Happy Star Wars Day everyone! Enjoy the first chapter of my latest story and May the Fourth be with you!
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Chapter 1: A New Hope
The Republic had fallen long ago. The Empire rose in its place, only to fall a short time later. The New Republic hoped to endure, but it lasted only a fleeting breath in the span of the galaxy it inhabited. Civilizations rose and fell. Species flourished and faded away, the only signs they were ever there was the few bones lucky enough to be preserved for future beings to find.
The only aspect that endured through this long saga was the Jedi. The Sith and their knowledge had been seemingly wiped out for the last time millennia before. No others bothered to pursue their twisted path as the ability to use the Force had seemingly withered from the living races, leaving the galaxy with fewer and fewer who could even feel the force, let alone use it.
As this went, the Jedi dwindled in their numbers until there was seemingly only one who claimed the title remaining. He walked through the empty temple that he remembers to be once filled with life and motion. Now, it was akin to a tomb in which he was the last breath of life soon to depart.
He had endured for long enough to watch as the generations of Padawans grew smaller until they were lucky to find any new Force-sensitive every couple years. Gone were the days where people would seek the Jedi to help in their conflicts. Those that live today had long forgotten the Jedi. They had grown to the point where they could no longer feel the Force, let alone believe it existed.
He wondered if this is just the way that the galaxy will forever be. If one day people will rediscover kyber crystals and no longer remember the noble warriors who fought against the dark with their brilliant blades of light.
He had gotten much more philosophical in his old age. He wonders if it is perhaps the same thing that Yoda experienced long ago when he dwelled on a dark planet covered in swamps and lamented the death of his order. It could be the weight of knowing your fading memories might be the last record of countless honorable men and women who journeyed the stars and brought peace where they could.
Perhaps this galaxy has grown beyond the Jedi and the Force. That might be why the Force is so quiet these days. They were needed in the earlier days, but they were now just a passing dream in the history of all that was and will be.
He rested in his worn chair in the council chambers where he used to deliberate with his fellow Jedi. They would discuss their goals and their beliefs as they tried to decide the course of their order. Now, it is just a place with far too many memories and a nice view of the grassy fields surrounding the old temple.
He watched as the sun slowly descended and lit up the grass like a sea of shimmering gold. The light felt warm across his weathered old face as he closed his eyes after watching for a time. He might be alone for this last moment, but it was not such a bad way to leave. Once more, a Jedi knew true peace.
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The Force was a wealth of power and knowledge that no mortals could truly understand. It existed within all that exists and played a role in all life. However, some that truly connect with it can persist after their departure from the mortal coil if their story is meant to continue for more chapters than can fit into one life.
It is with this purpose that Yoda continued to exist in the Force as a ghost instead of returning into it like Obi-wan and Anakin chose too after their time was done and Luke's journey was complete.
He had watched as the order prospered and receded. As they learned and forgot more lessons than could fit in the holocrons of his order's archives. It was an experience like no other to see the total history of the Jedi for himself.
However, this meant he also had to watch as the last of his descendants took his final breath and dissolved into the Force once more. This meant that there was no one left to carry the teachings of the Jedi or anyone to teach them to.
He would have questioned why the Force would allow him to endure beyond the life of the order but he realized something crucial. Just because a book ends doesn't mean the story does. Just as a book has chapters, a story can continue for many books after its first has ended. All that it takes to see it is to wait.
And so, the ancient master of the Jedi council watched and observed for centuries, millennia, and eons as it seemed a change would never truly come. He had almost begun to grow tired of his vigilance when he felt a ripple through the Force.
He recognized it from years past. A new Force-sensitive has been born into the universe. Unlike those in the past, however, this emergence was more akin to the rippling wave of an earthquake.
The galaxy would likely never be the same again.
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The birth was of one Harry Potter, the son of Lily Evans Potters and James Potter. He was a member of a pair of twins with his counterpart being another boy named James Potter Jr. While James Jr. was the spitting image of his father with his unruly black hair and hazel green eyes, Harry was a blend of his two parents. He was born with the emerald green eyes of his mother but with a brownish hair color produced from the mix of black and red hairs.
The difference between the two was night and day. James always cried and demanded attention. Harry was just happy and curious about the new world he seemed to be in.
While Lily tried to treat both sons equally, she often had to prioritize James Jr. due to his need for his parent's focus. James Sr. wasn't any more of a help since he doted on his namesake distinctly more than his other son since James Jr. was the firstborn twin and would inherit the heir position of House Potter.
"Are these my little brothers?" Rose Potter whispered as she looked down in adoration at the two babies sleeping in the crib. They were finally asleep after having been fed earlier by their mother.
"Yes, honey," Lily told her three-year old daughter. Rose was the duplicate of Lily just like with James Sr. and Jr. She had her mother's red hair and emerald eyes, along with her kind and intelligent nature.
Rose's attention was stolen in the next moment by baby Harry opening his eyes and looking up at her with a happy gurgle. She couldn't help but adore the little baby who looked at her with the same eyes she possessed. "Who's a cute baby?" Rose asks as she reaches down and rubs Harry.
The baby just giggles and reaches out to grab the larger girl's hand with his own two. Rose smiled in happiness as she watched her little brother holding onto her hand.
Regrettably, the moment was ruined by James Jr. waking up and crying upon seeing his twin being the center of attention instead of him. Reluctantly stopping her time with Harry, Rose calms down her other brother since her parents were too busy to do it themselves.
