The Rebel soldier was recovering in medical facilities on Alderaan, and in a few hours, Leia intended to talk to him with her father and Obi-Wan. She wanted to learn what the Rebel knew...If he knew anything at all.

Leia's father had been rather upset upon hearing of the danger Leia had faced, but Obi-Wan was succeeding in calming him down.

"You can't protect your daughter from everything, Bail," the Jedi was saying, his voice calm. "If she is to help the Rebel Alliance, then she will have to face danger…Unfortunately, that is the way it must be."

Her father's eyes were resting on the floor as he tried to regain his composure. He shifted while he replied, "I know, Obi-Wan, but I just wish she would be more careful…"

Leia rolled her eyes. Her mentor saw the action, and his eyes twinkled at her. In amusement, he told Bail, "She's her father's daughter, I'm afraid."

Bail Organa's eyes snapped up to the Jedi's face, and the Jedi gave a strange wince. In a cold voice, Bail said, "Never say that, Obi-Wan. Never."

Confused, Leia watched her father stand up and leave the sitting room.

"What was that?" she asked in puzzlement.

Obi-Wan sighed. He rubbed his hand over the coarse hair on his chin. "I am not the one to tell you, Leia. You should go talk to him."

****

After hearing a knock on his bedroom door, Bail considered ignoring the person behind it, but he knew he couldn't hide forever. The damage was done, and he had to clean up after himself.

"Come in," he said reluctantly.

Leia, beautiful Leia, the sweet girl who was meant to be his daughter and not the daughter of that monster, entered his room. She looked concerned, and Bail knew he must talk at last. The time had come.

"There is something I must tell you, Leia," Bail said quietly. He looked down at his hands, rubbing his forefingers together. He missed Breha. She would have been much better than him at this conversation.

Curiosity—and a hint of fear—gleamed in Leia's eyes. "What is it, Father?"

Bail let out a loud sigh before biting his lip. "You know I love you, don't you, Leia?"

The girl—no, she was a woman now, wasn't she?—crinkled her brow. "Of course I do."

"I have needed to tell you this for a while, but I just haven't had the heart..." He still didn't have the heart, but he had no choice. Swallowing, trying to break down the lump in his throat, Bail whispered, "You're adopted, Leia."

There was a long and quiet pause, like that experienced when a man filled with vitality comes upon a man recently dead. Each moment was agonizing, suspenseful, terrifying. But finally Leia spoke.

"I guess..." she began tentatively, "I've always really known. I mean, I don't really look like you and Mother..." She moved forward to touch Bail's shoulder. "But Father..."

"Yes, Leia?" the man replied in a strained voice, his eyes averted. He had withheld the truth from her for so long—how could look at her?

"In all the ways that matter, you are my father. And that's what counts."

The words were simple, but they meant the galaxy to Bail. He squeezed his eyes closed, trying to hold back a few rogue tears. "Thank you, Leia." In a strangled voice, he whispered again, "Thank you."

****

He had fled, of course.

He couldn't live that life any longer. He might not have ever really belonged with the Tusken Raiders, but he had never really belonged with the Dark Side either.

Sometimes on Tatooine, before he had truly understood what the twin suns were, he had contemplating traveling past—and maybe even to—the suns. He had thought that everything would change if he did one of those two things.

And they had. But they hadn't changed for the better.

Tusken Raiders respected the power of the suns. The suns could bleach bones, provide light, kill a being...Sun knew now that he could never actually travel to them unless he wanted to burn to death. But that didn't stop him from wishing he could.

Life on Coruscant was nothing like life with the Tatooinian suns. Tatooine was either light or dark, depending on the time of day. Coruscant always had a dark feel to it, yet it possessed more lights than the eyes could count. The Imperial Palace retained the same feel. He knew he did not belong in that darkness.

Out of desperation, he found his way to a place he suspected Opakwa would call "seedy." It was the establishment the black-haired human had told him to go to—the Drunkard's Delight—and many of its denizens were wearing the types of clothing and doing the types of things that his tutoring droid had warned him against. The massive influx of words and emotions that he could hear and sense from the patrons frightened him, but he stayed nonetheless. He felt as if he needed to be there, as if he were fated to be there.

After gazing around the room, Sun realized he didn't know what he was looking for. He reached out to the Force, searching the place, sifting through emotions, and finally focusing on a pair of beings near the back of the—he tried searching his vocabulary—cantina.

One of them was large and furry and grumbling at his human partner, who was waving a comlink around and chastising him in return. There was a strange Force aura around them that identified them as both dangerous and trustworthy. Though the feeling was strange, it comforted him.

