A/N: Before you start, you should know that this oneshot is inspired by events in my story, Twist of Fate as well as Alana's The Good Son. While reading that will give you more insight into the situation, it is not necessary. The only things you really need to know is that, while the Empire is in full bloom, the Jedi are not dead and are led by Anakin Skywalker and his family as Master Yoda recently perished on the Battle of Dantooine. During the rescue of the captured Obi-Wan Kenobi, Leia Skywalker snatched Emperor Palpatine's lightsaber. This story take place shortly after that event.
Now I give you:
The Stolen Saber of Emperor Palpatine
The Emperor knew he had had it, during the failed Execution of Obi-Wan Kenobi, yet now it was gone. Just where was his lightsaber? When was the last time he had seen it? He had to make sure his lightsaber was hidden, it wouldn't do for the public to understand that Sidious was more than capable of defending himself, no, that wouldn't do at all. Where could it be? Granted, the Emperor had five other lightsabers, all with the same crimson synth crystal powering them, but this one was his favorite. Emperor Palpatine tried to remember when he had last seen it, but failed. He was so busy with running his Empire and making sure that each of his underlings was only privy to certain aspects of his plans, and that they stayed aggressive toward the others so that they never discovered the entirety of his schemes, that he couldn't remember what he had done with the lightsaber. This was the very lightsaber he had betrayed and beheaded Darth Plagueis with and, as such, it held certain sentimental value to him, and now it was gone. Darth Sidious smiled in remembrance of his old Muun master. All his master's plans had come to fruition yet he had never seen his own death coming.
"Find the lightsaber, you will not," Darth Sidious heard an old voice say, one that he was sure he would never hear again. Darth Sidious used the Force to sense out the presence, and what he found shocked him so that he turned his body away from plundering his own quarters and toward the speaker. Emperor Palpatine gasped at the bluish hue of the wizened Jedi Master; the old troll was sitting down in his chair, looking at ease and peaceful as could be. The Emperor went on the defensive and reached down within himself as he curled the electricity around himself and shot the electricity at the small troll.
"Dead, I already am," the small alien said, laughing as he leaped from the chair to the bed. The Jedi slime was on the bed of the Emperor! This was an outrage!
"Who are you?" the Emperor asked though he would know that troll anywhere.
"The answer to that question, know already, you do." Master Yoda laughed as he smiled up at him. "Having some trouble, are you?"
"Do I amuse you, Yoda?" the Emperor growled, leaving off the Jedi Master's title, one which, even Sidious had to admit, might possibly have been deserved.
"Dead, I am, though join me soon, you will."
"Not if I have anything to say about it," the Emperor sneered. "But as it seems your torturous little self is going to be here a while, how about some help. Just where is my lightsaber?"
"Help you, I will not. Lost a lightsaber, have you? How embarrassing, how embarrassing," Master Yoda mused as he looked into the battle-scarred face of his long-time enemy.
"Well, what do you want?" the Emperor asked, as he again attempted to harm the Jedi Master, though as he looked closer he could see that Yoda looked much younger than he remembered. Sidious used the Force to grab him and try to constrict his throat, though it didn't work. The Emperor was only able to hold the old troll for a few seconds before the strange Jedi laughed and did a backflip.
"Harm me, you cannot," the Jedi said, "For the Force is my ally, and a powerful ally it is."
"I need a drink," the Emperor said as he left his chambers, aware of the Jedi tottering after him. The Emperor ordered a bottle of his strongest wine and took it to the Throne Room but before he could sit down, Yoda has seated himself on the Emperor's throne. How impertinent!
"A quest for power, you had. Won a battle, you have, but lose the war, you will."
"Ha!" Darth Sidious snapped. "I have destroyed the Jedi, broken them from the inside out, I have turned many Jedi to my cause. I even have one of the most powerful Jedi within your order as my personal slave, he will never return to the light."
"A great loss, Master Windu was."
