AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am mixing a lot of Star Wars lore in this chapter. I know Grand Moff Trioculous and Gideon do not technically appear within the same canonical continuities, so please don't crucify me in the PMs. As a side note, I have no reason to believe that Lieutenant Ardan is actually a sociopath, but I didn't think it was necessarily OOC since his backstory is technically incomplete. Strap in, this will be a long one! As always, I love reviews. Guest reviews always approved, no registration necessary!
Leia was pulled from the fog of sedated stupor by the sound of a hissing serpent. At least, that's how her muddled mind chose to interpret the simpering words being whispered into her ear. The serpent was whispering something about it being time for her to be put to use. She wondered idly if it was the same inner voice that she had dreamed of that promised to rescue her.
The world felt like it tilted as the table on which she lay seemed to be elevated and turned upright on its end.
When she had been in the field with the Rebellion, rations had often been in short supply. Although she wasn't entirely sure how long she had been gone, the painful, gnawing hunger in the pit of her stomach told her that it had been at least two days.
Leia blinked rapidly at the burning light as her senses returned to her. She groaned softly as she became aware of a new and persistent pain in her back and belly; the Princess barely had a moment to wonder what her captors had done to her before her attention was drawn to the audience before her. The blurry white forms of stormtroopers surrounded her manacled form, parting formation as a man in the tell-tale grey-green of an Imperial officer's uniform stepped smugly into her dazed line of sight.
"Vice-Chancellor Organa," he greeted, bowing mockingly before her. Leia's eyes widened in recognition. She thought he'd died on the Death Star!
"Lieutenant Ardan," she rasped angrily, her throat parched and hoarse. "To what do I owe the displeasure?"
"Always so charming." He shot back, a wolfish smile splitting his face into a leer. "I had forgotten what a gracious guest you were."
His eyes darted to her abdomen. "Or should I say, guests?"
Leia felt her senses rush back to her, the threat to her children driving out all remnants of the drug in her system. He was taunting her, and she knew it. Playing with his food before going in for the kill. She countered with the only options she had: bluff and bluster.
"The entire New Republic forces will be out looking for me by now, Lieutenant. If you release me now, they may just let you live."
Ardan smirked, suddenly all too pleased with himself. "How can they know to look for you if they don't know you're missing?"
"You're lying." She spat back.
"Am I?"
Leia's heart began to pound as she realized it was entirely possible he had spoken the truth. The man had been clever enough to breach the best security the New Republic had to offer by entering her home. It was possible, likely even, that he had found some way to delay her abduction from being discovered.
Ardan seemed to take her silence for victory as he produced a holo-recorder and sat it on the table in front of her with an exaggerated flourish before coming to stand at her side.
"Are you holo ready, Madam Vice-Chancellor?" On his lips, her title felt like an insult.
"You'll die for this." Leia snapped. Ardan only seemed amused.
"Guard," Ardan barked to the trooper on her right, "muzzle this broodmare." The man obediently produced a kerchief, and although she struggled and resisted, he quickly succeeded in stuffing the material between Leia's teeth and tying it behind her head.
Leia growled lowly in her throat, her eyes daggers that remained fixed on Ardan's smug face. Nonetheless, despite her rage, it was clear he was no longer interested in her remonstrations. One of the troopers had started the holo-recorder, and his attention was turned toward its viewing lens.
"Sir, we have a live one-way broadcast feed directly into the Chancellor's chambers."
Ardan immediately squared his shoulders and preened, his eyes staring directly into the camera.
"Chancellor Mothma," he began, "I have your plucky Vice-Chancellor and her burgeoning family in my custody."
Leia felt the twins squirm with unease, reacting to their mother's distress in the only way they knew how. Suddenly, she felt like she wanted to vomit. Instead, Leia spit drily in his direction, her lips working violently around the kerchief as muffled rage exploded in her throat. Much to her irritation, this seemed to do little more than amuse him.
"As you can see, she is unharmed and just as feisty as ever." Ardan laughed, addressing the lens still.
"As valuable of a trinket as she and her two precious children may be, I would only be so happy to part with my three prisoners in exchange for your one: Grand Moff Trioculous, the rightful heir of our departed Emperor."
