Leia was surprised to wake up shivering. After her time outside on Tatooine, she imagined she would never be cold again. Pushing herself up into a sitting position, she discovered that she was laying on the floor of the cabin, sore from having lain so long against the hard metal. Briefly, she remembered her most recent dream- a beautiful woman, singing and rubbing her back gently as she rested. Her mother, she thought, recognizing the cloudy images of the woman that were buried in the deepest recesses of her brain.
No one knew that she remembered her mother, who had tragically died immediately after her birth. For a long time she had tried to convince herself that the memories were products of her imagination, born of a desperation for some tangible heritage. But never had the woman appeared in her dreams.
Stretching, she saw that the room was a mess. This time she had no doubt about her own responsibility, but was far less concerned about Vader's reaction than she had been about Han's. She wondered if Vader had yet made a decision about how to deal with the Emperor's inevitable arrival. She was perplexed by his insistence on waiting for Luke: he spoke of the young pilot as though he were the boy's father as well. Perhaps he was simply delusional, she thought, and intended to go around telling every Force-sensitive young person in the known galaxy that he had sired them in hopes of building an army of loyal followers. A tendency towards delusion would explain why Vader thought she was an ideal candidate for his troops: she would die before she ever helped him.
Once again trapped and alone, Leia prayed that her provocation of Palpatine would serve to destroy Vader while protecting Luke. She was under no illusion that she would survive any assault the Emperor made on his apprentice, but at this point she was living on borrowed time anyways. Better to go down saving Luke than continuing living in Vader's custody.
Her dark thoughts eased slightly as she thought about Luke, how eager he had been to meet her as she languished in the infirmary on Yavin. She owed him everything for finding her droids and her desperate request for help. He had told her that shooting Vader off his back over the Death Star repaid any debt she might have owed him, but Leia was unconvinced. He had destroyed any hope for a normal future when he ran away to the Rebellion. Surely that was worth more thanks than a quick covering shot.
"Leia?"
Leia looked around wildly. It was Luke's voice, as clear as if he were standing right next to her. The hallucinations that had plagued her since her incarceration on the Death Star must be returning.
"Leia?" Luke's voice was more insistent now. She covered her ears, willing the specter to go away. "Leia, hear me!" It was so real….
"Luke?" she finally whimpered, unable to ignore the presence in her mind any longer.
"Leia, I'm coming for you. Where are you?"
It was clearly a hallucination. No one was coming for her. She was alone. The warm presence began to fade as she took a deep, shaky breath.
"Where are you, Leia? Please!" She saw the canyons, the heat, and the sand in her mind's eye. No. If it was Luke, he mustn't come for her.
"It's a trap!" she suddenly shrieked, shoving the presence out of her mind.
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Luke sat cross legged on the floor of the Falcon's lounge, having sent the rest of the passengers into the cockpit. The anxiety emanating from Bail, Breha, and….Han? was too distracting. He took a deep, cleansing breath and pictured Leia's face in his mind. As he sank deeper into meditation, he saw her curled on the floor of a room in a ship, huddling with a blanket in the dark. "Leia!" he called.
A few minutes later he walked shakily into the cockpit. "She pushed me away," he said somberly. "She said it was a trap."
"Luke…" Breha started, before Bail put a hand on her shoulder to silence her.
"Could you tell where she is?" he asked.
"I'm not certain," Luke said, "But I think it was Tatooine."
"Kriff," Solo muttered, "Seriously?"
"What's wrong with that?" Luke asked indignantly.
"Well, it's just that a certain resident of Tatooine told me that if I ever came back, he'd cut off my…" Chewie finished the sentence in Shyriwook with a short laugh, making the queen blush a deep crimson.
"What?" Bail asked, wanting in on the joke. Breha leaned over and whispered a clarification, and Bail smiled.
"Seems like a reasonable idea to me," he said, looking meaningfully at Solo.
"Care to explain what you mean by that…your highness?"
"I just mean that you seem to be taking a strong interest in my daughter, young man. Carlist told me she spent several days alone with you on your ship."
"First of all, she wasn't alone with me. Chewie was here. Second of all, what was I supposed to do- call Yavin and tell them to send a chaperone because I found some girl living under a rock who wouldn't tell me who she was?"
"If it is all business, why are you still looking for her then?" Solo scowled, pausing to think of a good comeback when Luke interrupted them.
"None of this is helping Leia. Let's go to Tatooine. Han, you can just stay in the ship if you're worried. I'm going to find her."
Solo began punching coordinates into the navicomputer, muttering under his breath about crazy wizards and overprotective fathers. "What about it being a trap? Do you know what that meant?"
Luke gave a serious nod. "I think I do. I just hope I'm right about where she is."
"I'm sure you are," Breha said, shaking Bail off when he again tried to stop her from continuing. "Luke, there's something you should know. You and Leia…you're siblings. Twins, to be precise."
"We…what?" Dumbfounded, Luke leaned back against the cockpit wall. "Twins? How do you…."
"You were separated at birth for your own safety," she continued. "I'm sorry we haven't told you until now...but you have to trust the connection between the two of you. If you say she's on Tatooine, then she's on Tatooine."
"But does that mean….Vader?" Breha raised her eyebrows in surprise that Luke knew the details of his heritage. The Jedi master must have revealed it to him.
"Yes."
"Does Vader know?"
"Yes."
"Does Leia know?"
"Sort of. She didn't seem….convinced."
"Oh." Luke put his head in his hands, suddenly overwhelmed. "Oh."
