The Legion Renewed
Chapter Twenty-Six
Luke had the dream again. Palpatine, finding him, taking him over, possessing him. And then…this time, there was more. Briande. Her face streaked with tears. Her lightsaber raised to strike. Striking. Killing him. Releasing him from the Darkness. Destroying the Darkness.
Luke awoke, felt Briande shivering in his arms, knew that she was awake, too.
"You saw it, didn't you?" she whispered.
"Yes," Luke replied. "All of it. My vision, and yours."
"Palpatine?"
"Yes. Did you see it?"
"I saw…Darkness. Cold."
Luke nodded. "And then you saw it in me."
"Yes, but…I don't understand. You said there's always a choice."
"I don't understand it, either. There is always the choice."
"Then why-?"
"I don't know. But it has something to do with destroying Palpatine for good. I think he's a Traveler, Brie. Just like Ben and Yoda. I think that just before his body died, his spirit left. Left and found someone else's body to inhabit. And I think we-you and I-have the chance to destroy him once and for all, to keep his Darkness from becoming as powerful as it once was."
"By killing you?"
"Yes. I don't understand it, but that's what I saw. There's something else you should know. I know the Emperor's soul. I saw it, just for a second. During the Battle of Endor, I was his prisoner. He very nearly turned me to the Dark Side. But that brief glimpse was enough to turn me back."
"How?"
"Because I saw what he would destroy if he won."
"What was that?"
"What do I love, Brie? More than anything else?"
"You love love," she said simply.
Luke nodded. "I love love. I love the feeling I got from Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. I love the feeling I get from Leia, although we were never as close as you and your sister. I love the feeling I got from Ben. I love the feeling I get when I see Han and Leia look at each other. And most of all, I love this feeling that I have with you. Palpatine would have taken that away from me. He would have replaced every feeling of love I ever had or would have with hatred and anger. That's what I saw from Palpatine, and why, ultimately, he couldn't turn me. This feeling I have with you-this feeling-" he pounded his chest, once, "-is worth dying for. And I can honestly tell you, I happen to like living, especially when I'm with you. But Palpatine would destroy this feeling-will destroy it, if he can-and that, for me, would be far worse than death."
Luke was breathing hard when he finished talking. It was the most impassioned speech he ever gave, and he meant every word, every syllable. He hoped he got through to Briande.
"If you're dead, so are your feelings."
Luke smiled. "No. Love survives. More than anything else, it's love that survives." He wiped the tears off her cheeks with his thumbs and kissed where they had been. "Brie, if it ever comes to a point where you would have to choose for me, make the choice I would want you to make right now. Will you promise that for me?"
"I can't, Luke."
His ice-blue eyes pierced her. "Yes, you can. We both know you can. Because if you don't, this vision-gift will be wasted."
"Gift!" she spat derisively.
"Yes, gift. This vision is a gift, because it's preparing us for what we have to do."
"I don't think anything could ever prepare me for that."
Luke smiled again and wrapped his arms around her, savoring the warmth of her against him, both physically and through the Force. "I guess we'll see," he murmured, and kissed her hair.