The spur of the moment, restlessness of the mind, they all lead to an abyssal spiral of guilt when the soul acknowledges the mistakes at last. All Luke has dreaded, he had become so easily when threats knocked to claim away the love and peace he gained through such hardships.
He swore to himself he'll never give in to anger. But there he was, fuming over puerile issues that could have been solved so much easier with less spite and meanness.
He swore an oath in silence to never leave Lorna's side again, not after the close calls they got through when sparated. But here he was, feeling the emptiness of her lonesome departure.
And there was this feeling, as he thought his rage over, disappointed in his behavior... It felt as if he were once again about to be close to losing her. That ghost of a feeling, a fear of holding onto Lorna's lifeless body and just how much it horrified him to wake up to the fact that she is not coming back... Luke got up and brushed his hand over his mouth.
"How could I have been so stupid?" he faintly gasped, feeling cold, alive tears form in his eyes.
"Why... Why did I hesitate?" Luke ironically asked himself and mocked his own past judgement with a laugh. "Why didn't I tell her that I love her?"
He stared back at the door. The echo of how she slammed it behind her didn't leave, it just remained, haunting his guilt with motives to burn. "Why didn't I stop her from leaving...?" Luke mumbled.
His eyebrows arched upward. The realization and the clarity silenced at last the rage he has experienced and all the tiredness that clouded his judgment in the most unfortunate moment. Luke leant back against his desk, his hands gripping the wooden edge.
My plan was bad, Luke admitted, feeling one tear fall down his cold cheek. He lost his warmth the moment his mind dared propose him that he was, again, alone. So was hers. But I shouldn't have argued. Damn it, I should have found a better way, not say what I said and...
Han burst into the room, as always, unfamiliar with the concepts of knocking, "Hey, kid. Where's Lorna headed? I saw her take an X-Wing and she seemed a bit too pissed to be... Are you okay?"
Luke wiped his eyes carelessly and moved the same hand to Force pull his lightsaber to him. He was wearing only half of the usual uniform and he did not care to waste another second to prepare more.
"Tell Leia to stop the meetings. The Jedi Order will handle this," Luke answered, far colder than he intended. His mind was simply focused on anything else but his friend right now: because Han was safe, and Lorna most likely wasn't.
"What...? Hey!" Han protested as Luke pushed past him and started walking away. He had a fast pace and the ex-smuggler knew too little about the topic, but enough about Luke's power in order to decide to not pressure or follow.
And the Jedi was most thankful for that as it allowed him to make a beeline for his own X-Wing. He acknowledged with a side glance how off it felt to not have Lorna get ready in the same hangar... to not joke with her about maneuvers.
There were no jokes left to be said.
"No, R2," Luke pointed at his droid, attempting to follow and get connected to the X-Wing. Upon the puzzled beep, he sighed. "I need to do this alone. It's my mess to fix, I..."
R2 asked where Lorna was and Luke almost froze. "I'm sorry, R2, but you need to stay here. This is Jedi business."
"R2-D2!" 3PO shouted, walking their way, unaware of the tension in the air. "Whatever are you doing pestering Master Luke like this... Oy! That's no way to speak... Droids don't have feelings, you big pile of metal, you can't have a bad feeling."
Luke slipped into the X-Wing seat and closed the lid, blocking the droid entry immediately after. He overwrote the commands to him entirely and then repeated bitterly, "I have to fix this before it's too late."
To leave Coruscant and follow Lorna to the enemy location they have been given wasn't tough. Harder wad to admit that every second mattered and in these circumstances, not even the maximum speed of the X-Wing seemed like enough.
One small sting confused him as he prepared to make the jump to Hyperspace. It was a numb pain, that quickly left, leaving behind a blur he just shook off.
There's no time for omens or Force predictions. I am not losing Lorna, not like this.
He felt too much so he had to shut down and detach, allowing himself only to sense his love and the purpose of this: destroying Yanua's last stand, once and for all.
Luke had no idea how much time before him did Lorna get there, but when he was directiones on board, her X-Wing was already there. They didn't chain him or restrain him in any way, which was odd, but not totally unexpected.
The true shock was when he was left to enter alone the room the troopers escorted him to. The real terror arrived once he realized something was wrong.
He opened the door and let it close behind him, spotting a small droid lock it as he walked forward.
"Didn't I tell you he'll come, scum?" Yanua's voice weakly echoed.
Luke sensed that she was dying, but this hall of a room was too dark to comprehend all that was surrounding him yet. It took him a few good steps to finally halt and see, in the dim red lights, that Lorna was standing in front of a cannon's muzzle.
Their eyes met and as always, she somehow must have guessed the words that printed on his lips, because she mouthed "I'm sorry".
"And just in time for the show, Skywalker," Yanua grinned up at him, seizing the opportunity to get up from her throne like seat. She kicked it aside, making room, as if the chamber was not fitted for entire fleets.
