Star Wars: Jedi's Will of Justice

Chapter 5: Revelations

I do not own any of the Star Wars and DC characters and ideas represented in this work.

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It was the morning after the final battle on the Thanagarian cruiser. All Thanagarian craft were reporting back to the mothership to return towards Thanagar. The League, without their Watchtower, were at Bruce's Mansion. All six members were now in the closed meeting hall to discuss what to do on Shayera and eventually how to help Luke Skywalker. Shayera herself was on the other side of the doors in civilian clothing provided by Bruce, she was watching the television that was broadcasting her people's retreat from Earth.

Shayera turned off the TV, not wanting to hear about her first family leaving. Her first family, her people, already decided on Shayera's fate. They would mark her as a betrayer, traitor, and sympathetic to the Gordanians. That last part wasn't true, but since she was already the first two, she might as well be. Her first family decided what to do with her, now she will have to wait for her friends whom she considered family to think about what to do with her. The Justice League might never forgive her for what happened. Even when she did her best to fix it before it was too late, they might never truly give her a second chance.

They will always doubt her, they will always look at her differently. To them, she could never be a hero anymore, no matter how hard she tried. She sat back down on the couch. Thinking about why they were taking so long to decide. She thought that she already decided her fate, guess though they were still debating on it. She lets down the remote on the table and lets her arms on her legs as she leans in from the couch.

She thought that doing the right thing would make it feel better, that the guilt she carried from the start would fade away. But it stayed there like a heavy rock that was chained to her wherever she went. She didn't want to do anything really except sit there and linger in her own self-doubt, she thought she deserved it.

Then her inner thoughts were interrupted by a warm greeting from the one man person who for some reason gave her the time and day. "Well, Good Morning, Shayera." Luke Skywalker was on the other side of the couch smiling at her, still wearing his all-black outfit.

She looked up to the blonde, also noticing the small robot on wheels right next to him. She didn't know how long they'd been there, she was probably so entrenched in her thoughts that she didn't hear them come. She wanted to say good morning back to the man who was so compassionate enough to talk with a traitor. She also wanted to say nothing, just go back to what she was doing and dig herself in a hole. But she did want to return the politeness to the man who somehow believed in her back in the cave and in the ship.

"Good morning, Skywalker," she meekly replied to the younger man. Skywalker then sat on the other end of the couch with his robot rolling next to him. He turned his body to face Shayera

"We both know who each other is, but we never did properly greet each other," Skywalker extended his arm towards Shayera for a handshake. "Luke Skywalker, but please call me Luke." Luke gave Shayera a warm smile to the insecure Thanagarian.

Shayera did realize the first interaction the two had was in the Batcave. The first thing Shayera ever said to Luke was that she was sorry for this mess she made. But even then, Luke didn't show a hint of prejudice, anger, or frustration towards Hawkgril despite all of the League doing so. He probably knew that she was a traitor by then. He was an outsider, he might've had a different point of view, but he still had every reason to distrust a two-timing traitor for what she's done. Yet he still smiled and didn't say one negative word in the short time frame they'd meet.

Shayera gave Luke a weekly smile and finished the handshake, "Shayera Hol."

After the handshake, Luke turned his arm to the head of his robot companion, "Where are my manners? This is R2-D2, he's been my friend for the longest time."

R2-D2 moved his dome head to face Shayera and let a couple of beeps to her. Shayera of course didn't understand what he meant. Luke chuckled, "He said it's good to meet you, Shayera."

Shayera smiled back at the little one, "Well, thank you R2-D2."

While the small interaction lifted her spirits, she turned back her head down as her fate was still unclear. Luke saw this and gave her a concerned look, "Is there something wrong, Shayera?"

Shayera looked back at the blonde, replying to his concerns, "They've been in there a long time."

Luke asked another concerning question, "You're afraid of what they'll decide on, don't you?"

Shayera looked away straight forward and closed her eyes to her thoughts, "Yes."

She mostly lied, she was leaving the League one way or the other. If they decide that they'll keep she will still leave. She betrayed her comrades and her family, she wouldn't be able to live herself with it. She can barely look them in the eye anymore and if they decide to keep her, she'll do what? Fight alongside them while she can barely keep eye contact with them. To Shayera, it was clear, she didn't know what to do. That after the League, she'll have nowhere to go. She didn't mean that of where to live, but what to do with herself. She tried being a hero and look how that turned out. She was a soldier and that failed, she was a hero and that failed, finally, she was a lover, and that went nowhere.

Luke budded into Shayera's inner turmoil, "You're not worrying about the League's decision on you," Luke accused, "You're more worried about the path you want to take after this, don't you?"

Shayera looked at Luke as she was taken back from the question. She thought he understood almost exactly what she was thinking even though she didn't say anything about it. "How do you know?"

