The Young Republic | A Star Wars Story

Chapter 33

Luke and Xena; Xena-and-Luke

"Courage makes heroes, but trust build friendships."

The battle was over. Starfighter pilots entered the hangar and checked over their ships. Some were carried into the med centre, and those strong enough simply walked with an arm thrown over a comrade. Somewhere, the General was typing up a report, taking the burden from the lone Jedi after the battle.

Sweat was dripping down from his hair over the bridge of his nose, right before plopping down onto the ground between his feet. Tired, tired eyes started burning in that familiar sting, a pressure building at the back of his head.

Luke sighed. He was tired. He wished he could lie down, wished he could sleep, wished he could just rest.

When he dreams, it's dark and pitch black, cold in a way space never really is, cold in the way it's dark and empty and lacking everything that might scream of life. That's where he sees it first, not a man, not a shape, just a feeling, but he knows it's someone, and that someone is there now in the dark empty nothingness of Luke's mind, staring back at him until Luke's not even sure who is the blurry colour in darkness and who's the one watching. Untethered and scared until suddenly something reaches out and wraps itself around his heart and it pulls and pulls until he reaches a small voice, young in years, old in battle, demanding in his surfacing, and soft. It's a light shining so bright it pulls him back from the brink every time. It makes Luke forget what real light looks like, not until he feels it shining so feverishly from her.

A body walks past him, knocking against his foot, and Luke jolts from the brink of sleep. He hears the voice -- again. Alive and close and suddenly Luke isn't even sure if he's awake.

"Sir?" The soldier asks timidly. "The Commander is looking for you. She says it's urgent."

Leia thinks everything is urgent. He scrambles, unseen to follow the voice -- the shouting light in the Force -- more than he follows his sister's static presence. They are both in the same place. He follows the voice, steady as a beacon calling all those lost, desperate to see that light again, that perseverance it exudes, until finally, he finds his sister in an empty room with a girl who shines brighter than anything he's ever seen yet hides herself willingly from the Force.

Bright. Bright pale skin blemished by freckles and dust, curtained by bright golden hair, pale in the white light. Impossibly blue eyes stare back at his own, unblinking. Luke thinks of Obi-Wan often. More specifically, all that the old man had never had the chance to say. Even more specifically, the depth he locked inside himself. This girl had the same lock over her presence, and suddenly Luke felt old Ben's hands holding him, training him, treating him when this girl looked at him.

"She was working under Commander Holt back on Karrik. He said it's best if he gave her over to us. I didn't know why, but..." Leia says, looking between Luke and the girl. "... I think I understand."

Commander Holt. That was on the edges of the Outer Rim and the Unknown where that battalion patrolled. Luke's heard of their sudden increase in victories happening about three years ago -- right before the fall of the Emperor. Was it this girl, this Jedi who..?

The girl bit on the inside of her cheeks, watching closely. Her spirit coward away from Luke and Leia's own, hiding in corners Luke so desperately wanted her out of.