It was like a white light that blinded both Luke and Leia as the Falcon dropped out of hyperspace.

"I feel him!" said Luke and Leia at exactly the same moment.

And then Leia burst into tears.

"He's in so much pain! Hold on, Han, please!"

"I know," said Luke as Chewie roared his distress. "But we know where he is, we can feel him now! Chewie, that planet, right there. Take us down. Hurry."

Han let his body hang there. It wouldn't be long now. He could feel his body beginning to refuse to fight any longer.

Soon the darkness would give way to light and freedom could prevail over his captured spirit.

"Hold on, Han, Please…"

Leia? His mind whispered into the shadows and the unpitying stone of the cell.

"Yes, Han! Han, I'm here! Please hold on!"

Leia? How did you find me?

"I love you. I'd never leave you."

Hurry, Leia, please. Let me see you. I can't hold on much longer.

Lakaya flinched as an alarm began, but not due to the sound. Before the man at the console to her right even opened his mouth, she felt three new presences and a ship drop into normal space.

"Secure Solo," she said. "I will mask his presence for as long as I can. We still need the information Reeikan gave him. "

Luke's lightsaber hummed into life as he swung it and it sliced the nearest stormtrooper in two with a loud crackle.

"You go with Chewie," he shouted to Leia as her own lightsaber screamed into the trooper running toward her. "We'll find him, Leia."

Lakaya turned her head. Skywalker was trying to force her mask of Solo away but she would not easily be dissuaded.

But one of the other two he had brought with him was Jedi too, if not as powerful. She would be an easy kill and then she could lead Skywalker away from Solo with much less effort than it took to hide his presence.

She lifted her lightsaber from the table and ran down the corridor toward…

The Princess? Princess Leia Organa? a Jedi?

No matter. Soon she would die, as would Skywalker, and Solo would crack and give her the information. And then he would be hers.

Luke was immediately confused. The presences he had felt near Han when they dropped into normal space could only be described as evil. Most of them were minions, hardly capable of their own ideals, but there were two that stood out.

A male, an officer, and the boiling hatred for Han that Luke found inside of him.

The other was female, not human and…Jedi? And there were few he had ever felt who were more evil than her.

"HAN!" Leia called down the dark tunnels, using her lightsaber as a torch. "Chewie, you go down that way. If you find him then holler!"

Luke's confusion was by no means unfounded. Han seemed to be everywhere, in every room. This was a trick, but he had no way to counter.

Chewbacca began to kick in every door he found in case his friend could no longer talk to answer his call.

"HAN! HAN, WHERE ARE YOU?"

Leia was on the verge of finding a new direction to move in when a throbbing drone hummed in the darkness and a new light joined hers.

Luke began to adopt Chewbacca's tactic and used his strength in the force, not to locate his friend's failing light, but to destroy the locks on the doors that lined the corridor.

Chewie kicked in another door, as he had the previous twenty-three. And he had as much luck as he had with the other doors, too.

Luke felt a hot pain sear through his mind as he touched the next door, but not a pain that belonged to him. With his mind as well as his heart, he forced the door through and what he saw frightened him. Hanging by broken arms in the middle of the room, naked, bruised, bloody and unmoving was Han Solo.

"Who are you?" asked Leia as the woman began to circle.

"Can't you feel who I am?" she replied.

Leia focused her mind to probe this strangers and found images of pain, of blood and torture, and of who they belonged to.

With no further hesitation she screamed and swung the glowing shaft in her hands around to meet her opponent.

Chewie felt as much as heard Leia's scream and turned to where he perceived that it came from. He heard too the humming of lightsabers and, in strides that would make an imperial star cruiser look slow, he took off down the corridor.

Luke touched his hand to Han's temple. Han grunted and tried to open his eyes.

Take strength from me, Han, Luke thought, enveloping Han's failing presence with his own, warming the spirit, calling the soul back to the light, providing strength where there was none.

This time Han's eyes managed to open and his pallid cheeks showed a little color.

"Luke," he breathed, the flicker of the half-smile Luke knew flashing momentarily across the battered face, despite the quiet agony Luke felt it cause.

"Yes, Han, it's me. I'm going to get you out of here."

He unlocked the manacles with a wave of his hand and caught his friend as he fell from his chains.

Leia swung her blade again but Lakaya blocked with frightening ease and thrust her own orange lightsaber toward Leia.

Leia swung against the lightsaber as she did and knocked it away from her face.

And that was when Lakaya started playing dirty.

Chewie almost ran into Luke who was supporting Han almost completely.

"The Cub needs a blanket" Chewie said quickly as he noticed Han's shivering.

"Yes, he does, Chewie, and fast. I'll find him one. Is Leia all right?"

"I believe so. But the Little Princess is fighting a duel with someone. I have not learned their name."

