Mara could not shake the horror from her senses as she watched Han's face disappear behind the clouds of carbon gas that plumed upwards from the chamber. Jumbled images of him ran through her mind as she remembered everything that he was to her: rescuer, protector, big brother….friend. Her love for the swaggering smuggler was no less intense just because it wasn't a romantic love. How would they bear it, being without him? How would they ever be able to tell Wedge and Luke what had happened?

She wanted to rail and scream at the Dark Lord that stood there, calmly observing as she lost one of her best friends. She wanted to stride across the chamber and rip his lightsaber from his belt, slice his head from his body with it. Her anger was like a living thing inside her, growing until she could barely contain it. She actually took a step in his direction…and then he turned to look directly at her. She faltered, her anger withering away under that gaze. Even with the helmet obscuring his face, she knew that he was watching her. Her residual fear of him and the memories of that time on the Death Star got the better of her anger and she shrank back against Chewbacca's side. Vader tilted his head slightly to one side, as though he was observing some anomaly he didn't quite comprehend.

As much as Mara wanted to tear her gaze away from him, she found that she couldn't. Just when she thought she couldn't bear his scrutiny any longer, her attention was diverted by the metallic banging of Han's frozen form falling in front of her. Chewbacca let out a low whine as the Ugnaughts moved around the carbonite slab, checking readings and fiddling with dials. Mara's gaze was riveted to Han's face, frozen in terror and she had to physically choke back her anger and her tears. That wouldn't do Han or herself and Chewie any good at this point.

"Well, Calrissian?" Vader's voice interrupted her despair.

When Lando stepped forward to read the gauges and dials, Mara noted a hint of desperation and guilt on his face. She curled her lip in disdain at the Baron's concern for Han. Too little, too late, as far as she was concerned.

"He's alive. And in perfect hibernation," Lando said, the relief in his tone evident.

"Excellent. Reset the chamber for Skywalker and deliver his friends to my ship at once," Vader commanded.

Lando stood and nodded at the Dark Lord. He turned to face Mara and Chewie and Mara found herself frowning at the look in his eyes. There was something going on in that head, she was sure of that, but what?

"Skywalker's ship has just landed, my Lord," an aide informed Darth Vader.

Mara couldn't help the gasp that left her mouth. Luke! Somehow, he'd found them, and now he'd fallen into Vader's trap. She knew a moment of pure fear unlike anything she'd ever felt. She shuddered to think what Vader would do to Luke, knowing that the youth was a Force-sensitive. She had heard the stories of the Sith Lord hunting down and slaughtering all the Jedi in the time of the Old Republic.

"No, you leave Luke alone, you monster--" she started to scream and she surged forward towards the thing from her nightmares. Lando was suddenly there, holding her back and she noticed that the stormtroopers were holding Chewie back or she didn't think Lando would have been so bold. Vader himself didn't spare her another glance as he turned and stalked from the carbon-freezing chamber.

"You!" Mara spat in disgust. "Get your hands off me, you traitor!"

"Now is not the time, Ms. Jade," Lando said meaningfully and something in his tone gave her pause.

******************************************

Luke moved cautiously through the hallways of the city in the clouds. He had landed with no problem and thus far had not been stopped and questioned by anyone. This made him very uneasy and he imagined he could feel the jaws of a trap closing around him. At the same time, there was no thought of turning back. Han, Mara and Chewbacca needed him. They were in danger because of him and he would not abandon them--even if it cost him his own life. Of course, he would try to avoid that outcome, if at all possible.

The flight to Bespin had been uneventful as well. There were both good and bad consequences of that. On the one hand, it was always nice to get a break from TIE's constantly trying to vaporize you; but on the other hand, a quiet trip left him with entirely too much time to think. His mind had constantly dwelled on the nightmares that had plagued him on Dagobah. He worried incessantly over Han, Mara and Chewbacca. Then there were the confusing images of the other part of his dreams.

He'd had the feeling that the unknown children and woman should mean something more, but their significance was completely lost on him. He had strained to try and see an underlying message in the unfamiliar faces, but couldn't find one. Knowing that he needed to focus on the present, he pushed the images out of his head for now.

Artoo was wheeling along slightly behind him, nervous-sounding beeps emitting from him almost constantly. Luke figured the little droid was really wondering about his master's sanity at this point. Tentatively, he reached out with the Force, trying to sense Mara's presence. He didn't think to question why he was somehow able to find her, he just felt an overwhelming surge of joy when he did.

Mara! he thought to himself as he sensed her and she wasn't that far away. Even as the realization hit him, he shivered as he suddenly felt a darker presence touch his mind. "Vader," he murmured aloud as he tried to shake off the lingering shadows the other one's touch had brought. He jerked his head up as a movement ahead in the corridor caught his eye.

