Beyond - Legends Seasons of Migration to the North - 50 titles challenge - L/M (Complete) (author's thanks and cover)

Chapter 6.

The desert winds swept across the plains, lifting sand in its wake and etching swirls into the soft ground. Beyond the plains, the last rays of the late afternoon sun slanted across the sharply defined dunes, while on the other side the dark shadows soared up to fuse with the light at the sharp ridge that ran along the apex. Beyond that lay a series of plateaus, the ground made relatively stable through a series of underground water sources that the locals had diligently tapped for its life-giving moisture.

The hills in the distance held the skeletons of dozens, perhaps hundreds of vehicles that had crashed here during a climactic battle. The harvest of scavenged discarded technology from those metallic husks made a relatively stable, if unsatisfying, economy for those unlucky enough to live in the village. Nearby, a religious community also eked out a living, and they provided buyers for the food and essentials that the village sold the scavenged parts to obtain.

The religious community had settled here within the last thirty years, and the village had been here for slightly longer, coming to Jakku just after the battle that had left the destroyed ships in its wake. But the site was so much older than anyone had ever realized.

It was not by accident that the battle had happened here. It was not a fluke that the religious community decided to settle here. The Force was strong here. It called to them, pulled them into its vortex. The Force had always been present in this place, since the Celestials had left an artifact here billions of years before. An artifact which was never meant to be discovered.

Like breath, the Force rose and ebbed. Recent years had seen it grow quiet, its followers few, its power so rare that many doubted it had ever actually existed at all.

But the Force continued to call to those who knew how to listen.

A disturbance in the Force trailed the wind and blew across the dunes and the villages and the open plains. The disturbance grazed the ground, as if searching, searching, for the right place, the right time. The right person.

Those in the village didn’t notice it. A few in the religious community lifted their heads and frowned, aware of something, but not quite sure of what it was. Most felt nothing.

The disturbance continued to swirl and stretch, a faint blue haze that rode up the dunes and straight into the sky itself where, if anyone dared to look upward into the unforgiving glare, it would be mistaken for the reflection of the sunlight. The planet turned and the darkness of the desert night overtook it, and most of the beings fell into a deep slumber. The disturbance slid silently across the starry sky, then wrapped itself in a faint aurora across the two moons.

Then, gradually. the disturbance descended to skim along the surface of the night’s graysilver sands again. In the distance, one abandoned metal vehicle lay on its side. The disturbance approached the vehicle and slipped inside the secured entrance. Blue light arced and danced along the metal frame.

Inside the vehicle, a girl lay sleeping. It had been a long day, with hours of scavenging yielding a profitable cache of parts that she could bring to the village tomorrow. She always had good luck with her scavenging. It was as if she could sense where the best parts were hidden, and she had a remarkable sense of balance and timing that gave her the leverage to extract those items where others had not been able to do so. The girl pulled her thin blanket closer to keep out the chill of the desert night air.

The disturbance glimmered and sparkled around the dark room. The girl didn’t notice. She was deep in a dream.

In her dream, she was walking through in an open field at the top of a tall promontory. In the distance, she could hear the soothing faint crash of ocean waves against the rocks from the shoreline below. The breeze, heavy with the salty scent, was warm but without the scorching, punishing heat of the desert winds. She lifted her head and discovered that she could look at the blue sky without her sun-filtering goggles. Her gaze dropped again, and her hand brushed against thigh-high green grass. Their thin blades slipped through her fingertips. The girl had never felt grass before and she was fascinated by it.

Someone was nearby. She looked up and saw a woman standing near her, facing her. The girl stopped.

The woman stared at the girl, then smiled. “Hello,” the woman said.

The girl smiled back. “Hello.”

They stood watching each other for a moment. The woman tilted her head and her gold-red hair shone in the bright sunlight. “I heard you call to me. Who are you?” the woman asked.

The girl shrugged. “I’m nobody.”

“That’s not true. You are far more important than you realize.” The woman raised an elegant eyebrow. “I have something to give to you. I have to warn you; it will change everything. Your life will never be the same. Would you like it?”

Although the girl didn’t know the woman, she somehow understood that the woman meant no harm. The girl’s hazel eyes met the woman’s green ones. “Yes,” the girl said. “Yes, I want it.”

