Vader stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him and leaving the Organas standing in silence. Quietly, Breha began to weep.
"Why did you tell him?" Bail asked softly.
"It was the only way I knew to hurt him," she said, falling into her husband's arms and sobbing. "It hardly matters anymore."
"He'll kill us."
"I don't care."
Outside, stormtroopers jumped to attention as Vader passed by, heading back to the room he'd been given for his stay. The queen's words had reached him deeply, though not as she intended. For the first time since Padme told her husband that they were expecting a child, he felt….glee.
He'd never imagined in his wildest dreams that there were two babies nestled together in Padme's womb. Growing so closely together, their aura was a single strong presence, bound forever by the bonds of biology and the Force. After nearly twenty years of waiting and mourning, his family would be nearly whole again. The children wouldn't be rivals: they would be partners in the destruction of Palpatine and the rise of a new order ruled by Darth Vader with his son and daughter at his side. Now all he had to do was wait.
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Finding the Meltdown Café was easy enough, though Leia attracted a fair amount of undesired attention as she ambled in with the shiny protocol droid in tow.
"Hey!" called the bartender to her, "No droids in here."
"Oh dear," Threepio said, "That often seems to be the case. With your permission, I'll wait outside."
"Go ahead," Leia told him. "I'll be along shortly."
She peered into the shadows of the restaurant and, as expected, spotted Lando Calrissian sitting alone nursing a brandy. She slid into the seat across from him.
"You still interested in my offer?" she asked.
"My dear, to be perfectly honest I'm not one to just hand ships over to unnamed strangers in return for vague promises." Lando took a drag on the cigarra he twirled in his fingers. "You have any collateral?"
"No."
"What about your droid?"
"He's coming with me. Look, you know Han- doesn't that count for anything?"
Lando chuckled. "Han's been known to pick up some unsavory characters from time to time. And he seemed concerned about you. I'd hate to put a damper on our relationship."
"He doesn't tell me what to do," Leia responded firmly. "Look, what if I send back some cash with your pilot and ship? Then could we make a deal?"
"If you've got cash, why are you begging for a ship?" Lando nodded at a server who passed by the table, gesturing for two more brandies.
"I don't have it with me. I have access to cash on Alderaan."
"Have you been living under a rock for the last two months? No one has access to cash on Alderaan anymore."
Leia was tempted to tell him that his assessment of her recent living conditions was relatively accurate, but held back. "Look, just name your price. I've got friends in high places."
"Prove it." Lando looked at her critically. The girl seemed unlike Han's usual companions, who tended more towards well-groomed sex kittens than this skinny waif with sunken eyes and a nasty looking scar marking her neck. Of course, his most recent girlfriend was a charity case too, so maybe Han's preferences were changing in his old age.
"I don't trust you enough to prove it." Hearing someone walk in, she jerked slightly and looked nervously over her shoulder. It was just a Bith couple, already in moderate stages of inebriation.
"Then I guess we're at an impasse."
She leaned across the table. "Look, Lando. I am going to Alderaan and I am going to Alderaan now. If you ever want to see your friend again, I suggest you make a deal now. I can find a ship, or I can steal one. I've done it before and there have been a lot more dangerous people than you standing in my way." Reaching forward, she grabbed the lapel of his silk shirt and pulled him in close. "I am not someone you want to trifle with."
Lando looked into her eyes, and then immediately regretted it. He could have almost sworn the girl was burning a hole into him. His throat felt tight.
"Okay, okay." She let go, and the sensation passed. He threw down some money on the table. "I can see it's important to you. I'll take you to the ship. You'll find Tiatkin and send her back?"
"Of course." The girl's tone was cheery again as she took a gulp of the brandy the server put down in front of her. "Let's go." Outside, Leia peered carefully right and left as she collected Threepio and then hurried after Lando. She wasn't certain if she was more nervous about running into Imperials, bounty hunters, or Han. Hopefully her diversion had kept them busy long enough.
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"Are you kidding me?" Solo kicked one of the dead bounty hunter's helmets in frustration as the haze from the smoke grenade continued to clear. They had shoved all the bodies into some crates on the side of the hangar, and were getting ready for a quick departure when Luke popped his head out of the Falcon and announced that neither Leia nor Threepio were anywhere to be seen. "Kriffing Lando….if I find out…that little idiot….dammit!"
