Author's Note: Wow. Has it really been so long since I've updated? So sorry - school has been a hectic mess, and therefore my muse dissapeared to get away from it all. Haha. Well, I got inspiration last night, and spent all day writing this. :) Good thing my homework load is light today.
But, seriously, I listened to my Jem CD, like, six times through while writing this. (For some reason, its the CD that gives me Star Wars inspriation. Oh, well. Go figure.)
Anyways, hope you enjoythis chapter because I sure as hell enjoyed writing it. :)
CHAPTER ELEVEN: NO WHITE FLAG
Leia usually liked white.
She liked white clothes. She loved soft, clean, white sheets. Hell, even white bread was a personal favorite.
If there was one thing she couldn't stand, however, it was the white walls of an infirmary.
The young woman frowned at the white ceiling above her. She had just woken with a throbbing, dull headache on the sides of her skull, and the blindingness and the various beeps and buzzes around her were not helping. She had no intention to move, nor had she any intention to let anyone know she was awake - she felt too groggy, the grogginess usually accompanied with an unexpected afternoon nap, and the light surprise anbd confusion of waking up to the fading sunlight as opposed to the rising dawn.
The lethargy would pass when she fell asleep again. So she closed her eyes again.
A few minutes went by.
Yet she still wasn't able to get her body to feel the faintest trace of sleepiness. Leia decided that it annoyed her.
She was also fairly sure it was because of the hard, flat pillow that had been provided for her accompanied by the thin and, now, cold blanket. Once she got out of this place, she was going to petition for better sleeping accommodations - what were the medical personnel thinking? She was the Princess, for heaven's sake! She could see this sort of thing for lowly officers, but for her? Please.
After an hour of laying there and shifting on the hard cot (which she dutifully noted to add to her lengthening petition along with more food, water, and headache medication which she had noted a half-hour before), her brain wandered into a dull half-doze. In her state of half-conciousness, she was able to tell that she was on her way to sleeping because of the odd images and strange half-dreams that had entered her head.
A woman she vaguely recognized - a face she was sure she had seen recently - was leading her by hand through a series of dark and stone and stifling hot corridors, over lumps which Leia was sure were dead bodies - yet she was somehow sure there was an oasis nearby, a large lake surrounded by meadows and hills of long green grass and white-tipped flowers.
'We're almost there,' the woman said in the soft, far-away voice that only people in dreams have. 'A little more time, a few more steps.'
A bit more on the way, the corridors, she was sure, were a bit cooler. Leia heard the sound of arguing voices. For some reason, the lady who had been leading her by hand stopped to listen. Leia supposed she had no choice.
'What the... is... doing here?'
(She wondered what the point of listening was if she only half-heard what they were saying through the thick walls.)
'Had to...!' retorted a much more boyish voice. '... half-dead, no ox-... would've died... can... her back.'
'...Idiot! ... outside!'
'No! ... won't wake... there...'
The voices faded.
In her dream, Leia made an inquiring look.
'See?' the woman asked. 'We're almost there.'
Confused, she was pulled along the corridor, where they made many twists and turns and full circles, even.
The corridors became darker, more menacing. They sped up. The darkness descended, pressed into them, became stickily palpable.
The woman's hand wasn't on hers anymore.
Leia awoke with a start and a small high pitched sound coming out of her throat that almost resembled a scream.
She sat up in bed, rubbing her face where the lightest sheen of perspiration had gathered.
Images of her dream came back to her, and she struggled to keep her grasp on them, but it was like she was trying to hold sand in a sifter. No matter how steady she held herself, little pebbles were still drifting out - until no more than very scarcely bigger and much fewer pebbles were left.
Groaning, she leaned foward and rubbed her temples, blaming her increased irritation on the starkingly white walls surrounding her. Brown eyes flickered to a pale wrist before she realized that she still didn't have a watch.
Leia tried to ignore the surge of annoyance, and looked up and felt like she was hit with a proverbial sledghammer with what her eyes were met with.
Oddly enough, it wasn't met with anything else but with, surprise, white walls and a white door and a white hovering holocam in the corner that was pointd away from the refresher area.
The absense of a droid or a doctor irked her. It scared her; she looked down, and realized with a jolt that she was clad in white, cheap hospital gown.
What. Was. Going. On. ... ?
Being in the hospital in other Imperial centers, she was never in anything but the best. She always had soft clothes and soft sheets and three pillows and a queen-sized bed - after all, she was royalty. Practically.
So she could only logically surmise that she wasn't in an Imperial hospital. Which, of course, was completely and utterly impossible. Not only was it impossible, it was inconcievable and imperiling!
