Chapter XXVII -- Chosen One's Showdown
Anakin's strike team had penetrated the residential quarters of the Executor. They had been lucky enough to not encounter much resistance, and what troops they did meet were quickly mopped up by their recently acquired stormtrooper units. Now, with the Emperor's quarters almost in sight, they still had their entire force intact. He only hoped their good fortune would hold.
"Royal Guards," whimpered Mike after taking a quick peek around the corner. "I hate those guys."
"Shut up," hissed Luke.
Anakin turned to the others. "Everyone remember the plan?"
"Yep," Emily replied. "Liz goes out, gets the guards' attention, we pick 'em off as they chase her."
"Very good." He motioned to Liz. "You're up."
She stepped demurely around the corner, pumped three shots in the guards' direction, and bolted. There was much shouting as the scarlet-clad soldiers charged around the bend, only to face more blaster fire.
Despite having been taken completely by surprise, the guards put up a good fight. Anakin suddenly found himself against three of them, his back to the wall. He struck at one, but the guard's genetically enhanced reflexes allowed him to evade the strike. Another swipe of his lightsaber connected, piercing the guard's chest, but not before his lance sliced into his shoulder just beneath the armor, igniting flames of agony down his arm and ribs.
Grinding his teeth against the pain, he struck at the second guard. This one, too, dodged the strike, and would have evaded the second had a blast from Emily's shotgun not torn into his thigh. He staggered, and the scarlet lightsaber sheared the second guard apart from forehead to crotch.
The last guard lunged forward in a move that should have run Anakin through, but he halted and stared blankly down at his chest, where a handspan of red-streaked metal protruded from the scarlet robes. He went down like a tent with its supports cut.
Mike stood behind the fallen soldier, a stunned look on his face, still holding the blood- stained sword.
"Thank you, Mike," Anakin told him, gripping his wound to halt the bleeding.
"Wasn't me," he replied shakily. "I tripped over something and hit him..." Then he convulsed and turned away to vomit.
By the time the skirmish was over, nine stormtroopers lay dead while another bled profusely from a stomach wound. Diana's cheek had been badly cut, and Matthews was bruising nicely where one guard had clobbered him. But considering the amount of genetic enhancement and grueling training Royal Guards underwent, they had all gotten off pretty lightly.
"Where's Liz?" asked Matthews.
"How should I know?" replied Emily.
"She must have gotten turned around while coming back," Luke theorized.
"Or captured," Diana put in.
Anakin gestured to the hallway. "You go find her. I'll deal with the Emperor."
"Father, let me come with you," Luke pleaded.
He shook his head. "This is something I must do alone, son." He pointed at the stormtroopers. "I want the soldiers to wait outside the throne room. I'll send Rachel out, and you'll escort her to the others."
"Yes sir," the wounded trooper replied, still standing despite his injury -- stormtroopers might not be bright, but they were notoriously tough. "Good luck, sir. May the Force be with you."
Anakin went to the doors, and a nudge of the Force opened them.
The Emperor strode back into the audience chamber, his dark robes billowing around him. He'd changed into his customary black hooded robe to record the threat to Earth, but he didn't bother switching to the formal Supreme Chancellor attire again. He had worn that to appear less malevolent before Rachel and to keep from scaring her. There would be no pretense now. No more velvet gloves for the child. She had overstayed her welcome.
The girl sat on his throne, kicking her feet and playing with the buttons.
"Who's there?" demanded the bridge officer when she keyed on the comm.
"I wanna go home!" she said loudly.
"Get off the line, kid!" the officer snapped.
"You're a poopy-face!"
"Well, you're a spoiled brat!"
"And you're a mush-head!"
"That's it! I resign! I didn't join the army to put up with this..."
"Ever the tactful one, aren't you?" Palpatine noted dryly as he reached over and turned off the comm.
"What's that mean?"
"Never mind. Get out of my chair."
She scrambled down from the throne. "I wanna go home!"
