Piecing Together the Truth
Chapter 4
A short while after Aldric had left, a woman came to escort her to the room they had prepared, and at her behest Leia replaced the veil for the short journey there. Once she was alone again, she slumped down on the bed with a sigh, rubbing her head where she could already feel the start of a headache. A few more pieces of the puzzle had fallen into her lap, but it felt as though the shape of the puzzle had suddenly changed dramatically.
The more she learned the more it seemed unlikely that she was in a parallel universe, with the exception of the things she had found on Oberon, everything was too similar to what she knew. However, from what she did understand it had been some time since the Death Star. How much time she did not yet know, but it would have had to be enough for the sheer number of Alderaanians she had seen outside to have become displaced. As well as getting home, her next priority would be to find out exactly how much time had passed, then she could work out what had happened in the intervening time.
The room she was in was sparsely furnished but comfortable enough. She wondered if the room had been purposely kept in the case that they did find government officials. It made sense, but she couldn't help but feel guilty about the relative luxury given to her that was denied to all those sleeping in tents outside. Unlike them, who had potentially up to two months to wait before they would go home, she would be heading back to her family the next day. She remembered what the woman from earlier had said- the government officials were going to do their jobs. But that wasn't what she was doing, not really. She was simply being prioritised because she had been lucky enough to be adopted into the right family. But that didn't mean she couldn't do her part once she had returned, and she already knew that this outpost with all its problems could be a fitting subject for her attention.
The room had a desk, and a small pile of blank flimsis. With nothing else to do until morning, Leia sat at the desk, picked up a pen and started making her plans for when she would get home. Her astute mind already conjuring up a thousand different ways she could improve the running of this outpost and secure more funds to improve the staffing problems. The task occupied her for the rest of the day, with the only breaks she took for the meals which were brought to her.
The next morning, Leia woke with the dawn and prepared herself for the day ahead quickly. Digging through the holdall, she found herself rejecting every possible combination of clothes in frustration. There was nothing in that collection that she felt would be appropriate for seeing her family. The fake Alderaanian white dress was out of the question. She wouldn't be able to wear it without feeling like an imposter. The rest of the colours were all too bold and bright, and with some reluctance she settled on a blue blouse that was at least slightly more subdued that the fiery reds and bold greens. She spent more time on her hair, carefully re-working it into a set of traditional plaits that she had been wearing for the past few days.
As ready as she could be, Leia went back to work on her plans as she waited for someone to come tell her what was happening. She was midway through writing up some possibilities of fundraising when there was a soft knock at the door. It was the woman from the previous day, carrying a breakfast tray and a datapad which had already been set to the news channels.
"Good morning, Your Highness." The woman greeted politely as she set the tray down. "Your escort is scheduled to arrive later today."
Leia thanked her politely and waited until the door had shut again before she even dared to look at the news. She was grateful that she had, as a quick look at the date had made her stagger back in surprise. Four years. It had been four years since she had been captured on the Death Star. It seemed an impossibly long amount of time, and yet also not long enough. It was strange to think that within a mere four years the empire had been defeated. Four years might also explain that strange unknown difference she had observed in the mirror, ageing that much would surely have had an effect on her features as she turned from a nineteen year old girl to a twenty-three year old woman.
With the initial shock wearing off, she started reading through as many articles as she could rest her eyes on, eager to find out exactly what she had missed. The first few articles were more than she thought she could bear. They detailed her parents' first return to Alderaan after their extended absence. From what she read it seemed as though they had been arrested shortly after she had been captured on the Death Star, and imprisoned on opposite sides of the galaxy. Shortly after the empire's defeat and the destruction of the second Death Star- second Death Star? What had happened to the first?- they had been rescued by the military of the New Republic and only in the last few days had they finally made it home. The holographs that accompanied the articles were not particularly reassuring, they mostly depicted her parents' reunion with her aunts who had been ruling Alderaan ever since the planet had overthrown their imperial masters. The Queen and Viceroy looked far thinner than when she had last seen them, and they were both grim-faced and serious-looking as they embraced her aunts. She wondered if they had been told of her survival, and how they would have reacted.
Leia lingered for a long time over those articles until she thought to search for any news on herself. There was distressingly little information, and most of the articles she found during her first search had all been on her supposed death, as confirmed by Vader. Annoyingly, the articles only briefly spoke on this matter before they memorialised her life and her achievements, all of which she already knew as none of it spoke of the time after the Death Star.
Her continued research was interrupted by another knock on the door, and this time she opened it to find Aldric and another familiar face in an unfamiliar uniform.
"Princess Leia." Carlist Rieekan greeted with a wide smile.
