Author's Note: Disclaimers may be found in the first chapter.
10 chapters already, I can't believe it! And we're not even really to the action yet!
I've decided to put more than one "character-set" in a chapter, now that they're all coming together. As a natural consequence, the chapters will probably be longer now.
If you were kind enough to review, I've left comments at the bottom of the chapter, so you can get straight to the story. :) - vraie-rose
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Leia peered around the corner at the lowered gangplank. For the tenth time, she looked both ways, all around the hangar, then down the hallway towards the cockpit, where she could hear the pilot cursing someone quite loudly. Most likely it was the boy Han. She was sorry to leave without saying goodbye to him – for one thing, he'd been extremely kind to her, and for another, it just wasn't polite. Although generally a hoyden, Leia had very good manners. But then, any girl privileged to be the daughter of Padme Amidala would have good manners.
She looked down the gangplank. I have a bad feeling about this. Her gremmel seemed to want her to leave the ship, and common sense dictated that she should, but another part of her just wanted to stay, with Han. He feels so…right somehow. Even if that doesn't make any sense. Even if he does think I'm just a kid.
But she knew that she had to go down into that hangar. And she knew that she couldn't allow a silly little thing like fear to get in the way. She was a Skywalker, wasn't she? Her father had been a great, heroic pilot, hadn't he? She was going to be the greatest pilot in the galaxy, wasn't she? So there.
Despite her self-lecture, that walk down the gangplank didn't seem to be any shorter. She swallowed hard and hugged Teddy tight, for luck. Here I go.
I'm n'visible, I'm n'visible, I'm n'visible…
Once safely off the ship, she scampered across to the hangar wall, where she could stand and take in her surroundings, without being in danger of being trampled on. It was a much a bigger hangar than back home, and ships of all sorts were all around. There were a few humans, and a few aliens, and a lot of lifeforms in weird white suits. They felt …well, weird, but she didn't quite know why. All the whitesuits were just standing around, waiting for someone, she guessed. Standing around in lines, with blasters. Hmm, maybe it was better to stay n'visible for now. Till she saw a nice-looking human who looked like he wouldn't eat little girls for supper (she didn't trust the whitesuits to do the same).
The mantra in her head picked up the pace, as her adrenaline began to spike even higher – for if she was a bit afraid, and a bit tired, she was also having the most fun of her young life – n'visible, I'm n'visible…
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Obi-Wan's head jerked up suddenly, and Luke stirred, coming wide awake. Padme's lips pursed, as she looked back and forth between them. "Is it Leia?" she asked. She had been very quiet since her conversation with Obi-Wan, but he could hear the sadness and resignation in her words.
"She's fine, I think," Obi-Wan hastened to reassure her. Before, it might not have mattered so much, that that be the first thing to be said. But now, now that he was about to leave her forever – for he knew Vader's skills, and he knew that that was the most likely outcome – he had a slightly different perspective, and some things were changed, from before. "She's using the Force, quite strongly, actually, for her age. I think all her emotions are most likely heightened, and thus she's being forced to draw more deeply from the Force. Usually she would have to be trained to accomplish this, but it seems to come naturally to her…But the problem is, if Vader's not distracted, he'll most likely have sensed that, just as we did." He turned around, avoiding Padme's glance. "Luke, come here, please."
Luke obeyed. "D'you want me to talk to Leia?" he asked, putting his head to one side inquisitively. Obi-Wan was once again struck by how much older he seemed, than he had been yesterday, or even that morning, and his heart ached for the growing up of the twins. The sooner they grew up, the sooner they must face the Skywalker legacy, and their own parts in it. That is, of course, providing they survive the day…
Obi-Wan shook the morbid thoughts from his mind, and concentrated on Luke. "Yes, Luke, I want you to talk to Leia. But we'll have to be very careful, because there's a bad man around and I don't want him to hear you. Put your hands in mine…yes, that's right. Now reach out to Leia." Luke shut his eyes, and Obi-Wan concentrated very hard. With all his strength, he kept the cloak around his own presence. If Vader sensed that he was here, all might very well be lost…
"Now tell Leia what I say. Leia, we'll be there in…" Obi-Wan glanced at the clock, irritated that he had not thought to do so before, "thirty minutes. Find a hiding place and stay there. Don't move. And tell your gremmel to go to sleep. You can't use him, Leia, he can't talk to you, or help you do anything. There is a bad man and he's trying to find you, Leia, and he can hear your gremmel. Don't be afraid, Leia, Ben is coming to get you. Soon this will all be over."
Luke's eyes popped open and he regarded Obi-Wan with a solemn look. Then he closed them again, and Obi-Wan could feel him gathering his whole self to send this message to his beloved twin.
There were tears hovering at the edges of Obi-Wan's eyes, as he threw everything in him into the task of keeping his beloved ones safe.
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Vader made his last swoop above the spaceport. Apparently, it was a big day for trade freighters – just his luck. They'd all been told to get out of Lord Vader's way, so that he could land immediately – but that hadn't worked so well. First of all, not many were good pilots, and fear of the wrath of the dread Lord Vader had not helped matters, making them even worse pilots. There had been a bit of a mess.
Vader wished he could have just landed at the military base. That would have been a whole lot quicker, and the faster he got out of Alderaan, the better, as far as he was concerned. At least at a military base, incompetence was largely confined to the upper ranks…But Organa had wanted to meet him here, at the spaceport (it was much nearer to the palace), and having no reason to refuse, at the time…
Suddenly, he felt a strange disturbance in the Force. It was light, almost dainty, of no kind he'd ever felt before. It was hardly there at all, but what was there was definitely coming from the hangar he was currently approaching.
Even as he focused on the disturbance, interest aroused, another rippling disturbance came into being. Just as faint as the other, this was not on the planet, but nearby, and both were incredibly pure and filled with light. Either Yoda & Obi-Wan were nearby (hardly likely!), and being a little careless with their shielding(even less likely!) --- or perhaps he himself had grown stronger, also a possibility. He allowed himself a moment to gloat over that, but soon returned to his broken thought, focusing more closely on the disturbances – and then they flickered out, as suddenly as they had come into being.
But he knew all he needed to know. Discarding the Yoda/Obi-Wan theory, the only likely one left was that it was a pair of children. That theory itself had problems – they would have to be bonded, and they were too pure and too strong for children – but it was the only one left.
This mission was turning out to be more interesting than he had anticipated.
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A/N: Again I say it, I don't write for the sake of reviews – exactly. What I mean by that is, I'm writing this story because I like it and I want to write it, and even if nobody reviewed, I would eventually write and finish it (knowing me, sooner rather than later). But the kind reviews I have been receiving have been spurring me to update quite frequently, and will probably continue to do so. :)
Special thanks to SoloKenobi, for sticking with my story. And to Rose-Arwen-Padme: Welcome! I was (still am) a Realizations fan, so I'm thrilled to see that you've found my story. Thanks for the wonderful comments, they made my day. :)
- vraie-rose