Fic: White Rabbits (Star Wars, 32/?)
And with this part, the word count on this story tops 50,000. I am both baffled and pleased.
Title: White Rabbits
Part: 32/?
Author: Diana Michelle (butterfly)
Warnings: Spoilers for Revenge of the Sith.
Pairings: Anakin/Obi-Wan; Leia/Han.
Rating: R/NC-17 (overall -- PG in this part)
Summary: Han and Leia meet up with Luke, who has a lot on his mind.
Disclaimer: Not Lucas, don't own a thing, not making any money.
Chapter Index
Chapter Thirty-Two -- A Question of Ownership
Leia let out an unsteady breath and Han glanced over at her, noticing that her knuckles were white from holding onto the arms of her chair. She’d been jumpy for the last fifteen minutes and he couldn’t wait to ask anymore.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Han asked, as he landed gently on his designated strip on top of the New Republic’s administration building. He wasn’t all that thrilled that he had his own strip. Sure, he was settling down and even had plans to get married in three months’ time, but that didn’t mean that he needed to literally settle down somewhere, even somewhere as fast-paced and mercenary as Coruscant. Han needed space to breathe, after all.
“Luke’s… not happy,” Leia said.
“Okay, I don’t think you could have made that less helpful if you’d tried,” Han said. Leia shrugged, looking out the cockpit window, towards the rooftop door. She could probably sense Luke right now. And as the person who sensed Luke in any way, he might think that she’d feel obligated to clear things up. Sure, he could figure out Luke’s intentions after giving the kid a good staring-at, but it’d be nice to know before, at least once in a while.
“There’s nothing more specific than that,” she said. “I can’t read his mind, Han. I just get the general idea, not the details.”
“Doesn’t really seem like the most useful gift in the world,” Han grumbled. “Give me five seconds looking at him and I can tell you what Luke’s feeling.”
“Well, I can tell you that he’s about to walk through that door down there,” Leia said, getting up from her seat. Han saw the door push open, a figure making its way outside.
“And I can tell you that he’s just walked through it,” Han said, getting up and following Leia down to the cargo bay door. “What good is a one-second warning system?”
“In some situations, a one-second warning is invaluable,” Leia said.
“Not here, though,” Han pointed out, casually slamming his hand on the button that opened the door.
“Well, no, not here,” Leia said. “But in some situations.”
Luke hopped up onto the ramp before it had finished lowering, easily keeping his balance as it hit the ground. One of his hands was fingering a side pouch on his belt and, at first, it seemed like he was too distracted to notice that they were waiting for him. Then he blinked and looked at them, the look in his eyes sharpening.
“Hi, Leia, Han,” he said. He glanced around the cargo hold. “Where’s Threepio?”
“How should I know?” Han asked. “He’s off in some corner of the ship, doing who knows what.”
“He is behaving oddly,” Leia said, reaching out to touch Luke’s arm. “Do you know anything about that?”
“Actually, I do,” Luke said, and he looked a little guilty, from what Han could see. “Apparently, Threepio used to belong to our father.”
“What?” Leia said, stepping away from Luke and waving Han away when he started towards her. “No, that’s impossible. He was a member of Captain Antilles’ staff for as long as I can remember. He’s an Alderaan droid.”
“They wiped his memory, after… after Anakin fell to the dark side,” Luke said. “And then Anakin brought it back.”
“He brought back…” Leia said. “No, he has to be lying. Maybe he reprogrammed Threepio, but there’s no way he could reverse a memory-wipe. When a droid’s memory is erased, it’s just gone. There’s nothing to bring back.”
“That’s what I thought, at first, but it’s the truth,” Luke said. “And that’s why I’d really like to talk to Threepio.”
“I used to play with him, when I was a child,” Leia said, distantly. “He would fuss about me getting my clothes dirty and try to tell me to be careful.”
“Leia…” Luke said, softly. Leia looked up at him, and then shook her head.
“I’ll be fine,” she said. “It just seems that everything goes back to him. Threepio used to be a reminder of home, of my family.” She paused then, her voice shaking slightly as she held Luke’s gaze. “My adoptive family.”
Han reached out again, and this time, Leia let him wrap his arms around her. She was trembling, like she had that night on Endor, after Luke had gone off on his own.