"General." She returned, only knowing to address him so because of the bars on his uniform. He had certainly risen in the ranks since she had last seen him.
"I'll let you both get re-acquainted." Aldric said, and after a curt nod at the general and a short bow to Leia, he departed. Leia opened the door further, allowing Carlist to walk in, and shut it behind him.
"It is good to see you so well, Your Highness." Carlist said formally. "We had assumed the worst, as I'm sure you've already heard."
While his words were those of a polished professional speaking to his future sovereign, a slight shine to his eyes spoke far more than his crisp acknowledgements of basic facts. Carlist had known her since she was a child, and had worked closely with her once she had joined the rebellion. The news of her death, fabricated as it had been, would have struck far more of an emotional blow to the man in front of her than an outsider might have expected. Looking at him concealing his own emotions, Leia felt a thick lump rise to her throat and she struggled to stop her eyes from welling up with tears. He was something she knew and cared about, and it seemed like so long since she spoken to someone like that.
"It is good to see you as well." She returned cordially. For a moment she felt an almost absurd need to hug him, which she restrained with some effort. "I heard it was Vader who told everyone I was dead."
"Not everyone." Carlist corrected lightly. "Your parents went to see him on Coruscant after they were retrieved from the prisons they had been held in, it was he who told them, and they who told the galaxy."
"Why would they go see Vader?" Leia asked with a frown, the bigger question on her mind left unsaid- why did Vader lie? Carlist looked a little bit taken aback by her question, and his next question reflected his surprise.
"Leia- I mean, Your Highness, you've been missing for four years. Vader is the last person we know to have had definite contact with you before you disappeared. They thought he might have known what had happened to you."
Uneasily, Leia nodded at the explanation while her mind raced to deal with this new piece of information. Four years. It was roughly the same amount of time that she had lost, indicating that she had disappeared at approximately the same time she had been arrested on the Death Star. This seemed to lend some credence to her theory that she had somehow travelled forward in time, and she might have accepted it more easily as an explanation if she had woken in this time wearing the same clothes she had disappeared in. Nor could time travel explain the hotel room. Was it possible that she had simply forgotten the last four years? That seemed unlikely as well. Memories didn't just disappear on their own, and there had been no obvious evidence of a head injury that might have caused such an occurrence. More importantly, if she had been around the last four years then why had no one known where she was or doubted Vader's claim?
"Did Vader say anything about how I supposedly died?" Leia asked. If she had suddenly vanished in plain sight to be transported to this time, it was feasible to think that Vader might believe her dead.
"If he did, then their majesties did not see fit to tell me anything on the subject." Carlist replied sympathetically. "I'm sure they will tell you when you have the chance to ask them." His gaze softened as one side of his lips quirked up slightly. "Although I imagine that will not be high on their list of priorities."
"How did they react when they found out I was alive?" Leia blurted out suddenly, and flushed to her roots. Carlist did not seem to mind her abrupt question, and he looked slightly uncomfortable as he answered her question.
"Sceptically, I'm afraid. Not that anyone would blame them." At her enquiring look, he continued to explain his meaning." After the Tantive IV was captured by the Death Star, we were told by the empire that you had been killed in a tragic accident. We all doubted it was true, of course. But as more time went by and there were no rumours or reports of any sightings, we all started to believe it at least a little, and that belief grew over the years. Vader's admission robbed us of any lingering doubt."
"But why did they just believe Vader at his word?" Leia demanded. It was something that had bothered her since the previous day when Aldric had first mentioned her supposed death. "Surely he had every incentive to lie about it?" At that Carlist looked even more confused, and she couldn't help but wonder what part of the puzzle she was missing.
"Have you seen much of the news in the past few weeks?" He asked curiously, and after a moment's hesitation she shook her head. "Vader has been helping the alliance." Carlist admitted, and Leia could not have been more shocked if he had confessed to coercing the information using sexual favours. "I know it seems unbelievable." He said hastily. "But it's the truth. Ever since we destroyed the second Death Star, he has cooperated at every step. Without his help our victory against the Empire would have been nowhere near as assured."
Leia allowed his words to sink in, and for the first time since she had arrived in this time she felt the sudden weight of everything hit her. In all her posturing and theorizing, she had never really stopped to digest that the empire had been defeated. This time she was helpless to stop the tears from falling and wetting her eyelashes, through a misty gaze she smiled widely at Carlist, nearly delirious with happiness.
"We won, didn't we?"
"We did!" He grinned back just as fiercely. Before either of them quite knew what had happened they were hugging tightly, overwhelmed by the emotions of the day and the ecstatic realisation that the empire was finally, finally, on the back foot. As quickly as the emotions came, they also calmed and they both stepped back again rather sheepishly at the unbecoming display.
