Chapter 43: In The Lion-Bear's Den

Stranded on the line between dreams and reality, Luke was wishing he had someone important to him right now. "Leia…"

His weak groans were instantly heard by Sokka, who was immediately at his side. "Yeah, I got a hold of her. But there isn't really anything she can do for us."

Sokka felt the ground shake beneath his feet, and it was followed by a sinking feeling in his gut. The light in this ice cave dimmed, and he looked through the little hole to see what was going on. The bright sky of midnight sun was turning dark, starting from the south and spreading to the north, and filling the sky with long bands of aurora. He figured it must have started from the portal, though why it took so long to affect the world was a mystery to him. It may very well be caused by something on the other side, if that bad feeling he had was any indication.

"What in the world is going on?" Sokka wondered.

"We have… to get to Leia…" Luke muttered

"I don't see that happening," Sokka said. He got over to his sister, still sleeping off the fatigue, and gently shook her by the shoulder. "Hey, Katara, it's night, or close enough to it."

It took a moment, but Katara did rise from sleep. "Ugh… Sokka, what's going on?"

"We need to move," Sokka said. "It's not safe here."

"Like it's safe anywhere," Katara grumbled.

There were TIE Fighters and imperial shuttles passing by overhead, much closer to the ground than before, all heading south. Katara got up and got to work, waterbending the walls of this ice cave into a liquid shell around everyone. Then she melted the snow and ice to the north, making a path beneath the surface of the tundra, and had the water carry them along like a slow river. Hopefully there would be no sign of their passage from above, not even a ripple in the snowbanks. Katara filled in the space behind them with solid ice, just in case someone found their initial hiding place.

It was slow going, doing so much bending at once, but Katara managed to keep a steady pace. "This is going to take forever to get anywhere."

"I know," Sokka said. He kept a hand on Luke as they floated along this sub-tundra river, keeping an eye on the bandaged wound. "But I'm pretty sure they're looking for us, and I'd rather not be caught."

Luke tried to lift his head, but then it fell back, and his grasp on the waking world slipped away. "Leia…"

Sensors aboard Home One lit up like a world of fireworks.

Leia was watching from her post on the bridge, just after the call from Sokka had been cut off by interference. The ship was detecting twin energy bursts of unknown type, originating from the poles of Earth, spreading across the planet to meet at the equator. On visual sensors it looked like the planet was being wrapped in a dark veil, with bands of aurora stretching into the tropics, sure to be a spectacular light show to the people beneath them. Leia couldn't make heads of tails out of the sensor readings, having nothing in her experience to compare them to.

It had the imperials' attention, that much was certain. That Super Star Destroyer was deploying fighters and transports by the dozen, all of them heading toward Earth. Leia didn't order any rebel ships to the planet, certain that she would be throwing them away for nothing. She was certain this truce was about to end, and she was going to need every last ship at her disposal. She had everyone aboard Home One preparing for battle, all rebel fighters on standby, all cannons primed and ready to fire, shields ready to be raised at a moment's notice.

While she watched the bridge officers at work, Leia got on the radio. "Han, Chewbacca, if either of you can hear me, get the hell out of there now."

"Kind of difficult right now," Han said, seemingly out of breath. Leia could hear him frantically working on something through the radio. "Falcon's surrounded by stormtroopers, and the TIE Fighters are taking off all around us. We'll be shot down the moment we try to take off."

"Surely you have more tricks up your sleeve," Leia said.

"Fresh out," Han said. "Haven't been in a spot this tight since the Death Star, and that time they let us go. I don't think they'll do that twice."

Leia suppressed a grunt of frustration, but still slammed her hand against the radio controls. "I'll think of something. If you see an opportunity to get out there, don't hesitate."

Han laughed through the radio, though his heart wasn't in it. "I never do."

Desperate times called for desperate measures.

Han never liked that phrase, but it certainly fit his current situation. For all intents and purposes he and Chewbacca had been abandoned in this massive imperial ship, all the important people brought with them having left earlier that day, leaving him with just the rebel fighters brought along for escort. There was no way to get the Falcon out of this hangar without it getting destroyed, too many blasters both inside and outside of the hangar, ready to blast his ship to pieces. Those rebel fighters weren't going to hold off stormtroopers for long, should they decide to take the Falcon intact.

