Wait a few seconds; don't react too quickly.
The Duty Officer looked up from the pit, eyes meeting Luke's as he stepped forward, addressing the officer, "Open the doors!"
"Sir, there seems to..."
"OPEN THE DOORS!" Luke shouted as he set forward past the man. No matter what happened, one thing he didn't want to be was on the Bridge.
Red Guard, previously inconspicuous at the corners of the vast bridge, now stepped forward with military precision, circling quickly about the Emperor so that Luke had to step between them to move forward to the doors, still firmly locked. Several unknown officers in the Command Pits had produced blasters from no-where.
Adrenaline pumping, Luke reached into the Force when he was six paces away, his hand rising... it answered in an eager rush, a burst of potential and power-
With a rending screech, the mechanism jolted just slightly, the massive central lock taking the strain of the impact with a spray of vivid sparks, Red Guard turning to the door in shock, weapons raised, not realising that it was The Heir who did this-
Luke let out a yell, hand thrown out, and the bulky inset lock mechanism designed to withstand vacuum and explosion gave another grinding whump, the substantial circular bolt mechanism to the centre of the blast doors jolting, a gush of bright, actinic sparks erupting, leaving the acrid smell of burnt resistors and insulation, a curl of smoke rising.
Released adrenaline gave Luke the focus to throw another sustained burst of raw power at the massive bulk of the central bolt and this time it failed completely in a grating rasp of rending plassteel, a meter-wide gap opened in the doors as the alloy of the lock was literally ripped apart, shredding in a shriek of ruptured metal, the heavy doors rammed back into their housing with enough force to crumple the surrounding walls in a grinding screech of ruined plassteel.
Luke walked from the bridge without having slowed his step, pausing only when the Emperor called to him.
"Jedi- bring me one alive."
.
Palpatine watched his Wolf nod just once, wonderful eyes as cold and hard as ice in darkness, then he was gone, leaving the Emperor to smile indulgently, bloodless lips drawn back over spoiled teeth. He glanced about the assemblage, faces pale with shock at what they had just seen.
They all thought they knew what a Sith was capable of - now they had received, in some small measure, a demonstration of such. They would remember it for a long time, the same thought so clearly running through every mind present in the shocked silence which followed; if this was what he did to unyielding plassteel and reinforced organic steel - what would he do to flesh and bone?
Palpatine took several moments to bask in the stunned surge of genuine fear, his own eyes brought approvingly back to the shattered entrance.
Then he turned with unhurried, assured calm to Admiral Joss, "Admiral; I have a code which you need to input immediately..."
.
Luke was halfway down the main corridor, having cleared a second set of locked blast doors, when the rest opened in sequence before him, confirming his suspicion; Palpatine had another Override Code.
He reached out into the Force to confirm where the Rebels were, knowing that even though there would be a plethora of anxious minds onboard ship the Call to Quarters hadn't yet been sounded, so the only ones who would be genuinely nervous should be the Rebels.
If they'd followed the plan, they would be in Ops Three by now or...
His easy, measured run faltered and he slowed almost to a stop, feeling a weight of heavy pressure push against his chest at the realisation of who was there...
Swearing a curse under his breath, he set forward again at full-tilt, mind racing.
Everything- everything had changed again.
.
By the time that Mara rounded the crook in the corridor, Luke had reached the turbolifts, cursing that they were still locked down. Already turning away to set off for the stairwell, he rounded on her, eyes hard, jaw clenched, "Stay with the Emperor."
Mara slowed just slightly, knowing his anger wasn't really aimed at her, torn between safeguarding two men who were both supremely capable of protecting themselves, then set forward toward him again and Luke turned on her, hand out, finger pointed in warning, shouting in a sharp, clipped tone which invited no dissent, "STAY WITH THE EMPEROR!!"
She stopped dead, taken aback by the intensity and the agitation in his words; by the stark fury in his stormy blue eyes, the palest thread of fiery, sulpherous yellow glowing just momentarily at their rim-
He'd already turned away, the locked-down door to the emergency stairwell wrenching off its mountings as he threw out his hand, clattering away down the metal stair, the scraping din reverberating in the hollow space.
Mara watched the empty stairwell for long seconds, wavering, uncertain whether to follow... then she turned and set back to the Bridge and her master, the blaring claxon which finally sounded the alarm making her jump as she ran.
By the time Luke reached Ops Three the Rebels were gone; hardly surprising considering the Call to Quarters had been raised, the alarm warning them, though they probably already knew that they'd been discovered when they'd been locked out of the system.
But they hadn't gotten far; he was close now, only a turn or so away in the long corridors, glancing up, wondering if he could disable the ever-present surveillance cameras without suspicion... He could still sense her presence, strangely familiar even after all this time, enabling him to pinpoint them as they ran, continually closing, furious, incensed at the Rebels for allowing her to come; at her for probably insisting.
Still livid, he slowed to a walk and reached to pull his lightsaber free.
.
Leia ran at full tilt around the corner, her group about her, intensely aware that time was running out...
She shouldn't have come - Han was right; her being here was a liability for the Alliance - if she was caught alive... another Rebel leader for the Imperial propaganda machine to parade in public and...
something ran like ice up her spine and caught in her throat, locking her breath...
The heavy blastproof doors they had been running towards ground shut with a booming smack, the group split in two by the action. Trapped, she reached the locked doors, suddenly frantic, a dread lit deep within her-
A distinct, inimitable sound brought Leia about, time turning to treacle, several of the remaining soldiers about her lifting their weapons, stepping forward and fanning out uncertainly as the low, throaty thrum of a lightsaber grated through the air.
Leia turned, the sound of her own breathing loud in her ears... to see a lone dark-dressed figure step out into the sealed corridor.
For a moment - for a split second as the ruby lightsaber lit the blind turn at the far end of the corridor with a scarlet glow, she had expected to see Vader...
But the figure who strode forward, dark hair half-hiding wild eyes, body tensed, primed to fight, was somehow far more chilling-
The first shot rang out, making Leia flinch, and he didn't lift the blade; didn't even try to use it to deflect the bolt. Instead he brought up his left hand, palm out... and batted the laser bolt away to explode harmlessly into the wall in a wash of acrid light. Just as Vader had done on Bespin.
Others opened fire now and momentarily Leia felt some kind of hope as the sheer number of shots held him back, then he yelled out his rage and set forward, ploughing into the task force, cutting a path through them as if it were nothing, the whole unit against one man.
But still they fell, the speed of that bright crimson blade forming a seemingly solid wall of light against the blaster shots, deflected energy hitting the walls and ceiling in bright splashes of dispersed energy, lights flicking and failing in the ricochets, reducing the bright room to dim shadows, the security lens exploding in a brief blaze of scorching sparks, the blazing white of muzzle flashes glaring, catching brief, staccato images as the group began to break ranks, backing up with nowhere to go.