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“Leia.”
Startled more by the sudden shift in the Force than the voice itself, Leia gasped and dropped her comm. Her hand fell to her blaster as she turned to confront the hooded figure.
She had climbed the grassy hill that served as the roof of one of D’Qar’s main hangars alone, and told no one where she was going. The planetary ring that orbited D’Qar was made up of frozen rock and debris, but at night it reflected sunlight like a moon and created a sparkling band of diamond across the night sky — a breathtaking sight, and one of Leia’s favorite things about this place. Standing in the darkness, she had smelled the earthy scent of growing things and watched the crystal constellations wink at each other. The sensor array at the top of the hill beeped softly.
The galaxy still cried. Starkiller Base was destroyed; the livid beams of destruction had faded away, but the open wounds had not. Billions of lives, snuffed out. She knew that the ragged hole she could feel had been ripped in the Force, but it felt like it was inside her.
Leia had wanted to be alone, and look at something beautiful.
No one had been nearby, the nearest guard post barely within shouting distance — and then, someone was. It wasn’t Poe, or Kaydel, or anyone she would have expected to come after her, but there was still something familiar about the presence she sensed. Familiar, but far away.
“Who’s there?”
“I’ve frightened you,” the figure said, sounding disappointed, and reached to push back his hood with hands both human and mechanical. Leia’s heart tripped for a moment — Luke? — but the young man’s face revealed was not her brother’s. “I apologize. I did not mean to do so, but it has been some time since I had to... interact, in this way.”
His form wavered as he spoke, the outline of cavernous machinery momentarily overwhelming his human face. It left only a slight shadow after fading, but it was enough to confirm the particular type of strangeness Leia was sensing from him. “Are you — real?”
He seemed to consider that for a minute. “I am real. I am not... present in body.”
If he was a vision of the Force, Leia had only one question to ask him. “Did Luke send you?”
“No.”
“Did—” She couldn’t say it.
Leia hadn’t been able to devote as much time to the study of the Force as Luke had, and she didn’t know how Obi-Wan Kenobi had been able to communicate with Luke after his death or why he’d stopped. It was too much to allow herself to hope for something like that, even just long enough to say goodbye.
“There has been an awakening.”
For a moment, his voice grated like a glitchy recording, and Leia suppressed a shudder. Awakening was not the word she would have chosen to describe recent events, but— she knew what he meant. “Yes. That’s why I decided to prioritize searching for Luke, after all this time. I thought... if there was a time for him to come home...”
“Luke will return. The lost little one is bringing him back to you even now.”
Leia sucked in a breath. She’d known it, she’d felt it, but to have it confirmed...
Luke had disappeared almost ten years ago, shortly after Ben’s final, flaming fall that had taken the whole new Jedi Order with it. He’d come to see her, after everything, before he left — seeking understanding, he’d said with a slight break in his voice. Leia’s heart, already broken, had ached anew for him, wounds recently bandaged and dark shadows under his eyes. Luke had lost so much that day, even more than her, and now she knew exactly how he must have felt.
“Leia,” said the apparition again, “there has been an awakening. I have been sent to restore balance.”
“What do you want from me?”
“The one who is called Kylo Ren has killed his father.” The young man looked at her gravely, as if his words hadn’t just ripped her chest open. Through his insubstantial form, Leia could see the blinking red light of the sensor array. “If you wish, I will kill him. If you choose to give him his life a second time, I will not.”
The sensor array kept blinking, like a red eye opening and closing in the darkness. On. Off. On. Off.
“Who are you?”
“I have been sent—”
“Yes, I heard you. That’s not what I asked.” Leia’s voice was measured, but as unyielding as durasteel. “Who are you? Why are you asking me this?”
“He belongs to you.”
“He belongs to Snoke,” Leia said bitterly.
“He wears a leash of his own making, but he belongs to you. He is corrupted by hate, destroyed by Darkness, yet you love him. You have the most to gain by his death, and also the most to lose. The decision is yours.”
Leia took a breath, momentarily unable to speak. How many innocents had Ben killed in Snoke’s name, how many of her own people? How many would he kill in the future? If this specter was truly offering to end his life, how could she betray her own pilots and spies and soldiers by refusing? And yet how could she order the death of her son?
“If he dies, will that restore balance?” Could one life mean so much, when billions had been erased just days ago?
“Perhaps. Perhaps not. Balance can take many forms. The Force is not... fastidious.” He said the last word like it was not one he had often used, like he was thinking of something specific.
Again, Leia felt that she had known him. His presence was familiar, but she did not know his face. He was half invisible, the hollows of his form filled with pools of inky shadow and the glint of metal, but she could see his nose, the curve of his cheek. Enough to know that she didn’t recognize him. He was dead, Leia was sure, but that didn’t narrow it down; almost everyone Leia had ever met was dead.
She had known him, but had never seen his face.
“Do you know where Han is?” Leia asked, sounding brusque. It was the only way she could get the question out.
“He is in the Force.”