Leia's heart nearly stopped, her hearing fading as the blood suddenly roared in her ears. Trioculous was one of the bloodiest and most brutal Moffs, a close second only to Tarkin himself. Worse still, he was rumored to be a force-sensitive that could bend others to his will. If anyone might be able to unite the scattered Imperial remnants, it was him.
If Mothma had any sense, she'd never agree to Ardan's prisoner swap. And with the head-start her abductors had created, her children would be longborn by the time the New Republic located them. Of course, that was assuming she and the twins were even still alive!
It was then that Leia realized with cold certainty that, no matter what the dream voice had told her, no one was coming to save them.
She and Han had decided to wait to learn their children's sexes and decide their names until after they were born. It was a decision she now sorely regretted. Her poor husband would have no names to cherish or to place upon a headstone; he'd never know whether he'd been the father of sons or daughters!
With growing horror, it then occurred to her that death was not the worst thing that might befall her children. If the Imperials determined that either of her children were force users, her worst nightmares about them falling to the Darkside were sure to become a reality. The Imperials would rip them from her bosom and dement them in the same way they warped all the Inquisitors of the Galactic Empire.
With great effort, Leia forcibly pushed aside such ghoulish thoughts as she realized Ardan was finishing his message to the New Republic.
"You have three days to agree, or you'll never see the Princess or her children again." Ardan finished. And then the broadcast was terminated.
"Don't worry, my dear," Ardan said, interrupting her bleak thoughts as he turned and leaned his face close to Leia's, his lips stretching into a Glasgow grin, "Even if Mothma refuses, we still have many uses for you and your progeny. I know that Moff Gideon would also love the opportunity to see what secrets are hiding in that fabulous force-sensitive blood of yours."
The storm of despair in Leia's heart suddenly escalated to a hurricane of rage as she whipped her head forward, and her browbone made contact with the Lieutenant's nose. A crunching noise and a strangled cry were followed by two of the closest troopers seizing Leia by the hair and slamming her back against the table.
"You…wench!" Ardan gurgled, slapping her sharply across the face, his lips twisted in rage as he brought his hands to his nose, his fingers turning red as he sought to stanch the flow of blood that had begun to dribble down to his chin.
The twins kicked in protest, confused and upset by the sudden sensations of violence. Though Leia wished she could pet and comfort them, the manacles on her hands made that impossible. Instead, she ruefully turned her stinging cheek to squarely meet the Lieutenant's icy gaze. The Vice-Chancellor exploited the only means of defiance left to her as she sank her teeth around the kerchief and bared them in a manner that resembled a snarling she-wolf.
"You there, strap her down and sedate her!" Ardan ordered, pointing to one of the troopers not currently occupied with restraining the Princess. "I'll not have any more heroics." He hissed.
Worthless coward. He was too afraid to come near her to do it himself.
As the trooper stepped toward Leia with several canvas restraints, the lights flickered, and all went black. It was only then that the guards who had been occupied with restraining Leia abruptly released their hold. There were several cries of surprise from the troopers before the emergency power supply kicked in and bathed the room in a hellish red light.
Ardan's bloodstained face twisted in consternation as he flicked on the centralized comm on the nearest wall.
"Trooper TR-8R, report! What happened to the lights?!"
"We're investigating, sir. The maintenance crew just reported that the main fuse box appears to have spontaneously exploded."
"Well, get it fixed, then!" Ardan snapped into the mic.
It was at that moment that the red light illuminating the room began to sputter.
"Wait, sir! I know this should be impossible, but it's the backup generator—systems show that it appears to be overloading!" No sooner had the trooper spoken than the room went pitch black.
A strange mix of hope and unease bubbled up in Leia's chest as a chorus of uneasy muttering from the troopers filled the sudden darkness. Had the New Republic's forces found her? Could they be staging a rescue operation? Leia realized that Ardan must have had the same thought as she heard his respiration accelerate, his fingers once more clicking on the comm switch embedded in the wall.
"Trooper TR-8R!" Leia heard Ardan bark, his voice suddenly uneasy. "Notify the fleet, initiate lockdown protocol 67-99, and switch to secure channels only!"
Beams of light filled the room around Leia as the troopers flipped on the flashlights affixed to the muzzle of their side arms. Strange shadows were cast around her as the darkness turned Ardan's face into that of a ghoulish demon.
