Chapter Text
Luke swirled the rain around his body, making sure that nothing hit his brand-new Jedi robes. The fraction of water that was already settling on the ground was no match for his boots, so he ignored it. He let the rain drops flit around him as though they were creating a tornado of water, indulging himself as he often did. He laughed, seeing his fiancé just cock an eyebrow at his display. He didn’t really care what anyone else thought; this was fun.
When he was younger and had discovered his powers, he had been afraid of them. The adventures that he and his friends would go on seemed so silly, in the face of all the power in the galaxy that was within him. It wasn’t until he had been fully trained that he discovered that he could have fun with them, rather than fear them. Obi-Wan had been an amazing mentor up until he retired last year. Now Luke was on his own, but that was just fine. He had his fiancé, Boba Fett, and they were to be married next week. He was sure that everything would be fine.
The marriage to Boba Fett wasn’t his first choice, but Luke thought he was a nice enough person. It had been arranged by the Republic, due to Luke’s status as a Jedi – and Boba’s need for protection in the galaxy. Luke was apathetic to it, but was willing to do whatever his Jedi family needed him to do. There was just one thing missing, but Luke wasn't concerned – he didn’t love Boba Fett, but didn’t really feel that he had to. It was just what was being asked of him, and he didn’t really care either way.
His life had been different than most. He had grown up on a desert planet that he had escaped when the Jedi came to claim him. Unfortunately, just a few years after he began training under Obi-Wan, there was a war. Most of the Jedi were killed, including his father. He hadn’t known his father – or at least, that the Jedi Master was his father – but he mourned the loss as if he had. The Jedi were secretive and had always been primary in defense of the Republic. They were used as political advancement for most, and his father had been forced to marry a senator when he was young. Luke had been the product of that relationship, and had been sent to relatives soon after his mother died.
His mother had died when he was just a year old, and his father had returned to the Jedi having been absolved from his obligations. Luke had been sent to live with his aunt and uncle since he hadn’t shown any Force sensitivity yet. Once he showed that he had powers, the Jedi came to negotiate his entry into the academy when he was of the proper age. There was a lot about his parents that he didn’t know, but he had settled into the Jedi academy with little fanfare. He was just Luke, a child from Tatooine.
All that changed after the war. After the Jedi Masters were almost all killed, by order of the Emperor, the children started being sent off in different directions. Through the course of the war, each of them was either killed or their Force abilities faded. Luke was the only one who kept up with his training, all due to Obi-Wan.
Now that Luke was older, the Republic was thrilled to have a fully trained Jedi Master among their ranks. Thus, the marriage to Boba Fett in the name of peace. Luke just went with what they asked, not really thinking that he had any real alternative.
The sky drew him in, as the clouds thickened. Luke’s eyes raised to look at the darkening horizon curiously. The shadow beyond the clouds didn’t look natural-
Suddenly, there was an explosion behind him. Luke dropped to the ground, eyes glancing at Boba Fett – who had also dropped – before focusing on the location that the blast came from. Luke whipped around, seeing the cause for the darkening clouds; a ship was coming out of the cloud cover, their blasters focusing on the capital building a couple miles away from Luke.
Without thinking, Luke took off running toward his ship. His X-wing was on the other side of the square, with his droid, R2-D2. He heard Boba yell after him, but he couldn’t stop to explain it to him. He knew that he was the last Jedi and he had to get up to that ship as fast as he possibly could. If he didn’t stop them, no one would.
Luke jumped inside his X-wing, starting the take-off procedures. “Artoo, get us up there as fast as you possibly can!”
R2-D2 beeped in response, kicking the engines into full power. Luke took off from the surface, angling his ship toward the back of the enemy vessel. He saw fighters coming toward him, and he had to veer to the side to avoid their shots. “Artoo, get me some kind of help here! There are too many of them.”
R2-D2 beeped back that the Republic was scrambling their fighters now; none of them had been as fast as Luke had been. Luke cursed under his breath, continuing his ascent while maneuvering around the oncoming ships.
The darkness that surrounded the ship continued as it got closer into the airfield of Chandrila. There was desolation in the darkness, and Luke’s heart began to race. Something was edging around his conscious mind in a sickly way. The closer he got to the ship, the worst it got. Luke’s nerves were set on edge as a result, and he found himself dreading what he would find.
The fighters weren’t interested in Luke getting close to their main ship, and their blasters were skimming past his ship. He angled to the side to avoid hitting one, while another fighter’s shot blew past him to the other side. Exhaling sharply, he turned the ship right again, blasting a fighter out of the air.
The bay doors were closing as he got closer, so he blasted them open, yelling to R2-D2 to keep the fighters off his tail. He pushed his way through the hoards, narrowly getting into the protected bay. There were troopers surrounding him as he landed, so he grabbed his lightsabre and jumped out of the ship. “Artoo, stay with the ship!”
Landing hard, he lit the sabre and deflected the blaster fire that was all focused on him. He could hear Obi-Wan in the back of his mind reminding him to remain calm and focus, ensuring that he was careful to avoid their fire. Several troopers with ax style light weapons started running toward him, but he pushed them away with the Force. They scattered, pulling down several other troopers with them before hitting the far wall. Luke stopped the blaster fire with his hand before bringing his sabre up again to deflect them back.
He started running as the troopers were beginning to thin in front of him, knocking them down as he went. He didn’t have a moment to rest and seek out the darkness; instead, he fought his way through the hallway edging toward where the troopers were spilling out. He’d been in enough Empire ships to know where the bridge was; that seemed like the best place to start.
