AN: This chapter isn't as action packed as before I guess, but it's equally important. Luke and Leia are in it. Need I say more? No school for me today so I'm going back to sleep.

Read, enjoy, and review!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chapter Twenty-four

"Leia… Do you really think it's wise to just come here like this?" Abdul asked.

"How else am I supposed to do it?"

"I don't know…" Abdul said as he pretended to ponder. "How about sending a message over the holonet? How about asking for one of them to meet you in a café? But really, waltzing up to their door and claiming to be part of their family? Leia come on. Be rational."

Lana only sighed. "Leia's not rational Abdul."

"This is rational. Think about it. A message might be blocked and I don't think they would be stupid enough to meet someone because I requested it, and I could hack their com number but they can always just cut the connection. If we meet face to face, they'll be forced to acknowledge what I'm saying," Leia replied.

"But at their home?"

"It'll make them feel more at ease. They have the advantage there and it means I'm not trying to isolate one of them. They'll be more welcoming," Leia explained.

"Do you always calculate people like this when you're about to do something?"

"Most of the time," Leia admitted.

"So you already know what you're going to tell them?"

"Yeah," Leia said confidently. "I know what I'm doing."

"That's what you say about all your plans and usually we end up running from some lunatic, fighting pirates, illegally racing in the slums of a city… Need I continue?" Abdul asked.

"Those are just a few times…."

"Point is you have a track record Leia," Lana said to her.

Leia shrugged as she continued to inspect the Naboo style speeders. She had immediately disregarded half of them as the cuts were too fancy and interfered with the speed and ride of the vehicle. Next she crossed out any with inferior engines and now she was testing the throttles and other features of the three she had narrowed her selection down to.

"Come on Leia. Just pick one… This is worse than when we were at the ship yard?" Lana whined to her.

They had long since abandoned the alliance shuttle Luke had sent them off in, but it had taken some time… Four months to be exact. Leia hadn't been satisfied with any of the ships they came across from planet to planet. Lana and Abdul couldn't have cared less. They just needed something that would fly them from one planet to another. Leia finally dragged them halfway across the outer rim to Maya, the sister planet of their homeworld Rumiyya, and purchased one of their style of ships with a sleek triangle design built for speed and traveling through the windy atmosphere of the planet. She then abandoned the Alliance shuttle in an old shipyard and they settled on the tourist planet of Drall for a while. No one would think that anyone running from the empire would travel that close to the core and though a Mayan ship wasn't that common, the simplicity of design could easily make it mistaken for a Naboo ship or an old Alderaan model. Only someone with Leia's eye could distinguish it.

But shortly after their 'vacation' on Drall, Leia decided that there was another place they needed to go and would settle on for a while. She wanted to go to Naboo and meet her family. Lana and Abdul thought she was nuts. Naboo was the emperor's home planet. Leia argued that it was all the more reason to go. The empire was no doubt scourging the entire outer rim for them. They wouldn't think anyone would be dumb enough to hide on the emperor's home world.

So there they were, after a few weeks of going to random places without much of a pattern (and sometimes with a pattern) to throw off anyone looking for them, on Naboo. And Leia was taking her sweet time choosing a speeder for them to ride.

"What do you think Artoo?" Leia finally asked. "They're all about the same."

Artoo immediately picked the one sitting on the far left, and on closer inspection, Leia noticed it had a seat for an astromech unit.

"We'll take that one," Leia said to the salesman, handing over the necessary credits and signing the proper registration for it under Abdul's name.

Artoo happily plopped himself down in his seat and the three young adults got in. Leia pulled out the lot and headed towards the outskirts of the city of Theed, the place where she had been told by her father that her mother's family had resided for centuries.

"So two things," Lana said. "How did you get the Naberries' address?"

"It was simple enough. Artoo hacked into the terminals at the delivery office," Leia replied.

"Second question, what makes you want to see your mother's family all of a sudden?" Lana asked.

"Can you blame me?" Leia asked.

