A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I appreciate your patience while I struggle with DRL and DWB!
Lando had barely gotten his head out of the Falcon's top hatch when he saw the body plummeting towards him. The boy must have been unconscious, because he didn't utter a sound as he hit the hull with a sickening thud. Lando lunged forward, snagging the kid's clothing with the grappling hook he'd grabbed.
It was when he reached for the kid's hand that he realized the kid's hand was gone. He muttered a Corellian curse under his breath as he got a grip on Luke's arm and pulled him towards the hatch and safety. Or so they hoped, anyway. Vader was still out there, waiting.
"I know you don't know me, Luke, but I've got you. I'm not gonna let you go, I promise," he murmured without really stopping to consider why he was trying to comfort someone who couldn't hear him.
But he was wrong about that. Luke's eyes opened and locked on Lando. "Thank you," he whispered.
His gaze, which had seemed remarkably clear for a moment, glazed over again with pain and--undoubtedly--shock. Lando pulled Luke's limp form into the hatch, supporting the kid with one arm around his shoulders.
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Mara was waiting anxiously as the small lift came back down and when she got her first good look at Luke, she paled. Her eyes swept over him, taking in the details of his injuries in an instant. He was bruised and bloodied, his clothes torn, his hair drenched with sweat and plastered to his head. And his hand…oh, stars, his hand!
"Sweet skies of Alderaan," she breathed in dismay.
At the sound of her voice, Luke's head raised.
"See, I kept…my promise," he said, so faintly she could barely hear him. "W-wanted to die…but I told you…see you…again."
As he spoke, the very last vestiges of Luke's strength left him and his knees started to buckle, his eyes rolling up into the back of his head as he fell into oblivion. Mara surged forward and helped Lando to hold him upright by stepping under Luke's other arm and taking some of his weight onto herself. She carefully pulled his head to her shoulder and tenderly brushed some of the hair out of his eyes.
"Oh, my love," she whispered sadly. In a blinding flash of clarity, she understood that she did love him, more than she would have ever thought possible. He had been in her heart from the moment she'd met him, but now he had somehow found his way past her defenses and he was in her soul. She couldn't imagine her life without him. Looking at him, so broken and wounded, she felt his pain as if it were her own.
She looked up at Lando with tear-filled eyes and was surprised to see a look of gentle understanding on the suave Baron's face.
"We need to get him to a cabin and secured in a bunk, Mara. We're not out of this yet," he said softly.
"Yes, you're right. Of course you're right," Mara murmured, her mind in a whirl with all that had happened in the last few hours.
Artoo was bleeping furiously as they managed to half-drag, half-carry Luke to one of the Falcon's cabins. They piled him into a bunk and Mara pulled restraining straps over him, carefully avoiding his injured arm.
"Quiet, Artoo! We're a little busy right now," Mara snapped irritably as she and Lando headed back to the cockpit. They stumbled a few times as Chewie was doing some fancy flying to avoid the TIE fighters that had returned while she and Lando dealt with Luke. Only now, they seemed to be shooting to disable, not destroy, the Falcon.
"Vader knows we have Luke. He still wants him alive," Mara said grimly as she strapped into the co-pilot's seat and Lando slid into the chair behind Chewbacca.
"I think we've done enough fighting for now, Chewie. Let's make a run for it," Lando advised.
For once, Chewie agreed with him. The Falcon soared upwards as Mara quickly set the coordinates for a hyperspace jump. She eyed Vader's ship, the Executor, warily as the Falcon maneuvered to get clear for their escape.
[They're trying to herd us in so they can get us in a tractor beam.]
"Well, let's just make sure that doesn't happen," Mara said. They fell into a tense silence as they waited for the right moment to be able to attempt the jump.
[Punch it, Mara!]
She slowly drew the hyperdrive lever back, waiting for the stars to expand and stretch, taking them far away from the danger personified in Darth Vader.
It didn't happen.
Chewbacca and Mara exchanged a look of stunned disbelief. As one, they turned to glare at Lando, who was wearing the same expression.
"It's not my fault! They said they fixed it!"
Chewbacca growled menacingly as Mara said, "You're a dead man, Calrissian!"
"It's not my fault!" Lando insisted again.
Artoo was still hooting and beeping at them for all he was worth when he suddenly gave them the equivalent of a raspberry and whirled his stout little body about to wheel towards the back of the ship.
"Chewie, go see what you can do with it," Mara said and took the pilot's seat as the Wookiee got up to leave the cockpit, 'accidentally' bumping into Lando as he did so.
