Her mother was being pushed, shoved by men in white armor. Her little brother was being dragged by the neck and thrown into a cell. Her older sister was clawing at the arm of the man who held her in a head lock, struggling as she fought for air.
Eventually they were all gathered in the same cell and the cell doors closed with a loud clang. The locks were activated and her family was trapped…
Lisa awoke with a start, gasping for breath as an overwhelming urge to exit hyperspace hit her, and before she knew it she had hit the emergency abort button and her fighter ship had dropped out of hyperspace with a shudder.
Ignoring her squealing R5 unit she cradled her head in her hands as she thought about what had happened. She'd been sleeping when she started dreaming of her family… No, not dreaming, she thought. It was much too real to be a dream. It was something more. Her family was in trouble, and they needed her help.
Her face set in grim determination, she set the nav-computer for Earth, effectively turning the small fighter around, and engaged the hyperdrive.
Arriving in Earth's system, she immediately shot for the planet, ignoring hails by the Imperials orbiting the planet; she figured going in hot and fast was the best way to go.
Pulling the X-Wing to a quick but smooth landing in her home city, she popped the hatch and leapt out, expecting Stormtroopers to be waiting in ambush. Seeing none she grinned and gathered her senses, searching for her family.
When she realised where they were she groaned in frustration, and walked back to her X-Wing, ducking behind the corner of a building when she saw two Stormtroopers cautiously approaching the unmanned fighter. Extending her senses and realising that there were only two in the nearby area she stepped out from her hiding place and cleared her throat.
Quick as a blaster bolt they spun around to face her, yelling "Freeze! Put your hands up."
She gave the Stormtrooper giving the orders a curious look. "You're from here aren't you? They've started training Earthlings already… more fodder for war that they spread to every system they touch…"
"That's enough outta you!" The leader yelled and let loose a volley of blaster bolts.
Quick as a fox she whipped out her lightsaber and deflected the bolts, taking out the Stormtroopers in the process. Shaking her head, she leapt into the cockpit and took off towards the Star Destroyer where she felt her family's presence.
Reaching orbit she was once again hailed by the Imperials, but this time she was greeted with a squadron of TIE's to add emphasis to the demands they made. "Unidentified fighter, power down and await tractoring. Repeat, unidentified fighter, power down and await tractoring." The warning was accompanied by multiple torpedo lock alarms.
Sighing she flicked her comm switch, toggling to an open band. "Umm… hey… I'm kinda important to your boss so you might not want to hit me with those torpedoes you have aimed at me…"
The voice returned, this time mocking. "Oh? And just who would you be, to be so important to our 'leaders'?"
This time she rolled her eyes. "Well the people here call me the White Knight, and just who are you?"
She could hear him spluttering as he ordered the torpedo locks broken. She brought the X-Wing in on a gentle arc towards the Star Destroyer, slowly bringing it in complete view of the tractor beams. She muttered, "Tractor away buddy. I'm not going anywhere."
When the X-Wing set down on the deck of the Star Destroyer's landing bay, Lisa opened the hatch and held her hands out and up, so it was obvious she had no weapons. Standing slowly, she let out a low whistle. There was about fifty stormtroopers, all pointing their blasters at her. She just stood there, thinking that jumping down suddenly would be a bad idea. A tech rolled a ladder up to her X-Wing, and she stepped slowly onto the top rung. As she slowly descended, the stormtrooper's weapons tracked her decent.
When she reached the bottom, she heard a barked order, saw a flash of blue, and felt darkness overtake her as multiple stun bolts hit her at once.
Lisa awoke with a groan, attempting to move her arms to clutch her head. She realised something was wrong when she couldn't lift her arms. Trying to move her legs, she realised they were restrained as well. Opening her eyes and looking down at her body, she realised she was strapped down.
"Ah, I see you're awake." She looked towards the man who spoke, noticing he wore a grey uniform, and an insignia that she could only guess meant he was high on the food chain. "Lord Vader will be with you shortly. He currently has other business to attend to."
