You know, I've always admired the writers that can write those long fight scenes and battles that can last a chapter, two chapters or more. I've always been better with the witty banter and arguments that go with the duels but my weakness it battle. I've pulled many good ones off before in my own personal writing (with characters that belong to me), but even then it's still hard. Anyway, Read, enjoy, and review please!

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Chapter Ten

"Your mother's worried sick about you, you know," Anakin said calmly as they followed Pesinoé through the death star to where they would face the emperor.

"I know. I felt it," Leia replied.

"Then do tell Leia," Luke said. "What were you thinking?"

Leia looked to the ground. "I almost got through to her. I had to talk to her. I'm the only one she'll listen to."

"So what happened?" Luke asked and Leia sighed.

"I don't know. It's like she's got a split personality or something," she finally said. "It's almost like two sides are fighting over control."

Anakin sighed. "I know the feeling," he said as they stepped in the elevator. They were silent during the ride and Pesinoé had her arms crossed seeming a bit… agitated by something Luke would say.

When the doors opened she stepped to the side and let Anakin, Leia, and Luke enter first. Luke instantly wished he could go back into the elevator. The darkness that emanated from the emperor was so great, it made the room cold.

The four walked across the room to stand before the emperor and Pesinoé made a slight bow to the man. Luke stubbornly clenched his jaw. He hoped the emperor didn't expect them to be polite. He looked over at Leia and noticed she was holding her chin up in that haughty way she used to when he first met her. She had since stopped acting like she was a princess and everyone else was her subjects, but she still had the tendency when she wasn't happy about a situation.

"Welcome, Skywalkers," Palpatine said. "I've been expecting you."

He glanced at each one of them pausing to address them.

"Ah Luke and Leia. Imagine my delight when I found out there were two of you, twins and with the same force potential as their father…." he then turned to Anakin. "You've avoided me for twenty years now my old friend. You were destined to turn to the dark side, but you always did have a weakness for those you loved. Since you have run from your destiny this long, your son will fulfill it."

"You're no friend of mine," Anakin replied.

Palpatine ignored him and turned to Luke and Leia. "Did your father ever tell you that he and your mother were very instrumental in my rise to power and the beginning of the empire?"

What is he talking about? Leia sent to Luke.

"I'll tell you what I'm talking about," the emperor said picking up on Leia's comment. "If it hadn't been for your mother, I would have never become chancellor and with your father, a jedi, backing me, the public would never go against me."

"You manipulated everyone you thought could help you," Anakin shot. "Don't get it wrong. If we had known who you were from the beginning, Padmé and I would have never supported you as long as we did."

The emperor ignored him and looked at their binders.

"You no longer need those," he said and the binders fell off.

Leia was now sorely tempted to strangle the man. So this was the emperor that forced their family to separate, turned her father's own padawan against him, and now wanted Luke as an apprentice.

Leia. Control your anger, Luke warned.

"Guards, leave us," the emperor said and the guards took the elevator down out the throne room.

"I am looking forward to completing your training. In time, you will call me master," the emperor continued standing from his throne.

"You're gravely mistaken. You won't convert me as you did Pesinoé," Luke said firmly.

"Your father and sister said the same thing before they touched the dark side for the first time. They both still try stupidly to resist it," Palpatine said. "If your sister had went on and killed Pesinoé and your father on Bespin, that would have been two less people for me to deal with."

"Wait a minute," Luke said suddenly. "You know about Bespin?"

"Oh yes," Palpatine said. "I know all about my apprentice's treachery and plans to overthrow me."

"Don't be surprised Luke," Anakin said going to stand next to him. "Of course he knew. Betrayal is the way of the sith."

"Their light sabers," Pesinoé said passing the three weapons to the emperor.

"Ah yes," he said inspecting them closely. "A jedi's weapom. Yours is much like your father's Luke, but this one… It's familiar…"

He looked closely at Leia's light saber and smiled. "Your old apprentice's weapon," he said to Anakin. "You passed it on. By now you know she can never be turned from the dark side as it will be with your son. Another person you care about turning on you…"

"You're wrong," Anakin said stepping closer to the emperor. "Soon I'll be dead and I'm taking you with me."

"Perhaps you refer to the imminent attack of your Rebel fleet," the emperor suggested.

Anakin groaned. Why was he not surprised? He felt Leia's guilt and glanced at her.

Forgot to mention that back there. Pesinoé told me, Leia responded.

Luke however took the bait and the emperor egged him on.

"Yes… I assure you, we are quite safe from your friends here."

Luke stepped forward and Anakin grabbed him arm to keep him back. The last thing they needed was him attacking in his anger.

"Your overconfidence is your weakness," Luke shot.

"Your faith in your friends is yours. Tell him Pesinoé. It's pointless to resist," the emperor ascertained.

Pesinoé didn't respond. The emperor was mocking her and she knew it. Palpatine knew darn well she didn't want Luke to turn. Her plans were ruined if that was the case.

"Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design. Your friends up there on the Sanctuary Moon are walking into a trap. As is your rebel fleet. It was I who allowed the Alliance to know the location of the shield generator. It is quite safe from your pitiful little band. An entire legion of my best troops awaits them. I'm afraid the deflect shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive," the emperor added.

I'm really beginning to regret coming up here without a plan, Leia sent.

Just wait, Anakin sent shaking his head. Something in the force is different.

Pesinoé blinked as she felt the battle raging in the force become fiercer. She could really end this right now. Kill the emperor because her attacking him probably wasn't in the future he had seen, but then what? Take on three Skywalkers?

"Come see for yourself," Palpatine said walking to the window and Luke followed with Leia close behind him.

Anakin stayed behind near Pesinoé and opened the bond he hadn't touched in over twenty years.

You don't have to do this. We can't defeat the emperor without you.

Oh yes you can, oh chosen one. The thing is you won't. Because if you kill the emperor, then you have to kill me too or the sith order continues.

Ahsoka, stop being so stubborn. Can't you just admit you were wrong and get over it, Anakin sent.

Stay out of my head Skywalker, Pesinoé said blocking the bond.

Anakin started to say something else when both he and Pesinoé felt a spike in the force.

"Luke no," Leia said as the emperor kept talking to him. "Don't give in to your anger. If you strike him down like this, you'll be lost. I know how you feel. I felt the same way on-."

"Shut up you foolish girl," the emperor said to Leia throwing sith lightning at her.

Leia screamed as she twitched and held her head at the assault. It was about as bad as Pesinoé's assaults, but she couldn't really say which was worse.

The emperor stopped and Luke stopped resisting. His light saber flew to his hand and he swung at the emperor. Pesinoé flipped to the other side of the room and blocked with her own saber.

"Luke," Leia shouted despite her raw throat. "No!"

Anakin summoned his saber from the emperor's grip as he cackled at the fight. He wished he could take on the emperor now but saving Luke was a more pressing matter.

"Luke stop it," Anakin said joining the fight.

"You don't want a repeat of Bespin now do you," Pesinoé taunted blocking Anakin's blade and then turning to block Luke's.

"I don't plan to have one," Anakin snapped.

"You're not going to get the chance, because unlike Leia, I actually want to kill your son," Pesinoé said using the force to throw Luke back. She started to go towards him, but Anakin blocked her pathway.

"Father," Luke growled. "Stop having mercy on her. Let her be a sith lady if that's what she wants."

"Luke no," Anakin said.

"Fine," Luke said getting back up. "If you won't kill her, I will."

Anakin narrowly missed having his arm swiped off by Luke in his attempt to slice Pesinoé's head off.

"I grow tired of you child," Pesinoé said sounding bored.

Leia who had finally managed to get back to her feet and summon her own light saber from Palpatine turned to glare at the emperor.

"You monster," she said and lit her light saber.

The emperor took out his own. "You are no match for the power of the dark side child."

"We'll see about that," Leia declared striking at the emperor.

Leia didn't ever remember exerting so much energy in any light saber duel, even the ones she had with Pesinoé. But she had a feeling that the emperor was holding back, which made her wonder just how much of the future did he actually know. When she had disarmed him of his light saber and had her saber at his neck, Leia smiled.

"Told you," she said and the emperor just smiled.

"Then kill me girl."

Leia started to bring her light saber back and then stopped as she felt the warning in the force. She turned around in time to see Pesinoé pierce Luke in his lower left abdomen.

"Luke," she screamed in horror, forgetting the emperor behind her.

"Foolish child," the emperor said and poured force lightning into her.

Anakin looked in terror as Pesinoé stabbed Luke and his son fell to the ground just as the emperor attacked Leia with sith lightning. It was like watching his mother die all over again, but this was tenfold. He didn't see reason anymore and he didn't care that he was so lost in rage that if he attacked Pesinoé, he would be giving in to the dark side. He just attacked.

Pesinoé was honestly surprised when Anakin came up behind her and attacked her with a brutal strength she had never been on the receiving end of before. Sure they had fought since her turn, but Anakin was never like this, never determined to kill her.

"I can't believe you," Anakin said furiously as Pesinoé tried in vain to block his strokes. "I've done nothing but try to work with you, even after you tried to kill Padmé, captured Leia and tried to turn her, even after you tried to shoot Luke down when we were trying to destroy the death star. But for you to throw all that back in my face and not care, that's heartless. The jedi council was right. You are evil."

Pesinoé growled and struggled to block one his strikes. Then she twisted her arm in effort to twist Anakin's light saber out his hand, but Anakin simply returned it succeeding in twisting Pesinoé off her feet and onto her back. Pesinoé flipped back onto her feet.

"Well then now you know exactly how it feels to do everything you can for someone and then have it thrown right back in your face like it meant nothing," Pesinoé yelled.

Leia slowly crawled away from the emperor after her attack, limbs aching as she made her way to Luke.

"Luke," she whispered going over to where he was lying with a hand over his wound.

