Dark Lord: Bride of Vader

Chapter 3: Rattling the Cage

I do not own any of the Star Wars and DC characters and ideas represented in this work.

"You are more Anakin but more powerful and dangerous than anyone realized."  - Ahsoka Tano

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Lady Maxima: Warrior Queen, Head of the royal house, leader of all Almerac was bored. Boredom, in some species that can comprehend it, was a very subjective concept varying person to person. Maxima was not a very philosophical ruler like many sentients might come to think royals are. Higher forms of intellect and study are for those who are second-in-command to any authority figure so that said authority figure won't need to worry about complex or silly words, like her advisor Sazu.

Of course, that will lead to Sazu being incredibly annoying, prone to question every decision Maxima makes, and utterly be a witch altogether. Some might ask why the Almeracian Queen hasn't already executed the secretary for being a nuisance, and Maxima thought about it and was close to doing the act in the past. But the handmaiden has proven to be too useful for her own good and would be a total waste if beheaded. Besides, Sazu has served Maxima's family for almost her entire life. The slightly older woman was like a sister to Maxima, a sister that Maxima would sometimes like to dismember personally.

Back to the day at hand, boredom was something that Maxima didn't like. It was a problem that couldn't be threatened, or beaten to submission, or thrown in jail, or ignored. It was a situation that seemed to be plaguing her recently. The many hobbies that the Queen once enjoyed to rid herself of such a state of mind was sword fighting, feeding political prisoners to the carnorite, and finding a suitable worthy mate.

But those things have changed; there are not many swordsmen worth meeting their blades with hers, the carnorite is now dead, and there is absolutely no man in this stupid galaxy worthy to be her lover and betrothed.

Well, all of them except one of course.

The Kryptonian—Superman. He was the only male being that had the potential of not only being her equal, but her lover. He was the last of his race, what she remembered, and no real way of procreating his race out of extinction. She offered herself to him, when he proved himself worthy, she offered her mind, body, and soul to him and a seat on the Almeracian throne, to be a ruler beside her. Their love would have been unbreakable, their love making legendary, their children beautiful and powerful, and their Empire unstoppable.

Alas, he was ultimately unworthy, she came to realize. Physical-wise, he was sculpted by the sacred god himself. Personality-wise, he was a fool, he was not a leader of any sort nor of any worth to her. Despite his body being the peak of a warrior, his mentality was one of a coward. Instead of killing his enemies like any sane sentient should do, he never saw him do it at all, the warrior from Earth has never killed or cause another's death. In all of the scouts Sazu had on Earth or anyplace that the Kryptonian went, he has only given mercy to those who don't deserve it.

Not doing what everyone would do with those astonishing powers and ruling the galaxy, he only watches and observes from Earth, playing cat and mouse with Earth criminals and some outside force from time to time. Maxima was, and sometimes is, infatuated with the man at some point.

When he helped her take that rat bastard De'Cine when he staged that coup against her, he compelled her to offer him mercy when he didn't deserve any. But Maxima who only just wanted to make mad love with the strongly built man just went along with his ideals. When she said that she'll be a better leader to her people to him, it was an attempt to bring him into her arms, so that she might seem more compatible with his ideals. When she has done all of that he suggested she should do, she hopes, no, prayed that he may come back from that backwater world and be her destined love.

That was all five years ago, and that bastard Kryptonian hasn't even called her!

Maxima has gotten wiser now. A mate, for her, her future family and lineage, and all of Almerac at stake needed to have two strengths in mind: Strength in the physical by any form and strength in the mind. There are many suitors that were weak physically but were in the right mind to be rulers. They wanted her to bear their children and become rulers of Almerac yet none were not physically worthy of doing so. The only man capable of becoming her mate in a physical sense was Superman, yet he was not in the right mind. Either he was too stupid or just mentally ill, for that he wasn't worthy.

Finding a suitor that has both, Maxima found out, was near impossible.

