Lessons
"He told me when he's gone here's what you do,
when trouble comes to town...
my daddy said shoot."
- Beyonce "Daddy Lessons
"Father, I need to board my ship soon." Leia told her father when he finally crossed through the gardens to meet her in the empty field behind the palace- her way of respectfully telling him he'd taken too long.
The Viceroy placed the large bag he'd slung over his shoulder onto the ground, bending to unzip it. "Yes, yes, I know. I apologize. Your mother had concerns."
Breha worried every time Bail and Leia walked out into the field together. Blasters made her nervous, but she wanted Leia to learn just as much as he did.
Leia tucked the rogue hairs behind her ear and adjusted her white robes on her shoulders. "I'm surprised you that keep telling her when we're practicing."
"Leia, you ought to know by now that keeping things from your mother doesn't do either of us any good. She knows everything."
She laughed. "I do know that."
"Yet you continue to keep things from her. Well, you attempt to."
"So do you."
Bail lifted his eyes from the contents of the bag to give his daughter a look. "The Senate has only sharpened your tongue, I see."
Leia didn't answer; she only smiled at her father and crossed her arms over her chest. They both knew that the Senate had nothing to do with it. She had only been elected weeks ago. It had everything to do with the way she had been raised.
He shook his head and returned his attention to the bag, reaching in and pulling two blasters from inside. He offered her hers, the blaster he'd bought for her when she won her seat in the Imperial Senate.
Breha had not liked the idea of Leia joining the Senate. She wanted to protect Leia, not throw her into the world of politics. Breha wanted to keep her safe from the Imperial monsters, not sit her down in the same room as them.
She feared that her daughter would get herself into trouble- that her morals, her belief in justice and equality that they had instilled in her would cause her to speak out against the wrong person. They feared her joining the Rebellion in her own right. Breha and Bail were rebels themselves, yes- but they feared for the day their daughter threw herself into it as well. They both knew war was inevitable. The Rebel Alliance would find themselves in the midst of a civil war before long.
"War is no place for one so young." Bail had said to her as they discussed their concerns for Leia over tea one evening. Breha reminded him that it was Leia's generation that had the most to lose if the Empire's tyranny wasn't stopped.
"War is no place for a princess." Bail added a moment later.
Breha lifted an eyebrow. "Because she's a woman?"
"Because she's our daughter."
Breha sat her tea aside, watching her husband. "She's always been meant for bigger things, Bail. Since the day you brought her home, we've known that."
"Bigger than Queen of Alderaan?"
"Bigger than you or I could ever imagine."
He knew she was right. Just as she was about everything. The daughter of Padme Naberrie was bigger than both of them, than all of Alderaan. She was destined for greatness.
He understood this- they both did. But they still worried.
Bail knew their daughter find herself in the middle of a conflict. Whether it be with another Senator or the Rebellion- he wanted her to be able to defend herself. She'd had lessons in hand to hand combat since she was a young girl but a few swift kicks was no match against a man with a blaster. She needed to know how to fire a weapon. But being the Princess of a weaponless planet, she'd never been given those lessons.
The day her seat in the Senate was announced, he bought her a blaster and they began their lessons.
He'd warned the guards, not only so that they wouldn't be alarmed at the sounds of blaster fire but also because Leia'd never fired a weapon before. She'd seen older models, relics he'd kept from the Clone Wars, ancient weapons behind glass walls in museums. She'd held different types of blasters while in his company away from home. He wasn't armed unless he was away from Alderaan. He respected his wife and their home enough to uphold their peaceful, weaponless traditions. The only time Breha allowed, insisted actually, that he have a weapon on his person was when Grand Moffs and other high ranking Imperials were visiting.
"Ready?" Leia asked, pulling Bail from his thoughts.
Standing before him in her white robes, with her long hair braided into a headband that circled around her head she looked liked Padme. She looked confident. She looked strong. Her blaster was secure in her hands, the safety already switched off as she waited for him.
"Are you ready?" She repeated.
