A/N: Here we are at the last chapter. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

It took three days for the Millennium Falcon to touch down on the planet T'Jinko, a long time ago it had been a thriving metropolis this side of the galaxy, but it was sparsely inhabited now, the lack of a populace made it an overall peaceful place to live. Nobody came here by accident anymore, the only life forms that crossed this way did so with a mission in mind.

Han had left Chewie guarding the Falcon though he knew thieves or vandals were highly unlikely, and did something that usually went against his ethics, he rented a landspeeder, and he and Gwynplaine went coasting around in it. He'd said very little about why they'd come to the planet, and she hadn't asked. She kicked her feet up on the dashboard and folded her arms behind her head and took in the scenery.

When she saw the building they had pulled up in front of though, she sat up straight in her seat and turned to the smuggler and asked him, "A sniper academy?"

"Trust me, kid," he told her, "you're gonna fit in great here, gonna work alongside some great people, you're gonna meet some of the galaxy's best future bounty hunters."

Gwynplaine was visibly confused by this revelation but she got out of the speeder alongside him and followed him up the steps. An armored man met them before they reached the doors. He was dressed in green armor from his neck to his feet, but no helmet. He had tanned skin and a look of recognition was in his green eyes when he saw the Falcon pilot.

"Han Solo, how long's it been?"

"Good to see you too, D'mitrek," Han beamed at seeing a familiar face.

"I heard you were dead, you look good considering," the other man replied. "So you finally got tired smuggling and decided to join us, eh?"

"Never," Han shook his head and pointed to the girl, "This is Gwynplaine, she wants to join the academy, trust me, she's got the right stuff."

D'mitrek looked her up and down and commented, "A little younger than we take them. Youngest pup we've got this millennium is 19."

"Trust me, it'll work," Han said.

"I'll take your word for it," D'mitrek replied. He addressed Gwynplaine and told her, "enlistment's at only half capacity this term, if you want to bring your things in we'll find a room for you."

"I don't have any things," Gwynplaine replied matter-of-factly.

"Even better, we can start right away," the doors slid open and he waved her in.

"You go on ahead, D'mitrek," Han said, "she'll be right along."

"Okay, but don't take long," the other man said as he entered the academy.

Gwynplaine turned and looked at him and asked simply, "So this is it?"

"Yeah," he answered simply.

"You're leaving?" Gwynplaine asked.

"Yeah," he repeated, hoping like hell he could avoid an emotional scene.

The air was drawn out of him as he gasped and tried to figure out whether he'd just been attacked. It took a couple seconds for him to realize that it was Gwynplaine hugging him. After a few seconds she pulled back and let go of him. Looking the smuggler dead in the eyes she said firmly and sincerely, "Thank you, for everything."

Then she turned and ran up the steps, entered through the sliding doors and she was gone. And Han Solo stood there for several minutes feeling frozen, his feet stuck to the ground, like he couldn't move whatsoever. His eyes were wide, his mouth slightly hung open, and he felt a strange sensation coursing through his body where she'd hugged him. He couldn't explain it, couldn't put a word to it. He just stood there for the longest time, staring straight ahead but not seeing the academy. Finally he was able to pull himself away, and he got back in the speeder and headed back the way he'd come. He turned in the speeder at the rental and headed back to the ship. Chewie was waiting for him as he came on board.

Han still wasn't quite able to shake the strange feeling in the middle of his body, it didn't interfere with the way he moved, it didn't appear to be noticeable to anyone else, but he could still feel it. He quietly made his way over to his seat, sat down, strapped himself in, started the ship up, and a few minutes later they were gone, off to a new location and business as usual.

"I hope you enjoyed that," he finally said to Chewbacca, "Because that's the last time you're going to see me getting involved in something that doesn't concern me and that I'm not getting paid for."

The wookiee howled in response.

"What do you mean 'famous last words'?" Han demanded to know.


