Luke felt his life slipping along with his heat into the cool ground. He had no illusions, no doubt that he would die. He accepted it, and all it meant. Perhaps it was death, and perhaps it was his acceptance of it that made him see everything so clearly in those last few moments. He answered the voice he had unknowingly blocked for months, for a lifetime. His father. "I love you." He whispered. He would never have the chance to tell him in person. Then he felt a tug which he'd known his whole life. He'd always thought it was normal; now he saw it for what it was. Leia. He called gently. Please stop crying. I love you. I love you so much. Good-bye. I'll see you when you fade, don't worry. We'll be together again. Oh Leia- One more left. Good-bye Han. This was harder. There was no telepathy to ease the thoughts along. "No kid!" He heard distantly. "Don't die on me! Please!" But it was too late. Luke winced. There was so little time left, but there was someone he'd forgotten. Good-bye Mara. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'll never marry you. We'll never have children. I'll never buy you that dress on Corellia, I'll never hear you tell me you love me. And I'm just so sorry. Then there was nothing. Only blackness. "Luke?" Leia said aloud. Riekann turned with a quizzical look. "No- Please! Oh, gods!" With a quick sob, she ran from the room "Princess Leia?" asked Riekann. He tried to stop the knot of loss in his chest. Skywalker, a good pilot, a Jedi, and a kinder person than any he'd ever met, was dead. And Leia knew it.
Luke? Leia called weakly to the ebbing life force. Luke, brother? BROTHER! She screamed inside, letting the force strong minds across the galaxy know her loss. She wept. She couldn't stop weeping. He was gone, and nothing would ever make that right.
Vader heard it, felt it. No! this can't happen! Not when he'd never heard his voice, never seen his child laugh. He was barely in his twenties, just a boy. He would have revenge. He would see the planet that had taken Luke's life in ashes. He heard a voice screaming across space. Loss, fury, abandonment pitched in a high cry of mourning. He tried instinctively to calm the speaker, but there was no result. Brother was repeated over and over in a mantra of defeat. He'd recognized it instantly as the mind of his daughter. This was the reason for her cries. She had lost a brother, no, it was more than that. She had lost a twin.
Father? asked the voice shakily. He sent back warmth and encouragement. Daughter. he acknowledged. Daddy? There was less calm now, and then there was no trace of it, and he struggled to soothe her. Come, get me. I am waiting. I need you. There was a pause. He's gone. He paused, unsure of how to answer. I know. He could feel his own loss join with hers. Then she was gone, and all he could hear was the echo of a cry.
Mara Jade stalked into the Imperial Throne Room. "Brother?" She asked simply. "Twin." Palpatine replied. Mara nodded. She knew that would cut deeply. Two force-sensitive twins, one left to feel the other die. It was unimaginable. "He's returning with her. I wouldn't be surprised if they raze the planet to the ground." "She's strong enough to join us?" Mara asked. "That message was from the Hoth sector, and she's had no training of any kind." Mara nodded with respect. If that awesome display was totally untrained, the full strength would be absolutely god-like. Truly her father's child. "Would Luke have the power to see the future?" She asked, attempting to be casual without success. "He was as strong as his father." Palpatine answered. Mara took that as a yes. "Did you get receive a message from Luke himself?" She asked again. "No." Palpatine said shortly. "I take it he spoke with you. How would he even know you?" Mara shook her head. "It was odd. He- apparently he had foreseen a future where we were married." At this Palpatine leaned foreword. Mara continued. "He said he was sorry we would never marry and have children. Sorry that he would never hear me say I loved him and I get the strangest feeling he knew what he was talking about." "There are many possible futures." Palpatine said thoughtfully. "Perhaps in the one he glimpsed, you were together. It's a shame he died. Now we'll never know. And what a waste of power. Forget him Mara, and don't mention it to Lord Vader or Princess Vader. The dead should stay so."
