Disclaimer: I have loved and coveted the Star Wars universe since I was eight years old, but alas, have never had the means to own it ...

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Chapter 3

Leia Organa huddled on the wide, synthmarble steps that led up to the public quarters of the house. She buried her face in her knees, trying to stop the shaking that wracked her body. The horror she felt at hearing of the Empire's atrocities was nothing compared to the feeling of betrayal that consumed her mind. Her father. . . her beloved father who could never do wrong. . . He was a rebel. And had been ever since she was a baby, apparently! Her father, a rebel leader. She couldn't even fathom it. And at the same time she felt oddly guilty for defending him so staunchly in her mind when Tarkin had defeated him.

The voices of the three conspirators trickled out through the conditioning vent for the study, which had an outlet in the hall as well, near the staircase. But Leia couldn't listen anymore. Mothma's steely voice was describing a massacre of Calamari Younglings at a large Academy in the capitol after Drenack's speech. She was jolted back to the voices when she heard, among the voices. . . sobs. . . Her father was crying heart-brokenly. It was something she had only heard once in her long memory. . . But she had been so small, that she didn't remember why he was crying. It had been disturbing enough, however, that Leia remembered the sound. She nearly got up out of instinct to go comfort him, but she had to remind herself that she was not supposed to be here in the first place.

"Mistress, are you unwell?" Leia nearly jumped out of her skin, (and she jumped to her feet and up three steps before she relaxed) at Bo's voice. He was so black, and she'd been so busy listening to the grown-ups in her father's study that she had neither seen nor heard him approach. His opening question of any unprecedented action of hers was always 'are you unwell'; as if only illness could make her unpredictable.

"I. . . I. . . " She gasped, suddenly tongue-tied. The blood crept into her face and Leia lowered her head in shame. She rubbed her bare arm, wishing she'd put on a robe. Her sleeveless pajamas were comfy in a warm bed, but not on the wide, cool staircase.

"I don't believe your father would be gratified to learn of your clandestine presence, Mistress Leia." Bo informed her gravely. "I'm afraid I am going to have to demand: how much did you hear?"

"Nothing! Everything!" Leia gasped without thinking, and then tears began to roll down her cheeks. She leaned against the wall and let her tears fall. "I thought. . . " She whispered through her sobs. "I thought my father was the best. . . most loyal. . . Senator in the Empire. . . And now. . . That stupid Tarkin was right when he said he was a rebel! I feel so. . . betrayed. . . And. . . and he lied to me all this time!"

"But Mistress," Bo's voice was gentle and he stiffly climbed the steps to stand beside her, his servos grinding softly in the stillness. "You are wrong in thinking poorly of Master Bail. Your father is the best Senator in the Galaxy, and the most loyal, because the Emperor is an usurper, and your father is loyal to the people of the Galaxy, not to the traitor, Palpatine. He is a very sensible human, as far as they go, you know. He wouldn't willingly do anything that was not for the greater good."

"What?" Leia gasped and peered at him in the dark. It wouldn't have helped anyway. Protocol droids could no more change expressions or lie than a Bantha could drop its fur.

"I hear everything they talk about, Mistress Leia." Bo explained almost apologetically. "But perhaps I'm not supposed to."

"So. . . you don't think of my father as a traitor?" Leia leaned her dark head back on the wall in confusion, her long hair covering her face and muffling her voice.

"Of course not, Mistress!" Bo sounded shocked. "He is the most honorable human I've ever known! Doesn't your father love you?"

"I. . . I thought he did. . . "

"He does love you." Bo comforted her, laying a metal hand gently on her arm. "I know that his affection for you is beyond practicality. And I'm sure he has his reasons for sparing you the burden of this knowledge. It is rather dreadful, isn't it?"

Leia tossed her long hair back and sat down on the step in silence. Except for the murmur of voices in the study, the house was quiet. The girl cupped her chin in her hands and took a deep breath. What Bo said made sense. Of course it did; he was a protocol droid. They were programmed to make sense. However, she wouldn't know for certain until she asked her father. . . But she couldn't really ask him now, could she? She allowed Bo to lead her back to her room, and the good droid even draped the blanket over her before he murmured his good-night and shut her door. Despite the confusion and grief whirling through Leia's mind, she fell asleep before ten minutes had passed. She was that tired.

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"Good morning, Leia; and how's my Princess today?" Bail opened the day with his ritual greeting to his daughter and planted a smiling kiss on her head when she came down to breakfast. But Leia did not reply, either with words or a kiss back. She gave her father a wan smile and sat down at her place. She wore her neat school uniform, and her long dark hair was plaited in two fancy braids. Bail Organa sat down in his place across from his daughter, eying her in concern. Was she sick? She looked pale this morning. . . and preoccupied.

