In Shadows and Darkness

Chapter 25

Palpatine sat in the high, curve-backed chair on the Command Deck of the Patriot, specially fitted on his order to accommodate him on this journey, completing ignoring the tense, respectful bow by the medic Hallin as he walked briskly from the bridge, abuzz with nerves.

And well may he be; he clearly knew about Jade and Skywalker - was at virtual meltdown every time the two were together before Palpatine's close scrutiny - yet he had elected not to tell Palpatine of their trysts.

Palpatine had chosen the medic very carefully when he had first gained possession of his Jedi, seeking one person whom the boy would reasonably trust - one of a similar age and mindset with whom he could perhaps even build a friendship - confide in. He had at that point no clear knowledge of his new Jedi's mindset- if Jade were unsuitable to hold him, then perhaps Hallin would be more appropriate. Whichever- he needed something to exert control over the boy, something which could easily be taken away. Something that wouldn't withstand interrogation, if it came to the point that Palpatine needed facts.

His Jedi knew all this now of course- knew that the medic was living on borrowed time, that the thing which both protected and condemned him was Skywalker's continued association. For all his burgeoning strengths, his Jedi allowed himself far too many weakness- and he knew it.

Stood to the front of the Bridge, as far away from Palpatine as he could reasonably be and well aware of his Master's eyes on him, his Jedi was now with Admiral Joss and three officers, quietly conferring, Mara stood to loose attention at a tactful distance.

They were all uneasy with the fact that the Patriot was making a lightspeed jump with co-ordinates only, no planetary name or navigation inventory. Not that Palpatine cared; his military would do as they were ordered, and the reason for this journey was something he had purposely kept hidden from his Jedi. He wanted a genuine reaction on arrival; no time to hide true opinions behind shields- Skywalker was becoming far too adept at that.

And he still wore the ring; Palpatine hadn't failed to notice that. Though a few days had given him the perspective to see the fact for what it was; a minor dissent. Not so minor that he hadn't moved to prevent the boy from speaking to his father since the incident, bringing this trip forward to keep them well apart until Palpatine had finished sewing his little seeds of doubt in the boy's mind. The slightest of smiles twitched the corner of his lip in appreciation of the irony; here he had been, wary and watching for associations between the boy and his father, when in fact it had been his mother, the slip of a girl who had tried to turn Anakin's head, who had proved the problem.

Still, she had failed then and she would fail now; she wouldn't drive a wedge between Palpatine and the boy. He should thank her, he supposed; she had after all provided him not only with the man who had helped him create his Empire, but with the building-block to ensure that it thrived for generations to come. He had great plans for Padmés son, just as he'd once had for his father, and nothing as trivial as the boy's wilful intentions would derail him. Palpatine's greater plan rolled on regardless, and the boy was still dragged with it; this journey was proof of that.

Sulphurous eyes turned coldly on Mara as he considered long-term schemes and stratagems, some of which required her presence... others of which did not.

For now, he would tolerate their deceitful, impertinent little trysts because they served his purpose, immediate and long-term, but such indiscretions would not be flaunted within the Palace where Palpatine had other, larger games in play.

In the short term Jade bought him one more way to control Skywalker, however covertly. A valuable consideration, all things considered. She would never abscond and she would never betray him. Let the boy grow attached; Palpatine had already warned him repeatedly not to. That was the wonderful irony of it; despite all Palpatine's warnings that she would be a weakness- his demonstration of the fact- Luke had allowed her close anyway. So when Palpatine finally did use her to control him, Luke had no-one but himself to blame; certainly that was the lesson Palpatine would be looking to underline.

And he would need new control soon; he was beginning to question whether his old methods would work anymore. Still, one must be prepared to adapt- and Palpatine had always been flexible.

It would be a pity to think that he would never again be able to resort to the cell beneath the Palace as a means of controlling his fallen Jedi, but the boy was more Sith now than Jedi, and Palpatine doubted very much that it would hold him anymore. The barest shade of a private smile lifted bloodless lips into a shallow grin; yes, it would be a pity- he had always enjoyed their... exchanges on that particular battlefield, all civilized façades finally stripped away...

He settled back now, watching his Jedi closely as he stood at the front of the bridge, his iron determination not to turn or be intimidated beneath the Emperor's gaze blasting out, as enjoyably wilful as ever.

