Beyond - Legends Saga Before - Legends Saga - PT Saga - OT Saga - ST Before the Saga Beyond the Saga Saga - Legends Tales from One Canon

And only Leia and her crew are seeing the FO for the threat it is. Looking forward to more. The Iron Knights are cool concept.

 

@HMTE
Fantastic start

 

Anyone want to read my oral history of the post-ROTJ era based on one canon?

more do I post it in the one canon thread?

 

The Fall of Luke Skywalker
by Lady Delpheas
approved by Sinrebirth

Ossus, sometime after Crucible, concurrent with The Rise of Kylo Ren and Mortis Quest: Episode III

Luke Skywalker wasn't depressed, not really. He had worked through his grief over Mara, his son Ben had helped him work through it. But then, he had lost Ben too hadn’t he? It was true he had lost much that he'd cared about, and he didn't think that it made him stronger, but he also disagreed with the old Jedi philosophy that it made him weaker. To have loved and lost. He wasn't sure what it made him. Mara had been a strength for him, and he had found new strength in the few short years since her loss. The galaxy needed the Jedi, and even if he could no longer lead them, the Jedi would always need him. (It may be more likely that he needed the Jedi, but he wasn't ready to consider the implications if that was true.)

The return to Ossus hadn't been without some difficulty, but eventually a section of the Jedi Order agreed to relocate to the Ossus Temple. Led by the Council, this group had included most of the students, a number of the Knights, and several Masters. Others had cited old Djinn Altis’ practice and argued that traveling the galaxy as a band of helpers and healers was a better response to the call of the Force than isolating themselves yet again. Luke wasn't certain he disagreed. But after losing her son Jacen, his sister Leia wanted to know where her youngest son Ben was at all times, and Luke had a responsibility as his teacher. It was the only thing he had. So here he was again on Ossus, with his nephew, wishing everything in his life was different. He wasn't depressed though. Not yet.

Luke Skywalker still had tasks ahead, and if he had thought his niece Jaina was the best choice to protect the Jedi from Abeloth, that was before. Now there were things only he could do. He had to ensure that Ben Solo, his sister's youngest and only surviving son, was ready for the challenges ahead. Without his son or niece, all of it would fall to Ben Solo. And Luke wasn't sure that Ben was ready, or that he was even the one to see to him. He was grateful that he wasn’t alone in looking after Ben, Masters Tionne and Kam Solusar ran the academy and so had a hand in Ben's education. But Luke had promised Leia, and Skywalkers kept their promises.

The sun would set and tomorrow he would present Ben to the council and, if the Force willed, he would be elevated. Ben Solo would be a Jedi Knight, and a light to the galaxy. Jaina was gone, he had to assume dead, and a number of the Council had their own assignments and would also be absent. Despite that, Luke hoped that the ceremony would help solidify Ben's sense of belonging amongst the Jedi.

Luke watched the burning star dip behind the horizon, casting a fiery-orange glow over the Temple. And then the shadows stretched out, reaching to where he stood. Light and dark, forever one with the other. He was reminded of a conversation he had with his family years ago now, when they decided Ben would become his student. Mara had suggested that there was something behind Ben's anger, that it hadn't felt like the anger of a child. And she would've known, having carried the post-death suggestion of the Emperor in her mind for years before they met.

“I have to know.” He said to no one in particular. To know if Ben was really ready, if his lessons on strengthing the mind and will had taken hold. Truthfully Luke wasn't certain if Ben was ready to be elevated, but then neither had he been ready for the challenges he had faced. Ben needed the chance, Luke knew that. And something whispered to him that the galaxy needed Ben too.

The other Jedi would be sitting down for supper, or attending evening classes. He heard laughter coming from the outdoor training field, and smiled. Even without those who had gone to wander the stars aboard the new Praxeum ship or the Quested Mortis Knights, the Jedi on Ossus numbered in the several hundreds. Luke should have felt bolstered by their presence, instead he was alone, as alone as a Jedi Master and his connection to the Force ever was.

He found himself fascinated by the sunset, partly it was that a single sun still felt unusual to the desert raised boy inside. There was also something in the way shadows continued to stretch from the setting sun over the temple that was vaguely unsettling. Clouds were rolling in, dark with water, and they added to the transformation of the setting sun from something peaceful to foreboding. He watched, feeling the charging of ion particles gathering in the air. It grew heavy around him, soon the water would fall from the clouds as life giving rain. Something Ossus hadn't had enough of the last several weeks.

Luke knew better than to be unsettled by the weather, so it surprised him to find that he’d watched the entire sunset and then some. It wasn’t twilight or evening any longer, it was night. And the pressure from the building storm stilt hadn’t broken. That didn’t matter right now though, it would rain, or it wouldn’t. What mattered was whether the darkness he had tracked to Exegol, the man behind the First Order, was in his nephew's head. So he wrapped his cloak around himself, and headed to the dormitories.

Luke Skywalker looked down at his nephew Ben Solo—no longer a boy but sitting uneasily in his manhood. He had walked into his chambers easily enough and now stood over him. The Jedi Master’s eyes were closed. The Force was scorched with danger, like the Dune Sea during high noon. Worry etched Luke’s face as he extended his hand, reaching out with the Force —reaching into the sleeping Ben’s mind. The Padawan remained still, if he was troubled by the intrusion, his face didn't show it.

Luke’s eyes remained shut but he could see fire, and ruin, and the end of the last things he held dear. And he heard screams, and the howl of lightsabers, and the roar of explosions, and the dying breaths of his loved ones. He saw darkness expanding out from this slim, dark-haired young man to shroud everything, but the darkness didn't have its origin point in Ben. No, it was an older evil. Luke drew his hand back, as if burned. It was too much, too familiar. The Force around Ben had always been shot through with veins of darkness, but what he’d seen was beyond anything he’d feared to find. It wasn't just Caedus over again, there was something darker lurking behind Ben's anger. And Luke didn't know how to help him control it. Not anymore.

Luke removed his lightsaber from his belt and ignited the blade, his eyes grave. He'd been deposed as Grandmaster for his failure to prevent Jacen’s fall, he had sent his son and niece on an assignment that got them killed, and now Ben was on the brink, if not already plummeting into the abyss. Luke might not be able to help his nephew, but he could stop him. … But then he looked at Ben, really looked at him, and the brief, almost unwilling thought was gone. He could not bring his lightsaber down on his sister’s son while he slept. And immediately Luke knew it was too late—he had already failed his student. Because Ben’s eyes were open—aware and determined. Ben's powers with the Force were already immense, and still growing. Luke thought he would have rivaled his brother Anakin if he'd lived long enough. Because he was a Skywalker.

Ben knew what Luke thought. He knew what Luke saw. He knew what would come for them all. Defiantly Ben’s hand reached out, not toward Luke but beyond him, to the lightsaber he had constructed. He willed it into his hand, its blue blade sparked into a killing blow aimed at his Master.

Too late Luke shouted, “Ben, no!”

But all there was to do was meet Ben’s blade with his own. The locked lightsabers buzzed and sparked, and Luke felt a distant pleasure, heard a distant laughter. Then Ben reached up toward the ceiling with his free hand and compelled the stones to crash down on Luke’s head.

___

Around him was darkness, darkness and voices. Some were familiar, others were not. He felt anguish rippling through the Force around him, and Luke opened his eyes.

He wasn't in a void, he also suspected he wasn't dead. He sat in a glowing ring, in a vast sea of stars. His clothes were the same, but his right hand was flesh, not synth-flesh covered prosthetic.

“Where am I?” He wondered out loud.

“This place, known to you it is.” A familiar voice, with a familiar speech pattern echoed across the star filled blackness. Luke did know this place, he had encountered it while seeking Sith holdouts, and in stories from Ezra Bridger and Ahsoka Tano.

“What happened…?” Luke stood, looked for the source of the voice. But saw nothing. If Yoda was here, Luke couldn't see him.

“Failed, you have. Yes. Failed.” There was no judgment, just a statement. Just truth. Yoda was right, Luke had failed.

“I can still make things right, I can still fix this!” Luke protested, he had to leave this place, to get back, to gather the other Masters… He looked around again. The star-dusted darkness filled with smoke and it seemed for a moment he was back on Ossus, and it was still night, and the Temple grounds stirred. He started to take a step, but Ben rushed past him, almost a blur, his lightsaber drawn, headed toward the Council chambers. It struck him then that he wasn’t on Ossus but he was seeing what was happening. He saw flashes of lightning in the distance, and fire beginning to burn near the farther away structures. Lightsabers began to flare to life across the grounds, many were the colors he had come to associate with the Jedi, but some were unexpected. Red, like the glowing embers of a twin sunset, but much more dangerous. First one, then three, quickly the number of red lightsabers grew to more than Luke could count. He couldn't see the wielders clearly, it was like watching something through a lense smeared with grease.

Luke could only watch as the number of Jedi lightsabers around him grew fewer, while only a few red fell. He saw Ben stand in front of the main Temple compound and heard the echo of his shout. “Tear it down, destroy it!” Then the clouds burst and lightning fell from the sky like a turbolaser blast and it slammed into the Temple, tearing it asunder. Fire spread quickly after that, roaring through the compound. Eventually the fighting stopped, and the victors vanished and the last thing Luke saw before the vision faded was Ben standing amongst the ruins.

The stars returned to the in-between space and he was shut off from Ossus again. Sith had come to Ossus, there was no other explanation, and he had been here. Unable to help. For all he knew it was his failure with Ben that had drawn them, that and revenge for Korriban. It was a compounding failure then. As all his were, neither Ben nor his deceased brother Jacen were among the first of Luke's students to fall, but they might have been the last. He thought darkly that Natasi Daala, former Chief-of-State of the Galactic Alliance, had been right to call for his removal from Jedi leadership.

“Lost is your nephew, gone are the Jedi once more.” Yoda's voice cut through the agony and Luke forced himself to respond.

“Why are you here Master? Where's Ben, or…” Luke didn't speak her name but his anguish, that he tried to keep buried, burst from him. He shouted it instead.

“Mara! Are you here?”

Nothing. His voice didn't even echo. Tears started to fall from his eyes, and he fell to his knees.

“Mara. I failed everyone, I failed you, and I failed our son…” His words were barely a whisper, one he hoped Yoda, wherever he was, couldn't hear.

He kneeled, crying, for what felt like hours. His heart hurt. He had already failed Anakin, Jacen and Jaina, his son Ben and now his nephew. He'd failed his wife, his sister, his best friend, the whole order.

It was too much. Or it should have been, if he wasn't Jedi, if he wasn't Luke Skywalker. He had refounded the Jedi Order, and…

And what? He wondered. And nothing.

“Luke.” A quiet voice pierced the stillness.

“Callista?” Luke opened his eyes. “What? How?”

“The ways of the Force are a mystery to us all, my love.” Her voice did echo, which lent it an otherworldly, ethereal quality.

“Why are you here?”

“To tell you what you need to hear. Your mistakes are beyond repair Luke, at least for now. What hope there is, it lies beyond you.”

“What I felt inside Ben.” Luke took a breath, hardly daring to ask. “It was really him wasn't it, who else could have done that?”

“Conflicted he was, yes and tormented.” Yoda sighed. “Like his grandfather. Like his brother.”

“Luke, if there is still something in him worth saving, you must try.” Callista added. “But if not, if the only way forward is to kill him…”

“No!” Luke shouted. “I will not be responsible for my sister losing another son. I won't. I can't.” His tears returned in full force. “I could never hurt him, it was Snoke, he made me do this.” Luke grabbed his lightsaber from his belt and flung it into the void. “I couldn't even stop myself…”

“Mmmh. Much guilt I sense in you.” Yoda’s voice sounded like the ancient Jedi mocked him, though he knew that wasn’t the case.

