Tatooine, Leia decided about ten minutes after landing, was awful.
"How exactly do people live here?" she asked, tugging her cloak more tightly around her against a sudden gust of stupidly hot wind. Truthfully, she wanted nothing more than to discard the cloak; it went against every instinct she had to put on more clothing in heat this intense. But all her research had said the same: in a desert like this, bare skin led to disaster. You might feel better briefly, but you'd succumb to sunburn and heat sickness that much more quickly, especially if you were unaccustomed to such a climate. The sunlight, wind, and sand frequently whipped up in that wind were all too harsh; if you must leave a permanent shelter, you'd better create a temporary one with your clothes. And looking around, all the natives here did exactly that, wearing mostly light-colored, loosely woven clothes such as those Leia had donned, and pretty much covered head to toe.
But that didn't mean she had to like it.
Beside her, Winter somehow managed to look composed and elegant even in nondescript, loose desert wear, and with her hair thoroughly rumpled from that last gust. She ran a hand over it as it shone brilliantly in the startlingly bright sunlight, then sighed as she clearly gave up on restoring it to any sort of order. "It's home to many of these people, your Highness," she said, fishing in a pocket for an elastic band and quickly twisting her hair into a loose bun and securing it. "I imagine it means as much to them as Alderaan means to us."
Leia made a face, even as she was ashamed of herself for doing so. Diversity and acceptance were the galaxy's greatest strengths, and Tatooine deserved to be valued as much as any other planet, and its inhabitants given the same respect as everyone else. Of course the people who lived here would love their home, and see the nuances of beauty that eluded Leia. Still, she'd never been so hot or dusty in her life, and she decided that deserts were emphatically not her first choice of climate.
"Well, I guess we'd better rent a landspeeder. It's for sure we're not walking all the way in heat like this."
"Buying would be better," Winter pointed out. "We don't know how long this will take. It would also minimize our interactions with locals and any paperwork trails."
"Good point," Leia admitted. She looked around. They stood along the side of a nondescript, sand-colored building in the shade of a wide overhang while Mos Eisley bustled around them. A few passersby glanced their way as they walked past, but most ignored them entirely. Leia looked back down at her datapad. "Closest speeder lot is two blocks east. Let's go."
A two blocks' walk in this oppressive heat was enough to leave Leia drenched in sweat by the time they arrived. Granted, the wind that whipped her cloak irritatingly around her also evaporated the sweat pretty quickly, but that left the exposed skin of her face feeling gritty with salt and grains of sand that had stuck to her before the sweat evaporated, and even the skin that was covered felt as though it might actually be cooking beneath the suns' rays. A drop of sweat ran into her eye and Leia blinked fiercely to erase the sting.
"There," Winter said, lifting her chin slightly to indicate the speeder lot off to their right.
Another gust of wind—how could wind be so hot—sent her cloak rippling around her, and Leia sighed as they turned toward what had to be the main office.
A bell rang as Winter pushed the door open. There was some sort of cooling system working within, but even inside it was still hotter than Leia was used to. She huffed irritatedly to herself and headed toward the lone employee, a young woman a few years older than herself, leaning on the counter reading a datapad.
"We'd like to buy a landspeeder," Leia said. The woman looked up from her 'pad and ran an assessing eye over herself and Winter.
"Price range?"
Leia hesitated. One thing she hadn't researched was the average price of buying a landspeeder in Mos Eisley, and while money wasn't actually a consideration, to say as much would likely rouse the woman's interest. Nothing about this area of Tatooine seemed to speak of wealth, and Leia really didn't want to stand out. General Kenobi had stayed hidden here for two decades; she wasn't about to risk blowing his cover with an amateurish extraction. "Negotiable," she said. "If it's a reliable vehicle."
The woman behind the counter tilted her head. "All our vehicles are reliable. For in-town use, or heading toward the Wastes?"
"Both," Leia replied. "We have some friends in the outskirts; we'd rather not break down on our way for a visit."
"Sure thing," the woman said, pushing herself away from the counter. "Right this way."
Leia started to follow her, but was stopped as Winter grabbed her upper arm and held her fast. Leia turned, frowning, but Winter's eyes stayed fixed on the small screen on the office's side wall, where a broadcast of HoloNet News was playing. Leia looked toward the screen herself—
"—I repeat," the anchor on the screen said, her voice breathless in what seemed to be genuine shock, and Leia frowned again; HoloNet News anchors tended to be nothing if not dispassionate— "His Imperial Majesty Emperor Palpatine has announced that the planet Alderaan has been destroyed by a new mobile battle station on its inaugural tour—"
Leia's breath froze within her as her vision narrowed until all she saw was the burning afterimage of the HoloNet screen, her surroundings fading into nothingness around her. Winter's hand tightened around her arm to the point of pain, and her breath was beginning to quicken. Leia had a sudden and horrifying image of one or both of them having a dramatic breakdown right here in this dingy speeder lot office. Winter sounded close to hyperventilating, and in her mind's eye Leia saw herself on her knees and screaming, a scream that would never end if she let it begin.
"Don't," she whispered harshly to Winter, far more harshly than she meant. "Don't you dare."
