Author's Note: The first few paragraphs are taken directly from the Return of the Jedi novelisation by James Kahn, and the official script itself; everything afterward is my own creation. Oh, and I don't own anything Star Wars-wise, George Lucas and Lucasfilm Ltd do.

If you're not familiar with the Infinities graphic novels, they essentially provide a "what if?" scenario for the Star Wars Expanded Universe, similar to that of Star Trek's Myriad Universes. This tale takes place from the end of Return of the Jedi, and continues through the New Republic and New Jedi Order eras of the Expanded Universe.

This is rating M just to make sure, as I'm really just making this up as I go along lol but if you believe I'm not keeping to established characterisations, or just wish to offer ideas, please don't hesitate to pm me :D Also on that note, the Dramatis Personae will probably change a few times by the end of this lol

ENJOY!

Dramatis Personae

Ackbar - Admiral, New Republic (male Mon Calamari)
Anakin Solo - Force Sensitive (male Human)
Borsk Fey'lya - Bothawui Senator, New Republic (male Bothan)
C-3PO (Protocol Droid)
Chewbacca - Co-pilot, Millennium Falcon (male Wookiee)
Corran Horn - Pilot, Rogue Squadron (male Human)
Darth Sidious - Dark Lord of the Sith (male Human)
Darth Vader - Dark Lord of the Sith (male Human)
Elegos A'Kla - Caamas Senator, New Republic (male Caamasi)
Garm Bel Iblis - General, New Republic (male Human)
Gilad Pellaeon - Captain, Galactic Empire (male Human)
Han Solo - General, New Republic (male Human)
Isolder - Hapan Prince (male Human)
Jacen Solo - Force Sensitive (male Human)
Jagged Fel - Pilot (male Human)
Jaina Solo - Force Sensitive (female Human)
Lando Calrissian - General, New Republic (male Human)
Leia Organa Solo - Alderaan Senator, New Republic (female Human)
Lowbacca - Force Sensitive (male Wookiee)
Luke Skywalker - Jedi Knight (male Human)
Lumiya - Sith Apprentice (female Human)
Mara Jade - Emperor's Hand (female Human)
Mitth'raw'nuruodo - Grand Admiral, Galactic Empire (male Chiss)
Mon Mothma - New Republic Chief of State (female Human)
Nom Anor - Rhommamool Senator, New Republic (male Yuuzhan Vong)
Pooja Naberrie - Naboo Senator, New Republic (female Human)
R2-D2 (Astromech Droid)
Ta'a Chume - Hapan Queen Mother (female Human)
Wedge Antilles - Pilot, Rogue Squadron (male Human)

Historian's Note

This tale takes place during the Rebel assault on the Death Star II, and continues on from 4 ABY - approximately 31 ABY, two years after the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War.

PROLOGUE

DEATH STAR II, IN ORBIT OF THE FOREST MOON OF ENDOR

Darth Vader threw his scintillating crimson blade, and it sliced through the supports holding up the gantry on which his Jedi son, Luke Skywalker, was perched, and Vader used the Force to return his lightsabre to his artificial hand. Luke tumbled to the deck, the rolled down another level under the tilting platform. In the shadow of the darkened overhang, he was out of sight. Vader paced the area like a Nexu, seeking the boy; but he wouldn't enter the shadows of the overhang - he was too wary for that.

"You cannot hide forever, Luke," he said menacingly.

"I will not fight you."

Vader felt his intentions increasingly ambiguous in this conflict; the purity of his evil was being compromised. The boy was clever indeed - Vader knew he must move with extreme caution now.

Now, as the boy continued to pull the Force tightly around him, Vader was picking up additional feelings, new crosscurrents of doubt. Remorse, regret, abandonment. Shades of pain. But somehow not directly related to Vader. To others, to ... Endor. Ah, that was it - the Sanctuary Moon where the boy's friends would soon die. Luke would learn soon enough that friendship was different on the Dark Side. A different thing altogether.

Vader attempted to turn his son again. "Give yourself to the Dark Side. It is the only way you can save your friends. Yes, your thoughts betray you. Your feelings for them are strong, especially for...sister!"

Could it be true? Was he the father of two Jedi children? Mon Mothma was too old, and Shira Brie was believed to be dead by the Rebels, so that left only Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. Could she be...? But Vader had met with her several times, and never had he sensed any Force potential within her. Yes, she may have been unusually resistant to torture aboard the first Death Star. Yes, she may have been able to defend herself, however foolishly, with a lightsabre in the Temple of Pomojema. But none of that meant the Princess was Force sensitive. Did it?