Lisa moaned as a rolling wave of nausea swept through her stomach. Thinking dimly, must be a bad reaction to the stun blasts, she struggled with the urge to throw up, worried that she would choke on the remnants of ration bars if she were to do it lying down.
The man in the grey uniform walked to her side. "Pitiful." He sneered, and stalked out of the room.
Lisa tried to concentrate on the straps of metal that bound her body, but everytime her focus wandered from restraining her stomach, she had to redouble her efforts not to throw up.
Eventually she drifted off, forgetting about escaping her prison as her mind escaped the struggle with her body.
Waking again, she noticed two things. The first was the sour taste of bile in her mouth. The second was that the officer had left, and there was no one in the room with her. She cleared her mind, making quick work of the restraints as she melted them with the Force.
Making her way to the door, she put her ear against it in an effort to hear what was going on outside. Hearing only the buzz of electronics, she shook her head at the habit. Heedless of the guards that were probably outside the door, she summoned the Force to blow it outwards, ready to fight off any guards that might be waiting.
Lisa grinned as she noticed the white armour sticking out from under the crumpled door, and spared a glanced in either direction, checking for reinforcements. She set off in one direction, picking it entirely at random, as sent out her senses, checking for reinforcements around each corner as she made her way deeper and deeper into the heart of the Star Destroyer.
She ran into a few guards on the way, and disposed of them quickly and quietly. As she reached the end of the detention cells she noticed a weapons locker. Mentally crossing her fingers, she muttered a quick, 'Jackpot' when she spied her lightsaber. Grabbing that and a blaster, she turned and exited the detention centre, heading towards where she felt her family's presence, wondering idly why they weren't in the cell next to hers.
The next corridor was rife with Imperials. Turning the corner, Lisa whipped her lightsaber out, activating it as blaster bolts flew towards her. Deflecting them back in the way that they came, she stopped when there was no one left moving within the corridor. Quickly, she ran in the general direction she felt her family, aware that she had probably sprung all kinds of alarms against her now.
She hit reached a second detention centre, and a piece of the puzzle clicked into place. There was more than one detention centre on this Star Destroyer.
Disposing of the guards, she skidded to a stop in front of a cell, where she felt her mother's, sister's and brother's presences. Knocking loudly on the door, she called out, "Step away from the door. I'm going to get you out of here."
Her mother's voice, "Lisa? Lisa is that really you? Oh we were so worried when you left, we-"
Lisa cut her mother off. "We can discuss this later, but are you all away from the door?" When she got an affirmative reply, Lisa activated her lightsaber and cut through the door. When she saw her family's appearance, anger flared within her. They were gaunt, looking as though they hadn't eaten in days. There were bags under their eyes to show of sleep deprivation.
Lisa took a deep, calming breath. Gesturing to the hole she had made, she said, "I'll explain later, we have to get out of here."
They stepped gingerly through the oval hole in the door, and took off running in the direction Lisa indicated. She followed behind them, and at the end of the corridor took the lead, senses stretched as far as they went. She led them to the landing bay where her X-Wing stood, solitary and clamped down. Making her way over to the one man fighter, she noticed that it would probably never fly again, and released the R5 unit from its socket. Turning to her family, who had followed her, she said, "It's okay, we were never going to escape in that anyway."
Looking around, she spied a lambda class shuttle. Pointing, she said, "We're going to escape in that." Her eyes narrowed. "We should have been approached by now. There's no way they don't know where we are." Her family looked fearful. A tall, black figure rounded the bow of the X-Wing, wheezing. Lisa activated her lightsaber with a snap-hiss. "Go! Get on the ship, I'll be there in a second."
Without waiting for a reply, she threw herself at Darth Vader, thrusting and parrying with lightning speed as she waited for her family to scurry up the loading ramp. Yelling at her R5 unit to get up there and make the ship ready for take off, she was forced back, one, then two steps by Vader, the superior swordsman.
