Hey, y'all. This chapter is out so quickly after the last because I felt the need to reply to a review before I forgot about it in the next day or so, so I apologize for it being a little shorter than the most recent ones.

DJ Thundercrash: I went back and forth between having Vader take her and having her rescued by Boba because I don't care so much about a character's "relevance to the story" and more about decent/realistic storytelling and character development. And I never claimed her presence would change the outcome of anything. I wanted to give Luke a love interest, showcase lesser-seen characters, and expand upon aspects of the Jedi and the Force not shown in the movies. I feel I've done that. Fanfiction is supposed to be fun, so I'm sorry you don't find my story good because Kal didn't defeat Vader or blow up the Death Star by herself. Thanks for taking the time to read my story and review.

Reika88: I completely agree! Obi-Wan is a great man but I never thought he'd be a good father based on what we've seen of him.

Kaia: I sure as hell hope others see the father/daughter connection because that's been my intention and if people can't see, then I haven't been writing it very well lmao. I can totally see the connection between the song and the chapter though. I think it's really cool when people make a connection to music, even when that isn't the author's intention.

Zikashiagku: Exactly! He's still a child that's being forced to grow up too fast. And since he's not even technically angry with Obi-Wan or Yoda for not telling him about his father, I figured he definitely wouldn't be angry with Kal. He tries to see the points of view from others and is always hopeful which I absolutely love and hope I've captured well-enough in my story.

I like keeping you all in suspense as to whether I'm going to spare Boba or not. To be fair, I still haven't decided how it will play out. Thanks for reviewing!

To everyone else, the next chapter might take a little longer to come out than the past few, so please bear with me.

4 ABY

The months passed slowly. Kal had been relegated to smaller bounties and guard duty. She hated every second of it. She wanted nothing more than to be with the rebellion, planning, fighting. But at least she had Han. On the loneliest of nights, she would sit in the corner and watch the slab of carbonite. She could feel Boba's worried gaze, but he said nothing as she kept her watchful gaze on the smuggler. But there were times where even watching Han did not bring her any solace. It was one of those nights.

Kal dressed in one of the small quarters in Jabba's Palace, zipping up her long-sleeved, knee-length, high-collar, yellow-brown coat which allowed her to blend in with the sand dunes and synstone architecture covering Tatooine and barely hid her tattoo and necklace. Long taken was her desire to hide in the shadows, covered in black. Sand beige pants and shirt underneath kept her cool in the warm temperatures of the desert. All that remained of her life in the rebellion was her blaster. It was the best one she had ever had: the longest lasting and easily concealed.

She had been born anew, like the dawn of a new day.

Occasionally, when not working, Kal would find her way to Mos Taike or Mos Eisley for a drink. Or two or three. Usually, she went to Mos Eisley because it had better cantinas, but Mos Taike was smaller and roughly the same distance from Jabba's Palace as Mos Eisley was which she liked if she wanted to avoid crowds. That day she didn't feel like going to the small town. She needed a good stiff drink to take her mind off the haziness and horrid stench of Jabba's Palace.

Taking one last look at her frozen friend, Kal left the palace as the moons reached their peaks, taking her speeder and driving to Mos Eisley, the comforting weight of her lightsaber hiding under her long coat. After parking her speeder, she walked inside Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina and took a sharp turn towards the bar, slumping down on one of the stools. Ackmena, the female bartender who worked nights at the cantina, smiled at Kal sitting down and hurried over.

"Hello, sweetheart," Ackmena greeted. Her long grey hair was pulled and tied to the side, hanging over her right shoulder. Her kind smile never failed to lift the spirits of any of her patrons. "You look like you could use some Jawa Juice. Can I get you a cup?"

Kal grimaced and ran a hand through her hair. "Maybe something stronger tonight, Ack," Kal requested. "Just don't let Kabe or Muftak pickpocket me; otherwise, they'll have a lot more trouble on their hands than Chalmun demanding rent."

The older lady chuckled. "You've got it, sweetheart. How's an Andoan White sound?"

"Or a Breath of Heaven?"

"Oofta," Ackmena muttered, reaching behind her to grab a tall bottle from the bottom shelf and a short glass, setting both down in front of Kal. "That bad of a day, huh?" Ackmena uncorked the bottle and poured until a third of the glass was full.

Kal nodded and picked up the glass, holding it to her lips. "Long." She took a large sip of the drink, enjoying the burning feeling of it sliding down her throat. "You can just leave the bottle. How's your wife doing? I never see her around here."