Sun, not even thinking about what he was doing, walked over toward the pair. He stopped a few feet in front of their table with his right hand behind his back, finally realizing that he didn't know what he was doing or what he was supposed to do next...

The human stopped waving around the device, instead fixing him with a stare. "What are you looking at, kid? Haven't you ever seen a broken comlink before?" The man threw a glare at his companion.

Sun focused his gaze on the comlink. He could fix it. Not even thinking, he reached out and snatched it away, placing it on the table so he could work on it with his left hand.

"Hey!" exclaimed the human in surprise and anger.

The furry being growled and began to stand up, perhaps in an attempt to punish Sun by ripping off a limb or two, but the human, upon seeing Sun trying to tinker with the comlink, waved the beast back to his seat. "Hold on, Chewie. It doesn't look like he's gonna do anything harmful. Let's give him a chance."

Chewie growled something under his breath.

The human snorted in return. "I know it ain't likely he'll be able to fix it after you busted it, but it can't hurt to let him—" He cut off as Sun handed him the suddenly-working comlink.

The man examined the machine and whistled softly under his breath. "Stang, kid, you actually fixed it. And you didn't even have tools."

Sun gave him a slow smile. He had no physical tools, but he did have the Force. But the man didn't need to know that. It was just a small detail, really.

"What's a kid like you doing in a hole like this? You looking for a job, or something?"

Sun just stood there looking at him. Even if did talk, he wouldn't know what to say.

"Can you work on ships, too?"

Tentatively, Sun nodded. Working on ships was good work—it cleared his mind, made him forget the past. When he worked on ships, all he could think of was his present task. That was what he wanted.

"Tell you what, kid," the human began, "you come and take a look at the Millennium Falcon. If you can do anything with her, then I'll consider letting you tag along with Chewie and me. Your pay won't be much, but if you turn out to be some kind of miracle worker, maybe we'll talk."

Sun slowly—and almost guiltily—brought his right arm forward from behind his back.

Chewie snuffled softly, and the human groaned. "I am not taking on a charity case. With one hand, what can he—"

The furry being stood up and enveloped a surprised Sun in a hug. Concentrating, Sun used the Force to translate what Chewie was saying. [—cub has demonstrated his skill. We must at least give him more of an opportunity to prove himself. His wound seems recent, and he does not appear to desire to speak—]

"All the more reason to leave him behind," the man interjected.

Chewie bared his fangs. [Let the cub prove himself.]

The human sighed. "All right, Chewie, all right."

****

The smuggler hated to admit it, but the kid was a mechanical genius. He was able to navigate the Falcon's mass of wires with ease, one hand or not. Before long, half the Falcon's systems were running better, and Han had to exercise all his strength in refraining from trying to whack the smug look off his Wookiee copilot's face.

The kid was still busy working his miracles, so Han finally cleared his throat. Once he had the boy's attention, he grumbled, "All right, kid. You're aboard. I'm Han Solo, this is Chewbacca, and if he's right, you aren't going to be talking any time soon, so I'm just gonna call you Kid...All right?"

Kid nodded before turning his attention back to the ship.

"Don't even say it," Han warned his partner before walking toward the cockpit.

Chewie chuckled softly.

****

After the hospital room was cleared out and swept of listening devices, Bail spoke to the Rebel soldier. "I am one of the Three. My daughter saved your life. This," he gestured at Obi-Wan, "is a Jedi. Please talk to us."

The soldier turned his head to gaze at Obi-Wan, who moved his robe aside to reveal a lightsaber. The man looked at each of them in turn, searching their face, observing their posture, staring into their eyes. It was as if he were filing away every aspect of their character before deciding whether they were trustworthy. Finally, he seemed satisfied, and he began to talk. "I have important information for the Alliance stored in my brain through hypnotic imprint...I do not know what the information is, only that I have it."

Leia frowned. "Hypnotic imprint? How are we supposed to retrieve—"

Bail smiled at his adopted daughter. "You forget, Leia, that we have a Jedi among us."

The princess blushed and looked down at the ground. Far too often, she forgot the power of the Force. Obi-Wan was always chastising her about it. For her father to chastise her about it made it worse.

Bail nodded at his Jedi friend. "If you would, please, Obi-Wan."

The Jedi stepped forward, placing a gentle hand on the Rebel's forehead. After Obi-Wan concentrated for a few moments, the soldier began to speak with a glazed look on his face. It was obvious that he wasn't lucid while doing so.

"The Emperor is building a new weapon called the Death Star," the soldier said in monotone. "It is a moon-sized space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet. The Tarkin Doctrine is to be implemented in full. The threat is real, and the Empire cannot be redeemed. The Death Star plans must be retrieved."

Leia exchanged a look with her father. What lengths wouldn't the Empire go to?