He shrugged and sipped his Duron Coffee appreciatively. This was a good brew. It woke him up like no other he could remember. The faint smoky flavor was incredibly refreshing. He'd have to tell his home maintenance droid to get more from Duros.

The Serving droid silently set out the breakfast and whirred back to the kitchen as it was programmed to do. Leia and her father lifted the silvery lids from their plates and began breakfast. The girl didn't really taste the nerf sausage and yellow-berry pancakes that her father heartily enjoyed. She just ate, the food turning into dust in her mouth.

She had prepared a grand-sounding speech just that morning, but she couldn't bring herself to utter a word accusing her father now. The conversation she'd overheard last night seemed like a bad dream now. Bail was chattering and complaining about the morning news he read on his datapad, just as he'd done every single morning Leia could remember in her seventeen years of life. It all seemed so normal. . . And he was still her father, wasn't he? Still the same man he'd always been. Leia couldn't bring herself to destroy that normalcy. If she revealed what she'd overheard, she knew that the relationship she and her father had would change. Whether that was good or not. . . Leia didn't really want to find out.

"Leia?" The girl jumped and realized that her father had been calling her name with concern for the last few seconds. In confusion, she dropped her fork in a puddle of red syrup. "Are you alright, Leia?" Bail's eyes were worried. He reached out and tilted his daughter's face toward him. He smiled gently at her. "Was that party last night too much for you?"

"Nothing's wrong." Leia tried to smile, but found that she couldn't meet her father's eyes. But he only looked more worried, so she tried to reassure him. "I. . . might be a little tired. But I'm fine. Really. Sorry if I worried you." Leia forced another smile, a bit less fake this time, and turned her attention back to her food. She decided right then that she would never tell her father what she'd overheard. Just get to school and forget about this. She'd feel back to normal when she got home that afternoon. . . Except she knew that she'd never think about things the same way again.

Bail Organa shook his head at his daughter's strange attitude. He finished his breakfast and glanced in concern at his daughter. Leia was still pushing her food around instead of eating it. She'd never been good at hiding intense emotions. He could tell she was both angry and struggling with something. Perhaps, he thought with a bit of relief, perhaps she was in conflict over feelings she had for Mell Krevett. He was handsome, but his father would never consent to letting him marry an outspoken girl like Leia. Dom wanted a daughter-in-law he could control unquestioningly. That sat fine with Bail Organa. He didn't personally approve of the young Imperial Officer. But Leia's feelings might be hurt, so he didn't try to guess. Out loud, at least.

"The Senate reports you requested downloaded, sir." Bo's pleasant voice startled both Bail and Leia from their private musings. The black protocol droid shuffled in and placed a stack of datapads on the table beside Bail's nearly empty plate. In his other hand he carried a gray, plascloth school-bag full of Leia's school-datapads, as he did every morning for his mistress. "And you have three messages and a call waiting, Master." Bo went on. "I told him that you don't take calls during breakfast, but he insisted that I tell you it's urgent."

"Thank you, Bo." Bail smiled wearily. Work was piling up. . . and it wasn't even 0800 hours yet. "Could you see Leia safely to the shuttle stop this morning, since I have so much piling up?" He added in a low voice, glancing over at the teenage girl with her head drooped over her food. "She's not herself this morning. . . She's more open with you than me, Bo. Any clue what's wrong with her?"

"You mean she hasn't spoken to you yet, sir?" Bo sounded surprised.

"Spoken to me?" Bail glanced uneasily from the inscrutable metal face of his droid and the bowed head of his daughter. "What about?"

Bo's face was still as blank as a protocol droid's always was, and his voice was even more neutral. "About your visitors, of course, sir."

Leia's head shot up, horror written all over her face. She glanced from her father to the droid. Both were looking at her with utterly unreadable expressions. Bail blinked once and let out a long sigh. "Alright." He muttered and then threw a glare at the protocol droid before he sternly addressed his shamefaced daughter. "So, when were you planning to tell me you eavesdropped last night, Leia?"

The girl took a deep breath, lifted her chin and stared her father in the face. That was one of the many things Bail had always admired about his daughter. When life smacked her in the face, she stared it in the eye and dared it to try again. "Why are you a rebel?" She demanded in a stern tone like his.

"I'm a patriot, not a rebel." Bail objected firmly. "To rebel implies that the authority has some legal claim to authority. But I fight against a tyranny; an usurper. Perhaps others call it a rebellion. . . But if I am a part of it, at least I know what I fight for." Bail half-hoped that answered her question, but as usual with his daughter, he was rather far from the mark.

