The Perk, Wednesday Morning

[likes_scoundrels]

Leia had stayed on the island after confronting her father. She was still too wound up to go home, and she wanted to talk to Ben, and Jaina as well if Anakin had called her like he offered. And Anakin (the younger one) again. And maybe Rory, too.

Anakin (the older one) she wasn't too sure about, and she couldn't very well drag him back to her galaxy to face trial for what he'd done when her version of him was still running around chopping off his children's limbs, freezing their would-be lovers, and subjugating the galaxy.

She hadn't slept well at all, so she was currently nursing a very strong cup of coffee as she tried to sort out her thoughts.

[ Jaina | Ben ]


[Open! Any mention of certain fathers being certain tall dark and scary Sith Lords is NFB.]

Comments

[solo_sword]

Jaina had run through this conversation a hundred times in her head on the way here, but she knew that when it came down to it, she had no idea what kind of reaction she'd be facing when she actually got here. So she found Leia in the Force, ended up here, and reminded herself that she deserved any yelling she heard.

So into the Perk it was, greeting her with a quiet "Hey," and trying to gauge how this was going to go.

[likes_scoundrels]

"He said he was going to call you," Leia said neutrally, though her voice was tired.

She couldn't resist a "At least that's one thing he didn't lie about."

[solo_sword]

"I guess that gives me some sense of how you're doing," Jaina said, taking a seat. She'd had a much easier version of this after they found the recordings on Artoo, but she really couldn't imagine what it had to be like to find that out without some idea of the story right off the bat...

[likes_scoundrels]

"Why didn't you tell me?" Leia said flatly. She didn't want to lash out at Jaina, but she was having a hard time keeping her emotions under control. On some level she understood, though she still wanted to hear the reasons.

[solo_sword]

"Mainly because it wasn't mine to tell. That was Grandfather's thing, and he just couldn't work up to it before you found out yourself," Jaina said simply. "Plus, how do you even begin to have that conversation?"

That last part did feel like a weak excuse to her, but... really, how did you talk about that?

[likes_scoundrels]

She had a point; Leia couldn't imagine how to possibly bring something like that up. "By the way, I'm Darth Vader" really didn't cut it.

"How can you look at him, knowing what he did?" Leia said bitterly, some of her anger reaching her voice. "Not just to me, or your father, or to Luke -- how many people has he killed? How many worlds like Alderaan?"

[solo_sword]

"It was easier for us. There was never a time I didn't know who he was and what he'd done, and Uncle Luke used him as an example in lessons without any ill will." Almost as often as he quoted Yoda, in fact. "And even with that, when I first got here, I didn't trust him and had all this anger... And then I got to know him."

[likes_scoundrels]

"I got to know and trust and love him, too," Leia said, setting down her coffee cup before she crushed it in her hands. "And all the while another him was torturing me and killing my adopted parents and destroying my home, and he knew it. How could he pretend to be a father to me and let that happen?"

Because it already had for him, and it had to happen for her. But logic was being overruled by anger right now.

[solo_sword]

"He knew he had to tell you," Jaina told her, keeping her tone gentle. Which was never the easiest thing for her, but she had to be the even one here. "He and I talked about it a couple times, with him worrying about the right time to tell you and knowing you'd hate him when he did. And if you had that information and tried to use it against Vader, who's to say you wouldn't be the one being asked to join him?"

Seriously, when Jaina got here five years ago, she never ever thought she'd be advocating for Anakin.

[likes_scoundrels]

"He can ask and demand all he wants," Leia said fiercely. "It's never going to happen."

Despite all her rage right now she wouldn't let it get the better of her. Aside from pointing a blaster at her father, at least.

[solo_sword]

"That's not the point. Really think about it. Luke has training you don't. Dad's not quite the bargaining piece for him that he is for you," Jaina pointed out. "Vader doesn't know about you. If you tell him who you are, all it does it provide him with another target- and a more vulnerable one, at that. Not to mention, you become something he can use against Luke." And would. "Part of the secrecy is to protect you both."

[likes_scoundrels]

Stop using logic, Jaina. It wasn't fair.

"I'm not planning on just telling him," Leia said. "Luke and I haven't told anyone we're related. Well, except Han." There was a lot less eye-rolling when ever she mentioned his name now, funny that. "We had big enough targets on us separately. But maybe we could use it to bait a trap for him, like he used me to try to get Luke."

If things went the same as they had for the rest of her alternate family, she knew they'd stop Vader and Palpatine eventually. But why wait?

[solo_sword]

"And then what?" Jaina asked.

[momslilassassin]

Ben had felt Leia's presence on the island, then her, Anakin and his grandfather together and had drawn the wrong conclusion: that she'd been angry because no one had told her about Anakin Solo being here.

"I should have said something about him," he announced, walking into the coffee shop. "I'm sorry."

[likes_scoundrels]

Leia, of course, totally mistook his meaning as well.

At last, someone who admits it," she said. "Why didn't you?"

[momslilassassin]

"It slipped my mind," Ben admitted.

[likes_scoundrels]

"Slipped your mind?" Leia said incredulously. "How could something as important as that just slip your mind?"

[momslilassassin]

Because his galaxy had been going through two four seventeen years of almost non-stop things?

He dropped his gaze. "I told Tahiri and Jaina instead," he said.

[likes_scoundrels]

Now that statement confused Leia. "I thought Jaina already knew," she said. She'd told Leia she'd known all her life.

[momslilassassin]

"Well, she saw him when she was here a few weeks back," Ben mused, "but I didn't want Tahiri to run into him without realizing he was here. They kind of dated for a while, you know."

Either Leia would tune in that they were talking past each other or think her father was Really Odd.

[likes_scoundrels]

That definitely clued her in that they were talking about entirely different things.

"You're talking about Anakin," she said. Wait, that didn't narrow it down. "My son. I'm talking about your grandfather. Who he really is."

[momslilassassin]

Ben took one look around and gave a Force-shove to any lingering squirrels. "Kind of asthmatic?" he replied.

[likes_scoundrels]

"With a tendency to dismember his son?" Leia confirmed.

[momslilassassin]

"Only the once!" Ben protested. "...per timeline," he tacked on.

[likes_scoundrels]

"That's good to know at least," Leia said. "I prefer your father in one piece. Your grandfather I'm not so sure about right now."