Important Note: Timeline wise, this chapter occurs right after chapter five until the present moment. Everything in chapter six-eight occurred at a much faster pace than this chapter. If anyone has forgotten, I sent Leia, Han, Chewbacca, and Yoda to Kashyyyk in chapter five. Thus, we continue out story.
Changing History: Children of the Storm
"Chewie, pass me the hydrospanner," Han asked as he lay on his back underneath the fighter. They had been caught in crossfire in space on their way out of Coruscant, and the ship had taken reasonable damage. Han almost wished he had the kid in this situation; Luke had always been good at fixing things. Once on Yavin, Luke had fixed his Millennium Falcon in a matter hours when they were running from the Imps. Han had almost offered the kid a medal after that dreaded day.
Han just shook his head as faithful companion tossed him the wrong tool. "Chewie!" he said in half-exasperation. The situation was familiar, but for the first time, they were in no hurry to be off somewhere. No Imps were chasing them, no Jabba was waiting for them to make a run, and no bounty hunters were after their necks. Han smiled to himself as he resisted the urge to start humming. Before his involvement in the war and long before he became a smuggler, Han had been famous for singing while he worked.
The voices of Leia and Master Yoda drifted down from the cockpit below, and Han choked on a nail as Leia's parentage was mentioned. Leia stubbornly refused to talk about the Dark Lord of the Sith, and Han silently applauded her for her efforts. Darth Vader had always been a sore spot for his fiancée, even though Luke talked about him with such reverence. He would never understand how the kid's mind worked. Luke always tried to hold optimism for the situations he was in, but the fact he accepted Vader with open arms still disturbed Han.
Han dropped the too-small hydrospanner with a sigh and moved to stretch. Leia's voice was becoming louder by the second, even though the Jedi Master's voice remained the same. Her temper would outdo her one day, and Han dropped his head. "Keep working, Chewie. I think we'll be needing to get out of here as soon as possible now," he ordered his companion lightly as he scratched the side of his head. Chewbacca barked his agreement.
"I can't tell you, Master Yoda, I'm sorry," Leia whispered as she got that sad look upon her face. Han wanted to take her into his arms and hold her close until she cried out her worries, but he knew she wouldn't appreciate the gesture in front of Master Yoda. Instead, he leaned in the doorway and waited for one or both of the occupants of the cockpit to notice his presence. Yoda continued speaking as if he wasn't there, but Han was sure the little green being knew of his presence.
"Afraid, are you?" Yoda prodded the youngling. Leia was still a youngling in his eyes from her lack of good training, and he wondered where she had been hidden for so long. She did not hold the amount of fear or anger that a certain Skywalker did, but she held underlying tensions that could be her undoing. Yoda leaned on his walking stick lightly as he felt the presence of her attachment approach. Approve, he did not of their relationship, but it was unavoidable. They were too tightly entwined at this point to separate their growing love.
"Afraid of your parentage?" Han asked as he kneeled beside his princess. She looked at him with a widening of her eyes, but she quickly disguised her fear. She wasn't sure she trusted Han to not say too much of the future, but she was also no longer sure what Luke had leaked out to the other Jedi. Leia wished to keep her brother's privacy if she could, but the feat was becoming harder and harder by the moment. Han took her hand in his, and she relented the tiniest bit.
"I am not afraid of the future; I know what lies there: death, destruction, love, happiness. I trust Luke enough to overcome the burdens of the immediate trials, but I'm not sure we can handle the repercussions. I'm not sure I can answer all your questions, but you can ask," Leia said as she looked at the Jedi Master. He seemed wise in his old age, and Leia could see why Luke trusted him. He had yet to judge her, and she was grateful for his patience.
Yoda nodded his head in acknowledgement. "Trained, you have been. But by who?" Yoda asked Leia as she sighed in relief. He wasn't going to ask any dangerous questions yet, and she had problems answering inquires about her training. After all, she was proud of her brother for all he had accomplished so far. She could understand Yoda's need of knowledge from her, since Luke was back on Coruscant, but if he believed that getting information out of her was easier than Luke, he would have to think again.
"Luke, my brother, trained me enough to defend myself in dangerous situations. I cannot handle a lightsaber, but I can confuse my enemies enough to escape the circumstances. I can also levitate the smallest of objects," she said with pride. Yoda cocked his head thoughtfully to the side. The youngling was taught by another youngling. It was a wonder either one of them had survived the war for so long.
