Let's be honest here: I do not, and will likely never own Star Wars.
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Leia Skywalker, was doing her best to not attack the vaporator she was trying ‒ and failing ‒ to repair. The recalcitrant valve adjuster on the temperamental machine was malfunctioning again. The slight blonde sent up a prayer to the Force to give her strength, but it didn't answer, and so, swearing, she resorted to hitting it continuously.
As her thin but deceptively strong arm attempted to beat the apparatus into submission, her short hair gleamed in the light of the twin suns that shone in the sky of the dustball she reluctantly called home.
Giving the metal contraption one final whack, Leia gave up on solving the problem the mundane way. Pushing her locks out of her startlingly blue eyes, she checked to make sure no one was in the vicinity. After reaffirming that she was the only one out there (not that there was really any doubt), the young woman put her hand on the valve adjuster and closed her eyes.
Calling on the Force the way her adoptive uncle had taught her, she focused on the troublesome and stupid machine. A few moments later, she opened her eyes, pleased to have succeeded in her task. Leia sat back on her heels for a few seconds, content to enjoy the moment. Shielding her eyes from the blindingly bright suns, the young Skywalker looked up at the pale blue expanse above her, caught up in thoughts of leaving the desert planet behind.
A green flash in the otherwise blue sky caught the girl's attention, and she drew out her set of macrobinoculars and focused in on the multi-coloured blasts scattering in the sky. As Leia watched the bright bursts, she quickly forgot about chores and vaporators, and, after reattaching the binoculars to her belt, the blonde practically leapt into her speeder. Working as fast as possible, she got the old engine running, and took off.
The man breathed in and out, centering himself in the Force. Focusing outwards, Obi-Wan Kenobi listened to the murmurings of the energy around him. Something was going to happen soon, the Force was telling him, something revolving around…
Feeling a familiar Force signature, he opened his blue-gray eyes and rose from his kneeling position on the sandy floor. Stretching slightly to restore feeling to his limbs, the Jedi Master walked to the door, and upon opening it, saw his precious niece pull up in her rusty vehicle much like her father ‒ recklessly.
Sighing fondly at the sheer concentration of Anakin's genes in his daughter, the wizened man exited his humble home to greet the young woman as she jumped out of her speeder, almost taking flight in her excitement.
The years had not been kind to the old Jedi. Guilt and sadness had caused him to age at a faster rate than the average human. Hair that was once completely ginger had but a few streaks of its former colour remained, and there were enough wrinkles on his face to ‒ as he would jokingly say ‒ rival those of Master Yoda's. However, his eyes, almost out of place with the rest of him, still shone with a spark in them.
"Hello little Leia," Obi-Wan stated fondly, "What brings you here?"
Leia's cheeks puffed out a little bit, "I'm not little," she muttered petulantly, and Obi-Wan was once again beset with memories of his former Padawan at fourteen years old.
He walked up to the short female and ruffled her hair, chuckling softly at the pout she gave him, "When you get to my age, anybody younger than you is little, and everybody older is ancient."
Leia grumbled a bit, frequently repeating 'not little anymore' and 'twenty years old' before getting back to her original train of thought, and almost immediately started jumping up and down with childish excitement, completely contradicting her previous statements, "Uncle Ben! There's a space battle happening above us!"
Obi-Wan raised his eyebrow, and decided to play dumb, having sensed the dark presence and lost lives earlier, for Leia's sake, "Is that so, little Leia?"
Ignoring the nickname, she enthusiastically nodded her head as she stretched out her hand with the macrobinoculars in it.
"Yeah! Do you think it could be the Rebellion?"
The Jedi took the macrobinoculars and raised them to his eyes, never mind the fact that he didn't actually need them, and gazed upwards at where Leia was pointing. After a few moments, he returned the binoculars to Leia and stated, "It appears as if your space battle is over."
"What!?" the energetic blonde grabbed at the pair of binoculars and stared up at the spot where she was sure there had been blasts of a battle. Sure enough, the sky was clear of anything but the colour blue. Her mouth dropped open a little bit, "But I swear I saw…"
Obi-Wan decided to take the discussion indoors, before the binary suns blinded the girl staring upwards in disbelief. He all but pulled the dumbstruck blonde through the door and sat her down.
Thinking that her beloved uncle didn't believe her, the niece started stammering, "But...I know it was there‒!"
