A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews! The response to the last chapter was overwhelming - thank you! Here's the next chapter for you, in which Luke meets the Emperor...

TriGemini: Wow, thank you so much! I'm so glad you liked the chapter that much. Your review was spot-on. I love reading your reviews - thank you for them!
Stephanie C: Glad you liked it! Well, his lungs aren't horrifically burnt up, so he doesn't have the respirator. Just the suit. Lol.
LVB: Thank you for reviewing:) I agree, that was a large amount of stupid screenwriting there. Lol.
pokey: Thanks :)
DarthGladiator45: Thank you, hope you like this chapter!
Nautica7mk: I'm glad you like it. Thanks for reviewing :)
Mizra: Thank you! May the Force be with you too ;)
Laua-chan: Thanks, I certainly shall!
padmenaberrie32: Yeah, I agree - I guess that's what makes him human, eh? I yell at the Emperor too! Lol.
Snow Lepord: Thank you, I'm glad you like it :)
dragoness: Ah, you will have to wait and see if it's a happy ending or not! I'm sorry I made you cry! I hope you won't cry at the end :)
Miss S.P.: Lol, thanks!
Hopeless4life: It was rather dramatic, wasn't it? Hehe, that's me all over. Thanks for reviewing!
Anwinn: Wow, thank you, I'm glad I'm keeping everyone in character! Wait and see for the ending :)
Princess-Aiel: Thanks! I shall :)
Chou hime: Hi! Yes, the poor man's very confused. Hope you like this chapter!
LaPapillion: I'm glad you like the tension and the conflict. Thanks for reviewing, and I hope you enjoy reading this :)

Chapter Seventeen

Vader and Luke stepped out of the turbolift into the Emperor's throne room. They were in the old Senate building, now the place of the Imperial Senate – where the Emperor resided and ruled.

Padmé had been told to stay below – Vader wanted to spare her from having to face the Emperor, and from having to witness what would happen to Luke - a fate that he himself did not know.

They walked forward and stood before the throne. Vader bowed to his master.

"Welcome, young Skywalker," the Emperor said. "I have been expecting you." His gaze shifted to Luke's binders. "You no longer need those." He motioned with his finger and the binders clattered to the floor.

Luke stared at his hands, now free to strike, free to grab his lightsaber off his father and kill the Emperor. But he stayed still and did nothing.

"Guards, leave us," the Emperor ordered. The red-cloaked guards at the entrance turned and disappeared into the turbolift. The hooded Sith Master turned his attention back to Luke. "I'm looking forward to completing your training. In time you will call me Master."

"You're gravely mistaken," Luke replied, head held high in defiance. "You won't convert me as you did my father."

The Emperor stood and stepped down from the throne, walking up close to Luke. The evil of the Dark Side radiated from the Emperor, and Luke had to concentrate on not flinching from his gaze.

"Oh no, my young Jedi. You will find that it is you who are mistaken…about a great many things."

"His lightsaber," Vader rumbled. He extended the hilt of Luke's lightsaber to the Emperor, who took it.

"Ah, yes, a Jedi's weapon," he muttered, examining it. "Your father's old weapon. By now you must know your father can never become the man who once wielded this blade. He can never be turned from the Dark Side. So it will be with you."

"You're wrong," Luke contradicted. "I will never join the Dark Side."

"You will join us, or you will suffer."

"It doesn't matter," Luke said calmly. "Even if you kill me, you will be overthrown. Your overconfidence is your weakness."

"Your faith in your friends is yours," the Emperor returned with a wicked smile. "You refer to an attack by your Rebel fleet. I assure you that they will not ever succeed." His smile was replaced with a very ugly look. "Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design. The Rebels will move base to Hoth in only days – they will arrive to meet full Imperial force. Your friends – and your pathetic Rebellion– will be destroyed."

Luke's eyes widened and his breath caught in his throat. He felt his fear for his friends rise, giving way to anger.

The Emperor smiled his cruel smile. "You are not leaving this building unless you join us, Skywalker. There is no way of saving your Rebel friends now."

Luke clenched his fists, trying to keep in control of himself. His eyes were drawn to his lightsaber in Palpatine's hand.

"You want this, don't you?" the Emperor said, offering the hilt to him. "The hate is swelling in you now. Very good, take your Jedi weapon. Use it. I am unarmed. Strike me down with it. Give in to your anger. With each passing moment you make yourself more my servant." He laughed, a dry, rasping sound that was jagged in Luke's ears.

