Tosche Station
Tatooine
"Get me another ebla beer, will you darling?" Laze 'Fixer' Loneozner asked his wife Camie.
"Sorry, my dear," she replied absently, her eyes fixed on the holoscreen, "I'm not missing any of this. I'm betting on Luke."
"You're crazy, woman," Fixer responded with a grin, "Vader all the way. Luke? Luke Skywalker? Our Luke Skywalker? Against Vader?"
"Against his dad?" Camie reached over and grabbed some flatbread, stuffing it into her mouth. "He's a generation younger with, incredibly enough, the same blood as the Emperor. If I'm right, you clean out the oil tanks tonight. Deal?"
"Deal!"
"Go Luke!"
Makeshift holotransmission studio
Imperial Arms Storage Facility #5
Imperial City
Imperial Center
Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker circled. Luke held the classic attack stance of Form V, and his father held his saber in the appropriate answering pose.
There was a long, dramatic silence.
The onlookers in the room, and countless billions of sentients across the galaxy (and a few interested mosses) waited with baited breath.
And Relinka Spetzv, co-host extraordinaire, began squealing.
Loudly. At a very high pitch.
Luke took a couple of steps back and turned to look at the woman.
"Uh, is she Ok?" he asked in a worried tone.
"Relinka!" Cray said in horror. "Relinka! Snap out of it."
"Son, if we are going to do this ..." Vader said in a tone which was weary through the vocoder.
"No, no, the poor woman might be having a heart attack or something! Some people think we're a bit much."
The overactive hovering holocam decided that Relinka was more interesting than tiresome discussion, and turned its focused gaze on Spetzv. She had backed into a corner of the room, her face was ashen, her breath rapid. A moment later, Princess Leia and Han Solo were leaning over her, their faces concerned.
The princess placed one gentle hand on the woman's shoulder, closed her eyes, concentrated, then nodded.
"Just hyperventilation. She's Ok. We are, as Luke says, a bit much. Go ahead. We'll help her out. Does anyone have a paper bag?"
"I do!" Agent Jade announced, pulling a strange white object out of a random pocket.
Cray was goggling now in horror. The best, the best possible telecast in his entire career and Relinka was wrecking it ...
"Turn back to the Emperor," he ordered the holocam, which obeyed, though reluctantly.
Luke and Vader approached one another again and resumed their positions.
There was another long pause.
And the battle began.
The flurry of lightsaber blows against one another, red against green, tall cyborg against youth, was a sight to behold indeed. First Vader seemed to dominate as he pushed Skywalker back several meters. But then, in a move that had Cray and the mosses gasping in amazement, Skywalker leaped into the air three meters, whipped over Vader's head to land behind him, spun around and abruptly seemed to have the upper hand.
Another flurry of blade against blade ensued, and then the combatants both, by apparently mutual agreement, stopped to catch their breath.
Or something. Did Vader breathe faster when exerting himself? Apparently not, as a lone analyst somewhere on Corellia began throwing up Holonet information on his personal site showing that Vader's breathing patterns remained unchanged regardless of the situation at hand.
Which was truly amazing.
"Obi-Wan has taught you well," Vader admitted, a trifle reluctantly.
"He did his part," his son replied rather cheekily. "But actually I learned far more from Master Yoda, and, to give you credit, I picked up a lot at Bespin."
"Yoda?"
Now his father was truly angry. That old troll was still alive?
The Dark Lord surged forward now, his blade striking down toward his son. Luke dodged behind the Emperor's hapless chair, which was promptly cut in half by the red laser of destruction.
"Yoda lives?" the Emperor snarled.
"No, no, no," Skywalker replied soothingly. "He keeled over from old age more than a year ago."
"Good," his father replied, relaxing slightly. That was a mistake, because Luke suddenly charged forward, his saber twisting and turning. Vader whipped away and avoided any injury, but his cloak was partially cut off.
With a growl, he picked up both halves of the now defunct chair, and hurled them at Luke, who cut one piece in half and sent another flying using the Force.
"Hey, watch it!" Leia called out, using the Force to deflect a random section of chair which had come close to smashing Cray Shifton in the face.
"Sorry!" her twin called back as he did a sudden leap onto a balcony perched on one side of the warehouse.
"We're going to die. We're all going to die!" Relinka panted softly into her paper bag.
"No, we're fine," Jade murmured soothingly, using the Force to calm the poor woman down. "Everything is going to be fine."
Vader paced for a long moment, considering, then leaped to another balcony positioned at a right angle to, but at the same level as, Luke's balcony.
It wobbled under his weight for a few seconds, then parted ways with the wall. Vader fell ignominiously back to the floor, though he succeeded in landing on his feet.
"It seems, my son," he commented drily, "that this locale is better suited to your weight than mine."
"Kind of like how Bespin was set up to suit you?" Luke snapped back in a snarky tone, "Carbon freeze chamber, large windows, nearly bottomless chasms ..."
"I can say, from personal experience, that carbon freeze is definitely no fun," remarked the tall cocky Corellian, who had been silent thus far.
