Chapter Text
“Again! You have to feel the force, Leia. Let it guide you.”
She sighed and nodded at her Master. Aunt normally, but during training Aunt Ahsoka became her master. She felt so familiar with the two blue blades in her hands, but her shoulders were burning. She didn’t want to waste a moment of rare training, though. This was her last day on Yavin 4 with her family as Leia Amidala Skywalker. Tomorrow, she and Luke would return to the Junior Legislatures Program at the senate as their public personas, Luke Amidala and Princess Leia Organa. Leia knew it was to keep them safe, but she wished she could be running missions and helping people instead of spending months at a time in useless debates. She couldn’t imagine her father was doing any better. Since a close call of his mask slipping a few weeks ago, he’d been banned from land missions for the time being. They couldn’t afford to let the empire know her dad was alive, since they were so convinced Uncle Obi Wan himself killed her dad. He had looked a little worse for wear this morning, deep in discussion with Uncle Obi Wan and Aunt Ahsoka. Leia wondered what about—
“Leia!” She felt a bolt singe her skin. She looked up from her thoughts to find her Master staring back at her, an unreadable expression on her face.
“I can’t train you if your head stays in the clouds. I get having a lot going on up there, you of all people, but this is our last day till your next break. Just go one more time and we’ll break for lunch.”
Leia nodded and got back into her stance, eyeing the clones surrounding her. Ahsoka said Leia’s father had put Ahsoka through similar trials when he was training her, back during the clone wars. Of course, these weren’t those clones, rather rebels who agreed to play dress up for the sake of her training. When she asked why Ahsoka insisted on the costumes, she said so you aren’t looking at friends. Which made sense, and it kept her on her toes, but it still made a strange sight for any lost rebel.
-
Luke moved around the gray mush on his cafeteria tray, not interested at all in eating it. While he loved his Jedi training, he missed the food on coruscant. It really couldn’t be beaten. All he wanted was a fresh nerf burger, and a slice of his mother’s Jogan fruit cake. She was here too, of course, but she spent all day in strategy meetings. He and Leia should sneak into another one again…the vents underneath the room almost made it too easy to eavesdrop for the twins. Luke looked up, having decided some of the grey slop might be worth it too quench his hunger, to find his uncle and father deep in whispered conversation the next table over. He only caught bits and pieces of it, though.
“We can’t tell…too dangerous”
“Returing…before the declaration…uneeded danger”
Luke pretended not to hear and enjoyed his nutrient packed mush while he waited for Leia. Aunt Ahsoka was always keeping her over their designated training time, to “build character” whatever that meant. Character was something Luke thought his sister was already full of. Even though their parents were yet to let them run any missions for the rebellion, lest they be discovered, Luke could tell how great of a leader his sister would make. If only their parents would let them be a part of a mission. Dad had been running missions for years, till his mask almost slipped forcing him to lay low for a while.
Still Luke was waiting for his sister, just hoping they could talk freely for a little longer before having to re-assume their senate personalities as very close friends instead of the twins they were.
“Luke!” he looked up smiling to see his sister finally heading towards him.
“What kept you so long?”
She rolled her eyes, sitting down next to him. “Aunt Ahsoka thinks I’m too caught up in my thoughts.” Luke raised his eyebrows until she conceded. “Well maybe I am, just a little, but who wouldn’t be? Anyways, we’re going back this afternoon so I guess it’s good I got a little extra time in.” she sighed and picked at her mush. “What did you and Uncle Obi Wan do this morning?”
He grinned as he swallowed his mush. “We mostly just meditated and went through some saber forms after running a couple laps around the base.”
Leia almost spat out her mush. “What!? I’ve been up since dawn, running, doing jumping jacks, pushups, flipping around, and that’s not even starting on the training drills I had too do.” Luke giggled at her exasperation.
“Well, different masters, different ways.” Leia rolled her eyes at this
“Sure. Oh!” she said through a mouthful of food. “You wanna eavesdrop on the high council meeting later?”
Luke laughed “It's like you can read my mind.”
“Well, I assume being force sensitive twins gives us some sort of telepathy.” They both smiled at this, as it had been a running joke for years. “Anway, I think it starts in about an hour. We should probably get in there now to get under the floors undetected”
“Let’s go!”
-
Luke and Leia were getting older and bigger. At fifteen, the hiding space they discovered at ten was becoming awfully inconvenient. The twins were squished together in the vent below the floor, a hiding space that had thankfully not been compromised, like the ceiling vent.
The twins looked up as they heard their mother’s good friend and Leia’s pretend father call the meeting to order.
“As we know, the declaration of the republic will be sent out tonight, officially declaring our intentions to reinstate the republic and plunging us into a war.”
While this sentence was said so calmly by the Senator, Luke and Leia felt anything but. Both of them could feel the confusion and panic radiating off each other through their force bonds. For a second, Luke thought he saw his father look down into the floor vents, looking directly at them. Luke nudged Leia and motioned for her to put up her force shields, which she quickly obliged as Bail’s speech continued.
“This move is risky, and we have to be prepared for the repercussions, should the empire trace back the signal, despite all our best efforts. Squad leaders, that means have your crews on standby. Senator Amidala will now read the declaration to be sent to the empire”
Luke and Leia could glimpse their mother behind the Alderaanian senator, stepping forward. She was wearing senate robes, noticeably one of her more elaborate pieces. As their mother began addressing the imperial senate in front of the holo camera, Luke turned to Leia.
“If Mom is openly declaring us enemies of the empire, how in the kriffing hell are we supposed to return to the senate?”
”Luke, we aren’t returning.” she sighed, realizing it as she said the words. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice sooner with all the whispering and extra handmaidens last time we packed up to leave the senate. The war has begun."