“He really reversed a memory-wipe?” Han asked Luke quietly, as he stroked Leia’s hair.
“Actually, apparently what he did was protect against the wipe in the first place,” Luke said. “He had back-ups of Threepio’s memory buried in subroutines.”
“That’s… pretty impressive,” Han said, remembering Anakin’s sure hands with Han’s engine. And Leia’d been right, about the Falcon running a little smoother after Anakin had tinkered with it. “He’s quite the mechanic.”
“So it seems,” Luke said.
“He’s just full of surprises,” Leia said, pulling away from Han, a determined look on her face. “You’re right, Luke. We need more information. We need to talk to Threepio.”
“Well, we have to find him first,” Luke said. Han rolled his eyes and hit the cargo bay's main comm button.
“Attention to See-Threepio. Get your shiny gold ass down to the cargo hold. Luke wants to see you,” Han said, leaning forward towards the panel. His words echoed through the ship.
“Or we could just call for him,” Luke said, raising an eyebrow and smiling at Han.
“If I let you, you’d do everything the hard way," Han said, reaching forward and ruffling Luke’s hair. “It’s not always as tough as all that.”
“And on the subject of learning more about Vader, Han has something to tell you,” Leia said.
“Oh, I do, do I?” Han asked, shooting Leia an annoyed look. She just smirked at him.
“What is it?” Luke asked earnestly.
“Well, my contact may have known him,” Han said, as casually as possible. Luke’s eyes widened slightly. “At least, he implied that he’d known a Jedi that was named Skywalker. It’s not that uncommon a name, so it might not be about your old man, but there’s a good chance.”
“Han, you were around ten or so when the Old Republic fell, weren’t you?” Luke asked, looking thoughtful. Han shrugged. “Everyone keeps telling me that Anakin was famous, so why don’t you remember him?”
“I do,” Han said, wincing at the looks the twins gave him. “Hey, it’s nothing helpful. Honestly, I didn’t even remember until my contact Dex mentioned that it was interesting that the Jedi I’d been hanging out with was a Skywalker. And I was never much for heroes, even when I was a kid.”
Hell, he hadn’t even connected Luke with that Skywalker, not until he’d thought about it - why would he, after all? Skywalker had been on the HoloNet all the time and he’d never acted like someone who’d just had a pair of kids.
“Even a little is more than I know,” Luke said.
“I just remember that there were kids who thought that Kenobi and Skywalker could ignite stars and turn back time if they wanted to,” Han said. “There was this girl, Her-un, probably around twelve - she wore black for over a year after Kenobi was killed. Which apparently he wasn’t, so she shouldn’t have bothered.”
“Do you remember anything else?” Leia asked, hesitantly.
“After they died… didn’t die, whatever, nobody talked about them,” Han said. “They were supposed to save us all. They didn’t.”
Han stopped there. He’d locked away his childhood when the Empire had risen. There was no point in going over it now. Kenobi and Skywalker - they were kid stuff, proven by this new appearance of them. This Kenobi and Skywalker weren’t what he remembered. Skywalker sure as hell hadn't turned out to be a hero, in the end.
And he hadn’t even realized until recently that Luke’s Kenobi had been that Kenobi, because Kenobi had been believed dead for almost twenty years.
Luke wasn’t the only one seeing ghosts, these days.
“There’s something that I think you two need to see,” Luke said, pulling something out of that pouch he’d been playing with. It appeared to be a data chip. “We’ll need a projector.”
“There’s still that old one over in the corner,” Han said, waving towards it. “Haven’t had a chance to unload it yet.”
“Do you really think that you will?” Leia asked. “How many people are in the market for a ten-year-old holoprojector?”
“More than you’d think,” Han said, defensively.
“You got ripped off,” Leia said. “You might as well just dump it.”
“I’ll sell it. It’s still good, I just need to find the right sort of buyer,” Han said.
“Good luck with that,” Leia muttered.
The holoprojector slowly whirred on, and a soft-spoken female voice said, “This is one of the few files-”
Luke hit a button on the projector, halting the recording.
“Hey, I thought you wanted us to watch that,” Han objected.
“I was just thinking that it might be a good idea to wait for Threepio,” Luke said. “He might have more answers for us.”
“More answers about what, Master Luke?” Threepio asked from behind Han. Han turned around slowly, and yeah, Threepio was looking a little odd. Distracted, if that was the right word to use for a droid.
