New Destiny: Rise of Hope

Chapter 1: The Best Laid Plans

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Star Wars or any of its characters. I barely own the plot of this story as in mirrors in some ways the plot of the first movie only with a few changes. I do own the original Skywalker children and a few other characters that you will see.

A/N: There have been some major changes for the better in the galaxy far, far away. But one thing hasn't changed; Palpatine has still managed to rise to power even with the best efforts of our heroes to stop him. Can the Rebel Alliance along with Anakin Skywalker's Jedi Remnant save the galaxy from Palpatine's tyranny?

"Nice try Galen," Luke Skywalker laughed as he parried his opponent's attack.

Galen Marek, his face dripping with sweat from the heat provided by Tatooine's twin suns more than the exertion of energy he was putting into the practice match, returned his sparring partner's wide smile "I'll get you for sure this time Luke," he promised.

In spite of Galen's confidence it wasn't more than another minute before Luke had disarmed his friend and the wooden sword that Galen had been using snapped in half "I got you again!" Luke decreed as he jumped in the air.

Galen fixed his compatriot with a half stern look "You know what Master Skywalker would say about that," he remarked, trying to keep the smile out of his voice "That is not the behavior of a true Jedi."

Luke threw his head back and laughed "I've seen Dad relish a victory like that once or twice."

"Then perhaps it was me he was thinking of," a new voice echoed through the courtyard and both young men turned to see Obi-Wan Kenobi enter.

Luke and Galen cheerfully waved before rushing to greet their friend and mentor. It was Luke who spoke first "Have you heard any news from Leia or Mara?" he asked.

Galen piped in with a question of his own "Has the Alliance heard from Juno yet?"

"No to both of those questions, I'm afraid," Obi-Wan shook his head sadly. Of course Luke would be desperately worried about his sister and his dear friend. Obi-Wan was worried himself. It was a dangerous assignment that the two young women had taken on, attempting to gather information about support for the Alliance in the Imperial Senate.

Captain Juno Eclipse was another matter entirely. Galen had run into her, quite accidentally, shortly before he and Luke had come to stay on Tatooine. He had been her prisoner for nearly two weeks while she attempted to come to some decision of what to do with him. As for the details of what happened to make Juno release him, Galen had never been quite clear on them. But he assured the other members of the Jedi Remnant that she could be trusted and had been waiting eagerly for news that she had made contact and officially defected from the Empire.

"Boys, boys, boys," Mina Kenobi, a slender twenty one year old who embodied the most pleasing physical characteristics of her mother, Siri Tachi, and her father, Obi-Wan, walked into the courtyard "Leia and Mara can take care of themselves. As for that Imp pilot you keep going on about," she huffed at Galen before noticing the wooden swords lying on the ground "Who won?" she asked, only half interested.

Galen half shrugged as he gestured in Luke's direction. "'Imp' pilot Mina?" he asked in a clearly agitated tone "You've been spending too much time in Anchorhead listening to Biggs Darklighter."

Mina placed her hands on her hips "You know very well Galen that Biggs has been gone for the past three months fighting for the Alliance and I can't wait until I get the chance to join him. I'm sick of waiting around on this rock." She turned and left the courtyard in a huff.

Obi-Wan sighed "I should have let her join her mother when she had the chance to go a few weeks ago," he lamented "Four Jedi aren't required to watch over your uncle, aunt and grandmother."

"I believe I'm being spoken of," Shmi Skywalker popper her head out from the main building and smiled "Why Obi-Wan, what a pleasure it is to see you today."

Of course Shmi saw Obi-Wan and Mina practically every day and had for the past six months. The excuse to watch over Shmi, Owen and Beru was only a minor part of Anakin's overall strategy. The Jedi Remnant was growing in the Force as the children grew older and their skills increased. Tatooine was far enough out of the way that hopefully a few Force sensitive presences would go unnoticed long enough for Leia and Mara to complete their mission.

Anakin had successfully fooled the Emperor into thinking that he and Padmé, along with their unborn child, had been dead for the past nineteen years. He wasn't ready to tip his hand to Palpatine just yet. The longer that Palpatine believed that Anakin was dead the better chance the Alliance had of success.