Chewbacca worked to calm down the irate captain as Luke found some different clothes and a hooded cloak to wear. It was cold comfort to know the bounty hunters were after him: at least they knew Han was in the clear at the moment, but the knowledge that someone was specifically interested in his capture chilled Luke.
"We'll find her," Luke said. "Han, why don't you stay behind this time and get the ship ready to go? I'll take Chewie with me."
"You don't know your way around, Kid," Han protested.
"But I can find Leia with the Force. When she gets mad, she sticks out like a sore thumb."
"Okay, but keep an eye on him, Chewie." Han retreated into the ship, cursing again as he began the preflight procedures and set the sensors to monitor for any additional unwanted intrusions.
How did he end up in this situation? he wondered grumpily. If only he hadn't run into Wedge, or agreed to that stupid mission to Endor, or walked away before strapping Leia firmly into a seat on Rebel One. For the last few years, it had seemed like the Universe was out to get him.
Of course, he realized, Leia was an adult and seemed to have a sense of what she wanted. So what was stopping him from just writing her and her stupid mission off and blasting off with the Kid and Chewie. She'd certainly proven she could take care of herself, even if her self-preservation instincts seemed a little haywire at times. He smiled slightly when he thought back to her parents. They must have had their hands full when she was growing up. Idly, he wondered how they were doing, or if they were even still alive. Their stubborn insistence on returning to Alderaan after the Death Star's destruction had bothered him at the time, but at least now he saw where Leia got her tendency to prioritize her cause over her own survival.
"Still, she has a lot of spirit," he said aloud to himself, thinking about how the girl had managed to survive in an inhospitable forest for months and still have enough energy…or whatever it was…to beat up a Wookiee. Luke seemed wary of her power, but now that she had calmed down a little, Han realized that she rarely seemed capricious or destructive about the way she wielded the Force. No matter what Luke said, Solo didn't think she seemed anything like Darth Vader. He'd heard stories of the Dark Lord indiscriminately killing Imperial soldiers on the spot for minor offenses, and had seen the reports of massacres and terror campaigns across the galaxy. Leia, on the other hand, was clearly committed to the Rebellion and to Alderaan. Dark Side or not, he wasn't afraid of her. In fact, it was refreshing to see a tiny thing like her have a secret weapon against bigger and badder beings in the rough-and-tumble galaxy.
The thirty minutes he allotted to Luke and Chewie before they had to report in elapsed, and Solo was just starting to get concerned when the hangar door opened. His face dropped when he saw that Leia wasn't with them, and instead that Chewbacca was bodily dragging Lando Calrissian towards the Falcon.
Han popped open the boarding ramp and stomped outside, his hands in tight fists.
"What in the hell did you do, Lando? Where is she?"
"She said you're not responsible for her," Lando responded, breaking free of the Wookiee and brushing the residual fur off his sleeves.
"You didn't give her a ship?" Han's jaw dropped. "How could you be so stupid?"
"It wasn't a nice ship!" He stepped back, withering under the glares of the two men and the Wookiee. "What do you care if she tries to get to Alderaan anyways? She's a big girl. Besides, it's a moot point now. She's long gone."
"You better hope she makes it okay, Calrissian," Solo growled, grabbing the man and steering him back out the hangar door. "That's all I have to say to you right now."
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Without explaining that the extra money was to cover the cost of clearing bodies from the hangar—not an unusual occurrence on Nar Shadda, Han tipped the hangar staff generously as they left the moon.
"I guess at least she took that stupid droid with her," Han mumbled as the three of them silently watched out of the viewport as the city shrank into twinkling lights in the distance. "So where to next?"
"I need to get to the Dagobah system," Luke said quietly. "I know it's probably not the best time…."
"Nah, kid, it's fine. But how do you intend to get back? Are the Rebels gonna pick you up?"
"I don't know," Luke admitted. "Maybe you could…"
"Look." Solo turned around, suddenly angry. "You Alliance people don't seem to realize this, but I am not interested in getting involved in your war. I don't just fly this bird around for my health. I'm trying to make a livelihood here, and the longer I hang around with Rebels, the harder that gets."
