AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yes, this chapter's pretty predictable. Don't worry, the next few chapters will be more than just regurgitation of the Episode V plot.
Chapter 2
Awareness returned slowly for Luke. His world gradually faded to white as he pried open his eyelids. His pulse thudded heavily in his skull. He could feel something crusting his face; licking his lips, he realized it was dried blood. He felt strangely heavy, as if suspended…
His eyes shot the rest of the way open as the memory of recent events returned abruptly. He and his tauntaun had been ambushed! There had been a hideous white-furred face leering at him, the sharp pain of claws, awful screams and snaps as his mount was slaughtered… then he'd blacked out.
The wampa was nearby – he could hear it greedily snarling close by as it devoured its kill. Luke, meanwhile, hung from the ceiling of the cavern, his feet embedded in the ice. He was being stored for a later meal, like a carcass hanging in a meat locker.
His lightsaber lay buried in a snowdrift nearby, and he struggled to grab it. It was too far… he'd never reach it… just a meter, but it may as well be a light year…
The wampa gave a little growl and stood, blood smeared over its lips and paws. It came closer, eyeing Luke hungrily.
/Calm/ Luke ordered himself. /Be calm. Think only about what needs done./ He shut out thoughts of being the creature's midnight snack, focusing on the lightsaber. It needed to be closer if he was to use it to free himself…
He let himself go, relaxing totally. All background noises faded to a dim babble – the shuffles and throaty growls of the wampa, the hollow cry of the wind, a slight clatter of vibrating metal…
The saber smacked into his palm.
Luke didn't think, only immersed himself in the flow of the Force. One swipe of his father's plasma sword melted the ice imprisoning him, dumping him at the feet of the startled monster. A second slash, and an eerie pain-wracked roar reverberated from the snowy walls as the beast's smoking arm fell to the floor of the cave. Taking advantage of the moment, Luke scrambled out of the cave.
The wampa's whimpering cries were lost in the howling winds as Luke Skywalker vanished into the swirling whiteness.
--------
Hours had passed, and Luke still hadn't returned. Han tried not to worry about it as he, Chewie, and Vader worked, but it was impossible. He liked the kid a lot, like a little brother. But he shoved his concern into a corner of his mind and concentrated on welding a circuit into place. How much trouble could a guy get into while checking out a meteor impact?
"What are you doing, Chewie?!" he heard Vader snap. "Don't take it apart! It took me a week to fix it!"
Chewie roared.
"It's not my fault the parts don't fit right. If Han used the right components for once…"
Another bellow.
"Watch you language!"
Meanwhile, a pair of droids making their way into the hangar were also fighting.
"It's not my fault!" Threepio was insisting. "I didn't ask you to turn on the thermal heater! I merely commented that it was freezing in her chamber."
Artoo beeped a retort.
"But it's supposed to be freezing! How are we going to get all her things dried out? I really don't know…"
Artoo bleeped irritatedly.
"Oh switch off!" the protocol droid snapped before turning his attention to the Falcon. "Master Solo!"
"What now?" Han snapped. Few things annoyed him more than that fussy droid.
"Mistress Leia has been trying to reach you, but you aren't answering your communicator…"
"I shut it off. Why, what does her Worship want to yell at me for now?"
"She wanted to know if you've seen Master Luke. He hasn't come back yet."
"We don't know where he is," Vader replied.
"Nobody knows where he is!" said Threepio, a note of panic in his voice.
That got Han's attention. If Luke hadn't come back or even commed the base, he was in trouble.
Vader seemed to think the same thing. He leaped down from the top of the Falcon and motioned for Han to join him.
"Come on!" he called. "He may have come through the south entrance! I've done that on occasion!"
"Sir, might I inquire what's going on?" asked Threepio as Han slid down to the floor.
"Why not?" Han shot back, running to join Vader.
"Impossible man!" he heard the droid mutter.
The two of them ran for the south entrance, near the stables. Rebels flattened against the walls to avoid a collision with the two men.