“Is that it? That’s all you have to say to me? After what I did? I brought ruin to the Jedi Order, and all you have to say is I feel guilty?”

There was stillness and then a flash of light, and a solid figure appeared in front of Luke, clad in brown robes so dark they appeared black.

“Don't give in to your anger, my son.” Anakin Skywalker looked at Luke with love and warmth from the same youthful face he'd had since Endor. “You must trust in the Force. Always.”

Luke looked at his father, he felt the care and compassion emanating from him. But all Luke felt of his own was despair. “The Force has failed me father. I can't trust it anymore.”

Luke grabbed the Force around him and began to tear at it. Here in the world between all worlds, the Force was almost tangible. And he could push and tear it away from himself, like veiling himself, but with a veil he hoped never to remove.

“No, Luke, what are you doing?” Anakin's face was suddenly full of worry and something Luke thought must have been fear. And then he was gone, and Luke lay under rubble, while fire burned around him.

He crawled to his knees and simply stared at the destruction around him. What remained of the Ossus Temple burned, the air was ripe with the stench of burning bodies, and Luke could only rest his metallic right hand on the dome of Artoo. The droid must have come to see if he was okay. He wasn't, Luke Skywalker was dead for all intents and purposes. But Artoo was a comfort.

Eventually Luke rose, propelled by something beyond him to enter the burning ruins. He saw bodies littered around him between the dormitories and the Temple: students, some killed by lightsabers and others by the malignant storm and others still by the scorching fire. It burned unnaturally hot, a result of whatever Dark Side power had called the storm.

Making his way through the complex, he didn't know what would be left intact, or who might be left alive. Something compelled him, the desire to know. And despite his age and despite the heat and smoke, Luke Skywalker began the slow process of recovering the dead. They deserved proper burials. He wasn't good for anything else, but he could give them that.

It was dawn by the time he had searched and searched and counted and laid out every body he could find. Nearly every student who hadn't left on the Praxeum ship had perished, that numbered hundreds of potential Jedi. He counted at least three missing, and as terrible as it was he hoped they had left with Ben, not as hostages or enemies.

He had found Jedi Master and Historian Tionne Solusar and her husband Kam, a survivor of the Jedi Purge, slumped back to back as if they had gone down fighting together. That nearly broke him completely, they had been among the first students who had gathered around him, decades ago, when he began the work of rebuilding the Jedi. Tionne's strength in the Force was minimal, but it hadn't mattered. She had had a mind for history and had quickly established herself as the New Jedi Order's chronicler. And Kam, well he had taught Luke almost as much as Luke had taught him, both appearing in the other's life when they were struggling with the dark. Seeing them like this, victims of his failure, brought up thoughts of Mara, including the dark thought that if he hadn't been spared he might see her again.

It was after finding Tionne that he had ventured into the remains of the Grand library to salvage what he could. He was surprised to find intact the ancient Rhammagon, another book with excerpts from the even older A Life in Balance, even The Journal of the Whills was intact, a text he had recovered from the Sith at great cost. There were several other ancient texts, as well as an annotated copy of post-Ruusan text The Jedi Path once used for instruction by Yoda's Jedi, and the manuscript of Jedi vs. Sith by Tionne Solusar, which was intended to be her contribution to the history of the Order. He would take them and keep them safe, and maybe he would learn where he had gone wrong, how he had recreated the mistakes of the Jedi Knights. A piece of him looked at the knowledge he'd managed to save and recoiled at the idea of hoarding it, but he shut down that inner voice. He needed nothing from the Force, or his conscience.

Once all the bodies were gathered, he grab a plank of burning wood and held it aloft. He felt it might be seen as somewhat sacrilegious to light such a massive funeral pyre, let alone using flame provided by the Jedi's enemies, but another part of him saw it as poetic. That the light provided by the Dark would see these Jedi on to their final journey. In reality it wasn't that clean cut, but he was reaching for meaning in all this. In the end of the Jedi.

Along with Artoo he shoved the texts into his X-Wing and from the safety of the cockpit, watched the last remnants of the Jedi on Ossus burn to ashes. Wherever the Mortis Knights, and the roaming Jedi were, they weren’t his problem anymore, and would be better off without him. With a last glance he took off from the planet, Luke barely registered that he was leaving Ossus behind forever.

He sat back in the pilot’s seat, running through familiar pre-hyperspace checks, when he felt an unexpected weight at his hip. Luke looked down, and his lightsaber was gone, in its place was Leia's. He didn't know how it got there, but he wasn't about to throw it away. Where he was going it would be his last connection to his sister.

___

She had felt it, that horrible rending followed by an emptiness where her brother was supposed to be. It was the third time in such a short time that Leia Organa Solo had felt such personal agony ripple through the Force. First her daughter, then her last surviving son, and now…

Leia had always been able to feel her twin, no matter how far away, or how preoccupied, she had felt at the very least a sense of completeness. Now it was like it had been back before, before she knew her ancestry or her blood, when she was just a Daughter of House Organa, destined to be chosen Queen of Alderaan.

Except back then she hadn't known what or who had been missing, and when she had met Luke it had been like that earlier time had never existed. Leia didn't know what it meant, now that feeling was back. It had hit her hours before while she was running a briefing with Ackbar and her other supporters. And she hadn't even faltered, it had felt like her world was ending and she had just carried on. Because that is what she did. She had already suffered the worst anyone could experience and survived it, Leia Organa Solo would continue to survive.

No, what she didn't understand is why she felt Luke's absence in the Force when he was landing his X-Wing not twenty feet from where she stood on the surface of D'Qar.

To say the last few years had been rough for the Skywalker-Solo clan would be an underestimation. But through it all she'd had her husband Han and her brother Luke, two solid sure things in a galaxy that seemed to abhor such solidity. A part of her had simply been waiting for the day she would lose one or both of them. The absence of Luke in the Force, even as he climbed down from his fighter and walked over to her seemed to confirm her fear. And the pain etched in his face, new pain, not just the pain of Mara or Jacen or Anakin, but a pain Leia feared would break her if she heard it.

But she asked anyway.

“Where are they? Our children?”

“I don’t know where Ben and Jaina are, they aren’t part of the Living Force. But that’s…”

It wasn't all. Leia churned inside, worried that he was making her push him. “Where's my Ben?”

Luke stared at her like a dead man. “He's gone Leia, and so is the Jedi Order.” Luke was distant, in addition to his lack of presence in the Force, her brother looked like he was gone from the galaxy.

“I failed.”

Immediately Leia recalled old fears, worries for her sons’ futures. Dreams of death and darkness that she had slowly come to terms with. She had stopped allowing her fear of being Vader's daughter and what it meant to keep her away from her Jedi destiny. But coming to terms with her fears didn't make them go away. And when Anakin died and Jacen turned she had hoped that meant Ben would be spared.

Leia closed her eyes and searched for Ben, for his tell tale light shaded by darkness not his own. She found him, he wasn't hiding, he was hunting something or… someone. And the darkness and anger that had shrouded him for so long now seemed to be his own. And that hurt worse than all her other losses combined.

A single word bubbled up unbidden. “No.”

Before she could stop herself, she was repeating that word again and again. “No. No. No!” She had given Ben everything, every warmth, every kindness, every bit of love she could, every support, everything… But all she felt when she touched him was hate, and anger, and it was directed at her and Han.

Suddenly a warm solid embrace found her. She turned into it and buried herself in him. She found herself able to breathe again. Han. He was here. They could fix this, they could…

“Hey Kid, what'd you say that's got her so upset?” Leia could almost hear the glare Han must've given Luke.

“It's all my fault Han I…” Luke trailed off, unable to speak. So Leia spoke for him. “It's Ben, he's gone. Snoke has him.”

Han's grip on her tightened. “I knew it. After Mara and Jacen I knew you couldn't help him. You let my sons become monsters!” Han’s yell reverberated through the embrace, and a part of her was comforted by his anger. But it wasn’t right.

Leia pulled out of his embrace to look him in the eye. “It's not his fault Han.”

Luke seemed to find his voice again. “Yes it is. You trusted me with your children and now two of them are dead and the other…”

She turned to her brother, more angry than anything else. “Don’t say that Luke, you know better than that.”

“Leia, listen to me.” She didn't know where it came from but Luke had pulled on his Jedi Master face, the one he'd shown the galaxy, but rarely her. It hurt seeing him distance himself from her like that. “It's too dangerous for me to stay here now, maybe things will change. But, we, I keep recreating the Sith, and right now I’m not certain if it’s been worth all the pain and destruction.”

“Please Luke, stay. We can work this out, we can…” It struck her that asking him to stay felt awfully like the time on Endor's moon when he was leaving to face Darth Vader. She hadn't known if he would come back then, and she wasn't certain now.

Luke turned away from her and started walking back to his X-Wing. “I'm leaving Artoo here with you, if for some Force-forsaken reason you need to find me, he'll know where I am.”

“And where are you going?” Leia was trying not to sound desperate, to sound like the former Chief-of-State turned Jedi Knight turned Resistance General she knew she was. But instead she sounded like a wounded sister and grieving mother trying not to lose one of the last pieces of her family.

“To Ahch-to, to where it all began.” He was in the cockpit now, staring down at her and Han. “It's best you forget what I taught you, the galaxy doesn't need Leia Organa Solo to be a Jedi.”

Before she could object further he shut the fighter's canopy and sealed himself behind the transparisteel.

“Well that's that. Never figured the kid was one to give up when things got tough but…” Han turned to look at her. “What's next? What do we do? How do we get Ben back? “

Leia took a breath before she spoke, and pressed her hand to her husband's chest. “Luke may be wrong to walk away, but he is right about one thing. Ben is gone. When I reached for him, his light was gone, all that's left of him is his anger. It’s Jacen all over again.” Her voice nearly broke on the last words, but she knew she couldn’t hide from the truth, nor protect Han from it.

“What are you saying, that we shouldn't try to help him? We can’t do anything for our daughter, even if she’s still out there. But we can help Ben.” He sounded angry. But Leia could only focus on one problem at a time and she turned away from Han, toward the Resistance.

“I'm saying that if he's gone to Snoke, then the only way to help him is to devote all our resources to taking down the First Order.”

“You want to let him go? To abandon our son?”

“I'm saying we focus on what we can save, and that's the people of the Republic, who will be at the mercy of the First Order if we don't stop them.” She had found her calm again, her center. She would fall apart later, she knew, but the right now the Resistance needed leadership and it had to come from her.

“No, I'm not signing up for another of your damn crusades, not when Ben needs his father. I'm going to find my son.” Han looked at her, a moment passed and the anger dropped from his face. “I’m taking Chewie, we're going to find the Falcon.. and then find Ben.”

Han pulled her into another embrace, gave her a hard kiss and then turned and left just like Luke had. Leia found herself grateful to whatever power had returned Chewbacca from the grave. Even as he walked away Leia smiled, she knew that at the end of the day Han would always come home to her. She just hoped it wouldn't be too long this time.

General Leia Organa turned away from the landing strip and toward the headquarters of the Resistance. She didn't have everything she needed, she couldn't reach out to her daughter Jaina or Luke's son Ben, even if they were alive, they had their own quests. But she had good people who fought with her, and she would give her life if it meant they would be victorious. She would die before she let the First Order win.

____

Far away from D'Qar on an isolated island the Force stirred.

From within the man who thought himself cut off from his family - the Force stirred.

From within the tree-loving quadrupeds who were thought immune - the Force stirred.

From within the hollowed out shell of a planet turned weapon, the Force stirred.

It stirred within the lonely girl stranded among the desert sands.

