//------------------------------//
// Secrets from his own Master? 
// Story: The God of Anger 
// by The Toaster 
//------------------------------//

"Are you sure?" He asked in a concerned tone as he walked beside the changeling.

"Absolutely, with the destruction of the Sentinels of Purity surely Celestia will start to change her policy from volunteers to conscription, Manehattan has fallen and they can no longer lose an inch of territory without the population starting to question the possibility of victory." He says with a confident tone as he writes with an unusual fervor, being very careful not to break the tip of his pencil, he had already made the same mistake four times that afternoon.

"We need to press the advantage." Thorax said as he finished ticking off a report he was holding in his other hand.

"I understand chosen one, however you don't have the authority that our leader has, you need to make him come back to make the decisions, like it or not, he makes everything move." The old man says in an apologetic tone as he presses the Changeling with his cane.

Thorax sighed and handed the sheet of paper to one of the guards who bowed and ran out of line of sight.

"I understand, but you also need to understand that our lord is busy..." He tried to explain to the lord, then was interrupted.

"It's been 4 weeks! Whatever he's doing has to wait! Without him the council just can't come to a decision!" He exclaimed in a worried tone almost making Thorax's carapace shudder.

"And what can I possibly do?? I have orders from himself not to interrupt whatever he's doing! Not even food or water is allowed to be put in that room! And you know as well as I do how I'm already in one tightrope on those bastards in the council! I may be second-in-command, but they just don't trust me!" He ranted to the old man, who even surprised at the sudden outburst listened intently.

"I understand perfectly, Thorax, but like it or not, they are required by law to listen to you, Darth Vader chose you for a reason! And even if I didn't trust you I trust him faithfully! He wouldn't choose you for no reason!" The Elder would press on even more and tap his cane to prove his point even more.

Thorax sighed and put a hand to his head as he closed his eyes.

Fuck, was this a headache that his master went through every single day? He had gained even more respect from the Changeling, yes governing was difficult, but Vader made a point of writing everything literally two to three times, on top of making a point of checking many of them personally so that everything was as he wanted.

Vader could be many things, and one of them seemed to be perfectionism, Thorax hadn't sat well in his master's office and he already had a mountain of reports and results of everything he had ordered, the man literally did everything: To Checking the amount of income that each region could make to the needs of each battalion.

Is he a man or a machine?? Even Celestia had to delegate her responsibilities to keep her sanity intact and often by the lack of knowledge about the subject (She would soon spend months of her life trying to understand such a subject, Immortality must give all the time in the world for this.)

But how did he know all this? When he made the Council he thought it was to mirror what the sun goddess did to her senate, but it looked more like a circle of device than an actual council.

It bothered him a lot, all humans had been slaves for millennia, the few who knew how to read were slaves to nobles and who really managed to know something, but the rest? They were just manual workers, the only things they needed to know was to use a tool and listen to their masters.

But from what he could read, Vader had managed to do something absurdly fast that would take anyone decades, he managed to create an entire corp dedicated to logistics and studies, another entire corp dedicated to scavenge raw materials for equipment and some other items like even he could not know.

Yes, Vader was hiding something from HIM of all people, but what? And why?

The more he went through the reports the more he was surprised and the more he was suspicious.

His master wasn't just looking for hard materials for armor and equipment, or gunpowder for muskets only, he was looking for different types of gases...

And apparently he even gave some of it names, but it was filed with a stamp that could only be read by himself, 'Tibanna', whatever it was, Vader was on a huge hunt for this weird stuff.

Another one was a project he was working on, also on a huge quest, shit, he'd assigned an entire army to look for that, and it wasn't an object or material anymore, it was somebody.

Again, it was classified just for him and interestingly the Elders, what were those old men up to?

'Operation: Chains of a Shadow' 

Even if he wanted to, he could not investigate such operations that his master was so focused, but this one seemed to be of special interest to him, as far as soldiers could know, it was something about ruins of ancient tribes in times of the Great War, it was ordered that the troops to avoid as much as possible of even touching such historic centers, if they did not want to receive the maximum penalty for disobedience.

Should they find such monuments, a detachment of the 15th legion, or 'Shadows of the Past' (How fucking original) to investigate the rubble under Vader's orders and authority.

Why was he so fascinated by the past? And why such strict rules if found? What did he expect to find? What would he gain from this?

So many questions and no answers, and more and more Thorax just grew more frustrated with his master's lack of confidence in his apprentice, Why was he was hiding so much from one of his best soldiers? Why hide so much from his only friend?

But that was not what worried Thorax the most, what concerned him most was that his master, he was silent, since his 'walk' (AKA Destruction of an entire fucking legion) he withdrew from military affairs, and left the command to the advisory board that helped him.

Thorax would understand if he was trying to make time for himself, running a nation is a frighteningly monstrous task, and when you centralize power as much as Vader did, most of the important decisions would fall on your shoulders and he was more than happy to help his master.

