*********************************
Chapter Ten: Unwanted Reunion
*
"What do you mean he's gone?!" asked Leia in shock. "Where did he go?!"
"To rescue your Mother," said Obi-Wan, "and confront Palpatine and Hister."
"Alone!" said Han. "He must be nuts!"
"How could he have left me behind?" asked Luke. "I'm his son, I should be there with him!"
"Palpatine told him to come alone in his message," said Obi-Wan. "Luke, Leia, I know you want to help rescue your Mother, and help your Father face Palpatine. But this was something he had to do alone."
"We've got to help him somehow," said Leia.
"We will," said Obi-Wan. "But first, we need a way of getting on Palpatine's flag ship."
"Wait," said Han. "I've got a crazy idea. There's a small Imperial base about two parsecs from here, isn't there?"
"Yes," said Wedge. "That's where the Imperials were initially launching their attacks on the Naboo camp from. But why is that important now?"
"If we could raid that base, and steel an Imperial shuttle..." began Han.
"We could use it to get aboard the Emperor's ship!" finished Leia.
"A bold plan," said Obi-Wan. "But risky. What if Palpatine senses Luke and I on the ship? They could just shoot us down before we get aboard."
"Obi-Wan," said Luke. "It's likely that Palpatine's focus will be on my Father. He'll probably be too distracted to sense our approach. Besides, would the Emperor be informed about shuttles coming aboard his ship?"
"Not if they were on a supply run," said Wedge. "I wouldn't think he would, anyhow."
"Neither would I," said Han. "What does the Emperor care if the storm troopers get their tooth brushes?"
"We have to try," said Leia. "I say we go."
"Me too," said Luke.
"As do I," said Wedge.
"Hey, you know me, never one to back away from a party," said Han.
Obi-Wan was silent for a moment, before finally nodding his head. "Then its settled," he said. "Han, get us to that base."
**
Anakin was silent for the entire journey to the Emperor's ship. He remained in meditation, trying to focus on Padme through the force, though it pained him to do so. He could feel her pain and terror as Palpatine continued to torture her in various ways. The Emperor never used any form of torture that would cause Padme physical damage, but the Sith Lord did not need to. With the dark side as his weapon, he could trick Padme's mind and senses into feeling any kind of pain. Anakin tried to send waves of comfort through the force to his beloved, reassuring her that he was coming for her.
But this actually made Padme more apprehensive, because she did not want her husband to fall into the Emperor's hands. She almost wished she could die so that Anakin would have no reason to answer the Emperor's summons. But she knew that Palpatine wouldn't let her die, but would keep on torturing her to drive Anakin to greater anger, and thus closer to the dark side. Padme also knew that her death might be the one thing that would send Anakin over the edge, and cause him to act on dark emotions and through these actions become a servant of the dark side himself.
An alarm sounded on the console of Anakin's ship, pulling Anakin from his meditations. He activated a few controls to bring him out of hyperspace.
***
Emperor Palpatine quietly stared at the unconscious form of Padme Skywalker. Sometime during the merciless rounds of torture inflicted on her, Padme slipped out of consciousness as her mind sought escape the pain being inflicted upon her. Now, Palpatine just watched her. She had been released from her chains, and now was just lying on the cold deck in a heap. The Emperor smiled as he pondered his plans for both the unconscious woman in front of him, and her Jedi husband.
Darth Hister approached his Master, and bowed. "Master," he said, "Skywalker's shuttle is docking now. I have dispatched a detail to collect him and bring him to your throne room."
"Very good," said the Emperor.
He walked over and bent down next to Padme. He slapped her on the face several times, forcing her back to consciousness. She moaned, and opened her eyes to look right into Palpatine's. Without warning, she spit into Palpatine's face.
"Bastard!" she hoarsely whispered.
Palpatine merely laughed. "My dear, that is not the way to treat someone who has news for you. Your husband is here."
"Anakin," she said with a worried tone. She began to rise up to a sitting position. "Here."
"He will be brought before me any time now. I wish to see him first, but you will be brought to him soon. Then, we will discuss your future, and his. Lord Hister," he said, turning to his dark servant. "Have the guards bring her to my throne room when I call for her."
