The Force Unleashed (42 page)

nerve.

Glancing over Darth Vader's shoulder, he saw the Emperor watching the duel, his face

screwed up in malevolent delight. And the apprentice understood. A better way to

kill. . .

Not out of hatred. Whatever lay beneath that black mask, it wasn't beauty or

happiness. Only ugliness and pain would hide itself away for so long. Hatred would

not be enough to turn the tables on Darth Vader.

Reaching out with his left hand, he blasted his Master with Sith lightning. That

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broke the momentum of the furious onslaught, enabling him to stand and catch his

breath.

"I don't need to hate you in order to beat you," he gasped. "That's something I will

teach you now."

"You can teach me nothing," Darth Vader's leaden voice intoned. One black glove

clenched, and for a moment the apprentice's throat closed tight.

He beat back the telekinetic attack with one of his own, shoving his Master in the

chest with the force of a small explosion, throwing Darth Vader backward across the

room.

For all his size and occasional clumsiness, the Dark Lord was sure on his feet. He

landed upright and launched himself back into the fray.

"I don't hate you," the apprentice went on, blocking him blow for blow. "I pity

you." With a new strength of his own, he forced Darth Vader onto his back foot. "You

destroyed who I was and made me as I am now, but this wasn't your idea. It was the

Emperor's, and it's what he's already done to you." A strip of Darth Vader's cape

fluttered away, smoking. The two came closer together until they were face-to-mask.

The apprentice stared directly into the black eye guards of his former Master. "You

are his creature just as I was yours-but you've never had the strength to rebel.

That's why I pity you. I will no longer serve a monster, and if I have my way I'll

make sure you don't, either."

Vader tried to pull away, but the apprentice followed him, keeping him on the back

foot.

"I will kill you," he said, "to set you free."

The lightsabers flashed again-and it was the apprentice who found the chink in the

armor that both of them had been waiting for. Vader's lightsaber moved too slowly to

block a blow to his chest, allowing the apprentice's blade to slash deeply across

his armored throat. Vader staggered backward, gloved hand upraised to the smoking

wound.

There was no blood. Instead of pressing the attack, the apprentice stood his ground.

Despite himself, he was as surprised as his former Master clearly was.

For a moment, the only sounds were the twin humming of the lightsabers and the

wheezing of Darth Vader's respirator.

Then the Dark Lord laughed.

It was an awful sound, empty of humor and full of mockery. In it, the apprentice

heard a decade and a half of torture and abuse.

Anger flared. He lunged forward. His former Master barely blocked the blow. A second

scored a deep wound across his black-clad shoulder. A third stabbed deep into his

thigh.

Darth Vader reeled backward, servos whining in his injured limbs and lightsaber

shaking.

The apprentice gripped his lightsaber in both hands and held himself back. Anger was

familiar and powerful; it also clouded his eyes when he most needed to see clearly.

Vader prepared for combat again. His power over the apprentice, however, was gone.

His lightsaber went skittering and sparking across the floor, twisted out of his

grip by telekinesis. The Force wrenched him into the air, as he had once lifted the

apprentice's father, and a barrage of missiles struck at him with increasing

strength. He raised his gloved hands to defend himself, but the battery continued

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until, with a crash, the apprentice ripped the energy field generator in the center

of the room right out of the floor and hurled it at his former Master.

The generator exploded with greater force than he had expected, throwing him and

everyone else to the floor. The transparisteel dome shattered. Debris rained

everywhere. The sound of the explosion rang in his ears for an unnaturally long time

afterward.

He was the first to his feet, striding across the rubble to where Darth Vader lay

face-forward, gravely wounded and stripped of his armor in places. Flesh and

machinery showed through the gaps. Finally, some real blood was flowing.

The apprentice stood over him with his lightsaber upraised and ready to strike. His

former Master was trying to stand, feebly willing his massive bulk to move as it was

supposed to. Servomotors whined and strained. When he rolled over, the apprentice

froze.

Darth Vader's helmet had been ripped away by the blast. Beneath was the face of the

man who had stolen and enslaved him, a pathetic, hairless thing covered in wrinkles

and old scar tissue. Only the eyes showed the slightest signs of life: blue and full

of pain, they stared up at him with undisguised weariness.

The Emperor appeared out of the settling smoke, glee on his face. He raised one hand

as though to touch the apprentice. The apprentice felt a wave of hypnotic suggestion

flow through him.

Yes! Kill him! He is weak, broken! Kill him and you can take your rightful place at

my side!

The apprentice remained frozen, mesmerized by the Emperor's ghastly charisma. Why

not? Wasn't this what he had considered on Raxus Prime? If he agreed to that plan,

he would be free of one Master and slave to another-but what was to stop him from

attacking that Master in turn, one day? He would not make the same mistakes Darth

Vader had.

Darth Vader-who had murdered his father, lied to and betrayed him, killed PROXY,

branded Juno a traitor, and kidnapped Kota and the others. Didn't he deserve to die

a thousand times over?

And power-he had become used to it in the service of his Master. When the dark side

sang through him, others danced to his will. That would be hard to give up.

"No!" Kota's voice came as though from a great distance. The apprentice noted, as

though viewing the world in slow motion, the Jedi Master telekinetically snatching

the Emperor's lightsaber from his waist and, with a surety belying his physical

blindness, using it to cut down the Imperial Guards watching the prisoners. Lunging

forward, he struck next at the Emperor, who stood, apparently unarmed, with one hand

still reaching out for the apprentice.

But the Emperor was never unarmed. Raising his other hand, he blasted Kota with

lightning before the blow came close to falling. Sith energy crackled between them

and the Jedi Master fell back, caught in the Emperor's deadly grip.

