Chapter Text
Leia Organa woke to the glare of twin suns above her and sand beneath her. She wasn’t expecting it, the heat unlike anything she’d ever felt before, scorching her pale skin. So hot she could feel it in the very morrow of her bones.
Blinking, she propped herself up on elbow to stare out at rolling dunes sprawled out for as far as the eye could see in every direction. She’d gone to sleep the night before on Alderaan, safe and warm in her bed and had woken in an endless sea of sand. She didn’t know where she was.
Riding the wave of confusion, Leia forced herself to her feet, groaning as she brushed the sand out of the skirts.
“You’re awake,” a voice came behind her. Startled, she turned to see a young boy staring up at her from the ground with eyes like the sky. His sandy blond hair, his dark robes that looked glaringly out of place, and the braid on his shoulder caught her attention. “I was beginning to think you were dead.”
“Who are you?” Leia demanded, fingers grazing over her hip where she kept her blaster as she felt her throat constrict with panic. “Where—where am I?”
He frowned. “You don’t know where you are?” Then, with more concern than she’d ever anticipated from a stranger. “You didn’t hit your head or something did you?”
“Well, if I did I wouldn’t be asking you, now would I?” she snapped. “And no, for your information, I did not hit my head. When I went to bed last night, I was most certainly not here – wherever here is. I was on Alderaan.”
That earned a snort. “Well, I hate to break it you, but you’re a long way from Alderaan. In fact, if there’s a bright center to the galaxy, you’re on the planet farthest from it,” he shot back.
There was a moment of hesitation before she asked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’re in the Outer Rim,” he said, rising to his full height as Leia found herself suddenly dwarfed. She swallowed, a ball of dread setting deep in her belly. “Tatooine to be exact.”
“The Outer Rim—you’ve got to be joking,” she deadpanned.
He wasn’t if that grimace was anything to go by. He kicked at a lone rock beneath his boots, not meeting her gaze. “Afraid not, M’Lady.”
It was difficult, impossible even for Leia to grasp the abrupt shift from her home to this remote desert. Tatooine was a name she’d heard before, notorious for its lawlessness and desolation, far removed from the opulence and wealth of the Core. The weight of the unfamiliar sank in as she tried to piece together how she ended up in such a distant, harsh place.
She didn’t like her options. “How did I get here, then? Did you kidnap me?”
He looked positively scandalized. “What? No! I didn’t kidnap you. Why the kriff would I do that?”
"Because I'm—" she paused. There was no point in identifying herself as the Princess of Alderaan to some strange boy. "You know what, forget it. It’s not important.”
His gaze was intense, much like the twin suns above.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he tore his gaze from her and sighed. “Look, I understand your confusion. But I didn’t kidnap you,” he said. “I went to sleep on Coruscant last night and woke up here with you. I don’t understand it either.”
Leia frowned at his choice of words. “Coruscant? You mean Imperial Center?”
He frowned. “Imperial Center?”
She huffed. “Fine, Coruscant,” she acquiesced, not that it mattered any. “Do you have any idea how we might have gotten here?” She asked.
“The Force?” he shrugged.
“The Force.”
Her unimpressed tone had his shoulders inching near his neck. Then, with sudden irritation. “How am I supposed to know? One minute I’m in my quarters and the next I’m here. I don’t understand it anymore than you.”
“Well, that’s just perfect. Neither one of us seems to know how we ended up here let alone how we’re going to get off this dustbowl.”
“We could find a ship,” he suggested.
“And where pray tell are we going to find one, genius?”
“Hey! No need to be rude,” he shot back. “Unless you haven’t noticed, you and I are both stuck in the same boat here.”
Which was the crux of it all, wasn’t it? She shook her head as she looked at the endless sea of sand that stretched around them. This was not how she imagined her day going at all.
Think, Leia, think! “We need to find food and water,” she said, pulling at the collar of her dress she tried to catch a breeze or slight wind. Anything to help cool her down. “This heat is unbearable.”
