everything a goddamn ordeal in area family.

[imahologram]

Who:
1. Leia Organa imahologram, Luke Skywalker crudematter
2. Leia Organa imahologram, Han Solo straightouttacarbonite
When: Forward-dated to 06.11.16 or so
Where:
1. A hotel room on CLF5
2. Another hotel room on CLF5
What: Talking about Kylo Ren's identity and, uh, Anakin Skywalker's.
Warnings: Spoilers for Star Wars: Episodes III, V, VI, and VII.

After a point, Leia can't avoid the subject of her future anymore. Not with Luke, anyway. He's no longer injured, he's had some time to relax, and now that Obi-Wan knows about Ben...well, it takes just one wrong word to Anakin, and the secret's out anyway. Obi-Wan, she's sure, wouldn't let it slip purposely, but he and Anakin know each other so well...

Perhaps more importantly, she longs to talk this over with Luke. She's so close to the situation that a slightly more distant perspective would be helpful--and she's hoping desperately that telling Luke might lighten the knowledge's burden. Sharing pains with him always seems to make them a little easier to bear, if only because she knows that he'll gladly take on whatever he can, just as she would for him. It's exactly what she longed for as a child, when she wished for a brother or sister, and the certainty of it is comforting.

So she sends him a message on the MID, the first she's reached out since they arrived at the Collective, and asks to meet him at his hotel room. When she arrives, it's with a little rap on the locked door, purposely sharp; she doesn't want to project timidity and ends up forceful instead.

Comments

[imahologram]

"You've been busy." By the standards of home, maybe not, but she's spent most of the last week on the beach. Their lives out here are slow, especially since their arrival at the Collective.

Her smile fades to a more serious expression, however, as she goes on. "Have you met anyone called Kylo Ren, Luke?"

[t65]

Luke shakes his head. "I remember... you mentioned him at the cave on Dagobah." It's an unpleasant memory, and if Leia is bringing it up now, it must be important. He frowns. "I haven't met him, no."

[imahologram]

He's avoiding you, Leia thinks, and though she has no proof, it seems more reasonable than any other explanation. Ben's interactions with Obi-Wan and Han have largely been born of necessity; even if he doesn't oppose talking to her, he clearly wanted to do it as a stranger. How could he trust himself around his former master? How could he trust Luke?

You could, Ben, she thinks, the words sinking low in her chest. Luke is the most trustworthy of any of us.

"I think I know why I saw him on Dagobah," she begins, then pauses. This is it; everything changes. But there's no avoiding it. She's already put this off too long. Looking her brother straight in the eyes, she forces the words out. "He's my son."

[t65]

"Leia, you-" You can't have a son. He's too old. It doesn't make any sense. But as he gets the words out, everything snaps into place. His father, nearly the same age as him. Leia remembering a day Luke has yet to see. Time has no meaning here.

And something about it just feels right in a way he can't quite place. It's a feeling he's learned to associate with the Force's gentle guidance.

"He is." Luke frowns, tilts his head to the side. Somehow, he's always known.

[imahologram]

She waits for him to put it together, how a man Han's age looks at her and sees his mother. When he agrees, she nods, already weary of this conversation.

It would be so much easier to explain if Luke had met him.

"He's..." Broken. Disturbed. Unstable. "Something's wrong with him, Luke. Something happened to him."

[t65]

"He's fallen to the Dark Side, you mean."

Luke thinks of their father. Of course he does. "Do you think it was... some kind of outside influence? Unnatural?"

[imahologram]

"I'm not sure." So much of his life is a blank space for Leia, and the only person aboard the Moira capable of giving them some clarity has little desire to do so. He's been so reticent about all of this. "Something must have happened. I know he wasn't always like this--but I don't know what changed him."

[t65]

"Why don't you start from the beginning," he reaches out to take her hand. "Tell me what you know of him."

[imahologram]

Leia squeezes his hand once, appreciative even if this is probably a downward slope for her mood.

"I got a holo from him in the mail last month." It's not quite the beginning, but it's somewhere to start. "From when he was a little boy. He was...so much happier then. I can show you, I have it here with me. He was training with you, waiting for his lightsaber...he missed me."

