Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars.


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Chapter III

like the sun, he leaves and the storm rages

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The woman, Leia, looked at Han tenderly, like the way a woman would look at her husband. Prima often watched her mother gaze at her father when she was under the impression that no one was looking. Incidentally, the same went for her father who looked at mother as if she was air whenever he thought no one was looking.

Prima dreamed.

Prima dreamed of someone looking at her like that.

Prima dreamed of her looking at someone like that.

Prima dreamed of falling in love.

"Prima, this is my wife, Leia." Han introduced, snapping the girl away from her thoughts. "R – right!" she stuttered, inwardly cursing herself for her lack of attention, "Hello, miss Leia."

Leia smiled kindly, but Prima noted with surprise and confusion, the stiffness and insincerity of it. After seeing the woman's beautiful smile – eyes bright and twinkling –she could tell this one was fake and forced.

...But why?

She just met the woman. She didn't do anything bad or mean so there was surely no reason for the woman to be acting this way.

"I suppose this girl is the daughter of your former colleagues?" she asked to which Han nodded.

"Yes. I couldn't find her parents though,"

Leia raised an eyebrow at the suspicious answer, "There were no signs of an invasion?"

Prima stayed silent, despite the fact that they were talking about her while she was there, albeit not without difficulty. What were they talking about? What invasion?

"No, but it was quite messy." Han's eyes flickered briefly to Prima and then to Ben who was standing quietly at the corner of the office.

"Ben, would you mind taking Prima to the infirmary?"

The said boy nodded but his face looked to be annoyed at the order.

Prima wished to stay and learn more about what Han and Leia were talking about. It was about her so why shouldn't she listen?

But she supposed it wasn't her decision to make, so she merely inclined her head to Han and forced out a small smile before following Ben's footsteps.


Silence.

That was the only description Prima could say about their small trek to the infirmary. She didn't speak a word. He didn't speak a word. There was nothing but quiet between them.

Honestly, Prima wanted to apologize. She really, truly, with all of her heart did.

But there was something about the stiffness in Ben's shoulder, something about the way he walked with long strides and kept himself a few paces in front of her that ordered Prima to keep her mouth shut.

He was obviously still angry.

She could tell.

And so could his comrades who walked up to them with cheery smiles, until they noticed the grumpy mood of their friend. Immediately, they'd leave without a word, already taking the hint that their friend was not in the mood to talk.

This told Prima that Ben wasn't the most calm person and that his friends were well aware of that fact.

Now that she thought about it, was what she had done really that bad? Was it really enough to warrant this kind of treatment? All she'd done was throw a short, panic attack. It wasn't even that long to begin with. She didn't hurt anyone, nor did she give anyone a reason to go to the clinic.

Did she deserve this harsh punishment?

No, she answered herself.

It certainly did not.

Fueled by a sudden anger, she huffed, unable to stop the words that came out along with it, "Why are you so mad?" she blurted out.

Ben halted his strides, turned to look at her for a moment before moving forward again.

"I'm not mad," he answered icily.

"Yes, you are!" she exclaimed, "You've been ignoring me the whole time!" she pointed out.

"No, I haven't."

"Yes, you were!"

Ben rolled his eyes, "I just didn't think there was anything more to talk about."

Prima frowned, clearly not happy with his answer. "That's it?"

"Yes, that's it."

The red-haired girl narrowed her eyes, not believing a thing he said. She wasn't stupid. There was obviously something more to his anger. All she had to do was find out what. Prima sighed at the objective. It certainly wouldn't be that easy.

...Maybe she should take the sad, apologetic route.

"I'm sorry." she said, finding interest in looking at the ground. "I didn't mean to make you angry." She added, hoping to get a response from her former friend.

But alas, Ben decided to ignore her and kept quiet, much to her dismay.


She knew they were in the infirmary the moment she stepped into the said room. The smell of clean, stale sheets and disinfectants hung heavily in the air. It was not something she was too familiar with as she rarely did anything that led to an injury. Nevertheless, there were some times she did and it was easy enough to associate infirmaries to disinfectants.

A petite woman wearing all white welcomed them with a smile, "Ben, you're here again?" she asked with an exasperated tone.

The fact that the woman emphasized Ben being here again made her wonder just how many times he's been injured, and why he's been injured in the first place. Prima never could have guessed Ben to be a risk-taker.

Ben merely shook his head, "Not for me, Emilia. For her." He said, angling his head to the direction where she stood unnoticed and unseen.