“We also need to find shelter,” he said before adding; “trust me when I say you don’t want to get caught out here at night.”
“Why? Will it cool down?” she asked, hopeful. The cold she could deal with, but the heat was an entirely different story. Already she could feel her delicate, pale skin beginning to burn red.
“It does, but that’s not what I’m worried about,” he replied as he walked towards the edge of the dune that they stood on, the sands shifting beneath his feet. He offered no further explanation as he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply while Leia watched in silence.
After a few moments, he opened his eyes. “We should go south.”
She frowned. “And how do you know that?”
“I just do,” was his simple reply as he began to slide down the dune, his heavy boots digging into the yellow sand, forcing Leia to hike up her skirts and traipse after him, slightly annoyed that he seemed to be taking the lead instead of her.
“And how do you know we shouldn’t head east or west or North?” she countered, hating the coarse sand that had already managed to make a home for itself in her shoes.
“If we headed west all we’d find is the Jundland Waste,” he said before adding; “only the desperate or the very foolish go there after dark and there’s nothing in the other directions.”
“And you know this how?” Leia asked, frowning.
“I’m from here,” was his simple reply. “Anchorhead is this way,” he said as he pointed south, “it’s certainly not Mos Espa or Mos Eisley, but we might be able to find a ship there. If not, I’m sure we could find you secure passage back to Alderaan.”
She huffed, “at this point, I don’t care. So long as we can get the hell off this planet and back home.”
“And I need to get back to Coruscant,” he said, his expression turning somber, “sooner rather than later.”
She could sense the urgency in his voice. The desperation as well as the need.
“What’s on Coruscant?” she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
“An old friend of mine,” he said, his posture changing, “I was supposed to meet her today. I haven’t seen her in ten years.”
She could see the ghost of a smile on his lips at the mention of his friend, but it was wiped clean off his face as he glared at the rolling dunes as if they’d given him personal offense, “and now I’m stuck here of all places,” he grumbled.
“I thought you said this was your home?” asked Leia, noting his sour attitude of being back on his homeworld. Although, Leia had to admit that if she was him, she probably wouldn’t be too thrilled to be here either.
He shook his head, “it’s not that. I was born and raised here, but I left when I was nine. I never wanted to come back here, unless…” he trailed off, his thoughts going elsewhere.
“Unless what?” implored the young Senator as she watched the boy glance at her nervously.
He shifted his weight under the weight of her stare, his eyes darting across the horizon. It was almost as if he was looking for something— or someone.
He shook his head, “nothing. It’s nothing.”
Leia knew he was lying, but she didn’t press the matter. Her main concern right now was getting off this barren planet without first succumbing to heat exhaustion, not asking this boy needless questions about his past.
“I was supposed to be somewhere today as well,” she said, looking up at the sky as her thoughts drifted to that of her father. She was supposed to meet him that morning for a mission briefing, but clearly, that was not going to happen. She had no idea what was going to happen next, but she prayed that the Alliance would be successful in their attempt to steal the plans.
“Something important?”
“Yeah,” she swallowed, “very important.”
He gave her a sympathetic look. “I’m sure whatever it is, you’ll be back in time to finish it.”
She wouldn’t, but she appreciated the sentiment. “I doubt that, but thank you. Whoever you are.”
Here she was following after a complete stranger on some desert planet in the Outer Rim and she didn’t even know his name, or who he was for that matter. And yet despite all of that, Leia felt as though she could trust him.
As if reading her thoughts, he turned to look at her.
“I guess if we’re going to be traveling together, we should probably introduce ourselves. I’m Anakin Skywalker.”
Her smile matched his, but a distant familiarity tugged at the strings of her mind. “Leia,” she replied, pushing aside the nagging feeling.
Perhaps it was the heat. Perhaps it was something else, but Leia could have sworn she’d heard that name before.