Title: Brave Girl
Author: Emjen Enla (Fanfiction)/emjen_enla (Wattpad)
Teaser: Daddy has never outright said why they're running or who they're running from, but she knows if they get caught things will be bad. [ROTS AU]
Rating: PG-13/T
Canon: ROTS AU, either Disney or Legends
Dominant Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Leia Organa
Pairings: Anidala
Warnings: major character death (in both senses of the word), pretty much a cliffhanger
Notes:
-Well, it's been over two weeks since I finished Somebody to Lean On. I really should have posted something by now. I also completely missed my one-year anniversary on Fanfiction. My three-year Wattpad anniversary's in September though, so maybe I'll remember that one.
-This story is inspired by two other Fanfictions. One is an Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic by Lisse called Bad Day which is a short story about a boy who I assume is Aang and Katara's son growing up in a world where the Fire Nation won the war. The other is a Star Wars story by fireflyfish called To Live Among Wolves in which Obi-Wan raises Luke as his own son. I actually originally planned to have the child in this story be Luke, but I changed it because I'm a sucker for Anakin and little!Leia.
-This is mean to be a very short foray into this AU. The ending is probably kind of brutal, but I'm not making any promises about whether or not I'll ever do anything else in this AU.
-Hopefully, this story actually makes sense. The pronoun usage is a little strange (the pronouns she/her are always the POV character no matter where they're used), and I'm experimenting with some style stuff. On top of that, I'm not sure if I'm any good at writing child POVs. Well, if this is a complete jumble, let me know.
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.

She has been called many, many things. Every place she and Daddy go she has a new name and so does he. She's only six years old but she's been many, many little girls. She's been Keea and Sorza and Kahleen and Luxa and Shiva and many more. Sometimes it's hard to keep track of who she is and in these times she's happy that she can just call Daddy "Daddy" so she doesn't have to remember what his name is too.

When it's just the two of them, though, Daddy never calls her by any of those names. He calls her Princess or Sweetheart or Miracle or Survivor or hundreds more. Her favorite is Brave Girl, because she likes the way it makes her feel. It makes her feel strong, like she can survive anything, just like Daddy says she can.

There is one name he calls her only rarely, and only in the dead of night and so quietly she can barely hear him. It's a name like the ones that she tells the rest of the world, but Daddy tells her that this is her real name. It's the name he and her mommy gave her when she was born—blue from suffocation and too weak to cry, but alive. It's the name of her true self. The name of the little girl who has spent her whole life running.

Daddy has never outright said why they're running or who they're running from, but she knows if they get caught things will be bad.

She's knows the Imperials are part of it. They avoid the Imperials at all costs and whenever the Imperials notice them they leave right away. However, she's pretty sure the Stormtroopers not the real danger. Yes, she and Daddy run from the Stormtroopers but the Stormtroopers just follow orders from other people, she thinks those other people are the ones she and Daddy are really running from.

She's mentioned her theories about who they're running from to Daddy on occasion, but he'll never give her the answers.

There are answers, though, she knows there are. She can see the echoes of them in Daddy's blue eyes which turn sickly yellow when he gets really angry, she sees them in the strange blue crystal that Daddy wears around his neck or the japor pendent she wears around hers, she sees them in the way she can tell where Daddy is without being able to see him and in the way that the deaths of the Imperials' victims feel like punches in her stomach.

The last one scares her the most. She knows that she and Daddy have powers. She's seen Daddy make them invisible when there's nowhere to hide or tell people to forget about them or to leave them alone. She knows she could do the same things and she's begged Daddy to teach her, but he won't. He won't teach her anything more than how to pretend she doesn't have these abilities. He says that's all she needs, that it's safer if she doesn't know anything more.

She asks him if the people that are taken away by the Imperials and never seen again—the ones the Imperial governors call "freaks of nature"—have abilities like hers. Daddy doesn't answer, which means that she's right.

The nights when they can't find a place to stay are the worst. Normally, Daddy tries to find an apartment or at least a homeless shelter for them to stay in, but that doesn't always happen. Tonight is one of those nights.

