Were it not for the crippling grief over the state of the planet and the loss of her daughter, the gnawing hunger from the lack of decent meals, the persistent worry over the fate of the household staff, and the constant frustration over any lack of news from the outside galaxy, Breha Organa might have enjoyed her house arrest. On a normal day, back when such a thing existed, her day started before the sunrise, when she'd sneak in a half hour of aerobics before breakfast meetings with regional governors, policy planning sessions with executive advisors, lunch meetings with directors of various advocacy groups, afternoon ribbon cuttings with religious organizations, dinner meetings with university officials looking for research funding, and then late evenings poring over letters and papers from around the planet. Occasionally she'd even find a moment when her husband's and daughter's equally chaotic schedules brought them together at the same place at the same time.
Now a normal day consisted of waking up next to her husband and picking up one of her old paper books that the Imperial troops had let them keep in their apartment. Never in her life had she had so much time to sit and read.
As they had fully anticipated, the Imperial troops arrived barely a day after they set back down on their home planet. Not wanting to call too much attention to their arrival, they had asked the young pilot to set down in Aldera's public spaceport and walked through the empty streets back to the royal palace. Stores were shuttered, and broken glass littered the sidewalks in front of a few of the shops. A few abandoned speeders sat near the spaceport, one smashed nearly beyond recognition against one of the decorative outer walls marking the perimeter of the customs area. Following them out, the pilot asked about refueling. Normally there was a kiosk at the spaceport, but it appeared to be abandoned. The three of them went back to check on the fuel supply. Unsurprisingly, the tanks were all empty.
As they trudged back again towards down the main street of Aldera, a few people started to poke their heads out of doors, recognizing the monarchs. Soon a small parade had formed, escorting them back home. When they arrived, Bail turned and held up his hands for quiet. By this time a few hundred people were clustered around the outer gates of the palace.
"Unfortunately the Empire remains committed to our destruction," he said. The crowd murmured, people in the back shouting for him to speak louder. Someone ran and found a bullhorn, handing it up to him. "The Empire remains committed to our destruction," he repeated. "I know there are many of us who remain, either by choice or by necessity. I can only recommend that if you are able, you should leave now. I do not know what the future will hold." Deciding he should probably end on an inspirational note, he ad-libbed lamely, "For those of us who stay, we must remember our common bond and values. No matter what, we are forever Alderaani."
The first Imperial ships arrived as the sun rose over Aldera the next morning. A few additional holdouts had fled, but the vast majority of people who'd waited out the Death Star did so because they had no other options. Though they'd scolded them, the Organas were comforted when a ship's worth of household staff arrived at the palace within hours of their return. They had been on a ship with Strina Parnuela waiting far beyond the Death Star's range, and had returned when the station left the system. Bail hung his head when he learned Strina's fate in the skies above the battlestation.
The staff were all hustled out onto the street as stormtroopers flooded the palace, followed by some minor general whom Bail and Breha suspected had been chosen as more of an insult than a threat. Horrified, they could see the light reflecting off the platforms erected in an orbit around the planet, effectively cutting off access to and from the rest of the galaxy. The spaceports were shut and the food supplies commandeered. Some of the remaining residents fled with their families to the relative safety of the mountains, while others simply acquiesced when they were pressed into service for the troops. The two monarchs assumed that they would be executed, but instead were confined to a few small rooms in the palace. And so began the Imperial occupation.
For more than two months now the population had suffered under Imperial rule. From their balcony, Bail and Breha could see the bread lines that formed up every morning outside a grocery store staffed by thin women under heavy armed guard. Knowing their rooms were likely bugged, the Organas kept their conversations vague, until eventually they had nearly stopped speaking to each other, preferring to spend their days in silence.
One morning, a brisk knock at the door after breakfast had been delivered startled them. Brushing off her dress, Breha joined her husband by the door as two stormtroopers stepped in.
"Your presence is required," one of them said brusquely, gesturing for them to head down the hallway. Taking his wife's arm, Bail led the way, wondering if this was finally the end.
