Outer Rim: The Storm and the Lightning

(As Gala shamelessly puts her thread back into play...)

I can see three different sorts of scenarios here, and three people who are in a position to deal with Leia -- Han, Anakin, and Luke. My problem is, I can't make up my mind which one it should be! I lean toward Anakin, but that's because I always lean toward Anakin. Anyone think one of the others is a more likely candidate?

 

What about Shmi? I know, she isn't one of the main characters, but I like the way you've developed her so far. Also, since she's younger, it would be much harder for her to acomplish the end result. She wouldn't have the power to get the Republic on her side yet either; she might be too young. But isn't it most interesting if it's hard, anyway? Let's see, she could stow away on a ship...or follow Leia on Coruscant...Anyway...

I actually thought of Anakin last, but that's an interesting idea. He'd know what Leia would be going through, and it would be interesting to reminesce on his corrupted times. But Anakin would stand a chance to get corrupted himself...he's the most vulnerable.

Han and Luke are also good ideas, but rather predictable since it's already happened in variation (ANH). I'd vote for one of the unexpected ones...

Hard decision, definitely. You might just end up picking from a hat.
*My two cents if you care *

[This message has been edited by Jedi Master Mara Jade (edited 03-22-2000).]

 

I think Luke should be the one to deal with Leia. This would be a good way to establish him as a Jedi in his own right, and to show that he takes a different approach to solving problems than Anakin.
Also Luke and Leia have that twin bond thing going on.

One idea against this is that we've already seen Luke as the 'redeemer' in the OT. Though if you wanted, instead of redeeming Leia, Luke might kill her instead. <<horror>>

I sense Leia's going to attempt to lure Shmi into being her apprentice. Since both Luke and Leia have an interest in Shmi, this could be used as the reason they cross paths.

JediGaladriel I haven't seen you at your Randon Symbols thread lately. It needs some new input.

 

Originally posted by Herman Snerd:

JediGaladriel I haven't seen you at your Randon Symbols thread lately. It needs some new input.

I've been trying to wean myself off the discussions (look at my post count -- it's disgusting for someone who's supposed to be working on a Masters!), and just do fics for awhile. But now, I just have to go over and see what's going on.

Anyway, thanks Herman and JMMJ. I get the sense Shmi is going to have a bigger part than I'd originally thought, but I may be figuring out how to split the hero role. Maybe I'll use Luke to figure out why Obi-Wan was the way he was in ANH...

 

This is an excellent story, JediGaladriel!

 

Okay, another entry in the painfully slow saga of Darth Leia...

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CHAPTER TWO: PARTINGS

Han waited until he was pretty sure she was out of the system. She'd left that morning, lingering longer than she usually did, and her ship was tracked on its way to Malastare, where there had been a protest over the scourging of Motibi. She would assure the protesters that the matter was being investigated, that all avenues were being explored, that justice would be brought against whoever threatened the peace of the Republic.

A few days later, he knew, the firestorm would begin. He guessed it would center at the racing arena, the heart of Malastare's leisure industry. Then it would move on to the mining operations?

He closed his eyes, trying to will the idea out of his head, but it wouldn't go. They were ash burns. She'd been in the firestorms, and not as an investigator.

She talked in her sleep.

Or, more to the point, she screamed in her sleep. And wept. Han understood very little of it, but once, she'd called out to someone she called "Master." Then she had clenched her fist tightly enough for her short-cropped nails to draw blood. Han had patiently pried her fist open, and soothed her back into a more comfortable rest. How she slept through those episodes was beyond him, but she never remembered them in the morning.

That was what decided him, in the end. Whatever was going on with those burned worlds, it wasn't just hurting them. He couldn't just get in her way and keep her occupied. It was hurting her, and he didn't know how to fix it, and that meant he had to bring in someone from outside. He had to turn her in. But not without proof. He couldn't allow a chance for her to slip away, with mere suspicion aimed at her. She needed to be taken someplace where they would help her, even if it was against her will.

