Beyond - Legends The Souls of Demons (AU Dark Luke, Light Anakin) updated 12-12-06

Wow! Zonoma, thankya! I was scared no one would even see this after being gone for so long... You made my day just by giving that quick as flash response, thanks so much

Pyxelle

 

I read your postie! Very good flashback... although old PT needs a flashback now, too, because it's been soooo long she's forgotten what's happened to get to this point.

 

I missed this story! It is so nice to see it back. But enough of the flashbacks (though it was very informative) what's going on with the now?

Arkady

 

*sighs in perfect content*

YOU'RE BACK!!!!

 

I am glad to see you are back. I was wondering what happened to you! I think your story is awesome. I already read this chapter in ff.net (I believe, don't quote me ), but just to say I still enjoyed it and the story in general. I hope you get everything back into shape soon!!!

 

Wow, what luck! I found this a few weeks back and, when I saw how long it had gone without an update, I assumed it was dead. And then, lo and behold, you come back!

I really like this story. I think my favorite part is how you portray luke and leia's relationship with each other and with anakin/vader. I find that luke's kind of warped love for leia reminds me of how anakin's love for padme was twisted into the weapon of his own destruction.

I want very much to know what was in that encrypted letter luke sent to leia. If there's a pm list, can I be on it?

Please update soon!

 

Ponytricks - Glad to see you, and hopefully you'll remember enough to still enjoy the story Thanks for reading!

Arkady - I was hoping the flashback would be helpful; as to the now, the now will be posted very shortly. Thanks for reading!

furrylittlebantha - yep, I'm back Glad to see you too!

Jedivegata - I'm glad to be back! Thanks for reading, and hopefully I'll be posting something new on ff.net soon...about 8 pages into a new part; it's finally starting to get finished.

Darth Pixel - Always exciting to gain a new reader, and you are officially pm listified! I'm glad Anakin's relationship with his children is being well recieved...it's a difficult thing to do, that is, it's been hard to imagine the emotions and reactions these characters would have in this odd situation, and I've been trying my darndest to do it justice. I'm glad it seems to be going well!

And now, on to the story...

 

On the Deathstar: One year after the Battle of Endor

Leia.

Had she received his offer yet? Darth Eivel thought word of it had to have reached her by now. He couldn?t help wondering just what the Alliance High Council?s reaction to his proclamations would be, either?and whether or not they would want her to even see it. The Council would not be happy about what was revealed in those papers, although in all honesty it was the only tether to life most of them really had.

Eivel selected a plain, serviceable black shirt out of the scant contents of his wardrobe and absently pulled it over his head. Though he had slept only a few hours, he felt refreshed, and a strange kind of stillness he didn?t quite recognize had greeted him from his sleep. The Force, its dual nature calm for the moment, did not tempt him, and a numb silence comforted him while he finished dressing. For the first time since the death of Darth Sidious, his mind was almost calm, and in its tranquil fields of frost the remembrance of those first days after claiming his Sith title was something he found he could regard with a steady dispassion.

There wasn?t much chance that Leia hadn?t become aware of the amnesty, but he wondered if she had figured out the code to his private communiqué yet. Eivel was sure that she would have realized that the message was voice-coded, but the words to release the message would be the key. If she didn?t use the right phrase, his message to her could go unread forever.

Darth Eivel didn?t think that would be the case. Leia was a smart woman, and it couldn?t take her long to figure out what the unlock phrase was. As he thought of it, the memory of their last encounter before she had escaped the Deathstar after the Battle of Endor surfaced briefly in his head.

I don?t know you. I don?t know who you are, but you?re not Luke Skywalker.

The truth of those words hadn?t hit home until she had said them, and even now Darth Eivel hated to recall it. He dismissed the memory with an ease that would have surprised him at one time. He headed to the refresher and allowed more pertinent thoughts to fill his head.

I have to make a statement about the memorial and make sure it?s sent over all major frequencies, he thought absently as he ran a damp comb through his short hair to tame the dark blond locks. My absence won?t go unnoticed.

Eivel was just glad the Deathstar was far enough away from Coruscant that it wasn?t suspicious that he hadn?t gone back to the Imperial home planet for the Emperor?s memorial. This far into space, Emperor Palpatine?s body had been sealed inside a black bullet of a casket and sent to be entombed on Coruscant.

Darth Eivel had sealed the casket himself and was confident that it would not be easily breached. His precautions were probably unnecessary. It was true there were far too many questions about the Emperor?s death...questions that were not given voice but were present in many gazes that touched him lately. But it was also true that Darth Eivel hadn?t had to quiet any over-inquisitive medical staff over the cause of death. They had simply accepted his explanations.

