The boy's frown grew deeper, his expression dark and stormy...and in that face, Palpatine saw for the first time his father's hard edge; that cold, driving potential for devastating destruction. He licked thin lips in pleasure; finally, hours of carefully invested manipulation were beginning to bear fruit.
"They were not for you, Jedi. They only held you back."
"They taught me everything which you now seem to consider of value."
"I value the ability which runs with the blood through your veins. I value you for what you are. All they did was try to change you--your fundamental nature. Now it is left to me to unravel the ties they placed about you; to give you the clarity of vision to see the chains they shackled you with."
He shook his head slowly. "It's you who is deluded."
"And your father? Do you not wonder what he can see with such absolute lucidity, that you cannot? They did not trust him either, though he served them faithfully for many years. They do not trust any in your bloodline, child--you have a connection to the Force and a tenacity of will which makes them uncomfortable. They prefer compliant menials."
"I'm not like him, no matter what you think," the boy denied, anger beginning to clip his voice.
"I gave him the freedom and the power he deserved. They only held him back, stifled him."
"He was Sith," Luke hissed, goaded by the implied association.
Shaking his head, Palpatine pushed on whilst his Jedi still wallowed in Dark frustrations. "He was a prodigy, endowed with an aptitude and a connection which they could not understand, so they tried to limit and confine him as they now try to limit and confine you. Petty laws designed to control those too weak-minded to think for themselves. Rules to govern the majority; to stifle the exceptional and offer the succor of equality to the weak. They try to hold you back to their lowly level, but those laws are not for you. They tried to tie you and hobble you and keep you close, to put a leash about your neck...but they could not do it."
Skywalker shook his head, but Palpatine continued over his faltering objection, quiet and insistent and completely sure, voice hypnotic in its zeal. "You were too willful and wild, too powerful for them to command. How could they control that which they could not comprehend? And they could never understand you...You knew that much, though you didn't know why. Didn't know why you heard its howl, baying like a wolf in the night. It calls you back to the pack and you feel its primal pull in every fiber of your body. It is instinctive, ingrained into every cell of your being. That is why it answers your slightest call. That is why you are here. I told you, if you were simply another Jedi I would have killed you long ago, but Darkness recognizes its own. Iunderstand you as no one else could."
The boy closed his eyes against words which burned irredeemable doubts into his soul. But he didn't refute--for the first time, he didn't turn away.
"Look within and see the truth--feel it. You were born for the Dark Side, created of it. Destiny calls you on and you are ripping yourself apart trying to deny it. You cling so desperately to the light, but you are living a lie, and your denial destroys everything and everyone around you."
"Liar..." Luke whispered, more desolate hope than confident accusation.
"Then where are they now, my friend, all those who sought to use you? They are all gone. They have seen their chance slip away and they fall over themselves to desert and decry you when you have done nothing to them. If you do not hate them now for what they are, then you are willfully blind. If you do not want redress, then you are lying--to me and to yourself."
His Jedi looked away, torn by doubts and denials as Palpatine leaned forward.
"What do you desire--truly--in this moment?" he pushed.
The boy looked to him, eyes caught by the flickering firelight. They blazed with a flame all their own in that instant, wild and feral, plagued to distraction--and it fed Palpatine's soul with gratifying satisfaction.
"What do you feel, Jedi? What do you truly feel in your heart? Tell me that you forgive, that you absolve them. Tell me their betrayal doesn't burn. Tell me your lies...though we both know the truth."
.
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Luke remained still and withdrawn, trying not to listen, logic and emotion colliding under Palpatine's accusing tirade, fed by fear--real fear. Because what if he was right; even unintentionally, seeking only to goad Luke, what if he was right? Had they betrayed him? Had they used him? Had destiny placed him exactly where he should be?
In those first moments after he'd been rescued by Leia from CloudCity, he'd naïvely thought that it had been the lowest point in his life--that it just couldn't get any worse. And now...now, fate had stepped in to prove just how wrong he was. It had taken everything--friends, beliefs, identity, freedom--everything had been stripped away and he stood alone...truly alone.
But it had left him his father, just to clarify what he actually was. And it had left Palpatine--its voice. As cruel and as callous and as relentless as ever.
Luke looked into those rancorous yellow eyes and words failed him.
All that he could do in that moment was stand and walk shakily back to the room from which he'd come, knowing--feeling--the Sith's gratified, satisfied grin at his back.
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Mara started, glancing over to Skywalker as he stood quickly, the book he had stared at all morning without once turning a page forgotten as he twisted about to stare at the doors. A run of disparate emotions ran across his face quicksilver fast, beginning with apprehension and ending closer to resentment as his eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched--in reaction to what, Mara didn't know...
The comlink at her belt sounded a tone, making her jump as she fumbled to retrieve it, Skywalker's gaze remaining fixed on the doors.
"Jade," she said.
"Lord Vader's on his way in." The muted response in her earpiece answered all her questions save one; why Skywalker reacted this way. Why he hated Vader so very much more than Palpatine.
"Acknowledged," she replied, eyes still on Skywalker, cutting off the comlink as the muffled clang of releasing bolts signaled Vader's arrival in the outer room.
Lord Vader was the only person besides her master who had free access to Skywalker, though Mara had strict instructions to inform Palpatine immediately, checking of course that all security images were being recorded, as they always were anyway, every hour, every day.
Seconds later the reinforced doors cycled open. Mara set towards them, the familiar sound of Vader's regulated breathing hissing as the heavy doors swung open.
"Lord Vader." She bowed her head just slightly, though her eyes never left his.
"Commander," he said simply without bothering to look to her, stepping aside expectantly to indicate that she should leave.
Mara set forward--
"No Red, stay," Luke said quickly to Mara, eyes remaining on Vader.
Mara paused, uncertain, causing Vader to turn his gaze on her. "She is leaving," he said pointedly in bass tones, making Mara start forward again.
"No. Stay." The clipped intensity of Skywalker's voice brought her to an uneasy stop, though when Mara turned to him his eyes remained on Vader. "There's nothing my father has to say that can't be said in front of you, I'm sure."
Father! Mara shocked rigid at his words, her astonishment too great to disguise, pulling Skywalker's eyes to her as he frowned.
Vader turned slowly, that blank, faceless mask daring her to make comment.
But he didn't deny it.