Chapter Text
He didn’t have a name, at first.
The Emperor just called him “boy”, and most had equally or less charitable terms for him. He trained and sparred and was, as a general rule, ignored.
It was fine, until he was sent outside. He was used to the cool, recycled air of a star destroyer, but Tatooine was hot. He hated it every minute he was on the planet, but he followed his instructions to the letter.
Lightsabers instantly cauterized the wounds they made, but the smell of blood was the same. He doesn’t know who the woman was, but she was a threat to the Empire, so she was dead now.
He didn’t feel bad. He didn’t feel good , but he never felt good anyways. He was just… empty. The Emperor would probably approve of that. Sith tended to be at the mercy of their emotions, and he was supposed to be better than a Sith.
He didn’t have a name, but after that people started calling him something.
He hated being called “The Empire’s Wrath” even more than he hated being called “boy”.
⮜✵⮞
Vader ignores him now, but he didn’t always.
He was a child, once. A child who grew too fast to be natural. He didn’t remember most of it, but he remembered Vader.
He had been a little boy with bright hair and bright eyes, and Vader… Well, it was hard to say he was “nice”. He wasn’t nice to anyone, but he was there, and he didn’t let people hurt him (Except the Emperor. He couldn’t do anything against the Emperor)
He answered the dumb questions that he asked and let him mess with the droid parts that were scavenged from rebel ships. He had actually liked spending time on Vader's star destroyer.
But he got older. He started to look like a man who no longer existed. It seemed that, overnight, Vader started hating him. Started loathing him.
Vader was not allowed to train him anymore, because the last time he had Wrath had lost an arm.
It’s probably better that he ignores him, now.
⮜✵⮞
He gets privileges when he does something good (When he kills people. The only thing he can do correctly- The only thing they want him to do- is kill people). He gets real food instead of ration bars and gets to build a lightsaber that doesn’t feel wrong in his hands.
He gets privileges taken away when he does something bad (They don’t take the lightsaber, but they do take away his ability to use it). More than that; he gets punished (Mostly for feeling. He shouldn’t feel, especially not for other people. Empathy is unbecoming of Wrath).
His punishments tend to be other people’s rewards, it’s an efficient system, really. He tries his best not to feel, after that, but he can’t shut it off. Not completely.
Starkiller appears at Vader’s side one day, and he isn’t allowed to feel either.
He’s pretty sure he isn’t supposed to know about Starkiller. No one else seems to, and Vader doesn't give any indication that he has a new apprentice.
But Wrath can feel his presence in the Force. He’s like an ocean overtaken by a storm. He feels like a typhoon that would level cities. He hasn’t seen his face, but he knows his name. The Force whispered it to him.
He isn’t supposed to listen to the Force. He answers to the Emperor. He does what he’s supposed to. He does good things. Good things are things that don’t get him punished, but they don’t feel good.
The Force feels good, but he isn’t supposed to feel.
He closes himself off. He doesn’t listen and he doesn’t sense and he doesn’t give in to the urge he has to close his eyes and explore the universe that loves him.
The Force whispers to him. It sounds sad.
⮜✵⮞
He meets Starkiller months after learning his name.
The Emperor is displeased by something; maybe rebels, maybe Vader, maybe him. Whatever it is, he’s going to have to deal with it.
He kneels in front of the throne silently. He knows better than to speak first, but there’s always a biting remark on the back of his tongue. The few times he let himself bite out the words he wanted to say had been the last few times he’d been electrocuted.
Wrath has a lot of scars, for a teenager. He has a lot for an adult, really, but he’s never seen anyone his age have skin that was so marred by violence.
“You would do best to shield your thoughts, boy,” The Emperor’s voice grates on his ears.
He clenches his jaw. He felt something, and it made him weak. It made him vulnerable, for a second.
“Apologies, Master”
He doesn’t add any more, even if worms are crawling beneath his skin. He knows better. The more he talks the more trouble there will be. Weapons don’t talk. Wrath doesn’t talk.
“Your apologies are useless. You lack discipline. Perhaps you will learn it, today”
He keeps his head down and doesn’t respond. He isn’t afraid. He doesn’t feel it. Weapons don’t feel. Wrath doesn’t feel.
“There is a Jedi that has eluded us for too long. You will find her and eradicate her”
“Yes, Master”
“You will have company, on your mission”
What?
“Company, Master?”
He’s never worked with anyone else. At most there were stormtroopers who came in afterwards to clean his destruction. Even the Inquisitors didn’t interfere with his work. They were a public band of Jedi hunters. Wrath was a shadow. A silent threat that could strike anyone at any time. No one outside of the Empire had ever seen his face and lived.
He didn’t need “company”.
He, of course, doesn’t say that.
“Yes. It just so happens that we have a new asset to the Empire. He will accompany you to hunt the Jedi”
The Emperor smiles and it makes his hackles raise. That smile speaks of pain and manipulation. He doesn’t always understand Palpatine’s mind games, but he knows when he’s a part of one.
