Star Wars Rebels: Deep Dark Secrets

Chapter 11: The Emperor

(Jessie pov)

I wake up with a splitting headache. I'm lying on hard duracrete and I look behind me to see a sleeping Ezra strapped to a metal table. I remember waking up and being dragged from another hard floor to this one and then passing out again.
I stand up shakily and grasp my head. "Stupid buckethead," I mutter, rubbing where the stormtrooper hit me with his rifle. Then I hear Ezra groan and ask, "Jessie?"
I turn around and hug him. I'm surprised when he doesn't hug me back. Then I remember the restraints. But there's something else....
"They paralyzed me," Ezra says softly. "I don't know why they even bothered to keep the restraints."
I pull away and stare at him. "They drugged you?!"
He smiles weakly. "I'm apparently going to be stuck like this for another 2 days at LEAST, and then they'll just reapply the drug. The scientist who applied it said that I could only talk and breathe, not much more. But I can do this."
I lean in and he kisses me. It's soft and sweet, like our first kiss.
When we pull apart, I say something I've never said before. Only Ezra has ever said it aloud. "I love you."
"I love you too," he smiles and I lean in again. But before I can reach him something pulls me back and into the air. I gasp as invisible fingers close around my neck. Then I am turned towards the source of the Force pull.

I stare at an old man in a black robe. His hood covers some of his face, but I can see the gleam of the yellow eyes under it. His face is full of heavy wrinkles and he cackles evilly. Behind him, I see Darth Vader and the Inquisitor. Oh carabast.

I desperately pull at my neck, t the invisible hand trying to choke me. I hear Ezra cry out and I know that if he could, he would be pulling against his restraints right now and trying to free me.
"Jessie!" My boyfriend calls. "Let her go!" He yells at the old man, who cackles again and drops me to the ground. I land with a thud, like a stone, on my knees. I gasp for breath and pant heavily.

"I am Emperor Palpatine," the old man says. I raise my head and glare at him.
"And you are?"
I stand up and curl my fingers into fists. "Isn't that a redundant question?"
"Do not speak to the Emperor that way," Darth Vader says and stretches out his hand. I slam backwards into a wall as Ezra screams my name. I collapse onto the ground and breathe heavily.I think my rib is broken. I wrap an arm around my stomach.
"He will soon be your new Master," Vader says.
Though injured, I still raise my head defiantly. "Over my dead body."

Palpatine turns to my boyfriend. "She's very feisty. No wonder you and her are together. You are very alike."
Ezra's eyes are lit with anger, but he struggles to control it. "The Emperor, huh? Glad I'm so important that Vadey and the Inquisity couldn't handle me. So much for Sith 'Lords', huh?"
The Inquisitor looks angry at this, and Vader is unreadable with his mask. But I sense anger coming from him. And... something else. But I don't know what.

Palpatine ignores Ezra's remarks and gives him a hard look. "Who are you?"

Ezra chuckles. "I agree with the blonde. It's a redundant question. You know full well who I am."

The Emperor stretches out a hand and Ezra's eyes go blank. I sense his mind fighting, but it gives in and Ezra begins to talk. "Ezra Bridger, age 15. Born on Lothal, Empire Day. No surviving family to my knowledge.  Member of the Lothal Rebels and Jedi Padawan to Kanan Jarrus, Jedi Knight. Boy-"
Ezra's mind struggles. His eyes light up, then go blank again as the Force washes over him in dark waves. "Boyfriend of Jessie Lovt, Force-sensitive and bounty hunter. 14-years-old, born on Korriban. Family: Dead. Member of the Lothal Rebels."
The Emperor retracts his hand and smiles cruelly. Ezra's eyes re-light and he gasps, coming back to reality. He looks at me-managing to look at me even though he can't turn his head-,hurt in his eyes. "I'm so sorry. He-"
"-I know. It's okay," I tell him. "It wasn't your fault."
The Emperor uses the Force to grab me off the ground and toss me in front of him. I land on my rib, and wince in pain as a sharp crack echoes through the room. I grab my stomach and glare at the Emperor in hate as he towers over me. He turns to Ezra and uses the Force to release his restraints. Ezra falls to the ground, and being unable to move, stays there. I crawl over to him and he gives me a look that clearly says, This isn't good.

"Children, now you learn the truth. The hard, cold truth."
"And that is?" Ezra asks. "That we both probably aren't going to make it out of this alive?"
Palpatine chuckles.
"No. That only ONE of you will."