AN: Okay, so this chapter went through a bit of a revamp and overall I was much more satisfied with the chapter. The second scene in this was actually part of the next chapter, but when I thought about it, it made since to make it part of this one. So I cut a scene from the beginning of this chapter to put at the beginning of the next chapter. Then I changed a bit of a conversation in here and it flowed much better and brought out Leia's more refined technique of manipulating… Lol. You know what, I don't need to tell you. In the great words of Levar Burton, "You don't have to take my word for it."

Read, enjoy, and review!

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Chapter Nine

"What is this planet?" Leia asked grabbing onto her knee and pulling it out the swamp.

"Yoda's planet," Luke said to her. "Dagobah."

"Stang it," Leia snapped slapping a bug away from her. "Why is it always some crazy extreme when we go into hiding? There was Dantooine and Yavin sitting in the middle of some jungle. Then there was Hoth which was a subzero death trap. Now we're in some swamp with all these bugs!"

"Whatever princess but can you think of anywhere better to hide?" Mara asked. "This place is uninhabitable."

"Which is why it's so bad. My dad hid me and Ahsoka on Rummiya and it was like a paradise. Why can't we go someplace like that?" Leia asked.

"You know. Ahsoka swears up and down she and Vader didn't spoil you," Obi-wan said. "But somehow I doubt it."

"You shouldn't because other than living on a tropical planet, they didn't. I worked for everything I got and was grounded on many occasions for causing trouble. My dad took everything electronic away from me for a month when I went camping by myself," Leia replied.

"You always talk about that, but you never tell us the entire story," Mara pointed out.

Lana and Abdul laughed. "Where do you want us to start?" Abdul asked.

"I know," Lana said. "It was a really hot summer remember and the air condition had stopped working at your house."

"What's that have to do with anything?" Mara asked.

"It was because it was so hot, unusually hot might I add, I slipped out of the house," Leia said. "Ahsoka and my dad were hot, tired, agitated and my dad was fixing his arm after he failed to rig the air conditioner. So of course their guard had been down for a while."

"You would think fighting in a war where they had to survive those conditions would make them used to it," Luke pointed out.

"And that's exactly why they were so agitated about it," Abdul said. "Anyway, Leia asked them to take her camping because some girl from our school had gone. They said no and then backed each other up in the decision."

"What's so shocking about that?"

Leia laughed. "Oh sure they have a kid now," she said. "But those two fought over everything. It was the first time they didn't have to talk it out or argue. They both agreed. Naturally when they wouldn't do it because I thought it was ridiculous not to take me, I packed my bags, locked Threepio in the garage, took Artoo and a speeder and went camping."

"And she dragged us along," Lana muttered. "It went fine at first, looked like nothing could go wrong. Ahsoka and Vader would find out, find us content eating marshmallows over a fire and relax before agreeing that maybe it was ridiculous not to take Leia to begin with."

At this point Yoda commented. "Never that simple it is for a Skywalker."

"Just so happened the biggest storm of the season rolled in during our trip," Leia said cringing. "And needless to say Ahsoka and Vader weren't happy about having to spend the night in it…"

"It didn't end did it?" Luke asked.

"No. It's an even longer story and we'll finish it later. The pirate thing was long and complicated," Abdul said. "I always wondered after that why I stayed friends with Leia."

"You all know you loved every minute of it," Leia said smugly and her two friends didn't deny it.

"So what are we doing here?" Mara asked.

"Finish your training we must. Depends on it the fate of the galaxy and survival of the Jedi, it does," Yoda replied.

"I'm not training to be a Jedi!" Leia said stopping as they came upon Yoda's hutt.

"Need it more than anyone you do," Yoda said to her. "A dark path, you tread."

"A dark path!" Leia said. "Is this about ending up like my dad?"

"Leia," Obi-wan said.

Leia didn't want to hear it. She started back towards the ships intending to travel in Luke's X-wing to find her father.

"Leia," Luke said chasing after her. "You can't leave."

"I'm going!"

"But dad said to stay away from the empire," Luke yelled. "He wanted you to hide."

Leia whirled on him making Luke stop suddenly.

"I'm tired of hiding," she snapped at him.

"I know that. We all are but-."

"You haven't been hiding like me!" Leia snapped loudly at him. "You've always been the son of Anakin Skywalker and you never tried to hide it from anyone because to the galaxy he's dead and no one cares except that you have his powers. You're his legacy. But I didn't know Anakin Skywalker. I didn't even know that name until I was twelve years old! My name was Skywalker but I didn't know where it came from. Darth Vader's always been my dad. I don't know him as anything else and I have to hide it because either the emperor's going to find out or the rebellion is going to find out he raised me and see me as a threat. Him and Ahsoka are the only ones I have to go to. I have to hide from everyone, even you all because you think I'm the next ruthless military dictator!"