Because of all this, she was bored, possibly forever, to die as a maiden. Her dream of having a child of immense power and strength seemed to be fading away the same way her youth was, even though she was still rather young comparatively. Her plans to have a galaxy wide Empire built by Almerican hands looks like a combination of a joke and a mirage. Her hopes of having a lover to be betrothed, to have a intertwined destiny with another who loves her back, where they know each other's feelings even between the stars, are now dead. All of this excitement, the thrilling feeling of something that might be created from all of this, is gone.

And the only thing that came from this was boredom. Extreme, frustrating, saddening boredom. Not only was she bored with her current status in her life, she was bored in the moment. To some who watch Mongul's games, from watching it on a holo-screen from the far side of the galaxy to watching in person on this very stadium, it might've been the most exhilarating thing imaginable. To her, it was nothing but a bunch of nobodies and ne'er-do-wells duking it out for the amusement of a giant oaf of a ruler.

She sighed in her furnished, comfortable, air-conditioned, VIP private lounge while putting a hand onto her cheek. Seated next to her was Sazu, always commenting on this and that, but Maxima never listened. Her personal royal guards stood at attention at the lounge's only exit with some of Maxima's servant girls at the side to happily service her mistress. This private lounge, like many others on the very top of the stadium, had a remarkable view of the arena below with addition a private holo-screen of the action as well.

She couldn't really come up with a noteworthy answer on why she had decided to bring herself to watch the games personally. To offer an alliance to Mongul? Not a chance. To maybe spy on Warworld while pretending to be friendly so she may launch an invasion? Almerac hasn't seen a decent war in generations, Sazu said how the current military and economic situation of her realm, it would take decades to revitalize it. How fun. Maybe to find a suitable mate by looking through the victor of the arena? With these slimy aliens? Not a chance.

She guessed to herself the reason she was here was because, 'why not?'.

Bored out of her mind, she more or less ignored Mongul's appearance in the arena. The introduction of the poor souls in the arena pit. Mongul's explanation of these men who apparently killed some other worthless men and whatever. The mega screen above the stadium and her personal holo-screen in the lounge transmitted a prerecorded video on this 'Darth Vader' guy. She will say honestly, she got less bored.

It cuts to a red alien begging Mongul for help. Screams of men while they got slaughtered like animals. Blasters being fired. The heavy breathing of a respirator of some kind coldly inhaling and exhaling. The strangling of the ship's captain by a dark cloaked figure that ended by the captain's neck snapping pathetically.

"Brutal and dominating," she thought to herself.

Sazu though, had different opinions, "agh," she said with disgust with her High Almeracian accent, "What a brute."

The video continued with the reveal of the figure that resembled the one down below. She looked back at the pit where the dark figure stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the ne'er-do-wells around him. She realized that this figure was Darth Vader. Having obsidian colored armor, the way this Darth Vader had his mask with his cowl over the head seemed angry with two arches above the eyelids. A grill pattern on where his mouth should be. A cloak linked with a chain, Darth Vader was rather tall, dark and probably handsome.

She arched an eyebrow as Darth Vader was the only one who stood tall and almost motionless while the group around him shivered in fear. The video continues with Darth Vader arguing with Mongul in the feed. "Do you know how many emperors and empires there are in the galaxy?" A recorded voice of Mongul asked.

Vader's recorded response seemed passionate and determined that it gained Maxima's attention. "There is only ONE Emperor and ONE Empire! Your ignorance proves your lack of usefulness, and whatever planet you're from will suffer against the Empire's wrath!" The feed then cuts off Vader crushing the camera, the holo-screen then turns to a live feed of Vader standing at the arena. The crowd booed at the Obsidian armored man, Vader only stood uncaringly. Mongul asked the dark man what he had to say about, Vader defiantly replied with a loud, strong, and deep voice that was heard almost as if he was everywhere in the stadium. "My wish is to see your head off your body, Mongul!"