"Do you think that 'meteor' could have been something more?" asked Vader.
"Dunno," Han replied. "But you know the kid. He's always getting himself in trouble."
"Perhaps he's just playing sabaac with the other Rogues," Vader offered, a kind of desperate hope in his voice.
When they burst into the stables, their worst fears were realized. Luke was nowhere to be seen, and no one recalled seeing him pass through.
"He may have forgotten to check in," suggested Mela hopefully.
"Not likely," Han replied. "Get the speeders ready. We'll go search for him."
"There's a big storm blowing in!" someone in ground crew protested.
"And our friend's out there!" Vader replied.
"The speeders aren't working," Wedge said in frustration. "Ground crew hasn't gotten them adapted to the cold yet."
"Then we'll take tauntauns," Vader said shortly, grabbing the halter of the nearest steed.
"Your tauntaun will freeze to death before you reach the first marker!" the pessimistic ground crew member shouted.
"Then we'll see you in Hell!" Han retorted, and the two of them tore out of the stables and into the bitter night.
Wind and snow raged all around them as they plowed through the storm. After traveling about a hundred meters they realized that no one else had joined their search party.
"Don't they even care about Luke?!" Vader snapped over the gale.
"They may have already given him up for dead!" Han replied. "Face it! There's not much hope that we'll find him alive!"
"I'm not giving up on him!" Vader replied. "I'll cover the southwest quadrant! You take the southeast! He may have gotten lost on the way back!"
"Back here in an hour!" Han shouted. "We don't want to get locked out or we'll never survive the night!"
"Copy!"
Han watched the whiteness of the Hoth night swallow Vader up before continuing on his way.
--------
Vader plowed on through the thick storm, urging his exhausted mount on. They couldn't give up, they couldn't! Luke was alive; he could feel it in his bones. But he wouldn't be much longer if they didn't get him inside the base before nightfall.
There seemed to be a slight pull to his left, and he kneed the tauntaun in that direction. He wondered if, untrained as he was, he was allowed to be using the Force, but he put the thought out of his mind. Even if he was doing something forbidden, he felt it would be justified in this case. After all, a life was at stake.
The tauntaun started, wailing. Vader stroked her neck to calm her as he peered into the night. There! A hump of ice with a fissure gashing it open, wide enough to steer a swoop bike through, was visible through the snow. Could Luke be there? If he'd kept his head in the storm, he'd have enough sense to take shelter.
He had a job of urging his tauntaun into the cavern, and he soon found out why. The air inside was thick with the rancid-carrion stink of wampa. Tauntaun bones, strings of meat and tendon still clinging to them, glistened with scarlet ice in a frozen red pool. Embedded in the icy wall itself was a second skeleton, only much older and cleaner. And on the floor of the cave lay a white-furred arm, somehow bloodlessly severed.
His steed was nearly hysterical with terror now. As he struggled to control the animal, he spotted something lying on the floor that alarmed him deeply.
Luke's comlink had been frozen into the crimson ice near the fresh bones.
/He was here/ he thought nervously. /Or was some time ago. But where is he now?/
Tying the tauntaun to a stalagmite, he bent down to pry the comlink out of the ice. Carefully brushing it off, he slipped it into his belt pouch.
A panicked shriek and a cold knife of warning in his gut made him look up. The injured wampa lurched painfully out of the shadows, its remaining arm raised and teeth bared in fury.
/Oh stars, I thought it'd left…/
He rolled to avoid the razor-sharp claws slicing down at him. Getting to his feet, he ripped his blaster from its holster and squeezed off a round. The reek of singed hair filled the cavern, and the beast bellowed in fresh agony.
/Don't like it when your dinner bites back, do you?/
His tauntaun squealed her terror. The wampa turned to the animal eagerly. Tethered prey would be easier for it to handle than prey with a weapon.
"Oh no you don't!" Vader barked, firing again.
