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When Luke and Leia Skywalker were very young, they came up with an interesting game to play when they were trapped in rebel cell meetings on their parents’ laps, too young to be left in their quarters alone. It had, time and time again, gotten them into trouble with Dad’s superior officers (which was only Mom, Uncle Ben and two senators who were practically relatives, but even that wasn’t pleasant to sit through when they were being told off), and ruined fairly serious moments by one or both of the twins, and occasionally their own father, bursting into hysterical laughter at the particular vulgar or hilarious thing one of them had happened to think at that time.
Dad wasn’t with them now, he’d been assigned a mission with Uncle Ben to sabotage an imp trade route or something. They weren’t quite sure. Technically, they weren’t supposed to know about it (for security or something along those lines), but Dad had sworn to never lie to them, and had given them subtle hints as to what he was going to be doing.
And then he dropped them off on Seelos. And after a reintroduction with Rex, Wolffe and Gregor, a breakdown that took a good few hours to get the modified walker going again, they crawled back inside to play that stupid old game.
“Right. I’m going first,” Leia insisted, plonking herself down opposite the cross-legged Luke.
“That’s not fair!” Luke insisted. “You always go first!”
“And I always win,” Leia reminded him, shuffling around until her back was settled against the cool durasteel interior wall.
They were inside the control room of Rex, Gregor and Wolffe’s very modified AT-TE walker – so modified, in fact, that it was difficult to tell it had ever been one in the first place. The washing and cables and cargo crates dangling over the side didn’t help with the identification. Any imp who happened to do a flyby check-up on the old clones – which was unlikely to happen in any case, considering how redundant the empire thought the clones were – would have taken one look, assumed that the old soldiers had gone completely nuts, and disappeared before they had to talk to them. The occasions when the clones did receive contact, Gregor normally managed to weird away the officer in record-breaking times. His current best was thirteen seconds. His worst was one minute nineteen.
“Well yeah,” Luke replied, almost sulky. “But I’m not as kriffing filthy-minded as you. I win on that front. Also puns,” he added, almost as an afterthought.
“What else’re we gonna do?” Leia said. “It’s my turn to be bait, so I’m not going outside until Dad comes back to get us.”
“It’s not that bad. It’s better than this game.”
“You only say that because you suck at it! And because you’re Gregor’s favourite!”
Luke opened his mouth to throw back a biting retort – probably something completely unrelated about that smuggler, whose appearances always made her turn pink and scowl ferociously – when a faint beeping was emitted from the controls surrounding the proximity scanner.
They blinked for a few moments, and then scrambled to their feet.
“There’s something coming in on the scanner,” Leia said, squinting at the darkened screen. She knew it was entirely plausible that it was just a blip in the system; when sandstorms approached there was always a bit of a mess-up. Nothing to worry about ordinarily, but there was a niggling feeling in the back of her brain that she knew was the Force yelling at her, and not just a coincidental feeling.
Oh, this was so irritating. Of course something would come up on the scanner just after that stupid breakdown made a power surge knock out the screen and Luke hadn’t quite fixed it properly. Whenever they were prepared for something, nothing ever happened. And when they weren’t… well.
She swiftly looked at Luke. His eyes were somewhere far away, and there was that tiny crease between his eyebrows that always appeared when he and Mom were in deep concentration. He was much better than she at sensing people and possible… altercations, but she conquered all but her father in offensive lightsaber training.
“Can you sense whatever it is?”
Luke stayed silent for a few seconds more, and then blinked, his pupils rapidly dilating and shrinking until he returned to normal, and he smiled uneasily at her. “Yeah,” he answered, beginning to chew on his lip. “Small ship. Probably an auxiliary vessel.”
“An auxiliary vessel? But that means there’s probably a larger ship moored in the atmosphere! Do we need to tell Rex before it gets here?” Leia chanced a look back at the scanner, before deciding it was relatively useless to keep looking at it when there was a minus 100% chance of actually being able to see something on it. “You reckon it’s a threat?”
Luke closed his eyes and frowned, pressing three fingers into his temple. “I don’t – there’s three or four aboard, I think. Two of ‘em are pretty easy to see in the Force, but – ” Luke dragged a hand through his hair. “I don’t think they are?” he said uncertainly. “Threats, I mean. I don’t know if it’s armed.”
The proximity warning began bleeping agitatedly. Leia started to turn back to the scanner, before remembering she wasn’t going to do that anymore. “I’m gonna tell Rex,” she decided. “It’s really kriffing close.”
“Yeah,” Luke agreed. His jaw had tightened.
The proximity warning screamed. Leia hit the screen with a flat handed slap, and it flickered for a few seconds, showing a small square of red land in front of the walker. Then it plunged into darkness once more.
Leia swore extravagantly, and the walker lurched to a halt. Luke, who was beginning to walk over to the door, tipped backwards, his arms windmilling as he tried to stay upright. He failed. Leia found herself promptly on the ground as well, with her elbow pressed into Luke’s cheek. Another twinge in the Force echoed in her mind… there was someone – or some people – outside who were powerful.
