Yeah . . . sorry for the really depressing bit in the last two chapters. And please, no laughing at my descriptions of the Old Republic's symbol and the Jedi Order's symbol. I'm not good at this, but I can't insert a pic. . .


Chapter Five

3 ABY

~ Leia Organa ~
"Are you sure about this, Luke?"

He tossed me an annoyed look over his shoulder – a miraculous feat, considering the bulky vac suits we were all wearing. But we had to wear them, as there wasn't enough oxygen on this ship to, in Han's words, "keep a ship rat alive" and much less a whole team of Rebel fighters.

"Definitely sure," he replied. "I felt it."

"What if whoever . . . called . . . is dead?" Han put in.

Luke shook his head. "I don't think so. I'm going to keep looking until I find whoever called me like that."

Han sighed.

We had almost gotten to Hoth when Luke had burst into the command center and demanded we come out of hyperspace. He claimed he had received a call for help in the Force – something only a Jedi could do. And it being Luke and the theory containing Jedi, he had persisted and insisted and argued until Alliance command had thrown their hands up and given in. As long as we took a big team, they gave us the go ahead and threatened to thrash him within an inch of his life if something went wrong.

When we had dropped out, we had come across a wreckage of a collision between a ship and what remained of a TIE fighter. Both were in pieces, although the ship was in pieces where someone could actually survive.

That had helped somewhat. No Imperial fighter would deliberately ram into another one.

But as I had surveyed it, I had begun doubting if anyone was really alive. It looked so . . . formidable. Like, only a supernatural person could have survived.

"Leia! Han!"

I followed Luke's shout into the cockpit – and stopped dead. Han had halted seconds before me, and I barely avoided running into him. I wondered why he had stopped as I peered around him, curious as to why Luke had shouted.

And then I realized what was wrong.

Two people lay prone and still on the floor, not moving and seemingly not even breathing. Blood pooled around them, and it was even spattered on the wall, control panel, chairs and floor. They had obviously been thrown around quite a lot, and then I really began to doubt they had survived.

Luke was crouched by the woman's side.

She was middle-aged, I saw; she must have been only five to ten years older than me. Her face was shockingly pale, a contrast to her dark hair and the brilliant red blood around her. She was dressed in the oddest assortment of clothes too – cream tunics, beige pants, dark brown boots, brown cloak, utility belt with more odd stuff on it.

But that wasn't what had caught Luke's attention.

"Look," he said shakily as he stood.

A silver metal cylinder glinted in his outstretched hand, something he had taken from the woman's belt.

A lightsaber.

I gasped. So the woman was a Jedi.

"What . . . What about him?" I asked, my voice breaking in the middle.

In answer, Han eased the man on to his back.

The man was older than the woman, at least by a few years if not more than that. His face was pale too, but more so because of the blood around him and over his face than because of his chestnut brown hair. He was dressed exactly like the woman – although with a brown layer under the cream tunics – and on his belt glinted another lightsaber.

They were both Jedi.

The med team was over in a flash and set at once to examine the bodies and determine how and when they had died.

"Hey, Princess," Han said from where he stood by the console. "What's this?"

He was pointing to three strange symbols engraved in the control panel that were arranged in a triangle of symbols. One looked like a wheel – an outer circle with a blackened circle in the middle with spokes and splashes of black between the spokes. Another symbol lay next to it – two wings on the wide split into three feathery sections that curved upwards and a small pillar that shrunk as it grew upwards with a star in the middle of it. The last symbol, which lay above both of the other symbols, was the simplest – a small sun and moon, held together by a silvery thread that made up a circle.

"Impossible," I whispered. "That . . . That's the symbol for the Old Republic."

Han shot me a startled look, but before he could comment, a shout rose from behind us.

"Unbelievable!" a med tech exclaimed. "Princess – Commander Skywalker – Captain Solo – they're alive!"

"What?" we all shouted.

~ Luke Skywalker ~
Through the window, Alliance command and the rest of us stared at the two who so soundly had confounded all of us.

The technicians had been right – despite their appearance, despite their environment, despite common sense, the man and the woman had been alive. Their hearts still beat, only faintly; they still drew breath, only rarely and shallowly. They were still alive.

They were now connected to lots of monitors that were pumping liquid, nutrients, and oxygen into them. They had already been submerged in bacta quite a few times, so at least the blood was gone from them. But they still hadn't woken up, and showed no signs of stirring from the state they were in. It was like they were hovering between death and life.

"That's impossible. They should be dead," Carlist Rieekan declared, looking at the report.

I was brimming with excitement. "No, they're Jedi," I explained patiently, for about the fifth time. "It's called a hibernation trance – when a Jedi sinks so deeply into their mind that only a certain code phrase can snap them out. Or when the Jedi chooses to come out. It practically puts them in suspended animation."

"How did you find them?"