The woman held out her hand. Brilliant blue lights like luminous jewels sparkled in her open palm. The girl stretched her own calloused hand toward the woman’s. Then the woman touched the girl’s hand and the girl gasped. A sudden, intense energy poured into her, as if she were being filled with a torrent of power that she had previously only glimpsed.

The woman closed her eyes and smiled. Then the girl’s dream abruptly ended.

The girl opened her eyes, took her first new breath, and awakened.

 

Wow. Okay. Wow.

You did not make everything aright in the end, but that's okay because this is beautiful. So many unanswered questions. And yet, none, because Mara chose her new situation to find and give Rey power that she will need in her own reality.

I really loved this journey with Mara throughout the many "AU"s. Really beautifully done.

 

Hullo divapilot Just spotted this and read chapter 1. Hmmm, very intriguing. I feel behind all the nicey homey stuff something sinister is going on. Getting her return date mixed up is being glossed over as nothing important, as is her incorrect entry code for the house, but... My Force-senses are telling me these are more than little mistakes. I'm not sure how cool it is to try predicting what happens in others stories, but I Have A Bad Feeling About This - like maybe that isn't even really Mara! (and maybe even the impersonator doesn't know it - perhaps to throw off any mindreading problems from Luke!).

I'll be following with interest.

K
(PS Loved Han's entry, "Nice box!" )

 

Ohwell...I had a hunch that this will have to do with Rey from the third chapter on, in some manner, somehow; so the eventual resolution is not that much of a surprise for somebody who was hoping for the story ending with no clear resolution. But even this kind of an ending is ultimately OK. In her old universe, Mara is a physical entity, in this one, she is the essence of Rey's Force, the awareness of it. A fair trade, I'd say!

Now, the bit I consider to be truly interesting is the artefact that appears as a hidden object type of a thing. It's the same one as seen in the other chapters, just in a different place. What is not clear from the chapter itself is if the villagers, the adherents of the Church of the Force, know of it or not, and it's something that somewhat resembles another Celestial creation - the planetary repulsors from the Corellian Trilogy. All sorts of things are possible here - from the idea that these things direct those from the limbo of the Force from one parallel universe to another, to the one where they're placing specific planets into areas where the Force is just stronger to begin with.

The idea that one can tap into the limbo of the Force through an unconscious state of mind is wonderful. While I did not expect Rey to have so much trust in Mara in the dream, it makes sense, since in our dreams, we tend to accept the things that we otherwise would not, listen to the people that we might have estranged and those who are no longer there. And if the visions are particularly powerful, those dreams are revelations, the points from which everything suddenly starts making sense.

Congratulations, either way. You aced this challenge.

 

@Briannakin Thank you! You've made a good point when you note that Mara chose this situation to give power to Rey, but that is actually, imho, a very Mara thing to do. Always the pragmatist, Mara would eventually accept her new reality and try to find a way to make it useful. If Mara can no longer live in a corporal world, there is no sense in her power going to waste. Thanks so much for coming along for this long, strange story.

@Findswoman - Thank you so much! Mara has become quite literally "one with the Force." She has lost her corporal body and her physical life, but the essence of Mara - the essence of the Force that she inhabited - still carries on. As you so eloquently put it, she becomes "the means by which the Force awakens." Rey doesn't seem to have any real inkling that she herself has powers in the Force while she is on Jakku, but we see them grow and expand exponentially throughout the movie. In this version, it's Mara's influence that ignites her Force powers. They were there but dormant; Mara's infusion amplifies them. And perhaps you're right when you say that "Rey is herself the Force" - an excellent suggestion! The Force does indeed awaken - and the Force is Rey.

Mara has chosen the vessel to carry the power of the Force. There is no better guardian for that power of positive energy than Mara, and she has been waiting for a worthy successor for her powers. Rey becomes the new guardian of that power. When she awakens from that dream, she is literally a new person, infused with a power she has never experienced before.

And that "Who are you?" "I'm nobody" lines - I couldn't resist.

Thanks, Kurisan, for your kind reply! You are right, there is a lot of the familiar L/M banter and the loving Skysolo family affection that we have come to appreciate with the Legends characters. But there is something off, something amiss. I hope when you get a chance you will enjoy the rest of the story. Thank you for stopping in to read and reply.

Thanks so much, Ewok Poet! You're so smart, picking up the Rey connection at the third post eek: !!). And you were right. Mara becomes the Force becomes Rey. In this story, Mara, in true Mara style, has chosen to determine her own ending. She passes her prodigious power with the Force into a worthy successor and becomes the spirit or essence that Rey harnesses. So in a sense, Mara IS Rey and Rey IS Mara.