And now? Now, there's the hole where an explanation should be, followed by a man who's violent and pained by turns. "Something happened between then and now. Something must have made him hate us--he thinks I abandoned him, but I--"

I'd never she wants to say, but she's not the one who's seen what the future holds.

[t65]

He squeezes her hand. "Whatever happened can be mended. It might not be easy, but we have to try. Or if it's his nature, that can be overcome."

He's dancing around the subject again, he can feel it. He's been doing it for months; it's become a strange second nature, to mean the truth without saying it. There's no reason anymore, he realizes. Maybe there never was.

"The potential for darkness runs strong in our family. I have it. You have it. Our father does as well."

[imahologram]

"We have to do something. He's not happy how he is--you should have seen him when he realized I knew." The memory of his face has haunted her since.

The rest of Luke's statement seems opaque from her vantage point. The potential for darkness is part of any Jedi's life, isn't it? That's the fight Obi-Wan's council is waging, with their rules about the ways a Jedi's life can go. "What are you talking about?"

[t65]

"Our father... has more potential for darkness than you know. I'm sorry, Leia, I didn't know how to tell you..." He lets go of her hand. He knows his sister; she won't want to be near him when he tells her.

Where does he begin? At the beginning.

"On Bespin, when I fought Vader, he asked me to join him."

[imahologram]

On Bespin, when I fought Vader. The pit of her stomach grows cold at the juxtaposition of Anakin and Vader. He can't seriously mean this. Their father has been so kind to them--to her--and so happy to become a part of their lives. Even on the occasions when his temper has come through (briefly! briefly!), his goodness seems assured.

He can't possibly mean this. He must be mistaken.

"Luke..." she says, half warning, half plea. She knows what's coming, but she'd give anything not to hear it.

[t65]

But it's the truth, and he has to say that. He knows that now. He has to say it, because she always deserved to know. He's done her a disservice, and he wonders if she can ever forgive him. If she can't, he can't blame her.

"He wanted us to rule the galaxy as father and son. Ben lied to me... and I'm no better. I'm so sorry, Leia."

[imahologram]

"You lied to me." Leia stands, taking a step back from her brother. Her jaw clenches as she stares at him, her teeth gritting together. "You've been lying to me for months."

It's more than indignation; it's fury at the idea that he'd keep this from her, let her get close to Darth Vader without breathing a word to her. And fury at herself for not realizing. She was taken in by a cocky grin and a sense of humor, and by a childish longing to know her past, a longing that should have died off long ago. She let herself become fond of, perhaps let herself love, one of the evilest men the galaxy's known.

She doesn't want to ask, but she has to. "Why?"

[t65]

Luke wants to argue, but he can't. He meets her eyes with a saddened expression, knowing he deserves whatever she throws at him. He takes it quietly, waiting for the inevitable question he still doesn't have an answer to.

"Because I was afraid. And because of how happy you were. And because I thought... maybe it wasn't true." He still wants to ask Yoda, confirm it somehow. He lost his one chance on that other Dagobah. But he knows, now. He's met Anakin Skywalker, and he can feel the similarities. "But it is, Leia. I know that now... I'm so sorry. I... I failed you."

His voice becomes bitter, there, and his expression twists into a frown.

[imahologram]

"Our father is Vader." It's a whisper. She needs to convince herself; she needs to hear the words flat before her and try to see the truth in them. If Luke's telling her the truth, and the twinge of grief in her gut says he is, she needs to resign herself to it.

No, she corrects herself. My father isn't Vader. Vader watched my father die, and he didn't feel a thing.

"The person who failed us," she says, her voice burning acidic in her throat, "is the one who cut off your hand. I never thought you'd do something so like him."

Having said her piece, and already feeling a faint stab of guilt for it, she turns to leave in a rush of pale fabric.

[t65]

And Luke, a credit to their shared heritage, doesn't flinch. "I do things like him all the time. We both do."

A second too late, he realizes how she'll likely take that. But there's no taking it back. He'll stand by his statement, and take what's coming to him. That's all he can do. It's what a Jedi would have done from the start.

[imahologram]

She freezes in the doorway, turning back to look at her brother. He can't really mean--but of course, he does. Luke sees the best in everyone, and everyone, Leia can see, includes Darth Vader.

The thought still makes her stomach turn over.

"I don't recall torturing anyone recently," she snaps, and slams the door behind her.