princesselsaamidala22: I thought about it a lot, and I thought at the end that it's better if Luke finds about his true connection to Darth Vader in the sequel (after the Battle of Endor). I will explain more in detail how and why I thought it would be better ... As for the age, um ... no. We agreed that Laetitia should be 21-ish when Darth Sidious and Darth Vader die. So Luke would be 16-ish. The time between the Battle of Hoth and the Battle of Endor will be shorter, of course. But I thought a lot of readers liked Leah being 21 better than 24 ...

Was I wrong? If so, please tell me and I will find a way to change it.

SuperSentai199: Yeah. At least, that's the good thing that happened. They will be the reason why she is able to go through this time to heal :(


Chapter 154

A day passed and Laetitia was still uncomfortable around everyone and everything. Last night, Mina came and slept with her in Thexan's room and Thexan was guarding the room all night ... But all she could do was stare at the ceiling.

She was unable to sleep. No, she was scared. The past 3 years, the nightmares of her father burning on Mustafar disappeared when she died. That was good, but they were replaced with something worse. Far, far worse.

Oblivion. Pure darkness. Nothing.

That broke her more than Arcann's torture methods. Those, she could handle, but when it came to fighting herself or the darkness ... she was powerless.

Leah awkwardly entered the Command Center of the new Rebel Base. She was greeted by a couple of Commanders and Senators, but she shrugged them off and went to a computer to catch up.

"I didn't pick you as someone interested in studying." A voice stated from behind.

Leah jumped up slightly. She turned around and saw Thexan.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." He apologized when he saw how pale she was.

"You didn't ... I'm just going through the system to see what I missed." She shrugged him off.

"Well, that can be summarized in one word. Nothing! You didn't miss anything because nothing really worked without you with us." He stated.

Leah scoffed and went back to her work. She knew he was exaggerating.

"Hey, someone wants to see you." Thexan said.

Leah sighed in irritation. She was really in no mood to meet and be greeted by people she didn't give a crap about. They were just 'happy' that she was back.

"Whoever it is, I'm not interested. Just tell 'em I'm busy."

"Oh, I tried. But he didn't take 'no' for an answer." He mused.

Leah frowned in confusion as she turned to face him completely. Suddenly, the whole Center was filled with a loud beeping noise. She just followed the sound and tried to find the source.

She couldn't help but laugh in happiness when she saw BB-8 run past through everyone and roll quickly to her maker. Thexan just stood aside as those two were reunited. He was happy to see her laughing again.

"Oh, BB-8. I missed you so much, buddy!" Leah almost cried out as she sat on the ground and hugged her old astromech.

BB-8 made some sad, happy and excited beeps. Thexan could only guess that he was happy to see her, too.

"You avoid everyone like plague, but when you see a droid, you're laughing for real in 3 years ... Yep! You are definitely a freak." Thexan stated sarcastically.

"Ha ha!" Leah fake-laughed to response.

BB-8 didn't make any noises as he rolled to Thexan and shocked him in the leg. It was in a I'm-not-just-any-droid kind of way. This time, Leah was really laughing as Thexan just grunted in pain.

"Okay! So, you're not just any droid! What, you want an oil bath now or something?" He said as he rubbed his leg.

"Oh, don't worry, buddy. I'll give you one later ... But it's really good to see that I have you around to take care of me." She told her droid as she smiled.

"Beep, I have a favor. Can you get me the data of what I missed? I can't make a sense of this."

BB-8 responded with a happy beep. He was more than happy to do these kind of stuff for Leah again. As soon as he left, Leah lost her happy spirit as she sat on a chair.

"Can I ask you something?" She suddenly asked as she ignored him.

"Yeah. What is it?"

"Were you ... scared of how I looked? Or ... disgusted? Because I was. I looked really … scary." She honestly said.

Thexan smiled sadly as he looked down. All Leah could feel from him was sadness, and not pity.

"No ... My heart ached for you … And I felt guilty. Because my father was the one who did this to you." He sadly said out of guilt.

"I will never be able to make up for all the pain my father continues to enforce on you." Thexan said with unshed tears in his eyes.

Leah smiled weakly. She blamed Palpatine for what happened, but it wasn't Thexan's fault. She would be a hypocrite to tell him that, since she felt guilty for her father's doing.

"You already have." She softly said as she held his hand.

Thexan smiled in appreciation and held her hand back. It was so good to have her back.

"Sleep well last night?" Thexan asked with a hint in his tone.

"Yep!" She lied as she let go of his hand.

Thexan rose his eyebrow. He turned off the computer and made her look him in the eyes.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot." She carelessly said.

