Location: Naberrie Lake house on the planet Naboo.
The figure, half hidden in shadow, stepped out from underneath the arch and into the light of the foyer, revealing what Lando had already known. It was Luke Skywalker.
The sight of the man whom he had long considered to be one of his oldest and dearest friends, now evoked a multitude of conflicted and nameless feelings that poured out from the darkest depths of his heart, like the tentacles of some mythical creature from antiquity.
For the most part, those feeling could be grouped into 2 categories:
1) Guilt.
2)Anger
Guilt: For kidnapping Ben... For turning on Luke... For allowing himself to be deceived by Veradun... For allowing himself to be deceived by himself.
But also...
Anger: Anger at the Jedi for always letting scum off the hook... Anger at Luke and Ben for sparing Vestara, the murderer of his family... Anger at himself for sparing Vestara.
At least he was feeling... Something. He had gone completely numb following Veradun's betrayal... But now, hot blood filled his veins once again.
Despite still being compromised by his recent impalement, he now rose to his feet. He slowly walked toward Luke. One moment, he had every intention of falling at his friend feet and begging for forgiveness, the next...
He spat in Luke' face.
Luke's reaction was almost instinctual. Something inside just snapped. He had come to Lando because... He didn't even know why. He felt as if the force was pushing the two of them to a confrontation/reconciliation, and Lando had just played the first hand... Confrontation then...
Although Luke had reached a higher plane of existence, he still, on the most basic level, was human, with all the virtues and failings that came with the title.
Luke felt the familiar blush of anger come flooding in from his core. As a Jedi, he would have "Let go" of that anger... But not this time.
Tilting his head upward he let out a long sigh. And then... He did it: He severed his connection to the force; not permanently, of course. But he was about to drop all restraint on his anger and for the next several minutes he wanted to be just... a Man... A Father... A Brother... An Uncle.
With no warning, he struck Lando in the jaw with his left hand, sending the older man stumbling backwards. He nearly fell over onto the floor but grabbed hold of an ornate marble bookshelf. He didn't give Luke time to strike again. Lando leaned forward heavily, and rammed him in the Stomach like a charging Reek.
Unaided by the force, Luke' reflexes were no match for the wiley old gambler. Luke keeled over from the impact and was momentarily stunned by the pain.
"YOU HAD HER HERE THIS WHOLE TIME!" Lando nearly screamed. "YEAH! THIS IS THE PERFECT PUNISHMENT FOR SOMEONE WHO KILLED MY WIFE AND MY...!"
"OH... JUST SHUT UP ABOUT YOUR KARKIN WIFE FOR JUST ONE SECOND, WILL YOU!" Luke uncharacteristically shot back.
Lando's rage threatened to turn murderous, as he lunged at Luke again, this time with both hands open. With a grip of iron, he clamped those hand around Luke's neck.
"TAKE IT BACK!" Land roared
"What?" Luke gasped, as his still shocked body was now facing the new threat of asphyxiation.
"You think... (heavy wheezing)... you're the first person to... (heavy wheezing)... ever lose someone special?" Luke asked, incredulously. Then he continued: "I LOST MARA! REMEMBER?"
"How dare he!" thought Lando. How dare this... This benevolent and kind Guru, compare his tragedy, to Lando's own. That's when he said something that was borne of pure hurt and frustration:
"You may have Lost someone, Luke... But I... I Lost someone who was actually loveable."
The words hit Luke like Sith force lighting, burning his insides and freezing his soul, just as Lando intended them to. Shaking off the last vestiges of his shock-like state, he balled his artificial hand into an angry fist. With all his human might, he sent that fist straight into Lando's chest.
The blow was quite impressive, considering it lacked any force augmentation. It was simply the byproduct of a friendship pushed to the very brink!
The old Gambler landed flat on his back several feet away.
He tried to get up, but was overcome by an intense onslaught of coughing. As the white shirt Lando was wearing began to display a growing read spot in the centre of his chest, Luke let out a: "Dammit Lando!"
Lando's puncture, which had been treated on board the Falcon, had obviously been torn open by the blow.
Still feeling the effects of Lando's earlier stranglehold, Luke dragged himself to an ornate looking stationary desk in the corner. After checking several of the small drawers, he found what he looking for: An Emergency med kit; nearly every public area of the old mansion had one.
Opening the kit, he retrieved a dermal injector that contained the standard Bacta/Stim/Sealant combo.
Injector in hand, he made his way over to the collapsed man.
As he kneeled down to administer the emergency treatment, Lando grabbed Luke by his shirt, and was barely able to get out:
"Get away from me, Sleemo... Just... Just let me die!"
Ignoring him, Luke ripped open Lando's now blood soaked shirt, and jabbed the injector right into the wound. After several moments, Lando's breathing returned to normal.
Looking at the crumpled wreck of a man on the floor in front of him, he could feel the seething rage, that had threatened to consume him, bleed out of his mind and heart. Only then, did he deem it safe to reconnect to the Force. He briefly revelled in the sensation of the force, once again, washing over him; cleansing him of every weakness and fault.
He looked back down at Lando with new eyes.
The man on the floor didn't need punishment or solace. He didn't need pity or condemnation. He needed... Balance!
Lando tried to pull away as Luke knelt beside him and placed his hands on his head, but Luke held firm. Within seconds, an aura of blue energy began to emanate from his hands. The glow, gradually spread to Lando's head, fully engulfing it in a blue brilliance. The whole thing only lasted several heartbeats, and then it was over.
"I..." Lando was almost at a lost for words. ALMOST!