"Oh Luke," Shim said, turning to her grandson "Owen said that he wants to go pick up a couple of new droids tomorrow. Will you go with him? I don't want him spending money on any duds like he did last time."

"Sure grandma," Luke agreed.

Shmi turned back to Obi-Wan "Why don't you and Mina join us for some afternoon refreshment?" she offered politely.

Mina suddenly appeared in the courtyard once again "Did someone say refreshment?"

Luke and Galen couldn't help laughing.

XXX

"We know we can count on the support of all nonhuman-controlled worlds," Leia said as she rechecked the information on her datapad while she sat beside Mara in the copilot's seat of the ship that her unofficial Godfather, Bail Organa had loaned them for their business "And it seems that there are factions on Corulag and Commenor. Not to mention Naboo, Aunt Sola said that she's working on convincing Queen Kylantha to supply the Alliance with a safe haven if needed."

"Shh," Mara cut in sharply, grabbing Leia by her left bicep and squeezing hard as she looked back into the rest of the ship beyond the cockpit. "You don't want someone to hear you admitting that Sola Naberrie is your aunt," she warned in a harsh whisper "Bail Organa is the only one who knows who we really are."

Leia nodded and continued looking through the datapad "And we can count on Tatooine of course."

"Come to think of it," Mara said, taking the datapad from her and stowing it in a secret compartment beneath the piloting console "Best not to read those planet names out loud. You never know who could be an Imperial Spy."

Leia threw her head back and laughed lightly "You're too paranoid," she told Mara "Our mission's nearly complete. What could possibly go wrong?"

"I really wish you hadn't said that," Mara murmured. They had dropped out of hyperspace at the correct place and nothing seemed out of place accept that the comm. suddenly came alive with a shouting, garbled distress signal.

"Its broadcasting on an Alliance frequency," Leia reached forward and pushed the switch on the comm. before Mara could stop her "Alliance ship, this is Leia Skywalker aboard the Alderaanian ship Tantive IV, how may we assist you?"

There was silence "Tantive IV," a voice shouted over the dim of others who were clearly in panic "Prepare to receive transmission. Make sure that this information reaches Bail Organa on Alderaan."

Leia barely had time to respond when a large data transmission began coming through. No sooner had it finished sending than the comm. went dead. "Alliance ship!" Leia screamed into the comm. "This is Tantive IV! Please respond!" nothing but static came through.

Mara was looking ahead through the viewport in utter shock. Leia hadn't bothered to look up but now she did. She saw the debris field that was all that was left of the unidentified Alliance ship. But that hadn't been what had Mara so stunned into silence. Coming through the debris field straight at them was the Executor, the personal ship of Darth Tyranus.

"Mara, power up the hyperdrive," Leia commanded her friend in a wavering voice.

"Don't you think I've tried that?" the redhead retorted in a tone that was half bitter and half fear "They've got a gravity well projector active. Sublight engines only."

Leia could tell that they would soon be overtaken by the Super Star Destroyer. Whatever the data transmission had been, it was important to the Empire to keep it out of Alliance hands, which meant that it was important for her to make sure that it reached those very hands. She left Mara with barely more than a reassuring squeeze of her friend's shoulder before retrieving her datapad and running to where Artoo and Threepio were.

They were just on the edge of the Tatoo system and if the Force was with them just a little longer they might make it to Tatooine just in time to make sure that the plans were no longer aboard when Tyranus arrived.

On her way to the compartment where the droids were she glanced briefly at the plans. They were for a battlestation and from the looks of it, a particularly nasty one. This was definitely something that the Alliance needed to know about. She found Artoo just as Mara's voice came over the internal comm. "Gunners to your stations. We've got a fight on our hands."

XXX

Luke was staring up through his electo-binoculars. He could feel Mara and Leia's presence up there. Tension and anxiety that had been building in his gut for months now was finally beginning to release itself. They were alright and they were coming to the rendezvous point. In a split second though his gut tied back into multiple knots.

