This is a Star Wars Fan Fiction Only.

The three Zabrak finally decided to come out of hiding, Ben looked at the two men and shake his head. "So you sense them through the force. I must say that is something I have only seen one particular species do. I must admit that is impressive."

Imperius didn't look that surprised when they finally decided to come out of hiding, he was if anything upset at their lack of manners. "Mirialian, I know, and since we are currently still technically blind, since it will take a few hours for this condition to clear, I also know of the species of these people, Dathomirian Zabrak, and that would make them two Night Brothers, and one Night Sister. Now young lady why don't you introduce yourself."

She looked at him with a mixture of anger and embarrassment, and she walked closer to Imperius, "My name is Ersis, and these two are my brothers, Savage and Maul. We were not supposed to be found, we were ordered by our master to obtain information about a person pretending to be a Sith Lord, and try to capture the Queen of Naboo."

Vader was glaring at them through his masked helm, "I am no pretender, and you forgot to mention through any means necessary. Which means killing everyone but her. I have a pretty good idea who sent them, but I hate to tell you this I know that man, he considers everyone else to be tools to use in his plans, nothing more, nothing less."

Vader walked up to her, "I know, you don't want to believe me, he promised you knowledge, power, that he would help your kind make Dathomir into a place where your kind would flourish and live better, lies, nothing but lies. Think back as he taught all three of you of the philosophy of the Sith or just one of you and has he taught you to get in touch with the Force, has he even thought you how to use the lightsaber you each have? No."

The three began to look at him with this shocked look on their faces, they each could tell this supposed fake Sith was telling them the truth, and this made them furious that they had been lied to and used, "I know that you three are feeling rage, and I know it is justified, but I do have an alternative, a solution to one day make that liar I just heard about pay."

Nox told them as he began thinking and laughing as he found his idea really funny, Ersis had her hair done in such a way that her horns were not visible, the brother who she introduced as Maul had blood-red skin and no hair, tribal tattoos covered his face and body, Savage's skin was almost orange in color but the only difference between him and his brother was that Savage had some hair done in a long braided ponytail.

"You are currently standing in front of not one but three actual former Sith Lords, Vader, Imperius, and myself, we each can teach one of you, yes, one of you. The rule of two is still very much in effect, only one master, and one apprentice at a time, no more, no less. The fact that he said you three were his apprentices should have been the first clue that he was lying to you."

Maul looked at Ersis and she just nod to show her approval. "Sir, if that is true, who will you accept as your apprentice? And how do you know that we will not use being your apprentice to spy on your activities and report them to our current master? We could even use this to gain your favor and use this to get you to lower your guard and kill you."

Maul was surprisingly straightforward with these declarations, which make his brother shake his head and wonder what is wrong with his brother, Vader simply looked at him, the temperature lowered. "First you never had a master like me, Second, what fool would ever lower their guard? Finally, if you even think about killing me, I will know, and your death would be guaranteed. As for who will I take as an apprentice, I believe I will take Maul if he accepts."

Maul nodded his head and was sitting in front of Vader, "I will take Ersis as my apprentice, she will be safer with me, rather than being near my brother Nox, seeing how she looks, he would waste his time trying to romance her and get her to sleep with him, probably already thinking about establishing a harem."

Ersis sat in front of Imperius while his brother Nox was glaring at him, "I guess that means you are my apprentice Savage, I will have you know brother I am a perfect gentleman, she would have been safe with me, you better be careful or the one that will try to seduce you is your new apprentice."

Imperius didn't look that worried, and so for the next three they were taught the code of the Sith, three hours that the sandstorm outside was raging, and the two brothers recovered their eyesight, carbonite freeze would make a person go blind when they were thawed out of it, after they had spent so many years in carbonite it was only natural that they had to wait longer, and they only recovered thanks to the Force.

When they were finally done teaching their apprentice, they looked at him and told them to meditate, to sit down, quietly, close their eyes, and feel the energy around them, the force was alive, it was an energy that surrounded everything and was in every living thing, the force was there ready to help them do amazing things, the only thing they needed was to get in touch with it, and let it help.

The basic exercise of levitating a small pebble was the first thing they learned, and as each was told, to imagine the pebble being grabbed by a hand, and that hand was lifting the pebble, they each did and when they were told to open their eyes, they each saw that their pebble was floating in the air for a second before dropping to the sand.

Ben looked at Vader and the two brothers, "I have a small ship for myself, Vader arrived on a shuttle from Naboo, and I would imagine these two have no such vessel for them to travel. So how are you both going to travel?"

