Han Solo stood against the wall of the ferry and stared out into the vast blackness of space, with millions of stars bright and dim the only thing to look at, they were several hours away from reaching another planet, another moon, there had been no other ships out this way, not even a comet.

He could still hear them that night. That had been so long ago, it felt even longer. Remembering how good everything had been and how happy the two of them had been, he felt so old now as he thought about just how many years it had been. In truth it felt like far more than it was, either way, it was a lifetime ago.

Booming footsteps drew him slightly out of his head and to the fact that Chewbacca was coming his way. The wookiee generally moved quietly despite his size in true hunter form, but certain floor panels on this ship tended to reverberate when stepped on, especially the more weight was put on them. Chewie stood a few feet behind him and chattered inquisitively.

Han saw his faint reflection in the glass and he knew Chewbacca could see his face from it, he forced a small smile and tried to sound nonchalant, but wasn't very successful, "Oh, nothing Chewie, just a lot to think about."

Chewbacca made a grunting sound in response, and the next thing Han knew he felt a very large and very furry hand pressed against his back, he almost laughed as he felt the large, strong fingers kneading over his vest; Chewie didn't always remember his own strength and it didn't seem to occur to him that Han's face was about pressed flat against the glass for no more force than the wookiee was using trying to comfort his friend.

"Alright, alright," Han tried not to laugh as he tried to wriggle loose from Chewie's grip, "enough already. I'm fine." He sighed as he realized he couldn't ever fool his best friend. He wouldn't elaborate on what he was thinking, merely offered, "Just wonder sometimes what it'd be like if you'd done something different in your life."

Chewie made a low whining-not whining sound in response, Han rolled his eyes and remarked, "I don't regret anything I've done."

Chewbacca snorted in disbelief, and it showed in the wry face Han made back at him.

"Okay, maybe a couple of things," he admitted.

The wookiee had another one to offer.

"That doesn't count," Han insisted, "I was drunk."

"Hey Charon," Han approached the ferryman, "how soon till you can dock?"

"We're coming up on Carfox's 4th moon, we should be able to land in six hours," she told him.

"Good, I'm going stir crazy not being in my own ship," he replied.

She offered a small smile and told him, "It will be noticeably quieter without you."

He smirked at her cockily and said, "Admit it, you'll miss me."

"Some people miss headaches too," she merely said in response. "Will you miss me?"

"Like a blister," he remarked.

Charon grinned at him and asked, "You ever think about those days?"

Han sucked in a slow breath as he seemed to think about it, and bluntly answered, "Nope. Never."

The ferryman laughed. A few seconds passed and he answered more sincerely, "About all the time."

"Would've been nice if it'd worked out," Charon commented.

Han glanced towards the window and nodded.

"Hey, let me ask you something," he said, his voice taking on a more mischievous tone, "this kid Kroob you got-"

"Just what are you implying?" she asked in an amused tone.

"I'm not implying anything, captain," he remarked as he turned to her with a smug look on his face as he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, "but you are aware there are laws in this galaxy against cradle snatching, aren't you?"

She met his question and his overall attitude with a half amused expression and smugly replied, "Trust me, cowboy, there's more going on between you and that wookiee than there is with me and anybody on this crew."

Han did a double take and said more to himself than to her, "I don't know whether to be relieved or disgusted."

Charon chuckled at that.

"Oh shut up," he told her.

Nope, didn't work. Han sighed as he opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling of the Falcon. He just couldn't sleep on this thing, even in his own bed, while it was being hauled in somebody else's ship. He'd figured it wouldn't hurt to get some rest before they landed and he and Chewie went their own way, but he just couldn't sleep knowing his ship was moving at somebody else's volition.

Oh well he thought to himself as he rolled over on his side and tried to get comfortable, even if he couldn't sleep, there wasn't any reason he couldn't lay here a while until they touched down on Carfox's moon.

"Han Solo!"

Or maybe there was, he thought with a grumble as he opened his eyes and pushed himself up to see who was trespassing on his ship. He got up and saw Charon making her way through the main hold.

"What're you doing down here hiding in this tin can, you idiot?" she asked.

He'd actually been waiting for this moment. Somehow he'd just hoped she'd actually wander in here, which gave him the perfect excuse to do something he'd been wanting to do for a long time.

