"New reports are surfacing about the recent kidnapings of two members of the Military Strengthening Act. After Queen Leia Organa of Hapes and Admiral Han Solo failed to arrive at the scheduled Senate address early yesterday, the New Republic officials were notified that Lady Organa and Admiral Solo had been abducted just outside the Queen's apartment a half an hour before the planned address by a mercenary dressed as a cab driver. Sources tell us that Luke Skywalker, brother of the missing Queen and leader of the Jedi, may also have been target. The Holonet News has also been informed that no ransom has been requested and that there are few leads as to whom the parties behind the abduction might be. I'm Gajiit Janiwell, and this has been Galactic News Tonight."

Leia turned away from the vid screen and walked over to the barred window opposite the cell doors. Outside it was still daylight, though judging by the report she'd just watched it was already night on Coruscant. She was drowsy but determined to remain awake so as to adjust to the planet's time as quickly as possible.

No one had come to talk to them since they'd been thrown in their cell, no one to explain what this was all about. This fact wasn't encouraging. No ransom, no explanation, these things didn't add up to a long life span for the captive. What it meant to Leia was that these people weren't in it for the money, they were in it for the statement. Kidnaping wasn't going to make an impact if the captives are set free. It only makes an impact if the captives are killed.

It was funny how some people could justify killing. Kill the few to save the many, kill a few to make the galaxy safer for the many, kill some more to make life better for the many. In this case, the argument was that more military would make the New Republic turn into the Empire, killing more people. So they want to kill to keep the killing from happening. Somewhere the logic had a screw missing, but there wasn't anyone around for Leia to point this out to.

All she could think of was everything she had sitting at home that wasn't getting done, everything that was piling up that she'd have to finish once she was rescued. Suddenly being held captive wasn't sounding so bad. Or rather, it was sounding familiar.

She was just as much a captive on Hapes as she was on Coruscant, and just as much a captive there as she was here. It didn't make much of a difference how she changed the setting, she was still caged. Caged on Hapes as the Queen, caged on Coruscant as the Senator, caged on this Force-forsaken world for being both.

Only on this world, the bars didn't hide being carved wood desks and golden jewelry, they were plain and real and tangible. She could smell the afternoon air outside her cell, tempting her as so many things had before, trying to get her to leave her little pen behind. She could touch the metal and stone which held her, she could taste the dank, musty staleness of the air in every breath.



These walls weren't a facade, and this was something she could fall in love with, something real and corporeal, it was concrete in feature as it was in principle. This was something she'd been longing for nearly all her life, something that she could never reach because of duty and responsibility, silly pretenses she new only how to uphold. This was an inkling of what it must feel like to have people genuinely ignore you instead of pretending to listen, to have your husband show you real ambiguity instead of feigning a smile. To be allowed to see, touch, and smell the walls that cage you so you know their nature.

Maybe freedom wouldn't mean so much if you were shown what really held you down. Maybe it would be easier to accept your fate, if you could at least see what the boundaries were. Maybe life would be clearer if you only new how far you could go, how far you were allowed, when to stop, when to give up and move on.

For Leia, knowing why she'd gotten to where she was, knowing why she can't go any further, and why she wont, meant everything. These were the walls she wanted to see, but she'd covered them long ago with a facade of acceptance which smelt of regret. It was too much effort to pull the paint off, to take off the adornments and see what they were, it would cost her too much to face what they meant. She had already chosen her path, it was no use trying to remember what she'd given up to do so.

Leia lowered her head and sighed, her eyes inadvertently falling on Han, who was removing the pin from his tattered uniform and attempting to put a kind of tool together. Whether it was supposed to be a weapon of a lock pick she couldn't tell, but she couldn't complain either, she hadn't been of much use in the escape planning department and making a crack at him for his efforts would only bring that to light.

In the sunlight, Leia saw a glimmer reflect off the bars of the window, looking down at her dress, now torn and disheveled around her, and she found the pin which was meant to look as though it held her skirt up. She pulled it off, yanking a piece of fabric with it. It didn't bother her, she wasn't overly concerned with the dress anyway.

"Will this help?" she asked, handing Han the pin and crouching down next to him. This was almost a peace offering, since she wasn't sure how to broach conversation now that they didn't really have any information left to share and she wasn't rich with escape plans. Anything that wasn't a necessity to divulge would be difficult to get across at all. Neither of them had ever wanted to make conversation with one another, now they didn't have any other options.

