Chapter Text
“My nephew can be…difficult.”
It was the first Master Luke had spoken since they had begun the flight. Rey looked over at him, wondering why it had taken him so long to divulge this. She hesitated for a moment, letting the quiet whirs and hums of their spacecraft swirl around her, before speaking.
“Is he more difficult than those goons from the Hutt cartel we ran into last month?” she replied, lips quirked up into a smile. Beside her, Luke’s face remained impassive, but Rey sensed a ripple of amusement in his Force signature.
“It’s good that you’re confident,” said Luke, and Rey tried to tamp down the familiar glow of pride at the master’s approval.
“Just don’t underestimate the challenges of the role you’re about to take on,” he continued. “You are there to provide security. Not necessarily to investigate what happened.”
“I don’t understand, Master. If I could prevent another attempt on his life--”
“Not your job. Not your role.” Luke was adamant; Rey could feel his signature arranging itself into an impenetrable wall. “If you sense immediate danger, then of course you must take action. But you are not there to get to the bottom of Alderaan’s political issues, or who may or may not have a grudge against Ben. You are there to protect him from physical harm, and keep him alive.”
“But how can I do that without finding where the threat is coming from?”
He sighed, almost imperceptibly. “I’m just warning you not to overstep. Of course I trust your judgment, Rey. I wouldn’t have chosen you for this post if I didn’t.”
“Yes, Master,” she replied, taking on the mantle of the meek padawan even though she had removed her braid weeks ago. Luke never seemed to mind her questions, but it was still her instinct to be deferential to him. For fifteen years he had been her family, such that a Jedi Master could be family to an unloved girl. He had taken Rey under his wing ever since he’d plucked her from the desert at five years old. And now he was entrusting her with the life of his nephew, Prince Ben Organa of Alderaan. It was a weighty assignment. Luke rarely spoke of his family, but Rey could hardly miss the regard he held for them, in spite of the “no attachments” adage he sometimes liked to repeat. She swallowed the sudden lump in her throat at the implications. She could not fail in this assignment. If harm came to the prince, she feared that Luke would never forgive her.
“You said that the prince is Force-sensitive,” she said, returning her mind to the present.
Luke nodded. “Very much so. He has a lot of...raw strength in the Force.”
There was that pause again. Luke seemed to struggle for the correct words to describe his nephew. What sort of person could this Ben Organa be, to make her master so uncertain?
Rey was not a Jedi Knight for nothing. She was used to entering situations with only vague information, or none at all. Anything she truly needed to know, she could typically ascertain with the Force, or simply with sharp powers of observation. Luke was still determinedly closing his Force signature off from her, but Rey could see the hard set of his mouth and tension in his robe-clad shoulders. Luke was nervous. Decidedly so.
They began to prepare for landing, ending the discussion before it had really begun. Rey slid back into the pilot’s seat, Luke assisting beside her.
“I’ve never been to Alderaan before,” she mused, unnecessarily. She almost hoped that Luke hadn’t heard her over the sound of their ship entering the planet’s atmosphere, but it was a vain hope. He looked over at her, face unreadable.
“Well, you’ll be seeing a lot of the palace, at least,” he remarked, kindly not commenting on the fact that he already knew every place she’d ever been in her life, because he had been with her. “And wherever else my nephew goes, I guess. Somehow I doubt he does much sightseeing.”
“That’s okay,” she said quietly. She couldn’t hide her smile at the thought of seeing the palace, anyway. And all the green. She’d heard that Alderaan was a lush planet, full of life. Her years in the desert had left an indelible impression on her despite being so young when Luke had bought her from Plutt. She could never suppress her pleasure upon visiting green planets. And now she would be living on one, at least for a while.
Finn would be jealous. She would have to make it seem like she wasn’t enjoying herself, when she commed him.
Rey didn’t get the experience of seeing Alderaan in all its glory as they descended into the atmosphere. It was pitch black outside, obscuring what she could already tell were beautiful trees.
“Why did we come so late?”
This time, Luke heaved a sigh.
“Leia thought it would make things easier.”
“How?”
“She wanted you to have some time to adjust before Ben knows we’re here. He won’t react well to having a guard.”
Rey frowned at this. Why was everyone so afraid of the prince? Even his family walked on eggshells to avoid his wrath, it seemed. It didn’t seem right, sneaking into the palace while he (presumably) slept. She wondered what his reaction would be in the morning, when he discovered she was there.
It was a good thing Rey wasn’t his family. She would not cower before Ben Organa, prince or not.
She landed their ship in the palace’s massive hangar, slipping into the focused, collected headspace she would need for her upcoming assignment. There is no emotion, there is peace.
Luke lowered the ramp and exited the ship, Rey following a few paces behind. Awaiting them was a tall, brassy-looking droid.
“Master Luke!” he exclaimed. “Oh, my! It’s so good to see you.”
“Hello, Threepio,” Luke replied, some warmth injecting his tone. “This is Rey. Rey, this is C-3PO.”
“Oh! Another Jedi! How wonderful. Follow me, the both of you. The Queen is waiting.”
Rey grinned at her feet as they followed the droid into the palace. Each hall they went down was sleek and airy, with ceilings that made Rey feel small. Ahead of her, Luke sauntered on, not looking around him except to address Threepio now and then. He was back to his usual tranquility, unaffected by the grandeur of the palace while Rey could not help but feel a little intimidated. Until now, she hadn’t allowed herself to dwell on the fact that this was her first assignment on her own, that she would be away from her master for the foreseeable future. She couldn’t stop the bright bolt of fear that lanced through her Force signature. Almost immediately, Luke’s own signature responded to her, smoothing the ragged edges of her emotions. Luke’s Force signature had always felt to Rey like a cool rain, a balm for her emotional spikes. They didn’t happen so often anymore, but she had a feeling that she would miss Luke’s tempering influence in the time to come.