He saw several stormtroopers as well as some guards who must have been employed by this station, judging by their different uniforms. Following just behind the troopers was a man that Luke didn't recognize, wearing a blue shirt and a cape. Behind him were two forms that Luke definitely did recognize.

He aimed his blaster at the troopers and fired off two shots before they began firing back at him. He took cover quickly behind a doorway.

"Luke!" a voice shouted and it was music to his ears.

"Mara!" he cried back, and wished he could take her in his arms this very moment. Unfortunately, he was a bit preoccupied by the blaster fire.

"Luke, go back! It's a trap!" Mara shouted and Luke grimaced. Didn't she think he knew that? Of course it was a trap, but that didn't mean he was going to leave her and Han and Chewbacca here. And where was Han, anyway?

He risked another glance around the doorway he'd leapt behind and was dismayed to find the little party gone. No! he silently groaned in frustration as he ran to where they had disappeared, but there was no trace of them anywhere. When he turned to look for Artoo, a huge metal door slammed down in the aperture he'd just come through, cutting him off from the little droid that had been his companion for so long. Now he was utterly alone. He clenched his jaw in determination as he turned to the only path left for him. A path that he knew would lead to Darth Vader, the murderer of his father.

*********************************************

Mara struggled against the Imperial officer who had cowardly used her as a shield when Luke had fired at them, but he was too strong and she couldn't break his hold on her. So instead, she cursed him with every foul word Han, Luke and Wedge had ever taught her. Lando Calrissian's eyebrows raised at some of the phrasing she used. It was very inventive.

Chewbacca growled warningly at the man's rough handling of her, even though his wrists were bound by stuncuffs, limiting his ability to really do anything, but it certainly didn't diminish his presence at all. The officer paled and immediately eased up in his treatment of Mara, foolishly allowing her to get her hands free. She took the opportunity to punch him in the jaw. Enraged, the Imperial pulled his blaster out.

Before he could make good on that threat, Lando stepped forward and grabbed the man's wrist.

"Do you really think Lord Vader would appreciate you killing one of his prisoners?"

The Imperial glared at the Baron, but holstered his weapon. Lando turned his gaze to Mara. "I would suggest that you calm down, Ms. Jade. There's nothing you can do right now."

Mara frowned at the dark-skinned administrator, again wondering what was going through his head. He had placed a subtle emphasis on the last two words he'd spoken, slight enough that the Imperial did not seem to have noticed. He's definitely planning something, Mara thought, but can we trust him? She realized that whatever plan Lando was hatching they might not have much choice. Their options were very limited at this point.

The only other person who even knew they were here was Luke and Mara suddenly had a very bad feeling about what her farmboy from Tatooine was about to face. Darth Vader.

************************************

Luke felt the Dark Lord's inexorable pull on him as he made his way through deserted corridors and dark rooms. He could no more have turned around than he could have resisted his impulse to kiss Mara Jade what seemed like an eternity ago now. He tried to hold on to the thought of the fiery redhead, just her image in his mind seeming to give him courage and strength. He had come here ostensibly to rescue her, Han and Chewie, but this confrontation was his true purpose here. Vader's capturing his friends had been a trap to lure him out and Luke supposed grimly that it had worked to perfection.

This was what Ben and Yoda had been preparing him for, even if they had thought that he wasn't yet ready for the altercation to come. He found his way into a room filled with steam and pipes. The Dark Lord's presence was nearly overpowering now. Luke glanced down at the blaster he still held in his hand. It felt wrong and, almost without thinking, he holstered it, his hand going automatically to the lightsaber at his hip. He didn't ignite the blade, but the cool metal felt right and comfortable in his grip. My father's weapon, he thought to himself, to face my father's murderer.

A strange mechanical sound reached his ears, and though he'd never heard it before, he somehow instantly knew exactly what, or rather who, it was. He looked up to the top of a mezzanine running along the outside wall of the room. For a moment, fear assaulted his senses as he took in the awesome sight of the black-armored giant. Anger quickly followed as he faced his father's killer. He struggled to remember Yoda's words and calmed his emotions.

Boldly, he walked forward up the steps until he was standing only meters away from the demon. Vader stood quietly, watching him in disinterest, or so it seemed to Luke. Luke ignited his lightsaber and took an offensive stance, challenging the Sith Lord.

"Darth Vader. You will pay for your crimes against the Jedi," Luke vowed.

"The Force is strong with you, young Skywalker," the Dark Lord intoned, "but you are not a Jedi, yet."

As he spoke, Vader ignited his own lightsaber and Luke felt a chill run up his spine at the sight of the blood-red blade. He forced his fear away as he faced his enemy.

Vader stood silently, waiting for Luke to make the first move. Luke lunged forward, wanting to erase this monstrosity from the galaxy, and the battle was joined.