She curls up on Daddy's lap as the cold rain pours down on the streets. They're huddled on the steps of someone's house. The house is old and worn, but at least the little awning over the door offers some protection from the rain.

She shivers from the cold. She wishes they could go back to the warming house they stayed for the first couple days on this planet, but they can't. They can't because a bunch of rebels—foolish Jedi, Daddy spits like it's a curse—attacked some Imperial outpost. The capital city of this planet is under martial law until the Jedi are caught. The Imperials will be searching warming houses and homeless shelters at random, which means such places are too dangerous for her and Daddy. To make matters worse, all the spaceports are closed which means they can't leave the planet. They're stuck until this blows over.

Which means sleeping in the streets in the bitter cold rain.

She struggles to hold back a cough, but eventually gives up and hacks into her fist. Daddy leans in close to her ear and tells her to hold on. He calls her Brave Girl and that secret name, but the effect is somewhat marred by the fit of coughs that he bursts into halfway through.

The sound scares her. Daddy doesn't ever get sick, he can't get sick. She refuses to believe he can.

"Are you okay, Daddy?" she whispers.

"I'm fine, Brave Girl," Daddy says. "Just fine. We're both going to be fine."

Though she wants to, she doesn't really believe him.

The one thing about the past that Daddy will tell her is about her mommy and brother who died when she was born.

"A bad man hurt your mommy right before you were born," Daddy says whenever she asks how Mommy and Baby Brother (she always calls him "Baby Brother" even though he was born first) died. He never says what Mommy and Baby Brother's names were, and she isn't sure if she can ask.

"Why didn't the doctors save them?" She always asks instead.

"There weren't any doctors," Daddy always answers, "it was just your mommy and me."

"Were you running?"

"Yes."

"From who? The bad man?"

That's normally where the conversation ends.

Sometimes, however, Daddy goes into more detail about what happened. He talks about how Baby Brother was born silently, without even a heartbeat. Stillborn is the word he uses, and she thinks it's a good one. He tells how she was born, quiet but breathing. He explains how there was just enough time to name her before Mommy died too. At the end of these conversations he always promises to take her to see the graves he dug for Mommy and Baby Brother someday.

Sometimes she doesn't believe he ever will.

She falls asleep on Daddy's lap, huddled under the awning. She grows so cold she wonders if she's dead. People get cold when they die; she's seen enough bodies to know that. She tries to move so that she can reassure herself that she's still alive, but she's too cold.

She's scared. The cold sinks so deeply into her bones she can't feel anything else. She still can't move, she can't wake up. She knows this is the end.

She's jerked awake by Daddy moving suddenly underneath her. She's on her feet before she's totally conscious and clinging to his clothes to stay upright. She blinks and blinks to clear her vision.

She sees somebody—a woman—standing in the doorway they were sleeping in. The woman is yelling at Daddy—probably telling him to get lost. Daddy stands just outside the minimal shelter the awning provides. She clings to his legs. The cold rain pours down on them. She shivers so hard she thinks she's going to fall apart.

She tries to stay quiet. She wishes the woman would just get sick of yelling and let them go. A cough rises in her chest. She tries to hold it back but she can't. She coughs hard into her fist. The woman freezes at the sound.

The woman turns out to be a lot more sympathetic to their plight after realizing Daddy has a child with him. They are invited inside and given a change of clothes and warm soup. The woman is very nice and tries to make them comfortable. There is a teenage boy too, but he isn't as nice. He mostly stares at Daddy, especially at the thin scar over Daddy's eye. The looks seem to make Daddy uncomfortable, but he doesn't say anything about it.

After eating they get to sleep in a real bed. It's not a really comfortable one, but it's definitely better than the alleys. She curls up in Daddy's arms and rests her head against his chest. She falls asleep listening to the steady beating of his heart, the only lullaby she'll ever need.

She and Daddy stay at the house the next day and don't get out of bed. She's really sick, and coughs burn her chest like fire. Daddy's sick too, though he does a pretty good job at hiding it. She only knows because she can hear him cough when he thinks she's asleep and because when he touches her forehead his hand isn't cool like the woman's is.

She wants to tell someone that he needs help too, but she can't. She's so tired; all she can do is sleep. So she does, Daddy will take care of both of them, he always has.