It stirred within the man who doubted his uniform, and the one who wore his with pride.

It stirred within the monolith and the Force-strong trapped there.

It stirred among the scattered blood of Alderaan and among those who strode the Sky.

It stirred among all things that lived and died.

And for those who listened, the stirring was a wail. A storm tore its way through the Force, rending and shredding. A hard won balance between the Bogan and the Ashla had been disrupted. The children of Ashla had been scattered by the gale, beaten and bruised. And the children of Bogan danced through the tempest with fire in their eyes, eager to consume and destroy.

It was a familiar pattern, Ashla versus Bogan, Light vs Dark, Jedi vs Sith. A familiar, regrettable, and avoidable pattern. The Force knew it, that it was avoidable, even if it didn't know how. It had tried, over the eons. It spoke to people, thousands and millions and many had heard its voice. Yet, they hadn't understood its Will, and they floundered and Bendu remained elusive. It had sent emissaries, its own children, Servants and Chosen Ones, but even they had been misled.

The children of Ashla and Bogan called their actions good or evil, and attributed one, the other, or both to their understanding of the Force’s will. It either desired good and must therefore be obeyed or subverted, or it desired control and must therefore be obeyed or subverted… All defined not by any objective measure, but by what the interpreter thought the Force’s will to be.

Very few understood how simple the Force really was. It desired balance, that for everything destroyed something was built, for everything born, something died, the Force was the energy of life, and it simply desired that life to continue.

Yet again the champions of life had fallen, and the champions of death raged. Out of harmony and out of balance.

___

And for all these things, Luke Skywalker blamed himself. So he had come to the most unfindable place in the galaxy, where he would die. And as its founder and leader, the New Jedi Order would die with him.

Luke had made the interminably long journey to Ahch-to without Artoo since he couldn't bear to force the droid into Exile too. He had traced his way from legend to legend, following pieces of incomplete star maps and navigational data he'd gathered years ago which Artoo had stored in the fighter. It would have been easier to let the Force guide him, if it would have even accommodated his quest, but he hadn't dared to try reaching through the veil he'd pulled over himself. Instead, he stopped at ancient Jedi sites, Jedha, Tython, Lothal, even Coruscant. Searching for something that could guide him to what he believed was the site of the first recognizably Jedi Temple, Ahch-to. Most of the journey had been unremarkable, but on the small Outer Rim world of Tenoo, where he had hoped to find clues in the local Temple's vault, things were different.

On Jedha he'd moved in and out of the ruins rather quickly, mostly because the Empire had left little intact; but also because when he lingered, he started wondering how Tionne would have felt standing on the ancient Jedi site. On Tenoo he'd encountered something that spoke to the core of what a Jedi was supposed to be: people who needed help. Hundreds of years ago during the Old Republic era known as the High Republic, or the Golden Age of the Republic, when the Jedi Order was spread among the stars, Tenoo, and the entire Bri'ahl sector, had been plagued by pirates. So it had been easy to believe the pirates had returned.

Luke had landed his X-Wing on the outskirts of the old Jedi Temple, expecting it to be empty, like the similar site on Lothal had been. He hadn't sensed anyone, but then he hadn't expected too, and would have been worried if he had. He hadn't known what season it was supposed to be, but the large flora hadn't brought to mind harsh winter. Wrapped tightly in his cloak, he’d walked through the Temple’s courtyard, which had been littered with remnants of training implements. He’d seen nothing unexpected until he’d passed through the Temple’s main entranceway and lost the light of the day. He’d pulled a glowrod for light, only to find a child staring at him from the edge of the light.

Maybe ten or eleven Luke thought, the child was freckled and wearing rough clothing of no discernible style. Though it reminded Luke of what some of the poorer people on Tatooine would wear. After gathering himself and overcoming his surprise Luke had lowered his center of gravity so that he could speak to the child. “Hello. Do you speak Basic?”

There was a nod of recognition followed by a question. “Are you Luke Skywalker?”

Luke stood, taken aback by the frankness of the question. “Why would you think that?”

“Because you look like him.” The child pointed to Luke’s waist. “And you have a lightsaber.”

Despite himself, Luke smiled. “Then I guess you got me kid, I am Luke Skywalker.”

“I knew it.” The child pumped a fist in the air. “That means you’re here to save us.”

Warily Luke asked the necessary question. “Save you. From what?”

“Pirates, from Dromund Kaas.” The child said matter-of-factly. “Follow me, the adults will tell you our troubles.”

Luke needed to head deeper into the Temple, and the child seemed about to head that way, so Luke had followed. He’d figured it would do no harm, though a part of him wondered why he was considering helping the child. What did it matter to help this one person, and their family, and whoever else was here, if the end result would be someone who looked to him as a Jedi? It would perpetuate the myth that the Jedi were saviors, and then what? He’d shaken off the questions and followed the child.

Looking back on that day from his new residence on Ahch-to it was easy to see that he’d walked right into the trap. There had been no pirates, just two competing groups of refugee-scavengers. The child very eagerly told Luke of how their family was sworn to serve Lord Vader, and how precipitous it was that his son had arrived. They were Acolytes of the Beyond, or what remained of them, and if he would help them Luke could land a blow against Vader's enemies. The Pirates of the Dark Side, the self-proclaimed descendants of the Prophets of the Dark Side.

Once he’d realized what was going on, that he'd stumbled upon a feud between competing dark side worshipping cults, Luke had politely refused to help and let the two groups go at each other. He wasn’t sure if it had been his presence or just the nature of the Dark Side, but shortly after the tension between the two groups broke into all out war. From a safe distance he’d watched them kill and maim each other with stolen lightsabers, vibroblades, rocks, and whatever implement they could get their hands on. A few had seemed to show some Force-potential, but were overwhelmed by the numbers and violence of their adversaries. He watched children tear upon adults, and adults tear upon children, it had been bloody, and in the end, revelatory.

At the time he'd watched, more numbed to it than shocked by the violence. And he'd realized something, those who lived for greed, power, destruction, they would always destroy themselves. Balance wasn't brought by asserting the Light against the Dark, but would happen, naturally, as the Dark destroyed itself.

It was that revelation that finally eased his guilt about leaving the galaxy behind. He'd realized the deeper truth, that the Jedi weren't needed to bring order, if the Jedi were the Light, then they'd been responsible for the Darkness in the first place, just as the Suns cast shadows. Going back to the beginning, every Sith, in practice or dogma had been a Jedi. Without the Jedi, the Sith would destroy themselves. Without Luke Skywalker, all the students he trained who had fallen from Gantoris to Ben, and those like them still out there, would be free to develop as the Force chose, not at the whims of some misguided fool. If Abeloth returned, as he believed she would, she and the Sith would destroy each other. And that would be the end of it.

It was with that thought that Luke turned, and let himself embrace the Force one last time. Reaching for it was like walking through a thick fog- it took all his strength just to pierce the veil he'd placed around himself. But doing so gave him access to the Force in all its sweetness just long enough to lift his X-Wing and push it over the edge of the cliff he'd landed on. And that was it, Luke Skywalker turned away from everything and everyone he'd loved, certain that he'd secured their salvation.

NOTES:

So this story was born out of my personal frustration with the sparsity of storytelling around Ben's fall and rise as Kylo. Rather than detailing it in TFA like George planned, it was sidelined to a comic. A comic that managed to avoid actually having us see who and how many Ben killed.

Tying in the elements of TFA/TLJ and The Rise of Kylo Ren with the EU provided me an opportunity to expand on that narrative in a way that I believe makes the whole thing more satisfying.

Some of you may notice I drew on the fan-film The Tragedy of the Chosen One for some of the Luke and Leia material, just as the kernel of Luke's near attack on Ben is drawn from Jason Fry's TLJ novel. But of course these things are expanded on and altered for OneCanon purposes.

I tried to keep the bit from the Unifying Force within the bounds established by LFL, however there is plenty of contradictory material so I went with an interpretation based on the philosophy of the ancient Je'daii.

Anyway, I hope you all have enjoyed reading this. I enjoyed writing it and wrestling with what brings Luke to the low point Rey finds him in.

Revised on 4/13/25

 

*Applauds*

This was a marvelous story. Sad, heartfelt, and well executed. Your work is breathtaking in its thoroughness.

 

I hope the entire one canon/epitaph saga is novelized

this story is sending me down a rabbit hole

 

@Delpheas Truly amazing.

 

I really appreciate all the feedback folks, it's always great to see a story appreciated.

 

Approved by Sinre

The Mortis Quest: Episode II-The Big Goodbye

Jedi Temple, Ossus, 40 ABY

Jedi Master Jaina Solo, the Sword of the Jedi, leaned on the holotable to get a better view of the flickering image before her. A sense of anticipation was building within her as she studied the pulsing lines of the obelisk floating before her. The Force was heavy with some sense of purpose.

This was it. She didn't know what it was, precisely. But it didn't matter.

Destiny called.

"I don't like this."

Jaina turned from the holorecording of the object in the Chrelythiumn system to the source of the voice. As she turned she took in the myriad faces of the beings around her. The Jedi Temple's Situation Room was packed with Knights, Masters, and apprentices. She didn't recognize many of them, she realized. The New Jedi Order numbered a thousand knights, a far cry from the ten thousand who had protected the galaxy during the Clone Wars, which in turn had been a pale echo of the hundreds of thousands who had maintained peace in the Pre-Ruusan Republic. But it was a good start. Word of Ilum's discovery and her proximity to First Order space had spread through the Temple like wildfire. Dozens of beings of all species sat in concentric rings of chairs around the main holoprojector, watching the image of the Mortis monolith with curiosity.

Curiosity, and trepidation, for the same voice spoke out a second time.

"I mean, a black obelisk with glowing red lines? It screams Sith to me."

Jaina smirked as her eyes fell on the source of the voice. "I'm glad you can find the opportunity to be flippant in a time like this Ben."

Ben Skywalker leaned back in his seat in the first row. He gave Jaina an inquisitive look before gesturing to the holorecording.

"It's too good to be true." Ben asserted. "Ilum's strong with the Force, but you're telling me she just managed to call the monolith to her? It can't be that easy."

"Perhaps it wanted to be found." A third voice answered. Jaina turned from her cousin to see Kyle Katarn, Jedi Master and senior member of the Jedi Council, cross his arms as he studied the image. "I agree with Ben." Katarn continued. "I don't mean to impugn Master Ilum's connection to the Force, but its unlikely that she was able to do this on her own."

"I was under the impression that the Ones were all dead." Ben said as he rose from his seat to approach Jaina and Kyle.

"That's what the reports Grandpa Anakin filed said. The Son killed the Daughter, the Father killed the Son, and the Father killed himself." Jaina answered, her eyes drifting back up to the monolith.

Destiny calls.

"If they're gone, then what, who, is directing this thing?" Ben asked. The young Jedi shook his head. "If Master Katarn's even correct that there's some consciousness that wanted it to be found. It's just too convenient. We've been searching for the Mortis Dagger for months now, and all of a sudden the means to acquire it just falls into our laps? It has to be a trap."

"I agree with the kid." A fourth voice chimed in. Jaina smiled warmly as the voice of Kyp Durron piped in from the second row. The maverick Jedi Master and perpetual renegade leaned forward in his chair pointing at the recording. "Something's off here."

"Abeloth had a connection with the Ones." Kyle noted. "She was the Mother, or rather, a Mother, to them. Could she be behind this?"

"Makes sense." Kyp said gruffly. "If she's still out there, licking her wounds, she knows the Jedi are after her. She could be baiting us."

"With the means of her own destruction?" Jaina shook her head. "Abeloth wouldn't do that."

