notes: It's midnight on the US East Coast, so in that time zone I kept to my update. At least it was early rather than late, amiright? ;)

Thank you so, so, SO much to everyone who left me a comment or review. You all really made my week - and it's because of you that this chapter is being posted so early!

Again, huge thanks to princess-sansa-of-ithilien and absynthe-minded for their wonderful beta jobs, and also for putting up with me almost obsessively writing and talking about this fic.


CHAPTER 7

The next three days passed quickly for Leia. Dr. Ammit spent more time with her, taking her on longer and longer walks, and sitting with her afterwards. Her father had taught her how to play chess when she was six, and now she played with Dr. Ammit.

"I don't know how you beat me again," Dr. Ammit said after Leia had won twice in a row.

Leia grinned. "I'm just good."

Dr. Ammit laughed. "That you are, little Leia."

On the fourth day, however, things changed.

Leia had just finished eating her breakfast—cereal with bantha milk and sliced meiloorun—when the door opened and a tall, black-clad woman entered. She had wine-dark hair, with skin pale and thin, stretched over too-large bones. Red tattoos coiled along her cheekbones and where her eyebrows should have been, shadowing her eyes. They glittered yellow, and she carried a lightsaber on her belt.

"You may call me the Sixth Sister," she told Leia, standing stiffly at the foot of her bed.

"I'm Leia," Leia said, voice small. Sixth Sister made her want to curl into a ball and close her eyes, as if by doing that she could forget she was there. Like the Emperor, she felt dangerous—but rather than like a snake, she felt like one of the great Alderaanian mountain cats. They were large enough to take down a bantha, and savage enough to kill a man.

"No," Sixth Sister said, stern and unyielding. "You are no longer Leia. From now on, you will be known as 851."

Leia frowned, confused. "Why?" she asked. "Why can't I be Leia?"

"You have not yet earned the right to bear a name," Sixth Sister informed her. "Until you do, you will be known as 851. Am I understood?"

"But my name is Leia," she protested.

"You no longer have a name," Sixth Sister repeated. "You are merely 851."

Leia, still not sure what to make of this new development, stared at her. What did Sixth Sister mean, saying she hadn't earned the right to have a name? She was a human. She had a name that was given to her by her mother and father. Why was she telling her she couldn't go by that? Why was she telling her she was only a number?

"What is your designation?" Sixth Sister asked.

"Leia."

"No," Sixth Sister said. "What is your designation?"

"Leia."

"No," Sixth Sister said again, harder. Her voice cut like glass. "What is your designation?"

"Leia," Leia said, frustrated and confused.

"No." Now her voice was cold, like ice and space and death. "What is your designation?"

Leia clenched her hands into fists, her nails biting into her palms. "It's Leia. That's the name Mamá and Papá gave me."

"Your mother and father are dead," Sixth Sister said bluntly. "With them died your name."

"But Dr. Ammit calls me Leia," she protested.

"Not after today. Today your old self dies, and your new life begins. Now, what is your designation?"

Leia swallowed hard. My name is Leia , she thought. I'm Leia. Not just a number.

"851," Sixth Sister snapped. "Answer me."

"851," Leia said quietly, hating Sixth Sister, but giving in. She would clearly accept no other answer.

"Speak louder."

Leia's nails carved red crescents into her hands. "851," she said again, louder.

Sixth Sister did not smile, but Leia could tell she was pleased. She nodded once, as if to herself, and then said, "Very good."

She lifted a hand and flicked her fingers. The binder around Leia's wrist popped open.

"Get up," Sixth Sister ordered.

Leia hesitated. Something in her balked at the idea of obeying. The knot in her stomach twisted cruely, making her nauseous, and distrust was crawling up and down her spine.

I'm scared, Leia realized, feeling bile crawl at the back of her throat. But why?

"Where are we going?" she asked, more bravely than she felt, and did not move from the bed.

"It is time to begin your training," Sixth Sister replied. "Now get up."

Still Leia did not move. "What training?" she asked, trying to shove away the nausea now crawling into her mouth.

Sixth Sister sighed, irritated. "The Emperor has ordered that you be trained in the basic uses of the Force."

"But I don't have the Force," Leia protested.

Sixth Sister laughed. "You think not?" she asked, voice thick with derision.

Leia shook her head.

