ಠ╭╮ಠ (the_scavenger) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-03-13 18:57:00 |
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In the darkness on Starkiller Base, she’d felt the Force and she’d let it in. She’d fought with a ferocity that threatened to consume her and when Ren had been laid out she heard a voice. A push. Kill him. And she’d been repulsed by it.
Finn was hurt. Han was dead. And it was just her and Chewbacca in silence as they’d flown the Falcon home. Rey didn’t know what had happened next. She had never seen Leia before but she somehow felt like she belonged. Like she understood. And they’d embraced.
Rey sat on the edge of her bed, holding the lightsaber in her hands. It was real, it felt real, the weight of generations weighing her down. And something once more called to her.
She dressed, pulling on a light jacket and hiding the lightsaber in the pocket. She got onto her frankenchopper, started the engine, and drove off as the sun rose, pulled by something she barely understood.
Leia had been at the library until late gathering information for an assignment. It wasn’t until said library had closed that she realised she had forgotten to eat that day. Not surprising. The guilt of Alderaan’s destruction continued to weigh down on her and between how she was treated in the dreams, as if she were still a princess, as if she deserved that title after her actions had led to the death of so many…. and then her parents not knowing what had happened and having to pretend she was fine, while worrying about Anakin…. It had a tendency to erase her appetite.
Still. She needed to eat something and there was an all night diner near by that she sometimes went to when she got caught up with schoolwork or internship work. True it wasn’t in a savory part of town, but that never stopped Leia. It just meant she had to dodge her detail which was easier than they liked to admit. Which was how she found herself being harassed in the middle of the night outside the diner by some drunken oafs.
Honestly. At least she could defend herself but given it wasn’t one on one, it was a bit more difficult.
Rey coasted to a stop as she spotted a woman being harassed. She stared for a moment, trying to decide if she needed to help or not. After about a minute, she got off her bike. She’d gotten into the habit of keeping her staff strapped to it, so she pulled it off and charged at the nearest oaf, letting out a war cry and cracking him right in the head like a crazy person. She swung around, sweeping his feet out from under him and knocking him out with another blow to the head. It appeared she knew how to use that thing.
The distraction worked to Leia’s advantage, as she landed a kick to the second guy’s stomach, which sent him into a dumpster where he hit his head and slumped to the ground. A quick check to see they were alive (really, Leia could do without potential manslaughter), she turned to the young woman who had come to her aid.
A look was sent to the diner owner who was already on the phone. They were on good terms and she knew that she wasn’t going to get charged since it had been self defence and the two were still alive. As for the two unconscious men? Well. They wouldn’t be as fine.
“Can I get you something as a way to say thank you?”
“Are you all right?” It was the first thing out of Rey’s mouth once the danger had passed. She straightened a little once it was clear that Leia was fine. “And...no, that’s quite all right. I was just…” She looked back at her motorcycle. She called it the frankencycle because it looked like it had been put together from spare parts. “...driving.”
How could she explain that something told her to drive in this direction? And why was this young woman so familiar to her. She almost looked like someone she’d seen before. Something about her nose, and if…. oh shit.
“I’m..Rey.” She held out her hand.
“Are you sure? I was just about go head into the diner anyway to get something to eat. It really wouldn’t be a problem.” Really. Leia wanted to do something for the young woman who had come to her aid. And well, some sort of sense or being told to drive in the general direction was probably hard to explain. Even though Leia dreamt of the same world (even if she didn’t realise it), the Force was still more just an idea and less a thing as far as her present understanding went.
Still, no need to dwell on that. Instead the petite brunette smiled and shook Rey’s hand, “Leia.”
If there was one thing that Rey never turned down, it was food. And to top it off it was offered as a trade, which meant she wouldn’t owe the woman anything. How could she refuse?
It took all of Rey’s willpower to not gawk. Leia. As in the General Leia she’d just met in her dreams? She suddenly saw the resemblance, as if the lines melted away. She bit her tongue before she said something stupid or fangirly. Instead she nodded, and trusted herself enough to say, “Okay, I think I should probably eat something anyway.”
Luckily for Rey, Leia didn’t seem to notice any potential gawking or the like. There of course was the fact she was used to it thanks to her father’s work and all, but she preferred to live her life as normally as possible. And why she made sure to take self defence. For situations like the one she’d just been in, even if she hadn’t slipped her detail.
“Probably. It’s why I came here after all.” The joys of getting caught up in school work. Or well, that was the easier explanation to tell people. As such, she turned and opened the door for Rey so that they could find a table to sit at. In the light it was easier to recognise her as someone from the network.
“Thanks,” Rey said, shyly ducking her head as she headed inside. She didn’t have school work or anything of the sort, and even if she did most of the things she was interested in was too messy to do while eating. Wouldn’t want to accidentally eat a lugnut. This wasn’t the Korean War and she wasn’t trying to eat a jeep. “What was up with them, anyway? Just being jerks?”
“Seems that way,” Finding a booth, Leia sat down before handing a menu to Rey and then looking at her own, “Lone female coming in this late at night? Clearly I wanted more than just something to eat after logging hours at the library.” It was an unfortunate event but not all that uncommon. Leia knew it, she wasn’t blind to it. She could be shielded if she so wanted. Remain in the presence of guards, only go to areas that were deemed ‘suitable’ (as if creeps didn’t go there. Hardly), but that wasn’t her style.
