Okay, let me take a quick moment of your time. Now, I am sure you will like this chapter. Know why? Because one night when I finished typing it I was tired and went to be, when I went to bed I wanted to go back and type this chapter which tells me that I liked typing it which makes me think you will like it. It is an action test thingy, created out of the pure Sith Master2019 madness you love so much. Well I'm not sure its madness but...

Chapter 17: The Labyrinth of Darkness

Leia was ready, after training for five months every day she ought to be. Even as she meditated on the floor of her room she felt the power of the dark side coursing through her veins. Soon she would be ready to launch her endgame and kill Vader and Ravan. She was the most powerful Force user in the galaxy now. She could do anything. She opened her closed eyes which had taken on a yellow tinge as she gained more and more power, a laughter had forced her eyes open. One that was loud and cracked that came from everywhere and no where.

She sensed the Force condense in front of her and the dark, black outline of a man in a cloak appeared. Leia knew who he was. He continued laughing.

"What do you want?" She asked.

"To tell you that you are almost ready." The former Emperor rasped.

"I know that now. I'm sorry you wasted a trip all the way from the netherworld of the Force just to tell me that." Leia snapped sarcastically.

The former Emperor laughed again.

"You become more and more Sith everyday. Your powers are unlimited, you control the entire Force. I am eager to learn that power."

"I will not teach you."

"You cant teach me you mean. You cannot even control the power yourself. But when I learn it I will be able to."

"You're full of it."

The Emperor just laughed again.

"Why did you come here?"

"I have to tell you something."

"Speak quickly then."

"There will be an inevitable attack on Coruscant."

Leia's eyebrows raised, even she had not sensed this. Nor Vader, nor Ravan, though she doubted Ravan could sense his want out of his own house.

"Who is leading it?"

"A rouge Admiral, loyal to me. I have manipulated Mara Jade to make her do it. This will give you to opportunity to kill Vader. Mara will be your only ally."

"I don't need her."

The Emperor paused for a moment. "Neither do I after the attack begins. Very well, you may destroy her as well."

"I don't need your permission. Go away now. Leave me alone."

The former Emperor laughed a final time, and disappeared. Leia's expression changed to a white toothed smile which contrasted fully with her dark velvet robes. If there was going to be an attack on Coruscant it would indeed give her the perfect chance. Vader would raise his shields against the onslaught of this rouge admiral, and be vulnerable to a stab in the back. And then a silent alarm went off in Leia's mind, followed by a chime from her chrono which read 1800 hours. The time Vader had given her to meet with him for her final test. She stood up and almost floated out of the room quietly, and gracefully.

XxX

Leia came into her fathers throne room, surprised to see only him gazing out the window, he was unguarded. The usual red robed guards were no where to be seen. By the Force it would be so easy just to push him out of that window with a simple thought… but no. Now was not the right moment. As she walked further into the throne room and toward the steps a thought hit her like a sandperson's gaffi stick. Where was Ravan? But she didn't get time to answer her own thought as she ascended the last step on the platform which held Vader's chair and Vader spoke.

"Welcome my daughter." He said without turning around.

"Hello daddy." Leia replied cordially.

"It is time for you to prove to me you have learned the strength of the Sith." Vader said ignoring the fact he had just been addressed as 'daddy'.

"Is that why Ravan isn't here? Is he masking his presence, hiding up in the catwalks?" Leia asked casually, looking up and perhaps expecting to see Ravan leap down and activate a lightsaber. But he didn't.

"I thought you would know exactly where Ravan is, with all of the power you have."

"I wouldn't even attempt to channel it to something as small as that father. You yourself said I should refrain from using it, and use only what I can handle."

"You have learned." Vader said approvingly. "Yes, use your full amount of power only in the uttermost end of need. Use what you can handle for regular tasks and duels."

"Yes father." Leia said with an inner smile. She was going to rip both Ravan and Vader apart with that power, even if it ripped her apart in the process.

"Now for your test." Vader said finally turning. "The former Emperor had a series of escape tunnels under this palace, and they were connected to a training maze which he used to test his assassins. I have taken that training maze and made it much more deadly. I have released a dozen badly mutated humans into it, from the Emperor's bio lab. They are deadly, and in order to complete the test you must get past them and to the end of the maze where you will find your new Sith lightsaber. Once you have it the way out will become clear. You will go down unarmed. You will use only the Force to make it through the maze. There are many things down there you can use as weapons however. But starting you will use only the Force. Is this understood?"

"Yes."

"And you will keep control of the Force, you will not let it control you as it did during your duel with Ravan."

"Yes."

"Then good luck my daughter." Vader said, he snapped his fingers. Leia watched as a button on his throne was pressed by an invisible finger and then—

She fell, she fell forever. Into darkness, into a pit. She looked up to see the round opening she had fallen through close. She was building up terminal velocity, Vader had betrayed her! He was going to kill her. But then a cool computer voice sounded and echoed through the pit.

