Chapter Text
When Alderaan died, her royal family died with her.
The princess, of course, hadn’t been on Alderaan. Everyone knew that she was working with the Rebel Alliance, after all, somewhere on their secret base. But the Rebel base on Dantooine was destroyed too, and Princess Leia. There was the last of Alderann gone, as well.
It was a convenient lie, honestly. It saved Lord Vader the embarrassment of being outsmarted by a teenage rebel, and ensured that the morale of any potential revolutionaries would be crushed. And it was convenient for Leia, too. It meant that no one was looking for her. Not even the Rebellion.
And the Rebellion did still live on after the destruction of the base on Dantooine. Seeing a peaceful planet like Alderaan destroyed was the last straw for plenty of people. After all, if not even the pacifists were safe, what sense was there in not fighting anymore? That was the line Leia heard over and over again.
“Why are you helping?” one of the new recruits prodded her, once.
Leia was glad for the mask to hide the surprise on her face. Because what kind of question was that? How couldn’t someone fight? But that answer might compromise her cover, so Leia told the recruit “Bounty hunters have home planets, too.”
“What’s yours?” she asked.
“Alderaan.” Leia felt bad for telling the truth, when she saw how guilty the other girl looked. But what else could she say? If she could never return, she felt obligated to stay true to her home.
“I didn’t mean to-”
Leia lifts a hand to quiet the girl. “It’s alright. You didn’t mean anything by it. Be sure this gets to the general.”
The girl saluted her and ran off. Leia was turning to leave when she saw him for the first time.
There wasn’t anything particularly exceptional about him. A boy about her age in an X-Wing pilot’s suit, standing with some other rebels. But she felt something when she looked at him, some emotional tug deep in her chest that came seemingly unbidden. She was ready to brush that off entirely and chide herself for being ridiculous, but as soon as she felt it, he turned to look at her.
The pilot’s eyes were wide and shocked, questioning. Leia wonders if he’s feeling the same tug as her, or if he’s just alarmed by the bounty hunter suddenly in his midst. Leia places the heels of her palms together with the fingers facing outwards and then twists her hands so the fingers faced opposite directions again, then dropped her hands with her palms flat. It was an Alderaanian gesture of friendship and peace, as deep an instinct to her as anything. The pilot repeats it with the clumsy newness so many rebels had. It became a common anti-imperial symbol after the destruction of her planet. Seeing it still made her ache.
Dropping her arms, Leia turned to board her ship, and she tried to keep the pilot from her mind.
Luke couldn’t get the bounty hunter out of his head. He’d had dreams about him the last three nights - cryptic, warning dreams. Force visions.
“Do you know anything about that bounty hunter who was here the other day?” he asked Wedge and Biggs, because if Luke doesn’t talk about this he may keel over dead.
His friends exchanged amused looks. “The one you were staring at, you mean?” Wedge teased.
Luke flushes, punches Wedge in the shoulder. “Shut up, it’s not like that! I just-” He cannot tell them he’s been dreaming about the guy. “Since when do we work with bounty hunters, you know?” Nice save, Skywalker, he thought to himself.
“Nice save, Skywalker,” Biggs says out loud. Luke has known him for too long.
Luke scoffed. “I’m just saying. Don’t you guys think it’s weird?”
Wedge shrugged. “Desperate times, I guess.”
“I dunno.” Luke huffed. “I have a bad feeling about this, that’s all.”
“You worry too much, you always have.” Biggs waved him off. “Just try to forget about him. It is what it is.”
“It is what it is,” Luke repeated with a sigh. “Right.”
He dreamed about the bounty hunter again that night. They were inside a ship Luke had never seen before. The bounty hunter’s ship?
“I know who you are,” dream-Luke said.
The bounty hunter took his mask off.
The bounty hunter took her mask off.
Princess Leia.
Luke sat up in bed, mind racing, chest heaving. No, no. Princess Leia was dead. She had died in the attacks on Dantooine, everyone knew that.
It felt so real.
“Go back to sleep, Luke,” Biggs grumbled from above him.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you,” Luke whispered. He should’ve let Biggs go back to sleep, but then he said “I had another dream about the bounty hunter.”
Biggs groaned. “Oh, Luke. Just talk to him next time he’s here.”
“Sorry,” Luke mumbled. “I will.”
Oh, yes. He’d talk to her plenty.