Captain Thrawn waited patiently near the airlock where Darth Vader's landing craft would soon arrive, knowing that when Vader stepped out onto Vengeance, the black-armored Sith would certainly kill him for the mistake. He had planned his demise efficiently; a simple explanation of the Rebel deception that he had fallen into and a sincere apology for losing far more Imperial ships and crewmen than was truly necessary for the operation. He expected that he would be halfway through his explanation before he found his throat constricted by this Force Vader frequently used.
"Lord Vader," he began as the airlock hissed open almost simultaneously with the sound of a mechanical intake of breath from the former Jedi.
"I will expect your report on the battle before we arrive at Coruscant, Captain," Vader replied as he stepped onto the deck of the warship. With no further words, Vader continued his march towards his personal chambers. Thoughts ran through his head as he walked towards his destination. They were mostly about how what had been said under an hour ago could be true.
"I? I couldn't have! She was alive! I felt it!" Those words spoken nearly two decades previously reverberated inside of his mind as he still struggled to come to grips with the recent revelation. A part of him struggled to deny the truth of what the tortured Dodonna had stated. After all, how reliable is he information gained from torture? Reliable enough. As he neared his chambers, Vader did his best to push all of this new information aside. He needed to be able to hide this new information from the Emperor.
"Lord Vader," the scarred and wrinkled face of Emperor Palpatine said as the holographic image flickered into life two minutes later, "I take it the subjugation of Yavin 4 went well?"
"Yes, my master," Vader replied as he kneeled. "Our attack force was able to drive the rebels out of their base. They were ready for us, however. I did not foresee the ambush we were being led into… The Ravager was lost, as were several Victory-class Star Destroyers. In retaliation, we were able to capture or kill several of their ground forces. Captain Thrawn's report will have far more details than I am able to report at the present."
"Very well, my apprentice, I shall see you upon your return to Coruscant."
"I was going to request a sabbatical, master," Vader replied.
"To follow up on that lead about a surviving Jedi, I assume?"
"No master. Bast Castle."
The spire of Bast Castle seemingly jutted out of a metallic extension of a cliff as Vader's TIE fighter flew towards it. The dark clouds of Vjun's sky continued to send forth their deadly acidic rain that could kill an unprotected organic being within a minute. The acidic rain was harmlessly pelting the advanced prototype that Vader was flying, just as it would harmlessly effect the armor that Vader required to live.
With a simple keyed in command, the doors to the spacious hangar were opened, allowing Vader access to his retreat. He docked his TIE Advanced into one of the open spots and was happily surprised at the lack of any crewbeings that rushed towards his ship to refuel it and perform routine maintenance. There were a few droids, however, that moved around the hangar floor in their own unique ways. An R3 unit rolled next to a GONK power droid as the latter droid continued its recharging duty of several needed components.
Vader climbed out of the cockpit of his fighter and took a turbolift down towards the floor of the hangar and towards his training room.
A simple press of a button caused a sealed door to open on the other side of the room from Vader's position. A second passed before three yellow lightsaber blades sprung into existence from inside of the small room. A fourth potential assailant remained completely motionless as its brethren moved into the wide-open room. Another press of a button caused four large pillars to rise up out of the ground, providing several potential areas for an ambush in the arena. Vader removed the lightsaber from his belt and ignited it, causing the red blade to emerge from the hilt. Upon hearing the sound of their opponent's lightsaber igniting, the three lightsaber wielding droids quickly reacted by moving into attack position.
The three droids dispersed throughout the room, trying to surprise the opponent that they (or any of their predecessors) had never been able to get the best of before. One of them entered Darth Vader's field of vision, a red and nightmarish mockery of normal humanoid sight, causing the Sith to raise his lightsaber into a simple defensive position. Servomotors in the arms and wrists of the droid caused the lightsaber to blur as it began to spin. The anger that had been slowly rising inside of Vader's mind was unleashed upon his metallic opponents.
A wild swing from Vader's lightsaber cut a small slice into a column as the droid quickly moved out of the way of the red beam of destruction that threatened to damage him once again. The droid swung his lightsaber towards his opponent, at the same time noting the positions of his allies as they closed on their mutual opponent.
