Orbiculatus

fin

Princess Leia Organa stands beside her father, staring out the viewport of their ship. It isn't strategically advisable for them to be the ones receiving the plans, but they were the closest. She should be watching the progress of the plans uploading into the ship's data-center, but something catches...not her eye, but the strange sixth sense she's had her entire life. They're much too far away for her to see anything but the battle station itself, but there's a nagging feeling of remembrance that she can't shake. She stares ahead, and nearly feels the presence of someone she swears she knows. She steps toward the viewport, and she can almost feel them step closer. A moment passes, and she can tell something major just happened, though she doesn't know what.

"What is it?" her father asks, standing beside her.

"It feels like someone just made a tiny cut in a rope, like something's beginning to unravel," Leia replies, trying to find the right words to describe the distinct feeling that she can't seem to shake.

"Sir, we have the plans," a lieutenant announces.

"Good. Make the jump to lightspeed," her father replies.

"Where to now?" Leia asks as the lieutenant leaves.

"Our base on Yavin IV. We need to bring the rest of the leadership these plans, make for an attack," he answers, looking to her fondly. "And there are some people there I want you to meet: an old friend from the Clone Wars, and a kid your age."

Bail Organa sends an Alderaanian ambassador to retrieve Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker, but by some stroke of fate, she ends up crashing into the sands of Tatooine. She's fine, the ship isn't , and her retrieval of the pair is time-urgent. So, after a brief discussion with the boy's caretakers, she asks Kenobi where to get a ship.

He knows just the place.

Mos Eisley Spaceport: one would never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. However, they would find a pilot, with a ship of his own, and a furry co-pilot who's just as good at growling as he is at flying. The agent wasn't sent with any funds, and the pilot is about to reject the strange band, but the promise of an Alderaanian ambassador is seemingly good enough to get them back to the base.

Luke Skywalker is, apparently, an incredible pilot. He doesn't actually get to meet Leia Organa until after the Death Star is destroyed, but he introduces her to the pilot that flew them there when he does. He's introduced to the Princess of Alderaan by the Prince Consort of Alderaan, and the latter ushers the two youths to a more private area with urgent matters to discuss.

Darth Vader is unraveling. He's recently killed Director Krennic, watched as his battle station was destroyed by a handful of rebels, and... something else .

He feels the girl's presence, nearly runs away from the familiarity of it, and shoves himself into his fighter when the rebels attack. There's something familiar in that pilot, too, something that aches and stings. He buries it, but it cuts him before he can manage to.

Darth Vader is sent to threaten the Prince Consort of Alderaan into submission by the Emperor, but the man stares him in the eyes with knowing, and Vader is sure that even death itself couldn't sway his mind. (The irony of that isn't lost on the Sith Lord, cloaked in black as he is.) Vader is making vague, but menacing, promises when he's interrupted by a presence. It's familiar, and she doesn't have to speak for him to know who it is.