A Time to Remember
by: Benjamin Pearson

Disclaimer: This is a piece of fan fiction. I am just a fan of Star Wars, who simply likes to write. I make no money from my writing.

Candlelight flickered at the edge of his consciousness, anchoring him in the real world, if only marginally. Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master, hero of the New Republic sat cross-legged in the cool darkness of his bedchamber at the Jedi Academy on Yavin 4 and thought. He pondered the darkness around him, and marveled at the power of the candle’s flame to hold back the night, no matter how dark it had become. His awareness shifted outside the room, and he brushed against the consciousness of one of the students as they made their way to an evening class. He extended himself even further, to the jungle around the old Massassi temple that for the past several years had served as the training ground for the new generation of Jedi, and perceived, more than saw, the myriad minds, primitive by human standards, that constituted life on the small moon. Luke felt the hunger and severe intent of the hunters, the fleet reactions of the prey, and the never-ending dance between the two.

Suddenly, savagely, a great malevolence shattered the natural balance of the jungle. A dark place that Luke’s mind had wandered into. A place where he’d fought a great evil, and thought he’d won…

Torrential rain lashed at Luke’s face, making it difficult to see anything but the glowing red blade of his opponent’s lightsabre. Cloaked in black and hooded, the figure seemed more of a wraith than a person. Indeed, corrupted by the Dark Side of the Force, they were a mere shadow of who they’d been.

“Shay,” Luke said to the figure, “Don’t make me do this.” He offered his hand, said, “Come back to the Academy. There’s still good in you. I can feel it.”

The thing that had been Shay Gewn laughed, a horrible crackling sound, like dry twigs crunching underfoot. “There is nothing more for me to learn from you, Jedi. My master has shown me a power you and your pathetic students can never hope to amass.” Without another word, Shay leaped forward, bringing her lightsabre down in a vertical cut. Luke ignited his blade and blocked the attack. The two stood there for a good three seconds, blades locked in a desperate struggle for supremacy. Finally, Shay won. With a mighty shove, fueled by pure rage, she threw Luke backwards. He upended, but sprang off his hands and landed lightly on his feet. Shay came in with a flurry of attacks to his legs, middle and head. Luke countered each with masterful speed and accuracy. He slid his blade along Shay’s, trying to cut downward at her hands, but she pivoted and her blade was suddenly where her hands were. She stabbed at Luke’s belly, and then cut upward at his chin; Luke barely managed to avoid both attacks. He was leaning backwards from the evasion, and Shay used this to her advantage, kicking him in the stomach and knocking him onto his back. Luke lay there, stunned, for almost an entire second, regaining his wits just as Shay’s lightsabre came down to cut him from head to belly. Luke rolled over, evading the strike, and gathered the Force under himself; enough to spring him back onto his feet. Luke switched his stance from medium defensive to rear leg defensive, tilting his blade down toward the ground and shifting his weight to his back leg, affording him a greater number of defensive options. Shay came in again, spinning around her central axis and leaping toward Luke. Luke ducked under Shay’s spinning weapon and thrust his lightsabre into her leg. Shay landed on her uninjured leg, wincing with pain; only the rage of the Dark Side kept her from crying out. Shay pointed at Luke, and a bolt of blue-white lightning leapt from her hand. It hit Luke in the chest, knocking him backward into a stone pillar. He slid down the hard surface of the pillar, the wind knocked out of him, and opened his eyes with scant time to do anything but watch as Shay leapt at him, ruby blade raised high. Luke reached out with the Force, managed to hold Shay in mid air for the two seconds it took him to regain his breath and senses, and then let go. Shay dropped through the air and landed heavily on slick black stone. Shay, in a last, desperate act of defiant anger, threw her ‘sabre at Luke. Luke stepped to his right, raised his white-green blade and brought it crashing down on Shay’s weapon. The hilt disintegrated, and the blade, once as red as the blood Luke heard pumping in his ears, vanished.

Luke looked down at the crumpled form of his one-time student, and felt tears form behind his eyes. He forced them back. There is no passion. There is serenity. “Shay,” he managed to say, “What have you done to yourself?”

Shay looked up at Luke, revealing her pale skinned face from beneath her thick cowl. Her eyes burned with hatred as she began to laugh; at first it sounded like a hacking, pestilent cough, but soon gained in pitch and tempo into a dry, mockery of true laughter. Shay opened her outer robe, revealing some sort of mechanical device strapped to her chest, a silvery sphere with a light flashing on it’s top hemisphere. A thermal detonator.

Luke’s eyes widened. He turned and ran. He managed to make it to the edge of the stairs before Shay disappeared in a fiery flash of heat and light. A wall of fire struck Luke, but he managed to erect a wall of Force energy just in time. He held it there as the explosion dissipated, and then he was alone, with naught but the rain to console him in his failure.

“Shay…”

“Uh, Master Skywalker?” A meek voice broke through Luke’s reverie. He looked up to see Mutabu Fralnah, a young Twi’lek student, who had shown a remarkable aptitude in all things administrative. “The new students are assembled in the great hall for your address.”

Luke forced the dark memory down, and stood up. New students, all with the same potential as Shay. But which ones will rise, and which ones will fall?

He crossed to the candle and blew it out.