"So, you have a twin sister. Your feelings have now betrayed her too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me - now his failure is complete.

"If you will not turn to the Dark Side, then perhaps she will."

"Never!" Luke screamed, igniting his own green lightsabre and hurling himself at Vader in a fit of hatred. His father's last taunt had pushed him over the edge, and his blood was rushing through his body.

The gladiators battled fiercely, sparks flying from the clash of their radiant weapons, but it was soon evident that the advantage was all Luke's. And he was pressing it. They locked lightsabres, body to body. When Luke pushed Vader back to break the clinch, the Dark Lord hit his bead on an overhanging beam in the cramped space. He stumbled backward even farther, out of the low-hanging area. Luke pursued him relentlessly.

Blow upon blow, Luke forced Vader to retreat - back, onto the bridge that crossed the vast, seemingly bottomless shaft to the power core. Each stroke of Luke's sabre pummeled Vader, like accusations, like screams, like shards of hate.

The Dark Lord was driven to his knees. He raised his blade to block yet another onslaught - and Luke slashed Vader's right whand off at the wrist. The hand, along with bits of metal, wires, and electronic devices, clattered uselessly away while Vader's lightsabre tumbled over the edge of the span, into the endless shaft below, without a trace.

Luke stared at his father's twitching, severed, mechanical hand - and then at his own black-gloved artificial part - and realised suddenly just how much he'd become like his father. Like the man he hated.

Trembling, he stood above Vader, the point of his glowing blade at the Dark Lord's throat. He wanted to destroy this thing of Darkness, this thing that was once his father, this thing that was ... him. But he couldn't do it - something in him, a deep-seated part of him, stayed Luke's hand, and he deactivated his weapon.

Suddenly, the Emperor was there, looking on, cackling with uncontrollable, pleased agitation. "Good! Your hate has made you powerful. Now fulfill your destiny and take your father's place at my side!"

Luke stood tall, stared Emperor Palpatine in the eye, and made his decision. "Never. I'll never turn to the Dark Side. You've failed, Your Highness; I am a Jedi, like my father before me," he stated, and re-ignited his lightsabre. "You cannot win."

Palpatine stared at him in utter rage, his yellow-red eyes boring deep into Luke's soul. "So be it. Jedi." He raised his arms, and Force-lightning sprand forth, on a trajectory for Luke's head.

Luke caught the lightning with his lightsabre; the sheer force from the assault almost drove him to his knees. The hate was swelling in his chest, in his heart, and he knew what he had to do. Luke clenched his teeth, and leapt over the Emperor's Force attack.

Vader had felt rather than saw his son leap at the Emperor, brandishing his green blade with a vengeange unlike anything he'd seen or heard of since the end of Order 66. Surely the boy knew that it was pointless - in the words of an ally Vader had reconstructed long ago, he was doomed. Palpatine had now stopped firing the Force lightning, and was relying on his own lightsabre skills, honed from over half a century of training.

Vader looked around his master's chamber. The only way out was in the elevator, and so Vader used the Force to pry open the door. The Emperor would destroy Luke Skywalker in mind, body, and soul, and then Vader would finally kill his master and take the title of Dark Lord of the Sith for his own. The time to do that, however, was not now; it was too soon, and the Imperial forces would lose control of the battle raging in orbit.

Vader pulled himself up off of his feet, and stepped into the elevator, casting one final look toward his Sith master, and his son. To kill Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader could wait until the opportune moment.

As the door closed and the elevator descended to the command center, Vader grinned.

SHIELD GENERATOR BUNKER, FOREST MOON OF ENDOR

"Okay, that's the last of 'em," said General Han Solo, having set the final exlosive charge that would cause the bunker to detonate. "Let's get outta here before this thing blows!"

Han, Leia Organa, Chewbacca, and half a dozen other Rebels fled toward the exit, retracing their steps until sunlight glared out from the outside world.

The fighting, though spread out for hundreds of metres around them, could only be heard through the forest; the only stormtroopers in sight were the ones lying on the ground, dead. The Rebels sprinted away from the bunker as fast as they could, only stopping at around two hundred metres away before the inevitable blast arrived. The destruction was total; the plasteel shorn away from the ground by the magnitude of the explosion inside. The blast was fierce enough to warrant Han to shield his eyes.

Moments after the blast had subsided, Han and Chewie looked up to see the bunker in ruins. Flora that had been unlucky enough to be too close to the explosion had taken the brunt; many were still aflame. "Leia?" Han called.