The real question is who this is meant to hurt. Is this a torment for him, Vader, this mysterious companion, or someone else entirely?
He says nothing and continues to kneel.
“Vader has deemed it appropriate to keep secrets from me. A new apprentice, in fact. I am a gracious man, so I have accepted the boy. You will be working with Starkiller”
He blinks at the ground. Starkiller . His real name is Galen Marek, but the Emperor doesn’t know that he knows that. He’s never seen him, but he’s felt him for months around Vader’s destroyer. He’s felt the destructive typhoon that Vader keeps hidden away from the rest of the galaxy.
He knows Starkiller’s Force presence, but he does not know his face.
“Yes, Master”
He wonders what he looks like.
⮜✵⮞
Starkiller is a tall young man with short cropped hair and eyes that bore into your soul. He’s got a lot of muscle on Wrath, but he’s also shorter, and seems slower- and louder.
They’re both dumped into a small ship with supplies and their respective lightsabers. He doesn’t say anything for a while. He just lets the noise of the engine speak for him.
“The Emperor found out about you?” He finally asks. It seems rather unlike Vader to be so sloppy with his secrets.
Galen scoffs, and his scowl speaks a thousand words, “Vader told him”
He hums, but Galen seems entirely uninterested in conversation.
⮜✵⮞
They find the Jedi master on an abandoned mining asteroid. It had been a separatist outpost once, but now it was barren and dark.
The Jedi is fast, and has more experience than both of them combined, but she doesn’t have the dark side, and she’s fighting alone.
It feels right to fight side-by-side with Starkiller. His typhoon of power fits with Wrath’s own bright, burning sun. They seamlessly work off of each other's maneuvers. For the first time he can remember, Wrath likes fighting.
He’s always felt on the edge of being burned up by his own power, but something about Galen makes him more controlled, and more focused.
And more deadly.
As the Jedi falls he feels the brief exhilaration leave him. Then the Force screams again. He doesn’t puke, but it’s a near thing. Starkiller looks just as miserable as he is, and at least they’re together. Misery loves company, after all.
They don’t speak on the way back to the spaceport.
⮜✵⮞
Wrath is not his name, but it is what people call him.
He has a name now, but no one knows what it is.
He’s worked with Galen dozens of times but he hasn’t told him.
Which is weird, because he likes Galen. He genuinely, honestly likes him. He isn’t needlessly cruel even though he’s dangerous. He’s actually nice to him even though he doesn’t need to be. Galen talks to him and jokes with him and watches his back when they fight. He does the same.
They’re both sitting down, waiting for a ship to pick them up. The Emperor has had them working together a lot lately. He suspects that it’s to torment Vader in some way, but he isn’t sure how that’s supposed to work.
“We could steal a rebel ship, you know”
He’s purposefully avoiding his eyes. There’s a lot that’s wrong about that statement, but he’s mostly stuck on the use of “We”.
We could run away together. We could be together. We could live
But that’s… wrong.
“What? No, that’s… No, besides, I have tracking implants, that wouldn’t even work”
It isn’t the reason that he should give. He should say that that’s treason against The Empire. Kriff, he should report Galen for even saying that. He won’t. He would never, but it’s what he’s been taught he should do.
The worst part is that he would . If he thought that they could- if he thought that they could really get away- he would.
But he’s too terrified of the Empire to try.
They’re silent for a long time, after that, but as they watch their transport ship land, he whispers, “My name is Dawn”
He knows Galen hears him, even if he doesn’t acknowledge it.
He named himself Dawn. After all the sunrises that he hasn’t gotten to see; after all the sunrises that have risen over his crimes.
After the few sunrises he’s seen with Galen, that made him feel happy for a couple brief moments.
⮜✵⮞
The thing about living under constant surveillance for your entire life is that you get better at hiding things.
For example; Dawn has known for years that the cameras in the hallway east of his chambers have a blind spot. That blind spot has an entrance to a maintenance tunnel.
The maintenance tunnels run throughout the whole ship, but most importantly they run right alongside Vader’s command room.
It’s a risk, but he considers it necessary to listen in sometimes. There’s too much that he doesn’t know.
So he sits in the cramped maintenance shaft and listens to military movement orders and updates on prisoners. It’s monotonous, but then he hears the Emperor’s voice over a holo-call.
“Your apprentice has become too ambitious, Vader”
Vader responds but Dawn can’t hear what he says.
“Kill him. He has become a liability to our goals. I expect him to be taken care of before the Death Star is finished”
He blinks, and realizes that his hand is already on his lightsaber. No, he can’t… he can’t fight Vader and win.
