notes: Look at me getting another chapter up! Thank you so much (again) to everyone who reviewed. You really made my week!

Huge, huge thanks to my betas, tumblr users absynthe-minded and princess-sansa-of-ithilien (and sorry for forgetting to mention y'all before ."). Without you this fic wouldn't be what it is.


CHAPTER 6

The next week passed in a blur of boredom for Leia.

The morning after the strange events in the throne room, an Imperial Guard arrived and unlocked the binder holding her to the bed. Leia, groggy and still half-asleep, did not protest when the Guard lifted her down from the bed and proceeded to push her out the door and down the hall. The Guard did not speak, even when Leia asked where they were going. He only grunted once, and cuffed Leia on the side of the head, silencing her.

She was brought to another medical room five floors up. It was nearly identical to the room she had awakened in, but for the fact that all the lights in the hall outside her door were working, and there was no sound of leaky pipes. The bed was also slightly bigger, and had a reclining back—though the control was taken from her almost as soon as she was lifted onto it. The Guard produced another binder and, fastening it first around Leia's wrist, locked her to the bedside railing. Leia sighed and frowned, tugging uselessly at the binder in the vain hope that this one would be weaker.

Time was a very nebulous thing for Leia, stretching and shrinking and passing with varying swiftness. She was brought food three times a day, and she was escorted to the 'fresher twice—once after breakfast and once after dinner. Other than that, however, the only way for Leia to track how much time had passed was by the changing of the Stormtrooper guard, which stood just inside the door of her room.

A doctor came in after breakfast on the second day. He was dressed in a flowing white coat over a blue tunic and black breeches, a stylus trapped behind his right ear. He was handsome, Leia thought, with dark hair and blue eyes and a chin trimmed with a sharply cut beard. His voice was rich and soft.

Leia thought that maybe—just maybe—this was a man she could trust.

"How are you feeling today, Leia?" the man asked, smiling.

"I'm okay," Leia said, looking up at him with a tentative smile of her own.

"Good," the man said, rich and warm. "My name is Dr. Ammit."

"Nice to meet you," Leia said, trying to be polite. This was the first time someone had been kind to her since the Twelfth Brother took her, and she wanted to be as nice and good as possible in the hope that he would continue being kind. Maybe, Leia dared to hope, he'll help me.

"Let's get that binder off of you," Dr. Ammit said. He reached out, a key in hand, and tapped it against the binder latched around Leia's left wrist. It popped open, and Leia stretched and clenched her hand, feeling the blood rush into it. She was careful not to rub it, however, as two long, ugly sores had appeared where the cuff had chafed against her skin.

"Thank you," she said with another smile for Dr. Ammit.

"Can you stand for me?" he asked.

Leia climbed off the bed and stood shakily. Her feet were cold and numb from disuse, but they held her up—a fact for which she was grateful. She remembered almost falling the last time she had stood, a cramp unexpectedly seizing the muscle in her right calf.

"Very good," Dr. Ammit said, and he smiled at Leia again. "Let's go for a walk."

They walked up and down the long corridor outside Leia's room, the two Stormtroopers that had been standing guard at Leia's door flanking them. Leia's legs were shaky, and she stumbled a couple of times, Dr. Ammit's steadying hand the only thing keeping her from falling down.

"I'm sorry," Leia said, the second time it happened. "I don't usually trip."

"It's okay, Leia," Dr. Ammit said reassuringly. "Your body is still recovering from being poisoned, and you've spent a lot of time just sitting. It's only natural for your coordination to be affected."

Leia frowned, unconvinced. She had long been regarded as graceful, and that was something she was proud of. She wasn't supposed to trip over smooth tiled floors.

They returned to her room, and Dr. Ammit ran a few tests, taking her blood and listening to her heart and lungs. Unlike with the woman doctor—who Leia hadn't seen in days—Leia cooperated with Dr. Ammit.

He finished, and had turned to leave, when Leia grabbed the sleeve of his lab coat. "Dr. Ammit?" she asked quietly. "Will you do something for me?"