"What was that?" The lot's clerk had stopped at the office door, looking back at the customers who'd failed to follow, and her eyes followed theirs to the screen. She raised an eyebrow as she listened for a moment. "Well, that's a new one, even for the Empire." She looked at Leia and Winter, still standing motionless in the middle of the room. "Don't worry about it," she added, in what Leia thought was probably meant to be a reassuring tone. "They'll never bother about us out here in the Rim. Let the Core planets fight it out among themselves."
An icy calm fell over Leia. As though she was observing herself from a great distance, she saw herself turn, linking her arm casually with Winter's and smiling at the employee. "You're probably right," she said. "Now what about that speeder?"
Half an hour later they were well outside Mos Eisley and headed toward General Kenobi's residence, with no memory of how much she'd paid for the speeder they were in or how the transaction had happened at all, when Leia parked the speeder in the middle of the endless nothingness to hold Winter as she sobbed. Leia herself stared over Winter's shoulder into the distance, her eyes dry and her heart hollow.
If it was true, nothing could change it. If she started crying herself, she would never stop.
She had promised her parents she would find General Kenobi. She had promised to help the Alliance and fight against the Empire. And Bail and Breha Organa's daughter kept her promises. She would bring General Kenobi back to the Alliance, and if it took every day for the rest of Leia's life, she would see the Empire dragged down into oblivion and find a way to install the just galactic government her parents had always fought for, and Force help anyone who tried to stand in her way.
The hut was exactly at the coordinates her father had supplied: a tiny, shabby, sand-colored thing perched near the edge of a low mesa far out in the wilderness. It looked deserted, which was even more worrying after her attempted call on the frequency they'd been supplied had gone unanswered. The possibilities ran incessantly through her mind: General Kenobi had died. He'd left. His identity had been uncovered and Imperials had taken him. He'd gone mad in the isolation of this desolate place. Any or all seemed possible at this point.
She parked the speeder a short distance away, then reached over to squeeze Winter's hand. Winter's breath shuddered as she inhaled, but she lifted her chin determinedly. "I'm fine, your Highness."
Not really a princess anymore if Alderaan itself is gone, am I? Leia took a deep breath of her own and forced a smile. "I know. We'll get the General and go back to Yavin. There's always a home for us with the Alliance."
Winter blinked, a pained expression swiftly crossing her face and just as quickly suppressed. She nodded, blinked again, and looked off to the side at the endless desert.
Please let him be here, Leia thought to the galaxy at large as she climbed out of the speeder and headed toward the hut, Winter trailing just behind her. Please, just this one thing.
The silence around them was all-encompassing, pressing down on her and making her feel ever more hollow. He had to be here, please, she'd promised she'd get him…
Coming up on the tiny dwelling, she steeled herself and knocked loudly on the rough-textured door.
More silence was the only answer, and Leia's eyes drifted closed against the disappointment. Long moments ticked past. She lifted her hand to knock again—
"Why, hello there," called a voice from behind them.
Beside her, Winter startled, and Leia spun around quickly. An elderly man in a brown cloak had just crested the far edge of the little mesa the hut sat upon, coming toward them with an easy stride that belied his age. "I didn't mean to scare you," he added as he drew close. "I wasn't expecting to find anyone at the house; I'm afraid I don't get many visitors out here."
Leia blinked at him. Could it be? She had thought that General Kenobi and her father were nearly the same age, yet her father looked—had looked, she corrected herself painfully—so much younger than this. Then again, if any climate could age someone prematurely…
By the time Leia had finished the thought, the man had come up beside them. "Tell me, young ones, what brings you all the way out here to the edge of the Wastes?"
Leia exchanged a glance with Winter. "We're looking for a friend of our father's: Obi-Wan Kenobi."
The man's eyes widened, and he looked at each of them carefully in turn. "And who might your father be?"
Leia swallowed hard. "Bail Organa."
The man's eyes widened even further. "Leia," he breathed.
"General Kenobi?" Leia whispered.
Slowly, the man reached his hands out to cup Leia's face; caught up in the moment, Leia allowed it. "My child," he whispered. "It's been so long." He scrutinized her face. "You're the image of your mother. Look at you, all grown up."
Winter looked at Leia, then back at the man. "Then you are General Kenobi?"
The man stood back to look at them both again. "I am Obi-Wan Kenobi," he said. "But the war in which I held that rank is long over."
"Master Kenobi, then," Leia said, determined to be as respectful as she knew her parents would have wanted her to be.
The General smiled sadly. "So, too, is the Jedi Order over, Leia. Call me Ben; it is the name I've carried for two decades, and as valid as any."
Leia glanced helplessly at Winter. "Master Kenobi…"
He patted her shoulder gently. "Ben, my dear. Come inside, girls, it's far too hot for visitors like you to be standing outdoors for so long." He opened the door and waved them both in ahead of him. At a loss, all Leia could do was enter the little house.
