notes: As always, huge thanks to my betas, absynthe-minded and princess-sansa-of-ithilien. Also massive thanks to all of you who commented! I confess, I'm a little bit discouraged by the low numbers of reviewers - but that only goes to make the ones I receive all the more precious. So thank you again to those of you who *did* take the time to leave your thoughts.
CHAPTER 13
Leia's days slowly gained a rhythm and pattern.
Every morning she would waken to Luke's chrono going off, the sound jolting her out of her comfortable slumber amid Luke's thoughts. Luke would rise and get ready for the day, while Leia would stretch and exercise for half an hour. Then, after breakfast, Luke would begin with his chores for the day, often accompanying Uncle Owen out to the fields.
Leia would keep Luke company while he worked throughout the day. They would chat, and Leia would watch through Luke's eyes as he worked on vaporators and droids, as he toiled in the greenhouse, as he tinkered in the garage. Every so often she would have a question for him—more in the early days, less and less as time went on—and Luke would patiently walk her through whatever it was he was working on.
Once a week, Big Burly or Pale Eyes would arrive to take Leia down to Vrosha and the room in the basement. There Vrosha would concoct new torments to visit upon Leia—torments that Leia would take in silence and in screams by turn.
"I don't understand," Vrosha said one day two months after their first session. "Some days you're callous and unemotional, others you're a weeping mess. Tell me, Leia—is there a method to your madness, or only madness?"
Leia spat in her face.
Vrosha wiped the spittle from her cheek and nose and sighed. "Madness, then," she concluded, and made a note in her chart.
After two or three days—sometimes more, rarely less—Pale Eyes would arrive to take Leia to the infirmary and a few hours in bacta. This healed all but the worst of her wounds, leaving her nearly scarless.
It was strange, Leia thought one day nearly six months later. She was standing naked in her cell, her spare shirt lying crumpled on the bed, looking at her smooth stomach and thighs. She had just returned from the infirmary, where the bacta had healed the deep cuts that Vrosha had inflicted then packed with half-rotten meat.
The wounds had grown infected in a matter of hours, leaving Leia feverish and in agony. By the time Pale Eyes appeared to take her to the infirmary, she was delirious and unable to stand. He had dragged her by her hair, grown just long enough get his fingers in, and all but threw her into the bacta tank.
Even after all of this torment, she thought, running a hand over her stomach where the worst of the wounds had been, I barely have a mark on me. Only fresh skin, pinker than the rest, indicated where the cuts had been.
A couple of times a week, Pale Eyes would appear in her cell. Sometimes he brought companions, other times he came alone. Without fail, though, he would drag Leia kicking and screaming from her bed, pin her to the floor, inject her with a deep green liquid that burned as it slid beneath her skin, and rape her. If he brought companions with him they would then take a turn, fucking her until they were satisfied, laughing and joking the whole time as if it was a show.
No matter how much Leia screamed and begged and wept, they all seemed to turn a blind eye and deaf ear to her.
With Pale Eyes, though, it was always the same. No matter when or how often he came, once he had her pinned to the floor, Leia would freeze. Once she was under him, it was like she couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't even think. Everything but white, mind-numbing terror left her head and body, rendering her still and speechless.
"I feel like it's my fault," she confessed to Luke after the fourth time Pale Eyes raped her. "If I just fought harder—if I just fought at all, then maybe things would be different."
"Is it different with any of the others?" Luke asked.
"Well, no," Leia admitted. "They're all bigger and stronger than me. No matter how hard I fight, they always win. And I can't...I can't use the Force. I've tried—accidentally, I swear—but it's like there's this glass wall over the fire that I can't break through. It goes away after a while, but I can't...I can't—"
"There you go then," said Luke, cutting her off before she could spiral into panic. "Why would it be any different with Pale Eyes?"
"I guess it wouldn't," Leia said after a pause of thought.
She still wasn't sure she believed Luke's insistence that it wasn't her fault, though.
"That's okay," Luke said, reading her thoughts. "Just think about it, alright?"
Leia continued to beg Luke to leave her mind as soon as Pale Eyes entered the room. It took three weeks for her to get the idea to try venturing into Luke's mind instead.
"I don't know why I didn't think of this before," she said, frustrated with herself.
"Hey," Luke said quickly, "I didn't think of it either. It's okay."