"What is it?" Dr. Ammit asked.

"Will you call Mon Mothma or Carlist Rieekan and tell them where I am? I'm sure they're worried."

Dr. Ammit smiled. "I'll see what I can do," he promised.

Leia leaned back against her pillows with a sigh and a smile. Aunt Mon or Master Carlist would be coming for her soon, and then this nightmare would be over. She just had to wait a little longer.

~oOo~

Dr Ammit returned each day after breakfast. He walked with Leia—first just up and down the one hall, then on longer walks throughout the Medical Wing—and they talked. Leia tripped less and less each day, and though her legs cramped twice more, each time was less severe than the one before.

"Why didn't I trip before?" Leia asked the third day, frustrated. "Back when I was taken to the throne room." She had almost fallen again, her legs unexpectedly buckling. She also felt dizzy and lightheaded, and was mildly nauseous. The nausea had been a slowly growing thing, the food she ate each day knotting into a little ball in the pit of her stomach.

"You were afraid," Dr. Ammit said. "Or at least, I suspect you were afraid. I know I'm always afraid when I have to go before the Emperor. I think you were probably in what we call "Survival Mode". You were running on adrenaline and fear, which both provide strength and resilience, and kept your body from failing on you. I believe you're more comfortable now, though, meaning your body is more willing to listen to its weakness."

Leia sighed, irritated. "I guess," she muttered. She was still annoyed.

"You were poisoned, Leia," Dr. Ammit reminded her. "Even if it's gone from your system, there are going to be lasting effects."

"Oh," Leia said. She hadn't thought of it that way.

"You'll be better soon," Dr. Ammit assured her. "You get stronger every day."

Leia nodded. "I just want it to be done now," Leia said. "I'm tired of feeling bad."

"I know. It's going to be okay."

Every day, after Dr. Ammit drew her blood and listened to her lungs and heart, Leia asked him about Aunt Mon and Master Carlist.

"I'm working on it," Dr. Ammit said each day, with a reassuring smile and a squeeze of Leia's hand.

On the twelfth day, however, his face fell at her question. The ball in Leia's stomach—which had continued to grow each day, despite her returning strength—tightened, and Leia swallowed uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry, Leia," he said. "But both Carlist Rieekan and Mon Mothma said they didn't want you."

Leia looked at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. "But—but no," she cried. "No, I know that's not what they said. Aunt Mon promised Papá that she'd take care of me if anything happened to him. I know—they told me that!"

Dr. Ammit shook his head. "I'm sorry, Leia," he said. "I talked to her yesterday. She said she wanted to cede her custody to the Emperor."

Leia shook her head. "But what about Master Carlist?" she asked. "Didn't he want me?"

"He said he's too busy to take come for you."

"But what about when he's not busy?"

It was Dr. Ammit's turn to shake his head. "I'm sorry, Leia," he said again. "I know this is hard to hear. But they don't want you. They made that perfectly clear to me."

"No," Leia said, shaking her head even harder. "No!" Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, then spilled down over her cheeks. "No, they said...they said they loved me."

Dr. Ammit sat down on the edge of her bed and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, Leia," he said soothingly. "You have me. You have the Emperor."

"But I don't want the Emperor," Leia sobbed. "I want Aunt Mon. I want Master Carlist."

Dr. Ammit rubbed circles down Leia's back and let her cry. "I'm going to give you a mild sedative," he said at last, as Leia's tears began to abate. "It will help you sleep. You'll feel better when you wake up."

Leia sniffed and rubbed her nose and cheeks with the back of her free hand. "I don't want to sleep," she said miserably.

"It will help," Dr. Ammit promised. "I'll be right back."

He returned a moment later carrying a hypo. "Shhh," he murmured when Leia tried to jerk away. "This is going to help," he said again, and pressed the hypo against Leia's neck. There was a snick and a hiss, and Leia felt the cold rush of sedative beneath her skin.

She blinked. It was suddenly very hard for her to keep her eyes open. Then there was a hand on her shoulder, guiding her down to her pillow.

