Beyond - Legends A Look Into the Past - Vignette Series - 4/6 - AUTHOR'S NOTE *sigh*

This is the first in a series of vignettes reflecting on the lives of the heroes of the Rebel Alliance and the New Republic. I have one more already written and many more in mind, but any suggestions, either posted or PM'd will be welcomed.

Leia

The apartment is finally quiet now. For the last hour or so I've listened to my grandmother crying in the next room. What her tears are for this time, I don't know. But I certainly can't fault her for them, whatever the reason.

Ever since I was a little girl my mother has told my older brother and I stories about the galactic civil war my grandmother helped lead and my grandfather joined ? the war that turned my grandparents and their good friends into heroes while taking away any hope they might have had for a normal life. Then there are the other stories, the stories about another war that turned my parents into heroes as well.

So when I hear my grandmother cry, I can't help but wonder what her tears are for this time. Are they for having taken other people's lives when she was younger than my own nineteen years? Perhaps they are for being forced to watch as everyone she knew was killed and her home was blasted out of existence?

Or are they just from the fact that she devoted more than thirty years of her life to fighting for a peace in the galaxy that she never thought she would live to see? Does she cry for all the friends she's lost through those years, all the pain she's witnessed, felt, and inflicted upon others? Are her tears for all the innocents whose lives have been lost during, and because of, her fight for justice and peace? Does she cry so often in private because she's spent so many years putting on a public show of courage and fearlessness?

Then there is my mother. There have been many nights I've seen and heard them together, mother and daughter, talking, laughing and crying over my uncle Anakin who I never had the chance to meet. They've told me through their tears that he died a hero, that he died saving so many others, and I can see how proud they are of him. But I can also see that their pride in his achievements and his sacrifice only serves to increase their pain, as if they can see what a great man he would have been had he lived just a little longer. And now his death is yet another wound left open, one that will probably never be healed.

I try to picture my mother and grandmother as pilots and gunners, wielding lightsabers and blasters, at my age. And I can't. Part of the reason for that, I think, is that I picture them as myself. And I can't picture myself doing those things. I've certainly been trained to use a lightsaber in battle, and I'm a pretty fair shot with a blaster, but I can't imagine having to kill anyone. Maybe that's due to the fact that I haven't grown up in the same galaxy they grew up in. I haven't had to fly a fighter except in practice or use a blaster on anything but targets.

I didn't have to fight an evil Empire, knowing with every step I took that I could be executed for treason. I didn't have to face off against an alien race bent on destroying anything and everything in the galaxy. I haven't had to watch everyone I know leave on dangerous missions that no one has any right to return from. I've never had anyone tell me that my brother or my lover or my best friend or my parents were never coming back to me.

So each time I hear my grandmother cry I try to imagine what her tears are for this time. But there are so many possibilities. There are so many wounds that will never heal, wounds that cause her such immeasurable pain that I cannot begin to fathom its intensity. So I don't think that her tears are for any one thing. I think they're for everything she's seen and done and felt, everything she hopes my brother and I and all of our generation will never be subjected to.


~Jes~

Page 1
Leia
Tycho

Page 2
Mara
Wedge

Page 3
Iella
Wes

 

Spectacular

I love this.

It's a very powerful vignette.

Thank you for posting it.

Barefoot

 

awesum and beerrrry muving!

 

Sad and sweet! Good job.

 

Hello Jes!

I can imagine that it is not easy to understand what they are gone through.
My grandpa told me stories about WW2 and his view of it and what happened to him and his family. How he was in prison in Russia or how he came to Austria after the war. I never could imagine what he had gone through.

I can be happy that I live in a country where I can live in peace and nothing terrible happens.

Jes, as always, you are a great writer. Your character descriptions ? wonderful.

Mag

 

Wow. Lots of reviews. How nice. Hope you will all keep reading as I post more. Any suggestions for more characters are very welcome. (I do have several in mind already)

Barefoot: It's a very powerful vignette. That's what I'm going for with all of these.
Glad you like it, and you're welcome.

Jagsgurl15: beerrrry muving I like moving Glad you like.

GreatOne: Sad and sweet! Sadness is good. A lot of my vignettes/short stories are at least somewhat sad. But that is okay. The books have a lot of sadness, but that makes for great fanfic.

Mag: Character descriptions are my strong suit. As you well know.
I think we all consider ourselves lucky to live in a time of relative peace. Would likely be a little more peaceful if my country kept its nose out of everyone else's business. (No offense to any American Bush fans out there...or international Bush fans for that matter) Anyway... *runs off before I get myself into trouble*)

Jes

 

That was so wonderful! I especially love that all that fighting wasn't for naught. At least Jaina's daughter's generation knew what it was like to live in a peaceful galaxy, after three generations of battles I think it's time for a little peace.

