Hello! Three exams down, five to go. :P

This week's shout-outs go to: Nyce, Taboo22, ArtistsChild93, sarahmichellegellarfan1 and Katyperry22. Thanks for reviewing all. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or any of its characters. Only Alice is mine.


The next morning (rough approximation of morning – it really was hard to tell with no sun or moon), Alice, Leia and Luke said their goodbyes to Lando and Chewie, who were taking the Falcon to Tatooine.

"Luke?" Lando's voice came over the comlink that Luke currently held, "We're ready for take-off."

"Good luck, Lando," Luke said, from where he lay on his bed. Leia was at his side, and Alice was loitering by the window, staring broodingly out into the darkness of space.

"We'll contact you as soon as there's news."

"And we'll meet you on Tatooine."

"Princess?" Alice glanced over her shoulder to see Leia look up and half-smiled at the sound of her title, even though Lando couldn't see her, "We'll find Han. And Alice?"

She could feel their eyes on her, and so reluctantly she turned and raised her voice, "Yes, my moustachioed friend?"

Lando chuckled, and he said, "Take care of yourself, my dear."

"Obviously. You too."

Leia met Alice's gaze as Luke bid a final farewell to their two friends, "I'll be waiting for your signal, Chewie. Take care, you two."

"No fighting," Alice called, reflexively. There was a crackle of laughter and a roar from Chewie over the speaker.

"And may the Force be with you," Luke said, smiling to himself. Alice bit her lip, and turned to face the window again, disheartened as they all split up once again. Not that she didn't love Leia and Luke just as much as Lando and Chewie, but…well, the latter two were generally a lot easier to be around, even if one of them had a penchant for capes and the other was unintelligible.

Leia came over to join her, and murmured quietly, "We'll hear from them soon."

"Yeah," Alice replied, "I know."

Behind them, Luke let out a hiss as his new cybernetic hand was locked into place on his wrist. The new limb was astonishingly life-like – if Alice hadn't seen the stump of where Luke's original hand had been, she almost couldn't have believed that this was a replacement. A moment later, he got up and moved towards them. Alice glanced at Leia, who got the message. "I've got to speak with the Admiral," she said quietly, "I'll see you two later."

Luke nodded at her, and Alice shot her a grateful look. Leia raised her eyebrows meaningfully and left.

Right. It's just you and me.

Luke came to a halt by her side, his expression surprisingly peaceful. She cringed at the thought of having to destroy that serenity…but she simply couldn't go on lying to him, unless she planned on driving herself mad.

"Luke," she said, the word coming out faintly from her still-healing throat.

He looked at her, the corner of his mouth curled up in a faint smile, "Yes?"

Alice opened her mouth, hesitated then said, weakly, "How's the hand?"

"…Strange," he said, curling and uncurling his fist and studying the movement carefully, "but I think I'll get used to it. Alice…I was thinking…well, I wanted to say-"

He sounded soft, and shy, and the affection in his face was completely unbearable. She turned away from him sharply, staring out into space.

"Alice? Are you alright?" He was frowning now, clearly worried about her, or embarrassed, or both.

"I need to tell you something," she said, still refusing to look at him.

He waited. She could feel his eyes fixed anxiously on her face.

She swallowed, and said, slowly, "What you told me…on the Falcon the other night…" She noticed his expression beginning to change to one of puzzlement, but she simply ploughed on, knowing that if she stopped and looked at him she would chicken out, "I…knew. About…Vader, and your…family connection. Before you told me."

Silence.

Oh god, oh god, oh god…

"I'm really, really sorry," she said, humbly, still not daring to meet his eye, "I wanted to tell you, but Ben…" she winced, hating herself a little for making the excuse, but said it anyway, "Ben made me promise not to."

There was a long pause. In it, Luke's anger was an almost tangible thing: to Alice, the sensation was like being suddenly set adrift on a storm-swept sea, the pounding waves interspersed with lightning flashes of his disbelief and hurt.

When he spoke though, his voice was painfully flat, "You knew? How?"

She fidgeted, feeling his gaze boring into the top of her head, "Ben…told me."

"You didn't say anything."

"It wasn't my place to tell you-"

"I would have rather found out from you than Vader," he said, evenly.

Alice shuffled, wishing she could disappear into the floor, "I'm sorry, Luke, I just thought-"

"I thought I could trust you."