The stormtroopers took them to the formal reception room and gestured them inside. Confused, Bail opened the door, stopping in his tracks when he saw Darth Vader waiting for them, alone, on the far side of the room.
"Won't you join me, your Highnesses?" Squeezing hands tightly, the couple stepped in, the door slamming shut behind them.
"Sit." Vader pointed to the sofa in front of the ornate fireplace. Neither Bail nor Breha moved, and for a moment they simply stared at the Dark Lord.
"What do you want?" Breha finally spit out. Bail put a hand on her arm, warning her to take care. "Haven't you done enough?"
Not one for games, Vader ignored her and pressed forward with his intended line of discussion. "How did your daughter learn to conceal her talents with the Force?"
More silence, though Vader could sense the conflict in both their minds. So they had known of her powers. "Is the Jedi who trained her still on Alderaan?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Bail said finally, unconsciously echoing Leia's words and tone after her capture by the Sith.
"You should be proud of her, you know," Vader continued. "Your planet would be nothing but space dust were it not for her efforts. Did you know that she was the one who destroyed the weapons system on the Death Star before it could fire on Alderaan?"
They both gasped. "So you admit she was alive, on the Death Star?" Bail asked.
"Very much so. Her commitment to her cause is admirable. I've rarely seen such resistance to our special…methods."
Breha lunged forward, nearly reaching the Dark Lord before he held up a hand to stop her in her tracks. "You monster! What did you do to her?!"
"I believe we've strayed from the original question, your Highness. Is the Jedi still here?"
"No," Bail muttered, shaking with the strain of keeping himself from bodily attacking Vader.
"Where are they?"
"Dead."
"How did you discover her powers?"
"I don't know."
"Don't lie to me, Organa." Vader stood, shoving a finger under Bail's nose. Breha stood back behind the sofa, breathing hard, watching them carefully.
"What does it matter?" she hissed softly. "You killed her."
Vader looked up at her, his rhythmic breathing the only sound in the room.
"You took her from us," Breha repeated, the timbre of her voice rising. "You don't even know what you've done." She wanted to hurt him, the way he'd hurt them, the way he'd hurt Leia. Nothing else mattered right now. She wanted to cut him so deeply that the scar would never fade. "You want to know how we knew about her Jedi powers? Because her father was a Jedi, you evil, filthy, worthless piece of trash. Her father was Anakin Skywalker." Sobbing, Breha fell into her husband's arms.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx
Another knock on the outside of the Falcon surprised the four occupants as they sat down, as agreed, to hash out their next steps. Luke had practiced what he intended to say to convince Leia to come to Dagobah with him: once she agreed, surely Han would fly them there. Leia sat stonefaced on the opposite side of the table, looking far more like a normal person in her new outfit than any of them had yet seen. Chewie and Han lounged together on the far side of the bench, hoping that where ever their journey took them, there were more beers and fewer Imperials than they had seen in a while.
"I bet it's Lando again," Han grumbled, standing to look out the cockpit viewport. The rest heard him curse and then come tearing back into the lounge.
"We've got some company," he said, grabbing his blaster out of its holster. Not waiting for an explanation, Leia dashed over to the bunk room and grabbed two blasters of her own.
"Imperials?" she whispered in a shaky voice.
Han shook his head. "Bounty hunters."
"What do they want?" Luke asked, pulling out his lightsaber.
"Good question, Kid. I'm guessing it's one of us."
"Well, what are we going to do?" Leia demanded. "Can we just fly out?"
"I'm guessing they probably did something to the hangar doors to keep that from happening." Ducking, Solo snuck into the cockpit. "Yup. And it looks like we're surrounded."
"So now what?"
Solo thought for a minute. "Okay, I have an idea. Get all the blasters picked up. Chewie, open up the smuggling compartments."
"We're just going to hide and hope for the best?" Leia shook her head. "Give me a break."
"No, your Worship, we are not just going to hide and hope for the best. Well, I take that back. You are going to hide and hope for the best, we are going to ambush them."
Leia stalked off into the bunk room and grabbed her knapsack, throwing it into the smuggling compartment that Chewie had opened in front of her. As she climbed in, they could hear her muttering about the foolishness of the plan.