Ersis looked at them as the three stood up, "We have a shuttle for our use, Imperius and Nox would be welcomed to travel with Savage and me, I gather that Maul will be traveling with his Master, that should give each of us more time to further our training so that we may become more useful to our Masters."

Vader, Imperius, and Nox began to wonder who could they become this loyal from a lesson that was basically taught to acolytes, Imperius looked at her and walked towards her, "You are not understanding my apprentice, you are not our tools or our minions, you three will be our legacy, Death comes for all given enough time, you three will learn our teachings, our ways, and thanks to you they will survive to be taught to your future apprentices."

For some reason, this made the three new apprentices really happy, and Vader did something he has done very seldom in his previous life, behind the masked helm he smiled. Ben having finished taking the pearls from the four dragons, realized these dragons must have been alive for a really long time, normally Krayt Dragons only have one pearl in their gullet, but these dragons each had three.

"Well that takes care of the disposable of these four dead dragons, managed to get everything useful from their bodies, this should be quite useful to you little brother" as he finished he gave Vader a sack with the things he obtained from the dead bodies of the dragons. He simply opened a quantum pocket that he had in his belt and stored everything within it.

Vader simply took one of the pearls and put it in the hand of Ben, "You should know how to tune this as a lightsaber focus, I will do the same with mine. You the man who once tried to call me, calling me brother will be something I will need to get used to. But I doubt you did this as an apology, so what do you want?"

Ben began to laugh and looked at Vader, "If you can manage to keep my fellow Jedi alive, and his apprentice from doing something stupid I would consider that more than enough little brother, and don't worry you will get used to this since I am not going away anytime soon."

As they managed to finally began to learn to come in contact with the force, and each of them taught them their own way of doing things, Nox was more into brute force as a solution, Imperius was more into logic and getting things done cleanly and with the least number of collateral casualties. Vader was strategic, he did not take action until he had at least ten plans dealing with everything that could go wrong.

Savage took the teachings of Nox like a fish to water, Maul had a hard time understanding why Vader with such caution, at first he wanted to accuse him of being a coward, but then when he started to see not just the current lesson but rather the big picture, he realized he was wrong, Vader was not a coward, he was making sure he achieved his goals no matter what happened, which was something Maul understood and respected.

Ersis while trying very hard to according to her two brothers to get into the pants of her master, learned the ways of Imperius, she learned that his way was for some minimalist, for others, it was the embodiment of getting the most results with the least amount of resources or effort, he used the force only when necessary and his judicious use of terror was something that brought a smile to her face.

As the three apprentices swore their loyalty to their true masters it was decided, Maul would go with Vader to learn more of his ways as an apprentice should, and the other two would take their masters to their shuttle. This is what they decided except Ben did not look happy about it one bit.

"If you do things as you plan, you more than likely make Sidious aware that his apprentices have betrayed him, and both Vader and I know how he acts when things don't go his way. He might act rashly and cause even more harm than you can imagine. So I have a better plan, we have quite a few Krayt Dragon Pearls, we could buy them a ship of their own, from a local smuggler or even a Jawa."

Vader began to see where Ben was going with this, "And send these three back to Palpatine telling him the information he obtained about the location of the Queen of Naboo was false, this would enrage him for certain, but it is not out of the realm of possibilities, I suppose the last lesson from us personally will be the Force Connection or the Bond."

Imperius began to laugh when he heard this, both Ben and Vader looked almost surprised to see him laugh, Ersis rushed to his side to ask him if anything was wrong, "Bonds are not taught, they are created, and you have already done that when they accepted your way of thinking, your lessons, and swore a true loyalty oath, you could even feel it if you closed your eyes, you should be able to help and teach your apprentices no matter the distance, and help them as if you were physically standing right next to them."

Vader closed his eye and could indeed feel the presence of Maul and could see that a force bond had indeed been established, "Maul, keep me up to date in your activities, I don't want any secrets between us." Immediately he heard him in his mind saying yes, master.

So the plan of action was determined, the three would still pretend to be the apprentices of Sidious, and report to their master everything they learned, while mentally receiving lessons from each of their masters. Ersis of course was not happy about not being near her master, all those plans to seduce him, all those nights of passion, all wasted.

Vader looked at Ben as the two brothers who left with their apprentices to buy a shuttle for themselves, "Well how do you plan to get around Ben?" He simply looked at him and began to laugh as he heard Vader's question. "I am touched you worry about me little brother, but you don't need to, I was able to win a ship betting against a local smuggler. You know people sure make some crazy bets on the pod races."