"No," Abdul said honestly. "But you've never cared so much about it before. Ahsoka told you what she knew and she's never lied to you."

"I know…" Leia muttered.

"Then why are you so keen to know more?" Lana asked.

Leia sighed. "I've been having visions. I used to think my destiny was so clear, but now I'm not sure anymore. Talking to my mother's family… I think it might help."

They arrived in two standards hours or so. The house was welcoming and on a large piece of property. Leia led her friends up the path, Artoo close beside her. Leia took a deep breath when they got to the door and then rang the doorbell. The owners didn't come to the door immediately though and Leia crossed her arms in impatience. Someone was there. She could feel it.

Just as she started to ring the doorbell again, the door opened and an elder woman with gray hair and a few brown strands with brown eyes stood there to look at them.

Leia stared at her and then felt her force presence. They were definitely related somehow. Lana nudged her and Artoo beeped to get her attention.

"Sorry," Leia said with a small smile.

"It's alright dear. Can I help you and your friends?"

"Yeah… This is the Naberrie household right?"

The woman nodded slowly. "Yes. I'm Jobal Naberrie. Can I do something for you?"

It was her grandmother. Her father mentioned her after the disaster that had been her trip to Naboo when she was twelve.

Leia took a page out her father's book and stood to her full height, which on its own wasn't very intimidating, and looked the woman in the eye.

"My name's Leia Amidala Skywalker. Your daughter, Padmé Amidala, was my mother."

Abdul slapped his forehead and Lana gasped in shocked.

"Way to lay it easy on her," Abdul said dryly.

Jobal looked at Leia in obvious surprise.

"My daughter never gave birth," she said.

Leia took a step forward. It forced Jobal to take a step back and kept her from closing the door.

"Yes she did. I can prove it," she assured. "Listen. I know this is overwhelming but I can prove it to you. Just hear me out."

Jobal sighed. "Well I guess it can't do any harm…"

"Thank you," Leia said as Jobal stepped aside to let them in the house.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What are you doing?"

Luke looked up at Mara as she came into the room. She would never admit it and neither would he, but they were each other's best friends. They had been the only friend the other had for years and lately there was something else, something they were both content to ignore for the time being.

"Just looking through this stuff Leia and Ahsoka left behind," Luke said taking things out of a trunk.

The alliance found it amongst the things they had evacuated from the old base and kept it since it seemed to have a special mechanism that kept it from being opened. Although the circumstances which Leia and her friends had gotten away had been 'suspicious', they didn't press him on the matter. But Luke had a feeling the Jedi knew exactly what he had done.

"What's in it?" she asked kneeling next to him.

Luke shrugged. "Books, pictures, a digital holocam with a whole bunch of picture chips in a bag… nothing valuable per say."

"I guess," Mara said looking through the chips and tossing him a random one. "Play it."

Luke sighed and put the chip in his datapad. Immediately, the unsteady image of Abdul and Lana when they were younger came up.

"I can't believe your dad brought you that thing," Lana said. "Isn't it expensive?"

"He doesn't care. He just picked one out so I could use it for my video assignment," Leia said.

"I wish I had your dad," Abdul grumbled.

"No you don't… Believe that," Leia muttered from behind the camera.

Abdul frowned and then changed his mind. "Yeah. You're right."

"Wow! It even has color holo recordings," Lana said. "So what are you going to do for the film class?"

"We should make a romance… Like that movie we watched Lana. Across the Stars!"

Abdul gagged at the name and then looked at Leia in confusion. "I thought Ahsoka told you that you couldn't see that movie…"

Leia was silent and lost focus with the camera for a moment before clearing her throat and saying, "I don't see the big deal. Besides it's not as though I haven't seen anything as scandalous in real life…"

"What are you talking about Leia?" Abdul asked and Lana looked at Leia in confusion.

Leia giggled. "Come on…"

The camera lost focus as Leia put the camera to her side and went somewhere. Luke and Mara exchanged a glance wondering what exactly a twelve year old Leia was talking about. They soon found out.

