Story written for Legends Family Week 2020 on tumblr.

Prompts: Flight, Parent & Child, Legacy

Warning: I'm playing fast and loose with canon in this story just for the sake of making it more interesting. I know this is not 100 percent compliant with Legends.

Jaina's Rebellion

Chapter 1

The swoop track in the lower levels of Coruscant was busy at this time. Jaina sneaked down there with her brothers after their lessons. All three of them had old swoops, which they had to patch up by themselves in their dad's workshop. Jaina was proud of her work on the bike. She'd been on cloud nine when she'd finally repaired it and taken it for the first ride!

The teenage girl took in a deep breath through her nose. The racetrack smelled like exhaust fumes, grease and excitement. Jaina smiled to herself. This was what she was here for—some good old fun just flying to her heart's content.

The three Solo siblings entered the next race. Jaina checked the best times on the holographic board from the previous competition and smirked. She knew she had this in the bag. Not that she was interested in any possible reward—it was only parts, which she could acquire on her own without much hassle. She just loved to win.

The contestants took the starting positions and the countdown began. Jaina tensed in preparation, gripping the handles on her bike tightly.

"3… 2… 1…"

The signal rang out and her swoop shot off onto the track, a nanosecond faster than even Anakin's. Jaina concentrated solely on the road in front of her. She reveled in the sensation of flying through the air like a bullet and the cold wind whipping her face. At that speed, everything around became a blur to the naked eye. The only things that seemed to exist were she, her bike and the track.

A mad laugh burst out of her and got lost in the roar of the engine. Jaina loved flying, she loved the feeling of total freedom it gave her. Her father understood it, he was a pilot too. He knew the joy that came with flying fast and dangerous, on your own machine that you maintained and cherished. The destination didn't matter, only the pure moment of adrenaline and the bursting pride in your own skill that have brought you so far. Jaina couldn't understand how anyone could not get it… For example, her own mother.

The girl never told this to anyone but sometimes she thought flying was even better than the Force. If she ever had to choose between the two, she'd have a serious problem. The Force was her calling, but she didn't think she could live without flying. The rush it gave her was impossible to replicate.

With bitterness, Jaina thought that her mother would choose neither. All she cared about was politics. Didn't she realize that none if it mattered?!

Jaina angrily swerved around the obstacle in her path. Why couldn't her mother have her stupid ball a week later? Because of it, Jaina and her brothers had been forced to return from the Jedi Praxeum. They were supposed to start a Jedi piloting class with Uncle Luke! She was so looking forward to getting to fly in a real X-wing! Instead, she was going to some stiff, upper-level party filled with stuffy politicians and their snobby offspring who she had to play nice with while all her friends were going to have the real fun flying starfighters! This was so incredibly unfair!

The girl was so preoccupied with her angry thoughts that she took a turn too late and lost precious seconds and speed to adjust her course. She cursed under her breath. Her mother was ruining things even when she wasn't there!

Once again, Jaina made a rookie mistake and had to go around the obstacle instead of vaulting over it. It slowed her down as a result. Other swoops started bypassing her.

"What's going on, slowpoke?" she heard Jacen's playful taunt over the comm. She was going to be left in the dust if this continued!

With the rise of her competitive spirit, Jaina gritted her teeth and pushed on the throttle. She threw herself into the race, quickly gaining on her twin brother. She was the next ace pilot of the family, not he!

They road narrowed; Jaina was already on Jacen's tail. He was fending off her aggressive attempts to overtake him surprisingly well. It had to be because of their Force bond. He could sense her intention which way to go and always blocked her just in the nick of time. In her frustration, Jaina pulled her swoop up and made it jump over Jacen's bike.

"Jaina, no!" he shouted, but it was too late, she was already in the air, flying above him and towards the derelict speeder placed directly in the middle of the racetrack as an obstacle.

In a testament to Jaina's skill, she attempted to veer to the side right away after landing. Her swoop still clipped the speeder and was sent careening into the safety force field around the track. With a thud, Jaina hit her head and lost consciousness.

She came to in her own bed with a dull ache on the left side of her body. There was a weight on her left arm—Jaina looked down and saw a cast.

