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words-writ-in-starlight · 7 years

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UH tell me everything about the star wars au immediately

So this is the OTHER Star Wars AU. It was the second variant I came up with and,while it ruins fewer childhoods (this is the one with Prince Cesare of Alderaan and Lucrezia as the first of a new Jedi Order), I feel like it’s much truer to the characters. Plus Lucrezia still gets a lightsaber. This time with 2x the Dark Side! It’s been a million years because HA I forgot this was done and I didn’t want to work on it anymore.

Cesare, no last name because slaves don’thave them, is a very small boy on Tatooine when a pair of Jedi Masters and theirpadawans show up with a child-queen. Cesare is only nine, but nine is already nearly an adult among the slavequarters, and he brings the whole lot of them back to his mother before theycan get in trouble. Queen Bonadeo isshy. She doesn’t matter in thisstory. One of the padawans, a fiercewoman named Sforza, is almost through with her training, but the other is apretty girl like a shaft of sunlight, just a little younger than Cesare. The Jedi, Padawan Sforza’s Master and MasterFarnese, want Cesare to come with them, to be trained as one of them, and hegoes for the sake of the golden-haired girl who promises a better life.

When they return to the Core, they aregreeted by a man just beginning to pass middle age, steel-grey hair and asteady, trustworthy voice, who is very interested in Cesare. Cesare has never been interesting to anyonebefore. It is incredible. The man introduces himself as Senator Borgia,and tells Cesare to keep in contact. Cesare does.

Padawan Sforza becomes Cesare’s Master afterher own Master is murdered. She andMaster Farnese could not be more different—Caterina, which Cesare is forbiddento call her, is fierce and military, while Giulia is gentle and fluid anddiplomatic—but their opposing styles are beautifully complementary, and theyare often put on missions together. Cesare comes to know the golden girl as Lucrezia, and they are best friends, as like as two halves of acoin, and as they grow up, they train together, fight together, live together,until the entire Temple speaks of them in a single breath, as Cesare-and-Lucrezia.

Lucrezia is the only one who knows about howoften Cesare and Master Sforza clash, about the times that they shout at eachother until Cesare is screaming and Master Sforza is all but glowing withrage. If Cesare cannot control hisemotions, cannot master this lightsaber form, cannot do this simple Forcetrick, cannot be a Jedi, Caterinashouts, then what did her master die for? Lucrezia is furious—she is shakingwith it, she has never been so angry in her entire life. She destroysGiulia in a sparring match and is advanced to her Knighthood trials at sixteen,the youngest Knight in living memory. And living memory stretches back quite far, with Master Innocent beingseveral centuries old.

That’s not quite true. One other person knows. Senator Borgia. Hedoes not think Cesare is a failure, hedoes not think Cesare was an ill investment, he thinks Cesare is bright and clever and strong and full ofpotential. Cesare tells him everything.

Despite Master Sforza’s endless criticism,Cesare is right on Lucrezia’s heels, earning his Knighthood at eighteen, aprodigious rise through the ranks for anyone and downright unheard of forsomeone who started training at nine. Hestares down the same Masters who tried to cast him out nine years before, andthis time it is not Cesare who looks away first.

The two of them, two orphans with no lastnames, are turned loose on the universe when the galaxy goes to civil war. They are each handed a regiment of clonedsoldiers and told to keep the Republic safe, and Cesare-and-Lucrezia turntogether toward the stars.

The clones are identical, or they’re supposedto be, but life has its influences, little quirks of the worlds they’ve servedon. The commander of Lucrezia’sbattalion, the 212th, is darker than any of them with sun exposureand never quite manages to shake it off. He is soft-spoken but efficient, with a mind for espionage that clickswell with Lucrezia’s talent for negotiations—both of the genuinely diplomaticbent and the more violent variety. Lucrezia fights with a joy and brilliant ferocity that makes somethingin Cesare’s chest ache, and he thinks that her commander, the one the clonescall Paolo, agrees with him.

The commander of Cesare’s 501st isnot sun-darkened at all, but an encounter with a chemical bath has turned hishair from the clone-standard black to a rusty red-brown-yellow, and he wearsscruff on his chin and jaw. He is akiller, born to it and made for it and thriving on it, and Cesare could—andhas—put his lightsaber to the man’s throat without seeing a single flinch. No one knows where he got his nickname ofMicheletto, but he did. The popularstory is that it’s the name of the first man he killed, and that he liked it somuch he kept it. Cesare doesn’t give adamn, honestly, as long as Micheletto continues to be brutally, ruthlesslyefficient in everything he does.