"I'm sure you do," he replied. "But I have an alternative for you."
"What's that mean?"
"Another choice for you." He smiled broadly. "You have a wonderful opportunity, my child. A chance to do something no one on your world has ever done."
"Drink milk and laugh without it coming out your nose?"
"Not that. You, Rachel, are going to be my apprentice."
A look of horror came over her face. "But you're really old!"
"And what does that have to do with it?"
"I'm not going to be your princess!"
"No, not princess. Apprentice. It means student."
"Oh, your Padawan!" Then she grimaced. "I don't wanna be your Padawan! I don't wanna be a Sith!"
"Why not?"
"'Cause they're bad guys!"
"Rachel, what about Darth Vader? I know you like him."
"Uh-huh. He reads me stories."
"Well, he's a Sith, too. Which means, if all Sith are bad guys, as you call them, then he is too."
"Nuh-uh! He's good! He's not a Sith!"
"He is."
"No he's not! He reads books to me and gave me a bath and he saved Mike and Cody and Amethyst from Mara Jade! He's nice!"
"Rachel..."
"And you're mean! You kill people and are mean to them! And you're mean to Vader and make him scared of you! You're mean and ugly and bad and I hope you wet your pants!"
He strained to keep his rage under control, to avoid lashing out and doing something rash.
She stamped into the middle of the throne room, turned back to the Emperor, and stuck her tongue out at him.
That was the final straw.
Rivers of blue-white lightning arced from his fingers toward the girl. In his fury everything but the child and his raging need for revenge was blotted from his mind. He barely had enough reason left to reduce the strike from a crippling blow to a mere punitive shock.
When he didn't hear the expected screams, he reined in his anger and looked up to see Vader standing before Rachel, shielding her. The electricity from the Emperor's strike poured into the palm of his hand and streamed in all directions, boring smoking holes in durasteel plating where they touched the walls, floor, and ceiling. Snarling, he increased the assault, but Vader didn't budge. At last he lowered his hands, ceasing the attack.
"Lord Vader," he sneered. "Back at last. And all I can say is it's about time."
"I am not Vader," his former apprentice replied.
Palpatine smiled wickedly. "And I suppose you think you can simply drop your past as easily as shedding your cloak and leave it behind? I knew you were a fool, Vader, but I didn't think you were brainless."
The cyborg lifted his chin proudly. "I know who I am. I know my destiny. For twenty- four years I tried to deny it, but I cannot reject my heritage any more than you can reject your own skin. I do not expect to be able to entirely abandon my past as a servant of the dark side. I could never entirely discard the light side, either. But now I fully accept my title and my destiny." He ignited his lightsaber, bringing it up before his face so it eerily highlighted his jet-black mask in crimson light. "I am Anakin Skywalker, Jedi. I am Darth Vader, Sith. But above all, I am the Chosen One, destined to bring balance to the Force.
"And you know that, Emperor Palpatine, also known as Lord Darth Sidious. That is why you hate me. That is why you sought to turn me to the dark side. You knew the Chosen One's ultimate destiny would be to destroy the Sith Order. But converting me proved to be your undoing. For the Chosen One must know both sides of the Force to accomplish his destiny. The light, so he may know compassion, honor, and loyalty. The dark, so he may know dedication, power, and focus. The light, so he may know HOW to fight the dark side, and the dark, so he may know WHY he must fight the dark side.
"You helped me, former master, to fulfill my destiny. For that I thank you. For all else, I hope you burn in the Hell of your own making."
Deep in his bowels, an emotion Palpatine had thought to be long dead reawakened and claimed him in its coils. For the first time in decades, he experienced fear -- a wild, mortal fear that clawed at the walls of his stomach.
But he showed no sign of it as he grinned at his foe.
"Very well, Anakin." His tone made the name a vulgar expletive. "We'll see how a Chosen One works his precious balance when he's dead on the floor." And he ignited his own scarlet weapon.