Darth Vader chose to ignore these statements and instead abruptly hurled his lightsaber toward his son, who easily avoided it by lurching to the right. But the saber did cut the balcony from the wall, and a moment later Luke had tumbled to the floor. The battle was joined again. The two fought in a vicious but beautiful dance, one with no injuries but plenty of intensity, until Luke's saber struck and broke one of the supporting pillars in the room.
With a resounding crack, the pillar gave way. Both Vader and Skywalker avoided it easily but the roof, 7 meters up, began to make unnerving noises.
"Better get everyone out of here, Leia and Mara!" Luke yelled telepathically.
"Come on," Leia said urgently to her companions, "The building isn't entirely stable. We need to find a safe place outside."
Cray frowned hideously, "Do we have to? This is like the ... event of the century."
"Yes, we do," Relinka squeaked, running for the door.
"You sure they'll be all right in here?" Han asked his wife softly.
"I don't know. Ask Mara. This was her crazy idea."
"No," Mara said as she brought up the rear, "actually, it was Luke's idea."
As the door closed behind them, another pillar bit the dust and the building shook noticeably.
Outside the building, a large, barren, paved area was enclosed with laser fencing to keep hypothetical enemies from stealing the (nonexistent) weapons in the facility. It was therefore safe.
Cray hoped.
The hovering holocam was still on inside at least. He quickly keyed up his holopad and watched with intense fascination as the duel continued for 18 seconds. And then, Skywalker gestured with his left hand, a random chair leaped up, threw itself at Vader, who promptly hit it with his sword, whereupon the pieces hurled themselves toward the holocam at great speed.
The cam went dead.
Shifton gasped in horror. What was he going to do now? The holocam was off, the Emperor was inside engaged in the duel of the century with his son, and he was cut off from it all.
It was a total nightmare for an Imperial Holonet host. Loss of face, loss of honor, loss of reputation ...
He started to hyperventilate.
"Here, Cray," Relinka said firmly. She was on her feet now and, away from Vader, had calmed down suddenly and completely, "take my bag."
She handed her co-host the paper bag, pushed Cray out of the way, made a few quick taps to her own holopad, pulled an audio transmitter out of a carefully concealed pocket, and turned toward Princess Leia.
"Your Highness, we've lost the holocam inside. We don't have visual out here yet, though a holocam should be here shortly, but at least we can talk about today's exciting events for the benefit of the Beings of the galaxy. First of all, are you concerned about your brother and your father fighting in there?"
Leia's brow furrowed slightly, "Host Shifton, I want to make it clear that while the Emperor is biologically my father, my true father was, and always will be, Bail Organa, who was killed when the Empire's Death Star destroyed Alderaan."
Relinka took a deep breath and then nodded encouragingly, "I see. So how long have you known about ..."
"My blood ties to the Emperor?" the Princess inquired drily. "I learned about it about 18 months ago. It was definitely a surprise. Finding out that Luke is my twin brother was a delightful surprise; Vader as biological paternal parent was far less wonderful."
Relinka took a deep breath and flashed out her encouraging, 125 watt smile, "I can imagine that as a Rebel leader, that would be a challenge. So Princess Leia ..."
She trailed off even as the Jade, Organa, and Solo abruptly looked up into the sky. A small craft appeared overhead, hovered, and then something ejected from its belly.
Spetzv smiled to herself in relief, then froze in horror as the man abruptly pulled a blaster and aimed it upwards.
"Sir, sir!" Spetzv squeaked, "Please don't shoot our holocam."
"Holocam, huh?" the man replied, glowering. "It better be."
"It is," Agent Jade said firmly as it got closer. "Stand down, Solo."
The Corellian scowled at the woman, then reluctantly reholstered his weapon.
Relinka took a deep breath. These Rebels sure were trigger happy.
The holocam drifted into position and Relinka turned it on, first aiming it toward herself.
"Relinka Spetzv here at a secret location on Imperial Center. Behind me, the building in which Emperor Vader and his son, Luke Skywalker, are battling for honor. We regrettably lost our holocam inside, so we don't know who is prevailing, or even whether one of the combatants has ..."
She trailed away dramatically, but Princess Leia spoke up now, "They are both fine. Tired, but no injuries."
Relinka blinked. How did this beautiful but unnerving woman know that?
Behind her, the building made some more unhappy sounds and Relinka spun toward it nervously. But they were far enough away if the whole thing collapsed they should be safe.
She glanced at her co-host, who was still breathing into the bag, and turned back to Leia Organa. Cray had saved her nuna bacon when she'd fallen apart in Vader's presence; the least she could do was carry on for him now.
"Princess Leia," she said, assuming an earnest expression, "while we wait to learn the result of this epic battle between father and son, perhaps you'd care to share how you felt when you learned that Emperor Palpatine was dead? I am sure, as a noted Rebel leader, you were ..."
She trailed off invitingly. The princess shot a thoughtful look at her male companion, then smiled slightly.