Lando was nearly knocked flat from the force of the Wookiee's ire. When he managed to get back up and into the co-pilot's seat, he attempted to explain his side of the story to the fiery redhead who was purposely ignoring him.
"I told them to fix it, Mara--"
"We don't have time for that now, Calrissian," she bit out angrily.
Underneath that anger was a nearly paralyzing fear, which she refused to show to the man who had now let them down twice. Vader wanted them all alive. She feared having to face the Dark Lord again, but she feared even more for Luke. Whatever Vader had done to him, it had devastated the naïve farmboy she'd grown to love so dearly.
She clenched her jaw as she avoided the TIE's and the obvious web they were trying to draw the Falcon into. She would die before she let that monster get his hands on Luke again, she swore it.
Chewbacca wasn't paying much attention to Artoo as he hurriedly grabbed his tools and opened the access panel to the Falcon's innards. Something about the droid's seeming insistence caught his eye, however, as Artoo's mechanical arm opened another panel and reached in to twist something.
Chewie had to hold on to the edges of the panel opening as the Falcon suddenly lurched into hyperspace. He smiled as he heard Mara's and Lando's shouts of joy and relief from the cockpit. He walked over and chuckled as he patted Artoo's dome affectionately.
[Well done, my little friend.]
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Darth Vader stood on the bridge of the Executor and simply stared as the Millennium Falcon disappeared. He could sense the apprehension the men behind him were feeling.
For the first time in a long while, Vader was uncertain what he himself felt. Relief, that his son was still alive; anger, that Luke had escaped him. Sadness? Regret? That his son denied who he truly was and what he could be.
Surprise, that he had not realized Mara Jade was Force-sensitive. Her anger had been impressive when Han Solo had been encased in the carbonite, so strong that Vader had felt it curling against his senses. Somehow, Luke had contacted her, letting her know where he was, and she'd flown to his rescue. That bespoke a bond he might have thought impossible for two such untrained beings.
She wasn't as strong as Luke, but he knew he could find a use for her. Perhaps he could train her as his Hand, not unlike the Emperor's brat. He found a sardonic humor in the idea and his lips almost twitched into a smile.
But first, he had to find the two of them again. The almost smile vanished as frustration welled up in him once more.
No matter, he thought. My son will be by my side or he will die. He ignored the twinge that went through him at that thought, firmly pushing it out of his mind.
Wanting to meditate before contacting his Master, he turned and walked slowly and deliberately back towards his quarters. He found a grim satisfaction in the paralyzing fear from all those he passed.
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Han realized he was still alive when he was finally able to take a breath. It seemed like an eternity since he'd been able to breathe. Unfortunately, the first thing he did was go into a spasm of coughing. The second thing he did was fall flat on his face.
At least, he started to. He felt himself lurching forward, unable to stop his momentum, and then he stopped, caught by two great, shaggy arms. Those arms snatched him to a hairy chest and nearly finished the job Vader had begun by smothering him in an enormous hug.
"Chewie, I don't think he can breathe," an amused voice said from somewhere nearby.
He turned his head, trying to see her face and knew a moment of panic when everything remained dark.
"Mara? What's wrong with my eyes?" Han asked, the fear evident in his voice even though he tried to hide it. He felt Chewie lead him a few steps to a bench and they sat down, the giant Wookiee wrapping his arms around Han's shoulders and stroking his head.
"You have hibernation sickness. Lando says your eyesight will return within a couple of hours."
"'Lando says?!' Why are you listening to that jerk? What's happened? Where are we?" Before she could answer, he said, "Wait a minute…" and cocked his head to one side, listening. He pushed Chewie's hand off his head and said, "We're on the Falcon? How'd we get away? I missed it!"
Chewbacca was almost purring with delight at having his 'cub' back in one piece. He gave a whuffling laugh at Han's dismay.
[You should be glad you missed it. It was quite a close call.]
"Hold on! Who's flyin' the ship?!"
"Er…Lando is," Mara admitted reluctantly.
"What?! You let that piece of slime pilot my ship!"
"Hey, this 'piece of slime' helped rescue your worthless behind!" Lando called from the cockpit, having heard Han's outraged yell.
"And whose fault was it that I needed rescuing in the first place, huh?" Han shot back.
