"Ah, still clinging to pathetic ideals of self-sacrifice and hope? You poor creatures. Allow me to show you true darkness and what hopelessness looks like. Lord Vader, please begin with Senator Organa, then proceed to others. Make sure that they are still alive and presentable for tomorrow's execution."

Sidious was elated looking at his pitiful enemies, their crushed hopes and their anguish of their inevitability. He could feel the tendrils of the Dark side caressing him, like singing a sweet melody of pain and suffering.

He was enjoying their reactions. And there was Organa, accepting his fate, but still determined. Hoping that by sacrificing himself, he could give others a chance to do something. Such foolishness. Just like he failed his daughter, he would also fail now. But what he was more enjoying was the hidden irony. The same hands that took his daughter's life would deliver pain to the father. How poetic! Should he reveal this little fact now? No, it was best suited when the Senator would be on the brink of his life.

Abruptly, he felt a pang in the Dark side. Now, it felt more hostile, towards himself. No, no, this cannot be possible. He is the Master of the Dark side. The MASTER! ONLY HIM!

Then he realised that Vader had stopped moving towards the captives and was standing facing towards him.

"What are you doing, Lord Vader?", Sidious demanded.

For Sidious, everything went eerily silent. This was unexpected, and he hated, no loathed, when something unexpected happen. And something definitely was going happen, here and now. His decades old instincts were telling him that. What was happening? Why could not he had foreseen this? There was not even a warning from the Force. He reached out in the Dark side and what he found confounded him. The Dark side was excited, thrilled and expecting. Expecting what?

He tried to probe his now wayward apprentice's mind, but failed. What he found was a wall more tougher than durasteel. And furthermore, the Dark side was embracing his apprentice, completely submerging him.

"Why, Master? Did you not foreseen this? After all, betrayal is the way of the Sith, my Master... NOW!"

He felt, no sensed, what was happening at once. A group of troopers, probably clones, entered through breaking the behind him and started attacking the twelve Guards. The clones troopers, 501st, Vader's troop, behind the captives started their assault on remaining non-clone troopers in the room. On his side, four of the Inquisitors quickly dispatched the remaining two, and then turned towards Sidious in a defensive stance.

`Is he? No! Not possible!`, several thoughts fired inside Sidious' mind. Questions, reflections, implications, doubts, reasons, counter-reasons, and many more. All at once.

How could this be possible? Really possible? Even if, he was betrayed by the Dark side, with all his control over... well, over everything, he was still puzzled how did this happened under his nose. All his intelligence network of spies, informants, sycophants and loyalists. Puppets, all of them, slaves to his will. Then why he didn't get any indication of this? Of any of this?

The clones would be loyal to Vader, that's regretful, but understandable. He should have gotten rid of them ages ago, especially after real purpose was concluded after the Clone wars. But since when did four of the Inquisitorius got so loyal to Vader, despite knowing knowing the repercussions of such act against Darth Sidious, the Master of the Dark side. Foolish and unwise. But no matter, he would put them in their rightful place. Except for Vader, no one in the room any threat to him.

As for his traitorous apprentice, he was actually feeling a little prideful and jubilant towards him. He knew that the day would come when Vader would actually try to usurp him, as it was the way of the Sith. And he was more curious how he did this. But this was where it stops. It was time to teach Vader a very, very harsh lesson and remind him of his place.

"So, my apprentice, do you actually think you can take on me? Do you really believe you are strong enough?", said Sidious with an evil grin and his eyes flashed yellow too brightly. He saw several of the captives flinch.

"Master, didn't you once say that I have the potential to become the strongest Force user in the Galaxy?", stated Vader calmly.

"And did you actually believed that? Your ignorance will cost you greatly. Perhaps, you admit your foolishness and accept your punishment, I may be merciful."

A small chuckle left from Vader's mouth and through the vocoder it sounded unnatural. "Oh, Master. I actually believe it. Not because you said it. It's been so long that everything you say, I have taken it with a speck of sand. So no, I believe it because I know it. And furthermore, we both know how merciful you are. The moment I gave the command just now, I have already put my hand in a hungry rancor's mouth. There is no turning back now. Besides, I know you, Darth Sidious. I have studied you, for far too long for my liking, to be honest."

