𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙰𝚁 𝙷𝙰𝙳 𝙴𝙽𝙳𝙴𝙳, 𝙱𝚄𝚃 𝚃𝙾 𝙰𝚂𝚂𝚄𝙼𝙴 𝙿𝙴𝙰𝙲𝙴 𝚆𝙾𝚄𝙻𝙳 𝙵𝙾𝙻𝙻𝙾𝚆 𝚆𝙰𝚂 𝙰 𝙵𝙰𝙸𝙻𝚄𝚁𝙴 𝙾𝙵 𝚁𝙴𝙰𝚂𝙾𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶. the republic had been in decline long before its final collapse, and in the outer rim where governance had always been tenuous, decay had long set in. without infrastructure, effective regulation, or even the pretense of order, necessity dictated survival, not law. crime was not an aberration; it was the inevitable byproduct of a system left in chaos.
darth vader understood this well. he’d seen it firsthand as a child, long before he had taken a new name. corruption had not merely seeped into republic space, it had been there all along, concealed by the illusion of control: isolated cases, statistical anomalies the authorities could dismiss. but over time, the irregularities became trends, and trends became inevitabilities. the republic, unable or unwilling to adapt, had slowly submerged under the weight of its own negligence.
slavery had been the most striking contradiction of all. the republic’s stance was unambiguous, but its actions bespoke a deeper truth. outlawed in name, yet it flourished in practice, driven by greed and facilitated by the complacency of those in power. slavers moved freely, unchallenged, and took from the colonies, from the core, and even from within the jedi order itself: padawans, separated from their masters in the chaos of war, taken and sold as rare commodities, their value determined not by their potential but by the ignorance of those who should have protected them.
the republic had known; the jedi council had known.
𝐘𝐄𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑 𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐍 𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐇.
as a padawan, anakin struggled to reconcile the contradictions, the inexplicable apathy of those in power. the republic’s laws forbade slavery, yet they did nothing to eradicate it. the jedi, guardians of peace and justice, had spoken in measured tones of compassion and diplomacy, yet they had denied him the right to return to tatooine to free his own mother. he’d questioned, even then, what purpose sanctions served if they could not dismantle the trade they condemned. what was the value of isolating entire planets if suffering persisted unchecked?
anakin had been young, too inexperienced to grasp the fundamental truth: the republic’s principles were hollow, and the jedi’s wisdom was, at times, indistinguishable from indifference. vader understood now. and unlike the frightened boy he had once been, he had the power to alter reality, itself.
as emperor, his first decree was absolute: the abolition of slavery across all worlds under his dominion. by force, if necessary. and force was necessary. there was no negotiating with slavers, no reforms that would undo the suffering they had inflicted. the only viable solution was their eradication.
in the weeks following his discovery of sidious’s secret laboratories, vader turned his attention to the criminal syndicates, particularly those whose fortunes built upon the trade in sentient lives. methodically, relentlessly, he dismantled them. names he’d once feared in childhood, the unseen specters that had haunted him on tatooine—now, at last, he had given them form, only to erase them. no child should ever again know such terror. there were no survivors. none, except those who could provide intelligence on other trafficking rings, though compliance granted no assurances.
𝐕𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐘 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐁𝐘 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐈𝐏𝐋𝐄, but by utility—and even that was inconsistent. he was not always in the mood to let them speak.
perhaps the recent violence had dulled the sharp edge of his wrath. a temporary equilibrium, perhaps, in which bloodlust had given way to an unusual, almost uncharacteristic patience. that would account for the strange tolerance with which darth vader now observed the youngling exploring the periphery of his throne chamber, an incongruous figure dwarfed by the geometry of the hall, his voice bright with questions as he traced the passage of tie fighters across the viewport with an eager, outstretched hand.
there was something eerily familiar about that curiosity, that unfiltered fascination. vader could remember a time when he, too, had looked at starships not as instruments of war, but as ingenuity.
❝a tie fighter, hm?❞ his voice was a quiet rumble, his gloved fingers pressed against his temple in a pose that may have been contemplative, if not for the indifference pasted on his face. ❝you’ve spent enough time under the dominion of others. if flight offers you freedom, then you will fly. i will see to it.❞
there was no kindness in the statement. if the child’s connection to the force had survived intact, he would sense the hint of amusement the dark lord had allowed himself to express.
