Feb 13th 2013 - 11:15 PM

Comment Back  |   Send Message   |  Block User

"Thank you," Leia replied, somewhat relieved. "Whoever it winds up being, please send them here. I'm afraid I'm not as familiar with the Temple as I once was."

Returning to the couch, she retrieved the bottles the twins had used just a few moments before, taking them to the kitchen to be cleaned. She was already compiling her own lists. Things she needed to pull from her still unpacked bags for the twins. Bottles, clothes, toys, diapers, wipes...what else did they need? Setting the bottles on the counter, she looked at Koufu when he asked where to meet.

Her brow creased slightly. "The Temple Hanger. We can take my ship. The Alderaan III." What all did she need? Lightsaber, blaster...was there really anything else? Idly, she wondered if she still had her Senatorial gown. She smiled at the thought. Yes, it had nice symmetry to return home as Princess Leia Organa.

Feb 12th 2013 - 9:52 AM

Comment Back  |   Send Message   |  Block User

Leia sensed his surprise and found herself puzzled by it. She saw no reason not to trust his judgement, he was a Jedi (who were decidedly more trustworthy), and he was family. And if by some chance something did happen to her children...well she was the daughter of Anakin Skywalker. There would be blood for she was protective of her family, and carried one hell of a grudge even after she achieved vengance.

She pulled her thoughts away from the darkness as Koufu spoke. Nodding slowly, she knew they would be back in less than two weeks. Alderaan was perhaps a day away. They didn't have 2 weeks before the Death Star showed up and obliterated-

Leia's thoughts were derailed quite suddenly. "Artoo?" she said softly with disbelief. "As in R2-D2? As in my brother's droid?" A smile blossomed on her face as tears shined in her eyes. She shook her head in disbelief as curiousity now plagued her. Was he still memory wipe free? How had he survived and not been scrapped? And Threepio? No, she could ask him more on the way to Alderaan. "Nevermind, we can talk on the way to Alderaan. But please ask your friend and if she's okay with taking them for a few days, let me know."

Feb 11th 2013 - 3:45 PM

Comment Back  |   Send Message   |  Block User

Leia regarded Koufu warily as her mind, once again, turned to the twins. Her gut wrenched painfully as she thought about leaving them on Coruscant where it was supposedly �safer.� But if something were to happen while they were with her...that she couldn�t live with. Taking a deep breath and feeling her heart drop to the floor, she resolved herself to take the safest course of action.

�It pains me to have to ask this, but who do you trust to keep safe the twins? I can�t bring myself to take them into such danger.�

Feb 3rd 2013 - 3:04 PM

Comment Back  |   Send Message   |  Block User

"Koufu..." Leia's voice was sympathetic. He sought to ease the pain and suffering of the galaxy. "Anything we do, won't change the course of history of this galaxy. But it will change another's. Even if we were to save Obi-Wan and prevent the destruction of Alderaan, this galaxy would remain unchanged. Except..." She rubbed her temples as they pounded rather painfully.

She didn't know anything anymore. It made sense that their galaxy wouldn't change, just as it made sense that the other one would change. However, this was radically different than visiting another galaxy entirely separate and altering its present and future. What if, by altering another galaxy, they inadvertantly changed how the planes of existance merged together? What if the change they made in the other galaxy did impact this one? What if the flux was in time and not in space?

Her head hurt, much as it had the first time she found herself hurled into another galaxy before she was ready. Vergere's words echoed through her mind. 'Choose, and act.' She realized with a start, that she had already decided. All that was necessary was the action.

Opening her eyes, she turned and faced Koufu. "How long do you need?"

Feb 2nd 2013 - 11:34 PM

Comment Back  |   Send Message   |  Block User

Her brow furrowed as she replayed his words through her mind several times, making sure that she had heard Koufu correctly. She shook her head once, as the words came tumbling out of her mouth. �Are you sure Koufu? Going to Alderaan poses many possible outcomes with most stacked against us. We could arrive just as the Death Star does. We could make it planet-side and be vaporized before we have a chance to get off-world. The planes of existence could shift and the Courscant you return to wouldn�t be your own. There are means of travel from one plane of existence to another, but if this universe is in a state of...flux...we must assume the others are as well. There�s no knowing how long it could take to get back here. Who would assume the Grand Master role should something happen to you?�

The twins finally burped, Lucas and then Callie. Pressing the sides of her feet into the floor, she used her legs alone to rise to her feet, where she took a step backwards to regain her balance. Placing them in their playpen, Callie�s tiny hands found a rattle which she shook with a squeal of delight while Lucas put everything he could grab right into his mouth. She watched them a moment before turning back to Koufu.

