Act III

Chapter 4

Neither twin spoke or put up a fuss as they were escorted away from one another, but gripped onto their Force bond as fiercely as possible up until the moment the suppressant binders were placed upon them. Then Leia felt a loss, a deprivation the likes of which she'd never experienced before. It was as though everything around her had suddenly gone from color to shades of black and white, sight and sound and smell muffled. The disruption nearly sent her to her knees, but the nineteen year old grimly held on to what strength she had left.

A pair of stormtroopers escorted her to another elevator, gripping her upper arms hard enough to bruise. Leia doubted they would have dared to lay a hand on her were it not for the Force-suppressors.

She used the quiet of the elevator compartment to try and center herself, calling on the meditation techniques that her brother always flowed into so easily.

Any progress made was instantly swept away when the door panel slid aside to reveal absolute chaos. A single stormtrooper stood over the room's ravaged console, dead guards and officers scattered about. He looked at them, clearly surprised.

"Uh..."

Leia took the opportunity to throw herself bodily into the trooper on her left, grabbing his weapon and firing it in a killing shot. Before the other one had time to react, the renegade took him down as well. Han then pulled off his helmet, staring at her in alarm.

"Leia, are you-"

"Get these things off me," she croaked, holding up her forearms to display the specialized binders. Han immediately hurried over, fumbling in his haste to unlock the restraints. "Where are the others?"

"Well, that crazy kid cousin of yours and Artoo went to turn off the tractor beam's main generator, Chewie's waiting at the ship with Threepio, and I came here to get your aunt. Where's Luke?"

"Another cell block. Vader wanted to separate us."

"Oh, joy. Now we'll have to retrieve him, too."

"Ahsoka first-"

"I know, I know, I'm not nearly stupid enough to go wandering around a space station this size without a fully trained Jedi on hand, thank you very much."

"Well, so long as we're clear on the matter..."

A minute later, it was a moot point, as a squad of stormtroopers came up the elevator and started firing. Han held them off to let Leia open the correct cell, removing Ahsoka's own suppressors. Before anything else, the elder Jedi gave her charge a quick hug around the shoulders and a longer one through the Force. Then they grabbed up blasters stolen from the previously downed guards and began shooting as well.

"I hate to say it, but we aren't making much progress!" Ahsoka called out.

"So I noticed, oh great Jedi Master, so what do you suggest?" Han snapped back.

"First of all, I'm only a Jedi Knight - and second, Solo, I suggest you take a step to your right."

"Huh-?" The man yelped as Ahsoka shot out a grate beside his shins, nearly falling over into enemy blaster fire. "Hey! What's the big idea!"

"Leia, dear, after you." The youth gave her aunt an aggrieved look, but nonetheless jumped across the corridor and through the newly made opening. "Han, you next."

"Me next what?! Do you even have any idea where that thing goes?!"

"No, but it's bound to be better than up here." Grumbling under his breath, Han had to concede the point, diving headfirst into the grate with a war cry. Ahsoka continued shooting at the troopers for a few moments further, then leapt after him.

-T&T-

Peering around a corner, Shmi anxiously gripped the blaster Han had given her back aboard the Falcon. She waited until the squad of stormtroopers had gone on, then hurried to the next shadowed alcove, Artoo hot on her heels. This sneaking around was driving her crazy, but every time the girl wanted to just curl up into a ball and stay there, she reminded herself of what tortures Ahsoka and the twins would be doomed to endure if they didn't all escape. Artoo was also able to beep the occasional encouragement, something Shmi loved him for.

Soon enough, they reached their target - one of the generators that powered the tractor beam, which Shmi was able to locate the controls of and deactivate. With their escape route off the space station clear once again, all that remained was for her and the droid to return back to the ship.

Except, while en route, one of the pairs of stormtroopers that went past had Luke walking between them.

Shmi bit her lip, glanced about at the handful of other Imperial personnel in the hallway, and took aim. Panicked shouts rang out as she began to fire, needing three blaster bolts to take down Luke's guards. The older youth immediately grabbed up one of the discarded weapons, using it to ward away others in the hall who were armed.

"Luke! Over here!" Artoo squealed out a binary warning along with Shmi's cry, causing the Jedi to duck a shot coming from behind him. Luke quickly made his way over with Shmi covering him. The binders on his forearms were quickly unlocked by Artoo, getting a sigh of relief from the boy.

"What are you two doing out here?" He asked, rising to his feet and firing alongside his cousin.

"We had to sabotage the tractor beam - it's done now, so we were going back to the ship. Where's Leia?"

"Don't know. Different cell block than the one I was heading to, at any rate. Do you know about Aunt 'Soka?"

"Han went to get her."

"Oh, that makes me feel a lot better..."

"He was disguised in a trooper's uniform! Perfectly safe!"

"And you decided not to do the same?"

"I was a bit short for it." They shared a strained chuckle, moving down the hall away from those shooting at them until Artoo got a blast door closed. Then the cousins took a moment to simply breathe.