The Executor approached. Leia didn't need to be told, she could feel her father drawing near. She was faintly aware of the rocking of the base. Her door slid open, and Han barged in. "Princess... Look Princess, I know this is difficult for you, but we've got to leave. The fleet is coming. Leia..." To his surprise, she stood and smiled gently. The kind smile didn't reach the mourning in her dark eyes. She walked slowly to the smuggler, then hugged him softly. "I love you Han." She said faintly. "Now forget me. Don't look back. Find someone and settle down. I'm so sorry that someone can't be me. I treated you like I didn't care. I apologize, because I cared so much. He was my brother, Han.He was my brother." He took a step back, shocked. Then he pulled the princess into a firm kiss. "Come with me." He begged. "I can't. Someone else is coming for me. He needs me Han, as much as I need him. Oh, Han. This is the way it has to be. Promise me you'll always love me." Han's shoulder's shook. "I promise." With a last kiss and one more glance, he left. She knew she would never see him again.
Leia walked. She'd taken no belongings. They didn't seem to matter anymore. She slumped to the ground in the snow, drawing out the torch she'd shielded from the wind. She plucked Anikan's lightsaber from the body, and brought the flame closer. This was her only warmth, but her brother's body would be burned according to what she knew of ancient Jedi custom. She would die before she let anything else happen. Flames fought the wind, melting the snow. Soon there was a blaze that refused to die on the breath of the mightiest winds.
There was no way to tell how long Princess Leia Organa had sat in the snow protecting the flames. Vader felt her presence before he saw her. Her flowing white robes made her seem a natural extension of the snow covered land. Her skin was the unearthly white of death, but the chest rose and fell softly with breath. Her cheeks burned with small, tight circles of red, and her lips were flushed crimson. Brown hair was dark in against the snow, and eyes that had always gleamed darker than her hair were dead black. She tremored as the snow troopers stepped closer. Vader could see her body was wracked with shivers, and he quickened his steps. Without hesitation he removed his cloak and wrapped it around her. The ashes before them faded out of existence as the snow troopers gasped. She smiled. Luke was safe now with all the Jedi that had passed before them. She stood, and slowly turned towards her father. "What happens now?" She asked, voice so flat it was almost a statement. "You come home." She let out a sharp cry. "And where would that be?" She murmured. "Where ever we decide to go." He answered. She threw herself into her father's embrace, crying openly now. Soldiers stared in awe at this fragile, beautiful girl crying openly in their feared leader's arms as he whispered words of comfortstraight into the privacy of her mind.
She knelt before him, fastening her hands in a position of prayer. "I swear to serve thy bidding, and that of the Empire. I swear to avenge my brother and kill the Jedi who deceived us. I swear to up hold your name, to fulfill my destiny even when you are gone. All this I swear, as surely as I am your daughter." She was so formal, so afraid, actually doubting that her would accept her oath. The gasps that had sounded when she proclaimed herself his daughter amused him. Someone had spawned the beautiful child before them, and why not this man? Admittedly they appeared different, her a mountain of vulnerability, he a pillar of strength, but who was to say which of them was better? He touched her chin with a soft gauntlet of leather, pulling her up to her feet and raising her chin so that the dark eyes Amidala had given her faced his own concealed sky-blue orbs. "Never bow to me again, Princess Vader. We are equal." Those eyes shone now with the promise of the future. "Captain Solo informed me that Luke mentioned a Yoda in the Degobah System. Our next target?" He nodded. "And our last." She smiled wickedly, raising her father's sapphire blade. "The bastard is mine. You've killed so many, and this one belongs to me. No one keeps me from my family." "That's my little girl."
Obi Wan's fading specter watched in horror as the troops conducted their Lady, Princess Vader, onto the shuttle to the Executor, the killing ship bound for the last Jedi, where the child of the Chosen One would murder the last Jedi Master with the power of the dark side. The Empire would never be crushed now. And it was all his fault.