Heir to Skywalker ⤇ Finn

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

(emma roberts as ekimi)

"Kim! Test runs!" Padme shouted. It was their first year with the resistance. Padme had arrived 10 months earlier, Ekimi Tille a few months before that. Ekimi was the first one to welcome Padme to base, even before Leia or Han.

They were going on their final tests, preparing to join the main fight. Together, they wanted to rise to the top of the resistance. There was a new pilot with potential to overtake Padme, but they weren't worried.

Padme still wasn't over her cousin's - incident, but with Ekimi's upbeat personality and medical history, the wounded-heart Skywalker was already on the road to recovery. Ekimi was making sure of that.

"Coming!" She shouted. She ran over to the viewing bay.

Anticipation was building in Padme's muscles, ready to fly into the danger. But it wasn't just her time yet, she still had to pass trials.

She was training to become a pilot for the adrenaline. The blind faith in your brain that shut out all other thoughts but survival. It was the only thing that could stop her mind from wandering into her memories of Ben.

Ekimi was driven by the death of her family when she was 17. She had worked alongside the family medic back home on Coruscant, though it wasn't really home anymore by the time she escaped. She lived in the underworlds, the place most people lived after the rise of the Empire. If you were lucky, you weren't sold as a slave to mining companies, or worse.

Her grandmother had been well off when Coruscant fell, so they managed to stay topside. And they stayed comfortable, until the old woman's passing. The governing powers claimed there was an issue with her will, but Ekimi didn't believe them. Truth be told, no one believed the government anymore. They were corrupt, driven by money and power like they were before the formation of the Grand Senate and the Jedi Order.

And the people were powerless to stop them. That's why when the Tille family was told there was an issue, they didn't object. Though that came with a price; all the Tille inheritance went to the Mining Guild, which wasn't the worst place for the fortune to go, but it still wasn't where it should have gone.

The lack of money forced them underground, which led them to starvation. With no money and no housing, they almost turned to slavery as their only option for survival.

When Ekimi was 12, her family of four turned into a family of two entirely too fast. While they were struggling to survive, her younger brother, Pex, became ill. He was sick with a disease that was easily curable. Ekimi thought she could save him, she had the knowledge to. She would have, if the government hadn't taken medical rations for the month. There was an attack on one of their stations. They punished the people by taking their medicine.

Pex died shortly before their mother turned a corner and was struck by a transport truck. The driver didn't even blink.

At age 18, Ekimi's father passed peacefully in his sleep. With nothing left to keep her on Coruscant, Ekimi snuck onto a carrier ship en route to anywhere but there.

Pure luck, or the Force, gave her the perfect ship. It was delivering tools to the resistance on D'Qar. There, with the mediocre amount of medical experience she had gained with her grandmother's private doctor, she followed in his footsteps. She didn't want anyone to suffer like her family had, even though her family was fortunate in the way it ended. Not many people could say one out of the three deaths in their family was painless.

When she was 19, she met Padme. She was a broken 17 year old who had just lost her world, just like Ekimi had. So she took her in, treated her like a sister. Was the light Padme needed in her time of gloom.

They were family. They would be, until their final breaths. They told eachother everything, from what they had for dinner to who they had for dinner.

That included who Padme had just met at the Temple, as well as who she had just kissed. The first, however, would be the first secret Padme would keep from her friend.

"Padme! Got a jacket for ya!" She shouted, holding Padme's red jacket on her arm, which was straight in the air with the other arm. She was grinning immensely, standing in front of the med bay near the debrief area.

"Kim!" Padme smiled and let go of Finn's hand. Their touch lingered behind Padme and in front of Finn before their hands were disconnected.

Finn watched as the girls ran into eachother.

"I missed you!"

"I missed you too!"

"How could you do that?" Ekimi pushed her friend away and smacked her shoulder.

"Ow?!" Padme flinched and grabbed her shoulder. "What was that for?"

"Next time you go on a mission, try not to get kidnapped, I thought you died!" She scolded. Padme heard a groaning in the back of the med bay. Ekimi saw her attention shift, and explained the sound. "Chewie. Kalonia's fixing him up."

"Still? Didn't they arrive hours ago?" Padme inquired. The group had landed at least an hour before her, based on her detour.

"Yup, he doesn't like to sit still," Ekimi laughed. "Oh right, almost forgot," She handed her friend the red jacket. "M'lady," She smiled.

Finn walked up behind them. Padme noticed his presence and introduced them. "Oh, Kim, this is Finn," She gestured to the woman, then the man. "Finn, Kim."

Finn smiled and nodded, but quickly moved on. "Padme, we should get inside," he suggested.

"I'll follow you," She smiled at him and he left.

Ekimi looked at her with wide eyes. "Um, who was that?" She asked in awe.

Padme laughed. "No one."

"No one?"

"Later!" Padme shouted, sliding on the jacket and turning away.

She turned into a room with a projection of a map. It wasn't complete, which is exactly what C3PO explained just seconds after she realized it.

a/n - i know this chapter was different, but i just wanted to tell the story of ekimi before she becomes part of the story. i put her casting into the main cast if you'd like to see (emma roberts). i wasn't sure i wanted her to be in this story, that's why i didn't pre-cast her.

she probably won't be a huge character narrative wise, but she's really important to padme.

hope this isn't too inconvenient for you guys, and you enjoy the character!

olivia <333