"Kira...?" It took her a moment. The name meant nothing to her at first, but then it was like a curtain was raised and memories came rolling in. Luke watched the recognition come across her face and couldn't help but feel a little...pride. Proud at Kira's obvious skill, but more in his sister's ability to break through it. "Oh...Luke... How?"
"She went willingly..." He recognized the confusion on her face and continued, "She...she was hoping that... She hoped that she could be enough. To distract Snoke from coming after Ben. After..." A pause. "She is hoping she can hep us – help Ben – from that side."
Leia still seemed confused, again picking and choosing from a torrent of questions. "Why... How did she think she could...?"
"There is more to Kira than you know." He paused again and leaned forward – part confidant, part storyteller. "Back during the Clone Wars, Palpatine hired a bounty hunter to beak into the Jedi temple on Coruscant and steal a holocron. The Jedi retrieved the holocron – still sealed – and moved on. Except it wasn't the same one from the library – it was a copy meant to make the Jedi believe it hadn't been opened."
"And...on the holocron..."
"Names. Hundreds...thousands of names of Force-sensitive children. Children who would one day be invited to become a Jedi."
"What would Palpatine want with..."
The ideas passed over her face like words in a book. He hesitated in telling her she was right...
"No one knew at the time... There's only two incidents the Jedi recorded of children being abducted. One, shortly after the holocron incident, by the same bounty hunter. Another a few years before the Battle of Yavin. Both cases – Jedi were successful in returning the children to their parents."
"I still don't- Kira...Kira was one of those children?"
"One of the unknown number of children the Emperor managed to...gather. We've always thought that the Sith worked in pairs – a master and an apprentice. Whatever the Emperor's views and ideas were publicly, his personal plans..."
They both sat, each pondering the implications of an Emperor with more plots than what were already known...
How much of that the First Order had at their disposal...
"How did she..." Leia wasn't sure how to ask...or if she wanted to know the answer.
"Transport crash of all things." He couldn't help but smile at the...ordinariness of it. "She was maybe, 10... Age for Kira is a bit...well...if Palpatine was searching for a way to cheat aging, he missed out when she disappeared. As far as she could remember, it was a simple move from one secret base to another. The pilot had been involved in a skirmish earlier and then sent on this transit – just tired. Ran into a small shuttle, both crashed and she was the only survivor."
He paused, realizing the haze was still hanging on some memories. He couldn't help but realize – eradicating herself from the thoughts of everyone who knew her...it was probably second nature. "She scrapped by, odd jobs here and there. Travelled. The whole time she had to fight the dark that had been...instilled in her. At some point, she ran across a group of rebels. A few Jedi where included. One of them – a Togruta – took her in, said she could help. That she'd been in a...similar situation once."
He went silent, knowing Leia knew the rest of the story. He and Kira ended on similar paths – tracking down the history of a people they barely knew, but seemed to belong.
"How...how was she able to...?"
Luke turned to his sister and saw a look of subtle awe on her face. He could practically read the question – they both knew the emperor. Had both seen the devastating effects of the dark side. Had both felt the pull...
How could someone raised surrounded by, absorbing it into themselves, practically from birth, turn into the the caring, sweet woman Luke had fallen in love with?
"She didn't get rid of it. It's not quite...possible... I think..." He took a moment, trying to find the right words. "She...accepted it. Accepted that she had dark in her. But that that didn't mean she couldn't have light too. She...she found a balance."
Again, the twins fell silent, their thoughts following the same thread. So similar, there was no need for them to speak.
If someone so dark could find light...could find balance...
...there was hope another gone dark could come back...