"Think again."

Leia frowned. "But why does the Emperor want me trained?" she asked.

"You are to be his weapon," Sixth Sister said. "Or were you not listening in the throne room?"

"You were there?" Leia asked.

"Of course I was there," Sixth Sister replied. "Every Inquisitor within a day's travel was there."

"You're an Inquisitor?"

"Only Inquisitors—and Lord Vader—bear lightsabers," Sixth Sister sneered. "I thought you were supposed to be smart, 851."

Leia blushed, stung. "I am," she protested. "I just…"

"Just what?" Sixth Sister asked, mocking.

Leia shook her head. "I don't know," she said, feeling stupid.

"Now get up," Sixth Sister ordered.

Again Leia balked at the command. This time, though, she knew why.

She's an Inquisitor, Leia thought, staring at her. Just like Twelfth Brother. Leia blinked, and in the fraction of a second's darkness behind her eyelids, she saw again her father's blood painting the flowers scarlet.

It wasn't just that she was an Inquisitor, though. Sixth Sister had said she was there on the orders of the Emperor—that the Emperor had ordered Leia trained in the Force. And hadn't she sworn to herself that she would fight the Emperor? By fighting against Sixth Sister's orders, she was fighting against the Emperor's wishes—right?

"Get up," Sixth Sister growled a third time. "Now."

Leia crossed her arms. I said I was going to fight, she thought. So I'm going to fight.

"No," she said aloud.

"No?" Sixth Sister asked, taken aback. She frowned then, and took a threatening step forward. "What do you mean no, 851?"

"I mean no," Leia said, braver than she felt. "I won't get up."

"Why not?" Sixth Sister asked, soft and dangerous.

"Because I won't."

"Fine," Sixth Sister said. "If you will act like a child, then I will carry you like a child."

Leia stared at Sixth Sister as she rounded the bed. Leia's arms were folded over her chest, her chin jutted forward, expression challenging. "If you touch me, I'll bite you," she warned as Sixth Sister drew near.

"Try and you will be punished," Sixth Sister replied.

She reached for Leia—and Leia struck. She grabbed Sixth Sister's hand with both of hers, keeping its still, and, leaning forward, sank her teeth into her flesh. Sixth Sister yelled and jerked away. Blood oozed out of a ring of pock marks, staining her bone white skin a shocking scarlet.

"You little urchin," she shrieked, and slapped Leia.

Leia fell against the bed's railing with a cry. She lifted a hand to press against her red cheek and swallowed back tears—tears from horror as much as from pain. She had never been slapped before.

Before Leia could gather her wits, Sixth Sister seized her under the arms and lifted her. Settling Leia against her hip, she warned, "If you bite me again, I will do more than slap you." Then she turned and, striding purposefully, left the room that had been Leia's home for the past two and a half weeks.

Sixth Sister carried Leia to the lift at the end of the hall. Once the door had closed, however, she bent down to place Leia on the floor. Leia, however, refused to stand. As soon as her feet touched the floor, she sank down and sat.

"Stand up," Sixth Sister ordered.

Leia, silent, refused.

"I said stand up," Sixth Sister said again.

Again Leia refused.

Sixth Sister reached down and, putting her hands under Leia's arms, tried to lift her. As soon as she released her, however, Leia simply flopped back down to the floor, arms still locked over her chest.

"Fine," she snarled, and straightened. They rode the rest of the way in silence.

Sixth Sister picked Leia up again once the lift doors opened. They were on the Palace's ground floor, and as they passed through the long, twisting corridors, Leia saw countless servants and Stormtroopers, as well as a handful of courtiers busily going about their business.

They left the Palace and crossed a cobbled courtyard, cobbled and centered with a small, happily burbling fountain shaped like a leaping fish. Leia shivered at the feel of sunlight on her skin.

It had been many days—Leia didn't know how many—since she had last felt the sun.

A large building made of stone and mortar rose before them, reaching for the sky with gabled eaves. A large, double door faced the courtyard, with words in a tongue Leia didn't recognize written on the lintel. They slid open as Leia and Sixth Sister approached, revealing a cool, dark foyer.

The foyer was made of white marble and Kashyykian wood, the walls paneled and the ceiling tiled. It smelled old and stale, and Leia shuddered as she crossed the threshold; just asLeia could feel Sixth Sister and the Emperor, so too could she feel this place.

