After the Storm
Across the galaxy, trillions of beings cheered.
From distant Endor to the very center of civilization known as Coruscant, the denizens of various planets and races celebrated the final downfall of Sheev Palpatine and his forces. Never again would the Dark Lord and his legions of Sith loyalists such as the First Order trouble the independent worlds of the reorganized and reinvigorated Republic, by now taking on the name of the "Galactic Federation of Free Alliances"
While the Galactic Alliance committed itself to hunt down the last remnants of Sidious' "Dark Empire", the celebratory mood was the furthest thing on the mind of one certain human woman, currently tucked away in the corner of a local Mos Eisley cantina.
As the twin suns of Tatooine beat down relentlessly on the domain of Clan Fett, Mira Wren-Bridger could not help but wonder about the future of the galaxy. Her father and mother had helped free the galaxy from Old Imperial control over thirty years prior to this moment, and now here the galaxy was again. How many times would it be before the citizens of the galaxy learned to wipe out every trace and remnant of the Sith?
The woman of twenty-five years took another sip of her Jawa juice. It was by the will of the Force that her father, Jedi Master Ezra Bridger, had taken it upon himself to help rescue and train Grandmaster Luke's surviving students, with the assistance of the wise and elderly Ahsoka Tano and other secret surviving Jedi. And her mother, Countess Sabine Wren, had been instrumental in convincing the reigning Mand'alor, King Din Grogu, in aiding the Free Armada at the climactic Battle of Exegol. But all of this could have been prevented well beforehand… if that traitor Kylo Ren had simply made the right choice.
She did not know how he died, but one thing she thought was for certain was that the galaxy was well rid of Ben Solo - a turn cloak who had borne a hero's name. An elitist runt who had relentlessly bullied her during her brief stay at Luke's Jedi Academy.
Speaking of Skywalkers…
Mira looked and frowned out the crumpled note that she had taken out of her pocket – a request to meet in person by one Cade Skywalker, the son of the late Luke and Mara, at the old abandoned Lars homestead about thirty kilometers west of Mos Eisley.
As she took one final sip and tossed the droid bartender a credit chip, she reflected on what she knew of Cade. She had seen him only briefly before when everybody had gotten back to the Resistance Base to celebrate their well-earned victory. He looked much like what her father had described Luke looking like when they were young men – tall, blonde, rugged-good looks, and clean-shaven save for a goatee and mustache combination.
Her friend Amber had filled her in on the details, as the pilot was now betrothed to the last male Skywalker. He was of a character more brash and snarky than his father was, quick to irritation and comebacks, but he was also kind and generous, much like his famous fore-bearers. During the battle of Exegol, he had stabbed Palpatine in the back of the leg with an old Sith dagger, allowing Rey to vanquish him once and for all.
However, from what Amber had told her, his actions did not come without cost. His right hand, which had held the dagger, had practically melted off as a result of the dark energy surrounding the resurrected Emperor, requiring a biomechanical prosthetic replacement.
A proud tradition in the Skywalker family, it seemed.
The daughter of Clan Wren hurried her way out of the cantina and towards a local speed bike rental shop. As the twin suns of this world began to begin their waning afternoon descent, Mira quickened the pace. Though she might be Lothalian by blood, she had no desire to bake under the intense Tatooinian heat.
After what felt like hours of walking, she reached the rental shop. Paying the store clerk a few credits for a day's ride on a decent bike, she hoped on the speeder, revved up the engine, and sped her way out of the city, intent on going to an old farmstead just twenty kilometers west of Anchorhead.
It was late evening by the time she got to the old farmstead. She suppressed a grimace as she looked around – all she saw was an ancient, burned-out hovel and broken-down moisture evaporator vanes. She had heard stories about how the Lars family was massacred here by Imperial stormtroopers over thirty-five years ago, but it was another seeing the scars of devastation echo through the Force.
Past the burnt-out hovel and courtyard was kneeling a familiar figure. Young, in his twenties, wearing clothes typical for an Outer Rim gunslinger, and sandy-haired. But what was most striking about him was just how strongly the Force radiated off of him – she was strong in the Force, as was her father and auntie Ahsoka, but Cade? He was like a blinding sun, a powerful beam of light that overtook all other presences.
She exhaled a dry breath, parched from the torturous heat of this planet, and walked up to him.
He did not need to turn around. He had already sensed her as soon as she had him and greeted her in a polite, yet curt, manner.
"Mira," he said, at last getting up and turning around. "It's good to see you."
"Likewise, Cade," she greeted back. "It's been a while since I've seen you around."
Cade nodded, then sighed, "So, do you know why you're out here?"
Mira shook her head. "Not really. Amber only told me that we needed to meet here, and I sensed there's something on your chest."
Cade nodded and looked at his feet. "Mira… I know that you and Ben have never been friends…" he began before she cut him off.
"Never been friends? Cade, he insulted my heritage and my people when I was younger. He slaughtered everyone who called him a friend! He destroyed your father's Academy! For kriff's sake, he murdered his own dad in cold blood! Yeah, that piece of sheb was never my friend, and if it hadn't been for my parents, I'd have killed that kriffing son of a bitch when we fought on Kobhola!" she yelled, her distaste for Kylo Ren still strong nearly seven years later. Jedi may let go of grudges, but a Mandalorian always remembered slights.