The shots weren't doing as much damage to the creature as they should have, but they evidently hurt it. The predator hesitated, torn between devouring its prey and ridding itself of this painful nuisance. Vader took advantage of its moment of indecisiveness and bolted forward, leaping onto the tauntaun's back and fighting to untie the reins from the stalagmite.
Another howl shook the icy walls. Claws like knives raked the air, and Vader had to flatten himself against the tauntaun's back to avoid the strike. His mount bleated pathetically and skittered away as far as her tether would allow.
The wampa lashed out again, and this time Vader wasn't so lucky. Fire slashed down his left arm, and claws tore across the left shoulder of his mount. The tauntaun shrieked in pain as scarlet streaked her white fur.
Anger flooded Vader as he clutched his wounded arm. Why couldn't this monster just let them be?
Something dark filled his chest, a cold fire that spread rapidly through his veins. It filled his vision and made his ears roar, frightening him and making him lust for more at the same time. Without thinking he reached within himself and drew out a measure of that black fire, molding it in his mind, willing it to do his bidding, and it obeyed unquestioningly.
The wampa's black eyes bulged, and it crumpled to the floor of the cave, gagging violently. Vader watched impassively, without reaction, without remorse…
…the officer fell to his knees, hands to his throat, his face ashen with fear and oxygen deprivation. His brown eyes fixed on him pleadingly as his mouth worked feverishly to suck in breath.
"Please…" he choked through Vader's Force-grip. "Mercy…"
"You're a pathetic fool, Admiral," Vader thundered, disgusted. "I don't waste mercy on fools."
A pulse of the dark side contracted his grip, and with a gruesome wet crackle the Admiral sagged to the floor…
Vader screamed, banishing the memory from his mind and, with it, his anger. The darkness retreated, but it didn't recede entirely. Rather, it lurked in the corners of his awareness, just outside his peripheral vision. In fact, now that he recognized it, he realized it had always been there, waiting… but for what?
The wampa looked plaintively up at him, pain and terror glittering in its eyes as it panted for breath. All was deathly still as they stared at each other, both terrified by what had just happened. Even the tauntaun was quiet as stone.
Finally the wampa shuffled to its feet. It backed into a corner of its cave, whining.
Vader felt like creeping off in terror himself. Stars, what had he done? What was he becoming? He'd spent three long years trying to shake off his murderous reputation, and in one heartbeat of fear and anger he'd very nearly returned to that path.
/Once down the dark path you start, forever will it dominate your destiny./
Who had said that? And when?
The wampa retreated to a dark recess of its cave. It would be unreasonable to pursue the creature farther into the cave, which was just as well. After what had just occurred, he was in no mood to kill the beast.
Vader urged his mount out of the cave and back into the steadily growing storm, still very shaken by the entire ordeal.
--------
"Luke."
Luke didn't want to look up. He was exhausted, and the snow was so soft, like a downy woolen blanket…
"Luke."
The voice was insistent, but he chose to ignore it. He'd long since stopped feeling the cold – in fact, he now felt surprisingly warm. The wind no longer scoured his face, and even his cuts had stopped stinging…
"Luke."
Wouldn't they take the hint and go? He reluctantly raised his head and opened his eyes.
"Ben?" he moaned in disbelief.
Obi-wan Kenobi stood before him, his humble robes slack and undisturbed by the vicious winds. But it was a washed-out, ghostly, transparent Obi-wan, glowing softly, yet casting no light on the snow beneath him.
"You and Vader must go to the Dagobah system," Obi-wan told him.
"Dagobah system?" he repeated weakly.
"There you will both learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me."
"Yoda?" Dimly the significance of the message penetrated his chilled mind. Another Jedi… another living Jedi… his training… Vader's…
Obi-wan's image flickered, to be replaced with the image of a man on the back of a tauntaun…
And his strength failed him.
