Pulling out the datapad, Leia crept up to the wall that divided a formerly busy thoroughfare from an outer garden in the palace compound. The entry was hidden, disguised to look like a traffic monitoring beacon. She pressed the button on her datapad that transmitted an electronic signal to the door controls, then opened a panel on the side of the metal box, typing in a passcode. She held her breath; it had been a long time since she used the hidden passageway. After a long five seconds, a bed of flowers a few meters away lifted gently, and Leia sprinted over, flipping open the trapdoor and slipping inside.
The hall was dusty from disuse, and Leia pressed her finger under her nose to keep from sneezing as she slid along the wall, checking the lightsaber under her cloak. The charred side of the hilt left black smudges on her hands, and Leia cringed when she saw the fingerprints she left behind as she crept through the dimly lit hall. There was no evidence that the Imperial troops occupying the residence knew about the passageway, but she hadn't gotten this far to lose everything through a moment of carelessness.
A small staircase led up into the main building, a second locked door blocking her way. This one only needed a passcode. Typing it in, Leia pulled the door open as silently as possible. She stepped into the safe room, taking a moment to breathe. The walls were soundproofed, but she wasn't fooled by the silence. She knew the palace was teeming with Imperial troops.
Heading over to a small computer terminal in the corner, she typed in her password and tried to pull up the security video feed. She held in a curse when the feeds showed nothing but static. For a terrifying moment, she thought the jamming was a sign that she had been discovered. Then she remembered that the videos transmitted over an emergency communications frequency, which was likely being jammed across the board. She was going to have to investigate the old fashioned way.
There were a limited number of exits from the safe room: it was intended more as a way to get out of the palace rather than in. There were entrances from her bedroom as well as her parents though, and that seemed like the best place for her to start her search. She unlocked the insulated door and tiptoed up the staircase that led to the living suites.
Unable to resist her curiosity, Leia stopped outside the door that led to her own room, peeking through the tiny peephole hidden behind her vanity mirror.
The room was trashed. Her bed was on its side, the mattress pulled off and ripped apart. Her clothes were strewn about, the drawers smashed apart and the debris stacked in a corner. The jewelry boxes were tipped over and empty, her art thrown to the ground and ripped from frames.
She ducked back suddenly when a shadow passed by the open door. Anyone in the room shouldn't have been able to see her, but she still pressed herself against the door and crawled down the hall towards her parents' space.
Swallowing hard, she raised herself up to look into their room. At first it looked empty, but some movement in the back corner caught her attention and she shifted to get a better view. It was her mother, huddled in a high backed chair. Leia froze, waiting to see if there would be any indication that Imperials were in the room before she made any more moves. She ducked again as someone paced across the room directly in front of her, then peeked back out tentatively. "Daddy…." she whispered.
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A few minutes after their eventful meeting with Vader, Bail and Breha had been escorted back to their quarters and once again left alone. They found themselves reminiscing, remembering better times as though their deaths could come at any moment. As far as Bail expected, they would. Vader had clearly been shocked by Breha's revelation, but soon that shock would turn to anger at the Organas for stealing his child. And no one who sparked Vader's anger lived for very long.
Bail looked up as he heard a slight rattling noise in the corner, near the hidden exit to the palace safe room. Several times he had tried to convince Breha to flee through the door, but she insisted on staying, worried that if the remaining royal family disappeared, the Imperials would harm or kill Alderaani civilians in retribution. Breha glanced over at the noise, assuming that the Imperials had finally discovered the secret tunnels at last.
The door cracked up, and Bail tilted his head, trying to get a better glimpse of who was coming out. Finally he decided he was done with games, and strode over to the door, yanking it open.
Breha heard her husband make an odd noise, somewhere between a choke and a sob. Jumping up, she ran to his side, falling to her knees as she saw her daughter standing before her; skinny, dirty, covered in scars. "Dear gods…" she choked as the door to the hall burst open behind them. "What have I done?"
