A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far Away

Chapter 79

Luna had finally stopped crying after what felt like hours, more for lack of tears than anything else. All the pain, guilt, and terror had finally began to slowly lose their potency, but they kept overrunning her thoughts. The flashbacks didn't help.

The sounds of gunshots....

Screams of her mother begging for mercy....

The crack her ribs had made accompanied by the pain from the kick....

Luna's hand had unconsciously went to the necklace hidden under her shirt at some point. She was holding onto it with a death grip, the reminder causing choked sob to leave her mouth. For the first time in a long time, her hand had found it, not as a reminder of her of her love of Star Wars, the connection to the Jedi and Rebellion she always had with her, but as the gift it had been, years ago....

A gunshot accompanied the horrified scream of a young girl sounded all to clear in Luna's mind, as what images her mind had managed to hold on to replayed in in stark clarity.

"APOLLO!!!"

The harsh laughter....

Terrified screams of children....

The sharp sting of the slap to her face....

The Falcon lurched as it came out of lightspeed, physically jerking Luna out of her thoughts. It was enough that she managed to shove a good section of the memories to the back of her mind with relative amounts of success and tried to put it all behind an impenetrable barrier. She closed her eyes and wiped at her cheeks as she tried to steady her breathing and pull herself back together.

Act. Come on Luna, she told herself as she began to wish for a mirror. It was unusual for her to remind herself of all that happened, always moving on and trying not to think of it, but when it cracked, Luna would escape to the bathroom to place a mask on her face.

The mask of a happy girl, or at least one that was doing okay in life. It had become something she had trained herself to be good at, but this was going to be difficult. It had been a very long time since she had to pull herself together anywhere near close to how much she needed to do it now.

She had never lost her control over all of it before, and what made it worse was that she had done in in front of them.

Luna shook her head and pulled herself together. She could do this. All she had to do was just act, no matter how hard it was, she had to do it. No matter how much she wanted to curl back up in a ball and let the misery take her.

You've done this a million times. Put a smile on your face and push it all down. Just act, she reminded herself as she slowly moved towards the main area. Luna ignored the looks her way, keeping her gaze on the ground and finding her backpack, which was still on board the Falcon. She considered opening it up and finding a book to disappear into. Books always helped.

But there wasn't much of a point if they were about to land somewhere, hopefully somewhere a bit warmer than the Falcon. At some point during her sobbing Luna had developed goose bumps from the chill of space. It was getting to the point that she was now beginning to shiver. Luna had wanted out of the medbay, but she wouldn't mind one of those blankets right about now. Thinking that there might be something to put over her arms in her bag, she decided to open it and shift through it.

"Are you okay?" a voice asked as the owner walked into the room. Luna froze and didn't dare turn around for fear that he'd look into her eyes and see exactly how she felt.

Eyes where windows to the soul, something Luna had learned early on in life.

"Fine, Anakin," Luna said, somewhat glad that she managed to get her voice not to waver. It was true enough, but her definition of fine was wide ranged. "What's the plan?"

"We're going to find our rooms once we land, from there, not much," Obi-Wan said.

"Sounds good," Luna said turning around and standing, forcing her mask in place. She still kept her eyes on the floor, mentally praying for no one to look into them. Sometimes her mask tempered down the emotions raging in her eyes, but she doubted this would be one of those times. Luna found it unlikely that it even tempered it down enough to hide her emotions from anyone that didn't even know her well. "I'll just hang out in a room if you don't mind."