Archive of Our Own

Anakin’s podracing

The young boy held back by the invisible chains of slavery races to free himself of them. Faster and faster against those with experience and danger in their eyes. Trying to prove himself worthy,  to prove that he is something.

Whorls of blue and green and red, masters and apprentices, dark and light. It would always end this way. The two sides turned on each other as they always did until one emerged victorious. Of them only one walks away.

The fight was becoming an increasing worry: it was too late now to not get involved. So he got involved. A small and agile blur of green with a saber in hand as he fought back against the growing darkness.

They married in secret away from prying eyes and a world that would have forbade their love from blossoming. They married far away from knowledge with the sun sinking low on the horizon as they let love come to fruition.

Their love was always in danger, always was a taboo. Now it was something more precious, and even more dangerous. It was everything that they could have wanted: a miracle, something magical. It was a death sentence on their love.

They saw a Jedi they knew and didn’t say anything. They saw what should have been a friend and didn’t shout. They saw the blade extend and fear clouded over. They saw a Sith being born as the Younglings fell.  

The fires were raging below. The anger had corrupted any sense or love that might have been held. The darkness had consumed and brothers of battle turned on each other. Limbs cut from limbs as he burned for his sins.

Broken, bruised, burned away, less than a former shell of that slave boy who was destined for greatness. Now he was shrouded in not just the metaphorical dark as his suit became his salvation and the death of Anakin Skywalker.

She was screaming, crying out, crying. Then her son was. Followed by the twin cries of her daughter. They were her miracles and they had survived the heartbreak that had heralded labour. She was screaming, crying out, no more.

The holy city was under siege. The troopers came with their guns and shot away at something sacred without care. They did not care. They released a weapon down on the city of legends and let it all burn away.

Rebels with a cause on a beach, sneaky and scared in their hearts. They had a mission and they knew too well they may give their lives for it. A defected pilot,  rebel spy,  guardians of the Whillis, and Stardust.

The battle was still being fought, technically it wasn’t over yet, when they ran. They had to run, they had the means to survival, the means to end everything, the means to the end of the battles still raging; not that they knew it. They had the princess and cargo and that was worth running with. They were loyal soldiers, rebels with a cause and they would lay down their lives if it would set them free.

Like a ghost from a past, this boy stood before you, the perfect mix of his parents you knew so long ago. Like a fresh wound opening up when he spoke the day he had buried in the desert after he saw their mother buried. The memories had not been so easily buried but leaving that name behind with the memory of them had helped. Now he was being pulled back into the fray as Obi-Wan again.

Tricks and rules and ideals deeply ingrained are not forgotten. It was easy to slip back into the guise of Jedi Master once again. With a swoop of the hand and some focus he could propel their new mission forward. He was in the role he had neglected. He was with Luke, with the charge he was told to protect and he was taking him into danger, to get to the other. A simple wave, a trick.

There were two options in this scenario. There was a slim chance that they would both get up and walk away but they knew who the other one was. That wasn’t going to happen. One of them would have to shot the other. Guns were poised, nonchalant as they appeared, fingers ready on triggers. Waiting for the moment to make their move. In the end it was almost simultaneous but one shot first. Han Solo shot first.

There he was, just a boy from a moisture farm on Tatooine daring to insult one of the greatest ships that had ever existed. She was a masterpiece and a smuggler’s dream and she was fast and designed for fast escapes and speedy travel. What did the farm boy know about sophisticated space travel? The boy may dream of the stars but he’d never flown more than a speeder before. Now he was in the big leagues.

She had tried. She hoped they knew that. She had been told to run and she had ran. She had been tortured and never spoke. She had stayed silent. Now it was too late. She had tried, the name falling out in a panic when all she had wanted to do was scream. It was too late. She hoped they knew she loved them. She hoped they knew it. It was gone now; her family, her home.

They had got to her detention block, but that was only half the battle. They had only come in with half a plan, more concerned with freeing the princess Leia than worrying about how they would get off the weapon station. She had more of an idea. The gun wrenched from their hands led the princess to her own freedom. The trash compactor was an escape route, still fraught with danger and still they came out alive.