Sidious didn't like the way Vader spoke. The content of his apprentice's dialogue was detrimental enough. But the tone, the way he spoke it... It was mixed with mockery, promise, hate, resent and a lot of confidence. And this had Sidious surprised and more cautious. He never seen this side of his apprentice. He wondered how long Vader had been planning this.

Sidious knew that this day would arrive. But he planned to make full use of his apprentice before disposing him. A pity, really. All the effort and work gone to waste. He truly liked Vader as his underling. Vader was not like other sycophants that surrounded Sidious, with a mind of his own and very competent with his work.

"Then allow me to remedy that, my Apprentice. You don't have to endure my company any more, as death will be my final reward to you.", said Sidious, still sitting on the throne.

By the time Sidious finished say that, he noticed Vader took out a device and pressed a button. He realised what it was at the last moment. A detonator.

[Kaboom-Boom-Boom-Clang]


(Imperial Palace – Security Division, ISB)

To say, Commander Drekk Sallin was nervous at the moment, was to say Hoth was a little bit cold. He was waiting for this day for a year, as much as he was dreading it. Too much was at risk here. His battle-hardened emerald eyes went through the reports, keeping him busy till the cue for his part to play.

He missed his days in Imperial Navy and his fleet. In his eleven years of career, he had seen several bizarre and atypical things. So he trained himself to always remain calm and collected. He was not apprehensive, when he was contacted by an agent named Vader one and half years ago. He was not shocked to hear his plans, which was amounted to treason at worst and coup at best. After all, this planet was literally the centre of the Galaxy and power-play was its favourite sport. But the more divulged into it, the more he saw it – an opportunity. An opportunity to be a part of something big. He could feel it in his bones, a change was coming, whether he liked it or not. So, he decided to be in it, rather than be in the sidelines.

After the initial contact, he reassigned to ISB. And his point of contact was one of the Inquisitorius. A red-haired, devilish beauty, if he was honest with himself. But pondering on that particular line of thought could be dangerous, he warned himself again, as he did several times in the past year.

After all the careful planning and several clandestine meetings with his new... colleagues, he was still anxious. Nonetheless, he was certain. This day would go down as one of the remarkable one in the history to come. And he would be in the action, rather than be just a witness.

Then he heard the explosion. That was his cue to start managing things on his end. He picked up the comm unit.

"All units, I repeat, all units! We have Jedi infiltration at the palace. Units 8 through 16, prepare a perimeter around the palace and restrict all transits, incoming and outgoing. Units 3 and 4, block all communication channels. Others, be at stand by at your stations and wait for further orders. Over."

Now he had to wait and see...


(Inside The Throne Room)

Ahsoka was bewildered to see what was happening in front of her. There was giant hole on the floor, where there was a throne just moments ago. The explosions were minuscule, controlled and precise. She could see two dead Inquisitors lying dead behind the crater, and several of the troopers dead too behind her. She looked at her Master, and she realised he was in same predicament.

"And that's how you surprise a Sith Lord", said Vader cheerfully facing towards them, with hands stretched out. "Hey! Why the long faces? Come now, a little bit of appreciation would be appreciated."

Ahsoka was simply stumped. She simply didn't know what to make of this Sith Lord standing before them. His persona now was entirely different from before. Earlier, it was dark, silent and menacing. And now it was still dark, but cheerful and a little childish. And still menacing, but in a different way.

`I guess, all Siths are some kinda psychopaths... And he definitely belongs to crazy town...`

"Commander, secure the prisoners until further orders.", commanded Vader in his dark and serious tone again. Then turned back to the Inquisitorius with a female human with fiery red hair standing in front of other Inquisitors, clearly indicating that she was the leader. "Do as we planned. Keep everything under control. Be cryptic and imposing. I will make contact once it's done." The woman nodded in response.

Ahsoka, now being dragged by the troopers, looked for her Master and called out, "Master!"

Obi-Wan turned towards her, despite his own bindings, "Not now, my Padawan. I will meditate on this recent developments. I advice you do the same..." He was cut off by shove by his captors.

"Shut it, Jedi!", barked one of the clone troopers.

