A hot dry wind buffeted Hanna about the face and ears, bringing tears to her blind eyes. She blinked furiously, twisting her hands in the binders, wishing she could rub her eyes. Was the blackness getting lighter? There seemed to be a halo of brownish gold fading in around the edges. "I think my sight is coming back." If she could just see, could find Alaric...

Lucia's soft laugh sounded beside her. "There's nothing to see. I used to live here, you know."

Hanna snorted. Lucia's constant optimism got on her nerves a bit. The kid might really have a plan, but to do what? "You're gonna die here, you know. Convenient."

Lucia replied with quiet confidence, "Just stay close to Lando and Chewie. I've taken care of everything."

"Oh." Hanna shook her head, watching the faint light blur across her cloudy field of vision. Right. Stay close to Lando and Chewie… if she could find them. She didn't even try to keep the sarcasm from her voice. "Well, then. Great!"

Wind blew through Alaric's hair and around his bare torso, the air so much hotter and drier than he was accustomed to. His heart clenched, remembering the trees he'd climbed, the lakes he'd swum in as a child on Alderaan. He would never see any of them again, never see Alderaan again. Gripping the railing before him, he blinked his eyes angrily. He had no time for tears. Not now. Maybe not ever.

Below where he stood on Jabba's lumbering barge, Hanna, Lucia, and Chewie braced themselves against the wind on a smaller skiff hovering over the edge of deep hole in the desert. Hanna's hair whipped around her face, her gaze still unseeing. Kriff, but Lucia's plan had better work! He couldn't lose Hanna like this.

Threepio stood next to the Hutt, translating for him. "Victims of the almighty sarlacc," the golden droid said into an amplifier, "His Excellency hopes that you will die honorably. But should any of you wish to beg for mercy, the great Jabba the Hutt will now listen to your pleas."

Hanna stepped forward, her glorious dark hair falling around her face and shoulders in a mess of tangles. Alaric's fingers tightened on the railing, his breath caught at the lift of her chin, the defiance in her stance. "Threepio, you tell that slimy piece of worm-ridden filth that he'll get no such pleasure from us."

Alaric couldn't help but grin. He stood straighter, his shoulders back and head high.

Lucia spoke up, her voice as calm and confident as she had been since she walked into the palace. "Jabba, this is your last chance. Let us go."

The crowd around Alaric exploded in laughter and his shoulders tightened again. Blast it—her plan better work!

Jabba leaned forward to speak into the voice amplifier. While Alaric didn't know the Huttese words, it was clearly an order. The guards on the skiff prodded Lucia's slim dark-clad figure onto a plank that came to an abrupt end above the sarlacc, pit in the sand. A ring of tentacles and teeth opened below her. She looked so small against the vast expanse of sand and a chill went down Alaric's spine. Then Lucia lifted her head, their eyes met, and he let out his breath, a quiet calm filling him.

Lucia walked forward without hesitation until her booted toes reached the end of the plank, then gave her audience a jaunty salute and jumped. A roar of approval rose from the barge. But she had jumped up, not down into the sarlacc, and then twisted in midair and caught the end of the plank with her fingertips. The plank bent low, then flung her back into the air. She somersaulted onto the skiff, coming down with her lightsaber alight in her hand. The guards scrambled to defend themselves against the surprise attack.

Alaric remembered to breathe again as Jabba roared orders in a fury behind him. Relief and elation rushed through him and he leaned forward, eager to join the fray. Hanna kicked a guard off the skiff into the sarlacc—either a lucky hit, or her sight was returning—and Chewie plowed bodily into several others. The chain around Alaric's neck jerked his head back, cutting into his throat as Jabba waved his arms around, yelling. Furious, Alaric spun around and grabbed the chain with both hands, flinging a loop of it over the Hutt's huge head. Leaning back, he threw his weight against it. Jabba's eyes bulged and a thick, wet, gurgling choking sounded from his enormous maw. Alaric gritted his teeth, pulling with all his strength, and the Hutt's slimy tongue slid between his scaly lips, fluttered, then stilled. Alaric felt the life leave the horrible creature, and he fell to his knees, panting in relief and disgust.

