Her hair still dripping wet from a much-needed shower, Leia Skywalker squeezed the water out of her curls with a thick towel. No matter how long she combed it, she still woke up with rough crumbs of sand on her pillow.

Suddenly, her brother burst into the room.

"Luke!" she screeched, her hands flying to make sure her robe was secured tightly around her. "Why is knocking such a foreign concept to—"

Luke clapped a hand over his sister's mouth, and Leia responded by punching him in the arm.

"Ow!"

"What is it?!" Leia hissed, keeping her voice down to appease him.

"Artoo—he's gone!"

Leia blinked. "What do you mean 'he's gone'?"

"He ran away!" Luke exclaimed as quietly as possible. "Trying to find his former master, no doubt."

The brunette let herself fall on her bed with exasperation. "I knew that removing his restraining bolt was a bad idea."

"Not helping."

"Uncle Owen's going to kill you."

"Again," Luke muttered. "Not helping."

"Well, what do you expect me to do, Luke?"

The blonde ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head. "I've got to get up early and look for him… Can you cover for me?"

"I would," Leia admitted regrettably. "But I'm working tomorrow. And you have to drop me off."

Luke dejectedly pushed on his face with his hands. "I'm dead…" he whined. "I'm so dead."

"Oh, stop it," Leia rebuked. "You can still leave early to look for him, you just have to take me with you and drop me off at work if we don't find him before I have to be at the shop."

Luke charged into Leia to hug her. He would have knocked her over if he hadn't lifted her up off her feet with the squeeze.

"Ow…" Leia murmured.

"Thank you!"

"OW."

"Sorry," Luke said sincerely, putting his sister down. "Hell, I thought I was dead…"

Leia gave him a grin. "Don't worry, we'll find him. Set your chrono alarm. We should head out of here just before sunrise."

First thing in the morning, Luke woke his sister up for the search. Leia assembled a note to leave for their aunt and uncle saying that she forgot about having to go into work early today, and that Luke planned to run some errands afterwards with the droids.

With Leia looking through the macrobinoculars and Luke behind the wheel of his X-34 landspeeder, the two traveled slowly east towards Anchorhead. If they didn't find Artoo-Deetoo in that direction before Leia had to be at work, the plan was that Luke would drop her off and continue the search in the other direction. Threepio was sitting behind them, on top of the part of the repulsorcraft that housed the repulsor-field generator. Not the most ideal way to transport a droid, but the V-35 they also had in the garage would have been too slow for the extent of the search. Luke kept looking behind him to make sure Threepio hadn't fallen out of the vehicle.

"Anything?" Luke asked his sister.

"Nothing," Leia sighed in defeat, dropping the macrobinoculars into her lap. "Nothing but sand. You wouldn't happen to remember where Ben actually lives, would you?" She thought for a moment. "Come to think of it… have we even seen his home before?"

"I don't know," Luke admitted. "I haven't seen him around in at least five years or so. Have you?"

Leia shook her head. "I thought I saw him near the shop a year ago, but for all I know it wasn't even him."

The twins waved to some friends as they passed the Toche Station and made their way into Anchorhead. Within a minute or so, Luke was slowing the landspeeder to a stop in front of Naal's store.

"I'm going to head back out west," Luke explained with a sigh. "Hopefully I'll have better luck there."

"Oh, Master Luke, I'm so sorry Artoo is causing so much trouble," Threepio apologized.

Leia gave her brother a remorseful look, handing him the macrobinoculars and hopping out of the landspeeder.

The day could not pass by any slower for Leia. She welcomed the distractions of the few customers she had to interact with, but she still couldn't rid a feeling of dread from the back of her mind. Her intuition had always been eerily strong—Luke's, too. And right now, she definitely felt like the universe was trying to tell her something.

A tap on the shoulder almost startled her enough to reach for her blaster. The girl concealed a gasp as she turned around and looked up into the coal-black triangular eyes of a stormtrooper.

"What is it you need, gentlemen?" Naal, her boss, asked from behind the shop's counter. "This young lady is just my assistant, I am the owner of this store."

With that, the two troopers lost interest in her and approached Naal instead, but Leia's heart didn't stop pounding. Her knees buckled for a moment, and she grabbed one of the clothing racks for support. She shook her head vigorously, as if to shake off the dizziness. The words between Naal and the stormtroopers started running together until they were just murmurs. Her vision started to darken, then faded to black.

Leia awoke to the feel of a cool cloth on her head, and the grasp of a warm, comforting hand. Her eyes fluttered open, and as her vision returned, she saw her Aunt Beru sitting at her bedside.

