"Ngg! Ahh!" Luke writhed under the onslaught of electricity, his muscles spasming uncontrollably. Mara turned down the intensity again.

"Ready to admit to the Empire's greatness?" she asked almost cheerfully. "Just renounce the Rebellion. It's all you have to do to end this," she said in a soothing voice.

Luke shook his head. "N-no," he croaked, his voice raw. "Never."

She raised an eyebrow. "'Never' is such a long time. A bit optimistic about your chances, aren't you?"

"I won't betray them," Luke insisted quietly.

"You sure about that, Skywalker?" She squatted down in front of him so they were eye to eye. "You could easily end this pain for yourself, y'know. All you have to do is renounce the rebels and join the Empire. Just say the words. Embrace the Empire and you would have power and freedom."

Luke stared at her. This was new. Before it had been end the pain through death, but now she was offering freedom? "You ... you want me to join the Empire?"

"You would do well in the Empire," she replied reaching out and touching his face with a finger. "You could be an Emperor in your own right, but only if you let go of your past."

Luke shook his head again. "No. I could never do that," he said flatly.

"And why not?"

For some weird reason she almost sounded hurt by his refusal. He met her gaze trying to unlock the emotions behind them. He wondered which reason of the many he had would be best. Palpatine tried to turn him to the dark side? The Empire killed his aunt and uncle? "Because it would mean betraying my family and leaving them behind," he finally said.

"Your family," she repeated.

Luke nodded. "I don't know what family you have, Mara, but I won't betray mine or leave them behind."

She gazed at him for a moment without speaking. "Then bring them along," she said simply, as if it really was as simple as that.

Luke stared at her in disbelief. Bring them along? "I can't do that!"

"Oh? And why not? You wouldn't be leaving them behind, as you said."

"Mara, the Empire completely destroyed my sister's home planet!" Luke said, feeling slightly horrified she would even suggest that. Despite everything she had put him through these last few weeks, or however long it had been, she had never seemed to like the atrocities of the Empire either. "They built the Death Star and Grand Moff Tarkin used it to blow up a peaceful planet that didn't even have any weapons! I could never make Leia become a part of that Empire!"

Mara rocked back on her heels at those words. It was clearly not what she had wanted to hear, but it was what she needed to hear. Luke just hoped she would actually listen to what he said though he didn't give himself good odds on that.

She stood up suddenly. "Well, if you want to be stubborn about it, then be my guest, jedi. Oh, you already are," she said sarcastically. She narrowed her eyes at him. "But think about my offer; I can give you power if only you accept it."

Luke craned his neck back so he could meet her gaze. "And accept every atrocity the Empire has ever committed in the process," he said as calmly as he could. It was dawning on him that he was bleeding from his scraped and raw knees in addition to his wrists, but that was such a normal thing now he didn't give it much thought.

For a moment they just locked eyes then Mara took a step back. "Have fun with your denial of the Empire," and with those words she dialed the power back up.

Luke just had time to realize she had never even turned it completely off before the pain drove all other thoughts from his mind again.

§ §

"Good afternoon, Admiral."

Admiral Ackbar looked at the speaker and smiled in welcome. "Good afternoon to you, too, General," he replied. He leaned forward in his chair as General Cracken sat down on the other side of the table. "So, what do you have for me?"

Cracken smiled in return. "A breakthrough, Admiral. With the latest data we have managed to narrow our target area down considerably, and a few targets have been selected for your people to hit." Cracken slid a datacard across the table for Ackbar to look at.

"Hmm, interesting choices," he said after a moment of reviewing the information. "Are all these set in their paths or can the currents be changed?"

"Some are targets we do need to hit, but others are to create confusion and diversion. Each should be marked according to its importance," Cracken replied. "We have a few we want to hit to extract more information from those places, but everything else is up to your approval. However, we do need to hit some extra targets as diversions and to avoid the enemy realizing how close we are getting."

Ackbar nodded. "I understand. But also understand that a couple of the targets on this list could be quite costly to us; there are some well defended targets on it."

Cracken nodded, a serious expression on his face. "I know, Admiral. And I know one of our must-hit targets is a tough one; but it's also an information rich one."

Ackbar blinked his eyes slowly in thought. "And we have little time to plan our assault, because of the situation Jedi Skywalker is in."

"Yes."

Ackbar sighed. "The fleet will do our job, and I have no doubt Commander Antilles and his Rogues will be happy to take on any target, but it will cost us, General. And it may cost us dearly. Are we prepared to pay the price?"

