He must have been there for days. That much was certain. The methods they used were efficient. Hardly any skin remained on his back. His limbs were shattered, smashed, cracked and broken with now nailless fingers clawing the darkness with each pang of distress, yet another attempt to draw information from him that he had told them time and again he did not have. And yet still they hung him from them.

Every nerve tingled: When they were not torturing him with instruments of affliction, they injected him with more Lytisil Verithinine to ensure that he was awake and in pain. Although pain seemed to be too mild an expression for what he felt. Pain, whatever that was, was something he had passed long ago. Even agony was inadequate.

And they enjoyed it all. He had known people to torture for revenge and for interrogation, or even, he remembered, to use the victim as bait, but there were, even now, very few who tortured for pleasure.

Of course, they would never admit it: If anyone asked, Vaux was trying to gain information. But he had seen the gleam in their eyes as he screamed in the throes of suffering, seen them take pleasure from it. And it appeared that one of them was about to do again: the door opened and in walked the Ch'thorian female who had tormented him for so long.

Lakaya stalked around Han who was almost fully upright, arms stretched to their full length at forty five degrees on either side of him, and it was agony; she knew he was hanging from arms that were bruised and bloody, neither intact. He was barely conscious, barely lucid, but still the eye that he could open followed her. His breathing was irregular, sharp and pained and his entire body ached.

She eventually stopped in front of him. Her hands remained by her sides but her hair reached up and caressed his cheek. His eye closed and his tried to ignore the sensation.

"How long…have I..?"

"Days, Solo. Weeks."

Her hair stroked his bruised chest and brushed over his torn lips. He whimpered.

"Shhh," she whispered, stepping closer, "it's all right."

She lifted a hypo. Han shook his head but she touched her fingers to his lips.

"It's not Lytisil Verithinine, it's Lytisil Macerotisine. It won't hurt you."

Still he shook his head but she pressed it to his left shoulder and waited. After a few moments, the pain that had been penetrating every nerve began to ebb, until he could barely feel it. The weakness remained but he could breathe and could stay conscious without concentration.

"You see?" she asked. "When you co-operate you receive rewards."

Han panicked.

"Co-operate?" he mumbled through swollen lips that would not properly obey his command.

Had he let something slip during these past days – weeks? – of torture?

"Your brother does not believe you are dead, General, a victory in itself."

"Brother?"

Realization dawned.

"Luke!"

"Yes; Skywalker."

"How do you…know that?"

She smiled.

"Because we are both Jedi. I felt him. Through your mind."

A cold knot tightened in Han's stomach. If she was a Jedi then she could take anything she wanted from him. As if sensing his thoughts – and for all he knew, she might have been – she stroked his bruised temple and said,

"No, I cannot search your mind, but not for lack of trying. I have found that there is a defense around you, constructed of that famous hostility and cynicism, that I cannot penetrate. But I digress. While the drug's sister, Lytisil Verithinine, enhances pain, Lytisil Macerotisine enhances pleasure. There is only so much knowledge I can gather from pain. I thought it best to try more persuasive methods. I cannot gain what we want, but it is time for me to gain what I want, Han, from your body and your mind."

That was the first time she had used his first name and for some reason, it frightened him beyond words.

She ran her thumb along his lips.

"Do you feel it?"

Han felt the change, the intensification, but said nothing.

"Do you like it?"

Han shook his head.

"No," he whispered as she ran her hand along his collarbone, but it was obvious, at least to himself, that his body did even if his mind did not.

Her hair began to stroke his chest and her hand slid lower. Han let out a gasp and felt utmost shame as he felt his exposed body begin to respond to her.

"Ah," she whispered as she noticed the reaction, standing on her toes to reach him. "You do feel it."

Every touch was magnified, every caress intensified. He knew he had to overcome it but he had no strength.

She held her chin near his and brushed her lips against his mouth. Han's lips parted in response without his consent and the hair on the back of his neck rose and refused to lie flat.

"No," he whispered as she did it again. "No, please…Leia…"

She smiled. This time his lips moved when hers touched them.

"Forget her," Lakaya whispered. "She will never come for you."

"No," Han said, involuntarily dipping his head to allow her touch. "They'll come for me."

How could this be? He was still unable to fight despite what she was saying, despite her previous actions, almost as if he wanted it to happen.

No! No, fight it! Fight it!

She held her lips just in front of him. His head moved to take them but she moved away and stared at him.

Fight it, Solo, she's drugged you. Solo, Fight It!

She brushed her lips against his once more and a groan of pain and anguish escaped him and he parted his lips for her.

No! his mind screamed. Fight It, Solo, Fight. If you give in she'll read you like a book!

But it was no use. Every touch was welcome for it was not pain. The violation was distressing; he wanted her away from him, could not bear to have her touch him, revulsion and pain surging through his weakened body, but at the same time he could not live without her.

Her hair wrapped about his body and her arms about his neck. And this time he had nowhere to go.

"…And that's what I meant by the strange feeling," Luke finished as he sat back against the holochess table in the Falcon's 'lounge'.

Leia stared at him, eyes wide. Chewie did likewise.

"So he's still alive?"

Luke met her gaze solemnly.

"I'm not saying that, Leia. Please don't get your hopes up. I'm saying that finding him shouldn't prove too difficult. We just have to trust the feeling we have."

"That's something I think we're all good at," Leia said quietly. "It's far past time to bring him home."

Passage of time was not an awareness he had anymore. There was a growing darkness, a growing cold that enveloped his mind, was beginning to creep into his heart and would soon feast on his soul.

Soon, rational thought would be impossible. Hallucinations had begun and voices whispered to him from the past and from dreams and from the desires he possessed and remembered that were now the only comfort he held.

The distant recollection of a voice, the far away remembrance of a face, the long lost memory of a warm and tender touch.

Nightmare and reality had merged and were indistinguishable from each other; the horrors of both were equal now.

He was alone with reality and resitance fading slowly into an infinite blackness and, with his last ounce of strength, he called the one person he knew would hear.

"Leia…Leia…Please, Gods, find me Leia..."

"How long will we have to search, Luke?" Leia asked him from Han's chair as the ship jumped into hyperspace once more.

She had taken Han's place at Chewie's side for the duration of their journey so far.

"It's been four weeks since…"

"I know, but I can feel something," Luke reassured her. "We're getting closer all the time, Leia, I know it."

"How do you know?"

Luke paused before he answered. This was a rational question.

"I see his light, I feel his presence, almost as though someone were trying to mask it, to hide it from us."

"I don't know what to believe, Luke. Only a Jedi could accomplish that. And they would have to be strong to affect you. I don't know if we'll ever-"

Leia…

"Leia?" asked Luke.

But she did not answer him.

Leia…

She stared out at the light tunnel of hyperspace.

Please, Gods, find me Leia…

With a sudden flood of feeling, a red streak appeared in front of her, diving out of their path and out of hyperspace: A trail, a path, a signal, a beacon to follow! She heard Luke gasp and knew he had felt it too.

"Chewie!" they both yelled in unison, and Leia took hold of the controls.

"Get us out of hyperspace! NOW!"