This made Vader remember his youth, and it was true, people sure do love making bets on the pod racers. In his youth, Vader had been a pod racer that raced trying hard to win enough money to buy his mother's and his own lives from the junk dealer that currently owned them.

Vader simply clenched his fist and went towards the exit of the cave, "Where are you going now, Vader?" Hearing Ben ask this he simply turned around and looked with him while smiling, "To make an offer to a junk dealer that he can not refuse, I know Qui-Gon probably found Anakin, and I know how the Jedi Order thinks. So I will make certain to get the hyperspace engine and the freedom of those two. Just following your advice Ben, making a bet on the pod race."

He left as he heard Ben laughing, as he walked through the desert it was strange, not a single Tusken Raider had attacked him, not a single one, it was almost like they were letting him through either as a sign of respect or because they feared him. He quickly managed to find Watto's junk shop. He walked towards the flying alien that he as a child had to obey.

"Ah, Welcome, Welcome to my shop. What are you in the market for? I got everything that a distinguished man like you would want or need." He never spoke to him like this before, while made Vader laugh, "I am sure you do, I need a T-14 Hyperspace Engine for a Nubian Ship."

This made Watto smile, he was like a beast that was happy to smell when prey was near, but how wrong he was. "I do have such an engine, and in fact, a Jedi came to ask for it not too long ago, tried that weird magic they do. He lacks the money you see, it is understandable however, they are expensive. Is there anything else you need?"

That is when he saw Anakin cleaning servos and other droid components, "Actually yes, there is, I am finding that I am too busy to take care of the day to day things, and I need to purchase two slaves, that blonde boy seems particularly handy, and just because I need a good cook, I imagine his mother would also be a very good choice."

This made Watto stop smiling, "Those two are my only slaves, which means if you buy the engine, you might not have enough to buy also my slaves since they cost just as much as the engine you desire. So how will you pay for these purchases? Never mind that the boy has a pod race tomorrow."

Vader looked at him, this is more like the Watto he remembered, he basically is telling him getting both the slaves and engine is too much for anyone, so he has to pick one. Vader took something from his belt and gave it to Watto who nearly fell when he saw it. "I believe this perfect Krayt Dragon Pearl more than makes up for my purchases and then some. I will let the boy enter that race since it will probably be his last race."

Watto was now looking at the man almost with a look of both amazement and fear, "Yes, Sir. This does pay for your purchases, and you do not need to worry, I will send my very best droids to install the engine on your ship."

That is when Vader turned on his lightsaber and as he did the roar of a Krayt Dragon could be heard, the crimson blade was pointed at Watto, "You will give me the controller for their slave chips, and do nothing to harm them or try to run away without installing the engine, these two are now mine, and make no mistake I am not a Jedi, I am a Sith, should I find that you attempted to harm what is mine, no dark place in the galaxy will hide you from my wrath."

Watto began to fly in an almost subdue and submissive way, like he was a slave taking to a master, "Sir, Honestly is the basics of commerce, I shall do my very best to make certain my customer is happy with his purchases, a happy customer is often a repeat customer after all. There is no need to threaten a shop owner."

He turned off his lightsaber, and he looked at Watto, "Sith do not threaten, we make promises, and we always keep our promises." Watto flew nearby and gave him the controls for the slave chips but the controls also handled the explosive device in the slaves in case they escape. As he took it in his hand, lightning seem to appear on both of his hands.

This made Anakin drop what he was doing and walk-in amazement to see what the man in armor was doing, Vader saw himself and began to smile, it was almost like finding out you have a little brother, he could not help but to try and be as gentle when speaking to Anakin. "Are you a wizard, mister?" Vader began to laugh when he heard him say that.

"Something like that, so tell me Anakin, are you going to your home?" Anakin simply nodded his head, "Good, how about I walk with you there, I hear that you are the best pod racer in the circuit, I want to hear all about that. I also need to rent a room just for two days, think your mother can help me with that?"

Anakin immediately seems like he was extremely happy to walk with Vader towards his home, Vader thought that the poor younger version of himself was thinking that he and his mother could earn some credits to get closer to buying their freedom. Anakin began telling him about his pod racer which he built with nothing but junked parts of crashed racers. He even told him of the droid he was building to help his mother around the house,

That is when they finally made it to the home Vader knew so well, he knocked on the door and Shmi came out drying her hands on a rag that he kept on the belt of her old clothes, rags really, "Anakin do you know who this gentleman is? Another friend of yours?"

