Chapter Thirty-Eight
Vader strode through the audience chamber until he reached the dais that the Emperor had positioned his throne upon. He knelt, while Luke and Leia stood awkwardly behind him.
"You called, Master?" Vader inquired. The twins looked at him with something akin to shock. The slightly dry voice he used was quite clear to them; Sidious, however, either didn't notice or pretended not to.
"My apprentice," the seemingly wizened old man cackled. "Yes, yes I did. Rise." As Vader stood, Sidious got up and moved slowly down the dais steps. He proceeded to circle the twins, attempting to subtly cut them off from Vader, but they instinctively moved closer to him, making such a move impossible unless he wanted to be obvious about it. He frowned slightly and stood still.
Vader had caught on to Sidious's game and had been about to warn the twins, but they had already moved closer to him. The knot in his gut relaxed slightly, letting him breathe again. If they had any hope of surviving this confrontation alive, they had to stay together. If Vader had had any doubts about Sidious's intentions, they were all gone now. He knew that frown all too well.
"They are powerful indeed, Lord Vader," Sidious hissed. He looked at Luke and Leia with cold yellow eyes. Leia's Senator mask fell neatly into place, and Luke gulped. "I am looking forward to completing you training," Sidious said to them. "In time you, like your father, will call me Master."
Luke was about to reply hotly, but Leia got her mouth open first. Dropping her eyes respectfully, she said, "If that is what the Force wills."
The Emperor's eyes narrowed at the implication. "I am the Empire, young princess. I am the galaxy. And as such, I am the Force!"
"Forgive me if I am mistaken," Leia replied formally, though her tone implied she really didn't think she was.
Sickly golden eyes flashed beneath the Emperor's black hood. "You are mistaken indeed. About a great many things!"
Leia didn't so much as blink.
It occurred to Luke all of a sudden to attempt to fade into the background as much as possible. Vader and Leia seemed to know what they were doing – he didn't. He he could get the Emperor to ignore him, and then maybe sneak around behind him . . .
He began to back slowly into the shadows --
-- and was abruptly grabbed by the throat and slammed into the wall.
Everyone turned to look at Luke and his assailant. "Very good, my child," Sidious purred. "Keep him there."
Luke looked down into startling green eyes. "Mara?"
"You're a fool, Skywalker," she sneered back, her her forearm not budging in the slightest from its position across his windpipe.
"You see what happens when you try to resist me, young princess." Sidious again began to pace a circle around Leia and Vader. "You will not be so stupid, will you, Princess?"
Leia threw a distressed look at Luke.
Sidious grabbed her chin and forced her eyes to his. She cringed. "Will you, Princess?" His voice was harder this time.
Luke tried to call out to her, but his cry was cut off immediately by Mara.
Leia set her jaw. "Yes," she replied, and brought her knee up to meet the Emperor's groin.
"Are you sure Vader said he wanted us there?" Han asked as he and Jix strode through the docking bay of the Palace. "You'd think he'd just ask us to go with them . . ."
"And what would His Ancientness think of that, huh?" Jix retorted. "See, he just wants us there, behind the door, so that is anything happens to him, we can get the kids out of there."
"That . . . makes sense," Han agreed.
"You sound surprised."
"Well, coming from you --"
"Watch it, Captain," Jix growled, only half joking. "Or I may have to toss you down a reactor shaft."
Sidious let go of Leia, roaring with pain and rage. Twisting away, she raced for the door as Vader ducked around to head toward Luke and Mara.
But the other Sith Lord was quick. He straightened up again and sent angry bursts of lightning in her direction. "If you will not heed me," he snarled as she screamed and writhed in pain, "then you will die!"
Vader stood still halfway between Sidious and Luke and Mara, tension, worry and rage all radiating from him in waves as he stared at Leia, but unable to decide what to do.
Luke decided for him. "FATHER!" he screamed so loud Mara flinched back with a wince. It wasn't enough for him to struggle free of her crushing grip, but it gave him another breath. "HELP LEIA!"
Mara snarled and lunged against his windpipe, choking off his air supply.
Vader stepped hesitantly forward, toward the Emperor.
Luke scrambled for a way to break Mara's grip. He needed the Force, but he didn't dare let his shields down with all the Dark energy moving around here. The last thing he needed was a headache here and now, of all times and places.
Vader was moving faster now. He ignited his brilliant crimson lightsaber.
Luke saw no other choice. He needed oxygen and he needed it now. Letting down his shields, he shoved at Mara with the Force. She went flying across the room.
Vader swung the blade just as Sidious became aware of what was happening. The Emperor screamed i n fury and turned the lightning bursting from his fingertips onto his apprentice. Leia lay panting on the floor, watching in horror and fascination as sparks flew from Vader's life support suit.
Thanks to Polor's prescription, Luke's headache wasn't blinding, but it was bad enough. He raced to Leia's side, only nearly falling twice, and grabbed her in protective hug.
Vader managed to meet the lightning with his blade, directing it away from his body.
Across the room, Mara scrambled to her feet and ignited her own magenta blade.
Luke stood and pulled Leia to her feet. She was weaker than he was, and he didn't feel so great, but they had to move.
And then it hit him: He knew how to get rid of the Force headaches.
He opened his mind to the Force, removing the filters he had put up under Obi-Wan and Yoda's tutlage. Instead, he allowed the Force as a whole to flow through him, and pulled the parts of it he wanted to use into his body and letting the rest of it flow back out.
Be a channel, not a dam. I get it now.
At that moment, Vader's bad leg gave way beneath him, and he collapsed with an involuntary cry of pain.
"Are we there yet?" Han asked. Again.
"No," Jix replied. Again.
"I thought you said this was a short cut!"
