A/N: I am a Star Wars virgin. Sure, I'd heard of pop culture references such as: "Luke, I am your father," (apparently incorrect) or "Do it," [weird voice]. I watched the newer movies out of peer pressure and frankly had no idea what was going on. But yeah, I had never really dabbled into the universe until recently. I've had a go at the prequels (yikes) and I've watched Clone Wars. I'm now halfway through Rebels. No spoilers please! If you spoil it I will fight you.

Anyways, with this in mind I warn you that there's not a whole lot I know about Star Wars. I've grasped the basic backbone of it but there's still more to explore. In other words I am completely hooked. I haven't watched the original three, so this is going to be very AU to anything original. Assume everything is canon until the end of Clone Wars.

But the end of Revenge of the Sith had me wondering what would have happened if Luke and Leia had switched places. I'm a sucker for father daughter stories — The Last of Us, Interstellar, Logan, Man on Fire... Add a black hole in the fabric of time and this fic is born.

Proceed knowing the chapter title is befitting for both the characters and the author ;)

Disclaimer: For obvious reasons I don't own Star Wars.

Enjoy.

"I guess no matter how hard you try, you can't escape your past." — Joel Miller, The Last of Us.

Chapter I

Rule Breaker

The sand whispers beneath her boots. It's so quiet that she can almost hear the desert breathe. She raises her eyes to the stars, bright and distant, winking down at her as if they know a secret she does not. Leia brings her hands to her mouth and sighs. She rubs her palms together as she drops her eyes back to the ground, wishing she'd worn her robe. The colder nights are approaching.

But despite the gooseflesh across her arms, Leia smiles at the desert's gentle gloom. Nighttime is the only time she isn't being watched. Aunt Beru isn't making sure she's doing all her chores on the farm; Uncle Owen isn't adamant that she's taking her homeschooling seriously; that strange traveller who goes by Obi-Wan isn't slinking past their home in the distant desert blaze. Tatooine is a bland mixture of wheat yellows and murky blues throughout its twenty-three hour day cycle. Everyone sleeps at night, though, and even if they don't it's dark enough for Leia's true colours to show — where they are harder to spot.

She pauses. Narrowing her eyes, Leia tries to gauge which direction she needs to go in. She supposes Uncle Owen's geography lessons have paid off, because she remembers the abandoned ship being about north-west from her home. It's been an hour, so she'll have to keep heading this way for another hour or so. If she were to estimate, it's a three-hundred metre walk. As Leia's boots continue to disturb the sand, she muses on her spotless reputation. Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru would believe her if she claimed she'd fixed up the rusty old bucket with the faint label 'N-1 Starfighter'. Druk! They'd probably believe her if she said she'd flown it, too.

She giggles at the brass language she'd picked up from a frequently passing travelling Jawa named Zir. Aunt Beru would go pale if she heard her say that out loud. But that would defeat the point: they think she's disciplined and grounded. They think she's loyal to any kind of rule. They think that she would never hide anything from them.

Leia's smile fades as her stomach twinges. She shivers and crosses her arms, rubbing her palms against them. The desert becomes slightly unsettled when she frowns at it. A cold breeze makes the sand murmur. She blows away some of her hair that falls into her face.

But with the growing minutes — of her aching muscles from farm work and her stinging eyes from staring at thin texts in Basic and Jawaese — comes consolation. Then, she spots the silhouette of the ship in the distance and any remaining guilt vanishes immediately. Tired and crooked, with one of its bent wings reaching up to the indigo star-smattered sky. She wonders what it was like when it was brand new; how it felt when soaring through the vacuum of space.

Leia sprints suddenly towards it, imagining herself behind a screen facing a sea of stars. She looks up at the sky again. She'd be grinning as she grips the wheel and swerves to avoid floating asteroids.

Oh, druk! Her ship is under attack! Leia slams on the auto-pilot, her grin turning savage as the alarms begin to blare. She grabs hold of the controls for the blasters just as an enemy ship skids into view. Leia fires, the red beam hitting their screen squarely and exploding it into millions of shards — but she has little time to dwell on the next one, when her ship lurches.

Leia loses balance and she violently kisses her dashboard. Lip stinging, she shoots back up and starts aiming the shooter again. She wipes blood off her lip with the shoulder of her Imperial Uniform. "Not today," she growls, and shoots another enemy ship.