"Commanding and straight to the point..." she mused in her thoughts.

Mongul got embarrassed in front of his subjects, of course, and proceeded to introduce today's main show. While a video played of a giant crocodilian beast devouring dead arena fighters, Maxima used her telepathic abilities to get more information on the mysterious warrior. After generations of selective breeding, genetic engineering and augmentation, most of the royal house of Almerac enjoyed such abilities.

Using her psychic powers on this Vader, she attempted to find any information on who he is, where he is from, and more importantly, if he is even a HE. But surprisingly and even terrifyingly, she found nothing. She sensed no intentions, no thoughts she could read, information that she could feel. Maxima's telepathic powers were credited as one of best in all of Almerac and almost unrivaled in the known galaxy. She has never met a being before whose mind and feelings she couldn't sense. Yet this dark cloaked figure at the bottom of the pit denied her probing.

She didn't feel anything but one ounce of something. Three basic emotions were so strong and deadly that she actually recoiled on the sheer amount of power they held in him: Fear, Anger, and hatred. They were in him like the small rim of light of a star escaping out of an solar eclipse. His entire being was a total darkness like an umbra, the only array of emotions she felt on him were small rays of sunshine that barely escaped.

She was astonished and fascinated that not only this man could deter her mental probings, but quite possibly could be more powerful in the realm of psychics than her, as she got a headache for her probing while he seemed indifferent. He was better than her it would seem.

She wasn't bored any more.

More intently now, she observed the tall, dark, and hopefully handsome man closer now as the arena fighters' main opponents were released from their confinements at the base of the pit. Darth Vader revealed a silver cylinder, a beam of energy in the color of blood escaped from the hilt. He stood undeterred while all of the slaves pathetically shivered in what is to come. A loud siren echoed in the arena and the beasts sprang into action for their meals.

Like their mother, they were crocodilian in nature, scales that acted as armor, jagged teeth to rip flesh and bone matter, and shorts legs that can quite go fast in her viewing when they exited out of their holes. They were smaller as newborns, two meters at width and twice that amount in length. So Vader would unfortunately be fighting against the babies, but not one. There were at least a hundred of them. Dashing towards the middle of the arena in hordes, spraying the ankle water behind them—a green scaly tide. A good trade off as a 'quality over quantity', Vader will have to prove himself for Maxima's interest further by surviving this ordeal.

Some of the arena fighters decided to act brave and charged against the horde of baby alien crocs out of the middle. Most, if not all, were either uncivilized tribesmen, daring brutes, and animals themselves, charging their own attack. Very few survived when they crashed against the wall of enemies. And very few remains were left.

Fighters who had ranged weapons, like blasters, arrows, and spears used their tools against the horde. Blaster bolts met some of the crocs, arrows were piercing armored skin, and spears cracking through skulls. But the deaths did not even scratch the hordes' numbers.

Vader only stood motionless like a statue until he did something truly amazing. Just at the halfway mark where the croc horde left between their cages and to the middle, Vader bent down a little and made an incredible leap of height, defying his clumsy looks. If he jumped any higher, he would have met the giant holo-screen above the arena. In the tight arc, his cape behind him flapped in the wind like a pair of wings from a shadow-blood bat.

The crocs that saw his airborne maneuver stacked upon one another in a large pile, trying to be the first to have their meals. When going down, she felt an immense psionic surge building up in the flying Vader. Just when the crowd, and her, thought that Vader would be gulped down and chewed apart by the croc pile, he sent what she recognized as a telekinetic shield around him that not only protected him but crushed any croc that was unfortunate enough to be under him.

When he disappeared in the crushed crocs and some more of the beasts were about to pile on him, Vader sent out gigantic telekinetic wave around him that truly stunned her. The crocs that were the closest to the radius of the shockwave literally atomized out of existence. The crocs that were second-to-closet were either turned into pure paste or virtually torn apart by the amount of force the attack had. The crocs that weren't immediately killed were flung back in the air, either landing on the ground in a splashy and bloody explosion or hitting the domed ray-shielding around the pit arena, turning into ash.

