Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed The Last Jedi as much as I did! I've seen it seven times already, and may see it several more times before it leaves theaters (why yes, I am a very obsessive Star Wars fan, what gave that away?).
Anyway I wanted to assure you all that I have factored TLJ into how things will be progressing, and I am working to edit what has already been posted into full TLJ compliance. Please let me know if you discover I have missed something in my edits. I am super worried that I will.
A massive thanks to my beta Sethnakht for all the advice regarding this chapter. When reading the original draft of it in late November, Sethnakht told me to gut a lot of the first part. This chapter is so much better without those bits, and I am truly in Sethnakht's debt.
If I don't post another chapter before then, and if it is more than just a date on a calendar for you, I hope you have a happy New Years!
Leia didn't care that Obi-Wan thought she should wait before talking to Luke.
She needed to make things right.
Needed to make things right immediately.
Luke, please, let me know where you are.
She was wandering through the base again, looking for him.
Why was she always wandering through this base trying to find him?
This place was too small to keep losing someone, and yet Luke really knew how to disappear.
C'mon Lu, please talk to me.
Kwilaan guide her, she would find him wherever it was he'd hid himself. Leia didn't care if she'd have to go through every single part of this base looking for him.
Leave me alone, Leia.
Progress! He was responding to her, finally!
No can do, Lu. Now tell me where you're hiding.
If she had to go on any more hunts for Luke through this base, then soon she might actually know her way around it.
I'm not hiding Leia, I'm in my bunk. That's the opposite of hiding.
Oh.
Ok then.
Where the krizz was Luke's bunk?
She circled the relatively tiny base over and over, unable to find Luke anywhere.
All she was learning in her attempts to find him was that there was nothing quite so annoying as having people salute you as you passed them. That she needed help should have been obvious, and yet these people kept standing there, posture straight and hand at their forehead, acting as if they could not see how frantic she was.
She turned a corner, and to her relief caught sight of two familiar figures. Neither saluted nor acknowledged her presence in any way.
Han and Sana were absorbed in conversation midway down the hall.
"Am I glad to see you two!" Leia called out to them. They responded with a dismissive wave, and then went back to whatever conversation they were having. She walked closer, physically placing herself beside them both where they would see her. "What are you talking about?"
Han turned to her, smirking. "Sana here is upset the Alliance is paying me more per mission than they're paying her."
"I'm just saying, a flat rate would make more sense than this nonsense," Sana grumbled.
Leia's eyes flew wide, "wait, why is there a pay discrepancy?"
His smile was wide now, smug and self satisfied. "It's on account of my being a genuine War Hero, and Sana having only just started contracting with them."
"There has to be a way to convince them I'm worth the money."
"Well Sana, it's not your fault you're not as impressive as I am."
"Han, full offense, if you can con these people into thinking you are a War Hero? I should be able to do the same."
"Hey! It's no con! I played a key role in the Battle of Yavin, earned my fancy medal and Hero status fair and square."
Leia shook her head, impatient and bored already with the conversation. "Well, I don't mean to interrupt, but can one of you direct me to Luke's bunk?"
Han frowned at her. "Why?"
"I made the mistake of telling him something he wasn't ready to hear, and he freaked," Leia said. "So I need your help finding his bunk so I can talk to him."
Sana glared at her. "You need to let the kid pout. He's emotional, let him work through his feelings on his own."
Leia shook her head. "I would just let him be if I didn't need to make sure he got the proper training."
"Maybe he doesn't need you supervising him," Sana said, "maybe he can figure this Jedi stuff out on his own."
"I…. I'm not talking about training him myself. I know someone who can help. Someone wise."
Han snorted. "Oh, so now you want to whisk the Kid out of here? Find some wise teacher only you somehow know about? Come on, you really expect us to buy this crap?"
Leia turned to Han, frustrated and at her limits. "He may know how to get me home! Then I'd be gone and you'd have your precious Princess back. It wouldn't surprise me if he did know how to do it, he knows basically everything. I just need to bring Luke to him and…"
"Ok, ok we get it, you aren't just bugging Luke, you have a real reason to need him to listen," Sana interjected. "Tell you what, you convince Luke to go with you, and you can take my ship."
"What?" Han shouted. "You're just going to let her take the Cobra?"
