After the events of Bespin (Empire Strikes Back), Luke joined his father, Darth Vader and became a Sith apprentice. His best friend, Soyara, was left to clean up the mess. She couldn't help but want to restore Luke to the Jedi ways, but she would so...
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chapter nineteen: the shuttle ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Luke POV
As the audience stretched across the decorated ground level of Coruscant began to cheer, I decided to make my getaway. Once out of sight from the holorecorders and out of earshot of the chants, applause, and cheers, I sighed, "This isn't what I thought I'd be doing as my father's apprentice."
All of a sudden, the door opened beside me. Instantly, I turned to face the visitor, suppressing my disappointment with a forced smile. The door opened to reveal the golden polish of a protocol droid, transforming my forced smile to a genuine grin of excitement, "Threepio?!"
The droid slowly turned to look behind them before turning to face me once more, "I'm sorry, sir. I don't believe I am acquainted with a Threepio. My designation is 4-CTI, at your assistance Darth Malevolence."
My heart sank. This wasn't the droid I had worked alongside for years within the Rebellion. This wasn't the same protocol droid that had traveled with me from Tatooine that fateful day all those years ago. I sighed to myself as memories of the time I spent in the Rebellion began to flood my mind. Like a montage, they all came rushing at me. I saw the faces of each of my fellow pilots, I heard the cheers and outcries after each completed mission, and I felt the ache of each pilot I had lost as a squad leader. I had been foolish to believe I could lead back then. I was a boy, unable to see the bigger picture, and it had cost me the lives of my friends. However, I didn't allow myself to dwell on it any longer as I recalled my father's words to my mind, "That is all in the past now, my son. Letting them go will free you from the bondage of their pitiful hope."
Hope. Despite my decision to forsake the Rebellion, I found that small sliver of hope in the quiet moments. Hope that things would heal, go back to the way they used to be. Hope that this war would end. Hope that I could fix what I've broken. I wouldn't admit it to anyone, but my time in the Rebellion had taught me to find the hope in any situation, and it was a quality that had kept me alive that long.
The protocol droid finally spoke, as if it were waiting on me to finish my thought, "You have a transmission from the Emperor. Would you like to take it now?" Not being one to keep him waiting, I nodded to the droid.
"Well done, my faithful apprentice." When I heard the Emperor's familiar, raspy voice, I immediately took a knee. "You've shown that you can handle what most Sith cannot, deceptive diplomacy."
I shifted my gaze up from my position, "Deceptive? I meant everything I said, Master."
As if he were there, I felt a spark of electricity shoot up my spine, causing me to cry out in agony and fall to the floor. "You are not permitted to speak, apprentice. Your little stunt, calling for a cease-fire, was clever, but you must see that by allowing their resistance to go unpunished will just allow them to spread their lies within our systems freely. You must look beyond your old friends. They are too stubborn to see what we do, my boy. They don't care for what we stand for, and they truly don't care about you. You must let them go."