"I'm here, Han," replied the Princess, not ten metres away in the underbrush. A few twigs and fallen leaves had buried themselves within her brunette hair, and apparently this way humourous to Han as he snorted loudly enough for Leia to hear. "Got a bug up your nose, General Solo?" she asked sarcastically. A stray blaster bolt whizzed past her head, forcing her to throw herself to the ground in caution, and she grunted when she accidentally put weight on her shoulder burn. Han had his trusty DL-44 blaster in hand; Chewie his traditional Wookiee bowcaster.

When more blaster fire burned through the air above their heads, Chewie aimed and fired a full spread of fire toward the apparent source of the shooting. Several yelps could be heard in the undergrowth, and Chewie howled in satisfaction. Han made a face as if he were hurt. "Coulda' saved some for me, Chewie."

[What do you expect?] grunted Chewie. [I'm a Wookiee, and they tried to shoot me. They got what was coming to them.]

ALLIANCE FREIGHTER MILLENNIUM FALCON, BATTLE OF ENDOR

"The shield is down - commence attack on the Death Star's main reactor!"

Admiral Ackbar's command was relayed through the Millennium Falcon's comm system, and heard by General Lando Calrissian, his co-pilot Commander Nien Nunb, and two other Rebels whose names Lando couldn't bring to mind. "We're on our way," he replied. "Red Group, Gold Group, all fighters follow me!" He and Nien laughed in exultation. "Told you they'd do it!"

When a flurry of acknowledgements flooded in, Lando recalled that flying had never been quite this fun.

DEATH STAR II, IN ORBIT OF THE FOREST MOON OF ENDOR

Sidious hadn't had the luck to face a Jedi in lightsabre combat in several years, and he knew, through the Force, that young Skywalker - the son of his own Sith Apprentice no less - had the potential to destroy him. And so Sidious would use all his power, all his might, to annihilate the foolish Jedi Knight who had chosen to face him. Obi-Wan Kenobi couldn't have been Skywalker's only teacher; his Soresu wasn't refined enough, too sloppy. Instead, the boy assumed postures more akin to that of Ataru - and Kenobi wasn't known to have used Form V during all the time Sidious had known him, over two decades previous. No, Skywalker had had another to instruct him. And that elevated Sidious' hatred, and his fury.

Skywalker had already made several attempts to decapitate or disarm him, his Consular's green-hued blade creating a show of light. Sidious' own crimson blade met the Jedi's, and the two blade created a symphany of light, with the vacuum of space the only audience. Sidious was well aware Vader had fled minutes earlier, and that was a failure the Dark Lord would not let by without punishment.

"You are a fool, Skywalker," Sidious said, taunting the young Jedi to greater rage.

"You cannot destroy me, Palpatine! I will not be corrupted as easily as my father!" retorted Skywalker.

The Jedi's lightsabre flashed less than an inch to the left of Sidious' nose, and the Sith Lord easily blocked the attack. "If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed!"

And with that, Sidious let out a burst of pure Force energy, pushing Skywalker back and into the air, as he flailed whimsically the Jedi hit the deck har. The boy slumped there, unconscious. Sidious' mouth created a toothed smile, one of pure and utter malice, warning of a malignant force against which none could reckon.

This was one extermination Sidious would savour for the rest of his existence.

FOREST MOON OF ENDOR

A chill swept through Leia, as if a brutally cold wind had rushed at her and engulfed her entire body. Something's wrong.

Leia was aware of Han talking to her about the prisoners, of Ewoks hurrying to get the damaged R2-D2 toward their village, of C-3PO scurrying after them. But she couldn't shake the blurry image of an evil force drawing toward her, threatening to overcome her defences, to overwhelm her mind and destroy her soul. She felt fuzzy, as if she were sleeping, or sprawled unconscious. Her emotions felt almost malignant, almost made her want to vomit, but she stayed with it, somehow knowing, in her heart, that she was seeing the end of the one final connection to her biological mother.

"...not going to be wanting them back any time soon," Han was saying. "In any event, we can get Ackbar to send down a couple of shuttles to haul them up to the Home One to await trial when that eye-sore in the sky has gone ka-blooey. Or maybe Chewie and me'll use them for target practice. After we're finished with Threepio, of course-"

"Han."

"But Goldenrod'll just have to get used to it, and hopefully Luke will find a permanent use for him when we-"

"Han!"

Han's face whipped round toward hers, and Leia saw concern in his wonderful dark eyes. Before he said anything, the Princess told him, "Luke's in trouble, he's not going to make it."