“Do you know who Qui-Gon Jinn is?” Luke asked, intently.
“Qui-Gon Jinn?” Threepio repeated. “Why, yes, I do. He’s the Jedi that took Master Anakin away.”
“What happened to him?” Luke asked.
“Well, he must have died,” Threepio said.
“You don’t know?” Luke asked. “But I thought you were Anakin’s droid.”
“Master Anakin didn’t take me with him the first time he left, sir,” Threepio said. “It was when he returned with your mother and Artoo that he reclaimed me. And that was… over ten years later.”
“Wait, so you stayed on Tatooine for ten years?” Luke asked. “Where?”
“First, with Master Anakin’s mother and with Master Watto,” Threepio said. “Later, after Master Anakin’s mother married Cliegg Lars, we lived with them.”
“Who’s… Watto?” Leia asked, tilting her head.
“Why, he was Master Anakin’s owner,” Threepio said, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.
“Owner?” Luke asked, and Han winced.
“He was a slave?” Leia asked. Her lips pressed together thoughtfully and her words were quiet, as if she were talking to herself. “I thought slavery was against the law in the Old Republic.”
“Tatooine has always been run by the Hutts,” Luke said, distastefully. “And they have nothing against slavery.”
“Quite true,” Threepio said. “Mistress Shmi, that was Master Anakin’s mother, was very happy when Master Qui-Gon took him away to become a Jedi. She talked about him all the time, and she always mentioned how wonderful it was that he was free.”
“No one ever mentioned it,” Luke said. “Uncle Owen told me that he’d been a good pilot, like me. That he’d piloted a freighter and that he’d died very soon after I was born. When I was sixteen, Aunt Beru told me once that he was very brave, the only human to ever win a Podrace. I can remember going and checking the town records, seeing his name there. It mentioned that he was sponsored by a parts store, but nothing about being owned.”
“Hey, kid, he got away from it,” Han said, placing a hand on Luke’s shoulder. “He got out.”
“But this… this could explain so much,” Luke said, passionate and determined. “I just… need to work out how.”
Han sighed and started wondering if he'd actually get a chance to sleep tonight.
~end chapter thirty-two~
Title: White Rabbits
Part: 32/?
Author: Diana Michelle (butterfly)
Warnings: Spoilers for Revenge of the Sith.
Pairings: Anakin/Obi-Wan; Leia/Han.
Rating: R/NC-17 (overall -- PG in this part)
Summary: Han and Leia meet up with Luke, who has a lot on his mind.
Disclaimer: Not Lucas, don't own a thing, not making any money.
Chapter Index
Chapter Thirty-Two -- A Question of Ownership
Leia let out an unsteady breath and Han glanced over at her, noticing that her knuckles were white from holding onto the arms of her chair. She’d been jumpy for the last fifteen minutes and he couldn’t wait to ask anymore.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Han asked, as he landed gently on his designated strip on top of the New Republic’s administration building. He wasn’t all that thrilled that he had his own strip. Sure, he was settling down and even had plans to get married in three months’ time, but that didn’t mean that he needed to literally settle down somewhere, even somewhere as fast-paced and mercenary as Coruscant. Han needed space to breathe, after all.
“Luke’s… not happy,” Leia said.
“Okay, I don’t think you could have made that less helpful if you’d tried,” Han said. Leia shrugged, looking out the cockpit window, towards the rooftop door. She could probably sense Luke right now. And as the person who sensed Luke in any way, he might think that she’d feel obligated to clear things up. Sure, he could figure out Luke’s intentions after giving the kid a good staring-at, but it’d be nice to know before, at least once in a while.
“There’s nothing more specific than that,” she said. “I can’t read his mind, Han. I just get the general idea, not the details.”
“Doesn’t really seem like the most useful gift in the world,” Han grumbled. “Give me five seconds looking at him and I can tell you what Luke’s feeling.”
“Well, I can tell you that he’s about to walk through that door down there,” Leia said, getting up from her seat. Han saw the door push open, a figure making its way outside.
“And I can tell you that he’s just walked through it,” Han said, getting up and following Leia down to the cargo bay door. “What good is a one-second warning system?”
“In some situations, a one-second warning is invaluable,” Leia said.
