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Yep, more Always Emotion is the Future, after a huge pause. This chapter is dedicated to all the people who have emailed me to tell me to get on with it - thanks, I really did need somebody to poke me to make me get on with it. More will come quicker from now on! Enjoy, Jon, x
The lovers’ eyes met, both sets of eyes illuminated in the harsh red of the Sith weapon.
“Why?” Leia asked, the droning hum of the crimson blade casting a harsh blood-red glow through the temple’s inner room. She didn’t need to ask whether it was true. She knew something was very wrong. She felt dizzy as she sensed waves of the force wash over her; Luke was seething with clashing emotions. It was unreadable, and frightening, like a vicious storm.
“For you.” Luke’s voice was calm. He sounded so certain, “It was all for you. For our child. For us. I just wanted what was best for you.”
“By lying to me?” Leia breathed fast, her temper flaring up, she just wanted to scream at him, “By choking anybody who didn’t fit into your little plan? By abducting me, and bringing me to a deserted planet? You didn’t give me any choice in anything!”
“What other choice did I have?” Luke replied calmly, staying still, keeping his quiet, but staring at her, right into her eyes, unashamed - proud, even - of what he had done, “You went alone into a secret Imperial prison facility, you could have been killed. I had to save you from yourself, before you got yourself killed. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”
“How could you do this?”
The question was earnest; she thought she knew Luke, but the Luke she knew couldn't have done any of this. Luke would be the one to save her from it.
“Don’t you understand what I had to do to save you?” Luke said slowly, suppressing the hint of frustration in his voice. He had no idea why Leia couldn’t see things as he did, “I had to put myself under the Emperor’s tuition. I had to do terrible things, things I didn’t want to do, because it was the only way to become strong enough to save you.”
“I never wanted to be saved! I didn’t need to be saved from Obi-Wan, or from Han. He was just trying to help me, and you as well!”
“I don’t want to hear anything else about Han.” Luke regretted his harsh tone at once. He took a step forwards, offering her his hand as a peace gesture, “It’s just us now.”
“Don’t,” warned Leia, taking a step away, and throwing down the lightsabre. She desperately wanted to just throw herself forwards and beg him to hold her, and she knew that he knew it as well. “I just need to be alone right now.”
Luke let her go.
“Leia,” he began. She shook her head, and he understood at once, going quiet to let her speak without interruption.
“I believe you,” she started. Luke was visibly relieved, and smiled happily. She continued, “I know you meant well. I know you did everything you did for the right reasons. I forgive you for lying to me. But now it’s got to stop. You’ve got to let go of everything that’s happened, and come back to the real world. We’ve got to stop hiding.”
“Why?” Luke replied, shaking his head.
How can he not understand…?
“Because we’re being selfish. We’re just thinking of ourselves
“You’re always thinking of other people. Always of the rebellion, of refugees, or some planet nobody else would care about. It’s part of why I love you. But now it’s time you looked after yourself.”
She knew he was right in part; she’d turned down all the time off that Command had offered her. She nodded weakly, before adding, “But you have to turn back on all this now. If you have to face Vader again, I understand, but you’ve got to stay on the light side.”
He knew she was right in part, “But I can do so much more with what I’ve learnt. I can change things, and make them better
“What right do you have?” Leia was genuinely panicked; this was the reasoning that had destroyed the Republic, “Why do you think you can tell people what to do or what to think?”
“Because I can. I have the power to make things better for everybody.”
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should
She didn’t say any of it. She knew Luke wouldn’t understand. She didn’t want to think it, but he was thinking just as Palpatine had; that the strongest were allowed to do things, by virtue of being strong.
“Because sometimes people need to be told what to do and think. Anyway, you just said that you trust me, and you know me; I’ll do what’s right. People need a leader. I know what’s best for everybody. I can change things, make things right, stop all this war and chaos. The people in my Galaxy can all be as happy as we are!” Luke smiled happily, staring into the sky.
“You can’t mean this. It’s not right.”
Luke laughed, “Who’s going to tell me what’s right? I can tell people what’s right, I can make things right, I can change the Galaxy, just like you want to with the Rebels, but I can do things so much faster. We can stay here, and when the time comes, I can overthrow the Emperor, I can take his place, and we can do anything!”
“Not like this!” Leia felt heat prickle her eyes, “Just,” she turned and left again, “I need to think…”
“Tell me everything that’s happened.”
“There’s nothing more to tell. I strongly suggest we leave now. Skywalker’s not mentally stable.”
Leia knew that Fett’s intuition was right. There was something very wrong with his mind. There was conflict, fear, things Obi-Wan had warned her led to the dark side. Maybe she’d known something was wrong all along. Maybe she hadn’t wanted to admit it. Maybe she’d been too trusting. She couldn’t leave. She placed a hand on her stomach, feeling the growing bump. She had to care for her child too. She couldn’t stay. But Luke needed help. She couldn’t abandon him. There was something wrong with him, but she could feel there was goodness too.
