Through the entire galaxy, it had been believed that Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker-the Chosen One-had died on Coruscant through the siege of the Jedi Temple. And, to some extent, that was accurate. Anakin was lifeless.

From the website of Anakin Skywalker’s last stand-on the molten surface of the planet Mustafar, where he sought to destroy his friend and former expert, Obi-Wan Kenobi-a fearsome specter in black has risen. Once the most effective Knight ever known to the Jedi Purchase, he is today a disciple from the dark about Celebrity Wars: Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader side, a lord of the dreaded Sith, as well as the avenging best hand from the galaxy’s ruthless brand-new Emperor. Seduced, deranged, and damaged by the machinations of the Dark Lord Sidious, Anakin Skywalker is definitely dead . and Darth Vader lives.

Word from the events that created him-the Jedi Council’s failed mutiny against Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, the self-crowned Emperor’s retaliatory control to exterminate the Jedi Order, and Anakin’s massacre of his comrades and Masters in the Jedi Temple-has yet to reach all quarters. On the Outer Rim globe of Murkhana, Jedi Experts Roan Shryne and Bol Chatak and Padawan Olee Starstone are leading a charge on the Separatist stronghold, unaware that this tide, reddish with Jedi bloodstream, has turned suddenly against them.

When the three narrowly elude execution-and become the desperate prey within a hunt across space-it’s neither clone troops, nor the recently deployed stormtroopers, nor even the wrath of the power-hungry Emperor himself they need to fear most. The deadliest threat rests in the hideously swift and lethal crimson lightsaber of Darth Vader-behind whose brooding mask is situated a shattered center, a poisoned soul, and a cunning, twisted brain hell-bent on vengeance.

For the handful of scattered Jedi, survival is imperative if the light side of the Force is to be protected as well as the galaxy somehow, someday reclaimed. However more important still is the well-being of the twin infants, Leia and Luke Skywalker, the kids of Anakin and his doomed bride-to-be, Padmé Amidala. Separated after Padmé’s loss of life, they must be produced safe no matter what, lest the hope they represent for the future be turned to horror by the brand new Sith regime-and the unspeakable power of the dark side.