Chapter 1 – Obi-Wan

Plot: Since she was young, Leia Organa has been haunted by nightmares of a lava world, of two men betrayed, fighting, of one of them falling and rising again, rebuilt. When she's kidnapped, she comes face to face with one of the men from her dreams. Obi-Wan. More than anything, Leia wants answers, and she wants to know more about the man who was once her father, no matter the cost.

Author's Note: So, this is my gift for lore on ao3 for the SW Father-Daughter Appreciation Gift Exchange!

I've been thinking about this idea for a while ever since someone requested that I write a similar version where Luke is dreaming of Mustafar. Which I will write someday, I promise. :)

Enjoy the Leia-Obi-Wan and Leia-Vader bonding in here! :D

Also, this is part of the Star Wars Playlist Challenge hosted by Riftwalker on ao3. The song In My Head by Derivakat really fits this fic.

There are three chapters, and I'll release them weekly on Sunday. ^-^

~ Amina Gila

Leia can never recall exactly when her nightmares began, only that it must have been when she was around three or four. Perhaps it was somehow connected to the first time she actually read her governess' mind. She only remembers it, because of how shocked the woman had been, and how her parents had been afraid for reasons she still can't understand. Sure, it's not normal, perhaps, to be able to intuitively understand the thoughts and feelings of others, but it's not a bad thing, either. It's helped her, made her more alert and aware. That can only be good, right?

The first time she had a nightmare was horrible. She can still vividly remember it, the bubbling, red-orange lava lighting up the background as the two men fought, wildly and viciously with bright blue swords. She can still hear the young man's screams as he nearly burned to death on the edge of the lava river.

Leia had woken up then, gasping and choking on sobs as she ran to her parents' bedroom and crawled into bed with them, trembling. She couldn't coherently even tell them what it was that she had seen, and her childish attempts at doing so had alarmed them so greatly that she feared she had, somehow, done something wrong by seeing it. Maybe they understood more than she realized and knew the significance of what it was that she'd seen. Even now, she doesn't know.

The nightmares never stopped, and there's always been a realness to them, a clarity of knowing that Leia can't shake off. They're always the same, or similar, never changing in content, and she knows that they are important somehow.

She has, over the years, been able to piece together somethings, and eventually, at Lola's suggestion, she scribbled down what she dreamed so that she could put all together. The piece of flimsiplast she keeps folded and hidden away from prying eyes. These dreams are hers, and she selfishly wants to keep them to herself. She's smart and intelligent, and she can figure it out on her own without going to her parents about it.

After the first couple times, she stopped trying to tell them, and she's never broached the subject since, something within her telling her that they are better kept to herself.

Someday, she will get answers. Someday, she will discover the truth.

**w**

Though Leia struggles against her captors valiantly, it's to no avail, and soon, she tires. She's tied to a chair, unable to break free, especially not on her own. With Lola having been thrown carelessly to the floor, she's alone. Completely alone.

She doesn't intend to doze off, but she still does, and images come to her in brief glimpses.

"You turned her against me!" the young man – Anakin, he is called – seethes, blue eyes flashing with fury and betrayal. Padme is lying on the landing platform, and somehow, Leia just knows that these are her parents and that this is how it call came apart.

"Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic, to democracy," Obi-Wan snaps at him, hard and unyielding and equally angry.

She wants to cry as they attack each other, fighting with brutal relentlessness that terrifies her. No matter how many times she sees this, it will never get easier. It has never gotten easier over the years, and she doubts it will ever change.

"Don't try it," Obi-Wan yells, but, of course, Anakin jumps just like every single time in the past, and Leia wishes she could block out his agonized screams as he burns. And Obi-Wan leaves him there, walking away.

The flashes are vaguer, but she can still see Anakin as he is now, or at least as what he became, a cyborg in life-support and a broken man. She can feel his pain, unbearable and overwhelming, as he asks after Padme and is told that she is dead because he kills her. That, most of all, is what unsettles Leia the most because this is her father. She knows it in the same way she knows that Bail and Breha are her parents.

This is her father, and he is said to have killed her mother. But did he really when she lived?

