Chapter Text
“So what do you expect us to do?” Rarely had she seen her mother so enraged. But as the General of the Aran’be’nau leaned against the holotable, that was the only word Leia could think of to describe the feelings she felt in the force. “Leave them to die?”
“They took an unsanctioned mission-” General Madine began, but Mom cut him off.
“Which wouldn’t have been unsanctioned if this war council had used two of their brain cells and called us instead of saying ‘oh, they’re on a mission and can’t be bothered’. We could’ve had an extraction team sent in and gotten this information covertly. But instead we’ve let the Empire know that we know about their little genocide weapon and have left men on the ground.” Mom’s knuckles were white, her mouth drawn into a thin line.
As usual, it was Senator Mothma that tried to maintain the peace. “What’s done is done. But that doesn’t negate the fact that General Veruna’s statements are accurate. What would you suggest we do?”
Sharing a look with Dad, who immediately began signing to Ba’vod Thorn, Mom straightened her shoulders. “We’re going to get them. This team may have just saved the galaxy. We will not leave them to be slaughtered.”
“Nothing we say is going to change your mind, is it?” Mothma asked, eyebrow raised.
“Probably not.” Mom glanced to Aunt Versé. After getting the signal she was looking for, she turned back to the council. “We’ll reach Scariff in one hour. Thank the force we were close, or else you’d still be listening to me expound on this body’s shortsightedness.”
Madine took a deep breath, probably about to make himself look like an idiot, but Mom ended the call before he could get out a word.
Her demeanor immediately changed, and she huffed as she rubbed her forehead. “Sometimes I wonder how hard it would be to take over the Rebellion and run everything ourselves.”
“We could have that done for you by next Taungsday, Chief,” Aunt Saché said, a feral grin on her face. “Just give the word, and the Alliance is yours.”
“After we let them build a base on Yavin, it’s like they think they can boss us around like regular troops,” Aunt Rabé said with a sigh. “It’s just fortunate for the rest of the council that you hate datawork almost as much as the Empire.”
With a wink, she dodged the datapad hurled her way. Fortunately, Leia was expecting this and managed to grab it with the force before the poor thing collided with a wall. “So Chief,” Rabé said, completely undeterred, “what’s the plan?”
Mom rolled her eyes, but a small smile began to grow. “What are we going to be up against?”
A fleet of ships flickered to life above the holotable, and Ba’vod Hound whistled. “That’s a lot of imps.”
“Well luckily for us, we have a lot of Jedi.” Mom grinned, then looked back at the table. “Leia, go get your fighter ready. We’re going to need all the force users we can get if we’re going to get this team out alive.”
Aunt Eirtaé frowned as she looked at incoming reports from Scariff. “Let’s just hope that they survive long enough for us to get to them.”
----------------------------------
“That’s a lot of star destroyers.” If Luke was worried, you couldn’t tell. By his tone of voice, you could’ve thought that he was making a remark on the weather, or saying that Mustafar was hot.
Leia forcibly loosened her grip on the controls. It wouldn’t do anyone any good to act like a shiny. She’d been in countless battles, and this one was no different. At least, that’s what she told herself. “That just gives us more targets.”
“And less chances for Burn to miss,” Ba’vod Blaze shot into the conversation just as the first TIEs began to emerge from their hangars. The sound of Burn’s rebuttal was drowned out by the sounds of battle, the fighters clashing violently against each other as the fight commenced.
“Aran squad,” Leia ordered, banking her fighter to the right, “let’s unleash haran.”
She got a chorus of “Oyas” in return, and then they were in the middle of it. Leia threaded the force between her and her uncles, giving them steadiness and focus that they wouldn’t have had otherwise. The sounds of their comm chatter washed over her, and she dived into the meditation that only happened during battle.
“Kid!” Ba’vod Yoke’s voice made her jump. “You got an Imp on your six.”
“Understood.” She glanced behind her. Yup. If she was seeing those markings correctly, that was the fighter of a TIE commander. And of course all of the other jedi were on the other side of the battle. Her men were busy with their own targets, so it was up to her. Easy peasy. “I’ve got this.”
