The room was on fire. Smoke closed in around Jo, filling her lungs and darkening her vision. Her lungs burned in protest for clean air. Her hands shot up to her throat and she dug her fingernails into her flesh. She collapsed to her knees in confusion and desperation. Suddenly, the smoke vanished and the burning sensation ceased. Jo greedily sucked in all the clean air that she could. She thought for a moment her lungs may burst. She coughed and regained her composure to take in her surroundings. Except there seemed to be nothing in sight. She was encased in a white room. No windows nor a door. The room was blindingly white. Jo started to panic. Scrambling upwards, she ran to a corner of the room and beat a fist upon the hard surface.
"Hey!" she cried, hoping anyone would hear. "Hello!" She resorted to screaming, but her cries fell upon deaf ears.
"Who are you?" a striking voice echoed through the room.
"Hello?" she tried once more. The hair on the back of her neck prickled and she felt the strongest sensation that she was being watched.
"Jo of Earth, you should not have come here," the room went black and a blue light shone itself down on her.
"What kind of sick game is this?" Jo choked out as tears filled her eyes.
"You will die here, Jo of Earth. It has been written," the room grew back to burning and the light disappeared. Jo felt a knock to the back of her knees and she fell forward. As she felt her breath begin to leave her, her upper body was jerked upward.
"Jo!" she gasped for air and instead of a white room or smoke, Han Solo was there. "What the hell is wrong with you!"
Jo scanned the room quickly and saw that she was in her quarters on Yavin IV sitting in her makeshift cot. "Have I always been here?" she whispered. This did not go unnoticed by Han.
"I called for you several times. I even beat on the door. You were screaming your head off. I haven't heard anything like it," he glared down at her.
"Why are you here?" she rubbed the back of her neck and felt it slick with sweat.
"Did you just hear a word I just said? What's wrong with you!" he shouted. Chewbacca came in sight then and sent a gruff growl her way. Of course he would be here too. Jo stared up at Han blankly. He rolled his eyes. "Fine. Don't tell me. Leia's gone rogue."
"What!" she grabbed his arm roughly. "How? Why?"
"Dunno. That's why I came here! To ask you," he shook her grip off and crossed his arms.
"Why would I know?" she asked him in shock. Like Leia would abruptly tell Jo, well, anything. "Wait, why do you care?"
Han's stern facial expression faltered. "I don't. But I got a hell of a job to pull off that she asked me to do and then next thing I know she takes off! Damned odd is what it is." Chewbacca barked in agreement.
"Where's Luke?" Jo questioned wishing he were here instead of Han.
"Went off to fetch her. Dodonna ordered half the squadron to fly after her. She left with another rogue pilot. I'm guessing it's your little friend from the celebration last night," he scowled.
'Right. Evaan. What could they possibly be doing?' Jo thought to herself.
"I reckon I'll still take this job she asked of me. The pay off would be twice as much as the whole 'rescue' reward," Han shook Jo from her thoughts. "You're staying here."
This woke Jo up. "You're always saying I have to pay you back and then you're always making me stay here. I don't understand. It pisses me off!"
"Hey now! It's safer here. Besides, I know you'll still be in one piece. You could be useful later," he shrugged. It was Jo's turn to glare and this time she hoped it would kill him. "I'm heading to Cyrkon in the morning. Let me tell you, it's not a place someone like you should be. Besides, I'll be back in three days. Easy."
"What is she having you do?" Jo knew he wouldn't be back in three days. Hell, he'd be lucky to be back in one piece.
Han looked uncomfortable. "I can't tell you that just yet."
"Oh, so now everyone is going to start keeping secrets," Jo hissed. "I suppose you won't say anything either." This time she directed this remark at Chewbacca who merely shrugged.
"Luke'll take care of you. I'm sure Leia will come back soon. I doubt she would leave this failing cause even if it killed her." Han reassured in a way that was not very reassuring.
"I don't need taking care of," Jo sighed and played with her flimsy cover on top of her cot. There was quite a long silence before Han cleared his throat.
