hh_mirror | Closed sockpuppet-y RP for Leia and Aayla

((Problem: slow day at work. Solution: tl;dr sockpuppeting!))

Leia walked through the hallway with a mug of hot cocoa from the kitchens. Luke loved the stuff so she was used to drinking it during their visits, and she was happy to find that it was available here. She was preparing to make the turn that would take her back to the Hufflepuff rooms when she heard the distinct hum of an activated lightsaber coming from somewhere nearby. "Mara? Is that you?"

She turned towards the noise and found a door in the wall was ajar. A stone the size of her fist was holding it open, so she peeked inside. Instead of one of the classrooms that she was expecting, she saw a room full of plants and a stream coming from nowhere. Sitting by the stream was a blue Twi'lek, apparantly meditating with a lit blue lightsaber hovering in front of her. "Sorry," said Leia as she began to leave the room.

"It's no trouble," said the Twi'lek. "Though I thought I'd closed the door."

"This must have gotten in the way." Leia put the rock down. "Sorry I interrupted you."

"Like I said, it's no trouble." The Twi'lek called the lightsaber over to her and shut it off as she stood up. "I'm Aayla Secura, and unless I'm mistaken you are Force-sensitive."

"That would be just one more thing you can blame on my father. Leia Organa-Solo."

"I met your husband and sister-in-law recently. Is it true that Anakin Skywalker was your father?"

Leia grimaced. "I knew him as Darth Vader, but yes. He's my biological father."

Aayla could feel Leia's resentment and resisted admonishing her on it. Knowing what she now knew about what had happened to Anakin, it was understandable. "I knew him. Not very well, but we fought together at Geonosis and Kamino. He was a good man then. Impatient, but good."

Leia snorted. "That's all you have to say about him? He destroyed the Jedi, and he was 'impatient'?"

"I'm not thrilled about it. But if Palpatine was the second Sith--well, everyone knew that he was friends with Anakin. I suppose the Supreme Chancellor manipulated that friendship. If the Clone Wars were just an excuse to kill off as many Jedi as possible before ordering our own troops to fire on us, he manipulated that spectacularly. Turning a conflicted supposed friend to the Dark Side would have been simple compared to orchestrating a war."

Leia didn't answer. Aayla continued. "My friends are probably all dead because of him, yes. The Order that raised me from childhood is gone, yes. I'm angry that it happened, I won't deny that, but if I hold on to that anger and grief then I might as well just give myself over to the Dark Side. It happened, I can't change it, and I have to move on. What I can do is take comfort in the thought that eventually the Jedi will reform and that some of my friends may have escaped. I may have died there, but I'm alive here and as long as I remember them, they'll never be truly dead." Again, she thought of Quinlan and hoped that the rumor that Mara had spoken of was true and that he had escaped Kashyyyk alive.

Leia didn't have an answer for that. "What is this room?"

"The Room of Requirement. I heard about it and asked a house elf how to use it. I wanted to see one of the Temple meditation gardens one more time before I allow it stay a memory."

Leia looked around and felt angry and bitter. "My father--Bail Organa, the man who raised me--told me about the raid on the Jedi Temple. He saw the stormtroopers murder a Padawan right in front of him. That's another thing I can thank Darth Vader for."

Aayla closed her eyes, but her voice was calm. "He did some terrible things from what I've heard, but I also heard that he came back in the end. That's something to remember."

"It doesn't excuse more than two decades of murder and torture."

"No, it doesn't. But it should still be considered. There was enough of Anakin Skywalker left in him to come through when it mattered most."

Leia bit back a reply about how Anakin could have resurfaced and prevented Alderaan from being destroyed, but that was something that she didn't want to drop on Aayla right now. It could wait. "Just because I know he wasn't bad at the beginning and end of his life doesn't mean I have to forgive him."

"No. But you can let go of your hate for him and learn from his example. Don't let it consume you."

"You sound like my brother," she grumbled, but she knew that Aayla was right. "I'll try," she finally said.

Aayla half-smiled. "Master Yoda used to have a saying about trying."

Leia rolled her eyes. "Yes, and Luke's told me that one a million times by now. I'll work on it."

"Thank you."

"I'll leave you to--" meditation? Grieving? Both? "this," she finished. "Good meeting you, and sorry it wasn't under nicer circumstances."

"Likewise." Aayla kneeled down and reignited her lightsaber. "If you ever want to work on your training, send me an owl. I never took a Padawan, but I've been a Jedi Master for a few years now."

"I'll keep that in mind." Leia walked out and closed the door completely behind her.