Chapter 2
"Your Highness, under the circumstances I suggest you come to Coruscant with us."
"Thank you, ambassador, but my place is with my people."
"They will kill you if you stay," Qui-Gon said. Luke nodded in agreement.
The elderly man hesitated, looking like he wanted to disagree, but his eyes flickered to Luke. "But... they need her to sign their treaty to make this invasion of theirs legal."
"Yes," Luke frowned, "but as I point out previously, what stops them from killing her after? Do you think everything thrown at the Republic's feet gets addressed? There's no logic in this attack," he looked at Gunray and frowned. "You may believe that I do not know of your client, Viceroy, but I ensure you that is the opposite."
The Viceroy shrunk away, surprised by the sudden steel across Luke Skywalker's face.
"There is no logic to the Federation's move," added the older Jedi, frowning at Luke in wonder. "My feelings tell me they will destroy you."
"That is not the first time I have been warned as such," the decoy said, looking at Luke, "But either choice to stay or go presents great danger, to us all." She turned to the fake Handmaiden behind her.
"We are brave, Your Highness," the true Queen, Padmé Amidala, answered.
The woman looked down for a moment before she stared back up, a bit of amusement radiating around her. Sabé, oh so, enjoyed being in charge of his mother.
Qui-Gon declared, "If you are to leave, your highness, it must be now."
Sabé gave off the act of seeming to give thought to the suggestion for a second before she declared, "Then I will plead our case to the Senate."
The Jedi made to step into the hanger.
"I will handle it," Luke enforced.
Obi-Wan frowned. It was still hard to believe him so young when the last he'd spotted him his journey of guidance came to an end.
'Not the last of the old Jedi, Luke. The first of the new.'
"You sound so sure of yourself." Obi-Wan noted with an ounce of flatness. "Collaboration and unity is the way of the Jedi."
Luke shook his head. "While I am not above engaging in combat, there's other ways to handle situations. The Queen needs to be shielded. While I am not above working alongside you, now is not the time to put the Queen in the middle of armed battle droids. One shot is all that it takes."
Obi-Wan opened his mouth to argue further, but Luke was already moving. He'd known there was going to be slight controversy from the Order at his presence, to begin with, but he didn't wish to engage in arguments or combat with any of them unless it was truly necessary.
So, officially, it was because of the Viceroy being in captivity and none of them wanting to lose him. Unofficially, Luke wasn't exactly fond of the thought of his mother charging into the battlefield without armor or some sort of protection that he'd personally approved of!
Besides, the battle droids, for all of their incompetence, were still capable of being lethal if the recordings about the Clone Wars were anything to go by.
Standing in the middle of the hanger, he'd allowed a powerful wave to repulse out of him and into the battle droids. The closest ones in front of him went flying out of the exposed hanger. The others were smashed against the wall, destroyed upon impact.
"Woah..." One of the Handmaidens said, her eyes brightened in awe as they all moved in.
The former captives, pilots, weren't even impacted, only staring at the dismantled droids formerly holding them at gunpoint. Then up at the dark-robed man who merely went over to check to make sure they were alright.
Qui-Gon moved in, a clear smile of amusement parked across his lips. "I have rarely seen the Force used with such elegance."
"The Force is not a tool, but a useful ally. Not every conflict needs to be resolved with a lightsaber. Diplomacy won't always work, nor will responding to violence with serenity." Luke answered, recalling the teachings of Yoda on Dagobah. That was a strange thought, the fact that the Grandmaster was still alive and well in the Jedi Temple, not yet scarred from the horrors of the Clone Wars and all of his unfortunate failures.
He'd learned that throughout the years. Simply put, while he tried to avoid casualties on the battlefield, performing tactics like that wasn't always possible. Oftentimes, Luke had been forced to make regretful decisions in order to secure safety for others. It was a terrible price of battle, but alas, there was no other choice.
The guards led the Viceroy onboard the Nubian, while Luke waited, making sure that no more reinforcements would come. At no sight of them, he boarded the ship when the last person came on board.
Even though he'd worried slightly that they wouldn't escape, Luke didn't say anything in protest, not wanting to alter the course which would lead them to Tatooine. He was staring at his mother down the corridors, gauging for something-anything that could connect him to her.
It wasn't an incorrect assumption for one to claim that Luke was much different from her in terms of appearance.
Luke for one had his mother's facial structure and nose. He had his father's facial appearance and chin, but he wasn't taller than her.
He'd known what she was like. What she looked like.
