The Loyalty of the Dark

Chapter 23

The party celebrating the destruction of the new Death Star and the death of the Emperor was winding down when Luke and Leia finally had the chance to get away from the party and talk.

"I can't believe he's actually gone," Leia had whispered as they walked through the dark forest.

"Me neither," Luke had agreed, his voice soft. Yes, he was happy the Emperor was gone, but there was also the fact that Vader—no, Anakin, he had been Anakin just before—was dead as well.

"Doesn't matter if Eclipse escaped, though. She will hold the Empire together with nothing but her bare hands if she lives."

"Father wanted—"

"That monster was not my father," Leia interrupted, her voice suddenly harder than duristeel. Luke knew the tone, but he couldn't stop.

"First off, he wanted me to tell you I was right about him. Secondly, he told me where Eclipse is."

"What?" Leia asked, in surprise, turning to look at him as they stopped. "Where? Why?"

"When is actually the better question," Luke stated, running a hand over his face. "She's twenty-three standard years in the past. He was worried she may not be able to get back here on her own."

"In the past?! How did she get there?! What the hell is she going to do?!?!"

"Leia, calm down—"

"No! Do you know what she may be capable of doing?"

"Oh, please, Princess, don't worry yourself over it," a voice said from the darkness. The twins froze, grabbing their respective weapons. Luke glanced at his sister, wondering if the voice belonged to who he thought it did.

"Come out of the shadows, Eclipse," Leia growled.

"Of course," the voice replied as a figure metrulized from the shadows of the trees. Luke activated his lightsaber to find Vader's infamous apprentice standing in front of them in a transparent body, though she did not glow like a Force ghost.

"You're not dead, are you?" the Jedi asked.

"No, I am not," Eclipse agreed.

"Then what the hell are you doing here?" Leia asked.

"I have come to ask for your help."

"Why in Force's name would we help you?"

"Because if you help me, the Empire will never come to be," the Sith apprentice responded, tilting her head. "And on a more personal level, Anakin Skywalker will never have fallen to the darkside."

"What's in it for you?" Luke asked, knowing that there must be a secondary thing that the Sith apprentice wanted in exchange despite the fact what she was suggesting was against everything she had ever stood for.

"My Master's happiness. He sent me here on a mission to keep your mother alive, but I fear I must change more than I originally planned. I am a Sith, Skywalker. I can only do a Sith's job, and right now, I need a Jedi to do a Jedi's job."

"Why in Force's name would you prevent your own Master's fall?" Leia questioned.

"Please don't question it. I've just managed to talk myself into it, do you really wish to talk me out of it?"

"No," Luke quickly answered, even as he turned off his lightsaber and stepped forward towards the girl, ready to jump headlong into it just to ensure Leia didn't talk the Sith apprentice out of her current plans. "I'm in. Let's go."