"Run, Rachel!" Anakin cried. "The men outside will take you to your parents!"
The child ran out of the room. She didn't concern him. If his guards didn't catch her first, stormtroopers would. But Anakin Skywalker was his.
Their blades met with a hissing crack, and the impact resounded in the Force like the ringing of a massive gong as the mortal conflict between darkness and light began.
/Why do these big Imperial ships have so many stinking hallways?/ Liz fumed. She should have run into the others ages ago. There were no two ways about it -- she was lost.
/Was it this corner?/ she wondered, peering around a bend. It looked the same as every other turn she had encountered. Suddenly a stormtrooper rounded the corner and spotted her. Before he could squeeze off a shot, she fired and killed him. A second one appeared and she had to take him out as well. Soon it felt like some warped carnival game, with trooper after trooper coming out single-file and her downing each one as if she were shooting fish in a barrel.
Finally the line of troopers ended, and she began to proceed in the other direction.
A sharp sting left her entire right arm numb, and her rifle slid from her hands and clattered to the floor. She bent down to retrieve it with her left hand, but a smirking officer came around the bend and leveled his own weapon at her.
"Stupid Earth beings," he said, clicking his tongue in reproach as his finger tightened on the trigger.
She sucked in her breath and tried in vain to manage the rifle with only her left arm, all the while praying in Hebrew.
A minute glint of metal appeared quite suddenly on the officer's neck. He opened his mouth in a bewildered look and collapsed bonelessly to the floor. Relieved, Liz squinted at the dead man's throat. The metallic fleck turned out to be a saberdart.
From another doorway stepped a man in Mandalorian armor.
"The name is Fett," he announced. "Boba Fett."
She wanted to cry in relief and scream in anger at the same time, but settled for hugging him.
"What took you so damned long?" she demanded.
"TIEs in the sector," he replied, returning the embrace. "Not to worry. The Slave can't be shot down by mere Imperial fighters."
"I'm surprised you're here at all, Mr. Neutral."
"You don't expect me to leave Area 51 without collecting my reward from Vader, do you?" he inquired wryly.
"It's Anakin now, bucko. Get it right."
"Ah."
"Freeze, you Rebel scum!"
A squadron of stormtroopers emerged from around a corner and leveled their blasters at the pair. Liz and Fett bent down as if they were about to put their weapons on the floor, then made eye contact.
"I love you," Fett chuckled.
"I know," she grinned.
Then they promptly stood back up and opened fire. The stormtroopers returned fire, displaying their famed lousy aim. Within seconds Liz and Fett were the last two standing.
"You're not a bad shot," he commented. "You should come on hunts with me."
"Is that a promise or a threat?"
He hooked an arm around her waist. "Liz Djedovich, will you marry me?"
She laughed. "I'll think about it, flyboy."
"I hate to interrupt this, lovebirds, but we've got a battle to fight," Emily announced, rounding the bend. "Looks like you've seen some action."
"Have you found the girl?" inquired Fett.
"Anakin's taking care of that," Matthews replied.
Fett cocked his blaster again. "More stormtroopers," he growled.
"No, they're on our side!" Luke exclaimed.
The six black-sashed stormtroopers entered their stretch of hallway, escorting Rachel, who looked as if she'd seen a ghost.
"Mommy! Daddy!" she cried, breaking into a run.
"Sweetie!" Conrad breathed, taking her up in his arms. "Oh, we were so frightened!"
"My baby!" cried Diana, embracing her daughter once Conrad had let go of her.
"Mommy, stormtroopers grabbed me and took me on a big ship!" she exclaimed. "I sat in a dungeon with Trapper and those guys in red -- what are they called?"
"Royal Guards," Emily told him.
"Royal Guards took me to the bad Emperor, and he wanted me to be a Sith Prin-tiss! But he got mad and tried to shock me, but Vader stopped him and they started fighting!"
Luke motioned for everyone to follow him. "Come on! Let's go help him!"