Bail nodded and pulled the small targeting device out. He pressed the center button, allowing the dozens of holographic animals to shine up in front of them.
He picked up his blaster and followed Leia to the far side of the field. As they moved, the holograms set themselves up, sizing up the father and daughter. Bail lifted his blaster, turning the safety off as he aimed at a hologram.
"First?" He murmured.
"Breathe." Leia answered, releasing a breath.
"Next?"
She narrowed her eyes, focusing on the holographic animal charging toward her. "Focus."
Bail's finger moved over the trigger as he spoke. "And?"
"Don't blink."
Leia fired, blinking despite her words, hitting the animal between the eyes. It fell to the ground before fading into nothing. She didn't react, shifting her focus to the next target. Hologram after hologram faded as the Princess's fire tore through them.
"Yes!" She exclaimed, smiling proudly at her father. "Did you see that?!"
Bail nodded, standing up straight and lowering his blaster as the hologram reset itself. She was a good shot. She had been from the beginning but after weeks of practice he'd be willing to bet she could outshoot him. "You're still blinking."
She rolled her eyes a little. "I can't help it. And it doesn't seem to matter anyway."
"Arrogance is not very becoming of you, Leia."
"You're just upset that I may outshoot you one of these days."
"I just don't want your over confidence to get you killed." Bail told her seriously, his tone firm.
Leia looked away from him. She watched the holograms- people this time, start to move toward them from across the field. She lifted her blaster and went over her father's checklist in her head. Breathe, focus, don't blink. She took the fake men down swiftly before lowering her weapon and turning toward Bail. "I'll be fine, Father."
Bail looked at her, she looked so incredibly small to him with that weapon in her grasp. Her hands seemed too small to fire such a thing. She didn't seem old enough to be going off on her own, old enough to join the Imperial Senate. It seemed like it was only days ago that she'd been sitting on the floor of his office, stacking blocks as he spoke with his assistant. And wasn't it just yesterday that she'd sat upon her mother's lap as Breha had conducted meetings with members of the aristocracy?
Movement in his peripheral vision snapped him back to the present. A hologram shaped as a man twice Leia's size moved toward her, wearing dark robes and a mask he bore a striking resemblance to Darth Vader- although not so much that it'd cause an uproar if the Imperials were to see. In his gloved hand he held a blaster pointed at Leia's head.
"Leia, shoot!" Bail ordered, lifting his own weapon just as the figure fired.
Leia jumped, yelping quietly at the sharp zap of the holographic blaster fire hit her forehead. Bail shot the man down before Leia had a chance to react.
She lifted her eyes to her father, rubbing at her forehead. "I'm sorry. I-"
"You're dead." His voice was calm but louder than he'd meant for it to be. "Do you see what happens when you're so arrogant that you let your guard down?"
"It was a mistake."
"Mistakes get you killed."
"I'll be more careful."
Bail nodded after a moment and stepped back to watch her practice. She won round after round against her holographic enemies before switching the blaster into safety mode ans securing it into the holster on hr belt.
They were quiet as the walked side by side back across the field. After dropping his blaster and the target device into the bag, he zipped it up and slung it over his shoulder.
"Leia," Bail spoke just above a whisper. "be smart."
She nodded, stepping forward toward the gardens. He stopped her with a hand on her elbow, pulling her back to him.
"Be smart but do not overthink. It is better to be alive and stupid than dead and smart."
"What do you mean?"
"If you're backed into a corner...if you feel unsafe- shoot first, ask questions later."
Leia opened her mouth to respond, to argue with him. Everything she'd been taught, every lesson she'd had in ethics and every moral value that they had stressed told her the exact opposite.
Bail shook his head. "You save your skin, Leia. Do you understand me?"
She met his eyes and was taken aback by them- not the seriousness of them, but by the fear in his dark eyes. Leia was used to her father's stoic expression but seeing fear in his eyes was something she couldn't recall ever seeing.
Gently, she pulled her arm from his grasp. Leia straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin slightly. She wasn't afraid. "I understand, Father."