"First of all I'm not hiding, second of all, now you're on my ship and I'm the captain, I'm the one in charge here so you listen to me." Han walked over to her and added, "this is not a tin can, this is the Millennium Falcon, and don't you forget it, the ship that did the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. I've outrun Imperial starships, not the local bulk cruisers mind you, I'm talking about the big Corellian ships now, and you will address me as 'Idiot' not 'You captain'." They both blinked when they heard what he'd just said, each with a different expression on their faces, he just glared at Charon as if to say 'You know what I mean'.

Charon had an amused smirk on her face as she said, "Been waiting a long time to say that, have you?"

"All the ungrateful mooks I haul cargo for, they think I'm just a second rate smuggler-"

"On a fifth rate tin can," Charon added humorously.

Han growled warningly at her, which shut her down real quick. He glared at her for a few seconds before adding, "They don't ride with the product, they don't live through all the near-death scenarios we encounter on a regular basis, they take one look at me, one look at my ship, and assume I've been dragging my afterburners and think because they've got what they paid for that they can talk down to me like I'm some moron fresh off a farming planet. I've busted my afterburners for years to make a name for myself in this galaxy, and does anybody appreciate the risks I take to deliver their merchandise without getting caught?"

"We know one hump of lard who sure doesn't," the ferryman offered cynically.

Han got lost in his own thoughts for a moment, then turned to Charon and asked her, "Remember what you said when I docked in this thing for the first time?"

She nodded, "I asked where you buried Lando, because I knew the only way you'd get it from him was if he was dead."

"He probably wished he was," Han replied with a look of amusement.

"Be serious, Han, you rigged that sabbac tournament, didn't you?" she asked.

His eyebrows rose and a look of shock formed on his face at her accusation, "I'm offended. I'm appalled."

"Because you didn't think of it first?" she asked.

"You're damn right," he answered without missing a beat. "I won that tournament fair and square."

"Well what do you know?" Charon folded her arms to her chest, "for some reason I'm glad to hear that."

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I bet on you to win that tournament," she answered.

Han did a double take. "What? No, you weren't there."

"You don't notice the crowd when you're bent over your cards, cowboy," she pointed out. "The odds on you were so high because everybody swore you couldn't win...everybody was counting on you losing."

The Corellian thought back all those years, this new revelation felt like it didn't compute with what he remembered of that night.

"So you actually bet that I'd win?"

"I figured you'd rig it somehow," she answered, "like when we first met and you tried to fleece me."

He gave her a wry look in response to that trip down memory pathway.

"Figured you shouldn't be the only one raking it in," Charon told him. "So I put all my credits on you for the win."

He looked at her and shook his head, "You're not serious."

She merely shrugged and asked, "Didn't you ever wonder how I was able to buy the ferry?"

Han opened his mouth to respond but his brain froze after the first syllable. He instinctively knew Hades now was not the same ship she'd first acquired when she got into this business, but he never paid too much attention to those facts. On the in-and-exteriors it was close enough that most wouldn't notice, and they saw each other so rarely he hadn't had much occasion to pay attention either.

He tried again with a different question, "What was the payout?"

"As bad as the odds were on you?" Charon asked, "A million five credits."

Gradually, Han's eyes grew to twice their size as this sunk in to his brain. "What?"

Charon nodded satisfactorily, "I got a new ship, got my crew, made a few adjustments and modifications to the place, still got some put on the side incase any unforeseen hurdles hop up. Staying with you might not have been in my best interest, but banking on you sure was."

Han felt like his brain just overloaded, and was hit with simultaneous thoughts. First, disbelief if this was true, second, a realization it had to be true, third, a sense of pride that he, even unknowingly, was capable of doing something like that, and fourth, a burning sensation of wonder as to why he never had that kind of luck with himself.

"Hey Chewie," Han found the wookie in the corridor down from the ferry's cockpit, "we should be landing soon, so let's get down to the hold and-"

Chewbacca grunted in response.

"Hey, sorry, pal," Han replied, "fun's fun but we've got to start lining up some prospective marks, er, clients, so I can start getting back in Jabba's good graces before he cuts my head off to spit down my throat."

"I can think of a couple other things he might cut off as well just for the hell of it," Charon commented as she walked up behind them.