"I should take you home." Carlist said, looking slightly red-faced with embarrassment at his unprofessional display of emotion. He had after all just indulged in a moment of weakness and hugged his future monarch. "I'm sure you will want to see your parents just as much as they want to see you."
"I hope so." Leia agreed.
Carlist allowed her to pack up her possessions and then escorted her to the ship he had requisitioned for this particular mission. She was given the captain's cabin, and from what she could see it had been recently cleaned and did not seem to have been used on the journey to Yavin. Carlist had probably been all too aware that she would sleep in that bunk, and had chosen to use the crew cabins during his travels.
In her cabin, Leia sat on the bunk and thought over what awaited her. The thought of finally reuniting with her parents caused her eyes to well with tears. From her perspective she had only seen them a few days ago, but it felt like so much longer. In a relatively short space of time her entire life had been completely upended. The mission she had planned on dedicating her life to had already been resolved, leaving her feeling stranded and strangely purposeless. Especially in the light of the huge changes that had befallen Alderaan. From what she had gathered, the planet had come under a rigid imperial rule which had removed all the freedoms the inhabitants had previously taken for granted. How could she even be an effective senator when she had no idea what they had endured? She doubted she would even be able to comprehend it, so how could she effectively represent them and their problems?
Then there was the issue of her parents. Carlist had already somewhat reluctantly warned her of their scepticism of her survival. Would that disappear as soon as they set eyes on each other, or would they watch the stranger in their midst warily? She appeared untouched from by the suffering and misery and war of the last four years. And what would happen once she explained that she had no idea where she had been or what she had done in that extended period of time? Would they think her some sort of imposter? Maybe she was. She hadn't considered cloning as a possibility yet, although that theory too was full of holes. As far as she was aware it was not yet possible to create a clone of a specific age, so unless someone had taken her DNA as a baby it was very unlikely that she was a clone of the original Leia Organa. And a clone would not have her memories either.
"Your Highness?" Carlist poked his head around the door she had left open. "We should be arriving at Alderaan in a few hours."
"Thank you, General." Leia replied, still deep in thought.
"I hope you don't mind me asking," he began, shifting uncomfortably on the spot, "but where have you been the last few years? It's something I've been curious about ever since I received the call to come collect you." His question caught her attention, and she found herself meeting his eyes for a brief moment before she looked away.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." He apologised.
"You have nothing to be sorry for." Leia stated simply. "It's not an easy question to answer." She sighed, and bit her lip as she tried to think of a way to phrase it. "To put it simply, I don't know where I've been." At that his brow furrowed in confusion as he tried to make sense of what she had said.
"Do you mean you didn't know where you had been held?"
"No, not that." She replied pensively. "Something happened a few days ago, I don't know what. But a few days ago I had just been captured by Vader and then- somehow- I arrived here, in this time."
"You… time-travelled?" She could tell from his voice the incredulity he was struggling to hide.
"I know it sounds crazy." She said softly, raising her head to she could meet his gaze. "But that's what happened. One minute I was on the Death Star, and the next I wasn't. I've been trying to figure it out ever since." Carlist was silent for a while as he absorbed the revelation.
"Once you've had the chance to reunite with your parents, you should speak to Luke." He advised. "He might have some idea of what happened."
"Luke?" Leia asked curiously. She didn't think she knew anyone by that name. Carlist looked a little surprised that she didn't know who he meant, and then realisation dawned on his face as he remembered her recent revelation.
"Yes, Commander Skywalker. He's a Jedi. He was instrumental in the defeat of the empire."
"A Jedi?" She asked in shock, and then hope. "Did General Kenobi receive the plans I sent with my droids?"
"He did." Carlist confirmed with a smile that slowly faded. "General Kenobi took on Luke as a student until he was killed by Vader. If your arrival here is in any way due to the Force, then Luke might be able to help you understand it."
"I see." Leia said thoughtfully. She had not really considered the Force at any time during her theorizing- mostly because she didn't really know that much about it. It might help to explain some of her more outlandish ideas. "Thank you, General."
"I'll let you know when we're close to arrival." He told her kindly, and slipped away so she could ponder what he had said.
Author's Note: Not going to lie, but half of the fun of this fic is throwing theories at you. So we now have a when, but not a how. Leia certainly has a few theories, but what do you guys think? A few of you have asked about Han, and I can confirm he will show up but can't confirm when. I am curious as to whether any of you have formed any ideas about what he's been doing the last four years- has he followed the same plot as the original trilogy or veered off it?