Leias heart was beating like a drum. She was getting desperate. She didn't want to think about what would happen to her, but her mind couldn't block out the obvious. iNO!/i Her mind screamed. iNO!!! Don't! Please don't./i She wanted to lose control. Wanted to panic, go mad... Act like any other woman would have in her position. Wanted to scream, slap, scratch, bite, kick... She wanted to hurt this man. She wanted to loose control, but the princess in her was too proud. Her mind kept running trough ways to escape this man, but non of her plans could be pulled off. She was truly helpless, and the feeling frightened her. Not helpless as she had been on the Death Star. Then she had had something to fight for... Something bigger than just herself. Now it was herself she was going to fight for.

The man shoved the blaster into Leias back again, to make her speed up. He didn't want to draw too much attention.

Leia saw the door close in on her. Saw her doom getting nearer and nearer. She was terrified. The door was two feet away. One foot. She was standing next to the door.

"Open it." The man ordered. Leia reached for the lock with a shaking hand.

"'scuse me, mister. May I have a chat with you." A voice behind Leia said. She didn't dear move, in fear of being blasted into oblivion.

"That's it. Now would you please drop that blaster, before I blow your head clean off? Thanks." Leia recognized that voice. She never thought she would hear it again...

"It's all right, your worship. You can turn now." Leia slowly turned to see Han pointing his blaster at the other mans head.

"Now, could someone please tell me what just happened?" "Not you, mister." He said as the man tried to open his mouth. "Leia?"

Leia started explaining, her voice was as regal as always. After what she'd just been through, Solo had expected her to be a bit shaken at least, but that wasn't Leia. She could be scared to death, and you wouldn't see it. All he saw was anger. And that was what Leia felt right now. As the fear slowly disappeared, she could feel anger swelling in her. Once again she felt the urge to hurt this man, and now she had the possibility.

Her stern voice started explaining about how she thought the man had been Han, how she'd walked over. What he had said, and how he tried to make her get into the hotel. She never let any of her emotions surface. The word ice- princess drifted into Han's mind. Nothing but ice could stay as cold as Leia. And even if it freaked him out sometimes, he admired her for it. Besides, she was only the second woman he had ever met that was able to resist his loopsided grin. She was the only woman still alive that had resisted that grin, he remembered sadly. It also reminded him about the one of the rules in his life...

Leia had stopped talking. The mans intentions had been all too clear, for the both of them. To Leias great surprise, she saw that the smuggler tugged his blaster so hard that his knuckles was going white. Did he care that much about what happened to her? No, that couldn't be it. It must have been the fact that the mans intentions had been so disgusting that Han would have reacted like this no matter who was involved. But then again, Han didn't really care for anything, or anyone... That was a lie, and Leia knew it. Han cared... He cared for his ship, for Chewie and Luke, but did he care for her? She couldn't bring herself to believe that. She wouldn't. If he cared, then she would have to care for him too, and she couldn't do that. She couldn't care for someone who would run off as soon as the chance presented itself. She couldn't risk caring for someone she knew she would lose. She had lost too much already. Her father, her friends. Her home... She wouldn't risk losing something loved again, and the only way to prevent that was to refuse herself to love. It was easy, and yet terribly hard. Easy, because all she had to do was act like an ice-princess, to refuse to show any kinds of emotions, 'cause that would prevent people from loving her. And hard because a life without love was terrible. When she grew up, love had been like oxygen to her. All she needed was love, and now she had to go without. She didn't dear breath, of fear that the oxygen would be sucked away after she had exhaled, and when she was about to inhale some of the air around her, there would be nothing. Not enough to a single breath. This terrified the ice-princess. Yet, she hadn't been able to refuse all love. Luke loved her! The teenage crush had faded, but it had been replaced by a brotherly love. A love that Leia couldn't refuse, but returned instead. But she needed another kind of love. The love of a partner.

"Your worship. What should we do with this guy?" Leia was ripped out of her thoughts. Her mind had completely drifted off, and the waking had been quit a shock for her. But no one knew that. No one truly knew anything about her. All the ones that had known her were dead.

"We should turn him over to the custody." She answered in her most diplomatic tone. It was not what Leia wanted to do, but she couldn't afford revenge. She had a reputation, and she had to defend it at any cost. If not for her, then for the rebellion.