She isn't sure how many days pass before she wakes up feeling like something's wrong. Her head is much clearer than before and she knows she's not dreaming. There's trouble, she feels sure of it.

Daddy is asleep next to her, his face buried in the pillow. That is enough to make her second guess herself. She's sensed danger before, but Daddy always feels it first. If Daddy doesn't feel anything now, perhaps that means that there is no danger.

She tries to go back to sleep, but the feeling won't go away. The longer she lies still the more certain she becomes that something terrible is about to happen. Unable to stand it anymore, she wiggles out of the covers and gets out of bed. The floor is cold against her bare feet, but she ignores it and trots to the window. She sees a view of brick wall. This room is at the side of the house, a small alley just slightly wider than Daddy's shoulders separates the house from the next one. She can't see any danger, but then again she can't see much of anything at all.

The front door of the house opens and closes. She hears the woman great the teenager. The air is thick with danger. Daddy keeps on sleeping. He should be awake by now. He should be awake and telling her what to do, but he doesn't move. For the first time she wonders how sick he really is and terror floods her body.

She needs Daddy. He's all she's ever had.

She's about to shake Daddy until he wakes up and tells her everything's okay when the woman's voice rises to a shriek. "What? How can you even think that?"

She freezes, the danger sense gets even worse. Run, child! It seems to be screaming. Run now!

The woman and the teenager are in the kitchen, but if she opens the bedroom door a little bit she can hear them pretty well. The teenager is talking fast, trying to convince the woman of something. "I suspected ever since I saw that scar. This morning I went to the Imperial Headquarters and looked him up in the database. There's a reward for information leading to his capture. A huge one."

"I don't care how much money the Empire's willing to give," the woman says. "He's our guest."

"He's a traitor," the teenager snarls. "The Emperor trusted him and then he just ran away and left his majesty to deal with the Jedi by himself."

"How can you say that?" the woman breathes.

"It's true," the teenager replies.

"Where did this loyalty to the Empire come from?" the woman asks. "Those people killed your father!"

"You would honestly refuse to turn in a proven criminal just because you think the Empire killed Dad?"

"I saw the Stormtroopers kill your father with my own eyes! And why are you making up excuses for turning in a homeless man and a little girl?"

"You really think that child's his? He's a traitor and a criminal, he probably stole her to brainwash her against the Empire! That's what Jedi do, after all." She wants to burst out of hiding and correct him—her Daddy's not a Jedi—but she stays quiet, something is whispering for her to listen to the rest.

"I can't believe this," the woman breathes. "Who are you?"

"I'm your son and I just guaranteed that we'll never be hungry again," The teenager says. "The Stormtroopers will be here in a few minutes."

Her blood runs cold. She doesn't heard the woman's response, the only thing she knows is that she and Daddy need to get out of here.

Waking up Daddy is a lot harder than she would have thought. She has to shake him for a long, long time. She's terrified; his skin burns like fire.

Finally, his eyelids slide open and he groans. "What?" he mutters.

"Daddy," she whispers. "The boy told the Imperials we're here. He says the Imperials will pay a lot of money if they get you."

Daddy's eyes widen and he sits up. For a second she thinks he's going to be perfectly fine, but then he sways to the side and almost collapses. "Are you okay?" she asks cautiously.

Daddy presses a hand against his head, the other is braced against the mattress keeping him upright. "Yes," he says.

She thinks he's lying.

There is no time to worry about Daddy, however. They dress quickly and shove their meager positions into their single backpack. Neither the woman nor the teenager come to their room, but they can hear them arguing in the front room.

When they are ready, Daddy opens the bedroom window and lifts her out into the narrow alley. She looks left and right. The sense of danger is almost sickening. She can hear a horrible marching sound. The Imperials are coming.

"Daddy," she hisses. "I can hear them."

Daddy clambers unsteadily through the window and grimaces as he holds back a cough. Then he closes the window and takes her hand.

They run down the alley, away from the Stormtroopers.

They have a head start, but not much of one. It doesn't take the Stormtroopers long to realize where they have gone and within minutes the Empire's lackeys are hot on their tails.

