Chapter Text
Leia hated this planet. She hated the sand. She hated the heat. She especially hated the fact that she heard the name Jabba, and it wasn’t in the past tense.
“Come with me to the mysterious Force Cave Leia,” she said mockingly, as she made her way down the dusty streets of Mos Espa “You’ll find clarity, Leia. You’ll find answers.” No, what she had found was a Force Storm that had dumped her on the planet of his birth, with no explanation, and if she was hearing the chatter around her correctly, at some point in the past.
Of course, she couldn’t just link into a comm and find out the year. She had no money to pay for such a transaction, and if Jabba was alive, that meant the Empire was around, and that meant trouble.
If she ever saw Luke again she was going to strangle him with that ratty robe he had taken to wearing. Seven years on Ahch-To and her brother’s wardrobe had gone a bit bare.
She was pulled out of her increasingly elaborate fantasies of killing her twin by a rough shove against her shoulder. Stumbling, Leia fell to the ground and watched as one of the locals kept walking on, as if he hadn’t just shoved her to the ground in his haste. In the normal course of events, Leia would have yelled at him, but she had only her blaster, no idea who she could afford to piss off here, and a deep desire to escape notice.
“Are you alright?” a voice asked beside her.
Leia lifted her head to snarl at the moron who would ask such a stupid question only to come face to face with a human child.
She swallowed her caustic answer and went with “No.”
He looked at her very seriously for a moment. He had bright blue eyes, sandy hair, and was too thin by far, for all that he still had some baby fat left on his cheeks. “Thought so,” He gave her an appraising look, “You lost?”
Leia braced herself on the ground and then using her arms pushed herself up to a standing position. “What gave it away?” she asked dryly.
“Your clothes mostly.” He reached up cautiously and fingered her short sleeves “You don’t wear clothes like this in a desert. Your skin is going to burn you know.”
Leia rolled her eyes. “I am aware. But since I woke up here with no idea how I arrived on this planet, it will have to do.”
A panicked looked entered the boy's face and he blurted out. “Did you just get captured?”
“Captured?” Leia felt like she had missed a step. She was walking around on the streets, wasn’t she? Why would he think she had been captured?
The boy made frantic motions like he was trying to shoo her back the way she had come “If you were, you shouldn’t have run off like that. Your master might blow you up as an example.”
“Master?” Leia was now thoroughly confused. “Blow me up?”
Sorrow filled his eyes “You're new at this aren’t you?” he asked, and without bothering to wait for her answer went on “That’s weird though. Usually, slavers don’t bother with people as old as you.”
“Slavers?” she whispered.
He nodded.
“No,” she shook her head “I’m not a slave. I just….it’s hard to explain” she finished lamely.
“Oh,” then comprehension filled his face and he took a hasty step back. “Spice user?”
Leia felt her spine stiffen in outrage. “No!!” she bit out. The boy flinched and took another step back. Internally she berated herself for scaring him. Well, Leia what else is he supposed to think? You claim to wake up on a planet and not know how you got there. “No,” she said again in softer voice. “I’m not a spice user.”
He still looked cautious, but he didn’t leave either. “Ok. I didn’t think so. You don’t feel like one.” He studied her for a moment, then coming to some decision about her said shyly “I’m Ani. What’s your name?”
“Leia.”
He gave her a wide grin. “That’s a pretty name.” Then the smile faded “You don’t have anywhere to go, do you?”
“No,” she admitted.
“You could come home with me. We don’t have much to offer, but we have a roof and can offer you some protection from the sun.”
She frowned “You often invite strange women to come with you?”
He shook his head “No, but I’ve got a feeling about you.”
Leia had a feeling about him too. The boy was a Force sensitive, a strong one if even in her limited training she was sensing it. At the very least she could get a sense of his home life, maybe find out what year she was in, and if necessary find a way to spirit the boy away somewhere safe from the Empire’s grasping clutches.
Still, it would be foolish of her to go without questions. She sensed that Ani meant no harm, but that didn’t mean his Master held the same sentiments.
“We?” she asked.
“My Mom,” he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Well perhaps to little boys it was.
“Lead the way.”
She follows him to a small complex, made of at least several dozen small cave-like structures, built on top of each other. He walked up to a door on the first floor, and with a flick of his hand entered the passcode. As the door opened he went running in, calling out “Mom, we’re home!!”
A female voice came out of the back of the home, wariness at its core “We?”
Leia stopped at the threshold, aware that no matter how friendly and welcoming Ani had been, that didn’t mean his mother would share the same sentiment.
Ani, who was already halfway into the room, turned around and frowned at her. “Come in,” he said, beckoning to her, “No sense in letting more sand in.”
Acknowledging the practicalities of his request, Leia reluctantly came all the way in. The door swooshed closed behind her, cutting off her only exit.
“Ani,” that female voice said, as a tall woman, with dark hair and eyes emerged from the back room “Who is this?”
Ani gestured to her “Mom, this is Leia. Leia, this is Mom.”
Leia called on every bit of diplomatic training she had at her disposal and gave the woman the friendliest smile she could “Your son was kind enough to offer me shelter while I figure out how I arrived on this planet,” she said.
“Oh,” the woman blinked at her, then switched her gaze to her son, and it became something a bit sharper, “I see.”
Ani gave her a sheepish smile, “She needed help,” he said.
The woman sighed “Yes, I can see that Ani.” She straightened and gave Leia a warm smile, “My apologies for my rude greeting.”
Leia shook her head “No, I am the one who should apologize. I can go.”
“Please don’t. Really, I was just startled. Leia,” she said as Leia turned to go “perhaps you would feel better if you knew my name?”
Leia turned back “You mean it isn’t Mom?”
Delight sparkled in the woman’s eyes “No. It’s Shmi. Shmi Skywalker and you have already met my son Anakin.”
Leia felt all the blood drain from her face, as she looked at this impossible woman, who Ben apparently had inherited his coloring from, but she managed to say “It’s very nice to meet you.”
Leia really hated the Force.