@caeidus asked: ❛ i never wanted you dead. ❜ - rise of skywalker sentence starters
While Luke didn’t doubt Jacen’s sincerity, or his words, that did nothing to alleviate the emptiness in his chest, the icing over within his heart-- pain and bitterness and rage all running together, sealed with the finality of loneliness. Maybe Jacen -- Caedus-- hadn’t wanted his uncle dead, but he’d stolen and tortured Luke’s son, murdered his wife. His wife, to whom he was bonded in the Force so deeply that their very thoughts were shared, so deeply that she had become as much a part of him as his own heart or lungs. How any man was expected to survive --
“Your intentions no longer matter. Only your actions.” He said, his father’s steely rage tightening through his jaw, eyes shadowed and grim. His prosthetic hand flexed, itching to take up his lightsaber and put a stop to -- this. To avenge Ben’s trust in his cousin, to avenge Mara’s life. Those same fingers stilled again, his breathing calm and measured.
“You hurt my son. You hurt Ben -- you killed Mara.” A thousand threats were in his throat, a thousand curses and vows for vengeance.
But had he not offered redemption to Darth Vader? Would he now deny that to Caedus? Was that the kind of Jedi Grand Master that Luke Skywalker would be?
“I’ll stay with you, Jacen.” He said, purposefully using the young man’s true name, the name he had only forgotten, “You and me and no one else. I’ll help you walk through this, but you have to decide. You have to decide that’s what you want.” And eventually, one way or the other, he would suffer the consequence of his actions. It could only be Luke’s hope that he found his way home first.
