DARTH VADER

Darth Vader awoke from his deep meditation in a start. He had felt an enormous blast on all frequencies of meditation, the rest having been just a blur of noise and color. It set his helmeted head in an unbearable headache just to remember the sensation of it.

How has young Tano achieved the ability to speak with those of the Netherworld of the Force? He asked himself. She always was more advanced than the other padawans, but not to this extent!

He got up out of his meditation sphere, the top half of it sliding up to allow him to exit. He walked over to his transmitter, and promptly knelt down. 

With a beeping noise, a hologram of a hideously disfigured old man came up. His eyes were yellow rimmed with red, and his face was milk-white, with horrible wrinkles of unnatural proportions. 

For a moment there was no sound but the inner workings of the Imperial ship humming softly and Darth Vader’s breathing, amplified by the mask: chee, whoo. Chee, whoo. Then he spoke up. 

“What is thy bidding, my Master?” he asked the old man respectfully, who wore ornate, blood red robes with a hood. The robes of the Galactic Emperor. 

“Lord Vader, has the Imperial fleet been positioned as I commanded it be?” 

“Yes, Master Sidious. But I worry about the situation of my old padawan. She has grown more powerful than I could have imagined.” 

“Yes, I have sensed it too. Whenever I try to use my powers to probe for her location and intentions, I seem hit a wall. She has grown strong with the Force. Too strong.” 

“Are you certain that there is no quicker way to spring our trap on her, Master?” 

“No... No, you are right, Lord Vader. There is another way.” A malicious smile cut across his face. “What do you know of the situation between Senator Bonteri and young Tano?” 

“I believe that they had feelings for each other, but I know little else. Is it relevant, Master?” asked Vader, a little confused as to what his Master was proposing. A tiny, almost non-existent sliver of him didn’t want to tell the Sith Lord what else he knew. 

“Of course it’s relevant!” snapped Darth Sidious. “We will let your old padawan come to Coruscant, and she will be allowed to look through the Temple. Then we must spring the trap for her, with the Senator as the bait. Then you must end her. This is her one weakness and this may be our sole chance to exploit it! You must not fail me.” 

“Yes, my Master. It will be done.” He turned off his transmitter and got up. Then he stalked off towards the door, and took and elevator up to the bridge. He went towards Commodore Tarkin.

“Lord Vader, what news from the Emperor?” asked the commodore. 

“We are to deploy the fleet as he has previously ordered. We might just catch a runaway Jedi, if all goes according to my Master’s plan.”

“Very good. I will inform the others.”

Darth Vader looked through the viewport of his Imperial command ship. Behind the mask, a single tear dripped down his face. But no one would ever know.

*Sorry... Don't know if I'm tryign too hard to bring out the good side in Vader... There's Anakin in there somewhere!*