What Could Have Been Part III: The Destined Warriors

There is No Chaos

Leia

It had been hard to say goodbye to Han after that. It had been hard to let go of his hand and tear her eyes away from his. He even insisted on going with her to find Luke, but in the end, they both understood that this was something she had to face with Luke. Or maybe all on her own.

Don't talk like that, Leia ordered herself. You're not alone. You have Luke. The words could only do her so much comfort as she entered the city of Iziz. This was the source of darkness that she had been feeling since she lost contact with Luke and now she was wandering straight into it. Now she could only hope that she would be able to find him, though his presence felt faint like it had been there before and now had disappeared.

Iziz was the picture of desolation. The city looked as if someone had dropped a jungle on top of it as vines covered crumbling building that didn't seem old enough to be in the condition they were in. Surely at one point, the streets Leia walked down had been filled with life. She imagined children playing in the road and vendors filling the sidewalks selling goods to civilians of every kind of species who went about their daily lives. There had once been happiness here.

She passed through a stone courtyard where the statue of a young man stood tall in front of a gray background of city and an even grayer sky. It was good to see a face among all the desertedness even if it was only one of metal and paid no attention to a young Jedi. "Just passing by," she told the statue but her voice sounded foreign in all the silence and she received no reply.

Rain began to drip from the vast accumulation of dark clouds rolling through the sky just as a palace deep in the city rose high with pillars lining it all the way around. What Leia picked out about the grand structure was that although it was covered by winding weeds from top to bottom like every other building in town, its plant life was withered and gnarled like an old man's fingers reaching from the ground to pull the palace down into the planet. Leia didn't contemplate turning around for two reasons. One being that she knew that she had to face whatever was in there, and two being that it was raining.

The drumming of rain faded behind Leia as she began her adventure into the depths of the huge palace. A moment listening to the beating of the growing storm and then back to silence. Her footsteps began to echo on the thick stone floor, and that, Leia was at least grateful for until the echoes began to sound more like another pair of footsteps and the seed of paranoia began to sprout in her mind.

Luke... Luke, where are you? Luke...

Leia! Help me Leia! Hurry!

His voice had entered and left her mind so quickly that Leia swore it hadn't been there at all but she still broke into a sprint down the hallways that grew darker and darker with every turn around the corner.

Leia, I've been captured! Help me!

Where are you, Luke?

His voice never had the chance to reply because Leia turned another dark corner into a room that must have once held balls and parties for the city of Iziz but now only held darkness.

Darkness and her brother.

"Luke!"

Upon entering the room, Leia froze in her tracks. The first thing she noticed was that Luke didn't appear to be captured or in any sort of visible danger. The second thing she noticed was that Luke had his back turned to her and stood before a stone table. Leia recognized it as an alter

"What's going on, Luke?"

When Luke didn't move, a lump formed in Leia's throat that permitted her from speaking. She slowly approached her brother with a caution she had never used when around Luke. She was an arms length from him when she observed his trembling and he finally spoke.

"Leia. You have arrived. Master will be pleased..."

Her brother's voice was low and sickeningly satisfied which made Leia's heart thump wildly in her chest. "Luke, what are you talking about?" she asked, almost afraid to hear his answer. Luke chuckled deviously. "I sense your fear. Are you... afraid of me?" he questioned her in an almost inviting way.

Luke wasn't making any sense. He was different. He was darker. "I'm not afraid of you. I-" Leia's gaze shifted to her brother's arm where a steady trickle of blood ran from a slit in his wrist. What had Midas done to him? What had he turned Luke into? Now Leia was determined to put an end to this game. Her brother was in too deep to get out on his own.

She swallowed down her nerves. "We're leaving, Luke. You're coming with me," she demanded. Luke stood up straight and turned away. "Master warned me about this. You're afraid of me becoming too powerful. You want the power all to yourself so you can kill me!"

"Luke," Leia began, shaking her head to erase what her brother was saying. "You're being lied to! Whatever Midas is telling you, you can't trust him," she said, now beginning to scold instead of speak to Luke. He took a few more steps away from her; the shaking never stopping. "This is my destiny, Leia. Unfortunate that the line must be drawn here..." Luke smoldered with absolutely no remorse.

"Luke! Listen to me! This is not your destiny. Your destiny is to defeat the Sith!"

"Oh but Leia... I am the Sith..."