The next time Pale Eyes appeared, Leia hurled herself into Luke's mind, throwing up walls around the connection between his mind and her body. They were stone and diamond, hard enough to bruise and bloody her knuckles when she punched at them, strong enough to withstand even the most ferocious of blows.
When Pale Eyes injected the serum into her, however, for a second her connection with Luke faltered. She slid backwards, into her own mind, her own thoughts, her own body—but then she grabbed onto their connection with fingernails that broke and bled, and heaved and strained and pulled herself back into Luke's thoughts.
For a long second she was torn between two halves. She was in her own mind and in Luke's, split and frayed between. No! she screamed, and gripped the ember of their bond with her broken and bleeding nails. Luke was pale, a glass wall forming between them.
Leia punched it, kicked at it, struck it with fist and toe and elbow. The glass fractured, cracked, shattered—and Leia pulled herself back into Luke's mind.
"They won't part us again," Leia said. "I won't let them."
When Leia was in Luke's mind she could still feel Pale Eyes fucking her—could still feel him pumping in and out, could hear his grunts and moans, could feel him spill inside of her—but it was a distant sensation, as if it was coming to her through a veil.
Sometimes, though, Pale Eyes would realize she wasn't with him and would decide she wasn't present enough for his tastes. He would slap her then, hard across the face, blacking her eyes and splitting her lips, dragging her out of Luke's mind and back to her cell.
"Hey," he would say every time following the slap, "no disappearing into lala land on me." Then he would grin, and slap her again for good measure.
Thankfully the others never minded if she was "present" or not. They only cared about whether or not they got a fuck. Sometimes they would roughen her up—would slap her across the face, or pinch her breasts until they bruised, or kiss her hard enough to leave marks on her pale skin—but usually they just fucked her, getting it done and over with quickly.
Through it all, she was empty and cold, as if something had been taken from her—something warm and hot and integral to her very being. It was only later, when she was being raped by two men and a woman, that she realized what it was: the Force. She reached for it accidentally, in panic and in pain, and found that she could not touch it. Her thoughts skidded over it like a glass wall, keeping her from the warmth and heat of the Force burning within her.
It was only later—much later—that she found she was able to once more touch it. As soon as she did, she jerked back as if singed, afraid to even dip a finger into it. She was regretful, in many ways—if she had been unable to touch it, her problem would have been solved. She would never have to worry about accidentally using the Force again.
She could, however, touch it once more, meaning she once more had to be careful not to use it.
Even when the serum blocked her access to the Force, though, she was still able to touch Luke's mind. While weakened by the serum, her bond with Luke was not destroyed by it.
Time passed, and those that came with Pale Eyes to fuck her seemed to grow in their enjoyment of the process, losing their wariness and their discomfort with the proceedings.
"They're getting used to it, I think," Leia commented on their twelfth birthday.
They had decided to celebrate together on the same day, given that Leia no longer knew when her birthday was. They chose the day that Luke celebrated with his aunt and uncle—the day after Empire Day, which Leia knew because Pale Eyes had told her he was celebrating Empire Day with an extra fuck.
Leia was with Luke when he opened his gift: the ignition key to a skyhopper, though the 'hopper needed many repairs before it would be flight-worthy.
"It'll be yours to keep up and maintain," said Uncle Owen with his usual gruffness. "I expect you to do so without any prompting."
"I will!" Luke promised, and threw himself at his aunt and uncle.
Leia was with him when he went out to the garage to admire his new gift as well.
"It doesn't look like much," she commented. Its paint job was peeling, and the cockpit seat was torn in three places and burned in a fourth. The controls were old and pitted, and two of the buttons on the display were cracked.
Luke settled into the cockpit and started up the engines. They coughed to life after a few turns, growling and rattling the entire vehicle.
"That's okay," Luke said. "We'll get it running."
After that, Luke and Leia spent every hour of Luke's free time working on the skyhopper. They would get up early, when the light was pearly gray, and would work until long after sunset, when the only illumination was the floodlights mounted onto the garage walls.
After watching through Luke's eyes for long enough, Leia began to pick up some of the basics of the mechanics behind the 'hopper—well enough even that she began having suggestions for Luke. "Cross that wire there," she would say, and, "Try punching it in a pattern of twos rather than threes."
