WHO: Luke & Leia WHAT: Leia was given lightsaber parts (partner thread gift) and she's uncertain WHERE: Hanging around near the lake. WHEN: Backdated to July 1st RATING: Low.
Leia hadn’t known ‘gifts’ or rather items immediately recognisable from an individual’s homeworld could arrive at any time here - the fact they were personalised, she couldn’t help but find unnerving, that suggested a certain level of sentience from ..what, the powers that be on this world? Terrifying.
She just didn’t understand. But, for now, her focus was on the wooden box she had been sent and getting it out of her hands - she’d contacted both Ben, and Luke and made some effort to appear unaware or at least a little dumb, as to why she might have recieved the parts, and peices required for constructing a lightsaber; of course she’d never constructed one, nor seen one being built, and she had been educated well enough to recognise the items within the box for what they where. Lightsabers were among the most recognisable weapons in the galaxy.
But she didn’t want one. She wasn’t going to be a Jedi.
Yes. She was training in the use of the Force, for one - to learn some of what she was capable of, to have a measure of control, and two she meant to appease General Kenobi - her father respected him so greatly, and spoken of him so highly; when Ben had asked if she would learn, she could hardly refuse. The pain he obviously felt at the fall of his apprentice and losing a friend in Padme tugged enough at her heart, she wondered if accepting his offer might help him heal in some measure.
With the weather nice enough, sun shining, she’d asked Luke to join her by the lake to come collect the box, so Leia took a seat in the shade nearby. The weathered and old looking box clutched close, she set it in her lap as she waited to spot him.
Luke knew immediately what Leia had received when she described it. He had no idea where it had come from though. He had been given their father’s lightsaber by Ben and had lost it (along with his hand) on Bespin. Then he’d built one himself so whose lightsaber could this be? Unless Anakin had had more than one but the only one that he knew of was the red bladed one he’d seen one too many times, the sign of a Sith Lord. He couldn’t imagine why anyone would send that to either of them or where they would have gotten it. This then must be something entirely different.
He left Artoo at the little house they’d been staying in, connected to the battery that Leia had found. It seemed to be working just fine for now which was a relief. The little droid was proving to be quite helpful around town. He spotted his sister sitting by the lake and paused for a moment to reach out to her with the Force. She was confused by this, he could tell and a little bit frightened and he couldn’t blame her. He had the same feelings and he was more than a little curious about this box.
When he got closer to her, he called her name and then went to sit next to her. “So that’s it, huh?” he indicated the box. “The box looks really old. I can’t imagine who could have sent it, I was trying to figure that out on the way over here.
“It does.” Leia gave him a confused sort of shrug, a hint of bemusement in her expression. “Or ..if it belonged to someone else first.” She added to his thoughts, in a lower, worried sort of tone. “I don’t know how it works really- if items are sent to us ..or this place- summons them.” She gave Luke a look as if to illustrate how disturbing that really was, as if there was something sentient behind it all.
“I guess it doesn’t really matter who it’s for.” She dismissed, drumming on the box with a little nervous energy of sorts, gaze flicking between him and the item in her hands. “I wanted you to have it anyway-” She offered the box up, without opening, they’d already discussed what was inside earlier. “I think it’s better to see it put to some kind of use here, when we’re so limited.”
“I’m not sure how that works either,” he admitted. “It does seem strange that it should show up here.” he took the box from her and raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think it’s meant for me. They sent it to you and I already have a lightsaber. I remember when I was reading Ben’s journals and learned how to make a lightsaber, it said that there was a connection between the crystal and the person building it. Since the Empire destroyed all the places that minded Kyber crystals as far as we know, the one that I have is synthetic. I had to meditate with it to find that connection.”
