if you're reading this, cast list is currently down for editing. thank you.
❝wake me from my dream
this must be my dream...❞
Daylight shone brightly onto Leia's pale lilac bedspread, where the Princess laid, her head hanging off the bed's side, while her best friend, Elara sat crisscrossed in front of her pillow, studying a map of constellations on her holopad.
"Ellie," the fifteen year old laughed, "do you want to know what I heard today?"
"What?" Elara continued to study the map. She was utterly fascinated by the stars – the constellations they formed and their beauty despite their mere composure of hot gases – and focused her schooling to focus on them.
"Ellie, are you gonna pay attention?" Leia pulled herself onto the bed, sitting with her head propped on the tall bed frame.
"I am."
"No, you're not! You're too focused on that tablet." Leia snatched the tablet from her friend's hand.
"Leia! Give that back. I was listening to you."
"Sure you were, besides, you can do two seconds without that thing. You'll kill your eyes." Leia switched off the tablet, and sat it in her lap.
"Leia, you're so mean," Elara giggled, rolling her eyes, "what do you want to tell me so bad?"
"You're just sensitive, Ellie," Leia retorted, "but Flynn told me something about that new guy in my mom's tutoring program, Oliver."
"Yeah? What'd he tell you?"
Leia smirked. "That he fancies you."
Elara found herself taken aback. She was used to Leia's usual to-the-point bluntness, but this came as a genuine shock. "Me? Are you sure?"
"Completely. You ever known Flynn to lie?"
That is true. Elara pondered. Flynn tended to be a reserved type, who always was honest out of a fear of hurting someone's feelings. He also was best friends with Oliver, as he'd gotten ecstatic when he found out he'd been accepted into the royal tutoring program. "You're right there, but–"
"But what? You're gorgeous Elara. And you just turned 15, and he's 16, so, age isn't a problem."
"Leia! Just because he–" They're interrupted by a knock at the door.
"What is it?" Leia shouted at the door.
"Your Highness, Elara's mother just comm'd to request her daughter return home for a moment." The voice of Indira, Leia's mother's favorite servant answered.
"Inform her I'm on my way," Elara reluctantly called back, and turned back to Leia, "we'll continue this later."
She retrieved her commlink from Leia's dresser, and headed for the door.
"You need this?" Leia held up the holopad.
"She said it's just for a moment. I'll be right back."
•••
Elara placed her hand on the scanner inside the elevator of her family's high rise building, and the device bringing her directly to their lavish apartment overlooking the palace upon recognition of her print.
She stepped out of the elevator, only to be greeted by an odd darkness, and a burning smell. "Mama? You here? What is that smell?"
She could see their kitchen from the apartment's open floor plan, and the oven remained off, and not a single lit candle anywhere. "Mama?"
She gained no response, sending a weird sensation twitching down her spine. Her mom always welcomed her only daughter home with open arms, and the fragrant aroma from a nearby candle, while her father yelled a greeting from his office or their living room couch. "Mama? You're scaring me."
An unexplained sensation pulled her down a hall to her father's office, almost like she wasn't in control of her own body. She quietly pushed open the door. "Daddy? Are you in there?"
At first glance, everything in the office seemed normal, until she looked down to her father's computer, which had a blaster hole through the middle of the screen, and then to the floor, where her father laid with a blaster wound through the head, with his own blaster laying defensively in his hand. "Daddy! No."
Salty tears glazed over her vision and spilled over onto her cheeks. She fumbled with her commlink, trying to activate the emergency button.
"Mama," she called out between sobs, "there's something wrong with Dad."
She stumbled out of his office, and ran her hand along the wall to keep herself from running into it as she made her way down the hallway to their bedroom. Unlike her father's office, the door was wide open. "Are you in here, mama?"
At first, all appeared normal here, too, until she walked to the other side of the king sized bed. Crumpled on the floor laid her mother, commlink still in her hand. Through her blurred vision, Elara could make out her mother's strained breaths, and threw herself down next to her.
"Can you hear me?" She stroked her mother's soft black hair.
"Ellie?" Her voice was weak and barely even audible.
"Help's coming, just hang on," Elara reassured as her eyes landed on the wound in her shoulder, "it's gonna be okay mama."
Meira flashed her daughter a weak smile. "My nova, I want you to remember something for me."
"Don't talk like that, mama. You're gonna be ok."
"Please just," she breathed, losing consciousness by the second, "just remember, per adua ad astra."
With that, her eyes fluttered shut.
Elara placed a finger on her throat in search of a pulse. The one she found was slow and faint. "Please don't leave me."
The next few hours came as a blur. All she could recall was the palace security breaking in, followed by Bail Organa, who she clung to as he carried her away from the scene to a guest room in the palace, where she woke up to Leia arranging some flowers on her bedside table. "Leia? Where am I? Where's my mom?"
"Hey," Leia cooed, setting down the pair of scissors she'd been using to trim the flower stems, "you're in the guest room next to mine, and your mom is in the hospital. She's in good hands."
Leia placed herself next to the girl on the bed, and wrapped her arms around her. "I'm so sorry, Ellie. Out of everyone in the galaxy, you're the last one I'd wish this on."
Elara rested her head on her friend's shoulder, and the two girls sat in a prolonged silent embrace. Leia did not intend on letting go until she was told to, and only did when she heard a silent sniffle. "Here, let me grab you some handkerchiefs."
"Where did those come from?" A weak smile formed on Elara's lips as she laid eyes on the gorgeous incomplete arrangement.
"Flynn heard what happened, so he and Oliver brought you these, and I was making them into an arrangement when you woke up. I know how happy flowers make you," she pointed over to the dresser, where a stuffed Ewok sat on top of a container of brownies, "they also brought those. If you'd like I can bring one over to you and get one of the servants to bring you some tea to help you relax."
"I'd love that. And can you make it that orange–"
"With three sugar cubes?" Leia gave a sincere, yet forced smile. Elara didn't yet know of the hologram Bail sent her shortly a few minutes before that she'd passed during the surgery.
"Yes," she paused, "and can you ask how my mom is doing?"
"Yeah, uh, let me go call my dad," Leia stuttered, "I'm gonna step outside really quick."
a/n
in case you were wondering, I changed this prologue to match up with the one in cardigan so that I don't have that inconsistency between the two stories.
have a great day <3