Anakin Skywalker stared at the holo of the next target and let out a sigh. It was another potential Force-sensitive; ever since the Empire had come to power, Force-sensitives no matter if they'd been trained or not, whether they were a Youngling who'd escaped the Purge, were hunted down.
The Empire's policy on Jedi was simple; kill them.
Force sensitives were a little bit more ambiguous; the Empire wanted them for brainwashing, twisting them until they fell to the Dark Side and became Inquisitors, although there wasn't any doubt in his mind if Palpatine, or rather Darth Sidious (even now he knew the Dark Lord had tricked him for so long since he was a naive, simple, stupid slave boy who gullibly took every single thing Palpatine said as gospel truth, Anakin still found it hard to believe everything he had thought he'd known was a lie), saw one who showed potential, then he would train them as the Sith apprentice to replace Darth Vader.
Anakin was Force-sensitive himself. He had once been a Jedi. But he had managed to escape the Purge, changed his name when Order 66 had come along and he had fled to the Outer Rim, where the Empire's power was not entirely in place even though it did send many ships and patrols. Anakin still wasn't entirely sure what had happened on the day everything had gone so wrong, so badly; Anakin had just revealed to Master Mace Windu the truth of Palpatine, telling him he was Darth Sidious, the Master of the Order leaving with a few other Jedi Masters, going off to the Senate in contradiction to Windu's orders before someone overpowered him; Anakin remembered feeling an extremely powerful, extremely dark presence just flare around him, blinding his senses before he was knocked unconscious.
A few hours later, he was waking up and discovered the Jedi were being slaughtered. He had tried to get to the Temple, find out what was going on, just to make sense of the darkening of the Force, only to be attacked by brainwashed clones.
Anakin was forced to escape Coruscant and he had fled to the Outer Rim; with his marriage to Padme gone because of that fight over Clovis, and their subsequent divorce, how they hadn't met and how they'd just avoided one another for the last year, he had just left. It might have been cowardly since he could have done something, like going after Sidious, making him pay for what he'd done, but Anakin had been so overwhelmed by the way the Jedi were slaughtered and when he obeyed the will of the Force to just flee.
To this day, Anakin didn't know what happened to Obi-Wan, Yoda, Ahsoka or anybody else. He hadn't seen another Jedi in years.
Anakin had gone to the Outer Rim. There was nothing for him out in the Core, now. He had reckoned if he went out into the Rim, he could train and regather his strength and then go off in search of other Jedi, and see if they could do something about the Sith in control of the galaxy.
For the last five years since the Empire's inception and the ongoing massacre of Order 66, Anakin had tried to learn more about what Palpatine was doing; he had left behind his former guise as the wise, benevolent, gentle leader, and he had become cold, cruel, harsh and dangerous and loved violence since he kept sending his agents after his enemies.
But Anakin had a terrible vibe when it came to Palpatine's new Sith apprentice.
Darth Vader.
Anakin knew nothing about him, except that Vader seemed to be a cyborg who needed a black mask to breathe, and everything about him and his guise was sinister and dangerous.
Evil. He could feel the power of the Dark side in Vader through the holos as if Vader was right in front of him, and Anakin always cowered from the harsh coldness of the Sith Lord. According to the Imperial Propaganda, it was Darth Vader who had raided the Jedi Temple and slaughtered everyone during Order 66.
But Anakin had a strange feeling about Vader, one he couldn't identify….
Unfortunately, in this new, messed-up galaxy, Anakin needed a job.
He had decided on becoming a Bounty Hunter, quickly and correctly figuring that with his skills, such a career change was not totally difficult, especially since he had disguised himself, cutting off his long hair until he was now bald. Anakin had quickly become a really good bounty hunter, with a vicious reputation. Unfortunately, he had gotten work from the Empire, despite his best efforts to avoid them, but he had become very good at masking himself.
Usually, Anakin focused on dangerous criminals and smugglers who owed money. But secretly he helped Owen and Beru Lars once he had reconciled with them and he and Owen had discovered they actually had one or two things in common, and people like them, smuggle slaves away. Anakin was sick he had ever truly considered Palpatine a friend when he supported such a terrible act, that was slavery; Anakin would never forget the way he and his mother and so many of their friends had been treated during their years of slavery; some of them had managed to come out of it, lucky they had good masters, and while Watto was infinitely better than Gardualla, it wasn't that great a leap.
Anakin stared at the holo, wondering how he could go after the Force-sensitive before he checked the client. He didn't know if it was the Empire or not, sometimes they were open about what they wanted, but sometimes they were quite subtle. Studying the holo, Anakin tried to get a feel for the target. There had been dozens of Jedi in the Temple, but Anakin had a prodigious memory, and he couldn't recognise this man.
Anakin sighed as he clicked on the accept tab, his mind already churning as he thought of ways he could turn this to his advantage.