Luke opened the box and looked inside. There was nothing remarkable about the crystal, it was clear, not green, so perhaps it was an actual Kyber crystal but that would be very odd. There was only one person that he knew of that had a Kyber crystal and wasn’t a Jedi. That person had been dead for many years. “This is crazy and probably not true but you remember the Rogue one mission? There was a legend that Jyn Erso had a Kyber crystal that she wore around her neck, it had been given to her by her mother. She wasn’t a Jedi, neither of them were but there were Force believers at that time and they had a church. But Jyn died when the Death Star destroyed Scarif so the crystal would have melted or broken, it couldn’t have possibly survived and even if it had, it wouldn’t be in a box of light saber parts.” Although he did wish that it was that crystal. It had been years after Scarif before anyone expect the highest ranking people in the Rebel Alliance knew the names of the people who took part in that mission. In order to honor their memories, he and Wedge had renamed their fighter squadron “Rogue Squadron.”
Leia knew it was for her, without too much deep thought, it had appeared in her room, after all. But if Natasha’s goat was in better hands now, so this item could be too.
“I remember.” Leia gave a tight sort of smile, the name and anything associated with the Rogue One mission was a weighty matter, not that many lives hadn’t bravely been lost before and after their mission - but their sacrifice was so significant to the survival of the Rebel Alliance, and when she learned of it, she couldn’t help but feel the weight of the loss, on her end of it, her mission had failed. Even if the end goal, the destruction of the Death Star had been accomplished. Not before it could destroy Alderaan. “I didn’t know about the crystal-” She almost, at this feels a little foolish too. “And I didn’t ..realise that was where you’d gotten the name.”
There was something about Luke’s reflection that was sweet, despite the sadness attached to that mission. Leave it to him, of course, as confusing as this already was, it was a small reminder she was lucky to have him here.
“Who knows.” She mused softly, looking at the kyber more intensely now, but not touching it, gently shifting the box as she did. “This place has the ability to resurrect people- it ..very well could be.” That tended to hint near limitless possibilities, really.
“All the more reason it needs to be kept in- the right hands.” Leia said rather promptly, with an air of finality in her tone as she closed the lid again. “Don’t you agree?” She pressed, that probably wasn’t really a question.
“I think it is in the right hands,” he said quietly. “You don’t have to train to be a Jedi, Leia, not if you don’t want to but it wouldn’t hurt to learn more about the Force. We have a bond, you already know that, I’m sure it comes from being twins and from what I know all Force users have some kind of bond but the strength varies.” Luke could communicate with Ben and he remembered the things that Mara had told him about the Emperor and her bond with him even though he couldn’t make sense of that one. “I can help you build it or if you don’t want to build a lightsaber with it, just keep it. That crystal might be the last real one left for all we know. When everything is cleaned up and planets are liberated, maybe they’ll find some more sources but here and now, it’s the only one.”
He paused and looked out over the lake, framing his words carefully. “I know it’s been hard for you, finding out that you’re Vader’s daughter. I didn’t want to believe it when I found out and I was more upset than anything that Ben and Yoda kept it from me although now I see why they did. I needed to choose my own path and so do you,” he looked over at her. “I saw him at the end and you didn’t so it’s hard for you to think about him being redeemed. Even for me, I’ve had times when I’ve wondered what would have happened if he hadn’t died. Would he have stayed on the Light Path? I tell myself that he would but the truth is that I don’t know. I saw his Force Ghost at the bonfire on Endor which seems to say that he did cross over but there’s so much about the Force that I don’t understand, that no one really understands I imagine. What I’m trying to say is that I get it. I understand your reluctance,” he took her hand. “And I’ll support you in whatever decision you make. You told me once that we all had to choose our own path, no one could choose it for us. That’s what you told me when we thought Han was leaving Yavin and wasn’t doing to help us but he came back. So even if you don’t want to do it now, you still can, there’s time.”
Leia turned quiet, and though her gaze was more directed to the ground, it wasn’t the body language of someone in avoidance, just in thought, silent reflection. She made certain to turn her gaze to him, show she was listening, taking it in, a sad sort of smile twitching at her lips at mention of Han - she can remember, despite her words she too, hoped he’d come back.
She could leave it now, she could say nothing more on the matter of training, or Vader or any of it. Tell Luke that she wanted to leave the items with him for the time being. But, he was trying to understand, wanting to understand.
