"Destiny"
By EsmeAmelia
AN: Hi all! Sorry it took me ages to put this up - I have been so freaking BUSY with school and work and all.
Chapter 4
Leia sat up in bed, gazing out at the dormitory where she and her family were spending the night - the place that would soon house Jedi students. It carried an old-fashioned, homey feel with its stone walls, large windows, and simple furniture. Wooden chairs, wooden dresser, wooden table - and yet with enough varying shades of brown to keep the room from appearing monotone. This would be a fine place for an aspiring Jedi to stay, Leia thought with satisfaction.
Han trudged into the room, the sleeves of his light blue pajamas wrinkled up to his elbows. "Finally asleep," he said through a loud exhale.
"All of them?"
"All of them."
Leia gave her husband an approving smile. "See, I told you a story would calm them down."
Han snorted as he flopped onto the bed. "After about fifteen times. It was 'read it again, Daddy, read it again!" over and over. Least Anakin slept through it." He ground his teeth. "I'm tellin' ya, if I have to read about Tedstle the Lonely Ewok ever again..."
"Oh, you poor baby," Leia chided. She reached over to rub his shoulder. "You're so overworked."
Han stretched his arms. "Whenever Luke has kids, I'm givin' Rianna Tedsle the Lonely Ewok at her baby shower to exact my revenge."
"So you're still angry about the way she used to treat you?"
"Yup," declared Han, pulling the covers over his legs.
Leia gave a light laugh. "But apparently not angry enough to refuse to be in her wedding."
"Hey, I'm gonna be Luke's best man, not hers," Han said with mock haughtiness.
"Well then, you're not angry enough to try to stop Mother from being her matron of honor," Leia said with a grin. "Or stop me from being her bridesmaid."
Leia's grin seemed to be contagious - it spread to Han as he slowly shook his head. "Luke's gonna be marrying Queen Mean - who knew?"
"She's not that bad, Han," Leia said knowingly. "Even you know that."
"Well...she's not a Sith anymore - guess that's one thing to be said in her favor."
Both Leia and Han laughed at that statement. "Seriously," Leia said after she caught her breath, "the only surprising part is that Luke waited so long to propose."
"Yeah," agreed Han. "Course, that might've been just cause he was press shy." He playfully poked his wife's arm. "Remember the 'Wedding of the Millennium'?"
Leia groaned. "Don't remind me of that."
" 'The Rebellion Heroes Princess Leia Organa and General Han Solo, joined together in what is fast becoming the largest wedding the galaxy has seen since before the formation of the Empire,' " Han recited.
"I wonder what the largest wedding in the galaxy was before ours," said Leia, her eyebrows lifted.
Han smirked. "I'd worry more about whether or not we're about to be upstaged." He slid his body down until his shoulder was resting against his pillow. "You can bet they'll make a big deal outta the son of Vader marryin' the daughter of an Imp soldier. Or maybe they'll see it as the son of an ex Naboo queen marryin' another ex Naboo queen. Maybe it'll be a wedding that'll bring together the Empire and the Rebellion or some crap like that."
Leia shook her head in a disbelieving manner. "I think someone's read Tedstle the Lonely Ewok one too many times."
"Well I blame you for that," grinned Han, sinking under the covers, nestling his head in the pillow.
Leia smirked as she turned off the lights. "Next time, just tell them one of your stories about how you escaped from mortal danger. That'll put them to sleep right away."
"HEY!!"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Pain.
Pain engulfing his senses.
Pain consuming his entire body.
Pain overtaking his mind.
Where was he...what was happening...those were the only thoughts his head could piece together. It was only a horrendous cackle that brought the answers into those split seconds between jolts of unbearable pain.
"And now, young Skywalker," the deep, vicious voice declared, " you will die."
His insides vibrated as if they were about to explode. Nothing reached his vision beyond flashes of light. There was nothing...nothing except pain...and the desperate wish for death...
Then suddenly, it all ceased. For a brief second he thought he had finally died, but no, his slowly clearing vision revealed his attacker being lifted off the floor and carried to his own doom. Luke smiled up at his savior, the one all thought heartless, but it turned out that he was right. There was indeed good in her.
Queen Rianna smiled back at Luke before throwing the Emperor over the rail, eliminating the Sith without and the Sith within.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Luke awoke finding himself still smiling in the physical world. He opened his eyes to a level of darkness he wasn't accustomed to on Coruscant, but then he remembered the events that had occurred that day. He supposed he should get used to the quiet, more natural world of Yavin 4 if he was going to be teaching here.