She watches as shrapnel spirals into space. The enemy is doing embarrassingly bad considering how she's all alone. That is, until a shadow crosses over her. Leia frowns, and turns to look: there's a man, tall and looming with wild hair and a scar slashing over his eye. "What—"

"—are you doing in my ship?" she squeaks, slamming back into reality with violent turbulence. Her fantasy crashes around her, the flashing vibrant lights vanishing into the gloom of the abandoned N-1 Starfighter; her warrior ship dissolves into this forgotten, sorry piece of metal; the scraps of metal and rocks that had been floating around her abruptly drop to the ground with collectively dull thuds. But despite most of her imagination ebbing away, the man is still there. Leia blinks a few times to make sure two hours of sleep each night isn't catching up to her.

"Don't stop on my account," he says in a timbre voice, grinning down at her in a way that seems uncannily familiar.

Gasping, Leia drops the scrap metal rods — the ones she'd been using to shoot the enemies — to the dead ship's sand-soaked floor, and she stumbles backwards. Uncle Owen always warned her about strangers approaching her in the desert. With Zir, it was different; Leia was always the one approaching (and, she suspects, annoying) her. Her heart hammers wildly as the man stares silently at her. Four of her could be as tall as him. Yet despite her growing fear, Leia can't help but wonder something aloud.

"Why are you blue?" Not exactly, more like glowing blue, but still. People don't do that. Maybe he really is part of her imagination.

"Why are you so small?" he counters, still grinning. She scowls at him. It doesn't make sense that she recognizes his smile because apart from Uncle Owen, Aunt Beru (who pretty much never smiles), Obi-Wan and her almost-friend Zir, Leia doesn't really know other people at all. She pauses in wracking her brains when she notices the way he's looking at her. It's like Uncle Owen's given him a rather simple calculation but the man just can't seem to solve it.

"I shouldn't be here," he murmurs, glancing away from her. His grin has vanished.

"Neither should I," she admits before she can stop herself. He looks back at her and this time, his smile is soft. It illuminates his hard-edged face in a way that makes his scar look far less threatening, his stare less cold. The change is jarring. Leia shifts from foot to foot under his gaze, but she keeps her eyes on him.

The man slowly crouches down. Leia cranes her neck less and less, and when he stops lowering to the ground he is eye level with her. He beckons her to him with a gloved hand. Though she is hesitant at first, his gentle smile allows her to drift forward. Their silence is filled with the haunting faraway call of a bonegnawer. She stops when they are a foot apart. Up close he looks almost translucent. Leia wonders if an object would go right through him.

"You're a rule breaker, then?" he asks as a ghost of a grin climbs his lips. "So am I."

Leia glances around her surreptitiously, as if Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru would jump out from the shadows. She turns back to him. "Yes," she whispers, watching his smile grow, "but it's a secret, so you have to promise not to tell anyone." Her whole world would collapse if her aunt and uncle found out. They would be watching her day and night. Something passes in his eyes, but she can't figure out what.

Looking down as he takes off his glove, Leia watches him hold out his palm to her. A Jawa's Promise. Hesitantly, she glances up at him. His smile is still there.

"I promise I will never tell a single person, creature or droid in any universe that you are a rule breaker." Leia suddenly smiles back at him, and she places her palm over his. She is mildly surprised when her hand doesn't go straight through his. In fact, his palm is warm and calloused underneath hers. She looks down at frowns at how tiny her hand looks in comparison to his. The man chuckles, and what he says next tells her he knows what she is thinking: "You will grow, child."

Leia shakes her head. "Not fast enough," she grumbles, raising her eyes to meet his again. "I'm stuck on this boring planet until I'm old enough to join the Imperial Academy." His smile crumbles, and she thinks he's understanding her pain. "And even when I'm old enough I won't be free! I want to be a warrior," she scowls abruptly when the last conversation she'd had about this topic with her aunt and uncle comes to mind, "but my family wants me to become a Strategist or a Lieutenant, to work for the Galactic Senate."

The man is silent for a while. She becomes aware that her hand is still on his and she removes it. The loss of contact seems to draw him out of his thoughts.

"What do you know about our galaxy?" The question is so strange that Leia has to scrunch her brows, trying to pluck out the trick like it's one of the sneaky weeds posing as crops in her farm.