There just didn't seem to be anyone who cared enough to question them. Those eyes he felt only touched him briefly...and moved on.

Except, of course, the darkly suspicious eyes of General Torren and the other senior officers.

But they were already being dealt with.

Even if they somehow did gain possession of the casket, it would do them no good. How would they explain an empty casket without casting some dark light on themselves as well? How could they be free from suspicion if they claimed the Emperor's body had never been sealed in the casket at all?

Which it hadn't been, of course...Darth Eivel had his own plans for disposing of the Sith Lord's mortal shell...

...but that had to wait. Right now he had more immediate matters on mind. Such as how General Torren and his cronies would deal with their new assignments, which would be given to them to

 

Wow, that was awesome. I love the conflict between the light and dark side. Very well done.

Arkady

 

wow, what a story!! I'm loving it.

If you have a pm list will you please add me.

 

This is a very well written and wonderful story!
Congratulations!!!
I have no words to describe it... Bravo!

 

sherazade - Thank you! I always love seeing someone new post I'm glad you're enjoying it!

cibbler - Thanks for the kind words, and you are officially pm listified

Arkady - I'm glad the dark/light struggle came across well. I'll play with themes/ideas/whatever-strikes-my-fancy-thingamabobs sometimes while writing fanfic, since, well, I can, and this was one of those times I wanted to play with the differing sides of the force. Thanks for reading!

Pyxelle

 

You had me hoping LightLuke would win out over DarkLuke, but it wasn't to be. *sighs*

Now... why would the Falcon send Luke that message? Hmmm.

 

Wow very good, but you left the part I wanted to see out again! *cry* I still think that Luke'll try to bait Leia by hinging the rebel alliance pardon on her own surrender or something to that effect, but I'll have to wait till next post to see.

Hmm so we have a traitor in the ranks eh? I'll put in a vote of that woman who liked wedge, since I can't see han or chewie being the traitor.

Excellent work!

 

Whew, I just caught up. I had lost track of this wonderful story and was months behind -- I am sooooooo glad that you posted this update!!!!

I love your evil Luke! All of the nasty emotional struggle, and now the physical changes due to the Dark Side - wow! I feel bad for Luke and hate Darth Eivel all at the same time.

Can't wait for more.

 

To me, this is scene is a hugely pivotal point in the story, even more, perhaps, than the scene where Eivel kills Sidious. It's where we truly learn the depth of his fall and of the dark side's claim on his soul. For the first time, the reader truly begins to despair.

As for the writing...

No word will suffice but magnificent! A wonderfully eloquent, heart-wrenching insight into the nature of the dark side. One of my favorite things about this story is the way you show that messing with darkness takes back ten times what it gives. Luke can't brush power of that magnitude without horrible consequences, real, lasting consequences. (Newtons' Third Law, anyone? Ah, the joys of Physics. Blech.) Too often in fanfic he just goes over and comes right back again with nothing but nightmares to show. Eivel, now...Eivel commited genocide--xenocide, really. Eivel is marked by the Dark as its creature. He can cover his hand with a glove, but there's no glove for the evil staring out of his eyes. His intentions were good, but you know what they say about intentions and hell. The chance of redemption becomes slimmer every day, and the chance of full healing, nearly non-existant.

Of course, Vader/Anakins' return offers some hope, but one wonders if he was ever as deep as Luke--sorry, Eivel--is now. Vader was always a highly passionate man, volatile, not well-grounded in his formative years. On the other hand, Luke was deeply rooted in the Light. Beyond Leia's near-death, a tremendous amount of intellectual struggling was required on Luke's part before he truly accepted the dark side into his mind, his heart, and his soul. Once it was there...oh gosh. Imagine what will happen if he tries to boot it out! What will be left? I guess what I'm trying to say rather incoherently is that because Luke believes so implicitly in what he's doing, almost nothng can shake him.

Very, very good!

*sighs and wanders off to find something with enough sugar and/or caffeine to cure severe case of writer's jealously*

 

Wow, just catching up. Luke's sure been busy. I loved Yoda's visit.

I'm wondering just what the Regent is going to do with the location of the rebel base? I guess I'll just have to stop back and see.

 

padawanlost - Glad you're still enjoying this, and happy you liked Yoda's visit here

furrylittlebantha - thanks *blushes* You're quite talented yourself, so don't OD on sugar/caffeine on my account! You're right, too...Luke was hard to write as a Sith at first, til I realized that what Eivel had to be like was to be Luke...the same devotion, the same drives...just reversed methods of getting to those. (well, little more complicated, but close enough) He's been hard to write, I'll say that, but I'm happy to know he's been "well received" (best term I can use, since Darth Eivel isn't exactly likable)

Blue Milkshake - Glad to see you again! I hope to update later today, so look for more then

Darth_Pixel - The traitor will be revealed in due time, no worries...in the meantime, glad to entertain!