"I'm guessing she didn't already fill out the paperwork to requisition a vehicle from the Alliance, which means she can't take one of theirs without it being theft. That would be extra not-fun with the desertion charges they can level at Luke if they felt like it. I doubt they'd go that far since he's an actual War Hero, but you never know with Military types. That leaves my ship and yours Han, so unless you want to lend them the Falcon," Sana paused, and Han filled the space with several colorful remarks about him lending out his ship. "See, it just makes sense. I mean, I am assuming you don't want one of us taking you there, and want to keep this just to the two of you?"
Leia nodded, grateful. "Thank you. I… Sana, that is incredibly kind of you. Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet," Sana said, "I'm just hoping to get even further in the Alliance's good graces and increase my paycheck."
"Yeah, because lending your ship out so those two can go AWOL together really is going to endear you to the higher-ups," Han said.
"Hey, you never know."
Han placed his hands on his hips. "It's only common sense." He gestured towards Leia with his chin. "Are you at least going to tell anyone where you intend to take the Kid, or just vanish outright?"
Frowning at the smuggler, Leia did not respond.
Sana was amused by the exchange - based on how she reacted to Leia's glare. There was a wide grin on her face as she pointed down the hall. "Five doors down on the right you'll find the Flight Officers quarters. I'll be sending my ship's codes to the Princess's datapad." Sana turned and began to head down the hall.
Leia approached the door Sana had directed her to, and Sana called out to her one last time before she and Han wandered off, leaving the hall outright. "Hey Leia? Good luck with Blondie."
Leia nodded, opening the door as she did. As it slid open she stared, shocked for a moment at the mess within.
Several bunkbeds were arranged against the walls with lockers crammed between them. A metal bench ran along the center of the room, dividing the space in two and providing the only seating aside from on the beds themselves.
Clothes of all sort were scattered everywhere, some hanging from the beds, others spread across the floor. Somehow, inexplicably, there were even items hanging from the ceiling.
The room was pungent, heavy with the sweat of several highly active beings. Dirty clothes and socks and the adrenaline and fear of battle.
It was clear this was a room shared by many, but only Luke was there now.
He sat on one of the lower bunks, reading something on his datapad.
Unlike her oh so tidy brother he did not seem to care at all about the mess around him, or even the stink of the room. His own bunk was no more neat than any of the others, the covers tossed back and unmade, dirty clothes scattered on the floor underneath, various trinkets were gathered - some dangling around the bed, others clustered by the dirty clothes.
He glanced up at her, standing in the doorway. She didn't really want to step fully into this room but… she couldn't have this conversation where she stood. So she forced herself to enter, the door shutting behind her.
She was rather proud of herself for only gagging once.
"I told you I don't want to talk to you," Luke said.
"I… I am sorry I told you like that." Leia sat on the bench at its closest point to his bed as she talked. "But you deserved to know. Would you rather I'd kept it from you longer?"
Luke looked up from what he was reading, meeting her eye. "How do you know that he's alive?"
"The first night I got here, when you told me he was dead? I was so shocked, I reached out to him with the Force and..." She trailed off, suppressing a shiver as she remembered the enormity of Vader's anger. His pain. The sick horror as she realized the twisted presence she felt was her father's.
"So if I…" Luke swallowed hard, glancing away from Leia, "If I get better at this, I could contact him myself?"
She didn't want him to ever feel the bottomless horror of connecting with Vader. For him to struggle to keep him out the way she now did. "Lu, I don't -"
He cut her off. Voice clipped and angry. "That was a yes or no question, Leia."
"Yes." Now she was the one avoiding his gaze. "I suppose."
"Ok." He took in a breath, and when he spoke his voice was calm. Serious, but calm. "I need a teacher. Not you."
"Hey! Not that I don't agree, but I thought I was doing a pretty good job of teaching you."
Luke snorted. "Yeah? What makes you say that?"
"I taught you how to meditate, didn't I?"
Luke blushed, and let out a nervous laugh. "Uh, yeah, about that…"
The tension that had been holding Leia straight in her seat drained out of her, and she felt her muscles unclench. Luke wasn't angry with her! Or at least he wasn't shutting her out entirely for days on end, which was always a risk when Luke was in a mood. Well, her Luke anyway. She waited for this new version of him to finish his thought.
"Ben taught me how to mediate. It was one of the few things he taught me in the week before he died."
"What? But you were having so much trouble with it at first!"
"Yeah uh, that was me debating whether I should say something."
"And why didn't you?"
