The blastdoor opened to reveal an expanse of darkness. Black walls illuminated by dark blue lights cast the cavernous Imperial Throne Room into shadows. The Coruscant twilight shone purple through the large sunlike window behind the throne. A shriveled man in a dark robe whose eyes glowed yellow hunched over the obsidian throne.
Vader led the contingent across the long, glossy-black floor. Yoda and Ahsoka stood to his right. Obi-Wan to his left. They held their sabers at the ready.
Anakin spoke through his vocalizer, "Prepare to meet your destiny."
"Oh, I'm afraid you are mistaken, my apprentice." The Emperor's voice trembled.
Vader's black-gloved hand tossed his helmet across the chamber. It clattered against a vacant command pod. "No, you are mistaken, Sidious. I am no longer your apprentice."
"So be it, Jedi."
He squeezed a claw, and four doors on each side of the hall sprung back. Eight masked figures cloaked in black stepped forward, red lightsabers humming from their identical circular hilts. As one, the guards leaped from the catwalks to surround the quartet.
"It was all too easy." Palpatine spat on the shiny floor. "Fools."
Following the Emperor's cue, the Inquisitors pushed forward, pushing the Jedi foursome together.
The Jedi stood with their backs together, sabers raised and blazing. As one, the Jedi stepped forward and slashed at their foes. Quick slashes pushed the Inquisitors back, opening the combat circle.
Padmé pushed herself to a seated position while Bail covered them both with his blaster. They heard the footsteps of stormtroopers tapping down the other end of the corridor. Padmé pulled her blaster and waited.
Bail looked at Padmé as blaster fire erupted from the same direction. She winced as she moved her shoulder. Her wound may have cauterized, but like all blaster wounds, the flesh burned and swelled. "This is it," he said.
Both Rebel leaders aimed their blasters at the approaching white armor retreating their way. First one, then two, then three hit the floor. The column of stormtroopers advanced toward their foes on the other side. The mass of white armor flowed first one direction then the other.
Bail stayed by Padmé's side, protecting his injured friend. Every once in a while, they would score a lucky shot. The smell of ozone filled the corridor, as the sounds of blaster fire muffled all other noise. At times, the bright light and smoke from the blaster shots obscured their view.
"Freeze!" a filtered voice commanded.
Bail and Padmé turned to their right, where a stormtrooper captain aimed his blaster at him.
"Drop your weapons."
The pair tossed their blasters, skating them across the floor to the new squad of white armor.
Obi-Wan clenched his teeth as he maintained his pressure on his lightsaber near his forehead. The burly Sixth Brother's lightsaber glittered in front of the Jedi's eyes, the spinning hilt still with the force of Obi-Wan's blade. His partner, the Second Brother lay on the floor, missing a leg. But Obi-Wan's focus did not waver.
Allowing the Force to guide him, he released his control and sliced toward the Inquisitor's hilt. The brother grabbed his hilt in one quick motion and extended his second blade. His figure-eight rotation combined with the momentum from the spinning blade pushed Obi-Wan back.
The Jedi Force-pushed the Sith against a command pod. The man's armor thudded against the steel tower. The maneuver gave Obi-Wan just enough time to retake his aggressive position.
He leaped and spun, swirling his own blade in dizzying patterns, blocking the attack of the Inquisitor.
Across the chamber, Yoda tumbled above a command pod. He pushed his feet off the control panel and swung at the First Brother. Another bounce backward, and he faced the Third Sister. Red and green lightsabers danced.
Yoda's blade held the First Brother's steady while he spun parallel to the floor and kicked the mask of the Third Sister. The mask clattered to the floor. Yoda threw his small body at the woman, knocking her to the ground. With a quick swipe, he cut her lightsaber in two.
As the First Brother pulled down his blade on top of Yoda's head, the little Jedi Master rotated leg over leg to meet the attack. He swung at the brother with a vertical swipe. The Inquisitor answered it with a two-handed, horizontal block. The impact held for a few seconds before the pair pushed themselves apart.
Yoda spared a glance to his other opponent. She advanced slowly, bringing herself parallel to her brother. With her arms outstretched, she pushed at the Jedi. Yoda wrinkled his brow in concentration. The air around them stirred, wafting their cloaks and belts. The strength of the wind increased, tugging at the lightsabers first, and then the Sith in front of him.
The gnarled Jedi Master jerked his right arm. The sister flew to the ceiling ten meters above. After crashing into the Plas-glas canopy and another twitch of Yoda's arm, she slammed to the floor. The sound of splintering bones and tearing flesh and organs revealed her fate. She did not even groan. Yoda turned his attention back to the First Brother.