"Sleep, Leia," Dr. Ammit said softly. "You'll feel better when you wake."

Leia slept.

~oOo~

Dr. Amareus Ammit looked down at the sleeping girl and, for a fraction of a second, felt a flash of pity for her, and guilt for what he was doing. But then it was gone, buried beneath his fear and loyalty to his Emperor.

"Sleep well, little Leia," he said softly. "You aren't going to have much more of this for a very long time."

He turned and, nodding to the Stormtroopers at the door, left the room. He had a meeting with the Emperor in two hours—which would be just enough time to finish his latest report on the girl.

His office, as the Emperor's Chief Medical Officer, was in the corner of the top floor of the Medical Wing. Windows formed two walls, filling the room with daylight and, on the many nights he worked long after dark, a fantastic view of the city's nightlife. A couch sat in the corner formed by the windows, the rich blue blanket thrown over the back a sharp contrast to the dark mahogany wood of the coffee table in front of it. His desk sat in the corner opposite the couch, angled so that it formed a triangular space between it and the walls—plenty of space for the high-backed, cushioned chair. Bookshelves, filled with ancient tomes of medicine and newer stacks of datapads, lined the walls to the left of the desk and opposite it, surrounding the door.

Amareus sat at his desk and sighed. Though it was a constant in his life as a doctor, he hated paperwork. It almost made him wish for his days as a surgeon in the Clone War—then he had only had death certificates to fill out.

He shook his head at his own folly. His days as a surgeon had been the worst of his life, for all that some things were simpler. He still had nightmares about the blood and violence he had seen, and he wouldn't go back to being a woman if his life depended on it.

Out of habit, he touched the hormone implant embedded in the crook of his elbow. It was a small lump just beneath his skin, and it rolled as he pressed on it. The feeling was comforting, a reminder of who he was now, and who he no longer had to be.

Dragging his thoughts back to the matter at hand, Amareus booted on his computer and turned to the task of writing up a detailed report of the day's events with Leia. I believe she is now susceptible to accepting her place under Emperor Palpatine's control, he concluded. She is ready for the next stage of conditioning.

He saved the file to his personal datapad, checked the time, and rose. It was time for him to meet with the Emperor.

Ten minutes later he was seated in the Emperor's office. They had met daily since the announcement of Leia's parentage. It was a time to discuss her progress, her mental state, and to plan for her future.

"How was our little girl today?" Palpatine asked, leaning back in his chair and steepling his fingers before him, elbows on his chair's armrests.

"I told her that Mon Mothma and Carlist Rieekan abandoned her, as per your instructions," Amareus said. "She cried herself almost to exhaustion, and then I gave her a sedative to sleep. She should be unconscious for at least twelve hours."

"Good," the Emperor said. Then again, "Good. And before that?"

"She grows stronger by the day, though the guards tell me that she has nearly stopped eating. When I asked her about it, she just said that she wasn't feeling well."

"I see," said the Emperor. "Do you have any theories?"

"It could be anxiety," Amareus said. "Or it could be a latent effect of the poison. There's no real way to know."

The Emperor nodded. "But you say she grows stronger?"

Amareus nodded. "She should be ready to begin training by the end of the week, if her progress continues as it has."

"Good," said the Emperor again.

There was a pause, pregnant and expectant, full of the spirals of half-formed thoughts and words unsaid. Amareus watched the Emperor, seeing the darkness in his eyes, the cruel curl of his lips. Again Amareus wondered if he had been wrong to swear his loyalty to this man; he knew what Palpatine was, and what Palpatine was capable of. Even so, it was Palpatine who had made him so much more than a simple field surgeon, who had raised him out of the perdition of blood and death. Palpatine had given him hope and purposeagain—had even given him new life, as the man he had always been. Ever since then, Amareus had sworn his loyalty to him—and even if he disagreed with some of Palpatine's choices, that loyalty remained fast and true.

"I will go see her tomorrow," the Emperor said at last. "I think it is time that Leia Organa and I had another chat."