3 years later-

Okay, so Chewie was right, so he had taken a wrong turn back there. He'd denied it at the time, and even once they landed he tried to be convincing as he insisted he meant to go to the third moon of Sumtra. He'd had Chewie stay behind with the ship while he tried to find somebody, and oh boy had he, that had been his mistake.

Han lay in a heap on the ground, his ribs were killing him as he got the wind kicked out of him by the armored troops who spotted him. They had screamed various questions at him but he couldn't understand any of them, and he found himself wondering just what he'd gotten himself into this time.

Suddenly the assault stopped, he knew it was unlikely they'd just give up like that, but he decided it was worth trying to find out what was going on. He rolled over onto his back and saw three figures standing over him, all of them were dressed in a weird red and black armor.

"Boy they're making stormtroopers even uglier these days," he commented.

The one in the middle reached a black glove to its red and black helmet and pressed a small button that opened a slit in the helmet's visor, revealing a set of eyes, and judging from the faint facial features surrounding them, he could tell it was of the female persuasion.

Dumbstruck the smuggler asked, "They got women stormtroopers now?"

Slowly, she reached up with both hands and removed the helmet, revealing a slightly familiar face, changed with time, and a head of very familiar red hair.

"Hey..." Han's eyes widened in realization, "I know-"

Quick as a flash she turned her head and barked to the others, "Take him to interrogation."


'Interrogation' was a large room that was dimly illuminated, there was no furniture, and just four walls and a rubble floor. The room was soundproofed, which allowed for the smuggler and his captor to have a very enlightening conversation.

"Han Solo," Gwynplaine said smugly, "I never thought I'd see you again."

"Same," he realized now that she was nearly as tall as he was and it left him dumbfounded, "Hey, you used to be a lot smaller, what happened?"

The redhead laughed and said, "You know, I've heard a lot of things about you throughout the galaxy."

"All lies," he replied without missing a beat, then added, "Except for the good stuff."

"Yeah, the great Han Solo bouncing around the galaxy with a princess," she said sarcastically, "And a...farm boy? Guess it takes all kinds, huh?"

He choked on a snorted laugh, "I'm almost sorry I didn't keep you around, you should've seen the time that was."

"You still got that wookiee with you?" she asked.

"Chewie, yeah, he's back with the ship right now...which probably means he'll be here soon looking for me," Han explained.

"Then it'll really be a massacre," she replied. She looked at him and shook her head, "I think about you two all the time, I always hoped I'd get to see you again to thank you."

He blinked. "For what?"

"For saving my life," Gwynplaine told him.

Han Solo, who could usually talk his way out of, or more likely into, anything, was suddenly tripping over his tongue trying to dismiss that comment, but the young woman wasn't having it.

"If I'd hopped on anybody else's ship to get off Ar-ra, I'd probably be dead by now," she pointed out.

"Ah, you'd have landed on your feet," he insisted.

"Not to T'Jinko," Gwynplaine shook her head, "you have no idea how great going to the sniper academy was, and everything that's happened since then."

"Speaking of...what exactly is this?" Han gestured around.

She snorted. "We're a sanctioned militia, it's our job to interrogate anybody passing through to determine if they have any ally ties with the Empire. Case in point, right now the people out there who I work with, think I'm torturing you every which way to get answers out of you."

"Good work if you can get it," Han commented cynically.

"For the most part it's been a fruitless search," she explained. "Should the Imperials actually show themselves around here, odds are we're all going to die in huge embarrassing pieces, but we're all gonna go out blasting."

"That's the right attitude," Han said sarcastically.

He found himself just staring at Gwynplaine, she had changed so much in three years, not only had she shot up almost a foot, her face had finally filled in from adolescence to a young adult, complete with the first onset of crinkles around the eyes, lines on her face and a couple small scars probably sustained during sniper training. Somehow over time her orange-ish red hair grew, but instead of growing long, it just stood up in taller spikes, apparently even the helmet couldn't flatten it.

The light in the room wasn't great, but all the same when she turned her head, Han Solo saw something that got his attention, and he about tackled her for a better look.