"Kriff," she swore in a raspy voice and grimaced. Her mouth was too dry.

"The patient is awake. Welcome, Miss Jaina," a 2-1B medical droid greeted her.

"Can you take this off? And give me some water?" she asked.

"The cast will be taken off after 70 hours, 14 minutes and 58 seconds. This is how much time the bacta patch under it will need to heal the fracture in your left ulna," the droid informed her. Jaina sighed, understanding that she was now well and truly grounded in all the sense of the word. "Water is an allowed drink to the patient," the droid said and poured her some into a cup before giving it to her. Jaina drank the water thirstily.

Jaina asked about her brothers, but the droid had no information to give her apart from the fact that they hadn't been treated for anything, so it was safe to assume the boys were alright. Without access to the holonet soon the girl got so bored that she took off 2-1B's hand and was messing around with circuits just for the fun of it. It wasn't as amusing as tormenting Threepio, but it did in a pinch. She almost forgot what brought the medical droid to her room in the first place.

Then there was an impatient rap on the door. Jaina jolted and quickly shoved the dissembled droid hand under her covers. "Come in!" she called.

Her mother stalked inside like a white wraith. She was still wearing the Senate clothes and her elaborate braided hairdo was slightly windblown. Her gaze swept intently over the startled girl sitting in the bed, apparently unharmed except for the arm in the cast. Jaina felt her mother's agitated Force presence unfurling, extending to her own, touching her briefly before swiftly withdrawing and coiling unto itself.

"Jaina, what in the nine Corellian hells has gotten into you?" Leia asked without preamble.

"Hi, Mom, nice to see you too," Jaina muttered.

Leia shot her an unimpressed look. "It would be nicer to see you if you didn't insist on crashing on a swoop racetrack," she replied in a biting tone.

"I didn't do that on purpose," Jaina said defensively. She wasn't suicidal!

Leia huffed. "I sure hope so! You could have killed yourself!"

Well, I didn't, Jaina thought rebelliously, but held her tongue. Though that didn't stop an eyeroll.

"So… where are Jacen and Anakin?" she changed the topic.

"Your brothers are busy with their own punishment."

"What?! But it wasn't their fault! It was all my idea! I wanted to go to the races!" Jaina burst out, feeling protective over her younger brothers. Jacen and Anakin didn't deserve to be punished for her messing up. They only went with her because they wanted to cheer her up!

Her mother was unmoved. "How funny, they said the same thing," she only remarked, arms crossed. "Don't worry, you'll miss nothing. There's a punishment for you too, starting tomorrow."

"What is it going to be?" Jaina asked, hoping that it would be not going to the Alderaanian party. Or something else that would get her out of it.

"You're grounded for a month." Okay, that didn't sound so bad. "Without holonet entertainment. You will have access only to the educational materials for your lessons." Jaina paled. That sounded bad, but at least she'd have her lightsaber and personal engineering projects to play around with in her free time. "And no lightsaber or workshop access for you." Jaina's face fell, but Leia wasn't finished. "Additionally, Threepio is going to give you a lecture about swoop racing and you will listen to it and make notes. You will then write a report in which you will explain why your actions were wrong and what exactly could have happened to you and your brothers. Twenty pages. Plus citations."

Jaina's eyes bugged out in disbelief. "Mom, this is going to take forever!" she cried out in protest.

"You have a month, you will find the time," Leia replied without a shred of mercy. "Also, tomorrow you have a dancing class with a tutor."

"A dancing class?!" Jaina repeated in horror. She'd learned some dancing in the past, it was for… the parties… "You mean I'm still going to that Alderaanian party?!"

Leia nodded. "Of course you're going, that's why you've returned from Yavin IV."

"Didn't you say I was grounded?" Jaina pointed out.

"Attending the Annual Alderaan Memorial Ball is your duty, Jaina, I shouldn't have to explain that to you," Leia replied with a small frown.

"Because you were the princess of Alderaan?" Jaina said sourly.

Leia's frown deepened. "I still hold that title. And I am the Chief of State and we were invited to this ball by the President of New Alderaan."

"Can I decline the invitation?" Jaina muttered sarcastically.

