Hello all, I know these just seem to keep getting darker and darker...but don't worry too much...or maybe do! I won't give anything away. Thanks again for reviewing, and staying with me. I can't tell you how much FUN I am having!

Emerson

Part XXVI

"Well Admiral, what do you suggest we do now?" Han asked with a grimness which betrayed his anxiety.

Watching the approaching Imperial fighters with a sinking feeling, Piett didn't have a chance to answer before his comlink buzzed. Vader. He didn't know what, but he knew something was going on in that throne room. This was it, the signal he'd been waiting for. Now he could do something. "Send all fighters to their ships, and pull up the shields." This was directed to the men on the bridge, all of whom instantly sprang into action. Next to him, Han gave Piett a lopsided smile.

"That's more like it," he quipped dryly, "I prefer a straight fight to all this sneakin' around." Han placed an absent hand on his blaster.

Piett returned Han's smile, and stated, "Spoken like a true Corellian. Our fleet is deploying, and will engage the Emperor's fighters. Meanwhile, we're going to hold on to the Executor. No one gets onboard."

Han felt relieved to know that they were actually doing something, no more waiting around. He was torn between the desire to find Leia and the need to be out there, flying with his friends. He was never one to be idle. Overseeing never was his forte...he wasn't a management type. His trigger finger was literally itching to be used. Piett seemed to sense this. Finishing up with his subordinates, the Admiral turned back to Solo. "Seeing as you are so very desirous of being useful, General, I was hoping you might accompany me on a little mission."

Han again gave that lopsided smile, pulling his blaster completely out of its holster. "Lead the way Admiral." Falling into step next to Piett, Han asked, almost as an afterthought, "where exactly are we goin'?"

Piett gave Han a grave look, his eyes dark. "Straight into the mouth of Hell, General."

"I'm afraid subtlety is not one of my strong points, Admiral. I'd appreciate it if you just shoot straight, so to speak."

Stopping fully and facing Han, Admiral Piett said simply, "You're getting your wish after all. Time to rescue that Princess of yours, General." Turning on his heel and striding away down the corridor, he added, "We're going to the throne room."

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No voices, only sounds. The hum of his lightsabre, and Mara's. The laboured breathing of his Father. Leia's quiet sobbing as she knelt next to Vader. The disquieting rasp of Palpatine's laughter. His own ragged breaths.

Stepping back, Luke raised one hand up to Mara in a pacifying gesture. "I will not fight you." He tried to keep his tone calm.

An arched eyebrow. Then, taunting, "Why Skywalker? Are you afraid to lose to a mere girl?" She advanced on him several steps, keeping her lightsabre low. She was young, he realized. He remembered then that she was at least two years younger than he was. Children, both of them.

"No," he answered smoothly, "I merely have no desire to perpetuate the corruption of such a young, impressionable mind. You have potential, Jade, but you are heading down a dark path." They circled around each other. "Although I sense that you are only being controlled...with Palpatine pulling your strings. Tell me, Mara, do you really want to kill me, or are you just acting in service to him?"

She swung at him then, her deep violet blade humming through the air. He parried easily, and they exchanged several blows before she backed off.

"Shut up, Skywalker. I don't owe you anything, least of all answers." She growled at him, not so much in anger as frustration. She didn't want him to get to her, but her doubts were still there.

"I didn't say you did, I only want you to think for yourself for once. Don't let him control you any longer. You can break free."

She gritted her teeth. She wanted to break free, she was simply afraid to do it. So she did the only thing she knew how...respond with sarcasm to protect herself. Throw up her barriers and cower under the protection of a man who'd ruled her life ever since she could remember. "The only thing that's about to break here, Skywalker, is my restraint." Mara spun her lightsabre around in a graceful arc. With a dancer's leap, she charged him again. The energy pulsating off their lightsabres matched only by the energy which surrounded them. She could feel him tiring, weakening under her assault. It made sense. She was good with her lightsabre, but not good enough to have taken him if all things were considered even. If he wasn't dying. He'd have made short work of her, she knew that much to be true. Despite this, he was still trying to reason with her.

"Mara, use the Force...focus it on him and you'll see all he's ever done is deceive you." Luke pleaded with her...if he could just make her see...

"You know nothing about me, Skywalker. Don't be so presumptuous. You are so predictable...you think you know everything, don't you?" She was angry now, steadily wearing him down.

Then, quietly...

"He killed your father, Mara."

And she stopped. Her world stopped. Mara stood ramrod still in that moment, eyes narrowing, disbelieving. How could he know? Vader. Vader must have told him lies.

"That's not true...you're only saying that...to twist my mind somehow. Don't for an instant think you can create some kind of sympathetic bond with me by lying. I'm an orphan too, true...but don't mock me. Don't you dare mock me." She was breathing heavily.

"It is true. Mara, search your feelings and you'll know it's true. Father told me...everything about you. This virus...this disease I'm infected with was tested on your father...and when he refused to turn to the Dark Side, Palpatine used you as blackmail. You, and your mother too...then he killed them both. Once he had what he wanted...once he had the proof he needed, the Emperor murdered your parents. You're just a pawn to him!" He was in earnest, and Mara knew, from every report she'd ever read, from every scrap of information she'd dug up about him...that he never lied. She probed Vader's mind, looking for deception, but felt only, astonishingly enough, pity...pity coming from the Dark Lord. From Palpatine she sensed nothing. And hadn't he just proved to her that she was only a pawn to him? Just a way to obtain what he wanted?

Unable to do anything else, unable to properly process the information she'd been given, Mara did the only thing she could. She attacked Skywalker again, this time more ferociously than ever before. She wanted to beat him down, make him stop, silence him. He defended himself meagerly for a while, but his exhaustion got the better of him, until she'd driven him to his knees, and only sheer willpower kept his blade locked with hers, inches from his throat.