"What are we doing in Ahsoka's room?" Abdul asked as they went to the window.

Leia opened the curtains and lifted the window slowly and then started to right the camera again.

"Leia what are we-?"

Leia pointed her finger in front of the camera and the camera view focused and views in on two people behind a tree in their backyard.

"Holy kriffing stang!" Abdul whispered and then covered his mouth.

"Told you," Leia said trying to hold back a giggle as she watched her father and Ahsoka making out behind the tree.

"Oh wow!" Lana said in amazement not knowing whether to be horrified or curious about the entire situation,

"I'm scarred," Abdul said turning away from the window.

"They're just kissing. No big deal," Leia said simply. "I've seen more…"

"You did not just say that…" Abdul said trailing off.

"This is Leia, Abdul," Lana said to him still watching the scene with curiosity.

"Okay. Maybe we need to go," Abdul said.

"The furthest they ever get is my dad with his shirt off," Leia said casually.

"You've watched them before!"

"It was an accident and it wasn't my fault I walked in on them," Leia insisted but her tone was embarrassed.

"That's disgusting…" Abdul said.

"No it's not," Lana said. "It's just like the movies."

The screen suddenly went blurry and then black, the last thing Mara and Luke heared from the recording was someone growling angrily, "Leia," and then the three preteens cursing their luck as they ran away.

Luke glanced at Mara and then back at the black image of the camera before they finally started to laugh.

"Oh wow," Luke said as he began to look for another chip to play. "This stuff is gold. Leia didn't tell me about that."

"It's weird though…" Mara added.

"How so?"

"Your dad and Ahsoka. Right there he seems so human… Not so much Darth Vader anymore," Mara said referring to the tape.

Luke understood what she meant and then started looking through the chips. Only a few of them had names written on them.

"I wonder what else is on these things…" Luke said curiously.

"Well we certainly have enough time," Mara said bluntly. "There's nothing else to do on this cruiser yet…"

xxxxxxxxxxxx

It took little convincing to make her grandmother believe Leia was her granddaughter, especially since she had an uncanny resemblance to her mother. Leia had been prepared. She did everything she could beforehand, going as far as to dig up the old birth certificate amongst her belongings. They had been forced to go find it when Leia turned sixteen and begged Ahsoka to take her to get her speeder license. Since Ahsoka had never bothered to go file for another birth certificate after she became Leia's legal guardian, Bail helped them get a copy of the original so that Ahsoka could take it and file for a new one with her listed as the mother.

Leia showed them both to her grandmother and the official seal had been enough to convince her that it was the truth.

"But… We thought you had died," Jobal said touching Leia's face as though to make sure she was real. "We thought you died with your mother."

"I know," Leia said. "Ahsoka told me that they had no choice. The emperor would have found out about me and Luke and tried to kill us."

"Luke?"

"He's my twin brother."

"Twins… My baby left twins," Jobal said to her.

Leia nodded.

Jobal sat down across from them, her face flushed as she looked like she was staring at a ghost.

"But you… Why didn't we know? If we had known we would have taken you in."

"You couldn't know. The emperor knew our mother was pregnant."

"But Padmé was nothing but loyal to the republic."

"That's the point. She was loyal to the republic," Leia explained. "And it's not just that. Our father was a Jedi."

"Skywalker… Anakin Skywalker! I remember him. He came to Naboo with her to protect her. I always knew she liked him more than she let on," Jobal said sadly. "But Padmé… What happened to her? They said it was a rebellion."

Leia looked at her lap as she remembered what Ahsoka told her. She said plainly that she died of a broken heart and Leia had lived with that. Now she wondered what exactly she was heartbroken over.

"She was heartbroken," Leia said simply. "Dad was dead. The republic was gone. Ahsoka said she didn't want to live anymore…"

"Ahsoka? Who's she?"

"A friend of my dad's When the Jedi had to go into hiding, she took me and raised me while Obi-wan Kenobi took Luke," Leia forced out. The truth was the Jedi had essentially kidnapped her brother and Ahsoka managed to take Leia where she belonged, with her father whether he was going by the name Anakin Skywalker or Darth Vader.

