Beyond - Legends "Grey and Red" (AU; L/M, reflection/etc.)

Author's Note: I've decided to see if I still have my writing chops AFA SW-fic.

That, and I'm working to see what I can salvage from my previous attempts at crossover-fic. (It tended to collapse under its own weight, and/or just go off course. l don't intend to go overboard with crossovers as I did before.

At the moment, however, this is just SW ... at least for the time being. Continuity-wise, this piece is LOTF-ish in the timeframe. The timeline diverges from old canon at Vector Prime, however ...

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She wasn't sure how he maintained that farmboy veneer after all this time.

It wasn't as if the sleeping man beside her was young, any more - he couldn't throw around AT-STs or purge alien viruses through Force of will, at least not without having to sleep a day or so afterward.

But he still had that sense of ... decency, she supposed she could call it.

He could make mistakes, but he would at least try to face up to them. And he didn't misuse his powers or his fame. He was still good, after all this time, still able to see the good in others and try to promote it.

Probably, she thought as she brushed a lock of sandy-grey hair from his forehead, that was why he'd managed to keep the Order relatively intact through the various micro-schisms of the last few years.

You can't have a Jedi Council that truly works if you micromanage them, she'd warned him.

So far, he'd taken it to heart, course-correcting when needed. She kissed his forehead, warmed by the unconscious smile that crossed his face, and she stood up in the dark bedroom.

She stepped into the refresher, examining her own face - a few more lines, a bit more grey in her locks, but she still looked good, she thought. And so did her husband, for that mattered.

Given the lives they'd lived so far - shot, stabbed, poisoned, lightsaber-burned - that was saying a lot.

They didn't go in the field as much as they had - they had their teaching, when it wasn't one of their turns to be Grand Master (a rotating position, switching once a month between Council Masters), and the children to look after.

She extended her Force sense, satisfied that the kids were asleep in their beds - not that she really expected them to be out and about. The nonsense that had gone on with her nephews and niece in their childhoods was not going to be repeated with her three children, not if she could help it.

She smiled, shaking her head in amazement all over again, and shut off the refresher light as she headed back to bed.

Children.

Just the idea of one had been overwhelming enough, given the events around his birth. Having two more had been equally as unexpected, but very welcome - and yes, she'd threatened her husband with dire threats if they ever had even another child.

Reality had a way of making liars of them all, she supposed, slipping back into bed.

"Besides, Farmboy, you've grown on me," she whispered, curling up beside him and smiling.

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MORE SKYCRAWLERS! Yay. This is great. Nice reflections.​

 

Aw, very cute!

 

Well hello! I like the feel and tone of this and of course more children for L/M. The gentle musings from Mara are wonderful -- there's such a sense of gratefulness More! soon.

 

Oh, this was lovely! Anything with a larger family for my favorites is welcome.

 

Adorable, understated sweetness. Don't worry, you've got the chops! And the favorable AU-ness is definitely up our alley. Great little snapshot of the mature L/M relationship.

 

Agreed! And feel free to visit Kyp again in your fics, especially the truncated ones will need reposting. Can't have too much of him either.

 

Awww, I love it! Three Skycrawlers!! I wish, I wish, I wish...!!! I love this look into Mara's thoughts. I love the last line.

 

Love it! Beautifully written!

 

Very sweet!

 

Thanks, everyone. I'll see how soon I can post again - I have a lot of outlining to do before I plunge into a multi-parter again ...

Nyota's Heart - I'll see if I can work on that Kyp-fic. It may need some retooling, depending on how AU I go with this; there were elements that were fairly specific (the presence of Psylocke being one of the central differences).

 

Well I agree with all above -- I always thought there should have been more than just Ben. And Yeah I love Kyp too. I love how Mara checked to see where the children were. And I adore it when she calls her Luke -Farmboy. Never tire of that.

 

I love this so much!!!!!! I wish this was the way it had gone! Not that NJO didn't have its merits, but....is it too much to ask for a little peace for them to enjoy each other after so much??

Beautiful

 

Thanks. This isn't quite the same AU I'm working on the moment - that one has six Skycrawlers - but this is still a fun little piece.

(And yes, quite agreed about the NJO. There are a few things I'd tweak there, although TUF has its moments - it's the works after that frustrate me.

- Thanks for reading,
Onderon1

 

I was going through your older stuff to see what I did not read and reply to during the Great Onderon1 Binge of March 2016 and I found this. And I can't believe that you ever wondered if you've still got your chops.

This is a wonderful glimpse of "older and wiser" Luke and Mara and, well, "newer and wiser" Jedi Order. In both cases, flexibility is the key - one has to be selfless, to listen to the others as much as oneself, yet not abandon the core values. And both this relationship, knowing that it had been off to a rocky start and the New Jedi Order, essentially built from nothing, seem to function this way.

That said, I adore both the glimpses of both Luke and Mara aging, yet adoring each other the way they are and being confident about it (especially Mara, as opposed to all those "boo-hoo, I'm growing older and I'm no longer beautiful" sexist nonsense that is so pervasive in fiction); and the unique idea that the Grand Master of the New Jedi Order is assigned just like managers in some retail stores. It must have taken a lot of love and a tremendous amount of learning for all of this to work.

On top of this, while I love your stories for their fast pace and "big picture" style, you're real good when dealing with these little details, too...y'know?

The only part that I'm not sure if I figured out here is if Mara is pregnant with the fourth Jade-Skywalker child and if this could, then, somehow tie-in with your "new" AU.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to listen to this song while re-reading this story...

 

Ewok Poet: Thank you! This was a fun piece to write, especially the part where L/M accept each other as they are - they've earned this time together.

This was, actually, written before the present timeline I'm working on, and

Spoiler

doesn't include NuCanon elements. That said, Betsy "Psylocke" Braddock is around somewhere in the background here, and my personal head-canon for Mara's origin - which I want to reveal in due course - remains the same. It's a big multiverse.