Anakin's Dark Deeds

Anakin knew what he want.

There was no question about it.

“Yes.”

“Take a knee, Anakin. Pledge yourself to the Order of the Sith.”

“Yes. I want your power. Take me as your apprentice. Teach me. Guide me, Master.”

“Then it is done. Rise. You are now one with the Order of the Dark Lords of the Sith. From this day forward, the truth of you, my apprentice, now and forevermore, will be Darth …”

A pause; a questioning in the force –

An answer, dark as the gap between galaxies –

He heard Sidious say it: his new name.

Vader.

“Rise, Lord Vader.”

The Sith lord who once had been a Jedi hero called Anakin Skywalker stood, drawing himself up to his full height, but he looked not outward upon his new master, nor upon the planet-city beyond, nor out to the galaxy they would soon rules. He instead turned his gaze inward: he unlocked the furnace gate within his heart and stepped forth to regard with new eyes the cold freezing dread if the dead-star dragon that had haunted his life.

The dragon tied again to whisper of failure, and weakness, and inevitable death, but with one hand the Sith lord caught it, crushed away its voice; it tried to rise then, to coil and rear and strike, but the Sith lord laid his other hand upon it and broke its power with a single effortless twist.

I am Darth Vader, he repeated as he ground the dragon’s corpse to dust beneath his mental hell, as he watched the dragon’s dust and ashes scatter before the blast from his furnace hear, and you –

You are nothing at all.

He had become, finally, what they all call him.

The hero with no fear.

There were screams, and tears, and pleas for mercy.

None of them mattered.

The Sith had come to Mustafar.

Shu Mai, president and CEO of the Commerce Guild, looked up from her knees, hands clasped before her, tears streaming down her shriveled cheeks. “We were promised a reward,” she gasped. “A h – h- handsome reward – “

“I am your reward,” the Sith lord said. “You don’t find me handsome?”

“Please! She screeched through her sobbing. “Pleee – “

The blue white blade cut into and out of her skull, and her corpse swayed. Her brain burned head tumbled to the floor.

“Stop!” Rune Haako, aide and confidential secretary to the viceroy of the trade federation cried. “Enough! We surrender, do you understand? You can’t just kill us – “

The Sith lord smiled. “Can’t i?”

“We’re unarmed! We surrender! Please – please, you’re a Jedi!”

“You fought a war to destroy the Jedi.” Vader stood above the shivering Neimoidian, smiling down upon him, then fed him half a meter of plasma. “Congratulations on your success.”

The Sith Lord stepped over Haako’s corpse to where Wat Tambor clawed uselessly at the transparisteel wall with his armored gauntlets. The head of the techno union turned at his approach, cringing, arms lifted to shield his faceplate from the flames in the dragon’s eyes.

“Please, I’ll give you anything. Anything you want!”

The blade flashed twice; Tambor’s arms fell to the floor, followed by his head.

“Thank you.”

Darth Vader turned to the last living leader of the confederacy of Independent systems.

Nute Gunray, viceroy of the trade federation, stood trembling in an alcove, blood tinged tears streaming down his green-mottled cheeks. “The war …,” he whimpered. “The war is over – Lord Sidious promised – he promised we would be left in peace …”

“His transmission was garbled.” The blade came up.

“He promised you would be left in pieces.”