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| Initiation |
Initiation
" Mama!"
" Mommy!"
" Help us!"
The children's voices echoed throughout the labyrinth. Each cry was
another piercing vibroblade into Princess Leia's heart. The young mother
searched the black
marble corridors with no light by which to see except the humming violet blade
of her lightsaber.
Don't worry. she thought. Mommy's coming to save you.She reached out mentally to her frightened offspring; trying to comfort them
with her presence.
She turned a few more corners and walked down several identical corridors,
hurrying her pace
all the while.
At last, she came to a room set dead-center within the maze. It's only
light from within was a single, flickering torch at the back wall.
Leia rushed inside the room and found her three, weeping children
huddled in a corner; clutching each other in terror.
" Mommy!" Cried out her youngest. " The bad man says he's going to
come back!"
" Help us, take us home!" Sobbed the twins,
" Shhh...you're safe now." Leia told them, using her most comforting
voice. " Come, Daddy and everybody's waiting for you." She extinguished her
lightsaber and walked
toward the children. Just then, the hairs on the back of her neck prickled.
Something dark and evil
was beginning to manifest itself in the room.
The children felt it too. They started screaming.
Without warning, a dark spectre appeared between Leia and her
children. The young Jedi Princess ignited her lightsaber again and stood ready
in battle stance.
Her mouth dropped open in shock as the rasping spectre made itself
complete. It was the long-dead Darth Vader...her father,
" No! It cannot be! You've been dead for years!" Leia cried.
The spirit's sepulchral voice seemed to come from the very pits of hell.
" The Dark Side lives forever, my child. It lives in me, in your
brother, in you, and...in your offspring."
" They're not like you, and they never will be! Luke and I will see
to that!" The Princess cried.
" How can you be so sure, when darkness has almost claimed your brother
several times?" The rasping figure sneered at his daughter. ' It is a part of
your heritage. Accept it.
" Never!" Leia shouted. She swung her sword toward Vader's neck; but
in the blink of an eye, the spectre blocked it with it's own crimson lightsaber
blade.
" You're still a feisty little one!" Vader hissed with delight. " Just like
your mother!"
" Don't you dare mention her!" Leia spat. " She suffered and died because
she loved you! That suffering was passed down to Luke, and me. That is why I
can never forgive you
for all that you have done to the galaxy, and to the people I love."
" I do not seek forgiveness, my daughter."
" You may be my father biologically, but as far as I'm concerned Bail
Organa was my real father. He was kind, loving, gentle, decent...everything you are not!"
With that, Leia kicked at Vader's stomach, knocking him down to the
floor.
" Run!" Leia instructed her children. " Get out now!"
The twins seized their little brother and fled the chamber before Vader
could rise to his feet. Leia attacked again, only to have her blows blocked
each time. He was pushing
her further and further back as crossed sabers crackled and hummed in the dim
chamber. Each combatant
fought with passionate fury, but Vader seemed to be the more skilled of the
two. He
slashed at Leia's neck. She leapt away, but Vader's sword managed to strik her
left shoulder.
Leia was backed against a corner of the chamber. Her shoulder was burning
with pain,and the smell of cauterized flesh was nauseating her. But she was
ready to fight the
looming figure above her, to the death if necessary.
" It is useless to resist." Vader assured her. " I will take my grandchildren.
I shall teach them to be loyal servants of the Dark Side."
Leia was sobbing now. She had tried so hard to keep her little ones
safe; even going so far as to batle the Emperor himself. It angered and
frustrated her that, despite it
all, the Dark Side could still try to take them.
" I must leave now, daughter." Vader said. " But we shall meet again, soon."
" Leave my children alone!" Leia cried, but her protests were futile. Vader
faded and vanished.
Leia rose, shakily, to her feet; lightsaber still at the ready. By now she
had managed to block out the pain of her injury; but not that of her heart.
Tears still flowed from
her eyes. She had never felt so helpless before. Flesh torn from flesh, again
and again,
Luke. Her mind called out. Help me.
" I cannot." Came the faint reply. " I cannot help you. You have to find
your own way out."
Just where the hell was he when she needed him the most? She silently cursed
as she exited the chamber. She had to find the twins and her toddler son,
wherever they were.
She reached out with her Force senses, trying to detect her children's presence
once more. There seemed to be no other life in the labyrinth, just the dark
wraiths Leia's mind
created from the shadows. She remembered how alive and vivid Endor was. This
place was dead, nightmarish.
Strange, she couldn't even remember what planet she was on, or what she and her
children were
even doing there.
She sighed a little with relief as she felt the life force of her
children once more. She allowed it to lead her to their hiding place in a small
chamber.
