[Short Stories] - Dark Emperor 6(16)
Palpatine spread his arms. A cold wind began to blow around him as he gathered energy into himself. Easily, his own words as recorded in the Book of Anger came back to him.
Anger, concentrated by will in the vital center of the body creates a portal through which vast energies are released—the energies of the dark side of the Force. Standing watch with the mind, in my meditation of anger, I have slain my enemies through great distances, through the dark side power that permeates the galaxy. Using this knowledge, I can unleash the dark side energies that are all around us, even to shatter the fabric of space itself. In this way, I have created storms.
He had recorded those words after his victory over Urn Zelotes and the other adepts who had stood against him on Byss. To defeat them, he had created a Force Storm large enough to destroy a city. By the time he had faced Luke and Leia over Pinnacle Moon, he had been able to summon a Force Storm capable of swallowing a fleet of starships. Standing below the open portal to the dark side realm, he had access to the power in its most pure form. The Jedi Legion, which was forming a great circle around him, didn’t have any chance at all. Palpatine laughed at the Jedi as they surrounded him. He heard them speaking, but he did not register their words. Nothing they said could matter. They would soon be dead.
High above, the enormous whirlpool in the sky seemed to respond to his call. It seemed to him that it spun faster, and began to shape itself into a funnel, with the narrow end dipping down from the heavens towards him. At the center, the black portal into chaos pulsed and thundered. A great rumbling sound had begun to grow, and the ground trembled. The wind whipped his robes about, and lightning split the air again and again.
“I am the Emperor Palpatine!” he cried. “The greatest Master of the dark side who ever lived! Hear me now, Jedi! I am your doom, now and forever!”
Empatojayos Brand was astonished at the spectacle before him. His Jedi followers had surrounded the Emperor as planned, forming a great ring of beings linked hand in hand. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Brand’s own Master, Yoda, had doubled back and joined the circle. But the center of the circle held the makings of a natural disaster. The level of noise was daunting, what with the rumbling of the portal, the trembling of the ground, and the searing lightning strikes. In the middle of it all, Palpatine stood with his arms raised and his hood thrown back. He looked like one of the youthful clones described by Luke Skywalker. But as Brand watched, Palpatine’s appearance changed. His face melted back into the horribly withered old man’s visage Brand had seen on Onderon. The Emperor laughed at Brand and the other Jedi, a harsh mocking laugh full of stabbing scorn. Brand wondered how Yoda had ever managed to spend time with this monster up close.
To answer the Emperor’s laugh, Brand spoke out loudly and clearly to the assembled Jedi. “My fellow Jedi! This is a moment of greatness, which will be remembered forever in the light side of the Force! We have before us the enemy who destroyed us in life. We have the power to destroy him in turn. But that is not the Jedi way. We are Jedi! We serve the light! We do not destroy—we preserve and we redeem. We have been given an extraordinary chance to live by our ideals today! We can redeem and reclaim our most potent foe! Remember the Jedi code!”
“There is no emotion; there is peace.”
“There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.”
“There is no passion; there is serenity.”
“There is no death; there is the Force.”
Hundreds of voices repeated the Jedi code back to Brand. The voice he heard next to him was the high, clear voice of the woman who had conceived this bold plan. Without her, it would not have been tried. But her persuasion, her truth, and her goodness had shown them all the way. As she spoke the words, “There is no death; there is the Force,” Brand’s heart soared.
But the raging Emperor offered a hateful counterpoint. “I am the Emperor Palpatine! The greatest Master of the dark side who ever lived!” How it must pain her to see him like this, Brand thought. Her bravery must be immense.
“Hear me now, Jedi!” shouted Palpatine. “I am your doom, now and forever!”
At those defiant words, the woman at Brand’s side released his mechanical hand and held up her slender arm. She gestured, and a spear of dazzling light appeared in her hand, pulsing as brightly as a lightsaber blade. Following her example, each Jedi in the circle let go and summoned a brilliant spear. The heavens above the Emperor poured downwards towards the exultant dark side Master. The whirling portal drew close to him. Violent lightning struck the ground in a rough circle around him. Even brighter than the lightning were the light spears of the Jedi. As one, they lowered their spears and leveled them at the black robed figure in the center of the circle. Then they advanced.