They didn't take me straight up to the Death Star but locked me in a holding cell for the remainder of the night. It was small and black, just like the cell I'd broken Leia out of, way back when we first met. I grinned at the memory of my dear, sweet little sister and her smart mouth. She'd given Han and me the rough side of her tongue - and maybe we'd deserved it - still she might have squeezed in a thank you in there somewhere. But it wasn't a good idea to think about Leia - not here, so close to our father. So instead I thought about him.
'It's too late for me.' Father had said. He believed, like Yoda and Ben, that there was no turning back from the Dark Side. But he was wrong - they were all wrong. I shook my head at myself. Now there's arrogance for you; pitting my judgment against that of two Jedi Masters - and Sith Lord to boot! But Dai-Men had agreed with me, agreed there was still good in my father that might be reached. And he'd told me that Jayce had fallen too - but turned back so it could be done. Somehow I had to make Father see it, make him believe he could free himself even now, after so many years. But how?
A way would present itself. In the meantime I settled myself down to sleep - I had to keep up my strength. Jedi relaxation techniques enabled me to escape into slumber, despite my fears, and the Force sent me a dream that was more than a dream.
I found myself back in Ben's little hermitage on Tatooine with my first Teacher sitting across from me, not a blue glowing apparition but a living man; worn and old from years of sorrow and hiding but filled with the strength of an inextinguishable faith.
"He's going to do it." I told Ben unhappily. "Father means to give me to the Emperor."
The wave of fear I sensed from my old Master was scarcely reassuring. "We had hoped to delay that confrontation until you were older and stronger, and had your sister at your side to help you."
"Leia!" I said in alarm. "I thought we'd agreed not to involve her."
"We agreed that she must not face Vader untrained and burdened by fear and hatred." Ben corrected. "You must train her so she can stand with you against the Emperor."
"But..." I began.
"Luke, Anakin your father was born to destroy the Sith and restore the Balance." Ben interrupted. "He has failed but his children, together, have the strength to take up and fulfill his destiny."
Which meant I'd ruined everything by putting myself in Darth Vader's hands. Yet even as the thought crossed my mind I rejected it. "No. No that's not true. Leia and I weren't born to replace our father, but to save him. I can reach him, Ben, I can turn him back."
"So I thought, once." my Teacher said sadly. "When Anakin first proclaimed himself Darth Vader I went to him, tried to call him back to his better self. He attacked me... we fought... and your father fell into a molten pit."
I gasped. Ben was responsible for Father's injuries?
"I thought I'd killed him." my Master concluded softly. "I wish I had."
His sense said otherwise. "No you don't. You want him back, just like I do."
Ben shook his head. "Anakin Skywalker is dead."
"No. He's alive, trapped inside that black armor," I leaned forward eager to persuade my Teacher. "I've felt him - and so have you. Ben, trust your feelings!"
He looked away. "I can't."
Finally I saw it. Long ago Ben had followed his feelings and trained my father against Yoda's wishes, and that defiance had led to the destruction of the Jedi. No wonder Ben dared not trust his feelings now. He was caught in a web of guilt and self-doubt - as trapped as Father.
I reached out to grip his hand, solid and warm, the hand of a living man. "Then trust me, and trust the Force. There will be a way, Ben. I feel it."
A faint smile flickered over his face. "That's Dai-Men talking." he said. "And Qui-Gon too." that was Dai-Men's father - and Ben's own Padawan Master. My Teacher covered my hand with his own, blue eyes boring into mine with a familiar power. "This battle is yours alone, Luke." he said with solemn intensity. "I cannot stand with you, only give you whatever strength and courage you can draw from my memory. I believe in you, Luke, I always have. May the Force guide and guard you my dear Padawan."
My eyes filled with tears as my Teacher's strength and love flooded through me like a warm tide. The vision of Ben's hut melted into light and then winked out. Abruptly I found myself lying on the shelf in my holding cell with my father looming over me like a black cloud. The transition from light to darkness was too sudden, instinctively I cringed away from him. Father straightened instantly, stepping back to give me space to recover myself. But I sensed my reaction had hurt him - and I was both sorry for it, and glad. Father's need for my love was the lever I needed to turn him back.
I sat up and looked at him. Jedi composure back in place. "Time to go, son." he said.
A squad of stormtroopers waited outside the cell. One stepped forward to put the binders back on my wrists. It made no real difference, I wasn't going to try to escape, but it did make me feel that bit more helpless.
