Beyond - Legends Putting the Pieces Back Together (post-ROTJ Luke-centric AU) [New post promised soon!]

For this story, I actually have an outline, so I won't just go off and have no direction and leave everyone hanging. I'm comitted to this one. And yes, the rest of my posts will almost certainly be longer than this one. I'm kind of testing out the waters right now.


PUTTING THE PIECES BACK TOGETHER, post 1

By all rights, Luke Skywalker should have been happy tonight dining with Ewoks and joking with Leia ? his sister, he said to himself, and felt his spirits rise as he thought it?and Han Solo, whom he had come to think of as his best friend. The Empire which he and his friends had devoted themselves to stopping had ended. The Emperor was dead and the second Death Star destroyed before any more planets could go the way of Alderaan. Both Leia and Han, he could see it in their eyes, were satisfied and, well, comfortable with each other in a way they hadn?t been before. Their constant bickering had gotten on his nerves after a while, he had to admit.

Even the fact that he hadn?t been able to save his father from dying shouldn?t have ruined the night for Luke. Before he had been taken into the Emperor?s throne room, his father had genuinely been dead. The man in the black suit and respirator had walked into the throne room with Luke as Darth Vader, who had no reservations at all about turning a Rebel over to his Emperor, no matter who that Rebel was or what the Emperor would do to him. That man had walked out as Anakin Skywalker, a man who had no reservations about putting his life on the line to save the life of his son. That, Anakin did, and he paid the price?but his soul was now free and content instead of in the constant torment and conflict Luke had previously sensed. In fact, Luke had seen him at the edge of the party shimmering in the blue light as he had sometimes seen Ben Kenobi do, smiling and dressed in Jedi robes, next to his old Master and Yoda. At that point, Luke really was happy. Afterwards, Luke saw no trace of his father at all. As he sat down sipping a fruit juice after entertaining the crowd with some acrobatics, lopping off a few dead branches high in a tree with smooth strokes of his lightsaber to feed the bonfire, Luke started to realize what it was that he was missing. //I want to know who my father was as a person. What did he like to do? Who did he love? What was his childhood like? And, I can?t avoid it, what motivated him to turn to the dark side? The only scrap of information I have about my mother is what Leia told me before I left for the Death Star. Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen are dead. I can?t talk to Ben unless he decides to talk to me, and that goes for Yoda and ? um, well, Anakin?too. Before I left Tatooine, I was trying to get Uncle Owen to tell me about my father. Now I know more than I wanted to know then, but I still don?t know anything about him// He kept coming back to that one train thought: Who was his father? And what did it really mean to have redeemed him? And now that he had?thinking of what Yoda had said to him about facing his father one last time?what did it mean to be a Jedi?

 

Very cool story. I love all the questions that Luke has and the way you described how Vader came in to kill his son and came out wanting to save him. I hope there is more cause I want to know the answers.

 

Thanks, Hannaiah!
**Bumping to first page for now**

 

Great beginning! This story is off to a promising start, and I do hope you will keep going with it.

I loved how you showed Luke's inner thoughts and how he is still needing to know about his father, and his roots.

Can't wait for more.

Kristeh

 

Hello! I'm here in support of you, Shrunken! Very nice start, I'm excited to see where this is going!

~*Ambyr-Rose*~

 

Hey, thanks, Kristeh and Ambyr! I'm certainly working on this one, so everyone keep your eyes peeled for more.

 

I may decide to post in shorter chunks more often than I otherwise would... or maybe not... In any case, here is another shortie post...

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As Luke lay down against a tree with his thoughts, letting his mind wander among the stars filtering down through a clearing in the leaves, he heard two voices coming nearer and a spot of light on the side of his vision getting brighter. Apparently, he wasn?t going to be able to keep to himself for very much longer, especially as he realized that it was Han and Leia coming towards him. Not that that was all bad. He heard them talking as they walked.

?Maybe he just wants a bit of peace and quiet, have you thought of that? Do you even know what he went through up there??

?No, Han, I don?t. That?s one reason I?d like to talk to him. I don?t know what actually happened, but I do know what *Our Father* is capable of?or was capable of ?and if he hadn?t left before the Death Star exploded, he would have been killed by our own forces. What does that tell you??

?It tells me he?d probably rather see us tomorrow when he?s had some time to think about it, darling.?

