This is the first Dark AU I've ever written, and I've never really liked them so it'll probably be the last, but I don't know, this was fun to write. So maybe.
Also, I just realised that I've structured this the same way I would structure an essay so I'm sorry exams have fried my brain.
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars (obviously).
Leia Skywalker was bold, strong, dedicated; Luke Skywalker was gentle, curious, brave.
None of this is synonymous with "good".
Leia was bold.
No one on the Tantive IV disagreed with her when the Devastator latched onto their ship - no one had the time to. But that didn't mean her plan was any less necessary, any less appreciated, as bold as it was.
She was just an ensign on the Alderaanian consular vessel, but she was bold enough that she didn't bother with formalities or rank when she saw the Princess of Alderaan rushing through the corridor and just stopped her there and then.
"Your Highness," she said. "I have a plan."
The Princess cocked her head, clearly listening.
"We look incredibly similar," Leia said, "and Vader doesn't know what you look like in any great detail. If I take your place and pretend to be you long enough to stall him, you and the rest of the crew may be able to get into the escape pods and get away."
The Princess looked hesitant, but Leia insisted. "The Alliance needs you."
It was a good idea, no doubt borrowed from Naboo's tradition of handmaidens replacing their queen in times of danger. So the Princess agreed, and they swapped clothes. Leia wore the white robes like she had royal blood herself; the Princess looked. . . odd. . . to say the least in an ensign's garb. Her work as a Rebel was to be a spy in the Senate. She'd never had cause to wear the standard-issue Rebel gear before.
But they didn't have time to ponder it before Vader had arrived, and the Princess had been forced to flee the ship. They were running out of time to fulfil the original idea, about hiding the plans in the ship's R2 unit and sending it in an escape pod to the Jedi on the planet below, so she hid away in the back corridors as Vader cut a swath through the remaining soldiers who defended the ship.
It was a miracle she managed to get the droids into the escape pod and away from the ship in time, but every Rebel knew not to question miracles.
When she was finally brought before Lord Vader, though, that was when her true boldness was finally shown.
"Lord Vader. Only you could be so bold," she said, even if she herself had proved the statement wrong. "The Imperial Senate will not sit still for this. When they hear you've attacked a diplomatic ship-"
"Don't act so surprised, Your Highness, you weren't on any mercy mission this time." There was an undercurrent of amusement in Vader's voice, onlookers might have observed, like there was a running inside joke, but then again, it was a ridiculous story. He'd literally tracked her from Scarif. "Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by Rebel spies. I want to know what happened to the plans they sent you."
"I don't know what you're talking about," she maintained. "I am a member of the Imperial Senate on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan."
"You are part of the Rebel Alliance, and a traitor." Vader lifted his finger in command to his troops. "Take her away!"
And so Leia was dragged away into the Empire's custody, and any Rebels that survived the encounter would recount how bold she'd been when she took the Princess's place. No one thought to examine the fact that all escape pods with life forms aboard had been targeted and destroyed by the Empire, so that the Princess of Alderaan - a symbol of hope and great asset to the Rebellion - died, and Leia alone survived.
Luke was gentle. That was the first thing Han observed about the kid: He was gentle to everyone, especially the two droids that were with him.
Well, no. It wasn't the first thing Han noticed. The first thing he noticed was how the kid just waltzed into the cantina and no one batted an eye - indeed, people seemed to be going to great lengths not to notice him, meaning that naturally Han had to size him up. He didn't look tough enough to warrant that sort of respect: he was small, slim, and pretty much screamed innocence. He didn't have a blaster; the only weapon he had was some strange metal hilt at his waist, like a laser cutter or something.
It didn't make sense. So Han was very glad when the kid's eyes surveyed the room and he chose to come to his table; he wanted to work out what was going on.
"You're a smuggler, right?" the kid asked. "I want to hire a ship to Alderaan."
"Well, what's the cargo?" Han asked, leaning forward over the table. I've got a bad feeling about this.
"Oh, only passengers," the kid reassured him. "Me and two droids." There was a brief pause as the kid seemed to struggle for words, then he asked, "How much is that?"
Han grimaced. "Well, I don't like droids, so that'll cost ya extra. Ten thousand, all up front."
The kid looked faintly disdainful as that as he glanced down, probably where he was counting out the credits he had, before he said, "I haven't got enough on me; how about two thousand now, plus fifteen when we reach Alderaan."
Han blinked twice before he had to stop himself from smiling. Seventeen thousand? "You've got yourself a deal."
