Night Terrors

A/N: It's been a while since I've seen "The Empire Strikes Back" so I apologize if the order of the events that took place are inaccurate.

Leia Organa didn't remember when she fell asleep, but when she was jolted awake by the half muffled sound that someone was screaming, she already knew that it was far from morning. She hopped out of her bunk and made her way out of her room on the Rebel base, the hallway was dimly lit with floor lights so people could see where they were going. There wasn't anybody else there, but she still heard the screams, and while she was still trying to orient herself, she heard another door open and heard Han Solo as he came rushing out, also to see what was going on.

"Is that you?" she asked.

"No it's not me," he answered as he about ran into her, "Is it Luke?"

She hadn't thought that far yet. They listened to the continuous screams and realized it sounded very much like their friend and they both took off running for his room, trying to brace themselves for whatever the situation was but fearing the unknown of what they couldn't foresee.

"Luke?"

"Luke!"

The door to the young commander's room whooshed open and they ran in, turning on the lights they saw the 20-year-old kid violently writhing around in his bunk apparently caught in a nightmare.

"Luke!"

They both ran over to the bed, Han tripped on the corner of something and half fell on the kid and grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to jerk him awake, Leia got on the other side of the bed but kept a slight distance incase Luke shot up in bed swinging thinking someone was attacking him. After a few tries they were able to get through to the moisture farm kid and he opened his eyes, a few short screams still making their way out before he remembered where he was, and realized who he was with. Once recognition set in, Luke Skywalker fell back against his pillow and looked up at his two friends as he huffed, trying to catch his breath, "Leia? Han?"

"Are you alright, Luke?" Leia asked him.

Luke gasped and wheezed a few times, struggling to calm down, still half caught in the throes of his nightmare, and he asked them as he subconsciously dug the nails on both hands into his mattress as if trying to anchor himself down, "What's going on?"

"That's what we want to know," Han answered, "we heard you screaming and came running. You okay?"

"I..." Luke sucked in another haggard breath, "I don't know...I...I had a nightmare."

"That's obvious, what was it?" Han asked.

Luke looked at the Corellian pirate, and then up at the princess, and he seemed to be working himself up into near-hyperventilation again as he shook his head and answered, "I can't tell you."

"Luke," Leia reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"No," he pulled away and was trembling, "I can't tell you, it's too awful."

"Kid, it was just a nightmare," Han told him.

Luke shook his head frantically, somehow the idea of telling them whatever it was, was more terrifying to Luke that whatever it actually was. The two of them got on either side of him and tried to get him to calm down, instead it seemed to have the exact opposite effect and Luke got more and more worked up by the prospect of telling them what his dream had been about, until his body subjected itself to a fit of dry sobbing, as the terrified kid insisted over, and over, that once they knew what it was, they would hate him, despite their reassuring insistence that they wouldn't.

At any other time, Han could foresee the princess having some objection to what came next, her social standing and breeding of what was appropriate and all, but finally the two of them had to climb into Luke's bed with him and sit on either side of him and force him to calm down, which felt like it took forever before he was finally able to breathe regularly, let alone talk.

"It..." Luke shook his head, "it was horrible."

"What was it, Luke?" Leia asked as she slowly rubbed his shoulder in circles.

"Yeah, kid, the three of us have been in too many compromising positions already for this to be awkward now," Han added, and didn't miss the death glare that Leia shot him from beside the kid.

"I..." Luke heaved in a shaky breath, and staring straight ahead, not daring to make eye contact with either of them, explained, "I was on this swamp planet somewhere, and I saw you guys in trouble...some place called Bespin, you'd gone to see a friend of yours...Lando..."

"Lando Calrissian?" Han inquired grimly.

"Yeah...but Vader got there first, and he got Lando to hand you over to him."

"That sounds like something he'd do," Han replied without missing a beat, catching another death glare from the princess he said, "but anyway, continue."

"Vader...he made a deal to turn you over to Jabba's bounty hunters...had you frozen in carbonite to take back to Tatooine."

"Ouch," Han murmured half under his breath. Leia reached over behind Luke's back and punched him in the arm.

"The plan was," Luke continued, "that if you survived the process...he was going to do the same thing to me and deliver me to the Emperor."

"Oh Luke," Leia felt a tremendous amount of sympathy for him, now getting what she thought was a good idea of what made the dream so terrifying.

"And I got there too late to help, and we..." Luke froze, and tried to carry on, "we fought...and, he...he cut my hand off..." he absently curled his fingers on his right hand, which didn't go unnoticed by either of his companions, "and then he told me that Ben had lied to me...that he..." the farm kid stopped again, and shook his head, "I can't do this."

