A non-Rebels request if you’re fine with it: Luke and the Emperor in a lightsaber duel in a burning region of Endor
(This has been in my ask for a while and I just now felt skilled enough at writing fight scenes to do it! Sorry for the wait! I hope you enjoy. Ao3 link here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24831637 )
Look Away
As the fire rages of around them, Luke had little choice but to come to begrudgingly respect the emperor. Never had he faced such a powerful opponent. Not when he fought Jabba, or Bobba Fett. His father’s power was close. So close that he wonders if perhaps the man had still been holding back. Even at the end. The younger Skywalker frowns. Darth Vader’s body was only a few feet away. His suit shot to shit by Palpatine’s force lightning. For a man thought to be on the edge of life by so many he was still fierce in battle. The flames nipping at his cloak don’t even earn a cursory glance. In this moment he was utterly unphased.
“So the young Skywalker still stands.”
“You killed him!” Rage bubbles up in his chest. Anger doused with grief. The father he had never known taken away when there was finally a chance. Everything Luke had ever dreamed up almost made a reality.
“Yes I did. I knew he still held weakness within, but darting out like that. Love killed him. Twice, now.” Once for a mother he will never meet. Once for a son he didn’t have the chance to be. Guilt tries to overwhelm Luke. It threatens to flood his heart. Trying to drown all his certainty. Luke tightens his grip. Steeling his emotions he glares down the tyrant.
“Love didn’t kill my father. You did!” Luke raises his lightsaber. This would be hardest fight without a doubt. The emperor was more experienced than him. He had time, and knowledge on his side. Both could become weaknesses. With the right pressures. He just had to be careful.
“Yes boy, feel that anger. Let it fester, and grow. Strike me down with your rage and I shall become more powerful!” He was right. With a deep breath, Luke pushes the anger away. It drifts from the edges of his body. The heat from his emotions singes away in the flames. The fog clears from his mind, even as the forest starts to fill with smoke.
“Anger clouds the mind. Mine is clear. You will die here today Palpatine, and I will not celebrate your death.” He speaks the words as if they were already true. In a way it encouraged him. If they sound true, perhaps they will become true.
“Spoken like a true Jedi. Jedi you know nothing about.”
“You’re wrong! I know the ways of the Jedi. I have become one like my father before me, and my masters before us.”
“That order is dead!” A tree collapses next to them. It’s remains now ash that spins in the rain. The force cries out as lives are lost all around them. Luke could not ponder if there had been a better way. If they could have finished this fight somewhere else. It was happening, here, now in the Endor forest.
“An order doesn’t need to live to pass on its wisdom.” The waiting game they had been playing comes to an abrupt end. With a swing, and the speed of a blaster Palpatine crosses the space between them. His red saber glows brighter as if the fire gave it strength. it would not have surprised Luke to find out the Sith grow more powerful around dying life.
He deflects the attack barely in time. Green clashes with red. Fire licks at Luke’s heel. He pushes back against Palpatine. The emperor smirks under his hood. His smile is slick. A hint at his intentions. Somehow Luke knew how to react. Lifting his blade he pulls back. As he predicted the sith goes in for a slash across his seeming exposed chest. Kicking out with his left leg Luka force the emperor to jump up. He barely dodges Luke’s foot as he does so. Burnt leaves rise up with him. They spin in the air following his steps.
Giving him no respite Luke starts his barrage of attacks. Getting in as many swings as possible before the older man could land. His lightsaber weaves around the leaves, scratching at his dark robe. Pieces of the cloth fly free. They are burnt away in seconds. The flames run as high as his head now. If this fight did not find it’s conclusion soon, the fire Palpatine had set would decide it. Leia would be upset. If he died out here only Leia and Han would mourn him. Others may cry out for the man who ended the empire but only those two knew him. The rest of his family was dead. If he had to die then it was an outcome Luke could accept. Fear of the unknown would not stop him. Death could not sway his decision. He would stay stalwartly resolute.