Leia raised an eyebrow, as if saying 'what do you think?' "This is one of the rare chances for you to take part in the Alderaanian culture. This is your heritage, Jaina."

"I don't want it," the girl said bluntly.

Her mother's gaze was blazing. "I'll pretend I didn't hear that."

"Why? Maybe I wanted you to hear that," Jaina shot back.

Leia's knuckles tightened as if she was physically keeping her emotions in check. "You don't know what you're talking about," she said in a forced calm tone. But Jaina sensed her hurt and agitation. She knew that she was getting to her. Her own mass of frustration rose up to meet Leia's.

"No, Mom, you're the one who doesn't understand! I don't need to go to this party and I don't want to! Why should I go, just because I'm your daughter? I've never seen Alderaan, I've never been there! It had been destroyed long before I was born and I – don't – care," Jaina lashed out, giving voice to bottled up feelings she'd had for the last few days. The glares of two pairs of identical brown eyes clashed violently like vibroblades in a knife fight.

Leia's nostrils flared as her anger spiked. Her arm twitched and Jaina reflexively flinched, hunching her shoulders up. When nothing happened, she opened her eyes and met Leia's wide ones. Mother and daughter stared at each other in shock. For a moment there, Jaina had really thought her mother was going to hit her.

And from the looks of it, her mother had thought the same thing.

Leia took in a ragged breath to calm herself. "Whether you like it or not, you're coming to the ball and that's final," she decreed. "I will deal with your disrespect later, young lady," she said and turned around, leaving Jaina's room.

"Whatever floats your boat, old lady," Jaina said mockingly just before the door closed. "It's not like my opinion even matters!" she shouted out in frustration when it did.

Panting in anger, Jaina glared at the door. She'd finally said most of the things that she had on her mind. It made her feel triumphant, gave her a malicious satisfaction at seeing how much she cut her mother with those words, but… under it all she didn't feel better at all. She felt wretched and rotten and she didn't know how to fix it. This wasn't like 2-1B's hand that she could easily reassemble because she knew every little screw and mechanism in it.

Jaina groaned and slumped down on the pillow. She wished she could talk to someone. She wished she could talk to Winter. Her old nanny and favourite aunt would have understood. She'd never forced Jaina to learn about Alderaan. With her, the dancing lessons had been fun.

Often, Jaina wondered why her mother couldn't be more like Winter. Winter was so cool, she told the best stories about the Rebellion (and Mother, and Alderaan too, a little voice helpfully added in), she knew what Jaina liked and disliked, food, toys, clothes, she was even so cool that she married an X-wing pilot! She'd definitely let her kids ride swoops or fly starfighters if they wanted to.

Jaina looked moodily at the ceiling and the glowing star stickers. She wanted to be out there, go back to Yavin IV and learn to fly between the stars from her uncle. The longing to be free from everything that was holding her down welled up in her so strongly that she wept. She put an arm over her eyes.

"Are you in pain, Miss Jaina?" the medical droid inquired.

"No," she bit out and sniffled.

"Do you require my assistance?"

"I'm fine," she gritted out. "Can't even cry in peace," she groused to herself.

"Very well. In that case, could you please reattach my hand? I will need it to optimally perform my functions," 2-1B put in a request.

Jaina wiped her eyes and blew her nose. "Sure," she muttered and sat up. She took out the limb and started working on putting it back together. That was so much easier than dealing with her other problems and she took comfort in the familiar work. It just made sense when so many things didn't.

Next day, Jaina was released from her room to attend the dancing lesson with Jacen and Anakin. Her brothers huddled around her worriedly.

"Jaina, sorry we didn't visit you yesterday, we wanted to, but the punishment, are you alright?" Jacen asked, all in one breath.

"I'm fine," she said impatiently. "Quick, tell me what do you have to do for your punishment?"

"I'm helping Threepio with chores," Anakin said, looking miserable. Jaina could understand, her little brother must have been bored out of his mind. She turned to Jacen, who avoided her look.

"I'm cleaning… in the workshop," he admitted, drawing jealous looks and groans of disgruntlement from his two siblings. Jacen grinned wryly and shook his head. "Guess Mom figured out to give that job to the only one of us who doesn't love mechanical things."

