heard his distant echoes calling for her through the Force. Teek appeared before her face, holding her one last time in his arms as she lay dying from the crackling hum of Vader's Sith blade.
"MOOOOOOMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Mara Jade wailed as Vader's hulk disengaged his lightsaber, the words penetrating Anakin's soul.
Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One doomed to a life of servitude from birth gazed toward Mara Jade interrupted by crimson-hued optics.
Anakin, you're breaking my heart!
Padmé's voice punctured the icy, darkened heart of Vader's remaining soul as young Mara ended her wail cooing at the raven hulk before her. Anakin Skywalker cocked his helmeted head as he reached toward her with one, raven-gloved finger. Her small arms reached back toward his finger, grasping it as her tears and mucus began to dry.
Annie, I want to have our baby back home on Naboo…
Anakin Skywalker reveled in being a father so much so that he forfeited his life towards the cause of the Sith in order to save his family from harm. The toddler before him reflected in his soul the laughter and playfulness that he shared with Padmé the moment after their first kiss, rolling in the hills next to her Lake Country retreat. The child he never knew, the child that was forbidden by the Jedi Code would have shared these memories.
Padmé was no more, his child he never knew died with her. His presence on Naboo stabbed at his heart in the manner in which he killed Ritara Jade. Cold, ruthless, unnerving; his breathing rasped from a dark void. Anakin Skywalker and all remnants were dead as Rité Jaderrie.
Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith and loyal servant of the Galactic Empire clasped the young Mara Jade into his arms. He carried Mara Jade into his arms as being the father he never was into the awaiting landing ramp of his shuttle perched in Theed Square. Mara Jade was property of the Empire, a child by decree that born on Naboo would be trained by Darth Sidious as was the case with her mother. Engines whined, lifting Vader's shuttle from the stone courtyard towards the night. The icy blackness consumed the shuttle as it left Naboo's atmosphere towards the awaiting Victory-class Star Destroyer, Gallant in orbit above the planet.
The wedge-shaped hull rotated away from the green, blue orb of Naboo. The glowing azure engines fired at maximum velocity as the craft entered hyperspace towards the Core. Vader's assignment was finished. Ritara, the defective operative was slain and her daughter, a Force-sensitive would become the Emperor's new servant. Mara Jade: loyal to the Emperor, trained from a toddler's age in the ways of the Force and devotion; a devotion that would become difficult to break.
Even Vader could not foresee the fate that Mara Jade would hold for the Empire or for his own lineage. Mara's future held keys to Vader's own past, a past that the son he would later discover would unravel. The Force would bind the two beings together in its own right. For now, however, the dark side permeated the galaxy, a galaxy controlled by the Master of both; Darth Sidious.