For a moment, she didn't move. She didn't even dare breathe.

Screams filled her ears— screams of children. Terrified and desperate children, trying to escape something or someone—

"Leia!"

She could feel their fear... Their pain-

The object fell from her hands.

"Leia!" it sounded like someone was screaming in her ear, and someone was. Arms wrapped around her, grounding her to reality as she felt a soothing hand begin to comb through her hair.

Leia wanted to say something, but the words died on her tongue as she was wracked with sobs.

"Shh," whispered Shmi softly, still combing her hair as she held onto the shaking Princess. "It's okay. It's okay."

But it wasn't okay. It was far from okay.

"I've never seen anything like it before," said Shmi as she held the cylinder in her hand, inspecting it in the light. "I don't know what it is."

"I do," were the unspoken words on Leia's lips— dancing around her tongue like a playful Lothcat. She knew what it was and what it could do (she could almost hear the slight hissing sound that accompanied it. For many, it was the last sound they ever heard before—)

"Please put it down," said Leia as she fought the urge to rip it out of Shmi's unsuspecting hands, but then that would mean she would have to touch it and that was not something Leia wanted to do ever again.

Shmi did as she was told, but that only served to make her even more curious.

"What is it?"

Cursed, is what Leia wanted to say. But she knew that would sound strange coming from her lips, so instead, she settled for; "it's a lightsaber."

"Lightsaber?"

"A weapon," Leia clarified. "A Jedi weapon."

At least, it used to be. Before the Purge, before the Empire…

"I've heard of the Jedi before," mused Shmi as she eyed the cylinder. "But I always thought they were just stories."

"A lot of people think that," nodded Leia. "But they aren't."

Weren't. They weren't stories. Once upon a time, they were real. But now—

They might as well be stories, thought Leia dimly as she eyed the weapon, fingers twitching—

She yanked her hands off the table and set them in her lap. She needed to focus on the here and now, not reminisce about a bygone era that she was never alive for. The Jedi were gone. They had been for a while now. And for many, this was all that was left of them.

Their weapons.

But there were others who also carried such weapons. Agents of the Empire; Inquisitors and most famously, Vader himself.

"What's a Jedi weapon doing all the way out here?" asked Shmi as Leia shook her head.

She wished she knew.

"You are not okay."

The words hardly surprised Leia. She had been expecting them for the better part of two hours now. Ever since their last conversation had stopped, it really hadn't ended— and Leia had known it.

"You saw something, didn't you?" while Shmi phrased it as a question, Leia knew it was more of a statement. There wasn't much that escaped Shmi's attention, it would seem. This was no exception. "When you touched that lightsaber—"

"I don't think now is the time to be talking about this," said Leia, trying her hardest to deflect the conversation elsewhere. "The suns will start going down soon and we don't have enough wood for the fire—"

"The suns don't go down for another hour," Shmi deadpanned. "The fire can wait."

Leia's expressions shifted, as did her posture. She didn't like the demanding look in Shmi's eyes, but she couldn't really fault the other woman for it either. "I don't suppose you'll leave me alone until I tell you."

"Not a chance," said Shmi, her voice softening. She continued; "I know you and I don't know each other very well, Leia. But you can trust me."

"I know," said Leia, closing her eyes. "I do."

She had never trusted someone so easily before. But even then, she felt the desire to hold onto her secrets…

"I saw a child," began Leia. "A little boy. He was hiding from someone and I could tell that he was scared."

Leia could already feel the tears pricking her eyes, but she persisted, nonetheless.

"I saw the fear in his eyes," she swallowed before adding; "and then—"

She felt Shmi wrap her arms around her in a comforting manner, as if already understanding what happened next. "Shh, it's okay."

Leia hadn't realized how much she was shaking until she felt Shmi's arms tighten around her, snapping her back to the present and grounding her. She collapsed into the other woman's arms, allowing herself a moment to be vulnerable.

"He wasn't the only one," Leia continued, chin quivering. There had been others who had perished by that lightsaber. Countless lives had been lost, and Leia had felt them all. Every single one of them.

"You're not there anymore," said Shmi. "You're here with me and whatever it is that you need—"

"I need to go home," said Leia, feeling a cavernous hole in her chest as she thought of her parents, the warmth of their touch as well as the safety that they provided her. She thought of Alderaan, her friends, her mission—

The mission she had never gone on. The one that would've decided the fate of the galaxy.

"I can't stay here."

"Okay," said Shmi, nothing more than understanding. "Once Anakin comes back, we'll go to Anchorhead. You can contact your family, let them know you're safe."

