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Chapter Fourteen
Light vs. Dark, The Final Battle
The Death Star
Leia didn't say a single word, nor did she fight or try to escape from the Imperials as she bundled into a shuttle, and then taken to an elevator by them and Vader. The whole time, he kept a punishingly tight grip on her arm, so tight that she knew it would, at best, be badly bruised the next time that she looked at it. He had tightened her wrist bonds as well, and two tiny lines of blood were welling up from where they dug into her skin.
'Pain is but a figment of the mind' she remembered Obi-Wan telling her. 'If you can control your mind, then you will control your pain as well.'
The elevator opened just as she finished suppressing her pain, mild as it was. She couldn't afford the slightest distraction right now. She wasn't Mace Windu, capable of seeing the shatterpoints of time, but she was a Jedi, and she could sense the Force's agitation. Her actions here on board the half-built Death Star would decide the fate of the galaxy. She had to win, no matter what the cost.
Guards had escorted them from the shuttle to the elevator, but Vader and Leia entered the room alone. They walked in silence across the dark space to stand before the throne, father and daughter side by side beneath the gaze of the Emperor. When they reached the bottom of the throne's platform, Vader bowed from the waist to his Master.
"Welcome, young Skywalker," the Emperor greeted them, his voice sinister. "I have been expecting you."
Shoving away the sick feeling that his mere presence gave her, Leia peered up at the hooded figure defiantly. "My name is Leia Naberrie, not Leia Skywalker," she declared firmly, refusing to give in to her fear. It was there, she had it and she accepted it as a part of her. But she would not succumb to its' Dark influence.
"You have your mother's spirit," Sidious noted, before he looked down at her binders. "You no longer need those," he announced. He motioned ever so slightly with his finger and the binders fall away, clattering to the floor.
Leia glanced down at her own hands, free now to reach out and grab the Emperor's neck. Despite the temptation that she felt to do just that, she didn't move. It wouldn't work, and the Force wasn't telling her to act yet. Now, more than ever, Leia needed to rely on the guidance of the Force.
"Guards, leave us," the Emperor ordered the protectors that lined the shadows of the room. Without a word from any of them, the red-cloaked guards turned and disappeared into the shadows behind the elevator.
Palpatine turned back to the silent Jedi. "I'm looking forward to completing your training. In time you will call me Master."
"You're gravely mistaken," she answered. "You won't convert me as you did Vader."
The Emperor rose and left his throne, walking up very close to Leia. She forced herself to resist the urge to recoil from him. The Darkness that radiated from him was so strong and sickening it made bile rise in her throat and her vision became spotted with splotches of black. A horrible coldness, worse than even Hoth and tainted with evil, made her insides shiver.
The Emperor's cruel yellow eyes met Leia's own sky-blue eyes, allowing Leia to perceive the evil and twisted visage within the hood for the first time.
"Oh, no, my young Jedi," Sidious chuckled darkly. "You will find that it is you who are mistaken...about a great many things."
Leia swallowed, but refused to relent. "Maybe so," she admitted. "But not about this. I will die, before I ever allow myself to Turn to the Dark Side."
"That is what all Jedi say," he replied. "And some of them do. But you will not. In time, you will serve me."
She shook her head, feeling her braid whip against the side of her cheek. The light stinging sensation helped strengthen her determination, somehow.
"Her lightsabre," Vader told the Emperor as he extended a gloved hand toward the Emperor, opening it and revealing Leia's painstakingly built lightsabre. She resisted another shudder as the Emperor took it.
'Your lightsabre is your life' Obi-Wan had said to her. It felt as if the two Sith were tainting her soul by touching her sabre, staining it with their Darkness.
"Ah, yes, a Jedi's weapon," the Emperor mused as he turned it over carelessly in his hands. "Much like your father's. By now you must know your father can never be turned from the Dark Side. So will it be with you."
"You're wrong," Leia insisted stubbornly. "I am not Vader."
Her Mama had always said that when Leia decided to do something, not even the goddess Shiraya herself would be able to stop her. And it was true. Leia was rarely stubborn, but when she had set herself a goal, nothing got in her way. Ever.
"Soon I'll be dead...and you with me," she finished, meeting his gaze.
The Emperor laughed mockingly at her declaration, dismissing it. Leia didn't mind that. Him underestimating her would only help.
"Perhaps you refer to the imminent attack of your Rebel fleet," he smirked, making Leia look at him sharply.
"Yes...," he drawled, smugly confident of his victory. "I assure you that we are quite safe from your friends here."
Vader looked at Leia, though she couldn't tell what he was thinking.
"Your overconfidence is your weakness," she warned the Sith Master, unsurprised when he dismissed it arrogantly.
"Your faith in your friends is yours."