Han was only half listening to the conversation, busy getting ready for their jump to hyperspace, and only caught on as Luke fell into a contemplative silence. "Wait a second, did you say he's Leia's brother?"
"I did," Breha responded. Her husband sat stonefaced, disapproving of her decision to reveal so much so quickly. "Obi Wan Kenobi asked us to raise her."
"Huh." Solo shrugged. The galaxy was a weird place. "And what was the deal about Vader?" Breha pressed her lips together, and Solo got the hint not to pry any further. "Okay, well, here we go. And if anybody sees Jabba the Hutt, tell him my name is Lando Calrissian."
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"You were in contact with Luke." Vader's comment was a statement, not a question. Leia looked away, refusing to answer. "He will join us, soon, before the Emperor arrives."
Her gut twisted at Vader's assertion. She wanted the Emperor to get there first, to destroy them before Luke could become entangled. "So the Emperor is coming here?"
"Isn't that what you wanted?" Vader asked tightly. "Yes, I can feel his presence growing closer. He has left Imperial Center to confront me…us…himself."
"So why don't we leave? We have a head start, don't we?"
"You have forced a confrontation, daughter. Don't back down now."
Leia chewed a nail, pushing herself further back into the copilot's chair in the cockpit. Vader had retrieved her as soon as she pushed away the contact from Luke, his fingers wrapping around the same bruised spot on her upper arm that he favored as a handle.
"I'm hungry," she said sullenly, trying to change the subject. He held back a retort, realizing that she didn't have the same sort of automated life support apparatus as he did.
"There is a galley. Help yourself." She slipped out, grabbing a ration bar and returning to the cockpit. "You need more than that, girl. You're skin and bones."
"What does it matter? We'll both be dead soon."
He stood and looked at her appraisingly. She'd been back among some semblance of civilization long enough that she should have been able to put a few pounds back on, but the Rebels must have done little to care for her after her exile on Endor. Her bone structure was sturdier than that of her bird-like mother, and the effect of months of under nourishment showed that much more starkly on her body. He stalked into the back, finding some packets of a sweet pudding tucked away in a cupboard and brought those back to her. "Eat. Now."
Grudgingly, she took the thin tubes and squeezed the sickly sweet substance into her mouth. "I've had better."
As she finished, Vader yanked her to her feet. "Time to continue with your training. Go get that thing you call a lightsaber and meet me outside."
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Solo watched quietly as Luke took out the remote and helmet, setting up another lightsaber drill. The Kid was far more methodical than he had been under the tutelage of Kenobi during their flight from Tatooine, deflecting all of the shots even when he turned up the frequency.
"So that little retreat was helpful, I see," he commented as Luke flipped off the remote. "You're pretty good with that thing."
Luke still didn't crack a smile. He'd been far more serious and somber since they picked him up, and Solo wondered if the Kid would ever open up about the details of his experience.
"Han, when we get to Tatooine, I need to go find Leia alone," Luke said finally.
"No way, Kid. I don't care if it is your home planet. If Vader's there, you need back up."
"I have to do this, Han…please understand."
"What about Leia?" Han asked, annoyed, "You're going to risk her life just so you can have some predestined mano-a-mano with the most dangerous man in the galaxy?"
Luke sighed. "Of course not. But she's not helpless herself, you know."
"I just don't want to see her get hurt. Not after all this. She doesn't deserve it."
Luke smiled for the first time since his retrieval. "You like her."
Han felt his cheeks reddening. "No, not like that! I just….you know….I don't like to see people get hurt! And she's got a bad combination of both crazy and brave working against her."
"Reminds me of someone I know," Luke said with a grin.
"How is this an appropriate conversation? She's your sister!"
"She talked about you an awful lot when we were hanging out in the infirmary on Yavin, you know."
"Really?" Solo was surprised. After he'd forcibly confined her in the bunkroom after she unwittingly ripped apart a piece of his ship, he thought she would have done nothing but complain about him when they got to Yavin.
"She said you had a good heart."
"And…" Solo sensed there was more.
"Well, and that you were as annoying as a nerf flea. And bossy."
"Nice. So are you going to let me come with you?"
"No. I'm sorry, Han."
Annoyed, Solo stalked back into the cockpit. Well, Leia wasn't the only one who could be sneaky….
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"You're not even holding it properly."
Leia looked down at her hands, where she clutched the half charred lightsaber between two fists. She shrugged.
"Give it to me." Vader snatched it out of her hand and held it tightly, pointing the business end at himself. "Reach out as though you were going to shake my hand."
Leia stuck out her hand flat, waiting for Vader. He pressed the handle into her palm, using his left hand to wrap her fingers around the hilt. "There. Now turn it on." Leia flipped the switch, flinching slightly as the blue blade erupted from the metal cylinder she clutched.
"Have you learned fencing?" Leia shook her head. "Good. Less bad habits to break." He moved around to stand behind Leia, and she stepped away. "Fine." Vader stepped around and ignited his own blade. "You can learn by doing then." Without warning, he lunged at Leia, nodding with approval as she held up her blade to ward him off.
After the fifth time he'd knocked the blade out of her hands, adjusting himself carefully to avoid taking any of her fingers with it, Vader gave up and sent Leia back inside the shuttle. He took a moment to savor the Tatooine sunsets, looking with amusement at the krayt dragon skeleton next to their ship which had already been picked clean by desert scavengers. In the back of his mind, he could feel his master's furious presence growing closer and closer. "Hurry, son," he whispered into the sky. "Hurry."