Prologue Part I

Endor. 4 ABY.

It has been almost three months after the Battle of Endor. The Emperor and Darth Vader perished along with the Second Death Star. However, the war was not over, the Rebel Alliance still had to deal with remaining Imperials across the galaxy. Intelligence reported that in the Core, members of the Ruling Council led by Sate Pestage and Sly Moore try to control the Empire, while various Imperial warlords, usually grand-admirals, grand moffs and generals, fight each for every piece of the galaxy they hold.

It was a peaceful night. Leia Organa was standing outside of an Ewok hut, still wearing the dress the Ewoks gave her when they brought her to the village before the battle. She was looking at the stellar sky. While she was happy that they are winning and will soon restore democracy by forming the New Republic, Leia felt sadness for her parents not being alive to see this. To see how the era of tyranny came to end, being replaced with an era of freedom, peace and prosperity. "Father would have been proud of you." Mon Mothma said to her the day after the battle.

Suddenly, she felt a presence. For Leia this was strange, as she was alone. However, she felt it, and what was more strange, the presence felt familiar. Sensing it behind her back, she turned around and saw a young man, likely no older than her. He had long brown hair and was wearing black and brown Jedi robes. What Leia also noticed was that he was tinted blue, as if he was a hologram, more transparent.

"Leia…" he spoke as she shrugged in fright.

"Who are you?" Leia asked him. After sighing heavily and taking a deep breath, the man answered.

"I'm Anakin Skywalker."

"Darth Vader!" Leia yelled at him in rage. She was breathing heavily. Right in front of her was the monster that slaughtered innocents, tortured her, tortured Han, and stood beside her watching as Alderaan was destroyed. When Luke told her that he was her birth father she couldn't believe it. She couldn't.

"What are you doing here? What do you want from me? You've already done quite enough already? Are you here to torment me more?!" she hissed. To her shock, Anakin's face was filled with sadness and grief, and that raged her even more.

"Quite the contrary." he replied. "I want to redeem myself, to apologise for everything I've did to you."

"Go away," she growled. "I don't want to talk."

"If you would just let me explain…" he began once again. "There is nothing to explain!" Leia yelled once again, anger bursting out. "I don't want to know about you. I don't want you. I will never forgive you." the young rebel leader hissed. Anakin lowered his head. "I understand."

Leia scoffed. She looked at him in the eyes. It seemed that he was telling the truth, that he was sorry, but Leia did not want to admit it, as her pride, anger, pain and hatred took over. "No, you do not. You've done awful things to me and the people I love. You're nothing more but a machine that knows no love and has never loved anyone."

Anakin Skywalker suddenly stiffened, obviously hurt, but Leia didn't notice and neither did she care.

"Due to being such a monster like Palpatine, throughout your life you've been nothing more but a snake, a vile creature, that didn't love no one! Maybe Luke has forgiven you, if he believes that you helped him kill the Emperor and redeemed yourself, but I am not Luke. And you are not my father. Bail Organa was my father, is my father, and will always be my father. Not some Emperor's lapdog."

Anakin looked at her and nodded, but she turned away from him, as she started to sob. He then softly spoke one last time. "I am sorry, Leia. I understand what you feel right now. But I want you to know how much I regret not being there for you and… that I love you. No matter what your opinion on me is."

She turned back to argue but Anakin was gone, disappeared. As if he wasn't even here. Tears were flowing down her cheek as she burst into a cry. She cried for some time, until she felt another presence. Her sadness was once again filled with anger, thinking that Anakin/Vader came back.

"You've come back to mock me?!" she yelled into the darkness. However, there was no one, not to mention the fact that she didn't feel Anakin. Yes, the presence reminded her of Anakin for some reason, but it wasn't him. I've had enough of the Force she thought and went straight into the Ewok hut to get some rest. Once she lied on the bed the Ewoks made for her, Leia was about to fall asleep, only for a female voice to be heard.

"Leia"

Leia stood up and looked around, but there was no one around.

"Leia" the female voice spoke again. This was getting too much for the young princess.

"Who are you? What do you want? Is this one of your tricks, Vader?" she cried into the darkness.

"Anakin Skywalker has nothing to do with this, Leia. I'm here to talk with you." the voice answered.

"Who are you?" she asked. "It doesn't matter who I am, what matters now is you and your family. I heard that you recently had a conversation with your father?" the voice replied. "Darth Vader is not my father! He never was and will never be!" Leia hissed. "I know how you feel right now, Leia. I can sense your anger, but do not let it consume you, or you will end up like Vader, the one who you despise and hate."