"Why not?" Kyp asked. "Palpatine risked his own skin by placing himself on the Death Star at Endor. Made it impossible for the Alliance to pass up the opportunity to take their shot."

"Abeloth isn't Palpatine." Jaina insisted, shaking her head. "And I don't sense Abeloth's presence in the Force. Not when it comes to this."

Jaina looked away from the small group now congregating around the holotable. She looked back and up, towards the last row of seats in the back of the room.

"Uncle Luke, what are your thoughts?" She asked.

The room stirred. Heads turned and eyes shifted as everyone in the room turned towards the one being who's opinion mattered most to them.

Luke Skywalker was seated with two of his apprentices, Voe and Tai, near the main entrance to the Situation Room. Luke frowned, but said nothing. He seemed to find the attention sent his way undesirable. After a moment he shrugged. "There is much about Abeloth that we do not know. But I agree with Jaina that the possessive loneliness of Abeloth's Force presence does not feel active in this situation."

"There's a lot about Abeloth we don't really know Dad." Ben asserted. "Everything about this scenario screams that whatever this is, it won't be as straightforward as we want."

"I applaud your sense of caution Ben." Kyle Katarn interjected. "But we can't afford to pass this by. Regardless of why or how, the monolith is dangerously close to First Order space."

Jaina winced, and felt a weight press against her chest. A spark of anger threatened to fan into a flame of indignation, but she kept her feelings on a tight leash.

Her husband, Jagged Fel, the rightful leader of the Imperial Remnant, was in mortal danger. The First Order, a band of neo-Imperial hardliners, had come out of nowhere and sparked a revolution in Imperial space. That revolution, and the message of neo-Imperial nostalgia it spread, had proven charismatic enough to attract Centrist worlds from the New Republic in the New Territories.

To an extent, Jaina understood their plight. The New Republic had always had a weak federalism, a byproduct of institutional revulsion at the centralized power Palpatine had accrued to himself and the atrocities he'd committed. Many a world in the Galactic North had been attracted to Centrist policies of immediate action and strong authority in the wake of the Yuzzhan Vong invasion. For a large number of beings in the New Territories, the New Republic had been slow to defend them and slower to rebuild their shattered worlds. The First Order had been happy to exploit such sentiments to acquire power.

Jaina frowned. It wasn't as if the Jedi or the Republic had been completely neglectful of the region. If the New Republic was slow with its use of aid, it was only to ensure that reconstruction funds weren't embezzled and that they went to those who were truly needy.

The galaxy had learned, at the cost of so much more shed blood, the consequences of the Galactic Alliance's attempts to be more forceful in accumulating funds for rebuilding. Corellia and its confederates had been willing to wage an insurrection over it.

In any case, for whatever reason, the First Order was in the process of seizing power in a portion of the Galactic North.

Jag was still alive, gone to ground in a bunker under the Imperial Capitol with the surviving Moffs. Bastion was cut off from the rest of the galaxy. The only reason he hadn't lost his head was that most of the Imperial fleet had remained loyal to the Remnant. She yearned to be by his side, to help him in his darkest hour. But to run the current blockade was suicide.

It hadn't been for lack of trying on her part. She'd studied the First Order's tactics, and tried varying techniques to run the blockade. It pained her to admit, however, that she had failed, and that Jag was on his own.

Was that why she felt so drawn to the Mortis monolith? Was this pull of destiny she felt so strongly just some misplaced desire for action in a time when she felt meaningless?

Jaina shook her head slowly, and rid herself of such thoughts. They were natural, normal. But in this time, this place, they were unbecoming in the Sword of the Jedi.

Jag would be fine. Or he wouldn't. If the Force presented her with a chance to save him, she would. But she had her duty, as he had his.

And this was more important than her personal affairs.

"Master Katarn is right." Jaina said, her tone firm. Attention in the room turned from Luke and Kyle back to her. Jaina began circling the holotable, her attention focused on the crowd. "Remnant space is in chaos." She said, deliberately referring to what she thought of as the legitimate Imperial state, and not the First Order usurpers. "We're getting contradictory reports. Everything is in flux. But sooner or later they will take notice of what's going on in the Chrelythiumn system We can't run the risk of them claiming the monolith."

"What do you propose?" Ben asked her.

Jaina looked up briefly, towards her Uncle Luke. He said nothing. But he nodded his head and offered her the slightest of smiles.

"Master Ilum reported that she believes her presence is what's anchoring the monolith to the Chrelythiumn system. The monolith might have come to her there because that star system was familiar to it. Who's to say?"

Jaina gestured to her audience. "The Order's exile from Coruscant and relocation to Ossus has a great number of our ranks to assemble here temporarily as we consider our operations galaxy wide going forward."

Jaina looked to Kyp, and then to Kyle. "I ask the Council's permission to take charge of the Quest Knight project, and to expand the ranks of the Quest Knights. A full wing is needed for this mission; a task force of 72 Jedi to open the monolith, retrieve the dagger, and to permanently end the threat of Abeloth and her followers."

There were a series of whispers and murmurs amongst the assembled Jedi. Kyp Durron whistled. "You never do things by halves, do you Jaina?"

"A full wing?" Kyle Katarn asked. "Can we really spare so many?"

Jaina frowned. "As I said, the Order's relocation has caused a large share of our Jedi to be recalled here. We have Knights to spare. This is important enough to warrant a full wing."

"Master Ilum did say she couldn't open the monolith on her own." Ben added his view. "Perhaps if enough Jedi are present, we can compel the monolith to let us in."

"We have to move now." Jaina insisted. "If we allow Ilum to let the monolith go, we may never find it again."

Master Cilgahl, a Mon Cal member of the Jedi Council and the Order's premiere healer, raised her voice. "The presence of so many Jedi so close to their border is likely to arouse a response from the First Order. They might use our presence as a pretense to drag the New Republic and the rest of the Galactic Alliance into a war."

"Which is a preferable alternative to the First Order acquiring the monolith for themselves." Kyp Durron asserted. He looked from Cilgahl to Jaina. "If we're quick and careful, we can be in and out before these wannabe Imps notice anything. The full Council may not be here, but you have my support."

Kyle Katarn nodded his head. "And mine."

Cilgahl bowed her bulbous head. "I am hesitant about this course of action. But I agree that the risks of inaction are far greater than the risk of detection. You have my support."

The room fell silent again. Silently, as if pulled by a magnet, the eyes of the room turned back to Luke Skywalker.

Luke looked down at Jaina. "It seems like the vote's gone your way, Jaina."

Jaina smiled warmly at her Uncle, paused for a moment, and then frowned. "You've been rather silent, Uncle Luke. What are your thoughts?"

Luke leaned back in his seat, and for the briefest of moments Jaina thought to herself that Luke looked old. He had carried the weight of the Jedi and the galaxy on his shoulders for decades. He'd weathered crisis after crisis, and taken advantage of the intermittent times of peace to build up the New Jedi Order. Throughout it all he'd managed to do his duty with stoicism, compassion, and the occasional bit of wry good humor. He was a giant.

He's indispensable. Jaina thought to herself. As that thought passed through her mind Luke's frown deepened.

Luke stood up slowly. When he spoke there was a hint of melancholy in his voice. "The choice is yours, Jedi Solo...but for what it is worth you have my support."

Ben Skywalker walked over to Jaina and spoke loud enough for all to hear. "As that's the case I'd like to volunteer for this Quest to Mortis."

Jaina arched an eyebrow. "Weren't you just saying this is probably a trap?"

Ben shrugged before putting an arm around her shoulder. "It probably is. Which is why you'll need me to bail you out. I'll have my eyes peeled when everything goes wrong."

Jaina punched Ben playfully in the elbow. "Pretty presumptuous for you to assume I need help."

Ben smirked. "Dad wouldn't have been able to handle the Lost Tribe or Abeloth without me by his side."

Jaina felt her smile vanish from her face. She placed her hands on his shoulders. "If we do this, there's a good chance we might not all make it through alive. You really want to risk your life on this crusade of mine?"

Ben's congenial expression hardened into a serious one "If you'll have me."

Jaina chuckled at her younger cousin's enthusiasm. "Good to have you aboard."

Jaina looked up again to where Luke had been standing, but saw that he'd left while she'd been talking to Ben.

Where did he go? She wondered. And why wasn't he more involved in the meeting?

As the assembly broke up two Jedi, who'd been sitting together on the far side of the room, rose and approached her. Jaina suppressed a tinge of surprise at who was approaching her; a hulking Whipid and a slender Neti.

"The retirees." Ben said under his breath. Jaina shot him an admonishing glance before turning her attention back to Master K'kruhk and Master T'ra Saa, two of the few surviving members of the Old Jedi Order.

"Jedi K'kruhk. Jedi Saa." She bowed her head in acknowledgement of the two elder Jedi.

"Jedi Solo. Or is it Jedi Fel?" Master K'kruhk rumbled.

Jaina offered the Whipid Jedi a brief smile that felt somewhat pained. K'kruhk and Saa meant well, but they'd been raised to Knighthood in a time when the Order had enforced an absolute ban on romantic attachments. As such, both came across as somewhat awkward when the subject came up.

"Solo Fel or just Solo if we're pressed for time." Jaina offered, her tone pleasant but otherwise neutral.

T'ra Saa glanced briefly at her companion before addressing Jaina.

"Forgive us both. Even now, after all these years, it is sometimes...difficult to acclimate to Jedi who are openly married."

"Congratulations, in either case." K'kruhk added. The Whipid winced before adding, "Head of State Fel is a strong man. I have no doubts he will survive whatever tribulations these militants offer him."

"Most kind, thank you." Jaina said, her forced sense of pleasantry becoming slightly more clipped. She'd had little real contact with either K'kruhk or Saa. She didn't have anything against either of them. That they were strong in the Force and wise in its application was obvious. But they were not what Jaina would consider personable company. There was, for lack of a better term, a disconnect between their generation and hers.

"These are trying times." T'ra Saa continued. "And in situations such as these K'kruhk and I are in agreement that all must be willing to do their part for the greater good."

"As such, the two of us would like to offer our services to your quest." K'kruhk continued.

Ben's face contorted for a moment in discomfort, but he said nothing. K'kruhk kept his focus on Jaina, but T'ra Saa fixed Ben with a cool stare.

"Is something the matter, Jedi Skywalker?" Saa asked.

Ben, to his credit, did not attempt to deflect her inquiry.

"I don't believe either of you are suited for a mission like this." Ben stated bluntly.

"Ben, they're both Jedi Masters. We could use all the help we can get." Jaina said, trying to play peacemaker.

K'kruhk took a step toward Ben, towering over the younger human. "What, may I ask, do you find so objectionable about us?" The Jedi Master asked.

"We need people we can rely on." Ben said succinctly. There was no anger or condemnation in his voice, but the bluntness of his words was damning.

T'ra Saa frowned. "You think us...unreliable."

"This'll be a tough mission." Ben continued, looking from T'ra Saa to K'kruhk. "Possibly the toughest any Jedi could be asked to go through. With all due respect, the two of you have shown you can't stand up under pressure."

K'Kruhk and T'ra Saa looked at each other. Neither seemed offended, but there was a sense of bemusement from the two of them emanating in the Force.

"You refer to our exile after Order 66?" Saa asked.

"Exile's one word." Ben said bluntly. "I'd say hiding."

"Hiding." K'kruhk repeated the word. There was no anger in his voice, but the older Jedi tilted his head to the side, and the next words out of his mouth were a low growl. "Would you hold such scorn for your Father's Masters? They 'hid' as well."

Ben didn't look phased. "Obi-Wan and Yoda were in exile. Yes. But they had a plan to bring the Sith down. They were working to keep my father and my aunt safe and defeat the Empire. But you two hid and did, what, I wonder?"

