Winter Hideaway

A Star Wars Fanfic By Andrew J Talon


All this snow and ice had been enchanting and amazing to Luke Skywalker... For the first few days. But going into the deeper, unused sections of the ancient base had quickly disabused Luke of that wonder. The woman he was trapped with had doubtless lost any such wonder long ago.

The woman was quite striking, beautiful and graceful. Her blue eyes and platinum white hair made her seem like she'd come from the icy world they were on. But, she was actually Alderaanian. Leia's adopted sister, Winter.

She was a spy for the Rebellion, and only came back to base to report and resupply. But she also had knowledge of this ancient abandoned base the Rebellion was repurposing for their uses, and so she'd gone along to help search for useful items or dangerous threats in these icy catacombs.

They were exploring one such room... When the ceiling outside collapsed. Now they were trapped.

Being trapped in a caved in storage room was not on top of his to-do list, but apparently, the universe wasn't making any allowances for Luke Skywalker.

He sighed, and looked over at Winter.

"Sorry about this. I would have told Leia no about doing this, but uh..."

Winter nodded, "I understand. She can be a bit intense. Trying to get this base operational as quickly as possible. She never hesitates to pitch in... But she could use a bit more forethought."

"Well, her being aggressive can often work out well for us," Luke observed.

Winter tilted her head curiously.

"Really?" She asked. "She didn't give me a full report of the Death Star rescue. Can you tell me how it went?"

Luke rubbed the back of his head, shivering a little.

"Well... I mean, that's a long story-"

"It will take a few hours, at least, for them to dig us out," Winter pointed out. She settled herself on one of several storage boxes they'd found in the ancient storage room, and gave him a pointed look. Luke nodded, and sat down opposite her.

"Okay. So it all began with these two droids..."

Winter listened attentively, cool and controlled. Luke found himself wondering if she might not be a human-form droid, like Wes had suggested.

Though Wes was probably just a bit unhappy Winter had turned down his dinner request.

Luke finally finished up the story, giving Winter a happy smile. As harrowing and difficult as that had been... He was glad he could share it in full.

Winter blinked. Several times. She sucked in a deep breath.

"... It is a wonder any of us are alive," she observed. Luke winced.

"Oh come on! It... Wasn't that bad, right? I mean, we survived. We won... Well, most of us," Luke murmured.

"Yes, that shows great potential," Winter said with a nod, "it is just... Rather amazing you survived. Including Leia."

"Leia?" Luke protested, "she got us into the garbage compactor-!"

"Yes. She did," Winter said, raising her eyebrows significantly. "I myself would have had Artoo give me the location of her prison cell, all possible means of escape, and fabricate a prisoner exchange order, so that Leia could have been transferred out of the cell block."

"... Oh," Luke mumbled. Winter reached out and patted his hand.

"But, you succeeded, despite everything," she said, "luck is a skill too. One we will need for this Rebellion to succeed."

"Ben said there's no such thing as luck," Luke replied. Winter hummed.

"Indeed? That does not match his service record."

"You... Know about his service record?" Luke asked eagerly, "what about my father's?"

Winter stared at him intensely.

"Of course. Your father was known as the Man without Fear, and Obi-Wan Kenobi was known as the Negotiator."

"Can... Can you tell me about them?" Luke asked. Winter nodded.

"Of course."

Winter recounted everything in painstaking detail. Luke did wonder about her being a human droid briefly, but she was kind enough to tell him all this so he didn't voice that out loud. Honestly... He liked the amount of detail she went into.

"Do you know what happened to him?" Luke asked. "How... How he died? Ben told me Darth Vader killed him."

Winter hummed thoughtfully.

"Anakin Skywalker's records were largely purged," she stated, "but his last recorded appearance my father could find put him at the Jedi Temple, shortly before Darth Vader and the 501st Legion descended upon it, and killed all inside it. They had charged the Jedi with attempting to overthrow the Republic, trying to assassinate then-Chancellor Palpatine."