Then why couldn’t she feel him anywhere? Why couldn’t he have visited her, instead of this eerie young man? Why couldn’t she speak to him just once more, even just to say goodbye? “Is he—?”
“He is at peace.”
The heavy weight resting on Leia’s lungs did not disappear. She blinked hard, shaking her head. “You know, I told Han— before he went, I told him to bring Ben home. That’s what he was trying to do. For me. In a sense, you could say I killed Han.”
The specter’s eyes glowed yellow suddenly, two matches struck in the darkness. “In a sense, you could say that I killed all of you.”
“I am not dead yet,” said Leia, curious if he meant to kill her. She had known he wasn’t entirely benevolent.
“No, not yet, but the Force connects all things. If my life had been different, your life would have been different, and so your death as well.”
He breathed. It was a heavy noise, like the rasp of a dragging chain.
Leia froze. She knew that sound—
“You.” Leia was shaking, her hands balled into fists at her sides. She was nineteen again, listening to the drag of that labored breathing, and fury ignited the grief in her veins like liquid fuel. A leash of his own making, he had said. Of course she knew him. Of course she had never seen his face.
“You did this. Five planets they destroyed, again. My family is gone, again, and so of course you’re here—” She laughed, broken and brittle. “How dare you? How dare you come here asking me to give the order to kill my own son? What in the seven hells makes you think you’re qualified to deal out life and death?”
His breathing was loud. Leia didn’t know how she hadn’t noticed it before.
“I am chosen. I was chosen, long ago.”
“By who?” Leia scoffed. “Who chose Darth Vader to be our judge?”
“No one. Everyone. The Force. I don’t know.” As his voice grew frustrated it grew more artificial, his words glitching like a malfunctioning vocoder. “I judge no one. I seek—”
“Balance. I know.” Leia put her hand over her eyes, pressing hard for a moment and then pinching the bridge of her nose. She took a deep breath, and let it out again. “Will you kill Ben?”
“If you wish it.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I will understand,” he said. “I couldn’t kill my son either.”
Leia looked at him for a long moment. Her whole life had been haunted by his shadow. She had been called Mal'ary'ush, the Lady Vader, but she had no real idea who he was. He had never been her father — she had only known him as murderer, torturer, monster.
“Why didn’t someone materialize out of the Force and kill you?”
“I killed me.” He sounded genuinely puzzled.
“Can you tell me... is there a path back for Ben?”
Vague movement rippled within the shadow. “The future is uncertain.”
“Is there any Light left?” Leia demanded. “Answer me. Yes or no?”
“Yes.”
Leia closed her eyes. “As much as there was in you?”
“More.” His voice deepened, hollow and mechanical. Leia shuddered and did not look at him. She knew what she would see, if she did. “His master has not been efficient. I committed all that I loved to the fire the day I chose the Dark Side. He has been allowed to retain innumerable ties to the Light. His commitment to the Dark is half-hearted at best.”
He spoke as a Sith Lord.
“There’s still a chance,” murmured Leia.
She knew it in her heart, had always felt it — but how could she believe it? Could she justify putting her troops in more danger to protect the man Ben had chosen to become? He had killed Han. Was that the action of someone half-hearted?
“For now. The Dark Side grants power, but demands the sacrifice of all else. He must decide if there is anything he wants more than power.”
“I would have thought he already made that clear.”
“He knows nothing. He is only just discovering what it means to sacrifice. As I said, his master has not been efficient.”
Leia risked looking at him, and a chill ran down her spine. The golden eyes were gone, and the shadow had grown. A massive, looming silhouette stood where the young man had been. No features were visible, but Leia would recognize that armor and cloak, even in outline, anywhere.
She forced herself to keep looking, but she didn’t conceal her repulsion. “Why don’t you kill Snoke? Surely he’s done enough to deserve it.”
“Snoke does not matter.”
“He matters to me. He matters to Ben.”
“Snoke is irrelevant to the balance,” said Darth Vader. “I cannot force Kylo Ren to acknowledge the Light by changing his circumstances. He will make his own choices, or I can kill him. Which would you prefer?”
Leia wanted to be angry, but all that had drained away. She was tired. She missed — everyone.
“Don’t kill him.”
“As you wish.” The spectral form wavered slightly, and Vader’s voice glitched as he said, “You and your people need to leave this place.”
“We are planning to evacuate—”
“You will need to leave now.”
Frowning, Leia crossed her arms. “Starkiller Base was destroyed. It will take them time to regroup.”
“The First Order fleet is already on its way.”
“Of course it is.” No rest for the weary. Leia sighed, and stepped forward to pick up her comm from the grass where it had fallen.
He hovered. “You will go?”
“Yes.”
She would have to wake up half the base, call back everyone who was off-shift, order an immediate evacuation, and then find some way to explain it to the command council. They would obey her, but they would be confused. She couldn’t exactly tell them Darth Vader’s ghost warned me the First Order was coming.
Leia flipped her comm on and keyed it to call General Cypress’s channel. When she looked up, Vader’s specter was still there. She raised her eyebrows. “Do you need anything else?”
“No.”
“Then go away.”
He vanished.
