I don't own Star Wars or any of the characters.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
For nineteen years the Empire had ruled over the entirety of the know galaxy. People, of all genders, races and species, lived in fear of the Emperor and his dark right hand. Those fears were most strong in the Inner and Mid Rim territories. But on the desert planet of Tatooine, located in the Outer Rim, the Empire was no concern to the populous of the planet, that is to all but a very few. And amongst those few was a young girl who had one of the greatest destinies known in all the galaxies of the universe.
Leia Skywalker stood beside her uncle, Owen Lars, as the older man talked to the Jawas about buying some droids. The nineteen-year-old girl ran a hand through her waist length brown hair. Leia didn't like dealing with the Jawas anymore than she liked her uncle always keeping her tied to his moisture farm.
Jawas were sentient beings that looked like rodents. They rarely grew more than a meter tall and covered themselves in long hooded robes in order to hide their faces from the other inhabitants of the desert planet. Jawas were scavengers, always looking for and collecting whatever they could find. This band of Jawas happened to have a lot of droids on hand, and Leia's Uncle Owen wanted to buy a few of them.
Leia didn't even know why her uncle bothered to deal with the Jawas. Everyone on Tatooine knew that the Jawas had a reputation for selling outdated and faulty droids to gullible moisture farmers, not that Leia was calling her uncle gullible. She just didn't understand why her old fashioned uncle had to keep on buying used droids when Owen could just buy the droids parts and let Leia build the droids herself. But Owen was strict on his views that women shouldn't be messing around with machinery, only needing to know how it worked if there was no other option. If it wasn't for her aunt, Leia was sure she wouldn't even leave her uncle's sight.
"Leia. Leia!" called Aunt Beru.
Leia turned back to her uncle's moisture farm where her aunt was calling her from. From the top of the hill, Leia looked down at the moisture farm that was her home. Beru was standing outside of the house, a gentle smile upon her kind face.
Beru Whitesun Lars was a kindly woman of forty-seven standard years, five standard years younger than her husband. She had a kindly face with short brown hair and gentle blue eyes. The twin suns of Tatooine made Beru's light skin shine with a warm, motherly glow. Beru was dressed in a long skirt and dark shirt, just like Leia.
"Leia, tell your uncle if he buys a translator, make sure it speaks Bocce." requested Beru.
"Doesn't seem like we have much of a choice, but I'll remind him." called back Leia.
Leia stopped beside her uncle, her brown eyes gazing upon Owen as he talked with one of the Jawas, trying to get a fair deal on the droids he wanted to buy. The man's graying hair and goatee and tired blue eyes made him look older than he actually was, but Owen's determination was still as sharp as that of any young man.
"We'll take the red one. No, not that one." said Owen.
Owen stopped before a golden protocol droid. The protocol droid stared at Owen, the old moisture farmer's face slightly hardening.
"You. I suppose you're programmed for etiquette and protocol." gruffly said Owen.
"Protocol? It's my primary function, sir. I am well versed in all the customs—" began the droid.
"I have no need for a protocol droid." spoke Owen.
"Of course you haven't sir. Not in an environment such as this. That's why I've been programmed—" began explaining the droid.
"What I need is a droid who understands the binary language of moisture vaporators." stiffly said Owen.
"Vaporators? Sir, my first job was programming binary load lifters…very similar to your vaporators in most respects." responded the droid.
"Can you speak Bocce?" asked Owen.
"Of course I can, sir. It's like a second language to me. I can…" began the droid.
"Alright, shut up. I'll take this one." grumbled Owen.
"Shutting up, sir." said the droid.
Leia didn't like how her uncle was treating the droid, but she kept quiet about it. Owen would just say that she was overreacting because droids were machines, not people.
"Leia, take these two back to the garage. I want them cleaned up before dinner." instructed Owen.
"But I wanted to go to Tosche Station. I want to pick up a few new power converters." replied Leia.