"He goes by the Sith title, Darth Wrath now, and he is one of my most promising pupils, despite recent accidents."
"Accidents, they were not, but the will of the Force."
"And losing Tyranus to me, was that the will of the Force?" Darth Sidious asked with a hideous smile. How would the little Jedi counter that?
"Twisted Ty, you did," Master Yoda said hopping up and pointing his gimer stick at him. The ancient Jedi seemed to float in mid-air, hovering over Sidious's throne and yet pointing his gimer stick at him as he spoke. The Emperor sighed, could this day get any stranger? "A great Jedi, he was. Grieved, he did, over the loss of his apprentice. Used that against him, you did. Corruption, always the way of the Sith."
"Ha!" Sidious shot back at the old Jedi Master, "Tyrone Dooku was already on his way to becoming a Sith, I gave him just the push he needed," he said, remembering how it had been, how he had needed a replacement after the assumed death of Darth Maul at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi. "You lost, Yoda! Just as you lost Tyrone to me, the Rebellion will lose to the Empire, and the Jedi will lose to the Sith, their fire will be forever gone, and you will be just an anecdote in the history holos!"
"On whose side is Ty now, I wonder," Master Yoda said calmly looking at his opponent. "A master of manipulation, you may be, but lost to the Dark Side, Ty is not."
"We will see about that. Without the Chosen one, the Jedi and the Rebellion are doomed to failure."
"So sure are you, that dead he is?" asked the old Jedi, sparking doubts inside the Emperor. It was why he had needed Anakin on his side, without Skywalker the Jedi were doomed. Anakin had to either join him or die, there were no other options as long as Sidious needed his throne. Emperor Palpatine's rule would never last, not if the Chosen One was alive. "The daughter of Skywalker, your lightsaber, she has," Master Yoda revealed. "Fail, you will."
"I will retrieve my lightsaber."
"Blinded you are, Darth Sidious."
"That foshing Jedi princess," the Emperor continued his rant.
"Destroyed, you will be."
"Foolish girl, I will not stop until I destroy her life, and only then will I allow her to die. She will be begging me for death when I come for her."
"Experience a rebirth, the Jedi will."
"I will destroy everything she holds dear, stopping her father was not enough, I will imprison every Jedi and have it known that this Skywalker brat led me to their whereabouts, I will destroy her."
"Hope, stronger than fear it is. Love, stronger even than death, it is. Destroy that, you cannot."
"You have no idea what I'm capable of!" Darth Sidious shouted, releasing his anger upon his old foe.
"No," the apparition of Master Yoda said, his voice cutting through Palpatine's plans, "It is you who underestimate the light."
The Emperor tilted back his head and drained the entire glass of the crimson liquid as if it stirred the blood-lust within him. He threw the glass down, and turned and smiled at the old troll, his lips saturated in the red liquid, appearing like blood on his lips and teeth. "Then let the games begin," Sidious replied. "Check."
It was late at night, and Leia sat up wide awake. For some reason she felt as if someone was planning her doom, as if someone had walked over her grave. Leia shivered, wrapping her arms around herself, she stretched out in the empty bed, then she reached for her nightstand, opening the drawer and fumbling for the stolen cylinder object. She grasped the durasteel handle in her palm, feeling the dark power that it emitted, though it didn't draw her in. She wasn't drawn to the seduction of the Dark Side born by this element of destruction. She had stolen this lightsaber right under the Emperor's nose, and if she could accomplish that, then the Emperor could be defeated. In her hands she held the symbol of his destruction. Humorlessly, she thought of replacing the synth crystals with the blue, green, or yellow crystals of a Jedi. It would be quite comical to see the Emperor wielding the colors of a Jedi.