 

Lovely. It's very touching. I like how the girl's actually grown up normally, unlike her mother and grandmother, and realizes that's why she can't fully understand them.

Keep going!

 

Wow!

It's poignant, I guess. Leia's and Jaina's and all the other's sacrifices made it so Jaina's daughter doesn't know what it is to fight in a war.

It's very good, Jesina, sad, but good.

 

princess_meg: Glad you like it. I wanted to have them live in a time of peace. It's kind of like we are now, compared with our parents and grandparents - like Mag said. I'm American, and we are fighting in Iraq (which I don't agree with, but anyway) but it's not the same as when my grandparents served in World War II. I imagine the girl listening to Leia and Jaina thinking about how different things are, kind of the way I look at it now. I wanted a point of comparison, the likes of which Jaina and Leia don't have. Jaina really followed in her mother's footsteps. Jaina's daughter, though, had the opportunity to choose a different path.

MistiWhitesun: Read what I wrote above. J/K. I wanted a point of comparison that Leia and Jaina don't have. They have both lost family and friends to war, both fought for the same ideals, even though somewhat in different ways. This girl has another path to take.

Smuggler: She reaps the benefits of what her elders endured before her, but she sees and comes to understand what they lost so she can live in peace.


[/philosophical mush]

Jes

 

This is really sad, but inspiring.

 

Rodian: You think this is sad...I think the next one is worse...that's just me, though.
I love to be told I'm inspiring...

I will tell those of you who don't already know...the next installment is Tycho.
I'm sure you all can guess what THAT story focuses on.

Jes

 

I seem to be saying this too much, but that was very touching. All that paragraph where Jaina's daughter couldn't picture herself doing all that stuff mean that they have peace, but the memories will never fade.

Brilliant work

 

Sam Exactly! That's the whole point of this entire series, actually. A "your sacrifice will not be forgotten."

The next one is, as I said, Tycho, and it's a different style - conversational/story-telling - but it's the same thing. Somehow, all that they've been through will be remembered. Somehow.

Jes

PS...I expect that all of you will reveiw the next one...and read my other stuff...

 

I decided to post this early, since I already had it written.
It's a little longer and is told in a different style, so please let me know which one you like better, this or Leia.

Tycho

I remember the first time my father talked with me about his past ? about the life he'd had with the Rebel Alliance. Before that, he'd told me some stories, but until then he hadn't really TALKED to me. Some of what he told me I'd hear about over and over again, and, like any child, I never tired of hearing the stories of his adventures. (A good thing, too, when all your parents' friends have the same stories.) Other things, however, he never spoke of again.

I was doing homework for a class on the history of the New Republic, and we were studying the Rebellion at that point. Though I was only ten or eleven at the time, I'd heard enough stories from my parents and their friends to know the names of most of the places that had figured significantly in the Rebellion. In my text, though, I came across the name of an Imperial prison that had never been mentioned in any story. Given the description, I knew I?d have remembered if anyone had ever told me about it. "Dad," I asked. "Where was Lusankya?"

He didn't answer me, so I turned to face him and repeat myself, figuring he just hadn't heard me. But when I looked at him I realized that something was very, very wrong. His face was white and he was trembling. I remember thinking that he looked absolutely terrified. I had never ever seen my father afraid of something. Now, years later, I realize that he must have spent a great deal of his life being afraid. But at that point the realization that anything could cause such a reaction in my father frightened me.

We both just sat there for a moment. I wanted to get up and go to him but for some reason I didn't dare move. Finally, though, I got scared enough that I felt I had to do something, and I got up to go get my mother. I thought that maybe she would know what was wrong. But as I walked by, he reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me into an embrace. He just held me for a moment, and at that point I realized that there had been more to my father's life with the Rebellion than just the exciting stories my parents and their friends told and the glamour that the holovids talked about.

Finally he stood, and led me to the living room, where we sat on the couch, just staring at each other for a few minutes. Then he began to speak, and I hung on every word. I?ve never listened to anyone so closely in my life.

"Lusankya was actually a ship, buried beneath the surface of the planet here on Coruscant. It was a hidden prison run by a woman named Ysanne Isard. Do you know who that is?" I nodded and he went on. "Iceheart ? that was what we called her ? used the prison to brainwash Rebels that they captured. Then she'd let them go free, and later, when she needed them, she'd turn them into spies and traitors. She could make them do whatever she wanted them to do, and it didn't matter that they'd always been good and loyal." He shuddered slightly.

I huddled closer to him and shivered. "Did you know anyone who got taken to Lusankya?" I asked him, my young mind not registering the obvious reason behind his reaction to the name.