He found Chewie halfway around Corellia, working on the Falcon's hyperdrive with a half-crazy - but very talented - racing mechanic named Dervash.

"Hey there, Solo!"

"Hey, Chewie!" he called, grinning and ignoring Dervash's greeting. "What are you letting this ten-thumbed woman at my ship for?"

Chewie barked something about flying the Falcon more than Han did these days.

"Yeah, well, she's still my ship, pal. I'm taking her to Malastare. You on board?"

The frustrated howl was enough to tell Han that Chewie was on board, but not crazy about the idea.

Dervash asked if she could be useful. Han told her she could watch the pod races on the holoproj, same as everyone else. It was for her own good. Leia always got her back up when other women were around. Dervash disappeared into her speeder, and left the hangar.

Chewie spoke a little more plainly this time.

Han shook his head. "No, we're not going to help her out with anything, at least not anything she's going to like."

A brief question.

"Yeah, we're going there after her. But let's try to avoid Republic attention, okay?"

Chewie was happy to oblige.

They made good time to Malastare, and Han thought maybe the would even beat her there. No such luck. Her ship was in orbit already, and the shuttle was launching when they came out of hyperspace.

"Hang back, Chewie."

It was an unnecessary instruction; Chewie had anticipated it, and looped behind one of Malastare's moons until the launch was over. They didn't speak. Han wondered what the Wookiee was thinking, but wasn't sure he really wanted to know.

What in the hell am I doing?

The panic hit in a flash. If he was wrong, she'd never forgive him for spying on her. If he was right? he didn't even want to think about it. Did he really want to know, if he was right? And if she wouldn't forgive him for being wrong, how likely was she to forgive him for being right about this?

Whatever happens down there, he thought, Leia Skywalker will be out of my life over it.

And then, another voice, a voice he thought he'd left behind when old Kenobi had told him that he belonged with the Skywalkers: Is that necessarily the worst thing that could happen?

And that voice, he knew,

 

Great post.

And why is this on the last page, in last place?

To the top with you.

 

Great to see this story being updated again.

 

Rise, up to the top.
Waiting for more.

 

It's coming. Very slowly, but it is. I'm about three quarters of the way through the next scene. But schoolwork is catching up, and I've been trying to keep up on a couple of round robins (not to mention doing a "Short Story of the Week"), and I'm afraid TS&TL fell behind a little. I know how the rest of the chapter goes. Probably, I'll get it together this weekend.

 

Luke habitually woke up before dawn, so the Coruscant sunrise was not a stranger to him. He just usually managed to get at least a little sleep before he saw it.

But last night, Father had asked him to come to the meditation room in the Temple, and they had been sitting quietly together, sharing memories and thoughts, until Luke noticed the first gray light coming through the window. He didn't begrudge the time. They both knew that they'd reached the last hours of Luke's apprenticeship, and there would be far fewer opportunities to simply communicate with one another now.

Father, whose back was to the window, looked over his shoulder at the brightening sky. "Someday," he said, "I'll figure out how to stop time."

Luke smiled. "But you'd always miss whatever comes after."

"And the padawan, again, instructs the Master. Yoda has mentioned more than once that he can no longer tell which of us plays which role."

Luke stood, then offered a shallow formal bow. He wouldn't allow Father to belittle himself. "It has never been in question, Master."

He was rewarded with a grin that made the sleepless night completely worthwhile. It was not the cold greeting of the Jedi Master, the Council spokesman. It wasn't the formal smile of the Chancellor's consort, or the Jedi ambassador. It was the grin of Anakin Skywalker, desert farmer and father to a pair of dusty twins, the grin he gave them when he picked them up by the scruffs of their tunics, and put them up on a rock to see the spread of the Dune Sea from the bluffs, the grin he wore when he ruffled Luke's hair or spun Leia through the air while she laughed, the sound bouncing off the red faces of the cliff-rocks. Luke hadn't seen it for years, and he returned it.