Ponytricks - LightLuke, as you call him, isn't fully gone, but DarkLuke is certainly trying to eliminate him...but if there wasn't any internal struggle he'd be a far less interesting villain.

To all, thanks for reading!

Pyxelle

 

onwards the story...

On the Deathstar: One Week after the Battle of Endor


?It must have been beautiful.?

Threepio came up behind Leia, the plush wine-red carpeting muffling the sound of the droid?s footsteps. ?To what are you referring, Princess Leia??

Leia didn?t turn from the viewport that encompassed most of the far wall. Though the quarters she had been moved into two days before were opulent and quite large, Leia had spent most of her time at this viewport. The black velvet of space seemed very vast, but ashe knew that the Deathstar was only days away from the world that once was considered the Jewel of the Old Republic. ?The Jedi Temple.?

?I wouldn?t be able to say, princess. I was activated after the Jedi were destroyed.?

?I?ve seen the ruins of it, of course.? That had been during her term serving in the mockery of democracy that had been the Imperial Senate, but even then they had touched something deep within her that she had never fully understood. To her, the darkened ruins of the Jedi Temple had never been just crumbling testament to the ideals of the Old Republic. During her infrequent times there as a child, they were the very essence of ghost stories, the physical embodiment of every haunted castle and ghostly starship those stories told of. As an adult, a deep silence would fall over her every time she had seen them. An undefined grief that was far more personal than she had ever been able to understand had been attached to the husk of the Order?s home.

Now that strange sorrow made more sense. With the revelation that she was the child of Anakin Skywalker, and sensitive to the Force herself, it did not surprise her that the Jedi Temple had affected her in the way that it had.

Even now, the vision that flashed in her mind sent a shiver up her spine. The Temple had been easily visible from the building that housed the Imperial Senate, and it had not lost its majesty despite the long years and the battle scars of the Jedi Purge. Old scars, Leia knew, but when the crimson light of the sunset would touch them, they had looked raw and bleeding. In her more melancholy moments, she would sometimes wonder how many Jedi had died within it?s walls the night the entirety of the Order had been declared traitors. The Jedi had been renowned warriors, and the temple must have been alive with battle and fire during their final moments. Some nights, before darkness would drape the Temple in a funeral shroud, a ray of dying light would catch the pinnacle of the once-magnificent building and set it aflame. If you looked long enough, you could almost see smoke still rising from the ashes of the great building.

On those nights it looked as if the Jedi Temple had never stopped burning.

?I would think that the Temple looked quite a bit different before the Purge,? Threepio said, and a note of sadness crept into his fastidious voice. ?If Artoo Detoo were here, he might have been able to tell you. I believe a previous owner of his lived on Coruscant during the Clone Wars.?

Leia glanced at the droid in subdued amusement. ?Yes, Threepio. Bail Organa. My father was a Senator, remember? For years he kept apartments there for when the Senate was in session, and during the most of the Clone Wars he stayed on Coruscant exclusively. Alderaan donated the use of many of our ships and equipment to the Republic, and a lot of it is still in use now. I can?t be sure, but he could have been one of the droids we donated. Maybe he was used by one of the fighter pilots. He?s good with the fighters, I know - Luke wouldn?t get in his X-wing without him.?

?Oh, yes, Princess Leia, Artoo has always been an excellent astro-droid, although I think Master Luke might be a bit too lenient with him. Artoo?s always been somewhat overconfident, but he has been getting downright arrogant. Self-importance is quite unseemly in a droid.? Threepio hesitated, and when he spoke the fussy tone he had been using was gone. ?Princess, do you think Artoo?s all right? I?m so worried about h

 

Poor Leia, what a horrible place to be, physically and mentally. It's great that you are updating so frequently, keep it up!

Arkady

 

Wow I loved that scene! Here again we see old palpy in uber-manipulation mode. Every time that wrinkled old fossil uses that false sympathy to try to twist someone I have the urge to beat him over the head with a blunt object, both here, and in the movies. You just want him to *stop* doing it.

He seemed almost kind, stroking leia's ego, and telling the truth but twisting his part in it and how he felt about it. The only reason we know he's twisting things is because episode 3 tells us how it all really went down, but man, he's good. A master manipulator indeed.

