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

Cover art:

[image=http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/spiritofeowyn/Lestyebejudged3.jpg]


A/N: All right, this is not the original story being reposted. I sat through Episode III, cried four times, and then got massive plot bunnies. The one that happened to go for the throat like the bunny in Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail was the one where I went "Hey, if I redid Lest Ye Be Judged, this part of the movie would so work with these five scenes!" I ignored that and wrote In Sickness and In Health instead and then someone on there went "Hey, why don't you rewrite LYBJ in this universe as well?" and I went "It's a sign!" Also, while I was between the versions of this, I got married, got abused, and finally got an annulment on the day that ROTS came out, so I have, I feel, a much different view of what it takes for some people to forgive their tormentors.

SO! With that in mind, I really hope you enjoy this. Especially a certain ex-padawan of mine who thinks she has grounds to disown me for wanting to touch this in the first place.


LEST YE BE JUDGED
By DarthIshtar

PART 1
IN MEMORY

He had heard once that people yearned to travel among the stars because they were the only things in the Galaxy that did not judge.

Sentients failed themselves and each other. They had their grudges, their foibles, and their petty wars, but the stars never took part in such biases. They did not welcome the unworthy any more than the worthy and when they went supernova, there was no sense of justice in their ability to destroy.

The man whose name demanded that he walk the sky had crossed the stars because they offered uncompromising possibility. They bore silent witness to the pain of a nine-year-old boy who had trusted in those possibilities enough to put his faith in an unknown Jedi Master. They had safeguarded his first battle and his return to the place that he would soon call home at the Jedi Temple.

He had crossed the stars many times on the way to manhood. It was the one place where he finally felt that he was on common ground with his Master. He couldn't be told that his ability to fly was an unnecessary distraction. Obi-Wan couldn't argue that repairs were a demonstration of his misunderstanding of the Force. There were no rules to be broken in space travel and he rarely felt utterly stupid at the controls of a ship.

Ten years after the boy had left his home to find his correct place in life, the stars guarded across a gulf of misunderstanding and fear to the place where his angel would find her soulmate. They had crossed many lightyears and many events to come to a place where they could find mutual love, so it was among the stars that he had quietly asked her to become a permanent part of his life. By the time they'd seen the stars in the night sky at Naboo once more, she had become his beloved and loving wife.

The stars had never betrayed him during the Clone Wars, except to separate him from her. He had, at last, attained the power that he had craved for too long, he gazed through a lens darkly at the stars and found they held only emptiness for him.

This was punishment enough, to be forsaken by his guardians, but he was condemned by his actions to wander the stars, always seeking alliance and fulfillment and only finding more betrayal.

It should have been no surprise, since every other thing that he had dared to love had turned against him.

The only exception was the son that had never known him as anything but a murderous enemy. He could not tell what had caused this change in pattern. Perhaps it was that he had not allowed to love the young man that he chased for the better part of three years. He had desired his allegiance, pleaded for his understanding, but he had never yearned for his son's love in the way that he had yearned for his love of an angel to be requited.

The other possibility, one that he hadn't believed possible, was that the love that came from forgiveness of an enemy was something so powerful that he had not been able to unde/>

I can see that this has the opportunity for more angst. Looking forward to the rewrite.

You cried 4 times during RotS? Geez... I only cried ONCE!

Ooh! This looks really good! So, this is a rewrite... I might just have to go and read the original when I have time...

Yeah, I cried a while bunch after RotS as well.

I never read this originally, but it looks very interesting. Beautifully written and I loved the banter between Han and Leia I'm glad you decided to repost it, and I look forward to more

I'm sure a lot of us thought the same thing the first time we saw Luke's intent in ROTJ. Happily he wasn't as delusional as we thought.

I look forward to the revised version. Specially since I was the one kinda responsible for unleashing the rewrite in the first place.

Ooooh, I'm excited! I was...ahem...a lurker the first time around , and I'm super excited you're re-doing it after seeing ROTS. I will be reading!