Meanwhile, Ahsoka raised her double blades to either side, meeting the double attack of her opponents, the Fourth Brother and the Eighth Brother. As the Fourth Brother lunged forward and swung his blade forward with his left hand, she pivoted and met his attack. Her left blade rose to meet the Eight Brother's up-swipe.
She turned on a roundhouse kick, sending the Fourth Brother across the floor out of their combat circle. He crashed his head against the black steel wall and crumpled to the floor.
Ahsoka reached behind her and tossed the Eighth Brother over her shoulder to the floor in front of her. His heavy body thumped to the floor, but he sprung back up to face her. Spinning his double-blade, he advanced her.
The Togruta flipped back and then leaped forward in attack. She swiped her right blade, deflecting his blade. She ducked her head and spun in full circle to evade his parry. Bringing up her back-handed left blade to attack once more, she lunged forward and followed through with another over-hand attack at his knee.
On the defensive now, the Eighth Brother barely raised his blade to block each time. He retreated one step at a time. In one last effort, he leaped forward, throwing his blade at Ahsoka.
She pulled both of her white blades together into an X and sliced outward, destroying the blade at the hilt. The red sabers scattered across the chamber in opposite directions while the Togruta Force-pushed the man into the command pod behind him.
Ahoska sprung over the intervening space in one jump. Resting her dual blades in a cross against his throat, she pulled them in one clean motion. The slatted visor clanked as the helmet rolled a few meters across the floor.
Anakin swung at the middle of the Seventh Sister's dual blade and quickly to a high block before swiveling to meet the overhand attack of the Fifth Brother. His blue blade swung left and right and left and right again, meeting each attack.
His opponents paused for one brief second, nodding at each other. Anakin used the distraction to jump above them in a backward somersault to the catwalk above. The Inquisitors looked at each other and then at Anakin. His blue eyes scanned the arena.
Leaping into the fray once again, he grabbed the now-dead Eighth Brother's blade from twenty meters away where Ahsoka had just finished. He spun as he jumped in front of his attackers. He kicked the Fifth Brother in the face and slashed the red saber with a backhand across the man's helmet. Smoke, ozone, and a pitiful scream filled the air, but Anakin had no time for that.
The former Sith Lord brought both swords up to block the Seventh Sister's attack. He rotated his blue blade in a large overhand swing while bringing in the red blade to her neck with a quick slash. Her blade connected, holding his blade in stasis.
"Huh. One small step from the darkness has made you weak, Vader," the sister taunted. "I can't believe I ever called you 'Master.'" She kicked at him, but her leg froze in mid-air.
"No, I have become more powerful than you can possibly imagine." Anakin dropped the red saber and lifted her up with the Force. She hung just out of reach of him, dangling her legs and arms in front of her.
"As you wish." With incredible speed, she threw her saber at his head.
Anakin deflected the blow with his blue saber, tossing her saber across the floor. "So, you have found yourself in a precarious situation." He clenched his fingers.
She raised her hands to her throat and gurgled. Her eyes grew wider as her efforts to breathe became impossible.
Anakin laughed a deep, hideous cackle as he watched her strangle. A voice startled him.
"Anakin, no! Not like this." Ahsoka stood at his left side now, holding onto his arm.
Yoda's voice emanated from across the chamber. "Clean kill or capture. Not this."
"Anakin!" Obi-Wan hobbled to his friend.
"Do it! Why wait! This is what you want."
Palpatine's voice pulled him from his reverie. Anakin looked at the shriveled prune, stared him in his golden eyes. "No. Never." While keeping his eyes on Palpatine, he lowered the Seventh Sister to the floor.
With the Force, she grabbed her saber from the corner and lunged at Anakin with a clean swipe to his head. Without turning, he blocked her with his blue lightsaber and swung at her head. Master Yoda leaped to clear the rolling head.
Sidious's cackle resounded through the dark chamber. "What a shame, with all that effort . . . you will still bow to me."
"I'll never serve you again, Sidious."
The Sith Master's chuckle interrupted. "Oh, I think you will. Guards!"
The Jedi turned their heads to the left. From one of the blastdoors four stormtroopers dragged in the limp form of Padmé Amidala and a struggling Bail Organa.
"Oh, Senator Amidala, what a surprise indeed to find you back from the dead. No worries. I killed you once. I can kill you again."
Anakin sputtered as tears raced to his eyes.
"Yes, my friend, you were mistaken about a great many things. Either you bow, or she dies."
Did you know . . .
● The Death Star II Throne's Room was modeled after the Imperial Palace Throne Room on Coruscant.
● Palpatine never allows anything to happen without a purpose.
Tell me what you think . . .
● Why did Palpatine allow the Jedi and Anakin to kill the Inquisitors?
● What's up with Luke and Leia right now?