She jerked her head up to look at him, disbelieving. His expression was dull, his face pale, but he looked at her unflinchingly.

Please, stop looking at me like that.

"Of course you can trust me! I just…I promised Ben I wouldn't tell you."

"He made you promise," he repeated, eyebrows raised, "he wanted to keep it from me that badly?"

Alice gazed at him hopelessly, at a loss for anything to say, "Luke…I think he thought that if he told you, you would put yourself in danger trying to get to Vader. Or…" Or not come with him, ruining his plan to shape you into a weapon for the Rebel Alliance, the only hope against the Empire? Perhaps not the best suggestion. "Or something like that," she continued lamely, "and I'm sure he would have told you eventually. Maybe he was just waiting until you were ready, but he died before-"

Luke turned away, his eyes searching the stars beyond the glass as if the answers might be written there. "Thank you, Alice," he said, quietly but effectively cutting her off as she scrambled to explain herself, "for telling me."

So…that's it.

"Of course," she said, "no problem. I'll…go, shall I?"

He didn't answer, merely gazed silently into space, his expression distant.

"Luke…" She was tearing up, the lump in her still-tender throat making speech nearly impossible, but she forced the words out anyway, "I'm sorry."

She saw his shoulders tighten. He was drawing away from her, shutting her out. And somehow, that hurt far more than if he'd shouted at her. Turning on her heel, she practically fell through the door in her hurry to get away, not stopping until she was back in the small bedroom that had been assigned to her with the door locked behind her.

Well, fuck.


Time, Alice observed, flew quickly in space. She attributed this mainly to the fact that on a Rebel Alliance Starship, the work never seemed to stop. There was no slowing down that suggested it might be time to head to bed; as soon as one shift of workers left to sleep, another one took over. In this way, a month, then two, then three flew by since Lando and Chewie had left for Tatooine, and if she had the odd dream about Darth Vader once or twice a night, if she jumped at sudden sounds, especially in dark hallways, well, that was just the way her life was now.

She spent most of her time with Leia, who gave her jobs to do when she could and patiently bore Alice's chatter when she couldn't. Luke came and went – he'd been promoted again, this time to General Skywalker, and that apparently kept him fairly busy. Alice wasn't quite sure where the two of them stood, in terms of their formerly close, now tenuous relationship. More than once she'd seen him walking past, and had opened her mouth to call a greeting, only for her courage to fail her at the last minute. Story of my life.

The last time she'd seen him was about two weeks ago, just before he left to run missions with a small detachment of fighters at Leia's command. She'd just been skipping innocently off, presumably to bother Leia (she couldn't really remember), when she'd spotted him talking with a few pilots, all of them dressed in their orange flight suits. She recognised the pilots – they were all members of Luke's precious Rogue squadron, of whom she would be the last to admit she was irrationally jealous.

Luke's leaving again, and I still haven't spoken to him. It's literally been months. The thought was just desperate enough for her to pluck up her courage and call, "Luke?"

He and the three pilots he was chatting with turned to face her; Luke's expression was grim, but the others gave each other meaningful grins. One of them even went so far as to elbow another in the side.

"We'll see you on the landing deck, sir," the elbower said, nodding at her companions.

"Alright," Luke said, distractedly, his eyes fixed searchingly on Alice's face, as if trying to decide how he should behave towards her.

Feeling self-conscious, she took a small step forward, and said, "You're going away again?"

"Yes," he said, glancing down at his flight suit as if surprised to find himself wearing it, "reconnaissance mission."

What does one say to that? "Cool," said Alice, weakly. She fidgeted, then said, "Listen…"

"I should really get going," he interrupted, refusing to meet her gaze, "I'm leading the mission after all. Goodbye, Alice." And with that abrupt farewell, he'd simply departed, leaving her on her own in an empty corridor. Suffice to say she'd gone away from that particular encounter feeling more than a little disheartened.

The only other occasion of interest in her months-long stint on a starship was, as it happened, Alice's twentieth birthday. This took place, she guessed, about a week after Luke had left - it was very difficult to ascertain this, since if she asked what day or month it was, she just got odd looks. But, working from the last day she'd been at home before she woke up in the desert on Tatooine and counting through the number of days she'd been here (with some help from Artoo and Threepio), she figured that at some point in the last few days, she'd turned twenty.

