The wisdom and power of thousands of Sith was made incarnate, manifesting into a being that was the purest example of darkness and all things unnatural. Even his very body was artificial, grown in a laboratory.
The spirit of Darth Sidious resided in a cloned body of his younger self, and the stamina of youth met the wisdom of the ancients. His yellow eyes burned brightly, the dark side so powerful with him that the air crackled and popped with electricity during his meditation.
His greatest foe was arriving soon, and this would be a battle of the ages.
Come to me, Skywalker. We will finish what we started so long ago.
Sidious's eyes popped open, the presence of Luke Skywalker invading his Force sense, appearing like a supermassive supernova.
Oh, you have grown strong in the Force, though you are no longer young.
Sidious reached out, feeling for Luke, and found him, grim and determined, piloting his X-Wing toward's the massive space station.
With a flash, a hundred additional ships appeared behind him. An entire armada of the most powerful starships that the GA and Imperial Remnant had to offer, including five re-purposed Super Star Destroyers. There was enough fire power there to destroy this Death Star.
Sidious closed his eyes and raised both his arms. In the depth of space, thousands of kilometers from the station, a rift began to form. A gaseous disk began to form, and it crackled with electricity.
Realizing what was about to happen, Luke kicked his X-Wing into sublight, and rocketed towards the Death Star, flying into the hangar bar, leaping from his cockpit and igniting his lightsaber, landing deftly on his feet as his X-Wing slammed into the far wall of the hangar.
"You cannot stop your friends from dying," Sidious said flatly, eyes still closed and arms held high.
"We'll see about that," replied Luke, as he prepared to launch a powerful telekinetic blast at Sidious.
Pain wracked his body, and he turned around to see the explosion of one of the Super Star Destroyers. Thousands of lives, vanishing in an instant. Immediately, a massive bolt arced out of the maelstrom, striking another cruiser and vaporizing it.
Luke felt the pain all the way to his bones, but used the Force to wash away the effects. He could not allow himself to be tainted by pain and suffering, not now.
"You see Master Skywalker, I don't need the Death Star to destroy your pitiful fleet," Sidious said quietly.
"I possess power...unlimted power!"
Sidious lowered his hands and fired a burst of Force energy at Luke that sent that Jedi grandmaster flying backwards into a shipping container. Luke immediately sprang forward and blasted Sidious with Force energy, but the Sith swatted it away, and then unleashed Force lightning at Luke.
Instead of catching the bolts on his blade, Luke somersaulted over, and used the Force to throw a large, metal beam at Sidious. Reacting almost casually, Sidious ignited his lightsaber and sliced the beam in half, sending it harmless to either side of him.
The distraction was just what Luke needed to close the distance. Striking with all his might, he found his green blade against Sidious's red blade, locked in a deadly embrace. He was face to face with the Sith, Sidious face contorted in rage, struggling to hold Luke back, whilst Luke also struggled to keep the pressure on Sidious.
Luke knee'd Sidious in the stomach, stepped back, and prepared to decapitate his foe, but instead of falling to his knees like it was intended, Sidious spun in midair as he dove at Luke, attempting to thrust his blade through Luke's abdomen.
The Jedi barely stepped to the side in time as Sidious landed on his feet, and then hurled his weapon at Luke, attempting to slice the Jedi in half from afar.
Once again, Luke dodged, and held his guard as Sidious's blade returned to his hand.
Sidious grinned, and Luke felt another stab of pain as ships from his fleet began to slip into the wormhole, being devoured by the dark side of the Force.
"For every life that is lost, my power grows, and your power weakens, Skywalker. You cannot win."
Luke steadied himself and realized that Sidious was partially right. He was growing stronger, and was not even using all of his power against Luke. He was engaging in a lightsaber duel with the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy, and still concentrating on a massive Force storm, thousands of kilometers away.
"The time for games is over, Palpatine. I'm ending this, now."
Luke pulled on the Force like he never had, filling every cell in his body. A faint glow surrounded him as he grew stronger and stronger.
Sidious's eyes narrowed, and his diabolical smile disappeared. Growling, he lunged forward with speed that not even a holorecorder could capture, striking at Luke with impossibly fast blows, each of which were met by the Jedi master, and then promptly returned.
Deciding to resort to other measures, Sidious slammed his elbow into the side of Luke's head. Luke returned by snapping a vicious kick right into Sidious's jaw, breaking it.
As the two fought, more and more ships were destroyed, and Luke began to grow angry. Neither could best the other. The two weren't even able to score near misses on each other with their blades. Every blow, every strike, was met with a perfect counter.
His friends would continue to die as long as Sidious lived, and he couldn't do anything about it.
Unless...
Keeping his concentration on fighting Sidious, Luke reached out with the Force to feel the storm in space, until he was able to discern it's entire dimensions. Luke could feel a panic in the Force as Sidious realized what Luke was attempting.