Vader easily blocked the droid's swing after a very brief struggle to free his lightsaber from the column. A surprisingly fluid turn from Vader caught the second droid's lightsaber with his own before the blade could sink into the black armor. A powerful attack by Vader swung towards the droid and nearly knocked the attached lightsaber out of the droid's hand. Before Vader could press further upon his attack, he had to quickly deflect another incoming attack from the first droid. From the side came the third droid, ready to join in on the battle.
As Vader moved away from his three robotic opponents, he could almost see the droids take the appearance of those he hated the most. The first droid resembled the current form of Obi-Wan Kenobi; a seemingly weak old man who hid his true powers and evil under a simple guise of a trusted friend, not unlike his other opponent. In his mind's eye, the second droid resembled the hooded visage of his own Master. I should have decapitated him when I had the chance, Vader thought. It would have been easy, and he would have let me, Vader remembered that day when he had the chance to prevent all of this from happening. He could have killed Palpatine and prevented this whole mess from happening.
The final droid was the most startling image of all. Dressed in black robes was a younger version of himself. The scariest thing about this vision, however, was the fact that he couldn't tell whether or not the figure represented Anakin Skywalker or Darth Vader. "Obi-Wan" charged towards Vader with surprising speed, lightsaber arcing overhead to strike at Vader. Vader moved his own lightsaber onto its side to block the strike, then quickly reacted to a stab attempt by "Sidious" by swiping the incoming blade away from his body. His anger directed at these three individuals made him far more powerful than he normally was. The mental image of himself joined in on the fight, sending several quick strikes towards Vader. A quick slash to the neck of "Obi-Wan" caused the droid to drop to the floor, sparks emitting from its short neck.
"Sidious"' attack coincided with another attack by the other image, causing Vader to spin around to avoid the two attacks. A powerful stab caught "Sidious" in the chest, leaving Vader alone with the mirror image of himself. Mentally, Vader could see the eyes of his opponent flickering from blue to yellow as it approached him. The two lightsaber blades clashed with a sound that echoed throughout the room as Vader dueled the droid.
The droid, oblivious to the mental struggle that was going on inside of his opponent, initiated Attack Pattern Gamma III, a series of maneuvers that was composed of quickly spinning the lightsaber in a circle to make the opponent wary, and then follow through with a small set of powerful diagonal swings towards the opponent. Like he was supposed to do, Vader slowly backed away from the whirling dervish as it approached him.
Seeing the mirror image of himself heading towards him, Vader's hatred consumed him. What he was fighting against was the real enemy, the real cause of everything that was wrong. It was unfortunate that Vader still couldn't tell which version of himself he was fighting. Raising his free left hand towards his enemy, Vader unleashed his anger. A bright orb of dark side energy formed from his mechanical hand and was soon released upon the figure.
The bright orb hit the droid in its chest and it drove it towards the wall. The resulting explosion sent a deafening sound throughout the room, and sent up loads of durasteel debris. As Vader's vision cleared, he viewed the destruction caused to the room; one of the metallic columns was severely damaged, one of the droids he had destroyed with his lightsaber was damaged beyond repair while the one hit with the orb of Force Destruction was part of a pool of rapidly cooling slag inside of the impact crater. Using the Force to push a button on the thankfully still functioning control panel, Vader summoned a repulsorsled in which he put the body and the severed head of the droid. The rest of the mess would have to be cleaned up at a later time.
He pushed the repulsorsled into the small work area he had prepared. Gently clearing parts to a golden protocol droid away to make room for his newest project. Vader was reaching for the tools needed to repair the partially mangled training droid when the fatigue finally hit him. The long flight from Vengeance to Vjun had sapped a lot of energy from him, but the technique he had just used was very exhausting, far more exhausting than any other Force technique he had used before. Vader uttered a curse as he replaced his tools and placed a cloth across the droid to prevent dust from accumulating in it.
Inside of his meditation chamber, Vader could finally rest. He could also meditate on all of the revelations that had occurred. He hoped to find some explanation from the Force about how this whole "Luke Skywalker" business was possible. Inside of the sanctuary of his meditation chamber he was allowed the freedom to actually regret the things he had done. It was unfortunate that far too often the regret turned into anger and hatred. It was no different that night; save for the fact that the anger came into being slightly later than it usually did…