A Star Wars fantasy Fan Fic
by: Empress Vader

disclaimer: I'm sure all readers understand Star Wars is not my property. And my use of it's characters and history is not for any kind of profit, just pure entertainment. Please don't sue me. I just borrow you characters to take them on a fun fantasy trip and then turn them back over to their bodies, lives, and proper universe.
 

Chapter 1

Part 1: Journey to the 12th Circle

It happened again.

Mara held him tight, trying to stall the shiver running through him. She'd hate to admit it, but this behavior was scaring her. She'd seen him fall to the floor shivering, unable to stop for hours. It was as if he was consumed by something terribly dark. Living nightmares maybe. She remembered when got those, courtesy of the Emperor. Along with the nightmares he had been experiencing blinding headaches and uncontrollable moments where he blacked for hours at a time. Whatever was possessing him, wanted him badly.

"Someone's calling me through the force," he said.

"Someone evil" his wife replied.

"No, it's from a dark place, but not necessarily from an evil being." He sighed. "It feels so close to me, yet so far away. A place familiar, but distant."

"Maybe you need to get checked out by the Emdee," Mara suggested.

"It's not a medical issue, you know that," Luke said sliding out of bed.

"Luke," it was an odd whisper he hadn't felt in years.

"Leia," he said out loud. Why was she calling him? Was she feeling it like him? Was it her voice he had actually heard? It had actually been awhile since he'd talked to her. Between the establishment of the New Republic, his beginning a new Jedi Academy, and her having diplomatic duties as well as a family, they'd grown closer only to grow distant again. Still, whatever was behind this psychological attack involved her. And only through her could he find the answer. "Whatever this is, it involves Leia. I have to contact her."
 
 
 

******

"Leia," she heard the call clear through her dreams. This was the fifth time she'd woken up hearing him. But this is the first time she'd heard her name. Something was bothering Luke, happening to him. He needed her and she wasn't wasting another day waiting for him to come to her and make a verbal request.

"I'm going to see him."

"Leia, go to sleep," Han insisted groggily. "I told you, if Luke needs you he'll say so. He's a big boy."

"I'm not sure he will. There's something----"

"Mom," her youngest son said bursting through the hotel room door. "There's a message from Uncle Luke."

"Told you," Han said searching for his shirt.

"Just for Mom," Anakin said looking at his father. "Oh, and sorry for bursting in."

He smiled and left the room. It was nice having all of her children together and her husband. They were taking a much needed holiday from everything and everyone in a floating resort. Located miles under the Lexmain sea on the planet of Brista, it was the ideal place to get away from it all. But the place was brand new and still hadn't worked out a good communications system. Which was a benefit to those who truly wanted to get away from it all, because it was almost guaranteed any messages you got down there were of the utmost importance.

The older they got, the harder it was hard to get her family or her friends in a room together for an extended amount of time. When her children were babies they had to work so hard to protect them, there wasn't much time to enjoy them, to just be a parent. And she knew more and more everyday why her mother had made the hard decision to give her and Luke up. How many times had her own children been hidden away for their own good?

Why was she thinking about her birth mother now? Her birth was so complicated an emotional issue, she'd rather not think about. She got dressed and went to the communications center to get her message.
 
 
 

Leia looked at the words again. 'I heard you.'

"But he called to me," she said to herself."

Odd, the only person she had ever had that strong a mental connection with was Luke. Other people had channeled messages to her through the force, but there was a distinctive feeling in Luke's call. So who could be calling both of them? Who else would have that connection? Certainly not Vader, he was dead. But Luke had heard Ben after his death. Still, Luke and Ben had been close, she had never met Anakin Skywalker. She thought back to the voice, it was certainly familiar. It wasn't the sound that was familiar it was the feeling, a warm feeling she assumed came from her brother. But it wasn't her brother, it was someone else. She turned back to the screen and continued to read.

