My Life as Leia

Chapter 58 - Almost But Not Quite

A/N: Hallo! And welcome to another invigorating chapter of MLAL! :p

Well, our friends are off to Coruscant. Not sure what else to say. . . XD

ENJOY! And happy 4th of July, to those of you that celebrate it!

As soon as the Falcon lurched forward into the safety of hyperspace, the twins released their hold on the shuttle and stumbled backwards onto the floor. Han was immediately down with them, already exploding with questions.

"What was that?! Are you guys. . .are you alright? W-What just happened?"

Unlike Leia, Luke was present enough to reply. He chuckled lightly, sitting back on his hands.

"I think—I think we just made the Emperor really mad."

Han shook his head in disbelief. "You got that right, kid."

He turned to Leia, who was still stretched out on her back. Her eyes were open, and she was blinking rapidly as if to bring herself back to reality.

"You okay, Your Worship?"

She turned her head to the side to look at Han. "Yeah. I think so."

Gingerly, the princess propped herself up on her elbows and let out an exhausted breath. She wanted to focus on Han and Luke and the massive victory (if that was even the right word) that they'd just won. She wanted to be as cheerful as her brother and laugh about their accomplishment. Maybe even celebrate. She wondered if she could find a way to get Han to hug her again.

But she couldn't do any of that, because she was otherwise occupied with holding back the Darkness from touching her. It called to her again, stronger than last time. Now it was ten times more alluring. More convincing. Leia cursed herself for letting her guard down again, but holding back the shuttle with Luke had required every ounce of concentration and energy that she had in her body. She hadn't even been thinking about pushing back the Darkness.

Now, though, Princess Leia was regretting it, even though she knew it was justified. Her abilities weren't quite strong enough to focus on two enormous tasks at once. It was one or the other, and giving Han time to set the coordinates was much more important.

The coordinates. . .

"Where are we going?" Leia asked suddenly, a new flash a panic sparking up in her eyes.

Han blinked. "Coruscant. Is that. . .okay?"

The princess almost couldn't believe it. She hadn't told him to set coordinates for Coruscant, had she? No, she would've remembered that. So how did Han know? Just a lucky guess? Did he want to go there for some reason?

Leia could only offer a distant laugh. "Yeah. Yeah, Coruscant is. . .it's great. That's great."

"Okay. . ."

She could tell that Han was confused, but she had too much on her mind to really dwell on it for very long. Instead of explaining anything, Leia pushed herself to a wobbly standing position and smiled shakily.

"I'm just gonna. . .relax for a while. You know, cool down. Call me if you need me," she said, making her way to the cockpit door. Hopefully she hadn't sounded too distraught—the last thing she wanted was to worry anyone. But even princesses needed a few minutes alone sometimes. Especially princesses that just rolled the first snowball that would inevitably grow into a series of catastrophic events.

Leia sighed, watching her feet as they clanged softly against the metallic floor. From the cockpit, Han's voice carried to Leia's ears.

"I don't know, pal. I understand her as much as you do."