I just wanted to announce that this story is also on Archive of Our Own, under the same username and title.
I'm considering writing about the AU that the Skywalkers and co. come from. I could write it as a series of one-shots that is separate to this story, or I can write them as part of the story as in-between acton chapters. If you have a preference, please let me know in the reviews!
Enjoy!
Just a side note: for clarity purposes, I've decided that in speech only will I be using the fake names. In thoughts, the Luke and Leia from canon will be in italics.
Before today, Luke Ruwee Skywalker had thought he'd seen it all. As the son and padawan of one of the Order's most powerful and well-known Jedi (not to mention a member of the Jedi High Council), Luke had been to more planets and systems than he could count, always at his uncle's side, and almost always accompanied by his father, Leia and Aunt Ahoska (although the latter two were not always planned or Council sanctioned).
Today quickly changed that mentality. It only took Luke a couple minutes in the Alliance base to know that it was something completely different than what he had ever experienced before, even while on Republic cruisers and flying starfighters. Although the Clone Wars had ended, there had been a few uprisings over the years, and Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Luke, and Leia (or "The Five" as the media liked to call them) had been sent on several occasions to settle the situation.
Luke didn't think anything could've prepared him for this though. Already, this new world was proving to be more of a challenge than any other mission, perhaps combined. It was a galaxy without democracy, a world run by tyrants. It was a galaxy where the weak and innocent suffered and were without hope. Most importantly, however, it was a galaxy where his parents were dead and his sister and he had been raised apart with no knowledge of the other.
Luke didn't know what he would be like without his family. They were always there for him, especially Leia. The twins always turned to each other for help, even before going to their parents. It was Leia who'd managed to help him when he'd crash-landed on Dagobah a few years ago. Luke was there (snickering in the background) when Leia was infuriated by a captain who helped The Five on a mission after Anakin had wrecked (yet another) ship and was able to calm his sister down. (Although now that he thought of it, that man had looked an awful lot like Han Solo.)
Suddenly, Luke heard his mother and sister gasp and looked up, pulled out of his thoughts. To his utter surprise, there was a blueish figure standing in the middle of the room. Luke recognized it as a Force Ghost. Once or twice he had seen the ghost of Qui-Gon Jinn, Uncle Obi's master. He had been there on a few occasions, ranging from when the twins became padawans to Luke's unexpected trip to Dagobah.
This Force Ghost was an old bearded man who wore Jedi robes. Luke felt like he should know the figure, but he couldn't put his finger on why until his father cried out.
"Master?!" The ghost smiled.
"Hello, old friend. It certainly has been a long time." If "Obi-Wan" hadn't confirmed it, Luke wouldn't've recognized the man. He had aged a lot more than the Uncle Obi that he knew. His beard was a lot longer, his hair a lot more unkept. His eyes, however, were the same eyes that Luke had grown up knowing. Padme, as usual, was the first in the family to recover from the shock.
"Thank you, Obi-Wan. The Luke of this timeline told us that you spent almost 20 years on Tatooine with him. I can only assume that you did so in order to protect him. Thank you." The ghost (Ben, Luke decided) gave Padme a small smile. Uncle Obi also smiled.
"Well I know that if I was put in that situation I would certainly do my best to protect not only Luke but Leia as well. Am I right to assume that you had something to do with the fate of both twins?" At this, Ben laughed.
"Oh how I've miss you, senator. How I've miss all of you." Before anything else could be said, however, the door opened and there stood Luke, Leia, and Han, all of whom stared at Ben with mouths agape.
"Ben? Is that really you? How can you be here?" Unlike Luke, Luke appeared to be in shock at seeing the old Jedi Master. Luke guessed that this mean his counterpart had never seen a Force Ghost before. Leia appeared to recover a lot quicker than her companions.
"General Kenobi, is what they say true? Are Luke and I twins?" The look on Ben's face gave the princess her answer. She nodded, accepting this revelation. Luke, however, looked upset and angry at the confirmation.
