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She glances around the corner. There is no one in sight. She motions for her companions to follow her, conscious of her steps.
Should they be discovered they‘ll face some harsh consequences. Leia knows she is in charge of this mission, the supplies she sneaked into this building for are securely in her hands. Should she fail…
She will not, she is sure.
They hurry along, further down the white gleaming hallway. When Leia hears a single sound, she stops in her track and makes her companions hide.
Artoo is great at this, wheeling behind her without complaining. Shutting up Threepio had been a lot harder, but when he was reminded of the gravity of the situation, even he ceased speaking.
Leia spots two guards walking into their direction. They have almost made it to the elevator and cannot be captured now.
The guards are chatting for now, unaware of their presence. Leia frantically searches for a place to hide. There is none, the walls all shine in the same pristine white and there are no doors to slip into unseen.
Leia is all out of options. She looks at her droids, well aware that they will suffer the most should the guards seize them.
She presses herself into the wall and closes her eyes, wishing as hard as she can that the guards will ignore them. The chatter grows louder, as the guards round the corner.
“Droids? What are you two doing down here?” The younger guards asks. He is relaxed, entirely unsuspecting of Artoo and Threepio.
Threepio has the presence of mind to come up with a half-truth on the spot,”We are here on behalf of her majesty and his highness. We have been ordered to retrieve an important object for them.”
Leia keeps herself pressed into the wall, but opens one of her eyes. The guards aren’t looking at her. The one who asked nods and they continue their way.
Leia grins. She managed to fool the guards into not noticingher presence. A small victory, but her mission objective is not yet completed.
She gives Threepio a thumbs up. He is really growing into this whole spy thing.
The elevator is right in front of them and Leia gets in without a problem. Threepio is next behind her and Artoo rolls in last.
The elevator ride goes by quickly. There’s a ding and they’ve reached their destination.
Leia gets out already giggling in anticipation. The way to the door they have to reach is familiar to Leia and she navigates them there without a problem.
Leaning against the wall next to the door, she whispers,”Artoo, the door is locked! You have to slice it open.”
Artoo does this without a problem. Leia excitedly watches him as he extends one of his appendages and presses the button to open the door to her mother’s personal office.
Inside, her parents are working on something. Paperwork is boring to Leia and most of the time they don’t talk about what they are doing anyways.
They look up as she enters, in confusion. Leia only grins at them and runs towards Mama’s desk.
She ducks under it, putting her bounty on the surface above her. The chocolate pudding is soon followed by a teaspoon and Leia moves on, setting the same two things in front of Papa.
She crawls out from beneath the desk and salutes her parents, who are silently laughing and smiling at her.
Papa bends down to pat her head and thanks her,”Well done, Agent Organa. You have done Alderaan a great service today.”
Leia smiles at him, her own little glass of pudding and spoon still in her hand. She rushes out of the office without another word, back to Artoo and Threepio.
Leia Organa is ten years old and training to be a spy. When she told Artoo that she needed to practice giving orders on missions, the droid volunteered him and his partner immediately.
Leia had put together her team of top spies in an hour, with Lola running reconnaissance.
Now, her and her brave team had earned themselves a break, as all of them sneak back into the droid maintenance room of the palace.
All the way in the back, there’s a small crevice, just big enough to fit a small ten year old. If Artoo rolls in front of it, Leia is no longer visible.
It’s just perfect for her spying headquarter as no one looks twice at the droids that dwell in this room.
Lola flies in shortly after, reporting back. Leia gives her her after mission briefing.
Now that all business has been managed, Leia digs in herself. The chocolate pudding made personally from their head chef, an elderly woman that often sneaks Leia sweets, is as delicious as ever.
Leia counts this mission as a full success. She does not contemplate the strange behavior of the guards, assuming that she just got lucky. Unknowing of her own powers, she used the Force to hide herself from them.
Artoo knows. He knows a lot of things he might just never share with Leia. He had to swear it to Bail, in order to protect Leia from all the dirstress the truth would cause. It’s moments like these though, Artoo wishes he could break his silence.
Leia eats her pudding, completely content with the world.
When she is done, she wipes her face with the sleeves of her overall and gets up again.
Her training isn’t done for the day, as there is still one more exercise she has in mind.
They make their way back to the private quarters of the palace and into the personal library of the family.
It’s a huge room filled with tall shelves. Some even have real paper books, as old as the family Organa, standing in them.
The game Leia has in mind is simple. She has to hide from the three droids as long as possible, while they are searching for her.
Leia gets a thirty seconds head start and is off. She weaves in and out between the bookshelves, searching for the best hiding spot.
Only the last line of shelves have a dead end and Leia decides it’s her best chance to remain undetected.
Her small feet carry her rapidly to her destination. She rounds the corner and is met with a strange box sitting almost at the end of the isle.
