Leia was tense as she walked down the hall towards the secure room where she had watched that horrible holovid of Luke. Her only consolation was that Han was with her this time.
Another holodisc had arrived marked 're: L.S.' and she had a sinking feeling of what it might show. That horrible, evil woman was clearly out to torment them, to torment her, by sending her holovids showing Luke being tortured.
General Cracken and Admiral Ackbar had both asked if she would prefer not to be there when they played the holovid, but Leia needed to be there. She needed to see for herself, to see he was still alive, even though she knew she would have felt it had he died. She felt sure of that.
"Councilor Organa, General Solo," General Cracken greeted them. Admiral Ackbar nodded his own greetings, looking grave.
"Are you sure you are ready for this, Leia?" Ackbar asked gently.
Leia took a deep breath and felt Han slip an arm around her. She shook her head. "No. But it needs to be done. We have to see what is on that disc."
Cracken looked to the technicians, who nodded their readiness.
"Everything is set up like the last time, General."
"All right. Then play it and let us see if our Imperial terrorist hasn't made a mistake this time."
The technician responsible for playing the holovid looked grim faced as she nodded her understanding of the order. Everyone of them had also been present the last time and knew what horrors to expect and none of them looked forward to it.
As before the screen was pixelated for a moment before it came into focus. Leia drew in a sharp breath and Han hissed next to her, tightening his hold on her.
There Luke was in the middle of the screen, hanging limply from the chains stretching out to either side. He looked far worse than the last time. His knees and shins were on the ground and she thought she could see blood there from where they had scraped against the ground. She also saw blood on his arms, some old and dry, some of it fresh, running down from his wrists. She wasn't sure how much was new and how much was old. Probably too much. She noticed that there was less blood down the right arm. Because of his mechanical hand; it doesn't bleed.
As she took in all these things Luke coughed and a little blood came out of his mouth. His breath was wheezing, as if his lungs didn't function properly anymore.
"Emperor's Black Bones!" Han whispered. He had gone pale.
Leia couldn't speak. Her knuckles were white, her nails digging painfully into her palms. Luke was dying and there was nothing she could do to save him.
His wheezing turned into another cough and suddenly he was caught in a coughing fit, more blood escaping his mouth, landing on the floor or trickling down his chin.
Look up, Luke, Leia silently bade him. Please let me see you are still fighting. But Luke didn't look up. He finally got the coughing under control again and took another wheezing breath, still hanging from the chains, which seemed to be the only reason he was more or less upright.
Then the image of him disappeared and was replaced by three tantalizing, terrible words:
How much longer?
The words stayed on the screen for a few seconds, then faded away, too, leaving the screen blank.
A sob escaped Leia. She was shaking all over and her knees buckled, refusing to keep her on her feet. As she sank to the floor she buried her face in her hands, despair overwhelming her.
"She's killing him," she got out past the lump in her throat. "He's dying."
Han wrapped both his arms around her. For once he had nothing to say. He had seen Luke in bad shape before, but not even on Hoth had Luke looked this bad. The kid was strong, but how much longer could he hold on under that onslaught? Han seriously doubted he was given bacta treatment, which meant it was only a matter of time before his body would give up.
Neither Admiral Ackbar nor General Cracken had anything to offer. Both were shaken by what they had just seen and felt a deep sense of failure. They hadn't found Skywalker yet, and by the looks of it his time was running out.
"We'll find him, Leia," Han promised, looking at Cracken and Ackbar for confirmation and support. "We'll find him. Right?"
"We'll backtrack the package," Cracken said. "Sending it was a mistake; it gives us a clue we can follow. If she sends another one we'll backtrack that one, too," he promised.
Leia shook her head. "Then it will be too late," she said in a small voice. "The next one will be the last." She knew it with the deep certainty that came from the Force.
Everyone in the room lost any remaining color they had from their faces. No one missed the implication of those words; one holovid to show his predicament, one to show his deterioration, one to show his death. If they got another holovid then Luke Skywalker would be dead.
Leia's only consolation was that she knew he was still alive and that she wouldn't have to wait for the holovid; she would know the moment he left this plane of existence. It was not really any consolation at all.
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Leia felt like an animal in a cage. She was shaking and pacing back and forth in her apartment. Her brother was slowly dying in some Force-forsaken cave and there was nothing she could do to help him.
Han had tried to get her to sit down, but she was too restless to be still. She needed to do something, anything, to help Luke, to find him. She tried reaching out with the Force again, but all she got was a renewed sense that Luke was still out there, nothing else.
She balled her hands into fists. If only she had been better trained in the ways of the Force. She could suddenly remember all the times Luke had admonished her for skipping her training and pushing it back, because of some crisis on the Provisional Council or a diplomatic mission she just had to go on. You will need this someday, Leia. Don't keep on pushing it back; you can't rely on me to be there for every crisis. Leia made a face and felt tears start to run down her cheeks again. Oh, how right Luke had been. Luke was there for everyone else, but who was there for him? She should have been, but she had failed to take her training seriously enough and thus had failed him.
She suddenly turned around and hammered her fist into a pedestal causing the vase on it to topple over. The only reason it didn't shatter on the floor was a rather spectacular save by Han, who dived forward catching it at the last moment. Normally Leia would have been impressed by such a save, but not today. She just turned around again and continued her restless pacing.
"Leia, hon, you have got to stop. Breaking your things or yourself won't help."
