Thank you for your wonderful reviews!

korrd: You're very welcome for the response, and I think your idea is a fantastic one. Thank you so much for reviewing, and I hope you like this chapter!

Chiara Sholuk: Thank you! I liked your latest chapter on your story, can't wait for the next one!

Angel Sanada: You're totally right, I couldn't have said it better myself! The Emperor SO totally got busted!

Jinn Twins: Why, thank you for reviewing! I can't wait until Palps talks to Elena, that will be coming up the chapter after this.

OK! Since korrd had such a great idea about bringing little bits and pieces of Luke and Leia's past in, that will be in this chapter! Thank you!

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

Chapter 12

An almost fourteen year old Leia strode around her room, repeating her speech for the debate in her head. All right, here we go again... the Emperor doesn't have a fair judgment system, he brings biased Senators and delegates to office, and they in turn make unjust and unfair laws... blah blah blah, okay, got that part down... um... he's horrible, wicked, OLD! Wait, I can't say that... I'm not ready for this yet! She decided to take a deep breath in and try to relax.

"Leia Organa, come on, you can do this, you've done it a hundred times before," she told herself. "Why should this be any different?" She groaned. "Oh...only because you've never done it in front of a huge crowd before!" She slumped down on her bed, feeling very depressed and anxious. She glanced down at her hands, a habit of hers, and suddenly noticed something very strange.

"What in the..." She studied her fingernails, and saw that they were not their normal color anymore. They were silver, and incredibly hard.

"What's going on?" she asked to no one in particular. She tapped her nails, and they were extremely hard. She stood up in frustration, and felt like throwing something, when a blue field of energy came out from her body and knocked over a nearby chair. Leia stared at it, in complete shock. She suddenly rushed over to her dresser and pulled out a colorful comic book. She scanned over some of the pages, until she came to one with Lady Deathstrike on it. She gazed at the picture closely, and noticed that the mutant also had silver fingernails.

Cautiously, Leia looked at her index finger, and lifted it up. Very slowly, a metal claw, sharp as a needle, and as hard as solid iron, came out from it. Leia stared at it, and suddenly put it back in.

She then snatched another comic book, and this time looked at a page with Invisible Girl on it. The heroine was throwing a forcefield at an enemy, and the enemy was getting knocked to the ground. Leia closed the comic book, opened it again, and closed it one more time. There would be no way that she would tell anyone else about this.

"Leia, time to go!" Bail Organa called out from the other side of the door.

Leia shook herself out of her reverie. "Huh? Oh, coming, Dad!" She called back shakily, and hid the comic books behind her pillow.

-----

Luke Skywalker was excited. His birthday was coming up in about a month or so, and he knew exactly what he wanted. "Hey Uncle Owen!" he cried, "Look what I found, in this really awesome catalogue!" He raced up to Owen Lars and thrust the magazine in front of him. "See? Look at that! It's a model T-16! Doesn't that look really cool?"

Owen sighed. "Luke, how many times have I told you to stop your useless daydreaming! You don't need toys, you need tools, things to help you with around the farm. You don't need junk like that." And with that, he turned away, leaving Luke feeling put down and hurt.

"It's not a toy," he muttered, "It's a model starship." He sadly turned around and headed back to his room, very dejected.

Beru saw him looking very depressed and felt bad for him, but decided to let him be by himself for a while. She would talk to Owen later about it.

"It's not fair," Luke said to himself, "Most other kids get cool stuff for their birthdays, like model Tie fighters or cool holo games. And what am I gonna get? A stupid evaporator wrench, or a pair of binoculars. What kind of a birthday present is that?" He sighed, frustrated, and took out one of his numerous super hero comic books, this one being a Fantastic Four novel. He grinned slowly when he saw the Human Torch practicing his powers.