"Help him!"

Bail Organa's voice snapped the apprentice out of his trance. He shook his head,

feeling the Emperor's influence sliding off him like oil. What had he been thinking?

He didn't want to return to the dark side after everything he had been through. He

had seen what it did, in Maris Brood, on Felucia, and in the eyes of Darth Vader. He

didn't even want to kill his Master, now that he saw him humbled and at his mercy.

That was where it had all started, he now realized. When Darth Vader had killed

Galen's father and Galen had snatched the lightsaber from his hand, his intention

had been solely to avenge his father's death. That had been what Vader had seen in

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him all those years ago, not just that he was strong with the Force-and that was why

Galen had blotted out the person he had once been. He had taken that first step down

the path of the dark side all on his own, before he had been subjected to Vader's

cruel tutelage. He had to retract it now or submit to the dark side forever.

Murdering Darth Vader would accomplish nothing. Saving his friends might change the

course of history.

Seen in that light, the decision was surprisingly easy.

A hail of shattered transparisteel and debris drove the Emperor back from Kota,

breaking his concentration and freeing the Jedi Master from the fatal web of energy.

Smoking and weak, Kota fell away and was caught by Garm Bel Iblis. The apprentice

tossed them the comlink and advanced on Palpatine.

"Good," hissed the Emperor, his claw-like hands upraised between them like a weak

old man fending off an attacker. Stumbling, he fell to his knees. "Yes." He looked

up at the apprentice. "You were destined to destroy me. Do it! Give in to your

hatred!"

The apprentice stood over him for a moment with his lightsaber upraised. Its aqua

light reflected in the eyes of the galaxy's Emperor as though it was the last thing

he would ever see.

With a snap, the apprentice extinguished the blade and lowered his arm.

Kota limped up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. "That's it, boy," he said

with rough pride. "He's beaten. Let it go."

The sound of engines from above distracted them both. They looked up to see the

Rogue Shadow descending over the shattered dome, lights flashing on and off to

attract their attention. Its repulsors dispelled the last of the smoke and sent the

apprentice's tattered cape whipping around his legs.

Juno, he thought. At last, everything is going to be all right.

"You fool!" snarled the Emperor, sending another wave of Sith lightning into Kota's

back. "He will never be yours."

Kota fell with his arms upraised, and the apprentice knew that it wasn't over yet.

The moment of truth had arrived.

Without hesitation, he stepped between Kota and the Emperor, taking the full brunt

of the Sith lightning into his own body.

The pain was incredible, searing every nerve back to its individual cells, skewering

each of them on white-hot needles. He had never before felt anything like this. He

wanted to recoil from the source, to curl into a ball and let unconsciousness take

the pain away, but somehow he stayed standing, seeing the world through a crackling

blue light, and even took a step toward the Emperor.

"Go!" he hissed at Kota. "Hurry!"

The general hesitated only for a moment. He, too, had seen a glimpse of the future,

the apprentice remembered. He knew that it came down to a simple choice: him and the

Rebels or the apprentice and darkness forever. Gathering up the Rebels, Kola ushered

them toward the descending ship.

Another staggering, painful step and the Emperor was within the apprentice's reach.

With shaking fingers, he took the old man's bony shoulders in his hands and gripped

them tight. The Sith lightning spread to engulf the two of them, fueled by both

their desperations. The Emperor tipped back his head and howled in lascivious pain.

Darkness threatened to envelop the apprentice's mind, but he clutched to

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consciousness with feverish will. He had to see this through. He had to.

A squadron of stormtroopers ran into the room, led by a limping Darth Vader. They

raised their blasters to gun down the Rebels as they fled up the Rogue Shadow's

ramp.

"No!" the apprentice cried, dropping his defenses to strike one last time at the

Imperials. Energy surged through him. He felt as though a star had blazed to life in

his chest. Driven by concern for his friends rather than himself, he embraced the

Force completely, utterly, and was rewarded with strength that made his efforts with

the dark side look like those of a child. His nerves were on fire. Streamers of

light radiated from his skin. His bones glowed like radiant lava.

He saw rather than felt the massive shock wave that consumed a large portion of what

remained of the observation dome. A glowing bubble of fire tore the stormtroopers to

shreds and engulfed Vader and the Emperor. Shrapnel filled the air like dust caught

in the beam of the Death Star's powerful laser.

Tossed like a leaf, the Rogue Shadow fled in haste, ramp snapping shut on its

precious cargo.

The apprentice felt himself leaving his body again. Or was his body leaving him this

time? He felt ripped apart by the energy that had flowed through him. Every cell was

in shock; every fiber shook. The fire on his face possessed no heat at all. His

limbs felt as distant as the farthest arms of the galaxy. He was amazed there was

enough left of him to think at all.

Weakened by the blast, the dome's supports gave way. It collapsed into the

superlaser dish, triggering a series of conventional explosions. Stormtroopers

converged on the site. Through the dense smoke, two figures were visible from the

apprentice's rarefied perspective.

Darth Vader struggled to his feet from the rubble, even more damaged than before. He

reached out for support and found only his Master, scowling.

Together, unspeaking, they searched the rubble.

When they found what they were looking for, neither of them looked any happier for

it.

"He is dead," the Dark Lord intoned, gazing dispassionately at the body at their

feet.

This moment, the apprentice thought. I saw this!

"Then he is now more powerful than ever." The Emperor glanced up, watching sourly as

the Rogue Shadow sped away into the busy sky. "He was meant to root out the Rebels,