"We should go home," Father said. "I've been greedy. Your mother will want to say goodbye."

They chatted informally as they walked home, talking about the weather, about Ben's progress in school, about Mother's political troubles? about everything except Luke's mission.

By the time they arrived, they were in good spirits, and Mother did her best to match them. Her feelings about the matter were not as ambivalent as Father's - she was simply proud that Luke was taking his Trials, and told him several times what a great Jedi knight she thought he'd be. Luke was a bit embarrassed by it, but he appreciated it. He hadn't failed to notice that she had "graduated" Leia from her training several years ago. They were so different from one another, his parents? Father with his passion for keeping everyone together, Mother with her drive to see the children succeed in the galaxy on their own. Yet there was never a question in his mind that they both loved the family fiercely and completely, and he'd grown up comfortably in the balance between them.

Ben sat at the end of the table, looking as tired as ever. Luke thought he might be sick; he never seemed to get enough sleep. He blinked slowly at Luke. "What are your Trials going to be?" he asked.

"I can't discuss them."

"Something for real then."

"Yes." It was almost always "for real" now; with less than one hundred Jedi in the galaxy, creating fictional Trials was a waste of strength.

"And you're going soon?"

"He's going today, Benny," Shmi said, finally coming into the kitchen. "I'm going with him."

At this, Mother and Father looked up sharply. "I don't think so," Mother said, but she looked across at Father - matters of Jedi training always fell to him.

Luke had expected Father to simply refuse her and get on with the day, but instead, his eyes narrowed slightly. "And why, Shmi, are you under this impression?"

"I saw it."

"And you aren't making up a vision in order to do what you please?"

Shmi let the insult roll over her. One of the things Luke had always liked about his younger sister was that she rarely became defensive. "No, I'm not making anything up. It's hard to explain what I saw? "

"Then perhaps you should simply tell us, and let us try to understand it ourselves."

Shmi glanced over at Mother, suddenly self-conscious. Moth

 

This is going to need some work. Advice is eagerly solicited.
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Han knew something was going wrong as soon as he got into the governor's house. It was too easy. He'd trusted his luck for a long time, but he didn't trust it around Leia. She was better than that.

But he took the opening, lifting the wine cellar door and slipping down into the shadows. The smell of fruit in various stages of fermentation hit him in the face like a cobweb.

Turn around now.

He went forward, and the air started to circulate better. Real cobwebs dangled from the rafters now. He brushed them out of his hair. Light came from the base of a doorway somewhere ahead.

He didn't know what he was looking for. Was he really hoping to hear her planning out a purge? Well, not hoping but?

Not much good, even if he did. He hadn't brought anything to record it with.

He leaned against the wall, to heavy-hearted to be nervous about what he was doing.

Just turn around. Now. Leave.

He closed his eyes. It wasn't his own voice. It was hers. She knew he was here.

Go now! Please! I can't stop?

It faded into something incomprehensible, then was abruptly cut off, and he understood: Leia Skywalker was here? but so was the Other, the one she had become. And the Other was winning.

He reached the door, pushed it open. The room was empty, except for a hand-held terminal that had been left on the table. It was logged in. He picked it up, knowing what he would see, and that his discovery of it had been anticipated and planned for.

But by who? By the voice that was warning him to stay back? Leia or the Other?

Take it and leave! Please! Han! I can't -

No fading this time. Just a brutal cut. He heard motion at the cellar door.

He tucked the notepad into his vest. No more time to waste.

She was waiting outside the door, a line of battle droids on either side of her, and the governor of Malastare walking before her. Han did not mistake the power structure, even for a moment. She might as well have left the puppet strings attached. The governor was not acting of his own accord.

"Command them," Leia said.

The governor keyed a series of commands to the droids, and the moved forward, surrounding Han. They gripped his arms, and forced him to kneel. The governor stood aside stupidly.

