"Are you sure?" Padmé directed her question at the communications center. Leia walked in and managed to hear the inquiry.
"Positive," a male voice answered.
"Thanks," the ex-queen smiled. She turned it off, then she started at her daughter's presence.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Leia apologized while giving her an inquisitive look.
Padmé reassured her, "It's quite all right. I've just had word that Luke, Vader, and Palpatine are all on board the Executor, which is currently residing in the Anoat system near Bespin. A quick hyperspace jump, and we're there. Tell the boys they need to strap in."
Leia disappeared into the back and came back with Jar Jar and the unhappy smuggler. She sat beside her mother, and, with a sullen look, Han sat in the chair beside the Gungan. After everyone buckled up, the ship jumped back into hyperspace.
Padmé smiled. "It's time we get dressed."
And they did.
Leia thought she would feel clumsy in her Stormtrooper armor since it was made for someone several inches taller than her, but when Padmé had said that they were modified, she hadn't been lying. It wasn't that the suits were short, since that would raise suspicion, but the boots had wedges in them that made them appear taller, and they were actually quite comfortable.
The same couldn't be said for Han, who was looking very annoyed at having to wear a stiff-necked dark gray uniform. He kept complaining that when he'd had to leave the Imperial Navy he had thought he'd never have to wear such a uniform again. He also made several angry comments about his hair, which was jet-black and not as scruffy-looking as he was used to having it. A large artificial scar across his cheek, blue-colored contacts, and a cap completed his new look.
Jar Jar wasn't going incognito like they were, although before they boarded the Executor they planned to slip cuffs onto his hands.
Han wasn't as sure of the plan's success as Padmé was. She insisted that she had the proper code clearance and alibi for the ship's having not checked in with the Super-Class Star Destroyer. If they wanted to get Luke back, then they had no choice but to trust her.
Han didn't know how in space Luke and Leia's mother managed it, but before he knew it he was leading the two "Stormtroopers" and his "prisoner" through the halls, listening to Padmé's quiet instructions on which halls to turn down. "What'd you do, stay up all night memorizing maps?"
"So?"
Han chuckled under his breath then tried to look menacing as he passed an Imperial officer who nodded at him gruffly. He lowered his chin in return, then after the man was out of earshot, he muttered something about lowly, condescending, strutting—And then he was jabbed by Leia's elbow before he could finish.
"This turbolift," Padmé muttered. They entered, and as soon as the doors closed, Jar Jar began complaining about the awkwardness of the cuffs.
Han rolled his eyes. "If you don't shut up, I'm gonna stick those cuffs up your—"
"Han!" Leia sharply reprimanded. Han turned to reply, but instead he started laughing. Leia looked slighted. "What's your problem?"
"Sorry," Han smirked. "But you look like a bug in that thing!"
Leia Organa was spared a reply as the turbolift doors swiftly slid open. Padmé, smiling knowingly behind her helmet, gave Han further instructions.
He complied with them and murmured, "This doesn't look like the prison floor."
"That's because it isn't," Padmé answered quietly.
"What?" Leia spoke up just a might too loud, and Han winced. It wasn't normal protocol for Stormtroopers to be chatting happily to their superiors.
"He's on the floor that has luxurious rooms for the top officers and other prestigious Imperials."
"Which means...?" Leia asked, a hint of dread in her voice.
"Either he's..." Padmé couldn't bring herself to say the words, but Leia understood nevertheless. "Or they just wanted to put him in a nice room with a lock..." That possibility sounded false even to her own ears, so she added, "Perhaps there are some circumstances that we don't know about."
Leia nodded in an almost involuntary manner. Han sensed her despair rising up and struggled to find something to say. Finally, he said, in as humorous of a voice as he could manage, "They probably put the kid up here with the stiff-necks to bore him into switching sides." Nice one, Solo, he groaned inwardly, annoyed at himself.
"Here," Padmé said sharply so that Leia wouldn't have enough time to get too mad at the smuggler. After a quick glance around, she typed in a code in the door. "Jar Jar, in there."
"What?" the Gungan squawked.
"We don't need to be seen with you on this floor," Padmé soothed. And I don't want you to get hurt too if this gets bloody. You didn't want to come on board anyway...
"We have quite a ways to walk," she told him. "We'll be back. I promise."
Jar Jar Binks nodded, albeit a little sadly, and he went into the room. "Oooh, what's this?"
As the door slid shut, they heard a loud crash and winced.
