Hey guys, sorry there's been such a long delay with this chapter, life has been, as always, hectic. I'm back at school after Easter for my third and final term this year, and it's freaking me out a little bit. Exams are so close. :/ But I thought it would be nice to post this chapter before I go away on study leave and things get really crazy, so here it is. :)

This week's shout-outs go to the following: Mistyx7, SocietyMember, ArtistsChild93, SCE2AUX, E-man-dy-S, ScarletSecrets1234, sarahmichellegellarfan1, randomreader WITH a profile, Miriel Tolkien, Emonster94, Beatlefan110, peygoodwin, TiraLau, j, guccileopard, Guest, God Is Wearing Black. Thanks so much for your reviews, I really enjoy reading all your messages. :)

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


Alice stumbled as Han dragged her behind him, his blaster up and at the ready. Probably going to be a rabbit or something-

A familiar figure jogged into the clearing, Or Luke. Well, what do you know.

Shaking off the numbness in her legs (and bum, deal with it), Alice pushed her way through the slow-moving lines of soldiers, her hands finding their way to Luke's face apparently of their own volition, holding him still as she looked him up and down, "Are you okay? What happened?" He was a little out of breath, but otherwise seemed fine.

"Where's Leia?" Han demanded brusquely, appearing directly behind her.

"What, she didn't come back?" Luke asked, distractedly but gently removing Alice's hands from his face. Her heart dipped a little in embarrassment and disappointment, only to leap again as he met her eyes for a second and gave her hand a little squeeze before letting go.

Han narrowed his eyes, "I thought she was with you."

The three of them were very close to each other now, and in his anxiety, Han was looming over Alice and Luke in a way that was almost alarming.

"We got separated," Luke said, his own voice rising a little in his agitation.

In the background, Chewie whined, low and soft.

Alice put a hand on Han's chest, pressing him back gently, "Han, it's okay. We'll find her."

He took a deep breath, then gave one sharp nod and pointed to the nearest soldier, "Lead the strike team up ahead, we'll meet you at the shield generator."

"You're with us, Artoo," Luke said to the little droid, "we'll need your scanner."

"It'll be alright," Alice said, as she Han, Luke and Chewie set off, "we're experts at looking for missing members of the team by now. In fact, I'm the only one that hasn't got lost at some point. Which now I think about it, is an absolute, bloody miracle."

They trailed through the woods in dribs and drabs: Han, Luke and Chewie at the front, then Threepio, then Alice and Artoo at the back.

They'd been walking for about half an hour when Alice heard a mournful whistle from just behind her and she turned to see Artoo struggling to roll through a thick patch of weeds.

"Oh, buddy. Here, let me help." Hurrying back to him, she bent to untangle the plants from his tire treads – not noticing as the other four, who hadn't realised she'd stopped, trooped on away without them.

As she plucked at the surprisingly resilient vines, Alice caught sight of a small bundle of rope twisted in amongst the stems.

"Huh."

Curious, she reached out and tugged. In hindsight, it wasn't the best idea. Immediately, ropes sprang up around them, and suddenly, both Alice and Artoo were wrenched off the ground and into the air.

Alice stared at the leafy ground which was currently at least six feet beneath them, and then at Artoo, "Well, crap."

It took a moment to sink in, but as soon as Alice caught the full implications of being stuck in a net (nets = some kind of trap = being some kind of prisoner or worse), she started screaming at the top of her lungs. "Luke! Han! HELP! I wandered off and now I'm seriously regretting it!"

Artoo added his fierce whistle to her shouts, and even played a blaring klaxon sound from a small set of speakers that came out of his dome, but to no avail. Either the others had gone so far they couldn't hear them or they were also in some kind of trouble and therefore couldn't help. Purely based on her past experience, Alice was willing to bet on the latter. Especially as two minutes later, there came a loud chittering noise from beneath them, indicating the possible presence of their captors.

Alice gulped and glanced down between the netting, bracing herself for something awful.

A group of strange little fluffy things were pointing up at them and chattering amongst themselves. Alice raised an eyebrow at Artoo, "Well, they don't look very scary-"

Her words trailed off into a shriek as the net suddenly sagged, then dropped to the floor, sending Artoo and Alice along with it. Unfortunately, unlike the last time Alice had fallen from somewhere high up to the floor, she wasn't lucky enough to land on something soft like a storm trooper. The forest floor was very hard under the layer of mulch, and she wheezed as she had the breath knocked out of her a second time. "Oof!"

Alice lay on her back, looking up at the ceiling, when suddenly a small furry face appeared in her line of vision. She stared at it, one eyebrow raised, and managed to say, "Can I help you?"