"Leia?" asked Han, his voice full of concern for her.

"I will take care of that. You keep the Cub."

"Yeah," said Han feebly. "You keep me. Just…don't let her get…hurt, Pal. I wish I could…help ya but I…don't think I can…stand up…anymore..."

"That does not surprise me, Cub. Allow the Little One to help you."

"Sure thing, Chewie… Sure thing."

Han grabbed a couple of fistfuls of chestnut fur and hung on to his old friend.

"It's…good to…see ya, Pal."

Chewie returned the embrace of his weakened friend with far less fervor than he would have ordinarily and then turned to Luke as he handed Han back.

"Take care of the Cub, Little One."

"I will, Chewie. Come on, Han. Let's get you back to the Falcon."

Leia reeled with a punch to the stomach by an invisible hand and staggered to regain her footing, but another blow hit her face and she hit the ground.

Lakaya stepped forward to decapitate her with her lightsaber or, failing that, to twist her head and break her neck with her connection to the force, but Leia, still half lying on the ground, swung her own lightsaber and caught a thick and writhing strand of Lakaya's hair.

Lakaya screamed and clutched at the scorched mess. Then she swung at Leia and knocked the lightsaber from her hand. It skittered across the floor, bounced off the far wall and came to rest just out of Leia's reach.

Luke and Han hurried out into the daylight and across to their means of escape. Han, now shrouded in a blanket, winced in pain: It had been weeks since he had seen the sun and now his eyes protested at the lack of adjustment time.

Suddenly, a bolt of energy flashed so close to Luke that it actually singed the hair on the side of his head.

"Hold on, Han," Luke said and he flung them both behind the nearest cover – a stack of cargo crates.

Han hit the ground with a hard bump and groaned as Luke propped him up, accidentally scraping his back against the crates.

"I'm sorry, Han."

"Don't…mention it, Kid."

Lakaya launched herself at Leia and landed square on her chest, knocking the breath form her.

"Pretty little thing," Lakaya said as her hair wound around Leia's neck. "It's just a terrible shame that you won't live to see him."

Leia felt the pressure against her throat, nauseating violation, like the pressure of a thumb over an eye, and grasped the strands with shaking hands. But Lakaya's hands took a firm hold on her wrists and forced them away while her hair continued to strangle Leia.

Han noticed, while Luke fired back at the stormtroopers and deflected their stray shots with his lightsaber, that Krixt Vaux was edging his way out of the building, trying to make his escape unseen.

One of the stormtroopers Luke had just hit fell with a bloodcurdling scream and smacked into the ground, blood seeping from beneath his white helmet.

His blaster rifle scudded across the hard permacrete and came to rest within Han's reach. Han took it as a sign. Vaux had crossed Han Solo one time too many, and, this time, his rank would not save him.

Leia ceased her futile clawing at the strands of hair, her lack of oxygen sapping her will to fight, and, with her last moments of coherence, clawed at Lakaya's face with one hand and stretched out toward her lightsaber with the other, obscuring her thoughts from Lakaya's expert probing.

Lakaya laughed, not noticing Leia's hand as her fingers curled around the hard metal.

Leia grabbed her lightsaber, tucked in her arm, and flicked the switch.

Lakaya's laughter ended with a soft, startled gurgle, her eyes wide. She glanced over her shoulder to see the top half of Leia's lightsaber protruding from her back and stared, open mouthed as her hair began to unravel from around Leia's slender neck.

She looked back at Leia, frowned in confusion and then her eyes rolled and she slumped forward.

Leia switched off her lightsaber and pushed the –quite literally – dead weight of Lakaya's corpse from her chest, taking a huge breath and coughing violently. A huge hairy arm wrapped around her waist and hauled her to her feet.

"Little princess, the Little One found the Cub and has taken him back to the ship."

"Then let's get out of here, Chewie. Let's go home."

Han crawled slowly away from Luke, who was too distracted by the stormtroopers to notice, with the blaster rifle in his broken hands. He made it around the corner and hauled himself to his feet ignoring the excruciating pain.

"Vaux," he rumbled. "Turn around."

Leia saw Luke as soon as she and Chewie exited the building. He was across the courtyard, deflecting their shots and firing his own.

"Let's give him a hand, huh, Chewie?"

"Now, Slick…" said Vaux as Han leveled the blaster rifle at his chest.

He didn't care that his arms were broken. He could still move the left one and movement was all he needed: Adrenaline was giving him the rest.

"I told you: Don't call me 'Slick'."

"Think about this…"

Leia glanced around her to try and find a way around the melee and three figures caught her eye. The first was an imperial officer with a blaster rifle pointed directly at him. The second was a man, covered only by a blanket.

The third was a stormtrooper who was doing a wonderful job of sneaking up on the second man without being noticed.