He had found the source of the familiar presences. It was a ship, a decent sized ship, Corellian make, he supposed. And it was firing lasers at a much larger target. He increased magnification on the electro-binoculars and gaped at the name on the larger ship's bow "No," he whispered to himself.

Leia, he called to his sister through the Force. She wasn't as strong in the Force as he but when he called to her she could hear him and sometimes was able to respond. Either because of the great distance that separated the siblings or because of what Leia seemed to be focusing all of her attention on at that moment, there was no reply.

Luke decided to try a different approach. Mara, he called out to the redhead that he was almost sure was piloting the all but doomed ship

Uh, can't talk right now! her voice shouted in his head as aggravated as he could ever remember her sounding, a fact which almost made him smile A little bit busy trying not to die!

Mara, it's him, Luke told her.

I know that, she snapped back at him.

You can't fight him, not just the two of you, his heart was sinking as he thought about what would happen to his sister and friend if they were captured.

Mara seemed focused on something else for a few moments, something other than her conversation with Luke or piloting the ship. When she finally responded, her tone sounded exactly the way Luke felt. We won't fight him, don't worry. We're being boarded now. We're gonna give ourselves up and hope for the best.

Mara! Luke shouted.

Settle down Farmboy, she teased him with the name she'd used since the plan to send him and Galen to Tatooine had been announced. Expect a package from Leia.

Luke was about to ask what the package was when a heavy darkness clamped down on his link to Mara. He could still feel hers and Leia's presences in the Force but it was like a thick fog was keeping him from reaching out to them. He knew that Tyranus had them.

XXX

Anakin and Padmé were on the Alliance's latest base with their other three children and other members of the Jedi Remnant. Caden, their second born son, who had only recently turned eighteen, was sparring with Yurie. The two teenagers danced around the floor of the expansive room in the Massassi Temple while onlookers gaped in appreciation of their skills, even if they were only using wooden swords instead of lightsabers. Anakin smiled in approval. He knew that almost all the new generation of Jedi found the wooden swords to be tedious but he had laid down the rule about this long ago. Real lightsabers were saved for special matches with Masters and proper supervision.

Padmé vacillated between watching Caden and Yurie duel and reprimanding Zayn, their youngest child who was trying with little success to slice his way into the Alliance computer system and assign himself to one of the starfighter squadrons. Zayn, who unlike Leia, had no abilities in the Force whatsoever, had wanted to be a pilot ever since Anakin could remember, but then again, so had Luke and so had Caden and Yurie.

Leia of course, was her mother's daughter and had been interested in politics and affecting change in the galaxy that way since she'd been knee high to an Ewok. Leia showed potential in the Force, great potential but would not agree to training. Anakin was sure that if she would allow him to give her just a few lessons that she would make an amazing Jedi Knight one day. But Padmé had reminded him that it was not his decision which path their daughter took in life.

Suddenly Anakin felt something that unsettled him. He felt the surges of emotion from his two oldest children. Luke was downright horrified and feeling helpless. Anakin tried to reach out to his son to reassure him but he was stopped by the fear and urgency that pulsed through the Force from Leia. He focused on that fear and tried to determine what the source of it was. In his mind's eye a large hulking ship's hull appeared. The name on the side read Executor. He cursed under his breath before noticing that Padmé, his other children, the rest of the Jedi Remnant and most of the Alliance members assembled in the room were staring at him.

"Anakin?" Padmé was tense as she spoke "What is it?"

Anakin spoke one word but that word carried so much meaning for him and Padmé; though the being who belonged to that name hadn't answered to it in many years "Dooku."

A/N: Well, that's the first chapter. Let me know what you think. I tried writing a story like this once before but I was missing a few key components. One was that I tried too hard to explain everything that happened between ROTS and ANH in too much detail so I've decided to start off with my version of ANH and explain things that happened in the past as they come up. Another key was that I was relying too much on OCs. With a better understanding that I feel I have gathered for the characters I feel that I won't need to rely too heavily on OCs this time. The last component and perhaps the most important one is Galen Marek.