Leia jolts awake with a quiet gasp, gritting her teeth as tears prick her eyes. She isn't a baby anymore; she should be able to stop herself from crying over the past, no matter how devastating it is to her. Her parents are dead – at least that's what her adoptive parents have said to her – and she needs to accept that, no matter how much she wants to know more, wants to understand what it is that is triggering these constant, ceaseless nightmares.

She ignores her thoughts by getting to work on escaping, smashing the back off the chair and wriggling free from the ropes, waiting for someone to come and open the door so she can run.

It isn't long before the door slides open, and she springs into action, slamming the piece of wood into the abdomen of the man who enters and running. He grunts, but recovers fast enough to grab her arm, hauling her backwards with a hiss of "wait!"

"Let me go!" Leia screeches, squirming in his grip and kicking at him as he deposits her on the floor and backs towards the doorway, blocking her only escape route. "Who are you?" she demands, glaring. (She has looked at herself in the mirror, and she knows how much the glare on her face looks like her father's. He might have been insane and he might have done awful things, but he is still her father, and she cares about him, even if she shouldn't.)

"Your father sent me," he explains. "I'm here to help you."

She blinks at the man, and then blinks again when his appearance doesn't change. He's... familiar. Strangely familiar. His accent is familiar too. "Where's the army?" she gripes, because she had been so certain that her parents would send an army for her and make war because she had been taken.

"Come. I'm gonna get you out of here," the man tells her.

"Why should I trust you?" she asks warily. After being kidnapped, she has a very good reason to be wary of him, thank you very much. Besides, there's something about him that feels so familiar, though the reason behind it remains elusive, no matter how much she grasps for it,

"Would you rather stay here?" The question is rhetorical, and he continues without waiting for a response, "Now, let's go." He takes her hand and leads her from the cell. She has no reason to object anymore; she wants to go home very badly. She misses her parents, and this is not a very fun adventure at all. Well, maybe it still can be. Maybe.

"Come on," he whispers, pulling her down the hallway and out into the streets after getting cloaks to cover themselves. "We don't have much time. Keep your head down."

"This would've been easier with the army," Leia huffs, and he hushes her.

She wants to trust him, but something is stopping her, though she doubts that he'll hurt her. Maybe it's because his thoughts and feelings are closed to her, unlike most. It's strange. The man guides her to a side street where he strips off his cloak with a terse, "Come in here. We have to change."

Leia begins to take off her cloak too, when something at the man's waist gets her attention. A lightsaber, she thinks it's called. Like the ones the men in her nightmares have. "Is that a..." she begins, feeling both shocked and intrigued. "You're a Jedi?"

"Quiet," he says again, looking around uneasily, and Leia studies him more carefully.

"It's just... you seem kind of old and beat up," she states bluntly. All at once, realization dawns, and she stumbles back a step, staring at him in a new light. She has seen him before. Obi-Wan.

"From my point of view, the Jedi are evil," Anakin had raged, though Leia doesn't think that she believes that at all, even if he does for whatever reason.

"Well, then you are lost!"

She has seen what Obi-Wan is capable of, and she is... scared. She's scared, because she very much doubts that he would ever hurt her, but – but she doesn't understand. Any of this. For years, she's wondered and been curious about what happened. Her nightmares have never been clear enough, and she feels connected to Anakin – Vader? Whatever he calls himself – in a way that she can't even explain. She is drawn to him, and not only because he is the biological father that she's never gotten a chance to meet. She doesn't know his story. She doesn't know Obi-Wan's. And she is old enough to know that she can't judge them without hearing more.

"What is it?" he – Obi-Wan himself in the flesh – asks, crouching down.

"I know you," Leia replies, torn between talking to him and hightailing it out of there. If he's a Jedi and her father sent him here for her, then he must be good as well as capable of getting her back home. She wants to go home, but she can still hear Anakin's screams.

"Do you?" Obi-Wan queries, seeming both disbelieving and amused almost. "How?"

"You're Obi-Wan. I've seen you in my dreams." She feels no hesitation to tell him. On some level, she does trust him, even if she's wary.

He just stares at her, but somehow, she knows that he's surprised, and he doesn't fully believe her. "How about you tell me about it later?" he proposes. "There is a port across the city. We need to make the last transport."

