Meditating. Leia inhaled slowly, then exhaled. Inhale. Pause. Exhale.
The Dark trickled into her, refreshing her with its sharpness - and clarity?
Yes, clarity. The Dark was perfectly clear here, free of its light side taints - unlike back at the base, where the Jedi littered the air with their light.
Inhale. Leia remembered informing her father of the Jedi. Pause. He had not been happy...
It was one of the three or four times that she had managed to see her Master since the Death Star. They'd just finished sparring, and she had been utterly exhausted.
They were on Yavin IV, a location that was slightly ironic. The Executor was in orbit around the planet. The rebels were there, searching for some kind of artifact with the two Jedi. For a farm boy, he was pretty powerful in the Light Side of the Force. Putty in her hands, of course.
Vader, unsuited and disguised as a native, met her in the temple, the old base. He proceeded to train her in the arts of lightsabers. Though she had extensive training while he "held her captive" for three months, she was rusty.
Unsurprisingly, he creamed her each time.
They finished with a light meditation. She was just pulling herself out of the trance (being careful so she wouldn't alert the Jedi) when he asked, "Do you feel that?"
He referred to the quivering of the Dark Side. She nodded, stretching out her loose muscles.
It happened again, this time identified as a light sider. A Jedi. The Force-signature was impossible to miss.
"Skywalker," she hissed slowly. The bloody padawan was probing them.
Vader froze. And then, before she knew it, she was being thrown against the wall with the Force.
Shocked, she struggled to free herself, but in vain.
"Where did you hear that name?" he demanded icily. His eyes were a sickening sulfurous yellow, and anger rolled off of him in waves.
Petrified, she somehow managed to choke out her emotions. She spluttered, "The boy! It's the apprentice's name!"
The pressure on her vanished, and she collapsed onto the floor.
"The padawan?"
She nodded franticly. "Luke Skywalker. He helped to destroy the Death Star. Actually, he did destroy it. Can you imagine the odds..." She babbled on until he snapped at her, ordering her to be silent.
He himself was quiet for what seemed like hours. Then he muttered, "My last name was Skywalker. The boy's my son."
She believed him. Her was her Master; why would he lie?
Leia stared, feeling the bile rise in her throat. She actually gave a small dry heave when she realised that she was related to a Jedi. She'd prefer to be related to a hutt.
"How?" she gasped.
Vader shook his head. "How are you alive?" he asked rhetorically. "You must be twins." He fell silent again. And then she froze.
What if Luke was more powerful than she was? Her Master would want to have the more powerful child under his command.
He gave no signs as to what he thought about her thought. She knew that he had heard it. But he never responded.
Pause. Exhale.
And he still hadn't. What if she was leading herself into a trap?
Inhale. Pause. Exhale.
She focused on her breathing, then abruptly pulled out of the meditation. Her head screamed at the sudden loss of Dark like her lungs would for air. Sighing, she stood and headed to the cockpit.
---
Solo was, as expected, franticly pushing and poking buttons. She gave a glance 'round, easily identifying the problem. Hmm. She watched him labour, amused (as a Sith could be) beyond normal means.
And then something interesting happened. He noticed that she was there... and his fear jumped into inhumane levels. She blinked, shocked. Solo, as pathetic as he was, usually had a strong control over his emotions.
He was scared of her. Terrified. Normal... but not if he didn't know who she was. Which meant - he'd heard the conversation between herself and her master. Which meant he knew she was an Imperial. Which meant she had to kill him.
Upsetting, she mused. Not. Her hand reached for her belt, where her lightsaber swung, hidden from sight. This made things a lot less complicated.
And then he shocked her. He looked up, met her in the eyes, and winked.
"Hey, Your Highnessness." He smirked, the smugness in the action hard to overlook. He stood slowly. "How's it goin'?"
She stared, completely thrown off by his actions. They contradicted what The Force told her. And she had always, always trusted The Force.
And then the ship gave a massive lurch. She was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't sense it coming. So that was how she found herself in the arms of a smuggler.
For gods' sake, she was practically on top of him. She struggled, remembering that she had to play weak. "Let go."
"Hold on" was his response.
She tried again. "Let go, please." This time she added some real pressure.
His reply shocked her, even past her Sith facade.
"Hold on, Princess. Don't get excited."
She bit back the indignant gasp and snapped, "Being held by you, Captain, isn't quite enough to get me excited."
He smirked again. He picked her up by the waist, depositing her a foot away or so, and said cockily, "Sorry, sweetheart. I don't have time for anything else."
And then he was gone.
Leia watched him go, honestly bewildered. Was the Force wrong?
What did the bloody captain want?