He reached up and turned on the light, revealing his bride-to-be sleeping next to him, breathing softly, the tiniest hint of a smile in her lips. Her thick black hair spread over the pillow; her bare arm embraced the blankets. She was possibly even more beautiful when she slept than when she was awake, although Luke supposed that her magnificent green eyes would magnify her beauty when awake.
And she would soon be his wife. That concept still felt slightly alien, yet at the same time absolutely wonderful. He suddenly felt like all exhaustion had been sucked out of him - all he needed to replenish himself was to look at her.
After staring at her perfect tan skin for a few minutes, Luke's real hand began to itch to touch it. His fingers felt as though they contained tiny magnets being drawn towards Rianna's body, but he wouldn't allow them to move. In the time they had been in this relationship, she had allowed that kind of intimacy only on a few occasions, always timed so there would be absolutely no chance of pregnancy. Luke bit his lip - it had probably been fewer than five times in more than two years. Usually, sleeping together literally meant sleeping together and nothing more. Now that they were engaged, Luke had thought she would be more lenient, but she had refused it tonight, implying that she wouldn't. He shifted his body, creaking the mattress, willing himself not to grow stiff from her presence.
But he would respect her wishes.
Just like how he would respect her wishes to not become a Jedi.
The dream danced in his head - he'd had similar ones before. Dreams of his girlfriend as a hero. True, she already was a hero in real life, but he dreamed of her as a different kind of hero. The sort of hero she could be if she were only willing.
He breathed deeply, feeling wide-awake and discontent. Looking at his fiancee only stirred up his mind and drove sleep out further. Maybe he needed to clear his mind.
Still finding himself unable to take his eyes off Rianna, he inched his way out of bed, tiptoed toward the door, and after staring at her for another moment, slipped out of the room.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Even with Rianna out of sight, Luke still felt sweat trickling down his legs. Her image remained in his head, her small breath still sounding in his ear. He made his way down the stone hall, his bare feet making no sound on the carpeted floor. So intense was the darkness that he almost didn't notice a silhouetted figure standing next to a large window.
"Mother?" he whispered.
Padme gave a startled jump, whipping her head around to face her addresser. "Luke? What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing," said Luke.
Padme slowly turned back to face the window, the moonlike light reflected off the planet Yavin illuminating her hair. "I couldn't sleep. I think I'm too used to the noise on Coruscant...even Naboo isn't as quiet as this."
Luke stepped closer to his mother, his eyes beginning to make out her features. "Are you sure that's the only reason?"
Though most of her face was in shadow, Luke thought he caught an embarrassed grin on Padme's face as she turned to face her son. "Well...I was actually kept awake by excitement that my son's getting married."
Luke swallowed, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "Yeah...your son's getting married."
"All right, what about you?" Padme continued. "What brought you here this late?"
Luke stared past his mother out at the hazy view of Yavin 4's jungle environment. "A dream...I guess."
"What sort of dream?"
Luke swallowed again, concentrating on the tall trees beyond the window. "It was about Rianna. She saved me from the Emperor. And well, that got me thinking..." His voice seemed to wander away after that.
"It got you thinking about how she doesn't want to be a Jedi?" Padme asked knowingly.
Luke gave a hesitant nod. "Maybe...maybe I'm preventing her from reaching her potential by letting her do this..."
"It's her choice, Luke, not yours. You're not 'letting' her do anything."
Luke ran his artificial hand against the stone wall, making a small scraping noise. "I know...it's just..."
He felt Padme's hand on his shoulder. "There's something else, isn't there?"
Luke suddenly wanted to concentrate on his knuckles. His stomach did a backflip at the thought of Padme figuring out what else was bothering him.
"Mother, what's it like being married?" he said quickly, asking the first question that came into his mind.
He waited for his mother's answer as if he were waiting for a blaster to go off. Finally she said in a small voice, "Maybe you'd be better asking Leia that. I didn't get much time with it...even when Ani was alive we couldn't be together much...him always on missions and me always in meetings..."
"What made you decide to marry him?"
Padme gently reached over and pushed Luke's cheek so that their eyes were meeting. "The same thing that made you decide to marry Rianna. I knew there would be hard times. I knew I might even find myself regretting it on some occasions, but I also knew that if I didn't do it, I'd be mourning it for the rest of my life." She ran her thumb down his hairline. "Don't you feel like that too?"
Rianna's face appeared in the Jedi's mind, slowly giving him a definite answer. After a long breath, he gave his mother a nod and retreated back to the bedroom.