"The Dream" Short Story Fanfiction

 This week's entry is a short story I've had in my head for a while, and is set in my own alternate universe of Star Wars. I'll explain somethings in the comments to give additional information, as there are some things that will need explaining. And the disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, these aren't my characters and I am writing this for entertainment and don't seek financial gain. 

THE DREAM

Ossus, Jedi Temple Base Camp. 4 years after the Battle of Endor.

It was a long day for Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight. After countless hours of debate, and help from not only Leia Organa, Han Solo and Lando Calrissian, his construction had droids finally arrived. Thankfully, C-3PO was also here to help them make sure they followed through on their basic programming. Leia through the New Republic Senate had put together the funding, Han used some old contacts and Lando had come up with the idea of using Hijarna Stone for the construction as it was capable of taking fire from an Imperial Class Star Destroyer. R2-D2 rolled up to him, but Luke patted the top of his dome.

"I'm alright, Artoo. Just tired." Luke took a deep breath. What was he getting himself into?! Rebuilding an Order that stood a thousand generations?! He had hoped he could train Leia, but she broke off her training as her feelings for Han, and her duties to the New Republic Senate outweighed her duties to Jedi training. As did her feelings to Han. But her recent troubles with a Sith possessed individual on her honeymoon concerned him. Would they come for him next? Would his true relationship to Leia be discovered by the galaxy at large? Only Han, Chewie, Lando, Wedge Antilles plus R2-D2 and C-3PO knew the truth: that Luke and Leia were the twin children of Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala. There was one other that knew: Ahsoka Tano. But, she had left for Corvus a few days ago. As Luke entered his now finished "home", a simple room with a bed, and a personal bathroom with hot and cold water. There was room for a small dining room table, provided by Lando, with a Sabacc deck on top.

"Master Luke, I have good news!" C-3PO excitedly said as he walked into Luke's room. Both Luke and R2 turned to face him. "The droids will begin construction on the main training area tomorrow!"

"That is good news, thank you, Threepio." Luke said, feeling very tired but also being polite to his, well, brother. After all, Anakin Skywalker did create C-3PO and upon learning that from R2-D2 it just made him family. To Luke anyway. "But now if you two don't mind I need to get some sleep." R2 chirped to Luke, and 3PO seemed upset about it.

"What do you mean by Master Luke pretending to sleep?! Artoo there is something wrong with your programming!" He exclaimed.

"Actually, Threepio, Artoo is right." I haven't been sleeping well, lately." 3PO did what Luke called his surprised twitch, which was a quick look back to R2, then to Luke while simultaneously quickly raising both hands. "Hopefully tonight that changes." Luke sat down on his bed.

" Is there anything I can do to help with that?" 3PO asked. All Luke could do was smile.

"No, nothing you can do, Threepio. Why don't you take Artoo to the main control room so that you can both recharge." Luke responded. R2 angrily chirped to Luke who spoke to him before 3PO could scold him. "Your power level is running lower than it should, and you know it."

"Yes Artoo, Master Luke is quite correct. Besides he has enough things go worry about like that horrible masked woman who attacked Mistress Leia on her honeymoon!" 3PO got his scold in after all. R2 made another smart-aleck chirp, this time to 3PO. "Artoo who taught you to speak like that?!" Then he and Luke both spoke it at the same time: "Han!"

"Goodnight, you two!" Luke said. R2 chirped his goodnight to Luke and moved to 3PO.

"Goodnight, Master Luke. I do hope you get the rest you need."

"Thanks, Threepio." Luke watched both droids leave, and his door slid shut. He then undressed for a quick shower and and changed to his night clothing and went to sleep.

Suddenly, Luke was on a familiar planet. Tattooine. And not just any place on Tattooine, either. The west range of his childhood home. He turned to his left and saw him, working on a moisture vaparator. But he looked young.

"Uncle Owen?" Luke asked. Owen stopped what he was doing and looked up at his nephew.

"It's me, son." Owen then got up and dusted himself off. "You're probably wondering why I'm appearing to you when I was younger, aren't you?" He asked. Luke nodded. "Figured it out yet?" Luke wondered for a moment, then figured it out.

"I was 12 years old, and you sent me here to repair the units on the west range. I fixed them my way, and that was the first time you ever raised your voice to me." Owen nodded approvingly.

"You remembered, good!" Owen knelt back down. "Why did I raise my voice?" Owen looked back up at his nephew. "You've had time to think it over." Owen went to work on the vaparator, leaving his nephew to once again remember a past incident.

"I had figured out a way to increase the yield and get a cooler temperature, so I fixed the vaparators to do just that." Luke responded. Owen nodded, and Luke continued on. "You reminded me that the way you and your father had maintained these vaparators was the right way."

"Yes. That's what I told you, and I wouldn't let some twelve-year-old kid tell me what works best." Owen then got up, and gestured for Luke to inspect his work. As Luke knelt down he could see that Owen had in fact fixed the vaparator to Luke's specifications.

"This is like my work.." Luke then looked up at Owen who had a big smile on his face.

"I couldn't tell you what you did worked, otherwise that's all I would ever hear about. Now, think about your current situation while you replace the cover, and we go see what Beru has waiting for us. Then we can all just talk things out." Luke screwed the cover back on.

"Aunt Beru is here as well?" He asked.

"She lives here, Luke!" Owen said as his nephew got up and walked back with him to the Lars Homestead.

A few moments later, they arrived at the kitchen table. Beru looked younger as well, she had placed some roasted dewback filets and poured some Bantha milk into glasses. Luke remembered how Beru would put a sweet spice in the milk to get him to drink it. As he took a sip, he could taste that same spice. He hadn't tasted this since he turned eighteen. One year before the Empire butchered them.