"Yeah, if I new what the hell I was doing," Han replied, still fiddling with the medals that had once adorned his jacket in honor, the way she new he'd always hated them to. He took the pin anyway.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm not any nearer to getting us out either," Leia said, sitting herself down.

"How's that supposed to make me feel better?" Han asked, his tone a little agitated. Han sighed, "I'm not even supposed to be here. I should be taking Jacen to a theme park or something right now, not locked up in the gods know where."



"You don't think I'd rather be someplace else?" Leia asked, though she wasn't totally sure on her own answer to that question, "I could be spending what little time I can with Anakin." Leia stood up and walked back over to the window, leaning against the wall beside it, facing the cell door.

"Don't forget old Iron Skull, you could be with your darling husband right now to," Han said, his voice gruff and angry.

"Don't even think for one minute that I'm taking that comment seriously. Isolder isn't stupid, Han, and he's a far greater gentleman than you'll ever be," Leia countered.

Han stood up. "Oh, hit me where it hurts, my courtesy," he said sarcastically.

"Why do you have to turn everything into an argument?" Leia asked in frustration.

"Me? Me? Gods, Leia, are you even hearing yourself?" Han yelled.

"My hearing is just fine, Solo," Leia said, her words almost descending to a hollow growl.

Han turned away, breathing heavily. He kicked the paneling in front of him in indignation, as though he hoped to quell his temper in the act, but as he did so he became aware of a hollow sound echoing through the wall behind the paneling, and he saw a metal panel jarred loose with a dent from his foot in it.

A guard walked over and peeked in at the noise, scanning the room but finding nothing out of order and returning to his post.

"That's so typical," Han called at Leia, mimicking his previous tone.

Leia turned to him and gave him a strange look, though the word annoyed might have described it sufficiently, "What?"

Han motioned with his eyes for her to look at the panel as he tapped it lightly with his foot, allowing a quiet echo to reverberate through the walls, "That's so typical of you."

Leia nodded, "Typical? Gods, Han, you're insufferable. What the hell do you mean, typical?"

Han's face went blank for a moment as they both crouched down near the paneling. He obviously hadn't really thought of where he as going with the "typical" bit, "You know exactly what I mean," he said in an apparent attempt to hand over control of the pretend argument to Leia.

Leia rolled her eyes as they shook the panel loose, "Oh do I?" she yelled, loud enough for the guard to hear her.



The panel came off and she gazed into it, seeing a damp, dank little duct big enough to fit a human. That was all she needed to know.

"Yeah, you do," Han replied, making eye contact with Leia as they conferred what they were putting together in there heads, "Oh, forget it," he yelled in pseudo-anger, "you'll never understand."

~ ~ ~

Night had fallen and a solemn moon had pushed through the sky to it's climax, dimly lighting the forests below.

"Are you ready?" Han asked, his make shift weapon in his hand, helping to pry away the panel from the wall as quickly as possible.

Leia pulled the jacket Han had given to her close around her, "As ready as ever."

Han nodded. The panel had been a Force-send, and a testament to the poor architecture employed by their captors: a ventilation shaft right behind holding cells with thin walls is not very intelligent design.

Preliminary scouting had told them that there was a grate about twenty meters over from where they were, and they could get through that and out of here. Granted, they had no idea where to go once they got out, but one step at a time.

They pulled the grate up and winced as the noise of metal on metal rebounded along the walls. It was quiet enough not to be a problem, but every little noise was a distraction.

Han went into the shaft second, turning around in the cramped space to pull the panel back onto the wall behind them, and sealing them in the near complete darkness. He turned back around with a little difficulty, and they crawled slowly and quietly down the tubing.

Without warning, a of water pushed past Han, rushing him forward and into Leia, then further along the shaft, too quickly to control the sounds. He hadn't counted on this, the ventilation was self cleaning, and there timing was very bad.

The water had an acrid smell, and it pushed the two of them along as they bounced against the wall of the shaft, giving away there presence to all who would desire to know.

Han cursed as the water receded, leaving Leia and himself in view of the grate, they could still make it.

They crawled with new fervor as they head paneling being removed behind them, their captors coming after them.



They made it to the grate and Han gave Leia back her pin as they both attempted to pry open the seals. When the tools had loosened the seals, they crawled backward and began kicking at the grating, kicking towards the freedom outside.

The grate came loose as the blaster fire began to ring through the tubing. Han sighed in what might be considered relief at the sound: they were to stun.

Han and Leia stepped out onto a rocky ledge as they heard crawling behind them, and they looked below to find themself above a vast waterfall.

They looked at each other, then behind them.

With one titan leap, the two jumped over the edge and let the air carry them.