As he rounded another corner, he stopped short. There were no troopers in this hallway, and there was hardly any light. It appeared as though all the internal lighting had been shut off, leaving only the emergency reflectors on the base of the walls. They were an eerie red, which cast a menacing glow around him.
Cautiously, he walked through the hallway finally sensing the darkness. It was directly in front of him, in a conference room of sorts. It looked to Luke like he wouldn’t make it to the bridge after all.
He got to the door, slipping to the side of it to rest his back against the wall. Glancing around him, making sure there were no other troopers coming toward him, he inhaled sharply. Closing his eyes, he pushed his feelings into the next room, only to be met with a dark black wall of resistance.
He heard in his mind the menacing voice of the only man that scared him to his very core.
“Come in, young Skywalker. Meet your fate.”
Luke took a shaky breath, before pushing away from the wall and opening the door using a panel to release the hatch. The door slid open with a hiss and the darkness that Luke had sensed was suddenly all around him. He choked for a second on the thick air, his eyes scanning around the room trying to find the source of the voice. The room was wide, littered with red clad troopers around the edges. In the center of the room was a long table just in front of a large throne. Luke’s eyes focused on the throne, finally seeing the Emperor.
“Of course; I knew that it had to be you here, Palpatine,” Luke sneered, stepping into the room, letting the door close behind him. “I could almost smell you when I got out of my ship.”
“It’s always a pleasure, young Skywalker. But you are not welcome on my ship.”
“Then you shouldn’t attack my home.” Luke took purposeful steps forward, standing next to the table so that he could look directly into Palpatine’s eyes. “Turn around now, your highness, or I will be forced to stop you.”
The Emperor laughed, harsh and loud. Luke kept his face stoic, knowing that the man liked to put on a show before he got to the serious stuff. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the red troopers starting to close in on him. Oh, so that’s how it is. Ok.
Luke lit his sabre, striking at one of the troopers close to him. The Emperor’s laugh cut off as Luke cut down the second trooper. Flying over the table, Luke attempted to strike down Palpatine, but was cut off by two of the red troopers. Slashing his sabre out, he cut the arm off of one, shoving him into the other. With those two down, he resumed his effort to get to the throne.
The rest of the troopers rushed him, as the Emperor stood from the throne. Several of the troopers ushered him away as Luke began fighting with the rest of them. They had intense weapons, harder to fight than normal troopers...and they were expertly trained.
Luke kicked one of them away as another rushed him. The staff that one carried had electricity thrumming through it; Luke could feel the energy as the trooper swung the staff toward him. Reaching out with the Force, Luke pushed him away before turning on the rest of them. There were still a dozen red troopers standing. Closing his eyes, Luke reached out and pushed all of them at once, including the guards attempting to usher the Emperor from the room. The Emperor made no move, but the remaining troopers were all flung with a rushed movement, slamming into the back walls.
Smirking, Luke opened his eyes and focused them on Palpatine. “You lost, your highness.”
“You will not best me this time, Skywalker.” The Emperor raised his hands above his head and a dark black cloud began to form. Luke took a step closer, only to be stopped by whatever the Emperor was doing. The cloud grew and started to rise above the Emperor’s head.
Luke stared up at it, arms raised as though to stop it from getting closer. He had never seen or heard of anything like it before in his life. The darkness grew but within it were tiny white dots – one would almost think they were stars. But the way that the dots started to swirl together convinced Luke immediately that they weren’t stars, and that whatever they were meant danger. The black cloud swirled around him, white dots turning blurry.
The cloud grew and before Luke could turn and run out of the room, it enveloped him. The sensation of falling caught him off guard, and Luke stifled a scream as the ship and everything he knew was gone in an instant. The darkness swirled around him, the dots moving faster until he closed his eyes to avoid getting dizzy.
Luke hit the ground, the darkness still surrounding him. Slowly he opened his eyes, and looked around. There was still darkness, but he saw a small string of light coming out of the far wall. He knew that he wasn’t in the Emperor’s ship any longer, but he couldn’t identify anything around him. There was a soft sound of water sloshing as he walked tentatively toward the light. His fingers made contact with the wall and he pulled, trying to make the light get bigger.
He saw the light expand and grow, creating a halo effect around him as he felt himself be pulled into the light. Luke yelped as it yanked him so hard that he felt like his entire body was being sucked into a small hole that the light was coming through. The strange sensation of tingling hit his body full force, causing him to shake. Luke closed his eyes tight.
The first thing he knew was the sound. In the darkness there was nothing but overwhelming silence; but now that he had been sucked into the light, the noise around him was deafening. His eyes shot open and he looked around, jumping out of the way as a large metal ship – a speeder? – came rushing toward him. He blinked several times, overwhelmed by the color surrounding him. He looked around, seeing the speeder ships – on wheels? – all around him, a crowd of people standing to the side of the raceway.
Overwhelmed, Luke rushed to get out of the way of the next speeder rushing toward him. He ran toward the crowd just off the raceway. The people ignored him, shoving past to get to their destinations.
“Excuse me,” Luke said as someone ran into him. “Pardon...do you know…” Everyone pushing past him ignored every word he said; every question. Luke got shoved along with the crowd, being herded toward a staircase that appeared to disappear under the ground. “Where are we?” Luke called out, hoping someone would answer him.
“You are in New York, kid. Now move, I can’t miss my train.”