"Leia," Luke said stepping up to her. "Calm down."

"Leave me alone!" she snapped walking away again.

Luke cursed as she took off.

"Leia!" he yelled taking off after her.

Luke was surprised to see she had stopped and then he saw why. His X-wing had gotten stuck in the swamp and though he was sure Leia was more than capable of getting it out with the force, she wasn't in the mindset to do so. Instead, she was sitting staring at the swamp sighing.

Feeling him approach she said, "Sorry. I'm just tired."

"Aren't we all," Luke said sitting next to her. They sat in silence for a while before Luke said, "It's funny."

"What?"

"You're right," Luke pointed out. "We have the same father but then again we don't."

"It wouldn't be like this if we had been raised together," Leia pointed out.

"Yeah," Luke said to her. "Our lives just seem like one tragic mess."

"It's only tragic from your point of view. We've had good lives except for the hiding part."

"You know," Luke said hesitantly. "We're only worried about you. Sometimes it seems like…"

"Like what?" Leia urged.

"Like you want to be a part of the empire and the Sith someday. Like you haven't learned anything from being around the rebellion, how evil the empire is," Luke said to her.

"I know okay. But my dad isn't the empire. Palpatine is. Daddy just works on his behalf. When my dad gets rid of him, the empire will be better," Leia assured.

"Leia, no one gets that much power and it doesn't eventually go to their head especially a Sith," Luke replied.

"Whatever," Leia said clenching her jaw.

"You always do this," Luke said sighing.

"Do what?"

"Sometimes you don't know how to cope with things. You're always trying to hide how you feel, like it doesn't bother you that I disagree with you, and if it does you get angry to hide what you're really feeling. That's not good."

"Believe me. I didn't steal it. Ahsoka told me daddy's the same way," said Leia.

"But on the other hand, you're sympathetic in your own way."

"I thought I was the empathetic one," Leia pointed out. "You're sympathetic."

"I said in your own way. You manipulate people into showing the feelings you know are there to begin with. That's your way of being sympathetic," Luke said to her.

"What are you trying to say?"

"We don't think you're going to be some ruthless dictator. You're not really the type. Manipulative, yes. A ruthless dictator, not so much."

"But the potential is there," Leia said sighing. "Dad thinks he was never meant to be a Jedi. Ahsoka doesn't know, but what about me. What do you think?"

Luke only paused before saying, "I think you're meant to teeter-totter on the line of light and dark. You can always see both points of view and take the best of both. Maybe that's a benefit of being raised by a Jedi and a Sith."

"Well, truth is a point of view," Leia said. "But I always say the real truth lies between the two views."

"Exactly. So why not learn the Jedi point of view, really see what we're about. It couldn't hurt to stay here. Besides, dad wanted to keep us hidden," Luke pointed out.

"There's only one problem I have with that Luke," Leia said still staring ahead.

"What's that?"

"You want me to see your point of view, but you're not willing to see mine," she deadpanned. When Luke was silent, she took it as agreement and added, "Tell you what. I'll get the Jedi point of view. I'll learn their way, see what their side of the story is. But you have to open up to my point of view, no brushing off how I see the empire and daddy. If I have to give the Jedi a shot, you have to hear my side out eventually. Deal?"

Luke looked at Leia hesitantly and noticed that she was smirking a little and more than a bit smug in the force. He wondered if this had been her plan all along, to string him along until she finally forced him to see her way and really hear her out. It was something she would do. In fact, it was likely she wasn't confused about her path at all and put on the pretense of weighing her options to get him to say what she wanted.

Finally, he sighed. He had a feeling Leia would never fit into the Jedi mold, not as manipulative as she was. She was much more Sith than she was Jedi, but still… This might still turn out the way he hoped it would. Maybe she would learn something.

"Deal," Luke finally said.

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Leia resisted the urge to go snatch Luke and Mara by the necks and throw them into the murky swamp nearby as they laughed at her expense. Jedi training was no joke. Ahsoka had gone easy on her in the last few years. Athletic as she was, nothing could have prepared Leia for this kind of training. She felt like she had been running blindfolded forever and to make matters worse, Yoda was on her back rambling a bunch of Jedi proverbs and talking about the dark side. Being blindfolded was easy though. It was like driving at reckless speeds in races. She never really saw anything. She usually sensed an obstacle long before she saw it, if she ever saw it.

"What does this have to do with the force?" Leia asked panting.

"See the symbolism you do not?" Yoda asked.

"I wouldn't be asking if I did," Leia shot leaping over a fallen tree.

"Endure much, suffer pain you must if a servant of the force you wish to be."