'I feel there is something unsettled somewhere inside us and it must be handled soon. I don't know about you, but I've experienced black outs and headaches. Along with dreams I can't remember, but they cause me to awake in cold shivers.'

She hadn't experienced any cold shivers, nightmares, or headaches, but there were blackouts, moments in the day where time disappeared and she felt like she heard a distant non-verbal call through the force. Han had panicked the first time she blacked out, saying she looked as her life was snatched from her body. At first she told him it was fine, but she knew it wasn't. And finally she told Han she thought it was Luke, but she wasn't sure. Han then relaxed and said if Luke needed her he would let her know for sure. And here it was, a formal request for her intervention. The vacation would have to be cut short.
 

*******

On Yavin IV, Luke sat out amongst the stars, meditating, trying to concentrate on the mind touching him. But the mind seemed untrained, elusive, acting on instinct through some type of dark place in the force. There was such a sensation of warmth that came with the name "Luke". It was like someone or something he'd known and forgotten. It wasn't his father, couldn't be. But who else could it be?

"She's here," said the voice of a young Jedi student behind him.

He'd known the young boy was coming, half aware of it as his mind returned to the present. He was sorry he'd broken up his sister's vacation, ruined hard to manage and well earned time away from the duties of their demanding life, but he had to act now. Each day the call was getting more and more intense and Leia's mind and his were trying to lock through this mysterious voice. He now knew for sure it wasn't Leia calling him. When he felt the distinctive connection in the call "Luke" he'd thought it was her, but it wasn't. His heart knew the mind calling him, but his mind did not.

Luke returned with the student to meet his sister. She hadn't said much in her reply a few days ago. In fact, the only thing the message had said was. "I feel it too, the urgency in it and I'm coming." He assumed they would talk more when she arrived. But he knew no discussion held on the subject would lead to an answer, they'd have to go deeper. This was caught between their minds.

He entered the room where Mar and the Solo family were waiting for him. He and his sisters eyes met through the group, they said nothing at all to anyone else. She knew what he knew, this could only be settled by herself and her brother. She left her entourage and joined him. And they proceeded to leave without saying anything to their companions.

"Hey, where are you going?" Han yelled.

"To settle this disturbance," Leia replied, feeling strongly connected to her brother's mind, speaking the words he thought.

"There is nothing you can do," Luke continued. "It involves only us."

The two were gone before anything else could be said.
 
 
 

On the top floor, they entered a large room that locked as soon as they entered. The spacious room was empty of everything. On the floor was a painting of a star system, something one of Luke's more artistic students had done. In the center of the floor's room was a sun. The skylight above flooded the room with light that focus on the sun in the middle of the floor. They were both reluctant to speak. It was obvious this was going to be no ordinary mission, a mission deep into their minds.

"Do you know who's calling us?" Luke finally asked.

"I thought for a second that maybe it was---"

"Father," Luke finished.

"Yes, Vader. But it isn't, it's something closer. "

"Since you found out about our history have memories been coming back clearly. Things you were told too forget or things you didn't lay meaning to until you found out."

"Yes, a lot of little things. "

"I have a feeling that the only way to end this is to travel deep into each other's minds. And it may be one of the most dangerous things we've ever done."

"But it must be done," Leia replied. She felt so outside of her own control, understanding instinctively what she normally would not.

Luke sat cross legged near the sun in the middle of the floor. Leia sat in front of him. They were both a little nervous. More for comfort than necessity, they joined hands. They had never done anything like this before, they very easily felt each other's living force and they had spoken or heard each other through the force a thousand times, but never the deep probing they were going to attempt at this moment. They were trying to reach a place they'd known exclusively and instinctively at birth.

Leia was out of practice with her Jedi techniques, but the call was so strong going into deep meditation almost seemed like an instinct" Each went into their own minds first, eliminating the world around them, sight, sound, the light above them, the floor below them, the world was completely shut out and within the limbo they reached for each other.

"Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter," Luke hear Yoda's voice as clear as if he were the only voice in the room. Leia hard it too. They reached out through the voice, trying to connect to the mind and spirit beyond the physical. For Leia, it was an amazing high. She knew the force was strong in her family, but it was the first time in her life she felt it so fully. Their was such a true peace to it's pure form. Something so far beyond the child's play of Lightsabers and hurling objects through the air. When Luke reached the point of inner calm, it was he who first reached for her. When she reached back out for him, they seemed to ascend into a darker place in the force.

Flashes of their lives, together and apart ran backwards in their minds mixed together so that neither knew where their own memories began and the other's ended. The pictures had voices, but they passed so fast that they warbled together and were indistinguishable. The memories that followed these were neither of their's, it was of a world that existed before them.

The running pictures suddenly stopped. A light blinded them both and when the smoke cleared they were in some old type of old Tatooine junk shop. The world seemed solid, but it had to be a dream. Still, they brushed the dust from their clothing as if it were real.

Leia looked around the shop than at her brother. Her breath caught in her throat. He was a little sandy haired boy. In fact his hair was long enough to fall right in front of his eyes when he looked down. "Luke, how old are you?"

"What a silly question," he replied. It was then he heard his voice, indeed that of a boy. He looked at his sister. She was a child too, a little girl with a long ponytail who was approximately eight or nine years old. She was a few inches taller than himself. It was not unusual for non-identical twins to be of varying heights. But he still didn't like the fact she was the tallest.

"We're children? Why?" Luke asked.

"That's the way she kept you," a voice announced grabbing there attention.

"Father?" Luke replied startled.

Having never seen her biological father as anything but Vader, seeing this kindly old Ben-like Anakin Skywalker struck Leia silent.

"Are you the one who brought us here?" Luke asked

"No I have not. I've been waiting for you, but in the hope that I wouldn't again have to make it the duty of the child to save the parent." Anakin inhaled staring at his daughter. "How could I not have known? You look so much like her." The way the man, who was almost a stranger, looked at her made her nervous. And somehow her mentality dropped to that of a little girl faced with a creepy, strange, uninvited admire.

"Father, where are we?" He asked more to distract his father and relieve Leia of the pressure of his stare, than for the information.

"Well it appears to be a junk shop that I worked in when I was a young boy on Tatooine."

"You were from Tatooine?" Luke asked excited, his mentality also quickly dropping to that of a little boy.

"As a slave, but yes. But this is only for appearance sake, you're really at the gateway, just outside the 12th circle of your mother's realm."

"Our mother's what?" Leia questioned.

"Our mother has a realm?" Luke questioned

"Yes, partially due to the hand of a Sith," Anakin replied in a low tone. "When your mother gave birth to you, she connected with your ultra sensitive, force strong immature minds. You reached out for her when you were born through the force. She sensed you very strongly and like any mother she wanted the best for you. But In that moment where she connected with you through the light side of the force, something dark sparked with it. A long dead Sith who drew on the dark side of the force. Thanks to the Emperor and myself, the dark side of the force was quite strong. Strong enough to spark against something as pure as the innocence of a newborn baby and the love of it's mother to create a new world, not in your universe, not in your reality. Another realm, something she believed was just a long involved dream. Even before her death, she couldn't tell which existence was real, especially since a piece of you lived here until your minds matured and you shut out the force. But when you left this world behind for your own reality, she was still here. And it was in her despair over this, the Shadow Sith took over, imprisoned her in her own creation."

"What's the Sith's name?" Luke asked.

"I don't know, no one does. From the gateway I can see into the world, but I can't get in unless she lets me in. Of the 12 circles that have developed so far, only the first seven were created during the rule of your mother, if the world finishes developing, growing, becoming more real under the Shadow Sith, nothing will be able to save it or the essence of the woman that was once your mother. Only I can defeat the Shadow Sith, but only you can get in and travel to your mother, at the first circle, the center, but there's a chance you could die along the way. And if you die in this world, your mind dies, and without the mind. . ."

