I'm using my roommate's computer to post this, so I don't have time to give you your proper replies! I'll respond individually on Chapter 14. Big thanks to all who reviewed! It truly makes my day!

Chapter 13:

When the Sorrehs called Ivoen's comm, Leia was finished packing and had been waiting, watching Ivoen struggle with her own bags. Living with the Rebellion and well-versed in the fine art of quick evacuations, the young princess could shove all her belongings into a standard issue backpack in a little under five minutes. She'd timed herself as a personal challenge. At Esperance Base, she'd gotten it in three point five, but that was a fluke; Hobbie Klivian has stashed most of her personal items into miscellaneous corners of the Falcon as the Rogues' prank of the week, making it much easier to decide what to leave and what to abandon.

Nevertheless, Ivoen had been a bit shocked at Leia's finely-honed talents.

"Is that all you're taking with you?"

Leia had looked up from her handbag, confused glance focused onto her roommate. "Yeah. Why?"

"Well, I don't know." The taller girl had walked over to Leia's one handbag and peered inside. "You've got one pair of pants, one shirt, some perfume and a hairbrush. What about shoes?"

"I'm wearing a pair that goes with all four outfits."

"Four?"

Leia nodded. "Sure. I've got two shirts and two pairs of pants, including the ones I'm wearing, plus the jacket I'm planning on . . . what?"

"You are so strange sometimes." She laughed easily. "They're about fifteen minutes outside of the city and want us to wait outside for them. Are you ready?"

Leia double-checked her earrings and comm and grabbed her handbag and purse. "Whenever you are." She followed Ivoen's form out the door. "I think."

Leia's stomach tightened and quivered as she stood next to Ivoen on the entrance to Ymec Hall. Surrounded by a score of small bushes and larger trees on the opposite side of the other two dormitories, Ymec seemed artificially peaceful, if one ignored the howls of celebratory victory inherently a part of university dorms on completion of a week of classes. Leia pulled her pack closer to her as she surveyed the various speeders parked near the buildings, feeling uneasy and excitable as the vehicles roved down the street.

Why should I be so jumpy? It's just the Sorrehs.

She forced herself to breathe deeply and reminded herself that she'd already met two-thirds of the Sorreh household. Ivoen was her ally and Mrs. Sorreh had seemed perfectly harmless, if a bit talkative and overenthusiastic. From Iveon's description of her father, he seemed an intellectual and well-reasoning man that was committed to his house and home and the betterment of his corporation. A man with whom she could deal, felt comfortable discussing, and proposing, the Alliance's munitions and energy agreement.

Her stomach didn't stop its incessant clenching with her logic; her worry felt immediate and desperate. Leia shoved it to the back of her mind. Yes, hunches had saved her life at countless opportunities, but realism had always been her closest and most reliable savior. Her somewhat troubling feelings were nothing more than nervousness and excitement at completing her mission.

That's all it was, she thought.

Until she heard the marching.

Stormtrooper armor, while uselessly permeable to blasterfire and detonators, was an essential part of Imperial psychological superiority. A trooper brigade marching up in arms down a thoroughfare was a sign of Imperial domination and power. A very effective demonstration, and one that put citizens into the cowering role the Emperor so desired.

It was also incredibly loud.

Leia had learned that troopers only acted truly disciplined when in the presence of a more intimidating figure.

Which meant –

Sith.

Her stomach exploded and her lungs failed to gather the oxygen she needed. He's here. He's with them. They're here. She put a hand on her stomach and turned her head, looked behind her, beside her, in front of her, desperately trying to maintain respiration and still her stomach's tumultuous churning.

Where can I go? Can he feel me? Leia was unsure about the truth of Vader's powers and prowess with the Force. She only knew that her body was recalling her stay on the Death Star and shaking uncontrollably and that she'd never wished to be more invisible than now.

"Wow. Hey, Rims, look at the soldiers."

Leia glanced to where Ivoen was pointing, a little off to her left, where students were leaning out of windows and speeders were grounded as the white storm of stormtroopers paraded. She quickly ducked her head back after noting the direction and destination of the troopers and searched frantically for an escape route, hand grasping her handbag and lips pressed tight together.

They could just be patrolling.

Her first instinct was to crawl beneath a parked speeder and hide. Realizing that stormtroopers, while notoriously simple-minded, would be able to find her crying under a speeder, Leia pushed that infantile idea back and concentrated. She could make a beeline back to the dorm, but she'd have to either leave Ivoen or have her call her parents to meet them out back, in which case she'd raise their suspicions. Leia glanced back at the mass, inwardly cringing and outwardly preoccupied.

Then she saw him.

The black armored figure, masked and caped, appeared at the rear of the procession, just a speck among the white tide, at least a head taller than his entourage and appearing to prowl his captivated audience as he passed. Leia quickly turned away. He'll see through my disguise, he'll know its me, he'll get me again –

Grabbing Ivoen's hand, Leia re-entered the dorm building, a surprised and dissenting roommate dragging behind her as she crossed the end of the hall and stepped into the stairwell.

"Your parents can't get through that. Tell them to meet us out back."

Ivoen squinted her eyes. "They would have passed soon enough."