Standing in the cockpit of the Falcon, Han finished the last of some hastily made modifications. "Alright everyone, say your prayers now, Force be with you and whatnot. There's no going back from this."

Han pressed a button to set things in motion, and then left the cockpit as quick as he could. He came across Chewbacca, clearly upset about what they were doing, but understanding that it was their best chance for getting out of here alive. The two dozen rebels aboard were heading out as well, marching out of the Falcon as if a formal delegation, though most figured they weren't very convincing. They were met by a legion of stormtroopers, all aiming blasters at the rebels, and they stopped in their tracks with Han and Chewbacca in the middle.

Rather than get gunned down by all the stormtroopers, Han raised his hands above his head. "Don't shoot. We surrender."

The stormtroopers had been carrying enough manacles for everyone, seemingly with intent to imprison everyone from the Falcon. Han did nothing to dissuade the stormtroopers from taking them prison, though Chewbacca made his complaints very clear to those that spoke wookie. Everyone was escorted away from the Falcon, and other stormtroopers marched into the ship. Han kept track of the time, hoping that the stormtroopers wouldn't realize what was going on, not before it was too late to do anything.

After being taken out of the hanger and now well on their way to the brig, Han muttered something under his breath. "Ten… nine…"

Stormtroopers inside the Falcon entered the cockpit, and they saw the jury-rigged mess of a control panel. One of them tilted his head to one side. "What did they do to the hyperdrive con- oh no…"

Normally, automatic safety features would have prevented this. Han had long since disabled them, in the name of making the Falcon go faster. So when the jury-rigged setup bypassed the controls, the hyperdrive engaged without a problem. The Falcon's main engines ignited, casting bright light in the hanger, right before the ship made the jump to hyperspace, inside the Executor. Like a bullet fired at point blank range, the Falcon shot through the length of the hangar, ripping apart everything around it in the attempt to enter hyperspace.

The entire ship shook violently, Han was knocked off his feet, and everything went to hell.

If Leia hadn't been watching, she wouldn't have believed it.

Everyone on the bridge saw it through the viewscreen, a bright streak of light crossing the length of the Super Star Destroyer, like the streak of a ship making the jump to hyperspace. It left a long trail of destruction in its wake, obliterating most of the hangar before punching through the base of the command tower, coming out just above the massive engines. A massive gash exposed the interior of the ship, and successive explosions inflicted further damage. Tons of wreckage spilled out from the rear of the ship, all of it shredded into itty bitty pieces by the physics of the impact.

Leia found herself staring at the destruction. "What just happened over there?"

"Looks like a massive explosion," one officer reported.

"I can see that," Leia said. "I want to know what did that."

"I don't think they're going to give us time to figure it out," another officer said.

That much was obvious, and Leia found herself in a bad situation. If the truce hadn't been about to fall apart before, it was certainly over now. "Deploy all fighters, aim all cannons, target that gash."

Every X-Wing and Y-Wing in Home One's hangar took flight, rushing out into space to engage the enemy. Shields were raised, cannons acquired target lock, and every rebel blaster with a clear shot opened fire. A hail of blaster bolts crossed the void between ships, hitting the Executor hundreds at a time, focused on the gash in the dorsal hull. It seemed the enemy hadn't raised shields yet, or couldn't as a result of current damage. The opening salvo tore into the imperial ship, blasting apart the exposed interior, furthering the chain reaction that was tearing the ship apart.

Watching the beginning of the battle, Leia hoped she hadn't made a big mistake.

All alarms blaring in his ears, Admiral Ozzel was absolutely furious.

He had almost been ready to end this façade of a truce, having the distinct feeling that Darth Vader no longer required it, if the unusual sensor readings from Earth were anything to go on. But then something tore his ship apart from the inside, and had done so in a very violent fashion. The initial detonation shook the ship so hard it knocked everyone off their feet, set off every alarm the ship had, and smaller tremors continued to rock the ship. Reports were coming in immediately, none of them good news, detailing the extent of the damage.

The hangar was nearly completely destroyed, every TIE fighter, bomber, and shuttle inside annihilated with it. Several sections adjacent and several decks below the hangar had been destroyed as well, and everyone inside had been sucked out into the vacuum of space, if their bodies weren't vaporized first. Further from the now-missing hangar structural integrity was virtually non-existent, resulting in the middle of the ship gradually imploding on itself. Then there was the giant hole in the base of the command tower, effectively cutting it off from the rest of the ship.