"Then why are you so keen on keeping Leia in tow?" Luke was surprised at his own vehemence.
"I don't know!" Han threw up his hands. "Maybe because I have an incurable inability to just let people run off and get themselves killed." Chewbacca guffawed. "Yeah, laugh it up, fuzzball. You wouldn't be here if I didn't feel that way." He looked back to Luke. "Besides, I tried to get rid of her. She was the one who snuck on board when I was trying to leave Yavin."
"I see," responded Luke skeptically.
"Why?" Han leaned back in his pilot's seat, resting his hand against his hands. "You jealous?"
"No! I just don't understand why she would choose to hang around with…"
"With who? The likes of us?" Solo pointed to himself and Chewbacca. "What are you tryin' to imply, Kid?"
"Nothing." Frustrated, Luke looked down, fingering his lightsaber. "I guess I'm just worried about her."
"So what do you want to do?"
Luke thought for a long minute. Ben had told him a Jedi Master awaited on Dagobah, someone who could give him the training he'd desired from the moment Ben first told him of his heritage and destiny. "I want to go to Dagobah. I think that's the best way to help the Alliance and Leia right now."
"Ho-kay." Han punched in a search on his astronav system. "You sure that's the right place? It's uninhabited.
"Yeah," said Luke. "That's the place."
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She knew the coordinates by heart, and was able to drop out of hyperspace far enough out in Alderaan's solar system to avoid detection by the array of defense platforms that the Empire had erected to block all traffic on and off her home planet. Two Star Destroyers also patrolled in tight loops through the system, looking for the smugglers and blockade runners that had been trying to break through the interdiction since the Empire's crackdown.
Lando had loaned her a one-person Z-95 headhunter, augmented with aftermarket weapons and shield systems that would serve her well if she had to engage with the Imperial forces. At the moment, her preference was to sneak down to the surface and evaluate the situation in person. Then she could figure out next steps.
For a long time she hovered in space, the systems running at a minimum to preserve power and avoid sending out any signals that would call attention to her presence. The defense platforms were well situated to cover every possible avenue onto the planet. She'd have to find a way to mask her entry. She wondered if she could somehow hide behind a meteorite as it crashed to the surface, but dismissed that idea as too difficult. Perhaps crashing wasn't a terrible idea though….
Like many planets, the near space around Alderaan was cluttered with junk: old satellites, remnants of crashed ships, garbage from the era when refuse was still shot off into space instead of recycled and repurposed planetside. If she could find a good cluster of junk, she could float with it for a while and then try to make her ship appear to be crashing and burning up in the atmosphere. Of course, that plan depended on any number of factors working in favor: most notably, that no one was watching from the surface, but at the moment it was the best she had. Gently easing her way forward, she adjusted her sensors to look for one of the debris clouds that rotated far outside the orbit of the defense platforms.
Spotting a likely looking heap of bashed up satellites that must have dated back at least half a millennium, Leia put her ship into a gentle spin, matching speeds with the debris. She held her breath, watching the readout in her display nervously to see if she'd attracted any attention. After an agonizing hour of waiting, she shifted enough so that her viewport pointed directly down at the planet. Unexpectedly, a tear came to her eye as the blue green surface rotated gently beneath her.
The last time she'd seen her home, she thought it was mere seconds away from being blown out of existence. Before she heard and felt the blast taking out the main weapons array on the Death Star, her thoughts had whirled at a million miles an hour as she pictured the people and plants and cities and plains and mountains far below her. It was springtime in Aldera, her favorite season, when the bulbs sent tender green stalks bursting out of newly thawed ground. The birds had started to return from their annual migration, settling into the budding flower trees and busily constructing nests in preparation for their new families. Fresh new vegetables were popping up on tables in the open air farm markets that were scattered around the capital city, and the air smelled crisp and alive.
It must be nearly summer now, Leia thought with a lump in her throat. She fought her inclination to just fly hell for leather down to the surface, so desperate was she to return home and feel the solid ground under her feet. Confidence, she thought to herself, remembering her success in previous escapades. This is going to work.