The young man shook his head. "No, never." But even as he said the words, he could feel his anger, his hatred of this evil being – and it filled him with despair. He tried desperately to calm himself and give these emotions to the Force.

"It is unavoidable," the Emperor leered at him. "It is your destiny. You, like your father, are now…mine."

No. The Emperor could not possibly know his future. He could not possibly see everything. Luke would never answer to Palpatine.

Luke closed his eyes. He would not yield to this monster. He would not allow his friends to die.

He stretched out his hand and his lightsaber flew from the Emperor's hand to his. In one smooth movement, he ignited it and swung it with all his strength on the Emperor's head. In that instant, Vader's red blade appeared, blocking Luke's attack bare centimetres above his Master's head.

Luke leapt back and turned to face his father. Vader raised his weapon, ready to attack.

Palpatine grinned and stepped back to his throne, settling back to enjoy the contest. All was coming to pass as he had transpired.

Padmé could stand it no longer. She stood up and strode purposefully to the turbolift.

A guard stepped in front of her, blocking her way.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but I can't allow you to leave this floor," he said officiously.

"I wish to speak to my husband," she replied. "He is with the Emperor."

"I cannot allow you to leave this floor," he repeated.

She tried to push past, but he sidestepped, barring her from entry.

She drew herself up and levelled him with an icy glare. Though she was a small woman, she had an authoritative air and could be quite imposing when she wished to be. She thanked the Force that she had been a trained politician since childhood.

"I am Lady Vader. My husband will not be pleased if he hears of this insolence," she hissed, heart beating faster as she swelled with false confidence. "If you do not wish to face his wrath, I suggest you grant my request immediately."

She stared him down for a little longer, praying that her tactic had worked. The guard nodded and stepped aside.

She walked into the turbolift haughtily and pressed the button for the top floor, where she knew the Emperor's throne room was. She did not allow herself to slump until the doors slid shut, and she expelled a shaky breath. Her charade had worked.

I'm coming, Luke…

Luke and Vader circled each other. Neither had gained the upper hand in the last few minutes. Every attack was blocked, every stab parried. The level of skill in this contest was impressive.

Luke lunged, stabbing more aggressively. His flurry of attacks, though met every time, were driving the Dark Lord back, slowly pushing him away.

Suddenly, Vader lost his footing and stumbled to his knees. Luke stood above him. The weight of the power he now held hit him hard.

He could kill him. Kill him and take his place at the Emperor's side. He could have all the power in the galaxy, just with a stab of his lightsaber.

Or he could kill him, and destroy the Emperor – absolute power.

Then he faltered. What was he doing? What was he thinking? It felt as though he was awakening from a dark dream, a nightmare. And he realised that his attack had come from hatred and anger – the Dark Side.

He took a step back and lowered his weapon – and in that instant, Vader sprang up, forcing Luke to raise his weapon defensively.

The blades locked, but Luke disengaged and leapt away.

"I will not fight you, Father." His voice rang out in the quiet chamber.

"You are unwise to lower your defences," Vader warned.

"I will not fight you," Luke repeated. "Here…take my weapon."

He deactivated his saber and flung it across the room at his opponent's feet. Vader used the Force to pick it up, and hooked it to his belt. Yet he did not attack. He reached out to his son, sensing his feelings.

"Give yourself to the Dark Side, Luke. It is the only way you can save your friends…" He paused, sensing another emotion. Fear for his – "and your sister." He smiled behind his mask – now, perhaps, he had found the key to turning Luke. "If you will not turn to the Dark Side, she can be made to."

No! Leia! And this was Luke's breaking point. Leia was too important, too pure to allow Vader to turn his attention to her.

"Never!" he screamed, calling his lightsaber to him and igniting it.

He rushed at Vader, raining blow after blow on him with a relentless passion he had never known. He pushed his opponent back to the wide windows behind the throne. Vader barely dodged a violent slash, and the windows shattered with the force of the blow, sending shards of glass onto the city far below.

The Sith was driven to his knees. He raised his weapon to block another attack – and Luke sliced Vader's hand off at the wrist. The mechanical hand tumbled out the window, along with the lightsaber.

Luke stared at the wires of his father's wrist, and Obi-Wan's words drifted back to him.

The Dark Side makes a man into a machine of evil, and Vader is now more machine than man.

He stared at Vader below him, trembling. He wanted to destroy this thing of darkness.

The Emperor had left his seat and stood close to them, chuckling. "Good! Kill him! Your hate has made you powerful! Now, fulfil your destiny and take your father's place by my side!"