"A Master, Luke was trained by?" he asked. Luke could not have trained himself to contain the power he had. Leia was isolated enough to be trained to a smaller degree, but Luke's presence on the Force was a glaring homing beacon. Even though Luke shielded himself away from the darkness surrounding him, a few shafts of lights made their way through the cracks in his shield. He wondered what made the cracks large enough for anything to slip through.
Leia smiled at the memory of old Kenobi. "Obi-Wan Kenobi trained Luke for a short period of time. Unfortunately, Master Kenobi was killed by the Dark Lord of the Sith soon after meeting Luke," Leia said with a sad look in her eye. The memory of the old Jedi was still fresh in her mind, and she missed Obi-Wan. "After Obi-Wan, Luke started training with you, Master Yoda. I'm not sure you ever knew, but Luke respected you more than anyone else," Leia finished with an odd smile. Luke had confided in her after the war about Yoda, and she almost punched him for traveling to an unknown planet to search out someone he had never heard of.
"An apprentice, I took?" Yoda asked in a concerned voice. He thought after Dooku, he would not have taken another apprentice until the end of his days. He was content in the Temple to look after the younglings until apprenticeship, but to take another apprentice? He would never think he was prepared to train another Jedi Knight. What had happened in the next couple of years to change his thoughts? And to take a Skywalker, at that. He must have had a heart attack somewhere along the way.
"You didn't have much choice at the time. None of us did," Leia said with a sigh as she looked out the window. Space was looming overhead, and she couldn't wait to move out in the world freely again. She had the feeling of being on edge, a feeling she had hoped to never have again after the destruction of the Empire. The looming threats were out there by the Emperor, by her father, and by the people who let the war go as far as it did.
"Skywalker, he is," Yoda stated, goading Leia's reaction. He was not disappointed when she seemed to pull back from him, from his questions. Some relation to Anakin Skywalker, they probably both were. The question was how far did Anakin go to break the Jedi Code. Anakin Skywalker was becoming more of a threat the Jedi Order every day, and only Obi-Wan stood in their way from removing the threat. They would be keeping a much closer eye on him for the next couple of months.
"Yes," Leia answered softly. She leaned back in her chair and glanced at Han. "What have we come to?" Leia muttered. It was a wonder, really, that none of the Jedi had found out their relation sooner. Had Yoda asked Luke, he probably would have had no choice but to answer the wise, old Master. She could manipulate to a certain point, as long as the Master did not ask key questions in his interrogation.
"Dark times, we are in," Yoda obliged as he watched her reactions. Her hair was up in two buns, much like the traditions of several of the core worlds. She had her expression schooled in a careful mask, and her lips were set in a firm line. Her stance was sure, proud, unwavering. Leia reminded him of someone, someone he knew very well. He would solve this mystery soon enough. "Who was your mother?" he asked gently. The sadness returned to her eyes, and he almost regretted watching the light burn out of them.
"She was a queen from long ago," Leia answered. "She was very kind, but sad. I didn't her for long, maybe only for a brief moment. I would only know her if I saw her again," Leia finished as she twiddled her fingers. It was true, no one had ever told her of her mother's name, but she had her suspicions. As soon as she could, Leia visited the library on Coruscant to find information of the Old Republic, and a certain senator's name kept appearing in the archives. Luke had helped her continue her search of the queen's heritage and relations.
"Find her, you will," Yoda replied surely and mysteriously. The fact Senator Amidala had children brought joy to his ears; however, it was overshadowed by the fact she didn't live long enough to see them grow. He hoped to reunite the family on Coruscant if the Senator was allowed through the blockade to the Senate. A battle was raging outside, and they would have to fight their way back in.
"I hope you are right, Master Yoda," Leia replied. Han placed his hand on her shoulder as she stood, and Chewie raced into the room. They exchanged heated discussion for a moment as Yoda bowed over as if in pain. He gripped his heart tightly, and Leia raced over to him. His cane fell to the floor, and the hard floor met with his knees. The small fighter seemed to be getting smaller by the second, and Leia spot a few fighters outside of their craft.
"Let's go, your highness," Han said gruffly as he picked her and placed her back into the seat. He felt a bit odd about doing the same to a Jedi Master, so he carefully led the green creature to another seat. Chewbacca let out a series of howls that distinctly sounded like "Incoming," so Han dove into the cockpit. Shot were raining down on the ship, and Han grasped the controls without a second glance. "Hang on, everyone."