It was just as small as it looked from the outside and nearly as shabby, but ruthlessly tidy. Stuffy, too, in the heat. General Kenobi went to a small cooling unit set in the wall and flipped a switch. A low mechanical creak echoed through the room as the unit chugged reluctantly to life. "It will only take a few minutes to begin to have some effect," he assured them. "One of the benefits of having a small dwelling. I rarely turn it on, myself, but clearly it still works." He patted the unit almost affectionately. "Sit down, let me get you something to drink."
He disappeared through a darkened doorway along the back wall. Leia and Winter sat awkwardly on small stools, looking around the room, at each other, around the room again. General Kenobi reappeared holding a large pitcher and three cups in a nested stack; setting them all down on the room's one table, he poured and handed each of them a cup, then filled his own and sat down himself. "It's only water, I'm afraid, but I keep some chilled always. One must have some creature comforts, after all."
Leia glanced around the tiny, bare room again and thought of the sparkling towers of Coruscant and the elegance her father had spoken of the Jedi Temple having, and pity on top of her own sorrow combined to close her throat, thirsty as she was.
General Kenobi's eyes were sharp on her, and too late, Leia remembered how Jedi could read people's emotions. She took a steadying breath. "Master Kenobi—"
"Ben," he corrected mildly. Leia looked despairingly at Winter, and General Kenobi smiled. "It is no disrespect, child. If it makes this weigh more lightly upon you, think of it as protecting my identity. You certainly cannot risk calling me General or Obi-Wan outside of these walls, and old and out of touch though I may be, somehow I doubt your father has sent you all this way simply for a social call. But before we leave, perhaps you would introduce your companion?"
Leia sucked in a sharp breath; had she really failed to do even that? Her mother would have despaired of her manners. She thought briefly of Breha's warm eyes and gentle smile, and slammed down that line of thought with all her strength. "My apologies, Mas- Ben. This is my adopted sister, Winter Retrac."
General Kenobi lifted an eyebrow. "Sheltay Retrac's daughter?"
Winter's eyes brightened for the first time since they'd entered the speeder lot in Mos Eisley. "You knew my mother?"
"I did indeed," General Kenobi said with a nod. "A kind and sharp-witted lady she was, too." His voice gentled. "Has she passed, child, that the Organas have adopted you?"
"Yes." Winter seemed to wilt again, looking to the floor. "She died when I was very young. I really don't remember her."
General Kenobi reached over to pat her hand soothingly. "My condolences, Winter. She was a lovely person, and would be very proud of you. She was very close to the Organas. I'm not surprised that they would have taken you in. Fortunate for you, but also for them, to gain another talented daughter."
Winter blinked rapidly, but to no avail. One tear slid down her cheek, then another.
"Winter," Leia whispered, her own voice choked.
"I'm sorry, your Highness," Winter managed, swiping at her eyes.
General Kenobi set his glass back down on the table. "Girls," he asked very gently, "what is it that grieves you both so?"
Winter buried her face in her hands, and Leia looked down into her water glass, holding it so tightly that her knuckles whitened. "We—" Her voice broke, and she swallowed before trying again. "We were in Mos Eisley early this morning, and heard an announcement on the HoloNet that the Emperor had—had destroyed Alderaan."
The blood seemed to drain from General Kenobi's face as he stared at her. "Destroyed—" He stood up abruptly to pace around the room, then turned back to her. "Several days ago, there was a serious disturbance in the Force. I feared that something terrible had happened, but I never thought so far as that." He paused for a long moment, and Leia desperately feared the words she knew would come. "Your parents…?"
Leia took a deep breath and stared harder into her water glass. "They were on-planet. Preparing for the equinox festival."
General Kenobi sat down heavily. "Leia, Winter. I am so sorry."
A lone tear escaped before Leia could stop it, and she wiped it away angrily, lifting her chin. She would finish this mission, she would. She would not break down. "General Kenobi, my parents decided to send us to you upon receiving word of the—the very battle station that almost certainly destroyed Alderaan. Our intelligence sources confirmed that the Empire had nearly completed a battle station the size of a small moon, with what we assumed was a superlaser dish of unprecedented size. They didn't know what the Empire intended, but felt that the Alliance would need your wisdom and skill to help counter such a threat. Mon Mothma and General Dodonna agreed, and are waiting for you at the Alliance's main base. Will you come with us to join the fight?"
General Kenobi looked at the floor, then back up at her. "Yes," he said quietly. "Of course."
Leia stood up, trying hard to avoid his eyes. "Good. Our speeder is out front, we can leave as soon as you're packed—"
"Tomorrow," General Kenobi said gently. "Tomorrow, Leia. We wouldn't get to Mos Eisley before sundown, and it's far too dangerous to risk the open desert in the dark. There have been too many Tusken sightings. We can leave at first light."
Leia stood very still, then sat down slowly. "As you say, General Kenobi."
The understanding in General Kenobi's eyes was almost as painful as her own thoughts. Perhaps sensing that, he stood to gently pat first her shoulder, then Winter's. "You girls relax while I go pack, then you can help me make some dinner and set up a bed for you both in here. Sunrise comes early this time of year; we should get some rest while we can."
Leia nodded at the water cup she still held. She could manage self-control for a few more hours.
She'd better be able to, anyway. There was a lifetime of it ahead of her.