The force was unhappy.
Vader was probably the first to notice the shift, but soon enough, almost every force-sensitive being could sense its discontent. It was one of the oddest sensations Vader had ever felt; more so since his turn to the darkside. The force from this end had always had a more aggressive hum, and it always came to him so much easier than the lightside ever did. His emotions were the key – his anger, hatred and determination created the perfect summoning formula every time he needed to reach out to his source of power.
But the change was explicitly clear. These were not his emotions he could feel every time he touched the force. Everything around him felt affected by the shift. The midi-chlorians in every living organism seemed . . . unstable. Even the very air he breathed somehow seemed to carry a dullness.
Sidious had also noticed the shift.
Vader was sitting on his throne in Mustafar when he received his master's call, preparing himself for whatever task the emperor wished for him to accomplish.
Sidious' deformed face appeared on the hologram, devoid of its usual cunning smile. He looked disturbed by something.
"What is thy bidding, my master?" Vader asked respectfully, his tone unnaturally soft.
Sidious merely stared for a moment, his lips curled up in displeasure. "I'm sure you have detected some form of . . . disturbance in the force, Lord Vader?"
Vader tipped his head forward in a nod. "I have sensed it."
"Something significant has happened, yet this is not the only issue troubling me. There has been an attack on Ashas Ree"
Vader stiffened. Ashas Ree contained an ancient Sith temple, which was filled with numerous powerful dark artifacts from the ancient Sith empire. The last time he had been to a Sith Temple was on Malachor, where he had found Skywalker's apprentice. The thought made his chest clench painfully. He had been trying to completely forget his interaction with her there, how grown up she looked, how advanced her fighting skills had become. He had absolutely no doubt she could defeat every single one of his inquisitors if they had been pitted together.
She had even managed to best him – shatter the floor beneath him before making her escape with the rest of the rebels. Skywalker would've been so proud. He would have been so proud to see what she had become.
It hadn't been the first time Vader had lost a duel because his emotions had gotten the better of him. He couldn't hope to focus his power when his emotions were wreaking havoc within him like a cyclone.
"Have the rebels returned?" The thought made him angry. Surely Ahsoka would know not to challenge the Empire so boldly again. She wouldn't stand a chance. He was still rather perplexed that she had allowed a child to accompany her to an ancient Sith temple. Vader had almost killed him.
He would kill them all if he was given the chance again.
"We suspected as such, however, it was not Skywalker's apprentice that destroyed the temple and obliterated 3000 stormtroopers."
Vader's eyes narrowed under the mask. He knew that there were a decent number of rebels in the resistance movement, but for them to infiltrate an ancient Sith temple and destroy an entire battalion of security was . . . more than a little unsettling.
"The very few that managed to survive could not identify the attacker. We know for certain that he was wearing a hooded robe"
Vader inhaled.
"There was only one attacker?"
Sidious stared at him, a discontented expression etched on his face.
"Indeed."
He had a nagging feeling before, but now he could confirm that his master was displeased with him.
"I can find the rogue and hunt him down." He tried to placate. He had done so hundreds of times without fail. He was the most powerful force user in the galaxy; this perpetrator wouldn't stand a chance against him. His eagerness to eliminate him should appease his master.
It didn't seem to be working.
"All the artifacts have been accounted for, albeit destroyed by the destruction of the temple, however, one of them was missing. The Pearl of Amitis."
Kriff.
Of all the treasures that could have been stolen by an unknown, powerful enemy, it just had to be the most dangerous and powerful artifact the Siths had ever acquired.
"It derived from the ancient Sith empire," Vader pressed. "It would be useless in the hands of anyone other than a Sith. Not even a Jedi can make use of it."
"I have called you for the purpose of this, my apprentice. A lightsaber has been found at the destruction site. I am almost certain of the identity of its wielder, however I would like a confirmation once you have looked over it."
The fifth brother suddenly entered the room and knelt in front of Vader, presenting to him a package wrapped in cloth.
He yanked it out of the inquisitor's hands and waved him out of the room. Hastily, he unwrapped the cloth to reveal the lightsaber.
His mind went completely blank. This weapon. He had seen it before. He had used it before. The cylindrical hilt shape, the slight rusting along the alloy metal, the blue Kyber crystal that he knew was nestled inside. He would recognize it anywhere.
"It's his, is it not?"
He now understood Sidious's anger with him. He looked up again to meet his master's ire filled holographic eyes. "He should have been eliminated years ago."
