Luke Skywalker kept his blaster close as he surveyed the area around the corner. Artoo followed close behind, rolling along almost playfully. Cloud City was a big place and every hall looked the same. Luke reached out through the Force to guide him to his friends, but each trail led him in different directions. The emotions coming from them were so intense that he could not depict whose pain he was sensing.

Suddenly, a rush of agony fell over him—someone else's pain. And fear. It was overwhelming. If the pull had any sort of source, it would be the door that was directly in front of Luke.

The aspiring Jedi raised his blaster before attempting to open the door. Locked. Luke could feel there were people in there, but he could not hear them. Carefully, he scanned the perimeter.

"Artoo," he asked the droid. "Can you spike the security system?"

Artoo beeped an affirmative answer and within minutes, the door opened. The emotions Luke felt behind that door spiked once the room was actually in view.

The smell of blood caught in Luke's throat. He coughed and covered his nose and mouth with his sleeve. The room was nothing but a metal bed with durasteel wrist and ankle bounds attached to it. Other than that, an IT-O Interrogator droid had plugged itself into the left wall.

On the right side of the bed, a man dressed in the uniform of an imperial officer lay face-down on the floor. Luke felt something dark deep in his gut. Slowly, he took the man by the shoulder and turned him onto his back. Luke gasped and stumbled backwards. The man's jaw had been torn completely off, leaving a pool of blood still gushing around his unsupported tongue. The loss of blood had obviously killed the man. The severed jaw was about three paces away.

Remembering the interrogation droid behind him, Luke figured this was done as some sort of torture. He shook his head at the cruelty—especially considering those droids normally belonged to the Empire.

"I didn't mean to," came a small voice. Luke swiveled in the direction of the sound, instinctively readying his blaster. Then, the warmth of a familiar Force signature overcame him. He neared the dark corner and proved his Force sense had identified the other presence correctly.

"Tess?" he called softly. The fourteen-year-old was huddled in the corner as if trying to push herself as far away from the room as possible. She hugged her knees with shaking hands and shook her head repeatedly.

"I didn't mean to," she repeated, her eyes tearing up. "I didn't mean to." Tess met Luke's eyes for a moment, and then she returned to her blank stare.

The soon-to-be Jedi took another scan around the room and began to piece events together. That, plus his visions on the Dagobah System told the story—or at least part of it.

A Jedi was not to turn on a path of anger, but looking at the IT-O Interrogator droid and knowing they had used it on fourteen-year-old Tess got him pretty damn close. Luke did not know what the Empire wanted with the girl, if anything. He had already sensed this was a trap for him, and if they had tortured Tess for that purpose, Luke would never forgive himself.

Knowing that he still had friends to help, Luke gently moved to take Tess' hand. At first, she shivered and pulled away. Then, when he tried again, she did not fight it.

"Tess…it's me," Luke assured her. Still minding her state of shock, he slipped one hand under her legs and the other behind her back, lifting her off the ground with ease.

Leia, Chewbacca, and the disheveled Threepio on the Wookie's back were escorted towards the landing platform that held Vader's ship. Leia observed her surroundings. With Lando, an imperial officer, and several stormtroopers surrounding them, even with Chewie's help it would be impossible to attempt an escape.

Leia's mind raced. She had seen Luke, now it was just a matter of waiting. Luke was smart—he probably knew it was a trap before she yelled it down the hallway like a madwoman while simultaneously getting dragged away by an officer.

Still, Luke had been implying for months now that facing Darth Vader was an eminent task for him. Leia had no idea whether his intentions were to try and save them directly or to do that by defeating Vader. Either way, though Leia's faith in Luke was strong, there was little chance of success. The Empire had been extra tricky this time and had come prepared with enough reinforcements to wrangle thirty prisoners.

Suddenly, numerous officers in blue seemed to appear out of nowhere, wielding blasters. Leia's instincts sent her hand down to her belt for her own blaster, but of course she was a hostage and therefore had been disarmed. Only when Lando started pulling away the stormtroopers' weapons did Leia process that these officers in blue were not enemies—or at least they shared a mutual enemy with her.

Leia exchanged glances with Chewie, then watched Lando Calrissian order his officers to take the stormtroopers away. Her hatred for the man overpowered her relief of disarmed captors. The traitor threw gasoline on her anger fire by pushing two blasters into her hands as if they were suddenly on the same team.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded, talking over to him as he began to uncuff the Wookie.

"We're getting out of here," Lando said simply. Leia fumed. Torturing your friends was not something that disarming a stormtrooper would fix. And assuming that Chewbacca would not feel the same way was even more idiotic of him.

"Do you seriously think that after what you did to Han, the Wookie—"

Leia was interrupted by an angry Chewbacca growl, as the seven-foot Wookie grabbed Lando's neck. The princess was actually relieved—she would have done the same thing with the provided physical strength. She ignored Threepio's cries to trust Lando for their freedom's sake. Leia was completely on Chewie's side in this.

Through broken breaths, Lando muttered something about trying to help and having no choice.

"We understand, don't we Chewie?" Leia taunted. "He had no choice!"

Leia was about ready to let the Wookie kill Lando before she heard Han's name.

"What?" Leia asked. Chewie must have heard it, too, because his grip loosened just the slightest bit.

"We still have a chance to save Han," Lando gasped. "At the East Platform." Leia hesitated to believe him.

"And Tess?"

"I'll take you to the room she's being held in," Lando promised. "But they were planning on her being there for a few more days—our only chance to save Han is now."

The princess looked up at Chewie. Within seconds they were racing off in that direction.

Fortunately, the East Platform was close. Blasters in hand and Lando trailing close behind as if he was invited, Leia padded the exit to the platform just in time to see the ship fly away.

The man she loved went with it.