As her ship drifted slowly over the mountain region, the crisp snowcapped peaks visible above a thin layer of clouds, Leia started her ship spinning, breathing deeply to control the nausea. She could see two of the defense platforms close by, and closed her eyes as she spun by them, praying that she would appear to be a harmless piece of junk knocked out of orbit by chance. Cringing, she heard her proximity alarm go off as she was targeted. She gripped the controls, ready to flee, but the alarm stopped. They must have decided she wasn't worth shooting down.
Keeping a careful eye on her altimeter, Leia continued to drop until she entered the thick cloud layer over the deep lake that hugged the Juran mountains. She'd spent many vacations there as a child, splashing in the cold water near the shore as she watched fishing boats rocking lazily on the gentle waves. As she pointed downwards, Leia engaged the engines, breathing a sigh of relief as her ship righted itself and she sped away towards a high pass.
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"Three weeks, Kid. You need to stay any longer than that and you'll have to find another way out."
"Okay, Han." Luke doubled checked his bag, which he'd packed with some non-perishable food, two blasters, extra clothes, and of course his father's lightsaber. "And thanks. I owe you one."
"You owe me more than that, Kid," Han replied tensely as he maneuvered through the fog. They'd slowed considerably as they descended, the Falcon's already questionable sensors going haywire the closer they got to the surface of the planet.
"We're going to have to switch to visual scans to find a spot to land," Han told his companions, flipping a switch. "If there is a place to land?"
"Just get us close enough for me to hop out and we'll call it good," said Luke, standing up to walk towards the door to the boarding ramp.
"Nuh-uh," Han responded. "I have a feeling I'm already going to have to answer to some general for losing one Rebel. I'm not going to let you go leaping out to drown in a swamp."
"There." Luke pointed to a mucky looking clearing surrounded by trees. "There's definitely some solid ground to the right there- could you hover and drop the ramp near that fallen tree?"
"Are you sure, Kid?"
"Yeah." Luke's stared at the spot, his voice sounding as though he was in a trance. "Right there."
"Okay." Carefully, Han lowered the Falcon, activating the repulsors so she hovered a few feet above the murky water. The boarding ramp landing with a small bounce on the spongy ground. "Chewie, keep her right here. I'm going with Luke until we find this Jedi of his. What did you say his name supposedly is?"
"Yoda," answered Luke, picking his way carefully through the gnarled branches forming enormous webs across the ground. "You really don't have to come."
"Cares for you, your friend does." The high, gravelly voice made them both jump. A tiny green being, no higher than Chewie's knee, stood on a fallen log, watching them. "Good friend is he to have, mmm."
"Lemme guess," said Han, brushing some moss that had fallen from a tree branch off his shoulder. "You Yoda?"
"And perceptive, he is," Yoda chuckled, climbing down to size up Luke. "Indeed, a good friend. Bigger than I expected are you. A youngling you were, when I saw you last."
"I don't think I've ever met you," Luke said uncertainly, suddenly glad that Solo had accompanied him.
"Not remember, do you? Only one to stop your crying, was I! Other duties, I leave to Obi Wan." He wrinkled his nose at the memory and laughed again.
"You gonna be okay, Kid?" Solo asked softly. For a Jedi master, the little green guy seemed pretty weird, but then again so had the old man.
"Prepared for training are you?" Yoda asked, "But where is your companion? Two of you, I expected."
"Leia?" Luke looked down at the ground sadly. "She wouldn't come with us. I tried…"
Yoda shook his head. "Grave danger, she puts herself in. Reckless and headstrong is she." He looked up at Luke. "An inherited trait this is."
"What can I do to help her?" Luke asked desperately.
"Train you must." Yoda stamped his walking stick against the ground. "A Jedi Knight you must become."
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Leia slipped her ship into one of the many caves that dotted the mountainside. As a schoolgirl, she'd learned about the rich history of the mountain range, which divided the temperate high desert from the lake region that extended towards the coast. It was a haven for guerillas and terrorists over the millennia, nearly impenetrable in the winter and pockmarked with caves that extended for kilometers into the solid rock. More recently, the base of the mountains had been redeveloped into resorts, with some hardy vacationers making the long technical climb to the summits to gaze out across the open wilderness.