The creature let out a little startled shriek and skittered out of sight.

Nicely handled.

Groaning, Alice sat up slowly, pressing a hand to her sore back.

She heard some vague anxious twitterings around her, and looking up, found herself surrounded by a whole group of the little furry things, which on closer inspection, looked like nothing so much as a bunch of teddy bears come to life. They would probably even be cute, if they weren't all holding little toothpick-like spears and pointing them in her direction. She glanced at Artoo, who whistled quietly, then raised her hands, "Take it easy, little…guys. I'm not going to hurt you. Look." She held out her hands towards them, showing them they were empty, "Just relax, hmm?"

They skittered back slightly as she held her hands out, then one of them bravely poked her palm with the point of its spear, darting back as if expecting Alice to grab the stick and jerk it away from him. Alice stayed carefully still and waited.

Apparently all plucking up their courage at once, they gathered around her in a little huddle and pushed and pulled her to her feet. Alice got up slowly, careful to watch where she put her feet. She didn't want to step on one of the little things. They seemed to discuss amongst themselves for a moment or two, then one of them poked Alice in the back of the legs, clearly indicating that she should walk forwards. Um…

She glanced over her shoulder, back in the direction that she'd come from. She had no idea where Han and Luke were. She still didn't know where Leia was. And she was currently being abducted by baby bears.

If you go out in the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise…I'll say.

She looked down at Artoo, who beeped encouragingly.

The creature poked her legs again and grumbled insistently. Without knowing what else to do, and not really wanting to be speared in the back of the legs, Alice started walking.

As they hurried through the forest, it was a struggle not to overtake her little captors, who were so rotund that they might as well have rolled as walked. Well, they're certainly the cutest things I've ever been kidnapped by, she thought, hopping over a log.

One of the little bears growled, and suddenly changed direction, heading for what Alice first thought was a half-collapsed tree. Then she saw that it was actually a cleverly disguised ramp, leading up and up into the trees. Huh, she thought, as they hustled her up it, where is this going, anyway?

A moment later, she reached the top, and she saw where it was going. An entire village of little houses was suspended about thirty feet off the ground among the tree tops, with platforms and rope bridges leading from house to house. Alice nearly died with delight. I have always wanted to live in a tree house town! This is too cool!

On one of the large platforms, she could see a whole bundle of little fluffy creatures gathered around something, and as a shaft of sunlight fell through the trees, she caught a glimpse of something gold. She frowned, peering frantically at the object as they wended their way closer. No way. That couldn't possibly be-

"Threepio? What the hell…?"

The grumpy protocol droid was sitting on a small throne fashioned from leaves and branches, surrounded by a multitude of teddies. There was a crown on his head and a sceptre in his hand.

"You've got to be joking," Alice said, shaking her head. She glanced to her right, and located, to her horror, Han and Luke, who were currently dangling over a fire pit. "Oh, come on!"

"Alice!" Han called, spotting her. This caused an outburst of twittering as all the little teddy bears turned to face Alice. The bears who had brought her gave a quick explanation and she and Artoo were hastily shunted off to stand in a corner.

"Hi, guys," she said, waving, "doing alright?"

"Not particularly, no," said Han, grumpily, "what happened to you, anyway?"

"I…wandered off. I regretted it. Why are you trussed up like chickens?"

"They're cooking us," Luke explained, craning his neck to see her properly, "we're part of a feast in Threepio's honour."

Chewie, who was tied to a post nearby, roared unhappily.

Alice snorted, "What a rubbish reason to die."

"You're telling us," said Han.

Somewhere in the midst of the crowd of furry midgets, there was a large amount of rustling. Alice turned, her mouth falling open as Leia emerged from one of the little huts. She had a dress on, a dress she had definitely not been wearing the last time they'd all seen her.

"Leia!"

"Leia?" Luke said, sounding surprised.

"Leia!" Han said, sounding eager.

"Your Royal Highness," Threepio called from his throne.

"They made you a dress?" Alice called, her eyes narrowed, "How do they know how to make a dress for an average sized human woman? Do they run a dress-making business here? …Why don't I get a dress?"

Ignoring her, Leia took half a step forward, but was stopped by a mass of unfriendly baby bears. She stared around at them in exasperation, "But these are my friends." She glanced over at Threepio, sitting in his little chair, "Threepio, tell them, they must be set free!"

Threepio glanced around, somewhat helplessly, and spoke to the larger than average and rather imposing looking teddy bear beside him, gesturing as he spoke. The creature shook his head in reply and gestured for his tiny minions to continue piling firewood beneath each of Alice's friends.

"Somehow I get the feeling that that didn't help us very much," Han spat.