"What's going on, Chewie?" Leia asked as she fastened the belt around her. The ship rollicked as it twisted away from the fire, but a stray shot hit the tailpiece. "We're being followed by the Empire," Chewie barked as he lit up the hyperdrive. Leia's shocked expression didn't go unnoticed by Yoda, but the master was breathing too heavily to see much of anything else. The air seemed to be closing in on them more and more. They spirited away towards the Coruscant system, and Chewie barely saw the escape pods moving out of the Kashyyyk system.
"How can the Empire be following us if it hasn't been created yet!" Leia exclaimed as she bolted out of her seat. The firefight was growing down below on the world of Coruscant as she picked up the news channel on her comlink. The images before her made her sit down heavily against the wall, and Yoda walked gingerly into the room behind her. Yoda knew what was coming, as he knew many of the Jedi had been killed in the last few minutes. The Force was screaming to him, and he found it almost impossible to block out of his mind.
"Breaking News: The Republic, led by Chancellor Palpatine had now been turned into a Galactic Empire. Almost immediately, a group of rebel senators led by an unknown Jedi and Senator Bail Organa have broken away to form an Alliance. This Alliance henceforth declared war on the Galactic Empire. Before this move, however, Chancellor Palpatine declared all members of the Jedi Order enemies of the state. Smoke can be seen from the Jedi Temple; however, we do not know the events that have taken place. More news to be followed shortly after the break," the reporter announced as Han turned off the link.
"So much for no Empire," Han muttered and Chewie barked in agreement. The Coruscant guard had yet to notice them, but a small fighter was trying to hail them down. Han opened the link almost immediately, "State your name and destination, fighter," the man said on the vid. Yoda backed in to a corner somewhat to stay out of the picture. Leia moved in front of him to complete the measure.
"Han Solo, independent tradesmen," Han said over the com. He raised his eyebrows over the picture, and the man glared back at him. He wasn't about to claim allegiance to the alliance when he was sure the kid had something to do with this whole mess. Luke was the one who got him involved in the first place, but he was almost positive the kid would have wanted to avoid another war. He sat back in his chair as he waited for the rebukes.
They didn't come. "Solo, you are clear to travel through, but finish your business here and get out. We're having a Revolution, and things are about to get ugly around here." Han snorted as the link dissipated and the picture went black. He knew what he was getting himself into, but he doubted that fighter did. He quickly maneuvered the ship through the fighting to land on a pad close to the Jedi Temple. The news cast had been right; smoke could be seen from space.
"The moment we walk in there is the moment we're seen as traitors to the Republics," Leia said forlornly as she reached for her cloak outside of the cockpit. The material would not keep her warm, but it would disguise her looks from that of her mother. She wasn't sure what her brother had done this time, but she wanted to live long enough to find out. Stormtroopers were piling out of the Temple now, if they were even called stormtroopers yet, and she prepared herself for the opening fight.
"Sweetheart, when was the last time you weren't considered a rebel?" Han asked as he reached for the front guns. He blasted as many Imps as he could out of the way before reaching for his blaster. Chewie quickly turned the ship to low power and followed his captain down the ramp. Then, they were running. Why did they always seem to be running? Chewie carried Yoda on his back as they wasted no time in getting to the Temple doors. "Well, this is going to be fun," he muttered sarcastically as he blasted a clone out of his way.
Chewie barked out a warning, but Han was too close to turn away from the blastfire. A beam of light caught the top part of his shoulder, and he cried out. Leia shot the clone behind him and hurried over. "Are you alright?" she asked quickly as she watched for the clones. Her hood pulled back slowly, and Han marveled at how beautiful she looked when she was angry. Angry was an understatement; she was positively seething. Her hair was mussed, and a few strands of hair fell out of the locks. Her eyes blazed, and her concern for him was energizing.
"We have to help them," Han whispered as he motioned to a group of younglings backed into a corner by the stormtroopers. They were holding their own, but every once in awhile, one of the younglings would succumb to the madness surrounding them. Leia nodded in agreement, not satisfied with his answer, but not arguing either. She felt her way around the passage until the sight of clones came into sight.
An entire battalion of stormtroopers were lined up in a firing squad position, closing in on the younglings. Some of the children were no more than five years old, and Leia marveled as they held a strong grip on their tiny lightsabers, fear in their eyes. Leia leveled her blaster and shot the clone nearest to her. He hadn't even hit the ground when her next target began to fall. She let out a round, and her Force senses tingled. She twisted away from incoming fire and motioned the younglings over to her. She needed to get the younglings to safety as soon as possible. She could double back to help Chewie and Yoda with the older, more experienced Jedi. "Follow closely, and watch for clones," she whispered to them.
