The air reeked of scorched fabric and charred flesh. Smoke curled from the ruined chamber of the Supreme Chancellor, where the shattered window let in the cold Coruscant night. Darth Sidious lay slumped against the desk, her face twisted in agony, the raw burns left by her own lightning still crackling with fading energy.

Before her, her new apprentice knelt, his chest heaving, his saber still humming in his grasp. Windu was dead. The Jedi were now the enemy. And he had chosen.

Sidious lifted her trembling hand, her golden eyes burning through swollen, blistered skin. A cruel smile curled at her ruined lips as she looked down upon the one who had sealed his fate.

“The Force is strong with you,” she rasped, her voice hoarse, cracked, and unnatural. “A powerful Sith you will become. Henceforth, you shall be known as Darth... Vader.”