"Then where is she. Why did you come here?"

"A lot has happened in the last few years. We're hiding from the empire and we got separated when they attacked the rebellion. I've been with the Jedi for over a year, but now I just felt the need to know more about her. I only know the thing Ahsoka told me about her and she only knew her for about three years. I was hoping I could stay here for a while," Leia said carefully.

Jobal clasped her hands together in delight.

"Say no more," she said. "Oh the family's going to be so glad to meet you and Ruwee… Ruwee will love you. Maybe meeting you will help him. He hasn't been the same since Padmé died. That really hurt him, especially when he found out Padmé was pregnant and we had no idea who the father could have been."

Leia gestured to Abdul and Lana who sat on either side of her.

"This is Lana and Abdul. They're my closest friends. Would you mind if they stayed too?"

"Not a problem Leia," Jobal said and got up. "I'll go get your rooms together. It'll be so good to have you, knowing that my baby left a part of herself before she died."

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Luke wondered why Leia had never showed him these things before. Mara had long since fallen asleep on his bed, but there Luke was, up well into the night still looking through the things in the trunk. There weren't a lot of holovids as it seemed that a few months after Leia got it, Vader had taken from her. But there were other recordings that looked like they had been taken by Artoo, and they were considerably less scandalous than the recording Leia had gotten of Vader and Ahsoka making out. Luke scowled at the thought a little, but then mused they had ended up with Shmi somehow.

"You're still up?" Mara asked having been awakened by the light from the holos.

"Yeah red," Luke said using the nickname he had called her when they were younger.

"Haven't heard that one in a while," she mused.

"You still call me farm boy," he said. "I've never even worked on a farm before."

"You act like one," Mara replied simply.

"I didn't know all this stuff was in here," Luke said. "There are pictures and everything. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they had been a normal family."

Mara snorted. "Shocking?"

"Yes!" Luke said. "I mean it's hard to imagine him as someone other than just this ruthless military commander and even though I know there's good in him, I just never knew what Leia saw in him that would make her so devoted to him knowing all the things he had done."

"She tried to tell you," Mara pointed out.

"Yeah, but I didn't understand it. Looking at all this stuff now, I get it," Luke said as he pulled out a book. "Wow… Where'd Ahsoka get this? Isn't actual paper rare? Let alone a book…What is this thing?"

Mara took it from him. It was obviously carefully put together. "It's one of those baby logs. You write the milestones of the baby and stuff in it. I always found those things ridiculous. Who cares?" Mara asked opening it and then letting out a small, 'oh.'

"What?"

"It says 'for Vader'," Mara said. "And it's in Ahsoka's handwriting. I think she put this thing together for him."

Luke took it back and indeed saw written on the first page in the top corner the words, 'for Vader,' in Ahsoka's handwriting. It looked like she had started to write 'for Anakin' but then crossed out the name halfway before writing Vader.

"Six weeks, 0903 hours, Leia's first smile…" Luke said trailing off as he read the log.

"Wow," Mara said scooting next to him. "She really wrote all that stuff for him. Hey look… Leia's first word: Daddy."

Luke closed the book as he stared in the trunk. He began to wonder if Leia had showed him all this stuff if he would have been more accepting of their father. This was a side to him she always talked about, but that he had never seen. He had been so disappointed when he found out that Darth Vader had been his father and not Anakin Skywalker anymore. But maybe Leia was right. In a way, maybe Darth Vader wasn't so different from the man Obi-wan had held up to him all those years. Leia had once told him that Vader was the only father she knew, but now that Luke thought about it, she might have been mistaken. She knew more about Anakin Skywalker than he liked to think he did.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

AN: The scene with Luke finding Leia's stuff was spur of the moment for me and was the part that inspired the one shot side story I did (Hot and Disturbed). I figured Luke and Leia are twenty-two and on the brink of finding themselves but not quite sure of themselves yet. This kind of reflects their transition.

Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!