"Enough!" Palpatine's raspy voice echoed loudly throughout the room. "Well, done Jade...but remember, he is your future...he is your Master now. You cannot finish him." The Emperor had again stood from the throne and was now at the top stair. "Leave him."

Shaking her head, trying desperately to clear her mind, Mara closed down her lightsabre and stepped away from Skywalker. Again, her doubts surged through her. A sickening feeling hit her gut, and she fought the urge to be sick. Once more, she'd been reminded of her place...as nothing more that the property of the future Sith Prince Skywalker. Bowing her head, she moved away from Luke. Looking up to her Master, she asked him, "Is it true?" tears were welling up in her green eyes. "Is it? Did you kill my parents?"

He never even hesitated, didn't try to hide behind any facades. He brushed her off cruelly. "Yes, it's true. Your father turned to the Dark Side for the same reason Lord Vader did, and for the same reason his son will turn." Palpatine gave her a hard, cold stare. "For that most pathetic of sentiments...for love." His tone was mocking. He turned his attention then back to Luke, promptly dismissing Mara, and her pain.

Skywalker had shut down his lightsabre, his sister calling to him. Leia was at his side now, torn between her Father and brother. She was speaking to him, soothing him with words, but he didn't seem to hear her. He was fighting unconsciousness. He was so close...so close to simply letting go...letting the virus rampantly take over. It would be so easy...just let go...

Palpatine sensed this as well. He could still turn Luke. The boy had just proved how easy it could be. Now that he'd removed Mara from the equation, all he had to do was inflict some real pain and damage to Vader, and threaten the Princess. If the boy did know all about Bae'din, if he'd learned anything from that story it was that history repeats itself. Love can make men do things they'd sworn never to do. Blackmail was a powerful tool. The Emperor gestured with his hand, and instantly Mara had pulled the Princess away from Luke, years of obedience taking over. Despite the warring emotions in her mind, her body responded to his commands. She didn't know what to do. Leia struggled briefly, but only long enough for Mara to ignite her lightsabre again and force her back.

"I will ask you one last time, Skywalker...will you join me as my new apprentice?" Palpatine asked slowly, his words reaching Luke faintly, settling on him with a grim finality.

A ragged whisper in the silence of the room. "I'll never join you..."

The Emperor didn't waste any time. As Jade threateningly pushed Leia away from Luke, Palpatine unleashed his Force lightning again on Vader. He'd drive Skywalker to turn to the Dark Side by killing his family, break him down by forcing him to watch them die. If he could just push Luke far enough, make him give in to the darkness in order to save them...all his plans would come to fruition.

Luke was so very tired...so completely helpless, and it angered him. He watched as Jade backed Leia into a corner, the blade of her lightsabre a dark violet glow. He watched as the Emperor punished his Father with round after round of Force lightning... so ironic the very substance which gave Vader so much power was now being used to destroy him. Luke was exhausted, he could veritably feel the virus destroying him cell by cell, and he knew he was powerless to aid either his Father or his sister. A feeling of despair came over him, and he gave into his hatred of Palpatine bit by bit. And, oddly, the more the hatred built up in him, the better he felt. It was as if his abhorrence was burning away the exhaustion, eating up his fatigue. And he gave in a little more...if he could destroy just so much of the virus with his anger, then there was the possibility of saving his family, along with the chance of saving himself. The very dichotomy of the plan struck him with humourless irony...to save what he loved, he must give in to the very thing he loathed.

Little by little, Luke was able to sense each virus-infected cell of his body being invaded by and successively commanded by his ever increasing anger. And although he tried to fight it, attempted to maintain the balance between controlling his hate and the hate controlling him...it was a losing battle. Luke was unable to allow himself the luxury of slowly transforming himself, of burning out the virus. Had he the time, it may have been possible for him to use his hate in a measured way, dosing out the Dark Side the way a Doctor doses out medications, and thereby heal himself without succumbing completely.

But time had run out.

His Father was dying before his eyes...

His sister was in grave danger...

And he knew his end was near whether by the virus or at the Emperor's hands.

He had to act...and now. There was no turning back. And so he did what his Father had, did what his legacy had decreed. Luke Skywalker let go and allowed the Force to guide him toward whatever destiny had been planned for him. He gave in, surrendered, allowed himself to fall like the last dropping leaf of a wind-torn tree. And just like his Father, he turned for all the same reasons. To save his family, to keep people from dying...for love. It was effortless, unnervingly easy, and strangely comforting. At first.

And then the pain came, as his utter and complete hatred of Palpatine surged through him, destroying the virus in its path. The disease in him was systematically replaced by his sorrow, his hate, his despair...until there was nothing left of the Eryoundi virus. He was cured. But he'd payed a heavy price. One evil for another. Now, the Dark Side dwelled where once there had been Light.

They all sensed the change in him. Mara, still on the Princess, watched him warily from the corner of her eye. Leia could only say his name, and Vader may have bit out a strangled "no", but with his respirator so damaged, it was hard to say. Only the Emperor's reaction reached his ears. His triumphant laughter rang in Luke's mind. "Come before me, boy," Palpatine commanded. Luke stood slowly, painfully, and went to the Emperor.

He didn't look at Leia. He spared no glance for his Father. Luke could only see Palpatine before him, atop the stairs. Reaching the bottom step, he stopped.

With a graceful reverence, Luke kneeled before his new Master.

And Vader sensed something pass through him which he'd never wanted to experience again. Something he'd felt the night he'd learned Padme had died. The night he had thought the baby had died along with her. A grief so insurmountable, it had almost killed him the first time the feeling had coursed through him...

...the death of his son...