Leia knew what death felt like. When she was four, a rabbit had been caught and then abandoned by a palace dog. Leia had found it gasping its last breaths in the garden. Gathering it up carefully, she had sung to it in its final moments. It had died there, lying in her hands, and Leia had felt the life flee the body, leaving only cold and a vast emptiness in its wake.

Leia felt that again now, crossing into the interior of the building.

Sixth Sister brought her to a lift just off the foyer. They rode upwards in silence, and the door opened on a long, brightly lit corridor.

"This is your room," Sixth Sister said, halting by a door halfway down the hall. She keyed it open, and Leia hesitantly peeked in.

It was small and sparse, the only furniture a bed against right-hand wall, a nightstand, and a short, squat dresser in the near corner. A toilet sat in the far corner beside a sink. It was the strangest room Leia had ever seen, and she didn't like it.

"This is mine?" she asked skeptically, breaking her silence for the first time since they had left her room in the Medical Wing.

"Yes," Sixth Sister said. She carried Leia through the door, then put her down on the floor. This time Leia stood, though she kept her arms crossed.

She went to the dresser, opened the top of the two drawers, and pulled out a pair of shorts and a shirt. A pair of underwear came out of the bottom drawer. "Put these on," she ordered, "then come back out into the hall." She turned to look at Leia, one tattooed eyebrow raised. "Unless I need to dress you, too?"

Leia shook her head. The idea of someone else undressing and dressing her was too much even for her stubbornness. "No," she said. "I can do it."

"Good," Sixth Sister said. "Once you're finished, come out into the hall." And, turning, left Leia alone in the room.

Leia took the clothes and sat down on her bed, looking at them. They were made from a fine polyester material, and were stretchy like elastic. They reminded Leia of the clothes that the Honor Guard wore while exercising.

Rising, Leia quickly pulled off the shirt, pants, and underwear she'd been wearing since she woke up in the Medical Center. Then she pulled on the new clothes. They felt nice against her skin, soft and silky and clean.

Now what? Leia wondered. Did she obey Sixth Sister and go out into the hall? Or did she risk punishment again by going back to her stubborn defiance?

I've barely fought him, Leia thought. Just refusing to walk a little ways isn't enough. It doesn't mean anything. A disturbing thought crossed Leia's mind then. Does any of this matter? Is any of it enough?

She had to do something, though. She couldn't just let the Emperor win. She had to fight for her father—for her father, and Rebécca, and Abretheer, and Abrothaar, and everyone else who had died on Twelfth Brother's lightsaber.

Besides, Sixth Sister was an Inquisitor just like Twelfth Brother. Leia couldn't fight against Twelfth Brother, but she could fight against Sixth Sister. And that was better than nothing. Right?

Her decision made, Leia sat down on the bed and crossed her legs on top of the blanket that served as a coverlet. She would face whatever consequence awaited her, if only to make this one, small act of rebellion.

She did not have to wait long.

The door opened, and Sixth Sister entered. She was scowling, the downward curl of her lips making her face long and pointed. Looking around, she spied Leia on the bed—and her frown deepened.

"I told you to come out when you were changed," she said tersely.

"I didn't want to," Leia said.

"Come here," Sixth Sister said.

"No."

Sixth Sister took a warning step toward the bed and Leia. "Come here," she said again, the words sharp enough to cut.

"No," Leia said again.

With a growl, Sixth Sister stalked across the room and grabbed Leia by the wrist. This time, rather than picking her up, she simply dragged Leia off the bed. She turned then and started back toward the door, pulling Leia along behind her. Leia yelped in surprise, then scrambled to get her feet beneath her, not wanting to be dragged along the ground.

They returned to the lift, Sixth Sister yanking Leia after her. She threw Leia in once the door had finished opening, then stepped in after her, the dark frown on her face filling the narrow space with thunder.

When the lift stopped and the door opened, it was to a hall that looked almost identical to the one outside of Leia's room; it was brightly lit and walled with the same wood paneling, the floor slick tile. This time, however, the doors to the rooms on either side of the hall were widely spaced and open, and instead of bedrooms they revealed wood- and mat-floored practice courts and training rooms lined with mirrors and filled with equipment. It smelled like sweat and ozone, and like pain and exhaustion. Leia, once more being dragged behind Sixth Sister, wrinkled her nose in disgust.