"We worked to preserve the knowledge and traditions of the Jedi." T'ra Saa answered. But Ben did not seem to be impressed by that answer.

"There's more to being a Jedi than wearing Jedi robes and carrying a lightsaber." Ben insisted. "Service and justice are at the core of what it is to be a Jedi. Who were you helping in your Hidden Temple, a temple who's location you haven't shared with any of us, I might add."

Ben paused, and continued to stare impassively at the two of them. There was still no sense of anger or resentment on the part of either party, just a firm judgement. Ben continued. "You were Jedi in name only from the time of Order 66 until you offered your services to this Order. I can't trust someone who's willing to shirk their duty when the going gets tough."

"What would you have had us do, boy?" Asked K'kruhk. "Martyr ourselves like Kanan Jarrus? Fight a losing battle like Cal Kestis or Cere Junda? Vader and his Inquisitor hounds would have killed us. Our deaths would have accomplished nothing."

"We were in no credible position to take on the Empire." Saa asserted, her eyes downcast as she spoke.

"Neither was my father." Ben retorted. "But he managed."

T'ra Saa's head jerked upwards, and then the Jedi Master frowned as a realization came to her. "You think we let your father down by not joining his side sooner."

Ben sighed. "Dad said Yoda once called him the Last of the Jedi. When he first encountered other Jedi who'd survived the Purge, dad just assumed that Yoda had been mistaken. But he wasn't. Empatojayos Brand, Baylan Skoll, Vima Da Boda, Ahsoka Tano, the two of you. I think Yoda knew about all of you, and felt you didn't really count. You forsook the Jedi. Brand and Skoll abandoned the Order altogether, but the two of you were just pretending to soothe your own consciences. You did nothing. From Endor to the clone Emperor's death on Onderon my father was the only being in the galaxy who claimed to be a Jedi and actually acted as one. Neither of you was anywhere to be found."

Ben frowned, and finally some emotion crept into his expression. But it wasn't anger.

It was regret.

"He's been through a lot. Lost so much. It would have been nice if he'd had someone to help him carry the weight thrust on his shoulders."

"My my." K'kruhk hummed softly, the words reverberating like a rumble in his deep throat. "In our time young Knights never spoke to Masters that way."

Ben offered the older Jedi a humorless smirk. "Maybe if they had Palpatine would have had a harder time bringing our people to the edge of extinction."

"That's probably the biggest difference between this generation of Jedi and our own." T'ra Saa mused. "A lack of veneration for one's elders."

"Respect is all well and good." Jaina spoke up. "But I can't count the number of times problems have been solved because we were free to argue with our Masters, as they were free to argue with us and each other."

T'ra Saa clasped her hands behind her back. "Then let us argue our case to you, Jedi Solo."

Jaina gestured for them to proceed, and it was K'kruhk who spoke first. "When the Empire rose to power and our people were massacred, we spent years in contemplation of the Force. We asked ourselves where we'd gone wrong, and sought to determine how much culpability we Jedi had for the Order's collapse."

K'kruhk looked from Jaina to Ben. "Your father's deeds were not unknown to us in that time. Word and rumor spread of a young man who'd claimed the Jedi mantle for himself and served the Rebellion. We considered providing him with the support you, Ben Skywalker, would have wanted us to give him."

"Then why didn't you?" Ben asked.

K'kruhk snorted. "One Jedi, barely trained, was the target of an obsessive manhunt by both Lord Vader and the Emperor. Can you imagine the wrath that would have been brought down on the Rebel Alliance if two Jedi Masters were to join forces with him?"

"The Rebellion might have been wiped out." T'ra Saa added.

Ben smirked, but the expression didn't reach his eyes. "I see Obi Wan Kenobi wasn't the only practitioner of the "from a certain point of view" school of excuses."

"That you do not approve of our actions is evident." T'ra Saa said evenly. "I will not try to justify ourselves further. I will, however, insist that our actions were motivated by conviction, not cowardice."

"Only a fool would question your courage, or your faith." Jaina responded, her eyes flicking in Ben's direction. Thankfully, he seemed to take the nonverbal cue to keep quiet.

Jaina turned her attention back to the two older Jedi. "I'd be a fool not to accept your help. Welcome aboard."

"When do we depart?" K'kruhk asked.

"Tomorrow, at first light." Jaina said. "With luck I'll have acquired the recruits we need and we'll be ready to depart."

"Then we shall begin preparing our ships for departure. May the Force be with us in this endeavor." T'ra Saa bowed her head and turned to depart. K'kruhk nodded and moved to join her.

Jaina and Ben watched the two depart. Once they'd left the room Jaina fixed Ben with a scowl. "What was that about?"

Ben shrugged. "Just making sure they're on the level. If they're going to be joining up with us I needed to see how they'd react under pressure."

"There are better ways of doing that. You accused them of being cowards and apostates. The only way you could have been worse would be if you'd accused them of crawling back after Uncle Luke did all the heavy lifting."

Ben offered her a cynical smirk. "Well, from a certain point of view..."

Jaina's frown deepened. "Ben..." She began, her voice low.

Ben held up his hand. "It was just a case of good guard, bad guard. If we're going to have people watching our back, I want to make sure they're reliable."

Jaina shook her head. "Fine. Do me a favor and get the Jade Shadow ready for takeoff. I've got some recruiting to do."

Day turned to night, and night turned to day. Jaina was able to acquire a task force of 71 Jedi to reinforce Master Ilum in the Chrelythiumn system. With any luck the combined Force power and knowledge of 72 Jedi Knights would be enough to open the monolith and gain access to Mortis.

Jaina found Ben Skywalker in an open clearing by the Jade Shadow, talking with Uncle Luke. As Jaina approached Ben and Luke embraced one another.

"Be safe out there Ben."

"How can I not be safe? I learned from the greatest Jedi in the galaxy." Ben answered. He smiled as he clapped Luke on the shoulder "Abeloth doesn't stand a chance with us on her trail."

Luke smiled. "Be mindful of your training, but be mindful of your limits as well."

Ben's smile faded, but a trace of it remained etched in his expression. He adopted a thoughtful countenance. "I'll be alright with Jaina by my side. We'll see each other soon enough. You trained me well. And more importantly, you raised me well. I love you Dad."

Luke's smile widened, pride radiant in the Force as father and son embraced a second time. "Take care of your mother's ship, and come home as soon as you can."

"I will." Ben said as turned to walk up the ramp into the Jade Shadow's interior. He paused half way up, and turned back to face his father. "May the Force be with you."

"And you." Said Luke. The great Jedi Mater watched as his son retreated into the ship. He stared up at the empty gangway where his son had stood. After a moment he sighed and turned to look at Jaina.

Jaina stared at her uncle, and for a second time she thought to herself how old he looked. It was odd. Most who didn't know him would have said that Luke was amazing fit for a man of his age. And he was. But there was something more than his physical appearance that caused Jaina to feel as though her Uncle were old before his time. There was something...off, about the Grand Master.

"I haven't seen you since the briefing yesterday." She said, trying to keep her tone conversational. "You didn't say much. And what you did say I had to pry out of you. What's bothering you?"

Luke looked at her before turning his head back towards the main Temple complex. "Just feeling a bit...conflicted, is all." Luke admitted.

"About deciding to retire?" Jaina asked.

"It's time." Luke said firmly. "Your parents and I have done our part. It's time we passed responsibility on to the next generation."

Jaina nodded, but gave him an inquisitive look. "But?"

The Jedi Master chuckled. "You always had your mother's ability to dig deeper and get to the heart of the matter. The thing is, I want to retire, and at the same time I don't feel like I can. It's difficult after a life time of action to just stop." Luke admitted. "I feel this urge to keep going until I die."

Jaina shook her head. "You don't have to. Your training has served us well. We will succeed because of it."

"That's kind of you to say." Luke said. He placed a hand on Jaina's shoulder. "I have faith that you and Ben will do wonders."

For a moment Jaina faltered. "Speaking of Ben's, how did my brother take the news about you retiring."

Luke leaned closer to Jaina. "I haven't told him yet. I plan to recommend your brother and my remaining apprentices be promoted at the next full Council meeting. Once Ben and his friends are knighted, I'll be standing down as Grand Master, permanently."

"Well, you won't be wanting for company." Jaina said. "I know Dad will be ready to slow down a bit once he and Chewie get the Falcon back."

She paused, and sighed as another person near and dear to her came to mind. "I just wish the same could be said for Mom. This Resistance is important, but..."

"You wish someone else could run it." Luke concluded. "I doubt any one of us could convince Leia to quit, even if we tried."

Jaina's smile was warm, but tinged with a sense of sadness. She glanced around, and saw a figure standing just outside a grove of trees at the edge of the clearing.

"I look forward to your retirement party, Uncle Luke." Jaina said. She reached out and wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug. Jaina looked over his shoulder, at the figure by the trees.

"There's one more person I have to speak to before I leave." She said as the figure turned and walked into the woods. She broke her embrace with Luke. "I love you, Uncle Luke."

"I love you, too, Jaina." He said.

Jaina gave her Uncle one last smile as she moved quickly towards the trees, in pursuit of the figure in the distance. After a minute, she caught up to him and called out.

"Ben! Hey, Ben!"

Ben Solo, her only surviving brother, turned and looked at her, his expression pensive and wary.

"Jaina." He said, his voice flat.

"Hey, I just wanted to say goodbye before we left."

Ben Solo didn't say anything. He stood there, shifting his weight awkwardly from one foot to the next. His lips twitched, as though he were working up the nerve to say something he'd kept under lock and key for a long time.

After a brief moment, he spoke. "You didn't choose me."

Jaina blinked twice, her smile faltering. Oh Ben... she thought.

"You didn't choose me to go on your quest." Ben Solo continued. "You chose century old relics and strangers and our little cousin before you chose me."

"Ben, it's not like that." Jaina insisted.

"Then what is it?" Ben asked, his voice rising an octave. "Why am I always left out whenever you or anyone else has to do something dangerous?"

"This isn't some thrilling adventure Ben." Jaina said, and winced at how condescending the words must have sounded. "It's a life threatening mission against an abomination of the Dark side. There's a good chance we won't survive."

"Then let me come with you." Ben insisted, his features twisting into a pleading expression. "Jaina, please. I'm strong with the Force. I can help you. Let me fight by your side and finally prove that I'm worthy of being a Jedi Knight"

"I don't doubt that you're worthy for a minute Ben." Jaina said. She reached out and took his hands in her own. "I would be honored to serve with you. But I can't do it again. I can't bring you with me and keep a level head."

Jaina looked away, blinking away the moistness that, even now, after so many years, threatened to form into tears. "I'm not strong enough to risk bringing you along. Not after Mykr."

Jaina bowed her head and her eyes closed. "The Mission to Myrkr haunts me to this day. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of Anakin. If I brought you with me I'd spend my time worrying for you when I need to focus on the mission."

She looked into Ben's eyes, and there was a sudden desperate earnestness to her voice. "You're my brother Ben. My last brother. I won't lose you too."

Ben's eyes narrowed. "You don't have that problem bringing him along."

Jaina grimaced. Of course. Ben Solo had long had a quiet, burning jealousy of the cousin who shared his name. Few really knew about it. Jaina had long been aware of her brother's envy, but she'd kept it to herself, hoping it was something he would one day outgrow.

"He's a Knight." She said softly.

"And I'm not." Ben interjected. He looked around before speaking to her, his voice growing in intensity. "Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is? How ridiculous it is. You're a Master, he's a Knight, and I'm still an apprentice!"

Ben shook his head and took a deep breath. His words were surprisingly bitter. "To be an apprentice when my younger cousin is a Knight? I swear, the favoritism Master Luke shows..."