"As you say, Emperor," Amareus said. He hesitated, then asked, "Would you like me to accompany you?"

The Emperor nodded. "Yes. She trusts you."

Again, Amareus felt a flash of pity toward the girl, chased quickly by a pang of guilt. He was party to the destroying of this girl's life and soul. Should that not at least merit some form of sorrow?

But this girl would glorify the Empire, Amareus knew, built in the Emperor's image. She would cement his rule over the galaxy's fringe worlds, bringing the Outer Rim—and the Hutts controlling them—to heel. She would be the Emperor's Right Hand. And that, Amareus knew, would be worth the shattering of her innocence.

No, for all his feelings of pity and guilt, Amareus believed he was doing the right thing.

"I visit her after breakfast," he said. "Will you go to her then?"

"Yes," the Emperor said. Then he smiled. "I will see you in the morning then, Amareus."

Amareus stood and bowed. "As my Emperor commands." And, turning, he left the office.

~oOo~

Leia woke slowly, groggy and cotton-headed. She blinked grainy eyes and sat up gingerly, the world—white and cold and sterile—oozing around her. Her stomach clenched, the knot twisting like a knife in her belly, and for a long second Leia thought she would throw up. Then the moment passed, and she slumped back against her pillow. Memory rose unbidden and unwanted, and Leia brought her free hand up to press against her stinging eyes.

They don't want me, she thought. Tears seeped out from beneath Leia's hand, trickling down the sides of her face to wet her hair. They said they loved me, but they didn't. They don't.

They're not going to save me.

She had held so tightly to that hope that Aunt Mon or Master Carlist would come for her that, now that it was gone, she felt empty and cold. It was like a light in her chest had gone out, leaving everything dark and barren.

Will I be in this room forever? Leia wondered. Is this going to be my life now?

She thought about that—thought about growing old locked to the bed's railing, her only moments of freedom when Dr. Ammit came and walked with her through the white, cold halls. Though even then, Leia realized, she wasn't really free; the Stormtroopers always accompanied them, ever-present with the clack of their metal boots against the floor tiles.

Leia pressed her hand harder into her eyes, trying to stifle the tears.

No, she thought. I won't cry. I'm done crying. I have Dr. Ammit now. He'll help me. He said he would.

Resolute, Leia sniffed and sat back up, smearing her tears away with her free hand. She looked toward the door and wondered what time it was—and how long it would be until breakfast. She was hungry, if only a little bit, the first faint pains creeping out from the knot in her stomach.

It felt like forever—but was probably less than an hour—before the door opened and Dr. Ammit entered, carrying a tray.

"Good morning, Leia," he said with a warm smile, coming over to the bed and setting the tray down on Leia's lap. "I hope you're feeling better?"

"I am," Leia lied, forcing herself to smile up at her friend.

He sat down beside her and produced a skinned meiloorun. "I hope you don't mind if I eat with you?" he asked.

Leia shook her head, then added, "I don't mind."

"Good," Dr. Ammit said, and took a bite out of the juicy fruit.

Leia turned her attention to her own breakfast. It was oatmeal, brown with sugar and studded with raisins and nuts. Leia picked up her spoon and took a tentative bite. She had never been a fan of oatmeal, disliking the texture of the cooked oats—but she quickly took a second bite, then a third, to her surprise finding it delicious.

"How are you feeling, Leia?" Dr. Ammit asked after a few minutes of silent chewing. His voice was somber and serious, and he looked at her long and hard, as if he could strip away her words and flesh and find the answer in her bones.

Leia shrugged. Dr. Ammit continued to look at her, and Leia shifted slightly under his gaze, uncomfortable. Then, very suddenly, she blurted out, "Am I going to be in here for the rest of my life?"

"What?" Dr. Ammit asked.

"In here," Leia said, gesturing around the room with her spoon. "Am I going to stay here forever?"

Dr. Ammit laughed. Leia, affronted, glared at him. "It's not funny!" she protested.