One month bled into two, which bled into three, until at last Uncle Owen pronounced the 'hopper ready for flight. Leia was with Luke the first time he took the 'hopper out—and together they rode through the dying afternoon light, whooping and hollering with freedom, success, hope, and pure, unadulterated joy.
"I can't wait to show Biggs," Luke told Leia as he pulled the 'hopper into the garage and killed the engines. "He's gonna freak out."
Biggs Darklighter was Luke's best friend on Tatooine. He was a few years older than Luke, with dark hair and hazel eyes and a wicked sense of humor. Ever since Luke was old enough to reach the pedals on the floor, Biggs had been teaching him how to fly—in secret, because Luke had been certain his aunt and uncle would not approve of him being at the controls of a skyhopper at eight.
Luke introduced Leia to Biggs two weeks after they reconnected their bond. He went into Anchorhead to pick up some supplies that Uncle Owen had ordered and met Biggs at the local tapcafe for a lemonade.
"Hey Biggs," Luke said cheerfully, perching on a stool at the counter that ran along the back wall of the tapcafe.
"Hey Luke," Biggs replied. He was already seated, but he spun on his stool to look at Luke, a grin flashing across his face. "What's up?"
"Not much," Luke replied. "Just farm work. You know."
Biggs, who was the son of Anchorhead's single mechanic, did not know. But he grinned and nodded, saying, "Yeah. I get it."
They ordered their lemonades, and sat in comfortable silence for a long moment.
Luke took that opportunity to talk to Leia.
"This is Biggs," he said. "He's the best pilot this side of Mos Espa. He can even thread the needle at Beggar's Canyon at full speed!"
"That means nothing to me," Leia replied.
"Well maybe I can get Biggs to take us out," Luke said. "That way you can see for yourself what I mean."
Their lemonades arrived, and the two of them sipped at their drinks. Finally Biggs turned to Luke and asked, "Anything new with you?"
For half a moment, Luke considered telling Biggs everything—everything about Leia, about his connection with her, about how she was in his head at that very moment, staring out of his eyes.
Leia heard his thoughts. "Be careful," she warned.
"Do you not want me to tell him?"
"No," Leia said. "I don't know or trust him."
"He's my best friend."
"But I don't know him," Leia pointed out. "Besides, you don't want to risk losing your best friend, do you?"
"Well, no," said Luke.
"You might, if he thinks you're crazy."
That sobered Luke. "You're right," he said.
Biggs waved a hand in front of Luke's face. "You there, space cadet?" he asked
Luke blinked, coming back to himself and the present moment. Damn, he thought, I'm still not good at this.
"Yeah," he said aloud. "I'm fine. I was just thinking."
"What were you thinking about?"
"Well, I was hoping you might take me flying. It's been a while since I've flown with you, and I miss it."
Biggs grinned. "Of course we can go. What time do you have to be home by?"
"Dinner," said Luke. "Until then I'm free."
Biggs downed the last of his lemonade. "Well then in that case, let's go."
Luke gulped the last few mouthfuls of his own drink, then leapt to his feet. "Okay, I'm ready!"
They left the tapcafe, passing from cool shadow to blinding sunlight, and crossed the street to the vehicle parking lot. It was a stretch of weed-choked gravel and sand that billowed into clouds of dust whenever the wind cut across it, littered with trash and lined with speeders.
Biggs's skyhopper was parked near the back of the lot. Luke climbed into the backseat while Biggs climbed into the front and fired up the engines, causing the entire vehicle to rumble and quiver. Luke buckled his safety belt—two straps across his chest in an X and a third across his waist—and settled in for the flight.
"Ready?" Biggs asked over his shoulder.
"Ready," said Luke, feeling Leia's affirmative as well. He could feel her excitement and anticipation, sharp and cool like water under shadow.
The skyhopper was cramped with both seats filled. The only window was the one filling the front of the cockpit, above the display of buttons and controls that commanded the small ship. Luke, seated in the back, was closed in on every side but in front—and even then his knees hit the back of Biggs's chair. A simple joystick and series of four buttons were arrayed to Luke's left and right: an emergency command console in case anything happened to the person sitting up front.
"I've never flown in a skyhopper before," Leia told him. "Just speeders and spaceships."
"You've been in spaceships?" Luke asked, awed.
"Well, yeah," said Leia. "How else do you think I got to Coruscant from Alderaan?"
"Oh, right," said Luke, feeling dumb.
