Darth Vader: Hero of Naboo

Chapter 22

The moment could have lasted an eternity.

With the Veil of the Dark Side torn away, if only here, there was a moment where all sides just waited and marveled.

The Jedi.

The Sith.

The Force.

For the first time in ages, both sides peered forth at one another, mutually recognizing that one another existed.

For the Jedi- no, for every Force-Sensitive on Coruscant, it was like looking into an oncoming storm of lightning, like standing over a pit of snakes,... or like realizing a dark ocean had rested just outside their lofty gaze, obscured by a mist of shadows.

And Darth Vader found himself more surprised than any of the Council members. Not from what he sensed, but by his own feelings on the matter.

There was a satisfaction that he had succeeded, a growing caution in him knowing that Sidious might yet live past this night. But what shocked him most was what he felt looking at the Jedi.

Pity.

"You were so sure, Jedi," Vader stated without coldness or spite, simply knowing it to be true. Some glared, some just turned their shock onto him. Most didn't react, not daring to take their gazes in the Force off the Sith Lords that had been hidden just before them all this time.

"All this time...," Eeth Koth murmured in disbelief.

He had told them and they refused to believe him. He showed them and it was almost too much for them to accept. He supposed it made sense. In his timeline, there had been over a decade for the Order to come to terms with the return of the Sith and just as much time of suspicions building onto each other. Crumbs leading them to a truth they could never learn in time to truly matter. They didn't know Palpatine was a Sith Lord, never suspected it, but they had long believed that something was wrong.

Now? Their entire view of the galaxy had essentially been torn from under them in an instant, leaving them unsure and doubtful, hesitant almost. He pitied them, because it echoed to him, to his past; to the final days of the Clone Wars, when everything had changed. Everything and everyone he believed in had failed or been wrong. The Council, he came to realize how arrogant and hypocritical they really were. The Jedi, how biased and closed-minded. The Republic? He always knew that was broken, he just accepted how unsalvageable it had truly been.

The only one who hadn't failed was Padme. He failed her. The Dark Side was like a drug and he had been so new to coping with it. He was liable to blame that partially on Palpatine. Not to ease the guilt rightfully on his shoulders, but because he suspected that man of everything after a while.

Vader tilted his head towards the direction of Sidious and Plagueis, many miles away. Being a Dark-Sider, a Lord of the Sith, Vader was privy to more minute details revealed through the force.

He was not surprise that Sidious made the first move.

The atmosphere became oppressive, as if something wanted to strangle the very souls from their necks, the Dark Side now actively bearing down on the fortress of the Jedi.

The Jedi Masters could shake it off with some unease, but...

Vader could hear him. Hear Sidious cackling through the Force as his words whispered terror and nightmares upon all his powers could reach. The rage, the fury, the sheer hatred being unleashed upon the Jedi as a whole...

"Obi-Wan!" Qui-Gon called as the Padawan fell to his knees, the master kneeling by his side instantly.

"M-master, I can...can see things," Obi-wan said, trembling even as he obviously tried to fight it off. "Are these...visions? You, dying in a duel, the Temple in flames. Everyone is dead! And the younglings he's...he's-...by the Force, no!"