"Right, well, Chewie and I are about to head out," he gave her shoulder a squeeze and walked over to the door. He pressed the control panel and the door whooshed open. "Take care of yourself, kid."
Jo kept her eyes downward. After a minute, Han and Chewbacca left. The door whooshed back shut. Jo mourned for the loss of both Han and Chewbacca. She didn't need Luke to take care of her. She didn't need anybody. She had herself. She lay back down and tried not to think of her nightmare. Instead, she thought of the potential missions she could be asked to do herself. Leia would never go for that.
The next morning, Jo went to the Mess Hall in low spirits and even lower energy. Upon arrival, she noticed Luke sitting by himself with a hand under his chin and playing with his food. Jo took a deep breath and gathered all of her courage within her. She marched over to the table and slammed a hand down.
"I don't know what Han told you, but I don't need taking care of and I expect that whatever mission they have you do next, you better take me!" she said in a hurried jumbled way. 'Oh, Jo. You blithering idiot!' she cursed herself inwardly. She would be surprised if he had understood anything she had just said. She felt her face grow warm. "What-what I meant to say was,"
"Alright," he cut her off with an amused smile. "Come with me to Ryloth."
"Wait-really?" she gasped in shock and excitement. 'Now, I'm finally getting somewhere.' Luke laughed and nodded.
"I don't see why not. I won't get to take my X-Wing, so there should be plenty of room. This is my first independent mission, I guess they want to see how I will do. Leia suggested I do it before she left." Luke pushed himself away from the table and stood up. "I could use the company. R2 is with Leia, so I won't have him. I imagine I'll have to bring 3PO along."
"Do you think they will even allow me to go? I mean, I'm not much help." Jo couldn't help but backtrack when the reality of the situation came crashing down on her. She just learned how to use a blaster yesterday. Hell, she didn't even know where or what Ryloth was.
"They want me to try and recruit a possible pilot. Leia said the Twi'leks would be willing to help. She figured this wouldn't be a particularly hard test mission for me. I don't see why I shouldn't be able to have you come along. After all, the General knows you were apart of the Rescue," he noted.
"Yeah, but I didn't do anything. That was all you, Han and Chewbacca's doing," she mumbled remembering her sad attempt on the Death Star and beyond that.
"Jo," Luke chided. "you've got to stop doing that. You did more than you think. Even if it was just moral support, it was enough. Stop running yourself down all the time."
In all her years, she had never had someone tell her anything as kind as this. Most of her insecurities were met with rolling eyes or annoyed sighs. "Of course, you didn't do anything, Jo. When do you ever do anything."Nasty words normally fueled her insecurities. For someone to sit and believe in her or actually think she did anything at all made her heart swell with an unknown happiness. 'God, the bar is low,' she declared to herself, and thus, wiping waking her up from her brief happiness.
"Thanks," she said awkwardly and chose to stare at his shoes.
"I got to continue preparing the ship. If you wouldn't mind, could you meet me here around lunch? We will leave then," he confirmed. Jo nodded and that was that.
'Get out of your head, Jo.' she scolded herself and made her way back to her quarters to pack what little possessions she had. At least she was leaving, if only for a brief time. The only thought she could not get out of her head was the chilling voice from her dream.
"You will die here, Jo of Earth."
A/N: Short chapter. But I'm still working out the kinks in my research. I decided to make up a mission because in between letting Leia go with Evaan and his mission on the Desert Jewel, Luke doesn't do much. The times in between are mostly focused on Leia and Han's separate missions. Although, I chose to have Han already go on that timeline. I decided that Luke needed a mission and Jo needed a change of scenery. I was originally going to have her go with Han, but thought better of it. After all, this is slightly a romance story between Jo and Luke. But don't expect that to be any time soon or the focal romance in this story. You will also notice that I added Sana Starros to the summary. It is because fanfiction does not have her name as an option like they do in AO3. Anyway, I got my 50 wookieepedia tabs up and all my current canon books /comics strewn around me, so let's rock. Making up a mission just tests my love for Star Wars and helps me learn as a writer. Next thing I know I'll be fluent in Twi'leki. Jfc, what have I gotten myself into...