--------
Leia waited anxiously in the hangar, expecting, at any moment, to see one or more riders emerge from the storm. Chewie hovered close by, shifting and rumbling nervously, and most of Rogue Squadron clustered nearby, whispering anxiously. Even the droids seemed concerned, venturing outdoors every now and again to scan the area with Artoo's sensors.
"Still no sign of them?" asked Forenze, ducking past Chewie to stand by Leia.
She shook her head. "I hope nothing's happened to them."
"They're all tough men," Forenze told her a little more gruffly than usual, as if to disguise her concern. "They'll pull through."
"All patrols in," announced Major Derlin. "Still no…"
General Riekkan gestured sharply. Derlin looked over to Leia, nodded understandingly, and lowered his voice respectfully.
"Still no sign of Skywalker, Solo, or Vader."
All was still for a moment, as if no one dared to break the inevitable to the princess.
"Your Highness," Riekkan told her gently, "the shield doors must be closed."
She turned away, biting her lip to hold back her tears. Luke was her closest friend, like an extension of her heart. Vader, once her greatest foe, was now also a good friend. And Han… she didn't know exactly how she felt about him, but she still had no desire to see any harm come to him. Closing the doors would most certainly doom all three men to slow death. Could she bear it, knowing she had given up on them?
But she knew she couldn't endanger the entire Alliance for the sake of three men. The storm had to be sealed out of the base – otherwise they would all freeze to death. Not making eye contact with anyone, she nodded with extreme reluctance.
"We'll send search parties out in the morning," Riekkan assured her.
Forenze clenched her jaw worriedly. "Hope those boys have sense to take shelter…" she began.
A painful wail pierced the roaring wind and grinding of the doors, and the silhouette of a single rider became visible.
"Hold the doors!" shouted Derlin.
Someone slapped the lever down, and the doors rumbled to a halt. The rider – Vader – gave his mount a final urgent slap, ordering the nearly frozen beast forward.
The tauntaun staggered into the hangar, gave an agonized squeal, and tottered dangerously on its feet. Vader half-jumped, half-fell from its back and rolled away as it thudded heavily onto its side. Ground crew swarmed over the dead animal as Rogue Squadron and Forenze rushed forward to tend to Vader.
"Get him warm!" Riekkan ordered, throwing a thermal cape over Vader's shoulders to warm him up. "Do you have a report?"
Vader nodded, shivering uncontrollably. His mask was so crusted with ice that it was nearly white. He rubbed the lenses furiously to clear them enough to see.
"Wampa," he replied shortly. "Got my arm… and my mount… found this in its cave."
Riekkan gravely took the comlink from Vader's hands. Leia noted with shock that it was Luke's.
"Where's Han?" demanded Vader, shrugging of Forenze as she tried to drag him toward the med center.
"Go with Forenze," ordered Riekkan, ignoring the question. "You're wounded…"
"Where's Han?" Vader repeated.
"There's been no sign of him," Wedge told him. "Him or Luke."
"Then why are you shutting the shield doors?!" he shouted.
"Vader," Riekkan told him, "there's nothing we can do. The storm is going full-force now. It would be impossible to find anything. You can search with the scouts in the morning." He shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry."
Vader stood silently, watching the doors grind closed. When they finally clanged shut his shoulders slumped in defeat, seeming to echo the mournful howl from the Falcon as Chewie vented his emotions.
Leia wanted to cry, to force open the doors and dash into the storm to find Luke and Han, to lock herself in her quarters and never come out. She did none of those things. They'd be senseless anyhow. Instead, she shook Vader's arm to jolt him out of his trance.
"Come on," she told him, a catch in her voice. "You'll be no good to Han or Luke if you let those cuts get infected."
He looked at her, his mask ghostly with frost. "If Luke or Han…" He couldn't finish.
"I'm worried too," she replied, tears flooding her eyes. She hastily reached up to wipe them. She couldn't cry, she was a Rebel leader, it would demoralize the troops to see her cry…
Chewie growled softly, and he swept the two of them up in a comforting embrace. The action surprised her, as well as breaking her resolve to not weep. She buried her face in the long ginger fur and vented her fear.
