"Victims of the almighty Sarlaac: His Excellency hopes that you will die honourably, but should any of you wish to beg for mercy, The Great Jabba The Hutt will now listen to your pleas."
R2 goes past Jabba's throne, Boba Fett follows. Curious as to what the droid is up to. Two Jawas head over by Leia. Jabba tugs Leia's chain slightly pulling her back a bit.
"Threepio!" Han shouted, brave and defiant to the end, much like he had been on the Cloud City carbon-freezing platform. "You tell that slimy piece of worm-ridden filth he'll get no such pleasure from us!" Leia grinned at that.
"Jabba," Luke called, calmly, getting ushered to the edge of the skiff, "This is your last chance! Free us...or die!"
This brought a cacophony of laughter from the audience aboard the barge. Jabba, barely able to control his mirth, ordered the guards to bring Luke into position on the gangplank.
Leia took a deep breath, her whole body tensing. Was this the last she would see of him?
She watched him walk to the end, nod to his friends, including Lando at the helm, and then flip a salute to the barge. Jabba had the microphone now, and bellowed into it for the execution to begin. Luke, looks at R2 and Lando, giving him a nod. He nods back, Han, looks out turning his head sideways. Leia standing next to Jabba takes a deep breath, licks her lips in anticipation.
Luke made a gesture to Artoo just before stepping off the edge of the plank, signaling the droid to eject the lightsaber hidden in its dome and propel the weapon into the air from the deck of the barge. The Jedi suddenly spun around as he fell and grabbed the end of the plank, then somersaulted back onto the skiff to everyone's astonishment. Leia sighed in relief as others around her gasped in shock, watching Luke look up to the sky as he raised his hand to catch the falling lightsaber.
But the saber did not reach Luke's hand.
From Leia's viewpoint inside the barge she saw the lightsaber reverse its direction and fly back toward the top deck. A faint snap-hiss could be heard, followed by the whooshing sounds of Luke's weapon and the screams of guards being cut down on the deck above. That's when chaos broke loose.
"What's happening?! Stop them!" Jabba shouted in confusion, waving his flabby arms wildly as he screamed into the voice amplifier inside his lounge. A sense of panic was felt throughout the room as Leia, seeing Luke stare up from the skiff as a guard lunged for him.
. The Jedi regained focus and dodged the pike that nearly struck his side. Grabbing the end of the staff, he pulled it from the weequay's grasp and swung it around, knocking the guard over the railing into the sarlacc's waiting mouth. At the rear of the skiff Lando revealed his true identity, struggling with another guard over control of a blaster.
The second skiff full of guards, which had accompanied the party to the desert, swung around to face the first one as its men blasted wildly at the group on Luke's skiff.
"Hit the deck!" Skywalker shouted to Han and Chewie, both of whom dropped fast for cover with their wrists still locked in binders. Without his lightsaber it proved more difficult for Luke to deflect the blast bolts, even with his Force-enhanced reflexes. The guards were close to disarming him as pieces of his staff pike chipped off with each bolt that hit it.
Leia helplessly cried out to them as she watched her friends trapped in the crossfire, but then drew her attention to the closer skiff when a blue and red blur suddenly leaped down onto it from the barge's deck above. A rapid flash of green easily took care of the six guards that occupied the second skiff, and then the attacker paused to focus on the nearby Jedi. That's when Leia finally realized who brandished Luke's weapon.
"Arica!" the princess gasped, recognizing the redheaded dancing girl who worked in Jabba's palace. Her mistrust of this woman proved correct, having suspected there was more to Arica's agenda than simply watching the execution when she asked Jabba to let her join the party that morning. Those beautiful green eyes and pouty red lips must have been enough to persuade the hutt to bring her along for the ride. Or perhaps it had been the previous night's carnal activities where she had seduced her way into a threesome with Jabba and his newest slave girl. Either way, Leia had known there was more to this woman than being a simple dancing girl.
Before she could confront her primary target, Arica spun around to face a new adversary as the Mandalorian bounty hunter Boba Fett rocketed down onto the skiff. Aiming his right gauntlet, he blasted his built-in flamethrower at the would-be assassin. Unable to deflect the oncoming flames, the young woman sidestepped the fiery streak and then dropped to one knee, rolling forward, wincing slightly as the edge of the flames just barely singed her hair and dancing costume. From beneath his helmet, Fett screamed when she suddenly dismembered both of his legs with the edge of her blade. He fell to the floor of the skiff as she stood up, the frayed veils of her costume fluttering in the wind.
All of this happened within seconds, with Leia watching in awe as Arica surprisingly took down the lethal bounty hunter. Boba Fett struggled to get up, aiming his blaster with a shaky hand, but the agile dancer slashed the lightsaber across his neck with one clean cut, sending Fett's helmeted head flying down into the sarlaac's tentacled maw. At that moment, Luke leaped onto her skiff.
Knowing his friends were in imminent danger, Luke moved to face this woman on his own, drawing her focus away from the original skiff. However, he failed to protect them from the powerful blast of the sail barge's deck gun that soon followed, short-circuiting the first skiff's anti-gravity generator. The skiff tilted off balance, causing Lando and the remaining guard to fall overboard.
"Chewie! Chewie, what just happened?" Han groaned, rolling up against the railing along with his wookiee companion.
"Han! Chewie!" came the panicked screams below.
"Lando!" Han recognized, hearing his old friend's voice. Still half-blind, he peered over the edge of the skiff and spotted the blurry shape of Calrissian dangling from a towing cable just barely out of the sarlaac's reach.