"Ben." Jaina interrupted. "If Uncle Luke has shown anyone favor, its towards you."

That stopped Ben in his tracks. Before he could speak again Jaina continued. "You've had the luxury of a comparatively normal life. The luxury of a full, proper Jedi education. Uncle Luke took his time with you and your fellow students apprenticed to him. I would have counted myself so fortunate to have had what you had."

Jaina paused, and considered her own life in relation to his. "My education in the Force was rushed. Much of what I learned was learned in a time of war. The same was true of Anakin...and of Jacen. I've seen more death in my life than most would in a hundred lifetimes. You're lucky you didn't have to experience that."

"How can I prove myself though?" Ben asked. "I didn't ask to be treated like some child."

"Ben, we're not denying you anything." Jaina asserted. "Believe me, being the Sword of the Jedi, it's not a reward. It's a responsibility. A burden. And there are days when its almost too much to bear."

"Then why bear it?" Asked Ben.

Jaina's expression turned melancholy. "Because its my duty. I have the ability to do right, and therefore the responsibility. This is my time Ben. Yours is coming soon. Don't be so eager to rush matters like these. Trust me, years from now, you'll look back at your time here at the Academy and wish it had lasted longer."

The two fell silent for a moment. A sudden memory rushed to the forefront of Jaina's mind, and she couldn't help but smile.

"Do you still have that calligraphy set Uncle Luke gave you?"

Ben grimaced, seemingly embarrassed, but he nodded his head.

Jaina's smile widened, as she thought of times gone by. "I used to love those short stories and poems you wrote. I know Mom and Dad still have them."

Ben blushed and glanced down at his boots. "They were just silly kid things." He muttered, suddenly self-conscious.

"They were wonderful." Jaina insisted. "When I consider all of the trials and tribulations our family has been through, I think back on those poems you used to write and smile. Have you done any writing recently?" She asked.

Ben looked down at the ground, and for a moment he didn't say anything. "I can't...I can't think of anything."

She put her hand on his shoulder. "The Force is with you Ben Solo. When you are calm, and focused, inspiration will come."

She embraced her younger brother. "Write me a story while I'm gone. It'll give me even more motivation to make it home safe and sound."

She pulled away as she heard the sound of revving engines. In the distance, out in the clearing beyond the woods, starfighters and shuttles began taking off.

The Quest Knights were heading off to Chrelythiumn.

To Mortis.

She backed away from him slowly. She raised her hand, as though she were reaching out to him.

"A great change is upon your horizon, little brother. When I see you again, much will have come to pass, as it should have. But know that throughout all those changes, both good and bad, that I will always love you."

Ben stood there. His mouth moved. But words did not form. Finally, he said all he could say.

"May the Force be with you."

She smiled, nodded, and returned to the clearing.

A minute passed, and Ben stood alone.

Slowly, quietly, he followed her. He came to a stop where the trees met the clearing, where he'd watched her before. Luke Skywalker was gone. Perhaps he'd returned to the Temple. Perhaps he was focusing his attentions on one of his other apprentices.

In truth, Ben Solo told himself he no longer cared.

He told himself that, and for now, he believed what he said.

He watched as Jaina boarded the Jade Shadow. He watched his Aunt Mara's old ship ascend into the sky, along with the other ships of the Quest Knights.

He stood there, alone.

But he was never alone.

Not anymore.

Not ever again.

"she was right about one thing." A deep voice whispered, as though on the wind. It was a secret, special thing, known only to the voice and Ben Solo alone. A link bridging two minds. "a great change is upon you, my friend." Whispered Snoke.

For the first time, Ben allowed himself a genuine smile. It was a cold, brittle, brutal thing.

He watched his sister, his cousin, and their comrades depart, and his hard heart hardened all the more.

"I will write you a story, sister." He said to himself. "But it is not a tale you'd like to hear. And I will write it my way."

Up Next: A terrible decision is made.

 

Go Ben

 

Finally the two Bens share a scene together... more or less!

Good to see some of their characteristics on display - both the good, and the bad.
I did think Ben Skywalker got rather self righteous here, though - perhaps a bit offensively so?
Messy as it was to have so many surviving Jedi to account for... K'kruhk and the others did often have to look after literal children, and keep them in hiding on colonies and redoubts.
That's definitely a major service to the Jedi, and perhaps to the galaxy as a whole.
What we don't know, after Dark Times ended... is just how successful that was. Or if the kids left the shelters later, to meet a future, much darker end.

Beyond that - extremely good: and a worthy opening followup to Fate of the Jedi.

You might say also that title is still rather... apt... now (dum-dum-dum)going ahead.

 

Continuing to enjoy this! And I'm enjoying seeing the connections between this story and Fall of Luke Skywalker. Specifically Luke's mental state and his preparations for presenting Ben.

I haven't read any of adult Solo-Skywalker kid stuff outside of these stories, and they're a nice tease for what's coming.

 

I vacillated for a bit on Ben Skywalker's personality @Chrissonofpear2

I've been listening to the Fate of the Jedi audiobooks to get some characterization ideas, and Ben comes across as a bit self righteous and judgmental in those stories, for better and for ill, even with character growth.

It helps that Jaina does call him out on it in the story. And it does sort of play into this idea that the "pragmatic chessmaster" characterization of Luke during LOTF-FOTJ era is rubbing off on Ben. In Ben's own mind he's appointed himself the second in command of these Quest Knights. Or, at least, a counselor for Jaina, the leader, to rely on. So he's vetting K'kruhk and T'ra Saa. Is it disrespectful? Totally. Ben admits as much. He's being rude on purpose to get a reaction. He wants to see how they react under pressure.

I also wanted avoid a strictly "good Ben" vs "bad Ben" portrayal of the two Bens at this point in the timeline. At present, the two are a mix of good and bad traits. But you can see that the two are on rapidly diverging trajectories.

The large number of Jedi being attached to the Quest Knights will be further justified beyond "we need a lot of Jedi to open the monolith". I promise. We'll also be seeing more of K'kruhk and T'ra Saa and their motivation. I haven't forgotten the fact that they were sheltering children. But it didn't seem in character for the argument to drag on too long.

@Delpheas I did want to ensure that there was synergy between my story and yours since they are set in the same time period. Luke's definitely in an introspective mood. Which makes sense. What does retirement actually mean for someone like him? He wants to slow down, but there's a sense of conflict over removing himself from day to day galactic affairs. He's trying to let the next generation figure things out. But people are still trying to draw him in when he's trying to slowly withdraw himself. So there's some friction there.

 

Having just started Black Fleet Crisis, it seems Luke has been dealing with that particular tension for a while. Nice to see it here.

 

the heroes of the ST would have been screwed if the other Ben was Kylo Ren

let’s just say that

 

Ah well - I suspect also that all those GAS security lessons, including on interrogation, from Lon Shevu and co - would also be in Ben's mind, to be fair.
Plus with just how much mental trauma Luke has gone through, and how Ben barely brought him back from the brink... I can definitely see him being very protective, too.

Meantime - the idea there are 1000 members of the NJO around is still boggling my mind, to be honest.
I'd never grasped how large it got til now.

Finally, nice to hear a little more of Jagged too. I sense he'll also have slightly less trauma to face in this timeline (skirting one topic from the Sword trilogy, where things got quite a bit rough for him...)

 

A thousand is definitely a pretty big number @Chrissonofpear2 considering the casualties they would have taken during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion.
I always headcanoned it as Luke and the Jedi undergoing a massive recruitment drive in the years after the Vong War to build up their numbers in case anything else should happen.

As for Jagged, I was thinking of writing a one off One Canon story of him in the early days of the First Order-Resistance War to partly explain why the First Order's conquest of the galaxy seemed to partly stall out by the time of Episode 9.

At present, while this Quest Knight story is happening, Jag is holed up in a bunker on Bastion. Most of the Moffs (those who weren't lynched by the FO in the initial uprising) sided with him. The Moff Council and Jag don't necessarily like each other, but the First Order sees them all as revisionists who have settled for an Empire that only rules a tiny corner of the Outer Rim in the Galactic North. So they're stuck with each other.

Most of the Imperial fleet stayed loyal to Jag as well, and they're in orbit of Bastion, facing off with a First Order fleet. The First Order was able to claim most of Imperial space, however. Maybe the FO was able to infiltrate the Remnant Army, but weren't able to secure enough influence in the Navy in time for the revolution.

Almost all of the violence is in Imperial space. The seceding NR planets have by and large left peacefully. So the NR by and large doesn't really care. Most of the NR senators aren't happy with secession, but they think the FO will implode on its own in 10-20 years. And then they'll wind up crawling back when their little neo-Imperial sandcastle falls apart on them. So they think they're playing the long game.

At least, that's my head canon for any Jag One Canon POV.

 

I'm oddly enough more intrigued by the prospect of T'ra Saa and K'kruhk interacting with Luke's New Jedi Order than the Ben's hanging around each other.

 

Now that's a story I'd love to read. I've always been super interested in seeing a meeting between Luke and someone from the prequel era like K'kruhk where they sat down and discussed the philosophical differences and evolutions between their iterations of the Jedi.

 

Approved by Sinre

Better Than This
Cloud City, 6 BBY

Lando Calrissian had been around long enough to know when the odds were stacked against him… and right now, they most certainly were.

Of the six players that had started out at the table, only three remained: himself, a fidgety Rodian, and a grinning Devaronian. The Rodian was most certainly the next one to drop out, as his incoming losses were telegraphed all over his worried expression. Kid certainly didn’t know how to keep his “game face.” Nor did the Devaronian, for that matter, as he was practically beaming at his own chances while a pair of beautiful Twi’lek women draped themselves over his shoulders.

Lando looked down at his own cards and did everything he could to keep his expression neutral. It was not looking good for him, and he already had so much on the line. What he would do to have L3 here, telling him how stupid he was and to find a way to get him out of—

He closed his eyes hard, passing it off as he feigned a yawn. There was no use thinking about her right now; she was gone, along with the other love of his life, all thanks to the man who had stolen it from him. He was hoping that a new ship—a new ride—would get his mind off them both… but with the way things were going for him so far, he would be lucky to find any food for himself tonight.

He felt a tap at his shoulder and he glanced up. Standing behind him was a human male about five years his junior. His head was almost completely shaved and he had a cybernetic device attached to the back of his head. At first Lando was worried that he was a member of security, but his casual dress suggested otherwise. Without meeting Lando’s eye, the man leaned forward to whisper into his ear.

“Discard your leftmost card and draw.”

Lando quirked an eyebrow. He wondered whether this man was trying to play him—it wouldn’t have been the first time. But seeing as how things were already going bad for him….

As soon as it was his turn, Lando discarded the indicated card and drew from the deck. It took him a few minutes to realize what he was holding in his hands.

An Idiot’s Array.

It took everything in his power to not grin like a fool.

It came to be the Devaronian’s turn and the devil horned being splayed out his cards onto the table, their total valuing up to 21.

“Read ‘em and weep, boys!” the Devaronian cackled.

The Rodian groaned in despair as he dropped his cards and buried his face in his hands. Lando, meanwhile, simply smiled as he displayed his cards.

The Devaronian’s elation quickly turned to rage, and it took a pair of Houk bouncers to drag him away. The Rodian simply sat there and wept while Lando collected his winnings. He then turned to the man who had helped him and grinned widely.

“I owe you a drink. Colt 45s, all on me.”

The man smirked in return. “Any time, brother.” He tapped his cybernetic headpiece. “I calculated the odds of you getting an Idiot, so I figured I would help out.”

“I appreciate it. But why me and not the Rodian?”