Leia tried to return to sleep with thoughts of the Emperor's eventual defeat but it eluded her so she went down to the mess hall, and spotted Dave on duty. All the Rebels took turns at KP duty. Leia sat down and turned the lightsaber over in her hands. The Rebel Alliance would win, and even Hideous Sidious and his Empire wouldn't be able to stand against the heart and truth of the Jedi and the Rebel Alliance. Leia felt a presence behind her, but didn't turn around.
"Couldn't sleep either," her twin asked. He pulled up a chair and handed her a cup of hot chocolate.
"Thanks, Luke," Leia said as she took the mug from her brother and sipped it slowly.
"I can always tell when you are upset about something, Leia," he continued as he floated the lightsaber to his hand. Luke was wearing a pair of sleep pants with his initials on it, whenever they didn't have to wear Jedi attire, their mother tried to get them the best. "What is this?" he asked as he powered the lightsaber on. Luke frowned as he took in the crimson blade.
"I stole it," Leia admitted.
"When? From whom?" Luke questioned.
"I stole it during our rescue of Uncle Obi-Wan….from the Emperor."
"Leia! Are you out of you mind? How could you do something so crazy?"
Leia's brown eyes met his blue ones and she smiled, "Easily, I used the Force."
"Fosh, Leia, what if he finds you? What if he finds us?"
"He won't," Leia said, "He has, like, a dozen of these, Jix told me."
"I don't know about this. Maybe we should return it."
"Don't tell me that you want to sneak back into Imperial Palace and give it back to Hideous Sidious?"
"When you put it that way, it doesn't sound like a great plan," Luke said, mulling it over.
"It's a symbol, Luke," Leia said, her voice going stronger, "And when the Rebellion loses hope I will show it to them. If I can steal Sidious's lightsaber from right under his nose, then the Empire will crumble and the Rebellion will emerge victoriously, for without their leader the members of the Empire will scatter and the Rebellion will succeed in its goal, to Restore the Rebellion to the heights of its former glory before the Emperor emerged in the world of politics soiling the good name of the Republic and filling it with treachery, greed, and double-dealing…" Leia stopped when she felt her mother's presence.
"Leia, I never realized what a great orator you are," Padme said, and Leia looked from her mother to her brother and blushed. "With some training you could become a wonderful politician," Padme Amidala Skywalker said to her daughter.
"But-," Leia began, "Mom, I'm a Jedi."
"Hmm...," Padme said slowly, her face taking on a look of deep thought, like it did whenever she talked to Bail Organa about Alliance business. "Don't get me wrong, I see the necessity of the galaxy having Jedi, needing good, strong Jedi like you and your brothers. But the galaxy is going to need passionate politicians to put the Galaxy back on its axis. I know that you and Luke are going with your father to take out the Emperor," Padme said, her eyes filling with tears at the thought.
"Mom, we have to," said Luke, "there will be no freedom as long as the Emperor is in charge. And you and Dad raised us to fight for those that cannot fight back," he added.
"There's a whole galaxy of defenseless beings, we have to do this Mom!" Leia said, and Padme squeezed her hand.
"I know, I just hate for you all to be in danger. We didn't do wrong in raising you that way, I just really wish someone had followed in my footsteps, Leia. You are so passionate about the rights of the people, I may not be a Jedi, but I know that someday, you will find a way to follow your mother's footsteps," Padme said with a smile, as she pulled both of her children into a hug.
The Skywalker twins' father may have been the strength of the Rebellion but their mother was its heart. The Skywalkers were very protective of one another, and they carried within them a passionate strength for what was right, and had been raised to negotiate when possible though the fiery tempers of Leia and Anakin made that harder for them than the other members of the Skywalker family but when it came down to it, all the Skywalkers would fight for the end of tyranny and for justice, peace, and free will. It was not right to live in a galaxy that would be dominated by the strong, and for the weak to suffer, unable to fight back. The Skywalkers were a strong bunch, both in spirit and within the Force, and they would always fight so long as there was a Skywalker with a heart that still beat.
This document has been edited and approved by your loving beta, Caleb's Fanfiction Creations :P