The arena's artificial metal ground cracked and the debris flew across the arena, crushing crocs, being pulverized by the arena's ray-shielding and killing a few poor arena fighter saps. Water splashed from the explosion, then coming back down in a shower of water and blood. The entire stadium shook as if a horrible earthquake occurred. Some arena watchers fell and were knocked off their feet. Maxima's felt the quake and grabbed onto her chair, Sazu held her chair in a death grip as she sent a 'yelp'. Maxima's servant girls made the same sound of surprise while falling to the floor, her guards grabbed onto the wall.

When the quake stopped, there was a moment of silence that stunned the once roaring crowd. When it passed, the crowd went wild and berserk in a booming thrill never seen before, the roars of excitement were near deafening and closely resembled the sound of heavy rain from a thunderstorm. They started to chant, "VADER! VADER! VADER! VADER!" The rabble that spat our slurs and insults at the obsidian man now loved him.

The shockwaves at least halved the hordes' numbers. The survivors were either heading towards Vader in a red-seeing hungry rage or pressed on their attack on the arena fighters. The arena fighters in question were either already dead, about to be ripped to pieces by crocs, fighting for their lives, or just running away.

The crocs that resumed the charge on Vader met a surprise, for when they got close to biting range at the crater he made, he ended them with his laser sword. Like a butcher, he hacked off arms, legs, heads, snouts, torsos and even made some go in half. The red blade cauterized the crocs' wounds, sending the smell of a meaty roast in the making around arena. It burned and melted through their scaly armor, flesh, and bone. Each swing, thrust, jab, and turn he made with his red energy blade killed or dismembered a beast.

To some peasant eyes, it might seem a barbaric way of dispatching the monstrous creatures. But to Lady Maxima, it was a glorious show of swordsmanship and heart pounding to see his skills on full display. He moved his blade in preternatural speeds and skill, weaving fans of red energy and spiraling the blade to a point where it was even difficult for her to keep up. He used the blade as if it was weightless. His footwork was phenomenal, his balance was never in question, even with the ankle deep bloody water or the maneuvers he made. Every move he made was a calculated killing blow he somehow knew it was gonna happen.

A croc tried to jump behind him as he sliced three charging crocs at once. He somehow knew despite having his back turned to the animal, for when it was on him, he simply moved his blade straight up and the croc met the blade with its face. The croc's momentum from the jump kept it going and so the animal was cut in half, vertically. It's remains splashed down onto the bloody water.

His psionic powers, or even magic at this point, was another thing that excited her. Just when he was finished off all of the crocs that tried to eat him by turning them into a pile of corpses, seven of the beasts rushed in a row to take vengeance on their fallen siblings. He made a simple hand wave and a portion of water in front of him turned into a thin sheet of blood infused water that blurred to the charging crocs.

As if spewing out of a water cutter, it jetted to the crocs and sliced their heads off by the way it came at them at an angle. The headless crocs geysered blood out of their stumps where their heads used to be and fell into the red water in heaps.

The arena was an entire pool of blood and carnage.

Vader continued to cut down the horde or use his powers to crush or pulverize them while whatever was left of the arena fighters struggled with their lives. In that moment with the crowds cheering out for Vader, she was too, but not openly at any rate. She followed him with her eyes, seeing the man showing his strength and skill before her. Her mind went wild to many things, some of which were to take that mask off and see how handsome he could be. Her heart pounded in her chest loudly and quickly, as if it too wanted to meet the lovely man by bursting out of her chest.

In that moment, amongst the cheering rabble, screaming arena fighters, croc animals cryin out in pain from Vader's wrath, and Sazu's complaining of Vader's ungentlemanly behavior, it seemed the entire universe was just her and Darth Vader. At that moment, one question whispered to her, "Is he the one?"