The hair on the back of her neck had been shaved off, and at the base of her neck where the Vomanor tattoo had been, now there was just a patch of skin with a not quite healed burn mark on it.

"What the..."

Under his grip, she turned her head back to stare at him with an almost blank smile, as if she had no idea what it meant.

He let go of her, feeling like the ground had just fallen away under his feet, and asked her, "When'd you find out?"

"During the second term at the academy, my roommate had been a transfer student on Alavak, knew quite a bit about the Vomanor family...including the rumors."

Han sucked in a hard breath as he tried to figure out what to say now.

"You knew," she said, not accusingly, just simply stating a fact.

"Not at first," he answered, "after you electrocuted yourself killing the droid, then it was visible."

"You knew the rumors?" she asked.

"Not till we got there, I knew about the family, figured you had a right to know where you came from...then we actually met them," Han explained.

"Enough said," Gwynplaine duly replied.

"I'm sorry, kid."

She shook her head, "After what we went through to get out of there, I could not have lived with news like that...I'm glad you didn't tell me...but there's something I don't get."

He waited, dreading what it was going to be.

"When you had the doctors at the sick bay seal my incisions...why didn't you have them burn the tattoo off?"

He blinked. "You knew about that?"

"I thought it was weird how after a lifetime of everything spilling out the corners of my mouth, suddenly, for once, I could actually eat like a regular human...but I couldn't put it together. Once again, my roommate...he knew enough about the Vomanors that we were able to put it all together," Gwynplaine said. "So...why not the tattoo?"

The smuggler sighed. "I thought about it. I knew there was no way you could claim your rightful title in the family...but...it wasn't my place to erase the last connection you had to your birth family."

She slowly nodded, "I understand..."

"I'm sorry that you had to find out like that, kid," Han said. "I'm sorry you had to find out you came from those people."

She shook her head, "No, it's fine...it's all in the past."

He had one more that he had to get off his chest. "I'm sorry for what they did to you. Anybody who would do that to their own child, at birth..."

Gwynplaine shook her head again, "I have no complaints about what my family did...I have a great life because of it."

"What're you talking about?" Han asked in disbelief, "They had that nutcase Hardquanonne butcher you, they sold you to the gypsies, the gypsies-"

"Oh there was plenty of bad alright," she cut him off, "but I had to go through all that to get to the point where I met you, and my life's been amazing ever since. So, good or bad, I'm thankful to my family for the decisions they made, they did the right thing."

Han did a double take. "How do you figure that?"

She explained, "If they had kept me, I grew up to be a duchess in the royal family, I take my rightful place, am part of the duchy, am part of everything they do, I would've stayed there my entire life learning to be just like that whole horrible clan...and I would've died six months ago."

Han cocked his head to the side in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"You had to have heard," Gwynplaine said, surprised by his reaction, "Alavak was blown up earlier this year."

Han shook his head, "No, I..." he'd been too busy with Luke and the snarky princess Leia to pick up much news from that side of the galaxy. "I hadn't heard. What happened?"

"War broke out...their military hit back with everything they had but it was no match, the whole planet was destroyed."

He sucked in an overwhelmed breath at this sudden revelation. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"Yeah well," Gwynplaine sighed and told him, "by that time, I got pretty numb to the fact that that was my home planet, my family...it all meant nothing...hell, you were more my family than they ever were."

"Now don't get disgusting," he replied.

"Anyway it was kind of a relief when it happened," she said. "As soon as I found out..." she gestured to the back of her neck, "I wanted this burnt off, but who do you trust with something like that? The Vomanors were notoriously disliked throughout most of the galaxy, someone finds out you're one of them, what do they do to you?"

"Fair point," Han remarked.

"So after the asteroids settled, I found someone who was willing to do it, didn't have to worry anymore about who knew what or who'd report back to who...finally, for once in my life, I could just be normal."

"Oh trust me kid, you ain't that," Han shook his head.

That got a laugh out of both of them.