Han was happy to get rid of Jar Jar, but Padmé spoke before he could say anything to that effect. "This way."
They indeed had quite a walk ahead of them. But finally Padmé instructed Han to stop in front of a door. Seeing no one in sight, she typed in the password.
"You memorized that one too?" Solo sounded amazed.
"I've had a lot of time on my hands," she replied.
The door slid quietly open. The sight that greeted them was the rescuee sprawled out on the couch, polishing his lightsaber handle.
Leia's first thought was: I've finally found Luke! Her second thought was: Why is he just sitting there with his lightsaber instead of slicing through the door? Her first thought overrode the second, however, and she exclaimed in elation, "Luke!"
Luke had been deeply engrossed in thought when they entered, so he hadn't sensed their arrival. But Leia's voice hit him like he'd been shot. His head jerked up, and his face was drained of color, as if he'd seen a ghost. Then his face brightened with joy, and he cried out, "Leia!" But his expression dimmed just as quickly as it had lit up. "What are you doing here?"
"What do you think we're doing, kid? We're here to rescue your hide from ol' Wrinkly-Face!" Han said, regarding him skeptically. By all rights, the Jedi should have been enthralled at their appearance.
But he wasn't. Luke stood up, shaking his head frantically. "You shouldn't be here. Go! You must go!"
"But Luke—" Leia protested, but her brother cut her off.
"You have to leave!" He paused in the motion of shooing them out. Chewbacca wouldn't fit in a Stormtrooper suit, so who was with Leia and Han? "Who's that?" he gestured towards the person beside Leia.
Before Leia answered, a voice behind them spoke. "Your mother."
Luke's eyes widened as they took in Emperor Palpatine's appearance, and he instantly berated himself for not sensing the ruler. But what the Emperor said finally sunk in, and he threw a shocked look at his armor-covered mother.
"I knew you would come, Padmé. Your weakness always was your concern for others."
"At least people are tangible. Power is not," Padmé replied quietly.
"You've never embraced the Dark Side, so how would you know?"
Padmé didn't reply.
Han had stepped protectively in front of Leia, who had willingly hid behind him. Leia might have been untrained, but she could still sense the evil that wafted off Palpatine in waves.
"Ah, young girl. I knew you would come for your brother. I have been waiting for you. I would have thought your mother would have found the information I planted sooner...But perhaps she was merely being cautious."
Luke stepped forward warningly, absently fingering his lightsaber. "You promised!"
"Your father promised," Palpatine corrected, looking around tauntingly. "And I don't see him in here..."
"You piece of rancor s—"
Palpatine cut Luke off. "Be careful what you say, young Skywalker. I might decide that it is a lot less trouble to train your sister in the Dark Side instead of continuing your training."
"Over my dead body," Luke hissed through clenched teeth.
"Not yet, Skywalker. Not yet."
"Let them leave. You have me," Luke said, his face hard.
The Emperor shook his head. "But I don't want just you, boy. No. They must either join me or die."
"I'd rather die," Leia spoke up, stepping out from behind Han, who put a restraining hand on her. But she shook free of his grip.
"So be it." Palpatine turned to Luke. "Kill her."
Luke's eyes widened, and he stared at Palpatine. Stunned, he addressed him, "You must be mad."
The tyrant's only reply was a wicked cackle.
Fire dancing in his eyes, Luke lifted his lightsaber, looking at it. "I could kill you."
Palpatine nodded, unafraid. "You could...But then you wouldn't be able to get your revenge on the murderers of Jade."
Han stared blankly, and Leia and Padmé removed their helmets, a bit confused. They weren't sure if Jade was a planet, human, alien, animal...
"Were you wondering why they were so slow to attempt to come to your aid? It's because they had a slight detour to take care of..." Palpatine looked straight into Luke's eyes as he spoke. The youth swayed to the side slightly, almost hypnotized by the ruler's voice.
"Don't listen to what he says, Luke!" Han tried to break through his reverie. "He's lying!"
Palpatine hated to resort to Force persuasion. It cheapened victory. But Luke had a strong will, and he was putting up quite a mental fight against it, making Palpatine's Force persuasion more challenging.
But he wasn't quite succeeding in convincing him, which made matters worse.
While attempting Force persuasion, the evil leader tried to prey on the boy's fears and claw at the deep wounds the boy still harbored from Mara's supposed death. He also tried to bring his insecurities to the surface.
