/AN/ I found this baby in the recesses of my documents, started long before The Rise of Skywalker's release. It is a celebration of my favorite Star War, the sequel trilogy. It's a trilogy that gets much hate from every direction, some well-deserved and some not, but which will always be the Star War that inspired me to begin telling stories. There is something so primal and magical in the mythology of the Force Awakens, especially. C'mon, seeing that movie in theaters for the first time sent you back to your wide-eyed childhood too, admit it! In this retelling, the first voice is a mother, and the second (in bold type) is a child. I imagine a boy of 9 or so. At the time of writing this (cir. 2018) I had it in mind that the mother was Rey, easing her and Ben Solo's child into the story of their friends' adventures and Ben's fall and rise. I had already decided that Ben's atonement and Reylo were imminent and I was sort of right? But they're obviously not having children in canon any time soon! So now, five years later, I think Rey is speaking to a padawan/adopted child, or perhaps it's you telling your baby! I wrote this in the spirit of a teenager looking forawrd to the days when she gets to pass on the intergal stories of her adolescence to her own children, and I hope you can read it in that same spirit. Enjoy!
"Rather than do some angry, socially relevant film…I realized there was another relevance that is even more important — dreams and fantasies, getting children to believe there is more to life than garbage and killing…Once I got into STAR WARS, it struck me that we had lost all that — a whole generation was growing up without fairy tales. You just don't get them anymore, and that's the best stuff in the world — adventures in far-off lands."
-George Lucas
Night One
I
There was once a girl who lived on a dry dessert planet, which was a ship graveyard. Broken pieces of ocean-sized ships covered the sand—fossils from a battle fought ages ago. There was a man, a cruel, greedy man, who kept children as slaves to pick apart the ship's skeletons, looking for parts that the man could sell. The girl was one of those children, a scavenger.
She was a slave like the Jedi boy.
She was a slave, and similar to the Jedi boy in many ways, but also very different. The Jedi boy had a mother who loved him, and friends to talk to, if he was sad.
And the scavenger girl didn't?
No
What about the other children? Weren't they her friends?
The ship graveyard was a dangerous place, and there was never enough food and water. Many children died before the scavenger girl could become friends with them. And the ones who didn't grew into bitter, mean-hearted people, who would try to take advantage of her, for she was compassionate and trusting.
And her parents?
She didn't remember her parents. The first memory she could recall was being handed to the cruel man, and dragged away by him. But she knew she had parents, and there was a hope, a little Light in her heart that told her that one day, somehow, they would come back to find her, and they could all be a family again. This Light kept the scavenger girl alive on the dessert world. It gave her strength while other children gave up. The cruel man only gave his slaves food it they brought him valuable parts. Sometimes the scavenger girl went for days without something to eat, all while still having to search for something to satisfy him. Many times, she was so lonely and sad and hungry that all she wanted to do was leave. And she could have. There were working ships at the cruel man's outpost that she practiced on from time to time. The scavenger was smarter than the man thought, you see. At night when no one watched, she taught herself to fly, and she could have stolen a ship, and found work on another planet.
So why didn't she?
Remember what I said about her parents?
You mean she won't leave because she's waiting for them? But she could be free!
Being a part of a family was more important to her than her freedom, and she thought the only way that would happen was if she stayed where her parents could find her.
Will her parents come back for her?
We'll see, love. Now listen: All of the trials she went through, and the Light inside her, made the scavenger girl stronger and stronger. Soon, she grew into a beautiful young woman, but she was still in the same place she had always been. Yesterday and today looked the same, everyday. Until one.
What happened that day?
She met a droid shaped like a ball. But I think I need to introduce a few more characters before I get into that.
A ball droid…
Focus, love. You'll like this next one, too.
Okay, Mama.
II
The ball-shaped droid belonged to a master, a pilot—the best pilot in the galaxy.
Better than the smuggler?
I believe so.
Wow.
The pilot's parents had both fought in the war against the Empire and his mother still kept the fighter she had flown. At night, when the little pilot couldn't sleep, she flew with him in her lap, showing him the controls. When the pilot's mother died, flying was the only way he could still feel her with him. So he flew, and flew, and flew. He grew to love flying so much, that, as a young man, he joined the New Republic Navy, so he could fly and protect people, just as his mother had. While he was there, he began to hear rumors of a group lurking around the edges of the galaxy—a group who wanted nothing more than the fall of the peaceful New Republic. Sometimes, it wasn't the edge of the galaxy where he heard rumor of them, it was right at the core of the New Republic Senate. The pilot was worried; the New Republic was what his parents and their friends had fought so hard for, it was his home. He wanted the leaders to take action, to make sure that this group did not have the means to hurt them or others. But the leaders did nothing, and considered the rumors as pure fantasy. The pilot grew angry, for although he was brave and good-hearted, he was full of hot, rash feelings. He quit the Navy.
Well, what happened to him then?
The princess approached him.