Decisively, she stood up and padded her feet against the cold white-tiled floor over to the door.
There was no opening mechanism.
She was imprisoned in a white cage.
For ten minutes, Leia had been pacing the ten-by-ten room in agitation, trying not to let hysteria or hyperventilation overtake her.
The latter was winning.
She tried to contol her breathing while simultaneously trying to control her thoughts to become more straight-lined and logical and calm.
WhereamIwhereamIwhereamIwhereamI - ?
And it wasn't working.
Oh, gods. Oh, gods oh Force oh crap oh gods --- where am I!
Breathe, Skywalker, she thought as he chest rapidly rose and fell. Breathe.
Oh, wasn't it just a joy when your body doesn't listen to you?
She paced over to her bread, nervously grabbing the pillow and trwisting it; it barely complied, so she threw it forcefully back onto the bed and pounded it for good measure.
A thought came to her head: what would my father do?
Well, he would take out his lightsaber and cut his way through the opposition and come out unscathed. And where did that leave Leia? Nowhere. She didn't have either the lightsaber - not even a blaster - or the courage or the skill.
Wasn't that absolutely useless?
She buried her face in her arms, kneeling on the floor with her head on the low-rising cot. She tried to suppress her fear and uncertainty, she tried to drown all emotion, she tried to keep from crying in the complete helplessness of it all.
Leia was trying so hard that her head jerked up in anger and irritation at the sound of the door opening behind her.
She stared, unable to believe her eyes. If what she was seeing was true, that could only mean...
This was much worse than she thought it would be. Hot, irrational, immature fear crawled up her bones, the white bones that gave her support had her collapse backwards into the side of the bed.
Mon Mothma, meanwhile, stared down at the younger woman cooly.
"Imperial Princess Ambassador Leia Skywalker," she greeted, in a tone that Leia would say was cooly polite if it weren't for the Rebel mastermind who, by definition of 'enemy', wasn't allowed to be polite in any sense - especially the barbaric Rebels.
"What d'you want from me?" Leia spat, drawing her knees to her chest like a little girl would.
Mothma ignored the question.
"I see you're finally awake."
Leia didn't answer, only glared with her fear turning into anger and finally hatred.
"If you hadn't realized - " The redhead paused for a moment, surveying Leia as if she would be quite dissapointed if the girl hadn't figured it out yet. "you are at the base of the Rebel Alliance."
"Do you think I've gained my position through stupidity?"
"You did ask what we would want - and I believe that is a question that you, of all people, should have known."
"Information," Leia said shortly. "Dealings. Ransom, perhaps?" She arched her eyebrows, surveying the enemy with contempt. "Or extortion by threatening my life?"
The woman gave her a cold smile that was a long shot from reaching her eyes. "Very good, Princess."
"I simply made my first - " she stood up, uncomfortable with being looked down at. She had to lean against the bed for support, as her legs seemed wobbly. "inquiry because you, surely, can't think that I would give up any sort of information regarding His Excellency's affairs and Empire."
The woman looked her up and down, seeming mildly impressed if not still a bit derisive. "Of course not, Princess. I would never dream of you willingly betraying your... Empire."
The brunette felt a flash of annoyance.
"Not unwillingly, either," she reminded.
"That has yet to be proven."
It was time for Leia to give an icy smile. "I have had training in the matter, Mothma." The lack of respect was clear, and contrasted with the Rebel Leader's calling of Leia by her title.
The older woman regarded her for a moment with her blue eyes.
"I'll come visit you again later, Princess." The message was clear: Mon Motha thought herself above Princess Leia. Again, Leia felt anger diffuse through her body. "When you are more... calm."
"I'm sure you'll find that there'll be little difference in my demeanor," Leia responded cooly.
"Of course," the woman accepted quietly. She turned to her guards - two faceless, expressionless males that Leia had taken little notice of before.
"Lets leave the Ambassador to her thoughts," she said quietly, turning her heel to leave.
"Are you planning on starving me?" the Princess finally snapped. The other turned her head at an angle with her back turned, acknowledging Leia, who wondered if they really did plan to starve her.
"I'll send some food to your room. Let us out," she added to a comm device in her hand. The door sprung upwards, opening. Leia caught a glimpse of more infirmary before the old Senator walked out and the white door shut again.
Obviously, she was in the prisoner's ward. Ugh. It sounded like she was some common criminal.
War prisoner's ward. Yes. That was better.
Ten minutes later, while Leia was laying down and staring at the ceiling while trying to sort her thoughts, a plate was pushed in and out of her room so quickly she was sure it could have just appeared there out of no where.
She turned her head so her brown eyes can look at the food.
White rice and skinless chicken breast.
Leia almost laughed.
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