"Oh!" the woman cried in slight surprise. "...I see," Swiftly, Emilia made her way to Prima, gasping when she examined the way the poor girl's arm was positioned in. "Come here, child. It will be easy enough for us to fix, though I warn you that it will sting quite a bit."

Agreeing, Prima shyly moved closer to the woman who motioned her to sit down. As she did, Emi began preparing a sling. "First, we're going to have to break the bones again because it needs to heal correctly."

Before Prima could react or even acknowledge the warning, pain flared through her dominant arm.

Naturally, she screamed at the sudden appearance of pain.

It was not just quite a bit, like the woman said. It was more of an, a lot.

"Sorry about that," Emi apologized sheepishly, "It would be better if you weren't expecting."

Gritting her teeth from the pain, Prima nodded, "It's okay," she lied. She was slightly annoyed at the nurse's omission.

"If we had more updated technology, we could've done this in a painless way." Emi held up a sling, "For now, we're going to use this."

Applying the sling to her arm was a quick enough work and soon enough, the nurse found herself announcing to Prima that it was all over and that she was all fixed up.

It was odd for Prima, having something to keep her arm in a single position, not allowed to move it. She wasn't planning on complaining though. It was not for forever anyway. She would just have to bear it for a few weeks.

"Prima," she heard a voice say, "Come on," he instructed, "I'm taking you to your chambers."

She didn't answer, just nodded her head in response and went about following the boy who still hadn't forgiven her.


Many days passed and everything was going pretty well for Prima. Everyone was kind to her and she had made quite the number of interesting friends.

The people here was not at all what she expected. They didn't condemn her for her stutters and stammers. Instead, they laughed. Though not in a mean way. They laughed and smiled in a light-hearted, amused kind of way.

Also, she met Luke. The person Ben mentioned was the one who should tell her all about the Force.

Luke was amazing.

He told her all about the Force and its power, up to its limitless possibilities. He told her about how he was planning on taking some kids with him to train them in the ways of the Force. He told her –although he wasn't supposed to –that he was planning on taking her with him because he said that he saw great potential in her.

Unfortunately, he also told her about how he was planning on taking Ben with him too. Apparently, Ben had the most potential out of all of them. Prima was a bit disheartened to hear this from him but she supposed she could always impress him during training.

For now, Prima was just satisfied with her current life.

Thoughts of her family rarely came to her except on some particular nights when she was all alone in her room, cold and shivering. But it wasn't really as bad as it seemed.

Although there was something Prima largely regretted.

Ben.

Days had come and gone, yet her friendship with Ben still wasn't rekindled. She'd attempted to talk to him multiple times and through those times, he was civil and polite. But it wasn't even close to being actual friends. He still avoided her and only ever talked to her when necessary.

Prima wanted to be his friend again, but if he didn't want to, then she didn't want to either.

She was done trying to apologize over and over again. She was done.

Currently, she was walking along the plains, intent on getting to General Organa's office. She used to call the woman Leia but she didn't think that it was appropriate since everyone else, but her close friends called her General Organa.

And General Organa did not like her.

It was something she tried to make sense of for multiple times, but couldn't successfully attain a good enough reason.

It wasn't that General Organa hated her. She just seemed to not like Prima, always wearing a happy facade around her. Whenever Prima was near, General Organa would suddenly turn apprehensive and cold.

She always just shook it off, reminding herself that if it wasn't for General Organa, she wouldn't be allowed to stay here in the first place.

But she had her limits and she was not leaving General Organa's office until she discovered why the normally sweet woman hated her.

" –Han, she's dangerous."

Prima was alert the moment she heard those words.

"She's just a child, Leia. What do you want me to do?" Han was the speaker, talking to General Organa.

"Have you forgotten about what her parents did?" At this, the small girl was half-certain that they were arguing about her.

"That's the point! Her parents, Leia, her parents. Not Prima."

Oh no.

They were talking about her.

"Han, do you want history to repeat itself? Luke plans to train her to be a Jedi!"

"Then perhaps you should trust your brother..."

"I can't!" Leia yelled, "Not when I see the way Ben looks at her,"

Prima raised her eyebrows in surprise. Ben looks at her? As far as she was concerned, Ben hardly took a moment to even notice her existence.

"He wants to be her friend again, Leia. That's it. Ben told me himself."

"Friendship is where it all begins, right? Her parents were also friends and then the next thing you know, they're–" Leia was speaking softly now, and because of that, Prima could no longer hear.

She took a lone step forward, not noticing the twig she set her foot upon.

Crack.

The two figures talking inside the office stopped, alarmed and defensive.

