Beyond Only Hope (Sequel of TLS, EU, AU, H/L) - Ch 3

Title: Only Hope
Summary: This story first starts at the end of the first story, The Last Stand, and starts again 14 years later. Mara Jade has suceeded in her mission in kidnapping the young infant, Jaina Solo.
Notes: This is a sequel to The Last Stand. You should read the first story in order to understand the sequel. Vader is featured more in this story.

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OPENING CRAWL:


STAR WARS: ONLY HOPE



It's ten years after the battle of Endor...


The Dark Forces have risen strong over the last years, and the evil Dark Lord of the Sith, has nearly finished his apprentice's training. Can one mere child truly be the Chosen One?

The Leader of the New Republic Alliance, Princess Leia, has followed every lead in the galaxy in search of her lost daughter.

Finally, on the outreaches of Old Republic space, there is one place where answers may have been waiting for her all along....






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The first post will be soon.

Oh boy! I can't hardly wait. Are you going to provide some background info on what happened between the two fics? Just wondering.

Yay, a sequel!

Chapter One:

The Begining and the End





"It's Mara."

"She's awake."

Han Solo looked from his wife's concerned face and into the ice blue eyes of his brother-in-law, and knew instantly that there wasn't much time left to act. Han grabbed for the Blaster on his hip and hurried from the room as fast as his legs would go toward the twins corridor.

Luke cried out, rushing out of the room after his friend, "Han, wait!" A feeling of worry and dread filled his chest at the thought of Han getting to Mara first.

Han could hold his own with one of the most feared Bounty Hunter's in the Galaxy, and even Jabba the Hutt himself, but this time it was different. Even the great Hero, Han Solo, wouldn't be able to fair well against a Dark Jedi in a fight alone. Leia nearly died when she had tried to kill Mara, and she had the power of the Force on her side.

The doors of the Nursery room bursted open, just in time to see a tall, lean figure standing over the twins crib. Green eyes flashed upon realizing she was caught red handed. The sobbing child against her squirmed as if to try and escape. The infant was of course, helpless. She could only sense the danger that was going to forever shape her destiny.

"You should have stayed with your wife," Mara Jade hissed, and tossed her now ignited Lightsaber toward the stalking shape of the girl's father.

Han Solo cried out, as he wasn't fast enough to get out of the way of the sharp and deadly blade's path, as it cut through skin and bone, making Han cry out in agony.

"Jaina," Han choked out desperately, trying to now and crawl toward his now captured daughter. "Sweetheart, I'm so sorry." Han sobbed, as he was forced to stop moving, as the pain was now to much to bare. He lay on the floor now, watching the Dark Jedi woman pick up Jaina from her crib, with a smile to her stunningly beautiful face, as she sucessfully completed her mission to Coruscant.

"All to easy," Mara whispered to the child, as she then took a last walk toward her fallen enemy, with the girl tightly in her embrace. "Know that she'll be well taken care of. She is the one to complete the prophecy. She is the one that will bring them to the new Master. Then the circle will be finally complete as the last of the Jedi will fall to it's knee's with their deaths."

"I'm going to kill you," Han sneered, as the woman leared down at him from above. With everything that was within him, Han Solo knew that this was going to be true. This evil woman was going to pay for stealing his daughter. If it took all of his life, he would find Jaina again, and kill the one who has stolen one half of the two dearest things in his life. And most importantly of all, kill her for the pain that she was going to cause his wife, as Leia would come to realize that there was nothing that they could have done to save her. Nothing.

There just hadn't been time.

"You'll bleed out before that happens, Solo," Mara replied cooly. "Where is the great Hero Skywalker now? Why isn't he here to help you now?...Goodbye, Solo," Mara Jade smiled, before rushing out the open windows onto the Balcony, with the baby in her arms.

"Jaina," Han cried out, before slowly falling into a dark and fast sleep. "Jaina, my baby girl. No." Han sobbed, before slipping into forever.

As the dark sleep claimed him, Han could see Luke rushing onto the scene, seconds to late. It had only taken seconds to steal her away, and use a Lightsaber to take out his legs in one quick motion, so that he could not follow after them before they escaped air space in their Ship.

It had only taken mere seconds to change everything, forever.






Han awakened hours later to see Leia standing over him in a hospital room. The room looked much like the birthing room did for the twins. Cold, bright, and white everywhere. But that room had something different to this one. It had been filled with a joy that Han hadn't known was ever possible to feel, as his children joined them in the galaxy, through life that never stopped

Poor Han! Poor Jaina! Bad Mara! Go Luke! Good story! More please?

Chapter 2:

The Hope of Hero's




Darth Vader was standing in the docking bay of the new Imperial Base outside of the small planet of Nasun. The floating Base was shaped like a Death Star, but powered itself off the small planet below, and it's people. It was a weak design, but the Rebels were in no shape to confront the Empire at this point. The war of nearly six years ago had weakened their armies greatly, and left them with very little money to work with to rebuild. In the last few years, Vader knew that his daughter had been desperately fighting to shape a new government together in the place of the old Republic. Only few systems had agreed so far to leave the Empire and join her. Join the Rebellion. One that stood out from the rest was going to prove of great use over the next few years to come. It would serve perfectly as a safe haven for the Jedi child to grow up in. His son, especially his daughter, had no idea of the world, or the greater meaning the place had.

It had suprised Vader that his daughter hadn't felt anything when he had sent her the fake records and message from Naboo weeks before. Vader was certain it would have gotten his daughter to recall something from her past there as a child with her mother. It had taken months to find Leia Organa's birth records and the search had ended at Naboo. Vader also learned that after Organa had adopted his daughter, his wife had stayed on Alderaan, living as Organa's wife, as they had raised young Leia together. They had told Leia that she had been adopted and her true mother had died when she was very young. The lie Leia had believed for years as the truth, never once thinking that her foster mother was indeed her true mother. Vader still suspected that Leia knew nothing of her. That information would prove useful later on when his daughter came for her own child. That would lead for his son to follow and Vader would finish what they had began on the last Death Star.