" Come to me, my darlings." Leia said to her little ones. " This time we
are going home."
But they remained silent and still; as if they were merely large holograms.
Then they faded away, replaced by the foreboding figure of the Sithlord, Vader.
" What have you done to my children?" Leia screamed.
" I have taken them, as I said I would." Vader's voice echoed off the walls.
" There is no hope for your New Republic now. Soon, your friends will all die,
and you will be under
the dark powers forever. It is your destiny."
You fucking bastard. Leia thought maliciously. You've taken
everything from me...
" You have been slumming with spacers far too long, my child." Vader
boomed as he ignited his lightsaber. " Such language is so unfitting for a
Princess."
"I am not your child! I hate you!" Leia shrieked as she flung herself in rage
at Vader. This time, she was on the offensive; each blow an accusation, a
reflection of the hurt
he had caused her and her family over the years. With one, fluid stroke she
sliced off both his
hands, his lightsaber still clutched in the severed gauntlets.
Vader slumped to the floor, utterly helpless and at his daughter's mercy. Yes, just one more stroke and he'll be gone forever. Leia thought feverishly as her saber
blade danced at Vader's throat. Vengeance will be mine at last! The desire to kill bubbled
within her, growing stronger with each panting breath. She shuddered. The
feeling was pleasurable, almost
erotic.
Then her eyes gazed into the reflection on the chamber wall's shiny surface.
There was a woman there, dressed in black Sith robes; a scowl marring her
beautiful face. Eyes that
were at times soft and gentle were now burning with hatred.
Leia cast her eyes away from the horrifying image and gazed down at her father.
Now she saw blood oozing from her hands, staining the lightsaber handle.
" Dear gods." Leia gasped. " What am I doing?" A distant whisper of a memory
drifted into her mind. A memory of a story someone had told her. " Wait." She
whispered. " The
cave on Dagobah." Then she nodded with understanding. She extinguished her
lightsaber and set it
gently on the floor.
She reached with bloodied hands for Vader's mask. He offered no
resistance as she gingerly removed it. Inside the mask was the face of a sad,
lonely man. Leia
stared at that disfigured face for a long time, probing, trying to understand.
For the first time in
her life, Leia felt deep stirrings of pity for the man who had fathered her.
Luke had been right,
perhaps. Vader was a mere facade for the man underneath who had fallen in a
moment of weakness; just
as she nearly had moments before.
" I..." Leia stammered.
" Leia. It's time to go home." It was Luke's sweet, clear voice.
" Where are you?" Leia called. The entire room had vanished into mist. The blood
on her hands disappeared.
" Here." It was Luke, indeed, appearing out of the mist in solid form. He hugged
his sister tightly. " Now that you have seen what I've seen, it's time to
return home."
" This wasn't real."
" In a literal sense, no." They walked hand in hand, silently, for awhile. The
mist cleared away, revealing a grove of dark trees.
" We're back now." Luke said gently as he caressed her cheek. " We'll talk about
this later."
Leia's eyes snapped open. She was sitting in the same position as she had been when she had gone into a trance within a grove of baliari trees. Dawns first light burst through the tree limbs. Birds sang and insects buzzed bast Leia's head. She could smell flowers.
Leia sighed deeply. She was still on New Alderaan, some three miles from her home. She had come to this particular grove because it had called to her from the Dark Side. When she went into the trance it was a dead, foreboding place. Now it was transformed.
The Princess rose, shakily, to her feet; bearing the pins and
needles in her legs. As she trudged through the woods, her thought drifted back
to her visions.
She realized her deep hatred for Vader was slowly consuming her. She knew
she had to let go of that hate, or she was in danger of becoming another dark
one. Now that she
had transcended that hate, she could finally see the real soul behind the evil
mask.
Leia knew that Anakin could never replace Bail as the true father in her heart;
but she could at least see who he really was-and that was the first step to
forgiveness, perhaps.
The Princess entered the simple one-story structure through a back door;
hoping she wasn't disturbing anyone. She quietly crept past Chewbacca's room;
then she stopped in
the nursery to gaze at her children, safely asleep in their beds. She adjusted
their blankets, placed
fallen stuffed animals back in their arms, and gently brushed stray hair from
their faces.
Leia entered her bedchamber, where Han slept peacefully. She smiled in
spite ofherself. She could hardly wait to see his befuddled expression when she
told him all of this.
She pulled off her clothes and crawled into bed by her husband's side. She
cuddled up to Han, kissed the nape of his neck , and put her arm around him. It
had been a long
time since she'd felt so peaceful and content.
As sleep called to her, Luke's presence touched her mind once more. Leia touched back. The bond held as brother and sister drifted into slumber.
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