The old man took pity on her and interrupted before she started monologuing about what she had seen, "I know you did, Leia."
The rambling girl stopped mid-sentence, "You do?"
"Through the Force, you can feel many things. The past, the present, the future, far away and near by," He leaned over to the young woman and poked her forehead, "Did you forget that already?"
Leia scrunched up her face, and upon processing his words, narrowed her eyes and thought it out. Eventually she muttered to herself, "Forgot about that..." her thoughts immediately snagged on another part of his statement, "You were going to help me extend my range next, right?"
Obi-Wan smiled at her immediate excitement and nodded. But before she could start leaping off of the walls, added, "However, you should probably be getting back to the Lars homestead. I foresee your uncle will be quite a sight to behold should you stay here any longer."
Leia giggled as she stood up. As she was starting up her speeder, the blonde paused and asked Obi-Wan the question that he hadn't answered, "Uncle Ben, do you think it was the Rebellion?"
The Jedi Master contemplated her question before answering, "Oh yes. It most definitely was."
Pulling up to the small homestead, the small female got out of the old vehicle with considerably less vigour than she had previously. Moving quietly, Leia prayed that nobody had noticed that she had gotten back later than she technically should've.
"Hello, Leia."
Busted.
"Hi, Aunt Beru," Leia replied, turning slowly as she waited for the chewing out about being late.
The older woman was standing behind her, eyebrow raised and arms crossed. A small smile, however, reduced the intimidation factor of the aunt's stance, "You were spending time with Ben Kenobi again, weren't you?" Beru asked, although it was clearly a rhetorical question.
When the short woman could offer no reply, her aunt just shook her head and beckoned the blonde, "Come on, the Jawas are going to be here at any moment."
As Leia followed Beru, she once again felt the insistent desire to leave her home planet. She loved her Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen. They had taken her in, provided for her, protected her (quite insistently and strongly in Owen's case) and loved her. But the female Skywalker couldn't help but feel that she was meant for something more than living her life on the sand-ridden and hopeless planet she had grown up on.
"Leia!" It was her uncle. The Jawas must have arrived.
As Leia darted up the stairs of the Lars homestead and out to where her uncle was standing by the massive Jawa transport, she got the feeling that maybe she wouldn't have to wait long for her life to change.
AN: Ok, I owe you guys such a massive apology. Like, Death Star Mrk. 2 massive. I AM SO SORRY! I had planned for this to be out weeks ago, but sadly, literally right after I published the prologue, my laptop broke down. And we weren't able to get up and running until two weeks ago. And then there were exams, and I got the Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix for Christmas. I spent over 60 hours on it just over the first 3 weeks of me owning it. And then, after I got my laptop fixed, this chapter would not be written! Seriously! I honestly feel this chapter is terrible. So I owe you guys an even greater apology for that. I promise the next ones will be better (at least after I get to the part with the burning homestead). I'm going to be away for a while starting March 3rd, so I'm going to do my best to churn out at least two more chapters before then.
So a little bit of explaining: Obi-Wan got to see Leia at least once every two months during her childhood, and when she started getting older, the visits (courtesy of Owen Lars) got spaced farther and farther apart. Eventually, after Leia started going out on her own (18-ish? maybe older, can't forget, Owen lost his stepmother to Sand People, so he would be especially cautious with Leia), Leia started going to visit Obi-Wan. Then Obi-Wan started teaching Leia how to really use the Force. He couldn't do much because while Leia may have been able to see him more than before, she still couldn't stay long, and he also didn't want to draw the attention of the Empire. Which is why she didn't know how to stretch her senses that far. She knew to trust her feelings, manipulate things, lift them, shielding techniques, and how to sense things within a few kilometres, but she hasn't been able to tap into her full potential.
I didn't include Biggs in this chapter because I didn't quite know how to fit it in. Let's just say he had gone back earlier and that's when he and Leia had their discussion about joining the Rebellion.
By the way, how would you classify things as from Alderaan? I couldn't remember, and that was a big part of why I didn't do the C-3PO and such bit was because I couldn't remember if it was Alderaani or Alderaanian. Although it was also because I want to focus more on Leia and Obi-Wan for this story (as it progresses, I'm likely going to start focusing more on Leia).
Please drop a review and some constructive criticism! What did I do well, what do I need to work on?
Thank you very much by the way for reading! ^_^