Leia bit her lip hard. She closed her eyes tightly. She tasted the blood from her bottom lip. This was an impossible choice. There was no right answer. But she had made impossible choices before, choices that had cost other people their lives, choices that had risked her own safety, and now she had to make such a choice again.
“Take me back to your ship. I need to send a transmission to the Rebel Alliance,” she whispered, “Hurry, before-”
“No,” Luke’s voice was still eerily calm, but louder now. He had meant it as a command. Leia spun as Luke rose from his crouched position amongst the bushes. Leia panicked slightly, backing away, shaking her head through the sobs she couldn’t stop. Beside her, Boba Fett laid a hand on her shoulder, leading her backwards, towards his ship, as his other hand hovered by his pistol, ready to draw.
Luke prowled from side to side, moving slowly closer, wary of the bounty hunter who just kept surviving their encounters. The red lightsabre ignited in Luke’s hands, and he held the blade forwards, ready to lunge, advancing at the same rate as Leia and Boba Fett retreated.
“I tried to make things right. I wanted everything to be perfect. Why do people keep getting in our way?” Luke’s voice rose slightly, betraying his frustration, “This bounty hunter! Now he’s in our way!” Luke shouted now, pointing his blade straight at Fett’s chest, “He’s trying to turn you against me! Just like Obi-Wan did! Just like Han! They all turned against me! I won’t let anybody take you from me!”
Boba Fett’s hand went for his pistol. Luke tightened his empty hand into a fist. Mid-draw, the blaster pistol crumpled like paper, crushed by the force. The bounty hunter didn’t realise in time, and brought up the crippled weapon, trying to use it anyway, acting on reflex. Luke seized the moment and leapt forwards.
Leia saw it all in slow motion; somehow when one sensed only the force presence of the world, time seemed to pass much slower. She felt Luke charging. She felt the blank mind of the bounty hunter. She shuddered as she felt the future coming towards her. She saw what would happen. She saw the blade pass cleanly through the Mandalorian armour. She saw the momentum of Luke’s savage attack knock the head clean away into the undergrowth. She saw the blood. She didn’t even realise that Qui-Gon’s lightsabre had moved into her hands. She didn’t hear it ignite. Just as Obi-Wan had taught her, she didn’t think, she just felt. She couldn’t sit by and watch Fett die.
A grating screech. The two lightsabres locked together.
Luke and Leia stared at each other in shock. From nowhere, they had crossed blades for the first time. Leia pushed against Luke to keep the lightsabres locked. She didn’t know if they were duelling now.
He wouldn’t attack me if he could… would he?
Luke glanced from Leia to the bounty hunter who she had leapt in front of and protected. Who she had chosen ahead of him. He whispered, his voice seething with rage, “You brought him here to kill me!”
“No!” Leia spluttered, “No! Luke, I-”
Boba went for his other blaster with his other hand. The motion snapped Luke into action. With no way to use his lightsabre, he flung his own free hand forward, grasping Boba’s neck through the force, this time showing no restraint.
Enough is enough. This ends now
He squeezed harder, seeking not just to incapacitate, but to crush his windpipe, to kill Boba Fett once and for all. Leia felt Boba suffering through the force. She couldn’t stand by. The days when she could let somebody be killed had ended when she had joined the Rebel Alliance. Not again.
Not after Alderaan…
Leia’s left hand shot forwards, sending waves of pressure pulsing through the force. Just for a second as it slammed into Luke’s chest, she saw a look of utter confusion and loss in his eyes, before the force push knocked him off his feet, catapulting him back out of sight. She heard a heavy thud as he hit something.
Leia felt the bounty hunter’s cold gauntlet-shielded hand grab her shoulder as she moved to go to him, but his grip wasn’t firm, and she could tell he would have let her go if she had wanted. The pause was the last thing she needed. She couldn’t leave him here alone, injured. But if she stayed, there was no telling what he would do. He had accused her of bringing Fett there to kill him. She could sense the anger and hatred. He wasn’t thinking straight. He was unpredictable and dangerous.
Run, Leia, run!
Obi-Wan’s voice echoed through the force, his presence suddenly able to appear to Leia again now that Luke’s mental block had dropped. The voice - the kind paternal voice - stopped her. The cloudiness cleared. She turned. Boba Fett understood at once and ran. She sprinted a step behind the bounty hunter, letting him lead. Obi-Wan was right. She had to run, so she ran, pushing her way through the undergrowth, letting each leaf wipe away the tears as it brushed her face.
Fett… Leia…
An explosive roar pierced the ringing in his ears from his impact with the tree. The light hurt his eyes as he looked through the forest canopy. The bounty hunter’s ship soared into the atmosphere, away from him. He rolled onto his back, to face it, reaching out with his hand, ignoring the burning pain of what he guessed was a broken wrist.
He reached out with the force, probing the force, looking for the ship, to grab it, stop it, bring her back, he had to, to save her, to keep them together, he had to be strong enough he couldn’t feel it, but he could see it still, pulling away, leaving him, still the world spun, sweating in the heat, lying there, powerless, weak, useless-
He screamed. Then the colours turned to black.