The skyhopper rumbled and, with the groan of the landing struts receding into their compartments, lifted off. Luke leaned forward so that Leia could better see out of the window up front.
The ground fell away beneath them, the air opening and embracing the ship. When they were a hundred yards up, Biggs punched the accelerator, and the 'hopper sprang forward, zipping over the dunes and sending flurries of sand into the air in their wake, lifting up to skim over the canyons that rose to meet them.
Luke pulled on the headset hooked over the joystick, positioning the mic close to his mouth. "We going to Beggar's Canyon?" he asked Biggs.
"I figured," said Biggs. "That's where you wanted to go, right?"
Luke grinned. "You know me so well."
"You're gonna love it," he told Leia. "It's so much fun flying there."
"'Course I do," Biggs said, sounding almost affronted. "I am your best friend after all."
Luke had to bite his tongue to keep from correcting Biggs—and then a new thought came to him. Leia was more than just a friend; she was his sister, by heart if not by blood. If he could choose anyone in the galaxy to be his family, it would be her—and that made her family, didn't it? It made her as good as family for sure.
She was more than just his sister, though: she was his twin, the other half of his whole, the completion of his heart and mind. She was his world.
It was not until he was trading place with Biggs at the mouth of Beggar's Canyon that the second came to Luke.
If she's my world—if I truly love her that much—then why am I letting her suffer?
"It's okay," Leia said, hearing his thought. "You don't—"
"But I do," Luke said, cutting her off as he buckled his safety belt. "I can't let you keep suffering. Not if I love you—and I do."
"But what can you do?" Leia asked him. "You're just a kid."
"So are you," Luke replied stoutly. "You're just a kid, and that means you shouldn't be having to suffer all of this."
Luke felt Leia shake her head. "I'm not worth it," she told Luke softly. "I'm not worth you risking your life. Besides, I won't be able to escape. I'm too heavily guarded. And even if I do escape somehow, they'll hunt me down and capture me again."
"Then we'll live our lives on the run," said Luke. "We won't ever settle down. We'll get a ship—or work on a ship, at least—and we'll travel the stars. I won't let them capture you again. I promise."
"You can't make promises like that," Leia said.
"Except I am," Luke said.
"You gonna fire up the engines?" Biggs asked from the seat behind Luke.
Luke pushed the ignition button and the engines roared to life.
"I'm coming for you, Leia," Luke said. "And there's nothing in the galaxy that can stop me."
They flew Beggar's Canyon in silence after that, Leia staring out of Luke's eyes as he piloted the skyhopper dangerously close to the canyon walls and the floor. Wind billowed in their wake, churning up dust and sand, creating a veil of haze behind them and momentarily obscuring their way ahead. Luke did not slow; he turned and spun, expertly twisting the controls to send the 'hopper rolling around curves with death-defying precision.
He only slowed when they reached a narrowing of the canyon, where the bottom rose up to meet the top, leaving only a small circle just big enough for a skyhopper to fly through. Luke brought the nose of the skyhopper up, angling toward the circle. He could feel Leia's stomach tightening from the other side of their bond, could feel her heart rate increase.
"It's fine," he promised. "I've done this over a hundred times."
The circle loomed before them, gaping wide and hungry like the maw of a great beast. Luke spun the 'hopper up onto its side, twisting the fins to a position where they would not scratch the uneven surface of the stone circle. He punched the accelerator, felt Leia's heart crawl into her throat—and then they were through the Needle.
Luke let out a great cry of exhilaration—a cry echoed by Leia, though hers was silent, spoken only through their bond.
"Okay," she admitted as Luke set the 'hopper down at the far end of the canyon, "that was a lot of fun."
"Thanks, Biggs," Luke said over his shoulder, grinning wildly, eyes bright.
Biggs laughed. "You never cease to amaze me, Skywalker," he said. "I'm not sure even I could have flown the Canyon as fast as you just did."
"Poodoo," Luke said. "You're a way better pilot than me."
Biggs shrugged. "Fine, I'm the best pilot," he said congenially.
"He's lying," Leia told Luke.
"I know he is. But how do you know?"
"Sometimes I can feel when people lie to me," Leia told Luke.
"That's neat," said Luke. "I wish I could do that."
"Maybe I can teach you," said Leia. "Just like you taught me how to wire the skyhopper, and work on its engines, and on the vaporators. Like I taught you how to fight."