The words only seemed to stoke the sparks in Leia's soul. Her dark eyes came alive with righteous fire and the words spilled out of her mouth, loosed from captivity at last. "You know that rebellions lead to civil war and the deaths of millions!" Leia's voice was passionate, almost stirring. By the Force, Bail thought, she'd be a greater Senator than her own mother had been, if she went that way. "You always said you were a man of peace!" Leia went on heatedly. "You advocate diplomacy and understanding in the Senate! I just can't believe you'd fall for these idealistic fanatics who don't care how much blood is spilled in the pursuits of their own agendas! Yes, I know our government isn't perfect. Yes, I know not everyone is going to agree with everything the Government does! But what government can please everyone? At least we're better off now than we were in the Dark Republic years. Squabbling bureaucrats controlling everything, Jedi assassinating rivals and trying to throw the galaxy into chaos at every turn. . . "

"Who told you that?" Bail's voice was firm and quiet, and his dark eyes gazed unflinchingly into her own. Leia faltered. Her father didn't look guilty or frightened at all. Only. . . disappointed, strangely enough. When Leia stayed quiet, he sighed and laid his palms on the table as he leaned forward earnestly. "Answer me, Leia, please."

"The whole galaxy knows it," Leia snorted in reply, folding her arms and leaning back in her smooth plasteel chair. "Or at least, I thought they did. Apparently, the rebels want to throw us back into the Dark Days when everything was a power grab. I know the Emperor seems harsh sometimes, but I think that stability and peace are worth it! We know how propaganda works! Everyone who hates the Emperor is only too willing to take his actions and spin them out of proportion. He can't be as terrible as the rebels say he is, can he? Can anybody?"

"I know all about propaganda, Leia," Bail replied sternly. "Believe me; I know. And I understand your confusion, believe it or not. In school, on the holonews, strangers at parties and on the streets. . . They all tell you different versions of the same thing: the Jedi betrayed the Republic through their insatiable greed for power. Isn't that right?"

"Well. . . " Leia hesitated. "If everybody says it. . . Doesn't that mean it's true?"

"However many people believe something doesn't make it true, Leia." Bail told his daughter gently. "The truth is the truth, no matter how many people believe it. You forget, I think, that you weren't there when the Republic fell. I was. I was friends with many of the Jedi. They were, for the most part, upright, humble, noble people, both male and female."

"What do you mean, 'for the most part'?" Leia demanded.

Bail sighed tiredly. Just remembering that terrible day, the day of Leia's birth, actually, made him feel the old pain keenly in his heart. "You know Darth Vader?"

"Emperor Palpatine's lieutenant?" Leia shook her head impatiently. "I've seen him on the holonews. Everybody's seen him. But you know I've never met that mechanical terror."

"Good thing." Bail informed her sternly. "Darth Vader was once a Jedi. In fact, the only Jedi who betrayed the Republic. He murdered countless people, including many members of the Jedi order. Mostly younglings, learners, and teachers. It was horrific. The bodies of those brave people weren't even buried. They were loaded onto garbage compacters and shipped off to dump planets like Nar Shadda. The Jedi didn't deserve that. They sacrificed more, accomplished more, and lived more for the galaxy during the Clone Wars than the entire Senate combined. And most important, Leia, they did not attempt to assassinate anyone."

"But. . . The recordings we hear every Empire Day. . . " Leia faltered. "The Jedi Masters. . . unjustly tried to arrest Palpatine. . . They attacked him! Injured him for life! They wanted to grab control of the Senate!"

"Emperor Palpatine was the one doing the power grabbing." Bail explained carefully. "The Jedi tried to protect the Republic from a tyranny, like we have now. They knew what he would do once he was in power. But they weren't strong enough to stop him. Chancellor Palpatine resisted arrest, and won. He betrayed the Jedi, the Republic, and the entire Galaxy through his lust for absolute power. Well, now he has got it. They say the winners write the history-docs. It's true, mostly. Palpatine has repeated his version of the story so many times, that most believe it. I don't blame you, my daughter. I blame myself for not trying to explain matters to you more clearly. . . sooner. Please forgive me, Leia."

"Didn't you trust me?" Leia's voice had lost its accusatory tone and now only sounded disappointed. Sad. Lonely. "You know I love you, Daddy. Even if I don't like some things you do. I'd never betray you or hurt you. I just. . . want to know the truth."