Ackmena snorted and wiped down the counter around Kal with a rag. "You think I want Sorschi hanging around the likes of these?" She looked pointedly at the other patrons in the bar. Smugglers, bounty hunters, pirates, and pilots.

"You've got a point." Kal took another sip. "You better talk to them before they start accusing you of favoritism."

"Oh, sweetheart, you are my favorite." Ackmena slyly winked at Kal but left anyway, tending to the other patrons coming up to the bar.

Kal watched the bartender walk away before turning back to the drink in her hand. Something nudged the back of her mind, something familiar. Something she hadn't felt in almost four months. Kal's grip tightened on her glass while her other hand grabbed the bottle. Turning around, her eyes narrowed on what she felt through the Force.

Luke.

She could feel his gaze on her from his spot in the back corner of the cantina. His hooded figure clouded his face and body from her, but Kal knew it was him. Something was different about him, but it was still Luke. He was still the farmboy who grew up on Tatooine. He was still the boy she trained in the ways of the Force and lightsaber combat. He was still the man her heart called for.

But what was he doing back on the desert planet all alone?

Slithering her way through the crowded bar, Kal headed towards her old friend, wary but happy to see him alive and well. Slipping into the booth across from him, she set the bottle of alcohol on the table. "Want a drink?" she asked, raising her glass. "It's the strong, expensive stuff. Only the best for the Hero of the Rebellion."

With a simple phrase, she forced him back into the mindset of a blushing boy who had just left Tatooine. Her simple, half-cocked smirk, urged him to lower his hood. Luke raised his hands and pulled down the black hood, no longer concealing his face from her and the other customers.

They both had aged in the time spent apart. His hair was darker and straighter, his face longer and wiser. His blue eyes didn't shine as bright as they used to. The dark cloak didn't suit him. Kal, on the other hand, donned lighter clothes. She looked more lively, more care-free. Her eyes burned with a fiery passion that he hadn't seen before. That was how he knew she was stir-crazy and itching for a fight.

Leaning back in the seat, Kal put her feet up on the table, knowing full-well that Ackmena might scold her later for it, and took another sip of her drink. "So, have you come up with a plan to free Han of the carbonite, or what?"

Tilting his head, Luke realized there had been more to her message that she had sent all those months before, something he had definitely missed in his pain. "You knew we were going to come for him, so you made sure you'd be in already."

She didn't like what he seemed to be implying. "Did you really think I wanted to work for Jabba again? And leave the rebellion? Leave you. . . Leia, Chewie, Wedge, and Hobbie? Even if forced to, I wouldn't have gone quietly." She ducked her head with a sigh, grabbed the bottle, and poured herself another glass, not noticing the corners of Luke's mouth dipping down in sadness. "I didn't want to, not at first, but I was badly hurt and would've frozen to death on Hoth if Boba hadn't saved me. I took advantage of the situation and decided to stay with Han." Glancing around the cantina, Kal eyed the other patrons, not trusting the ensuing sensitive topic being discussed in public. "I'm going to rent a room. We shouldn't keep talking about this out in the open."

Kal climbed out of the booth, leaving behind her drink with Luke and went up to the bar to talk to Ackmena. When Kal leaned against the bar, Ackmena eyed her, amused. "Did you finish the bottle already, Kal?" she asked. "Need another?"

Shaking her head, Kal replied, "No, I'm still working on it. I was hoping for a room. You got one available?"

Ackmena raised an eyebrow and looked behind the young woman. "Find a man to distract yourself with?"

Kal didn't need to turn around to see what she was looking at. Ackmena had an acute sense of all the customers in the bar. She had seen Kal talking to Luke. "No, no, it's not like that, Ack. We need to talk in private." Ackmena visibly didn't believe her; regardless, she handed off a key to Kal in exchange for money. After the exchange, Kal returned to Luke, grabbed her glass and the bottle, and gestured for Luke to follow her. Once the door slid shut, Kal threw back her drink and harshly set the glass down on the table along with the bottle. "You can have a drink if you want. It's called Breath of Heaven. Kind of ironic, if you ask me, but it tastes a hell of a lot better than Jawa Juice. Sometimes I wonder if they use actual Jawas for it."

"What happened on Hoth?" Luke asked, moving passed the discussion of alcohol. "Leia said Han told you to get on the Falcon, but you didn't and they had to take off."

Kal sat on the edge of the bed and leaned on her knees with a shrug. "I was supposed to get on one of the transports, but I got sidetracked." Kal wrung her hands and looked up at Luke, who still stood near the door. "I tried to make it, I swear. I met Vader in the tunnel just outside the hangar."