"Sure, let's go," she agrees, amiably, turning away, but he reaches out, grabbing her arm.

"Wait," he orders, and the commanding note in his voice sends an involuntary shiver down her spine for reasons beyond her understanding. "You have no idea what I'm risking being here, Your Highness. From now on, you'll do exactly as you're told, understand?"

She nods solemnly, and he takes her hand again, guiding her through the streets.

It hasn't been very long before Leia senses something... strange, as if there's voices whispering to her, telling her to be careful because there's danger. It's a gut feeling that has always served her well, and she can't help but notice that Obi-Wan is tense too. "Come on," he says, pulling his hood over his head as they head across the street.

Leia stays wary and alert as he picks out clothes for her and eventually convinces him to let her get gloves too. She hates when her hands are dirty, and this looks like a very dirty city. And maybe there's something about them that reminds her of Anakin, of her biological father. He wore a glove on his right hand, his metal hand before it burned off – aaaand not going there right now. She can't allow herself to think about it.

"Now, if anyone asks, we're farmers from Tawl and you're my daughter," Obi-Wan tells her.

She thinks back to Anakin, to the way he acted towards Obi-Wan, the way that he called him 'master,' the word filled with both resentment and affection and so much more that she can't even name. "More like granddaughter," she sniffs.

"What?"

"Nothing," she chirps, beaming up at him innocently.

Obi-Wan leaves it at that, and they begin walking again. She asks about where they are, taking in all the sights as best she can, given the fast pace at which they're walking. Obi-Wan snaps at her, just a little, when she gets distracted, but okay, fair, there are people after her after all. She should know better than to lose focus. Still, she can't help but throw a snippy, "You sound like my parents," at him as they hurry along.

"I thought all the Jedi died," she comments, looking up at Obi-Wan, "But you're a Jedi, and you're still alive. How did you survive?"

"I escaped," he replies tersely, not even glancing her way.

"How well does my father know you?" She means Bail, of course, because he's the only father that she's ever known, even though she would like to think that she knows Anakin a little, too, from her nightmares, but he doesn't know her, so it probably doesn't count.

"We have known one another for a long time," is the reply. "Your father is an old friend."

Which one? She wants to ask but doesn't. She wants answers. Desperately. This is something that has been haunting her for years, and now that the truth is just within her reach, she needs to know. She needs to. "Why did my father send for you?"

Obi-Wan sighs, wearily. "He trusted me to find you."

"But... why? Does he know what you did?" Leia has no idea where she gets the courage to ask that question, but she stands her ground when Obi-Wan turns to look at her, even though her heart is hammering wildly.

"What?" he sounds confused. "What are you talking about?" He continues without even giving her a chance to reply, "We need to keep moving."

He rushes her into a side street suddenly, glancing back briefly before moving on. As Leia tries to figure out how to phrase the question, Obi-Wan pulls her into an alley. Without warning, a man comes around the corner, and he lashes out, smashing a fist into the man's head and knocking him out. She flinches violently, remembering the vicious blows he and Anakin traded on the planet of lava.

"He's a bounty hunter," Obi-Wan says in lieu of explanation, dragging the body around a crate out of sight. Leia goes a short distance and sits down on the ground, pulling her droid Lola from her pocket and cradling her damaged form, inspecting the damage. "We'll stay here for now," Obi-Wan tells her when he comes back. "No noise from that."

Something in his words instantly annoys her, though she can't say what or why. Maybe it's just that her cousin had been being rude to droids right before this whole mess started. "Her name's Lola. And she won't make any noise. She's hurt."

"Good." He looks around before crouching down near her. "What happened to her?"

"She was ripped to pieces by kidnappers," Leia explains, looking sadly at the damaged form of her best friend. "She'll be all right, though. She's strong."

"I let your parents know you're safe," he informs her, "You'll be back in the palace, back to normal, by nightfall."

"Normal," she mutters under her breath. "Great." It's not that she doesn't want to go back home, because she definitely does, but going home will mean losing whatever opportunities she has to learn more about her birth parents and about Obi-Wan. "Does – does my father know what you did to Anakin?" she blurts out before she can lose her courage. This isn't something she talks about to anyone except Lola, and she knows somehow, that she isn't supposed to know any of this, that these nightmares she's having are not things she ought to know.