Luke Skywalker trembled, his feet firmly bolted in place. He shook his head to clear it, but it was a wasted effort.
"What's going on?" Han muttered.
"The Emperor's being sick, that's what!" Padmé snarled under her breath, stepping forward. "Luke, look at me!"
The boy lifted his eyes to hers, and then he flinched away.
Palpatine was getting angry. "Don't mind her. She is your traitorous mother. She left you when you were just a baby on a harsh desert planet where you were more likely to have your head bashed in by a Tusken Raider than live up to your destiny as a superior pilot and Dark Side wielder. She doesn't care about you."
"Don't believe him, Luke!" Padmé insisted. "I had to leave, or Vader would have found us, and—"
"A husband deserves to know that he has a son and to be able to see him grow up!" Palpatine growled.
"And a mother doesn't deserve to be hunted by her ex-husband!" she shot back.
"How could I hunt you if I thought you were dead?" a low voice rumbled from behind them.
The Emperor gave Padmé a smug look. He didn't need back-up...But it couldn't hurt to have some every now and then.
Padmé turned to face her husband. "Ani."
"Padmé," Vader nodded back to her, feeling a brief pang.
Leia backed behind Han again, fear evident on her face. Not him. Not now. Not here.
"What a touching family reunion," Palpatine bit out sarcastically. "Now, if only you were all on the same side, matters would be so much easier."
Somehow, Leia managed to control her fear, and she spat, "We would've been together a lot sooner if you hadn't worked so hard to tear us apart!"
"I'm afraid, my dear, I wasn't the one doing the tearing."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" an annoyed Han demanded.
"These two were having marital difficulties before I arrived on the scene."
"We were not!" Padmé flared. "You were the one that tore us apart! You were the one that lured Anakin to the Dark Side to suit your purposes. You don't care about him or anyone else. All you care about is power!"
"You were once a queen. But even then you never had any true power, so you don't know what it's like. Luke does, however. Don't you, boy?" Palpatine fastened his gaze on the indecisive youth. Hearing no reply, he continued, "Yes. He's held a helpless life in his hands and dealt with it appropriately. Isn't that right, young Skywalker?"
Still no answer.
The Emperor smiled maliciously. "He murdered the insolent man in the way that his father has done to incompetents many a time...And he did it despite the fact that we didn't require him to do it."
Luke's guilt was slowly rising to the surface, so Palpatine trudged on. "And he's killed several Rebel fighters as well...And he was the one that asked for permission to do so."
Luke's breathing was speeding up, and his gaze flicked to everyone in the room. In the blink of an eye, he had his saber out, extinguished, and moving towards his heart. Anything to avoid seeing the hurt of betrayal in his friends' eyes.
But Vader sensed his desperate move and brought his red saber out to block Luke's just before it managed to touch skin.
His teeth gritted and his mind set, Luke slashed at Vader with a fury that he hadn't known he possessed. In that moment, he didn't care about Light or Dark. He stopped bothering himself with his confused feelings for his family and friends. All he was focused on now was the battle...and getting out of everything.
Out of trouble, out of decision-making...out of life.
Life had never been kind to him, the naive farmboy with strange powers he didn't understand. Life had separated him from his parents, turned his father into a monster, and stranded him on a forsaken planet located in the Outer Rim that was full of seedy characters, dangerous geographical features, and multitudes of life-threatening creatures. Life had torn his sister from him and then thrown them back together in a cruelly ironic setting.
Life was always taking. It had taken his hand, taken his mentors, taken his friend, taken his...soulmate. Yes. Though he hadn't admitted it to himself before now, he thought of Mara Jade as his soulmate. At least, she had been his soulmate...
But now, due to cruel fate, he was doomed to either to wander among the galaxy alone...or not at all. And the latter option held more appeal to him than the former.
And so, he fought with all his soul. Not to win. Not to lose. Just to die. That was all that he wanted. Death was the last experience life held for him now.
Darth Vader was also fighting with all of his soul and his strength. But his battle wasn't to take a life. His battle was to save one.
His son had been thrown into so many trials and tribulations, courtesy of impartial destiny...And Vader felt deep guilt raging inside his heart. The problems that Luke had had to face were at his hand. And he hated himself for it.
He'd hated himself for years, but only now—when his only son was on the verge of committing suicide—could he admit it to himself.
But he was unable to change the past. All he could do now was try to salvage the present.
And that was proving to be very difficult.