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For the record, Luke didn't really develop his ability to sense things through The Force until training with Yoda, which was well after he blew up the first Death Star. There was actually a small, but thriving academic community dedicated to figuring out just how many people died when he did that. Most of the relevant records had been blown up along with the Death Star, which spoke to a really terrible document backup and retention policy (not his words; again, thriving academic community) but the lowest estimates were well above a million people. Better estimates were in the range of 1.3 to 1.6 million.
That, obviously, was also after Tarkin had used it to destroy Alderaan. The relevant census records had also been on the planet itself, which was much more reasonable, but most guidebooks, encyclopedia entries and so on, agreed that the population of the planet hovered around two billion.
So given the timing, Luke didn't really know what he felt like in The Force without having the weight of a million plus deaths on his hands, and he didn't know what Leia would feel like without having been as close as possible to ground zero for the deaths of billions on her soul either. It's not like any of the Force sensitives he talked to afterwards didn't know about it either, so they never mentioned anything. Yoda accepted it was necessary and The Emperor? If anything, killing a million or so people was a plus to that maniac.
In retrospect, knowing that all those deaths clung to Luke made the fact that The Emperor thought Luke would be vulnerable to falling to The Dark Side make a lot more sense.
Of course, it would have been nice to have figured this out before traveling back in time and accidentally terrorizing the first Jedi that they met.
Sar Labooda was a thoroughly average Jedi. She only really stood out in The Order for four reasons. One, she had a sister and Jedi with other family members in The Order were very uncommon. Two, she was one of the top practitioners of the Niman lightsaber form, though that was less impressive than it sounded; Niman was widely regarded as the form for people who didn't actually want to use a lightsaber in combat. Three, she was considered very reliable when it came to completing missions as her lack of strengths was balanced by a lack of weaknesses.
Finally, she was slightly worse at sensing things in the Force than your average Jedi. It wasn't by a lot; she was still a fully trained Jedi Knight, but that voice that screamed when danger was coming was just a little quieter for her than it was for most of her peers. Those little hunches that let Jedi unravel tricky diplomatic tangles came a little slower for her. Again, she wasn't much worse than average, just enough that someone could write down in a form that she had a weakness. It actually made her more average than if she was perfectly average in every metric.
It might have just been her looking at the bright side of things, but she didn't mind this particular weakness. Sar had enough precognition to deflect blaster bolts but her senses were dull enough that she wasn't completely overwhelmed by things like sentients dying nearby.
So when she did get a bad feeling, she made sure to pay attention to it. Being asked to look at an unusual Force phenomenon by an archaeological dig on Yavin 4 definitely counted, though some of that was simple logic. Archaeologists were notorious in The Order for avoiding Jedi attention out of fear that the Jedi would steal or destroy artifacts. This was something of a self fulfilling prophecy as that meant that the Jedi would only be called in after some poor worker got possessed by an evil artifact containing the soul of a long dead Sith or something as compared to if a Jedi had been involved from the beginning and would have been able to safely purge the spirit before anyone got hurt. So the fact that this expedition had requested Jedi help was by itself like a photon torpedo going off in the dark of space.
"They could have at least spared a guide," Sar muttered as she trekked up a long series of stairs. Normally, intermittent lightning out of nowhere was something that would provoke an investigation by a technician. Bad wiring was much more likely than an actual Force phenomenon. The team had insisted that this was an ancient temple that if it ever had been powered by conventional technology, the power source was long since destroyed.
As she started up the stairs, there was a feeling of anticipation building in The Force that was distinctly at her own sense of resignation at the sight of four extremely long flights of stairs separated by platforms. At the top of the first flight, Sar could see the flickers from the lightning, which no longer qualified as intermittent. At the top of the second flight, it was as if the temple had been wrapped in a plasma effect. By the time she reached the top of the third flight, the arcs of electricity were so prominent that Sar was worried that she wouldn't actually be able to safely enter the temple, but halfway up the final flight the lightning abruptly cut off and a feeling of death spread out from the temple. It wasn't like someone had suddenly died. No, it was as if there was a massive graveyard in the temple that had been cloaked in The Force but whatever was hiding it was no longer bothering.
Actually, it was more like that time Coleman Trebor had to destroy a Golan Attack Platform on a mission and for months everyone could feel the deaths hovering on him, except a hundred times worse.
Against her better instincts, Sar sprinted up the remaining stairs towards the feeling of death. As she approached she heard what sounded like bickering voices coming out from inside the Temple.
"-walked by that statue hundreds of times before, so it obviously isn't my fault!" came a woman's voice.
"And all I did was walk near it! I didn't even touch it!" shouted a male voice, which was resolved into a male figure as the two walked out of the temple ruins.
