What If : The Story Retold

Those in Need.

Luke awoke abruptly to the ground beneath him shaking and cracking with flashes of light obscuring his vision. What he initially thought was his own head throbbing, turned out to be the thundering of storm clouds which seemed too close for his liking. When his eyes stopped rolling and his vision cleared he realised that he was in fact hanging upsidedown in his fighter which was lodged into the rocks where he had evidently crashed.

Luke only had the optimism to be relieved he had survived get another fighter crash, but that amusement was quickly replaced by panic as he saw - upside down still - a storm on the rocky horizons. The flashes of light which he had just chalked up to him being in a state of unconsciousness was on fact lightning.

The storm looked far away but from the way it seemed to hurtle his way and grow in strength, he realised it wouldn't be long before he would be caught in the storm. Being caught inside a compromised fighter ship (made of metal) was not the ideal place to be, if it had been an intact ship, he probably would have been secure but his fighter was now just a pile of debree.

Untangling himself from his seat and carefully climbing down to the ground, Luke gingerly took a few steps to regain his balance. He had a few bruises, cuts and a burn on his arm which was throbbing and probably needed to be delt with soon, but otherwise, he was alive.

Looking back to the deadly storm about to roll over him, Luke turned back to assess what he could salvage from the pile of junk his ship now was.

Thankfully, the emergency supplies kit which all fighters were equipped with hadn't been damaged that bad. He had rations for at best a month and medical supplies to at least stabilise his wounds. Luke highly doubted this planet was populated, after all the terrain didn't seem to hold any source of life and those storms looked deadly, so Luke searched for some scrap or anything worth while which he could potentially spice together to make a homing beacon.

Pulling his cloak from where it had caught the controls on the cockpit, he wrapped up everything he had and secured it over his shoulder before he turned to try and find shelter. There seemed to be something resembling mountains not far from where he was, hopefully he could get there and find a cave before the storm hit.

Quickly navigating his way across the terrain, the wind picked up and the temperature began to drop rapidly. Now struggling to keep his balance without using the force to ground him as he made his way towards the mountains, he noticed smoke coming up over the next ridge. At first he thought perhaps there was civilization here after all which was protected from the storm, but as he climbed over the ridge he noticed the debree of a ship scattered across the rocks.

It was the Sith Apprentice's ship which had crashed with him. Thinking it was highly likely she had died in the crash, Luke momentarily mourned her as though they had fought many times, he respected her for her skill and it was a shame to kill something with such potential in a simple fighter crash; at least if he had killed her, she would die in a respectful way as all duels between warriors should.

However, as he stretched out with the force, he drew back confused as he sensed she was not in fact dead, he had fought her enough times to know what her force signature felt like. But if her ship was in pieces, on fire and she was alive, why was she still there, why was she not searching for shelter like he was?

Staying completely still and stuck against the rocks, Luke waited a few more minutes as he tentively explored the area with the force. He had initially drew back when he had sensed her because he knew if she detected him she would be there already, trying to kill him. But as Luke stretched out again, he could feel that she was alive but felt a jolt of pain wave through him.

She was alive but unconscious and would likely be dead if left there any longer.

The young Jedi ignored the storm approaching momentarily as he contemplated his next move. She had tried to kill him on multiple occasions and was the second in command to Darth Maul. She embodied the dark side of the force and had played a hand in killing hundred under her command.