"If you are here to encourage me to forgive Vader, then we're done here," Leia argued back. "I will never be like him. I was raised by real humans, with love and empathy."

"So you think that he was raised to be like that, since the day he was born?" the soft voice asked.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he came out with that helmet on." Leia chuckled darkly. "I can assure you that you are wrong, Leia. Anyways, if you don't want to discuss about Skywalker, let's talk about the other Skywalker." the voice spoke again.

"Luke?"

"Yes." the invincible woman answered. "Soon, you will receive a transmission from him. He will ask you for help. You must go but be careful. His location is not a safe place, filled with enemies, servants of the Dark Side."

"More Sith?" Leia asked in horror. The least thing she wanted was to encounter another Sith Lord. To her surprise, Leia heard a chuckle. "No, little one. They may be the servants of the Dark Side, but they are not powerful in the Force as the Sith. Still, these are dangerous people. You must be careful and do as I say so when you will arrive."

"Wait! How can I trust you and believe you are not leading me into a trap?" Leia cried out to the voice. "Sense your feelings, Leia. You know it to be true." the soft voice simply answered. "But who are you?" Leia asked that question again. "You will find out soon, Leia." the voice answered and with that Leia felt a chill as the wind flew through the hut. Leia immediately guessed that whoever it was, she was gone now, and she was alone once again. Just then, her com-devise inside the hut was active. Walking over to it, Leia turned on the devise and a hologram of Luke Skywalker in his black clothing, appeared.

"Leia, I wouldn't call you without a reason but this is urgent. I have found what I believe is a Jedi temple. The reason I'm calling you is that I need your help, particularly yours. Help me, Leia. You are my only hope in this mission. I'll tell you more when you arrive. Here are the coordinates." the hologram of Luke spoke and with that, it disappeared. Leia immediately began changing her clothes and preparing her equipment before dashing to the Millennium Falcon.

***

"So let me get this straight; you first get visited by the ghost of Darth Vader, then some voice tells you that Luke is in danger and then the kid himself contacts you and asks for help?" Han Solo asked sceptically after Leia finished explaining to her beloved the whole story. Right now, they recently jumped into hyperspace for some small moon on the edge of the galaxy.

"Yes. I'm also not a fan of all this Force, but I sense that Luke needs our help, and we must help him. He's my brother, Han." Leia answered, looking determined as always. Han nodded in response. "If Luke is your brother, then Vader is your father. How was he when he… well, you know?" he asked. "I don't want to talk about it." Leia spoke sternly. Han nodded, leaving his beloved alone as he turned back to the controls. "If you need help, I'm always glad to help Leia." he then added. Leia looked at him and smiled. Since their first meeting on the first Death Star, her view on Han Solo drastically changed. Initially seeing him as a cocky, arrogant, irritating and egotistical smuggler with no principles, Leia finally saw Han as a caring, kind and noble lad with his own moral compass. She was surprised to hear that he sacrificed his own carrier as an Imperial ace-pilot for the freedom of Chewbacca when the latter was a slave.

However, their relationship had not reached the next level. While she loved Han and wanted to possibly share a family with him, she had a bad feeling about children. While she still couldn't accept the reality that Darth Vader was her biological father, Leia feared that her future children may also become Force-sensitive, and even worse, become like Darth Vader, creatures of the Dark Side, servants of tyranny and pure evil. 'The galaxy shall never have another Vader,' she thought to herself.

***

Somewhere in the Wild Space. 4 ABY.

The Falcon jumped out of hyperspace and saw a cobalt blue moon. Looking at it, Leia immediately felt something was not right. She felt a huge presence of the Force on the moon, though she wasn't sure whether it was good or bad. The couple landed the Falcon at the closest location to the temple that could be safe to land their vessel. By luck, they landed right beside Luke's X-wing. As the two stepped down the gangplank, they immediately saw Luke approaching them, followed by R2-D2.

"You have come," Luke greeted them. "Luke, I hope this is urgent as you said. Also I hope that this will be quick," Leia immediately spoke. "Because I've had enough of the Force for today; some invisible woman, and before that Vader coming to me!"

"You've met our father?" Luke asked, to which Leia reacted with a growl. "Brother, I've told you many times Darth Vader is not my father, and will never be. Maybe he is your father, but not mine." She sneered. Luke just sighed heavily and silently motioned for them to follow him.

"Aren't you going to explain what's so urgent?" asked an annoyed Leia after walking in silence towards a ruined temple. "I'm not quite sure, but from what I understood, the temple may contain a key to control space and time." Luke answered without looking back at his sister. "That's absurd!" Leia immediately declared. Han just smirked. He already believed in the Force and the Jedi, but he was still doubtful about the many possibilities of the Force. "Maybe, or maybe not. I haven't discovered the truth, that's why I need your help, Leia." Luke just simply explained.

