Upon hearing their orders, the two Imperial Royal Guards exited the throne room and remained
outside, understanding not to return unless called for again.
As they stood at the entrance, they made small talk over what the emperor had
planned for Luke Skywalker, with them both being
among the few to know that Palpatine was a powerful Sith Lord and that the young rebel
brought before him was to be turned to the dark side.
Although both were devoted and proud in their service to the emperor, viewing him
almost as a god-like being who never made mistakes,
one of the guards held frustrations over being ordered to leave.
Not witnessing the turn of Skywalker to the dark side was one thing, but not being there
to protect the emperor in the off-chance things
didn't go as planned kept him worried.
Nevertheless, the unnamed Royal Guard with these concerns who we’ll refer to as RG
from now on, remained at the entrance alongside his
steadfast partner named Tauk.
Soon, clashes of lightsabers, debris, and screams echoed from within the throne room.
Both guards were initially excited, believing Skywalker
was either finally turning to the dark side or
was being destroyed for his continued resistance.
The rush of being so close to the galaxy’s destiny being decided soon came to a halt
when the guards heard one scream that was unlike
any other they had heard before.
Although Tauk was determined to remain at his post as
ordered, RG decided to trust his gut instincts and rushed inside the throne room to assess
the situation.
When he entered, he saw Luke dragging a limp Darth Vader.
At first the guard believed the Sith Lord was being kidnapped, before being ordered
to leave immediately by Vader, with his words barely coming through his damaged mask.
The guards obeyed the emperor’s right hand as they
were trained to do, thus letting Luke and Vader leave the throne room without incident.
Once both father and son were gone, the two guards inspected the throne room before quickly
realizing that Palpatine had not fled as they first assumed but was instead killed.
They immediately sprang to avenge their Emperor,
following the path they last saw Skywalker take.
As they made their way towards the hanger, RG continued to wonder why Vader had ordered
them to leave if he wasn’t being taken prisoner.
It made no sense based on what they had discovered regarding the emperor’s fate.
Eventually as the guards spotted them on the ramp of
a shuttle, they noticed Luke kneeling over the lifeless body of a once powerful Sith
Lord.
Taken aback at such a surreal sight, the guards started to wonder again what had actually
occurred.
Perhaps they were wrong, and their master’s plan did in fact succeed as expected.
They simply did not understand the plan’s complexity, but whatever it was, it appeared
that Luke had fallen to the dark side and was now taking
Vader’s place.
The guards then approached the rebel cautiously, expecting orders and clarity
from the emperor’s new right hand.
But instead of a newly forged fiery Sith Lord, what they
witnessed was a boy crying out over the death of his
father, who then shouted at the guards to escape the battle station with their lives
when he noticed them, before entering the shuttle
with Anakin’s corpse to flee for himself.
It was at this point when RG, upon seeing the damage on Vader’s suit much closer,
realized the truth.
That the Emperor was not killed by Luke, but by his most loyal servant.
Such a revelation stunned the guard, not only as it discredited
the wisdom of the Emperor for being so blind to
betrayal, but the fact that the unbreakable bond between the two could ever be shattered.
While RG was having this internal conflict, Tauk on the other hand was confused over why
his partner was just standing there and not following
his lead in chasing the rebel down when it was
revealed he had not turned to the dark side.
Collecting his thoughts, RG expressed the gravity of the situation before them to Tauk.
First, it was Lord Vader who had killed the emperor,
not Luke Skywalker.
Thus, they would not be avenging their master by killing the young
rebel.
Second, because Palpatine was dead, the Empire as an entity was doomed to fall.
Their continued efforts would be in vain, as they had
already failed their sole duty and nothing they could do now would change that fact.
However, Tauk was unmoved by his partner’s words, refusing to believe the Emperor had
truly failed and instead convinced it was still
all part of his infallible plan of destroying the Rebel
Alliance and its hero Luke Skywalker.
Refusing to join Tauk’s desire to hunt Luke down, RG decided to escape instead.
Viewing it as an act of treason, Tauk attacked his fleeing
ally, instigating an intense brawl which ended with
RG reluctantly shooting his fellow guard dead.
Although RG had won the fight, debris from a
nearby ship fell upon him, trapping him within the hangar.
Realizing he had no chance of escape, RG closed his eyes and let his rushing
thoughts distract him from his impending death.
Accepting this fate as punishment for his earlier cowardice and betrayal, RG suddenly
awoke from his mind when he felt his body get lighter,
only to realize that Luke had stayed behind to lift
the debris off his body with the Force.
Now free, RG listened to the young rebel’s shouts to
hurry, with the guard sprinting to another ship and barely making it out of the second
Death Star before it exploded.
Once out of the danger zone, RG now had all the time in the world to think in peace.
A gift he was not entirely sure how to feel about.
On one hand, a part of him was eager to fly directly into
a star and be done with it.
He had devoted his entire life to a cause and purpose that no longer
existed, in part because of his own failures.
What other reason did he have to live for?
Yet another part of him wanted to continue on, perhaps out of curiosity of what was to
come in a post-Empire galaxy, or to maybe honor Luke’s
efforts of saving his life.
Regardless of why, the only thing he knew what to do at that moment,
was allow himself to properly mourn over the death of his Emperor, and then again for himself
over the death of his former life and the loss of
everything he ever cared about blinking away from existence just like that.