"I thought it was!"
"Well, how about I do the thinking from now on, since it obviously isn't your area of expertise?" han snapped.
"Do you know your way around the Imperial Palace?" Jix retorted.
"Well, no, but apparently you don't, either!"
Jix gave Han an insulted look. "I know my way around the Palace quite well, thank you!"
Han glowered.
"Well," Jix relented sheepishly. "I do when I'm in the air shafts. The hallways are kinda new."
Han rolled his eyes. "Air shafts," he repeated disbelievingly.
"Well, hey, I wasn't about to take a chance on bumping into His Evilness every time I turned a corner. That guy can read minds, you know! And although I am the picture of innocence and virtue . . ."
Han snorted in disbelief.
" . . . my thoughts are not exactly lily-white. Therefore, I take precautions." Suddenly he caught sight of something above Han's head and eyed it with interested. "Speaking of precautions . . ."
Han looked up. There, set into the wall, was a large grate leading into the air shaft.
Han's eyes widened. "Oh, no, you don't. Don't even think about it! I refuse --"
Vader had a very hight tolerance for pain. That knowledge was what scared Leia the most when he cried out.
He still had Sidious engaged, lightsaber to Force lightning, but as he couldn't move, all it would take would be for Sidious to break off the attack, leap back out of Vader's range, and attack from a more awkward angle.
"Luke!" she whispered desperately. "We have to help him!"
"I know, I know!" he shot back quietly. "But Leia, he's a lot stronger than we are --"
Leia gritted her teeth and pulled out the lightsaber Vader had given her earlier. "So?" She ignited it.
The action caught Mara's attention,from where she stood watching the battle, ready to step in the moment it appeared that Sidious might be losing. She screamed in defiance and headed ran at Leia.
Luke jumped in front of her, meeting Mara's attack with his own ignited blade. What is wrong with her? he wondered. She's never acted this out-of-control before.
As Luke held Mara off, Leia moved toward Sidious. She swung the lightsaber at him, grazing his shoulder.
Sidious hissed and turned to meet her --
-- and sank to the floor, Vader's lightsaber buried in his heart.
Leia looked at Vader.
He gave a feeble shrug. "I threw it," he rasped.
And Mara Jade began to scream, an unearthly, inhuman shriek that Leia hoped she never heard again, and began to attack them all with even more fervor than before.
"I can't believe you made me do this," Han grumbled. "This sucks a--"
"Ah, shut up," Jix replied from up ahead.
"Hey, you're not the one with your face planted in someone's backside!"
"I assure you, it is not exactly pleasurable for me to have your face planted in my backside. No offense, darling, but you're not exactly my type."
Han growled unintelligibly.
"You could always back up a bit," Jix said helpfully.
"You could always speed up a bit," Han shot back.
Jix didn't bother to dignify that with a verbal response, but he did quicken his crawl.
Vader attempted to get up, but his leg wouldn't allow for it. He had to settle for shouting orders. "Pin her down!" he yelled at his children.
It took them a while. Though there were two of them, she had the experience, skill and rage to elude them for quite some time. However, their sheer strength, their ability to work together and what little guidance and power Vader could offer them eventually got the better of her. Luke and Leia held her facedown on the floor, all three of them exhausted.
"I'm going to need to sleep for a year after this," Leia muttered.
"Hear, hear," Luke agreed, stifling a yawn at the mere mention of sleep.
"Bring her to me," Vader ordered. He didn't really feel like searching through the redgead's mind, looking for all the ties Sidious had created to brainwash the girl, but it had to be done now, and Neither twin had the skill. So, he set to work.
Mara fought him the whole way. The twins held her down on her back physically, but once in her mind Vader was on his own. Her shields were strong and very well constructed, and he was so tired, so weak . . .
But he had to do this. Had to . . .
He kept working.
"Great, so which way now?" Han asked as he dropped to the floor beside Jix, who was looking around with his hands on his hips.
Jix was silent.
"You realize all the fun is going to be over by the time we get there. If they do end up needing help, well, we aren't going to be there to give it."
Jix pointed. "This way. I think." He set off, not even looking back to see if Han was coming.
"And here we go again," Han grouched under his breath. "I'm gonna kill him."
By the time Vader finished severing all Mara's ties to Sidious, she had lost consciousness. Her exhaustion, coupled with the backlash of the Emperor's death and the shock from having the ties cut, ahd knocked her out cold.
Vader looked up at the twins. "Take the mask . . . off," he asked them, so quietly that they more felt the request through the Force than actually heard it. "I don't . . . want to die . . . with it on."
Leia's jaw dropped; Luke's eyes widened. "You're not going to die!" they exclaimed in unison.
"Yes . . .I am," Vader told them tiredly. "Take it off . . . please."
The twins looked at each other, distressed.
"Please," Vader whispered again. He could feel the damage done to his organs, could feel the blood and the scorch marks, the labouring of his heart and the stressing of him muscles. The pain in his leg was excruciating . . . at least it would stop when he died . . .
With trembling hands, Luke reached toward the helmet as Leia took one of his large hands in both of her tiny ones, squeezing it tightly.
"You've been good to us," she told him. "Thank you."
He brushed her mind lightly with the Force in acknowledgment as Luke gripped the edge of the helmet firmly.
"What do you think you're doing?" a voice demanded from the doorway. "Solo, call Polor, Uncle D's hurt – don't you dare take off that mask, just sit tight until Polor gets here."
"But --" Luke objected.
"Don't talk back to me, kid!" Jix snapped. "Take that thing off and you'll kill him all the quicker. Solo, have you called Polor yet?"
"He's on his way," Han replied.
And then the world grew dark as Vader sank into unconsciousness.