"That would be cool," said Luke. "but I can't right now."
Leia laughed. "No," she agreed. "Not right now."
They did, however, talk about it the next day, while Luke was in the field working on a simple tune-up on the second line of vaporators.
"Okay," Luke said. "So how do you feel if someone's lying to you?"
"Annoyed," said Leia, and then laughed. "No, not that, but...but I'm not sure how else to say it. It's just something I've always been able to do. It's not foolproof—not something I'd stake my life on—but when I do feel a lie, it feels…" She hesitated, and Luke could feel her searching for the right words. "It feels sharp and slick, rotten. The words aren't really themselves—they're something else."
"And how do you go about feeling that?" Luke asked.
"I just...listen," Leia said unhelpfully. "But it's like I listen with an ear that isn't real. An ear that's inside my head."
"Hm," said Luke. "Kind of like how we hear each other?"
"Maybe," Leia said. "Yes. Sort of. But not really. It's hard to explain."
"That's okay," Luke said. "I'll try it."
He did try it. Unfortunately the only ones he could try it on were his aunt and uncle, Biggs, and his other few friends from Anchorhead—and none of them made a habit of lying to him, so far as Luke knew. Still, for the next few weeks he constantly sought to listen with an ear inside his head. He heard nothing.
"I give up" he told Leia at last. "I think I just can't do it."
"That's okay," Leia said. "I can listen for the both of us."
~oOo~
The very first thing they did once Luke's skyhopper was ready was fly it out to Beggar's Canyon, where Luke proceeded to race through the treacherous turns and curves with increasing speed. He still slowed before threading the Needle, but even Leia, who had only been with him on the flight once, could tell he did it faster than before.
"Be careful," she chided as Luke evened out, the Needle disappearing rapidly behind them.
"I'm always careful," said Luke.
Leia snorted. "Yeah, and I'm a gundark."
They spent the rest of the afternoon hunting womp rats in the Jundland Wastes, only returning home when the first sun began to set.
"Where have you been?" Aunt Beru demanded when Luke walked in through the kitchen door, dusty and sweaty.
"Sorry," Luke said apologetically. "I lost track of time."
"We didn't get you that skyhopper so you could be out at all hours. I still expect you to be home for dinner."
"I know," Luke said, ducking his head and blushing. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
Aunt Beru sighed, then said, "I forgive you. There are leftovers in the conservator."
Luke smiled. "Thanks, Aunt Beru," he said, and hugged her tightly. "You're the best." With a jolt of surprise he realized that he was as tall as her.
When did that happen? he wondered.
"When you weren't looking," Leia said.
"Helpful," Luke told her, wrinkling his nose as he made his way past the table and towards the conservator and dinner.
That night, Luke had a nightmare. It was of someone grabbing him and dragging him off of a cot—or what could pass as a cot, though the mattress was painfully thin and there were no blankets or even sheets—and pinning him to the floor. He awoke before anything else happened—but that dream was just the beginning.
They were simple at first; after the first one they were just echoes and fragments and memories of the nightmares he had had when he was nine: tall, yellow-eyed figures beating him and demanding something of him that he could not give. Then they grew and expanded, including a woman with ice for eyes and ice for hair. She hurt him—hurt them, because in the dreams Luke wasn't himself, or at least wasn't only himself, but was something more, something greater than his half of a whole—and she mocked them. There was also a big, burly man who dragged her down to the woman made of ice, and a man with shocking eyes. Luke knew, from Leia's thoughts and the few glimpses Luke had snuck of Leia's life, that this was Pale Eyes.
"Are you feeling well?" his aunt asked one morning a few weeks after his birthday.
"Yeah, why?" Luke asked.
"You look a little wan," said his aunt.
Luke smiled. "I'm fine," he promised
To Luke's relief the nightmares only came once or twice a week, and when they did, they were no worse than the ones he had suffered at age nine. In fact, in many ways they were better, for he could tell that they were memories rather than what was happening in that instant—the past, rather than the present.
When he asked Leia about them, she only shrugged. "Yeah, I've been having nightmares," she confessed. "But since when do I not?"
"You mean you've been having these dreams a lot?"
"For years," Leia said. "Though not always about what's happened to me."
"What do you mean?" Luke asked.