"Anti gravity generator online. Lowering to ninety percent."

Leia began to fall slower as the pull of gravity on her body weakened. But still at this speed she could die.

"Eighty percent." The voice announced.

Leia began to slow up even more.

"Sixty percent." The computer voice blared.

Leia wondered momentarily what happened to seventy. She was falling much slower now.

"Thirty percent."

Now she was falling about as fast as a person walks. Force when was she just going to land?

"Gravity back online, one hundred percent." The computer announced.

"Excuse me?" Leia screamed aloud, and then she reached the end of her fall, and splashed softly into very, very warm water. She went down about six feet, and began to swim back up, giving her legs a workout. But just when she was about to break the surface her legs gave out. She couldn't go any more. Her robes were to heavy. They pulled her down. Her lungs ached for air. She was going to die now. But no! She was not going to give up and die before she even reached the maze! Grabbing the collar of her robe she tugged hard and it ripped down the middle, leaving her in her much lighter undergarments, which was a large black one piece almost bathing suit type thing. She broke the surface, gulping mouthfuls of air. Her legs waved back and forth in the water to keep her up above the surface.

When she caught her breath she laughed. This was the Emperor's escape tunnel? Or perhaps Vader had modified it and put water it and she was actually supposed to hit ground lightly instead of water. Her thoughts were confirmed as makeshift water jets activated, pumping in freezing cold water, so cold small chunks of ice began to hit her legs. She shivered. She had to get out before… well before she died. She reached out with her senses. She was six feet above the bottom of the pit. There was a way out at the bottom, about a eight yard hallway that led to a small staircase. The hallway was filled with water, but it stopped at the top of the steps. She had to go now. The water was freezing rapidly, it now had to be only fifty degrees, if it got down to thirty, and the jets kept shooting out ice it might… the ice might condense together and freeze. She dived down with speed, using the Force to feel her way around, she found the hallway and began to swim down it.

It felt like a punch in the stomach when she reached halfway, the water was bitterly, bitterly cold here. Leia guessed only twenty degrees. But ignored it and continued on, trying to keep her breath held. Only a yard to go. Then her worst fears were realized when three chunks of ice smacked into different places on her body. The ice was condensing together. She went on, fast. Her toes felt numb, and she had no feeling in her hands. Her face felt like someone was holding a pack of ice on it in a room below zero degrees. And then her hand hit a step, she swam up and broke the surface of the water, pulling her self out she collapsed on the hallway floor, shivering uncontrollably. And then some warm air kicked on, making her body burn like the fires on hell. She curled up against the wall, hiding her face inside her arms. But it wasn't over yet.

Vader had definitely installed a water system because little sprinklers on the ceiling began pumping it in. It was in truth only about seventy degrees, which is warm, but not so warm. Warm enough to be comfortable in. Leia was anything but that. The water felt like acid on her cold skin. She opened her eyes and stood up, there were red glow sticks attacked to the wall. At least she was able to see where she was going. She took off, trying to cover her head from the water that felt incredibly hot. Twice she nearly slipped, but kept on going, until she warmed up. She slowed her pace and the water stopped. That part of the test was done, thank the Force.

Continuing down the hall, her wet light boots slapping the wet floor she reached out with the Force, using her mind to feel the area around her. The hallway it seemed continued on only about fifteen yards, and it was blocked off at the end, apparently the training maze was only a little further down. It wasn't quite big but—and then she literally lost it when she came within five feet of the entrance to the maze. She lost the sense of her surroundings, yet she felt the Force flowing through her.

"It's something I invented." Vader's voice said in her mind. "On the planet Myrkr there are little insects called ysalamiri, they cast a bubble around them, in which the Force is unusable. My scientists have found a way to isolate the gene in the ysalamiri which controls than and they were able to break it down and make it weaker. They have put this into a serum that sinks into the pores of your skin, which is why you were sprayed with water, once it gets into your blood stream it affects the use of the Force. We have found in our studies that typically when a Jedi or Sith begins to lose a slight bit of connection to the Force, their sense of surroundings is the first thing to go. That is why you can no longer sense what is around you, it makes the maze all more difficult. Luckily your connection to the Force is not totally gone, you still have the power to sense danger, or to manipulate objects and sense things in battle. So good luck my daughter."