Sometime after Endor, Leia told Luke who their mother was and managed to get recordings that made her look so foreign. Leia had been told by her adopted mother, Breha Organa, who was the queen of Alderaan. Leia was very young but her adopted mother had a statue of Padmé Amidala when she was Queen of Naboo, in the palace gardens on Alderaan.
Queen Breha told Leia all about her mother, and how she was a hero that millions of citizens once looked up to. Someone who inspired hope.
As Leia grew older, she inherited their mother, royal wardrobe, which she held close to her heart. She spoke of how the regal clothing had been kept safe on Naboo. Naturally Luke had no memory of her as she died during childbirth. Leia could use the Force to remember small moments of the day she was born... and her mother died.
Luke may not have remembered his real mother, but he was still haunted by the memory of his aunt's death, who raised him from a baby and acted as a mother should.
Beru Lars was incinerated by Imperial forces on Tatooine, along with Owen, when the Empire was searching for the stolen Death Star. She was that warm, caring, and loving woman, who was pretty much his mother for the first 19 years of his life. She was all he knew when it came to having a mother who loved and cared for him. He missed her more than someone he genuinely had no memory of.
That was the harsh reality. It contributed onto the pain. The fact that he felt nothingness around his biological mother aside from the familial bond that came with being born out of her. She didn't know who he was. Nor did he know much about her aside from the fact that she was the politician who opposed Palpatine in the final days of the Republic.
If right now, Luke approached her and told her what the mentor she'd looked up to and aspired to be, she wouldn't believe him. That was the harsh reality. She would think him mad...
He dismissed the feelings of longing, deciding to approach the nearby window and stare out. As much as he'd wanted them to land on Tatooine, him being here didn't happen last time, and he didn't want the damn ship to explode in mid-space because he was gambling on events of a past timeline.
Luke reached out with the Force, guiding his mind to the engine, trying to keep it intact and not blow up in mid-space. He did catch the forms of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn staring at him. The two were cautious of him, trying to figure out what game he had, and what intentions did he possessed, but they had already deciphered he was no threat.
'Master, he's so powerful in the Force. For someone who I have never seen before in the Temple, he's far stronger than most Jedi I ever met before.' Obi-Wan said telepathically to his Master.
'I agree, Padawan-mine. He might be among the Corellian sector or another one of the Jedi's sects.' Jinn thought back in contemplation.
'Though I wonder who his Master is. Must be someone strong in the Force.' Obi-Wan said back.
Oh, if he only knew...
Luke smirked and tuned out their conversation, allowing the Force to course through his veins. As the ship continued to shake and tremble, he didn't fight within to keep the ship from damage, but more so from exploding. He could have done so easily, but he still had to go pick up his father and grandmother.
Luke focused his attention on the droids. The missiles and blasts kept coming and coming. Without his aid, they would have had a higher chance of being blown to bits. Two droids, he felt. Artoo. And another. Finally, as the missiles continued to drive to his Force absorption, bouncing harmlessly, he felt his arm shaking slightly, but otherwise, there hadn't been a strain.
He kept his attention up, his connection before he felt the droids finished. They were safe now. Mostly safe, that was. Two of them.
"The power's back! Those little droids did it! They'd bypassed the main power drive!" The pilot cheered in relief. "Deflector shields up at maximum.
"Pilot," Luke said kindly, "before you jump, how is the hyperdrive?"
A swift check before he cursed in Naboo. "Not good! This ship won't be going to Coruscant!" He exclaimed. "The hyperdrive is leaking!"
"The closest planet here is Tatooine," Luke informed them. "I think that going there would be for the best. Especially after such a risky attack like that. We have to rebuild the ship. It's small. Out of the way. Lawless." An ounce of dryness came into his voice. "Why do everything always leads to that planet, I wonder?"
The Force must really love or hate Tatooine.
"Oh, you have been there before?" Obi-Wan landed him with a wondering stare.
"For a long time," Luke answered ominously. "Tatooine is that sort of planet that if you leave people alone, they will leave you alone, but you have to be discreet or end up in the wrong crowds."
"And you're sure the Trade Federation doesn't have a presence there?" Panaka asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The Trade Federation wouldn't endeavor to go to war with Jabba the Hutt."
"Jabba the Hutt?!" Panaka repeated the name, his feelings about them taking the Queen to such a planet obvious.
"It's not too bad," he grunted, "aside from slavery," he advised. "We would have to be careful but it may be the only location where we could be able to find a hyperdrive without risking being blown up in space."
