DXUN, 40 YEARS ABE:

Leia and Han raced up the narrow, dust-choked hallways as quickly as their legs could carry them. Great cracks and fissures ran through the stone around them, and while the major foundation of the citadel was so far holding, smaller chunks and fragments sporadically broke-free and tumbled down around them. None were yet as large as the block of stone that had impeded their progress (a block of stone that Leia now used the Force to brusquely thrust down a side-tunnel, clearing it hurriedly from their path rather than pausing to clamber over it again) but it was only a matter of time before something integral to the ruin's structural integrity crumbled.

The rumbling from below told them that the lower levels of the temple were faring worse than the ones through which they ran. The sound of their cascading collapse seemed to chase the Organa-Solos up out of the tomb-

Until it caught them.

As though it had been waiting until their hopes of escape could be raised enough to dashed, the ancient ruin gave a great creaking boom just as they lurched from ramp to entrance hall and a key support pillar collapsed, bringing the whole temple down upon them. The stones around them shattered and cracked and dropped. Han gave a shout and dove to grab his wife, wrapping his arms around her and tucking her head under his chin as though he could somehow shield her from the weight of the collapsing ruin with nothing but his own body.

Leia threw herself in close, but instead of returning the embrace she threw her hands up and out past his arms, her fingers splayed wide against the dust and darkness…

And as the dust cleared and the cacophony of breaking, falling stone settled, the faint light of their glowrods illuminated the pocket of air in which the two Organa-Solos stood, safe beneath the collapse, as Leia held the stones around them at bay. Those on the innermost layer of their bubbled sanctuary quivered slightly, bobbing and creaking as the weight of the rest of the temple sagged and settled down upon them. The edge of the ancient altar jutted in through the crumbled stone. Even as the rest of it slowly came to a stop, its collapsing momentum falling into stillness, the carved slabs of the altar were the only solid stones around them. The rest rested precariously upon each other and upon the will of the woman holding them in place. There was nothing stable about their salvation; it was not a trick of architecture or luck that held the crushing weight of the crumbling ruin at bay. It was Leia.

Han looked up, slowly realizing they were still alive, and whistled as he relaxed his grip on the small human woman supporting the broken temple over their heads with nothing but her will and the Force.

"Good job, sweetheart."

Leia's eyes were closed, her face caked in dust, but her lips twitched in a smile. "Thanks," she said drily.

Han coughed against the choking stone dust and reached into his pocket for his comlink. "I'm going to comm Chewie," he explained. "He can use the Lady Luck's tractor beam to dig us out. Shouldn't take long," he added reassuringly, his lined face drawn with concern as he watched her. "You just...keep doing what you're doing."

Leia still didn't open her eyes, but she did raise her brows sardonically. "Good plan," she murmured. "Don't rush it on my account."

"Chewie? Yeah, hey," Han talked-over his longtime co-pilot's anxious warbling, "I don't know how much of that you could see from out there, but we've hit a bit of a snag. We-the whole thing came down? Really? No, of course it wasn't my fault. Look, we're gonna need you to fire-up Lando's ship and do a little tractor lifti-"

Han's words cut-off in shock as the comlink suddenly wrenched itself free of his hand and flew across the tunnel to dash itself to pieces against the creaking wall of stone. It landed on the protruding edge of the altar like an insufficient offering.

Leia's eyes snapped open and they both spun to stare as the heavy chunks that lined one side of their crude sanctuary drew back and split open like a pair of floodgates. Out of the thick and dusty shadows stepped an armored, black-clad figure wearing an unmistakable narrow-visored helmet.

Revan was here.