*GASP*
Mhmm. She had been serving in the New Republic Senate all these years, and she hadn't just heard rumors of the mysterious group, she had seen them. She invited the pilot to her ship, and told him everything she knew. The pilot was starstruck. Just like you, he had grown up hearing stories of the princess's courage, and he was ecstatic that he was finally meeting her. But as she talked, the awed smile on his face faded; it was far worse than the pilot could have ever imagined: they, who called themselves the First Order, had ships the size of seas, legions of stormtroopers, weapons that could take out the small New Republic Navy in one fell swoop, and, worst of all, their leader was a master of the Dark.
How could they hide it all?
Cunning, bribery, and patience, but their patience was running thin. They were almost ready to reveal themselves. So the brave princess, with the help of the few senators who believed her, had brought together a group of talented warriors, spies, and, most importantly, fighter pilots to secretly fight the secret First Order. She called this group the Resistance, and she wanted the pilot to join, for word of his expertise and desertion had spread. He thought it was almost too good to be true: his aid was wanted for an organization that was prepared and equipped to protect his home, and run by his childhood hero? He couldn't say yes fast enough. The princess could tell that the pilot was true of heart and had the potential to be a great leader, but she also recognized that the hot, rash feelings could take over, if he wasn't careful. She treated him like a son, and he thought the galaxy of her. She took him to their base, introduced him to his new squadron, in which he grew to love every member, and gave him a droid flight companion.
The ball-droid.
The very one. At first the pilot didn't think he needed any help, and ignored his companion for the most part. But the ball-shaped droid was clever and loyal, and proved it over and over; the pilot could not deny that he flew ten-times better with the droid's help. In time, the he didn't just consider him a worthy droid, but a good friend. The pilot loved his life in the Resistance—fighting bad guys, protecting innocents, flying with his new friends, serving under his hero. So when the princess assigned for him a special mission, again, he didn't think twice. The mission was finding the princess's brother, the Jedi master.
He was missing?
Yes, and the princess wanted more than anything to find him, for she knew that no matter how talented the Resistance was, they needed him if they wanted to defeat the First Order.
And because she missed him, right?
She did miss him, very much.
Where is he? Why is he gone?
There was a rumor—
Another rumor?
Yes, love, another rumor. This one said that the princess's brother had exiled himself on the planet housing the first Jedi temple. It had been millennia since anyone remembered where this planet was, and that was the pilot's assignment. As for why he left, we'll get to that in time. So the pilot set off with the ball-shaped droid to discover the location of the ancient temple. Journeying across the known galaxy, he eventually found a possible lead; there was word of an explorer who had traveled with the Jedi master in the years after the Empire's downfall. Together, they had uncovered lost Jedi and Sith artifacts. Surely, the pilot reasoned, if anyone in the galaxy knew where the temple could be found, it was the explorer. Soon, the pilot and his companion found him—on the dry dessert planet, in a village only a day's trudge away from the scavenger girl's ship graveyard. The pilot told the explorer of the princess's wish and their dire need to find the Jedi master. The explorer, old and frail, but wise and kind, believed him, and placed in his hands a map. Finally, something to give the galaxy hope that was tangible and real, not a fleeting rumor. He had to get it back to the princess. But just as he was saying a quick farewell to the old explorer, the ball-shaped droid rolled into the hut, with a warning: the pilot had been followed.
By the First Order.
Yes. Ships packed full of stormtroopers were coming for the explorer's village. The First Order's Dark master wanted to find the Jedi master as much as the princess did, but for a very different reason.
He wanted to kill him, didn't he?
He did. But now a new hero needs introducing.
You always stop at cool parts.
III
The ghost-like troopers, in the flickering light of the descending ship, had no doubt in their minds that they would do whatever their evil officers asked of them—all except one. One of them was afraid. He didn't believe in the First Order like his fellows did, he didn't want to kill, and that made him different. He lived through trainings and assemblies and meals all with the constant fear that his difference would be discovered. He lied low, never being good or bad enough at a task to attract attention. He did everything that was told of him, but he hated it, because he knew it wasn't right. Once when he was little, he had asked his fellows if they felt the same way. When he was met with many confused 'no's and suspicion from his officers, the little stormtrooper recognized quickly the danger he had put himself in. He learned his lesson.
Were the stormtroopers clones?
Good question, sweetheart, but no. The First Order captured their troopers as small children from poor planets and parents that couldn't support them. They programmed the children like machines to think the way they wanted them to, to believe that the First Order was their salvation. This programming was almost perfect, but every system fails from time to time. The scared stormtrooper was a failure, but he would keep that from the First Order for as long as he could. More than anything, he wanted to be safe.
And he's a hero?
He will be. But for a while he was just a number, shooting at inanimate dummies, constantly supervised by a trooper with shining silver armor, a dark knight. She was highly intelligent, and the model of pure evil for every young 'recruit'. She had risen in the ranks faster than anyone before or after her, and had therefore been given a battalion to command. She had suspected for a long time that the scared stormtrooper was a weak-link; so, as a final test, she gave his company the assignment of destroying the explorer's village.
