Two men and Time.
The goddess Time was thought to reside in the sky, which went from white to black. In Alderaani art she was the only goddess with gray hair, and often depicted suckling an infant.
Leia possessed frozen moments of Time, snapshots of life her father had collected. She carried it on her person every day. She was afraid to lose it.
Here Leia was as a child, here her mother was alive.
Life moved so quickly, Leia thought. The one of her as a child-
Her father chose it for his daughter's physical concentration, for her joy of movement. The background is blurred, the trees and grassy hill, but the girl is in sharp detail. Leia didn't really recognize herself, though she remembered the moment.
She was that girl once? She can remember, and yet, she can't.
The goddess Time does not let one go back, and she does not reveal what is to come. There is only what one sees now.
The moment now is- color. The gray of the sky, the splash of red from her outfit, like spilled blood on the steps. Her long vest shimmers like a heat wave. She is motionless, except for sight and breath. Han shares the moment, two steps below her, a smudge of black on the durocrete that are his pants and vest. The backpack containing her belongings rests at his side.
A second exhibit of Time.
What would Time say of this moment? Leia would have an answer soon. For now, she would have to content herself with the wait, with the unknown; while Han amused himself watching beings pass she prepared for the future. She was poised. Ready.
Leia understood Time.
She uncurled her fingers, which had relaxed around the holocube in her palm, and gazed back at her frozen moments. How she had loved her parents, she thought. But the one she wanted to think about right now was the one of her father and Sheev Palpatine.
Her father smiled politely; his hand firmly gripped the hand of another. He was tall, his body no longer young while his mind was far from old. His lashes were so dark they highlighted the rich warmth of his brown eyes. The beard told of the time he took with himself. So did his dress, the reserve in his smile.
Leia's heart ached. He didn't know of her yet, but this moment confirmed everything she ever thought about her father.
The other-
He had done something to himself; the history of this moment- because Leia knew what happened after- never mattered. Her eyes narrowed, trying to make sense of it. The Emperor erased the Chancellor... because they were one and the same? because in his heart he was always the Emperor?
Because he always meant to dissolve the Republic and becoming Chancellor was the way to achieve that.
There was no evolution, which Leia found odd. If she ever ascended to Queen, her history as Princess and Senator would be chapters of her development.
The holo was taken at a time when the Republic- was what, Leia suddenly wondered. Dying?
Under quiet attack was perhaps the best description. For only one of the two men smiling in the holo had an enemy.
The other was released by Time.
Palpatine suckled the Empire at his breast, Leia thought of the image, under his robes, and no one knew.
No, she thought fiercely, and looked at Han, who sat on the Senate steps, two risers below her, watching passersby with patient interest. Every once in a while he rubbed the strap of the backpack between his fingers, as if making sure it was still there, keeping it close.
No, she would not equate Palpatine with the status of a god.
Nor was her father a god, and the infant he cared for was real, not a concept or a symbol. Leia had sat on his knee, by his side, taken up the mantle of his beliefs. If that wasn't Time, what was?
And what had Time done to Sheev Palpatine? In the holo, he is only a man, his energy and intellect visible. Leia lifted her head, for somewhere in this city, likely quite nearby, was Emperor Palpatine. He sat with jaundiced eyes, skin folded in deep ripples of rancid wrinkles.
Her father had changed too, but only aged. Time was vindictive toward Palpatine, and it gave Leia a savage, vengeful pleasure. Time conspired with Beauty and gave the Emperor his just reward. His appearance mirrored the state of his Empire.
Palpatine had used Time to conquer his enemies, but then Time had granted him so many more. It wasn't Time that took Alderaan away. She was not his ally.
Did Palpatine not see the danger in playing with the gods?
Leia did.
Thanks be to the goddess Time, Leia prayed. I am his enemy.