The Great Circle

"Are you some sort of deity, the Force? Is there an afterlife for these people? Are they happy? Are you happy? "Is there any justice?" Luke croaked the last part of his thoughts outloud."

Luke Skywalker struggles to wield his new lightsaber. A mysterious voice tells him to trust the Force, which brings him to the graves of a few of his loved ones.

Author's Note: Hello all, after watching the Last Jedi, I thought I should write a bit about Luke Skywalker. The one thing that stands out like a sore thumb is after the deaths of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, Luke NEVER seems to mention them again in cannon! So I've written this one-shot, based just before the beginning of Return of the Jedi.

I have played with cannon a little bit, I know the lady in red would normally be elsewhere and doing something else. Can anyone guess who the mysterious voice belongs to?

Finally, please leave a review.

If you've seen the Last Jedi, let me know what you thought of it. :)

Tatooine, 4 ABY

Luke coughed and spluttered as if he had been submerged in a frigid ocean on Hoth, yet the humid dust of Tatooine's atmosphere gave him little relief. The beads of sweat rolled down his head like pod racers emitting their exhaust fumes, smothering whatever was left behind. For days, he had sat in his abandoned hut and followed Ben's journal to the letter in how to use the Force to construct a lightsaber.

Everytime he thought he had been successful, the saber would only ignite for a few seconds or fail to ignite at all. He wishes he still had his old blue lightsaber back, the one that he had trained with, the one that his father had trained with, or had he? This green crystal apparently belonged to Ben's master, but to Luke it was as useless as selling moisture to a whale.

A lump caught in Luke's throat, he had never felt so weak with the Force since he had discovered its existence. Maybe it was the fact that his best friend had been sold to that thug Jabba the Hutt in a carbonated state? Maybe he had a premonition that Lando and Leia would fail in this mission to rescue Han? Maybe it was that since losing his flesh hand to the duel against the Emperor's Dragon, his mechanic hand could not replace it despite being connected to his brain and whole nervous system? Or maybe it was the fact that this Dragon had breathed upon Luke the revelation that still singed fresh after all these months- the revelation that Darth Vader, the cruel and vile tyrant, was actually his father. His father, who Ben had always told him was a good man, a good friend and the very definition of courage, who was apparently betrayed and murdered by Darth Vader.

Luke had dreamed about cutting down Vader for what he did to Ben and for his part in annihilating Leia's people; he wanted revenge and also to see what was behind that mask. But now, that thought scared him, would he find an older version of himself?

Uncle Owen had always told him his father was racing pilot from an unknown district and Luke had imagined what he must have been like. Yet he had never known his father, or his mother, or how they died. Uncle Owen had refused to answer any questions about him, always telling him that Luke was different from his father and that's all there is to it. Aunt Beru had told him that she did not really know his parents, though Luke could tell she was hiding something. Was that the fact that the Emperor's Right Hand was the father that was supposed to have died, and what about his mother- he could hardly imagine Darth Vader with a woman, was she also like Vader, or some woman who was betrayed or violated by Vader? Would it make any difference to Luke who his parents were, if they were the people he feared? Would he hate Vader and whatever he stood for any less or more?

No, I know what I fight and live for! a determined voice called out in his head.

Luke realised that he had fallen on his side, so heaved himself back up. He pushed all these thoughts from his mind and decided to start again- he should be able to do this, he had built countless things before and had the manual which pinpointed exactly how this ruddy thing should be made.

Was there something else in that journal that Ben had failed to include?

"You've followed the letter, young Skywalker, but not the spirit," another unfamiliar voice resounded in his head.

"Huh?" Luke said hoarsely. "What was that? Ben?" he said uncertainly, as the voice sounded nothing like Ben's.

"You must let the Force guide you, your thoughts and your actions, rather than your emotions or your intellect. Only then, can you wield this lightsaber like you need to."

"Who are you?" Luke demanded. "How are you speaking to me? Are you the Force?"

"I am a servant of the Force, it doesn't matter who I am or was. What matters is that you understand that although there is death yet there is life, fear yet hope, anger yet control, pain yet patience, passion yet serenity and peace with your emotions; that is the Great Circle. You will only do that when you breath in the Living Force and let it steer you and take you."

Luke sighed and sat up. "OK, I'm here, the Force if you're listening, take me!" he cried impatiently. There was no response, not from the mysterious voice nor from the Force. Luke tried asking the voice for more hints, yet none were forthcoming.

