Alternatives
A Star Wars Fanfic
Luke Skywalker flew his StealthX fighter towards the Jedi Coalition fleet in orbit nearby. His niece, Jaina, and his son, Ben, joined him in fighters of their own. The Millennium Falcon was also nearby, with Han Solo and his wife Leia on board. Their mission was a grim one. They were off to confront his nephew, Jacen- or as he was calling himself now, Darth Caedus- above the planet Roche. As he punched in the hyperspace coordinates, there was complete silence. No one really wanted to speak on the subject of their common family member who had turned to the dark side, so no one did. But still, thoughts of him loomed within all their minds, and they could all feel it through the Force.
Luke and the others had received a vision through the Force just an hour earlier, showing them that Caedus would be near Roche that day. Deciding that it was an opportunity they could not waste, they had begun planning the attack immediately. Now the fleet began moving into position, and the nav-computers had been programmed to take them to Roche. Soon the stars around them were melting into lines of light, and then waves, as they made the jump into hyperspace.
Luke tried to keep his thoughts from straying too much as he watched the waves of light go past. He tried to slow his breathing, attempting to slip into a meditative state. He hoped to gain some form of guidance, insight, anything that would help him in the coming conflict. Unfortunately, his concentration was broken when a huge shockwave shook his fighter, causing the instruments to go wild. He frantically tried to regain control of his ship, yelling into his comlink, "Jaina! Ben! Can you hear me? Something's wrong with my ship!"
"Mine too!" Jaina responded, and he heard Ben and Han start to reply as well when all of a sudden the shaking stopped. The instruments also normalized. There was a very brief silence, and then everyone started asking questions. Jaina's voice was the loudest; "Calm down, everyone! We need to figure out what that was. Should we come out of hyperspace here?"
Luke listened to her, and replied, "Jaina's right. We should probably stop and check our ships for damage. Everyone end your jump on my mark…"
Darth Caedus stood on the bridge of his flagship, the Anakin Solo. He considered the vision he had received just an hour previously. In it, he had seen the planet Roche, wreathed in light. He took it as a sign to mean that he should look there for some new power, some way to bring about some greater good. Now his crew was setting a course for the planet.
He was snapped out of his reminiscing by one of the members of his crew approaching him for a report. "What is it?" The Sith Lord demanded.
"We're making the jump to hyperspace, sir," The crewman said.
"Is that all?" Caedus asked.
"Yes, sir." The crewman seemed more than a little nervous as he walked back to the control center. Caedus watched him go, then moved his gaze to the windows as they made the jump. He was just slipping back into the pattern of his ruminations when there was a great shudder that swept throughout the ship. Alarms sounded from every direction, and over them he shouted, "What is going on?! Damage report, now!"
"We have no idea, sir! The ship is just going haywire! We're-" By the second to last word, the shaking had stopped, and the crewman realized he no longer needed to yell. Lowering his voice, he continued, "…we… we were trying to stabilize the ship… but it would seem there is no need for that now."
Caedus looked out the viewport, watching the streaks of light pass by. "Bring us out of hyperspace. I want a full damage report in twenty minutes. I want to know exactly what caused that, and what is wrong with my ship." On his command, the streaks once again became points, and they found themselves in completely unfamiliar territory.
As Luke and the others came out of hyperspace, it became immediately clear that something was off. Despite the fact that all their other instruments were working perfectly fine, their star-charts were completely blank. Those of them who were Force-sensitive also immediately noticed something… different. They could feel it, subtly yet undeniably.
The next clue they got was the voice over their comlink, one that sounded strangely familiar. "Unidentified vessels, this is New Republic command post THX-1138. Please state your identity and affiliation immediately."
Luke felt a wave of confusion through the Force. None of them had ever heard of that outpost. He decided to speak up first. "This is Master Luke Skywalker of the Jedi Council. Request permission to land, command post THX-1138."
There was a short silence from the other end. Then the voice came back on the line. "I'm sorry, but that's impossible… Luke is in the other room, training Rey. Now please, tell us who you really are, and we will decide whether or not you can land."
He felt another wave of confusion. "I repeat, this is Master Luke Skywalker of the Jedi Council. May I ask who I'm speaking to?"
"This is Leia Organa of the New Republic."
Luke's mind was still reeling as he vaguely heard Leia's voice- his Leia's voice- over the comlink, saying, "Excuse me, I think you're mistaken. I'm Leia Organa Solo, and I order you to let us land at once!"
"Leia, calm down!" Luke interjected. "Now, Leia… the other Leia… Please just let us land, and we can all figure this out together, ok?" He felt a little guilty for adding in some Force mind-influence to his plea, but it seemed to work well enough.
"Fine," The other Leia said. "You have permission to land in docking bay C-16. As soon as you do, I will lead a greeting party to join you, and we can find out what's going on here."
Darth Caedus' first encounter with the First Order was even messier than Luke's initial meeting with the New Republic.