"Relieved," the woman responded gravely. "That's the best word. Relieved. I mean, Palpatine has staved off so many assassination attempts and it truly was a risky operation. When my lightsaber blade plunged into the Emperor's chest, I was filled with a sense of accomplishment and delight and yes, pride, but mostly relief."
Relinka felt the blood drain from her face.
"I'm sorry, your Highness," she said in a higher pitched tone than usual, "are you saying that you, that you, killed Emperor Palpatine?"
The woman actually bared her teeth slightly, her face taking on such a fearsome mien that Spetzv took an involuntary step back, "Indeed I did. Palpatine plotted and manipulated and destroyed to set up the Galactic Empire, which is responsible for the destruction of many billions of sentients, perhaps trillions. On a more personal level, he destroyed my family of birth. He was the primary player in the events leading up to my father's betrayal of the Jedi and my mother's death. And of course ..."
Here grief flashed across her face like a tidal wave, "The Death Star was Palpatine's pet battle station. He poured billions of credits into it and ravaged whole worlds and peoples to have it built. And then he used it on Alderaan ..."
The princess looked down now at her hand, which incredibly enough, had a hilt in it now. She pushed a button and it sprang to life with a hiss of blue light.
"It was my honor and my pleasure and my glory to put an end to the dragon who has kept this galaxy in Darkness for the last 25 years. Death to all tyrants!"
Relinka's eyes were so wide she was vaguely surprised that her eyeballs didn't pop out. Deep in her heart, she had truly wondered if Leia Organa of Alderaan was Vader's daughter, or whether this was all some weird publicity stunt.
She didn't wonder now. This woman was terrifying.
There was a sudden crash to her right, and she turned suddenly along with anyone else. To her surprise and horror, the building was crumbling!
"Luke!" the Corellian called out in a worried tone.
At that moment, two figures appeared on the roof, first the slighter figure of Luke Skywalker, then the giant cyborg Darth Vader. As bits of masonry and metal struts and glass continued to shatter and fall, as the building walls crumbled around them, the two men leaped back and forth on the unstable, shifting structure battling and fighting and clashing their swords.
Relinka felt her usual terror rising at the sight of Darth Vader, but she managed to suppress it. He certainly wasn't paying any attention to her.
Abruptly, to her shock, Skywalker did a sudden double twisting backwards somersault and landed only a couple of meters from her. A moment later, Vader was on the ground as well. He'd skipped the fancy acrobatics though.
For a long moment, father and son regarded one another gravely across their blades.
The galaxy waited with them, some actually holding their breath, some gulping down more beer, some taking this moment to run to the kitchen for snacks, many more eagerly placing additional bets on the results of the duel.
Skywalker broke the tableau first by lowering his blade.
"So ... I will admit, Father, that I am very very tired. You are still the amazing fighter I remember from Bespin."
A long pause, and the Dark Lord also lowered his saber, "Your fatigue is likely less drastic than mine, Son. I have more than 2 decades on you, after all."
A slow smile lit up Luke's face, followed by his finger pushing the button's saber to turn it off.
"Truce?" he asked hopefully.
Vader also turned off his lightsaber.
"Truce," the Dark Lord rumbled in assent, then added, "you are an excellent fighter, Luke. I have not met someone so closely matched to me in decades."
"It's like I'm your son or something," the youth responded with a grin.
The Dark Lord stepped forward to place a heavy hand on his son's shoulders, "I am willing to concede that your view of Dark and Light may possibly be correct. You drew upon the Light and I upon the Dark, and we were indeed very evenly matched."
Agent Jade now stepped forward, and to the surprise of almost everyone, twined what was undoubtedly an affectionate arm around Skywalker.
"You did great, Farmboy."
"I did, didn't I?" he returned lightly, then bent down and planted an ardent kiss on her lips.
The Emperor noticeably stiffened, then firmly turned away from this apparently distressing picture to tap some commands into his comlink.
"Our shuttle will be here momentarily," he rumbled.
"Well, that turned out pretty well," the Corellian remarked suddenly.
"Yes, it did, my love," Organa responded, standing on her tiptoes to plaster her own lips against the tall man's mouth.
There was a slightly anguished grunt from the Emperor, who turned again. His gaze, most regrettably, was now on the Holonet hosts.
Relinka felt her tongue freeze in her mouth from fear even as Cray, finally done with his hyperventilation, staggered with difficulty to his feet. "Your Highness, please. For the benefit of the ... citizens of the galaxy, who won this duel? I am sure many of our citizens have placed considerable bets ..."
He trailed away in terror as the Emperor took an angry step forward.
"Are you saying that my subjects were betting on..."
"Of course they were, your Highness," the Corellian interposed suddenly, having broken free from his embrace of the Princess. "People will bet on snail races, alcoholic contests, and how much meat-fin they can eat before vomiting. People will bet on anything!"
The man now turned to Cray with a cocky grin on his face, "Unfortunately, this duel really was a draw. But if you need a loser, I'd say the building."
A few yards away, the last two pillars gave way and the entire building collapsed to the ground with a resounding crash.
/
Author Note: Nearly done with this fic now!