"Yes, Master," replied Hister.
****
"Look, Commander," said Han to the image of the Imperial base commander on his view screen. "I can't believe even an Imperial officer would be so dense. I'm telling ya, I've got General Kenobi here as my prisoner. I want to turn him into you, for a bounty of course! Check my records, you'll see that I'm a smuggler with a pretty good reputation. I'm a business man, why don't we do some business?"
"We know all about you," said the Commander. "You are with the rebellion, and this is some kind of trap. I know it is."
"Look, its just me and my wookie co-pilot on board, with the Jedi locked up and sedated," said Han. "Scan us if you don't believe me."
The Imperial officer looked down at a set of controls, and spoke to junior officer. Then, he looked back up at the screen. "Well, you are telling the truth about that at least. We only detect three life forms aboard your ship. But I still have a hard time believing what you say."
"I tricked the Jedi into coming with me, then caught him by surprise," said Han. "The old geezer aint as spry as he used to be, I guess. I want 10,000 for this guy, so I can pay off an outstanding debt to Jabba the Hutt. I want to get that blob off of my back! What about you? Just think of what this would mean to your career! You would be the officer who brought one of the last of the Jedi to the Emperor! Think of the rewards he would lavish on you! Instead of commanding a small base, you could become the Captain of a star destroyer. Maybe even a fleet commander with Admiral's rank! What do you say?"
"Very well," said the officer with a smile. "Land at the coordinates I am sending you."
After the screen blinked off, Han smiled. "One born every minute," he said. "Okay, you guys can get ready."
Chewie growled something to him.
"Yeah, I know, I wasn't sure Luke could trick those scanners either," said Han. "But I will never understand that force stuff, I guess."
The Millennium Falcon came in for a landing in the docking bay of the Imperial base, a small space station equipped with turbo lasers and fighters. As the ship landed, a platoon of storm troopers surrounded it, with their weapons at the ready. The station commander stood with his men.
After the Falcon touched down, the Imperial troops watched the boarding ramp of the ship lower to the station's deck. No one came down the ramp, and the Commander was puzzled as to what was going on. Then, two round cylinders rolled down the ramp. Before the Imperials could react, they exploded with a loud bang. They were stun grenades, and they did their job well, temporarily knocking the wits out of the Imperial troops.
With the Imperials temporarily thrown into confusion, Obi-Wan and Luke raced down the ramp of the Falcon, their light sabers ignited. They sliced their way through the formation of Imperial troops, taking out ten of the enemy soldiers before they could even get a shot off. As the Imperials came to their wits, and acted to face the threat from the attacking Jedi, blaster fire began coming at them from the Millennium Falcon. Ralla, sitting in the cockpit of the Falcon, was using the ships ground defense cannons to level fire at the Imperial troops, while Han, Chewie, Leia, and Wedge, were charging down the ramp of the Falcon with guns blazing.
"Over there," said Luke, in between deflecting Imperial blaster fire with his saber. "That shuttle. We'll take that one."
"Right," said Han. "Let's go people." He lifted up a personal comm device. "Ralla, get the Falcon out of here, and take out the station's communications array and fighter bay as you go."
"Will do," said Ralla. "Good luck."
As the Falcon's boarding ramp closed and her engines came to life, Han and Chewie boarded the Imperial Shuttle. Leia and Wedge provided covering fire as Luke and Obi-Wan raced aboard, joined by the other two shortly thereafter. The ramp closed, and Han adeptly brought the shuttles engines on line. The Millennium Falcon streaked out of the hanger, and the shuttle moved to follow them a few moments later.
Ralla used the Falcon's main guns to blast the stations communications array to bits, and sent several blasts into the fighter launching bay, doing enough damage to keep them from launching any fighters for a while. The Falcon was joined by the captured Imperial shuttle, and the two ships raced away from the station under heavy fire from the Imperial turbo laser cannons. But before the Imperials could get a good targeting lock, the two Rebel ships jumped into hyperspace.
*****
Emperor Palpatine sat on his throne in his spacious room on the Imperial flag ship, his servant Darth Hister standing beside him. The two Sith waited for their guest to arrive, and did not have to wait long.
