Lady Obscura: Vader's Shadow [Star Wars | Luke Skywalker]

Epilogue

Being on Naboo just felt so right. It was funny, before Athara had never really considered any planet her 'Homeplanet', but when asked had always supposed Nubia, simply because her earliest memories were from there. But Naboo was different. It felt different; it felt right.

It felt like home.

Even now, years after her first visit, it still felt that way. Even though it felt like everything else in her life was different, it still felt like home. Okay, not everything was different, but nearly everything.

While the Emperor was gone, the Empire still lingered. The fight wasn't quite over yet. The Alliance was doing its best to fulfill its mandate to restore the Republic while also doing its best to deal with the remnants of Empire. With the Battle over Jakku ending so decisively in the Alliance's favour and the Galactic Concordance Treaty bringing about a truce and ongoing disarmament between the Empire and the newly reformed Republic, there was a real hope for peace.

And there were Jedi again, or at least there would be once they completed their training, though their numbers were still, understandably, very low. So Athara intended to keep fighting too, as did Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie, Mona—everyone who had joined the Alliance with the goal of defeating the Empire. Factions of the old Empire were fading away with each passing year—though some factions stubbornly held onto their ideals—and the New Republic was growing stronger, reforming the Senate and finally looking to right the social and political fallout that the creation of the Empire had inflicted on the Galaxy.

But then they went to Naboo, and everything faded away. It was the first place Athara wanted to go after Endor, and Luke was perfectly happy to go with her. It was there that she met her family, and learned more about her past. She met her Uncles, properly in the case of Commander Adyé, or Orran as she had come to know him. She had even properly met her Grandfather before he passed on, something she still couldn't quite believe had happened.

They had found Padmé there.

Never had Athara dreamed that they would find Luke's mother alive and well on Naboo, waiting in the Guesthouse for Athara to return to hear more about her own mother, though she'd been going by Dema for many long years. The older woman had recognized Luke the instant he had walked through her door, and everything had come out from there. Athara finally understood why the older woman had seemed so familiar. Leia heavily favoured her mother, both possessing the same strong will and flashing dark eyes. But she could see traces of the Nabooian woman in her son too; there was a quietness to Padmé that Luke had obviously inherited from his mother.

Eventually, after a little bit of work and scheming, she and Luke convinced Han and Leia join them. At first they had only agreed so that Leia could finally meet Padmé, but they both had quickly fallen in love with Naboo too. It had since become their family's oasis; a place for their small but growing family to have some peace and regain some time after all they had lost.

Here particularly, Athara felt more at peace than she ever had. They currently sat in a meadow in Naboo's Lake Country. Orran had steered her towards the area on her and Luke's third or fourth visit to Naboo. The instant she had seen the clear, sparkling lakes amid the lush green hills of the Nabooian retreat, Athara had never wanted to leave, and Luke was soon ready to agree. He had even proposed there, so to speak, suggesting that they should get married overlooking the Lakes even as they stood together looking out at the sunset-toned water. And once Han and Leia had agreed to come with them to the Lake Country, they had never wanted to leave either.

Especially Leia. They had all been shocked by the calm and the peace that had come over the Princess when she caught her first glimpse of the lake glittering in the sun. Athara couldn't help but think that, while it wouldn't replace Alderaan in the Princess's affections, Leia too had found that place that whispered, deep in her heart, home.