"No, I'm sure it's not," Dr. Ammit said, quieting. He was still smiling, however. "To answer your question, though, no. You're not going to stay here forever. Just until you're better. I thought you knew that."

Leia frowned and looked down, jabbing at what was left of her oatmeal. "How long is that?"

"A few days, I think," Dr. Ammit said.

"Then what?"

Dr. Ammit was suddenly very serious. "It's not my place to say," he told her.

"Will you come with me?" Leia asked, looking up at him through her lashes.

"I'll be around," Dr. Ammit said.

Leia didn't like that answer. "That's not a yes," she said, accusing.

"No," Dr. Ammit admitted, smiling ruefully. "But it's not a 'no' either."

"I guess," Leia said. She sighed.

"Leia," Dr. Ammit said, leaning forward. He had finished his meiloorun. "There's someone very important who's coming to see you today. He's a very good friend of mine, and I want you to listen to what he has to say. Okay?"

Leia, confused suddenly wary, nodded. "Okay," she said.

Dr. Ammit smiled. "Good girl," he said, patting her knee. "Are you done with your breakfast?"

Leia nodded, and shoved the tray away. Dr. Ammit picked it up and carried it over to one of the Stormtroopers.

"Take this down to the kitchens, would you?" he asked.

"My orders—"

"I am aware of your orders," Dr. Ammit said, smoothly cutting in. "But I am asking you to take this tray down to the kitchens."

The Trooper hesitated, then said, "Yes, sir." He took the tray and was gone, the door sliding shut behind him.

"When will this friend of yours get here?" Leia asked as Dr. Ammit returned and sat at the foot of her bed.

"Soon," Dr. Ammit promised, smiling.

The word had scarcely left his mouth when the door opened again, admitting two red Imperial Guards. The Stormtrooper still standing guard snapped to a stiff salute as the Emperor himself walked through the door.

"Good morning, little Leia," he said, smiling. His cowl was thrown back from his head, leaving his scarred face and head visible.

Leia shrank away. She had never seen the Emperor without his cowl before, and it was a frightening sight to behold. He looked ancient, the deep furrows carved into his cheeks, forehead, and scalp etched like canyons of old age across his cracked and splitting skin. His eyes were a sick, rotting yellow—another detail Leia had never noticed before—and his browless, lashless lids blinked fast and narrow, like a snake.

Seeing Leia looking at him, the Emperor's smile widened. "Afraid of what you see, little Leia?" he asked kindly.

Leia shook her head, eyes wide and fastened on the Emperor's face.

The Emperor chuckled. "I can sense your lie," he told her. "But that's okay. You can be afraid of me. Perhaps you even should be afraid of me.

"But that's not why I came here. I came here today to tell you that you are under my custody now. Do you know what that means?"

Leia nodded, eyes still wide. She had yet to look away from the Emperor—had yet to even blink. The fear that, if she did, he would appear suddenly close to her was insensible but resolutely planted in Leia's mind.

"You've been abandoned by everyone you love," the Emperor went on. "But I will never abandon you, Leia. I swear to you. You are under my protection now—and that means you will never need for anything, will never want for anything.

"Do you remember what I told my Moffs, Admirals, and Inquisitors?" he asked.

Again Leia nodded, blinking once very quickly.

"You are going to be great, little Leia," the Emperor told her. "If you follow me, and do as I say, you will soon be second to only me. Do you want that?"

"I don't know," Leia said. Her voice sounded very small against the Emperor's captivating tone.

"The Emperor is offering you the world, Leia," Dr. Ammit said, speaking for the first time since the Emperor had entered the room. He reached out and took Leia's hand. "He's offering you a life away from ever being harmed again. You'd never be abandoned by those you love, never be denied anything. Don't you want that?"

"I don't know," Leia said again, even smaller.

Dr. Ammit glanced at the Emperor, who nodded.

"Why don't you know, Leia?" Dr. Ammit asked, rubbing a soothing thumb over her knuckles. "Doesn't that sound good?"

"Papá always said that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is," Leia said.