The Lieutenant appeared to be lost in thought, his brown knit together as he evaluated his options.
"Alright, men," he said at last, "Organa's confederates may be trying to lure us into moving her. While TR-8R's Bravo team sweeps and clears the facility, I want each of you to take up posts at the entry points for this floor. Let no one in or out. It is safe to assume the saboteur is still on this premises, and we have no idea who or what they are. I will stay here and guard the prisoner myself."
A series of nodding helmets and "Sir, yes, sirs!" erupted as the men obediently snapped to a loose but distinctive formation.
"All of you, switch to secure channels and inform me if you encounter anything out of the ordinary. Be prepared to move the prisoner, but only if I give the order. Dismissed!"
As the door slid open and troopers jogged from the room, Ardan unholstered his own RK-3 side-arm and, flicking on the small tactical flashlight affixed to the muzzle, he turned to eye Leia with a look of utter contempt.
"Your rag-tag New Republic will never get the best of us, Princess. I promise you that."
With that, he locked the door and took up a post beside the entrance, the beam of his flashlight and the muzzle of his blaster pistol firmly aimed at the sealed doorway.
As minutes ticked by, much to her disappointment, Ardan's posture began to relax. Every now and then, the secured communicator on his lapel would chirp with a coded report that seemed to indicate they had not yet found any traces of a saboteur.
Time stood still as Leia hoped and prayed for some indication that this was, in fact, a rescue and not some freak electrical failure. The pain in her lower belly was growing stronger and, with it, a mounting fear that she was not yet prepared to face.
Just when it seemed Ardan was about to call off the search, a noise broke the silence. It was faint at first, but as it grew louder, the sound became unmistakable: it was the sound of blaster fire.
By the light of his torch, Leia could see sweat begin to bead on the Lieutenant's face. "Alpha team, report!" He spat into his communicator. But there was no response. The chorus of munitions crescendoed and then fell into silence. For entirely different reasons, neither Leia nor Ardan even dared to breathe.
And then the Lieutenant's communicator crackled to life. For a change, the message was not coded, probably because there was no code for what they had encountered.
"Bravo team has encountered a single hostile on Level One and have taken heavy casualties! The assailant appears to be a force-sensitive humanoid! I repeat they appear to be force-sensitive! Approach with extreme caution. Alpha team is sending reinforcements to intercept."
Luke!
Leia's heart suddenly soared. She tried tapping on their bond, but the string between them seemed slack and silent. Unfortunately, she didn't know what that might mean.
The sound of blaster fire soon returned. It was growing closer now; as it did, the noises became punctuated by the screams of Ardan's stormtroopers. She could see the anguish growing on the Lieutenant's face as the noises drew nearer; his face became like some strange cross between a hunted rabbit and a rabid dog, at once terrified and madly vicious.
He was obviously warring with himself as he tapped his lapel and gave the order she knew he had not wanted to give: "FN-2199, TD-110, retreat, and rendezvous for immediate prisoner evacuation."
His only answer was the sound of static.
Leia took a certain schadenfreude pleasure in the fear that washed over his face as he repeated the order and once again received no response. Ardan hit the comm again, this time switching hailing frequencies, "This is Lieutenant Commander Ardan, requesting immediate reinforcements. I repeat I am requesting immediate fleet support with extraction. We have taken heavy casualties and are moving to evacuate."
"We copy, Lieutenant. Routing support now."
It was at that moment that the volleys of blaster fire died down to the sound of a single lonely weapon being fired with almost desperate fervor. The sound was close now, almost right outside the door.
And then it once again fell silent.
The Lieutenant took a shuddering breath and leapt to his feet, scrambling to Leia's side. The shadows bounced around the room as he fumbled with something just out of her line of sight. There was a clicking noise, and then Leia gasped in surprise as the restraints on her hands and feet popped open.
Just then, she felt the cold end of his blaster press against the side of her stomach.
"Step down, nice and easy, or I will kill all three of you with one shot."
Leia eyed him warily, her heart pounding in her chest as she realized he intended to use her as a human shield. Nonetheless, she didn't have much of a choice.