"You know there's no way she's going to stay in there, right?" Luke whispered to Solo as the latter set the timed door release from the cockpit and then hustled back to the second smuggling compartment, keeping low so the bounty hunters wouldn't see him through the cockpit windows.
"I know. I just figured it might at least delay her." He paused to let Chewie settle into the compartment, bowcaster in hand, and grinned at Luke. "She's a piece of work, isn't she?"
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Leia clutched her blasters as she heard heavy footsteps above her. The door had popped open and some of the bounty hunters had boarded, though by her guess only three of the group had come on board. The rest must still be waiting outside, which would ruin Han's stupid plan, she thought bitterly. As silently as possible, she fingered the weapon's supply she kept in her bag. She'd taken some sort of grenade out of the TIE fighter on Endor, and it was buried underneath the blasters she'd stockpiled, along with the odd looking half burnt cylinder she found in the rubble of the crashed Alliance ship.
The footsteps moved towards the cockpit.
"Solo!" A gravelly voice yelled. "Solo, we know you're in here! We're not looking for you. Hand over Skywalker and the rest of you can go."
Leia put her hand over her mouth to stifle a gasp. They wanted Luke? All at once she realized that the Empire must have found out who had laid waste to their prized battle machine.
"Solo!" The voice yelled again, the owner clearly in the rear hold. Then, in a more conversational tone, "Hey, Dengar, there's a coupla droids back here….yeaughh! That little bastard shocked me!"
Not a moment later, Leia heard her companions burst from their hiding spot and lay down fire on the bounty hunters in the ship. She pushed on the panel above her, grunting as it refused to move. Something…or someone…was on it, preventing her from escaping. She gave another shove to no avail.
Trying desperately to evaluate the situation from the darkness of her hiding spot, Leia heard an unfamiliar hiss followed by a steady hum. Then blaster fire erupted directly above, accompanied by screams that she hoped came from the bounty hunters. The footsteps clattered away, and Leia gave the panel another push.
This time she burst out, clutching her weapons and swinging her bag onto her back. The fight had moved outside the ship, and she could see Han and Chewie huddled under the cover of the gangplank while Luke swung a long blue laser, bouncing shots back towards their assailants. Cocking her head as she peeked around the door, she realized suddenly that the cylinder he held in his hand matched the one she concealed in her knapsack. Pulling it out, she held it away from her body and pushed up on the switch.
A blue beam shot out away from her body, simultaneously startling her and drawing the attention of the bounty hunters. "Another one!" one of them shouted, and bolts began to fly at her.
Ducking back into the ship, Leia could hear Han cursing at her as she deactivated the lightsaber, throwing it back in her bag and returning fire from her two blasters. She could see that the only exit was blocked by two heavily armed Rodians who seemed more than happy to leave a trail of casualties on their way to capturing Luke. She stepped back again to regroup, and banged into something hard.
"Your Highness, what are we going to do?" Threepio stood there watching the firefight with bright eyes. The bounty hunters must have reactivated him.
"I'm not sure," she said through gritted teeth. "Just stay close, okay?"
"Oh dear oh dear," the droid murmured.
The bounty hunters looked like they were preparing to charge, making hand signals to each other and looking meaningfully at Luke and then the Falcon. Gulping, Leia looked back in her bag, finding the grenade. It was their last chance. Activating it, she pitched it towards the bounty hunters.
"Get down!" she hollered at her friends, huddling behind the door to the Falcon and waiting for an explosion.
It didn't come. Instead, the grenade burst in a puff of smoke that quickly obscured everything in the room.
"Keep down!" she heard Luke yell as she caught glimpses of light from his weapon whipping through the opacity. Then, an idea popped into her head.
"Come with me and keep quiet," she said to Threepio, dragging him down the gangplank. She could keep close enough track of Luke to stay clear of his attack, and the bounty hunters seemed to be faring poorly. A sliver of dim light shone ahead and she broke for it, slipping out into the dimly lit street as the fight came to a one-sided conclusion behind her.