Master reunited with his first apprentice: the man he had watched be tempted and fallen prey to the Dark Side. The man he had once loved as a brother now turned to him behind the guise of that was the result of their last conflict. They had come a long way in nineteen years. A lightsaber swooped up and fell down upon the last Jedi Master. They had come a long way and now the apprentice won.

It was suicidal, and the pilots and the generals knew it. They also knew that it was necessary and that they had to go to these great heroic lengths to do the jobs they had volunteered to do. Around them another battle raged, another war in the stars as they swooped down the surface of the moon with a goal in mind.. They had one shot to do this. One shot to succeed. One shot to believe.

Friend of only a day who had only agreed to come along after the bribe of wealth and riches to solve his selfish needs. Friend who was merely an acquaintance or a partner until he returned. He returned as a friend, whooping and hollering and giving as good as he got to prove that he could be something other than selfish. He was a friend of theirs and he had their backs in the battles they fought.

Landed back on solid ground and they were alive. The three of them were alive and despite how fleetingly they’d known each other for it meant everything to be able to call and see her smile as you hugged. To know that you had succeed in completing the goal you had and the ones that had been thrust upon you on the way. You were all three together and safe. The rescued princess, the farmboy and smuggler.

Out in the snow, running from monsters and cutting with fiery blades in order to survive the dangers of the wilderness while inside the rebels plan the next stage. The next attack comes to them as they evacuate the base.

Find Master Yoda in the Dagobah system and he will train you. That’s the instructions he had been left with. It was not what he had been expecting. But he was still going to try. He was going to succeed.

Time is running out and all hope is fading fast as they weave the asteroids. It’s dangerous and it’s a tricky feat of navigation but it’s the only chance they’ve got to survive this, ducking and dodging a mine field.

It was all of the taunts and teases and sharp words. It was making each other jealous and then standing a little too close or a little too far. It was months of pent up tension finally finding its release.

He claims he did it for his people, for their safety, but you always thought he was better than this. Better than this blatant betrayal. He was your friend before all of this. You hope that he still is after.

Watch it all slip away from you, this love you thought you’d found. It was taken to repay debts he’d racked up before. Before you loved him. Before he knew. You get the words out but it’s still too late.

It wasn’t the air nipping at his face that hurt most. It wasn’t the hanging on nor the fear of death. It wasn’t the space where his hand was. It was the heartbreaking truth that rose in him that he couldn’t deny.

Slave girl wrapped in chains watch how we degrade you. Smuggler with your punishment due can’t even see his fate. Jedi Knight rises now to free friends that are hurting. Someone who loves you will rescue you, just you wait.

From one to another their rebellion had taken them. From the moon setting on their childhoods to emerging as adults they had fought for the light to break through. The sun was setting over the trees, sunset full of hope.

He had fallen to its weakness and now he called to you to do the same. He wanted to corrupt you, so that you could be together. You had never been together, a family, because of this corruption. He calls.

The helmet comes off. It does not matter now. It is more important that a young man from the same soil see his blood that he never got to be family with. The son comforted the father, as he dies.

There is another. This was the whole deception, to hide her so she would be safe. So that when the time came they could be safe, together, as they were always meant to be. Those two children, babies, twins, reunited.

The celebrations rose up across the galaxy. Across the stars the news flew and they all rejoiced. Music and fire was spun about as the collective galaxy breathed a sigh of relief at the freedom that had been finally won.

From the ashes of the regime that inspired them they tried to build a better one. Tried to follow their patterns, follow in the footsteps of admiration. They could be bigger, and better and succeed where they had previously failed.

In a snap decision the trooper made up his mind. He was getting out of here. The man, the prisoner, was more than just a ticket out of hell. They were both escaping the base; he just needed a pilot.

Over time her eyes had seen many things, many faces but she noticed that if you wait long enough you will see the same eyes in different people. The same eyes, and their stories, could be repeated if you waited.

‘Torn Apart’

On a bridge, trying to bridge the distance between them. They were always too headstrong to have a smooth relationship and this was the turbulent ending. For a second everything stilled. The breath was held. Then it was torn apart.

She had travelled so far to find him, to bring him back his heart. To show that he still had a heart and that it beat in the people he left behind. It was time for him to come home.