Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. It belongs to Disney. I make no money from this story.

Chapter 6: It all began on Tatooine

=KoF=

Part 5

=KoF=

Jabba's palace
Tatooine

There was nothing as refreshing as an exercise in wanton slaughter. It only got better, when the targets more than deserved it. For the first time since finding himself back, Vader felt reasonably calm and almost content. The Dark Side purred around him, seemingly satisfied at the outcome. The pressure building within him from constantly having to hold back and politely deal with fools no longer bothered him, creating a fragile illusion of peace.

That was of course too good to be true. Vader looked away from the brave Overseer, who decided that spiting him was a good idea. The fool was still alive thanks to the Dark Side, though he wasn't enjoying the experience. Today offered a great opportunity to put a few obscure Dark Side disciplines to use after years of theoretical study. Vader's target resembled a more modern piece of art than a living being, and if it still had a mouth, it would be screaming aloud.

Vader smiled at work well done, before crushing the example with the Force and pushing it out of his mind. He had a more important issue to deal with, namely Snips. While she was more than an eager participant in the bout of recreational slaughter, now that the high of combat and the Dark Side ebbed out, she took it a bit hard. Snips sat on the ground covered in blood – none of it her own, Vader noted proudly, singing to herself. She was confused, satisfied at what they did, yet in equal measure horrified. The echoes of the massacre and the Dark Side helped make her feel happy too, resulting in an unstable mix of emotions.

"Snips, hey, it's all right!" Vader announced cheerfully. There was no need to fake how upbeat and alive he felt at the moment.

The quiet singing came to a hitching stop, and Ahsoka looked up at him with huge golden eyes.

"It was just a bunch of slavers and mercenaries, no big loss." He added and offered Snips a hand.

She looked at the outstretched arm, then back at him, and warily took his hand. Vader pulled Snips to her unsteady feet, still wondering how to deal with her.

"Master, what have I done?" Anguish and hopelessness threatened to overwhelm all other emotions struggling within the young Togruta.

"Visit a fresher, clean yourself up, then we'll be off liberating slaves and dealing with slavers," Vader stated the obvious. It was a pity that a few slaves didn't survive the purge. They would have been good assets as far as public perception went.

"What?!" Sheer disbelief momentarily drowned all over emotions. Snips stared at him in incomprehension.

"We achieved our objective here, Snips. Jabba is dead, and we made an example of his minions. Now, we'll be denying the rest of Tatooine's meager resources to the Hutts."

"I… but…" Ahsoka raised a bloody finger as if she wanted to make a point.

"After you get cleaned up, and Rex has enough information about Bestine to craft a useful plan. Our job here is far from done." Vader forged on. He was going with a tried method of focusing on the objective at hand and not thinking about the massacre too hard. It worked for him on Tatooine after all. It might work for Snips as well until he figured out how to approach this mess in the long run.

"We just slaughtered all those people!" Snips snapped.

"Yes, we did. I was right there beside you." Vader nodded slowly. Perhaps a strategy of distraction and misdirection wasn't going to work… "It was liberating, wasn't it?"

"It was awful!" Snips snapped again. Her face twitched, while her confused emotions surged, battling each other. "It felt just! Right! They had it coming!" She spat.

"They certainly did." Vader happily agreed. It had been a very long time since he could slaughter a bunch of those with a legitimate reason.

"Then why do I feel all torn up inside!?" Ahsoka shouted. "Why do I still feel giddy at cutting them down?!"

"That's both the greatest gift and greatest betrayal of the Dark Side, Snips. It allows us to live with ourselves no matter what we did. To even enjoy it. At the same time, if left unchecked, it distorts our perceptions until we're lost. It's an easy thing to happen because when it happens, such distortion can bring comfort." Vader struggled to find the right words.

There was a reason why he was Darth Vader now and forever. It wasn't Darth Vader who walked into the Jedi Temple, and slaughtered misguided fools, even the innocent younglings. It wasn't Darth Vader who choked the life of Padme on Mustafar, causing her untimely death.

It was all Anakin Skywalker under the influence of the Dark Side. And Anakin Skywalker was better off dead.

Snips, on the other hand? She hadn't done a single thing to warrant such a future. Vader didn't want to see a bitter Sith replace her. That was an opportunity for a new start for both of them, for better or worse.

"This makes no sense!" Snips hissed. Her face twisted in an adorable expression of vexation. "What's wrong with me?!" She glared at Vader. "What's wrong with you too, for that matter?!"

"There's nothing wrong with me, Snips. I've merely accepted the Dark Side for what it is. While it doesn't control me, it does influence me. That influence needs to be carefully handled and channeled. It also needs an outlet." He waved at the cooling corpses around them. "Otherwise, we become like all those foolish Sith they taught us about in the Temple. You know what I'm talking about – a name, with an appropriate atrocity attached for effect, and a summary on how the Dark Side led them to ruin."

Snips listened attentively while staring at Vader through narrowed, glowing eyes. Vader returned her gaze, making sure that his own eyes shone with the power of the Dark Side as well. Then he waited to see Snip's reaction.

Righteous anger and frustration rolled off her. Pride and satisfaction collided with outright horror at the slaughter, then twisted under the echo of how enjoyable it was. And there was the fear, squarely aimed at what Ahsoka might become, or what the Jedi might do now that she fell…

A frustrated growl escaped Ahsoka's lips.

"What am I supposed to do now?" She didn't quite whine.

"First, go to a fresher to clean up all that blood," Vader advised. There were more than a few of those free all over the palace. "After that, we're going to talk and plan how to secure Bestine. And figure out how to liberate the slaves there without some overachiever blowing them up. Come one, let's find you a fresher." Vader gently guided Snips out of the room.