And now the rebels were attacking.

"Recall every fighter planetside!" Admiral Ozzel ordered. "Engage the rebels with everything we still have! And get those shields up!"

"Dorsal generators are not responding!" someone reported.

"Rotate the ship and turn to starboard!" Ozzel ordered. "Get the ventral hull between us and them!"

That was easier said than done. Given the sheer size of the Executor, all maneuvers appeared to happen in slow motion to outside observers. Dorsal thrusters were not responding, forcing the ventral thrusters to do all the work, slowing down the ship even further. The enemy fighters could maneuver faster than the Executor, and they continued to fire away at the damaged parts of the ship. And while the ship turned the rebel flagship was firing away with its cannons, pummeling away at the Executor while it struggled to turn.

The first squad of the previously deployed TIE Fighters arrived, which Ozzel saw through the large windows. "Good, that will buy us some time."

It got very quiet all of a sudden.

"Wait, stop," Sokka said, holding up a hand. "Something's changed."

Katara brought their slow underground river to a stop, and she sat down to rest. Luke was out cold again, though he seemed stable given his wounds. Sokka gently dug through the snow above them, taking care not to make the roof collapse on them, going through a foot of snow before seeing the sky. He stuck his head out, looked around, and spotted a few dark specks in the strangely dark blue sky. He could just barely make them out as TIE Fighters, before they vanished into the lights of strange aurora. He didn't see any other ships, didn't hear any either, only the breeze wafting through his air.

Sokka dropped back inside, and he sat down next to his sister. "I don't know why, but all the ships up there are gone. We have a chance to cover more ground quickly before they come back."

After a long groan Katara forced herself onto her feet, feeling a variety of aches and pains in her exhausted arms and legs. "After this one, I'm going to need a very long nap."

She got to work melting ice and snow around her, building up a small reservoir behind and beneath them. Once she had enough she melted the ceiling, all that water burst out onto the surface, carrying the ice raft with everyone on it. Disregarding all pretense of stealth, Katara focused on speed more than anything, and her shallow river carried them along with haste. It took everything she had left to keep this up for any length of time, but they covered more ground in five minutes than in the last two hours, heading straight north across the tundra.

Then Sokka spotted buildings on the horizon. "We're almost at civilization, just a little bit further."

Not certain if their current speed was enough, Katara pushed herself to her limit, getting the shallow river to flow even faster. Those buildings came into clearer view, several dozen in fact, belonging to a small city built over the last few years. Yet it was not imperial architecture, but Water Tribe instead, a sight for sore eyes in Sokka's opinion. He couldn't stare at it the entire time, needing to crouch down and grab hold of Luke, making sure he didn't slip off the ice raft. But the exhaustion was catching up with Katara, and they were nearly there when she collapsed.

The shallow river broke apart, the water spreading out in all directions, and the ice raft crashed into the frozen ground. Sokka caught Katara as she fell, his back slammed into the ground, and he was hurting pretty bad from the impact. Luke went sliding off to one side, woken up from the impact and letting out a yell of pain, a match for the scream Sokka was making. After a short slide they came to a stop, though all of them were still in one piece. Sokka's head was leaning back, giving him an upside down view of the buildings, and the people drawn by the noise.

They looked like regular Water Tribe folk, and Sokka could swear he might have recognized a few, if they had been little kids a few years back. "Hey. Sorry to drop in like this."

One of the young preteen boys turned around and yelled. "Someone get Gran-Gran!"

Sokka's eyes went wide, realizing what this place used to be. "I guess we're home?"

Home One was inflicting quite a beating on the Executor.

Leia was watching the battle from the bridge, giving orders when necessary, coordinating everything with the officers around her. She could vaguely see the dogfights between X-Wings and TIE Fighters, the crisscrossing blaster bolts putting on a spectacular light show, all while Home One's cannons pummeled away at that Super Star Destroyer. It was trying to turn its heavily damaged dorsal flank away from the battle, about halfway through the slow maneuver. But the damage was already spreading to the interior of the ship, reaching critical decks and essential systems, well past the point of no return.

After giving out yet another order Leia got back on the radio. "Han, if you're still alive over there, answer me."

