Chapter Ten

"I'm sure it's just your imagination, kid," Han assured the prince, but he didn't sound as confident as he liked, I'm sure. His face was slightly pale, and I saw his larynx bobbing up and down quite often and noticeably. He also cocked his gun, his hands trembling. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Force of habit," He muttered, his eyes avoiding mine.

"What the-?" Luke murmured, his sentence cut off with a gasp. Suddenly, Luke's not there anymore. He got dragged down underneath the rubbish by some…thing. I could have sworn I saw a tentacle out of the corner of my eye.

"Luke!" Han and I shouted in harmony, our hands frantically digging through the heaps of trash. The smell tickled my nostrils, making me want to gag. We searched, but the prince was nowhere to be found. So much for saving him, huh?

"Help!" He screamed, coming up to the surface for a mere couple seconds. A period of time much too short to make it over to him through the trash and help him up. "Shoot it!" He ordered, rising to the surface for another few seconds. This time, though, Han was able to help him at least get him halfway out.

"Where is it?" Han bellowed, his rifle hanging limply in his hand, the other gripping Luke's bicep tightly. I was able to tell that Han started caring for the prince; they seemed to be like brothers already, strangely enough.

"Just shoot anywhere!" Luke choked, the tentacle's grip on his neck growing stronger and tighter by the second. Solo and I began shooting in random directions, hoping to hit at least part of the creature. Even a graze would probably be good enough; anything to give Organa enough time to escape the clutches of the creature. We all sighed in relief as one of my shots hit the creature in what seemed to be his head; with all the species in this galaxy, some stranger than others, it could be hard to tell what parts were which on certain peoples. Luke rubbed his forehead, and gave a brief hug to Han, Chewie and I. He was shell-shocked, of course, and exhausted.

Abruptly, a deep rumbling came from above, below and around us. "I've got a bad feeling about this," I muttered, holstering my blaster. Machinery clanged and clunked as the walls began to move slowly towards us. The four of us just stood there in awe, before I finally realized what was happening and came back to reality. "Don't just stand there!" I commanded, hopping up on one of the giant trash piles. "Brace it with somethin'!" I tried to pull up a thick, not to mention extremely heavy, metal pole, but I just ended up getting flung backwards, landing on a smaller pile.

"Well, it would help if you weren't so tiny!" The Corellian growled, helping me stand up. I held back my retort and settled for a dirty look.

"Help me with this!" Luke called, trying to lift up another pole. Han and I rushed down to help him, as did Chewbacca, who was banging his fists on the door forcefully.

"Your comm!" Han exclaimed after a few minutes of trying to life the pole.

"What?" I hollered, unable to hear him over the immensely loud grinding of the walls. He pulled the small device off of my utility belt, handing it to me, his eyes wide with what seemed to be fear. I awkwardly took it and turned it on; "Threepio!" I shrieked into the comm. "Threepio, come in, Threepio!" The only response was some clicking and then static. "Threepio?" I breathed, my hands starting to shake. Oh no, this wasn't good. Not at all. I looked around at my three friends desperately. If he wouldn't comm back soon, we wouldn't be around for much longer…

Several minutes later, and still no word from the protocol droid, the walls were coming closer and closer together, sending everyone into a small panic. Surely we didn't deserve to die this way; getting crushed by a trash compactor? Sounded lame, in my opinion. I would have much rather died fighting for something I believed in, something I loved. But maybe fate had different plans for me in store.

"One thing's for sure," Solo commented grimly, his face twisting into a grimace. "We're all going to be a lot thinner," He leaned up against one wall, trying in a vain attempt to stop it from closing in on us, or at least push it back.

"It's not gonna work," I muttered, earning a glare from Han. "Just stating the obvious," I defended myself, holding up my hands. "Threepio!" I tried again, gripping the comm tightly, subconsciously aware that I might have ended up crushing it. "Come in, Threepio!"

"Try the hatch again," Luke instructed, nodding towards Solo. Everyone blocked their ears at the deafening shot rang, bouncing off the walls and landing in the trash once more. I had to agree with Solo; at least I was gonna lose those extra couple of pounds…

With only a meter or so left before we became pancakes, I reached out and gripped the closest thing I could find, which just so happened to be Han's hand. My breathing became more shallow with each passing second, knowing that we were gonna be dead soon. He squeezed my hand in an attempt to be reassuring, but it only made me more nervous; his touch did that to me. It annoyed the hell out of me, that's for sure. "Threepio?" I tried once more, my voice cracking. I felt like I was on the verge of tears; I even let a few escape. I didn't care if they saw me crying, since we were going to die in a couple minutes, anyway. "Threepio," I whispered one last time, before finally giving up. "We're gonna die," I declared quietly, my voice shaking.

"You don't know that," Luke said lamely, trying to be confident and assuring. Han, Chewbacca and I all gave him an exasperated look. He sighed, his lips twisting into a frown. "Okay, fine, we probably are gonna die,"

Han looked at me, sweat painted on his forehead. "Leia?"

"Yeah?"

"Try the comlink again,"

"But it-"

"Trust me," His voice lowered, barely louder than a whisper. His hand guided mine to the comlink, then back to my lips. "Just do it,"

"Threepio?" I choked out, my eyes never leaving Han's.

"Mistress Leia?" The protocol droid answered, much to our relief. The connection wasn't the best, but no one cared; we would get out alive. "We were having some problems-"

"Just shut up and listen!" I cried. I couldn't help the grin spread across my face. "Shut off all of the garbage units on the detention level! Do you copy? Shut down all the garbage units on the detention level!" The walls began to clang and shake, slowly backing away from us. The four of us whooped with pure joy, pumping our fists in excitement. Han pulled me into a hug, and I gladly returned the embrace. Luke hopped over to us and joined in, and Chewbacca arrived a short while later. "Threepio, Artoo!" I shouted gleefully into the comlink, a giant grin on my face. "We're safe! You did it! Do you read me? You did it!"

"We're glad to hear you're safe," Threepio chirped happily.

Solo grabbed the comm out of my hands. "Open the hatch on unit 366-117891," He commanded, a wide smile on his handsome face.

I never thought I'd be so happy to hear Threepio say, "Yes, sir."