I somehow lost a large chunk of this chapter's intro so sort of improvising at the moment, regardless, enjoy!
Recruiting Lilith had not been all that difficult for Lord Vader, slaughtering her undead abominations in seconds then offering to teach her how to do the same with a lightsaber to her throat was apparently enough for the blood stained, and nearly naked girl to jump on board.
Notably with a manic toothy grin and a mad glint in her eye, that which...probably should have been Vader's first clue that this apprenticeship was going to be rather unconventional.
As it stood it had taken three months to realize what he'd gotten himself into, and Force damn it all realize it he did.
With that thought Darth Vader turned his helmed visage towards his apprentice as she floated about the room, her legs elegantly crossed beneath her. The raven haired teenager had her hands resting in her lap and remained completely still as every object in the room orbited about her lazily, her presence in the Force a scar of serene hatred.
It was a dichotomy that had taken some time to fully understand and rationalize but the Dark Lord of the Sith finally understood what Lilith Potter was, and it both intrigued and slightly worried him. She took every raw, dark, malice laden emotion she felt and fed it back into herself instead of venting it like a typical Sith, as these emotions flowed back into her core she intermingled them with thoughts of love, devotion, and happiness effectively neutralizing them.
Simply put, she was completely unaffected by the dark side, where a normal Acolyte would be unnaturally pale and yellow eyed after the acts they had committed she simply looked...bored. There was a complete and utter disconnect to the lives she snuffed out, as if they did not, had not, and never would have mattered; this was a clear sign of a sociopath Vader knew, but she was not such.
No, she did not lack compassion for her fellow sentients, bring up her adopted father Severus, her Aunt Bellatrix, her intended Hermione, and the girl would gush with so much love that it was sickening. Yet still she would torture a prisoner for hours and act as if she were simply taking a brief stroll through the park watching the birds, blandly interested while not really caring about the end result otherwise.
"So," she stated in a serene tone breaking the comfortable silence, "When are we killing the Emperor and taking over this Empire for ourselves? Cause I gotta say we've got a good thing going here but it could be better."
Also, she didn't lack for ambition either.
"We live to serve the Emperor my young apprentice, thinking such thoughts, much less speaking of them is an act of treason," she snorted and opened her eyes only long enough to roll them for his benefit before replying.
"Don't give me that shite Papa V, I put security wards up, Grampy Palps won't be able to hear a thing we're saying," shaking his head in resignation Vader lifted his hand to summon a table and chair out of the air placing them before him. Taking a seat he stared at the still floating girl for a few moments in contemplative silence.
"Do not ever call me that again, and why do you believe I want to rule the Empire?" Much to his surprise all of the orbiting objects fell to the ground at once as the girl landed on her feet hands resting on her hips, the posture reminded him of Padme and he felt a disquieting pang of regret that he quickly snuffed out.
"Why wouldn't you want to be in charge? Besides the Emperor resembling Rumpelstiltskin falling face first into a flash fryer he's a creepy manipulative bastard that only cares for himself! I've been with you on the field, your men practically worship you because you give a damn about them! Sure sure you kill the random bloke for being an incompetent but regardless you have the military's respect, and the Emperor is only Emperor because he said so. You can be Emperor because your people want you to be."
Her impassioned rant actually had Vader thinking about his many plans; he had long ago realized Palpatine had used him, played Anakin Skywalker's naivete to gain his friendship and trust, all to turn him into what he now was. Now though it was too soon, far too soon to make a move, too many plots needed to play out, too many loose threads needed to be snipped, and too many rebellious factors needed to be brought to a decisive end.
"Be that as it may my willful apprentice, we have a part to play for the time being, and play it we shall. You are still young, impudent...irreverent even. Yet we must temper you before we make any bold moves, you have potential, but you are not quite ready to take up my roll at the moment." Rather then being angry she seemed immensely pleased as she summoned a chair for herself and settled next to the Dark Lord.
"Good...you're not against the idea, I'm glad I didn't consign myself to being the apprentice of a man without ambition... That being said, what do we do until we're ready to take what is ours?"
Vader resisted the urge to laugh, this girl...
"I am leaving to give orders to my 'apprentice', I felt you would find it...amusing if you were brought along, to learn better how to toy with our pawns."
Lillith's eyes glowed faintly as a wide toothy grin spread across her face, "Oh Lord Vader, you know exactly what to say to a girl to gain her interest..."
"Holy shite," the young woman stated as the TIE fighter factory shuddered from a series of internal explosions, massive swaths of its outer haul tearing away from its frame work, falling towards Nar Shaddaa.
Vader stood impassively as he observed the holo, a moment later he nodded his agreement, "Quite, Starkiller certainly lacks..."