They came to the end of the corridor and the door there, which was closed—the first closed door Leia had seen in this hall. Sixth Sister turned and looked down at Leia, then motioned for her to enter in front of her. Leia stubbornly shook her head.

"Don't make me carry you in," Sixth Sister warned.

"Or what?" Leia challenged, yanking her hand free of Sixth Sister's hold and crossing her arms once more.

"You won't like the answer," Sixth Sister warned.

In reply, Leia sat.

Sixth Sister reached down and seized Leia by the hair. Dragging her upwards, and ignoring Leia's scream of surprise and pain, she opened the door and strode through. Once they were inside, Sixth Sister threw Leia forward, sending her sprawling.

Leia picked herself up gingerly, once more battling tears, and found herself in a large practice court. The floor was made of light balsa wood, but for the two large, blue mats sunk into the floor at the center of the room. The far wall was lined with mirrors and a waist-high bar, while on the two side walls there hung rack upon rack of weaponry: staffs, vibroswords, spears, pikes, glaives, and all manner of weapons Leia had no name for. A balcony meant for watchers wrapped around the left-hand wall, the tight staircase leading up to it standing in the corner nearest to Leia.

Four people—two men and two women—stood waiting for her. They were all dressed as she was, in polyester, form-fitting exercise clothes. All were barefoot. Two of them also bore lightsabers on their hips, the belts on which they hung slung low.

They ceased talking when she entered and turned toward her, expressions guarded but intrigued. For a long moment there was only silence, Leia standing uncertainly just inside the door with Sixth Sister at her back, the other four inspecting her closely.

"Welcome, Sister," the man bearing the lightsaber said at last, looking past Leia to Sixth Sister. He was tall and narrow—narrow shoulders, narrow face, narrow eyes. His hair was shorn close against his head, and his eyes were a ripe, glittering yellow.

The woman bearing a lightsaber was a Twi'lek. She had dark green skin and the same yellow eyes, wide and framed by long lashes. She did not look happy to see Leia; her mouth was curled into an unhappy sneer, and her gaze on Leia was hard and uncomfortable.

"Come here, 851," the second man said. He was short and broad-shouldered, with long blue-black hair gathered behind him in a horse tail. His eyes were a startling blue, accented by the darkness of his skin. His teeth were brilliantly white, his lips rich and full.

When Leia made no move to obey, Sixth Sister gave her a sharp push between the shoulder blades. Leia stumbled forward, caught herself, and halted. She did not want to get any closer to the Inquisitors—she remembered again Twelfth Brother's yellow eyes, and the way they had glinted in the light of her bedroom—but more than that, she wanted to defy them. Her resolution to fight the Emperor, as well as the Inquisitors, was fresh in her mind and spirit. She was certain that these men and women were here to train her, and at the Emperor's will. Hadn't Sixth Sister said as much?

"I gave you an order, 851," Blue Eyes said.

Leia sat down.

"Not this again," Sixth Sister groaned. The other four looked at her with curious eyes, but said nothing as Sixth Sister rounded Leia and crouched down in front of her. "Listen, 851," she said coldly, "if you don't do what we want you to, you're not going to like the consequences."

Leia crossed her arms and glared at Sixth Sister. Sixth Sister glared back.

There were footsteps, and Leia looked up to see the male Inquisitor approaching. He halted above Sixth Sister's shoulder and looked down at the two of them, face impassive.

"You know our orders, Sister," he said.

Sixth Sister scoffed. But she looked away from Leia and stood. "Good luck with her," she tossed over her shoulder, and left.

The male Inquisitor knelt in front of Leia, a kind smile on his lips. "Hello, 851," he said. "I am Ninth Brother. My companions here are Thirteenth Sister, Cora, and Danyil." He motioned first to the female Twi'lek, then to the woman, and at last to Blue Eyes. "We're going to be training you."

Leia crossed her arms and said, "I don't want to be trained."

"Be that as it may," Ninth Brother said, "it is the Emperor's command that you be trained."

Leia shook her head. "I don't care."

Ninth Brother frowned, his smile faltering for the first time. "You should care," he said. "The Emperor is the one providing you with food and clothes and a room here at the Palace. The least you can do is train for a few hours."