"Well that could mean just about anything," she counters, and he laughs — but the tone of it is different, dark and hollow. Just like the way he says his next words.

"Who rules over it?"

Leia wonders if he is stupid. Even she knows, and she hasn't left Tatooine in all the eight years of her life. "The Galactic Empire."

He laughs like a man in pain; Leia has never heard anything like it. His face hardens, his scar blazes over his eye, and for a second, she swears the rims of his pupils flash yellow. Leia takes a step back from him. Just as quickly, he stops, his face changing into something she usually sees in Uncle Owen when she deals with the more dangerous farm equipment. She scrutinises his eyes but she only sees blue.

"I'm sorry," he says gently, "I didn't mean to scare you." Leia juts her chin up.

"You didn't." He nods, though he looks unconvinced. They lapse into silence again. She is suddenly aware of the fact that she is cornered in an abandoned ship by a complete stranger.

"If you want to be a warrior, I can tell you that the Imperial Academy would be a waste of your time," he suddenly says. Leia crosses her arms and gives him a haughty look. He watches her with his hardened face. "Storm Troopers are disposable. You would be a means to an end."

She considers his words. "The point of a warrior isn't to seek glory. I would fight for a cause."

With a grim smile, the man asks, "Then what is your cause?"

"My cause…" Leia falters, her brows drawing together. She expects him to look smug like Aunt Beru does when she wins an argument. But his face remains serious as his eyes bore into hers. "I… To fight for the Empire?"

"And what is the Empire's cause?"

Leia doesn't want to admit it, but she still says, "I don't know."

The man leans towards her slowly, as if worried he will spook her. When he is much closer to her, he murmurs, "Never fight for a cause you don't know." A pained expression crosses over his face. "It's worse than fighting for one you don't believe in."

Leia's arms drop as she clasps her hands together, mulling over his words. She stares at her intertwined fingers as she asks, "Do you have a cause?"

The man is silent for so long she wonders if he disappeared into the night. But when she looks up, he is still there. The look on his face is dark, and Leia feels like he is battling with himself. "Perhaps I do now," he finally answers vaguely.

"What is it?" He smiles, but says nothing.

Just as she's about to prompt him further, he states, "You have the Force." Leia grows suddenly nervous. She had never known the name for it but she knows immediately what he is talking about. Uncle Owen had once seen her making baskets of their crops float onto a Jawa customer's Cart and had gone mad. She had never seen him like it before — he'd dragged her into their house and screamed at her for hours, roaring about dangerous powers and temptations. She had promised him she would never use the Force again.

"I do." The man had seen her floating rocks and debris to give effect to her fantasy; she'd even willed a rock to explode as if it had been hit by a beam, assuming he had been watching her that long. There was no point denying it. Her stomach curdles with guilt. "You can't tell anyone about that, either."

"I promise," he says, but that only makes her stomach twinge more uncomfortably. His brows furrow as he watches her. Even so, he doesn't say a word. Leia is secretly grateful.

"Do you have it too?" she finds herself asking, even though she can already feel the answer. He nods. "What…" She wrinkles her nose in thought. "What exactly is it?"

He mimics her, seeming a bit taken aback by her question. "It is… a gift that very few understand, and even fewer conquer." Leia looks down at her hands in awe. Maybe Uncle Owen just doesn't understand the Force.

"Do you learn it on your own?" When she raises her eyes, he's shaking his head.

"You can teach yourself the basics; but you need to be trained to reach your full potential."

Leia frowns. She knows neither Uncle Owen or Aunt Beru have the Force, and neither does Zir. She gets the feeling that Obi-Wan does, but he visits so rarely and is usually far away enough that she can never be sure. "I have nobody to train me."

"Perhaps…" He falters, his eyes casting down. He looks almost insecure. "I could," he says quietly, but she still hears him. Leia beams and takes a step towards him, placing her tiny hand on his broad shoulder. When the man looks up, she sees, for the first time, warmth in his eyes.

"I'd like that," Leia says. He mirrors her smile with his pale blue-glowing teeth. She tilts her head. "What's your name?"

"Anakin."

"My name is Leia." His face goes slack as if someone had just kicked him in the stomach; alarmed, Leia looks over her shoulder to make sure something like a bonegnawer hasn't snuck up on them. All she sees is the dark crevices of the ship. When she turns back, his face is completely blank. She must have imagined it.

