Luke knows the Sith before him is the Emperor despite the disguise. The Emperor keeps his status as a Sith lord a secret, so he has come wearing a grey, metal helmet with matching shoulder pads. He is not wearing a robe as usual, but he has a three sectioned cape over his lower body. His gloves each have metal blades on three of his fingers; including his thumbs. Luke has not spent much time so near to the Emperor, but he can somehow since this Sith's significance.
"What a grand event," says the Emperor. "You were meant to be the rekindling of the Jedi and I am the perfection of the Sith. Our battle will be as the war between the Light Side and the Dark Side themselves. And we both know the Dark Side is stronger."
Luke replies, "I once asked a wise Jedi master if the Dark Side was stronger. He told me that the Dark Side is not more powerful, but is easier. I'll just have to put in more effort than you; I do that every day."
Luke and the Emperor run towards each other. Instead of engaging in the expected clash, Luke jumps high over the Emperor and shoots at him as he soars. The Emperor deflects each bolt, but Luke avoids the redirected fire. Once he lands, Luke shoots once again at the Emperor who deflects it right back at Luke who deflects it right back at the Emperor and so on and so on. They keep bouncing the shot back and forth with consistently accurate reflexes and lightning fast lightsaber positioning for a good seven seconds. Luke sees the futility and sends the shot off to the side. Luke knows the Emperor might be able to defend against blaster fire forever, so he holsters his blaster for now.
Luke runs and leaps toward the Emperor. He swings at him as he lands, but the Emperor moves backwards, light on his feet; almost like a specter. The Emperor moves forward and their lightsabers clash for the first of many times. Fittingly, their styles are as day and night. The Emperor cackles as he fights, moving around to toy with him and swinging with a more playful and casual manner; it seems he doesn't take Luke very seriously despite his prior speech. Luke, on the other hand, swings with ferocity and fire in his soul. He is disciplined and focused. Luke has only one lightsaber to match against the Emperor's two, but he is able to keep up with him, often blocking both the Emperor's blades at the same time. When he needs to, Luke can even block one blade and then move said blade into position to block the other.
Many stormtroopers see the flashes of light, created by their clashing lightsabers. Some of them wonder if they should get involved or if they should let the Emperor do this himself, fearing what would happen to them if they interfered in a battle between two such powerful forces. Some of them don't even consider fighting and instead spend their time wondering who this mysterious Sith is. The night before, they had been told not to attack a Sith that was expected to arrive on the forest moon of Endor, but the details about him were nonexistent.
Luke force-pushes the Emperor, sending him flying away. As the Emperor flips backwards through the air, he keeps a grin under that helmet. He lands on his feet and lifts his lowered head, only now losing that grin as he sees that Luke is already right in front of him despite how far the Emperor flew. Luke swings hard, taking advantage of his unprepared opponent. The Emperor barely manages to block each attack and is starting to lose his balance. Luke holds his lightsaber in only his left hand, pushes both the Emperor's blades to the side and uses his right hand (his mechanical hand) to punch the Emperor in the head. The Emperor might be wearing a helmet, but it still hurt.
The Emperor was having fun before, but now he's getting angry. Instead of playing around any further, the Emperor attacks with everything he has, moving like lightning, the Emperor rushes around Luke, swinging from every angle.
Against this onslaught of fury that tirelessly bombards him, Luke is . . . actually doing just fine. No matter how fast the Emperor moves, he can't seem to find an opening in Luke's defenses.
"OPEN FIRE ON SKYWALKER!" the Emperor demands, his identity still protected by a voice modulator.
Starting with the bravest among them, the stormtroopers shot at Luke, giving him a lot to manage. Luke keeps moving, struggling to both deflect blaster fire and guard against the Emperor. A shot grazes Luke's shoulder, but he keeps fighting through the pain. Luke thinks this might be easier if he finds ways to make these two battles one. Luke locks blades with the Emperor and pushes one of his lightsabers in to position to deflect a shot back at a stormtrooper.
After backing away from the Emperor, Luke reaches out, grabbing a stormtrooper with the force and throws him at the Emperor. Not about to be knocked over by one of his own troops, the Emperor slices the stormtrooper in two, letting the separated halves pass him by. Luke knew that would happen; that was the point. Some of the other stormtroopers are a lot less eager to help the Emperor, having just seen him cut one of them in half.
Unfortunately, there are still others who are helping the Emperor. An AT-ST approaches and waits for a clean shot, not wanting to blast the Emperor with him. Luke runs between the legs of the AT-ST and, from the other side, force-pushes it, causing it to fall toward the Emperor. The Emperor uses the force to move the AT-ST to the left, causing it to land on its side and a short distance away from him.
