Disclsimer: I own nada
A/N: This was actually made as a response to Bespin Cafe's Dec/Jan challenge, but as I'm not actually a member there yet (I was sick, and then my computer broke, and now it seems kinda besides the point), I'm just placing it here for now. In other news, anyone who read and liked and/or reviewed (I'm not sure if you'll be reading this, but if so, thank-you Pitdroid and Knightedrouge for doing so!) 'Evanescent' won't have to wait much longer for a conclusion.
Anyways, this is supposed to take place post ANH, pre ESB. Hope you enjoy!
"For goddesses' sake Han, just admit we're lost!"
"Never! Corellians don't get lost-it's like physically impossible!"
"No, instead they just get so drunk they can't see straight!"
"I can see just fine!"
"Really, then how come when I asked how many fingers I was holding up…"
Leia stopped dead in her tracks. She had been struggling through the jungle's tough foliage attempting to catch up with Han, when with no warning she came upon a sudden cliff. Below her dark, treacherous-looking waters churned 20 feet down.
"…you said twelve." She let her voice trail off.
There were no signs of any scruffy-looking nerfherders here. There were no signs of anything here. Just the one jungle path behind her, and the water below.
A cold shiver filled with dread settled suspiciously near where Leia suspected her heart was. If there were no other routes but straight ahead…
"Don't worry, your husband is safe," Leia heard a young girl's voice say.
Leia spun around quickly. Too quickly. But just as she started to slide down with the rocks the cloaked woman (girl?) who had appeared seemingly out of the jungle (but there was only one path, Leia thought) strode forward and grasped the material of her dress, snagging a bit of it on the rocks before pulling her forward.
"Well for now at least," the stranger continued. "I don't know how safe he'll be if he leaves…but then if that happens, I don't know how safe any of us will be."
The girl (as Leia had decided she must be) smiled at her, and went to sit on a large boulder with three feet of grass separating it from the jungle, Leia was sure she had not seen the first time she walked down its narrow path. Than again, she thought, her need to prove Han was wrong, had distracted her then. Perhaps she just hadn't noticed it.
And something about the girl seemed familiar- an image flashed too quickly through her head to process it, but she was sure she had seen her before.
"Do you mean the man who I'd been walking with? Do you know where he is? He isn't my husband, but-"
"Oh I'm sorry," the girl interrupted. "Forgive me, I forgot."
"Forgot?" Leia questioned.
"Yes Leia, forgot. People do do that, you know. And sometimes," here she leant forward and whispered, as if giving a secret or a juicy piece of gossip, "they even do more than forget, and they let themselves feel."
The strange girl then leaned back and bit into a piece of fruit of mysterious origin. "You should try it sometime."
Suddenly the girl seemed much closer than before. Leia could make out her features much better, and though she still could not grasp where she knew this girl from- and her face seemed to shift with every movement- she was struck by how much their eyes seemed to match.
"I did, and look what I got! The force, both the light and the dark side of it and princesses bruising their knees- or worse yet dying from it – will always be inevitable but not rebel leaders- not people who are willing to stand-up, and fight and even die if they have to for their causes." And here the girl who Leia estimated could be no more than 14, paused and looked at her…lovingly?
"And then there's Luke." The girl looked sad before continuing, "I got him too."
Leia opened her mouth to respond (though with what, she did not know), but the girl wouldn't let her.
"Look I came to you like this, Leia," upon Leia's gasp she stopped for a moment and gave her a stern look Leia would have laughed at receiving from one so young had it not reminded her of the look she used to give her father and his advisors at that age, "for a reason, and I'll be damned if you interrupt me with questions when we have such little time together. 'In due time, explained all will be' like Master Yoda always says."
She stopped to take a breath and smirked at Leia's confused face, but frowned upon gathering where a good deal of her thoughts still lay. 'They really are quite perfect for each other,' she thought, 'if they can only just drop all of their various defense systems.'
And then she heard a twig snap in the distance, and realized she really would have to cut things short.
"Just don't let him leave Hoth all right," and then seeing something in the space above Leia's head she changed tactics, "No, forget that, don't leave Hoth yourself, ok? Or at least, not alone or with Rieken. He'll come after you; he'll make sure you're okay. And then from there everything can go according to the 'great cosmic plan' or whatever the hell it is Obi Wan that great crusty old mankeeps pestering your bro- friend with."
Before Leia's very eyes, the girl started to fade. "He really is important to the rebellion, but he's also important to you. You've grown into quite a lovely young lady, but sometimes letting go and really feeling is the only way to grow-up. Remember Leia…remember and let yourself forget," and with that she was gone.
Stunned, confused, and a little bit woozy feeling Leia went over to the rock where the girl had first appeared, and sat down. She couldn't figure out who the girl meant by 'him' (and somehow she knew it wasn't Luke), or where she knew her from, or where…
"Hey, your worshipfulness-hey, hey, Leia- sweetheart please wake-up." She lay out on rock looking peaceful when Han came upon her. It was only once he started to shake her that he noticed her dress was ripped, and her hair was a little out of place, as if she had been running (or falling). He had figured she must have stopped to take a break and fallen asleep. He didn't know what to make of the hole in her dress.
Still, he was a hell of a lot happier than he'd ever admit when her eyes opened.
"Han?"
"Yeah, your worshipfulness?' He answered with feigned exasperation.
"There's no sudden drop behind you, is there?"
His look was enough to confirm it. Especially when he began to search her head for any bumps or bruises.
"Han?"
He stopped his search to look at her, but kept his hands in her hair.
"How did you know to come look for me?"
He grinned sheepishly.
"I realized after about five minutes I hadn't heard you say 'twelve'. Then when I looked back and you weren't there, a man came up to me and told me I might wanna look back for a large bolder off the side of the path. I was confused, especially since when I looked back at him, he was gone-but what else was I to do?"
Leia seemed to take this in for a moment.
"Han?"
"Yeah?"
"What was this man's name?"
"Kid- more like, and he told me Anakin"
"Anakin," she repeated. Where did she know that name?
However, before she could think of it, or anything else to say, Han had apparently satisfied himself that she hadn't bumped her head and gotten up. She took his offered hand, and joined him, and together this time, they walked on.
Neither of them noticed the woman in the trees fingering a piece of pretty white cloth with nostalgia. If they had, they might have known from the look she gave that cloth, that she was a mother.
So what do you guys think? The piece of cloth is supposed to be the rip from Leia's dress in case you didn't catch that, and the woman is supposed to be Padme. Anakin is up to you to decide because either way he's a figment of the future, but I like the idea of him being their son recently dead and exploring the force. Leia of course, would eventually realize that's the name of Luke's father and place it in the back of her mind for investigation at a later date, but wouldn't consciously place it in any significance. I liked the idea of Padme coming to her as she looked when she had just become the Queen of Naboo, because Leia wouldn't recognize her as her mother, or as a former member of the senate (or as the Queen because of make-up). Please review!