Perfect Leia thought as she entered the maze. It was as dark as a black cat on a moonless and starless night. There was some lighting however, purple glow sticks were attached in about five foot intervals on the ceiling, giving the maze a dark and dank feeling. As Leia began to traverse its passages and come to dead ends she found Vader did not lie. There were indeed many objects lying around she could use as weapons, they ranged from old milk processors, and small moisture gathers, to broken steel pipes and assorted discarded droid limbs, particularly the left arms of protocol droids and the right wheeled legs of R1 to R4 units. Leia picked up a long steel pipe with one extremely jagged end, like the teeth of a krayt dragon on Tatooine. Heading down another passage a sound hit her eardrums that was so utterly terrible her legs nearly gave out below her. It was a screech, but no ordinary human or animal screech. It was a mixture of claws scratching a sythchalkboard, and of a baby krayt dragons cry for its mother, but it also had a human quality to it, and a bloodcurdling cat roar. All these things mixed together like…….. hybrid genes into one screech, one high pitched terrifying screech.

Only one this could be more terrible than it, and that was what came around the corner next. It looked like a person, sort of, a person who was six foot tall and had a horrible mutation. It was hunched, with a giant lump on its back the size of Vader's throne, slime was oozing out of its oversized skin pores, so giant and huge Leia would have no trouble inserting the butt of her lightsaber hilt into it. The its two most disgusting and terrifying features were its face, and claws.

Its head was potato shaped with dozens of over sized pores on the top of its bald head. Its eyes were two beady black diamonds with the look of a murderer in them, its nose had been crushed flat against its face with two little slits instead of nostrils which were gushing black… blood, and its mouth was a straight line. It pulled back its lips and smiled at Leia, almost and showed two rows of incredible silver white and straight lined jagged teeth, each about the size of Leia's big toenail.

And its claws, it had claws on each of its ten unnaturally long fingers, and on each of its stubby toes. The claws on its fingers stretched out the length of Leia's lightsaber hilt times two, how she wish she had the weapon now, and the claws on its feet looked like jagged knifes, they were literally smooth and sharp on one side, and jagged on the other. And to top all of these horrible qualities off the beast itself was an infernal dark red color. Its beady eyes looked at Leia and glinted. This was one of the mutants Vader spoke about.

The creature screeched again and ever more chilling screeches came back in return, each one unique, but all equally as terrible and before Leia knew it two more mutants rounded the corner. One looked a lot like a racor with melted skin and shorter but sharper claws. The other looked like a human crossed with a black panther, its eyes slits, but the mutant Leia has seen first was a hell of a lot creepier. Leia grasped her steel pipe firmly and stuck it out like a pike.

"Come and get some you ugly—" But Leia couldn't finish her sentence as the horrible potato headed one screech, and some slime dripped to the floor.

The panther one charged at Leia, running on all fours. Using the Force Leia tossed seven different objects at her. Three steel pipes, a knife, a broken milk processor and two items that were so incredibly sharp twisted and jagged it was anyone's guess what they were. The knife hit the giant feline first, right where the human's thigh would be and it stabbed in with a sickening flesh ripping sound. The cat fell and roared like a lion, and the twisted items smashed into it cutting it even more, the milk processor bounced off its head and Leia used the Force to stab it with the three metal pipes, forming a perfect bloody triangle in its chest.

Here eyes flicked back to the uglier two. The potato headed slimy one sort of whimpered, and the rancor looking one with melted skin shrieked in fury. Leia shut it up bay willing a discarded metal pole through its melted chest. The slimy one watched it fall. It looked at Leia and formed what looked like a malice filled smile on its hideous face. With a clawed hand it grabbed the metal pole from its fellow mutants chest and hurled it straight at Leia like a spear, and it came so fast she barely had time to tap into the Force and stop it, by the time she did the thing had grabbed two more poles and apparently decided with wasn't such a good idea the get more lethal weapons into the air Leia could hurl at it with her mind.

It charged like an oncoming bull. Leia mentally punched it in the groin but nothing happened, it was like that slime coat was armor. It reached Leia and struck at her with the two poles. She blocked one and it snapped in half from corrosion, the creature dropped it and pulled the other back, swinging it with all of its might. Leia swung hers too and both collided with an echoing metallic clang that echoed through the maze and made more mutants howl. Leia was thrown back by the force of the blow and her metal pole literally shattered. The creatures arm simple blue back, but it lost its grip on its weapon and it flew into the wall and stuck there with a layer of slime holding it on.

The creature ran at Leia who was on the ground, lying on her back. In a last ditch effort she smashed her foot into the creature's gut… and it held it and fell over on her, knocking the air out of her lungs. Reaching out with the Force she grabbed every shard of her shattered metal pole and stabbed them into the creatures head, killing it. Her head fell backwards onto the floor, covered totaling in slime and blood, her hair was matted so flat onto her head by the slime that her chocolate hair looked like a painting, and the rest of her body was covered in black blood. She got her hands free from under the creature and attempted to wipe the slime from her head but failed miserably. Using the Force she propelled the creature off her and onto the cat thing, there was a sickening splat and crunch as the creature landed on the other and both of their bones broke.

