It is Your Destiny…
The Eclipse, somewhere in deep space
"Is this all of them?"
Leia nodded, exhausted from her debriefing, having just catalogued every backwater planet she had visited over the last few weeks.
General Tomas Mawrz, the newly minted Commanding Officer of the Eclipse, flipped through the screens of his datapad. Her brother Luke sat on the general's left and the Jedi Arch sat at the general's right, furiously typing notes as Leia spoke.
"And in every case you were unable to penetrate their fortifications?" The general asked.
"There were no fortifications," she answered, looking from her brother to the general. "They told me that I wasn't welcomed and I turned away."
The young general lifted his manicured eyebrow disbelievingly as Arch continued to enter notes into his datapad and Luke looked on stoically. Leia did not like the young general. He was an upstart, too green to be given the post of commanding officer in charge of a fleet of Jedi. Although, she had to admit that many had felt the same about Han Solo not so long ago. She wondered if she was letting her personal feelings cloud her judgment. General Mawrz turned his attention back to his notes with a disapproving smirk and she suddenly decided that she didn't care if that was the case or not. She did not like him.
"It seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through just to turn around and walk away," he said. Leia recognized the lilt of his tone. The general was baiting her as if he had some information to dispel her claims. As if he were absolutely sure that she was lying.
"There was no trouble, I was just-"
"Oh, there was trouble," the general cut her off, his voice becoming all of a sudden harsh and even. She saw Luke in her peripheral vision, his body stiffening. "You commandeered Republic property and went AWOL. You then flew that property halfway across the galaxy and wreaked havoc in the Republic's name-"
"Wreaked havoc?" Leia replied incredulously. The general was glaring at her, Arch had his head buried in his datapad and Luke was looking on, cautiously silent.
The general looked down at his datapad and then back up at Leia. "Did you not leave three dead bodies at your parents' home in Naboo?"
Her mouth fell open; she had not even disclosed her visit to Naboo, thinking that it wasn't related to her more recent whereabouts. Now she felt herself caught in a lie - a lie by omission at the very least. Although a small part of her felt relief in the confirmation that all three Sith had died, she was still unable to recall how she had gotten free from the last one.
In the silence following the general's question, Arch lifted his head to look at her. All at once she felt trapped, her breathing becoming shallow as the memory of the suffocating nausea that was her run-in with those Sith came flooding back to her. She felt an intense urge to claw at her throat, her eyes and her face just to make the bloody scenes go away. Why were they forcing her to remember? How did they know?
The general looked back down at his datapad, his eyes moving furiously over the words as if he were receiving information as they sat there. Leia curled her hands into fists, fighting against the urges churning up inside of her. After a long moment, the general raised his eyes back up to meet hers. "I take it I can assume that your silence means yes, Jedi Skywalker?"
"I didn't disclose," she began and Luke shut his eyes briefly with a look of disappointment and exasperation. Arch turned his attention back down to his datapad and the general appeared to grow more and more livid. Leia's voice faltered and she started again, "I didn't disclose my trip to Naboo because-"
"Seventeen dead on Dosuun." The general interrupted her, as he began to read from his datapad, his voice icy with indignation. "Thirty-four dead on Sump. Twenty-eight dead on Polis Massa. Forty-two dead on…"
Leia's head spun at the words and the figures that he was hurling at her as he continued on. All were the places she had visited, yet she had left them each without incident. Hadn't she? "Wait a minute," she tried to interrupt but the general stood, slamming both of his hands down as he did so.
"No!" He said. "You wait a minute, Jedi Skywalker. I don't know what kind of personal vendetta you have been on, but you are hereby consigned to my custody pending further investigation into these charges." The general looked down at Arch, speaking to him while he pointed at the Jedi's datapad, "I want everything you've found there and anything else that you're able to locate, on my desk, ASAP."
"Yes, sir," Arch replied, his voice sounding low and of mixed emotions. There had been a time when Arch and Leia had flown together; worked together as a team and it seemed he hadn't fully forgotten that. Even so, he was unable to look at Leia as he gathered up his belongings and left the room.
"You," the general said, this time to Luke. "I assume you can ensure she is held without incident?"