Ahsoka groaned.

`Why doesn't anything goes according to plan? Just once?`

She really hoped that Obi-Wan could come up with a plan. The binders were too much and their escorts too vigilant. She wasn't going to admit it, but the enemies got them good this time.

`Let's just just think about escaping... I have to check with Master while I get the chance here.`


(Old Training Halls – Below The Throne Room)

Vader entered the big hole he created in the throne room. Below was an unused training halls, both when this was Jedi temple and now when this was Palace for his Master. He already activated dozens to training droids to keep Sidious busy. He knew that that won't help him against Sidious one bit.

"I hope you warmed up enough, old man. Tired yet?", Vader shouted through the silence in the hall. His eyes searching for his opponent, his senses attuned to his surroundings. It was apparent that Sidious had made a quick work of the droids, even in their highest difficultly settings.

"Well, I have to thank you for that. It was a treat for my old bones. Was this your plan? Tire me out with your toys?" The voice of Sidious pierced through the hall like thousand needles.

"Well, what can I say? You always had been playful mood. So I gave you something to play with.", replied Vader with a shrug.

The Force rang with warning as Vader saw several parts of destroyed droids being hurled towards him. He stretched out his left hand towards the incoming projectiles and ignited his lightsaber with his right. He diverted select few with the Force while deflected others with his weapon.

"You know what, Sidious? I know what are you thinking.", mocked Vader. "You are wondering how. How could your apprentice, who you made sure always was beneath you, manage to defy you? A mere thrall, born in slavery and brought in servitude to you, by you, for only you. You, who considers himself the master of all. Even the Force itself. All threatened by a broken boy? Preposterous, right?"

Vader evaded more onslaughts of previous nature with the same fashion. He was bidding his time. Sidious also knew that they play this game for hour, even days. Vader knew Sidious was just bidding time. To collect information. Because the Dark side might have been aligning itself to Vader for now, but alignments could be shifted or lured, for that was... and always would be the nature of the Dark side. And that was Vader's biggest concern right now. Sidious knew too much about it. For Vader, among many, many reasons, this was only a contest of power and survival, but also for their personal belief, which was far more dangerous one. A conflict of their own ideas, understanding of the Force, a conflict for superiority in a true sense. For the ones in the light side, conflicting ideas was a matter of debate or discussion. But for anyone one in the dark side, it would become a matter of survival. And making the matter worse, for Vader it was personal and he knew Sidious is anything but tolerant. He was towing the line between rationality and fervency.

Although, rationality, meticulousness, strategy and cunningness were very powerful tools, but the Dark side made them more difficult to use them. The low whispers of the Dark side were always there, murmuring with seductive promises and grand possibilities, that would make any being stumble on its path and cause distractions. And that was the real 'hydro-spanner in the plan' here. Although Sidious was the enemy here, Vader knew he would be a fool to trust the Dark side completely. The Dark side always demanded control, complete and absolute control of its adepts. It called, or rather screamed, for mayhem and chaos. It demanded for bloodbath in the most glorious manner.

Submerging yourself into the Dark side and retaining your mind unscathed afterwords was a bit tricky. In fact, beings like Sidious could do it, regularly. Sidious was a complete psychopath, even without the Force. That crook of a Sith had no conscience, which was true for every Sith, but Sidious' affiliation to evil, regardless of Dark side, was so simply uncanny, that his mind and thoughts would be still intact. Still evil. Vile and wicked. Sidious would have been most notorious serial killer in the whole galaxy if he would have not been a Force user. His kind was most ideal for Dark side...

"Why don't you be good boy and tell me everything you have done behind my back. Maybe I will take pity and make your death a painless one.", Sidious's sinister voice boomed through the hall.

"Oh, I bet you will. You must be dying to know how I did it.", Vader shot back.

Vader determined Sidious' general location and hurled the pieces of debris thrown at him previously by the Force. And again and again. While Sidious was occupied with the onslaught, he failed to notice a small, very small, droid, sent by Vader in the middle of the attacks, crawling towards the his direction.

At the last moment, Sidious sensed a warning in the Force and jumped. But the droid carrying a small amount of thermal charges detonated. Sidious, creating a Force field around himself, was thrown by the explosion toward Vader. Sidious landed just before Vader.

