Dance of the Sith

Chapter 1 - Runnin' Wild and Free

Author's Note: This is a gift request by Nihilus'sApprentice on ff.net. :) I hope you enjoy the story, and sorry for taking so long to write it! ^-^

~ Amina Gila

Her vision is still a little fuzzy when Leia pushes herself to her feet again, reaching for her lightsaber with a black-gloved hand. Her helmet's off, despite her father's firm insistence that she needs to learn to fight wearing it. She doesn't like it. Her visor is red, like Vader's, like all the Force-sensitives who fight for the Empire. Black and red are the colors of the Sith.

"Again?" Cody asks, raising his blaster.

After she got good enough with a lightsaber to combat simple droids, Vader took her to train with the clones. He did the same thing with his padawan, his former apprentice, back when he was still a Jedi. She's sixteen now, the same age that Vader's former apprentice was when he lost her.

Ahsoka had two lightsabers, though. Leia only has one. She still doesn't think that's fair.

But two lightsabers sound like a good way to relieve herself of a hand or two, so she can't complain.

Leia breathes in, shaking the remaining fuzziness from her mind and rebalancing herself, igniting the red blade. They shoot at her with stun bolts, and it doesn't hurt, though it's still a very disturbing feeling.

Let go.

She reaches into the Force, sensing their feelings, their intentions. She grew up with the clones, and they took care of her whenever her father was away. She knows them, their names and their Force-presences, can feel the up and down flicker of their minds with ease.

Her eyes narrow in fierce determination, and the clones raise their blasters. "I'm ready."

Cody fires first, and she deflects the shot, disintegrating it into a harmless shower of sparks, blocking left, and Force-jumps to avoid the next.

Beyond that, she senses the familiar feel of burning fire, a fire going black at the edges and drowned in smoke. Vader's back, and from the way the fire's edges are flickering, he's upset. A mission then – she can feel the sense of purpose and determined fire.

Leia ducks into a roll in the center, standing and parrying again.

The hangar doors open as he steps inside.

"Cease fire," he calls, hand dropping.

"Did you open the doors with the Force again?" Leia queries, teasingly, lowering her lightsaber and wiping her face off on her hand. "They're automatic."

He shrugs, a faint smile ghosting on his face. "How's the training?"

"Progressing," Cody answers for her.

"We have a mission?" Leia asks, reclipping her lightsaber to her belt.

Vader sighs. "Unfortunately." There's an anger burning in his blue eyes. They're usually blue when he's around her, and with Cody and the boys, but there are sometimes, some of his darker days, that they fade to a fiery gold like the Emperor and Darth Maul.

Her gut flips. "Did they attack another base?" Leia guesses.

"We might actually have located their base," he replies, "It's... an educated guess, but we're going to check it out." He looks at Cody. "Get the boys ready."

They're not boys anymore, at all, but the term still sticks. If their aging hadn't been changed, they'd still be young. Some of the youngest clones were born after her, even – before the Empire ordered the end of their production, because the cost was too great to continue – and they're already older than her.