"Release Lorna and I may show you mercy, Yanua," Luke barely pried his eyes away from Lorna in order to face their enemy. He retrieved his lightsaber from his belt, his thumb hovering over the ignition button.
But Yanua seemed careless of the danger. She simply laughed, "Does she seem bound to you, Skywalker? She is smarter than to move away. Right in front of the cannon or at the other side of the room, the effects will be the same regardless."
Luke focused back on Lorna. Her eyes were apologetic, but he gazed only to confirm, to his confusion, that she was not retained in any way to that position. Even her lightsaber was still at her belt; she seemed unharmed.
"You shouldn't have come," he heard her whisper. "Why did you?"
"Because I do love you." This time, Luke answered without hesitation, a comeback that came too late and apparently, not at the right time for her. He watched Lorna close her eyes, painfully unsatisfied with the situation.
"And that love will be your doom, Jedi," Yanua stepped closer, speaking darkly. She didn't compare with Luke's father, nor any other Sith he faced, because while most had sparks of light still dormant, upon reaching out in the Force, Luke only felt Yanua's insanity, her loss and how much pain she was carrying and letting it blind her judgement.
"You cannot win this fight, Yanua. Whatever you have planned, stop it now and claim your peaceful death while you still can... while I still allow it," Luke didn't lose the control he had over his voice yet.
But Yanua was long gone from the sanity that makes someone so predictable.
She pulled out a small remote and pushed the button without the slightest remorse. The button triggered the cannon and whatever defense Luke had planned was useless. The sonic wave hit right through Lorna.
"No," a mute scream left his lips as he watched her get kneeled by the impact. The disturbance of sound in the room lasted for only a few seconds but it felt an eternity until Luke could move.
He didn't appreciate time, he only knew that he ended up kneeling in front of Lorna, uncertain of what he was sensing or maybe denying it.
"That cannon couldn't kill a single person, but it does something very special to a certain combination of molecules," Yanua explained.
"No..."
"Yes," she answered. "Your sweet, clueless apprentice carries the last bits of the virus and I just triggered it. Do you know what that means for a Jedi? Do you have any idea what that means for you?"
Luke raised on his feet and stepped between Lorna and Yanua, igniting his saber with an angry cry. But the anger faded away, so he could focus, and just as Yanua got her chance to grin, that victorious smile of hers was wiped away by confusion.
"Why aren't you consumed by darkness?"
"What?" Luke gritted his teeth and held the hilt of his lightsaber just a bit tighter. "Turning to the Dark Side? I will take you down and save Lorna without of that..."
"It doesn't make sense," Yanua shouted and looked past him at Lorna, still kneeled and heavy breathing. "The bond should have carried the darkness..."
"What bond?" Lorna asked weakly, finally rising her gaze from the ground.
The sting..., Luke remembered immediately. He lowered his guard and stared back at Lorna. The Bridge was undone. And so was confirmed, with a sad smile for him, that indeed, his love knew no links or boundaries, not when it came to her.
"Sorry, pretty boy," Lorna stared back at him. Light was leaving her eyes and she was shivering from every bone. Luke tried to make a step forward but she raised her hand. "Don't come any closer, I am not going to be able to fight this darkness in me for long now. You were right, I feel it crawling in my veins, infecting my brain. Luke..."
"Don't you dare give in!" he shouted, voice cracking in emotion. His hands were shaking, uncertain on what to do. Attuned to the Force, everything she said was verified and confirmed. He was losing her to the Dark Side and it wasn't even her fault.
It was his.
If he didn't get hasty and argumentative, she would have never left. If only...
"Look out!" Lorna gave her last strength to shout and snap him out of his trance of deep thoughts. She collapsed on the ground in a spasm caused by the virus and Luke spun around just in time to block Yanua's weak lightsaber strike and push it aside.
She attacked again, rageful. "Your apprentice will be the next Sith and carry on our dynasty, with or without you, Skywalker. You can kill me, sure, but would you ever really kill her?"
Luke pushed back each attack, getting Yanua and himself away from Lorna. "You underestimate her and me," he noted. With both hands on the hilt of his saber, he easily overpowered Yanua.
Once he moved his hand and used the Force to pull her leg, Yanua fell back. Luke pointed the tip of his saber under her chin, "Let me tell you how this is going to go. You will die, paying for all the crimes you have did in this galaxy and I will take Lorna back to the Temple where we will find a cure for your abomination of a virus and then..."
"You talk way too much."
The ignition of a lightsaber triggered an instinct inside Luke and he dodged to the side, barely preparing enough to block the hit. Lorna hit him hard, purple over green, and Luke was pushed away, almost losing his footing.
Her eyes lost all light, ironically gaining that horrifying yellow hue. And Luke felt how darkness loomed in her, how much rage burned and flickered, alike with her saber, unwilling to give in to these malicious intents.