“It wouldn’t make a difference.” Leia voiced finally, shaking her head slowly and taking a breath in. “Vader. It wouldn’t have made a difference what I saw.” She reiterated, and there was an edge to her voice, that made it clear she was certain, set and ..she always intended to be so. She understood what Luke was trying to offer, and how his experience had shown him, what he’d wanted, or needed to see. “After everything he’s done-” The anger still rose in her voice now, and she made every effort not to focus on it, cutting her words short.
Leia’s grip squeezed his. It wasn’t about challenging him, she wanted to simply accept what he felt, even if she didn’t agree and couldn’t understand. “When you told me I was your sister, it was as if a part of me- something that had been missing for as long as I could remember, had come back.” Like she’d always known, the feeling had surprised her - she hadn’t even needed to let it sink it, or comprehend it. Luke was her brother.
“You’re my family.” The last thing Leia would want, would be for Luke to think, in some way- their connection, through blood, through Vader, meant that her feelings for him, were somehow tainted. “And- you’re right, this connection we have, the Force ..is important. I want to understand it.” Leia knows now it must’ve been what helped her to find him, on Bespin, how she knew he’d survived the explosion of the second Death Star. “But- I’m not sure I’ll ever be a Jedi.”
Luke understood her feelings, if he had seen his whole world destroyed, gone through some of the things she’d gone through at Vader’s hands, he would feel the same way. “When Vader told me that he was my father, I didn’t want to believe it,” he said quietly. “I wished so hard that it wasn’t true and when I went to Dagobah to confront Yoda and then Ben’s ghost came and told me the story, even then I wasn’t sure I believed it. But then he told me about you and that I accepted. I don’t even know how I knew that you’d hear me when I reached out to you on Bespin. It just came to me all of a sudden to call out to you and you’d come.” He looked into her eyes. “I don’t expect you to forgive our father, I don’t expect you to. Who knows if he would have actually stayed on the Light Side if he had lived? We have no way of knowing that and honestly? Part of me is skeptical about that. The Dark Side is strong and I’ve come closer to it than I would like.”
He paused for a moment and took a deep breath, centering himself before he continued. “You don’t have to become a Jedi if you don’t want to. To understand our connection and how it works though, we both need to study more about the Force. Having a lightsaber doesn’t make you a Jedi either. You can use one and not be sensitive to the Force. Han used mine on Hoth to put my tauntaun out of her misery and we both know he wants no part of the Force,” Luke grinned. “But you can still make it, you can have it, there’s no guarantee that this place is as safe as it seems. You might need a weapon one day and I don’t know about you but I’d be more comfortable with something that I understood than these things that people call guns.”
His words did encourage warmth from Leia as he was sure to echo the sentiment, that the connection they had, and the fact they now had one another was something good to come from the situation. “He took so much from you too.” She wanted to acknowledge, not in an effort to change his mind, or convince him Vader wasn’t worthy of redemption, but that she did understand his suffering, and it was no less. But as she reflected; she didn’t just mean his hand, or Obi-Wan, or anything Luke had lost at their father’s hand. “I wish my mother and father could have met you. You could have seen Alderaan- and how beautiful it was.” She noted, as if the thought had only just come across her. Had her parents even know of her true heritage, or that she’d had a twin brother? She hadn’t dwelled on such thoughts back home, there simply wasn’t time to dwell and mourn what was lost, or more she didn’t allow it of herself when they were so close to ending the war.
But this world was different, there was nothing but spare time, short of scavenging for supplies, or meeting with others from the community; here stray thoughts came too easily.
Luke posed the idea as merely an object of defense, of something that could be a tool to protect herself and others. Han, he posed as an example and the thought brought a smile to her lips, however much she missed him. “I wonder what he’d have to say about all this.” She noted as a side thought - what he’d have said if she told him she was discovering the Force, and considering wielding a lightsaber. Leia sighed; she really hadn’t made any allowances for being lovesick. “and if he ever turns up- don’t you dare tell him I said that.” Wanting Han Solo’s opinion might never shut him up.
