[Short Stories] - Dark Emperor 3(13)

Vader leaned wearily against the wall as gazed at the station. Soon, he had been told, he, the Emperor, and his son would all meet there. The thought depressed him. He had hoped that he could persuade his son to join him, that together they could be powerful enough to do what Vader could not do, and transform the Empire. Now that Luke was to be delivered to Palpatine, that would never be possible, if indeed it ever had been.

Vader also felt old. Ever since he had seen Kenobi’s damnable message, he had been acutely aware that he had lived two lifetimes, both of which had exacted their price. He had the feeling that for him, the end was near, though he could not say why. Perhaps he would welcome the end, when it came. His only regret would be the boy. His son. What would he become in the Emperor’s hands?

Luke continued to stir conflict within him. His son belonged to his old life, and though he wanted very much to bring Luke into his new one, Vader understood that it could never be. He had made his choices long ago, and it was too late for him by far. Obi-Wan had been wrong to think differently.

A flicker of pseudomotion among the stars caught Vader’s attention. He knew without checking that it was the arrival of the Star Destroyer New Order, one of the Emperor’s personal transports. He felt his Master’s presence like a signal fire on a nearby hill. He craved its heat, and despite himself, he longed to go and be near it.

Even before the recognition signal had been received by the flagship, Vader announced, “The Emperor has arrived. Prepare a military salute. I will receive him on the Death Star.” Admiral Piett hurried to obey as Vader turned on his heel and swiftly left the bridge, his black cape flaring. Vader felt a curious calm, a peace that came with the certainty that whatever the outcome, the end of the game was at hand. He hoped that the Force would be with him.



As it has been told in detail in the Journal of the Whills, The Jedi Nexus finally arrived at the moment that Darth Vader stepped into the throne room with Luke Skywalker and entered the presence of the Emperor Palpatine. The Force itself took part in the events that followed. As he faced a dark side Master who had slaughtered a multitude of great Jedi in the past, Luke Skywalker was not simply an untested Jedi student. He was the agent of the light side itself. For too long, the balance of the Force had been upset. The dark side had taken too much, destroyed too much. In that room, the balance was restored.

By now you must know your Father can never be turned from the dark side, the Emperor told Luke. But he was wrong. The light side of the Force had acted in a way Palpatine had never foreseen in any of his visions. It had manifested in Luke’s courage to face his father, and opened the eyes of a man long since blinded by the darkness. Thus was the paradox that had troubled Palpatine finally resolved. As he had thought, a barely trained youth could not be a threat to him, but that same youth awakened and inspired the man who could be.

It was Darth Vader who fell before the lightsaber of his enemy, but when Luke renounced the dark side’s offer of power, and turned away from killing him, it was Anakin Skywalker who climbed to his feet. The words of his son filled his ears. I’ll never turn to the dark side. You’ve failed, your Highness. I am a Jedi, like my Father before me. The words became truth. When the enraged Emperor unleashed the full power of his hatred on Luke Skywalker, searing him with blast after blast of Force lightning, Anakin had fulfilled his destiny. Although he had not known it, his son had been more to him than the hope of taking the Emperor’s throne and freeing himself from servitude to Palpatine. His son was the path back to his old life, the chance to reclaim himself. The agony of facing his son’s death, and with it, the loss of that chance forever, drove out the seductive whisper of the dark side at last. Standing by the Emperor’s side in his accustomed position of trust, he had lifted his Master and hurled him into the violent energies of the seemingly bottomless core shaft.

The Emperor was falling. He was filled with fear and surprise, and screamed all the way down. His body was ripped asunder by a collision with gigantic energy discharges. His life force was swallowed into the dark side, but Palpatine, having foreseen this moment, was ready.

His essence easily reached the small room at the base of the throne tower on the Death Star, where he had hidden a single clone body. A person like the Emperor did not ignore his visions. Months ago, a terrifying vision of his death had started him on this course, but he had been determined to outwit his seeming destiny. He knew that if worst came to worst in his meeting with Skywalker, he would not die so far from Byss that he could not reach one of his clones. He poured into the clone with relief. Somewhere above him, he was sure, Luke Skywalker was still alive. That must be changed.