A sudden jolt and the feeling of falling coupled with a startled cry that turned out to be her own was what Leia's adrenaline-spiked mind had to work with to piece together that the ground had opened up beneath them and sent them crashing down and down and down. There wasn't time to piece the how it had happened - or even the why - only that they were falling too far for even a rough landing. The only hope they had was an underground aquifer, but it was more likely that they were falling towards the bottom of an underground cavern. A very rocky bottom.
But then it felt like something wrapped around her. The free fall slowed, even if it didn't stop, and Leia's mind worked to make sense of it even as she landed. Her back hit uneven ground, knocking the breath out of her, and she heard similar thuds accompanied by various sounds from her companions.
Threepio's somehow managing to be the loudest, almost simultaneous with a popping sound. "Ah! My leg!"
A pained grunt that sounded vaguely like Luke drew her attention to her left and she squinted against the darkness to try to verify the hunch. "Next time I'll just let gravity do what it wants with you," the young Imperial snarled, sounding out of breath as well.
"What the… was that you?" Solo demanded and Leia could hear him scrambling to find his footing in the dim light beneath the planet's surface.
Slowly her eyes began to adjust. Silhouettes became more defined as she watched Luke pull himself up gingerly to his feet - favouring the leg that he had been limping on back in Coruscant - and pointedly ignore the captain's question as he dusted himself off.
A snort drew her attention to his to the her left to where a mass that could have only been Baze stood. "Your Jedi just about got us killed," he snarled at his blind friend.
Leia could practically feel Luke biting off his usual retort about not being a Jedi. Chirrut seemed unfazed as he turned his attention to the irritable Imperial. "What did you feel?"
"A sudden drop, same as everyone else," Luke snapped. "Leia, you alright?"
It was only then that she realized she'd been the only one that hadn't spoken up yet. "Intact, thanks to you."
He made a noncommittal sound that was swallowed halfway through, his attention captured by something in the distance. It was strange, the longer she listened, the more she was certain she heard it. Whispers. Quiet and undefined, but unless she'd struck her head and was sharing a delusion with Vader's son, most certainly there.
"You hear it?" Chirrut asked softly, suddenly at her side and it was everything Leia could do not to jump at it.
"I hear something," she confirmed. "What is it?"
"A direction to follow," Luke answered for the monk, and he was already moving. She looked between the others. Baze offered a short shake of his head while Solo shrugged. Luke didn't seem inclined to offer more though, so she scooped up Threepio's detached leg and Baze hauled the rest of him up so that they could scurry to catch up.
—-
Jakku turned out to be just as desolate as Mara had heard. The tiny spaceport seemed only to be used by those with less than reputable goals. The princess' ship would stand out amongst the old and junky spacecraft docked there, so it was no surprise that it took a bit of searching to find where they had tucked it away. Not that there appeared to be anyone monitoring the hangar to wheedle a few answers from.
After a bit of searching, Mara found a small, Alderaanian transport that had been taxied back and away from immediate view. If Organa had paid anyone to watch the craft for her, they weren't reliable. It sat unguarded, which in and of itself gave Mara pause. She reached into a small bag hanging off her shoulder and pulled out a scanner. No one inside. That was a start.
The ramp was put away and the ship closed up tight, so Mara pulled a small ladder over - sending a pit droid scurrying as she did - and worked her fingernails under the paneling to pry it off. Under it was a hidden access panel and she dug again in her bag to retrieve a code breaker.
"Hey! You don't have clearance to be in here!" a sharp voice shouted and Mara turned to find a tiny alien woman with purple skin and what appeared to be a second set of eyes positioned at her temples. The ones directed at Mara were narrowed and her frog-like mouth was tilted deeply in a frown.
Mara offered a charming smile, pulling on the Force to ease the tension surrounding what she had to assume was the overseer. She waited half a beat until she saw the small mind trick take effect before she risked a lie. "A work order came in for the control panel to be fixed before the pilot returns. Everything's good here."
She waited. A moment passed. Then another. Luke was better at this than she was. As Mara waited to see if this would escalate, she couldn't help but wish he was along for this one.
The alien woman finally tilted her head and then nodded. "Get it done," she grumbled before turning around and shuffling off, leaving Mara to wonder if the trick had worked or she'd just decided that Mara hadn't been worth the trouble. It didn't matter in the end. She was gone and Mara got back to the task at hand.