***********************************

The small group of Imperials and prisoners had begun to move forward again, but now Mara kept a sharper eye on Lando Calrissian. She knew that if he was in fact planning something, it would have to happen soon. Definitely before we reach Vader's shuttle, she mused. Since she was watching him so closely, she didn't miss it when his right hand moved to the communicator on his opposite wrist. He tapped a few buttons unobtrusively, his gaze never dropping from the direction they were traveling.

Mara tensed, sending a quick look up at Chewbacca. The glint in his eyes told her that he was aware of Calrissian's maneuvering as well and they both mentally braced themselves.

As it turned out, the move was so smooth that it took the Imperials completely by surprise and the rebels didn't have to do a thing. Several of Lando's guards were simply there all of a sudden, blasters aimed at the Imp's heads before they could even think of drawing their weapons in return.

Mara watched with a wary eye as the Baron quickly rounded up the Imperial's weapons and handed some of them to one of his men who bore an officer's insignia on his uniform. He kept three of the blaster rifles in his hands as he spoke in a low voice to the man.

"Lock them in the security tower. We want to keep this quiet for as long as possible."

As his men herded the surprised Imperials away, Lando turned to face Mara and Chewbacca. The Wookiee growled menacingly at their betrayer.

Lando spoke quickly, as though he were afraid that Han's friends were going to attack him any moment. Mara mused grimly that he probably wasn't far from the truth, if that was the case.

"Look, I'm sorry for what happened to Han and I want to help all of you get out of here. I'm going to take those stuncuffs off, Chewie, and I'd like to keep my head attached to my shoulders when I do. Do we have an understanding?"

"No, we certainly do not," Mara said, somewhat peevishly. "How do we know that we can trust you? You betrayed us to Vader not that long ago."

[You betrayed Han to Vader,] Chewbacca grumbled.

"I didn't have any choice in that. You have to understand that much at least. And I'm trying to make up for it now!" Lando said, and there was a hint of desperation in his tone.

"Why? Aren't you worried about what Vader will do when he finds out you've broken his deal?"

"He's already broken his part of the deal in more ways than I can count. He's planning to leave troops here and I will no longer be in command of the station," Lando said bitterly. "Why should I keep my end if he's not going to do the same? And I don't want Han in that carbonite any more than you do. Do we have an understanding?"

Mara glanced up at Chewie. They both knew that, as much as they distrusted Lando, he was their only chance at getting out of this situation alive. He was also the only one who would be able to help them rescue Han and Luke. Chewie nodded and she turned back to Lando.

"All right. What's the plan?"

Lando breathed a sigh of relief and handed Mara the weapons before reaching into his pocket for a key to unlock the stuncuffs on Chewbacca. The Wookiee had to smile when Lando quickly stepped back out of arm's reach, Mara's word notwithstanding. Unfortunately for Lando's peace of mind, Chewie's grin looked more like a feral snarl.

"We've got to get to Han first--"

"Wait a minute. What about Luke? He's about to face a Sith Lord. Vader will kill him!" She was worried about both Luke and Han, but her recently discovered feelings for the young rebel pilot-turned-Jedi were coloring her thinking.

"I don't think Vader wants to kill Skywalker. I got the impression that he wants him alive," Lando said. That was definitely not what Mara wanted to hear.

"Alive! So he can take him to the Emperor, no doubt!"

"We have to go to Han first, Ms. Jade! Vader has no use for him, so he's having the carbonite recycled…without freeing Han from it first," Lando insisted.

Mara blanched and Chewie let out an angry howl. That settled the debate in the Wookiee's mind. He loved Luke, but he had a life-debt to Han and he would not allow anything to happen to the one who had freed him from slavery.

[Calrissian is right, Mara. First Han, then Luke. We will get them both, I promise.]

Mara nodded her head slowly, trusting that Chewbacca would keep his word, even if she still wasn't certain about Baron Calrissian. She turned to Lando with a grim expression.

"Which way do we go?"

Lando breathed a silent sigh of relief as he handed the two spare blaster rifles over to his new compatriots.

"Follow me."

Apparently, Lando's deception had gone unnoticed as of yet, since they were able to move through the halls of Cloud City unmolested. The stormtroopers weren't in the city in force yet and they were able to avoid the few patrols they encountered.

It helped that Lando must have had the layout of the entire station memorized, because he took them through so many twists and turns that Mara was soon completely disoriented. She hoped that Calrissian was truly on their side and not leading them into a trap, although she didn't see the point in all the subterfuge if that was true. Vader already had them, why would he go to all this trouble?

Maybe Lando is planning on using us as bait to get the Empire out of Bespin again, she thought. If that were true, he would not live to regret it. She and Chewie would see to that.