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Yoda watched as time passed for the young Force-sensitive. His people appeared to be descended from some offshoot of the Nightsisters or a similar group due to their ability to use the Force in ways that they simply referred to as 'magic'. He was wary that it could be similar to the dark magics used by the Sith, but it appeared to function on a similar range to the Force itself. Some are relatively neutral while others lean to one side or the other.
The society of magic users were at war with each other over supremacy through bloodlines and fear. The so-called 'Death eaters' were reminiscent of the Sith, although they lacked the inherent spark of power that set true Sith apart. Instead, most of them appeared to just be selfish, greedy, or bloodthirsty and chose to use their power for their own benefit.
Weeks turned into months as Yoda kept track of Harry. His brother appeared to grow worse by the day, hungering for all of his family's affection and becoming angry when Harry would receive any of it. Sadly, this just made the problem worse since he received this attention in the hopes that it would curb the behavior. It only served to further reinforce it.
For every moment that Harry was alone, James was surrounded by his family. No one noticed when he had raised his blocks in the air with accidental magic, but they praised James when he accidentally caught his father's pant leg on fire with a minor burst of accidental magic himself.
The process came to a head when the family went into hiding due to being targeted by a dark wizard because of a prophecy. They had hidden beneath formidable protections, but they ended up trusting the wrong person since they could not see the darkness in the hearts of those around them. Yoda felt a measure of guilt over the same mistakes in his own life.
On that fateful Halloween night, the dark lord Voldemort descended on the cottage the Potters dwelled in. Lily ran to protect the children while James stayed behind in a desperate bid to slow the evil wizard down. He only served as a mere distraction as he was quickly defeated and sent flying into a bookcase. His unconscious body became pinned under the collapsed shelf as Voldemort continued on unobstructed.
Lily hid Rose in a closet since she knew Voldemort was coming for the twins. She cast an enchantment over her to keep her asleep and undetectable until someone safe came to find her. Once she did this, she rushed to the nursery to guard her two sons.
Voldemort strode forward with the confidence of a man who has been proven unstoppable by every metric he has tested himself against. Yoda could feel the dark side of the Force radiating from the twisted man. Even though he had red eyes instead of the yellow shade possessed by a true Sith, Voldemort felt similar to the Sith that Yoda had encountered in his past. Even the perversion of his own body to the point where he began to resemble a snake was not uncommon for the practitioners of the ancient Sith magics.
Lily tried to stop the dark lord, but he batted all of the attempts away before casting her aside with a flick of his wand. She crashed into the wall and slumped to the ground with blood trickling from her temple.
Voldemort gazed at the two children with disdain. James was crying in terror at the evil man in front of him and screaming as loud as his infant voice allowed. Harry, on the other hand, looked straight into the red eyes of the dark lord as the gaze from his emerald eyes was unflinching.
The evil wizard could not help but feel that the child who could look him down, a feat few adult wizards could manage, was the threat that had been foretold in the prophecy. Raising his wand, he casts the killing curse in the hopes of erasing the child from this world and ensuring his own legacy and rule.
What he did not expect was the child to raise his own little hand, close his eyes, and reflect the spell back at him. Voldemort's form burst into ashes upon being struck by the reflected green curse and his robes collapsed to the ground in a heap. James had a jagged scar on his forehead from where a piece of the spell had splintered off and struck him, leaving the shape of a lightning bolt. Harry was just hit with a wave of exhaustion and fell asleep. Yoda looks on in thought at the impressive use of the Force from someone so young.
Upon Dumbledore arriving to provide assistance, he heals and awakens the two elder Potters and they go to check on the twins. They find them both alive in their crib with James crying from pain and fear while Harry is deeply asleep.
Dumbledore checks the two children and sees that Harry appears magically weaker while James possesses traces of dark magic in his scar. Making the assumption that Harry must have been weakened from almost dying to Voldemort before James protected him, he announces to everyone that James is the Boy Who Lived and defeated the Dark Lord.
Convinced that Harry likely had his magic permanently dampened by the brush with death, he talks the Potters into sending him to live with Lilly's muggle relatives. He made the argument that Harry would only grow jealous of being a squib amongst mages and how it would be better to have him grow up in the normal world where he could fit in better. Still shaken from the attack and trusting the old headmaster's word, Lily and James agree to the plan and take Rose and James Jr. to a different safe house while Dumbledore travels to Surrey and leaves Harry on the doorstep of his relatives' house.
Yoda just watches on in sadness as the child is abandoned out of the folly of one old man. He can feel that this is a path that cannot be undone now that it is started. This is the moment where many lives change, for the worse in many cases. He laments his inability to interact with the living world to stop this tragedy before it can unfold, but there is nothing that can be changed at this point. Yoda just hopes that the parents will come to know what they chose to abandon and leave behind one day.
As he looks down at the young infant, he can feel in the Force that the boy will have a hard life ahead of him. He just hopes that the child will be able to find balance within his heart as he grows older, lest he fall to the dark side like young Skywalker did all those years ago.
He will just have to wait and see.
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Author's note:
Hey, everybody! I decided to pop this out for May the Fourth, the official Star Wars day. The idea had been rattling around in my head for a while, but I decided to type it out after realizing that the day was approaching. Sorry if it is a little short. I wanted to get the main parts of the buildup out of the way before we get to the main story next chapter.
Let me know how I did in a review. I always appreciate hearing feedback on my writing so I can improve and give you guys the best chapters I can.
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May the Fourth be with you,
Titan900