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Captain Solo had never before had an actual argument with a droid, especially not one that he couldn't actually understand. But Artoo-Detoo's meaning was more than clear as Solo rolled him out of the Falcon, telling him that he was going to stay behind with the Rebels while he and Chewie joined a mission to Alderaan. Even the fact that Solo was leaving his beloved Falcon in Wedge's care did little to convince the droid that he was neither being abandoned nor sidelined. Finally Solo simply attached him to a computer terminal and told the woman staffing it that her future promotional potential depended on keeping the droid out of trouble. A practical person, she opted to attach a restraining bolt.
There were four of them going on the mission. In addition to Solo and Chewbacca, two Alderaani soldiers would sneak onto the planet in a stolen shuttle to deliver supplies and retrieve information about the Imperial presence there. Wedge, taking some liberties given his rank, had offered the Alderaani men his blessing to stay on the planet and help organize the resistance if they chose.
"You we need back," he told Solo and Chewie, "Plus the ship if at all possible."
The Imperials had been sending a steady supply of fuel and foodstuffs through the Aldera spaceport. A contractor who had been witness to one of the mass executions the Imperials staged of escaped Alderaanis had quietly defected in the middle of the chaos surrounding the Yavin evacuation, bringing a particular useful piece of equipment with him. The shuttle was called Recol V, and was not expected back for three standard weeks when the contractor made an unexpected comm call to an old friend who happened to be assigned as a mechanic to Rogue Squadron. Now the shuttle waited in the hangar on Rendili with its new crew and a fuel supply grudgingly donated by the Rebels to provide cover for the mission.
"So that's it?" Solo asked Wedge as they toured the cockpit, "We show up, we transmit the codes, we land? You're sure your guy is clean?"
"Coner vouched for him, and I have no reason to distrust his judgment," Wedge said matter-of-factly. "The shuttle is due at 0800 local time tomorrow. They apparently want someone to stay on board while the cargo gets unloaded and the crew gets their R&R, so that'll be a perfect job for Chewie."
"And when we hit the ground?"
"We've made some tentative contact with a fellow going by 'Thranta.' They've been having to use some pretty obsolete comms technology to keep things out of the Imps ears, but I think we've got a rendezvous set up. Tyman and Irrana will brief you during the jump over."
Solo leaned in. "And there's a few hours of free time built in too, right?"
"Yeah." Wedge gave him a sly, knowing smile. "You gonna hunt down the princess?"
"Well…" Solo stammered, embarrassed at Wedge's intimation. "It's not a good place for her, you know, and I already got paid for bringing her back to the Alliance. Finding her is part of my money back guarantee."
Wedge just grinned at him. "Alrighty, captain."
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Yoda sat awake, watching his apprentice laying quietly in the dreamless sleep of the exhausted. He slept little himself these days, finding that as his body grew weaker with age, the promise of eternal rest left him longing to catch a last glimpse of the corporeal world. Having the boy around gave him new strength, but the end was still inevitable, and Yoda knew that the day he would join his fellow Jedi in the Force was not far.
Luke stirred in his sleep, then gave an unexpected cry. Yoda stiffened at the noise, bracing himself. A moment later, he felt a disturbance growing in the Force, blowing over him like a whirlwind from the plains of Naboo. Luke sat up, gasping.
"Felt it, you did?" Yoda said mildly, having no doubt in his mind that Luke's premonition meant that something happened to one, or both, of his wayward family members.
Luke rubbed his eyes, trying to adjust to the darkness. "It was Leia," he told him, "She was….falling."
"Hm." For a moment, Yoda sat silently. He was surprised that Luke had yet to guess his kinship with the princess, but their time together had admittedly been brief and the boy assumed their immediate connection was based on a common power in the Force, not familial ties. It was for the best, he thought, if the girl really was committed to a Dark path. The salvation of the galaxy required an elimination of the Sith, and Luke would have an easier time carrying out his task if he remained ignorant of their shared bloodline. "Too far gone, is she?"
