AN: A short chapter this week, but I'll be back with more next week. :)

"LIAR!"

The lighting was snaking down the chains making an electrical hissing sound that could barely be heard over the rattling of the chains themselves as Luke twisted in them. She was angry, very angry, and she let it be felt.

"YOU KILLED PALPATINE! YOU AND VADER!"

Luke twisted under the pain and muscle spasms and tried to get enough control over his lungs and mouth to answer. "Nggr...! I...arrhh."

She dialed it back a little. "Want to say something?" she sneered.

"I – I didn't kill ... Palpatine. Vader ... Vader did," Luke said completely breathless.

"LIAR! TELL ME THE TRUTH!" She dialed it back up.

"Argh!" Luke's arms protested as his muscles went tight. "I'm ... argh! I'm not lying!" He couldn't think anymore. He didn't know how to convince her of the truth, but he wouldn't, couldn't, admit to a lie. "I'M NOT LYING!" he screamed as pain shot through him again and again. "I'M Nnn-NOT!"

"Liar," she growled. She then stopped the lighting. "You really want to convince me you are telling the truth? You'll have to do better." She snorted and looked at him with pure contempt.

Luke stared at her feeling dizzy, spots dancing in front of his eyes. How was he supposed to do better than telling the truth under torture? How? He hung from the chains, he had blood running down his arms, his body had red welts all over, he felt dizzy and drained and exhausted, and she still didn't believe him. His mind was blank. How could he make her believe him rather than an image Palpatine had put into her head? He put it into her head. He put a lie in her head. Luke's head was spinning. He could see she was getting impatient. He needed to do something.

Letting instinct take over, Luke reached out to the Force and Mara. He recalled everything that had happened on the second Death Star and projected it straight into her mind not knowing whether it would work or not. He was too exhausted to filter anything from his memory and didn't really want to either; he wanted her to know the truth. He heard Mara's sharp intake of air and knew she must be getting some of it at least. The scene played inside his mind.

He stood beside Vader in silence. They hadn't said anything to each other since their conversation on the moon. The air felt like it was pressing down on him, but he kept calm. Things were not going as he had hoped. The turbolift doors opened and he stepped out between the red guards with Vader. As they approached Palpatine, a dark Lord of the Sith, he felt a warning tingle in the back of his head. He was very, very, very dangerous. Palpatine let his binders fall off. Even through their exchange of words, Luke didn't feel quite as confident as he sounded; Palpatine was too calculating, too sinister, too confident in his plan.

He walked to the podium and barely looked as Vader gave his lightsaber to the Emperor. His attention was directed outside. A battle was unfolding before his eyes as the Rebel Fleet arrived and got caught in the trap Palpatine had made. He watched as friends disappeared in little flashes of light and fire and felt his anger and fury start to rise. But he couldn't let himself give in. He couldn't betray Master Yoda and Ben like that. He looked at his lightsaber and Palpatine goaded him, laughed at his friends' deaths.

Finally he snapped. He turned around and called his lightsaber to his hand, striking at Palpatine's throat, but never meeting his target. Vader stopped him. They fought with all they had, but Luke felt some reluctance to strike at his father. He wasn't the one he wanted to fight. He wanted to free him. He backed away, but Vader kept coming. Jumping onto a walkway he got enough distance to talk to him, to appeal to his better self. Vader cut through it and Luke ended up under the stairs. He let the Force hide him as Vader searched. He had to protect his friends. He had to protect his sister. His sister ... "If you will not turn then perhaps she will." It was too much. Not her. He leaped up and attacked Vader with a fury and strength he didn't know he had, pushing him back. He couldn't think. He just felt anger at the suggestion that Leia would ever join the Empire.

Vader couldn't keep up. He was too old and weakened by his mechanical parts; Luke struck and Vader was suddenly lying on the floor without hand and lightsaber, completely at his mercy. Palpatine laughed. He approached them telling Luke to finish Vader, to become his new apprentice. Luke looked at Vader. He was at his mercy; he couldn't do anything to prevent Luke from killing him if he wanted to. Luke looked at his own mechanical hand. No. He would not become his father.

He stood up straight and tossed his lightsaber to the side. "I am a jedi, like my father before me."

Palpatine wasn't pleased. He was furious at Luke's refusal, at his success in resisting the dark side. Luke was relieved; he had done it. It only lasted for a moment. Palpatine lifted his hands and he felt the warning tingle just before he shot lighting out of his hands! Luke was caught by surprise; he only managed to deflect a little of the first wave and the second caught him completely. He fell on the rails trying to get back up, but Palpatine attacked him again before he could do anything and he ended up writhing on the ground. He noticed Vader getting back up, heard his wheezing breath.

Palpatine told him he would die now. Luke couldn't do anything; his body was twisting as his muscles spasmed under the attack. He begged his father to help him.

Suddenly the lighting stopped. He lifted his head to see Vader lifting Palpatine over his head. Palpatine's anger filled the air as he directed his lighting at Vader instead of Luke, but it didn't help him. In a final show of strength Vader threw Palpatine into the open reactorcore shaft where he exploded in blue-white lighting. Luke watched Vader as he sank down; he struggled to his feet and over to his father. He could see he was weak, but he still seemed to somehow glow. He took his hand as reassurance that things would now be all right.

Luke's eyes slowly adjusted to the light in the cave again. He realized he was looking at the floor and the pain in his arms and wrists came back. Lifting his head he saw Mara standing against the wall, her face white, her eyes wide and looking like she was in some kind of shock.

Luke licked his lips to get some moisture back. "Mara?" No reaction. "Mara?" he tried again.

As if coming from a trance Mara slowly blinked her eyes. She looked at him as if she had forgotten he was there. Luke waited for her to say something, to do something, but she just stood there looking at him still white.

"Mara?"

Suddenly she pushed away from the wall. "Don't say my name!" Without warning she pressed the button and the lighting sprang down the chains and into him. Mara turned on her heels and left the cave, without turning off the lighting, leaving Luke writhing in pain.

§

This is it, Luke thought, as the lightning racked over his body. He no longer had any air or voice for screaming, no strength left to fight the pain. His muscles spasmed painfully, constricting under the assault, jerking his limbs. He couldn't think properly anymore. He tried recalling Leia's face, but it disappeared in a red haze of pain. All he could think of was the pain. Any time now. Any time now he would die. His body couldn't take any more of this abuse; he had no air left in his lungs and couldn't get new air into them. He coughed, nearly choking on his own blood. I'm bleeding inside. I'm dying. Maybe ... maybe it was a ... mistake ... showing Mara ... what really ... happened. Bye Leia ...

He didn't remember anymore. Just the pain fading away as he slipped into unconsciousness.