"The body dies," Luke finished. "I'll go," Luke said to his sister. "You go back to your family."

"I can't leave you Luke, not now."

"Besides, it can't be changed. From here there's no going back. The center, the first circle, it's your only way home."

"What!!" Leia yelled.

"So we have no choice?" Luke asked.

"You had choice, you made that choice before you got here."

"Yeah, but I wasn't prepared for this," Luke shouted. Odd, he was starting to feel like a kid, insecurities he hadn't felt in years were flooding him.

Anakin kneeled down to him. "My son, you are a Jedi. How many times since you became one have you walked into a situation that turned out to be more than you bargained for?"

Feeling every bit a child beaming under his father's praise, he smiled. "Plenty," he replied proudly.

"And why did you stay with it."

"Because it was my duty," the boy replied proudly as his sister rolled her eyes.

Both children shook their heads trying to get a grip back on their adult minds. What was happening to them?

"You'll get disoriented a lot here, often revert to the mental state of a child because, at least here, you are children.."

"Do we dare have the luck of being force sensitive here?" Leia replied sarcastically.

"Yes, you'll be able to feel the force, the world surges with it, But you won't be able to control it. It's like starting all over again, learning all over again. Why do you seemed to lose your force sensitivity when you were children? Why do you think it was suddenly muted, shadowed, barely there? Your children always felt it Leia, I was raised for nine years without any training and felt it my whole life. The shadow Sith is responsible for it. He didn't want you coming back here, and if you felt the force as strongly as you were meant to, you would. Did you honestly think it was your will, your parents will, that stopped you from feeling it. No, it was him. This Shadow Sith must be stopped."

"So we have no control over the force, were children, and we're heading into a world filled with dangers where we may often lose touch where our adult minds," Leia replied.

"I wish there was another way."

"But there isn't," Luke added.

"Why should we even believe him?" Leia said angrily.

"Because he's telling the truth," her brother said. "You felt her call as I did. We must go Leia."

Leia sighed, it was true. How long had they been here? It felt like she had lost and gained time all at once. He was right, they had to go through with it. Not just because the first circle was the only way home, but because their mother needed them. And also because this is what they had done for most of their adult lives, fight for justice where there was none, fighting to preventing darkness and cruelty in their own ways.

"When do we begin?" Leia finally asked.

Anakin waved a hand and his children were suddenly dressed in matching a burgundy-black tunics with lose fitting black pants and comfortable boots, a headband tied around their heads. Their weapon not a lightsaber, but a crossbow.

"We don't get a lightsaber?" Leia asked.

"You neither have the experience nor the skill to use them. It would be better to use a crossbow or this."

Anakin then handed them each a small sharp dagger, which they had a sheath for on their belts.

"They should be a good enough backup weapon and useful tool. You will see a great many creatures, some horrible some magical. Don't take things at face value. Don't be quick to blame the beast, not everything in any of the circles are evil. Still beware of tricksters, magicians, false friends, and wizards."

"How can we tell the good from the bad," Leia asked.

"Learn to use the force to your advantage," Anakin said to his daughter. "It's a pure instinct, the one good thing I gave you." He gently touched the side of her face, brushing a lock of hair with it. "Your her daughter all right. I see her so clearly in your eyes. She must be saved." Leia smiled involuntarily, feeling as childish as Luke had under their father's pleasing gaze. It was hard to hate him without that black mask. Harder to believe this was the same man. And harder still to get a grip back into her adult mind.

He stood up, took a child's hand on each side of him and walked them to the door. From where they stood, outside seemed an empty, deserted Tatooine marketplace, but when they reached the doorway, a steel door appeared with two hand prints. Their father let go of their hands. They each placed a hand on the door and were transported inside a new world. Location the twelfth circle.

To be continued
 
 

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