Cesare knows that Lucrezia is sleeping withPaolo. He is happy that she ishappy. He is so bitterly angry it makesbile rise in his throat. He pinsMicheletto under him with the Force and kisses him until there is someone’sblood on their lips and Cesare cannot hear Master Sforza’s voice in his headanymore—let go of attachment, attachmentleads to the Dark Side, be a Jedi, be worth what you cost. Micheletto, loyal, fearless, lethalMicheletto, does not stop him. He doesnot stop him again, and again, and again.

It does not cure the wanting under Cesare’s ribs, no matter how many times he falls intobed with his commander. He is guiltilyrelieved when Paolo dies in battle, saving Lucrezia’s life.

This is the first thing in his life thatCesare has not readily, gladly told Chancellor Borgia.

Chancellor Borgia finds out, eventually. Not about Micheletto. Plenty of things happen among the military,it would be easy for Cesare to write that off. No, Chancellor Borgia finds out about Lucrezia.

Here is how it happens. It begins, as these things so often do, witha fight. Lucrezia is captured, andCesare feels her vanish from the Force. Not dead, he realizes after nearly destroying the nearest bank ofcomputers, merely muffled—Force-blocking instruments are rare, but theyexist. This, whatever it is that isblocking Cesare’s link to his—to Lucrezia, will not exist for much longer.

Cesare takes Micheletto and a handful of hisbest soldiers and cuts his way through to the heart of a Separatiststronghold. They leave a trail of bloodbehind them. Cesare finds Lucrezia.

Cesare also finds Giovanni Sforza, theForce-neutral brother of his old Master. He is…a casualty of the situation. But Cesare leaves with Lucrezia safe at his side and therefore does notgive a damn about the Separatist fuck who kidnapped her to leverage the Jedi.

Lucrezia slips silently into Cesare’squarters that night and sits down on the end of his bed, twisting her handstogether as he sits up and rests a hand on her shoulder. The quiet stretches, until Cesare thinks hecan hear her heart beating in time with his, and then it breaks all at once asshe twists around, sinuous as wind, to slide into his lap. She twists her hands into his hair and hesettles his hands on her hips and she kisses him, and presses him down onto hisbed, and Lucrezia is warm and alive and here and it is the best thing that hasever happened to Cesare.

Micheletto knows. He still does not stop Cesare when Cesareends up in his quarters, tips his head in concession, and moreover he does notchange his treatment of Lucrezia—Micheletto might not allow Lucrezia to holdher ‘saber to Cesare’s throat, but he wouldn’t stop her from doing it tohim. Cesare thinks some of the rest oftheir respective battalions are aware, but they would rather die than betraytheir generals, to a man.

It makes them overconfident.

Because, you see, Caterina Sforza knows howher brother died. It makes its way toher, and for all her insistence on the dangers of attachment…she can’t bear thenews.

But she doesn’t set out to kill them. She wants to ruin them first.

Cesare doesn’t know how she gets thepictures. They’re from one of their fewdays off, in a hotel on some remote jungle moon, taken through a window. Lucrezia’s head is tipped back, Cesare’s lipspressed to her neck with his arms around her bare waist. It’s an intensely private moment, but moreimportantly, it is two of the most famous Jedi generals in the galaxy, havingan affair. The Jedi are supposed to beabove these failings of the flesh. Theonly way this could feasibly get worse is if they were related—and, Cesareadmits to himself, he has no idea who his father was, and Lucrezia was afoundling. For all they know, they couldbe.

Caterina Sforza sends them one of thepictures with a demand that Cesare meet her, in person, or face theconsequences.

Cesare goes alone. It is, he thinks numbly, fitting that thismeeting take place on Tatooine, among the slave quarters and dunes that made uphis life for nine years. He rememberslittle of their meeting. He remembersthe yellow rage that rose through him when she mocked that they would takeLucrezia away from him, that he would prove he was never really worth the timeand blood put into him. He remembers thehumming of his lightsaber between his palms and how quickly her voice cut off. He remembers the fury of the battle, and thesearing pain of losing his left arm at the shoulder, and the tacky feeling ofher blood on his hands—and then there’s nothing, for hours.