Palpatine lands with his six inches less of his cloak. One whole sleeve was cut in half, hanging on by the back threads. His left leg was almost completely exposed. Though it shouldn’t have mattered he was surprised to see burnt black pants underneath. It would make sense. His levity disappears as Palpatine lunges forward. The Sith was still running around. His speed had not slowed a bit. Throwing his head back his body follows. Leaping through a wall of flame with a flourished twist. Luke seizes the opportunity. He throws his lightsaber. It follows after Palpatine through the flames. Just like he had followed Leia throughout the galaxy, right on the his heels. With tense anticipation, Luka hesitates. He sees red stab at the fire. The next second a loud cutting sound fills the air. Somehow it was louder than the crackling flames. It carried more weight to it then the falling trees. Was that it? He doubts the emperor was actually dead. So with caution, Luke steps forward. He creeps around the flames to take a peek. Hidden right behind them was Palpatine’s body. His lightsaber arm still sticking through the flames. A last-ditch effort. One that couldn’t have saved him from the green lightsaber stuck in his throat.
True to his word Luke did not rejoice Palpatine’s death. Not as he pulls his lightsaber free. Nor when he turned to leave the body there. It was already up in flames. Palpatine’s angry eyes glaring at the wall of fire as if it had personally killed him. Luke could not bring himself to look at his scarred head for more then a brief moment. A moment far to long. That face would be engraved in his mind forever. Luke doesn’t cheer as he walks away. No words escape him as he bends his head down in respect for his father. He had planned to take him back home. Perhaps even reunite his body with his mother’s. Now flames were eating away at every inch. The armor that had been his prison was melting like a chocolate cover coating over him. His face, uncovered and now gone forever. He had only removed the helmet for a moment. One brief instance just to look at Luke’s eyes. Eyes he swore he had seen before.
Had the lightning killed him so easily because he had his helmet off. Could he not breathe? Had he left it on would he have been able to say hello to Leia again? Try to amend the past between them?
“Luke!” Like an angel Leia’s voice grips him with a sense of safety. He drags his eyes away from Anakin’s body. “Luke can you hear me?”
With a heavy heart Luke stares in the direction Leia’s voice was coming from. There were layers upon layers of burning forest between them. The thick jungle that had covered Endor would be so much smaller by the end of it. The flames would last for hours if not days. Through it all he still has to find a way back to his sister.
“Run Leia! The fire won’t stop!”
She appears from the left side of the fire. Barely scathed, like an untouchable shield. Though perhaps she truly was the unstoppable force. Still, if she kept coming then she would see them. She would see the horrors he had to do to save them.
“Stop!”
Anger flares up as she looks incredulously at him. “What? What do you mean stop? You should be coming with me! The forest is going up in smoke and I have a ship waiting for us.” She keeps stepping forward. Now more determined and irritated. Her eyes glance over Palpatine’s body. If she saw what was done then she didn’t let it bother her. Perhaps Vader’s body wouldn’t have affected her either. He wasn’t going to take that risk.
“I’m coming! I’m coming.” He runs over like a child being called in for supper. If Aunt Beru was alive what would she say about this? Probably nothing. Her nephew had just overthrown an emperor, but his aunt and uncle were always quiet people. They lived peacefully on Tatooine. They harbored no love for the empire, but they never wanted him in harm’s way. “We need to get out of here, not bury ourselves deeper within it.”
Even if they were still alive Luke wouldn’t have told them about this part. Leia shields his head as a branch falls next to them. He smiles. If it had them actually in danger he would have used a force push. Her natural instincts were faster than his own. She withdraws her arms. Luke looks back one last time. Everything was covered in flames now. All the foliage had been burnt away, along with two of the greatest evils the universe had known, and a chance. One chance. Fire owned it all. As his adrenaline slows down pain starts to creep up. No place hurt more than his chest.
“Come on,” Leia orders grabbing his arm and pulling him along. He looks ahead. Out of this place was their future. That opening behind was the past. A past he had just burnt away. One he could no longer afford to look back at.
If Luke had just watched a little bit longer, he would have seen that the past had been watching him as well.
