Divided Loyalties

XII

Darkness was almost physically thick, as dense and oppressive as a gloomy, cold blanket that isolated the hearing from every sound. Leia couldn't reach the Force from the core of such an overwhelming black, she couldn't control her senses, she couldn't feel anything.

She didn't use to meet darkness when she closed her eyes: she could see the peaceful, light-blue aura that belonged to her brother's presence, which sometimes flickered with warm, golden hues. She could see the fierce, ferocious red of her father's flame, a presence that could suddenly become calmer, marked by hope's yellow stripes. And when she couldn't admire her relatives' Force signatures, she could still see the weak and grayish (but alive) ones of the Imperial soldiers.

Now, though, there wasn't anything but black. The Force wasn't embracing her anymore; her prayers were swallowed by the crushing, silent darkness.

But then, after what looked like a never-ending agony where nothing changed, Leia could say that she had opened her eyes, even if she couldn't see beyond the tip of her nose and she couldn't connect with the Force. She could say she was conscious because of the smell of stale she was breathing, the sensation of something cold around her wrists and a light breathing sound - a human being.

"Hello?" the girl said to the nothingness, discovering that her voice sounded annoyingly raspy.

The fact that someone actually answered made her jump out of her skin.

"Of course" a voice said, a voice that felt mellifluous and scary at the same time.

A faint light appeared in the form of a candle, illuminating the pale, wrinkled face of an old man. His eyes, as Leia noticed with a grimace of disgust, were disturbingly yellow, and they emanated a cruel glow.

She knew whose face it was, but she was trying to convince herself that she was dreaming.

"I have been waiting for you, Leia Organa" Palpatine said sweetly. "Or should I say Leia Skywalker?".

The girl shuddered, hoping the Emperor would believe it was because of the cold. For the first time she felt terrified about what she could meet in that awful place: she was clearly in a cell, she even had manacles, and the mere idea of being in the same room as Sidious made her cringe.

The Dark Lord had obviously guessed what she was thinking about.

"I have no intention of harming you, if you behave" he said with that sugared tone of his. Leia glared at him, clearly showing that she would not be as meek as a lamb.

The Emperor displayed for the first time his rotting, brownish teeth in a fake smile.

"If you still believe you can resist, then you are wrong, my dear" he said, pretending he was showing mercy. "I can do things you cannot even imagine, and you won't be able to use the Force because of the cuffs you are wearing".

Leia looked down at her wrists, now hating her restraints even more. At least, she thought, she coundn't sense Palpatine's disgusting presence: she was sure she would have vomited if she had felt it.

Meanwhile the Emperor spoke again: he explained accurately, as if he cared, that she wasn't going to receive food or water before her surrender. Leia simply stared with hate, staying strong as long as she was lucid. She knew that the times to come wouldn't be easy.

When he concluded the illustration of his diabolic plans, Sidious left the high-security jail of the Imperial palace and reached his personal residence. He had a lot to do: surely his silly apprentice, Vader, was already looking for his daughter, and hopefully his son was with him. The Emperor would be able to eliminate the two Skywalker males at the same time, while Leia, after receiving the news of her beloved ones' passing, would be doomed. She would be too broken to resist.

With his typical sneer Palpatine connected his main control computer to the wiretap he had previously installed in Vader's personal ship and checked the vehicle's coordinates. It was flying over Utapau, a planet of the Outer Rim which was located between Coruscant and the Executor's secluded position.

It was perfect.

The Emperor pressed the button that would activate a bomb from the distance.

~~~

Silence had been the protagonist of the first six hours of Vader and Luke's journey. No one had talked about Leia because of the anguish the mere thought caused, and no one had talked about anything else because of a mutual respect. A deep sadness ruled, the air was filled by such a great pain that an intruder would have felt it.

But suddenly everything changed. Both Vader and Luke heard the sound of an intermittent alarm that seemed to signal damage to the ship, but after a quick supervision they realised everything was fine.

Which meant nothing was.

In the engines, a well hidden bomb turned on and exploded, destroying completely all those systems that were vital for the ship. Vader and Luke, of course, noticed the problem, but they kept their panic under control, trying to restart the vehicle.

Luke immediately went to the engines, and had to keep himself from screaming. There wasn't a single part that was intact. The ship was going to plummet!

Vader understood what was going on when his son came back, terrified, with the eyes of a man that doesn't want to die. The Sith Lord decided that he had to guarantee at least a crash landing.

When he realised that he couldn't activate the escape pods because of the lack of energy (the electrical system had literally disappeared), he acted on instinct and immediately grabbed on to Luke as the ship fell down and down. He hoped he could at least be a shield to him with his armour.

And this was the last of the Sith's thoughts before everything became darker than his cloak.

Luke opened his eyes with great effort, irritated by the hum in his hears that clearly didn't want to leave him. He felt pain in every part of his body, though not intensely enough to consider himself gravely injured. His main source of trouble was a heavy wreck that was crushing him, a piece of junk that was touched by the flames, hence dangerous.

Despite the dizziness Luke managed to reach the Force and plunged in it deeply, forgetting everything else. The wreck was slowly lifted from the ground and fell behind, freeing the young Jedi and displaying a semi desertic scenery to his astonished eyes.

Swaying on his feet and occasionally flinching for barely noticed injuries, Luke stood up and took in his surroundings.

Then his gaze fell on the wreck he had just removed from his own body.

That was no wreck...

Hey.
I finally managed to write another chapter. Man, this one was intense😂
Enjoy and leave feedback!
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