Memoirs

Duty

Hello all! I have decided to start an ongoing series based around different snapshots of Princess Leia Organa's life. They are in no particular order, and please be prepared not everything will be strictly canon. I am also taking prompt requests so let me know if you would like me to write something specific (:

I hope you enjoy!

~0~

'Clank. Clank. Clank.'

Boots clomp across the metallic ground and gloved hands grasp her forearms tightly as she's all but dragged down the cold corridor of the prison block on the Death Star. The cold nor the burning friction of the binders clenched around her wrists registers through the deafening ringing in her ears. Not even the grating mechanical breathing of Darth Vader at her back fazes the young princess. Her mind is blank. Everything's blank. Gone. Gone.

Far too soon she's jolted to a halt, the Trooper at her right opens the blaster door and she's shoved unceremoniously into her cell. The back of Leia's knees hit the hard bunk, the only thing in her otherwise bare cell, and she crashes onto its surface. Her head swimming the senator lifts her chocolate brown eyes to the doorway of her cell, Vader stands there motionless, arms folded across his broad chest. If only she had the energy Leia would have gladly stared Vader down heatedly, but all of her fight, all of her will is gone.

She's physically and mentally exhausted, all she can do is rest her too warm forehead on the chilly surface of her bunk. Her eyes slide shut and she can still hear his breathing, loud and trumpeting in the otherwise still room, for only a moment more before the whisper of his cape and the clank of the blaster door announce his departure. She spares a moment to wonder why the dark lord left her so easily after all he had put her through, but the thought flutters away from her consciousness before it is truly pondered upon.

Silence. It fills the tiny cell of the equally tiny princess curled in an undignified ball. The pure white of her dress stained and dull, her brown hair askew around her soft heart shaped face, dark eyelashes kissing the rosy apples of her cheeks. Slim fingers clench and unclench slowly around the edge of her voluminous sleeves, twisting and pulling anxiously. Princess Leia Organa is numb, the ringing in her ears has thankfully ceased however it has left an unnatural silence in its absence. The hum of the space station, the muffled sounds of footsteps beyond her cell, not even her own breaths can be heard. The princess can't decide if she prefers this unnatural silence or the agony she felt in the control room after....Alderaan...

Alderaan is gone. Just like that. No what information she had given, no matter how much she pleaded and begged it hadn't been enough. Her home-world is gone. Her people gone. Her family...dead. A rattling inhale breaks the unnerving silence, the princess' chest collapses inward with the weight of the too-cold air rushing into her lungs. The chill settles into her bones making her shiver violently, she curls into herself in an attempt to keep warm.

She could have saved them.

But her damn pride had gotten in the way.

~0~

"No! Alderaan is peaceful. We have no weapons. You can't possibly...!" The young princess' eyes widened in fear and panic as she all but pounced at the Grand Moff in her desperation. Leia's aloof, confident façade had completely dissolved at Tarkin's words.

"You would prefer another target? A military target? Then name the system!" The Grand Moff leaned in close to the young senator's face causing Leia to unconsciously step back into the solid form of Darth Vader. "I grow tired of asking this. So it'll be the last time. Where is the Rebel base?"

Her eyes flitted from the Moff's face to her home planet through the window in the control room, her jaw clenched as she struggled to figure out what to do. What would her father do in this situation? Would he betray the Rebel Alliance in exchange for the safety of Alderaan? His Family? She closed her eyes in defeat as she sagged against Vader.