"You're imagining things. There's no way you could possibly know what's going on up there on that station, you're not like Luke; you don't have his gifts."

"No, Han," said Leia. "I do." She took his hand in hers. "He's my brother."

DEATH STAR II, IN ORBIT OF THE FOREST MOON OF ENDOR

The rage poured through Luke in waves that almost lost him in the current of the Force. He slashed right - Palpatine parried. The Emperor then made to hack at Luke's legs, to take them off at the thighs, but Luke was too fast for the Sith Lord. In less than three seconds, Luke blocked the next series of flurries, then somersaulted over the Dark Lord, before burning through the handle of his weapon and bisecting Palatine lengthways through the stomach in one move.

The Emperor, his brain still active, cackled. "You did well, Luke. A powerful Sith you will become. I foresee that the Jedi will fall."

Luke, enraged ever further, stabbed his blade through the Sith's head. "And you talk too much, old man."

With one final breath, Emperor Palpatine, galactic tyrant and Dark Lord of the Sith, fell silent.

ALLIANCE FREIGHTER MILLENNIUM FALCON, BATTLE OF ENDOR

A quintet of TIE fighter squadrons chased the Falcon and its' B-Wing, V-Wing, X-Wing, and Y-Wing escorts above the outer hull of the Death Star, pushing the Rebels to greater speed, to greater need. Lando was so immersed in the flying that he almost flew straight into a communications tower. Passing the tower, he let out a silent sigh, while Nien looked at him, mouth agape.

"Don't you dare say it. I am not getting old."

Nien swiftly repied that he wasn't going to say it - only thinking about saying it.

Before Lando could come back with a retort of his own, Wedge Antilles' voice came over the comm. "I'm going in." Lando saw Wedge's X-Wing juke up and spin hard to port, before entering the target shaft. "Here goes nothing," said Lando, before performing the same manoeuvre and having the Falcon enter the shaft. Behind them, half a dozen X-Wings follow, with several TIEs following, firing at the Rebels continuously.

Lando activated the comm. "Now lock on to the strongest power source; it should be the power generator."

They flew kilometres deeper into the Death Star's interior, TIE fighters shooting at them all the while. Wedge reported, "Form up, and stay alert. We could run out of space real fast."

The Falcon took a direct hit to the starboard mandible, but still Lando managed to keep the old YT-1300 in control. Up ahead, the shaft was beginning to become less wide, forcing the Rebels to form up into single file. An emergency shaft became visible a kilometre infront. "Split up and head back to the surface," Lando spoke into the comm. "See if you can get a few of those TIE fighters to follow you."

"Copy, Gold Leader," replied one of the pilots, who immediately carried out Lando's order, followed by two others. Unfortunately, only three TIEs made to tail them back into open space.

Up ahead, the shaft narrowed violently, and it took all of Lando's skills as a pilot to keep the Falcon from blasting itself into a million pieces. The same, however, couldn't be said about the freighter's sensor rectenna; the sound of its' being wrenched off the hull reverberated around the Falcon's interior. Lando locked eyes with Nien. "That was too close."

ALLIANCE FLAGSHIP HOME ONE, BATTLE OF ENDOR

Ackbar had seen too much action, too many battles, in the last five years to believe that this was going to become a victory for the Alliance. But in his heart, Ackbar knew that the Rebellion was counting on him to outwit the Imperial forces. And that meant the fighters, each no larger than the portion of the Home One's bridge Ackbar currently occupied, all had to make the run into the shaft and hit the core. The Millennium Falcon and several X-Wings were already en-route, and would reach the target in under a minute. Unfortunately, the Super Star Destroyer Exectutor, Darth Vader's flagship, was holding position above the shaft in order to pick off the fighters when they returned to the surface. The Executor was also blocking the Home One's only route of escape, should the gargantuan battle station blow.

"We've got to give those fighters more time. Concentrate all fire on that Super Star Destroyer." Ackbar's order was acknowledged throughout the fleet, and at least seven Rebel warships laid down fire upon the Super Star Destroyer.

Moments later, Ackbar spotted an A-Wing, damaged and out of control, skimming across the surface of the Executor, and as the Mon Calamari watched, the Rebel fighter smashed straight into the SSD's main bridge in a plume of smoke and pyrotechnics. Soon after, the SSD began to swerve to port, and down, toward the surface of the Death Star. Ackbar, and the rest of the Home One's command crew, stood and watched with baited breath as the SSD was engulfed in flames kilometres high.