"I mean they're about other stuff too. Stuff like being killed—and killing other people. Stuff like being hunted and chased. Like being lost in someplace I don't understand. Though I do dream about being tortured and raped too."
Luke poured as much comfort and warmth through their bond that he could. Leia basked in it, soaking it in like parched ground drinks water.
"Thank you," she said, and curled into Luke's thoughts. She fell asleep there a few moments later, exhausted from the day; Pale Eyes had visited her after her session with Vrosha earlier that morning.
Time crept on. Days became weeks, weeks became months. Luke introduced Leia to his other friends: Camie, Tank, and Fixer. As with Biggs, Luke did not tell them about Leia, instead pretending as if he was not sharing his head with someone else—pretending that he was the same Luke they had known since they were toddlers.
They flew in the skyhopper almost daily and in all but the worst sandstorms. They hunted womprats, threaded the Needle, and skimmed over the dunes, learning where the krayt dragons nested and where their bones decorated the sands, learning the curves of the canyons, learning where the Tuskens made camp.
Luke remembered his promise, made to Leia in Biggs's skyhopper: he was going to rescue her, one way or another. He just had to figure out how.
He had to get to Coruscant. That was the key. He and Leia had discussed it, and they were both fairly certain that was where she was being held.
"I was in a landspeeder when I woke up after being knocked out," she told Luke, "not a ship. So I think I'm still on Coruscant."
"Okay," Luke said. "Then I have to figure out a way onto Coruscant."
"How are you going to do that?" Leia asked.
"I don't know," Luke admitted. He chewed his bottom lip, hands stilling in the inner guts of a vaporator.
"You're going to need money too," Leia told him. "Unless you want to beg for scraps and dumpster dive for food."
"I'd really rather not," Luke said drolly.
Leia chuckled.
It was nice to hear her laugh, Luke thought. She didn't do it often.
"Okay, so I need a job," said Luke. "I need a job, and I need to get off Tatooine. That's step one."
"I have an idea," Leia said. "What if you get work on a ship? That will get you off Tatooine, and will get you money."
"There's no guarantee that the ship will make berth on Coruscant," Luke pointed out.
"No," Leia conceded, "but it'll be easier to find a transport that will take you to Coruscant from Corellia or Alderaan or Naboo—or some other Mid Rim planet—than from here on Tatooine."
"True," said Luke. "Will anyone take me on, though?" he asked. "I'm only 12."
"There's only one way to find out. Though I do think you should wait until you're at least 13."
A new thought struck Luke. "I'm going to need contacts once I'm on Coruscant," he pointed out. "I won't be able to find you—let alone rescue you—without knowing the right people."
"And how do you propose to find those contacts?" Leia asked.
"I don't know…" Luke said. "I'll have to think on that."
The answer came to him three days later as he was hanging out with Biggs.
"I want to join the Imperial Academy," Biggs announced. "I'm the right age for it, and it'll get me off this hunk of rock."
Luke perked up at that. "The Imperial Academy?"
"Yeah." Biggs leaned down and picked up a tray pebble, tossing it once into the air and catching it, then sending it spinning away into the weeds growing at the edge of the parking lot. "There's nothing for me here. I don't wanna be a mechanic like my pops, and I definitely don't want to stay on Tatooine."
"Where is the Imperial Academy?" Luke asked.
Biggs pulled out a brochure from his back pocket. "I went to the recruiting station today," he confessed. "There are Academies all over the Inner and Mid Rim planets. Depending on how well you score on the entrance exam, you get placed at one of them. Coruscant's Academy is the best—those are all of your fast-track cadets—followed by Carida and Corellia." Biggs unfolded the brochure and pointed at a picture of an Imperial flag flying over a fancy, wrought-iron gateway. "This is the entrance to the Coruscant Academy."
"How do you join?" Luke asked.
"Well, first you have to take the entrance exam," said Biggs. "They hold those at recruiting stations. There's typically one on every planet, with the garrison office. They hold them twice a year, before every semester."
Luke nodded. "Okay," he said. "So do you just sign up?"
"Yeah," said Biggs. "And you pay a fee. Apparently it's 50 credits."
Luke grimaced. "Do you have 50 credits?"
"Yeah," said Biggs. "Barely, but I do."
"Does it cost money to join the Academy?"
