Vader

“Lord Vader,” I heard a voice say hesitantly.

I turned, feeling a glimmer of satisfaction pass over me as I recognized the mousy-haired man. He was an intelligence officer that I had assigned to finding more information on Skywalker. “What is it?” I asked him, not even bothering to hide my impatience.

“You said to report any information on Luke Skywalker, my lord. We have not received anything new on that front,” he began, but as he saw me clench my fist he hurried to say what he meant to, “but we have received information on an Anakin Skywalker.”

I felt my blood freeze. “What.” It was not a question or an exclamation but a sort of quiet and chilling version of the two.

The officer spoke quickly, and fear radiated off him through the Force. “There are a few scattered reports of an Anakin Skywalker residing on the planet of Yavin IV, where the Rebels once had their base. Apparently he stole an Imperial Shuttle, and Intelligence caught his name and location after decoding a transmission he sent out. We have been unable to trace the transmission’s destination, however.”

“Keep searching for more information. Contact me when you find more.”

I reported to my master that I was taking my flagship to Yavin IV to investigate this appearance of a man with the name I had once held. He did not want me to go, but he would not stop me. He did, however, warn me that he knew the inner workings of my heart.

That made my blood run cold for a minute, although I was careful to hide it from his probing through the Force. Did he really know my secret thoughts?

Palpatine was old and being eaten alive by the Dark Side. He was becoming weaker...Secretly, I wanted to overthrow him with my son, if Luke Skywalker was indeed my son—the Force told me he was connected to me that day in the Death Star trench, and my heart was inclined to agree. Did Palpatine know about this? Did he suspect my plans? Or was he just trying to frighten me?

Well, regardless of Palpatine, I was going to Yavin IV to make sure that the name of Anakin Skywalker remained dead, as well as the person.