"You can waist time with your friends after your chores are done, Leia. I don't even want you going into that place anyway. Not a woman's place to be in such a dangerous area on her own, especially to get some useless machine parts." stated Owen.
"Fine. Let's get this over with." sighed Leia.
Leia began leading the two droids back to the house. She was about to descend the hill when she heard what sounded like a small explosion. Turning her gaze over her shoulder, Leia saw that the red droid her uncle had just bought had exploded. That's what happened when one dealt with the Jawas.
"Uncle Owen, this R2 unit has a bad motivator. Look." pointed out Leia.
Owen withdrew his hand from the Jawa, the pay still in it.
"What are you trying to pull on us?" barked Owen.
The Jawa started jabbering in its own language as Owen kept going on about how he was not a foolish old man and a pushover. Leia watched her uncle argue, when she felt someone tap her shoulder. Turning her head a little, Leia saw the golden protocol droid was trying to get her attention.
"Excuse me, madam, but that R2 unit it in prime condition, a real bargain." politely said the droid.
The golden protocol droid pointed to the other R2 unit. Leia looked at the R2 unit. It was blue and white, and seemed to be in good working condition. Anyway, it should at least last longer than the red one did. That was all that really matter in the long run.
"Uncle Owen, what about that one?" suggested Leia.
"What about that blue one? We'll take that one." declared Owen.
The Jawas brought the blue R2 forward.
"I'm sure you'll be quite pleased with that one, madam. He really is in first class condition. I've worked with him before. Here he comes." spoke the droid.
The R2 unit rolled forward. Leia rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
"Alright, let's get going." sighed Leia.
Leia began to walk back to the house. She her the protocol droid speak to the R2 unit as they began following after her.
"I hope you appreciate this. Why I should stick my neck out for you is quite beyond my capacity." retorted the droid.
Leia entered the garage. She got everything ready to clean up the droids as her uncle had asked of her. When everything was ready, Leia turned her attention back to the droids.
"Everything's set. You can go first…I never actually got your names. What do you call yourselves? What's your designation?" asked Leia.
The protocol droid gestured to himself and then to the R2 unit.
"I am known as C-3PO, madam. And this is R2-D2." answered C-3PO.
Leia made sure to memories the droids names. Owen would not have appreciated his niece being so friendly with droids, but it was just part of Leia's personality. She was too much of a tomboy to fit in with most of the Tatooine female standards.
Leia got C-3PO ready for an oil bath. As the golden protocol droid slowly descended into the bath of oil, Leia went back to working on a few of her projects.
"Thank the maker. This oil bath is going to feel so good. I've got such a bad case of dust contamination, I can barely move." said C-3PO.
Leia ignored the protocol droid's jabbering. She kept her mind and hands focused on repairing the old comm. link she had found over two months ago. Leia had bought the old comm. Link along with a bunch of other useless parts, in her Uncle Owen's terms. In truth Leia had been trying to collect parts for a spaceship. She might not have been able to build one from scratch on her own, but she could buy a junked old model and replace any damaged parts with whatever she had on hand or could find. Leia had been saving up for the past year for just that, but she had nowhere near enough to buy a spaceship, even a junked one like she had planned. But what else could she do? The only way Leia would ever get off Tatooine was if she had a spaceship, and she'd only get a spaceship if she bought one herself.
After a making a few more tweaks on the comm. link, Leia got back to work on cleaning up the droids. C-3PO was already being lifted from the oil bath. Leia was working on R2 when she noticed all the wear on the small droid.
"You've got a lot of carbon scoring. Seems you two guys have seen a lot of action." noticed Leia.
"With all we've been through…sometimes I'm amazed we're in as good condition as we are…what with the rebellion and all." responded C-3PO.
