The Way of the Sith

Heady emotions. The thrill of raw, swirling power. Treachery. This is what it is to be Sith.

Darth Vader understands this now.

He feels the Force around him and in him, a storm of darkness, but it's hovering always just out of his reach. He can only grasp tendrils of it, enough to crush droids and other machinery, but a mere shadow of what he had before. Before, he could have had the galaxy. He could have ruled it (with Padme, the part of him that is still Anakin whispers) so easily.

But all that is gone now.

Kneeling before Palpatine – his friend, no, his Master – is so easy that Vader feels his knee bend before he realises. He wonders whether there is something wrong in the wiring. And then he wonders whether perhaps this was also planned. The perfect apprentice.

"My Master," Vader says. "We have won. We have brought peace to our galaxy."

-

Emperor Palpatine stares down at his apprentice and feels a flicker of regret for what could have been. His previous apprentices, Maul and Dooku were nothing compared to Anakin's raw power. He could have been so much and all that is now destroyed. There is nothing of the young man Anakin in the monstrosity in front of him. He suppresses a sneer. Darth Vader, apprentice of Emperor Palpatine, second most feared man in the galaxy, Sith Lord, is nothing more than a glorified machine.

He schools his face into a mildly concerned expression even though he isn't sure any of it would translate well through Vader's mask. "My loyal apprentice, we have indeed triumphed."

-

In the moments before his death, Count Dooku could have predicted the fall of Anakin. It was all there. The flicker of doubt. The anger. The hate. Even the treachery. Anakin was drowning in darkness and he didn't even know it.

Dooku allows himself feel a touch of admiration for Palpatine's manipulations. And then the numbing fear and fury returns. He's been betrayed.

The galaxy is going to fall and nobody realises it, he thinks as the lightsaber slices down.

-

Palpatine never set out to rule the galaxy. It was always a dream of his but it lived in the shadows of his mind. That is, until the shadows became his entire world and light was slowly obliterated.

Somewhere along the road of seeking knowledge and knowing history, Palpatine finds himself making history and keeping knowledge. The distinction blurs and he finds himself drawn into Sith ways. The unfairness of Jedi training. The prejudice against using emotions to power the Force.

He tells himself he is fighting for justice but as the blade slices through the throat of his Master, Palpatine knows he's simply lying to himself.

-

The galaxy makes the transition from Republic to Empire fairly peacefully.

The whisper of Jedi traitors carries from Coruscant to the Outer Rim and always accompanying them are whispers of Anakin Skywalker, now called Lord Vader.

-

Vader stands up awkwardly and bows to Palpatine. Then, he turns around and with a swirl of black, leaves the room.

Palpatine watches him leave and wonders briefly what he would have done if Vader had not been injured. A young man, in the prime of his life. Sooner or later, he would have buckled under the constraints of being second-in-command. Palpatine didn't quite relish the thought of having to orchestrate the death of yet another apprentice.

He smiles suddenly. As he is, Vader is dependant, loyal and the perfect apprentice.

Perhaps all has turned out just fine.

-

Vader stares at his reflection in the mirror and vows revenge. A bitter coil of hatred bursts into existence inside him and festers.

I am Sith; I will have my justice.