Leia shook her head again. "No."

"Okay," Ninth Brother said, sitting down in front of her. "We can wait then. Whenever you're ready, though, we'll be ready too."

Leia smiled. Had they forgotten that she had spent the last two and a half weeks bound to a bed with nothing to do? She could outwait them, she was certain.

Ten minutes passed, then twenty. Thirty. An hour.

Ninth Brother rose and returned to the other three, still standing by the nearer mat. They put their heads together and spoke quietly for a moment, before Thirteenth Sister turned and left the practice court in a hurry. Leia watched her leave, idly wondering for a moment where she was going. Then she turned her attention back to memorizing the grain of the wood floorboard by her right foot.

Thirteenth Sister was gone for what Leia guessed was about an hour. She had moved on from memorizing the grain in the floorboard by her right foot to memorizing the grain in the floorboard by her left foot. It had an interesting whorl in it, which was giving Leia no end of entertainment as she counted each angle of each dark grain.

"What did he say?" Danyil asked, voice low and barely audible.

Leia strained her ears to hear Thirteenth Sister's reply. She missed the first half of it, but then caught the words, "—don't have any choice. We wait and see what happens."

Danyil sighed, clearly annoyed. "Fine," he said. His deep voice was clear if quiet. "But how long do we wait?"

"Until she breaks," Ninth Brother said.

"And if she doesn't?" Cora asked.

"You really think a nine-year-old girl can outwait us?" Ninth Brother asked.

All four of them glanced at Leia, who quickly pretended to be looking at the floorboards.

"Surely not," Thirteenth Sister said. But she did not sound certain.

Lunchtime came and went. Servants appeared at the door to the practice court, bearing trays of grilled bantha, green beans, cake, and cool fruit juice. A tray was placed in front of Leia, who picked at the food without really eating it—the knot in her stomach was even wider than it had been this morning, stealing her appetite. The other four ate slowly, laughing and talking as they did so.

Sometime in the afternoon Ninth Brother and Thirteenth Sister unhooked the lightsabers from their belts and stepped out onto the nearer mat. They ignited their 'sabers in a flare of scarlet, bowed to each other, then launched themselves forward. They met in a clash of screeching light.

Leia perked up at the sound and watched, fascinated, as they circled each other on light feet, both looking for even a split second's weakness.

Ninth Brother attacked first. He flew forward with a flurry of attacks. Thirteenth Sister stumbled back one pace, then two, barely managing to block each of Ninth Brother's strikes. Then she surged forward, bearing down on Ninth Brother's blade. She caught his hilt against hers, and for a long moment they strained, each trying to force the other to their knees.

Finally, Thirteenth Sister broke away. They went back to circling.

This time it was Thirteenth Sister who attacked. She lunged, sweeping her blade down and under, aiming for Ninth Brother's knees. He blocked the 'saber, then counterattacked, focusing on her chest and shoulders. Thirteenth Sister batted his lightsaber away, then swung a blow at his hip. Ninth Brother only barely blocked it, and stumbled off balance.

From then on, the fight was in Thirteenth Sister's favor. She struck hard and fast, raining blow after blow against Ninth Brother's guard, with each strike getting closer and closer to his body, never fully letting Ninth Brother regain his balance.

Finally, with a complicated twist and jerk, Thirteenth Sister slid her 'saber around Ninth Brother's blade, battering it from his hand. The hilt fell to the mat with a soft thump, leaving Thirteenth Sister to level her blade to Ninth Brother's throat.

Ninth Brother smiled bitterly. "Well done," he conceded.

Thirteenth Sister grinned and lowered her lightsaber. "That makes four times in a row for me," she taunted. "Shall we go again?"

Ninth Brother called his lightsaber to his hand with what Leia knew must be a tug of the Force. "No," he said. "I've had my pride hurt enough for one day."

Thirteenth Sister laughed at that, allowing the blade to slide back into her hilt. "Next time you're ready to have your pride hurt, come find me."

Turning, Ninth Brother noticed Leia watching them. He smiled, and crossed the room to kneel before her once more.

"Did you enjoy that?" he asked her.

Leia didn't answer him.

"We can teach you how to fight like that," he told her. "With a lightsaber and everything."

