Momentarily Palpatine paused, uncertain whether the boy realized how close to the edge of the raised dais he was, but Skywalker made an nimble, unexpected flip-and-half-twist backward which took him safely over the drop to land soundly on both feet, dropping into a crouch to absorb the impact.
The half-twist had left him facing away from Palpatine and the Sith hurried forward with a long step-and-jump to push the seeming advantage home. But as Skywalker landed he'd used the momentum of the high flip to spin himself about on the balls of his feet, half-crouching to avoid what should have been the Sith's incoming blade, his own saber brought in tight to his body then whipping up in a massively powerful roundhouse blow as he stood-
Ironically it was Palpatine's relative slowness to react and step into the feint which saved his life, leaving him that vital half-step away when Skywalker's blade came up in a slice which would have cleaved him from hip to shoulder. As it was, it sliced through the cloth of his cloak as he backpedalled wildly, a vivid revelation of their relative dexterity.
.
Skywalker wasted no time lamenting the missed blow, already coming forward again, less than a single beat between the strike and his advance.
Palpatine sidestepped, the high dais at his back, giving ground before a hail of fast blows, and was only able to stop the offensive by reaching out through the Force to seize at the massive bulk of the heavy sunburst throne, its mass grating forward as Palpatine prepared to launch it to the boy's unprotected side, as he had done moments earlier with the stone pillar-
But Skywalker was unwilling to make the same mistake twice and this time glanced to the side, dividing his attention without even reaching out his hand against the throne though Palpatine sensed a massive counter-weight thrown against it, forcing it back against his pull. As he released it, the weighty precious-metal throne toppled back where it stood with a dense, resounding thud, the massive beaten sun which formed its backrest gouging fine lines at the edge of the pale disk of inset marble which had once graced the Jedi Council's assembly hall.
Still, it afforded Palpatine two further steps back and put sufficient space in between them that when the boy spun back round his opponent was beyond reach and they once more stared each at the other - and in the seconds that followed, whilst each man stood poised, ready to renew the fight at the slightest sign, Palpatine reassessed his view.
.
He'd never been blind to his young advocate's speed and strength, but he'd always remained confident in his own supremacy for that very fact; his obvious superior experience, his seasoned mastery in comparison to his youthful apprentice. But Skywalker was no novice any more, his reflexes polished, his execution precise, diligently training, learning everything his exacting Master would teach him when Palpatine had prepared him for the duel with his father... and afterwards he'd devoted still more time to refining that ability, building on it and polishing it day on day, all in preparation for...
Palpatine's eyes narrowed and his chest heaved as he stared at the boy... all those hours invested in practice - he had always thought them an avoidance of Court and its corruptions, or a strategy to deal with Vader, when Palpatine finally allowed his Wolf permission to finish the duel he had curtailed by force years earlier - but in light of Mara's revelation, that had never been the case. Now the truth was enacted with cold confidence; now all those invested hours were meted out without qualm against his own Master...
Realisation filled Palpatine with cold fury-
This had been in his head; this moment. Every drill, every kata, every advancement and refinement- it had all been leading to this; all focusing down to this moment.
This duel.
This goal, this objective... this betrayal.
"YOU!" Palpatine spat out the accusation, sulphurous yellow eyes aglow, "You always wanted my Empire - wanted my power for yourself. That's why you conspired with Vader!"
"Then why not kill me?" Luke almost shouted the words, fury and guilt barbed and bound within them "Why him? I disobeyed...I challenged you - not him!"
"You are more useful to me- despite your ambitions."
"And that's it?" Luke yelled, incredulous, "That's the limit of your compassion- your connection? You told me you created Anakin. You used the Force to create life and he was the result. You created him - he was part of you. Your... your son."
"He was flawed." Palpatine dismissed without even a shade of regret, "His connection to the Force had been weakened."
"He was still yours! A part of you! You can't disown that connection, that bond."
"I've told you before- one must be prepared to relinquish the past to own the future."
For long seconds Luke stared, just stared at the Sith, completely beyond words...
Finally he nodded slowly, a veil of cool detachment dropping before those outraged eyes, features bathed blood-red by the saber's glow, voice low and ragged and charged with derision.
"You're right - you're right, Master. I shouldn't allow the past to influence present decisions- I shouldn't tolerate any such hold on me... none at all. You want me to learn at my glorious Master's feet? Then I do - I renounce you. I disown any link to you. Your claims of connection and heredity are nothing. They're immaterial. You have no heir - you have no dynasty. Your reign ends today and by your own choice you'll die alone and abandoned."
Palpatine was outraged before the torrent of accusations and rejections, lashing out a derisive condemnation, "If only your power were equal to your ambitions- perhaps then you'd have the potential to take my Empire from me..."
"I don't want your precious..."
"Then what is this?" Palpatine hissed, "You brought this fight to me- what is this if not ambition?"
The boy shook his head in disbelief, grief making him spit out the words before he'd even thought to censure them in the presence of his ever-perceptive Master "This is retribution."
Palpatine found some part of his own composure at that obvious rush of emotion from the boy, the desolate despair that drove those words igniting a wide, goading grin. He saw a better weapon now to force a mistake and bring his charge down; Skywalker's all-too-obvious obvious guilt at his father's death.
"You blame me so completely but you surely knew that you were your father's replacement, child. The instant you cowed your father in a duel you sealed his fate. You proved you were stronger... you knew that the moment I could control you as I controlled him he would become redundant."
"But you don't- " Skywalker contested, wild, wounded eyes shadowed behind dark hair in the low light, "You don't control me, not completely... you never did, you know that- so why kill him?"
"...Then you did understand-" The revelation set the Sith's head to one side; cruel amusement at the boy's pitiful weakness. "Is that why you struggled so? Always so unpredictable and erratic. Year after year, wilfully insubordinate - every time I thought I could trust you, every time I said as much... you went out of your way to disprove it, didn't you? Did you believe you could buy his life for as long as you were disobedient- keep your father safe? Nothing could do that, child. I work to my own agenda, not yours."
"Your agenda has signed your death warrant." The boy vowed, "You set this in motion- you untied my hands!"