Yes, it would be hard to confine him again - to suppress and subdue by force.... but then perhaps he didn't need it any more; the boy's actions at the Patriot's launch had surprised Palpatine in their decisiveness and their commitment.

That was why he was here now; he was ready for the next step.

His wolf was finally walking to heel... even if it still growled occasionally.

He narrowed yellow-flecked eyes, reflecting on his feral Jedi's last visit to the cell, regretting the knowledge it would be just that. No matter how willing his wolf was to walk to heel, it would not tolerate further confinement; that had been crystal clear.

He remembered distinctly standing in the dark Ops room opposite the dedicated detention cell in the depths of the Palace monolith, watching the image within the nearby cell closely, waiting for Skywalker to wake from the drugs, very much aware that this would be a test of wills; though the specialized detention cell had been heavily augmented to allow for his burgeoning powers, it was now at the limits of technology. Skywalker knew his own abilities and he knew his own mind like never before. Now was the acid test.

The reason that he was here- that he had disobeyed his Master once too often and pushed just a little too far- would not come to Skywalker's mind yet; only his outrage at being caged.

And the always-harsh punishment for such disruptive behavior would also wait, often days, while Skywalker remained in confinement to consider his actions- and await their inevitable consequences.

Because when the punishment was finally metered out- often over several days- it was without limits or mercy... as he had often said to the boy; a lesson taught ruthlessly and relentlessly seldom needed to be taught twice.

Palpatine watched as he came around slowly now, fighting the effect of the drugs which would remain in his system to some degree until an antidote was administered to counter their self-replicating attributes- another means to control his emerging Sith advocate.

Still, it didn't take Skywalker long to realize where he was and drag himself unsteadily upright in response. He glanced to the door, but didn't even bother trying to reach it. Instead he shouted out, then turned directly to one of the security nodes; had it been a lens, Palpatine was certain the boy would have shattered it, but it was simply one in a series of staggered sensor relay nodes scattered about the interior of the thick cell walls which combined to create a single holographic image in the Ops room, so there was no specific place to aim his frustration at.

It didn't take him long to find one. He turned about, staggering against dizziness, shouting out again. When no-one came, he crouched down on his haunches, head tucked in, eyes closed...

Palpatine sensed the energy swarm as the boy called the Force to him, an all-encompassing inrush of raw power fed by fear and frustration and anger, and it tugged the Sith Emperor's bloodless lips into a tense, expectant smile.

For long seconds the boy continued to pull power in, head down, immersed completely in the act until it whirled about him like a twister searching to ground...

Then his hands dropped to the floor as fists as he focused the power, throwing it out about him, incredible, elemental energy flawlessly focused-

The impact was felt in the Ops room as a dull thud, several alarms activating, runs of numbers and estimates running up a nearby status screen. Palpatine flinched at the intense Force-directed blow, eyes never leaving the holo.

In the cell, the floor beneath Skywalker had indented in a perfect dish, the two nearest walls compressing in an inverted dome, the ceiling crazing as it did the same. Combined, they described the curve of a perfect, invisible sphere about him as he crouched at its centre, glancing about.

"There's been a sixteen percent reduction in the overall integrity of the structure, Excellency." The nervous Ops guard watched the figures scroll up. His hand hovered over a series of marked keys, awaiting the command- but the Emperor only smiled.

"No- give him that." Palpatine said, pleased, doubting the boy would have the strength left to try the same trick again, especially in his present state.

With several refinements, the cell had been constructed very much the same as the one which Lord Vader had first used to control his wayward son when he had caught him at Bespin.

It was a complex structure, one room within another, the outer room with feet-thick cast and cabled walls under vacuum, the inner room an interlocking series of heavy reinforced panels depending upon the vacuum which pulled them outwards to maintain integrity. Designed to withstand several times vacuum, the overlapping, interlocking structure of the walls was practically indestructible; if a Force-sensitive tried to destroy the cell by outward pressure, they only increased the wall's strength, and if he pulled them inwards and the walls began to lose integrity, the vacuum pressure would automatically be increased to augment them. In the unheard-of event of the structural failure of the inner-cell walls, the resultant equalizing of vacuum would knock anyone within the room unconscious.

It was an ingenious, practical solution to the problem of holding a Jedi, used with great success following the Clone Wars, never once failing...

