In My Head

Chapter 1 - Obi-Wan

"Don't try it," Obi-Wan yells, but, of course, Anakin jumps just like every single time in the past, and Leia wishes she could block out his agonized screams as he burns. And Obi-Wan leaves him there, walking away.

The flashes are vaguer, but she can still see Anakin as he is now, or at least as what he became, a cyborg in life-support and a broken man. She can feel his pain, unbearable and overwhelming, as he asks after Padme and is told that she is dead because he kills her. That, most of all, is what unsettles Leia the most because this is her father. She knows it in the same way she knows that Bail and Breha are her parents.

This is her father, and he is said to have killed her mother. But did he really when she lived?

Leia jolts awake with a quiet gasp, gritting her teeth as tears prick her eyes. She isn't a baby anymore; she should be able to stop herself from crying over the past, no matter how devastating it is to her. Her parents are dead – at least that's what her adoptive parents have said to her – and she needs to accept that, no matter how much she wants to know more, wants to understand what it is that is triggering these constant, ceaseless nightmares.

She ignores her thoughts by getting to work on escaping, smashing the back off the chair and wriggling free from the ropes, waiting for someone to come and open the door so she can run.

It isn't long before the door slides open, and she springs into action, slamming the piece of wood into the abdomen of the man who enters and running. He grunts, but recovers fast enough to grab her arm, hauling her backwards with a hiss of "wait!"

"Let me go!" Leia screeches, squirming in his grip and kicking at him as he deposits her on the floor and backs towards the doorway, blocking her only escape route. "Who are you?" she demands, glaring. (She has looked at herself in the mirror, and she knows how much the glare on her face looks like her father's. He might have been insane and he might have done awful things, but he is still her father, and she cares about him, even if she shouldn't.)

"Your father sent me," he explains. "I'm here to help you."

She blinks at the man, and then blinks again when his appearance doesn't change. He's... familiar. Strangely familiar. His accent is familiar too. "Where's the army?" she gripes, because she had been so certain that her parents would send an army for her and make war because she had been taken.

"Come. I'm gonna get you out of here," the man tells her.

"Why should I trust you?" she asks warily. After being kidnapped, she has a very good reason to be wary of him, thank you very much. Besides, there's something about him that feels so familiar, though the reason behind it remains elusive, no matter how much she grasps for it,

"Would you rather stay here?" The question is rhetorical, and he continues without waiting for a response, "Now, let's go." He takes her hand and leads her from the cell. She has no reason to object anymore; she wants to go home very badly. She misses her parents, and this is not a very fun adventure at all. Well, maybe it still can be. Maybe.

"Come on," he whispers, pulling her down the hallway and out into the streets after getting cloaks to cover themselves. "We don't have much time. Keep your head down."

"This would've been easier with the army," Leia huffs, and he hushes her.

She wants to trust him, but something is stopping her, though she doubts that he'll hurt her. Maybe it's because his thoughts and feelings are closed to her, unlike most. It's strange. The man guides her to a side street where he strips off his cloak with a terse, "Come in here. We have to change."

Leia begins to take off her cloak too, when something at the man's waist gets her attention. A lightsaber, she thinks it's called. Like the ones the men in her nightmares have. "Is that a..." she begins, feeling both shocked and intrigued. "You're a Jedi?"