They paused at a hallway junction and Lando turned to whisper to them. "There shouldn't be too many of Vader's men down here, but we need to move quickly so we can take them by surprise."

"We have done this a few times before, Calrissian," Mara said with an irritated tone.

"Well, fine, then. Why don't I just let you handle it?" Lando shot back.

Mara looked up at Chewie with a smirk and he grinned back down at her. Approximately five minutes later, they were standing in a small room with four unconscious stormtroopers and several anxious Ugnaughts who had been about to push a carbonite slab into a fiery furnace.

"Okay, I'm impressed," Lando admitted before he turned to try and calm the Ugnaughts down. Chewie let out a pitiful moan as he again looked at the frozen face of his friend and partner. Mara had to fight off a wave of despair as she ran her fingers across Han's tortured face.

"Let's get him out of this thing."

"We don't have time for that now. The unfreezing process takes some time and he won't be in any condition to travel after he's out."

"And he's in a condition to travel now?" Mara demanded.

"Better for us to be seen with that slab, than Chewie having to carry a man who won't be able to walk," Lando said in frustration. "And we need to get moving. Vader's men are going to find out about this at any time."

"Fine. Let's get moving."

"All right, I know where the Falcon is berthed--"

"What about Luke?!" Mara practically shouted.

"We need to get to the ship first. The carbon-freezing chamber is on the other side of the station from the Falcon. Once we're in the ship, we can fly to where Skywalker is and we can get the hell out of here faster," Lando shouted back. He was beginning to wonder how Han had put up with this for that long six weeks they had told him about.

Mara glared fiercely at Lando. "If Vader gets away from this planet with Luke, you will regret it, Baron. I can promise you that," she said, her voice seeming to be made of durasteel.

Lando felt a qualm in his stomach at the conviction in her words, but he'd be damned before he let her know about it.

"He won't, but you have to trust me."

Mara still wasn't so certain that she completely trusted him, but again she realized that he was their only option. She settled for letting her glare linger for a long moment before she said, "Fine. Let's go."

They had been moving as swiftly as they dared, still trying to avoid the stormtrooper patrols, when their luck ran out. They rounded a corner to see a full squad of the white-armored soldiers facing them. The firefight was intense, though luckily brief, as Lando led them through another door that would take them around the enemy. But now his duplicity had been uncovered. This would make everything from this point on that much harder.

**************************************

No, I am your father.

The words hung there in the air between the two figures facing each other in the open air of the reactor shaft. Darth Vader's hand was stretched towards his son, demanding instead of beseeching, as it might have appeared. He looked at the agonized, devastated expression on his child's face and knew a moment of pain at this rejection. Just like Obi-Wan, he thought bitterly. Just like Pad- He cut that thought off before he could complete it. He couldn't bear to think of her--it was still too painful, even more than twenty years later.

"No," Luke moaned. "That's not true, that's impossible!"

Vader's anger flared at Luke's refusal to see the truth. By the Force, the boy would listen and he would understand! He took another step towards his son and almost growled when Luke instinctively flinched backwards, although he literally had his back against the wall. There was nowhere for him to go.

"Search your feelings. You know it to be true."

"No. NO!" Luke cried and now there were tears streaming down his face. He clutched his wounded arm close to his chest as he clumsily stepped around so that he was barely hanging onto the gantry that jutted out into the open space of the shaft.

"Luke," Vader said, his voice a seductive rumble. "You are powerful enough to destroy the Emperor. He fears you, with good reason. Join me and together, we can rule the galaxy as father and son."

"I'll never join you!"

Vader wanted to grab the boy by the neck and yank him off the edge of that gantry, but he knew that it would be better if the youth came to him of his own free will. Tainted as he was by the weak teachings of Obi-Wan, turning him would be difficult enough. If he could get his son to take that first step, things would be easier for both of them. Vader could almost taste the victory so close to his grasp.

"Come with me. It is the only way. Together, we can bring order to the chaos plaguing the galaxy," Vader promised, taking another step closer to the cringing young man.

A wild look of utter defiance entered Luke's eyes and his tears ceased as he looked at his father. Vader paused at something in that expression. Luke seemed to straighten as he faced his foe and despite himself, Vader knew a moment of pride.

"It's not the only way," Luke said quietly.

He let go of the gantry as he stepped out into nothingness, falling away from his tormentor so quickly that Vader failed to react in time to pull him back. Vader lowered his still outstretched hand in disbelief as he watched Luke's body tumble down into the abyss. The rapidly shrinking form was sucked into an exhaust tube even as he tried to reach out with the Force to bring the boy back up the shaft.

He quickly searched out Luke's presence in the Force and was nearly overcome with a relief that he didn't want to examine too closely when he realized his son hadn't been killed instantly. There was still time, then. He turned to stride quickly off the gantry, grim determination marking his every step.

****************************************