Chapter 2
Awareness returned slowly for Luke. His world gradually faded to white as he pried open his eyelids. His pulse thudded heavily in his skull. He could feel something crusting his face; licking his lips, he realized it was dried blood. He felt strangely heavy, as if suspended…
His eyes shot the rest of the way open as the memory of recent events returned abruptly. He and his tauntaun had been ambushed! There had been a hideous white-furred face leering at him, the sharp pain of claws, awful screams and snaps as his mount was slaughtered… then he'd blacked out.
The wampa was nearby – he could hear it greedily snarling close by as it devoured its kill. Luke, meanwhile, hung from the ceiling of the cavern, his feet embedded in the ice. He was being stored for a later meal, like a carcass hanging in a meat locker.
His lightsaber lay buried in a snowdrift nearby, and he struggled to grab it. It was too far… he'd never reach it… just a meter, but it may as well be a light year…
The wampa gave a little growl and stood, blood smeared over its lips and paws. It came closer, eyeing Luke hungrily.
/Calm/ Luke ordered himself. /Be calm. Think only about what needs done./ He shut out thoughts of being the creature's midnight snack, focusing on the lightsaber. It needed to be closer if he was to use it to free himself…
He let himself go, relaxing totally. All background noises faded to a dim babble – the shuffles and throaty growls of the wampa, the hollow cry of the wind, a slight clatter of vibrating metal…
The saber smacked into his palm.
Luke didn't think, only immersed himself in the flow of the Force. One swipe of his father's plasma sword melted the ice imprisoning him, dumping him at the feet of the startled monster. A second slash, and an eerie pain-wracked roar reverberated from the snowy walls as the beast's smoking arm fell to the floor of the cave. Taking advantage of the moment, Luke scrambled out of the cave.
The wampa's whimpering cries were lost in the howling winds as Luke Skywalker vanished into the swirling whiteness.
--------
Hours had passed, and Luke still hadn't returned. Han tried not to worry about it as he, Chewie, and Vader worked, but it was impossible. He liked the kid a lot, like a little brother. But he shoved his concern into a corner of his mind and concentrated on welding a circuit into place. How much trouble could a guy get into while checking out a meteor impact?
"What are you doing, Chewie?!" he heard Vader snap. "Don't take it apart! It took me a week to fix it!"
Chewie roared.
"It's not my fault the parts don't fit right. If Han used the right components for once…"
Another bellow.
"Watch you language!"
Meanwhile, a pair of droids making their way into the hangar were also fighting.
"It's not my fault!" Threepio was insisting. "I didn't ask you to turn on the thermal heater! I merely commented that it was freezing in her chamber."
Artoo beeped a retort.
"But it's supposed to be freezing! How are we going to get all her things dried out? I really don't know…"
Artoo bleeped irritatedly.
"Oh switch off!" the protocol droid snapped before turning his attention to the Falcon. "Master Solo!"
"What now?" Han snapped. Few things annoyed him more than that fussy droid.
"Mistress Leia has been trying to reach you, but you aren't answering your communicator…"
"I shut it off. Why, what does her Worship want to yell at me for now?"
"She wanted to know if you've seen Master Luke. He hasn't come back yet."
"We don't know where he is," Vader replied.
"Nobody knows where he is!" said Threepio, a note of panic in his voice.
That got Han's attention. If Luke hadn't come back or even commed the base, he was in trouble.
Vader seemed to think the same thing. He leaped down from the top of the Falcon and motioned for Han to join him.
"Come on!" he called. "He may have come through the south entrance! I've done that on occasion!"
"Sir, might I inquire what's going on?" asked Threepio as Han slid down to the floor.
"Why not?" Han shot back, running to join Vader.
"Impossible man!" he heard the droid mutter.
The two of them ran for the south entrance, near the stables. Rebels flattened against the walls to avoid a collision with the two men.
