Tess could not even scream anymore. Her body seemed to melt into itself, burning in the process, hitting every possible nerve as her bones transformed into lava peeling through her skin. She looked down at her arms. The lava was beginning to burn through—or so it appeared. In her mind, Tess knew that the drugs injected into her were making her hallucinate while feeling this pain, but in the moment that did not matter. All she really knew was that it was the worst pain she had ever felt.

Tess' mouth hung wide open, gasping for air as the burning rose to her throat. She assumed this was the grand finale because the droid had been dismissed. Chid still looked down on her with that slight grin. He was saying something, but Tess could not make it out. The lava entered her ears. Then, after she thought she couldn't scream anymore, the burning hit her brain and Tess cried out in horror.

Finally, as Tess exhaled, the burning seemed to gush out it. Overwhelmed with relief, Tess allowed herself several deep breaths, hoping they would have the same affect.

Tess' body was soaked with sweat. Her wrists and ankles were bruised and bleeding—she even suspected one wrist was broken from the seizure-like jolts she experienced as part of her senseless torture.

"Very interesting," Chid chuckled, as if the effects of the torture were funny. "Most normal human beings would have passed out four or five times throughout that treatment, even with the injection to keep you conscious. But you managed to stay awake the whole time." He pressed something that released Tess' wrists and ankles from the durasteel bounds and ordered her to get up.

"We have an event to go to."

Tess could feel everything and nothing. She felt Chid's coarse hands on her shoulders. She felt the cold durasteel bounds on her wrists. She felt the hard ground beneath her feet. Yet Tess' mind was silent.

After what seemed like a mile-long walk through the white halls, Chid and Tess finally arrived at their destination—a black door. A harsh red glow emerged when it opened. Tess felt Chid's breath on her ear.

"Unless you want this reunion cut short," he murmured darkly, "I would not mention a word about our adventure with the little black droid. We don't want to interrupt your friend's encasement in carbonate, do we?"

Normally, the notion of one of Tess' friends getting hurt would stop her heart, but either the shock of the torture or the drugs used during it had left her emotionally numb. As if her body was trying to fight back against that numbness, a single tear dripped down Tess' cheek.

The room was dark—a drastic contrast to the white halls of the rest of the building. The center of the room held a hole in the floor, and the rest was structured like an arena around that hole.

Across the room, Tess' eyes found Han, Leia, and Chewie. Seeing her friends slapped the girl back into reality. During the torture she experienced, a part of her was sure of eminent death. She wasn't sure if she would ever see her friends again.

Suddenly, a shove on Tess' shoulder nearly knocked her over. She turned around and looked at Chid in response.

"You may go say goodbye," he permitted, giving her a less forceful nudge in her friends' direction.

Chewbacca was the first to catch Tess' eye. He let out a friendly Wookie growl, alerting Han and Leia's attention to her. Approaching her friends, Tess began in a sort of stumble, which turned into a full run until she found herself in their arms. Since all four-and-a-half (the half being the severed Threepio on Chewie's back) were not physically restrained at the moment, the stormtroopers watched them carefully.

"I'm so sorry…" Tess muttered through sobs. "I'm sorry… I heard them talking… I-I could have stopped this all from happening… we could have gotten away and none of this would have happened…"

"Hey, listen," Han said with a gentle sternness. "Don't you ever think that, okay? I've got a bounty on my head. I'm the one who dragged you all into this." Leia clearly wanted to protest with saying it was not his fault either, but Tess could see that she held herself back at the risk of implying that a part of the situation still was Tess' fault.

Chewbacca managed to separate Tess from the group embrace and get his own hug, lifting her off her feet as he did so. She smiled up at her Wookie friend and squeezed his furry paw.

Finally, Tess turned to Leia. As soon as their eyes met, it was as if she knew what had happened. Leia knew the look of someone who had been through what she had been through on the Death Star three years ago. Tess knew from the moment she saw her friends that Leia would somehow be able to tell, but it still broke her heart that the princess had to relive her experience, especially now that Tess knew what that felt like.

Leia wrapped her arms around Tess and held her close, resting her chin on the girl's head.

