Harry Potter and the Dark Lord of the Sith

Chapter 37.

I'm wet.

That was the first thing Harry realized as he came to his senses. He was covered from head to toe with liquid. A breathing mask covered his face.

Bacta tank, he understood. Then he opened his eyes.

Through the water around him, he saw a darkened room and, at the far end, four motionless, bright red blurs. But then, the breathing mask disconnected, and he was pulled out. As he cleared his sight, he realized the four blurs were the royal guards that usually surrounded the Emperor. What are they doing here?

"Subject in optimal condition," a nearby medical droid announced.

Shows how much you know, Harry thought. I don't feel optimal at all. He looked around. Now, he had three large scars--the old lightning-shaped one on the forehead, and two new ones, from hits by blaster bolts, exacerbated by Palpatine's dark-side lightning. I can't let him hit me again, he realized, though he had no idea how he was going to do that.

He put on the clothes the droid handed him--same black pants he wore before, a tight black shirt, and light shoes. As soon as he did so, the droid asked him to extend his hands forward. Harry did, and found himself handcuffed.

I'm an idiot, Harry decided. I will pay more attention now. Then another thought crossed his mind. What if it's too late?

Two of the four red guards marched up to him and prodded him with their staffs. Harry got the message. Follow us. He was marched out of the corridor, surrounded by four guards.

He thought about trying to escape, but quickly decided against it. Even if he could defeat the guards--a doubtful proposition, considering his hands were bound and he had no weapon--he had no idea where to run. He was just as likely to run into the Emperor as he was to get to the exit. In fact, that's exactly the sort of thing the Emperor would do--let me think I was escaping while keeping me trapped.

He remembered Yoda talking about the ability to use the Force to influence minds. If we pass someone, I can try to convince them I'm the Emperor. With that idea, Harry knew he was going crazy. So what? It's the guards that matter. And there was no chance of that trick working on them.

Another door opened. One of the guards stepped in, but the others stopped, and pushed Harry forward. As soon as Harry was inside, the door slammed shut.

He was back in the circular room where he fought battle droids. Great. What now?

The guard at the other side of the room took off his helmet, revealing a smooth-shaved face with large eyes and short blond hair. With one smooth motion, the man dropped his cape. He was wearing a black bodysuit and blood-red armor plates on his torso, thighs, and upper arms. Harry understood that this armor was designed to offer the best balance of protection and freedom of movement.

The man raised his staff, twisted it, and a foot-and-a-half long blade appeared at either end.

"Good," the Emperor's voice said from the ceiling. "Kill him."

At that moment, a small object popped out of the floor and flew up. Harry instinctively summoned it with the Force.

It was a lightsaber. Harry thumbed the switch and a red blade emerged.

The red guard, however, rushed to attack as soon as he heard the Emperor's order. Harry moved to cut his staff in half.

The blade harmlessly passed through, and Harry was nearly knocked out by the guard's punch right into his chest. He rolled away from the guard's attempt to pierce him with one of the blades and leaped up, breathing heavily, but still holding the saber in a ready stance.

"Cortosis." The guard glared at him. "Shuts down your Jedi weapons."

Harry processed that. If the staff is made out of this "cortosis," I don't think the blades are. He met the other man's next attack at the tip of his weapon.

The result was again unexpected. The two blades locked together, as if they both were lightsabers. There must be some force field around them.

Harry couldn't think anything more, as the man spun his staff around, going for his neck. Harry blocked, but was knocked on his back. Propelling himself with the Force, he jumped over the guard, and moved to turn around.

Instead, he stepped forward, and immediately felt searing pain in his back as the guard cut a bleeding gash there. He fell forward, landed on his arms, and flipped ahead, landing and summoning the lightsaber just in time to block the guard's next attack. He realized that if he tried to turn around when he meant to, the guard would have skewered him.

Harry went on the offensive, dealing out one blow after another to the guard, who blocked every strike. Was this man also trained in the Force? Harry wondered. Then the guard coupled another parry with a kick into Harry's stomach, sending Harry tumbling on the floor. Harry looked up to see the guard running towards him, double-bladed staff in one hand and his lightsaber in the other.