There hadn't been anyone really around to celebrate with her; Luke was gone, of course. Leia was particularly busy, managing some incoming information from spies in the Inner Rim, and it seemed that none of Alice's friends from Hoth had made it onto this particular starship. The 'party' therefore went something like this: "Hey, Threepio, Artoo, it's my birthday!"

"Oh, Mistress Alice, congratulations!"

"Beeeep-de-beep beep."

Which was cool.

Leia had been very nice when Alice told her that evening though; as a hastily improvised present and with the blessing of General Rieekan, she'd promoted her to the rank of Lieutenant Miller. Which frankly was just a little bit weird. Then again, being a lieutenant by the age of twenty wasn't bad…and on the upside, she was suddenly given a number of new duties, which gave her something to do to pass the time at least.

One of these jobs, and Alice's favourite, was helping to maintain records of where the Rebel ships were, any major battles, missions or rescues. A reader unfamiliar with Alice's backstory might find this a bit strange, but the ones who can remember all the way back to chapter one will recall that she had a penchant for facts, figures and other similar types of hard, easily sortable data.

If this war ever ends and we don't die, I'll probably just become an archivist, because this is surprisingly fun, she thought as she sat in a swivel chair in a quiet corner of the bridge, typing away at her own little computer screen. Every now and then, a message would pop up in the corner of her screen with new information for her to input. She'd been working solidly for about an hour or so when she suddenly felt her comlink vibrate in her pocket. Surprised, but pleased, she withdrew the object in question and pressing the communicator button, said in a self-important tone, "Lieutenant Miller, archivist and historian speaking, how may I help you?"

"Alice?"

She jolted upright, her eyes darting around frantically. It was Luke. Why is he calling me? Is he coming back? Why isn't he talking to Leia?

"…Um…Luke?"

"Yes." He sounded brisk, and far less awkward than she did. Alice swivelled uncomfortably in her chair, confused and embarrassed. "Listen, I can't get through to Leia. I assume she's busy. Tell her I'm on my way back to rejoin the fleet – Lando contacted me a few hours ago. He's got information about Han."

Alice perked up at once, "Really? Awesome! I'll tell her now." She paused, "Hey, Luke-"

"I'm sorry, I can't talk now. Goodbye, Alice."

And with that, he disconnected the call. Alice stared at the lump of plastic in her hand in disbelief, "Did he just hang up on me?" Shoving the comlink back into her pocket, she sulked for a moment, then got to her feet and went to find Leia.

"Leia!"

The princess looked up from the undoubtedly very important piece of work she was doing, "Yes, Alice, what is it?"

"Luke's coming back. Lando talked to him earlier. Operation rescue Han is…well, presumably it's on, but I'm not really sure…"

Leia's expression brightened instantly, "Excellent. Did he say when he'd be getting here?"

"Nope," Alice said, drily, "General Skywalker was not in a hurry to prolong the conversation, suffice it to say."

Leia shook her head and turned back to her work, "You two have got to settle this fight, whatever it is. It's childish, and beneath you both. Not to mention you obviously have feelings for each other."

"Ha ha. Hilarious. Not."

"She's right, you know," said General Rieekan from beside Leia.

Alice stared at him, utterly perplexed as to he, of all people, would be commenting on the state of her relationship with Luke. "Leia…did he just- why?"

"Honestly, Alice," Leia said, taking a file from an orderly, skimming it and setting it aside, "you can't be under the impression that no one else had noticed the way you two are together?"

Alice blinked, "Um, yes, yes I can. …Sorry, what do you mean 'the way we are together'?"

Leia glanced up at her and shook her head, "Obviously, you haven't been talking to the right people."

Alice threw her hands out in a gesture of perplexed surrender. "…I am trying to speak, but there are no words."

She turned to sweep out dramatically (and then creep back to her filing), but Leia, without looking up, said, "Ah-ah-ah. You are not sneaking off and avoiding Luke. We're all going to talk to Lando and Chewie together."

Alice groaned and sank into a chair, wishing she was still young enough to throw a tantrum, and muttered, "You're the worst friend ever, Leia!"

"Alice, shush."

"Un-bloody-believable…"

Swinging backwards and forwards, Alice watched with an indignant pout (as a sign of protest) while Leia went back to work, apparently invulnerable to the silent glare being aimed at her back.