"Threepio," Luke said, quickly, "tell them that if they don't do as you wish, you'll get angry, and use your magic."

"Say what?" Alice said, raising an eyebrow.

"But, Master Luke, what magic? I couldn't possibly-"

"Just tell them," Luke insisted.

Threepio fretted for a moment longer, then raised his voice, addressing the whole tribe of little furry things. He was clearly trying to be threatening, which to Alice's mind, was just about the funniest thing she'd ever seen him attempt. It also had absolutely no effect on the teddy bears, who far from releasing Luke, Han and Chewie, started carrying flaming torches over to set their pyres alight.

"You see Master Luke?" Threepio cried, distressed, "They didn't listen to me, just as I said they wouldn't!"

Alice and Leia exchanged panicked glances. Behind her, Alice could hear Han attempting to talk his way out of being cooked and eaten, an approach that she suspected wouldn't do anything for him this time.

Luckily for them all, Luke was on standby with a little Jedi magic. Alice heard a cry of alarm and whipped around to see Threepio rising from the ground, chair and all, and floating out over the heads of the furry creatures. This was much more effective: they screamed, and ducked for cover, and fell prostrate on the floor, apparently worried that Threepio would fall on them, or something similarly terrible. Alice narrowed her eyes and glanced over at Luke; his eyes were firmly shut, and there was an expression of serene concentration on his face.

He's using the Force. Oh…that clever boy.

She was starting to worry about how long Luke would be able to hold Threepio aloft – but a moment later the teddy bears, still freaking out, rushed over and started untying the three musketeers at once. Alice breathed a sigh of relief as the creatures around her lowered their spears and Threepio slowly floated back to his former position.

Han jumped to his feet and rushed over to Leia, and they did a cute little reunion, combining a hug, a kiss and a twirl into one smooth embrace.

Alice pushed her way carefully through the crowd of baby bears until she reached Luke, who was still untangling himself from their ropes. She helped him get rid of the last of his bindings, then pulled him upright.

"You okay?" She said, feeling rather breathless all of a sudden, probably because he'd just saved them and he was brilliant and he looked wonderful, even in the ugly camouflage poncho Leia had made him wear…

"Fine."

She smiled, and gathering her courage, pressed a quick kiss to his cheek, "Good one, using the Force just now. That was quick thinking."

"Thanks," he said, grinning down at her, "I'm glad you're alright."

"Me?" Alice said, dismissively, "I'm always alright."

His eyebrows quirked a little as he recognised her words, and his smile softened slightly, in a way that made her face suddenly go hot and her legs turn to jelly and her heart start dancing an Irish reel. Very gently, Luke stretched out his black-gloved hand and pressed it to her cheek, his thumb brushing softly against the baby hairs that curled just next to her ear.

Alice stared at him as she took a stumbling step closer, her eyes as wide as the proverbial dinner plate. …Okay. If you kiss me now, I promise, it will be a lot better than the first time…

And for a heart-stopping second, she thought he was going to. He was looking at her with those big blue eyes, and he started to lean forward towards her, and she stood up on tip-toe, and it was nearly the most perfect moment in her life…

"Hey, lovebirds," Han called, good humour apparently completely restored now that he was no longer in danger of dying, "get over here."

Alice closed her eyes. Damn it, Han.

Luke cleared his throat, and when she looked at him, his cheeks were a little flushed, "Uh…shall we?"

"Yup," she said, forcing a smile for him.

Obviously completely aware of the wonderful, wonderful moment he had just ruined – he grinned when Alice discreetly punched him in the arm – Han hugged Alice and Luke hugged Leia, then they all gathered round in a loose circle, and did a group hug. All around them, the fluffy bears were cheeping and chirruping to one another, pointing at the big people and gambolling around like lambs. Alice glanced down to where a particularly tiny teddy, perhaps a baby, was attempting to climb up Chewie's leg, "All sweetness and light now, aren't they."

"I think I liked them better when they were poking me with sticks," Han said, trying to shake off one of the little creatures, who was clinging resiliently to his arm.

"Do we actually know what they are?" Alice said, glancing around at the group.

"Ewoks," Leia answered, her arm linked firmly around Han's waist, "they're one of the indigenous species here on Endor."

"Huh," said Alice, patting the closest ewok on the head, "cute." She hadn't noticed it while she thought that her friends might die, but the light was fading fast – around them, teddy bears were lighting torches to fend off the gloom.

One of the ewoks, the one that had been standing at Threepio's side, and who came up to about waist height on Han, ambled over to them, and began beckoning for them to follow him.

"Uh, shall we…?"

Leia shrugged, "I guess so."