"So can I," Han added, his voice unwavering but a small glint of panic in his eyes as that unwelcome thought crossed his mind. He turned and glared at the ferryman and asked her, "Do you always sneak up on people?"

"No," she sarcastically replied, "Sometimes I send a bomber droid ahead of me to announce my arrival."

"What're you doing here?" Han asked.

Charon gave him a look that indicated she was waiting for him to realize how stupid his own question was. "There's only one way here leading to the cockpit, and you're in the middle of it. So you can either move, or I can go over you."

Han scowled at her and narrowed his eyes to half open slits and responded, "You'd enjoy that, wouldn't you?" and promptly stepped to the side.

"Thank you," Charon remarked pleasantly enough and passed through.

Han turned and watched her walk away. Chewie's questioning snort drew him out of whatever thoughts he was having.

"Don't start again, Chewie."

The wookie had a comeback for him. Han turned and looked at Chewbacca with an expression frozen somewhere between amusement and disbelief.

"You're over 200 years old, when are you going to grow up?" the smuggler asked him.

Chewie responded with a howl, which made Han's eyes double in size as he asked defensively, "What do you mean 'Look who's talking'?" He reached over and slapped the wookiee in the chest and commented disapprovingly, "A hopeless romantic at your age, you ought to be ashamed."

Their conversation quickly came to a halt as red lights started flashing in the corridor and alarms and sirens started going off.

"What the hell?" Han looked to the lights blaring from the ceiling.

Charon came towards them and said, "I hate to break up this conversation but I'm going to need a second gunner if you're interested."

"What's going on?" Han asked as they ran to the cockpit.

"Something hit one of our deflector shields, we're picking up a ship on radar, it doesn't look like the Imperials but it's too soon to tell," Charon said and ordered the others, "Kroob, get behind me and get the coordinates, Chewie, get behind Han, we start blasting, you keep us on course."

"You're sure you didn't cross into a no-fly zone?" Han asked as he dropped into the seat beside hers. As large as the cockpit was and as new as some of the modifications were, the crew had been able to rig up the controls for the quad cannons directly into the control panels.

"This is a sovereign zone, there's no authority here," Charon told him.

"Beautiful," Han said as he quickly familiarized himself with the controls for the ferry's laser cannon, "of course that doesn't exactly narrow down who they are and what they want."

"I guess we'll find out soon enough," Charon said as she started flipping switches and hitting buttons.

Static crackled over the comm link, followed by a foreign voice demanding almost mechanically like a droid, "Identify and state your purpose, identify and state your purpose."

The two captains looked at each other in momentary contemplation. Han shot her a warning look not to answer, if they really wanted to find out, let them show themselves so they could get blasted out of the atmosphere. Charon shook her head and reached for the comm controls.

"This is the ship Hades, my name is Charon and I am but a lowly ferryman just transporting a few meager fares to the other side of the galaxy."

Han couldn't resist choking on a silent laugh and rolling his eyes. He pitied anybody who was actually dumb enough to believe that.

The voice shot back, "Hades, your presence is not authorized."

Charon responded bluntly, "There is no jurisdiction in this part of the galaxy. How about you identify yourselves and state your purpose?"

The mechanical voice sounded angrier now as it fired back over the comm system, "Hades you are in violation, I repeat, you are in violation. You are ordered to surrender."

She and Han exchanged another look that indicated things were starting to get interesting.

"Under whose authority, sir?" she asked with just a hint of condescension.

There was another crackle of static, and then dead air, and then the monitor shot to life with a visual of the other ship's occupants.

"Oof, there's a charming looking bunch," Han commented when he saw a group of people in black armor with what looked like skulls engraved on the helmets.

"Definitely not Imperials," Charon murmured.

"Why doesn't that make me feel better?" Han quietly asked himself.

They all looked alike and it was impossible to tell who they had been communicating with, the one at the forefront of the screen who addressed them now had a much deeper voice as he warned the four people in the cockpit, "You are addressing Captain Azriel of the Abyss, If you do not surrender, you will be destroyed, I repeat you will be de-"

Charon killed the comm link and jammed the signal so they couldn't make contact with the ferry again and commented, "Stupid conversation anyway. What's your take on this?"

Han chuckled, "They look like a group that give space pirates a bad name."

