Epilogue
In the end, the Republic was restored. Not entirely as it had been, but, its people hoped, rather better.
Mina Whitsun became the new Chancelloress. She wore a hooded mantle of purple, and a bronze crescent crown, and she covered the burned side of her face with a silver half-mask, through which her blind eye peered out. She was not ashamed of her scars, but she did not wish to scare children.
(Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera a decade early, or Luke on Hoth post-Wampa in a deleted scene from ESB?)
Han Solo, Mina’s husband, became the new President of the Transport Guild—which turned a blind eye to smuggling in a way it had not under the Empire. Han now habitually dressed in the elegant black furred robes of Guild traders. Together he and Mina raised Mace Windom as an adopted son.
But Han still occasionally glanced at Leia. And Leia glanced back. And Mina, who was no longer as sheltered as she had once been on Acquis, exchanged glances with her as well.
--
Marcus Whitsun became Lord of Acquis, ruling in his underwater city—which now could float freely on the surface, without fear of discovery by the Imperial fleet. He now had a burn scar on one side of his face, and his crippled left hand was replaced by a bronze prosthesis; but this only added to his rakishly handsome appearance.
He married Heda Horus, now Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the Second Galaxy, who forgave him for shooting her down. She was, in fact, impressed by his abilities as a pilot.
TENNO
Heda wore a Dwarven-forged wig of red hair (since she had always hated her own yellow locks), and the white face paint traditional for the queens of Organa Major. And she replaced her lost eyes with new ones of metallic silver. But her teeth were still natural, though a few were missing.
/TENNO
TOMOE
Heda wore a Dwarven-forged wig in her natural hair color (black), and the white face paint traditional for the queens of Organa Major. And she replaced her lost eyes with new ones of metallic gold. But her teeth were still natural, though a few were missing.
/TOMOE
Mara Lamiya dwelt with them, as the captain and chief pilot of Heda’s ambassadorial starship.
As a wedding present, Chancelloress Mina bestowed on the couple one of the mind-transfer devices that had hitherto been restricted by Guild monopoly to use on Ton-Muund only.
--
Lord Pestage was stripped of his imperial title, and he and Alana were exiled to Alderaan, where he might have a kingdom of his own—the one he had always possessed.
Alana felt guilt in her heart for having abandoned her husband to die on Organa Major. And so for several years she refused all attempts at ameliorating her condition, instead going about in a silver wheelchair like Carl Organa’s. Eventually, however, she yielded to Leia’s entreaties, and received silver prosthetic legs which restored her power of walking.
--
Leia Organa became Queen of Utapau, which began to blossom, gradually, under her rule. The surviving expatriates of Organa Major were invited to settle there, and to recreate something of their former happiness.
She took a regnal name, but it is not recorded in any text yet known.
The Order of Gray Jedi was re-founded, with two bases. One was on Utapau and one on Ton-Muund—now a beautiful planet with palaces rising from a world-spanning ocean, Venice writ large. (This of course comes from the two Foundations, on Terminus and Trantor, in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation book series.)
The Jedi Council had three co-leaders: Luke Starkiller, Leia Organa, and Lando Kadar. Lando usually remained on Ton-Muund, whereas Luke and Leia preferred to remain on Utapau.
But they visited often, and Leia’s droids, C-3PO and R2-D3, invariably went with her. However, the droids liked it best when Leia visited Acquis, though that happened less frequently.
Lando had a small life-support device implanted in his chest, so that he no longer needed to be encased in armor. (Think of a combination of Marvel’s Tony Stark and Isaac Asimov’s portable nuclear reactors from Foundation.)
He took off his mask, and revealed his face openly. After all, he wished to show that even a Sith Lord could be redeemed.
Lando did not replace his missing right hand with a new prosthesis. He wished, by learning at last to duel with the left arm, to give Annikin Starkiller the due he had denied him in life. Luke, for his part, covered his new robotic hand with synth-flesh, to honor the independent mind of old Ben Kenobi.
TENNO
Leia took to wearing elaborate Dwarf-forged wigs, alternately red and gold and black in color, according to her daily whims.
One of her eyes, the one with a scar above and below it, was blind and milky blue. She had no wish to replace it, however. After all, her mismatched eyes were a famous feature of her likenesses on the old Rebel propaganda posters. Even now, she didn’t wish to change something so defining about her own face.
Her silver right hand had been burned black by the fires of Condawn. Nor did she replace it. She considered it as worth keeping, because it still worked.
Her golden teeth, however, remained in perfect condition.
/TENNO
TOMOE
Leia took to wearing elaborate Dwarf-forged wigs, alternately black and startling blue and green in color, according to her daily whims.
One of her eyes, the one with a scar above and below it, was blind and milky blue. She had no wish to replace it, however. After all, her mismatched eyes were a famous feature of her likenesses on the old Rebel propaganda posters. Even now, she didn’t wish to change something so defining about her own face.
Her silver right hand, and silver teeth, had been burned black by the fires of Condawn. Nor did she replace them. She considered them as worth keeping, because they still worked.
/TOMOE
Her queenly attire consisted of a golden cloak, a loincloth of woven metal discs, a beautiful royal necklace, and little else. She sometimes wore the silver shoes traditional for queens of Organa Major; but she usually went barefoot, for she limped, and she could no longer see as ordinary men did. And she disdained too much clothing, for the heat of the fires of Condawn never entirely left her.
Luke wore the purple cloak and white robes of a triumphant Jedi general, as did Lando. All three Starkillers now had discarded their Kiber Crystals. And all three wielded a lightsaber (or two) with skill and grace.
With Lando’s permission, Leia had the magic mirror moved from its old home on Condawn to the throne room of her new palace on Utapau.
In the mirror, she saw herself as she normally looked. Usually.
But, just occasionally, when Leia looked into the mirror out of the corner of her blind eye, she had a surprise; for the reflection shown was not her own.
At those times, she beheld in the mirror an eerily pale-skinned woman, dressed almost exactly like herself. But this woman was almost, yet not quite, human.
TENNO
Her eyes were empty sockets; her nose was missing. Her head was bald, and her ears were pointed.
/TENNO
TOMOE
Her eyes were empty sockets; her nose was missing. Her head was bald, and her ears were pointed—though one of them had clearly had its point sliced off some time ago.
/TOMOE
Most strikingly of all, her doppelganger had three tall horns growing out of her head, just above her forehead.
Whenever it appeared, Leia pondered what this apparition could portend. Was it a specter of the past? A vision of the future? A glimpse of a future that would never be? Or a version of the present, one which was not hers, or her reflection’s, but which existed alongside them both?
And she asked herself… if she smashed the mirror, would she meet this woman? Or, perhaps, would she meet someone else entirely?
But she stayed her hand, and did not try the experiment… for the moment.
And they all shared and shared alike.
And peace and love reigned in the Republic.
And, on a remote, swampy planet on the uncharted edge of the galaxy, the wizened Jedi Master Bunden Debannen breathed a sigh of relief… for the time being.