Disclaimer: I own nothing but my brain full of oddities.

So there he stood, cold and perfect as ever, his smile enigmatically thin. The very sight of him made Leia long to disintegrate him with her bare hands.

"Governor Tarkin," she hissed. "So that's where you've been all this time, you sophisticated bastard!"

"I see you have refined your manners, Princess," the Imperial replied, bowing slightly in a derisive salute. "The last time we met you implied I was hurting your sense of smell. Now, will you please tell me which side of the Force has saved you from Yavin 4 and brought you to the Maw? By the way, you may hand over your blaster," he added before she could utter a word. "It would be of no help anyway-- the security system at the entrance drained it of energy."

"I wish I could stick it down your throat!" Leia spat out in desperation. Her hands were quaking helplessly as she took out the useless weapon and threw it on the floor.

"A rather extravagant pretence for paying me a visit, my dear." Tarkin put extra emphasis on the last word; sharp white canines making him look vampiric. "But I've seen enough people who intended to kill me. You are not another one of them. Just tell me you are missing the good old days back on the Death Star."

"Of course I am!" She rushed towards the Grand Moff and locked his slim waist in her arms as if she wanted to squeeze the hell out of him. "I've given you everything I had, you heartless fiend!"

"Have you ever heard of the saying that giving yourself away completely is a quick way to become a nobody?" His voice coming over her head was relentless, like his frame, pure durasteel, without a single spot of softness.

"So, I'm a nobody to you," she stated hopelessly, dry misery in her eyes.

"Not at all, Leia darling," Tarkin responded in that special slightly purring intonation that made her go hot and cold as it always did. The princess clung to him in a sudden dizzy spell, feeling nothing but the faint strokes of his cool slender fingers between the two sleek buns on her head. "Not at all, since you are welcome here," he added, lifting her face so that their eyes could meet. "Moreover, I'm delighted to see you again."

He hadn't changed at all-- his look and demeanor were just as far from comforting yet so familiar that Leia relaxed. She wondered if anyone in all the worlds was able to imagine that these hands grasping at the Galaxy's throat could actually be so tender. At that moment she wouldn't have been able to break the embrace if her life depended on it--yet still she had to as the Governor moved her aside in a disappointingly impassive manner.

"I assume that you'd like to stay here for a while. Your room must be ready by now." He activated his comm-link. "Captain Tarkin, show the princess to her apartment."

The door slid open revealing a tall, slender officer about Leia's age who looked like a younger, female version of the Grand Moff. Even her hair was cut in a similar way, accentuating fine sharp features. She was attractive nevertheless, her aristocratic and confident look compensating for her lack of womanliness.

"This is Zeira, my daughter." The governor introduced her with a hint of pride in his lightened tone. "One too many for most of the others' sons."

Yet Leia wondered if he would have preferred his heir to be male. Rumor had it that the Grand Moff disapproved of sexual discrimination in the Imperial Navy; now they were confirmed and the reason became quite obvious.

"Call me simply Leia," the princess said promptly to the young woman standing at attention before her. Zeira returned a polite, unemotional salute.

"You are free to move around the station, and Captain Tarkin will make sure you don't get lost. We don't call some of our areas top secret for nothing; the security systems there are essentially tougher than the one in this hall. Now, if will you excuse me, I shall resume my proceedings. Lots of work with this Death Star II, you see." On saying that, the governor went over to the computer terminal and began to scan the incoming information-- some numbers Leia couldn't make heads or tails of. She caught herself wishing she could be that keyboard under his graceful fingers. Then she strode towards the exit where Zeira was awaiting, and they left the hall together.

* 2 *

Young Tarkin proved to be even less talkative than her father as she paced along between the metalled walls, not even glancing at her companion. The more it surprised Leia when before handing her the key card the captain gave her a piercing look and said, her expression fairly friendly yet with a slight trace of challenge, "Go ahead, ask it. I know you want to."

"Ask what?" the princess batted her eyes in astonishment.

"Well, how does it feel to be his daughter, of course. It is written plainly on your face, you know." As Leia nodded, she began: "Whatever you may think of it, it feels great to me. My life is anything but easy, that's true; it's a constant test I have no right to fail. But why would I fail, if there are no losers in the Tarkin family, and I'm definitely not going to be the first one?"

"Are you the governor's only child?" Princess asked, succumbing to her fit of curiosity.

"I have a half-brother, perhaps more than one. The one I'm aware of is an intelligence agent on Corellia, or perhaps elsewhere, I don't care." Zeira shrugged.

Her neglect was beyond Leia's comprehension. "But isn't he sort of your family too?" she inquired cautiously.

"He is not a Tarkin," the captain said with a wince. "Sith, I've stopped caring about all the half-kin I have since my parents divorced. Happily for me, by that time I already had enough wits to stay with my father."

The princess furrowed her brow in perplexity. "You say 'Tarkin' as if it were 'Jedi,' as if your family were some kind of chosen."

"Why, it is chosen indeed." Zeira stretched her lips in one of those sphinx-like smiles that were the signature of her clan.

"Oh," Leia muttered, feeling stunned. "I guess I'll need some time to think about your words."

"I won't be wasting it, if you please," the other woman slid the key-card into her palm and walked away, her gait steady and energetic. Leia stared at her back in sheer bewilderment.