There was no response, only static from the frequency for the Falcon.

"This is not the time for awkward silence," Leia said. Still, she heard nothing but static, and that pit in her stomach was only getting bigger. "Get out of there any way you can. That ship is going down and you don't want to be in it."

Still not getting any response on that frequency, Leia had to assume the worst about Han's situation. She turned her attention back to the battle, the X-Wings and Y-Wings currently having the upper hand over the TIE Fighters. The rebel ships were flying in formation and shooting down enemy fighters by the dozen, quickly widening their advantage in numbers. But the TIE Fighters were inflicting plenty of casualties, several rebel fighters being shot down and destroyed, and Leia winced as the losses were reported.

But that Super Star Destroyer was still turning, almost to the point where Leia could see along its edge. It was starting to get the damaged side out of the firing line, and turning the intact half into the battle. Ventral shields and blaster cannons were operational, the latter already taking aim and Home One, in the process of acquiring target lock. It was almost ready to fire back, even with power failures throughout the massive ship. Even a crippled Super Star Destroyer was more than a match for Home One, should it bring its operational weapons to bear.

"Get the fighters back in the hangar," Leia ordered. She saw some confused looks coming her way. "We've done all the damage we can. We have to leave before they can hurt us back."

The order was given, and Leia could only watch it be carried out. There were plenty of complaints over the radio chatter, proud pilots believing they had the upper hand, wanting to shoot down every TIE Fighter they possibly could. But they complied and disengaged the enemy, flying back to the hangar, evading shots from pursuers. Home One was already turning away from the enemy ship, the navigation computer already plotting a course to friendly territory. By then it was starting to take shots from the enemy ship's ventral cannons, and the shields weren't going to last long.

Leia couldn't help but clench a fist, hating herself for needing to do this. "Take us out."

Stars turned to streaks and then the blue void of hyperspace, with so many people left behind.

When Han came to, everything around him was a swirling mess.

Alarms were blaring in his ears, bright lights flashing in his eyes, floor panels vibrating beneath him, air rushing past his face, all of it out of focus after the black out. Then he remembered he was in a spaceship, and having any kind of breeze was a very bad sign. Stormtroopers and imperial crewmen were running by, fighting against the wind blowing the other way, evidently fleeing for their lives. It was like they thought he was dead, and the blood all over his face was very convincing. He certainly felt like he was dying, if the pain in every part of his body was any indication.

And then the ceiling tore away.

The vacuum of space sucked the air right out of this corridor, along with everything that wasn't bolted down. Han was pulled off the floor, only to be grabbed by a furry arm, and he saw Chewbacca holding on to him. The other furry arm was holding onto a control panel, right next to an open set of blast doors. Those doors were closing, and Chewbacca threw Han through them, then pulled himself through before the doors closed completely. Now inside an adjacent corridor, the wind stopped behind the closed doors, and Han fell to the floor and heard Chewbacca come down just after him.

By now Han was recovering his grip on reality, vision clearing and regaining his balance, standing up to face Chewbacca. "Thanks Chewy, you saved our lives there."

Chewbacca made a loud and somewhat annoyed growl.

"Could still die, yeah, that's fair," Han said. He wiped the blood from his face, and felt more coming out from what he assumed was a nasty gash near the hairline. "We need… we need to get off this ship."

Wind was picking up again, cracks in the bulkheads leaking air into space, another rupture just waiting to happen. Chewbacca grabbed Han by the arm and ran down the corridor, all but dragging him along and with surprising speed. Han didn't see any of the other rebels that had come along, and he could only assume the worst had happened to them. He did see imperial crewmen ahead of them, all running for their lives, stumbling as the ship shook over and over again. Chewbacca caught up and charged through those crewmen, free arm swinging back and forth to toss them away, hearing them scream as they fell.

Recovering enough to run on his own, Han grabbed a blaster from a fallen crewman, missing the one he left with Leia for safekeeping. "Okay Chewy, I hope you have an idea where to go. Cause I sure don't."

Chewbacca grabbed a blaster from some unfortunate sap, roaring something as he kept running.

"Uh-huh," Han muttered. He took aim with the stolen blaster. "Definitely the worst spot we've ever been in, by a long shot."

Just when the Executor was in position to counterattack, the rebel ship made the jump to hyperspace.

Admiral Ozzel slammed his fist into a control panel. "Damn it!"