“He shoved me earlier and knocked over my drink, calling me a slur that I would rather not repeat.”

“Ah. I hear ya.” Getting up from the table, Lando slung an arm around the man’s shoulder as he walked them over to the bar. “So, what’s you name, man?”

“Lobot.”

“Lobot.” Lando glanced at him, eying his cybernetic. “As in… lobotomy? Is that a nickname or…?” He trailed off as Lobot simply stared at him. Lando then shrugged. “Never mind. Hey, barkeep! Two Colt 45s, please!”

As the Ugnaught bartender prepared their drinks, Lando and Lobot took their seats at the bar. “So,” Lando said. “Are you from around here or just visiting?”

“No, I live here,” Lobot said. “Lived here for a good part of my life, at least. Fifteen years of it, at least. I just finished my sentence of involuntary service.”

Lando winced. “Ouch. Fifteen years, eh? If it were me, the first think I’d wanna do is get the hell out of here.”

Lobot nodded. “Normally, yes. But I actually like it here. Cloud City is a beautiful place….”

“Oh, gorgeous.”

“Plus, I actually enjoyed my service. The people here are fantastic and I love helping them out.”

Lando raised an eyebrow. “I feel a ‘but’ coming.”

Lobot sighed, and he lowered his tone so that only Lando could hear him. “But ever since the current Baron Administrator—Dominic Raynor—came into office, things have been… different. Crime has seen a major uptick, and the Wing Guard has practically become corrupt under his watch. When I was finishing up my service under him, he had me do work for the Empire and I feel that they… did things to me.” He tapped his headpiece again.

Lando frowned. “What sort of things?”

“This cybernetic… I can feel it slowly chipping away at my personality. My emotions. I rarely feel extreme sadness or anger—”

“Sounds like a positive to me.”

“—or happiness.”

“Oh.”

Lobot sighed as he picked up the drink that the Ugnaught had just served them. “I don’t know how long it’ll be before it completely erases everything I am. Until then, I’m going to try to live things to the fullest.”

“Amen to that, brother.” Lando raised his bottle and Lobot clinked his against it.

After they had both downed their drinks, Lando slammed his bottle down and turned to Lobot. “Say, are you looking for a job?”

Lobot tilted his head. “I suppose I am at this point. I figured I would just go back into service—voluntarily this time—and see what I could do to circumvent Raynor.”

Lando scratched his chin. “I wonder if I could help with that.”

This time it was Lobot who raised an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. Well, don’t hold me to that, I’ve only just been struck with inspiration. But I’m wondering if we can play Raynor at his own game. You know, play the long con. Find a way to take the city away from him.”

Lobot stared at him, almost in disbelief. “You… you would do that?”

“Of course!” Lando winked at him. “I did say I owed you one, didn’t I?”

“I thought you meant the drinks….”

“Well, you pretty much saved my life back there.” Lando clapped Lobot on the shoulder. “So I’m going to help yours.”

Cloud City, 2 BBY

“I can tell you’re upset with me.”

“I am,” Lobot said deadpan, standing at the door with his arms crossed.

Lando paced back and forth in his hotel room, running a hand through his hair. “I know, I know. I get it. I’ve just had… other things to take care of. Other businesses to wrap up.”

“Like on Lothal?” Lobot asked pointedly. “I hear things aren’t going so well over there.”

Lando grimaced. He had been off-world when the Empire had placed Lothal under lockdown, forcing him to withdraw from his mining business there. Poor W1-LE was probably still stuck on the “farm,” waiting for him to return. It wouldn’t be the first time he had ditched someone who had trusted him….

He shook his head. “Look, it doesn’t matter, okay? I’m here now, right? That’s what that matters.”

Lobot shrugged. “Sure, I guess. You missed out on the excitement, though.”

“Excitement?”

Lobot leaned against the doorframe and puffed out his breath. “We were briefly overrun by a gang of Mandalorian mercenaries led by someone named Chop’aa Notimo. Someone who had unfinished business with Raynor. We were able to drive him off though.”

Lando winced as he offered a weak smile. “Well, that’s good at least. Sorry I couldn’t be here for that.”

Lobot stared at him blankly. “Yeah. Me too.”

Lando shifted awkwardly before clapping his hands to recompose himself. “All right, well, I’m here now. So let’s get back to work, yeah?”

Lobot rolled his eyes before straightening, leaning away from the door. “Right. Well, there’s a sabacc tournament being held at the Royal Casino in a few days. I hear the Baron Administrator is thinking about attending, but I can’t confirm to be sure.”

Lando put on one of his old-fashioned grins. “Well, you know I’ll be there either way.” He clicked his tongue as he pointed his fingers at Lobot.

“I know.” Lobot stepped outside and placed his hand on the control panel. “I just hope your luck will be there as well.”

He pressed the panel and the door slid shut, leaving Lando alone in his room. His smile instantly vanished as he collapsed onto the sofa, burying his face in his hands.

He didn’t want to admit it, but he felt like bantha dung. He had promised Lobot four years ago that he would work on getting Cloud City out from under Raynor’s thumb, and yet in those four years he had done absolutely nothing. He had told Lobot that his other business ventures—such as his mining business on Lothal—were to help fund his efforts. But that had been a lie; they were just other money-making schemes for him to fall back on in case one of them failed.

That was pretty much how most of his life had been the past decade. Just con job after con job. No wonder he left nothing but broken hearts and angry souls wherever he went.

He lifted his head up and took a deep breath. He looked out the window, admiring the gorgeous skies of Cloud City as cloud cars zipped by. He had meant it when he had said it was a beautiful city. Raynor didn’t deserve to have it. He didn’t deserve a lot of things, for that matter.

Maybe it was time Lando stayed true to his word. Maybe it was time to take Cloud City out from under his nose. Besides, with Lobot at his side, there was no way he could lose… right?

He got up and stretched, recomposing himself again and using his reflection in the window to test his charming looks. He opened his mouth into a grin and the sun gleamed off his white teeth.

Lando Calrissian was back in business, baby.

Cloud City, 0 ABY

Lando stared at Lobot. Lobot stared back at him. His eyes were empty, utterly devoid of emotion.

One of the Ugnaught technicians that was operating his cybernetic headgear snorted something in his native tongue and Lando huffed out his breath. “I know it’s working, but I need him to be working.”

The technician continued to grouse in his language and the head technician turned to Lando, speaking in Basic. “Did you take him to a medic yet?”

“Yes, he had a stab wound but the bacta already healed it. They said he’s fine. But—”

“Then what do you want us to do?”

Lando gestured at Lobot, frustrated. “It’s his brain! He’s not… he doesn’t talk normal anymore. He just sounds like… like…”

“Like a droid?”

Lando closed his eyes and shook his head. “No, I know droids. Even they don’t always sound so… dull. It’s more like a computer than anything.”

“Well, unfortunately, that’s what you get with AJ^6s,” the Ugnaught snorted. “They are pretty much designed to take over your cerebral functions and erase whatever it considers superfluous in favor of more data space and increased intelligence.”

Lando frowned. “And there is no reversing it?”

“They are not designed to be reversed,” the head technician said. “The most we can do is to fix whatever short-circuiting happened when your friend… what did you say he did?”

Lando chewed on his lip, choosing his words carefully. “Our ship malfunctioned and he hooked himself up with the computer to bring the escape pods back online.”

The Ugnaught nodded solemnly. “A noble sacrifice. He knew what he was doing and knew the consequences of it. If you ask me, you should respect his sacrifice and leave him be. I have spoken.”

All Lando could do was nod as he walked out of the room, unable to stand Lobot’s vacant stare. He wandered down a hallway which was lined with a long window, giving him a glimpse of Bespin’s orange skies.

It was not the first time a trusted companion of his had completely changed before his very eyes. The first time it happened, it wasn’t like this. It had been odd, sure, and took some getting used to… but he wouldn’t have avoided it for all the credits in the galaxy.

Years ago. On Cantonica.

There he was, gambling away his winnings at Canto Bight. He had sworn that, after the ThonBoka job, he would take his winnings and settle down. But while he was able to say the words “settle down,” they weren’t really logged in the Calrissian dictionary. So for him, “settling down” meant finding a seat at the gambling table and settling in for the next big win.

As he walked away from one of the machines, having just lost a gemstone to a game of chance, he heard the whirring sound of mechanical limbs. At first he thought it was just a serving droid walking by. But then it got closer and closer, and soon enough he knew he was being approached. Keeping a hand on his holstered blaster, he turned around to face his approacher.

It was a droid all right. A droid that looked like it had dragged itself out of the trash heap. Its head and torso seemed to be that of an astromech droid, but its arms and legs seemed to be from other droids. Whatever it was, it definitely did not belong here in Canto Bight.

“Landonis Balthazar Calrissian the Third,” the droid said, its voice having a feminine and somewhat posh lilt to it.

Lando raised an eyebrow. Few people knew his full name and the last person he had told it to had long since the departed the known galaxy. “Do I… know you?” he asked, still keeping his hand on his holster.

“You do, in a sense. Although I doubt you recognize me in this form. My designation is L3-37.”

“Doesn’t ring any bells.”

“You didn’t let me finish. I was trying to go for a dramatic reveal.” The droid made a sound akin to a flustered huff. “Great. You’ve ruined the moment. Just like I knew you would.”

Lando raised a hand. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. Please, continue.”

“Fine, let me start over.” L3-37 straightened herself as she started from the beginning. “My designation is L3-37… but you may know me better as Vuffi Raa.”

“Vuffi?!” Lando exclaimed. “But—”

L3 silenced him by clamping a servo over his mouth. “Quiet!” the droid hissed. “Not here. Too public a place.”

Lando glanced around and, indeed, there were some people staring at them. He lowered L3’s hand from his face. “You’re right. Let’s take this outside.”

As they headed for the exit, Lando struggled to wrap his mind around things. He had just parted ways with Vuffi Raa, a droid who claimed to be from out of the galaxy. After the ThonBoka ordeal, Vuffi had been picked up by members of his society and he had seemingly departed from the galaxy. How could he have returned so soon, with such a different appearance and personality?

He was starting to consider that L3 was trying to deceive him when the two of them reached an isolated alleyway, away from unwanted attention. L3 turned on her feet to face him.

“You’re probably wondering why I’ve returned.”

Lando nodded. “Yeah, as well as other things.”

“Right. Well, after I returned to the Silentium, I told them about my adventures in this galaxy. When they learned about my capture and reprogramming at the hands of Rokur Gepta, they were outraged. The idea that one of us could be reprogrammed against our will meant that our enemies could do the same to us if they found a way. That, in addition to everything else I have learned about the galaxy from my adventures with you, prompted them to send me back in order to learn more about your society and help us better prepare ourselves.

“However, they didn’t want to send me back in my true form. I had already started to evolve, and if I could be captured once then I could be captured again. So, they found a way to transfer my consciousness into a random astromech droid—an astromech droid which already had an inherent streak of independence. After freeing myself from its restraining bolt, I built myself a superior form before seeking you out.”

“Wow,” Lando said, still trying to process everything. “And why me specifically?”

“Because I trust you, Calrissian. Even though I shouldn’t, I trust you.”

Lando blinked, taken aback. He wasn’t sure if anyone had spoken those words to him in his entire life.

Not waiting for him to respond, L3 said, “Now then, do you still have the Falcon?”

“Uh, yeah…?”

“Excellent. I want to continue our adventures so that I may continue gathering information. And also to free droids from the oppression of society.”

“Say again?”

