Chapter 82

The two parties stood opposite each other. One glared at his unknown enemy with hate-filled yellow eyes, while the other stood calmly with zero impression on his helmet.

"I can feel your anger, but I also feel that you are confused and have many questions." I was sure that Palpatine was a master of the force and lightsaber, and to make sure I got the tiniest bit of advantage, I would plant a seed of curiosity to make the Emperor hold back just enough to gain an advantage.

Palpatine eyes darted around trying to find any more enemies.

"Don't worry, old man. Right now, it's just you and me," I chuckled to Palpatines' great annoyance.

"Your overconfidence is your weakness" Palpatine twisted his fingers to give a lazy order and the smirk plastered on his face was replaced with further worry and confusion when nothing happened.

I sighed using the force to cause the air to vibrate. Palpatine might have been impressed that I had such control over the force but a loud crumple metallic sound caused him to raise his lightsaber. A collection of droids fell from the rafters, each one holding a sniper rifle disintegrator. Palpatines hidden assassins were dealt with under his nose.

"Further questions you have" I mocked Palpatine by mimicking Yoda.

Palpatines gritted his teeth and launched himself towards me while spinning in circles, using the very same move that killed three Jedi masters. His screams were laced with the dark side intending to disturb my mind and cause hesitation.

With a swift slice and quick parry, I safely sidestep the attack and punched Palpatine's shoulder. Both of us had a surprised look, Palpatine's look came from the power of the punch but also the way I easily ignored his force-power scream. I couldn't believe how tough the old man was.

"Genetically enhanced body, not bad" I nodded in approval.

"You....." Palpatine is on the verge of attacking me with pure rage, something I don't want just yet.

"How did I get on to the Death Star when shields are raised?" Palpatine stumbles a little and takes a single step back with that question.

"Easily" I tap his defences with some lazy fast strikes with my lightsaber "Stealth ships are useful tools to hide from my enemy but a moon-sized base needs food and resources delivered, I just wondered in with stock and forced mind raped the quarterstaff man, it was easy, In short, I came before the attack on my stealth ships"

Palpatine strikes back with a less-than-full-powered hit, the poor old man is staved for answers and now he's getting them but at the risk of being cut down. The Sith wanted power and the only other power in the galaxy that could rival the Empire was the Grove Collection, Palpatine needed answers, he needed a way to protect himself from the only other power that could harm him. Knowledge was power and Palpatine was about to get a three-course meal.

"What is your purpose here" Palpatine angrily barked.

"Same as yours, protect what is mine" I stab at Palpatine and he flicks over his own shoulders to do a clean backflip that I didn't know he could do

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I nod again "I can't have a planet destroyer floating about endangering the Grove"

"This is treason then" spat Palpatine.

"The Grove was never part of the Empire, how can it be treason" I laughed back at Palpatine.

I block a furious attack from Palpatine and return the blow with a smooth drawing of my pistol. Palpatine is a great force user because within the first slug leaving the gun, he blasts my weapon with blue lightning making it into hot slag metal. I use the melted scrap metal and force-push it onto Palpatine which catches him on the arm. It doesn't take a hot second before Palpatine has ripped his clocks arms off to avoid the damage.

I clench my hand to shake off the electric damage.

"Not bad old man" This didn't shake Palpatine and he continued with his force lightning.

Each blast was powerful and erratic. I was able to pick up an interesting idea that I hadn't ever thought of before, it came from the unusual power behind Palpatine. Somehow Palpatine was using the abundant energy of the force to empower his abilities making each use overcharged, it was a powerful technique but there was a drawback, once started he couldn't stop. Lightning flashed from his fingertips and I casually blocked it with my lightsaber. I concentrated on his technique and found he had created a loop where he tied into the surrounding force and connected it to his lightning. Blasting out tons of lightning Palpatine wasn't using a lot of his power but he couldn't stop.

"This technique of yours, is it the reason for your disfigurement" I pointed with my free hand at Palpatines face. By his own doing Palpatines face was rippled with folds and flaps caused by the redirection of his force powers by Mace Windu.

At the time I wondered why Palpatine didn't just stop with his volley of blue lightning and protect himself from his own power. Some would say that it was a risky calculating gambit to get Anakin Skywalker on his side but now that I could see that Palpatine couldn't stop his attack against me. I released he had overplayed his hand at Mace Windu and was begging for help from the only other person in the room.

I copied the move that had disfigured Palpatine all those years ago. My lightsaber closed the gap to steadily get closer to Palpatine. The worried eyes of Palpatine darted as he moved his head from side to side to avoid the stray bolts from his power.

"NO, NO, NO, NO..." Palpatines voice croaked. With each "NO" the force of lightning pulsed with new power as he fed his own power into the skill as well.

The bolts of stray power were now hitting the emperor and his body twitched and spasmed. My lightsaber was about to make the connection with his face when the force lightning disconnected causing me to stumble forward. Palpatine took advantage of this by sidestepping my forward stumble and slicing at my lightsaber-held arm.

Quickly the Emperor pushed himself away from me to escape a follow-up strike from my lightsaber. Palpatine looked at my arm with great eagerness and expected a detached arm but I was there full in body and spirit ready to continue.

To answer Palpatine's confused face I tapped my armour with my lightsaber "Clothes make the man, Good armour protects the man"

That was the final straw, Palpatine wasn't interested in fighting to get answers anymore. Coming that close to death had flipped a switch and he was in full fighting mode.

Rage-induced force abilities warped the surroundings as Palpatine threw himself into battle and continuously swiped at me with emotion-fueled powers and a barrage of strikes with his lightsaber. I had long known how good the Sith were at fighting. The Brotherhood Of Darkness were constantly at war with the Jedi and even themselves and the group as a whole were better at mixing force powers with their lightsaber techniques than the Jedi, and Palpatine was the same.

In short, Palpatine lightsaber techniques were better than mine and I was put on the back foot as I twisted and turned to avoid strikes. I flipped through the air to avoid a sweep to the legs only for Palpatine to use his power to bring me down sooner than I expected. I stumbled again trying to find my footing and Palpatine followed the route of my lightsaber to guide him down to the underpart of my armour. I knew that if I corrected my footing then I would lose an arm from the unprotected underbelly, so I didn't.

I let go of my lightsaber as I fell back. Palpatine lightsaber no longer had a target but I didn't have a weapon, not after I kicked my lightsaber hilt at Palpatine. The weapon flowed forward to cause Palpatine to retreat and use his lightsaber to block a crazy attack that wasn't in any book and wasn't part of any lightsaber form.

Both of us retreated, readjusted and found our footing.