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This is the longest chapter so far.

Hope you enjoy...

Chapter 25

Scars

He tried to fight the darkness,

but the darkness won.

Luke knelt by his masters throne for the rest of that day, he has shifted once when I felt that his knee was going to crack, but this had cased him more pain and he gasped, due to this he was shown that Palpatine would always keep his promised. Two crimson red guards made their way to Han, there spikes lit up with electricity, a single scream could be heard echoing around the throne room as both sticks were jammed into Han's chest. After a few seconds the guards backed away leaving the smuggler laying limp against the wall, his chest rising and falling in time with his rapid breathing as his heart raced as fast as bee wings.

The young Skywalker watched, mouth agape, as his friends breathing slowly returned back to normal, he had felt Han's pain through the force, it hurt him to know that his friend was suffering so much because of him. A single tear ran down his check, then he heard a chuckle from the side of him, "Oh, my apprentice, your compassion for others is your downfall. That will need to be changed."

In fear of Han being hurt again, Luke could only reply, "Of course master"

Palpatine looked to the smuggler in the corner, "Take Solo here back to his cell, make sure he doesn't escape or your lives will be on the line." He commanded to the red guards, the red figures moved over to the body and unclipped it from the wall, with the body hanging limp in between them they left the throne room.

The Emperor then turned his attention back to Luke, "Look at me" He commanded at the boy whose gaze was locked firmly on the doors, the boy turned to him.

"You need training. We shall begin now." He stood.

"Master?" Luke asked, it was late at night.

"Why not when learning the ways of the darkness should they not be taught in the dark." The Sith replied, with a flick of his wrist the binders in the young man's wrists fell away clattering on the floor.

Luke's arms were stiff, and painful as he pulled them before him but didn't rise to his feet. "Rise" With that command Luke rose to his feet on stiff legs with ached, but he did not sway, he felt pain rise but hid it behind a blank mask. "We shall begin with duelling."

Luke looked to the old man, how was he meant to duel this man: for one he didn't have his lightsaber, all though he doubted that Sidious would let him use his own green blade; and on the other hand his muscles were stiff from being kneeling for the best majority of the day. Yet again thinking about it, why would the Emperor make it easy for him?

Then out of no where two hilts appeared in the old white hands, one he recognised as the Emperor's lightsaber, the other he recognised as his old blade when he had before ended up in the darkness, but then he had his father, now he didn't and he was at the complete mercy of the Sith Lord before him. Palpatine handed him his blade, Luke looked at it for a few but was startled by a snap-hiss and the glow of blood red before him. In seconds he was in a defence position as the blade came down on him, "Very good, you have quick reflexes, but duelling isn't about defence you have to attack if you want to win."

The brutal assault came down on Luke for the next few minutes, just as the Sith thought that the young Skywalker wasn't going to attack he realised what the boy had been doing. Just like he had taught Vader, Vader had taught his son to wait until the perfect opportunity to strike t appear before attacking, never before, never after because the opening could only be there for a few split seconds. And Darth Sidious had just provided that opportunity, the boy suddenly switched from defence to full out attack, the change was so sudden that Palpatine considered that if he hadn't seen his mistake then he would not of been able to dodge as the blade made for his head, just having time to duck and use the force to flip backwards to dodge the attack as the blade came back.

A cruel smile appeared on his lips as he sensed the darkness around the boy, he had never been able to push it away when he had killed the previous Sith, then the darkness had locked onto the boy forever staining him as it had done his father, making it all too easy for him to fall back down the path of darkness.

Luke placed him back into a defence position as the Emperor came back for another attack, this time his muscles seemed to fail him, a sudden twinge of pain left him unfocused, if only for a fraction of a second, but the Sith's blade had come down and scrapped his shoulder leaving a burn behind the torn fabric. The duel didn't however stop, it raged on for nearly half an hour, till Luke had eventually fallen to the ground in exhaustion his opponents red blade nearing hiss exposed throat. "You're good Skywalker. You have defeated me only once, and that was when I was old and weak. Now I am not. You need to drastically improve. Most importantly you let yourself get hurt, for that you will be punished."