Cracken made a face. He could hear the council discussion behind those words and knew as well as Admiral Ackbar that not everyone on the council would agree with spending so many resources and risk so many lives just to rescue Skywalker. But on the other hand ... "He's the last jedi, Admiral. We lose him, we lose the jedi, maybe forever. So yes, we are prepared to pay the price. At least I am. And so are NRI and Pash."

Ackbar nodded. "I agree. And I think the fleet will agree, too. Only trouble is we can't actually inform them of the details of the whole thing. We will have to send them in partially blind."

Cracken nodded seriously. "I know. And I know how dangerous that can be. But on these missions I highly doubt we'll get to a point where we will be close to Skywalker. Yes, they won't know exactly what the mission is about or why we are undertaking it, but they don't need to. They just need to know and understand the mission parameters and make sure they execute it well."

Ackbar nodded in agreement. "Then let us move on to the selection of targets then. As I said some of these will be or could be quite costly for us, so we need to make sure we minimize the potential cost to us and how many lives we will lose."

It was another two hours before General Cracken left Ackbar's office again, glad that he didn't normally have to plan large scale assaults and worry about how many people he would lose as a result.

§

"Yes?"

"Get your people ready, Commander," Admiral Ackbar's voice sounded over the comlink. We are launching at 0700 and I want no delays."

"Yes, Admiral!" Wedge replied, almost snapping off a salute despite the fact the admiral weren't there to see it.

"And be in my office in an hour."

"Will do, Admiral!"

The transmission ended with a click and Wedge spent a moment staring at the wall. Looked like this might be it. Then he turned his attention back to the comlink; he needed to send out the call to the Rogues so they would be ready for their briefing in the morning, before he headed to the admiral's office for his own briefing. He suspected he might not get a lot of sleep tonight.

§

"I heard we're heading out," Leia said as way of greeting to General Cracken. "But Han and I didn't hear anything directly from you or Admiral Ackbar." Although she tried to keep her voice neutral she couldn't disguise the slight accusation in it. They had promised to keep her in the loop and tell her when it was time.

General Cracken looked up at her and smiled a bit apologetic. "Sorry, Councilor Organa. My hands have been full with planning all afternoon and evening, so I hadn't gotten to the point of informing you yet. Do have a seat."

Leia accepted it graciously, but she still felt a little peeved at being bumped down the priority list. And it could mean bad news for her and Han. "You don't think we should have been a bit higher on the priority list, General, if we're to get ready for a mission?" she asked pointedly.

But General Cracken shook his head almost before she was done speaking. "You're not assigned to this mission, Councilor. It's too early."

Leia felt her already frayed temper flare. Too early? Luke was in danger! Cracken must have seen the anger in her eyes, because he raised his hand in a compliant gesture.

"I understand your want to join in on this mission, Leia, but it's just too soon. We don't have enough information and our target area is still too big to send you and Solo out to check out planets. You need to be patient and let us do our job this time."

Leia narrowed her eyes at him. "No, General. I need to be out there looking for my brother and helping find him."

Cracken looked at her with a mix of pity and understanding. "I get it. You want to go out, too. But you understand the issues with showing your hand too early as well as anyone. You need to sit this one out, Leia. Please understand that."

Leia stared at him for a bit longer then sighed and leaned back in the chair. "You don't understand, General. I can feel him, his pain, constantly. It's always there in the background of everything else. He's in danger and he needs me." Leia pressed her palms against her head for a moment, then let her hands fall into her lap.

Cracken stood up and came around the table, then took one of her hands in this. "Leia," he said gently. "I might not be able to feel what you feel, but I do feel the pressure of time, too. I know we're short on time and that time is only getting shorter by the moment. But you have to trust me on this; it would like searching for a drop in the sea to send you and Solo out right now. In a couple of days we'll have more information to work with and hopefully we'll have some actually targets for you to swing by then, but right now it would just put you both in jeopardy, too."

Leia's shoulders sagged. "And in the meantime Luke will have to suffer at the hands of that terrible woman," she said in a low voice.

Cracken gave her hand a squeeze. "I know. But there's nothing we can do about it except hope he's strong enough to withstand it for a little longer."

Leia looked at him for a long moment, then nodded in defeat. She rose without a word and turned towards the door. Before leaving she paused and said: "I hope your mission is successful, General. Let me know how it goes." Then she left the office without another word and Cracken had the sinking feeling that he had destroyed a bit of her hope just now.