The Emperor turned abruptly away, swiveling his throne to look out of the great port behind him, leaving me wondering if I'd really seen what I thought I'd saw. Why would the Master of the Sith fear me? I snuck a sideways look at Father. Maybe because Palpatine too believed I could turn his apprentice back - despite what he'd said before.

Suddenly the space outside the port sparkled as dozens of new stars appeared. "Aaaah." the Emperor gave a long sigh of satisfaction. "Your Rebel fleet has arrived." I didn't need to see his evil smile, I could hear it in his voice. "The trap closes."

I saw the flash of red and green blaster fire as battle was joined. My fists clenched. 'Calm.' I told myself. 'There is no fear, there is no anger, there is only the Force.' My gut wasn't buying it. It churned with rage and terror for my cause, my comrades, and most of all for my sister.

"Come, boy." Palpatine said. "See for yourself."

Reluctantly, but unable to resist, I moved forward to stand next to his throne and look through a small side panel of the great port. Father followed taking up his station at the Emperor's left hand.

It was going badly. The cruisers were taking heavy fire from a seemingly endless swarm of tie fighters. But the star destroyers were standing off, not engaging. Why?

"From here you will witness the final destruction of the Alliance and the end of your insignificant rebellion." I looked at Palpatine with hatred and my eye fell to my lightsaber lying beside his hand on the arm of his throne. He touched it, smiling mockingly. "You want this. don't you? The hate is swelling in you now. Take your Jedi weapon. Use it. I am unarmed. Strike me down with it."

No. No. I struggled to remember Tatooine and Jabba. Hate and anger led to the Dark side. I must not give in to them. But it was hard...so hard. I was no Jedi. I wasn't strong enough...

The Emperor read my thought. His hideous, hateful smile deepened. "With each passing moment you make yourself more my servant."

"No!" I tore my eyes away with a titanic effort and looked again out the port. No help there - our guys were getting pounded and there was nothing I could do about it.

"It is unavoidable." Palpatine said calmly. "It is your destiny. You, like your father, are now mine."

It wasn't true. It couldn't be true. I kept my back resolutely turned and struggled to regain my focus. 'There is no emotion; there is peace.' I told myself desperately. 'There is no passion; there is serenity. There is no death; there is the Force.' but the words of the litany fell flat, empty and meaningless. I couldn't feel the Force only the storm of hate raging inside of me. And outside a yawning, gaping black void waiting to swallow me as it had my father. I was losing...I was losing.

And so was the Alliance. I saw cruisers blow up and X, Y and B-Wings implode as they were crowded against the Death Star shields. Palpatine rubbed it in:

"As you can see, my young apprentice, your friends have failed. Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational battle station!" I whirled to stare at him in incredulous horror as he touched a control on the arm of his throne - right next to my lightsaber. "Fire at will, commander."

It took a full thirty seconds for the Death Star's planet killing beam to power up and fire. Half a minute before the thick ray of ravening green energy blew one of our biggest cruisers to dust. 'Slow. Ridiculously slow. And clumsy.' The cool analytical thought was so incongruous to my mixed up, maddened state of mind that I couldn't believe it was mine. Then I realized it wasn't. It was Father's.

I looked at him, standing on the other side of Palpatine's throne watching the battle from behind his expressionless breath mask and felt his distaste, his disgust and under it a buried grief . He hated this, hated the destruction and death of war. Hated it as much as Palpatine gloried in it.

Then I saw it, like an explosion of light illuminating the void. I'd been right all along. Dai-Men had been right. Father wasn't a true Sith. He hadn't been devoured like his Master. He was still Anakin Skywalker, he could still be reached. Saved. But how? How?

I think the Emperor must have felt my sudden hope. "Your fleet is lost." he taunted, trying to bring back my rage. "And your friends on the Endor moon will not survive. There is no escape, my young apprentice. The Alliance will die. As will your friends."

I wasn't his apprentice, not yet - not ever. But that voice, that evilly overconfident voice was bringing back the rage, the hate.

He knew it and smiled. "Good. I can feel your anger. I am defenseless. Take your weapon. Strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey to the Dark side will be complete."

I started to turn away, determined to hang on somehow. Through the port I saw our cruisers move in to engage the star destroyers at point blank range, a risky but smart tactic, the Death Star's planet killer beam was useless now. Suddenly something snapped. I spun back, called my saber to my hand and struck at Palpatine. I don't know - I doubt I'll ever know for sure - whether it was the Dark side or the Living Force that moved me. I wasn't thinking I was reacting - just as Ben, and Yoda and Dai-Men always advised.

Father's blade ignited, blocking my downward stroke inches from the Emperor's throat. Palpatine laughed - which didn't help my inner balance at all. I attacked fiercely and felt Father give way, the conflict within had weakened him. But I wasn't conflicted at all, power surged through me as I forced him back, and back until he stumbled and fell down the steps leading to the throne. I hesitated, waiting to see what he'd do next, unable to sense it because he didn't know himself.

Palpatine picked that moment to put in his own two-credits: "Good. Use your aggressive instincts, boy! Let the hate flow through you."

He'd have done better to keep his mouth shut. He brought me back to my senses. I realized I was flirting with the Dark side again, just as when I 'd fought Jabba. I loved my father, I wanted him back, but I also felt great anger towards him. Anger for falling, for breaking up our family and wreaking all our lives. I could forgive him everything if only he came back, I knew I could, but the anger was there and far to close to the surface for me to risk fighting him. The balance of strength between us had changed. I might indeed kill him and that would ruin everything.

