Three years after Anakin Skywalker was framed, 21 BBY…
"Kihhhh…., Ohhhhhh…., kihhhhh, ohhhhhhh…." came the terrifying sound of the breathing in and out of a figure who stood at the bridge of a Venator-class Star Destroyer, the Devastator.
This particular figure was dressed in a black combat suit, and wore a skeletal mask with a helmet, and a long black cape, all of which made him look intimidating.
To say intimidating would be an understatement to describe this character.
His breathing itself terrified many who happened to be nearby. Everytime this figure was near someone, often that person would have the fear of death hanging over their head.
No one could possibly be as terrifying as this figure, except, well of course, the Emperor, Darth Sidious of the Galactic Empire.
And who was this figure?
This figure was known as…
"Darth Vader!" came the cry of the Jedi Master Vokara Che as she fought with him, clashing her green lightsaber against the red blade he wielded.
A deep, foreboding seemingly mechanical voice growled, "You are no match for the power of the dark side, foolish Jedi! Tonight is the end of the foolish Order which resembles nothing but corruption and lies."
Vokara Che cried out, "It is you who are corrupt and deceitful; one day, you're commanding the clones in order to defend us, and now, you lead those same people against us and mercilessly slaughter even children! How can you do this?!"
Darth Vader replied, "It is the Jedi who tried to take over. Why else would Mace Windu have tried to assassinate the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic?!"
Vokara Che gasped and cried out, "What?"
Darth Vader continued, "And every Jedi, including each and every single youngling is now an enemy of the Republic."
Vokara Che attempted to hold him off, swinging her lightsaber back and forth, left and right, but a moment of lapse and slowness resulted in her not being able to withdraw her hands on time even as Darth Vader's lightsaber sliced through her wrists.
And then, she collapsed to her knees and begged, "Vader, please, spare the children. Kill me if you want, but spare them please!"
Darth Vader looming over her, spoke in a menacing tone, "Did you all think the same way when a certain boy you knew begged for mercy? You are all hypocrites. Yet, I shall not hesitate to grant you your wish for death! Prepare to welcome death, Vokara Che."
And with that, he impaled her through the chest, and buried his lightsaber deeper into her heart, even as her mouth opened in horror and pain, and he reveled in it, reveled in her pain.
She was one amongst the Jedi who deserved to be exterminated from the galaxy.
And then he marched towards a group of younglings who had been hiding behind her and declared, "The soon to be Emperor, Darth Sidious, also known as Chancellor Palpatine has declared you to be traitors, and I shall personally carry out your executions forthwith, here and now, before you can become a threat to the New Order. Prepare to die, younglings."
Darth Vader had killed each and every single youngling, ignoring their cries for mercy as he had impaled and cut each one down.
This had been only a year ago, and the Great Jedi purge had taken place one year after the start of the Clone Wars.
The Clone Wars had started as a conflict between the Republic and the Confederacy of the Independent Systems, a.k.a, the Separatists, led by Count Dooku, who was actually a Sith Lord named Darth Tyrannus, under Sidious' tutelage.
Vader had then been introduced to the Jedi as a commander, and he had successfully led many battles against the Separatists and won. However, the Jedi had been quite distrustful with him. Well, they had been right to. After all, the whole war had been nothing but a sham to put Palpatine into power, power enough for what had been planned to come.
And then the plan had come to fruition, one year after the start of the Clone Wars.
Sidious had deliberately caused an accident during a transmission that had caused him to have his identity as a Sith Lord exposed. This had led the Jedi Council to try and arrest him.
Mace Windu had led a team of Jedi masters, only for the entire team minus Windu to have been slaughtered, and when it had seemed the Jedi Master would win, Darth Vader had shown up at the last minute and had slain him in cold blood.
Palpatine had then declared that the Jedi were traitors, and had sent Darth Vader to massacre the Jedi.
Vader had then revealed to the Jedi who he truly was, Darth Vader, dark lord of the Sith, and apprentice to Darth Sidious, and had massacred the Jedi within their own home while Palpatine had issued Order 66.
Shortly afterwards, Darth Tyrannus had officially surrendered and had stated in the Senate that the Jedi had been the ones to attack them first and that now that they were wiped out, there was no reason for him to fight against the Republic.
He had publicly apologized and Palpatine had publicly pardoned him.
Palpatine had declared the formation of the Galactic Empire, and the Senate had cheered in applause.
Having formed the Empire, Sidious had decided to break the rule of two, seeing that having two Sith Lords serving him was better than just one. That was the reason why he had not had Dooku killed despite his age.
And, Tyrannus was quite a powerful duelist, an expert in the lightsaber form of Makashi.
So both Tyrannus and Vader had been declared as the enforcers of the new Empire.
And Palpatine's reign was terrifying, and of course, Vader was fine with it, because it had brought order to the galaxy.
Only for it to have been broken, barely a year later, this year in fact, by guerilla attacks by pesky Rebels who could not accept the Empire's ways.
And Sidious, wanting to have any threats to his newly founded Empire, wanted the rebels eliminated.
As for the Sith Lords, both of the enforcers had been deemed fit to train apprentices. Tyrannus had already taken one during the Clone Wars, a Sith assassin named Asajj Ventress. Alongside Dooku, Ventress had been pardoned officially and made a sub enforcer. As for Vader, he was fit to take one, but had not yet taken one. Sidious had told him that he would give him an apprentice to train soon.
Not that he looked forward to it very much though.
In fact, he hated the idea of it all.
But he would have to do it anyway, and he would.
He would make his would-be apprentice understand and accept the power of the dark side, in any way necessary, just as Sidious had done in his case.
It was all necessary in the end, no matter how harsh.
And now, he would use his power to crush the rebellion before its roots could grow stronger and develop into a tree.