Luke had seen pictures of the old Jedi temple on the Holonet. Even now, he could picture his father fighting desperately against that black, terrible figure. Trying to defend young Jedi learners from the monstrous Darth Vader.

It made his blood boil.

"But they weren't, were they?" Luke asked, biting down his anger. Winter shook her head.

"No," she said softly, "my father..."

Her voice caught, and she was silent for a moment before she could continue.

"My father saw the temple assault first hand. He witnessed a young Jedi Padawan, no more than eight, nine years old... Saw him gunned down by clone troopers."

Luke grimaced. How hard it was for him to recall Leia and Winter's loss, when he'd been so lost in his own? He felt so selfish...

"I'm sorry," he said earnestly, "I... It's so horrible-"

"You lost your world that day yourself, as I recall," Winter stated calmly, "your aunt and uncle... Your home...?"

Luke nodded slowly... Then reached out to squeeze her hand. Winter looked down sharply, and for a moment Luke thought he'd offended her, but the Alderaanian woman looked up and smiled at him gently.

"We have all lost things to the Empire," Winter said softly, "it is why we fight. So that such horrible things will never happen again. So no one else feels that same loss."

Luke nodded.

"For justice," he swore, thinking of his own losses. "I... I can't help but admire Leia. She never breaks down..."

Winter shook her head.

"She hurts. Deeply," Winter said, "but she tries to turn her emotions to action. Her way of grieving is to do something, anything, to fight back. To make the pain have meaning. She is tenacious... Has been since we were children. I have looked out for her as best I could..."

Luke chuckled, imagining a stubborn, fiery little Leia with the cool, exasperated Winter following close behind. Winter allowed a small smile.

"And aided and abetted her when I could not persuade her to another course of action," Winter said.

"I'm glad she had you growing up," Luke said honestly. Winter nodded.

"As am I," she said, "despite her more... Interesting ideas."

"Such as?" Luke asked with a grin. Winter's smile grew a bit cheeky.

"Well... There was this boy named Dash-"

They both heard voices, and the sounds of digging. Luke and Winter stood up, as the doorway into the storage room rumbled. At last, a hole opened, and Leia stuck her head through.

"You two all right?!" Leia asked, relief evident on her face as she saw her friend and her sister. Luke nodded.

"We're fine, Leia," he said.

"Perfectly fine," Winter confirmed. Leia gave her sister a beam, dug through, and clambered through. She then fell down flat on her face.

"OOF!"

Han stuck his head through next, smirking.

"I told you, Princess," Han snarked, "let me go first. It's not like a ski resort here. Though the view is quite nice."

"Wha-?" Leia looked up at Han's leer, flushed, and got up. She glared death at Han as she pulled down her jacket. "You ill bred nerfherder!"

Han held his hands up and laughed.

"Come on, Your Worshipfulness! Take the compliment!" He looked over at Luke with a raised eyebrow, "she's in fine form today, huh Kid?"

"Oh shut up and keep digging!" Leia growled. She spared a quick hug for Winter, one that Winter returned gratefully. Leia then gave a hug to Luke.

"It was not that bad, Leia," Winter sighed, "I saw it as a break. A wonderful break."

"Yes," Luke said with a nod, "now... About this Dash guy-?"

Leia's eyes bulged out and she glared at Winter.

"You didn't," she nearly growled. Winter looked as impassive as ever, but her eyes were laughing.

"I had not had the chance to tell him yet about your would be boyfriend," Winter stated.

Han, having clambered through into the room, grinned crookedly.

"Oho? Old boyfriend, huh? I can't wait to hear about this-"

"You're not hearing anything!" Leia shouted, pushing Winter out the door into the tunnel, "come on, come on! You need medical treatment! Away from them!"

"As you wish, sister," Winter nodded. She shot a wink back at Luke and Han, "I will tell them later then."

"No you won't!"


Just something fun and cute. Hope you enjoyed.