I extinguished my saber and let the anger and hostility drain out of me. I focused on my love for my father, my longing to have him back - to know Anakin Skywalker. And in the new stillness of my mind I heard, faint but approving, the Voice of the Force. Yes. This was right. This was what I must do. I must make Father fight himself, not me. Anakin Skywalker loved his son, for my sake if not his own he would find the strength to reject the Dark side.

Father got slowly to his feet, lightsaber burning red in his hand. "Obi-Wan has taught you well." he said.

I sure hoped so. But it was Dai-Men's teachings I drew on now, the traditions of the Living Force, as I banished fear, anticipation and even thought opening myself to the

promptings of the Force. "I will not fight you, Father." I told him.

Slowly he mounted the steps until he stood facing me. "You are unwise to lower your defenses." but I felt his intention the instant before he moved and my saber lit to meet his.

Now it was Father's turn to attack, driven by anger at being shamed before his Master, but I was never in real danger. I could feel his turmoil, the conflict between his rage and despair and his love. Anakin Skywalker didn't want to hurt his son, he wanted me beside him, the two of us together forever. I wanted that too the only difference between us was on what terms.

Father clung to the idea of me joining him in the Dark side, of the two of us ruling the galaxy together. The funny thing was power wasn't really what he wanted at all - and never had been. He'd wanted peace and order in the galaxy and somehow Palpatine had managed to twist that desire to the Dark side, though I might never know how. What Anakin Skywalker really wanted was freedom - freedom from his Master and the Darkness he hated - and his son. And both were before him - there for the taking - if only he'd realize it.

I dodged an overhand strike then force-leapt up and backward to land on a catwalk high over the Emperor's dais. Father stared up at me, temporarily stymied. Now it was my turn to - well not taunt but try to persuade. "Your thoughts betray you, Father. I feel the good in you...the conflict."

"There is no conflict!" he lied, as mixed up and despairing as I'd been just moments ago. Good, good. Maybe all I had to do was push a little more...

"You couldn't bring yourself to kill me before and I don't believe you'll destroy me now."

I felt the anger, futile and self defeating, flood my father's mind. "You underestimate the power of the Dark side. If you will not fight then you will meet your destiny." and with that he threw his lightsaber at me.

I dodged, but it missed me because in his heart of hearts he didn't want it to hit me - though he couldn't admit it, even to himself. Instead it cut through the catwalk supports in a shower of reddish sparks dumping me on the deck below the platform that supported the Emperor's throne. Quickly I scrambled underneath it, hiding myself the shadowy forest of support posts and struts.

I heard the Emperor laughing above me. "Good. Good." but whether the praise was meant for me or his apprentice I didn't know. And I saw and heard Father heavily descend the steps and duck under the platform to look for me.

I stilled breathing, stilled heart, stilled mind trying to melt into the flow of the Living Force. The Dark side - I'd been told - was hard for even the greatest Jedi to see. I trusted the good side was equally invisible to Sith. It seemed I was right. Father hesitated, uncertain. Knowing I was there but not where.

Why was he fighting me so? Why wouldn't he let go of his hate and despair and join me as in his heart he longed to do? The answer came as soon as I posed the question: because to do so would be admitting he'd been wrong to embrace the Dark side. It would mean facing the crushing load of guilt he carried for the Jedi's deaths, for Ben's, for Mother's...I shivered a little at the thought. But if I joined him...that would mean, in his own mind at least, that he'd done right that the Dark side was the way. Poor Father. What was I going to do with him?

I could feel his baffled frustration, so like my own, as he cast about looking for me. "You cannot hide forever, Luke."

True. But I couldn't think of anything else to do - and the Force had gone silent again. "I will not fight you." I repeated stubbornly.

A sudden burning pain scorched my arm, high up near the shoulder. My hand went to it and touched cloth with whole, undamaged flesh beneath. Not my pain, not my wound, but Leia's. She was hurt...somebody had hurt my sister. Where was Han? they'd have to go through him to get to her. Was he hurt too, even dead? I dared not reach out to him. I tried to shut Leia out too but Father had already sensed my anguish - and it's source.

"Give yourself to the Dark side." he said, almost gently. "It is the only way you can save your friends."

Was that what Palpatine had told him? But Father had betrayed his friends, abandoned his wife and unborn children...Leia, Leia...what was happening to my sister? She felt scared but controlled, like she was still fighting...

"Yes, your thoughts betray you." Father continued, coaxingly. "Your feelings for them are strong. Especially for..." he stopped.

Desperately I tried to close my mind but it was too late. He'd seen Leia in my thoughts and seen what she was to me - and to him. "Sister!" he all but shouted in astonishment and triumph. "So...You have a twin sister. Your feelings have now betrayed her too."

His feelings betrayed a sudden fierce yearning for his daughter. "Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his failure is complete. If you will not turn to the Dark side, then perhaps she will!"

She would. I knew with sudden, sick certainty that if Father took Leia he'd turn her. She was totally untrained, defenseless, she'd never even realize what was happening to her until it was too late. Fear was instantly followed by rage. My lightsaber flared to life and I roared out of my corner. "No! Not Leia, you're not getting Leia!"