"Mark of a Rebel"
By EsmeAmelia
AN: Hi! Well...no, I haven't forgotten about this story - I've just been so busy with my other ones lately.
Chapter 6
The blurs in front of Han's eyes were slowly beginning to resemble actual shapes, but that did nothing to orient him. He wasn't sure what had happened - only that Luke had somehow managed to free himself, which had started some sort of battle. He heard the humming of Luke's lightsaber...how the hell did he get that? For that matter, how the hell did Han get this long, thin pole-thing he was holding? Supposedly he had used that thing to knock Boba Fett over...why couldn't he have gotten his sight back before doing that?
"Han! Chewie!"
Lando's voice, pronouncing Han's name wrong (as always), but sounding in distress. The cries seemed to be coming from under the barge, assuming that Han's ability to locate sounds hadn't been damaged.
"Lando!" Han shouted. "Chewie, where is he?"
He fell off the barge! Chewie growled in a worried voice.
Han gulped, gripping the pole (or whatever it was) that he held. "Chewie, lower me down," he ordered.
What?? Chewie exclaimed. Are you crazy??
"Yeah, probably, but Lando's down there," Han said rapidly. Whatever Lando did, he didn't really deserve to be digested for a thousand years. "Just do it!"
Han felt Chewie's hairy arms wrapping around his legs and lifting him off the ground, pressing rather roughly on his bones. "Careful, pal," he mumbled as the blood rushed to his head from the Wookiee lowering him over the edge of the barge.
There was a large dark blur against the blurry light background of Han's vision. Was that Lando? He hoped it was, since he was lowering the end of his pole towards it.
"Han!" the blur called, still pronouncing his name wrong. If they lived through this, Han would have to talk to Lando about that little habit of his.
"Lando, quick, grab this!" Han shouted.
"Little lower, little lower," shouted Lando's voice.
Han shuffled the burning hot pole through his hands. "Can ya get it now?" he shouted, squinting from the suns' rays that further disoriented his vision.
"No!" Lando cried.
Sweat was trickling down Han's upside-down face, stinging his eyes. "Chewie, lower!" he shouted.
I can't! Chewie shouted back.
"Great," Han grunted as he tried easing the pole down further, the hot metal feeling like it was scorching his hands.
A sudden jolt seemed to shake the entire barge, sending Han swinging back and forth. For a second he thought Chewie had let go of him, but he still felt the Wookiee's strong arms gripping his legs...no, gripping his feet. The edge of the barge was digging into Han's boots, scraping his skin.
"LOWER IT!" Lando screamed.
"I'm TRYIN'!" shouted Han, not sure if he was still directly above Lando. He stretched his body until he felt like he was being torn apart, attempting to lower the pole further, though it was already in danger of slipping out of his sweaty hands.
The gravity of his world shifted once more, and suddenly everything happened at once. Chewie's roars mixed with the sound of a woman shouting, "Han! Watch out!" which in turned mixed with Lando's screams. The pole jiggled in his hands before his body seemed to be falling toward it. Before he was even aware of any pain, he found himself screaming as the sharp end of the pole dug into his chin.
"AAAAAAH!!! IT'S GOT ME!!" Lando's voice cried.
Han's warm blood trickled into his mouth, giving him the horrible taste of liquid metal. His chin throbbed in pain, asserting itself in Han's mind despite his desperate attempts to ignore it. Though his eyes still weren't right, the small thin blur wrapping itself around the larger blur was enough to tell him what was happening.
"Chewie, get me a blaster," Han said without thinking.
How?? Chewie screamed.
"Chewie, here!" Zora's voice called.
Han guessed that Zora must have tossed the Wookiee a blaster or something else that could be fired. "Chewie, give me the gun!" he shouted, fighting gravity with all his will in order to stretch his arm up past his waist.
How Chewie managed to hand him a blaster without letting go of his feet, Han had no idea, but now wasn't the time to ponder that. The blaster felt like it wanted to slide out of his sweaty hands, but he squeezed it tighter, until the metal felt like it was threatening to break his fingers.
"Hold still, Lando!" he called down to the blurs in the sand.
"No way, I thought you were blind!!!" the Lando blur screamed.
"It's all right - I can see a lot better!" Han yelled back. This was true - after all, seeing blurs was a lot better than seeing nothing.
"Little higher, little higher!" Lando's panicked voice instructed.
After following Lando's directions, Han fired, and judging by the Sarlacc's screechy cry, he had hit his mark. Suddenly it seemed like the pole was pulling him towards the pit - it took him a moment or two to realize that Lando had finally grabbed it.
"Up Chewie, UP!" Han shouted desperately.
"Chewie, come on, I'll help you!" Zora's voice shouted.
Before he could think about Zora's presence, Han felt himself being yanked up by his feet. He squeezed his eyes shut, concentrating on not letting the pole fall, not opening them until he felt solid floor against his entire body, and then closing them after a second, refusing to let Zora's face materialize in front of him even when he felt her hands on his face.
"Han," she whispered, "what happened to your chin?"