A/N: Hello all - Tomorrow, I will update both Daughter of Alderaan and the Time. In the meantime, here is a very short prologue to a potential story following Leia post ANH. Mainly, it centers on how despairing Leia felt after the destruction of Alderaan by Death Star. Let me know what you think and if you'd like to see a longer Leia story!

…~oOo~…

Prologue: Last Words

His last words to me. Oh… yes. I know them. I can't remember hers, my mother's. Even after all this time… and trying so very hard… I just can't remember. But I can remember my father's. Can remember every detail of standing next to him on Yavin IV as he spoke so very intently, so very trustingly, his tan cape fluttering in the faint jungle breeze. "Taking on all these responsibilities… they've shaped you into a glittering star. There is nothing you can't handle, Leia."

And that was it. My protestation that perhaps someone else should go to Tatooine to seek out the great Obi-Wan Kenobi was gone, left a silent whisper on my lips. To my father, there was no one better. No one else to go. Me. It must be me. Because there was nothing I couldn't handle.

But my father was wrong. Oh, how he was wrong. Because I couldn't handle this. How much broader the mission had become. How much higher in stakes. How the senate had been dissolved. Those I could handle. Arrest I had handled. Vader and all he'd done to me, I had handled. I'd resisted. There was nothing I couldn't handle. But now—now—

I fell to the floor, unaware of sound or pain or the sick smell of the ozone recirculating in the air. Unaware of anything except the sight of the world's glowing-coal chunks of core… heated with its death…

My world's death.

My people's deaths.

My family's deaths—

The agony evaporated, forming into singular red rage. I leapt, reared, tears blurring my vision, ready to scratch, to tear, to kill—

But the armored hand of the villain, that dark menace, clamped around my shoulder, pulling me back from the untouched Tarkin, who had the gall to offer me a smile, a smile—

"You call yourselves human?" I snarled.

Tarkin examined me as one might examine a particularly pesky pet who keeps on barking after other efforts to the contrary have failed. "Take her back to her cell to await termination. Sedate her if you must."

I screamed again, and fought, struggling against Vader and the guard's grasp, but they didn't need to sedate me. They didn't need to do anything more than they'd already done. My shocked rage had been so hot it had flamed out before I could truly make any use of it. I was left limp, useless…

There's nothing you can't handle.

Next thing I knew, I was lying with my cheek pressed against the heartless metal of my cell floor. Maybe they'd sedated me after all, as an extra measure…

There's nothing you can't handle.

I clamped my eyes shut against the tears, unable to fathom it, unable to comprehend how the palace, Apenza Peak, the Aldera spaceport, Alderia, all of Alderaan—

How it could all be… dust. A thousand and more years. A billion and more people. Ashes and dust. But the entirely empty feeling inside me confirmed the intolerable truth: They were gone. They were all gone. All I'd ever known. All I'd ever loved. My people. My home. My world.

My parents.

It was all gone.

And it was then that my father's words were disproven. Because I cried even though I tried not to, and I couldn't find the strength to get up. Couldn't find the strength to stop crying. What was the point?

Taking on all these responsibilities… they've shaped you into a glittering star. There is nothing you can't handle, Leia.

"I'm sorry, Dad," I whispered, the echo feeble against the sterile, frigid walls. No one to hear. No one to care. "Mom. Everyone. I'm s-s-so sorry."

Because this… I couldn't handle.

And somehow… that was the worst failure of all.

…~oOo~…

A/N: Rather somber, I realize! But I wanted to capture the so-called "black moment": that moment of deep despair every hero goes through before getting up again. In this case, before Leia gets her determination back prior to Luke's "rescue". (I say this in quotes, because let's face it: she ended up rescuing both boys from her own rescue, because Leia is that amazing. ) Basically, Bail's quote to her ties in with helping Leia get up again and fight on.

But… if you want to read more about how… then you have to review! Let me know what you think and if you'd like to see a longer Leia story! All from her first-person POV, it would begin shortly prior to Scarif and go on through ROTJ.

Thanks for reading and reviewing. You have all been so amazing.

Hugs,

~ Rivkah