Adding to his anger was the constantly updating damage reports, growing worse and worse by the minute. The gash in the dorsal side was getting wider, longer, and deeper, the entire ship imploding on itself. Half of the ship had lost main power, and emergency power was barely operational in the damaged sections. Ruptures spreading across the hull shook the entire ship, even the command tower was not spared from the tremors. The hole in the base of the tower was spreading too, down toward the engines and up toward the bridge, effectively cut off from the rest of the Executor.

If there had been any chance of repairing the ship, the rebel assault had taken it away.

With the bridge shaking around him, the lights flickering with the power supply, Ozzel had to give the order that would make his life forfeit. "Abandon ship."

The order was announced throughout the ship, and the alarms changed to the evacuation klaxon. Crewmen that had been attempting to salvage the ship gave up on their futile efforts, now that they knew the admiral was aware the ship was too far gone to save. Everyone hurried to the closest escape pods, the vast majority still intact being on the ventral hull. It was going to be quite a trek for those deep within the ship, but it was either that or get sucked into space as the ship deteriorated, assuming they could run faster than the damage could spread.

There were escape pods near the bridge, and the officers inside left their posts to get to the pods. The sole exception was Admiral Ozzel, insisting that everyone else get out before him. Once the officers were out of the bridge Ozzel went to his chair, leaning back and waiting for the end to come. There was no point for him to make it off this ship, not when Vader would surely kill him for losing it. The bridge continued to shake around him, the alarms still blared in his ears, intensifying as time went by, the damage spreading all the way up here.

It was going to be a painful death, but better than what he would get from Vader.

Already trying to find a way off this ship, the evacuation alarm seemed unnecessary.

Han and Chewbacca were running as fast as they could, Han struggling to keep up with the wookie, certain it was the adrenaline keeping him going. With stolen blasters they were shooting at everyone that got in their way, and the few that survived long enough were tossed away by a very angry wookie on a rampage. Imperial crewmen and stormtroopers were already fleeing for their lives, and ran even faster from the threat behind them, not willing to waste time on a defense. The ship was already lost, and every precious second was needed to escape.

Yet no matter how fast Han and Chewbacca ran, it seemed like they weren't making any headway. The ship was massive, and imploding all around them, the damage spreading with no end in sight. And then main power failed, the corridor cast in darkness, until emergency lighting came on to provide dim red light. Even those started to flicker, emergency power faltering, in this part of the ship anyway. Han swore he felt lighter for seconds at a time, the artificial gravity fluctuating, only a matter of time before it failed altogether.

Han was shooting at anyone that happened to be ahead of them. "They've got to be around here somewhere!"

That was when Chewbacca spotted escape pods up ahead, or rather a long row of hatches where they were supposed to be. Only one still had a pod attached, the rest having already been launched. A dozen crewmen were trying to pack themselves into it, struggling to get everyone inside and still be able to close the hatch. Han and Chewbacca opened fire into the open pod, quickly killing the man trying to close the hatch and several others behind him. Further shooting could damage the pod, so Chewbacca reached in and pulled out bodies one by one, not caring if they were alive or dead.

Once the pod was empty Chewbacca grabbed Han and tossed him inside, his back slamming against the far hull. Chewbacca climbed inside and closed the hatch behind him, and just in time too. The whole pod shook violently, one could hear rushing air, and a few quickly silenced screams, followed by the silence of space. Chewbacca slammed a fist on the controls, ejecting the pod from the bulkhead into the void. It was immediately battered by debris, plenty of it floating outside the ship, some big enough to be a danger to escape pods.

Han sat down and leaned his head against the wall, nothing else either of them could do from here. "Hopefully they won't shoot down their own escape pods…"

There was a narrow window in the escape pod's hatch, apparently meant to let passengers know if they cleared the ship. They could see debris floating past, pieces of bulkhead and shredded cables, as well as a few bodies. The pod was shaking from time to time, knocked back and forth by the debris out there. Chewbacca used what little steering ability the pod had to navigate through the danger, having minimal thrusters and nothing more. As the pod drifted away the view gradually zoomed out, providing a better view of the Executor, or what was left of it anyway.

Looking out the window, Han was glad to have gotten off when they did. "The damage looks even worse from out here."

Chewbacca grumbled something, still working at the pod's limited controls.

