What Could Have Been Part III: The Destined Warriors

The Dark Side

      Luke

      This was how things were supposed to be.

       She is afraid of us because she knows we are stronger than her. Now she will see the power of the Dark Side. She will know true fear...

       She's scared. Maybe I was wrong-

       It's too late! You are a Sith now. We are one!

       Luke felt the darkness surging through him. It was crowded inside his own head as there was now more than one voice permanently inhabiting it. The ritual had certainly worked. And just in time too. Midas was right. Leia had shown up to kill him.

       "Luke, you've gotta fight this. Whatever's inside of you, you can't let it win." Leia's eyes were now brimming with tears. It pained Luke not to be able to comfort her. But it was too late.

       "I'm afraid it has already won, my young Jedi friend," the voice of Midas announced from the shadows. The Sith Lord took drawled steps out from the darkness until he was standing beside Luke. The man was a masterpiece of evil. Every detail was dressed up darkly and cruelly. Serpent-like yellow eyes, a gnarled smile, and a silver beard right beneath his chin. Luke quivered at the thought that this was now the man he answered to as "Master".

       "You see, my dear, your brother has come to reason that the fall of the Jedi is inevitable. only the Sith know true power, and it is the Sith who will restore the galaxy to the way it should be. I would advocate for surrender now. Who knows? We may spare your life." Luke nodded his head in agreement. Yes. Yes. Spare her.  But Leia ingored Midas' offer and focused on her futile attempt at tricking her brother. "Luke, don't you see what he's doing? He's just using you! He wants to trick me into turning to the Dark side just like he's tricked you!" she wept.

       Using me? Midas is tricking me? What if she's right?

       No, no, no, no! She's lying to you! She hates you! Stop being so naïve!

       Luke felt the pulls of his conscience ripping him back and forth. Right and wrong were blurred together. Part of him still hoped to save his sister even as the rest of him thirsted to destroy her. It was a mental wrestling match inside Luke's head all the while Midas continued his speech to Leia. "Oh but I am afraid the plan has changed, Miss Leia," he chattered maliciously. "I'm no longer interested in the both of you. After all," he chuckled. "There shall only be one apprentice."

       Leia's eyes were full of knowing fear now. "You want him to kill me," she concluded. "That's his final test isn't it? He has to kill me." Midas smiled in satisfaction at his well orchestrated plan. "Every Sith must eventually draw the line between his attachments and his desire for power. And what better way to draw that line than with the blood of his sister?" Midas asked as he placed a spidery hand on Luke's shoulder. "My student, do what must be done,"  he instructed him. A chill ran through the young man's body as he accepted his Master's order.

       I have to kill my sister.

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       This couldn't be happening.

       Her brother, the boy she had been with since birth, the boy she had grown up with, who had made her laugh, who had made her smile, who she had stayed with in the hospital after his first encounter with the Sith they had agreed to fight together, the boy who she had vowed never to turn against, stood before Leia with his blue lightsaber drawn; prepared to kill her.

       "Luke, snap out of it!," she begged him again, even though she knew he was past listening to her. The gleam in his yellowed eyes told her that she had failed him. There would be no redemption. Her brother was gone. Luke prowled forward with his blade glowing by his side and for a second, Leia only saw her brother and his sword as if they were sparring like they had when they were young. But that moment ended as quickly as it had come and Leia found her hand instinctively reaching for her own lightsaber.

       "I don't want to do this Luke," she admitted; her blade now humming as she braced herself for a fight she wasn't sure she wanted to win. Luke smiled almost merrily as he raised his sword, ready to strike it down on his twin sister.

       "But Leia, I do!"