"How are you feeling, darling?" Beru asked, her kindly blue eyes crinkling as she smiled.

Leia looked around, confused at finding herself back at home when the last thing she remembered was being at work.

"What happened?"

"You fainted," the older woman explained. "Naaldish closed the store for the day and brought you home."

Leia placed her hands behind her, pushing herself to sit upright. She tried to recall the moments before she passed out.

"He told us about the robbery yesterday," Aunt Beru continued. "When were you going to mention that?"

"It was nothing," Leia sighed. "It was an attempted robbery. I just didn't want you to worry or for Uncle Owen to make me quit."

Beru looked down evasively. Leia's expression tightened.

"He didn't."

"He was worried about you—"

"Aunt Beru!" Leia retorted. "Naal needs me there! And outside of the harvest, we could use the money—you know that!"

"Leia, dear, it's not your job to worry about the family's income."

Leia pushed the covers off herself, looking down in disgust at the sand that sprinkled her bed since she was wearing the same clothes she wore to work. She swung her feet over the edge of the bed, turning away from her aunt. Aunt Beru didn't deserve her anger; she knew Uncle Owen was the one who she needed to talk to.

Beru reached an orangey, winkled hand to her niece's shoulder.

"Why do you think you fainted, darling?" she asked gently. "Naaldish thought you were still shaken from the robbery."

"It's not that," Leia responded, suddenly remembering what was on her mind in those moments before she lost consciousness. "It was just… this feeling…" She glanced back at her aunt for a moment, aware that Beru had some understanding of what she meant by feeling. Often Leia speculated that her aunt and uncle knew more about her and Luke's intuitive feelings more than they did. Uncle Owen feared it, but when he wasn't near, Aunt Beru would tell them to trust it.

Leia closed her eyes for a moment, running the events before she passed out in her head. Checking price tags. Dealing with a Twi'lek who insisted on bartering the price of a tunic far below what it was worth. Sharing a laugh with Naal at a red-faced child across the street who—to his mother's exhaustion—was running in circles around everyone.

And then a tap on her shoulder.

"The stormtroopers," Leia whispered.

As her aunt questioned her meaning, Leia's vision went hazy and she suddenly heard a muffled explosion. She saw flames licking up around her legs, bright orange, blackening the walls of the homestead. Her aunt's voice brought her back to reality.

"Leia! Leia, dear, what is it?!"

As the girl's eyes refocused, she again felt the dread she had experienced in the shop.

"They're coming."

"Who?"

Leia jumped to her feet, grabbing her aunt's hand.

"Stormtroopers, they're coming here," Leia rushed. "We have to get out."

The brunette dragged Beru to the entrance of the homestead, where she quickly scanned the perimeter.

"Luke's not back yet, is he?"

"No, not yet," Beru answered. Somehow Leia knew her brother would be fine.

"We can still get away," Leia explained. "Get Uncle Owen, I'll get the Courier—"

"Leia—"

"I don't know when they're going to come, but we can't wait until—"

"Leia!" Beru snapped. That got Leia's attention. Beru never raised her voice. The elderly woman took her niece's face in her hands. "Leia, dear, you have to get the Courier right now. And then you have to leave."

Leia's dark eyes met her aunt's light blue ones.

"What about you?" she asked in a small, childlike voice. Beru's eyes began to glisten with impending tears, looking over Leia's face as if trying to memorize it. As if it was the last chance she had to do so.

"My darling girl…" she fought against the weakness in her voice. Fighting back the tears. Straightening. "Find your brother," Beru instructed. "These stormtroopers—they cannot find you. Owen and I can hold them off as long as we can while you and Luke escape."

Leia released a stifled sob, bringing her hand up to Beru's on her cheek. It all made no sense, but at the same time fate was already sealed. In her mind, she could see the scorched-black bodies of the only parents she'd ever known lying in front of the homestead, but in her heart she could not imagine ever letting go of Beru's hand.

The young girl looked over to Owen in the distance, waving at them from one of the moisture vaporizers. He started making his way in their direction, presumably to see how Leia was doing now that she was awake. Oblivious of what was coming.

"I can't do it," Leia whimpered. She couldn't help but wrap her hands around her aunt like a small child, sobbing into her shoulder. "I won't go without you…"

"You must," Beru insisted, unable to escape sobbing herself. "You must know that you and Luke—you are meant for so much more than this farm—just like you know that your uncle and I are not meant to leave it."

She gently held Leia at arm's length, took one more look into her niece's eyes, and gave the girl a soft kiss on the forehead.

"Now go."