The door to the throne room opened, and a squad of storm troopers, led by an Imperial officer, brought Anakin Skywalker into the Emperor's presence. Anakin, his wrists bound in front of him, wore a neutral expression on his face, betraying no emotion to his captors.
The Imperial officer bowed. "Majesty," he said, "we have brought the Rebel before you as you ordered. He surrendered quickly, and was armed only with this."
The officer presented the light saber to the Emperor. Palpatine reached forward and took it from him.
"Very good," said the Emperor. "You and your men may go. Leave the prisoner with us."
"Yes, your Majesty," said the officer, as he bowed once again, turned, and signaled his troops to leave.
After the officer and troopers were gone, the Emperor ordered his personal guards to leave the room as well. "There will be no more need for those," said the Emperor, waving his hand and unlocking Anakin's hand cuffs with the force. The cuffs fell to the deck, as Anakin calmly lowered his hands to his sides.
There was silence in the room, neither Sith or Jedi saying a word for a few moments. Finally, the Emperor spoke first.
"Well, we meet again after all this time, Anakin," said the Emperor.
"Yes," said Anakin. "I see your fashion sense hasn't improved. But instead of dressing like a buffoon, you now dress like some depressed Jawa."
Emperor Palpatine did not reply to the impetuous remark, but continued in his melodic tone of before. "Anakin, I had such great plans for you. We could have ruled this galaxy together."
Anakin sneered. "Oh, but you would have denied that honor to your pet standing next to you now. Tell me, what sludge heap did you find him in?"
Hister growled slightly and moved towards the Jedi, but the Emperor raised his hand and called off his servant.
"That's right, heel boy," said Anakin, with a smile on his face.
"I see your wit has not diminished over the years," said the Emperor. "But you were never this obvious and obtuse in its use before. Ah, I see. You are suppressing your fear and anger at the capture and torture of your wife with humor. How interesting, and how foolish. How little you have learned in these past twenty years. Speaking of your wife, I sense here imminent arrival."
Several moments later, the door to the throne room opened again. Two of the Emperor's red robed guards led Padme into the room, half dragging the still exhausted woman into the presence of the two Sith and her husband. The guards threw her to the ground, then turned and left.
"Padme!" said Anakin, racing to his wife's aid. He bent down and helped her up.
"Anakin," said Padme weakly.
Anakin wrapped Padme into his arms, and she melted into his protective embrace. He kissed the top of her head, and then bent down and captured her lips with his own.
"I'm here, Padme," he said. "Everything will be alright."
Palpatine laughed at the scene. The two lovers were brought back to reality from the bliss they felt at being with one another again. Anakin tried to let Padme go to better face their captors, but found he had to hold her up due to her weakened condition caused by Palpatine's torture.
"How touching," said Palpatine. "The Jedi Knight and the Senator. What a pair you make, eh? Both of you weakened by that folly of an emotion you call love."
"Not weakened, strengthened," said Anakin. "You who will never know love, and thus will never know its power."
"Oh yes, I will conceded it does hold great power of you," said the Emperor. "In fact, it can control your actions." He raised his hand, and a wave of pain swept through Padme. She screamed, and collapsed into Anakin's arms, not able to stand any longer.
"STOP IT!" yelled Anakin in anger. "I'm here! There's no more reason to torture her!"
Palpatine lowered his hand, and the pain stopped. Anakin pulled Padme close to her, stroking her hair as she began to sob, the constant torture taking its toll on her.
"You see," said Palpatine. "Your love for this woman controls you. It has power over you. See how quickly your emotional control breaks down as I inflict pain on her. Sensing it through the force was one thing, but being present while she is tortured, and not being able to prevent it. Your Jedi skills proved useless in preventing your anger from boiling within you. Your weakness, Anakin, and I have power over that weakness. You, Anakin Skywalker, are now MINE."
************************
-Cliffhanger time. Tune in for the next chapter sometime after New Years. In the meantime, if you are so inclined, please do let me know if you liked this chapter. Are you breathless with anticipation? Ha, ha, I love my power!