“Not here, though,” Han pointed out, casually slamming his hand on the button that opened the door.
“Well, no, not here,” Leia said. “But in some situations.”
Luke hopped up onto the ramp before it had finished lowering, easily keeping his balance as it hit the ground. One of his hands was fingering a side pouch on his belt and, at first, it seemed like he was too distracted to notice that they were waiting for him. Then he blinked and looked at them, the look in his eyes sharpening.
“Hi, Leia, Han,” he said. He glanced around the cargo hold. “Where’s Threepio?”
“How should I know?” Han asked. “He’s off in some corner of the ship, doing who knows what.”
“He is behaving oddly,” Leia said, reaching out to touch Luke’s arm. “Do you know anything about that?”
“Actually, I do,” Luke said, and he looked a little guilty, from what Han could see. “Apparently, Threepio used to belong to our father.”
“What?” Leia said, stepping away from Luke and waving Han away when he started towards her. “No, that’s impossible. He was a member of Captain Antilles’ staff for as long as I can remember. He’s an Alderaan droid.”
“They wiped his memory, after… after Anakin fell to the dark side,” Luke said. “And then Anakin brought it back.”
“He brought back…” Leia said. “No, he has to be lying. Maybe he reprogrammed Threepio, but there’s no way he could reverse a memory-wipe. When a droid’s memory is erased, it’s just gone. There’s nothing to bring back.”
“That’s what I thought, at first, but it’s the truth,” Luke said. “And that’s why I’d really like to talk to Threepio.”
“I used to play with him, when I was a child,” Leia said, distantly. “He would fuss about me getting my clothes dirty and try to tell me to be careful.”
“Leia…” Luke said, softly. Leia looked up at him, and then shook her head.
“I’ll be fine,” she said. “It just seems that everything goes back to him. Threepio used to be a reminder of home, of my family.” She paused then, her voice shaking slightly as she held Luke’s gaze. “My adoptive family.”
Han reached out again, and this time, Leia let him wrap his arms around her. She was trembling, like she had that night on Endor, after Luke had gone off on his own.
“He really reversed a memory-wipe?” Han asked Luke quietly, as he stroked Leia’s hair.
“Actually, apparently what he did was protect against the wipe in the first place,” Luke said. “He had back-ups of Threepio’s memory buried in subroutines.”
“That’s… pretty impressive,” Han said, remembering Anakin’s sure hands with Han’s engine. And Leia’d been right, about the Falcon running a little smoother after Anakin had tinkered with it. “He’s quite the mechanic.”
“So it seems,” Luke said.
“He’s just full of surprises,” Leia said, pulling away from Han, a determined look on her face. “You’re right, Luke. We need more information. We need to talk to Threepio.”
“Well, we have to find him first,” Luke said. Han rolled his eyes and hit the cargo bay's main comm button.
“Attention to See-Threepio. Get your shiny gold ass down to the cargo hold. Luke wants to see you,” Han said, leaning forward towards the panel. His words echoed through the ship.
“Or we could just call for him,” Luke said, raising an eyebrow and smiling at Han.
“If I let you, you’d do everything the hard way," Han said, reaching forward and ruffling Luke’s hair. “It’s not always as tough as all that.”
“And on the subject of learning more about Vader, Han has something to tell you,” Leia said.
“Oh, I do, do I?” Han asked, shooting Leia an annoyed look. She just smirked at him.
“What is it?” Luke asked earnestly.
“Well, my contact may have known him,” Han said, as casually as possible. Luke’s eyes widened slightly. “At least, he implied that he’d known a Jedi that was named Skywalker. It’s not that uncommon a name, so it might not be about your old man, but there’s a good chance.”
“Han, you were around ten or so when the Old Republic fell, weren’t you?” Luke asked, looking thoughtful. Han shrugged. “Everyone keeps telling me that Anakin was famous, so why don’t you remember him?”
“I do,” Han said, wincing at the looks the twins gave him. “Hey, it’s nothing helpful. Honestly, I didn’t even remember until my contact Dex mentioned that it was interesting that the Jedi I’d been hanging out with was a Skywalker. And I was never much for heroes, even when I was a kid.”
Hell, he hadn’t even connected Luke with that Skywalker, not until he’d thought about it - why would he, after all? Skywalker had been on the HoloNet all the time and he’d never acted like someone who’d just had a pair of kids.