"... I feel... I actually can...feel!... What did you do to me?" He asked
"All I did was give you balance; nothing more, nothing less."
Luke stood up and pulled Lando up with him.
Nothing had really changed: His wife and son were still dead. He still hated Vestara for killing them. He still Luke and Ben for sheltering her, and... He hated himself for sparing her. But now it was somehow... Different.
Lando had felt locked on a course of self destruction, like a ship caught in a tractor beam.
And suddenly the beam had been broken!
The responsibility, the obsession, it was all gone. Only... Balance remained.
For the first time in a long time he didn't feel the need to DO anything. The emotional fallout would always be there, but that pain was personal. It wasn't his obligation nor right to spread that misery all over the galaxy. He would bear that burden himself. He considered it an honour. For Tendra! For Chance!
After spending several minutes, absorbing his new reality, Lando broke the silence:
"Luke I..."
Luke cut him off, while placing a hand on the older man's shoulder: " I know.
Luke headed for the door but Lando grabbed his Tunic to stop him. "Wait where are you headed?"
Luke's answer was short and serious: "Malgus!"
Lando couldn't help but wince at the Name. He had been informed of Veradun's true identity by Jaina on the flight to Naboo. All this was his fault, and he was going to have to make it right. Starting right there. "I'm going with you."
"Lando! You can barely walk! You Know what's coming! I want you to stay here!"
"Not gonna happen kid!" He replied, sounding more like the old Lando.
"Hear me out Luke! You're all about balance. Can't you see I need to set things right? I have to try."
He was right. The force, was at work here. Everything had happened the way it did for a reason.
Without hesitation, Luke responded:
"Ok!Let's go!"
And that was the most beautiful thing Lando had heard in a long time. Their friendship may have reached an all time low, a few minutes ago, but it had survived!
Location: The far edge of the Great Grass Plains, on the planet Naboo!
Luke Skywalker walked down the ramp of the Millennial Falcon, possibly, for the last time. With every step he took, however, his confidence in the rightness of his course grew.
Survive or Perish, this was the course he must follow, so he would.
One step: His foot was on durasteel plating. The next: He was on a carpet of thick lush, grass. If only these plains could speak. Just over 80 years ago, a pivotal battle had been fought here. A battle that had went on to change the future of the entire galaxy. Luke couldn't shake the feeling that history was about to repeat itself.
He looked around, and the sight sent a shiver down his spine. Everyone (almost everyone) he cared about was here... and death and destruction was hurtling toward them like a rogue comet. He could already taste the bloody mist that would soon permeate the air, as he had experienced first hand during a hundred other battles, on a hundred other planets.
Then... It happened. Everyone looked up as the quiet twilight of early dawn was broken by an explosion high up in orbit. There was first, just one... Then another... and another... until the sky was full of fire.
"This is messed up!" Han thought beside Luke.
He never wanted to know the odds... But 9 people against what? A wall of fire?
"IT HAS BEGUN!" Yelled a voice that could only be described as... Beastly.
Everyone's attention instantly shifted from the sky to the trees on the far edge of the plains.
This was followed by the simultaneous ignition of several Lightsabers within Luke's group.
"Show Yourself!" Luke yelled back in a tone that bespoke of bottomless pools of confidence.
Distracted by the spectacle unfolding high above, Jaina had not felt the presence that was lurking in the trees of the nearby swamp. No! Not Presence! Presences. There must have been over a hundred! TWO HUNDRED!
"Oh Bloah!" She said internally... And externally.
All they could make out, in the dawn's early light, was motion in between the trees. As they closed the distance, the motion morphed into shapes... and suddenly, the shapes became clear...
NOGRI! And they just kept on coming and coming. An army of NOGRI! And not just NOGRI! Jaina could see pockets of individuals representative of several different species, dispersed throughout the sea of grey-skinned assassins.
Leading the horde, seemed to be a single Nogri accompanied by a young Twi'lek woman.
The two of them walked right up to Luke and then stopped with a bow of respect. Luke mirrored the gesture in return and spoke to the Nogri in front of him: "Greetings warrior ! May I ask your name?"
"Greetings! Son of Vader!" The Nogri, replied with a reverence that had always made him just a little uncomfortable.
"My name is Kruk'cakk of the Nogri. We have been sent by our Elders to defend you against a great plot that has reached the ears of the Nogri people."
Luke had seen a lot in his 60 plus years. But he always appreciated the capicity the force had to still surprise him. A welcome suprise indeed.
"Do you lead this Army, Kruk'cakk?" He asked
"I do not!" Said the Nogi. He then turned and pointed to the Twi'lek beside him.
"She is the one who uncovered this threat, and she is the one who rallied the hearts of our people... She is our leader!
The Remarkably beautiful and timid woman cautiously approached Luke. She mostly looked down when she spoke to him: "My name is... is uh... Sea'Yawna..."
She then proceeded to fill Luke in on the conspiracy that had sprouted in fringe and had blossomed all over the galaxy. She also described her own journey to freedom, and the mission she and her fellow freed slave had undertaken.
Luke should have known: Whatever Abyss would throw at him, the force would make him equal to it... Balance!
He never felt more accepted and needed by his fellow beings than he did right now. And He needed them just as much. The people of the galaxy were not just going to sit around and wait for a Hero to save them, anymore!They were going to get out there and save their Hero... TO STAND UP TO THE ETERNAL CONFLICT AND SAY: "NO MORE!"
Luke looked to the great crowd that now surrounded him and spoke in Loud voice: "WELCOME TO THE BATTLE OF NABOO!
MAY THE FORCE BE WITH US!"