"What'd he do to you?" He quietly asked.

Thexan knew she didn't want to talk about it, but he had to know what his brother did to her. Leah pressed her lips together. She didn't want to talk about it.

"Nothing to talk about." She vaguely stated as she smiled.

"Which is why you stared at the ceiling all night?" He pointed out.

Leah frowned and gave him a look. How did he know that? He didn't come into the room the entire night, and she was shielding herself with the Force.

"Your little roommate sold you out." Thexan admitted.

Leah sighed in frustration.

Mina!

"So, she's your cute little spy now?" She said, a bit angrier than intended.

"She's just worried about you ... We all are." He quietly said.

Leah sighed. If she was being honest, she was worried about herself, too. But there was nothing anyone could do about it.

"I appreciate the concern ... but I'm fine." She shrugged him off strongly.

Before Thexan could say anything, Leah got up and walked away from him.


Laetitia walked away from Thexan and saw the others around a HoloTable. Ahsoka, Lux, Luke, Rex and Han. They all gathered around their new Leader ... Mon Mothma.

"Senator." Leah quietly said and grabbed Mon Mothma's attention.

She turned around and saw the daughter of her best friend. She gasped in happiness and held her hands into hers.

"Laetitia! It is so good to see you again." She expressed.

Leah smiled warmly. Mon Mothma was one of her friends ... Or rather, one of her mom's friends. But they were close, and most importantly, they trusted each other.

"Thank you, Senator ... I'm so sorry I wasn't ..." She started to say, but Mothma raised her hand to stop her.

"Let me stop you right there. You have nothing to apologize for when you are the one who had suffered the most among us." She strongly said.

Leah didn't say anything and just stayed silent. She didn't have the energy to fight her on that.

"I actually wanted to be brought up to speed. You know ... I missed 3 years."

"Nothing important happened, really. Every time we hit the Empire, they hit back twice as hard." Mothma said sadly.

"Well, where's the new Leader? I'd like to talk to them."

Everyone exchanged a look with each other. They had no idea how to answer that because a new Leader wasn't appointed after Leah had 'died'. Mon Mothma handled things, but ... she wasn't the Leader.

"You should know better, Leader."

Laetitia rose her eyebrow in confusion. But then, she caught on and sighed. That was exactly what she was afraid of. She was a mess. She could barely handle herself, let alone lead the entire freaking Rebellion against her father!

"Senator, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not? Do you not see yourself worthy of the position?" She asked, which was more like a statement.

"Well, I never really deserved it. But ..."

"You have always done what was best for us. Then and now. I still trust your judgement. You have nothing to worry about. We all trust you with our lives."

Leah opened her mouth to protest, but she stopped when she saw Luke. He kept looking at her, his eyes filled with worry. He was worried about her so much. She didn't even need to touch the Force to say.

"Okay. I hope I won't let you down." Leah simply said. She didn't want to worry her brother more than he already was.

Mon Mothma smiled.

"Thank you. It is good to have you back, High General Skywalker."

Leah blinked in surprise and confusion.

"'High ... General'?"

"Yep. Master Qui-gon and the other Gray Jedi on the other side agreed that you deserved to be promoted. You've been a General since you were 4. It was time for a promotion." Thexan said, being the only one who was in contact with the Jedi's ghosts.

"How do you know my Master, Qui-gon?" Leah slowly asked in confusion. She had a lot to catch up.

"It's a long story. I'll tell you all about it later." He simply smiled.

Leah shook her head and looked away. She had no idea what to do next. What was she supposed to do?

"Is there any mission or situations that you would need help with?" She suddenly asked.

Everyone blinked. What was she asking?

"Why do you wanna know?" Ahsoka asked suspiciously.

"I wanna join." She simply said, which caused all of them to be even more surprised.

"Leah, you just came back. You sure it's a good idea that ...?" Luke started to asked, but Leah stopped him.

"I understand everyone's concern, and I appreciate it ... but this is what I need right now. Sitting behind a desk isn't gonna help me heal. I heal when I do what I do best."

Luke still wasn't convinced. He was worried about her because she wasn't acting like a person who was broken. She would explode later, that's for sure. But he also didn't want to lose her again. They just got her back.

"Then you're gonna need these." Luke said, giving up when he knew there was nothing he could do to change her mind.

Leah blinked in surprise when she saw what he brought out.

Her lightsabers.

She scoffed softly as she grabbed them in her hands. The last time she saw them was when she died 3 years ago. She thought they were gone forever. They should have been. They were in an explosion.

"But how did you ...?"

