Signs of Life
By JalendaviLady
Chapter 18
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Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars.
If you recognize any characters, locations, or things in the following story, George Lucas owns them.
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The world was warm and soft and comfortable, with just enough light to not make him have to wake up...
"Morning, Brother."
Luke opened one eye slightly, then closed it again. Different room. "Morning, Leia," he mumbled.
"How're you feeling?"
"'m tired, and the IVs itch."
She sat down next to him and started trailing her fingers through his hair. "I missed you," she whispered.
"I missed you too. Being held incomunicado by the medics..." He shuddered.
"We all missed you."
"Where am I?"
"Suite in the medcenter. Father's in one of the other rooms, but he doesn't usually start moving around until after lunch. He moved in there yesterday."
"How's he doing?"
"Better than anyone would have dreamed. And he's been worried about you."
"And emotionally?"
"He was really grumpy yesterday, compared to how he has been. I don't think he got much sleep, and something was bothering him. He wouldn't talk about it."
Brother and sister cuddled close, basking in each other's Force and physical presences.
"Leia?" Luke whispered.
"Hmm?"
"Tell me about Mom again. Please?"
...
Anakin groaned and tried to ignore the not-so-subtle shift of the room lights from night-dim to day-bright. Have to find some way to remove that later. Too much like it was... before. The entire Jedi Temple had been wired to have such lighting changes, even in the medcenter rooms of those honored fighters rendered permanently incapacitated or even comatose by their injuries.
Need... sleep... Two sleepless or near-sleepless nights in a row, thanks to worrying about that shed bond. I can't raise a child or train one. Me, breaker of the Jedi Code, teaching its lessons to an impressionable mind? Even if I hadn't followed Palpatine... I'm not suited to teaching. I'd do something wrong... accidentally introduce her to simple knowledge that the Dark Side even exists too early...
And you'd be more able to sense her leaning towards danger than most others of your generation, Anakin,a somewhat-familiar voice responded.
Why'd you say that? Not trying to be disrespectful or anything, and I'm appreciative of the heads-up on that attack last week, but she's got better chances not being trained at all than she does training with me. And who are you, anyway?
Oh, you've heard of me, I'm sure. There's some very nice invective against me in one volume of the Sith histories. Very nice invective against me in some of the Jedi histories, too. I'm one of the very few both lightside and darkside Force-users have railed against.
I still don't understand... I trained to be a fighter, not an historian, and researching anything having to do with darksiders... well, my suitemate Hannar got kitchen cleanup duty for months for daring to do a research paper on Exar Kun for an assignment on 'beings who shaped Republic history.' Claimed they were trying to teach him that even dabbling in knowledge of those the darkness had seduced was dangerous.
Is it, really?
Hannar was the first to die in the wave of strange Jedi murders and wrecked missions that preceded the Purge. He stood in defiance of Palpatine, knowing something was wrong. And knowing he was probably doomed to die for it.
So, learning OF the darkness can innoculate some Force-users FROM the darkness?
I suppose...
Tell me, Anakin, did you ever hear tell of a great female Jedi named Vima Sunrider in the generation that came to power after Kun's fall from it?
He's still trapped somewhere, isn't he?
Why do you think Palpatine was so angry after the first Death Star went boom? Tarkin had cost him his doomsday weapon and, had the attack on Yavin 4 been successful...
It was the Sith base in the Great War.
Kun's personal place of power. And it was where he was when he fell. I can tell you this, because what Hannar told you while he was working on that project and the little childhood rhymes he, Saman, and Kennet taught you from their disparate Force-strong culture is enough for you to have already drawn the conclusion yourself.
Kun built the temples on Yavin 4 to amplify the darkside.
Indeed.
And... oh, how did it go, it sounded so familiar when I first heard it... 'Kun's grave lies inside the stones.'
Destroying the temple his soul embedded itself in could set him loose.
So who are you?
Have you ever heard of Vima Sunrider?
Only that she was the greatest Jedi of her age, trained by a recluse from the Great War... ULIC?!? The guy who turned...
...while attempting to sabotage the Sith war machine and instead became second in the chain of command, then got blinded to the Force and shot in the back. Yeah, that Ulic. The only recorded Alderaanian-born Sith.
So why are you talking to me now?
Anakin, the girl you bonded to managed to fling a shed bond many lightyears away from herself with no prior training. You. Are. Her. Last. Hope. Give it a shot. You may have a gift for such teaching that you never knew you had.A wisp of a Force-embrace. Besides, who else can teach the next generation of Jedi? Luke won't be able to do it alone.
Because he isn't the 'Chosen One'?Anakin responded with a mental snort.
That prophesy is much more complicated than the version we Jedi wrote in our histories, Anakin, and as old as the Republic itself. But I can say no more, and stay no longer. You will find your answers, someday, when you are not looking for them. Goodbye for now, my fellow turncoat.
The 4,000-year old spirit left nearly as suddenly as he'd arrived, whisping away into the depths of the Force where the living do not go.
Anakin yawned and stretched, drawing on the Force in an attempt to gain some resemblance to something that might once have known untroubled sleep. Wouldn't do any good for Leia or Han to see me this frazzled. Or Luke... THEY ALREADY MOVED HIM!?!? Last night... I was awake and I didn't even notice... some father I am...
A Force-bop on the head from the next room, followed by a warm Force-embrace, tinged with sleepiness from a still awakening mind. Morning, Father.
Morning, Luke.He returned the Force-embrace, then slowly raised shields in the precise manner that in Jedi etiquette passed for a polite and respectful 'I want contact but I need privacy' message.
After getting ready for the day, he carefully stood, stumbled in a controlled manner towards the door, and continued stumbling until he reached Luke's door and leaned on the doorframe, out of sight from anyone in the room.
"...and that's all I remember. I'm sorry I can't tell you more, Luke, but I was so young... It's all bits and pieces and none of it seems to fit together. Even the snatches of lullaby I can remember come from 5 different worlds and at least one of them isn't even recorded as coming from anywhere and doesn't match any known style. I've looked. I don't know her name. I don't know what her homeworld is. I just know she's Mom."
They're talking about Padme. Do they really know that little?
He stuck his head around the door, stumbled in, and flopped down on Luke's other side. "Her name was Padme Naberrie and I thought she was the most beautiful thing in the galaxy to ever walk on two legs."
Something strange entered Leia's eyes. "The same woman as in the courtship horror stories all the young unattacted noblewomen have been stuck listening to for years?"
"Not sure, but probably. More than a few would have seized on everything that happened as an example of why not to marry below one's social level. Then again, some of the ladies in the Imperial court would probably considered unrefined but passable table manners as a reason not to marry below one's social level."
"If Aunt Celly, Aunt Rouge, and Aunt Tia knew the kinds of people I'm running around with now..."
"If your mother and those she chose as confidants and advisors were to know the kinds of people you surround yourself with, I think more than a few of them would be pleased with your choices, Leia. Some of them would have been very pleased indeed." He glanced down at Luke and smiled, holding his sleeping son a little closer.
Leia moved to carefully get up. Anakin gently put a hand on her arm. Just this once, no matter what the universe throws at us, let him have his surviving family around him.
She smiled and settled back down, yawning.
"So, what do you remember?"
"Her smile... the smell of her perfume... the sadness that never left her eyes. She wasn't bitter... just sad." She snuggled closer to her brother.
Anakin wrapped his arms around both of them, trying to hide the tears that slowly leaked out of his eyes. I wish you were here, Padme.