Memoirs of a Sith Lord

The only True Passion

The belly of the dead sarlacc was vast, nearly a square kilometer of twisting tunnel. It was easy to defend because few would venture near it, and when they did the Sith children used the Force to cause its tentacles to writhe.

I said "children," but they were grown. Terrible warriors in their own right.

Luke stood among them, cloaked in darkness. I felt the power radiating from him--and something stronger, blacker than shadows behind him. The Emperor?

The Jedi spirits lined up alongside me, facing my coven. Each of us prepared for battle.

"Luke, turn aside," I said. "Don't make the mistakes I made."

His mouth twitched. "Flee, Father." He raised his hands. "Or I will be forced to destroy you."

"No, Luke, listen to me. The Dark Side is not the way."

Luke shook his head, frowning. "Father, you know the power of the Dark Side. I must obey my master."

"I resisted," I protested.

"How?"

Violet energy crackled toward me from Luke's outstretched fingers, showering me with pain. Many Sith Lords have commanded that power, and Emperor Palpatine mastered it. I never learned to use it, but Luke showed a touch of the maestro. For a moment, I was proud.

You cannot imagine how fearsome that lightning is. It is not the pain it inflicts, though that is considerable--it is not the material destruction it wreaks, which can take you apart at a cellular level--it is the glimmering of foresight it contains that inflicts the real damage. Through it, you see the ends of your own acts, the accumulated consequences of your failings.

I saw Luke, consumed by the Dark Side, becoming everything the Emperor was and more--I saw his coven performing unspeakable atrocities. I saw him turning Leia.

No!

I denied those shattered futures. I threw Luke's power back at him, turned the violet discharges of energy away from me and redoubled my will.

"The Sith code is the key to beating the Sith," I said. "Peace is a lie, there is only passion."

I paused to gather my strength, pushing against the storm of energy.

"Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power," Luke said.

He struck again. Lightning flashed in his eyes and across his teeth. I knew he did not hate me--not yet. But I felt the mixture of fear and hatred kindling in him, consuming his spirit as if it were formed of dried Rominaria flowers or the husks of dead jawas.

The other Sith engaged the spirits of the Jedi. Etheric lights gleamed and the crackle of energy filled the air.

"Through power, I gain victory," Luke said, shoving me backward.

"Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall set me free!" I said.

I reached, extending my will. I strove to tear away the darkness from my son's soul. He twisted, a wounded animal within my grasp.

"Luke, the only true passion is love. The Sith call it a dangerous emotion, and the Jedi fear the attachment it creates--but I was never stronger than when Padmé was by my side."

Luke screamed, sending waves of power crashing around me. I saw Padmé's shining face outlined in that magenta fire, and watched it smash apart like scattered amethysts. It reminded me of seeing her blood boil away as her suit failed.

"My love for you allowed me to resist the Emperor," I said. "Through love, I defeated him in the end."

I raised both my hands and called on all the power the Force had ever given me. Luke stumbled, blood appeared at the corners of his eyes and trickled from his ears. He gagged. I changed my grip, struck again, and Luke's flesh withered--just as Lord Palpatine's once did.

If I destroyed him, the Jedi could put our spirits together in one of their prisons. Death is not the end. Not for a Jedi. All I had to do to save my son was to murder him. You'd think it would be easy for one such as I. I've killed so many.

I released him.

He choked once and laughed. "Love?" he said. "Really?" He laughed again.

"Think, son. It is why you wanted to be like me in the first place."

Luke lashed out at me again, violet fire cascaded through me.

"If love is so powerful, why can't you defeat me now?"

I saw his face, twisted with pain and rage. I knew the confusion the Dark Side could create.

"I don't want to defeat you--" but I could not complete the thought. Pain and fire constricted my chest, and in its myriad lashes of power, I saw Luke's eventual destruction--and watched as the galaxy celebrated the day. Festivals, parades, and fireworks clouded the sky thicker than stars.

"Do you know that I've already lost three members of this coven?" Luke said. "I wanted to protect them, but that only made me vulnerable. You never warned me about what the Dark Side of the Force does with the emotion of grief."

I did understand. Much of the Sith's power is self-destructive, but none more so than grief. "You can still turn away."

He struck again, and I was powerless to resist. I could not free my son without destroying him. No matter what I did, Luke would perish. I couldn't bring myself to destroy his body, but if I didn't his soul would be lost--and either way, it was my fault. From beginning to end, his death was on my hands. My failure was complete.

In despair, I dropped to the ground.

"Fight, you must," Yoda urged me.

But it was too late for me. I yielded when the dark bands of energy reached for me from the ground, let them suck me down with a slow twisting agony that would make a sarlacc quiver with envy.

The Jedi tried to enfold me with their protective prison, but Luke pushed it back with a laugh. I felt myself blur, become smaller, then fade to nothing.

"There goes our last hope," Obi-Wan said.