Duel on Byss The Duel on Byss was a battle between Luke Skywalker and Palpatine in the latter ' s clone labs on Byss . History . Background . After Luke Skywalker made a partial turn to the dark side of the Force and became apprentice to Palpatine , his sister , Leia Organa Solo , traveled to Byss in an attempt to rescue him . Unfortunately , she only succeeded in getting herself , Han Solo , Chewbacca and C - 3PO captured . Palpatine was quick to take advantage of this and attempted to turn Leia to the dark side as well . Tempting her with a Jedi holocron he had in his possession , and stirring her anger by revealing his twisted intentions for her unborn child , his attempt backfired and she fled in anger . Aided by Luke , who had been secretly sabotaging the Emperor ' s schemes , she fled along with Han , Chewbacca , C - 3PO and R2 - D2 . Furnished with the master control codes for the World Devastator s attacking Mon Calamari , she allowed the New Republic forces to win the battle . Meanwhile , Luke finally engaged in open rebellion against Palpatine . The Duel . Palpatine ' s Clones . As the Emperor ' s current clone body lay dying in the lab , Luke Skywalker stormed in and confronted Palpatine , lightsaber drawn . When Palpatine threatened to transfer his consciousness into Skywalker himself , Luke called his bluff . Sitting back , Palpatine allowed his current body to die in a flash of Force energy . Realizing that Palpatine could only enter a living body , Luke went on a destructive spree through the clone lab , shattering one tank after another , sending the Sith Lord ' s genetic offspring to mindless , babbling deaths . Unfortunately for Luke , one of the bodies was not quite dead . Rising to his feet in his new body , the Dark Lord of the Sith faced the Jedi Master . Stating his belief in Luke ' s inferiority , Palpatine was then smashed against one of the walls of the lab by a Force Push . Turning the Tables . Seizing one of the lightsabers mounted on the wall next to him , a relic of the Jedi Purge , Palpatine ignited it and charged Luke . Gathering strength moment by moment , the young Emperor lashed out with the Jedi weapon , pushing Skywalker to his limits . Despite his mastery of Form V lightsaber combat , Luke was forced to draw on all his resources simply to parry the Emperor ' s blows . Locking blades , they had a brief exchange , Luke stating his belief in the dark side ' s ultimate failure , Palpatine reaffirming his belief in the dark side , and thusly his own , superior strength . In a sudden display of incredible strength , Palpatine pushed forward , breaking the blade - lock and swung his saber downwards , pivoting to the side as he did so . His sudden move flicked Luke ' s lightsaber aside and caused the Jedi to lose balance . As Luke fell , Palpatine advanced , his saber at Luke ' s throat . Holding the Jedi at bladepoint , Palpatine completed Luke ' s turn to the dark side , reducing him to a subservient watchdog . In addition , to further ensure that Luke had turned to the Dark Side , he also inserted himself into Luke ' s mind and proceeded to break Luke ' s spirit until Luke was left significantly broken to the extent that he even disavowed his own name . Aftermath . Palpatine immediately afterwards journeyed to the Pinnacle moon in his flagship ; " Eclipse " ; with a subservient Luke Skywalker in tow . Contacting the New Republic leaders , he demanded the presence of Leia and the return of his Jedi holocron , and promised to discuss a truce with the Republic . Leia complied to the Emperor ' s demand for her presence , but left the holocron behind . Thanks to her , Luke managed to shake off the shroud of the dark side completely and turned on Palpatine . After a swift rematch , Luke won but Palpatine , in a display of defiance , summoned a Force storm and began to destroy the Republic fleet . Luke and Leia banded together and temporarily cut off Palpatine ' s connection to the Force , and thusly control of the Force storm . While the wayward storm destroyed " Eclipse " and killed the Emperor , Luke and Leia fled , and Luke announced his plans to rebuild the Jedi Order . Behind the scenes . The Duel on Byss first appeared in the issue " " of the " Dark Empire " series of comics . The battle was conceived and written by authors Tom Veitch , was drawn by artist Dave Dorman and colored by colorist Cam Kennedy . Veitch used this as one of the conflicts leading up to the final climax between Palpatine and the Skywalker twins during the Battle of Pinnacle Base . The Duel on Byss would eventually be featured in the " Dark Empire " audio drama , which witnessed the intensity of the duel take on a whole new personality through the voice acting of John Cygan ( Luke Skywalker ) and Nick Jameson ( Emperor Palpatine ) . This duel is one of the shortest lightsaber duels illustrated in a comic , only taking up a total of three panels over the course of two pages . In real - world chronological order of publishing , this is the first lightsaber duel to feature both the Jedi and Sith Lord involved wielding blue lightsabers . The act of Palpatine taking his lightsaber off of a wall in the room could possibly be seen as a metaphor for the literary technique , which states that if a loaded gun ( represented in this case as a lightsaber ) is placed on a wall , then it should either be used or otherwise not exist in the story .