Chapter Ten: Unwanted Reunion
*
"What do you mean he's gone?!" asked Leia in shock. "Where did he go?!"
"To rescue your Mother," said Obi-Wan, "and confront Palpatine and Hister."
"Alone!" said Han. "He must be nuts!"
"How could he have left me behind?" asked Luke. "I'm his son, I should be there with him!"
"Palpatine told him to come alone in his message," said Obi-Wan. "Luke, Leia, I know you want to help rescue your Mother, and help your Father face Palpatine. But this was something he had to do alone."
"We've got to help him somehow," said Leia.
"We will," said Obi-Wan. "But first, we need a way of getting on Palpatine's flag ship."
"Wait," said Han. "I've got a crazy idea. There's a small Imperial base about two parsecs from here, isn't there?"
"Yes," said Wedge. "That's where the Imperials were initially launching their attacks on the Naboo camp from. But why is that important now?"
"If we could raid that base, and steel an Imperial shuttle..." began Han.
"We could use it to get aboard the Emperor's ship!" finished Leia.
"A bold plan," said Obi-Wan. "But risky. What if Palpatine senses Luke and I on the ship? They could just shoot us down before we get aboard."
"Obi-Wan," said Luke. "It's likely that Palpatine's focus will be on my Father. He'll probably be too distracted to sense our approach. Besides, would the Emperor be informed about shuttles coming aboard his ship?"
"Not if they were on a supply run," said Wedge. "I wouldn't think he would, anyhow."
"Neither would I," said Han. "What does the Emperor care if the storm troopers get their tooth brushes?"
"We have to try," said Leia. "I say we go."
"Me too," said Luke.
"As do I," said Wedge.
"Hey, you know me, never one to back away from a party," said Han.
Obi-Wan was silent for a moment, before finally nodding his head. "Then its settled," he said. "Han, get us to that base."
**
Anakin was silent for the entire journey to the Emperor's ship. He remained in meditation, trying to focus on Padme through the force, though it pained him to do so. He could feel her pain and terror as Palpatine continued to torture her in various ways. The Emperor never used any form of torture that would cause Padme physical damage, but the Sith Lord did not need to. With the dark side as his weapon, he could trick Padme's mind and senses into feeling any kind of pain. Anakin tried to send waves of comfort through the force to his beloved, reassuring her that he was coming for her.
But this actually made Padme more apprehensive, because she did not want her husband to fall into the Emperor's hands. She almost wished she could die so that Anakin would have no reason to answer the Emperor's summons. But she knew that Palpatine wouldn't let her die, but would keep on torturing her to drive Anakin to greater anger, and thus closer to the dark side. Padme also knew that her death might be the one thing that would send Anakin over the edge, and cause him to act on dark emotions and through these actions become a servant of the dark side himself.
An alarm sounded on the console of Anakin's ship, pulling Anakin from his meditations. He activated a few controls to bring him out of hyperspace.
***
Emperor Palpatine quietly stared at the unconscious form of Padme Skywalker. Sometime during the merciless rounds of torture inflicted on her, Padme slipped out of consciousness as her mind sought escape the pain being inflicted upon her. Now, Palpatine just watched her. She had been released from her chains, and now was just lying on the cold deck in a heap. The Emperor smiled as he pondered his plans for both the unconscious woman in front of him, and her Jedi husband.
Darth Hister approached his Master, and bowed. "Master," he said, "Skywalker's shuttle is docking now. I have dispatched a detail to collect him and bring him to your throne room."
"Very good," said the Emperor.
He walked over and bent down next to Padme. He slapped her on the face several times, forcing her back to consciousness. She moaned, and opened her eyes to look right into Palpatine's. Without warning, she spit into Palpatine's face.
"Bastard!" she hoarsely whispered.
Palpatine merely laughed. "My dear, that is not the way to treat someone who has news for you. Your husband is here."
"Anakin," she said with a worried tone. She began to rise up to a sitting position. "Here."
"He will be brought before me any time now. I wish to see him first, but you will be brought to him soon. Then, we will discuss your future, and his. Lord Hister," he said, turning to his dark servant. "Have the guards bring her to my throne room when I call for her."