"Do you think that 'meteor' could have been something more?" asked Vader.
"Dunno," Han replied. "But you know the kid. He's always getting himself in trouble."
"Perhaps he's just playing sabaac with the other Rogues," Vader offered, a kind of desperate hope in his voice.
When they burst into the stables, their worst fears were realized. Luke was nowhere to be seen, and no one recalled seeing him pass through.
"He may have forgotten to check in," suggested Mela hopefully.
"Not likely," Han replied. "Get the speeders ready. We'll go search for him."
"There's a big storm blowing in!" someone in ground crew protested.
"And our friend's out there!" Vader replied.
"The speeders aren't working," Wedge said in frustration. "Ground crew hasn't gotten them adapted to the cold yet."
"Then we'll take tauntauns," Vader said shortly, grabbing the halter of the nearest steed.
"Your tauntaun will freeze to death before you reach the first marker!" the pessimistic ground crew member shouted.
"Then we'll see you in Hell!" Han retorted, and the two of them tore out of the stables and into the bitter night.
Wind and snow raged all around them as they plowed through the storm. After traveling about a hundred meters they realized that no one else had joined their search party.
"Don't they even care about Luke?!" Vader snapped over the gale.
"They may have already given him up for dead!" Han replied. "Face it! There's not much hope that we'll find him alive!"
"I'm not giving up on him!" Vader replied. "I'll cover the southwest quadrant! You take the southeast! He may have gotten lost on the way back!"
"Back here in an hour!" Han shouted. "We don't want to get locked out or we'll never survive the night!"
"Copy!"
Han watched the whiteness of the Hoth night swallow Vader up before continuing on his way.
--------
Vader plowed on through the thick storm, urging his exhausted mount on. They couldn't give up, they couldn't! Luke was alive; he could feel it in his bones. But he wouldn't be much longer if they didn't get him inside the base before nightfall.
There seemed to be a slight pull to his left, and he kneed the tauntaun in that direction. He wondered if, untrained as he was, he was allowed to be using the Force, but he put the thought out of his mind. Even if he was doing something forbidden, he felt it would be justified in this case. After all, a life was at stake.
The tauntaun started, wailing. Vader stroked her neck to calm her as he peered into the night. There! A hump of ice with a fissure gashing it open, wide enough to steer a swoop bike through, was visible through the snow. Could Luke be there? If he'd kept his head in the storm, he'd have enough sense to take shelter.
He had a job of urging his tauntaun into the cavern, and he soon found out why. The air inside was thick with the rancid-carrion stink of wampa. Tauntaun bones, strings of meat and tendon still clinging to them, glistened with scarlet ice in a frozen red pool. Embedded in the icy wall itself was a second skeleton, only much older and cleaner. And on the floor of the cave lay a white-furred arm, somehow bloodlessly severed.
His steed was nearly hysterical with terror now. As he struggled to control the animal, he spotted something lying on the floor that alarmed him deeply.
Luke's comlink had been frozen into the crimson ice near the fresh bones.
/He was here/ he thought nervously. /Or was some time ago. But where is he now?/
Tying the tauntaun to a stalagmite, he bent down to pry the comlink out of the ice. Carefully brushing it off, he slipped it into his belt pouch.
A panicked shriek and a cold knife of warning in his gut made him look up. The injured wampa lurched painfully out of the shadows, its remaining arm raised and teeth bared in fury.
/Oh stars, I thought it'd left…/
He rolled to avoid the razor-sharp claws slicing down at him. Getting to his feet, he ripped his blaster from its holster and squeezed off a round. The reek of singed hair filled the cavern, and the beast bellowed in fresh agony.
/Don't like it when your dinner bites back, do you?/
His tauntaun squealed her terror. The wampa turned to the animal eagerly. Tethered prey would be easier for it to handle than prey with a weapon.
"Oh no you don't!" Vader barked, firing again.