Her code breaker made quick work of the Alderaanian security, granting her access as the door slid open and the ramp extended to her left. Mara stepped off the ladder and onto the ramp, slowly entering the seemingly empty ship.
A flash of warning was all that she had and she just barely sidestepped as energy zapped the air where she'd stepped inside. She pivoted around, blaster flying to her hand, and she aimed it at a small astromech droid with its electric pike still sparking. The blue adorned dome spun and it chattered angrily at her, darting forward like it was just looking for an opening.
She didn't give it one. One shot sent the droid screaming and the second powered it down, the dome smoking and the sparking electricity dimmed with the power outage. Great. There was no telling if it had signaled an alarm to its master and Mara wasn't ready to tip her hand. She needed to work fast.
—-
They followed the whispering, ghostly voices that only a portion of their party could hear all the way to what appeared to be the underground entrance of the temple that the Empire was ransacking above ground. There was something in the architecture - the large, ornate doors that seemed to have no immediately obvious way to open them - that set it apart from the rest. Luke looked them up and down, the whispers somehow immenating from the other side of them even if they were sealed tightly shut.
"Now what?" Solo huffed from the side and Luke could practically hear the glare Leia shot the pilot's way that drew out a defensive: "What?" from him.
"The Force has led us this far," Chirrut said. "It will lead us in."
He wasn't wrong, exactly, but it wasn't becoming clear to Luke. He reached forward, fingers ghosting along the stone's grooves, and he felt a tremble beneath his touch. It wasn't quite as strong as it had been before the ground had opened up above, but power resonated beyond where they stood, and it reacted to him. He flattened his palm against it, hoping he didn't bring the whole thing down, and there was a faint glow from the grooves that only grew brighter.
Luke zeroed in his focus on the doors in front of him. He envisioned them sliding open, stone scraping against stone, and his mind's eye provided the image of a long corridor. The more he focused, the further he could see, and the world around him - Leia and Solo, Chirrut and Baze, and the finally-quieted chattering of Leia's droid fading to the background as his path became more pronounced. One step and then another took him forward down the path, whispers and tendrils of fog guiding him. The fog snaked around his boots and his hands, pulling and murmuring, until he found himself standing alone in a chamber.
It was dark. The outside light didn't reach the room, but he could feel what surrounded him, and as he tilted his eyes upward, he thought he saw water collecting above, the droplets highlighted in starlight and leaving dots of blue-white scattered across the ceiling. He drew in a breath, eyes slipping closed for a moment until he heard a voice echoing through the endless room.
"Luke."
Blue eyes snapped open and Luke turned, finding an old yet somehow still familiar figure standing within arm's reach. "Uncle Ben," he breathed, taking a hesitant step forward.
He was almost exactly how he remembered him. Kind eyes somehow softened the worry lines for those around him; his clothing was worn and his cloak patched. He was older than his phantom had been on the planet made up of memories from a few years before, and while he looked like the man that had faded from Luke's own memory since the day his father had found him, he had remembered him as taller. Though everyone was taller to a five year old boy.
Lines deepened as Kenobi smiled. "You've grown up," he murmured softly.
"That tends to happen," Luke answered, but the words felt hollow. Filler for all the questions raging in his mind. No. He needed to focus. "Where are we?"
"Let's call it between, shall we?" Kenobi offered and motioned for the younger man to follow. With each step his boots left a ripple of light in the dark floor as if a stone had been tossed into still waters.
"It was your voice I heard," Luke said after several steps.
"I was hoping you'd hear me."
"But why? After so long… where have you been?"
He couldn't see if there was any twitch in his expression, the older man's gaze focused ahead, but his shoulders sagged ever so slightly, almost as if there were an immense pressure weighing down against them. Luke wondered briefly if ghosts felt the passing of time as humans did. Had it been mere moments since Darth Vader had cut him down or years from Kenobi's point of view?
"You've not been receptive."
Rage flushed through him, sudden and intense, but he wasn't sure why. He hadn't been. Even as Tano had pleaded with him years before, swearing by the elder Jedi's good intentions, Luke hadn't believed it. He swallowed the sharp retort and instead responded to what somehow felt like an affront. "I'm loyal to my father," the young Imperial stated firmly.