"Why didn't you tell me? You knew that it was Leia who left the message in R2. You knew that my sister might very well die, but you didn't tell me. Has my whole life been just one big lie? My aunt and uncle didn't tell me the truth as to who my father was. Before today I didn't even know my mother's name. Three years ago on Tatooine, when R2 came to you with the message from Leia, you pretended that you didn't know who she was. You didn't tell me that she was my sister right then and there. When I resisted going to Alderaan with you, you didn't tell me. You don't think that telling me that my sister was in danger would have caused me to want to go help her? If we had acted sooner, we could've found the Jawas sooner. We might have been able to save Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. We might have been able to save Alderaan!" As he talked, Luke's voice grew steadily louder until he was almost shouting at Ben. The ghost just stood and took the verbal abuse, letting Luke get his emotions out. When he was done, Leia looked like she had just realized something.
"You knew the whole time, didn't you. You knew who Luke and I were. You knew that we were twins. You probably had a hand in our separation." Ben's guilty look only fueled the princess's anger.
"Did my parents know? Does High Command know? They've already guessed who Luke is, but did they already know and just pretend to not? WHO KNEW?" Leia screamed the last sentence, and Luke wondered how no one had come to check if everything was alright. Given the princess's temper (which matched Leia's exactly), it was likely that it was common enough that she was shouting that it did not cause suspicion. Ben gave Luke and Leia apologetic looks. Luke however, recognized his face to be the one that Uncle Obi used in negotiation when he wasn't giving everything away. The ghost was still hiding something.
"When the two of you were born, I was there. As you both probably know, you were born two days after The Empire rose. Well the day The Empire rose is also the day that your father died. I was with your mother at the time, and managed to get her to safely to Polis Massa, and we were met by Bail Organa and Yoda. The med droids did what they could, but without Anakin, your mother had lost the will to live. She lived long enough to give birth and name the two of you, then she died.
"After much discussion, Bail, Yoda and I agreed that it would be best to separate the two of you for your protection. Yoda exiled himself to Dagobah, and Bail took you, Leia, home with him to Alderaan, telling all but Breha that you were a war orphan. Meanwhile I took you, Luke, to Owen and Beru. I told them that you were Anakin and Padme's son, but they did not know of Leia. The fewer people who knew of either of you, the better. Only those who were there when you were born, that is Yoda, Bail and myself, knew that Padme gave birth to twins. Your mother was buried on Naboo, and everyone believed that her child had died with her."
Luke couldn't believe what he was hearing. This timeline was proving to be just full of more and more bad news. He looked to his family, and they all had shocked and heartbroken expressions on their faces, which Luke was sure he also had. When he looked to his counterpart, however, he saw that Luke, Leia, and Han were more mad than surprised.
"So we were both lied to our whole lives. Why? For what purpose? Why did we have to be separated at all?" for the first time, the princess's hard professional exterior broke, and Luke could see that she was falling apart inside.
"You two are the only ones able to stop Vader and the emperor. You're our only hope." This was the wrong thing to say.
"So that's all we are to you. We're just weapons for you to use in your religious war agains the Sith. We're just pawns in your game. I know the ways of the Jedi, General. My father made sure I was well versed in them, despite our situation. If I remember correctly, the Jedi are against all attachment to others, against emotion itself. The Jedi were not allowed to marry or have a family. This was taken to the point of children being taken from their parents at 2 or the species equivalent to be raised in the Temple on Coruscant. While many thought the Jedi to be protectors and peacekeepers, others, mostly those whose children had been taken by the Jedi, saw them as nothing more than self-righteous beings who took children from their parents.
"You cannot imagine how disappointed your revelation had made me feel, Master Jedi. My father always held you in high value, and as a result so did I. But what I've just learned as made me question not only where I come from, which is something I could have handled, but the morals of The Jedi Order. It has made me wonder what sort of Republic could allow the Jedi to have so many freedoms. It has made me rethink bringing the Republic back as it was. It has made me realize that while The Empire is horrific and needs to be destroyed, The Republic as it was cannot be reinstated but needs to be revised." And with that, Princess Leia Organa turned on her heel and left the room.
Ben made to follow the princess, but Luke got in his way. Seeing that Ben was a ghost, Luke couldn't actually stop the man, but Ben stopped anyway.