Obi-Wan stills, expression eerily blank, but she can still feel his panic, his fear, his... longing? "Where did you hear that name, Princess?"

"You don't have to call me that. I'm just Leia," she corrects, "And I heard it in my dreams. I see things in my dreams sometimes. I – you tried to kill him, didn't you. Does my father know that? Does he know that you... left him there?"

Obi-Wan's face goes ashen, and Leia can keenly feel his regret and pain and grief. "Your father knows that I had to kill him," he answers. "He was dangerous. He had done horrible things." It's not the full truth, perhaps, but it's definitely a truth which he believes.

"You love him," she says, realizing it all at once. "Even now, you still love him. You regret hurting him."

"Leia..." He trails off for a moment, shaking his head. "It doesn't matter. This isn't something you should even know. I don't understand how unless..." He doesn't finish the sentence, but he looks extremely troubled.

"Is something wrong?" she asks nervously. "Is it... bad that I'm having these dreams?"

"I don't know."

Whatever either of them may have said next is interrupted by a sudden beeping noise. Obi-Wan immediately rises, telling her to stay and going to the bounty hunter's unconscious body. Hesitantly, Leia rises and follows him, her eyes widening when she sees a holographic image of Obi-Wan. Of course. He's a Jedi, and all the Jedi are supposed to be dead.

"What is that?" she asks, voice quavering slightly with fear despite her best efforts. "Why is there a picture of you?" Even as she says it, the pieces click together in her mind. "That's why they took, isn't it. They took me to get to you."

"Leia, listen," Obi-Wan begins, looking at her as he stands, but she isn't listening to him, her mind racing faster than she can keep track of it, words pouring out before she can think better to stop them.

She remembers the cold scary voice saying, "Lord Vader, can you hear me?" She remembers the cyborg, the man that Anakin became asking after Padme, lashing out in a blind, wild fury when he was told of her death. And somehow, Leia just knows.

"He's doing it, isn't he," she continues, slowly taking a few steps back from him. "Anakin. Vader. He's looking for you." She isn't afraid of him though, even if she maybe should be knowing that something much bigger than both of them is coming for them. If – he's her father. He's her father, and maybe when she meets him, she can get answers before going home.

Obi-Wan's face is deathly pale as he looks at her carefully. "Your dreams." It's not a question. "No, he's not behind this. He's dead, Leia. I killed him." There's so much pain in his words, and she feels the instinctive urge to go to him, to hug him and try to help him. He has suffered so much. He and Anakin both. She doesn't know what their relationship was like, but she does know that what happened between them on the lava world devasted and destroyed them. And evidently – and unsurprisingly – Obi-Wan thinks Anakin is dead.

"He's not dead," she answers slowly, stepping towards him and reaching out to take his hand. "I saw, in my dreams. He's alive. He was saved."

"You're wrong," he insists desperately, voice raw with pain. "No one could have survived."

"But he did," Leia whispers. "He did, Obi-Wan."

He flinches minutely. "I go by Ben now."

"Oh, sorry. Ben, then," she hastily amends, squeezing his hand. "I didn't mean to make you sad."

Obi-Wan – Ben manages a smile, but it's strained, and it doesn't look very real. "We should keep moving. It's not safe for you."

Or you, she thinks, though she doesn't say it. She holds his hand as they venture from the alley and back into the streets. "If they're looking for us," she says a few minutes later, "Aren't they going to find us more easily if we're on the streets? There are so many people around." It's not as if she has any such experience with these things anyway, and Ben would know better than her, but she can't help but ask.

"We need to keep moving. Staying still would be worse."

"But – can't we find a safer way?" she wants to know, hurrying to keep up with his long strides.

"Speed is more important," Ben explains, "And I don't know the layout of the city well enough to navigate across the roofs, though it might work for a time."

They pick up their pace, and Leia does her best not to think about any of the questions that are spinning in her mind. She hardly even knows what it is that she wants to ask, but talking about Anakin made Ben sad, and she does not want to make him sad. Even if he shouldn't have left Anakin there to die. That was awful.