Vader understood that Qui-Gon and Padme were already introduced to her, "Something like that, I need to rent a room for two days, as for who I am, I am the man who has purchased the rights of ownership to you and your son. I believe that a Jedi wished to take Anakin to the Jedi Order, but the very idea of separating a child and his mother permanently with no way to talk with each other does not sit well with me."

That is when Qui-Gon came out of hiding from behind the wall, "I must admit Vader that is something I do not approve of as well, but it has been the tradition of the Jedi Order that it is easier to train someone without emotional distractions. I am guessing from your tone and the fact that you apparently have no apprentice you wish to take Anakin for yourself since you managed to purchase him when I could not."

Vader began to laugh, "We still need to have them see a medical droid to have their implants taken out, and you are quite wrong about that, I insist that Anakin become a Jedi, but under one condition, that you are his master, I will accept no one else, if you are his master I am certain that Anakin will be properly educated."

Qui-Gon could hardly believe what he heard, the look of shock on his face was priceless. "Now where is the handmaiden that came with you, I need to discuss something with her." She came out of hiding from behind Qui-Gon as she heard that, she was smiling, but it was the cold smile of a queen, not a handmaiden, but clearly Padme was not happy about something.

"I am here Vader, what do you wish to discuss with me? Would you not rather talk to the Queen about this? It seems that is awfully important." She was still smiling but he could tell she was being cautious. "Could we please have a little privacy, and could someone tell me where will I be sleeping," Shmi told him to follow her, and she did show him a rather comfortable guest room.

As she left he handed to her a small diamond, and Vader simply told him, payment for him renting the room for two days, Shmi simply nodded and left. "Well Padme now that we are alone, you can relax, I mean you no harm, what I want to discuss with you is giving the woman who just left a position as one of your handmaidens. This will give her the perfect position to be able to see her son even within the Jedi Temple, and the Jedi will not be able to deny her."

Padme simply looked at him for a second, "Lord Vader, how can I assign her the position of handmaiden when I am a handmaiden myself, only the Queen can do that. I agree that would make things easier for Anie and her mother."

Vader looked at her still trying to pretend, he had no more time for such pageantry, "Your majesty, please, I have never insulted you in any manner, please extend to me the same courtesy." That is when Padme stop pretending to be a lowly handmaiden and stood as what she really was, the elected monarch of Naboo.

"Since when have you known I was the Queen, Lord Vader?" Vader simply smiled and looked at her scowling face, "Since the moment we first met, your majesty, your double tends to look at you every so often, almost like she is looking for your approval on a decision she is about to make, the clearest tell, you two might want to rectify that at some point. I am merely helping an innocent boy and his mother."

"Master Qui-Gon Jin told me he attempted to purchase the engine and both of them, but lacked the credits to do so, and yet, you purchased them but what of the engines on for my ship." Vader simply told her that the engines were being installed as they talk, and he also purchased both slaves from the shop owner, Padme simply looked at him and could not believe it.

"How? I mean how did pay for both the engine and the freedom of both of them when a Jedi Master couldn't." He took another pearl from his belt and showed it to her, it was quite clear for her to see. "I hunted Krayt Dragons and I paid with a perfect Krayt Dragon pearl. Honestly considering what I purchased I think I got quite the bargain, and the engines that the droids are installing are a bonus."

Padme looked at him as he put the pearl back into his belt and secured it, it was stored in a quantum pocket, no thief no matter how skilled would be able to breach that, "You are full of surprises Lord Vader, the more I get to know you, the more I am surprised at your actions." Vader saw her walk towards the exit of the room so he followed her.

Shmi was preparing to cook dinner, and so Vader took off his gloves and began to help her by preparing the ingredients, as she accepted the ingredients from Vader Shmi looked at him, "Thank you, for what you have done for me and my boy." Vader seeing the woman that he remembered as his mother so close, fought the urge to hug her, but he didn't because this would send the wrong message.

"Lady Skywalker, it is I who should thank you for letting me live in your home in my time of need. Now, do you need any other help in the kitchen?" Shmi simply smiled and said yes, if he could set the table that would be much appreciated. He began to set the table when Anakin came and began to help him. "Ready for the big race of the season Anakin?"

Anakin simply nodded his head, "Good, cause I am betting on you." Anakin almost dropped a spoon when he heard him, and asked why? Vader simply told him, why shouldn't he bet on the best pod racer in all of Tatooine? This made Anakin laugh. This made the entire kitchen have a feeling he missed so dearly, the feeling of home.

That is when Vader notices two new Force-sensitive coming through the door. Vader is surprised to see Owen Lars and Cliegg Lars and two twin sisters that look a little bit like Shmi Skywalker.