Chapter Nine

I

The wires were back. Tiny electric needles injecting acid into her veins. Cold at first, then sharp knives of liquid fire lining her skin from the inside, burning through until nothing organic was left. The nightmare had woken with her, following her into consciousness longer than it ever had. A ghostly presence of famished dread, soon to be filled with whatever darkness was fast approaching. When she closed her eyes, she saw embers of blood red.

She swiped the sheets off her body like an infestation.

Leia had left Raal with a quick goodbye while he showered, and as soon as she stepped foot outside, she was running. Her heels kicked morning dew from the grass onto the back of her calves. Her whole arm was burning. She ran faster.

A ship came into view before the palace did. It was an Imperial transport, docked in the yard. Her first thought was of her brother.

Leia raced up the ship's ramp.

"Luke?" she called out. Her voice cracked hoarsely. "Hello?" Threepio emerged from the bunk room, bed sheets in hand.

"Good morning, Mistress Leia. Your father has instructed me to prepare the transport for his departure. Did you need something?"

"Departure? What are you talking about?"

"He did not say where he was going," said Threepio. "At least not to me. But he specifically said to have the ship ready to leave. His intentions of actually leaving seemed still undecided."

"Is it Luke?"

"Well, I certainly hope not. I'm sorry, Mistress. It seems as though I am as ill-informed as you are."

"Right." She forced herself to breathe out. Two dry coughs came with it. Without diluting the phantom electricity in her arm, Leia's throat and legs began to burn. Then the arches of her feet did the same, ice-white in color, with wet sprinkles of grass up to her ankles. Her temples pounded out a symphony of dehydration while her heart kept time. Sinking into a lounger, she was for once grateful for Threepio's prattling. It was a welcome distraction.

"Miss Degathield arrived with me," said the protocol droid curtly. "I do hope she behaves herself in the presence of Master Organa and the princesses. I of course reminded her of this on the way over here, until she threatened to power me down. Heavens knows how we would have fared without my navigation. Artoo sends his regards—it's a shame he could not join us. He all but fought me on this, despite very specific orders. I dare say he has forgotten his place. He has been quite ornery with Master Luke since your discourse. I hope you don't mind my saying so."

She didn't, but that did cause her some worry. Luke and Artoo were inseparable. Threepio continued.

"His highness, the Emperor, requested that I relay his well wishes to you. He seemed dreadfully concerned about you. I fear he blames himself for Luke's outburst."

"He should," grumbled Leia. She sunk deeper into her chair and trapped her arm between her knees, hoping the pressure would keep the prickling at bay.

"Mistress Leia, I'm surprised at you!" exclaimed Threepio. "And to think he sent us with the finest new gowns for you when any other respectable benefactor would take you and Luke over his knee for your foolishness!"

"So he's respectable now, is he?"

The droid somehow expressed shock on his still face, then emphasized each of his words individually.

"Mistress Leia!"

"Gods, Threepio, sometimes I wish Dad had just left you alone. You're our droid, not an Imp sigil." Leia was near convinced that the droid's age and eight or nine full resets were starting to get to his circuits. Then again, she couldn't remember a time where he wasn't eccentric. As he scoffed, she wondered if she had ever heard any other droid but him do such a thing.

"Well, you are positively filthy," Threepio clipped. Leia raised a challenging brow at him before she realized what he was talking about. "Take your feet off that chair at once and clean yourself up before your father sees you."

As if summoned, Vader ascended the ship's ramp. He regarded his daughter with surprise.

"You're up early," he observed. Leia stood, gripping her wrist with her good hand. Vader noticed. "Threepio, will you excuse us?"

"Of course, Lord Vader." The droid bowed slightly, muttering to himself as he walked off the ship. As soon as he was gone, Leia gave her wrist a violent shake.

"Fuck, it's really bad!" she cursed through gritted teeth. She held her arm out for Vader. "It won't stop!"

Vader guided her back into the chair and knelt at the girl's knees.

"Calm down. What did you see?"

"Wires," Leia shook. "Acid, fire, death…all around them. Wires…" Vader took her elbow, laying her arm out on top of his and using his other hand to apply pressure down the forearm. It began to restore sensation with the help of the Force.

"Death?"

Leia nodded.

"Is it certain?" Vader asked. His daughter shook her head.

"No. I mean…I don't think so. It's different." Her arm finally began to relax under her father's touch. "It feels close."

"Close as in nearby, or soon?"

"I don't know…I don't know…" Seeing Leia's state of anxiety, Vader backed off the questions.

"It's all right, I felt it, too. I'll make sense of it soon enough." He stood, and Leia rose with him.

"Where are you going?"

"Caamas," he replied. "Your brother has just landed there."

"I thought he was coming here—why is he going there?"

"The Master requested it."

"I'm coming with you."