Kenobi turned, the barest of sad smiles tugging at his lips. "I know. You have so much of your mother in you."
And, just like that, the rage subsided like the tide washing back out to sea. "You knew her?"
"I did. She's the reason I took you away. Hid you. I'd hoped to keep you safe."
"My father never would have hurt me."
"Hasn't he?"
"No. He's protected me. He's taught me how to be strong."
"And what will you choose to do with that strength, Luke?"
Protect those I love. That was the immediate answer. That was what all the power was for, wasn't it? Dig in, form alliances, and build power to use as a shield and a saber against the eventual enemy, but even while true, the names on that very short list had expanded. He was the lone name for his father, he knew, but Mara had been added to his own many years before. Leia more recently. And somehow, especially with her, he felt those that aligned himself in their vicinity added. Her adopted father, Solo, and even the monk and his protector.
"Protect people," was all that he could manage as an answer.
Kenobi's smile returned, sad and a little nostalgic. "There are pieces of you that remind me of Padme, but that… that's every bit the Anakin I knew. He wanted so very much to protect those he loved. Palpatine used that and warped it."
A tremor drove its way through the space and Luke saw the starlight ripple out. Kenobi's eyes narrowed as he studied it. "We're running short on time."
"Does that mean you're going to tell me why I'm here?"
"I know you seek answers. A path forward. I… couldn't save your father once. She believes you can, though it may take you both. I fear it will, if he can be saved at all."
"Leia," Luke breathed. "You mean Leia. My sister."
Surprise flashed across Kenobi's face. "No. No, you shouldn't allow your father near her. There's a reason we separated you."
Another tremor shook the ground so hard that Luke had to catch his balance. "Then who?"
"Ahsoka Tano."
Luke felt his chest tighten at that. "She's dead too. Everyone that knows how to help us is dead…. We're alone."
"No. Ahsoka's alive."
A third tremor. This one powerful enough that Luke thought he saw cracks in the star-studded surroundings.
"You must find her again," Kenobi urged. "She'll help you."
"She'll help him?"
"Not alone, but if any two people left alive can, it's the two of you."
The floor cracked beneath him and Luke found himself staring directly at the man who had raised him the first five years of his life. "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I shouldn't have run," the age-old confession he thought he'd long since put away bubbled up.
"You are where the Force wants you," Kenobi swore, but before Luke could answer, the floor splintered and shattered beneath him, sending him plummeting into the abyss.
—
The tremor shook the walls of the old temple and it was the first sign that something was wrong. Not that Han had particularly needed that sign. They'd followed a couple of crazies out into the desert and fallen through to a cavern to an underground temple. Things were bound to go wrong, so it wasn't the explosions coming from excavation they shouldn't have been anywhere near… it was that the kid didn't react at all. He stayed absolutely still, palm pressed against the doors that hadn't budged, and - as Han circled him for a better look - eyes closed like he'd fallen into some kind of trance. Great. Just great.
The princess was at his other side, her hand on his shoulder and concern tugging at her expression. She whirled back to the monk. "What's wrong with him?" she demanded as a second tremor rattled the unsteady walls around them.
Han was just about to remind her that the man was blind when his sightless eyes fell on Luke. "He's not here."
The captain snorted. He only looked like he was looking straight at the kid. "He's right in front of you."
"His body is, but his mind is somewhere else."
"Like a meditative state?" Leia asked.
"Could have picked a better time," the monk's bodyguard growled and, as if to prove the already clear point, a third tremor - this one strong enough to send small pieces of the overhead ceiling dusting down towards them - shook the underground cave.
"Oh my!" Threepio howled and Han turned back to the monk.
"Bring him out of it before the whole place comes down on us."
"I cannot."
"Of course you can't," the smuggler groused, turning back to Baze. "Pass Goldenrod over here. I'll take him if you get Luke."
The larger man shot him an irritated look. "If we move his body, he may not find it again," he grumbled, tone sounding as if his irritation was directed at the words he found himself saying rather than Han's perceived ignorance. Yeah. He got it. It was too much for him too.
Before Han had a chance to respond there was another violent tremor and Luke jolted, eyes flying open and Leia made a startled sound at his side. "You're back," she managed.
He stared at the closed door for a long moment before he seemed to piece together what the others already knew: another rough tremor could bring down the whole cave on top of them. His fingers flexed against the door briefly before it dropped. "We have to go."