They met outside, after Han's. . . discussion. . . with Greedo; Luke was crouched a little way off to the side, talking to two droids. The gold one seemed to be flapping his arms about and wailing - Han already knew he was gonna hate that one - but Luke spoke quietly and gently to it and it seemed to calm it.
The short blue one - astromech - whistled then, and Luke turned to greet Han. "You ready to go?" he asked. "I'm Luke, by the way."
"Han Solo," he replied absently, eyeing the kid as they walked toward the Falcon. "So, where you from, anyway?"
"Oh, over by Anchorhead," Luke said blithely.
"That's quite a trip." Han glanced at the two droids, both of which seemed a little too taken care of to be owned by some farm kid who lived out in the Dune Sea. "Dangerous, too. Heard some crazy wizard got killed by Sand People the day before yesterday or somethin'."
Luke just shrugged, apparently not bothered. "It's home, I guess. And Old Ben always did the craziest things; he probably had it coming."
Yes: Luke was gentle. But living in the Dune Sea? Out where the Tuskens were?
Han had to wonder how.
Leia was strong. This was obvious in the way she resisted the torture inflicted on her by Lord Vader and still managed to keep her secrets inside her head, where they belonged.
The stormtroopers guarding the high detention level didn't have much to think about aside from their job, so aspects of their job was what they thought about. They didn't know much about the prisoners - for security reasons, of course - but with rumours that the Princess of Alderaan's ship had been destroyed and a girl who walked and talked like a princess being escorted into the blocks of highest security, it didn't take a genius to put the pieces together.
Nor did it take a genius to work out that her interrogation was going badly. The stormtroopers had been working there for months, and when Lord Vader interrogated a prisoner, he was usually out of the cell within the hour, with cleaning crews sent to dispose of what was left. But Vader had been in there for at least three hours by now. The Princess clearly wasn't giving him the information he wanted without a fight.
The holocams had been turned off in the cell, and the walls were soundproof, so they had no way of knowing what was going on in that room. Usually, the stormtroopers were happy about that, happy they didn't have to witness such atrocities. But today, with the Princess being so abnormally strong. . .
They wanted to see just how strong she was, to have Lord Vader torment her, push her, torture her, and still survive.
Luke was curious. To begin with it had annoyed Han - especially when they were fleeing Imperial pursuit. Luke hadn't seemed worried at all about it. No, he just sat behind him and Chewie in the cockpit and stared at the controls, the way they worked them. He asked incessant questions during the chase as if their lives weren't on the line, as if it was a good time for questions. It was almost as annoying as goldenrod's cries of "We're doomed!"
But during the rest of the flight, he seemed so enthusiastic about learning how to fly that Han felt. . . bad. . . for refusing him, and answered some of the questions. Not all, but some.
And Han found himself curious as well when, at one point in the trip, he walked into the main room to see Luke wearing a helmet, blast shield down, with some remote firing shots at him and him deflecting them with a blue laser sword.
"It's called a lightsaber," Luke said irritably.
"What, like a Jedi?" Han had to laugh, despite the fact that the kid seemed to have read his mind. "You some sort of wizard?"
Luke took the helmet off then, so Han could see his face. He narrowed his eyes at him, frowning mutinously, and for a moment Han wondered if he imagined the way his eyes flashed yellow. "You don't believe in the Force, do you?" His tone was petulant.
Han scoffed. "It's a lot of mumbo jumbo, isn't it?"
In response, Luke put the helmet back on and turned the remote to the highest setting it would go, before releasing it to hover in the air as he assumed a ready stance with the saber. Several bolts were spat out in rapid succession; Luke deflected every single one, even going so far as to deflect one right over Han's head, brushing his hair and hitting the wall of the Falcon.
"Hey, hey, careful!" Han spluttered, even as Luke removed the helmet and gave him a pointed glare. He couldn't shake the feeling that shot had been intentional, which just peeved Han off even more. The Force was. Not. Real.
"I call it luck," he said defensively.
Luke just raised an eyebrow.
Thankfully, the alert went off just then, and Han leaped on the chance to get out of the conversation. "We're comin' up on Alderaan now." Luke followed him into the cockpit; his questions about flying were renewed when he observed the procedure to drop out of hyperspace.
Han answered most of the questions, and had to wonder how Luke would have fared in the Imperial Academy he'd been to on Carida. Probably badly; the kid was the furthest thing from obedient Imperial that the Emperor wanted from his servants. And they didn't train people who weren't going to go into the army.
