Chapter Text
4 ABY - Imperial Palace, Coruscant, Coruscant System, Corusca Sector, Core Worlds
Fourth Sister twirled her lightsaber, keeping her weight low and watching for an opening. Opposite her Luke - or the Lord Regent, to give him his more proper title - was doing the same. It was a battle played out in their minds and in the teasing forays of the Force around them as they listened, waited, and then…. She saw her chance and struck.
Luke parried, and they ran through a flurry of blows, up, down, twist, feint, as the breath came harsh and fast in her lungs. Their sabers locked, the plasma currents pulling against each other, and then Luke took a step back motioning with his hand that their sparring session was over.
“You’re getting better at this,” he told her, going to the side of the dojo to find a towel to wipe his face and neck.
“As are you,” Fourth Sister replied. There were canteens of water waiting for them, and she took a long draught, relishing the cool liquid.
“It certainly beats trying to thrash out a new political system with Mon Mothma and those Moffs,” Luke said. “Although talking of new things, have you given any thought to picking out a name yet?”
Fourth Sister frowned. It had taken long enough for her to come around to the idea that maybe Luke Skywalker wasn’t the duplicitous, crafty and cunning Sith Lord she’d thought he was. All the implications of that were still starting to settle in. As he’d promised it had been actions rather than words that had convinced her, and even now she still sometimes caught herself waiting for the other shoe to drop. This name business was more of the same. Names had to be earned and she wasn’t convinced she done anything particularly noteworthy, but Luke had different ideas about the matter. Hence pushing Fourth Sister and her siblings to pick out new identities for themselves.
“I… I still don’t know,” she said. “It ought to be something appropriate, something that fits me, but…”
Luke nodded encouragingly. “I get it,” he said. “It’s kind of a big decision. But equally I guess you don’t have to stick with something even once you’ve picked it. You could always change it later if you find something that works better.”
Fourth Sister felt a little bit affronted. “No. Names are important!”
“Is that what you really think, or is it part of what the Inquisitorius taught you?” Luke asked her.
She took a moment to think about it. “I think it’s what I really believe,” she replied. “Or at least it’s close enough. So… I don’t mind waiting until I have it properly figured out.”
“Okay,” Luke said. “Meditation next?”
Fourth Sister nodded. As they left the training salle together, she marvelled at how much her life had changed in the last few years, and all for the better. She felt… odd as it was to realise it… she felt truly happy.
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4 ABY - Ryloth, Gaulus Sector, Outer Rim Territories
Ryloth was a much busier place than Ezra had expected. Subconsciously at least he’d been prepared for a planet like Lothal where he’d grown up, and maybe Ryloth had been like that at one time. The war had changed things, which he’d have realised it he had taken a moment to really think about it. Ryloth was now the centre of the effort to end slavery in the Rim, and each day hundreds of sentients came here to search through the records retrieved by the Commission for Recovery and Repatriation looking for some mention of their families or places of origin. Many moved on, but some stayed to build a life here, at what was rapidly becoming the capital of the sector in all but name.
It was strange being away from the war effort, and being away from Luke. Ever since they’d met years ago on Vrogas Vas they’d never spent much time apart. It hadn’t just been necessity or Darth Vader’s orders either - they had genuinely become friends. Now though there wasn’t much left to do in the galaxy aside from the clean up and if there was still more than enough of that to keep the Navy and Army busy it didn’t really need Luke’s attention either. He had more than enough to do in trying to bring back the Senate in a meaningful way. Ezra’s skills didn’t help much in that area, but he still wouldn’t have left to come out here if it wasn’t for the matter of unfinished business.
His old crew - his old family - specifically.
It hadn’t been hard to find them. It wasn’t as if they were trying to hide any more, and Hera was the daughter of the new planetary governor here, Cham Syndulla. Garazeb and Chopper had both stayed with her on Ryloth, although when the war had officially ended Sabine had apparently gone back to her family’s holdings on Krownest to try and repair her relationship with them. Ezra hoped he’d be able to find and speak to her after he was done here.
He hadn’t exactly parted from the Ghost crew on good terms. He understood why things had had to be like that. Looking back there were a lot of things he would do over if he could. There were lessons the Inquisitorius had taught him he now saw had been little more than another kind of lie. Still, who could say how things might have gone if he’d never been captured by Lord Vader on Lothal. Perhaps this had simply been the journey the will of the Force had wanted for him.
He was still going to apologise. Hopefully they would be able to - if not forgive him - at least agree to talk to him. Maybe even make a fresh start of things.
Or perhaps they wouldn’t want anything to do with him, but he would still have to try.
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4 ABY - Coruscant, Corusca Sector, Core Worlds
Han had just put on a pot of caf to brew that morning and was waiting for the pan to heat up so he could start making their breakfast when Leia came through from the bedroom wrapped in her warm house-gown. She put her arms around his waist and snuggled into his back, taking in a deep breath and making a sound of pleasure.
“Is that caf I smell?” she asked.
“It will be in five minutes Princess,” he replied. “Or should I be calling you Senator now? Soon-to-be-Chancellor?”
Leia laughed. “Mon Mothma is more likely to be voted in than I am,” she said. “For most of the Senate I’m too close to Vader and the old order for them to feel comfortable with me.”
“Yeah, like they’re so scared of Luke?” Han pointed out sarcastically, turning in her grasp to face her. “I think you’re giving them too little credit. You’ve all spent the time to get some sensible folks into those seats, not like the jokers that used to be in there under Palpatine or before.”
Leia smiled. “I’m just trying to be realistic. I do appreciate your confidence in me though. I can’t tell you how much it meant that you stayed, when you had the chance to go back to the Rebel Alliance or to anywhere else you wanted in the galaxy. You’ve always had my back.”
Han felt the flush over his cheeks. “Yeah well… maybe I just picked the winning team. Thought about that?”
“Stop pretending to be worse than you are Han,” Leia told him, then went still for a moment. She seemed to be listening to something far away - something in the Force he wondered? Or was she talking to Luke, or to Vader?
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you these past few days,” Leia said when she came back from whatever had distracted her, and then seeing his expression, “no, it’s good news, I promise.”
“I’m listening.”
Her smile got even wider. “Han… I’m pregnant.”
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Elsewhere on Coruscant, Darth Vader opened his eyes. He had felt the young life growing in his daughter’s belly not long after she herself had become aware of it, and he basked in her happiness at telling it’s progenitor the news. He did not particularly like Solo himself, but he was forced to admit that the ex-smuggler did have some good qualities hidden within him. It was true that Solo had stayed with Leia all through her time with Luke, and that he had never begrudged her political ambitions or the power she wielded. He could put up with him as a son-in-law.
He wondered when Leia would broach the subject of marriage. He was aware she already had it in her mind.
Soon enough he would be a grandfather. The swell of emotion which accompanied that thought was almost more than Vader could bear. For long years he had been without happiness, and might not have wanted it even had it been presented to him. Now he did not mind the Light it swamped him with. He could stand the Light; he could use it and the Dark in turn if he wished. He had a son who loved him despite everything, a daughter who could at least tolerate him, and now the promise of even more family to come.
And he had hope, that the better world he had promised himself he would build might now come about. He own hands were too marred to build it, but his children would see the work through, and Vader would protect what they made.
He was no Jedi philosopher or prophet of the Force, but he had a feeling that now… now things were in Balance.