"Just how much we talking?"

"Longsuffering, you must be. The greater the power, the greater the responsibility."

Leia frowned. "That doesn't seem fair. The best of us get the worst of the suffering and pain."

"It's what will make you stronger, live up to your highest potential."

"Well, when does it end?"

"Why so many questions on this have you?"

"I'll tell you when you answer my questions," Leia said to him.

"I'll answer your questions when you give me your answer," Yoda said and Leia sighed.

"Fine. I was thinking about my dad if you must know," she said to him.

"How so?"

"I don't know much about his past, but from what I know, he's been through a lot," Leia said softly.

"Brought his own suffering upon himself he did. Suffering only the dark side brings," Yoda pointed out.

"I can see that in a way," Leia gave. "But when my grandmother died, it had nothing to do with the dark side. And sure my mother died, but Ahsoka even maintains she could have decided to live if she wanted to. She just… Gave up on my dad it seems like. Everyone did…"

"What know you about your mother?" Yoda asked.

Leia shrugged. "Everything Ahsoka told me."

"Told you these things, did she?"

"Ahsoka has never said a bad word against my mother even in her own personal thoughts," Leia said already knowing what the Jedi was thinking. "And I'm not saying anything bad against her either. I'm just pointing out what it looked like. Either way, I still say my dad has suffered more than any of you ever have. So does that mean some way, somehow, even after turning to the dark side, the force is still for him? That he's its champion?"

Yoda was surprised. The child had certainly given him something to ponder and having accomplished what she meant to, Leia was silent and continued running before abruptly stopping.

"What's that?" she asked taking off her mask to face a dark cave.

"Ready to face what is in there, you are not."

"I sense the dark side," Leia said coolly and unafraid of the darkness. "Seriously. What's in there?"

"Like it, you won't," Yoda said. "Not ready you are."

Leia only started toward the cave in determination. Something in there was calling her.

"Where is she going?" Lana and Abdul said catching up with them. They had agreed to go through the training with Leia, limitedly of course since neither was force sensitive.

Yoda didn't reply but he did raise his hand to stop the two from following.

"Face this alone, she must."

Leia made her way into the cave without hesitation and went deeper as she didn't see anything.

"What is this?" she asked herself and then sensed something behind her.

She turned around to see whatever it was. Two things shocked her. One was than nothing was there and the second was that she couldn't see the light from outside.

"What in the world…?"

Leia shrugged and turned back around not sensing any immediate danger. However she jumped when she saw someone who wasn't in the cave with her before. It was a woman with dark curls and a petite body. She looked just like her…

"Leia," she said.

Leia stepped back. "Who are you?"

"Leia," she said again but this time Leia remembered it, a very distant memory of someone saying her name, almost as if declaring it.

Leia…

"Mother?" she asked and shook her head. Then she glared at her, hostility welling up inside her. "You're dead. Why are you here?"

"Princess."

Leia turned around, startled to hear her father's voice, but he wasn't the only one there. Ahsoka was standing next to him.

"Leia," bother her mother and Ahsoka said this time.

"No," Leia said shaking her head and then groaned. "What do you want? I don't get it. What is this supposed to be?"

"Leia you have to understand," her mother said sadly. "Leia please."

"Leia!"

The voices got louder and started to drive Leia crazy until she said, "Shut up! Stop calling my name. Leave me alone. Daddy, tell them to be quiet."

But it didn't stop and so Leia ran, ran until she found herself out of the cave on her knees panting.

"What happened to you?" Luke asked and then saw the cave and paled dramatically. "What did you see?"

"What's wrong with her?" Abdul asked. "She looks like she's seen a ghost and Leia never looks like that."

"Leia!" Lana said shaking her.

"Oh move," Mara said rolling her eyes and grabbed the older girl by her forearms to stand her up. "What did you see in there princess?"

Leia shook her head. "I don't know?"

"What do you mean you don't know?" Mara asked.

"I really don't know. I'm confused about it. I can't tell you when I can't figure it out myself," Leia snapped.

"Then what did you see. Stop trying to figure it out," Lana suggested.

Leia was silent for a while before she said, "I saw Ahsoka and my dad…"

"And?" Obi-wan urged from where he was standing next to Yoda.

"My mother… I saw my mother."

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AN: When I first wrote that second scene, I had no idea exactly what the significance of it was, only that it would tie into the story somehow. So I was anxiously waiting for it to come back around and the story to write itself out and enlighten me to its significance. I tell you, these stories had a mind of their own.

Anywho, Leia's had her vision of her and we'll get back to that later. You all will be happy to know that the next four chapters are explicitly for Vader and Ahsoka so I know you'll be looking forward to it. Four words for ya. Sexual tension and misunderstandings...

Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!