Sar would have called it a pair of ordinary bickering siblings if it wasn't for the fact that even someone with her limited sensing abilities could feel death wafting off them. The woman, while short, had a domineering bearing as if she was used to being obeyed. She was dressed in the kind of immaculate white that nobles wore to emphasize the fact that they didn't work and thus didn't get dirty. The man, on the other hand, was dressed in black, but not the sharp black of a noble trying to look imposing, but the dull black of someone who decided to wear something that stains wouldn't show easily on. Importantly, he had a lightsaber clipped to his belt.
Sar ignited her own lightsaber. "Just how many people have you killed?"
The man looked surprised, though disturbingly not particularly threatened, as if he had been threatened by someone far worse than a Jedi with a lightsaber. "Today? No one?"
"Luke? One point six million," the woman said. Sar could feel the sincerity of her statement in the air. It wasn't the sincerity of someone who was trying to be believed. It was the sincerity of someone using the truth because it would hurt more.
The man, presumably called Luke, groaned. "Don't even start with me."
"You're just jealous because Wedge has three and half million worth of kills stenciled on his fighter."
"I am not jealous!" Sar didn't need The Force to say that was a lie.
"Murderer!"
Luke rolled his eyes. "It was hardly murder." Again she could feel sincerity in The Force, the absolute feeling of justification in causing so much death.
That twisted sense of righteousness felt so much more dangerous than any raving Dark Sider that Sar had even heard of and she attacked.
Luke was surprised at how easily the woman went down. His father would have thought that Force Push was a love tap, possibly literally considering his many, many family and mental issues. Yoda wouldn't have even noticed it beyond complaining about Luke's technique.
Luke probably shouldn't have been surprised that Leia knew how to quickly search an unconscious person for weapons, electronics and other useful items, but she had been a member of the Rebellion while Luke was still banging his head against moisture vaporators.
Leia sighed as she finished going through the woman's things. "So unless someone is pulling a very elaborate prank, we're almost forty years in the past and have just accidentally kidnapped a certified member of the Jedi Order-" Luke flinched at that confirmation. "-Sar Labooda, Jedi Knight. And the worst part? This is still going better than I expected when Mon Mothma decided we needed some family bonding time."
"This is better?"
"Isn't it?"
Luke sighed. "Okay. I was maybe a little worried about the Imperial remnant finding us, but I'm pretty sure this is worse."
"Well I was worried that we would be stuck having awkward conversation in a hanger while you futzed with your X-Wing with 3PO popping in every five minutes. Why else would Mon have stuck us in one of our abandoned bases together?"
Luke paused at that declaration. "You know what, time travel and accidental kidnapping doesn't sound that bad right now." Especially since Mon's instructions to him were to help Leia deal with her discovery that Darth Vader was her biological father. Forget how he'd help her come to terms with it; Luke wasn't sure how he'd survive just bringing the subject up. At this point he'd risk accidentally destroying the galaxy through a time travel paradox over touching that mess.
Looking at his twin, he could tell she felt the same way. Brushing her hands together she said, "We have ten years until the Clone Wars. What's the biggest headache we can give our dear beloved Emperor Palpatine?"
Luke hummed. "From the way this lady reacted, she can feel all the deaths we were near, so the Jedi are never going to believe us about being time travelers."
"Then we go the opposite direction," Leia declared, obviously having made up her mind. "We make them think we're a couple of Sith and poorly secure the Jedi and let her escape with evidence that we're working with the Techno Union."
"The who?"
Leia muttered something unflattering under her breath about Luke being a farm boy.
"There's also the small problem that I don't know enough about the Sith or the Jedi to fake being a Sith."
Leia shrugged. "Then we just make stuff up. The Jedi think the Sith are extinct right now, remember?"
"And I really don't think I'd be comfortable acting like The Emperor or our fath-"
"Don't call him that," Leia snapped.
Luke raised his hands placatingly. "Either way, my Vader impression isn't going to impress anyone."
Leia grinned dementedly. "Just act like your usual self. The Jedi are going to think it's an act anyway, so why not mess with their heads?"
Luke sighed. "Why did I hear you insert 'farm boy' between the words 'usual' and 'self'?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Leia said piously, making Luke wonder why he ever wanted a sibling.
"So just be myself and pretend to be evil at the same time. This is going to work great." He wanted to point out that the first time he followed a plan Leia came up with on the fly, he almost got eaten by a monster at the bottom of a trash compactor and things never actually got better from there, but he didn't actually have any better suggestions. "Tell me more about this Techno Union I'm supposed to name drop."
Being knocked out in a fight was an occupational hazard for Jedi. Sar actually had multiple lessons on how to recover from that kind of situation. This included not opening your eyes until you were sure you weren't being observed. The alarming part was that she didn't wake up in an unfamiliar place. On the contrary, it was a very familiar place: the bunk on her ship.
"You know, I can tell that you've woken up. I wouldn't even need The Force; your breathing shifted."
And apparently she needed a refresher course. She opened her eyes and saw the man she had attacked earlier sitting across from her on a chair with an unfamiliar model of datapad, though it was a rugged type that seemed almost designed to be used as a blunt weapon in a pinch. He wasn't at all tense, which was possibly more alarming than if he had been standing menacingly.