Urgh, hurry up, Luke, so we can get this over with. Actually…don't hurry up, I'm not ready to see you again. I wonder what he's been up to all this time… She considered asking Leia, but shied away at the last minute, well aware that Leia would just tell her to ask Luke herself.

Letting out a harsh sigh, she spun her chair in a circle and came face to face with Luke Skywalker himself. Pilot, Jedi, hero. Attractive human being.

Alice dropped her gaze to the floor instantly, a hot blush flaming across her cheeks. Clearing her throat, she called over to Leia, "Your Highness."

Leia looked up, smiling, "Luke."

"Leia, it's good to see you." They hugged, and Alice stayed awkwardly where she was.

"How are you two?" Luke said, to Alice's shock, including her in the question.

"We're fine," Leia said, glancing at Alice and lifting one eyebrow slightly, "right, Alice?"

I hate you. Very, very tentatively, Alice looked up to meet Luke's eyes. Oh my god…he's had a haircut. It's…dear lord, it's a bowl cut. Must…resist…urge…to ruffle!

"Alice?"

"What? Yeah," she said, her voice coming out oddly strangled, "fine. Great. We've been having a bowl- I mean, ball. We've been having a ball. Ha ha ha…"

Stop staring at his head!

"Good," Luke said, sounding ridiculously uninterested.

If you don't care, why did you bother to ask? Alice thought mutinously.

"Leia, Alice told you why I've returned?"

"Yes," Leia said, her smile dropping away slightly, "What did Lando say?"

Luke reached out and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "He's got a lot to tell us, but he thinks a breakout could be done."

"Really?" Leia snatched his hand and held tight, her eyes sparkling, "That's wonderful!"

Alice sat up, clutching the arms of the chair, "We're going to rescue Han?"

"Yes," Luke said, not looking at her, "but first Lando wants to discuss what's been going on. I said I'd contact him when we got here."

"Alright," Leia straightened up, "follow me."

She led them away from the large communications room she'd been working in and up to the top of the ship. Leia had been given one of the senior officer's cabins, while Alice slept a couple of floors down with the other junior officers. You would have hardly guessed, looking at Leia as a person, that her room would be messy, especially since she seemed to spend so little time there. But it was.

"Well," Alice said, looking around at the piles of clothes which even now an anxious Threepio was attempting to gather up, "you continue to surprise, Leia."

"Excuse the mess," Leia said breezily, disappearing into the depths of her gargantuan room.

"Master Luke! It is wonderful to see you. May I inquire as to the success of your mission?"

"Hey, Threepio. Everything went to plan. More or less."

Alice couldn't help noticing that Luke's voice was far warmer greeting the droid than he had been to her. I'm not bitter. Nope. Not one bit.

Leia came back with a small portable holo communicator. She placed it on a table in the centre of the room and turned it on. "I'll see if I can get a hold of him…"

The light above the table shimmered, then slowly solidified into an image of Lando, sitting in the main cabin of the Falcon with Chewie at his side.

"Lando!"

"Alice, Leia," he said, smiling at them, "it's good to see you."

"And you," Alice said cheerfully, jumping up and leaning over the table, "I can't tell you how boring it's been without you, dear."

"What did you expect?" He said, with a wink and an accompanying roar from Chewie.

Leia, impatient, interrupted them before Alice could reply, saying, "Lando, are you on Tatooine?"

"Yeah," he said, his smile fading, "I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that I've seen Han. He's still in hibernation, still alive. The bad news is that we were right about what Jabba's done with him – he's being kept in Jabba's palace as a decoration."

Leia clenched her fists, "We've got to get him out of there."

"Hey," said Alice, slightly alarmed, "it's okay, we're going to."

"I got myself a job as one of Jabba's guards," Lando went on, "so I've been able to get a pretty good look at the place. Security's pretty tight; tighter than Cloud City, if you can believe it."

Alice bit her lip, thinking of the two jets that had nearly shot them out of the sky when they first arrived on Bespin, "Uh oh…"

"Yeah," Lando said grimly, "getting in is going to be just as difficult as getting out."

"Any ideas?" Alice asked, anxiously.

"A few, but the most important thing is that I'll need an extra pair of hands. Han will be weak after months in hibernation, he'll need help walking, and Chewie can't get near the palace at all unless we're desperate – the old slug hates Han's first mate almost as much as the man himself. So it'll have to be one of you."

Chewie growled low in his throat, as if in agreement.

Leia hummed thoughtfully, "How would we get inside?"

