She did not understand at all.
Leia had risked everything to bring Luke back to Imperial Center, all for her father to have second thoughts about training him?
Her father was having second thoughts about a lot of things…
A feeling of profound misuse came over her,nine months in captivity… Everything she had suffered…
Leia needed to do something, to act, but she didn't want to go back to the Imperial Palace with these doubts gnawing at her heart.
She cloaked herself in the Force and slipped out of Vader's residence. She suspected her shuttle and security escort would wait for her indefinitely before daring to interrupt Vader with his children. With the Force keeping her from all sentient notice, she was able to traverse the Diplomatic Sector like a ghost. Beyond that, it barely mattered if she cloaked herself, the teeming mass of sentient life below the daylight levels was so varied, even the Imperial Princess could get lost in the crowds.
Leia could not have been more pleased when some undercity thugs decided she'd make an easy mark. She used her saber, and the Force to kill them, she didn't care if the news got back to the palace. At worst a battalion of stormtroopers would be sent to investigate reports of a rogue Force user.
She downed ten men in seconds, and she wanted more. Their sudden fear, panic, and pain were just fuel that drew her further into to the Force.
She was alone now, surrounded by bodies, she kept walking.
Sentient life in the under-city was in a sad state. It was a veritable colony of pimps, spice dealers, smugglers, and prostitutes of all ages and species. She understood why it pleased her master to let such filth fester beneath the gleaming daylight levels, the pain here was palpable.
Leia had set her sites on another group of under-city scoundrels when her master's voice cut through all her thoughts.
Leia.
She answered easily as if she weren't far below the planets surface, covered in grime and blood.
My Master?
You will come to me now.
Leia smiled, of course she would come. If there was one thing that was solid and dependable in her life it was that she was loyal to her Emperor.
She hooked her saber to her belt, used the tunnels as her path, and the Force to speed herself along.
Come to the cave.
She knelt at her masters feet, aware that she was still still covered in undercity grime.
Palpatine's eyes glowed as he stared down at her, "My apprentice, I sense that something has disturbed you." There was humor rich in his voice. "Tell me."
Leia took a deep breath then hesitated, "My Master I am loyal only to you."
"And?"
"My master, I find myself confused." Leia couldn't help but hesitate, it was so painful to say it. "My father is acting strangely."
"How so, my apprentice?"
"I asked him when he would begin training my brother, and he hesitated."
"Is that all?" Palpatine demanded.
"More than that I can feel it in my heart, Master. He is changing."
"You were right to tell me, my Apprentice. I have sensed it too."
Leia gasped, she had done the right thing in telling him. "I don't want to loose them, Master."
The Emperor stared right at her, utterly resolute, "No, Leia, neither do I."
Leia couldn't stop the tears that started rolling down her cheeks. "Master, tell me what to do."
"My dear girl, I wish for you to stay here. Enter the cave, the dark side energy of this place keeps it completely hidden."
"You don't want my father to read me." Leia realized.
"Correct, my Apprentice. Will you do as I ask?"
"I'll wait here."
Desperate for any distraction, Leia entered the cave.
It was different than before. She fell straight into darkness. It swallowed her up and she swallowed it.
Pasts and futures were laid out before her. She didn't want to think, didn't want to know anymore secrets. She wanted oblivion.
But the Force had a will of its own.
She was standing next to the Emperor, looking down at Vader. The air was ripe with electricity, burned fleshed, and fear. The Emperor was doing something, reaching deeply into the force to heal Vader, to bridge the gap between his burned flesh and the tremendous weight of the prosthetics and cybernetics used to preserve him.
But the dark side could not heal.
Which meant that the life force which was flowing into Vader had to come from somewhere, from someone else.
Leia turned her back on the scene, unsurprised to finder herself in another operating room. A young woman was gasping in pain as she birthed one baby and then another. Leia's mother.
Obi-Wan Kenobi was at her side, stricken, trying to comfort her, but he did not understand what was being done to her. He did not see that the life force was being drawn out of her, flowing away, across the stars. He couldn't not understand why Padme was dying.
But Leia understood. Palpatine was doing this. Her master had done this.
She woke. Or perhaps she did not.
She knew her body lay in the dark side cave, far under the Imperial Palace. She could feel the hard stone beneath her, the cold, damp air on her skin. But her mind fled upward, to her father's residence.
It was empty. The rooms where they had lived were utterly trashed. The hyperbaric chamber was caved in on itself. Smoke was still rising from the debris. But the only bodies were those of stormtroopers.
Leia cast her awareness wider. Her Master was coming for her, he was close. But where was her father? Her brother?
She felt a terrible wrenching feeling. She was dragged back to into her body by force. Palpatine's ravaged features starred down at her, his hands clamped tightly upon her shoulders.
"Master." She whispered, "What has happened?"
Palpatine reeked of smoke and his robes were covered in a fine layer of dust.
"Your father seeks to overthrow me." Her Master breathed, "You must come with me."
But the dark side was running in her blood, she was fully immersed and knew the lie for what it was.
Leia lit her saber where it still hung at her belt. The red blade pierced up through her Master's body, a cruel cut from his abdomen up to his heart. Palpatine's amber eyes widened. What she saw there was unexpected. Triumph. She pulled her saber out of his chest and sliced off his head.
The release of power was tremendous, shaking the galaxy itself, it seemed. It was thick in the air, warm like blood. It washed over her. It was too much, she was sinking into a sea of blood. She went under. Drowning.
She called on the dark side, her only possible ally, and it answered clear and cold and perfect, lifting her up, filling her with icy fire. She was on her feet. She held her red blade in her hand, she was looking down at her master's mangled and decapitated corpse.
Without really thinking she reached into Palpatine's robes and removed his saber. He had died without even drawing it. She snapped it to her belt and turned her back on the cave. She took the stone steps slowly, unsure what she would sense as she left the cave's dark orbit.