Rise of the Teenage Conquerors

Episode 1.35

Leana was thankful for many things.

One was her amazing group of friends. Two, the healthcare on the Rebel medical barge.

All of the minor injuries she, Lucas, Ben, and Lumina had sustained over the course of their adventures were tended to by the medical droids, who cleaned and bandaged everything. Luke was currently in the process of receiving his new hand while one of the other droids finished scanning Lucas for any residual effects of the carbon freeze.

Lando and Chewbacca had just left in the Millennium Falcon, off to track Boba Fett down and get Han back. Leana knew that wouldn't happen until the next film, but she still wished them good luck. Leia was in the adjoining room with the droids, waiting for the droids to finish with Luke.

The movie was almost over, but Leana didn't know what was going to happen next. Would they stick around for the next one? But Qui-Gon had said they were destined to change the third movie – so would they go there next?

Or just home?

Home suddenly sounded great to Leana. Her warm bed, hot chocolate, her comfortable sweatshirt. Not that she hadn't loved every second in Star Wars – fine, almost every second – but home still had some great upsides, too.

She glanced at Lucas, who was lying on a medical cot. His stint in carbon freeze had really thrown him off, and the med droid was still checking his vitals and making sure everything was in order. At least, unlike Han, he hadn't lost his vision.

"I can't believe it," Luke murmured, as the med droid dismissed him. He stood, curling the fingers of his new hand inward, and glanced up at Leana. "I can't believe Vader is my father."

"Yeah, it's a tragedy," Leana murmured.

"Old Ben told me he was a great Jedi Knight," Luke continued, his eyes drifting away from hers. "A hero of the Clone Wars. Anakin Skywalker."

"He was a great Jedi Knight," Leana insisted. "And a hero. He just made some bad choices, Luke. Hung out with the wrong crowd."

"To paraphrase Billy Joel," Ben said, with a slight grin as he switched to softly singing, "It seems to me, Anakin lived his life, like a candle in the wind."

Lucas shot straight up, slamming into the med droid's scanner and making it snap reproachfully at him in a low, slow voice. But he ignored it. "Elton John! It's Elton John, Ben! For crying out loud, can you never get it right?"

Ben leaned backward, but Leana could see him biting back a laugh. They were all just so relieved to be together again – and for Lucas being okay – that they didn't care about the correction. Leana would actually have been worried if Lucas hadn't corrected Ben.

"It seems to me, Anakin lived his life, like a candle in the wind," Lumina sang quietly. "Never knowing who to turn to, when the dark side came in."

"And we would have liked to know him, but we were just kids," all four of them sang, knowing the original lyrics and bending them to suit Anakin. "Your candle burned out long before, your legend ever did."

Luke just looked at them strangely. "That still doesn't tell me much."

"Tell you what," Lucas proposed. "We'll do another song. This one will be better suited to explain Anakin Skywalker."

Leana frowned. "Wait, what song?"

"'The Ballad of Billy the Kid,'" Lucas said, with a grin. "By –"

"Elton John!" Ben exclaimed.

"Billy Joel!" the other three told him, the girls laughing at Lucas' expression of annoyance.