Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Page 15
Leia walked over with a warm smile. Rey returned it, briefly, and showed Leia the halves of Luke’s lightsaber. “Luke Skywalker is gone. I felt it,” she said, trying to fit the pieces of the hilt together. “But it wasn’t sadness or pain. It was peace. And purpose.”
“I felt it, too.” Leia had sensed Luke’s passing, but it hadn’t carried the shock of her husband’s death or the same weight of grief. Rather, Leia felt that her brother was, as Rey had said, at peace.
Rey stopped fiddling with the lightsaber and looked at Leia. “Kylo is stronger than ever. He has an army and an iron grip on the galaxy. How do we build a rebellion from this?”
Leia took Rey’s hand. “We have everything we need.”
It was true. The heroes around Leia had renewed her faith. With or without her, they would defend all that was good in the galaxy, as she had tried so hard to do herself.
Her fight—her life—had not been in vain.
ONCE there was a boy who grew up to become a Jedi Knight. Not just any Jedi, but one of the greatest in their history. A hero, a warrior, a scholar, and a master.
This Jedi sat on a ledge atop a lonely mountain, his legs crossed beneath him, his eyes closed, a ring of pebbles hovering around him. His mind was returning from another world, where he had fought a great battle, to reunite with his body that had remained on this world, still and silent.
For ordinary beings, the ability to be in two places at once might seem impossible. Yet for a master of the Force, all things were possible. The mind was not limited by the body, nor the body by the mind. The body might even wither and die while the mind and the spirit survived.
This Jedi had not moved since dawn. During that time, the mountain had quaked. A cliff had crumbled. The twin suns had begun to set. The moon had gone on the rise.
It had taken all his strength to do what he had done. The salt lines of tears on his face showed the incredible strain. Now that it was done, he could enjoy a few last breaths from the island that had been his home.
Luke Skywalker was about to die. But it was something he accepted. Death was the way of all things, even the stars.
A pebble from the ring dropped. Then another. And another. Some rolled down the side of the mountain. Others rested on the ledge. His body crumpled to lie with them.
Petals blown by the wind brushed across his robes. The deep fissures in his face relaxed. The twin suns set over the calm seas. And with a last breath, his body faded from the stone, his mind faded into the Force, and his spirit went to walk the skies.
So passed the life of Luke Skywalker. But death would not be the end. His name, his deeds, his legend would live on, reenacted by scrawny stable boys brandishing broomsticks or dreamed about by restless orphan girls who scavenged their barren homes for scraps of hope.
For all things are possible in the Force.
MICHAEL KOGGE’S original work includes Empire of the Wolf, an epic graphic novel about werewolves in ancient Rome. He also is the author of the junior novel for The Force Awakens and Batman v Superman: Cross Fire, a companion novel.
He can be found online at www.MichaelKogge.com.