Together they ducked inside of the largest hut, accompanied by what seemed like the entire tribe of little bears.

BREAK

In a stunning turn of events, instead of being eaten at a banquet, the members of Team Rebellion were served a banquet, made up entirely of strange but delicious food prepared by their fuzzy hosts.

Han and Leia sat side by side, Leia laughing loudly at Han's face as Threepio informed him that the soup he was digging into so enthusiastically was primarily made with tree bark and moss. Alice lounged beside Luke, throwing small berries up into the air and catching them in her mouth, and challenging him to do the same. And all the while, as they ate, little ewoks kept running up to them, tugging on their sleeves to get their attention and showing them some little treasure or new type of food to taste.

Eventually, the supply of food petered out, and Alice collapsed against Luke's shoulder with a groan, "Phew. I'm stuffed. Gonna be honest, I think I went a bit overboard on the tree bark."

Luke, in the middle of taking a sip of water, snorted with laughter, spraying the liquid across the little hut. "Lovely," Alice said, squirming away from him, "you know they'll probably take that as a massive insult to their cooking. Good one, Luke."

"That was your fault," he said, mopping water off the front of his tunic.

"Pshaw," Alice said, "you're the Rebellion's golden boy, you should be able to control laughter. An involuntary snort like that one at a diplomatic meeting will get you in trouble."

He raised his eyebrows at her, "And since when are you the expert on diplomatic meetings?"

"Um, I'll have you know that I was a history student," she said, smugly, deciding that it would be safe to return to her previous position of being slumped back against the wall beside him, "and an exemplary one at that. And we, you know, read about treaties and stuff. So there."

He looked at her, and she could almost feel the weight of his curiosity, as solid as if he were resting his head on her chest to listen to her heartbeat.

Flustered, she tilted her head on one side, "What is it?"

"I just…" He looked down, a rueful smile on his face, "There's so much I don't know about you, Alice – about your past I mean. I've never really asked because I didn't want to push you if it was painful or you just didn't want to talk about it…but I can't help wanting to know."

"Oh," she bit her lip, not quite sure how to respond. Of course, she wanted to share her past with Luke, and she supposed she could, in a vague sort of way. But she would never be able to tell him the minutiae of her life at home, not unless she was prepared to tell him the truth. "Luke, I-"

She was saved by having to actually come up with a response when the little chieftain of the ewoks (as Threepio had explained the one in the headdress was) suddenly got to his feet, prompting a little explosion of and addressed the whole hut in their strange, babbling language.

Team Rebellion looked to Threepio for translation, which, getting to his feet, he gave: "They wish to know our story, Master Luke."

"Well then," Luke said idly, "you'll have to tell them, won't you."

"Me?" Threepio said, dismayed, "But Master Luke-"

"Go on, Threepio," Alice said, grinning, "you're kinda the only one that speaks their language. Not to mention, you are their god. Pass on your words of wisdom."

"…Well, I suppose…if you put it that way, Mistress Alice…"

Threepio turned somewhat uncertainly to his eager audience and began. Obviously, the humans (plus one wookiee and maybe Artoo?) couldn't understand what was being said, but since it was their story, it probably didn't matter. Every now and then, though, Threepio would use one of their names, attracting the attention of that particular person. For example: "Ochana makuetas, Mistress Alice, wasawena storm trooper."

Alice grinned, and leaned over to Luke, "I think he's talking about how I knocked out that storm trooper on the Death Star. One of my finest moments."

He smiled at her, but it wasn't the smile he'd given her earlier in the meal; it was distracted, distant, and as it faded, his expression turned solemn. Alice frowned, and nudged his shoulder with hers, "Hey. What's up?"

"Nothing," he said – but this time his smile was even less convincing. What's with him?

With her curiosity piqued, she found it difficult to focus on Threepio's narrative, even with some of the rather admirable sound effects that he conjured up out of nowhere. As if sensing her disquiet, one of the smaller ewoks ran up to her, and sat itself down next to her, resting its fluffy head against her waist.

Um…wow.

Still, it was quite comforting – if weird – to have the little thing beside her. Alice patted its head awkwardly, half expecting it to purr.

With Luke sitting silent and unsmiling on her other side, Alice waited impatiently for Threepio to finish – she wanted to talk to Luke but couldn't think of any way to chat properly without anyone noticing. Damn it that I'm not telepathic.

Eventually, with a brief explanation involving Jabba the Hutt and Tatooine, Threepio fell silent, and turned to the leader of the tribe. The ewok looked around at his fellows and spoke quickly to them. Hushed talk broke out amongst the individual members around the room, and there was a lot of nodding – almost like they were deciding something.