Inquisitors. It was the only explanation.
“Inquisitors?” Luke asked, alarmed, catching onto her thoughts. “How – how did they find us? We never met any on Lothal!”
“The instructors at the academy,” she realised. “How could we have been so stupid?” She climbed to her feet as quickly as she could, hoisting up Luke with her. “They must have had some bio info on us.”
Luke moaned. “A search, and then they could tie us to Mom and Dad. Why are they only ever smart when we need ‘em to be dumb?” He rubbed his newly-bruised cheek, and his alarmed expression turned to puzzled.
“What?” Leia patted his pink cheek and apologised mentally.
Luke tilted his head. “They don’t seem hostile. I mean – I know I said before that I didn’t think they were threats, but – like, I really don’t? One of them seems really excited. Like, happy-excited, not kill-rebels-excited.” He took another step towards the door.
“Don’t even think about it,” Wolffe snarled from the comm.
“We weren’t doing anything,” Leia lied immediately, glaring at the device.
“I’m not an idiot. You are not leaving the cabin.”
“What if you need help?” Luke argued. “We’re Jedi - ”
“Apprentices,” Wolffe interjected. “Baby Jedi. Kiddies. Padawans.”
“Commanders. So we outrank you.”
“Babies,” Wolffe repeated. “Stay inside.” The comm shut off.
Leia turned to her twin immediately. “What’s happening?” She was itching to unhook her lightsaber from her belt, but knew better than to do that. It would attract attention, and possibly give away their family. She would use it only in the most drastic of emergencies.
Luke pressed one hand flat against the door, fingers splayed, and concentrated. “The excited one’s still excited. The others are wary. One’s particularly – ” He paused, and scrunched up his brow. “Worried? I dunno. I’m not getting good vibes from them.”
From outside, Wolffe yelled at someone, and Rex told him to stand down. They didn’t sound particularly agitated, but even so, Leia’s fingers hovered over the door controls.
And then, even from inside a durasteel box, they heard the unmistakeable sound of a lightsaber.
Leia heard a barricade of swears escape her lips, and suddenly the door wasn’t in front of her anymore; Luke was holding her hand and they were sprinting, their free hands fastened on their lightsabers. Rex gave a yell and a lunge for them, wrapping his arms around their waists and bringing them crashing down to ground. Luke scrambled, his lightsaber slipping from his fingers. Leia made a snatch for it, but it rolled away, grating against the metal of the makeshift balcony, and fell. Luke stretched his hand out, the Force already curling out from his fingers to grasp it, but Leia swatted his hand away.
“We can’t,” she whispered.
It was almost like slow motion, the way it fell. The man below widened his eyes in surprise as it almost floated past, landing with a soft thud in the sand, a few grains spilling up into the air, and settling back again.
Mom was going to murder them. Dad was too. And Uncle Ben. Your lightsaber is your life. Don’t lose it.
And Luke’s life had just been picked up by an enemy.
“Oh,” said the man below, looking extremely surprised. His own lightsaber was still glowing by his side, and Luke’s was firmly clasped in his other hand.
Now that Leia was close enough to actually see him and his companions, and was beginning to see exactly how stupid that was of her and Luke, she realised that his posture was defensive, not offensive. And even that was disappearing as he took them, and the lightsaber, in.
“What - ” the man started.
Luke, however, wasn’t looking at the tall man. He was staring at the dark-haired boy by his side, who looked very much as though he were trying to wrestle the man’s lightsaber arm down to his side. He was very familiar, and although it took her a few seconds to put the name to the face, Luke seemed to recognise him immediately.
“Dev!” Luke exclaimed delightedly. “Rex! Get off me!”
Rex released the twins with an amused smile, and Luke vaulted the railing, sailing downwards to them, grinning.
“Idiot,” Leia snorted, and followed him.
Dev Morgan, the former cadet’s eyes widened and he grinned, letting go of his bemused friend’s arm. “It’s you guys! You are literally the last people I expected to –Holy –”
“Ezra,” the tall man interrupted. “Who are they? Exactly?” He may have put down his own lightsaber, but he was watching them suspiciously. Luke beamed at him. He liked people too much, and trusted them far too easily.
A third companion appeared, and this one Leia could immediately put a name to. “Sabine!”
“Really? You both know both of these kids? Great! I’ve missed something really important, haven’t I?” the man asked irritably.
“Well – ” ‘Dev’, or Ezra, as it seemed, began.
“And you too, Zeb!” Luke continued delightedly as the huge Lasat started laughing. “But didn’t you have a droid at the academy? Chopper, or something? Where’s he?”
The man threw his hands up in the air. “This is fantastic. Is there anything you two don’t know about us already? Eating habits? Personal history?”
Rex began laughing up above them.
“Well, we don’t know who you are.”