Sometime later, after a few scary encounters with their pursuers when Ben had to use a blaster to stop them, and after learning that the port has been shut down by... Inquisiting people, or whatever they're called, they hid in an alley where they encountered someone who not only recognized Ben, but also directed them towards a cargo port from which they can escape, they set out again towards their new destination.

By now, Leia is growing tired, and she's also feeling conflicted. Ben killed some people to keep her safe. She doesn't want anyone to die because of her. That's awful! It was – when she was kidnapped in the first place, it was different, because those were bad people. Bad people kill. But Ben isn't a bad person, and he's killed for her. Leia doesn't much like how that makes her feel.

"We must be careful. This is a cargo port. It's not meant for people," Ben cautions as they peer around the hangar from the doorway.

From somewhere, Leia can feel a strange... dark. She has a bad feeling, one far stronger than anything she's ever felt before, and it worries her. Is something bad going to happen? "Then they won't look for us here," she deduces in response to Ben's words.

"Well, not unless it's a setup," he agrees, and she scrunches up her face in confusion as they head further across the platform.

He's a Jedi. Shouldn't he have been able to do whatever Jedi do to know that the man – Haja, Ben called him – was being truthful? She certainly had realized his sincerity. Maybe Ben's just out of practice. Can Jedi be out of practice, though? Leia really has no idea. She knows almost nothing about Jedi.

"Is it that hard to believe you might have friends? Look, since I met you, I've been chased, shot at, and now there are Inquisiting people after us. If somebody is offering us help, I think we should take it. Now, come on." She darts forwards, towards the large starship on the other side of the platform, stopping only once she realizes that Ben isn't following. "What now?" she sighs, looking back at him.

Ben has a strange look on his face, and he seems wistful. "Nothing, you just remind me of someone. She was fearless, too. And stubborn." Whoever 'she' is, she was clearly someone that Ben cared about, Leia can tell that much. But –

"I'm not stubborn," she retorts as they keep walking.

"Yes, you are," he replies, amused.

"I'm not!" she insists, continuing before Ben can argue the point. Distractions always work, and this would be such a stupid thing to argue about. She's not stubborn, end of story. "Was your friend a Jedi, too?" Like Anakin, she thinks.

"No, she was a leader. She died a long time ago," Ben tells her, and for a moment, she gets a flash of... someone. Someone familiar.

"Padme?" she blurts out.

Ben huffs out a breath that's not really a laugh. "Of course, you saw her too."

Something dark and dangerous tugs at Leia, and she stiffens as Ben pushes her around a crate to hide. There's a snap-hiss noise, and a strange female voice calls out Ben's Jedi name. He stills before grabbing her shoulders and hurrying her along, hidden behind the piles of crates. "Leia. If I don't get back in time, go." He pushes the datacard into her hands, and she accepts it with reluctance. "I'll be right behind you, I promise. Go!"

She nods fervently before turning and bolting towards the starship which isn't too far away from them now, her sole focus on activating it so that they can escape. Ben is counting on her, and she won't fail him. It's easy to get onto the starship and plug the datachip into the port. She watches as the ship comes to life, lights flickering on as it powers up. And then, she hurries back towards the entrance, peering out and waiting anxiously for Ben to show it. Distantly, she can hear talking, but she can't make out the words over the whirring of the engines and the pounding of her own heart.

When Ben finally comes into view, racing towards her, Leia steps back into the ship, slamming the button for take-off. The doors slide closed right as he ducks inside, and the ship shutters under them, lurching as it lifts into the air. Ben seems uncharacteristically shaken, and he leans against the wall, staring into space blankly, seeming... distant in a way that scares her.

"What is it?" Leia queries worriedly. "Are you okay?"

For a long few seconds, he doesn't move, doesn't even blink, only whispering a faint "Anakin" under his breath. His expression is ashen and tormented, and Leia can see the unfathomable pain in his eyes. "You were right," he admits, looking towards her at last. "He is alive." He speaks again after a pause, "It will be a long flight. You should get some rest."

"What about you?" she can't help but ask.

"I... need to meditate on everything," Ben tells her, and she accepts that answer, because she can't even imagine how hard it must be for him to have learned that Anakin survived. She doesn't think that she actually wants to rest, but she is tired, and Ben needs time, so she agrees.

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