"Don't you think you've done enough already? She doesn't want to see you. And to be honest, I don't blame her. Stay away from her. Actually, stay away from both of us.
"You lied to me, Ben. You made me believe that the only difference between a Jedi and a normal person was training and an ability to use The Force. You didn't tell me that my father had been forbidden from loving my mother or that their marriage was a secret. When Uncle Owen told me that Obi-Wan Kenobi was dead, I thought it was his tactic to keep me form going to you because he thought you were just a crazy old man trying to relive the glory days. Now I think he might have been partially right. Was everything you told me that day a tactic to try and get me to follow you? Did you ever care about me at all? Or do you only see me as a replacement of my father?" Luke left the room, going the opposite direction of his sister. Luke could barely register what had just happened. Uncle Obi raised an eyebrow at his counterpart.
"I take it you didn't play nearly as large of a part in the twins' lives as I did." To everyone's surprise, Han started laughing. It was a hollow laugh with no humor in it.
"Oh that's great, coming from you. You know, when I took you and Luke on the Falcon, I never expected to be involved in anything other than a quick freighting job. I didn't expect to be involved in the Rebellion, I didn't expect to become friends with those two. But I did, and do you wanna know why? Because of you. Because someone had to be there for them, but no one was. But you should've been. You should've been there."
Ben opened his mouth to speak, but Han wouldn't let him. Suddenly Han Solo, someone who Luke had taken to be a relatively calm man, was shouting, no, screaming at Ben.
"You weren't there, old man. You weren't there with Leia for the weeks after destroying The Death Star, when any little thing could remind her of her parents, which in turn would cause her to break down crying. And when I mean her parents I mean Bail and Breha, because like Luke she was lied to her whole life about her parentage. You weren't there when she came to Luke and I in the middle of the night because she couldn't bear to be alone with her thoughts. You weren't there the countless times she's cried herself to sleep. She lost her entire planet. Everyone that she grew up with and loved is dead.
"You weren't there for Luke when he realized what destroying The Death Star actually entailed. You weren't there when he broke down realizing that he had killed a quarter of a million beings in the name of saving billions. In one minute, he had more blood on his hands than the rest of the Rebellion combined. You weren't there when he broke down because in the rapidness of events the fact that his aunt and uncle were murdered didn't sink in. You didn't see the horror on his face when he remembered seeing their charred and burned skeletons. You weren't there when he realized that he had been lied to his entire life about who he was and where he came form. That his aunt and uncle knew who his father was but kept it from him. You weren't there when he realized that he didn't know who he was anymore.
"You weren't there for the memorial service we held after Yavin. It was for all those who died in the battle as well as all those of Alderaan. We even included your sorry ass and their aunt and uncle. You didn't see the looks on their faces, realizing that it was harder to be a survivor than not.
"You. Weren't. There. They look like strong leaders now, but three years ago, they were just two scared teenagers who lost everything. I was the one who was there for them, I was the one who supported them and challenged anyone who crossed them. Because you weren't. Just like you weren't there to save their father. In fact, you trained the man that killed him." And with that, Han Solo left the room in pursuit of his friends, leaving the room behind him stunned to silence.
In continuation of the top author's note (I didn't want to give away that I brought Old Ben in so early) canon Obi Wan will be thought of as Ben to all characters and AU Obi-Wan will stay Obi-Wan, or Uncle Obi to AU Luke and Leia, and sometimes General Kenobi to canon Leia.
Leia's views on the Jedi reflect my own. I feel that Bail would have at least given her a little information on the Jedi once Leia was old enough to not talk about it in public.
I personally have no clue where that Han Solo rant came from. Probably just my inner thoughts about some stuff that came out in Han. We only see the good, mostly happy times in Star Wars. We have the Empire presented to us as heartless people. We don't see that most of them were innocent bystanders.
This chapter was longer than I anticipated, but hey, it's getting me more ideas for what I want to do with this story. There was a huge amount of dialogue in this chapter. That kinda just happened.
Please let me know what you think of this darker turn in the story. Like it? Love it? Hate it? Not sure yet?