Skywalker lowered his head and the inrush of power this time was sharp as a knife, heaved in on a massive, expansive scale, pulled tight as a bowstring, incredible capacity converging on a single spot, raw power held suspended, waiting for focus-

Palpatine paused, breathless...

The release was like a bomb detonating, the shockwave of sufficient density to rattle the reinforced door of the cell and jolt the eardrums of the guards lining the hall beyond, making them start nervously, blasters raising, eyes to the cell as the warning light above the door flashed.

"Integrity just went down another twenty-nine percent. Multiple fissures in the inner wall; three structural fractures to the outer assembly. The system is ramping vacuum to compensate." The man was audibly shaken by this, turning to the Emperor.

Palpatine remained still, head set to one side where he had braced against the outburst, eyes on the hologram of the cell as the dust which had scattered down from the ceiling cleared and the image-nodes recovered from the static burst of shock.

The walls were deeply inset now by the craters which still maintained a perfect sphere about Skywalker, long cracks crazing their surface, parts of the casing having broken free to show the heavier interlocking plassteel structure beneath.

He lifted his head to survey the damage and Palpatine leaned in slightly, narrowing his eyes. The pressure change of the outburst in the confined space had been great enough this time to affect Skywalker, though he must have shielded himself. But his nose was bloody, a burst of scarlet red spattered against the plain white of the featureless clothes he was always dressed in for his confinement.

If he was aware of the fact then he ignored it, glancing about him only momentarily before he lowered his head again in concentration, the scale of his influence ramping up again, building like static, grating in like nails down chalkboard, like blades on steel, still fed by that same iron resolve and unmeasured power-

"If he increases the strike by the same degree Excellency, both outer and inner walls will suffer structural failure..." The Ops guard turned tensely, hand still hovering over the same three toggle switches, knowing that he could render the volatile prisoner unconscious in seconds by activating them.

Palpatine considered for long seconds, torn between the fascinated desire to see just what the boy was capable of if pushed to his limits, and his intention that the cell remain indestructible to his Jedi's mind......

"Wait," he said calmly at last, "I will speak to him."

The man nodded, biting down on the wish to tell the Emperor to hurry.

Luke hunched down again, tucking his head in, pulling in focus...

The door slid open with the slightest hiss of equalizing air, pulling the dust up again in a flurry against the bright light from the corridor beyond which made Luke squint as he turned.

"Stop it." Palpatine's voice was indifferent and dismissive as he walked into the room, the door closing behind him with a hermetic hiss. He crossed casually without pausing or looking to Luke, "You damage nothing but yourself."

Luke lurched up, incensed, but the action made his head spin and he staggered back a step, shouting out his frustration. Palpatine paused at that, finally turning to face him, sulfurous yellow eyes staring out intently from the dark shadows of the heavy crimson cowl he wore, disapproval and demand hardening them. But the boy wouldn't yield.

"You can't hold me here! Not any more!"

Palpatine said nothing, merely stood with his back to the ruined wall and watched patronizingly, as a father would watch a child's tantrum.

"This won't hold me! It can't hold me and you know it!"

Skywalker stumbled back another step, the venom in his voice fed by Palpatine's composed distain.

"You're right." The Sith Master allowed, "But then we both know that this cage is more than walls and bars."

Luke fell silent, his train of thought broken, though Palpatine knew from his wild eyes and his tense stance that he didn't yet have control of his Wolf.

"This is a far stronger cage, and you build it about yourself." The Emperor shook his head, gesturing to the sealed door, "There is the door- open it."

Skywalker wheeled about, still unsteady on his feet but no less determined. He lifted his hand...

"But know that if you do, it will cost the lives of everyone you know here- everyone. Right now. The order is already in place; I need only activate it with a word."

The boy faltered fractionally beneath the threat, knowing it was real- and even though his back was to the Emperor, Palpatine grinned, knowing he had him, his voice mocking now.

"See? Already the price is too high." He shook his head, disdainful and derisive, "You're contemptibly weak. Pitifully easy to manipulate."

"You don't have nearly as much control as you think."

There was fire in his voice as the boy turned, eyes and sense boiling with barely-controlled fury, and Palpatine knew it was the truth. This would not be the easy victory it had been before; there were fewer chains of self-restraint which held his Wolf in check now, and barely enough control yet to bind him- but there was sufficient, if he managed it with care.