"Depends on what program you get into," said Bigg. "And which Academy. Like, if you get into Coruscant, Carida, or Corellia, you're automatically paid for, regardless of what program you're in. If you train just to be a Stormtrooper, you have to pay for your training gear and stuff. But I'm gonna get into the piloting program on Carida or Corellia."
"You don't think you'll get into Coruscant?" Luke asked.
Biggs laughed. "I highly doubt that. It's only the best of the best that make it into Coruscant. I'm good, but I'm not that good."
Luke was silent for a long moment. Then he said firmly, "I'll join the Academy too. But I have to get into Coruscant."
Biggs looked surprised. "Coruscant, huh?" he asked. "Why is Coruscant so important?"
Luke looked at his friend seriously. "It just is," he said.
"Okay, okay," Biggs said, holding up his hands. "But you're gonna have to give it a few years. You need to be 16 to apply."
"Okay," said Luke. "Then I'll wait until I'm 16."
"I still think you should try to find a ship to leave Tatooine on," Leia said, once Luke had left Biggs to go home. "You're going to need to learn how to fly more than skyhopper if you're going to get into the Academy on Coruscant. And you're going to need a better education than your aunt and uncle can give you."
"You think I can get that teaching elsewhere?"
"You can at least get textbooks."
"Okay," said Luke.
Leia hesitated, then said, "Are you really doing this?"
"Yeah," said Luke. "I am. I promised I'd come for you. I meant it. This is how I do it."
"Okay," said Leia hesitantly.
"What?" Luke asked.
"I just...didn't think you'd actually do it."
"Well I am."
Leia hesitated again. "I...I'm not sure I want you to do it," she confessed.
"Why not?" Luke asked, shocked.
"Because I...I'm not worth you risking your life over."
"I say you are."
"But I'm not."
"I'm the one that gets to decide what's worth risking my life over, aren't I?"
"I don't deserve to be saved, though," she said.
"Yes, you do."
"But no one wants me. And that means I don't deserve it."
"I want you. And I'm the one who's going to save you—so yes, you do deserve it. To me, at least."
"You won't be able to pull it off," Leia countered. "You're just a kid."
"So are you, but they're putting you through hell anyway, aren't they? It doesn't matter how old we are," Luke said. "What matters is what we do. And I'm going to rescue you."
"I don't want you getting hurt," Leia said softly.
"I'll be okay," Luke said. "Really, Leia."
"You can't know that. You don't know what they're like."
"Maybe not. But I don't care."
"You should. I'm not worth it."
Luke sighed and fought to be patient. "You are to me," he said again. "Do you want to be rescued?"
Leia was silent for a moment. Then, softly, she said, "I want to. But I can't be."
"Why not?"
"I'm too heavily guarded. The Emperor—"
"Fuck the Emperor," said Luke, surprising Leia with his vehemence. "I don't care about him. He's just a wrinkled old man. What can he do to stop this from happening?"
"He has people who will kill to keep me from escaping."
"Then I'll just have to be careful."
"Do you really care about your life so little—"
"It's not that," said Luke, cutting Leia off. "It's that I think you're worth the risk."
"But I'm not."
"You are to me," Luke said yet again. "You want to be rescued. And so I'm going to do it."
"What if I told you I lied—that I don't want to be rescued?"
"Then I'll call bullshit," said Luke. "You already told me you did."
"But I don't want to. Not if it's going to risk you."
"This is my choice, Leia," said Luke. "Don't try to make it for me."
Leia was silent for a very long time. Luke wondered if he had truly upset her—and if so, how to go about rectifying the situation. He wasn't going to change his mind; he was certain about his choice to rescue her, and that wasn't going to change. He hadn't meant to make her angry, or to hurt her, though.
Finally, however, she said, "Okay. If...if you're sure."
"I'm positive," said Luke. "I'm coming to rescue you, no matter the cost."
"I hope you know what you're doing," Leia said softly.
So do I, Luke thought, though he knew Leia could hear him. So do I.
notes: Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?
I have the next chapter already written, and it should be going through my second beta this weekend. So I'll offer the deal again: Ten reviews by Monday and I'll post then, or 15 by Tuesday and I'll post Tuesday. Otherwise it'll probably be a week. So if you want the next chapter pronto, leave a review! Even just a quick "I liked it!" (or "I didn't like it"...) will make my day, and will count toward the count.
Thank you! And I hope to hear from you!