* * *

Carried away by his work, Governor Tarkin ran his eyes over the reports, the numbers forming a complete image of the formidable battle station in his mind. After quite a while his enthusiasm started wearing off, so he wasn't vexed when Admiral Daala snuck up and put her arms around his neck.

"Feeling particularly frisky today, eh?" he narrowed his eyes lazily as she spread her blazing hair over his shoulders.

"Not at all," she replied wistfully, straightening out.

He leant back, resting his silver-streaked head in her cupped hands, as he had no reason for not doing so. Daala knew Tarkin well enough that he didn't have to bend over backwards before her just to demonstrate his will-power. She truly esteemed him, and was worth estimation herself-- at this point they were equals.

"What's bitten you, Admiral? Is this all about Leia?"

"Another lost female soul. I wonder if you will ever change," she said quietly, nuzzling at his left ear.

"Daala, spare me this!" snapped Tarkin. "You sound like my former wife when she pried out I had an affair with that Loor woman. Besides, do you really wish that I change?" he continued, a bit easier.

"Happily for me I'm too rational to wish for impossible things," Daala grinned, seating herself in Governor's lap. "Thus I find you quite nice the way you are."

"Now look at this frantic red feline who finds me quite nice the way I am." Tarkin grinned back pulling the woman closer. "One day I'll shoot you for the sake of discipline, mark it well!"

The comm-link let out a strident signal that made both leap up-- they knew well what that special sound meant.

"So, he wants to participate in the next demonstration." The Grand Moff squinted wickedly as an extremely cross holographic Palpatine dissipated leaving a dim bluish afterglow. "But something tells me he won't appreciate my choice of target."

* 3 *

Leia's room reminded her of the cell on the first Death Star, though it was considerably more spacious. The walls were dull, the floor was cold, the bed was narrow, and... "Time to remember the good old days," she thought, touching the fluffy counterpane that was quite an improvement over the bare mattress.

A bouquet floated in a cloud of mist over the table. The princess couldn't recognize the flowers or the world they were from, but she loved them at first sight. Their petals were luminous and silky with a silvery mesh pattern, sitting high on rapier-like stems. Breathing in the cool minty fragrance, Leia could only guess whether they were grown somewhere in the Maw complex or brought from some planet light years away.

It was then that she felt a surge of fatigue. The day had been a hard one indeed, so Leia sprawled on the bed and vanished from this reality for two long hours until there was a curt ring at the door.

"Come in," Leia suppressed a yawn.

The chosen one entered in her usual stiff manner. The princess wondered what was her mother like... perhaps a soft vulnerable being that Zeira despised for weakness; at least she sounded like that when talking about her parents' divorce.

"So, how do you find the accommodations?" the captain asked, eyeing the military splendor of the room.

"Fine, thanks-- it's just a bit nostalgic. And the flowers are adorable," Leia replied.

"These are panther lilies from our homeworld, Eriadu. They are part of our family emblem, and... right, they are just lovely," Zeira's eyes flashed with mirth. "By the way, Governor said that if you're not especially fond of food processors, you are welcome at our little casual family dinner. Thus I'm here to take you to the Death Star's bridge if you accept the invitation."

The princess raised her eyebrows. "Isn't that a rather strange place for such things?.. Well, I'll just redo my hair-- I'm all messy."

"Better unplait them-- that will be great."

* 4 *

They walked onto the bridge-- Tarkin, Zeira, that strange red-haired Admiral Daala and Leia herself. A small table was installed there for the occasion. The food looked home-made, and it smelled terrific-- the princess could bet it was Eriadu cuisine. Controls and displays all over the walls flickered mystically, scattering gleams of ruby, green and gold all over the area.

Tarkin took his seat across from Leia, elusive as usual, in full view but beyond her touch. "Help yourself to this spicy stew," he advised pointing at a steaming bowl full of some meaty goodness. "My grandfather used to say its taste could make a dead man rise and ask for more."

"It's family mythology, you see," Daala winked. "One must learn it well before joining a clan."

Leia felt a void in her heart where once her sorrows had lain, a toxic sensation of irresponsible lightness. The whole dinner process resembled a peculiar sacrament. It all went as if the rebellious Princess of Alderaan was to be accepted to an Imperial clan... not just an Imperial clan - the Tarkin clan, no less! At the same time it was a real unrestrained family idyll-- and a magnificent chance to learn more about each other. By the time the Death Star II emerged from hyperspace near Coruscant, there was no matter whether things had happened on Eriadu, Alderaan or elsewhere-- the sundered Galaxy was reunited in Leia's soul.

"And then we got into that life-saving coffin; it spun like sith in outer space, and Lemelisk's belly occupied two thirds of it..." Tarkin's story was interrupted with his portative comm-link signal.

"Yes?"

"... the firing line," Leia could make out.

"You may fire when ready," he said, sending familiar chills over her spine, then pressed a disconnect button and rose from the table. "Ladies, if you don't mind I shall leave you for a short while."

As he left, an orb of fiery black started its deadly expansion, the rage of its distant flame shaded by the thick transparisteel of the viewport. Then all the screens went on displaying an Imperial gear-wheel with a flower of panther lily in its center.

"A paradox indeed-- the more he tightens his grip, the more we love him," Daala said pensively.

"Well, be that as it may, you are one of us now."

"Will someone EVER tell me what does it all mean?" Leia inquired impatiently.

They just smiled, and Leia had no choice but to smile back.

THE END