The young blonde haired man's eyes widened, was today not punishment enough? "Guards!" The old man shouted, Luke stepped back slightly afraid of where they were going to take him, he could not imagine the tortures the Sith may have in-store for the man who killed him. As the doors opened, in came two stormtroopers carrying a hunched over figure between them, they were not here for him, but why was this man here. The figure was thrown down onto his knees before them, the troopers stood to attention. "You may leave." The Emperor simply stated raising his hand, immediately the two white clad soldiers left and the doors closed smoothly with a slight click.

Luke examined the figure before him, he could see much for the man had his head down, the man had black hair, his suit a sandy brown, the thing that seemed to leap from the man was the Republic logo on the man's left shoulder. This man was a rebel, what was he doing here? Most importantly how many others had been captured during the battle, how many other people could the Emperor use as leverage over him? He hated to imagine.

"Your punishment." The cloaked figure said coldly gesturing towards the kneeling man.

"And what is that Master?" Luke asked.

"Kill him." The Sith commanded his apprentice.

At these word the black haired man's head shot upright, brown eyes locked with the crystal blue of Skywalker.

"Commander Skywalker?" The man said more a statement than a question.

"Jason" Luke gasped, this man had been on nearly every single base he had been on. They had worked closely together, he mentally cursed himself, how could he not recognise him.

Jason stared horrified at Luke, had he just heard the man call that tyrant 'Master', it made him question Luke. Everyone knew that he had fallen into darkness whilst with Vader, all had just presumed that he had turned back to the light, but maybe he hadn't. However on the other looking at him now, he looked tired and worn, his shoulder was marked by burnt flesh. Looking at his eyes you could see that he was tired, what had this man been through? To be honest with himself, Jason thought that if the Emperor had ever gotten his hands on Luke, the young Skywalker would be dead, but now he was here calling the man master, and was being ordered to kill him.

"Did you not hear me? I ordered you to kill this rebel scum. Are you disobeying a direct order?"

"No master." Luke's eyes fell to the floor.

"Good. You know the consequences for disobedience, you will be punished and your friend down in the cells ten times worse."

This made Luke flinch, something inside him turned, he ignited his blood red blade, he looked into the eyes of Jason, letting his eyes speak his said, 'I'm sorry' before plunging the blade into the man's heart and watched as blood raised into Jason's mouth and begin to trickled out as the brown eyes widened as far as they could. A raspy gasp could be heard a few seconds later there was only silence, Luke deactivated his blade and Jason fell to the floor lifeless staring into darkness.

Luke's heart twinged, what was he feeling, he could pin point it. It's wasn't sadness, was it regret? "Well done my apprentice, you have done well." A hand landed on his shoulder, he tensed slightly then relaxed. He now knew what he felt, it was pride and satisfaction that he had made his master proud. He looked down at the cold body and smiled, he had enjoyed that, even though he knew that he shouldn't he had, he had enjoyed executing one of his friends.

Palpatine smiled, the boy had a smile across his face as he admired his work, the boy had loved the feeling of taking a life and wouldn't be able to resist the temptation if put before him in the future. In spite of this, the young Skywalker wasn't his yet, he may have claimed him as his apprentice but the boy was still very much a prisoner, and was only obeying his orders because of a smuggler who was locked down in the cells, who with just a single word could be tortured within an inch of his life if the young boy refused to comply. Nevertheless the boy was already on the path to darkness.

'Once you start down the dark path, forever it will dominate your destiny, consume you it will'

The old green Jedi's word echoed around Luke's head, he had begun down the path to the darkside long ago, Master Yoda's word spoke of truth in between the backwards words and sentences he lectured his students with, his mind went back to his promise 'I will return, I promise.' He had never gone back to that planet, Obi-Wan and Yoda had been right, he hadn't beaten Vader, he hadn't be strong enough to defeat them like they had said, and he had been tempted by the darkness, and that's how he ended up by the side of a Sith time and time again, because he had been foolish and reckless.