"Leia," he said struggling to sit up. "Pesinoé. I have to tell her something. Help me get up."

Leia started to scold him into sitting down but stopped when she saw how determined he was and helped him up, throwing his arm over her shoulder.

"We have to hurry," Luke said.

"Why?" Leia asked she helped him towards where Pesinoé and Anakin were fighting.

"What do you mean by that?" Anakin shouted through gritted teeth as he and Pesinoé were locked hand in hand.

"I mean it like I said it. I tried to save you and you turned me away," Pesinoé yelled as Anakin threw her away from him. She cursed herself for forgetting how strong he was.

"You turned to the dark side. How is that trying to save me?" Anakin asked twirling his light saber.

Pesinoé recovered from her stumble and viciously slashed at Anakin.

"God damn it. What part of the jedi wanted to control don't you get?" Pesinoé screamed. "What do you think they were going to do if they had found out Padmé was pregnant. What would they have done with the twins? You would have never known them. They would have taken them away because they're kriffing force potential would have been too dangerous to let alone."

"And you're saying they would have been safe if I had joined you. The emperor wanted to kill them. You wanted to kill them and Padmé. How is that saving me? Taking me from someone's control and throwing me under someone else's?" Anakin asked.

"We wouldn't have had to!" Pesinoé snapped becoming clumsy in her effort to get her point through to Anakin. "We could have overthrown him."

In that moment of loss of focus, Anakin was able to disarm Pesinoé and knock her off her feet. He pointed his saber to her neck. One slight move and Anakin was going to make her a dead woman.

"Dad no," Leia yelled.

"Why not?" Anakin said in rage. "We've done nothing but try to help her and look how she pays us back."

"But you owe her your entire life," Leia said. "She may have messed it up some, but it was a much better fate than the one you would have had if she hadn't turned."

Anakin brought his saber back from Pesinoé's neck.

"What?"

Luke started to open his mouth to explain when the emperor clapped and made his way to where they were.

"Good. Good," he said looking at Anakin. "There might still be hope for you as an apprentice yet. Now kill her."

Those three words took Anakin back to the day on the Invisible Hand, the day that was practically the beginning of the last twenty years, when Palpatine had ordered him to kill Count Dooku. That day, Paplatine had intended him to do that and seal his fate as his future apprentice, but unlike Dooku, Pesinoé didn't look at all surprised. She had been expecting Sidious to turn on her for a while now and was resigned to her fate. Anakin could kill her now and she wouldn't care. But the question was could he escape destiny again if he killed another of Sidious' apprentices in anger again.

He pulled back confident that Pesinoé wouldn't be getting back up. That was the expression of a defeated woman, who had lost all hope, and he had no right to kill her in cold blood. What satisfaction could he get from it anyway?

"No," Anakin said stepping back from Pesinoé and turning to the emperor. "We are jedi. Always will be."

It was likely that the emperor hadn't seen this in his plans because he lost the cool and calm he had maintained during the entire confrontation. He snarled and let out a sick laugh.

"Then you will die," he said taking out his light saber and launching himself at Anakin.

"For an old man," Luke began, "he sure is agile."

Leia would have found humor in it if the situation weren't so dire. She sat Luke down carefully and started to go help her father, that was after she found her fallen light saber, but Pesinoé stopped her.

"Luke, Leia," she said and the twins turned to face the fallen sith lady. "What do you mean I saved your father from a worse fate?"

"I-." Luke stopped to wince at his wound. "I had a vision when I was training with Yoda. I killed you in it and then a man a black suit, mask, and a built in respirator came out and told me he was my father. I cut off his head and it was my dad's face in the mask."

Pesinoé stared in shocked. A tall man in a black suit with a mask and… Her vision.

"I'm not exactly sure what it was but… I think he would have gotten injured somehow and put in that suit. He would've been a completely different man, one Leia and I would have never known. You broke up our family but you saved our dad from a worse fate. You did save him Pesinoé…" Luke fell over from the strain and Leia rushed over to sit him up.

Pesinoé went over what Luke said as her vision went through her mind. The duel on Mustafar, Anakin catching fire, being put in that suit and the twins separated with Anakin not knowing of their existence until it was virtually too late to really get to know them… He would have been a different man, maybe even been less than a man. He might have been a monster that was more machine than anything.

In that moment, Pesinoé stopped fighting the battle warring in herself and gave in. Her will to fight renewed. She stood up and summoned her light saber to her hand staring over to where the emperor and Anakin were clashing swords. She had never been so sure of something since she decided to turn to the dark side. She made her decision. In fact, there hadn't been a decision to make. She knew exactly what she had to do.

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This was interesting to write to me. Luke was originally supposed to fight Anakin but I decided against that and resolved their issues another way. I love Pesinoé and Anakin's conversation because I wanted both of them to have the same issue with each other which was ultimately, rejection. I loved writing it and I'm sorry this is a little late in the day but I wasn't feeling too well earlier.

Hope you enjoyed. Review Please.