Force lightning blasted at Luke, and he intercepted it on his blade. Imagining a massive hand, Luke grasped the maelstrom with the Force and began to squeeze it.
The light from the storm dimmed slightly, and Luke gasped. The effort was tremendous. This was beyond manipulating the dovin basil so many years ago.
Even if he fell, as long as he could destroy the Force storm, the fleet still had enough firepower to destroy the Death Star, and the Emperor along with it.
"You've lost, your highness," Luke said with a grin.
"No, no, you've lost!"
The lightning barreled towards Luke, and instead of catching it on his blade, he caught it in his left hand.
Luke screamed, and held the blast, his tutaminis abilities nearly overwhelmed. Sidious continued to pour the lethal energy on the Jedi grandmaster, the most powerful Force lightning ever produced.
Luke's hair was turning completely white as he held on. Sidious channeled all the energy to come from his left hand, and with his right hand he summoned activated a nearby AT-ST walker that was parked in a corner. A newer model, this walker had firepower beyond those of even X-Wing's. The main cannons were brought on line and fired a massive blaster bolt at Luke.
And Luke Skywalker raised his lightsaber and deflected the shot, crying out in pain as his shoulder was nearly dislocated. The bolt bounced off his blade and slammed into a TIE fighter, still in it's mooring, destroying it completely. Five more blaster bolts emerged from the walker, and Luke returned those as well. Where the bolts hit the walls, a massive hole, the size of a rancor, appeared.
The final bolt was directed at the walker, detonating it, shrapnel flying toward's Sidious. The Sith broke his concentration just long enough to redirect the object, which was exactly what Luke needed.
His entire body awash in electricity, but not consumed, he returned all the energy that Sidious had been blasting him with. The Sith shrieked and twitched as his own lethal energy ravaged his body. After a moment, Sidious collapsed to his knees, his breathing lurching and erratic.
Luke took advantage of the break, and focused his entire might on the Force storm. It grew smaller, and dimmer, until it was no bigger than a common star fighter. Had there been any sound in the vacuum of space, a sound as though one were popping a small fruit would have been heard, and the void collapsed in on itself, disappearing completely.
Reaching out with the Force, Luke felt for Jaina. She was still alive, and piloting an X-Wing of her own.
Attack.
Luke felt the hesitation from his niece, and then the reluctant acceptance. She knew that the station had to be destroyed. This battle was not over. Sidious could still prevail, and flee with the station, living to kill another day.
Turbolaser fire streaked across space towards the Death Star as Jaina gave the command to fire upon the station.
Luke turned back towards Sidious, who was still kneeling, smoke billowing off of his body. His hair was gone, and he looked up at Luke. The youthful face of his clone body was ruined, and now his appearance resembled more that of his former, elderly self.
The floor shook underneath Luke's feet as the barrage began to impact the station.
"I've got a bad feeling about this."
"What?"
"It's over. Soon I'll be dead, and you with me."
"You've already said that, you idiot. You can't just keep saying the same lines over and over again. Repetition must be the Jedi way."
Luke re-ignited his lightsaber and prepared for the final duel. Here and now, one of them would die.
But Luke was so, so tired. He had never drawn on the Force so deeply, and it had cost him greatly. He was unsteady on his feet. He had one last chance to make it out of this place alive. The Force had granted him a vision of the future, and he was going to take a chance.
Sidious threw his arms forward, and a cavalcade of debris, imbued with Force lightning, rocketed towards the Grandmaster.
Time seemed to slow down as Luke felt each object, each tingle in the Force.
POP! Everything flying at Luke disappeared, and he could feel the shock of Sidious through the Force.
"Impossible!" the Sith screamed.
Luke smiled. His time with the Aing-Tii had served him well. Another massive pop, and the culmination of the debris reappeared behind Sidious, still at it's original speed, slamming into the back of Darth Sidious, the energized objects exploding upon impact.
Smoke billowed from around Sidious, and the dull thuds from the turbolaser barrage silenced. Now, the entire station rumbled. Luke could tell it was the main reactor.
Sidious was still alive, but mortally wounded.
He cackled, rolling onto his back. "Would you kill me, a defenseless prisoner, Master Jedi?"
"You died a long time ago. I'm just getting rid of a ghost."
Electric Judgement, the ability Luke once used to vaporize the most deadly of Vong warriors, extended from his hand and engulfed the Emperor, reducing him to a pile of ash after a few moments of exposure.
With only moments to spare, Luke Force jumped to one of the TIE fighters still in place in the hangar bay, and climbed inside. Powering up the controls, he released the mooring and flew out of the hangar bay, and into the openness of space.
"Uncle Luke, is that you?" came the familiar voice of his niece over the comm system.
"Roger, Red Leader. I made it out."
"Uncle Luke, you said that there would be an exhaust port, or an open shaft, or something. We circled that thing a dozen times. We melted the turbolasers on the remaining ships just blasting a hole through it."
"I guess they fixed it," Luke said.
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