"It is pointless to resist, my daughter," Vader told her.
"Did you even try?" she challenged him. "And I am no child of yours. We may share blood, but I will always be the daughter of Sola and Darred Naberrie."
His anger at her announcement made the already freezing temperature of the room drop another five or six degrees while the Emperor turned to face her again.
"Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design," the Emperor, now angered, snapped as he indicated Endor. "Your friends up there on the Sanctuary Moon..."
Leia, who had always been terrible when it came to hiding her feelings about those she loved, couldn't stop herself from jerking in automatic reaction.
She cursed herself for doing so immediately as the Emperor noted it. He smirked cruelly as he continued, "...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."
Leia's gaze darted around the room, over both Palpatine and Vader, before it finally ended up resting on her lightsabre, still held by the Emperor.
"Oh..." His eyes glinted with vicious satisfaction as he added, "I'm afraid that the deflector shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive."
Sensing the truth in his words, Leia didn't bother to try and stop the sob of grief that broke through her lips as she spotted the fleet emerging from hyperspace as the tyrannical ruler of the galaxy finished talking. She could sense their deaths approaching, and it made her heart ache, even as it solidified her determination not to let their sacrifices be in vain.
She couldn't remove her gaze from the round window behind the Emperor's throne. Through it, the distant flashes of the space battle in progress could be seen. To her grief and horror, it was obvious from the Force and the scene itself, that the Rebels were on the losing side.
"Go on, girl," the Emperor cackled, waving towards the window. "See for yourself."
He was sitting in his throne, with Vader standing at his side.
Silently, Leia moved to look through a small section of the window.
"From here you will witness the final destruction of the Alliance, and the end of your insignificant Rebellion," the Emperor declared, triumph in his voice.
Though she had managed to arrange her expression into a mask of neutrality, Leia was lost in torment. She glanced again at his lightsabre sitting on the armrest of the throne.
The Emperor spotted her action and smiled, touching the lightsabre. "You want this, don't you? The hate is swelling in you now. Take your Jedi weapon. Use it. I am unarmed. Strike me down with it. Give in to your anger. With each passing moment, you make yourself more my servant."
Every word he spoke made it more and more clear how little he knew and understood the young woman. She was angry, yes, and she loathed the Emperor and Vader with everything in her. But she was still firmly and utterly entrenched in the Light.
"Never!" Leia cried, recoiling with flashing eyes.
"It is unavoidable," the Emperor snarled. "It is your destiny. You, like your father, are now mine! Mine to use, mine to control!"
"I AM NOT VADER'S DAUGHTER!" Leia bellowed.
Before the Emperor could answer, he, Vader, and a horrified Leia were interrupted by the sound of the aerial battle fireworks that were visible through the window and on the viewscreens. Another Rebel ship exploded against the protective shield, making Leia groan in increased grief.
"As you can see, my young apprentice, your friends have failed," the Emperor announced. "Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station." He raised a comlink to his mangled lips. "Fire at will, Commander."
Leia, in shock and beyond any thoughts of meditation and the safety of the Jedi Code, looked out with a helpless expression across the surface of the Death Star to the Rebel fleet beyond.
Out of the window and on the view screens, the Rebel fleet was being steadily decimated in blinding explosions of light and debris. But in the throne room there was no sound of battle, only the breathing of the three Force sensitives. It was an eerie contrast. The Emperor turned to Leia.
"Your fleet has lost," he declared. "And your friends on the Endor moon will not survive. There is no escape, my young apprentice. The Alliance will die...as will your friends."
Leia clenched her fist, fighting the fury and grief that threatened to overcome her.
'Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.' Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Kanan and Yoda had all quoted that to her and Ezra, and for their sake, she was determined not to surrender to it. She was the Last Jedi, the Last Hope of the Rebel Alliance. She could not fail.
Leia knew both Codes off by heart. The first had never really appealed to her, though she knew it perfectly.
There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.
The only part that she had ever been completely comfortable with was the last line 'there is no death, there is the Force'. That made sense. But the alternate Code, the original one, was the Code that had always comforted and calmed her. She recited it now, in her mind as she fought against the taint of Darkness spread by the two Sith Lords.
Emotion, yet peace.
Ignorance, yet knowledge.
Passion, yet serenity.
Chaos, yet harmony.
Death, yet the Force.
She spun on her heel and gave a defiant look to the two Sith. The Emperor frowned in disbelief and confused rage as she recited the Jedi Oath in a proud, determined voice.
"I, Leia Naberrie, do swear on my honour, and on the faith of the brotherhood of knights, to use the Force only for good, denying, turning always from the Dark Side; to dedicate my life to the cause of freedom, and justice. If I should fail of this vow, my life shall be forfeit, here and hereafter."