He laughed bitterly. "Oh, yes. I knew too many people." His voice fell to a whisper. Then he said the words that finally drove everything home to me. "I was."

I know I just stared at him. I didn't know what to say. Hadn't he just told me that people who went to Lusankya became traitors? Was my father a traitor? I needed to ask, but I couldn't form the words. I was afraid to know the answer.

He looked down at me. "Do your texts say anything about the first real trial they had after the Rebellion won Coruscant?"

I wracked my brain for a minute. "I think so. It was someone accused of treason and murder, right?"

"Yes, it was," he said softly, and I had to strain my ears to hear him. "That was me. They thought that Mr. Horn had died, and because they knew I'd been t

 

I didn't get to say this earlier about the Leia one, but good insite on having Leia just cry for no reason (well, there is a reason, but you know what I mean). You know all that she has been doing is going to have to hit her sometime.

As for Tycho...yet another good incite. Now, years later, I realize that he must have spent a great deal of his life being afraid. But at that point the realization that anything could cause such a reaction in my father frightened me.

That got me. You grow up thinking your dad, mom, brother, someone older then you is strong and infaliable. The moment you realize that they are human is the moment you realize you're human as well.

I'm looking forward to the rest!

 

Very sad...but very realistic as well.

 

Jedi voice: You will review. You will review.
Readers' voices: We will review. We will review.
I will review
No I am stronger then that! *grin*

Jes wonderful written. A nice view into Tychos past and fears.
You let him not really speak about his past like I did with Wes in my viggie and I thought of Leias part before. We already discussed it, didn?t we.

It reminds me like you write Tycho in `Demon´. The closed up not wanting to talk about what happened to him.

Mag

 

RedGold: You know all that she has been doing is going to have to hit her sometime.
Yup, and the way I see it, it will take about ten or twenty years for her to slow down enough for it to all catch up with her.
Glad you like it, and I know what, in particular, you are looking forward to.

Sarah: Sad is what I am going for. Tycho makes a great tearjerker. I hope the next one will come across as just as realistic.

Mag: Well, as you know from reading 'Demons' that is how I see Tycho...kind of closed off until someone drags it out of him. I think there's a distinct difference between him and Leia. Some good has come out of all the terrible things she's seen. He was tortured at Lusankya and virtually betrayed by the people he served loyally. There's no saving grace there, just a blot on the past that he wishes he could erase. With Leia, there are good memories - Anakin's death, for example: painful as it is, there is still good to come from talking about it - but with Tycho and Lusankya it is all bad.

Jes

 

That describes war perfectly. It isn't what the movies show, all the good guys winning with minor casualities and showing victory in every scene.

War was death, on both sides as well as defeat. The movies don't show the long cold nights sitting in a trench, expecting a motar shell to land on you, it doesn't show behind the scenes.

Sorry about rambling on there, I just have a love for war and stuff.

Very sweet, that kid was smart.

 

This is the first fic of yours that I have reviewed and I was pleasantly suprised!

Very good vignette!

I am curious as to if you plan on names for these kids?

 

Sam: Yeah. I'm not a big NJO fan - the characters occasionally get on my nerves - but what I like best about the NJO is that it's more realistic. People die. It happens. Look at the Rogues. Something like nine of them have been flying together since Wraith Squadron went to Intel by the time Wedge and Tycho retire...not quite realistic.

General_Kardde: Actually, I believe you reviewed my vignette "Among Friends" but thank you. Glad you like it so much. I have several more that have been posted and are in my profile.
I hadn't planned on naming the kids since these are all one-shot stories. Maybe I will do something to tie them together when I finish - perhaps have all the kids together for a reunion type thing or something...but that won't be for a while yet. I have a lot more in mind.

Jes

 

Hopped onto the first viggie I could see in your profile since I am slacking off anyway .

Very well-written... brought out a separate side of the war. It was touching to see how mature these children were... (How old were they? They seem pretty young) and for them to realise that their parents were not entirely infallible even after all the war stories of glory and honour.

I liked this line:

"I got a lesson that day about just what the Rebellion was really all about; that it wasn't the battles and the ships and the planets, but the people."

Who's that next fic on?

 

Sephrenia: Welcome back! Slacking is good.

As for the kids' ages, I think I wrote that Jaina's daughter is 19. For Tycho's - um, let's say son - I was thinking early twenties, looking back.
Several more of these will be conversational style, and they will all be remembering conversations that took place when they were young. Each is supposed to be taking place roughly 25 years after the NJO (that would be when they are telling the story that they remember from years before).
Did that make sense?

I will let everyone know who the next one is on sometime tomorrow, and will post it Friday or Saturday. Those who know, Don't Tell!

Jes

 

awesome so far I'm hooked will there be more of this?