Luke points his hand at the AT-ST and seems to wrap his fingers around something that isn't there. Luke makes a motion that looks like pulling a trigger and the AT-ST shoots, creating an explosion that knocks the Emperor down.
With the Emperor temporarily out of action, Luke turns his attention to the remaining stormtroopers. He draws his blaster and starts shooting them.
The Emperor leaps high and falls toward Luke with his lightsabers ready to hammer down on him. Luke blocks the attack just in time. Using only one hand, Luke can barely keep the lightsabers away from his face as the Emperor keeps pushing.
BANG!
The Emperor looks down in shock at the blast mark on his waist. Luke easily pushes the Emperor to the ground, taking advantage of his weakened state. He considers shooting him again, but he knows the Emperor might be ready to deflect this time. Luke holsters his blaster again and begins hammering his lightsaber down at the Emperor who blocks with dwindling strength. Luke is relentless as he strikes again and again, fury all over his face. Luke knocks one of the Emperor's lightsabers to the side and raises his lightsaber, aiming for the Emperor's wrist. But the Emperor is quick enough to enact his favorite ability. Lightning gushed out of his fingers. Luke holds his lightsaber horizontally to block the lightning, but it doesn't absorb it all. A few strands of the lightning bite at Luke's limbs, despite his defenses.
It's agonizing, but Luke has to stay strong and keep his lightsaber in place. This is not the time to break. This is the time to focus. Luke closes his eyes and the strands of lightning slowly become drawn solely to his lightsaber. No longer taking anymore lightning to his body, Luke channels the lightning to become an extension of his lightsaber. Luke opens his eyes and fixes them on the Emperor. His lightsaber is covered in lightning which he intends to use against the Emperor. Now the Emperor feels fear. Now the Emperor knows that Luke has the power to finish him. But wait. . . .
Oh no.
Luke senses another danger, but he can't do anything about it. If he takes either hand off his lightsaber, the lightning will overwhelm him.
BANG!
"AAAAHHH!" Luke can't help breaking his focus. Whichever stormtrooper just shot Luke in the back saved the Emperor's life. Lightning spreads to all over Luke's body, giving him more pain than he has ever felt before. Luke's lightsaber deactivates as it falls out of his hands. The Emperor force-pulls the lightsaber to fly into his hand. Luke falls while the Emperor slowly rises.
The Emperor comes closer, clutching the wound in his waist. "You have fought well, young Skywalker; better than expected." The Emperor erupts with more lightning as an additional punishment. When he stops, Luke lays defeated as smoke drifts from his body. "You may become my greatest apprentice."
"You . . . have failed," Luke grunts defiantly. "You have failed and I have succeeded."
"You are the one who tastes defeat, boy."
"No. . . . You came here to make me your apprentice and you have failed. I came here to destroy the shield generator . . ."
A group of rebels run out of the bunker and short moments later . . . BOOM! The shield generator along with the imperial base explodes, filling the sky with fire.
"And I have succeeded," Luke says.
The Emperor scowls under his helmet as he stares at Luke. Luke is harder to break than he realized.
The rebels' first thought is that they might need to surrender to the surrounding stormtroopers. BUT WHAT'S THIS?!
Ewoks by the hundreds shout their war cries which are either adorable or annoying. These small balls of fur are armed with tiny spears and bows. They're actually allot more dangerous than they sound. (Especially when they're fighting stormtroopers who can barely shoot full sized targets.)
Under different circumstances, the Emperor would like to kidnap Luke's friends to use against him, but he is tired and wounded, so he decides to just take Luke and leave. The Emperor uses the force to cast Luke's blaster to the side and turns around. He force pulls Luke by the leg and walks off, dragging him behind.
Han and Leia shoot at stormtroopers from behind the cover of a tree. "I thought Luke would have taken care of this by now," says Leia who had fought more battles with Luke than Han had.
"Where is he anyway?" Han looks around the battlefield and just barely sees the Emperor dragging him away. "LUKE!" he yells, horrified. "Leia, cover me!"
"What are you doing?" she asks with wide eyes, having an idea of exactly what he's going to do.
Instead of answering her, Han runs; he runs as fast as he can, avoiding enemy fire thanks to Leia shooting wildly at stormtroopers to keep them behind cover; that and the general chaos happening all around them. The ewoks are slaughtering the stormtroopers surprisingly well. They jab spears in the openings of their armor, use gliders to drop rocks on them from above, set off traps to destroy AT-STs and more. And thanks to Luke, their numbers were already weakened significantly.