I think the part I like the most is that it seems that both in his mind and in luke's (As we've seen all through the story) that there's simply not even the thought in their minds that leia can or will do anything else but end up joining them. Palpy speaks of it like it's fact, and Luke...hell, he's built a ship for her and already has a login created for her in the imperial mainframe. I find that ironic since it was palpy who said that one's path isn't set in stone but can be molded and shaped, and yet he treats leia's destiny like it's already been decided.

Still waiting on what that note luke sent says!

Superb!

 

Arkady - I hope to keep up the trend Thanks for reading!

Darth Pixel - I hate to admit it, but I like writing the old fiend...I wanted to bring together the two sides shown to us in the movies of Palpatine's personality; the urbane and cultured Chancellor with the warped and evil Emperor. I hope I succeeded, at least in some small way.

Pyxelle

 

What a great flashback. Oooh, nasty, slimy Emperor. Your description of his eyes was supremely spooky.

*chews fingernails* Leia, trust in yourself and in Han's and your father's love for you.

 

Blue_Milkshake - thanks, I'm glad you found my descriptions well done. Thanks for reading!

 

And on to an update...

*******

On the Falcon: One year after the Battle of Endor

?Should I be frightened by the fact that my lightsaber is being built with a fork??

The small smile Anakin gave Leia didn?t reassure her. ?No, of course not.?

?Anakin.? Leia picked up a suspiciously shaped three-pronged piece of metal and turned to him doubtfully. ?This is an eating utensil. A fork.?

?Yes, it is.? Anakin slid a black metallic ring over the white-silver cylinder in his hand, and then calmly took the utensil out of Leia?s hand. ?It is a fork."

?Why will my lightsaber need a fork?? Leia asked skeptically. ?Am I going to be eating lunch with it??

The brief look Anakin gave her told her that he wasn?t even going to dignify that with an answer.

She shrugged, and then looked pointedly at the array of parts spread out in front of them. ?It?s no worse than the rest of the stuff you have out here. It looks like you?ve been dismantling half the systems on this ship.?

Anakin laughed softly. ?Hardly. I just scavenged for what spare parts I could find on board." He took the fork and slid the very tip of one tine into a tiny hole on the base. There was a nearly inaudible click, and he smiled. ?You?d be surprised at what you can cobble together from spare parts. Droids, blasters, lightsabers?in the end, they?re all just spare parts.?

Leia thought with some amusement that she wasn?t really as surprised as Anakin might have thought. The Rebellion?s techs, and Han in particular, had gotten quite good at ?cobbling? over the years. ?Are the ?spare parts? you found going to be enough??

?Yes,? Anakin said, critically eyeing the cylinder in his hand before placing it in the gray woven pouch in front of him. He handed it to her. ?All you need is a focusing crystal. The rest is in there ? the cylinder housing, the power cell, and the crystal?s brackets.?

?I thought I needed to construct it myself,? Leia said, taking the pouch and putting it down beside her. ?You already done most of the work.?

?Not really,? Anakin shook his head. ?The part of building a lightsaber that is important has to do with the crystal ? that?s what?s in tune with the Force. The union of the individual pieces is part of the journey, as is the first time the lightsaber is ignited ? but the Force doesn?t care if I created a power cell from the nuclear matter of Ilum?s star itself or just bought one at a Tatooine junkyard.?

?Oh,? Leia said. ?I guess it just seems?well, too easy this way.?

?Don?t worry, Leia, when this is all over and the trial behind you, I?m sure ?easy? won?t be the word you use to describe it.? Anakin held out the fork, and she took it. ?I can virtually promise that.?

Leia turned to the shelf behind her, dropping the fork in its drawer beneath a stack of durasteel dinner plates before turning back. ?You keep talking about the construction as if it?s some sort of ?journey? or ?trial? of its own. Maybe I wouldn?t be so worried about it if -?

Anakin was shaking his head even before she finished talking. ?I don?t know what will happen, Leia. Not for certain. Every individual has a different experience, and there?s no way to say what that experience is going to be.?

?I understand that, Anakin,? Leia said, her frustration clear in her voice. ?I would still like some sort of idea of what might happen, even ?an uncertain? one. Please.?

Anakin hesitated briefly before relenting with a soft sigh. ?You may have visions?or premonitions. Those are very common, or were, when I was a Jedi. You might even awaken some latent power in you, some sort of innate ability sparked by intense communion with the Force - Master Ki-Adi-Mundi used to call it receiving a ?spirit-gift from the Force.?? He shrugged. "Then again, you might just find a pretty rock and learn the fine art of gem bracketing. It?s different for everyone.?

?What happened during yours?? Leia asked without thinking. ?I mean, when you were still a Jedi apprentice??

Leia didn?t know why, but she