Lilith raised her hand as if to answer a question in class as she hopped on the balls of her feet, "Oh oh lemme guess, 'Subtlety' he lacks anything resembling stealth. Him being your 'secret' apprentice must have really inspired him to keep things on the down low."
Vader turned his head to glance at the girl a moment, then cuffed her on the back of the head sending her sprawling to the deck.
Grumbling out, "Arse," she stood back up rubbing her head whilst giving him the two finger salute.
"For your impertinence," he stated flatly before turning back to the projector, a moment later he sighed in resignation as he admitted his agreement, "And you would be correct. I honestly did not think he would actually let anything happen to the facility, still I-" He was cut off as the factory exploded, sending massive chunks of debris to gently fall to the moon below at terminal velocity to kill tens of thousands in the following impacts.
Lilith stared at the image in silence before turning back to her teacher, "I think you should teach me how to make my own laser sword and start sending me out on missions... It may cost our future Empire less in the long run,"
Vader desperately wished he could rub his brow as he nodded in return.
"A good idea my young apprentice, I have a few crystals I had been saving that you can pick from, something tells me you wouldn't be content with the Sith standard."
She snorted, her teacher's earlier punishment completely forgotten in light of receiving new toys of mass destruction, "Red isn't my color clashes with my eyes, violet though..."
Neither Master or Apprentice paid any attention to the multi-kiloton detonations swathing across the planet on the holoprojector before them as the factory's debris struck home.
It was after all now old news and beneath their interest.
After Starkiller received his new orders and prowled out of the room Lilith couldn't help giving a mock clap as she walked from the shadows to stand next to the Dark Lord, who ignored her at first as he rolled Kota's lightsaber along his open palm deep in thought.
"Laying it on a bit thick don't you think big guy?" Vader turned to the girl and looked down into her mirth filled eyes, despite the seriousness of the situation he could not but help letting out a small snort of amusement.
"As I told you a few days ago my apprentice, we have roles to play, and we must play them, Starkiller is if nothing else stubborn and dislikes being proven inadaquete. Thusly-"
She waved her right hand to the side giggling lightly, "Thusly telling him he's probably going to fail, die, and never achieve his destiny will probably net us faster results, right?"
Vader nodded once in approval, "Quite right young one, here, catch."
With that the startled girl caught the recently defeated Jedi's saber, the large weapon looking out of place in her dainty hands as she fumbled with it.
"We will be staying here for the foreseeable future, I have reserved a room for you near my mediation chambers. In it you will find a workbench and a Sith Holocron that will guide you in the construction of your first saber."
She frowned a moment before pouting lightly, "I thought you were going to teach me how to do it yourself?"
Vader reached over and tapped his finger against the lightsaber in her hands, "We learn by doing, this is now yours, take it apart, learn the inner workings, and when you can put it back together without having parts left over you will know what to do."
She stared at the saber a few more moments before turning back to her teacher, "Very well Lord Vader."
She turned to leave the room and halfway to the door he called out to her a final time, "Lilith, if at any point you grow...frustrated with lack of progress, do not hesitate to seek me out for advice, this is not a punishment, rather I have...faith in your skills."
Much to his surprise the young teen blushed and quickly turned away as she hurried for the exit, "Thank you, Lord Vader, I will keep that in mind."
As the doors slid shut behind her Vader simply shook his head falling back into his thoughts of the past while muttering, "Why have I actively agreed to take on another Ahsoka... I'm sure you're laughing at me right now... Padme..."
It had been a week since Lilith had sequestered herself off in her room and Vader admitted he was mildly concerned with her single minded desire to build her first lightsaber; it was almost as if his vote of confidence had compelled her to finish as fast as possible. Which was not a good thing, a poorly assembled lightsaber was more or less a frag grenade after all and that would be... bad for everyone involved.
It was with this thought in mind that he overrided her rooms lock and opened the door without announcing himself and immediately regretted it.
There was some sort of... well... arguably it was music but Vader considered it noise more then anything playing loudly as a wave of heat cascaded by. In the center of the room stood Lilith in what might have generously been called too short shorts and a tank top, her sweat soaked form leaving nothing to the imagination.
The focus of her attention and the source of the rooms heat was a raw materials smelter, and he could only watch mesmerized as she chanted to herself, drawing molten metal from the cauldron and forming it into shape in the air above her.
He didn't know how long he stood there and watched but by the time she was finished the young Sith acolyte looked like she was about to collapse, shakily guiding the now cooling item to a quenching vat she allowed it to fall into the oil with a resounding hiss. With a flick of her hand she guided the smoking black cylinder into a heat treating oven and slammed it shut, a moment later her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed to the floor.
