The Dark Side surrounds me like a thick blanket as I move through the lower streets of Coruscant, desperately running to get away from Han and my family in this state I'm in. My mind is a turmoil of thoughts and emotions as I try to come to terms with what happened, what I had seen. I have been running for hours through the dark under city. So distraught I don't even notice the many people I have run by, the beautiful night skyline, or the hustle and bustle of the city.
I push past them all not knowing or caring that they are there. I travel deeper and deeper into the lower city lost in my thoughts. The visions I had witnessed flash through my mind with every step I take burning into my soul. I choke up and tears fill my eyes as I picture Han, the dark temptation I had experienced and his death in the vision.
Had I seen the future? No....NO I would not kill my husband, under any circumstances. I will not let that happen. Even as I say that I can't help but picture the look on his face in the vision, the love he held even as he died. Han....oh force what had I just done to him? I was only trying to get away but I knew in my heart that I had hurt him badly. I had used the Dark Side to hurt the one I loved the most, I sob and continue running through the lower streets going ever further into the depths.
I see my children from the vision dressed in black standing with me. I know all three of them are powerful, as powerful as me even. I want them by my side when I rule the new Empire but I also know the dangers of that, the dangers of betrayal. The reason no Sith has ever taken more than one apprentice at a time. But none of the other Sith trained their own children from a young age like I will with them. I know I can break them of that with the right training and upbringing. But Revan's words echo in my mind.
'Any master who instructs more than one apprentice in the ways of the Dark Side is a fool'
My children will be Sith, but they will not betray me. I will make sure that never happens. We will rule the galaxy together as one united family. That is our destiny.
I recall the visions of war and burning planets with frightening clarity, conflict that will threaten to tear the galaxy apart. I felt the inevitability in this and I know my Empire will be challenged. I will have to start making preparations to confront that scenario. With the Empire behind me in power on Coruscant I know I will be able to build a great military, far greater than anything Palpatine could have imagined. I will root out the incompetency from the ranks and create a truly elite fighting force. My name will be feared by everyone under my command.
But what about Vader's presence in the vision? I will never be like that monster, I will not fall the way he did. I won't make his mistakes, I won't abandon my family. No...I will stay true to the Sith way, I must or all I have worked for will be lost. I will not make Vader's weakness my own.
I continue to ponder the visions and their meaning. I am certian the force showed me these things for a reason, but I just can't figure out what that reason is. A sign? A warning? Surely they were only possible futures though? I will never do that to Han ever. I tell myself this repeatedly but it brings no comfort. My mind keeps going back to what happened earlier.
The Dark Side....I had never felt it the way I had earlier with Han. That dark call, I shudder just remembering it. I had come so close. The Dark Side has never done this to me before. Sure I get a rise out of killing Jedi (my enemies) but my loved ones? It felt like I had no control at all, I was afraid of this turn in the darkness. I can not let this continue, I know I will lose my mind if it does. I pull out of my thoughts and stop to regain my composure, wiping away several tears from my face. I look around and gather my surroundings.
Great, I have no idea where I am. It's some dirty dark street in the lower city, an area I have never been through (even in my training with Revan). I keep going at a slower pace, much more alert now than I had been. The street is lined with run down, dilapidated buildings, many of them covered in graffiti. I take in the various sentients loitering around as I walk. There are several Humans, Rodians and Duros moving around. Most of them look impoverished. A few shady characters are gathered on the sides of the street. All of them watching me closely as I pass.
I walk by a bounty hunter and a Twi'lek selling spice on the streets. Several swoop bikes suddenly zip past just a few feet from me and I know I am in a really bad area of town. I sense several people watching me and that just about everyone here is armed. I mind my own business and continue on not wanting to make a scene, doing my best to ignore them while staying alert at all times. Some people I pass make my hand inch towards my lightsaber but I do not draw it. It seems the further I go the darker and more dangerous it gets.
After a while I come to an abandoned area, it looks like an old construction zone or something. The buildings are falling apart. There doesn't seem to be anyone around here which is always a bad sign in places like this. Still I keep going, I am Darth Sadus after all.