The lifts to the landing platform were small Father and I had one to ourselves, the troopers following in a second capsule. I looked up at him. "Don't do this, Father." I said quietly. A simple plea with no Force behind it.
His hands clenched but he didn't answer until just before the doors opened. "Soon you will understand."
Understand what?"
The open air and sunlight were welcome after a night in a windowless cell. It was early morning and a hint of mist still clung to the trees as the waking birds called merrily to each other.
The officer from last night claimed Father's attention; reporting that he had found no sign of any other rebels - as I had expected. But still I found it necessary to turn away to hide my relief. I moved towards the edge of the platform to look out over the forest. Han and Leia were out there somewhere, with our little Ewok allies, planning their assault on the shield generator. Silently I prayed that the Force would be with them. As for myself...it was not death I feared but the Darkness - and my own weakness. I was a very young Jedi to pit myself against the Master of the Sith.
Suddenly I was hauled roughly away from the edge and spun around to face my father, his fear and anger as tangible as the gauntlets biting into my arms. "You will not escape me again!" he snarled.
For an instant I could only gape at him in complete bewilderment. Then I understood. "I wasn't going to jump." I said hastily. But I don't think he believed me. He didn't let go of my arm until we were safely aboard the Imperial shuttle.
I leaned back in my seat, closing my eyes as if in meditation. There were things in my mind that had to be hidden, buried deep, if I was to face the Emperor: Dai-Men, Chani, and the other Jedi. And Leia, most especially Leia - our last hope. I felt Father's eyes upon me but he didn't try to pry.
The conflict in him was mounting the closer we got to the Emperor. Maybe this three way confrontation was necessary. Maybe the only way to break the Emperor's hold was for Father and I to face him together. I hoped so. If I was wrong and Father backed his Master instead of me I was lost.
It hit me the moment we stepped out of the shuttle: a miasma of Darkness, of pure evil, unlike anything I'd experienced. It was worse than Yoda's cave - and much worse than anything I'd ever sensed from my father. I looked up at him involuntarily.
"You feel the presence of the Emperor." He said, and put a hand on my shoulder steering me towards a lift.
I was not ready for this. I couldn't be sure of getting any help from Father, I would face the Emperor alone. I have never been so afraid. But there was anger too. I was going to face the man - the thing- that had corrupted my father, condemned my mother to a lonely death, and destroyed my sister's home. I feared Palpatine - and I hated him for what he had done to my family. And I knew he could use both emotions against me.
It was a long, long ride from landing bay to the Emperor's lair. I had time to run through the calmness regimen twice and managed to attain a precarious balance before the doors opened.
Black. Everything was black: deck, bulkheads and the steps leading up to the black throne, turned away so its occupant could look out of the giant port behind it. The only note of color was the blood red robes of the masked Imperial guardsmen flanking the lift door.
I didn't wait for Father to lead the way but crossed the floor and mounted the steps to the throne a half pace or so ahead of him. It wasn't that I was impatient, just that hesitation would do me no good now.
The Emperor turned to face us. He was shrouded in simple black robes, the hood overshadowing a pallid blur of a face. All I could really see of him was the gnarled hands resting on the arms of his throne.
"Welcome, young Skywalker. I have been expecting you."
I hated that voice the minute I heard it. So sly, so sure...it infuriated me. I calmed myself with an effort.
"You no longer need those." the Emperor continued, gesturing with a finger.
The binders fell from my wrists. I looked at them - then at him. What was he playing at?
"Guards, leave us." he said. And turning my head I saw the two red-robes trail silently away to disappear behind the lift shaft.
Now we were alone: Sith Master, Jedi Apprentice and - what? I swallowed.
"I am looking forward to completing your training." the Emperor told me coolly. "In time you will call me 'Master'."
Never. Ben and Yoda and Dai-Men were my Masters. I would never put this creature in their place. At last I found my voice, I was pleased at how calm and sure it sounded. "You're gravely mistaken," I told the Emperor, "you won't convert me as you did my father."
He lurched to his feet. "Oh no, my young Jedi. You will find it is you who are mistaken...about a great many things."
He was close now - too close. Our faces were almost on a level and I had a nauseatingly clear view of that hideous, barely Human visage, furrowed with age and with evil. His eyes were strange, pale yellow and inhuman. I met them as steadily as I could and wondered how had he done it? How had this disgusting creature managed to turn a good man like Anakin Skywalker against Master, and Order and even his own wife?