“Because the library is so sexy, right?” Disregarding the one strip club she’d driven past in Las Vegas named the Library. “Its sad that we even need to know how to deal with those kinds of situations. You look like you swing a mean punch, though!”
Rey could respect a little violence. After all on Jakku (and in Phoenix), she’d needed to know how to hit people to survive.
“Extremely.” Smirking some, Leia figured out what she was getting and so waited for Rey to make her own decision. But first there was discussing things like self defence and she nodded. “Well, I was always interested in martial arts and being able to defend myself, even if I usually have a bodyguard following me.” Or they at least tried. The need to defend herself came from her past, and while all she remembered were more of feelings and fear, the consistent hunger before she’d been adopted…. she had read up on what had happened when she was old enough to process it. Just fueled the need to protect herself even more.
“And you with that staff. That was impressive.”
She nodded her head, opening a menu to take a peek at what they had. Rey started at the mention of a bodyguard, and looked up at Leia. Well. Of course. Leia was a princess. A General, of course she’d have a body guard. She ducked her head back to the menu. Okay Rey, try not to hyperventilate. “Uhm. Thanks. I grew up in a rough neighborhood.”
And here, she was the daughter of an ambassador. It came with the territory even if she did usually find ways to escape the detail. It was probably a hazing ritual for anyone new at this point. Not that it mattered to her. Leia just hated feeling suffocated. There were reasons Anakin was usually the only one she didn’t mind.
“Well. It’s good to be able to defend yourself.”
“Thanks.” Rey had a brilliant smile, and it was on full display. For how hard her life had been, she liked to smile. It was hard to trust people, yet at the same time, she was a people person. She wanted to get to know them. “Was the library for fun, or research?”
It was also an infectious smile. Leia had found that as of late, smiling had been a bit harder to come by as everything from the dreams weighed down on her. Parts that reminded her of Srebrenica, or the flashes of images from there. Parts that she worried would come to be. But she always managed to push through. “Research. I’m a PhD student, so I spend a lot of my time there it seems.”
“What are you researching?” Rey leaned forward, giving Leia her full, excited attention. She figured if it was something Leia enjoyed then she’d be excited about it, and Rey could be excited for her. Someone had once called her a Rey of Sunshine, and it showed.
Ah, that was the question wasn’t it? Was it something she was passionate about? Of course. But there was also a personal element attached for Leia, even if she hadn’t exactly disclosed that fact to her professor when she had pitched the idea for the paper she wanted to write. “International politics. Specifically in relations to handling war crimes such as genocide and the International Criminal Court.”
“Does that kind of thing really work? I mean, is there enough teeth and enough oversight to make it work?” Rey was genuinely curious. “Are genuinely terrible people actually afraid of the court?”
“No. There isn’t. Especially when you have different definitions of genocide and depending on which court you go to, that definition changes.” Add in the fact that the United States was one of the countries which decided not to be apart of the Rome Statute along with the Sudan and Israel, meaning it was under no legal obligation anymore. “Then there are the countries which are not signatories or wishing to be part of it.”
It was a mess.
“It must be tough. On one hand everyone deserves self-determination, but on the other how can anything get done if not enough nations are on board with it?” She wondered if that was why there was so much conflict within the United States. Every state treated itself like a nation within the UN. Rey wrinkled her nose. “You’d think most people would be on board with punishing those who murder by the thousands.”
“It is. The balancing act.” Leia often wished it were easier, but that was the point of democracy. Everyone had a say (in theory) and the more people had a say, the slower it took to get things done. Then there were other political matters involved as well. “You would think. But if there is a chance they’ve committed a war crime or feel that there’s a chance they will, why would they want to be beholden to those laws?” It was all very complex and why Leia was at the library so late.
“There’s an easy answer but it’s the kind of answer that’s probably rife for abuse of power.” Rey scratched at her head. “Honestly I never really paid attention to that sort of thing. It’s hard enough just getting by day to day most of the time, that international politics kind of slips me by.”
“That’s the problem with easy answers. That abuse of power.” It didn’t surprise Leia that Rey didn’t think much about international politics. Most people didn’t. Because she was right, it was hard enough to get on day by day. There were plenty of immediate issues, that people didn’t look globally. Leia did though. “I think it slips most people.”
The people in power probably liked it best if people were too tired or down to really think overly much about the state of things. The thought made Rey’s stomach churn. “Sorry. I don’t mean for it to.”
It was even worse in her dreams. Who had time to worry about the First Order when they were literally starving? Too many nights to count she’d gone hungry, sometimes barely able to find the energy to get up and work.
“Don't. It's fine. Really.” Leia wasn't offended by it, she knew most people didn't think about global politics. She just happened to be raised aware of the issues because of her past and Bail’s work as a global ambassador. Plus Leia’s own drive to fight for people who couldn’t fight for themselves.
“I know that I'm lucky and don't have to worry about things that could distract me in the day to day. It's why I'm interested in it. To help however I can.”
“That’s good! I wish there were more people like you,” Rey didn’t want to take advantage, but she was starving and everything on the menu looked so good. She settled on one of those combo platters with a sample of everything.
“I try at any rate.” Not that she was very successful. Not in the dreams. They may have destroyed the Death Star, but there had been so many losses. She had failed her father and all she could do was try to keep following that conviction. It was all she had. And once it seemed that Rey had settled on something, Leia nodded to the waitress who was working so that they could order.