"Azriel," Charon thought aloud, "that name rings a tone...I think they're on the galaxy's most wanted radar."

"Any reward?" Han asked.

"You sure pick a fine time to think about money," she said as she punched several controls.

"I always think about money, you know that," he replied.

"Okay," she turned to Han, "let's vaporize them."

"Now you're talking my language," Han smirked.

He pulled up the coordinates and locked the cannon's sights on the ship and fired at the same time Charon launched two concussion missiles to take out the shields.

From the seat behind her, Charon heard an uncertain voice wavering, "Captain?"

"I know, I know," Charon looked at the radar, "it didn't even hit it."

"How's that possible?" Han asked.

"I don't know," Charon said as she flipped several switches, "the signal's not jammed...they might've been able to scramble it."

Han tried to adjust his aim and fired again, but the cannon controls weren't working.

"What the hell?"

The four occupants of the cockpit about went deaf from a sudden noise that sounded like the generators were about to overload and everybody got knocked forward as it felt like the ferry suddenly hit a wave of turbulence.

"What just happened?" Han asked as he peeled his face off the control board.

Charon looked at the monitors and did a double take, "This is bad."

"What?" Han stood up and leaned over to see.

"They hacked our system somehow, they're activating our tractor beam," Charon said.

"What?" Han repeated. That went beyond anything simple space pirates were capable of, they might take out your shields and shoot you down on a vacant moon where nobody could interfere, but this was a whole other level of attack, "That means-"

"They're forcing us to reign them in to our docking hatch," Charon told him.

"Space pirates indeed," Han said disdainfully, "this goes beyond a regular boarding, that means they're gonna bust the doors open and start blasting and loot whatever's not destroyed."

"A ferry should be an easy mark, slow moving, lots of passengers, lots of currency, potentially valuable cargo," Charon thought out loud.

"What about those passengers?" Han asked. "If they are Rebel alliances, they should all be armed and willing to fight."

"If these were Imperials yes, this isn't their fight," Charon told him.

"Oh yeah? If the ship gets attacked and everybody gets killed, I'd call that their fight," Han replied.

"We should be able to hold them off ourselves," Charon stood up and simultaneously pressed a button sounding an alarm and turned to her young navigator and told him, "All the same, Kroob, you go advise the passengers of the situation and let them know we may need their assistance." She pushed a lever and turned to Han and told him, "Let's go."

Before Han could ask 'go where?', he saw the lever had opened up a hidden door in the wall, revealing the ship's arsenal. The room was 50 feet by 40 feet, filled to the brim with all kinds of weapons imaginable: blaster pistols, rifles, grenade launchers, riot guns, slug throwers, scatter guns, carbines.

"I think I'm falling in love with you again," Han dryly commented as he looked at it all in awe. He hadn't seen a weapon supply like this since his days in the Imperial Navy.

"Don't get sentimental on me now, Solo," Charon said.

The rest of the ferry's crew came running in and grabbed two and three weapons a piece as well as armor and helmets as Charon quickly filled them in on the situation. Han took a second blaster to match his own and a carbine. Charon grabbed a rifle and turned to the wookiee and bellowed, "Chewie, heads up!" and tossed it to Chewbacca, who caught the rifle with an affirmative howl.

Han watched as Charon pocketed a blaster pistol and took a rifle for herself but saw she didn't grab for the armored chest plates or the helmets and asked, "What about the armor?"

She shook her head, "No time, besides, if worst comes to worst, the captain always goes down with the ship."

"Show me where that's etched in carbon," he returned.

Charon checked her weapons to make sure they were ready to go and looked to Solo and told him, "Alright, cowboy, let's see if you still got it."

He walked alongside Charon and asked her as they made their way to the holding bay, "So, do you have any actual idea what you're going to do?"

"Nah," she replied without missing a beat, "I thought I'd just charge head-on and work my way from there like you always do." She turned and shot him a smug look.

"Ho ho ho," he dryly remarked, "very funny."

"Okay," Charon addressed her men as they gathered around the corridor corner leading towards the bay doors, "everybody knows what to do, nobody get blast happy, hold your fire until the doors actually open, remember the surest kill shot's under the helmet just over the plating, and remember we take no prisoners."

"Yes, captain," several of the crew responded.