"No, you're not," Vader said firmly. "You're safe here. I need to know that. Mel's here with Threepio now, and I've hired a small piloting team in another ship to be available on standby, just in case. Don't fight me on this. It's peace of mind. The small amount of information I've been able to gather from the inside leaves me worried. I fear he is trying to isolate your brother. I need to make sure that doesn't happen."

Leia followed him through an assessment of the ship.

"You think he's trying to isolate Luke."

"I have sources saying that he may be a target—yes."

"What sources?"

For a moment, Vader opened his mouth to answer freely, but he caught himself and instead remained reserved with the information.

"Not now, Leia. Soon."

"How do you know they're credible?" Leia demanded. "How do you know Palpatine isn't trying to isolate you?"

"There are networks I can trust. The Master doesn't know I'm leaving. I'm taking this ship because it's in the system as Emmel's. If there is anyone listening to the ship's channels, our conversations have been solely about her delivering Threepio and some studies for you, but she knows what's going on. And the pilot I've hired comes with…well, you'll be safe."

"I need to see Luke."

"I'll be escorting him back here as soon as it's safe."

"Dad, please!"

Vader stopped to lock eyes with his daughter. He was serious, but not angry.

"Tell me where you went last night."

"I just started running," she responded, not missing a beat. "I didn't want to wake you, but I just woke up with that feeling, and my hand…and everything…I just ran. I don't know how early it was." She gestured down to her bare feet. "Clearly I was in a state."

"Good." He nodded dismissively. The girl's confusion was poorly veiled.

"Good?"

"Leia, look at me," Vader said. "This is why I need you here. Because you can stay hidden. You're barred. You always have been. That makes you too important. When I return with your brother tonight, all will be made clear. He may not trust you, but he hasn't caught you yet. He has no reason to distrust you. And that is where I want you to be."

"Palpatine?"

"Yes. He must continue to underestimate you."

"You're not making any sense!" Leia cried out. "Inside information and conspiracies?!—we are the inside! What the hell is going on?!" Vader saw the fear in her face and softened. He slowed down, but continued nonetheless. She—on the other hand—continued to boil.

"Bail has important connections with people whom you can trust. Should anything happen to me, you and Luke will be safe. Now, go freshen up and join the princesses for breakfast as if all is well."

To that, Leia erupted.

"You don't get to do that!" the girl fumed. The Force shoved Vader into the wall, and a part of him let it happen. "I'm sick of playing the part without a single say! You can't just have our lives in your hands and pass them to whoever the hell you want without even considering the consequences!"

"They have been considered, but I owe you no consult." Vader steadied back onto his feet. "I am your father. I do for you what I know is right."

"But you're wrong!" shouted Leia. Tears found their way down her cheeks. "You've been wrong since the day you handed us to the Emperor on a silver platter. The day he took my brother from me. The day I looked into his yellow eyes and saw the darkness so deep—so absolute—that the Force I'd only known as the magic that made my toys fly became my enemy." Her eyes chilled over. "And so did my father. I'm a fool to have forgotten that!"

Leia spun on her heels to exit the ship, but turned around again just before the ramp.

"Oh, and you wanted to know where I went last night?" She cocked at eyebrow at him.

"Leia—"

"I'm sleeping with Raal Panteer."

The words sucked the air out of the ship. Immediately she wanted to take them back, but she couldn't show it. And then she didn't want to take it back. There was a comfort in release. Perhaps it was a cry for help. Maybe she was less ready than she thought she was. Maybe she wished she had a parent she could share this with. Maybe she thought she failed him. Maybe she wanted him to know that he failed her.

Leia watched her father's fists clench and release, his face turn red, and his expression tow the line between repressed anger and repressed horror. Vader neared her with slow, deliberate steps, the dark side humming off him like static. She could feel the floor quiver beneath her. The copilot seat jostled on its bearings, and then one of the arm rests broke and flew against the wall. Leia forced herself to only blink. Her eyes reopened on Vader's. She stood firm.

In one long huff, Vader managed to release most of his anger. He once again dosed her with guilt, elongating his jaw with a stroke of his chin. He averted her gaze. His voice returned calmer.

"Do you tell me this as a daughter, or as this opponent of mine that you've fashioned yourself into?"

It was a good question—one that Leia couldn't pin a direct answer to.

"As whatever we are to each other," she answered.

"And what is that—in a word?"

"There is none."

Vader scoffed.

"What do you suppose I do with this information?"

"Whatever you so incline."

"I incline to assassinate."

The words were delivered lightly enough that Leia didn't fear, but she was guarded nonetheless.

"Him or me?" she asked medially.

A smile never quite crossed his face, but she felt him trying to make light of a situation he just did not have time for today.

"I get the distinct impression that I'd end up the dead one either way."

Leia smirked.

"A safe assumption."