"You can't even command the droids yourself?" he asked, trying to find Leia's eyes, somewhere behind the madness that burned above the veils.

"I command who I choose to command." She looked disdainfully at the governor. "You may leave us now."

"Yes, Lady Miseta."

Han shook his head. He'd have stood and turned his back on her, if the droids weren't holding him down. "Even your name," he said.

"Would you prefer I did this under my family name?"

It was the voice of the Other, but the words were strange? she was shamed by what she was doing. It was still Leia. And that made it worse.

She reached to him, pulled the notepad from his vest pocket. "Careless of me, to leave this out."

Han watched her carefully, saying nothing. Her tone was meant to suggest that it had been part of a trap, but he was used to reading her face even through the veils, and he knew she really was puzzled. She didn't remember leaving it out. And it bothered her.

He wasn't stupid enough to point this out. "Yeah," he said. "Well, you seem to be real careless lately."

"What were you planning to do with this?"

"Needed a few pointers on how to kill a thousand people in an hour. I'm a little rusty."

She picked up a droid control pad, and made the two droids holding Han tighten their grip, digging their pincer-like forelimbs into his upper arms and pulling him further down. Incredibly, she said, "I'm disappointed in you."

Han couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice. "Yeah, well, it's mutual, Sweetheart."

"I'd really hoped you wouldn't come."

"So why leave out the welcome mat?"

She shrugged. "You're not as easy to read as you seem to think, but I can see some things. I felt you looking at my face. And I saw that you'd seen the new burns. And I

 

Leia/Miseta - two different personalities? And obviously Leia wants to end her Sith career. Well, then Han and Luke have a important task before them. I wish them luck.

 

This is awesome, FernWithy! Hurry up and post more!

(BTW, check out my webpage for a review of your "Father's Heart".


Casanjia (Cait)

 

That was a good post (I'm glad to see more!). It did raise a question or two though...

Is Leia going to be a split-personality type? I can understand that she may figuratively be of two minds about what she is doing, but to have "Leia" call out so clearly to Han while "Miseta" tries to stop her (and she doesn't remember soem of her own actions), is something different, right?

If Leia is using her Sith name on the worlds she pruges, why haven't the Council heard it? (They haven't, right?)

 

Yup, those are things I'm thinking about here.

I suspect that the name "Miseta" hasn't surfaced with the Council because the few that survive the purges are terrified to mention it (kind of like Sauron's name in LotR!), and Luke and Shmi will be the ones to finally come across it.

The nature of what's going on with Leia confuses me a bit, too. I was pretty much going with the flow. Some of that may be, as she suggested, Han's imagination and wishful thinking, but leaving the evidence behind? I don't know. It surprised me that she did that. Lucas has said something about good men doing evil by essentially telling themselves that they aren't really doing it. I suspect that most of the time, there is no difference at all between Leia and Miseta. Both have full memories, etc. But when she needs to start getting ready for a really grotesque act, she starts going into that kind of "I'm not really doing this; it's that Other" mode... but because she can't really split her mind, a part of her is begging Han to stop her. When the crisis is past, she'll go back into the sort of... hmmm... conflicted and guilty person she was at Han's house, knowing what she did, and knowing she can't undo it, so why bother?

(BTW, thanks for the review, Cait... Looks like you've got the start of a nice site over there. Reviews of fics are all too rare.)

[This message has been edited by JediGaladriel (edited 04-11-2000).]

 

This seems to be a case of the mind creating a second personality to deal with a physical trauma.

And what exactly do you need advice on?

If you're wondering about who ends up dealing with Leia/Miseta, my vote goes for Luke and Shmi. Luke was less of a focus in the previous story (The Outer Rim) and he needs to step forward. This would show him in the role of a man instead of a boy. It's a step his character will need to take eventually.

I like what you've done with Han. It's good to see him still around, but at this stage events seem beyond his control. His relationship with Leia should come into play later though.

Amidala really seems like the major character with the least involvement in the story so far. I don't know what you have planned for her, but she should be more involved eventually since her daughter works for her.