Leia considered her options again now that she had new information. She could continue to be obstinate, fighting the Emperor and the Inquisitors with her stubbornness, or she could learn how to fight with a lightsaber. She did really want to learn, now that she had glimpsed the possibilities offered to her. But accepting that training would mean giving in to the Emperor's desires. And, more than that, it would mean learning from Inquisitors—something which made Leia balk.

She had seen an Inquisitor in action before, she reminded herself. She had seen a lightsaber battle the night her father and their entire household had been killed. Even though it would be amazing, was it spitting in the memory of her father and all the rest to learn how to wield a lightsaber?

An even worse thought crept into Leia's mind. If she did learn, would she ever be ordered to do something like Twelfth Brother had done?

Somehow, Leia thought she would be.

"She will be a great weapon for the Empire," the Emperor had said, and that "under her hand and heel my rule will be established for generations to come." Didn't that mean he would use her to hurt people? Even to kill?

No, Leia decided firmly. I won't let them train me.

"Still no?" Ninth Brother asked.

Leia just stared at him.

Ninth Brother rose. "So be it," he said, and turned back to the others.

The rest of the day passed without incident. The four adults waited by the mats, talking quietly about things that didn't interest Leia, waiting futilely for her to get bored and come to them.

At last Cora—blonde-haired, with silver eyes and silver nails—came over to Leia and knelt down. "Come on," she said, her voice sweet and fragile, "let's go back to your room."

"Okay," Leia said and stood.

Looking mildly surprised, Cora stood too. "Come on, then," she said, and led the way back to the room Sixth Sister had said was Leia's. "There are pajamas in the bottom drawer," she told Leia, "and a hairbrush and toothbrush under the sink."

Leia turned back to face Cora standing in the doorway and said, "Okay. Thank you." It didn't hurt to be polite, Leia thought—not while they weren't trying to force her to train, anyway.

Again looking mildly surprised, Cora nodded. "You're welcome," she said, and then stepped back out of the doorway. "I'll come get you in the morning," she said. Then she closed the door.

Leia waited a moment, then crossed the room and tried to open the door. It didn't move, much to Leia's disappointment. She was not, however, surprised.

After standing and staring at the door for a moment longer, trying to think of ways to get out—there was no panel on the inside of the room, and even if there was Leia wouldn't have known how to hotwire the lock—she turned and went to the sink. She turned it on and splashed cold water on her face, then bent down to rifle through the cabinet underneath it. She found the promised hairbrush and toothbrush, as well as toothpaste, hair ties, and hair pins.

It took almost fifteen minutes for Leia to take down and fully brush out her hair. It had been in the same braids for almost three weeks now—no one had cared enough to take them out, though some hairs had pulled free on their own—and there were knots and tangles enough to make Leia wince as she worked them out. She then brushed her teeth, and changed into the pajamas—soft shorts and a loose shirt—that she found in the bottom drawer of the dresser. Then, feeling better than she had in weeks, Leia crawled into bed and fell asleep.

~oOo~

Leia opened her eyes to a large, opulent room overhung with shadow. A large window in the far wall overlooked the Coruscant skyline, admitting in light of every shade and casting all of the furniture in the room—a wardrobe, two nightstands, and directly beneath Leia a bed—into stark relief.

Two people were laying in the bed, the smaller of the two—the woman, Leia thought—snuggled deep into the man's arms. She was pregnant, Leia saw, her belly swollen beneath the pale blue nightdress.

"It's going to be a boy," the woman said softly to the man. Her hair was long and curled, dark against the whiteness of the pillow and sheets.

"With a kick that hardstrong?" the man said. He was fair-haired and strong, his shoulders wide and his arms well-defined. "I think it's going to be a girl."

"Hmmm," the woman hummed.

"What, you don't believe me?" the man asked.

"It's not that I don't believe you. I just don't believe you."

The man laughed. Then, sobering, he asked, "Do you think we're doing the right thing, waiting to see the gender of the baby?"

"Why would it be wrong?"

The man buried his face in the woman's dark hair. "I don't know," he said. "It just feels...dangerous, somehow."

"I don't see how it could be dangerous. Unless you think green is an unfit color for the baby's room."

The man laughed again. "No, I think green is fine."

"Then what's wrong?"

