/A.N./ DISCLAIMER: I do not own Star Was or anything it contains. That belongs to LucasFilm and Disney. This idea and how the characters and story plays out is mine, however.
Only rated T because of violence and darkness.
"Tell me a story!"
Big brown eyes looked up at Bail Organa. Leia, his adopted daughter. His daughter. He could only smile at the young girl.
"What type of story, darling?" he asked as he eased himself into a nearby chair. The plush cushion felt heavenly on his tired bones. Governing a system and representing his people in the senate wore on a person in time.
She climbed up his lap, even with her adorable patterned dress clinging to her calves. "Something with heroes and battles and that sort."
Something panged in his stomach. Battles. He'd been in many.
"Of the Clone Wars." She concluded, smiling brightly at him.
He nodded and stroked her brown hair as she arranged herself in his lap.
"As you wish," he said, giving his voice the weight and air he used at a senatorial announcement of some kind. His daughter giggled.
"In the clone wars, there was a mighty warrior that stood above the rest. The 'Hero Without Fear," the holonews called him. He fought in the first full scale battle in a thousand years," Bail's voice soared in his practiced story telling voice, enveloping the child on his lap.
"And, he stood his ground in the very last battle."
Blue blaster bolts flashed past his mind's eye. Thumps like earthquakes vibrated against his feet, one for each body that fell to the ground.
"most people hear that the mighty Jedi council ordered the clone troops to attack their own temple, that the jedi knew too many secrets." He paused hearing Leia's short intake of air, "but those stories are not true. The troopers who marched into that temple were gripped with some sort of mind control."
He had known, trusted, some of those men. Bail could hardly be sure of his explanation to their betrayal. But he wanted to believe that.
"The fearless jedi knight slept in the temple that night, unaware of what would happen. He woke up to the sound of blaster fire and yelling."
"Always battle ready, he grabbed his weapon and ran out of the room. He followed the noise and his instincts. His head throbbed with the disturbances in the force. He knew something was terribly wrong."
Bail heard a quiet 'oh no" come from the girl in his lap. He would not tell her everything that happened that night. She was too young.
"The brave hero entered a large commonplace from the smaller hallways he had traveled. He saw a sight he never would have conceived of. Only something in nightmares."
Bail Organa stopped his retelling, thinking. Leia rocked back and forth on his thighs, waiting intently.