Luke had heard enough. He started to stand up and turn around. ?I?m right over here. You were looking for me?? The light he had seen brightened as Han and Leia changed their path to come towards him.

?We were worried about you, Luke,? Leia told him, ?No one knew where you were.?

?I was out here watching the stars.?

?For three hours??

?Three hours? I must have lost track of time.? It was the truth, but it didn?t sound competely sincere even in Luke?s own ears. He started to rub his arms. ?You know, I hadn?t realized how cold it was getting out here.?

?Let?s go in then, okay?? Han told Luke softly, putting a hand on Luke?s shoulder. ?The Ewoks are lending us one of their lodges for the night.?

Luke nodded, and the three of them, more than friends, started walking back through the trees. The only sounds were the cracking of leaves under their feet and a few random sounds of the revelers that were still up, and the only way they knew they were going in the right direction was the reddish glow of the remaining bonfires in the dark.

?Luke,? Leia started, ?What happened up there on the Death Star??
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Would you LIKE me to post longer posts less often, or shorter posts more often?

 

Lunchtime up, and I'll try to have a new post up tonight.

 

And here that post is!

Putting the Pieces Back Together- Post 3

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Han shifted his gaze between Luke and Leia, who was looking between him and her brother. Luke just looked deep in thought. ?It?s okay if you need more time to think about it??, Han said when his eyes fixed on Luke. He said it with a bit of a haunted look in his eyes which was highlighted by the dim light, no doubt remembering things he himself would rather forget. Not the least of which were certain events on Bespin which also involved Vader.

?No, it?s alright,? Luke responded, ?You should know what happened. I was just trying to put it into words. What actually happened, though? I think I can describe that in a few sentences.? He stopped walking, and his friends came closer. Then he started talking slowly, as if he were reciting a speech he had memorized. His eyes were focused on some point below the dirt and leaves on the ground.

?Vader took me to the Emperor, who wanted us to fight. We did, but we weren?t going to kill each other. So the Emperor flung lightning at me. He would have killed me if Vader?Father? ? Luke shook his head ??Anakin?hadn?t thrown him down a reactor shaft. The lightning fried the circuitry of his life-support suit. I had a few minutes to get out before everything blew.?

Han and Leia only took their eyes off of Luke to look at each other. Their glances said either one of two things: ?VADER did THAT?!?? or ?Where?s the nearest place we can get Luke appropriate medication?? Then, after they made sure Luke was alright, they started blurting out a million questions. Han wanted to know about the powers of the Sith and the Jedi, for instance how it was that the Emperor could throw lightning bolts? He was being reticent compared to Leia, though, who wanted to know more of the details of the confrontation, what had actually been said and what Luke thought it meant. She was most interested in what the Emperor had said to Luke to goad him into action, horrified at the fact that Vader had wanted to turn Luke to the Dark Side as well. Luke told his friends about his questions about his father. Leia not only the only one of them not only to have memories of their mother, but memories of Vader at work which she had seen as a politician, and she shared some of these?including what she had seen just before they had met, the day Alderaan was destroyed. She didn?t have many memories like that, though?thankfully?and they were, of course, confined to his persona as Vader.
A large part of what Han asked about the Force and the ways of the Jedi and Sith, Luke simply didn?t know how to answer. As in most cases, although he had answered a lot of questions that night, there were even more questions that were raised, questions that needed answers.
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*sigh*
Is it really shameful to up your own fic if no one responds?

Oh Well...

UP!

And I mean it, if you read this fic I want to know whether you would prefer long posts or short posts but more often.

 

Friday evening up?

If you couldn't tell, I'm trying to work on the principle of posting another little tidbit every other day. Which means another part tomorrow!

 

I think I'm actually going to get a hopefully longer post up tomorrow .

 

In fact, I'm revising that (as you can see): I'm taking a short break so my muse can rest, and I can come back with a good post. Back on the weekend maybe? 'Til then!

 

I'll leave you with a short little poem that has to do with how I'm feeling about this next post I'm working on:

My muse, my muse, the greedy little bugger,
Put a wall around my heart.
He gives me trifles but he keeps for himself
The core of all my art

That's writers block for you. I have an outline, but how to write it...

 

Great job so far SJ. I hope your writer's block is cured soon. I'm looking forward to more of Leia & Han's reactions to recent events.