There wasn't enough that Leia knew about Tatooine. Only what Anakin and Shmi had told her, and since she had no reason to not trust them, she had always taken their words for granted. But the more that they spoke of Anchorhead, the further away it seemed.

"Anakin said that I could find passage to Alderaan in Anchorhead," said Leia, biting her lip. "Is that true?"

"You can, but I wouldn't recommend it," said Shmi before adding; "it's not safe to travel alone in these parts. It would be safer if you're family came and got you. Do they have a ship?"

Leia nodded, not divulging the plethora of resources her family had. Picking her up wouldn't be a problem for the Organa's and Leia knew her parents wouldn't hesitate to do so. They would do almost anything for her, even if it meant dropping everything at the drop of a pen to come rescue her.

"Then it shouldn't be a problem," said Shmi as she offered Leia a selfless smile. It made Leia's heart wrench with guilt.

"What about you?" she asked. "What will you do once we reach Anchorhead?"

"I don't know," Shmi sighed. "I could go back to Mos Espa."

"You mean back to your Master," said Leia, her words catching as she tried to hide the disdain in her voice.

She shook her head, "I don't know where else to go."

There was more Shmi was not telling her about her Master, but Leia didn't press. Instead, she took a deep breath as she summoned up as much courage as she possibly could before turning to face Shmi and saying, "You could come with me."

"I beg your pardon?" asked Shmi, somewhere between shocked and surprised.

"You could come with me to Alderaan," said Leia. "We could grant asylum to both you and your baby. You could have a good life there as well as a future."

A future where neither she nor her child had to worry about slavery or it's looming shadow. A future where they could be free and not have to worry about whether they had enough food or water to make it through the day.

"You could…" Shmi paused before continuing; "you could arrange that?"

"My father could," explained Leia. "He's used to doing stuff like this. He used to work for the Refugee Relief Movement during the Clone Wars."

"He would be willing to do that?" asked Shmi as she smoothed a hand over her belly. "For us?"

"You mean help a pregnant woman trying to escape slavery and almost certain death?" asked Leia. "Absolutely."

There was dead silence as Shmi thought about it, her expressions shifting as she rubbed her belly— no doubt thinking about the babe within her as she contemplated Leia's offer. It was a choice that Shmi had probably never been given before.

Until now.

"I've never left Tatooine before," it was an odd thing to say, but Leia could sense that Shmi was trying to wrap her head around it. "I don't even know what lies beyond our suns."

"You won't ever know if you stay here," said Leia as Shmi pursed her lips.

"I suppose you're right," still hesitant. "What would happen once I got to Alderaan? Will the Republic give me citizenship?"

Leia blinked once. Then twice.

"The Republic?"

"Yes," said Shmi before asking again, this time slower; "will they grant me and my baby citizenship?"

"I'm sorry, I don't—" she shook her head. "You mean the Empire, right? Not the Republic?"

Shmi frowned, then shook her head. "Empire?"

"Yes," said Leia, slowly as she knitted her eyebrows together. Shmi was giving her a funny look that didn't entirely bode well with the Princess. "The Galactic Empire."

Now Shmi's eyebrows were knitting, "What is that?"

"What—" Leia fumbled over her words as her tongue wrapped around itself. "How do you not know what the Empire is? Do you live under a rock?"

"No," Shmi shook her head, her tone becoming defensive. "I don't live under a rock. I've just never heard of this… Empire before."

Leia blinked. Once, and then twice. And maybe a third and fourth time as well because it just didn't add up—

"Does news travel slowly in these parts?" asked Leia as Shmi shook her head.

"We may be far from the hustle and bustle of the Republic, but we're not cut off entirely from news," said Shmi before adding; "we do have inter-galactic spaceports here, you know."

Republic? What Republic? (Did Shmi truly not know? How could she—)

"The Republic is gone," said Leia before adding; "it fell—" she closed her eyes before correcting herself; "was reorganized into the Galactic Empire almost twenty years ago."

Reorganized, she reminded herself, was a more appropriate way to describe what had happened to the Republic. It hadn't fallen— it had been reorganized (butchered) into the Empire. Two sides of the same coin, her father had told her…

"As far as I'm aware, the Republic still exists," Leia could hear the adamancy in the other woman's tone— spoke with certainty and she projected it too. "As for this Empire that you speak of, I have never heard of it, and if what you are saying is true—"

"It is true," Leia was quick to add, not liking the odd look that Shmi was giving her. "I know it's true."