RebelMom--I can see that this has the opportunity for more angst. Looking forward to the rewrite.

Thanks, but there will also be a more interesting dimension to forgiveness.

NYCitygurl--Ooooh, this looks great!!!

Thanks. I'll be consulting you for mushiness parts.

jdavidchadwick--You cried 4 times during RotS? Geez... I only cried ONCE!

Actually, if we're counting in general, 5 times.

1) When the opening crawl came up
2) During Padme's Ruminations, when Anakin's in the Council chamber and Padme's at home.
3) When Obi-Wan ignites his saber against Anakin on Mustafar.
4) (Added later) When Obi-Wan starts the "You were the chosen one!" speech.
5) Closing credits

Anyway, so what did you think of the post?

Siaynoqsbride--Ooh! This looks really good! So, this is a rewrite... I might just have to go and read the original when I have time...

I'll link to it. There will be a lot of similarities and the plot will be exactly the same in general sense.

Yeah, I cried a while bunch after RotS as well.

OH, good, I'm not the world's biggest sop.

YodaKenobi--I never read this originally, but it looks very interesting. Beautifully written and I loved the banter between Han and Leia I'm glad you decided to repost it, and I look forward to more

Oh, good, you mentioned the banter. That was some of my favorite stuff, especially "Nerf-herder"/"Your Highnessness" because it was affectionate mutual grieving. I'm glad you're reading this time around.

Juliet316--DarthIshtar posted:
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"I know that he left to go head-to-head with Vader..."

"Turn him back," she corrected.

There was a sharp intake of air. "Is the kid delusional?"

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I'm sure a lot of us thought the same thing the first time we saw Luke's intent in ROTJ. Happily he wasn't as delusional as we thought.

I think Leia was thinking the same thing. She's like "LOOK! I put up with your delusions of grandeur for 4 years and this has gone WAY TOO FAR!" Yes, he wasn't delusional, but it was a near thing!

I look forward to the revised version. Specially since I was the one kinda responsible for unleashing the rewrite in the first place.

LOL, yay for you!

RebelPrincess--Ooooh, I'm excited! I was...ahem...a lurker the first time around , and I'm super excited you're re-doing it after seeing ROTS. I will be reading!

Lol, welcome delurked one! Thanks for reading.

A/N: This is going to be updated pretty much every day, in the style of Ophelia's "Spirit Warriors of Angharad." You can expect it usually in the afternoon or late evening.

What did I think of the post? I liked it. If I thought it sucked I wouldn't have said anything, y'know. But I liked it.

LOL, cool. Sometimes, I think people just come in and comment to be nice, but if they don't mention the post, I think that's the part where they're being nice and not going "Um, excuse me while I gag."

Just be warned, those will come considerably later.

Hurray! Finally, I can read one of your stories from the beginning and not sneak into the thread when it's nearly complete. Yes, now I can wait patiently for each individual post rather than just sit down one day and read a whole bunch at once... Bleh!

Seriously though, I?m glad to have noticed this early. I don?t think I read your original version of this fic so that makes me basically spoiler free.

I really liked this post, particularly the first section; it was a good summary for the previous Star Wars episodes and then there was that tiny canon change there at the very end. I liked the subtlety and detail that went into it; it felt almost poetic to me. Also, ordinarily, I'm not usually interested in H/L scenes in fanfiction but I found myself pulled into their conversation here which was very nice.

I?m looking forward to your next installment!

Watch out, though, I will be writing every day, even a little. I'm glad you're coming to this fresh--it'll be interesting to see your take on it. I'm glad you liked the post, despite the H/L stuff. Just to warn you, this is an A/P, L/M, H/L alternating between all of them and H/L is my favorite, so I'm going to be doing a lot of them.

Will be keeping an eye on this every day then, Ish!
This is fantastic.
And I agree with the '5 crying points in ROTS'. I didn't do it, but I nearly did . . .

