Star Wars: Legacies

Leia

    She watched Luke leave, sinking to her knees as the weight of what she'd just done. Why did she say those things? She should've known it would look bad, why'd she blame Luke?
    It wasn't much better than her confrontation with her master. Ahsoka had approached the matter gently, and of course it was Leia's first reaction to get defensive. She winced when she thought of the horrible things so said to who was basically an aunt to her.
    Ahsoka had helped raise her, and was unconditionally supportive when Leia took a break from the Jedi to serve a term as queen of Naboo. Some things just shouldn't be said, and Leia had crossed a lot of lines, with Luke and her master. As she sat there, fully realizing what she'd just done, she hugged her legs and buried her face, trying not to cry. Luke would probably never forgive her, and she couldn't blame him.
    "Leia what happened?" came a familiar voice.
She looked up, blinking the bleariness from her eyes as Talon came into view. The twi'lek knelt in front of Leia, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.
    "Luke's the one who saw us last night. He told Ahsoka, and I lashed out. I'm sure they both hate me now," she sniffed.
    "Oh come now, I'm sure that's not true. Just apologize, if she can forgive me, surely she can forgive you."
    "I suppose you're right," Leia relented.
Talon lightly brushed a strand of hair out of the padawan's face. "Of course I am, pet. Now go apologize, I hate to see you sad."
    Leia nodded, and Talon helped her to her feet, brushing her hair behind her ears. The gesture was similar to one her mother had always done, and the thought felt like a punch to the gut. She hadn't talked to her mother since their fight in the senate building, going out of her way to avoid her. She guessed Padme was probably angry with her as well.
        She gave her mentor a halfhearted smile and walked past her, starting for Ahsoka's quarters, but they were empty.
    "Looking for Master Tano, are you?" came a voice.
Ahsoka whipped around, but there was no one behind her. Her gaze settled on the floor, where a little green friend looked up at her.
    "Master Yoda! Yes, I need to talk to her."
"In the council chambers, your master is. Time to think, she needed."
    "Thank you Master," Leia said before hurrying off to the council chambers. She moved swiftly down the hall as the meager light of dusk filtered in through the windows of the temple. I wasn't doing anything wrong. I wasn't doing anything wrong. She thought over and over. When she arrived at the council chambers, she was surprised to find that there was no one around. She opened the door, and her heart dropped like a stone to the pits of her stomach.
    Ahsoka was lying in the middle of the floor, motionless. There was a massive slash through her midsection, the scorched wound dripping trace amounts of blood onto the floor. Her lightsabers were still attached to her belt, clearly she'd been snuck up on. "Ahsoka!" she cried, running to her master's side. She slid across the door next to her as tears sprang to her eyes and her throat seemed to close up. "Help! Someone help!" she screamed.
    Hot tears fell down Leia's face as she tried in vain to rouse the Jedi Master. "Ahsoka, wake up! Help! Someone help, Please!" she sobbed.
    She heard a couple people behind her, but it was all white noise in the back of her head. She was dimly aware of Aayla Secura shouting at someone to go get Dr. Nema, and before she knew it, Ahsoka was being wheeled away, leaving Leia alone on the floor in the council room.
    She sat there on the floor for a long time, looking out the window as twilight faded to night, and the lights of Coruscant came to life.
    Some time later, she numbly stood up, walking out of the council chambers and shutting the door behind her. She's hated that room since she was little, and it was only getting worse. She heard footsteps and voices, recognizing them as Caleb Dume and Cal Kestis, two of the younger Jedi Council members. Leia darted behind a pillar, hoping to hear something about Ahsoka's condition.
    "-arrested for trying to kill Master Tano."
"How do they know it was her? I thought the surveillance footage was cut."
    "Forensics came back on the wound, it came from a bled lightsaber crystal."
"How do they know that?"
    "Red sabers are hotter, they leave more severe burns, if you know what you're looking for it's easy."
    "So what's gonna happen to her?"
"She's in custody now. They plan on moving her to the Citadel tomorrow morning. She won't get a trial til Ahsoka wakes up, and that could take weeks."
    Leia swallowed hard as they moved out of earshot. It wasn't hard to infer who they were talking about. Thinking fast, she moved swiftly and quietly to the Jedi Temple holding cells in the lower levels. She grabbed Talon's lightsaber from its safe and kept walking before anyone realized it. She dodged temple guards left and right, but eventually arrived at Talon's cell with little resistance.
    "Talon!" she hissed from the shadows, pushing her cloak away from her face slightly.
    "Leia!" she whispered back, moving towards the ray shield of her cell.
Leia scowled distrustfully, "They're saying you tried to kill Ahsoka."
    Talon shook her head looking deeply distressed, "Someone's setting me up!"
Leia narrowed her eyes, "Prove it."
    "Think about it," she insisted, "Why would I try and kill her in a way so easily traced back to me? Even more so, why wouldn't I run afterwards, knowing I'd be the prime suspect? Why wouldn't I finish the job, and why would I send you to talk to her immediately after?"
    Leia hesitated, seeing the sense in Talon's words. It was too convenient, she knew that if it truly were Talon trying to kill the Jedi Grandmaster, she wouldn't have been so sloppy. She was a trained sith assassin after all.
    "You know as well as I do that if your master doesn't wake up, or worse yet, dies, there's no chance of me getting a fair trial. Leia, you have to believe me, I didn't do it."
    She could hear the truth in Talon's words, she wouldn't get a fair trial. It was just too obvious from the outside that she did it. An ex-sith lord infiltrated the Order by taking advantage of the kindness of its grandmaster, only to turn around and try to assassinate her.
    Talon was her friend, she couldn't just walk away and leave her to a fate she didn't deserve. For a moment she was thrown back to a balcony on the palace of Theed, when she was sixteen. Her and her father were watching the sunset, when he decided it was a good time for a lesson.
    "Every Jedi is presented with a choice in their life, one that will permanently alter your future. Count Dooku asked Obi-Wan to join his cause, Darth Maul wanted Ahsoka to help him kill Sidious, who wanted me to become his apprentice."
    "And let me guess, you're gonna tell me that I need to always choose the light simply because it's the light?"
    "No, I'm asking you to trust yourself and the people you care about. Obi-Wan wouldn't join Dooku because he trusted the Jedi and Qui-Gon's teachings. Ahsoka didn't join Maul because she trusted me. And I didn't join Darth Sidious because I trusted my master instead. Mentors have a way of seeing our faults when we don't. You should trust them, but trusting yourself is what's important, Princess."
    "What if I don't know the right answer?"
"You probably won't. Just follow your gut, it's usually pretty accurate."
    "So, think with your heart and not your head?"
"Ahhh, sort of. Just trust your instincts, like I do."