"I know, only one planet in reach," Han said. "Just a matter of where on Earth we'll crash land."

After everything that changed, one thing remained the same.

Sokka knew the face of his grandmother, just as she had been when he and Katara left the South Pole years ago, supporting their efforts to travel with the Avatar. He found her again inside one of the new buildings, which had replaced the ice huts of old, now that the southern tribe didn't have to worry about Fire Nation raids anymore. Gran-Gran was living in one of those buildings now, with plenty of care and support from her many relatives, grateful to see two of her grandchildren return home after all these years.

Sitting in a chair across from her grandson, Gran-Gran wasn't even trying to hold back her tears. "How are you feeling? You look like you've been put through the wringer a few times too many."

"You don't know the half of it," Sokka said. He turned his head to look at the bed they were sitting beside, with Katara in it sleeping soundly. "We've been through hell and back. For a while I thought I wasn't going to return."

"You made it home, that's what matters," Gran-Gran said. She placed a hand on Katara's shoulder. "I may have only heard rumors of what you've accomplished. But I am very proud of both of you."

Sokka reached over to hug his grandmother.

When they were finished, Gran-Gran turned toward the other bed in the room. "So who's your friend?"

Luke was resting in the other bed, his wounds tended to by the healers Gran-Gran had on hand. The bandages had been changed out and the burns cleaned properly, along with a variety of ointments applied to help flesh heal faster. It seemed they had gotten him treatment before infection could set in, making their work much more simple. Still, there was only so much that even waterbender healing could do for a wound so deep, and from here all that could be done was let Luke rest and recover naturally.

"That's Luke," Sokka answered. "And I think he's learned his lesson about relying too much on blind faith in the Force. Maybe now he'll listen when someone tells him he has a bad idea."

"Ugh…"

Katara's wakening groans had her family's attention, and Gran-Gran was there to keep her calm. "It's okay sweetie. You're home."

Still exhausted and feeling weariness in her bones, Katara opened her eyes and saw her grandmother over her. "Gran-Gran? What… How…"

"You got us home," Sokka said. He saw his sister turn to him now. "You can rest now. You've certainly earned it."

Katara tried to sit up, but lacked the strength to do so, having to settle for putting another pillow beneath her head. "How bad is it out there?"

"Could be worse," Sokka said. He pointed a thumb at the window, where a view of the sky revealed streaks of light that were falling space debris. "I wouldn't want to be out there right now."

When the damage spread to the main reactor, the Executor was finished.

The massive amount of power generated there was unleashed, all at once and without any form of containment. The result was a massive explosion that annihilated the rear half of the main section, destroying the engines in successive explosions, lighting up the black void of space. The bottom half of the command tower was torn to shreds, the rest hurled away by the explosion, separated from the front end of the main section. Both pieces were mangled beyond recognition, and they drifted through the void until they were snared in the gravity of Earth.

From the perspective of the escape pods, it was like the debris was following them. "Chewy, punch it as hard as you can in this rust-bucket!"

Chewbacca grumbled something loud and certainly obscene.

Han wished there was something he could do. "I know, I know, just get us out of here!"

All the other escape pods were trying the same thing, engaging in a mad dash to the safety of imperial installations on the planet. The mangled pieces of the Executor were not far behind, pulled along by gravity toward Earth. The escape pods managed to outrace the debris around them, and they scattered as they approached the planet, set to crash land on all parts of the globe. The two larger pieces of the Super Star Destroyer drifted slightly to the left, with enough momentum to settle into orbit around Earth.

Except for Earth's moon being there.

The large pieces of the Executor fell toward the moon instead of the planet, swinging around the side to the hemisphere facing Earth, coming down hard on the lunar surface. The remains of the command tower shattered on impact, scattering debris across a new crater. The half of the main section plowed through another crater, dug a long trench in the lunar soil, eventually coming to a stop with the pointed tip of the hull facing space. It was followed by a rain of debris from space, pummeling the remains of the imperial flagship, now settled into its final resting place.

One could see the impact from low Earth orbit, and Han had seen the whole thing. "Well… that's one less thing to worry about."

Chewbacca muttered something very depressing.

"I know Chewy, I know," Han muttered. Sure, this was a victory, but it came at a deeply personal cost. "Not worth losing the Falcon. Not worth it at all."