Neither of them knew what to do with the moments after that. Leia had no intentions of opening up further discussion about her intimacies, and Vader seemed to sit on every rational and irrational outburst that—to his credit—he did not indulge. He was weary. Worried. They both were.

"Does it mean anything?"

Leia's response was entirely sincere—without a hint of irony.

"It means everything."

The sigh from Vader was relief and resolve tinted with all new fears, and she knew it. Leia saw it, but managed to find her own relief. It was enough to finally set the conversation aside.

She itched at the slight film on her legs that the dew had left behind—dry now—keeping the blades of grass stuck to her skin like a weak adhesive. She checked her chrono.

"I should hop in the 'fresher."

"Yes," Vader agreed.

Leia started toward the ramp, but stopped halfway down.

"I don't think you should leave," she whispered. She kept her eyes on the floor. She heard Vader's feet shift. "I think you're in more danger than me or Luke. Leaving on your own could make you a target."

"You don't think your brother is in danger?"

"Not from Palpatine."

Vader didn't reply.

"Just think about it," said Leia. Now, she looked at him. "And promise me you won't leave without saying goodbye?"

Her father's head bowed slightly in affirmation, wordlessly making that promise. Leia nodded back in a similar fashion. Then she left.

II

Leia got back to her bedroom, locked the door, turned on some random jatz music, and got the shower running. She brought her datapad into the refresher and locked that door behind her, too. She pulled Bail Organa's comlink from her pocket—swiped from his office—and plugged it into one of the datapad's ports.

"Please, be synched…please, be synched…" she muttered to herself.

The comlink's data connected to her slicer application and unlocked, revealing the networks most recently contacted. The option to search for data that had been synched to other devices opened, and she started that process. While it searched, she tabbed through the network HPs. She recognized Vader's several times. There was nothing out of the ordinary, though. The search for synched devices was successful, and Leia scrolled through calendars, contacts, holotransmissions, or any kind of worm program. She'd seen specialized worms used for covert communications, transmitting encrypted messages through the intentionally infected software.

One off-planet hit. She saved the coordinates to the datapad.

Leia had just broke into the operating system of Bail's office computer when she heard a loud knock on the door. She tossed the datapad into the cupboard under the sink.

"I'm in the shower!" she called out. The knocking continued anyway—louder this time. Leia cursed to herself. "Just a minute!" She entered the shower and got undressed inside, handing her discarded clothes over the shower curtain rod. She made sure the grass was gone from her legs and her hair was saturated before turning off the water. She threw her hair up into one towel, and wrapped her body with the other. Another knock banged on the door. "I'm coming!"

With her legs still dripping, Leia opened the door. Winter barreled in. She glared at Leia with a huff full of anger, saw the music player on the dresser, and turned up its volume. She dragged Leia into the bathroom by her arm and closed the door behind them.

"What the hell, Leia?!" Winter fumed, holding up her personal datapad. "Bail's slicer alerts are going insane, and it's from your HP address!"

"That's ridiculous," Leia clipped. She maintained eye contact with Winter, but in her mind she visualized the contents of the cabinet. She wondered if she could move the datapad into the folds of the towels without knocking anything over. She didn't get a chance to try it, though. "Winter, I programmed this," Leia reminded her, grabbing her datapad. "Look, you don't even have my latest version. This one's just lighting off-planet addresses on the same HoloNet. My address is still Coruscant-based. See?" Leia turned the datapad. Winter met her eyes, looking hurt.

"Why are you lying to me?"

Leia bit her lip. Winter just knew her too well. When her friend's eyes fell to the cabinet, Leia groaned and opened it. She figured she would rather surrender willingly than be caught in another lie.

"I'm sorry…it's something Vader said. I'm going insane," she confessed. She unplugged Bail's com from her datapad and handed it to Winter. "He says a reputable source uncovered a target on Luke, and he was just in such a state that I had to check on the source."

"How do you know the source was from Bail?"

"Because he trusts Bail," Leia answered. "He'd be looking further into it if the information came to him directly, but he's acting impulsive. I trust Bail's sources. I just wanted to double-check."

Winter nodded.

"Next time, ask him," she said. "He would let you check. But this?" Winter held up her father's comlink. "You can't do this. We're not the enemy."

"I know that."

"Good." Winter tucked the comlink into her pocket and clipped her datapad shut. "I'll leave you to finish your shower." She started to leave, then turned back a moment. "I'm serious. Ask Bail where he gets his information. He would be happy to tell you everything."

Leia forced an appreciative smile as Winter showed herself out. Once her friend was gone, Leia returned to the datapad. She still had that one set of coordinates saved. The timestamps weren't recent enough to be this elusive tip about Luke, but they were Outer Rim coordinates, and that was unusual. She traced them in her locator, first to the Sluis sector, then to a system she hadn't heard of.

Dagobah.