"Yes, Master," replied Hister.
****
"Look, Commander," said Han to the image of the Imperial base commander on his view screen. "I can't believe even an Imperial officer would be so dense. I'm telling ya, I've got General Kenobi here as my prisoner. I want to turn him into you, for a bounty of course! Check my records, you'll see that I'm a smuggler with a pretty good reputation. I'm a business man, why don't we do some business?"
"We know all about you," said the Commander. "You are with the rebellion, and this is some kind of trap. I know it is."
"Look, its just me and my wookie co-pilot on board, with the Jedi locked up and sedated," said Han. "Scan us if you don't believe me."
The Imperial officer looked down at a set of controls, and spoke to junior officer. Then, he looked back up at the screen. "Well, you are telling the truth about that at least. We only detect three life forms aboard your ship. But I still have a hard time believing what you say."
"I tricked the Jedi into coming with me, then caught him by surprise," said Han. "The old geezer aint as spry as he used to be, I guess. I want 10,000 for this guy, so I can pay off an outstanding debt to Jabba the Hutt. I want to get that blob off of my back! What about you? Just think of what this would mean to your career! You would be the officer who brought one of the last of the Jedi to the Emperor! Think of the rewards he would lavish on you! Instead of commanding a small base, you could become the Captain of a star destroyer. Maybe even a fleet commander with Admiral's rank! What do you say?"
"Very well," said the officer with a smile. "Land at the coordinates I am sending you."
After the screen blinked off, Han smiled. "One born every minute," he said. "Okay, you guys can get ready."
Chewie growled something to him.
"Yeah, I know, I wasn't sure Luke could trick those scanners either," said Han. "But I will never understand that force stuff, I guess."
The Millennium Falcon came in for a landing in the docking bay of the Imperial base, a small space station equipped with turbo lasers and fighters. As the ship landed, a platoon of storm troopers surrounded it, with their weapons at the ready. The station commander stood with his men.
After the Falcon touched down, the Imperial troops watched the boarding ramp of the ship lower to the station's deck. No one came down the ramp, and the Commander was puzzled as to what was going on. Then, two round cylinders rolled down the ramp. Before the Imperials could react, they exploded with a loud bang. They were stun grenades, and they did their job well, temporarily knocking the wits out of the Imperial troops.
With the Imperials temporarily thrown into confusion, Obi-Wan and Luke raced down the ramp of the Falcon, their light sabers ignited. They sliced their way through the formation of Imperial troops, taking out ten of the enemy soldiers before they could even get a shot off. As the Imperials came to their wits, and acted to face the threat from the attacking Jedi, blaster fire began coming at them from the Millennium Falcon. Ralla, sitting in the cockpit of the Falcon, was using the ships ground defense cannons to level fire at the Imperial troops, while Han, Chewie, Leia, and Wedge, were charging down the ramp of the Falcon with guns blazing.
"Over there," said Luke, in between deflecting Imperial blaster fire with his saber. "That shuttle. We'll take that one."
"Right," said Han. "Let's go people." He lifted up a personal comm device. "Ralla, get the Falcon out of here, and take out the station's communications array and fighter bay as you go."
"Will do," said Ralla. "Good luck."
As the Falcon's boarding ramp closed and her engines came to life, Han and Chewie boarded the Imperial Shuttle. Leia and Wedge provided covering fire as Luke and Obi-Wan raced aboard, joined by the other two shortly thereafter. The ramp closed, and Han adeptly brought the shuttles engines on line. The Millennium Falcon streaked out of the hanger, and the shuttle moved to follow them a few moments later.
Ralla used the Falcon's main guns to blast the stations communications array to bits, and sent several blasts into the fighter launching bay, doing enough damage to keep them from launching any fighters for a while. The Falcon was joined by the captured Imperial shuttle, and the two ships raced away from the station under heavy fire from the Imperial turbo laser cannons. But before the Imperials could get a good targeting lock, the two Rebel ships jumped into hyperspace.
*****
Emperor Palpatine sat on his throne in his spacious room on the Imperial flag ship, his servant Darth Hister standing beside him. The two Sith waited for their guest to arrive, and did not have to wait long.