"But surely they're better alternatives!" Panaka fought the losing argument.
"If we don't go to Tatooine, we will be shredded quickly," the son of Anakin Skywalker responded, mentally wishing Han was here to lecture him about that but understanding the Captain's stance. "There's nothing else we can do."
The Captain wanted to argue against that, but he stood down, reluctantly giving the argument to Luke, who gave him an understanding look.
He went down the next corridor, noticing the two astromechs just entering, and patting both of them on the domes.
"Well done..."
The droids chirped.
"R2-D2. And G8-R3."
The surprise was clear in their beeps and boops.
"Ah so you understand binary?" His mother unintentionally summarized with a bit of fondness behind him, almost making his heart jump in panic.
Luke replied. "You will learn quickly that I'm not what you would consider the normal Jedi."
She seemed to be scrutinizing him. "I think I got that already. No offense, something about you is different. You're... lighter than the Jedi. More caring, I think."
Of course, she most likely sensed the mysterious connection. Even for non Force sensitives, a bond between parent and child couldn't be so easily broken.
"I doubt that," he replied slightly, his lips curving up into a pain smile. For all their failings, the Jedi of this point wasn't evil. Just... misguided.
"Jedi don't form attachments, correct?" She asked now, darting her eyes around now.
"While it is true that the Jedi don't form attachments lightly, most Jedi Masters do care about their Padawans and fellow colleagues." He answered wisely. "Jedi are allowed to love, but they have to put their personal duty first, not allow their feelings to cloud their judgment, and prioritize a single person over the well-beings of others."
That was easier said than done. Luke made a vow to never turn to the Dark Side-seeing what it did to his father, but it didn't mean that he would sacrifice his friends or use it once and a while.
"Oh, what is the exact reason that Jedi cannot get married?"
"It is to prevent Jedi Dynasties, where families of Force Users would hold the most power in the galaxy. By keeping the Jedi single and devoted to an institution, their power and their goals could be channeled to the purest ideals. Another reason would be to fortify the Jedi against the Dark Side by living an ascetic life. Of course, it is also important to note that the rules used to be much more lenient-the Jedi Order had evolved to have much more strict rules. In the Old Republic, though Jedi still observed asceticism to some degree, marriages were not forbidden. The Jedi also credited the defeat of the last Sith Empire to their stricter system, and thus hold on to it until this very day."
Luke understood why Jedi Dynasties weren't a good idea, but it didn't mean that they wouldn't have virtues. Granted, favoritism was possible, but nepotism already played an active role in the Jedi Order of this era and those of the past. Grandmaster Satele Shan was recognized as being a descendant of Revan and Bastila.
"Makes sense," she shrugged, "I take it you were on a mission or whatnot for the Jedi Order."
"Not every Force user operates under the Jedi at the Temple, miss." Luke dismissed, deciding to come up with some sort of excuse for his sudden appearance later. "I come from somewhere... far from here."
"Well, you just teleported according to the Queen's guards," she replied simply.
"I may have flow-walked." He thought out loud, considering the possibility. He didn't really delve into performing such an ability. Flow-walking would mean teleportation in the future or the past. Overdoing it could lead to thousands of years in either of it, which was why Luke didn't want to learn much about it.
Her eyebrows arched in curiosity. "What's that?"
"The Force's way of teleportation. Very risky. You can die from it, but I think that's the only explanation." Luke smiled. "Well, at least Naboo has my aid now. You were able to get off your planet due to me." Teasing now...
"Show off," she said in a forced dark tone. "You should be less arrogant, Master Skywalker."
"Is it really arrogance if it's the truth?" Luke quipped back.
Padmé scrunched up her nose in fake displeasure. She didn't want to terrify the man given they had just met, but something about her... felt safe around him. He was pretty handsome, but there was something there that prevented an actual attraction from forming. The Jedi were protectors, yes, but it felt like something about him was alluring.
Her Handmaidens were eyeing both him and Obi-Wan Kenobi, putting up some bets about who was more handsome. But Padmé felt something building up inside over thinking that way of the darker-robed man. She should care for him, but not to that extreme.
"We never asked you to be a pain in our ass, sir," Padmé said now, the levity clear in her tone. "But Naboo would welcome your services as long as you don't impale yourself with your lightsaber mid-ignition."
Laughter rippled out of Luke's chest at that moment.
Oddly enough, Padmé preferred the man's laughter over anything else.