The Legend of the Jedi Queen

43. Galen Palpatine

Galen, Tallis, and Nellith entered a lounge inside a crystal spire. Nellith touched her fingertip to the blue side of the room that cast rainbow illumination across the room. She could see the blurred colors of the masses below, hurrying about in courtyards and hallways.

She stared at it for a moment, before looking to the father and son. She saw now the Galen in Tallis. He clearly must've had his mother's eyes, with the lilac gray as opposed to his father's aquamarine.

His gray and white streaked hair was from the stress of hosting a small piece of Snoke for weeks, but the original dark brown, nearly jet-black color definitely came from his father. Tallis's nose was more delicate, but the slim, lithe form was also inherited from his father, as was the sharper angles of his face— except for the nearly puffy cheeks in comparison. Those also had to be a trait of his mother's.

"Tallis," Galen said hoarsely. "Thank you, I—"

"What is it you have to say?" Tallis met him straight on in the eyes, but he folded his arms over his chest, wanting to look tough. But instead he looked as if he was trying to hug himself.

"I'm so sorry," Galen said. "I hadn't realized that Mara died when you were so young. I didn't know you were even on the surface of that planet."

"You still left us." It was the last argument that Tallis could cling to, his last stand from when he was nine years old and left all alone in the world.

"No, your mother left me," Galen said, reaching for Tallis's shoulders. "We were both Hands to the Supreme Leader. We served Snoke, not because we wanted to, but because we had to. He was in our minds since before birth, much like he was for the new Supreme Leader. I wasn't ever as strong as Mara or Kylo Ren."

"What are you talking about?" Tallis shifted ever so slightly, his last defense beginning to crumble.

"Mara had an incredibly strong will," Galen said, his eyes faraway. "It was her Shan blood— Bastila herself was a headstrong Jedi. Despite everything that Snoke and the others forced her to be, she was always somewhat defiant. They wanted to start the whole cycle all over again, have you taken from us when you were old enough to stop needing your mother, and then going to a planet we would never know the location of so that you weren't exposed to our more compassionate emotions."

"And you wanted to go along with it," Tallis said, screwing his eyes shut. He turned his face away from what his father could see. Nellith could see his face, and how it hurt him, to hear it. It wasn't a new truth, she sensed. But hearing it aloud made it more than one of his mother's many stories about the darkness in their family.

"I didn't want to, Tallis," Galen said. "I loved you. Your mother did, too. But we had to, or at least that's what I believed. I thought we could never leave Snoke."

"But Mom did," Tallis finished. His expression was no longer tight, but Nellith could feel his grief, threatening to overflow.

"This was mere months before Kylo Ren killed Snoke," Galen said. "She left, and we never saw her again, or you. I was devastated— I thought everything good about the galaxy died that day."

Tallis's shoulders shook, and he stepped hurriedly out of his father's reach, and turned his head to look at him. When he opened his lilac-gray eyes, tears emerged.

"Why did you stay, after Snoke died?" Tallis asked. "Why do you stand with the Second Order now?"

"I stayed because I didn't know who else to be, and you have to understand, Tallis," Galen said, "this goes back to when Sheev Palpatine was Naboo's senator. He made sure many Sith bloodlines came together and ended up loyal servants to him. It was incredibly hard to leave. There were so many checks in place. I don't know how Mara did it, but I wish I'd figured it out. My greatest regret was not going with her."

"And you can't leave now," Nellith realized. "Because Snoke is alive again in Andromeda Hux."

Galen looked on the verge of tears himself as he nodded. He looked to be the most pathetic man in the galaxy, to Nellith Solo. The only one that was sadder was obviously Tallis. He was fully crying now, his shoulders and entire body shaking as he began to sob.

Galen slowly approached his son, before embracing him. Galen ran his hand through his son's white-streaked hair, both males crying.

Nellith gave a sad sort of smile. She was pleased that they had at least reconciled, much like she and her own father had not so long ago. But the sadness was contagious— Nellith felt it as if it were her own.

She tried to extend her own presence in the Force— whatever it was— to Tallis and Galen, but especially Tallis, to embrace them, remind them that there was so much more to the galaxy. Neither was alone, not anymore.

She felt the peak of Tallis's own presence reaching back, a life-giving rain that was gloomy but necessary— and that made it beautiful.

She retreated back gently, watching as father and son cried it all out.