Anakin sighed, as he looked at the night sky from the planet of Yavin 4, a plant covered in thick jungle. This was the planets where in the skies above the first Death Star was destroyed by Luke Skywalker. At that time he and his son had not know about each other and had been on the opposite side of a galactic war. He looked to the stars far away, somewhere amounts the vast emptiness of space was the Imperial Centre there was his son, held by there greatest enemy. His mind was still racing with fury after hearing that the rescue mission for Luke was to be delayed, mass amounts of troops and back up had been relocated to the planet from the outer rims, it was too risky to enter air space any where near Coruscant. Anakin had been furious at first and had wanted to ahead with the mission any way, in the end, after much persuasion he had been convinced that embarking on the mission at that time would effectively be a sure way of committing suicide.

When the republic had won the battle those loyal to the republic had come out of the woodwork's of the Empire and taken there place in the republic thinking that they had finally won and things were going to remain that way with the Sith gone. Now in result they had nobody inside the Empire, they were completely blind, Mon had said that it could take weeks, maybe months to get someone inside to get a detailed plan on what the Empire was planning. Anakin didn't know if Luke could hold on that long, the darkside had already got a hold of the youth and he fear now that he was there alone he was vulnerable to corruption. To make matters worse it had been stated that Captain Solo and his co-pilot, the Wookie Chewbacca, had been capture during the battle, he had no doubt that Darth Sidious would be using them as leverage against Luke.

Luke knelt beside the throne of his Master, he had not been allowed to sleep for over 24 hours, his body was drained of energy, Sidious had been making him strain every few hours, in a result of his tiredness he had been making mistakes left, right and centre and had been punished by every one of them. For each punishment a rebel had been brought through the doors ,that he had not stepped through in what felt like forever, and he was ordered to kill them, he had killed every one who had come through that door. Each time he killed it fed the darkness inside him, the darkside gave him the strength to continue.

He counted out how many people he had killed: some of them younger than himself; some older and some which where people who he worked closely with during his days with the rebels. He counted fifteen in total, which was nothing compare to the million that ad been aboard the first Death Star, but he had not looked them in the eye as he killed them. If he had killed fifteen people that meant that he had made the same number of mistakes, in conclusion he realised that there was fifteen new injuries had appeared on his body which weren't there two days ago.

He felt a shiver as something warm ran down his right arm, he felt it reach his hand which was just in sight, the sleeve had been torn completely off, now he could see the line of red blood as him arm hung limply as the other rested on his left leg. There was the sound of a drip, his eyes looked towards where the blood had splatted onto the floor, drop after drop, after drop fell onto the cold marble floor until a small puddle of red formed and the dripping and taps turned into splashes. From under his hair he noticed that Palpatine had notice the noticed the noise as the Siths head turned slightly towards him, he didn't move and stayed perfectly still. He did not expect the Emperor to treat him.

"Skywalker."

"Yes Master?" He answered, realising how much he had changed over the last day.

"Your arm, it's bleeding."

"Yes Master." He confirmed, where was he taking this?

"Have you learnt you lesson yet my apprentice."

"Yes I have Master. I will not fail you again." He hoped that that would earn him something, maybe time to sleep but that was not to be.

"Get up." Thee Sith ordered, Luke complied. He was handed his lightsaber. "Duel." Luke tapped into the darkside drawing in on all its power to give him the energy for the fight. Both blades spat as they hit one another, and the duel began. As the duel prolonged Luke stepped out of the tired self he had been moments ago into a warrior with a spring in his step. Using the darkside he anticipated what his opponents moves were going to be, some though he could not see, but armed with his new found strength his Skywalker quick reflexes kicked in and he dodged any attack which may have been on target.
Just as it looked as though he was about to claim the victory, Palpatine played a cruel card. Using his power with the darkside the Sith invaded the shields that had been weakened as Luke put all his focus into the fight. This sent pain shooting through the young force user. However the Emperor had underestimated the youths resistance to pain, and despite the pain Skywalker continued. His pure strength and resilience impressed the old man, but the pain had weakened Luke considerably, and with one stroke of his blade the duel ended.