Even as she warned Koufu of the dangers, she was weighing them in regards to herself and her children. From what Droid Lord had told her, the galaxy was unsafe. Something called the Starweird attacked Force sensitives. Leia couldn�t protect the twins if she separated from them. But she also couldn�t protect them from the laser blast of a Death Star if they happened to be on Alderaan when Vader and Tarkin attacked. Which was the lesser of the two evils? What did she decide for herself and the twins? The last thing she wanted was to be separated from them.

Feb 2nd 2013 - 1:16 PM

Comment Back  |   Send Message   |  Block User

Leia could almost see the internal struggle within Koufu: curiousity pitted against the call of duty. For a brief moment, she found herself wondering about Koufu's upbringing. What kind of a childhood had he led? What about his teens and young adulthood? What kind of trials had he been put through? Was he raised within the sanctity of the Jedi Temple? Or had he ventured out on his own, risked everything to gain or lose everything? Or had he shouldered the cautious burden of one day being Grand Master? Had he lived?

His soft musings led her to believe that he had lived, but not necessarily like a Skywalker. Responsibility had been placed on him early she suspected. It then fell to her. Did she offer to take him with were she to decide to go? Did she risk the life of this galaxy's Grand Jedi Master to sate his curiousity? They were both Skywalkers, missing their family; her immediate and his distant.

Slowly she answered his first direct question. "I would go home...see my parents and attempt to pursuade them to leave the planet and order a planet-wide evacuation in the event history plays out the way it usually does." She swallowed tightly, trying to fight off the memories of seeing Alderaan destroyed, their cries of terror and deafening silence that always followed. She had lost track of how many times she had seen and felt her homeworld die.

Coughing, she cleared her throat before addressing his last question. "Vader can try to capture me but he won't keep me for long. He would be lucky to survive the event," she said darkly, her expression hardened. She had been tortured by her birth father and it had taken every bit of training her adoptive father had given her to remain strong. She had no inclination to relive past tortures, let alone allow him to destroy Alderaan yet again.

Jan 31st 2013 - 10:41 PM

Comment Back  |   Send Message   |  Block User

In all of her travels between planes of existance, in all of her lives, never had she encountered anything that might explain what she felt. She had no insight, no advice to offer Koufu on the unrest this galaxy was experiencing. If only she knew someone who might have an idea...

She furrowed her brow in concentration, wracking her brain for ideas. Everyone she had known and trusted were gone, presumably dead...except the CoH but she was still missing so much that she hardly knew what to make of them. After a few moments of silence, she shook her head in defeat. Nobody came to mind. Nothing came to mind. She resolved herself to meditate on this later.

She listened as Koufu attempted to...talk her out of acting on her impulses. She laughed a shory and abrupt laugh, startling the twins who both began to cry. With practiced ease, she placed the bottles on the floor before her and hoisted each child to her chest, gently bouncing them while hugging them to herself.

When Leia looked at Koufu, humor was still in her chocolate hues. "Koufu...the criss-crossing of multiple planes of existance has already altered whatever course those existances were bound to take. Not all planes play out the way mine or even yours has." She shook her head, smiling. "Alderaan has been destroyed for me for well over a century...perhaps two. Yet I visit Alderaan whatever chance I get. It's my home...its where I can always find my father and mother. Force, you could see your great-great-great-grandfather, my brother. You don't have to do anything, you can simply observe. And you don't even have to wormhole hop. You can see history with your own eyes. Or you can see an alteration of this galaxy...if things hadn't gone exactly as they did."

Jan 30th 2013 - 10:49 PM

Comment Back  |   Send Message   |  Block User

Relief blossomed through Leia, both exhilerating and exhausting her at the same moment when Koufu had said that singular word: yes. She felt as though she might collapse with the surge of emotion, but having the twins in her arms the Koufu as company meant she would not be able to do such a thing. Tears swelled once more and her eyes fluttered shut as she fought not to weep. It took her several long moments to register everything else Koufu had said.

Again? Brought back from the grave? Alderaan? Her father searching for her? The Empire? But wasn't this plane of existance hundred's of years past the Empire? Was this some of what Droid Lord had mentioned?

