Vader Unleashed 003

Arriving at an excavation site, Vader's steps were heavy as he departed the transport's ramp. 

Glaring down at a set of temple ruins-ancient even in this era-Vader ignored the sniveling sycophants who attempted to gain his attention. 

A clenched fist, and a dozen simultaneous neck snaps was enough to silence their odious crowing. Receiving the message he wanted to convey, the workers, officers, and busybodies all parted to the side. Their fear stank in the Force like that of a Rancour's arsehole. Vader knew he could order them to kill their lovers and children, and they would jump to obey. Such perverse pleasures were better left to his master. So long as they obeyed, that was all that mattered. 

Before him was a series of scarred, charred, and blackened architecture. He could imagine majestic towers, and epic pyramids once stood here, yet they were lost to time. Amongst the ruins, there was a well preserved shaft that had been dug up. A creeping, pervasive cold emitted from this hole. It called to him. 

‘That's it, this is where the Chu-Gon Dar cube is.’ Vader thought to himself with surety. 

“L-Lord Vader, we lost hundreds of diggers to that, that hole. Strange, impossible deaths like men slipping on nothing, or drowning themselves on a canteen of water have happened with regular occurrences. The natives say it is the Great Dark punishing the unworthy.” Junus lowered his voice, and spoke whilst looking at Vader's boots. 

Vader ignored the Captain, and with a flourish of his cape, descended through the tunnel entrance. 

The air in the ancient Sith Temple was thick with an oppressive energy, steeped in the history of countless battles and long-forgotten wisdom. The stone walls, worn and cracked, whispered the legacy of dark teachings. Broken statues, and old, dried blood turned to dust under his boots as he trudged forward. His deep, mechanical exhalations echoed within this wretched, abandoned place, and disturbed dust motes too and fro. 

Emerging from the tunnel, Vader stood in the center of a high, cavernous hall. The Force in the room pulsed like a storm, crackling around him. His black cloak billowed as he stepped forward, the hum of his lightsaber igniting joined the rhythm of his breathing like that of a heartbeat. In front of him, a monolithic black pillar made of an unknown stone-like material. His alternate set of memories informed him that it was similar in appearance to the monolith from the 2001 Space Odyssey movie.

Inscribed with countless shimmering white hieroglyphics written in an ancient Sith-like language. Vader recognized a few symbols:

[Binding] [Longevity] [Grudge] [Fear] [Suffer]

If he understood correctly, and used this knowledge in conjunction with the disappearances of the workers, then Vader could only conclude some sort of spirit haunted these halls.  

Glancing below the monolith, a grand golden bowl filled with rich, sanguine red shimmered like oil. The reflection of something within the pool of blood caught Vader’s eye, and he looked up. There, lodged in the ceiling like some prized centerpiece was the object of his desire. 

The Chu-Gon Dar cube. 

As soon as his attention was diverted from the black monolithic stone, a translucent figure flickered in the air above the blood pool. Steeped in the darkside, Vader recognized this imperfect manifestation to be a Sith ghost. His features were still frozen in the grimace of a long-forgotten death.

The ghost was bound to the temple. Ethereal-almost imperceptible-red metal chains clad this being to the stone. Clawed gashes dug into the walls, demonstrating the danger that this apparition possessed. Vader made a note that the chains gave enough slack that the ghost could come within reach of the fabled cube, yet he could never lay his grasp on it. Whoever had marooned this ghost here had imparted a rather damning punishment. 

Tethered to a dusty, forgotten part of the galaxy, the ghost woodenly looked at Vader as if he wasn't real. Immortality, it would seem, had not treated the Sith well. 

Vader was about to grasp the cube with his telekinesis, walk away, and ignore this failure of a darksider, when suddenly, the hieroglyphs flashed. A piercing migraine pierced his psyche, threatening to overwhelm him. Yet the second set of memories he had inherited pushed back. 

Finding himself almost about to step into the golden basin of blood, Vader flicked his hand, and the bowl toppled over, spilling its fresh contents all over the floor. 

Seeing this, the ghost began to berate Vader. His voice was a haunting echo and reverberated through the room, seething with contempt and bitterness.

"You… You are nothing but a shadow! A mere echo of what was once great! You wear the trappings of a Sith Lord, but you are a puppet, enslaved by your own weakness! What do you know of true power?" The ghost rasped.

Vader stood, his mask impassive, his breathing steady, but his presence filled the room like an impenetrable wall of darkness. He tilted his head slightly, as if studying the ghost with detached curiosity. The specter had clearly attempted to possess him, and had gleaned some memories, yet its gambit had proved fruitless. 

Vader then spoke, his voice was calm, and carried with it a hint of mockery as he gestured towards the chains. 

