Rebel Pilot: A Star Wars Story

Chapter 1

When Anakin had gone to sleep the night before, it had been after a battle of the Clone Wars, which had left him tired enough to actually take Ahsoka's suggestion of going to sleep. This was completely normal for him - except the actually going to sleep part, of course.

Being slapped awake was not entirely unfamiliar to him either, except upon opening his eyes, he was not usually staring into the shocked and confused face of a woman who looked vaguely like his wife. Also, usually not in an unfamiliar prison cell he hadn't gone to sleep in the night before. But stranger things had happened to him.

"Who are you?" she demanded. "You just appeared out of thin air !"

Okay, so maybe stranger things had not happened to him, but if anyone was going to get into the situation, it made sense it would be Anakin. "I don't have any better idea how I got here than you do," Anakin said honestly.

She didn't look too much younger than him, and the resemblance to his wife was definitely throwing him off, even though she was clearly not her. One of her squad of look-alikes, maybe? But no, her Force presence was agreeing with him on the similarities... this whole thing was weird.

"You..." she gestured helplessly. "Appeared. I'm not even kidding."

"Where are we?" Anakin asked. Clearly imprisoned for some reason, but he didn't recognize anything about the place, and this girl had obviously gotten here the normal, non-appearing-out-of-thin-air way. "And... who are you?"

"I'm Princess Leia Organa," she introduced herself. "We're -"

" Organa ?" Anakin interjected. "Now that's a name I know. Any relation to Bail Organa?"

"He's my father," Leia said, looking annoyed at being interrupted.

"Your father?" Bail didn't have any kids, Anakin didn't think... "Like... father by blood?"

"I'm adopted," she said curtly. Now that Anakin could understand - she looked fairly young, probably barely an adult, but if Bail had taken her under his wing recently, it made sense Anakin hadn't heard of her, and he didn't intend to pry into her backstory. "You asked where we were, do you intend to actually allow me to answer that question?"

Anakin looked away. Right, of course. "Yes. Sorry about that."

"You're on the Death Star. You have unfortunately become a hostage by teleporting here."

"The... Death Star?" Anakin wasn't sure what that was, but it sounded scary.

"Never heard of it?" Leia raised an eyebrow. "Giant moon-sized space station capable of killing planets?"

"I - what?!" Now that seemed like something Anakin would have known about if it existed. "Very funny. Please tell me where I really am. I know you must think it's funny that I appeared out of nowhere, but it isn't to me, and -"

"I'm not lying." Now Leia looked annoyed. "Look, I'm sorry you somehow didn't know about the Death Star, though I kind of envy you in some ways. But I'm telling the truth."

And Force , she was, he could sense it clear as day through her bright presence (she was clearly an untrained Force-sensitive, which he would put more thought into later).

"How would the Jedi not know about this?" Anakin wondered.

Leia laughed bitterly. "If only there were any Jedi left to know about it. You been asleep for twenty years?"

"No," Anakin said immediately. Then he remembered he had appeared out of nowhere. "I mean - maybe? I don't know. Do I look any older? How would you estimate my age?"

Leia shrugged. "Like, twenty-five?"

She was only a few years off, so it was unlikely he'd slept for twenty years. Still... "Even if that's not what happened, there's definitely something off in the Force," Anakin said. Everything was not only strange and unfamiliar, but also... darker.

"The Force?" That was when Leia seemed to notice Anakin's lightsaber. "...You're one of the surviving Jedi?" She whispered.

" Surviving ? Surviving what ? Why do you keep talking about Jedi like we're extinct?"

Leia blinked. "Well, they are all but extinct... You sure you haven't gotten amnesia of some kind? The only survivor of the Purge that I know know is alive is Obi-Wan Kenobi, and I've already reached out to him to..." she seemed to be calculating her next words, which left Anakin offended by her lack of trust. "...deliver important information to my father on Alderaan."

"Obi-Wan Kenobi?" Anakin perked up. Now that was a name he knew. "Thank goodness. There's proof that I needed to know I hadn't teleported to another galaxy."

"Do you know him, or just know of him?" Leia asked skeptically.

Anakin gawked. "I - he's my best friend! He was my Jedi master! People say 'Kenobi and Skywalker' like we're a unit! Of course I know him!"

Leia's eyes widened. " Skywalker ? I - you - Anakin Skywalker? Like, the general from the Clone Wars?"

"Yes! There we go. Okay. I'm beginning to hear things I recognize." Anakin took a deep breath - everything was fine. "Yes. The Clone Wars. I've been fighting in the Clone Wars - which is exactly what I was doing before I fell asleep and randomly appeared here."

Leia still looked shocked. "If you hadn't appeared out of thin air with a lightsaber on your belt genuinely not knowing about basic developments in the galaxy, I'd think you were playing a trick on me. I'm sorry, General Skywalker, but the Clone Wars ended almost twenty years ago."