Poised for attack at any moment on the other skiff, the young Jedi held his chipped and battered pike, facing the deadly redhead.
Her beautiful face masked the coldness in her heart as the young woman smiled wickedly and stared at him with her piercing green eyes. "I am Mara Jade, the Emperor's Hand ... sent here to strike you down at my master's command, Skywalker."
"The Emperor..." Luke whispered, realizing this was another of his agents, like Shira Brie, specially trained in the use of the Force. Everything made sense now. "Do what you must, but I am not beaten yet!"
Using the power of the Force, Luke summoned to life the tangled mess of rope behind Mara, manipulating them with his mind to wrap around her legs. Mara tripped and stumbled backward as Luke lunged forward with his pike, jabbing Jade hard in her side and cracking two of her ribs. Mara screamed in pain, lashing out in defense with the lightsaber. Luke quickly stepped back and swung the staff around, knocking the saber hilt from her hand. It slid across the floor to the edge of the skiff, saved at the last moment by Luke's hand reaching out to summon it through the Force. Scrambling to her feet, Mara Jade instantly reached out her own hand, calling the weapon to it with all her strength. The lightsaber froze in mid air, trembling slightly from the invisible forces pulling on it from each end.
"Give up, Skywalker ... unghh ... you can't win," Mara struggled. "I draw strength from the Emperor himself!"
Luke strained with as much exertion, calling to the lightsaber with all his power, gradually urging it closer to him. Behind him the anguished screams of Lando were heard as the sarlaac's tentacled appendage wrapped around his leg and pulled him closer to the pit. Han's voice could be heard yelling at Chewie, desperately trying to reach their friend despite the restriction of their bound hands. Two more blasts of the barge's deck gun zipped through the air, striking the first skiff again and triggering its engine to explode. The whole transport crashed into the sloping sand, followed by the wails of the sarlaac's newest victims rolling down into the hungry jaws of the monstrous creature.
"Unnghh, no ... Chewie ... Han!" Luke cried out, sensing their deaths. "Noooo!"
The Jedi lost control of the struggle, watching his saber fly back into the hand of Mara Jade. Igniting its blade, she slashed the rope entangling her legs and rushed forward. Thinking fast, Luke spotted a blaster in the hand of a dead guard slumped over the skiff's steering control panel. He called it to his hand and fired one shot just as Mara thrust the green blade into Luke's chest.
Luke's eyes widened and he fell to his knees, looking up in stunned silence at the Emperor's Hand. Her face stared down at him with as much pain in her eyes, her mouth trembling as she looked down to discover a smoking hole in her abdomen from the blaster that now lay on the ground beside Luke. Mara stumbled forward into his arms, the lightsaber slipping from her hand and rolling off the edge of the skiff. They held each other in death's embrace, blue eyes staring into green eyes as their glimmer faded.
Mara heard the faint echo of the Emperor's voice in her mind one last time: "You will kill Luke Skywalker."
"Yes ... yes," she whispered as Luke died in her arms. "I did not fail you, my Master..."
Mara slumped over onto the skiff deck beside the dead Jedi as thick black smoke from the smoldering skiff nearby filled the sky.
Several minutes passed as the chaos ended and Jabba's remaining guards on the barge worked to restore order among the panicked passengers. Stricken with overwhelming grief, Princess Leia dropped to her knees, her hands trembling and her head shaking in stunned disbelief. Only once before had she felt this way – when the Death Star had destroyed her home world. But this time, somehow it felt more personal ... more traumatic. Her friends, the man she loved ... all dead. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she bit her lower lip, trying to keep from crying.
Busy bellowing orders to his men, Jabba had neglected her for the time being until his cackling kowakian lizard-monkey Salacious Crumb leaped down from his perch next to Leia , as she lay on knees. Salacious jerking Leia's braid and laughing loudly: just as Leia was about to push Salacious to the side. Jabba yanked on Leia's chain. Leia stumbled backward, only to be pulled back by her chain until her naked back pressed up against Jabba's belly. His hot breath filled her nostrils as her tear-filled eyes gazed into the dark copper-red orbs staring menacingly down at her.
Salacious caresses her naked leg, as Leia's rear silk obscenely exposes her round tight buttocks, feeling his hand rub her naked leg, along with Jabba's tail rubbing against her leg, with the tip, going up and down her butt cheeks. Her front silk skirt drapes over her left thigh, exposing her legs. Salacious gropes her inner leg, slowly from her knee working his way up to Leia's gracils.
"Your friends are dead," Jabba's deep intimidating voice rumbled. "Solo ... his wookiee ... the Jedi ... all dead. Nobody can rescue you now," he stated bluntly. "The Empire and your pathetic rebel friends will soon learn of their demise."
Jabba's elongated face widened with a fiendish grin, appreciating the feistiness in the young woman even after all that had just happened. "No, my pet. You will remain here with me, serving me ... pleasing me. As far as the galaxy is concerned, you were executed with your friends."
Leia struggled to keep from breaking down into a sobbing mess as she slowly realized what this meant. Her friends were all gone and her fate was sealed. The Alliance would assume she died with them and not attempt another rescue, especially on the eve of their greatest confrontation with the Empire. Even if they disregarded the reports of what happened, it could be months before they thoroughly investigated Tatooine and found her. Until then, she would remain a prisoner of the hutt – a slave to his perversity with no hope of escape.
"Tonight we feast in celebration of the Jedi's death!" he declared.