As soon as they came out of hyperspace, they were set upon by several squadrons of TIE fighters. The fighters began firing at them, and as soon as Caedus saw this he gave the order to return fire. The turbolasers went off several times, and soon a large number of the attacking forces had been blown to smithereens. Of course, they weren't the only attacking forces; soon they came within scanning range of a large star destroyer. As they did, one of the crewmen gave a report; "Sir, we've picked up a capital ship on our scanners. It's hailing us now, but… sir, it's not identifying as an Imperial Remnant ship."
Darth Caedus mulled this over for a few seconds. "Patch them through," He said. Soon one of the nearby viewscreens showed a man in a black mask and robes. Caedus reached out in the Force, searching for the figure he was observing on the screen. He found the presence fairly quickly; the man seemed to be incredibly strong in the Force, stronger than almost anything he had sensed before. And yet he also sensed a great deal of fear, insecurity, and angst. "Who exactly are you? Who are you affiliated with, and why are you firing on us?"
Despite all the fear Caedus had sensed, the masked figure did not hesitate to answer. "I am Kylo Ren of the First Order. My fighters attacked you because you are flying a star destroyer under false colors. I don't know whether you stole it or built it yourself, or even acquired it through some other means, but regardless you are guilty of flying a New Order ship without the approval of Supreme Leader Snoke. As such, you will be destroyed unless you immediately surrender to us."
The Sith lord was outraged. However, he also saw no good ways of getting out of this engagement alive. Not through battle, at least. "This is Darth Caedus of the Galactic Alliance. Now I don't know what this 'First Order' is, but I will not surrender to a craven like you. However, I will submit to a temporary parley, during which we can discuss matters with a more level-headed atmosphere."
He felt a small degree of satisfaction ripple through the stranger, although there were a few undercurrents of offense. Something about him felt… familiar. "While I am normally not one to bargain, I will honor your request. For now; know that if you make a single false step- including insulting me again- you will not survive this. Do I make myself clear?"
Darth Caedus tried his best to keep from feeling too smug about the fact that his plan was working, in case the newcomer could sense his emotions as well. He also hoped that this Kylo Ren would not be able to sense the half-truth in his response; "Crystal clear. There will be no trouble on my part."
When the Jedi landed in the docking bay, a very strange sight greeted them. Luke got out of his StealthX and came face to face with someone who appeared to be himself, although the newcomer had grown a beard. They studied each other for a bit, sizing each other up with their eyes as well as through the Force. It was an incredibly bizarre experience for both of them.
Suddenly they were interrupted as the entry ramp to the Millennium Falcon lowered and Han and Leia entered the hangar. As they did, Han's face lit up. "Chewie!" He shouted, running towards the group of newcomers, towards his old first mate. Chewbacca growled in excitement, running up to his old friend, and soon they were caught in each other's embrace, Han saying, "Oh, Chewbacca, I missed you so much…"
Leia, the other Leia who had suffered through the death of her husband so recently, also came up to him, and hugged him as well. When they finally pulled apart, she asked, "Is it really you, Han? I- I can't believe it's really you, I thought- I thought Kylo Ren killed you!"
Han looked at her in confusion. "Kylo Ren? Who is that? I've never even heard of him."
Leia sighed. "He's… our son. Ben Solo. He turned to the dark side, and… he killed you. But now you're back!" She glanced over at the other Leia. "With… me?"
Han tried his best to explain. "I've seen some really weird stuff, but this really wins the prize for most confusing. Leia, back where I- back where we came from, our son is named Jacen. Our eldest son, at least. Anakin- he died. And Jacen is the one who's turned to the dark side, calling himself Darth Caedus. His twin sister, Jaina- well, you can see her for yourself." As he said this, Jaina came up behind him, saying hello to the woman who looked a lot like her mother.
As the others tried to sort out what had gone wrong- they were eventually able to make a connection between the hyperspace anomaly and the appearance of the doppelgangers- Luke turned back to his twin. "Where's Mara?"
The bearded Luke looked at him in confusion. "Who?"
"Mara Jade," he pressed, "My wife. Your wife. The mother of Ben, your child," He said, gesturing towards his son. "Where is she?"
The confusion turned to concern. "I'm sorry… I've never known a woman named Mara Jade. I've never even had a wife, or a son."
Luke felt a wave of sorrow. How could this happen? Why would there be such a cruel turn of fate? He tried his best to calm himself down, breathing slowly and deeply. "My nephew… Darth Caedus, he killed her. Since Han and Chewbacca were reunited… I thought maybe the Force had found some way to reunite me with Mara."
Before the other Luke had the chance to give his counterpart his condolences, however, the others approached them. "We have a plan to keep things from getting too confusing," Han said. "Since my Leia uses the name Solo, we'll call her Leia Organa Solo, or just Leia Solo. The other one will be Leia Organa. And then our Luke, the one without the beard, will be Luke Jade Skywalker, or just Luke Jade, because of his wife." Luke flinched a bit at the name of his lost lover, but nodded all the same.
"We also have another plan," Leia Organa said. "A plan to take down the First Order."
Kylo Ren and Darth Caedus stood side by side aboard the bridge of the Anakin Solo; they had spent the past few hours making negotiations, and now they had finally reached a consensus. "Well," The former said, "Shall we begin?"