Fortress Vader

Prologue - Him

You either die a hero or live long enough to rule the galaxy.
Year 0

——————

Anakin Skywalker was dead. He died with Padmé. With the Jedi. With the Republic. In his place was...me.

Darth Vader.

When Obi-Wan Kenobi turned his back on me, I gathered the last of my strength and dragged myself two, maybe three meters. According to Darth Sidious, if I had not done this, I would have caught aflame. I'd be unrecognizable—that is, if I survived at all.

I did not believe him. Didn't believe I saved myself.

I still needed the suit. It kept me alive, so long as I did not go long without it. I lost my left leg and my one real hand. The leg had melted, and I felt everything. Sometimes I still did. Multiple organs were damaged.

I still had pain. Saved myself?

No. I saved nothing.

Twelve hours. Max. That was how much time I could safely go without the suit or a special bacta chamber.

I tried to push it, of course. The longest I lasted was eleven hours and thirty-seven minutes before I could no longer breathe, my lungs unable to continue on their own. It felt as if they were collapsing.

At first, I despised the suit. Uncomfortable. Hot. Clunky. Restrictive.

Until I started realizing my strength within it—and my weakness outside it.

After recovering, I spent the first few weeks doing my master's bidding. Each task seemed to require more recovery, starting with Jedi Master Kirak Infil'a for his lightsaber.

I killed the self-exiled Jedi and bled his kyber crystal. I met the Inquisitors and put the 'Grand' Inquisitor in his place. I put in endless orders to the Kuat Drive Yards.

I bowed. Constantly. Palpatine had me on my knees each time we met, and then on my back in agony. Force lightning—worse than I remembered.

Not that it mattered. I deserved every moment of pain, every second of misery.

Why? Because I killed Padmé. My wife. The mother of my unborn child.

I don't know the details, the how or the when. It doesn't matter.

She is dead. And she took me with her. Whatever remained in this broken organic form...it was but a shell, fit only to hold the rage. There was no room for anything else.

I was a masochist. Proven by the red planet coming into view before me: Mustafar. The planet where I lost everything.

This was my second visit since Kenobi left me to die. Palpatine was rapidly building his palace over the fallen Jedi Temple, but Coruscant would never be my home. I needed a sanctuary, and I knew just where to build it.

I didn't know what I wanted, but I was beginning to know the dark side. And it was there on Mustafar.

So, maybe I enjoyed the pain. Maybe I simply felt I deserved it. Honestly, I didn't bother looking too deeply. At anything.

Skipping the cracked landing pad, I lowered my newly modified Actis starfighter to a patch of dried, cooled magma next to the wrecked mining facility. As the ship began to quiet, the sounds of the planet grew louder.

The pop of lava. The swoosh of high winds. Even a far-off roar of some hungry, pissed-off beast.

Eventually, I stalked off the ramp, only to be bombarded with heat, even in my suit. I pulled my hood over my helmet because, as always, I felt like I was being watched. Friend or foe was no longer a question I asked—everyone was an enemy.

I worked my way up a ridge just above the old mining complex until I found a spot that provided a complete view of the surrounding lands. The destruction from my duel with Obi-Wan was beginning to look like a part of the planet as the lava took the area back.

My mask let out two quiet beeps. I shifted to the direction it indicated and waited three full seconds before the reading came up.

A camera eye was following me from the complex walls.

Curious. There wasn't supposed to be anything in this area, not for miles. Nothing else was happening in the ruins, though there was another camera further down on the opposite side.

I shifted slowly, taking in every angle, working in a circle. My back was to the mining complex when I saw it: the very top of a permacrete entry, the kinds the Techno Union used all over Mustafar. I couldn't see the building beyond it, but I recalled a science laboratory being the closest facility.

There was too much distance to get any readings from it. I knew it was unlikely I would find anything there. It was probably Palpatine watching me.

And yet...There was a pull to the place. It didn't feel like the dark side. Nothing was calling out to me. It wasn't a nudge in the Force. No, it felt more real, as if my physical body was being gently tugged toward it.

But my body was my enemy, too. It was barely my own. So as my body felt the need to cooly approach the place, I treated it as I would any other unknown risk.

I took control and approached on my terms.