"So much like your mother." Bail chuckled and reached out to take his daughter's hand. The girl frowned slightly at the mention of her mother. . . But how could she know that Bail Organa spoke not of his wife, Breha Organa, former Queen of Alderaan, but of his little girl's real mother. Padme Amidala. Queen and Senator of Naboo. She had been a strong woman. Wise in diplomacy, unflinching in danger, strong in heart. Like her daughter. Bail's heart ached for the loss of his dear friend over seventeen years ago. She would be so proud of Leia now, if she could see her. Perhaps she could. But Bail hadn't much faith in the legends of spirits living in the Force.

"Leia," Bail finally spoke. "I don't expect you to believe me now. But I have an idea. Perhaps what you need is what I had. A glimpse of the truth."

"What do you mean?" Leia frowned more at her father and pulled her hand away to fold it in her lap. "What truth? Your truth? Or the real truth?"

"The truth of everything, Leia." Bail's eyes brightened. "You are old enough to decide for yourself whom you will serve. What you will believe. You have seen the Empire's version of the truth. Now I want you to see another side of it. You'll come with me on a little business trip of mine, and afterwards, maybe you'll be able to see a little clearer."

"When? How long?" Leia demanded, suddenly worried. She didn't really know if she wanted to see what her father thought was truth.

Bail stood up and collected his datapads from the table, satisfied that the conversation was nearly over. "Two standard days from now. We'll be back in a week, maybe less."

"Two days. . . ?! No!" Leia jumped to her feet in dismay. "Our class is going to Theed in three days! I can't miss that!"

"On Naboo?" Bail arched an eyebrow. "Why?"

"We've been studying old architecture!" Leia practically wailed. "Last semester we went to the old Temple on Coruscant, remember?"

"Well. . . " Bail cocked his head thoughtfully. "You decide. Whatever you believe is more important. . . do that. I'll see you tonight, then, Leia. I love you. Have a good day at school." He waved good-bye and headed off to his office to take those calls. It would be busy today, but Bail felt more alone than he'd felt since his beloved wife died. More and more, it felt like he was losing his family.

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Leia stared after her father as he left. More and more, she felt she was slipping painfully out of the blissful innocence of her childhood, and being thrust into the confusing, dangerous world of adulthood. She was to make the decision? Leia had made plenty before, but not like this. She had a chance to find out the truth, and she hesitated to see it?! What was wrong with her?! Leia shook her head violently, her long braids whipping to and fro. Stop thinking and just do what you know you ought to, Leia! She scolded herself and then hugged her arms before she began to cry, big tears rolling down her cheeks to splatter on the spotless silvery-white surface of the table.

"Mistress?" Bo's voice was timid, and right at her elbow. How had he come over so quietly?

"What?" Leia spoke through gritted teeth. She wasn't really angry with the droid; it wasn't his fault any of this happened. After all, he wasn't programmed for subtlety. She was angry with the complicatedness of life in general, and her own treacherous heart most of all. Why was it so hard to do what she knew was right? To believe what she knew must be true? To decide that which she knew was best?

"I do beg your forgiveness, Mistress Leia." Bo's tone was soft and apologetic. "I did not know my actions would start such a quarrel between you and your father."

"It's not your fault, Bo." Leia took a deep breath and wiped her tears. "This was bound to happen sooner or later. . . Where exactly is Father going in two days? Do you know?"

"Of course, Mistress, but. . . " Bo paused and jerked his shiny black head to the side. "I don't know if Master Bail would appreciate me giving that information to you. Perhaps he wishes to surprise you."

"Just tell me which ship he's taking." Leia fumed and crossed her arms. At least, she thought, if I know which ship he'll take, I can find out where he might go.

"Well. . . "Bo hesitated again. "The Tantive IV is scheduled to dock in two days. I do believe with some certainty that your father will travel on that one."

"Tantive IV?" Leia scowled. Her father only ever took that ship on diplomatic missions for the Senate. Captain Raymus Antilles was still master of the vessel, as he had been probably since she was a baby. He was a kindly, smiling family man, with seemingly no secrets. . . But did that mean that the crew of the Tantive were all rebels as well? It made little to no sense, but that was what made up the girl's mind. She had to find out. Forget about Theed Palace. She'd see it next year, maybe.

"Bo, I'll make it to the Shuttle stop quicker on my own." Leia only paused to grab her bag of school-datapads from the protocol droid before she scooted out the door. "Tell Father I'm going with him in two days!"

"But, Mistress Leia!" Bo called, but it was too late. She was already gone. "Oh dear." The droid murmured as he peered out the dining room window and could see her sprinting down the sidewalk, her gray school-bag bumping her back with her long braids while she ran. "For a human of such humble stature," He observed thoughtfully. "She actually is quite swift."

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Here we are: Chapter 3. Tell me what you all think of it!