Suddenly I hear shouts and whispers coming from an alley up ahead. Against my better judgement I head over, curious to see what is going on. Opening my mind to the force I can sense several life forms in the alley. Their signatures are distinctly alien....Rodian I think, several of them. I also sense a woman in distress. My hand goes to my lightsaber, concealed at my waist as it always is.
"No no....please no!". I hear muffled sobbing and shouting in the Rodian language. I peek around the corner into the alley and see what is happening.
There is a large group of Rodian thugs, eight of them it looks like. They are harassing a woman who looks to be in her mid to late 30s. There are several swoop bikes parked at the other end of the alley and I immediately know they are swoop gang members. I stay concealed by the darkness and listen.
"Clezo not like when people miss their payments, it is time to collect". This guy appears to be the leader, I watch as he pulls out a small blaster and points it at her.
"Please I...I can get the money I just need more time". The woman is deathly afraid of them. The Rodians tower over her several are holding blasters, some wield stun sticks and others hold brass pipes.
"Clezo already gave you extension, this is your final chance"
"But how can I pay credits I don't have?"
"Should have thought of that before borrowing from Clezo". The Rodian leader points his blaster at her head, the woman sobs in fear.
"Please don't...I have children...they were starving I...I had to feed them, please have mercy". Her story strikes a chord deep inside of me, but I decide not to interfere. There is to much at stake, I can't have witnesses.
"Your excuses mean nothing to me, you borrowed from Clezo. Now you either pay or you die"
"Looks like we have company boss". One of the Rodians points at me. I growl in annoyance at being seen, I did not want this.
"Clezo not like nosy people poking around in his business. You chose the wrong alley little girl". He signals the other Rodians and they all point their weapons at me. I know there is no avoiding this now. I will have to act quickly. The sound of this battle will surely draw the authorities, or even worse the Jedi. I can not afford to linger.
In a flash my lightsaber is ignited in my hand. Its red blade glowing in the darkness, the color of blood, a harbinger of what is to come. The Rodians are petrified, their faces lit red by the glow of the blade. They've heard the stories, they know the color red, they know what I am. I smile ferally as they back away in terror. I soak in their fear, feeding on it as my Master once instructed me. My eyes burn amber shining through the darkness of the night. Blood is about to spill.
The Rodians open fire on me with their blasters and I leap into action bringing my lightsaber up to deflect the bolts away from me, not back at them no....that would be to quick, I want them to suffer. They shoot at me in panic hoping to take me down but I deflect every bolt with ease, Revan's remotes were far more difficult than this. I laugh at their pathetic efforts, the sound echoing in the alley and increasing their fear. I grin at them sadistically in the middle of their barrage.
Then I use a burst of force speed and I am on them in the blink of an eye. I swing my lightsaber cutting through the chest of the Rodian leader and slicing him in half, then I quickly bring my blade around and stab another in the chest taking the time to revel in his demise. I pull my blade out of him and deflect more shots, then twirl my lightsaber cutting off the hands of one that was shooting before slicing off his head. 3 Rodians dead in a matter of seconds.
Another Rodian rushes me swinging a brass pipe which I easily dodge. He swings again but I duck under it, then another swing that I again dodge with ease, toying with my prey. I swing my lightsaber and smile as he trys to block it with his pathetic pipe, the blade goes right through it and cuts him in half. Then I sense another one charging me from behind with a stun stick, I lazily stab my blade back beneath my arm and through his heart. The last 3 Rodians back away from me in horror shooting randomly, pathetic shots that I send away with my lightsaber. Using the force I bend the muzzles of their blasters making them explode in their hands. I quickly move in on them cutting one down with a swing through the stomach and another with with a stab through the chest.
The last one takes off running towards the end of the alley trying to reach his bike and escape. I frown then seize him with the force and lift him into the air, smiling as he squirms and flails about. Then I throw my lightsaber with the force making it spin and fly into his chest. I hold it there reveling in his mortal pain as it burns through his heart. Then I call the lightsaber back into my hand and drop the dead Rodian in a smoking heap.