The shots weren't doing as much damage to the creature as they should have, but they evidently hurt it. The predator hesitated, torn between devouring its prey and ridding itself of this painful nuisance. Vader took advantage of its moment of indecisiveness and bolted forward, leaping onto the tauntaun's back and fighting to untie the reins from the stalagmite.
Another howl shook the icy walls. Claws like knives raked the air, and Vader had to flatten himself against the tauntaun's back to avoid the strike. His mount bleated pathetically and skittered away as far as her tether would allow.
The wampa lashed out again, and this time Vader wasn't so lucky. Fire slashed down his left arm, and claws tore across the left shoulder of his mount. The tauntaun shrieked in pain as scarlet streaked her white fur.
Anger flooded Vader as he clutched his wounded arm. Why couldn't this monster just let them be?
Something dark filled his chest, a cold fire that spread rapidly through his veins. It filled his vision and made his ears roar, frightening him and making him lust for more at the same time. Without thinking he reached within himself and drew out a measure of that black fire, molding it in his mind, willing it to do his bidding, and it obeyed unquestioningly.
The wampa's black eyes bulged, and it crumpled to the floor of the cave, gagging violently. Vader watched impassively, without reaction, without remorse…
…the officer fell to his knees, hands to his throat, his face ashen with fear and oxygen deprivation. His brown eyes fixed on him pleadingly as his mouth worked feverishly to suck in breath.
"Please…" he choked through Vader's Force-grip. "Mercy…"
"You're a pathetic fool, Admiral," Vader thundered, disgusted. "I don't waste mercy on fools."
A pulse of the dark side contracted his grip, and with a gruesome wet crackle the Admiral sagged to the floor…
Vader screamed, banishing the memory from his mind and, with it, his anger. The darkness retreated, but it didn't recede entirely. Rather, it lurked in the corners of his awareness, just outside his peripheral vision. In fact, now that he recognized it, he realized it had always been there, waiting… but for what?
The wampa looked plaintively up at him, pain and terror glittering in its eyes as it panted for breath. All was deathly still as they stared at each other, both terrified by what had just happened. Even the tauntaun was quiet as stone.
Finally the wampa shuffled to its feet. It backed into a corner of its cave, whining.
Vader felt like creeping off in terror himself. Stars, what had he done? What was he becoming? He'd spent three long years trying to shake off his murderous reputation, and in one heartbeat of fear and anger he'd very nearly returned to that path.
/Once down the dark path you start, forever will it dominate your destiny./
Who had said that? And when?
The wampa retreated to a dark recess of its cave. It would be unreasonable to pursue the creature farther into the cave, which was just as well. After what had just occurred, he was in no mood to kill the beast.
Vader urged his mount out of the cave and back into the steadily growing storm, still very shaken by the entire ordeal.
--------
"Luke."
Luke didn't want to look up. He was exhausted, and the snow was so soft, like a downy woolen blanket…
"Luke."
The voice was insistent, but he chose to ignore it. He'd long since stopped feeling the cold – in fact, he now felt surprisingly warm. The wind no longer scoured his face, and even his cuts had stopped stinging…
"Luke."
Wouldn't they take the hint and go? He reluctantly raised his head and opened his eyes.
"Ben?" he moaned in disbelief.
Obi-wan Kenobi stood before him, his humble robes slack and undisturbed by the vicious winds. But it was a washed-out, ghostly, transparent Obi-wan, glowing softly, yet casting no light on the snow beneath him.
"You and Vader must go to the Dagobah system," Obi-wan told him.
"Dagobah system?" he repeated weakly.
"There you will both learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me."
"Yoda?" Dimly the significance of the message penetrated his chilled mind. Another Jedi… another living Jedi… his training… Vader's…
Obi-wan's image flickered, to be replaced with the image of a man on the back of a tauntaun…
And his strength failed him.
--------
Leia waited anxiously in the hangar, expecting, at any moment, to see one or more riders emerge from the storm. Chewie hovered close by, shifting and rumbling nervously, and most of Rogue Squadron clustered nearby, whispering anxiously. Even the droids seemed concerned, venturing outdoors every now and again to scan the area with Artoo's sensors.