"What's happening?" Han muttered, not so subtly.

"I don't know," Leia said, frowning slightly.

Holding up a paw for silence, the leader turned to Threepio and said something. At the same time, elsewhere in the room, though Alice couldn't quite identify where, someone set up a drum beat. Alice froze, her eyes wide. Oh god. They're going to kill us after all.

But when Threepio turned back to face them, it was with rather better news, "Wonderful! We are all now part of the tribe!"

Alice raised an eyebrow, "Seriously? Just like that-" Her words were cut off as the ewok that had been sitting beside her suddenly launched itself to its furry feet and threw itself on her like a child, wrapping its arms tightly around her neck. "Woah, okay…" Across from her she could see that Han and Leia were being similarly molested, and as for Luke…

Alice frowned, and gently pushed the ewok away – it didn't seem to mind, and toddled off to bother Chewie, who had turned into a massive furry climbing frame it seemed, what with all the ewoks clambering over him. Luke had disappeared; as Alice narrowed her eyes and searched for him, she caught a flash of moonlight on blond hair through the door. She made to get to her feet and follow him, but Leia got there first, her long dark hair rippling as she slipped through the entry.

Fine. Take my job. Whatever. Alice huffed, and getting to her feet, wandered over to be grumpy with Han.

"Hey there," she said, gloomily.

"What's up with you?" He said, trying to unpin an ewok's arms from around his leg, "Aren't you having fun?"

She stuck out her bottom lip in a pout, "Yeah, so much fun."

He gave up trying to get rid of his furry legwarmer, and straightened up to look at Alice, "Well, what is it then?"

"Luke's put a damper on my mood, that's all."

"Luke?" Han looked concerned, "Is he alright?"

"I don't know," Alice said, a little resentfully, "He's with Leia."

"Oh." She and Han gazed at each other – it took Alice a second to understand the bitter expression on his face.

"Oh, god, not like that," she said, hastily, "I mean, she's talking to him. I'm sure it's nothing."

Han glanced at the door, then started wading his way through the crowd of ewoks to Chewie, "Yeah. Nothing."

Alice winced. I wish I could tell him that Luke and Leia are siblings. I'm sure he'd feel a lot better about his relationships with the aforementioned twins. Then again, I know they're siblings, and I'm still feeling jealous. Bad Alice! That is very not Zen. Think generous thoughts.

She was about to follow Han when very suddenly an ewok mother accosted her and from what Alice could gather, offered to do something with her hair. Thankfully though, the braids Leia had given her earlier were still holding strong, giving her an excuse not to accept, "No, thank you, that's very kind…what? I can't…no, I'm fine. Thanks. Bye." She scuttled off, leaving the probably mortally insulted ewok behind her.

She caught up to Han as he paced restlessly up and down in a corner of the room, throwing regular glances at the door. Alice rolled her eyes, "Dude, if it's bothering you that much, just go out and talk to Leia yourself."

Han hesitated briefly, then said, "Fine. Can't do any more damage I guess." He looked at her, "You coming, kid?"

She shrugged, "I guess so."

Together, they wended their way through the hut, and out the door into the cold night air. Alice frowned. Leia was leaning against the platform railing, but Luke was nowhere in sight.

"What's going on?" Han said, frowning.

Leia glanced up at them, and Alice was disturbed to see tears glinting on the princess's pale cheeks, "Nothing."

Leia has cried once in the entire time that I've known her. And that is when Han was frozen in carbonite, and that came with a little threat of torture and imprisonment on the side. This cannot be good. And where's Luke, anyhow? That thought instantly sparked panic in Alice's brain. She took a step towards Leia, and said, sharply, "Leia, where's Luke?"

Leia gazed at her, looking slightly bewildered. Her insides knotting with a horrible sense of foreboding, Alice repeated herself, feeling increasingly frantic, "Where is he?" When Leia still didn't reply, she grabbed the princess by the shoulders and shook her lightly. Leia started in alarm, clearly shocked to see Alice so forceful. In truth, Alice was shocked herself. But that horrible little feeling of fear, whatever it was, a sixth sense or the Force or just gut instinct, wouldn't leave her alone. "Where did Luke go? Tell me."

"He's gone," Leia said, staring at Alice, wide-eyed, "he said he was endangering the mission. He's gone to confront Vader."

Confront Vader. The final battle. He might bloody well die.

Alice let Leia go, staring blankly off into the darkness, "He didn't say goodbye to me. That bastard."

"What is going on?" Han demanded.

Leia glanced somewhat nervously at Alice, then darted past her and into Han's arms, leaving Alice to press her hand hard against her eyes, fighting back tears.


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