"Flame on, flame off, flame on, flame off," Luke mimicked, his smile becoming wider as he read the words aloud. He lifted up a hand and snapped his fingers, just like Torch did. "Flame on, snap, flame off, snap, flame on, snap, flame– what in the heck!" he cried, as he saw a flame erupting from his fingers. He stared at it, in complete denial, and snapped his fingers again. The flame disappeared. He snapped them again, and the flame returned. Luke glanced at his fingers, and turned back to the book.

He grabbed another comic book, the X-Men adventures, and opened it up to a page with Wolverine. He glanced at it, and then turned to his hand, which he balled up into a fist. Suddenly, three thick and bright silver claws came out from in between his fingers, and went back into his hand. His jaw dropped, and he stared at his hand, and then looked back to his comic book.

There is no way in Hoth that I'm gonna tell ANYONE about this, he thought firmly, Uncle Owen would freak out. And that's the last thing I want...

With this in mind, he opened up the comic book and began to read, but he continued to mimic other superheroes' powers. But he did it very quietly, making sure no one heard or saw him.

----

"Why me? Why me?" Elena cried, banging her head on her locker, moaning in agony.

Beyonce, Mara, and Keira rushed over, and Bece ( the girls' nickname for Beyonce) grabbed Elena's shoulders, taking her away from the locker. "Whoa, whoa, hold it, hold it, girlfriend!" she said, "Calm down, chill! What's goin' on?"

"I have a big meeting that I don't want to go to today, but I have to," Elena whined, pouting miserably.

"What meeting?" Keira questioned worriedly.

Elena sighed. "Can't tell," she replied, "It's a 'big' secret."

Bece raised her eyebrows. "Come again?"

"ARGH! I can't tell you," Elena continued, "Let's just say, it's with someone really important. Really, really important."

The girls thought for a second. "Is it Moff Tarkin?" Keira asked.

Elena shook her head. "Think higher, a lot higher up, Keira," she replied.

"Uh... your dad?" Bece guessed.

Elena looked at her, crossing her arms over.

"Yeah, I guess that doesn't make any sense, I mean, why would you have a big meeting with someone you already know and live with," Beyonce admitted sheepishly.

Mara furrowed her eyebrows, and suddenly raised them. "You don't mean..." she began, looking at Elena, a bit horrified.

Elena looked at her helplessly.

"You aren't talking about..." Mara continued, now dreading the answer.

More dejected stares.

"You can't possibly be meeting... him!"

Elena nodded. "Yeah..." she sighed, slumping down. "That's the one."

"Who?" Bece and Keira cried, not liking being in the dark about anything. Especially anything particularly important such as this.

Elena was about to reply, but Jenson suddenly called out her name. "Elena! Time to go! Come on, we don't want to be late, or you know what your dad's gonna say!"

"Yeah, like I don't know," Elena called back, and glanced back at her friends. "Bye, guys," she said sadly, "I'll see you tomorrow." She locked eyes with Mara, who looked saddened and depressed. They both knew that there was a chance that they weren't going to be seeing Elena tomorrow. A very good chance.

Disheartened and upset, Elena trudged through the endless hallways, her head down and eyes glued to the floor. She didn't even notice her father's familiar breathing, and walked SMACK! Right into him. She glanced up. "Hi," she said glumly.

Vader couldn't help but feel bad for her. "Elena, I know you're worried, but try to put a good face on things," he said, "I'm sure everything will be fine. Just be polite, don't forget to bow, say, 'Your Excellency' when addressing him, and–"

"Run him through with my lightsabers," Elena finished sullenly.

Vader rolled his eyes behind his mask and continued, exasperated, "Listen, my daughter, I'm not excited about this either, but it must be done. My master would have found out sooner or later, so it was no use in lying right to his face."

"Fine," Elena said shortly, "I'm going to go change. It wouldn't do to face 'His Excellency' in these things." She gloomily entered her room, Vader staring after her.

Force help me, he groaned.

Well, that's that chapter. I ONCE AGAIN DOTH COMMANDE YE TO REVIEW! Thank you!