That got Leia's attention. The young girl turned around, her brown eyes fixated on C-3PO. Had that droid just mentioned the rebellion? That couldn't be right. Sure, Leia had heard rumors about a rebellion rising up to fight against the Empire, but she never thought they were true. There had been a few small scale rebellions during the time the Empire first rose to power, but they had all been wiped out early on. The rebellion that most ever rumor she heard about spoke of a large scale organization, possible comprising of thousands of members. Leia knew she had to know more. She just had to.
"You know of the rebellion against the Empire?" questioned Leia.
"That's how we came to be in your service, if you take my meaning, madam." told C-3PO.
R2 whistled his own response.
"Have you been in any battles?" curiously asked Leia.
"Several, I believe. There's not much to tell. I'm not much of an interpreter and not very good at telling stories. Well, not at making them interesting, anyway." replied C-3PO.
Leia could tell she wasn't going to get much else from the droid. So she turned her attentions back to R2, finishing up her work.
"Alright, little guy…you've got something stuck in her pretty good. C-3Po, were you and R2 on a Starcruiser or—" began Leia.
Leia yanked out whatever had been caught in R2. The young girl was set flying backwards, landing rather clumsily on her back. Righting herself to a sitting position, Leia took notice that a holographic recording had been activated from R2.
The message was of a person, a young man perhaps not much older than Leia herself. Leia observed the holographic image of the young man. The young man had a slim body and muscular physique. He was dressed in a white military like uniform. Leia thought she could see a blaster and some cylinder like device handing from the young man's belt, but they were block from view by the formal white cloak he wore. The hood of the cloak was brought up over the young man's head, but Leia could still clearly see his face. Even though the hologram was tinted blue and had a small glitch, Leia could still make out that the young man had neatly kept shoulder length hair and piercing blue eyes.
"Help us, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You are our only hope. Help us, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You are our only hope. Help us, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You are our only hope." repeatedly the message.
"Who's he?" wondered Leia.
Leia felt strangely attracted to the young man in the hologram. It felt like she knew him from somewhere, but she could not remember where from.
"She asked you a question, R2? And, what is that?" asked C-3PO.
R2 beeped his answer. C-3Po kindly translated the other droids beeping.
"He says it's nothing, madam, merely a malfunction. Old data. Pay it no mind." translated C-3PO.
"Who is he? He's very handsome. Definitely not from Tatooine, or the Outer Rim, by the looks of him." spoke Leia.
"I'm afraid I'm not quite sure, madam. I think he was a passenger on our last voyage. A person of some importance, I believe. Our captain was—" began explaining C-3PO.
"Is there anymore of this recording?" interrupted Leia.
R2 beeped out an answer. C-3PO looked at the other droid, not amused with his friend's behavior.
"Behave yourself, R2. You're going to get us into trouble. It's alright. We can trust her. She is our new master." assured C-3PO.
R2 gave his answer which C-3PO quickly translated. Leia made a mental not to learn what R2 was saying. She didn't always want to rely on C-3PO to translate if she needed information from him in a hurry.
"He says he's the property of Obi-Wan Kenobi, a resident of these parts…and it's a private message for him. Quite frankly madam, I don't know what he's talking about. Our last master was Captain Antilles. But with all we've been through, this R2 unit has become a bit eccentric." stated C-3PO.
Leia seemed to ignore the latter part of C-3PO's speech. She wondered who this Obi-Wan Kenobi could be. And what connection did he have with these droids and the rebellion? It seemed Leia just kept getting more and more questions with fewer and fewer answers.
"Obi-Wan Kenobi. Perhaps he's related to old Ben Kenobi?" wondered aloud Leia.
"I beg your pardon, madam, but do you understand what he is talking about?" asked C-3PO.
"I might. I don't know anyone named Obi-Wan…but old Ben lives out beyond the Dune Sea. He's a bit of a strange old hermit. My uncle doesn't like me going anywhere near him, but I kind of like the old man." answered Leia.
Leia looked back at the hologram. The message was still playing in that continuous loop. It sounded like the young man as in trouble, and more than just he was in danger from how he was speaking. She had to play back the entire message from the beginning. That was the only way Leia knew she might get some answers to her continually growing array of questions.