They run as fast as they can. Daddy's strides are longer than hers, but there isn't time for him to pick her up. Plus, the running is making Daddy cough more and more. She tries not to worry about him, but it's hard not to.

The Stormtroopers are gaining fast. They duck into a busier street. She knows Daddy well enough to know that he's hoping to lose the Stormtroopers in the crowd. Unfortunately, the plan doesn't work. The people are afraid of the Imperials and get out of the way as the soon as they see the Stormtroopers. The only thing the people don't do is try to reach out and grab them. They just watch, silently.

She trips and falls scraping her knees on the ground. Daddy drags her back to her feet. She catches a glimpse of his face—pale and soaked in sweat. They keep running.

Daddy pulls her through the crowd and into an alley. Air burns in her lungs, her legs feel like lead. She can't keep running much longer.

They don't have to run much farther, but that's not a good thing. The alley they're running down ends in a fence too tall for them to crawl.

There is nowhere to run. She isn't sure what to do. She and Daddy have always run, what do they do now that they can't?

Daddy shoves her into a corner, and stands in front of her, blocking her view of the alley. She peaks around him as the Stormtroopers pour into the alley. There's so many of them, and they're all carrying blasters. She and Daddy are going to die. She realizes. She bites back a sob. She doesn't want to die. She's only six, she doesn't even know what her mommy's name is.

Daddy throws his hands out like he's trying to tell the Stormtroopers to stop. An instant later the Stormtroopers go flying, slamming into the walls and the ground with enough force to make them lie still. She's amazed, she's never seen Daddy do something so big with his powers before.

Unfortunately, that display of power doesn't fix anything. More Stormtroopers are pouring into the alley. They are still outnumbered and there is still no escape.

Daddy shoves at the Stormtroopers again, but it isn't as effective as it was the first time. She clings to the back of his shirt and can feel him shaking. He's tired, he can't keep fighting like this.

She presses her face against his back and tries to be brave. How can she be worthy of being called "Brave Girl" if she can't face her impending doom bravely?

Then several weird hums fill the air. She looks around Daddy to see several people fighting their way towards them. She recognizes the weapons they're holding—like vibroblades but with energy blades—lightsabers. These are Jedi.

She isn't sure whether to be happy or even more scared. Daddy doesn't talk about the Jedi much, but the little he does say makes her think the Jedi aren't their friends any more than the Imperials.

Still the Jedi do make quick work of the Stormtroopers. Within minutes they're all standing in a semicircle around her and Daddy.

One of the Jedi steps forward carefully, he's dressed like a beggar but his elegantly trimmed reddish hair and beard prove he's anything but. She thinks that Daddy's right when he says that the Jedi are fools; they obviously don't know how to disguise themselves better.

The foolish Jedi with the beard is staring like she and Daddy might vanish. The Jedi takes a deep breath and whispers so quietly she can barely hear him, "Anakin?"

Daddy steps backward. Pushing her into the corner with such force that the breath is almost shoved from her lungs. She can feel him shaking through his clothes. He's scared, and if he's scared that means she's petrified. They weren't just rescued, she realizes, they've just been shuffled from one horrible fate to another.

"Go," Daddy says. "Leave us alone."

The bearded Jedi doesn't react to the command, he just smiles cautiously like he's afraid to believe what's happening. "Anakin," he breathes. "I-I'm overwhelmed. I didn't know what happened to you. The only reason I knew he hadn't killed you was from the wanted notices. You have no idea how worried I was." He takes a step towards them and Daddy pulls back even further.

"Get away from us," Daddy snarls. Judging by the way a few of the Jedi flinch back, his eyes have turned yellow.

The bearded Jedi holds out a hand like he's trying to soothe a cornered animal. "Anakin," he says. "Anakin, I'm not trying to hurt you."

She's not sure why the Jedi keeps calling Daddy "Anakin." She doesn't remember all the names he's used over the years, but she's pretty sure he's never been Anakin before. This Jedi must have his facts mixed up. She wants to tell the Jedi that, but she's not sure. She's never called Daddy anything but "Daddy" so she isn't sure what his real name is.

