Who Are You?

Making Some Headway

Traversing the forest surface was all but impossible for the three, between their undiagnosed injuries and Artoo's lack of proper gear, breaks were a necessity. Unfortunately, every time they were almost immediately cut short by the noise of a scout on their bike speeding nearby in search of them and the others. It had been hours of roaming without any sign of the others when the true toll of the journey started to show through the women's facades,

"Come on," Leia ordered Padmé, "we need to keep moving. Who knows when another scout will show, after that it's goodbye mission and hello ultimate weapon of the galaxy!"

Padmé gritted her teeth, attempting to pick up the pace,

"So," she questioned, "what even is the mission exactly?"

Leia stopped dead in her tracks, slowly turning backwards to face Padmé head on.

"Let me get this straight, you accepted a spot on what is essentially a suicide run without even knowing the end goal?"

"Well...it sounds a bit strange if you put it like that, so why not just tell me the all important end goal then?"

Leia scanned the area before motioning Padmé to come closer,

"Alright," she started in a considerably quieter voice, "you noticed the new Death Star when we arrived, right?"

Padmé thought back to before, nodding after remembering the sight.

"Well, the old Death Star wasn't nearly as enormous, but it was the most powerful weapon in the galaxy. It was constructed by the empire as a sort of enforcement against anyone acting out against them. It had the capability of destroying entire planets with one shot."

Padmé reeled back, nearly falling onto the ground.

Destroy...destroy entire planets?! If anyone had that kind of power, much less someone as evil as the emperor, no wonder they're all so passionate about fighting...

"In fact, I was a prisoner aboard the station," Leia confessed.

"Really, what happened?" Padmé questioned, excited to hear about her daughter's past.

"Oh. Well my ship contained the stolen plans for the original Death Star, and I was tasked with delivering them to the rebellion. Unfortunately, we were attacked by Darth Vader..."

Anakin attacked our daughter? Wait, he doesn't know about Leia...

"So I hid the plans inside one of my father's droids, Artoo-"

"Your father?" Padmé unintentionally interrupted.

"Yes, Bail Organa, was my father. In fact, I grew up around the rebellion because of him. Anyway, Vader and his Stormtroopers killed the entire crew and took me hostage."

Oh Ani, what has he forced you to become?

"He tried torturing me during the interrogation, but I was far to strong for the empire's menial tactics!" Leia smugly recalled. "Eventually that monster, Tarkin, decided to employ a new method. Vader held me back as the view of my home planet grew into focus, Tarkin asked once more for the location of the rebel base. I begged him not to fire, even providing our old location in a last ditch effort. And yet," Leia's face grew somber and her tone changed as well, "he used the weapon anyway. My entire home planet, and all of the innocent residents, were obliterated in front of my eyes. Vader, he's just as much to blame in my opinion, he restrained me in place and I knew he was smiling under that horrible mask. He may not of pulled the trigger, but he didn't stop it..."

Padmé held back the tears as empathy flooded her, watching as Leia deflected her sadness and pain onto Vader, turning it into spiteful rage. Padmé wanted to reach out and comfort her daughter, yet again she was at a loss for words.

I could never imagine what she went through, nor could I ever take her pain. It wasn't easy helping Luke, yet it runs far deeper for Leia...

"Padmé, we should keep moving."

***
Continuing the arduous journey, Artoo was the only source of noise.  Constantly complaining about the twigs and leaves being an insurmountable obstacle, yet Padmé and Leia provided no sympathy for the unbelievably whiny droid.

"Artoo," Leia turned around, "the point of being on a covert operation is not to draw attention to ourselves before we get the job done.  So stop acting like Threepio and remember that any small amount of annoyances that are bothering you now," she slowly walked closer, "will be absolutely NOTHING compared to what I'll do to you if we're captured."

Artoo shook slightly, whimpering out a few beeps in his defense.

"Hmm, but Luke isn't here, is he?"  Leia said before resuming the lead.

Artoo shook quite violently, beeping quietly to Padmé, before Leia shot back an icy glare so tense it gave her mother the chills. 

Well, Padmé thought while looking down at the now permanently silent droid, ...I've got nothing to say about that...

Suddenly, Leia dropped to the ground at the top of the hill they were climbing and motioned for Padmé to do the same.  Confused, she stared down to where her daughter pointed, noticing small white clad figures near the trees.

"Looks to be about two, we should be able to stay hidden-"

"Wait!"  Padmé interrupted, "look over there, to the right."

Four more figures approached, seemingly unaware of the danger.

"So, are we going to give away our location or try to just get to them-oh we're going!" Padmé shouted, following after her daughter.

She drew her blaster and slid down the sloped surface behind Leia with Artoo trailing behind, the scouts noticed the assailants rushing at them, but it far to late. Padmé shot first, immediately incapacitating one of the scouts. The other one jumped on a bike, attempting to escape his fate, only for Leia to steal the the other bike and chase after the enemy. Padmé fired a few times at the Scout, barely missing him, yet he and Leia were long gone in seconds. Padmé attempted to go after them, when she was stopped by an eager shout from behind.

"Padmé?!"