The only and last
Summary: She is the last one of the Jedi. Teresa knows it well. Her ancestors remind her of the fact again and again. OneShot. Luke, Mara, Teresa.
Warnings: A dark future lies ahead… Last chance to run.
Set: twenty-five years after "Fate of the Jedi", vol.1, ignoring whatever might have happened in the following volumes (Because I´ve only read the first one, until now)
Disclaimer: I don´t own Star Wars. All praise to George Lucas – and Timothy Zahn, for inventing my absolute favorite character.
In this future, the name Skywalker does not carry any significance to the people any more.
Teresa Skywalker is the only Jedi left, and she will be the last one. She knows it. Her ancestors remind her of the fact again and again.
-V-
Nobody knows how it happened.
Nobody knows why the Force has shut itself out against the pleas and the cries of its children. Nobody can tell when it actually happened – when it started that the Jedi went mad, were driven insane and started to die. First only few, then more and more. Not every Jedi, but the young ones, the promising ones, the future of the New Order. Teresa knows the story, because she has listened to someone telling it to her who has experienced it himself.
At first, Luke Skywalker would tell her, at first, the young ones fell sick. Then the elder ones, too. At one point, the entire order of Jedi was ill with a terrible sickness that drove them crazy, made them attack father and mother, made them fight their closest friends. The people started to be afraid. It grew into a full-fledged panic. And the last Jedi who were able to think rational made a decision.
Teresa knows what this decision meant.
It meant the destruction of the entire New Jedi Order.
-V-
She isn´t supposed to be here.
She doesn´t know why she survived, of all, or why she still is able to access the Force without falling sick and descending into insanity. There is not a single Jedi left besides her. They all died or where killed more than twenty years ago. For some reason, she has survived, for some reason, she is still alive. For some reason, the Force has left her be, hasn´t let her fall sick. For some reason, the Force has sent her guardians.
She was hidden, Mara told her, she was hidden in a ventilation tunnel and found by a pair of poor workers. Teresa cannot remember, but that´s no great wonder because she was mere months old. The workers took her in and raised her, and when her Force agilities manifested, they abandoned her, out of fear for their own lives. Teresa was left alone in the sewers of Coruscant. And there, Luke and Mara found her.
May the Force be with you.
Go away.
-V-
Since then, she has been trained by a Grand Master and a Master, and her skills show accordingly.
While Luke taught her control and understanding of the Force, Mara taught her whatever was necessary for survival. Combat and observation skills, how to rig explosives without having them explode in your face, how to scavenge for food, how to make a living. She has been living by herself from the age of five, but she never has been alone. It´s difficult to understand for people who aren´t Force-sensitive. If they were, they would see the two images that go wherever she goes. Most of the time, Teresa is glad no one else can see the two long-dead Jedi watching out for her.
-V-
She is Teresa Skywalker.
Daughter of the Skywalker Family, Mara calls her lovingly. They never told her who her parents were, though. Teresa cultivates her suspicions – from what she knows, there weren't many Skywalkers left by the time the Jedi Order was annihilated. But the two who have to know never tell her, and after some time, she gives up asking. It´s bad enough she has to ask herself if she really is a Skywalker. If she carries the name by right or merely due to the fact that it is the Skywalkers that are taking care of her. The Force runs strong in our family, Luke tells her and a soft gust of wind tussles her hair, as if he has touched her head. Yes, the Force. Whether she is a true Skywalker or not, there is no doubt that she is strong in the Force. And maybe, all those things do not really count. If Mara and Luke call her their daughter, their daughter she is. Still, that doesn´t help her to understand her role in the galactic flow of life.
-V-
She just doesn´t know what is expected of her.
She is just another Jedi, not old enough to be experienced enough, not strong enough to be of use. And, worse, she is the Jedi now. The last one. The only one. The people avoid her. Jedi are dangerous, they whisper. See what´s become of them. They call away their children when she walks past; they give her suspicious stares and a hard time when the only thing she is trying to do is to help. Because she is the last one, extra precautions have been taken by the Galactic Alliance. She is not allowed to carry a light saber openly. She is not allowed to investigate or help official institutions with whatever investigation. Personal freedom shouldn´t be restricted, not for any being, but she is dangerous, an abnormality. Most of the time, Teresa feels like she is used to it by now. Sometimes, it hurts, though. To see the people shy away from her, to feel their hostility, to watch them muttering and gossiping until she cannot stand it any longer. Mostly, she turns around and runs.