Gritting her teeth, Lisa fought back, gaining the ground that she had lost, waiting to hear the hum of the lambda class shuttle's engines. When she did, she made her move. Leaping backwards, she reached a hand out and sent a Force pulse towards Vader, throwing him off balance. She followed it quickly with a wave of power, forcing Vader into the opposing wall. Running up the boarding ramp, she slapped the controls to close it and settled into the pilot's seat. "Strap yourselves in! This is gonna get bumpy."
Her family followed her instructions, and Lisa lifted off of the deck. Noticing the landing bay doors closing, she gunned it, barely avoiding the steel barriers as she shot past. Jinking and juking to avoid tractor beams, she barked at the R5 unit, "Get us a course out of here. Anywhere but Arbra. We need it yesterday!"
Ignoring the droid's reply, she focused on avoiding both tractor beams and turbolaser fire. When the droid supplied the course, she pulled the lever, and slumped in her seat.
Taking a deep breath, she spun around to face her family, and was met by wide eyed stares. "What?" She snapped.
Her older sister, Amelia, was the first to respond. "You've been busy then?"
Lisa grinned, unbuckled her crash webbing, and embraced her. When she had finished, she embraced her mother, and her little brother, Jack. "It's so good to see you all. I'm sorry I didn't come sooner, I had a vision that you were in trouble, and-"
"Wait. You had a vision? You've never been able to do that before…" Her mother trailed off.
Lisa sighed. "I guess I have a lot of explaining to do then. You see, when I was chased by the Imperials, I was rescued by some members of the Rebellion." Holding up a hand to forestall Jack's comments, she added, "And they are not all savages bent on taking over the universe for their own greed, like the Empire says. They want to over throw the Empire, but that's only because of what the Empire stands for. They took me back to their base, and offered me a position in their military. I didn't agree, and I didn't refuse. When the Imperials attacked, I escaped, and ended up with a friend of mine, Luke Skywalker, on a dinghy little backwater called Dagobah."
At this, her mother pointed out, "They call Earth a backwater, you know."
Lisa shook her head. "A backwater, as in no towns, no cities, the only building I saw was built by a miniature green hermit man and the world was completely covered in swamp. Anyway, turns out the little guy was a Jedi Master, who survived a culling that Emperor Palpatine set in place when he first established the Galactic Empire. Me and Luke trained with him until Luke ran off to save our friends. Yoda gave me the title of Jedi Knight, and I was on my way to the new Rebel base when I had a vision of all of you getting captured. I headed straight to Earth, got caught, escaped, rescued you and here we are."
Their mouths hung agape. Amelia was the first to recover. She said with a grin, "Very busy then."
Lisa grinned in response. A warning sounded, and she turned back to the controls. "We're dropping out of hyperspace, hold on. Alright, R5, calculate a series of micro jumps, and then have us jump to Arbra." Responding to his query as she read it on the screen, she snapped, "I don't know, eight jumps? And can you program the computer to do it without me? I need a break, those stun blasts really hit me hard. Thanks R5."
Her family were staring at her. Her brother spoke up. "You're speaking to that droid like it's, it's…"
"Like it's a person?" Lisa finished with a smile. He nodded, drawing a disgruntled beep from R5. "He is, kind of. He has his quirks, like anyone, and he works better if you treat him right, and not like an object." She stood with a grunt. "Right now, I really do need a rest. I think I was hit by maybe a dozen stun bolts, and that fight with Vader really took it out of me."
She stumbled as the ship hit a hyperspace eddy, and made her way towards the galley of the shuttle. Pulling open draws, she spied a box of rations. Chucking a couple to each member of her family, she said, "Eat these. They aren't that flash, but they're chock full of yummy nutrients and crap like that. You'll get a better meal when we get to the base, its not too far." To R5 she added, "Get me up when we're half an hour from Arbra."