I look over the carnage taking in the dead insects, their body parts scattered through the alley. I smile and shut my lightsaber down, sticking it back into its concealed place at my waist. I'm about to leave when something gets my attention.
"Sen...Senator Organa?". It's the woman the Rodians were harassing. Kreth! I had been so focused on them I had forgotten her.
"It is you! You saved my life. I...I don't know how I can ever repay you for this. Bless you dear, bless you". She crys at me. I look her over taking in her appearence, I can easily tell she is in poverty (why else borrow from a gang?). She has children I know. But I also know that she is a witness, a witness that has seen me for what I really am. I know that if I let her go she will tell them everything that happened here, which will lead the Jedi directly to me and throw a wrench into all of my plans.
"Thank you Senator, I won't ever forget this". I watch as she gets up and runs to leave the alley, before she gets there she stops and clutches her throat gasping for air. Children or not I can not afford to let a witness live, there is just to much at stake. A part of my mind begs me not to do this, to release her. But I know this is the only practical solution. She struggles for a moment before her eyes roll back and she falls to the ground lifeless.
I...I have just taken an innocent life. One that was not Jedi or droid or thug trying to kill me....this was an innocent person, a woman who was just trying to provide for her children. A woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. There was no other way I tell myself, but all my mind sees is her lifeless stare and the children out there she has left behind. I am overwhelmed with guilt and shame. Tears slide down my cheeks and I am unable to breathe. I fall to my knees in the alley, not caring about being discovered.
What have I done? I sob quietly on the ground in the alley. You did what you had to do, the dark part of my mind snarls. She was a threat, she would have undone everything we have worked so hard to accomplish. But that brings me no comfort as my mind replays her final moments. The fear in her eyes...the innocence, she trusted me.
"Force what have I become?"
"You have become me Leia"
I jump to my feet in surprise as a blue specter fades into view at the end of the alley. A middle aged man dressed in brown robes just like before. It is him.
"But it's still not to late, it's never to late to return to the Light". The ghost looks at me with a sad smile on his face. I regain my composure and fix a glare on him through tear soaked eyes.
"I am nothing like you Vader" I choke out at him. My voice a mix of rage and sadness. He has the audacity to laugh at me.
"We are more alike than you will ever know my daughter" he chuckles. "We have both walked that lonely dark road, we have both fallen to its temptation, we have both taken innocent life with that power. The difference between us is I have seen where that path ends. You will lose everything that matters to you if you continue down it".
"I am doing this for Han and my children! I am using this power for the greater good, for my family!"
"No you are using it for your own selfish gain even if you don't realize it. I once thought the same thing. I thought the Dark Side would save your mother....and you. But it knows only the power to destroy, and it will destroy you"
"You tortured me, you tortured my husband and destroyed my home. Why would you CARE? WHY?". He looks at me with deep sadness and regret.
"I care because you are my daughter and I love you. I know I committed great atrocities in my life but I am not that person now. The Dark Side does not control me anymore and it never will again. I wish every day that I could take it all back and start over, but I can't. All I can do is try to atone for it the only way I can, through you and your brother. My life was destroyed by the Dark Side and the Sith Leia, I will not sit by and watch it happen to you as well". His voice breaks in sadness.
"I am not you Vader and I never will be. I won't make your mistakes, I won't fail my family like you did. I will master the Dark Side and I will control it".
"It is impossible to control the Dark Side. It lures you with false promises of power, the power to protect the ones you love. But it is a LIE Leia. The Dark Side did not save your mother....it killed her and it destroyed my soul. Please don't make my mistakes. Turn away from this path".
"I will never turn away from the Dark Side Vader. I'm sick of hearing your pathetic pleas, it is to late for that and we both know it".
"It's never to late. Even when you reach the depths of darkness and despair it will not be to late. There is always hope in the Light".
"The Light is weak, with the Dark Side as my ally I will crush the Jedi and the Republic they serve. Yavin 4 will burn". I snarl at him.
"I will wait for you Leia, I will always wait. One day you will regret everything you have done. When that day comes I will be there". He walks over to me and brushes a lock of hair behind my ear with his hand. "I will always be there Leia". With that he fades into the night, leaving me alone in my darkness.