Disclaimer: Wedon'townitendofstory.

One by One

As Han pulled off a extremely difficult move in the Falcon while landing, (just to show off his piloting skills), two shady figures watched him from a high balcony somewhere in the Nar Shaddaa skyline.

"Stop them," one said calmly to the other, "No matter what. I don't care if it takes you for ever, I don't care if you have to pick them off one by one. There shouldn't be more than six of them. Remember that they probably know about us by now. Just stop them. But make sure Solo comes to me," his tinny voice echoed in Dengar's ears.

"Right you are."

"Should you fail….don't. Of all of them, make sure you kill Skywalker."

"Okay, which Skywalker? And which Solo for that matter?" Dengar asked pathetically.

The mysterious Bobby Fett looked at him disgustedly, and then turned away and strode off. As he was leaving he hissed sarcastically, "The male one."

"Okay, here's the plan, fire and keep firing! Just don't hit the twins and don't get hit yourself!" Han said as he rapidly charged his blaster.

"What if we do hit the twins?"

"DON'T!"

Everyone was gathered in the lounge, getting ready for the attack. They knew there would be one. It wasn't likely that they could just stride in, pick up the twins, pay the kidnapper for babysitting and stride out again.

Zeke came through the door carrying a box of multiple blasters, "Here we go chaps!"

He handed a blaster to everyone even though they were already carrying about three others. Zeke then took one for himself and attached it to his belt.

Lando raised his eyebrows at Han, when Zeke wasn't looking. Wedge beat him to the point.

"Zeke," he said as tactfully as possible, "I think there are enough of us as it is… maybe it would be better if you stayed here-"

"What?" Zeke turned to him, "You're leaving me behind?"

Lando came in to help, "Zeke, you'd… you'd be a liability. I'm sorry but it's true. Look you're shaking as we speak 'cause of withdrawal. How do you expect to hold a blaster straight?"

Zeke tried to hold himself steady, but Lando spoke the truth, he was shaking like a leaf. Normally he would have protested, but he knew it was pointless. That didn't stop him being upset though. He wrenched the blaster from his belt and threw it at Lando's feet before storming out of the room.

Lando picked it up cautiously, "Lucky this thing didn't go off and shoot one of us in the foot!"

Wedge started after Zeke, "Maybe I should-" he gesture after him but was cut short by Luke.

"No," he stated bluntly. "We don't have time to worry about teenagers now. We have to worry about toddlers."

"You can talk to him when we get back," Leia said, noting Wedge's hesitant look.

Wedge nodded, stepping back into the circle that the group had formed.

"So," said Han sternly. "What's our action plan?"

Everyone replied in a bored drawl, "Fire and keep firing! Just don't hit the twins and don't get hit yourself."

The ramp of the Falcon lowered slowly. Wedge and Lando ducked as they left the safety of the ship's interior.

As he left Wedge muttered happily, "This is the most excitement I've had since I single-handedly blew up the Death Star, with nothing but a thermal detonator at my disposal!"

Lando looked at him, mock anger on his face "I believe I had something to do with that!"

Wedge pretended to think, "Hum….did you give me the detonator or something? I think your memory is getting worse in your old age! I distinctly remember blowing it up all by myself."

Lando ignored him.

"Han," Leia said uncertainly as she and her husband prepared to leave the ship, I have to tell you something."

Han turned to her, confused, "What?"

Leia started, "I want you to know that-"

BANG!

A wave of blaster fire exploded around them, from all directions.

"Wedge! Lando!" Han yelled, "How many?"

"TOO MANY!" Lando screeched over the noise.

Han dived out of the Falcon, Leia, Chewie and Luke at his side. He started pumping the trigger as fast as he could. Lando was right. There must have been at least forty of them.

"THEY CAME OUT OF NOWHERE!" Wedge wailed over the scream of blaster fire, "THERE WAS NO ONE HERE A SECOND AGO!"

"RARRGG!" Chewie yelled which meant something a long the lines of 'how does a small time bounty hunter afford this many men!"

"HE DOESN'T," Han yelled back, "I'M NOT SO SURE THIS GUY IS THAT 'SMALL TIME!"

They were every where, fighting from behind the rubble of the dilapidated buildings and ruins that made up Nar Shaddaa. They were perfect in their fighting style, like a trained army. These guys were not the same idiots they fought with last time.

Han had just decided that their rescue mission was over before it had even began when-

BANG! BANGBANGBANG!