Anakin's strike team had penetrated the residential quarters of the Executor. They had been lucky enough to not encounter much resistance, and what troops they did meet were quickly mopped up by their recently acquired stormtrooper units. Now, with the Emperor's quarters almost in sight, they still had their entire force intact. He only hoped their good fortune would hold.
"Royal Guards," whimpered Mike after taking a quick peek around the corner. "I hate those guys."
"Shut up," hissed Luke.
Anakin turned to the others. "Everyone remember the plan?"
"Yep," Emily replied. "Liz goes out, gets the guards' attention, we pick 'em off as they chase her."
"Very good." He motioned to Liz. "You're up."
She stepped demurely around the corner, pumped three shots in the guards' direction, and bolted. There was much shouting as the scarlet-clad soldiers charged around the bend, only to face more blaster fire.
Despite having been taken completely by surprise, the guards put up a good fight. Anakin suddenly found himself against three of them, his back to the wall. He struck at one, but the guard's genetically enhanced reflexes allowed him to evade the strike. Another swipe of his lightsaber connected, piercing the guard's chest, but not before his lance sliced into his shoulder just beneath the armor, igniting flames of agony down his arm and ribs.
Grinding his teeth against the pain, he struck at the second guard. This one, too, dodged the strike, and would have evaded the second had a blast from Emily's shotgun not torn into his thigh. He staggered, and the scarlet lightsaber sheared the second guard apart from forehead to crotch.
The last guard lunged forward in a move that should have run Anakin through, but he halted and stared blankly down at his chest, where a handspan of red-streaked metal protruded from the scarlet robes. He went down like a tent with its supports cut.
Mike stood behind the fallen soldier, a stunned look on his face, still holding the blood- stained sword.
"Thank you, Mike," Anakin told him, gripping his wound to halt the bleeding.
"Wasn't me," he replied shakily. "I tripped over something and hit him..." Then he convulsed and turned away to vomit.
By the time the skirmish was over, nine stormtroopers lay dead while another bled profusely from a stomach wound. Diana's cheek had been badly cut, and Matthews was bruising nicely where one guard had clobbered him. But considering the amount of genetic enhancement and grueling training Royal Guards underwent, they had all gotten off pretty lightly.
"Where's Liz?" asked Matthews.
"How should I know?" replied Emily.
"She must have gotten turned around while coming back," Luke theorized.
"Or captured," Diana put in.
Anakin gestured to the hallway. "You go find her. I'll deal with the Emperor."
"Father, let me come with you," Luke pleaded.
He shook his head. "This is something I must do alone, son." He pointed at the stormtroopers. "I want the soldiers to wait outside the throne room. I'll send Rachel out, and you'll escort her to the others."
"Yes sir," the wounded trooper replied, still standing despite his injury -- stormtroopers might not be bright, but they were notoriously tough. "Good luck, sir. May the Force be with you."
Anakin went to the doors, and a nudge of the Force opened them.
The Emperor strode back into the audience chamber, his dark robes billowing around him. He'd changed into his customary black hooded robe to record the threat to Earth, but he didn't bother switching to the formal Supreme Chancellor attire again. He had worn that to appear less malevolent before Rachel and to keep from scaring her. There would be no pretense now. No more velvet gloves for the child. She had overstayed her welcome.
The girl sat on his throne, kicking her feet and playing with the buttons.
"Who's there?" demanded the bridge officer when she keyed on the comm.
"I wanna go home!" she said loudly.
"Get off the line, kid!" the officer snapped.
"You're a poopy-face!"
"Well, you're a spoiled brat!"
"And you're a mush-head!"
"That's it! I resign! I didn't join the army to put up with this..."
"Ever the tactful one, aren't you?" Palpatine noted dryly as he reached over and turned off the comm.
"What's that mean?"
"Never mind. Get out of my chair."
She scrambled down from the throne. "I wanna go home!"