Not waiting for a reply, she found her way to a bed and lay down. She was asleep within seconds.
Lisa awoke to hands shaking her. Looking up with bleary eyes, she saw her mother looking down at her. "That little droid of yours said to wake you up. We're almost there."
Lisa nodded and sprung to her feet, making her way to the cockpit. "How long we got, R5?"
He beeped a response. "Alright, how do you change the IFF of this bad boy? We can't go in broadcasting an Imperial code, we'll be blown from the sky."
Another beep, followed by a woeful sounding moan. "What do you mean, we can't? Why don't you know the IFF? You're a Rebel droid, for crying out loud."
Another response. "Fine…" Lisa scrubbed her face with her hands, thinking. "Alright, power down all the weapons now, and when we get out of hyperspace I want you to change the wing formation to the submissive. Maybe if we aren't a threat, they won't shoot to kill… And power up the comm., all frequencies. I want to be able to send a message as soon as we clear hyperspace."
They waited in silence, tersely watching as the count down timed clicked over each second. When they exited hyperspace, Lisa immediately keyed the comm. "Rebel base, this is Lisa Edwards. Repeat this is Lisa Edwards, do not fire. I am piloting a commandeered Imperial shuttle, and request asylum. Repeat, do not fire."
An unknown voice sounded from the comm. "Power down and prepare to be boarded. Hostile actions will be met with lethal responses. Repeat, power down." Lisa sighed, and powered down the lambda class shuttle.
Several minutes later, she heard an umbilical being attached to the hull. She instructed her family to join her in the main passenger bay. Holding her arms up in a sign of acquiescence, Lisa stood still as stun cuffs were snapped around her wrists, and the wrists of her family, and her weapons taken off of her. "Don't worry, it'll be fine." She said, for their benefit.
After landing planetside, they were marched deeper into the base. Lisa heard a surprised voice call her name. Turning slightly, she saw Wedge Antilles, Wes Janson and Hobbie Klivian running towards her. Her guards bristled, and Wedge barked. "Stand down. Release them."
One of them muttered, "Yes commander," before passing the key over the locks on her stun cuffs and those of her family.
Massaging her wrists, Lisa grinned. "Thanks Wedge. Or should I say Commander Antilles?"
He grinned in reply. "Wedge is fine. Who are these people?"
She hugged Amelia with one arm while she answered. "My family. Just finished rescuing them from the Imperials, thought I might come round for some of that award winning hospitality."
He looked regretful, and turned to the head security officer. "Return any weapons they had on them." The second in command passed over her blaster and a lightsaber.
Wedge did a double take as he noticed the cylinder. "Is that…" She nodded, and Wes grinned.
"So now you can't get annoyed at me when I call you a Jedi. Ha!" She stuck her tongue out, and her brother slapped her chin, causing her to bite it. "Ow, by dongue… you bittle…"
Wedge turned to the security officer. "You're dismissed."
He shook his head. "I'm sorry commander, but I have instructions from the council of war to take her to a meeting. Their orders supersede yours, sir."
He nodded grimly. "Then I'm coming too." Wes and Hobbie fell in behind him, and they finished their march to the makeshift council chambers.
Standing in front of the leaders of the Rebellion, Lisa couldn't help but be impressed. The room was a lot nicer than it had been on Hoth.
When Borsk Fey'lya noticed her lack of stun cuffs and possession of her weapons, he stood up, pointing a shaky finger at her and her family. "Restrain them! Quickly!"
As the security officers moved to comply, Leia stood regally, Lisa noticing her for the first time. There were more lines to her face, and Luke sat at her side. "That won't be necessary, officers. Leave them be."
Confused, they looked to Mon Mothma for an answer. "Leave her, for now."
Lisa let out a breath that she didn't know she had been holding.
Luke chose this time to speak up. "Lisa, what are you doing here? I thought you'd still be training with Yoda."