"You dare to defy me?" the Emperor growled, jumping to his feet with surprising ease, given his form and age.
Leia raised her chin proudly. "I will always stand against the Dark." She held out her hand, and her lightsabre came flying into it, igniting the moment that it touched her palm.
She raised it just in time to deflect a jet of lightning sent towards her by the Emperor, sending it towards Vader, who in turn sent it into the wall.
The both of them ignited their own lightsabres, both of the weapons made with black hilts and red kyber crystals that reminded Leia of the blood of humans.
They were good, but Leia barely noticed. She had sunk into a trance, her world foggy as she moved and deflected and jumped in time with the urging of the Force. She was hurt several times, but she didn't feel any of the injuries she received. She felt nothing but peace and determination, and she gave as good as she got. She sliced off Palpatine's left hand, and managed to both slash Vader across his chest and cut off his right arm, starting from the shoulder.
He cried out in surprised fury when she managed to dismember him, his lightsabre falling to the floor along with the robotic arm as he staggered back with an enraged yell. Taking advantage of weaponless state, Leia managed to deflect another bolt of lightning from Sidious to Vader, and this time he wasn't quick enough to dodge. He went sprawling over the side of the floor, falling down.
Although it had been her goal, when Leia felt his sudden death, she was jolted out of her trance in surprise that she had actually succeeded where thousands of others had failed, including Obi-Wan himself. She lost her grip on the trance just in time to be hit with yet more Force-lightning. The agony infused her entire body, and she screamed in pain, falling onto her knees. She dropped her lightsabre, and it rolled away, out of her sight.
"YOU LOST ME MY APPRENTICE!" the Emperor bellowed furiously as he tortured her. Leia knew, instinctively, that he had lost patience with her. He had spent years grooming Vader to be his Sith Apprentice, and she had ruined all his years of hard work in an instant. She was going to die, and that fact was inescapable.
But, if she could just keep him focused on her long enough for the Rebels to disarm the shield and destroy the space station, then her death would not be in vain. She could see it in the Force, how Han, Luke, Neena and the others were working desperately at the generator, even as she sobbed in pain on the floor of the space station. They were nearly there.
She just had to keep him concentrating on torturing her for a little bit longer.
It was agonizing. Leia had been hit with Force lightning before, when fighting various Inquisitors, but none of them even compared to the Emperor in strength. She writhed and screamed under his unrelenting punishment for what seemed eternity, but in reality was probably only a few moments.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted her lightsabre, just out of reach of her fingertips, still ignited. She could almost touch the glowing blade. She was so close to it, she could feel the heat that it was giving off from the glowing green blade.
Sidious was still screaming at her, and she was still seizing from the pain of the lightning, but she managed to shift herself over a bit, under the guise of trying to crawl away and escape the pain.
"You will not escape me so easily!" Sidious snarled, increasing the power he was putting into his attack, and making her falter and moan, even as she subtly pushed her lightsabre blade with her fingertips, blocking her actions with her squirming body. It stung, but the pain barely registered with the pain of the torture. She ignored the burning, pressing it again and adding the Force as best she could with her pain-fogged mind, until it spun around in a half-circle, allowing her access to the hilt.
It took her another second to wrap her hand around it, but as soon as she did, her mind cleared. A smile grew on her face as she back-flipped to her feet and twirled her sabre to allow it to deflect the lightning back at its' creator.
"NO!" Palpatine screamed as he was caught in his own ruthless assault. "NO! YOU CANNOT DO THIS! NO! NO! NO!"
She ignored his enraged denials, her own face scrunched up in desperate determination as she pressed the lightning back into him. An image flashed into her mind, of Master Mace Windu doing the same thing the day Order 66 went out. But, unlike Master Windu, Leia didn't have Anakin Skywalker intervening, betraying the Republic for his own desire for the power of the Dark. And Palpatine, despite his surprising strength, was an old man, with an old man's body.
With one last desperate "NO!" the tyrant who had tormented the galaxy for over twenty years, died, his heart giving out under the strain of the lightning.
Arms shaking, Leia lowered her sabre, staring at the crumpled body with disbelief as her slim form shook violently. In all her imaginings of how things would turn out, she had never thought that she might survive defeating the Sith.
With all of their combined experience and strength, it had seemed impossible for to defeat them and survive, and she would have willingly given her life for the rest of the galaxy to be freed. But, despite the odds, she was alive. And the Sith were dead. A sob broke free of her Cupid's bow lips.
Just as the thought ran threw her dazed mind, she felt the floor shake. Alarms began to blare, and Leia realized that her comrades had succeeded at last. The Death Star was collapsing in on itself.
Without another thought for the two Sith she had just killed, Leia turned and bolted for the dock.