"Did I get it right, Luke?" Beru asked him. Luke smiled at her.

"Just as I remembered it, Aunt Beru!" Luke felt like a kid again. Being here with the two people that raised him as if he was their own child made Luke happy. But this was a dream, after all.

"Maybe now we can talk about what's bothering you." Owen said as Beru sat next to her husband.

"What the new Jedi Order should be, and you wanting to train children." Beru said, in a disapproving tone.

"That's a big mistake, Luke." Owen said. Luke shook his head.

"There's a reason why the Jedi did that, and why I need to do it now." Luke placed both hands on the table. "It's the best way."

"Like Hell, it is!" Owen spoke back. "Do you know how good you had it, here? I know you resented it, but you had friends growing up here, learned right from wrong and became a very good man." He sat back. "Now look at what happened to Anakin. He was told his feelings for his mother and for your mother were wrong. The former slave was manipulated into being a slave once again."

"Until you broke him free." Beru pointed out.

"To be honest, Luke. You had it right for a while. All you could do with Jonah Kreel and Leia was teach them the way you were taught. How many lives did you and Kreel save on Jakku?"

"The near 300,000 people on the planet plus the combined surviving New Republic and Imperial ships that were there." Luke answered.

"After that is when your doubt creeped in." Beru said. "You abandoned the path to learn about how to be your own Jedi, and you looked at every old Jedi text, or spoke to Force followers of all faiths to get an idea on what a Jedi should be." Leave it to Beru to make Luke feel guilty about taking the landspeeder out on a joy ride to impress Camie, which he had done when he was thirteen. She had used that same tone then as she had just now.

"Son, Leia didn't fail in her training. Her path at this time is different from yours. She defeated that poor Sith possessed lightsaber wielding woman, saving not only her life, but Han's as well." Owen reached out and squeezed Luke's right hand. "But you missed the point of your training entirely."

"Which is?" Luke asked. Owen let go of Luke's hand and turned to his wife.

"Luke, Obi-Wan wanted you to have a childhood. He wanted you to be your own person." Beru continued. "He wanted you to care about those closest to you. To have the life he, and your father should have lived."

"Having attachments is a good thing. What brought your father back from the dark side? And what about your own attachements? I'd say the attachments you have, have helped shape you into what you are today." Owen chimed in. "Do you still view that as a failure?" Owen pointed to Luke's black gloved right hand.

"I wanted to run before I could walk." Luke said. This was something he had felt for years, and needed to sound off about it. "I thought I could rescue my friends but they had to come rescue me."

"And you learned the truth about Vader." Beru said.

"The path you're on is the wrong one. Stop. Look around. What do you see?" Owen asked. Luke thought about it, and realized he had become what he had accused Owen of: being foolish, stubborn, and set in his ways. "There, you figured it out!"

"I acknowledge that." Luke said. "But I can't just.."

"You can." Beru said. "Luke, stop saying you can't do something. Tell me what you can do."  Luke was stunned for a second. This sounded like an old friend and master..

"You wouldn't happen to know Yoda, would you?" Luke asked. "Because that sounds like something he would've said."

"We know of him." Owen confirmed.

"You will have success and failure." Beru said, squeezing Owen's hands. "But all you can do is show them the path. You can't walk it for them. And your successes will always be greater than your failures ever will be."

"Isn't that your biggest hang up?" Owen asked his nephew.

"Yes."

"So get over it. Accept you will have failures, but focus on the successes." Owen said as a shift to night occurred. Beru looked at him.

"It's almost time to go, Owen."

"I know, but he needs to hear this." He told her. He looked back at Luke. "I never wanted you to be a Jedi, Luke. But, Beru and I are very proud of the man that you have become. You honor us, and make us proud."

"Always." Beru said as tears streamed down her eyes. This was the time for goodbye, something the Empire took from him. Now he had the chance. He got up, and so did his Aunt and Uncle. He embraced them in his arms.

"I love you both so much!" Luke said holding them close. Tears streamed down all their faces. "I won't forget what you taught me." He stepped back and now Owen and Beru were as he had last remembered them. Older.

"Get back on the path you were on before." Owen said. "And Luke, when we left it didn't hurt. Just like falling asleep." Owen knew Luke would ask this, but he knew his nephew needed closure on that.

"Now you'll be able to move forward again." Beru said. But before Luke could say anything, everything vanished.


Luke woke up, and sat up in his bed. The dream had felt so real. He wondered, did he have time? He quickly got dressed, and took R2 to his X-Wing. 3PO would be alright for a few hours as he needed to supervise the training room build. Moments later, an X-Wing flew off Ossus and jumped to hyperspace.

Several hours later, Luke landed on the west ridge of the recently rebuilt Lars Homestead. Nobody lived here yet, but Luke wanted to see the vaparators. He unscrewed the cover and saw the vaparator was in fact done to Luke's specifications. And not only was there a high amount of water, but it was cold. He took a canteen and filled it up, and took a sip and stared at the twin sun's as he sat down to relax. Owen and Beru taught him a lesson about being a Jedi, something Yoda, Obi-Wan and his father hadn't. Being bound to the old ways wasn't looking ahead. His instincts at Jakku had been right. Jonah Kreel wanted to learn, so Luke would start again with him. Verla could also be a help in training, as could Ahsoka, albeit for a short time. But as he sipped the canteen he understood the true lesson Owen and Beru wanted to teach him: family is everything. And denying that from the Jedi is wrong. These new Jedi should experience life, and come to Ossus once they felt compelled by the Force to do so. Because by having a life, it makes fighting for others to have one that much easier. Luke sat back and took another sip of cold water from the canteen and for the first time since leaving here, be grateful for being here at this very moment.

The End