But no, he didn't go into seclusion to have peace and quiet, he was looking for something, not with his eyes, but with his mysterious magic, or the 'force' as he likes to call it.

If the force is as Vader describes it, he must be experiencing enormous torment or difficulties in this spiritual plane, The force is completely based on the emotions of the bearer as he told, the more powerful the emotions, the more power the bearer exudes.

However, this means that he can feel emotions, he can feel what others feel, maybe his master is meditating on the various negative emotions he felt in his recent campaign, on the negative emotions he inflicted.

Thorax does not know what is happening in his master's mind with the abundance of death, pain and suffering that are passing around with this war, The Changeling does not approve the mindless massacres, but what can he do? He is an outsider in an army that only tolerates him because he is the 'chosen one' of their 'god'.

He could only hope, hope that his master was ok.





He was focused, out of the material world for a long time, how long? He didn't have time to ponder it, he had capable soldiers, they didn't need him all the time.

The Spirit plane here is as busy as Coruscant, life here is abundant and the force seems to have a very important job in daily life here, the 'magic' here is absurdly connected with it, he can feel it from the biggest monster to the smallest of grams.

But something caught his attention a long time ago.

The darkness here is as abundant as the light, it's spread across these lands, but it seems that their epicenters are in two locations, ironically one seems to fight the other for control.

That shouldn't have been possible, the dark side could be a very dangerous and enigmatic force, but it was always in tandem, and when you managed to tame it, all the dark side obeyed you, but here? It's different, and that intrigued him.

Since then he's been looking for these sources, since then he's been trying to connect, or call in any way to these entities.

But something was driving him out, something was fighting his presence, it infuriated him.

But after so many attempts, after so many failures, something called him, something tried to talk to him.

He was no longer inside his room and in his comfortable chair, he was floating over a vast red ocean, thunderstorms raged around him, his aura of hate and anger completely covering him, like a huge flame that doesn't go out.

Something was with him in that vast ocean on the spiritual plane, something that at first sight had made him feel something he hadn't felt in a long time.

Complete shock and horror.

That..... Thing.... Could not be described by mere words, its mere presence made him unnerved, the feeling of dread, the feeling of.... Fear.....

It was the embodiment of darkness, the embodiment of horror.

"Y̴̺̪̤̹͔̙̝̏̉̎̓͋̍͠ₒ̷̝̊́̕ᵤ̶̥̂͊̂͊̐̈́̅ ̴̡̭̳̰̭̀̒̓̚͠͝ₛ̷̜̻̳̱͒̓̑̍̄̑͗ₕ̵̡̠͍̆́̏͆̄̄͌̕̕ͅₒ̵̯̙͙͈̪̺̆̿̃̔̈́̿͐ᵤ̸͔̦̍̇͋͛̀͘ₗ̵̠̜̫͙̟̣̺̻̌͋̂d̶̳̪͍̘̬̜͕͚̀̽̒̔ͅₙ̵̥͉̰̱̳͇̱̜̫͐̀̀̔͐̑͠'̷̜̝̃̌̅́̓̉͌͆͝ͅₜ̶̖͉̔ ̶̘͕̪͒̾ᵦ̵̰͈̣̋͌́͂̇̇̊ₑ̸̛̲̻̞̬̦̍̾͛̓̀́͝ ̸̨̗͚̳͂̑̿̂̊̎͆͌̎͜͝ₕ̷̧̤͖̙̑̅̆͋̍̐̄̈́͜͠͠ₑ̷̪̈́̽̎̉ᵣ̴̣̈͑́̇̇̀ₑ̸̨̧̠͇̩̺̫̣͎̍̇͂̄,̶̨̠̱̮̗̙̈́͛̍̄̏̈́̑̕͘ͅ ̴̫͎̈́͜ₛ̷̨͕̲͋ₜ̴͚̺̟͍͎̒̓̅͆̋̾̐̕͠ᵣ̵̼̫̄ₐ̸̨̱̝̦͎͙̮͑́̓̈͌̚͝͠ₙ̸̛̙̱͓̩̥͙̼̟̺̂͆̇͌̓̋̄g̶̢̢̧̰̳̭͊͊͗̀̿̐̿͆ₑ̵͉̣̣̜̬̩͗̑͋͌̒͜͜ᵣ̷̢̱̹̜̻͇̹͕̉͋́̃͑̉̒͠․̸̧͎͍̼͖̟͎͈̋̃̓․̵̛̥̖͔̽̋̇̄̓̆̑̒̿․̵̞̈̈́․̴̡̛̖̯͎̩͔̘̦̠̫͊̏͂́"

Then, without warning, it lunged at him, all its claws and tentacles drawn, mouth open with dark and more horrifying tentacles coming out of the inside, stinging towards him.