Pulling out the torch and macrobinoculars that Lando had stashed away in the small stowage area of the ship, Leia peeked around in the darkness. The cold stone floor of the cave was slippery with gravel, and she could hear a dripping sound echoing off the gray walls. She had flown the ship as far back into the cave as she could without banging the hull against the walls or ceiling, and powered it down completely as an extra precaution against discovery. Shivering in the damp cool air, she wrapped her arms around herself and breathed deeply.
"I'm home," she thought. "I'm home."
Pressing her back against the wall of the cave, she crept towards the mouth. It was cloudy at this elevation, and chilly even though the summer solstice was approaching. Outside, she could hear a raptor calling out as it hovered in an air current, watching for rodents scampering in the rocks below. A few hardy mountain wildflowers poked up between the boulders, but she was far above the shelter of the tree line. She lifted the macrobinoculars up, surveying the terrain below her. There was little to see besides plant life and a few birds. Suddenly she stopped and whipped her view back towards the base of a large tree. A pile of five small rocks leaned against the bark, two larger stones sandwiching a smaller one in the middle.
Wracking her brain, Leia thought back to the years she'd spent as Alderaan Scout as a child. One large rock and one small rock together marked a trail. Two small rocks and a large one pointed towards…well, a place to do your business. And five rocks meant...shelter.
Retrieving her weapons, Leia opted to investigate. It could be some remnant from a long ago camping trip, but perhaps she wasn't the only one seeking shelter in the infamous mountain range. She scrambled down the steep slope, wincing as the sharp rocks scratched her hands and back when she lost her footing and slid down feet first. From the first rock pile, she spotted a second near an outcropping of boulders and crept quietly through the scattered trees, constantly checking over her shoulder. She walked around the side of the rock pile and saw a small opening, just big enough for human to crawl through. Five rocks sat next to it in the same configuration. Holding her blaster, she crawled inside.
Immediately a hand clapped over her mouth, and she swung her elbow back, freeing herself as her assailant grunted. She pointed the blaster into the darkness.
"Where did you get that?" an incredulous voice asked, and a light flipped on behind her, illuminating the small cavern. An unshaven man, his clothes brown with dirt, stood in front of her with his hands up.
"Who are you?" she demanded, looking behind her to see the source of the light. She slid back against the wall of the cave as four more people walked in, each as grimy as the man in front of her.
"My name's Jame," he said, nervously eyeing the blaster. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I was just on guard duty and wasn't expecting anyone to come in."
She lowered the blaster, keeping her hand on the trigger. "What is this place?"
"Doesn't really have a name or anything," Jame told her. "We're all just refugees." Looking again at the blaster, he gestured for her to follow him, heading through a narrow passageway fifty meters back into the cave. One of the others who had joined him knocked a staccato pattern on a boulder blocking their path, and it rolled back, revealing a well-lit chamber that extended as far as Leia could see.
The cave was full of beings: humans, Caamasi, and a few offworlders from Duros. Campsites were arranged in a ring around a central cooking area, with some families in pitched tents while others had the remnants of bedrooms set up ringed by currents rigged up on poles for privacy. A pair of children dashed past. One of them glanced up at Leia, fixating on her scar before running away whimpering as she noticed the blaster. Embarrassed at frightening the girl, Leia tucked the blaster into her pocket.
"Where did you come from?" Jame asked, as he nodded in greeting to an older woman sitting at a makeshift table near the cooking area.
"Um, Aldera, originally," Leia said, surprised that he didn't recognize her. Then she remembered her reflection in the mirror on the Falcon- sunken eyes and cheeks, scarred and bruised. She had hardly recognized herself.
"Most of us are from the south," Jame told her. "It's a long way to come from Aldera. How long have you been traveling?"
"Long enough," Leia sighed.
"You should come meet Kita Sulaan," he said, pointing towards the woman he had acknowledged a moment earlier. "We elected her head of our…group, I guess you could say."
Kita smiled widely as they approached the table where she sat looking at a datapad. "Well isn't this an incredible surprise," she said, standing and giving Leia a deep curtsey. "I suppose, as they say, rumors of your demise were greatly exaggerated, your Highness."