A small Jedi child nudged her in the side, and her gaze followed his outstretched hand to a small nook in a corner. It provided little protection if they were found, but it was small enough to go unnoticed by the clones. She nodded her consent to the youngling with a hesitant smile. She was about to turn away when the child tugged on her hand. She swallowed any impatience she had to find Han.
"He'll be alright," the child whispered in her ear, and she realized it was the same youngling Han had been attached to when they first arrived here. His eyes twinkled, but he had a knowing look in his eyes. She had a suspicious feeling he wasn't talking her gruff fiancée. She wasn't worried about Han overly much; she knew he could take care of himself. So who was this youngling referring too? Chewie was alright, and she wasn't sensing too much fear from her resourceful brother.
The child scuttled off before she could ask, and she was torn between leaving the children and finding her friends. She felt a bit lost on her own, but she had a duty to protect the innocent. She sighed and shut the door behind her. An almost inaudible "Thank you" came from behind her, and she smiled nervously at the children. She had never had many dealings with children, but her friends told her she wasn't bad with them. Coming from Luke, it meant a lot to her. Coming from Han, with his shooing children off, it didn't mean much.
"Are any of you hurt?" Leia asked softly as she kneeled before the children. Most shook their heads 'no', but one small child held out her hand for her inspection. It was little more than a scratch, but Leia tore off a piece of her robe anyway. Scratches sometimes led to infection, and she had limited knowledge of healing. She put pressure on the small wound, and when no yellow puss squeezed out of the wound, she sighed in relief. This child would be alright.
They seemed a little quiet for children, but she pressed on. "How many of you were caught by those creatures?" she asked with barely controlled anger. Anger led to hate, she told herself, and Luke wouldn't approve. Her temper was also part of the reason Luke had only partially train. They hardly needed another Vader in the family, and she didn't want to become that which she despised for so long.
"We were separated. We don't know where the others are," the little girl she patched up answered. This was bad news indeed, and not something Leia wished to hear. Missing children meant she would have to go round them up. She pushed the impatience once again aside, for maybe she would come across one of her friends on the way. She longed to check on Han, and if she had to look all over the Temple to find these children, she would. The fact someone ordered these mindless clones to kill innocents was an outrage to her.
She reached into cloak and pulled out her blaster. "Does anyone know how to handle one of these?" she asked solemnly as she checked the power cell. A chorus of 'no's were heard around the small ring, and she counted the children. Seven boys and five girls: not a bad number. They could probably overpower the clones, or at least hold them off until she got back. She handed the blaster to the oldest of the children and curled his hand around it.
"Instinct will take over, I promise," she surmised. He nodded his head, and he kept his fear in check. She was amazed by the amount of self-control he held, and she knew he make a fine Jedi one day. "If anyone comes to the door, shoot first, ask questions later. Do you understand?" she asked him gently. The younger Jedi would hopefully be able to sense a dangerous presence compared to her, Han, Yoda, or Chewie, but they would forgive her if not.
She gave one last glance to the younglings and left to find the other children. Her gut told her to take a left at the intersection, and she found herself lost in a maze of rooms. How did Jedi ever find their way around in this expanse building? The marble and buttresses were beautiful, but they all looked the same to her. The farther she went, the thicker a trail of smoke became for her the sort through. The air stung at her eyes, and she tried to duck beneath the spreading flames. A water system was trying to douse the flames, but the fire was growing, spreading, and destroying everything in its path.
The shuffling of feet could be heard next to her, and she stepped aside as stormtroopers passed. They either ignored her or didn't see her as she made her way farther to the core. The rooms were becoming smaller now as the gloom of the scene filled her senses. The thought of decimating such beauty devastated her, but she was on a mission to retrieve the children of the Temple. She could not stop to save petty objects.
Her Force senses tingled harshly, and she took shallow breaths against the danger before her. The door had caved in, and carnage lay everywhere. Older Jedi and apprentices alike lay at the feet of stormtroopers, and she blasted a stray clone out of her way. Her eyes stung with the heat and tears as she moved passed the bodies at her feet. She recognized a lone person here and there from her search through the holovids, and she regretted that they could not save them yet again. Fate was cruel, and she hoped they could still their misguided father from his path of darkness. These Jedi had been overpowered, outmanned by the clones, and she took note of the faces as she went by.