Daddy is shaking so hard she thinks he's going to fly apart. "Forgive me for not believing you," he snarls at the Jedi, "but the last time we saw each other you were trying to kill me."

Something in the Jedi's eyes softens "I thought you were lost, now I can see that I was wrong. You're no longer under Sidious' sway."

"Just because I'm no longer a Sith doesn't mean I don't hate you," Daddy snarls, but the effect is destroyed half a second later when he breaks into a coughing fit.

"Anakin…" the Jedi says softly, almost pitying. "Anakin, I just want to help you."

Daddy fights his way through the coughing and sucks in a deep breath. He's shaking harder than before, but she doesn't think it's all from fear anymore. "Just leave us alone," he says. "Let us leave."

"And where will you go?" the Jedi asks. "The Imperials know you're here now and they won't rest until they find you. You have nowhere to go. You have to come with us."

"How can I trust you?" Daddy asks, his voice is hoarse and quiet. "How do I know you won't just kill us? Taint of the Darkness and all."

"No one will lay a hand on you," The Jedi says. "I promise."

She wonders why the Jedi bothers promising. After all, he just pointed out that they have nowhere else to go.

The Jedi's hideout is surprisingly nice. It is hidden away in a series of wet, smelly underground tunnels, but the inside is surprisingly clean and well lit. She sticks close to Daddy as they're lead into a wing with bright white walls and a bunch of little rooms containing beds. Several Jedi stick close to them at all times. She can tell they're making Daddy nervous, but he doesn't say anything.

Someone comes up alongside of her, takes her hand. In a soft voice, the person tries to take her away from Daddy. She's not going to have any of that. One of Daddy's first lessons was to never trust anyone and it is a lesson she has learned well. She screams and cries and clings to Daddy with all her might until the people give up and let her and Daddy stay together.

After that, they're taken into a room and given clean clothes to change into. The Jedi even let them take showers. Then there's food. She eats until her stomach hurts. Daddy barely eats anything, he just lies on the bed and watches her. Eventually, someone notices and brings someone else with a lot of medicine. They make her take some medicine and bandage her knees, but most they focus on Daddy. They make him take so many different pills she loses count. They even put a little tube in his arm. The tube is attached to a clear bag containing what appears to be water. It scares her, but Daddy gives her a small smile and promises that everything's okay.

When all that is done she curls up next to him and falls asleep. Warm, dry, full and at least momentarily safe for the first time in a long, long time (the woman's house doesn't count, that was drafty, wet and there wasn't enough food; and it was never safe).

When she wakes up, the Jedi have returned. They stand around the bed she and Daddy are on, watching. Daddy's sitting next to her watching them back. The Jedi's eyes mark their every move, and there's something else. Something hard and unyielding presses against her mind—against her abilities. She tries to push it away, but it slithers through the cracks in her half-trained defenses. She burrows against Daddy and tries not to look scared.

The Jedi ask Daddy lots of questions. A shriveled green Jedi does most of the talking. He's smaller than she is, but his voice is a croak that sounds ancient as the stars. She tries to understand what is going on, but the green Jedi speaks all weird and Daddy's answers are too clipped to be much help. Eventually, she just settles for staying quiet and hoping Daddy will explain everything later.

Though she doesn't mean to, she's almost asleep when the conversation stops. If the silence isn't enough to jerk her awake, the next question—posed by the bearded Jedi—is. "Whose child is this?"

Daddy shifts, drawing himself up. His chin lifts and suddenly he doesn't look anything like a man who runs, he looks like someone who stands and fights. The transformation is so startling she almost doesn't recognize him, but she realizes this is another whisper of the past—another promise of an answer.

"She's mine," Daddy says. "Mine and Padmé's."

In that moment she realizes this is all worth it. It doesn't matter if the Jedi help her and Daddy find a safe place so they can stop running or if the Jedi try to kill her and Daddy as soon as this conversation is over; this is all worth it.

Because, finally, Leia knows what her mommy's name is.

I end up writing Anakin whump even when I'm not trying. Not sure if there's enough whump in this thing to merit a place in my Anakin whump community, though.

Hope you all enjoyed this! Vote and comment!

Emjen