"Yes you can, Luke," Leia offered softly.

"No, I can't, it's too horrible," Luke told them, finally chancing a look at both of them, "you'll hate me when I tell you."

"No we won't," Han told him. "Luke, whatever it is, just spit it out, it can't be as bad as you think."

Luke turned towards the smuggler with a dark, cynical look in his eyes as he responded, "You want a bet? ...Vader told me that he was my father. Is that as bad as you think?"

"It was just a dream, Luke," Leia said, saving Han from having to answer. As Luke turned towards the princess, Han Solo sat there for a few seconds with a look of utter shock on his face as he tried to grasp what the kid had just said.

"What if it's not?" Luke asked, his voice starting to shake. "What if it was true?"

"It's not true," Leia shook her head.

"You don't know that!" Luke said in a loud, horrified whisper. "All my aunt and uncle ever told me was that my father was dead...Ben told me that Vader killed him...Vader said that Ben never told me the truth about what happened to him...what if it was actually true? What if..." Luke made a sound in his throat like he was choking, and it was followed by several heavy breaths that sounded like he was either going to hyperventilate or throw up.

Suddenly he felt like he was being attacked, smothered, but he realized it was his friends inching closer to him, felt their arms around him, faintly heard them talking to him, trying to soothe him, get him to calm down again, assuring him that it was just a nightmare and it was over and he was safe now, and they wouldn't let anything happen to him. But the burning question wouldn't leave his mind.

"What if it is true?" he asked, staring at the ceiling, but feeling like he wasn't even seeing it. "If anyone found out...the Rebel Alliance would kill me themselves for being a traitor, and I'd rather kill myself than join forces with him."

"Luke, that wouldn't happen," Leia told him, "even if it was true..."

"Not was...what if it is true, Leia? What then?" Luke turned to her. "Do you think you could stand the sight of me then?"

Han jumped in, saving Leia from having to answer, he got Luke to look his way and told him, "Listen, kid, do you have any idea who my old man is? Do you have any idea?"

Luke shook his head, "No..."

"Neither do I," Han told him. "It doesn't matter. We're not our parents, we're us."

Luke pursed his lips together uncertainly, and asked, sounding too scared to even hope, "You really think so?"

"Damn straight," Han replied cocksure of himself, "I told you before, there's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny...not yours either, and the same goes for blood, doesn't matter who gave it to you, only thing that matters is what you do with it."

"I'm not sure I believe that," Luke told him.

"Well I do," Han said.

Luke looked at him, then turned to Leia, and told them, "There was something else, in the dream...it was like this vision, even before he told me that, I had this...vision, I was fighting with Vader in this cave, and I killed him, I...I took his head clear off his shoulders and...when I looked, it was my head in the helmet."

"It was just a dream," Leia told him, "it doesn't mean anything."

"But why would I dream about something like that?" Luke asked helplessly.

"Nobody knows why anybody dreams about anything," she replied, "people have been studying it for thousands of years and they still don't know." She reached a hand to the back of his head and forced him to stare her in the eyes as she asked him, "Think you can go back to sleep now?"

"I...I don't know," he answered.

"Well you better," Han told him, "we all have to be up in three hours, we're not going to be any good to anybody the way we are now."

It didn't make Luke laugh but it did make the corners of his mouth turn up in a hint of a smile as he replied, "I'll...I'll try, sorry I got you guys up."

"Eh, don't mention it," Han remarked.

Neither of them went anywhere until they knew Luke had finally fallen asleep, but by the time he actually was, neither of them could move for fear of waking him up.

"Well," Han said cynically, "looks like we're sleeping together, princess."

"Don't flatter yourself," she replied sharply, a knowing look in her eyes.

"Would it?" Han suddenly asked out of nowhere.

Leia looked at him, confused, "Would what?"

"Would it make a difference if we found out he actually was Vader's son?" Han asked point blank. "I know what my answer would be...but how about you, princess?"

Leia sighed and answered truthfully, "Once I might've thought so...but I know now people are more than their heritage." She sneered at him and added, "though I'm still undecided about you."

"You love me and you know it," Han replied teasingly.

She shot him back a cynical look, but the mood quickly changed as they both looked at their sleeping friend, who, it was obvious, needed their presence more than he consciously realized. Leia cupped her hand over the side of his head and turned it to rest on her shoulder, Han reached over and gripped the younger man's hand in his...the right hand, he realized, the one Luke had dreamt Vader had cut off during the fight. They got as comfortable as possible cramming three people into one bunk and lay there for a while just listening to their friend's slow and steady breathing before they too finally fell asleep.