He would kill his son, or turn him finally over to the Dark Side of the Force. His daughter would try and stop his plans. She was the one true weak link in the chain of events. Luke would listen to her and not turn. He would save her child and Vader would have failed again.

No.

That would not happen. Leia Organa Solo would have to be removed. She should have been removed years ago. Why had he not seen it before? She was Luke's weak link to the Light, as his wife had been his own. Yes, she would be removed.

Leia.

Why had he kept her around all of these years anyway? So often he could have killed her with his own hands. Now, she was dangerous to him. She was reforming the fallen beloved government of her mother, and slowly all would flock to her. It was the Force that was making these events happen, and Leia was apart of it all.

They all were, in a way.

"Master, I have her." Mara Jade smiled. "It wasn't easy. I had to kill the child's father. He would have stopped us from leaving the planet without harm coming to the child."

Mara opened her robe to Vader which revealed the little face of a young infant female, which had deep brown eyes, and thick looking dark hair for one so young.

Vader briefly wondered if Leia had looked this way as an infant. So small. Had she cried as loudly as this one in her mother's embrace?

"Take it to your chambers," Vader bellowed after a brief once over of the baby. "Prepare to leave with it, come early dawn. They will not be far behind you. They must not discover her yet."

"But master-" Mara began. "Where am I going with her? You never said it would involve moving her else where. That wasn't the plan. You said I would be free-"

"I am changing the plan." Vader declared. "Prey that I do not change it farther."

Vader then stalked off, his robes trailing behind him.

Mara then looked down at the baby girl in her arms, having no idea at what she had truly gotten herself into.

"This wasn't the deal." Mara muttered again, before taking the child back to her rooms, to get ready to leave come

Chapter 3 will be up tomorrow and I should be going up to Chapter 10 in telling what happened directly after The Last Stand. Then I'll advance the time line to 14 years after TLS.



Sara

Oooooooooh, Mara is going to raise Jaina. And she thought Vader and Palpatine were bad. Just wait when the baby starts fussing. More!

Chapter 3:

The Dark Times Ahead



The mother was standing over her baby's crib watching her young son gaze up at her with the same eyes that stared at her from the mirror in her bed chamber everyday with a strange wonder.

The mother couldn't help but wonder if her other child still had the same brown eyes as she, or had they changed another color by now? Did they look like her father's or her uncle's? The mother couldn't help but be curious as she had only held the other child only a handful of times since her birth. It was getting more and more difficult to remember the little details about her.

It had been three months since the kidnapping now, and there still had been no word from Luke. Leia couldn't believe that he hadn't made any progress yet. It was also Leia's fear that kept her from trying to contact him. The last thing she ever wanted had happened. Vader was back in their lifes, and obviously linked to Jaina's kidnapping. He was going to use her baby girl to draw them out. To draw out the Jedi that he had failed to turn six years ago, and discover the one child that had been hidden from him all along. The fear grew even more intense if Leia thought of it for to much longer. She knew there were great reasons that she had been hidden away as a child from her father. Dangerous and dark reasons. Now that evil was forcing it's way onto the next generation of their family. Her own daughter was helpless to Vader's dark will.

Leia gentally lifted the baby boy from the crib and began to rock the baby gentally in her arms. "I won't let him get you, little one," Leia whispered to the boy, and smiled warmly and lovingly down at his tiny face. "I'll do anything to ensure that my darling. My Jacen."

Leia then kissed the baby on the cheek before setting him down again in his crib, and stood up again with a loving smile to her beautiful face. Jacen was the perfect product of both herself and Han. The boy had her eyes and Han's sharp features. He was going to be a handsome man someday like his father.

Leia then hugged herself and stared out at the skyline on the balcony of Jacen's bed chamber. She could see her little girl everytime she closed her eyes. Jaina had her looks and something important from Han that would only come out when she grew a bit older. The Force wouldn't say what it was. It was one of those things you couldn't see about the future Leia guessed. She tried to see if she was in that future with her daughter. Leia felt better when she could see herself holding hands with a small child. She was about five years old. Was it a she or a he? As the image came closer in Leia's mind she could no longer see who the child was. All that she did know for sure was that the child was hers.

"Jaina, oh my sweet girl," Leia whispered to herself, as the winds of the air traffic began to pick up. "Know that where ever you are, my darling, that I love you. Mommy always will love you."

Hearing a cry from inside the house, Leia hurried back inside the building, and into Jacen's bed chamber.

Leia gasped when she could see the crib had nothing in it. Her baby boy was gone like her little girl. "No." Leia cried out. "Han?"

Leia moved to rush into her own bed chamber to wake her husband, but was stopped before she could reach the doors in her tracks.

The cold breath of the worst monster from her nightmares filled the room like a sounding rumble of an earthquake, and slowly stalked her in the darkness of the bed chamber.

It was him.

It was Vader.

A cold rush of fear overcame Leia, as Vader drew his weapon, and began his stalking of his prey. Leia could sense the evil flowing off of him and around the room. It wasn't like the Vader she had known and feared all of her life. This was something else. Something more dark than she had ever known or seen.

A scream ripped from her chest as she fell backward in effort to get away from him, and couldn't force herself to stand up again to face her fate dead on.

The Lightsaber raised and sliced through her legs. Leia felt t

Poor Leia, having such bad dreams. At least she still has Jacen and Han. Gimme some more!

AHH!! POOR LEIA!!!! please!! dont leave us here hanging!! post soon!!!


DM