"But this is true," Dr. Ammit said. "I promise you, Leia—follow the Emperor, and you will live a life such as you can only imagine. Defy him, and your life will be more miserable than you can conceive of. Do you want that, Leia?"

Leia shook her head. "I don't know," she said again, louder and more desperate.

"You don't have to decide today," the Emperor told her. "But the day will come when I need your answer, Leia. And I will not abide a denial."

The Emperor smiled at her one last time, then turned and left, the Imperial Guards following in his footsteps.

"Leia," Dr. Ammit said, very concerned, once they were gone, "it's dangerous to defy the Emperor like you just did."

"I don't care," Leia said stubbornly.

"You need to. Leia, the Emperor means what he said—he will never abandon you like Carlist or Mon did. He could be the father you lost."

Leia's obstinate look—chin jutted forward, eyes hot—morphed into a glare, which she leveled on Dr. Ammit. "No one will replace Papá," she said. "How could you even think—"

"I'm sorry, Leia," Dr. Ammit said, cutting her off gently. "I didn't mean that."

Leia's bottom lip quivered and she sniffed, battling back the tears that threatened. "I've lost everyone," she whispered. "Papá. Rebécca. Aunt Mon. Master Carlist. Everyone."

"Not everyone," Dr. Ammit said. "You still have me. And you have the Emperor. He'll never abandon you, Leia."

"You've said that," Leia said.

A pause. Then Dr. Ammit said softly, "Are you angry with me, Leia?"

"No," Leia said. She hesitated, then added, "I don't know."

"What's keeping you from accepting the Emperor's offer?" Dr. Ammit asked after Leia had been silent for a moment.

Leia looked long and hard at Dr. Ammit, taking in his striking eyes, his thin mouth, the arch of his brow. She looked at him, and she asked herself, Can I trust him?

She thought she could. But then, she had thought she could trust Aunt Mon and Master Carlist, and both of them had failed her. Could she trust this doctor, who she had only known for a couple of weeks—and who had been a part of her captivity?

"Can I trust you?" Leia asked, voice very small and soft.

Dr. Ammit leaned in close, and said, "You can trust me with your life, Leia."

Leia nodded. "Sometimes," she said slowly, "sometimes I get flashes of feeling from people. It's like I just know if they're a good person or a bad one. I can tell what they feel like—like rats, or thrantas, or durasteel."

"Okay," Dr. Ammit said when Leia hesitated, clearly waiting for a response from him.

"You believe me?" Leia asked.

Dr. Ammit nodded. "I do," he said. "In fact, I've heard of that kind of thing before. It's called the Force, I think."

Leia shook her head. "It's not the Force. At least, I don't think it's the Force. Papá never told me I had the Force—and he would have, wouldn't he?"

"Maybe not," Dr. Ammit said. "Or maybe he thought he was protecting you by keeping that part of you a secret."

Leia frowned. This was too much to think about right now.

"Anyway," she said, continuing on, pushing aside the rest to think about later, "I keep getting feelings from the Emperor."

"And?" Dr. Ammit pressed.

"He feels like a snake. And you can't trust snakes."

"Why can't you trust snakes?"

"Because they bite without warning. Some of them, anyway—and the Emperor feels like one of them. Poisonous and secret, just waiting to bite."

"Venomous," Dr. Ammit corrected.

"What?"

"Snakes are venomous, not poisonous."

"Oh," Leia said. "Okay."

Dr. Ammit patted her on the knee. "I don't think the Emperor is one of the bad snakes. Maybe he is a snake, but there are a lot of non-venomous snakes in this galaxy. Many of them are in fact very kind and gentle creatures."

Leia shook her head. "Not the Emperor. I can tell."

Dr. Ammit patted her on the knee again. "If you say so, Leia," he said.

"You don't believe me?" she asked.

"I just know the Emperor," Dr. Ammit said. "I've known him for almost eleven years now, and I know that he can be a very kind and caring man. He may be powerful—he is the Emperor of the galaxy, after all—but that doesn't mean he's a bad man."

Leia looked at him and did not speak.