"They're inspecting the area. They'll circle around a few times." Ivoen doesn't know anything about troop movements or reconnaissance work. "I think. It would take your parents hours to get us."

Looking slightly unsure, Ivoen brought out her comm and relayed the request, all the while staring at Leia. When finished, she threw the comm back in her purse and tilted her head, interrogating her roommate with her eyes. Like that's going to work on me. Leia's heartbeat had slowed monumentally, and although still present, the stomach clenching had become ten times more bearable, making her feel once again in control.

A position she knew very well.

"Look, Ivoen. You know when you asked me about my parents? Do you remember what I told you?"

Ivoen's expression noticeably softened. "Yeah. Your dad was killed by – " She stopped, jaw clenching. "That's why you were – right. Sorry. I completely forgot."

"So if I freak out a little – "

"Yeah. I know." She looked down at the stairs and then back up suddenly, a timid smile creeping along her face. "You ready for this?"

"Your parents?" At Ivoen's nod, Leia laughed a little herself. "Why? Is there something I should know?"

"Mmm, you know, my dad would go ecstatic if you mentioned his company in his presence. Like a compliment or something? He's not egocentric or anything, but it'd help him trust you. It's called GansCorp. Think you can remember that?"

You have no idea. "Yeah, probably. Maybe. We'll see."

"Oh, Ivoen, baby! You've lost weight – darling, I told you to eat, don't you eat anything around here? Do they feed you?"

Ivoen was currently somewhere between her mother's neck and arms, squeezing breaths from over Mrs. Sorreh's shoulder as Leia politely stood aside and dreaded the moment when the attention would be turned toward herself.

"Elaep, please, let the girl breathe."

Leia turned to inspect the man standing behind her and found a rather tall and thickly-built man with dark facial hair and kindly brown eyes. Leia stepped back as she offered her hand to Ivoen's father – who introduced himself as Leorime, Leori for short – and found herself uniquely drawn to the man. Exchanging pleasantries and small talk as she loaded her small bag into the storage area of the red speeder, Leia found it difficult to stick to her cover story.

Leori looked like her father.

Leori acted like her father.

She could almost fool herself into thinking that, perhaps, Leori was her father, albeit with a lower income and a more business mind than political. It was these slight differences that solidified her position and slowly allowed her to concentrate on being Rimmas Stribur. Rimmas didn't have a father named Bail Organa. Rimmas didn't adore and admire her adopted, although fully paternally-minded, mentor. Rimmas wouldn't act so –

So happy. To meet a man who resembles the last crowned prince of Alderaan.

"Why Rimmas?"

"My father never told me. He'd said it was a name my mother had chosen, maybe after some long-lost relative or something. I never asked him again and he never brought it up, so I was never really interested."

He stretched out his back while negotiating the roads. "And you're from IE, correct?"

"Yes, sir, near the equator on the southern continent. Dneltrup City."

"Ah. And have you ever vacationed in Rivaucnev?"

Right. In all the vacationing I've done in the past year. "No, sir."

"Well, you are in for a surprise, my dear. Nowhere near the metropolitan gargantuans of Itets-Enuzore or Dneltrup Cities, but a relatively civilized area, nonetheless."

"I look forward to it."

"Oh, Leori, dear, don't be so dreadfully boring!" Mrs. Sorreh twisted around in her seat. "How are you liking the university, dear?"

Leia glanced at Ivoen. "I'm surviving."

"Rims had a really tough debate today, okay, Mom?"

"Whatever on?"

Leia spoke up before Ivoen said something awful to her mother. Be appreciative that you have parents to annoy you, dear. "It was in Contemporary Concerns. Rebellion against Empire."

Mr. Sorreh spared a glance back with interest. "You chose a side?"

"Dad!"

"No, we were assigned." Leia put a hand on Ivoen's shoulder. "I debated Empire."

A noncommittal mmm ended the discussion as Ivoen relaxed and continued her perusal of the blurred scenery outside the speeder and Leia stared at her hands, clasped royally at the knees. She rearranged her limbs and leaned back against the seat, allowing herself to relax and revel in childlike memories that Ivoen's father rekindled. The resemblance was enough to stir trust in the man; Leia's more rational mind screamed at her to ignore the subtle warmth that flooded her. Just because an older man has dark hair and brown eyes, you think he's worthy of your trust? Get real, Organa.

But as she observed the ingrained instinct to re-cross her legs and re-clasp her hands in the presence of that dark haired, brown-eyed father figure, Leia let herself drown in the relatively safe feeling of family.

"Rimmas, dear, has Ivoen done anything social in the past weeks? I keep telling her that – "

"Mom!"

" – important to meet people, meet men. Oh! Rimmas, does Ivoen have a boyfriend? Is that what this is about?"

Leia chuckled at Ivoen's burst of embarrassed indignation and debated between taking the Sorreh's side or Ivoen's.

"Not that I know of, Mrs. Sorreh – "

"Oh, please call me 'Mom'."

" – but I know she's been trying really hard to get one. Parties, dates and things like that. Oh, Ivoen is so social, you wouldn't believe it – "

Leia decided that perhaps she wouldn't survive the trip if Ivoen continued to glare at her the way she was right then.

Grr . . . I hate this chapter . . .

Oh, and Happy 20th Birthday to me! Yay!

KR