-V-
One of the things that helps her to stay sane is her name.
Even if it doesn´t bear the same weight as it once has, the name still carries a tiny meaning to the people. The Skywalkers. Grand Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and his son were among those who protected the people from the rushing wave of insane Jedi. From Luke, she knows that isn´t entirely true. I was killed shortly before, he has told her. Ben did most of the job. When he mentions his son, his eyes become distant. Mara reacts similarly. Sometimes, Teresa cannot help but feel envy at this man who is on his parents´ mind every minute, every second, every heart beat. He might be dead, but he never will be forgotten. He will never be alone.
-V-
There is no place for her left in this universe.
Some nights, Teresa wakes up screaming and terrified. In such nights, her life feels unbearable, her path impossible to walk. What can she do? She is just a simple Jedi. She hasn´t got the power to change the Galactic Alliance, to right the wrong, to protect the defenseless and to push the mighty off their throne. She is just a single woman, young in years but old in experience. Alone, she defies the system, alone, she tries to fulfill her destiny, alone, she walks the path laid out to her by the Force.
When she wakes up from one of those nightmares, having dreamt she was falling sick, feeling madness well up inside her, only they are there.
-V-
Her ancestors. Her teachers. Her parents.
Mara wraps her arms around her, the only mother she knows, Luke holds them both, offering quiet solace. There are times when she wishes them to hell, yes, because every daughter gets angry at her parents now and then. But most of the times when she knows exactly how much she needs them, and how thankful she is that they are here with her, that they don´t leave her. They can´t tell her which direction she has to go, but they walk with her.
-V-
Their presence is reassuring.
Teresa never asked them why they were there, why they did not seek the peace the Force grants but stayed here, in this world that doesn´t want and doesn´t need Jedi any longer. She fears the answer. Sometimes, she just watches them, sitting together in a corner of her – their – ship, the Sky Empress. Mara´s red and gold hair falls over Luke´s shoulder. His head rests right next to hers. For her, this is what the Force means: being one in her power, finding calmness and peace in each other. She´ll never have the opportunity to find her other half. She is cursed to walk the planets, to journey from one to the next, never finding peace, never settling down.
She has come a long way from the girl of the sewers of Coruscant to the person she is today.
May the Force be with you.
Go away.
Come with us, Teresa Skywalker.
You´re the only Jedi left, Teresa, you´re the last one in this universe.
-V-
This is your fate.
Her fate: To be the last one of an extinct species, to channel all the hate and the fear and the anger the people feel towards her kind, all the curses and suspicions and prejudices. She is here to receive all the last blessings and thanks older people, the ones who knew the Jedi when they were still on their highs, have to give. She is a punching bag and a diplomat, she is the sword and the mind and the memory of the Jedi, and yet she is nobody.
-V-
She is the judge and accused, advisor and criminal, protector and threat.
Whatever she does, it is criticized, and if she doesn´t react, she is condemned. Her light saber, bright purple, is a symbol of warning and safety, of hope and fear. Her face is forgotten as soon as she leaves the system. Her name is the only thing that stays behind, her name, and the whispered blessing and curse:
Jedi.
-V-
Skywalker.
She holds her head high and carries her name and her heritage proudly with the entire burden it brings with it. She takes in trouble and fear and anger and hopelessness and tries to return hope, peace, kindness, love - sense of being. This galaxy has given her nothing, and yet she will give everything she has. This is her way. This is the path of the Jedi.
-V-
The Force is drawing back.
Maybe it is no longer needed in this place. Maybe that is the reason why the Jedi have become extinct, why there is only one woman left to represent them. One woman and two ghosts, to images in the Force, always staying close to the child they have been protecting for so long. One day, they won´t be needed any more, and one day, Teresa will follow them, too. She´ll come to the place where all the others are waiting, to the place where she won´t be the last and only anymore.
-V-
The universe continues moving on. The time of the Jedi has come to an end.
Teresa looks up into the black sky and sees the kaleidoscope of colors that represents the future. One element has been taken away. But life continues to flow in its brilliance of colors and possibilities.
With her death, the Jedi will have fulfilled their purpose.