Feeling re-centered, Rey reached out with the Force. At the edge of her awareness there was a new presence, faint but bright and alert. And, farther away, there was another. This signature was undeniably dark, and strong, but instead of the blistering cold that signified the dark side, this one was warm. It had a muted quality to it, the owner likely asleep. For a split second Rey felt herself drawn to this signature, enticed by the thought of enveloping herself in its soft depths.
She blinked, pulling back. This was the opposite of centered. There is no emotion, there is peace , she repeated again to herself.
C-3PO took them around the last bend, into a sitting room that looked ten times the size of any room she was used to at the Jedi temple. The chamber was so massive that it made the woman standing in the middle look small. But as she advanced toward them, Rey could see that nothing could have been further from the truth. She was small in stature, yes, but she projected an air of regality that had even Luke standing a little straighter.
This was Luke’s sister, then. Leia, Queen of Alderaan. Rey instinctively leaned forward, ready to hang on this woman’s every word. Though she had never actually met the queen before, she’d definitely gotten an impression of her. Not only from Luke’s sparing comments, but also from the posters of her from the Rebellion days that hung in bars and shops all over the galaxy. Leia had become the face of it, especially after the war had ended. It was easy to reconcile the firey, youthful Princess Leia from the posters with the woman standing in front of them now.
“Luke,” she said, a delighted smile on her face, as she embraced her brother. Luke didn’t say anything in response, but Rey could feel the happy thrum in the Force as they hugged. She looked away, trying to keep her sudden awkwardness from showing on her face.
That faded, though, when Leia turned to face her.
“You must be Rey,” she said, warmly squeezing Rey’s hands. Rey stared down at them, bewildered but strangely charmed by the gesture.
“I’m so grateful that you accepted this post,” she went on. “Luke assures me that my son is in good hands with you, dear.”
Rey nodded. “Your Majesty, is there any more you can tell me about the attempt on the prince’s life? Anything that may help me to protect him?”
Leia binked, perhaps taken aback by Rey’s abrupt pivot into business. But Rey had suddenly found herself off-balance again. It had been so many years since her hands had been held. No motherly endearments existed in her memory, and she certainly had never heard them at the Jedi temple. Leia had...startled her. Yes, that was it. She was startled. And she had to maintain a clear head if she was to complete this assignment.
Failure was unthinkable. Even more so now that she had met the Queen.
“It happened during a session of Parliament,” Leia said, her smile fading. “Ben was on the floor, arguing a frankly insulting proposal--”
She broke off to roll her eyes at her son’s apparent political shortcomings.
“And as he was speaking, he was shot with a blaster bolt. It hit near his spine; he was lucky they managed to get him into a bacta tank before he was paralyzed. And the gunman escaped in the chaos.”
“The prince didn’t sense anything? No ill intent from anyone around him?”
Leia shook her head. “He says he had no idea.”
Rey’s brow furrowed. “Is it possible that the shooter was able to cloak their intentions in the Force somehow?”
Luke sighed. “Rey, you are asking a lot of questions.”
“Well, maybe I just wanted to take the opportunity to ask someone who might actually answer them, master,” she retorted, needling him just enough to see him crack the barest hint of a smile. It might have been imperceptible to most, but not the two women in the room with him. Leia chuckled.
“My dear,” she said to Rey, “I think you and I will get along just fine.”
At this, Rey could feel her own lips curl up into a grin. She opened her mouth to ask more about the known Force-sensitive individuals in Parliament, but her hair suddenly began to stand on end before she could.
Immediately, the mood in the room shifted. Luke and Leia had noted her sudden tension
“Rey, what--”
She cut Luke off with a gasp at the sudden sinister presence that had entered the Force around them. It slithered into her awareness, all-encompassing and cold enough to burn.
“Someone’s here. In the palace,” she said for Leia’s benefit, thinking that Luke would have already recognized the threatening signature. But he was only looking at her, eyebrows furrowed.
She didn’t have time to wait for him. He would be right behind her, she told herself as she rushed off in the direction of the signature. She whipped around dark hallways and up staircases, letting the cold dread guide her closer and closer to the intruding signature. She had not expected her first test to come so quickly. How could someone have gotten into the palace in the middle of the night? Was the security so lax here? No wonder Leia had asked Luke to send a Jedi Knight to help. Clearly, the prince wasn’t safe even in his own home.
She was getting ahead of herself.
In one fluid motion, Rey threw open the door that she knew would lead her to the intruder and ignited her saber. The blue light illuminated the shapes of the room; a desk in the corner, a wardrobe against the far wall, and a giant, opulent bed.
Rey stopped scanning the room after that. Her saber hummed in the silence, between herself and the room’s only other occupant.
He had clearly been sleeping before she’d barged into his room, but now he was wide awake. He scrambled upright; the blankets fell to his waist, revealing miles of broad, naked torso to her gaze. She flushed hot and whipped her eyes back up to meet his own, only to see them boring furious holes into her.
“Who the hell are you?”
The sinister Force presence had retreated by now. For the first time in as long as she could remember, Rey stammered.
“I...I…”
“Oh my. Well, I suppose it couldn’t have been put off much longer, anyway.”
Rey jumped and finally turned her saber off at the sound of Leia’s voice behind her. The hallway light was now on, providing a clear backlight for Leia and Luke’s identical raised eyebrows.
“Well, Rey,” Leia said on a sigh, “I see you’ve met my son.”