Luke stared from the Emperor to Vader, the point of his blade still at Vader's throat. Vader was more a machine of evil than a man, but something had to build this machine, twist it into something unrecognisable. And that something had been the Dark side. Luke did not want to destroy his father. He wanted to destroy the darkness in him, break down the machine until the good man who was his father could come out. He wanted to defeat the darkness.

And to do that, he had to renounce it.

Be calm, at peace. Passive.

He stood erect and hurled his lightsaber away. It clattered to the floor. "Never! Never will I turn to the Dark Side! You have failed, Palpatine." He had confronted the Dark Side, and he had gone beyond. "I am a Jedi, as my father was before me."

The Emperor's gleeful expression turned sharply into one of sullen fury.

"So be it, Jedi," he growled dangerously. "If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed."

Palpatine raised his arms – and bolts of blue-white lightning streamed from his fingers and tore over Luke. The young Jedi convulsed, in an agony beyond anything he had experienced before. The pain tore through him, and he grasped the arm of the throne, grabbing for anything that would stop the pain, but to no avail. The Emperor laughed maniacally as he watched Luke's torment.

Vader crawled to his master's side, the deadly Force lightning reflecting off his helmet.

Padmé burst into the throne room and stopped for a split second when she saw the scene before her. She saw her husband trying to struggle to his feet beside the Emperor. She saw the Emperor, lightning flowing from his spindly fingers to Luke. And she saw her son, writhing in anguish and pain.

She didn't stop to think.

"Luke!" she screamed, and flew towards him – and then the Emperor thrust one hand in her direction and she was caught in the same deadly web as her son, the bolts of lightning causing more pain than any physical injury she had ever suffered.

Vader wassuffering a mental torment. His son and his wife lay there, screaming in pain, tortured by his master. His master, who had told him long ago that he could save his wife and children.

And suddenly, for the first time in years, he saw clearly. Palpatine had used his wife as a means of ensnaring him in his dark web. He had lied about Padmé's death, had filled his mind with doubts about the Jedi – his family – and had condoned the slaughter of millions of innocents. He had twisted him to turn against his best friend and mentor. He stood against everything Vader once had valued – democracy, peace, justice – and love. He was the embodiment of evil. He was the embodiment of the Dark Side. And he – Vader – had become the same.

Suddenly, Vader sensed a familiar old presence approach, accompanied by another one that felt both strange and well-known to him. His former Master, mentor and best friend was coming, and with him was his daughter. Obi-Wan was coming...coming to save Luke. And Vader suddenly realised that Obi-Wan had taken charge of Luke as a last tribute to the man he had trained and loved as a brother - a last tribute to him. He blinked and stared through his helmet at his weakening son, who cried out, "Father! Please!" He stared at his wife who twitched on the ground, crying "Anakin! Save me!" Both cries in voices laced with pain – pain that he had somehow caused himself, by following this dark path.

Memories flew through his mind. "There is no other Jedi I would rather have at my side right now. No other man." "You're a good person, don't do this!" "I truly, deeply, love you." "You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you." "All I want is your love…"

Love…

And he felt a dam burst inside of him, and he was overwhelmed. Love. Love for his wife. Love for his children. Love for his former master, who had been a friend, a brother – a father – to him. And it washed away the stains of hatred and anger that had been black in his soul for twenty years.

He rested inside himself for a brief moment. And he found strength beyond any other strength in the purity and goodness of this love.

He struggled to his feet and called Luke's – no, his own – lightsaber to him, igniting it as it flew to his left hand. His flesh hand. And with one mighty slash, he cut the Emperor in two, and Palpatine's body tumbled out the open window, falling hundreds of stories to the floor.

There was a blast, and a rush of air billowed through the window. He stumbled back, and dragged his son's unconscious body with him, moving over to where Padmé lay.

He set Luke down and then slumped to the floor beside his wife, weakening fast. She was breathing raggedly, and slowly she opened her eyes.

He reached up with his remaining hand, and awkwardly pulled off his black helmet, casting it aside. He no longer needed it. It had been used to cover the face of Padmé's killer, and that man was gone. Vader was gone.

"Padmé," he whispered hoarsely.

She smiled weakly and lifted a hand to caress his cheek. He raised his hand to grasp hers. In that one soft touch, his transformation was complete. He was no longer Darth Vader. He was Anakin Skywalker once more.

"My Anakin," she breathed, her smile growing. "I knew…I knew you'd come back."

And they both lost all thought as the room dissolved into black.