Order 66: A Star Wars Story

The younglings

He had searched everywhere for them.
Top to bottom of the temple and yet they were nowhere to be seen.
    'Commander Fox,' Vader had begun through his comlink,
    'Yes, Lord Vader?'
'Have your men search for the younglings. I can feel their presence. They are within the temples walls.' Vader ordered.
    'Yes, my Lord. Fox out.'
Where could they be? Vader asked himself. He had killed many more Jedi before reaching this part of the temple. Here he was directly beneath the Jedi high council chambers. Here he could feel their presence strongly.
    Looking up, directly into the council chambers, There, Vader thought.
    This would be Vader's ultimate test. Killing his old friends and work colleges was one thing, but children? This was something else entirely.

    Even the younglings, Master? Vader had asked Sidious.
They're minds are too indoctrinated, Lord Vader. I wish there were another way.' Sidious had said, with adopted sadness.
    But you convinced me to join you. Maybe the younglings will join us too. Vader suggested.
I have thought about it many times, my friend. They did not have a life before the order. Not like you. Their allegiance to the Jedi is absolute. Nothing will ever change that. Sidious explained.
But... they're just children. Vader had said.
I know. And it pains me to give you this order, but there is no other way. You have to make a desicion, Lord Vader.
What kind of desicion? Vader asked.
Them, or Padme. Your power will not grow until all Jedi are exterminated, and if your power does not grow, you will not be strong enough to save her. Sidious explained.

Vader could remember the overwhelming sense of dread. But that was Anakin Skywalker's dread. The type of dread that makes you question yourself, and your actions. Killing children? This was truly an evil act, even if the children were Jedi. But, Lord Sidious had been correct. They were so young, they hadn't experience what life would've been like before the Jedi took them in and drummed their beliefs into their minds, essentially-no, not essentially, literally brainwashing them.

Vader was standing outside the doors of the high council's chamber now. Anakin Skywalker would creep up into the back of his mind, Don't do this! You can't do this. Anakin would tell him, and it would almost work. But then the visions of Padme dying would wash over his guilt, and with that, Sidious telling him, and if your power does not grow, you will not be strong enough to save her.
The desicion had been made.
    He pressed the door panel and entered the room.
    Suddenly, be became extremely flustered.
    He remembered the first ever time he had entered this room as a child. Qui-Gon on one side, Obi-Wan on the other and he in the middle.
Fears at an all time high, put in front of a group of mystical beings that could move things with their thoughts, all staring at him, just recently taken away from his mother. Then the wisest of these mystical beings had told him, See through you, we can. It had caused his stomach to drop. Then, another of these mystical beings, one who would die on the planet Mygeeto, told him, Your thoughts dwell on your mother. More fear entered him. He felt as if he were being paraded in front of people who paid to see him.
He is the chosen one, you must see it! Qui-Gon had said, and at the time, Anakin hadn't really known what that had meant.   
    Now though, Vader did. To bring balance to the force.

    'Master Skywalker, there are too many of them, what are we going to do?' One of the younglings had asked. A very young blonde haired boy, who reminded Vader of a young Anakin Skywalker.
It's them, or Padme, Darth Sidious' voice reminded him in the back of his mind.
    Vader looked at the boy, guilt that Anakin Skywalker had was washed away by the determination that Darth Vader had.
    His lightsaber ignited a blue blade of pure energetic plasma.
    The child jumped at the chilling sound of the hissing lightsaber.
    'M-master? What are you doing...?' The child asked. Now the other younglings had surrounded the boy almost as if protecting him.
    'I'm sorry. But there's no other way...' Vader said.

The child's head left his shoulder within a split second. The other children screamed in horror at seeing their "Hero With No Fear" mercilessly cut one of their own down.
    Their Jedi training served them well as they quickly recomposed themselves and ignited their lightsabers.
    Multiple sticks of blue and green lit the room up more than the lights themselves.
    While these children were disceplend well, they were no match for Vader. They knew this themselves but didn't let it stop them from trying.
    Not one of their blades even met Vader's before their arms, legs and heads were amputated from their torso's.

Vader stared at the bodies of the dead children. The children he had murdered in cold blood.
    Anakin Skywalker recalled feeling ill a short period after cutting Dooku's head off. But then feeling an overwhelming sense of strength. Here though, there was no strength to be found.
    Vader looked at them all. Heads separated from shoulders. Legs from their waists and arms from their shoulders. A single tear fell ran down his left cheek as he thought about the child in his wife's womb.
Close your heart to it, Lord Vader. Your compassion for the Jedi weakens you and your wife can not afford that weakness. Sidious' voice had said to him.
    Anakin closed his eyes, tightened the grip on his lightsaber with his organic hand thankfully as if it had been his mechanical one, it would've crushed the hilt.
    Anakin may have closed his eyes but Vader opened them.
    Thousands of years from now in the history books and holocrons, many would debate when Anakin Skywalker died and became Vader. People theorised that Anakin died at his defeat on Mustafar from the hands of Kenobi. Anakin entered Mustafar, but Vader had left. Some debated that Vader had been born when he was put into his life support/torture suit. Some when he made the desicion to strangle his pregnant wife for her "betrayal." But the truth was, Vader had always been alive within Anakin Skywalker. Sometimes in rare occurrences, Vader would appear.
    You probably wish for examples.
    When Anakin found Clovis pushing himself on Padme, this was a moment where Vader took over Anakin.
    When Ashoka was betrayed by the Jedi order, Vader had fought for control but Anakin had suppressed him.
    When his mother was killed by the sand people, Vader took full control and executed the sand people with demented pleasure.
    This was when Vader was truly born however. Vader had taken over Skywalker's personality like a disease of the body. Anakin Skywalker was not dead, but now... after this horrible act of cold blooded child murder, Anakin now resided in the same place Anakin and suppressed Vader for all those years.
'Lord Vader?' Commander Fox buzzed in through his speakers. 'We have not found the younglings. We can't find them and every corner we lose more men to the Jedi.'
    'They've been taken care of, commander. Continue your previous mission.' Vader had ordered. Fox responded predictably.

'By the force, Skywalker... what have you done?'
    Vader turned around and in the repulsor lift that led up to the council chambers stood Luminara Unduli.
    'What I'm about to do to you, Unduli.' Vader hissed.

To be continued...