Come to think of it, that was probably why the kid was so curious.
Leia was dedicated.
Tarkin knew that, the bridge crew of the Death Star theorised, and that was why he'd gone to such extreme measures to convince the Princess of Alderaan to divulge the information he wanted. When she walked onto the bridge and started mocking him, they just waited with bated breath for the blow to fall.
"Charming to the last," Tarkin observed, though the smile he wore didn't seem mocking in return, seemed more like. . . like a shared joke between the Princess, him, and Lord Vader, whom he'd given a glance to when the Princess was brought in, eyebrow raised, and whose nod had set the proceedings into motion. "You don't know how hard it was signing the order to terminate your life."
"I'm surprised you had the courage to do it yourself," the Princess bit out, yanking her chin from the Governor's grip. Tarkin didn't react to her defiance, just lifted his now-unoccupied hand and gestured towards the viewport.
"Princess Leia," he said, and there was some sort of joke in the way he said it that had the bridge crew wondering - was the Princess of Alderaan's name really Leia? She did look a little different to how she had on the holonet, "before your execution, I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will make this battle station operational."
He turned to gesture to the viewport, and the jewel-like blue and green orb hanging beyond it. "In a way, you have determined the choice of the planet that will be destroyed first."
The bridge crew saw her stiffen as she recognised the planet, as one would expect her to when faced with the destruction of her homeworld.
"Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the Rebel base, I have chosen to test this station's destructive power on your home planet of Alderaan."
And the Princess reacted as one would expect her to: she cried and screamed and begged. But when she was asked to name the system, she gave, "Dantooine," an answer that was so obviously false that Tarkin actually laughed at it.
Then he sighed, and turned to the bridge crew, who stood up straight at the sudden attention. "Continue the operation, you may fire when ready."
The roar of the reactors was drowned out by the Princess's scream, and her sobs would have made any actor proud as she watched the peaceful planet be consumed by fire and blood and anguish. And even as only emptiness remained, and the Princess was led away, the bridge crew had to admire her dedication: Despite everything that was on the line, she'd lied as if the destruction of Alderaan didn't mean anything to her at all.
Luke was brave.
Luke was brave, but he was stupid, and Han did not want to hare off rescuing some random Princess as they waited for that irritating protocol droid to disable the tractor beam, no matter how much money she had!
He really didn't!
He was annoyed as it was that instead of dropping the kid off on Alderaan and having his fortune made, he'd been left to manoeuvre through the mass of debris that used to be the Planet of Beauty, only to become trapped in the biggest space station he'd ever seen and risk being imprisoned or executed. He didn't know what sort of crimes Luke was guilty of, those the fact that he'd had to hire a smuggler to get him to Alderaan really said something, but Han was a deserter and a smuggler who'd slipped through Imperial fingers a few too many times; if they scanned him and found out who he was, he'd never see the light of day again.
"Where are you going, kid?" he asked suddenly, as Luke grabbed a blaster off one of the stormtroopers they'd stunned and went to open the door, lightsaber bouncing at his hip.
"To rescue a princess," he replied. "You can stay here if you want, but I'm going out there."
Han swore, but he followed. He wasn't about to let the kid be shot by some Imperial just because he was being too damn brave!
"That escape," Han said to no one in particular, "was too easy."
"Well, I don't make a habit of questioning miracles," the Princess replied, giving him another withering look. She didn't bother with another word to him before she marched out of the cockpit.
"And I suppose I'm not allowed to know where we're going, huh?" he shouted after her, eyeing the navicomputer she'd punched the coordinates into. He glanced out at hyperspace for a moment before following the Princess - there was nothing for him to do here, anyway.
Luke was perched on the dejarik board, talking in a low voice to Leia, before cutting himself off when she knelt in front of that blue astromech Luke had brought with him. Han leaned against the wall as he watched.
"You have the plans, right, Artoo?" she asked in a worried voice.
The droid beeped, sounding equally concerned, then ejected a disc out of one of its compartments. It tried to pull it back in again, but Leia was quick, and had yanked it out into her hand before he could.
She looked at the disc, examining it from every inch, then smiled. "Thank you, Artoo," she said. Luke crouched next to the droid and patted his blue dome.
"Good work, buddy," he said, then pulled out his blaster and stunned him.
Han jerked upright, the thud of Artoo hitting the ground loud and jarring.
Though, not quite as jarring as the cries of the protocol droid staggering forwards in shock. "By the Maker, Master Luke, what in the world was that-"
It was Leia who stunned him this time, a blaster easily hidden among the folds of her white gown.