With some effort, she took a heavy step forward off the plate welded to the bottom of the platform, her legs shaking with hunger and disuse. As her foot met the ground, Leia's knee buckled beneath her, and, despite her best efforts, she sank to the ground at his feet.
"Get up, you cow!" Ardan raged, twisting her arm behind her back. With a growl, he tried in vain to haul her to her feet, but his efforts were interrupted by the sound of tearing metal.
They both froze as Ardan swung the beam of his torch to illuminate the sealed durasteel door and reveal four skeletal metal fingers curling around the edge of the door seam. The durasteel warped like putty as the digits clenched, and a rhythmic hissing sound became audible from beyond the threshold.
With one fluid movement, the door was pried open to reveal a tall figure, its face cowled by a brown peasant's cloak. It stood frozen in the doorway, looming over the kneeling pair like some dark Mephistophelian creature. The air around it felt like that which surrounded a cemetery, its being heavy with regret and sorrow.
Leia realized with horror that whoever this nightmarish creature was, it certainly wasn't her brother.
Ardan was the first to recover his senses as he pulled Leia to his chest and pressed the blaster into her side.
"Let us leave, or they all die." He whispered hoarsely, finding his voice even as Leia herself fell silent. If Leia had possessed the presence of mind to think of it, she would've revised her opinion of him being a coward.
The figure lifted its face to study them, giving the Princess a glimpse of the dark muzzle clamped over the nose and lower half of its face. Its eyes were hidden still beneath the cowl, but what she could see of its tanned skin was mottled and scarred. Her heart hammered as she studied the figure; were they an ally or an enemy? Stuck between a demon and a devil, Leia had no hope but to pray the two did not tear her apart like stray dogs fighting over a scrap of refuse.
The figure remained unresponsive. Leaving its hissing noise as the only sound to fill the silence.
"I said, let me pass." Ardan tried again.
Again, there was no reply. It seemed to be biding its time, waiting for the Imperial to make the first move.
"Why won't you speak?!" The Lieutenant demanded, his voice quaking with a fear that Leia shared and understood.
Leia gasped in recognition as the being inclined its head, the hood slipping back to reveal its milky eyes, eyes she had not seen since the day the Empire fell. Her vision tunneled as she gazed upon him with a combination of hope and terror; had he come to save her? Or had she been wrong about him: Was he here to seize her as some pawn in an Imperial power game?
As it turned out, Leia would not have to wait long for her answer.
As the Princess felt the muzzle of the blaster shift away from her, an open metal palm was calmly extended toward the Lieutenant, who stared transfixed until, with a sudden jerk, it balled itself into a fist.
Leia jerked in surprise as Ardan gave a strangled cry and clutched his wrist. Her ears rang with the sound of snapping bone as the blaster hit the floor and skidded to rest at the ominous intruder's feet.
No sooner had the weapon hit the ground than the metal hand flicked its wrist and sent the whimpering Lieutenant flying into the durasteel wall. His body hit the unforgiving steel with a thudding noise and then slid limply to the floor. Leia didn't bother to even spare him a glance; it was clear he had been dead before he hit the floor.
Instead, her eyes remained on Vader, studying him in the partial illumination of the fallen flashlight beam still affixed to his blaster. Leia's mind screamed at her to run, say, or do something, but instead, she began to shake, overwhelmed by panic, hope, fear, and relief that overtook her all at once. Her breath felt too fast, her heart aching as it pounded against her breastbone.
In an instant, his aura shifted, the air of menace evaporating like smoke. Even the twins seemed to sense it, responding with a strangely excited fluttering to his presence. Regardless, instinct was too powerful a thing to overcome as she flinched and scrambled backward when he took a heavy step toward her.
A look of anguish passed over his twisted features as he saw the fear in Leia's face, his eyes suddenly becoming bright and pained. His posture slumped as he sank to his knees, the replaced respirator hissing quietly. Kneeling before her, Vader spread his metal hands in mute appeal, his synthetic voice, at last, breaking the terrible silence.
"Leia," he rasped, breaking through her racing thoughts, the robotic tenor so different from that of the booming bass that haunted her memories. "We must make haste before reinforcements arrive. Come with me, my child. Please." Even the monotone of the vocoder could not erase the desperation in his voice.
Leia remained frozen, her hands clutched tightly around her midsection.