"What? You thought you could just tell me you loved me and everything would go back to normal, Master," she taunted and lunged in an attack. This was a fight that Luke was not ready to concentrate on.
Lorna's hits were brutal and since, unlike Yanua, she was healthy and still full of vitality, she was a serious opponent. After all, Luke was the one that trained her, unaware that they'd be forced to stand against each other.
"Lorna, you're in there somewhere," he gritted his teeth, evading her attacks, trying to put some space between them. He didn't want to fight back because he didn't want to hurt her, however, he couldn't let Yanua leave either.
"This is all me, don't you worry," she chased him with an everlasting grin of satisfaction. Each hit she stroke him with held rage and hatred. "This is who you trained me to be. You said it yourself, I am no Jedi."
"I was wrong," Luke pleaded, seeing as she was slowly making him back into the wall. And he still refused to fight back.
"As if I care!" she shouted back and hit his guard so hard the tip of his lightsaber hit the ground. He had time to raise it again, but she realized the attacks were not real. "Fight back! You think I can't take it! Fight back, you scum! Am I not deserving at least of a fair fight from you? Did I only mean a fake love...?"
"Lorna, please," Luke begged. With each hit he blocked, he knew the moment to fight back neared dangerously. "Please, fight this darkness... I don't want to kill you."
"You told me you loved me, but you still want to kill me," she twisted his words as the virus did that to her mind too. Lorna weilded her saber with only one hand now, so the other Force pulled all sorts of objects, some heavier and bigger, some smaller, only to hit Luke.
He stopped them all, either with his own saber or with the Force. "I do love you, Lorna! You were right, the Bridge was a perk we got used to having around, but it never conditioned our emotions. And you were right about so many other things. Like..."
With a heavy heart, Luke started fighting back. First his attacks got stronger, forcing her to build a defense too. "Like the fact that the Jedi need to build a name for themselves again. The galaxy lost its hope and faith in us and we need to regain it before we can rebuild."
Then their attacks got faster, so fast that when they spun their saber, blocking hits, the movements blended together, barely distinguished. Lorna's saber flickered and failed to block one hit from Luke.
His lightsaber grazed her shoulder and yanked back in pain, while his heart quenched, even more scarred than her to have caused that. But Lorna went right back into the fight, regardless.
"You taught me how to live, Lorna. You were right about that too, the Force is all about life and it's wrong for Jedi not to live it."
He was on the brink of tears, but the fight was no closer to stopping. Even if her lightsaber did not yield into darkness like her, Lorna's attacks did not falter and she was creative, chaotic, quick, everything she learnt how to become.
"Please," Luke finally found an opening and caught her wrist of the hand she was holding the saber with. She held on tight and pulled her arm up. "Lorna, I want to live my life with you. Don't make me do this."
He stared into the yellow eyes of a stranger, not the green eyes of the person he loved.
Lorna dropped the saber from her gripped and called it to her free hand. But before she could get a good swing at him, Luke closed his eyes and Force pushed her away.
The same Force push that started it all, now sent her into the wall and he knew she didn't move... He heard her lightsaber switch off and hit the ground.
Luke had no time to acknowledge how broken his heart has been by this fight, by this ending, because Yanua caughed, regaining her grip on her own saber. Blood drops fell on the ground from her mouth even as she wiped it clean.
"I still win," she mumbled. "You and Lorna become the next Sith, I win. Lorna lives and you have a mortal enemy for life, I win. You kill her and me, I still win because you will never be able to live with her blood on your hands, Skywalker."
Luke's jaw quivered, his hand gripping down the hilt of his saber just a bit tighter. It hurt so much, deep in his chest, the unfairness of the situation, the way things have turned to be.
No matter how much he'd do just to have a bit more time with Lorna in this life, they both swore it: duty would come first.
If I make it through this, he thought as he turned around, ready to put down Yanua too. I would lose it all. There will be no more Jedi, I shall be the last.
Before he could strike or approach, a purple saber ignited through Yanua, making her gasp. A mess of red hair, though dirty and mildly sweaty now, could be seen emarging from the shadow of the Sith, kneeled by the pain.
"The only dynasty that will endure is that of the Jedi, you sick bitch."
Confusion, loss, all of that flooded Yanua as her eyes widened. "W-what...? How is this possible? How did you...?"
There was no more trace of darkness in her. Luke felt the light and so the change in her green eyes.
"I am not a bright light, I flicker from the time to time," Lorna pulled out her saber and grabbed Yanua's hair to keep her in place. Before she could reach for her saber, Lorna kicked it away. "But I always come back to the light. Your plan was doomed from the start because you don't know me, Yanua, you don't know how much darkness I have faced before your puny tries and anger? Oh, dear, I don't hate anyone more than I hate you for all you have done."