Reaching up, he clawed at the collar, frantic to get rid of it. Through the roaring in his ears, he could hear the battle raging all around him. Then Artoo appeared out of the chaos, weaving his way through the panicking crowd. The little droid cheeped at him, and blasted the chain, cutting it in two. Gasping, Alaric managed a "Thank you" and patted the droid's domed head. The collar was still a heavy weight on his throat, but he was free. "We gotta get out of here."

Standing up, he spotted Lucia at the railing, her blade a blur of light as she pushed through the crowd toward him. He ran to meet her, passing Threepio who swung around to follow.

"The gun!" Lucia cried, nodding toward the large barge gun. "Point it at the deck!"

He grabbed the gun mount, and wrestled it around, watching in amazement as she took out the last of the Gamorrean guards, her blade moving faster than his eyes could follow. The droids vanished over the side as he got the gun into position.

Lucia ran to his side. "Come on!" She grabbed one of the ropes hanging from the mast and threw her other arm around him, then kicked the trigger of the barge gun and swung out over the railing. Alaric reached up and grabbed the rope with his free hand as behind them the gun exploded into the deck, setting off a chain reaction of explosions through the barge, and destroying the whole thing.

They landed lightly on the deck of the skiff. Hanna leaned against the railing, watching Chewie pull Lando aboard. She met Alaric's eyes, then immediately looked away again. Joy that Hanna could see again warred with a sinking feeling in Alaric's gut.

"Let's go!" Lucia called, striding forward to the centre of the skiff. "Don't forget the droids."

Hanna squinted into the blowing sand, her arm cocked over her face to keep the worst of it out of her eyes and mouth. On her right, Chewie asked where they were. "I don't know," she shot back, not sure why she was angry. "All I can see is sand."

"That's all any of us can see,"Alaric said from her left, his arms wrapped around himself as if the hot wind chilled him. Lando had found a jacket somewhere for the prince to wear over the ridiculous sheer outfit Jabba had made him wear, and he huddled into it.

It was probably Lando's jacket, come to think of it. "I guess I'm getting better then," she said shortly, turning away. What the hell was wrong with her? He'd said he loved her—twice—and she hadn't said it back, wasn't sure she wanted to.

The familiar shape of the Falcon loomed out of the storm, and some of the tension drained away, her shoulders loosening. There was really nothing like coming back to her ship.

An X-wing lay at dock next to the Falcon. Lucia's ship. Hanna took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I've got to hand it to you, kid. You were pretty good out there."

Lucia's smile was bright. "I had a lot of help."

"Really. That carbon freeze was the closest thing to dead there is. Thank you." Hanna allowed her gratitude to show in her voice. Though, Lucia could probably feel it with the Force or something.

Lucia nodded, a bit of colour flushing her cheeks. "Of course." She turned toward the X-wing. "I'll see you back at the fleet."

Aw, kriff. "Kid!" Lucia turned back at Hanna's call. "Why don't you leave that crate and come with us?"

Lucia shook her head, her gaze distant. "I have a promise I have to keep first."

Well, okay then. Hanna nodded and lifted a hand in a wave, then turned around and came face-to-face with Lando. Great. "Well," she said, her jaw suddenly tight. "I guess I owe you thanks too."

Lando grinned, his teeth very white against his dark skin and darker moustache. "Figured if I left you frozen like that your ghost would give me bad luck the rest of my life."

Alaric gave Lando a good-natured cuff to the back of the head. "He means, 'You're welcome'."

Lando laughed and turned around, bumping his shoulder into Alaric's. "Come on. Let's get off this miserable dust ball."

Hanna's jaw clenched, and she turned away toward her ship. Alaric and Lando were getting along very well. And that was fine. Just fine.