Anything else?

 

Hey Fernwithy! When can we expect more?! *G* Seems like everyone's muses are on vacation.... *g/sigh*... know mine are.


Cassanjia, who is forced to mispell her username by silly filters.

 

You know what? Maybe I'll get it back out tonight. I've been staring at the same silly paragraph in a Luke story I've been doing for about six hours now, so maybe switching to a different story would be helpful...

Of course, I'm not sure what happens next. I'm flying blind here.

 

PLEASE WRITE MORE. This is great!

 

I have the electronic equivalent of a room full of crumpled papers. But I'll try to get something together really soon. Maybe if I try it longhand, it will work better...

 

Just found this thread today. It is very good for someone flying blind. I have enjoyed all of the stories you have written. Keep it up.

 

Okay, I finally figured out the plot for this, so I'm going to try and finish it. (Shocker.) Anyway, I regret to inform you that we are in fact in the mid-story doldrums here, but the action will be picking up soon.
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CHAPTER THREE: ONLY CHILD

Ben Skywalker went to the Temple before his father that morning (unless you counted that Father had already been there, but Ben didn't; that was part of yesterday, and this was part of today). Father was home with Mother, and the two of them had suddenly started lavishing attention on him in such quantities that he thought he might drown in it. He loved his parents, and was glad they loved him, but he was glad he'd had three siblings to share them with over the years? they could be pretty overbearing when the urge came on them.

"Early, you are, young one," Yoda said, coming out of the lift from the lake. "Much to consider at home this morning, heh?"

Ben nodded. "Luke and Shmi left this morning. Mother and Father are worried."

"And you? How feel you?"

"I feel like an only child."

"Heh." The old master hobbled up the hall, leaning on his gimer stick. "Come, come," he said. "I eat now. Join me."

Ben might have protested that he'd already had breakfast, but the truth was, he'd barely touched his food at home, and he *was* hungry, and Yoda cooked pretty good food. So he just said "Thanks" and followed along.

Yoda's quarters in the Temple were sparsely furnished, but lined, floor to ceiling, with plants and fish tanks. "Got used to it on Dagobah, I did," Yoda said, pointing to them. "The way of the Force is through living things." He smiled. "Got lonely without them, I did." He shuffled over to his small cookfire, and broke leaves into a pot of boiling water. "Eh, you know what I mean, young one, don't you?"

Ben didn't follow Yoda's train of thought, so, as was his habit (and it was one of the reasons Yoda favored him), he remained silent rather than trying to guess.

"Many kinds of things, the swamp had," Yoda went on. "Many, many things. Some good, some bad, yes?" He stirred the leaves, and added some kind of herb from a shelf. "Most, some of both. Yes, yes. Good and bad. Like everything, eh?"

Ben nodded, confused. His first impression was that it was very different from what Yoda taught the young children. But when he turned it over in his mind, he understood - when Yoda instructed children to know good from bad, he wasn't just talking about the things they'd see coming at them in the outside world. He was talking about the good and bad inside them. "Yes, Master Yoda," he said.

"Eh, thought you would, I did. Always questioning me, you were."

"I never questioned you, Master."

"You think because you say nothing, I hear nothing?" He broke a thick stem into the pot. It was starting to smell good. "Ask many questions, the other children did. How looks the Dark Side, Master? How do we fight it? But you asked nothing, so your question was the loudest."

"What was my question, Master?" This was a matter Ben had some real curiosity about. When Yoda said it, he realized that he really had been silent, that he really had been turning something over, but he couldn't quite figure out what it was.

Yoda poured their breakfast into two bowls - he only steamed the vegetables, so it was very quick - and handed one to Ben. "Thought of the Dark Side as a monster to fight, the others did. And it is, it is. Always, you must fight it. But asked in silence, you did, why someone wants to be with the monster."

"I did?"