In his rage, Harry ran towards the guard, leaping up at the last moment, and in mid-air, using the most powerful Force push he could summon to knock the other man down.

It worked. The guard crumbled to the ground, and Harry summoned the lightsaber back. The guard kicked out, and Harry, without thinking, cut off the man's leg. The leg, however, continued flying, and knocked Harry backwards.

He got up, only to see the guard, despite losing a limb, and sitting on the ground, bleeding, hurl his staff at him. Harry caught it with the Force and approached the man, staff in his left hand, lightsaber in his right.

"Well, Potter? What are you waiting for?" the Emperor demanded. "Kill him!"

Kill him. That's what the Emperor said at the beginning of their fight. He assumed it was an order for the guard. But could that have been for me? Or maybe it was for both of us. The guard would certainly kill him if the situation were reversed. But now, he was an unarmed, defeated man. He looked at the guard. No expression on his face he could read. Harry made his decision.

"No."

"You are weak," the guard snarled, and leaped at him. Without thinking, Harry struck, plunging the lightsaber into the man's chest. He felt pain as the guard had yanked on his other arm, twisting it. Then the guard fell down and stopped moving.

"Jedi..." Harry heard the other man's last word, filled with contempt.

Covered in blood--his own and the guard's--bruises, cuts, and sweat, Harry no longer had the strength to stand. He collapsed, and before he passed out, he was almost certain he heard the Emperor's voice say "Well done." And he couldn't care less.

XXXXXXXX

As Hermione returned to the throne room, she saw Luke, Han, and Chewie standing in the center, handcuffed. Threepio was translating for Jabba.

"... be taken to the Great Pit of Carkoon, the nesting place of the all-powerful Sarlacc."

Han said something to Luke, which Hermione didn't hear. Threepio continued, "In his belly, you will find a new definition of pain and suffering, as you are slowly digested over a thousand years."

"On second thought, let's pass on that, huh?" Han suggested.

"You should have bargained, Jabba. That's the last mistake you'll ever make," Luke said as the guards dragged him off.

Hermione followed. They were going (of course) to the hangar. Luke obviously was confident that they would be able to escape. Hermione didn't understand how, but she supposed she would soon see it happen. All she'd have to do is get on the Khetana--if you were wearing an invisibility cloak, that was no challenge at all. The only thing to worry about was the pale woman who kept eluding her. Hermione paused at the entrance to the hangar.

There she is, Hermione thought. She was talking to Jabba through Threepio. Hermione couldn't hear what she was saying, but from her tone, she was asking some favor. Hermione suspected that the 'favor' was for her to come along. If she wants that, then I must stop her. But how would she do that without drawing attention to herself?

Suddenly she got an idea. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she said, lifting a small crate off the ground. She then put all her strength into the spell and hurled it into Jabba.

The slug blinked. The crate hadn't hurt or even grazed him, but the crime lord was outraged, and one didn't need to know any Huttese to figure that out.

Jabba's guards grabbed the woman and led her off, while Jabba himself boarded the Khetana on his sled. Moments later, the sail barge and two skiffs, one of them with Luke, Han, and Chewie aboard, took off. The hangar immediately felt deserted. Except for the woman, her guards, and Hermione, there wasn't anyone. Hermione headed down to the hangar floor.

As soon as the hangar door shut, the woman twisted out of the grip of two guards and leaped over their heads. Her lightsaber flashed, cutting two Gamorreans in half. The other two guards Jabba sent with her, a human and a Klatooinian, drew their blasters, but the woman deflected their shots back at them.

"You've cost me a lot, whoever you are. I will make sure you pay." Hermione knew those words were addressed to her. Logically, it would be safest to stay under the cloak... but then, what if the woman found a vehicle, and followed Jabba's entourage to do whatever she planned to originally? Hermione couldn't let that happen. She decided. She ripped off the cloak, and drew her wand.

"You're welcome to try," she said.