"Just a feeling," the man said, softly. "A bad feeling…"

Fire roared up, devouring the edges of Leia's sight. The image of the room wavered, then shrank, like paper caught in an open flame, curling and peeling away to reveal a second, darker image underneath.

The sky was an ugly black, the earth shattered rock and barren soil. A river of lava ran slow and red-hot at the foot of a sloped bank, throwing off waves of heat and the acrid stench of melted stone.

A man lay half-in, half-out of the river. Flames lapped at his legs, his hips, his back, eating at the cloth of his robes and sinking down, down, down into his flesh. A metal arm scraped in the rubble on the bank's edge, carving furrows into the soil.

A second man stood up higher on the bank. In his hand was the hilt of a lightsaber, on his shoulders the robes of a Jedi.

"You were my brother, Anakin," the man on the bank cried, his voice broken with unshed tears. "I loved you!"

Then that image, too, burned, the fire rising out of the lava and consuming Leia's field of vision. It roared, hungry and furious, and Leia screamed, the fire devouring her too. Then, as if it had destroyed all of the fuel it could, the fire began to abate, flickering weaker and weaker across Leia's sight, until it vanished altogether, leaving only darkness in its wake.

Leia opened her eyes.

She was standing at the top of a sand dune, the sky stretching out in endless blue overhead. Two suns hung high in the heavens, blazing down in glorious, golden array. The air was hot and dry, and after the first breath Leia thought, just for an instant, that she was turning to fire and ash.

Then the sensation passed, and so too did the heat of the sand beneath her feet and the suns above her head. She was left standing in a desert that did not touch her.

"It's not that the desert does not touch you," said a calm, kind voice behind Leia. "It's that you're part of the desert."

Leia whirled, startled, to see a woman standing behind her. She was short, dressed in a roughspun dress and shawl, with curling black hair and warm, brown eyes. She was smiling gently, and the smile made her eyes shine as if lit by embers.

"Who are you?" Leia asked.

The woman sat, and patted the ground in front of her. Leia obliged obediently, sitting down across from the woman, tucking her feet beneath her and laying her clasped hands in her lap.

"I am part of the desert," the woman said, still smiling. "Just as you are. But you can call me Shmi."

Leia shook her head. "I think you must have me confused with someone else," she said. "I'm not part of the desert. I've never even seen a desert. There aren't any deserts on Alderaan."

Shmi laughed. "Oh, Leia," she said. "You are as much of the desert as the sand is, or the sun. You were birthed by it, though you were raised by the mountains."

Leia shrugged. "I don't know what you mean by all that," she said, "but I still think you've got the wrong person."

"Your name is Leia, isn't it?" Shmi asked.

Leia nodded.

"And your father is Anakin Skywalker, isn't he?"

Again Leia nodded, slower this time.

"There you are, then," Shmi said, as if that answered everything.

"Who are you again?" Leia asked.

"I told you," Shmi answered. "I'm Shmi."

"That doesn't mean anything to me."

Shmi reached out and brushed her fingertips against Leia's cheek and then chin. Leia thought about jerking away—but something, some innate trust, stilled her. Instead, she found herself leaning into the woman's touch, as if she had known this woman all her life, and found comfort in her presence.

"You are so young," Shmi murmured, letting her hand fall.

"I'm nine," Leia said stoutly.

The woman's smile turned sad. "I know," she said. "You're the same age he was when…" She trailed off, a sorrowful look creeping into her eyes. She blinked, and the sorrow vanished, replaced with her smile.

"Much is going to happen to you, Leia Skywalker," Shmi said. "You must be brave."

"I'll try," Leia promised.

"Good," Shmi said. "And I'll be watching over you," she promised.

"Who are you?" Leia asked, one final time.

"It's not time yet for you to know," Shmi said.

Leia bowed her head. "Okay," she mumbled, surprising even herself. Normally she would have demanded answers. But now, for some reason, this seemed like enough.

"Sleep well, dear child," Shmi murmured. She reached out and tucked a hand under Leia's chin, lifting her face. Then, leaning forward, she kissed Leia's forehead. "I'll be here," she promised, "waiting."

Leia blinked—and Shmi, and the desert, were gone.


end notes: Again, I have the next chapter written. If I get good feedback, I'll post it on Thursday or Friday. Otherwise it'll probably be Sunday. Most importantly, though, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and I'd love to hear your thoughts!