Leia has never seen it before and she is very often in this room. Behind her she hears Threepio finishing counting, so she just shrugs and crouches behind the box.
It takes the droids longer than usual to find her like this. Artoo still eventually does, chirping for the other two to join him.
Leia remains behind the box, chest more likely, until Artoo rolls up next to her and pretend zaps her.
She is giggling about Artoo’s monologue of finally having found and apprehended the vile spy, when her eyes fall back on the chest.
There really is a lock on it, which is very strange. Whatever is inside must be very important or dangerous.
Leia’s curiosity has reached its peak and she simply must know what is inside.
She asks Artoo if he knows how to open it. The droid tells her that it will have to be manually broken into.
“Can you show me?” Leia asks as Artoo already extends the fitting tool.
The Astromech rocks back and forth in what looks like a nod. Leia grins and they get to work.
It’s Leia’s first time attempting such a thing, so it takes her a while. Threepio and Lola have already arrived and are now watching her.
Threepio is cautioning that there might be a reason that whatever is inside the chest was locked in. Artoo blarbs at him to start to learn how to have some fun.
Threepio explains to them at length that he is familiar with the concept but doing illicit things do not fall into it.
Meanwhile, Leia has cracked the lock open. She slowly lifts the lid to reveal what must be hundreds of holo-vids as well as some pictures.
She has no disc reader with her, so she decides to just grab as many of them as she can and run to her room.
She helps Artoo to store a good few of them inside him, gives Lola one to carry and even hands Threepio a stack. Now she shoves as many of them into her pockets as fit and all of them leave the libarary.
The way to her room isn’t long, but Leia is a bit uncomfortable, because what if she is discovered this time? Stealing pudding from the kitchens is one thing, stealing maybe secret data something else entirely.
But Leia remembers the basics of spying she had read up on. One of the most important things when I filtrating a place undercover is to look like you absolutely know what you are doing and like you belong there.
So Leia straightens up and walks at normal a speed, trying to look completely at ease.
They get to her room without running into anyone else. Leia motions for everyone to throw their loot on her bed, as she does the same.
She picks out one of the holo-pictures at random and shoves it into her reader.
What appears is a picture of her father and a woman. The woman is not her Mama, though Leia is sure she recognizes her from somewhere. She has brown hair, brown eyes and the warmest smile.
Her dress is long and colorful, nothing like anyone wears on Alderaan. Leia is puzzled.
She looks at another picture and another. All of them have the woman on it, sometimes alone, sometimes with other people Leia does not recognize.
At last, she picks one of the videos and pushes play.
The image that appears is of the senate rotunda. Leia knows this, because she has watched countless speeches her father gave there.
Mas Amedda begins to speak,”The chair recognizes Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo.”
The pod of the Nubian delegation floats into view. In it stands the woman from the pictures. Padmé Amidala.
Leia watches her fascinated, as she gives her speech. She talks about justice and fairness for the people. How the Clone Wars is tearing the galaxy apart. She calls to defeat some bill that is currently on the floor and as she finishes, roaring applause can be heard.
Artoo, in turn, watches Leia. He is the only one out of all four of them that remembers the Senator. It is good to hear her voice again. He had no idea mementos of her were in the chest, but now he is glad he opened it for Leia.
When he is asked about it, Threepio provides Leia with Padmé’s career path. He speaks as if he hadn’t been part of her family, too. But Artoo can forgive him this, has to, as his mind has been wiped clean ten years ago.
It was perhaps the hardest time of Artoo’s life, feeling alone like never before. But he is watching faithfully over Leia, ready to do whatever she asks of him. Hadn’t Bail stopped him when she had been kidnapped, Artoo would have stolen a ship himself to go save her.
Padmé’s speech is finished, but without hesitation, Leia puts in another recording.
When she had seen all that she brought with her, she turns to them.
“She’s amazing, don’t you think so?” Leia asks.
Lola agrees, as does Threepio. Artoo has to keep himself together enough to not burst out the best kept secret in the entire galaxy.
“I’m going to be just like her one day!” Leia announces.
She never wanted to be a senator, opting to rather Nevenka a spy and work against the Empire one day. But in the face of her mother’s legacy, she chose to follow her footsteps, even if she doesn’t know it.
Leia stares at him, with a look on her face that is all her father,”What do you think Artoo: When I do become a senator, can I be as amazing as her?”
Answering this question is easy. “Without a doubt, little Senator. You’ll shine just as brightly as her one day.”
Leia seems happy and so exited and Artoo’s grief has become a little easier to bear.
As the weeks pass, he sneaks more videos of Padmé to Leia, but it wouldn’t even have been necessary, for there is no one in the galaxy who looks up to Padmé Amidala as much as Leia Organa, anyways.
When she is being sworn in as Senator of Alderaan, Artoo is standing in the front row. He is so proud of her, the baby he watched grow into a strong woman.
He knows, if Padmé were here, she would be equally proud of their little Senator.