Micheletto came to find him, Cesare laterdiscovers, and carried him—alone—back to Lucrezia. Caterina Sforza, Master of the Jedi Order,vanishes without trace, and five shiny new ‘troopers are lost in the samebattle that officially costs Cesare his arm. Micheletto’s lie is ironclad, bound in blood, and Lucrezia kisses theknuckles of Cesare’s black and silver prosthetic, unflinching as he cradles hercheek.

Cesare and Lucrezia carry on. For a year, it’s almost like they were neverfound out. They kiss and Lucrezia leavesnail marks on his shoulders and Cesare leaves handprints on her hips andMicheletto serves them with the same undying devotion as ever.

That doesn’t destroy the records. The holonet is forever, et cetera, et cetera,but it lets them grow comfortable, confident, complacent.

“Cesare,” Chancellor Borgia says in a deep,resonant voice, reaching out to touch Cesare’s dark curls with something likesadness. Cesare swallows and looks down,waiting for the lash of disappointment—bea Jedi. “Why didn’t you feel youcould tell me, my boy? You know how Icare for you and Lucrezia, like you’re my own children.”

“I—It’s not suitable for Jedi to haveattachments,” Cesare says, hating the way his voice cracks over the firstword.

“But you would do anything to keep Lucreziasafe and happy, wouldn’t you?” Chancellor Borgia asks, and the right answer isobvious and true and right there on Cesare’s tongue.

“Yes,”Cesare breathes.

“And me?”

“Of course, Chancellor,” Cesare says, andit’s so honest it makes his skin prickle. Chancellor Borgia smiles.

He never thinks to ask how Senator Borgiafound out.

The nightmares, Lucrezia’s blood spilled outover the sand and Micheletto’s hand limp with his blaster tossed aside andLucrezia’s long lovely hair no longer sunlight, only a dead thing on theground, start not long after. Cesarestruggles to manage them, to control the universe and protect them, and whenChancellor Borgia casually suggests other ways to use the Force that mightserve better, Cesare takes hold with both hands. How can he do otherwise? He can’t let Lucrezia’s light be taken fromthe galaxy—it would make every star seem dim and cold. He’ll do anything. And Chancellor Borgia is a good man, withtheir best interests in mind, loyal to the Republic. Cesare trusts him.

When Chancellor Borgia turns out to be DarthSixtus, the Sith Lord that Master Innocent has had the Jedi hunting acrossstarfields and planetary systems, Cesare runs. The name Chancellor Borgia—Darth Sixtus,would-be-Emperor Sixtus—called him pounds in his ears and in his blood to thebeat of his heart. Vader, Vader, Vader, Vader. Each beat sounds more like my boy.

Lucrezia finds him on the furthest planet hecould find, Mustafar, and he sits huddled on a rock bridge like he did whenthey were young, one leg pulled up and his arms wrapped around it.

They don’t fight. Cesare murmurs his discoveries to Lucrezia asshe kneels beside him, her hair billowing in the hot updrafts from the riverbelow. Her hand smooths a circle betweenhis shoulder blades.

“He’s been teaching me the Dark Side of theForce,” Cesare says, slow, and waits for the punch of disgust. It doesn’t come. “It’s been—it worked,” he says, desperately waiting for Lucrezia to tell himright from wrong. He catches her handsand she lets him, looking into his eyes, her face solemn and almostchildlike. “What do I do?”

Lucrezia’s hands tighten hard aroundhis. “I will be with you,” she says, lowand fierce. “Cesare, Vader,whoever. We will be together.”

“My dreams tell me you’re going to die if Idon’t do this,” Cesare whispers.

Lucrezia kisses the knuckles of hismechanical hand, then his matching skin-and-bone one, the brush of her lipslike a benediction. “I’m not going todie,” she says, getting a hard look in her eye. “And neither are you.”

#the borgias #star wars au #lucrezia borgia #cesare borgia #micheletto corella #cesare x micheletto #cesare x lucrezia #I DO NOT KNOW WHAT THIS IS #but obviously cesare becomes darth vader and lucrezia becomes vader's loyal right hand #darth sixtus is willing to take two for the price of one corruption okay he is not picky #also order 66 doesn't happen in QUITE the same way #it still happens #but micheletto has his chip removed and becomes the captain of their guard #and all three of them fuck and it is Terrible #anyway #this has been a star wars au #wildehacked #asked and answered

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