Yay, thanks. :-D

A gasp escaped them both as their arms entwined around each other, pulling themselves into an embrace that had waited too long.

Leia gasped at the contact, at the surge of energy that she'd forgotten to miss in his absence, and at the sudden remembrance that she was still capable of being alive. Her arms hooked around his waist as her face buried itself in his tunic, relieved to find the coarse material against her skin.

Luke's gasp, however, was the agonized intake of breath of someone who hadn't meant to reveal their suffering.

"Luke," she repeated, voice a hoarse whisper. "What..."

"It's nothing," he insisted. "Rough night..."

But she had smelled something unnatural in the fibers of his tunic. Before he could protest any further, her fingers found the fastenings for the tunic and undid them quickly, pulling the fabric away.

"Don't..."

He stopped at the look on her face, which must have been comparable to the horrified stare that had accompanied the realization that he was the son of Vader. She certainly felt a wave of equal revulsion.

The burn patterns were irregular, as if maniacal rather than methodical torture. In places the skin had blistered; in others the blisters had ruptured. The worst were charred marks with bright red spots where the third-degree burns showed coagulated blood just below the surface.

"In the name of..." she breathed.

"'If you will not turn, you will be destroyed,'" he said quietly, pulling her hand away, but not letting go of it.

"He didn't succeed, though," she observed.

He nodded, face strangely blank. "This," he murmured, "is the price I paid to bring your brother back to you."

She wanted to do something, anything, to ease even the slightest amount of the pain that he had to be feeling, but since she had as much Force-power as a shorted-out control panel, she could only reach out with a trembling hand to touch his face, where she could be sure that he had not been burned. His cheek turned, leaning into her touch, indulging her that tactile comfort at least for the moment.

"Was it worth it?" she asked quietly.

"More than I can ever explain," he confirmed. "More than you will be able to understand."

"Help me," she requested, hand tracing downwards to rest against his heart.

He was obviously hesitant, didn't want to face the memories of last night, much less let her experience them as well, but at last he nodded. His hand reached up to cup her cheek and with that contact, half a dozen images flooded her mind.

Luke, writhing under a barrage of lightning that leapt from gnarled hands and a twisted soul as Vader watched impassively.

Vader, just as impassively, seizing the Emperor and throwing him down the reactor shaft.

Luke pulling him back from the edge of the shaft, collapsing under the weight to lay, breathless, in his father's embrace.

Luke's hands, trembling with fearful gentleness as he disengaged the mask...

She shook her head, driving the possibility of any further explanation from her mind. Misunderstanding the gesture, he drew back, a distinctly injured look on his face.

"You have to unders..."

She shook her head again. "Sorry," she said sincerely. "I wasn't prepared to realize that you were right."

His eyes drifted closed and she seemed to hear the echo of a thought on the wind.

"Tell your sister you were right..."

"How?"

"There was enough good in him to do what was necessary," she explained. "For that, I am grateful."

He let out a shuddering breath, then let his mouth curve slightly in a smile.

We've just won the war. Why does it feel like we all have to learn happiness from scratch?

?Han?s in debriefing,? she said unnecessarily.

?Undoubtedly, trying to explain why you?ve been waiting for me to come back to Endor,? he guessed.

?Something like that,? she responded.

For a long moment, he was silent, his eyes focused on a point somewhere over her shoulder. Usually, this look tended to disconcert her, but there was something about the moment that ga

Hmm... I always wondered what the conversation was like between Luke and Leia after he arrived on Endor. I wonder if he's taking her to see Vader's body...

Good post

That's a good guess. They probably both need closure.

This is, however, AU.

Ooh! Great chapter! I love the way you write Luke and Leia. Ouch... poor Luke. *Gasps* Is he taking her to see Vader?! She obviously doesn't forgive her father, so...

I'm glad you liked that. L/L mushiness is some of my favorite stuff to write. And you'll see this afternoon where he's taking her.