"Come on, your worship. This is Corillia. The custody will just let him go. However, I think I know about a proper punishment." A smirk crossed the smugglers lips.

"Would you please take five steps in that direction?" Han asked politely. The man did as as told, his knees shaking while he slowly moved in the direction Han's finger was pointing.

"Now turn around." The man turned, and was now facing the smuggler and the princess. Leia noticed only now that Han's gun was set for stun. She started wondering what he was up to.

Han pointed his blaster at the mans head, and the mans knees almost buckled under him. He, however, remained standing. Han carefully lowered the blaster, and was now pointing at a more "private" area. The others face turned from slightly green to white. Leia couldn't believe what she was seeing. Han surly wouldn't go trough with it? She saw how his finger slowly pushed the trigger, then a blue stun bolt emerged, and suddenly, the man lay twitching on the street, his face clearly showing what kind of agony his was in.

Han turned against the main street. Leia ran over to him.

"You shouldn't have done that!"



"Why, your worship? It served him right." He didn't seem to understand why it was wrong to stun a mans "private" areas. . Not when the man had wanted to hurt his little princess like that. iNo/i, Han thought. iI will NOT think of her in that way. She's not my little princess. She's the rebellions little princess./i Han had his own rule when it came to royalty and rebels. And, as for royal rebels, then the rule was "Stay as far away as possible." But on the other hand, he had never passed down an opportunity to rescue damsels in distress.

iWhy shouldn't Han have done what he did?/i Leia had wanted to see the man suffer, but he had not done anything towards her, only frightened her. What he hadi planned/i to do was something quite different. A shiver ran down Leia's spine. She knew why she thought Han had been wrong... All her life, she, as the princess she was, had been thought that everything should be solved by the law! But what when there was no proper law? Were you allowed to handle things yourself. She didn't know, and to be true, she didn't care. She wanted to be mad at Han. Because, if she wasn't mad at him all the time, then she would start liking him. Perhaps loving him, and her rules didn't allow that. iNever fall in love. It will only destroy you!/i

"You shouldn't have. You should have given the law a chance."

"I thought I told you. There is no real law on this planet. I should know. I grew up here."

"I thought you moved when you were 5, and that you haven't returned to this planet since." Leia was turning into her usual self again. Fighting with Han was a way to push the incident away, even if it was the incident they were fighting about.

"I haven't." He answered. "And if it weren't for you, you worshipfulness, and your little alliance, then I wouldn't have returned at all. But even if I haven't been here since I was 5, I know how little this planet cares about it's inhabitants. And how little the people here cares about each other."

"Then why did you move? This sounds just like your kind of planet." The princess spat. If she had only known how much that comment would hurt Han.

The smuggler looked at her with cold, brown eyes. If she had only known what this planet had done to him.

"So that's what you think, your worshipfulness?" he said. "Why, you certainly haven't changed in 10 years!"

"I have no idea what your talking about." She answered confused. "We met half a year ago, remember? Aboard the Death Star."

"Maybe, but I know someone who met you back when you were only 8 years old." He said. "And judging by his description of you, then you you haven't changed at all."

"And who might this mystery man be? Another smuggler friend of yours?" She tried to hid her curiosity, but she could be quite nosey at times.

"Yeah, he was. And his name was Vykk Draygo."

Dun dun DUUUN..!

AN: Who is this "Vykk" anyway? Everybody who's read the Han Solo trilogy knows, so I don't think it'll be a big surprise, but hey, not everybody on this site have, right? Besides, it's going to be an EU AU flashback. Wow, that's new! At least I hope it is! Please, review, or all you guys who doesn't know who Vykk is will live on un-illuminated. And the ones who do know *CoughNarya's BaneCough*, I do hope that you wont say anything!

Narya's Bane: Thanks for the compliments! Well, as you see, it's going to be a little Vykk flashback, but it's going to be AU. Hope you'll like it!

Pitdroid: As for the beta-reading, I did warn you. Besides, I'm not from an english speaking country, so go easy on me. English is a language I learn in school, and I'm doing my best, but I still can improve it, and that's one of the reasons for me to write ff. That and evil plot-bunnies.

Lukie's Angle: As you see, no Force to the rescue, only Han. I just love it when he rescues damsels in distress. Makes me wanna be a damsel... *Sigh*