The approached a large, sealed entryway. In front of it were two statues. One of them resembled a large griffin, the other one looked like what seemed to be a large, gargoyle-like creature. The entryway itself was carved with three people; a tall man with grey clothes, grey hair and a white beard, standing between the woman Leia saw before and a bald man with white skin and red eyes, in black robes. Leia looked at them. For some reason, they seemed familiar to her, but she never saw them before.

She was snapped back to reality when Luke continued. "In order to find out what's inside, we must open the entrance."

"Wouldn't it be much easier to use an explosion, or a rocket-launcher?" Han asked. "No, from what I understood, using weapons is pointless. At least that's what the voice explained to me." Luke objected. Leia looked at her brother with shock. So he heard the woman too? Did he know who she was?

Leia

Leia looked at the entrance as if the voice came from the inside, calling her. However, she had a feeling that the voice came from the woman on the gate. She watched when she heard the voice of the woman coming from the drawing of her.

Leia, reach out.

'Reach out to what?' Leia thought, confused. She didn't understand what the woman meant. She didn't understand what she was doing here and who are these three people.

Leia, reach out. Reach out through the Force.

'The Force. So I have to use the Force to open the path for me and Han. But I can't, I'm not sensitive. Luke is.' Leia thought to herself. Sighing heavily, Leia tried to remember what Luke tried to teach her. It was when Luke tried to teach her how to focus and reach out through the Force.

"Come on, Leia. You can do it." Luke encouraged her as they were sitting in the woods of Endor shortly after celebrating the victory. Leia rolled her eyes, she really didn't want to do anything with the Force, especially with Vader, after discovering that he was her biological father.

"Luke, I can't. I'm not that strong in the Force as you are." she continued to protest, but it was pointless as Luke didn't even pay attention. She looked at him as young Skywalker made those kitten eyes. Not being able to resist, Leia sighed, giving up. "Okay, I can at least try."

"No. Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try." Luke stated, smiling. Leia looked at him with a confused look. "Master Yoda said that." Luke explained and Leia rolled her eyes. "Whatever." she grumbled and sat on the ground, closing her eyes. She immediately felt uncomfortable as Luke walked around her. "Concentrate. Feel the Force, use it."

Trying to concentrate as if she was preparing to become senator back then, Leia felt the Force floating around. As her eyes were close, she felt a rock nearby. Recalling what Force-sensitives could do she tried to make the rock float in the air. She tried her best, but the rock didn't move. Leia tried to concentrate and use the Force again, and yet, it didn't move. She tried again, only for the rock to move a few centimetres. Sighing heavily, Leia opened her eyes and immediately saw Luke in front of her.

"I can't Luke. It's impossible. I can't believe I could do it." She tried to explain herself. "And that's why you did not succeed." He spoke softly.

Leia looked at the gate once again before closing her eyes. "Everyone goes according to the will of Force," Luke's voice in her head spoke. "Believe in the Force. Believe in yourself."

"Luke, I think we need to use the Force to open the gate," Leia told Luke, who nodded. Both closed their eyes. Leia took a deep breath. 'Open the gate,' she confidently said to herself. Nothing happened. 'Open the gate,' she said to herself more confident and strictly and taking all of her energy, she concentrated it on the gate. Suddenly, the gate began to open. Leia and Luke grunted as if they were trying to pull a heavy cargo as the gate opened. Han stood there shocked at what was happening. He turned at Leia who looked tired as she opened her eyes.

"Kid, Leia. You… you did this?" he stammered. "How?" Han asked after she nodded. "The Force flows through our family." She answered, repeating Luke's words at Endor before he surrendered to Vader. "Oh hell, Leia. Are you alright?" Han asked as he embraced Leia and began observing her, as if searching for any injuries. "I'm fine, Han. No worries." Leia calmed him down.

The three looked at the entrance, which was filled with light. They stood there in silence, unaware of what to do, until the voice spoke to Leia once again.

Leia.

"Yes," she answered. "It is time." The voice told her. "Time for what?" Han asked before Leia could do so. "It is time for you to fix everything. To save the innocent lives lost. To save Alderaan. To save the galaxy. To save your father."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Leia asked, only to notice that she was being sucked into the light. She screamed hysterically. "Leia!" both Han and Luke cried in unison and grabbed her, Luke with the Force, Han grabbed her left arm. But the Force was too strong, causing Leia to be sucked into the Light, with her brother and lover crying out her name in horror. Soon, the Light faded, and the gate closed once again.