But they just want the map…
They thought that leaving the village alive could expose them to the rest of the galaxy. They held no value for life. They didn't care.
…Did the scared stormtrooper kill people?
No. When the ship landed, and the cockpit opened, and his brothers began to mindlessly pick off the innocent villagers, the stormtrooper didn't take a single shot. For once, he didn't care about what would happen if someone noticed; just one thought controlled him: I won't kill for them.
Wow. That's awesome. I feel bad now.
That's all right, love. He's definitely not perfect, and we'll see that more and more.
So does the knight-lady see him?
Someone does see him, but it isn't the knight-lady. It's someone else.
Who?
The last character I'll introduce.
IV
There once was a boy who had the best of everything, or so it seemed. The princess was his mother, and the smuggler his father, and the Jedi master his uncle.
Wait, what? Why didn't you say something before?
It's still the beginning of the story, love.
I guess. Go on.
The young prince was also gifted with a strong Light.
Like the scavenger girl.
It was the same Light, yes. But he was also cursed with an equally strong Darkness, which turned his mind into a constant battlefield. His parents loved him, but pushed him away, because they could see the Darkness, and they were afraid. They had no idea what to do about it. Most days they left him alone in their big, empty house, the princess attending to the Senate, and the smuggler to his smuggling. One of those days, something started to speak to the young prince—something powerful, that saw the Darkness, and wanted to use it. This something told him that his family didn't want him, that they hated the Darkness, but that it was an inseparable part of him, a special part, a powerful part. It whispered in his mind every day and night that apart from it, he was alone; it was his only friend. But he loved his parents, and tried to fight the something as best he could. He told the princess and the smuggler, hoping that they knew what to do. The princess immediately thought of her strong-in-the-Light, Jedi brother. He would know what to do. He could train her little prince, and teach him to control the Dark, and make him a powerful Jedi, too. It made perfect sense to everyone—everyone except the prince. He didn't want to be a Jedi, and he knew that the Dark thing was always more powerful when his parent weren't around. He begged them not to send him away to an uncle he had meet only a handful of times.
Did they listen to him?
No. He was barely a teenager, and thought that they knew what was best for him. Usually parents do, mind you, but even heroes make mistakes. The princess and the smuggler let their fear chose for them; they did what was easy, not right. The Dark thing used this, and the prince, hurt and angry, began believe its whispers. At his uncle's temple, things did not get better. The next decade of his life is shrouded in mystery; he constructed a saber and learned the ways of the Jedi, surely, but one fateful night, all the Dark thing's work came to fruition, and the prince finally snapped, giving himself to the Darkness. He destroyed the temple, and slaughtered the students who refused to join him. And no one but the prince and the Jedi Master knew exactly why…
…
You all right, sweetheart?
Just thinking.
Okay…are you ready for me to keep going?
Yeah. Yeah I am.
The Jedi Master left the known galaxy out of shame and sadness, going to the most un-findable place he could think of. Meanwhile, the prince met the Dark thing for the first time in person. I'm sure you've guessed who it is:
The leader of the First Order?
Yes. And he was a gruesome sight to behold, even for the dark prince—deformed on the outside and the inside. The Dark master took the prince as his apprentice, made him second in command of the entire First Order, and worked to further crush the weak but steady Light that was still a part of him. He was disappointed that his new apprentice had let the Jedi master live, and punished him cruelly for it. The prince then realized that he had been manipulated. The Dark thing was not his friend, and would never care for him like his parents had, however many mistakes they had made. But it's too late, he told himself, there's no turning back now. So he continued, and helped his master mold the First Order into an efficient killing machine. The Dark thing gave him a mask, a saber that looked like an all-consuming fire, and, most importantly, a legacy.
A legacy?
The Dark thing told the prince about his grandfather.
That's... the Jedi boy!
Well, his parents had told him of the Jedi boy, just not what he had become.
Oh. The monster.
Yes. The Dark thing told the prince of the power his ancestor had held; the fear that would strike through those who saw him. The prince would take this legacy, the Dark thing sneakily assured him, and finally be able to make his family proud.
B-but the Jedi boy was good in the end…
Yes, love, but just as the prince's parents kept his fall a secret, so the Dark thing kept his redemption. And events played out exactly as the Dark thing had planned; this legacy became the one thing the dark prince clung to—the legacy, and the Dark thing itself, that is. The prince's transformation into a monster himself was coming to completion. All he needed to do, his master told him, was finish what he had started, and kill the last Jedi. Then the Light that tore at him would truly be dead, and he would be free. So the dark prince set off to do just that. His search led him to the dry dessert planet, with a knight, nine hundred and ninety-nine stormtroopers, and one coward…
…And then?
Goodnight, my love.
What?! Mama please, just—
Goodnight. It's already late. Don't worry; I promise we'll pick it up tomorrow.