"I, um, just wanted to impress you, I guess, show you I…" He sighed. "Look, growing up I was a bit… unpopular with the other kids around Anchorhead."
"What does this have to do with anything? Not that I don't want to hear about your life, but I am confused."
"No it is related, it is the reason why."
"Ok, so you weren't exactly the it-guy in the desert."
"They called me Wormie, and everyone treated me like I was just a big joke. Then I found out I could become a Jedi, and for the first time in my life I actually felt... special." He shook his head, smiling. "I thought it was a joke too. Tried to just leave Ben right there and go home and get back to my life."
Something he said must have touched on a bad memory, because all the humor on his face drained out, replaced with the same pain he'd shown her earlier, before she'd told him that their father was alive.
"That life was taken from me, and becoming a Jedi, it really was all I had left. Flash forward to you showing up and…" He shook his head. "I don't know, I guess I worried all you'd see is Wormie."
Luke fell silent, gazing at his hands. The silence did not last long, he looked up again, laughing. "I mean wow, Leia, we're the same age. Literally actually the exact same age, and you have been training to be a Jedi for like, your entire life and I…" He stopped, collected his thoughts. "I'm just some yokel from the Outer Rim fooling around with things he doesn't understand. All the impressive stuff people have said about me since I've left home? You can easily top all of it. So when you wanted to start teaching me with something I already knew how to do, I thought maybe I'd make you think I'm not as pathetic as I really am."
"Luke, you are anything but pathetic."
"No, stop, Leia, I don't… I don't want to hear you say what you think I want to hear. It doesn't help."
"I'm not just saying that to be nice. Ever since I've got here I've been impressed by you. You're… you'reincredible Luke. I really wish you could see it."
"The problem is I don't think I can believe that Leia. Not knowing how good at all of this you are, with us the same age and all. It reminds me too much of the things I was made fun for back then."
Leia really really wanted to board the nearest ship and go to Tatooine. Track down each and every single damn bantha-fodder hick that had ever made fun of Luke, and show them exactly what she fragging thought about them.
She was self aware enough to know those impulses were more about her and her issues than what Luke actually needed.
Self-aware enough to know she didn't know what Luke needed.
There was only one way to find that out.
"What do you need, Luke?"
"A teacher. Someone who has actual teaching experience, and well... isn't the same age as me."
Oh.
Was that all?
Leia grinned.
"Well, I have some really good news for you then. I tried telling you last night, but I think you were pretty distracted? Master Yoda is still alive, and I know how to take you to him."
"Right, I… I think I may remember that. You said he was a great master or something?"
"Grand Master. He was the head of the entire Jedi Order, Lu. Has taught more Jedi... well more than you can even imagine!"
Luke sat on his bed, watching her. When he finally looked away, it was to glance down at his datapad. For a moment Leia feared he was ending their conversation there, that he was freezing her out. Instead after a breath or two he looked back up at her, biting at his lip. Then his face smoothed out, resolved.
Luke nodded. "Then take me to him. Please. I need someone to show me how to be a Jedi. To teach me. Take me where you must, push me as you see fit. I just need to speak to… well someone with the authority to clear me to go. If you can find a ship to take us -"
"Sana is lending us hers."
"You… you were coming here to tell me to go train with him, weren't you?"
"That was the plan, yes."
He smiled, eyes twinkling, a sheepish cast to his face.
Leia's heart leapt at the sight of that smile.
"I gotta take care of some stuff before we go but… let's meet up in a few hours?"
Leia nodded.
"Let's meet in the training room." They blurted it out at the same time, a look of astonished shock on Luke's face as he realized what they had done. Leia couldn't help but laugh.
If they were in sync with each other enough to share a sentence, then she really didn't have anything to worry about.
Ahsoka slipped back into the practice room a few hours later.
Anakin had in that time proven himself to be an exemplary teacher, somehow managing to get actual laughs out of Leia despite her best attempts to remain serious. He had done this while also encouraging her to work ever harder and passing along tips and suggestions she found tremendously helpful.
"I really hate to put an end to this, but Leia has a dinner date to get to."
Anakin twirled around, facing Ahsoka. "She has a what?"
"With your wife. The two of them are going out to some fancy restaurant tonight. Don't ask me where. Padmé just commed me to ask if I could remind Leia they are dining out, and to ask her to start getting ready."