Leia spoke up. "Luke said he'd heard something in the Force – a call of sorts. So we decided to check it out."

"And you found . . . this?" he asked, gesturing at the bodies visible in the window.

She nodded.

"What motivated you to . . . follow . . . this call?" he asked.

I lifted my chin. "I trust the Force, and I trust what Ben Kenobi taught me," I said staunchly. "And the Force didn't lie to me; we found Jedi. Alive Jedi."

General Rieekan sighed and cast away the report. "And what proves that they're really Jedi and not just spies?"

I pointed to the lightsabers. "I can feel the echoes of their Force-signatures in them," I said. "The lightsabers belong to them. They were built by them."

"You're not a full Jedi, Skywalker," he said dryly.

"They survived that!" I exclaimed. "What further evidence is needed that they are Jedi?"

Rieekan stood. "A lot more." He turned to Leia. "Keep far away from them, Princess, just in case. And make sure they are always restrained somehow. Even when they're in bacta, I want some kind of restraint on them so we can take them down if they attack."

My jaw dropped. "That could kill them!"

"Yes, well – even if they aren't spies, they are going to be disoriented if and when they wake up. I don't want them attacking us. We won't give them the chance."

I slumped into a chair as he swept out. My one real chance to meet a real Jedi, and it's going out the window if I can't change his mind, I thought glumly. Yeah, old Ben had been a Jedi – but he was old. The days when he was a real Jedi had been long ago.

"Luke?"

I looked up to see Leia there.

"Are you all right?' she asked, concerned.

I sighed. "Fine. Just . . . I really want to meet these Jedi. I know they're Jedi, I just do. No one else could have survived that. And these lightsabers – " I leaned forward and grabbed the woman's. "They are real too."

I could feel the faint echoes of the Force-signature in the hilt, and warmth. The woman had held this lightsaber, and recently. But briefly, for the signature was too faint for me to try and read the power that was contained within it.

The man's, on the other hand, was cold. He hadn't touched it in a while.

But the hilts were still beautifully crafted, as unique and different as the one I carried with me – my father's.

I was dying to activate them and see just how powerful they were, but the hilt didn't fit in my hand. It wasn't crafted for me. And I felt it would be impolite to use them without the owner's consent.

Leia sat down. "Luke, how powerful are they? For real?"

I frowned and reached out to the Force . . . but it slipped away. They were too deep in their trances, and I was still too young and inexperienced to be able to touch them. I couldn't do it; I didn't have the knowledge or training to do that kind of thing. Maybe Ben could have, but I wasn't Ben. I wasn't even half as good as him.

"I can't tell," I admitted. "They are really deep in the trance. And with their power, they could probably conceal such things from me. They don't seem like apprentices." I sighed again. "I wish . . . I wish Ben was here."

Leia reached out and touched my hand. "You'll be fine, Luke. We'll figure this out."

I managed a small smile at her. "Thanks, Leia."

Behind us, the Force surged once.

And the man's eyes opened.

~ Obi-Wan Kenobi ~
I opened my eyes and was almost immediately blinded by the brilliant white light. Without thinking, I immediately called on the Force to help my eyes adjust.

A tremor of excitement passed through the Force as I did so, which confused me.

Who was that?

It wasn't any Force-signature I recognized.

Slowly, I pushed myself to a sitting position, batting away at all of the cords and such around me. I didn't need any fluids or medicine or nutrients. I was fine. The Force had shielded me and kept me alive. That was all I needed. Besides, there was nothing a healing trance couldn't fix.

I tasted bacta on my tongue and frowned. Well, that's odd. . . We must have really been injured if Bant just didn't stick us in a healing trance. . .

And then I remembered Kya.

Whirling, I reached out for the bond – and found her in the bed next to mine, still and pale.

I leaped out of bed and ran to her side, lifting her in my arms and cradling her close. As I desperately called her name, I consciously made an effort to contact her across the bond – but she kept slipping away from.

She was deep in her trance – almost too deep.

And I felt fear.

Then there was an explosion of sound and people poured into the med wing. I frowned. They were all pointing a wide range of weapons at me, as though I was a threat. And there – there was a general's insignia on that man's chest, but I didn't know him and he clearly didn't know me.

What is going on?

Instinctively, I shifted to shield Kya from view and aim. If they were going to kill her, they would have to get over my dead body first.

I cursed under my breath when I realized my lightsaber was nowhere in sight. And yet . . . if they knew what a lightsaber meant to a Jedi . . . why hadn't they given me a Force-inhibitor? It made no sense.

Two young people pushed their way next to the general – a man and a woman, both clad in thick clothes of light shades.

Shock spread through my body as I looked at them.

She . . . She looks exactly like Padmé! And the boy – he looked like Anakin!

The boy and I spoke at exactly the same time, with the same words, with the same mix of curiosity and wariness in our tones and postures.

"Who are you?"