 

Thanks, Reihla, writers' block all gone now as you can see! Not much Han or Leia in this post, but there will be more of their reaction next postie. This post fits in with the story, beleive me, it really does...

POST 4

It was so late by the time Han, Luke and Leia had finished their discussion that the moon had gone down below the horizon and was not even a beacon shining through the trees, and the bonfires no longer painted the path back to the Ewok camp. Nothing was visible except the small glade where the three had stopped illuminated by their portable lamp, with the trees creating a wall and the stars a roof. None of the three friends said a word about going back to camp that night, and although it might have been perfect to sleep outside had there been warm blankets wrapped around them, they slept in the open air, lying at odd angles against uneven tree roots and loosely packed leaves. Muscle that would protect against most of the bruising still was no help for a stiff neck or back forced into a strange position. Some of this, Leia found and Han and Luke followed suit, was alleviated by adding and packing down the leaves. Eventually, they all fell asleep, and all fairly content, with packed leaves beneath them, family around them, and the stars above.


Luke was the first to wake up, early riser that he still was from his farmboy days. He jogged to the sunrise, adding sweat to the dew that was already on his clothes and soaking his hair. He ran through the still shadowed woods full pace (which was very quick for him of late, especially without anyone hanging onto his neck), dodging around trees as if it were an obstacle course, not only changing his direction but occasionally doing acrobatic flips high into the air.

Luke flipped himself squarely onto a low hanging tree limb, surprising himself by the choice of highway it implied, and then took that highway by running and bounding directly into the canopy of the forest, trying to be careful to stick to the sturdier boughs. The creatures up there were mostly heard and not seen?the flapping of wings and melodies of communication, as well as the chitter of teeth and claws. The canopy was growing and alive all around him, and Luke could feel the growing warmth of the sun on his face the same as the leaf beside him, and the boundless energy of the animals, and they all fed him as he swung and leaped from treetop to treetop. It was euphoric. The Force was full and strong in the forest on the first morning after the destruction of the second Death Star overhead.

Luke made a strong leap above the trees, where the sun nearly blinded him for a moment. At that point, the peak of his jump, he executed a somersault. He merely shut his eyes and his feet landed on a green branch, from which he immediately hopped to the next, distributing his weight in turn among four different branches. He danced frenetically among the treetops for a minute, his eyes reflecting the morning blue sky. Slowing down, each bough caved in a little more, and he soon gave another little jump, diving down a couple of feet and swinging branch by branch down to the ground.

Rubbing more sweat out of his hair, Luke laughed radiantly. What had possessed him to do tricks like that, dodging and spinning and swinging without any care at all? The closest he had come to those maneuvers were combat situations or in his training with Yoda, and seemingly the exuberance he felt had amplified them into unmistakable jumps for joy. It had felt like he was flying his x-wing, and not for any goal, but simply to have fun and show off. He was almost dreading having his mind come back to solid ground.


Luke came back to the clearing still sweaty, but beaming and humming an old song he had known since before he could remember, recalling the lyrics as he went along : ?burn me on the sands of Tatooine, all the dirty sands that I have seen?.?

?You seem in a good mood this morning, Luke.?, Han said as he came into view, grinning and massaging his neck. ?You didn?t by any chance conjure up a real bed out h

 

Morning up!

 

Good story SJ, looking forward to more!

 

Oh, thanks, there'll be more soon jedilady!

EVENING UP!

 

::YAWN:: Good morning, thread!

 

Hi, SJ,

i'm sorry it's taken me a while to respond-RL has been keeping me busy lately, but I'll try to do better.

I'm really enjoying this fic. I think Leia and Han's reactions to Luke's tale about the events on the Death Star were very appropriate. I can see Han wanting to know all "hows" and "whys" while Leia would be more interested in the personal side of things-after all, it was her brother and father involved.

I loved how Luke was feeling so happy about using the Force in his exercises. Things shouldn't always be solemn and serious. Finding joy in life will help him to heal.

I'm looking forward to more.

Kristeh

 

I forgot to say about the shorter vs. longer posts. Just do whatever you're more comfortable with. Reliability is what's important to me. I just like for a writer to post with some regularity.

I will say it might be easier to attract readers if you post short and often just because that keeps your story on the first few pages so more people are likely to see it.

Hope that's helpful.

Kristeh

 

hey shrunken. ..

Looks interesting to me. .

mmmmmm Luke.. .. .

 

Very Good so far, more please!


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