Han shoots every stormtrooper in his path as he runs through the forest. "LUKE!" he shouts desperately. Han couldn't let the Emperor take Luke; especially not after everything Luke did to save him.
In his haste, Han falls down a steep path and lands in sight of a cowering stormtrooper who hides from the battle behind a mound of dirt. The stormtrooper fumbles for his weapon, but Han is quicker and shoots him in time.
Han gets back up as fast as he can and keeps running. THERE THEY ARE! Han sees the Emperor dragging Luke toward an imperial landing craft. Han is about to aim his blaster at the Emperor when, suddenly, Luke force-pushes Han just hard enough to knock him down. "Did Luke do that?" Han wonders. He quietly gets back up and looks at them. The Emperor doesn't see him, but Luke knows that he would sense danger if Han would become a threat. Luke also knows that the Emperor could easily kill Han if he tried to interfere. While still being dragged off, Luke shakes his head at Han and manages to put a finger to his lips.
Han can't believe what he's seeing. Is Luke really telling him not to try a rescue? "Maybe he just wants me to do it quietly," Han reasons. Han starts lifting his blaster, about to aim at the Emperor, but he feels an invisible push that gently moves his arm downward. Again, Luke shakes his head at Han.
Han swallows hard and his eyes tear up. There's no doubt now. Luke wants Han to let him go and save himself. Han can't stand the sight of watching the Emperor dragging Luke into his ship, but there's nothing he can do to stop it and he can't look away.
The sounds of engines turning on have never hurt as much as they do now. Han watches helplessly as the Emperor flies off in his ship, taking Luke with him.
The Emperor says to Luke, "You think I didn't know, but I could sense it all. You chose not to let your friend help you. It seems you have lost hope already."
"No. Today, I've have kept hope alive. You saw that explosion. Wait till you see the big one."
The Emperor worries that there is truth in Luke's words. He looks through the ships window at the Death Star which now has no shield generator to-
There's a quick flash and then BOOOOOOOOOOOOM! The whole thing explodes in a glorious blaze and a ring of fire emanates around the whole thing.
Luke says to the Emperor, "You're so obsessed with individuals, but you don't see the big picture. You only care about yourself, you think the key to victory is a single apprentice, you think your only threat is one man with a lightsaber. That is why you fail. What the Rebellion has done today took the combined efforts of hundreds of people, fighting for the freedom of the entire galaxy. You didn't see that each of those people are individuals, too. You were a fool to think beating me meant winning the war. And you were even more of a fool to think I would join you."
"SILENCE!" the Emperor demands, sending more lightning to torment Luke. In time, he stops, not wanting Luke to die here.
Luke knows there is more torment to come. But he will not let it break him.
Ahsoka paces back and forth outside the cave on Rezlice. She didn't sleep much last night; she was too excited and too nervous. One second she's thinking, "Hooray! I have my master back! We'll make up for lost time and fight the Empire together! It will be just like the Clone Wars!" and the next seconds she thinks, "What if this is a trick?! He might still want to kill me and I just told him where I am! What do I do when he gets here? Should I keep my hands on my lightsabers? Should I make sure I have a clear path to run away?"
Ahsoka tells herself out loud, "Get a grip, Ahsoka. You could sense the light coming back to him. You know you got through to Anakin." Ahsoka had been thinking a lot about the conversation she had with Darth Vader last night. Ahsoka can see that she probably never could have turned him if it hadn't been for the fact that Vader wanted to join his son. (That explains why he would even listen to her.) She knows she should just be happy that he turned at all, but she can't help but wish he would have come back just for her. Ahsoka and Anakin used to be so close back in the day. She would have hoped that everything she had done for him would have been enough for him to have anything but hate for her. Not just him; Ahsoka had always been there for Padme when she needed her. . . . Until Ahsoka left the Jedi order, of course.
Ahsoka wonders what the next step will even look like. She doesn't know if Vader can join the Rebellion. Back when she chose to contact Vader, she didn't actually think she'd get this far.
Ahsoka remembers thinking this wasn't going to work. The mentality was basically, "I should at least try. And when it inevitably fails, I can at least know I tried." So she was surprised she still had a strong enough connection to even talk to him. Having him agree to join her was like putting on a blind fold, spinning around ten times, pointing a blaster in a random direction, and ending up hitting a womp rat half a parsec away. Success just didn't feel like a possibility. And yet, here she is, wondering when, not if, he will arrive and having not a single clue what she's going to do when he gets here.
"At least I have plenty of time to decide. He won't be here for anotherrrrrrrrrrrr-"
This didn't feel possible either, but here it is. She spots an imperial landing craft coming her way and has one guess who's on board.