HANGAR BAY 40012, DEATH STAR II, IN ORBIT OF THE FOREST MOON OF ENDOR

In one of the Death Star's many hangar bays, Luke rushed toward an unmanned Imperial shuttle and up the boarding gantry. Outside the shuttle, Luke could hear explosions, which he took to mean that the Rebel attack on the station had succeeded - which in turn meant that the Rebels had disabled the shield bunker down on Endor.

Which meant that Luke's twin sister was still alive. He knew would have to speak with her soon, in the next couple of days at least, about his experiences at the hands of Darth Vader and the Emperor. But would he have the strength to tell Leia that Vader - their father - had escaped to fight another die? And how could he possibly tell his sister that he'd struck the Emperor down in hate; that Palpatine had taunted him and goaded him, and he'd succumbed to the lust of the Dark Side?

DEATH STAR II MAIN POWER CORE

The Falcon, led by Wedge's X-Wing, entered the cavernous core that powered the immense battle station. Ahead of them, Lando saw, was the huge reactor core that, under the Emperor's direct orders, had destroyed over a dozen of the Rebels' ships. "There it is!" exclaimed Wedge over the comm.

"All right, Wedge," said Lando. "Go for the power regulator on the north tower."

"Copy, Gold Leader. I'm already on my way out."

Suddenly, before Wedge could fire a volley of photons at the reactor, several TIE Interceptors swarmed out from the shaft behind the Falcon and proceeded to shoot the X-Wing off-course. "Gold Leader, I can't get a lock." Wedge's astromech screamed over the comm. "My starboard stabiliser's been hit, I'm no good to-" Static filled the transmission.

"Wedge?" Lando asked, before Nien pointed out a brief flash of an explosion on the reactor. There was no sign of Wedge's fighter. "Wedge, old buddy, please tell me that wasn't you."

As Lando swung the Falcon around the critically damaged reactor core, dodging and jinking through further enemy fire, he launched a volley of concussion missiles and sped back toward the shaft. Behind the Falcon, a massive wave of fire followed and threatened to out-manoeuvre the YT.

"Come on, baby, you can do it," Lando mumbled to the Falcon, in the hope of coaxing the freighter to greater speed. Moments later, the fire overtook the Falcon, and the temperature in the cockpit began to swell, though the Falcon shot out of the shaft and away from the Death Star to rendezvous with the remains of the Alliance fleet.

Over the comm, Admiral Ackbar ordered, "Move the fleet away from the Death Star." On the sensors, Lando noticed a lone shuttle rushing away from the Death Star, but he decided to let it go; Ackbar would no doubt capture it before too long. Right now, though, Lando really wanted to just kick the Falcon into reverse and watch as the Death Star was blown from here to Lehon, but, as it was, they were far too close - the shockwave would rip the Falcon to shreds before Lando could say "may the Force be with us."

FOREST MOON OF ENDOR

High in the sky, Leia saw the fireball that was, not two seconds ago, the Death Star. All around her, Ewoks and Rebels, Wookiees and droids roared with celebration. Leia heard Threepio exclaim "They did it!", and she saw Wicket, the young Ewok who'd found her after a lengthy speederbike chase through the forest, climb on top of Threepio, stand on his shoulders, and cry out in glee.

She could feel her brother coming closer, away from the lasting remnants of the explosion, but there was something profoundly different about him that Leia couldn't pin down. It was almost like a deadweight, as if a chronic illness had clung desperately to Luke's body.

Han crept up beside her, his eyes scouring the sky above. "I'm sure Luke wasn't on that thing when it blew," he said, evidently attempting to comfort the woman he loved if the worst were to happen.

"He wasn't, I can feel it," Leia explained. Han's face became questioning, and Leia just waved him off. "It's nothing, just a gift." Except for Leia, the 'gift' was a double-edged sword; while she was glad that she finally knew Luke was her brother (she felt a pang of guilt over the duo of kisses they'd shared last year prior to the Battle of Hoth), she also wanted to wretch from the knowledge that Darth Vader, the...thing...that had tortured her, tortured Han, had forced her to stand by as her home planet was annihilated in front of her eyes, was her biological father. But Luke was returning from that horrid place was in the sky, so she had to assume that Vader - and the Emperor - was now dead.

Leia wanted to embrace Han, to take his lips to hers, but the coldness she felt emanating from Luke distracted her. She would ask him about it sometime after he got back, but she wouldn't let him brush it under the rug; this was something Luke needed to talk about, and Leia was his sister. If he couldn't trust her with it, then she was just going to have to find a way to get it out of him.