"No!" Luke's response was adamant. "She's not evil, master. She's just frightened, and trying to do the right thing in the only way she knows how. She's so powerful but she's never had any training. It's not fair to condemn her…."
"Care for her, you do?" Yoda interrupted him.
"And what if I do?" Luke snapped back. "I thought you said that denying attachments was what drove Darth….my father….to the Dark Side."
"Wise you are, for one so young." Yoda gave him a rare smile, then bent over in a fit of coughing. "Alone she feels, lost. Carrying too much weight for one so small. Seductive is the Dark Side, and easy. But destroys those who use it, it does." He tapped a fist against his chest in demonstration. "More and more Dark power does one need then. More and more removed from the Light does one become."
"But how can I help her?" Luke knelt beside the diminutive master. "I can't teach her. I tried to bring her here but she just doesn't understand."
"Guide you, the Force will," Yoda told him. "Remember: anger, fear, aggression—the Dark Side of the Force are these. Kindness, courage, peace—bring Light, they do. And…" he looked deep into Luke's eyes. "Forgiveness. Of all who have wronged you, even those who meant it not."
Luke looked down, watching Yoda as he hobbled back to his bed. "Han returns soon- come with me, Master! Maybe I can help Leia, but what about Vader?"
"Yes…" Yoda croaked, curling up under his blanket and gazing at the faint glow of embers in the fire. "Confront him you must."
"To what end?" Luke gave a short, bitter laugh. "To kill him? To ask him for an allowance and a landspeeder?"
"The Force must guide you."
"He's my father." Luke still had a hard time getting the words out of his mouth. "He tried to shoot me down over the Death Star. He's killed thousands of people. What do I do with that?"
"Compassionate, you are," Yoda assured him quietly. "The right path you will find."
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For a moment, the world stopped turning. The slight sounds, of birds, of vehicles on the street below, of the mechanical systems that kept the palace breathing and lit, were muffled into silence. The room around him faded. All Bail knew was that his daughter was there, standing before him, alive.
For a moment, she simply stood staring at them, and Bail reached out a tentative hand to touch her, to make she was real and solid and not a cruel figment of the imagination. Her hand curled around his, solid and warm, and he pulled her into him with a grasp so tight she gasped. His mouth moved, his lips forming her name, but no sound came out.
Breha closed her eyes, sinking to her knees with the shock. But in her ears, all she could hear were the echoes of her own words: "Her father was Anakin Skywalker."
And then, with the inevitably and timing that only a Dark Lord of the Sith could have, the former Anakin Skywalker pushed open the door and walked into the suite.
Weakened though she was from depravation and pure exhaustion, Breha was still a mother. The sight of Vader brought her to her feet and she interposed her slight form between the hulking Sith and her daughter, whom Bail continued to grip tightly. She heard a small whimpering noise from the girl that sent her into a rage.
"What do you want?" Breha seethed, trying to keep hysteria out her voice.
He could have drawn this out, mocking her and the pompous viceroy, who seemed to think he could protect Leia in the shelter of his arms. But Vader was uninterested in games.
"Are you going to tell her, or am I?" he said.
Leia pulled herself out of her father's embrace just enough to peek over at Vader. The mere sight of him started her trembling, but she steeled herself enough to address him. "Tell me what?"
"Oh, Lelila." Bail stroked the back of her hair, pressing her back into his chest. Breha stepped back , pressing herself against her daughter and forming a protective circle.
"Cowards, as always," Vader spat. "Leia, these two….fools have kept you ignorant long enough." Leia blinked at him, surprised at his familiarity. Even on the Death Star, as he tried to reach into her mind and rip out her most intimate thoughts, he was always formal. "It's time you learned of your heritage and took your rightful place as a master of the Dark Side."
"What do you mean?" she gulped.
"Leia, I am your father."