“It would be useful- you’re right.” Leia knew her own nature, the anger that fuelled her, her feelings on Vader were nothing short of hatred, and she’d be the first to admit it. “I used to beg my father for stories of the Jedi, and General Kenobi as a child- he’d always indulge me.” It was all so noble and heroic, her smile faded as she went on. “But- you said yourself, the Dark Side is strong.” Leia’s not certain it’s really, that she truly believes she or Luke could fall to that part, but she voices it all the same. “It’s part of Vader’s legacy too?”
“Anyone can fall to the Dark Side but I believe that some are more susceptible than others. From what Ben has told me, our father felt things very strongly, he was an emotional man and I don’t mean that to say he was weak, we both know that he was anything but,” Luke wondered for a moment what Anakin Skywalker would have been like had he not fallen, if he had gone on to become a Jedi Master. Then again if he had done that, he and Leia would never had been born. “But his greatest fear was losing our mother so the Emperor played on that. Ben said that he believed joining the Dark Side could somehow give him the power to save our mother from dying, he’d bee dreaming that she died while having us although no one knew that there were two of us until it happened.”
Luke paused and looked out over the lake. “So maybe it is a part of us but we know his story and we know what the Dark Side can do, we won’t let it happen to each other. I promise you that,” he reached out and took his sister’s hand. “When I was on Dagobah I was tested, I had to face my greatest fear and Yoda tried to warn me against giving into anger when I saw what I believed was Darth Vader coming out of a cave in a tree. I struck him down and when the mask faded away, it was my face inside it.” It had been a terrible revelation and it had shaken him to the core. “So I know that it could happen to me, to anyone if we give in to our anger, our fear, our hate. It’s natural to want to strike down what hurts us but it’s not always for the best.” He made a face. “And yes I know I sound all philosophical but I’m not. I don’t know what choices I would make if the time came when I had to make a choice. I know Yoda and Ben didn’t necessarily agree with me going to Bespin to rescue all of you but i think they knew that I would find out the truth. I guess they didn’t want me to know until they thought I was ready to hear it but I don’t know that I would ever have been ready to hear it.”
“It almost sounds human.” She admits dully. Love for someone, wanting to save them. For Vader it was enough to drive him to commit any act he possibly could to ensure their mother lived. But he didn’t end up human, and he tore apart far more lives, and destroyed far more families in his path, more than just his own.
He chose the Dark Side, perhaps with a noble cause at first. Leia wouldn’t readily admit how ruthless her thoughts could become in her desperation to see the Empire destroyed. But that wasn’t the same.
She chose not to linger on it, and held Luke’s hand all the tighter, listening as he spoke of Dagobah, and the haunting vision he’d had there, it didn’t sound possible, but then again, to her matters of the Force still seemed a power she’d never really understand, not like Luke did. “I wonder what would’ve happened if you hadn’t come for us?” She shook her head, supposing it wasn’t really worth contemplating too deeply, either way it’d all gone so horribly, and for a moment Leia thought she’d lost both of them.
“But I think you’re right, for what it’s worth- how could you have ever been ready for something like that? How could anyone?” She was the only one who understood, their feelings might be different, might reflect different experiences, but learning Vader was their father? They at least had one another through it.
“And it’s right, that you were the one to face him.” She reflects, her eyes narrowing as she tries to put herself in the place, faced with Vader, an opportunity to end everything. “I think- that it gave you more than it ever could have given me.” Leia can’t imagine what’d she’d really have felt at the notion of ‘good’ in him. Simply the same thing she thought now, it was too late. His turn would not bring back anything she or the rest of the galaxy had lost. “When you told me you were going to face him, all I cared about was you. I didn’t want to lose you.” And that the brother she’d only just learned of was going, and be destroyed by him. She’d begged him to run away.
“So, perhaps that’s why it’s best you hold on to this until I ask.” She decided with a sigh, as if the lightsaber, the weapon itself was a little more representative of the more aggressive side of the Force. And she wanted to feel more comfortable within this power, first. “But I’ll keep training, with you and Ben- I’ll learn more about the Force, and how to use it. Surely it’s more than meditation?” She half-teased, as if trying to lighten matters a little.
