Author's Note: Here it is: the first of my planned rewrites. Technically, this is a part of my wider Rewrite of The Force Awakens, but an idea came to me for how I would have rewritten a part of The Last Jedi and I just couldn't sit on it. I hope I'll be able to finish it: it's, as you might have guessed, a story about the third lesson we never saw in the film and about a different backstory for Luke's exile and Kylo Ren's fall to the dark side. This chapter, part of my Force Awakens rewrite, is merely designed to set up that backstory. Enjoy ^^.
The Feeling of Responsibility
The Millennium Falcon,
Hyperspace,
34 ABY
The map unfolded from the little droid's photoreceptor, the holographic projection englobing the Millennium Falcon's stateroom. But the beautiful image was not perfect; worlds were distorted or missing names, others overlapped one another, and coordinates for hyperlanes were jumbled and often unreadable. Some systems were easily recognizable, but most were completely unknown, whether by name, by location or even by its key characteristics.
Han Solo was not a learned man by any stretch. Anything that didn't include smuggling, shipping, racing, mechanics and the occasional rebellion was a mystery to him. How many times had he and Leia spent going over complicated issues relating to the various worlds and systems who had, or wanted to, become a part of the New Republic. Leia's own knowledge of the history, culture and politics of such issues had been uncanny, and Han had done his best to be attentive.
Well, he'd made an effort.
But one thing he did know was galactic geography. Not by academic interest, but necessity. Being a smuggler, a racer and the owner of a shipping company (not to mention one of the leader of a galaxy-wide rebellion against the Empire) had made it important to know the best ways to get from one destination to another, how to get it done, and which were the best, fastest and (occasionally) slowest ways.
But not even he recognized this part of the galaxy. Regardless of the missing information.
"This map has been damaged," he told the young stowaways he had taken aboard his ship. "Even if someone wanted to use it, they wouldn't be able to unless they knew these places. And I doubt there are very many who do."
"Then the map is useless," said Finn, the young dark man who carried a secret. Han had seen that about him; he didn't know what secret, although he suspected. Few these days knew galactic history as well as he did. Or, more specifically, few knew the history of the Rebellion as well as he did. Or that Han had once been a part of it. The New Republic might have been born of the Rebel Alliance, but many within it had come to reject that past in favour of compromises and politics. Its early history was an inconvenience to it, and nothing dulled memory like decades-long peace.
"Not necessarily," the former Rebel said. "If someone has time, patience and the resources, it would be possible to rebuild the map. But few beings have such resources."
"The First Order does." Such certainty, Han thought.
"I'm sure." So did the New Republic. Maybe a few of the fortress worlds, and even elements among the crime syndicates. At the height of their power, the Hutts would have undoubtably had such capacities, but they had become a shadow of their past glory since Jabba's death thirty years prior. Since then, the underworld had become less uniform, as crime syndicates rose and fell, or remained but never large enough to claim any real power. A few had managed to hold onto power despite the Republic's campaign to root them out, such as the Black Sun. But they wouldn't waste such resources on trying to find a man who hadn't been a threat to them in decades. But who knew who else might be willing to track down this map.
"And this map will fetch a high price in some circles. Even since Luke disappeared, people have been looking for him. Not all of them friendly."
Rey and Finn turned their attention back to the smuggler. They were eager to hear more about Skywalker, a being that they had both heard about. Finn had been taught that the Last Jedi was the epitome of what the galaxy had disintegrated into: one that had spurned the progress and security brought by the Empire and returned to the insidious ways of sorcery that both the Sith and the Jedi had brought into being, or the corrupt practices of the Republics.
Rey had heard the stories of the one who had defeated the Empire single-handedly, killing the tyrannical Emperor and the sorcerer Darth Vader; the same stories had said that the Emperor had merely been a weak old man and that Vader had been the true ruler of the Empire, maintaining the frail Palpatine merely as a convenient misdirect. Others said the Emperor kept Vader around because he had powers that allowed him to prolong his life. Some even suggested that the Emperor himself had possessed powers. But all the stories said that Skywalker had been the one to defeat them both, the one who had destroyed the supposed Death Stars and defeated the Imperial fleet single-handedly with nothing but a laser sword and his powers at the Battle of Jakku.
Regardless, both wanted to know more, and here they had a man who had known Skywalker. Not as myth, but as a man. Perhaps even as a friend.
"Why did he leave?" Rey was the first who dared to ask a question.
Han sighed as he looked at the map without seeing it. He was remembering back; the difficult years of the Rebellion that had given him a family, the peace that had followed and how his family had thrived while being imperceptibly stretched further and further away from itself. And the moment when everything had changed, and their family had been broken. Han had lost his wife, his brother… and so much more.
Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to speak of those times that still had the power to cause him pain. "We were so sure that there was nothing we couldn't have overcome. After the Emperor was defeated, we thought the galaxy would by free and safe. The New Republic was born and would not repeat the mistakes of the past."
He paused a while before continuing. "Luke was training a new generation of Jedi. There was no one left to do it, so he took the burden on himself. For a time, it seemed all would be as it once was." He scoffed. "We should've known better. The First Order was on the rise, seemingly out of nowhere. It had become powerful in a blink as former Republic worlds, nostalgic of the Empire, joined it. The Republic didn't want another war. So, they sued for peace, guaranteeing to 'preserve' the First Order's integrity as long as it didn't try to expand by force. They agreed to the terms. The 'False Peace', many call it. And maybe they're right. And the price we paid for it..."
A well of emotion threatened to rise in him, but Han shoved it back down. He wouldn't break down in front of these… kids.
"The First Order demanded something more: no resurrection of the Jedi. And the Republic agreed to it. They destroyed it all, everything Luke had worked for since the Empire was defeated: betrayed; by the very government he had helped create. After the death of his…" a slight choke up made him pause for an instant. "… his students, Luke felt responsible. So, he just… walked away, from everything."
Silence met the end of his declaration. He had started pacing aimlessly, looking at worlds without seeing them, trying to shake away the emotions that were welling up inside him. Emotions he had spent years trying to deal with.
"Do you know what happened to him?" Finn asked in an even voice, one that surprised even him. It wasn't the story that had touched him: it was how Han was telling it; it held none of the clinical veneer of the First Order's dissection of galactic history.
Han shrugged. "A lot of rumours, but mostly stories. Thousands of them are out there. But the people who knew him best believe he went on a personal quest, searching for the first Jedi temple. But whether that's true or not…"
"The Jedi were real?!" an amazed voice asked behind him. Rey had been listening intently as Han told his story and, from the moment he mentioned the Jedi, she had been watching him in wonder. In a single day, the stories of her youth had become real.
Han smiled slightly as he heard it. "Use to wonder about that myself. Thought it was just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo; a magical power holding together good and evil, the dark side and the light. But the crazy thing is…" he finally turned to watch the two young people he had unwittingly brought into this life, much as he had been himself long ago. "… it's true. The Force, the Jedi; all of it: it's all true."