Leia stood up, she was totally covered in slime, her one piece undergarment was hugging her tighter than the leather dress she had once worn for an Alderaainian feast. But she had to move on, she ran down the hall of the maze and right when she turned, what looked like a giant hairless gorilla with a spiked tail tackled her into the wall with such force everything went blurry for a moment, and when it came back into focus her head was throbbing as hard as her heart was beating. The creature it seemed had hit its head hard too.

Using the Force she launched it off her and it smashed into the ceiling making a giant crack, the end off a plasteel pipe fell to the floor and clattered loudly and some sort of liquid dripped from the hole and hit the creature which seemed to make it sit up and rub its head. Leia didn't let it to anything else. She grabbed something heavy and threw it at it. The thing smashed into the hairless ape's head and the thing was knocked unconscious. Leia stood up and took a deep, calming, cleansing breath. She headed toward the hairless mutated primate and grabbed the pastel pipe that had fallen, whatever the ceiling was dripped hit her hair and cleaned a bit of the slime off, but it smelled like… there is no word to describe it, but there are a few, it smelled, horribly, sickeningly, hellishly, bad.

She stepped out of its path and plunged the bent part of the pipe into the creatures chest. It gave a cough and fell limp. Leia's knees buckled from exhaustion, she fell to the ground near the dead ape and splashed into a puddle of the liquid. This was a horrible test, but she had to go on. She had to pass and kill that monster ruling the galaxy. She stood up, let the Force refresh her and headed off.

After another hour of wandering through the maze she found its end, a shiny metal door that she assumed could only be opened by the Force, several dirty claw marks were etched into it and there was a big dent where, she assumed the hairless ape had punched it. Luckily the ysalamiri had worn off a while ago and she was able the sense the maze somewhat, and at least avoid the creatures.

Using the Force she opened the door and leaped in onto a cold marble floor. Falling to it with a splat from the slime. She rolled over and examined the room. It was black, with a semi bright light in the center of the ceiling. The floor was marble and the walls were… something. There was a stone table in the middle of the room, and on it sat a lightsaber. Her lightsaber.

The thought of this banished her fatigue and she stood up and went for the lightsaber, and out of nowhere Ravan jumped down in front of her and activated his own.

"Hey sister, you're looking well."

"You're full of it." Leia spat back.

"A bit snippy aren't we?"

"DON'T YOU DARE TALK TO ME ABOUT SNIPPY! SNIPPY is the least I could be. I was attacked by some slimy potato head, a cat, a bald monkey with a tail, and a baby rancor with melted skin! Don't you dare tell me I'm snippy because I swear I will kick you ass!" Leia screamed.

"Touched a nerve, did I?"

Leia's lips formed a thin line, her veins began popping out of her while skin and her eyes turned so dark red they almost looked black, chunks of the wall ripped themselves off and fell to the ceiling, Leia's lightsaber came to her hand and the table it had stood on shattered into tiny sharp pigments of stone that began swirling around the room.

"Don't antagonize me." Leia warned in a soft snakelike voice.

Ravan activated his lightsaber.

"Come on sis."

Leia struck fast and the battle was over before it began, she cut right through Ravan's lightsaber hilt, kicked him in the groin and Force pushed him right into the wall. The chunks of wall fell to the floor, the stone pigments of the table fell, and Leia's lightsaber deactivated. The wall then split open, and Vader walked in, his breathing echoing through the room.

He turned his head toward Ravan who was on the ground curled up. He shook his head slightly.

"My son, all anger, no brains." Vader said. "Don't antagonize the most powerful Force user there is."

He turned to Leia.

"Speaking of which HOW DARE YOU DIRECTLY DISOBEY MY DIRECT AND SHORT ORDER TO NOT LET THE FORCE TAKE CONTROL OF YOU LIKE THAT!!!"

"It was entirely his fault father. He antagonized me, making me angry and the Force acted on that."

"YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HIM!"

"Do not antagonize me either father." Leia hissed in that voice that was not her own. "It is not my fault. Ravan knows what I am capable of, he should not have done that."

Ravan uncurled himself only to be kicked in the groin again by Vader.

"YOU IDIOT! You know what your sister is capable of, and you know it could destroy her as well as you as well as… CORUSCANT! Do not antagonize her again or you will find my lightsaber burning a hole in your chest."

"Isn't it the way of the Sith however," Leia began. "To constantly fight for superiority, and whoever is stronger should kill the weaker?"

"Indeed, but not your brother." Vader replied. "And… you are now a Sith."

Cool. This is my longest chapter by far. 4019 words without the little note. Now be honest, was that like sickening and thrilling enough for you? I've always wanted to write horrors and thrillers but I think my gift in writing is action, not suspense and stuff. So was this suspenseful? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?