Beyond - Legends Lest Ye Be Judged--Vader war crimes trial--Voted Best All-Around, thanks!

LOL, it's summarized in Leia's conversation with Vader. But you'd like this better if you read it.

 

They had wasted no time in putting the effects of victory into motion, so that two hours before local midnight, the convocation of the Alliance gathered to elect the first leader of the New Republic. The votes were carefully tallied, with C-3PO acting as a translator and the only opposition coming from a very confused Ewok child who withdrew from the race and the gathering as fast as his legs could carry him once Threepio had explained that he had just volunteered to handle the problems of the Galaxy.

As a result, as the drum pattern indicating midnight sounded, it was announced that Mon Mothma of Chandrila would lead them into the new era as she had guided them in the dark days of the Empire.

She had only been in office thirteen hours, yet the security measures were equal to someone who had been in office for months. She had despised the idea of bodyguards, alleging that no man should have to die if her time came to pass into the next world. General Rieekan had grudgingly allowed this, but kept her 'aides' trained to Royal Guard efficiency. Now, there was a contingent of six bodyguards and the leader of the Galaxy looked ready to strangle the personnel director in charge of that mistake.

"Minister Organa," she greeted.

"Not so loud," Leia cautioned with a slight smile. "They might hear you and assign an entourage to me."

"Come now," Mon Mothma teased. "You've had an entourage ever since you arrived on Yavin. I rather think you like them."

"Them, yes," Leia agreed. "But your entourage tripled in size since I saw you last. It's a dangerous trend."

This sort of banter was not unusual between them, since Leia had learned her wit from one of Mon Mothma's oldest friends, but it was the first time she had to fake her enjoyment of it.

And somehow, her mentor was picking up on that fact. Her mouth slackened into a grim line and she stepped aside to let Leia into her office.

"All right, Leia," she sighed. "I'll stop threatening bodyguards if you tell me why you've come for a visit."

Her hand trembled as she reached out to squeeze the other woman's arm affectionately as she passed. It was a silent signal not to worry so much, but they both knew that believing it would take some doing.

At least the furnishings had never changed. Mon Mothma was not one to hoard the better parts of shipments, so her desk was still comprised of discarded hull strapped to two packing crates. Her chairs were either surplus ejector seats or rather worn self-conforming sacks. Leia chose one of the latter, letting the material attempt to swallow her until she felt either pinned or engulfed by her surroundings.

"I never thought," she admitted, "that I'd hear you addressing me as Minister of State."

"I never thought I'd get the chance," Mothma retorted as she chose the next 'chair' over. "We'll have to get used to it, I suppose."

For a long moment, they were both silent, unsure or unwilling to break that moment of disbelieving relief. Leia's thoughts were anything but quiet, but she took the moment of silence to refocus her efforts.

"We took a prisoner this morning," she began.

"So I understood from Rieekan's invocation of High Command security clearance," Mothma supplied. "Was it something that would have made your Father proud?"

That was a familiar enough question, Mothma's oft-used way of reminding her younger counterpart of the benefits of acting for the good of the Rebellion. It had never felt like a gutshot before.

"Which one?"

Mothma did not flinch or direct a questioning gaze in her direction, only nodded with grim acknowledgement. "Then, you've heard of Anakin."

Her mind froze at the name that she had not been aware of for so many years. Of course Mothma would have heard of the Jedi Anakin Skywalker. Certainly after Skywalker's squadron was responsible for liberating Chandrila in the closing months of the Clone Wars. She had mentioned this briefly upon meeting another fighter pilot named Skywalker one month after Yavin.

She had simply never mentioned that the name

 

I must say that's one of my odder scenes ever written--the GFFA equivalent of Bush and Cheney being hostile in beanbag chairs. I am finally liberated for the time being from psycho-inability-to-post-due-to-kidnapping.

 

Hi Ish...
I like this rewrite; it flows better. If GL can do it, so can you.
The first story was still awesome though.

"Han's personal upholstery" -

 

Ah, thanks. I'm glad it flows better!

 

Great post!! I like seeing Mon Mothma as "normal" - not as the evil villian that some of us like to think of her as!

 

Just think how different this would be if the Ewok had won the election.

It's probably good that Leia didn't know about her father previously. She might have had a hard time accepting Luke when she met him.

 

Laura_Anu--Great post!! I like seeing Mon Mothma as "normal" - not as the evil villian that some of us like to think of her as!

LOL, I never quite think of her as an evil villain, so glad you liked it anyway.

RebelMom--Just think how different this would be if the Ewok had won the election.

It's probably good that Leia didn't know about her father previously. She might have had a hard time accepting Luke when she met him.

Ah, yes, if only there had been the reign of President Logray III! Yeah, it's a good thing to not know about her father before.

 

Great post! I like your portrayal of Mon Mothma. It will be very, very hard for Leia to see him as Anakin instead of Vader...

 

Thanks. I haven't done Mon Mothma very often.

 

I agree, I like the characterisation of Mon Mothma in this one. Nice 'n' normal.

Mind you, I think the ewok should have been given a better chance . . . Wes isn't going to come into this, is he?