"Do you believe me?" Dr. Ammit asked.

Leia nodded, and said quietly, "Yes."

But she didn't. Just like she could sometimes feel people, so she could sometimes tell when people were lying to her. And Dr. Ammit was lying to her now.

What did that mean? Did it mean she couldn't trust Dr. Ammit? But he was kind and thoughtful and had helped her. He was the one who had talked to Aunt Mon and Master Carlist and found out that they didn't want her. He had helped her, catching her when she fell and encouraging her when she wanted to give up, defeated by the weakness in her body and will. He had comforted her when she cried, and had helped her sleep. How could he be a bad man?

But he had lied. So the question then was: Why? If he was a good man, why had he lied?

Was it that he was afraid of the Emperor? Was he afraid that the Emperor would hurt him if he didn't go along with what he said? Was he afraid that the Emperor would hurt her? Had he just been trying to protect her this whole time?

Yes, Leia decided. That must be it. He had just been trying to protect her from the Emperor, because he knew that the Emperor could be a bad man.

Did that mean she should go along with what he said? Should she listen to Dr. Ammit, and to the Emperor, and give in?

"The Emperor is not a good man," her father had told her, more than once. The last time had been on the stairs in their Coruscant apartment, mere moments before they left for the Solstice Ball. "He is cold and cunning and cruel," her father had added. "But we have to obey him all the same."

"Why?" Leia had asked.

"Because he's the Emperor."

"Even if he's a bad man?"

Her father had nodded. He had been quiet for a moment then, looking at her with a strange expression on his face. Then he had said, "Sometimes, though, a bad man is too bad. When that happens, steps must be taken to get rid of that bad man, even as you're obeying him."

"You mean fight?" Leia had asked, perking up. She had always liked the stories about the Jedi and the Clones fighting against the Separatists.

"Yes," her father had said. "But you have to be careful, and choose which way you're going to fight."

"What do you mean?" Leia had asked.

"I mean that sometimes it takes fighting with guns and vibroswords, and sometimes it takes fighting with words and laws and legislation."

"Like what you do in the Senate?"

Her father had smiled. "Exactly like that."

"But the Emperor doesn't know, does he?"

"He knows some of it," her father had told her. "He knows I oppose him on certain bills that they try to pass through the Senate. He knows our ideologies are on different ends of the scale. But he doesn't know that I'm telling my daughter that he's a bad man." He had tapped her on the nose then, and said, "So don't tell him."

"I won't," Leia had promised.

He's a bad man, Leia thought now. He's a snake, and not a kind and gentle one. He's one that waits in the grass and bites your heel when you walk past.

I have to fight him, just like Papá said. She blinked, and for an instant saw the flowers painted with her father's blood. I have to fight him for Papá, since Papá's not here to fight him anymore.

"Leia?" Dr. Ammit said. "Are you all right?"

Leia looked up at him. She nodded. "I'm okay," she said. She opened her mouth, ready to tell him of her choice—but then shut it again. If he was willing to lie to try to protect her, he would try to dissuade her from her decision. That, and he might try to intervene, to keep her from fighting the Emperor after all. And she couldn't risk that.

So instead she smiled at Dr. Ammit and said, "I'm okay, really."

"Okay," he said, and stood. "I have to go now—but I hope you'll think about what I said."

"I will," Leia said.

"Good. You're a good girl, you know."

Leia smiled. "Thank you."

Dr. Ammit nodded. "I'll see you later this afternoon for our walk," he said. "I have some things I need to attend to first. Is that okay?"

"Yes," Leia said.

"Good. I'll see you this afternoon then."

"Okay," Leia said, still smiling.

Dr. Ammit turned to go. Leia watched his retreating back and thought, I have to do this—for both of us.

The door closed, and all was silent.


end notes: Chapter 7 is actually already written! When I post it honestly depends on feedback I get... The more feedback I get, the more inclined I'll be to post it early! Otherwise I'll probably wait for a week and post it next Sunday. So if you don't want to wait, consider dropping me a line!