Well after that depressing chapter, here's another, less depressing one. Can you believe it, we're almost done with ANH?

I'm very happy with myself for Chapter seven. It's way darker than anything I've yet written; the part where she kills Leia still shocks me. Honestly, I wasn't sure what people would think. But four very positive reviews are extremely encouraging.

Disclaimer: research my name in Google—I'm not even there. Research George Lucas, you get totally different results. I know—I've tried.

Chapter 8: Red Four, Standing By

Lila walked to the cockpit where she heard Han say "Do you think a princess and a guy like me—"

He was quickly cut off by Luke. "No!" Barely concealing a smile, Lila said, "Luke's in love, Luke's in love . . . don't go for it." Luke opened his mouth to protest. "I'm not saying she's too good for you or anything, it's just that I happen to know something that you don't and I am strictly forbidden to tell you."

"Says who?"

"Ben." Luke didn't say anything else. Lila sat down and looked out the window. Han looked at her. "You owe me. Five credits. Now."

Lila swore under her breath and dropped the money into his waiting hand. "When Master Yoda yells at me, its your fault. Jedi aren't supposed to make bets."

The planet of Yavin loomed ahead. Han maneuvered the Millennium Falcon towards the fourth moon and landed, per Leia's directions, in front of a large ancient stone temple.

The Rebels greeted them warily at first, but when Leia said who she was they immediately escorted the four of them to where the commander of the Rebel Forces waited. He enveloped Leia in a hug. "Your safe! When we heard about Alderaan we feared the worst."

"There will be time for sorrows later, Commander. The battle station surely tracked us here." Leia looked pointedly at Han. "You must use the information in this R2 unit to plan our attack. It is our only hope." She walked off with Commander Willard, discussing strategies.

"So . . . what do we do now?" asked Luke. "Because I want to help them fight the Death Star."

"You're crazy," said Han. "Going up against that thing is suicidal. I'm leaving."

"I want to help, too," said Lila.

"You can't do this!" exclaimed Luke. "It's too dangerous!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Then how come you're doing it?"

Luke said nothing. Lila smirked. "You just don't want me to fight because I'm a girl."

Silence. Lila sighed. "If I haven't made it clear many times before, I happen to be much more competent in battle than you are."

Somebody laughed. Lila looked around to find that everybody currently in the hangar was listening to the argument. "What, you don't believe me?"

"Well . . . no, not really," came a voice from the back. Lila sighed again, pulled out her blaster, and shouted, "Somebody pick a target. The farther the better."

Somebody in the front pointed to a small metal box way down at the far end of the hangar. "Is that too far for you?"

Lila closed her eyes and fired. Luke gasped. Lila opened her eyes and looked.

The box lay on the ground in a smoking heap.

"Happy?" asked Lila sarcastically. "Now, if someone would please show me where to sign up."

Thirty minutes later, Lila found herself in a small room stuffed with Rebels who were going to fight the Death Star. Commander Willard plugged R2 into an outlet, And someone whom Lila was told was named Dodonna explained their strategy.

"The battle station is heavily shielded and carries a firepower greater than half the star fleet. It's defenses are designed around a direct large-scale assault. A small one-man fighter should be able to penetrate the outer defense."

The Gold attack group Leader stood. "pardon me for asking, but what good are snub fighters against that?"

"Well, the Empire doesn't consider a small, one-man fighter to be a threat, or they'd have a tighter defense. An analysis of the plans provided by Princess Leia has shown a weakness in the battle station." Artoo beeped quietly.

"The approach will be difficult. You will maneuver straight down this trench and skim the surface until you reach this point. The target is a small thermal exhaust point about two meters wide. The shaft leads to the reactor system. A direct hit will start a chain reaction which should destroy the system. The shaft is ray-shielded, so you'll have to use proton torpedoes."

"That's impossible, even for a computer," said Wedge Antilles.

"Use your eyes, then," retorted Lila.

"Man your ships! And may the Force be with you!" said Dodonna.

"Hey, only Jedi are allowed to say that!" grumbled Lila as the masses departed. On her way to the hangar, Luke made a last-ditch attempt to dissuade her. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Give it up, farmboy. I'm going."

Following everybody else, they ran into Han packing his reward. He was also doing a very good job of deliberately ignoring the activity around him. "So you got your reward and you're just leaving then?" asked Luke.

"Yes. You didn't think I'd be crazy enough to stay? Attacking that thing is not my idea of courage. Its more like . . . suicide." He turned to Lila. "Anyway, why aren't you coming? You have a score to settle with Jabba, too."

"For your information, my feud with Jabba is not one of those 'dead or alive' things. He wants me dead. He doesn't want some large amount of money to satisfy him, he wants my head. And just so you know" she poked him in the chest "Jabba is not likely to come looking into political affairs to find me. Here, I am as safe as I am ever going to be." Seeing that he was not going to change his mind, she shrugged and went to examine her X-wing.

Leia appeared out of nowhere. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, its Han. I guess I really thought he'd change his mind," said Luke.

"He has to follow his own path. No one else can choose it for him."

"Yeah," called Lila, "but it looks like his path is pretty much picked out." An officer approached her. "Kenobi, are you sure you can handle this ship?"

"Duh. Can you leave so I can get ready?"

An astrodroid was being placed on the wing of her X-wing. "This is R3," said the young Rebel installing it. "It'll be your astrodroid."

"Hello, R3." As Lila got into her ship, she heard the voice of Obi-Wan saying Lila, let the Force guide you. "I will," she said. "I will."

She fired up her engines. All around the hangar X-wings were taking off to fight the Empire. Lila followed them.

The voice of Red Leader came over the comlink. "All wings report in."

"Red Ten, standing by."

"Red Seven, standing by."

"Red Three, standing by."

"Red Six, standing by."

"Red Nine, standing by."

"Red Two, standing by."

"Red Five, standing by."

"Red Four, standing by." That was Lila.

"Lock S-foils in attack position." The wings of every ship unfolded to form the X for which they were named. "We're passing through the magnetic field, hold on!"

The Death Star loomed over them. Red Two, a man named Wedge, gasped. "Look at the size of that thing!"

Red Leader reprimanded him. "Cut the chatter, Red Two. Accelerate to attack speed!"

Green laser beams suddenly poured out of the Death Star. Luke angled his ship down toward the surface. "This is Red Five, I'm going in." Lila immediately followed him. "Red Four, right behind you."

"What?"

"I can't let you have all the fun!"

Yeah . . . I'm sorry if the dialogue was a bit screwy, my internet was down and I had to run to the TV in the other room every two seconds.

Cowgirl4Christ: Thanks. I wasn't sure people would like it. And I don't want to die!

SwimAngel: good enough?

Hailey Elizabeth: well, the window of opportunity has closed for this movie, but I have a little something planned for the next one . . .

WWMTgirl: didn't you read the note? I said she WASN'T going to the Dark Side, but this is what would happen if she DID.

I estimate around two more chapters, then we will have reached the end!

Oh my god, school starts . . . holy crap . . . the day after tomorrow! And we still don't know who our Latin teacher is, since Magistra Gold's husband got transferred to D.C. As of late July, when our supply list got out, we still don't have one. We probably do by now.