She immediately pulled back, watching the TIE soar ahead. The few shots she was able to let loose scorched the pilot’s paint job, but he was too good to go down easily.
He had also called in backup. Two more fighters were quickly closing in. With a quick spin, Leia was able to get out of the pincer maneuver they were trying, even taking one of the TIEs down in the process.
Then it was a race to the Guardian. If Leia could make it close enough to Mom’s ship, then the turbo lasers would be able to take them out. “Mom, headed your way.”
Her mother’s voice crackled through the comm. “We’ll be ready. Stay close to the shields, you may be able to get one of them to blow themselves up.”
“Will do.” Dodging and weaving, Leia was able to finally make it to the ship. She wasn’t going to lie, there were a couple of close calls, but the important thing is that she was going to be okay. Her uncles were the best shots in the galaxy.
Speaking of uncles, Ba’vod Trigger’s voice was music to her ears. “Keep ‘er steady, kid. We’ve got your back.”
“Oya,” she said through gritted teeth, getting as close to their shields as she could.
After a few more harrowing seconds, one of the TIEs on her tail exploded in a fiery cloud. “Thanks, ba’vod.”
“No problem, ad’ika, but that other one’s tricky. You’ll need to make another run for me to get a lock on him.”
Leia nodded even though she knew he couldn’t see it. “Headed back now.”
The next thing she knew, Leia was spinning out into open space. The controls weren’t working, and alarms were blaring. But one voice rose above the rest of the noise. “Sit rep!”
“I’m fine, Buir.” He must really be worried to use his vocal communicator. Leia struggled to get the ship level again, but at least she was able to get it to stop spinning after a few more stomach-turning rotations. “He took out my engines, though.”
Buir’s voice was tense when he answered. “The team from Scariff just landed in the bay. We’ll get someone to come and get you, and then we’ll get out of here. Stand by for retrieval.”
“Yes, sir.”
Leia waited for maybe ten seconds, watching as her uncles began to make their way back to the ship, before the force jerked. Above her head, a giant ball appeared, and the darkness emanating from it chilled her to the core. “Buir?”
“We see it.” Leia could imagine what her dad looked like in this moment, shoulders tense and eyes hard as he analyzed this new threat. “Yoke is almost to your position.”
She tried to answer, but the words wouldn’t come out. Right before she began to panic, a deluge of images began to flood her brain. Leia wasn’t prone to visions. That was more of Luke’s gift, but there was no doubt in her mind that she was seeing the future. Or a future.
Her men, cut down by a red lightsaber. Her aunts and uncles, tortured before being thrown into an Imperial prison, separated forever. Her parents, cut down by a red blade. That was when she realized what she needed to do.
“Get out,” she gasped, yanking herself out of the force. “If you don’t, we’ll all die.”
“We can’t let you be taken.” Leia knew that Buir would ignore her, try and save her anyway, but he couldn’t. He needed to get them away. To get them to safety.
She looked at the space station. “Then come back for a rescue. You know that they won’t kill me immediately. But there won’t be anyone to rescue unless you leave. Now.”
Then, she did what she had hoped to never do. “Aunt Saché, I had a vision. If you don’t leave, everyone will die. Please. Leave. Come back later, but go now.”
Silence echoed for a few eternity-lasting seconds before her aunt answered. “We’re going to come back for you, kid.”
Then her Mom took the comm, the tears clear in her voice. “Stay alive, nau’ika. That’s an order .We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
Leia smirked as the ships began to enter hyperspace. “I’ll see you in a few minutes, then.”
“If you escape before we reach you,” Buir’s voice was thick, “we’ll rendezvous at Red Dawn.”
“Elek, Buir.” Then, her family was gone. Free in the stars.
Unlike her, especially since she could feel the jolt of a tractor beam latching onto the ship. A dark presence searched her own, and she immediately shoved it back. If Vader wanted her to be afraid, then he was going to be disappointed.
She was a jedi padawan. A honorary handmaiden of Amidala. She had gone through ARC and commando training. She had led men into battle and faced far worse odds than this.
No. She wasn’t afraid. In fact, she had already begun to plan her escape. After all, she was her parent’s daughter.