=KoF=

Part 6

=KoF=

Jedi Temple

Coruscant

Bubbling water sang a calming melody, echoed from streams and waterfalls all around him. Plo Koon sat in a small secluded glade, hidden by stone arches and blooming vines reaching for the warm light streaming from above. There was only peace there – no trace of the war quickly engulfing the galaxy, or the chaos in the Senate.

The illusion of peace wouldn't last for much longer, the Jedi Master knew. The only reason he had the privilege of such a respite was simple. He was a part of a strike force, formed to face against Skywalker, and bring Padawan Tano home before it was too late. That was all that the High Council could agree on about Skywalker.

What facing him would mean, no one could agree on. Bring him in to help him? Arrest Skywalker and throw him in a cell, then forget about him? Cut him down before he could doom them all? Or merely capture him and leave the courts to decide?

The fact that Skywalker for all intents and purposes left the Order without doing it in person, both muddied the waters legally speaking, and reinforced the belief that he was up to no good. Plo Koon wasn't sure what to think. His primary concern was to fix his mistake before it could harm little Ahsoka.

That was the reason why he was all but hiding in a corner of the large greenhouse. Guilt and sense of responsibility ate at his mental defenses. There was anger too, and Plo Koon did his best to douse it by meditating in the peaceful glade, surrounded by calm currents of the Force.

What was he thinking when he agreed to send Ahsoka to Skywalker in the first place? How could they, how could he, be so blind?!

A distant spike of anger caught the Jedi's attention. Muted echoes of confused and conflicting emotions followed in its wake. No matter how faint, those echoes were familiar. Plo Koon focused on them, seeking Ahsoka in the endless shadowed ocean that was the Force.

Eventually, he found her, following the acute echoes of unhealthy emotions bombarding him. When he did, his heart fell. Plo Koon pushed harder and further in a desperate attempt to do something, to help. Instead, he faced a wall of burning fury, entwined with another, much larger and darker.

The Jedi Master couldn't reach Ahsoka. However, the echoes he received from her sharpened. He could see stilled burning slices of hell.

A large mutilated face – a Hutt brutalized by a lightsaber. An infuriated roar of a primal predator echoed in his head. Armored alien shooting at him, to no effect, terror etched on the odd face.

A Gamorean charging, swinging a large black ax. The same alien pinned to a wall, while the ax rises and falls shearing pieces of bleeding flesh away. Unholy, sickening glee echoes through him with every swing. Hot blood splashes over his face, and the smell beckons to ancient instincts. Savage glee at killing the prey flows through the Jedi.

The vision shifts again. He is in a corridor, gleefully chasing running figures. A Zabrak turns around, her expression a frozen mask of terror. The armored woman shoots twice and a blue blade catches the blaster bolts. One blows a chunk of a dark wall, and the other takes a foot at the knee, bringing the Zabrak down. The blue blade cuts her scream short, replacing it with a happy, childish laughter. It's a familiar sound, one that used to echo in this very glade.

Now it sounds sinister and wrong.

The visions continue to plague Plo Koon, until all he could get is an echo of exhausted and confused emptiness. It is a relief when the torture ends, and the Jedi Master tears himself out of his trance.

Little Ahsoka is lost now, just like Skywalker. Plo Koon saw it, knows it beyond a shadow of a doubt. All he has left is the guild, unhealthy anger burning him from within, and the need to make things right. To end this insanity before it could spread.

The Jedi Master stumbled out of the glade and headed for the distant Council Chamber. The others had to know of their utter failure and the danger they now faced.

=KoF=

Chancellor's private suite

Senate Building

Coruscant

Yesterday was a good day, one of the best Sidious had ever experienced. It rivaled the night he finally murdered Plagueis and finally held the galaxy within his grasp.

The morning began with beautiful echoes of slaughter carrying over the currents of the Force. The odd shroud over the Dark Side veiling even his foresight briefly rose, and it was glorious. Sidious saw his future Apprentice slaughter his way through Jabba's palace right beside the boy's brand new Togruta Acolyte. It was an act of released, unrestrained passion binding Master and Acolyte. The Jedi lost another member, and Sidious just gained another pawn to use.

As soon as the veil fell back, obscuring the ever changing currents of the future, Sidious got out of the bed, where he had been pretending to sleep while meditating. He moved with the energy of a man half his age, super-charged by recent events. His mind shifted through plans and contingencies, searching for the best way to play his hand. He would need to call in Amidala and ensure that the chit of a girl would be in his office when Anakin called with news. The two of them could be each other's chains and in part motivation. It was high time he broke Amidala's childish notions of how the galaxy worked. Perhaps exposing her to some of the dirtiest secrets he knew about how the Republic really functioned could be of use?

That might work, Palpatine decided after entering the fresher and beginning preparations for the day to come. But first, he had to see the girl's mettle and how she would react when she learns about her beloved's latest exploits. One way or another, today he was going to find out for certain if Padme was worth the investment of time to properly turn and keep around.

The Jedi and the military were next on the agenda. Sidious chuckled quietly. Skywalker did exactly what they ordered him to do – make an example of Jabba if the Hutt didn't accept a good deal. The situation was ideal to widen the growing rift between the GAR and the Jedi. It wasn't surprising really. Yet while useful in the long run, the Jedi's outdated notions about how to fight a conflict were now dangerous. With Tyranus obviously going rogue, the Republic could ill afford either Jedi or Senate idiocy.

Plans had to change. It was time to dust off certain contingencies. Once he had Amidala's mettle judged, she would either become a martyr to unite the Republic around, or a shining beacon heralding the coming of the New Order.

=KoF=

If you want to support my writing or discuss this story, see the following links:

Pat re on: Delkatar's writing corner

the space battles forums - this is where most discussion over my stories takes place

the sufficient velocity forums

the alternative history forums