"Who's there?" Han asked,

She couldn't be found out –not now when she's learned so much. She knew she had to leave and get out of sight.

With a soundless turn, she ran away, not even pausing to see if they saw her.

By the time she'd realized that she'd run away far enough, she was heavily panting and sweating. It was the first time she had gotten this tired. Her limbs ached with the need to collapse and her lungs constricted with signs of stress.

Thinking herself safe, she fell to her knees, relying on the wall she'd taken cover in to keep her still.

Prima's mind was on overdrive –reeling in from all the information she received.

What were they talking about? General Organa didn't want her to be friends with Ben? Why?

Prima hated not knowing the answers to questions. She really, really wanted to satiate her curiosity. But if she thought about it, there was absolutely no way they'd tell her what was happening. If anything, they'd probably go through more lengths to keep it into a secret.

"–What are you doing?" a voice spoke suddenly from above her, causing the panting girl to shriek in surprise.

She elevated her head upwards to view black, onyx eyes, regarding her form with interest.

"Nothing," she replied dismissively, still slightly out of breath.

Ben squinted his eyes, as if it would help him fathom the reason for her disheveled figure.

"It's nothing." She repeated, though her voice was firmer this time, more resolved to keep her findings hidden.

He huffed, not believing her answer. "Sure doesn't look like it."

"What do you care anyway?" she asked, rapidly feeling defensive, "You don't even like me."

Prima blinked when she detected hints of hurt and regret in his eyes. Briefly, she was reminded of Han's statement about how he wanted to be friends with her again. Earlier, she dismissed those words as false, but now she wondered... maybe Han was telling the truth?

She waited for him to deny his words, giving him a chance to end their non-friendship ties.

He didn't.

Instead, he did the opposite of what she imagined and erased all previous feelings from his face.

Then, he left without sparing her a second glance.

And Prima was once again alone, frustrated and confused.

She really didn't understand Ben. She thought for sure, they would make up this time. He had this repentant look on his face and she had this nagging feeling that he was about to apologize.

But something happened which halted him in his decision.

And she was, once more, led to thinking all about him and why he stopped.

She groaned, loathing the fact that her thoughts always came back to him.

Why couldn't she just forget all about him and move on with her life?


After a good sleep, and a nice bath, Prima felt better, her thoughts having long since forgotten about the boy with black hair and onyx eyes and teasing laughter and beautiful –

She was doing it again.

Inwardly, she reprimanded herself for being so foolish as to remember him. He didn't deserve to be remembered. Not with his harsh treatment of her.

She glimpsed the digital clock provided in her room, noticing that it was already breakfast time. Sighing heavily, she dreaded seeing him in the canteen. She wondered if food was really necessary and toyed with the idea of skipping breakfast.

No.

She would not lose anything for him. She would go, head held high, back postured straight and ignore him.

Right. Give him a taste of his own medicine. She planned evilly.


Prima looked around the canteen, occasionally meeting the eyes of someone familiar but whenever she greeted someone, the person would look away or pretend to have not heard her.

In the beginning, she was puzzled, wondering whether she was just overreacting or if her voice was just not loud enough.

But then, countless friends and acquaintances later, she was certain of it.

They were ignoring her. They were isolating her. They were ganging up on her.

All of them.

They reminded her of General Organa's behavior –cold, but at the same time wary, as if she would do something horrible and bad.

But she didn't. She didn't do anything bad to warrant a conduct like this. They were being mean, petty, and selfish.

It hurt.

She thought she was finally going to fit in, that she was finally not going to be alone.

And she wasn't. For a few weeks, she wasn't.

She was with them, and they were playing games and then she was playing games too.

She was with them and they were talking and then she was talking and they were laughing and they were smiling and she was so happy.

Prima gazed at the people she thought were her friends, laughing and smiling at anyone except her.

She felt hurt, confused, anger, sadness, disappointment, anger, regret, sadness, hurthurthurthurt-

She paused, surprised at a particular emotion, stirring up from within her chest.

Betrayal.

...How could it have all gone wrong?


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Remember

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(-her eyes, her smile, her laugh)

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Remember

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(-her eyes, her smile, her laugh)

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Remember.

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(her eyes, her smile, her laugh)

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Because...

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Because...

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...soon, it will be no more.


And so, the seeds of hate have been planted.

Also, a reviewer asked me when they'll grow into adults.

Patience, my dears, haha. Right now, I have to shape Prima and Ben into becoming the people they will be tomorrow *wink wink*

Another thing, I thank the kind Auyikmora Tano for answering my question about spaceships.

Reviews are loved, cherished,treasured.