“I’ll let you in on a secret. The meditation part was what I hated the most. It was boring and I thought being a Jedi was about fighting...but you have to do the other things too. To learn how to control yourself. It’s hard to make yourself do it though.” He’d gotten better at it over time but he still wasn’t crazy about it although some days he was grateful for it. “And I’ll keep it until you’re ready. There are plenty of things you can do before getting to his point. But….I hate to say this but maybe be careful with Starkiller. Something about him. I don’t know what it is but he Feels…...different. Maybe because he’s from a time way before us, but I don’t quite trust him.”
“I’d always hated those sort of lessons in school. Languages, history- I prefered combat training.” It was strange, in a way to discover so late in the game the similarities they shared, the sort of lessons they seemed eager to take over others.
“Thank you- I know it’s in safe hands-” Luke’s conversation turned to Starkiller, and Leia’s expression grew a little darker, a frown on her lips. She seemed uncertain, unsure - but not afraid as she thought on what he’d said.
“He’s unstable.” Leia decided, though she was never going to take being told to take care particularly well, even if it was advice from a concerned brother and came from a place of love. “But nothing to be particularly threatened by. I’d call him immature, childish before I’d call him dangerous.” Or perhaps Leia was simply putting up the front she preferred to, not let something like this get to her. “I’ve faced worse- so have you.” Plus he’d responded to her by stealing her food and pouring his drink on her, as opposed to truly threatening. It was that point she knew she had nothing to fear.
“But- ..he’s Vader’s apprentice.” She was only learning about that somewhat gradually. “Did you know anything about that?”
“Apprentice? No, I didn’t know that. I know very little about the Sith but my training was so fractured, much of what I know I learned for myself after Ben died, and what he told me after Yoda’s death. I suppose it’s possible they didn’t even know,” he paused for a moment, choosing his words carefully. “What strikes me as odd is that he completely ignores me. It’s as if I didn’t exist yet, ho can he not sense me? And I don’t mean that in an arrogant way at all.. I could sense the presence of Force users when I got here but the only one I could identify for certain was you which makes sense because of our twin bond. So is he choosing to pretend I don’t exist? I certainly have no desire to follow in our father’s footsteps, even when he offered it to me, I said no because that’s not the path I want to take.”
He sat for a moment, looking toward the water but seeing something long past. Could City, Vader’s revelation, it still troubled him even though he knew that his father had turned at the end. “Maybe Ben can explain it. I haven’t talked to him about it, I’m sure he knows that he’s here and probably knows more than me which considering I know nothing,” he gave a little grin. “Means he knows a lot.”
“It’s possible no one did- it does seem that way.” Leia mused, brows furrowing at the thought, though she had wondered if Luke had been able to pick anything up in his encounters with Vader. She doesn’t know enough about the timeline of the Sith.
“Maybe he’s scared of what he’d learn?” Leia could only shrug, helplessly. From what she’d witnessed and learned so far herself, he was blinded by much of what was more programming than teachings - but if anything she would have thought Luke could be the one to better reach him than other, though she’d wonder what the news of Vader turning toward the light would mean, it wasn’t something she’d spoken to the man about. But if it would make a difference, Luke would be the one to tell it, surely? “He seems somewhat arrogant that his understanding of the Force is superior- as a Sith.” Technically compared to the little she knew, it was - however, she got the feeling that the felt the Darkside, being a Sith, brought one to embrace the Force more powerfully than a Jedi could. That had been her first impression anyway, it was more complex than that the more she learned, though she suspected it could colour is attitude toward Jedi and reaching out to any of them.
“But you’re right, talk to Ben- he might have a better understanding of it.” Leia wished she had more to say to him, or could help him to understand why, but she didn’t herself. But, really she had settled what she’d wanted to, which was ensuring Luke took care of the lightsaber for her, until she felt somewhat more ready. “Come on- how about we home via Coffee?” So the shop wasn’t on the way, but it felt like the time for a hot drink of somesort.