Luke held one had over his left eye, the hilt of his lightsaber hit the polished black marble floor as he feel to his knees. Blood spilled over his hand as the pain increased as the adrenaline wore off. "Remove your hand." Palpatine commanded. The young Skywalker hesitated, he was in so much pain, but he knew that if he didn't obey the pain would be much worse, so carefully he removed his hand. He jumped slightly as a bonny hand grasped a hold of his chin and inclined it. "Open your eyes." He did so slowly the pain in his left eye spiked and almost fluttered shut but he wouldn't let it. To his surprise he could still see out of the eye, but found it uncomfortable as blood washed over it like a water fall.

Palpatine looked at Luke's face, a large gash ran from the forehead above the right eye over the left eye but missing the eye itself completely, before touching down on the left cheek and ending near the jaw line. That's going to leave a scar, he mused, he could have it treated and there could be a chance that there would be no scar, but this was better, a constant reminder to the Skywalker of his mistakes and failures.

He commanded Luke to kneel again by the throne, he knew that it wasn't long till the boy broke.

4 months later

Luke Skywalker, now known to the galaxy as Darth Traya, stalked the corridors of the Imperial Palace like a predator on the prowl. He had been given the name Traya due to a certain reason, he had betrayed both the light and dark side of the force, but after all betrayal was the way of the Sith as another Skywalker had become, he had the glowing yellow eyes that seemed to pierce ones soul after all. He wore all black that matched the black of his hair, that was one of the things that had first changed, gone had the sand blonde replaced by the darkest black. He wore: a black shirt with the Imperial logo; tight black pants; knee high black boots that were polished so that you could almost see your reflection in the dark; a black trench coat the collar outlined with crimson silk as well as the same on the interior. The most noticeable feature about him however was the scar that cover his face, a reminder of his failure to his master.

He stormed down the halls, leaving a hurricane in his mist, everyone bowing to him as he past, nobody dared disrespect the Sith Lord for those who had hadn't lived to cast another breath. He was deadly, so much so that he often was know simply as the Death, rumours spilled that he was immortal or that he was the son of the late Dark Lord Darth Vader.

Now he made his way to the throne room: there he knelt before his master; his right knee touching the floor the other bent with his left arm resting on it his right hand balled into a fist and touching the floor before his right knee; his back bent over; his head bowed so his black hair fell over his face.

"You summoned me Master." He replied his voice cold sounding even like death itself.

"Yes," The Emperor began as he stood and move towards his apprentice, Traya rose his hands clasped behind his back keeping his gaze fixed straightly before him, even as Palpatine circled him his head never once move nor did any part of him. "It appears that your father is trying to mount a rescue attempt for his precious son."

"He is too late, Master. Darth Traya is all that remains, he will come to accept that and join us or he will die." Traya replied not a hint of emotion in his voice.

"Good, make sure that happens."

"Yes Master." The black warrior bowed and left the room.

Palpatine smiled, all was going to his plan soon he would have the two most powerful force users on his side.

Meanwhile on the Millennium Falcon on course for Coruscant.

Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight and Master sat behind Han Solo in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. He could see the planet in the distance, the rescue plan for his son had been delayed time and time again, only when Han returned was they able to leave for Coruscant. However it had been 4 months, and Anakin feared the worst. He reached out with the force seeking out his son, he was instantly bombarded by the raw power of the darkside which burnt him, being more careful, he reached out again, still all he could sense was the overwhelming darkness, Palpatine thought that he could block out Luke's force presence by using his own. Anakin dug deeper.

As he dug deeper and deeper he realised that the signature he was looking at wasn't the Emperors but it was instead Luke's.

"We're too late!" he whispered but those around him hear him heard and quickly caught onto what he meant.

I hoped you all enjoyed this chapter.

I know you're all probably wondering what happened to Han, rest assured that it will be explained in the upcoming chapters.

What do you all think of Darth Traya?

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