Jaina nodded in agreement.

"She is also making us listen to Threepio and write essays," Anakin added.

"Me too," Jaina replied with a sigh. It seemed the punishment was justly distributed between the three of them, so she couldn't try the dad angle to get her out of it whenever he got back from the delivery run. The last they heard from him, he stopped by Bespin.

The dancing lesson with the new tutor, an older stern lady that huffed and hemmed over their poor form and clumsy execution, was just as dreadful as Jaina expected. Wearing that bulky cast on her arm didn't help either as its weight screwed with her balance. After the lesson was over, she felt like she didn't learn anything. If it was possible, it seemed that she unlearned what she knew.

Next on the day's agenda was Threepio's lecture which took three long hours of their life that they would never get back.

Jaina sneaked out to the kitchen for snacks, when on her way she heard familiar voices from the living room. She stopped undecided before tiptoeing closer. She carefully pressed her ear to the door.

"I just don't know what I'm supposed to do. One day she'll go overboard, take a too high risk and then even the all-powerful Force will not be able to save her." That was her mother! And she was talking about her?

"She's a moody teenager, she'll get over it. You only need to keep your temper. You're doing fine," the other female voice replied. Jaina couldn't quite place it.

"I wish it were that simple. She's disrespectful on purpose, but what's worse, after she said all those things yesterday, I fear that she's really feeling that way. I, the last Princess of Alderaan, raised my daughter to not care about Alderaan! I've never felt so ashamed, Mara."

Mara! Jaina trembled with excitement. If Aunt Mara was here, then she flew in from the Jedi Academy!

"Don't take it out on yourself. When was the last time you actually talked with the kid? Without any arguments?"

The silence was telling as both Leia and the eavesdropping Jaina tried to remember the last time such a thing occurred.

Leia sighed in resignation. "It's been a really long time. I've been busy with the Senate and Jaina is away most of the time on Yavin IV, so that must be why…" she reasoned for her own sake.

"Well, knowing that is a start," Mara said. "Sorry I can't help you more, but you know I'm terrible with kids."

"Don't sell yourself so short, Mara. My kids, at least, adore you," Leia replied and gave another sigh.

Mara snorted, but didn't refute. "Well, I need to get going."

"You're heading back to Yavin IV?" Leia asked.

Jaina's heartbeat sped up as she pressed her ear flat to the door and concentrated so she wouldn't miss anything.

"Sure, later. I still need to wait for those supplies I requested, but I'm lifting off in the late evening."

Jaina didn't listen to the rest of it, instead she walked away before someone came looking for her. She sensed they wouldn't say anything important anyway. A scheme was crystallizing in her mind.

After completing the usual lessons for the day, Jaina was escorted back to her room to work on her report about swoops. However, she had no intention of doing so. The moment she was left alone with Threepio, she deactivated him with the Force, a trick she'd perfected when she'd been still little. Then she pulled out her trusty multitool, which she never parted from, and tinkered with the door control panel until it opened. Jaina sneaked through the apartment, casting out her senses for her confiscated lightsaber, though she had a good idea where to look. And she was right, she found all the Solo family lightsabers in her mother's desk drawer beside her red one. With a smirk, Jaina picked up the characteristic silver cylinder of her blade and hooked it on her belt beside the multitool.

On her way out, Jaina stopped in the corridor, wondering if she should take her brothers along. Ultimately, she decided against it. It was better not to involve them anymore in her ideas, especially if they could get messy. Besides her plan was guaranteed to succeed with only one person, not three.

Jaina knew the codes to the front door. From there she simply called a droid taxi and had it bring her to the spaceport. She knew her way around there pretty well from often coming over to help her father work on the Falcon.

Through the port directory, she found the right docking bay to go to. Jaina unobtrusively staked out the Jade Sabre from behind a stack of containers as she planned her next move. Now came the hardest part, she had to bypass the security measures and sneak onboard undetected. After that—goodbye Coruscant, welcome back Jedi Academy! The girl grinned foxily to herself.

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AN: Thanks for reading! There are two more chapters. I'll be grateful to hear your thoughts about the story. Please review! :)

Happy Legends Family Week and may the Force be with you!