Lando had no reply to that, but Han imagined he was cursing up a storm. He grinned in satisfaction at having got the last word in. He heard Mara sigh and turned back towards her, or where he thought she was. He didn't like this not being able to see, not one bit. Lando better hope he's right about the temporary part or he will be sorry, he thought.
"Let me tell you what's happened," Mara said and he could hear the weariness in her voice.
She told him everything, from how they'd escaped the guards, gone down to the furnace to rescue him, made their way back to the Falcon, to when they'd plucked Luke from the weathervane at the bottom of the city.
"Luke was where?" Han asked in disbelief.
"Hanging on a weathervane underneath the city."
"How the hell did he get there?" Honestly, he couldn't leave the kid alone for a second.
Mara sighed again. "We're not sure."
"You haven't asked him?"
"He's…he's not…Luke's not himself right now," Mara said and he could tell she was on the verge of tears.
"What's the matter with him?" Han asked, softening his tone. She didn't answer right away and Chewie spoke up for her.
[Vader did something to him. They fought. Luke is…missing his right hand.]
Han could only gape in open-mouthed astonishment at that. Mara found her voice as she regained a measure of control.
"He said something about keeping a promise to me when we first got him on board, but since then he hasn't said a word. He just lies there and stares at the wall."
"Where is he? I wanna see him."
"Not right now, Han. You need to rest as much as he does," Mara replied. "You can't 'see' him at the moment, anyway." Her attempted joke fell flat as her voice wavered and tears threatened again.
Han reached out a hand to her and she moved into his embrace with the ease and comfort born of a long friendship. He held her tightly to him and kissed her temple as she cried.
"He's a strong kid, Mara. He'll be okay."
"I nearly lost you both. I don't…I couldn't…"
"Shh. I know. But you didn't. We're both here and everything's gonna be all right."
It was a rare moment of weakness for her and Han held her quietly for a long time, Chewie's arms wrapped securely around the two of them.
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The noise had been the hardest thing for her to get used to; at least, on a daily basis. She had, on occasion, attended extravagant parties thrown by the Emperor, or by one of his Governors, and those could be quite loud.
Nothing, however, matched the rebels for pure decibels. Someone was always shouting or singing or fighting or laughing. It never ended. To a person accustomed to working alone a majority of the time, it was quite grating on the nerves.
Arica sighed as she realized that wasn't exactly the truth anymore. Although she didn't understand it and she'd had a difficult time getting used to it, she'd found that on some level she appreciated the noise. Perhaps she had just grown weary of the silence on her ship, and the continued silence of her Master, but she was drawn to the energy the rebels generated--loath as she was to admit it.
There was no place more raucous than the cafeteria. She paused after picking up her tray, scanning the room for an empty seat. As always, she was conscious of the many curious stares sent her way. For the most part she chose to ignore them.
She spotted her target and, fortunately, he was sitting alone. She made her way over to his table and stood for a moment, waiting for him to look up. When he did, she gave him a nod.
"Antilles. Mind if I join you?"
"Arica," he returned her nod in greeting. "Not at all." He indicated the spot across from him with a wave of his hand. "And you can call me Wedge, you know."
"Wedge, then," she acknowledged with a small smile as she sat down.
They ate in a companionable silence for a few minutes and then Arica brought up her primary objective: information on a few certain missing rebels.
"Still no word from your friends?" she asked quietly.
Wedge's mouth tightened and a flash of pain shimmered briefly in his eyes. "No," he said in a low tone and dropped his gaze back to his meal.
Blast! What am I supposed to do, Master? Arica thought helplessly. Of course, there was no answer to her plea. Not only was she failing in her mission, her Master seemed to have abandoned her. There had been no contact from him since that hellish punishment he had inflicted three weeks ago.
She knew that to return to Coruscant without Skywalker meant her death, but what was she to do if he were already dead somewhere? Some strange sense told her he wasn't--and she had no idea how she was so certain of that fact--but she still had no clue as to his whereabouts. Apparently, neither did anyone else.
"I'm sure they're all right," she said.
He looked up with an expression of surprise, and she was surprised that she had said it herself, although she didn't show it. Why in the hell had she said that? To comfort him? What did she care if some pilot in the rebellion was worried about his friends?
Wedge eyed her a little warily. While they had become somewhat friendly over the last few weeks, Arica could tell that he still didn't completely trust her. She met his look steadily, none of her doubt and indecision visible in her demeanor. The slight suspicion cleared after a long moment and he sighed.
"I can only hope you're right, but it's been so long…" His voice trailed off and they again lapsed into silence.