As for the artifact, if there is a weak point in this story it's the obvious macguffinish quality of the vague artifacty thingy that I never really develop. It's a physical thing with supernatural powers, a linchpin that maintains the universes so that they don't intersect. But what it actually is, beats me. I needed something to trigger the action, and that's what I came up with. Mysterious object is mysterious. Deux ex a mysterious artifact.

As for the dream world, that was exactly what I was going for. In our dreams, we accept the unbelievable, we listen to the implausible. If Mara's Force essence had tried to communicate with Rey in any other way, it couldn't have worked. We already know that Rey dreams of the oceans (which I assume is either a vision or an implanted memory of Ach-to) so I placed their meeting there. Of course, Mara no longer has a physical form, so in reality Rey is speaking directly to the Mara's manifestation in Force in her dream. The Force, through Mara, offers her its power, and Rey accepts. And nothing is the same again.

Thank you to everyone who stopped in to read and/or to reply, and thank you to Chyntuck for organizing this challenge!

 

Just came across this and decided to read the first chapter. It was cool, some very nice Luke and Mara banter, I really enjoyed it. My favourite part was Jacen playing with Ben, it's always nice to see him as a part of the family.
I'm curious what this artifact is about, it seems to be quite different from a normal holocron.

I will defenetly continue reading.

 

I finally caught up with this AMAZING story -- okay, I actually caught up last week, but now I'm finally making time to leave a review. I love, love, love this concept and I love what you did with the title!

The first four chapters are a masterpiece on their own. I've been reading and re-reading them, in order and in disorder, and it's fantastic how you handled the first steps of Mara's migration. With tiny shifts between each section, we suddenly find ourselves in an entirely different storyline, and wowzers! Qui-Gon steps in. The dialogue between him and Mara was, well, soooo Mara in so many ways. She may be transported in an alternate universe, or, at that given moment in time, to a space between universes, but she's still her good old snarky self.

As for the last chapter... I'm glad I hadn't looked at the reviews on my first read because I didn't see that coming at all. Like others I loved how you included Rey's "I'm nobody" line from the trailers, giving it in the process a whole new meaning. As a side note, I'm curious to know you read Aftermath: Life Debt? There's something in it about the importance of the site in Jakku.

Thanks for giving us this fantastic story!

 

divapilot All I can say is bravo and fascinating!!! Definitely not the ending we might have expected, for Mara specifically. but that is the mark of genius.

 

Hello! I know that it’s been a while, but please forgive me for going so long without acknowledging these replies and for not being timely in thanking people.

Thank you for your reply! I appreciate it. It’s nice to see the Skysolos just being kind and loving with each other, and there not being any horrible crisis to deal with. But it seems that is never a permanent state to be in. Thanks for reading.

Thank you so much! It was a trick making those subtle shifts, but they were needed to show the subtlety of the “skipping record” that Mara found herself in. And as for Qui-Gon, I think he and Mara would have gotten along splendidly. They are both bound by the rules and also rule breakers, true believers in the Force and snarky cynics. They’d like each other. And even though everything around her is spinning, Mara will always be Mara.

No, actually, I haven’t read that book. The stuff I’ve written is all imagined. I probably should read it just to adhere better to canon. And I loved the whole “I’m nobody” dialogue from the trailer and I too was a bit disappointed that it didn’t make the final cut. (Like the “Jyn faces down a tie fighter on a catwalk” thing in Rogue One that didn’t make the movie!) I’m happy you enjoyed this story, and thank you so much for running the challenge that inspired it.

Thank you for your warm reply! I love Mara (no surprise there lol) and I wanted her to have a more fitting “end” than what the profic gave her, and her being completely erased in NuCanon. Here, Mara retains the agency and independence that she was known for. She gets to choose what happens to her Force presence, even if her body doesn’t exist anymore. And there is no finer choice than to pass it to someone who is a very worthy recipient.

Author’s note: I have been horribly remiss in thanking people for nominating this work for the 2017 Fanfiction Awards. Seasons of Migration to the North received the following awards: Best Multi-Chapter Short Story and Best New Canon/Legends Mashup. I am very honored to have been nominated and to have been selected for these awards. Thank you so much!


I would also like to thank Chyntuck for the wonderful cover she made for this work. It’s amazing. Thank you again!