The Streets of Daiyu were as desolate as the sands of Tatooine as he stalked away from the imperial checkpoint. He paused near a canopy covering droid parts for sale. The vendor was nowhere in sight, but he could feel his cowering presence through the force. He held out his mechanical arm, an appendage that has felt so foreign to him, and with all the might of his anger, the alien vendor raised up into the air from behind some crates of spare parts. Vader tightened the grip of his hand and the force pressed into the vendor's trachea. He kicked his legs and gasped for air, clinging to his last breaths of life.
"Tell me where the Jedi went." Vader's indignant mechanical voice sounded, he barely recognized himself anymore. The dark plated suit gave him a menacing presence which was helpful in most situations, but it hindered his every movement and clouded his vision in a haze of red. While the dark side gave him much power, it still felt washed out as if he had to work through a barrier in order to feel his connection with the force. His anger powered him and made easy work of that barrier for he had much to be angry about. What fueled him in this very moment was the trail that lay before him leading him to none other than Obi-wan Kenobi. Vader wanted him, a longing for revenge burning deep inside his being causing his head to spin. A small voice inside himself called to his old friend, begging for him to kill Vader. It wasn't hard to break down what was left of Anakin Skywalker when rage burned so brightly within Vader. That rage snuffed out Skywalker's call. His voice would return but he would not interfere with the task at hand.
"I don't know." Choked out the vendor. His hands tried to grasp at an invisible grip at his throat. "I didn't see a Jedi." He pleaded.
"He was here. I can feel it." Vader fumed and pushed the vendor against the building's wall still holding the grip at his throat. Each step Vader took was filled with purpose and soon he was standing face to face with the petrified street vendor. "I will ask you one last time, where did the Jedi go?" Vader growled, enunciating every syllable. The vendor continued to claw at the air, but no confession of the Jedi's location happened. A snap reverberated through the street and the Vendor's head lay limply on his shoulder in an ungodly position. His body dropped to the ground in a heap causing another death to leave blood on Vader's hands. Vader turned and steadily walked away, his cape sweeping behind him. No remorse resided within him, there was nothing but emptiness and rage which kept Skywalker at bay.
Vader returned to the imperial blockade where with each pass of a trooper a salute was given. Each trooper that Vader marched by waited till the dark lord was out of view before relaxing their shoulders. His trail continued until he came across the inquisitor who informed him of Kenobi's presence. "My lord…" She began, fear dangling on the tip of her tongue. With one swift movement, Vader pulled her into the air with such rage that every trooper around felt a shiver down their spines.
"I do not accept failure." Vader barked. "You said Kenobi was here."
"He was here, I know you can sense it." She begged. Vader released his grasp and the inquisitor dropped to the ground. She pulled a hand to her throat and gasped for air, relieved that her life still remained.
"Where is he now?" Vader questioned.
"I don't know." She breathed. Vader barely gave her enough time to finish before a grand force pushed her into the concrete street. "I don't know where he is now. But I know he was following a former clone trooper. A few witnesses we interrogated saw an old man and child being led by a trooper through some alley ways. I have a few men investigating the area."
"Do not disturb me until you have answers." Vader announced before pivoting around and walking up the ramp to his nearby idling ship. The ramp closed behind him, and he sat down crossed his legs the best he could in his armor and rested himself in the middle of the cabin to the shuttle.
Vader cleared his mind and listened. Even through the barrier he could hear the mulling of all the citizens of Daiyu. The voices were overpowering at first, one echo talking over another, but Vader persisted. Through sheer strength of will, Vader quieted each echo one by one. He searched through the force for any trace of Obi-wan, clinging to his hatred in doing so. He sensed the echo of his old master through that of a nearby cantina, though the echo was very quiet. Vader continued to wade through the waves of populace that had entered that cantina before he was able to pick up a fresher trail in a close by alley way. That was when he felt another familiar presence in the force. Vader's lips twisted into a snarling grin beneath his mask at the feeling of the old ally, Fives.
A stabbing pain began to pang on the side of Vader's head, pulling him out of concentration. He cringed and brought a hand to his helmet in an attempt to quiet the ache. Skywalker had broken out of his cage and was fighting Vader's consciousness, attempting to claw his way to the surface. Anger raged within Vader once more and the flames that kept Skywalker at bay grew ever stronger. He searched once again for the echo of Fives.
Just as he found Fives, Vader's vision changed to that of an empty run-down hanger. Vader concentrated on the empty space where a ship had once been, calling out to its presence in the force. The next vision he found overpowered all of his senses, blinding him to the force. Vader pushed through, mentally trudging through the thickest muck he had ever encountered in the force. He pushed himself through and found himself standing in the center of a familiar grassy plain. The light poured down, absorbing into his dark armor. How he yearned to be able to feel the warmth of the sun on his deprived skin. He wished he could feel the cool breeze wafting the tall grass against his body. He wished he could feel anything but the all-consuming agony that encompassed his heart.
Clang! Clang! Rang through the shuttles hull, interrupting Vader from his vision. He grumbled as he pushed himself off the ground, using the force to add grace to his movements in an attempt to hide weakness. This had better be good. He mused. Using the force, he pressed the control to lower the ramp to the shuttle which revealed a nervous stormtrooper clutching his blaster in front of him. Vader remained silent, waiting for the trooper to explain his disturbance.
"Sir, we found a run-down hanger where an old clone was said to be living. We couldn't find the clone but there was a ship departure log within the hanger. The last ship to leave that hanger was an ARC-170 starfighter heading in the direction of the Chommel system. The ship was heading to the planet…" The trooper rattled off.
"Naboo." Vader finished, cutting off the trooper. "Good work trooper. You have done the Empire a great service." The control for the ramp beeped and the ramp began to lift itself closed, leaving the trooper to stand-by and watch the departing shuttle. Kenobi was on Naboo, and Vader would waste no time in finding him. A familiar headache began to throb as his destination became set in the Navi computer. Skywalker did not want him on Naboo, nor did he want a confrontation with his old master. Vader pushed him down once more, Skywalker was not needed for this mission. It was Vader who would kill Obi-wan, it was Vader who would get revenge for the death of his wife.