Gwynplaine sighed and said, "Oh I wish I knew that the two of us would see each other sometime again down the road."

The corners of Han's mouth turned up in a somber smile, "I wish I could promise we would."

"If we don't," she said, "I'm very thankful that we did today."

"Gah!" Han exclaimed as he felt the breath being squeezed out of him as she hugged him, her armor had a particularly crushing effect.

"Sorry," she said as she pulled back.

"You know, kid, I knew you'd be in good hands at the academy, but I always wondered how you turned out," he told her.

"Now you know."

"Yeah."

She smiled at him, then became serious, "I think I should warn you, people have been around here looking for you."

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me," Han said.

Gwynplaine looked him in the eyes and asked him, "Do you know somebody named Bubba Fat?"

Han's eyebrows knotted together and his mouth slightly dropped open as he tried to figure out what that meant, then his eyes bulged as he put it together, "Boba Fett?"

"Yeah, I guess so," she answered. "He was out here a couple weeks ago, and he seemed pretty zonked off, what exactly did you do to him?"

"Nothing!" Han replied, then added quieter, "lately..."

"So why's he looking for you?" she asked.

"It's a long story."

"Another one of those?" Gwynplaine asked sarcastically.

"Yeah," Han answered. "If we do meet up again someday I'll tell you all about it, I promise."

"I'll hold you to it," she told him.

A minute passed and he said, "Well, I probably need to get going before Chewie gets here and the whole militia gets dismembered. Take care of yourself, kid."

"Funny, I was going to say the same thing to you," Gwynplaine replied.

"Hey, it's what I do best," Han said.

The redhead snorted and remarked, "Yeah, sure."

He moved towards the door but Gwynplaine stuck her armor clad arm out to block him.

"Now you realize I can't just let you walk out of here unscathed," Gwynplaine told him, "they think I'm putting you through hell to get information, find out what you know about the Empire...they don't know that we have history, they wouldn't accept if I made an exception for you." There was a pause, and she absently gripped the blaster on her side holster and said, "We need to make them think that I've subjected you to all kinds of torture unimaginable."

Han raised one eyebrow curiously, "Well how're we gonna do that?"

She looked at him and said with a small laugh, "This may sound a little crazy but hear me out-"

At the last syllable of the last word, she struck her blaster against his hand at full force.


Chewbacca had arrived looking for Han Solo and got there just in time to hear the faint sounds of Han's pained screams from behind the door to the interrogation room. He let out a wookiee howl indicative that people were about to die, when the door slid open, coinciding with Solo's faint screams of "No! No-no-no!" And another scream.

When the door slid open, his almost lifeless body crumpled on the floor in the doorway. Gwynplaine, her helmet back in place, marched over Han's body and announced to the others, "He knows nothing about the Empire, let him go."

Han weakly crawled along the floor to get to his feet, groaning in agony the entire way. Chewbacca saw this and was enraged and roared loud enough to almost deafen everyone in the room and was about to start slamming heads together and ripping arms out of sockets. Weakly, Han held an arm out to hold him off and insisted, "No...no...I'm alright...let's just go."

Chewie grunted in disagreement.

"I'm fine," Han said around a pained gasp. "Let's go."

Chewbacca didn't understand, but he was nothing if not loyal to his friend. On the way back to the Falcon Han explained the whole situation to him. The wookiee chattered disagreeably about his choice of actions.

"I'm fine, really," Han insisted, then groaned and turned his wrist to show the large purple bruise already forming on the back of his hand, "Except for that."

Gwynplaine had hit him hard enough to break several blood vessels and draw a very authentic series of pained screams out of him, but nothing else was broken, thankfully.

Chewie grunted in response.

"Eh," Han shrugged, "It's the kid's first job and she wants to make a good impression, I can respect that."

The wookiee had another choice response.

"Yeah well we don't have time, we've gotta get over to Hoth to help Luke and the princess."

Chewbacca let out a low howl.

"What do you mean you told me so?" Han asked.