The Curse

Anakin sighed as he left the Jedi Temple in shambles. The Masters that he had fought hadn't deserved to die, but at least Anakin didn't feel guilty about it. They had been masters of their order, not defenseless padawan learners. They could defend themselves. Even if his orders had been to kill every last Jedi…he had only attacked the Masters leaving Maul to destroy the defenseless, the helpless, and the young. He had saved the ones he could. No doubt he would be punished for his insolence. He only hoped it was he that suffered and not his mother.

He knelt down as the hologram of Sidious appeared to him. "I trust the Jedi are destroyed?"

"Yes, my master. Their fire has gone out of the universe."

"And Yoda?" Anakin thought of all that he had read. "I didn't encounter him. I encounter several masters of the order. They have been dealt with, my master."

"Good. We will deal with any stragglers."

"Of course, my master."

"I sense something different in you, Vader. I would hate to have to deal with your mother personally. Perhaps I should just give her to Maul."

"No!" Anakin screamed, rising from his kneeling position, his blue eyes flashing yellow. Sidious smiled at the change in his eyes.

"If you disappoint me again. It will be done." Anakin didn't answer as he wiped out the Wookiee colony on Kashyyk. Great. What had the Wookiees ever done to him? To keep his mother away from his partner he would do anything, but just how many lives was his mother's worth? Anakin frowned, that thought didn't belong to him. He had a certain picture of the Jedi he met, yes; such a thought would belong to a Jedi.

Anakin took his starfighter to the planet below. It was the only thing that truly made him feel free: flying. He had his Clones flanking him when he flipped on the HoloNet to learn that Palpatine had declared himself Emperor. He frowned, wasn't that Sidious's goal? Anakin shook his thoughts away and remembered his lessons from Sidious. The key was distance. He had to close himself off from the living force, to survive the pain he would inflict. He thought of Hoth, of the cold icebergs, he could see each particle of snow as he distanced himself from the slaughter of the Wookiees around him and he swing his blood-red contaminated lightsaber in time with the cries. And he disappeared in the darkness. His face hardened as one of the glaciers on Hoth and his eyes changed from the blue of the skies to the yellow trademark of a Sith. He burnt the village to the ground, leaving a message in his wake of what happened to those who defied his master. All the time, his Sith cloak was pulled up effectively covering all his features. He entered a small straw hut outside the village, a move that he would soon regret. He looked around a saw a little green man, who held out a rose to him.

"Please, this rose you should take. Leave the Wookiees alone you must."

"I cannot," came Vader's voice as he once again ignited his blood-red blade. With a wave of the creatures hand Vader's cloak fell revealing his face.

Master Yoda was shocked at the appearance of the Sith. He was just a boy. An incredibly strong boy, even now he could see the blood on his hands, and the future blood he would spill. He was just the apprentice, perhaps there was a way to save him.

"So young, you are."

"I am Sith. I will destroy you."

"So angry, you are. Help you need. Yes, help you need."

"I am powerful."

"Strong in the dark side. Once you start down the dark side, forever it will dominate your destiny. Take my rose, I beg of you."

"What is it that the dark side cannot provide? Tell me what it is you desire, and the dark side can grant it."

"A rose. The Dark Side, it kills. Destroys it does."

"I must obey my master."

"Hope I have for you. Ten years you have, to find one to love you, you will. To love one, you will or forever will you remain a monster."

Suddenly, Anakin shielded his eyes from the bright light the small creature emulated. When the light ceased he found himself, weaker, and he heard a hissing sound, a mechanical sound. He reached up to his face and found it trapped in a mechanical mask. His hands, they felt different, less real, more mechanical, as did his feet. His handsome face, his figure that he was becoming proud of, gone, he was in bulky black armor. He did the only thing a fifteen year old boy could do. He screamed.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"