"How the mighty have fallen?", mocked Vader.

Sidious let out a vicious snarl and sent lightning towards Vader. Vader stretched out his free hand and started absorbing the lightning as energy with his glove covered palm. When the intensity of lightning got too much, Vader started redirecting the energy to his surrounding.

"How did you came by this knowledge, child? Do you have another Master behind my back? When did you even have time to learn these?", spat Sidious venomously.

"Well, those are the billion credit question, aren't they? Your ability to foresee is compromised. Your Sith lightning is ineffective. You have no time to plan and prepare yourself. Your alchemy skills are of no use here. And you and I, both know that your duelling skill is inferior to mine.", Vader replied back in grave and heavy tone. "So Sidious, what will be your next move against this child?"

Sidious stood up, realizing there was no use of faking weakness. He called his lightsabers in his both hands. He knew this would his greatest battle with everything he had accomplished on stakes.

"Just because you have accomplished in ambushing me in this manner, don't assume that somehow you have won against me.", snarled Sidious.

And they clashed with their lightsabers.


(Office Of Grand Moff)

Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin was having private meeting with two other Moffs, three Generals of Imperial Army, two Admirals of Imperial Navy, one senior officer of ISB and Grand Vizier Mas Amedda. The agenda of this meeting was regarding budget reports, labour problems and technical issues for Emperor's favourite project – DS-1 Mobile Battle Station. Also dubbed as Death Star.

"... we simply cannot waste more resources on research just because the power output was not up to the expectations. It works well enough to level multiple cities and we should be more focused on starting to build the weapons array with whatever..."

"... thought Emperor was very clear on the instructions. He wants a weapon capable of destroying an entire planet. He would be not happy with the results..."

"... regarding the terrorists. They have already started to gain traction among..."

Tarkin tuned the petty debate in front of him. He knew the Emperor would get whatever he desired, eventually. And Tarkin had no desire to disappoint him. Also the fact that he himself was very much wanted to see such weapon in action.

Then suddenly his comm alerted him of an incoming priority message from Commander Sallin. He recognised the priority code and was shocked. It meant two things. One, the Emperor was under attack. Two, somehow the Jedi are involved.

He immediately got up and left the room. When he reached the nearest command post, he barked, "What in nine Sith's hell is happening? How could is this happening? I want immediate reports. NOW!"


AN: Sorry for the delay. Got stuck with work.

JackRussellsarethebest from FF, here is your update, as requested. Others who are reading this, please comment/review. I like when people discuss Star Wars, even if it results in disagreement. That's whole point, right? It shows the love the fans have for it.

To Aiolia The Leonidas, Alone-again-always, Coolwowboy, DarkAlucard2022, FreeWar, Frost Merry Darkness Luver, Gungnir Nike, Hamura24, JCCA, Kingoftropico, Leshira, Lord Moridin, MKelber, Matt631, Mercenary29, Mikazuki Augus1, Morriganna, PixelDarck, Suppliedranger6, VakMotu, Wifiproblems, YikesWorld, anakin011098, dilbertini, edeath756, egwilliams2002, jalalpour, richard20283, samanta91, sewellly117, tamarayann97, tecmo33 and xxx007! I hope you guys liked the initial story so far.

Well, I have already mentioned that this Vader is different than others. How and why – you might ask. Well, that will told in flashbacks in future chapters.

If you think I have made Sidious nerfed or Vader buffed, then think what ever you like. But for the other enemies I have in mind that would challenge not only for Vader, but for others too. Also Vader still has his limbs. All of them. And it only one of the reasons.

Spoilers! Palpy is going to die in the next chapter. Duh? But how it is done is what matters the most for me.

And rest assured, there will no "Somehow, Palpatine returned" here. Gods, I hated that line. It would worked for me, if the build-up was done right.

Wait for the next chapter: "Wrath Of The Sith Lords"! Next chapter is partially done. So, let's hope its get completed soon.

I hope you like the intros of two OCs that I hinted in previous AN. They will be having important roles in future.

Again, I hope you like it and your feedback is most welcome. May the force be with you!