Lorna straightened up. "When you join the dead Sith, don't forget to tell them how you are the one that caused their end."
She did not hesitate and she did not wait for Yanua's last words. Lorna sliced her saber through the Sith throat, decapitating her cleanly. She was even about to relax but instead, she half spun around and Force crushed Yanua's droid.
"That is the only droid that I sincerely despised...," Lorna sighed, switching off her saber and getting ready to turn around and face Luke with all the apologies she could generate when her entire body was still hurting and she barely overcame the virus.
Hitting the wall did bring some sense into her, taking her back to the abyssal dark and silence she was so used to from her years as a prisoner.
Regardless of her plans, the moment she turned around, she was greeted by Luke's warm embrace, tighter than ever. He wrapped his arms around her like his entire life depended on it or... maybe as if she was his entire life.
One hand clenched her shirt at the small of her back while the other held her head gently. She breathed out, surprised, right on his shoulder.
"How did you do it?"
That one question full of disbelief was enough for Lorna to be able to tell that Luke was crying. She slowly became aware of those jerked movements of his shoulders, of his chest, the ragged breath... so she hugged him back, so lightly, as if she was scared to break anything.
"Did you really have no faith in me?"
Luke tried to laugh at that, but instead, he burst into tears, burying his face into her shoulder too. Lorna smiled faintly, patting his back and closing her eyes.
"It was you, okay?" She whispered. "I heard everything you told me, Luke. And I remembered everything that I value... The reason I was scared of the Force in the past was because I was alone. Ever since I met you, I haven't been alone, and that's a freedom worth fighting even through the most painful darkness."
Luke was smiling as he leant back from the hug, but his tears just wouldn't stop falling. All those emotions he kept under control, they all resurfaced now, in the safety of the arms of the person her loves.
"I'm so proud of you," he whispered. "And I hope you can forgive me and give me another chance..."
Lorna hushed him gently. She cupped his face with both hands and brushed away the tears. "There, there... I don't have to give you another chance, Luke. We are not cross with each other anymore. It just happens, since we are both so stubborn, that we might not see eye to eye at all times."
"Yeah," he confirmed in a breath, leaning into her touch. "But your plan worked after all."
"This was so not part of my plan, but I'll take the compliment and a kiss because how dare you leave a scar on my shoulder like that?" After the tenderness, Lorna tiredly allowed herself to regain some of their usual happiness. She took hold of Luke's collar and pulled him in for a kiss.
He greatfully gave into her tug and gently nipped her lips. They grazed over each other with raw passion and a fire that would have always outshined any cosmic bond.
Lorna grimaced in the depth of the kiss and pulled back. "What?" Luke asked, immediately worried and grabbing her shoulder.
"Maybe...," she groaned with an ironic smile. "Maybe we should take me to a doctor because that virus in my veins still hurts like a little bitch."
"Shit," Luke cursed out loud. "I forgot about that. Can you pilot or should we...?"
"Listen up, Imperial Scum," Han's voice sounded through the entirety of the two Star Destroyers. While Lorna and Luke were busy taking down Yanua, Leia couldn't stand by. She and Han rallied the troops that were loyal to them and with the Falcon in the lead, Commander Han came to aid.
"I will have you surrender the Jedi to the New Republic and maybe we will bring you in warm, not cold. Time to yield is now."
Luke finally laughed his true laugh. A music to Lorna's ears just then and as she looked at him, seeing his smile was just like the first sun ray after the greatest storm. There he is, she thought. My home.
"So we'll be the last Jedi together after all," Luke mumbled, placing left Lorna's arm around his shoulders to help her walk out of this.
"Last Jedi?" Lorna stared at him in disbelief. "Please, give us some credit... We're more like, uhm, the first Jedi!" she exclaimed in a laugh. "You know, the first of a new generation, a new Order, a new... dynasty."
"The first Jedi," Luke repeated, then paused. "It doesn't sound so bad. Not bad at all, my love."
author's note:
did we cry?
i don't even know how to begin to thank everyone for reading this and staying with me so much and so far into this. my only hope is that you enjoyed this all the way to the end (we still have an epilogue shhh) and that the ending itself wad satisfying in all ways possible.
i hope you enjoyed the story: with the action, the love, the lessons we have learnt and the characters that have grown with us.
lorna, the coward thief who learnt virtues and became a real jedi, concerned with morality and returning the hope to the galaxy that wronged her.
luke, the jedi by the book who learnt that life is so much more than rules and he shouldn't die in loneliness.
yanua, the bad guy, that was just a mind, consumed by pain, manipulated into madness that finally succumbed to it and lost herself.
if you read this far, just know this book meant so much to me and it will forever mean a lot. this idea dates back three years ago, even though i only started writing it in november last year.
to everyone who read this, thank you 💕💖
see you in a bit