Everyone instinctively ducked as bolts flew over their heads, flattening the soldiers who were attacking. The belly gun of the Falcon was ablaze!

There was only one person in that ship. Zeke.

Han had never been happier that he had taken the time out of his busy schedule of eating, sleeping and sitting in the cockpit trying to look busy, to show a rowdy teen the belly gun of the ship!

It wasn't long until their attackers were falling like dominoes. Soon, there was nothing left to shoot at them. That kid may not have been able to fire a blaster at the present time, but he could sure fire the belly gun.

"There!" Leia yelled. It turned out there was something to shoot at. A single, solitary man. And in his arms he carried to small, rounded figures that were unmistakably, the twins.

"Jaina! Jacen!" Leia screamed, and started sprinting after the man, who had disappeared into the nearest warehouse.

"Leia! Wait!" Han called out after her.

As the rest of them stepped out into the open, Han turned around to look at the occupant of the belly gun. Zeke raised his hand and saluted the party that were headed towards an old warehouse. Han imitated the gesture with the utmost sincerity.

Lando, who had chased after Leia, called out to Han. "Han, these dudes aren't 'dudes'."

Han's eyes widened, "They're women!"

"No!" Lando said, as though the idea was absolutely ridiculous, "They're droids!"

Han sighed, "No wonder they were so good," he muttered as he stepped over the dissembled parts.

Luke spoke up, "But the guy who took the twins defiantly wasn't a droid…" They left it like that.

Everyone was reunited inside and Leia pointed down one of the many corridors. It appeared that the warehouse was attached to another huge building. "He took them that way." Her face was grim as she reached for her sabre, which, up to now, hadn't used.

Han nodded and took the lead silently starting down the hall. It was deadly silent, dark and wet. Water was dripping somewhere and the noise was resounding around them. The group crawled forward, blasters and sabres constantly ready. The corridor was long and winding and it seemed to take forever to get to the end. In fact they didn't even see it coming. Han almost walked into the door, but his senses told him that to stop.

"There's a door here," he whispered. Despite talking quietly the echo made sure everyone heard him.

As he said it, everyone focused their weapons on the door ready for it to be opened. Luke and Leia shuffled to the front of the group to reflect any blaster bolts.

Han pushed the door open violently. It opened into a room not much bigger than the Falcon's lounge. Apart from a couple of chairs and a three legged table, the room was empty.

Almost disappointed, Han moved across the room to another door, "They must have gone this way."

In single file, the company immerged from the corridor, Luke, Leia, Chewie, Lando and lastly Wedge.

The rest moved on, but out of habit Wedge turned around to close the door behind them…

The other's became aware of what was happening when the heard a muffled yell from their friend.

Leia spun on the spot, just in time to almost get knocked off her feet as a very heavily armoured someone flashed past her. She had time to tell, by the way he was running, the man was carrying something heavy.

The other's had already retraced their steps back to the room. There they found Wedge, flattened against the door. Behind it they could hear banging and yelling.

"Wedge! You okay?" Lando said sounding worried.

"Go!" Wedge yelled, " I can't hold them forever. There's only two left, I can take it! GO!"

"Wedge this is not the time to be noble!"

Wedge swore, using words he must have learnt from Zeke, "Just go would you!"

No one wanted to leave him, but they had too. As soon as they were a safe distance away, Wedge moved away the door. He knew this was gonna hurt.

"Wedge can look after himself…they must have been behind the door…" Han was muttering more to himself than anyone else, "he'll be fine, he'll be great…"

"Han," Leia said, "SHHHH!"

The group was moving at a much quicker speed now. The corridor they were running down was the polar opposite to the one they had been in before. It was well lit and impossibly straight. They could see the man that they were chasing and much to Leia's pain, they could hear the twins cries.

Way ahead of them, their quarry disappeared around a corner. Leia suddenly realised how quick Lando could go when he wanted to. He had soon over taken everyone and was covering a lot of ground in a

short time. He had soon disappeared around the corner.

When everyone else rounded the corner, out of breath and panting, the miniscule amount of oxygen left inside them vanished.

A man was standing in front of them. But this man was taller and broader than Han and Lando put together. He also carried a knife.

The knife was also huge. Bigger than an average vibroblade, it looked as though it would have been put to good use in the hands of a butcher.