She rolled her eyes. "Well, after he told me I had learned all he could teach me, and I built my lightsaber, and he granted me the title of Jedi Knight, I thought I needed a holiday. Anyway, why aren't you back there? Pretty obviously, everyone's fine." Looking around she noticed that Han and Chewie were nowhere to be seen. "Or maybe not…" She trailed off.
Leia spoke softly. "Han was encased is carbonite, and delivered to Jabba the Hutt by a bounty hunter named Boba Fett."
Lisa's eyes conveyed her horror. "Where's Chewie? He's not-"
Leia shook her head. "He's tinkering with the Falcon. It hit him hard."
Lisa's eyes narrowed. She was about to ask whether Han would be alright, encased in carbonite, when someone cleared her voice. Looking to Mon Mothma, she heard the older woman ask, "I'd like an answer to Luke's question, Lisa. What are you doing here?"
Lisa met her gaze firmly. "I'm here to help. And my family needs asylum. The Imperials kidnapped them from Earth, to try to get to me." Raising her voice, she met each council member's eyes before continuing. "You all wanted a Jedi. Well here I am."
Fey'lya scoffed. "And we're supposed to believe you're a Jedi?"
Luke spoke up. "Yes. Yoda probably made her a Jedi just after I left. Lisa has been able to do the things he had me doing since before we met her."
Lisa interrupted. "Ten days after you left, actually…" She shut up at the glare she received from Fey'lya.
Mon Mothma regarded her quietly. Finally, she said, "You stole an X-Wing, disregarded direct orders, and made contact with the Imperials."
Lisa replied, "I borrowed an X-Wing, helped you all escape, half destroyed Vader's ship and trained to become a Jedi, like you asked."
Fey'lya snapped. "If you borrowed a ship, then where is it?"
She looked down. "Um… kinda still in the guts of an Imperial Star Destroyer…"
He looked triumphant. "You handed our technology over to the enemy before returning to steal more. How'd you know where we were?"
She opened her mouth, before closing it again. She wasn't about to get Luke in trouble. He, however, didn't need any help in the matter. "I gave her the coordinates. Her story is the truth."
Fey'lya replied, outraged. "So you're a spy too, are you Skywalker?"
Mon Mothma retorted, angry. "Luke is above reproach, Councillor. You'd do well to remember that." Her icy gaze passed over Lisa. "If he says she's telling the truth, then I think we can believe her. Welcome back Lisa."
She let out a breath in relief, muttering 'that was close' to her family before replying to Mon Mothma. "Thankyou. And I am sorry about the X-Wing. They clamped it down, and I was going to cut it free when Vader showed up and we had to leave in a hurry…"
Mon Mothma's eyes raised at this, but she didn't ask the question on her mind.
She dismissed the meeting, and Leia and Luke stepped forward to greet Lisa with a hug. "I'm glad you're alright." Luke whispered in her ear.
Giving him a firm hug in reply, she said quietly, "I'm glad you didn't get yourself killed when you ran off…"
He grinned, and she turned to hug Leia. Whispering in her ear, she said, "We'll get him back."
Leia nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Brightening, Lisa gestured to her friends. "Guys, this is Princess Leia Organa, and Luke Skywalker." She gestured to her family, "This is my sister Amelia, brother Jack, and mother, Brooke."
Luke cleared his throat, before saying, mock-stern, "That's Commander Skywalker to you."
She grinned. "They giving out commanderships as party favours now? Both you and Wedge, good job…"
He grinned, before turning to shake the hands of her family members.
Once her family was settled in their rooms, and had had a decent meal, Lisa found herself on a balcony overlooking a beautiful green valley.
She didn't look up as Luke joined her. They stood in silence for a while, until he spoke quietly. "I didn't get a chance to ask you on Dagobah, but what were those dreams about?"