Leia ignored him. Her hand throbbed, but she was glad for the pain. It gave her something to focus on, anything but that terrible holovid. How much longer?
How much longer could Luke hang on? It had been far too long already and she knew there would be a delay between when the holovids were made and sent out and when she received them, which meant Luke's condition was probably already even worse than what she had seen. How much longer would it be before she felt her twin's passing in the Force?
She came to a stop and squeezed her eyes shut. She did not want to think that thought. She did not want to think about Luke's imminent death should they fail to locate him and rescue him very, very soon.
Han slowly came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. "He's strong, Leia," he said in a low voice. "Far stronger than most give him credit for. He'll make it."
Leia wanted to believe him, she really did. She was desperate for any glimmer for hope, no matter how small, to hang on to.
"Cracken's people are backtracking that package and you know he has his best people on the case. They'll find out where it's been and find out where this evil woman is hiding."
"But will they be fast enough, Han?" Leia asked in a small voice.
Han was quiet for a long moment. "I don't know, hon. I really don't know."
Leia twisted around in his arms and hugged him with the same desperation she had felt when Luke left the ewok village on Endor to confront Vader.
The door into the apartment suddenly swooshed open and Han glared in the direction of the entrance daring anyone to step into Leia's apartment right now. The last thing Leia needed was more people offering empty promises. As far as he was concerned both General Cracken and Admiral Ackbar should focus all their attention on finding Luke, not on consoling Leia. That was his job.
His glare turned to surprise, then quickly silent begging for help when he saw who had come. Winter was Leia's oldest and most trusted friend; if she couldn't help Leia then he didn't know who could.
Leia sensed Winter's presence, too, and pulled her head back from Han's chest to look at her with red, tear filled eyes.
Winter quickly crossed the room and held her hands out to Leia. "I heard."
Leia took her hands and squeezed her eyes shut again. She knew Winter had been at Cracken's briefing after they had watched the holovid, which meant that the entire team now knew how bad and desperate the situation was. No one was going home tonight, or any other night for as long as there was still even the slightest hope they might find him alive.
Winter gently led Leia to a couch and she finally let herself plop down into it. It seemed all the energy had left her, leaving her feeling empty and hollow.
"Luke ..." she began. Winter squeezed her hands.
"I know. We won't give up, Leia. Not now, not ever."
Leia nodded, the tears running silently down her cheeks. Han sat down behind her to offer moral support and Leia was thankful to feel them both around her. She needed it.
Winter took a deep breath. This was terrible timing, but she needed Leia's help for the next step in her research and perhaps it would even help giving her something to focus on. "Leia, I need your help," she said plainly.
Leia looked at her with some surprise. Her eyes were red and puffy and she couldn't imagine she would be much help to anyone at the moment. "What for?"
Winter decided the direct approach was best and went straight into the matter. "You were at court and met many of the people there." At Leia's nod Winter continued. "Iella Wessiri and I have been looking into possible suspects from Palpatine's court, trying to see if anyone there might have had the motivation and means to target Luke this way."
"You got any suspects?" Han asked.
Winter looked at him and nodded. "We've got two." Leia suddenly sat up straighter, but Winter squeezed her hands, cautioning her. "They are not clear suspects, only people we have far too little information on. And both have disappeared after Endor."
"What do you got?" Leia said. Tears still streaked her cheeks, but no longer ran down them. She finally had something to focus her mind and energy on, no matter how small a chance it might be.
Winter let go of one hand and pulled out a datapad. "These two women frequented Palpatine's court and the Imperial Palace, but have disappeared after his death. We were hoping you might have met them and remember anything about them."
Leia freed her other hand from Winter's, took the datapad, and frowned at the images on the screen. Both were beautiful women in each their way and didn't look like ruthless killers. But then again, Winter didn't look like an intelligence operative although she was perhaps one of the best the Alliance had ever had so looks didn't count for much.
She tried to cast her mind back to her days in the Imperial senate and the times she had been at court. Had she seen either of the two women at court? Had she ever spoken to them? There had been so many people at court it was hard to remember them.
"I'm not sure, Winter ... It's been so long and I don't have your perfect memory."
Winter laid a hand on her arm. "It's all right, Leia. We knew it was a long shot, but we had to try."
Leia's frown deepened as she stared at the screen. She was sure she had never seen the dark haired one, but there was something familiar about the red hair. "I think ... I think I've seen the red haired one, at least once," Leia said slowly. "Do you know anything about her?"
"Only that she was a palace dancer," Winter replied.
Leia sighed. "I don't think I ever talked with any of the palace dancers. I'm afraid I can't tell you more about her."
Winter smiled mildly at Leia as she took the datapad back. "It's all right," she said again. "We just wanted to be sure before we went on." A slight frown creased her own forehead. "It's possible both simply decided to make themselves disappear and paid someone to get them new identities, but I don't believe it."
"Why not?" Han asked.
Winter met his gaze. "Because their records are too perfect. And I don't trust records that are too perfect." She looked back down at the datapad and sighed. "I just wish we could find out what happened to these two so we could either rule them out or focus properly on them."
"I'll rake my brain, Winter. Perhaps something will come to me."
Winter smiled at her. "Perhaps, Lelila. Or perhaps hunting information about these two are a total waste of time."
"But you don't believe that," Han said.
She looked at him. "No. I don't. These two have secrets and I want to know what they are."
Leia looked back down at the datapad. "Don't we all?"