Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars or Harry Potter. Commissioned by a friend- Dark Harry AU.

The planet Phoenix was aptly named. Its tilt caused the hemisphere closer to the sun to experience solar-induced seismic activity. The summer was not only hot, but tormented by volcanic eruptions. When winter came, the volcanos turned dormant and the planet's surface would turn cold, dark and gray. Then the planet would revolve and the landscape burst to life like a phoenix from the ashes.

Phoenix was therefore at least partly uninhabitable year-round. Its residents were nomadic and constantly followed the winter.

It was on this planet that the Sith Lord Darth Horcrux found himself. He carried himself down the gangplank, drawing his black hooded cloak closer around him. When he set foot on the surface, he heard the ash crunch beneath his foot like snow.

"My lord, it's not safe!"

Horcrux's closest friend was dawdling on the ship, reluctant to follow.

"Don't be afraid, Draco," Horcrux called back. "This is my home."

He could feel the Riddle swirling inside him. The Riddle is what he called it. He didn't fully understand it, but it had been with him all his life. It was the only reason he was alive.

The Riddle kept him alive when he was growing up in the orphanage on Coruscant, had taught him how to rise above his companions at Jedi Training. It led him to befriend Draco Malfoy, a small boy from the noble planet Serenno. Back then, Horcrux's name was Harry.

He thought at first that the Riddle was the living Force inside him, but with each meditation he went though, he realized that it was of the Dark Side. It promised knowledge and power that the Jedi were forbidden from. Once knighted, Harry sought out the people bidden to him by the Riddle. Draco's family. Their extended family. Their old friends. Each time he met one, he could feel the Riddle's pleasure inside him, purring like a cat.

Still, there was a gnawing suspicion that the Riddle kept him alive for its own purposes. Whenever he meditated on it, he sensed its hatred, a hatred that Harry felt was directed solely at him. So he started reaching into his infant memories.

There he saw that the Riddle was once a Sith Lord. It came to Phoenix when Harry was less than a year old. It murdered his parents and attempted to destroy him, but was itself destroyed somehow. Horcrux never did find out how.

He did know that the Riddle had somehow latched itself onto him and was using him to restore itself to power.

Harry felt hate for the Riddle once he'd realized it, but he hid it and the Riddle couldn't sense it. He continued to do its bidding.

At its bidding, he abandoned his knighthood and became a Sith Lord. He murdered Weasley, a Zeltron Jedi knight growing suspicious of him. He could still smell the searing flesh as his lightsaber cut the knight down. It wasn't a grisly scene as the creature's blood was the exact color of its skin. Horcrux preferred not to think of it.

As per the Riddle's instruction, Darth Horcrux scoured the galaxy- from the bottom of the oceans of Dromund Kaas to deep within the vaults on Muunilinst. He collected a total of five artifacts- a book, a ring, a locket, a cup, and a crown.

Darth Horcrux didn't know what they were and couldn't explain it to Draco and the rest of his followers. All he knew was that the Riddle needed them and they were filled with the Living Force. Horcrux had many theories about why that might be, but they all amounted to the same thing. The Riddle needed them to regain its corporeal form once more.

They had come to Phoenix to recover the last item.

I must speak, the Riddle said.

How will you do that? asked Horcrux.

I need your voice, the Riddle said.

And with Darth Horcrux's voice, the Riddle cried out. Draco's hand jumped to his lightsaber, but it was over as quickly as it began. "No, Draco," said Horcrux, holding his arm back. "Wait."

Horcrux could sense something coming, something filled with the Living Force. The last artifact?

The ash was suddenly moving beneath his feet and Draco grabbed him and pulled him out of the way. Out burst a monstrous serpent with a wide mouth and rows of sharp teeth. It swayed back and forth before them, but did not strike. Draco was quivering with fear.

Feed them items to it, the Riddle instructed.

"Draco, give me the artifacts," said Horcrux.

"My lord?" asked Draco.

"Do it."

Draco reached his trembling hand into the folds of his robes and withdrew each of the artifacts. He handed them over and watched wordlessly as Darth Horcrux offered them to the serpent.

The creature sniffed them with trepidation. The Riddle was pulsating eagerly. The serpent then snatched all five artifacts up in one strike and swallowed them whole.

All at once, the creature was shining with the Living Force more brightly than anything the One Lord had ever seen.

Yes, said the Riddle inside him. Good!

Now was the moment. Horcrux drew his lightsaber and in one swift move, skewered the serpent in half.

Its body fell back into the ash, writhing pathetically. Then it was still.

And so was everything else. The Riddle inside him was gone. Darth Horcux laughed once, then again, louder and harder.

"My Lord?" asked Draco, fearing for his master's sanity.

"It's done," said Darth Horcux, smiling up at his friend. Then, in the corner of his eye, he glimpsed a figure.

Horcux whirled about, his lightsaber held before him like a scimitar. The figure was dressed in Jedi robes and looked familiar, but Horcrux couldn't put a name to his face.

"Harry, it's me," said the Jedi, lowering his hood. He was well groomed, clean shaven, and had neatly combed hair. His grey eyes beamed brightly and he was grinning from ear to ear.

"Am I supposed to know who you are?" asked Darth Horcrux.

"Fifteen years ago, your father and mother were murdered on this very planet," said the Jedi. "I recovered you from the wreckage of your home. I brought you to Coruscant and to the Jedi."

Horcrux still didn't recognize him. "I was your father's best friend," said the Jedi. "My name is Sirius Black."

"Do you know what the Riddle is?" asked Darth.

"The life force of the thing that murdered your parents," said Black, shaking his head. "I never knew what it was, but somehow it grew inside you. The things it made you do, the items you collected-"

"Were to restore its corporeal form, I know," said Horcrux.

Draco was looking back and forth between the Jedi and the Sith, completely lost.

"But you destroyed it," said Black, with tears in his eyes. "You overcame the power of the Dark Side. Please, come back home. You belong with us." He approached Horcrux with open arms. "Everything dark inside you is the result of that thing and it's gone now."

Horcrux was gazing at Black, contemplating his words. He made up his mind easily. "You're wrong." In a flash, he impaled Black through the heart. There wasn't even any time for Black's expression to change. He died with his teary eyed hopeful expression.

Draco snickered. "Fool."

Horcrux disarmed his lightsaber and stowed it away. "Let's leave this hellhole," he said. "The Riddle is gone, and I've proven that no Jedi can stop me now."

Draco followed wordlessly, still uncomprehending what the Riddle was or what it meant to his master.

"Where to?" asked Draco, once they were on the bridge of the cruiser.

"Back to the academy," said Horcrux. He sensed his power growing even as they began their liftoff. Riveting sensations of dominance and strength flowed through his veins, making him grip at the arms of his seat. He excused himself to meditate and retired to his chambers.

Once there, he started laughing uncontrollably, leaning against the walls. Flashes of the destroyed serpent and slaughtered Jedi crossed his mind's eye repeatedly and suddenly he realized something was wrong. For the first time in years, fear gripped at his heart but he couldn't stop laughing. Realization struck him with explosive force.

The Riddle was still there, stronger than before.

He could sense its mania growing inside him. You think you can keep me from my rightful role in your fate? it chided him. You are nothing without me just as I am nothing without you.

Horcrux realized the Riddle was telling the truth, just as Black had been. "Everything dark inside you is the result of that thing."

He was right of course, but it wasn't gone. It would never be gone.

Let us fly home, my apprentice. Then the Jedi will know the power of the Dark Side.