Charon turned and glanced at Han in a pregnant silence, as if they both knew this could very well be the last time they saw each other. Then both faced the front and got ready to fire as the doors were forced open.

Fire was opened as soon as the first invaders made it through the entryway, but there were more of them than could've been anticipated and they just seemed to flow through like a plague of locusts, firing back at the people shooting at them. Walls were hit, sparks flew, holes were made and smoke flowed freely, a couple of the intruders were taken out as soon as they got through the door, but most were able to scurry through the corridors, forcing the ferry's crew out into the open to return fire. It was kill or be killed and friendly fire was a very big possibility simply because there wasn't time or opportunity to see who was where in between blasts. Charon hotfooted it around one corner, dropping something in the process, Han did what he did best and charged headlong screaming and rapidly firing, causing much confusion and some panic, until the people he was chasing realized he was alone. Fortunately for him Chewie had followed after him, the wookiee had taken out a couple of the Abyss's crew along the way, but threw down the rifle and let out a deafening wookiee howl as he grabbed two more and slammed their heads together so hard even through the helmets their skulls could be heard cracking like overripe fruit before their bodies slumped lifelessly to the floor.

Charon had chased after two other armored men who were about to get away, she shot one down in his tracks but before she could blast the other one, something or someone came up behind her and she let out a sudden yell of pain as she was slammed head first against the wall.

Han was about to go deaf from the reverberations of all the blasts in such close proximity to one another, one blast from an enemy pistol hit the side of his carbine and he dropped it as he felt the heat from the ricochet about sear both his hands. He turned his head and saw something laying on the floor behind him and recognized it as the Hoth freeze blaster prototype Charon had shown him. He threw his body across the floor to grab it and just missed a blaster shot from another space pirate. He grabbed up the blaster, turned and fired, the armored man suddenly stopped moving and fell to the floor as a dead weight.

Han's ears were still ringing but he was able to detect something that suddenly he hadn't heard before. He yelled to be heard over the blaster fire and raised his arm to get the crew's attention, "Whoa, hold it, cease fire!"

The others heard him and one by one they stopped blasting, and looked around and noticed what he'd noticed, the sudden silence. The hallways were filled with lingering smoke, but everywhere they looked, black armored bodies lay crumpled against the floor.

"That's it?" Han asked, "it's over?"

One by one the crew members removed their helmets and took a better look around.

Han looked over at the one he'd shot with the freeze blaster, an untested prototype weapon, and he decided to go in for a closer look to make sure the guy wasn't just stunned and about to attack. The black armor was freezing cold to the touch, Han drew back a couple times before his hands got frost bite, but he managed to get the helmet off and he saw the man inside the armor was stone cold dead and his whole body was rigid like a block of ice.

The smuggler got out a small amused laugh. "Hey, what do you know? It worked. Hey Charon! This thing actually worked." The silence he was met with got his attention and he turned around and didn't see the ferryman anywhere, "Charon?"

One by one the others looked around and realized the captain wasn't among them. Han headed back the way he'd seen Charon take off during the fight and called her, "Charon? ...Charon?", but there was no answer.

He turned the corner and the name died on his lips, his eyes widened to their maximum capacity and he felt his heart racing in his chest, when he saw two things simultaneously, blood on a low point of the corridor wall, and Charon's body sprawled on the floor under it, with her forehead busted open.

"Charon!?" Han broke into a run over to the ferryman's seemingly lifeless body and dropped on his knees beside her to asses the damage and check for vitals, "Charon? Charon?!"

A small guttural moan made him about jump out of his skin, he looked and saw Charon's eyelids weakly fluttering, she only got them about half open and he wasn't sure she could even see him, but she asked him in a low tone, "Are we dead?"

The question was so random, so spontaneous, Han didn't know how to answer other than a simple, "No."

The battered ferryman managed to scrunch her face up in a small pained smile and tilted her head back to look up at him and asked, "Then they'll just have to try harder next time, won't they?"

Han laughed, it was simultaneously so unexpected, and yet so typically something she would say. He laughed, in shock, in relief, and Charon laughed too, then she groaned as her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed against the floor.

"Charon? Charon?" Han grabbed her and saw she was unresponsive and her whole body had gone limp, and then he panicked, "CHEWIE! HELP ME GET HER TO THE BACTA TANK!"