A few clones were setting fire to a door, and she could hear the cries from within. She had found the other children, but they were under a brutal assault from the clones. Her blaster became the fire on the firing squad, and she could feel the Force sizzle and pop around her. Her anger was driving her to madness as she cut down the clones one by one. As she finished, she leaned against the burning door with deep breaths. What was becoming of her? Why couldn't she control the anger against nameless, faceless, white masks?
The door caved under her weight, and the children inside stepped back in fear of her. She couldn't say she blamed them and hid her face in shame under the cloak. She just killed a squadron of clones in rage in front of the Jedi children, even though they probably couldn't see her. Leia calmed her light on the Force and stifled the hate from their prying eyes. She took a few calming breaths before speaking to them, "You friends are waiting for you. We must hurry."
"You're not going to hurt us, are you?" a fearful Twi'lek asked her. Her eyes were round, and she wouldn't move from her spot, even with the flames growing around her. Leia pursed her lips thoughtfully and brushed the water out of her eyes. The embers were chomping at her robe now, and she wondered what another Jedi would do in this situation. The answer came to her from somewhere deep in her mind, as if she had repressed it unconsciously.
"Younglings," she said as she began backing out of the door. A few began to follow her, but the Twi'lek remained in place. "What would Master Yoda say in this situation?" she tried to teach, and a few of the stubborn ones looked slightly more unhesitant. "He would want you to live, for your sakes. He would want you to care for each other. It doesn't matter that I'm here," Leia continued desperately as a piece of the ceiling fell in the next room. The heat was weakening the stone structure above them.
The girl nodded cautiously and followed. The Twi'lek kept her eyes on this new being; the woman held much anger in her, but it was not directed at them. She seemed angry at the white monsters that had been chasing them through the Temple. She hid her face behind a cloak, and Sari wondered why a Master or Knight would hide their face behind a mask. The new woman also didn't carry a lightsaber, so she might not be a Jedi at all. "Who are you?" Sari demanded in her five-year-old voice. They dove for cover in the next room.
"Leia," the woman answered simply as she beckoned the children forward. They came in clumps of sevens or eights, and 'Leia' nodded her approval. Sari humped as she ran as fast as her little legs could carry her. Leia wasn't harming them, for now, and they had to trust their instincts. The Force told them more danger was coming from the burning rooms than from the woman herding them, but Sari was still cautious of the dark presence looming around the woman. She was slipping quickly into her anger, and she probably didn't even realize it.
"Why are you saving us, Sith?" Sari accused as she followed her fellow students down the hallway. She waited to gage the angered reaction from the woman, but it never came. Instead, Leia gave her a puzzled look, as if she didn't know what she was talking about. No blackness encumbered her, and Sari frowned in confusion. This wasn't the way Sith handled situations like this, and the woman was looking less and less like a Sith.
"You think I'm a Sith?" Leia asked with a confused expression. Had she really slipped into her anger so much, that the children believed her to be an enemy of the Light? She laughed at the irony of the situation as they rounded another corner. "Youngling, I'm far from the Sith you have seen. I'm training to be a Jedi Knight," she added as she motioned them down the corridor. She started a repetition of jumping before the younglings, waiting for them to pass, and jogging to the front again. She wished to keep the entire class of them together.
"You look a little old to still be training. Did you fail your exams?" Sari asked, curiosity getting the better of her. Leia didn't say she was apprenticed to anyone, merely that she was training. Several of the younglings were never picked for apprenticeship, and most of those went into healing or technical fields. She was training to be a Jedi Knight, but the Council would never allow for it. Was that why she was hiding from the other Jedi?
Leia laughed again at the short Jedi's questions. "There weren't any exams for me. My brother is training me," she answered before the youngling could ask. "I need you to do a very important task for me, youngling," Leia said as the next hallway came about. There was shouting on the other side, and the sounds of battle raged. She could feel the lightsaber, the weapon Luke had made for her in extreme cases of emergency, resting on her hip. She hoped she wouldn't need it, for she preferred the familiar feel of a blaster in her hands, but her power cell was running low.
"I can handle it!" Sari stated proudly as she crossed her hands over her arms. She would make this Jedi-in-training proud of her, no matter what stood in her way. The other children were still a bit frightened around her, but she could do anything Leia asked her to do. She was the most grown-up five-year-old in the class, and she could even handle a tiny lightsaber. Those white monsters would be no match for her.