"Then walk out of the door"

"And then what Master?" the boy said, "What have you left to hang over my head if they were dead?"

"I have other means." the Sith assured, "I would not relinquish my Wolf so easily."

The boy remained silent, chest still heaving from his exertion, sense wildly volatile.

Palpatine stood his ground, unmoved. "You think you can escape- that you can run. You think you can hide from me? Don't be naïve. The galaxy isn't big enough anymore. You'll never again be beyond my reach because I know exactly what you are willing to pay for your freedom and I know what cost you would consider too high. That is your weakness; you can be bought like anybody else- not with money or power, but with the lives of others. Beings you don't even know. That is how weak you are."

Palpatine stepped in close. "I have no such weakness. I would track you down a step at a time and I would leave death and destruction in my wake, because I know that you would react- that you cannot help but do otherwise. Every being that you've touched, spoken to, dealt with. Every planet, every system- everyone. At what point would the death toll be too high? At what point would your resolve snap?But it wasn't the easy victory it would once have been; he wheeled about, realizing the emperors triumph and incensed by it"

"And if I were dead?"

The Emperor narrowed cold yellow eyes, gaze hardening at his Jedi's words. It was a genuine ultimatum, the threat implicit- and it was to be stamped out decisively. "That would not stay my hand in the slightest, Jedi; I would still take my revenge.

"I would take it from the hide of every creature you had ever known. I would make it my mission to see them scream so pitifully that you would hear them from the pit of hell and know that it was you who had brought this upon them- your actions which condemned them; you who turned my wrath upon them. And their kin and their species and their planet. My revenge would span systems... it would be a long time before my anger was satiated, I promise you that."

The boy held silent before the vehemence of this relentless, heartfelt tirade, jaw clenching, eyes filled with impotent fury at the unreserved threat he had brought down on everyone he had ever known. He had little of his old life left- Palpatine had long since ripped it to tatters in an effort to control him- but what still remained was precious to him, even when the memory and the reality were galaxies apart. And Palpatine knew it.

"You're weak." The Sith accused again, as Skywalker turned his gaze down, struggling to hold focus beneath the drag of the drugs now that his adrenaline was waning. "I've told you before- if you hold a weakness then those about you will always use it against you."

Skywalker said nothing, remained silent, eyes burning with indignation as he looked back up to his tormentor.

"Say it." Palpatine invited tritely, the slightest of sardonic smiles on his bloodless lips, knowing that the boy would speak. That this interaction, no matter what the circumstances, had been established the first day Vader had brought him here- long before his Jedi had first been confined to this cell.

"Compassion isn't a..."

"Compassion is the most pathetic vulnerability- it was always the weakness of the Jedi." Palpatine's words cut into him, laced with disgust, "Ask any of them- but of course you cannot."

Skywalker's sense wavered just slightly and that was enough for Palpatine to lash out, knowing he'd won.

"Do you think it was compassion that gave you the strength to face down your father- do you think it was compassion that gifted you the power to bring him low? Do you think that those whom you humble yourself to protect would show the same compassion to you- have they ever? They used you and the fault is yours because you allowed yourself to be used- to be manipulated. There is no room for such atrocious, glaring flaws here. When you cure yourself of it, every door will be open to you but until then someone will always control you- you will always be in a prison of your own making."

As he spoke, Palpatine's voice calmed, so that by the end of his tirade, it was more frustration than anger which drove it. He stepped in close to the boy, yellow-flecked eyes searching palest blue; "Do you want to be controlled your whole life? Do you want to be no more than your father?"

Skywalker's chin lifted at that though he didn't speak, so Palpatine delivered his final caveat.

"A true Sith has no weakness. Cure yourself of this failing or I will do it for you- in the most conclusive way possible."

He held the boy's eyes for several moments longer, the threat clear, then turned and walked to the exit of the cell, the heavy doors hissing open as he reached them, guards lining the corridor beyond, weapons trained.

"I will return tomorrow and we will talk further."

He walked out before the boy had time to react to the realization that he was to remain confined. The inner door slid shut behind him, the outer one closing with the hiss of a hermetic seal.

The power which slammed against it a second later was considerable, but only a fraction of that which his Jedi was capable of; little more than a burst of frustration at the comprehension of his ever-contracting options.