"If that's the case, then how come I've never heard about this?" she asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I don't know," mouth twisting and hands raised, Leia fumbled for a response. She tried to come to a logical and rational conclusion, but her brain was starting to entertain other ideas at that point. "The only explanation I can think of is if—"

She froze as she allowed her thoughts to roam free— to places that were unexpected and impossible at the same time. No, she thought to herself, that's not even possible—

But then again, she had woken up on a sand dune on the other side of the galaxy without any sort of explanation. At this point, who was she to question what was possible and what was not?

"If what?" asked Shmi, snapping Leia out of her reverie and forcing her back into the present.

Leia swallowed, "this may seem like a strange question, but how many years since the Treaty of Coruscant has it been?"

"3612," was Shmi's response.

The air around them flickered and then chilled. Leia did not— could not move. It was as if someone had plucked her out of a warm sunny day and then tossed her into a pond. The water was encompassing and freezing. But it brought with it such clarity—

"3612," mouthed Leia, more to herself than to Shmi, who was standing idly by as she beheld the disbelief on her face with knitted eyebrows.

"Leia?" came Shmi's tentative voice.

But then something in the air around them wrenched as Shmi stopped dead in her tracks. She looked back towards the horizon.

"I feel it too," said Leia with wide eyes that mirrored Shmi's. She reached out to grab Shmi's hand as something appeared on the horizon. Leia couldn't make out what it was at first, but then she could see them.

There were figures. One at first, and then two, and then three—

Shmi gasped, her eyes widening in what Leia could only describe as terror as her grip on the other woman tightened. Leia yelped in surprise as Shmi yanked her back, jumping into action as she shut the door behind them and dragged Leia down the stairs.

"Raiders," she said as soon as they reached the bottom. "We need to hide."

Leia needed no further explanation as the two women quickly made their way through the courtyard and into one of the adjacent rooms. There were not many places to hide— almost all of the furniture in the homestead having been looted at that point. Despite that, Shmi still managed to find a small closet.

"Here," she said as she motioned for Leia to get in.

"It's too small," said Leia. "There's no way we can both fit—"

The door to the house opened as Shmi pushed Leia into the cubby before squeezing in beside her. It was a tight fit, but Leia didn't complain as she felt Shmi's belly press into her, the baby inside of her growing restless as it kicked against its confines. Shmi closed the door to the closet, but even then, it wouldn't shut all the way as she tried to force it closed while staying as quiet as possible.

Voices filled the air. Strange and inhuman, Leia could hear them increasing in volume as Shmi ceased her actions. Leia wrapped her arms around the other woman as they listened to each other's breaths.

The silence was deafening but severely short-lived as someone began to rustle through the pile of debris that was only a few feet away from their hiding spot. Neither Leia nor Shmi dared move much less speak as they listened.

(It was all that they could do besides hold onto each other, hoping and praying—)

But it wasn't enough.

The door yanked open and before Leia could even blink, Shmi was wrangled from her arms. A scream pierced the air, although looking back Leia wasn't entirely certain whether the scream had come from Shmi's lips or her own.

"Leia!"

Rough arms wrapped around her as a face appeared before her. Inhuman with black holes where a pair of eyes should've been—

Shmi gasped as she was shoved to the ground, her arms wrapping around her belly protectively as Leia struggled against her captor. There was a chorus of shouting nearby, but Leia barely had any time to register it as she thrashed and flailed— panic surging through her and clouding her mind.

But then Shmi screamed again. This time in pain as Leia's head snapped up just in time to see one of the Raiders (the one standing in front of Shmi) raise his staff and then—

He stopped. His arms were still over his head, readying to deliver a possibly fatal blow to Shmi's temple, but he was—

Frozen.

Shmi, who had closed her eyes in preparation for the blow, opened her eyes and gasped, gaping up at the masked creature before she looked over at Leia.

But their eyes never met as Shmi's gaze traveled past the Princess to look at something (or someone) behind Leia, brown eyes widening as Leia felt her chest tighten.

No

Leia watched as the creature was lifted into the air.

"Your son is dead," came the modulated voice from her dreams.

There was a sickening crack.

"I killed him because he was weak and pathetic."

The Tusken that had been holding her let go, throwing her to the ground as the room erupted into chaos. "

And soon—"

There was a snap and a hiss followed by an eerie red glow that filled the entire room.

"I'll come after you too."

AN: It's been a long time coming, but Kylo has finally entered the chat.

Hope you enjoyed!