The Legion Renewed
Chapter Thirty-One
"You know that I am Palpatine. And still you choose to face me alone?"
"Part of you is also Brenna. She will not let you destroy me."
"I see you are as foolish as your Jedi teacher. Have you learned nothing from the 'great' Luke Skywalker? Even he could not destroy me."
"On the contrary, I've learned a great deal from him. About myself-and you. Both of you. I know now why you arranged to have me arrested instead of killing me yourself. Even if you didn't anticipate the chance of a rescue, you were afraid to meet me in person, afraid of the truth you might see through me."
Her dark twin laughed coldly. "Really? Why do you think I brought you here?"
"Did you bring me here?"
"Of course. This was all arranged for your benefit. It matters little to me whether my forces actually win on this puny planet. I can raise another army just as easily."
"Then why did you wait until now, when my training is nearly complete? Why didn't you summon me sooner, when I was more vulnerable?"
"Your meager powers do not frighten me."
"Perhaps not. But I was speaking of knowledge and inner-strength. You may have summoned me, but not for the reasons you think."
BrennaPalpatine laughed again. "I have only one reason. To complete a task I left unfinished. You will not leave this world alive, sister." As Brenna spoke the last word, the lightsaber at the Dark Lady's belt unattached itself and leapt into her hand. Briande barely had time to get her own weapon out before her sister's deadly blade came crashing down towards her head with killing force.
Briande managed to parry the attack. Just barely.
BrennaPalpatine's lightsaber swung towards Briande's left shoulder. Briande tried to parry again, but the power behind the attack was too strong for her to block completely. The lightsaber just barely penetrated Briande's guard, just barely touched the top of her arm.
Briande screamed in agony.
"You see," BrennaPalpatine smiled. "Your weak powers are no equal to ours."
Briande sucked in air, searched herself for the Jedi-techniques to block pain, found them. "Brenna, listen to me," she said. "Palpatine is using you. Don't let him do this."
Her twin laughed. "Why should I want to stop him?" she asked.
Briande almost cried in relief. She was now talking to Brenna, not Palpatine. "Because he's not you," Briande said. "He wants only for himself. He cares nothing for you."
"But as long as I serve as host, when he serves himself, he also serves me." BrennaPalpatine brought her weapon low. Briande again tried to deflect it, but her wounded left arm was nearly useless.
Again, the attack penetrated the guard. Again, the energy blade cut through the thick, heavy fabric of Briande's uniform as if it were less than tissue paper, and seared into the delicate flesh of Briande's thigh.
Briande made another cry of pain but caught herself before the leg could give way, and limped backwards, holding the lightsaber up in a single-hand defense position. Her left hand, already weakened from the shoulder-cut, pressed against the burn on her leg.
BrennaPalpatine advanced into her sister's retreat. Briande succeeded in deflecting the first blow, but the second sliced through the pommel of her lightsaber hilt, cutting through the energy cell itself. Briande watched helplessly as the blade disappeared and half of her weapon fell to the ground. She dropped the other half of her now useless weapon and tried to get away, but her sister's blade cut into her right calf. Briande cried with pain as her leg collapsed underneath her, and she fell to the floor.
"Now, sister," BrennaPalpatine said leisurely. "Shall I finish you all at once, or...yes. Slowly, I think. Or perhaps leave you as useless as our father was? No matter. You will learn, now, what I have to teach you."
Briande had half-risen, but her sister cut her leg from underneath her again. "Oh, never fear," BrennaPalpatine said, "Your Jedi-teacher will be dealt with." Then, systematically, BrennaPalpatine began to inflict punishing wounds on Briande's body. A cold smile of satisfaction twisted her face until it looked more like the power-mad Emperor's face than that of the sister Briande had once loved.