He tried to clear his mind, pushing away his thoughts from Han, from Ben Kenobi and from the identity of his father. As if he was expecting this, his body pulled him to his feet and began stepping outside his hut. His feet carried on walking through the desert, under the dusky blue sky and two suns that were setting into the horizon. Luke hated Tatooine, he had always wanted to leave and go to the Imperial Academy to train as a pilot, but Uncle Owen would actively discourage him and gear him towards moisture or some other farming. Yet, Luke could not deny a certain beauty and serenity to these sunsets- he remembered that after one day of heavy partying Luke had gazed into the horizon and just watched the sunset, which evaporated the throbbing in his ears and temple; initially Luke had thought it was the aftereffect of some liquor or drink that he had consumed, but as he had not been on Tatooine for years, he began to wonder if there was something else.

His feet had pulled him to a graveyard. There was a rusty grey metal arch that housed a gate that was half open.

"Can I help you?" a voice asked behind him. Luke turned to find a short red haired woman with blue eyes looking back at him, she wore a red cloak and hood over her head. She had light skin and crimson lips, that curled into a bemused smile, which told Luke that he had been gazing without speaking.

"Look, I know we're wearing matching outfits, but I still need a verbal answer," the woman grinned. "Well, they say red is the new black," she clarified, gesturing to his black cloak and hood.

"I'd like a mat," Luke said quietly. "Please."

The woman's expression sobered. "Of course, I apologise for my insensitivity." She disappeared to a cabin and brought out a tatami mat, which Luke simply took from her and walked to the east side of the graveyard, where he lay it out on the dust and knelt before the graves before him.

Owen Larrs, Beru Whitesun….. They had had a young girl, seven years younger than Luke, yet she had died in infancy, yet it had always been that Luke had grown up with his aunt and uncle, it was only when he realised that other children seemed to have a mother and father when he realised that there was something different about his family.

Why had they taken him in and refused to talk about his parents, he never really understood. But then a realisation hit him and hit him hard it did- when Uncle Owen was strict on Luke, forbidding him from having anything to do with Ben Kenobi or joining the Imperial Academy, was he protecting him like a father would to a son. Ben Kenobi was a Jedi, which Luke now understood was an Order that was hunted to near extinction, and the Imperial Academy was where the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire would look for recruits amongst the best in the Academy.

Aunt Beru was definitely like a mother to him, who had taught him to read, write and do sums, she had been there to sing him songs as a child and comfort him whenever he had a nightmare- he now remembered a recurring one where he was in a volcano being choked. "Hush now, my boy, no one is going to hurt you if we have anything to say about it," she used to whisper. Luke smiled painfully with tears coming down his face, recalling how Aunt Beru had told him to stay safe at home as she carried a hunting rifle to find Uncle Owen when he had been kidnapped by a tax collector- one of Jabba's thugs; yet she would always be the one to mediate between Luke and Uncle Owen whenever there was any disagreement.

It dawned on Luke that that's exactly how they had died- protecting him! He had taken Artoo and Threepio away to look for Obi Wan Kenobi on the day that the Imperial Stormtroopers had come to their homestead, looking for those droids. His aunt and uncle could have betrayed him there and then but they didn't, prompting the Stormtroopers to kill and incinerate them.

He began to sob as quietly as he could muster, which became harder when his eyes found the graves of Clegg Larrs and Shmi Skywalker- his grandparents. Anakin Skywalker wasn't related to Uncle Owen by blood, yet he and Aunt Beru had taken him in and raised him like a son, and never once had Luke thanked them. Now it was too late.

A new found rage built through Luke and his tears against the Empire, against Vader (regardless if he was Luke's father or not). He gripped the sand in his hand and squeezed so hard that if it had been his flesh hand there would have been blood drawn rather than the mere sting of his nails. In his fury, he thrust the sand across the graveyard. His eyes found the dark heavens.

Are you some sort of deity, the Force? Is there an afterlife for these people? Are they happy? Are you happy? "Is there any justice?" Luke croaked the last part of his thoughts outloud. Yet there was silence, until a memory in Luke's mind called out: "There is life, yet there is death. Hope, yet fear."

"Anger, yet control," Luke repeated like a mantra. "Pain, yet patience; passion, yet serenity and peace with your emotions… the Great Circle." Slowly but surely, his consciousness slipped. He was now falling into a ravine under a dark sky. When he finally landed, he was back in Tatooine under the sun, with an older dark haired woman kneeling before him.

"Will I ever see you again?" were the words that came from his mouth, but he failed to recognise the voice.

"What does your heart tell you?" the woman asked gently.