"I'm sure you do," he replied. "But I have an alternative for you."
"What's that mean?"
"Another choice for you." He smiled broadly. "You have a wonderful opportunity, my child. A chance to do something no one on your world has ever done."
"Drink milk and laugh without it coming out your nose?"
"Not that. You, Rachel, are going to be my apprentice."
A look of horror came over her face. "But you're really old!"
"And what does that have to do with it?"
"I'm not going to be your princess!"
"No, not princess. Apprentice. It means student."
"Oh, your Padawan!" Then she grimaced. "I don't wanna be your Padawan! I don't wanna be a Sith!"
"Why not?"
"'Cause they're bad guys!"
"Rachel, what about Darth Vader? I know you like him."
"Uh-huh. He reads me stories."
"Well, he's a Sith, too. Which means, if all Sith are bad guys, as you call them, then he is too."
"Nuh-uh! He's good! He's not a Sith!"
"He is."
"No he's not! He reads books to me and gave me a bath and he saved Mike and Cody and Amethyst from Mara Jade! He's nice!"
"Rachel..."
"And you're mean! You kill people and are mean to them! And you're mean to Vader and make him scared of you! You're mean and ugly and bad and I hope you wet your pants!"
He strained to keep his rage under control, to avoid lashing out and doing something rash.
She stamped into the middle of the throne room, turned back to the Emperor, and stuck her tongue out at him.
That was the final straw.
Rivers of blue-white lightning arced from his fingers toward the girl. In his fury everything but the child and his raging need for revenge was blotted from his mind. He barely had enough reason left to reduce the strike from a crippling blow to a mere punitive shock.
When he didn't hear the expected screams, he reined in his anger and looked up to see Vader standing before Rachel, shielding her. The electricity from the Emperor's strike poured into the palm of his hand and streamed in all directions, boring smoking holes in durasteel plating where they touched the walls, floor, and ceiling. Snarling, he increased the assault, but Vader didn't budge. At last he lowered his hands, ceasing the attack.
"Lord Vader," he sneered. "Back at last. And all I can say is it's about time."
"I am not Vader," his former apprentice replied.
Palpatine smiled wickedly. "And I suppose you think you can simply drop your past as easily as shedding your cloak and leave it behind? I knew you were a fool, Vader, but I didn't think you were brainless."
The cyborg lifted his chin proudly. "I know who I am. I know my destiny. For twenty- four years I tried to deny it, but I cannot reject my heritage any more than you can reject your own skin. I do not expect to be able to entirely abandon my past as a servant of the dark side. I could never entirely discard the light side, either. But now I fully accept my title and my destiny." He ignited his lightsaber, bringing it up before his face so it eerily highlighted his jet-black mask in crimson light. "I am Anakin Skywalker, Jedi. I am Darth Vader, Sith. But above all, I am the Chosen One, destined to bring balance to the Force.
"And you know that, Emperor Palpatine, also known as Lord Darth Sidious. That is why you hate me. That is why you sought to turn me to the dark side. You knew the Chosen One's ultimate destiny would be to destroy the Sith Order. But converting me proved to be your undoing. For the Chosen One must know both sides of the Force to accomplish his destiny. The light, so he may know compassion, honor, and loyalty. The dark, so he may know dedication, power, and focus. The light, so he may know HOW to fight the dark side, and the dark, so he may know WHY he must fight the dark side.
"You helped me, former master, to fulfill my destiny. For that I thank you. For all else, I hope you burn in the Hell of your own making."
Deep in his bowels, an emotion Palpatine had thought to be long dead reawakened and claimed him in its coils. For the first time in decades, he experienced fear -- a wild, mortal fear that clawed at the walls of his stomach.
But he showed no sign of it as he grinned at his foe.
"Very well, Anakin." His tone made the name a vulgar expletive. "We'll see how a Chosen One works his precious balance when he's dead on the floor." And he ignited his own scarlet weapon.