Luke smiled, "I'm just good at reading people's moods." He turned his smiling look to concern as he moved closer to Shayera, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You probably think you don't belong anywhere do you?"

Shayera looked at Luke, she didn't want to confirm Luke's concerns, but he was right. She nodded to him. Luke continued his talk to the lost Hawkgirl, "Do you remember back on the ship that it's never too late to fix a mistake?"

Shayera nodded, even though she had the will to help the League after the betrayal, she lost it when Talak imprisoned her. Shayera spoke up, "I thought fixing things would make things as they were before, but it sure doesn't feel like it." She placed her head down in shame.

Luke moved closer to her, "Shayera, these things take time, you've made a mistake and made up for it. That's the important part, but if you want them to forgive you at some point and make things better, it will take time." Luke continued, "And you can't keep this self-doubt in you Shayera, like I said back on the ship, you're a good person, they'll see that eventually. Don't let your self-doubt and fear destroy you, trust me, it will never do you good."

Shayera blinked at the Jedi to think about his words and to ask herself why. Why is this man trying to help her, yes he'll probably say it's the right thing to do but the right thing to do was saving the planet. He said back on the ship that he wasn't going to do anything before he saved her, even though she was already freed. Then he said how all of these emotions she was feeling right now would destroy her, almost as if he experienced it before. She wanted to know why this stranger was so understanding while she wasn't.

"Why are you helping me?" Shayera accused Luke.

Luke turned his head slightly in confusion and replied, "I'm sorry?"

Shayera continued, "Ever since we've met, you've been trying to help and talk to me as if I didn't do anything wrong."

Luke replied that shocked Shayera, "Because I believed you when you said, you didn't know what they were planning. You were just misguided, all of this Shayera isn't your fault."

Shayera was taken aback by his words. It was almost as if Luke was telling her what she wanted to hear. She continued her questions with frustration, "There it is again! You act like I've never done anything wrong despite me willingly betraying my friends and almost helping destroy the planet. Are you just THAT naive to think I'm a good person, because maybe the league was right, but I'm probably not."

Shayera stared into Luke, thinking she had enough of all this excessive compassion coming from the man who had no reason to show her. Luke looked away with a sorrowful face and held his head down, not saying a word to Shayera's accusations.

Shayera realized the outburst she had aimed at Luke. The one person who willingly showed her kindness and wanted to understand her at the time she needed the most. She held her head down in defeat and looked away from Luke.

"Great Shayera," she thought to herself, "You had to yell at the person who was trying to help you, you just had to prove yourself and what people think of you, that you just cause nothing but trouble."

There was an awkward silence between the two. Shayera expected Luke to leave, and to never talk to her after her unjustified outburst. She expected him to yell at her, thinking to herself she deserved it. She expected him to take back everything he said and say that she didn't deserve anything at all. She expected all of that but yet got none of it. One thing that Shayera wasn't expecting was Luke's open and honest response to her.

Luke straightened his back took a long deep breath and exhaled. Then facing Shayera to respond, "My father was a slave since the day he was born."

Shayera turned to Luke as her eyes widened at Luke's response, not expecting Luke to reveal his family's history, she looked at him and wanted to say she was sorry. But she could tell he needed to say more.

"My father, Anakin Skywalker, grew up in a world that was cruel and barbaric. He had a master who didn't care for him. The only thing he had in his life was his mother who truly loved him." He paused before continuing, "He was born with powers like mine, the order before me the Old Jedi Order found him and wanted to train him. But they couldn't free his mother like they could free him."

Shayera continued to look in sorrow as he continued, "He had to leave his mother to be trained like a Jedi, like me. But he wouldn't be able to see her again when he was older. She would be killed in a tragic and brutal way." Shayera wanted to say something so that she could tell he was uncomfortable and didn't need to continue to drive whatever he was saying. He was about to open her mouth to start but Luke stopped her with his hand.

"He still continued to train under my first mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi. They were like brothers, they fought and bled together in a war. But my father had nothing to love until he met my mother. He loved her and she loved him greatly. But the Old Jedi made love forbidden, they saw it if you had any personal attachments, it would become an obsession, and you would be driven to a darker path."

The blonde continued his explanation, "But my father loved my mother dearly, they married each other in secret to protect their love. My mother would be pregnant with me and my sister. My father feared of losing my mother. He didn't know what to do, then he met Sheev Palpatine, Darth Sidious."

Shayera could tell where this was going by the name of "Sidious". Luke continued his father's story, "He told Anakin that he could save them if he joined him to become his apprentice, to be seduced by a dark power to save the ones he loved. My father agreed and became his underling known as Darth Vader." Shayera took notice of Luke's expression when he said, that the next part Luke didn't want to say but had to. "My father did many terrible things, disturbing things. Even after Obi-Wan defeated him, Vader still persisted."