Sighing Vader reached his own hand out and caught her, guiding her to a couch he gently dropped her sweat soaked form on the cushions as he turned back to the smelter, deactivating it with a gesture. More curious then not he picked up a piece of the left over metal and hefted it a moment in surprise.
Beskar? Well, she was certainly ambitious he'd give her that, it was lightsaber resistant and could effectively shake off blaster hits if forged correctly, which knowing how much of a perfectionist she was...
"Were you staring at my arse?" A tired voice asked from behind him, turning around he met a pair of exhausted but amused emerald eyes staring at him from beneath a sweaty mop of black hair.
Quite used to her behavior at this point his reply was quick as he dryly stated, "Of course, because I am in the habit of ogling fifteen year old girls."
She smiled in return before letting her head collapse back to the couches arm.
"Technically sixteen...it was a timey whimey thing back in my third year, I'm guessing you're curious to what I've been up to?"
He nodded once as she gently pushed herself into a sitting position, "I lifted a piece of Beskar'gam off a merc I wacked on that backwater you found me on. At the time I tossed it into my expanded bag simply because fiendfyre barely heated it up, very magical, and in turn Force resistant."
Vader really wanted her to properly explain how she warped space time like that, with her teleporting place to place and ability to fold reality in on itself. She had tried breaking down the specialized base 7 mathematics involved before but it was a bit of a chore for a teenager with a short attention span. Especially a teenager who was far more interested in blowing things up and regularly given an outlet to do just that.
"Anyway," she continued unabated, "the holocron you left me told me that the Sith used to forge artificial crystals for themselves as they willed their own life essence into its creation, so I took it a step further and have been doing the same thing for all my sabers parts."
She tiredly jerked her head at the oven, "That's the last part of my off hand's casing, my main hands is on the desk, almost finished with that one just need the crystal." Impressed Vader approached the desk and stared down at the partially dissembled hilt, it was almost organic looking, the entire surface carved with complex knotwork. On further inspection he realized each of the knots were actually snakes, the beautiful work broken only by the activation stud and charging port.
"So you decided to go through with duel wielding?" He asked lightly, she had made her way to his side despite looking like she wanted nothing more then to fall into a coma for the next month nodding slowly.
"Yeah, I've been trained with enchanted, pardon, Force imbued swords and glaives since I was a kid, they were practically weightless and being ambidextrous I gave it a shot and found myself pretty damn good at wielding two weapons at once. I figure it'll give me an advantage that most people won't be expecting."
Vader made a none committal noise as he reached into a belt pouch and dropped a scintillating crystal into her hand.
"I did some research and these crystals make for a rather...interesting blade color, I felt that you would approve," smiling down at the small gift she turned her happy gaze up to her teacher.
"What is it?"
Picking up the near finished hilt he handed it to her and she quickly began setting the gem in place,
"A corusca gem, an incredibly rare stone formed in the heart of a gas giant, one that size could pay for a new Star Destroyer," grin widening Lilith locked the saber down and extended her arm.
Double clicking the activation stud a beam of dark green energy ignited filling the room with an unwavering thrum of power, gaze widening she turned to the Dark Lord who nodded once, "It reminded me of your eyes, I see I was not wrong."
Deactivating the blade she rushed forward and pulled the most terrifying living sentient in the galaxy into a tight hug. Darth Vader awkwardly patted her back until she released him and began cackling as she rushed into the center of the room reactivating the blade swinging it about experimentally.
Once she had gotten that out of her system he tossed a final stone to her and she caught it offhandedly, "What's this?" She asked still staring at her sabers blade with a mesmerized smile.
"You said you wanted a violet blade, I thought you'd find some irony in using the crystal I pried from the destroyed saber of the first Jedi I helped kill," smirking she nodded once as she replied.
"You do know me well My Lord, hmm, what was her name?" Not resisting it Vader actually laughed, it was a terrifying sound,
"His name was Mace Windu."
Her nose crinkled cutely as a single eyebrow rose, "Was he a poofter? I mean a bloke swinging around a purple saber? Really? Not that I have anything against it, you know dating a witch and all, just a bit odd to advertise it with how uptight the Jedi were is all."
Vader had to remain silent for fear of actually losing it before his apprentice, if that old hypocritical bastard could hear this... Shrugging she went back to the desk and placed the crystal next to the other unfinished hilt components, "Well regardless if he liked playing back pocket wand holster I appreciate the gift Lord Vader, now if you don't mind...I need some sleep."
He nodded as he turned to leave, then stopped, "A shower first, please, I can smell you through my filters," her response was to extend her fore and middle fingers while yelling out "Oy!" He had no idea what that meant, but it was likely rude, thus he ignored it. Leaving his apprentice to her own devices he returned to his mediation chamber and settled into the single available chair.
He would admit to no one that he was smiling the entire time.