The tree of rebellion would never grow fully.
It would be cut down, and by his own hand.
Darth Vader was suddenly interrupted from his thoughts by an officer calling out, "My Lord, we have detected an Alderaanian corvette coming out of hyperspace. Shall we pursue it?"
Vader responded, "Pursue it but do not destroy it."
"Yes my Lord," the officer replied and walked away to relay the orders.
Not too far away from the star destroyer, the Devastator which was currently Vader's flagship, an Alderaanian cruiser, the Tantive III had just emerged from hyperspace only to find itself in danger.
Captain Antilles shouted, "It's an ambush! Get us into hyperspace! We need to get out of here!"
"I can't," a crewman shouted, "The hyperdrive is damaged! We're doomed!"
"Oh great!" thought Captain Antilles in horror.
They were supposed to have reached Alderaan, and instead, had ended up coming out of hyperspace a little too early, and now they would surely be pursued.
The cruiser tried to get away as fast as possible, but its sublight thrusters were not as powerful as the Devastator's. And the turbolaser cannons of the star destroyer were already firing.
In self defense, the cruiser attempted to return fire, but it was not enough.
And eventually, turbolaser bolts hit the main reactor, disabling the cruiser's engines and weaponry.
Soldiers with helmets rushed to the blast door at the entrance to the ship and took up defensive positions even as they heard the star destroyer using its tractor beam to pull the ship towards it.
Soon, the ships docked.
And then, there came sounds of blaster fire.
Soon, the door was blasted away and there rushed in clones of the 501st legion, Darth Vader's Fist.
The soldiers with helmets opened fire and killed a few clones, but ultimately, were pushed back.
Meanwhile, a woman stood near a blue and white astromech droid and whispered, "R2, listen carefully, you need to escape from here, and go to Naboo, and tell…"
But before she could complete her statement, she heard the sounds of clones' footsteps getting closer and closer.
She gripped her blaster and turned to shoot at them.
Meanwhile, Darth Vader entered the ship and strode through the ship.
As he turned around one corridor, he suddenly came face to face with a man that looked like the captain of the ship, judging by the uniform.
He gripped the man in a force choke before he could fire his blaster and held him.
He spoke, "If there are any senators on this ship who are traitors to the Empire, conspiring with the rebellion, you will tell me."
Captain Antilles whispered, "Never!"
Vader in anger snapped the man's neck with the force and tossed him aside.
He then commandingly said, "Scourge the corridors, and bring me any senators you find. Bring the passengers. I want them alive!"
The clones went and searched each part of the ship.
They came across a corridor where some clones were already gathered, shooting lethal bolts.
The leader of the incoming group cried out, "Boys, set to stun! Lord Vader wants them alive."
The others complied and changed to stun, and they noticed a woman taking cover behind a column as she fired at them.
A couple of clones had already been killed.
The woman then whispered to the droid next to her, "Go for the escape pods. I'll cover you."
Even as the astromech droid began to move towards the escape pods, the clones suddenly charged forward, and even as the woman slightly exposed herself to take a shot, one clone fired a stun bolt that caught her neatly across the arm and she fell to the floor, the blaster falling out of her hand.
Even as the other clones lowered their weapons and moved towards their prisoner, one looked at the one whose shot had made its mark and said, "Good shot Fives."
Fives replied, "Thanks Rex. Now, Commander, we've got to inform Vader that we have someone for him, Padmé Amidala of Naboo."
Suddenly, one of the other clones shouted, "Hey, stop that droid! He's getting away!"
The droid, R2, moved as fast as he could, but unfortunately, before he could make it to the escape pods, some blaster bolts went and hit the controls to the escape pods, destroying them, and some clones managed to run quickly and get ahead of him.
A short while later, Darth Vader looked upon his clones, led by Commander Rex who were escorting a prisoner to him.
That's when he noticed something about the prisoner.
The woman in front of him had long curly brown hair, and was a beautiful woman to say the least. Not only that, her entire attire, and her grace all indicated something about her.
And her face.
And Darth Vader knew who it was that was standing in front of him, giving him a feeling of familiarity and warmth, and yet, bitterness and coldness.
He whispered almost dreamily, "Padmé?"
Yes, it was Padmé Amidala of Naboo.
Padmé Amidala spoke boldly, "Only you could be so bold to attack a peaceful ship, an Alderaanian ship for that matter, carrying an aide of Senator Organa of the Imperial Senate, an aide on a diplomatic mission. You know it is a peaceful planet. The Imperial Senate will not stand for this."
Darth Vader was strangely silent for a few moments, which for some reason felt like minutes to Padmé.
There seemed to be something strange about him.
Vader felt it too.
It was strange to say the least.
Normally, he would have exploded to hear someone boldly accuse him like this, but there was something about her because of which, he could not.
Was it…., compassion?
Willingness to listen?
But then, he hardened himself, and pointing a finger at her, he accusingly said, "You are a member of the Rebellion and a traitor," before ordering the clones, "Take her away!"
Rex motioned to two of his men, who promptly escorted the former queen of Naboo away.
Rex then spoke, "My Lord, we also found this droid attempting to escape and apprehended it."
He then moved aside and some clones stood there, right behind an astromech droid.
Vader noticed something familiar about it.
And he said, "What is your designation, droid? Do you serve the senator? Are you R2-D2?"
The droid beeped in response, which Vader, who could understand binary, understood as a yes.
Vader replied, "Well then, you will be brought aboard this ship, and if you do not want your mistress to come to any harm or you value your life, you will not attempt to escape, is that understood?"
R2-D2 simply beeped affirmatively.
Darth Vader then turned to Rex and said, "Guard the droid in whatever way you see fit. Make sure he does not escape."
"Yes My Lord," Rex replied.
