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"You have suspiciously high clearance," Leia said, when Luke tugged her deeper in the hall of the palace.
ISB removed accusations from Organa family after the major negative crash out in the Holonet. Princess remained under permanent surveillance now rather as potential threat. Yet, Luke always caught a couple of eyes sneaking on them when they had a chance to have a quick word. Vader didn't have tendency to appear much in public. On the contrary, he drifter the ship as far as possible from highly populated worlds. They afforded landing here and there on planets dwelled with scattered around its surface creatures, most of them unable to communicate in basic or unwilling to do so.
Unlike today. It was an important event on Naboo, and Vader was sent to watch over it. Even though Luke planned the transfer as an aid and all the other stuff, he barely remembered anything. The information about culture seemed useless in long-term perspective, and he didn't bother to stuff his head with things inapplicable on the battlefield. He regretted it now sourly, a good dozen of eyes on him when he-
They ran into a dead end, the balcony embellished with carvings and paintings. With no time to admire such a masterpiece it all was left behind.
"We gotta jump."
"We wha-"
Luke estimated the height as acceptable to risk when he wrapped his hands around Leia's waist and brought them both down in a crowd of green bushes, its lash juicy green leaves hiding them from pursuit. They were breathing heavily to hear footsteps, but the odd sixth sense told that people following them both lost the trace.
"You know, I am grateful for taking me off the Death Star and all of that, but-" his hand clasped on her mouth. It was an intuitive movement, as Luke dragged them both down under the green canopy of prosperous local nature. The smell of flowers made his chest heavy with inexplainable feeling of joy. Someone peered down the balcony, but saw nothing and finally left. Now, as Luke hoped, for ever. he broke an equivocal contact with his friend, releasing her. The grass left spots on the light fabric of her dress, but it was no place and time to mourn the attire.
"Someone's after you."
"Or after you- I mean, whatever happens here, I believe, we can reason that. Hiding is not what i like, it won't solve our problem." Leia scoffed, the expression giving her young face wrinkles. "I am an Ambassador of peace-"
"You were accused of treason and terrorism, so, please, try not to step on the rake again." Luke underscored the last word with exaggerated wincing, as he crawled deeper into the garden. "It is a bad idea to act straightforward."
"Why so?"
Because my father is one of the most feared creatures in the Galaxy and he can wipe off a couple of worlds if he doesn't like my odd weekend with you, he thought with worry crossing his features. He pursed his lips, trying to grasp on the surroundings, the tension palpable in the air. Leia had blaster strapped to one of her legs in the holster under the pompously embroidered layers of her skirts. Shooting was a last resort, and the Peace Ambassador wielding weapon on a mere celebration? Journalists would eat them alive.
"Just- Let's just don't," Luke conceded having no real argument he could share without endangering princess's life. He was on his way to work out how to behave now, when he literally yelled at his superior - his father, to be precise - for not telling him the truth initially and playing this idiotic game of guesses and odd protectiveness. "I can use my emergency switch to call my ship down from the dock."
"And then?"
"Aboard the Executioner I'm under my-" his voice trailed off for a moment, but he pretended to gulp with anxiety he didn't really have after four years of academic training. "My superior's protection. And it's impossible to get there if you're not invited."
"I'm not a good guest, after all, Darth Vader-"
Yeah. Luke had to remember he was the only existing man ready to trust Vader with his life. Soldiers didn't count, probably, when it crossed his mind.
"It looks deserted," a slight nod pointed to the building some meters away. They could run to it swiftly and unnoticed, covered with tall trees. Were they pears up there on the branches? Luke's eyes froze on fruits hanging so far from his reach. Otherwise he would steal a couple. But trying to get some unknown local food might cost them lifes, at worst, and the theory seemed sound enough to not push the luck any further. "I'll comm to him. He'll take us out."
"Alive..?" Leia visibly shuddered, following him with uneasiness in her agile figure.
"Of course, silly."
They had a short run to the door, slipped inside and closed it, trying to make as less noise as possible. The warm light poured inside through colourful pieces of tinted glass, and Luke squinted, looking around. Making an assessment was the first thing cadets learned, and now Luke appreciated annoying trainings with noticing small details to estimate the hiding to calculate the right time to leave it. The interior was modest for Naboo, as he noticed, the lack of chiseled ornaments striking. The air felt stiff, and the only kind of buildings with no requirement of proper ventilation were...
Under the statue she laid, invisible for eyes of visitors. The label on a golden plate said Padme Amidala Naberrie. Her face looked young, and flowers crowned her head, their aroma swirling in the air like a sprinkle of perfume. His eyes fell on her, carved of stone, and didn't move for no particular reason. Leia stepped forward, her fingers running over tender white petals.
"She was a legend," she said, her voice sour and full of despair.
"You knew her?"
"Not in person," she sighed. "Senator Amidala died before I was born. My father told me a lot about her."
So, Bail Organa was her friend. They were in Senate together, so, no wonder. But Luke still held his gaze on the peaceful face, following curls of her ferocious hair, curve of her lips, pattern of her moles. it all seemed... so well-known, but he never heard about Padme Amidala. She probably fell under erase policy of the new government for her political views.
"She looks so young," Luke frowned, laying his hand on hers, cold and unanswering. He was so charmed, he forgot to send an emergency call, and now his comm remained plugged in his belt's socket. "I wonder what happened."
"She died in childbirth."
The piece suddenly clicked. "What?"
"She was hiding the fact she was expecting, and the day when the Republic fell she left the world somewhere where nobody could find here, the baby unborn forever," Leia sobbed, and Luke had to shook his head to sober himself. "I've heard she had it with a Jedi, but that's rumors. I can't say for sure, and my dad never tells more."
Yeah, Luke knew that well. Fathers had a weird annoying tendency to hide bitter truth from their children. But seeing her like this explained a lot. In his shoes Luke would never tell that too. It felt like a huge loss, though he never saw her - rather, didn't remember the only moment of his mother's warmth. Tears embedded in his eyes so suddenly he couldn't stop them until the first one hit the monument of an undying queen, senator, wife and mother, now lifeless and motionless.
Truth tasted awful, it made his mouth dry and his body rigid. Leia helped him to sit on a small finely crafted bench and took a seat next to him, their shoulder pressed firmly together. Her fingers found his, clenched reassuringly, but it didn't make things easier. Living without faces of people he had no chance to know seemed simple enough to now be burdened with knowledge his father desperately tried to release him of.
"Life sucks," Leia said, her noble solemnity gone, her head tilted down.
Luke caught his own reflexion in tinted glass. They looked alike - the mother and her son -, and now he traced his features mentally to catch on things he resembled of her. His lips, his height. His father was a walking wall, and he could slip into a droid door when he didn't feel like talking. Myriads of questions crossed his mind, but all of them meant nothing. They were not just inappropriate to ask, but senseless. Vader loved her to her last breath and decades after that the feeling survived, its poor light buried under layers of sorrow. He missed her, that's why he sometimes stopped mid-sentence looking at her last gift to him - his son. Their son. That's why he never talked about her: the wound preserved as fresh as his bond, one end of it now dead.
Luke sighed and was ready to send a distress signal, when abruptly stop.
"You know," he sounded weak, as his lips twisted. "I think we have to go outside to blend into crowd and then I'll ping." Leia looked at him with untold question. "The tomb is a good place to be caught into an ambush."
Into an ambush of guilt for losing her and not finding her child earlier.