"Still no sign of them?" asked Forenze, ducking past Chewie to stand by Leia.
She shook her head. "I hope nothing's happened to them."
"They're all tough men," Forenze told her a little more gruffly than usual, as if to disguise her concern. "They'll pull through."
"All patrols in," announced Major Derlin. "Still no…"
General Riekkan gestured sharply. Derlin looked over to Leia, nodded understandingly, and lowered his voice respectfully.
"Still no sign of Skywalker, Solo, or Vader."
All was still for a moment, as if no one dared to break the inevitable to the princess.
"Your Highness," Riekkan told her gently, "the shield doors must be closed."
She turned away, biting her lip to hold back her tears. Luke was her closest friend, like an extension of her heart. Vader, once her greatest foe, was now also a good friend. And Han… she didn't know exactly how she felt about him, but she still had no desire to see any harm come to him. Closing the doors would most certainly doom all three men to slow death. Could she bear it, knowing she had given up on them?
But she knew she couldn't endanger the entire Alliance for the sake of three men. The storm had to be sealed out of the base – otherwise they would all freeze to death. Not making eye contact with anyone, she nodded with extreme reluctance.
"We'll send search parties out in the morning," Riekkan assured her.
Forenze clenched her jaw worriedly. "Hope those boys have sense to take shelter…" she began.
A painful wail pierced the roaring wind and grinding of the doors, and the silhouette of a single rider became visible.
"Hold the doors!" shouted Derlin.
Someone slapped the lever down, and the doors rumbled to a halt. The rider – Vader – gave his mount a final urgent slap, ordering the nearly frozen beast forward.
The tauntaun staggered into the hangar, gave an agonized squeal, and tottered dangerously on its feet. Vader half-jumped, half-fell from its back and rolled away as it thudded heavily onto its side. Ground crew swarmed over the dead animal as Rogue Squadron and Forenze rushed forward to tend to Vader.
"Get him warm!" Riekkan ordered, throwing a thermal cape over Vader's shoulders to warm him up. "Do you have a report?"
Vader nodded, shivering uncontrollably. His mask was so crusted with ice that it was nearly white. He rubbed the lenses furiously to clear them enough to see.
"Wampa," he replied shortly. "Got my arm… and my mount… found this in its cave."
Riekkan gravely took the comlink from Vader's hands. Leia noted with shock that it was Luke's.
"Where's Han?" demanded Vader, shrugging of Forenze as she tried to drag him toward the med center.
"Go with Forenze," ordered Riekkan, ignoring the question. "You're wounded…"
"Where's Han?" Vader repeated.
"There's been no sign of him," Wedge told him. "Him or Luke."
"Then why are you shutting the shield doors?!" he shouted.
"Vader," Riekkan told him, "there's nothing we can do. The storm is going full-force now. It would be impossible to find anything. You can search with the scouts in the morning." He shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry."
Vader stood silently, watching the doors grind closed. When they finally clanged shut his shoulders slumped in defeat, seeming to echo the mournful howl from the Falcon as Chewie vented his emotions.
Leia wanted to cry, to force open the doors and dash into the storm to find Luke and Han, to lock herself in her quarters and never come out. She did none of those things. They'd be senseless anyhow. Instead, she shook Vader's arm to jolt him out of his trance.
"Come on," she told him, a catch in her voice. "You'll be no good to Han or Luke if you let those cuts get infected."
He looked at her, his mask ghostly with frost. "If Luke or Han…" He couldn't finish.
"I'm worried too," she replied, tears flooding her eyes. She hastily reached up to wipe them. She couldn't cry, she was a Rebel leader, it would demoralize the troops to see her cry…
Chewie growled softly, and he swept the two of them up in a comforting embrace. The action surprised her, as well as breaking her resolve to not weep. She buried her face in the long ginger fur and vented her fear.