 

There's a humorfic challenge--write about the Ewok that might have been President and Wes' ongoing campaign to give him a position of power.

 

You are kidding, right?

If you're not, please gimmie the link!!!!!

 

No, that SHOULD be a humorfic challenge, but alas it's not. Please do it if not.

 

That version of Padme's story, if you didn't know, is from In Sickness and In Health.

I didn't know. I'll have to check it out.

Anyway, great post! It would have been interesting, to say the least, if the Ewok won. I liked Leia and Mon Mothma's interaction. You're really good at characterization.

 

Great, now I'm seriously going to write the Ewok winning in a humorfic. I'm glad you liked the L/MM stuff. ISAIH is on the Saga and near the top today because one of my writer friends finally got through it.

 

Check this out. Had me laughing out loud in public.

And a post is coming this afternoon.

 

Or evening.

 

Anakin awoke to find slender fingers running along the skin just above his eyes. Since there were no injuries to speak of there, this aroused his curiosity, but the moment that he though to identify his ministering angel, his heart did the work for him.

"Are you an angel?" he queried hoarsely, voice straining to inflect some kind of emotion into the first words they had spoken to each other in a decade.

He half expected her to recoil violently as if she had mistakenly brushed her hand against a hot surface, but her ministrations did not cease.

"Hardly, my Lord," Padme said stiffly. "If I were one, I'd be a cruel savior because I have no intention of letting you die."

His brow furrowed and in that moment, he recognized why she had been probing that area with her fingertips. It was not a medical examination, but a tentatively familiar gesture of affection.

Had he forgotten her so forcefully that he couldn't remember the evenings when she wouldn't let him crawl into bed with her until she had smoothed the worry lines from his brow?

"I didn't marry a grouch, so if the grouch wants to get any sleep tonight, he'll go away and let my husband come for a visit."

He'd laughed and marked the same furrow between her eyebrows. "What about this grouch?" he teased.

"Someone will have to be the sensible one when we're parents," she explained. "It might as well be the disgruntled politician instead of the doting father."

"You haven't changed a bit."

He hadn't heard her laugh in so long that the burst of bitter amusement that escaped from her throat was almost entirely alien to him.

"I've spent a decade hiding behind this profession," she admitted. "I've forgotten how to trust and relearned the basics with great difficulty. I've done this to avoid the possibility that you might someday recognize the woman you once loved in me and it has been for nothing."

Part of him was still a young man who was dismayed that she had distrusted him so strongly, but the more sensible side of him found smug satisfaction in the fact that her efforts were as futile as they were fearful.

"Not for nothing," he insisted. "You're here, aren't you?"

"Exactly."

His mind immediately supplied the acute self-consciousness that he had experienced upon finding himself without the armor. He had not thought on the physical marring since then, but facing a woman who, though the furrows had deepened in her brow and her hair was beginning to go grey at the temples, was a perfect beauty, his subconscious was only too willing to condemn him.

Instead, when he probed her mind to confirm his suspicions, he was assaulted by thoughts of laughter that could not be contained in their small apartment and the quiet murmur of his voice in her ear as they held each other in the moonlight. He could almost feel the swell of their child beneath his mechanical hands, could hear the quiet celebration in the words "You're going to be a father, Anakin."

"Do you remember?" she whispered.

Before he could respond, the same hands that could remember the shape of his baby girl remembered the feel of her cracked jaw, the power of the shove that had left her crumpled against the wall as he turned his back on her for the last time. Roared threats and hissed betrayals rung in his ears with as much force as though they were being spoken in the same room.

"Do you remember?" she repeated.

Both were equally powerful accusations.

"Yes," he admitted quietly.

"Then, you know why."

"I know why you revile me," he shot back, "but I do not know why you insist on keeping me alive."

Her smile was tight, her eyes dead. "I am not you, Lord Vader," she explained flatly. "I would keep Palpatine alive because I know why I chose the path of a healer."

I seriously doubt that, but if it lets you sleep at night...

No, you might just do that because it provides more opportunity for torture than a quick death. I remember the logical diplomat, the compassionate Senator, but I also remember what you wished on those who cro

 

Oooh, do I get the first response?

Very cool post

I love the references from In Sickness and In Health.

Sorry I can't formulate more of a response...very tired right now.

 

LOL. I was going to rewrite the scene, but I really liked the way it turned out in ISAIH and it's from the same perspective. I'm glad you liked the post. Mea is definitely my brainchild.

 

Ooh, great post Ish. Those scenes from ISaiH work really well for this story. They are ever more poignant and moving when you realize what Anakin is going through. Hmm... this new character should prove interesting.

 

Yes, she'll be very interesting. If you've read the old version, you'll know why, but the line about her being like Luke is very important.

 

Hold up, I'm confuddled - blame it on me not stopping by ISANH yet! So...was Padme pregnat again??? Or am I just really confused??? I know I should go read the other one, but it's soooooooo long...hehehehehe.

 

She was pregnant with the twins when he left her, then that scene I put in is from 10 years later, as mentioned when Anakin's telling Leia how she reminds him of Padme.