Cade sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I know my cousin did you a lot of wrongs. My own mother died fighting the First Order. My father abandoned me in shame over everything that happened. But for Force's sake, Mira! At least listen to what I have to say before you go off on another conniption fit!" he snapped. Mira, for her part, glared in silence but nodded for him to continue his story.
"Well...where do I begin…" he started, looking off towards the hovel, "It was after Rey and Finn had discovered that wayfinder on the ruins of the Death Star. After they relayed everyone the coordinates to Exegol, I traveled with Rey to that cursed planet… it was nothing like I ever saw or felt. The presence of the dark side there was so overpowering I nearly passed out. Rey told me to wait outside, or else the plan would have been foiled as Sidious would have sensed us both. She handed me the dagger and went inside. A while after that, Ben came by in our grandfather's old TIE fighter. He was changed from the angry, violent man I once knew. He had a… calm determination to him, an intent to right all his wrongs. He seemed genuinely regretful, and we had a brief talk. The last thing he did was give me a hug, and he told me that he was sorry for everything he did. That he couldn't have asked for a better cousin."
Realization dawned on Mira, then. "You...never gave up on him...did you?"
Cade shook his head. "Neither I nor Rey did. You never give up on family I rushed in after them, with the dagger in my hand. That citadel...was the most disturbing place I've ever seen. I don't think I'll ever comprehend just what Palpatine was doing in there, and I'm not sure if I even want to understand. At any rate, I came to the throne room. The battle was raging overhead, and Sheev and Rey were locked into battle. She was using my aunt's and grandfather's lightsabers to absorb Palpatine's lightning. She was holding on, but it was apparent that Sidious was gaining the upper hand. Without thinking, I ran forward, and jammed that dagger into the back of his leg...and burned myself in the process. That gave her enough of an opening to deflect the lightning back at him, and finally kill that bastard and all his cultists," he said, his voice shaking as he remembered what he saw next. "When I awoke...I saw the body of my cousin, being held in Rey's arms before he vanished into the Force. The only thing that remained of him were these…" he spoke, producing two lightsabers. One was very familiar to her – it was the weapon constructed and built by Master Luke. The other was more vague, but if she had to hazard a guess, it was one that had belonged to General Leia.
Mira found herself unable to speak for a while. She had thought that someone like Kylo was incapable of atonement. No, she realized, someone like Ben. Ben had rejected Kylo and had been willing to sacrifice himself for Rey in order to ensure that Palpatine never came to tyrannize the galaxy again.
She thought back to the day after the battle. As there had been a celebration, there had also been mourning. While the galaxy might have cheered, those who fought remembered the losses to get to that victory. Freedom was always nourished on the blood of both tyrants and liberators, after all, but that never made the deaths any easier to stomach.
Finally finding the will to speak, she looked at her boots. "I...I don't know if I can ever forgive your cousin for everything. It might not be my place too. But whatever I can forgive him for, I do," she told Cade, and she meant it. It might be the Mandalorian way to always remember wrong, but it was the Jedi mantra to let go of the past. And if nothing else, she valued both sides of her heritage deeply.
Cade nodded, relief was visible on his face. No words were needed to thank her. Instead, he grasped her hand firmly in a shake, and she returned the favor.
The daughter of Krownest and Lothal then looked at the two lightsabers Cade had begun wrapping in a white linen cloth. He then walked over to a spot near a few worn gravestones, one of which read "Shmi Skywalker. Beloved wife and mother"
"The graves of my family," Cade mused aloud, as Mira came to stop beside him in front of the burial site. "Beginning with my great-grandmother, and going to my great-aunt and great-uncle. I would have buried my grandfather's helmet here, had it not been completely destroyed on Kojimi, but at least I can lay my father and aunt to rest," he said. He knelt down beside the largest gravestone, and using the Force, excavated a burial for the lightsabers. Placing the wrapped blades in the newly dug hole, he poured the sandy earth back over it, committing them back to the Skywalker ancestral home, where they would remain forevermore, barring a time when the need should arise of them once more. The two Jedi knelt in complete, reverent silence, letting the air be still in meditative peace for a while until Mira turned to him.
"What about your own blade?" Mira asked him
To that, Cade unclipped a familiar metal cylinder from his belt. "This blade," he began, "was built by my grandfather nearly sixty years ago, and it's seen much. I decided to make it my own, and bonded with the kyber crystal within." With that, he activated the blade, and instead of the famous blue tone, it now produced a shimmering yellow, similar to Mira's own swords. "It's funny," he mused, "all that effort Palpatine spent in trying to wipe us out, and he could never fully extinguish the flame."
Mira nodded. "And now he's gone, and with him the Sith. But there will be other evils across our galaxy, and beyond it. The Mandalorians and the Galactic Alliance do what they can, but they can only do so much."
"Then it is time for the Jedi Order to rise once more and protect this galaxy from all the dangers that threaten it," Cade declared.
Mira smiled. "My dad is way ahead of you on that one, and he even has the perfect place picked out for us. An old big pyramid on a certain famous fourth moon orbiting Yavin…"
Cade smiled back at her, and together they turned to face the setting suns, both ready to face whatever the galaxy had to throw at them, as part of the first generation of the New Jedi Order.
A/N: Henlo! It is I, ya favorite gal!
I did this piece as a commission for my dear friend, 320sammnaz, as part of a collaboration within Meldy-Arts' "Miraverse". Though I'm not too big a fan of the Sequels myself, I gotta say I love how this turned out, myself.
Also, being the Game of Thrones nerd I am, I put a little reference in there for ya! Guess what it is!
Till next time! 3