Vader looked down at the weapon in his hands again, feeling a painful wave of déjà vu. He remembers the blinding expanse of white snow, the daunting realization he had come to when he found that crashed space craft: that Ahsoka was dead. He remembers the agonizing loneliness that threatened disturb his already fragile breathing – the realization that he truly was, and always would be, completely alone as he stood in the freezing snow, his cape billowing gently in the wind.
He felt a similar pain now, if not something far worse.
They were out there, somewhere. Two people he had once loved more than anything in the world. One of them he would have once considered the other half of his own soul – the man who practically raised him, who fought beside him, his older brother, his best friend.
His family.
He was out there, hiding from Vader, who had been hunting him relentlessly.
"Twice, you were given the opportunity to end him, and twice you failed. You are one of my most loyal followers, and for that I will give you one last chance. Find Kenobi and destroy him. This is the last time he will become a nuisance to me. Have I made myself clear, Lord Vader?"
Vader clenched his fist around the weapon so hard it began to dent.
"Yes, my master."
"Bring back the Pearl. I cannot allow such unfathomable power fall into anyone's hands, certainly not the resistance. That artifact can cause irreparable damage to the galaxy as we know it, should it's true purpose be unlocked."
"It will be done."
The call ended and Vader was left alone. He looked down at the lightsaber again, still rather shocked that it had ended up here. A voice from another life was echoing in his head.
This weapon is your life.
He could feel a storm of emotions swirling within him. Hatred, curiosity, contempt, longing, fury, anger, vexation, Rage.
He couldn't stand it. He couldn't stand the fact Kenobi was out there right now, doing force knew what with a new abundance of power that Vader had only felt a glimpse of when their bond was restored. And now, he had taken one of the most powerful Sith artifacts known to the Galactic Empire.
What had Obi-Wan done.
What had he done.
Since the incident happened a few weeks ago, he had tried countless times to pry their bond open, to shatter at least one of the seemingly hundreds of shields that kept him from accessing the other person linked to it. Each try was in vain. Whatever Obi-Wan had done had, it had messed with his force signature. Not enough to make it unrecognizable. There wasn't a world in which Vader wouldn't be able to recognize Obi-Wan Kenobi, but there had been something undeniably different about it.
Something wrong.
He stood up and walked over to the hidden cabinet he had built into the right side of the wall. After pinning in the required code, it hissed as it opened, revealing to him another lightsaber.
Her lightsaber.
When he had found it almost two years ago, abandoned and heavily corroded in the snow, he couldn't bring himself to leave it there. It was one of the main reasons why her appearance on Malachor had surprised him so much, because he had genuinely believed she was dead.
It was probably her aim to begin with. Ahsoka had always been so much smarter than anyone ever gave her credit for.
He placed Kenobi's lightsaber on the shelf, beside Skywalker's apprentices' weapon and stared at the sight. The two silver cylinders resting beside each other. They had travelled a long way to get where they were. They must have been so tired. It couldn't have been easy – protecting their makers in battle after battle, only to be abandoned and left to rot without any warning.
Anakin Skywalker would know all about being abandoned by Ahsoka Tano and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
It made him wonder, not for the first time, if they were together.
He couldn't quite grasp the possibility that he had seen each of them more recently than they had seen each other, but he couldn't quite manage to picture the alternative of that either.
He was snapped out of his miserable daze immediately once he noticed a particular indent in the side of Kenobi's lightsaber. He used the force to snatch it back into his grasp before feverishly scanning the damaged section, his heart pounding erratically in his head as he realized what he saw had not just been in his imagination.
In the cracks in the indent, there were unmistakable yellowish-gray speckles.
Sand.
It was sand. He knew exactly where it had come from, but used the force to scan the hilt, desperately trying to find a force residue, just a droplet of confirmation to determine if this had truly been . . .
He swallowed when he got his answer, the one he knew he would get. He felt like the most idiotic person in the universe.
He should have known.
Kenobi knew Vader would never go near the most wretched place in the universe if he could help it.
He closed the hidden compartment and marched out of his room, feeling absolutely erratic with anger and excitement. He knew where Kenobi was.
His inquisitors were waiting for him in the conference room, watching him expectantly as they waited for his orders.
"Gather the troops and prepare a fleet immediately"
The Grand Inquisitor took a bold step forward, confident in superior rank over the others.
"Where to, Lord Vader?"
His clenched his fists so hard, he heard the creak of metal indenting.
"Tatooine."