Author Note: Ok, I'm back, and I'm on a role! I now have the next chapter and a half written, so as long as I don't get sidetracked doing other things, I should be able to update regularly...up until x-mas at least...jeez, only seven days to go! AAARGH!

Luke and Mara were waiting for the group outside, when they arrived. Both had been inside the home, but hadn't found anything, other than a few blood stains and scuff marks in the sand. Not even the force could show Luke what had happened, not matter how hard he had tried.

Leia was first down the ramp, followed by Han, Sola, Ryoo, Chewie and Pooja. Then came C-3PO, who went straight over to R2, his safety companion. C-3PO never felt safe unless he was with R2.

Leia ran down the last little bit of the ramp, hopped onto the sand and ran over to her brother, hugging him tightly. The sand burned the soles of herboots, and she could feel the heat through them, but she didn't care. She was here, she was going to find her mother, and she was going to take her home again.

Luke seemed just as pleased to see her, and returned the hug gratefully.

"We came as fast as we could," Leia told him. "But someone got us lost near Mos Espa and we had to land and ask for directions," she said, glaring at Han, who made a point of digging a trench with the toe of his boot.

"I'm glad you came," Luke said to the group at last. Sola walked over and looked down into the courtyard below, shocked at the conditions her sister had had to put up with. It was a far cry from the luxuries that Padme had been used to as a Queen and Senator.

"How could anyone live in this place?" she gasped, and Luke walked over, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You get used to it. Trust me."

Luke introduced them to Mara next. All of them were a little wary of her, but she was polite and the introductions went smoothly. Then they all made their way down into the courtyard area together. Luke delegated the jobs to everyone and they all set about obediently, knowing that the sooner the jobs were done, the better.

Sola, Ryoo, Pooja, C-3PO and R2-D2 began gathering everything they could and carried it up to the ship, where Han and Chewie loaded it into the special smuggling compartments that Han had smuggled himself in once, along with Luke, Chewie and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Luke and Mara showed Leia the small signs that they had found, and asked her opinion about them, to which Leia replied exactly the same as Luke had.

"Well, there's more than one type of blood here, meaning that she put up a fight. But it looks like there was about twenty of them at least."

She crouched next to a puddle of blood and touched it, just like Luke had. Like Luke, she saw nothing. Then she saw another puddle nearby.

"Did you try that one?" she asked, pointing to it.

"No. I figured, if I couldn't see anything from this one, I wouldn't see anything from that one either."

"Well they're from two different beings. Look, this one is darker."

Leia suddenly shook her head in surprise. Here she was, discussing pools of blood like it was a common, everyday thing, and yet, this blood could easily be her mother's. Her mother could be bleeding to death somewhere and all she was thinking about was the colour of the blood infront of her. With this sudden thought in mind, Leia became more desperate to find out if any of these pools of blood actually belonged to her mother.

Touching the surface of the next puddle, Leia suddenly saw Padme running down the steps from outside, clutching her cloak around herself with one hand, and holding a small velvet bag in the other. She threw the bag to one side and ran into the room beside Leia, re-emerging a moment later with a silver pistol.

There were several shouts and hundreds of creatures appeared everywhere, dropping from above, running down the steps and completely trashing the place. They were human like in the way that they walked, but apart from that, no comparison between them and humans should ever be made, for they were the foulest things Leia had ever seen. They were even worse than Jabba the Hutt, and he had been hiddeous.

They were dressed all in black, with spikes protruding from their elbows, upper arms and shoulders, aswell as antler-like horns protruding from their heads. They had pale skin, with evil red eyes and sharp, fang filled mouths. Several of them carried staffs made from what looked like an animal's spine that had been carved into an evil weapon, and could easily rip through flesh. Their armour was black and menacing, and Leia truly dreaded ever having to meet such creatures.

They all made a beeline for Padme who backed away, firing at each one in turn, always hitting her mark, and never missing once. One by one, she picked them off, but still they kept coming, and then the nearest one lurched forwards, knocking her pistol from her hand with one end of his staff before clubbing her round the back of the head with the other, blunt side.

Padme fell to the floor, unconscious, and a trickle of blood ran from just behind her ear and into the sand where Leia was now crouched. The creatures hoisted her up and dragged her unceremoniously back up the steps, whilst a few carried the bodies of their dead companions back up too. This went on until no bodies were left, and then there was the sound of several engines as a fleet of ships took off into space.

Leia snapped out of the vision and saw Luke and Mara looking at her worriedly. The sight of the Vongs had scared her stiff and she couldn't stop shaking as Luke helped her back to her feet.

"What did you see?" Mara asked softly as she supported Leia's other arm, and guided her over to a nearby chair.

"I saw them. They...they're awful! So...so horrid!" Leia gasped, accepting a glass of water that Luke had fetched for her. She took several long sips and felt herself calming down a bit.

"What did they look like?" Luke asked, but Leia shook her head, not wanting to remind herself of them, so Luke went over to the puddle to see for himself, whilst Mara took care of Leia.

"Did you see where they took her?" Mara asked.

Leia shook her head, and Mara sighed in frustration as she began to pace back and forth. It was only as Leia watched her pace, that she was suddenly struck with an idea.

"If you were going to kidnap someone, and you wanted to keep them hidden until you could decide a ransom, where would you take them?"

"I don't know..." Mara said as she contemplated.

"I do," Leia revealed and Mara stopped pacing, suddenly intruiged.

"Where?" she asked.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"No," Luke and Mara said together. Luke had finished watching the images and had come back to join them. It was Leia's turn to give a frustrated sigh this time.

"Well think about it...from what I saw, they don't like modern technology so that would rule out any city planets like Coruscant. They wouldn't risk somewhere like Naboo or Tatooine because they are too well known and populated...but they would go to somewhere like Hoth!"

"Hoth?" Luke asked, the name bringing a chill to his spine. That place held pleanty of bad memories for him. He had been attacked by a Wompa, almost frozen to death, had lost one of his best friends, and had spent twenty four hours in a tank of bacta. Something told him that going back wouldn't be a good choice.

"She's right," Mara said. "Hoth isn't populated, and it's covered in snow and ice. Only a fool would go to such a place without good reason, and not many people have a good reason. Its a perfect hideout. Plus, there's your old base, Echo Station, which they can live in."

"I don't know," Luke still didn't like the idea, but he could see he was fighting a losing battle.

A/N: Ok guys, I know that Hoth probably wouldn't be the best place to take a hostage, but I wanted lots of ice and snow for a little later in the story, and Hoth was the only ice planet I could think of. Also, I realise that some explanation is needed about Leia's visions...Luke can see visions whenever he touches something to do with a person...but Leia can only see visions when she touches something directly to do with that person, such as hair or blood. It's my way of showing that she's a weaker force user than Luke. Does that make sense?