"It's nice to meet you, Leia," he tells her with a small smile. She returns it. It fades when an orange glow seeps through the holes of the ship.

Leia gasps, "The suns are awake! I need to go home!" Anakin stands up quickly, towering over her, as her heart pounds against her ribs.

"How far away do you live?"

"Nearly two hours away!" she squeaks, angry that she'd ignored herself when she'd thought it was too late to go for a walk last night. "Oh! They'll never let me do anything."

"Let me give you a ride." Leia cranes her neck up with raised brows. "On my back. My mother used to do the same with me." Her stomach drops just thinking about the consequences of getting caught. When she nods, he bends down again so she can climb up and wrap her arms around his neck. Her knees nestle next to his ribcage and he places his palms on them. When he rises up, Leia marvels at viewing the world from this height.

Anakin's head swivels around him. "I drove a ship like this when I was just six years old," he remarks, as they leave through a gap in the ship. In awe, she gasps. She can picture it right now: a young boy with wild hair and a scar over his eye marching into a beautifully crafted ship just buzzing to leave the ground. Then a girl with messily braided hair (which, might she add, looks real cool) disrupts her picture and follows him onto the vessel with her pilot's gear. Leia glances over her shoulder as they get further and further from the skeleton of a ship.

"Teach me!" she demands, whirling her head around till her chin is on his shoulder. He laughs a deep laugh, the vibration making her teeth chatter briefly.

"All in due time, Leia."

After she gives him directions, he runs fast enough to make the sand hiss. Leia closes her eyes as the cold air whips through his and her hair. Anakin asks her a lot of questions, about her family, about her home, about her friends, even about Obi-Wan, who he claims is an acquaintance of his. Leia does grow frustrated, however, that whenever she asks a question about him, he either gives a vague answer or deflects it completely. At one point, when he states that he quit his unknown job "because it no longer suits me," she considers just pulling his hair.

Unfortunately she has run out of things to tell him about herself so she can't give him any vague answers.

When they arrive at her farm, she estimates just over half an hour has passed. She's amazed that Anakin isn't sweating or even panting for breath, but she supposes it's due to the desert's cold air. The suns have already cast a lazy light over Tatooine, but her aunt and uncle won't be up until the banthas start calling. Thankfully the hairy creatures are still dozing in their pen.

Anakin lowers himself to the ground again so she can get off. He turns to face her, the sand whispering beneath his blue-glowing boots. "Do you know your parents?"

Hah! Leia looks at him airily, saying in a dreamy tone, "As well as you know yours." He narrows his eyes and she smiles smugly at him. But for some reason she can't shake the feeling that his irritation isn't real.

"I will see you soon, Leia."

"How will I find you?"

He smiles and winks, as if he knows a secret she does not. "I'll find you."

Leia walks towards her quiet, unremarkable home. It's in its prime, unlike the ship, and hence leaves very little room for the imagination. She stops at her front door, sighing. Leia looks over her shoulder, and there where she'd left him, Anakin stands tall and stark against the desert's dull colours. He's watching her with his hands by his sides, one of them still exposed to the elements.

With a parting nod, she slips into her house.

Leia quietly races to her bedroom and guesses she has maybe twenty minutes of sleep before the banthas start calling. She collapses onto her bed, shuts her eyes and falls asleep immediately.

Very rarely does she dream, which is why she is surprised when she finds herself in the belly of a ship roaring with life. Soldiers are sprinting past her, pausing to acknowledge her with the title 'Commander' even under the rattling of their ship. They're under attack. A shadow looms over her and when she turns, she expects to see Anakin.

A terrifying figure towers over her. A black helmet is covering their face; they're draped in black armour and a billowing cloak. As the figure breathes, they sound as if their lungs are replaced by a machine. The figure takes out a cylinder of metal — Leia jolts out of her shock when a red beam emerges from it, resembling some sort of sword. She takes a step back. "I don't mean to frighten you," the figure says in a deep, robotic voice, "but you should be frightened if you do not join me." The soldiers all stop in their tracks. Leia's blood rushes in her ears as they all direct their weapons to her.

A familiar sound comes from outer space that seems to confuse the figure, and Leia takes the escape as the ship lurches violently. She shoots upright on her bed as the banthas bellow into the morning.