"Psst!" Lando hissed out of the corner of his mouth. His hands were raised above his head, and obviously, the enemy was considering whether or not to believe his surrender. "Go that way!" His smallest finger pointed directly behind them. Up an adjoining corridor another man was racing away from them with the twins in his arms.

Leia felt a whirlpool of guilt well up inside her. She wanted to run after her children so much, but it would be totally against any morals she ever stood for to leave Lando here, facing this monster of a man with a knife.

"Lando, we can't leave you on your own too!" Han was obviously thinking along the same lines as Leia.

Lando rolled his eyes, "So you're willing to let Wedge go off on his own but I have to be kept under close surveillance?"

"That was different!" Leia hissed, "That guy's huge!"

"Can you knife fight?"

"I could give it a pretty good shot!" Leia retaliated.

Lando's arms fell to his sides. The enormous man lunged for him. Lando ducked swiftly and grabbed the vibroblade from its position on his boot. Then he spun around, "Run for it!"

Turning back to his opponent, who was wondering how Lando had dodged his attack and ended up armed in the process, Lando said with as much charisma as he could mange, "I guess you're leading the way then!"

He had just enough to catch a glimpse at his friends retreating backs before he was pulled into combat.

"Is it just me or does this place have a hell of a lot of corridors!" Han panted as the remaining members of the gang jogged down another of the long halls after the twins.

Then disaster struck. They rounded yet another corner, the only possible corner, to find a dead end. There was a wall, and nothing else. Just a wall. No door. No window. Just a wall.

"What?" Leia cried in despair, "No!"

Han walked right up to the wall and tapped it, listening.

"It's sound," he said, "There's no way through."

"That's impossible," Luke said disbelievingly, "He can't just have vanished!"

Chewie groaned, "I smell two people, someone was waiting for him here…"

Much to the Wookiee's annoyance, no one seemed to be listening to him. All three humans were examining the wall in greater detail.

"There's nothing here!"

"There has to be!"

"There isn't!"

"What are we gonna do now?"

"Find them!"

"Leia there's no way through!"

"There has to be!"

"There isn't! Maybe we should go back."

"We can't!"

"Maybe we missed a door or something…"

"We saw him turn this corner!"

"Chewie," Han said, turning around. He was about to ask Chewbacca for his opinion in the matter but on turning around to address him, he found he was talking to thin air.

"Chewie?" Han asked dumbstruck, "He's gone!"

Luke and Leia span on the spot with a simultaneous, "Huh?"

"GONE!" Han yelled, hysterically, his voice echoing down the corridor.

The three of them ran to the corner to take a look to see if he had gone back. Chewie was no where to be seen.

"Leia we have to go back, that's the only way they could have gone, tell her Luke! Luke? No way! Luke! This isn't funny!"

Luke had disappeared. There was no trace of him ever being there.

"This corner must be haunted or something!" Han said, half joking.

Leia nodded, checking every nook and cranny for her brother.

"Where are they?" Han muttered tapping on the wall again. He turned to Leia to get her opinion.

He was facing thin air.

"Leia?" Han called out as he turned on the spot to look all around him. "Luke, Chewie? Anyone?"

A loud warbling came from above him. 'Hurry up cub! This way!'

Chewie laughed loudly as he pulled Han up through the attic door. Han, however, didn't find it funny.

"Why didn't you just tell me there was a trap door! You just wasted a load of time!"

Chewie however didn't seem bothered, neither apparently did Luke.

The group started to crawl along the narrow shaft. Han continued to fume.

"We've probably lost him now! He'll be long gone!"

"I don't think so," Luke said, "they're leading us in the same way they have done throughout the whole mission. They want us to follow them and they're doing a very bad job of covering it up. Mind you, that suggests they don't really care if we know or not. That's more than a bit worrying."

"Luke," Han said, "I can see you've thought about this too much."

He heard Luke laugh ahead of him.

Eventually, they dropped out of the shaft into what looked like it had once been an entrance hall to something much bigger. It was in ruins but they could tell it had once been very grand.

However, they were no longer alone. Suddenly a group of about ten men charged at them. They were screaming, waving their weapons and looked pretty impressive. Before Luke and Leia had even had a chance to draw their sabres, Chewie was off.

He ran at the men, waving his long arms and roaring at the top of his voice. Like a flock of birds the attackers slowed, turned and ran in the opposite direction with Chewbacca in hot pursuit. He chased them out of the hall and out of sight.