"What gave you that idea?" Han snapped before he was able to stop himself. Thankfully Luke seemed more interested in their exit than stringing him up by an invisible rope again.
Not that there was an exit to go back to.
In the face of a collapsing cave, not one of them mentioned the fact that they'd fallen through the desert floor to get there. Thankfully Han was used to tight situations with bad odds, not that he liked to know them. No, he preferred to focus on solutions rather than worry about why they'd never work.
The race back to their entry point was coupled with huffing breaths and adrenaline driving them further away from the temple that the Empire seemed to be bringing down on their search. Strange enough, when they came crashing down none of them had seen the entrance they'd landed at, but as they reached the hole in the cave's ceiling Luke turned like he could still see it through the darkness.
"We might be able to scale the walls," Leia said as she moved to one of the walls in question.
"Shouldn't need to," Han answered, looking up at the sky above them. As long as Chewie was paying attention - and what else did he have to do while sitting around a spaceport? - it wouldn't take him very long.
"You signaled the ship," the princess managed.
"Don't sound so surprised, sweetheart."
"Don't call me that."
"Apologies, your worship."
The roar of the Falcon's engines drew their attentions. Well, everyone's except the kid he needed alive to pay for all this effort. Luke was still staring back towards the temple like he'd left something he was thinking about going back for.
Above, Chewie sounded a warning as a ladder unfolded and dropped down. He'd told his co-pilot that it was a waste of credits when he'd purchased it. Now that it was saving their backsides, he was never going to hear the end of it.
"Luke!" Leia shouted over all the noise.
"There are still crystals behind that door, aren't there?" he asked, his question directed at the monk.
"Likely what they're trying to get at with the explosions," Chirrut agreed.
"Go."
Leia blinked in confusion. "Luke, we're —"
"I'm right behind you," he promised her, even as he took a few steps back in the direction they had run from.
Han glanced up at where Chewie was impatiently waiting with the Falcon hovering out in the open. He shook his head, shutting the monk and the body guard up. When the princess stood still, staring after the idiot they'd all followed down there, Han huffed. "Go. I'll get him."
That startled her and he offered a lopsided grin. "What? Kid owes me money."
She snorted, but accepted that explanation and had to jump to catch the lowest rung on the hanging.
Han made his way towards Luke, the young man standing with his eyes heavily lidded and his hand outstretched. "Okay, no amount of money is worth getting buried here. If you're back in one of those trance things…"
"I'm here, but I can't let them have it."
"And by them you mean the people you work for, right?"
Blue eyes snapped over and managed to tear through Han's amused snark with a single look. "You don't know what they're using it for."
"Remember? I don't want to."
"Fine." He turned back, fingers outstretched, and Han didn't think the next tremor came from Imperial explosions. At least not official ones.
"You're using it as a cover," he breathed. Well, at least the kid wasn't stupid. Temperamental and strange as they came, but not stupid.
"Go."
"Your royal friend up there won't forgive me if I show up without you."
There was a loud crashing sound. Rock folded in on rock in the direction of the temple and Han could just barely see the strain on the younger man's face in the dim light. He was taking the whole damn thing down. He hadn't been able to open the door, but he could bring the structure crumbling down. If he hadn't been watching it happen, he never would have believed it.
Chewie roared a warning and Han made a snap decision. He hooked an arm around Luke's middle and dragged him back towards the ladder. If he let himself be pulled or was still caught up in whatever was happening in the darkened distance, Han didn't know. Han didn't care. He just wanted to get out alive.
—
Leia had not lived the same sheltered life as so many royals that came before her. Fate hadn't allowed that. Despite the Imperial propaganda, her mother did not rule in peaceful times. Her father was not given the power to do more than pretend to represent his people in the Senate and Leia perhaps even less when she took the office. The Emperor cared nothing for the people of Alderaan and little else for the galaxy past using them. Why else would he build a weapon with the power to destroy worlds to keep everyone in line?
She'd spent her childhood scraping knees and avoiding palace guards and her teenage years learning to sidestep stormtroopers and lie to Imperials to help the Rebellion, but this had been beyond the adventure she'd really expected. It was equal parts terrifying and exhilarating, though the latter only now that they were out. After the additional crystals the Empire had been after were destroyed. That was all thanks to Luke. For all the ways he'd dragged his feet at the thought of going to Jedha, he'd proven to be all in by the time that the Millennium Falcon shot into hyperspace.