The door to the throne room opened, and a squad of storm troopers, led by an Imperial officer, brought Anakin Skywalker into the Emperor's presence. Anakin, his wrists bound in front of him, wore a neutral expression on his face, betraying no emotion to his captors.
The Imperial officer bowed. "Majesty," he said, "we have brought the Rebel before you as you ordered. He surrendered quickly, and was armed only with this."
The officer presented the light saber to the Emperor. Palpatine reached forward and took it from him.
"Very good," said the Emperor. "You and your men may go. Leave the prisoner with us."
"Yes, your Majesty," said the officer, as he bowed once again, turned, and signaled his troops to leave.
After the officer and troopers were gone, the Emperor ordered his personal guards to leave the room as well. "There will be no more need for those," said the Emperor, waving his hand and unlocking Anakin's hand cuffs with the force. The cuffs fell to the deck, as Anakin calmly lowered his hands to his sides.
There was silence in the room, neither Sith or Jedi saying a word for a few moments. Finally, the Emperor spoke first.
"Well, we meet again after all this time, Anakin," said the Emperor.
"Yes," said Anakin. "I see your fashion sense hasn't improved. But instead of dressing like a buffoon, you now dress like some depressed Jawa."
Emperor Palpatine did not reply to the impetuous remark, but continued in his melodic tone of before. "Anakin, I had such great plans for you. We could have ruled this galaxy together."
Anakin sneered. "Oh, but you would have denied that honor to your pet standing next to you now. Tell me, what sludge heap did you find him in?"
Hister growled slightly and moved towards the Jedi, but the Emperor raised his hand and called off his servant.
"That's right, heel boy," said Anakin, with a smile on his face.
"I see your wit has not diminished over the years," said the Emperor. "But you were never this obvious and obtuse in its use before. Ah, I see. You are suppressing your fear and anger at the capture and torture of your wife with humor. How interesting, and how foolish. How little you have learned in these past twenty years. Speaking of your wife, I sense here imminent arrival."
Several moments later, the door to the throne room opened again. Two of the Emperor's red robed guards led Padme into the room, half dragging the still exhausted woman into the presence of the two Sith and her husband. The guards threw her to the ground, then turned and left.
"Padme!" said Anakin, racing to his wife's aid. He bent down and helped her up.
"Anakin," said Padme weakly.
Anakin wrapped Padme into his arms, and she melted into his protective embrace. He kissed the top of her head, and then bent down and captured her lips with his own.
"I'm here, Padme," he said. "Everything will be alright."
Palpatine laughed at the scene. The two lovers were brought back to reality from the bliss they felt at being with one another again. Anakin tried to let Padme go to better face their captors, but found he had to hold her up due to her weakened condition caused by Palpatine's torture.
"How touching," said Palpatine. "The Jedi Knight and the Senator. What a pair you make, eh? Both of you weakened by that folly of an emotion you call love."
"Not weakened, strengthened," said Anakin. "You who will never know love, and thus will never know its power."
"Oh yes, I will conceded it does hold great power of you," said the Emperor. "In fact, it can control your actions." He raised his hand, and a wave of pain swept through Padme. She screamed, and collapsed into Anakin's arms, not able to stand any longer.
"STOP IT!" yelled Anakin in anger. "I'm here! There's no more reason to torture her!"
Palpatine lowered his hand, and the pain stopped. Anakin pulled Padme close to her, stroking her hair as she began to sob, the constant torture taking its toll on her.
"You see," said Palpatine. "Your love for this woman controls you. It has power over you. See how quickly your emotional control breaks down as I inflict pain on her. Sensing it through the force was one thing, but being present while she is tortured, and not being able to prevent it. Your Jedi skills proved useless in preventing your anger from boiling within you. Your weakness, Anakin, and I have power over that weakness. You, Anakin Skywalker, are now MINE."
************************
-Cliffhanger time. Tune in for the next chapter sometime after New Years. In the meantime, if you are so inclined, please do let me know if you liked this chapter. Are you breathless with anticipation? Ha, ha, I love my power!