He runs as fast as he can without making noise. He climbs out of the maintenance shaft and keeps sprinting. The cameras almost certainly catch him, but none of the people he passes try to stop him (Probably because they have a good sense of self-preservation)
He slams his hand on the door mechanism and it opens swiftly. Galen stares at him with wide eyes. He grabs his hand and pulls him along. Galen curses and keeps asking what’s going on, but he doesn’t answer. The escape pods are in this direction, if he can just…
They turn a corner and there are two stormtroopers in their way. One begins to raise his blaster, and Dawn cuts him down before he can get a shot off. The other one draws to fire but he plunges the lightsaber blade into his chest.
He drags Galen along to the first escape pod.
“Dawn what the kriff is happening? You said you didn’t want to run-”
“He’s going to kill you,” He blurts out. He's out of breath and he’s sure that he looks crazy with how wide his eyes are.
Galen blinks, “He- Vader’s going to kill me?”
He nods frantically, “The Emperor ordered him to- He-”
He swallows around his words, “You need to get out”
Galen scowls, “We need to get out, Dawn. I’m not just-”
“You have to,” He says, “You have to leave. If I go with you they can track wherever I am. You need to go”
Galen puts a hand on his arm and leans in, “Dawn… I’m not leaving without you”
He feels his heart beating out of his chest. He takes a deep breath and closes the distance between them, slotting their mouths together. Galen kisses him back, softly, and he pulls away.
“I’m sorry,” Dawn says. Galen’s eyes widen as he hears the words, but he Force-pushes him back into the pod before he can say anything. He pulls the escape lever and Galen is screaming at him, but it’s too late. He’s jettisoned away into space, and away from the Empire. Galen should be safe, now (At least as safe as you can be, in this galaxy).
Dawn stands on the Star Destroyer and watches the escape pod leave. He will pay for this, he knows.
He knows what happens to traitors, but he’s never been on this side of it before.
⮜✵⮞
Dawn pays severely for his betrayal of The Galactic Empire.
They put a Force suppressant collar on him. He used to think that the worst thing the Force could do was scream. It turns out that the worst thing it can do is be silent .
He’s had surgery before; He had to have his prosthetic arm attached, after all.
Surgery is a lot worse when you’re awake for it.
They screw a mask to his face, and he can’t even scream anymore.
They tell him that there’s a bomb attached to it. They tell him that if he tries to get it off then he’ll kill himself and everyone around him.
He isn’t sure if they’re lying, but he doesn’t try to test it.
He is trapped in a manufactured nightmare, but he wouldn’t change a thing. Galen is safe. Dawn isn’t.
Dawn… doesn’t think he’s ever been safe.
⮜✵⮞
He’s practically a pet, now.
They don’t trust him to go on missions anymore, but they won’t kill him because that wouldn’t be an effective punishment.
So he’s transferred from officer to officer. From ship to ship.
He detaches himself from his body and lets his mind float wherever it pleases. It’s better than whatever reality is. He doesn’t remember a lot from then, he just knows he was in pain.
He’s on the Death Star- the second one. His cell is grey and featureless and the lights are too bright to sleep through. They have more or less forgotten about him at this point; which is good in that no one is hurting him, and bad in that he hasn’t seen or talked to a human being in weeks.
He would say that he’s going crazy, but if he was going to go insane it probably would’ve happened a long time ago.
An alarm begins blaring.
He sits up and goes to the door of his cell. He can hear people running past and he bangs on the door as hard as he can. No one stops.
He keeps pounding on the door, even though he can’t hear anyone. He doesn’t know what this alarm means, specifically, but considering the fate of the first Death Star he isn’t optimistic.
He’s just standing there for a frustratingly long time before the door opens. He runs out into the corridor and everyone is gone.
He doesn’t exactly remember the layout of the Death Star, but he knows enough about space stations to figure out where the hangar is.
People are still loading onto ships and frantically taking off, but most of them are trying to pack onto the larger capacity fighters. He spots a TIE fighter and no one stops him from powering it up and taking off.
He sees chaos when he exits the hangar.
Imperial craft are flying away from the station and rebel ships are picking them off. He’s too fast to be hit by standard craft, but it’s still a terrible idea to be in space for too long.
He loads up the navigation map and looks at nearby planets. They’re stationed at Endor, but if the fight is going the way it looks to be going, then it’s crawling with Rebels.
He hates the Empire, but he doubts that he’ll have much of a chance with the Rebellion.
What he needs is a way to get the mask off without blowing himself up. He can probably get the collar off himself, with the plain maintenance tools in the fighter.
But anyone with the kind of expertise to remove complex mechanics from a human body would probably ask too many questions.
So he needs someone who can remove implants, but won’t report him to anyone…
Oh, he can just go to Tatooine.
The miserable ball of sand had been a local of his missions several times over the years. There was a large population of slaves, and a handful of people who would keep quiet about removing their bombs.
Getting money is going to be a problem, but…
Tatooine it is.
He hits hyperspace just as the Death Star explodes for the second time.