"My mother had me and my sister and passed away shortly after. To protect the both of us from Vader, Obi-Wan and my last teacher, Master Yoda, separated us from each other and faked our deaths with our mother." Shayera was shocked, "It was to protect both of us from him and ourselves. But when it was revealed that Vader was my father, I couldn't believe it, but it was true. When I was done with my training to become a Jedi, my mentors told me that I had to confront and defeat Vader and Sidious."

Shayera wanted to know more and asked Luke, "Did you?"

Luke nodded, "I did, but not the way you think. The first time I fought with my father, I sensed he had still good in him, that Anakin Skywalker was still alive despite my mentors claiming that Vader killed him. I sensed that he had conflict within him, that he was still a slave to Sidious, to the dark side but couldn't kill his own son. When I confronted him and Sidiuos, I was almost killed by his master but that's when my father did something. He had a choice, in that moment he was free to choose his path, to be an agent of evil or to save his son."

Luke looked down in sorrow, "He sacrificed himself to save me from Sidious and destroy him." He then looked up to Shayera, "But he chose to walk back in the light. Even since he was born, Shayera, my father was a slave in his entire life, never being able to choose his own path. He was a slave on his home planet, a slave to the Jedi Order, a slave to Sidious, and he was a slave to the Dark Side."

"My father was a victim of circumstance, misguided since he was born, never actually knowing what's good or bad. When people thought of Vader, they would never take the time to understand why he did those things. That he was at fault for the Galaxy's problems."

He paused then continued, "But the truth is, Shayera, that it wasn't his fault. That we should detest the act, not the person. When my father passed away, I realized something, that people thought he could never be redeemed, but in the end, he did. I realized that if my father can be turned back to the light despite everything he's done, then any can, even you Shayera Hol."

Luke Skywalker looked into Shayera's eyes as she was still processing Luke's tragedy. She had questions of her own but knew what he was going at. "Shayera Hol isn't Anakin Skywalker and Anakin Skywalker isn't Shayera Hol." Luke continued, "But if you two were misguided souls that realized at the end what needed to be done, despite it being the hardest sacrifice." Luke came closer, "You sacrificed your own life with your people to do what you thought was good, Shayera. I believe you're a good person and you should do the same."

Shayera looked back to Luke, her eyes were starting to feel watery but made sure to hold the tears back. "If you start believing in the good in you Shayera, then your friends will do the same, it will take time but they will, I promise you that they will."

Shayera didn't say anything, she couldn't. Luke all of these time felt pity and wanted to help. She thought this wasn't some act or he was naive, he wanted to save her from these feelings she had, and that's what he meant back on the ship. At that moment, Shayera knew what to do, it wasn't the option she wanted. She still didn't believe she was a good person after the betrayal, she thought she was no better than the villains they fought previously. But after Luke's talk, maybe Shayera Hol can do good, she just needs to believe it, and she needs time for herself.

Alfred was silently waiting behind the duo when he had his hand on Shayera's shoulder, "They've sent for you, miss."

Shayera looked back at Alfred, "Thank you, Alfred," and stood up.

Luke was still sitting down with R2, he gently grabbed Shayera's hand to stop her, to give his final advice on what to do, "Shayera, whatever happens, they don't decide your own fate, you do." Luke calmly advised Shayera.

Shayera silently nodded and left the room behind Alfred to guide her to the conference room.

Alfred showed her a twin set of doors that she'd need to walk through, despite having enhanced strength the door she opened felt heavier than it should be. She entered the room and saw that everyone was in costume. Everyone was fine from the incident except for John whose right arm was in a cast.

Superman was in the middle, with his hands behind his back to give Shayera their answer, "Hawkgirl-,"

Shayera quickly cut off Superman, "Before you start, I have something to say..."

She paused, taking a step closer before continuing, "I came to this planet, as a patriot. I had a mission and I carried it out." The League listened to her in their own way, Wally was frowning, John looked into Shayera with distraught, and Diana gave a cold stare to Shayera. None of it stopped Shayera from finishing her statement, "What I couldn't know was that I would come to care for the Earth and her people. That I've come to care for all of you."

She continued, "I've spent the last five years torn between my feelings and my duty. I won't ask you to do the same." She took a deep breath, thinking the air was heavier than usual, "Therefore I am resigning from the Justice League, effective immediately."

She finished and turned around to leave the group, Wally walked up from her side and gave her a quick hug. Shayera hugged back, excluding Luke Skywalker, Wally would have been the one most sympathetic to her. The hug ended and she pressed forward out of the room. She moved away from the League, starting something she would never thought of when she was first assigned to Earth, finding herself.