"Darth Sidius would have approved of that attack," Luke said conversationally. "I felt a lot of fear in it. I tried killing him once and all he said was 'Good. Your hate has made you powerful.'" He said that last part with a raspy growl then frowned. "Or was that later? To be honest I got hit by a lot of Force Lightning that day and my memory is a little scrambled. I'm almost positive that he didn't say 'Good. Good.' or 'Yes. Yes.' as much as I remember."
Sar would have backed away from him, but there simply wasn't enough room in the bunk for that. "What do you want from me?"
"It would be very convenient if you attacked me again."
"What?"
"My sister has got it into her head that I should try convincing you that I'm something that I'm not, which sounds like a big hassle. Nevermind the fact that the last time I tried subterfuge it got me tossed into a pit with a Rancor in it and then almost fed to a Sarlacc. You know how it goes."
"No, not really," Sar blurted out.
"Oh." There was a pause where he stared at her expectantly. "Are you sure you don't want to give into the dark side and try to strike me down? …What? It never hurts to ask nicely."
Sar's hand twitched to her side. "I don't even have my lightsaber."
"Yeah, Leia took it. Probably so I'd actually have to talk to you. I'd apologize, but it'd probably sound insincere right now."
"Just a bit," Sar said weakly.
"So… see any good holos lately?"
"What." Why did this man seem like a person who didn't know what to do at a party?
Luke shrugged. "I've never tried to turn anyone to the Dark Side before. Darth Sidius's approach seemed to involve threats, torture, killing my friends in front of me and so on, but that always seemed self defeating. I mean why would you want to corrupt someone and make them lose all inhibitions against murder by giving them a reason to kill you? My father's approach was to let me attack him and defeat me overwhelmingly so that I could witness the power of the Dark Side of The Force, but we already established that you don't feel like attacking me again."
"I am a Jedi."
Luke, for some reason, grinned widely. "Ah, that takes me back."
Sar wondered briefly if he really was a Dark Sider, but he talked about someone with a Sith name, said he wanted to make her fall and, again, had the palpable aura of death surrounding him.
"Though are you sure about that? 'A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.'" Luke sounded like he was quoting Master Yoda, even doing the voice.
"It was a moment of weakness."
Luke looked at her as if he didn't know what to say next, which for anyone else would simply be awkward, but with the feeling of palpable mortality surrounding him, it gave the impression that he was contemplating killing her rather than continue the conversation.
"Are you sure you don't believe in torture to make Jedi fall?"
Luke sighed. "Torture and threats in general are counterproductive. I torture you into following the Dark Side and you'll just turn around and plot my death. I threaten a genius into making a super weapon for me and he'll deliberately include a weak spot so it can be easily destroyed. Seriously, just hire the Techno Union or Trade Federation to build you a super weapon and it'd cost less than enslaving a planet into doing it for you. You can buy anything now. They even have the production to build whole droid armies."
"...Why does that sound like you aren't talking hypothetically?"
"And The InterGalactic Banking Clan is funding the development of droids that can kill Jedi," he added brightly. "Somehow completely legally. Something about being security droids rather than military droids. You'd have to ask Leia for the details because I didn't follow the logic at all."
Luke's datapad beeped. "Oh, it looks like we're getting close to our destination." Sar twitched as she finally registered the fact that the hum of the ship's engines meant that they had been in flight. "Sorry, you need to go back to sleep."
As Luke shot her with a blaster set to stun, Sar reflected that somehow the politeness just made things worse.
Luke sighed as he saw Sar's ship take off through a pair of macrobinoculars. They had taken her ship from Yavin 4 to a nearby smuggler's moon and just left her in her bunk after disembarking, knowing that she wouldn't want to stick around without a good reason.
"Took her long enough," Leia complained. "I could have gotten out of those binders in less time."
Luke wanted to question why Leia carried prisoner restraints with her regularly, but was afraid to ask in case the answer was somehow related to her relationship with Han. Honestly, the possible non-sexual explanations seemed both more likely and more disturbing than the sexual ones. "I might have miscalibrated the stun," Luke tried.
"If you did, she should have woken up sooner, not later. At least you didn't mangle the delivery too badly."
Luke rolled his eyes. "Sorry for not paying attention to ancient history when I was a kid. I dropped the names you wanted me to at least." Sadly, her quarters were too cramped for both of them to wait for the Jedi to wake up together, so Luke got drafted for the job as the one more likely to win if it came to another fight.
Leia stood up and stretched. "Okay, it shouldn't be too hard to find a ship to steal in a place like this."
Luke had the sneaking suspicion that Leia had missed the days where she could just shoot her problems instead of having them stuck in committee meetings. He kind of felt the same way himself.
Of course, that bouncy feeling went away rapidly when they entered a cantina and saw the news playing. Senator Palpatine had just been named Supreme Chancellor. It was going to be a lot more difficult to assassinate a sitting chancellor instead of a senator.