"That's why. . ." Luke trailed off as he reached up and rubbed his throat, remembering the major bruising she had had in the recording Gray had shown him.

Kal nodded mutely, not wanting to continue talking but knowing it was necessary. "I'm surprised he didn't snap my neck, to be honest, but he seemed surprised when he figured out who my parents were. . . When I came to, the base was destroyed. I made it to the remains of the Command Center and got out a distress signal to Boba. He picked me up, kept me hidden from Vader. I was too weak to put up much of a fight, but when I thought about it, going with Boba and staying with Han seemed like the best bet, which included in not interfering on Bespin. I'm sorry I couldn't get you more than a message in my droid. I didn't want to send anything too sensitive in case Gray was shot or captured."

Luke bit his lip, standing silently as another question clouded his mind. "Do you know who my father is?" he asked slowly.

"My dad told me when I first met you. I didn't want to believe it, but it made sense. Of course, he would protect and watch over the son of his greatest friend and greatest enemy."

"I think I need that drink now." Luke turned and walked to the table, pouring himself a drink in Kal's discarded glass. Kal let out a long breath, watching as he swallowed the drink, coughed a little at the burning sensation, set the glass back down, and moved to sit next to her. The bed dipped down next to her, his shoulder touching hers.

Together, they sat in silence for a few minutes, getting used to being in each other's company once again. It was strangely comforting to both of them, even if they weren't talking and the room was tense. Four long months had passed between them seeing each other last. They almost didn't know what to say. But Kal needed to know something, too. "What happened on Bespin?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, looking over at him.

Luke rubbed his right hand, not turning to look at her. "Vader told me he's my father. We were dueling. He was trying to lead me into a trap to carbon-freeze me like he did with Han and ended up cutting off my hand. And I lost my lightsaber."

"Really?" Kal's eyes drifted down to his hand, but both looked fine and whole. There was only one explanation. "Cybernetic covered in synthskin?" Luke nodded. "I guess we just need to get you a new lightsaber then."

"Oh, I built a new one." That wasn't what Kal had expected to hear. "Remember the journal your father left?" How could she forget it? They had gone through a lot just to get it. "I was reading it more thoroughly and found a page on how to construct a lightsaber. I still had the kyber crystal you gave me. Gray showed me where you stashed the lightsaber parts on the Falcon. Chewie was pretty amused, so I'm assuming you didn't tell him or Han you were hiding things on the ship."

Kal tried to stop herself from laughing to only slight success. "That's a fair assumption. It came in handy, though, huh?" She turned to him with a smile, meeting his eyes.

Just as before, her smile to him was infectious. No matter what had happened, he couldn't be angry with her. Not in the slightest. Not after everything she had done for him. "Yes, it did." Reaching over, Luke placed his hand over hers, holding it delicately. Kal liked the spread of warmth from his palm through the back of her hand. "There's a lot you've done that has helped everyone." Kal's heartbeat quickened as she gazed into Luke's eyes, their bodies and faces close. "Especially me."

"Luke," Kal murmured, daringly moving the slightest bit closer. "Are you ever going to ask about the first part of my message?"

I wanted you to know something that I couldn't tell you in person. I love you.

He ran his thumb across the back of her hand. "We never did get to have our talk after the battle."

"Why do I get the feeling it's not going to be much of a talk?" She could feel his warm breath on her cheeks. It drove her mad. Nudging his nose with hers, neither could stand the distance any longer. Both moved to close the gap, pressing their lips against each other in a sweet kiss.

A few hours later, Kal and Luke lay entangled in the sheets and each other. For hours, they drifted in and out of sleep together, until they woke before dawn. Luke lazily played with Kal's long hair as she rested her head on his chest and traced random patterns on his abdomen. She then reached over and grabbed his right hand, holding it close. Tracing his palm down to his wrist, she could barely pinpoint where synthskin became real skin, but the cybernetic didn't make him any less of a man. If anything, it was the mark of the man he had yet to become.

"Hey, Kal?" Luke said quietly, taking his hand from hers to brush away a strand of hair from her face.

"Yeah?" she muttered against his skin.

"I love you, too."

The following day, Kal entered the cantina and went immediately to an empty booth in a secluded corner. Eyeing the patrons of the bar, she searched for one in particular, one she hadn't met before but had heard many stories about when she grew up on Tatooine. She sat there until a dark-skinned man, unfamiliar to her, walked into the cantina. He seemed to try and draw as little attention as possible, but the signature mustache was hard to miss. Lando hadn't missed her presence as well.