It was the Emperor who looked away, to his apprentice. "His lightsaber." my father said and laid the weapon in his Master's hand.
Palpatine turned it over curiously. "Ah, yes. A Jedi's weapon. Much like your father's."
I gave him a sharp look. That wasn't true. I'd carefully avoided any resemblance to Father's old saber when building my own, modeling it instead on Dai-Men and Ben's. The Emperor it seemed was fallible. Maybe I had a chance after all.
"By now you must know your father can never be turned from the Dark Side." Palpatine continued blithely. I shot Father a sidelong look. No I didn't believe that - I wouldn't believe it. "So it will be with you." the Emperor finished.
Now there he was mistaken. And I took pleasure in telling him so. "You're wrong. Soon I'll be dead ... and you with me."
Palpatine laughed, a chilling sound. "Perhaps you refer to the imminent attack of your Rebel Fleet?"
I struggled to conceal my horror. How could he know?
"Yes...I assure you we are quite safe from your friends here." he turned to go back to his throne.
"Your overconfidence is your weakness." I heard myself say, or rather heard the Force say through me, and knew it for Truth.
Palpatine knew it too. "Your faith in your friends is yours!" he spat back.
Wrong again, your Highness. Faith in my friends was my strength. It had saved me more then once. I must believe it could save me again.
"It is pointless to resist, my son." Father said suddenly
I looked at him. There was such hopeless, helpless resignation in his voice. He wanted me to give in, to make it easy on myself, for he believed the Dark Side would inevitably win. But I didn't. I wouldn't.
The Emperor resumed his throne. "Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design." he said calmly. "Your friends up there on the sanctuary moon are walking into a trap." My heart jumped into my throat, the blood beating in my ears so loud I could hardly hear that loathsome voice as it oozed hatefully on: "It was I who allowed the Alliance to know the location of the shield generator. It is quite safe from your pitiful little band. An entire legion of my best troops awaits them."
Leia...Han...those poor little Ewoks...I fought to contain my panic, my growing rage.
The Emperor saw my struggle and deliberately taunted me; "Oh, I'm afraid the deflector shield will be quite operation when your friends arrive."
How I longed to wipe that sneer from his face. What would happen if I attacked the Emperor? What would Father do if forced to choose between me and his Master? Did I have the courage, the faith, to risk everything on Anakin Skywalker?
The Emperor leaned back on his throne, watching me with slitted, yellow eyes.
I breathed, silently repeating the words of the litany: 'There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no passion there is serenity. There is no death - '
Palpatine's voice scattered my focus. "You have grown powerful since Bespin." he observed. "Obi-Wan Kenobi, your first Teacher, is dead. His elder pupil saw to that."
I wondered if he sensed Father's inward flinch at the reminder.
"Who completed your training?" the Emperor demanded.
I looked past him, at the stars shining through the port behind his throne, emptying my mind of thought and memory.
"Not Rigel..." Palpatine continued musingly. "Nor Zenn. Was it the Brisen woman, Kenobi's wife? No..."
The first two names meant nothing to me, but I recognized that of Chani's grandmother. Unbelievably the Emperor was saying she was still alive - that she and at least two other Jedi Masters had somehow survived the purge. I looked at my Father and saw he was as shaken as I. He had had no inkling of this. He'd thought Ben, and now me, the last of the Jedi."
Then Palpatine said the name I had been dreading. "Jinn...Of course, Dai-Men Jinn! Son of Kenobi's old Master."
I tried, I really tried. But I couldn't repress a flicker of fear at hearing Dai-Men's name from those lips. The Emperor sensed it and smiled his evil triumph. "Your feelings betray you, young Skywalker, and your Master!"
I closed my eyes tightly, shutting him and everything else out. 'Forgive me, my Master, I have failed you.'
"You have been well taught, my young apprentice," Palpatine gloated, "but you can hide nothing from me!"
Regaining my inward balance I opened my eyes to look first at Father, motionless beside me, and then at the Emperor. How could Palpatine fail to sense the battle raging inside his apprentice? How could he be blind to Father's conflict? And then I saw it, the essential weakness of the Sith, of all those who use the Force rather than letting themselves be used by it. The Emperor could see only what he looked for, Palpatine wore blinders forged by his own expectations.
Our eyes met and locked. He saw that he'd lost his advantage. And I saw fear - fear of me. Incredible as that seemed.