"There are two ways to get you inside that would work. Remember what I said back before Chewie and I left? Jabba's always on the lookout for two things: new bounty hunters and new slave girls. If one of you were disguised as one of those two things, it would give you a perfect reason to get inside, and once you're in, the freedom to move around. Even the slaves work in shifts, so there would be opportunities to get away and get Han out."

Luke and Leia looked at each other, their heads turning in such perfect synchronisation that Alice couldn't believe that no one else had figured out that they were twins. They didn't speak, but they seemed to be communicating regardless, trying to decide which of them would go to help Lando.

Alice didn't know what motivated her, whether it was genuinely a desire to help Han, or maybe a rather more petty desire to impress Luke, but either way, she spoke up, "I'll do it."

If the latter had been her intention, it didn't work out the way she planned. Luke broke character so violently it almost gave her whiplash, snapping round to face her, "What?"

"Alice," Leia hurried to speak, casting a disapproving look at her brother, "it's dangerous. If you were discovered-"

"Even if you're not, Jabba the Hutt could kill you just because you were too slow carrying out an order," Luke said, his blue eyes fierce, "I grew up on Tatooine, Alice, you don't understand what it's like."

Alice drew herself up and held his gaze, "Then I guess I'll just have to be the best slave ever, right?" To herself, she thought: That's a risk you're fine with Leia taking, but not me? She wondered whether she should be insulted or flattered.

There was a pause, then Leia tried again, going for a persuasive approach, "Alice, we all understand that you want to help, but I think that Luke and I would be-"

Alice surprised herself by interrupting Leia, something she didn't think she would ever have dared to do, "Leia, come on. Think about it: if anyone's going to risk their life on this unsanctioned, personal mission, it should be me. I'm nobody. You two, on the other hand are the-" Alice bit her tongue, realising how close she'd been to calling them 'the Skywalker twins', "the best hope these people have, not only to win the war but to rebuild their lives afterwards. Losing either of you would be devastating to the cause and the people fighting for it. I, on the other hand, am very much expendable."

The simplicity of her statement shocked them into silence, and she folded her arms, "If the Alliance council were here they'd totally agree with me. Plus, if either of you two went in, would you really want me to be your backup? It makes much more sense for you two, masterminds that you are, to stay on the outside where you can actually help if things go wrong. So I, you know, don't get killed by a murderous slaver?"

"And what if we can't get to you in time?" Luke asked, "What if you get hurt?"

His voice was dangerously quiet, but Alice felt strangely cavalier about damaging his feelings considering that two minutes ago she'd been tiptoeing around him as though he were a strange and unpredictable wild animal of some kind.

Huh, is this what recklessness feels like? Who knew?

"I'm willing to take the risk. So, are we all agreed?"

She was met with mutinous silence. She could see Leia trying to come up with an argument and felt a slightly guilty glow of satisfaction when she obviously couldn't.

"Great," she said, clapping her hands together.

"Alright then," Lando said, sounding as though he would rather talk about anything than what just happened, "Alice, we can disguise you as a slave girl, then. And Luke and Leia can be on standby if anything goes wrong, and to organise our getaway once we have Han. Believe me, if we pull this off, none of us will ever be able to set foot on Tatooine again."

"Sounds like a decent plan," Alice said, vaguely proud, "that's a first." Leia gave her a sardonic look and she hastened to add, "Apart from your excellent battle strategies, Leia."

"Excellent," Lando said, "well, the sooner we get started the better. How about you all come out here to Tatooine and we'll take discussions further from there?"

"Sounds marvellous," Alice said, smiling brightly.

"We'll leave straight away," Leia clarified, rolling her eyes at Alice. Lando nodded, Chewie moaned, and they flickered out of sight.

Alice groaned, reverting to her normal self now that the strategy planning was over, "We're leaving now? But Leia-"

Leia turned to Alice, and gave her a stern, motherly look, "You can sleep on the way, Alice. Now, come on, we've got to get ready to leave – oh, and Luke, fetch Artoo and Threepio, would you?"

Alice raised an eyebrow, "Oh, Threepio will love this."

Luke didn't look amused, and opened his mouth to speak, but Leia cut him off, saying briskly, "Don't worry, Luke. He can complain all he likes; he's coming anyway."

Alice laughed, ignoring Luke's disgruntled expression for the time being. Leia, I like your style.


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