"Eh." Yoda poked him with the gimer stick. "Eat, eat. It's hot. Good for you, it is."

Ben ate a little bit - it really was good - then said, "I just, you know, kind of wondered and everything. I bet everyone did."

"No. Not everyone." Yoda sat down with some effort, and began eating his breakfast. "The little children, they think that the Dark Side is all about other. Then, when they are ready to become padawans, they start to think they are other, which is why padawans are tempted -- one Other to another Other. B

 

CHAPTER FOUR: THE MORE YOU TIGHTEN YOUR GRIP

He was in a dismal cell. Cobwebs hung down from the light fixture, and some kind of yellow goo dripped down the north wall near the window. A small lizard-creature with sharp teeth lived in the corner, and was gnawing on a piece of rotten meat that the cell's last inhabitant had left behind.

Han Solo was not happy.

The lizard looked at him and chittered mindlessly. Han tossed it a piece of fruit that the guard had given him. Wouldn't hurt to make friends with his cellmate, and he wasn't hungry anyway.

He didn't know where Leia had gone after she'd had the governor's guards drag him in here. She'd just looked through the bars, muttered something about business, then left.

She didn't seem to be in any hurry to have him executed, which he supposed was a good thing. He guessed there was a little pathos in the thought that, hey, she can't be all bad - after all, she only dumped me in a cell with a carnivorous lizard and about five hundred spiders; it's not like she's killed me or anything. But he couldn't deny that the thought kept trying to surface.

Get over it. Just let her go and get out the other side. You can do a prison break. Chewie's out there; he's probably already working on it. Then just run off, get yourself lost, and never look this way again.

No. Just because Leia had given in to her "dark side" didn't mean he ought to be giving in to his own. Maybe he couldn't save her - she couldn't even decide if she wanted to be saved - but, if he did manage to escape, he could damn well get to her family and help them stop her.

Footsteps at the end of the hall.

Han stood, and went to the bars. It was a young Malastarian guard, looking furtively over his shoulder, three eyestalks waving nervously. "Solo?" he asked.

Han was the only prisoner here, but he didn't figure it was the right time to get sarcastic. "Yeah."

"A Wookiee on the outside persuaded me to slip in here." He looked over his shoulder. He was trying to look like a mercenary, and failing miserably. "Says to meet where you set it up before, he'll be ready to go." The guard fumbled at his belt for the old fashioned key that opened the cell. "Said you'd be able to get more persuasion once we got off planet."

"Then you're joining the party?"

"You think I'm sticking around here with her?"

At last, he found the key. Moved forward to unlock the door.

And fell grotesquely into the bars, the back of his shirt on fire.

Leia stood at the end of the corridor, blaster still drawn. "I see you haven't had any trouble making new friends," she said. "Or is it the same old ones?" She came to the bars, stared into his eyes. He could feel her probing his mind. It hurt. She sniffed. "I told you I wasn't reading you before. When I read you, you know it."

But Han suspected that she still hadn't read him. Otherwise, she'd already be out and after Chewie. She didn't know where to look.

"You're losing hold, you know, Miseta," he said. "A lackey guard got by you."

"I can't be everywhere," she said casually.

"So, when's my execution?"

She looked at him blankly, and didn't answer the question. "I'll be leaving Malastare soon," she said. "Things are getting a bit too close here. I sense that I'm being followed by someone a bit more competent than you."

"The Jedi are finally coming after you?"

"They're coming after someone. They don't know who they're looking for. If they did, Father would have kept it in the family."

"So how do you know they're coming?"

"I have eyes. People tell me things. Why shouldn't they tell the head of the Chancellor's security that her brother will be taking his trials?"

Luke. Han's heart sank. Luke was a good kid, but he'd never believe this, not about his sister, and that could get him killed. Han figured his best chance was to get Leia starting to think straight, or to at least get her off balance. So maybe she'd make a mistake. "You're scared, aren't you? This one's not going like you thought it would. Not quite as much fun when you're the prey, is

 

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