"We are wasting precious time." Vader intoned with urgency. He seemed to be making himself as small as possible, inching his way toward her like one would a frightened animal.
He was close enough to touch her now, his eyes roaming her face as his skeletal metal hand reached up to gently remove the kerchief from between her teeth. She shuddered instinctively at his cold metal touch, flashbacks of her torture on the Death Star suddenly overwhelming her senses.
"Can you walk?"
"No." She managed to answer, her voice faltering. In some distant part of her mind, she registered that the pain in her stomach was growing stronger, its pangs stretching up to her chest and down to her thighs all at once.
"Please…" she said at last, the truth of her thoughts falling from her parched tongue: "Please don't betray me."
Vader's eyes studied her, a flurry of nameless emotions raging across what she could see of the upper half of his face. She saw his brow knit as if considering some crucial thought.
After a moment, he twisted away from her, his fingers closing around the blaster that lay discarded on the ground. Vader then turned back to her, pressing the grip of the weapon into her hand.
Even as Leia instinctively wrapped her fingers around the grip, she raised her eyes in disbelief.
The gaze that met hers was steady but pained as he leaned toward her, pushing the blaster's muzzle up against his heart.
"I swear on my life," he told her, "and the grave of your mother." His metal finger tapped reverently on the pendant that remained tied about her neck. Leia swallowed hard, her searching eyes meeting his with gratitude for the small comfort, even as he scooped her into his arms, pressing her and the muzzle of the blaster toward his chest.
With a quiet grunt, he rose and strode into the darkened hallway, which was filled with the smell of blood and burned flesh. As Leia caught sight of a prone white-armored form, his artificial voice rumbled once more in her ear. "Do not look at them, Leia." His voice was strangely pleading, "Please—don't look." His hand cradled her closer, pressing her face toward his chest and against something strangely sticky and wet.
For once, Leia did not have the will to fight him. Her mind was too focused on breathing through the pang that rippled through her body.
As Vader strode quickly through the labyrinthian building, the hiss of his respirator grew faster, filling her ears with what must have been panting breaths.
Leia's grip on the blaster went slack as she noticed at last that he seemed to stagger, his limbs trembling and shaking under their burden. The warm wetness on his clothing suddenly took on a more sinister cast as they burst from the building into the open moonlight, and her eyes fell with concern on a dark stain blooming near the shoulder of his cloak.
"You're hurt." She mumbled absently.
His eyes darted toward her as if the comment surprised him.
"It is nothing of concern." He assured her, his gait hastening as they crossed an open field.
Even still, a quiet sense of guilt added to the physical pain already clawing at her chest.
At that moment, Vader's head snapped upward as the sound of several TIE fighters' screams split the night sky. Leia watched in fascinated horror as they streaked through the darkness, diving like falcons toward the Imperial facility.
Without a word, Vader broke into a sprint, hurrying toward the ship stashed just beyond the tree line. With a wave of his hand, he threw open the ramp and leapt into the cockpit, strapping Leia in as best he was able while initiating the ship's start-up sequences.
As the engines revved, Leia's ears were met with a deafening popping sound.
While the hull rang with the force of strafing fire, Vader gunned the engines and coaxed the ship upwards into a near-vertical climb. The screaming of the TIEs grew louder as they spiraled after the ship, their munitions detonating all around them as they began to clear the atmosphere.
No sooner had the stars filled the viewscreen than Leia watched in awe as Vader hit the hyper-drive with pinpoint precision, jumping away from their pursuers at the last possible second.
As the quiet of space filled the ship's hull, Leia heaved a sigh of relief.
Unfortunately, that relief was not to last.
Leia groaned as the pain in her midsection returned, this time sharper and more insistent. No! No! No! She thought. Why did this have to happen now?!
She turned to call out to her father, to tell him they needed to get to the nearest med-bay, but to her horror, it was at that moment that she realized that Vader was now slumped limply over the controls.
And Leia had no idea where they were going.
Shout outs to my guest reviewers!
angie chapter 2 . Aug 31 - Jaina & Jacen are a good idea, and I may use them going forward! Thank you for the suggestion!
Guest chapter 4 . Sep 1 - I like the idea of adding Vader's perspective; that said, I often struggle to write from his point of view. I will see what I can work into the next chapter.