"How did he get here so fast? Even traveling at light speed, he would have had to pilot the ship all night." It clicks in her head that that really isn't farfetched. "Maybe he IS more machine than man."
The imperial landing craft lands near the cave. The ramp lowers and Darth Vader walks out, taking a look at his surroundings. He has never been to Rezlice before. This planet has an interesting look to it. The terrain is made out of a type of gravel that is green when in direct sunlight and red when in the shadows. Here and there are flowers which strangely have their pedals at the bottom of the stem. He had seen on the way to the surface that Rezlice has five moons; though they are not clumped together. The moons of Rezlice are positioned all around the planets orbit, so that it is never impossible to see at least one of them no matter the place or time of day. Right now, Vader can see two moons; one crescent, one full. But the gravel, flowers and moons are not the most beautiful sight here.
Vader had seen Ahsoka in her new outfit before, but she looks even better in person. She prefers to wear white these days. This particular outfit has a few blue stripes to match her montrals. Her gloves cover everything from her fingers to her elbows, leaving her shoulders and biceps uncovered. Similarly, her leggings start at her feet inside her shoes and go up to her knees, leaving her thighs uncovered. She has something like a miniskirt, but it only exists at the back and the front. In the middle of her top is a long, crystal-shaped cutout that displays a good amount of her abs and chest.
Ahsoka is ever more nervous to see him as she walks his way. She can feel her hands preparing themselves to jump to the lightsabers on each side of her belt, but she tries not to look like she's ready for trouble. Vader and Ahsoka stop when they are close enough, but still out of arms' length. They both struggle to say something. Vader can sense her fear and he doesn't blame her for having it. "Perhaps it would put your mind at ease . . ." Vader slowly takes his lightsaber off of his belt and offers it to her while saying, "if you would hold on to this for the time being."
That was all Ahsoka needed. Seeing him offer to let her take his lightsaber almost made her angry with herself for being ready to ignite her own. She gets misty eyed and looks at Vader like she was just now realizing he was alive. She doesn't take his lightsaber. Instead, she says in a choked-up voice, "I trust you," and she runs into a hug with him.
Vader's thick suit makes it hard to physically feel parts of her embrace. When the sides of their heads come together, he can't feel it and all Ahsoka feels is his cold, metal helmet. But it still warms Vader's heart, even if only because he knows what she's doing. At least his hands can feel her back. Yes, they're both mechanical hands, but they're built to feel.
Ahsoka barely cares that there was so much machinery. She doesn't mind the sound his suit makes as it helps him breathe. She is just happy to have him back.
Author's Note: You might be wondering if the Emperor's disguise and Ahsoka's new outfit are canon. There not, but they're inspired by existing material. The Emperor's disguise is actually a reference to something in legends. I'm curious if anyone can name what that suit was from and who wore it.
Ahsoka's outfit was something I made up. I certainly took inspiration from her previous outfits from canon, though. Her various outfits in canon usually don't cover her shoulders just like this one. The crystal shaped cutout is kind of like an extension of the cutout from her second outfit from the Clone Wars. The fact that she's wearing white is taken from the epilogue in Star Wars: Rebels. You may have caught on to how the narration said she prefers to wear white these days and that this particular outfit has blue stripes. The implication is meant to be that she might still have that white robe from the epilogue in Rebels; she's just not wearing it right now. However, I reserve the right to say she doesn't have that robe in this timeline if I feel the need. We don't actually know what that robe is about yet, and, for all I know, it might conflict with this story in some way.
Now, let's talk about Luke. I think it can be debated either way whether or not I made him more powerful than he is in canon. My logic was that if he's the last hope for the Jedi, he'd BETTER be able to do this stuff. Remember that, in Return of the Jedi, Luke beat Darth Vader in a duel. Even if Vader had an excuse like "I wasn't trying as hard" or "He caught me off guard" that still makes Luke sound pretty powerful. When I first wrote the synopsis for this story, I originally wrote that the Emperor beat him fair and square, but I changed my mind. Obviously, what ended up happening was Luke almost had him and only lost because the stormtrooper interfered.
The question now is, "What's going to happen to Luke now that he's been captured?" Weeeeell . . .
Did I ever tell you of the tragedy of the inquisitors?
Let's just hope Luke can stay strong for long enough.
(This next part was added in later.)
I have a YouTube Channel now. I review fictional couples, talking about how well they're written, how good their chemistry is and the story of how they get together. You'll be able to find me by typing into the search bar –
Couple Reviews by MVPKnight