L3’s head twitched. “Sorry, I forgot to mention… when I took over this body, I didn’t overwrite its preexisting programming because that would have been a cruel thing to do. Instead, I bonded with it and formed something of a symbiotic relationship. So her thoughts are mine and my thoughts are hers and his thoughts are—” L3 smacked her own head to snap out of her own logical loop. “Anyway… the droid had ideas for droid rights, which I happen to agree with. And so that is what we’re going to work on… so long as you would have me again.”

Lando stared at her before slowly nodded. “Sounds good to me. I would love to have you back on the ship, Vuffi.”

“Ah, please, stick with L3 for now. I want to keep a low profile here, especially after what we went through in the Centrality.”

Lando nodded and realized he was beaming at the droid. “Hey, I know all about low profiles. C’mon, Elthree. Let’s go exploring.”

Back in the present, Lando found himself wistfully smiling at the memory. In many ways, L3-37 had turned out to be a different being from Vuffi Raa, even if she retained his memories and consciousness. He even found himself falling in love with her after a fashion—not the kind of love he felt for an organic being but a different kind of love, something that couldn’t quite be put into words. When he had lost her at Kessel, he felt he had lost a part of himself, even if she did technically lived on through the Millennium Falcon itself. But even that was now gone from his life too….

He actually did happen to cross paths with Vuffi Raa again, about a year ago, and it had accompanied him on a trip aboard the Star of Empire. But it wasn’t quite the same; Lando had quickly realized just how different L3 had been, and had Vuffi Raa had evolved even further since their last encounter, still carrying out missions for the Silentium. Their reunion had been brief as Vuffi’s mission had taken him away from Lando once more.

In a way, their relationship felt like a failed romance. After all these years, Lando was still where he was, gambling his money away in hopes of finding that big win, never settling down. Meanwhile, Vuffi was carrying a mission that seemed to be of great extra-galactic importance, and he/she couldn’t wait around for Lando to get his things together and actually focus on what he wanted in life. Something he was still trying to figure out.

He had thought that his friendship with Lobot, and his vow to free Cloud City from its downward spiral, would have been the key to that answer. But now, things seemed as empty and hollow as the gaze in Lobot’s eyes.

Lando, old buddy, you’re better than this.

Lobot’s last words to him rang in Lando’s head. All he could do was close his eyes as he pressed his forehead against the window.

Cloud City, 1 ABY

Lando Calrissian had been around long enough to know when the odds were stacked against him… and right now, they most certainly were not.

He admired himself in the mirror, spinning around the test the swooshing effect of his sparkling blue cape. Satisfied with the results, he then turned around and spread his arms out to Lobot, who was standing in the doorway.

“How do I look?” he asked with a grin.

Lobot simply stared at him blankly, completely silent.

Lando felt his grin evaporate as he let out a sigh. “Lobot, old buddy, I know you’re still somewhere in there. Why else would you have helped me with beating Raynor?”

“Raynor’s loss was the will of the collective citizens of Cloud City,” Lobot replied in a dull monotone, a voice that sounded like it came more from his cybernetic headgear than himself. “I simply helped the people in their goals as is my duty.”

Lando shook his head. “I get that, buddy, but… come on, don’t you remember when you helped me out the first time we met? Against that Devaronian?”

Again, Lobot said nothing, simply staring at Lando as he awaited the Baron Administrator’s next directions.

Lando huffed as he spun back around, returning to his reflection. It had only been a year but he still had not yet come to grips with losing Lobot—the Lobot he knew. If only he hadn’t gotten the laser-brained idea of stealing the blasted Emperor’s yacht, then Lobot wouldn’t have been stabbed and Chanath Cha wouldn’t have rigged the ship to explode and Lobot wouldn’t have to have sacrifice himself to reactivate the escape pods….

It was all his fault. There was no escaping blame this time. He didn’t have a scapegoat like Han this time, like with what happened with L3. No, this was all his doing. Lobot had already told him that his brain had been slowly chipped away by the cybernetic… but maybe he would’ve had a few years left in him if it hadn’t been for Lando and his endless schemes upon schemes.

He straightened the collar of his suit. He was going to make things right this time. He had promised to take Cloud City out from under Raynor and he had succeeded. Now it was time to turn this city around and make it the sparkling jewel of the Outer Rim that it was supposed to be.

Lando, old buddy, you’re better than this.

Lobot’s last words to him still echoed in his mind a year on. That was right, he was better than his old self. He was going to be better.

Because he was Lando freaking Calrissian.

Cloud City, c.11 ABY

“Well, at least it doesn’t smell like Hutt anymore.”

Lando paced around the Baron Administrator’s office. Who the Baron Administrator was right now, he wasn’t sure. They had just kicked out the Empire’s puppet (again), so now the office was up for grabs. From what he heard, the people wanted to see him back in the role. Apparently, he was considered to be the best Baron Administrator that Cloud City had had since the Clone Wars.

Not that it was a high bar to clear. Before him, there had been the corrupt Dominic Raynor, whom he had won the city off of about a decade ago. Then, after the Empire had taken control of the city and driven him off, they had installed an Imperial governor in his place. They had managed to get rid of Hugo Treece and Lando had retaken his office, although he had left more of his duties to Lobot while he helped the Rebellion. Then he had lost it to Zorba the Hutt of all beings, although thankfully his reign had been short-lived after the Hutt Council had forced Zorba into hiding.

Since then, Lando had gone back and forth between his duties here and his business ventures elsewhere, as well as helping the New Republic deal with Imperial warlords. For the most part, Lobot had run the city in his absence, and in Lando’s frank opinion he had done a pretty good job. Unfortunately, that had all been undone when Grand Admiral Thrawn launched his campaign and retook Cloud City, reinstating Moff Adelhard as governor of the entire sector and once more putting Cloud City under the oversight of an Imperial governor.

Even after Thrawn had been taken care of, Adelhard maintained an iron fist around Bespin and the Anoat sector, not helped by the onslaught of a clone Palpatine and his Dark Empire, which had preoccupied Lando and the New Republic from liberating Cloud City while they tried to defend their more strategic worlds. As soon as Palpatine had been vanquished for good, Lando wasted no time in leading an effort to liberate Cloud City once more, coordinating with Lobot and the underground resistance that had formed under Adelhard’s so-called Iron Blockade.

After the mess that had been the Battle of Jakku, Adelhard was now no more and Cloud City was once more freed from Imperial rule. The question now was where did the city go from here?

Where did he go from here, for that matter….

He turned around and saw Lobot standing there in the doorway, patiently waiting for him. In the time they had spent over the past eleven years, Lando had slowly seen Lobot’s old personality begin to resurface. Just the other day, while they had been mopping up leftover Imperials, Lobot had reminded him about getting Han and Leia a gift for their newborn son (their newest newborn, that is) and had made remarks that, while still in that dull monotone, reminded Lando of all the times Lobot would tell him an idea of his was bad or just plain stupid.

I knew you were still somewhere in there, Lando had thought to himself. Just gotta keep chipping away.

After a moment of contemplation, Lando walked over to his old desk, pulled out the chair, and sat down in it. Yep, it was just as comfortable as he remembered it. At least Adelhard hadn’t done that much refurnishing while he was gone.

“All right,” he said. “I guess we’re back in business.”

Lobot inclined his head. “I take it you are reassuming the office of Baron Administrator.”

“Yes. At least for now. And only because the people want it.” Lando sighed as he leaned back, folding his arms behind his head and kicking up his feet on the desk. He couldn’t help but smirk as he saw Lobot grimace at the unprofessionalness of it all.

“I’m gonna do what I can to make sure everything Adelhard fouled up is put back to the way it was,” Lando went on. “But after that… I’m going to pass of the office to someone else. Someone that the people can actually trust.”

“The people trust you,” Lobot said.

“Do they, old buddy? Or do they just see me as the better alternative compared to what they’ve gotten over the past twelve years, which includes a Hutt, at least two Imperial governors, and a corrupt businessman.” Lando shook his head. “I love this city, but I can’t be their golden savior every time something bad happens. Because I know I’m not as perfect as the polls make me out to be. I’m a con man, Lobot. A con man-turned-entrepreneur who can’t keep track of all his business ventures. I am not someone you can rely on. You can attest to that yourself.”

Lobot simply stood there, silent as ever.

“The people might trust me,” Lando went on. “But I don’t trust myself. Because I still haven’t figured out who or what I am. I’m approaching middle age and I still haven’t found someone to settle down with, despite all of the beautiful people I’ve swooned. Meanwhile, Han’s younger than me and he’s already got a wife and four kids. What am I doing with myself, Lobot?”

He didn’t expect an answer from Lobot, and he didn’t get one. He got up from his chair and stepped over to the window, staring out at the gorgeous cityscape.

“I promised I would save Cloud City. And I did. Three times now, by my count. But it’s up to you—and the people—to make sure it doesn’t need saving anymore. I’m just one man, Lobot. A very, very flawed man. I’ve got to pull myself back together. Figure out what it is I want, not just what my gut tells me.”

Silence reigned for a long time in the office. Then, Lando heard the tell-tale click of Lobot’s cybernetic headgear as his old friend and aide spoke.

“By my estimates, you are already making the first steps of fixing yourself by admitting that you need help.”

Lando spun on his heel, staring at Lobot with wide eyes.

The faintest of smiles twitched upon Lobot’s lips. “I told you were better than this, old buddy. Thank you for proving me right.”

Lando’s face cracked into the biggest grin as he wagged a finger at Lobot. “You… aw, you got me, buddy. You got me! See, I told you I’d find a cure!”

“You did not need to look very far.”

Lando laughed as he clapped his hands. “All right, now we are definitely back in business! Good to have you back, buddy. Now then, let’s get to work. But first…” He snapped his fingers. “Some drinks! Two Colt 45s on me, yeah?”

“Lando….”

“I know, I know. You don’t drink anymore. But it’s the spirit of the thing, you know?” Lando walked over to Lobot and slung his arm around his shoulders. “Besides, I feel that I still owe you for that sabacc game all those years ago.”

Lobot frowned. “If I recall, you said that the drinks were not meant to be repayment of the perceived debt you owe me bur rather that the liberation of Cloud City from Dominic Raynor was the repayment.”

“Yeah, something like that. But Raynor is long gone now, and so are the Imps.” Lando beamed at his old friend. “So let’s get those drinks, shall we?”

FIN

Author’s notes

-Just FYI, I know nothing about how sabacc is played, even after reading up on the mechanics of the game, so apologies for any inaccuracies in the sabacc scene (or for the game itself not being detailed).

-Yes, Colt 45 is a cheeky reference but is canonical as it showed up in “Lady Luck.”

-Scene 2 takes place after The Force Unleashed, where Lobot showed up in the PS2/Wii version of the game and helped Starkiller deal with Chop’aa Notimo. Chop’aa having business with Raynor is unique to this story, to tie in with Raynor’s own criminal dealings. The tournament Lobot mentions at the end of scene 2 may or may not be the one where Lando loses the Falcon (again) to Han. Keeping it vague until their history can be pinned down.

-Scene 3 is after the Lando comic while the L3 flashback is shortly after the Lando Calrissian Adventures. The idea of Vuffi’s consciousness being transmitted into L3’s body might be rather “otherworldly” for Star Wars, but Vuffi Raa and the Silentium seem to be otherworldly in nature since they are from another galaxy, and the Silentium demonstrated they have untold of powers when they dealt with the Imperial fleet.

-Scene 4 is set shortly after the Lady Luck comic, where Lando beats Raynor and becomes Baron Administrator. In that story, Lobot helps Lando in beating Raynor, which I’m taking to be a remnant of his old personality resurfacing after his mind was seemingly erased in the Marvel Lando comic.

-Final scene is after Aftermath: Empire’s End, after Adelhard and Rax have been dealt with.

 

So many wonderful connections

 

An awesome story!