Under The Stars

A Fic I've worked on, and am ready to have picked to pieces.

Title: Under the Stars
Author: Arwen Skywalker
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, if I did, the Legacy series wouldn't exist.
Summary: Leia spends some time thinking over Luke's words to her on Endor's moon.

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Leia sat outside on an ewok flet, her knees pulled up underneath her chin. The night air was cool, and slight breezes rustled leaves. Han and Chewbacca were asleep a few feet away, and she should be too. They needed to meet up with the rest of the strike team in a few hours, and neutralize the power generator before the rest of the fleet arrived. Leia understood the need for rest, the need to be on her toes tomorrow, but her mind just wouldn't rest. No thanks to Luke.

Leia grimaced and bit her lip. He'd dumped a lot of information on her a few hours ago. She'd noticed him slipping out, and followed him, to ask again why he kept staring at her, and what was on his mind, but had not expected to the twist the conversation had taken. Luke had asked about her mother, her real mother of all things! She and Luke, and Han too, had talked of nearly everything in the galaxy over the last four years, except the one taboo subject, their families.

Sure, everyone knew Luke was a farmboy from Tatooine and Leia was the adopted daughter of the late, Leia stumbled over the word in her mind, Viceroy of Alderaan, but nothing else. She knew nothing of Han's childhood, except he'd spent some time on the streets and knew nothing of his parents. Of course, that was second-hand information passed on from Luke, and Leia was almost certain Han didn't know that she knew. One way they all three were similar, she reflected, none of them had known their biological parents.

And were similar no longer, she thought bitterly, and then corrected herself, she might know who they were, but she'd never known them in person. Leia sighed angrily, no, that wasn't true either. She knew far too much about the man, (was he even a man?) that Luke claimed for his father. "Father"? Leia thought scornfully, "I will never call him that. Monster? Torturer? definitely. Father? never."

And Luke had asked about her real mother, she'd found that very odd. They'd never spoken about that before, was now the time? But she'd answered him with what she had, no images, just feelings. She didn't even know how old she'd been when her real mother had died, and she had no memory of Luke, when had they been separated?
Her mother was Breha Organa, and she had been a wonderful mother, and Leia would always think of her when she thought of "mother". But there had been another woman once, for some reason she was sure of this, beautiful, kind, but sad. Too odd a combination to be made up. Leia had never dwelt on her real mother, she had never needed her. Which was good, because in the same way she knew real mother had existed once, she was sure she was gone for good.

Leia scowled at her knees, now she knew where the "sad" part came in. She knew that the Emperor and his pet terror had come to power a short time before she was born, short, as in less than seven standard days. Luke seemed to believe that their mother had loved "Anakin", a Jedi Knight who decided to turn evil and run around killing and torturing people, including all of his old comrades. And then Luke was crazy enough to believe that this "Anakin" still existed deep down, under the armor. And so her crazy brother (at least that felt right) had decided it was his duty to save said Anakin from himself. And so off he'd gone, despite her pleading for him not to leave, not to be so stupid as to walk up to the Imperial base and give himself up.

"But why must you face him?"

"Because there is good in him, I've felt it.

Leia would have laughed at that if she could. To the best of her knowledge, last time Luke had been near dear ol'da, he had come back minus one hand, covered in blood, and an emotional wreck. "Oh, yeah, lots of good in him, Luke, lots."

But enough about the evil machine-man. Leia turned her mind to Luke's more welcome revelation. They were sister and brother, not only that, but but they were twins. When he had told her, she had just had no doubts that it was the truth, that their connection was a sibling bond made so much sense. Now she wished that it felt wrong, that there was no way that it was true, if that was true, if Luke was really her brother, if that meant that he was right about that, that monster being her, her, no she couldn't even think it. The tears Leia had been holding back started to fall, and she buried her face in her knees.

"He can't be my father, Luke, he just can't", Leia sobbed. "He killed my family, my world, my friends! He has killed so many beings, so many! He tortured me, he tortured Han and froze him in carbonite, he would have done the same to you! He destroyed everything I cared about, he held me down while they blew apart Alderaan!. Leia was so angry she was shaking now, and she couldn't stop crying.

Eventually her sobs slowed. "It's just not fair" she said, in a voice that was as close to a whimper as she ever got. Leia picked her head up off her knees and looked up at the night sky. It was full of stars, like Alderaan's sky had been. Leia wiped her eyes on her shirt and was thankful that Han was such a sound sleeper. She loved him, she really did, as much as she'd fought the inevitable. She was not interested in explaining to Han why she was crying her eyes out in the middle of the night, what would she say? In her mind she could hear Han's concerned "what's wrong Leia?" Her mind laughed sarcastically and answered " oh, nothing much Han dear,I just found out that the wheezy machineman is my father, interesting, huh?"

"What would he say?" Leia wondered. Han loved her, she knew, but would he still knowing who her father was? Knowing that the man who had tortured him and shipped him off to Jabba was her legacy? Would he still be comfortable around Luke?

And speaking of Luke, what if he never came back? Leia shook her head. Luke was walking right into the Darth Vader and the Emperor's clutches, and was no doubt headed to the Death Star, which She and the other rebels were planning on destroying tomorrow. "Great planning there, Luke", she thought and added "I hope you know what you are doing".

Leia released her knees and lay back on the wood, stretching her cramped muscles. She stared up at the stars, thinking about Luke's declaration that she had the power he had. Impossible was her immediate reaction. Luke insisted she did. Leia wondered how you went about using this "Force" he talked about. She closed her eyes, and emptied her mind, using techniques she'd been taught on Alderaan. She took a deep breath and then tried to reach out and find Luke's presence, like he said he could sense Vader. As she reached out with her senses, she felt it. A warm sensation, like comforting light surrounding her. She tried to find something that felt like Luke, but couldn't. She didn't really know how to look anyway. Leia pulled herself back and opened her eyes to star at the stars again. She felt strangely comforted, as if someone was whispering that everything would be all right.

Leia stood up stiffly and stretched. She felt better and ready to sleep, and a few hours of sleep would be helpful. There was nothing she could do for Luke now anyway. She felt assured somehow that her brother would come back. Leia smiled up at the stars, and whispered "May the Force be with you, my brother".