"It's okay," the princess kept whispering. "You're with us now. You're safe now, Tess. Everything's going to be fine."

But everything was not going to be fine. They surely had not come to the carbon-freezing chamber for a family reunion. As a stormtrooper approached Han and placed handcuffs on him, it became clear to Tess who the victim of carbon freezing would be.

As if just now realizing what was going to happen, Chewbacca threw his arms up in protest with a deep, angry growl. He knocked over two stormtroopers before Han could pacify him.

"Chewie! Chewie, this won't help me!" Han insisted. He paused a moment to let the Wookie settle down and allow the stormtroopers to handcuff him. "The princess…the kid… You have to take care of them." Chewbacca sadly looked at Leia, Tess, then back at Han. "You hear me?" The Wookie managed a nod.

Next, Han's eyes came to Tess. Though his hands were restrained, Tess threw her arms around him anyway.

"You're like family to me, you know that?" he muttered into her hair. He then pulled away and let his eyes meet hers again. "Don't ever forget it." Tess nodded, tears falling down her cheeks. She hugged Chewie's arm as Han moved to Leia.

The two just stared at each other for a moment, then emotions swelled and they simultaneously leaned into a passionate kiss. Tess could see tears in Leia's eyes. The kiss only ended when a stormtrooper pulled Han away, leading him backwards into the hole in the floor where he was to be frozen in carbonate.

Suddenly, Leia stepped forward.

"I love you!" she blurted. Han responded as if he had known for years that she would say those three little words in that exact moment.

"I know."

And in that moment, Han Solo looked like the bravest man in the world. The pain in his face was not caused by the fear of his own fate, but the fear of his friends'. He descended into the glowing red hole in the floor with bravery and dignity, and only when the smoke rose did he show his true pain, which would be frozen in carbonate for as long as he remained encased.

A magnet pulled the statue of their tragic hero from the depths. After he was fully emerged, the carbonate crashed to the ground, making Tess and Leia jump. Tess glanced over at the broken-hearted princess. She wished more than anything that she could ease her friend's pain.

Tess watched as Han's encasement was inspected. Lando Calrissian revealed to Darth Vader that Solo was indeed alive, and in perfect hibernation. After that, he approached the prisoners.

Leia jerked away from Lando's hand on her arm.

"Calrissian," boomed the Dark Lord. "Take the princess and the Wookie to my ship."

"You said they would be left in the city under my supervision!" Lando protested. "I thought you only wanted the kid!"

"I am altering the deal," Vader returned. "Pray I do not alter it again." The dark mask then turned to Admiral Chid Deltrod. "Admiral, you will continue the procedure and report back to me when finished, at which time we will present these…findings to the Emperor."

Tess and her friends did not entirely process what Vader had instructed Admiral Deltrod to do until he was dragging her away.

"No…no, please!" Tess cried, fighting against him. Leia lunged forward to free Tess from the Admiral, but she only managed to grab Tess' hand before the princess was pulled back by a stormtrooper.

"Let her go!" Leia screamed. "She's been through enough of your sick torture! She's fourteen! Please—take me instead! Anything!" She held onto Tess' hand for dear life. It took three stormtroopers to finally separate them, allowing Chid to drag Tess off. Feeling Leia's hand slip from her fingers, Tess' hope went with it.

"No!" Tess shouted, flailing in the admiral's arms, making it as difficult as possible for him to get her out of that room. Still, he managed to do it.

"Your offer is tempting, Princess," Vader mused. "After all, we enjoyed ourselves significantly during your last visit. But you aren't capable of supplying what this…this thing is." At that, Darth Vader spun around, his cape falling behind him, and stalked out of the room.

"She's a person, Vader!" Leia shrieked. "No matter what you tell yourself to validate this cruelty! SHE IS REAL!"

Tess held onto those last three words, hoping that the harder she grasped, the higher the likelihood that they will eventually be proven true. She is real.

I am real.

Still, as Tess was pulled into the room she was tortured in less than an hour ago, no doubt to be treated like a science experiment gone wrong yet again, those words became harder and harder to believe.