Cautiously, almost warrily, she opened her eyes and regarded Koufu, searching his face for any clues. She pressed her lips together, and then her eyes lost focus as her presence in the Force seemed almost to explode for an instant before seeming to leave the room. Leia reached out across the vast darkness of space, searching for clues. Things didn't feel right. The space her senses touched felt bumpy...rough...torn...wrong. She could feel things she wasn't supposed to feel. She reached all the way to Alderaanian space and sure enough...everyone was there. She easily picked out her father and her mother's presence. Bail and Breha Organa were borderline frantic.

Leia was blasted back to her body suddenly, gasping for air, as the startling realization hit her: the Death Star hadn't yet destroyed Alderaan. She made movement as if to stand, only to realize that she still had the babies in her arms, both of whom were trying to reach out to her through the Force, trying to calm their mother. Taking a deep breath, smiling slightly at Callie and Lucas, she finally managed to look at Koufu. Her gaze was haunted, frantic, yet somehow determined.

"It seems there is a great deal wrong in this realm then if my father is searching for me." She paused a moment, weighing her next course of action. Her heart screamed at her to go to Alderaan immediately, to evacuate the planet, to keep her family alive. But she could not risk endangering her children. She swallowed tightly, painfully, as anguish threatened to overwhelm her. Coughing slightly to clear her throat, she looked away from Koufu and back to her children. "I uhh..."

Her head snapped back up as realization dawned on her. "Han...Luke...Chewie and Obi-Wan!" Tears gently cascaded down her cheeks and she smiled sadly as she gazed at the probably bewildered and unsettled man before her. Her heart lept. Han...Luke... She frowned. Vader...

Before she could think to stop herself, a string of Corellian curses trailed from her mouth, curses that would make even a Hutt blush. And when she finally came back to her senses, she herself blushed. "I apologize Koufu. Alderaan...here...it's confusing."

Jan 29th 2013 - 2:35 PM

Comment Back  |   Send Message   |  Block User

Leia�s heart sang with pain as Koufu flashed her the Skywalker grin. How many times had she seen that grin? On her father�s face, on her twin�s face, on her nephew�s face, on her own childrens� faces...admittedly, Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin�s grins bore more a resemblance of their father than their Uncle but they had their moments. Seeing all their smiles on Koufu�s face brought tears to her eyes...tears she fought and blinked away with her own Skywalker lopsided grin. It was good to see it on someone else�s face other than her own.

�I did sleep well. Better than I have for some weeks now,� Leia replied and chuckled. �Moving was hardly an issue. It�s like breathing now.� Truth was, Leia and the twins had been roaming one universe after another for several months before Droid Lord had stumbled upon her on Corellia and invited her to the Spring Party. She wouldn�t be surprised if in a few weeks they had vacated the Jedi Temple. She wasn�t sure she knew what it meant to have a home. There were very few Alderaan�s that remained...and it was perhaps the only place she would ever call home.

�Forgive me if this seems a strange question, but Alderaan...was it destroyed?� Leia held her breath, heart racing. She knew very little of this galaxy, and she had found that some planes of existence were as she remembered, whereas others either had missing planets or were missing planets that were accounted for in others. If this was one plane of existence where Alderaan still existed, she knew where she would be visiting sooner rather than later.

Jan 28th 2013 - 1:14 PM

Comment Back  |   Send Message   |  Block User

Leia knew when Koufu had arrived. She could feel his presence outside the door. She arched her eyebrow as he paused, not quite hesitating, but something close. She tilted her head slightly to the side as she looked at the door, perplexed. The door chimed which roused the twins, both looking towards the door for they felt him too. As Leia struggled to maintain the balance and keep the bottles in their little mouths, Koufu entered.

Glancing up, she noticed how smooth and almost pristine he looked. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. She remembered days long past where appearances seemed to be the prevailing thing. It wasn�t what you said or did, rather how you looked. Her days of fretting over how she looked were long past. She prayed it remained that way.

�Good morning Koufu,� Leia replied automatically, with a slight furrow to her brow. �Aunt?� She rolled the name around in her head. �Aunt Leia.� It sounded so alien. It had been years since she had seen either of her siblings � Luke or Anakin Vader � let alone any of their children. In fact, they were all probably dead by now. While her rather brief conversation with Koufu had revealed that he was a descendent of her twin brother, it still felt strange.

�Aunt� would be preferable to �Princess,� �Highness,� or any of her other numerous titles., she thought idly to herself with a wry smile.

�I see you got my message. I hope you slept well�� she trailed off, finding herself a little lost on what else to say. Smiling, she added, �There�s biscuits and milk in the kitchen if you�re hungry.