"After you died, we went back to Nur to see if you survived ... But we found your lightsabers instead. I guess the Kyber crystals protected them." Thexan explained.

Leah just held her lightsabers in her hand. She would never lose them again ... But there was something else she was curious about.

"Did you find anything else?" She suddenly asked.

"Hmm?"

"When you went back for me, did you find anything else beside my lightsabers?"

Han, Ahsoka and Thexan exchanged a look. They didn't see anything else. They were lucky the lightsabers were floating on the water. Otherwise, they were impossible to see.

"No, it was hard to see anything. And everything that was in the Fortress was destroyed because of the explosion." Ahsoka said.

"Why? Did you lose something? ... Other than your life, of course." Han joked seriously to cheer her up, but she wasn't.

Instead, Leah's eyes were filled with tears. It took her all the willpower to stop them from coming out. She just looked down as her hands were on her chest, filling the place where her necklace was.

Everyone was confused, but Thexan understood what upset her so much. The necklace Anakin had given her when she was born ... It was gone. She had lost it.

"My dad gave me this necklace the first time I was in danger. I remember when the surgery was done after I was tortured by Sidious when I was two weeks old. His entire world had just fallen apart after he watched his toddler be tortured in front of his eyes. But I can still see his smile when I close my eyes. In the Clone Wars, when we were about to be separated, he would hold me in his big 'daddy' arms and tell me to be careful. He always said that as long as I had this, I would never be alone because he would be with me ... Even if it was in dreams ... That's how I was able to go through everything I did ... And that is how I will always remember him as."

Thexan remembered what she told him when he asked about her necklace. It was beautiful ... and now, it was gone.

She felt broken when she lost the only thing she had to remember her dad by. Now, she had nothing to cling on when she needed her dad. She felt Anakin's protection and love leaving her.

"Uh ... I'm gonna go ... find something to wear." Leah finally said as she stiffened.

She took a look at her clothes. She was wearing a completely black uniform. She didn't want to go around in that.

"Come on. Your clothes are in my room." Ahsoka said.

Leah blinked in surprise. But her robes were ...

Right!

She remembered taking them off before she went to save Thexan 3 years ago. Finally! One smart thing she did.


Ahsoka led Laetitia to her new room. She had managed to get a new room for her in one day.

"Impressive! You should be the Cleaning Lady of the Rebellion, not the Spymaster, if you got a room for a ghost in 10 hours." She sarcastically stated.

"Ha ha. Very funny." Ahsoka shot back. She had missed bickering with her friend.

Leah took the robe from Ahsoka's hands and put it on. She walked slowly towards the mirror and looked at herself. She was fine but the look on Ahsoka's face is what broke her heart.

The robe Anakin had made for his little girl was beautiful and a bit revealing. Ahsoka saw the whip marks on Leah's back as it was backless. Leah sighed and fisted her hands to stop the tremblings. She hated people's pity, even if it was from love.

She was stronger than that.

"Don't they hurt?" Ahsoka cracked as she was crying quietly.

Oh, how much they had hurt when Arcann gave them to her, and how much she cried when she was alone from pain ... But eventually, the pain faded away and now, it was a scar she had to live by.

Leah wiped the unshed tears from her face and put on her strong face as she turned around and faced her best friend. She put her hands on her shoulders and smiled.

"Not anymore, they don't. Can you find me something else to wear? I can't wear this in front of everyone ..."

"Yeah, of course. I'll go find something." Ahsoka reassured her.

Leah smiled weakly. She would have to find a solution to her new problem. She didn't want anyone to see her scars ... Because if they did, they would never be able to look at her and not think of her pain.

"Why don't you just Force-heal it? Won't the scars go away?" Ahsoka finally asked.

Leah scoffed bitterly as she sighed sadly.

"They show me what I went through every time I had hope ... Hope's a dangerous thing. Having it actually hurt more that what that bastard did to me ... These scars, they remind me to avoid it in the future." She bitterly said.

Ahsoka didn't say anything. Leah always hated hiding her scars. Even when she lost her right hand 7 years ago.

Leah pulled herself together when she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in."

"You decent?" Thexan asked as he slowly entered the room.

"Yeah. What is it?"

"We found the mission you asked for. We're going to Cymoon."

Done :)


Done! I hope you guys liked this chapter. Don't forget to review and tell me what you thought of it. Laetitia feels broken after what Arcann put her through. It will cause her problems in the mission in the next chapter.

Just please tell me what you would like because I am a bit confused. Would you like Laetitia to be 21 years old and Luke 16 when Darth Sidious and Darth Vader are dead, or 25 year old and 20?

:)