And now the adventure was coming to a close. They didn't dare risk circling back to the spaceport to drop Chirrut and Baze off, nor could Leia take them directly to the Rebel Alliance base, even if Chirrut - and to a lesser extent Baze - was ready to do what they could to topple the Empire. No. After dropping Luke off so that he could return to Coruscant before he was too badly missed from his medical leave, Solo would take Leia to her own ship and she'd work out arrangements to get them to a location in which they could go through a vetting process. Andor would likely be interested in getting them himself so that he could make his way a bit further down the intelligence trail Luke had started him on.
They'd remained on the Falcon, though Captain Solo had offered to help carry C3P0 to Leia's ship for her. She'd be able to coordinate repairs back on Alderaan before making her own way back to Coruscant for the endless barrage of shallow chatter and entitled expectations that came with conversations with her colleagues.
"While I appreciate the help —" Leia offered as they approached her ship and Solo gave her a lopsided smile.
"Door to door service," he chuckled. "What would your pal say if I didn't make sure you got to your transport safely?"
Leia resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "I'll need to make the call without you looming over my shoulder."
The smuggler raised his hands in mock surrender and turned one hand to jab a thumb towards a powered down Threepio that was folded into a carrier strapped to his back. "Just tell me where to put jabber mouth here."
The senator gave into the eye roll finally as she moved to where she'd activated the ramp to allow her access to the ship. It unfolded and she motioned for Solo to follow, but slammed to a stop at the top, a sense of dread burrowing its way deep into her chest.
Solo ran into her from behind. "What?"
"I don't know. Something's wrong. Artoo?" she called out, looking for the little droid she'd left as security.
No answer came and she moved quickly through the small vessel. It didn't take long to find him rolled back and out of the way, scorch marks showing blaster fire had dealt the damage that short circuited him. Leia stared in horror, fear for the personable little droid mixing with the understanding that her ship had been broken into while they were away. Meaning they may have all been compromised. "We need to call Luke," she breathed.
"Not so fast. Let's see what we're dealing with first. You have tools?"
Leia nodded and pointed, and as Solo eased Threepio down she found a small comfort in knowing the two droids wouldn't be worried about each other.
Solo squatted down in front of R2D2 and pried open a panel. Leia watched numbly as he worked, cursing and griping the whole way through. He wasn't as skilled as some might have been, but years of handling the circuit boards on his own ship must have taught him something. Finally, power was restored and Artoo gave a drunken whirble as Solo stood.
"Artoo," she breathed, kneeling down in front of him and gently touching his dome. "Who did this to you?"
The question resulted in an answer as a projection flickered into existence. He'd recorded it, clever little droid. Leia and Solo watched the jittery image as the door opened to reveal a redheaded woman who entered. The scuffle had been brief and Leia pursed her lips together. "Well, that's not an Imperial uniform, at the very least," she murmured, relief finally working its way through her. Or at least until she risked a glance at Solo. He stood gaping and she frowned. "What?"
"That's Jade. She's the woman that was with Luke when I first met him. If he's with the Empire, it's a safe bet she is too."
The relief vanished entirely.
—
Exhaustion had finally caught up with him and his leg was aching by the time Luke had managed to slip back into his quarters in the Imperial palace. He felt worn and a little fuzzy around the edges. Probably for the best. He needed sleep and with the understanding that Tano was alive that he'd chosen to bring down an Imperial dig site to try to delay the Death Star where he could, there was enough to batter around his head to keep him up for weeks.
Perhaps it was all of that that kept him from noticing the presence in his room until he flipped the lights on. At least he managed to school his expression. She'd never let him live it down if she knew she'd startled him. Instead, Luke let an intentionally lazy smile tug his lips. "Hey, Mara."
"Luke," she greeted, her green eyes sharp. "How was Jedha?"
And just like that, his entire world imploded.
TBC
Notes: So... I'm still alive even though I've been terrible about posting on this story. Life has just been absolutely insane the last several months and I'm not sure it's letting up. I hope everyone had a fantastic Hanukkah, Christmas, and anything else you may have celebrated and that tomorrow starts a fantastic 2024 for you!
Next Time: Mara confronts Luke and Leia finds tries to find a way to warn him.