The former scoundrel wound his way through the crowd of the nighttime bar-goers to where Kal sat and sat in the seat across from her.

"So, you're Kal?" Lando asked, leaning on the table, studying the young bounty hunter. "They've all talked a lot about you."

"Probably because I'm a pain in their asses," Kal replied with a shrug. "I finally get to meet the infamous Lando Calrissian. You know, I knew a boy when I was younger who liked to use fake names when he met people he didn't know. He used your name once. I, of course, knew it was a lie. There was no way someone so famous could have possibly been a boy younger than I."

Narrowing his eyes, he thought over her story and didn't like the insinuation that he was old. "Did this boy have shaggy black hair and a beautiful Mandalorian companion? Would've been extremely good at getting himself into trouble."

Kal hummed in affirmation while nodding, choosing to ignore the tidbit about Sabine. "So, you knew Ezra?"

"Yeah, I hired the Ghost crew for a smuggling job a few years back."

She raised an eyebrow. "I'm assuming it didn't go particularly well." Lando shrugged and made a few non-distinct noises but didn't actually answer. "Anyway, Luke told me about the plan. I can get you in, no problem. You'll need to rustle up some better clothes to blend in as a guard, but I can get you the vibro-blade and helmet. That'll give us two on the inside in case things go south with the other parts of the plan."

"How long do I have?" Lando asked, eyes darting around the bar.

"Meet me here tomorrow night. I'll take you to the palace. Bring a tracker with you, so the others will know where it is." Lando nodded curtly and moved to get up. "Lando." The former smuggler paused and looked at her. "Luke said Leia had a plan to disguise herself as a bounty hunter to get in. Tell her that Jabba doesn't let just any hunter in and barely any that have masks. She needs to choose wisely and know a lot about who she's impersonating. Jabba makes a point of knowing all he can and has droids and advisors to help him stay informed. I can't help her if she gets caught that early. I need to keep my cover for as long as possible."

"I'll pass on the message." Lando then left the cantina, Kal following after waiting a few minutes to avoid drawing suspicion.

Kal drove her speeder back to Jabba's Palace alone, ready for it to be the following night and the first step in the plan to free her friend from imprisonment in carbonite. Kal glided silently through the hall to the throne room. The music from the Max Rebo Band could be heard before she entered. The stench of blood, sweat, and alcohol permeated the air.

She put down a single foot on the steps into the throne room but was blocked by two large bodies. Resisting the desire to sigh or growl, Kal clenched her jaw at the sight of two bounty hunters she hadn't seen in a long time: Bossk and Dengar. The Trandoshan was just as tall and threatening as ever and the human just as leering and creepy.

"Well, if it isn't the little girl wandering back home after a late-night stroll," Dengar said harshly, sneering at her.

"Careful, Dengar," Kal warned, her voice tinged with an icy tone as she shifted her footing. "Don't work your single brain cell too hard. You might explode."

Dengar started to move forward, but Bossk placed a hand on his shoulder to stop the human hunter from doing anything rash. "Boba'sss been looking for you. I'd hurry over to him if I were you."

Kal nodded politely and went around the two, going down the stairs to leave them, but an utterance under Dengar's breath halted her steps. "Run back to your guard dog, little princess."

Pulling her small vibro-blade from her boot, Kal whipped around, grabbing Dengar and slamming him against the wall. She held the blade against his neck and stared into his eyes while other patrons of the Jabba the Hutt began to watch, suddenly aware of an ensuing conflict nearby. Kal ignored them and focused on the scarred man in front of her. "You were one of the bounty hunters hired by the Empire to capture Han right?" He didn't have to answer. She knew the names of each hunter the Empire had called upon. Her dark eyes bored into his. "How does it feel to be so pathetically one-upped by every hunter around you? When was your last successful job where you didn't fuck up or have someone else beat you to it? It must feel pretty shitty to be in your shoes. So why don't you stop acting like the pathetic worm you are before someone like me knocks you down a peg? Got it?"

If eyes could kill, she'd be dead a thousand times over, but she was tired of him trying to put her down. She delt with it as a teenager, but as an adult, she was simply done. Kal stepped back and twirled the blade in her hand. After one last look, Kal turned away and walked further into Jabba's throne room, spotting Boba leaning against the wall nearby, having watched the whole encounter. She would talk to him later. She needed to sleep.

A new day was dawning soon. One that would be free of the tyranny of the Empire. One that Kal would see to personally.