"I hope so….. yes, I guess…."

"Then we will see each other again," she said with the same expression and tone that Aunt Beru had used when lying to protect Luke.

"I will come back and free you, mom, I promise," Luke found himself saying. The scene faded and he held the same woman in his arms, laying lifeless, beaten and with several cuts and gashes. Luke saw the ignition of a blazing blue lightsaber, blind red rage and several screams…. And then death…

He was now in an office with a glass window that had been smashed and he could feel the wind howling at him through the congested airspace. Luke felt his limbs go numb and weak.

"What have I done?" a sob escaped him. A figure that was lying rose up, his face was hideous and deformed and his eyes were simply not human, but yellow like a beast. This figure instilled within Luke's heart a feeling of trepidation that chipped away at him like lightning on a mountain.

"You're fulfilling your destiny, Anakin. Become my apprentice, learn to use the dark side of the Force!"

"I will do whatever you, a-ask," Luke found himself uttering. "Just help me to save Padme's life, I can't live without her." I know what I'm about do to, I know what I will become, but that's the price of sacrifice… let it be worth it…. Please let it be worth it…

"You were my brother, Anakin! I loved you!" cried a new voice, though he guessed who it belonged to and felt the pain, shame and betrayal.

The heavens opened up and Luke found himself on his side, lying on the mat, the smell of arid rain greeting his nostrils.

"Hey, are you OK? You sort of zoned out for a bit," the red haired lady called. Luke heaved himself to his knees.

"Give me a minute," he replied, standing up.

Luke glanced back at the graves, yet his heart no longer bled with pain… Pain, yet patience. Passion, yet serenity with my emotions…

"I'm sorry, I couldn't save you," Luke whispered. "I'm sorry, you aren't with me today. Thank you for everything you've done for me and taught me, all of you. I will never forget that, I will make sure others are safe and protected. I will do you proud." Luke pulled five navy blue iris from the ground and lay one on each grave.

"You too, Ben." He dropped the last one on a space next to Uncle Owen's and covered the flower with soil. The rain grew a bit stronger and blessed the soil.

"Did you get what you came for?" the red haired woman asked Luke as he was about to leave the graveyard.

"Yes, I did. Thank you," he added reservedly.

"Good…...My name's Mara," she said, holding out a hand.

"Ben," Luke lied, although his insides kicked at him. He took her hand, hoping she wouldn't realise it was mechanical under his black glove.

"Well, Ben, I shall see you soon, or if not, then I wish you all the best, and I'm….. very sorry for your loss, or losses," Mara said, pulling her hood slightly back, revealing the rest of her beautiful red hair and nodding quickly; a hint of a smile came across her face, as well as a flush on that pale skin.

"And you," Luke nodded politely and walked away into the drizzling night. Part of him wondered what was happening there, but he pushed that curiosity to one side. He was glowing from within, he hoped he understood correctly. The moment he closed the door of him, he pulled out his lightsaber.

"Master Luke, where have you been?" C3PO trotted next to him. "Artoo and I were so worried about you."

"I was training, Threepio," Luke said casually. He held his lightsaber in front of him, feeling the Force in his chest and exhaled it into his arms, his hands, his fingers and then into his saber. Out of the hilt flowed a plasma of green like water into a dry ravine. Luke could not stop smiling, his heart filled with hope and determination that he had been lacking over the past few days.

"May the Force be with you, young Skywalker," the mysterious voice wished him. Luke looked ahead.

"Master Luke, what are you looking at? Is there something there?" Threepio said.

From his new saber, Luke could feel energy emitting out, and from that energy was a blue-grey hue that formed the shape of an old Jedi, who was taller but looked younger than Obi Wan Kenobi; Luke could make out long brown hair and a beard.

"Thank you, Master," Luke whispered. "May the Force be with us all." He deactivated his lightsaber and the Jedi Master disappeared.

"Master Luke?" Threepio asked again.

"Bring me Artoo, Threepio, and get charged up." Luke said, touching the droid's shoulder. "Tomorrow, we'll be going to Mos Eisley."

"Mos Eisley?" Threepio cried. "B-but, that's where Han Solo is being kept by Jabba the Hutt. That's where Master Calrissian and Chewbacca and Princess Leia are headed! Are we to join them?"

"Yes and no. I have message for Jabba the Hutt and he needs to hear it," Luke replied, gazing out of the window, with the silver moon gazing back, with both an endorsement and a challenge. May the Force be with us all.

Author's Note: Any thoughts on the fic? Or on who the voice belonged to, or who the red haired woman was?