"I need you to take the younglings to the end of the hall. A door will be on your right; knock once, then enter. You might want to have your lightsaber out in case one of your friends accidentally fires at you," Leia said in a rush as a the door began to slide open. She held it closed for a split second with her limited Force abilities. "Go, now! I'll hold them off," Leia said in a rush as she moved the Twi'lek along. She knew the girl was disappointed for not being to see battle, but she needed the innocents out of the way as she fought.
She lost her Force-grip on the door, and it slid open without warning. She was expecting a stormtrooper to fall out into the hallway, but Han collided into her instead. His large form sent her reeling to the ground, and the wind was knocked out of her lungs unwillingly. His blaster was notched into her ribcage, and she pushed him off as hard as she could. "Han!" she exclaimed with a cough as she rolled over. The few nutrients in her stomach churned, and she let out a few dry heaves.
Han was instantly by her side. "Looks like I owe you one," Han said without humor. His back had ripped open again, and his badly bandaged shoulder was beginning to soak through the cloth. It that wasn't enough, he had injured his fiancée, thinking she was one of the Imps. She smacked away his hand as he reached for her and pulled herself up on her knees. He winced in apology as she took away his blaster. He had a feeling he wouldn't be sleeping anywhere near her for the next couple of days…or weeks.
"I heard the sounds of fighting," Leia managed to get out and looked at the door. The blaster bolts were getting farther away, and she could see the backside of Yoda as he powered his way through the stormtroopers. His lithe body twirled around in circles before the clones, and they were pushed back farther into the wall. Ha! Now you know what it feels like, Leia thought as she clutched her ribcage. She knew Han didn't mean too, but it felt as if he bruised a few of her ribs. His weight felt about twice as hers, even though he was only fifty pounds heavier.
"They told me to get to the medical wing, but I'm thinking they need us more here. What do you say, sweetheart?" Han asked sweetly as he offered her a hand up. Leia tried stretching her back, but her ribs were allowing her limited mobility. She wasn't sure how much help they could be to Chewie and Yoda, but she was always willing to lend her assistance. The younglings seemed a good distance from the battle now, and she didn't sense any immediate danger for them. The Jedi inside needed their help much more.
"I say you're crazy, Han," Leia answered as she picked up her discarded blaster. The power cells were low, but they would do for now. She stepped gingerly forward and bit back a cry of pain. She wasn't sure she could make it to the medical wing or last long enough to help with the lightsaber battle unfolding before them. Han lightly placed his arm around her shoulders, and for once, she was grateful for his care. This wasn't a good to resist any aid he could give her, even if she seemed weak in front of him.
She recognized the entrance to the Jedi Temple as the one they should have used when they came in. The entrance to the South Wing was much less guarded than the entrance to the North Wing where the landing pads for ships were housed. White suits littered the ground every direction she looked, and a few Jedis were thrown unceremoniously into the mix. She mourned them, and without warning, grief and despair took over.
She barely saw the doors to the entrance crash open, or the sudden cease in the battle. All she saw was a shadow creaking in through her Force senses, and she was too weak to fight back against the onslaught. In, out, and around the darkness went as it closed in on her. The Skywalker reception to anger and pain flourished in her, and she had not the will to fight it. She tried, to no avail, to pound on the shield around her, but it was too heavy. The sense of weakness was familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, and she felt as if she was being pulled apart in different directions.
"Leia!" someone yelled as she collapsed to the ground. She scarcely felt the cool hands of Han as he caught her, somewhat. Something warm grabbed her into a hug, and that familiar voice whispered to her. Leia could feel the pinpricks of light on her senses as her conscious mind clawed for the tiny dots around her. She moaned as someone put a hand to her forehead and tried to shake off the sensation.
"Luke, you have to save him…" she muttered almost incoherently as she lost her grips on reality. Luke dug into her Force shields, but to his horror, the darkness was too far into grips with her mind. She whimpered underneath him, and then she was silent. Her face was relaxed, but he wasn't fooled by the conflict raging on a maelstrom in her mind. She was no longer fighting, and she was too far gone for him to coax back to their plain of consciousness.
"Leia, no! Who do I save? Leia, don't leave us, please…" Luke whispered as he shook her fiercely. It was too late; she had already gone slack in his arms, and his Force presence was sliding from him. That was when Anakin finally understood.
Author's Notes: The next update will be during my Christmas Break. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving Break, and let me know if I need to clear anything up in this chapter. I have an idea in mind for the last part of this chapter, but don't kill me until you've read further into the story. –Insane Pineapple from Naboo
I'll be doing responses now to the reviewers directly, so replies will be much faster from now on.