Anakin's posture relaxed, a lazy smile stretching across his face. "So Luke and I are going to be left to scrounge for food?" He laughed. "Wanna join us for dinner Ahsoka?"
"Just try and keep me away!"
Leia raised an eyebrow at Ahsoka. "This is all nice and domestic, but where were you? Who was the call from, the one that made you run off for several hours?"
She laughed. "Oh, Barriss wanted to talk to me about some of the information she's uncovered about your situation. Verify certain details about what Skygal and I were doing when your switch happened, stuff like that. You'll be pleased to know she thinks she's found references to something like this happening a long long time ago."
"Please tell me she has more recent info then the Mist-Weaver nonsense she was going on about last night," Anakin said.
"Sorry Skyguy. We're still looking at stuff from that era."
"Ahsoka, that krayt spit predates the Jedi Order! There has to be something more than vague texts from over a millennium ago to explain how to get my daughter back!"
"Anakin." Ahsoka glanced quickly to Leia before meeting his eye again. "Why don't we talk about this later. Maybe during dinner?"
"No, please don't hold back just because I am here." Leia scowled. "I am very interested in hearing more."
"There really isn't more to tell you, Leia."
"Right. Of course there isn't. That is why I have been conveniently absent from every discussion on this topic?"
"That isn't by design," Anakin said. "You don't need to worry, we all have your best interests at heart, I promise."
"Because a promise from a man I only just met means so much to me, I feel so reassured."
"How about from a friend, huh?"
Damn him for using her words against her.
"Well, then be reassured that we all love and care about your counterpart, and will do everything we can to bring her home," said Ahsoka, as if Leia could somehow ever forget that. "Anyway, you need to shower and change into clean robes. I'm sure you don't want to sit through dinner with sweat just drying on you."
Leia wrinkled her nose. "Thanks for making me imagine that. But, clean robes? Surely if I'm going to eat somewhere on the fancier end of things I should dress up more than that. Does the restaurant have a dress code?"
"Uh, I didn't ask? Should I have asked? Is that even a thing?" Ahsoka seemed genuinely surprised and confused, which was odd.
Perhaps they had all been focused in the wrong direction when imagining the difference between Leia's dimension and this one, and the real point of divergence was the existence of dress codes.
Anakin smiled, handing Leia his comm. "Here, give your mom a call and ask her how you should dress. I am sure the question is going to delight her."
Leia scowled, there he went again, referring to his wife as her mother. Still there was no reason to take her frustration out on Padmé, so when the woman answered her comm Leia kept her voice pleasant. "Padmé, hello, quick question. Ahsoka said I should change into clean robes for tonight's dinner, but if we are going out I would have expected a stricter dress code than that? Wouldn't it be more appropriate for me to dress up?"
There was a long silence, then a rush of excited words. "You... you want to dress up? I… oh. Please come over to the apartment immediately, I'll tell my staff to start getting outfits ready for you."
Leia frowned, confused. "I'm sorry, I don't understand. Does this establishment have a dress code or not?"
Laughter. "Leia, as a Jedi you could wear robes anywhere, at any time, and never be underdressed."
Oh. Well that certainly would make preparing to go out far easier. Still, "I think I want to wear something nice. It has been so long since I was able to enjoy a night out on the town." Leia wouldn't be able to fully enjoy herself if she came in robes. Sure, she would rationally know the rules had been waived, but there would be no way Leia wouldn't spend the whole night thinking about how underdressed she was.
"Oh, this is exciting! I'll have my staff bring up some dresses for you to choose between!"
Leia groaned, "No, no, I trust them to pick something out for me. I understand the purpose and importance of fashion, know what styles are and are not in season and why, I even appreciate the artistry. That doesn't mean I actually… enjoy the process behind it." There was of course a reason she had so many outfits done in similar cuts and styles to each other. She'd wear ceremonial clothes when she had to, and understood when clothes could help her emphasize a point, but her tastes veered more towards the practical end of things.
She could only hope the more lavish aspects of high society were not the same in this universe. She would not be held liable for her actions if anyone so much as hinted at a bioengineered body part.
Leia glowered as she shut the comm off and handed it back to Anakin. She had thought they had made some real progress earlier, establishing some of the boundaries she would need if she was going to get to know him. It seemed she had been mistaken.
This chapter, and well... all of them really, is dedicated to the most iconic woman imaginable, who drowned in moonlight strangled by her own bra one year ago today.