She started. Of all the questions he could have asked, that was the last one on her mind. She considered not answering, but figured she owed him as much. Starting out slowly, not trusting her own voice, she became lost in the memories. "When I first discovered my abilities, I found out that I wasn't alone. I met two others, Kaleb and Marcus, who already had a rudimentary understanding of the Force, except they called it the Power. They helped me train, and together we honed our techniques. Kaleb was like an older brother to me, supporting me even when I had difficulties with my family. You see, they weren't always supportive of what I could do."
"Together, we stopped bank robberies, and assaults, and basically whatever illegal act we could find. Me, Marcus and Kaleb garnered favour in the public's eye, and eventually my family accepted who and what I had become. Marcus, however, became more distant, more power hungry. The public trusted us, even though we wore masks and hoods, but he wanted more. They admired us, but he wanted them to fear him, and give him money for saving their lives. Eventually, when one man refused, Marcus killed him, and Kaleb and I knew we had to stop him, no matter the cost." Lisa paused, her eyes clouded over with tears. Luke put a comforting arm around her shoulder, silently urging her to continue her story. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she continued.
"When we confronted Marcus, he attacked us, and we defended ourself. At the start of the battle I was knocked out, leaving Kaleb to fight by himself. I woke up just in time to see Marcus run him through with a sword. I screamed, and cradled his body in my arms even as Marcus laughed, saying something about how power was so much easier to come by when you worked for yourself, without the inhibitions of serving people, and I snapped. I threw myself at him, and I knew that I was doing something wrong, but I killed him. Snapped his neck with the Force." Tears rolled down her face, even as Luke hugged her tightly. "If I had of been faster, or stronger… if I hadn't been knocked out, Kaleb would still be alive. It's my fault."
She felt him shake his head as she heard him say in her ear, "It's not your fault. You did everything you could to save him. You did what was necessary, for the good of the innocent. You did your best."
They stood like that for a while, until she finished with, "It's something I tried to bury, but the fever brought the memories out. Now everytime I close my eyes, I see Kaleb falling to the ground…" Her eyes were bleak.
Before he could respond, a warning klaxon filled the air. Luke's comlink buzzed. "Imperial cruiser in system. All pilots report to hangar for briefing."
Luke cursed under his breath. Lisa wiped his eyes and followed. When they got there she saw all the non-combatants being loaded into shuttles, and she spotted her family among the crowd.
Seeing Leia wave her over, the princess spoke when she reached them. "There aren't enough ships this time for you, Lisa. You'll need to go up with the civilians."
Lisa shook her head. "Where are you going?"
Leia replied. "Me, Lando and Chewie are taking the Falcon up and defending against the cruisers."
Lisa nodded. "Then I'm coming too."
Leia looked about ready to argue, but thought better of it. "Alright. Let's go." Under her breath she added, "I just hope the hunk of junk flies."
Lisa strapped herself straight into the laser turret's chair, prepared to fight the multitudes of TIE fighters that appeared on her display screen. Hearing the whine of the engines as they took off, she steadied her nerves. A voice crackled over her head set. "I'm Lando Calrissian. I hear you're a pretty good shot. Let's hope you live up to your reputation."
Toggling her comm., she replied, "Don't you worry about that, Lando. Just focus on your own TIEs."
They cleared atmosphere and immediately started rolling, to avoid the laser fire that came their way. Lisa opened fire, and scored a direct hit, leaving a fireball where the TIE fighter used to be.
The battle raged, and Lisa fired repeatedly, scoring hits with calm efficiency. Eventually the convoy disappeared into hyperspace, leaving just the Falcon and a handful of defending space yachts and starfighters to follow. Lisa watched as the star lines stretched and they escaped into hyperspace, heading towards the new Rebel Alliance base.
A/n. Alright, that's it for Double Trouble folks. I think I'm going to do an Episode Six: Return of the Jedis? Fic, but I haven't started writing yet, and I figure I should finish the other stories I have in progress before starting the next one, or at least finish some of them J. Anyway, don't forget to review!