Darkness {4}

Chapter 11

Leena rubbed her tired eyes and exited Leia's quarters with her, sighing. "Did we really have to find out about this at two in the morning? Why couldn't they wait to file the missing person's report until six or seven, or at least until the sun was up?"

Leia sighed, showing how exasperated and tired she was too. "I know, but either way we were bound to find out. First I'd like to know just what exactly happened and how in blazes he got out."

The two women walked into the Prison Sector for what seemed like the billionth time that week, with Leia taking the lead as usual. She was the Supreme Chancellor, after all. Normally chancellors wouldn't do their own dirty work, but Leena had observed over the years that Leia had always lead by example.

"Officer." Leia greeted the guard stiffly, and at this point he knew better than to say anything in response. The gate opened without another word, and the two strode in and hopped onto a speeder.

"Let's hope they even know what happened." Leena said dryly, and Leia didn't respond as the Togruta prepped the engine and took off towards the large prison structure.

Rezka was already waiting for the two of them on the landing pad, hands folded behind his back and a scowl on his face. The scowl cleared up as Leia looked at him, but resumed when she looked back down. Leena, however, glared back at him, and Rezka seemed equal parts amused and angered that she'd dare look at him like that.

Leena had to bite back a retort to his dominating glare, and she growled to herself while getting off of the speeder. She pulled her sleeve down over the dark veins appearing over her hands and arms and walked behind Leia, reeling in her anger for it to be used in a safer environment. For now she had more important things to attend to than having unnaturally bad anger issues.

"Chancellor. Commander." He greeted them both with equal disdain. "I promise you we're tracking down the missing ship as we speak, and it's distress beacon is enabled."

Leena frowned. The distress beacon was on? Then that meant that there was an incident with the ship itself and no foul play was involved. Or, she thought darkly, maybe someone wanted them to find the ship. But why would they want to do that? The unasked question echoed through Leena's head as she tuned back into the conversation between Leia and Rezka.

"...Everything we can to find him, Chancellor. I assure you that we have an investigative team gearing up as we speak to travel to the ship."

"And Commander Tano will accompany it." Leia added on sternly, and Leena looked up to see Rezka give an internal sigh and fix the younger woman with a glare.

"Fine." He growled, and Leena smiled cheerfully at him. But as soon as he turned away the smile turned into a scoff and an eye roll, and Leia couldn't help but smile a bit.

"I know he's hard to deal with, believe me, but I trust you. Report back to me with everything you find because I know he won't, and in the meantime I'll continue to try to settle the assassination case back here."

Leena sighed and nodded, following Rezka over to a ship. Leia watched her walk away and then boarded the speeder again, flying away from the landing pad and soon enough arriving at her personal quarters. She stepped out and walked inside, disabling the alarm with a swipe of her hand. Now that she realized it that was probably the only thing she really used the Force for now, and the revelation made her stop for a second.

But her brief moment of jarring silence was gone once a frazzled Hena walked into the hangar to greet the chancellor with her son in her arms. "Good evening Chancellor. May I get you anything?"

"No thank you Hena, go home." Leia smiled gently. "Get some rest and see your family."

Hena smiled unsurely, but nevertheless dipped her head and handed off Ben before exiting the hangar. Leia sighed and looked down at her son, feeling her heart squeeze slightly. Han had just left yesterday to a system near Yolau with other pilots, Chewie, and Artoo to assemble attack formations and get a few days of scoping out their battlefield discreetly. She missed him and Ben alike, not being home as often as she'd like to take care of her infant son.