"Yes," Luke answered simply.
"This," Mawrz added, indicating his datapad and the words he had just read aloud, "is not what we had discussed when we spoke of your sister's return."
"I know," Luke said grimly.
"This matter is beyond my control, and in my estimation, beyond the Jedi Council's control."
In the general's last words, Leia thought she recognized a bit of skepticism and mistrust of the Jedi. She wondered what history his young life held that would grant him such feelings.
"I understand," Luke replied, and with that the general turned on his heel and stepped out of the room.
"Luke," Leia began, her voice desperate.
Her brother held up his hand, stopping her. "It's late," he said, sounding exhausted. "Let's digest all of this and talk in the morning."
"Luke, you can't think that I-"
"I can't think," he said, cutting her off. "You're right, I can't think of anything but what I've heard here today and, true or not, how we're going to have to deal with it. Because, right or wrong, lie or not, you're in big trouble, Leia. Do you understand that?"
She nodded her head, swallowing everything that she had wanted to say.
"Okay," Luke whispered, pressing his hands against the table and standing up. "Let's get some rest."
Rest did not come easily for Leia. She wrestled in her sleep between reality and her dreams. Every planet she had visited she could sense the devastation and loss that had followed her. Her innocuous visits morphing into murderous rampages. Dozens of helpless victims lying lifelessly in the wake of her blazing lightsaber. She woke with a start, sitting up straight in her bed and breathing heavily. It couldn't be true. It's not real. It can't be real. But the more she tried to convince herself, the less she could believe it.
"…and that's it."
Luke sat watching her for several minutes after she finished speaking. She could tell that he didn't entirely believe her, which made perfect sense she had not been entirely truthful. She couldn't tell him what had happened to her on Naboo. She couldn't confess what she had done, invading that Sith's mind the way she did – being invaded the way she had been. Luke didn't need to know those details to know that his sister wasn't a murderer. The same as Han hadn't needed to know.
Nobody ever needed to know.
"You've brought all of this upon yourself," Luke finally said. "Chasing ghosts, wasting time, shirking your duties when all the while you should've been back on Coruscant with the rest of us. How am I supposed to help you now? You lied about Naboo and now your word means nothing."
"I know I should've brought up Naboo initially, but I didn't lie about it, I just thought-"
"You withheld it, for whatever reason. You intentionally withheld it and I can feel that you are still not being completely honest with me. How, Leia? Tell me how I'm supposed to help you if you continue to shut me out?"
"There are things that I can't quite put into words about Naboo, that's all. It's just difficult to explain, but I'm not shutting you out."
"Difficult how? Tell me. I mean it can't get much worse from here. What are you so afraid of?"
"Alright," she said hurriedly, working herself up to tell him. "I did something, something that I'm not quite sure I should've done."
Luke leaned forward. "It's alright, whatever it is, we can deal with it." He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. "But I've got to know to help you. You know that, right?"
She nodded her head and resigned herself to tell Luke the truth. Somehow the prospect didn't seem as scary now. Surely what she had done was no worse than what she was being accused of doing. "I-"
The words caught in her throat and Leia sat there petrified with her mouth hanging open mid-thought. The tepid, clinging wrongness that was the inside of that Sith's mind began to invade her mind once again, as if in conjuring up the words to describe it she was recreating the scene itself. The pressure of the Sith mind was quickly surrounding her, choking the words every time she fought to formulate them. How was this happening, out here in the middle of deep space amongst her friends and her crew? Couldn't Luke feel it? It was then that she felt the presence of her enemy looming outside of the door where she and Luke sat talking. Sith!
"Leia? What's wrong?" Luke asked.
"He's here," Leia whispered, staring at the wall as if she could see her enemy through it.
"Who? Leia?" Luke let go of her hand and stood. Leia pointed wordlessly at the door as Luke walked toward it. Leia tensed, readying herself for the assault. When the door slid open there was someone standing there and Luke jumped. "Arch!" Luke yelped. "You scared me."
"Sorry, I was coming to bring you a message from the general," Arch replied, knocked a little off-balance by Luke's strange welcome.