"HAN!"

Han heard the warning, spun around and fired, sending a blaster bolt burning through the chest plate of the underhanded stormtrooper but was too slow to turn back in time to hit Vaux.

Vaux got his arm around Han's neck and attempted to break it. Han, struggling to breathe, turned the blaster rifle in his hand, jammed it back into Vaux's stomach and pulled the trigger. Vaux crumpled.

Leia watched without quite believing as Vaux fell to the ground. Han looked up at her and dropped onto his knees.

She stood and ran toward him as he fell onto his side and lay back on the ground.

Luke fired at the last of the stormtroopers and drew a hand across his forehead as the final one crashed to the floor.

Rain pounded the trees surrounding them and then swept over the courtyard. Luke allowed it to cool his face for a moment, tipping his head back toward the sky.

Alarms still whooped inside the building. He looked down at Han and…Wait…Where was Han?

She saw his hand before she saw anything else: It was on the ground, protruding for behind the crates and was completely still.

Leia dropped to her knees beside the blanketed form on the permacrete.

"Han," she said, kneeling over him.

His eyes flickered open and rolled for a moment before focusing on her face. She breathed a quick smile at him.

"Leia..?"

"Oh, Han…" she whispered, running her hand across his cheek.

An unsure smile played across his pallid lips.

"You…came for me..?"

She felt her eyes prickle and her throat tighten as his eyes glistened.

"Of course I came for you, Han, I…"

And then her eyes began to take in the horrific wounds.

"Why did they do this? You didn't know anything."

Han tipped his head back, asking her in silent gesture to lean down to him. She turned her head so that her ear was by his mouth.

"Yeah, I did. I knew all the time: Jodrell…System, Heta II, complex…twenty one, code word, 'Standard', access…code alpha-gamma-one-one-three."

Leia looked incredulous and shook her head.

"How did-"

"Rieekan…told me, in case somthin'…happened to you."

He grinned up at her proudly, showing bloodied teeth.

"She found out it was…Rieekan; she got that much outta…my head but…she couldn't get any more'n that. And I…I didn't tell 'em, Leia. …didn't tell 'em. It got…close a couple of times but…I didn't tell 'em."

"Oh, Han, I'm so sorry."

"But you came for me…" he murmured again.

Her smile faded.

"Yes…"

"B-Because you love me?"

She nodded.

"Yes, Han, because I love you."

Why was he so pale? And why was he getting paler. He tried to lift his head.

"Here," she whispered and placed her hand under his neck, feeling his whole body shaking as he struggled to breathe. "I've got you."

"I love you too, Leia, more than anything. And I'm sorry…"

Sorry? What for? But she nodded anyway to reassure him.

"Hold on, Han, it's alright now.. CHEWIE! OVER HERE!"

Han's smile suddenly vanished and one of his hands grasped at her sleeve weakly as his eyes shot open.

"Oh, Gods…" he murmured.

"Han? Han, what is it?"

"Wish…skies, Leia…" he rasped.

"What?"

"Wish me…clear skies, Leia…"

Leia's eyes narrowed and she shook her head. Was he delirious? Or just in pain? It looked like both.

"Why?" she asked.

Tears filled his eyes and he looked up at her imploringly, tugging at the sleeve, begging her.

"Please, Leia…Hurry…Please…"

The tears were beginning to escape, now.

"Clear skies, Han!" she smiled without thinking, willing to try anything to placate him, to end his pain. "Clear skies, alright?"

Her smile ought to make him feel better, ought to comfort him. It was only then she began to think about what he'd just asked of her

Clear skies? she thought. Isn't that the traditional spacers…farewell?

And then she realised what it was she had done. She had said goodbye, given him permission to leave; ended his pain.

"No, Han!" she said suddenly, eyes wide. "No! Stay with me, Han, please!"

But already his tears were being shed through a weary smile. His eyes closed and he laughed quietly, then his head rocked back and he lay still.

Leia stared at him, stock still in absolute horror, her brown eyes as large as sensor dishes, tears streaming down her beautiful face.

Then it hit home; she shook her hands and grabbed his shoulders.

"HAN!"

She shook him again. Still he did not move.

She lowered her head to his face but felt no breath.

"No, Han, no! Please!"

She pressed two fingers to his throat.

"No, don't do this…"

She rested her head on his chest, desperate to find some, any, sign of life, any at all, just to let her know that she had not come this far only to loose him again. She listened, soaked the skin she leant on with soft tears of raw anguish, she held her breath, hoped, dreamed, prayed, anything that her love had not left her.

But the heart of gold that had saved friends and soothed pain, the heart of strength that had survived all ordeals be it carbonite or scan grid, the heart of adoration that had waited for so long to beat in time with hers, now beat no more.

Han Solo's heart was still.