DESCRIPTION & AUTHOR'S NOTE

Luke Skywalker, the Last Jedi, faces his toughest challenge yet. After taking his Jedi vows, he assumes the misbelief that love has no place in his life. As a result, he denies the love he craves in order to establish the New Jedi Order and maintain peace and justice in the New Republic.

His sister's tumultuous marriage and unplanned pregnancy, disillusionment with the Jedi Code, and a sinister Empire that will not admit defeat all compound as Luke establishes the Jedi Academy.

Join him as he battles the darkness within himself, discovers the origins of the Jedi, and fulfills his destiny pursuing compassion above all else. The one thing that a Jedi is forbidden may be the only thing that saves him and the galaxy.

(A fan reboot set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens in the tradition and style of the Original Trilogy.)

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Luke suffers from PTSD after the Emperor's Force-lightning attack, which is limited to his reliving the experience.

Cover by: FayLane

Editor: MichaelHoliday

Updates will be more consistent now that my life has settled down (been working extremely long hours during COVID season) and this site is working somewhat properly again. The entire story has already been written. I'm just revising as I upload.

I wrote this to figure out how my own personal fan theory of Rey's heritage would work after watching The Force Awakens. To this day, I believe my theory on Rey's heritage was what JJ originally planned. I even wrote a non-fiction work about it on Wattpad called The Father You Never Had. I am currently revising this work and tweaking it.

Right now, I want to do right by the legacy characters. Many people were upset about where Han was left at the end of TFA, a deadbeat dad and husband who can't even save his own son. I hope to do justice to his character, maturing him throughout my story … but it does take awhile to get there, so be patient.

I also want to show Luke as the uncle of Ben Solo, who held, diapered, and fed him as infant as well as nurtured him at the Jedi Academy and would never think of killing him in his sleep. Yes, Luke can have his dark moments, but never at the expense of his family. Family is very important to him. It's what saved him from killing his father, and it definitely would have prevented him from striking down someone he thought he saw darkness in—unprovoked.

Lastly, I have a theatrical background. One of the first things I learned in my script analysis and writing class is to never trust what anyone says about another character. In fact, assume they are coming from their own biased point of view at the very least if not an all-out lie. I also write with a lot of subtext. Instead of believe something was written incorrectly, think more deeply. There is a reason for it being the way it is. It probably is showing you something about the character or foreshadowing the plot. Also, try to trace the parallels and contrasts throughout the story.

Of course, I don't own Star Wars or any of the canon characters or places. Those belong to Disney/Lucasfilm Ltd. I make no money from this work of fanfiction but only wish to share my love of the fandom with others.

May the Force be with you. ~Alena

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TITLE CRAWL

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away …

"The GALACTIC EMPIRE is defeated!" rang the news across the galaxy. Celebrations echoed across each and every world, as the NEW REPUBLIC was born. No more slavery to the EMPIRE.

It was a time of freedom, liberty, and new beginnings for a NEW REPUBLIC. Lives disrupted by the twenty-two year GALACTIC CIVIL WAR could now be restored. Families could thrive, representational government could be reinstated, and the army could finally stand down.

But a darkness still lingered. The GALACTIC EMPIRE was not entirely destroyed, and its leaders vowed to rise from the ashes of the defeat at Endor.

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PROLOGUE

Grand Moff Randd narrowed his eyes at the wall of flames spewing from an auxiliary launch bay on the Death Star. His heart thumped, beating irregularly, while a fireball erupted from the thermal exhaust port on the space station's axis.

Images of his wife, children, and grandchildren battered his mind. Has it only been two rotations since the Emperor called me back to the fleet? Since he imprisoned my family at Wobani?

Sweat glistened on Randd's brow as blue electricity sparked across the dish of the Death Star's superlaser. For one brief second, a white light flashed, mutating to snaking purple pulses enveloping the unfinished sphere in an eerie charge.

"All power to forward deflectors," Randd said from the bridge of the Star Destroyer Coercer.

Captain Deontah echoed the command to the officers. "All power to forward deflectors." The tall twenty-something captain smoothed her dark tunic and adjusted her cap while keeping eyes on her novice crew.

Good job controlling your fear, Deontah. Randd looked around the bridge at his crew. They're all too young. If the defeat at Yavin hadn't depleted our officer core, if Tarkin had reigned in his ego and used his brain for once, we wouldn't be promoting teens to lieutenants and ensigns to captains.

A white ring of gas erupted a mere moment before the Death Star incinerated into an orange fireball, annihilating snub fighters, shuttles, and even capital ships in its path. The detonation shook the bridge and tossed Randd against the bulkhead. His face drained as the inferno blasted a million lives into oblivion.

He gulped down the churning bile as the orange blaze transformed to white. Debris caught in Endor's gravity hurtled toward the tiny moon and burned up in the atmosphere. Vader, the Emperor—they're gone. He glanced around the bridge, his pulse thumping in his ears.

Warnings from the pit crew came fast and frequent.

"Losing life support on decks one through twenty-eight, ma'am."

The aftershock rocked the Coercer.

"Fires reported in primary docking bay and medbay eight, Captain."