"Reeeally starting to wish I had my saber right about now..." Luke's gaze snapped to Artoo when the droid starting chirping. "You do? Where?" More beeps and clicks caused the youth to gain a wide grin, which Shmi smiled at the sight of.

"I guess this just got turned into a lightsaber rescue mission?"

"You guess correctly. Come on, Artoo says they're just a couple corridors over from here."

-T&T-

"No offence, Aunt 'Soka, but this was not one of your better ideas."

"I'm with the kid on this one, lady."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes at the humans, not deigning to answer as she stood up off the trash pile. Foul, tepid water immediately soaked her feet and shins, but the Jedi paid it no mind. She strode straight to the door and pushed on it. When physical strength did nothing, she called upon the Force. Magnetic sealing was strong, but a Jedi's will was stronger. The heavy door was just beginning to give under the pressure of her pushing when there came a startled shout and splash from behind her.

"HAN!"

-T&T-

With Artoo sealing certain blast doors parallel to their route, Luke and Shmi were able to make it to the weapons storage room fairly quickly and with minimal shooting. Getting in was also fast, as the door wasn't locked, and their good fortune held up again when the four lightsabers were found sitting innocently on the first table inside.

Leaving was another matter.

No less than ten stormtroopers were charging down the corridor towards them as the youths stepped back out, so they did the sensible thing, and ran in the other direction. The Jedi was able to deflect some blaster fire back towards their enemies, giving the trio the chance to put some distance between themselves at the troopers.

Then they came upon a gaping chasm of a room, and in shooting the control panel to seal the door behind them Shmi managed to simultaneously destroy the bridge operators.

"Sorry!" She apologized, ducking to avoid fire from troopers on a higher ledge. Luke didn't bother to respond, instead reaching into the Force as his cousin shot back.

"Shmi, I'm going to need you to trust me now."

"Why? What are you pla-nIIIINNNGG!" Her question became a scream as the girl found herself picked up and hurled through the air, as if by a huge invisible hand. She landed on the opposite bridge extension less than gracefully, but intact. Luke took a Force-enhanced leap of his own, followed by Artoo with his rocket propulsion jets.

"You alright?" He asked, helping Shmi back to her feet.

"Please warn me the next time we're gonna do something that crazy..."

Luke chuckled at her. "I did tell you to trust me. Leia always says that's a sure sign I'm about to pull something that's less than sane."

"Now you tell me..."

Artoo warbled warningly, and the three of them quickly moved off once again. Through the maze of corridors they ran, heading in the vague direction from which Luke could sense his twin and aunt, also released of their bonds.

But, halfway there, he instead sensed Vader's dark presence, making its way towards the hangar. "Okay, Shmi, time for something else that's monumentally stupid. You and Artoo keep going, I need to make a detour."

"What? Why? What are you doing now?" Shmi's eyes widened as Luke handed her Leia's lightsaber and one of Ahsoka's, hanging onto his own and the other white one as well.

"Rejoin the others or head to the ship, whichever you can do first." He ordered her. "I need to ward off the one thing that could still cause us trouble at this point."

"Oh." She gulped, before springing forward to grasp him in a tight hug. "For luck."

Luke smiled, ruffling her hair before nudging the younger teen on her way. "Thanks, though I hope I don't need it." Shmi hurried onward, and Luke turned to go as well only to realize Artoo hadn't budged. "Buddy, I need you to look after her-"

A sound very much like a snort came out of the astromech.

"No, we don't know that she'll be fine, so would you just-"

This time he was cut off by indignant bleeping, a series of binary insults and rude remarks that continued emerging from Artoo even as he began heading down Luke's chosen route. The youth sighed, but stopped arguing.

-T&T-

"I should have deleted that stupid message from the old man when I had the chance," Han growled, scrubbing furiously at his soaked hair. Leia shot him a sympathetic look, but Ahsoka had already moved on down the corridor, eyes closed and hand extended.

"The others were headed this way..." she murmured, concentrating. "But Luke just changed course... Oh, Force." The Togruta's eyes snapped open with horror.

"What? What's wrong?"

"He's on a collision course with Vader."

"WHAT?!" Only Han catching hold of the back of Leia's jumpsuit stopped the girl from taking off outright.

"Leia, we need to regroup. Shmi's headed for the hangar, and we should be too. From there we can get your brother out of whatever mess he's managed to land himself in."

"I swear, one of these days, I'm going to kill him." She huffed.

"I'll help." Han offered, only half kidding. The three of them moved quickly down the halls, only pausing when they needed to let groups of stormtroopers pass through intersections just ahead of them. Then came the moment when Han happened to glance through a viewport down into another hangar bay.

"Hey, hold up. Isn't that a royal Nabooian ship?" Both Ahsoka and Leia doubled back, the latter gasping when she saw the craft in question.

"It's Pooja's, her official Senator's transport. Aunt 'Soka, do you think she's-?"

"No, Leia, she isn't here. Not anymore." Ahsoka sighed. "They were carrying her body out of the cells when I was escorted in."

"Oh." It took Han a moment to get over his hesitation, but then he set a hand on Leia's shoulder and gave her a comforting squeeze.

"Come on. We need to move."