"Do you know how to play the message from the beginning?" kindly asked Leia.
R2 gave a few quick beeps and whistles.
"He says the restraining bolt has short-circuited his recording system. He suggests that if you remove the bolt…he might be able to play back the entire recording." translated C-3PO.
Leia quickly removed the restraining bolt. As soon as the restraining bolt was removed, the holographic image disappeared. Now Leia was furious. The droid was supposed to play the entire message, not hide it from her.
"Play back the message." ordered Leia.
R2 beeped and whistled in a tone that Leia thought was disbelief.
"What do you mean by "What message?" The one you're carrying inside your rusty innards." spoke C-3PO
"Leia. Leia!" called Beru.
Leia rose from the ground. She pushed the message to the back of her mind for the moment, answering back to her aunt.
"I'll be there, Aunt Beru." called back Leia.
"I'm sorry, madam, but he seems to have picked up a slight flutter." apologised C-3PO.
"That's alright. See if you can fix him. I can't keep my aunt waiting." sighed Leia.
Quickly leaving the garage, Leia ran back to the house. She heard the two droids talking, but she was unable to make out exactly what they were saying.
Beru and Owen sat at the table ready to eat. Leia came into the dining room jut as her aunt and uncle were about to start eating. Taking a seat at the table, Beru handed her niece a plate.
"I think that R2 unit might be stolen." randomly brought up Leia.
"What makes you think that?" flatly asked Owen.
"I came across a recording while cleaning him. He said he belonged to someone named Obi-Wan Kenobi." explained Leia.
Owen and Beru's faces went blank. Leia didn't notice the expressions on her uncle and aunt's faces as she continued explaining what she had discovered about the droids.
"I thought he could belong to Ben Kenobi. Do you know what he is talking about?" politely asked Leia.
Owen shook his head.
"Maybe he's related to Ben." wondered aloud Leia.
"That wizard's just a crazy old man. I don't want you going anywhere near him. Tomorrow, you're going to take that R2 unit to Anchorhead and have its memory erased. Do you understand, Leia?" calmly demanded Owen.
"But what if this Obi-Wan comes looking for his droid?" questioned Leia.
"He won't. I don't think he's around anymore. He died around the same time as your father." flatly responded Owen.
"He knew my father?" gasped Leia.
"I told you to forget it. You're only concern should be to prepare those new droids for tomorrow. In the morning, I want them on the south ridge, working on those condensers." declared Owen.
"Yes, sir. I think those new droids will work out fine. In fact, I was also thinking about our agreement—about me staying on another season. And if these new droids do work out, then I want to buy a ship and do some traveling." calmly said Leia.
"You mean right before the harvest." said Owen.
"You have more than enough droids to help you, Uncle Owen. You don't need me here for that." insisted Leia.
"The harvest is when I need you the most, Leia. It's only another season. And where are you going to buy a ship anyway. If this harvest works out I'll have enough to hire a few extra hands. And after that, if we have enough saved up, you can buy a ship and travel anywhere you like, next year." exclaimed Owen.
"But that's another year." complained Leia.
"It's only another season, Leia." said Owen.
"That's what you said last time, Uncle Owen." reminded Leia.
Leia got up from the table, walking out of the dining room.
"Where are you going. Leia?" asked Beru.
"Nowhere it seems." replied Leia.
As Leia walked back to the garage, she caught a bit of her uncle and aunt talking to each other.
"You can't keep her here forever, Owen. She's a grown woman now." stated Beru.
"I'll make it up to her. Nest year." stiffly responded Owen.
"Leia's not a farmer, Owen. She's too much like her father." spoke Beru.
"That's what I'm afraid of." sighed Owen.
Owen and Beru went back to their meal, not another word said between them.
I've had this idea in my head for a while. I'm going to try and make it different than the movies, but still try to be as close as possible. Comment if you like the story.