Leia shook her head in a mass of confusion. All around Arch lingered a negative energy that threatened to swallow her whole. Emanating off him was a choking darkness that continued to render her unable to speak. She stood, pointing at Arch and willing the words to crawl free from her throat.
"What's wrong, Leia?" Arch asked, his voice innocent and solicitous.
"Leia?" Luke questioned as he turned around to look at his sister.
"It's you," Leia finally found the ability to speak. Shaking her finger at Arch, she repeated, "It's you."
"It's Arch, Leia," Luke said placatingly. "You remember Arch."
"Hey, if it's a bad time," Arch said, backing out of the doorway.
"Stop him!" Leia screamed, the visions and the memories flashing against her eyelids with every blink. "He's Sith. It's him, he's Sith. Goddess help me."
"Sith?" Arch exclaimed, looking aghast from the accusation. "Leia, it's me. You know me."
She heard the words, the same words that Luke was hearing, but underneath them she could feel the pull of his power grasping at her ankles and pulling her down into the depths of madness. She was unarmed, had been since the accusations had been made, yet she could not let him escape. Lunging toward the doorway she caught Arch unawares as she pounced on his chest and flung him across the hallway and into the opposite wall.
"Leia!"
She heard Luke scream along with the loud "harrumph" of air that escaped Arch's lungs as he was pinned against the wall beneath her tiny frame. His mind seemed to be reeling from the sudden turn of events and Arch struggled half-heartedly, reaching for his holstered weapon. Leia had a renewed focus and she moved quickly to snatch his lightsaber from its mount before Arch could grab it. Thumbing its power switch to life, she held the pulsing blade near Arch's face.
"Leia, think about what you're doing," Luke said behind her and she could hear his weapon blazing to life behind her. Passersby down the corridor were beginning to crowd around the scene and Leia felt suffocated by their silent judgments and whispered words.
"What do you want from me?" Leia asked Arch, her voice hoarse and the dark shadows looming ever larger within her mind. She tried to blink the pressure away.
"Nothing, Leia," Arch replied frantically. "Please don't hurt me."
The more he protested, the more innocence he tried to exude, the further into the darkness Leia could feel herself slipping.
"Leia, let Arch go and we can figure this out," Luke said behind her.
"I didn't kill those people, Luke," she said.
"I know."
Arch's eyes were as wide as saucers and she could feel his fear. "You are my enemy," she told him. "And I will expose you."
"I'm not your enemy," he croaked. "I only reported what I found. Please don't hurt me like you did all those others."
"I didn't-" she screamed, pressing her forearm against his neck and making it difficult for him to breath or talk. "I didn't do anything to those others. You're manipulating my mind."
Arch sputtered and gagged as he tried to respond to her and the dark hold surrounding her crackled.
"Leia, let him go," Luke ordered her.
She looked up and down the corridor and saw the faces of the onlookers, distraught with fear and confusion. This was not the way to expose the Sith. That realization slowly came to her, even if perhaps a little too late. Powering down the lightsaber in her hand she released her hold of Arch and took a step away from him. She was half-expecting him to lunge at her, his eyes glowing golden as he ripped at her skin and wrestled her to her death, but he did not. Arch slid to the floor in exhaustion, grabbing his neck and coughing. Everyone came rushing toward Arch, tending to him and aiding him to his feet.
With Arch held up within their ranks, all eyes tracked toward Leia, looking upon her with anger and accusation. She would get no fair trial here, she knew. Even now, as he stood on shaky legs, Leia could feel the darkness pulsating inside of Arch. She knew that she was right. The Sith had invaded the ranks of the Republic somehow and it was up to her to expose them. Why was she the only one who could detect his true intentions? It had to have something to do with what she had done on Naboo. Would she carry a part of that Sith inside of her forever? Would the darkness inside of her continue to grow and flourish until it ate her alive?
"Luke?" She said over her shoulder. There was no need to exchange words between them, her brother already knew what she wanted. Just as he had always known ever since they were children and he would aid her in her attempts to escape the Jedi Temple, he knew she intended to escape now. In the pause between his answer, she was not sure if he would help her this time around.
"Go," Luke said. "Go straight to the hangar bay, now. I'll see to the rest."
Leia threw Arch's lightsaber down at his feet and then she turned and left.