"Run, Rachel!" Anakin cried. "The men outside will take you to your parents!"
The child ran out of the room. She didn't concern him. If his guards didn't catch her first, stormtroopers would. But Anakin Skywalker was his.
Their blades met with a hissing crack, and the impact resounded in the Force like the ringing of a massive gong as the mortal conflict between darkness and light began.
/Why do these big Imperial ships have so many stinking hallways?/ Liz fumed. She should have run into the others ages ago. There were no two ways about it -- she was lost.
/Was it this corner?/ she wondered, peering around a bend. It looked the same as every other turn she had encountered. Suddenly a stormtrooper rounded the corner and spotted her. Before he could squeeze off a shot, she fired and killed him. A second one appeared and she had to take him out as well. Soon it felt like some warped carnival game, with trooper after trooper coming out single-file and her downing each one as if she were shooting fish in a barrel.
Finally the line of troopers ended, and she began to proceed in the other direction.
A sharp sting left her entire right arm numb, and her rifle slid from her hands and clattered to the floor. She bent down to retrieve it with her left hand, but a smirking officer came around the bend and leveled his own weapon at her.
"Stupid Earth beings," he said, clicking his tongue in reproach as his finger tightened on the trigger.
She sucked in her breath and tried in vain to manage the rifle with only her left arm, all the while praying in Hebrew.
A minute glint of metal appeared quite suddenly on the officer's neck. He opened his mouth in a bewildered look and collapsed bonelessly to the floor. Relieved, Liz squinted at the dead man's throat. The metallic fleck turned out to be a saberdart.
From another doorway stepped a man in Mandalorian armor.
"The name is Fett," he announced. "Boba Fett."
She wanted to cry in relief and scream in anger at the same time, but settled for hugging him.
"What took you so damned long?" she demanded.
"TIEs in the sector," he replied, returning the embrace. "Not to worry. The Slave can't be shot down by mere Imperial fighters."
"I'm surprised you're here at all, Mr. Neutral."
"You don't expect me to leave Area 51 without collecting my reward from Vader, do you?" he inquired wryly.
"It's Anakin now, bucko. Get it right."
"Ah."
"Freeze, you Rebel scum!"
A squadron of stormtroopers emerged from around a corner and leveled their blasters at the pair. Liz and Fett bent down as if they were about to put their weapons on the floor, then made eye contact.
"I love you," Fett chuckled.
"I know," she grinned.
Then they promptly stood back up and opened fire. The stormtroopers returned fire, displaying their famed lousy aim. Within seconds Liz and Fett were the last two standing.
"You're not a bad shot," he commented. "You should come on hunts with me."
"Is that a promise or a threat?"
He hooked an arm around her waist. "Liz Djedovich, will you marry me?"
She laughed. "I'll think about it, flyboy."
"I hate to interrupt this, lovebirds, but we've got a battle to fight," Emily announced, rounding the bend. "Looks like you've seen some action."
"Have you found the girl?" inquired Fett.
"Anakin's taking care of that," Matthews replied.
Fett cocked his blaster again. "More stormtroopers," he growled.
"No, they're on our side!" Luke exclaimed.
The six black-sashed stormtroopers entered their stretch of hallway, escorting Rachel, who looked as if she'd seen a ghost.
"Mommy! Daddy!" she cried, breaking into a run.
"Sweetie!" Conrad breathed, taking her up in his arms. "Oh, we were so frightened!"
"My baby!" cried Diana, embracing her daughter once Conrad had let go of her.
"Mommy, stormtroopers grabbed me and took me on a big ship!" she exclaimed. "I sat in a dungeon with Trapper and those guys in red -- what are they called?"
"Royal Guards," Emily told him.
"Royal Guards took me to the bad Emperor, and he wanted me to be a Sith Prin-tiss! But he got mad and tried to shock me, but Vader stopped him and they started fighting!"
Luke motioned for everyone to follow him. "Come on! Let's go help him!"