“Even a little is more than I know,” Luke said.
“I just remember that there were kids who thought that Kenobi and Skywalker could ignite stars and turn back time if they wanted to,” Han said. “There was this girl, Her-un, probably around twelve - she wore black for over a year after Kenobi was killed. Which apparently he wasn’t, so she shouldn’t have bothered.”
“Do you remember anything else?” Leia asked, hesitantly.
“After they died… didn’t die, whatever, nobody talked about them,” Han said. “They were supposed to save us all. They didn’t.”
Han stopped there. He’d locked away his childhood when the Empire had risen. There was no point in going over it now. Kenobi and Skywalker - they were kid stuff, proven by this new appearance of them. This Kenobi and Skywalker weren’t what he remembered. Skywalker sure as hell hadn't turned out to be a hero, in the end.
And he hadn’t even realized until recently that Luke’s Kenobi had been that Kenobi, because Kenobi had been believed dead for almost twenty years.
Luke wasn’t the only one seeing ghosts, these days.
“There’s something that I think you two need to see,” Luke said, pulling something out of that pouch he’d been playing with. It appeared to be a data chip. “We’ll need a projector.”
“There’s still that old one over in the corner,” Han said, waving towards it. “Haven’t had a chance to unload it yet.”
“Do you really think that you will?” Leia asked. “How many people are in the market for a ten-year-old holoprojector?”
“More than you’d think,” Han said, defensively.
“You got ripped off,” Leia said. “You might as well just dump it.”
“I’ll sell it. It’s still good, I just need to find the right sort of buyer,” Han said.
“Good luck with that,” Leia muttered.
The holoprojector slowly whirred on, and a soft-spoken female voice said, “This is one of the few files-”
Luke hit a button on the projector, halting the recording.
“Hey, I thought you wanted us to watch that,” Han objected.
“I was just thinking that it might be a good idea to wait for Threepio,” Luke said. “He might have more answers for us.”
“More answers about what, Master Luke?” Threepio asked from behind Han. Han turned around slowly, and yeah, Threepio was looking a little odd. Distracted, if that was the right word to use for a droid.
“Do you know who Qui-Gon Jinn is?” Luke asked, intently.
“Qui-Gon Jinn?” Threepio repeated. “Why, yes, I do. He’s the Jedi that took Master Anakin away.”
“What happened to him?” Luke asked.
“Well, he must have died,” Threepio said.
“You don’t know?” Luke asked. “But I thought you were Anakin’s droid.”
“Master Anakin didn’t take me with him the first time he left, sir,” Threepio said. “It was when he returned with your mother and Artoo that he reclaimed me. And that was… over ten years later.”
“Wait, so you stayed on Tatooine for ten years?” Luke asked. “Where?”
“First, with Master Anakin’s mother and with Master Watto,” Threepio said. “Later, after Master Anakin’s mother married Cliegg Lars, we lived with them.”
“Who’s… Watto?” Leia asked, tilting her head.
“Why, he was Master Anakin’s owner,” Threepio said, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.
“Owner?” Luke asked, and Han winced.
“He was a slave?” Leia asked. Her lips pressed together thoughtfully and her words were quiet, as if she were talking to herself. “I thought slavery was against the law in the Old Republic.”
“Tatooine has always been run by the Hutts,” Luke said, distastefully. “And they have nothing against slavery.”
“Quite true,” Threepio said. “Mistress Shmi, that was Master Anakin’s mother, was very happy when Master Qui-Gon took him away to become a Jedi. She talked about him all the time, and she always mentioned how wonderful it was that he was free.”
“No one ever mentioned it,” Luke said. “Uncle Owen told me that he’d been a good pilot, like me. That he’d piloted a freighter and that he’d died very soon after I was born. When I was sixteen, Aunt Beru told me once that he was very brave, the only human to ever win a Podrace. I can remember going and checking the town records, seeing his name there. It mentioned that he was sponsored by a parts store, but nothing about being owned.”
“Hey, kid, he got away from it,” Han said, placing a hand on Luke’s shoulder. “He got out.”
“But this… this could explain so much,” Luke said, passionate and determined. “I just… need to work out how.”
Han sighed and started wondering if he'd actually get a chance to sleep tonight.
~end chapter thirty-two~