The smell of fear and the bustle of panic overwhelmed him. Who's left? Piett's gone. Sloane's there. The Star Destroyer Vigilance still beamed on his display. The Vehement and the Subjugator—damaged but maintaining life support.

His shoulders tensed as the weight of the Empire fell to his shoulders, the last surviving governor of this great enterprise. How will we—

An A-wing fighter zoomed past the bridge viewport.

Two ensigns in the starboard pit cast worried gazes to each other. Lieutenant Heysla, a heavy-set human from Kuat, said to the pit crew, "Attend to your duties."

The lieutenant huffed as he rested his hands on his waist.

Assessing the damage, Randd turned to the viewport once more.

He twisted to the duty pit, a command on the tip of his tongue.

"Sir, the starboard stabilizers are not responding. Ship is approaching free-fall limits." Ensign Woodlawr's voice shook.

Randd swiveled his head to the young officer.

Heysla opened a channel to engineering. "Chief, what in blazes is going on? Get that stabilizer responding now."

A cacophony of shouts, alarms, and fire suppression units muffled the chief's response. "Lost our aft shields, sir. All personnel—"

The screen switched from engineering to a damage report. The rear quarter of the lower decks broke off with jagged edges, blown away by a Rebel frigate.

Lieutenant Heysla's mouth dropped. "Captain, engineering's gone."

Deontah hurried to Heysla's display. Only the sweat glistening on her ebony brow and the incessant smoothing of her uniform betrayed her fear. The ship quaked once more, tossing the pit officers to the deck.

With a practiced tranquility amid chaos, the captain said, "Activate fire control systems. Shut the blast doors from section E-41 onward. Open all hatches in the affected compartments. Scramble auxiliary crews."

"Yes, ma'am!" Heysla turned back to his pit crew. "You heard the captain. Let's get those blast doors secured and open those hatches."

With widened eyes, Ensign Shartrem said, "But, sir, any survivors will be sucked into space."

Heysla growled while leaning over the frightened youth. "If I have to activate the controls myself, you will join them, Shartrem."

The ensign shuddered and returned to her station. "Yes, sir."

Randd's lip quivered when the hatches sealed. Too many good men. Too many. He slammed his fist against the bulkhead.

Deontah climbed out of the pit and joined Randd at the viewport. "Sir, the Rebels aren't retreating." She steadied herself against the bulkhead as yet another TIE fighter crashed onto the hull. "If we don't pull out soon, there won't be a fleet left. Permission to issue a retreat?"

As she spoke, an A-wing careened past the bridge and blasted fire. A TIE fighter pursued the snub fighter, but a B-wing came from behind and took him out in a ball of fire.

Small ships dodged between the capital ships—some on suicide runs, some on strafing passes. The Rebel squadrons milled throughout the Imperial fleet while the Calamari cruisers barraged the star destroyers at point-blank range.

The Coercer shuddered with each hit from the heavy guns, and klaxons sounded as yet another compartment lost hull integrity.

Randd drew his brows together and tapped his forefingers on his lips as he weighed his options. He looked around him at the squealing alerts. Some of the displays reported the Coercer's damage, while others showed the devastation to the rest of the fleet—too many star destroyers ghosted out as lost vessels.

He opened a communication channel to the entire fleet. He cleared his throat. "This is Grand Moff Randd. I am in command now. Disengage. All craft, retreat. Again, all craft, retreat. Transmitting rendezvous coordinates. Randd out."

Let's hope the fire didn't get to the hyperdrive motivators. The destroyer shuddered twice and then burst into hyperspace. He sighed as the blue streaks streamed past the viewport.

Long live the Empire.

Those vessels capable of lightspeed headed to the naval shipyards on Kuat. The others ... well, their crews would be much older by the time they reached home—if they ever did.

How will the Empire survive without an Emperor? His reflection stared at him in the bridge viewport. Then again, who says we need one?

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Did you know …

● Major plot points are typed in all caps in some of the title crawls of the Star Wars films.

• In the original trilogy of the Star Wars saga, opening scenes always started with the Imperials. I follow the tradition in this book.

● Grand Moff Randd was the highest-ranked surviving Imperial after the Battle of Endor.

● Hyperdrives were positioned deep in the center of star destroyers, not on the same deck as engineering.

● Claudia Gray wrote an excellent Star Wars novel called Lost Stars that follows the Imperial POV from before the Battle of Yavin until the Battle of Jakku. (My favorite published Star Wars book [new canon].)

● Are you lost? Not sure what's going on? Not a Star Wars fan but need to or want to read my book? Head to the end of this book and read the three appendices that summarize the original trilogy of films (complete with image strips). Do yourself a favor, though, skip the timeline at the end of this book until you're done reading the novel. You don't want spoilers. The cast list at the front should help you identify some of the characters, as well.

● Leaving a comment on each chapter is extremely important for popularity of a story—not to mention your author's heart. Please don't be a silent reader. React to the book as you read. I love reading comments. I have left you some questions below to get you started, but feel free to leave your own thoughts as well. (However, trolls will be blocked.)

● Save it to your library and a public reading list, too. Those actions will help it rank as well.

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Tell me what you think …

● Were you able to visualize the bridge of the Coercer as the damage hit?

● What emotions were you feeling as you read the scene?