In unison, they turned the blasters on him, and clicked them off the stun setting.
Han took a step back, and held up his arms. "Woah there," he said hurriedly, "I just want to get paid."
Leia glanced at Luke, eyebrow raised; Luke nodded, and then both lowered their blasters. They didn't set them back to stun, or put them away entirely, but they did lower them.
"What's going on?" Han asked. "Wait- where's Chewie?"
Leia was the one who answered, hard and cold, "He's in the engine room. Don't worry, he's alive. But he won't wake up for a few hours."
"It takes a lot to knock out a Wookiee."
"That's why we both stunned him at the same time," Luke said simply. "Repeatedly."
Han let out a breath, and was embarrassed to realise he was afraid. "So. . . what's going on?" He nodded at the disc in Leia's hand. "What are they?"
"Plans to the battle station we just left," Leia said. "The Rebellion needs them so they can analyse them and find a weakness, in hopes of destroying it."
Han nodded. "Makes sense. So, are you going to take them to them?"
Leia and Luke shared a glance, identical smirks on their faces. Then Leia flipped the disc into the air and Luke slashed at it with the lightsaber, leaving two smoking halves to clatter to the floor. Leia stomped on them for good measure.
Han took another step back. "What is going on?"
Leia turned to face him. "You were right, Solo: our escape was too easy. They let us go, and they're tracking this ship, hoping we'll lead them to the Rebel base."
"And will we?" Han's heart was beating faster by the minute.
"Of course," Luke said. "How else are they going to blow it up?"
Han blinked. "I assume you're working for the Empire, then." He shook his head - his brain was spinning - then asked Luke, "Why didn't you just hand the droids to the Imperials on Tatooine? Why were you on Tatooine in the first place?"
"My father sent me there to kill a Jedi." Luke patted his lightsaber. "Old Ben Kenobi 's gone crazy. It was hardly a challenge."
A sick feeling crept into Han's gut. They'd discussed the old wizard's death, supposedly at the hands of Tusken Raiders, and Luke had kept a blank, innocent face throughout it.
He turned to Leia to try to dispel the memory. "And you? Why didn't you just tell the Empire the location of the Rebel base while you were in your cell? Why not just hand over the plans to begin with, rather than sticking them in the droid?" He glanced at the astromech, keeled over on the floor; it didn't look so good.
"I wasn't given them until the last moment, when Artoo was already there," Leia said. "Artoo's loyal to Bail Organa, and he can be vicious when he thinks you're wrong. I couldn't blow my cover by using the Force to fight him off. I had to give him the plans. As for not telling them the location of the Rebel base," she glanced at Luke, "well, the same reason my brother here didn't give the droids to the authorities. If the Emperor had been told of its location by Tarkin, or the droids found by the troopers on Tatooine, we wouldn't have received the credit we deserve." She smiled, but it looked more like she was baring her teeth. "And this entire mission was about the credit. How else are we to prove ourselves?"
"So, what, you just sat through hours of torture by Darth Vader for credit?"
"Father didn't torture me." Han jumped at that revelation, even Leia scoffed at the idea. "We sat for three hours formulating our next move, and contacting Luke to warn him of it."
Han glanced at the kid, who nodded. He hadn't noticed Luke getting any calls, and he'd been with him the whole hyperspace trip. . .but then maybe creepy Imperial spies didn't need comlinks to communicate.
"Don't worry, Han," Luke assured him, seeing his expression. "You'll still get your money, after the Rebellion's been destroyed. Our father will pay you three times what I promised."
"That's not what I'm worried about," Han said, even as he eyed the two of them - Darth Vader's children - and calculated how quickly he could run to the cockpit, barricade himself inside, or get to an escape pod, hell, whether he could expect to be a quicker draw than both of them and shoot first. . .
Luke cocked his head; his voice had the same gentleness as it'd had when he'd been talking to the droids back on Tatooine, only now there was poison hidden among the sweetness. "Then what is it?"
Han shook his head. "Chewie's not knocked out, is he?" He took a deep breath. "You killed him."
"I'm sorry, Han," Luke said, and he sounded sincere, but what Han caught onto were his next words. "And I'm sorry for this as well."
Han's hand dived for his blaster. He was the quickest draw he knew, quicker than Greedo for sure, as he'd proved earlier, but the quickness of his draw didn't matter, because he wasn't facing people who used blasters. All Leia had to do was reach out her hand, and he could do nothing to stop her from snapping his neck.