Han, Luke and Leia did have much time to get over what had happened. They had to move on without Chewie, they knew that.

As they walked towards the enormous doors in front of them Han broke the ice that had fallen, "Who taught Chewie how to spalter?"

"Wow!" Han, Leia and Luke all said together. The room behind the doors was enormous. It must have been a ballroom hall of some kind at one point in time. The walls were covered in mirrors of all shapes and sizes and you could see you reflection in the floor. However the mirrors were cracked and broken and the floor was dulled by dust and age. No one had danced here in some time.

"So you finally got here! Took you long enough!"

The gang looked down the steps onto the dance floor to see Dengar standing right in the centre of the hall. He looked surprisingly calm. But it was not Dengar that drew their attention. Leia gasped when she saw it and Luke felt fear grow in both his sister and Han.

Dengar was holding both twins under one arm, they were too scared to call out, and extremely long and heavy chain in his other hand. On the end of that chain was a nexu.

The fierce cat like creature roared with hunger. It did look very thin. It's flat head was swaying from side to side and there was a pool of drool on the ground at it's feet. Luke remembered Yoda telling him a story of how his mother fought a nexu that was supposed to be executing her on Geonosis before she and Anakin got married. Luke was slightly impressed that Dengar had tamed one, though he doubted that if he asked it to sit it would.

Luke had a pretty good idea why Dengar had one here.

"We thought we'd get something special for you Skywalker!" Dengar sneered to Luke, "After all, droids and cheep pirate scum don't faze you do they? Well I must dash, enjoy!"

With that, Dengar dropped the chain. The nexu sprang forward as if it had been given an electric shock.

"RUN!" Luke yelled before drawing his lightsabre, "The twins need you both, run!"

Leia didn't want to leave her brother alone with the large, carnivorous beast, but Luke gave her a push towards the side door that Dengar had fled through, with the Force. Both her and Han ran as fast as their weary legs would carry them towards their children.

Han heard the beast that was fighting Luke let out a hungry roar, and had he not been conserving any energy he had left for the fight that he knew he was going to face, he would have yelled back to his brother-in-law. Anything- even something as stupid as to be careful not to break a mirror unless he wanted seven years of bad luck.

Dengar's feet skidded along the ground as he turned yet another corridor in this maze. If they ever got out of this, Leia thought, she would get lost trying to find a way out of the labyrinth.

Eventually, Dengar came to a halt and as he tried to open an obviously locked door, Han and Leia made up all the ground they had lost. Dengar was backed into a corner, and he knew it.

As they approached, Han drew his blaster and Leia lit her lightsabre. Together, in the dilapidated corridor, they looked incredibly intimidating, even for the famous bounty hunter.

"Give us back our children," Leia said, the purple glow of the sabre illuminating her face.

Dengar stuttered, but no words would come out.

"Dengar," Han stated in recognition. "I gave you those burns and cuts," he gestured to the bandages that were permanently wrapped around Dengar's head. "I can give you much worse if you would like?"

Dengar gulped, remembering the speeder accident which Solo had caused. He also knew a threat when he heard one.

The lock on the door opposite clicked open, unnoticed by everyone.

"Okay! Okay!" Dengar cried for mercy, "I don't want them any more! They've been driving me insane!" He was about to throw the junior Solo's towards their parents when a mysterious figure, shrouded by shadows, opened the previously locked door.

Dengar's terrified face broke into a smirk of the evilest kind. Before Han and Leia could do anything Dengar had thrown the twins through the door. Leia jumped forward her sabre now at the bounty hunter's throat.

"Go get them babe!" she yelled at Han.

Her husband was surprised but he darted through the door. Then it hit him. He was the last one left.

Han was in what looked light a fancy hotel room. There was a four poster bed, missing two legs, in the middle of the room. Jason and Jaina were lying on it, terrified. Standing beyond them, looking out of a window at the ruined city, was the man responsible for all of this.

He had his back to Han, so Han couldn't see his face, but he knew this was the man he was looking for.

"You Bobby?" Han asked it his Boldest voice. The man didn't reply. He did however reach over to the small table standing beside him. On that table there was a singular object. A battered helmet. One that was all to familiar to Han.

The man lifted it and placed it over his head.

"Some people call me that," he said in a slightly metallic voice, "But…" he turned around. Han couldn't believe it. He was looking at a dead man.

The man let out a small and evil laugh, "I think, Solo, you know what I prefer to be called."