Star Wars: Edge of Hope

Chapter Seventeen: Dancing Shadows...

Leia stands outside observing the human buzz moving through the camp. She watches them as they bounce against each other, the shadows consuming the next ones that dance through them, but for the briefest of moments...they become ONE. They were all merely shadows moving through the waves of light. Personless souls looking for their place in the grand design of life and the Force. Leia tried to remember days when her shadow had never stood alone. There had been so many wonderful dances, each with a different partner to learn the steps as she moved through life with them by her side. She could still feel Han's hand in hers as the brilliant blue smear of light illuminating the cabin of the Falcon flew past, the glow encircling them as they swayed holding onto each other. They played their favorite song and danced like two stars in the night sky. Two luminous bodies intertwined bound to each other by an invisible thread so strong not even oceans of space or time could fray it. Even now she could feel him standing beside her, but as she looked down the thin grey outline was no where to be seen. Leia watched the couds swing in obscuring the fading light of the day... 

Luke: Leia...

Leia: We never did look up did we? I suppose after living lives like we did, looking up was never an option, we always had to be looking forward. It is so beautiful isn't it? The way the orange morning burns the sky into the indigo night, and the stars...the eyes of worlds looking down at you. Makes you feel so small in amongst all this, doesn't it? So small that you almost don't exist at all...I like the quiet of this time of day, you know. The light fading into the darkness, but it's still there...underneath it all. It's still there...sleeping...waiting...until the morning comes again.

Her eyes are filled with tears begging to be released. She shut them tight against the waves of pain sweeping through her like the streaks of falling stars across the night sky. She couldn't keep her footing, she slipped and fell to her knees but before she could touch the ground she felt a hand lifting her back up again.

Luke: It's getting worse isn't it? How much time did they give you?

Leia: Don't...Don't start, Luke. We still have time. I can...I can't...I'm not going anywhere not anytime soon. So..don't even think about it...we're not finished yet. And I'm not giving up on them. Until this it's finished...I'm not going anywhere...I just..

Luke: You just need rest? Sounds familiar...the weariness you're feeling isn't body, Leia. It's deeper...sometimes there isn't anything you can do. Sometimes we just have to let go and hope they know enough to find their way.

Leia: Have we done enough? Have I done enough? Protecting her, teaching her...Then sending her over and over again into the dark looking for some...looking for him? I just don't know anymore, Luke. What's the point of all this? Taking years away from them and all for what? For a lifetime filled with pain, sacrifices that leave scars on their hearts, until they're too old to feel anything but regret. Why is it the Force requires so much from us? We're...born of heart, mind, and soul...darkness and light...We are both. This can't be the Will of the Force...It can't be all there is for us...for them.

Luke: Don't be afraid for them, Leia. You've done everything you can to prepare her for the next steps of her journey. What happens next is out of our hands, out of our control. We can't interfere....they need to be free to follow their paths...whether that leads them back to each other or not. We can't change what has always been the way.

Leia: The Way of the Jedi?! Taking children in to begin training that are far too young to fully understand what they are, what they're meant to be, and what this life will mean for them. And never letting them know they have a choice. How is that the way? Who gets to decide the future for another? Wisdom and knowledge didn't prevent them from falling into the shadow of the Darkside. And now...he were are again...the fate of so many resting on the shoulders of so few. I didn't want that for you, Luke. I didn't want it for myself...and I don't want it for Rey...or Ben. That was the mistake we both made. The future of the Jedi Order cannot be one of sacrifice and loneliness, self imposed exile and regrets. They have to let the past stay  the past...and make the future theirs...build something new, something that will last. The only Force that I've witnessed clearly, everywhere I look and in everyone I see, is one that's stronger than any other power in the universe.

Leia frustrated turns around to confront Luke.

Leia: And that's love. The love we have for each other, for this galaxy...hope keeps us together, but love unites people in a way that is universal.The Light is getting stronger, but so is the Darkside...and you know how seductive it is...especially for our family. I fear it will tear them apart, each time they hear the call of the Force...they can't control it, Luke...and it is taking more and more of their strength to recover. The Force has never known this sort of turmoil...

Luke: The Balance has been upset, there hasn't been anyone like Rey and Ben in millenniums. Their Union is the only hope for restoring the balance to the Force now. They have to find a way to become one with their gifts, and to bring the Force under their will, a single mind. A single thread united the generations past and future, that's the only way we are going to be able to withstand the tidal wave that's coming, Leia. And it is coming...but like never before the future is unclear...I don't see...I can't see how this can end well for us, Leia. This maybe the end for us all. If the Darkside is able to corrupt the Dyad....it's influence will roll across world after world, and nothing will stem the tide. It will be...

Leia: Unending darkness...no light...no hope.

Luke: And all those connected to the Force will be pulled under it's control. It will effectually mean an end to freedom and the complete domination of the Force for generations. If they fail...they will doom us all...and themselves along with us. The ones we love won't exist anymore...and there will be no way to bring them back.

Rose steps up into Leia's perpheral sight, as Leia turns to listen to what she's saying, but by the time she can look back Luke is gone. So she stands her eyes falling to her solitary shadow which fades away as the sunlight disappears behind the crest of the jungle. She feels the warmth of it leaving her and shudders, rubbing away the chill of what Luke had told her. And for the first time in a long time, Leia felt fear settle in her, but as she felt herself falling under it, Rose's hand reaches out touching her shoulder.

Rose: General Organa? Are you alright? Do you...Is there anything I can get you?

Leia hugs herself and hangs her head shaking it back and forth not knowing how to answer her. Leia wasn't used to not having a answer, not having a comforting word, or a soothing certainty to shield herself from the darkness descending around her.
And over those she had sworn to protect...with her life...
But her mind went to Ben and Rey, and to what lay ahead of them all. She couldn't hold them close anymore, so she did the next best thing, she held them in her heart. The one place they could still be safe from whatever fate intended for them. She would hold onto them...until the end...until her last breath. Because in the end we are all just dancing shadows, gliding on sun and moonlight, and though the partner may change...We never dance alone...

Leia: What is it Rose? What did you say?

Rose: Poe just got back, ma'am.