Arica watched him with an assessing gaze and wondered, not for the first time, what it was that made an otherwise seemingly intelligent man decide to betray his government and engage in treason. The need to know the answer to this baffling question finally prompted her to simply ask him.
"Why are you here?" she asked softly.
He glanced up, astonishment in his eyes once again. He gave her a smirk. "To eat my lunch," he said, deliberately misunderstanding her.
She would not be put off and kept staring at him, unsmiling. "Why are you here?" she repeated.
His eyes narrowed and she had the sense he was trying to read her again. He didn't have any more success with that than he'd had the first time he'd tried it, or any of the times since then. She let him see the honest curiosity in her gaze.
"The Empire killed my family," he said shortly.
"How?"
He gave her an exasperated look, but she couldn't let it rest. There was some insistent need in her to know what compelled him to be willing to die in his resistance to her Master.
"My parents owned a refueling platform in the Corellian system. A wanted pirate named Loka Hask was docked at the platform when the Imperials learned that he was there. Rather than try to apprehend him in the normal way, they destroyed my parents' station and my parents," he said tersely, his voice flat and emotionless as he recited the tale.
"So why rebel against the entire Empire? Why not just the fool who gave those orders?"
Wedge looked at her in disbelief and anger. "The Empire is full of those 'fools'. Ask almost anyone in this room and you'll get a similar story. Have you never talked to Luke about what happened to him?"
"No," Arica said, a little uncomfortable with his emotion now.
"His aunt and uncle were slaughtered simply because they happened to buy two droids that carried the plans for the Death Star. They had no idea what they had and yet the Imps killed them both and burned Luke's home to the ground!"
A few people at nearby tables turned to look curiously at Wedge's raised voice. He visibly tried to calm himself down and glared at her.
"Have you no idea what happened to Alderaan?" he said, his tone lower, but no less fierce.
"Of course I know what happened to Alderaan," she said stiffly, somewhat sorry now that she had started this. Alderaan was a sensitive subject with all the rebels, but naturally, it was the most volatile with those who had been born there…like Mara Jade. Wedge was one of the 'four musketeers' and he would defend his friends with his dying breath. Arica felt something akin to envy at the closeness of the relationship between the foursome, until she recognized what she was feeling and firmly pushed it to the back of her mind.
"How anyone could possibly support a monster who would destroy an entire planet is what confuses me. You ask me why am I here. I would ask you why is every sentient being in the galaxy not here?" he said bitterly.
Arica had rarely been speechless in her life, but Wedge's passionate response to her 'simple' question floored her. If she was to be completely honest, Alderaan's destruction had left her…uneasy. She understood that her Master and Tarkin had needed to show that rebellion would not be tolerated, but being a Force-sensitive, all those deaths at one time had been upsetting, almost nauseating.
She groped for something to say in return, knowing that she couldn't defend her Master as she normally would, not in the position she was in. What worried her was that she felt a vague distaste at the very idea of doing so. She had been too long among these rebels.
Wedge was still glaring at her, apparently waiting for a response. She was saved from having to make one by a shout from the cafeteria's entrance.
"Wedge! Hey, Wedge!" Wes Janson came running up to their table, skidding to a stop in front of them. He was panting with exertion and for a moment, couldn't speak as he tried to catch his breath.
"Did you run all the way here just for the lunch special, Wes?" Wedge grinned and Arica was relieved that his attention was off her for the time being.
"No…came to tell you…communication came through…the Millennium Falcon…" Wes gasped, bending over to rest his hands on his knees.
Wedge jumped out of his seat and Arica was only half a second behind him.
"What?! When?" Wedge demanded.
"About an hour ago. Couldn't find you. They're on their way in," Wes said, his words coming easier now as he straightened up.
Wedge gave a whoop of pure joy and hugged Wes in his exuberance. Wes pushed him away, but he was smiling. "Get off me, you moron!"
Wedge turned to head towards the hangar bays. Wes reached out and grabbed his arm, with a look of unaccustomed seriousness on his face.
"It was Mara who made the contact. She asked for medtechs to be standing by."
Wedge's face paled and he asked, "Who--"
"She didn't want to give details. But they're all there. Her, Chewie, Han and Luke and some other guy they picked up."
Wedge had apparently forgotten that Arica was even present and he didn't spare her another glance as he flew out of the cafeteria. She might have been slightly insulted if she hadn't been about two paces behind him, her mind and energy refocused on her mission the minute she heard Skywalker's name.
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