"True power, you say? I was once a mere child in both body and thought, bound by the limitations of a lesser creed, a slave to my fear. Now, I am what you could never become. I am the power you failed to seek, the one who rose from the ashes of your kind. Your weakness is your fate, and I am your reminder. Whilst you continue to wallow away within this prison, I shall leave with the object of your desire." Vader taunted. 

The ghost snarled, its ethereal form flickering violently, the ghastly light that gave it form sputtered as it raged in its chains. 

"Your words are hollow, Vader! You are no true Sith! You cower behind a mask, an iron cage that smothers the potential you once had. You are less than a man, at least a slave can protect his mother! Little Ani is but a broken soul, consumed by the very thing he sought to conquer—pain, doubt, and fear. You have become nothing but a tool of the Emperor's will. You are nothing.” The specter replied, practically oozing in self satisfaction at Vader's plight. 

Vader’s mechanical hand clenched into a fist. His posture remained regal, unbothered, but his voice was a low growl, laced with amusement.

Vader looked past the ghost at the monolith, and clipped his lightsaber on his belt, showing that he had nothing to be worried about. 

"A tool? That’s rich coming from a ghost who’s been trapped in this ruin for centuries. A once-mighty Sith who couldn’t even escape the bindings of his own failure. A relic of the past, your ‘greatness’ long gone, locked away in this Temple like an artifact, forgotten and forsaken. You know who I am, but to me, you are but the dream of an ant. Small, and insignificant." Vader said, voice dripping with scorn. 

The ghost flickered again, its form faltering as the truth of Vader's words hit harder than any blade. The spirit's voice trembled with bitterness, but also with the fear of his eternal imprisonment.

"You mock me, but I still have power, Vader. You think the chains that bind me are your victory, but they are a prison of your own making. You can never escape the truth—that you, too, are a slave to your own pain. You will be trapped as I am, forever. Mark my words. The Emperor will cast you aside. You will be forgotten, lost, just like me."

Vader stepped forward, his heavy footfalls echoing in the empty space. His voice dropped to a dangerous whisper, filled with quiet wrath and certainty.

"Forgotten? You think I fear being forgotten? You are the one who has been erased. The galaxy has moved on without you, and I am the one who carries your legacy forward. Far beyond the frailty of the Jedi, far beyond the weakness of Sith like you. You are nothing but an echo of the past. A fading noise." Vader said with cold certainty. 

The ghost's form flickered again, its anguish palpable, but it was clear that its power was waning. Vader's presence pressed down on the specter like the weight of a star, suffocating it.

"You... you don’t understand! You can’t! Vitiate will destroy you. You’ll see it... you’ll feel it when the time comes. He will discard you like a broken tool. And then you will be nothing!" The ghost gasped out as it suffered under Vader's wrath. 

Vader’s lightsaber ignited with a hiss, its crimson glow casting eerie reflections in the darkened hall. He stood in silence for a moment, staring at the crimson blade as he let the hatred of his kyber crystal wash over the room. A moment later, he let out a low chuckle, it was a sound filled with dark amusement. He knew the game the ghost was playing, and had willingly stepped closer, daring it to make its move. 

"Let me give you something to truly fear, ghost. A promise for the future, which you, the eternally damned, are sure to experience millenia from now. I will stand among the ashes of the old Empire, not forgotten, but eternal." The bravado and surety within Vader's voice carried a deep timbre that echoed throughout the temple, and in the Force itself. It was as if the Force had recognized this statement, and marked both Vader, and the Galaxy forevermore. 

The metaphysical weight of this strange event sent the specter reeling. Its voice now nothing more than a hiss of frustration and anger, fading more with each passing second as it basked in Vader's presence. 

"You... you will regret this... You cannot... escape!” The specter reached sharpened claws out at Vader, its chains rattled, and the tip of its ethereal fingers were within inches of Vader's face mask.  

But before it could harm or possess him, Vader raised his hand, and with a single clenched fist, the Force surged through the Temple, crushing the spirit into a final, pitiful scream. The ghost dissipated, its essence snuffed out as though it had never existed…only to have the runes on the monolith flash, and force the ghost to return. Whimpering, and taking the form of a pile of a formless blob, the nameless Sith retreated into the monolith, ignoring Vader. 

Silence once again filled the hall, the air heavy with the weight of Vader's final words.

Vader stood alone, the temple around him once again still, the echo of the ghost’s presence forever erased.

The discussion had conjured up memories of his failures, and the small niggling fears he had when he thought of Obi-Wan or Palpatine. 

"I am beyond your reach, old fool." Vader muttered to himself. 

He then turned his gaze upward, as he regarded the Chu-Gon Dar cube. The heavy rhythm of his breathing was the only sound in the empty room. The future lay before him, vast and endless, and he would be the one to shape it.

Not bound. Not forgotten. Not a shadow.

He was the ‘Chosen One.’ Anything was possible.